#it’s not that she cries pretty it’s that it’s so expressive ? and cool looking To Me

[1800jjbarnes]

◇ 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝟑𝟎: 𝐖𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐥𝐟/𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬 ◇

Let Me Help

【Synopsis】 : You didn't know what it meant to be on heat, let alone know you could have one since you weren't a wolf... but here you were, and Bucky was going to help you through it.

『W.C』 : 1.95k 

-> Genre: Smut. Wolf Au. Fantasy Au. Fluff.

Paring: Werewolf!Bucky x Human!Reader

[Warnings] : Swearing. Unprotective sex. Pet names. Neck kisses, hickies. Biting. Cumming inside [don’t do that unless you wan babas] Alpha kink. Knotting. Slight choking. Rough sex. Fluff stuff. Some Omegaverse stuff

Masterlist | Kinktober list

You were a human. That fell in love with a werewolf and now you’re his mate and live in a den with all his other wolf friends that are also his pack and you are the first human to be mated to one of the wolves in this pack in history. And plus you are now experiencing what they call a heat but you aren’t a wolf and none of the she-wolves or the alchemist knows what to do so you are pacing back and forth in your bathroom waiting for your lover to come home from a full moon cleanse to tell him to help you through something you’ve never been through before….

Missing anything?

“Fuck!” Your hand slipped off the basin in the bathroom, clutching your stomach. You’ve never experienced such a pain before only being able to compare period pains or when you’ve eaten bad food. But the alchemist, Wanda had warned you since you were human the heat would be way more severe to you than a normal she-wolf. Expressing it might feel like being stabbed or disembowelment. Lovely...

You washed your face with ice-cold water multiple times to try and cool the heat rushing through you but nothing was helping. You felt like you were losing your mind and you had no idea what to do, or how to fix it. All you knew was you needed your mate and needed him now.

Maybe a shower would work? But wait... Why were you now standing under the shower head fully clothed? When did you even turn the shower on let alone get in? Your mind was jumping, hazing. Everything was happening so quickly yet standing still at the same time. You cried, sobbing out for Bucky. Crouching down you let the cold water spray on your hunched back as you hug your knees. The headache was bad and the cramps were worse. Your body was shutting down, making you wonder if this heat could kill you if not looked after.

You couldn’t let your mind slip any further, suddenly hearing the bathroom door being slammed open. A large, beefy Bucky came rushing into the shower. He wasn't wearing a shirt, probably not caring to fully dress when he turned back into his human form. His jeans were getting soaked from the water as he bent down to grab your waist, pulling you up to stand on your feet. You wanted to fall back down but his large frame caged you, holding you tightly so you wouldn't slip. His mouth found your neck sucking on just the right spot. You knew from the little research you had done that it would of most likely been the spot where your glands had been if you were a she-wolf and it was also the spot on your neck that he would mark when you get bounded as soulmates.

He had yet to do so, worried it might affect you if he would knot you. So Instead, when he found the urge to mark you when you both were having sex in the past, he would bite the pillow next to you or the couch arm, or even his own hand. Never would he sink his fang in your sweet soft flesh. His lips kiss along your jugular making you whimper. The small bit of pleasure was sending your mind into a spin. He managed to push you against the wall, tugging at your wet clothing to get it off your shaking body. He would kiss your cheeks, then your forehead, then the corner of your mouth. He would whisper just above the sound of the shower, ‘My pretty pup,’ ‘Let me take care of you,’ ‘That’s it baby, just breath.’

He threw the wet fabric out of the shower making it land on the floor somewhere out of sight. He took this moment, to gaze upon your beautiful body. He could smell you dripping down your leg, making him groan. It was enough to feel the tightness in his jeans get worse. He wanted nothing more than to lose control and knot you like he should. But you were human. Such a fragile thing. Not like a she-wolf that could take his strength. But he had no idea that was exactly what you needed at this moment. “James please, help me. It hurts.”

The cramps were becoming worse when not his touch was soothing some of the aches in your joints. You needed him inside you, desperately. “Please, I need you inside…” Fuck… dirty talk was something you rarely did, finding it too embarrassing to do. Bucky on the other hand was born to be filthy. He loved watching you squirm by the sheer motion of his voice telling you what he wanted to do to you. How he was going to defile you.

“Yeah, pup? You need my cock inside your soaking cunt?” he wanted more from you. Picking one of your legs up so he could stand close to you, rubbing his red angry tip along your slit.

“Yes please, fuck…hmm, I need you so badly. Please James.” Your soft whines got his heart reeling, pushing inside you with little effort as your heat soaked your cunt was perfect for him to slip in. He completely bottomed out in a second making you feel so unbelievably full. The ache in your body was gone for a moment, sweet relief was granted to you. But the cramps were soon coming back making you scream “Fuck me Bucky. Please hurry.”

Who was he to deny his mate, thrusting at a slow steady pace. Your hands gripped his wet biceps as the shower head was directly pouring in between both of you. The stimulation of the running water on your clit, helped your high draw closer. Bucky picked up your other leg, smoothing your body against the wall to fuck you at a harsher angle making your head fall back to hit against the tiles.

Your lover's face buried in your neck, licking and sucking on any flesh he could get to. Everything was perfect but you needed just one more thing which Bucky seemed to know, reaching down to press his thumb on your clit making you gasp clamping down on his cock while you came hard. “Fuck, Fuck, Fuck. Bucky!”

“That’s it pup, come on your mate's cock. Let me feel you come around me.” His voice growled in your ear biting at your ear lobe. He moved backwards slightly letting you wrap your arms around his neck so you could bury your face in his neck this time. You sucked on his rough skin creating your very own mark on his neck. You might not be a wolf but you certainly could still leave your mark.

“I’m coming James please!” You crashed hard, clenching around him. He kept fucking up into you, making your juices squish and squelch around his cock, dripping out onto his legs. But nothing was stopping him. He turn off the shower, needing to fuck you from a different angle.

“Hold onto the sink pup. I’m not done with you yet.” he bent you over the cold sink, making you shiver at the freezing sensation on your sensitive nipples. His cock sunk back into your quivering hole, gifting you a low grumble that ripped through Bucky’s chest. It was almost animalistic, beast-like. His like wolf was taking over. “Fuck sugar, you feel so good. So tight. My perfect pup.”

“Y-hmmm Buck…” Your hips slammed against the counter surely creating indents in your skin that would definitely bruise by the morning. His nails dug into your flesh, making crescent moon shapes while his thrusts got fast as soon approached his edge. Just a little more. Just some more and you had just had perfect timing. “Please Alpha, I need your cum inside me. Please fuck me harder. I want your knot.”

You had no idea where the name came from or why your brain was screaming at you to somehow present for him. To make him know, he could do anything to you. The name slipped off your tongue perfectly and it made his wolf howl. His hips jacked in an inhuman speed, snaking his hand around your throat he growled pooled in your ear. “Alpha hmm? You want your alpha to knot you pup? Mate you? Breed you, fill with his pups?”

Your hand banged against the mirror, smashing a crack into it but not breaking it entirely. Bucky used his hand that was on your hip to cage yours on the said mirror. Linking fingers with you as his thrusts got harder but stuttered through his unstability. “You want my mark sugar? Want to let every other wolf know you’re mine? Fuck just imagining you full and round with my pups makes me want to fuck you all night.”

“Please alpha, Make me yours.” Your cries were music to his ears. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Your his human mate, wanting to be marked, knotted and bred. God, could you get any more perfect.

“It’s okay baby when I’m done, you’ll be leaking my seed for days.” His hand got tighter on your jugular while his lips kissed along your shoulder blades before teasingly nipping at where he would mark you. Everything was so overwhelming, your cramps and all the pain you had felt were washing away being replaced with nothing by Bucky’s scent and touch.

“I’m gonna come, Alpha!” Your choked moans were breathy and short. His hand finally let go of your neck, grasping back on your hip to hold himself up. His fangs grazed your soft skin before he pierced your flesh, letting tears pool on the corners of your tears while he slowed his thrusts to empty his seed deep inside you. you came crashing down soon after. His cock growing, stretching you out, gifting you a new form of pleasure.

“That’s it Pup, deep breath.” He licked your wound, tending to it with extra care while his hand on your hip rubbed circles on your bruising skin. He lifted your left leg up, tilting it towards his body as he sat up straight, turning you around until you could wrap your legs around his waist and arms around his neck. Now facing him, he brushed your hair out of your face, littering you with kisses. You hummed, feeling slumber taking hold of you. “Come on pup. Let’s get you in bed.”

Walking with his cock still inside you was more than uncomfortable and he should have definitely not knot you on the bathroom room counter next time. But as he plopped you on the with him next to you, he helped you cuddle up to him, wrapping you in his scent. “Do you really want my pups…”

“Hmg Fuck sugar…” Bucky had to groan at the fact you didn’t call them kids but pups. Your pups. He suddenly wanted to fuck you again. Maybe when his knot dies down he will but for now, he needs you to rest. “Of course, I want our pups baby. I plan on spending the rest of my life with you.” He kissed you slowly, passionately. Your hand cupped his hand, smiling wide at his low giggles. Your legs wiggled suddenly straddling him. “Come on baby. You need to rest.”

You sat up, drawing circles with your hips. Bucky groaned gripping your waist tightly, bucking his head backwards. “I don’t need to rest. I want more….” You leaned down kissing his cheek before whispering. “Alpha….”

[xmalfoyweasleyx]

Tiny shadows - Azriel x reader (blurb)

Summary: your daughter starts showing first signs of her shadow powers when you are on a mission, Azriel is proud but freaks out a little without you there. (fluff)

Word count: 1k

The woods of the autumn court were foggy. You were on a mission for three days already, eager to go home to your daughter and mate, Azriel. You were picking up your stuff and putting them in your backpack when you felt a little tug in your chest. That’s weird; normally Azriel didn’t ever call you while you’re on a mission. Panic surged through you. Was something amiss? Was it Azriel's panic or your own coursing through the bond?

“Is everything okay, baby?”, you called, receiving no respons. You started to pack faster, ready to winnow home as fast as possible. But then you felt the tug again. "Shadows", his panicked voice echoed through the bond. What did he mean by that?

“What? Is something wrong with your shadows, Az? Are you okay?”. No answer. That was enough. You grabbed your bag and winnowed to your house in Velaris.

Though you observed no immediate threat, Azriel and your daughter stood in the living room, with panicked expressions, both wearing a cooking apron. Azriel was running his hands through his hair, pacing back and forth. “This isn’t supposed to happen so soon, how is this possible, will she have to be a spy too, will she-", Azriel murmured quietly to himself but stopped when he heard her voice. "Daddy, what’s happening?” your daughter asked him. His worried eyes softened when he heard the shakiness of her voice.

“Hey I’m back, what’s wrong?” you tried to interrupt softly. Your daughter immediately looked your way. “Mommy mommy” she cried, running towards you. “Hey sweetie” you smiled a little while hugging her. But when she looked at you, you saw the tears in her little eyes, the beautiful hazel ones, just like her father’s. “Why are you crying, love?” You asked while stroking her dark curls. “I-I’m.. I’m scared,” she stuttered.

Your mate now stood next to you, with a deep furrow on his handsome face. “I’m like daddy,” she said softly. “What do you mean?” you asked, kneeling down next to her. Azriel knelt beside you, his leg brushing yours, attempting to calm himself. “She.. she has shadows, we were making you a pie for when you returned and… I thought it was my shadow at first. But then I realized it was hers,” he stuttered. “I didn’t know what to do, so… I freaked out a little. I think I scared her,” he said to you, guilt all over his face.

That’s when a tiny shadow appeared between you and your mate, it stroked Azriel’s cheek softly, intertwining with a dark piece of hair that was falling on his forehead. It was your daughters shadow, you then realized. “I’m so sorry daddy” she whispered, lips trembling. “No, no baby, you don’t have to be sorry. Daddy is very proud of you,” he answered with a pained voice. And you knew he wasn’t lying when you saw the proud tears that filled his eyes. “Are you mad at me?“ she asked. “You are just like me, sweet girl, how could I be mad?’, Az answered, his leg trembling a little against yours. “I like being just like you daddy,” your daughter smiled softly. “Now I have your cool shadows and mommy’s pretty face,“ she added proudly. “You certainly are pretty, honey, just like your mother”, Azriel smirked.

“But what now? W-will my friends at school be scared of me?” she stuttered. “I think your shadows are beautiful and sweet, just like your daddies shadows, I already love them. Don’t worry about your friends, they will love them too. I promise,” you smiled, feeling Azriel’s comforting scarred hands on your back. Your daughter’s tiny shadow is now playing with your hair too. “You’ll just have to learn how to control them, luckily your daddy is an expert” Azriel smiled.

An hour later, your little girl was sleeping peacefully in her bed, shadows dancing softly around her, playing with Azriel’s shadows. As you watched her, resting your head on Azriel's shoulder, he confessed, "I didn’t handle that right. It was just scary to think about her future when she has powers just like me”. You nestled your face deeper into his warm neck, closing your eyes in the comfort of it.

“Don’t worry babe, I get it. I didn’t expect her to get the shadows so young either, but you actually are too overprotective sometimes you know” you said. “As long as the boys stay away from her for a while, I’m okay”, he grumbled. “Of course you are, typical Illyrian, you know. Luckily I felt you through the bond”, you sighed with a smile. “What would I be without you,” he smiled back. “Nothing, I guess,” you joked, wrapping your arms tightly around his torso, planting a soft kiss on his lips. “You really think my shadows are beautiful and sweet?” he smirked, accentuating the “sweet” teasingly. He stroked your hair and intertwined his fingers with it, like he always did when he needed your comfort. “Of course I do, they like me a lot, but you know that already you cocky bastard” you laughed.

“I just love hearing you say it” 

[ja3hwa]

♡ 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝟑𝟎: 𝐖𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐥𝐟 𝐎𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐭/𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐉.𝐘𝐇 ♡

Let Me Help

【Synopsis】 : You didn't know what it meant to be on heat, let alone know you could have one since you weren't a wolf... but here you were, and Yunho was going to help you through it.

『Word count』 : 1.95k 

-> Genre: Smut. Wolf Au. Fantasy Au. Fluff.

Paring: Werewolf!Yunho x Human!Reader

[Warnings] : Swearing. Unprotective sex. Pet names. Neck kisses, hickies. Biting. Cumming inside [don’t do that unless you wan babas] Alpha kink. Knotting. Slight choking. Rough sex. Fluff stuff. Some Omegaverse stuff

Thank you, @spooo00oky, for requesting Yunho for this day. I hope you enjoy ♡♡♡

You were a human. That fell in love with a werewolf and now you’re his mate and live in a den with all his other wolf friends that are also his pack and you are the first human to be mated to one of the wolves in this pack in history. And plus you are now experiencing what they call a heat but you aren’t a wolf and none of the she-wolves or the alchemist knows what to do so you are pacing back and forth in your bathroom waiting for your lover to come home from a full moon cleanse to tell him to help you through something you’ve never been through before….

