#like did NO ONE ELSE see how arrogant and over confident and just GROSS he seemed??

[timeisacephalopod]

On a total side note tangent I will say I didnt read Heard's piece that Depp sued over defaming him but if I have my facts straight she didn't even name him in the piece she wrote so like if he read "I became the face of domestic violence" and came running out screaming "you're defaming me!" it was weird that everyone read that as Heard defaming Depp and not as a confession of domestic violence from Depp?? Like I don't know many people who would be so offended their ex said they were in an abusive relationship that they'd come running out of the woodwork to claim they were the unnamed ex that was written about and they were the victim of a hit piece that never mentioned them by name?

Sounds more like he intentionally used the legal system to further abuse his victim and it's really god damn weird that it took uncomfortable texts from Depp to Marilyn Manson of all fucking people for people to realize the guy who was really willing to say he was the unnamed abusive ex was, in fact, abusive.

[edenhasfeelings]

The Death of Media Literacy, Religion, Misogyny, and Cognitive Dissonance

Spoilers for Dune Part 1 and 2 and the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

I'll admit, I have not read the Dune books yet, but I am a huge fan of the Dune movies. Not only did Denis Villeneuve just make two incredible, epic movies with a lot of nuance, gorgeous visuals, and an incredible score by Hans Zimmer, but the story itself is really compelling for a lot of reasons. My mother had tried to get me into Dune when I was younger, but at the time it wasn't my thing. I really liked Part 1, but Part 2 was something else entirely. I was gripping my seat the whole time, genuinely enthralled by everything happening. But I came out of the theatre with one definite conclusion: Paul Atredies is not a hero. I shared my thoughts in the car, and while my boyfriend agreed with me and my father had no opinion, my mother adamantly refused. She read the first book in college, and loved the 1984 version of the film (watching that, in my opinion, was like slow cooking your eyeballs over a campfire, but it was cool for the time period I guess). She was insistent he was the hero, and then tried to say that they changed the story to make him seem more like a villain, but he wasn't in the first book.

No hate to my mom, it's been a long while since she read the first book, and me and her are going to actually read the whole series soon. From my understanding and the research I've done, Frank Herbert wrote Dune as a cautionary tale against white saviorism and a commentary about America stealing oil from Middle Eastern countries and their subsequent colonization. I've also heard it was meant to be a standalone originally, but because people were portraying Paul Atredies to be the hero so much, he then wrote Dune Messiah to further drive home the point he was originally trying to make. But even without the knowledge of the books, it was apparent to me that he was not meant to be a hero in the movies. Of course, it isn't spelled out for you, and Timothée Chalamet does have some really epic, badass moments. But one of the biggest clue that you can have to what's going on is Chani, and how she reacts. She loves Paul, and she supports him, but she doesn't support him becoming a religious figure that leads her people because she feels as though that level of fervent religion is dangerous and not right; she says that a born and raised Fremen should be the one to free their people. You also see a huge shift from how Paul acts in the first movie and the first part of the second movie to how he acts after he drinks the Water of Life. In the first movie and first part of the second, he refuses to fulfill any prophecy, and tells them that he is not the one they are looking for. He is only wanting one thing: to avenge his father and his house. He even gets into an argument with his mother, Jessica, and he tells her that the Bene Gesserit were the ones to perpetuate this prophecy for their own gain. He knows it isn't real, and that it isn't divine, and that he was raised by Jessica to fit the qualifications for this prophecy for her own gain and the gain of her order. He knows what will happen if he takes up the mantle of Lisan al-Gaib: holy war spreading across the galaxy in his name. But when he feels like he has no other choice but to drink the Water to rally the Fremen to fight the Harkonnens, things instantly change. He becomes arrogant and demanding and self-confident, completely uncaring of how Chani feels and becoming solely focused on becoming Emperor. The line "lead them to paradise" felt really, really gross upon delivery, partly due to Hans Zimmer's masterful score. It feels damning.

While looking like a white savior story at very simplistic face value, Dune: Part Two is in fact a critique of it, even without the addition of Dune Messiah. The other big thing that the movie critiques is religion, especially blind faith at the cost of your critical thinking skills, religious fanaticism and idolization, and how religion is taken advantage of by people in power or people who want to be in power. Now I've seen a lot of tone deaf critiques of Dune, and a lot of ignorant comments made, usually in regards to the racial and political elements of the story. I have also seen a lot of people who get it and were able to help me expand my reasoning for the feeling of wrongness I got from people thinking Paul is a hero. But nothing compares to the TikTok I saw today. Someone blended the audio of Timothée Chalamet's Wonka character introducing himself, with the scene after Paul drinks the Water and goes to rally the Fremen to fight for his cause. The first image in the slideshow was an image of Wonka with the caption "Being raised in a religious household and calling yourself 'a Christian'." The second slide shows Paul in the midst of his religious fanaticism in the movie, with the caption "After being born again and having your entire worldview change." Absolutely no hate to this creator if you know who I'm talking about, but this video quite honestly had me gagged, for lack of a better term. I was absolutely shocked at not just the usual lack of media literacy that revolves around this movie and so many others, but the fact that they were so far gone from the point of the movie and Paul's character entirely that they thought it was a good idea to post that online in reference to their own faith. Paul Atredies took advantage of a prophecy that he knew was engineered to control the Fremen to do exactly what the Harkonnens wanted to do, just in a different font. His intentions might have been good to start, but ultimately, because of Jessica and the Bene Gesserit (specifically the Reverend Mother, as she talks to him in his visions and pushes him forward), who he realizes he is being manipulated by, he ends up where he is: a religious idol who (Spoiler for Dune Messiah) leads 61 billion souls "to paradise" and causes irreparable damage to the galaxy.

As someone who was raised Christian, I can tell you without a doubt that religion in general, but especially Christianity, can heavily damage your critical thinking skills and media literacy. When you look at everything from the lens of, "Ok but how does this piece of media validate my feelings and beliefs regardless of intention, subtext, or true meaning?" you end up falling into some really dangerous territory. Paul is not meant to be venerated in any way, shape, or form. He's a badass character and Timothée Chalamet did an excellent job portraying him, but you should not be comparing yourself to him, especially in the context of your religious journey. That is incredibly dangerous as you then shut your eyes to the true message of the story: white saviorism is bad, colonialism is bad, exploiting entire peoples for resources of any kind is bad, and spreading and using religion to control people is bad. Of course if you phrased bluntly any of these things to religious people they would (probably) agree that those are bad things. But when you put it into the context of film/literature/music/etc, and then you have no one spelling things out for you like you're used to people doing for you in your religion, and you've already tossed your critical thinking skills out the window in order to avoid doubting your faith, you end up supporting and turning a blind eye to the bad things that you would otherwise disagree with if it was made simple for you. Even if you have no ill intention, even though it was just a silly TikTok, the ease in which people delude themselves by refusing to look any deeper into media causes such mass amounts of complacency and allows history to repeat itself. It is repeating itself right now. When we learn about the Holocaust in school, everyone would say that if they were Germans living in Germany, they would have opposed the genocide of the Jewish, Romani, and queer people during WWII. But here we are, watching the genocide of the Palestinian people live on our phones, and yet people are still sitting in denial and complacency, and often using the Bible and religion as an excuse for why its' ok.

Steering away from the topic of religion, another clear example of media illiteracy recently was The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I both read the book and saw the movie (full book review posted on my book review blog @385bookreviews). While in the book you get Coriolanus' raw thoughts and it is made more obvious that he is not a good person even without the influence of Dr. Gaul, the movie still does a really good job of showing his decline into the person we see in The Hunger Games trilogy. And yet somehow, even with the context of the first three Hunger Games books (and the four movies), somehow people were still painting Coriolanus as the misunderstood good guy of the story. The latent misogyny that came out of so many people, especially women and girls who claim to be feminists, by saying Lucy Gray was manipulative and everything was her fault, was honestly appalling to watch. There is always room for personal interpretation of media, however that is widely different from purposefully ignoring canon information and editing the text to adhere to your own cognitive dissonance. This can once again come back to religion, as I believe people of every organized religion also practice this habit of picking and choosing whatever they want from their holy texts and then conveniently excusing the rest of it. Media illiteracy is shown in another way with the Hunger Games series fans as well. A lot of people can go to the movies or read the books and root for the rebelling protagonist and recognize perfectly the plot of the story: government bad, so good people rebel and fight for their freedom, and those are our heroes. And yet these same people will then turn around and ignore genocide because "the oppressed people attacked first, they should have stayed peaceful".

While not all media reflects real life, or is meant to be taken as seriously, The Hunger Games and Dune are definitely not two of those series. By ignoring the context and subtext and purely engaging with things as fiction, and then ignoring the real life applications and implications of the work, we are being purposefully and consensually blinded and allowing ourselves to become mindless cogs in a capitalist machine. We all need to learn to think for ourselves, now more than ever, and that starts with our media consumption.

[courtofwingsandruin]

I’m so mad at the ACOTAR fandom right now and how they’re dealing with Azriel’s chapter.

Warning: under the cut is just me going off for way too long about Azriel and his extra chapter.

Azriel is a huge comfort character for me, and before I could get my hands on the actual extra chapter I saw tons of posts talking about how gross and OOC he was and the disgusting things he was saying about Elain.

I literally laid in bed crying over it because it hurt to think that this character I had invested so much into, that I had been desperate to hear more about, would be that horrible.

And then I read it and...It’s not that bad? Yeah, he speaks of her sexually and is turned on by her. Sure. But she’s also turned on by him in that moment? She’s wanting him just as badly? He can clearly see that she does, we can clearly see that she does. I haven’t read ACOSF, so I may be wrong, but as far as I know she hasn’t accepted the mating bond yet and has shown no sign of planning to do so. She hasn’t shown any sign of wanting to be Lucien’s mate, but she’s shown a very obvious sign in this chapter about liking Azriel and wanting him.

I didn’t like the whole “Rhys and Cass got their Archeron sisters, why don’t I have one?” thing either, because it does feel like he’s just projecting his loneliness onto Elain and assuming that the Cauldron was wrong because of a kind of dumb theory he has. But I didn’t really feel like he was calling himself entitled to her. If she did not want him, he would be acting completely different. But she is showing that she wants him, is interested in him, and isn’t showing any signs of being interested in Lucien (as far as I understand, correct me if I’m wrong). So yes, it was a weird and stupid thing for him to say, but I don’t think he’s thinking “She should be mine because of this one little crazy thing I noticed.” He’s saying “The Cauldron and the Fates have been wrong about mates in the past and I’m just thinking maybe it was wrong about Lucien and Elain because they don’t have chemistry and we do AND because of this one little crazy thing I noticed.” He just didn’t state it that way.

(Also, quick note: Azriel says he can defeat Lucien out of arrogance, yeah, but also remember that he didn’t do so just unprompted. Rhys was the one to be like “he could challenge you to this duel BS” and Az, who probably only has confidence in his powers and nothing else about himself, says back, “I would win” because...tbh I’d probably say that too if my brother was like “You want this girl but she bElOnGs to another man so he can fight you for her.”)

The line that stuck with me the most was this: “But she’d gotten Azriel one last year—a headache powder he kept on his nightstand at the House of Wind. Not to use, but just to look at. Which he’d done every night he’d slept there.” I think it’s super important to read between the lines in chapters from the POV with characters like Azriel. He’s going to be a lot more open and upfront about his sexual desires than his romantic desires, even with himself, after spending so many years of pining after Mor for it to never happen. With how he has always been the one to try to stay stoned face and keep his personal feelings hidden. We see this with how, when Rhys brings up Mor, Azriel ignores it outright—and thus ignores his feelings. And I feel we also saw it with Gwyn and how he isn’t truly sure what he’s feeling towards her, which is the only reason we actually get a genuine view of those feelings towards the end of the extra chapter.

That quote kind of showed an inner working of his head that we aren’t seeing yet. He clearly isn’t only having sexual thoughts—he stares at this powder and probably thinks about a lot of damn things regarding Elain, not just regarding the bond and the sexual desires. Don’t forget that he’s been one of the few people to be her friend—sitting with her and listening to her and hanging out in the gardens with her in the previous books. His feelings are not only sexual. He’s just not showing us everything because this is only, what, 9 pages from him? We aren’t going to see every little thing he is feeling.

I believe, wholeheartedly, that the next book will be about Elain and Azriel. SJM has set up too much for them both for it to not be. For it to be about Elain and Azriel—unless she pulls a trick on us and has it focus solely on their individual development rather than their relationships, which is possible but I can’t see happening—this would mean that the two of them end up together (1 relationship per book, guys).

I’m not gonna go into Gwyn, because I don’t know much about her yet, and I don’t want to hit you guys with false information. But I feel like Azriel and Elain both have a lot of development to go through and Gwyn will be there with them, but I don’t really know if she is going to be a genuine love interest, or just someone who helps Azriel open up and be better—a good, true friend that he can count on.

The one thing I will say is that Elain and Mor have the parallel of making Azriel’s shadows disappear, or hide away—and Azriel definitely had romantic feelings for Mor. And Gwyn has a completely different effect on Azriel’s shadows. Whether this is a mating bond, or something else about Gwyn we have yet to find out, I don’t know. But I feel it’s definitely important to remember the similarities between how his shadows react to Elain and how they react to Mor versus how they react to Gwyn.

If you actually stuck around for all of this, thank you. I’m gonna go cry into my pillow now over how desperately I need ACOSF so I can focus on Nesta and Cassian and not all of this bull with Azriel and Elain and Lucien and Gwyn.

[not-me-simping-for-blasty]

I Melt With You - Bakugou Katsuki

All Parts:

Part 10:

“Hey, Bakugou.” You greet easily, waving at him. “Can you believe it?”

“Jesus- what the hell are you on about now?”

“Nothing. Just, this marks the third time I’ve seen you without injury. Good on you buddy, setting a personal record and everything.”

He huffs, pushing off the wall. Bakugou is without his costume, clad in just normal sweats. The sight makes you feel a little bad- it was obviously his day off, but there he was working. Sacrificing his time for you.

“Fuck you.” He grumbles, without any bite. “Seriously. Fuck you.”

“C’mon, grumpy, don’t get so huffy.” You say playfully. “I was mostly joking, but I did mean it. I think I like you a whole lot better when there’s no blood involved.”

He starts to smile, just for a second, before he quickly evens his expression. It’s like he’s trying to hide the fact that it was there at all, quickly spinning around and starting off at a brisk pace. 

“Woah, slow down, no need to run, speedy. I’ll take it back if you’re so allergic to me being nice.”

Bakugou doesn’t respond, but he does slow down. Just minutely. Hardly even at all if you really think about it, but hey, at least you’re not basically running after him anymore.

“What’s got you so cheery, hah?” He asks after a beat, making an intentional point not to make eye contact. “It’s late- you’re not tired again?”

His tone catches you off-guard, something accusatory underneath that has you scrunching your nose. You’re not exactly sure what he’s getting at, but you can read his prickly tone for what it is- Bakugou is making fun of you. 

“No. I’m actually not tired, thank you very much.”

“That’s not what you were saying last night.”

“You know, that sentence from anyone else would offend me- but from you?” You scoff, squinting your eyes at him. “Well, I’m sure it was meant as an insult, not an insinutation; so I’ll refrain from calling you a pig. For now.”

“Call me anything and see where it gets ya, leech.”

“What’re you gonna do? Fight me?”

“Please, it wouldn’t be a fight.” He snorts, kicking at a rock in the road. It flies down the alley, all the way past the streetlamp’s glow. “See? I’d slaughter you.” 

“Yes! Probably!" You say in faux exasperation. "But it’s because you have way more practice at slaughtering people! I don’t know why you’re bragging about that- that’s totally not something normal people brag about!”

You throw your hands up, gesturing wildly, and Bakugou just sort of watches you. Doesn’t really react other than to evade one of your errant hands. You just barely miss him, the tips of your fingers clipping the fabric of his sweatshirt.

“What- nothing? You’ve got nothing to say about that? Course you don’t- because you’re proud of slaughtering people. Is that it? Huh?”

“I’m proud of winning.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Close enough.” He shrugs. “'Sides, it’s not my fault I wasn’t listenin’. Ya said so many damn words to me.”

“That’s so rude! You-“

Seeing his smile, you cut yourself off half-way. It should hardly even count as a smile, really, it’s much more of a smirk- something entirely self-indulgent and dripping with arrogance. You’re not sure if you wanna punch him in the mouth or giggle.

“You jerk. You’re messing with me!” On impulse, you knock your shoulders into his. Bakugou doesn’t flinch- nor does he budge whatsoever. “You’re just being mean on purpose, aren’t you?”

“Course.”

“Why? Just, I don’t know, be nice?”

“Fuck that. No thanks.”

“You incredibly rude- you know that?”

“And you’re fuckin’ annoying.” He retorts, knocking his shoulders into yours. Bakugou smirks when you stumble. “See- I’d murder you in a fight.”

“No one was debating that!”

He just bites his lip, throwing his head back. It’s like Bakugou is trying to hide his smile; exposing the strong column of his throat to you, pale skin gone 10 shades of gold under the streetlamp.

It steals the breath from your lungs- how devastatingly beautiful he can be. You have to tear your eyes away.

“Hey, Bakugou, it’s your day off right?”

He eyes you a little strangely. “Yes? Why?”

“Geez- Don’t be so suspicious.” You laugh. “I only asked because I was curious.”

“The hell you have to be curious about?”

“Just what you’d be doing right now otherwise- you know, if you weren’t stuck walking me-“

“‘m not stuck. Wouldn’t do this if I didn’t need to.”

“Yeah, but still.” You take a breath. “What I mean, is that, I’m sorry if this is burdening you. I know this probably isn’t what you wanted to do on your day off.”

He eyes you, sniffing for a moment while he juts his chin out. “Eh- it’s fine. Walking this far outta my way is good excercise anywa-“

“This far? Oh my god- are you serious? Where do you live?”

“Far enough.”

“Bakugou.” You say sternly, staring him down. You’re well aware he’s not a man who’s easily scolded into revealing the truth, but damn if you weren’t going die trying. “Seriously- how far?”

“Fuck’s it matter to you for?”

“Because it just does! Now, c’mon really, I’m gonna feel like, super bad if you say you’ve gotta take a train her-“

“No train, so quit bitching.” He scans the street for a moment, before turning back to look at you. “Not that far. Half an hour, maybe, if I was running.”

“If you were running? What about walkin-“

“Not walking so it doesn’t matter.”

“It does!”

“It fuckin’ doesn’t-“

Then he’s standing ram-rod straight, slapping an open palm over your stomach and pushing you back. You’re flying back into the shadows, back slamming against the brick wall. Gasping, air knocked clean out of your lungs, it’s all you can do to keep your eyes open and watch him leave.

Bakugou hardly even looks back before he’s soaring past the end of the alley, explosions igniting under his palms. There’s no one, all is quiet, silent and tense and then- bam.

A mottled mass of muscles and pulsating flesh barrels through the building beside Bakugou. Debris rains down onto the street, down onto the exact spot you were standing moments ago. The flying detrius knocks Bakugou off course, and the blonde hardly dodges before the creature is slinging fists his way.

“Shouldn’t’a been makin’ such a scene!” Bakugou is all smirks and haughty confidence, seamlessly twisting and dodging the creature’s strikes. “Gave yourself away- I’ve got you now!”

Even breathless and winded, you can’t help but stare. Bakugou truly is something else- a terrifying bullet in the air, bordering on frenetic as he dodges. He’s so fast you’re worried he’ll catch fire. There’s a reckless sort of smile on his face, stretching his lips back around canines you’re sure are sharper than before. He’s throws his left palm out, explosion recoil throwing him just past the creature’s next attack. It’s enough of an opening for Bakugou to surge in, flashbang fingertips making contact with the beast’s abdomen.

“Really, that’s all?” He challenges, grinning like mad when the beast flies back from the impact. “No strategy at all? That’s not gonna fuckin’ work!”

And then he looks back at you, just for a singular moment, while the beast is bent over from his previous blow. The sight nearly knocks the air out of your lungs all over again.

Bakugou is terrifying. Manic and bloodthirsty and feverish almost, chest heaving with every labored breath. There’s something wild in his eyes, coloring his features in blood that hasn’t even been spilled yet. It’s intimidating and scary and overwhelming, but he’s dazzling too. A crazed smile, so blinding and brilliant, that it leaves an after-image long after he’s blasted away again.

Something snaps in you then, and you’re diving behind the nearest dumpster. It’s a little gross and cramped, but you hear plaster cracking around you, and suddenly it’s not so bad anymore. Your eyes are wide, watching the battle- and even when hidden it still feels too close.

Your heart is trapped in your throat, a battering ram even as you try to catch your breath. Everything is loud, and chaotic, and you’ve never been this close to a real battle before. It scares you. You clasp your hands around your ears, trying to block out the gargling and explosions. It’s not enough, your breath still picking up as explosion impact rattles the asphalt beneath your feet.

“You’re done!” You hear him shout, and suddenly the air goes white and hot, and bright.

You screw your eyes shut, and bite back a scream as an explosion rattles every surrounding window. The sound swallows everything, and the light show is even worse. Even through your eyelids it’s blazing. Bright enough to have you diving to the ground and tucking your head between your knees.

Then it’s quiet. Complete silence other than the ringing in your ears. You hear impact, a warbled groan, and then the sound of his voice.

“You fucker.” He roars. “I’m fuckin’ busy, you weak bitch, can’t ya fuckin’ see that?”

Another thud. Another groan.

