#just for ridiculously beautiful nhs

[kieren-fucking-walker]

Hey folks!

A few people asked if I was okay after my other post so I thought I'd give a general update as to Life Things (tm).

My mum finally left my dad, nys sister got married and he wasn't invited to the wedding and the way he acted was enough to make her leave. My youngest sister (still an adult) was left alone with my dad in the house and I had to talk her through packing a bag and leaving without him noticing. They both left pretty much everything behind and we don't know if they'll be able to get it back. They're at my grandparents now which is further away from both of their workplaces and a very temporary solution, but safe at least. My youngest sister is disabled and she needs support nobody can really give her at the moment, but she's safe.

I lost Juniper (one of my cats) a few weeks back. It was old age, but I wasn't able to be with her and it still doesn't quite feel real. I miss her so much, and I feel very bad about not being able to be with her (a very good friend was though, she was loved and wasn't alone thank god.) Sage is looking for her sometimes but seems to have some understanding of what's happened since he saw her briefly afterwards, she's buried in my best friends garden having a new adventure.

My landlord put my rent up by £100, but hasn't fixed a lot of the things wrong with the flat. The cost of heating this place is ridiculously high, so I'm trying to put the heating on as little as possible even though it's dropping into the minus degrees. Apparently they're set to go up even more in the new year because this country wants to kill us I guess.

My disabilities are all flaring up at once, I've had to take unpaid leave from work, I've not been able to afford the physio sessions that stave off the joint issues, or the food that helps keep my protein levels up because it is expensive and I need to eat something at least. I'm very very lucky that we have the NHS and all of my medications now qualify so at least I get those.

It's coming up to Christmas, I don't know what it's going to be like this year. My family is scattered and all in precarious situations, none of us have much to spare and most of us don't have a permanent home or more than a suitcase of stuff. I need to get Sage his vaccinations, and I feel terrible about leaving him alone in the cattery over Christmas.

That is to say that life is a lot. It's good things, but unstable. My dad is harassing us all, but we aren't stuck with him. I can't afford to keep my disabilities at bay, but my family is safer even if they need more support. Mentally at least I'm okay, I think.

If you'd like to help out, my PayPal is here and my Ko-Fi is here. If you can't or just don't want to this is not for you, god knows we're all going through hard times at the moment and the world is going to shit, but if you do and you're able it will be much appreciated by me and my family.

Finally here is a picture of my beautiful Juniper. Rest in peace my darling.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and thank you for reading 💜

[tchaikovskymacy]

[Kalimpong, North Bengal, India]

My little trip to this hill station was a time that was to be worth talking about later when I think back about it. The chilly weather and the scenic beauty were all I could take in then. Unlike the plains (where I live), the atmosphere is calm, less chaotic and quiet, almost as if it's a separate part away from the country. Although a place that most of us want to spend our lives at, it is romanticized a lot.

But people overlook the difficulties of living in a place like that, apart from being excessively hardworking to live in a place like this. A good support from the government is also needed. While going back to the railway station, the person who dropped us off expressed his grief and frustration on the government, when my parents asked about the poor conditions of the road on the mountains. The roads are not constructed properly, a huge river flows near the national highway and the houses near that river (Teesta river) are almost hanging on the edge by the riverside, one heavy rainfall and it's all gone. They are always uncertain about what will happen next if there is a flood yet one can always see them smiling. The government doesn't seem to bat an eye on this.

Despite this place and my home (which is in the plains) being in the same state. Kolkata (where I live) the main attraction for tourists and home to many ministers, is being decorated with atrocious colourful lights spending heaps of money on it, which is not needed. Streetlights are enough. And building ridiculous monuments in the city that don't hold any connectivity with our culture, is a waste of money. Instead of spending so much amount on these things, they can easily invest in places like Kalimpong, Darjeeling, and the NH to make it easier for people living there. It helps secure their livelihood and save them from danger.

The government shouldn't turn a blind eye to this. Despite this rant or any other protests raised by the people who need help, they chose to prioritize their reputation and comfort over their people's welfare, is this the democracy we all vote for?

The first pic is an incident of a landslide, but there are places like this in Kalimpong where the roads are from the side and just a wooden plank is laid over it, instead of actually mending the road.

the second pic is of the Teesta River, it is a river with a heavy current.

[dayseternal-blog]

My NH Fair Wrapped!

I messed up my first draft and had to start over 😭

My favorite, favorite post has to be @nh2022's Creator Spotlight on Katarinahime

I loved how Des put together all of the tributes from Tumblr and Twitter. I don't regularly go on Twitter, so I loved seeing what others had created.

In no particular order, I loved

🧡 Day 10: Cultural - I love seeing everyone put NaruHina into different cultures!!! This will always be a favorite prompt for me.

🧡 Day 14: AU from fanmade contents - Sessakag wrote a story for shamy's art!! And lavdiiaa made an art for magmawrites's story!!!! I just live for this reciprocal inspiration in this fandom!!

🧡 Day 25: Hokage & First Lady / Office AU - just fun. So fun.

🧡 Day 28: Video game - so I've never interrupted my husband when he was playing games, but ngl the fics make it sound like a good idea.

🧡 Day 30: Bookstore - I didn't know how much I needed this AU, I loved all the fanarts so much. I need to write a bookstore au!!

@golubhat's art is so cool. Something about the lines and details is really pleasing? Also @lavdiiaa's art makes me want to write something spicy 🙈

In no particular order, I loved

💝 "Casualties of War" and "Make Love Not War" from "NαɾυHιɳα Mσɳƚԋ DҽƈҽɱႦҽɾ 2022" by @sessakag - Rated E, Canon-Divergent AU, Two-shot. It’s set in an alternate universe in which the attack that destroyed Uzushio failed, and in retaliation, Uzu waged war on several of the Elemental Nations. Naruto was born in Uzushiogakure and Hinata in Konoha. Prompts: Forbidden & Enemies-to-lovers.

The point of canon-divergence is such an original idea. Also I just love secret relationships, and the added dose of enemies-to-lovers makes this perfect!

💝 "The Moon Sure is Beautiful Tonight" by @happyocelot - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Technically, Hinata was a chuunin. Technically, Naruto was still a genin. Technically, genin were supposed to be led by jounin, forming groups of three, barring special occasions. Technically, Hinata wasn’t supposed to be Naruto’s squad captain at all for this mission. But technically, Kakashi was Hokage, and technically he could play Cupid for them. Prompt: Blank Period.

Happyocelot is a genius at writing ridiculous situations! This fic is full of humor, I smiled the whole way through!

💝 "i don't know who loves us more, me or the stars" by @secrettastemakerland - Rated T, RTN! Modern AU, One-shot. person a who wants to stargaze and person b who wants to makeout trope ft menmahina. Prompt: Stargazing.

RTN!Hinata is perfect in this. I love how sassy and in-love she is in this cute fic.

💝 "Wake up next to you" from "Some Type of Love" by @croissantsandmacarons - Rated T, Modern AU, One-shot. During their Christmas party at Kiba's place, Hinata has to confess to the man of her dreams. Unfortunately, nothing goes has planned, but isn't it for the better? Prompt: Waking up next to you.

I'm still thinking about how adorable this fic is. I love so many things about it, the pining, the flirting, the cuddling! It's probably the fluffiest fic I've read all year.

💝 Prompt: Sunshine Family - tanka by @bornonthebreakofdawn

This tanka encapsulates what we love about NaruHina. It's short and sweet. Also I love the extra effort of having the appropriate picture and border. The whole thing is so pretty and lovely.

First off, obviously

💖 Day 23 unrequited by @shamylicious-blog - I'm just 😭. I'm so, so lucky that you decided to read my fic!!!!! You encouraged me so much to finish my fic, and even now, I'm so glad that I finished it. Thank you, shamy, you fill my heart with love!! (Naruto, you heartbreaker!!! AHHHH)

The rest is really hard to choose because I loved so many, but 4 more that I loved in no particular order:

💗 What about this book? by @golubhat - My goodness, isn't the background just to die for? Also the intimacy of Naruto doing almost like a kabe-don 🙈 The details of the books, flowers, clothing, everything in this piece are eye-catching.

💗 Taking a break from exercises routine by @alexis513 - This art reminded me of that Tumblr thread that was going around for awhile where artists were adding on different ways NaruHina kiss to account for their height difference. I think one person put Hinata on a stool, but no one drew them like this! I love to think that they give each other kisses as often as possible x) My other fave of yours was your masquerade one!

💗 Hogwarts by @iamdslr - This art gave me so, so much joy. Getting-caught-staring-by-your-crush is one of my favorite things in the world (i've probs written this trope at least 3 times). Naruto's such a dork lolll and Hinata loves it!!!

💗 December 14th: Yin-Yang by @achinghcarts - This has got to be one of the coolest aes boards I have ever seen. Super creative and beautiful, I love it!

💓 @sessakag - I'm pretty sure everyone, all of us, thinks it's crazy that you actually submitted a fic for every prompt. How did you find the time to write. You're simply superhuman.

💓 @powerful-niya - I'm impressed with how much you develop your visualizations of your fics. From the details of the characters' clothing to your matching moodboards. I can really sense the passion you have for your fics!

💓 @croissantsandmacarons - You guys already know that you're both forever faves. Thank you, Chloe, for adding onto your French!Naruto and Hmong!Hinata AU, that story is so, so precious.

💓 @secrettastemakerland - Your one-shots this month were short-and-sweet, which is exactly what I need, I feel like I never have time to read these days. But your angsty ones could definitely use a sequel, please consider 👀🙏🏼

💓 @bornonthebreakofdawn - I know you might be like, wondering why you're in this list, but honest, I really look forward to your poetry during these events. I love how pretty you make your posts, too.