Missing anything?

“Fuck!” Your hand slipped off the basin in the bathroom, clutching your stomach. You’ve never experienced such a pain before only being able to compare period pains or when you’ve eaten bad food. But the alchemist, Yeosang had warned you since you were human the heat would be way more severe to you than a normal she-wolf. Expressing it might feel like being stabbed or disembowelled. Lovely...

You washed your face with ice-cold water multiple times to try and cool the heat rushing through you but nothing was helping. You felt like you were losing your mind and you had no idea what to do, or how to fix it. All you knew was you needed your mate and needed him now.

Maybe a shower would work? But wait... Why were you now standing under the showerhead fully clothed? When did you even turn the shower on let alone get in? Your mind was jumping, hazing. Everything was happening so quickly yet standing still at the same time. You cried, sobbing out for Yunho. Crouching down you let the cold water spray on your hunched back as you hug your knees. The headache was bad and the cramps were worse. Your body was shutting down, making you wonder if this heat could kill you if not looked after.

You couldn’t let your mind slip any further, suddenly hearing the bathroom door being slammed open. A large, beefy Yunho came rushing into the shower. He wasn't wearing a shirt, probably not caring to fully dress when he turned back into his human form. His jeans were getting soaked from the water as he bent down to grab your waist, pulling you up to stand on your feet. You wanted to fall back down but his large frame caged you, holding you tightly so you wouldn't slip. His mouth found your neck sucking on just the right spot. You knew from the little research you had done that it would of most likely been the spot where your glands had been if you were a she-wolf and it was also the spot on your neck that he would mark when you get bounded as soulmates.

He had yet to do so, worried it might affect you if he would knot you. So Instead, when he found the urge to mark you when you both were having sex in the past, he would bite the pillow next to you or the couch arm, or even his own hand. Never would he sink his fang in your sweet soft flesh. His lips kiss along your jugular making you whimper. The small bit of pleasure was sending your mind into a spin. He managed to push you against the wall, tugging at your wet clothing to get it off your shaking body. He would kiss your cheeks, then your forehead, then the corner of your mouth. He would whisper just above the sound of the shower, ‘My pretty pup,’ ‘Let me take care of you,’ ‘That’s it baby, just breath.’

He threw the wet fabric out of the shower making it land on the floor somewhere out of sight. He took this moment, to gaze upon your beautiful body. He could smell you dripping down your leg, making him groan. It was enough to feel the tightness in his jeans get worse. He wanted nothing more than to lose control and knot you like he should. But you were human. Such a fragile thing. Not like a she-wolf that could take his strength. But he had no idea that was exactly what you needed at this moment. “Yuyu please, help me. It hurts.”

The cramps were becoming worse when not his touch was soothing some of the aches in your joints. You needed him inside you, desperately. “Please, I need you inside…” Fuck… dirty talk was something you rarely did, finding it too embarrassing to do. Yunho on the other hand was born to be filthy. He loved watching you squirm by the sheer motion of his voice telling you what he wanted to do to you. How he was going to defile you.

“Yeah, pup? You need my cock inside your soaking cunt?” he wanted more from you. Picking one of your legs up so he could stand close to you, rubbing his red angry tip along your slit.

“Yes please, fuck…hmm, I need you so badly. Please Yuyu.” Your soft whines got his heart reeling, pushing inside you with little effort as your heat soaked your cunt was perfect for him to slip in. He completely bottomed out in a second making you feel so unbelievably full. The ache in your body was gone for a moment, sweet relief was granted to you. But the cramps were soon coming back making you scream “Fuck me Yunho. Please hurry.”

Who was he to deny his mate, thrusting at a slow steady pace. Your hands gripped his wet biceps as the shower head was directly pouring in between both of you. The stimulation of the running water on your clit, helped your high draw closer. Yunho picked up your other leg, smoothing your body against the wall to fuck you at a harsher angle making your head fall back to hit against the tiles.

Your lover's face buried in your neck, licking and sucking on any flesh he could get to. Everything was perfect but you needed just one more thing which Yunho seemed to know, reaching down to press his thumb on your clit making you gasp clamping down on his cock while you came hard. “Fuck, Fuck, Fuck. YUNHo!”

“That’s it pup, come on your mate's cock. Let me feel you come around me.” His voice growled in your ear biting at your ear lobe. He moved backwards slightly letting you wrap your arms around his neck so you could bury your face in his neck this time. You sucked on his rough skin creating your very own mark on his neck. You might not be a wolf but you certainly could still leave your mark.

“I’m coming Yuyu please!” You crashed hard, clenching around him. He kept fucking up into you, making your juices squish and squelch around his cock, dripping out onto his legs. But nothing was stopping him. He turn off the shower, needing to fuck you from a different angle.

“Hold onto the sink pup. I’m not done with you yet.” he bent you over the cold sink, making you shiver at the freezing sensation on your sensitive nipples. His cock sunk back into your quivering hole, gifting you a low grumble that ripped through Yunho’s chest. It was almost animalistic, beast-like. His like wolf was taking over. “Fuck sugar, you feel so good. So tight. My perfect pup.”

“Y-hmmm Yun…” Your hips slammed against the counter surely creating indents in your skin that would definitely bruise by the morning. His nails dug into your flesh, making crescent moon shapes while his thrusts got fast as soon approached his edge. Just a little more. Just some more and you had just had perfect timing. “Please Alpha, I need your cum inside me. Please fuck me harder. I want your knot.”

You had no idea where the name came from or why your brain was screaming at you to somehow present for him. To make him know, he could do anything to you. The name slipped off your tongue perfectly and it made his wolf howl. His hips jacked in an inhuman speed, snaking his hand around your throat he growled pooled in your ear. “Alpha hmm? You want your alpha to knot you pup? Mate you? Breed you, fill with his pups?”

Your hand banged against the mirror, smashing a crack into it but not breaking it entirely. Yunho used his hand that was on your hip to cage yours on the said mirror. Linking fingers with you as his thrusts got harder but stuttered through his unstability. “You want my mark sugar? Want to let every other wolf know you’re mine? Fuck just imagining you full and round with my pups makes me want to fuck you all night.”

“Please alpha, Make me yours.” Your cries were music to his ears. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Your his human mate, wanting to be marked, knotted and bred. God, could you get any more perfect.

“It’s okay baby when I’m done, you’ll be leaking my seed for days.” His hand got tighter on your jugular while his lips kissed along your shoulder blades before teasingly nipping at where he would mark you. Everything was so overwhelming, your cramps and all the pain you had felt were washing away being replaced with nothing by Yunho’s scent and touch.

“I’m gonna come, Alpha!” Your choked moans were breathy and short. His hand finally let go of your neck, grasping back on your hip to hold himself up. His fangs grazed your soft skin before he pierced your flesh, letting tears pool on the corners of your tears while he slowed his thrusts to empty his seed deep inside you. you came crashing down soon after. His cock growing, stretching you out, gifting you a new form of pleasure.

“That’s it Pup, deep breath.” He licked your wound, tending to it with extra care while his hand on your hip rubbed circles on your bruising skin. He lifted your left leg up, tilting it towards his body as he sat up straight, turning you around until you could wrap your legs around his waist and arms around his neck. Now facing him, he brushed your hair out of your face, littering you with kisses. You hummed, feeling slumber taking hold of you. “Come on pup. Let’s get you in bed.”

Walking with his cock still inside you was more than uncomfortable and he should have definitely not knot you on the bathroom room counter next time. But as he plopped you on the with him next to you, he helped you cuddle up to him, wrapping you in his scent. “Do you really want my pups…”

“Hmg Fuck sugar…” Yunho had to groan at the fact you didn’t call them kids but pups. Your pups. He suddenly wanted to fuck you again. Maybe when his knot dies down he will but for now, he needs you to rest. “Of course, I want our pups baby. I plan on spending the rest of my life with you.” He kissed you slowly, passionately. Your hand cupped his hand, smiling wide at his low giggles. Your legs wiggled suddenly straddling him. “Come on baby. You need to rest.”

You sat up, drawing circles with your hips. Yunho groaned gripping your waist tightly, bucking his head backwards. “I don’t need to rest. I want more….” You leaned down kissing his cheek before whispering. “Alpha….”

-♥︎

[eurydicees]

i think iwaizumi is like. ok so he comes off as cool and athletic and smart and popular and, yk, to a degree, he totally is! he’s incredible at volleyball and he gets decent grades and he’s a good friend and overall well-liked by the general seijoh population.

ALSO at the same time he is like. the lamest popular guy in the world.

this is a title that oikawa has given him and the part that iwaizumi protests is not “lame” but “popular.” some points that oikawa makes, when talking to iwaizumi about how much of a normal average deeply Just A Guy iwaizumi is:

iwaizumi’s favorite activity is, first and foremost, volleyball; and second, it’s “spend time watching d-rated martial arts movies with my best friend.”

i appreciate it and love this, oikawa says, obviously, but you do have other things you can do with your time. do you know that. it doesn’t seem like you know that.

he’s popular, he has other friends, he could have his pick of girlfriends, and he chooses to instead monopolize oikawa’s time through varying methods of aggression and/or affection.

why do you not have a girlfriend yet, oikawa asks. i’m too busy keeping you in line, iwaizumi says. to which oikawa replies, you suck at being popular, iwa.

people think he’s cool because he likes the outdoors, likes going on hikes with his free time, excels at every athletic task, etc etc.

what they do not know is that he likes going on hikes to look at the changing leaves and his favorite way to interact with nature is like his fucking rock collection or some shit.

do they have names, oikawa asks, teasing. shut the fuck up, iwaizumi says. then, fucking obviously they have names.

he’s not scared of bugs, girls whisper when he passes in the hallways. he saved me from a spider one time, they say, and oikawa claims they swoon.

and like, oikawa HAS to laugh because this is the same boy who tried to keep a tank of beetles he collected from the park and cried hysterically both first when they all escaped, and second when his mother yelled at him for ten minutes about the five she found in the sugar jar. he was fourteen.

“he’s so smart,” someone says admiringly when iwaizumi helps them a bit with their class work. oikawa is rolling his damn eyes because iwaizumi is smart, sure, he’s doing fine in school, but he’s evidently not smart enough to calculate the risk/reward of a monetary bet on how many pork buns he can fit in his mouth. more than 8 gets him 1000 yen. less than 8 makes him lose 1500.

what the fuck was he thinking, oikawa is forced to ask, first when he nearly has to perform the heimlich maneuver and later when he buys iwaizumi a consolation bottle of water. what the fuck.

people think he’s mysterious and stoic and kind of darkly intriguing because he doesn’t necessarily laugh a lot while he’s in class and focused, and while he’s friendly with everyone, he still sticks pretty close to his little group.

oikawa cannot believe that anyone could ever think this because iwaizumi gets home after school and does not shut the fuck up. and he’s so easy to make laugh. and his every expression is so easy to read.

how could you possibly have anyone convinced that you are cool and mysterious, oikawa asks. how the fuck did you do that.

iwaizumi is forced to shrug. he doesn’t really have an answer. people just kind of make their own assumptions about him no matter what he does. doesn’t matter anyways. oikawa might be the only one who seems to truly get him, but he’s okay with that. if it had be one person, he’s glad it’s someone he loves.

and now what the fuck is oikawa supposed to do with that.

(push him down on the bed and kiss him, oikawa finds, seems to be the right answer.)

[bruhnze]

Summertime sadness - Lucy Bronze x Ona Batlle

Summary: Lucy leaves Barca.

Word count: about 4,5k

Warnings: angst kinda, mostly smut, idk, her leaving barca is also worth a warning, also mentions of Chelsea 🤢

Summertime sadness

´´Babe´´ Lucy said on a hot evening, while she and Ona were eating dinner. ´´I had a talk with my agent´´.  The back doors of the house stood open and every now and then a little cool breeze blew inside.

Ona looked up when her lover broke the silence that had hung in the air that night. She studied Lucy's face extensively.

~

In recent weeks, there had been a lot of turmoil surrounding the decision for Lucy's future. Lucy's agent and the high-ups at Barca had wanted to know what her plans were, but Lucy was with her head in the clouds.

Ona had been wondering was going on, why Lucy had been so distracted. When she saw Lucy pushing away a phone call for the umpteenth time, she had asked Lucy what the hell was going on.

Lucy had cried out that she didn't want to think about her future, that she was getting old and that she needed time to think but that because of the administrative hassle, everything had to go fast fast fast. While she could not think about anything at all because 'her heart and head were full of Ona' and nagged ‘those stupid jerks in the office only thought about money, while life is about football and love’.

Ona had said that Lucy really needed to figure it out, so much unaddressed stress and insecurities would surely not help her competitive performance, and Ona mentioned that she had been finding Lucy a bit absent from their relationship lately as well.

That evening had ended in the bedroom, Ona actually didn't approve of the fact that Lucy had the tendency to use sex to cover up difficult conversations, yet Ona had not resisted and she hadn't broached the subject again in the following days.

Over the past few days, Lucy had indeed seemed brighter again, but Ona had thought that the 'ball' to start the conversation was in Lucy's court, at her pace.

~

‘’Babe?’’ Lucy asked again and reached across the table to her freckled girlfriends hand ''who's the absent one now'' she laughed softly ''are you all right baby, where were you thinking?''.

Ona smiled weakly ''this is going to be a difficult conversation, isn't it Luce?''.

A tear rolled down Lucy's cheek but Lucy's expression did not change, she still looked quite cheerful ''yes'' she sighed ''but I think we can handle it''.

"Shall we sit on the couch then, I'm not that hungry anymore" Ona said with a fragile voice.

..

They sat on the couch, but not like they normally sat, they now sat next to each other, without them touching, it almost seemed formal to Lucy.

"Please come to me baby, I want to hold you Ona," the dark-haired defender said.

"Dios mio, I will sit with you but please tell me what is wrong because now it feels like you are going to tell me that u will go the other side of the world" Ona looked at Lucy with a raised eyebrow to see if that might be the case, that Lucy maybe wanted to go to the USA to play in the NWSL.

Lucy threw her arms around Ona, "no, not the NWSL darling, but that was also discussed for a while, but I don't think that's fitting for this moment in my career and first of all I can't live that far from you."

‘’So you're not going far..’’ Ona tried to look for the positives.

"Uhm..no.." Lucy sighed "not.. I’m… i..let me think about how I can tell you this"

‘’joder, spit it out Lucy, the waiting makes me more crazy than whatever you will tell me’’ Ona said and then sat up to face her lover ‘’nooo te no vas al puto Madrid’’  (You're not going to fucking Madrid)  she yelled ‘’puto infierno, joder, no puedo hacer el amor con el rival terrestre’’ (damn it, I can't make love with our Nr.1 rival).