“All this shit for some cash? Just get a job, you fuckin’ loser. Like the goddamn rest of us.”

You peak your head over the dumpster, and see Bakugou standing tall over the collapsed body. You’re not entirely sure how the villian’s quirk operates, but the mass of flesh is deflating by the second, leaving behind a skinny mess of bones and sinew.

“A front, hah? Pathetic.” Bakugou sneers, grinding his teeth before he snaps. “On your fuckin’ feet weakling- ‘m taking you in.”

Bakugou hauls the skinny man to his feet, trapping rail-thin arms tight to the man’s back. It’s only then that you choose to emerge, staggering slighty on your shaking legs. It’s like you’ve got tremors- your body practically bowled over by the sheer amount of adrenaline coursing through your veins.

“H-help- I didn’t-“ The skinny man starts, before Bakugou is sending a knee into the base of his spine.

“Don’t speak to her, you shit-stain.” Bakugou curls his lip. “Shut the hell up.”

You’re not really sure what to do then- caught between wanting to high-tail it in the complete opposite direction, and surging towards Bakugou. Because, if you weren’t certain before, you definitely were now; Bakugou knew what he was doing. And if worst ever came to worst, he’d stay true to all his threats. Nobody was getting to you while he was around.

“Follow. C’mon.” Bakugou nods towards the end of the street. “Police station. You know where it is. Let’s get the hell to it already.”

You just start walking- almost on autopilot. There’s a weird fuzz settling in your brain, the adrenaline seeping and leaving nothing but exhaustion behind. It’s disorienting because you weren’t even part of the fight- Bakugou had shoved you back long before you could have ever been in any real danger.

You’re not sure how he knew- how he could have possibly predicted the villain coming through the wall, but even still, you’re gratetful. Because you’re not hurt, only frazzled where you would’ve been massacred without him there.

Bakugou waits for you to pass him by, and only once you’re a good few steps ahead, does he start shoving his prisoner forward. The walk is tense and silent, the only noise being the occasional pained groan from the skinny man. There’s an undeniable air of intimidation coming from Bakugou, rolling off his skin and permeating every spare inch of air. It only adds more stress to an already harrowing situation.

The police station lies just where you remembered it, but you’ve never been this close before. You’d only seen it down the end of the street as you passed by- only through the fuzzy haze of exhaustion after your shift ended. Now there’s nothing hazy about it- just a stark white building and big glass doors. Big glass doors that Bakugou is surging through, prisoner in tow, and ordering you to stay behind.

When he’s through the door, it’s like your heart finally starts to catch up. You can feel it’s thud slow against you ribs, no longer jumping at every slight sound. You eyelids feel heavy, further weighed down by the headache you feel coming on. You lean against the wall of the station, bending slightly at the waist as you ground the heels of your palm against your temple.

“All good?” You hear his voice some time later, Bakugou’s footsteps heavy as he approaches. “You get hurt?”

“No- ‘m fine.” You chew your cheek, straightening as you look up at him. “I think.”

He studies you for a moment, red eyes flitting across your face. Bakugou grimaces. “You’re shaking.”

“Yeah. Was scared.”

“It’s fine now.” He huffs, frustration lacing his features. Bakugou clenches his hand, releases, and repeats twice over before he speaks again. “Got ‘em already, so you can chill the hell out now. Alright?”

“Yeah- yeah sure.”

You try to agree, but your voice doesn’t sound right when it leaves your throat. It’s a little too hoarse, empty of almost all inflection. You’re not particularly pleased with it and Bakugou is even less so.

“You need a few minutes or something?” He pinches the bridge of his nose, like even asking the question pains him. “Need to call somebody?”

Bakugou looks incredibly uncomfortable- eyes shifting around wildly and refusing to settle. All of his battlefield-confidence, even that self-assured smirk seems to have disappeared entirely. He huffs a pained breath and leans back against the wall next to you. His shoulders are just barely touching yours, voice pinched and tense when he speaks.

“I know it’s loud- but it’s over now. Now you just go home, and you sleep. Nothing is gonna happen to you.” Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Bakugou tilts his head skyward. He grinds his teeth, once, twice, and smooths out his grimace. “And I’ll fuckin’ be there so don’t go spiraling about it, alright? You’re safe now.”

You nod, rolling your lips together for a moment. He’s not meeting your eyes, not even attempting to, but you can’t help but stare. Can’t help but track all the lines of his face; the way his nose slopes, and the set of his eyebrows. He doesn’t look like before. Not crazed, or manic, or brutal. He’s just Bakugou. Maybe a little grumpy, but mostly just uncomfortable- exactly the way you’ve come to know him.

Something in you settles at bit at that.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let's go." You kick off the wall, putting one foot in front of the other. "I'm more than ready to be home."

Bakugou just watches you, and you can see him reach a hand out before immediately dropping it. His lip curls up in disgust- and that just confuses you. You wonder where the Bakugou from a few minutes ago went; the one who seemed so entirely sure of himself.

"Faster." He says, overtaking you in one long stride. "Stallin' around at night is never a good idea."

You suppose he's right, but you never would've believed him before.

Prior to tonight, you had never been a part of a villain attack. You hadn't even seen a villain on anything other than TV re-runs. Your neighborhood was quiet, the streets never holding any danger, even at night. Now, though, every shadow seems suspicious, every sound a precursor for something far worse. Your well aware you just got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time that night, but that didn't make the reality any easier to handle. If Bakugou hadn't been there, if he hadn't show up dead on your balcony months ago, then you would've been gravely injured by all that falling debris.

The thought makes you feel weak all over again. Has your fingers curling in your gloves- itchy and uncomfortable and helpless.

You're quiet as you walk, caught up in a million spiraling thoughts. Bakugou doesn't seem keen on conversation either, keeping a few paces ahead and scanning for other danger. Occasionally he'll turn back, check to make sure you're following, and all you can really offer is a nod and a shaky sort of smile. It doesn't satisfy him at all- you can see that every time he sets his jaw.

"Oi- Leech." He snaps in front of your eyes, waving his hand back and forth. "It's- stop lookin' like that already. All freaked the fuck out. You look ridiculous."

His haughty tone as your blood warming, fingers clenching at your sides as you walk. You're not sure what reaction he's after, but all you can really think to do is get angry.

"I am freaked out! You were there! You saw that guy! He was huge!" You snap, squinting your eyes and waving your hands around. "If you weren't- I- what am I supposed to do when that shit happens? Huh? I can't fight, and even if I could I wouldn't, so what am I supposed to-"

"Nothing." He interrupts. "You do nothing, and you hide. Like you did."

"Yes, because you pushed me! If you hadn't I would've been crushed by all that- and how on Earth did you even know he was coming?"

"Vibrations. In the ground." He squints at you, a little confused. "Did you not-"

"No!"

"Damn," He huffs a laugh, shaking his head. "You really couldn't feel that? Jesus, you really are clueless. No wonder you were so freaked out."

In that moment, you're a little sure you could strangle him. All his skill you'd seen earlier suddenly didn't matter at all, and you were sure you could take him down with nothing but rage alone.

He- vibrations? You didn't feel anything! You felt nothing and even if you had, you would've assumed it was an earthquake. No one except for him and his battle-addled brain would've ever assumed it was a villain of all things!

"Calm down," He seems to be fighting a smile, lip twitching up. "You look fuckin' ridiculous right now. 'm not scared of you, leech."

"You should be! I'm about to strangle you right now-"

"For what?"

"For- for- I don't know! You just make me so angry with your 'Oh, you didn't feel that?' bullshit!" You tilt your voice lower, coating it in gravel to mimic him. "Of course I didn't feel anything! I'm not like you- I don't have freaky super-human instincts and explosions and I can't just go fight somebody!"

True to his word, your outburst doesn't seem to scare him. If anything if seems to pull the smile from him more, lips pulling back into a grin even he has no chance of hiding.

"There she is." He stuffs his hands in his pockets, falling back a little to walk right beside you. "Thought you'd gone into shock or somethin'."

"So you- on purpose?"

"Said that shit about vibrations? Yeah." His smile turns wolfish, all sharp canines and pink gums. "There were no fuckin' vibrations, idiot. I heard the plaster cracking."

In that moment you're the surest you've ever been- you were going to murder Bakugou Katsuki.

"You dick!"

Your hands are out before you can stop them, shoving forcefully at his side. He just looks at you, rolling his eyes, and then decides to let you tip him sideways off the curb. It's the worst kind of victory- a pity one that he let you have.

"Chill out, already." He laughs. "Only said shit so you'd stop bein' all miserable. You should be fuckin' thankin' me."

"I'm not thanking you!"

He steps forward, one long stride eclipsing you entirely. Then he spins, facing you with another crooked grin, and you're digging your heels into the cement to avoid crashing directly into his chest.

"I said-" He starts, hands in his pockets and leaning forward until he's practically towering over you. "You should be thanking me."

His voice is low, sly and challenging as he grins. He looks positively predatory- but attractive too. The worst kind that leaves your heart stuttering in your chest for almost no discernable reason.

"G-get away from me." You fluster, taking a step back. "I'm not thanking you."

He shrugs, falling back to a safe distance. You don't miss it though- the way his grin goes just a little wider, entirely satisfied. He won, and he knows it.

"Suit yourself, then leech." He says, voice light. "If ya wanna mouth off so much, then 'm not fuckin' saving you next time."

He says the words, but you're almost entirely sure he doesn't mean them. Not with the way he is now- beaming and pleased under the moonlight. You wonder if he always gets like this; so happy just after a victory. It's the kind of sight that almost makes the entire ordeal worth it. Almost.

You walk through the doors of your apartment, shuddering a long sigh of relief. The walls feel safe, security and peace etched into familiar walls. Even with Bakugou stomping behind you, the serenity isn't disturbed all that much. He's still in his rare good mood apparently, and he doesn't even grumble whatsoever.

Truth be told, you're still a little shaken, but the interior of your apartment puts you at ease. Even if you don't feel nearly as infallible as before, home is a good feeling- it always is.

"You know- you know that you just got unlucky, right?" Bakugou seems to struggle for a moment, kicking the door shut behind him. "It's- that's- shit like that doesn't usually happen here."

You're not sure where his sentiment is headed, and he must see it on your face. He flares his nostrils, sighing something long-suffering and dramatic.

"I'm sayin'- that wasn't part of anything else. It was just the one idiot, so it's not any more dangerous here than it used to be. 'm sayin' don't waste your time worryin' about that shit."

Something in you warms a bit- just a fraction. You're not sure how he knew, how he always seems to know just what you're thinking, but at this moment you don't care to find out. There are some comforts better left experienced instead of studied- and you figure this might be one of them.

You smile, something soft and fond. "I take it back- I will thank you. So thank you. I'm sure I'd be a lot worse off if you weren't around."

You watch him fluster, watch him itch in his skin and shift his weight around. Eventually he settles on turning his back, moving towards your fridge as he speaks.

"Probably. You froze up completely- woulda been piss poor job performance to let you get killed." He's swinging the fridge door open, and the white light just makes it more apparent- his cheeks are pink. "Got ice packs in here somewhere?"

"I-Ice packs?"

"Yeah. Knuckles are gonna bruise up if I don't ice 'em."

You look a little closer then, at his fingers curled around the handle of your fridge. His knuckles are a little swollen, bruised up and red where the skin had split. It doesn't look too bad, much less serious than any other injury he'd come to you with, but that doesn't change the itching in your own fingers. You want to help him- now more than ever it seems.

"Shit- sorry." You breathe out, nearing a little to get a closer look. "I was so freaked I didn't even think about asking- are you okay? You're okay, right? Nothing else, no bones or blood or-"

"Calm down. 'm fine."

You look at him again, squinting for eyes for a moment. He just rolls his own, extending his arms out and flipping them. He was telling the truth- there's only one other scratch on him, and even that was already scabbed over. The only issue were his knuckles- and that sets you at ease.

"You want me to wrap them for you?" You ask, looking up at him. "Oh wait- actually, you'd probably want to do that yourself, huh? Since you're not on the brink of death this time and actual-"

"You do it."

"Huh?"

"I said- you do it." He won't meet your eyes, turning back to your fridge and opening it up once more. He makes himself right at home, grabbing one of the water bottles off the shelf without asking. "Did it all the other times, so you do it. Don't think you're gonna get away with cuttin' corners on me."

"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant, that I know you find it annoying when I'm all fussy so I just-"

"Shut up already. You continuing to run your mouth is the only thing that's annoying me right now."

You're about to retort, something offended and assuredly juvenile, but you decide against it. That night had been filled with far too much conflict for your liking, and you weren't about to incite more of it. If he wanted you to wrap his knuckles, then you'd wrap his knuckles. You figured it's the least you could do for him.

Turning your back on him, you start for the bathroom, and the first aid kit inside. A part of you considers just permanently moving the kit into the kitchen, but that sort of seems like you're just inviting more misfortune. You keep hoping that one day you'll stop having to patch Bakugou up at all, but from the looks of it, that isn't likely. Not even a little bit considering his obvious bloodlust.

"You wanna-" You start, walking back into the kitchen. You're shocked into stillness by the sight of him searching through your cupboards. "Um, what exactly are you doing?"

"Hungry."

"Okay, caveman, I just- you're not seriously trying to cook right now are you?" You near him, hands hovering in the air. You're sure he wouldn't appreciate it, but a large part of you just wants to grab at his shoulders and shove him away from everything. "Stop that- lemme get you fixed up first. Then I can call for something. I'm not gonna let you exert yourself any more than you already have."

Bakugou seems a little perturbed by that, whipping his head around until you can see wild red eyes. You almost sigh; what you wouldn't give for him to just chill out for once.

"I'm not saying you can't cook. You probably could, I don't know." You near a little more, dropping the first aid kit onto the countertop. "I'm saying, you've already done enough today, and you deserve to take it easy. So let me help you by wrapping your hands up. That's all."

Bakugou's in the midst of another internal struggle, before he visibly forgoes it. His shoulder's drop and the tension leaks until he's settling into one of your dining chairs. He sets his hands out on the table, clearing his throat at you until you kick into motion.

At this point, cleaning up his hands is practically a daily chore. You've gone through the motions more than enough times to be adjusted, but even still, his hands still freak you out a little. You'd never seen anyone who radiated so much heat- even just being next to him was like sitting in front of an open flame.

Your fingers are gentle, skidding over his hands with feather-light touches. He seems to slump in his chair, eventually just laying his head on the outstretched arm you weren't actively working on. He watches you closely the entire time though, red eyes burning holes into the side of your head.

"Do it again." He says. "Too loose. Do it again."

You're half-way through wrapping his right hand, only a small amount of bandage left. Not only would you have to do the bandage over entirely, but you'd have to unwrap it completely first.

"You always say that," You mutter, exasperation coloring your voice. "What makes it so much better the second time around, huh? I do it the exact same."

"It's just better. Takes longer."

You're not really sure what he means by that, and Bakugou doesn't look all that thrilled that he said the words at all. He jumps in his chair, cheeks gone pink as he digs his face into the skin of his arm. He's hiding.

It strikes you as even but odd, but you shrug off the strangeness all the same. You're getting far too used to his particular brand of bizarre.

"All better now?" You goad, patting the bandage after you've finished re-wrapping. "Everything feel nice and perfect for Prince Bakugou?"

He lifts his head. "You're not funny."

"You always say that too. But it's okay, I know one day you'll finally come around and appreciate me."

He just laughs under his breath, but he smiles too. Grins something tiny and small that he hides in his shoulder.

You start finishing up his other hand, and Bakugou doesn't say anything otherwise. He just sits, resting his head on his arm, and watching you intently. He's all calm and even breathing, chest rising and falling in perfect rhythm. You'd thought him adrenaline-crazed earlier, but it seemed he was coming off of that high rapidly. You could feel the exhaustion too- almost lulled by your movements just as much as he was.

You start gathering away all of your materials, and he doesn't even move. Just sits in perfect stillness at your table.

"I- I didn't accidentally touch you right? That's not why you're like that?" You ask, smothering a yawn. "Super exhausted, I mean."

He shakes his head. "Nah. Normal tired. Didn't fuck up this time, leech."

You don't have it in you to respond, hardly even rolling your eyes at his remark. His jabs don't hold much bite anymore- you begin to wonder if he's actually getting nicer or if you're just growing a ridiculous tolerance.

You brush off the thought, pushing away from your table and rising from the chair. "You still hungry?"

"Yeah. Wanna sleep first though so don't worry about it."

"Okay; well, I'm definitely going to so-"

"I said don't." He supplies evenly, finally sitting up in his seat. "It's fine. 'm not fuckin' starvin' or anything."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

His insistence sells you, but you're not sure if it's because you actually believe him or because you just want to. Either way, you figure it doesn't matter much in the end, not to the way your limbs are quickly bowing to exhaustion. You feel the fatigue settling in, and you'd like to blame that for your next actions.

"C'mon then, sleep time, I guess." You say.

Then you cross the kitchen, passing behind him, dropping your hand on his shoulder. You hardly let it sit, just running your thumb over his shirt once, twice, and then continuing on your way.

He takes several seconds to finally follow you into the living room. Enough to have you looking back in confusion, unable to understand why he looked so very stunted where he still sat.

"Jesus, you're annoying." He finally grumbles, rubbing at his eyes.

His steps are loud as he crosses the room, stopping just a few inches in front of you. He grabs at your arm, raising your wrist himself and plucking the glove off in one fluid grab. It if wasn't so sudden an action- so ridiculous and fast and borderline violent, you might have even been flustered.

As it was though, he just grabbed your wrist before you could really register it.

Familiar warmth floods your veins. The same burning, slow heat that makes it;s way through each vein and artery. You think maybe your knuckles ache a little bit too, but it's too hard to tell through your quickly increasing sleep fog.

Bakugou lets you go pretty quick, falling back on your couch in almost the same moment.

"Better?" You ask, mirth warming your words. "Had to do it yourself because I was taking too long?"

"No, 'cause you pissed me off."

"Doing what?"

"You know what you're fuckin' doing."

Then he's grabbing the blanket, settling it over himself gracelessly while he flops over. He's face-first into the cushions now, effectively ending the conversation in much the way he typically does- by refusing to engage entirely.

You just roll your eyes a litItle fondly, still not even beginning to understand.

/-/

ooooo boy i am so sorry y'all for this late uPDATe,,, pls i usually update my fics way faster than this but sometimes life rlly just do be happenin lmaoooooo

n e wayz, ty for reading and supporting my work!! y'all are the absolute best i could ever ask for!!!

[billy-the-hurricane]

200 harringrove

Hi sorry it took me a ridiculously huge amount of time to do this, but here we gooo

200. "He loves you, you know? He's just afraid of admitting it"

_

Steve and Billy's friendship was.. complicated to say the least. Admittedly, Hargrove having punched the shit out of the other boy last November was probably not helping their case. Before that fight, it had been rivalry, mainly fueled by Billy while Steve tried his best to just ignore the guy. After that, they kept their distance for a while, and Steve found out from Dustin that Maxine had threatened her brother with a nailed bat to leave them alone. But the whole thing felt off to Harrington. It's a good thing Hargrove wasn't trying to fight with him anymore, but it seemed everything else was gone with it. His fire died down. Billy came back to school with a black eye Steve knew for a fact he wasn't the one responsible for, and alarmingly quiet. Him who usually was loud and obnoxious was just trying to stay quiet. After interrogating Max (god forbid he'd ask the guy himself), he wasn't given much of an answer, but it seemed Mayfield definitely felt somewhat of an embarrassment when the question dropped. This only concerned him more. The real turn however was one time Steve drove the redhead back to Cherry Lane. Both Neil and Billy's vehicles were parked here and as soon as they got out of Steve's beamer, they could already hear some fighting was going on inside.

"Steve, you should leave now" Max had told, despite the concern written across her face.

"why? What's happening?" Harrington asked with a worried frown that only deepened as Neil's voice raised even louder. They could hear him like he was simply in the room next to them and not outside the house. Max bit the inner side of her cheek, swallowing hard.

"Please, you really sho-" The girl had started before their discussion was cut short by the most haunting pleading Steve's heard. At least in a while. It was clearly Billy screaming, with the sound of a vase breaking right after. He couldn't make up the exact words, but it was obvious the blond was begging for this to stop.

And things kind of clicked. Why Billy was behaving the way he did. Despite Max trying to avoid this being known, because Billy doesn't want it to be known he's guessing, Steve knows now. No matter how much his guts are telling him to storm inside, to just do something, anything, he leaves. He feels extremely gross for days afterwards, spent the weekend wondering if complying to the redhead's request had been a good idea at all. When Billy showed up at school with a scar forming on his eyebrow, having split it in a way that probably would never grow back, Steve had no doubt about the situation.

So he tried finding small ways to somehow approach Billy, befriend him. It was clear the guy's behaviour was stemming from his life at home, but Steve was certain that with some help, he could give the blond a more healthy outlet than knocking people out. This was definitely easier said than done, with Billy being very hostile at the idea of ever hanging out or even being seen with the guy. But one step at a time, one meaningless small talk at a time, they started actually hanging out at lunch. Then after school. Shared joints and deeper conversations ensued over the course of a few months and although this didn't fix Billy's issue, it was obvious he wasn't as agitated anymore.

