#i'm cutting so much of my half-written stuff just to have this finished today

[aeolia18]

In Her Pool of Heat

Note: This is by far the longest smut fic I've ever written with a 4.4k word count HAHAHHAA go Hiyori Shizukesa x Yuichiro Tokito 🤣 I reallyyyy enjoyed writing this!! No, please DO NOT PROCEED if you are uncomfortable with the following themes below. MDNI OR I WILL BLOCK YOU. Yes, I'm going to make sure that they will keep on having a great time @snowmist-hashira 🤭🤭

NSFW || Aged Up Characters! (Hiyori is 18, while Yuichiro is 20), Oral, Outdoor Sex, Unprotected Sex, Breeding, Overstimulation, Multiple Positions, Spanking

"You want to give me what?!" 

The serene private hot springs that laid just at the feet of the mountain had almost the perfect ambiance, had it not been the bewildered exclamation from the young man who accommodated the place with his lover who seemed to dip her senses in a euphoric state. 

"Well, you heard me right. I want to give you a baby." From the way she spoke, it was obvious that she enjoyed a little bit too much 'sake', the rice liquor she loved. 

Just before they entered the waters, the owner of this hot springs provided Yuichiro and Hiyori some free drinks to which they accepted. However, it seems that Hiyori had consumed almost half of the stuff given to them. It's thanks to Yuichiro's interference, he was able to stop her from gulping everything. 

"Hiyori, this isn't the right place to do.. that." He sheepishly said, while his face was turning red. He didn’t have the courage to face her right now, considering how they’re apparently nude underwater. 

“But I’m just so stressed I was unable to buy you anything because Oyakata-sama sent me on an emergency mission and it occupied the rest of my free time!” Even without looking at her, Yuichiro knew she was pouting that never failed to make her look like an aggravated cream puff. 

“Tsk, you and your sorry excuses. Don’t bother, I’m really not the materialistic type either or.. wanting to have kids right now.. so being with you today is more than enough. Go direct your stress somewhere else.” He went over the edge of the pool near the rocks where he isolated himself from his fiancee to calm down for a moment. It wasn’t a skill issue, financial capability, or anything else that would call his own abilities into doubt; he's confident he'd be able to offer efficiently. 

If they made love here, that would serve as their very first. Aside from that, he wanted to please her while she's at the most comfortable place. Not.. outdoors. 

He rinsed his own body with water that cascaded onto his well defined biceps; the result of his harsh training that brought him right now to deserve a position as one of the Hashiras of the Demon Slayer Corps. 

"I think I want to de-stress myself with you, my love." Hiyori suddenly stood behind him, which caused his heart to leap in shock. She didn't make any sounds that he could've sensed her stealthy approach to his direction. Turns out he wasn't the only Hashira here. 

"Hiyori wait –" Before he was able to finish his sentence, Yuichiro was cut off when his fiancee slammed her lips against his own. 

His calm heart began to roar wildy at her sudden boldness, the overwhelming scent of sake that lingered in her taste and the warmth of her lips that he loved so much about her filled his senses, his mind fought an intense battle between keeping himself composed or allowing his lover to consume every bit of him right here and right now. 

It wasn't only that. He felt her hand rest on his abs, while her whole weight pushed his body to the rocks making him lean against it. Yuichiro had known Hiyori to make the bolder moves ever since they began dating. And even though he should've gotten used to her advances, she never fails to put him in a cardiac arrest that she finds his reactions quite adorable. 

He was cornered. He could feel her soft body for the first time against his bare skin and the way her hair and plump breasts were pressed suggestively on him was driving him insane. Yuichiro knew he wasn’t able to keep up with her kisses, considering how he was panting really heavily due to the fact how he was completely turned on of her actions, Hiyori swallowed every of his shallow breaths and sealed his tongue smoothly and passionately with hers as she brought him into a heated dance that thoroughly demonstrated how much she ached for him. 

Just as he thought it would escalate further, he felt her slender fingers wrap slowly on his shaft, causing him to yelp at her gentle touch. “Hnghh–! H-Hiyori.. w-what..” 

“Get up over there and sit down.” Her voice was low, underlying her temptation to have him for her own. 

“W-wait, I can’t..” He was a little trembling when she didn’t let him go from down there. Hiyori pressed deep kisses on his neck which caused his mind to swirl even more, and when Yuichiro thought that she was about to finish her teasing on him when he felt her hold on his shaft gone, he was suddenly gripped on his sides by Hiyori lifting him off the water to have him sit on the rock.

“???” He was astonished that she was able to carry him off like that.

All the comical seconds instantly vanished the moment she went between his parted legs and began to kiss his tip with both her hands on his length. 

“Hahh..Aah..Hiyori..” He felt like his whole body would melt on the spot when her slippery tongue glided the entirety of his manhood from up to down while her fingers massaged his balls which the throbbing down there almost hurt him.

As she continued with her lewd acts, he could hear her heartful sighs but they were very faint since he moaned louder. He felt too weak to even look at his fiancee savoring him even just his pre-cum with the look of lust that only he had seen in his dreams. 

Hiyori never missed a spot, even his balls were damp with saliva and it felt like Yuichiro was about to lose his own voice. It even got worse when she decided to swallow him whole, earning a loud groan from the man. 

As she bobbed his entire length with such passion and heat, it took such endurance from Yuichiro not to look at her and control himself. He grunted and felt frustrated that as his hands blindly searched for anything to hold on to, there was nothing but the smooth rocks to grip on tight. 

At last, his eyes met hers, and he knew that the way her orbs glowed with the shimmering waters that sparkled with the sunlight, her beautifully messy hair, and her flushed cheeks; she never failed to catch him breathless. As a demon slayer, notably a Hashira himself, he was a defiant warrior who stood powerful and majestic. But only Hiyori had the power to make him crumble like this – he would always be at her mercy and he shall let it be that way. 

Something ignited within him at that precise instant. A fire; a blazing passion that flooded his veins and gave him tremendous strength at that very moment. 

With a hand that he held firmly on the ground just behind him, his other one grabbed Hiyori by the head and began to shove her repeatedly on his length while his hips bucked forward to meet her soft luscious lips that were comfortably wrapped around him. 

This completely startled Hiyori to which she whined and moaned in utter shock and delight, the vibrations of her voice hardened him further while her tongue continued to wrap itself and slide around him.  

He pushed her up and down firmly, her muffled voices that vibrated on his dick sparked a hidden fantasy he never told anyone but his heart which only encouraged his inevitable release. Moments later, he filled her mouth with his load but it wasn’t that much yet. Not for him. 

Yuichiro was pleased that Hiyori swallowed them all up with her eyes that shimmered with mirth. With his swelling heart full of adoration, he went back into the waters and gathered her in his arms. 

“Y-Yui? Where are we going?” His sudden actions startled her. As they made it to the other edge of the water where there was a nearby table filled with their dry stuff, Yuichiro reached to grab a face towel and carefully wiped Hiyori’s face clean. 

“There. I’m so sorry for earlier. I got out of my control.” He admitted, voice soft and his face laced with worry, Yuichiro felt his heart a little heavy for how he treated her like that for their first time. 

Of course, Hiyori immediately sensed his emotions, she cupped his face to comfort him. “Hey, it’s alright. I didn’t get hurt. I promise. Haha~” She chuckled, finding his thoughtfulness a lot more attractive. Among all they knew, only she had the special permission to witness and receive this side of his. Vulnerable. Tender. And Gentle. She finds herself falling in love with him all over again.

Yuichiro kissed the bridge of her nose before lifting himself off from the water and wrapped a dry towel on his body. “I’ll let you rest. You’re probably still tipsy. Don’t soak for too long, okay?” He said, before turning away from her. 

“Wait!” 

As she called out for him, he stopped from his tracks, but he didn’t turn around to face her. 

“Yuichiro, I.. If it felt like I forced you into doing something you don’t want, then I’m sorry. I just.. Ugh, you can call me impractical or what, I don’t care anymore. But I just want.. to be with you. I’m sorry if I seem selfish for wanting something more when it’s your birthday, and knowing how it’s almost impossible to lead a peaceful life when we’re both among the strongest slayers in the Corps, I still want what other people have. I want to live without any fear or worry. I want to laugh and be with the people I love, I want to clean and cook and take care of you, I want..” Hiyori’s voice trailed off, which prompted Yuichiro to glance back at her.

When his eyes landed on hers, she was already standing out of the water, and it was the first time he saw her naked but she looked so.. ethereal.

As she emerged from the water's embrace, a vision of beauty intertwined with nature unfolded. The sun's warmth radiated off her skin, and her damp hair framed a face whose beauty could compare to the most breathtaking paintings of the bright cloud-filled heavens. Her eyes, like twin sapphires, held both the serenity of tranquil waters and the allure of uncharted horizons as if they bore from the rivers to the seas. Every droplet adorned on her skin glimmered like tiny beads of diamonds which elevated her presence to that of a goddess who has risen from the waters to captivate the world – his world. 

If this was anyone, he would’ve scolded them already, saying to choose a life away from the objectives of the Corps is a ridiculous one, and that one should dedicate themselves to put their life on line in the most fearsome and bloodiest of battlefields that not even the entirety of mankind has ever seen for the sake of peace and prosperity. 

But no way could he ever do that to her. After all, this was Hiyori. His love and peace. His solitude. His skies both day and night. His hope and glory. 

Her eyes began to water as they stared at each other, silence had fallen even the nature and the foliage of the mountain around them. To his ears, only hers have been heard. “I want all of those things with you.. even just for a moment.” With the softness of her voice, he had been gravely reminded that while she served as his strength, she was also his ruin. 

“So..” Yuichiro’s breath and voice deepened and grew heavier the same way he gazed down at her. "You want a baby, right?” He strode boldly towards the love of his life amid the placid backdrop of the hot spring, the rhythmic sound of splashing water accompanied his approach with each step. And as they finally stood face to face, their eyes sparkled with a mix of intimacy and amour, the intensity of their emotions heightened despite the calm of their surroundings, complimenting the inconceivable draws of the water's embrace on their legs. 

Hiyori quivered with a mixture of exhilaration and tender reverence as she gazed upon Yuichiro. Her entire being appeared to tremble with adrenaline, each tremor a testament to the powerful emotions coursing through her. Their gaze locked, and for the first time, without the intervention of the obligations they'd sworn as an oath in their hearts, they let down their walls to reveal to themselves their deepest desires.

With a rush of energy that ignited in her heart, Hiyori sprang from her spot and stole a passionate kiss with Yuichiro, in which he wrapped his arms around her waist in response. 

As they broke their kiss with trails of saliva attached on their lips, Hiyori got hold of his shaft once again petting and stroking it with such care. This time, Yuichiro spoke, his eyes grew a little darker. 

"This is not how we make babies, Hiyori." His voice was different. The way he chuckled for a mere moment drummed an emotion, fluttering Hiyori's stomach. A side of his she does not usually see. 

Grabbing her wrist, he dragged her away from the pool, and led her to the bamboo walls at the corner. Unexpectedly, he flung her a bit harshly towards it, but thanks to Hiyori's quick reflexes, her hands took hold on the wall. "Yui?! What do you think you're – aah!" Her annoyed expression was instantly cut off when he glided his length against her pussy, rubbing their sexes together from behind in such a tease that earned a moan from her. 

As he kept on doing so, Yuichiro brushed her hair off her back and pressed his lip deeply on her skin, trailing them up and down from her spine as he continued to stroke his own length against her folds. 

Maybe this was payment for her teasing him while she blow jobbed his dick earlier. His hold on her waist became a little harsh, the minute his shaft slid perfectly inside her heightening her heartfelt moans. 

When he shoved himself in her mouth earlier, Hiyori became aware how lengthy he was considering how it felt like it hit the back of her throat. Because right now, his tip went straight to the deepest part of her core, making her hiss a little in pain. 

As he began thrusting his hips firmly, his thumb ran circles on her waist to soothe her; a sweet gesture that swelled her heart, relishing how Yuichiro was still taking care of her despite his actions. 

Swing after swing, their bodies continued to bounce in pleasure whenever he hit a spot inside her again and again. Even if he felt her slowly becoming tighter, he pushed through even though squeezing his shaft turned him on, the waves of delight sending his nerves to cum in her now. 

He held back his temptation and continued to slam himself again and again into her fluttering cunt, enjoying her heat. 

Hiyori was amused to know that Yuichiro had hinted to her earlier he had knowledge when it comes to sex. When did he learn to do so? Did he own any books from the erotic stores she passes by at the village near their house? As she tried to think, his dick hitting her spot only lose her focus to just give in to euphoria as he fucked her for the first time. 

Out of the blue, he slapped her ass with his hand, its impact combined both pain and pleasure that made her groans heavier. He did it again. Again. And again. Until she knew it probably flushed red, but the hitting of his dick that remained inside of her brought vibrations that she felt something was building up in her abdomen. Yuichiro probably sensed it, because his thrusts grew faster, slamming harder to her aching core. 

"Haahh.. Aaahhh.. Yui.." Hiyori felt she was slowly losing it, the delightful coil began to boil higher and higher each second. She tried to listen to the sounds around her, but aside the slapping of wet skin that made her cunt wetter as she felt turned on, her sighs and moans slowly heightened. 

It came without warning. Like a ticking time bomb in her, Hiyori felt her sudden release which jolted her body, stiffening her movements and the rest of her voice. 

As Hiyori finally came down from her high, Yuichiro lifted her one leg over his shoulder, which to her itself felt like she was wide open outside, making her feel a little embarrassed. He made sure to slowly slide half of his dick out of her, before instantly spearing her with his entire length once again, repeating the same vigor from his thrusts earlier. 

"Aaahh! Yui..!" As she groaned, he pounded inside of her again and again, without giving her room to recover from her release earlier. 

This time, Yuichiro pressed her sensitive bud by her clit, making Hiyori cry a bit louder this time. "My love, slow down please!! Haahh!" It blossomed new shocks of pleasure, bringing her again to her second release. 

'My love,' he thought. Hiyori had always used that nickname whenever she teased him. And to think that he would hear her use it this time when it sounded like she was begging him as he was making her feel good, brought an incomparable thrill in his heart. So this is what it feels like. 

Hiyori hadn't come yet, when Yuichiro suddenly pulled out, leaving her cunt exposed to the cold air, she ached in the absence of his member. She whined and hit his shoulder for treating her like that, when all of the sudden, he brought them both to a new position, turning her around and leaning her back this time on the bamboo wall and spreading both of her legs wide with his arms as he lifted her off the ground. 

In one swift movement, he speared inside of her again and fucked her hard against the wall. 

"Yui! Aaahh! Haah! Hnnghh!" She wailed while she clung to him holding for dear life. This felt like she elevated into a new level of bliss, she felt her mouth slacking as her own drool came out. 

The bamboo wall began to quake lightly, Hiyori's mind fought a difficult battle between losing herself in Yuichiro or being concerned of the possibility that the wall might break down due to their shameless activity. 

"Y-Yui, the wall.." 

"Leave it. I'll pay the owner if it breaks." His dominance like gasoline fueled her blazing desire, turning her on even more. Hiyori loves it whenever Yuichiro takes the lead, even if it was rare for him to do so outside his duties as a Hashira. 

Once again, another knot formed in her gut. It astonished her that Yuichiro knew when she was about to cum again because he grabbed her lips with his own, pinning her completely against the wall. 

"Hmph!" Lost in delight, the coil that burned within her intensified further and further, and it wasn't long until the couple began to huff hungrily against their pressed lips. 

As she released once again leaving her trembling, she hugged him tighter and heaved out, their kiss had finally broken. As the both of them perspired, Hiyori felt his embrace around her tightened, and thankfully the bamboo wall behind them didn’t collapse. 

But he still wasn't satisfied. "We're not done yet.", he growled. 

This shook her to the core of her heart. He never reacted to her like this before. Her heart raced, a flush of warmth enveloping her as his dominance caused sparks to fly across her skin. His voice, a melodic rumble, encircled her, speeding her pulse to the beat of his words. Hiyori was beginning to like this side of him. 

Yuichiro settled her down just to give Hiyori a moment to compose herself before gathering her once again in his arms, bringing them both inside their room. 

As the both of them settled down, they caught themselves melting in another kiss, Yuichiro allowed himself to fall on the futon as she went on top of him. He was the first to break the kiss, and when their eyes met, he flashed her a subtle smirk that made himself a lot more charming. “Ride me.” He commanded her.

Hiyori chuckled heartily. It was just her style to be on top, after all. 

Settling herself, she gently took his length in her hand as she aligned herself before slowly allowing his tip to kiss her folds. Once it pushed through, Hiyori swiftly landed her ass on his lap as she bottomed him out, the electrifying spark as their tips collided made them hiss.

Guided by their hearts, the couple intertwined their fingers together before she began to roll her hips against his own. Yuichiro groaned as his balls continued to receive the impact of Hiyori’s bouncing which caused the lewd slapping of skin to echo louder in the entire room. 

Demonstrating her prowess, Hiyori's moves were a choreography of power and finesse, revealing her remarkable strength and unwavering endurance; a testament to the dedication of harsh training she had committed to refining her trade. She never ceased to amaze him. 

As they continued to gaze at each other in their ardently intense love making, he was breathless at her almost heavenly form. Her breasts sprang up and down that further delighted him while her hair cascaded like the view of the distant waterfalls from the mountains. She was as beautiful no matter how she looked, even as she stood bare before him. Little by little, he felt himself reaching his limit, eliciting moans that had finally escaped from his lips. “Hiyori..” Yuichiro felt himself shaking. 

When he's on a brink, he keeps her steady by pulling down her wrist. When Hiyori stopped bouncing, Yuichiro began to move his hip upwards to a series of firm but passionate thrusts. He takes advantage of her cum that dripped after their activity at the hotspring as lube, while he continued to hit the same spot that weakens her gravely.

“Yui..! I’m about to cum..” She was slowly succumbing to the purest form of bliss, her eyes fluttering as they were half lid while her mouth still hung open. 

“Do it, babe.” To see her in this state adorned his heart with unmistakable affection, aside from the fact that his untold fantasies are transpiring, being chosen by her kindled an overwhelming sentiment within him, cherishing his fiancee forever and ever.

The warmth in her heart was apparent when her fiance used an endearment to call her for the first time, a simple yet profound act that ignited a spark of happiness within her. Her heart fluttered with joy in that captivating moment, like a graceful butterfly taking flight, now that she had also came heavily at him. 

“Ha! Haa! Hahh! Aaahhh, Yuichiro..!!” As her juices rushed down from her folds and onto his length, Hiyori jerked almost violently to the immense pleasure as she felt his own shot up straight inside her now that she had finally reached her limit. 

“Hnggh..That's it. Atta, girl.” Despite that he came with her in unison, Yuichiro did his best to comfort her, praising her dearly as she cupped her cheek, before ushering her to fall on top of him to which she did.

Hiyori became limp, still catching her breath. Carefully, he gently laid her down, deciding that she was incapacitated for today. Yuchiro lifted himself up, switching to another position without removing his member inside her.

Raising her leg up to his shoulder, Yuichiro started ramming deeply into her, dedicated to do this for the last time. 

He kept pounding relentlessly non-stop, his speed and vigor was at its peak unlike from the earlier episodes of their intercourse. The wood below them now began to thud and creaked soundly due to his movements, the small side table and the vase on top of it started to shake a little. Hiyori’s sweet soft sighs still filled the air, inviting him to keep going. 

Yuichiro began to sweat a lot now. Every blow he slammed at her pelvis, his dick painfully throbbed that as he began to feel he was about to ascend and chase his high, the lustful ache in him slowly uncoiled and blossomed from his abdomen. 

With one final thrust, while her leg still on his shoulder, he leans forward to kiss her deeply, before cumming heavily now that the tip of his dick reached her deepest parts, his massive load filling up in her womb.

Meanwhile, Hiyori saw white dots in her vision, her numb body that was overstimulated began to feel the lovely pressure of a point of his final thrust before her walls felt his hot cum that rapidly flowed inside of her. Time felt slow, as her senses began hyper aware of how his semen continued to spill more; it began to overflow, leaking out of her folds and dampening the futon beneath them.

Yuichiro becomes aware of this as well so he bucks in a very shallow manner just enough to push his cum back to her womb, allowing it to absorb every seed he generously poured on her. 

Picking up her hand, he kissed her wrist then traced his lips to her arm, traveling all the way to her collarbone until it made its way to the edge of her jaw, near her ear and then finally to her damp lips.

Hiyori felt his other hand rested just below her stomach, his palm pressed down her abdomen firmly to make her feel his cock still buried in her and their seed combined together in her womb. The emphasis of his action brought heat on her cheeks. 