‘’No, no, no te preocupes Ona’’ (No don’t worry Ona) Lucy grinned ‘’but would you not sleep with the enemy? I remember pretty fun times at the World Cup?’’

Ona pushed Lucy’s chest again ‘’that’s different, you cannot choose to play for the Spanish national team, so I accept that you play for another country, but in Spain you are catalán property’’.

 ‘’Sooooo… I can go to Levante Las Planas?’’ Lucy said, thinking she was very funny.

''sure'' scoffed Ona ''if you want to be a loser so badly yeah, heck, maybe Levante can achieve something with you there''.

Now Lucy doesn't find it funny anymore "but what did you mean by property?".

‘’Tu ets meu’’ (You’re mine) Ona said ‘’per tant ets de Catalunya’’ (So therefore you are Catalonia's).

Lucy smiled but wanted to tell Ona what she had discussed with her agent.

‘’Okay, so’’ Lucy got serious ‘’You are supposed to be a rightback, not left, but right and Barcelona’s new coach sees that too-

‘’I’’ Ona wanted to interrupt but Lucy stopped her ‘’tell me after baby, first let me continue’’.

‘’the new coach sees that too, my agent and a lot of other people got around the table and we had an honest talk about the future of Barca,.. it.''

Lucy cleared her throat.

‘’their plan was to make you-, their plan is, to make you the starting right back and I would stay in the team as a bench player, kinda competing with you for playing minutes,.

Her voice became a little weaker.

‘’But I have to accept that I am getting old, older, I mean, old in the football world’’ she mumbled ‘’but I want to play as much minutes as I can and with my knees and with my age, that mean that I have to go down a step, like a downgrade club, because I cant compete with all these amazing, fit’’ she looked at Ona ‘’young, strong players’’.

She continued ‘’I- Its, I think Barca is smart to want to play their fittest right back and I think they are making the right choice, and I don’t want to be competing with you for minutes and ..

Lucy looked at Ona loving and earnest.

.. honestly, I think that I would not get very far in that competition, which is fair because you are entering your prime and I am exiting mine, it’s a miracle that im even still playing if we take my knee in to the equation’’.

‘’Luce’’ Ona said with a lump in her throat.

‘’it’s okay Ona’’ Lucy said as she pressed a kiss against Ona’s temple ‘’it’s realistic and you know what my next goal is?, I will go after Clarence Seedorf’s record-

‘’A five-time Champions League winner, with three different clubs’’ Ona interrupted her, citing the sentence she had heard Lucy say after she had come home from an event were she had met the man. ‘’okay so a club in the champions leage?’’.

‘’Oh fuck’’ Lucy laughed ‘’right, I didn’t even tell you yet, it’s Chelsea’’.

‘’What the fuck’’ Ona gasped and got up, pacing around the living room.

‘’Ona, baby, I know right fucking Chelsea but it was the best offer and-

‘’You are gonna visit me!’’ the Spaniard called out ‘’aquest país fred?’’ (the cold country?) ‘’I am not going- wait what the fuck Lucy, do you realize you will be playing there then? Didn’t you run away from the cold and the rain?’’

Lucy laughed, happy that her girlfriends first thought was the cold and who was going to visit who and not about if a long distance relationship would work.

She also stood up and walked to her lover ‘’I love you’’ she said before pressing her lips against Ona’s.

..

The couple had spoken about their plans and how they would arrange the practical matters when the time came.

Ona thought the officals of FC Barcelona had not really been understanding, the club didn't want to provide anything special for Lucy to say goodbye.

But Lucy had reassured her and said that it was okay and that she understood the club, after all, she had only played at there for 2 years while Mariona and Panos were practically part of the interior at FCB.

They tried to make the most of the last months they lived together and, to top it all off, had booked a holiday to Cuba. After that they would both have to go to their national camp and after that season would start.

...

They were in Cuba, Lucy had booked the trip so that they would hop from place to place, getting the chance to explore the island properly.

''Lucyyy'' Ona whined ''just tell me where we are going, i dont know what to wear if you dont tell me what we will do..''

Lucy wrapped herself around Ona and pressed some kisses on her neck ''a surprise is actually where you dont know what will happen and then you get striked with wonder or amazement''.

''wow'' Ona turned around ''thanks for the daily english lesson, i really didnt know what a surprise was thank you'' she said in a sarcastic tone and rolled her eyes.

''Here, wear this and this''  Lucy said affectionately as she handed a white top and faded red shorts to Ona.

'' A cooking class!? '' Ona smiled but then acted offended ''do i need cooking classes so bad that you disguised it as a surprise?''

''uh.. no, i just figured if you don't have me to cook for you, you know, when i'm-- Lucy got interupted

''Aww, Lucy, that's actually kinda cute, sad because now i think about it again, but cute that thought about it for choosing the activity''.

Lucy laughed ''yeah let's go with cute'' and quietly added ''i also just don't want other people stirring your pot''

Ona gasped and slapped the grinning english woman.

The lesson went great and they ate all the food they made with the family of the woman who had instructed them.

After a long and heavy meal they decided to walk back to the airbnb, it was just the first day of their vacation and they were quite tired from traveling, they thought it wise to go to sleep at a reasonable time, rather than the late nights they were used to making on trips.

..

''Lucy'' Ona moaned as Lucy was placing sloppy kisses all along her body ''we were gonna go to bed on time''

Lucy immediatly stopped ''oh, we are in the bed right now, but okay i'll stop'' she laid down next to her lover and sighed exaggeratedly ''i wanted to fuck you to sleep but i guess you just want to go to sleep right now''.

The freckled catalan cuddled up against Lucy and tried to go to sleep, but the words had woken up some specific part in her body.

Ona kissed Lucy's neck tenderly and guided the english womans hand between her legs.

Lucy smirked at her ''Not so tired yet after all?''

''Shut up'' Ona said breathlessly between kisses.

''Just one time quickly okay?'' Lucy asked carefully ''we need to be thinking about our recovery and we had discussed that getting enough sleep was one of our priorities this holiday''

''You started it!!'' Ona scoffed, plopping back next to Lucy ''you very much turned me off with those boring words and i am actually sleeping as we speak, so no worries about your recovery''

Ona felt a hand dip into her underwear, Lucy hit exactly the right spots with her talented fingers ''feels on to me, you sure you don't-

''Luce shut up, put your mouth on me, stop fucking talking'' Ona sputterd.

Lucy did as was told and pulled Ona's, or actually her briefs that Ona had put on to bed, off. She had pulled her hand away and was now only working with her mouth.

Gently licking and kissing she savourd Ona's taste, damn she was going to miss this, she flattened her tongue and stimulated Ona's clit, she brought her hand back up and entered Ona with one finger, bringing Ona to her climax with gentle and targeted stimulation.

For their standards this was foreplay, Ona always had at least two or three orgasms but it could easily be seven or eight.

"Was it nice?" Lucy asked as she took Ona in her arms and pulled the covers over them.

Ona kissed the arm that was around her, "yeah but" she didn't want to seem spoiled and thought about how she would tell her that this wasn't enough.

Lucy knew perfectly well what Ona meant and whispered in her ear, "I know this wasn't much, but I'll make it up to you tomorrow morning, if that's what you want as well."

''Ofcourse'' Ona muttered.

''I mean like, tomorrow morning early'' Lucy wispered ''would you be into that?''

''No i hate early mornings, you know that and also, we are on holiday, litteraly the only time we can sleep in...'' Ona stated in frustration.

''I mean.. can i wake you up with sex?'' Lucy asked carefully.

Ona turned around, wanting to see Lucy's face ''we never did that before...''

''Yeah i know, i just wanted to try and hadn't found the right time to ask you yet'' Lucy said.

''Hmm'' Ona thought about it ''sure, why not''.

''Wow, don't get too enthusiastic'' Lucy chuckled ''are you sure?''

''Just be gentle, but i dont even feel like i have to say that because i know you are good to me'' Ona smiled and hid her face in Lucy's neck.

''I will baby, always'' the dark haired said and kissed her girlfriend on the top of her head.

After being lost in thoughts for a while, they finally fell asleep.

..

It was 7am, very early, Lucy was awake and Ona was still asleep, she thought about her options while quietly going to the bathroom.

She knew she would be up before Ona, she always was, but she wondered about what the perfect time would be to start her thing, not wanting Ona to still be in a deep sleep and not wanting Ona to be awake immediatly, but honestly she wanted to go right now, she was always very excited to explore new things.

Easily enough Ona had fallen asleep naked yesterday, giving Lucy all the access she needed and after she had very carefully pulled the sheet away she saw that Ona was laying on her back with her legs a little apart, perfect, Lucy thought.

Very gently she wiped her fingertips over Ona's soft nipples.

She got amazed when she noticed that they became erect, taking pride in the fact that her touch even made Ona excited when she was sleeping.

Ona stirred in her sleep but Lucy kept her hands on Ona.

She slid her hands down over Ona's stomach until she reached her hips.

Lucy wondered how to go about this and really felt like she was in unknown territory, how would she get Ona's legs open without waking her?

She thought about how they did it when they were awake, kisses!, she thought.

Very very gently Lucy began to kiss her sleeping girlfriend's hips.

Kissing more inwards she noticed a slight effect, Ona stirred again in her sleep and her legs became more apart.

Lucy carefully felt her fingers between Ona's legs, when she was met with wetness she wondered if it was from yesterday or if she was turned on in her sleep by the kisses and the grazes. Lucy got turned on anyway and wanted to taste Ona again.

She lightly positioned herself so that she was lying on her stomach between her lover's legs.

Kissing the insides of her thighs she heard a soft sound, she looked up, still kissing, to see if Ona had woken up. She didn't thing so, her head was still on the pillow anyway.

When Lucy felt like she had worked up to it enough, she her mouth on Ona, tasting her on her tongue.

She heard the soft sound again and now felt two thighs pressing against her head. She couldn't look up to see if Ona had woken up and honestly she didn't really want to either.

After eating the spaniard out for a couple of minutes, Lucy thought she must still be awake, she wanted to use her fingers now also but didn't know if that would be pleasent for the sleeping woman.

She lightly teased Ona's entrance with her fingertip, before pushing one digit in slowly.

''mhmm'' she heared Ona moan quietly and felt the legs tighten around her again.

She continued with her tongue and finger until it seemed that Ona had come, as indicated by moans and the relaxation of her muscles after.

It was different as usual and Lucy carefully came out from under her girlfriend to get a good look at her.

It was a strange sight, Ona was dragging her arms up with a kind of smile on her face and now Lucy saw her moving her hips a little.

The Catalan's mouth was slightly open and another soft moan escaped, she was squirming on the bed and her breath became more heavy.

The squirming slowly died off and Ona stirred in her sleep again ''hmm luce'' she moaned as she rolled sideways.

The english defender was mesmerised and kissed along ona's naked back, which was now turned towards her.

Then she kissed her neck and near her ear she whispered, "Good morning, baby."

Ona groaned and wiggled herself backwards, pressing more into Lucy.

''did you sleep well'' Lucy said as she kissed Ona's neck more ''or are you still sleeping''

''hmm'' Ona sighed ''what time is it''.

''a little after 8''

Ona turned around under Lucy's arm, now facing her. ''did you that or did i have a very good sexdream?''

Lucy grinned ''i think, that you had a bit of both'' and kissed Ona so she could taste herself on her tongue.

After she pulled away Lucy asked ''so what happened ?''

''Shouldn't you tell me?'' Ona asked smiling

Lucy laughed ''i was a bit confused to be honest, but okay, so first i ate you out and made you come with my tongue and finger and i didn't know if you were awake or sleeping, so i got up to look at you and saw you kind off.. yeah uh.. continuing on your own, in your sleep''.

''Hmm'' Ona questioned ''so you only made me cum once?''

''yeah i didn't want to overdo it and also i didn't really knew if you came so i wanted to check-

Ona interupted her with a laugh.

''whats funny?''

''Lucy, i came like 5 times, i dont know what happend but in my dream i came a lot and you were doing a lot more then eating me out''

Lucy looked at her girlfriend confused 'how-

''I don't know either but you can defenitly do that more often, i feel very fucking good right now'' Ona said as she pushed herseld on top of Lucy.

...

''Ona?'' Lucy wispered, the young defender had fallen asleep on her but she wanted to get out of bed and explore Cuba some more, it was 10am already and she was dieing for some food.

''Nooo'' Ona whined ''we are going to stay in bed all day''.

''Ona..''

''You smell so nice'' Ona said as she pushed her face harder into Lucy's neck ''your warmth is so comfortable'' she cooed ''if you would stroke my back it would be even better''.

Lucy started stroking her back ''what's up Ona, why you acting weird?''

''Weird?'' Ona sniffled ''i just remembered these are our last days waking up together for a while ''im not acting weird, im grieving''.

''Ona, don't- Lucy stopped herself

''Actually, yeah you can say it, it is our reality, sadly, but we will manage remember..

Ona broke down ''yes i know but i will just miss you a lot''

Lucy was quiet and continued rubbing Ona's back.

...

It was late in the evening and they were on a quiet beach laying on a towel.

''Babe don't open your phone'' Ona said as she quickly grabbed Lucy's.

''What the fuck?'' Lucy laughed but saw the stress in Ona's eyes ''what did you leak our nudes or something?'' she tried to joke

''You said they would anounce your department july 1st right?'' Ona asked

''yeah why'' Lucy sat up straight now ''what, who?''

''Barca's own insta'' Ona said slowly ''and it was posted hours ago''

''What the fuck, show me''

...

''i think you should just record a video here then'' Ona stated

''Are you serious?'' Lucy looked at her

´´Yes just say thank you for everything, I don’t know, just to let something know´´ Ona looked empathetically to her girlfriend.

Together they thought about what Lucy could say, Lucy decided to do it in Spanish, resulting in a very proud Ona.

When she started recording she looked at Ona for reassurance, Ona smiled at her and Lucy felt like she could do anything, even record this video.

It was done and she uploaded it together with some pictures of her time at Barca.

Ona hugged her ´´good job baby´´.

Lucy wrapped her arms around the Spaniard, 'thanks, now lets enjoy this sunset´´.

They watched the sun go lower and lower, resulting in a bright orange glow that radiated over the water. Lucy gently squeezed Ona's arm ´´Babe, I need to take a picture of you, this lighting is perfect for you´´.

…

At their next stay they had a rather interestingly laid out room, next to the bed hung a gigantic mirror in a medieval painting frame, the rest of the room was quite boring and not really decorated.

Ona hadn´t batted an eye at it, but the mirror gave Lucy some ideas.