The main turning point for them was a night of April. In which Steve confided in his own insecurities. Brought up his failed relationship with Nancy, the fact that his parents themselves didn't know him more than on an acquaintance type of level. He felt alone in a stupidly big fucking house all the time, stuck with nightmares he couldn't describe to the blond. For a second he thought maybe Billy would mock him, or flee his way out of the conversation but he did not. He listened. Hargrove let Steve talk and although it was clear the Californian native wasn't used to give advices, he genuinely tried and it showed. Then he opened up too. Billy seemed really hesitant for a hot minute, but he confessed to the abuse at home. The fact that it's been happening for so long and gradually getting worse. The fact that it took an awful turn when Neil caught him with a guy.

Holy shit.

That wasn't expected for sure, caught him off-guard for sure and judging by Billy's face, it showed. The guy looked like he was seeing someone dying. It hit him now. Just how much trust Billy has in him now, to even just share this.

"Nevermind, I'll just go" Hargrove blurted out, getting up with a reddening face. An awful sense of embarrassment coursing through his body. He just made a fool of himself. Again. As he walked out, Steve ran after him, grabbing his wrist but Billy instantly moved it away almost mechanically.

"Listen man, it's okay, I just didn't expect it" Harrington awkwardly let out, watching Billy's back still turned towards him. "It's a bit of a lot to process at once that's all. I think I figured out for your dad, but I didn't know you.." the brunet went on, earning a chuckle that held no joy from Hargrove. "It's okay. That doesn't change anything for me. I'm sorry this happened to you, you don't deserve any of it. Just know you can always come over if you need to sleep away from your house"

And just like this, Billy's sexual orientation was never brought up again. Steve was supportive and offered him a roof more than anyone has in YEARS. He was always stupidly kind, never asked for anything in return. Billy finally had a safe space and someone he could count on. Billy laughed harder than he ever had with him, and the experience was mutual. It was just. Easy. Stress free. Well until he caught feelings. Until he came to realize just to what degree Harrington mattered to him. He'd rather die than admit it, of course, but they were there. The stupid fucking butterflies. Whenever Steve smiled too bright of showed too much care. Usually Billy found a way to distract them both with something totally different, just so he can focus on something else than the way he feels. But with time, it became harder and harder and the fear of slipping up grew bigger and bigger. As much as it pained Billy, he slowly tried distancing himself. Just to avoid this disaster.

However, what Billy hadn't anticipated was just how much this would hurt Steve. He just couldn't understand what the hell he did to upset Billy. And whenever he asked, Hargrove would assure nothing happened and they're fine.

After weeks of useless back and forth, Steve asked Max. Asked what the hell was wrong with Billy. And apparently that was a really stupid question, judging by the stare she gave him. She shook her head with a whispered "boys" before looking around them to make sure no one was eavesdropping.

"You really have no idea?" the redhead asked, crossing her arms.

"Not really, no" the teenage boy reiterated with a sigh.

"He loves you, y'know? He's just afraid to admit it" Maxine explained. "He's changed a lot since you guys made peace. It's obvious he cares a lot for you, so please don't let this destroy your friendship. Just give him time to move on-" she started, cut by Steve that was finally processing the words.

"He's in love with me?" Harrington questioned, although the answer was given to him even before he spoke. Well, damn. He didn't even add anything else, just left with Max calling him behind him.

He just hopped into his beamer and drove off, later realizing he probably scared her to death, she probably thought he was about to fight with her brother over it. But he just had to see Billy. It's now been weeks since he's been questioning himself over this, over how much he cares about the blond. Over the implications of it. But hearing Billy loved him was like all of his thoughts now made sense. He parked into the public pool's parking lot, knowing Billy was on his Saturday shift. He walked in, ignored the girl at the entrance, vaguely explaining he was there to see Billy and headed to the lockers, finding him there.

"The hell are you doing here?" Billy told, putting his sweater on properly as Harrington was just walking towards him in an overwhelmingly confident manner. Now dragged into a changing room, he's really starting to freak out.

"Jesus man, what's your issue?!" Hargrove insisted as the brunet locked the door behind them. "What do you want?"

Steve just found himself speechless once locked in here with the other, now only fully understanding what this was. "You're in love with me" he let out, quite breathless sounding. And Billy turned white like a ghost. The guy that usually dripped in confident was losing all of his arrogance in seconds.

"No" Hargrove mumbled out, his voice now slightly shaky. There were no fucking way out. Both of the discussion and physically.

"You're not a good liar" Steve smiled, watching the blond embarrass himself like a twelve year old.

"Fuck off" Billy replied, trying to move Steve out of the way, just to get his arm pulled even closer into Harrington's space, chest pressed against chest. Steve had this dumb smile on his face, and Billy felt like this was a joke at his expense. Couldn't be anything else. "That's not funny. Just beat the shit out of me, get this over with already"

"I want you to tell me. Say it to me, please" Steve said, completely ignoring Billy's previous words.

"Are you serious?"

"Please" Harrington asked again.

"I.." he looked away, swallowing tightly. "I'm in love. With you"

In response, Steve gave him one of those beautiful bright smiles of his, his hand sliding up to cup Billy's cheek. "You're beautiful" he told before leaning in to kiss that fucking idiot.

[amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines]

Reggie//everyone loves a cliche

Request: Can I request a reader/Reggie with sort of the cliche footballer/cheerleader stereotype sort of fluff plot wise

hey! i hope this is what you wanted! i had a lot of fun writing this!

- At first, you and Reggie don’t like each other 

- Which is kind of a cliche in itself 

- He’s too arrogant 

- You’re to ‘preppy’

- Whatever the hell thats supposed to mean

- But its not like you hate each other

- You never go out of your way to make the others lives miserable 

- Just if there’s a mention of one of you, the other will roll their eyes 

- Any other time, you just try to avoid each other.

- But that becomes a bit more difficult when your best friends start dating

- Veronica and Archie become a thing 

- Meaning there is literally no escape from each other 

- Queue an endless amount of third and fourth wheeling

- ‘you’re the fourth wheel’ 

- ‘isn’t that better than third?’ 

- ‘no because you’re last’ 

- ^Just a snippet of the arguments you would have while Veronica and Archie shove their tongues down each others throats 

- So now you’re forced together regularly

- And because you usually have to spend time at Pop’s, you either have to sit next to or opposite each other. 

- God help anybody who thinks you’re a couple

- Or even just friends tbh

- ‘you think we’re dating?’

- ‘you think i would go anywhere near him?!’ 

- ‘exactl-hey! if anyone is rejecting anyone. its me rejecting you.’

- ‘you keep telling yourself that.’ 

- ‘i just asked for your order...’

- But one day something changes

- Archie and Veronica are late 

- How? You don’t know because you left practice at the same time

- And she’d specifically told you during practice that you were all going to Pop’s straight after. 

- So now you and Reggie have to be alone for a while

- As soon as you walk into the diner and see Reggie sat alone, your smile vanishes

- You’d already had a rubbish day

- And now you have to drag yourself over to sit opposite him

- ‘hey pom-poms. i thought cheerleaders were supposed to be happy all the time.’ 

- ‘i’m not in the mood reg. where’s veronica?’

- ‘probably wherever archie is.’

- ‘...’

- ‘whats up?’ 

- ‘do you actually care or do you just want something to gossip about in the locker room?’ 

- ‘do i look like cheryl blossom to you?’ 

- You’d crack a smile at that which would spark something unfamiliar in him

- ‘no...thank god’ 

- ‘i’ve heard a problem shared is a problem halved’ 

- ‘and where exactly did you hear that?’

- ‘its just something my mom used to say to me’ 

- ‘used to?’ 

- ‘we don’t really talk much anymore. but come on, tell me whats wrong.’ 

- ‘i’ve just had a bit of a crappy day. everything just got on top of me and then i ended it with a really rough practice.’ 

- ‘well, good news is that you’re crappy day is over, and you survived it. plus, i’ve seen you practice and you’re great.’ 

- ‘you’re just saying that.’ 

- ‘when do i ever just say things...especially nice things...and especially about you.’ 

- ‘true’

- ‘don’t tell cheryl, but i think you’re the best on that team.’

- Both of you would blush and look away, not really sure of what to say and praying for Archie and Veronica to turn up soon.

- A few minutes of some very awkward silence, they eventually turn up

- And both of you would be extremely thankful. 

- After that you start to look at him differently 

- And he starts to notice small things about you 

- Things shift between you ever so subtly

- Instead of rolling your eyes, they would light up at the mention of the other 

- And instead of avoiding each other, you found yourselves looking for the other 

- If one of you told a joke, you’d look at the other to see if they were laughing 

- And small looks would be shared between the two of you whenever Archie and Veronica were doing something gross

- Both of you would start to look forward to being the third and fourth wheel 

- Because now it doesn’t really feel like it anymore

- And slowly your friends start to notice the changes

- Subtle and not so subtle 

- Especially when you start hanging out with each other, without the need of anyone else being there 

- So now its just a matter of time 

- Which thankfully isn’t that long

- A month later...

- Veronica and Archie are late...yet again 

- But you don’t mind 

- Sometime you and Reggie go to Pop’s early so you can spend some time together before they turn up

- By the time Reggie gets there, you’ve already ordered his food and he feels his heart skip a beat because you actually remembered his favourite 

- ‘archie text me and apparently something has come up.’

- ‘i don’t want to know whats up.’ You’d reply with a scrunch of your nose.

- He’d chuckle softly and your mind would go blank for a few seconds 

- Because you made him do that! 

- You could happily hear that noise every single day for the rest of your life and never get sick of it

- Oh crap

- Do you like Reggie Mantle?

- Like more than a friend???

- Maybe even love him?!?!

- ‘y/n? are you okay?’

- ‘what? yeah...just thinking.’

- ‘remember, a problem shared is a problem halved’

- ‘i’m good, really.’ 

- But you’re really not good 

- Not at all

- You’ve fallen for Reggie Mantle

- Arrogant footballer

- But also so much more

- He’s got the kindest, purest soul ever

- He’ll do anything for his friends 

- And he’ll do anything to make you laugh

- Little do you know

- As you’re having your small freakout 

- Reggie is doing the exact same 

- He’s just realized how in love with you he actually is

- All it took was a crude joke and a scrunch of your nose 

- Now what does he do?

- He’s always so confident 

- Thats what made you dislike him in the first place

- But right now, he isn’t sure if he’s able to say hello

- So he blurts out the next best thing

- ‘goodbye’

- ‘what?’ 

- ‘i mean i love you’ 

- ‘what?!?’

- ‘what?’ 

- Now he’s standing up and trying to figure out the best escape route 

- ‘reg? where are you going?’ 

- ‘away. i don’t love you. i like you. i mean not that i couldn’t love you. i could definitely love you...very easily. maybe i do love you. can i kiss you? wait what?’ 

- ‘yes. you can kiss me.’ 

- That surprises both of you 

- But he doesn’t waste anymore time and leans over the table to kiss you 

- Its awkward because of the position he’s in and definitely a little embarrassing

- But its perfect 

- After a few dates you’d make it official 

- And then the real cliches would start

- Quickly you’d become the couple of the school

- Everybody knows who you are

- Probably because he gave you his letterman jacket after your first date and you haven’t taken it off since

- ‘it just looks better on you babe’ 

- Speaking of ‘babe’

- The nicknames...

- So many

- ‘babe’

- ‘baby’

- ‘sweetheart’

- ‘my love’ (which is a personal favourite)

- ‘darling’ (another favourite)

- And your nicknames for him where just as cute

- ‘reg’ (obvious, but he likes it because its the one you called him before you even liked each other)

- ‘mantle’ (for when you wanted to tease him)

- ‘love’

- ‘babe’

- ‘sunshine’ (his secret favourite. he pretended to hate it but you noticed the soft smile on his face whenever you said it)

- You definitely won prom king and queen 

- ‘you’re by far the prettiest queen this school has ever seen’

- Your Pop’s dates would become more and more frequent 

- Now its Veronica and Archie’s turn to share looks when you kiss

- He’d walk you to class every chance he got 

- And he’d always carry your books for you

- If you had a class together, he would always sit beside you

- And days were assignments were given and you could pick your partners were his favourite.

- When you didn’t have classes together he’d leave cheesy notes in your notebooks 

- Or even just in your locker 

- He’d always kiss you goodbye 

- He’d also pull you into empty classrooms/corridors to make out

- Even if you were going to be late to something

- Mainly Bulldog/Vixen practice 

- Much to your coaches annoyance

- Sorry Cheryl 

- If you were free while he was practicing, you’d watch him from the bleachers 

- And if he was free while you had practice, he’d definitely sneak in to watch 

- Again, sorry Cheryl 

- And at games you would always cheer the loudest 

- Sometimes you’d come up with your own cheers that were just about him 

- ...sorry Cheryl

- You were a constant distraction to the other

- Everybody would act so annoyed 

- But they secretly all thought it was cute 

- Because everyone loves a cliche 

- And this one was by far your favourite 

[kisskissbanggang]

I don't really know how this works (blurbs😅) but here we go.. Minho + Kitchen w/ reader 😶🤷🏻‍♀️ Anyways thank youu🙂

[YESSSSSSSSS okay but uhm after what we did for @mikoto-ica-fics let’s just... yeah, why not 👀]

[sub!idol, dom!reader, femdom, handjobs, spit as lube, secret hookup, elements of hate sex, dirty talk, degredation, elements of brat taming]

After that afternoon in your bathroom, you avoided Minho like the plague. You did not want to think about what you’d said in the heat of the moment, about there being any hint of a next time. In fact, after he’d asked if you meant it, Jisung helped himself back into your apartment, entirely oblivious to what just happened as you quickly pulled yourselves together. Minho obviously didn’t want his brother to know what happened, either, as he had ran out to look like he’d been in your living room the entire time.

You were grateful that Minho hadn’t accompanied his brother to your place since then, but this was different. Tonight, you were hanging out at Jisung’s as he and his roommates invited some friends over to their apartment for cocktails. Some friends and — of course — his brother. It would’ve been weird for you not to come, so you had to tell Jisung you’d be there, but he didn’t notice you madly pacing your apartment after you’d told him so. It was fine, you figured, you just had to avoid Minho.

However, that was easier said than done.

Jisung approached you while you were having a perfectly enjoyable conversation with his cute friend, Seungmin — who was incredibly sweet and incredibly suave — to place an empty tray in your hands partway through his little get-together. “Hey, can you go get another tray of hors d'oeuvres from the kitchen?”

Easy enough, but you hadn’t considered what you really should’ve. You excused yourself from Seungmin, promising to take him up on that glass of wine that he offered later that night, and strolled into the kitchen. Minho gave you a sly grin from where he stood at the counter. “Couldn’t stay away from me forever, huh? I knew you’d be back.”

You rolled your eyes before you spied another tray of finger foods sitting on the countertop as he continued working. If you had been thinking more clearly, you would’ve easily figured out the de facto chef of the family would be in charge of the kitchen as usual. At the moment, Minho had his sleeves rolled up and an apron tied on as he busied himself with the pasta roller he’d brought from his place. That was as good a signal as any to make a move to trade out the trays and get the hell out.

Minho seemed to accept this and keep his nose in his work as you set the empty tray on the counter. It felt stupid, childish, to plan to quickly grab the tray and get out, but it also felt just as stupid to admire the soft slope of his nose, the cute curve of his lips, his sharp jaw currently set sternly as he concentrated on his cooking. Everything would be fine, though. You would get the stupid tray of finger foods and avoid stepping foot in here again for the rest of the night, and make every excuse imaginable to Jisung to stay away from his brother in the process.

At least, that was how it was supposed to go.

As you got a good grip on the precariously balanced tray, a pair of hands encircled your waist, making you freeze. You could feel Minho grinning behind you. He was suspiciously fine with you turning in his arms, however, even though the seemed to signal the end of his little bluff, as he scoffed and backed up a step to return to his prepping.

Until it was his turn to freeze. You grabbed at his necktie, suddenly livid with how cocky he was, even more than usual — and very much so in a mood to do something about it. Minho’s eyes widened just a tick as you turned and backed him up against the counter; now you’d fully traded places. His trepidation seemed to ease well enough once you bit the bullet and kissed him again. It was gross, how good kissing him felt, and his shocked groan against your lips suggested that maybe he felt the same. You kicked Minho’s ankles apart as you brazenly reached under his apron, and he quickly slapped your hand off. He grunted as you grabbed his wrist and torqued it back.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He quietly accused, his eyes wildly darting to the doorway of the kitchen and back to you. A jovial party game could be heard in the living room; no one would probably be coming this way for a while.

“Stop me.” You darkly smirked, defiant as you reached under his apron again and now played with the metal buckle of his belt. Minho’s hand still gripped in yours seemed to relax a little, and you led him to grab back onto the counter ledge. He wasn’t going to stop you after all, and it felt like you both reached a silent agreement that he was a goner from that moment forward. However, that didn’t seem to take the fire out of him.

“Been thinking about me?” Minho grinned as you resumed working at his belt.

“Haven’t been able to stop,” you pouted sardonically as you roughly yanked his zipper down. Minho’s pride seemed bruised as he groaned at the sensation of your fingers wrapping around his hardening member. You had to admit, it felt more impressive bare in your hand than it did the other day. You presented your upturned palm under his bottom lip. “Spit,” you playfully ordered, “or else I’ll make this very unpleasant very fast.”

Minho was matching you beat for beat, though, much to your chagrin. He ducked his head in close, over your waiting hand and kissing you hard, his tongue brashly prodding against yours within moments. It was easy to get lost in, but you had an objective. You backed off, doing your best to stay disgusted with Minho as he let his newly accumulated saliva lewdly drip from his tongue and into your palm. You rolled your eyes and returned your slicked hand under his apron so you could instantly begin jerking him off. Minho’s knees buckled from how hard his core clenched. “You are such a bitch,” he choked out as you massaged him much too fast.

“Awh,” you cooed, “and you’re an arrogant prick. I can’t believe I let you give me an orgasm.”

“Let me? You were begging for it,” Minho sneered as he clutched onto the counter. His stance faltered again as you suddenly let go of his cock. He hardened his glare into you. “Like I said, I bet you’ve been thinking about me every night. I don’t know why you won’t just admit it.”

You let out a frustrated sigh when you began to slowly jerk Minho’s cock again, alone in the kitchen while his breath was already beginning to waver. He tried to lean into your massaging fist before you roughly pushed his hips back against the counter and continued to take your time. You were furious that he was right. You had been thinking about him every fucking night, and it felt like an absolute betrayal of your values. “How about you?” You taunted. “Will you admit you’ve been thinking of me, too?”

Minho’s eyes widened momentarily again, apparently hoisted by his own pitard. “You’re such a bitch,” he scoffed. “Especially since I can admit it. I’ve been thinking about the other day every chance I get. Sometimes I don’t even mean to, but all I can think about is how cute you are when you beg.”

You flustered in response, speechless and now emboldened to torture Minho just as much as you’d promised to that afternoon in your bathroom. Thanks to Minho’s admission, all you could picture was him laying in bed, thinking about that day while he touched himself, and you were fit to combust with a litany of feelings. You hated Minho. You hated his over abundance of confidence, you hated his good looks — and you hated the perfect way he kissed you, the way he groaned breathlessly in your ear as you touched and teased him.

“Faster,” he demanded.

“What was that?” You taunted.

“Don’t be dim, you teasing bitch,” Minho whined. “Faster.”

“Careful, slut,” you grinned. “I don’t give a shit if you cum. In fact, I’ll leave—“

“Hey,” a voice from the doorway interrupted. “Did we have another bottle of moscato ready?”

You easily relinquished Minho as you turned to see a surprised Seungmin in the doorway. Your shoulders tensed, your face heated up, and Minho that wretched prick didn’t even turn of his own volition. He gave an aloof smirk as you shoved his shoulder to make him face his hidden erection back towards the counter. “Seungmin,” you smiled coolly, “of course. Let me grab it for you.”

Minho busied himself again as you grabbed one of the bottles that had been left to breathe and brought it to Seungmin, careful to not lead with your hand that likely still smelled of the warm saliva that you’d been using as lube. Seungmin’s face was lightly flushed, and you wondered how much you ruined any chances of making something happen with him as he curtly gave you a sweet smile and thanked you before leaving back to the party. Minho giggled behind you, even after you wheeled around on him. “You insufferable asshole.”

“Don’t be sore, you raging bitch,” Minho laughed, “I didn’t make you come in here and jerk me off.”

You let out a heavy sigh with a roll of your eyes before you made for the door yourself. It was time to wash your hands, make an excuse to Jisung, and leave. But that wasn’t what Minho had in mind.

“Hey, where are you—“

“Didn’t you hear me?” You turned to sneer at him. “I said I don’t give a shit if you cum.”

“No, wait,” Minho babbled as he strode over to grab your hand, “wait, hey, come on, you can’t—“

“Oh, Minho,” you shook your head condescendingly, “don’t tell me you want me to make you cum?”

Minho sputtered. “No, I didn’t say that, I was trying to say that—“

“Just ask, Minho,” you smiled radiantly at him. “Just ask.”

Minho threw his shoulders back with a desperate laugh. “You wish. Why would I—hey! What’re you— fuck—“

Your grin was full of unfiltered spite as Minho was predictably shocked once you pushed a hand to his chest and walked him back towards the counter, the click of your high heels menacing as you snaked your fingers into his hair and yanked to crane his head back. He shivered as your lips trailed his neck, and your hand found his firm member under his apron once again. “Ask.”

“Fuck you,” Minho growled, fighting hard to not let you win as he shuddered under your touch.

“Fine,” you shrugged. “Be a brat. See you around.” And just like that, you turned to leave again. You couldn’t help but smirk as Minho snatched your wrist to stop you. He wouldn’t meet your eye when you turned to face him again. “Oh? Let’s try this one more time. Ask, slut.”

