#jfc that stream was DARK

[jofiah]

Anyway here's me first-trying a boss knowing nothing about it beforehand in DS3

[harriertail]

Omen of the Stars reread + a lot of thoughts

The Fourth Apprentice

The cover is actually the best cover in the series are you kidding me? Its so pretty. The yellow blue and dark green r so nice

Why does the TC/ShC stream drying up affect the lake water level and not the RiverClan... river? Does the Moonpool stream still run???

Every mention of Squirrel and Leaf sitting together "so close they were like kits just out the nursery" is an actual STAB in the chest. They go thru so much :((((

A flash flood seems to take out the beaver den (or its just poorly worded?) so what was the point of the journey...

Dovewings personality is snappier than i think pple give her credit for, I kinda enjoy her

Tigerheart literally does not interact with her on the mission lmao what is he on about 'I'm gonna miss you'

Jayfeather missing Lionblaze is act so painful :(

Fading Echoes

So much of the opening of these books is just recounting previous events and character arcs omg this goes for all WC books.

Hollyleaf :(

Blossompaw's siblings joke that she moons over Toadstep. Idk why fucking Thornclaw becomes her mate later on then :/

What is Tigerheart doing on the border ? he doesnt explain it? I actually thought that he was already meeting Dovepaw secretly but then hes not like what is he doing...?

Dovepaw being worried for the other Clans + her thoughts about having this power should put her above the Clan rules could be so interesting. the series back-and-forths over Lionblaze (we must protect ThunderClan) and Dovepaw (we must protect all the Clans) even though Lionblaze gets annoyed at Dovepaw for using her powers to look after ThunderClan???

The whole "being obsessed with Prophecy and what it means" is probs a part of Jay's character (as he baso became a med cat to fulfil his destiny) but it also feels like a gross misunderstanding of what a Prophecy is. All the "the dark forest is rising. This might be what the Three is meant for" is like putting the horse before the cart- a prophecy is meant to describe a situation and hint at the character/means to solve it; but PO3/OoTS has the characters/means to solve, but no conflict :/ its a bit backwards.

I like the mentions of Firestar + Sandstorm going on night hunts etc.

Blossompaw/fall's a cunt lol. Shes kinda fun but shes not nice at all especially to Ivypool.

I love Littlecloud. I love when the med cats share ideas and discuss things 10/10 makes my day everytime

The pacing is actually... not good. Ive defo always been on thr camp of "too many povs and too few chapters ruins the book" but wow FE really shows it.

So much of Doves characterisation so far is about agency and not wanting to be special and have Firestar/Lion/Jay talk to her. I wish this was not forgotten about in later Super Editions.... kittypetdovewing2k24

this battle is crazy tho. I wish more of the DF plot was about stirring up trouble between the Clans and specific troublemakers in each Clan rather than the later nebelous 'dark warriors invade the forest' battle. Ill get to that one day

Night Whispers

Picking right back up in the battle...

and again just recounting the last books events. hollyleaf death/disappearance explanation count: 3

Kinda love how many times shes mentioned. From Lionblaze avoiding the tunnel she ran into to Jayfeather finding the fur that Leafpool hid.... cute

Okay i actuallt love ShadowClan discussing the battle + tactics + training and then the chapter immediately after the TC camp doesnt mention it at all and Ivypaw is like "why arent we discussing the battle? Just because we won doesn't mean we will again!!" interesting character moments + a nice look at differences between the Clans

Ivypaw and dovepaw fighting over tigerheart????? they fight so much but then always wanna be together like jfc.

Dove n tiger have negative chemistry like it just jumps right into "no boundaries can keep us apart". I get shes using him as an escape from TC/prophecy bullshit but like.... rlly? I wish it was just like expanded on. Tbh i wish every chapter had like just two extra pages to actually delve into things a bit better.

Lmaoo lionblaze cinderheart leafpool dovepaw patrol this is so fucking funny brambleclaw u get one point for this

Tigerheart break up scene count: 1

Flametail POV. Interesting but... why? Bad things r coming we know... what was his point narratively? It was cool tho. I liked seeing ShadowClan.

Every single book Dovepaw has a character die/get really hurt and is haunted by their screams. Rippletail, Longtail/Briarpaw, and later on its Antpelt... jesus christ girlie has it SO rough

The ivypaw "nernernenerner im better than you im being trained by tigerstar" to "oh fuck hes actually a bad guy i cant believe the terroristic maniac lied to me" is so rapid shes so funny/stupid

The imagery in this book is kinda crazy. Fire and ice cats and drowning in darkness visions. Very fun.

Sign of the Moon

So the med cats are divided and split up and StarClan does not trust any other Clan cat- but when in StarClan, Barkface and Flametail are hanging out? Crookedstar offers to share prey with Yellowfang? But StarClan is super fractured rn each Clan must stand alone. Okay

Antpelt nooooooooooooooo

Idk what the mountain prophecy actually means like. Firestar was always going to lead ThunderClan into battle.... what is he gonna do that's different...

Rock: i was the first Stoneteller Five chapters later Half Moon becomes the first Stoneteller. This is egregious

Swoop death. that's the fourth death Dovewing is going to be haunted by

The Forgotten Warrior

all the hints to Hollyleaf still... its a nice throughline... the yarrow and tansy and Molepaw/Cherrypaw scenes... shes my fave. sometimes the foreshadowing feels like it could be just Jayfeather coping that she's 'defo still out there' but TFW ties it up well. especially when you get surprised by Sol coming back and its like 'oh they were convinced she was defo still out there :(' and then she's actually back!!!

also the title??? is banger. the Forgotten Warrior, with Leafpool on the OG cover??? wow. espec as its constantly brought up that Leafpool was the medicine cat but no one sees her as a warrior really.... TBH all these titles are just as good as the TPB titles in terms of meaning/how good they are.

Another fox? okay.

SOL.... okay

tunnel adventures part 3.

All this like.. Bumeblstripeing is just kinda naff. Dovewing is clearly tryna force herself into liking him. But then she's also going on about how Tigerheart used her??? NGL i do really wanna see like.. why she changes her mind in AVOS

Brambleclaw lying to protect Hollyleaf is actually like. GOD that hurts. especially when you consider Bramblestar's Storm and how much he misses her. thats his favourite

the cinderheart shit is so stupid my jaw is actually on the floor. what you do mean you've been in love with a cat you shouldn't have. is cinderheart having cinderpelt's feelings for fucking firestar and that's why she doesn't want to be with lionblaze. also they have negative chemistry they literally are CONSTANTLY having issues.

oh my god i swear the 'Sol is secretly working with WindClan' was brought up chapters ago and we are only now dealing with it okay. anyway hollyleaf moment.

its kinda weird we dont get any like. scenes of the siblings just being siblings... they only discuss prophecy/plot shit and dont get to be siblings again - which i guess fits with the whole 'everything has changed' but god it'd be so god to just have them doing like. normal cat stuff - especially when so much of this series has had Jayfeather missing her and Lionblaze

i love Dustpelt and Brackenfur building shit... its so good

Dawnpelt murder accusations. okay.... i can't wait for Flametail to suddenly be argumentative again next book

the battle we've been building to all book is one chapter. cool. Sol runs off again and it's the end of the book. cool.

[horsetailcurlers2]

YET ANOTHER long and obnoxious stream of my thoughts while watching greys anatomy for the first time (S19 bc i’m finally caught up, babey!!!! (phew))

-i hope this new class of residents isn’t as one dimensional as the last one

-“you say please to bhokee!” hell yeah you do schmitt. (i love that she did say please he was just so ready to jump down her throat about it lmoa)

-DEREK’S NEPHEW ?????!!! WHICH SISTER? my money is on nancy bc i always thought she was the oldest so she would have the son old enough to be out of med school

-okay i’m too curious (for some reason i’ve always just been curious about the shepherds) so i’ve gone back to S15E21 (good shepherd) to see if i could get a better look at nancy’s wall of family photos. i see one of nancy with a young curly haired girl, kathleen with a light haired child, and two photos that are just groups of kids. my assumption is that these two are all of nancy’s kids because if she had photos of her nieces and nephews i feel like they would include their parents. both photos show two boys and two girls. it looks like the same four kids just at two different ages. the oldest (or at least the tallest) in both photos is a boy with dark hair. this may support my theory that nancy is lucas’s mother. the rest of the photos aren’t very clear. the only thing is that all of the kids look very fair and lucas is not. they also clearly wrote this episode way after they shot the scene with amelia looking at the photos so they may have not even bothered with details that were meant to be sort of irrelevant at the time.

-okay this is a very tragic story with (griffin??? griffith??) and makes her lateness and weirdness understandable but am i the only one who thinks it’s insanely bizarre to be sharing your tragic life story to your superior on your first day?

-idk about this season yet. i feel them trying to sort of mirror season one in some ways, focusing more on the interns (which i think i like), trying to connect back to old characters, but it feels a *little* forced so far

-i like mean and snappy teddy

-have we ever seen this library before?

-“i tried to implement similar changes at various times and was always met with resistance” ???? when did bailey try to implement those changes to the residency program? she implemented changes but they for sure weren’t these ones

-why is it better for them to think he’s sleeping with her????? jfc lucas

-ADDISON LOOKS SO HOT. i like this costuming for her. very reminiscent of her private practice wardrobe

-i really like baileys braids this season btw. and i like that she has a special scrub cap that can cover them all

-lucas’s dad is from barbados. idk what to do with that but it is another clue lmao. if nothing else, i’m hooked on this season just to find out who his mother is

-no comment on the dancing

-helm looks really cute as a bartender

-owen when teddy isn’t super happy and content with him after he fucked them over and put their children’s well-beings at risk: 😯

-addison and tom should have met

-oh my god just tell them you’re a nepo baby!! they think you’re fucking your aunt!

-it made complete sense to bring addison back for this storyline. i hope they explore it a little more and keep bringing her back.

-i’m so confused about lucas’s whole complex. wouldn’t he have grown up with his dad’s last name anyway? why has this been an issue “all his life”??? and until he went to med school i doubt anybody even knew the significance of him being a shepherd

-what planet is owen living on where he thinks they would let him be chief again rn

-i can see myself shipping mike chang and mary queen of scots once they develop their characters a bit more. simone and lucas i like in theory but idk about the chemistry

-“i am not going to beg you to love me” good meredith bc that didn’t work out so well the first time u did it

-intern house is back!!! i really like that actually

-a full time administrative assistant is completely reasonable. richard had patricia when he was chief

-looking very hot for having just been hit by a car

-winston definitely had a point at first but at this point he’s pissing me off. it’s reminding me of that big meredith and cristina fight in the sense that it feels like he’s deliberately taking everything she’s doing and saying in the worst possible way.

-richard and addison’s dynamic is so underrated

-this is incredibly random but it just popped into my head. it’s so weird that amelia has never brought up her friend michelle on greys. you know, her friend from pp that committed suicide bc she had huntingtons which ultimately kickstarted amelia’s relapse. i feel like it could have been relevant to a few cases

-pru is so fucking cute

-so many people keep leaving i don’t really have a reaction to it anymore. but i will very much miss maggie. ik a lot of people don’t like maggie (prob bc they thought she was trying to fill the spaces that lexi and cristina left behind) but i really liked her. i think i found her very relatable in a lot of ways. even/especially when she was a little annoying lol

-why is this guy specifically requesting bailey? (not that she’s not great at her job it just has suspicious vibes) is he one of the anti choice harassers? nervous for that especially since addison is here so i feel like it will be about that storyline

-jesus christ i knew it. bc it’s so “pro life” to threaten a child!!!!!! go kwan though. and teddy!

-JUJU!!!

-yasuda x helm <3

-cristina mention !!!!

-i really like that there’s no intern/attending relationships lately

-i’m doubling down on thinking lucas is nancy’s bc i think if he has adhd, kathleen likely would have noticed bc she’s a psychologist. obviously it’s possible she wouldn’t have, everyone has blind spots but i think this makes the most sense still. and ik he could still be liz’s but i’m still unsure on if the ages work out and i think they were banking on which actress would be more likely to make an appearance later on and neve campbell is less likely to come back than the others.

-uggh why do i HATE simone’s wedding dress.

-omg i’m a terrible person i didn’t realize it was her late mother’s. i’m so sorry the fit of it just looks off

-i wonder how they’re going to ruin/derail this wedding? they’ve already done leaving at the altar, objections, elopements. maybe the twist is that she actually goes through with it?? or they’ll just be boring and so the same thing they’ve done before

-i like that they still call it “joe’s” even though we never see joe anymore

-winston is getting on my nerves. he always starts off having a point and then he gets all immature and petty about it

-dude that is not how a DNR works

-aww yay for bailey

-side note amelia looks great

-TEDDY!!!

[the-last-rat-standing]

Tin Star (My thoughts on all 3 seasons)

There's a lot to unpack here now that I've watched it all, including how my feelings of it shifted as the seasons went on, particularly into season 3. So, pour yourself a drink. Spoilers, of course, to follow.

When I went to other sites to see discussions about this show, I came across so many posts that criticized the show for being unrealistic and over the top, and I think those viewers missed the point completely. Nearly everyone on this show is fucked up in some way; it's just a matter of where they fall on the Fucked Up scale. Jim/Jack, Angela and Anna are 3 very fucked up people and there can't possibly be a happy ending for them (can there?). I don't think this show is meant to be absorbed in a linear/tie up loose ends/believable way. You only have to see the amount of blood in the first few episodes to know you're going to be asked to suspend your disbelief for the entire ride. And if you can do that, it's one hell of a ride.

I'm not going to break down each season, because to be honest, there's a LOT going on and a lot more characters interacting than you might think. I will say, the oil company is a complete fake-out in terms of plot. Yes, Gagnon and North Stream Oil do play a part, but it is so removed from what you expect it to be. They start out as the Big Bad and that lasts for about 3 episodes until their PR spokesperson (Elizabeth) discovers -shock!- that the company is dirty. That really becomes the first domino that sets the rest of the action in motion for about half of the characters. (Angela, Elizabeth, Jacyln, then later in season 2, Johan and his family.) The other half get caught up in the people sent to Little Big Bear to kill Jim/Jack. Among those people is a  young man who has a past with Jack. That really is the gist of season 1 and 2, but jfc, it is crazy dark. And a LOT of black humour.

(GIF credits go to @timrothgifs, and let me just say, as I was perusing their blog for gifs, I saw so many that made me go, "Oh, I had blotted that scene out of my brain." Lol!)

I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 once I got used to the Neo-Noir aspect of it and stopped looking for realism or consequence. S2 for me went a bit off the rails and not in a good way, primarily because it almost wasn't crazy enough? Like, you set me up after season 1, but season 2 was mostly Jack being a loose cannon with no real direction. Moments from season 1 didn't seem to matter in season 2 even though many of the plotlines remained. It felt convoluted and muddled and it wasn't until the big finale that things got sorted.

Season 3 leaves Canada behind and the Worth family (Jack/Angela/Anna) go to Liverpool to basically kill everyone who is a threat to them. No, really, they have a literal list. Season 3 is batshit bonkers in a way that I can only say, I bet the actors had a really good time filming it. So many moments felt like the writers had certain scenes in mind and they were going to put them in an episode even if they had to write around the scene to make it fit. And there was a sense that the actors were told to make it up as they went along, so they did and it was hilarious. Here again is the point where you have to accept none of this could ever, ever happen. The soap in the sock scene, where Jack gets bashed in the head, repeatedly, but is A-OK enough 10 minutes later to escape? Yeah no. And that's just one of many scenes that are so over the top that you can't possibly be expected to think this is remotely possible. So just sit back and enjoy it.  

Let me talk about the show in general rather than specific plot points and such. (Though I do wonder if Thomas is still running somewhere in his oversized bullet proof vest that Angela gave him.)

Something that often doesn't get pointed out by reviewers because they're not from Canada, I give the show all the credit in the world for being honest about our attitude towards the Native population in this country, and in particular, Native women. There are some painful truths spoken on this show, and when it's the Irish woman who points it out, it's even more reprehensible. Might be the only actual point of realism in the entire show, to be fair.

They had different directors for different episodes, but they were all very good at pacing and knowing when to pull the suspension like taffy and when to hit you right in the face. The opening scene in season 1 is so beautifully paced and the tension was so brilliantly drawn out that when the Moment happens, it's like someone popping a balloon. There are many scenes throughout the show that do this, all the while not undermining things by doing the fake scares/Big Scares that so many directors often do. The deaths of Whitey, Gagnon, Johan and Helen are longer scenes where you know exactly how they'll end, but the director is in no hurry to get there. Then there are scenes where you think will be drawn out that happen in the blink of an eye, and that's when you appreciate how they've quietly set you up for the shock. (Mary, Sarah, Jaclyn (!!), the priest, Jesse and his father, Lunt, just to name a handful.) Then you have the deaths we don't see but we know they happen- Frank, Rosa (!!) and Michael. Just some really good balancing to keep us involved.

As you can imagine by the amount of names listed, don't get attached to anyone. I mean it. You will have your heart fucking broken more than once if you do.

The acting is spot on, from the leads to the supporting cast. Everyone was perfect for the role they were given and even the smallest part had something important to do. The chemistry between Tim Roth and Genevieve O'Reilly was off the fucking charts, though, and their characters are so, so fucked up that they are perfect for each other. I never did warm to Anna, but that wasn't the fault of Abigail Lawrie; that was just my deep abiding annoyance of the character. 

I almost think you can watch season 3 on its own, because there is no carry over from seasons 1 or 2. Now, you'll miss the slow dawning of realization of how off the wall the characters and the plot is, and maybe you're the type of viewer who needs 5-7 episodes to get the feel of a show and what the showrunners are trying to accomplish. Season 3 only has 6 episodes, so you're not going to get that there. But if you can hop into something feet first with little lead-up and are ready for a large body count and black humour, then S3 will be right up your alley.