Yuichiro continued to kiss her cheeks as he observed how she noticed his palm on her abdomen. Wrapping his arm around her, he kissed her shoulder before nuzzling at the dip of her warm delicate neck, relishing at the scent of her. 

“That.. felt so great.” He heard her whisper, still weak from their rigorous activity that highlighted their carnal pleasure and unwavering devotion for each other. 

“Yeah.” He almost chuckled, grinning softly while still half convinced that they finally did it. 

“Ohh I need to bring this up to you again, but you might carry twins, since I had a twin brother, and it runs in the family. They come as a package, so please accept them.” He added just to make sure she never forgets.

Just when she thought all her energy had been exhausted after everything they did, it seemed she went back to full battery upon hearing that news. “I might soon carry what now?!”

[ranaissingle]

Ok, so this my first time requesting. But, in honor of Elvis’s Birthday could you write something where Elvis and reader spend a day together and just do fun stuff (like go to club handy) for his birthday. Just fluff pls.❤️❤️❤️thanks!

King For A Day

Masterlist

Pairings: Elvis x Reader and/or Austin!Elvis x reader Word Count: 769 Warnings: so much fluff it makes you wanna cry A/N: Thank you for the request Anon! Sorry, it's a bit late I was editing the other stories I had planned so I just got to this one today. I hope you enjoy it! (Also, Austin is lookin' hella fine at the golden globes. Just wanted to make sure the girlies were aware.)

◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──

You had been awake for the last hour and a half trying to get Elvis' birthday breakfast ready. He usually slept in so that allowed you a couple more hours to bang around in the kitchen while he rested soundly.

You had prepared quite the assortment of bacon, sausages, pancakes, cut fruits, cheeses, and of course his toast with peanut butter and bananas; although you hoped he would eat all of the other things you had prepared.

Just as you finished setting up the table and cleaning the last of the dishes unbeknownst to you, Elvis had already woken up and had been standing by the steps watching you.

You had music playing softly from the record player and you hummed along while you washed the dishes. The sight alone was enough of a birthday present for him, never mind all of the festivities you had planned for him that day. Elvis grew tired of just watching you so he crept up behind you and slipped his hands around your waist. Although the touch startled you initially, you could recognize his large warm hands anywhere.

"Good morning honey. Did you sleep well?" You leaned back into his chest as you spoke putting your full weight against him.

"I'm doin' good baby. This is a wonderful sight to wake up to." He tightened his arms around you and leaned his head into your neck. He was still sleepy and his mannerisms were so endearing to you. You rest your hand over his palm as you speak, "I made some breakfast! Do you want to eat before the gang gets here, or do you want to wait?"

Elvis liked being around other people but right now he just wanted to be able to spend a slow and lazy morning with you.

"I'll eat before they get here I want ya all to maself." He puffed a breath into your neck when he finished and your answering giggle made him tighten his arms around you.

" I think I'll wait to see 'em until we get to Club Handy I want as much time alone wit ya as possible." Although his words sounded like they meant something else you knew they meant he wanted cuddles and kisses from you.

You kissed his cheek "Of course, honey, come on the food getting cold." You threaded his fingers through yours and led him to the table where you sat down next to each with hands still intertwined.

You fed him pancakes with 'Happy Birthday!' written in chocolate chips while he spooned cut strawberries and apples into your mouth. You kept your head leaned against his neck and sang his praises; telling him how much you loved him, how lucky you were to have him, and how handsome he was. He ate it all up and gave you grateful kisses and hugs in between each declaration.

You both cleaned up the kitchen before making your way upstairs to your bedroom where you proceeded to lay in each others arms until well into the afternoon.

Elvis' arms were wrapped around your waist and his head tucked into your collarbone. He let his hands rub circles into your side while you raked your fingers through his silky locks and kissed his forehead.

Eventually, when the clock struck 8, you both needed to get up and start getting ready to go to Club Handy for his actual birthday celebration. You both had matching outfits picked out. He was in a dark brown suit with no shirt under and you donned a brown dress accessorized with jewelry he had gotten you.

He kissed you as you applied your makeup and you did the same to him while he buttoned his suit jacket. The drive there was uneventful save for the fact that he had his hands intertwined with yours at any given time. He rubbed your knuckles and pressed his fingers into your palm.

You both stepped out of the car outside the back entrance to the club and made your way in.

The whole night was spent with drinks passed around, rambunctious laughter echoing off the walls then mingling with the sounds of the jazz playing in the background, and Elvis' arms wrapped securely around you. He brought you everywhere with him. Whether he was talking to friends or just standing alone. You always occupied the space directly in front of him and his arms never left you.

You were both content with that; and although you sang him happy birthday the softest, he heard you louder than everybody else. He felt so powerful at that moment. He felt like he had been crowned king for a day.

◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆─

Done! I was listening to the Actors Round Table video with Austin while writing this and can someone explain to me how tf his voice is so attractive. Seeing all these hot people everywhere just reminds me how painfully single I am. 😭

[kanerallels]

bessxhenry and i must know how you'd coffee shop them. (also have you written any other fic for them???)

Oh you have no idea how many different ideas I just cycled through before finally landing on this one I'm still not totally sold on it but I feel like I'm never totally happy with the M Sec stuff I write. I feel like I have a hard time getting Bess's voice right

But in answer to your question yes! I have! I wrote one Christmas drabble for them last year, and I have an unpublished fic about them and Stevie where I basically went "what if they interacted with one of my blorbos?" and didn't wait for an answer. Anyways, without further ado! My much longer than planned ficlet, beneath the cut

The clatter of pans in the background tugged Elizabeth’s attention away from the paper she was writing for what had to be the hundredth time, and she winced. Usually, this off the beaten track coffee shop was less busy at this time of day, leaving her in peace to finish her schoolwork.

But today, it was packed. Every table was full, and there was a long line stretching back from the counter. Things weren’t going to be getting any more peaceful any time soon.

Closing her laptop, she slid it into her bag. It was probably time to head back to her dorm room and see if she could get anything done there. The day had been enough of a loss already.

She grabbed her cup of coffee, which had long since gone cold, and moved to her feet. Elizabeth took one step towards the trash can— and immediately crashed into one of the other customers.

The coffee slipped from her hand, splashing across the front of the man’s shirt, and Elizabeth let out an involuntary gasp. “Oh my— I’m so sorry!”

Hastily, she grabbed some of the paper napkins from her table, apologizing as she did so. “I didn’t see you coming— it’s so crowded in here and loud and I was just leaving—”

“It’s okay,” the man assured her, offering her a smile as he accepted the napkins from her. Despite herself, Elizabeth found herself giving him a quick onceover. With dark hair and warm brown eyes that reflected his friendly smile, he was… definitely not unattractive. 

“It was my fault, anyways— I was distracted, wasn’t looking where I was going,” he continued apologetically. “The least I can do is buy you a new coffee.”

That made Elizabeth’s eyebrow shoot up. “I’m the one who dumped a drink all over you. If anything, I should be offering to buy your coffee.”

“Well, if you’re offering,” the man said with a half-grin. “But it’s not exactly good manners to tell someone to buy you a coffee. This gets the job done a lot better.”

Oh, so that’s what’s going on. Giving him a polite smile that, with any luck, communicated a polite disinterest, Elizabeth said, “I was actually just on my way out, I have some studying to do. I appreciate the offer, though.”

He accepted that with a nod. “Sure. You’re at UVA, too, right?”

“I am,” Elizabeth said, and the man smiled.

“Thought I recognized you. I’m Henry.”

“Elizabeth,” she said, casting a quick glance towards the door. Henry seemed to get the point.

“Maybe I’ll see you around, Elizabeth,” he said, giving her a final easy smile before joining the line for coffee. 

Despite her insistence that she had to leave, Elizabeth lingered just another second to watch him chat with the cashier, wearing that smile, warm as the sun. Interesting, she thought, and almost found herself hoping they did meet again.

However, it was unlikely— she had school to focus on, not a social life. And she wasn’t about to keep pining away for a boy she’d just met that day.

She headed for the door, and had almost made it to the door when she shot a last look over her shoulder. To her surprise, Henry met her eyes, and lifted his coffee towards her in a quick salute. Sending him a quick smile and a nod, Elizabeth pushed open the door. Focus, she scolded herself. She had work ahead of her that was bigger than some boy with a nice smile.

[mannatea]

Break Open the Sky, a Tales of Symphonia ‘fic (Chapter 12)

Current Word Count: 97,018 Summary: What kind of “Hero” of Regeneration would she be to leave an infant to fend for itself? Someone had to have left it here for a reason. The question was, of course, why? But as she lifted the little thing carefully into her arms, the motion reminding her of nights so far in the past, now, the why seemed almost tragically clear: this baby was of mixed blood. Chapter Summary: Raine makes the difficult decision regarding what to do with baby Rose. Pairing/Characters: Raine, Original Characters, will also feature Genis, Regal, and Sheena. Endgame is Regal/Raine. Extra Info: This is technically an Accidental Baby Acquisition story, but I liken it more to “Doorstep Baby” literature because it sure ain’t cute. Rating: Mature, for themes. Genre: Eventual romance, gen, family, character study.

The title is the link to Ao3 for Chapter 12! (This is the next to last chapter!)

Notes are under the cut!

I thought this chapter was totally fine until I went to read it again yesterday and I hated so, so much of it. It felt awkward and stilted in places, and I swear characters were logic leaping to kingdom come in the dialogue.

Anyway, after rewriting half of the damn thing yesterday and today, I hope it passes inspection.

--

Sara as the secretary: I pulled this name from the RP that I did with an old friend but I'm not sure if she made that up or if it's in the game. Either way, it's in this story now because my bestie is Sara and I think it's funny.

--

I hope someone noticed Raine's little bouts of jealousy lmao.

--

There's a tiny bit more about Sybak here, though all the big juicy stuff is slated for the sequel, which I still haven't finished outlining. (I did get pretty close though.)

--

Finally, Raine's decision. I don't recommend reading this section if you haven't read the chapter yet, but if you want to read it anyway, who am I to stop you?

WARNING: This got really long and meanders a bit. SORRY.

Throughout this story, I've tried to make a serious effort to show the ways in which Raine cares for Rose, but also the ways in which she just...doesn't. There is resentment there. There is unhappiness. If Rose was her biological child, you'd think she had Post-Partum Depression. She takes care of the baby, but it's rarely written in a tender or sweet way. At one point in the story I even had Regal note that she seemed to do things automatically, almost without thinking about the fact that she was doing them. She has moments with Rose that are sweet but these were meant to feel like outliers and there aren't enough of them to balance the times in which she just kind of mindlessly takes care of her.

I don't count the sailing experiences against Raine, by the way; she did her best on the ship to Altamira, and on Regal's sailboat she was dealing with a lot (and he was there to help).

I do feel with time, she probably would grow much more attached to Rose, and love her more fully, but none of that would come without a cost, and...we've seen a glimpse of what that cost is.

Keep in mind that when I was outlining this story, Lila and Marcie didn't exist, so...the only company Raine had during the day for those months in Altamira was Rose! In this outline, Raine was torn between very badly wanting her life back, and also finding it difficult to go back to the way things used to be. It's also important to note that Regal really did not want to influence her either way in the original outline. This is mostly because he had grown rather attached to Rose but knew his opinion SHOULD not matter.

The romance between Raine and Regal was a lot more important in the original outline too. I doubt anyone would have guessed that because it's such a centerpiece in the finished product, but the original outline had gems like this in it:

-she's trying very hard not to love him (there are just SO many reasons why she's not good enough, but she's also very afraid of getting hurt). Like she knows he's a good man and any hurt feelings will just be of her own creation. still, watching the way he spends time with rose stirs something in her. -(she loves him already, feels like the incident at the party was her doing/fault because she couldn't keep a tight enough lock on her feelings when inebriated and regrets it, but still to this day can't quite harden her heart against him)

(In the original most of her attachment to Rose was formed through Regal, too, like watching him rock her to sleep when she just couldn't do it herself.)

With Lila and Marcie around, I didn't have to go into full on Yearning Mode and things were able to quietly and naturally develop between them with most of the yearning coming from Regal. Yay.

I s t r u g g l e d (AND I DO MEAN STRUGGLED) to decide which choice Raine would make in the end, even in the outline.

Just like in the finished story, Regal guides her toward a choice, though in the original outline he asks her more questions about Rose: if she wants to raise Rose to adulthood, if she wants to oversee her education, if she wants to raise her like a daughter and not a sister. His final question is, "Do you think you can love her?"

To which Raine says she already does.

This gave me two paths:

Raine keeps Rose because she loves her already and points Sheena toward the Crestfield Orphanage and the children there that kind of haunt her (in the original this was a group of 4 or 5 children instead of the brother & sister that ended up in the final draft).

Raine knows that Sheena will provide a better life for Rose than she can and gives her up even though it's difficult for her because she loves Rose.

I knew I wanted someone to adopt, but both Sheena and Raine were good fits for it, and it ended up being more about the kind of story I wanted to tell with Raine and with Sheena and "Found Family" and all of that.

There is a very real kind of love and trust in Raine handing over a baby she cares about to Sheena, someone she has had to learn to trust.

This is ultimately why I chose Sheena.

The original outline played a lot more, too with Raine's identity as a "parent" (particularly against her own will). Regal was originally going to tell her that while she did a good job raising Genis she does have an identity outside of that and if she wants to revisit it she can do that literally whenever; she can have her own biological kids or adopt and she can plan for it.

This also gets to the heart of some of Raine's larger fears in the original outline, which were eventual resentment toward Rose, and knowledge that the origin of Rose in her life could be negative in the future.

Anyway, especially in the version of the story I ended up writing, which included Marcie and Lila, I can't see Rose working out with Raine in a healthy or fun way. Like I said earlier, we got a glimpse of what the cost would be of keeping Rose, and let's just say that it wouldn't be pretty.

Raine thinks briefly in this chapter about her likely future doing physical labor trying to feed an adult, two growing children, and a baby, and you can chew on that for a while if you want to, but I didn't want to explore it. (She's suffered enough.)

--

My biggest annoyance with this chapter was getting Raine to actually make a decision. She's not a very impulsive person, so of course she'd want to think about it, but she's got a lot of issues to work through and no therapist to work through them with.

Regal's as good as it gets for her and he's not objective by any means. If you couldn't tell, he feels he knows what's best for everyone is giving Rose to Mizuho. He doesn't come out and say it immediately because he doesn't want to be That Guy.

But things sorta end up that way anyway, because Raine spends so much of the chapter stuck in a loop: struggling with feeling like she's following in her mother's footsteps by giving Rose away and fighting it almost desperately in her own mind. And to her own detriment!

Like, she's always been an incredibly responsible person; the fact that she raised Genis starting at age 11 makes that clear. I do think, however, that sometimes she takes it a bit too far and overreaches. Rose is perhaps an example of that. (She was definitely in over her head. But she was given responsibility?? What else could she do? Something something older sister Surface Pressure vibes.)

Obviously her capacity to care about others and do the right thing come into play here, right along with "saving the people right in front of us" but sometimes the right thing to do, the right way to save someone, isn't to take personal responsibility for them.

Raine was traumatized by her experience. Not only was she abandoned, but she was given responsibility of a literal infant at the same time. At 11 years old. She has a very hard time separating these two things and Rose feeds right into it in the worst ways. (It also wasn't the only time Raine has felt abandoned by someone in her life, so you can see why she'd feel so terrible about doing that to someone else, even a baby who won't remember it later.)

Raine knew all along what the objectively better choice was, but she couldn't choose it as long as she had other stuff in her head telling her she was being irresponsible/selfish/lazy/just as bad as her mother.

She needed someone else to tell her that giving Rose away isn't the same as her mother giving her up. She needed to hear someone else's voice in her head—not her own and not her mother's.

This was intended to sort of mimic Regal's line to her in the OVA where he says that surely her mother hadn't abandoned her, but rather...sent her through the Gate hoping Sylvarant would be a better life for her.

I hope Raine's cyclical struggle in her own mind came across believably enough in this chapter. (But if it didn't, feel free to criticize that, especially if you have ideas of ways I could have done it better.)

--

Now that Raine's decision has been made, there will be some emotional fallout. You can't learn to let go without some pain, after all.

So stay tuned for the final chapter to see that! :)

[jupitermelichios]

my cousin got me tickets to see spitting image live for christmas. I have no idea why, I've never watched the show, but hey, free theatre is free theatre

i've literally never walked out of a show before. i have nothing else to do today, i enjoy the experience of being in the theatre, and i have a pretty high tolerance for shit productions. I did local am-dram panto for years, willingly.

anyway i'm going to be a good citizen of the internet and leave my unhinged ranting below a cut, but if you're interesting in learning all the possible ways to fuck up a comedy show, read on

we left during the interval, and if we hadn't been in the middle of a row, I would have walked out about fifteen minutes in. not because it's 'edgy' (they literally started the show with a warning about how it might trigger the snowflakes, always a sign that what follows is going to be great comedy) because despite their best efforts it really wasn't. the closest they got to being edgy was a very bad kanye west joke that was clearly written in at the last minute because he went full neo-nazi after they'd finished the script. it was just... baaad.

i didn't find any of the jokes funny, but humour is subjective. but there was just a lot of really lazy stuff, like the lyrics in their parody songs didn't scan. they made tom cruise a main character, but were clearly afraid of getting sued by scientology, so the only joke they could make was about him being short, which is not a joke you can sustain for a 2 hour show. It's barely funny the first time. obviously the plot was extremely lose and just there to justify the impressions, but even so there was weird shit about it that just didn't make sense, like the villains were boris johnson and a cabal of evil, but also putin was there and a villain but not part of the cabal they kept just kind of cutting away to him in a way that felt very weird. also they missed so many good opportunities for jokes, like an extended bit about johnson trying to give carrie johnson a nepotism job and then cutting to trump for a reaction, but the trump joke was just 'he's a mysogynist' with zero reference to all the nepotism he did? which feels like a much more natural joke?

also elon musk is there and has a tesla car that transforms into a mech, genuinely an impressive puppet and probably the closest to an actual joke they got, but then the puppet was too big and clunky so he just leaves and doesn't come back with no explanation and no other jokes. also zuckerberg is there and they just straight up forgot to make any jokes about him? he's literally just standing there, and if I thought it was deliberate that might have been a funny joke, but i genuinely think they just forgot.

they also massively underestimated how many people in the uk watch drag race, rue paul was a main character in the show and got a lot of awkward silence. which admittedly might have been because they also didn't give him any jokes, they just had him say his catchphrases from drag race, but i honestly thing they thought the concept of drag queens was so inherently funny it would carry the character, and instead most of the audience just straight up didn't know who he was

also idris elba was in it and the joke was that he's boring? which i really feel like isn't the first thing most people think of when they think of action-movie actor and sex symbol idris elba, ngl

oh, and this i assume is a problem from the tv show that they got stuck with, but their suella braverman joke is that she's an evil haunted doll, which is like... it's not completely unfunny, and it's at least not racist, but also, this woman quote hitler in front of holocaust survivors and when called out doubled down, and the only joke you can think of is that she's annabelle? really?

i will give them one thing though, their half-lettuce half-liz truss puppet was pretty good.

anyway, don't go see this show, it's shit. my only regret about walking out is that i have blue hair and pronouns and i'm worried me walking out will have made people the show actually succeeded in being edgy and 'triggering the libs'

[angel-riki]

Dazed & Dreaming {Ch. 2}

summary: Y/N's life was always quite normal, some may even consider it boring. However, Y/N enjoyed her simple life and the little pleasures it brought. Unfortunately, that all changed the day she found out her best friend's biggest secret. Her discovery leads her down a rabbit hole of a new and confusing world she never knew existed. She must now navigate this new life filled with love, fear, and the supernatural. What awaits her down this path?