Minho still wouldn’t look at you, and you loved how much he was grappling with this. “Make me cum,” he grumbled.

“Oh? What was that?” You grinned. Minho’s cheeks flushed.

“Make me cum,” he repeated, slightly louder now.

“Say please,” you pouted. Minho stared daggers into you now.

“Please, you fucking bitch,” he growled. Minho seethed as you sweetly kissed him and readily resumed jerking him off faster. He cursed and moaned under his breath, still calling you every name in the book against your lips as he clutched hard onto the countertop. His breathing was growing more rushed, more harried as he climbed his peak.

“Wanna cum?” You sweetly cooed.

“Yes,” Minho groaned brokenly.

“Say thank you,” you prodded.

“Fat fucking chance,” Minho fought to maintain his composure.

“Suit yourself,” you shrugged again, letting go of his erection. Minho whined, and you never wanted to forget that sound.

“No no no,” Minho desperately floundered, “I’m too close, I’m sorry—“

“Say thank you, brat,” you smiled as you roughly grabbed his dripping length again.

“Thank you,” he finally gave up. The way he broke down was incredible, suddenly seeming leagues more cooperative as you began jerking him more regularly to actually push him to his peak. “Thank you, thank you, thank you—“

“Oh, sweety,” you grinned as you cupped his face. “Good job. Cum for me.”

Minho keened at your massaging grip finally pushing him over the edge, his knees buckling again before you snatched the kitchen towel sitting on the counter and using that to catch his mess. His orgasm made him seize up from the core and outward from there, groaning and trembling against you as he spurted into the towel in your waiting hand. You held him there for a moment, wrapping your arms around Minho’s waist back against the counter and setting the soiled kitchen town on the counter. Minho was a bit dazed, even letting you stroke his hair and kiss his cheek.

But that didn’t last long. The cocky grin was back. “You wouldn’t have let me go without. You enjoyed that too much.”

“Doubtful,” you smiled. “But let me know if this next time wasn’t satisfactory.”

“No, I think we’re even now,” Minho nodded with a softer smirk now. He even wrapped his arms around you in turn. “You think there could be another next time? I’m sure you won’t be able to stay away for long.”

“Again, doubtful,” you laughed quietly before you finally let him go. You cupped his face, brushing your thumb over his cheek before you finally grabbed the tray of hors d'oeuvres you’d meant to get in the first place and walked out.

Minho tried to follow you — only to find you’d taken the strings of his apron and fed them through the pasta roller where it was still clamped to the counter. “Oh,” Minho scoffed, astounded, “that little bitch is gonna get it.”

[saeyoungs-sunflower]

Hello!! I like your hc so much! So i was wondering can i request the rfa+v, and saeran with an mc who is really insecure with her body so she starve herself on accident? If you’re not comfortable than you don’t have to!! Thank you tho :)

Hey there! Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoy them😊I hope it’s okay but I mainly left out the eating part/made it brief. I’m really sorry, it’s just a bit of a delicate topic for me to write about but I really hope it’s still okay for you.

Just a reminder that it’s okay to feel insecure, but remember that you are not defined by your insecurities. I also don’t believe that there is one definition of beautiful, nor do I believe that thinking you are beautiful is vain or arrogant. Please be kind to yourselves, and if you are going through a rough patch with your body image or self-love, then I sincerely hope this can be a comfort for you and, if you can, I encourage you to reach out to someone or talk to a professional. My DMs are always open, if you ever need a chat or to rant then I’m here to listen. You are welcome and loved here💛

***

RFA with an insecure MC

Zen:

❤︎ now, if you’ve done his route, then you know that this man understands

❤︎ and we also know that his looks are very important to him, so he completely acknowledges your feelings and in no way invalidates them

❤︎ but that being said, this man worships your body

❤︎ if you guys weren’t together he would be the best wing man because he LOVES to praise you and lift you up, even if you aren’t feeling particularly insecure

❤︎ you got a new outfit? “YES GIRL YOU WORK IT” you do your makeup different? “YOU ARE SO TALENTED AND ARTISTIC YES” you’re in your sweats and your hair’s a mess you feel totally gross? “THAT’S MY GIRL RIGHT THERE WOW YOU ARE GLORIOUS”

❤︎ he’s very vocal about his love for you and his love for your body

❤︎ sometimes it can be a bit embarrassing and usually comments on your appearance can make you feel uncomfortable/self-conscious, but for some reason when he does it it gives you a lil confidence boost <3

❤︎ we’re no stranger to the fact that he is hot as fuck

❤︎ honestly makes a little mad like who gave you the audacity to look like that hMMM?

❤︎ so when you first started going out, your confidence plummeted

❤︎ and it didn’t help that, whilst the majority of his fans loved you and loved the relationship, there were a few that really got to you

❤︎ they would post some not very nice comments about you on the forum

❤︎ they were just jealous fanatics, but you didn’t know that and took what they said to heart

❤︎ you started working out a lot after that, probably a bit too much

❤︎ Zen picked up on this, and he was all for exercising with you but bbygirl you’re over doing it and you really don’t seem to be enjoying it

❤︎ so he decides to teach you how to dance!!!!

❤︎ that way, you still get the endorphins from exercise, but you also learn a great skill which gives you loads of confidence because guess what!!! you’re a natural and you look gorgeous when you dance!!!!

❤︎ teaches you that working out doesn’t necessarily need to be done for aesthetic purposes, and you can have loads of fun with your boo whilst you do it!

Yoosung:

★ bit like Zen, he kinda understands how you feel

★ he often expressed it in the chatroom that he was jealous of Zen’s looks, so I think this boy is also a little insecure

★ poor lil chicken nugget you’re beautiful too

★ but when you chose him over Zen?? oh boy the confidence boost

★ it was then that he got to appreciate that his looks didn’t mean everything, and he was grateful that he got to learn that from you

★ so when he found out you were insecure, it made him sad because??? you’re literally perfect????

★ he noticed that you were always second guessing yourself

★ you would always try on and so many outfits/do your hair over and over until giving up and throwing on whatever, but you always looked so defeated

★ he made a note from then on to always show you off to his friends like yeah bitch this is my hot ass girlfriend who also happens to be the most amazing person on earth what about it?

★ his social media is flooded with candid photos of you and the captions were always about how beautiful you were and how lucky he was to have you

★ however, he was still a little suspicious about your insecurities

★ when you were together and he asked if you want to grab something to eat, you had always “already eaten”, which started to seem unlikely especially in some situations

★ so whenever you came over, he would cook you SUPER delicious food

★ this boy is a cooking GOD

★ he also tried to make sure they were fairly healthy and balanced meals so you wouldn’t feel guilty about eating

★ little by little, your relationship with food became healthier once you discovered how good it could be when you cook properly

★ but also insecurities and bad eating habits don’t go away over night

★ so he always leaves post-it notes around reminding you to eat and take care of yourself, and also one’s that tell you how much he cares and loves everything about you

★ he’s so damn cute somebody hold me

Jaehee:

☞ GIRL SAME

☞ i know i’m repeating myself but this lady gets you

☞ we know that when she started working for Jumin, he made her cut her hair and wear fake glasses, and even though she looked HOT AS HELL (yes baehee work it) she just felt wrong and uncomfortable about her appearance

☞ so she could pick up on the fact that you were insecure from the get go

☞ she noticed how you would shy away from pictures, and you always wore clothes that would hide your body

☞ well that just won’t do

☞ something must be done

☞ you wILL FEEL THE LOVE MC YOU WILL

☞ organises a shopping trip for you to try on some hella cool outfits

☞ invites Zen along because, as stated above, he is very vocal with his praise and is just really good at hyping you up

☞ pretty sure everyone in the shop hates you because Jaehee and Zen do not hold back whenever you come out of the changing room lmao

☞ you may have been kicked out of one shop but let’s not worry about that

☞ you came home with some pretty fire outfits that were really flattering on you and just made you feel great ya know?

☞ Jaehee is usually pretty shy when asking you personal questions

☞ but she wants to help you, so one night over dinner she manages to get you to open up to her

☞ and man Jaehee is a good listener

☞ as a woman, i feel like she is able to understand where you’re coming from more than any of the others, so you’re in good hands :)

Jumin:

♚ this man…

♚ he just doesn’t get it i’m so sorry

♚ it’s not that he doesn’t care about your insecurities or thinks you are ridiculous for feeling that way, not at all actually

♚ looks were just never something he really thought about it in general

♚ he knew he was ‘good-looking’ and he knew what was considered ‘good-looking’, he just never cared about it much

♚ at first he was just like??? but you’re literally MC??? what is there to be insecure about???

♚ you had done pretty well at hiding your insecurities at the beginning of your relationship

♚ which was helped by the fact that Jumin would never assume that you had anything to dislike about yourself, so he never looked out for/noticed the signs

♚ it took a whole year guys damn

♚ it had been a year since you got together, so he wanted to take you out for a lovely meal

♚ but he also bought you a beautiful dress

♚ haha…

♚ this was where it went tits up lmao

♚ you were so grateful for it, it was a really stunning dress and you were actually pretty excited to try it on

♚ and so was he hehehe

♚ but when you came out of the bathroom and looked at yourself in the mirror, he noticed that your eyes were welling up and boi your face did not look happy

♚ Jumin’s like: ??????

♚ Jumin.exe has stopped working

♚ instantly takes you in his arms, shushing and cooing you as he rubbed your back

♚ “My love, what is it?”

♚ after a few sniffles, you knew you just had be honest with him

♚ “I’m sorry, Jumin. It’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen but I just ruin it…it belongs on someone else, not on me.”

♚ holds you so much tighter and even starts to feel tears prick his own eyes

♚ he takes a different approach to compliments

♚ he finds a way to compliment your appearance without sounding superficial or fake

♚ instead of “you’re beautiful”, he goes for “your smile lights up the room” or “you carry so much warmth and kindness in your eyes”

♚ it’s his way of letting you know that he thinks you’re the most gorgeous thing to walk the planet, but while also telling you that you are so much more than what you look like

Saeyoung:

☀︎ hoo hoo boiiiiii

☀︎ i’m just gonna cut to the chase

☀︎ he found out during some ~sexy times~

☀︎ i’m not going into graphic detail it’s not that kind of post ;)

☀︎ things were getting hella heated like damn

☀︎ so he started to ya know like…unbutton your shirt

☀︎ why am i actually getting embarrassed while writing this i need to get a grip

☀︎ spot the virgin lmfao

☀︎ but then you stopped him and he’s like P A N I C

☀︎ terrified that he crossed a line bby chill for a sec

☀︎ but then you ask if you could turn off the light and he starts to suspect that you don’t want him to see your body

☀︎ he’s so gentle about the topic it’s very sweet

☀︎ he wants you to know that he loves every fibre of your being, but he also doesn’t want to push you if you’re uncomfortable

☀︎ “MC, I adore every part of you, including your body. If you want me to turn off the light I absolutely will, but if you let me, I want to show you just how much you mean to me.”

☀︎ you hesitated, but eventually agreed to leave the light on

☀︎ and JESUS CHRIST HE DID NOT DISAPPOINT

☀︎ Saeyoung has an incredible attention to detail, as well as patience

☀︎ and he took his sweet time with you lemme tell ya

☀︎ you’re pretty sure he kissed every inch on your body whilst also whispering his praise as he did so

☀︎ he honestly made you feel like a Goddess

☀︎ everything he said was sincere and he just treated you with so much care and love and that shit is contagious

☀︎ ever since then, he was more physically affectionate with you until eventually you didn’t even think twice when undressing in front of him

☀︎ hello yes i would like to order one Saeyoung pls thank you

☀︎ actual love of my life

V / Jihyun:

❁ he asked you to be his model for one of his paintings

❁ and you were like ummmm……okay maybe it won’t be too bad????

❁ but this man has no chill

❁ he wanted you to be semi-nude and you were like h e l l  n o

❁ he was also Confused™

❁ you tried to make up some excuse but it was hopeless

❁ so you just told him that being nude in front of him was already difficult for you, but for you body to be on display for others to see was just too much

❁ this sweet man

❁ his heart broke

❁ it hurt him so much to know that someone with such a kind soul ever doubted her worth, especially because of something like your looks

❁ you were absolutely stunning to him, but he wanted you to believe that yourself

❁ he made a deal with you that if you modelled for him and were still uncomfortable with the outcome, then it would only ever be seen by you two

❁ you reluctantly agreed, and he made it his mission to make you see yourself through his eyes

❁ it took him a while to complete, but when he did oh man

❁ you full on started sobbing

❁ OH SHIT HE MADE MC CRY PANIC PANIC

❁ someone help this man

❁ you managed to tell him that you weren’t crying because you were upset, but because you never thought that you would ever see yourself as beautiful

❁ but the way he painted you GOOD G R I E F

❁ he made you look ethereal, and you couldn’t believe that this was how he saw you

❁ you didn’t even focus on the parts of you that you would usually hate because he made them look so heavenly and like,,,they belonged there???

❁ “Jihyun, you made me look so lovely.”

❁ “No, my love, that’s just what I saw. Everything you see here is you, nothing else.”

❁ okay great he made you cry even more goOD jOb jIhYuN

Saeran:

☽ ha ha ha ha ha

☽ you thought Jumin was bad?? oh i am so sorry my guy

☽ he just has no clue

☽ “What do you mean? Why do you care about how you look? You’re not ugly or anything.”

☽ gee thank you Saeran

☽ but also you are not helping in the slightest

☽ he’s REALLY not good at expressing his affection okay pls give him a break

☽ but he’s not heartless come on now

☽ it took him a while to fully understand where you were coming from, and even then he struggled to find a way to help

☽ Saeran is a very quiet supporter

☽ it’s hard to spot to the naked eye, but you know when Saeran cares for you because you feel it

☽ the first thing he notices is your body language

☽ and since he doesn’t really know what to do, he kinda just...adjusts you

☽ for example, if he sees that your body language is very closed off, almost like your trying to hide your body, he’ll silently move your shoulders and fix your posture so you are more open

☽ and if he sees you bow your head or try to block your face, he’ll silently lift your chin up

☽ but the most important part is that when he does this, he always smiles at you

☽ now Saeran is very careful with expressing his emotions. so when he does show his feelings, you know he means it

☽ so you started to hold yourself with more certainty and confidence, because it made him smile to see you not hiding away

☽ ‘fake it til you make it’ is a very real thing, and eventually it became natural to embrace every part of you

☽ when he became more comfortable, he told you that he was proud of how far you’d come and how he loved to see you feel good in your own skin

***

Thank you anon for the request, I hope you’re doing okay. Once again, anyone is welcome to message me if you’re struggling and need a friend to talk to <3 x

[lizacstuff]

Hi, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts about the last few episodes, you always make me feel better about things. Would you mind sharing more about the last episode, both in general and of course what you thought about Edser?

Thank you for the kind words, sorry this has taken so long to answer, I know you sent it days ago, but it’s been a busy week. As I said in another post, I actually really enjoyed this episode. I'll start with the other characters and then get to Eda and Serkan. 

First Seline. Of course, she beat everyone to the punch by getting to Serkan before Ferit and Ceren.  I suppose props to her for coming clean rather than allowing herself to be blackmailed, but man she was still a selfish snake until the end. I actually thought the most unfair thing was how she swept Ceren up in the people who had hid it from Serkan. What!?!?  Ceren found out the day before, told Ferit that as Serkan's attorney she couldn't keep it from him, called Serkan to let him know that Ferit had to talk to him, and didn't see Serkan until that meeting! What else could she have done? She would have been fully justified in defending herself to Serkan on that score. I wish she would have... except it's not the point of this show. The point of this show is Eda and Serkan, so to that end perhaps it was more important for Serkan to think his lawyer had hid it from him, and then for us and Eda to see him get over it quickly in order to illustrate how much more relaxed he is than when we met him. It plays into the themes of change, even if it's more about evolving. 

(much more under the cut)

Also, it's typical of Selin and her jealousy to try and get one last punch in and to drag the woman Ferit is now interested into the mess. I like how she tried to deliver a blow to Eda, and Eda was just like, "Whatever, do your worst" and Serkan, instead of getting mad which is what Selin wanted, just found a way to use it to flirt even harder. Then her maneuver with Balca was just gross. She knows as well as anyone that Serkan, despite his public notoriety, is a private person and here she is spilling every bit of his personal business to this woman they all met today. What a betrayal of personal trust. Good riddance to her. I mean, we'll all miss Bige, but I won't miss Selin. 

Honestly, I don't think Selin is evil, she's just so selfish, myopic and spoiled that she thinks her hurt trumps everyone else. She thinks she's entitled to lash out, give grief and visit pain upon people, because she was thwarted and didn't get what she wanted. I'm glad that Eda mentioned that it was Selin who sicced the press on them, so even if they didn't prove it, they know. I've seen some criticism that Selin wasn't punished enough for her sins, but I disagree. The holding was her inheritance, her history, her father helped start that company, and she ended by giving up her stake completely, she lost her fiance and the back-up life she imagined with him, she lost Serkan and the life she imagined with him, she also lost Serkan's decades-long friendship, she lost her job, she's leaving the country. That's a lot of losing. She's hit emotional rock bottom, perhaps she'll be able to do some soul searching and figure out why she lost everything (except her money) as she starts over?

The other goodbye this episode was Alptekin, and another good riddance here. His interaction with Aydan was cruel. That's how he ends a 30 year marriage? Yikes. At least it sounds like he left everything to Aydan and Serkan and is not trying to take houses (Serkan needs the Summer House and Mountain House for sexy rendezvous reasons!) or the stake in the holding. His goodbye with Serkan was thankfully better. I mean, he can't redeem himself as a father at this point, but at least that conversation didn't make it worse. I'm glad he admitted to Serkan that he was not a good father, but also went to lengths to say that unlike him, Serkan would be a good father. Serkan would probably say that his father's opinion doesn't matter, but I think it really does, particularly on that subject. It's very plausible to me that Serkan has fears about being like his dad, and specifically being an unloving, perfection-requiring, absentee father like his dad was. It's important for him to hear that it doesn't have to be like that, hopefully Serkan internalized that they are very different men. It was also nice of him to sort of bless his future with Eda, and even after Serkan said they would want nothing to do with him, say he would still always be there if Serkan needed him. It was as good as could be expected as far as the impact it would have on Serkan's emotional state. 

Didn't see much of Ayfer in this one, which is fine by me. I mentioned it last week, but WOW, what they've done to the hair, makeup and costuming is something else.  For a good part of the series her style was kind of flowy and boho influenced and it worked. She had a bit of a relaxed cool vibe to her. Now they're styling her like an uptight, 90-year-old woman! That green dress was so ugly and WTF was that lampshade on her head?  This is a beautiful woman surrounded by fashionable, 20-something girls, how is she getting more dowdy and frumpy by the episode?

I think I'm going to like Divorce!Aydan. She was such an arrogant character when the show began, it's nice to see her show both warmth and vulnerability.  You could see she was nervous about running for the head of the foundation, which I wouldn't have expected from the woman we met early on in the series. She's been a joy the last few episodes and this was no different. And I will love her forever for staying true to Eda, and asking for her when Balca offered to be by her side. The Eda/Aydan relationship really warms my heart and I love that she needs her future daughter-in-law. Though I did feel for Seyfi when she didn't let him into the group hug. Poor Seyfi, he's as much a part of the family as anyone! Let him hug!

So, I know I've been very lukewarm towards the idea of Engin and Piril, it's just that they're such opposites it's hard to see how it will work.  And they're not opposites like Eda and Serkan are opposites. Eda and Serkan are the kind of opposites that yin/yang each other, and you can easily see them living in harmony, while Engin and Piril seem like the kind that just have incompatible outlooks and lifestyles. However, I do admit that I watched the proposal with a big grin on my face and I might have clapped when she said yes. I guess they at least partially won me over. Engin really tried to go big with his proposal, and if a proposal is going to be played for laughs I'm fine with it being anybody but Edser.  As a side note, I hope when Serkan asks Eda to marry him it's just the two of them, I like a private, emotional proposal for my favs.   So on to everyone's favorite new character, Balca. Boy, what an interesting one she is. Seems to me if you start a new job and decide you're going to go after your boss romantically before you even meet him because an astrologer gave you two initials... you might need professional help. I'm still not over the fact that this piece of work watched Serkan and Eda's sexually-charged slowdance at the party and still had the balls to show up at his house later that night. So far she's shaping up to be a rather tragic figure. Can you imagine being that desperate or having so little self-respect or dignity? It's impossible for her to have real feelings for someone she's never met, so she's risking humiliation, hurting people, and being fired because she's just that desperate to have a warm body in her life?  Yikes. That is pathetic. I'd feel sorry for her if she had shown any sign that she gave a damn that Serkan was already in a relationship for all intents and purposes. Her downfall is going to be SWEET. 

Me thinks she'll be just about as successful at driving a wedge between Eda and Serkan as those who came before her.  Including Aydan, Ayfer, Kaan, Efe and Selin. But hopefully her insidious presence will drive Eda to decide what she wants and to go and get her man. 

LOVED all the Eda/Serkan we got this episode. Starting from the elevator and that kiss. From spoilers, most of us knew the slap was coming, but it still was jarring when it happened. I really don't love any sort of hitting, or any violent act between partners, but I won't ding the characters for it here too much. Eda was vulnerable, discombobulated, and in an emotional whirl. She's trying to maintain distance and force him to maintain distance, all the while being drawn to him on a primal level. I think she slapped him because she thought that's what she should do. They're not officially in that place, they'd established he would be punished if he purposefully broke the contract, and she was vulnerable because of the claustrophobia. As for Serkan, I also don't ding him for doing it under what might not be considered optimal conditions. He knows how she feels, where her heart is, and she was willingly being very intimate there as she nuzzled into his neck. Also he was right that it definitely distracted her and calmed her down. I think she completely forgot where she was. 

