#luckily i had a mask on and a pack of tissues in my bag. so i dropped my stuff and sped walked to the nearest bathroom

[the-yearning-astronaut]

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[marveloussupernerd]

The Flu - SakuAtsu

Writing this for my wonderful friend’s bday !! Sorry it’s posted so late whooops also this is short af bc I might do a part 2 or something idk

Summary: Omi gets the flu, which is a rare occurrence, and Atsumu goes to take care of him. Pure fluff

Background: Sakusa is attending college in Tokyo and Atsumu is still playing volleyball in his home town so like still a commute for them

Omi never got sick. Man was one of the most careful people in the world — he always wore his mask when he was out and about around large groups of people, carried hand sanitizer with him and sanitizing wipes to clean off any surface he may have to touch (the handles on the train, for instance), and made an effort to keep his home spotless, even wiping down groceries as they made their way through the door.

So when he did get sick, it kicked his ass.

The last thing he needed was to get sick now, with an exam in a little less than a week. He had outlined what he needed to study, but hadn’t actually gotten to studying yet. And it wasn’t a cold... his high fever, chills, and congestion made it very clear to him it was the flu.

What was he going to do though? He had to skip class. At least today was a Friday, so he could spend the weekend recovering. He grabbed his phone and texted Komori, begging him to bring some medicine because he couldn’t imagine pulling himself out of bed.

He hated asking people for help, or showing any sort of weakness. That’s why when Atsumu texted him, he proceeded through their conversations like usual, trying to conceal the fact that he was sick until he finally passed out from exhaustion, leaving Atsumu’s texts hanging.

Omi never left the conversation abruptly. It made Atsumu uncomfortable, but he ignored it. He was probably studying. Still, he sent him a few messages to get back to him as soon as possible.

When a few hours had passed, he asked Komori if he knew what was up, and that’s when the cat was out of the bag: Sakusa Kiyoomi was sick.

It was the weekend, so it wasn’t like Atsumu had any priorities. He packed his bag, strapped on a mask, and took the train to Tokyo.

He always traveled this trip with a mask for Omi. His boyfriend was always so careful that he’d feel like a jerk for giving him a sickness he picked up on the trip because he hadn’t been careful. His boyfriend had, admittedly, rubbed off on him just a little—trains were gross and unsanitary and he couldn’t help but think about it from time to time during the trip.

His first stop in Tokyo was at a pharmacy near Omi’s house. He purchased some canned soup (there was no way he’d be able to make anything from scratch... he was... himself), medicine, a few boxes of tissues, the hand sanitizer Omi liked, and some ice cream for good measure. The next stop was to Omi’s place.

It was a good thing they had gotten locked out that one time and his boyfriend told him about the key he hid in the flower planter. He didn’t have to wake the sick man up at all to enter the house.

“Omi Omi!?” He called, not actually expecting an answer. It was pretty clear that he had been napping, and was likely still asleep. He just hoped his boyfriend wouldn’t hear him moving around and think someone had broken in (although technically, he had).

He went to the kitchen and wiped down his groceries with Clorox wipes to make sure they were sanitary before putting them away. He pulled open one of the drawers to grab a piece of notebook paper to write to his boyfriend.

Hi Omi <3 I’m in the shower. Love you lots.

Tsumu

That would be fine for now. He slid the paper under Omi’s bedroom door and went in the direction of the bathroom. He had to make sure he washed away anything he could have picked up on the train.

He liked using Omi’s body wash — it smelled like lavender. He had never been huge on the scent in the past, but now it made him feel all warm and fuzzy, associating it with his boyfriend’s scent. He made sure to wash every square inch of his body, leaving nothing up to chance, but still tried to get done as quickly as possible. He didn’t want to keep his boyfriend waiting (more like even though he knew his boyfriend was sick, he couldn’t wait to see him... it had been two months already since their last hangout).

He turned off the shower and shook some water out of his hair, going into his bag for a fresh, clean pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. He pulled on the outfit then made his way to his boyfriend’s bedroom, knocking quietly on the door before entering.

Omi was passed out in bed, his phone next to him, blanket covering half his body. Atsumu strolled over to the bed, taking a seat on the edge of it next to his peaceful-looking boyfriend. He very gently placed his hand on the sick boy’s forehead, then put his other hand on his own forehead to compare. Yep. He was definitely warm. He tucked a stray hair off of Omi’s forehead and gently took his arm away.

He was going through a crisis of whether he should wake his boyfriend and inform him of his presence or not. He looked so relaxed, and it was probably hard to fall asleep to begin with. But also, he was very worried Omi would groggily beat the shit out of him when he woke up because he was afraid he was an intruder.

Yeah, sounded like his mind was made up.

He shook the man’s shoulder carefully. “Omi,” he whispered, trying to wake him gently. Luckily it worked, as the latter’s eyes peeled open slowly. “Hi,” Atsumu whispered.

“Tsumu?” He asked, his voice hoarse.

“Ya coulda told me you were sick,” Atsumu playfully complained, leaning forward to kiss his boyfriend’s forehead. “I was all worried.”

“I’m okay,” he frowned, but he knew that playing it cool wasn’t working. His throat felt all ticklish and he started to cough.

“You haven’t gotten sick since what? Middle school? Ya need someone to take care of you.”

“I don’t wanna make you sick...” Sakusa whispered, his eyes shutting.

“You won’t. Even if you do, though, I’m a big boy and get sick all the time too, so I’m used to it.”

“Fine. I don’t want you making me more sick because you were out,” Sakusa grumbled. It was clear he was actually concerned about his boyfriend’s health, but sometimes speaking this way was the only way to get it through to Atsumu. Tsumu was somehow the most arrogant and selfless jerk he had ever met.

“I wore a mask on the train and everything! Sanitized the groceries, took a shower before I came in here. All for you Omi,” Atsumu explained proudly, his back straightening a little bit as he spoke.

“Mm whatever,” Omi mumbled. He still hadn’t opened his eyes from when he shut them earlier. “Can we go to sleep now?”

“You want me to too?”

Sakusa reached out and grabbed his boyfriend’s hand, pulling it closer to him. “Cm’ere and lay down. This is the only time in your life you get to be big spoon.”

Atsumu carefully clambered over his boyfriend to the other side of the bed, plopping down beside him eagerly. He was trying to not make too many motions that might shake the bed and make his boyfriend nauseous, but he was extremely cuddle deprived and would be lying if he said he wasn’t on cloud nine. He wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, pressing a kiss to the back of his neck. “Sleep tight Omi. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Omi slept like a rock for a few hours. Atsumu took a nap with him, woke up, went on his phone, checked up on his boyfriend, and those sorts of things. It had probably been about three hours when Sakusa started moving, tossing and turning and trembling.

“Omi? You okay?” He asked, reaching over to feel his boyfriend’s forehead for a temperature. It felt even warmer than before.

Atsumu clambered out of bed, rushing to the kitchen to get an ice pack and a glass of water. When he returned, Omi was now mumbling in his feverish state.

“Atsumu...”

Atsumu rushed to his side, sitting on the edge of the bed. He carefully put the ice pack on his boyfriend’s head, holding it in place despite Omi’s sudden movements.

“I’m here Omi. It’s okay.”

“Don’t...” he whispered.

He pushed the sweat-coated hair off his boyfriend’s forehead so he could get the ice pack on well. “You okay?”

“I’ll be better...”

“Omi? Are you dreaming or talking with your eyes shut? You’re freaking me out.”

“I’m sorry...”

“That’s not helpful for my question honestly.”

“Don’t go...” he sniffled, inhaling heavily, the congestion making it hard to do so.

“Dreaming it is.” Atsumu shook him gently, trying to wake him up. “Get up Omi, it’s just a dream.”

His eyes snapped open, then blinked furiously, a few tears escaping as he did so. “Tsumu?”

“It’s okay. I’m here. It was just a dream,” Atsumu cooed softly, dropping the ice pack and opting cup his face gently and stroke the tears off his cheek.

Sakusa sat up, scooting to his boyfriend to give him a hug, burying his face in the crook of his neck. “Had a dream you left. Said you didn’t love me,” he muttered. “I was still sick and everything.”

“I’d never do that.” Atsumu kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything.”

“I know. But I’m sorry Dream Atsumu did that.”

Omi laughed, a pitiful laugh that sent him into a coughing fit, but a laugh nonetheless.

“Oh! Let me check your temperature. You feel warm,” Atsumu remembered, scrambling out of his boyfriend’s grip to run to the bathroom cupboard and grab a thermometer. He quickly returned to his spot, sweeping his legs to plop down on the bed. He held the thermometer out towards his boyfriend. “Say ‘aw’.”

Sakusa sighed, rolling his eyes, then opened his mouth and let out a small ‘aw’. Atsumu put the thermometer in his mouth and waited patiently, silently, as the temperature was being read.

“102. Why is your thermometer in Fahrenheit?”

Sakusa laughed. “I didn’t realize it was when I bought it.”

A Google search later told the two that it was, indeed, a fever, but he would be okay.

“You sure you’re alright? You wanna take some more medicine and go back to sleep?” Atsumu offered, laying back on the bed.

“Not yet. I don’t think I can sleep anymore.”

Atsumu paused, a small smile forming on his face.

“What is it Miya? You’re scaring me...” Sakusa asked, averting his gaze from the blonde’s.

“You know what’ll help your fever? Ice cream. If you’re up for it, I bought a pint.” Atsumu offered, looking up at his boyfriend with a very small pleading look that said ‘please give me ice cream or I’ll cry’.

“Okay,” Omi smiled. “It’s going to help me get better, so how can I say no?”

[mtngirlforever]

Tyler Kennedy

Alright guys so here is my 1st Tarlos one shot. I haven't written anything in 2 years so I felt really rusty, but I couldn't quit writing. Please leave me your thoughts! I'll get it up on Ao3 in just a bit! 😘 I haven't posted in so long I no longer know how to do the keep reading line so someone wanna shoot a girl a line and help her out?? Until then sorry guys!

TK was a little pissy when his dad put Judd in charge of the call. Sure the dude was from Texas and was probably the most qualified for this, but he rubbed TK the wrong way most of the time. However, he was going to suck it up with some attitude until Marjan went down. No way was he losing a team member when he could reach her. He heard Judd's screams of no, but he didn't care. And really if he went down would it really matter? 

The rush he felt when he unclipped and reached for Marjan was the high he'd been missing. The adrenaline rush was powerful and left him feeling high like only the pills could. The corn was like quicksand, and by the time he had a good grip on Marjan, he was going down too. He sucked in a deep breath as he felt himself get separated from Marjan. The pressure around his chest was unbearable, but it was the first thing he'd really truly felt since the night Alex ruined his life. 

When he stumbled out into the light and took his first deep breath, it hurt but he was more worried about finding Marjan. It could've ended much worse, but they were all in one piece when they returned to the station. What he wasn't expecting was for Judd to blindside him when they got out of the rig. His chest was hurting and he was pretty sure it was just bruises, but he wasn't backing down from this confrontation. 

He didn't appreciate Judd's tone or the fact that he was insinuating TK only had a job because his dad was captain. Shoving Judd was his first instinct to let his anger out, and thankfully Judd was willing to fight back. It wasn't helping his ribs any, but at that moment he didn't care. 

After Paul separated them, he decided it was finally time to see Michelle. His chest was hurting with each really deep breath he took and he was sure it was just from the dive down the corn. He knocked on her office door glad to see his dad wasn't across the way. When he heard her call come in he opened and closed the door quietly. 

"TK what can I do for you?" Michelle asked giving him her full attention. 

"Just… uh.. needed to see if you got a second?" 

"Of course what's up?" 

TK made sure his dad hadn't come up before turning back to Michelle. "I think maybe the pressure in the silo was too much after all. It hurts with really deep breaths but I don't think anything's broke. And I… I don't wanna tell dad, and I can't…. I won't go to the hospital because I can't take anything they'd give me so can ya… can you just make sure its bruises?" 

"Yea come on. We can go to my bunk side. No one will know. And whatever you tell me will be in confidence." 

TK gave her a nod of thanks before following her out. Michelle gave him a quick once over and confirmed what he knew that it was just some bruising. She told him to take Tylenol if it was too painful since he appeared not to want anything stronger. He gave her a thanks before going out. Luckily shift was almost over and the rest of his shift was quite. 

That night despite still being angry at Judd, TK decided to stay in and rest. Across town, Carlos and Michelle were meeting up for beers at Carlos’s house. While he would love to help her find her sister, he was starting to lose hope. It had been three years, and no serious leads. He did think he’d gotten his point across by giving her the list of blue pickup trucks, and pointing out that Dustin did not own a blue truck. 

What he wasn’t fully prepared for was to spill his guts about TK. While he had missed their two-way street friendship, he’d initially been teasing. Until she turned serious and really wanted to know about his latest hookup. And truthfully, he didn’t know what to say because he really didn’t know anything about the guy. 

“I met someone, we hooked up, and then it got weird,” he said with a shrug. 

“Doesn’t it always,” she laughed. 

“No Michelle, it doesn’t always get weird,” he said exasperated. 

“So? Tell me about this boy," she relented. 

“You know him actually,” he said with a dramatic pause as she looked at him to continue. “TK Strand,” he said as she gasped at him. 

“Nice!” 

“Yea. He’s a ten and now I kinda can’t get him out of my head.” 

“So why don’t you ask him out?” 

“Oh no! He’d probably ghost me. I just hate being the one doing the chasing.” 

“Why? You’re the one with the handcuffs,” she joked as he rolled his eyes at her. “But speaking of, TK had an interesting day.” 

“Oh yea? How?” Carlos asked suddenly intrigued.

“You hear about the silo call?” At his nod Michelle continued; “Well, he decided to ignore Judd’s warnings and unclipped his line thinking he could save Marjan. They had to cut the side of the silo because he and Marjan got sucked down. So they went for a tumble. The pressure was too much for him and bruised his ribs. He came to me in confidence so I shouldn’t even be telling you, but just thought you’d wanna know, “ she winked. She could tell it was more than a hookup for Carlos and she had an idea TK needed someone in his corner so she didn't mind spilling what she knew.

Carlos let it roll over in his mind. TK ignored a direct order, and could’ve died had they not got the side cut soon enough. That did not sound promising after his freak out over a dinner. He let his thoughts tumble over each other as Michelle finished her beer and headed out for the night. Carlos ended up crashing on his couch, just managing to get enough sleep before his shift the next day. 

He was pulling a twelve hour shift starting at noon, and by the time it was getting late and getting close to him being off, he saw the one person he was not ready to see being lead into the station. Despite knowing he should distance himself, he couldn’t help it. He had to see what TK had done to be brought in in cuffs. 