As for the ending -which I'm not going to spoil completely- I think we have to go back to the idea that we're not meant to view things through a 'real' lens. If we'd been given any indication that there was a semblance of realism up to the end of season 3, then sure, the end is fatalistic and that's that. But think about what they've been through up to that point. Would it be so far-fetched (for the show) for the ending to not be anything more than a, ahem, jumping off point for their new life?

I don't even know if I can recommend this show. Lol! It's so not at all what you're going to think it is going into it. I mean, here's the Google summary:

Deep in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, a recently emigrated police sheriff and his family try their best to survive in a charming mountain town rife with crime and corruption. Sheriff Jim Worth struggles with the ghosts of his past as he attends AA meetings, and his wife, Angela, tries to integrate in the town of Little Big Bear. At the same time, a massive oil company, North Stream Oil, opens a refinery just out of town, bringing with it a swath of migrant workers, rising crime levels, and pollution. When a friend of Jim's dies under mysterious circumstances written off as a suicide, he butts heads with representatives of the oil firm when he tries to uncover the truth of the matter.

Um… yeah but no? I mean, it would be like me summarizing 'Alien' as: "A group of space garbage collectors pick up something that could change their lives forever."

It is so barely scratching the surface of the show that I'm sure I wasn't the only one who got 4 episodes in and went, "What the fuck am I watching? I was led to believe—"  Well, don't believe it. But if you like Neo-Noir (almost) ultra-violent vengeance stories where you blindly wave away the protagonist's body count because sometimes he's actually likeable, sprinkled with a liberal dash of sex appeal and dark humour, then this is totally the show for you. Don't expect to learn much about Canada, though, (except how beautiful it is). Trust me, I'm Canadian.

Oh, and the person in charge of music has picked some perfect songs. I've made a short playlist of some of the songs, but if you want all of them, go here: https://www.tunefind.com/show/tin-star/season-1/52281

Here's a playlist of my favourites that I hope links properly:

If you give this show a shot, to let me know. I would LOVE to talk to you about it!

[blackjackkent]

OK, I'm less surprised that those gith were able to find us - we're right at the far western edge of the map and just opened a useful waypoint:

Much as Hector would like to, we're not going that way yet. Far too much still to do in the Shadowlands.

Right next to this waypoint, however, just to the north, is a bunch of shadow-cursed enemies and this extremely ominous-looking entrance:

Hector has hated every single thing he has experienced in Reithwin Village and I suspect he's not going to like this part any better.

Unsurprisingly the place is extremely full of dead, mutilated bodies.

Highly amused by this interchange that fired off as soon as we entered:

Obliterated.

TBH I think Shadowheart is, much more quietly, having almost as shitty a time in Reithwin as Hector is. As (I think?) @zenjestrr pointed out in my stream playthrough - she tries to act real tough and edgelord to please her goddess, but she approves every time we are nice to children and animals; fundamentally it's pretty clear that everything she's seeing here is clashing with her personal sense of right and wrong even if she's terrified of what that implies.

And she can't even talk about it with Hector or any of the rest of the party since that would mean admitting that something is wrong with the way she's been taught to see the world.

It's hard to say how much of this is actual Sharran behavior and how much of it is Ketheric and co. having gone completely off the deep end, but either way there's no way she's as calm as she's trying to act.

A note lies on a nearby barrel:

>:|

I actually found the hidden wall before I found the note bc Shadowheart is a boss and perceptioned the button. Walked into the vault expecting to maybe get some fun treasure - what I actually found was two charred dead bodies, an apple, a ring of deception +1, and this:

...Sure. O.O

The morgue proper looks even worse. Blood everywhere, poison clouds coming out of the vents, and numerous undead sprawled around, apparently just vibing.

After clearing the zombies out and looking around, Hector noticed that of the three doors leading south, north, and west out of this room, the southmost one has been wiped clean of dust. That seems very odd to notice but probably significant, so we'll go that way first.

Inside we find a dead aasimar Harper, Olam, and yet another journal of the last days as Reithwin fell to the darkness.

I got three different inspirations for reading this - two from Hector and Gale for Sage and one from Shadowheart for Acolyte.

This is particularly interesting because the orthon in the Shar temple mentioned an aasimar in conjunction with speculating on why Raphael wanted him to kill Dark Justiciars. I can only guess that this is the aasimar in question, but he's a Harper; what does he have to do with Raphael?

He also left some notes and a key to something called a "necrotic laboratory"; I'm assuming that's one of the other doors from the main room and that this guy was trying to experiment and find a way to lift the curse (unsuccessfully).

I kind of enjoy the idea of "magical research" as a concept. It sort of feels like how the idea of "mathematical research" in our world feels sort of out there - how do you find "new" math? But with both math and magic there are, it seems, always new things to be learned.

The main room is completely full of poison by now. Let's quickly try the other two doors and get out of here.

Western door unlocks with Olam's key and reveals yet more horror and blood.

Some notes left behind from Malus Thorm here, which are exactly as unpleasant as you would expect:

There's also some notes about his research for a paralytic poison derived from a "carrion crawler."

This displeases me because I remember carrion crawlers from Baldur's Gate 2 and they were gross.

There's also a lever in here which opens the final door. Excellent. Let's go take a look at that and then--

JFC, what?

OK, so this is a fairly awful looking pit. Noxious looking gases and a lot of dead bodies and blood at the bottom. There is a visible path downwards but it's not immediately obvious how to get onto it.

In the end I loaded up Shadowheart and Gale both with Dimension Door and had them portal Karlach and Hector around the place. There's a path out the rear as well which we'll check out in a moment, but down into the pit first.

Surprisingly, the noxious gases don't actually appear to be noxious, but the whole area is an acid surface and we do get to fight a bunch of these little guys, as well as the Hollow Armor mentioned in Olam's notes.

Other than this, though, not really much to see, so we'll try the rear path.

...Goodie.

This actually was not as ominous as the name implies; it brought us out to an area across the water from the Last Light and just north of the entrance to the Sharran complex, at what appears to be some sort of fishing hut.

JK thirteen cursed Kuo-Toa just spawned around me...

Luckily Gale has a new toy as of his last level-up:

Dats Fireball babeeee.

Also quite enjoyed Shadowhearts' spirit guardians on this fight; just had her run around and bump into people until they fell over.

There was nothing of particular use on the kuo-toas or the fishing hut, except a high quality pun from some poor bastard consumed by shadow a hundred years ago.

[cdroloisms]

hey guys !! i am back lmao ,, sorry ive been a bit busy with irl stuff but MANNN that quackity stream huh ????

i’ll be working on asks today, but first have this quick snippet i wrote up following that stream bc holy hell that’s gonna be the only thing on my brain for days now. take care of yourselves, and PLEASE be cautious - this is DARK content, thanks to this frickin arc jfc the streamers did NOT hold back huh.

for anything to do with quackity’s stream and its implications i’ll be tagging with -> q stream aftermath , so feel free to block that if you don’t want to see it!

tws: aftermath of torture, (physical/emotional) abuse, blood, head trauma, trauma, death mention, dissociation, mental illness, unhealthy coping mechanisms, dark content, injury, c!sam critical, c!quackity critical

A hand runs through his hair.

Dream blinks, slow. His eyes are heavy. Sam's hand is in his hair, his head in his lap, and it's nice. It's so nice. He blinks again, feels his eyelids slide over his eyes, lashes brushing against his cheeks, and for a moment he doesn't know if he has the strength to draw them back up.

The hand in his hair stops, pulls. "I said stay awake, prisoner."

Dream's eyes snap open. The Warden stares down at him, eyes red and narrow through the mask. He's angry. Dream whimpers, pulls away, stops; that's not allowed. The hand in his hair tightens and another soft, high-pitched noise leaves his lips; his throat hurts.

The Warden sighs, and Dream stares at the wall. The block he's facing is crying obsidian; a drip runs down its leftmost edge, tracing a crack in the dark block. Dream watches. It's purple. Purple is a pretty color. He didn't have purple before the Warden put in the crying obsidian but now he has purple all around him and it's pretty. He likes purple.

The hand loosens, goes back to running through his hair, and Dream relaxes. It's nice. Nobody's done this in a while; it must be special, for Sam to be here. Usually it's the Warden (or worse, Quackity) but right now it's just Sam brushing gentle fingers through his tangled hair and making tap-tap-tap noises of his fingers against the obsidian and moving to the rhythm of his breathing at the side of Dream's face. Sam is nice.

Not many people are nice anymore.

"Prisoner-" the Warden is back again, pulling his head back harshly with one hand so he has to look up into the creeper mask, "What did I say about staying awake?"

Dream looks up, watches the Warden; he has to stay awake, or the Warden will be mad. He has to stay awake, or the Warden will be mad. He has to stay awake or the Warden will be mad. HehastostayawakeortheWardenwillbemad-

"Prime," the Warden grumbles, grips him by the side of his jaw, moves him to look at him closer. "He got you hard in the head, didn't he?"

Dream blinks.

"That regen potion better do what it's meant to do; we still need the information from the book." The Warden lets go of Dream's head, and it falls back into his lap. It's soft. Not many things are soft anymore either. He hears a heavy sigh above him. "You there, Dream?"

Dream nods. He has to respond when the Warden asks him a question. He'd talk, but his tongue feels heavy and his throat hurts and everything hurts if he thinks about it too much so he floats, instead, focusing on the feeling of Sam's hand in his hair.

"You can just tell Big Q everything, you know," Sam's other hand brushes over one of Dream's bandages, and he flinches away. Quackity went too far today, the Warden said. He nearly died. He's not allowed to die until he tells them about the book. His head is hurting a lot, just like everything is hurting a lot, but the world is going fuzzy in the edges a little like when he'd go floaty, push himself as far away from the cell in his head as possible. "If you just tell Quackity then we won't have to keep going."

It's tempting. Dream won't ever tell Quackity, because Quackity wants to hurt people and isn't going to stop at anything to get it. Dream saw it, during the election, then with the creation of Mexican L'manburg, then the first time he entered the cell - Quackity doesn't care about much at all besides his city, and Dream wishes he could care as little as him. He won't tell Quackity, he can't, but this isn't Quackity.

This is Sam, his green hair flopped over his face, crown shining soft and golden over his forehead, gentle hands smoothing Dream's hair from his forehead. This is Sam, holding him in a way no one has for months, warm and soft and kind, and for a moment Dream's back at the community house roof, sprawled in a mess of blanket and pillows and watching the fishes with his friends on all sides.

It's not a perfect image. Sam's armor is scratched and the air smells of blood and the eyes looking down at him are dark and flinty and cold, the Warden's eyes, and Dream aches all over in a way that makes it hard to breathe but it's - close. When he blinks and his eyes are closed for a moment he's away and out and the world is lovely and kind and it's enough.

It has to be enough.

"Dream," the Warden calls, voice steely, and the image fades. The knowledge he's kept locked rises in his throat, settles there. Sam watches him, prompting. "If you tell us everything, then we'll stop."

Please stop, he nearly begs. It doesn't matter if he does. He's learned that now.

He looks away, instead. He's done everything for this book. Lost everything, for this book. He can't tell, not when telling means Quackity can use it to hurt everyone, not when it's the last thing keeping him useful, not when useful is the last thing keeping him alive. The Warden sighs, heavy, damning.

"You better get ready for the visit tomorrow, then," the Warden says, standing, letting Dream drop to the ground. Something cold and sorrowful rises in his chest - where has Sam gone? Why did the Warden have to come back? "We'll continue this after, prisoner."

Sam, something in him calls, desperate, young. Please.

Out here, he just watches as the man disappears into the lava.

Sam is nice. He hopes that he can see Sam again, soon.

[weelittleweasley]

Merry Christmas | Fred x Reader

Prompt requested by @n3ssm0nique: Best friends were all that you and Fred were. Right? Or at least that’s what you thought. But will Christmas at the Burrow change things?

Warnings: literally absolute adorable fluff JFC, Fred being adorable, George being George

Word Count: 5.6k words

A/N: I AM SO PROUD OF THIS FIC IT IS SO FUCKING CUTE My first Fred fic, babeyyy!! Weasley Nation Rise! Just an FYI, we are wholeheartedly pretending that the Burrow didn’t get destroyed for this fic hehe. 

Flashbacks told in italics.

“Thank you for letting me stay with your family for the holiday, Mrs. Weasley,” you graciously tell the woman in the kitchen who hovers over a kettle, brewing you a cup of tea. You sit on a chair in the dining room, keeping quietly to yourself, hands folded in your lap. The sunlight streams in from the window, warming you up, the tip of your nose still chilly from your travels here. The Burrow was still quiet; it was early in the morning when you arrived, expecting everyone to be up, but you should have known better that only Molly Weasley would be up at this hour. Everyone wanted to catch up on their sleep while on holiday from school. 

Mrs. Weasley turned around to offer you the warmest smile, “No need to thank me, dear. You are always welcome in our home. And please, call me Molly.” She pours you a cup of tea in a delicate piece of china that you knew she saved for when guests came in fear that if she used it in her regular rotation of dining wear her children were bound to break it. “Drink up, dear. You must be freezing. The wind is unforgiving this time of year,” she adds, wrapping a blanket around you making you smile at her motherly gesture. 

This year you were spending the Christmas holiday with the Weasleys due to your parents work schedule. They were traveling abroad for work which made you upset that this would be the one year you haven’t spent the holidays together. But when you mentioned in passing that you would be spending the holidays alone this year in passing to George Weasley, he insisted that you would spend it with the Weasleys. You told him that the offer was kind, but you didn’t mind going to your aunt and uncle’s house to spend it with them and your cousins, but George said you would have more fun spending it with his family. Which you knew he was right, so you eventually gave in.

Spending Christmas with the Weasleys also meant more time with Fred which made your heart flutter. You had been best friends with the twins since year three, but you and Fred became especially close in your fourth year. Since then, you two were inseparable. But the more time you spent with Fred, you eventually grew romantic feelings for him. You feared that these new feelings towards Fred would ruin your friendship, so you had kept it all bottled up, knowing that it was best to just stay friends and nothing more. 

As you sipped on your tea, still wrapped up in the blanket Moly gave you, you heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Molly hovered over the stove again, this time cooking up a large amount of breakfast foods for the many people who would be dining this morning. “Oh, (Y/N)!” Ginny says when she reaches the bottom of the stairs. “I didn’t know you were coming this early,” she skips over to you, giving you a large hug. You had always taken a liking to Ginny and how outspoken she was. You had to be if you were the only girl amongst the Weasley boys. “Fred! George! (Y/N) is here!” Ginny yells up the stairs. “Wait until they see you. They couldn’t shut up about how excited they were for you to get here. Especially Fred,” she tells you with a wink. Ginny knew about your little crush on Fred after she coerced you to tell her after she told you about her crush on Harry. 

After the words fall out of Ginny’s mouth, you hear bumbling and crashing from up the stairs before wild running down the stairs. “Easy, boys!” Molly yells at them while flipping bacon over in the pan. “(Y/N) is not going anywhere! No need to rush,” she laughs at them before looking at you with a smile. Molly knew how much her boys loved you. She shook her head while laughing, continuing to cook up enough sunny side eggs to choke a horse. 

George saw you first and a beaming smile came on his face. “There she is!” he yells as you laughed, scooping you up in the biggest hug, spinning you around. “I’m so glad you’re here!” he exclaims as you wildly giggle. He places you down gently before looking over at his mother, “Merlin’s beard, Mum, the poor girl is in a straitjacket the way you bundled her up.” George helps you get out of the blanket, wrapping it over your shoulders lightly. “Much better, right? Now you can give people a proper hug,” he teases, hugging you once more. 

“Hey, save some for the rest of us,” a voice calls from behind George. You pull away from George and see Fred patiently waiting to give you a warm welcome. When your eyes meet, your heart instantly starts beating faster and a pink hue makes its way up to your cheeks, warming your face instantly. A small smile dances on your lips as Fred gives you a cheeky grin. “Hey, you,” he winks, making his way over to you.

Fred engulfs you in a hug, picking you up and spinning you around similar to George, holding onto you tightly. He puts you down as you beam, hands resting on his shoulders. “Hi, Fred,” you smile up at him, eyes locked on his, allowing yourself to relax under his touch. The joy on his face was evident, his eyes twinkling with happiness and his mouth drawn into a toothy smile.

The two of you just stood there for a moment before George clears his throat, making his presence still known. “Alright, enough of that you two,” he speaks, knowing very well that the two of you had unspoken feelings for the other. George liked using that as leverage against the two of you when he wanted something to go his way. And this holiday, he was going to make sure that the two of you were going to confess those feelings to each other. “We’re glad that you came for the holiday, (Y/N). It’s gonna be wicked time.”

You pull your gaze away from Fred, peeling your hands away from his shoulders, but Fred keeps an arm around your shoulder, pulling you into a side hug as you smile. This was fine for best friends, right? “I was just telling your mum thank you for having me. I’m excited that I can spend it with my best friends and their family,” you beam as Fred squeezes your shoulders.

“Breakfast!” Molly calls to the rest of the house. With that, you immediately hear footsteps run down the stairs that are unmistakably Ron’s. 

Behind Ron follows Harry, the both of them with major bedhead, still in their pajamas. “When did (Y/N) get here?” Ron asks, raspy with morning voice, rubbing his eyes as he tries to get used to the sunlight.

You shake your head, “Good to see you too, Ronald.” He chuckles as you pull him into a big hug, Ron squeezing you tight. Ron was like your younger brother. He was always pushing your buttons, but in the most playful way possible. “Hey, Potter,” you rustle the other boy’s hair as he laughs, giving you a small hey. 