THIS IS REALLY HARD TO CHOOSE. in no particular order:

💕 @xx---locketdragon---xx - I love the vibrancy of your colors. Also, each one was so cute, but my favorite was your Forbidden prompt one, in which Hinata felt embarrassed for wanting to hold hands with Naruto!! Like, yes!!!! That's my favorite shy girl!!!

💕 @lavdiiaa - All your submissions were so delicious, but especially the nsfw ones 🙈. My fave is definitely your High School prompt, in which Naruto is feeling Hinata up under the school uniform. Something about this one really makes me, like happy???? Your style is somehow, like a visual manifestation of Sessakag's writing.

💕 @shamylicious-blog - I absolutely loved all of your tributes to Katarinahime's fics. Also, I loved the pinky promise one, the bookstore one, the masquerade one, and can we talk more about the arranged marriage one? like what is the backstory for this??? I must know.

💕 @saradesuchiha - You have to be on everyone's favorites list. Your art graced our dashboards everyday, from these adorable NH fair headers to the profile picture border!!!! just, thank you. Thank you for being our NaruHina champion!!!!! You brought so much joy into our lives this past month!!!!!!! 💯👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

💕 @jengmart - Your NaruHina is so, so soft, glowy, and cute, and I just want to squeeze them like stuffed animals. My favorites were your bookstore one, your gender swap one, and The Last Anniversary one!

I guess....just taking this event to heal a little. Setting aside more time to mourn, to remember, to reread Katarina's work. I'm still in shock, the grief doesn't go away, but this event was an impetus to contribute again to the fandom that allowed me to "meet" her. I was able to have fun again!! which is nice. I wrote less fics than I wanted to but more than I expected to, which is nice. I also love impromptu inspiration, so thank you again Des U for the wonderful Christmas cards.

I really hope people who may not have heard of Katarinahime before this event take the time to read her works. She was a beautiful, funny, intelligent person, and her stories are intimate insight into her voice and the values that were important to her. I cannot stress enough how absolutely high-tier her talent and skill was. Please, please, please read Katarina's stories.

[stiricidewrites]

The Damage You Do: ch 24, pt 7

End of the chapter~ back to wwx's perspective tomorrow, and maybe, eventually, some actual smut lol

Previously

~

wwx’s mouth opened and closed several times, the movement falling somewhere between cute and ridiculous. He really was the most beautiful and expressive man, even his attempts to cover his feelings explosive in how overly bright they were. It was part of how lwj knew whenever the man was faking it—faking those ugly smiles. Had those smiles ever fooled anyone? Or had they risen out of some perverse desire from the people who had hurt him to see him act happy. Even having only met the Smoking Flower briefly, lwj was sure that she would know when her pseudo-grandchild was faking it—when he was covering up whatever horrible, rotting feelings were crawling around inside him. Yet, his sub had seemed confused to be called out, which begged the question: why was the Smoking Flower not calling him out.

“Lan-laoshi?” wwx asked, pulling lwj’s attention back to him.

Apparently, he also had a tell—something wwx could read in him when his mind drifted away because he certainly had been paying enough attention to the scene to have heard it if his sub said anything more, and yet the other man’s tone implied that he had known his dom wasn’t completely present.

His mouth twitched, wwx’s eyes widening minutely at the actual expression of amusement—of contentment and desire and possessiveness that this man seemed capable of dragging out of him through just existing and being more attentive than lwj knew how to handle.

“wy?” he asked in return, noting the way the other man’s toes scrunched—the way his thighs clamped together.

“Uhm… how do I, ah… show I require very… very li-little effort on… on your part to relax?” wwx asked, eyes flicking from side to side as he slowly worked out the words, as though he couldn’t remember the exact phrasing of lwj’s words.

What was it, lwj wondered to himself, head tilting as he examined the man, that told him his sub was faking that forgetfulness. wwx was forgetful and distractible, yes, but something about this? About forgetting lwj’s words from a moment earlier? Something about it seemed faked, if extremely well faked, only a lifetime of experience around people who lied and deflected for a living giving him the smallest of inklings that wwx remembered each of his words perfectly.

“This man is dangerous.” The thought was sudden and striking, running down lwj’s spine like a hint of death and terror, and then wwx was looking up at him again, those big, silver-toned eyes glistening with tears, and the thought floated away.

“I don’t…” wwx mumbled, his voice cracking around his unshed tears.

lwj reached out, brushing those tears away, wondering what memory wwx was pulling up to so easily call out the heartbreaking expression washed across his features.

“Dangerous,” he thought again, letting wwx turn a cheek into his palm as he contemplated how his sub had turned the scene on its head—how he had taken lwj’s brief resolve to make the man work for his affection and ground it into a desire to do nothing but comfort him. **wwx was uncontrollable, powerful in ways lwj wasn’t even sure the man himself realized—especially now that he had lwj willing to do anything to keep him safe and happy—and most certainly more dangerous in his own right than lwj had previously realized.

He really, really needed to get a hold of nhs.

[aline-the-cat]

WangXian Twilight AU

Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze send their son Wei Wuxian to Caiyi so he can study in the prestigious Cloud Recess University, he reunites there with his cousins Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli and makes friends with Nie Huaisang, the first day is normal and all, with the only weird thing being Huaisang warning him about a student, Lan something. Wei Wuxian doesn't pay attention. Big Mistake

He enters one of his classes and there, sittting next to the only sit available, is the most handsome man ever. Wei Wuxian would be swooing except he also has the meanest glare of all. Literally the guy is killing with his golden eyes (golden eyes?). Wei Wuxian being the sun he is, tries to have a conversation with the stranger to no avail, as soon as the bell rings, the guy practically runs out of the classroom, not without sending his way another killing glare

Later, Wei Wuxian will hear him trying to change his schedule (really, whats up with this guy?!)

During lunch the next day he finally learns who the fuddy duddy is thanks to Nie Huaisang: "I told you to not get on his bad side!!! Didnt I told you???"

Wwx "I don't know, maybe?? Who is he?"

Enter the five most fashionable people Wei Wuxian has ever seen (and he has live with aunt Yu and Jiang Yanli)

Wwx "okay, who are they???"

Cue Jiang Cheng groaning next to him

NHS "The Lans and the Jins, their families supposedly have been friends for centuries, and the Lans adopted the Jins after their father died, or so I heard, they are mostly together and they keep them to themselves, they are extremely hot and the only ones worth of their time are Da-ge and Yanli-jie apparently

"And do they have names or I just go 'hot 1, hot 2, sexy 1, sexy 2 and gorgeous?" Wwx doesnt realize the young adults are smirking, and one is frowning

Jiang Cheng sighs and unwillingly enters the conversation

"The one that looks like a peacock is Jin Zixuan, Jie likes him for some reason and has been the only person he has talk to that we know, the one next to him with the ridiculous but cute beanie is Jin Ziyao..."

"Da-ge kinda likes him and has manage to talk to him on several ocasions or so I've heard" Nie Huaisang interrupts

"Yes, they are brothers, the one sitting next to them is Luo Quingyan, I think she is their cousin" Wei Wuxian nods appreciatively at Jiang Cheng's words, she is hot "The tall one is Lan Xichen, he is...."

"Hot, handsome, nice, gentleman, friendly and everything good in this word??" Huaisang probes, and to Wei Wuxian surprise and amusement, A-Cheng blushes

"Shut up Huaisang! I never said that!!" He tries so hard not to scream that is hilarious "stop saying nonesense or I'll break your fucking legs!" The younger Nie just dies of laughter next to him, also trying not to be too loud, Wei Ying notices with curiosity "I was gonna say that Lan Xichen is the head of the student council"

"And gorgeous?" Wei Ying asks, prompting A-Cheng's eyebrow to quirk

"He is Lan Wangji, Lan Xichen's younger sibling and the head of discipline around campus, his punishments are lengendary so you really dont want to get on his bad graces"

Wei Wuxian openly laughs delighted, a beautiful sound that makes the younger Lan freeze for a moment

"I think thats a little bit too late A-Cheng, Im pretty sure he hates me already... but thats okay, I'll be his friend in no time!"

Jiang Cheng groans as Nie Huaisang looks at him in awed

For Wei Wuxian, the year just got much more interesting

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (839): Thu 4th Jul 2024

I still felt like shit when I woke up in the hostel this morning. Thankfully although I did have a bit of a cough last night it wasn't severe enough that I had to ask everyone else in the hostel to leave so I wouldn't infect them. I headed to the train station and thankfully the train was on time unlike the last month where it got cancelled because it ran over a beetle that was walking across the tracks and they needed to call in engineers to assess the damage. It's every man's dream that the person sitting next to him on the train will be a beautiful woman but tragically the woman in the seat next to mine looked like dinner lady from Harry Potter. Thankfully the entire train carriage was almost completely empty so I just took a seat somewhere else. The journey felt a little longer than usual but probably because of my splitting headache. I should've gone to the refreshment compartment and asked if they had anything that could've helped my headache, like some heroin but tragically they only had crack which is nowhere near powerful enough to remedy the agony I was going through so I just went back to my seat and screamed "THE PAIN" over and over again for three hours which did just the job. Once I got home I grabbed my ID and my postal ballot then headed off to the leisure centre round the corner to save the UK from fascism. I never would've thought that I would become the kind of person who would actually ever vote because I used to think "they're all as bad as each other" but then I turned eight and realized what a ridiculous fucking thing this is to say. My main concern in life right now is the stability of the NHS and although Starmer would probably not be my first choice as leader of the country I think that our health and wellbeing is in safer hands with Starmer than it would be with Sunak. Later on I went to the doctors for an appointment about my spine / neck / shoulders which I have tried to remedy through the use of physiotherapy, acupuncture, medication and chiropractic adjustments over the three years since my herniated disc operation to no avail. Reluctantly I asked the doctor if he would refer me to the MSK cunts with the hope of them sending me for an MRI scan. I'm not overly hopeful because during treatment for the disc these bastards tried everything they could to put off sending me for an MRI as this would mean admitting that the eighteen months of stretches they'd kept fobbing me off with was absolutely pointless. If they tell me that they can't / won't send me for an MRI this time then I'm just going to walk out and I'll have to find a way to pay for it myself because I'm not putting up with another eighteen months of feeling like there's a pen poking out of the centre of my spine. Tuned into tonight's Hollyoaks and it dawned on me that the actor who plays Robbie went on Britain’s Got Talent and tried to get famous by trying to get Piers Morgan to laugh…so there’s technically two prostitutes on the show. The episode mainly revolved around Robbie's attempts to persuade Hannah to give up prostitution in favour of a happy life with him during which we got this exchange: Robbie: I want you to give up prostitution Hannah Hannah: I can’t, I’ve got no other way of supporting myself

Uh, why has Hannah chosen Hollyoaks to be a sex worker? No-one in this village ever does any fucking work so how does she expect to make money off them? She'd have a better chance of making money as a prostitute in the villages surrounding Chernobyl than in Hollyoaks (granted she'd have to make all her clients wear condoms made of lead).