He managed to get the officer that brought him in to leave him at Carlos’s desk, while Carlos went to find out what happened. When the other two wouldn’t talk and TK’s breathalyzer test was a 0.0, he decided he would be the one to cut him loose. He wanted to know why the guy he couldn’t get out of his head was suddenly on a suicide mission two days in a row. He saw TK hunched over his desk holding an ice pack to his eye. Had his hands been free, Carlos would bet his arm would be wrapped around his ribs. He knew they had to be killing him from the information Michelle had disclosed. 

The look on TK’s face when he sat down was honestly priceless. “Seriously?” he said with as much attitude as possible.

Carlos acted like it didn’t bother him; “Austin’s a small town TK; or should I say Tyler Kennedy.” TK grunted in response without looking up. “Bummer about getting arrested, people might find out your real name. Which marks the first actual thing I’ve learned about you.” 

Finally the ice pack drops, but the attitude doesn’t. “Isn’t you processing me like a conflict of interest or something?” 

“The good news is, neither of your new friends want to talk about that little scuffle tonight, and since you blew a 0.0, we’re not even giving you a drunk and disorderly. You’re free to go,” he says all this as he unlocks the cuffs. 

“What’s the bad news?” TK asks hesitantly. The no reaction and no questions from Carlos was making him nervous. 

“The bad news is that means you did this with a clear head.” TK won’t meet his eyes so he decides to push on. “I’m not trying to be your boyfriend or even your friend if you’re not into it,” he says while trying to catch TK’s eyes. He wants to make sure his point is getting across because he wants TK to know someone does care about him. “But you should talk to someone about why you felt compelled to do something so suicidal,” he pauses as TK finally meets his eyes; “two days in a row.” 

They have a brief stare down before TK reaches for the bag with his things. Carlos backs off, knowing he probably pushed too far, but he wants TK to know he’s not alone. When TK is still sitting there, he drops the box of tissues in front of him and goes back to the not bothered attitude. He’s not sure he wants TK to see how much he affects him. “Got a little crud by the way,” he says while pointing at his lip. 

He dropped the cuffs on his desk trying not to think about what Michelle had said. He tries to appear busy, but he can’t help but watch TK out of the corner of his eye. He's nowhere close to getting the dried blood off his lip. “Other side,” he said giving himself away and getting a look and a huff from TK. 

TK moves to the middle and sort of the other side, but he’s still not getting it. “Stop,” Carlos says exasperated. “Just let me.” He grabs a tissue and reaches over when TK moves back just a touch before his head stills. Carlos holds in his sigh and waits. When TK is still he reaches over and wipes the blood. It’s intimate and he shouldn’t get used to it because he knows TK will eventually bolt, but he can’t help but wish they could have more intimate moments. He can’t take his eyes off TK and thankfully TK is looking back. 

He’s almost positive his face is an open book of hurt and curiosity and desire, but he can’t seem to mask it. The things TK does to him is unbelievable. He gets a quiet “Thanks,” as he appears to go back to paperwork. He tries to stay focused and not move when TK leans in closer so just Carlos can hear him. And what comes next is definitely not what Carlos was expecting. 

“I’m sorry I went crazy on you the other night,” he says, and he sounds so sincere and upset about it. Carlos doesn’t want to let him know just how much it’d stung when he walked out the door so he decided to play it cool. 

“I’m a cop; I’m used to crazy.” He keeps working, but deep inside he’s absorbing everything and his stupid heart is doing flips. 

He sees TK try to find the words to go on when Carlos won’t look at him. He’s really trying here, trying like he hasn’t in a while. He’s not sure why he is, but that spark he had with Carlos was the most he’d felt until he dived down the silo and got in the fight. He didn’t want to give that up even if he’d acted like an ass the other night.

“Look I just went through a really bad breakup, like nuclear bad. And then I relapsed,” he says all the while never taking his eyes off Carlos. He wants Carlos to know he’s being as open as possible at the moment, and why he is the way he is. 

“You mean with me?” Carlos says again without even looking at TK.

“No,” TK says dropping his eyes at the same time Carlos cuts his eyes to look at him. TK finally has his attention, and he’s not sure how to handle it. He’s ashamed and embarrassed, and he really doesn’t want the hot cop he was hooking up with to know how bad he really is. He knows he’s a fuck up and his dad knows it, but he’s still not gotten comfortable with everyone else knowing just how much of a fuck up he really is. And that’s another reason Judd’s words hit close to home. At this point it really is because of his dad that he’s still a firefighter and still working, still here even. 

His eyes stay on the ground as he admits the truth. He’s come this far, he might as well lay it out there and let Carlos run free. No way he’s going to want anything to do with him after he knows most of the truth. “I mean with substances,” he says carefully. He can’t admit more than that at the moment, but he knows if Carlos was ever to stick around, he’d admit the full truth. But he knows that’s never a possibility. He’s debating running when Carlos finally speaks. 

“Right. Which explains your reaction to the champagne. I’m such an idiot. I’m-”

“No,” TK starts to interrupt, but Carlos continues, “I’m sorry,” he says as TK finishes his thought; “It’s fine okay?” He finally makes eye contact again before he continues not exactly sure where the word vomit is coming from. “I mean ever since I’ve gotten here it’s just…. It’s just gray, and I just feel numb all the time.” He pauses to decide how else to word it because he knows it’s going to sound bad, but he doesn’t have the words when he’s flayed open and raw. “I guess I just…. I wanted to feel something.” 

When Carlos just stares at him, he quickly grabs his things out of the bag and stands to make a run for it. He knew this was a bad idea opening himself up to someone else. No one could put up with his bratty attitude and fears and failures. As he turns the corner of the desk, Carlos speaks again, and it’s the last thing TK expected. 

“Judging by that lip, I’d say mission accomplished.” 

TK’s hand falls on the desk to prop himself up. His ribs are really killing him, his head is starting to pound, and he just laid most of his vulnerabilities out there and Carlos wants to bust his balls. He gives him his best go to hell look before speaking. “You really busting my balls right now?” he says in disbelief. 

“Yea suppose I am,” Carlos says with enough of a smirk that TK can’t stop his own smile from forming. TK goes to leave and Carlos lets him get a few steps down the hallway before he stops him. “I know you’re in pain, do you want to go to the hospital? My shift is over in another hour, but I could cut out early,” he says with a hand on TK’s arm. 

“Na. Don’t want what they’d give me anyways. Michelle told me to just take Tylenol.” While he’d love to give in to the offer and he knows it’d make him feel immensely better, he’s not going to disappoint his dad again. But it’s more than that now. He doesn’t want to let Carlos down, now that he knows the truth. 

“At least let me drive you home. You don’t have a car Tiger,” he says with a smirk. 

TK looks around before leaning into Carlos a little. “Yea… Yea that’d be fine. Long as you can leave.” He doesn’t want Carlos getting in trouble for him. 

“Yea. Just give me a few,” he says tossing TK’s jacket around his shoulders and leading him back to his desk. TK sits down wrapping an arm around his ribs as he hunched over a little. He couldn’t wait to get home and fall face first into bed. 

“Here,” Carlos said handing him two extra strength Tylenol and a bottle of water. “I’ll be ready in five. Just let me get my stuff.” TK offered him a nod and a smile before downing the pills. 

The ride through town was quiet. “Where to?” Carlos finally asked when he needed to turn one way or another. 

TK was biting his abused lip in thought. He didn’t want to go home and his dad see him this way, but he didn’t want to assume anything about going to Carlos’s. He’d caused him enough trouble tonight and laid way too much out there. A soft hand on his arm stopped the abuse his teeth were inflicting on his already abused lip. 

“You can come home with me if you want…. Tyler,” Carlos said quietly. His actual name rolling off those sexy lips sent a shiver down his spine. No one had called him that in a really long time.

“Don’t want to put you out or cause you more trouble,” TK said quietly. 

Carlos reached over and grabbed his chin, turning TK to look at him. “I meant it when I said I wouldn’t be anything you’re not comfortable with, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t gladly be whatever you wanted or needed.”

“Just to sleep. Got shift in the morning,” TK said after a small pause. He wasn't up to anything more tonight, not with the pain he was in.

“Just to sleep,” Carlos smiled before turning for home. 

Once home, Carlos went to shower, after laying out a pair of sweats and clean shirt for TK. TK settled in bed while Carlos was in the shower. He was suddenly so exhausted and he knew he needed as much sleep as possible before shift. He wasn’t sure how he’d explain away the black eye and split lip to his dad just yet, but he’d figure something out. Carlos’s bed was so comfortable that he was asleep before Carlos was out of the shower. 

The next morning when his alarm went off, TK let out a groan. “There’s a shirt on the dresser. Keep the sweats,” Carlos mumbled sleepily. 

“Thanks,” TK whispered before rolling over and giving Carlos a searing kiss. His ribs protested the held breath, but he couldn’t resist kissing the hottest guy that made him feel something other than numb and that had taken care of him when he needed it.

“Go out with me tonight?” Carlos mumbled sleepily. Stupid Michelle and her stupid advice he thought, when TK paused getting up. “Just darts at the bar,” Carlos said as an afterthought. “Nothing fancy.. Just whatever…” 

“Yea,” TK interrupted. “Yea. Sure. Shift’s over at eight. It’s a date.” 

“It’s a date Tyler Kennedy,” Carlos smiled before shutting his eyes again at TK’s groan. He had a feeling Carlos would not be letting the full name go anytime soon now that he knew it.

Shift drug by, and his anger with Judd returned tenfold when he saw him again. By the time he was off shift, he wasn’t sure he would be much fun, but he wasn’t bailing. He downed two more Tylenol before heading to the bar where Carlos was already waiting. After ordering his mineral water, he joined Carlos over at the dart board. 

It wasn’t but a few minutes and Judd and Grace joined the crowd at the bar, and TK’s mood soured. He started ranting about Judd and where he got off on his high horse for a solid twenty minutes. His aim is off because he’s letting his anger fuel his throws. Carlos throws as he keeps ranting, and TK turns to get the darts. 

“You know if I was a less secure man, I might be bothered by the fact that I worked up the nerve to ask you out, and you’ve spent the entire night talking about another guy,” Carlos teases. And it’s clear in his voice he’s giving TK a hard time. 

“Well it pisses me off,” TK says as if it’s not obvious. 

“I noticed,” Carlos smirks thinking of all the ways they could work his anger out of him. TK hands the darts back to him, and Carlos can’t help but call him out on his brattiness. “Guess he hit a nerve,” he says before throwing again. 

“What is that supposed to mean?” TK asks as if he doesn't know. 

“Nothing,” Carlos says before going one step further. “Just seems like nobody’s ever spoken to you that way before.”

“You think he’s right?” TK asks disbelieving.

Carlos finishes throwing the darts before answering him, letting TK work it out for himself. “Do you?” he asks TK when TK pulls the darts out of the board. 

TK lets out a deep breath deciding on what to say. Instead of continuing the argument, he decides to go with something he hopes is threatening enough to get Carlos to drop it. “You know I’m holding a dart.” 

“And I’m packing a piece,” Carlos says with a straight face and without missing a beat. 

TK thinks of something smart to say back, but the only thing coming to mind is how hot Carlos looks in that moment. “That’s hot,” he finally spits out.  Needless to say that was the last round of darts and they were leaving. TK’s ribs were still sore enough that anything more than cuddling and making out in bed was out of the question. But for once, TK was ok with it. Carlos cared; he was still there even though he knew TK was a fuck up; he didn’t put up with his shit, and he let him just be. Since moving to Austin, he finally felt like he was truly going to be ok and wouldn’t be numb forever. 

“Sleep Tyler Kennedy,” he heard whispered in his hair as he drifted off feeling safe and truly cared for. 

[bangtangcorner]

Blueberry Muffins - Kim Namjoon

pairings: idol!kim namjoon x half Italian!half Spanish!reader (lol don’t ask why, I did it for fun)

word count: 2.08k

summary: It’s been a few months since you started dating Namjoon. When he texts you one day that he’s in a bad mood, you pay him a visit with the sacred thing that brought you two together : Blueberry Muffins.

warnings: a few cuss words, FLUFF, Yoongi with his gummy smile and Kookie with his bunny smile, Namjoon just being a WHOLE ASS BABY

a/n: I’ve just begun writing on tumblr so I’m a little nervous about putting my stuff out there. I’ll improve with time I promise and I hope you like this! Feedback and criticism of any kind is always appreciated <3

(Edited)

****

“4 blueberry muffins and 1 hot chocolate to go please.” I smiled at Sinthia. Her eyes crinkled as she grinned and started shuffling behind the counter.

“No chocolate chip cookies today?” She asked as she bent down behind the shelf.

“Nope, he’s not in a good mood today. Blueberry muffins are for turning the sour mood into sweet, they somehow always work.”

“I think we both know why they work sweetheart.” Sinthia said as she came up from behind the counter with a paper bag in her hand. I tilted my head to the side and looked at her with a puzzled face, silently asking her what she meant.

“Don’t you remember the first time you both met in this very cafe?”

I smiled as the fond memory replayed in my head.

“The usual Sinthia, thank you.” I smiled at the little woman behind the counter and moved to the side.

My phone vibrated in the back pocket of my jeans. Pulling it out I saw that it was my mom calling, my fingers immediately swiped across the screen.

“Mama!”

“Come stai mio caro? (How are you my darling?)

“Sto bene mama, come stai?" (I’m doing well mom, how are you?)

“Sono grande dolcezza, come vanno le lezioni? Com'è Y/f/n?” (I’m great my sweetness, how are classes? How’s y/f/n?)

“Le lezioni sono frenetiche mama.”(The classes are hectic mom) A sigh escaped past my lips, “Ma per fortuna ho Y/f/n per superare tutta la merda.” (But luckily I have Y/f/n to get through all the shit.)

“linguaggio!” (Language!) I chuckled as she laughed in return. I could imagine her shaking her head, eyes rolling at my behavior.

“I-”

“Excuse me sweetheart.” I whipped my head around to see Sinthia looking at me.

“Yes Sinthia?” I asked my mom to wait for a second and muted the call.

“That young man over there” She pointed to a man behind me. I turned around to see a man with blond hair sitting in the corner booth, his chin perched on his palm as he stared out at the street.

I turned back to look at Sinthia, “What about him?

“He has ordered a blueberry muffin too. But the problem is that I only have one of those sweet treats left and he looked really upset. Do you mind if I give it to him? I can pack your favorite chocolate scones instead.”

I smiled, “Of course, it’s no big deal.”

Sinthia grinned and patted my shoulder, “You really are a gem, tesoro.(Darling)”

“Y/n? la mia bambina? (My baby girl?)”