Everyone gathered around the table, taking a seat and a plate, piling mixed breakfast foods onto it. The sounds of happy munching and forks hitting plates filled the air. Light chatter between siblings and friends ensued as you sat and took in the atmosphere. The Weasleys were always so happy and that’s why you loved the family so much. They always managed to make the best out of whatever situation was thrown at them. No matter how dark times got, they were able to find lightness and laughter. When you first became friends with the twins, you were in a really sad place, always very homesick. But when the twins came into your life, they brought so much joy and hope into your life. Now you can’t help but feel out of place when you are not with them. 

Fred interrupts everyone’s conversations and speaks, “Since (Y/N) is the guest of the house, sorry Harry, you don’t count anymore,” Harry shrugs, “(Y/N) gets to pick what’s on the agenda for today.” Fred sends you a smile and a wink making you lightly chuckle. 

“That seems like a big responsibility,” you say as everyone looks at you. 

But before you can say anything else, Ginny grabs your hand and pulls you out of your chair. “I need (Y/N) first to help me with something,” she tells the group. The twins look at her suspiciously, knowing that the youngest sibling was up to something. “It’s girl things. You wouldn’t understand. Right, Mum?” Ginny looks at her mother for support as Molly gives her a thumbs up and wink. “Right then, come on (Y/N),” she drags you to the stairs.

“Ginny, I didn’t even finish breakfast,” you laugh at the girl who has an iron grip on your hand as she pulls up the winding stairs of the Burrow. 

Ginny just looks at you quickly before saying, “Ron can finish your plate. Besides, if you think breakfast was a lot of food, just wait until lunch.” With that, you make it to Ginny’s bedroom as she slams the door behind her. The fourteen year old sits on her bed as you slowly take a seat next to her. “So, are you and Fred gonna get together now that you’re here?” she excitedly ask.

You sigh. You wish it were that simple. “I don’t know, Gin,” you softly smile at her. “Anything can happen, honestly.” Ginny rolls her eyes as you laugh. “Give me your brush. I’ll braid your hair,” you tell her. A bright smile finds it way to her face as she grabs her hairbrush from her desk, handing it to you, turning so her back is facing you. Carefully, you brush out her long ginger hair, pushing it away from her face as Ginny happily sighs. “I’ve always wanted a younger sister,” you tell Ginny honestly. You did feel like Ginny was your sister in an odd, yet comforting way. When you first started hanging out with the twins and Ginny arrived to Hogwarts, she kind of latched herself onto you. At first, you were a little shocked, knowing that Ginny wasn’t like this around most people. But for some reason, she trusted you and you with her. Ginny became your little sister very quickly, always coming to you for advice and guidance when it came to school, boys, and everything in between.

“I always wanted a sister,” Ginny retorts, making you chuckle. “Seriously. It can be so much sometimes with all these boys in the house and it’s just me and mum. It’s always nice when you or Hermione visits. It gives me someone to talk to rather than having to constantly hang out with those bloody idiots,” she rolls her eyes, making you laugh.

From outside the door, you hear a hey! The two of you look at the door as Ginny springs to her feet and opens the door to reveal a Harry and Ron eavesdropping on your conversation. “Get out of here, you stupid gits!” Ginny chases them down the hall as the boys laugh wildly. You laugh at the young girl’s antics before she returns into the bedroom. “Do you see what I have to deal with everyday? Drives me mad.”

Ginny returns to the bed, sitting back down as you start to braid her hair. “Poor you,” you tease. The two of you sit in a comfortable silence as you braid her long hair, the ginger hair now perfectly styled and swept back from her face. You pat her shoulders, letting her know she’s done as she takes a look in the mirror, smiling at the results. “Like it?”

“Love it,” she looks at you before coming back to sit next to you. “But anyway, I really do hope that you and Fred get together. You’re perfect for each other. And Merlin, he never shuts up about you. It would just make so much sense if you two were together.”

You knew Ginny was right. Fred and you were a match made. The two of you knew how to have a good laugh, but you balanced each other out. He was always there for you when you needed him most. Fred was everything you wanted. But you feared that he didn’t feel the same in contrast to what everyone told you. The fear of rejection from your best friend was a terrifying thought, so keeping things to yourself seemed like the best option. “We’ll see, Ginny. I’m hopeful,” you brush her cheek.

As you and Ginny sat in her bedroom, what you didn’t know was Fred and George were outside, leaned against the wall, eavesdropping on your conversation much more slyly than Harry and Ron. George bumps Fred in the shoulder with a smile as Fred blushes. This just made holiday much more interesting for everyone.

------

The week has gone nothing, but smoothly. Matches of quidditch in the backyard, playing chess, late night bonfires, and long chats all ensued throughout the week and it just made you sad that the holiday would be coming to a close in the upcoming days. You were having so much fun being around the Weasleys and staying in their home. It felt like home to you in a comforting, yet odd way. It felt like you belonged here. Molly treated you like a daughter and Arthur even forgot that you were going to leave at one point, thinking that you had moved in. 

But in all of the fun, you and Fred hadn’t got a moment alone. You knew that George and Ginny both were anticipating when you two would finally make a move. Hell, everyone in the house was anticipating when you two would do something. But within the week the most intimate thing that happened was you waiting to use the bathroom and Fred getting startled that you were outside waiting, him still wet from the shower, towel tied around his waist. The two of you just stared at the both, bright red blushed on your cheeks. “I didn’t know you were waiting for the bathroom,” Fred had said. “You could have just come in. You know you’re always welcome too,” he said with a wink making you gulp. And with a wink he was gone, leaving you shocked and unable to speak.

Tonight was another bonfire, everyone in the backyard circled around the roaring crackling fire. The flames were the only things illuminating everyone’s faces. You looked around with a smile, enjoying the night. Ginny sat disgruntled and mad at Ron who sat in between her and Harry, Harry also a little pissed that Ron couldn’t take a hit that he would rather be snuggled up to Ginny rather than his best mate. You giggled at the sight, sipping on your hot chocolate as Ginny just glared at you. With her eyes, she gestured for you to git next to Fred would was just a seat over from you. George was too busy telling Ron a story about one of he and Fred’s many adventures when they first got to Hogwarts, Ron completely enthralled. Sit next to him, Ginny mouths to you.

Absolutely not, you mouth back, eyes darting to see if Fred was watching you. He just stared at the fire, legs kicked up resting on a log, his hands behind his head. I’m not gonna make the first move.

Ginny rolls her eyes. Just do it, she mouths before returning her attention to George and his story. You sigh, looking at your almost empty mug of cocoa. You look at Fred longingly, wanted to be cuddled up next to him under the blanket that rests on his lap. You imagined being able to rest your head on his shoulder, his strong arms wrapped around you, protecting you as you felt safer that ever. He’d kiss the top of your head before resting his head on yours, enjoying the way your body melted into his. As you get lost in your imagination, you realize that Fred has caught you staring at him. Your breath hitches in your throat and you blush, unable to look away from him.

Fred chuckles and smiles at you softly watching you as you are curled up in a ball on the chair just a few feet away from him. Your lips were perfectly pink and the tip of your nose a little red from the windchill in the air. The jumper you wore was pulled over your hands as you cradled the mug in your hands. You looked absolutely adorable as a small smile was on your lips. Fred sighed as you giggled a little at him. He just shook his head at you jokingly before dropping his left eye in a wink. 

“I’m gonna go get more cocoa,” you announce to the group, but your eyes don’t leave Fred’s as if you were just directing the statement to him, as if you were telling him to follow you. You rise from your chair and make your way inside. There are small whispers being exchanged behind you that sound like words of encouragement as you smile to yourself before going inside. Shortly after, you hear footsteps follow you inside. As you go into the kitchen and pour yourself more cocoa, you turn your head to see Fred beside you. “Hey, tiger,” you tease him.

He laughs at your nickname for him, “Hey, gorgeous.” Your heart flutters, knowing that he’s been calling you that for years, but now when he says it, it has new meaning to you. “You alright?” he asks.

You nod, happily, turning to face him, ignoring the task you originally came in here for. “More than alright. The week has been lovely,” you tell him as the two of you walk aimlessly around the lower level of the Burrow. “I can’t thank you enough for letting me stay with you and your family for Christmas. It means the world to me,” you genuinely tell him.

Fred smiles, “Of course. There was no way George and I were gonna let you spend it alone or with some weird family members.” You play with the cuffs of your jumper nervously, a thousand thoughts dancing around in your head about where this conversation was going to go. The two of you come to a halt as Fred speaks, “You mean a lot to me, (Y/N).”

His confession makes your heart speed up. “You mean a lot to me, too, Fred,” you confess to him, looking deep into his eyes. “Truly.”

“I don’t think you quite understand how much you mean to me. You make me feel really happy, (Y/N),” Fred tells you, taking a step closer to him. The two of you were so close that you could hold a magazine between the two of you. You can feel his breath on your cheek as you look up at him, biting your lip gently. “I really don’t know what I would do if we had never met that day at Hogwarts,” he recalls making the two of you chuckle. You remember when you met in the common room, them mid prank on a poor first year student as you had joined in on the prank. From that moment on, Fred was infatuated with you, much to your surprise. “And now we’re on our last year at Hogwarts and I’m just scared that I won’t be able to see you as much as I’d like to.”

Impulsively, you take his hand in yours. “Don’t say that,” you shake your head. “I’ll see you all the time. I’ll make sure of it. I can’t imagine living life without you, Fred, honestly,” you tell him, speaking so raw and genuine from your heart. You wanted to kiss him so badly, comfort him that there was no way he was going to get rid of you. He had you and there was no way that either of you were letting go of the other. You were so deeply connected to other that the notion of losing each other was nauseating. 

Fred smiles gently before looking upward, you following his line of sight. Above you dangles a small bunch of mistletoe. Your heart stops and then starts beating impossibly faster. The both of you look back at each other, a little smile dancing on both of your lips. This was a good excuse as ever to share a kiss, you could just blame it on the mistletoe. “Mistletoe,” Fred breathes out with a light laugh, you joining. “I hate breaking traditions,” he teases you as you laugh. 

“I hate nothing more than breaking a tradition,” you tease back.

Fred looks at your lips and then back at your eyes, waiting for you to do something. Gently you nod as Fred leans in closer and closer. It was like this whole scene was in slow motion as you both lean in, waiting for your lips to collide gently. You couldn’t believe this was finally happening after years of waiting and longing. You were going to kiss Fred Weasley.

“Oh, sorry,” a voice interrupts you both as you jerk away from each other. “I didn’t know I was interrupting something,” you look over to see Ron awkwardly standing in the doorway before darting away back to the group outside as the group yells at him, Ron yelling back he didn’t know in defense.

Fred huffs, “What a bloody moron.” 

The moment was gone. It was over. Your chances of getting that kiss from Fred was gone. You both knew it. The two of you looked at each other sadly as you sighed. You gave him a look that said I wanted you to kiss me. He gives you a sorry look as you just stand there for another moment. “Stupid Ron,” you break the silence, making Fred laugh. 

He pulls you into his side, wrapping an arm around you. “Come on, the fire is still burning,” he tells you, walking outside. “I’m not letting you get away so easily, no matter how much of an idiot Ron is,” he whispers in your ear, making you blush. What a flirt.

As you return to the group, everyone stares at you two as you walk back together. “Nothing to see here,” Fred dismisses them all as Ginny groans loudly. Fred pulls you next to him on the loveseat that was outside, not wanting you away from him now that Ron disturbed your moment. “You really are a moron though, Ron.”

Ron furrows his brows and raises his arm in defense. “What’s going on?!” he says, completely confused. Was the boy really this clueless? 

“Oh, you’re bloody joking,” George says, throwing a pillow at Ron, everyone joining in, hitting Ron with a pillow, everyone erupting with laughter as Ron tries to defend himself. 

Although the moment was ruined between you and Fred, this moment was heartwarming as you all picked on Ron before returning to watching the fire burn out.

-----

Two days later, Christmas morning rolled around and Ginny jumped on top of you waking you up, excitedly. “Merry Christmas, you animal!” Ginny hugs you as you groan, slowly waking up. “Mum made pancakes and there’s presents downstairs! Come on, (Y/N)!” she pulls your hands up and out of bed. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” you laugh.

Suddenly, every Weasley is up and down the stairs in seconds as everyone takes their usual seats around the table. Arthur proudly shows off his muggle radio and explains that muggles listen to Christmas music this time of year, him tuning it until pleasant music emits from the small box. Molly plates everyone a large stack of pancakes dosed in maple syrup. You watch as Ginny squeals in excitement, sitting herself down next to Harry as you watch with a smile. 

“Merry Christmas,” George gives you a hug.

You smile at your best friend and squeeze his torso. “Merry Christmas, Georgie.” He rolls his eyes at the nickname you coined for him as you laugh. You see Fred at the bottom of the stairs as he makes his way to you. “Merry Christmas, Fred,” you smile.

Fred pulls you into his chest for a bear hug as you sigh in him. “Merry Christmas, darling,” he whispers into your hair, placing a gentle kiss on the top. You can’t help, but blush at the gesture before the three of you take your seats at the table. “Pancakes, bacon, eggs, and toast? Merlin, mum, you really pulled out all the stops this year,” Fred teases his mother. 

Molly smiles, “This Christmas is special this year so that warrants a special breakfast.” Molly sends a wink your way as she hands you a plate. “Merry Christmas, darling. Eat up.”

Everyone munches on the delicious plate of breakfast food, complimenting Molly on how extraordinary the meal was. And that’s when the presents start to come out. Molly and Arthur hand out presents to each of their children as the impatiently unwrap them. Each Weasley gets a hand knit sweater with their respective initial on them as you giggle as Ron pulls his over his head. It was absolutely adorable that they all had matching sweaters. “And don’t think we forgot about you two,” Molly speaks as she hands you and Harry boxes.

“Oh, you didn’t have to, Molly,” you tell her as she insists to open it. When you open it, you see a navy sweater with your initial on the front. “Oh, I love it!” you cheer. “Thank you so much,” you beam. You really did love it, immediately pulling it over your head to wear it over your pajama top.

Molly claps as you do so. “Now, you’re officially a Weasley. No need to marry Fred anymore,” she teases as Fred nearly spits out his pumpkin juice. “What?” she asks. “Did I say something wrong?” You just blush a wild shade of crimson that matches Ron’s sweater as Fred excuses himself, making George let out a wild laugh.

As if the timing couldn’t be anymore perfect, an owl flies through the window with a letter in its mouth. Arthur gets up and retrieves the letter from the owl before it flies away. “It’s for you, (Y/N),” he smiles, handing you the envelope.

You furrow your brows, not knowing who it could be from. You rip open the seal of the envelope and peel the letter open which reads:

Dearest (Y/N),

Merry Christmas, darling. We miss you so much. We are so upset that we cannot be with you on your favorite holiday. But rest assured that we will see you soon after our trip comes to a close. We have beautiful gifts for you from the places we visited and we cannot wait to give them to you. Paris is truly the most beautiful place on Earth.

We hope that you are having a grand time with the Weasleys. Give them our love and gratitude for hosting you. 

We are so proud of you and everything you have done at Hogwarts, love. You are truly remarkable. We love you so much and are so excited to be reunited with you soon.

All the love in the world,

Mum and Dad 

XXOO

“It’s from my parents,” you tell the group with a smile as everyone softly smiles. You look at the Polaroid pictures that they attached in the letter. Your parents are smiling in front of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre. “They’re in Paris. They send their love and gratitude to everyone. They said that they love me and miss me and they’re proud of me...” you trail off as tears start to form in your eyes. A lump starts in your throat and you become very sad and embarrassed at how you are reacting. You just miss your parents so much. “I’m sorry could you excuse me for a moment?” you ask as everyone nods, completely understanding how you feel. 

You rise from the table and move into another room of the house, letting the tears slowly fall from your eyes. You are sure not to make any sounds, too embarrassed that you’re even crying in the first place. Sucking in a shaky breath, you try to collect yourself, squatting low, burying your head in your hands.

As you breathe in and out shakily, you feel a hand on your back, rubbing it gently. “Hey, shhhhh, come here,” Fred’s voice says as he pulls you into him, as you cry into his jumper that his mum made. “It’s alright, darling, it’s alright.” He sits on the floor as you rest next to him, holding onto him tight as if he would leave you. But Fred wasn’t going anywhere. “I know you miss them, but they are right. They’ll be back so soon. You know that they love you and they’re proud of you. What’s not to be proud of? You’re brilliant,” he tells you, rubbing your back in circling, gently comforting you.

Moment pass and you slowly pull away from Fred, looking at his now tear stained sweater. “Oh, man, I’m a mess,” you wipe your tears away as Fred shakes his head, brushing your hair away from your face. “Sorry about your sweater, I can clean it up.”

“I like it better like this,” he says with a smile. You just laugh at him as you sniffle. “I have something for you,” he tells you as you furrow your brows.

He pulls a small box out of his pocket. You sigh, “Fred, I thought we weren’t buying gifts for each other this year. We said we were saving money to go on a trip after graduation.”

Fred shakes his head, “I couldn’t resist.” You slap his arm teasingly. “Open it.”

You slowly open the small box and your eyes widen. Inside is a small golden locket engraved with beautiful detailing. You open the locket and inside is a picture of you and Fred from last year in the common room, laughing on the couch together. The memory brings an instant smile to your face. This was the sweetest, most thoughtful gift anyone has ever bought for you. “Fred, I don’t have any words. This is beautiful,” you tell him.

“You like it?” he asks, nervously.

“Do I like it?” you laugh. “I love it. Thank you so much,” you tell him. “Could you do the clasp?” you ask, turning around and handing him the necklace. Carefully, Fred places it around your neck and clasps the necklace. You hold the locket in your fingers as you smile at him. “Why did you do this?” you ask, furrowing your brows.