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning!  I hope you slept well and feel rested?  Currently sitting in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day.

Welcome to the working week although, for those of you working in the NHS, welcome to just another day.

The Mighty Josiah had another good week at school, so we had a lovely weekend with him.  He and his cousin O.J. created a little two-minute play for us and it was really good!  I think Josiah may have a future as an actor?

On Friday night, The Trouble and I finished ‘One Day’.  By end of it, I was in bits.  A sobbing, sniffling wreck.  It probably had that effect on many people.  Why did I cry?  I guess because love is so amazing.  (Good title for a song!)  Love is so powerful; it can make your heart smile and your spirits soar but it can also reduce you to an ugly, angry, bitter state.  We’ve all been there. 

Many thanks to everyone that listened to the radio show.  Many thanks for all your kind words and comments.  If you missed it, it’s up on Mixcloud.  Terry Jones was on before me and the tunes were as sweet as ever!  Always good to inherit an audience!

Sunday afternoon, The Trouble and I crossed town to Mile End to attend a screening of ‘Getting It Back’, this amazing documentary about Cymande.  The amount of acts that have sampled Cymande is ridiculous!  Let’s hope they continue to make lots of money out of those samples!  It’s likely to be more money than from their recordings.  The documentary made me very proud to have been part of the pirate radio movement.  In fact, pirate radio was created for acts like Cymande.  At that time, despite the fact that Cymande were making beautiful and truly innovative music, Radio One were never going to play them.  Not in a million years!  And, if it wasn’t for the pirates, many people would have missed them completely.   

Lady Wesker has bought herself a new TV but can’t work out to use it, so guess where we’ll be next weekend?

Have a marvellous and momentous Monday.  I love you all.

[carneirinha]

I read that Brazil has a Right To Beauty program (type…thing…?) where cosmetic surgery is free or basically free or something. How would you say it’s affected Brazilian beauty standards? Are ridiculously hot people the norm because beauty is so accessible?

Would someone who grew up in Brazil and later moved to (as an example) the US think that the people there are hideous because they didn’t have any surgery?

I read a few articles about it but I figured I’d get better information from an actual person who actually lives there lol.

Sorry if this is weird I made friends with and got a crush on someone who moved to the US from Brazil and if his concept of beauty has been warped by a bunch of Barbie wannabes I’d like to know before I get my hopes up.

never heard of a 'right to beauty' thing but if it is covered by our healthcare, it's 100% false to think it's easily accessible. we are infamous for long lines and underfunding just like the NHS, and considering beauty procedures r not essential u'll have 2 wait looong years 2 get them. outside of free healthcare i also imagine cosmetic surgery is extremely EXTREMELY expensive

as 4 beauty - just like everything else here - we're eurocentric. despite the fact most of our population is black or mixed i might add- from what i've noticed everything that can b observed here in terms of beauty standards is a spit image from the US, and, in fact, the US is much worse in the aspect of beauty procedures bcuz it is a hell of a lot more affordable n obtainable there. remember the bbl tiktok craze? that sure as fuck didn't happen here despite the name!

so no, don't worry, ur crush's perception is not 'warped' bcuz we're just normal ass people. the US is actually weirder in all of the aspects ur talking abt, and, NO no one is gonna find foreigners 'too ugly'. plastic surgery is not an accessible n easy thing

[tamelee]

Hiii🥰

I love your arts soo much 😍 they're so beautiful and pretty amazing 😭😍🤒✨ keep up the great work! 💪🌟

I wanna share you one of my precious memories of SnS😩 a month ago me and my brother(who is literally 14) watching naruto's first episode (the episode when sasuke saved naruto from haku, zabuza arc) when sasuke was hugged by naruto my brother suddenly said : are they ganna kiss?! Are they gays?!) lol that was precious!! Even my brother who saw naruto (those episodes) for first time he realized that they are have feelings for each other (mostly not like brotherly)!! and I'm just wondering, how sasusaku fans see them as brothers? Can't they see sns love?

Also when I argue with some ss fans they call me stupid (because I don't have same opinion as them) and they tell me ss relationships is love_hated love story... And I just wonder did I read naruto's manga wrong?? Also when I ask them where sasuke and sakura kissed they only mention sasuke retsuden... (no problem because they don't have any Source better than this shitty novel😂 because koshimato kill sasusaku in manga😂) they also make fun of me because I said sakura's love can't give sasuke butterfly they think I'm stupid and butterfly word don't used for love.... Anyway I have a question, (or a request :)) could you please post more sns analysis? 😩✨💜 Thank you so much and sorry for my bad English 💕💫

Hiii @nancy-8140 !!! 🥰♡

Ahhwww what a sweet message!! ( ˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈♡)

Thankyou thankyouuuu!! Will do my best my very bestestt 💕💕!~ 

“Are they gays?” 😭 Precious sweet child, yes!!! Lol! But honestly everyone that I force into watching Naruto for me so that I can whine for days about Sasuke and Naruto all over again.. especially about this arc ;___; all (I'm not kidding) agree that they should be together.. even the hardcore dudebro’s. Though most of them live here.. that might be a little different.. (?) No one (yes even dudebro’s) understands NH/SS one bit, it’s so ridiculous. 

“Also when I ask them where sasuke and sakura kissed they only mention sasuke retsuden...”

Wait wait, first this.. 

I SEE THIS SO MANY TIMES!! Also mentioned in SS posts, but uh.. did SS-shippers not even read the damn novel themselves?! 😂 They can’t even get their own shitty non canon material right and spread such bullshit around. They don’t even kiss in Sasuke Retsuden.. LMAO. I’m sorry but every time I see a SS-shipper proudly gushing over SS kissing in Sasuke Retsuden I can’t help but snicker. At least get your (they, not you) facts straight and mention the right novel. 

 “and I'm just wondering, how sasusaku fans see them as brothers? Can't they see sns love?”

(I'm talking about a particular type of shipper only:)

Of course they do!!!!!!!!! 

Why do you think they are defending it so viciously as they do with the same bullshit arguments over and over again that have been successfully confronted with counterarguments which included canon source material many times before? 

“They’re BrOthErs” It’s all they have and they hold onto it until their hands bleed, because if not, then what is left of their ship? At least with such a statement, as false as it is, they can head-canon their way towards some sort of validation to make SS happen. Well.. if you include non-canon material.. like uh.. novels and such 😂

If SNS “are brothers” then it “should technically” mean that Sasuke is a “free man”. Lmao. And then they put him back in prison 🤡 (Retsuden.)

There is no point arguing with any of them, they wear rose colored glasses and have their noses so deep stuck into their databooks, interviews and novels that I doubt they’d even take a glance at the manga material you’d try to show if you’d try. Unless you wanna talk about the “eyesmex” panel there’s no chance. 

ss relationships is love_hated love story...

Right. 

Lemme guess, it’s something along the lines of “Sasuke is Tsundere and couldn’t accept Sakura’s love for him, because he was too focussed on his revenge. All the times he called her annoying or was indifferent towards her and her life was because of.. ~love!”

The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. He never hated Sakura, he didn’t care for her. 

Ouch. 

“they also make fun of me because I said sakura's love can't give sasuke butterfly they think I'm stupid and butterfly word don't used for love”

Aye, you’re not “stupid”, I’m sorry you’ve been called that so many times. I hope you can remember that this is only, because people value different things and when it comes to love or relationship dynamics.. well- it’s quite obvious isn’t it? 

I can’t really say that they aren’t allowed to “make fun of” or shouldn’t say anything, because that’d be a little hypocritical of me. I do analysis sure, but my way of coping with bullshit is by making fun of it at times too.. however if they come at you personally and it affects you it really isn’t worth it. Just be wary of that please. Besides, what does that even mean then? Sasuke is in love with Sakura, but doesn’t have to “feel” that love then? Isn’t “having butterflies” a normal expression for that? Meh. Don’t mind it, I read a lot of their essays and it has given me more headaches then I can count.

Wbu Sasuke?

 

“Anyway I have a question, (or a request :)) could you please post more sns analysis? 😩✨💜”

I have many fun ones coming!! 🥰♡ 

Hope you 🧡🧡 and your precious, sweet, little, wonderful brother are doing well! 