“Shit” I muttered as I realized my mom was still on hold.

“Mama, posso richiamarti prima o poi? (Mom, Can I call you back in sometime?)

“Certo baby” (Sure baby)

“Va bene, ciao mama, ti amo!” (Okay, bye mom, I love you!)  

“Ti amo troppo cara!” (Love you too dear!)

Cutting the call, I saw Sinthia circling around the counter, probably going to give the stranger his order.

“Hey Sinthia, wait up!” She spun around to look at me.

“Do you mind if I give it to him?”

“Do you mind if I ask why?”

“Just wanted to see the man who was stealing my favorite food.” A sly smile took over my face and Sinthia giggled, handing the tray to me.

“He’s all yours.”

I looked down at the tray to see a cup of black coffee and the blueberry muffin I had been craving since yesterday. Shaking my head, I made my way to the corner booth.

“Hey, um, excuse me”

He turned around to look at me, “Yes?”

Suddenly, I couldn’t speak. He was gorgeous, absolutely breathtaking. His blond locks were messy on top of his head, mask pulled down to his chin, lips full and red. His eyes bore into mine as I stood there frozen, unable to do anything in front of the Greek-God like human.He also looked awfully familiar.

“Um?” His voice snapped me out my stance as I cleared my throat and let out a breath I’d been holding since the minute my eyes landed on his beautiful face.

“I, uh, I have your order.” I said, placing the tray on the table.

“Oh, thank you, I didn’t see any waitress when I had walked in?”

“Oh no, I’m not a waitress.”

Now I had begun to question my decision of serving him, why did I ask to do this again? This was probably the stupidest decision of my life.

“Oh okay?” He frowned as he looked up at me.

Without thinking, I quickly slid into the seat in front him and began talking.

“I’ve been coming to this cafe for almost 3 years now. I moved here when I got into Seoul National University. This has kind of been my safe place since then, not to mention Sinthia has been a mother like figure for me. She also helps me learn Korean and sometimes gives me yummy treats for free. Anyways, so today we were partnered up for a literature project and I was paired up with this cocky jock who’s so fucking full of myself. Then someone spilled their coffee on my favorite white top. It’s just been a shit day and I really wanted one of Sinthia’s blueberry muffins with the delicious dark roast she makes. But then it turns out you looked upset too so I let you have the last blueberry muffin.”

At the end of my mini rant, I squeezed my eyes shut, face turning red from embarrassment. I had literally just said random shit to a complete stranger who already looked like he wanted to be left alone.

“Here.” His voice made me snap open my eyes.

He was wiping his mouth with a tissue as he passed me the remaining half of the muffin.

“It looks like we both need something to lighten up.” He smiled and I swear I felt my heart skip a beat.

And then suddenly, it clicked.

“Holy shit” I mumbled.

“Is everything okay?”

I looked him dead in the eye, “You’re RM! Oh my god I just said complete nonsense to one of the biggest stars in the world.” I leaned back against the seat and mentally smacked myself for making a fool out of myself in front of one of  the world’s biggest idols.

“Cosa c'è che non va nella tua ragazza!” (What is wrong with you girl!) I muttered to myself.

“Ahh you recognized me, but for now I’m Namjoon.” He took out his hand for me to shake, a small smile still tugged on his lips.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself down and took his extended hand in mine.

“Hi Namjoon, I’m Y/n.”

“You’re Italian Y/n? I heard you speak on the phone earlier.”

“You heard me?” I squealed.

He laughed, “Yeah, it’s 1am in the morning and we’re the only ones here.”

“Wait, you know Italian?”

“A little bit, I could catch a few words you spoke.”

“Half Italian, half Spanish actually.”

“That’s interesting.”

“You bet.”

“Oh by the way, I have no clue why I just came and dumped all of my problems on you, I’m really sorry for that.” I sighed and inwardly cringed at my actions.

“Aigo, stop worrying. Tell me more about your literature project and this jock you’re paired up with.”

“Y/n! Earth to Y/n?” Sinthia waved her hands in front of my face. I jumped slightly and laughed, “Sorry, took a little trip down the memory lane.”

Her face beamed at my words as she passed me the bag of muffins and the cup of hot chocolate.I took out my wallet to pay but was stopped by little hands clutching my fingers.

“Don’t, it’s on me tonight.” Sinthia grinned.

“But I-”

“No buts Y/n, go make your superstar boyfriend’s day.”

“You spoil us too much I swear.”

****

“Noona!”

“Jungkookie!”

Our laughter died in the air as we embraced each other. I pulled back and ruffled his black hair as he gave me his famous bunny smile.

“How are you noona?”

“I’m great Kook, is he still in the studio?”

“Yeah, he’s working on some new tracks with Yoongi hyung.”

“And that of course means he must have not eaten for hours.” I sighed, his habits always worried me.

“You got that right.”

“Good thing I come bearing treats.” I said, raising the paper bag in my hand and shaking it with a cheeky smile on my face.

A big smile stretched across his face as he made grabby hands towards me.

“Gimme Gimme Gimme”

I giggled,”Take one Jungkookie, we have to save some for Yoongi and Namjoon hyung.” Jungkook happily retreated one muffin from the bag and released a content ‘hmm’ after taking the first bite.

“I’m gonna go and see him now Kookie.”

He nodded. “He’ll be happy to see you.”

“알아,준비 됐어 “ (I know, I’m prepared)

His eyes widened as his choked on the muffin. I laughed loudly and made my down the hall to the Rkive.

Knocking twice I heard Yoongi shout, “뭐?” (What?)

Without replying, I opened the door, revealing Namjoon and Yoongi hunched over the studio board. Namjoon’s eyes met mine and a big grin stretched across his face.

“Hi Y/n” Yoongi said smiling while getting up.

“Hey” I said and pulled him in for a side hug.

“What’s that?” He asked, looking at the paper bag in my hand. I opened it and tilted it towards him, “Have one”

He looked down and pushed his hand inside it, pulling out a muffin. A gummy smile appeared on his face as he turned around and pointed at Namjoon,”당신은 자신에게 맞는 여자를 얻었다” (You got yourself the right girl.)

Namjoon chuckled and flipped him off. Yoongi stuck his tongue out at him, gave me one last toothy grin and made his way out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

“Hey” He said as I walked towards him, placing the muffins on the side table. Swinging my leg across his thighs, I straddled him, my arms locking behind his shoulders. His hands take a hold of my waist, face nuzzling in my neck. His deep breath hits my skin, making a shiver run down my spine. I took my right hand and massaged his scalp earning a little whine from him. I giggled, the soft boy in my arms making my heart turn to mush.

“You’re too cute.” My soft voice broke the comfortable silence.

He looked up at me and snorted, “I’m sorry, have you looked at yourself in the mirror jagi? You’re literally the definition of cute.”

Now it was my turn to snort, my hands cupped his rosy cheeks as he leaned in my palm, “Stop being cheesy Joonie.”

“Can’t help it when it comes to you.” He placed a very soft kiss on my lips, letting it linger for a few seconds. My heart combusted at the action, senses fogging as I lost myself in the feeling of his soft lips on mine.

“I got you something to eat.” I said pulling away and getting up. Picking up the bag of muffins, I threw them in his lap and sprawled across the small couch.

He opened the bag and whistled,”You know me too well.”

He immediately started munching on the muffins, now looking much more relaxed under the dim lights of his studio.

“You can’t keep doing this you know.”

“Doing what?” His voice came out muffled as he chewed on the delicious muffin.

“Neglecting your health, overworking, stressing too damn much.”

“I don’t do it purposefully.” He grumbled, brows furrowing.

“I know baby.” I turn to my side and fold my arm, plopping my head on my palm.”But you have to take care of yourself Joon, your heath should be the priority.”

He wiped his hands against the back of his sweats and came towards me. In the next second, I was squeezed below Namjoon’s body.

I squealed, “What the fuck are you doing?! Namjoon!”

“Hmm” He mumbled as his arms circled around my figure and pulled me closer to him, if that was even possible.

“Get up Joonie.” I whined from under him.

“No” He grumbled, placing his head on my chest, his long legs draped over mine.

“We’re too big for this couch Namjoon.”

“Doesn’t matter, just wanna be close to you.”

My breath hitched in my throat as I repeated his words in my head. He was too good to me, I didn’t deserve an angel like him. I shifted underneath him and he whined in return.

“닥쳐 (shut up), I’m trying to get comfortable.”

He hummed.

I smiled to myself.

****

Masterlist

[snifflyjoonie]

Sharing is Caring

In which Taehyung tries to endure a long flight while also trying to hide a cold.

snz-centric with Taehyung as the sickie and the other members (but mainly Jimin) as the caretaker(s).

Word count: 2951

a/n: Hey guys!! This request fulfillment is a collab with the ever-lovely @bttwenty-whump! We had a lot of fun working on this together and really hope you enjoy it.

–

Catching a cold on tour was inevitable. Once one of the members got sick — a cold, the flu, or anything in between — it would spread through the rest of the group one by one like wildfire. This tour, of course, had been no different. 

Jin had been the first to fall ill. He had done his best to separate himself from the others, but with the type of work they did self isolating always proved to be difficult. For the first few days everything seemed to be going well — Jin did his best to keep to himself and the other members did their best to avoid him — but when Hoseok began complaining of a sore throat a few days later, they all knew it was only downhill from there.

So far, Taehyung seemed to be the only member to have escaped the cold that had been going around. He had even gone as far as to joke that he was immune to the cold because of his impenetrable immune system. However, on the morning before their next concert, he knew that he was wrong.

Taehyung was the last member to wake up in the morning, which wasn’t very unusual. However, when he realized that he couldn’t breathe through his nose no matter how much he sniffled, he knew he had caught the dreaded cold. They didn’t have time to get sick anymore; this was during a tour and Taehyung couldn’t hold the others back. Even if his voice sounded awful, he had to pretend like everything was fine for as long as he could.

He breathed out a sigh and stretched, feeling his back pop in protest. They had a long day of travel ahead of them and he didn’t have much time to feel sorry for himself. He tried to get himself ready quickly to make up for waking up late. They had a plane to catch and the last thing he wanted to hear were the others’ scoldings; especially now that a dull ache was starting to form behind his eyes. 

Taehyung had just about finished throwing the last of his belongings into a travel bag when Hoseok started knocking on his hotel door. The rest of the group was ready to head to the airport and Taehyung was the last member still packing. For a moment Taehyung hesitated to open the door; he knew Hoseok was usually pretty empathetic to how the other members were feeling and didn’t want the fact that he’d gotten sick to be brought to anyone’s attention — especially after all the bragging he’d done prior about his immune system. Thankfully however, when he opened the door Hoseok didn’t seem to notice that anything was wrong and instead helped the younger man grab the last of his things before escorting him to the rest of the waiting members.

The group received a quick briefing of the travel plans from their staff before being escorted along to their transportation. The process of loading everyone and everything into the vehicles itself was quick, despite the group’s early morning sluggishness. The ride to the airport was spent mostly in silence aside from the occasional sniffle that escaped a few of the members who were still recovering. Taehyung spent most of his time trying to suppress the urges he felt to clear his throat and rubbing away any type of compromising itch he felt in the back of his nose.

Boarding the plane was a different story. As soon as Taehyung stepped out of the car to head inside of the airport a chilly breeze caught him off guard. It was that time of the year when temperatures were beginning to drop and trees were beginning to lose their leaves. He wasn’t expecting it to be this cold outside, though. He greatly regretted choosing not to wear something warmer; all he had to protect himself from the cold air was a scarf and a face mask.

It was then that his nose started to run. Taehyung tried to make his sniffles as quiet as possible, not wanting the other members to catch on to his condition. At the very least, they would be boarding soon, so he wouldn’t have to endure the cold for much longer. Still, if he wanted to stop his nose from running, he would need tissues; sniffling could only prevent the inevitable for so long. Surely one of the members was bound to have some tissues on their person. Taehyung could just ask for some tissues once they boarded the plane. The cold air would be a great excuse for needing tissues and it wouldn’t raise too much suspicion about his health.

But there was just one problem: none of the members had any tissues.

The first member he had gone to had been Namjoon. The leader was just getting over the cold himself so Taehyung had high hopes he’d have some tissues to spare.

“Hmm, sorry…” Namjoon had murmured sympathetically from behind a tissue; Taehyung had caught the leader mid-blow, “This was my last one.”

When that failed, he had turned to Jimin as the group began lining up to board.

“Tissues…? Are you feeling sick?”

Taehyung had quickly denied Jimin’s accusations and left the man’s side in a hurry before more questions could be asked. He should have known better. Jimin was his best friend and normally had a good eye for when he was feeling under the weather. 

As a last ditch effort Taehyung had approached Jin in the aisle of the plane. His nose had started to run pretty steadily by then and the vocalist had to press the back of his hand against it in an attempt to stop the flow; his face mask now pulled down beneath his chin. Jin was the eldest of the group and the others always turned to him to handle things when situations got hairy. Taehyung prayed Jin would be able to help him out even though the eldest wasn’t sick anymore himself. 

“I’m sorry Taehyung-ah.” Jin had sighed apologetically, “I gave my last pack to Namjoon earlier. Why don’t you ask him for some?”

Taehyung gave up after that and quickly found his seat on the plane. He really wasn’t looking forward to this flight. If his runny nose wasn’t enough to make him uncomfortable, his headache would undoubtedly get worse as soon as the altitude changed. Hopefully, he would just be able to fall asleep before the other members noticed that something was up. Jimin already seemed to be getting suspicious.

As if his incessantly runny nose wasn’t enough, Taehyung was beginning to feel an itch forming in his sinuses. He sniffled, hoping that it would help relieve the discomfort, but it only made the sensation worse. Soon enough, Taehyung was forced to cup his hands around his nose as his breath began to hitch intensely.

Jimin, who was only a few seats away from Taehyung, seemed to notice that something was wrong. “Tae?” he asked, assuming that the man was crying. “Is everything okay?” As soon as Jimin placed a hand on Taehyung’s shoulder, the latter let out a booming sneeze that startled all of the members, even the ones who previously weren’t paying any attention to the situation.

“Whoa, that was loud,” Yoongi said with a wince. “You all right, Tae? You’re not getting sick, are you?” The last thing they needed was one more sick member. Namjoon was just starting to get over his cold and they were all hoping that it would simply skip Taehyung. Now however, they were worried that the bug might have caught up with Taehyung after all.

Taehyung felt his cheeks flush red as all the members’ gazes turned to him. He tried to wipe his hands on his pants as subtly as possible before pulling his face mask back over his mouth and nose in an attempt to hide his blush.