Fred nervously gulps. “Because...” he starts. “You know, (Y/N)...like I said the other night...we’re close and I really cannot see myself without you.”

Your heart flutters as you look around only to recognize that you and Fred are in the same spot as you were the other night from the bonfire. Mistletoe dangles above you again and Fred follows the sightline. He stops talking and looks at you. This time no one was going to stop from you from doing this.

In this instant, you lean in and press your lips to Fred’s, connecting you two in a sweet kiss. At first, Fred is a little shocked, but takes no time in kissing you back, his hand cupping your cheek, pulling you closer to him. You hands cup his face as your lips move in sync with each other. His lips taste of syrup and you smile into the kiss. It just felt so right like this was how your first kiss was supposed to go. 

Slowly, you pull away from the kiss, searching his eyes for what he was going to say. But for the first time in forever, Fred is speechless. “I hate breaking traditions,” you tease him, making him chuckle. 

Fred shakes his head and kisses you again, this time more excited and passionate. His arms wrap around you, letting you know that you aren’t going anywhere. You were his now and there was no way he was letting you go. Not like you wanted to. This was home. The kiss is gentle, but loving and passionate. Your heart is beating so fast and your mind is reeling. This felt like a dream. 

You pull away again from the kiss, pressing your forehead against each other. “Just so you know,” Fred speaks, “I was going to kiss you whether there was or wasn’t mistletoe.” You giggle at his antics, knowing that he was telling the truth. “This does mean you’re my girlfriend now, right?” he asks, genuinely asking, making you laugh.

“I hope so, Weasley,” you tell him. “That’s my present to you.”

He jokingly pumps his fist in the air. He places a quick kiss to your lips again. “Merry Christmas, (Y/N),” he whispers to you.

Smiling so hard that your cheeks hurt, you whisper back, “Merry Christmas, tiger.”

Fred pulls you up from the floor, giving your hands a squeeze. “And now to face the taunting,” he warns you. “Be prepared. But on a brave face. This is just the beginning. You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into dating a Weasley.”

The two of you emerge back into the dining room, hand in hand making Ginny cheer and George stand up, clapping. “It’s a bloody Christmas miracle!” he yells, making you laugh as Ron just sits there, absolutely lost at what is going on, mouth full on pancakes. You blush wildly as Fred pulls you into his arms, kissing your forehead. “Welcome to the family!” George mockingly yells, embracing you and Fred in a dramatic hug.

In this moment, you have never felt more at home. It was the most wonderful Christmas you had ever had and you couldn’t wait for more.

[lomlwintersoldier]

“Mine. Mine to Me.”

Word Count: 1494

A/N: jfc I have missed writing- tfatws has reignited my love for marvel and for Bucky so hopefully I can push out a few more oneshots/drabble/chapters in between classes. Although for the time being, I only want to write stories where Tony, Steve, and Natasha still exist :( as far as I care, endgame didn’t happen. 

This one was inspired by the line from the new Jungle book :)

97 days.

That’s how long you’d been on this mission, one long, painfully unbroken stretch of time. 97 days without seeing home or any recognizable face except for Natasha’s. And the days seemed to stretch longer and longer as time went on and at this point, you couldn’t wait to leave. 

You’d spend most of the winter in the harsh mountains of Serbia, gathering intel and running supplies to an abandoned factory building that the Avengers hoped to turn into a base. Tony trusted the two of you to shape the compound in his image but, damn, were you tired of it. Thankfully though, you and Natasha were slated to leave today, both of you anxiously waiting to make the journey home. 

“You doing okay, Y/N?” Natasha asks, breaking you out of your thoughts. 

You give her a wounded smile, nodding. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just can’t wait to go home.” 

“Me neither.” She gives your hand a comforting squeeze as she walks off to check the perimeter, ensuring that the building was still abandoned. 

You continue packing up yours and Natasha’s things, although neither of you had brought more than a few changes of clothes and some basic toiletries. HYDRA had taught both of you how to exist on nearly nothing. 

Natasha strides back in as you finish cleaning up and you wordlessly hand her her pack. 

“Let’s head out,” you state. 

She nods and the both of you make the long hike back to the hidden quinjet you’d left 3 months ago. It was about a day's hike from the base because secrecy was of utmost importance to this mission. 

You’re quiet for most of the miles you two walk but it’s not uncomfortable. Both you and Natasha didn’t need long conversations which was why the two of you had become so close. Words flowed like a steady stream between you but both of you understood and felt comfortable in silence as well. 

By the time you reach the jet hidden in a snowy cave, it’s dusk and you’re wiped. The thin air, gusting winds and snow took a lot out of you.  

“8 hours until we’re home, Y/N,” Natasha says, a smile curving her lips and you return her smile.

“I’m sure Bucky missed you as much as you missed him,” she states as if she could read your mind. 

Your heart pangs. Goddamn, you’d missed him over these last three months. “I just can’t wait to see him again.” 

“I know, hun,” her own words colored with longing. This time, you squeeze her hand. 

“Steve missed you too, Nat.”

Her hands clench the joystick and she nods. “I really hope he did.” 

You lean back in your chair, trying to breathe and allow yourself to feel excitement at the thought of coming home, but you were far too cautious and pessimistic to believe that nothing would go wrong in the eight hours it would take to get back to New York. 

You settle into your seat and try to think only of Bucky. Of his musky, earthy scent and the dark strands of hair that brushed your cheeks every time he kissed you. God, you couldn’t wait to kiss him. Your mind drifts to his lips, plump and soft and your heart jumps as you think of how good it would feel to just feel him in your arms again. 

Eventually you drift off into sleep, the dark clouds you’re coasting over not providing enough stimulation for your brain to keep you awake. You don’t know how much time has passed but when you open your eyes again, a sliver of orange glow hangs on the horizon. It’s nearly morning. 

“Want me to take over?” You ask, your voice hoarse and cracking from sleep.

Natasha glances over and you can see the weariness in her eyes as she nods and flicks on the autopilot switch. You take her place and she takes yours, falling asleep within seconds. 

The sun peeks over billowing clouds as you guide the jet through the sky at speeds normal people could only dream of reaching. Resisting the urge to push the plane faster to reach your destination just a few minutes quicker, you decide to focus on the rising sun. 

Finally, after it feels like forever and a day, the New York City skyline begins to poke through the low hanging clouds and you breathe a sigh of relief. So close. 

You take the jet past the city, into the countryside of New York where the compound was. Where home rested. 

“Nat,” you call out softly, gently raising her from her sleep. “We’re home.” 

You exchange excited smiles as both of you see two hulking figures standing on the landing pad, where you guide the plane down. When the wheels touch down you can barely keep yourself from leaping to your feet, but you remember to power the plane down first. Natasha grabs the packs as you unbuckle and you grip each other’s hands when you hit the button to open the doors. 

Bright sunlight suddenly burns your eyes and you quickly shut them, squinting through the rays as you make your way down the steps. As your eyes get used to the brightness, his shape begins to form in your eyeline.

He’s wearing a gray t-shirt, proudly showing off the black and gold arm he’d received from Wakanda and your heart swells. He used to feel such embarrassment over his HYDRA given arm and to see him stand there, so stoically, gives you pride. 

His face splits into a wide grin as he steps toward you. 

“Bucky,” his name falls from your lips in a hushed whisper as he struts over to you. Your own face hurts and you realize it’s because you’re smiling as widely as he is and you lose all composure. 

Your legs pick up in a run and he stops, spreading his muscular, sinewy arms, ready to catch you. You seem to hang in space, so close yet so far, you can hardly believe he’s real. But before you know it, your body slams into his, his arms coiling tightly around you as a hearty laugh escapes his chest. 

“Hey, dol—“ Your lips crash to his, cutting his words off but you don’t care. You’re drunk on the taste of his love. He returns your kiss, fingers splayed across your back as he gently lowers you to the ground. His hands come up to cup your cheeks, deepening the kiss and you feel his need for you beneath the surface, evidenced by how tightly he’s holding you. He missed you as much as you did. 

“God, I missed you so much!” You exclaim against his lips. He pulls back from your lips but keeps his hands cupped around your cheeks. He takes a breath before he responds, savoring the moment as he holds you in his ocean blue gaze before pulling you close again. His head dips into your neck, stubble scratching the tender skin. 

“I missed you too, love,” he murmurs against you as you entwine your fingers in his hair, eyes closed into the sun. 

It’s rays never felt warmer. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So how much did you miss me?” You ask coyly as you gaze into Bucky’s cerulean eyes, fingers twirling lazily in his long locks. His metal hand lightly traces circles on your shoulders as a smirk curves the edge of his lips. 

“I thought I just showed you that,” he chuckles, eyes gesturing to your naked body knowingly. 

“Yeah....yeah I guess you did,” you laugh as you nuzzle in closer to him. 

“I really missed you.” You’ve said the words about a hundred times since you got back, just a few hours ago but it still doesn’t feel real to have him here, so close. 

You wrap your leg around his waist, pressing your chest against his and his arms circle around you, as if he’s shielding you from the outside world; it’s just the two of you, no one else but you and him in this bed and in your minds. It’s as if the rest of the world doesn’t exist. 

“I was just counting the days,” he murmurs into your hair. “I was going crazy by the end of it though.” 

You chuckle, “you didn’t find anyone to keep you warm while I was gone?” 

You ask the question tentatively masked by a joking façade but you fear the answer. The two of you hadn’t had the time to really define the boundaries of your relationship before you’d gone and it was still relatively new. His arms tighten over you. 

“Of course not.” He pulls back to look at your face. “You’re mine. Mine to me.” 

Your heart skips a beat at his words. 

“You’re mine too,” you whisper, leaning forward to kiss his nose. “Mine to me.”

“You’re the only one that has me, baby,” he murmurs. “And you’re the only one I’m ever gonna want.”

A small smile crosses your lips. 

Yours. His. Mine. 

[shsl-otaku]

Where Greed Goes, Despair Follows: Chp. 38

Pairing: Ban & Y/N

Anime: Seven Deadly Sins

Genre: Adventure, Romance

Warnings: ⚠️Syringes, injections, slight torture? idk if it can be called that, but there's a bit of screaming⚠️

Tag List: @asgleo16 @yuri-2018 @vialuciferscage @commanderawkward @chidayasays @misfitgirlwrites @amberfoxcosplay @catlover7722 @shiggi-trash @softiekage @happynoodle @milkysamu @kageyamis @yogurthdecoco @alysplxnet @chanderefk @furryavocadoowo @nellieleverlin @djdestiny23 @kelseyleia98 @demise-dies-dead @giyuustears @callmeunstable @jaybeingweird @lizzy101 @wishfulcoconut @80strashbag @crownedcupcake17 @rinzyx05 @cinnamonbun332 @smolmacbean @lalalol17 @rintheemolion @lostgirl2007 @god-of-the-universe @whorianscum @ihaveaproblem98 @ariknj @liawinchester67 @sunnsettee @beccawinter @stxtch72 @starrykeigo

•••

You let out a gasp, your e/c eyes flashing open. You breathed heavily, staring up at what seemed to be the top of a dark cave. Panic and adrenaline rushed through you as you remembered what had just happened.

"Elizabeth?" you yelled. You tried to get up but couldn’t. You looked down to see that you were tightly chained down onto some sort of stone table. "Elizabeth?!"

"She isn't here," a voice said.

You turned to the voice to see a man with cold, turquoise eyes and hair the color of periwinkle. You scowled as you saw that he was wearing armor. "Who are you? What did you do with Princess Elizabeth?"

"Shouldn't you be more concerned about yourself right now?" The man asked, walking to you.

You scoffed in disgust. "Answer me!"

"She is being detained elsewhere," the man said. His cold eyes scanned over you. "So, this is what the famous Raven Sin looks like."

"What do you think you're doing?" you said, glaring harshly.

"It appears you are physically unscathed despite what you went through during your last encounter with Jericho," the man said nonchantly.

Your eyes widened and cold dread washed over you. "What?"

The man tilted his head, his eyes boring into yours. "That means that my hypothesis was correct."

"Hypothesis?" you repeated. "What hypothesis?"

"You really don't know then, do you?" the man said. You stared up at him impatiently. He shook his head. "I've been studying records of the Demon race for quite some time now. The different types, their blood, their statuses. However, I happened to stumble upon something incredibly interesting."

The man looked back at you, a glint in his eyes that made you feel uneasy. "A scroll that mentioned of a human who had demon blood in them. A person who could possess power as great as the Demon King himself. Someone who the Demon King could channel himself into and use as his way to see and live in our world."

Your breathing grew uneven as emotions swirled within you. "You... You think that that person is me?"

The man smirked. "Haven't you wondered why you're still alive despite Jericho stabbing you with her sword being covered in that substance?"

You stared at him, shocked and confused. "I..."

"What about your abilities?" The man continued. "No normal human being is able to summon stalagmites from the ground. No normal human being is able to trap someone's consciousness in their own mind. No normal human being's eyes glow red when they are enraged. Have you really never considered that you might be more than what you've been told?"

The man walked over to a small table and picked up a syringe. You could barely breathe when you realized what it was. It was filled with the same black substance that was on Jericho's sword when she stabbed you.

The man walked up to you, holding the syringe up in his hand. "This is a syringe containing the Demon King's blood." Your eyes widened. "Jericho's sword was covered with the blood of a different demon but after long and desperate searches, I finally found this."

You stared at it, frozen in fear. "No. How did you even get that? How did I never know about this? I was raised by a human family, I—"

"All memory of what you are has been erased since the beginning," the man said. "You were never supposed to know until you had the Demon King's blood flowing in you." He positioned the syringe on the left side of your neck.

"W-Wait—! No!" you screamed, tears forming in your eyes.

The man looked down at you, his cold, turquoise eyes being the last things you saw. "You'll feel better when it's over."

He pressed the syringe into your neck and began injecting the blood. You let out a cry of pain as your e/c eyes began glowing a bright purple, the two symbols reappearing on the backs of your hands. A new symbol was now glowing on your forehead as well. The man continued to inject the blood into your neck as your terrified and agonized screams echoed in the cave.

•••

"Don't let Meliodas use Full Counter," a Holy Knight yelled, charging towards Meliodas with an axe. "Use your weapons to stop them directly!" He swung his axe at Meliodas, Meliodas deflecting every hit with his sword. He quickly punched the Holy Knight, sending him flying away.

Another Holy Knight tried sneaking up on Meliodas, only for him to be punched down by Ban.

"Don't think you can beat us without using magical power, dumbass," Ban said, glaring down at the Holy Knight. "Well, it'd be futile even if you did." (gODDAMN HIS VOICE IN THE SUB WAS SO HOT WHEN HE SAID THAT JFC. OKAY I’LL LET YOU GET BACK TO THE STORY LMFAO)

Ban raised his hands up, looking at the group of Holy Knights charging at him and Meliodas. "Geez, they just keep coming!"

"So we're gonna have to wipe them all out after all?" Meliodas said.

"Let's be efficient about this," Gowther suddenly cut in, walking between the two. He raised his hands up, summoning his Sacred Treasure. "Sacred Treasure, Double Bow Harlit!"

"Sacred Treasure?" Meliodas exclaimed, eyes widening.

"Where the hell was he hiding that," Ban asked, staring at Gowther in confusion.

"Rewrite Light," Gowther said, shooting arrows of light through all the Holy Knights. The arrows all passed through each of them without causing them to die or bleed.

"Hey, Gowther," Ban said, looking at him. "The effect is like zero!"

Suddenly, the Hoky Knights all dropped their weapons and began running towards them.

"Meliodas, my son," a Holy Knight yelled.

"Ban, my bro! I really missed you, man!" another Holy Knight said.

"Huh?" Ban and Meliodas said, surprised.

"Gowther, what is this?" Meliodas asked, blinking in confusion as he was hugged by a Holy Knight. Ban was being carried up by a group of Holy Knights, trying to process what was going on. Gowther was being held close and patted on the head by another Holy Knight.

"Right now, the Holy Knights see us as their dead family members, friends, or lovers whom they haven't seen in some time," Gowther said, pushing his glasses up.

"Did you rewrite their memories?" Meliodas asked.

"Shh," Gowther said, turning to face him. "It's merely a simple stopgap. Once they notice the inconsistencies in their memories, they'll go back to normal. Moreover, their memory of being under this spell will be deleted."

"Don't you ever use that on us!" Ban and Meliodas yelled, appearing in front of Gowther.

"Roger that," Gowther replied, looking at them blankly.

The three of them managed to get away from the crowd and go deeper into the city.

"All right," Meliodas said, now hiding behind what appears to be what was once the wall of a building with Gowther and Ban. "We managed to get into the capital, but what are we gonna do now?"

"We can't just recklessly start battling in the city," Gowther stated.

"Man, that's gonna be a drag in itself," Ban groaned. "Who knows where those bastards could be hiding Y/N?"

"With all these Holy Knights around, it's not gonna be easy to search for traces of Elizabeth or Y/N," Meliodas said.

"Hey, let's head to the castle," Ban said, grinning mischievously. "You know how in fairy tails, the princess is always locked up in an underground dungeon in the castle?"

"Don't you mean the top of a tower?" Gowther asked. "Also, do you mean to refer to Y/N as the princess?"

Ban let out a cough to hide his shock, cheeks starting to flush. "Shut it!"

"The castle, huh?" Meliodas murmured, staring up at the large castle of Liones. Suddenly, a wave of pure fear and pain washed over the kingdom, making Ban and Meliodas' eyes widen.

"What... is this," Ban gasped, tears forming in his eyes. "I... can't move..."

"It appears to be Y/N," Gowther said nonchantly. He brought a hand up to his face, touched it, then looked down at his hand. There were tears on his fingertips. "Fascinating."

Meliodas looked up at the two, tears also streaming from his eyes. "You don't think...?"

Ban's eyes widened in realization. "Something's happened to Y/N."