pairing: enhypen x reader (vampire au)

warnings: light swearing

word count: 1,569

chapters: [Ch.1] [Ch.3] [Ch.4]

~~~~~~~~~~

You bit into your second piece of toast of the morning as your phone buzzed in your pocket. After rummaging around for a few seconds, you retrieved your phone. You smiled at the notification, it was from Jake.

Jake: "We're here :)"

You quickly typed out and sent your reply as you hurried to finish the rest of your breakfast,

Y/N: "Ok, omw!"

One huge bite of toast and a painful swallow later, you were gathering your things and scurrying out the front door. You half-jogged down your driveway until you reached the car, greeting the boys like usual,

"Good morning," you said cheerfully as you climbed into the back seat.

Heeseung had been giving you rides every morning now for a couple of weeks, it had become your daily routine. And even though you insisted that you could walk, the two boys wouldn't take no for an answer. You eventually accepted their generosity, however you still felt a bit guilty. Fortunately, this new routine had allowed you and Heeseung to grow much closer over the past weeks. Now, you considered him a friend instead of a mere acquaintance. This was a relief as you had gotten much more comfortable around him. Although, Heeseung was just good at making everybody feel comfortable. He was just so charming and kind. This made it a lot easier for you to manage your nerves, but a lot harder for you to keep your crush on him from growing.

*****

The bell rang, signaling that it was time for lunch. Relief washed over all of the students' faces as they were freed from a horrendously boring lecture. You shared that relief as you packed up your stuff and strolled out of the classroom. You made a quick pit stop at your locker before heading down to the cafeteria.

After grabbing your food, you walked into the bustling dining space. Gosh it's so crowded, where are they? You scanned the tables until you noticed someone waving at you rather enthusiastically. Shocker, it was Jake. Heeseung was beside him, smiling and waving at you as well. You waved back before heading over to where they were sat. You set your food on the table and pulled out the chair in front of you. As you sat down, you noticed that Heeseung didn't have any food. How strange, you thought.

"Heeseung, where's your lunch?" You asked, knowing there had not been enough time for him to have already finished eating.

"Oh, I'm just not hungry today is all," he said awkwardly.

"Are you sure? You can have some of mine if you'd like," You offered.

"That's okay, thank you though," he smiled.

Something was odd about his demeanor after you brought it up, but you couldn't put your finger on it. You decided to stop interrogating him as you turned to Jake,

"How was that math test you had earlier?" You asked.

"Good! Aaand I may or may not have written down that one formula I can never remember on the inside of my hand..." he replied.

"Smart move," you giggled.

"I know," he said, grinning proudly.

You rolled your eyes as you began eating your lunch. Your school lunches were mediocre at best, but it could be worse. Another day, another stale pb&j. As you ate, the two boys started rambling about their after school plans. Apparently, there were a few other boys that they hung out with quite often. You had never met them, although Jake had mentioned them here and there. Listening to their conversation, you suddenly felt a slight sadness come over you. It wasn't that you were jealous, you were just afraid that one day they would get sick of you and leave you behind. They had other friends, but you didn't. Jake and Heeseung were all you had. You shook your head as you tried to expel the negative thoughts. Why am I getting upset over something that hasn't even happened? They would never do that anyway, you reassured yourself.

Before you knew it, lunch was over and you were running late for your next class. You were speed walking down the hall when you turned a corner and ran directly into something. Or some one, rather. You looked up to see who you had just harshly collided with. You recognized him from your english class, yet you had never spoken to him before. You realized you didn't even know his name.

"Ah, I'm really sorry!" You apologized, feeling your face heat up in embarrassment.

Seeing him up close like this made you wonder how you hadn't paid more attention to him. You had never noticed how handsome he was. He had a very sharp jawline and thick black hair that dangled just above his eyes. You also noticed there was a beauty mark on the side of his nose. Wow, his nose is like, perfect.

"It's alright. It's not every day that I run into a cute girl," he replied coolly.

You thought you were flustered before? Well now you were REALLY flustered. You opened your mouth to respond but before you could speak, he cut you off,

"Your lip is bleeding," he said, his face suddenly full of concern. His skin seemed to be growing paler.

"Oh, I didn't notice," you said, reaching up to wipe your mouth. You must have slightly busted your lip when you ran into him. You looked down and noticed a little trail of blood on the back of your hand. Thankfully, it was only a small amount so you weren't too worried. You looked back up at the boy and you noticed he was staring at your mouth rather intensely, almost as if he was in a trance.

"Uh...well I better get to class. Sorry, again." You apologized one last time before hurrying off down the hall.

Weird.

*****

Your class seemed to go by faster than usual today. Maybe it was because you ended up being almost 10 minutes late after your little incident in the hallway. Or maybe, it was because you couldn't stop thinking about that strange boy. Either way, you were relieved that class was over. However, that relief quickly left you once you realized what your next class was; English. You really didn't want to see that boy again after your previous meeting. You were still quite embarrassed and his reaction just made you even more uncomfortable. You sighed as you reluctantly accepted the inevitable.

Once you were seated at your usual spot, you pulled out your notebook and a pencil. You scanned over yesterday's notes as your teacher began the lesson. Everything was fine for a bit, until you began feeling eyes on you. Maybe you were just paranoid, but you could've sworn you saw that boy from earlier staring at you every so often. You attempted to pay attention to the lesson, but you couldn't. He was making you incredibly on edge. You put your head down in frustration. God, can't this day just end?

*****

You tapped your temple with the end of your pencil as you tried to make sense of your chemistry textbook. Although you were reading the words on the page, you weren't absorbing or internalizing any of it. You sighed and defeatedly closed your textbook as you decided to call it a night. You had been at the library studying for hours, you hadn't even noticed how dark it had gotten outside. You packed up your belongings and threw on your coat and scarf before heading out of the library. A shiver passed through your body as you entered the cold evening air. You began walking at a faster pace than usual, trying to get back to some warmth as soon as possible.

After a couple of minutes of walking, you could feel your cheeks stinging and you could see your breath in front of you. I need to get home faster, I'm freezing. You thought while looking around for a shortcut. You found a path down the edge of the forest that seemed to be the quickest route home. You sighed as you hurried down the deserted trail. As you continued on your way, you started to get an eerie feeling. Perhaps it was just the setting you were in, but you were considerably creeped out. You never liked walking alone at night, I mean, who does? Suddenly, as if on cue, you heard something behind you. You whipped your head around as you scanned the area for any potential danger. You didn't see anything but you could've sworn you heard another set of footsteps following close behind you. Maybe you were just being paranoid again. You turned back around, sufficiently scared at this point as you anxiously jogged the rest of the way. You sighed with relief as you made it to your house safely. You opened the front door and locked it behind you, not daring to look back out into the night. After shaking off your uneasiness, you headed upstairs and changed into your fuzziest pajamas before crawling into your warm bed. You quickly melted into the soft blankets as you drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ooooh, spooky ending! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter which was full of foreshadowing ;). I know it's taking a while to get all the boys introduced but I promise it'll happen soon! Thank you for reading! I’m also uploading this series on wattpad if you’d like to support it over there!

~Elle <3

[m-aster-of-spinjitzu]

orange and gold

...I just need more Cole and Vania content, they seem like they'd be great friends.

Basically it's just 'Cole goes to visit her there, they almost burn down the kitchen, and make way too many puns', lol.

Set a few months after Master of the Mountain, but before Seabound or The Island.

Also yeah, I couldn't think of a better title, sue me- I just know that they wear one of the colours at some point, so... 🤦‍♀️😂

Trigger warnings: none I think? Huh-

Also, bingo!! I really need to learn better time management, dear freaking gosh- I hope I'm not too late though? I know it's like half a day late, eek- and I was supposed to post this earlier, but I ended up literally falling asleep while writing it😂

Thank you so much Fabro, for hosting such a cool event!:D Your comments on my fics literally never fail to make my day<3. And I'm so glad that I met so many awesome, really skilled people through this event too - it's been a lot of fun working alongside y'all:D, I wish I'd had more time to interact instead of posting stuff and vanishing lol, but exams be like:////

Prompt: cooking (does baking count as cooking? I realized too late lol-) from @ninjago-bingo 's warm board.

Word Count: 2497

---

Trying to escape from killer dire-bats hadn't been on Cole's to do list today - although the mountains were kind of beautiful.

It was a bit difficult to see them while he was being dragged to his death, but hey, didn't Jay always tell them to be more positive?

That was, until he made the mistake of looking down.

Miles of snowcapped mountains touched the pastel blue sky, but he was more focused on exactly how high he was from the ground.

Great.

Trying to swing back onto the Bounty, he didn't notice a golden-winged blur shoot past the bat, almost dropping their spear in haste.

"Let my friend go, or I'll-"

"Vania?"

She throws the spear at the bird, successfully knocking one of its wings.

Huh. She must've been practicing - throwing with accuracy while flying seemed kinda difficult.

"I'm so sorry!" she replies, grabbing his arm before he fell down too. She winces at the strain on her wings, almost dropping him onto the deck. "I was supposed to come earlier, but there was an issue with one of the mines, and it took forever to-"

"There ain't anything in this world that's managed to kill me yet," he replies jokingly, checking that the autopilot hadn't been damaged. "I doubt an angry bird is going to be the first."

"Didn't you mention that you became a ghost once? Pretty sure that means you were dead-"

"Shh, that's not an important detail," he jokes.

"If you say so," she replies with a grin. "Did I mention that Chompy's been tearing down the palace flower arrangements again?"

"Send my regards to the gardener-"

"Did you just make a pun?"

"Remind me why I decided to visit you again?"

"Because you love me?" she asks stepping onto the ground as the Bounty landed gently.

"I hereby crown you as my platonic soulmate," Cole deadpans, taking her hand. "Vania and Cole-"

"Destined to annoy each other for eternity," she giggles, swinging their hands up and down. "But seriously - thanks. I don't think I realized how much work being a queen was."

"What's it like?"

"I mean - I'm glad that people trust me, and they come to me if they have a problem, but the paperwork is a nightmare. I never get to go outside anymore, I swear."

"Paperwork? Also, you just invited me here for a week. I don't wanna disturb you?"

"Nah, I cleared my schedule, don't worry. And trust me, you don't want to know. Everything requires some sort of official written thing, and it's so boring-"

"Official? But you're the queen?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't really want to change something unless it benefits the people. Not after..."

Her smile dims, eyes straying to the palace walls.

Oh- oh.

"You're nothing like him," Cole says firmly, squeezing her hand. "I mean, if you need to take a break, or you can make your job a bit easier by cutting out something unnecessary, that's just gonna help you become a better queen. You've definitely got the interests of your people at heart, and that's the most important thing, you know? And well, uh, everything seems to be going great so far - you don't have to beat yourself up over someone else's mistakes."

"Thanks," she replies softly, her smile slowly returning. "Speaking of breaks, what do you think we should do this time?"

"You could show me around the city again?"

"You've already seen everything cool," Vania giggles, skipping ahead of him. "We don't renovate much - unlike you guys-"

"Hey, it's not our fault that our city gets destroyed every few months-"

"More like every few days," she teases, tying back her golden hair. "How about we find some dragons to adopt?"

"Tempting, but where would you keep them?"

"They could sleep in my room-"

She breaks off when she notices him laughing. "What?"

"N- nothing," Cole replies, in between laughs. "Jay and I just made a bet."

"On what?"

"How many dragons you've adopted. I bet at least six, he bet fifteen."

"Well, jokes on both of you - I'm pretty sure my advisor's going to throw a fit if I show up with another one," she starts, giggling. "We've got twenty living in the palace right now."

"Twenty dragons?"

"They're so cute! You just look into their adorable little eyes," Vania pauses for breath, continuing her animated gesturing, "and you can't help but wanna hug them!"

"Oh, Jay's going to be so mad."

"Aww, I'm sorry guys. They're just too adorable!"

"...Wanna hear a funny story?"

"Yeah, sure!"

"I actually used to be terrified of dragons-"

"No way!" Vania exclaims. "Y'all have been on a lot of adventures though, so-"

"Nah, we used to have our own dragons at first. They were pretty cool! I just- I'm a simple guy! Huge animals with wings are scary up close when you're barely a teenager."

"Or when you're really short-"

"We're the same height!" Cole exclaims, facepalming in a bit of a fondly exasperated way.

"I'm two years younger than you-"

---

"Ugh, whose idea was this?"

"Yours," Vania grins, sitting down on the kitchen counter.

"You were supposed to help me, not leave me high and dry!" Cole accuses jokingly, staring at all the appliances they'd found in the cupboards.

"'One must always be prepared for new adventures,'" she quotes seamlessly, waving one of- what was his name again? Mulch something? Oh! Clutch! Some explorer he was, leaving them to die in the pyramid - Clutch Powers' books in the air.

"Fine," he sighs, staring at the old recipe book she'd found in one of their back cupboards. "But you've gotta help me? I almost burned down-" "Woah, what? If you finish that sentence with 'kitchen'-" "In my defense, Kai was playing a prank on me-" "In my defense, I wouldn't like to explain how the queen of Shintaro burnt down the palace by teaching one of her friends to cook," she grins, flipping through the pages. "What do you wanna start with?" "Something simple?" "Have you ever tried baking bread before? It's a lot of fun!" "I haven't really had the time, but that sounds kinda interesting."

He skims the recipe, raising his eyebrows. "Wait, why does this take hours? I thought you said it was simple?"

"Trust me, it is," she laughs, adding, "besides, I still wanna hear about all your adventures!" "Uh... okay," Cole replies hesitantly, "but if this fails, I'm so sorry." "Give yourself some credit, you guys literally saved the world! Multiple times!" "Bold of y'all to assume we know how we did it," he laughs, only half-kidding. "Besides. I botched soup once."

"I've botched toast," she mock-sighs, smiling. "Pretty sure that makes us even."

"Lemme get this straight. You've messed up toasting bread, but you can bake it from scratch?"

"Trust me, I don't know either," she giggles, trying to open a brightly coloured packet of... something? Did flour come in packets that small?

"Uh, why are you opening something called 'feast'?" he asks, eyebrows creased in confusion.

"Feast," she echoes, trying to stifle her laughter. "Off to a... rocky start, aren't we?"

It took him a second.

"I already regret this," he jokes, facepalming. "But I'd say that your puns are, uh, gold."

"I've un- unleashed-" breaking off, she half-falls off the counter, laughing so hard her face starts to go red, "a monster."

---

"Uh, is it supposed to look like that?" Cole asks, frowning.

The mixture looked less like the dough he'd been expecting - more like one of Jay's inventions gone wrong.

Badly wrong, he thought, eyes widening at the goopy mess of foam that threatened to spill over the jug.

"The yeast?" Vania echoes, poking her head out of one of the cupboards. "Yeah, all good! It always looks a little gross, and you're gonna doubt ever eating bread again, but at least it doesn't taste like it's fermented-"

"It's what?"

"Yeah," she grimaces, exaggerating her disgust a bit. "If aliens ever fell from the sky, they'd think we were crazy for eating bread-"

"Aliens? I think we're a bit crazy!" Cole exclaims, trying not to laugh.

Vania smiles, then sighs, lugging a huge bag of flour onto the counter. "I can never open these bags properly," she starts, eyeing the the bag a bit warily, "and it always makes such a huge mess all over the kitchen. You'd think they'd make it easier for people to use, right? I swear-"

He jokingly puts his hands over his ears. "I can't hear you!" "But you know that I've sworn off swearing-" she replies, breaking off with a laugh. "Pun not intended - that actually made sense in my head. I swear!"

"No," Cole interjects with a grin, shaking his head. "You don't, remember?"

"See, this is why we're friends-"

"Friends? Is that all I am to you?"

"Oh, be quiet," she shoots back, exaggeratedly dragging a hand down her face. "I mean, sure, just because everyone thinks that we're dating doesn't mean that we-"

Wait. What?

"People think that we're dating?" he asks, clamping a hand over his mouth in a poor attempt to muffle his laughter. "I- I- really?"

"I know, right?"

"Even my friends thought so at first," he confesses, dragging a hand down his face. "I mean, as much as I love you-"

"I love you too," Vania replies, completely seriously. "Even if you'll always be more like an annoying-"

"Hey-"

"Sibling to me than anything else," she finishes, grabbing a pair of scissors. Cole watches, a little alarmed, as she stabs them into the flour bag over and over.

"Is it... supposed to be this difficult to just open the bag? Seems kinda stupid-"

"Well, er, they have this piece of paper with glue that you're supposed to pull away from the rest of the bag, but it never works properly and I-"

"Well, we could always make our own flour," Cole interjects, laughing. "I mean, I've got a scythe? Let's go!"

"Uh, but we don't have wheat growing here. I don't think it'd suit the climate very well?"

"Wheat a shame," Cole sighs jokingly, measuring out the flour (which had, finally, escaped the bag).

"Oh my gosh," Vania deadpans, "you did not just-"

"Yep, I did."

"You're horrible," she giggles, "then again, I was the one who started this whole debacle, so I think we'll share the blame."

"Debacle? Where'd you pick that one up from? Sounds kinda cool-"

"Oh, it's from a book someone wrote about you guys," Vania says casually, pouring a cup of water into the bowl.

"Hey, uh-" Cole starts hesitantly, twisting his fingers back and forth, then breaks off. "Why'd you read all that stuff about us, anyways? Adventure books don't really seem like something you read a lot, since we have similar favorite books. I mean..."

"Well, um..." Vania trails off, clearly uncomfortable. "Uh- I guess, well, it sounds kinda stupid, but I'd never really met anyone my age who wasn't a royal or something. I... er, I didn't want to be left out, you know?"

Cole thinks back to a scroll; a quest, a sacrifice. One that his friends never seemed to really notice, unless it was with horror or flinches. Not that he blamed them, but - joking about how he was much more useful to the team when he was freaking dead than he was before he'd stumbled and fell in the temple?

That had been a bit far, even for his best friend. Locks could always be picked or something, he didn't need to be a ghost to provide some sort of value-

Well, that's not completely true, is it? a small voice questions, and he can't keep his hands from shaking a little.

"Jay here thinks you're the least valuable ninja."

Not enough to be a performer. Now, not good enough to even be a ninja, apparently.

Well, he reminds himself firmly, you don't have to be the best - just stand up to those who are cruel and unjust.

Nothing but a scar that glowed warm orange occasionally left of the whole Cursed Realm ordeal, sometimes it was all too easy to forget - or pretend - that it had never even happened in the first place.

Other times, like when he'd dropped a glass of water on the floor and his hands hadn't stopped shaking for hours, or when he woke up screaming, expecting to fall through his bed again, it still felt like he was trapped as a ghost. Literally - and maybe a little figuratively as well.

Yeah. Yeah, I know.

"Thanks for trusting me with that," he replies softly. "And I'm sorry. That sounds... horrible, but, honestly, you're a pretty cool person, and I ain't just saying that because we're friends. People can be awful, and they can- they can leave, but you don't need to pretend to be someone you're not for people to accept you. I kinda know what it's like, and it's... just, uh, not great."

"No, thank you," Vania says, rubbing her eyes. "You're pretty cool, too. And I'm glad that we become friends, even if wasn't in the- the, er, greatest circumstances."

"Right back at ya. The fall was pretty terrifying, though," Cole says casually, as if memories of that nightmarish plunge into the depths of earth don't still send shivers down his spine.

"No, definitely! I was so sure we were gonna splat onto the ground or something, thank gosh we didn't."

"Yeah..." Cole trails off, reading the recipe they'd been following. "Oh- do we just leave the bowl somewhere for a few hours now?"

"Oh, yeah," Vania answers. "Other than clean up the kitchen, what else do you wanna do?"

"That's kind of you, but, ah, I don't mind. You can choose something."

"I don't mind either," she replies, covering the bowl with a dishcloth. "Seriously, I don't."

"Same here though."

"Really, I don't mind-" Vania breaks off with a laugh, adding, "Well, actually, there is something."

She doesn't elaborate, thoughtfully gazing out the window.

"Well, what is it? Don't keep me in the dark."

"Ugh, it's kinda stupid-"

"I'm sure that it's not- well, unless you want to try to jump off a flying ship with a homemade parachute to prove a bet to someone-"

"Do I even wanna know?"

"...uh, probably not. We're way too crazy sometimes, our Master has a hard time keeping us in check. Your thing, though?"

"Can I give you a hug?"

Cole blinks for a second, expecting some sort of punchline.

"That's your thing?"

"Well, yeah- I mean, I said it was kinda stupid-"

"No no, that's not what I meant. You're so sweet - that's all."

"Well, not more than you-"

"Nah, you're sweeter-"

"Let's just call it a tie," Vania says with a smile, reaching over to give her friend a hug. "Thank you so much, I swear- well, no, I don't, but you know, anyways-"

"Yeah," Cole replies, laughing softly. "I know."

[elriel-oblivion]

So it's been four days so here's part two 😁 Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who read/liked/commented/reblogged the last part! It was such an amazing response, especially given it was my first time posting my writing here, so thanks for all the love you shared 🥰🥰

Heads up, this part is actually part one from Elain's pov. Initially I wanted to continue from where the last part left off in Elain's pov, but as I was writing the background, I realised I'd written too much to just skip when Az gets to the estate and cut straight into a continuation of part one, so I ended up rewriting the whole thing in her view. So there's no new elriel moments, but you'll get a lot of new stuff anyway 😅 I would've said you don't have to read this part to understand part three, but when I was rereading the later parts a few hours ago, I realised there's some stuff that alludes to things in this part, so I strongly recommend you don't skip this 😅😅

Also, wow, some of my fave paragraphs I've ever written are in this part 😁 Bonus points if you can find them; there are four I'm thinking of in particular 😉

Word count: ~ 3.1K. Lemme know if you'd like to be tagged/removed 😊 Next part up in two or three days 😊

AO3

Ashes from the Deep

Part II

__

It had been a pretty uneventful day as Elain worked through her new plant textbook. Feyre and Rhysand had decided to spend the weekend away at the mountain cabin, Cassian and Nesta were away doing things she wished not to think of, and Mor was at the Winter Court.

Amren had only been round in the mornings, probably to check Elain was still alive. She'd glance round the living room, examine some of those fine crystal glasses in the display cabinet and then leave. There was no difference today, though Elain always felt Amren's scrutiny upon her even when that muted silver gaze was directed elsewhere; perusing Rhys' wine collection had become a tired ruse.

So besides preparing and taking her meals with Nuala and Cerridwen, Elain had spent her afternoon with her book, making notes and copying drawings. The twins had gone off on some errands, so she'd wandered into the garden at some point to tend to her many plants, telling them how lovely they each were. The crocuses looked particularly stunning this autumn day, their pale violet colour breathing life into the shades beneath some of the trees.

With her book, she'd identified new weeds, digging into the soil to rip some pesky ones out. Sometimes she didn't want the help of a tool; sometimes she needed to feel those roots on her bare skin.

Harvesting the carrots and beetroot was also on the agenda today, along with seeding for some spectacular displays next year. She'd been collecting the seeds from some of her summer blooms, like those soft clouds of baby's breath, saving them to replant. These she sowed directly into ground she'd prepared days before, her fingers digging into the crumbly clumps of earth.

Autumn onions she'd plant tomorrow, perhaps. Feyre always remarked on how their strong taste complimented meats well, so Elain wanted to harvest some fresh for her sister for once. It'd take a few months of waiting, but there was little else better than picking out and eating food one had grown with their bare hands and the essential ingredients of love and care.

Setting her book on the patio table, Elain surveyed the garden. It was a good day's work. Plants watered and sown, weeds uprooted, and hands sweaty and soiled, Elain was proud of what she'd achieved today. There were no distractions, nothing to take her from the one thing she always found satisfaction in.

After a long shower, she found herself back in the garden with a cup of tea and a blanket. The sunset washed the sky in a blaze of red and orange glory before it yielded to the cool tones of twilight then night. Elain sat in silence, hands wrapped around her mug. How long would it be until someone's arms were wrapped around her, until she felt the warmth her sisters finally had?

Silly, these thoughts. Immortality stretched far ahead, there would be time to develop that companionship. Months and years were but a heartbeat in the life of a High Fae. She wouldn't even notice the years pass.

Or so everybody else kept saying.

With her tea finished, she perused the book of recipes she'd borrowed from Nuala. Some recipes jumped out, ingredients for which she'd been growing for a few months now. Pumpkin pie sounded especially delightful, the gourd having almost darkened and hardened to ripe quality just a couple days ago. They should be ready for harvest tomorrow.

A chill wind sent Elain inside to prepare and have her dinner in pleasant silence. Even her mind was quiet tonight. After washing her dishes, she stood by a bay window, fingers idly tapping the windowsill.

Faelights bobbed like tiny lamps, dotted through the garden. The full moon was now high in the sky, its ghostly glow illuminating the datura flowers she'd seeded half a year ago. She pulled on her blanket and went out again for a better look at those gorgeous blooms, the petals opening only at night.

Elain couldn't be happier she'd found seeds of a triple-flowered variety. They'd grown to produce large trumpets, three layers of petals ruffled against each other. Somehow she thought of her sisters as she crouched and stared at the flowers, each layer so similar, yet fighting for space and breath as it unfurled before another. It was only when they were all fully open that they could sigh along the night breeze as one, an ethereal song of togetherness, tinged with notes of poignancy, only heard by those with the will to look deeper.