“No, no...I feel fine.”  He murmured sheepishly, “I think it’s just from the cold air.”

“Something’s been going around.” Jungkook spoke up from behind Taehyung, a worried expression stuck on his face. He had just recovered a few days prior himself and knew how bad it could get, “Maybe you’ve caught it, hyung.” Taehyung shook his head, adamant that his sniffling and sneezing was simply due to the cold air despite the fact that even the members who were still getting over their colds weren’t at all affected. 

“Leave him alone, you guys,” Namjoon said, drawing the attention away from Taehyung. “It’s not a big deal. We have a long flight ahead of us and we really don’t need to be stressing each other out right now. If he says he’s fine, then I believe him.” Even though Namjoon was able to convince the other members, Taehyung noticed the way his gaze lingered on him for just a moment too long.

“Thanks, hyung,” Taehyung whispered to Namjoon once the rest of the members were distracted by their own activities and conversations, “That was really nihh…” His breath began to hitch again as yet another tickle began to form in his sinuses. “Really n-nihh...nice of you.” Luckily, he was able to finish his sentence without any incident, sniffling harshly once the urge to sneeze went away.

Namjoon gave him a weird look. Rightfully so, Taehyung supposed. He was acting pretty suspicious, after all. Now he just needed to keep this cold (which he was now coming to terms with) under control for the rest of the flight. It couldn’t be that difficult, could it?

Well, like most of the assumptions Taehyung had made that day, he was wrong.

It started with the take off. Normally, Taehyung had no problems with take offs or landings and he very rarely would get sick on a plane. This time however, his ears refused to pop no matter what he tried, and as the plane continued to gain altitude, the pressure in his head only increased painfully. Eventually it left him curled in on himself with his hands pressed flat against his ears — it even made him whimper. Luckily Yoongi, who was sitting directly across from the other, heard the small noise, took one look at Taehyung, and knew how to help. Quickly he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a stick of gum, tapping Taehyung on the shoulder to accept it, which he did gratefully. 

Taehyung fumbled with the wrapper for a moment before eagerly popping the stick of gum into his mouth. The chewing sensation instantly made the man’s ears pop and he sighed in relief before turning to thank his hyung for the quick thinking.

Yoongi nodded back, “Don’t worry about it. I’m surprised though,” he said, “That’s never happened to you before, has it?”

Taehyung mulled it over for a moment before realizing the other was right — he’d never experienced that before. His ears had always popped right away during flights.

“There are a lot of things that could’ve caused it.” Yoongi reassured, “It gets really bad if you’re congested.” He shrugged before Taehyung could say anything, “But sometimes it just happens. Anyway, try to get some rest. This is going to be a long flight.”

Taehyung nodded, happy that Yoongi didn’t press the congestion issue much further. He knew it would be best to take his hyung’s advice and try to sleep, but he’d managed to acquire a chill that he couldn’t seem to shake, and it made getting comfortable difficult. 

“Are you cold?” He heard one of the members ask after he had closed his eyes. Begrudgingly he opened them up again, turning to face whoever was directing the question towards him. Sure enough, it was Jimin. Taehyung wasn’t very surprised. He was already beginning to pick up on the fact that something wasn’t quite right with Taehyung, so it only made sense that he had begun to watch him more closely.

Taehyung would have rather not given any response at all (nodding would only worsen his headache and speaking would just hurt his throat even more), but he nodded slightly nonetheless. “I don’t feel good, Jimin…” He whispered quietly, both to not risk hurting his throat and to not alert the other members of the situation. 

Jimin frowned sympathetically. He knew something had been up with Taehyung. He had known for a while now and had wished he would have spoken up sooner — But it wasn’t like he could go back in time. At this moment, the best he could do was help Taehyung with the immediate problem.

Jimin could remember that Namjoon had brought a blanket onto the plane, so he carefully snuck over to where the leader was napping and retrieved the blanket that the man had apparently forgotten to use. Was it a good idea to move around this much on a plane? Probably not, but Taehyung needed him right now. “Here, Tae,” he said, handing the younger member the blanket.

Taehyung simply moaned in response, but Jimin knew that was his way of saying “thank you.” It was obvious now that Taehyung was getting sick. Jimin and all of the other members were really hoping that the cold would simply skip him, but things didn’t always work out the way the members wanted them to. Seeing how Taehyung was still shivering even under the blanket, Jimin gently pressed a hand to his cheek to feel for a temperature.

Jimin sighed. Taehyung was running a bit hot. It seemed like a low-grade fever at the worst, but judging from the symptoms they had all displayed previously, it would most likely rise. “Tae,” he said, alerting the other of his presence once again. Taehyung had started to get a little bit delirious, but it didn’t seem like anything they would have to worry about just yet — It was probably just because of how tired he was, after all. Jimin doubted he had gotten a good night’s sleep the previous night if his sniffling and sneezing from earlier was anything to go by. “Do you want me to sit here with you? I think that would be a good idea.”

Taehyung nodded. He kept his eyes closed, but he rested his head on Jimin’s shoulder as soon as he sat down next to him. Jimin was playing with his hair, hoping that the sensation would help him fall asleep faster. Normally, whenever Jimin — or any of the members for that matter — played with his hair it put him right to sleep. But instead, all Taehyung could focus on was the sudden, urgent itching that filled his nose and made his eyes water. He scrunched up his face in irritation and brought the back of his wrist up to scrub at his nose through his face mask. Unfortunately, the itch was too deep, and before long he was forced to pull himself away from Jimin. He could hear the other man ask him what was wrong but he just shook his head in response and held up a finger as his breath began to hitch too much to speak.

“HHAHSHh! HHASHh’iew!” He sneezed hard and loud, lurching forward into cupped hands. He could feel Jimin’s arm slowly slip around his waist in an attempt to steady him as he gasped out another stuttering breath before snapping down once again with two more urgent sneezes, “HHEESHhu! HHESSHhuh!—ugh...” 

Taehyung stayed buried in his hands for a moment, desperately trying to sniff back the wetness that now clung to the inside of his mask. He’d made a spectacle of himself and he knew it; he could feel the member’s eyes on him and the silence that now permeated around was almost deafening. There was no talking his way out of this now. “Jimin…” he groaned in defeat, “Are there any tissues?”

Jimin bit his lip and looked around, catching eyes with the other worried and suspicious members, “Does anyone have any tissues left…?” He asked hesitantly, already aware of what the answer would be. To no surprise, he was met with only shaking heads and a few sympathetic “no, sorry”’s in response. Jimin sighed and turned his attention back to Taehyung, giving his back a comforting rub, “I’m sorry, Tae.” He murmured, “We can pick up more once we land.”

Taehyung sighed. He was feeling drained, uncomfortable, and very, very sick. He knew it was no use hiding it from the other members anymore; his sneezing was probably enough to tip them off about his condition if they hadn’t caught on already, anyway. “I’m tired, Jimin,” he said, resting his head back onto Jimin’s shoulder. The wetness inside his face mask was gross and uncomfortable, but he definitely couldn’t take it off now. Like Jimin had said, they could always pick up more whenever they landed.

Why did they have to run out of tissues now?

“I know, Tae,” Jimin said, stroking the younger member’s hair once again. “Try to get some sleep if you can, okay? We’ll be landing soon.” They probably still had a few more hours to go, but Taehyung didn’t need to know that right now. “I’m sorry you’re feeling sick. I thought it would skip you.”

“We should’ve known better,” Taehyung whined miserably. “It never skips any of us. If one of us catches a cold, we all catch it eventually.”

“Well, you know what they say,” Jimin said, a smirk tugging at his lips. When Taehyung looked at him quizzically, Jimin elaborated. “Sharing is caring.” He began to giggle, leading Taehyung to smile a bit himself.

With the help of his best-friend-slash-soulmate, Taehyung was finally able to get some much-needed rest.

[faecurious]

pages | graham&quintin

Summary: Quintin falls asleep at a library while studying and working, and figures out that his notes are once again infested with Bookwryms. Upset, tired, and pouting, Graham endures the lure of such a sight, and the two share deep insight into science, taboo, and moral issues in q’s area of study while separating the pages. @grahamstoker

Quintin had fallen asleep at a random book store, his nose plopped in a book and one arm stretched out. He needed just a little more information on a chemical compound to react with salt involving dissolving things, and he had worn himself out. Quintin was in trouble often for getting himself to the point of sheer exhaustion, but he couldn’t help it. When an idea got in his head he grinded until some answer presented. Losing track of time, meals, and water. He knew it wasn’t the best, but he was lucky to be a warden. Snoring lightly, the book clerk was staying open late anyway, so they cleaned up and let the young looking college kid snooze for a few moments. 

College kids weren’t the only people out and about; Graham also had a brief conversation with the clerk regarding books as he entered some odd minutes before the store closed and the clerk agreed to stay open just a little longer for him to pick up what he was looking for… except that he wasn’t looking for anything in particular. He wandered through the store - fortunately, it wasn’t that big - and he found himself in the central area where a few tables and chairs were gathered for students, bored geriatrics, etc. His strong gaze fell upon the sleeping figure of a boy, probably no more than… he wanted to say early 20s and he walked over to the kid, placing a hand on his shoulder to stir him. “Hey kid,” He said clearly but not aggressively. “You’d be comfier in bed, I think.” He wasn’t sure why he cared but the store WAS closing and he WAS getting his condensation on the book’s pages and that thought weirded him out.

Quintin stirred away groggily, and blinked a few times trying to figure out where he was. “What?” He looked around the room and stretched his limbs forward almost like a cat. “Darn, I should go. Thanks--” Finally he looked up and felt embarrassed it wasn’t the clerk who stirred him from his slumber but likely another customer. “Oh, sorry-- heh, I get a bit caught up with reading sometimes,” Quintin started closing all the scientific books featuring various charts, graphs, and a few long essarys he was excited to dive into the theory of. “It’s late--” he started shoving everything into his backpack quite messily. “Did you find anything worthwhile?” he asked with a kind edge, curious even. “I love this store, always little gems here. Sometimes old things.”  “It happens, man,” Graham replied, removing his hand from the latter’s shoulder as he looked the younger man over, then the amount of materials he had splayed all over the table. Plentiful amount of information…. Just shoved into a backpack. What a waste. How disorganized. He kept from curling his lip and put his hands in his pockets after checking his familiar gold watch - it could be later but at least the sun wasn’t out anymore. “Uh, nnnno. No, not really.” He shrugged. “I only got here a few minutes before they technically closed though, so I didn’t spend a whole lotta time searching. I’m guessing you did, though,” He quirked an eyebrow at the book the younger man had fallen asleep on. The kid seemed like the studious type. Probably really smart at the expense of doing… normal human things.

“Really? Are you one of those types that likes to make the employee’s be nice to you when they want to close the store?” He grinned, teasing and far from being overly serious. Quintin grabbed the rest of his stuff, the books weighed in his hands comfortably. “Yes-- yes, I actually managed to find everything I needed. Luckily I can read a book once and remember most of it. It’s very helpful when writing a dissertation. It’s a bit of a chaotic mess, but it’s all very understandable.” Q paused, “Quintin by the way,” he offered, a sleepiness still in his eyes, and his body seemed almost squishy and round in the cheeks from just waking up. “Are you headed out now?” He waved to the clerk, having already paid for everything and started making his way out. “Oh, you know it,” Graham replied dryly with a half-smile of his own. “At least you found what you were looking for,” He noted more of the books. “An eidetic memory is a useful thing, indeed.” He nodded; that explained some of the kid’s general… -ness. And the ‘chaotic mess’ part. He gave the boy named ‘Quintin’ one more look over, pausing perhaps a little longer than he should’ve at the red cheek the boy was sleeping on and feeling his nostrils flare for just a fraction of a moment before he recovered and he nodded again in lieu of doing anything else, something different. “Graham,” He returned the name. “And… yeah. Since the store’s closing and all.” He paused in his dialogue for a moment, following behind the boy. “What are you writing a dissertation on?” He asked, finding himself curious.

“Hmmm, it’s pretty out there. But I’m working on something people sorta frowned on,” Q did not seem put off even with his mumbling. He pressed the books closer to his chest, walking with the other. “Do you have any opinions on building body parts in test tubes? Or utilizing tissue in ways to heal other people? Or developing a way for the body to accept foreign cells as their own through--” Quintin paused, wishing for once he could just say- by using monster parts when he explained his research. “Careful study.” He lamely finished, but masked it pretty well with a yawn hidden behind the books which only made his eyes more watery. “The frowned upon part is that I’m researching a way for a body to be brought back to what the scientific community labels as life. Whether it’s anything more than a few reawakened cells at the end of it-- well. We’ll see.” As they walked and as Quintin fell into a pseudo-ramble - well, maybe not so much as… morally-curious questions-- WELL, not even that. Graham didn’t think what he was asking was morally-curious until he suddenly stopped at his last question-- aaaaand he’s talking reanimation. Hmm… he realized this conversation would’ve bothered him a lot more before he himself turned into a reanimated corpse. He looked sideways at the younger man and offered a genuine, if clever, smile. “That’s on them. People oftentimes try to put ethics ahead of scientific progress.” He offered is own perspective. “If that’s a passion you have then it’s important to pursue that goal. I’m sure this town’s seen weirder shit than a reanimated something-or-other.” He decided to be vague on that front. “How long’ve you been in town?” He asked.

“They do,” Quintin agreed, “I’ve received a lot of backlash at UCLA over it. They were very conflicted, but I’m a progeny, one of the youngest to graduate. They wanted me to stay under their school so they could benefit from my work and so I didn’t go elsewhere.” Bitterness made his nose wrinkle as he walked up to his big pick up truck that made him appear like a little baby in comparison and leaned against it. “That’s why I’m here though. White Crest lets me think clearly. Reanimation is a fascinating area of study, people are just scared of what it means. All those people in cryo right now could honestly be reawakened in the future. They let them pay for a cold bed, but won’t let scientists work on the questions they are scared of.” He fished for his keys in his bag, realizing he was stupid and put them in there. “About three years, I travel a lot back to LA. Where are they--” he plopped on the ground, and started pulling everything back out of his bag. Setting the items carefully on the asphalt with much more care and organization, but a few of the papers floated away on him. “Crap! Can you grab those?” Very proud of his work and accomplishments. And humble, to boot. Talks a lot. Ahhh Graham remembered when he was like that. Graham found his hands in his pockets as the younger man talked, pausing next to the large truck and wondered what sort of compensating the kid was doing. Probably a lack of friends, if he had to guess. He looked from the truck to Quintin as the latter seemed to have been looking for something to the point of sitting on the ground to search the contents of his bag. When some of his papers started to float away, Graham simply watched them leave until Quintin asked him to retrieve them, to which he smacked his lips and rose his eyebrows. “Sure thing,” Graham said before adding “This might not’ve been a problem if you packed ‘em up right the first time, buddy.” He was lightly poking, of course, but he did feel like he was right. The papers were easy enough for him to get, putting them altogether neatly but as he examined them like the nosy guy he was, he felt his brow furrow. “Uhhh…” He said aloud as he walked back over to the younger man. “I got your papers but I don’t know why they’re such a big deal to you… don’t important papers usually have, I dunno, writing on them?”