[madara-fate]

ok this is long but I need your opinion on this, I already talked a lot about Hinata fans which might be annoying but hear me out : why do her fans act as if she's the only girl who liked a guy for who they are?? like yeah it's cool but Ino and Sakura's shallow liking for their men developed a lot and we SAW it. why do they act as if she's the ONLY person who accepted Naruto? I know he was hated as a kid and it's good from her to love this brave loser but Iruka, ssk, Kakashi and skr did too +

like yeah Sakura didn't like him for 3 chapters but it wasn't because he was a loser or anything, she just found him annoying, and that changed. they act as if Hinata is the ONLY person who put herself in danger or did anything for Naruto, they ignore the way Sasuke literally died to protect Naruto and the way Sakura healed him SO MANY times, she also was risking her life (and sasuke too) in Restuden to get what Naruto needed and she gave him chakra for 3 whole days but they still say she won't+ do anything for him!? she pumbed his heart thinking about his dream for heaven's sake. they just keep pretending that Hinata was the only one risking her life for him, don't get me wrong I think she was so damn brave and strong loving in doing that but like Ssk and Skr risked their lives for Naruto too , only difference is that their feelings for Naruto were platonic + I don't think Hinata is obligated to do anything and I know she didn't interact with Naruto as much as ssk and skr due to being shy and in another team but still she wasn't the only one caring about Naruto like they say, she DID love him more than anyone I guess but I still don't see how it's considered that she did more for him than Ssk and Skr, idk maybe bc ssk and skr had a mutual helping and supporting relationship mostly while nh was onesided for a while? + I think hnt loving nrt & giving him a family is enough why can't nh fans just have that why do they have to lie abt ssk & skr to praise her when she did enough anyway? And one more thing, nrt's years as a loser ended in the chunin exams, everybody started to acknowledge him and he was one of the most loved and respected characters after that, it's true that she liked him when he was a loser but why do they glorify her loving a hero from afar and shit on Skr for loving a suffering person +

trying to help him? Hinata IS loyal, naruhina IS really beautiful and I think saying "x character loved y more than z loved g" is ridiculous but I don't know how hnt loving nrt from afar is glorified but skr loving someone who was cursed, watching him suffer, lose his mind and her trying her best to save him is seen as trashy, they forget that SASUKE is the one who had more issues, SASUKE was only liked for his excellency and looks, when he was in trouble no one gave a f*** about him + and everybody started hating him and wanting him dead no one actually loved him except t7 while Naruto kept getting acknowldgement and supporters (he deserved it of course) but yeah there's this person who said if nrt was the one to leave the village, nobody would care about him except Hinata which is absolutely wrong, firstly why would Nrt leave antway? was HE cursed by Orochimaru AND a clan hatred curse? no. 2ndly why would Hnt even know he was leaving? Skr knew abt Ssk coz she saw him get + trying to help him? Hinata IS loyal, naruhina IS really beautiful and I think saying "x character loved y more than z loved g" is ridiculous but I don't know how hnt loving nrt from afar is glorified but skr loving someone who was cursed, watching him suffer, lose his mind and her trying her best to save him is seen as trashy, they forget that SASUKE is the one who had more issues, SASUKE was only liked for his excellency and looks, when he was in trouble no one gave a f*** about him +

bitten so she kept excepting him leaving and she knew when bc she got to know him by spending time with him, how would Hnt know abt Nrt leaving if she didn't know what's going on with him? anyway yeah they keep ignoring his bonds with t7 and Iruka and even Shikamaru and Gaara and Lee and many others who cared about him unlike Sasuke who only had t7, that person praised Hnt for (in a what if situation) doing exactly what skr did in canon but hated skr doing that? lmao+ Naruto was basically Jesus he was the saver, he didn't need saving . Sasuke on the other hands needed help more than anyone else and no one was willing to do that except team 7 he was considered a criminal and everybody hated him so for nh fans to say that hinata is a queen but Sakura is trash for trying to help a man she loves who was dealing with the most fucked up shit is just so fucking nasty, and lastly why is anybody obligated to do anything for Naruto anyway?+ Hinata did what she did because she loves nrt romantically why does Sakura get hate trying to help the man she loves romantically when it's the same thing that ya'll praise Hinata for?. sorry for being this negative but needed to say this

Okay, to give the most basic of answers to this, I don't think it's so much that they think Hinata was the only one who accepted Naruto, but more the fact that she was indeed one of the few who had always accepted him, and to them, that fact alone makes her more suitable as his partner than someone like Sakura, who for all intents and purposes, didn't give him the time of day until she was on his team.

[happyocelot]

Sunflowers

Summary:

Hinata had a theory. Sunflowers needed warmth and light and brightness to grow, naturally orienting themselves to the sun.

Sunflowers would burst forth from her lungs only in the presence of this one person, the embodiment of warmth and light and brightness. They never came out when she was cold and sad and gloomy. Only around him.

The conclusions were obvious.

Notes:

I saw the list for Hinata Week 2021, and Day 4: White Lilies | Sunflowers really caught my eye. I would've written something for all the days of the week, but NH Month 2021 prompts...so many. I've only finished 22 of them...

But anyway, the only NH Hanahaki AU I've read is "White Lilies" by @dayseternal-blog, and I wanted to add more to the fandom. I hoooope that this is even as half as good as hers, even though it's only a one-shot.

Please tell me what you all think!

Hinata was five years old when she coughed up fuzzy little sunflower petals for the first time.

It had been just another miserable day in a string of miserable days that had made up the young heiress's life. She'd been paired with Neji nii-san, one year her senior, in a sparring match earlier that day. And just like every time she was forced to spar with him, she had lost swiftly, her older cousin blocking off her tenketsu before she could blink or even breathe.

Her father's eyes fixed on her coldly as she coughed out puffy breaths of freezing air, asking Hinata without words why her bloodline was so weak while his nephew's was so strong.

He didn't go to see her off later that day, her first day at the Ninja Academy.

She sat all alone by herself in the snowy forest, trying to calm her frayed nerves and steady her shallow breathing.

And then those bullies pounced on her like sharks scenting blood. White-eyed monster, they'd sneered, their eyes as just as cold as her father's had been.

And then a flash of yellow appeared in her line of vision, and a boy with the longest scarf and the most golden hair she'd ever seen leapt to her defense.

"I'm the Hokage of the future!" he yelled, and a sudden, unexpected warmth flooded into Hinata's chest.

***

He'd lost, of course he had. Beaten to a pulp for all his trouble because his clones were ridiculously tiny. But the warmth in her chest grew and grew, seeping into her stomach and then into her lungs, taking root in her every vein and artery, and even her miniscule capillaries.

He regained consciousness a little bit later, his nose just as blood-red as his tattered, ruined scarf.

"Don't worry about it!" He beamed at her, and his eyes seemed to her to be the very color of the summer sky where hers were the very color of the winter.

"Thank you very much," she managed to squeak out in her shy, gentle voice, and she gazed at the red, red scarf in her hands.

The warmth in her lungs grew molten hot for a second, almost as fiery as the sun, but oddly, it didn't hurt at all.

Hinata frowned as something tickled at her tonsils, and she reached out and plucked a little golden petal from the roof of her mouth.

***

When the days were long and cold, when she kept failing and failing, Hinata would open up her wooden treasure box and gaze at the tattered, ruined scarf and wait for the warmth to flood her lungs again and give her those little gifts, tokens from the first time they'd met.

Most of the time, she would only get little yellow petals, but sometimes, she would get beautiful verdant stems, and when she got fuzzy brown florets one time, she actually burst into delighted giggles, making Hanabi look up at her quizzically. So far, she still hadn't gotten whole flowers, but just fragments.

It was strange, the moments when these fragments would emerge from her lungs. The only times she could actually control when they appeared was when she'd look at his scarf, the tattered, ruined one from that day. Most of the time, however, she would have no idea when they would come.

When he'd sparred with Sasuke once, at Iruka-sensei's request, she'd wished him luck so quietly that no one around her could ever hear, especially over her classmates' combined shrieks of "Sasuke-kun!" and for that, she was grateful. She coughed politely into her mouth, tucked a little green leaf into her pocket, and smiled.

Her little secret.

Another time, he had played an outrageous prank, painting over all the stone faces on the Hokage Monument, when her stomach filled with fiery heat again, and she plucked little thorns from under her tongue. As always, it never hurt, but when she saw him sitting all by himself on the swings, coldness returned to her lungs, and she did not get any presents until the Chuunin Exams, when she saw him again for the first time in months.

***

All through the first exam, Hinata tried her best to concentrate, but he was sitting next to her the whole time, and plainly didn't know the answers at all, and well, Hinata may not have been a genius under the Hyuuga clan's standards, but these questions weren't too difficult with all the drilling she had to undergo during her childhood lessons, and she could finish them off in no time at all. That was what she tried to tell herself.

The reality was that he was sitting next to her the whole time, and plainly didn't know the answers at all, and her stomach bubbled over excitedly at the thought of helping him, and that was why she may have been more than eager to finish off the questions in no time at all.

A slight spring chill had enveloped her veins and capillaries when he said he didn't want her help, but it just as soon warmed to summer heat when he said that it was because he didn't want her to get caught.

Her stomach felt so, so warm when he beamed at her like that, and under the guise of checking her answers, she discreetly pulled an entire sunflower disk from her mouth.

To her relief, no one noticed.

***

It was like she was five years old again, matched against Neji nii-san in a sparring battle just like old times, losing just like old times.

But she didn't lose swiftly, and when he cheered her on, the warmth spilled from her stomach and heart and lungs to everywhere in her body, and she thought she was changing.

She woke up from her deep, deep slumber to find herself in the sterile surroundings of the hospital, and her eyes widened as she found on her lap a foot-long stalk with blood-red petals, the same color as his (hers) tattered, ruined scarf.

She smiled to herself as she realized that she did change, just a little.

***

People did notice. Kind of.

"Hinata, I must ask, are you wearing any kind of kikaichuu-attracting perfume?" Shino asked her out of the blue one day. "Why? Because they are very excited to – "

Hinata shook with suppressed laughter as beetles and butterflies landed on her outstretched hands, eagerly lapping up any sunflower pollen they could find on her fingers.