The white petals were stained with velvet violet, a true vision in her garden. While the others had given her passing compliments on the flowers, Azriel had seemed stunned the first time he saw them, citing them his favourite of all the plants Elain had grown so far. Something about their shape and contrasting colours, he'd mentioned.

She smiled fondly at the memory, where his eyes sparkled as he reached for one of the soft petals.

Her hand lashed out to grab his wrist. 'Don't touch them; the leaves and stems are highly poisonous.'

His brows rose. 'You wouldn't think that at first sight. But they're beautiful, Elain. Truly magnificent,' he said, his smooth voice so low, a voice that was night given sound. And how befitting, as even those datura flowers seemed enraptured by his presence, one shy petal finally unfurling towards him.

She beamed at him. 'They like you. Flowers like it when you talk to and compliment them - but these ones haven't given me the same reaction as they have to you. I think they really like you, Azriel.'

His answering smile was heartbreakingly tender.

A few more seconds passed before she realised she still held his wrist. She silently let go.

It was a shame she'd have to dig out the datura shrub and move it inside for the winter; it did look magnificent in the moonlight.

The sky shifted past its midnight velvet, and still Elain crouched, admiring the flowers. She shivered in the night's chill. The stars above twinkled and glistened, cold and distant as ever, yet stunning - infinitely more striking than they'd ever been when she was human. A thousand different colours sparkled in that vast expanse, the moon a phosphorescent queen in the centre of her court.

The Night Court truly lived up to its name in the wee hours of the day. Its opulence never failed to mesmerise her; the enhanced Fae eyesight was at least one thing she was grateful for from this body.

Her eyelids became heavy and she yawned. Why was she still out here? It was late into the night; she should be in bed by now. But the night was so beautiful and it was so quiet and she wanted to appreciate it all just once. Just once without the expectations of others, without having to wear that miserable smile all the time.

Of course, it didn't look miserable, which is probably why almost nobody ever bothered to look deeper into Elain. She should be used to it by now, but it still felt - wrong. That most overlooked her so long as she wore a smile. That most didn't think her capable of feeling the utter bitterness and loneliness she had once seen so plain on her sisters' faces.

And in acknowledgement of her sisters' hardships, Elain didn't fault them for not looking, for not seeing her. To see past the thick blanket of darkness in one's own mind was a trial in itself. But it had been years since the war now. And still they didn't notice.

They didn't notice that Elain was being shredded from the inside out.

It was almost laughable. But not funny enough.

No, it was not funny that people still treated Elain like a child, that people wanted to keep Elain in some weird impasse of a stage between child and adult. She'd thought finally carrying out her duty and giving her hand in marriage would show everyone that she was growing up: Elain Archeron, middle born but first married. Of course it was still on her own terms, to a man whom she'd loved. A man who'd seen her through the rubble of her family's lives. But she'd overall hoped doing what was expected of her would be enough.

Clearly not. She didn't even know who she was any more. Did she ever? Everything she'd once yearned for, gone. That fragile human life would soon be just a speck on the horizon of her past.

She sighed. Rebuilding herself was going to take a long time.

But what would she have to do for people to see her, to listen to her? Throw a rage? Fall into a drunken stupor and break a few dozen bottles?

She definitely could, but those were not her. She was Elain Archeron. And so she would wait. Patience wasn't a bad thing at all; she saw it on the shadowsinger's face all the time, that tranquility and calmness she so wished to feel inside.

Azriel. Her heart softened as he entered her mind again, and she dug her fingers into the soil, if only to occupy her fidgety hands. As sure as the chaos of her visions these days, there was a mess of butterflies related to him she wasn't willing to show. Or understand.

Elain and the spymaster? Now that was laughable. Truly laughable. He was wise and patient, while she - well, everyone already thought her a child, and though he listened like no other around her, surely even he couldn't glimpse the adult she so desperately wanted everyone to see.

No, it was foolish to entertain the idea of a relationship with him. No matter how much he saw.

No matter that he was the first to see her since Graysen.

Elain exhaled. She stifled another yawn, smoothing out the soil, then brushed her hands clean. She wrapped the blanket closer around herself and stood. Twinkling stars and velvety darkness and -

There, a knot of shadows materialising at the far edge of the garden, collecting and swirling into a larger mass before Azriel himself stepped out and sagged against a tree. His shadows whirled and obscured him, a dark fire with him burning at the core.

Elain's voice left her throat before she even thought to call him and she ran over to his figure slumped in the dimness.

She couldn't help but say his name again as she neared. 'Azriel!'

Those beautiful hands fiddled with a Siphon, but he looked even worse up close. Fatigue dragged at his body, a second weight to all the muscle and armour he already had to carry. Sweat and dirt clung to him, his hair. At least the shadows were parting, swallowing each other and misting away as they often did around her. Perhaps she should ask someday why they did that. But not today, not when his breathing was so laboured.

She raised a hand - to do what, she had no idea. She couldn't just touch him right now. 'You don't look okay.'

Something else limned his features as he huffed a light laugh and said, 'I'm fine, don't worry.' His voice was raw, so starkly different to its usual icy smoothness. It was common for him to guard his emotions, but in his state, this kind of thinking was just unhealthy. What would it take for him to be honest with her?

'You don't have to pretend with me, Azriel,' she said, lowering her hand. She studied the ground, embarrassed that she'd come up to him. What could she even offer in her pathetic childlike state when he was so clearly affected by his mission right now?

His hand rose. Her heart faltered, she had to do something, and she blurted, 'Can I wash your hair, please?'

His eyes widened, his entire composure crumbling. It wasn't often that the shadowsinger looked startled, but Elain was far too shy to show that she quite liked the effect her question had on him.

'You want to wash my hair?'

His face was so exquisite, it hurt to look at it. His eyes would be even worse; it wouldn't be the first time she was rendered speechless by their kind gaze. A myriad of colours swirled in their glistening depths - gorgeous greens and brilliant browns, all so natural and rich, if only she could look at them long enough to find their matches in the garden around her. Though, his eyes were an entire spectrum of colour in their own right. How would she ever pick out each and every shade?

And if she somehow did have the courage to meet his eyes now, what would she see of herself in their reflection?

A lovesick puppy? A doe-eyed, fearful fawn?

No, she didn't want to know.

So she swallowed and focused on his hair. Perhaps this Fae eyesight was a curse, for even his hair was shockingly fascinating. Only flat black from a distance, the faelights bobbing about the trees highlighted layer upon layer of silky raven locks up close. His hair was so dark it seemed to absorb the surrounding light. Mud stained one side of his head, and it was an effort to keep her hands from brushing it away, so she said, 'I'm positive that's mud and you shouldn't sleep with that in your hair. It'll only take a few minutes.'

He ran a hand through his hair, clumps of dirt falling out.

'You've managed to get some on your face, too.' There were light specks of mud and blood across his face, a more noticeable patch along his cheekbone, thrown into sharper relief by the faelights and his own weariness. Was that a cut beneath the patch? And another on his temple?

She leashed her arms.

What had happened? He wore the signs of a fight, but why would he come here when he knew Elain was the only one home?

His eyes bored into her face, but she refused to meet them. He seemed to lean forward then, stumbling.

Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous that he wouldn't even acknowledge he was in need. Azriel rarely stumbled. Any fatigue Elain had felt just a while ago was now burrowing down a little longer. Her voice was firm when she spoke. 'I'm washing your hair. It'll help relax you into falling asleep.'

His brows rose, but if Elain stood there one more moment she wouldn't have the courage to do anything for him. For herself - she could take care of someone else. She could do for Azriel what she hadn't done for Feyre all those years as a human.

And for Azriel, she could tend to the male who'd provided her with comfort and safety in this world of distress and danger.

So she pulled him along, clenching her jaw and refusing to look back. Her heart hammered in her chest but she continued, hand wrapped round his armoured arm. Her hand slid down to his wrist but just as she was about to replace her grip, he grabbed her other hand and pulled her into him.

The shadows instantly began to ensconce them, dozens of those cool tendrils twining like vines. The estate loomed huge before them, and Elain gripped Azriel's hand tighter. 

'My bathroom,' she said. Beneath the low whisper of those shadows, her blood thrummed, her heart so painfully obvious against her ribs now. It would be a wonder if the spymaster wasn't aware of it. Though she did hear another flutter above, right by her ear. But as expected, the shadows made quick work of their journey and she didn't have the chance to dwell on it further.

Now out of the comfort of Azriel's hold, Elain set down her blanket and made to grab a chair from her bedroom. His dark presence was so overwhelming that she exhaled lightly as she entered the room and took the chair. She dragged it to the sink, avoiding his gaze, and pulled a towel, soap and a large jug from the cupboard by the door.

As she settled the soap and jug on the sink, she dared a glance at him. He was still clad in full armour, those black scales gleaming like obsidian over his skin, his Siphons glistening jewels across his body. 'I think you'll have to collapse your armour for this,' she said.

He inclined his head and tapped a Siphon, those scales lashing back into each other with cruel elegance. They were a mirror of their master: cold, controlled and unyielding, forged from scintillating darkness. He was a night sky riddled with stars; light existed if only one bothered to look for it.

Azriel's great wings righted themselves as he stood straight, now looking smaller in just his black tunic and trousers. Something about him seemed vulnerable without the armour, so Elain breathed, 'It's beautiful, all of it.' The hulking armour, the classic simplicity of the tunic and trousers, and the male who wore them all.

He was just so wonderful, Azriel. An enigma that could see her own. Her heart clenched.

Azriel rustled his wings, colour blossoming on his cheeks.

Elain blinked and pulled the chair out a little. 'Please sit.' As he sunk down, she rested the towel on his shoulders, hovering her fingers above his forehead. Her body tensed and her fingers remained suspended. It was like a spark of tension flickered in the space between their skin, teasing her, tempting her, taunting her.

After all, she'd offered to wash his hair, an act that would certainly require touching. But why was she so hesitant? She'd touched him before - kissed his cheek, even. Although that had been in the heat of adrenaline, a mark of her gratitude where a simple thank you wouldn't suffice, not for risking his own life for hers.

This was - what was this?

She finally lowered her fingers through that tense spark, pushing his head back against the sink. It was exhilarating, this contact, but he lowered his wings, shifting on the seat. Elain moved into the space he gave, turning on the tap as he went still. Just as her body was taut, taut as the skin of a drum.

She checked the water. Warm. It was time to start.

Azriel was looking up at her. Something like yearning swirled in his eyes.

He looked so tired. It made her heart ache.

'You can close your eyes,' Elain whispered. And he did.

___

Feedback's welcomed; thanks for reading 😊

If anyone wants to know what the datura flowers look like, CTTO:

@illyrian-lover-flower @julesherondalex @nooriee @mis-lil-red @verifiefangirl @tswaney17

[daddyjackfrost]

i'm not sure if i have anyy suggestions that you'll want to write, but i'll send them in as they come to mind

so excited for your writing ^^ no pressure though, best of luck with your studies!!

y/n is studying (something difficult, maybe pre-med or med school?) and is feeling a little drained and self-doubtful. she gets up from her space to take a second and is reminded of a time she spent with <whichever haikyuu boy you'd like to write about>. they hadn't gotten to spend much time together as a result of their busy schedule, so the memory of this weekend is especially special to her. start flashback of fluff they had met for dinner, spent time together, cuddled and slept (not 18+) together. they both woke up early but opted to stay in bed together, content in eachother's company, making small talk, laughing softly, fluffy stuff. y/n had brought up her struggles to <haikyuu boy of choice> and he'd been there for her to confide in. she knows its her dream, but casually wonders if she isnt cut out for it. he actively listens, offering comforting touches, until she's finished and then helps her talk it out until she's back up in confidence. more fluffy morning end lashback of fluff y/n feels better having remembered <hq boy>'s pep talk and resumes her efforts.

yeesh, idk how long/short/detailed/vague suggestions are supposed to be, so sorry! 😅 i'll try to be more vague, if you'd like, in the future

hi!! omg u r SO cute i’m in love. anyways, i love your suggestion! it’s amazing. and don’t worry, the more detail the better!

for this request, i’ve chosen Daichi. because i’m a daichi whore i believe in daichi supremacy

Warnings: none :) fluff, daichi x f!reader

alright, anyways, enjoy!

You stared at the piles of paper on your bed. You couldn’t even begin to recall what the different colours of the paper meant. You were just glad you had written it down on your phone.

“This is ridiculous,” you whispered to yourself.

Your back was aching, your muscles were sore, and your eyes burned from the constant strain. You had a final coming up and it was killing you in more ways then one.

“Is this even worth it? I mean, really, what are the chances of me getting into med school?”

You groaned and fell back on your pillow. You dragged your hands down your face. You had been spiraling down a tunnel of self-doubt and it was affecting you. You had begun talking to yourself even more than usual, especially since you cut contact from everyone for a couple of days.

Your phone chimed beside you and you turned your head to face it. You had promised yourself to turn it off, except you forgot.

Well, you didn’t forget, you just didn’t want too.

You picked it up and your eyes fell on the message that your boyfriend left you.

From: acab but not him🙄❣️

‘good evening, beautiful. make sure to eat something, yeah? and get some fresh air. you’ve got this babe, i believe in you❣️’

You smiled at the message. Unknowingly, a few small tears formed at the corners of your eyes. Daichi had a week long training camp that coincidentally aligned with your final. Now, Daichi was in Tokyo and you were cooped up in your room. 

Daichi had made it his job to send you texts almost every hour to remind you he loved you and to eat. You didn’t think you could love him even more.

Due to his own busy schedule, Daichi and you hadn’t been able to spend too much time together before he left. But you knew that as soon as you had taken the final, you were going to spent three days in his arms.

You sent a quick text back, telling him you loved him and that you were going to get something to eat now.

You slowly slid out of bed, making your bed and your bones make noise out of agony. Your knees cracked and you looked down. “Just break,” you prayed.

When nothing happened, you huffed out an annoyed breath and made your way to your kitchen. You and Daichi had moved into an apartment two years ago, and you loved every part of it. Your home was your baby.

As you walked, your eyes fell upon the black leather jacket that laid jumbled up on the couch. Your thoughts immediately flashed to the weekend, the last time you had seen Daichi.

It was Friday night, which meant date night for you and the police officer, and it was perfect.

You parked your car outside of the Miyagi Police Station, waiting for Daichi.

You stood outside, enjoying the light breeze. Daichi had texted you to give him a couple minutes. Today was Friday, which meant date night for you and your lover.

You heard some ruckus and lifted your head, meeting Daichi’s warm gaze. He had a large grin etched onto his face and you felt your own lips pull into a smile.

Daichi walked up to you and pressed a quick kiss to your forehead. “Hello, darling.”

You brushed away the few dark locks that fell on his forehead. “Hello, officer.”

Daichi’s eyes slightly narrows at the use of the word. He absolutely loved and hated when you called him officer. It did things to him.

“Come, let’s go. I’m starving.”

You nodded and pulled away from him, walking to the drivers seat. Daichi always insisted you drive when you picked him up because he wanted to ‘get his full of you’ because he was at work. You never truly understood it, but you liked his heated stare on you so you never said anything.

You and Daichi ended up going to your favourite restaurant. You went here a lot, and were now on first name basis with the manager and half of the employees.

You and Daichi both ordered your regulars and ate peacefully, with some small talk here and there. A hungry Daichi usually resulted in a quiet Daichi.

After dinner, you drove to the park by your house to get some fresh air and to work off some of the food you just ate.

Late night walks with Daichi were your favourite little activities you did with him. Daichi loved late night walks with you too. He loved watching the moon glow on your skin as you stared adoringly at the stars.

Daichi held your hand in his, gently swinging them. He wore black jeans and his favourite grey shirt, with his black worn out leather jacket you had gotten him a couple of years ago.

You kept your eyes on him. His skin glistened in the moonlight and you found him as beautiful as the stars that twinkled above him, if not more.

“What’re you thinkin’ bout, love?”

You turned your head, finding it completely unfair that someone so beautiful stood next to you.

“You,” you mumbled truthfully.

“Is that so?” Daichi’s voice came out teasingly.

You let go of his hand and skipped forward until you stood a couple of feet away from him. You pointed at him and he stopped, hands in his pockets and a smile on his face.

“You, Sawa, are the love of my life.”

Daichi’s eyes widened slightly and a flush of pink now rested on his face. Daichi cleared his throat but couldn’t help the grin that had replaced his smile.

“And you’re mine.”

You grinned at him and then continued to walk until you reached the hill that overlooked your neighborhood. You crouched down, and then sat down, pulling your knees to your chest.

Daichi soon followed, except he sat behind you, and spread his legs so you were sitting between them. He pulled you close to your chest, until your back rested completely against his chest.

You tilted your head back, resting it on Daichi’s shoulder. One of Daichi’s large, warm, hands laid on your stomach, rubbing softly. The other was playing with your hair.

This is it, you thought. I’ll never love anyone the way I love him.

You looked up at the stars. You had always had a fascination with the balls of of heat and energy. When you were a child, your dream was to become a star. You’re not quite sure when that dream led you on the path of medicine, but it did.

Daichi stared at you. It didn’t matter that you two had been together for almost six years, Daichi could never get over how beautiful you were.

The way your hair glistened in the moonlight, the way your eyes twinkled, as if you held the stars in them yourselves. Daichi stared at you the way you stared at the stars.

With complete and utter adoration.

Daichi’s eyes landed on your hands. He watched as they slight shook, and how your tried to make them stop.

He frowned. Your hands only shook when your were stressed.

As swiftly as he could, Daichi grabbed your shaking hands and held them together, complete engulfing them in his own.

“You’re shaking, love. What’s the matter?”

You froze. Caught.

Even though you should have been calm, happy even, since you sat under the stars with your lover, the final that loomed over your shoulder had your nervous system in shambles.

Daichi’s thumbs rubbed the backs of your hands as he waited for your response.

“I’m just nervous,” you mumbled. You hated speaking about up-coming tests or finals. You always had really bad anxiety when it came to any form of testing, and Daichi knew that.

He knew everything about you.

“What about?”

You sighed and extended your legs. Daichi had a way with words. Even when he didn’t speak much, his presence and silence alone spoke tenfold.

“Nothing, really,” you let out an awkward laugh. “You know I’m always a little bit nervous.”

Daichi wanted to press on the matter. He wanted you to speak to him, he wanted to be able to share your stress. But he also knew that you would talk to him when you were ready.

Daichi pressed a soft kiss on your neck. “Talk to me when you’re ready, love.”

You nodded. “I will.”

Daichi kissed the small space behind your earlobe. “Let’s go home, yeah?” You nodded, agreeing. Daichi stood up and then put out his hand for you. You grabbed it, and let him pull you up with ease.

You two began the journey home, reaching in a couple of minutes.

You and Daichi changed into your nightwear. You were wearing one of Daichi’s shirts, and he was just wearing grey sweatpants.

You couldn’t keep your eyes off his body, but managed to look away before he caught you.

Daichi slipped under the covers, and then lifted them. He patted his chest. “Come lay on me.”

You immediately obliged, jumping onto his chest, causing Daichi to let out a small grunt.

You let all your wait drop on Daichi’s body. Your head was in the crook of his neck, and your chest lay flat against his. You could feel his heartbeat against yours and it took you a moment to realize that both your hearts beat at the same time.

As one.

Daichi slid his left hand under your—his—shirt, rubbing your back. It was these moments he wanted to truly cherished. He knew you were stressed about the final that was coming up. He had put the date in his phone when you mentioned it.

Daichi realized that today had been the quietest days you two had had. But he didn’t mind. He loved everyday with you. The quiet, the loud, the hectic, and the crazy.

Daichi began to hum. He could feel the knots in your back, and he knew you should have a nice relaxing weekend before you began to study.

Before he knew it, Daichi heard your soft snores fill the air.

A wide smile broke out on his face. Daichi absolutely adored your sleeping face. All your worry lines disappeared and you looked the most at peace when you slept in his arms.

Daichi slightly pushed himself up. He wanted to be able to see your properly. His brown eyes softened at the sight of your hand against chest. You often called him a creep for staring at your sleeping face, but he always just shrugged it off.

After some time, Daichi found himself driting off to sleep, but not before he tightened his hold on you and kissed your forehead. “Sleep well, my love.”

Hours later, your eyes fluttered open, but you immediately cringed and shut them again.

The sun was facing directly at you. You had forgotten to close your blinds.

You tried to adjust your posture, but immediately stopped when you heard a low rumble from Daichi. No, you felt it, and you froze at the vibrations.

“Don’t move, love.”

Daichi’s voice was low and husky, and slightly dry. You lifted your head and found yourself still laying on his chest. Daichi’s arms were securely wrapped around you, his eyes were shut.

The sound of his morning voice hit you right in the stomach and you couldn’t help but brush your fingers against his cheekbones.

Daichi’s eyes shot open. His dark brown eyes met yours, and for a moment, everything stopped.

You looked so beautiful, Daichi thought.

“Good morning,” you whispered.

Daichi smiled at you and let his head drop back on the pillow. “It is a very good morning, indeed.”

You used your hands and slightly pushed yourself up, so you were now straddling Daichi’s waist. His eyes opened and landed on your nervous smile.

“What’s wrong?”

Daichi grabbed your hips and pushed himself up, so his back was against the headboard.

You now sat on his thighs, and his hold on you tightened a little bit.

You stared at the man in front of you. Even after having you sleep on him for hours, he still looked perfect. It pissed you off, especially since you knew you probably had some drool on your chin.

Daichi leaned forward and pressed a small kiss to your forehead. “Talk to me.”

You nodded and began to play with your fingers.

You couldn’t help but think of the final you had to take in a couple of days. It didn’t make sense, you thought. You had taken finals and tests before, but for some reason, the one you had in five days had disrupted your sleep and taken over your life.

“I’m so nervous for the final, Sawa. I feel like there’s a knot in my stomach and it keeps tightening. I can’t breathe.”

Daichi began to rub the skin above your hip with his fingers. He listened attentively. He was gonna let you talk first, getting everything off your chest.

“I know I always complain and then end up doing well, but what if this is the one I flunk? What if this is the one I end up failing? It’s so nerve wracking. I don’t even know if I wanna do this anymore.”

Daichi’s hands slipped under your shirt and he slowly began to massage your back and shoulder muscles. He wanted to offer you physical comfort.

He knew you were often a mess of nerves and anxiety a week before any test, and no matter how many times he assured you that you would do fine, you always ended up getting caught up in your head.

“I know it’s my dream. But at this point, dropping out sounds ideal. There’s enough doctors in the world, right? Maybe I should do something less nerve wracking.”

You sighed and closed your eyes. It felt nice to finally get your thoughts off your chest.

Daichi’s hands squeezed your hips in response. He hated hearing you talking yourself down. It made him feel so helpless, because for him, you were his everything. He had the upmost respect and belief in you.

“Y/n, love, from everyone in your life, you are the only one who doesn’t fully believe you can do this. I know medicine is a very hard and competitive occupation, but you know I believe in you. If anyone can power through this, it’s you.”

Tears had pooled in your eyes. Daichi had always been so good with words. You knew that Daichi had always been mature for his age, meaning his patience and abilityto comfort you was far better than anyone else’s.

His compassion and understanding was his greatest qualities. His calming aura always managed to break through all your walls. It was what made him such a good captain.

“What if I fail?”

You had mumbled your question, hoping he wouldn’t have caught it.

But he did.

Daichi leaned in and kissed your nose “You won’t. And if you do, then you fail. You shouldn’t be scared to fail, y/n. You should be scared to give up. If you fail, you can always take it again.”

You sighed and lightly nodded. Although you appreciated his words, you knew they would only comfort you for a day or two.

“Thank you, Sawa.”

You tried getting up from his lap, but Daichi had other plans. He grabbed your hips tightly and leaned in, kissing your lips.

You didn’t hesitate, you just began to kiss him back eagerly.

Daichi’s right hand slid up your back, pushing you into him.

Your lips moved together in sync, and you brought your hands to his hair, clutching the soft ends tightly.

Daichi slightly pulled away, only to gently kiss your lips again.

Before you could deepen it, he pulled away again.

“It’s not easy, y/n. But accomplishing your dream never is. You’re gonna do great, just like you always do. I believe in you, and it’s time you do as well.”

His words wrapped around your anxious thoughts and completely anguished them.

You nodded, your nose brushing his.

You closed your eyes and let your head drop on his shoulder. Daichi wrapped his arms around you again, pulling you flush against his chest.

You stayed in that position for hours.