“You are very right,” Quintin sighed, he had been embarrassed at the state he was in and hadn’t put thought into it. Finally, his fingers looped around the keys and pulled them out in victory. “Thank you--what?” Q’s voice faltered, and he scrambled up to meet Graham halfway, pulling the page into his hands. “No, no no no,” he frantically started flipping through all his stuff, noticing bits and pieces also faded. “Stupid bookstore--” Q knew what he needed to do, but he also didn’t want to ruin all his doctorate notes. This would put him behind having to rewrite everything from memory, not that it would be difficult to recall, just time consuming. This was what he got for bringing his stuff out of the lab. “Ouch!” he dropped the paper, and gritted his teeth. “Dammit! Stupid worms! Stupid!” He actually stomped his foot then plopped on the ground with his shoulders slumped and tried not to full on cry. His voice had a warble to it. “Sorry-- just,” he didn’t know how to explain this to anyone without sounding crazy, but he didn’t care right now. “I can’t leave yet, I have to sort my infested notes with the ones that aren’t.” Suddenly Graham had much less of an idea of what was going on than before as he watched the car crash in slow motion called ‘Quintin’ go from frustration to pain to looking like he was about to burst into tears like a child told they couldn’t get on the ferris wheel. Spectrum? That’d explain the ‘genius’ bit and the ‘unintentional know-it-all’ part. He put a hand back in his pocket and actively avoided looking at Quintin now, as if that would spare him some embarrassment. “Uh…” He paused for a second, not entirely knowing what to do but feeling like something mocking would be funny for him but not really appropriate. “So… there’s worms on your papers?” He decided to ask. “What, were they in your bag?”

“Worms that eat notes, words, knowledge. I thought I had them contained back at the lab, but-- guess I didn’t,” the dejected tone was full of self loathing to this particular failure. Quintin started separating each piece of paper in a stack that was at least eight inches high. Hoping everything wasn’t ruined. “They must have gotten really excited in that book store, and spread--” it wasn’t lost on Quintin that the other man was content with playing with his absurdity. People thought he was a mad scientist anyway, not that he liked when people thought that. Not when he worked so hard for their sake. He sighed. “You don’t have to wait around for me, this is awkward enough and will probably take me some time. They-- these worms are easy to detect, but very difficult to get rid of. Clearly. Since I am still suffering from their presence.” He glanced up, the softest of pouts on his lips. “I appreciated your company though.” You know what they say about playing stupid games; Quintin didn’t seem like the most organized of individuals so it really didn’t surprise Graham that a bunch of knowledge-eating worms escaped containment.. Graham looked back down at the lanky kid, catching his pout like this somehow caught him off-guard. He glanced off to the side and gave a soft sigh before dropping fluidly to a crouch next to the boy and motioned with his hand. “Here, gimme some,” He said, wondering what he was doing with his life at this point. Damn his soft spot for children up to the age of… Hmm. “It’ll be quicker with two people. Do you want to save any words and just get rid of the ones that are completely blank?” He asked for a general direction as he held an arm that rested on one of his knees out to take some papers.

Quintin yawned again, pressing a hand to his mouth, clear he probably could lay down right here and pass out if he could. “Wait, huh?” He glanced across from him, surprise written easily on his tired features that the person wasn’t thinking he was crazy and also willing to help him. His instincts hummed a little, wondering if they had an ulterior motive or if he lucked out and actually ran into someone nice. “I’ll remember most of them if I make a note of the page number,” he explained, writing down the numbers in the corner in a small notepad. “Ill burn them, or find another way. Yes we can just pile those there. You don’t seem put off with this. Which isn’t that surprisingly I suppose, everyone on campus is always going on about stuff weird and supernatural. But you seem, particularly calm about my ramblings. Is it often you run into people exclaiming note infestations and reanimation?” He sleepily teased. Jeez, the more Quintin yawned, the more Graham could feel how hungry he was; the sleeping were such available targets for a quick snack BUT… damn his soft spot for children AND his foresight to know better than to just go around biting strangers. Part of him wished he had no idea what he did, pulling an ‘oh sorry I didn’t know’ schtick but he DID know better and ugh. What a pain. Speaking of vampires though-- “I’ll admit, I’ve never heard of word-eating worms before,” He responded first as he shuffled the papers into the piles the boy wanted. “But I’ve never been one to turn away the pursuit of science and medicine,” He added with a half-shrug. “Granted, not all of them like to talk as much as you do but I think I have enough of a bead on the type of kid you are and talking’s just… something you do.” He rolled his eyes under their eyelids. “Plus, it’s not like reanimation’s a thing I’m unfamiliar with.” He added under his breath. 

“They are quite annoying, I have tried various ways to get rid of them, but if I miss even one little worm, they re-infest everything again,” Quintin hated these things, maybe if he got his hands on a pixie they could munch away at them and then when he knows for sure they are gone, he’d have something else to play with. “You like science then, ouch! Stop it,” Quintin squished the few centimetre long worm with his thumb after it bit his finger, and knew he'd forget something because of these little bites. “Hey, I don’t talk a lot, I’m just not usually bothered or spoken to at all, so it’s been nice talking to you,” Q admitted, “I’m really not a kid, I know I dress like one...” Quintin grumbled. If he wasn’t so sleepy he’d have gotten up and left, people always picked fun at him, and never quite got used to it. “Oh yeah? Why’s that? People always shy away from talking about it. Super taboo for whatever reason.” “You dress like one, you talk like one, you pout like one...” Graham replied casually, hearing Quintin responding verbally to the bites now and then and part of him wanted to get bitten, too if only out of curiosity if he would feel it - fortunately, he was aware of his non-breathing so if these things drew blood, though he was curious about whatever mark they left on the kid, he had to actively work not to notice. He kept his bright eyes on the papers, quirking an eyebrow. Oh so he was bothering Quintin by waking him up? He was fairly sure that that wasn’t what he meant but he remembered not actually starting any conversation-- wait wait wait, he kinda did when he asked about the dissertation. That being said, if he recalled how many words he said compared to Quintin, the scales would be tilted considerably in the latter’s favour. Mmf, get out of his thoughts. “Life’s too short to be afraid of conversation, at the very least,” He dodged the question and kept filing through the papers. “So if it’s something you like talking about, you should be able to bounce ideas or whatever’s floating through your head at someone.”

“You would be really surprised how often I’m told to leave someone alone,” he shrugged. “I even got excited online the other night with someone who liked the band Warhorse, and I never find anyone who does, and they kept signing offline mid conversation for hours at a time. So, yeah-- it’s a little weird you want to chat with me.” Q guessed he was being a little bit like a baby right now, but he was tired from staying up for three days dissecting an arm, off a faerie he had captured, at the shoulder socket and attempted to fuse it to something else for hours upon hours. “Do you believe that a soul is required for a body to be labeled alive?” he asked, still moving pages over, finding a lot of them not infested which he was grateful for. “I’ve heard of creatures not requiring one, though life isn’t exactly the right word.” His eyes twinkled a little, “one of these days I’ll be able to wake someone up stored in cryo. I really wonder if their soul is hibernating in there, or if something else will show up.” The vampire elected to keep his comments about how he didn’t find the aspect of Quintin being told to leave someone alone surprising at all to himself and set aside a stack of papers. “I guess I’ll take your word for it,” Graham opted to respond to the first comment and shifted to furrowing his brow in mild contemplation as Q seemed to jump right back into his subject of interest again. “I used to,” He replied casually though he could feel walls starting to erect in his head and he found himself frustrated at their sudden structure. “I think maybe ‘soul’ isn’t the right word,” He shuffled more papers, finally seeing one of the worms and crushing it between his fingers before it had a chance to bite into him. “I don’t believe plants have souls, but they’re alive and have bodies.I’m ASSUMING that you’re referring to the difference between treating a body as an empty husk that’s inhabitable by ‘life’ and assuming that one human body belongs to one ‘soul’, which is bound to that body indefinitely and if that’s the case, if the soul moves on once it perceives its assigned body as ‘dead’.” He thought it was too late to be thinking this existentially. “And in that case, you need to talk to a philosopher. No hard science will be able to answer that for you.”

Quintin laughed. “True. True.” This was why science and biology was exciting. It tethered to so many other areas of study so easily. Stirred the mind to ponder and could contain no answers to the questions one wanted sometimes. “Belief fills the gaps of science. It’s very fun to see what opinions people have over things that are taboo or uncomfortable that contain no scientific backup. Life is special. Consciousness is too. But you know—“ some that are here and alive really don’t belong. He grinned in victory at the last page lifting it up to double check its words were still there and set it in the right pile. “Yay, I promised myself I’d take a break this month and not— doing that. Do you want to hang out again? You like to sing? We could do karaoke or eat bad food somewhere.” Quintin tried to ask without sounding desperate. Long-ass paper. That’s what Graham concluded by the time the duo seemed to reach the bottom of the seemingly-endless stack and he gave an artificial exhale as a sort of pat on the back for all his contribution. He placed his elbows on his knees, leaning back against his feet in his crouch and content to listen to Quintin go off on another tangent if that’s what he wanted but to his actual surprise, the latter made offers to go do stuff. Kill time? It was his turn to laugh, genuine and surprisingly warm. “You’re a weeeeird kid.” He remarked once he tapered his laughter. “Do YOU like to sing?” Karaoke bars usually weren’t someone’s first choice of ‘hanging out’ and even then, he was sure he thought Quintin would’ve been too quiet for that kind of activity. Maybe he DID hold surprises, after all. He extended an arm, fist balled and he lightly nudged Quintin’s shoulder with it. “...Yeah, alright. Karaoke. You pick the time and the place.” He smiled.

“Heyyyy, come on. We talked. You helped me. I can’t help but hope for a better background to keep chatting,” Quintin carefully this time, put the notes back in his bag and held the infested ones to his chest. “And I can sing— I love music.” He felt another tired pout almost plump his lips. Why was he so bad at being casual with people? He’s always awkward. Even the other hunters shy away from him. He tossed his bag on his shoulder, and rose up to unlock his big pick up truck. “Okay—“ he threw the bag in and set the papers down before writing his phone and online profile for him. “Here, you don’t have to.” He shrugged. “But it was kinda nice you could keep up with my gibberish. Maybe see you around.” He pulled himself into the truck. Graham straightened up when Quinton did and he kept his blue eyes on the gawky young man, chuckling and crossing his arms; the mental filter wasn’t too strong on this one. He must’ve been lonely. “Alright, Quintin,” He replied with a scoff. “I’ll see you next time. You better be able to deliver on that karaoke,” He finished the conversation with a call as Q climbed into the big truck that seemed to swallow him. The vampire gave one last look at the student before letting his head fall with another scoff at himself this time; why did he only seem to make friends with weird teenagers? He shook his head and texted his new roommate that he’d be home later than usual - something about Quintin, his face and how he carried himself reminded Graham that he was starving.

[agentwallflower]

Supernova: Chapter 12

I just finished 17 all of 20 minutes ago, so writing is happening lol...

Anyway, so... I might need to take hiatus in October. My dominant hand is hurting pretty badly from work, and I don’t know if that’s going to get better. I might need to rest it for a while to make sure I don’t develop carpal tunnel (or push it even further if I do have it) so we’ll see. If I have to take hiatus, I’ll let you know at the start of the month. 

If I’m not taking it, you’ll see me on... October 3rd, which means I am going to be hyped up on Nijigaku energy and useless to everyone. Get excited for that I suppose...

Anyway, thank you as always for reading and I’ll see you when I see you. Think happy thoughts for my poor, sore hand...

“Having fun yet?”

“Shut up, I hate you.”

A few hours had passed since the two had begun their training. Angel got a front row seat to it all, and in the end he found he wasn't too impressed. What sat before him was hardly a force of nature waiting to destroy anything that stood against it. Instead, she just looked like a frustrated 20 year old who didn't know how her powers worked.

Which... was pretty on the nose, he supposed. Hey, it wasn't like he was an English major or anything.

He had managed to get through a few chapters in the time it had taken Andy to go from standing to laying face down on the floor. It was a position he knew well from long nights of cramming during finals week. It wasn't a good look on anyone, but when your knees – did she even have those? - bent in weird ways, it took something familiar to the level of a rather pathetic horror movie. Honestly, he kind of felt bad for her.

Kind of – it was helping him get his homework done after all.

“Do you want to wrap it up for the day?” He closed his book to get a better view. Andy wasn't moving. She wasn't even breathing, not that he knew where to look. “Uh... you're not dead are you, cause you're not b-”

Andy's response oozed through the floor. “I don't.”

She rolled over onto her back, face blank. “And if I was dead, you'd be vaporized. So I guess you wouldn't be worrying about your homework.”

Maybe it was because they were spending time together, but Angel was starting to get the hang of figuring out her moods even without the tone behind them. This one, he figured, was clearly pissed off. That was something he knew well too – dare he say she was sulking over not being able to figure it out?

For an alien, she was being very human.

He shrugged his shoulders as he rose from his sitting position – oww, sitting in his work pants on hard floor was never fun. “You had a bad first session. It happens.”

“Did it happen to you?” Oh, there was some spite there. She was definitely acting rather human. He could only imagine what that would've sounded like had she been able to regulate tone. It would've probably been something fantastic to hear. She was a young 20 for sure.

He shrugged again. “No, but I was trained by Paladin and we shared a skill set. Just keep doing your weird Goku stuff, something should -”

In the blink of an eye, Andy was standing too. She was suddenly way too close for comfort. If she had been human, he would have picked up on her aura. The fact she didn't have one still set him off. He took a half step back – probably shouldn't have. She had him against the wall now, with very little distance between them.

“That's easy for you to say, you know what you're working with!” She grit her teeth, far too hard for any human without breaking something. Maybe the cover wasn't that fool proof after all. “I'm flying blind and all people can tell me is-”

Before she could say more, the door opened. Angel looked past Andy's solid shoulder, relief mixing with shock. There was an old man there, leaning on a cane he hadn't needed months prior. He was thinner, but his smile was still the same as he entered the room.

It had been three months since Paladin had come back to base.