•••

GOOD 👏 FUCKING 👏 F O O D 👏

LMFAOOOOO DID U GUYS SEE THAT COMING? I THOUGHT IT WAS PRETTY GOOD/

[kkurafilm]

yall rll out there saying innocent gg concepts are overused and in the same breath says burn it up's concept is great like......... du d e..

[parrisblood]

JFC Y’ALL SHOWED THE LOVE TONIGHT! @lokihelarmspoem you the man for the 3 gifted subs! #tru1tani starting the stream with 5 gifted subs! And @rekitraven with a sub. Love you girl! We got so many new Dark Creatures! 🖤🦇🩸 See you tomorrow for more DBD or Tuesday for more Hades! 🖤🙏🏾 https://www.instagram.com/p/CNLudruJzur/?igshid=wy4f8zizcg99

[readbythestarlight]

c2e93

Oooookay the ad is freakishly normal so far

Nott: I stole this statue because fuck your dad

Fjord harassing the man just sitting listlessly in the bar

This poor old guy xD

I like how Fjord is like “it’s time to find out all about Beau’s wild days”

[[MORE]]

Cary: “you good with a shovel?”

Cad: “I am actually.”

“They are... disappointing.”

Jester is so grossed out by these rooms poor thing

Okay what’s the joke with Sam’s flask this week

HOLY SHIT THEY ALL GET TO SEE THE TRAVELER FOR THE FIRST TIME

Oh fuck what does that mean

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN

So that means he’s.... not a god right

I’ve heard the theory he’s an archfey who Jester is helping to ascend to godgood because of her belief in him?

lol the Nott and Fjord banter is the BEST

He was?? A kid?? When she met him?? I do not remember this!!

The disappointment over that Nat20 cause they wanted to fight xD

Oh boy it’s been a while since they faced a harpy

The whole jar, Caleb?? Come on that was fun boba

Now you’ve lost the boba AND you have to fight

Nott’s drinking has gotten bad again

Have we seen Cad’s spirit guardians? I can’t remember. It’s probably bugs.

Called it

Cad coming in clutch with the dispell to save the wizard

Oh boy double crits

Ha nice tho! Fjord fjucking it up with the armor!

And the second one too DAYUM that armor is good

Oh frick it’s acid

OH NO

THE HORSES

Sending the horses back alone is a dumb idea they’re def gonna die

Good trying to deceive his way across the swamp xD

Poison fog?

Ghost fog

This which really does not want visitors

People skin leathers

I half hope it’s NOT the witch’s hut just because it would be funny

They just come across some really really weird hermit’s hut

SHIT there she is hiding on the roof

SHE SCARY

Thanks Matt I hate it

Wtf is she

I haaaaaate her

Also they’re gonna be fucked with a point of exhaustion

Hate the voice god dammit Matt

Like y’all I’m not easily freaked but she is definitely freaking me out

NOPE

NOPE

DONT LIKE HER

I’m with Travis this one time

“One at a time” hahaha hell no

Fjord really stepping up here I’m proud of him but also FUCK DON’T GO IN ALONE

Fjord don’t go promising favors to a witch

Thank god for that low roll

Fjord you little shit xD

Oh no Beau

Beau don’t do it

Nott wouldn’t want you to do it

MARISH RAY

NOOO THE STREAM IS DYING

Beau Beau Beau don’t

God I hate this no no no no no no no no no

I won’t allow this

MARISHA

GODDAMN

RAY

DONT YOU DARE

BEAU DONT

NO

Please Beau don’t

Please Beau

Please

They wouldn’t want this you’ll be hurting them too

BEAU

Oh thank god she left

Beau please don’t

Beau

ASK HER WHAT SHE MEANS BY NOT YET

What if she agrees to change Nott because she senses that Nott’s misery of being away from the M9 would be enough new misery to make it worth it

NOTT

NOTT YOU BAD

DONT DO THAT

Jfc Nott DONT WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

ALL THOSE LIVES??

Jfc this is THE MOST SELFISH I am appalled

That puts your own family in danger!

Beau was going to sacrifice all her happiness for you and you’re going to fuck over two nations?!

Nott

Don’t you dare

Girl

If this pushes Beau to make the sacrifice instead I will rage

Has Nott been really off lately or is that just me

“Things that don’t really affect us though” Nott you lying selfish

I am so disappointed in you

Oh Beau’s gonna be MAD

Nott you LIAR

Beau tell them

Tell them the truth

Beau

Please tell them

So they can tell you how miserable they’ll be without you

BEAU DO NOT

MARISHA PLEASE DONT DO THIS

SOMEONE STOP HER

STOP

HER

PLEASE

hug her!! And hold her!! And walk away from the goddamn witch!!

PLEASE DONT LET HER

Jester hug her

Group hug her

Don’t let her

Yasha

oh god

Not gonna let Beau do this

I’m crying so hard please just kill this witch please don’t give her anything

Jester Yasha somebody grab Beau and just hold her and tell her you can’t lose her

All of you do that

And Yasha please don’t listen to the witch

She feeds on your misery, she would bring your wife back as a husk

DAMN RIGHT GIRL

What’s she gonna give her

Oh no the flowers I’m

I’m crying really hard right now

Please roll well

“Oh I just meant I would kill you”

YAAAAS YASHA

Just do it please

Jester no

Can we not

Let’s just fight her let’s just KILL HER

I want Jester to kill her with sunshine

Oh no her artistic expression

Oh that would be so sad

Just KILL HER

JESTER NO

JESTER

JESTER NO

OH MY GOD

I’m gonna throw up

N: “let her do her thing” FUCK YOU NOTT

Oh damn, was that clever of her?

Oh. Oh my god.

She’s using modify memory

BABY GIRL

that’s THE SPELL

ITS NOT GONNA WORK BUT IM PROUD SHES TRYING

HOLY SHIT

SHE SUCCEEDED

I can’t breathe

That persuasion dice roll for the fucking cupcake

LAURA GODDAMN BAILEY EVERYONE

I literally can’t breathe

Taliesin is all

Of us

Marisha is the only one keeping in character

Oh my god oh my god oh my god

I can’t believe it was all that darkness and all that emotion and then Jester saved it with a moldy cupcake

Anyone feel like Jester did that as much to keep Beau with them as for Nott?

I’m shaking man what a ride

[supernaturalfreewill]

Your name: submit What is this?

Words: 4,686 Demon!Dean x Reader Warnings: Swearing? There MIGHT be some naughtiness. Maybe. Maybe not. A/N: About goddamn time, right? Jfc. I'm the worst! This is part of a series! Read the other parts first! Part 1 :: Part 2 :: Part 3 :: Part 4 :: Part 5.

You couldn’t help letting out a surprised laugh. “What, you’re stealing my bit now?” you asked him, trying to keep your tone unconcerned. “You know, the sudden and mysterious appearing is supposed to be my thing.” You turned on your bar stool and faced him.

His green eyes were surveying you. “I had a very interesting conversation with Sam, Cas, and Crowley recently,” he said, casually sitting down next to you and flagging down the bartender for a beer.

You let out another careless laugh. “God, Crowley is still around? I really thought Sam and Cas would have skewered him by now.” You kept your eyes toward the shelves of liquor behind the bar now but you could feel Dean’s on you.

Dean ignored you and forged ahead. “They told me somethin’. Something about you.”

You drained the rest of your beer, pulled a wad of cash out of your pocket, and tossed a generous amount down on the bar. “Look, I can see what you’re doing here, trying to be all vague and intriguing but there’s one important thing you forgot,” you said.

“And what is that?”

You looked him squarely in the face. “I really don’t give a shit.” You strode to the exit and headed down the block toward the shitty motel you had been using as home base, trying to shake off how strangely intense seeing Dean so suddenly was. You wondered if he had felt that way when you surprised him. It was like someone jerked on a knot you didn’t know you had deep in your chest. You were throwing all your gear back into your duffel bag, grabbing your jeans off the floor, tossing in your knife, when the hotel room door burst open. The silhouette was instantly recognizable.

”What the fuck are you doing?” you barked. “I shouldn’t need to spell this out for you again, Winchester.”

“‘Dean,’” he said seriously, pacing toward you.

”What?”

“You never call me ‘Winchester.’ You call me ‘Dean.’”

He was only a few feet from you now. The humid outside air was streaming in through the open door, making the atmosphere in the room suddenly feel thick and heavy. “I thought I made myself pretty clear during our last little rendezvous, but your skull is apparently thicker than even I estimated.”

“Then why haven’t you killed me yet?” he challenged you.

“I don’t think you want to,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. His voice was low and for some reason, perhaps because of the unacknowledged truth behind his words, it sent a shiver running up your spine.

You could feel your breathing and pulse quicken but you rolled your eyes and simply reached for your duffel bag. But Dean’s hand closed around your arm.

Your eyes shot up to meet his. “Let go of me,” you said dangerously.

He didn’t move. He was extremely close to you now, and his hand clasped onto your arm felt white hot.

”I mean it, Dean. I’m not asking.”

He studied you fervently, his green eyes narrowed and burning into yours. “You’re running,” he said.

”I don’t have to run from anything.” You yanked your arm away from him.

”Then why are you?”

”Fuck you. You don’t know anything about me! You think because you’ve been tailing me all over the country like a lost puppy that you have me figured out?”

Dean’s breathing was hurried now too. “I know enough,” he said. “I know what you’ve been doing and now I think I know why. I also know that despite the rumors flying around you aren’t the least bit interested in taking over Hell. But I’m not about to tell Crowley that.”

He had your attention.

“You’re running because you’re angry. And afraid,” he said.

You let out an audible scoff. You blinked and your eyes went black. “What could possibly be scaring me? You of all people should know what this feels like.”

Dean nodded. “I do know. That’s the point.”

You started to turn away. “You’re wasting my time. If you know what I’ve been doing, which I don’t doubt because of the aforementioned trailing me all over Creation, then you know I have an endless line of targets.”

Dean chuckled to himself and your eyes flitted over to him involuntarily. “You really are the worst demon,” he said. There was an annoying boyish smirk on his face. You felt a swell of anger rise like a rogue wave in your chest.

”What the hell did you just say to me?”

“It’s pretty obvious from the look on your face that you heard me,” he responded. “You can’t even go out as a demon and kill just to kill. Don’t you see that? You’re killing shitty humans and your own kind. It’s like some part of you still needs to justify what you’re doing, some corner of your black little demon heart isn’t completely giving in to the chaos.” He laughed again. “It’s kind of hilarious if you think about it. You’re not free at all.”

You glared at him and ignored the obnoxious tightness in your throat, doing your best to brush off some stupid feeling Dean had elicited. Why did that keep happening? You gathered your gear up again, turned your back on him, and made a step toward the door but his next words froze you in place.

“It doesn’t help, does it? The killing. Not really.”

When you didn’t make any other move to leave, Dean continued. “You’re just doing it to occupy your time. You’re trying to fill that emptiness that you think is going to consume you. That’s the thing you don’t know about being a demon until you are one: it’s rage, and it’s freedom, and it’s violence, and it’s power, but it’s all empty. You can’t feel things like a human can. Drugs, booze, sex. Even the highest, most heightened sensations are deadened compared to before. No wonder Crowley started shooting up with human blood…”

”Crowley’s weak,” you retorted.

Dean laughed and nodded. “It’s all relative.”

You wouldn’t turn to face him.

”But you’re furious. You didn’t choose this. You didn’t choose this emptiness. It was forced on you. And part of you blames me, because if I hadn’t gone darkside and refused to come back or to play nice then Crowley would never have turned you.” Dean’s voice was casual. He was keeping it forcibly so. He knew if the words he was saying were right he didn’t need to inject them with intensity, and the fact that you were still standing there, the breeze coming through the open motel room door sending your hair fluttering, told him he was right. “So you’re angry at the emptiness that you didn’t choose, but you’re even more afraid of the fact that, even as a demon, I’m the one thing that makes it stop.”

You turned around to look at Dean, keeping your expression emotionless at first before coercing it into what you hoped was a smug smile. “Isn’t that typical? The world revolves solely around the arrogance of Dean Winchester. Here’s some advice: stop projecting your bullshit onto me, Dean.”

“Face it. We’re connected. And you’re running scared.”

”Or perhaps it’s just possible that you’ve got the whole thing wrong,” you retorted. Your heart was hammering inside your chest, but you concealed your nerves, refusing to acknowledge that if Dean was wrong you wouldn’t have nerves to conceal.

Now he was getting a little angry at your obstinacy, at your denial when he felt he had just bared much of himself that was left. He knew he had it right. “I know you felt it,” he demanded.

“The only thing I feel now is my blade when it goes into my target.” You started to turn to leave, but just then Dean made a move toward you as if he planned to grab onto you again. Instinctively you flicked a hand up and he was sent flying into the opposite wall, his back colliding with the drywall and leaving a mark like a meteor had just struck.

As he climbed to his feet you adjusted your duffel bag on your shoulder and finally turned to leave again but there were suddenly three other demons in the room. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” you muttered, immediately dropping your bag again. “I’ve told you to stop—fucking—following—me!” you yelled.

Dean was shaking off the stunned feeling left from colliding with the wall, but he quickly snapped out of it when you raised a hand, palm out, and the three demons who had just arrived disintegrated. Not exorcised, or killed with a demon-killing knife, or a spell… Disintegrated. To three piles of ash. The next instant, you and your gear were gone. Dean watched the ash catch and drift in the current of air still streaming in from outside.

What the fuck had he just seen? Shit. Maybe Sam, Cas, and Crowley had it right. You’d thrown him, a fucking Knight of Hell, across the room like it was nothing and then vaporized demons and their vessels in a split second. Fuck.

_ _ _ _ _ _

If demon blood could boil within veins, curdle and roll as it pumped through a vessel, yours was positively bubbling over. You kicked out at the nearby coffee table with a wild scream of frustration and sent it sprawling and splintering across the room. You could feel your entire frame heaving up and down as you breathed. Anger was seething out of your pores.

You stared down at the corpse on the floor in front of you. The pool of blood from her slit throat was so dark that it was almost black on the beige carpet where it had soaked in. The top of the saturated layer was dry and flaky. She’d been dead a while. At least a day. You jammed your clean knife back into the sheath at your hip. You stared down at the extinguished husk before you. Fuck. You had been really looking forward to offing this bitch too. She was nearly as bad as they came.

There was no sign of a struggle in the house besides the coffee table you yourself had destroyed. The doors were all bolted and chained from the inside. The windows were all in perfect condition, latched and whole. If you didn’t know any better, you would have said you had done the job yourself.

You shut your eyes and when you opened them again you were hidden in the shadows of a copse of trees in the backyard. You glanced around you slowly, willing there to be a shift in the shadows, a hint of movement. Something for you to chase down. Something explaining your spoiled planning.

This was the fourth time this month you had selected a target, did careful surveillance, stalked them, learned their habits, and showed up for the kill to find that someone had done it first. And not just the fourth target; four targets in a row. One was perhaps a coincidence. These people were garbage: child abusers, murderers, rapists… There were probably plenty of people who wanted to off them for the same reasons. You could have believed maybe even two were a coincidence. But three? Four? In a row? No fucking way.

This was deliberate. This was fucking deliberate.

Another failed hunt. Your fingers went to the hilt of your completely clean, unused knife. You felt like you had an itch you couldn’t scratch. You were unsettled. You rocked your weight from side to side, still peering around your surroundings. Nothing.

Suddenly you felt sick. What the fuck was this? Someone or something was messing with you. You didn’t need two guesses about who it was likely to be. Another wave of rage rose in your chest and threatened to swamp over you completely. Your vision even tinged a little red at the outside, like blinking through blood in your eyes. Your jaw clenched. He was trying to take away your sense of control? Sense of purpose? Why? Because you had told him to fuck off? Because he’d revealed too much to you and now was trying to exert his power? Because you’d tossed him into the wall? Your hands clenched into fists. Truthfully, the reason didn’t really matter.

Dean Winchester just couldn’t leave you alone.

The question now was how was he doing it? It’s not like you were easy to follow when you moved between jobs. You didn’t walk or drive from place to place. You were a demon. You wanted to be somewhere and you were instantly there. Sure, once you were in a new town, you’d steal a car you liked and travel like you used to. You’d walk to and from the bar or whatever hotel you were calling home that week. Well, that was over. No more human bullshit. You’d zap yourself anywhere you wanted to be from now on.

With that thought, you were back at the motel. You glanced around the room, checking to see if anything had been moved.

It all looked the same as when you had left. You grabbed a beer from the fridge and kicked off your boots. You let yourself fall backwards onto the bed, mimicking the stupid trust fall move companies seemed to think bonded their employees at forced “professional development” workshops. You stared up at the cobwebs clinging to the textured ceiling. You didn’t feel anything now. You were just numb. You shut your eyes.

Then the sick feeling returned. You pulled yourself up so your back was against the headboard and were just about to crack open your beer, shoving down that hollow feeling when it suddenly evaporated of its own accord. The hair on the back of your neck suddenly stood on end. There was a sensation like all the air had been sucked from the room. You felt like electricity was crackling over your skin.

You didn’t need to look. Your jaw clenched.

Your hand flew to your knife and in a fluid movement you pulled it from its sheath and sent it smoothly sailing, toppling in the air, hilt over blade, straight at Dean.

But it didn’t meet its target in the way you had intended. He was prepared this time. He was ready. He caught the blade between his fingers deftly, like it was the easiest thing in the world. And maybe it was… for a Knight of Hell.

“You son of a bitch,” you spat at him, climbing to your feet.

“I missed you, too,” he said, examining your knife carelessly now. There was a half-smirk curving his lips and you suddenly remembered when you had drunkenly punched him in the face, right in that cocky smile, back in that motel when Crowley had kidnapped you—a lifetime ago.