That being said, the stones on that guy to kiss her again! I love it. He just smirked through her whole angry tirade, like he knew exactly where she was coming from. She was more putting on an act of being angry, because that's what she thought she should do, than actually being angry. That's the confidence of a man who knows exactly where he stands (for all those who get upset that Eda hasn't told Serkan how she feels, this is proof that he really, really knows).   For me, this episode was all about Eda's resolve crumbling, but her not being completely ready to let it go. So each time she found herself enjoying time with him and being vulnerable, she would retreat and try to build back up that wall. And she failed spectacularly every time. I think that's why we saw her go from putty in his hands one minute to evoking the contract the next, back to putty. She's trying to stay strong and not let him in, but she just can't do it and doesn't really want to do it.

While they were at lunch she tried to maintain distance, she was a bit snarky and trying to resist his flirting. But once they finished lunch and were on the balcony, she couldn't even pretend to maintain an air of indifference. She was so pleased when he said that his entire life has been a rainbow since meeting her. No pretense, she couldn't hide it. Nor could she hide her pleasure in him turning off his phone in order to have lunch with her. 

Deep down, Eda knows it's only a matter of time until they reunite. I think she just needs to be ready to let go of him breaking up with her before she lets down her walls. But when something happens, she's there. One minute they're engaging in pointed banter about her potential punishment, the next she hears that Aydan is not doing well and she's right by his side. No question, no hesitation. When push comes to shove, they're already a family. 

I can just imagine what it does to Serkan to watch Eda be there for his mom. With the agoraphobia I think Serkan took a lot of that burden onto himself, with really only Seyfi to help. That must have felt so isolating. But now Eda is right there with him, and they're a team, he has someone to rely on and share the burden with, it must feel so good. 

You gotta hand it to Serkan Bolat with the whole three wishes thing. My dude is ingenious. Instead of being upset that she kept something from him, or being passive aggressive about it, he figures out the course of action that will give him something to flirt with her about and excuses to spend time together. Also it gives him the opportunity to ask for the one thing he wants most from her, unconditional trust. Because once she's there, there will no longer be any reason for their separation. It's pretty much the cornerstone of everything. Not to say she doesn't trust him as a person, she does, but I think she's trepidatious about trusting his feelings for her. Trusting that he won't break up with her again, or go back to that inconsistent behavior that she's talked about several times. It makes sense that there is still lingering emotional fallout from the breakup. 

"Are you available?" "For you, always." Oh, sweet, sweet Robot. Enough can not be said about how he can make the smallest interaction into something so romantic. He was equally sweet when having her guess the number one thing that benefits him. You know she just melts inside every time he says something like that, and the harder she tries not to show it, the harder she melts. 

One thing I didn't get is Eda being a bit relaxed when it came to trusting Efe. Just the day before she learned that Efe tried to blackmail Selin for her shares, and Eda seemed taken aback at the revelation. However, when they discuss him I don't feel like she validates Serkan's concerns as much as maybe she should.  I'm going to chalk it up to Eda being a bit off-kilter from Serkan asking her if she wants to work with him more closely. Perhaps she wants or needs that buffer of working for his partner instead of him, so she's not going to poke holes in her situation just yet, even if she realizes there is reason for concern. I did like that she reassured him that if Serkan trusted her, it would be fine. That seems like it will be key when Babbaan arrives. 

Is Eda the cutest when she's jealous? I think she's the cutest. So does Serkan. He was enjoying that so much. And I just about died when she scooted her chair over to where she was almost sitting on top of him. The fact that Balca was Eda's own doing, a consequence of some irrational emotions, makes the whole situation even funnier. Serkan can't be dinged at all for choosing her. 

I will be watching TV a long time before I get over the fact that this show found a way to re-enact the scene from Ghost. Thank you writers, producers and creatives! I keep saying that I love how this show rarely misses an opportunity, the shippy content and visuals are second to none. The things this show is able to do on such a tight timeline and I'm sure, budget is impressive. I give most of the credit to the actors and their chemistry, but that was also beautifully shot. What's almost better is when they return to the office all hot and bothered and flustered. These two kids are going to have to fall into bed sooner, rather than later otherwise the sexual tension is literally going to kill them.  

Speaking of UST, they wound themselves up again when they decided to slow dance in front of their friends and coworkers. Besides Balca, is anyone in their orbit still wondering what's going on with them? Together? Broken up? In-between? Are they still office gossip, or is everyone just like "Eh, that's just Eda and Serkan" and they're all expecting to come in the office one morning to find that they’ve eloped. Along those lines, where was Ayfer? She gets so upset at the idea of them even talking... did she even notice them draped all over each other having eye-sex while dancing? I mean I didn't want her to have some over-the-top reaction but if she had it would have been in line with how she's been the last few episodes. The final scene was so damn uncomfortable to watch, but I'm very hopeful this storyline is going to clarify a few things for Eda and we’ll reap those rewards. All in all, I really enjoyed this episode, and can't wait for the next two! 

[rvmmm21]

. you know who i am? part deux .

aand to the anon who first requested this. look what you’ve done. you’ve created a very tiny demand for a part 2. and now i’ve dug myself even deeper because there’s gonna have to be a part 3 as well. i have the restraint of someone who has no restraint at all when it comes to getting carried away with supposed to be one-shots. 

if you’d like to read it, it’s also on ao3.

part 1 can be found here.

[badgirl/bully!joohyun x freshman!seungwan]

...

Bae Joohyun loves playing with her food. And Son Seungwan makes a very tasty snack. She finds herself victim of Joohyun’s entertainment time and time again; all these wicked little games of cat and mouse she’s forced to participate in whether she wants to or not. It’s awful. Awfully thrilling too; never able to shake the feeling of being watched from round corners, behind doors and… goddamnit, not even work provides her an ounce of solidarity. 

But she… likes it?

After filing out of class, Seungwan spots the black velvet trio in their usual inconspicuous corner, draped in all their menacing glory and laughing about something she can’t quite hear. Seeing as they’re partners now, Seungwan doesn’t think it’s too bad an idea if they got a little friendlier with each other.

Being nice never hurt anyone, she mentally hypes herself up for the challenge.

Feeling emboldened, she gingerly taps Joohyun on the shoulder, proud that she hasn’t passed out from gaining the attention of God herself. She musters up the courage she’s never had to in all her years of living.

“H-hi sunbae,” she says sheepishly, mindful of the girl’s seniority, “I-I think – I think y-you look nice today.”

Her innocent attempt at a compliment backfires instantly, when Joohyun suddenly whips completely round to face her. Books and loose sheets of paper drop like bombs, scattered at her feet when she sees the older girl’s features contort into a scowl that threatens to eat her alive. Poor Seungwan’s absolutely horrified, frantically wracking her brains for where she could’ve possibly misspoken.

The next thing she knows, she’s in a verbal joust; and no points for guessing who’s winning.

“Today!?” Joohyun scorns in disbelief, breaking away from a very amused Jennie and an unbothered Sooyoung, “what, so I don’t look good every day? Huh? Is that what you’re telling me, freshman?”

“N-no! No! Of – of course not!” Seungwan’s brown eyes double in size and she vigorously shakes her head, automatically backing away at the sight of a rapidly advancing, angry Joohyun, “I-I… I just meant t-that–”

“That I usually look hideous but today I ‘got lucky’!?”

The shorter girl gasps in shock when she feels the pointy angle of a door handle dig painfully into her lower back, making her cringe, cornered once again.

“T-that’s that’s th – no no no, I’d n-never!” she winces, brows knitted in fear, trembling hands up in surrender, more than ready to black out there and then.

The intensity of those unwavering pupils is enough to make the kingpin of the largest drug cartel in the world crumble to his knees. And if that’s the case, then Seungwan has even less hope than she’d originally thought. She carelessly grasps around behind her in search of… anything, really.

Joohyun just stands there, clearly enjoying watching the smaller girl fight to stay upright.

“Say, ‘I’m an idiot’.”

The instruction is concise. Clear. But Seungwan unfolds herself in a squeak of confusion; say what?

Her hesitation does her no favours, and a palm slams against the side of her head, rattling the hollow wooden door she’s pressed against. Seungwan’s never complied faster in her life, her words sloppily copied and pasted like a broken inkjet printer.

“AH! I-I’M AN IDIOT! I’m an i-idiot, pleasepleasedon’thurtmeplease…” she pleads, bracing herself for the worst.

And just like that, Joohyun’s sweet, airy music-box giggling fills Seungwan’s ears like she hadn’t almost made her drop dead two minutes ago. Creaking a wary eye open, she sees Joohyun much too close for comfort, grinning knowingly and twirling a lock of her caramel hair between her long fingers. The raging blush now colouring Seungwan’s cheeks is accompanied by distant snickers from the other two loyal observers.

“You’re too easy, Seungwannie,” she whispers so only Seungwan can hear, giving her hair a quick ruffle like she would a little brother, “so cute. Makes me want to bully you all the time.”

Paralysing hysteria and that warm, fuzzy feeling concocts a dreadfully perplexing mixture in her chest, and a dishevelled Seungwan can only watch the back of her bully as she struts off with her posse.

Okay, what the hell was that… and when can she do it again?

~~~~~~~~~~

Joohyun realises she’s five minutes early for her ‘study’ session with Seungwan today. She had insisted they study at her dorm seeing as she had it free for the whole afternoon, but eventually realised Seungwan was too much of a deer in the headlights to be able to make sense of the directions she’d given her. So here she was, playing babysitter, waiting for Seungwan to finish her writing class so they could walk back together.

Blithely sauntering over to the on-campus sweet shop, she orders herself a plain yoghurt smoothie, and a taro milk tea for her little study buddy. Taro milk tea that will definitely stay in the cup like it’s supposed to, this time. Surprised at her own actions, she hands her card over to the man as she hooks her fingers through the handles of the plastic bags holding their drinks. Eh, it’s the least she can do for hovering a jackhammer over Seungwan’s sugar-glass heart yesterday, she thinks.

Her lively mood quickly sours when she notices her favourite nerd across the halls, engaged in conversation with a random boy she’s never even seen. Joohyun grits her teeth, staying stagnant behind the pillar she was passing, watching this stupid boy waste Seungwan’s time.

… … …

Seungwan couldn’t say she’d really noticed him until he’d come up to her today. Deep almond eyes, spidery emerald locks framing a dashingly chiselled jawline, and the fashion sense to match; she could appreciate his good looks. Other than the fact that she wanted to know where he got that black padded baseball jacket and the suede boots on his feet, she desired nothing else from him. That was all it was: objective curiosity.

Although he seemed to be interested in a lot more from her, unfortunately.

“So, I’ve seen you around,” he mumbles through the cigarette between his lips, cupping his palm over the flickering lighter. Seungwan offers a kind smile, unsure of what exactly is going on here.

“Uh yeah…” she offers lamely, trying not to let on the fact that she’s holding her breath to try to avoid inhaling the silvery smoke escaping his lips, “I’m majoring in literature… uh, what are you…”

“I work here part time. Men-Tei, Japanese restaurant just across building B,” he says, cutting her off with a confident puff, “this whole uni business isn’t for me. Dropped out of school when I was 15 and everything.”

She didn’t ask, but okay.

He continues before she can say anything, “yeah, anyway I’m Jong-in. I’ve seen you in my restaurant a couple times too. Figured I’d catch you one of these days to ask you out for a drink or something if you’re down. What’s your name?”

Seungwan lets out a nervous laugh in response to the awkwardness. She really, really wants to leave. This guy may have been blessed with an impressive face, but his approach was anything but. The whole time he was speaking, Seungwan was unfazed by the intensity of his gaze, only thinking about how she could be working under a much more favourable one.

“So what’s your name then, pretty?”

Ugh, gross.

Just as she’s about to hit him with the good old ‘none of your business, coconut head, I have my sights on someone else’, she feels a strong arm curled around her bicep. It’s Joohyun. Just the person she’s never stopped thinking about. She looks proper mad, and she evidently isn’t afraid to speak her mind, looking damned hot while she’s at it; as Seungwan’s fluttering heart will attest without a doubt.

“And that’s not happening, you arrogant bastard,” Joohyun resists the urge to spit in his gorgeously smug face, “get a clue and shove it up your arse.”

Spinning on her heels, she drags an undeniably amused Seungwan along with her, leaving a confused, annoyed man in her dust. The younger girl can’t help but notice a moist coolness brushing against her leg as she’s being led to Joohyun’s dorm, and she glances down, trying to peer into the bags.

“S-sunbae,” she asks between strides. Joohyun is really pulling her along, “w-what did you get?”

Joohyun glares at her for the briefest of moments, but Seungwan sees right past the anger transparently masking those fairy-like features. Plus, she could’ve sworn she saw those cinnamon eyes soften ever so slightly at her curiosity.

“You’ll see. Wait till we get back.”

~~~~~~~~~~

The whole ‘backs-against-walls’ trope fast becomes a common occurrence whenever they are together, and Seungwan can’t help but wonder if Joohyun gets a kick out of this… an innocent kick, of course! Perhaps she finds Seungwan funny when she’s scared out of her mind, perhaps she likes seeing the way she flinches, the way her hands quiver when she’s holding them out like a shield. Or maybe she’s just keeping her on her toes for… god only knows at this point. There is just no straight answer when it came to the girl who pretty much forced herself to be Seungwan’s partner.

They were getting work done, at least. Well, more like Joohyun sat there and let Seungwan juggle between doing a good a job as she could at deciphering age-old literacy, and balancing a rapidly accelerating heartrate and a blood pressure sink-hole.

And she was doing an amiable job at keeping it all together this bright Friday afternoon, if she did say so herself. They were on the floor of Joohyun’s dorm room, open books and note-pad paper spread out around them, and Seungwan was just re-analysing her summary of the notes she’d made against the original text. She was getting into it, finally able to block out the fact that she was unwillingly being observed under a microscope.

That was until…

“Seungwan. Oi. Freshman. Did you hear what I just told you?”

A frazzled Seungwan darts up from her analysis, dropping her pen onto the wooden floorboards with a clatter. She helplessly watches it roll under the bed then looks up to see Joohyun sliding herself across the floor so she’s face to face with her.

“Ah s-sorry… what did y-”

Joohyun suddenly grabs Seungwan by the drawstrings of her hoodie and tugs her in, her cruel smile broadening as she leans in to purr into her ear.

“I told you to be a good girl and not to make me jealous.”

The way Joohyun threatens her so delicate yet menacingly has Seungwan struggling to breathe. She clutches at her own drawstrings, careful not to graze the girl’s grip, and unsuccessfully tries to straighten up, chuckling nervously when it’s obvious Joohyun isn’t done with her just quite yet. Her senior’s eyes warn her of the severity of what she’s just said as she leans forward again, suggestiveness dripping off her words like molten lava.

“…or you’ll make me do something nasty.”

Yep, a defibrillator and stretcher would be useful right about now.

“I-I…”

Seungwan utters the beginnings of a defence as soon as her hoodie is released, but she’s too caught up in whatever the hell that just was, and she just can’t seem to remember how to speak in full sentences.

The one-sided study session continues, thankfully, without another hitch.

~~~~~~~~~~

Her alarm is deafening, and Seungwan blindly reaches her hand over to swipe it off. She hasn’t even had the energy to open her eyes when the image of Joohyun’s teasing smirk the other day flickers in her brain. Before she knows what’s hit her, she’s got a face full of carpet and a sharp sting on the back of her head from where she’d swiped her whole phone down with her. Groaning out loud, she buries her face in the duvet still tangled in her legs.

Ugh, must she be this way?

God couldn’t have blessed her with an actual sense of coordination, could he? Well, perhaps he had, but she’d wasted it all the first day she met Joohyun, and now there was nothing left. Great. Just as she’s pining her loss of the ability to put one foot in front of the other without thinking about her attractive senior, Seulgi’s face peeks through the door.

“Yah, you having nightmares or something? This is the third time you’ve fallen out of bed.”

Seungwan scoffs from under the plush fabric. Nightmares have nothing on Bae Joohyun. She delegates them, if anything. Nightmares have nightmares of Joohyun. She honestly wished she could say she was having bad dreams… I mean, can’t be any worse than accidentally calling your customers ‘babe’, getting very well acquainted with doors to the face, or checking round the corner of everywhere you go just in case a certain someone happens to be there… which was what Seungwan’s entire week seemed to consist of ever since Joohyun had very nicely threatened her. The memory remains pin sharp, and it has Seungwan a complete and utter mess.

Seulgi watches the duvet mountain on the floor collapse and huff in an unspoken request to leave it in peace. It’s a beautiful morning, but the carpet is oh so comfy. The girl rolls her eyes.

“Fine, whatever. I’m making breakfast, hurry up and get ready.”

About twenty minutes later, Seungwan strolls into the kitchen in an oversized, stripey monochrome jumper and some skinny jeans. Her best friend has a piece of toast between her teeth, pattering around the kitchen in search of something or rather. She stops to sniff the air as Seungwan sits at the counter, slouching over with her chin in her palm.

“Are… are you wearing perfume? Ag-again?”

Her only response is a grunt and a hand into the fruit bowl. Seungwan absentmindedly crunches into an apple, eyes glazed over and staring into space. Seulgi observes her zombie of a friend mechanically chew the same mouthful of apple for a good two minutes before she’s had enough.

She sets her own toast down and reaches across to snatch the fruit out of her non-existent grip. Seungwan flinches, almost choking on the apple slush, as it is now, before managing to swallow it down, “yah, what’s wrong with you!?”

“Just checking you can do something other than groan and grunt,” she replies, hands on hips but extremely concerned, “anyways what’s happening? Is this about the assignment? You’ve been talking about it a lot…”

Seungwan hasn’t lied to Seulgi, per se. Told her a vague truth? Yes. Left out a few questionably majorly important details? Also yes. She did feel horrible for it though, seeing as they’d been best friends for years and Seungwan had made them promise to never keep secrets from one another.

With a sigh, she finally comes out with why she’s been acting like a fool all week.

“So… yes it’s about the assignment…and… and I’m uh… I’m paired with someone...”

Seulgi’s reaction is withheld, clearly because Seungwan has a ton more explaining to do.

“And J-…” she catches herself, proceeding to figure out a way to describe ‘she-who-shall-not-be-named’, “… the person I bumped into on the first day… y-you know, the day where you warned me to lay low…”

Seulgi goes wide-eyed with realisation and Seungwan uncomfortably bounces her knee as she finishes the hardest thing she’s ever had to tell another human being.

“Um so yeah, I’m w-working with her, i-it’s good, it’s good though so… so like, no worries or anything we’re good now.”

“You’re working with Joohyun?”

Ugh god no, at the mention of that name alone, Seungwan has another image of vantablack and cinnamon zap through her like lightning. She slumps down onto the countertop, the cool surface almost sizzling at the contact of her forehead. She nods against the marble.

“Oh my gosh, Wan-ah,” Seulgi exclaims. She’s surprised but still able to put the kettle on for her morning tea, “is that why you’ve been such a klutz recently? Yah, she’s messing you up isn’t she? Is she bullying you? Do you need to talk to someone about this?”

Christ sakes, she would’ve… if only she didn’t like being ‘bullied’ as much as she did. She lifts her cast iron head, gazing at her best friend with a look of pure misfortune, “it… it’s not really like that.”

“Then wh-” the other girl stops when it hits her; the perfume, the insomnia, the falling out of bed, “oh no, oh no, no no no… please don’t tell me you’re actually falling for her.”

You poor, poor thing, Seungwan thinks as she sits there watching her friend make breakfast, carrying on with life as usual. She was way past the warning signs; she’d walked right off the edge with a smile on her face. And she’d fallen.

She has fallen and can-not get up.

~~~~~~~~~~

It really was one thing after another with Joohyun. For once, Seungwan is early to class, avoiding the hassle of squeezing past a line of other people and saving herself the embarrassment of having to apologise for tripping over a bag strap or clipping someone over the head. She’s all set up, feeling rather happy the seat next to her is empty. She isn’t claustrophobic or anything, it’s just nice having more room to yourself sometimes. Although Seungwan can’t help her wandering gaze, scanning the sea of faces for a particularly mean one. She spots her usual seat, but it’s just Jennie and Sooyoung. They’ve got their phones out and they’re whispering; probably something evil, Seungwan assumes.

She inwardly shrugs. Guess Joohyun’s a no-show. How typical, she thinks, guess who’s gonna have to catch little miss ‘I’m-too-busy-being-sexy-and-intimidating-to-come-to-class’ up with today’s lesson. God, that girl is something else. Seungwan makes her mind up, she’s standing her ground today. No more reading off her notes. If she can’t come to class on time, then she can find someone who’ll roll over and let her read theirs.

Of course, it’s not until half an hour into the class, when Seungwan’s finally getting into the groove of what the lecturer is saying, when she feels an all too familiar presence materialise in the seat next to her. She almost doesn’t want to look. And when she finally not so discreetly does, she’s met with windswept tresses cascading in shiny, black waves down a Saint Laurent rib-knitted black cardigan and cheeks flushed a slight pinkish. How someone who’s clearly had to run to class can still look like she’s ready to walk the runway at Paris Fashion Week is beyond Seungwan.