“Are you two having fun?”

Andy let him go in favor of all but running to his side. “Uncle Leo, you're out of the hospital!”

“And you're out of the big house, I see.” He was smiling at her like she was his favorite grandchild. Something about that made Angel's stomach roll as he regained his bearings and defense aura. It was setting him off in the worst way.

Focus... his mentor could be friendly with anyone he wanted to be with. That was one of the perks of being an old man with cancer.

Andy's tone never changed, but her movements weren't as jerky. “Almost didn't get there. They actually shot me this time.”

“Well, they must've had a nasty surprise when that didn't work.” One eye focused straight on Angel. The psychic straightened under the gaze of his mentor. “Did they try to shoot you as well, Sky Rider?”

The man felt his face color under his helmet as he looked to the side. “They had a psychic, didn't really need it...”

Ah, projectiles. They had never been his friends, especially when he was stressed. Luckily Leo wasn't his teacher anymore, so he couldn't get a lecture over his piss poor control. Still, standing there with the feeling seeping over him, Angel very much wished he could vanish into the floor. That wouldn't happen of course; it wasn't in his skill set, just his wildest dreams when he managed to embarrass himself.

He did that a lot – it came with the territory.

“So, why are you here Uncle Leo? Did you need something?”

That monotone did wonders to drag him out of his pity party. It was as good a question as any, he figured. Maybe the old man was getting bored hanging around the hospital? It wasn't exactly fun, even when you were a psychic. In fact, being able to read minds tended to just make things worse.

“I figured I would stop by to see how you first day of training was going before you left.” He was gripping his cane pretty tightly though “And to encourage you to keep at it. We all have our rough beginnings. No doubt Sky Rider could tell you plenty of his if mine wouldn't suffice. After all, hovering a cow is hardly interesting now.”

The old man laughed, but it was weaker than it had ever sounded. It didn't take a genius to see just how pale he was, or how much he needed to lean on his cane. The only thing that had never changed was his smile.  That was always like a thousand suns, no matter how sick he got.

Ever the hero... did he ever worry about himself?

They locked eyes, briefly. The smile that Leo wore on his face didn't quite reach his eyes, which were just so... exhausted. Angel's stomach fell at the sight of them, but he said nothing as he watched the two interact.

So... it was getting worse then. Then why let him out of the hospital?

“Kid, we gotta get you back before your mom gets home.” PT's voice called through the room. Andy was soon waving goodbye to them both – mostly Leo, he noted – and then it was just the two of them in the room. There was a tension there that he hadn't felt before. Maybe it had been there all along.

Shit.

Angel bent to pack up his books, very much aware of the man behind him. He swallowed hard as he stood, bag slung over his shoulders. He was the picture of a normal college kid if you took the gear out of the equation. With it... well, he was never known for being fashionable out of costume. Why worry about it when he was geared up?

“I see you were getting some work done with Andy.” There was humor in Leo's voice as he took a seat in the only chair. Briefly, his hand touched his side. However, he stopped the second he realized his protege was watching.

His face heated up under the visor. “I can't really help her. She's...”

His words fell as he made a vague gesture at the door. Leo nodded in time with his motions, face knowing. At least the two of them were on the same page. Lately, that was happening less and less as he grew into his own form of hero. It was nice to call back to it at least one before...

He shook his head. Wasn't going to put that into the universe.

“She needs a friend too, you know. You're probably the first person out of a lab coat to know.” He smiled again, and it came close to his eyes but missed by a metaphorical mile. “That'll help more than anything else.”

Angel shrugged his shoulders as he crossed the room to be with his former teacher. “Be nice if I understood the mechanics. I don't get anything off her. It's worse than being around you.”

“Welcome to what the rest of the world deals with!” Leo let out a short laugh, but then it turned into a brief, hacking cough that made his fellow psychic's stomach fall. He eventually had to grab a tissue from his pocket to cough into for a long couple seconds. Whatever it contained, he stowed it in his pocket before Angel got to see. “Sorry about that.”

He finally stood, but his footing seemed weak. When Angel offered his arm, he took it. Together, they entered back into the main room. Here, the mood was somber. Scanner was at their rig, but something about the set of their shoulders and the way they were typing gave the psychic pause. Not only that, Ember was there, smiling in a way that reminded him of glass that was about to shatter. When had she gotten back, and why?

Andy and PT said their brief goodbyes, and then headed towards the door. The moment it slid behind them,  the room dropped five degrees as the boss lady sat down on the couch. Summer had turned to winter in the span of seconds, and he could feel the chill in his mind rather than his flesh.

Leo noted the shift and sighed. “I'm sorry to have upset you all.”

“Upset is putting it mildly.” Ember's voice cracked. “You're-”

Angel's stomach dropped into his shoes as he watched her lift her mask to dab at her eyes. It didn't work. Hot tears rolled down her face at a rapid pace, and her chest heaved with the effort. Scanner's shoulders were shaking now, and he was pretty sure he heard the tech choke back a sob.

Leo sighed as he leaned harder on Angel's arm. “Jocelyn... Sam...”

“No, Leo, we're not going to be ok!” Her golden eyes were burning with more fire than Angel had ever seen from her. “We thought you would be coming back after the chemo!”

Angel's stomach turned to pure acidic ice. A thousand possibilities flitted through his mind, landing on the one suggestion he had never wanted to give to the universe should it be listening. A cold swear formed on the back of his neck.

For a moment, the world stood still.

“You'll be ok without me. You're doing fine now.” Leo looked so much smaller than he had in the previous moment. “Jocelyn, you've become a wonderful leader. Have faith in yourself.”

The old man let go of his arm to reach for her shoulder. The two shared a moment, one that Angel an Scanner couldn't see. A thousand unsaid things passed between the two, from leader to leader. The set of her shoulders sagged, then straightened under the permanence of her new burden. Yet tears still trickled from her eyes.

He should've realized the whole 'not in the hospital' thing wasn't a good sign... but there was difference between bad and... this.

How much time did the old man have left anyway?

---

“I was studying, mom!”

“You were studying all night?!”

Andy could hear the argument through the floor, even though she was on the bed with a pillow over her head. It was more the symbolic concept than the fact that it could do anything that helped her – it was the sort of thing you were supposed to do when upset, right?

Well, she wasn't upset... but it was certainly aggravating.

Her sister and mother were going at it again. Since both could argue until the metaphorical cows came home, both would probably go until they were hoarse. With any luck, the older of the two wouldn't be able to talk tomorrow.

Of course, that just made her glances nastier. It was kind of a lose-lose situation they found themselves in.

“Hope Jen's ok.” Andy frowned as she pulled the pillow off her face. She technically wasn't banned from leaving, but she was pretty sure she was still grounded. Should she have disobeyed, that was definitely at least another week under house arrest.

But...

Her hand found the door that would open up to the ladder below. The arguing covered up her descent, and her heavy feet were masked by scream of where her older sister had been and whether their mother wasn't being a little too overbearing about things. For once, she was grateful for it as she crept to her younger sister's room and carefully knocked.

Jen all but pulled her in.

“You're going to get in so much trouble if mom finds out.” Anxious eyes darted, but Jen sighed in relief as she closed the door. “I hate when they get like that.”

Andy settled into a spot on the floor. “Me too. You going to be ok?”

Her sister took a spot back on her bed, where her phone was charging. “Yeah, I had my music playing. I didn't realize they were arguing until they overpowered the screaming.”

Well, Aunt Miri would be pleased in her niece's taste in music at the very least. Andy's shoulders shook at the thought as she lay on her back to stare up at the ceiling. Here, at least there were more things to look at. Jen liked putting star stickers on her ceiling. They were pale now, but tonight they would be absolutely glowing.

She had done a good job with the Big Dipper, but Sirius looked a little suspect...

“Are you feeling better?” Jen's big eyes were on her as she texted on her phone at supersonic speeds. “You were in the hospital for a long time again.”

Andy shrugged her shoulders as she vaguely pieced her cover story together. “Yeah, I'm doing better now. They have me going back for checks regularly though, so I'll be gone in the afternoons a couple days a week. You going to be ok with that?”

“I have practice, I'll be fine.” Jen frowned. “You're not getting sicker, are you? Uncle Leo hasn't been looking good lately...”

That got Andy sitting up as she waved her hands to dispel the thought. Her cover story was decent,  but that was the downside. Go to the 'hospital' enough times, and someone's bound to wonder how far you were from death's door. She had definitely wracked up the hours and then some to say the least.

But damn, as bad as Uncle Leo?

“It's fine, just part of my condition.” She stopped waving. “Yeah, he's looking kind of rough. He stopped by to see me before he left.”

Jen's cheeks puffed slightly. “No fair, he didn't mention he was getting discharged! I was planning to go see him.”

Had she been able to, Andy would have laughed at her sister's puffed out cheeks. Instead, she felt her insides bubble happily as she sat there in the house's one safe area. They may have been screaming downstairs, but it was ok here.

“Sorry, I'll let him know to give you a call if I see him when I go back.” Her shoulders sagged. “Which... yeah I'll be back there a lot. They have me on a new process and the guy monitoring my process is a real a-.”

She paused. “He's a jerk.”

“I know the word 'asshole', Andy.” Jen's matter of fact tone gave the alien pause as the teen kept scrolling. “Whatever it is, you can do it. You're awesome.”

A thump downstairs meant Andy didn't get a chance to answer. Out the window, they could see that Sara had left the house and was rapidly heading to her car. The argument was over for now, which meant her mother would be on the war path.

The two exchanged glances. Jen spoke first, quietly. “I thought they would be arguing for a few more hours.”

“Guess even big sisters have a breaking point.” The alien winced as she heard footsteps. The afternoon was about to get a lot more annoying.

Better make that two extra weeks of house arrest at this point... but at least it had been worth it to help Jen feel a little better. Andy would have to remember that as she steeled herself for the fallout that was soon to come.

Maybe she should've let the FBI take her after all...

---

If you liked what you read, I have a ko-fi here!

[bestestbird]

Type O - Part 19

2000 words in celebration of reaching 1000 followers :D Thank you everyone!

Part 1, Part 18  

-

It took a few minutes of no pain for him to feel brave enough to pull out. As removed his teeth more blood gushed out, running rivets down his arm to drop onto the tiled floor, luckily not hitting the shower mat. Keith hurried for the toilet roll, ripping a handful off and pressing it onto his arm. The wound didn't heal like Shiro's had, and blood quickly soaked into the tissue, forcing him to pressed harder.

 "Shit," he cursed as the paper became soaked through. Frantically, he grabbed more, and then more as that didn't work. He pressed hard enough to bruise, but still blood splattered into a mess on the floor. His body shook with nerves that masked the pain of his grip and arm. Eventually, when only a single unsullied square of toilet roll was left on the cardboard, the blood flow slowed, and stopped. 

 Heartbeat slowing, Keith finally relaxed, posture slumping, but hand still firmly gripped on his arm. He surveyed the bathroom in its bloody mess, and decided he could salvage it alone, but before that he needed something more permanent on his arm.

 Carefully, he peeled back the tissue. It didn't bleed again, but it looked like any jolt could get it started. Trying to avoid the blood, Keith worked his way out of the bathroom, leaving bloody hand prints on the door.

 In the next room he went for his bag. Rooting around was hard with only one hand, but he managed to find some plasters, which whilst clearly not enough, were better than nothing. He'd accidentally bought a plaster roll instead of the individual ones, which for once seemed like good luck.

 Forgoing scissors, he ripped open the packet, pulled off as much of the white non-sticky paper as he could and began to wrap the whole roll around his arm.  It got easier around halfway through, and once he was done he thought it didn't look that bad.

 Now no longer panicking, he went back to the bathroom. The shower head was detachable, so he could use that to wash the blood off. Luckily the drain was the same height as the floor, so he didn't need anything to soak up the bloody water.

 First, he washed his hands, then pulled on his clean underwear that was sitting next to the towel, flushed away the bloody toilet roll and set about drowning the bathroom. It seemed to take forever. Every time he thought he was done there was always another little patch he'd missed.

 When he was fairly sure there wasn’t anything left, soaked, and too fed up to keep looking, he grabbed the towel, dried off his legs, and went back out to get some clothes.

 On the night stand his phone had lit up. Keith paused, contemplating ignoring it, it was on silent for a reason. A few steps closer told him that his notifications had changed, he now had six missed calls from Lance. With a groan he turned it off and ignored it in favour of getting dressed.

 He needed something long sleeved to hide his arm. There was a black t-shirt, a red t-shirt, and white t-shirt, all short sleeves. It was winter. How could he have not packed anything warm?

 On his second look through, he pulled on a piece of dark purple, nearly black fabric, and a jumper came out. Finally.

 Shoving it on along with a pair of jeans he went back to look at his phone. Still six missed calls, and now ten missed text. It was also 20:30, which meant he was late for breakfast. Pulling it off the charger, he hoped that there was still plenty left to eat, and shoved it in his pocket, then paused.

 The door key. Where had he put it? With a groan that was almost a sob he turned back around and searched. First, his coat, not there, then his bag, not there, then yesterday’s clothes, not there. Another check of his phone told him 20:40.

 He was starving. How long did blood food last?

 With a noise of pure frustration, he went back into the backroom. Not there. 20:47.

 Forget it. He wouldn't lock the door, he could come back and look for the key later.

 Hand reaching for the door he looked down, and there sitting in the lock was the key. He almost screamed. Jaw clenched he pulled the key out and slammed the door behind him loud enough that any of his neighbours would hear, and he marched off to get something to eat.

 By the time he'd reached the top of the stairs he'd calmed down, and the smell of food that hit him when the door opened made him forget all about his morning fiasco. 

 Keith remembered the way from last night, down the corridor to the bar. Hunk was there again, a couple of empty plates in his hands.

 "Evening," the man said cheerily, "late start?"

 "Yeah," Keith mumbled, looking for a free table, and finding he had plenty of choice, "had some trouble with the shower."

 Hunk chuckled, and put one plate down, "I guessed," he said, and raised a finger to his head, "your hair's still wet."

 Absently, Keith pressed a hand against his neck, feeling the a few loose strands. It was damp.

 "So, what can I get you?" Hunk continued as Keith chose a chair near the fire. It had a good crackle going, warming his toes and fingers.

 "What do you have?" Keith asked stretching out, feeling his bones click.

 "Plenty left. You missed some of the regulars, and our other guest isn't much of a blood drinker.”

 "Oh." Keith wasn’t sure what that meant.

 "Human.” Hunk elaborated without prompting, “Cute tho'. Pretty blue eye, and he loved my cooking." There was some clattering that sounded like plates, but Keith couldn’t see what Hunk was doing.