His green eyes lifted and landed on your face. Your heart began to race.

“Not much point throwing this at me, is there?” he said. He flung the knife straight down where it stuck upright into the carpet.

You didn’t say anything. You were tensed from head to toe. You wanted to scream at him. You wanted to tear him to pieces. But you couldn’t. It was like your feet were rooted to the floor.

Something about your expression made him smile and laugh lightly. He stepped over the knife and surveyed you from a few feet closer, narrowing his eyes slightly, looking like he was trying to read your thoughts. “You look like you’re thinking about the best way to dismember me,” he said. There wasn’t a trace of fear in his voice, which only further infuriated you.

“I want to know how you’re doing it,” you demanded.

“Doing what?” The stupid smile was still on his face.

“You know what.”

He raised his eyebrows at you but said nothing. Dean wandered over to the fridge and took out a beer. He twisted off the top and was about to take a sip when—

There was a sharp crack accompanied by a pop, followed by an exploding fountain of beer which splattered all over Dean.

You couldn’t prevent the tiniest satisfied smirk from turning up one corner of your mouth as you looked at him, now dripping wet and covered in foam.

Dean licked the beer dripping down to his lips and blinked a few times. The next instant he was clean and dry again. “Alright,” he said, clearing his throat. “Fine. We can play that way.”

The next moment he was gone. You waited—heart and breath stalled—your eyes searching the room a bit frantically. You willed your body language to stay the same, to not show that he was unnerving you. Then that electricity seemed to crackle up your back again…and you went rigid at the sensation.

“Y/N.” His deep voice was low, the familiar gravel sounding right in your ear. The next moment you could feel his breath on your neck. “You can’t tell me you don’t think about that night,” he whispered. You felt frozen. He was standing so closely behind you, if you just wavered back an inch you’d be pressed against him.

Move. Do something. What are you doing!? The voice in your head was almost screaming. But the memories came rushing back and you were suddenly overwhelmed, as if you were there—as if you had transported back into that moment. The same emotions, the same feelings. It was so strong and so sudden that it almost crippled you. You let out an involuntary gasp and squeezed your eyes shut. You felt your knees buckle and the edge of the bed beneath you. Your fingers clutched the blanket.

It was too much. You shoved it down. You gasped for air. You fought it. You fought it. You pushed it back. You surfaced, completely unbalanced but again in control, heaving breaths and waiting for the horizon to steady.

To your surprise, Dean wasn’t smiling now. He was staring at you with keen interest, studying your expression. You felt that your eyes were wide and that your lips had fallen slightly open. You adjusted. You closed off. Dean watched it happen. He watched you retreat into that cold stare.

“Don’t,” you warned him.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t do that.”

His voice was calm. “All I did was remind you of what happened.”

Your breathing was hurried again, making up for the long moment when you felt like you were drowning. “Don’t,” you said again.

“Or what? You’ll run?” he challenged you. “I’ll find you. Again. And again. And again.”

You stood and faced him with a steely expression. You watched him recoil and put a hand up to his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut. When they opened again, there was anger there but also something else you couldn’t quite define.

He didn’t look cocky or confident anymore. You had sent another flash of your corpse into his mind.

He tried his best to recover, arranging his face into a casual smirk, though not without some difficulty. “How if that fair? I remind you of the good times and that’s what I get back? Hardly fair.”

“Fair? You want to talk about fair? Tell me how! Were you just—were you following me? Did you send someone or something to follow me? How did you know where I would be, who I was after next? I want to know! You are taking away the one thing--” you stopped yourself before you revealed too much.

Dean didn’t answer. He just watched you starting to spiral.

“Why won’t you just leave me the fuck me alone?!” You were squaring off with him. “Just go—just go get drunk and do blow or whatever the fuck you’re into now and fuck whoever you like and leave me the fuck alone!” A force like a shockwave shot outward from you, but Dean was ready—he had steeled himself and it only pushed him back a couple steps.

“Leave you alone? You started this whole thing!” he argued back, his voice raised for the first time. There was a flash of lightning outside and the unmistakable bass of thunder rolling.

You scoffed. “Me?”

“Yes! You, Y/N! You! I didn’t turn you! I didn’t do that! That was ALL Crowley! But as soon as you’re back, I’m getting punished! You’re sending me—” he actually stopped and let out a noise like a frustrated growl, “You come back as a demon and the first thing you do is start shoving images of your dead body into my fucking head! And now you want me to leave YOU alone?!”

You actually started laughing sardonically. “You are such a fucking prick. You still have no idea. You know what? I’m not going to explain it to you. You can figure it out, Einstein.”

“Oh, now you’re done? Now we’ve hit your limit?” Dean started advancing on you. “Go on, Y/N. Go ahead. Run away from it. Like I said, I’ll find you. Eventually you’re going to have to face it.”

You felt heat rising into your face. “Face what, Dean?” you challenged him.

His jaw clenched and his eyes were flitting between yours, stormy and intense, but he was less than a foot away from you now. The next instant he was kissing you.

You stumbled back in shock and pushed him away from you. “What the hell are you doing?” you gasped.

Dean gave a vague shrug and stared at you incredulously. He couldn’t take his eyes off you. “I—I feel like that should be pretty obvious at this point.”

You ripped your eyes away from the fire burning in his and started to rush toward your bag of gear, ready to grab it and be gone, but Dean was suddenly right there again, blocking your way.

“Move.”

“No.”

“Dean—“

For some reason, he smiled. “No. I’m not moving. If you want me to move you’re going to have to make me. And we both know you’re capable of it.”

But you didn’t. You could have sent him flying across the room. You could have pulled the building down around him. You could have disappeared. You didn’t need your bag of clothes and gear—it was all replaceable. But you didn’t. You stood rooted there unable or unwilling to break the eye contact you had with Dean. You could hear a torrential rainstorm outside.

Dean took another small step toward you. You tried to ignore how the closer he got the faster your heart beat.

He hesitated for a moment, trying to read what was going on behind your eyes but he found it impossible. He reached a hand up and slid it into your hair, his fingers floating down the side of your neck and tracing down to your collarbone. His expression was hungry, almost desperate.

You felt yourself crumbling. “Move.” It came out as a whisper, and Dean could hear the emptiness, the weakness. It wasn’t a command. It was like you were begging him not to.

He licked his lips as his eyes flitted down to yours. “Make me.”

You crashed into him, colliding. The heat between the two of you was instant and you were ready to be consumed, to give into it. Dean kissed you hungrily, biting your bottom lip, his fingers tangled in your hair, one hand grabbing your hip. You pressed into him, wanting more, needing more, and you both toppled backward until his back hit the wall.

Dean suddenly had both your wrists in his hand and he spun you forcefully until he had you pinned up against the wall. Both of you were out of breath, drinking in each other with hungry eyes. Dean kissed you hard and his lips moved to your neck, to your collarbone. He bit at your earlobe and you couldn’t stifle the gasp that left your lips. He released your wrists and you slid one arm around his neck, your fingers sliding into his hair. Your other hand slid up under his shirt, pressing into his lower back, pulling his hips into you. You wrapped a leg around him and bit his bottom lip as he slid his hands over you tracing your waist, the curve of your hips, one sliding around to grab your ass.

The thunder outside cracked and rolled and flashes of lightning made their way through the edges of the curtains. It was a complete downpour outside, but neither you nor Dean heard any of it.

Dean pulled off his jacket and you stripped off his shirt. His hands found the hem of yours and did the same. Your kissed him hungrily and unbuttoned his jeans, your fingers tracing over his stomach and back as he kicked them off. Dean lifted you up so you were straddled around his hips and carried you over to topple you onto the bed. He dropped you down and you bit your lip as he undid the zipper and button on your jeans and tugged them down.

There was unmistakable desire in his eyes and you felt your chest and cheeks flush with the same. Dean trailed kisses from your hips up your sides and up your chest. He pinned your arms above you with one hand and slid the other into your hair, pulling it hard enough to turn your head and hold it there so he could kiss your neck.

Soon you were both just skin on skin, and you gasped as he pushed inside you, your fingernails digging into his back. Dean smiled at your reaction and relished your hand splayed out on his lower back, and the feeling of your skin like silk against his. You wrapped your legs around him and both of you were consumed with tingles and electricity skittering over your skin. The building heat between you was rising to a peak and you kissed each other hungrily. Dean pressed into you and waves of pleasure traveled down to your toes. His kiss became less hungry, less desperate, and softer. You both gasped out of breath, heat radiating between you, and now completely consumed by the realization that neither of you had felt anything like that, like this in your entire lives, as humans or demons. No other sensation since Crowley had turned you had been even a modicum of this intense. Even your rages and violent retribution paled in comparison…

You looked into each other’s eyes, bewildered and spent. Dean settled down next to you, a hand still draped across you resting on your hip. You were both reeling. He reached over and smoothed a hand through your hair. There was something questioning in your eyes that made him laugh.

You bit your bottom lip and mouthed wordlessly for a moment, which only made him laugh a little harder.

“That was—uhh…” Dean couldn’t find the words and just cupped your face in his hand and kissed you passionately again. “…Yeah.” He flopped down on the pillow beside you. “Did you know that that would be—?”

You shook your head, knowing your cheeks were pink, the heat still blooming there. “No,” you said, biting your bottom lip. “Did you?”

A small smirk curved one corner of his mouth. “I had a hunch,” he said.

The question was still there in your eyes. “What?” Dean prodded you.

“I guess I’m just trying to reconcile what just happened,” you said.

Dean raised his eyebrows. “With?”

“With how much I wanted to kill you right before it happened,” you said, baffled.

Dean let out a gruff laugh. “Yeah. Yeah… Give it some time.” He gazed up at the ceiling for a moment. “Would it help if we did it again? You know, to help you reconcile?”

There it was. A genuine smile. And goddamn wasn’t it beautiful. Dean had been wanting to see that since he’d woken up as a demon. Nothing else in the world came close.

[shijiujun]

History3 ep 13 summary - TUGS AT UR HEARTSTRINGS BUT it’s a good episode

I’m soooo tired but the energy has come again because of Trapped HAHAHAHA the thought of BIRTHDAY SCENE gives me strength to go on praying there is NO JAM on the live stream today we’ll see

OMG what the hell we don’t get a bed scene so the two bed scenes that the writers were talking about WE WILL GET THEM SOMETIME LATER it might be after birthday scene now that I think about it but also guys I think you’ll like this episode because the PLOT MOVES and there’s plot development thank god and we actually delve into serious stuff - the dilemma of Tang Yi as a mob boss and Shao Fei as a police officer finally comes into play here

Shao Fei runs off after Tang Yi kisses his wound (DAMN HE PRESSED HIS MOUTH TO THE WOUND FOR SO DAMN LONG?!) and asks if it still hurts and Tang Yi just laughs and says ‘he’s still too soft’ AND SHAO FEI IS LITERALLY HYPERVENTILATING IN THE TOILET THEN WE GET DOMESTIC SCENE - Tang Yi cooking in the kitchen for Shao Fei WITH AN APRON ON and Shao Fei is all: “it smells so good! is this the spicy dish we had with coke the other time?”

and wow BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD JUST SMILES AND GOES: “you can’t have spicy food or coke while you’re recovering”

shao fei: *pouts* “you’re so stingy, controlling this and that”

DOMESTIC HUSBANDS THEY ARE RIGHT HERE GUYS!!!!!

so they sit down and cute shao fei takes a bit of the dish and puts it on tang yi’s rice first before eating himself (i LURVE THIS) - and tang yi obviously is kind of amused and touched that shao fei did that, and as they’re about to eat that’s when tang yi broaches the topic of shao fei staying at the police station because it’s safer for him there, and obviously shao fei is all ‘WHY?!’ and demands to know a reason and i thought they were gonna start fighting but thank god they’re both soft smol bbs so they just look at each other waiting for the other person to say something, and tang yi goes: “i’ll tell you, but you must promise to stay out of it. if you can’t promise me that, i won’t tell you”

so shao fei obviously agrees and tang yi starts the flashback by saying: “do you know what it’s like to grow up in a place where no one cares about and loves you? that’s the kind of place i grew up in”

AND YES HERE WE GET TANG YI AND BOSS TANG AND HONG YE BACKSTORY (still waiting for Shao fei’s COME ON) - This entire like flashback tugged at my heartstrings guys TUGGED AT MY HEARTSTRINGS I almost cried?!!! - So young Tang Yi was adopted by adoptive parents because the mom wanted to adopt him but the mom died, so the dad was never supportive of his wife adopting tang Yi and when she died he became neglectful and abusive

We start off with young Tang Yi going home and it’s his birthday but obviously the terrible dad doesn’t notice, but Tang Yi goes to his room and eats food and is about to eat cake in front of the photo of him and his mom - the dad comes into the room and he yells at tang yi for going into his room to steal the photo of him and his mom - tang yi says that it’s not his, it’s a photo of him and his mom

and the dad goes: “she’s not your mom and i’m not your dad!”

tang yi doesn’t get why he can’t have the photo and snarks back and the dad slaps him, and says a bunch of other stupid shit, so tang yi leaves home with literally just the clothes on his back and the backpack (can’t rmb if he took the photo or not) - and this scene was truly realistic, i felt that slap and everything so kudos to the actors playing young tang yi and the dad?!

then next scene: we see a super skinny hong ye fighting with a bunch of older male teens over the bicycle they stole, and tang yi is somehow there as well, and they end up fighting with the older teens - long story short, boss tang (tang guo dong) passes by with a SUPER YOUNG LOOKING DAO YI OMG?! and they help tang yi and hong ye out - boss tang tells them to hurry and go home, and hong ye just simply says: “i don’t have a home”

boss tang stares at them for a while, and although tang yi doesn’t say a thing you can tell by his clothes and dirty face that obviously he has been on the streets for a while as well? so boss tang is all: “you guys hungry? want to eat some food?”

tang yi, the cautious, smart boy who knows that most strangers are up to no good, says no, while hong ye who really is hungry, says yes

anw in the next scene boss tang and tang yi are eating at the table alone - although tang yi isn’t eating (and boss tang mentions that hong ye has already eaten three bowls of rice), so boss tang leaves tang yi to eat by himself and give him some space while he goes check on hong ye to see whether she’s gone for a shower yet 

a year or less later, we see tang yi coming home to the house, and boss tang is cooking dinner - it looks fucking delicious btw and i haven’t eaten dinner so jfc i really wanted to reach into the screens for those golden fried mantous (buns) - anw, tang yi is holding onto a little box that is definitely a cake for his birthday and boss tang tells him that dinner is ready so he can come down after he’s put away his stuff - much later, the sky is dark and they’re eating already and BOSS TANG says there’s one more dish and then switches off all the lights, much to tang yi’s confusion

then boss tang comes out with a cake!!!! omg sweetest thing ever - after that they sit at the couch and make playdoh or clay figurines of ‘old tang’ and ‘little tang’ - it’s the cutest shit i’ve ever seen

so while tang yi is reminiscing all of this, he says: “boss tang gave me my first home, my first birthday etc. etc.” - basically boss tang gave him the home he never had, and then he says to shao fei: “but on that day four years ago, i watched him bleed to death in front of me - can you imagine in that moment i lost everything, and my life was ruined? do you think i can let the person who did this go?”

shao fei: “so that’s why you said you didn’t know anything, because you were waiting to take revenge yourself”

then: “tang yi, the best punishment for that person is to get justice under the law”

and of course tang yi insists that he will never ever give this person to the police, he WILL take revenge by his own hands - and shao fei dishes out what probably is the most realistic line in this entire damn show (and one that i think we’ve all been waiting for): “but tang yi, you know that if you take revenge on your own, as a police officer, i will have to catch you?”

and OMG THE HEARTBREAK BETWEEN THEM BOTH!!!! tang yi’s eyes are already watery and he just says: “you do what you need to do. i do what i need to do”

GOSH COULD THEY BE ANYMORE HEARTBREAKING LIKE WE BARELY JUST GOT THE HAPPY PARTS TWO EPISODES AGO?!! (and though i say that i think this episode was about time, because we really needed to move on the plot!!!!)

the next scene we get zhao zi asking online on a forum “what to do when a guy confesses to another guy” AND OMFG THIS IS HILARIOUS he gets the following responses:

“welcome to a whole new world”

“rmb to prepare some VASELINE”

#gaypanic!!!!!