Whatever concentration she’s built up in the thirty minutes class has been in session evaporates into thin air sitting next to this stunning beauty. This stunning beauty whose hand was ‘accidentally-not-on-purpose’ gently resting on her forearm, raising her body temperature to dangerously high levels.

“Can I see your notes?” she whispers, leaning in so her breath is hot against Seungwan’s ear.

Shivering inside and out, she instinctively slides her exercise book across the table. She doesn’t see Joohyun’s sneaky little smile as she reads the neat cursive of Seungwan’s hard work. The younger girl focuses extra closely on the way the lecturer’s tie is slightly off-centre and how he has one cuff folded while the other remains snugly buttoned. She knows she’s just going to give herself a breathing problem if she looks the other way.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Hyun-ah,” Jennie says, bringing a fistful of popcorn up to her mouth, “when are you gonna quit playing with her?”

Joohyun gives her a questioning hum, as if she doesn’t know exactly what her friend is asking her.

“Yeah,” Sooyoung quips with a laugh, “come on, aren’t you worried you’re gonna give her like… a heart attack or something? That poor kid’s a medical emergency waiting to happen if you ask me.”

“What’re you implying, Young-ah,” Joohyun says, nonchalantly pressing a strawberry to her lips, “you saying I’m gonna kill her?”

Sooyoung huffs in amusement, “duh, I mean I literally saw her soul leave her body that time after class. You aren’t afraid she’s gonna like, I dunno, snap and get you back someday?”

At this point, even tough-as-nails Kim Jennie and Park Sooyoung can sympathise from afar, all too knowing of how Joohyun’s little bullying games could end.

“Nah, she’s a good girl, she knows she’s mine. C’mon, start the movie.”

“Good girl, huh,” Jennie sneers, snatching the remote away before Joohyun can even reach for it, pink lips curled into a playfully sly grin, “hey Young-ah, I think Hyun has a crush on that little nerd.”

“Defs,” the girl replies, settling down between them both, “this is the longest you’ve kept up with tormenting someone. When are you gonna move on, huh Hyun? Stop playing with her.”

Sooyoung and Jennie’s smug expressions visibly deflate when Joohyun purses her lips, indifference written all over her face as she looks them straight in the eyes.  

“I’m not playing with her. I’m going to make her my girlfriend.”

The almost indiscernible smile that traces her lips after that last sentence tells the other two that she means damn well what she says. The conviction in her aura is unwavering. Jennie and Sooyoung exchange quick glances before shrugging; nothing they can do about it anyway. Joohyun’s mind is made up. And their friend’s the definition of a go-getter.

“Aight, whatever, call me when you guys get together,” Sooyoung teases, grabbing the bowl of popcorn out of Jennie’s lap and reaching for the nearest cushion to cuddle as the latter presses play.