They were ticklish. And he had just come back from training with Jiraiya-sama, and his hair was so gold and his smile was so bright and to her delight, her lungs had decided to reward her with an entire bouquet's worth of sunflowers.

"No, Shino-kun, no perfume," she said, beaming brightly.

Kiba squinted skeptically at her. Akamaru nudged her hands and sneezed.

***

Hinata had a theory. Sunflowers needed warmth and light and brightness to grow, naturally orienting themselves to the sun.

Sunflowers would burst forth from her lungs only in the presence of this one person, the embodiment of warmth and light and brightness. They never came out when she was cold and sad and gloomy. Only around him.

The conclusions were obvious.

Ironically, the time she had coughed up the most sunflowers had been the day she had almost been killed by Pain. Neji nii-san came by to her medical tent a few hours after the attack, holding a huge mass of sunflowers in his hands with a most puzzled expression.

"Hinata-sama," he greeted. "I found these on the ground beside you...after..." His face twisted into a pained grimace, unable to stomach the thought that she could have died because he wasn't there to protect her.

"Nii-san, you have nothing to be guilty about," she said quietly. "You were on a mission with your team. You couldn't have made it on time. And I made the decision to fight of my own will. I have no regrets."

He winced again, but he didn't press the subject.

"May I have the sunflowers?" she requested, holding out her hands.

"Where did they come from? Why were they next to you?" he asked, handing them to her.

She smiled.

"It's a secret."

***

Hinata had a theory and the conclusions were obvious, but after the war, she had questioned her hypothesis a little.

He was with her after her cousin's funeral, and her lungs had been full of icy, freezing air. He fixed her with downcast eyes, and the frost in her chest pooled into her stomach as her heart clenched in dread.

Her tonsils tickled again and for the first time ever, she found herself pulling out the fuzzy stem of a pure white sunflower, its brown floret standing out starkly.

He blinked, but didn't register his surprise in any other way.

They stood together for a long time, gazing at her cousin's grave.

"You know," he said finally. "I think Neji would like those flowers. Because they have the same name as your clan, you know? Hyuuga, facing the sun?"

The coldness in her lungs retreated slightly, and Hinata put the long white sunflower in the vase next to his grave.

Their eyes met, and Hinata finally realized that her secret wasn't one anymore.

***

She coughed up those sunflowers on and off, over the next two years.

When he won the Ichiraku Annual Eating Contest and kissed her on the cheek in ecstasy, her face flooded with the heat from her lungs, and she turned away to cough out a sunflower the color of rose.

When he was mobbed with a horde of fans, her gut pinched a little, and the thorns would return, stabbing painfully into her tongue for the first time ever.

When the Rinne Festival approached, she took out the tattered, ruined scarf again, and the warmth in her lungs settled gently into her heart, like a soothing bowl of the ramen that he loved so much. She coughed out sunflowers that were as gaudily orange as the clothes he liked to wear. She had burst out laughing then, and her father smiled a little, age and loss softening him greatly. Hanabi told her to confess already, and Hinata batted at her sister's arm, her cheeks flooding with the heat of her lungs again.

***

When she handed over her tattered, ruined scarf to him, and he said he would cherish it forever, her lungs flooded her whole body with warmth again, and when they come back to earth, for the first time ever, she coughed out many seeds.

She planted them in the garden of their new house, and sunflowers sprouted with as many colors as the rainbow, and when her children played among them, the warmth settled into her bones.

Sometimes Boruto and Himawari would ask her where their names came from and why they always carried sunflowers to Neji oji-san's grave.

She smiled.

"It's a secret that you'll have to find out."

[maoam]

I was reading a fanfic and basically it was portraying Sakura and Hinata as women who would stay married to their husbands even if they know they are cheating and arent in love with them instead of letting them go. Sakura even stopped taking her birth control pills without telling Sasuke. At the end of the day, both women got pregnant and ended trapping both men in a marriage with children. None of them are happy, they got what they wanted but they arent happy because they know they cant make those men happy but they still stay around.

While reading this fic I just kept telling myself "Sad how this is so in character." They wont let those men go even if it hurts themselves. Prime example is Sakura. She isn't happy. She is hurting herself and thats lowkey sad. She isn't the girlboss her stans think she is. As long as she doesnt move on and does something that show she has a bit of dignity and value herself, she is just a pathetic women and I dont even mean it in a insulting way but more in a sad way. Because I know irl women like her and it is sad to witness.

I don't get why NH stans think their ship is so beautiful and how Hinata can't be happy if she doesn't end up with Naruto. They aren't even particularly close friends, let alone anything else. When Naruto thinks about his precious people, It's Iruka and Team 7. He's even more excited seeing Choji than Hinata after timeskip... Meanwhile Hinata thinks about nothing but Naruto whenever she appears. It's ridiculously unbalanced ship that focuses mainly on Hinata's feelings.

Sakura degrading herself to make Sasuke pity her is just pathetic to watch... I don't know why any self-respecting woman would support such portrayal. And SS excuse it by saying Sasuke worried about her not dying in part 1. Like yes, she was his teammate, he didn't want Karin to die either, he risked his life to save her. In the last arc Kishi made it clear Sasuke only cared about Naruto anymore and needed to kill him to cut all connections. But of course they don't care.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Now I want the story where NMJ is half war god and NHS is half fox spirit, thank you so much xD

based on this tumblr post and Lao Nie’s decision to refer to WRH as A-Han in this one ficlet

on ao3

Nie Zonghui had long ago suspected that his Sect Leader was a madman, but he didn’t really know it for certain until the first time he lost the man while on a bodyguarding mission – his first, and a great honor. 

Supposedly.

“It’s all right,” his father said, looking long-suffering, when he reported back in distress. “He’s an adult, our sect leader, and this is a small city with no major threats in the middle of some idiosyncratic festival celebration for some goddess or another. How much damage can he really do before he sobers up?”

Nie Zonghui stared at his father, then turned to his mother, who was also staring at her husband with an expression of sincere incredulity.

“Lots,” she supplied. “Lots and lots and lots, and that’s assuming he doesn’t get himself killed in the meantime. Why would you even say that?”

“He’s our sect leader, have some respect.”

“I respect the boss bull of the herd, too, but it doesn’t mean I let it go wandering around the fields wherever it pleases!” She shook her head, snorting in a manner not entirely unlike a bull herself. “Well, if we’re very lucky, maybe our cousin will knock up a cow while he’s out and about rather than just breaking things. We could use a direct heir already; he’s not getting any younger.”

“We could use him being properly married is what we could use. I don’t understand why he’s so resistant – ah, Zonghui, you’re still here? Go gather some cultivators and go look for him, but don’t kick up any fuss, and worry too much if you can’t find him at once. He’ll be back to business soon enough.”

He was, if by “soon enough” one meant “after nearly ten days” and by “back to business” one meant “still drunk off his ass and waxing rhapsodic about some girl he met and possibly married”.

“Yes, yes, I’m sure the sun shines out of her ass,” Nie Zonghui’s father said, his face stormy. “You still could’ve told us where you went. Look what you did to poor Zonghui, he’s been wearing down his heels pacing in worry over you!”

“Oh, heels, yes, did I mention that my gorgeous goddess had amazing legs, too?” their sect leader asked with a soppy smile and stars in his eyes, totally uninterested in any of their petty complaints. “She could kill a man with them – oh, but I would die a happy man between those thighs…!”

“Zonghui, go guard the outside door,” his mother told him. “Also, tell his younger sister that she might need to be sect leader sooner than she’d hoped, because I’m going to murder this fucking –”

-

Nie Zonghui was there, too, when ten months later his new little baby cousin was (metaphorically) ditched on their doorstep.

The entire thing was entirely too dramatic for his taste, and yes, he was aware that as a person who chose to dual wield sabers he had very little room to criticize others for being overly dramatic, however correct he might be.

They had been fighting bandits – barely disguised mercenaries, really, probably paid off by the Wen sect to harass them – in what had turned into a particularly bad situation. Three separate regiments had joined together to take advantage of a terrible thunderstorm and ambush them at all once and them with their backs against a raging river, swollen with rain to the precipice of flooding, with no way to retreat except by fleeing on their sabers, abandoning the common people they were protecting and losing all face. 

The sect leader had been raging on the battlefield, saber in hand, but even he had seen that they would need to shortly choose between death and dishonor; Nie Zonghui, close by his side, had seen how his face was split with a terrible scowl as he wracked his brain for more options.

Then there had been a terrible roar of thunder, and then a flash of light that had blinded them all.

Nie Zonghui had immediately noted the anomality of it, thunder first and lightning second, and wondered it if it was some sort of array working against them, especially when the light had not faded away but grown brighter, causing searing pain in his eyes that made him fall and clutch at his face. But he was a good soldier, loyal and true, and he forced his eyes open to squint into the night, looking to see he did not know what.

Through his sun-blindness, he vaguely thought he could see a silhouette not unlike that of a woman, ten feet tall and radiant as the sun, wearing a dress of nine colors and carrying a guandao in her hand that seemed to reach the clouds, but when he blinked again he saw nothing at all.

Or, well, he did see something: all of their enemies were headless, no matter where on the battlefield they were, their bodies dropping like a loosened string of coins where they had been standing and splattering anyone they were fighting with blood as they gawped at the sudden corpses.

Also, the sect leader was suddenly holding something in his arms when he hadn’t been before.

“What’s that?” Nie Zonghui asked, and the sect leader turned towards him. Nie Zonghui squinted, and suddenly wondered if this entire battle had been a very bad dream. “…is that a baby?”

“Yes,” the sect leader said, grinning broadly. “He’s my son!”

“He’s your what,” Nie Zonghui said.