Ona was standing in the small kitchen making some salad for lunch. They had been walking around all morning and wanted to have lunch and an afternoon nap in their rented accommodation.

Lucy retreated to their bedroom and searched through the suitcase, grabbing the harness they had brought.

She put it on with a strap, then put her pants over it again and pushed the strap up behind the elastic of her boxers.

Lucy wore a linen outfit that was quite loose, it was not visible that she was wearing anything underneath, but if she were to hug Ona now, it would certainly be felt.

´´Lucy?’’ her thoughts got interrupted by a voice from the kitchen ‘’Lunch is ready’’.

Lucy sat down at the table with a mischievous smile, "oh, looks good babe."

"What are you grinning about?" Ona asked suspiciously, "Where were you anyways?"

‘’Just nothing, I was in the room chilling’’ Lucy looked at her plate ‘’excited for lunch’’.

‘’mkay’’ Ona laughed, she walked towards the table with her own plate and went over to give Lucy a kiss ‘’love you weirdo’’.

‘’Weirdo?!’’ Lucy said offended ‘’can’t a woman just be happy?’’

Ona tried to push Lucy with her chair a bit away from the table.

‘’what are you doing?’’ Lucy asked.

‘’I want to sit on your lap, let me give you kiss to make up for calling you a weirdo’’ Ona pouted.

Lucy scooted back with her chair and had a big grin on her face.

Ona looked questioning at her girlfriend ‘’you are being very weird, whats with all the grinning’’.

‘’just excited’’ Lucy said ‘’come on then’’ and grabbed Ona by her hips.

She sat on Lucy lap and they shared a kiss, Lucy deepend the kiss and pulled Ona closer to her.

Ona quickly pulled away and gasped ‘’what the-

The English woman grinned sheepishly at her ''told you i was excited''.

Ona leaned back to Lucy ‘’oh excited, excited, didn’t know you meant it like that’’

Lucy smiled ‘’maybe I was a bit vagu, do you maybe want a clear example?’’ she said seductively.

Ona grinned ‘’I feel it very clearly don’t worry’’

‘’hm, that’s a shame because I wanted to give yourself a nice demonstration that you could watch attentively’’

Ona frowned ‘’you lost me again, I don’t get-

She yelped as Lucy stood up carrying her to the bedroom. Lucy dropped her on the bed and hovered above her ‘’let me fuck you while you watch us in the mirror, give you something to look back at while missing me’’.

Ona gulped and turned her head to look at the huge mirror that hung besides them, she turned back to face Lucy and nodded.

‘’What’s that?’’ Lucy asked

‘’y- yes , lucy fuck me in the mirror’’ Ona said.

Lucy chuckled at Ona, who always had a pretty hard time speaking English when her brain was short-circuiting from being turned on, but she didn’t want to tease her about it. ‘’okay, tell me how you want to see it’’ she added in a softer voice ‘’ you're the director today bub’’.

..

After an intense afternoon the couple laid next to each other in bed, completely exhausted.

‘’that was ..’’ Ona searched for words but could find the right one to describe it ‘’al·lucinant’’

Lucy turned to lay on her side and put her hand on Ona, ‘’what does that mean?’’ she softly asked.

‘’like’’ Ona pulled up her hands next to her head and imitated the sound of and explosion while changing her hands from a fist to an stretched out hands on either sides of her head.

Lucy grinned ‘’mind blowing?’’

‘’Yeah that was the word’’ Ona smiled and kissed her lover and said with their lips brushing against each other ‘’that was mind blowing’’.

‘’hope you remember every bit of it’’ Lucy quietly said when Ona laid her head on her chest, she felt Ona nodding her head.

‘’You know’’ Ona said after a bit of quiet ‘’I don’t miss the sex the most when we are away from each other’’.

Lucy was tracing patterns on her back ‘’what do you miss most then?’’

‘’you’’ Ona said

Lucy laughed, making Ona’s head shake, Ona sat up and looked at her girlfriend seriously ‘’I am serious, I miss you the most’’

‘’Babe, I take you seriously sorry, but it just sounds funny’’ Lucy said with a smile on her face ‘’what do you mean by that babe?’’

‘’I mean that I miss you, I miss your presence near me, i- el món és tan pacific when im with you’’

‘’que?’’ Lucy said

‘’Cuando estoy contigo el mundo es tan pacífico’’ (the world feels peaceful when I’m with you).

‘’para mi tambien, te amo Ona’’ Lucy kissed her ‘’te quiero muchísimo, eres el amor de mi vida’’.

Ona chuckled at Lucy citing all the sentences she had thought her ‘’but im serious, Luce’’.

‘’Yes I know Ona’’ Lucy sighed ‘’I will miss you the most too, your presence’’.

--- the end (but not theirs)

[sabertoothwalrus]

OK PREFACING WITH IM SORRY IF I ALREADY SENT THIS EXACT ASK BUT MY WIFI KILLED ITSSLF AS I SENT IT SO IDK IF IT ACTUALLY WENT THROUGH. but in case it didn’t . i know youve gotten this countless times in the past because i blog stalked just in case youve mentioned something similar before but i need to know if you have any specific inspirations when you draw exaggerated expressions specifically like these two images of marcille. ive actually cried laughing over this comic and being able to communicate this type of visceral emotion is such an insane skill and ive followed your art for probably close to a decade through various fandoms so watching you develop this style has been fucking awesome and epic. like i cannot articulate how funny these are to me i just need you to understand i look at this comic to inspire me to draw now. the closest comparison i can draw to the feelings they evoke are like those mspaint reaction images and also mspaint tails i included for reference even though you probably know exactly what im talking about anyways but its actually so much harder to do that intentionally when you study art. also i lied you literally don’t even need to answer this i just had to let you know how obsessed i am over your silly comics and now ive written out a whole ass discussion post about it. im sorry if this is weird at all i think my daily prescribed amphetamines r wearing off and i know this is such a dumb specific thing to fixate on and im so sorry if its not something you want to hear about your art. ive just always seen that as an artist this type of expressive stupid silly style is something that comes after a significant amount of time and practice and study and style development despite being “simple” in theory. its just so cool to have worked with your own style so much that youre able to go “off model” from it and still maintain consistency with the rest of the piece. i said it already and im sorry this is actually rendundant now but the ability to communicate such raw emotion somehow decreases from at its height when someone is a beginner artist learning how to proportion and keep a steady line and what looks “normal” but somehow it all comes full circle because taking all that experience and using it to almost return to where you started but in a fully informed and intentional way so you can make choices to draw characters like this when the situation calls for it is just dhcidogakgoshfhw. i think i need to cut myself off or im going to talk in circles im sorry tumblr user sabertoothwalrus i just am fascinated by your style and progress and the years you’ve dedicated to art can be seen in so many places but this is just one that stands out to me specifically.

MMMMM what a fun question!!!

I'm not gonna lie, I think it's just Letting A Drawing Be Bad. I definitely think the people that struggle with this the most are people who have genuinely very pretty art styles, to the point of being kind of perfectionist about it. and to Draw Funny often means Drawing Fast and Weird. Pretty is kind of the antithesis of funny (unless being pretty is the punchline). do drawings that make yourself laugh. tracing/lining funny sketches almost always makes them less funny.

one of my favorite types of humor is when it skews more deadpan, actually. This is one of the reasons I love Adventure Time. minimal expressions and flat line delivery + absurd context is a really good combo. the key to comedy has more to do with contrast! if your drawings are allllll crazy ren & stimpy all the time, they're not funny anymore cause it's just "normal". if it's all subdued UNTIL it's extreme, and vice versa, then it's funny. The reason this comic is so funny is because of the complete lack of any expression. I feel like the one you sent of Marcille shouting "WHAT" is funnier when you know how much she tries to be dainty and feminine and delicate, how much she values her appearance, and how averse she is to "gross" or "weird" things.

something I find really annoying (and this is with comics/animation in general, not the expressions themselves) is when the joke goes on for too long. Like you'll have the joke, then the punchline, and THEN the characters reacting to the punchline??? Like the author didn't trust that their audience would find the joke funny, so they basically drew in a laugh track. But, this is distinct from a character's reaction being the punchline (like how the examples you gave from my Marcille comic are). MY POINT IS sometimes expressions aren't as funny on their own as you think, and context can affect how you feel about it!

as far as inspirations go!

my own face! even if I don't have a mirror, I like making the expressions myself so I can "feel" where the points of tension on my face are, and it gives me a sense of what to exaggerate.

my brother's art, believe it or not! we've been trying to make each other laugh with our drawings since we were kids, and he's really good at it.

ATLA has some great expressions

OK KO has been a reallyyyy good source for me lately. That show is so tailored to my sense of humor and the expressions and line deliveries feel exactly like the kinds of things I'd come up with. The tone, timing, and art style are all really close to the tv show pitch I'm working on, so when I feel like I've "strayed" too much from it (like after drawing a bunch of dungeon meshi, and my art feels tighter and... idk "manga-ier"?) I like to go and watch a couple episodes of OK KO to loosen back up

A lot of things like OG Spongebob, Calvin & Hobbes, the Simpsons, Chowder, etc etc

memes in general. if it makes you laugh, keep it in mind

and lastly, I wouldn't say I ever try to mimic funny expressions I see. Like if I watch a show for inspo, I'm not pausing it to copy specific drawings, I'm just trying to notice patterns and pay attention to what about it I find funny.

talking about being funny is really bizarre and I dunno if it makes it lose some of the magic. Ultimately it's something you can't think about too much, and just gotta go with your gut.

[acozysoulwrites]

Gentle touches and soft whispers | Astarion

Description: Tav washes Astarion’s hair by the river

| fluff, fem!tav, soft Astarion, gentle tav |

It was a cool summer morning. The sun had only begun to climb its way into the sky, bidding the moon farewell as it rose. Birds sang, soft snores could be heard from tents around camp. They’d be sleeping well into the morning after the battle they’d had yesterday.

Tav and Astarion were by the river. The rising golden light gleamed off the water and reflected onto their faces. Astarion soaked in it’s warmth, letting it course through his body entirely, every inch of him craving the sun’s kiss.

Tav sat behind him with a small bottle of shampoo in her hand. She gently cupped some water from her bucket onto Astarion’s head. It streamed down his neck and onto his bare back.

“I hope it isn’t too cold” She hums, squeezing a few drops of shampoo into her palm, she reaches up and begins to massage it into his hair.

Astarion shakes his head, words found it hard to escape him as he sat beneath her, eyes focused on the rippling lake before them. His mind raced, but his heartbeat calmed. Her touch was gentle and electric all at once, stirring a feeling of sadness and comfort inside his chest.

“No It’s... It’s perfect, my sweet” He says quietly, the usual spunk in his voice absent.

Tav continues to lather the soap into his tangly curls, which now hang just above his eyes, damp and heavy. “Talk to me, Star”

He thought for a second, wondering what the matter was. He didn’t truly know, just that he felt a sadness.

“No one’s ever done something like this for me before” He chuckles, realizing how pathetic and inexperienced he must sound. “A soft touch; one full of love and adoration... has never come to me willingly… not without a price” He looks down.

Tav’s eyes soften, she reaches down and dunks the bowl into the bucket. “Chin up” She whispers, her finger falls under his chin gently and Astarion obeys.

“You know…” Tav pauses for a moment, her hand still cupping his chin. She leans around and their eyes meet. Soft sadness mingles with gentle comfort. Astarion’s face looked even more beautiful when his hair was wet and out of the way, she thinks. She presses her lips into his temple, planting a soft kiss from there, to his cheek.

“I wash your hair, I hold your hand, I kiss you...” She holds his face, her thumb gently brushing over his cheekbone. “Simply for the fact that I want to. Not because I expect anything in return” She soothes, leaning back, she pours the water over his head, rinsing the shampoo.

Astarion parts his lips, but no words come out. He thinks that if he hadn’t already cried every tear out of his body a century ago, that some would form right about now.

“Thank you...” He says finally, a softness lacing his voice. “I... I don’t know what to say”

“You don’t need to say anything” Tav says, “Just sit there and be you” She smiles. “It’s all rinsed by the way” She ruffles his wet hair.

Astarion isn’t sure how he got so lucky. He hates to think, had they met in other circumstances, Tav would have been an easy victim to lead to Cazador. He wouldn’t have blinked an eye while handing her over. Yet in this reality, the very thought sickens him. The thought of how terribly Cazador would treat his sweet Tav, how easy her kindness and softness would get her eternally punished. It sent a shudder through him.

“You’re too nice, darling” He turns to face her, their knees touch and he grabs her hands into his. “It will be the death of me”.

Tav smiles, then she shakes her head. “I disagree”

“Why is that, love?”

“Well, when we first met you weren’t exactly... nice to me” She chuckles.

“But with my outstanding persistence and shrouds of kindness… Well, you’ve gotten pretty soft, Astarion” She winks and watches his face contort into a disgusted expression and she laughs. “You know it’s true”

Astarion rolls his eyes, “I’m hardly soft, pet” Astarion tuts, “It’s only for you” He smirks.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way” Tav smiles.

[they-call-me-emmy]

Normal

In which you bump into Jenna, who catches interest once she realizes you don't know she's famous. To you, she's just...normal

Female Reader

warnings because other people put them and i dont wanna be left out: cussing. yay.

...................

Y/N tends to block everything out when you skates. It's like an escape, and you can't get enough of it.

You skate down the sidewalk, the wheels bumping against each crack and indent in the side walk.

Only then they bump into a person.

"SHIT!" You cry as you tumble forward, narrowly missing crashing into the girl.

"Oh my god!" The girl cries out, attempting to help break your fall. "I'm so sorry!"

You look up from the ground.

Shit.

She's pretty.

You sigh, collecting yourself up off the ground. "It's not your fault, I should have been watching where I was going."

"I should have seen you and moved."

"We both should have seen each other and moved" you sigh, brushing yourself off. "I'm Y/N, who are you?"

The girl almost looks confused for a moment, as if she can't quite understand why you're asking for her name. "Jenna."

You could have sworn you recognized her. But you brushed that off, your head probably messed up from the fall you took. "Nice to meet you Jenna. Sorry I hit you."

"It's okay." She smiled, her dimple showing as her cheeks flushed gently. She was gorgeous.

"So...do you live around here?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm here for a job."

"Oh! That's cool! What do you do for work."

"Uhm...nothing special. Do you live around here?"

You nod. "Since I was little."

"Is it a good place to live?" Jenna asked gently, watching as your expression changed into one of peace.

"It's really wonderful." You tell her, brushing stray hair behind your ear. "It's not the hugest town, so everyone knows everyone."

"I've always wanted to live in a small town." Jenna said. God, she really did look familiar.

You nodded, gently looking her up and down. She was quite short.

"Well, I must go, I'll see you around?"