 "That's great,” he said, lacking anything else to add.

 "And a flirt, he said-."

 "Hunk," a deep chiding voice said.  They both turned, and saw Shiro was walking towards them, a knowing smile on his face. He had a long grey coat on, which meant it must have been cold outside, and Keith’s long jumper didn’t look out of place.

 "Evening," Hunk replied, "I didn't hear you come in."

 "Too busy gossiping?" Shiro teased, eyes wrinkling with a smile as Hunk rolled his eyes.

 "Do you want breakfast?" It was part question part threat.

 Shiro held up his hands in defence, saying, "sorry, sorry," as he walked closer.

 Hunk snorted at him, and called out, “I’ll get you two a little of everything.”

 Shiro called back, “thanks,” as he reached the chair across from Keith, who was trying very hard to concentrate on anything other than him as every look bought back memories of blood and bathrooms.

 "Can I sit?" Shiro asked, already sitting, his coat folded over the back of the chair. Keith fiddled nervously with the sleeve of his injured arm.

 He didn’t seem put off by Keith’s lack of response as he continued, "I know I'm early. My apologies, I thought you'd be finished."

 "Shower," Keith muttered, looking into the fire, and Shiro nodded, sniffed, and shifted in his heat, looking suddenly perturbed.

 There was a moment of silence before he asked, "everything okay?"

 "Yes," Keith said far too quickly, then slower, "why do you ask?"

 The fire popped in a short silence, then Shiro said, "a lot of reason," he paused again, watching the fire. It danced in his eyes, a darker red due to the grey. It was surprisingly pretty. He caught Keith’s eye as he finished, "but mainly because you smell like blood. Your blood."

 Shit, right, Vampire, but how could he even tell it was Keith's? Never mind.

 "It's just a scratch." Keith lied, quickly turning his head away.

 "Okay...," Shiro said softly, leaving a longer pause, "can I have a look at it?"

 Keith sank into his chair, ready to say no, but he made the mistake of looking back at Shiro. He looked so... so worried, that Keith couldn't say no.

 "Fine." He wasn’t pouting.

 Pulling back his sleeve, he stuck his arm out, and Shiro's eyebrows rose to his hairline, as he gave him a clear 'that doesn't look like a scratch’ look. Keith ignored it and began to unravel his copious plastering. 

 When he finally got to the wound Shiro let out a small sad sounding sigh, and Keith stopped.

 "What?" He asked.

 "No, I'm sorry," Shiro said, waving his hand like he was trying to get rid of something.

 Keith was about to ask what for when he continued, "you were teething this morning, weren't you?" Keith nodded and Shiro used the same hand to scrub at his face, "I thought you'd be okay for one night. It-it gets worse the more you drink. Mine only ever came every few days."

 "It's fine," Keith said, meaning it, but Shiro didn’t look convinced. 

 Keith started to cover his arm back up when Shiro said, "wait." His fingers lightly brushed Keith's wrist as he spoke, "I can heal that for you."

 Keith looked at him suspiciously but didn’t pull away. It wasn't that he didn't believe Shiro could do it, it was that he didn't trust how it could be done.

 "How?" He asked word coming out slowly.

 Shiro gave him a bashful half smile, like he’d read his mind, "a bit of my blood, a bit of saliva, and it'll be gone."

 Keith didn't move, a sudden flush appearing on his cheeks at the thought of his last meal.

 Clearing his throat, a little awkwardly, Shiro added, "you could drink from my arm this time."

 He glanced down to Shiro's arm, then back up to his wide worried eyes.

 "Fine," he said again, unable to win.

 Shiro's smile lit up his face, and Keith was starting to hate it.

 He shifted forwards in his seat to bring his mouth to Shiro's arm, but Shiro quickly stopped him, one hand against his shoulder.

 "Wait," he looked around Keith's chair, towards where Hunk had disappeared to, "does Hunk know?"

 Keith glance back, and said, "no," unsure if that was good or bad.

 "Okay,” Shiro seemed pleased with that, “this is going to sound weird, and I'll explain, but you probably don't want him seeing that,” Keith was fine with that, he didn’t want Hunk seeing anyway, “so we should take this to the toilet." He hadn’t been expecting that.

 "Seriously?" He asked, mouth slightly open.

 "Yeah,” Shiro jerked in to the right, “it's just around the corner."

 Part of Keith felt like changing his mind, but another louder part said he'd already committed. So, when Shiro stood he stood too. They went around the corner, and Shiro pushed Keith into the tiny one-person toilet first. He had to squeeze back against the bowl to fit and Shiro came in after.

 The door clicked behind them, and Keith was suddenly aware of how very tall and broad Shiro was. Until he knelt down and began to roll up his sleeve.

 Feeling awkward standing there with Shiro suggestively in front of him, Keith flopped down onto the seat, and as he watched Shiro slowly reveal his white skin with a prominent blue vein that was begging to be bitten...what was he going to do again?

 This time was less embarrassing as Shiro moved to Keith's side, letting him keep his legs squeezed closed. He lifted his arm to Keith's mouth, and not needing any guidance Keith bit down. Sweet, warm copper filled his mouth, and he gulped it down. Just like last time, it filled him, warm and tingling, pooling in him and sating something, but unlike last time Shiro gently pulled his arms away after only a few gulps, and that sick feeling didn't hit him. Instead he was left wanting more.

-

"Now your arm," Shiro said, and dejectedly Keith raised his arm as he licked every last drop he could from his lips.  

I left it at the good bit because I am very cruel ;)

I also thought I’d get a lot more into 2000 words. I was hoping to at least start the dynamic explanation, but oh well, for another time.

Also, figured out it was actually the read more that was causing the problems. I’ve left it out, so sorry to everyone who has to scroll past this!

Part 20

[yvonnezoe]

Woohoo! New post! Sorry for the wait again!

So this is the day you had a good night sleep after one whole afternoon of indulging in Penang’s great food and lots of walking under the hot sun. Not forgetting the partying after the Broadway show.

Here’s a recap of what happened in Day 2: Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas Full Review with Tips! Part 3/5: Day 2

Day 1 is here: Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas Full Review with Tips! Part 2/5: Day 1

If you are unsure what to pack or expect at all, check this out: Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas Full Review with Tips! Part 1/5: Getting Ready

Then, when you sense a shimmer shining through the curtain and you open your eyes, you feel the world (the ship) is swaying. But just wake up la. Enjoy the sunrise from your window if your room window is facing the East. Otherwise, go to the viewing deck. You may check the sunrise time on the first page of the Cruise Compass.

Ahoy! We are leaving Malacca Straits. The waves are rougher now…

That’s where we were.

7:00 am Breakfast at Windjammer

The day should start early as we were scheduled to arrive at Phuket, Thailand at 9am. We were all excited about going ashore. However, the breakfast area at Windjammer was so crowded when we arrived around 7am. There wasn’t a lot of seats available. My mom didn’t feel very well as she got sea sick so we didn’t take a lot of food.

We found the utensils were not very clean as you could see many obvious stains of oil and food residues on them. The napkins had a greasy smell too. So, it is advisable to bring your own wet tissue to clean the utensils if you mind!

Upon sighting such uncleanliness plus the waves of the sea, we all started to feel nauseous. My mom couldn’t contain it anymore and we had to rush to find the nearest washroom. To our surprise, the washroom was full of people throwing up! Luckily there was an empty cubicle for mom to relieve just in time.

I guess the seasick got worse after food.  So if you have symptoms of seasick, know your way to the nearest washroom before starting your meal and eat light. You may pack some bread for later.

8:30 am Get Ready and Adjust your Clock

As Thailand is one hour later than Singapore, make sure you adjust your watches and clocks accordingly, i.e. 8am SGT is 7am Thailand time. (You get to sleep one hour more!)

Time to get changed and prepare to go ashore using tender boats. You will need to get a complimentary tender ticket for each person on that day at Royal Promenade, Deck 5.  Your ticket will state the meeting time and location. If you have booked a Royal Caribbean Shore Excursion, there is no need to get the tender ticket and you will board the boat first. The meeting time and location are stated in your tour ticket.

What to pack in your bag:

Sunblock, even if you are not going to the beach

Thai Baht – it is advisable to change it before even going up the cruise. The rate on board is usually not very good. When you first landed in Phuket, you have to already spend $$ and they may charge you more if you are holding foreign currency.

Water – No need to bring a lot as you can easily get mineral water (or even coconut) as long as you are going to the rural area.

Some food – just in case you are hungry when you are on the road.

Towel (if you are going to the beach) – just get from your hotel room or it can be borrowed with your SeaPass card, just note that there is a $25 replacement fee for all unreturned towels.

Masking tape if you are going shopping… I will tell you why later.

SeaPass card – this act as your passport.

Umbrella – be it rain or shine, this comes in handy.

9:00 am Arrival at Phuket

Although the ship arrived at 9:00am at the port, the ship’s clearance was done only at about 9:30am. There were announcements made in the Public Areas to call out the tendering sequence and stating the tender loading area.

Collection of the complimentary tender tickets can be done at the Royal Promenade starting at 9am. You may collect for others. Bring along the SeaPass cards of your group. You need not to queue or rush to get the ticket. It will be distributed throughout the day. Get it only when you need it. Watch out for the announcement and refer to your Cruise Compass.

After collecting the tickets, we headed back to the room for a little rest after the seasick this morning. As people were crowding at the public areas to wait for their turn to get on tender boats, it was really not necessary to rush if you are not on the Shore Excursion tour. However, based on the experience at Phuket which I will share in details later, I strongly recommend you to book a shore excursion for Phuket. You may do so online before going on the cruise. Otherwise, you may go to the Shore Excursions Desk at Deck 5 to inquire.

10:30 am Going Ashore

As the announcement of the ticket number was made at the public area and we were in our room, the sound can be quite soft. We would open the door to listen more clearly and at last just left the door open slightly.

It wasn’t too long till our turn. We proceeded to the gangway and went past the security check counter where we were to display our SeaPass card. The sky was quite gloomy when we board the tender boat. As the ship had docked, it didn’t sway much so boarding the tender boat was not very scary. The boat could probably take around 50 pax.

The boat ride was only about 20 mins. From the boat, you can have a nice view and shots of the Voyager of the Seas.

The Tender Boat

The gangway

Arriving at the port (Phuket Marine Customs Pier) was a huge disappointment… This was never pre-empted by the tour agency. They didn’t even mention the name of the port. Telling you it’s Phuket would only make you imagine the beautiful beach there which you could immediately get into your swimwear right after going ashore right?

It is so different from what I have researched. All my planned “walking” itinerary from the Patong beach to shopping mall was useless because we were at the different part of Phuket altogether! 😦 I even use Google Street view to research what to expect at Phuket and how to walk around… I happily told my mom and sis about the excitement of Phuket. Urgh.

11:00 am Welcome to … Phuket?

Yes, welcome to the eastern part of Phuket where the sea is calmer and suitable for the cruise ship to dock. But going to the western part where all the nice beach and fun is, it’s taking at least 1 hour by car ride… or more by tuk-tuk. 😦

We had a shock when we arrived. It was our first time to Phuket. Groups of locals are touting at us, selling their local day tours at 3000-10,000 Baht per pax. Seriously? That’s probably all Baht I had! Their local tours include visiting temples, Elephant or Tiger “sanctuary” (please, don’t go there! You must have seen how the elephants and tigers were mistreated and drugged in order to look calm for tourists to pet), Cabaret show, massage, some shopping… The price does not include tips and your own food.

Some tourists already know where they wanted to go and were comfortable in negotiating the taxi and tuk-tuk fare.

Some tips here:

Research where you want to go and how much is the standard taxi fare.

If you would like to go for a massage, either you can research which massage place or shopping centre you want to drop by. Alternatively, you have to feel comfortable by their recommendations (which is always bias towards those that pay them a commission).

Pick your tour, get other tourists to go together. Negotiate for a group price instead of per pax.

Share a taxi or tuk-tuk with another group if going to the same locations.

Pretend to go away and engage another driver if the previous one is reluctant to decrease their price. The further inland you go, the cheaper the price would be.

Be reasonable. This is their living hood. Once you negotiate to a price which you are comfortable, just go with it and don’t squeeze them dry.

We almost wanted to go back to the ship after strolling around the little street market for 10 mins. Most of the stall owners were Muslims.

Some drivers were still touting at us. So we thought since we were already here, may as well just give it a try. We didn’t want to go too far as the travelling time is easily 1 hour. So I told the driver we just want to go to a shopping mall, preferably Big C (because I want to buy the Big C seaweed!!). I don’t remember how much we paid exactly but it was less than $50 for a back-seat tuk-tuk.

It started to rain heavily half-way and the driver had to stop by the road to help us “wind down” the window screen made of plastic sheets. Hahaha. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience! Just make sure you hold on to the window rail when the vehicle is moving as there is no door to keep you safe.

The driver had to do a detour to a tourist attraction as part of his “company policy”. So he brought us to Siam Multi Gems and Pearl. We walked one round and came out. Sorry, we didn’t bring enough cash to buy anything there. The driver was kind and say it’s ok to not buy anything as he just needed to show them he did try to bring tourists there.

We proceeded to Big C. We set a meeting time and location with the driver and off we go exploring the 3 levels shopping mall.

We had our lunch first at a food court in the mall. Nothing fantastic. We shopped for some snacks and souvenirs. But if you shop a lot, do consider picking up an empty box near the cashier counter or ask the cashier for one. It’s usually free. Then you can pack your stuff in the box and yes, now you get to use the masking tape! Otherwise, they have the tape sold at 100Baht also la. :p

You can also find tour recommendation in The Cruise Compass. The one recommended is Phang Nga Bay – where the James Bond island is. I’m not so sure how long it takes for the motorboat to reach there though. Probably it’s one of the shore excursions offered by Royal Caribbean.

3:00 pm Back to the ship

The tender boats run approximately every 20 minutes throughout the day and the last tender back to the ship leaves the dock at 8:30 pm.

We were back just in time for tea time. We feel so relieved to come back early. The ship is rather empty so we could have more peace and fun for ourselves. We helped ourselves with the food at Windjammer and it was good – much better than our lunch for sure. There was also free flow soft-serve!

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After the afternoon snacks, we proceeded to explore the ship and try out things we had not done before such as the FlowRider!

Walking around the ship – finding treasures…

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2. Go to the library. You may also do books exchange here – where you leave a used book and take another one to read in your room or bring home.

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3. FlowRider!! The FlowRider simulates a real surfing and body boarding experience. Riders must be at least 1.47 meter tall to surf and 1.32 meter to Boogie Board. Check the operating times for the FlowRider on Deck 13 in Open Hours. 