“My son! I didn’t know about him, of course – apparently he came as something of a surprise to her as well – but anyway she thought that it would be more appropriate for me to raise him, all things considered. A baby doesn’t quite fit her lifestyle. What do you think of ‘Mingjue’ as a courtesy name? Good, yes?”

Nie Zonghui suddenly understood why his parents were always cursing all the time.

-

“I don’t see why I need another wife,” the sect leader said. “I already have a son.”

“Don’t you want to give said son a mother?” Nie Zonghui’s mother asked, her arms crossed. “One that isn’t the Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens, the war goddess you somehow managed to knock up without getting killed?”

“She never specified that she was –”

“Someone needs to be Nie-furen,” the sect leader’s younger sister interrupted, “because I am sick and tired of doing the job, and it’s a little difficult to ask a goddess to do it. So you are going to find yourself another one that’s a little closer to the ground this time, you understand me?”

The sect leader nodded and agreed, which was universally agreed upon to be the only appropriate reaction when his beloved meimei said something in that particular tone of voice.

(He did, after a suitable period of time, state that he wanted to make clear that there was no actual evidence that he had knocked up Jiutian Xuannü and that it was quite plausible that the mother of his heir was nothing more than a rogue cultivator of particular strength and possibility even immortality. If Baosan Sanren had managed it, why not someone else?)

At any rate, they brought him several pictures of women that might fit the bill and who would not be too offended at being asked to be a secondary wife – their sect leader swore up and down that he had performed bows with the mother of his first son, rendering him legitimate, and anyway no one was in the mood to see if the maybe-a-goddess would take offense to someone calling her child a bastard – but none seemed to catch their sect leader’s interest.

“Consider visiting a few brothels,” Nie Zonghui’s great-uncle suggested. “Anything to get you back in the habit of thinking about women of a less divine nature – though of course we’d prefer that she be literate.”

The sect leader scowled and stalked off to go night-hunting instead.

“I don’t like brothels,” he said to Nie Zonghui as they made their way through an especially deserted mountain valley in search of something that had murdered all the local mensfolk in the surrounding villages with especial viciousness. “Surely there’s an option in between.”

Nie Zonghui preferred his sabers to either men or women, but he obediently wracked his brain to think of where people in stories and famous songs found their wives. “Innkeeper’s daughters?” he finally suggested.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” the sect leader scoffed, but the very next day, he decided to break his usual habit of staying out in the wild no matter the weather in favor of taking shelter from the encroaching storm in a small inn right at the base of an especially lonesome and nasty-looking cliff.

“We’re always happy to have guests,” the innkeeper said with a somewhat sinister smile – he was pale as a ghost in the guttering candlelight, and his lips looked very red. “My daughter will show you to your rooms.”

The daughter in question was inhumanly beautiful: small and graceful, with a fox’s face and dark hair that fell to her knees.

“Wow,” the sect leader said, staring at her. “You know, I think you could kill me with those nails of yours.”

Nie Zonghui took a look and agreed with the sentiment, seeing that her nails were as long as claws and looked just as sharp, but apparently he and the sect leader had somewhat different interpretations of this sequence of events and plans on how to address it.

Namely, Nie Zonghui pointed out that the lady was obviously some sort of yao or maybe a gui and that she was probably the one seducing the local mensfolk, draining their yang energy and then slaughtering them, and therefore that it was undoubtedly their duty as cultivators – and cultivators of the Nie sect in particular – to put an end to her vile deeds through the swift application of their sabers. Furthermore, he explained, they should take care never to allow themselves to be alone with her in the process, lest she seek to entrance them with her seductive magics and lure them to their undoubtedly violent deaths.

The sect leader’s rebuttal to this line of logic was limited to “I’m the sect leader and if I want to bang the probably-a-ghost, I’m going to bang the ghost and there’s nothing you can do to stop me”.

Amazingly enough, the sect leader did not end up dead the next day – the innkeeper looked just as surprised as Nie Zonghui felt – and instead announced, very happily, that he was planning on marrying her.

“You what,” the innkeeper said, staring at his very smug-looking ‘daughter’. In light of dawn, she was wearing a dress of many colors with a foxfur ruff, and her beauty was almost painful to behold.

“You why,” Nie Zonghui moaned.

“You shut up,” the sect leader told him. “I’ll have you know that my lady here is very clever, literate and well-learned, and she doesn’t at all mind being the second wife. Weren’t you one of the ones on my case about getting a Nie-furen to help managing things back home?”

“I didn’t think we needed to specify that the person in question didn’t murder a lot of people!”

“Isn’t his first wife supposedly a war goddess?” the lady inquired, her clever eyes dancing in amusement.

“Well…yes…”

“Also, all those men deserved it,” she said. After a brief pause, she added, “In my opinion as a totally unrelated observer, of course.”

“See?” the sect leader said, putting his arm around her waist. “No problem. Anyway, she’ll stick to killing bad people from now on, it’s fine.”

The lady smiled. There were many teeth in that smile, and they were very sharp.

“If she doesn’t, I’ll have my first wife discipline her,” the sect leader added and her smile abruptly disappeared.

Nie Zonghui coughed into his hand, but reluctantly admitted that maybe this wouldn’t turn out to be as bad as all that.

-

“Huaisang is a lovely name,” Nie Zonghui’s mother said, being the best of them at diplomacy when she put her mind to it, although admittedly it was something she did only very rarely. “I think we were just expecting something a little different, that’s all.”

“Possibly something a little more fox related,” Nie Zonghui’s father said.

“Please,” the sect leader’s second wife said. “That would be gauche.”

They looked at her.

“…all of my suggestions along those lines got rejected,” she admitted, and glared at the small shrine in the corner as if it had personally wronged her. In this context, it very well might have.

“Is there anything we should keep an eye out for?” Nie Zonghui said, watching his little cousin carry around his even littler cousin under his arm as if he were a sack of potatoes and not a baby that hadn’t yet had its first month celebration. He would have interfered but for the fact that little Nie Huaisang seemed to be notably more in control of his various limbs than the usual infant. “A tail, for instance?”

“Oh, no,” the second lady said. “Nothing like that.”

“Great,” Nie Zonghui said. “I’m glad to hear it.”

“It’s very rare for fox children to achieve a grand plot worthy of a tail in their first lifetime.” A pause. “From what I understand, that is.”

“Great,” Nie Zonghui said. “…great.”

“You’ll take good care of him when I’m gone, won’t you?” she asked, and when they all looked at her, smiled. “Not for another year or two, don’t worry, but I really can’t stay here that long. Sometimes, a girl’s got urges she has to take care of.”

“The sort of urges where we’d need to hunt down a mysteriously appearing fox yao for having murdered a lot of people?”

“I already promised to stop killing people,” she said sulkily. “Although I do think I made some plausible arguments in favor of a little bit of entirely justified murder in connection with the Jin sect and maybe the Lan sect and, oh, the Jiang sect –”

“Please don’t.”

“It’s not my fault your Great Sects are all headed by men who wrong women.”

“You’re not wrong,” Nie Zonghui’s mother said, and Nie Zonghui’s father looked alarmed. “But still, don’t.”

“You’re such spoilsports. But no, as it happens, it’s getting to that time when I need to return home for a while to pay my respects to the older generation.”

“How often does that happen?” Nie Zonghui’s father asked. “Once a century?”

“A gentleman shouldn’t ask a lady her age,” she sniffed. “At any rate, my family home is rather far away and they’re fairly insular, so I’ll probably be gone for at least a decade or so. I’d take the baby with me, but, well, you know, long travel and all. He’s better off sticking with his father.”

“All right,” Nie Zonghui’s mother said. “We understand, and we’ll help take care of him as best we can.”

“I’m glad.”

“We have only one thing to ask of you in return.”

Their second lady arched her delicate eyebrows.

Nie Zonghui’s mother smiled. “You be the one to tell your sister-in-law that you’re leaving your post.”

“…you know, on second thought, maybe I can push my departure out a few more years…”

-

“Before you say anything, I want to be clear right now that I don’t need a third wife,” their sect leader said. “I’m fine.”

“Sect Leader,” Nie Zonghui’s mother said, not unaffectionately. “You’re not allowed a third wife.”

“And therefore – wait, really?” he asked, a little skeptically. “You’re not concerned about me?”

“Oh, we’re very concerned about you,” Nie Zonghui’s father said. “But not in that specific respect. Some celibacy would probably be good for you, at least in terms of increasing your life expectancy.”

“…my sister is lying in wait with a cleaver to make sure she doesn’t have to take on the duties of Nie-furen again, isn’t she.”

“I’m not discounting that possibility, but don’t worry about it, it’s fine, we’ll talk to her. The Lan sect haven’t had a proper hostess in years either, we can just say we’re following their example.”

The sect leader eyed his cousins beadily. “They haven’t had a proper sect leader in years, either.”

“No, you don’t say,” Nie Zonghui’s mother said dryly. “What a coincidence -”

“You have two fine sons,” Nie Zonghui’s father said hastily. “That seems like enough, really.”

“You don’t think they need a mother…?”

“Sect Leader,” Nie Zonghui interjected politely. “While we admit that it may be within your capabilities to be able to find a mother willing to deal with one step-son who has been waiving around a saber taller than he is since he learned to walk and has a penchant for the unyielding, unmerciful and very violent application of the norms of divine justice –”

Nie Mingjue’s presence bolstered the spirit of good men, while his gaze seemed to make evildoers itch. He was the most earnestly good person Nie Zonghui had ever met, and also one of the most stiff and unbending in respect to what he believed should and should not be done.

Unfortunate that his standards didn’t seem to match up to the needs of either human law or diplomacy…

“– as well as another who can scheme circles around anyone and persuade them of anything as long as he puts his mind to it and only doesn’t because he’s too busy lazing around in the sun to bother –”

Nie Huaisang liked to file his nails down to something that looked quite normal, but they grew sharp quickly enough if he wasn’t paying attention, and he had a penchant for pranks. There was nothing quite as unnerving as running into a sudden and unexpected ambush and then suddenly hearing the shrill peal of a fox’s laughter, hidden behind a scholarly fan.