Joohyun finds it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the movie they’re watching and not let her mind wander to clumsily charming milk tea spillages and nervously stuttered apologies.

~~~~~~~~~~

Seungwan would find it easier to wrap her head around if someone had dumped her upside down in a mirror maze with a map of Disneyland and a small audio recording of a voice screaming, ‘biscuits and cheese’. 

Because right now, she is confused with a capital ‘c’.

Joohyun magically pops up during every one of her shifts at the café, and Seungwan can pretty much make her iced Americano blindfolded with her hands tied behind her. Joohyun likes it with exactly five ice cubes, no more, no less. Not that Americanos are hard to make in the first place, but Joohyun seems to know how to make Seungwan’s hands just that bit shakier, and her mind, just that much fuzzier. Between spilt milk and chipped teacups, it’s a wonder she hasn’t been fired yet, if she’s brutally honest.

But it isn’t as simple as that.

Joohyun is there during her break hours too, every time without fail, holding up none other than her favourite: taro milk tea with half sugar and less ice. Seungwan notices the seat next to hers in their shared literature lectures might as well be reserved for her royal highness, with how frequently she turns up ‘late’, and has to sit next to her out of nothing but ‘convenience’. And that one pivotal occasion where Joohyun corrected her ‘sunbae’ to ‘unnie’ in the midst of one of their little weekend revision sessions. That’s another thing. Their usual allocated Friday meetups after Seungwan’s writing class has bled into full-blown weekends of ‘study time’, where Seungwan finds herself discovering more and more about the girl who wears mystery like a well-loved winter coat, the girl who’s like a baked cinnamon roll; burnt and scalding to touch, but warm and sweet in the middle.

There is really no turning back from all this.

Seungwan is in waist deep, and she can only pray Joohyun is too.

[tangerinenotions95]

Seeing Green Part 1 - DracoMalfoy x y/n

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

"You're an arse Draco Malfoy" I shouted at the blonde Slytherin as he strides by my friends and I as we sit in the courtyard.

"Better than being a Potter" He shouts back making his little crew of cronies erupt into loud laughter as they went back inside. I gritted my teeth, "He makes my blood boil" I mutter to my brother and our friends.

"I think you speak for the whole school when you say that" Ron says nodding his head in agreement. Harry had been having a hard time the last few days, what with his name somehow being pulled out of the goblet of fire and Draco Malfoy was being especially annoying about it, which says a lot.

"Ignore him" Harry mutters, "He's not worth it". I looked back at my brother and I could tell that he was solely focused on the first trial in the Triwizard Tournament, not that I could blame him. I would find it hard to focus on anything else if I knew I had to face a dragon head on in a couple of hours.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and he turned to look at me, "You'll so great" I told him causing him to give me a small smile in return.

**

I was in the stands alongside my best friend Ginny, Ron, the twins and more of our Gryffindor friends as we all watched Cedric Diggory take on a Swedish Short-Snout. I was starting to feel anxious for my brother. Hermione finally made her return back to the stands during Fleur's attempt to get the egg from the dragon. She sat down beside me with a huff, angrily crossing her arms. I looked at Ginny who simply shrugged, we both turned to Hermione, "What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Just Rita Skeeter being her usual aggravating self" She told us, we decided to not push her for more details and focus back to the trial in front of us. Besides, whatever Hermione was upset about will probably be on the front page of The Daily Prophet in a few days anyway if Skeeter had anything to do with it.

Viktor Krum was now up which meant Harry would be next. The anxiety started to settle back in so I could only imagine how my brother is feeling right now.

**

The stands errupted into cheers and hollering when Harry's Firebolt suddenly flew into the arena. I let out a sigh of relief knowing how confident Harry was on a broom. He managed to get his egg after a long attempt that ended in him leading the dragon all over the school and I couldn't contain my excitement as I screamed at the top of my lungs proud of my brother for not having been turned to ash by the Hungarian Horntail.

Later that evening the Gryffindor common room was well and truly alive as we celebrated Harry having gotten the egg and in turn a clue to the next trial. Unfortunately when he opened the egg the only thing it did was almost deafen us.

**

I was walking down to breakfast the next morning feeling exhausted from a late night of celebrations that I wasn't really concentrating on my surroundings.

"Well well, you must be happy that your brother is still alive, for now" I heard that arrogant voice call from behind me. I rolled my eyes, it was way to early for this.

"Don't you ever take a day off from being a prick?" I asked him glancing over my shoulder quickly just in time to see him scowl as Pansy Parkinson glared at me furiously.

"Oi Potter" She called angrily, I stopped in my tracks and turned around focusing on her pug like face, "What Parkinson?" I asked even though I couldn't care less about what she had to say.

She could tell this and that in itself bothered her.

"You should think twice next time you say something like that to my Draco" She smirked. I raised an eyebrow at her, was this girl for real.

I raised my head to look past her at him, "Malfoy, do us all a favour and put your little dog here on a leash" I tell him in a  nonchalant tone. Pansy's mouth hangs open as I turn on my heel and walking into the great hall for breakfast but out of the corner of my eye I'm almost certain I see Malfoy trying to hold back a smile.

**

I join my friends at the Gryffindor table, sitting on Ginnys's right so she has no choice but to scoot over and sit even closer to Harry. She sends me a look before I wink at her then chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Ron asks looking between us, a mouth full of porridge, gaining Harry's attention to us also. Ginny's eyes go wide with fear and her cheeks start to become tinted red. I shake my head, "Nothing" I reply smiling. They drop it but Hermione just looks at Ron disgusted, "You are gross you know that" She tells him.

"What?" He spits as bits of porridge land on the table.

"Ugh" was all she replied and then going back to reading the Daily Prophet.

**

The next few weeks passed quickly and soon enough it was almost Christmas which normally means a time to relax but after finding out about the Yule ball that's all anyone can talk about; What they'll wear and who they will go with.

Harry and Ron were especially nervous about trying to find dates for the ball.

"We could just take each others sister" Ron piped up one morning resulting in me throwing a spoon at his head.

"Ouch, what was that for?" He asked rubbing his head, "For being a doofus" I exclaimed. I noticed Harry look at Ginny slightly, causing the tips of her ears to turn red.

"Well, I've already got a date" She announced. Ron proceeded to bombard her with questions but she refused to give in.

"Sorry, mate, back to square one for you it seems" He tells my brother, I scoff, "And you too Ronald" I tell him.

"What? Why? Don't tell me you have a date too" He exclaimed.

"No, and maybe I would have gone with you but you went about it like a moron so now I'm not going to go with you purely on principle" I tell him, his mouth hangs open in shock causing the twins to buckle over laughing after hearing the whole conversation.

Fred proceeded to ask Angelina to be his date then, proving to his little brother that it's not that difficult. Ron just huffed, staring at his breakfast having lost his appetite.

Ginny and I left to go to astronomy class.

"So, who asked you?" I asked her feeling excited for her, we were only i third year which meant we could only attend the ball if we were asked to be a date from someone in fourth year or above.

"Neville asked me to go" She told me, "Aw, Neville is such a sweetheart" I told her and she nodded in agreement, "I know, I hope you get to go though. It won't be the same without my best friend" She says linking our arms.

I simply shrugged, "We will just have to see" I told her as we entered the classroom and took our seats together.

[angelarmitage98]

Harry Potter preferences...

How you meet:

(Wattpad saw these first. I hope you all enjoy.)

Harry:

Regular P.O.V:

You and your best mate Hermione are walking through the Hogwarts Express trying to help your new friend Neville find his toad but you didn't seem to be having much luck, you come to a stop at a compartment with two boys, "Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one." "No." The ginger boy says. "Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see them." Hermione loves seeing someone do magic.

Your P.O.V:

But right now I just feel completely awkward standing here, I really wish she'd hurry up. "Aghhhemm. Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" I couldn't help but let out a slight giggle, there is no way that's a proper spell and judging by the fact the rat didn't change colour I can tell I'm right. "Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it? Of course, I've only tried a few simple spells myself, and they've all worked for me. For example..." Hermione goes over and sits across from the young boy with glasses. She points her wand at his glasses and his tenses, he looks a little frightened, blesses him. "Oculus Reparo." The glasses, which noseband is battered, are repaired. The boy takes them off, amazed. "That's better, isn't it? Holy Cricket, you're Harry Potter. I'm Hermione Granger, this is (Y/N) (Y/L/N)...and you are...?" I give a small wave and they wave back, Now that I too realise he is Harry Potter, I become a little shy. The ginger boy speaks with a full mouth. "I'm...Ron Weasley." Hermione is a little grossed out that he speaks with a full mouth and frankly so am I. "Pleasure. You two better change into your robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon." She says and gets up and leaves then come back and look at Ron. "You've got dirt, on your nose, by the way, did you know? Just there." She points to where the dirt is and I can't help but giggle, Ron scratches his nose, embarrassed. "Bye, guys pleasure to meet you," I say walking away smiling and continuing to help find Neville's toad.

Ron:

Your P.O.V:

It's my first year at Hogwarts and I'm standing in the front waiting to be sorted into a house, I can't help but feel nervous I really hope I get into Slytherin, If I don't my parents will more than likely disown me. "(Y/N) Malfoy" Professor McGonagall shouts. I make my way to the front and all I can do is hope I'm in Slytherin. I look at my older brother by a year Draco and he looks back at me hoping the same as I. "Gryffindor." The sorting hat shouts, I'm not disappointed but I feel ashamed and like my family are going to do nothing but resent me for this, I make my way to the Gryffindor table and sit next to a ginger boy who I assume is a Weasley. "Hi, I'm Ron... Ron Weasley." I guess he was so busy stuffing his face he didn't hear my name being called, hmm oh well. "(Y/N)... (Y/N) Malfoy" I say feeling a little sad. "You're a Malfoy??? I'm guessing that's why you don't look too happy about being in Gryffindor." Ron says, and he's right I'm not happy, not happy at all. "Yeah, but I'll get used to it," I say wishing that I do get used to it because from now on this is more than likely the place I'll be spending my days every holiday.

Draco:

Regular P.O.V:

You've known Draco since you were ten, you had moved to his neighboured just before your tenth birthday and your mother was throwing you a party which was more for her than you honestly. When the party day arrived you stayed downstairs for about half an hour and made your way back to your room. About an hour later a young blonde haired boy had made his way into your room, he hadn't noticed you at first, that was until you spoke. "Ahem, may I ask why you're in my room?" He turned around shocked, and you couldn't help but let out a slight giggle. "I-I..." "Let me guess hiding from everyone?" and he nodded...

Your P.O.V:

"Thought so, me too... I'm (Y/N)... (Y/N/) (Y/L/N)." I smiled at him, he looked so peculiar with his bright blonde hair. "Draco... Draco Malfoy... And wait isn't this your party? How come you're not down stair with everyone else?" I couldn't help but laugh at him, he was confused as to why I was laughing though. "You sure do ask a lot of questions. And yes this is supposed to be my party but my mother is more bothered about herself than me so I left and decided to leave her to do whatever it is she wanted. Anyway, there's a spare bedroom down the hall, second door on your right if you want to hide there." I said smiling at him. "Thank you, (Y/N)... You're a real hero." I couldn't help but aww and laugh at the same time, and I couldn't help but think that I and he would be great friends no matter what.

Neville:

Your P.O.V:

I made my way through the Hogwarts Express finding my way into an empty compartment. Not too long after a young boy about my age stepped into my compartment. "H-H-Hi, h-have yous-seen a tt-toad by a-any c-chance? I lost m-mine." I couldn't help but think how adorable he was and I couldn't help but smile at the fact that he was stuttering. "No, I'm sorry I haven't sorry... But I can help you look if you like?" I smiled nicely at him. "O-oh yes please, tt-that would be great. T-thank y-you. I-I'm Neville Longbottom by the w-w-way." He beamed at me, holding out his hand for me to shake. "(Y/N) (Y/L/N), Pleasure to meet you." I shook his hand politely, and we went on our way to find his toad.

Seamus:

Your P.O.V:

I have just arrived at Hogwarts and I'm now waiting at the steps for Professor McGonagall to return. All of a sudden a young blonde boy starts speaking, "It's true then, what they're saying on the train. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts." And the students start whispering among themselves. "This is Crabbe and Goyle" He nods to his dimwitted sidekicks "and I'm Malfoy...Draco Malfoy." The ginger boy snickers at his name. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask yours. Red hair and a hand me down robe? You must be a Weasley. We'll soon find that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. Don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." And he extends his hand towards who I assume is Harry Potter. "How about you leave them alone Draco," I say making my way through the crowd. "And who are you?" He asks me quite rudely. "Why would I tell you? You're nothing but an arrogant fool, and honestly, I think Harry is able to pick his own friends unlike you... I have a feeling Daddy paid for them to be your friends." All the students start whispering again, they're all shocked at the fact that I spoke my mind and insulted a Malfoy. "My father will hear about this." I couldn't help but laugh. "Oh please do tell, I'd love to give him a piece of my mind too, for raising his kid to be nothing but a complete imbecile." He walked away with a face full of anger and to be honest that just made my day, I then made my way back to another end of the crowd. Suddenly, a boy with short brown hair came to me. "I can't believe you spoke to Malfoy like that, you're pretty fearless aren't ya." He spoke with a strong Irish accent. "Well I don't back down from someone who's so stupid and thinks he can make fun of anybody and get away with it, it's not something I'll tolerate." I grinned at him as I said that. "I'm Seamus, Seamus Finnigan... May I ask your name?" "(Y/N) (Y/L/N), nice to meet you." I smiled holding out my hand for him to shake, and he gladly obliged.

Fred:

Regular P.O.V

You've been at Hogwarts for a month now and today you were heading to detention which you received because a girl next to you was talking and when Professor McGonagall turned round to check who it was the girl blamed it on you, which you weren't very pleased about and you swore to get her back with an amazing prank. But for now detention had to come first, you reached the class and saw your aunt mima stood at the front of the class and a pair of twins sat at the front desk.

Your P.O.V

"Hello Aunt Mima, sorry I'm late... What do I have to do?" I say as nicely as I can because right now I really don't feel like being here. "Well, sweetheart you'll writing lines, now boys be nice to (Y/N) while I'm gone." And away she walked. "So Professor McGonagall is your Aunt?" One of the twins spoke. "Yep," I said not really engaged in the conversation. "What're you in detention for then?" Again with another question I thought. "Because a girl was talking in class, and she blamed it on me. But she's going to regret it trust, imma get her back big time." I said rather confidently. "Oooh I like the sound of that, what're ya planning on doing, pulling a prank?" he said rather intrigued in what I had just said and his brother seemed rather intrigued too because he turned to look at me, and watching me waiting for me to reply. "You sure do ask a lot of questions... And yes a prank, how else?" I couldn't help but laugh. "Fair point, I'm Fred by the way, Fred Weasley... And this is George, George Weasley." Really... I think to myself, really. "George, A Weasley... I never would have thought... It's not that you too like a like or anything... I'm (Y/N) McGonagall, nice meeting ya Fred and George." After that, we all just burst out laughing. This was the making of a beautiful friendship.

George:

Regular P.O.V:

You're a year younger than George and didn't really meet him until you tried out for Quidditch, you loved playing ever since you were a kid. You made the team and you met George at your first practice, you were sat mocking everyone because they were being so boring and you just wanted to have fun. Suddenly a ginger boy who looks about a year older sat next to you.

Your P.O.V:

"What are you doing?" He asked. "Mocking everyone, isn't it obvious?" I couldn't help but giggle ever so slightly. "No, haha I mean why? Are you bored or something?" I couldn't help but smile that he finally figured it out, especially since it's a little obvious I'm bored haha. "Yes it's because I'm bored, this game is supposed to be fun and this whole thing has been a complete drag, we've been here twenty minutes and we haven't even started yet... Oh, excuse me for not introducing myself. I'm (Y/N) Lovegood. You are?" I asked wondering who this stranger could be, I've seen him around I just don't know his name. "George Weasley, and to be honest I'm bored too so let's mock people together." I laughed so hard at the fact that he wanted to mock people along with me. After I finished laughing I wiped away the tears that had formed from me laughing so hard. “Ok then." I agreed and we started to mock people and it was so much funnier and better now that I had someone doing it along with me. I couldn't help but feel really happy when I'm around him, I think I've officially found myself a new best friend.

(If anyone has any notes please let me know, or any ideas on what to write next etc... All help and notes are welcome. I appreciate any help given).

[solace-sun]

Not the Typical Way You Meet A Soulmate (Solangelo) - Chapter One

Preview: Nico had his fun for the night. It was time to go home. Which would've been easier if the ground beneath him isn't spinning. The world was moving in ways it shouldn't. He wasn't sure which direction was home. The street was now solely lit by the harsh streetlights towering above him, and the sidewalk seemed to slip from under his feet.

At the current moment, Will Solace hated just about everything he could see. He hated his shitty car for breaking down, and he hated the empty refrigerator in his kitchen. He hated how he had to walk to the store, and he hated his broken arm that hindered his ability to adequately carry his groceries home from the store. He even hated the lady at the checkout for only giving him two bags, which teemed to the brim with his groceries. He hated the way the sun reflected across the pavement and trees around him. The sun filtered the colors of the earth's surface in such a painstakingly gorgeous way, one that seemed to mock Will's current mood.

Needless to say, Will was pretty pissed.

Lost in his own hatred for the world and everything on it, Will failed to see the growing tear at the bottom of one of his bags. The bag broke and groceries tumbled onto the cement before he could even notice the hole.

Now, Will really hated his groceries. He almost thought about just leaving them on the ground as they lay, in an utter defeat. Before he could walk away from the wreckage, someone approached him from behind.

"Do you need any help there?" A voice came from behind Will. He turned to find a dark haired man standing behind him, clutching the straps of his backpack. Will's expression softened.

Now there's something I don't hate.

"That would actually be so great, thank you," Will sighed with relief.

"It's no problem. I was raised to always help the crippled when they're in need," the man joked, referring to Will's broken arm.

"Do I really look that sad?" Will asked with a laugh. The man shrugged before bending over to pick up the spilled groceries.

"We can use my backpack to carry what fell out," he offered, opening the bag for Will.

"Thank you so much," Will replied, "What's your name?"

"Nico. And you?"

"Will Solace."

The two placed an assortment of fruit, ramen, and frozen meals into Nico's bag.  Before hefting his bag onto his shoulders, he flashed Will a thin smile. The pair began to trudge through an uncomfortable silence down the sidewalk. Just before the silence became too thick, Nico spoke, driven by curiosity.

"How'd you break your arm?" He asked.

"Oh, I broke it during a lacrosse game last week," Will responded.

"Lacrosse?"

"Yeah I play at the school here. Or, well, I used to, I guess," Will responded.

"You quit because of your arm?"

"Yes and no, I guess. Getting injured kinda made me realise there's more important things I could be doing. Better places to put my time, y'know?"

"Makes sense," Nico agreed flatly.

"Yeah, guess I'll be spending more time focusing more on school, for right now," Will replied, "I'm here for pre-med."

To which Nico's response was a stifled snort.

"What's so funny?" Will demanded.

"I've never seen a doctor in a cast and sling before. I don't know, I just think it's funny. Did they let you wrap your own arm?" Nico joked. Will gave a sardonic huff and rolled his eyes.

The two continued their walk down the sidewalk. Will took a turn and gestured towards an apartment complex.

"Looks like we're here," He spoke. Nico followed him up a flight of stairs and watched as Will fumbled with his keys in the shadow of his front door.

While Will opened the door, Nico had gathered an armful of groceries from his bag. He placed them into Will's arms.

"Hey man, thanks for everything," Will thanked.

"It's all good," Nico gave a wary smile as he zipped his bag shut. He gave a wave to Will, and turned on his heel, starting for home

Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was who Nico had just met, but that day, Nico felt lighter than usual. A feeling from the pit of his stomach that made his head feel airy. The feeling continued his entire walk home.

His mood only improved when Hazel told him about a party happening the next night. Parties were Nico's favorite pastime, as the life of a dead end, part-time job weighed on him from time to time. Besides getting utterly and totally wasted on a weeknight, Nico had no real purpose. He needed some sort of distraction to get him through to the next day.

He opened the door to his painfully dull apartment, to see his step sister Hazel finishing up her ramen noodle dinner, with her head stuck in a textbook.

"How's it going?" Nico asked, greeting his sister.

"Someone's in a good mood," Hazel responded.

"What? I can't ask my sister, whom I love very much, how her day went?"

"Someone like you? It's pushing it dude," she joked, "Seriously though, the past week you've barely spoken a single word. What's up?"

"I don't know," he tried. And, in all honesty, he truly didn't know.

Hazel gave him a look of confusion, "Alright then, keep your secrets," She paused to shove a bite of noodles into her mouth, "Also, I've got a friend who's throwing a party tomorrow night. I gotta do some homework tomorrow so I won't be there, but I'd figure I'd let you know anyway." She said through a bite of noodles.

"Oh god, you don't know how happy that makes me," Nico smiled.

"Yeah, I know. Just, be careful. Please?" She bored her eyes into his. He turned away.

"Yeah, got it."

The next night, Nico managed to find himself in the corner of some shitty frat house, nursing a less than adequate bottle of vodka. But his head was swimming, and nothing else really mattered. Barely cognizant of anything, disillusioned and unaligned with the world around him was how he liked to be. The quality of whatever drink was in his hand at the moment didn't really matter, so long as it made the room spin. His favorite distraction to life was working just as well as it always had.

So when he saw a familiar blonde face, he thought he was seeing things. Will, apparently, thought the same, based off the double take he made when he saw Nico in the corner of the room. Nico flashed a grin.

"Hey, I know you!" Nico exclaimed, waving the bottle that was in his grip. Will made his way over to Nico, and settled down across from him on the gross, germ ridden couch. The unnaturally hard texture of the couch's fabric made Will wonder if the thing had ever been washed. He pushed the thought out of his head before he fell down a rabbit hole of thoughts he'd rather not think.

"Funny seeing you here," Will said.

"Eh, I mean, not really," Nico slurred, "Just crashing some party at a school I don't even go to."

"How did you even get in?" Will asked with a smile, tilting his head making his blonde curls fall over his eyes.

"I just told the shithead at the door I was a 'brother' from Delta Lambda Phi. He totally bought it," Nico shook his head and laughed.

"I'm impressed," Will admitted, "But why spend your time at a college frat party?"

Nico shrugged, "Free drinks. I could be asking you the same thing. Didn't you say something yesterday about focusing on schoolwork?"

"Gotta have fun somehow," Will shrugged.

"Then how come you've got an empty hand?" Nico inquired, motioning to Will's lack of alcohol and sober status. He offered Will the bottle of vodka in his hand.

"Oh, no, I'm good, thank you," Will refused, pushing the bottle away. Nico shrugged.

"Tell me why I'm not surprised that the smart, pre-med kid won't let loose at a party?" Nico teased. Will shot him a displeased glance.

"What? I'm joking!" He reached over and took a light punch to his shoulder, "I'm sure you're the funnest guy here."

"Funnest isn't a word," Will corrected.

"You're gonna make me take back my statement," Nico deadpanned. Will threw his good hand up, defeated. The other hand remained cradled by his side, bound by cast and sling.

"Give me the bottle," He demanded.

"There we go!" Nico applauded, "See? Now you're acting like a real jock! What was it you play? Football?"

"... Lacrosse."

"That's right, lacrosse. What the fuck even is that? Like, honestly, it wasn't even a thing in Italy."

"Italy?" Will inquired.

"I grew up in Italy. Moved here when I was thirteen? Fourteen?" Nico explained.

"Oh. Wow," Will spoke.

"You didn't answer my question," Nico prodded.

"Huh?"

"The fuck is lacrosse even?"

"I'm mean its just another sport," Will reasoned, "Y'know? You got your stick and the ball, and you try to make the goal."

"How long did you play for?" Nico asked.

"Oh, I don't know. I started when I was a freshman in high school, so... seven years?"

"Damn, that's a long time. You gonna miss it?"

Will gave a huffy laugh, "Parts of it, for sure."

"Wait okay, I'm lost," Nico started, "How do you break your entire fucking arm during an over-glorified game of catch?"

"Got a nasty body check," Will explained. Nico gave him a blank stare in return; Will's words obviously did not mean anything to him.

"Someone body slammed me during the game," Will explained, "Fell back landed on my arm."

Nico made a pained expression, "Sounds like that hurt," he emphasized.

"It's not that bad," Will reasoned.

"How long to heal?"

"Only a few weeks."

Nico nodded, but before he could respond, a voice boomed from across the room.

"Solace!"

Will whipped his head around, to see another man trudging towards the two, shoving past a pool of party-goers and drunk bodies. His stride was confident and almost loud. Nico watched as he made his way over, unable to stop himself from taking an immediate distaste for the guy.

"Where have you been, dude?" the stranger asked.

Will averted his eyes, maintaining eye contact with the ground instead. He shrugged as a response before cautiously meeting the other man's stare.

"How come you don't come to lacrosse anymore? We miss you man!"

Nico couldn't decide if his words were authentic. His tone seemed to be genuine, but his condescending smirk and the arrogant gleam in his eyes wanted to tell of something different.

"I don't know," Will started. He turned his gaze to the floor and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Just come back to the team!" he exclaimed, his arms open.

"Man, I just... Just gotta think about it," Will reasoned, giving a sympathetic smile. In the shadow of the man he looked small. Maybe even vulnerable.

At this point, Nico had enough. Maybe his head wasn't quite where it was supposed to be, but his heart was. Before anything could be said, Nico interjected.

"God could you fuck off?" Nico barked, "Anyone with a pair of fucking eyes can see that he doesn't want to talk to you."

Will's head shot up and his eyes grew in shock.

"I'm sorry," the man laughed, "You talking to me?"

"Yeah man," Nico snapped, "Why don't you just leave him alone?"

"Don't you know your place?" The man retorted.

Nico was now riding on a high of his favorite drug; adrenaline. He cocked his head to the side and matched the stranger's confident energy.

"You wanna show me my place? Be my guest," he invited, standing up, a little shaky from the vodka. He tried to hide his stumble.

Will shot him a pleading look, "You don't have to do this," he whispered.

The stranger towered over Nico, "Who the fuck do you think you are?" the man snarled.

The room's atmosphere changed, voices began to hush and more eyes turned to watch the show. Nico stared down his opponent, undeterred from any distractions.

"Nico, c'mon, give it up, it's not worth it." Will persisted. But his pleads fell on deaf ears, Nico was too caught up in finishing what he had just started.

"You need to know your fucking place, fuckin' little shit," the man seethed, his shoulders rolling up and his face sneering. Before Nico could respond, a punch was thrown.

Luckily for Nico though, he had become skilled in the art of dodging fists through his years of picking drunken fights with strangers. This was nothing new for him. Instead of sucker-punching Nico in the gut, the man missed and lodged his fist into the drywall behind Nico. The crowd voiced sounds of excitement, shock, and concern. Nico could feel like anger blooming in his chest, pumping through his veins. If there was one thing he hated most, it was entitled, rich white frat boys. His hands turned to fists, but before he could commit to the final act, he felt Will tug on his arm.

"Don't do it man," He pleaded, with soft, sad blue eyes. Nico looked to the ground, trying to use his brain for the first time tonight.

"Yeah, okay. Party fucking sucked anyway," he cursed, "And I'm taking this with me!" He announced, pointing an angry finger to the bottle he had claimed earlier. He stumbled away from the scene, away from the hungry eyes of party-goers, away from the man he didn't even know the name of, who was now shouting obscenities to Nico's back. Away from Will.

Nico had his fun for the night. It was time to go home. Which would've been easier if the ground beneath him isn't spinning. The world was moving in ways it shouldn't. He wasn't sure which direction was home. The street was now solely lit by the harsh streetlights towering above him, and the sidewalk seemed to slip from under his feet.

Then he heard a voice call his name.

"Nico!" It was none other than Will, "That's your name, right? It's Nico?"

Nico smiled and nodded.

"Where you going, man?" Will asked.

Nico shrugged, "Home, I guess."

"You're not driving, are you?"

"God, no," Nico shook his head, "I don't even own a car. I was just gonna walk home."

"How's that going for you?" Will inquired, sarcasm hidden in his tone.

"It'll be fine, once the floor stops moving," he waved a dismissive hand.

"Let me walk you home," Will prompted.

Nico's brow furrowed, "What? Why?"

"Just a way to say thanks," Will shrugged.

Nico thought for a moment before he nodded. The two started off, absorbed in the sound of the quiet night.

"I'm sorry," Nico spoke, puncturing the veil of silence between the two.

"For what?" Will turned to Nico.

"I don't know... It probably wasn't on your agenda for tonight to piss off... Whoever that was."

"One of my teammates. Or, an old teammate, I guess," Will informed, "Don't feel bad about it though, I actually enjoyed watching you tell him off."

"Oh yeah? I could just tell he was making you uncomfortable. I can read you like a book," Nico flashed a cocky grin, proud of his "emotional intelligence" skills.

"Like a book? Is that so?" Will teased, "What am I feeling now?"

"You're probably wondering how you got into this mess, walking a drunk stranger home and all."

"You're not a stranger, we've met before," Will joked.

"Can't argue with that," Nico agreed.

The silence returned, but the two were comfortable in its wake. Will kicked at rock as they walked, while Nico struggled to place one foot in front of the other. In a cruel joke played by God or maybe fate, he stumbled and fell, only to catch himself on Will's good shoulder.

"Woah, there," Will laughed, holding Nico's forearms as he regained himself, "Do I need to carry you home?"

"Oh, yes please," Nico replied. Maybe drinking a whole bottle of vodka by himself was a bad idea.

"Alright then," Will said, moving an arm to secure Nico's balance.

"Wait, no I was joking-" Nico started.

"Yeah sure, you're gonna be joking until you fall and bust your ass on the concrete," Will retorted, "Don't make it weird," He said with a laugh, slinking his good arm around Nico's torso, with a gentle squeeze.

Oh.

Okay.

Don't make it weird. Got it.

"I'm not making it weird," Nico quipped.

"Great," Will shrugged. Will's curls brushed against Nico's cheek, and Nico was almost positive that Will could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"Hey, wait a minute," Nico wondered out loud, "How come you aren't shit faced?"

Will gave a breathy laugh, "I'm more of a babysitter than a drinker. I was watching over a few friends tonight, but then I guess you could say I had more pressing matters to tend to."

"A stranger was more important than your friends?" Nico questioned.

"Well, when a stranger tried to pick a fight and stumble home completely wasted -- by himself, I might add, then yeah. Also, my friends know how to take care of themselves."

"Are you saying I don't know how to take care of myself?" Nico demanded.

"Maybe," Will confessed, failing to sequester the laughter spilling from his chest.

Nico found Will's laughter to be contagious, something that couldn't be escaped, and he discovered himself chuckling along with him. Maybe it was the buzz, but Nico felt the warmth in his chest again, a cozy feeling from inside. He felt at home in the feeling.

As their laughter died down, the two came up upon the backside of an apartment complex. Even on the backside, the complex stood tall and elegant, the siding expensive and tasteful.

"Looks like this is my stop," Nico announced.