You in Daichi’s lap, with his hands running up and down your back as he comforted you with his words of love and stories to keep your mind off everything.

You blinked a couple of times, trying to recall what exactly what exactly what you were doing.

As you recalled Daichi’s words, you let out a small breath.

He was right, you thought. You weren’t going to fail and you were going to be okay.

You grabbed the leather jacket, and slipped it on. It smelled of Daichi and it was exactly what you needed right now.

You walked into the kitchen and grabbed a packet of ramen.

As you made the noddles, you unknowingly smiled the whole time.

Thinking of Daichi had lifted your spirits and you felt better.

He loved you, and he believed in you, and for you, that was enough.

MAN, THIS SUCKS. I HAD TO RE-WRITE IT LIKE FOUR TIMES GODDAMN.

anyways, i absolutely love and adore daichi, and this is kinda eh😬 so forgive me. I’d been swarmed w work the past week and have no creative juices left.

i will write about this handsome man again.

daddyjackfrost © 2021 | all content belongs to me, do not modify

[undercoverclover]

Make You Happy

Pairing: Donghun x OC

Genre: Angst

Warning: None, I think.

“I can’t do this anymore, Donghun.”

“What do you mean? I’m trying!”

“You’re trying? You’re never home! I get working, but the extra hours are too much! I need you!” I scream, tears streaming down my face.

“I- please. Please, don’t do this.” He says, defeated. The tears running down his face hurt beyond anything describable.

“I don’t want to! Don’t you see that? It’s not how I wanted this.” I turn and walk away from the man I thought I would love for the rest of my life. I probably will, but I can’t be with him until he’s ready… if that will ever happen.

Getting back to my place, I see the photographs plastered on my wall of him and I. I pull them off one by one and put them in my keepsake trunk. I wish it was me that made him happy.

2 years later

“Hey! Long time no see!” I hear. Looking around I see a woman, around my age with light brown hair and blue eyes, had said.

“Liliana?” I gasp.

“Hello, love. How are you? I’ve missed you!” She exclaims, giving me a hug in which I return happily.

“I’m alright. How are you? How’s everything going?” I ask, smiling.

“It’s been pretty good. These past few years have been a lot better than it has been in a while.” She smiles, seeming genuinely happy.

“That’s great! I’m really happy for you.”

“So, what have you been up to since you left?” She asks, kind of nervously playing with her hair-tie to see if it was still a sore subject.

“Once I moved to NYC, it was rough starting off. After everything, I was a disaster. But, eventually I opened up my gallery with a friend and we’ve done pretty well so far. I think anyway.” I smile.

“What? That’s amazing! You’ll have to show me some of your work! Maybe I can get one to ha-”

“Sorry to cut in, but I need my girlfriend for a second.” A familiar face cuts in and smiles at me.

“No way.” I smile, wider than I thought possible, “Chan?”

“Hey, it’s been a long time.” He says, smiling but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“How long have you 2 been together?” I ask, astonished.

“Um… About a year and a half.” He says, smiling and wrapping his arms around her.

“That’s awesome. I’m really happy for you guys.”

“Thanks.” Liliana says, smiling widely, “Well, I guess I’ll be back in just a few. We can finish catching up then?”

“Definitely.”

They take off to wherever Chan needed her and I look around at the room full of people. A high school reunion shouldn’t make you this nervous. I guess that’s what you get when you only had a handful of friends in a sea of people back in high school.

I spot the drink bar and walk towards it, maybe something over there will save me from being lonely.

“What can I get you?” The bartender asks. I look at everything and decide against it, I have to drive back to my parent’s house later.

“Just a sprite, thanks.” I smile. He nods, leaving for a split second to retrieve it.

“I’d never thought I’d see you back here again.” I hear in my ear and freeze.Why….

Turning around, I see Donghun… The same gorgeous man he was 2 years ago, except he had medium platinum hair and wore a suit.

“Hello, Donghun.” I smile slightly, trying to hide the pain I feel looking at his big brown eyes.

“It’s nice to see you again, Anya.” He smiles and looks down anxiously.

“You too. How have you been?” I ask, realizing I might get a hateful response.

“I’ve actually been okay. Better than I was. How about you?”

“I’m alright. It’s been a rough couple of years, but they’re finally getting better.” I say, truthfully.

“Yeah. I get that. What are you doing in NYC?” He asks.

“I have an art gallery up there with a friend.” I smile.

“That’s really great. I’m glad you found something that makes you happy.” He says looking down at the ground again. I feel the stab in my heart and my breath hitches. I regain composure before he looks back up, but the tears are wanting to form.

“Yeah, it’s helped.” I say, “What about you?”

“I mean, we just got back from tour last week, so it’s been rough trying to fix my jet lag… but I’ve been steadily busy.”

“Tour? Are you serious? That’s so awesome!” I smile, really happy for him.

“Yeah. We got signed about 6 months after everything happened.” He smiles but sadly.

“That’s so awesome though. I’m really happy for you. Truly, I am.” I smile at him.

“Anya! There you are.” Liliana smiles, dragging Chan behind her.

“I didn’t leave yet, don’t worry. Plus, you know there’s only one hotel in town.” I chuckle at her.

“That’s true.” she laughs.

“I’ll leave you two to talk, is that okay with you Lil?” Chan asks.

“Yeah, you know where I’ll be.” She smiles, looking up at him and kissing his cheek.

“That’s fine. Donghun, you want to join me with the other guys?” He smiles at his friend.

“Yeah, sure.” He replies then turns to me, “Catch up with you later?”

“Sure.” I smile and they head to find their friends.

I sit and catch up with Liliana for a while, talking about life in a bigger city and what has changed since I’d moved. We talk about good and bad, things in between, and make plans to hang out outside of here tomorrow afternoon. By that time, Chan came to find her and take her home since she had to work in the morning.

Saying their goodbyes, I grab my purse and jacket so I can head out as well.

“Goodnight, Anya.” Donghun says as I pass him walking out to my car.

“Goodnight Donghun.” I smile at him.

Arriving at the small hotel, I open the door and collapse on the bed and pass out from exhaustion. When I wake up the next morning, I notice I never took my makeup off…

“Geez. I need a shower. I look awful.”

Looking at the clock, I notice it’s almost one. I check my phone and Liliana messaged, asking if around 3 this afternoon was a good time to meet up. I text out the short reply and get up to take a shower.

Lil and I met up right at 3, at the cafe beside the hotel.

“Hey! Over here.” I say, waving at her to get her attention.

“Oh! Hey! There you are.” She smiles.

“Yeah, sorry. It was the only table open when I got here.”

“No that’s fine. I don’t mind.”

“How was work?” I ask.

“It was hectic but okay. We’re normally not very busy, but today we were swamped.” She explains.

“Dang, I hope it doesn’t happen again.” I smile, hoping she’s taking care of herself properly.

She only nods and smiles. Catching up on even more stuff, it’s past six p.m…

“Shoot, I have to go, I told Chan I’d be there to drop his bag off at practice in fifteen minutes.”

“Aw, dang that sucks!” I frown.

“Yeah, how much longer are you staying?”

“I leave out in a few days. I can stay longer if necessary but nothing crazy, like a month.” I laugh.

“Dang, thought I could get you back for good.” She smiles, “Do you maybe want to go drop the bag off with me?”

“Are you sure?” I ask.

“Yeah, for sure.” She replies.

Getting in the car, we drive for about ten minutes and pull up to an old studio. It was bringing back some memories that I don’t know if I want.

The dance lessons by Donghun, the cake fight with everyone and this… this is where I said goodbye…

We get out and head inside to the practice room, noticing everyone huddled around a piece of paper. I reach up and knock on the door and wonder if they’d heard me.

“Hey guys, come in! Thank you baby.” Chan says, acknowledging us and kissing Liliana on the forehead. I feel a twinge of longing seeing that. I quickly push it away before it causes any more damage.

“Hey, Anya!” Sehyoon says, looking up and sidestepping the others to give me a hug.

“Hey Sehni!! It’s so nice to see all of you again.” He smiles at me as do the others.

"Yeah! I'm glad you stopped by." Jun smiles.

"I hope you guys have been taking care of yourselves." I smile.

"They have or at least I think they have." Lili smiles, "considering I try to cook for them often and bandage their injuries,” She says and they all look at Chan… “What? She’s clumsier than I am, okay?” He groans.

She smiles and adds, “Also, I put cookies in Yuchan's bag."

"Sweet!" I hear Chan say, breaking free from her to go grab a cookie.

Someone lightly brushes past my arm and I look up to see that it's Donghun.

"Hey Donghun! Lil brought cookies." Byeongkwan says with his mouth full of cookies.

"You better save me one." He says, glaring at Jun. Sehyoon takes a cookie out and sits it on a napkin for this friend.

"Thanks." Donghun smiles.

"Hey, I'll be right back," I smile, looking outside. Liliana nods and I step outside to get some fresh air. Sitting down and leaning up against the building, I rest my head back and close my eyes to think. You shouldn’t be here. It still hurts just as much. He doesn’t want you here either. It’s just an open wound.

“Are you okay?” I hear beside me. Opening my eyes, I see Donghun eyeing me.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I say, hoping he walks back inside. Instead, he sits beside me against the wall, turning his head to look at me.

“What is it?” He asks.

“It’s nothing.” I say, my cheeks going red.

“Anya, you are such a horrible liar.” He states, “Why’d you come back?”

I look up at him, shock written on my face and not sure how to answer, “What do you mean? I came back for the reunion.” I say, confused.

“Okay.” He says.

“I did, Donghun. I missed my dad as well.”

“Are you seeing anyone there? I know you said you had a friend who owns the gallery with you.”

“No, I’m not. That’s all he is. Just a friend and quite frankly, he’s not my type. What about you?” I smile, nudging his shoulder.

“Nah, I tried a few more times after you.” He sighs, continuing, “Nothing short of complete failures within a week.. I decided to just give up and work on my career.”

“I’m sorry.” I say, feeling the pain of that day weigh on me again.

“Don’t be. I needed a kick to get my life on track. I was so absorbed in working that I neglected the one thing that was perfect.” He says, getting quieter as he speaks.

“Your dreams came true though.” I try to smile, but it just didn’t feel right.

“One of them did, not the biggest one.” He says, looking at me with a tear sliding down his cheek.

“Donghun, I-” I had no words.

“Don’t worry about it. You did what you had to. I get that. I’m really sorry that I was that way. Nothing’s been the same without you.” Wiping his eyes with his shirt, he tries to stand up.

I place my hand on his arm, “Wait. Please?”

“What is it?” He asks, leaning back.

“You know that’s never how I wanted our lives to be.” I choked out.

“I know. It wasn’t your fault.. I just didn’t realize what I had, until it was gone… Did your dad tell you I tried to come by the house two days after that? I was going to quit. I’d have given it all up for you, but you’d already left.” He says, looking into my eyes, “You are my happiness. It’s not the same without you, I’m not the same.”

I feel tears running down my face now, “Really? You-” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Yes.”

“I’ve never moved on. Not since you.. I haven’t even tried.” I say, quietly. His eyes grow wide and I hide my face in my hands, embarrassed to admit it outside of my head.

“Anya? Why?”

“You were my entire world, Donghun. It hurt so bad that day that I couldn’t deal without your love. I closed up. I’ll never let anyone in like that again.”

“Give me another shot.”

“What?” I ask, thinking I misheard him. He leans closer to me, tears still falling from both of our eyes.

“Let me show you how much I still care, my love. Give me a second chance, please?” He pleads and places his hand on the back of my neck and gently pulls me in close to kiss me. The salt ridden tears not making any difference, I kiss him back.

He pulls back, breathing heavily and smiling, “Always and forever?”

“You and me.” I smile, kissing him again.

[thebrotherssalvatore321]

Keeping Secrets Ch. 1

Keeping Secrets Masterlist

Pairing: DamonxOc. TylerxOc in future chapters, ElijahxOc, KlausxOc is endgame. She’s never sleeping with more than one guy at a time. This is just a long story with 25 chapters so far that I’m also posting on FanFiction.net. Warnings: She does however cheat on someone in future chapters if that counts as a warning.

Keeping Secrets 

Katie Finnegan’s house sat on a beautiful street lined with beautiful houses. It was actually right down the street from her best friend Elena’s. Elena had recently lost her parents and was now under the guardianship of her aunt Jenna. It was a bleak situation, but one that Elena and her brother Jeremy could with time bounce back from with the loving support of their aunt. Katie on the other hand had long been plagued by the loss of her parents who died from a cause unknown to her when she was just ten years old.

Unlike Elena and Jeremy, Katie didn’t have any loving aunts or uncles to take her in. All she had was the abusive grandfather who she had never even met despite the fact that he lived in the same town that she did. She didn’t even know what he looked like until he showed up on the doorsteps of her parents house with a suitcase and two moving trucks. One was for her parents stuff to be packed up and auctioned off and the other was full of his.

Only after he showed up did she realize that she had seen him around town, but her parents never acknowledged him. At first she couldn’t understand it. For the first few months he was okay. He didn’t talk to her or play with her much but that was fine with her since she was always good at playing by herself, but once the social workers stopped coming by to make sure she was settling in okay, things started taking a turn for the worse. If she accidentally spilled her drink or dropped even a crumb he would lash out at her. Then she started understanding why her mother ran away with her father at the age of seventeen.

As she got older she got to know how to stay out of his way when he was sober, but when he was drunk there was no avoiding him. By the time she was seventeen she was sneaking out of the house on weekly biases just to get away from him. She thought over the years that her friends, Elena, Caroline and Bonnie would have figured out what was happening to her at home, but they never did. She became too good at hiding it and brushing off the bruises and cuts as her being clumsy. So they never asked more and she never told. She put on a good face and acted like every other sporty teen age girl looking forward to getting into college on a scholarship. She dreamed of the day she could leave Mystic Falls in her rear view and never look back.

Chapter 1

Katie Finnegan sat at the dimly lit roll top desk, in her bedroom writing in a spiral notebook that had the word journal written on the front cover in black ink. Her auburn waves, tamed with just the right amount of styling product, hung around her face and she tucked one tendril behind her ear then pushed her glasses up her nose and continued writing. "Today was the second day of school. Summer is officially over, no more avoiding my friends as much as possible. I saw Caroline and Bonnie at cheer camp, but Elena didn’t make it this year. So it's back to the real world. And the real world has given us high school girls some new eye candy. His name is Stefan and he already has eyes only for Elena. Although, it seems like Caroline is going to give her a run for her money. She's already practically stalking the guy. I'm supposed to be getting ready to go to the stupid back to school bonfire tonight, but I don't really want to go. Why would I? It's just going to be a bunch of people getting drunk and hooking up and that will just remind me that no one wants to be with me. I'm invisible. Sometimes I think I'm just a ghost that only my friends can see and sometimes even they don't see me. I'm not looking forward to sneaking out tonight. Last time I got caught Grandpa nearly beat me to death. But I have to go tonight otherwise I will never hear the end of it from Caroline in the morning. So I’ll talk to you later, Journal."

Katie tucked the pen inside, closed the book and pushed it away from her. With a sigh she pulled on a pair of dark wash distressed jeans, a black ac dc tank top and her favorite black leather jacket that she'd found for a good price at the local resale shop. She finished the look off with red converse and touch of tastefully smudged eyeliner.

With tentative steps she pushed open her bedroom window and eased herself out onto the roof. After glancing over the edge to make sure her grandpa wasn't waiting for her at the bottom like the last time, she started climbing down the surprisingly strong rose trellis. Now that she was safely out of the house she put her car into neutral and pushed it a few blocks away then started it and headed to the party.

The party was what she expected it to be and after drinking a few cups of beer and having a few laughs with Bonnie, she decided to stop, otherwise she wouldn't be able to climb back up to her room. She was tossing her empty cup into the trash when she spotted Stefan, who had taken up most of Elena's time, near the treeline watching her talk to her ex boyfriend Matt. Excusing herself from Bonnie who was telling her how she saw a crow when she touched Elena's hand she headed over to Stefan. "Hey." She greeted him with a small smile that he returned with his own greeting as if he didn't want to talk to her. "Don't worry unlike every other girl at this party I'm not going to throw myself at you." She laughed as she moved to stand a few feet beside him, making Stefan surprisingly give her a laugh and a genuine smile. "I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Katie, Elena's friend." She informed him. "I saw you over here looking all jealous and I figured I'd let you know that you don't need to be."

"Yeah, why's that?" He asked turning toward her without moving his feet as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"I know it's not my place to say and I'm sticking my nose where it doesn't belong, but...she's over Matt. Has been for a long time now. She just couldn't make herself hurt him." She answered. "She's sweet like that."

"Well, you're..."

"Weird." She finished since it seemed like he was looking for the right word to describe her.

"I was going to say forward, but weird works." He laughed. "You know, you're the first girl that hasn't tried to hit on me since I got to this school. It's kinda refreshing, but I don't get it." He looked at her with pursed lips and puzzled eyes. "Why are you trying to help me get the girl?" Stefan asked.

"Because I’m weird.” Katie answered as if she were trying to sound mysterious then laughed. “Na, it’s really because I knew I didn't stand a chance." She answered as she dropped her eyes to the ground then got quiet for a second. "And also because she's one of my best friends and she's had a hard year. She could use a little happiness."

"How do you know I'll make her happy?" He asked with a tight lipped smile.

Katie glanced up at where Matt and Elena had been to see that Matt was gone and Elena was looking at the two of them. "Because," she started then turned to look at Stefan across her shoulder, "now she's the one looking jealous."

She was pretty sure that once Stefan looked at Elena he forgot all about her. So she went back to the party, meeting Bonnie at the top of the small hill. "Hey, where you goin'?" Bonnie asked when Katie walked past her.

"The grill. I need coffee if I'm going to sober up enough to get home before Grandpa leaves for work and realizes my car isn't there." She replied and kept walking.

"Okay, we’ll meet you there later." Bonnie called after her and Katie waved over her shoulder letting her friend know she heard her.

After getting a hot coffee Katie chose a table outside and pulled the book they had been assigned for English out of her bag. She was half way through the assigned chapters when sirens started blaring and cop cars sped past the grill toward the party. After they passed out of sight her phone vibrated and she looked at the screen to see a text from Bonnie that said, "Vicki was attacked by an animal."

She didn't have enough minutes left on her phone to text Bonnie back, so she called her since it was free. "Hey, what do you mean she was attacked by an animal? Is everyone okay?"

"I don't know, Elena and Jeremy found her in the woods with some kind of bite on her neck. No one else seems to be hurt, but they’re putting Vicki in an ambulance right now." Bonnie answered, sounding worried and tense.

"Oh my god, do I need to come back?" Katie pressed her fingertips to her lips not knowing what else she could say.

"No, me and Caroline are about to head your way. We’re gonna sober up while we wait for news." Bonnie told her.

"Okay, just...stay safe okay?" She got a positive answer from Bonnie then hung up the phone. Not being able to read anymore she tucked the book into her bag and focused on sipping the still hot coffee. Ten minutes later Bonnie pulled up and parked in front of the grill. They got a table inside and the other two girls ordered coffee.

"Why didn't he go for me?" Caroline asked sounding whinier than usual, clearly talking about Stefan. "How come the guys that I want never want me?"

"I'm not gonna touch that one." Bonnie answered.

Caroline looked to Katie for answers. "Yeah, I'm not answering that either."

"I'm inappropriate. I always say the wrong thing..." She started listing off the things wrong with herself. Katie pulled a I'm gonna keep my mouth shut look and took a sip of lukewarm coffee. "And Elena always says the right thing. God, she doesn't even try and he just picks her. She's the one that everyone picks for everything. I try... SO hard and I'm never the one."

"It's not a competition." Bonnie said, looking at Katie for back up.

"Sorry, Bon, but sometimes it kinda feels like one." Katie said with a shrug.

"See." Caroline said with a motion to Katie. "Thank you."

After things calmed down and Caroline sobered up a little, Bonnie left the table to go pay the bill. Katie looked up from her empty cup and noticed Caroline smiling at someone and followed her gaze to a dark haired, ice blue eyed, gorgeous guy who was smiling back at her. "Looks like you found someone to like you back." Katie told Caroline with a grunt as she slid out of the chair and grabbed her bag. "Tell Bonnie I said good night."

"I will." Caroline replied not breaking eye contact with the guy. Katie just rolled her eyes and walked away.

She managed to sneak successfully back into her room and sat down at her desk, pulling her journal out and flipping to a fresh page. "Well the party was as I predicted it would be, except Vicki Donovan got attacked by some kind of animal. I wasn't there to see it, but it was apparently pretty bad. After the party Caroline, Bonnie and I met up at the grill to sober up. I got to listen to Caroline complain about how she never gets the guy and Elena gets everything. Of course right after this conversation she catches some super hot, blue eyed guy’s attention. Like, I can't stress enough how hot this guy was. The contrast of his dark hair and ice blue eyes was enough to make a girl's heart melt, not to mention the cute smirk he was giving Caroline. I hate to sound like Caroline, but why don't guys ever look at me? I mean I may not be crazy beautiful like Elena, Bonnie and Caroline, but I don't think I'm ugly either. Maybe that's why, because no one notices the average girl. And that's exactly how I would categorize myself. Whatever, who needs a guy anyway? All they bring is trouble. I need sleep. Ttyl Journal."

[fakebookreport]

The Reconception of Marie by Teresa Carmody

What's up you beautiful book beaters? Today I'm going to SCREAM about this novel I just finished on my lunch break at work yesterday. The Reconception of Marie was written by Dr. Carmody, who is the director of the MFA program at my university. I had a fiction workshop (at the 300 lvl) with her last year and I will be taking the same workshop with her at the 400 level next semester. (None of that is relevant, but you're welcome.)

So, let's talk about Marie. The novel begins by letting us know that it takes place in 1987, western Michigan. The overall scope of the book bounces back between first person narration, which readers should come to understand is our protagonist, Marie, telling and/or writing down the goings-on in her life. We learn about Marie's friends, Angie, Jennifer, and Denise, and we learn that the most important thing in Marie's life currently is Christ. Marie's mother has been "born again," and Marie takes it upon herself to bring her friends to salvation. The novel's first paragraph sets the framework for a series of Marie's (seemingly) unshakeable beliefs with parenthetical citations of the Bible.

Marie is either in late elementary school or early middle/junior high school. I found it hard to get a read on her. Do I like her? Do I dislike her? Do I find her endearing or annoying? The answer is D. All of the above! What I find Marie's main redeeming quality to be is that she is confident and typically feels good about herself. She seems to believe that she is an overall good person and that she usually tries to do the right thing. Even though her logic is kind of skewed, she says things like true friends should tell you your bad qualities so you can work on them, etc., Marie always has good intentions.

Now, we've gotta talk about the paintings. Carmody waxes and wanes about these classical paintings depicting Biblical scenes. I'm talking pages and pages and pages and pages of detailed descriptions of the geometry, the color schemes, the proportions... To the point where I was like, ok, either you need to include a pic of these paintings in here or move on because this is a novel not an art gallery. The other reason I disliked the sections on the paintings was because to me, it read like Carmody was just dressing up her interior monologue in the 3rd person and passing it off as fiction. I didn't feel that the descriptions of the paintings added anything to the novel (except numerous pages) and then we've got stuff like this ⬇⬇⬇

One thing I did find refreshingly real (though unfortunately as sad as it is common) was that Marie had a boyfriend (Chris) who took advantage of heriof the disorganized scope of this novel), and the use of rhetorical questions feels ineffective.

Take a look at the 2nd paragraph on this page and tell me that the pink hairbow/hairy legs dichotomy isn't a cliche. C'mon, I dare you to say it with a straight face. You can't? Me neither. I get what Carmody is trying to do here, I do, but she doesn't do it well. Maybe it's just not the main focus of the novel, but this glosses over so many details, and I'd way rather get some dialogue with the mother over the pink hairbow, the music, and especially the weed. Later on Marie comes home one day (where has she been??) and finds that her mom has destroyed a bunch of her stuff. She's cut Marie's dresses in half, etc., because they're too provocative, but we are never told that Marie even had them in the first place?

One thing I did find refreshingly real (though unfortunately as sad as it is common) was that Marie had a boyfriend (Chris) who took advantage of her in a way that wasn't overtly rape, but was still a violation of her boundaries and pushing the terms of her consent. Marie was concerned that her virginity may not have been intact (my words, not hers) and her boyfriend laughed at her as though nothing had happened. A few pages later, we find Marie and Chris in a Planned Parenthood for an abortion.

Not long after this, the novel wraps itself up as bizarrely as it begins. The last full chapter has weird line breaks, like two words on a line (is this prose or poetry? Not that there's anything wrong with hybrid work, but if you're gonna throw some poetry in there, do it before the very end. It appears on pg 288 and nowhere else in the novel, which is 302 pages long. A bit late to introduce new formats, if you ask me.) (But no one did!)

Finally, we travel back in time to March 1981 for no apparent reason that I can glean, and we are given a few extremely short diary entries that Marie has written, like 3-5 sentences each. It ends with one of those. It's vague, it's weird, and its dissatisfying. The only reason I kept reading this book was because I found it so bizarre that I had to keep going since it was giving me so much to think about. So. There you have it. The Reconception of Marie.

[ambivalent-anarchy]

Star Wars 101 (Ch. 2) Episode IV - A New Hope

Masterlist

Gender: Female

Pairing: Peter Parker x reader

Wow, I didn't realize how much I'd written until I hit the tumblr limit. Hope you like it! Comment your thoughts!

Chapter Summary: Steve just wants to do his job, the avengers are the best wingmen, Scott doesn't like porn, and [y/n] thinks all nerds are freaky