“– but all things considered, we’d really rather you - didn’t.”

His mother and father nodded fervently.

“Good,” the sect leader said, though he still looked suspiciously at them as if he thought they were hiding something. “Good. As long as we’re agreed.”

-

Nie Zonghui walked in on his sect leader pinning the Wen sect leader to a wall, murmuring something in a low voice with a very particular smile on his face, and then he turned around and walked right back out again.

The sect leader of the Wen sect might appear beautiful and young, but he was at least a generation older than the Nie sect leader. Not that that had stopped the latter from relying on their respective positions to refer to him in startlingly intimate terms – my dear A-Han, the sect leader would say with a touch of wickedness that reminded one of his second son and the tiger gall bravery of his first – and while at first the Wen sect leader had taken it as a challenge to his authority, an act of brash insolence, it appeared that they had progressed beyond that.

That the Wen sect leader already had three wives and two concubines apparently didn’t present any obstacles either – except perhaps in what those poor women might have to endure from their husband when he returned from the wretched teasing he was enduring. Nie Zonghui felt a bit of pity for them.

Shortly thereafter, he felt a bit of pity for himself. The Wen sect had long dreamed of dominating the cultivation world and sought to increase their influence with the other sects through underhanded means, with the Nie sect opposing them at every turn. Even if war was not on the immediate horizon, the wise could smell its distant approach in the air - the best estimates said that it would take another decade or two to arrive, unless the Nie sect leader took an especially hard stance.

It appeared, however, that the Nie sect leader had chosen to take a different sort of…hard stance.

Ugh.

Maybe Nie Zonghui could conspire to throw his sect leader into a cage with a live tiger in heat next time he felt in the mood. It’d probably be less dangerous.

Nie Zonghui had assumed that the first person to talk to him about what he had seen would be his sect leader, even if it was only to remind him of the general rule that the sect leader had ultimate power and therefore could exercise his own bad judgment in deciding to fuck whoever he wished, but instead it was the Wen sect leader that found him later that afternoon.

A flush had yet to fully fade from his cheeks, and Nie Zonghui raised his eyes to the ceiling to avoid looking directly at the man in front of him. 

He did not want to know. Others might, given that no one had ever complained about the looks of either party, but he himself had realized long ago that he had no interest in matters of the flesh under any circumstances; he was very content with that conclusion.

“Is there some service this one can provide to Sect Leader Wen?” he asked politely, and it was only when the sect leader flushed again that he realized belatedly that his words could be misconstrued. After all, his own sect leader had probably already made a similar offer regarding the provision of services…

“Your sect leader has a sister, doesn’t he?” the other man asked, his voice tight and his hands in even tighter fists. “I’m not misremembering that?”

“He does,” Nie Zonghui responded honestly, and not without sympathy for the Wen sect leader’s position. He was given to understand that making certain belated discoveries regarding one’s own preferences could be highly disconcerting, particularly later in life. “But she’s rather different in kind than what you may be thinking, so it won’t work out that way. It wouldn’t work even if she wasn’t already married, which she is.”

After a moment of thought, he added, “Also, consider your predecessors.”

The Wen sect leader’s eyes narrowed.

-

Really, it was the sect leader’s own damn fault that he got himself murdered.

[char-lotteral]

I didn't ask you this before cause you don't allow anonymous asks but it's the end of my watch so come on, join the fun and give me your Top 5 NH fic 🎉

oohhh reallyy...?? Im gonna embarrass myself here but im still new to the whole tumblr thing buttt how do you allow anonymous ask....?? HAHAHAHAH (im sorry im embarrassing)

Alsoo!! I just wanted to add that I am fairly new to the Naruto fandom because I just started watching the show this quarantine and hands down, best decision of my life. After finishing the series, I immediately knew that I needed more NH content (i blame The Last, I did not expect all those lovey dovey interactions lol I love them)

Salvage by @waterrolls - THIS. this. this. Gorgeous. Spectacular. Heart Wrenching. Show stopping. This was one of my first NH fics that I found on Wattpad. (@waterrolls would know how much I gushed over this haha) Dont get me wrong, there a dozen beautiful fics over there, however when I read this, I instantly knew that this was the type of fics that I wanted to read. So thank you thank youu @waterrolls for inspiring me to write and for paving me the way to all these beautiful fics on Ao3 <3

Put on your warpaint by borzbois- OKAY STORYTIME! So I downloaded this on my phone back when we went on an outing for an entire weekend. Long story short, we rented a private resthouse for my big fam, we went to the beach, drinking with cousins, swimming etcetc all that jizz. And guess what my introverted ass did for the entire outing??? Thats right, i was in my own lil introverted corner reading this amazing fic. So just do yourself a favor and read it. Like NOW.

It's No Secret by @dayseternal-blog - I'm not usually one for HS fics cuz my highschool was messy as hell lol but @dayseternal-blog 's story made me wish I spent my highschool better hahaha. I love how she captured the immaturity of youth so perfectly well. (I just got out of higshschool so everything still feels so fresh, and her story was ridiculously realistic haha) all those awkard flirting, vid chats, raging hormones lmaooo.

Nightdreams by @dayseternal-blog - i've read this tooo many times already hahahaha. A perfect balance of fluff, flirting, smut, action scenes, Naruto's emotional dilemma, clingy boyf Nardo, more smut. One of the best smut stories you will ever find on your interwebs. @dayseternal-blog 's smut writing skills *chef's kiss

Engaged or whatever by Devanhole- Another ridiculously realistic fic. It's like youre peering into your friend's phone or ig accs. I loveeee modern aus. The humor, the interactions, the dirty talk/shameless flirting and the SMUT. ( i swear im not a perv, but you can definitely see a pattern here lmao)

bonus fics because i cant get enough of NH~~

Girl in the elevator by thesefourwords- hnggggg cute. cute. cute CUTEEEE

White Lillies by @dayseternal-blog - must i even explain myself? yknow what, just read all of her stories. Just go DO IT

Serenity Prayer by @katarinahime - yesyesyesyes read it read it read it read it.

Secret Lovers by @quirrrky - NH blank period, everything that happened two years after the war. I dont care what anyone says, this is canon. CANON. Everything about this story is canon. I am the new Kishimoto. This is now an official Light Novel of the Naruto series.

21 days by @bunny-hoodlum - Naruto and Hinata need a hug hahaha. Two broken ssouls seeking solace within each other because the world is just that fucked up

Common Side Effects and Medicated by @katarinahime and @szajnie respectively- Naruto and Hinata needd another hug lol, I love that Naruto is trying soo hard to bring her back, and Hinata is trying just as hard to bring herself back :(( relationships can really be self-destructive if one of the parties can't reciprocate the type of energy your partner is giving. These stories opened my eyes into soo many different perspectives. The world really isnt all black and white, you can never really say who is right and wrong, especially with all the stories of everything and everyone

White Kunai by Magma Writes- This was awesome. The story gets you hooked. The fluff is on point. Canon divergent. I lovee stories like these. Like your peering into their shinobi world

Love is in the air by @vegebulsoup - two words; PILOT NARUTO. Flirting in amsterdam, the love story that I need in my real life. Andd the smut was soooo gratifying.

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to the working week although, for those of you working in the NHS, welcome to just another day.

Saturday was ridiculously busy and almost made impossible by public transport. As you know, I hate cars and I hate driving, so I always use trains and buses but, on Saturday, the gods conspired against me!

I finished my radio interview at justcoolradio in Brixton, walked down to the police station and got the 345 from Gresham Radio. All good. Got off at Peckham Library and I was due to catch the 436 to New Cross Gate but this 353 came along and it also said New Cross Gate, so I jumped on it! Oh my God! Big mistake! It went all around the houses to get to New Cross Gate! I was cursing and swearing out loud like that mad person who always comes to sit next to you. I do not like being late! Finally get to New Cross Gate, so I can catch the 53 down to Deptford Bridge. Trouble is: the traffic wasn’t moving, so I started walking, very briskly. Finally got to the station 30 minutes later than I would normally. I didn’t even have time to make Ginger Tony a cuppa! Anyway, the show went well!

Okay, as there was no DLR, I had to walk up to New Cross and get an Overground train to Canada Water. The Jubilee Line train was absolutely bulging! Where were all these people going? Got on my Bakerloo Line train and suddenly the driver is saying there are no trains going north of Queens Park. We were stranded! So I walked to Harrow Road and jumped on an 18 bus. Again, absolutely packed, hot and sweaty, very slow traffic but I eventually staggered home. Phew! Showered, jumped into my suit and headed to Wembley (in the car) for a wedding!

I posted a photograph of The Mighty Josiah in his beautiful wedding clothes on Friday night. When I got to the wedding, he was being dragged around the floor by his cousin. His beautiful clothes were virtually cleaning the floor! Typical eight-year-old boy, right? Once I’d eaten, I took the kids outside to play, as they were causing mayhem inside. I am the babysitter! How did that happen? I was babysitting kids I didn’t even know. Ah, well, it takes a village etc. When we eventually got home, we were all exhausted and fell asleep in front of the TV.

Sunday was another day of dramatic football games. Still nobody knows how this bloody season is going to end. My blood pressure can’t take anymore! Thankfully, the evening was pure enjoyment; great music, lovely people and a great vibe at ‘Let The Music Play’ in Stevenage. Great to see Ritamaria Boxill, Ruth Arloff and Joanne Hunter and meet, for the first time, Mary Onoufriou and Josie Mallia. Got to bed at 3.00 a.m.

Will post my Stevenage photos later. While you are enjoying your relaxing bank holiday, I will be working online, taking Zoom meetings with my students for most of the day. I shall sleep well tonight.