"Wait, but there's no entrances back here," Will noticed.

"What a gentleman, wanting to walk me to my door," Nico teased.

"I just want to make sure you get home safe," Will protested.

"I know. It's just that... I've got this roommate, whose fucking batshit -- like absolutely crazy. Hates when I bring people home. Doesn't even matter if they drop me off at the door. It's always an argument. Says it's always too noisy when I come home with people."

Will gave a dejected look to the ground, "Oh."

"I'm sorry," Nico tried, slipping out of Will's hold.

"Wait, hold on. I'm gonna give you my number. Text me when you get back safe," he prompted. He fumbled in his pocket and took out a crumpled receipt and a pen, and scrawled his number on the backside, "Here."

Nico smiled as he took the number into his own hands, "Thanks, Will. I feel like I owe you now," He laughed.

The pair separated, following their own individual paths. Except Nico didn't head towards the complex he had claimed to be his. Rather, once he was out of the spotlight of the streetlamps, he crossed the street, heading towards a less impressive complex. His home. His tiny, dirty home.

He knew lying was wrong, but his shame for his poorly house outweighed the moral balance in his mind. He had also had lied about the crazy roommate. Just another excuse not to let someone in, keep them at a comfortable distance; knowing all too well what would come once they knew what he really lived like -- the pitiful looks and gross expressions.

It was embarrassing. But it was all he could afford.

Nico hated the pity. Rather than confront it, he would create himself a false life. Call it lies if you like, but for Nico it was just protection.

He fumbled with his keys for a minute, wracked his brain with the task of trying to figure out which one was the key to the front door. When he opened the door he felt the cool dusty air hit his face. He cracked the door open and coasted inside, careful not to wake his sister sleeping in the room across from his, who had better things to do than getting wasted on a weeknight.

His least favorite part of the nights like these was coming home. No longer did he have his distraction, his escape from his sad apartment, from his own racing thoughts and feelings.

When he came home he was forced to confront it all. No more running, and no more hiding.

Nico found his way to his room, the door creaking open. His empty room greeted him and the cool air nipped at his skin. The cracks in the ceiling welcomed him and his creaky bed frame embraced him as he collapsed into his mattress.  Nico hated its grasp, but right now he couldn't protest; sleep called his name too loud to ignore. When he lay the room was still spinning. He pulled his phone from one pocket and a crumpled receipt from the other. He copied the number from the receipt into his phone.

Will received a text on his walk back to the party.

its nico mabe it h ome safe. thbanks for caring abt me lol

[jabbajambler]

3

Human

The Mandalorian/Din Djarin x f!OC

Word Count: 1,988

*GIF by @fluffyapplecat​*

         The golden sun was beginning to set behind the rolling hills of Arvala-7, causing the sky to turn all shades of purple and pink. It was a beautiful sight, for sure. I couldn't help but wonder why there were so few inhabitants of the planet.

         I suppose I always had a fascination for these sorts of things, you know? Bits and pieces of beauty even in the most horrendous times.

         I was beginning to fall in love with the deserted planet. Granted, we had only been here a few hours, but it was beautiful nonetheless. There was no one to bother you, no distractions or problems to run from. You only had yourself.

         Which also made it very lonely.

         Mando and I had joined the Ugnaught in his small, strange home. It was dark and we had to crouch or sit the entire time to avoid hitting our heads on the low ceilings.

         Mando sat by a small lamp that cast a dim light through the home. The shadows emphasized the well-sculpted curves of his helm and left a vague outline of his face through the tinted visor. He was distracted by his wrecked vambrace, completely unaware of my staring from across the room.

         I stuck by the entrance to watch the pastel sky. The serenity of the planet tempted me to stay, but I would just be running away once again.

         The Ugnaught entered his home, paying no mind to me while he turned to talk to the Mandalorian. "Many have passed through. They seek the same one as you two."

         "Did you help them?" The Mandalorian's muffled voice cut through the air.

         Now that I had time to sit back and listen to him, his voice was somewhat enchanting. It was a tenor sort of voice and despite the modulator's muffling, it sounded smooth and relaxing.

         It wasn't what I expected from a man of his reputation, but at the same time, I wasn't sure what I expected. He held this aura of confidence, even after being beat down to his lowest point. It was admirable.

         Honestly, I was kind of jealous.

         "Yes... They died."

         I scoffed and began walking towards the two, my arms folded across my chest. "Well, then, I'm not sure we really want your help." I spat.

         "You do." He put a hand on my shoulder, patting it comfortingly and pulling me down to the seat across from Mando. His subtle arrogance was rather irritating. "I can show you to the encampment." He stood before the Mandalorian, his hands on his hips.

         "What's your cut?" Mando spoke, staring down at his crushed vambrace.

        His armor was worn and sort of gross, I hadn't noticed it before. Most Mandalorians were kept pristine and up-to-date. His armor was kind of ugly.

          "Half."

         I choked a bit on the air in my lungs. "Half the bounty just to guide? Are you insane?" I watched as he pulled up a little puff seat next to me.

         "No. Half of the blurrg you helped capture."

         "The blurrg?" I questioned.

         "You can keep them both."

         "No. You will need one... To ride. The way is impossible to pass without a blurrg mount."

         "I don't know how to ride a blurrg and I doubt she does either."

         "Don't speak for me." I snapped. I didn't necessarily want to be on Mando's bad side, but I didn't have a choice after I held him hostage.

         "I have spoken."

         The Mandalorian sighed and stood up, walking outside of the house. I quickly moved to run after him, refusing to let him out of my sight, but was pulled back by a small hand on my arm.

         "You are welcome to stay the night here if you two would like."

         I stared down at the Ugnaught with wide eyes. He had been friendly the entire time, I suppose I hadn't expected it to continue with our coldness towards him. I offered a small but friendly smile and nodded my head. It would be nice to rest for a few hours.

         "We would appreciate that."

         "Then I'll prepare something for my guests." He stood, making his way towards a small kitchen. I opened my mouth to stop him, to refuse his generous hospitality. "Go talk to your Mandalorian...I have spoken."

         I took a deep breath and turned, walking out the door to follow Mando. He kept looking around, his fists clenched and shoulders slouched. He looked so tense, I thought he just might burst from the seams.

         "Someone on this planet has to have a speeder or something." He growled and looked around, seeing nothing but sand for as far as the eye could see.

         "Yeah and it'll take you two days just to find someone else." I rolled my eyes and stepped towards him. "We have no choice. You might as well relax." I placed my hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch and pull away at the sudden touch. "Take a breather and get some rest. I promise I won't try to kill you in your sleep."

         He looked over at me and let out a quiet sigh. He must have known that I was right.

         "Why did you do it?"

         I felt my eyebrows furrow together as I stared at him. "What do you mean? That's a pretty vague question, obviously you need to add some details to it."

         "Why did you attack me on my ship? You can do anything you want, any mission, task, reward. Greef would do anything for you."

         "Except give me this mission. Listen, I'm not simply handed things because I live under his roof, okay? I have to work for what I get..." I paused. If I continued this any longer, I would have been talking for hours. "Go get some rest. He offered to let us sleep in his home and I think we should take it... No funny business though, okay? If I wake up with a blaster to my face, there's going to be hell to pay."

         "Don't worry. I think I've learned better than to cross you." He teased with a whisper of sarcasm filling his voice.

         The Ugnaught had made us a small meal, something I don't think either one of us had enjoyed in a long time. He even showed Mando to a separate room so he could eat in privacy. It wasn't long until we were all asleep.

         Tomorrow was going to be a very long day and the rest was absolutely needed. If our encounter with the blurrg tomorrow is anything like the one today, we had a big storm coming.

┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉┉

         I laughed. I laughed until it was painful to breathe.

         I know I shouldn't have, but it was so funny to see him thrown off the back of the blurrg for the fifth time that afternoon. My stomach was aching from laughing so hard. It was difficult to believe that the 'cold, merciless Mandalorian' was so easily tossed around by a harmless animal.

         Well, sort of harmless.

         "Perhaps if you removed your helmet." The Ugnaught joked, knowing that he wasn't capable of doing such.

         "Perhaps he remembers I tried to roast him." Mando snapped back. I couldn't help but chuckle at that. Especially the word, 'tried.'

         "This is a female. The males are all eaten during mating."

         The Ugnaught was just as quick witted as us. I liked him. I couldn't help but wonder if he had a name. I mean, I'm sure he does. Just like Mando's name can't actually be 'Mando.' I'm sure his name isn't actually 'Ugnaught.'

         The blurrg stood in front of the Mandalorian, watching as he pushed himself up from the ground with a grunt.

         Geez, how old was this guy? Seventy? I thought at most he was thirty. A seventy year-old would make for a very poor Mandalorian.  

         She growled at him when he set his hand on her back, throwing himself on top of her. She roared and began thrashing around, trying to throw the yelping Mando off of her. With a few spins, he was finally knocked off once again.

         Mando had quickly jumped to his feet, his hands raised high in surrender. For a second, I thought I could see him trembling in his boots.

         "We don't have time for this." He began stomping towards us. "Do you have a Landspeeder or Speeder bikes that I could hire?"

         "You are a Mandalorian!" The Ugnaught exclaimed. "Your ancestors rode the great Mythosaur. Surely you can ride this young foal."

         He turned to look at the blurrg, causing it to growl back at him. I couldn't stand to sit around and watch this any longer. It was almost painful. I rolled my eyes and stepped through the fence, taking the Mandalorian's hand in mine.

         "Come on."

         I pulled him towards the animal that stared back at him with a menacing glare. My fingers drifted up, brushing against the skin of his wrist as I held his hand out. He tensed up next to me, trying to rip his hand from my grasp.

         "Easy now, okay?"

         "Easy... Easy." He repeated my words as he relaxed.

         A small smile played at the corners of my mouth, suddenly feeling a bit shy in his presence. I shouldn't have, I had the advantage, but there was just... something. Maybe it was the delicacy he spoke with to the animal, it was such a drastic change from his usual tone.

         The blurrg growled again, forcing Mando to take a small step back. I was quick to grasp his arm, pushing him towards the creature once again.

         "Be gentle with it." I leaned up towards his helmet, whispering.

         Taking another step forward, I led his hand to rest on top of the blurrg's head with my hand laying on his with a soft pressure.

         I expected him to be consoling the animal, relating to it and finding peace with it. When I looked up, I found him staring down at me. I know I can't really see his face or expressions but he seemed different. It was a sort of soft, curious gaze.

         At least it felt that way.

         "What? Don't you have an animal to tame?" I quickly stepped back towards the fence, leaving him with the blurrg.

         He watched me leave before he hopped on the animal's back with surprising ease. She allowed him to lead her around and take control. The sun was beginning to set again and the Mandolorian took that as a signal to end his training.

         "Good. Very good. We'll leave in the morning." I opened my mouth to protest, but was quickly stopped by him holding up his hand. "I have spoken." The Ugnaught left for his home, presumably heading to sleep.

         "Thank you." I heard Mando's raspy voice behind me.

         I spun around to meet him, but that might have been a mistake. Maybe I spun too fast or maybe I was shocked he was so close, but I stumbled back only to be caught by his hands grasping my arms.

         "Oh. Right. Don't worry about it." I shrugged off his hands, wrapping my arms around myself. "You were just too pitiful not to help. Honestly, that was sad. I thought hunters and fighters like you were supposed to be better educated."

         "I thought girls were supposed to have less bite in their bark." I could detect a smug grin behind his mask.

         "Most girls haven't had to deal with you. If they had, they would grow tired of your stupidity as well."

         "You've spent one day with me."

         "One day too many."

          I spun on my heel, swiftly making my way back to the Ugnaught's hut. Something about the Mandalorian made me feel small and shy. Not in a bad way, don't get me wrong. It made me mad, though. I don't like not understanding things.

         Especially when they are beyond my control.

[jcs-writing-hell]

@polskipolikarp

Thanks for requesting!~

You can see it as a scene set in the novel or if you want a moment that won't be tainted from all the needless suffering later on then think of an AU you like. Can be one where NMJ notices all the shit talk towards JGY and he protects him to the point where JGY doesn’t care about taking over the Jin Sect - hence no drama. Or one where JGY maybe joins the Lan Sect - all depends on what you ship, how hard you ship it and so forth!

Jin GuangYao/Lan Xichen

|Category: Funny|Keyword: Cooking|

-

It wasn't long after the Lan Sect got attacked that.. Meng Yao ran into someone he hadn't expected to meet.

Xichen looked.. torn, disheveled almost, barely recognisable with his white robes having quite the few dirt stains. He was so on the edge that he actually pushed Meng Yao up against a tree before taking a closer look at him - sooner or later able to recall that the "boy" was one of Mingjue's.. well, at the time not too trusted but on a good way "guest disciples".

After a lot of back and forth and even more apologising from mostly Xichen's side Meng Yao had somehow managed to get the other to follow him to his home. At the time still Meng Yao wasn't confident enough in his position at the Nie Sect to live with anyone else but servants.. which really came in handy as right now what Xichen needed was a place to hide.

-

Within 3 days only Meng Yao has noticed a few things. 1) Xichen is.. far too pure. 2) Even in normal robes he stands out far too much. 3) While he is the supposed perfect future husband of all the 15-30 year olds.. He doesn't know how to live. He was a nightmare when it came to doing laundry. He wasn't great at making proper deals at the market without being turned into a fool. He didn't have a true self due to the rules he had grown up with. And he also barely.. managed to cook. It wasn't like Xichen didn't know how to - he clearly had the theoretical knowledge, the problem was just that he was clumsy.. He couldn't control his strength overly well, especially the finer the work he was supposed to do was. 4) Surprisingly there is actually no tan-line where the forehead ribbon of the other usually hid his skin. Which Meng Yao got to know since Xichen wouldn't be able to wear it without standing out even more.

It was the first time in his life that Meng Yao struggled so hard with hiding what was going on inside him.. He really had to almost escape at times to let out his laugh, fixing his expression once his fit was over before he returned to the Jade that.. kept messing up and messing up.

Early on during the fourth day already the younger one of them began to notice a change in the others behavior. Xichen was even more careful than usually, yet his expression.. there was something in his eyes that caught Meng Yao’s attention..

However, not even that long after, as Meng Yao arrived while Xichen worked on eggs he seemed to have boiled - one of the few things he wasn’t too bad at, even though it made him feel terrible to kill a possible baby chicken -.. It was all good and fine until Meng Yao spoke up, totally unintentionally startling the new Lan Sect leader.. and of course, what else should’ve happened than Xichen crushing the poor egg in his hand that he clenched from the shock. The still somewhat slimy and gross texture of the egg was getting squeezed out between his fingers.. but what turned into the last nail Meng Yao needed for his coffin was that Xichen’s frustration had build up so much - even though he didn’t dare to curse - he slammed his free hand against his face.. Which was also soiled from the eggs he had previously, successfully, cut for their meal.

Meng Yao tried his best to keep his laughter in.. at first pressing his lips together, then his fist against them as the waves began to grow harder, painfully aching to be let out. When Xichen then finally pulled his hand away, revealing crumbs and fluids of the eggs stuck on his face Meng Yao cupped his mouth with his hand,..

At the end, however, he ultimately lost the fight against the laughter as Xichen looked up at him, this awkward smile playing on the edges of his lips as a few pieces of egg fell out of his face - at that point Meng Yao.. quite literally, lost it.

,,I’m sorry.. I’m so sorry..” Meng Yao said over and over again as he laughed so hard his feet soon barely were able to hold him upright. His free arm that he wasn’t hiding his face was getting wrapped around his stomach that ached from all the laughter.

He should’ve noticed that something was off as the Jade only sat there, not saying his usual “It’s alright.” in this gentle and calm tone.. It wasn’t until Meng Yao actually half collapsed to the floor, still unable to calm himself, that.. Xichen did something that would further explain why this time in his life was later classified from both as “The shame of a lifetime”..

The twin Jade’s weren’t called like that without a reason, they weren’t all that different and just like Wangji who bit Wuxian due to being unable to cope with all the emotions that had build up inside of him - Xichen had his own “tick” as he, without realising he actually did so, threw the torn apart egg against the trapped in a fit of laughter Meng Yao.

,,Oh my goodness.. I didn’t mean to..” Xichen spoke up, they had both ended up frozen in place - one as he realised what he had done, the other as the pieces of egg hit him.

,,What am I supposed to do with you now, Zewu-Jun?” Meng Yao said as he once again had started to laugh, the other was meanwhile too shocked from his own actions to-

,,What?!” Xichen said in this confused, startled tone as it sank in that Meng Yao had just returned the favour of throwing the contents of the bowl Xichen had put the already cut eggs in against him. The older one had been too ashamed to notice Meng Yao had even reached out to it.

,,You can’t attack someone and expect them not to react, can you, Sect Leader Lan?” Meng Yao wasn’t quite able to hide his amusement as he tried to speak up all seriously. He knew he shouldn’t behave like that, it was the last thing he was supposed to do but.. it was an accidental slip-up from both sides.

,,One shall not play with their meal..”

,,I apologise for speaking so rudely, but the way you threw the egg at me didn’t seem like it was for entertainment, Sect Leader.” Meng Yao wasn’t sure at this point if he was trying to rub salt into the older ones wound or if he was trying to ressure him, yet for a brief moment he could’ve sworn Xichen glared at him in a warning manner.

,,Are you trying to accuse me of something?”

,,I’m afraid I don’t understand what you’re trying to imply, Sect Leader Lan.” Meng Yao feigned ignorance and innocence, somehow.. it was strangely fun to tease Lan Xichen. Someone who had and was everything he wasn’t and probably would never be.

,,Excuse me. I’m afraid I lost sight of my manners for a moment. I will go and wash myself.” Xichen said, his tone a lot more Wangji like and stiff than his usual nice and calm one, as if he was trying to hold himself together.

Meng Yao bowed as he watched the other get up, he could clearly feel that something was off about Lan Xichen. It was one of the skills he had learned due to growing up in a brothel where the moods of customers had to be generally closely looked at for several reasons.

,,Sect leader?”

,,Yes-”

The younger one had stared at the Jades back for a moment as the latter was about to leave - yet at the end, once Xichen turned, Meng Yao threw the contents of another bowl at Xichen. MengYao didn’t dare to be disrespectful, Xichen was the rare case that treated him well regardless of his social standing.. but exactly because of that he couldn’t just watch the other leave and keep whatever was going on to himself.

As the new wave of food hit him something snapped inside Xichen. It hadn’t been too noticeable so far, but his composure was only an act since he had fled from his own home, not knowing if anything of it existed still at this point - His expression grew cold, distanced, gaze as piercing and almost as arrogant as that of his younger brother could easily seem. More than anything, however, he looked mad, no sign of a smile playing on his lips as he grabbed the next best bowl by his side. It was flour, nothing that would hurt. Holding the bowl in his hand, Xichen walked up to Meng Yao, staring into his eyes as he.. poured the flour on his head, the white powder flying around everywhere.

Honestly, for a moment Meng Yao had been kind of scared, he wasn’t truly a coward but it had sank in that he was nothing - a nothing that just threw food at a sect leader for the second time in a row. Noticing that Xichen simply returned the favour, the smaller one of them took a step to the side and made a run for the next best thing he could possibly throw at the other again.

It was unclear how much time they spend running around, yet at the end the kitchen was a total mess, even the hallway of the house they were sharing hadn’t been left clean. They had ended up outside somehow, even throwing raw eggs at one another.

Maybe halfway through Xichens expression had changed, it was the first time that Meng Yao heard the other laugh so wholeheartedly.. and even though he was in no position or rank to do so, he himself couldn’t refrain from laughing either.

As they finally collapsed on the floor, Xichen sitting there with one leg stretched out, the other bend with his arm resting on top, while Meng Yao sat cross legged.. they both looked like a mess. They had attacked one another with anything they got a hold of, including milk and sauce and.. it was the largest amount of food and ingredients either of them had or would ever go on to waste in their lives. While the food war was over already though, their laughter wasn’t. They kept laughing for quite a while, until it gradually grew more silent in between of their heavy breathing before Meng Yao then stopped as Xichen let out a last huff.

,,Thank you.”

The younger ones expression dropped at once, one of the rare times where he didn’t keep up his facade. He looked honestly surprised, almost overwhelmed - and again that mishap happened with Xichen being around, even the cause. Meng Yao couldn’t even respond, he was staring at Xichen who was looking at him with this gentle, caring, thankful gaze.. not even the disheveled hair, or the food stuck to his face, nothing could erase the Jade’s breathtaking effect.

,,Even though I am more than ashamed because of my behavior.. I have never behaved in such a way before, nor will I ever be able to talk about what has happened.. Yet I am.. truly.. thankful. I haven’t been able to calm my mind ever since I left Gusu, without knowing if I will ever be able to return.. but you made me.. relax. It might be overbearing to say so, yet I am certain that you are a person that will go on to do great things.. and one with a good heart. If one day I will get the chance, I will make sure to return all the favours you’ve done for me.”

,,That.. I.. I am really noth-”

,,A-Yao-” Xichen interrupted the other, his tone back to his usual one as he watched Meng Yao’s expression falter. ,,May I call you that way? Even if you may not accept this now, one day?” He added after a short pause, this angelic smile reappearing on his stained face.

,,I will make sure to work hard so one day you may call me this way without bringing shame over you and your sect, Sect Leader Lan!” Meng Yao replied almost in a hurry, he had taken a bit before doing so, bowing at the same time - unable to meet the others gaze.

Xichen’s smile grew a little wider as he nodded, not willing to argue even though he would’ve liked to. ,,Shall we go clean ourselves and wash our robes?”

,,I will wash the robes!”

Xichen chuckled silently, just as amused as ashamed by the fact that he was so bad at washing clothes that the one that rarely to never failed to address him properly did so.

And so they walked off to a river nearby with Xichen making sure his steps would be slower and shorter so Meng Yao could follow him easily - which the other noticed, yet didn’t say anything to.

Check out my MDZS Writing Game | Requests open anytime

[zenosanalytic]

People What Aint From Round Here Is The Problem...

So I just watched Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood and I have THOUGHTS:

Ive read a few reviews&ruminations on this film at this point and I can’t believe that none of them got(or at least, mentioned explicitly) the primary thesis of this movie, spcl given that Tarentino flatly states it out the mouth of his primary protagonist within, like, the first 15-20mins of the film: “...most important thing in this town is when you’re making money you buy a house in town. You don’t rent... Hollywood real estate means you live here. You’re not just visiting, not just passing through. You fuckin live here.” i.e., the most important thing in Hollywood, to Hollywood, is the people FROM Hollywood; Everyone else is just a filthy, trouble-making tourist or profiteer who is “Passing Through” and “Doesnt Get It” and  “Is Fucking It Up”(It being the film industry), and probably “Secretly Hates Movies”. There are places and aspects of this movie that are basically a Nativist Angeleno rant, written by a life-long Angeleno film-nerd-turned-film-maker, against Hollywood’s critics(and his critics which he just totally conflates with the former), and probably non-Angelenos(and non-Californians?) in general.

There are two ways to read this thesis: Straight and Subverted/Satirized.

The evidence for reading it straight is pretty plentiful. Lots of reviews have puzzled at where the line connecting the constant hippie-bashing, the weird focus on knocking Polanski’s Polishness & preference for shooting in London, and the inexplicable pot-shot at Bruce Lee is, and I think this is it. “The Hippies” are repeatedly presented as a corrupting force: digging through trash, living in squalourous filth at the Spahn Ranch dragging members of “Old Hollywood” like its owner into it with them, selling drugs, and using sex to “control” men. And attached to this is presenting “The Hippies” as foreign; not only from another place, but refusing to assimilate with the LA way of life and hostile to it. The Manson family are the only explicitly identified “Hippies” in the film(other than, possibly, the one who sells Cliff an acid cig). The only “positive” portrayals of Bruce Lee in the film are silent ones of him teaching anglos kung fu, which has some fairly obvs and well-understood Implications.

But there’s also good evidence for reading it as subverted and satirized. Both Tate and Dalton are NOT from California, let alone LA, and Booth’s origins are left unclear. Dalton’s the only one of them explicitly id’d as being from elsewhere(Missouri), but Tate’s easy to google and she was a military kid who grew up all over the place. When Dalton returns from Italy, that sequence and his look in it are VERY reminiscent of the scenes introducing Polanski at the beginning of the film. The side-characters around Tate, perennially shown in a positive light, are also non-Angelenos. Doing Spaghetti Westerns revitalizes Dalton’s career, despite his disdain for Italian cinema. Tate and her crew, while not explicitly ID’d as “Hippies” and often shown in Mod and other fashion styles, are also presented in “Hippie” fashion, shown listening to “Hippie” music, smoking the “Hippie” Reefer(Im sorry, but Comedy Demanded this phrasing and I am Devout u_u), and implied to be living a polyamorous “Hippie” life.

It really is difficult for me to say which predominates. On the one entirely metaphorical hand, the ways in which Dalton’s Angeleno chauvinism are subverted and mocked are fairly obvs, but on the other emh, the film is FILLED with LITERALLY GLOWING nostalgia for this pre-Hippy, pre-Lefty, pre-70s, Conservative and Republican California&Los Angeles. Dalton’s focus on property-ownership&the film industry in the opening thesis could easily be seen as resolving these subversive contradictions to allow for a straight read(ie: Tate, Booth, and Dalton are “Hollywood People” who’ve both bought real-estate in LA, and who’ve grown up in film or film-adjacent fields and choose to center their adult lives in the film industry). So much, in fact, that I kinda started to wonder abt QT’s politics while watching it. And, if it WAS satirical, then what’s the point of the knock to Bruce Lee and focusing criticisms of Polanski on his Polishness and shooting in London? Is that just meant to characterize Dalton and Booth as nativists and racists?

It really cannot be said enough that there are REALLY MORE APPROPRIATE CRITICISMS to make of Polanski than 1)begin Polish, 2)possessing boyish effeminacy, and 3)preferring to shoot movies in London instead of LA. Which are this movie’s only problems with him(though it also takes the time to show him bitchily smoking a cigarette in an evening gown while being rude to a dog). Obvsl I dont object to villainizing an ACTUAL REAL LIFE VILLAIN like this shitstain, but I DO object to being asked(albeit gently) to participate in this film’s understated nationalist bigotry.

It’s possible that Cliff’s turning Pussycat down during the drive to the ranch was intended to be this but I highly doubt it. And if it was it’d be misrepresenting Polanski’s misdeeds enormously, considering that Pussycat, the too-young girl, is the sexual instigator in this film. Polanski liked to manipulate, drug, and rape underaged girls(he pulled the same shit with models in Europe before getting busted for it in LA, btw, then continued doing it after fleeing back to Europe); really not the same situation.

There’s another irony in that, while the film goes out of its way to call Polanski “boyish” and imply that makes him feminine and that this is Bad, there’s also a subtle under-current that... Tarentino sees himself in his youth the same way? He’s certainly never been short like Polanski and Jay Sebring are/were, QT’s 6 1, but the actors he cast to play them and the description made of the pair in-film are more than a bit reminiscent of how Tarentino looked&was discussed in the press back in the 90s when he was starting out. AAAaaand the film explicitly calls that Tate’s “Type”; leaving me with the question: would Tarentino be able to stop himself from implying a dead starlet would have been attracted to him? I leave the answer to your imaginations, Dear Readers u_u

Having said all that it IS a really good film, which I liked, I dont think it’d be very hard to set aside this political stuff while watching, the driving sequences are especially emotive&exhilarating, and there’s some seriously great acting in it. IDK if I’d say I liked it more than the recent Emma movie, tho.

I feel like each of the trio, Tate, Dalton, and Booth, were meant to symbolically Embody LA/Hollywood/California? Like Pitt especially seemed to be channeling movie characters and CJ from GTA: San Andreas throughout his performance, while I couldnt help but think of Ronald Reagan watching DiCaprio(spcl given the character’s likely politics). So there’s this sense in which the film is a fantasy of “Old Hollywood”, embodied by these three, Vanquishing its “Enemies”, represented by The Hippies(moralizing, pretentious, gross leftist) and potentially Polanski&Lee(foreign film ppl who refuse to integrate into the LA scene). Again, given the political history of Cali after this era, this embodiment raises some questions for me abt the film and QT’s politics(particularly in re: misogyny and feminism).

Also DiCaprio is totally going to get pitched a Reagan biopic off of this role and I sincerely hope he has the good sense to turn that shit the fuck down.

Circling back to the ranting at his critics, this movie was definitely and consciously a response to them. Like: up until the last 5-15 minutes of the film, and aside from a handful of too-lingering too fetishistic too on-the-nose creep shots of the female cast that Tarentino simply could not stop himself from making, OUATiH is precisely the sort of “Serious” film Tarentino’s critics have been saying he should make for decades now(of course he did Jackie Brown, which was that and which he blew Completely out of the park). And then there’s that bloody, gross-out, exploitation-movie ending. I dont actually think it was as bad as many critics were saying it was? For some reason I was thinking there was gonna be a massacre of the ENTIRE Manson family, which would have been totally out of left-field. But it WAS clearly a stinger of a major tone-shift thrown in as a Fuck You to the ppl who’ve called out his violent and exploitative preferences throughout the years. As for me I generally like his movies and think he’s a great filmmaker but he absolutely does go too far sometimes.

Rick Dalton, in an evening-gown, with a mixer full of iced-margarita in one hand, getting all up in the face of the driver of a loud exhaust-spewing jalope in his PRIVATE STREET was TOTALLY Tarentino himself :| By which I mean NOT ONLY that That’s ABSOLUTELY the sort of cameo he would have given himself 30 years ago and if it made any sort of sense at all in the film(which here it wouldnt have, obvsl), BUT ALSO that I feel 94% confident that Tarentino has actually done that at least once in his lifetime :| :|

I think the monologue&interactions T gives Bruce Lee leading up to the fight were probably more insulting to him than the fight itself. Contrary to popular discussion, it isn’t Pitt’s character totally trashing Lee, he gets in one good throw after Lee repeats a successful attack at his request(which I doubt Lee would have ever done from what little I know about him; not being predictable in a fight was his whole Deal), but rather an even duel between them(most of the fight is just the two blocking each others’ attacks). I dont think the film was trying to say “Lee was full of hot-air”, if it wanted to say that it’d have shown him getting trounced instead of showing him knock Booth down then trade him blow for blow, but more “Lee was pretty arrogant and a bit pretentious”.

OK, that’s abt all that I can think of right now: thanks for reading ^v^