~~~

sci-fi boi: okay which cartoon rivalry was better?? Popeye the sailor man and Bluto or Tom and Jerry?

crackhead [y/n]: dude.

crackhead [y/n]: how is that even a question??? Obviously Tom and Jerry lol

sci-fi boi: explanation pls

crackhead [y/n]: popeye and bluto were always fighting over that girl olive and some other stupid crap but with my two furry buddies it was no talk pete no discussions just murder attempts ON SIGHT. Tell me they don't go harder than any other rivalry

sci-fi boi: haha truuuu

~~~

"Are we boring you, Queens?"

Peter's head snapped up quickly, discreetly turning his phone off underneath the meeting table. "Um-huh? No no no, Mr. Rogers I'm listening. Sorry."

Steve shook his head and continued to speak as he pointed to the pictures on the screen at the end of the room. All of the Avengers of Earth were there, some half asleep, while the others either joked or listened intently.

In two short days, they were going to be taking back powerful tech that Martin Li(aka: Mr. Negative)'s "demons" had stolen from Stark Industries. A simple "get in and get out".

They'd known this plan for some days now, yet Steve insisted on calling meetings to go over it again and again.

Feeling a quick vibration go off in his hand, Peter instinctively looked back down at his phone to see a snapchat text notification from you.

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible🐝...

~~~

Peter shook his head slightly as he chuckled, a smile shamelessly creeping onto his face.

~~~

sci-fi boi: did you really just quote the bee movie at me???😂😂

~~~

"Hey spidey-boy, would you mind sharing to the class what's so hilarious?" Rhodey's voice rang out loud and clear from across the table.

Quick as lightning, Peter turned his phone off and buried it in between his thighs, realizing that he hadn't been as quiet as he'd thought. To his luck, everyone’s eyes were trained on him now.

“It's n-nothing!” Peter squeaked, his voice breaking embarassingly. He shoved his phone into his pocket in fear of someone snatching it from him.

Natasha rolled her eyes and smirked. "So what're you looking at down there?"

"I-i, uh, I was just um, w-watching a funny- very funny video actually-"

"C'mon guys!," Sam laughed, clapping his hands together. "Don't tease the kid. We all know what he was smiling at down there!"

At that, Peter practically choked. "WHAT?!"

Tony snickered. "Personally, I don't think two inches is something to be proud of, but alright."

Peter's eyes widen, nearly falling out of his skull by the looks of it. "I-it's not two inches a-and I wasn't looking at-!"

"Jesus christ, guys..." Bruce sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "He was obviously just doing something on his phone. Leave the poor guy alone."

Peter coughed as he saw Steve glare at him with that infamous 'Im Captain America and Im judging you' glare. Phones weren't allowed in the meeting room. Well, they weren't supposed to be. No one ever really followed that rule except Peter. But he'd already been so deep in his conversation with you that he just couldn't put his phone down. "No no, um, I wasn't.. I was just zoning out, y'know, and I just happened to be looking-"

"-at your phone?," Steve cut in to ask.

"-at your dick," Rhodey stated at the same time.

"-at porn," Tony said with an all-knowing smile, causing everyone at the table to turn towards either him or Peter, whose face was beet red with embarrassment.

"Peter please tell us you weren't watching porn," Scott begged, his jaw completely dropped. "I mean, no judgment but-"

"Full judgement, actually," Clint corrected, an extremely disturbed look on his face. "Seriously, what were you doing, kid? You gotta tell us now with all these assumptions being thrown around."

"Curious," Thor stated, leaning back in his chair. "What is porn?"

"Something that I definitely WAS NOT watching!," Peter responded as he practically slammed his face into the table and slapped his hands over his eyes. "Does it even matter what I was doing anyway?," he mumbled into the table.

Natasha raised an eyebrow, blowing the smoke off of her coffee. "People usually aren't this defensive when they're telling the truth, Peter."

Peter shrunk into his seat with a loud groan. Can I die. Can I please just die. Like why am I seriously even alive right now??? Some bad guy please just burst through the door and maim me please.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y. pull up Parker's phone," Tony commanded once the commotion in the room died down.

Peter quickly lifted his head. "Wait, what?!"

"Accessing Peter Parker's mobile device, sir," F.R.I.D.A.Y. responded. "Would you like for me to transfer the screen to the meeting board?"

Tony looked back with a laugh to see a frozen, slack-jawed Peter. He turned back around. "Yeah sure, F.R.I.D.A.Y., what the heck let's have fun."

"No wait- are you seriously hacking into my phone right now?!"

"Well why're you so tense, Parker?," Sam asked teasingly. "Thought you had nothing to hide?"

"I-i don't!," he stammered. "I-it's just..." he trailed off, looking for the right words to say. "..that's my private property," he said lamely while staring at the wall.

Tony stared back at him. "Well that's the dumbest excuse I've ever heard." He pointed towards the board. "Alright it's coming up."

Scott closed his eyes. "Oh God, please don't be porn.."

Peter rolled his eyes. Everyone else looked to the large board, fully expecting to see either porn or just some stupid game the boy had been playing.

But none of them expected him to be texting a girl.

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: hey u still there?

~~~

"Who's crackhead [Y/N]?," Natasha asked.

Scott turned to Rhodes who was sitting on the side of him. "Is that some trashy porn star?," he whispered.

"Why're you asking me like I know?"

"It's this girl from school.." Peter answered, blushing profusely.

"And you like her," Natasha noted, watching his body language intently.

The boy's eyes widened. "N-no I don't!"

"Why crackhead though?," Rhodey asked, crinkling his nose.

Peter shrugged. "That's what she wanted her name to be," here responded. "Thought it was funny."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Just like you thought 'sci-fi boi' was funny?" Shaking his head, he changed focused. "Guys, are we gonna get back to work or not?"

"Not," Tony answered as he scrolled up all the way to the beginning of the messages from early that morning. "So, you've been texting this girl today off and on since..." He checked the time. "Five in the morning?"

Clint chuckled. "Oh yeah, huge crush."

“No!” Peter protested, his voice an octave too high. Realizing that it isn’t working, he decided to try a different technique. Clearing his throat, he tried to sound and act as nonchalant as possible. “She’s just a friend from school.”

"She's first on your best friends list, even over that computer kid you practically live with. And you and her practically snap each other nonstop."

Peter scratched his nose. "W-well that's only cuz Ned doesn't like to text much."

Bruce took his glasses off and sighed, realizing there was no way this meeting was getting back on topic. "Look Pete," he said. "Friends don't do that. I've seen it all before. If you and this girl are talking on a daily basis all throughout the day starting at five in the morning?" He titled his head in a suggestive way, though Peter stared back at him blankly.

"What?," Peter asked.

"Oh my God, kid," Bruce sighed.

Tony held his head back and laughed. "It means either she likes you and your just too dense, you like her but won't admit it and she's just concerningly nice, or you both like each other and just won't make your moves!"

Sam, who hadn't lifted his eyes from the board the entire time, spoke up. "And judging by these texts, you already got her, it's just not official yet."

Tony kept scrolling. "You two went to winter formal together?"

"Yeah... but as friends," Peter said with a shrug.

Steve cleared his throat loudly, gaining the attention of everyone in the room at once. He looked at Peter who was doing everything here could not to look him in the eye. "Look, as much as I would love to talk about Peter's sad love life, we have a mission-"

"-that will still be there tomorrow, Cap," Bucky finished for him. "C'mon we've been going over this stuff for hours. Let us have this distraction."

Everyone looked to him, Tony feigning a puppy dog expression. Crossing his arms, he left the room. "Fine, but when someone gets hurt because they didn't know where they were supposed to go, don't blame me."

"...literally no one's ever blaming you, man," Sam said.

Suddenly, the screen lit up and F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke. "Sir, Peter Parker has a new message."

Everyone looked to the board. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Scroll down, Mr. Stark. Scroll down!," Peter yelled frantically. "What's she saying?"

Natasha smirked. "And you're sure you don't like her, Peter?"

His face flushed. "Okay fine...I might have a tiny crush-"

"I'm sorry I can't hear you," Tony cut in. "Can you say that agai-"

"-I SAID YEAH I REALLY LIKE THIS GIRL!," Peter finally yelled with his eyes squeezed shut. He kept them closed for about twenty seconds afterwards, afraid of the judging faces he would see if he opened them.

He carefully opened his eyes to see all of the avengers (minus Cap) staring back at him with stupid smiles and smirks on their faces.

"Well, that's all I needed to hear," Tony said. He clapped his hands together. "Okay everybody, first order of business, checking the text. Sam, you're our reader."

"Got it."

"What?," Peter yelled, reaching for his phone. Tony dodged him and gave it to Sam. "Mr. Stark, I can text a girl on my own. I don't need help."

"Nat, you're our timer. Make sure none of the responses take longer than a minute. We don't want the girl to get bored and go on to something else."

"Check."

"Mr. Stark, c'mon-"

"Sam, you explain stuff to lightning head over here if he doesn't understand it. This could be learning moment for ole Shakespeare. Thor, you listen to Sam."

"Right."

"On it."

"Everyone else, you're with me. We gotta find the perfect thing to say to this girl. I've got a feeling this is probably the only chance he's gonna have to get a girl in a long time."

Rhodes, Scott, Clint, Bruce, and Wanda looked to each other and nodded.

"And Pete?"

Peter raised his head. "Yes sir?"

"You know this girl more than anybody here does, so you tell us if what we say is appropriate for her or not."

Peter rolled his eyes and nodded. After all, what's the worst that can happen?

Tony pointed to Sam. "Okay, read it."

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: u going to flash's party on saturday??