Many thanks to everyone that listened to the radio show live or on MixCloud. The Letter M (Pt. 9) is this Saturday at 1.00 p.m.

Have a marvellous and momentous Monday. I love you all.

[ibijau]

Concubine nhs / on AO3

Hey! It’s been over a year! but I’ve updated this! Miracles do happen!

The letter arrives just a week after Nie Mingjue and the emperor’s visit (a visit so brief that both were long gone by the time everyone woke up, having foregone sleep and hurried toward the capital to organise the now inevitable war), and its contents are a surprise to everyone. Certainly, Nie Huaisang is the most shocked of all to be invited to the capital by a cousin of his father who currently holds a high office in the imperial administration. The surprise is greater still when, upon reading the letter, his father finds subtle hints that the request is not to be denied, as it is the emperor’s own desire.

It has to be Nie Mingjue’s doing, they both agree. Now that the war is there, he must have asked his childhood friend to ensure the safety of his bastard brother. Qinghe is far too close to the border after all, while Gusu is far away from the fight and as safe a place as can be. 

Father is not happy with this turn of event. He complains that Nie Huaisang was only starting to be useful to the house, that he had hoped to rely on him to organise supplies to the troops and to keep their house safe while Mingjue and him would be on the frontline. He speaks of scolding his oldest son for being selfish, and even half accuses Nie Huaisang of having organised this to avoid his duties, in spite of being so generously legitimised. In the end though, Father can’t go against an imperial order, and Nie Huaisang is sent away the very next day, having barely been given any time to pack for what might be a long stay in the capital.

It is a long trip to Gusu, made longer by the use of a carriage. Nie Huaisang is not a skilled enough rider to travel so far on horseback. His father had never seen the point of letting him learn until recently, stating a servant had no need for it. As slow days pass, Nie Huaisang entertains himself by chatting with his own servant (a man who until recently was not just his equal but his superior due to seniority), by admiring the landscape (it is his first time leaving Qinghe and its mountains, and the plains they traverse fill him with unease until they approach Gusu and new mountains save him from the oppressive flatness), and by wondering what will become of him in the capital.

Although they’ve all been quick to blame Nie Mingjue, as he travels toward Gusu and falls prey to boredom, Nie Huaisang allows himself to form another theory regarding his sudden summoning. It is only a fantasy, a silly idea, but he cannot stop thinking about that handsome young man with the mismatched robes he’d seen in his brother’s room that night. He had introduced himself as being part of the imperial family, and was of an age with the emperor, so he might have just enough influence to make a request to the son of heavens. For example, a request to have a certain seventeen years old bastard sent to the capital so they can continue their conversation.

It’s ridiculous, and Nie Huaisang sternly scolds himself whenever his thoughts go in that direction. But he cannot help himself. That young man had smiled so nicely, he’d laughed at Nie Huaisang’s weak jokes, he’d been much more polite than anyone ever bothered to be, and he’d said that he hoped to see him again. Wouldn't it be a lovely story if Nie Huaisang had made such a strong impression? He’s certainly thought a lot about that young man, even before the letter arrived. That imperial relative had been so handsome, his mouth so made to be kissed. His personality had been pleasant as well. 

In short, Nie Huaisang only wants the chance of a second meeting, and he’s quite certain he could fall in love with that handsome stranger.

-

Nie Huaisang’s cousin welcomes him with little warmth, but that’s only to be expected. On his only recent visit to Qinghe, Nie Funyu has made it quite clear that he does not approve of his relative’s decision to elevate a mere bastard, and a servant’s son at that, to the position of legitimate son. So after perfunctory welcomes, some exchanges of gifts, and the usual questions about everyone’s health, Nie Funyu abandons Nie Huaisang to the care of his personal servant, a young man by the name of Meng Yao.

Meng Yao and Nie Huaisang immediately strike a great friendship, in spite of their difference in status. It is something Nie Huaisang knows he will be scolded with, but he sympathises too much with servants, and forgets he no longer is one. Still, it would be hard not to like Meng Yao who shows him around the house, gives him rules to follow, advises him how to best please his uncle, and even shares some news about Nie Mingjue. They’ve missed each other, it turns out; Nie Mingjue left the capital only two days before his brother arrived, unable to delay his return to the border a moment longer.

That first morning is quite pleasant. Then, after a refined lunch, Meng Yao informs Nie Huaisang that he has been instructed to urgently take him to buy a better set of robes. The ones he’s brought are his best ones, but while they’re good enough for Qinghe, they just won’t do for Gusu, and especially not for a presentation to the emperor. How the emperor already knows that Nie Huaisang is in the capital, or indeed why he should care, is a mystery to both of them. But a message has already reached Nie Funyu’s house that his young cousin is to come to the imperial palace the next day, so the emperor might see for himself the younger brother of his dear friend Nie Mingjue.

It is not to be a formal meeting. After all Nie Huaisang holds no office, he is nobody, so there is little need for him to be introduced to the emperor the way a true son of noble blood would be. Instead, Nie Huaisang is encouraged to be present in a certain garden with his cousin at a certain hour, where the emperor might see him, and perhaps even acknowledge his presence, provided that nothing more important comes up.

That Meng Yao finds suitable robes on such short notice says a lot about his skill. Nie Huaisang, who had briefly wondered how a man barely three or four years older than himself could have become such a high ranking servant in so noble a house, finds his question answered and promises himself to learn from his new friend, so he can better serve his father when he returns home. To make it better, the robes that Meng Yao found are gorgeous. They’re second hand, since nothing new could have been found under such a delay, but they fit Nie Huaisang wonderfully, and make him look like he is worthy of being his father’s son. 

Nie Huaisang’s vanity is only increased the next morning when Meng Yao takes it upon himself to help with his hair. Nie Huaisang has always done that on his own, and his servant is not trained into that sort of task, so he is again grateful to Meng Yao for his help, especially when he’s so nervous that his hands tremble.

“What sort of man is the emperor?” Nie Huaisang asks as Meng Yao crafts elegant braids into his hair.

“Master says he is very wise for his age, and knows to carefully listen to his advisors before making decisions. He does his best to be impartial, and to listen to all sides of a story before passing judgement. Truly we are blessed to have such an emperor, he is far more dedicated to his people than his father was.”

“But as a person?”Nie Huaisang insists, chewing on his bottom lips. “Is he nice? He has to be, or Mingjue wouldn’t like him so much, but…”

Meng Yao smiles as he gathers the braids into a bun, and secures an elegant guan upon Nie Huaisang’s head, making him look like someone who isn’t him. Like someone who knows how to give order without doubting they'll be obeyed, and who has never cleaned a single pot in his life.

“Young Master Nie need not worry about the emperor’s personality,” Meng Yao says, stepping back to admire his work with a critical eye, before pulling in his robes a little here, straightening his collar there. “Young Master Nie is unlikely to have any occasion to meet his imperial highness after today. Even this encounter today will only happen as a mark of favour to your brother, and his imperial highness will most likely only address my Master, as you are not of a rank to be taken notice of.”

That is enough to quiet Nie Huaisang’s nerves a little. Enough at least to eat something and drink some tea before they set out toward the imperial palace. On the way there, Nie Funyu gives him a dozen orders, telling him how to conduct himself, how to stand, where to look, how to speak. It is clear he expects Nie Huaisang to make a fool of himself, and he might be right, but Nie Huaisang is determined to try his best to please everyone. Without Meng Yao’s comforting presence to calm him, his nerves are getting the better of him again, though it helps to remind himself that the emperor doesn’t care one bit about him. 

But also, if that young man with the pleasant smile is there, if he looks at Nie Huaisang, if he smiles at him again…

A foolish hope, when so many people live in the imperial palace. But it is a hope to which Nie Huaisang clings desperately. If they should meet again, if they could become acquainted… It is all Nie Huaisang really thinks about as his cousin and him head for the garden where they’ve been ordered to go, as they wait for the emperor to appear. 

At the time given to them, the emperor comes for a walk, heading their way. He is a young man, not much older than Nie Huaisang himself, but that much he already knew, since the son of heavens only came of age that year. What Nie Huaisang didn’t know, what he could never have imagined, was that the emperor should have such a warm smile, or that he would look even more beautiful when he isn’t soaked from heavy rains and wearing mismatched robes.

-

What passed during that brief meeting, Nie Huaisang could hardly say. He remembers only that the emperor smiled at him, called him by his name, and expressed the wish to become better acquainted with him, perhaps over a game of weiqi someday.

Nie Huaisang doesn’t know what he said in answer. He thinks he accepted both the offer of friendship and the invitation to play, if only because to refuse would have been impossible.

He doesn’t see the dark expression on his cousin’s face as they head back home, and barely hears the questions asking if he’s met the emperor before, where, what he said, what the emperor said. Nie Funyu isn't happy with the answers he's hearing, but Nie Huaisang hardly notices that either.

“Your father will have to be notified of this immediately,” Nie Funyu says when they are home again. “If the emperor has that sort of plans… well, the timing is not bad. We need his full support, and this isn’t a bad way to obtain it. Tomorrow you’ll go again with Meng Yao to buy another set of new robes. He’ll know how to dress you to your advantage.”

Nie Huaisang, touched by such generosity, can only nod and thank his cousin, before asking to be excused for the afternoon. It has been a while since he’s had a worthy opponent while playing weiqi, he wants to read about strategy to refresh his memory.

He also wants to be alone, just so he can laugh at himself a little.

To think that for weeks now, he’s been daydreaming about kissing the emperor! It’s the funniest thing in the world, and it should be a good lesson to him about letting silly emotions get out of control.

After all the emperor might be handsome, and he might have a pleasant smile, but he’s the emperor, and quite out of reach for someone like Nie Huaisang.