"Yeah...see yah!"

...................

You sat on your bed. Slowly, you realized she didn't give you any way to contact her.

She had a simple name, but she could scroll through social media accounts till you found her.

And that you did.

Why hadn't she mention she was famous?

....................

EW this is gross.

[ereana]

Neuvillette X Furina - Sure you can use me as a pillow

Furina can’t breathe.

Everyone is staring at her.

The president of the Spina di Rosula watches her carefully, the triumphant expression fading with every step she takes towards the basin. Navia, she remembers with sudden clarity; the woman is called Navia and she is from Poisson.

Of course.

The click of her heels echoes loudly in the Opera Epicles even amidst the loud rumbling of the spectators.

“Is she really going to do it?”

“Well she has to, doesn't she?

“You actually think she isn’t a god?”

“I mean, it doesn’t look good for her does it?

No. No. No.

She can’t let so many centuries of work go to waste. Not when so much is at stake. Not when ‘mirror-me’ is still working on a way to save everyone. It would be too cruel for it to end this way. 

The show must go on.

She looks down into the water, the vibrant purple tinge would be almost pretty if it didn’t promise her death. She wonders if dissolving will be more or less painful than the performance she’s poured her entire existence into. She doubts it will be more, there’s so little of her left after wearing a mask for so long that comparatively it has to be less.

From above she hears him.

“Due to the inherent risk of the test, Lady Furina, you may—”

She plunges her hand into the water, unwilling to hear him say anything else. Hurt and anger and an affection she tries so hard to keep hidden war for dominance in her chest. She can hear the worry in his voice even if no-one else can. How does he dare when he is the one who put her here?

Because he cares. A voice, small and fading, whispers in her mind. Because despite your lies he still cares and doesn’t want you to be harmed.

Her hand starts to burn. Her eyes snap down to the basin, watching in horror as her arm starts to melt. Heavy drops of water start to splash into the basin - it’s her, she’s the water - and she doesn’t even have time to scream before she’s drowning. Water in her lungs. Her nose. Her eyes. Her throat.

Her painfully human heart gives one last beat.

No!

She doesn’t….

Someone cries out her name as the familiar sound of rain hitting the roof echoes throughout the hall.

She doesn’t want to die without ever truly living.

“No!” Furina yells. Her voice is thick with desperation and fear. “No, please!”

Water. She can feel it on her face. She can’t breathe from the tightness in her chest. Her world is crashing down around her and she has failed.

“Someone…anyone…” she pleads desperately. It’s hopeless. No-one has ever answered her cries before. They echo in her ears alone. She shuts her eyes tightly against the pain.

“-dy Furina.”

Alone. Alone forever on the throne she never wanted, crying for her people that she couldn’t save.

“-rina, listen to me..”

Failure of an archon. Failure as a leader. Failure as a human. 

If her one life could have saved them she would have given it gladly. One life for thousands? Set it against the scales and see the obvious choice.

“...nightmare, please…”

But her life wasn’t worth that much. Not to Celestia. Not to her people. Not to—

There’s a hand on her cheek. It’s cool to the touch but heavy and real. She knows this hand. Furina covers it with her own and grips it tightly. An anchor for her to steady herself  while the world spins around her.

“Breathe.”

A plea. She’s not used to hearing him make those. The single word threatens to burst with everything he’s trying to convey. Her dear Iudex, always struggling for the right words to convey his true feelings.

Furina breathes. She hears him inhale with her. Every breath loosens the knot of terror in her chest a little more until she has the strength to open her eyes.

Neuvillette is there to meet her gaze when she does. There is no chance to see anything else, there is only him and the anguish on his face as he watches her calm down. Furina throws herself into his arms.

They open immediately for her, crushing her against his chest as he shields her from the shadows of her own mind. He says nothing as she buries her head into his shirt and cries out the rest of her fear.

His arms are like steel bands around her shoulders and waist but she knows he would release her instantly if she asked him to. Just as she knows if she asked him to hold her forever he would. 

In this moment Furina is the safest person in all of Fontaine, perhaps even all of Teyvat as the power to control the very oceans themselves surrounds her in a protective embrace.

It takes a few minutes for her to calm down. She doesn’t dare look at him as shame rises to replace terror.

“I’m sorr—”

“Don’t.” He cuts her off, sharply but not unkindly. “You never have to apologize to me, not for anything.” Neuvillette reminds her.

If she were in a better state of mind she would say something about the way his words sound like an oath, whispered into the darkness for only her to hear. The reverence in his tone is blasphemous.

But right now she doesn’t care.

“Stay.” She asks, no eloquent rhetorical flourishes or theatrics to be heard only an honest rawness that makes him squeeze her tighter.

“As you wish, Furina.” Neuvillette murmurs and she lets out a sigh of relief, trusting him to watch over her even in her dreams as exhaustion pulls her to sleep once more.

She flicks one last look at him before slumber takes her. He’s staring down at her with his usual stoic expression but his eyes…oh his eyes are beautiful. Shining with an emotion she’s still too nervous to put a name to.

Her dragon is here and she is safe.

[hannahssimblr]

“I do. You always look pretty. Every time I see you, I think that.”

With this, she bursts into a flood of fresh tears. “Oh God, you’re so nice.”

“Look, I know this isn’t helpful, probably, but if things were different, if I wasn’t leaving, then maybe… maybe things would have turned out another way. I know you don’t think much of yourself, but I think you’re a great person. You’re really sweet and sensitive and talented and you make me laugh, and from my point of view anyway, you light up every room you walk into. Whoever the next person is that gets to be with you is lucky.”

“But it won’t be you.” Her mouth is so down-turned at the edges that she looks almost cartoony. Those looks are one thing I will miss most about her. If I were lucky enough to know her for longer, I think I’d fill a hundred sketchbooks just drawing the expressive shapes of her face.

I simply shake my head, and my arms are outstretched and ready to catch her as she falls into them for another round of sobs. There’s nothing I can do. I learned this a long time ago. Sometimes all you can do is hold someone until they’re ready to be let go again. I’ve spent whole nights holding Ivy like this, and I’ll spend hours with Evie if it’s what she needs.

Into her hair, I murmur an admission I have never made to another person. “Leaving is going to be so horrible. Sometimes I can’t think too much about it. Like, I know I won’t be that far away, but it’s going to change everything. I have amazing friends here that will be so hard to leave behind. And my family, obviously. I have a sister who’s nine. Ivy. She’s in that stage where she’s obsessed with me. She wants to do everything I do… Jesus, it’s going to be rough. I’ve never lived away from home before. I don’t really know how to be a functioning adult who, like, pays electricity bills.”

“It will be hard at first, but then eventually it will be really good,” she sniffles. “You’ll meet all these cool new people and you’ll forget all about everyone here.”

“Is that your way of telling yourself that I’ll forget about you, too?”

“You will.” 

“I won’t. We’ll still be friends. I’m not great at keeping up with people, and I don’t use Facebook that much…”

“So you’re saying we’ll be friends, like, on a symbolic level, but we’ll never actually talk to each other ever again.”

I laugh. “Shut up and let me finish before you start getting cross with me. I’ll email you. Old school, like.”

“Hm. That will be nice, like sending letters.”

“Exactly.”

She squeezes me, and I squeeze her back, gazing down at her face, red nose and smudged makeup, and I still think she’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen in real life. “How are you doing?”

“Very badly.”

“Well, one day, you won’t care about me at all. And maybe when you go to college, in like a few months, a year, or after that, you’ll look back on this and think ‘oh, ew, I can’t believe that when I was seventeen, I liked that lanky guy with the weird accent. That was so embarrassing.’ And you’ll wonder why you ever cried over this at all.”

Her face becomes fierce, like she wants to be serious, but it’s hard not to smile when she sticks her lip out like that. If I was being stupider, I might like to push my thumb into that crease between her eyebrows. “You don’t have a weird accent.” She insists. “Well, okay, you do, but I like it. And there’s nobody on earth that’d be embarrassed to have ever liked you.” 

“Okay, Evie.” I chuckle. “Lets see how you feel in a year.”

“A year?”

“Yeah, one year from now, I’ll email you, like I will every single week, mind, and you’ll roll your eyes and think, ‘oh God, him again?’ I’d be willing to bet on it.”

“You underestimate my feelings.”

She overestimates them, more likely, because we’re young and stupid and that’s just what we do, but it’s fine. She’ll learn, like I did with Michelle and all the girls that came before her, that the things that feel raw and real in the moment, the people you swear you’ll spend your life loving and wanting and missing, you forget them in the end.  

We lapse into silence as the grasshoppers chirp in the long grass. The cleaner comes by to pick some of the rubbish nearby and makes small talk with me about various happenings at the festival. Ignoring Evie, firmly locked in my arms with her damp cheek against my chest.

When he finishes, and the rubbish is gone, and the music in the distance goes silent, it is just us and the insects and the blanket of dew, and the smell of lingering summer in the air. Evie shivers, and I draw back to look into her sad little face.

“Are you cold?”

“No.”

“I think you are.”

She smiles, and her teeth chatter. “If I say so, then you’ll make me go back to the tent.”

“We have to go back eventually, don’t we?” I take the opportunity to stretch out one of my legs, which is cramping. “What time is it?”

“Don’t care.”

“It’s got to be… I don’t know. You can see the sun rising a bit.”

“If we leave, then it’s over,” she whispers.

I murmur, “It’s over, anyway.”

Green eyes skim my face in one last pursuit of a truth they won’t find. And then she sighs with resignation. “You’re leaving.”

“Yeah, I’m going away.”

“It’s just sad.”

“Of course. For me too.” And I’m not sure there’s much left to say. “Come on. Let’s just end this day.”

She doesn’t protest. Climbing to our feet, we make our way back towards the campsite, hand in hand. Though she’s not my girlfriend and never will be, it feels good to pretend while I can.

It’s lights out in our circle, embers smouldering in a campfire that we missed, and someone’s, Joe’s, Kasper’s, snores float from their tent. Evie’s is wet with morning dew as I unzip it for her with the same chivalry as any man opening a door for a lady. She shuffles inside, and the moonlight shows up the goosebumps on her arms and legs. Claire is not inside, her shoes stacked neatly outside Shane’s tent instead.

Evie grabs my wrist before I zip her inside. “Do you want to come and stay with me?” She whispers. “We won’t do anything. I just think it’d be nicer than being alone.”

We will do something. I’ve been a teenage boy for long enough to know the score, and tempting as it is to have one final, movie-magic experience with her to round off the summer, I know it is different for her than it is for me.

I shake my head. “Not a good idea, Evie. Sorry. Goodnight.”

The last thing I see is the dismay on her face before I zip her inside the tent, and head for my own.

There is Jen, cocooned in her sleeping bag. She stirs as I fumble with my clothes.

“You’re back,” her voice cracks with sleep. I ignore her, as the anger I felt for her in the woods resurfaces with a vengeance. My heart thuds with the memory.

“What time is it?” she says, and again, I say nothing. I struggle into bed and turn my back to her.

“Jude?”

“Talk to me in the morning.” I whisper sharply, and I shut my eyes, willing away the heaviness of the day, and all the things I know are still to come. 

Beginning // Prev // Next

Corresponding LG Chapter

[chevalperd]

hi guys i made a person!! an alien stage person, possibly for season 40!! her name is clementine and in my free time i imagine deconstructing her sanity brick by brick :D

thank you @/shakingparadigm for the templates!!

this is probably going to be a wall of text...please bear with my ramblings lmao

she/her pronouns, probably pan? who knows. she certainly doesn't

outwardly very silly with a childish attitude that most people think she should've grown out of by now, always smiling, class clown kind of vibe. dad joke generation machine. names and mentally befriends inanimate objects. gives good advice and knows how to be serious in dire straits, but generally seems to take nothing seriously

her guardian is an erratic type who bought her seeking to make money off alien stage, and when she's not at the garden they fluctuate between pushing her aside into isolation for weeks so she won't bother them, lavish generosity after she does something that makes them money, and taking out their anger on her through extreme temperature torture. so.

stemming from that kind of "upbringing," clem's internal thought process is a bit more—not exactly calculating, but more careful than she appears, always monitoring other people's emotions and motivations to brace herself for their reactions. if someone shows the slightest sign of anger, she'll keep talking and smiling, but in her head she's in fight or flight mode, planning escape routes for herself and the people she cares about

on those lines, she's very much an empath and generally is good at reading people (unless they are specifically unreadable people. then they kind of scare her, but in a "wow. can i be friends with you, i would like to get to know you better mostly because i like you but also a little bit because i will not feel safe until i know you better!!" kind of way). her biggest strength in singing is her emotional quality, regarding both her emotions in her singing and the emotions she arouses in her audience. she expresses emotions in music that she doesn't let herself express otherwise, and she has so much of those emotions bottled up that it adds to their potency when she's singing

she generally loves other people and wants to be friends with everyone which is a little stupid but maybe she wants to be stupid

ultimately her false optimism and "silly >:3" presentation is less a façade and more a coping mechanism. she's perfectly aware that staying positive means nothing towards her survival in this system, but it's the only thing keeping her sane and insanity is honestly scarier to her than death is. (also maybe it'll make someone else happy, and then her existence will mean something)

her hair is a genetic modification to make her stand out, implemented by her owner a year or so after she came to the garden. she was a little kid with an attachment to her pretty dark hair and cried about it for about ten minutes (that was probably the most recent time she let herself cry) but decided it was cool and a dumb thing to be so sad about, especially when the choice never belonged to her. nobody else remembers her dark hair, anyway

likes to be called silly nicknames like clem or clemmie but never asks for it, obviously

TL;DR: the ">:D!!!" is but a shell for the paranoia within.

no friends (yet...looks at you with giant eyes)

this is a lot longer and more revealing than i wanted it to be already, so um. the rest of her lore must be unlocked through tortuous side quests!!

i hope you like my silly repressed daughter :D

[take-taker-taken]

could i please have comfort fluff with a quiet, shy reader who cries sometimes from feeling ugly and like no one likes or cares about her with 1997 lord of darkness taker? she doesn't want to bother him with her troubles but he wants to hear her

maybe a bit erotic too..

Ok, so whenever I try to write Ministry!Taker, what comes out is a Lord of the Manor type. I find it hard to write him within a wrestling universe due to the nature of the character, so it always ends being in an AU with an air of magic powers and mysticism - I hope that’s OK! I also didn’t quite get there with the eroticism, so I’m sorry about that - just felt that if I’d tried to add it then it would have seemed shoe-horned in and rushed.

Obsidian & Lilium

You didn’t realise that you could be heard. You thought you’d found a quiet spot when the sadness overtook you and so when the door to the under stairs cupboard opens you squeak in shock.

“Now, what do we have here?” The deep voice rumbles and then his head and shoulders appear in the now open doorway.