~~~

"She wants to know if the kid's going to some party Saturday."

Tony turned to the boy. "You're going," her demanded.

Flash was the most popular douchebag in school. Totally rich and totally rude and totally determined to use his every breath to spite Peter. "I wasn't even invited," Peter mumbled, shooting a glare towards Sam when he heard him laughing.

"Well get invited," Tony ordered. "A party is the perfect place to make a move. Send yes."

~~~

sci-fi boi: yes

~~~

"Mr. Stark, how am I supposed to get into this party? Flash hates me! And if I crash it and Flash sees me, he's gonna make sure everyone thinks I'm a loser!"

Tony rolled his eyes and sighed. "Peter we're trying to help you here. Figure that part out on your own."

Peter sighed, leaning forward in his chair. The last thing he wanted was another assignment, even if it wasn't actually an assignment. On the plus side, he'd get to see you, and maybe have some fun if he actually tried to enjoy himself.

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: cool so i guess ill go too

~~~

Rhodey chuckled while shaking his head. "Kid, if you don't ask this chick out the second you see her again, I'm gonna bodyslam you."

Peter frowned. "What do you mean?"

Bruce smiled. "Whether or not she went to the party was depending on if you were going," he pointed out.

"This girl used to be like that with me back in college," Scott said with a shrug. "Thought she liked me. Turned out she just had social anxiety..."

"Yeah you're really not helping this, bugman," Tony said.

"Wait, you guys think [Y/N] actually likes me back?," Peter asked, getting groans and laughs in return.

"Where have you been the last few minutes?," Natasha said.

"We've literally been saying that this entire time," Sam deadpanned.

Peter stared at his feet below the table. If the team was right, and you did actually like him back, then the movie marathon he was planning was the perfect excuse to hang out with you. "I-i think I might have a plan!," he rushed out, his head flying up. He pointed to Sam. "Ask her if she's free tonight!"

"Yes!," Thor yelled, his fists pumped into the air. "The spider child has grown his man balls!"

"Now that's what I'm talking about." Sam nodded approvingly as he texted.

~~~

sci-fi: r u free tonight??😉

~~~

"Wait hold on," Peter said, suddenly rushing towards the phone in a frantic manner. "Why is there a winking emoji?! I didn't say anything about a winking emoji!"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were flirti-"

Peter groaned. "Delete it, man. Delete it before her bitmoji pops up!"

"Okay okay, dang kid," Sam chuckled, quickly deleting the text and replacing it with one without a winking emoji. "There. And ya girl didn't even see it."

"Hey guys," Scott said. "I know we're all freaking out and stuff. But honestly, I'm just glad he wasn't watching porn." He shrugged. "So no matter what happens with this girl, today's still an absolute win."

It went on like this for a solid thirty minutes.

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: yeah wassup

sci-fi boi: wanna come over and watch movies?

crackhead [y/n]: sure what're we watching

sci-fi boi: we can decide that when u get here. how about 4??

crackhead [y/n]: alright sure

~~~

"Okay, last thing," Tony said. "We need a sly compliment. Something not that special about her, but enough to show her that you're tuned in. Gets them every time, trust me."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Wow, lady-killer."

Tony pointed towards her and shrugged. "She said it, not me."

Thor looked to Peter. "So, young spider. What have you observed about your darling love?"

Peter blushed, almost wanting to comment on the Thor's word choice but ultimately deciding not to. "Well, um, her eyes light up a lot when she gets excited and it's really dorky in a cute kind of way I guess," he mumbled, scratching his head.

"Alright I got it," Sam said, typing the words in. He lifted his shoulders into a shrug. "Who knows, kid? There be some hope for you."

~~~

sci-fi boi: btw how do you get ur eyes to sparkle so bright when u get happy about stuff? Just thinking about it lol its cute

~~~

-

Peter blew out a shaky breath as he looked back over the set-up he'd made in the living room.

He'd cleared out space to build a super huge homemade blanket fort and inside it at the end was his tv. Towards the middle were all of pillows he could find inside the house and at the other end were snacks. All around the inside were fairy lights because he knew you liked them, though personally he found them cliche.

He spent about an hour on the whole set and an additional thirty minutes stressing over and making sure everything was safe (with all three fairy lights and tv cords). The last thing he needed was for the both of you to catch on fire while watching the movie.

The two of you were going to be watching Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (or as normal 'not-nerds' like to call it, "the first one"). Of course, he hadn't told the team that. If they'd known what movie he'd planned on showing her, high chances are they wouldn't have even let him out of Avengers tower. But if Peter was gonna be forced to hang out with someone (not that he was really complaining), he would at least pick the film.

Finally checking all the boxes in his head for the night, Peter went to go check the DVD before he heard your knock at the door.

"Coming!," he yelled, quickly chucking the disc into the DVD player. He ran to the door and opened it with an awkward smile. "Uh, hey [Y/N]."

"Hey," you said back, already sort of blushing. "How's it going?"

Peter stared. Are your eyebrows done or are they just naturally that nice? He found his voice after abruptly noticing that he was staring. "Uh-well. It's been going great! How's it going for y-you also as well?" He frowned. "I-i mean, what's been going on with your life lately? No, that's dumb. I meant-"

"Peter, Peter! Calm down, dude," you giggled. "I've been fine."

"Oh," he chuckled. "That's good... d-do you wanna come in?"

"Question. What're we watching, Peter?," you asked, a smile playing on your face. Considering what you remembered from the last time you were at his house, and the fort you could get a peek of from the doorframe, you figured it was special for the nerdy boy. Plus his shirt had Yoda on it.

Freakin' Star Wars.

Immediately, a wide grin spread across his face. "Remember what you promised me we'd watch?"

You rolled your eyes, stepping past him into his living room. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Time to get nerdy I guess."

"Come on, you'll love it,"Peter said, quickly closing the door behind them and then briskly running towards the fort to hold up the side blankets for you. "So, snacks and drinks are beside us. We'll chill on these blankets here. And...um, yeah. That's about it." After stepping outside for a bit to go turn off the lights(for the full "movie theater" experience), Peter laid down on his belly, reaching for the DVD player to press play.

You watched as he fumbled with the wires, making sure the DVD player was plugged in before turning it on. Has your jawline always been that sharp?

You couldn't quite place it, but his texts from before seemed.. weird. But not a bad weird at all. A good, intriguing weird.

And that compliment was pretty nice, but odd for Peter. Sure, he complimented you often, but it just felt different this time. Usually it'd be something like, "new dress?" or "nice shoes". But never "you're eyes sparkle when you get excited." Heck, you didn't even know that about you. Was he paying attention? Did that mean he-

You remember how he acted about Liz Allen and Michelle Jones. Always staring. Never able to even say a full sentence in front of them without stuttering up a storm.

But he was so comfortable about you for the most part. You were just a friend.

"Okay got it," Peter said, laughing excitedly as the screen in front of him lit up. He scooted back to where you were sat. "Prepare to have your mind blown."

The Fort quickly became dark as the Lucasfilm logo shined on the screen.

"I seriously dou-"

"Shhh!," he cut you off. "Wait for it..."

You gave him a look but joined him in his silence to see what he was waiting for.

BUMMMMM buh buh bummmm

Practically jumping on top of him, you flinched at the loud and sudden music. "Crap dude! Turn it down!"

Peter shook his head, reaching for a soda. "You have to get the full effect, [Y/N]!," he laughed. "Just embrace it." He began to sing with the music and mime crazy gestures as if he were directing an orchestra.

Duh duh duh DUH DUHHHHHHHH

Halfway through he stopped and recited the opening crawl, his eyes glued to the screen with a sort of focus that made you sure that not only was this not foreign to him, he probably did this every other week.

"It is a period of civil war," he mumbled, throwing some popcorn into his mouth. "Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic- [Y/N] you have to watch the words, I swear it'll make the whole experience better." It went on for a little while longer until he paused the movie and looked over at you, cowering a bit. "D-do I have something on my face?"

"Huh? Nah you're good," you said, realizing he'd noticed you staring. "It's just-" you remembered his text from earlier. "-you got really excited... It-um..it was cute."

Because of the darkness(the only lighting being from the tv), you couldn't see if Peter blushed or not, but you could clearly see the stupid grin plastered on his face that he was trying to hide from you with his hand. Repeatedly licking his lips as a desperate attempt to stop smiling as he pressed play on the remote control. "A-ah, um, thanks [Y/N]."

The opening crawl was over and soon the movie actually began, showing a huge spaceship.

"That's the imperial star destroyer," Peter whispered, never taking his eyes off the screen. "They belong to the empire." He saw your blank expression, wide eyes as he realized that meant nothing to you. "Uh, the bad guys."

You squinted your eyes at the screen, silently judging the graphics of the energy blasts- space bullets?- or whatever they were supposed to be. "Pete, when was this movie made?"

"1977."

"Oh okay," you said, deciding to give it some leeway for the trash designs.

You scooted a little closer to your friend, figuring you'd get a little bit more comfortable.

Oh how he wished you hadn't done that.

Nothing like actual, physical contact with a girl that you like and you think she might like you back to actually manage to distract you from one of your favorite movies ever.

He froze, not wanting to pull away and offend you, but definitely not wanting to stay because just being this close to you was making his mind run wild.

Does she actually like me back? What if Mr. Stark and the team only said that to get me to make a fool of myself? She's too comfortable with me. She just sees me as a friend. Or maybe she likes me and she's just really chill about it? Ooh my gosh and she's leaning on me right now. What am I 'sposed to do?? I don't know I don't know I don't know!!!!!!!!!

Deciding for a quick compromise, he got up completely to reach for another soda, though his sprite was still half finished. When he sat back down, he wasn't as close. Hopefully, you'd just see it as natural human behaviour and not him wanting to be away from you.

Course you would see it that way, wouldn't you?

"Oh my gosh I recognize someone! That's R2D2, right?!" You pointed wildly, glad to not be completely clueless for once with this nerd crap.

"Yeah that's R2," Peter responded, letting out a secret sigh of relief, thankful for the distraction.

"A-and that's that gold dude!"

"Yeah, C-3PO."

"And oh crap that's Princess Leia!," you shouted. "Fucking feminist icon!"

Peter tilted his head. "Wait, how would you know that if you've never watched this?"

You laughed. "I still have access to the internet, doofus! Scroll down the nerdy feminist side of tumblr and Leia is literally everywhere."

Peter chuckled as he finally finished his sprite. "Okay. Valid."

Since that, you stopped talking for a bit. Part of you actually did figure that since you're here, you might as well actually try to enjoy the movie and maybe find out what the fans actually see in it that makes them like it so much. The other part just really didn't want to annoy Peter while he was watching his favorite movie series.

But sometimes you just have to say something.

"Hold up, wait. Isn't that his sister? Oh my God, Pete I swear somebody told me before that Leia was Luke's twin!"

Peter shrugged while nodding. "Well, that's a bit of a spoiler, but yeah. What about it?"

"Oh my gosh, Pete- what about it?! Dude, he's literally making 'fuck me' eyes at his own sister! He's all like, 'ooh you're so sexy I'm gonna bone you all over the galaxy'. That's freaky!"

You grabbed the remote and began to rewind it.

"C'mon now [Y/N]," he explained. "He didn't call her sexy. He said she was beautiful. Sexy is wayyy different from beautiful. You can think your family members are beautiful can't you?"

You paused it once you got to where you wanted.

"Okay Parker, look at that. Look at that and tell me Lukes's not totally undressing her with his eyes!" You pointed at Peter's face with a goofy smile on yours. "Oh wow, I've finally figured you people out now."

Peter's head cocked to the side. "Figured out what?"

"Star Wars nerds are a bunch of horny kids that like that step-sibling porn stuff but can't watch that in front of their parents so they have to use an alternative!"

Peter fell on his back with laughter, practically rolling around like a pig. "[Y/N], what?!"

You gave him an incredulous look. "Who else likes to see two siblings bang each other, Peter?!"

At that he pointed back at you while picking up his other soda. "To be fair, they never do that with each other. They only kiss, like twice and that's it. And one of them is only to make Han Solo mad."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about the Han Solo guy. Where is he anyway?"

Peter smiled. "Well, we're only twenty mintues in. He'll come soon."

To tell the truth, Peter really didn't even know what part you were at. His eyes were watching the screen but nothing was being comprehended. The only thing he could manage to think about was all the tiny things that were going on over on your side of the fort. Did you notice him staring? Was Tony right and you were just concerningly nice?

"I love how everybody at this bar is so chill south everything that's happening. It's like oh wow this guy just shot this green dude at table 8 and nope we totally don't care," you joked, pulling Peter out of his trance. He reminded himself that he should probably try to pay more attention. He didn't want to ruin the movie for you in case you had any questions.

But eventually, like all things do, the movie came to an end.

"So, how'd you like it?," Peter said while neither one of you made a move to leave the dark fort. You were laid out in practically a starfish-type position while he was sitting Indian-style.

You smirked. "I'll admit, it was pretty nice for a movie made in 1977. Still a bit lame though," you teased, pinching your fingers together with a giggle. Suddenly, you gasped. "Ooh, Vader was pretty lit though! Just straight force-choking people who disagree with you is such a power move."

Peter rolled his eyes and scoffed lightly. "Typical..."

"Excuse me?"

He bit back a quick smile. "Look, I'm not saying that Darth Vader isn't awesome. Because he is! Totally and completely but [Y/N], you do realize that in literally every movie we watch you like the villains?," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Because the villains are awesome!," you defended.

"Just saying. I'm sensing a bit of a pattern...," he teased.

You scoffed. "This coming from the guy who actually feels bad about some the people crashing into things when we're watching Ridiculousness," you said, reminding in how Peter was forever the relentless sap. "Well, while you're so busy judging me, whose your favorite character?"

At that, he gave a small sincere smile. "Ben. He's really cool."

"Ben Kenobi? The old guy that literally let himself die? But why?"

He shrugged, the small grin still present on his face. "Eh, sentimental reasons..."

He watched you return his sweet smile and it was then and there when Peter really felt content with the night. Though, you hadn't even known the weight his words carried, he did. Ned was the only other person who knew about it. But Peter knew right then and there that if you had asked, he'd tell you. And he knew you'd understand. Maybe you were just nice. Or maybe you did like him back. But in that moment, Peter didn't care. He just wanted to be here with you. Lost in the warm smell of popcorn and your vanilla perfume, watching a Star Wars movie with Uncle Ben surely smiling down from Heaven. And it gave Peter hope that maybe, just maybe, this was a step in the right direction.

2 hours (and five minutes) down. 22 hours (and forty seven mintues) to go...

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

Taglist: @underoosjae @spn-assemble-seven @of-your-eyes-begonia-skies @parkerpeter24 , @audreylovespidey706

[ober-affen-geil]

Please share all of the things about paper? I know nothing of anything you listed and now am curious and listening to someone who's passionate about something talk about it is honestly my favorite thing. What is deacidification and what consequences has it wrought? What qualities does onionskin paper possess and are you for or against it? Why are basic office supplies the devil and what, then, is your preference? WHAT IS THE GREAT PULP PAPER SWITCH?! I'm dying to know

Anon. You. You are my favorite.

Ok *cracks knuckles* important context. I am an archivist, I work with paper whose creation dates from anywhere to several hundred years ago to several decades ago. Our main goal in archives is long term preservation; basically make stuff last as long as possible as-is. 

Now, all of the stuff I mentioned in my tags on the post anon is asking about sort of tie together, so let me sing you the song of the archives.

tl;dr Office supplies are the devil and so is onionskin paper, paper used to be better and then it got worse, and humans tried to fix the bad paper by throwing chemicals at it.

Let’s start at the top. Idk how many of you did or had a paper making demonstration at some point in their youth, I did but I realize my experiences are not universal. Basically, paper is made by turning a material into pulp (exactly what it sounds like) and adding water and a sizing agent to make it a slurry (a very gross looking soup consistency). 

- A sizing agent is something that is used so that ink doesn’t “feather” when it touches the page. An unsized piece of paper will act like a paper towel with liquid. Not ideal for writing on. Sizing will become important later -

The slurry is then captured in a frame and the water is more or less squeezed out of it until you’re left with soggy pulp that you dry out and presto! Paper. Here’s a quick video showing the process.

Now. The first material that was used for paper was literally cotton rags. They were shredded and pulped and then made into paper. It’s called cotton rag paper and it was the main paper supply until the early-mid 1800s. It has a completely different feel to it than the paper we use today, it feels more like cloth. Paper money is made from something like it because it’s a lot more durable.

- Fun fact, “parchment”, which predated cotton rag paper, is not actually “paper” as we think of it. Parchment very specifically refers to a finely cured animal skin that was written on. Vellum is the same thing except finer, usually calfskin where regular parchment is sheepskin. -

Problem was, with the advent of movable type and higher literacy rates, the need for paper was steadily increasing. And cotton rags just weren’t cutting it. So manufacturers started looking for a more plentiful source. And they found trees!

Turns out wood pulp makes an excellent paper, toss in a little bleach and it works great! So around about the 1860s, most newspapers had switched over to wood pulp paper instead of cotton rag paper. And everything was looking up!

BUT.

Here’s the thing about wood pulp. It has a naturally occurring chemical called “lignin”, which is hella acidic. Not like burn-your-fingers acidic, but like over-time-this-material-will-chemically-eat-itself acidic. Which started to be a problem a couple decades after wood pulp paper started to be mass-produced. 

The good news is, what they quickly figured out was if they added a basic solution (who remembers their high school chemistry?) in the initial sizing agent it would neutralize the natural acidity in the pulp and the paper would last a lot longer.

But this did fuck all to help the paper that had already been made and was quickly becoming very fragile. Whatever can we do?!

Well, some genius (I use that term as sarcastically as possible) got the idea that maybe we could do the same thing - add a basic solution to acidic paper - to paper that had ALREADY been made! Brilliant! The process was called “deacidification” and it was very popular in the 1970s. The idea was to basically give at risk paper a “bath” and it would solve the problem. Here’s a video about it made by American higher ups that is absolutely hysterical imo.

Well, the university where I work had its own deacidification lab, which was fine. Deacidification does work, when done properly and when very specific criteria is met by the paper being treated. When that’s not what happens….it gets messy. The main problem with the deacidification process at my university is that it wasn’t being run by people who really knew what they were doing. Because what they understood about what needed to be done and the WHY behind what they were supposed to be doing were two different things.

Long story short they hella botched the deacidification process, and now not only does a large part of several of our more highly used collections have a lovely gross chemical residue all over it, they also managed to “deacidify” a good chunk of letters that were from the 1700s. AKA they were on cotton rag paper. AKA they were not actually acidic to begin with. I may be bitter.

Anyway. Speaking of types of paper, let’s talk about oinion skin. My sworn enemy. Onion skin paper was used for copying purposes when carbon copies were a thing, otherwise known as the early part of the 1900s up until when copy machines became a thing in the middle-late part. It’s still used if you’re filling out something with a “copy” attached to it, usually yellow, that you get to keep.

It’s called “onion skin” because that’s kind of what it looks and feels like; it’s thin like tissue paper but it’s sized in something that makes it much more durable. Easier to make multiple copies at once on a typewriter by stacking several sheets together. Great! Except it’s the fucking cockroach of paper.

It just fucking LIES there and is fragile enough that you can’t really do too much with it, but whoever sold their soul to make it less destructible than it should be got their money’s worth because it won’t die. It just. Doesn’t age the same way regular paper from the same time frame does and it doesn’t fucking go away.

But GOD HELP YOU if there’s a paper clip attached because you ain’t getting that sucker off without tearing the page short of an intervention by a surgical professional and the pope himself.