LIKE WOW chinese netizens, you guys are real damn helpful?!!!! HAHAHAHHAA anw i totally died at the vaseline part and the funniest thing was zhao zi, at work, was READING THE RESPONSES OUT ALOUD like did you want the entire police station to know that jack, a well-known gangster and criminal, wants to bang you? and then yu qi who sits next to him (she’s recovered at least on the surface and moving on with her life ATTA GIRL YOU GO!!!) gives him the WHAT THE FUCK look at the things he’s saying - then zhao zi goes to shao fei and asks him the same thing, but shao fei was the one who confessed in this case, and zhao zi just shook his head and goes: “irrelevant, totally irrelevant”

then we move to tang yi’s house!!! omgggg TANG YI LOOKS DAMN FINE WITH THOSE EARRINGS AND THAT WHITE TURTLENECK i would like to thank the wardrobe in charge for picking out tang yi’s HELLA FINE CLOTHES

anw, hong ye and dao yi are there to discuss work, and she’s obviously still mad at dao yi, and tang yi then peruses some files on the project they’re on and picks a company - hong ye is like: “are you sure? they’ve only been around for 5 years”

and tang yi goes on and on about how he thinks the founder of the company is a good and capable person, and that hong ye should meet him because for work, and also secondly, because the founder actually told tang yi that he kind of liked hong ye at a party previously (so anw this founder is the guy we saw in the previews) - and then obviously dao yi is not happy about it and tells tang yi not to do that, but tang yi reminds him that: “if you keep on regretting, you’re going to miss her and you will miss this chance forever”

ah de turns up then and tells tang yi that chen wen hao has invited him for tea next week and tang yi says: “i’ll be there” - ah de tries to discourage him from gg but we all know that tang yi is doesn’t usually listen to ah de so he ignores him

the next scene: tang yi opens the box and we see the birthday hat from his first birthday with boss tang and the clay house he made when he was younger that represented the home that boss tang gave him, and he says to himself: “a year has passed again, happy birthday (to himself)”

AND YES LI ZHEN JIE AND BOSS TANG HAVE THE SAME EXACT BOX THAT THEY GAVE TO SHAO FEI AND TANG YI SO THEY ARE DEFINITELY CONNECTED AND EVERYTHING I really can’t wait to see how it all plays out!!! 

anw we’ll get all the crazy scenes like the drugging part and the knifing parts PLUS BIRTHDAY SCENE TOMORROW - everything exciting is only happening tmr so let’s all prepare for death tomorrow friends!!! i’m just glad they’re moving things along but i’ve really got no idea how they’re gonna squeeze:

1. dao yi and hong ye

2. jack and zhao zi

3. tang yi and shao fei being happy and all and omelette scene and DOMESTIC HUSBANDS 

4. slightly more backstory to reveal the incident four years ago

5. tang guo dong + li zhen storyline briefly at least

6. li zhen and shao fei relationship 

... all in the next 7 episodes, which is like about 3 hours worth of screen time, i really got no idea

i really liked this episode though! really liked that we saw young tang yi and younger boss tang!!! <3

[offtoljubljana]

38. Ik ben niet verveeld

14/03/2020

Whassup. Slovenië heeft inmiddels rond de 180 besmettingen, dus dingen zijn hier ook aan het veranderen. Ik was eigenlijk niet echt van plan om vandaag iets te schrijven, want ik heb echt niets speciaals gedaan.

Als je ook pijn wilt lijden, luister dan mee met mijn korte All You Wanna Do live playlist op YouTube. Het vreselijk hartverscheurende nummer All You Wanna Do van Six the Musical live, nu met gehuil en soms geschreeuw! I mean: OUCH.

Dus alles begint hier stil te vallen. Supermarkten en postkantoren zijn nog steeds open. Nu dat ik er over nadenk, is er niet een officieel verbod zoals in Italië of België, dus dat verklaart waarom de H&M nog steeds open is, maar zoals ik gisteren al aangaf, heel veel winkels en horecagelegenheden besluiten zelf om de deuren te sluiten. 

Het meest enthousiaste nieuws van de dag is dat twee van mijn sims verloofd zijn. He said yes! 

Leap year, baby!

In Amerika was het vroeger dus een ding dat vrouwen in schrikkeljaren een man ten huwelijk mochten vragen, i.p.v. de man de vrouw. Natuurlijk werd dit gehaat door veel mannen, want het idee dat een vrouw eigen keuzes mocht maken was gehaat, maar soms waren er ook mensen die het ook lief vonden!

Niet dat het van invloed is op mijn Sims universum. Het maakt me echt geen shit uit wie de ring presenteert, ALS DE ANDER MAAR JA ZEGT. Er is een stomme glitch in deze game dat ervoor zorgt dat sims veel te vaak worden afgewezen. Kahili moest Andrea vier keer ten huwelijk vragen voordat Andrea accepteerde! Maria heeft Kengo twee keer gevraagd en toen heb ik maar cheats gebruikt om ze te laten trouwen. Sims team, please, fix dit! Ik ga voorlopig veel Sims spelen, omdat ik veel binnen moet zitten en ik zit toevallig op het moment dat mijn sims serieuze relaties beginnen te krijgen, dus fix dit!

Want hey, we zitten allemaal binnen!

Ik heb de hele dag binnen gezeten in mijn pyjama, maar Caroline nam de lege bus naar het lege centrum en het was volgens haar heel raar om alles te zien. In Slovenië rijdt het openbaar vervoer dus wel nog, maar je mag hier ook niet meer via de voorkant van de bus instappen. Zo beschermen ze de chauffeurs.

Maar ja, veel dingen zijn dicht. 

En om eerlijk te zijn vind ik het niet erg. Ik geniet juist van mijn rust. Sommige mensen zijn helemaal geïrriteerd en “OH GOD IK BEN NU AL VERVEELD” en ik denk dan echt: “Chill? Speel de Sims. Drink een kop thee. Binge een serie op Netflix. Teken en verf veel. Stream op Twitch. Lees een boek. Ga een sjaal voor je oma breien.”

We hebben het geluk dat we in een digitaal tijdperk leven. Er is zo veel online content. Dit is de perfecte tijd om die ene podcast die je al weken uitstelt te luisteren. (Kuch, kuch, ik ben al drie maanden aan het wachten om de laatste aflevering van Gaychester te luisteren. This is a self call-out. I #cancel myself.)

Volgende week komen de e-learning dingen online en ik ben echt niet de enige student hier, dus hoera, als je je verveelt, kan je gaan leren!

Natuurlijk begrijp ik het dat je na een paar dagen zin hebt in iets nieuws. Waarschijnlijk zou ik dat ook wel hebben. Maar m’dude, we zijn één dag binnen.

Man, ik ben nu wel blij dat ik met mijn studie geen focus leg op journalistiek, want het nieuws is constant. Voor Nederland kijk ik op de site van de NOS en voor Slovenië kijk ik op de Engelstalige Total Slovenia News.

Ah. Ik zocht de site op om de link te voegen en blijkbaar is de eerste dode in Ljubljana gevallen. 

Ik vraag me af of Communicatiewetenschap hier over een paar jaar op terug kijkt en dan vraag ik me af wat ze zouden vinden van de berichtgeving. Ik heb een meme gemaakt.

Als Addy dit ooit gaat gebruiken in een college, dan zet ik er © Yuè L. 2020 op. 

Dus dat is de update. We zitten binnen. We kunnen nog naar buiten, maar ik heb geen reden om naar buiten te gaan, want ik heb voorlopig nog wel wat boodschappen. Ik had alleen meer bao pao’s moeten inslaan bij de Thai 🤔. Ironisch gezien hebben ze geen Thaise producten, of alles is in een ander alfabet geschreven. Maar oké, er is eten in huis. Ook hebben we nog andere essentials zoals wasmiddel, zeep en wc-papier. Nu dat Barbara niet meer hier is, gaat het een stuk rustiger. Barbara... gebruikte de wasmachine elke fucking dag. Yup. 

We zien wel wat er gaat gebeuren. Ik wacht het rustig af. Misschien gaan we ook wel allemaal zingen op balkons. Ik heb alleen geen balkon.

(Inmiddels is mijn All You Wanna Do Playlist afgelopen en luister ik naar glee seizoen 4. Dit seizoen was eigenlijk puur bagger, maar de muziek van seizoen 4 is eigenlijk wel goed. Higher Ground was niet Amber’s beste nummer, maar is het überhaupt mogelijk voor Amber om een slecht nummer te hebben?)

Ik heb wel een mail gehad van Mariska van Radboud over mijn verblijf en voorlopig wordt het niet geëist dat ik terug kom, dus dat is mooi. Zowel Sanne als ik zijn van plan om hier te blijven. Dit is gebaseerd op het feit dat het virus hier dus nog mega heftig is en op het feit dat onderwijs nog steeds door gaat, albeit digitaal. 

Als de situatie in Slovenië zal verslechteren, dan neemt Radboud contact met ons op. Of als wij ons toch niet meer fijn voelen, kunnen wij contact met hun opnemen.

Bedankt Maris. Carlo, ons eigenlijke aanspreekpunt, is blijkbaar nu op vakantie. Arme man.

(Closer. Ha. Closer.)

Anyway, als je zelf meer wilt lezen, dan is hier de link van Radboud International Office. Bottom line: als ik wegens Corona terug moet keren, maak ik aanspraak op het houden van de Erasmusbeurs wegens overmacht. 

(... fucking Come What May. Ik heb dit nummer denk ik jaren niet meer gehoord. Oh jfc.)

Ik ben dus niet van plan om terug te komen. De redenen had ik gisteren al opgeschreven. Zolang het mogelijk is, wil ik het extra werk vermijden. Don’t get me wrong. Als ik echt wegens welke omstandigheden dan ook terug moet, dan neem ik met mijn vliegangst de eerste vlucht terug, maar zolang dat niet nodig is, zit ik hier best goed.

Wat maakt het uit? Ik kan hier binnen zitten of thuis in Nederland. 

(Blow Me (One Last Kiss) is goed. Ik geef zowat niets om de personages, maar ze kunnen wel zingen.)

Caroline heeft wel een andere kijk. Ze zit al dagen te twijfelen of ze terug moet keren of niet. 

Wow. Ik had net die zin afgeschreven en toen kreeg ik een paar klopjes op mijn deur. Caroline vliegt dinsdag terug naar België. Damn. Ze is het nu Kath aan het vertellen.

***

Kleine intermissie. Ik was ook even naar Kaths kamer gegaan en we hebben met z’n drieën het besproken.

(Oh nee. Baby Got Back. Er zit een geweldig verhaal achter dit nummer, maar daar heb ik geen tijd voor, want ik ben ff aan het appen met Sanne.) (Ik heb de post open staan, dus music recs gaan maar even door. Outcast is een nummer geschreven voor glee, want glee heeft wel eigen nummers. Deze is wel goed.) (Fuck I Only Have Eyes For You. Ik heb het altijd al mega saai gevonden, maar na het nieuws over Melissa en Blake is het nog erger.) (Hetzelfde geldt voor Superman.) (Eindelijk weer een goed nummer. Ah, de emo My Dark Side. Zo veel angst meta in de dagen die volgden.)

Goed, ik heb Sanne even geüpdatet. Wij zijn er nog steeds zeker van dat we blijven. Maar ja, voor Caroline ben ik wel blij dat ze rust heeft. Ze heeft zo veel getwijfeld en in de knoei gezeten. Sanne, Kath en ik hebben dat niet, omdat we de keuze om te blijven al gemaakt hadden.

Het is wel verdrietig. Natuurlijk is het niet leuk dat ze gaat, maar het is wel begrijpelijk. 

(Girl On Fire. Ooooh lit. Badum tsss.)

Het laat je wel weer denken. Natuurlijk heb ik weer een meme gemaakt.

(Oh my God. Er is ook een verhaal achter Celebrity Skin. Voor jaren dacht ik dat ze “I’m not selling sheep” zongen i.p.v. “I’m not selling cheap” en ik heb er nooit bij stil gestaan dat het raar zou zijn dat ze zingen over het verkopen van schapen, want Sam en Brittany zijn de doofus characters.)

(En ook een verhaal achter Uptight (Everything’s Alright). Ik heb zoveel persoonlijke verhalen en behind the scenes verhalen over deze show.)

Maar dat is de stand van zaken nu.

[canarhys]

hOLY SHIT I JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT YOUR ACCOUNT BUT JFC I LOVE IT AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH DUDE Can you make a Valdangelo Godswap AU? You might know what this is from, but could you do Aphrodite Nico with Athena Leo? Leo's like a HUGE nerd and Nico's super hot and cute and always has glitter on his face, obsessed with pink, etc jfc, Leo has a huge crush on Nico and Nico also has a huge crush on Leo, but both of them are sO OBLIVIOUS and are constantly trying to improve themselves for eachother :))

“piper. piper, please explain this. piper, i’m legit about to start crying right now, you have no idea—“

“dude,” the daughter of hermes interrupted, “just like...breathe.”

[[MORE]]

“i can’t!” leo threw his arms up in the air, the predicament he was facing clearly taking a toll on his mental state — not good for a son of athena. “piper — have you seen him? i physically can’t speak whenever he tries to talk to me!”

“it’s just nico, leo,” piper soothed her friend, whose emotions were the equivalent of a knott’s berry farm roller coaster. “you went on a quest with him one time.”

“that was a year ago!” leo exclaimed. “when i had no clue that i had a crush on him and we weren’t totally awkward with each other.” his face suddenly curled in horror. “oh my god, i had acne back then. he probably thinks i’m ugly—“

“okay!” piper yelled out, grabbing leo’s arm and pulled him out of the hermes cabin quickly, making him yelp when, in a split second, he was outside and he could actually taste the oxygen on his tongue. piper placed her hands on her hips as she looked at him taking back in the air he lost. “better?”

“physically, yes,” he answered. in contrast, his brain was having a fucking field day. because only ten minutes ago, piper had brought to light the idea that leo had a crush on nico — the revelation which had caused the son of athena to have a mental breakdown because he was that oblivious to his own feelings. and it wasn’t something to feel proud of, because leo had felt that he understood everything about himself up until now.

so he didn’t even bother to question why he felt his face flush whenever nico complimented him, or why he felt butterflies in his stomach whenever nico placed a hand on his shoulder. and it made him internally scream to no end at how, for a child of an intelligent goddess, he was such a dumbass.

“well, you’re fine now,” piper said. “i haven’t seen you have this much of a heart attack since the whole jason incident... for the same reason. god, athena kids are hopeless romantics.”

“shut up, piper!” leo flapped his hands. “i just need to think for a second.”

his friend’s face contorted into sympathy, and she placed a hand on his shoulder. it made leo feel guilty. whenever something was ‘too much,’ he tended to lash out because he was having a crisis wrapping his head around whatever was happening. he apologized but she told him not to worry.

“it’s just... i just... i don’t even know,” he mumbled, burying his face in her chb t-shirt. “i think i like him... a lot? he’s really cute and i’m really bad at confessing my feelings for people. plus he’s a child of aphrodite! he’s basically out of my league.”

she grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look her in the eye. “i’m sorry, whose brilliant idea was it to create demigod cell phones that don’t attract monsters?”

leo didn’t answer and she nudged him slightly before he mumbled a small “...me.”

“and who was able to behead an entire column of cyclopes with a single ballista fire?”

leo started laughing. “me.”

“and who fought the leader of an army of rabid hellhounds and speared him through the chest?”

“okay, okay, i get it!” leo exclaimed, his smile crinkling his eyes. “that was me.”

“if you are able to defeat a rogue demigod in under a split second, then you are out of nico’s league! if he doesn’t return your feelings, then he has to raise his standards!”

leo snorted before hugging piper tight, the touch-starved soul within him begging to encase his best friend in a big hug. piper really knew how to rile people up.

“piper, have i ever told you how amazing you are?”

“i mean... i always knew, but okay.”

leo would’ve punched her if she wasn’t being amazing right now.

suddenly he felt piper shift under his embrace, he looked up and saw her with an uncomfortable expression. “uh, dude—”

“valdez?”

his heart suddenly stopped at the sound of the gravelly voice that belonged to the one and only man of his dreams. he turned around on impulse, which was a mistake because he was suddenly frozen on the spot and his fingers weren’t even moving an inch and leo was pretty sure his mind wasn’t any better because nico was right there—

if you asked leo valdez what his favorite thing about nico di angelo was, he probably wouldn’t answer and just spontaneously combust. nico di angelo had an inch on him, less thin limbs and more... well, hotness. he had smooth olive skin with galaxies upon galaxies of freckles, curled hair that was currently in a weak (yet cute) ponytail, and he was wearing a pink leather jacket with studs and clips. his dark eyes were glittered up under the lids, giving him almost a fairy look that nearly made leo collapse on his own.

leo probably looked like a gaping fish, his face dark and flushed. nico wasn’t helping. because he wasn’t saying anything either and leo really needed him to hand him a subject because if he wasn’t, leo was going to accidentally fall into his arms and kiss him senseless—

“can i...” nico started, before clearing his throat. leo was swerving by the raspiness of his voice. “can i talk to you for a minute?”

leo glanced at piper, who was hiding a thumbs up that only leo could see. he looked back to nico and could only nod.

leo said his goodbyes to the daughter of hermes and followed his crush to camp half-blood’s lake, a shimmering blue that reflected the sun overhead, a small dock leading out towards the water. leo caught sight of some water spirits, who waved at him flirtily, and he forced himself not to blush as he shyly waved back.

“that was your friend?” nico asked. he had perched himself on the edge of the small wooden dock, the darkness of his raven hair pulling away by the streams of sunlight illuminating it. he looked gorgeous as the sun cascaded across his freckled skin. his legs were crossed, and he was looking at leo with a weird face. leo didn’t know what emotion he was expressing but he hoped it wasn’t bad.

“huh?” he realized after around 9.5 seconds that nico was talking to him. “oh, yeah, piper! we’ve been friends since we were kids, we’re pretty close.”

nico raised an eyebrow before humming in acknowledgement. what, did he want him to say they were dating or something? leo could never figure him out, which was probably why leo liked him for some stupid reason — the only equation he couldn’t solve.

nico patted the empty space next to him. “sit,” he said.

leo blinked before walking over to where he was, crouching down to sit upon the dock and let his feet dangle over the edge.

“why did you want to talk to me?” leo asked. (if he had been looking, he would’ve seen nico curse under his breath.)

“oh, um, i was lonely... yeah, because my friends are on a date and they’re like the only people i hang out with so...”

leo felt his high hopes drop to a new low. oh. that’s why he brought him here. leo felt a bubble of spite fill his stomach, more towards himself than towards nico. because of course nico wouldn’t want to converse with him in the first place — leo was so insignificant that he was barely a mole on a baby’s ass. the new information already made him want to jump in the lake and leave camp.

“so i’m like your rebound?” he joked, almost sarcastically, and his eyes widened when nico’s head snapped towards him in an almost defensive position.