Your eyes go wide and your throat freezes up when you realise that it’s the master of the house. Unable to respond in the moment you hurriedly wipe a hand over your face.

“Out you come, girl.” His tone is gentle but firm and then he steps back, allowing you room to slink out of your hiding place. You stand before the giant of a man, the head of the Ministry of Darkness himself - the one known as The Undertaker, and try desperately to stop crying.

He steps away briefly as your tears reduce to sniffles and you notice that he’s at the sink. He turns back and presents you with a cool, damp cloth which you take and wipe over your face. You remain in stunned silence as he takes your hand and leads you to the table, taking a seat and indicating that you should do the same.

“Perhaps you’d like to tell me why you’re crying?”

You lift the cloth to your mouth and try not to get overwhelmed. The very idea that the Lord of Darkness is here with you ‘below stairs’ is enough to send you reeling, never mind that he’s talking to you as well.

You shake your head and mumble behind the cloth, “It doesn’t matter.”

His expression remains neutral but he reaches out and plucks the material from your hand, dropping it to the table. You glance up at him guiltily, realising that you should be showing more respect and add, “It’s nothing, sir.”

He taps his long, pale fingers gently against the table top. “Enough to have a member of my ministry hiding away in a cupboard and crying. I should say that matters.”

You stare at the digits in fascination, seeing for the first time how many of them are bent as though they’ve perhaps been broken. You notice the faint freckles that pepper the back of his hands and his short, neat nails. You’ve never been this close to him and find it surprising that you don’t feel particularly scared.

“Something has upset you,” he continues. “Has anybody spoken unkindly to you?”

You look up at him and a sigh escapes before you can stop it. He doesn’t react beyond a twitch of that pierced eyebrow and so you elaborate. “Nobody speaks to me, sir. Why would they?”

“I cannot imagine why they wouldn’t, little one.”

Your eyes raise to him in surprise at the mild endearment and he nods encouragingly. You pick up the cloth again and dab at your eyes but then shake your head as you say quietly, “It’s not important. Please, I - I shouldn’t be taking up your time like this.”

He reaches across and strokes a lazy circle on your hand with one finger. “I get to decide how I spend my time - no one else.”

Your hand seems to tingle at his touch and it’s clear that you’re to keep talking. You concentrate on the pattern he’s drawing on your skin and let the words fall out, even though the reality of it makes your voice crack a bit. “Nobody really likes me, sir. There’s no one to care about me - it’s not as if I’m pretty or anything.”

“Nonsense.” He waits for you to finish but is quick with his simple rebuttal. “I’ve spent only a few moments in your company and I find you perfectly likeable, so why shouldn’t others?” He continues on as you sit in rather stunned silence. “I myself care about each and every member of my ministry, and as to your last point, well…” He stops tracing his finger over your skin and instead takes your hand in his. “You are most definitely a pretty little thing. I expect even nicer without red eyes from all those tears.”

You stare at your joined hands, his covering yours completely and then glance up at him. His expression is inscrutable and you swallow. “It’s very kind of you - too kind, sir - to say that but,”

“I never say things that I do not mean, little one.” His interruption is quiet but firm and then you’re astonished to see that he’s smiling. Not the cruel or sarcastic smirks that you think you’re used to seeing sometimes on the faces of those around you, but a genuine smile - albeit small, but that somehow makes it even more real. Unbidden, you feel yourself returning it. “There, now - such a pretty smile.”

“Thank you,” you reply as you feel yourself blushing. Doubt still nags at you, however, and you say wistfully, “I wish it were true, sir. It seems that being attractive is valued more highly than anything. And that will never be me.”

He stands up without releasing your hand and so you have little choice but to get up with him. “Valued by those without the brains to value much else,” he says. “I would like you to take a walk with me.”

It’s a question and yet not one, given how he presents it with such finality - of course, he is used to being obeyed. You’re not about to try and resist his will, so you nod and with one hand in his and the other clutching the cloth, he leads you from the room.

He takes you up the stairs and through the main house which makes your head swivel around as you take it all in. The next familiar sight you see is the gardens - you love it when you get the opportunity to walk near here, though you’ve never seen it properly. You wish it wasn’t dark and it seems silly to stroll about when it is.

“A walk in the gardens when it’s dark, sir?” You can’t help voicing your doubt and then you squeak and then giggle as he turns his free hand palm up and you see a gentle glow emanating from it. It’s enough to light the way immediately ahead of you and makes you step more confidently.

“Certainly when it’s dark, little one.” There’s that tiny endearment again and it makes your heart swell a little. “Night blooming lilies are quite beautiful.” He leads you down a few more paths and then when you round the next corner you gasp in wonder because there they are - rows of bright, white lilies glowing in the moonlight. There’s a pond too, with yet more wide open flowers sitting atop the inky black surface as water trickles down a stone feature into the pool.

“I’ve never seen anything so pretty,” you whisper, utterly transfixed by the sight before you.

He lets go of your hand and you stiffen slightly as you feel him stroking his fingertips up your back. “I have,” he says softly. “And I’m standing with her at this very moment.”

You turn and look up at him, no longer feeling shy or like a lesser person. “Thank you.”

The statement seems too small but it’s all you can manage for now and you hope it’s enough. It must be, you think to yourself, because then he’s leaning down and brushing his lips against yours. You know and understand in that moment that everything is going to be alright.

END.

[winguontheweb]

I'm having quite the mental experience tonight.

I have relived a childhood formative experience in the 2010 Nickelodeon TV movie, "The Boy Who Cried Werewolf." Hooooooo boy this movie. Not gonna say it's a cinematic masterpiece, it's pretty standard kids' channel TV movie, but like. This movie had a massive effect on my life and why I'm a furry.

Seeing a trailer for it aired on TV when I was 9, by random chance, I was completely entranced by its concept and effects. Then finally finding out about the release date and behind the scenes online, watching it when it first aired and recording it, followed by rewatching it... many times. I was not normal about it for so long yet it really only consisted of me wanting to rewatch it over and over. That was the only way I knew how to react.

After a time, my interest in it died down, the recording got overwritten, and I forgot about it.

And then I had a dream in like, 2013? Around then, about "Thunder Wolves" which was the name came up with in there (I point to my brain). It involved various typical werewolf tropes in a story about an outcast. Wasn't too detailed or vivid, but that dream was just enough for my brain to be completely sold on werewolves forever.

From there, I'm 99% sure I would never have been on the path to becoming a furry I ended up on. Werewolves are why I'm a furry.

Rewatching The Boy Who Cried Werewolf tonight with my girlfriend and others, I got to re-experience that formative moment and realized just how fucking much I still take from this movie in terms of my love of werewolves, the tropes I enjoy, how I enjoy them. Werewolf curses being caused by werewolf blood injection, shifting into wolf form every night rather than ONLY on full moons, the slow transformation at sunset leading into the full form, the struggle of trying to keep it cool when others can potentially see the transformation, changes even in your human form and demeanor after werewolf-ing. Even the visuals of like, the eyes changing and fangs coming in before the full transformation was something that's stuck with me for all my life.

Every fucking memory of this movie came flooding back to me, I knew everything that happened, basically nothing was a surprise to me. Being age 9-10 when I was watching it probably means this movie might be the earliest Vivid memory I have.

The visuals were honestly better than I remembered. Like, not gonna lie, they could've been BETTER for the adult furry-brained cow that I am, but like. They actually had the full wolf form on screen way longer than they had the half-human half-wolf ugly looking transformation stage. I'm also 90% sure that the full wolf form was all practical effects with a suit? Maybe some of it was CGI, 2010 was capable of good CGI, and this is exactly the type of production (especially at Nickelodeon) where I'd imagine they'd do CGI. But instead from what I can tell with the lighting and interactions with the world, I feel it's most likely a practical suit with puppeted/controllable expression in the face and ears. My main complaint is a lot of the wolf scenes DID utilize really quick, choppy cuts that made it hard to see the form in full force

Design-wise the wolf form is a blend of like, ferocious, beastly, scary, but also a bit... cute, in a way? If the wolf transformation wasn't turning into a bloodthirsty monster and instead just turning into Big Ouppy I could see this being made to be made out to be very cute.

Actually yeah also 9 year old Meadow almost certainly was crushing and she didn't even know it, her brain wasn't built for that

Overall, 23 year old Meadow's experience with this: I really really enjoyed it! I started off watching it clutching my pillow from embarrassment and fear that it was going to be total crap, especially seeing so many high school teen drama tropes and painfully obvious foreshadowing, but being with people willing to give it a chance and who also knew the context of why it's important to me was like, suuuuper important for allowing me to even touch it again.

Basically, I am now in an extreme werewolf mood, and feeling things about werewolves I haven't felt in 13 years. This movie is my playbook. I have knowingly or unknowingly used this as my basis for Werewolf Curse things all my life.

I understand myself better than I ever have, having seen this movie.

So anyway...

Any werewolves out there wanna bite me or do a blood transfusion?

Please?

[anotherblblog]

Ok, so I came to Japan to watch Utsukushii Kare Eternal and I saw it today. I don't speak Japanese and there weren't any subtitles but I wanna recap what I remembered in case other interfans want to know. I also haven’t read the novels so I only know seasons 1 and 2 of the story.

Spoilers very much ahead.

The opening scene is like the last scene of S1 where HiraKiyo are naked with a fuckton of tulle. But way more tulle in the movie than season 1. They're both also literally blanketed by the tulle. They are also laying around Hira's camera, and Kiyoi's necklace, and the duck. Hira goes to kiss Kiyoi and Hira is woken up from his dream and he's at work. Hira and Kiyoi are both at work and they are talking to the mentor and Anna about the other and it's a lot of intercutting scenes of them in the present both reminiscing and flashing back to season 1. No scenes from s2 are in the movie as I immediate recall. A few s2 scenes are redone like Hira saying "Kiyoi (sans kun)" near the other fans but it's different than the s2 version.

The HiraKiyo A plot as I think I understand it - Domestic happy life. Hira’s cousin is moving into the house so HiraKiyo look for an apartment together. (I'm not 100% on if she's moving in but she shows up and she and Hira have a talk and then soon thereafter HiraKiyo are looking for an apartment together). HiraKiyo take a bath together and ngl it’s really hot. Kiyoi does his shy look away thing after Hira kisses his hand but Hira keeps kissing his hands and shoulders. Kiyoi is turned away from Hira and facing a mirror and Hira keeps kissing and moving up on him and the camera gets in close as Hira is kissing Kiyoi all over. The camera moves away to the other side of the tub while they smash and you hear Kiyoi moaning Hira’s name. And Captain Duck is swept out of the tub by the fucking lmao. I think Hira feels guilty about losing the house so he cooks a lot of food (part of this scene was the bonus scene at the end of the Utsukare Season 1 special edit version). Kiyoi does get Hira to feed him shrimp croquettes. Kiyoi hugs Hira from behind while Hira is cooking. The under the blue cover scene has Hira mounting and starting to go to town on Kiyoi but he stops himself and walks out dejectedly. Kiyoi extricates himself from the covers is looks super flustered/turned on.

B plot is their jobs. Hira’s mentor takes some photos of Anna and later Kiyoi. Hira is an assistant for the Anna photo shoot (which honestly was fucking amazing. It was literally the expression “make love to the camera” it was in waterfall/pond and it was so hot and erotic and fun. Didn’t expect it but it was cool.) Hira doesn’t show up on the day Hira’s mentor shoots Kiyoi and Kiyoi is looking for him. Kiyoi continues to work with Anna but Anna gets pap’d with her secret bf and it seems like Anna having a secret bf is a big fucking deal. The fans outside the Anna Kiyoi set find out via twitter or something and then Anna cries alone a lot and the Kiyoi agency staff look very concerned and sad. Kiyoi and agent/manager/not as flamboyantly dressed one go secretly to Anna’s hotel and they have a talk. Then Kiyoi gets pap’d leaving Anna’s hotel so some people were speculating Anna and Kiyoi were together. Kiyoi is also facing some reprecussions from this speculation and he's super sad in his office perched on a windowsill reading twitter comments and posts about himself and Hira texts him and Kiyoi cries. Like the engine of the movie is the b plot after Anna gets pap'd with her secret dude and then people thinking she and Kiyoi are together.

That leads to the C plot/act 3 Hira’s stalker friend kidnaps Kiyoi. But for some reason he calls Hira to tell Hira he's kidnapped Kiyoi. (there was a lot of villanous monologuing while Kiyoi was bound and then the guy pushes him down and also kicks Kiyoi a few times before making the call). Hira goes full dark crazy Kira mode and shows up and beats the shit out of the dude. Kiyoi is pretty damseled in this scene and mostly just screams for Hira to stop and then Hira flips into cute "I live to serve you" mode and gets Kiyoi out of those ridiculously loose ribbons. Then the stalker dude is getting up and Hira is flipping back and forth really fast between Kira and Hira modes and ends up having to shove Kiyoi down and tells him to run while Hira and stalker dude fight. And Kira becomes like the terminator and is following the other stalker dude and beating him down but then he flips back into Hira and is walking back to Kiyoi while cutely saying Kiyoi over and over and other dude attacks Hira from behind and then stabs Hira in the stomach. Then Hira hallucinates Kiyoi coming to hug him (trailer scene) and it’s cut between that hallucination and Kiyoi literally screaming and crying cuz Hira is dying and then fade to black.

End phase/finale - Hira survives lol. Hira and Kiyoi help Anna out of her situation by having Hira’s mentor do a photo shoot with this random j-pop idol looking guy who ends up being Anna’s secret boo thing. Cougar fr. Then the end scene is a wedding themed photo shoot for Anna and idol guy. Then they ask Kiyoi to join them. Then mentor guy tells Hira to shoot Kiyoi and at first Hira can’t but then Kiyoi tells/commands Hira in Kiyoi's Dom voice and then Hira does and then they have a long photo shooting sequence and that’s where Kiyoi shows off his body. Hira graduates and he and Koyama (who is barely in the movie) have a "I'll see you around" kind of goodbye and then Hira goes to the riverside where Kiyoi is, a cherry blossom petal falls on Kiyoi and he picks it off like s1e1 and Hira is taking pictures of him and Kiyoi calls Hira stalker and they chat and then Hira leads them back to the school. And Hira confesses/declares/has a lengthy monologue at Kiyoi - he definitely tells Kiyoi directly that he likes him, while Kiyoi is like crying but smiling and facing Hira's confession directly. And then they’re about to kiss (all of their mouth to mouth kisses are interrupted or offscreen) and the teacher from season 1 is there at the school (for some reason at this unspecified date and time) and he is chastising them and then chasing them and Hira leads Kiyoi through a long series of slow-mo runs through the school while they switch/flashback into their old wardrobes - their full formal blue uniforms and their causal white/beige school clothes. And then they end up outside and have another water hose fight and that transitions into then hooking up at home? mouth kissing for the only time in the movie in a lot of tulle again. The ending sequence is their most high heat scene. Hira is kissing Kiyoi's chest a lot and a lot of mouth and neck kisses.

other blurbs

all Hira narration

No Kiyoi narration but Kiyoi did have a handful of scenes without Hira

Hira had a lot of scenes with him at work with his mentor and the other guy

Hira and Kiyoi I think re-have their season 2 fight about Hira thinking himself more as a fan than a boyfriend. Hira sleeps on the roof of his work building and then cooks ramen for mentor guy.