And do you know why? BECAUSE OFFICE SUPPLIES ARE THE LITERAL WORST.

I’m talking staples, paper clips, tape, sticky notes, glue sticks, binders, stick-on labels, et fucking cetera. It comes down to two things, metal and adhesive, and the fact that neither of those two things age very gracefully.

You know what’s fun? Clicking a stapler together. Very satisfying, punching that thing through the paper you just finished and are ready to turn in. You know what’s NOT fun? Prying rusty staples out of a stack of 50 year old papers with your fingers because they’ve rotted themselves into it and the tool you have for it won’t work. Same for fucking paper clips, because rusty metal eats into paper. Seriously, there will be a hole left when you finally pry it out. Not to mention rust stains. 

And ADHESIVE oh MAN. The thing is, over time it dries out. And rots. So depending what you’re looking at, it could be a sticky, half-melted pile of goo that doesn’t want to stay where it was, it could be straight up gone with a yellow stain to mark where it was, or it could have eaten into the paper it was stuck to and left a hole. Any way you slice it, it ain’t doing it’s job any more. Which is why traditional scrapbooks are usually an utter shit show.

But anyway, that’s that on that. If you have MORE questions, I am very, very happy to rant or find pictures of horror stories. There are a lot!

[pentakillmaven]

The Nose Knows, Chapter 7 (NaNoWriMo 2018)

Hello again! Sorry for the delay on posting this chapter! I’ve actually written through Chapter 9 at this point but I was afraid to post with all the crazy stuff going on with Tumblr recently. However, I figured it’s been too long, so here’s Chapter 7!

Chapter Rating: T (Actually probably more of a G but want to be safe)

Chapter Warnings: Mild angst in this chapter, but we’re getting closer to the payoff!

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Chapter 7

Marinette collapsed onto her chaise face down, groaning into the pillow. "Tikkiiiiiii… Do I have to go on patrol tonight?"

Tikki clicked her tongue rather unsympathetically at her holder. "Marinette, you're the one who scheduled this group patrol in the first place. It's not becoming of a hero to cancel something this important at the last minute.

"I know," Marinette grumbled as she rolled over to face her Kwami. "But I'm exhausted, and after what just happened with Adrien, I'm…" She didn't even know how to put her thoughts into words just yet. The way his wide green eyes met hers as he handed over her purse… the smell that had been tickling the back of her mind all week… It was all too much for her to comprehend in her current state.

"Well, the transformation will help a bit with the exhaustion, at least," Tikki reasoned.

"That's true… I've noticed that in the past. It's almost like an adrenaline surge, or getting your second wind while staying up all night."

Tikki nodded. "I think you need to go, but I'm sure your friends wouldn't mind if you did cut it a little short tonight."

"Yeah… good idea. But how am I supposed to face Chat, if he's…"

"You'll just have to do your best, Marinette. I'm still not entirely sure what I missed, but I believe you'll do the right thing."

"I hope so… Thanks for listening, Tikki."

"Any time, Marinette." Her Kwami gave her a peck on the cheek, smiling gently at the midnight-haired girl.

"All right, I guess it's time to go." With great effort, Marinette heaved herself to her feet. "Tikki, spots on!"

The quartet of Miraculous holders met up just outside of the Louvre that night. Seeing the exhaustion in her friends’ eyes, she could tell that they were all in the same boat that she was in--no desire to patrol, but feeling the obligation to do so anyway.

“Why don’t we split up into pairs? We can cover more ground that way,” she suggested, conspicuously not looking directly at Chat. “Réna, will you come with me?”

“Of course, Ladybug, but are you sure we can leave the boys to their own devices?” Réna Rouge winked at Carapace and Chat as she spoke.

“They can take care of themselves,” Ladybug replied, turning toward the north. “Réna and I will take the north; Carapace, Chat, you go south. We’ll meet back up here in two hours to debrief before we call it a night.”

“That sounds good to me," Carapace said. Turning to Chat, he asked, “You all right with that, dude?”

“Fine by me.” The black-clad hero was also unusually quiet, not quite meeting anyone’s eyes.

"All right then, let's get this over with. My bed is calling my name."

With a collective nod, the quartet split up, heading in their respective directions. As soon as they were out of earshot of the boys, Réna turned on Ladybug as they made their way across the rooftops of Paris. "All right, LB, you might be able to fool those two knuckleheads, but you can't fool me. What's going on between you and Chat?"

"It's nothing," Ladybug replied tersely. "Chat and I are just fine."

"Oh, please. You know I have three years' worth of video observations of the two of you. You never once looked him in the eye the entire time we were talking. You also stood as far away from him as possible without making it look obvious." When Ladybug leveled Réna with a flat stare, she continued, "I'm pretty sure Carapace didn't notice. I only did because, as previously stated, I've basically been stalking the two of you for three years. Not in a creepy way, but in a journalistic way."

"Right… Look, Réna, you and I both know you had an extremely busy day today, and I did as well, so I really just want to get this patrol over with. If you want to talk about something else, anything else, that's fine; but I am really not in the mood to talk about the current state of my relationship with Chat Noir, okay?"

"Okay, fine," Réna said, a little hurt in her voice.

Ladybug frowned. "I'm sorry. I'm exhausted and not acting like myself. Do you forgive me?"

"Of course. I didn't mean to pry so much. Force of habit, you know?"

"I know. You're going to make a hell of a journalist someday."

"You think so?"

"I know so. I believe in you."

Réna smiled, her eyes a bit watery all of a sudden, "Thanks, Ladybug. That means a lot, coming from you."

Pausing in their patrol for a moment, Ladybug reached over and wrapped her arms around Réna in a hug. "You're welcome." Réna returned the hug readily with a big smile.

Meanwhile, Chat and Carapace were quiet for the better part of half an hour as they started patrolling the southern part of the city. Chat, lost in his thoughts, barely noticed Carapace struggling to keep up with his blistering pace as he raced across rooftops and leaped over streets. It wasn't until Carapace practically yelled his name as he landed on top of Tour Montparnasse that he stopped, turning back to look at the other young man on a lower roof nearby. Wincing, Chat jumped down to rejoin his patrol partner. "Sorry, Carapace… I'm not exactly great company tonight, am I?"

Carapace waved him off, though he was bent double as he caught his breath. After a minute of deep breathing, Carapace looked back up at Chat. "You have something on your mind, dude?"

"Not really… I mean… yes, I do, but I'm not sure if I can talk about it. It's not something I'm supposed to discuss."

"Oh. Well, if you need help with anything, I'm here for you, dude."

"Thanks... " Chat thought for a moment, then remembered something Ladybug had told him back during the Heroes' Day incident. "Actually, I have a question."

"Shoot!"

"You know Réna Rouge's civilian identity, right?"

Carapace nodded. "Yeah, has Ladybug not told you who we are?" When Chat shook his head, Carapace frowned slightly. "Oh… Okay, well I guess I won't say it then. But yeah, Réna and I both know each other as civilians. Why do you ask?"

"Well… how did you feel when you found out?"

"How did I feel? Mostly confused, I guess. I mean, I'd never met Réna before that day, so I had no idea she was secretly a superhero. But she already knew, or at least had a hunch, that I was Carapace. I mean, thinking back on it, I guess it was kind of obvious. I was trying to keep her safe from an Akumatized villain, Ladybug saved me at the last second, and then like two minutes later she shows back up with Carapace."

As Carapace spoke, Chat nodded along, remembering the day that Carapace had helped Ladybug defeat Anansi. But hearing that day from Carapace's point of view made something click in Chat's head. "Wait… wait a second. Nino?"

Carapace gave Chat a weak chuckle. "Heh heh… hey, dude."

"Wait, so if you're Nino… Réna is Alya, isn't she?" Everything made sense now--like why Réna and Carapace already had so much chemistry together. They were dating! When Carapace nodded again, Chat flopped down onto the roof, unable to keep his legs under him.

"Okay, okay, so you're Nino, Réna is Alya… do either of you know who Ladybug's civilian identity is?"

"No way, dude. She hasn't revealed anything to us about who she is in real life. She hasn't told you, either, has she?"

"No, she hasn't… I've asked her before, but she insists that it's important for us to keep our identities safe."

"I mean, I can kind of understand why. Alya--Réna Rouge--and I haven't fought any Akumatized villains since that incident a few years ago, but I know that when I first got my powers as Carapace I was terrified that something would happen and Alya would get hurt. I can't imagine how much worse it will be if she gets attacked by a villain while she isn't Réna Rouge--especially if it's my fault that she is targeted in the first place."

"That's… a good point, actually," Chat conceded. "But you'll be able to watch each other's backs, since you see each other every day."

"True. I think I know where you're coming from--you think that you and Ladybug should reveal your identities to one another, don't you?"

"Yes! I'm glad someone else gets it."

"Yeah, I get it. I'm not sure I fully agree, but I understand at least."

"What do you mean, you don't fully agree?"

"Well… Look at it this way. If I didn't know Alya was Réna, then I would be concerned for her, sure, but I wouldn't be scared for her. You know? Like... hypothetically speaking, if a villain found out who I was, and went after Alya to get to me… I don't know how I would handle it."

"Oh…" Chat thought about that for a moment, picturing Marinette in his head, happy and smiling… and then picturing Hawk Moth standing over her lifeless body… just the mental image made him shudder with fear and tension. "Okay, I see what you're getting at."

"Good. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing for you to find out, but I'm also not saying it's something you should rush into. You know?"

"Yeah, I understand. If it happens organically, that's one thing… but maybe trying to force her hand isn't the best idea."

"Definitely not. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen."

"Thanks for the advice. I needed that."

"Any time, dude! Now, let's get back to patrolling so we can finish up and head home. I'm completely wiped out."

Chat nodded in agreement. "Definitely. We have a lot of ground to cover and less than an hour and a half to do it in. I'll try not to leave you behind this time."

"Thanks. I get that you're more experienced at this than me, but you don't have to rub it in my face!"

"Sorry! That was claw-fully rude of me." At the pun, Carapace groaned and rubbed his temples with his hands.

"If this is what it's like to patrol with you all the time, I can see why Ladybug needed a break," he replied playfully.

"Hey! Don't you talk about My Lady like that!" Carapace laughed and darted off, Chat leaping after him, starting a game of cat-and-turtle that doubled as their patrol.

Finally, close to midnight, the heroes returned to their starting point at the Louvre. Ladybug and Réna made it just a few minutes before Chat and Carapace, waiting for the boys on the highest portion of the museum's roof.

"Where have you two slowpokes been?" Réna asked when Chat and Carapace joined them.

"Oh, you know, just off doing guy stuff," Chat replied.

"So, what, having a burping competition or something?"

Chat had the good sense to look scandalized at the suggestion, but Carapace laughed and nudged Chat in the ribs. "Dude, she's on to us!"

Ladybug giggled at Carapace's response. "Looks like you two are getting along well."

"Yeah, I think we're going to be good friends," Chat said, turning to Carapace and offering a fist bump. The green-clad hero returned the gesture readily.

"Well, I think it's about time I hit the road," Réna said, stifling a yawn. "I need to be getting back home soon or my family might realize that I'm gone."

"Actually, I'm in the same boat." Carapace stepped toward Réna as he spoke. "Let me walk you home?"

"I suppose," Réna acquiesced with an overly dramatic sigh. "But only because you're cute. Don't stay up too late, you two!"

"Good night guys! Great work tonight!" Ladybug called as the two headed off toward home. She watched them leave for a minute until they were out of sight, then turned to Chat. "So… looks like it's just you and me, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Chat replied, looking down at his boots intently.

"So… how was your trip?"

"It was fine."

"That's good… Did anything exciting happen while you were gone?"

"Not really."

Ladybug frowned softly, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you don't want to talk to me, Chat, that's fine. But did I do something wrong?"

Ladybug expected any number of things to come out of Chat's mouth--that he was tired, that he couldn't talk about it, that he was angry about something--but what she actually heard was something she absolutely never expected Chat Noir to say. "You stink."

"I--I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, you smell."

"I smell? That's the reason you don't want to talk to me? That's pretty rich coming from the guy whose Kwami eats so much Camembert it's practically oozing out of your pores."

"Oh yeah? Well, your Kwami smells like you've stuffed her full of cookie dough!" Chat raised his eyes to glare at Ladybug.

That settled it--there was no way that Chat Noir could ever be Adrien Agreste. Adrien would never say anything like that, especially to Ladybug. "Well, you smell like a… like a hobo who fell in the sewer!"

"You smell like burnt toast."

"Oh, you take that back!"

"Make me, margarine," Chat spat. With a roar, Ladybug launched herself at him, knocking him to the ground in an all-out tussle.

Somewhere deep in the back of her mind, Ladybug realized that this whole exchange was completely out of character for her--for both of them, in point of fact. But between the late night, the excruciating tests, and that strange tension between Marinette and Adrien earlier, Ladybug had been walking a tightrope of pent-up emotion. Apparently, the same could be said for Chat. All it had taken for the dam to burst was one exhaustion-fueled comment.

In her moment of introspection, Chat got the upper hand in the wrestling match, grabbing Ladybug's wrists and pinning her to the ground, straddling her hips. Looking up at Chat, Ladybug was about to try to buck him off when their eyes met, a strange frisson of energy coursing down her spine. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw how the moonlight reflected in Chat's luminous green eyes, turning his blond hair to pure liquid gold. Chat, too, seemed lost in Ladybug's eyes, his face softening and his grip on her wrists loosening.

"My Lady..."

"Chaton…"

Their faces slowly came closer together, their breath mingling in the narrowing space between them as Ladybug leaned up and Chat leaned down. Ladybug's eyes were glued to Chat's mouth, her own opening as she wet her suddenly dry lips. The movement of her tongue seemed to draw Chat's eyes as well, a soft groan escaping his mouth.

The sound snapped Ladybug out of her trance-like state--she turned her head away quickly. "I-I should go."

Nodding mutely, Chat clambered off of Ladybug, letting her get to her feet. "I'm sorry for what I said, Bugaboo… Still friends?"

"Of course, Chaton. I'm sorry too." Turning away from Chat, she bounded off, leaving him behind on top of the Louvre.

[tainbocuailnge]

The fandom you're in looks really awesome, and the reason I followed you is it the cooler that comes with it, but I have no idea what it's about or what the actual game is? Is there a place I can go to kind of find out and maybe play myself? (You're so passionate about it that I'm starting to get really curious but google is my enemy)

I’m GUESSING you mean fate series cause that’s my number one thing I do not shut up about. it’s uhh kind of a spiraling mess of a series but most installments are standalone enough for it to not be a complete hell to get into, but also I’m glad you asked because getting in without help is definitely hell

fate started with the visual novel fate/stay night, written by kinoko nasu and released in 2004. as such that’s the best starting point in my opinion, because it features all the detailed worldbuilding groundwork that later installments kind of gloss over so it can be hard to go back to if you already know all that from other installments. the plot is that seven magi summon legendary heroes to fight for them in a ritual war, with the prize being the holy grail which can grant any wish. leading themes are what it means to be a hero and save someone, the way history repeats itself, and forming your own identity in the wake of trauma. it has three routes, the last of which especially has really heavy themes of physical emotional and sexual abuse so if you need detailed content warnings pm me and I’ll do my best

fsn has several releases, the original vn features infamously bad erotica but there’s a rerelease called fate/stay night [realta nua] which replaced those scenes with pg-15 content and also tightened the visuals up a bit. I’ve got downloads for both versions here. it’s like 80 hours of vn so that’s quite the investment but there’s also the anime fate/stay night [unlimited blade works] featuring the second route, and the third route is getting a series of movies the first of which is out too, called heaven’s feel - presage flower. fate route (the first route) sort of got an anime in 2006 and unlimited blade works a movie in 2010 but those are really really bad so look for the 2014 anime and 2017 movie. imo the ubw anime did a decent job and heaven’s feel is doing pretty good too so far so they’re good for seeing if you like what the series has to offer before you dive into a long ass vn.

the prequel to fate/stay night is fate/zero, a light novel series written by gen urobuchi in collaboration with nasu. as such it’s notably darker than the rest of the series but by nature of being a prequel it makes for an equally decent starting point as stay night, since both will spoil things for the other. fate/zero has an anime too. 

imo stay night and zero are the ‘standard’ fate installments, if someone says they like fate you can safely assume they’ve consumed at least one of those - is what I used to say but apparently it’s been so long that even this isn’t a reasonable assumption anymore. oh how times have changed. anyway please do start with zero or stay night cause like I said those are earlier installments so they’re at high risk of falling flat if you already know the deep lore from later stuff.

the biggest most booming fate installment is fate/grand order, a mobile game featuring characters from all other fates as well as a lot of newcomers. it’s pretty newbie friendly in terms of lore I think but you’ll get more out of it if you do know the background for all these characters since character development tends to carry over between installments. it’s infamously story heavy for a mobile game, especially in the later chapters when nasu got the hang of writing for mobage. the tone is also notably different from fsn and fz in that it’s more…. grandiose and theatrical, and obviously it waifs everyone up a bit so they can get you to spend money. still good tho. still love it. it’s got two anime specials, first order and moonlight lostroom, but first order makes no damn sense if you don’t know anything of stay night and lostroom takes place after the events of the first fgo arc. there’s anime projects of two of the chapters in progress too.

you thought that was all? you’re a fool this isn’t even half of it but I’ll briefly go over the rest under a cut cause those 3 are the big players.

carnival phantasm is a comedy OVA series featuring skits about several works from the same author. about half of it is about fate and the other about tsukihime, an earlier visual novel. watching order is after stay night. today’s menu for the emiya family is the canon domestic fsn au manga and anime where everyone’s just chilling eating dinner together instead of killing each other. 

fate/hollow ataraxia is another visual novel. it’s a direct sequel to fate/stay night and a personal favourite. it takes place half a year after stay night and features much of the same themes, but from a pair of characters who lost the war in fsn before it even started.

fate/apocrypha is another series of light novels. in terms of reading order i’d put it after stay night and zero. it features a cast twice as big as those two and basically approaches the same themes from a different angle. it’s got a finished anime and an ongoing manga but the anime kinda butchered pretty much everything about it. unfortunately one of the light novels is still not translated so the anime is still the most accessible way to get approximately the whole story. the manga IS very good though so once that’s finished I’d probably tell people to read that one if they want to apocrypha

fate/EXTRA is a psp game it’s like 10 bucks in the ps store iirc. for reading order I’d put it after stay night but not necessarily after zero. in this one the ritual for the holy grail is held in a simulation on the moon, which is a supercomputer, and it’s an organised tournament with 128 participants instead of a 7 man free for all. it’s about forging meaningful bonds in a system designed to drive people apart and finding the drive to keep going even if nothing is certain. the gameplay isn’t great but the story is $$$ it’s my other personal favourite. it’s sequel is called fate/EXTRA CCC, it’s on psp too but never got a western release, but there’s a translation of one route out there and some madmen are working on a translation patch that’ll be done in time for my grandchildren I hope. CCC is the wildest ride of my life i love it a lot but it’s very horny so not really for everyone. fate/extra CCC fox tail is a manga which follows an alternate CCC route and i hear it’s cool. the sequel to CCC is fate/EXTELLA which did come to the west and is on several platforms, and somewhere next year fate/EXTELLA link should get localised. extella is very rushed and mostly expands the extraverse world but if you can grab it on sale after you decided you like extra it’s not a bad buy just don’t pay full price. fate/EXTRA last encore is an anime which. sort of comes after extra? it’s very trippy arthouse bullshit and I ate that shit up but it’s definitely not for everyone. the last 3 episodes are missing on netflix so make sure you don’t miss those if you decide to watch.

fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ☆ ILLYA is a magical girl spinoff manga & anime which sounds great in theory until you see it’s mostly pedobait, but extremely unfortunately for us sometimes it does something legitimately cool so we all suffer. don’t get into prillya it’s bad for your health. 

fate/strange fake WAS an aprils fools story but this series has no limits so now it’s a full on light novel spinoff and also manga I think? I don’t keep up with it but it throws some wild ass lore our way sometimes. you’ll probably want to be up to date with apocrypha and everything before it before you try this one.

fate/prototype was just the original concept for fsn extrapolated a bit upon but again this series has no limits. prototype has an animated feature and some material books, and then the light novels fate/prototype fragments of blue and silver are the prequel to prototype, but it’s weird cause we never got a proper prototype so I don’t know what’s up with that. fate/labyrinth is a side story to fragments which I know even less about. I actually never see anyone talk about prototype so there’s probably no translations lol

lord el melloi II case files is even more light novels. I’m pretty sure you need to have gone over stay night, zero, hollow ataraxia, apocrypha, and strange fake before this one starts to make sense. there might be translations? i don’t know a fucking thing my guy