“no!” he yelled. “i wouldn’t just do that to you. you’re... uh...” he coughed. “you’re fun to talk to...”

the spite bubble popped, and he made a soft “oh.” he really wished he knew how any of his nerdy rants and book reviews were “fun,” since those were majority of his conversations with the son of love. nico was from the 30s, which meant that he didn’t know much from this era and leo had once been a bit of a tour guide. once in a while he would bring up a topic that leo was obsessed with and he would go into a thirty minute explanation into star wars or dc comics. then he would promptly realize that he’s been infodumping and die on the inside.

nico sighed. “look, i really enjoy your company. you’re smart and you have funny jokes.”

leo made a face. “all of my jokes are inside jokes that no one understands.”

“...yeah, but they’re funny when you know the material?”

leo couldn’t help it. he giggled. “sure, you’re just saying that.” he twiddled with his thumbs, dreading for when the conversation was going to hit death valley where neither of them knew what they were going to say. “what do you want to talk about?”

“i don’t actually know?” nico laughed, a short yet heavenly laugh where his eyes closed like butterfly wings and his mouth curled in a dashing smile. “i’m not good at conversation starters.”

“honestly same,” leo replied. “i’m pretty sure all my dialogue has been entirely based on this book series i...” he dragged his sentence before facepalming. “uh, sorry, i don’t know why i’m—”

“no, no!” nico suddenly grabbed his wrists, and leo skin felt cleansed by the touch of fingerless gloves against his arm. “tell me about it.”

leo raised his eyebrow. he had never done this before. “you sure? i can go on about it for an hour and you won’t be able to stop me.”

“no, i’m sure.” he placed leo’s hands back down on his lap. “tell me.”

that was enough of a catalyst to start talking about the latest book collection he had gotten his hands on (in greek, of course), the six of crows duology. he had finished the grisha trilogy just a month ago (in under a week, he might add), and had bought the two books at the camp’s bookstore. he had finished the first book in a single day and read again because it was just that good, but he was struggling to find time to read the other one. he had asked nico if he wanted to hear spoilers (to which nico nodded wordlessly), and leo had then gone into a rant about how dumb kaz was for not actually trying to show inej his feelings or how nina was way too good for matthias (both of which now sounds pretty relevant to the situation), then started screaming about wylan and jesper and wouldn’t stop talking about their cute dynamic and suddenly he was on the topic of grisha as a whole.

the entire time nico was just nodding and looking at him, but as leo was explaining the chemistry of all the book’s relationships, he noticed nico had a lost expression on his face. he was staring at leo, eyes gazing longingly at him with a soft smile and tint of blush on his cheeks (leo suspected it was makeup). the glitter under his eyelashes were prominent, bright pink and gold and adding beautiful contrast to his entire looks. his hair was cascading around his face in ripples. was he daydreaming? leo stopped talking to prove his theory, and nico didn’t stop staring. was he a little too much?

“do i have something on my face?” he questioned, making nico snap back into reality.

“w-what?” nico stuttered.

“you’re staring,” leo mumbled, averting his eyes from the beautiful boy. “i knew it, i’m ranting too much.”

“no, no!” nico exclaimed, waving his hands for emphasis. leo noticed his black and pink nail polish. “it’s just... your eyes are striking.”

leo an inhuman noise, confused. nico realized what he said and immediately tried to recover.

“cause they’re... uh, they’re scary! yeah, they can kill a man in one hit. i should know, i saw you take down a monster twice your size.”

there was silence. it made sense. his eyes were brown, differing from his siblings’ gray ones, yet they were still sharp and jason claimed they made him nervous when they first met. leo didn’t know if he should be proud or not. it was one thing to strike fear in enemies’ hearts. it was another to strike fear in your friends’.

“uh, thanks man,” leo said, internally scolding himself for not having a proper answer. “yours are... neat.”

neat, he screamed at himself. neat! of all the fucking words in the world, that’s what he said. god, athena must be shaking her head in disappointment in olympus. sorry mom.

(it was a travesty since neat was an understatement when it came to nico di angelo.)

“you know what, i’m sorry,” leo apologized, standing up and backing away. “i have a project i need to work on and jake has been asking me to help him with something, i should go—”

“wait!” nico stood up abruptly, which was the worst mistake of his entire life because leo watched in shock as his foot stuttered under the lack of wood under it and sent nico toppling down into the lake below. leo cried out, rushing towards the water and looking over the dock to see nico pop up from the water and gasp for air.

his black bangs stuck to his face, dripping wet with the hair tie forming his ponytail missing. he pulled the strands from his eyes, looking up at leo who had his hands over his mouth as if he was afraid of what nico was going to say next.

“are you okay?” leo asked, trying to ignore how nico still looked breathtaking after taking a dunk into the half-blood waters.

nico slapped his hands down in the water, the flying droplets hitting leo’s face and making him wince. “do i look okay?”

leo didn’t answer, looking down at the dock in shame, and already his brain was about to burst and now he was probably going to cry? because this is like the worst thing to happen to him in forever and now nico is mad at him and he won’t be his friend anymore and all this stuff was making his stomach feel like excommunicating every single acid in it. “sorry.”

“oh fuck, um, wait, oh gods wait, no, it’s my fault i— leo, hold on!”

leo could barely hear him as he did the only thing he could think of doing, not even bothering a second glance as he ran away to the athena cabin.

—

nico was an idiot.

no scratch that, nico was literally the god of idiots. the whole enchilada of idiots with an idiot army by his side.

being a son of aphrodite, nico expected himself to be a master when it came to emotions, especially romantic ones. and it showed, by his ability to patch up relationships between other campers and help them get ready for their dates with his wardrobe expertise. he was able to make monsters swoon by his voice only to set them up to kill them. he was the one, after all, that knocked sense into percy that he had a crush on annabeth.

but all of that was thrown out the window by leo valdez.

cute, adorable leo, who went for hours on end with tv series and science rantings that nico couldn’t even comprehend because he was always staring at his face, starry eyed and so passionate that it made his chest hurt. whose intelligence was able to bring down a rogue demigod general in the titan war. who was so easy to fluster and make laugh till he couldn’t breathe.

so, nothing could have compared to the absolute disaster he was when they talked a week ago.

first strike was when he had forgotten to create a valid reason to speak with him (anything other than him wanting to stare at leo in a non-creepy way) and fucked it up by explaining that he was some sort of rebound. a rebound! leo wasn’t a rebound, he was a goddamn blessing!

then was when he was caught and he replied with, “your eyes are striking.” he tried to ignore that part because he had never been that stupid, and his explanation wasn’t any better because leo probably took offense of him calling him scary (which he can be but nico likes his face).

finally — falling in the lake. the one thing he was not prepared for, making him so pissed off at how bad he was at this whole feelings thing that he accidentally lashed out at leo. it was the worst — seeing hurt cross over leo’s face with a dejected expression, and nico failing to speak a coherent apology before leo took off, obviously wanting nothing to do with him after he was such a jackass.

which he was, no doubt about it. he wondered what he did wrong, sitting by his vanity, now dry and doing his own makeup and applying glitter under his eyes. then he realized that everything from the point he realized he liked leo was wrong, because he should’ve known that he can’t be too prideful in his love abilities. and now he drove leo away.

“don’t beat yourself up about it,” reyna said, the daughter of apollo said, cleaning up her golden arrows with a small cloth. she was visiting the camp from the roman one she stayed at. “i’ve met leo. he isn’t the type to hold grudges against someone.”

“i know that!” nico spun around in his chair, crossing his arms in exasperation. “i feel bad though. if he hates me, he has a reason to.”

“if he hates you, he’s obviously a dumbass,” reyna counterpointed. “are you going to apologize though? because i’m tired of seeing you pining and not making any moves.”

“i made a move and it ended with me swimming with the fishes.”

“the only thing you said was that his eyes were pretty.” reyna leaned closer, placing a hand on his shoulder. “step up your game.”

nico scoffed. “i’m getting relationship advice by a sun demigod.”

“i’m being serious.” the daughter of apollo had a stony expression on her face. “it’s important to be yourself, i mean that’s what you told me. but if you want to go all out, go all out. you and leo will continue to avoid each other until you come out to him.”

nico sighed. “okay, but...how?”

reyna grinned, picking up a brush from nico’s vanity. “allow me to help.”

an hour later nico was wearing a mesh t-shirt and black leather jeans with combat boots that were decorated in pink flower embroidery, plus a bubblegum aviator jacket gifted to him by his mother. his hair was let down today, ending at his shoulders and wavy like ocean seas, with clips holding up his long bangs. he had his eyelashes curled and eyelids brushed with eyeshadow, and he looked himself up and down in the mirror along with reyna.

finally his best friend gave him a thumbs up. now the challenge was knowing what to say.

“knock him dead!” reyna called out. “well, don’t actually. but you’ll do great.”

“thanks!” nico called out. he was about to head to the athena cabin until he bumped into someone who ran straight at him.

“oh shit!” the person yelped, and nico’s thought processes immediately malfunctioned. “sorry, my bad— nico?”

the plan was supposed to be talk to leo, ask him out somewhere, then confess to him and wait for judgement. but that plan was basically burned to ashes when nico found himself struggling to form words as he stared at leo. his dark yet clear and stabbing eyes looking up at him, his skin decorated in small freckles under the eyes and beauty marks dotting his face delicately. his wild dark hair was like smoke, and small owl earrings hung from the lobes of his ears. he was wearing a pale blue shirt under his chb tee, blue shorts and high socks, making him look like an absolute nerd especially with a small pencil tucked above his ear and gods, nico could feel himself reaching elysium.

nico registered that he was holding leo to keep the shorter from falling, hands on his tiny waist that made his mind even more jumbled until leo’s loud and rapid voice started speaking.

“oh, nico, thank gods i found you! i wanted to say sorry, i’ve honestly been avoiding you because i thought you were mad at me and you most likely are, and you have the right to because i sent you into the water and i probably ruined your makeup — though you guys probably have waterproof makeup so i don’t know — and i didn’t even help you out which was really stupid of me because i’m supposed to be a nice person and frankly you were dripping wet, wow that sounds really wrong i’m sorry i should probably stop rambling—”

the boy took in a deep breath, but nico was squealing internally about how cute leo was when he rambled. he willed himself not to pinch his cheeks and kiss him on his forehead. “i’m sorry.”

“what?” nico honestly was lost halfway through his rant. “it’s fine, it was my fault. i should be the one apologizing. i yelled at you.”

“yeah but i deserved it,” leo mumbled, looking down at the ground.

“no, you didn’t,” nico retorted, going into defense mode. “i’m sorry, really. you want me to make it up to you?”

leo tilted his head like the goddamn cutie he was. “you don’t have to but... how?”

“let’s head to the bookstore,” nico answered. “you pick out a book and i buy it for you.”

“what?” leo exclaimed, backing up until nico’s hands weren’t on his waist anymore (which totally didn’t make him feel sad). “dude, you seriously don’t have to do that, i mean there’s a library—”

“yeah, but the library doesn’t let you keep the books. i know you like reading them over and over again.” nico held up a bag of drachmas from his pocket. “i have money. you can buy the entire store if you desire. but i’m not letting you get out of this empty handed.”

leo looked ready to go off on an entire explanation of why he wasn’t going to follow nico’s idea, and despite him being one of the best debaters the camp has ever seen, nico was determined to hold his ground because that’s what leo deserved.

leo sighed, noticing that nico wouldn’t budge. “okay, fine!” he groaned. “can i at least pay you back?”

“nope.”

“ugh!”

leo’s worries about this arrangement were quickly diminished though, when leo had seen the fuckton of books that had been added to the bookstore since he had last came there. he was gawking over some of them, even held on to three and continuously checked their summaries to make sure they were good. nico leaned against a bookshelf, non-fiction, staring at leo as he ran his finger across the covers and watched his talk to himself silently, even picking some novels up to read with focused eyes. the son of aphrodite hated how whipped he was, but the son of athena was so pretty that he couldn’t help it.

leo placed one of the books back on the table, though hesitantly. “are you sure you can pay for these?”

nico nodded. “i’m stocked up on money right now. buy whatever you want.”

“i’ll just buy one,” which seemed easier said than done to leo, because he was having an internal debate between two thick novels. he turned to nico and showcased them. “pick, i can’t choose.”

nico scanned the books. one was named the outsider by stephen king, the other children of blood and bone by tomi adeyemi. nico had no idea what their summaries were or if they were actually interesting, but he was pretty sure he could pay for both.

“i can buy both of them,” he said. leo was about to protest but nico snatched both of the books out of his hands. “this all you want?”

“i mean, yeah, but—”

“no buts!” nico interrupted. “you deserve this and you don’t get to think otherwise. you want these or not?”

leo nodded. nico smirked. “good. i’ll be back.”

a minute later nico was handing a paper bag of the two books to leo, who almost didn’t grab it if it wasn’t thanks to nico’s prodding. a smile made its way onto the son of athena’s face, fond and filling nico’s empty stomach with butterflies. he looked absolutely gorgeous.

“thanks, neeks,” he said, before gasping and covering his mouth.

nico felt his cheeks heat up. “neeks?”

“sorry, it just came out!” he clutched the books to his chest as if they were a stuffed toy. “you’re really nice, nico.”

nico felt himself step closer towards leo. “it’s no problem.” but it was a problem, because nico was already in leo’s personal space and trying to think other thoughts than kissing him. “you needed this.”

leo laughed, wheezing slightly and light-hearted. “i guess.” he looked up at nico and the son of aphrodite thought he saw him leaning up towards him until—

leo’s face contorted into absolute horror, his eyes widening as they looked at nico’s shoulder. he screamed in terror, jumping and backing up quickly until he hit his head on a nearby ladder that just-so-happened to be placed next to him. nico could barely register leo holding his head in pain before his eyes rolled up into his head and he promptly fell onto the floor, unconscious.

oh shit.

nico looked down at his shoulder to find a daddy longleg hanging on to it. he yelped and flicked it off to gods’ know where, when the reality of the situation hit him. of course a spider would show up. as if the children of athena couldn’t get enough. as if nico didn’t have enough disastrous experiences caused by him already.

nico had brought leo into the infirmary and asked for the apollo kids to give the books to leo on his way out, before rushing to the aphrodite cabin and saw reyna back there, with a sunflower yellow dress, on her demigod phone when nico opened the door with a slam.

“how’d it go?”

nico thought about the day for a single second before walking towards the bed and falling down face first on it, taking in a breath, and muffled his yelling.

son of love? more like son of dumbass.

—

when leo got out of the infirmary, books in hand, he had willed himself not to drown himself in the camp’s lake.

who decided it was a great idea to make children of athena have arachnophobia? because leo had actually tried to kiss nico, one of the boldest decisions in his life, he may add, only to get severely mortified at a fucking tiny saddy longleg climbing over nico’s shoulder, getting a concussion, and passing out. and he actually tried to look cleaned up, with his best shirt and a small pencil to add. was karma doing this? making himself a humiliation in front of the prettiest boy on earth?

he wanted to march up to athena and demand her he take him up to olympus and away from his feelings.

piper had helped him with the incident from two weeks ago, after helping him a week prior when he had felt horrible about nico falling in the lake. now she was telling him, as she was eating from a bag of chips, that he should just confess and get it over with.

“yeah, like that worked,” he grumbled sarcastically.

the daughter of hermes threw up her hands in exasperation. “leo, you have to be shitting me! at this point, you both are oblivious fucks. right now, you march right over to nico’s cabin, tell him your feelings, and hope it goes well. hell, i’m sure he likes you too!”

leo sputtered. “where?”

piper groaned, lolling her head back as if she was begging her heavenly father to take her back to heaven. “nevermind. just tell him you like him.”

and here leo was, in front of the aphrodite cabin, pink and glossy and full of the prettiest people in camp half-blood. leo used to think the kids in there were airheads and lovebugs until he saw them in battle, especially nico, one of the only aphrodite campers with charmspeak. leo wished he had charmspeak so he could beat some sense into himself to go through that deadbeat door.

he let out a breath, clearing out his mind. well, here he goes.

he raised his hand to knock on the door when it opened to... speak of the devil.

“leo?” nico called out, closing the door behind him. he was wearing the same attire he had on two weeks ago, all dolled up and making leo’s face go from normal to seething warm. “i, um, i’m sorry—”

“you’ve got to be kidding me.”

nico blinked before narrowing his eyes. “excuse me?”

but leo was angry, because his emotions have gotten the best of him for far too long and nico was right there, and leo felt all his common sense get thrown out the window and get replaced by anger at the gods for all these bad happenings and shit. he was angry at himself for holding back so long, and angry at nico for not starting something earlier and pretending they could always go back to how they used to be because, frankly, leo was done. he was finished.

“i’m just gonna come out and say it. i like you, di angelo. i like your gorgeous face and your dumb laugh and i like how you try to apologize for things i neither you can control. i literally just figured i had a crush on you like three weeks ago and honestly i’m just done because i’m a son of athena so love isn’t my strong suit which really isn’t that surprising but you get the point. you make me smile a lot and i like it when you hug me and i don’t even know how to interact with you anymore because you make my brain genuinely malfunction and i hate you for it, i hate you but like i like you too and i really want to kiss you—”

he was cut off by nico suddenly surging forward, locking their lips together.

leo made a surprised muffled noise, eyes widening before eventually closing them in bliss, wrapping his arms around nico’s neck and letting the taller hold him by the waist, firm hands grasping him. he felt himself melting in nico’s arms, kissing back and unconsciously bringing his hands up to caress nico’s soft hair.

nico brought up a hand to hold leo’s head, rubbing circles on his back. leo barely remembered that he needed to breathe, and hesitantly leaned away, looking up at nico, who looked as blissed out as he felt. his cheeks were scarlet, his eyes full of hearts.

“wow,” leo muttered. “did you—?”

“mhm,” nico hummed.

“and was i—?”

“mhm.” a fond smile crossed nico’s face. leo felt himself fall in love all over again. “do you want to come inside? just to talk! and maybe kiss?”

leo smiled, glad they were finally being blunt with one another. “i’d love to.”