I think mentor guy might have had a thing for Anna and was maybe sad she has a boo thang and maybe Hira tells mentor he's dating Kiyoi so Kiyoi for sure isn't dating Anna.

I don't know if Kiyoi or Hira told other stalker guy they're dating. But both Kiyoi alone and Hira and Kiyoi exchanged words with him during the kidnapping scene.

the scene where Hira gets the "I kidnapped your boyfriend call" was really fucking well done. Hira is walking up stairs away from the camera when he gets the call and they drop the lights and make it super dark and that pans up into Hira's bangs and his Kira expression/kubric stare-esque and it was super cool

I think Yusei wears a shirt for Kiyoi that he also wears in his other series. The cloudy white and blue dress shirt.

The end sequence of Hira shooting Kiyoi was really fun and hot. Kiyoi takes off his tie and has it in his mouth with his shirt unbuttoned but tucked in so it's framing his abs. Apparently Riku directed that scene and I would personally like to thank him for his contribution to the arts

Kiyoi's theme wasn't in the movie a lot. The movie has its own OST and the movie songs share some melodies with the s1 ost but it was a lot of new music

the color grading was blue af. A lot of blue in the lights, glass, wardrobe, sheets, etc etc

I think Hira has told his cousin that he and Kiyoi are dating.

Hira, Kiyoi, cousin, and nephew all welcome and greet Anna after her scandal and Anna might hide out at Hira's place for a bit until Hira and Kiyoi do their surprise with bringing the idol into Mentor's studio

Kiyoi looks hella fond and proud when Hira interacts with Anna at Hira's house. And right in front of Hira. Later when Kiyoi and Anna are alone, Kiyoi says something including that Hira is gross and Anna agrees and Kiyoi blusters at her and she fondly apologizes

Ok that's the majority of what I remember. I am gonna see the movie again, so I'll update if I remember or see a scene I didn't recap here

Updated: the family member that comes to visit is Hira’s cousin, not sister. Thank you @ltrllynbdy

[clockwork-ashes]

Something Lonesome - Part I (again)

Read also on Ao3 :)

Summary: Elain dies when she’s thrown into the cauldron, but she doesn’t stay dead for long. Over and over, again and again, something brings her back, and every time she finds her way to Lucien.

Note: This is a romance, but it’s also just a story about Elain. There will be a happy ending <3 Also, completely dedicated to the lovely @nocasdatsgay because I have so many ideas and every time I yell them into the tumblr void (the tags) she has something nice to say <3

The water in the Cauldron was dark, unnaturally so, pitch black despite the flickering torches that lined the walls of the large space. It reflected nothing, only absorbed light and colour until it looked endless. 

The sight was enough to make Elain pause, familiarity making her tense. It flooded her senses, whirling until she was dizzy. Constant like the sound of crickets at dusk, she felt a memory just at the back of her mind, unreachable and yet there. 

Elain even recognised the ancient object in front of her, the deep grey iron surface of the bowl both uneven and smooth. It had a wide mouth and was filled to the brim, waves nearly spilling like there was a current, ripples being made on a phantom wind. It took her a moment to realise where she’d seen it before. 

In her dreams. 

Elain only tore her gaze away from the mesmerising waters when rough hands lifted her effortlessly into the air. The gag in her mouth tasted bitter and made her tongue dry. Each word she tried to utter was muffled, so she’d decided to keep silent earlier in the night. She was certain there were tracks cutting across her cheeks from all the tears she’d cried, but she admired Nesta’s bravery, her insistence on fighting tooth and nail until they had tied her hands and feet together. 

Elain could feel the cool metal of her engagement ring cutting into the skin of her finger. It was sharp, the knuckle curled in a way that made it hurt. She wondered if she was bleeding, but the sweat of her palms had her feeling unsure. 

Grayson’s pretty blue eyes flashed in her mind, clear as the sky in Spring. She didn’t want to think about him, about her life being cut so short before they could marry. She pushed the image of him aside, aching. 

Elain was hardly courageous, and she knew it. She hoped Feyre would forgive her, if not for anything else, at least for giving up so easily. Her younger sister held herself like a warrior, all grown up, and still, Elain thought of her as little. She figured that would always be the case, no matter how many years passed, time flowed like a river and most things stayed the same. 

“Please,” Feyre begged, a tightness to her voice that Elain had learned meant she was close to sobbing. 

Someone Elain could not see must have indicated to the men holding her. She was tugged gracelessly closer to the Cauldron. If she’d pointed her toes, her pale skin would have touched the water. She instead bent her knees up towards her chest, prolonging the inevitable. She felt more than heard the terrified moan escape through the corners of her gag. She couldn’t look at the water without wanting to shriek, so she turned her head, shifting her attention to anything else.

Almost like the pull of a magnet, her dark eyes fell instantly to a mismatched pair. 

Sunlight. 

The unknown man had sunshine in his gaze, golden and bright. The colour of his one eye was so lovely and rich, devastating. He looked unbelievably guilty. There was a miserable tightness to his auburn brows, a mournful expression tugging on the corners of his full lips. 

He had a hand on the sword at his belt, like he would have fought for her. He stayed in his place, a stoic faerie knight from the stories only told above the wall. 

Beautiful.

Elain felt something crack inside her chest, the pain unbearable. It was like someone had grabbed onto her rib and twisted until it broke, cleaving in two. Her eyes widened in shock, a silent plea for help. 

The red-haired man staggered forward, his mouth falling open in the smallest of gasps. Elain wished she had heard his voice, could imagine the low timber of it clear as glass. She guessed what he might whisper. 

Stay.  

Elain did not have the chance to shout, barely had the chance to blink. Eager hands casually threw her into the depthless waters of the Cauldron. Even then, the loss of contact had her noticing just how very alone she was.  

Elain felt each stab of ice slowly crawl along her spine, the single pearl from her ring shattering as the tiny pieces floated like shimmering snowflakes to the surface. She tried to watch them, could see their reflection mirrored like stars above her. Each spark of light winked out of existence, taking turns. The sharp taste of copper lingered, blood dancing on her tongue.

Darkness came again, and Elain let it take her without a fight.

[nishloves]

𝐒𝐄𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐙𝐄!

f!reader x kyojuro rengoku // fluff, angst // spoilers ahead! // masterlist

w a r n i n g s (part2) : blood, drinking, mentions of insomnia

w o r d s : 4.5k

chapter 1 | chapter 2 | (ch3-10 coming soon!)

you're sure that all your perfect stars were aligned when you met him.

"A party?" You mumbled, straightening out your now fixed haori as you looked at your kasugai.

"Master Ubuyashiki has prepared a feast for the hashira for their outstanding work!" The crow chirped, opting to sit on your shoulder as you folded your haori, stretching your legs and leaning back on the tatami floor.

"Sorry for yesterday, Karase," you said to your crow as she chirped, which you thought of as an apology accepted.

"I could see this party going down for so many reasons, plus hashiras out of work?" You grumbled to yourself.

"Oyakata sama must have something in his mind."

"Alcohol!"

"There's alcohol present too? Wow, I'm pretty sure we all are going to pass out."

Being demon slayers most of you didn't indulge in any type of alcoholic beverages for most of the year, there were some exceptions but most of you highly refrained from drinking, the party could be fun but you couldn't help feel trepidation, no hashira at work? Not a single one?

"When is the party anyway?"

"In an hour."

"IN AN HOUR!"

Your crow flew off again.

"You aren't very fast! Are you?" You scoffed, you could swear that your kasugai was giggling, even if crows can't really giggle.

You sighed as you fervently rummaged through your closet, should you just wear your uniform? Or would that be too weird? It wasn't as if you didn't have a life outside of the corps! It just... seemed like that.

You rummaged through your seven pairs of uniform and ten pairs of casual clothes, of which several were worn out because you wore them at home... did you really not have a life?

Maybe you should invest your hard earned money on clothes instead of cinnamon.

You looked at the time,

"I'm gonna be late, aren't i?"

You fervently threw on a decent white kimono covered with yellow and red flowers while managing your very very wild hair.

Somehow you got ready in fifteen minutes and stepped out of the house.

"Where is the party, Karase?" You asked your prankster crow as she peered at you.

"The sound hashira's house!"

"You're sure Oyakata sama planned our vacation and not Uzui san?" You asked, your brows furrowed.

"Oyakata sama was the one who planned it, for sure!"

Ren...Rengoku again?

You whipped your head towards the sound of his voice as you saw him laughing, "Hello l/n kun! Are you well now?"

You eyes widened as you noticed his apparel, draped in red kimono, his cloth was full of swirls of golden and yellow leaves with black cuffed sleeves, his hair tamed and collected into a low ponytail as you shamelessly gaped at him.

"Is there something on my face?" he asked, his brows scrunching slightly as he tried to register your expression.

"No- NOT AT ALL," you cried out, mentally slapping yourself for staring at him for too long, "I- I just never saw your hair tied back."

"Oh? Does it look bad?"

You eyes flickered along his golden ones, a smile twitching on your lips as you grinned, "Not at all, you look very cool!"

The tip of his ears and cheeks reddened as he blinked rapidly, did he get you to smile like that?

He should say something, compliment you on how your kimono complimented the undertone of your skin, how your eyes twinkled under the sun rays or rather how neatly your hair was done— but you had turned around, the moment had passed.

"Did Uzui san tell you about the party? You both are rather close," you asked, calming down your nervous and shy jitters as you managed to look ahead at the road, you knew you won't be able to converse with him if you look at him.

"Surprisingly no, I hadn't had a chance to talk to him for weeks," he replied honestly as he looked at your figure leading the way to the said hashira's house.

Rengoku had walked this path many times before, he didn't need any guide or whatsoever, but whatever you were doing was making him happy, so he didn't ask you to slow down.

Walking with you was better, he quite liked your company.

"Were you running late for the party too?"

His face flushed again as he looked away from you for a second; for someone who was known to be very punctual, this tardiness didn't suit him at all.

"I was," he said in a rather soft voice, "Though I was sure I would make it in time if I make a run for it."

You realised he hated calling the cabs.

"Why not call the cab?"

"And waste an opportunity to exercise?"

Or he was just very passionate.

You looked back at him, "Am i slowing you down?" You asked with guilt laced in your voice as you looked forward, "If you want we can still make a run for it, I am a hashira too—"

"No! You already overwork yourself, I am not letting you not rest on a rest day," Rengoku retorted, his strides widening as he easily caught up to you.

"You aren't slowing me down, l/n kun, I feel honoured to walk with you."

Did this guy ever blink?

You smiled slightly, "What's so honorable in walking with me?" You asked, playing with the sleeves of your kimono as Rengoku held your hand to help you cross the road. Your heartbeat fastened, he knew you could easily cross the road, hell you're a hashira! You could easily do any normal thing. But, you being a hashira wasn't an excuse for him to not be gentle with you.

"Shinobu would have chomped your ears off if you had tried to help her," you giggled, causing Rengoku to shiver at his imagination. "she would have," he agreed letting go of your hand,

Hold it again please.

"I'm glad I'm walking with you."

You could only hum and smile at the male bashfully as he grinned at you.

You both were the ones flirting, right?

"You're late."

"Not by much!" You retorted as Uzui grinned at you and Rengoku, not opting to remark on why you both were together.

"Well whatever, alcohol is there," he pointed to the distant corner of his very huge garden, "and food is there."

"Why are food and alcohol so far away?"

"I don't want to handle your drunk asses," he said; you could see his admittedly very pretty wives trying to serve hashiras with refreshments.

"Fair enough," Rengoku said as he walked further, his eyes very very set on the food.

"That was a rare sight," Uzui said, his lips widening into a smirk as you flinched.

"What do you mean?" You asked, being well aware of what he meant.

"You and Rengoku; I thought it was only Mitsuri and Obanai."

"It's not like that!" You retorted as you put your hands in the air, "We just met each other on the way!"

"So you aren't dating?"

"Not a chance," you replied, feeling a little disheartened.

"What a shame," the elder man said, turning to the direction of the party, "You don't look as flamboyant as me but still," he grinned back at you, "You look pretty today."

"Am I ugly otherwise?"

"I did NOT mean that, you just look depraved of food and sleep usually, you've rested well, that's good," he smiled at you as you followed him towards the party, not before noticing Rengoku devouring some type of meat and complimenting one of Uzui's wives (her name was Suma?) for the food.

"Glad that you could make it Y/N-san!"

"Thank you for hosting us, Hinatsuru-san," you smiled at the pretty lady who pushed a glass of sake in front of you, "Have fun!"

You looked around at the scene of the party; Uzui was trying to get Rengoku to slow down; Sanemi and Shinobu were into a deep conversation you had no idea about. Himejima san was snatching alcohol away from Muichiro and passing him an orange juice as Obanai looked at everyone annoyed, while Mitsuri tried to make him smile.

This is the closest to peace you all can have, isn't it?

Your gaze flickered towards the corner of the garden, where the water pillar sat alone with a drink in his hands.

Your heart throbbed, even you weren't that introverted.

You sauntered towards him, trying to keep him a company.

"Giyuu san," you called out, sitting in front of him.

"l/n," he nodded at you, his eyes softer than before.

"What are you doing?" You asked.

"Drinking."

You smiled at him, you knew that he was severely misunderstood, but who wouldn't misunderstand him if he gives them this sort of answer.

"Do you like it here?"

"Sanemi asked me to not be a buzz-kill so I'm sitting here."

You internally cringed as you looked at the wind hashira who was still engrossed in his conversation with Shinobu. He didn't have to be so mean.

"Don't think too much about it, you're fine, Giyuu san."

"I suppose... I should say thankyou."

"Well done!" You grinned at him, suddenly aware of the numerous stares on you both as you paid them no heed; Giyuu was known to be arrogant afterall, but not many of his rumours were true.

"How are you doing? I heard you got wounded," he asked, his eyes on you as you shuffled nervously.

"I wasn't particularly wounded! I was just... Burnt out, too exhausted to move, I didn't have any injury," you said, scratching your nape out of embarrassment.

"Why didn't you visit the butterfly mansion?"

"Well, i didn't see any need for it— it wasn't as if I was wounded and many others had to be treated with more priority," you replied, embarrassed out of your wit's end.

He gave you a disapproving glance, "Urokodaki san wouldn't like that."

"Hey! I sincerely didn't think that I required it!" You retorted as you sneezed, your body accepting the allegations you were trying to deny.

Giyuu passed you his handkerchief.

"Get a check up at the mansion soon, alright?" He said, his gaze averted to the empty glass sitting in front of you both.

You gave him a small smile; you had first met Giyuu three months before his final selection at Urokodaki's hut. He was your senior at the previous Water hashira's house. But, all your ties were cut after you had cultivated your own breathing style. It hurt you to see him being so painfully misunderstood, because you knew that he cared. He cared in his own way.

Yet when you see the Giyuu in front of you and the Giyuu you remember, there's a vast difference.

How could there not be?

You won't pry for his well being though, you don't need to. You suddenly remembered to write to the old man Urokodaki, you would soon.

"I will, Giyuu san," you replied, leaning back on your chair.

"l/n?"

"Yes?"

"What if... you come across a demon that doesn't kill humans?" Giyuu asked, his gaze still fixated on the empty glass.

"What? That's impossible, isn't it? A demon not wanting to eat human flesh?" You laughed, but something in Giyuu's demeanor made you think that it wasn't a joke.

"Only Muzan can do that right?" You asked, more alert than before as you tried to keep down all the foreign voices at the party.

". . ."

"Giyuu san," you said, your eyes squinting, "Did you see someone like that?"

"l/n, i-" the water hashira looked at you, he seemed uncomfortable, "there's a new demon slayer—"

"y/n kun! What are you doing sitting with Tomioka san all alone? Hasn't he bored you to death by now?"

You whipped around to see Shinobu grinning at you as Sanemi scoffed at the water pillar.

"Well— he hasn't. He's alright."

"Tomioka san, you shouldn't try to seem likable!"

"...people don't dislike me."

"Oh wow! Do you seriously believe that?" Shinobu gasped as you looked at Tomioka, you couldn't ask him for an explanation now— he looked too uncomfortable even in front of you to open up right away, it wouldn't be nice if you make him unload his baggage in front of everyone.

"Don't bully him, Shinobu," you nudged your friend as she grinned at you, "What do you need?" You asked with a smile.

"Has Tomioka's language skills rubbed off on you," she retorted as Sanemi rolled his eyes, "Well whatever, let's us all drink; This party exists so that we can strengthen our bonds and take a break, we should honor Oyakata sama's wishes."

"You should join us too, Tomioka san, even though it's not really required—"

"He will join us," You answered on Giyuu's behalf as you pulled him at front.

"She said it isn't required—"

"It is." You shut him up.

"Alright."

You all gathered at the huge table at the centre of the garden, Uzui sat at the head's seat while Rengoku sat just in front of you, he passed you a smile which you happily returned.

"Oh y/n kun! You look pretty," Mitsuri gasped as she looked at you. You blushed.

"Thankyou so much."

You felt Obanai's glare. Was it too hot today?

"Let us all drink and get to know each other well!" Shinobu announced as she beamed at others— she looked so passive aggressive at times—

You weren't against the idea, but was it safe for all of you to become drunkards? Plus, there was Muichiro.

"That excluded you, Muichiro kun, you shall eat rice," Himejima pushed a bowl in front of the boy's place. At least one problem was solved.

You were still astounded at the fact that everyone actually attended the party, although it was master's order.

"Are we sure we should all drink?" You voiced out. "We have to return back to our homes and prepare for our next mission— should we drink at all?"

"You worry too much, y/n-kun!" Shinobu smiled at you, "Uzui san, Rengoku san and Shinazugawa san all can hold their liquor— Kanroji kun isn't even affected by it. We will be fine! Plus we all have exceptional tolerance."

You reluctantly nodded at the insect pillar.

"Though, I am not sure about Tomioka san, did he ever drink with his friends before?"

"I haven't."

YOU SHOULDN'T ADMIT THAT!

"Ah... Poor Tomioka san..."

"I am not poor..."

Yeah, you couldn't help him anymore.

Your eyes flickered towards Rengoku from Giyuu who was already eyeing you intently as an unknown blush crept up to your cheeks, yet you couldn't help but notice that, Rengoku was also staring at the handkerchief in your hands, very intently too.

Turns out you can't actually hold onto your liquor and it's pretty easy to get you drunk— along with Mitsuri.

Somehow you're sitting next to Rengoku now, as Obanai sits in your previous place between Mitsuri and Giyuu. Uzui shamelessly made out with his wives while Muichiro and Shinazugawa talked to Himejima, you could barely make out Giyuu and Shinobu quarreling on something.

But despite this admittedly exciting background, you could only focus at Rengoku.

"Did i tell you that you look very handsome today, Rengoku san?" You giggled as you laid your head on the table, looking up at Rengoku as he beamed at you.

"Hmm yes! Today! Before the party!"

"Did i now?" You pouted, covering your face with your hands, "Can I tell you again?"

"Haha! You may," he smiled at you, his heart racing because of your cuteness, how could someone as strong as you come off as such a little fluffball?

"But, i don't think you like me!" You pouted, smashing your face into the table as Rengoku tried to steady you.

His heart clenched, did he do something to make you feel that way?

"Why do you think that?" He asked, his voice quieter than before as you gazed up at him, "You didn't talk to me at the party even once!"

"Did i not? I'm sorry for that."

"You should be," you huffed as you leaned your head on his shoulder, making him blush slightly. "Don't be mean to me!"

"I promise I will not be," he smiled at your antics as you rested yourself on his shoulder, feeling more safe than ever. "l/n kun?"

"yes?"

"You look beautiful."

"Thankyou," you giggled as you closed your eyes, falling into a deep slumber.

Being with Rengoku always made you feel safe and secure, yes, you did fall asleep in front of him too much when you shouldn't— but did it matter? You were drunk and your crush was finding you adorable. You were on top of the world.

Shinobu's eyes fell upon you both as Rengoku's chest swelled with warmth, he loved it whenever you would get so vulnerable and light-hearted with him, it made him feel like you trusted him. Trusted him enough to show your inner child to him.

"It's cute how she fell asleep so easily after drinking," Shinobu said, her eyes on you.

Rengoku furrowed his brows, fell asleep easily? More often than not he had seen you dozing off earnestly.

"What do you mean?" He asked Shinobu as the insect pillar patted your head.

"She has acute insomnia because of her paranoia, it's hard for her to fall asleep usually— that's why I always urge her to visit for a checkup, but she rarely does," Shinobu said as she looked at Rengoku, "though the situation feels better now."

Rengoku's golden eyes flickered towards your figure which was half sprawled on him, his hands clutching your arm so that you don't fall as he tried to hide his smile, did you feel safe with him? He wondered as he got up from his seat, steadying your half limp body.

"I will get going," he announced to Tengen as the latter just nodded at him.

"Will you drop her off?" The sound pillar asked as he motioned towards your figure.

"Hmm. I will," Rengoku smiled at him as he picked you up gingerly, afraid of waking you up.

He called a cab as he placed you down on the seat, requesting the driver to drive slowly.

He chuckled as he saw you snuggling deeper into the seat, a small smile on your face as you lazily gazed up at Rengoku.

"Hehe, I like you very much, Rengoku san."

The second time you had met Rengoku was two months after the final selection, at the foothills of a huge mountain where you laid severely injured as the yellow haired man scrambled towards you.

"Shit— it really is you, l/n," you could hear his loud voice as you tried to breathe softly, energy draining from your body as you saw the flame haired man patch you up.

He smiled at you when he saw that you were conscious, "Hey there! I never assumed we would meet this way."

"i hope we don't ever meet this way again," you could hear him say.

"Reinforcements..." You muttered out, your voice strained as the man tried to help you lay down.

"Don't sit up, you would lose blood that way!" He scolded as he laid you down, "and for reinforcements— the stone pillar was sent here when it was determined that the demon was a lower moon."

You looked around yourself, corpses of demon slayers laid out in the open ground as tears welled up in your eyes, you were so useless— so helpless against the strong foe.

"The stone hashira took care of the demon," Rengoku said as he helped you sit up after patching your wound at your stomach. You saw a wound on his shoulder, blood seeping from it.

"You're hurt," you whispered, you hand on his arm as he smiled at you, "Himejima sama was fast, I didn't get hurt badly."

You nodded as you leaned your head back, trying to relax.

You remembered that a number of demon slayers were sent behind the demon, numerous of lower classes trying to make up for a lack of hashira as you winced in pain.

"You're strong," you said, your eyes on Rengoku as you saw his eyes widening slightly, "Not really, I was useless against the demon," he said, his smile unfaltering.

"I have to train a lot more," he said, crouching in front of you.

"At least you were able to give him a fight," you muttered, looking down at your hands as Rengoku's hands went up to your face, he levelled your chin up to look at him as he said, "I knew you would make it out alive. You know why?"

"... Why?"

"Because you're strong too," he smiled at you as he turned out, his back facing you, "come now, get on."

"What?"

"Let me take you to the butterfly mansion," he grinned at you as you smiled at him. Grateful for having a friend.

It had only been a few months and Rengoku had gone up from Mizunoto to Kanoe; while you were still a Mizunoe. It was embarrassing but you were alright, you would train harder to get on to the same level as him. He was the motivation you needed in this cruel world, even if you didn't register it yourself.

While you dreamt happily, Rengoku was stuck in a dilemma as he held you in his arms in front of your house. You weren't waking up at all, should he break into your house? Or should he take you as a guest to his family mansion?

He heard you mumbled some incoherent sentences against his chest as his heart swelled, along with a little guilt. He couldn't help it, could he?

He moved towards his house with you in his hands.

He would keep you away from his father's gaze and take care of you in his own house, until you wake up.

He cursed at himself as he admired your soft figure, how was he to stay strong when you were so cute in his arms?

When you woke up in a different room than yours you groaned at yourself, were you a nuisance to sound hashira last night?

Bracing yourself for incessant snarks from Uzui, you readied yourself before stepping out of the admittedly pretty and traditional room.

But, you were met with a different entity entirely, a little boy with very similar looks to Rengoku as your eyes widened.

"Senjuro kun?" You asked, your mind racing as you tried to figure out just what you did last night— but, it was all a blur, any memory after the sound hashira's house was a total blur.

Also, this permeating headache was nearly killing you.

"l/n san! Good morning," the boy smiled at you as he passed a tray towards you, you felt queasy looking at the food as you swore you wouldn't drink anymore.

"Good morning," you muttered out, your throat dry as you realised just how horrible you must be looking, should you really step in Rengoku's mansion like this? The thought of your physical condition made you more sick, you didn't care about the way you looked in front of Uzui— he was honestly like a big brother. But, Kyojuro Rengoku was another deal—

"This is for your hangover, you will feel better after this," the boy said as he passed you the fluid and you drank it in a gulp.

"That wasn't very tasty."

"It isn't supposed to be," Senjuro laughed at you as he took the dish from your hands, "you must have drunk a lot for nii-san to carry you here."

"You're telling me Rengoku carried me here?"

"Precisely."

"Wow, i must be such a burden."

"I don't think he felt the weight."

"Did you- did you just affirm that I am a burden?" You asked incredulously as Senjuro laughed at you.

You came to know Senjuro and Mitsuri because of Rengoku, yet— yet, you were closer to them than Rengoku. In the past, you had a habit of running away whenever Rengoku approached you, so that wasn't a surprise.

"I should go and say sorry, shouldn't i?" You said as Senjuro shrugged, "Someone made you hangover drink."

"Thankyou, dammit!"

"Mention not."

"Where is he?" You asked the boy as he smiled, "I think he just went towards the market to prepare for his mission."

"He has a mission today?"

"That's why he didn't drink yesterday," Senjuro said as he pulled a broom out of nowhere and went towards the garden.

"I would advise you to hurry to meet him before he actually steps into the market, you won't get to talk to him after that."

You rushed out of Rengoku's mansion but, really... You were late, or the hashira was too fast as you panted outside your house.

Your home was closer to the market than Rengoku's, so if he was returning anytime soon, you would meet him in front of your house.

"Oh? l/n!"

His loud voice boomed around your house as you smiled at him, waving at him sluggishly as he trotted towards you.

"Are you alright?" He asked, a smile on his face.

"I am, thanks for carrying me yesterday."

"It's no problem!"

"And sorry for being such an inconvenience—"

"You weren't," he cut you off as you noticed a change in his glances towards you, were you still dreaming?

"I- did I do anything weird yesterday?" You asked, playing with your cuffs as you looked at him bashfully.

"Haha! Not really, you were just singing some sappy songs on the way, do you not remember?" He asked, his glare more demanding than before.

"I was?" You squeaked as you looked at him, embarrassment flooding your cheeks, "I-I am sorry, I don't remember anything of yesterday," you admitted.

"oh... I see."

Did something happen yesterday? Did you say anything?

"It's alright, l/n, you were nice to me even when you were drunk," Rengoku smiled, he didn't lie— he hated lying, but half-truths weren't lies right?

"Yet again sorry—"

"It's alright, you didn't mean it... you didn't mean anything."

Something in his words made you snap into reality more than before as you looked at the food in his hands.

"Oh right, today's your mission right? When are you leaving?" You asked as Rengoku looked at the food in his hands momentarily.

"I will be leaving tonight," he said, "Something about frequent disappearances at the mountain, I hope it's not a demon."

You hummed at affirmation as you looked at his golden eyes, which ignited certain spark in your heart.

"Rengoku san?"

"yes?"

"When you return, can I treat you to a meal?" as a date, you wanted to add but you couldn't.

But, the flame haired smiled widely at you, as if just the offer was enough to fill warmth into his heart.

"Sure l/n kun, I will look forward to it!"

"Take care... Rengoku san," you said as a slight blush graced your features.

He looked at you in sheer silence for a while as he raised his hand to pat your head, full adoration in his voice as his eyes crinckled, "I will, l/n kun. Promise me you will take care of yourself too?"

You smiled, "I will."

more at chapter 3! (coming soon)

not kidding, I wanted to publish this chapter within ten days of ch1 but it stretched to 11 days T-T

though, I do hope you all had fun reading it!

tags : @atmosphinx @sanjunlvr (you seemed interested in the fic so I thought to tag you, if you don't want to be disturbed, kindly let me know! thankyou &lt;;3)

kny tmi! - canon

rengoku possibly burst his eardrums when he was fighting the lower moon 2 for his position as a hashira— that's why his voice is too loud lol.

as far as I remember, when shinjuro stepped down as his position as a hashira rengoku went into a hashira meeting unannounced on behalf of his father when he wasn't even a tsuguko! thus, he had to kill a lower moon asap to become a flame hashira and step in his father's position!