Here’s a video of someone with body boarding experience. Looks fun eh?

4. Play golf!

6:00 pm Fine Dining at Sapphire Dining Room

The food was good as usual. Here’s a sneak peek to the menu and what I had.

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7:30 pm Rest or Movie

After dinner, we went back to our room to find another cute animal (elephant?) made of a towel. There was an outdoor movie at 7:30pm so we went up to Deck 11 for a quick peek. It was The Legend of Tarzan.

9:30 pm Headliner Showtime Starring “Aussie Boys”

We headed to La Scala Theatre at around 9:15pm to secure the front seats. Trust me, it’s really worth to go a bit earlier to get good seats! By Day 3, others would have figured that out and everyone tried to be earlier.

This was a very nice and charming show by three handsome young singers from Australia. They could also sing some Chinese and Cantonese song such as 朋友 by the 周華健！The crowd went so high and they started to strip off their shirts, leaving just black singlets. Hahaha! Enjoy some photos!

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The ship started to move again during the show as you could hear the engine startup sound for a while.

At the end of the show, there was a distribution of lottery tickets at Royal Promenade which I didn’t know what we could win. We just went there for supper and go to sleep.

Time to sail back to Singapore!

Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas Full Review with Tips! Part 4/5: Day 3 Woohoo! New post! Sorry for the wait again! So this is the day you had a good night sleep after one whole afternoon of indulging in Penang's great food and lots of walking under the hot sun.

[kintailscape]

CONfabulation 2017

This weekend, I had a wonderful time at CONfabulation, a multi-fandom convention by the people who brought us Wincon. As always, it’s hard to adjust to real life again after several days of being a fangirl at the height of excitement and being uncensored around/among my people. So I thought I’d write it up while the experience is still somewhat fresh.

I headed out on Thursday morning a little earlier than I’d planned. There was a Penguins game that night and the hotel I was heading to was next door to the hockey arena in Pittsburgh, so I was worried about parking. Google said it would take me 4 hours to get there.I left at 10:30am and made it there at 4:45pm; I’m not so sure, but that seems like a little more than 4 hours. But it wasn’t all the fault of traffic or the weather. I did make one wrong turn and had to pay a toll for a road I didn’t even go onto (Grr!) but I got there without too much difficulty, especially once I left Northern Virginia. I was traveling alone this time, as my con friend was unable to get off work, which meant I could stop for snarfs I saw on the side of the road along the way. I earread Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer by Rick Riorden during the drive.

When I got to Pittsburgh, the traffic wasn’t all that bad, but it was FILLED with Penguins fans. As a Capitals fan, it was a bit stomach-churning to witness. Luckily, the hotel had self-parking spots available. So I checked in and then unloaded, realizing on my last trip that I’d left the giant bag of food I’d bought at home! Arg! I settled into my hotel room within two minutes (I never really unpack much). My room had a giant space in it (where another bed or a table once was, I assume, or else it was for playing Twister).

I headed down for the meet & greet and ended up sharing two fandoms (Carry On and Grantchester) during small fandom speed dating. I also wrote down several fandoms I now definitely need to put on the high priority list. Then I joined a few people who were heading out to a 7-11 in order to stock up on food. We learned a lot about Pittsburgh City Center during our exploration including: streets are layered, hilly, and confusing; alcohol cannot be purchased at 7-11, and all stores close ridiculously early. I stocked up on some protein bars, bananas, and cereal for the week, then we ventured out to find an open liquor store. Three stores later, we found one that was still open (it was 7:15pm). I also found a good handful of historical markers; my new friends helped me spot them.

We got back to the hotel and I knew from the sight of the downstairs and the streets packed with Penguins fans that I didn’t want to go back out (besides, everything seemed closed). So I spent the night in my room watching Doctor Who episodes, writing fanfiction, reading Outlander, and eating room service. Every so often I checked the hockey score and, when the Pens unfortunately won, the streets outside my hotel room exploded with noise. Ugh. Not where I wanted to be, that’s for sure.

I had a rough night sleep-wise, so I was glad to have my Always Keep Fighting hoodie to snuggle up in Friday morning.

Friday Morning Schedule:

10:00am–10:30am Dealer room I hit the dealer room and bought a few presents, items for future swaps, and something for myself. I also picked up the custom order I made from NightengaleNeedles for a pillow. It turned out so nicely! I had to run it back up to my room so that I wouldn’t fall asleep in panels with it. heehee

10:30am–11:00am Opening Ceremonies Yay! We made it here!

11:00am–12:00pm Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 20 years Later Panelists started by playing the theme song, which definitely got us in the Buffy mood. We had a good time talking about our favorite characters, moments, and episodes as well as discussing the uniqueness of the show itself. It was wonderful to find there were quite a few Spander shippers there, including among the panelists. We all pretty much agreed Spike is the fandom bicycle, but we meant it with love of course. I also liked the discussion about how the show highlighted the concept of inventing yourself and that change is possible without losing your friends.

12:00pm–1:00pm Plushie Workshop I We had to start from scratch as bodies weren’t pre-made, and deciding what to make took me a while, but this was a much needed fun crafting break up in the Quiet Craft room that happened to also be on my floor of the hotel.

I headed out with a new friend to find Jimmy Johns for lunch. After walking in the wrong direction and stressing about time, we ended up at a pizza place on the other side of the block from our hotel where several con attendees were also eating. I had a veggie hoagie, which I ate while walking back to the con and finished during the next session.

Friday Afternoon Schedule:

2:00pm–3:00pm Ohana Means Family This was the found family panel, and we started off by trying to define found families (does joining an existing family like Harry joining the Weasleys count? do they have to have a parental figure?). I adored the discussion of non-human species (like werewolves) who have a sense of otherness already who need to seek out others for a shared experience (I love a good wolf pack). We also discussed the many different ways they come about—choice, workplace, survivalism, world-saving, etc. Other discussion topics included how fandom is our found family, subsets within families, the greater diversity in a found family compared to biological family, how people with different skill sets help each other, and if there are any found families lately without tragic backstories. You get a tragic backstory! You get a tragic backstory! Look under your chairs, everyone get s a tragic backstory! I was THRILLED to get to talk Sense8 for a while! Squee!

3:00pm–4:00pm A Galaxy Far, Far Away We started off by sharing our own Star Wars origin stories, and it was neat seeing the diversity in the group (and also finding others who like the Ewoks). We talked about ships and ships as well. I’m clearly going to have to properly make my way through the Darths and Droids Webcomic. And we ended with discussion of The Last Jedi (SPOILERS!!!!!!) including how even though Finn is wearing Poe’s entire outfit it doesn’t necessarily indicate that Poe is naked, though there is a strong case for such.

4:00pm–5:00pm Vid Show The vid show was wonderful; I’d seen only two of the vids before (and as one was Leverage with my OT3 and to an Ingrid Michealson song, I certainly didn’t mind seeing it again). I was utterly destroyed by Darcy’s SG-1 Jack/Daniel vid entitled “Living Alone” and had to break out the tissue pack almost at once. So good!

As I had no one to do dinner with, I worked on my plushie a little and then went back to the only food place I knew was open and ordered a salad (healthy) and onion rings (my weakness). I sewed through dinner and got the body done (even though I had to reinforce the crotch better after stuffing him).

Then I got ready for the masquerade. I wore my Marauder’s Map dress with Marauder’s Map pin on my badge, Marauder’s Map bow in my hair, and the actual Maurader’s Map as a necklace. (I maybe like the marauders a bit, you know) I also had a black mask I bought with the cape I wore to the Walk to End HIV a few years back when the theme was superheros. I discovered upon arrival that I had taken the masquerade title too literally and I was only one of a few who had masks. Still, it went with the outfit and made me feel a little bolder to be hiding behind a mask, so I kept it on. There was a mashed potatoes bar and a dessert bar as well, and the decorations were wonderful. I had a lot of nice conversations with people, including getting to geek out on Classic Who (and ask some questions about it… and get some lovely audiobook recs) and catch up with one of my favorite fellow hurt/comfort writers. I don’t like dances much and attempted to retire to the fandom lounge for button-making with friends like last Wincon, but it was locked up. Drat! So we headed back to the dance. I did dance to the Time Warp, because that one has scripted dance moves. And I danced to the last song with everyone, which was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” (so perfect, though were were a little iffy on which verse was which LOL).

Oh, the movie never ends It goes on and on, and on, and on … Don’t stop believin’ Hold on to that feelin’

I went back to my room after the masquerade and worked for 2 hours on my plushie while watching Doctor Who. I finished up watching the Fifth Doctor’s episodes! I also discovered I cut the underwear too small for my plushie. Then I went to bed at 2am.

I got up at 9 in order to eat breakfast and get down to the dealer room as soon as possible.

Saturday Morning Schedule:

10:00am–10:30am Dealer’s Room My friend put in a request for merch and I was hoping to squeeze it in before the morning panels. However, the dealers didn’t all get there early, so I ended up missing half of the first panel. I also dropped a few BookCrossing books on tables in the fandom lounge to give away. Worth it, though. The dealer had the thing my friend wanted AND I ended up buying things from pretty much all the other dealers. Good start to a morning indeed!

10:30am–11:00am Disability in Media A LOT less angry and complainy than most of the disability panels I’ve attended at other cons. There was a lot of talk of positive examples and analysis of things. That was refreshing to hear. I’m sorry I missed the part where they discussed Bashir because, I mean, Bashir, right?

11:00am–12:00pm Invisible Unicorns I had the HARDEST time figuring out this time slot. It was up against Book Recs for the People (I adore books) and Totally 80s Toons (possibly my only chance to talk about my first fandom with people: Pound Puppies). I asked the panelist heading from Disability in Media to Totally 80s Toons to please NOT discuss Pound Puppies because missing such a discussion would break my heart. Then I stayed in the roundtable room for Invisible Unicorns, where we talked about bi, ace, pan, etc. representations in fandoms. The session was so well attended we had to keep grabbing more chairs. LOL It was wonderful. I came out with a LOT to think about. We talked about the whole “prove it!” thing and the problematic usage of “born this way.” One thing I had never heard put into words before was how there is a shorthand for sex onscreen but no shorthand for things like asexual romance (YET!). There were also some hilarious moments i.e. “Once you cross the het barrier at knotting…” “That is NOT where the het barrier is.”

12:00pm–1:00pm Plushie Workshop II I was considering going to MCU, but I’m behind on S.H.I.E.L.D. and haven’t seen the second Guardians yet, so I decided to craft. I had big plans: Finish the head, make new underwear, make the suit jacket, sew the head on to finish it. I managed the first 2 of 4. I made the suit jacket then discovered it’s just a little too small. Drat! I’ll have to redo part of it. But it was definitely another nice break. Except now I have what looks like a headless Morman and not a Ianto Jones yet. One lovely attendee brought a ton of little figures, and we had fun going through them, sorting them by property, and selecting a few. I got a couple for myself and one for a friend. At the end of the day, after everyone else had a chance to look through them (and they were no longer sorted) I took a few more.

I worked on my plushie through lunch (thanks to snacks from 7-11) then headed to afternoon sessions.

Saturday Afternoon Schedule:

2:00pm–3:00pm OT3: A Love Story We listed our favorite OT3s in fandom (Leverage, Force Awakens, White Collar, Haven, Marvel, Sense8, etc.) I ship some very rare OT3s so I didn’t bring them up (Wolverine/Iron Man/Captain America; Sherlock/Watson/Lestrade) but it was fun hearing about other people’s ships. We discussed why OT3s are the best (solves love triangle problems, avoids ship wars, solves problem of killing off awesome female characters). We also talked about dynamics of OT3s (relationship negotiations–swoon!, soulmate AUs, imperfect moments, overlap with found families, inviting someone to join, etc.). And, of course, this lovely quote “My fandoms have orgies all the time” which pretty much sums up my writing style. LOL

3:00pm–4:00pm Fandom as Genre This one was interesting, and I’m very glad I went. What’s unique to fandom that makes it its own thing and makes it special? Some topics of discussion included: ability to have different versions of the same character, ability to have different settings/situations with the same characters, ability to explore minor characters, having less exposition (already know the shared universe, history, appearances, etc.), POV differences, how much of the community aspect is needed to make it fanfiction, the difference between authorized tie-in novels and fanfiction, why we write fanfiction (for ourselves or for a certain population that knows certain things already about the source material), what we’re allowed to write in a fandom vs. what is taboo, how A/B/O originated in fandom, and the concept of headers/tag wranglers. Some quotes I liked included “Fanfic is the only place characters go into the bedroom and come out as the same people,” “We need to make supernatural disgusting again!” and “We’ve come a long way from ‘we’re not gay, we just love each other.'” There was also a question raised regarding what is at the core of a character that makes him recognizable and feel like the same character when everything around is different?

4:00pm–4:30pm Charity Raffle The charity was Planned Parenthood, and people were generous both in the donating of items and in the buying of raffle tickets. I bought $40 in raffle tickets, so I was expecting to win a few things (especially as a few things I put tickets in for only had one or two tickets in the cup). I didn’t get the Ace scarf I really wanted and put a lot of tickets in for, but I did get a bunch of things, including a Martha plushie (who can hang out with Ianto, once he’s done–the Joneses!), tons of comics (including some Archies, Buffys, Marvel, and more), a Donatello figure (he’s my turtle), a Spider-man hat, and some gorgeous fannish jewelry. I was also super happy to see the items I donated to the raffle go to people who will love them. One super nice new friend gave me something she won in the raffle and had two of. Squee!

After the raffle, I bought a few things from the other vendor I hadn’t purchased from yet (I’d frankly been avoiding her booth because I wanted every single thing she had for sale and didn’t trust myself). I ended up with a few buttons I’d never seen before and a super soft Kaylee Bear. I thought about also buying the Jayne Bear, but I just couldn’t do it without a Simon Bear to ship with him. #noregrets.

A few of us stayed in the fandom lounge to finally take advantage of the button machine. Making buttons was one of my favorite parts of Wincon, and it was fun to have one of my button-making friends back as well as some new button-making friends joining the crew. We had a great time going through stickers and magazines, looking for things we wanted. I made a kickass perfect RuPaul button that is sort of now my favorite. I also made an Alexander Hamilton button and a kitty King George button to go with him. And some others, of course. We were at it for a little over 2 hours. It was such fun seeing the creative things people made!

I had just enough time to pop over to Jimmy Johns (found it this time!) before it closed (it was only 7:20, mind you!) and get back to the con in time for the trivia contest. I’d planned on just watching, but I got roped into playing. Glad I did; I even knew a few of the answers, like what century Outlander was in. However, I feel SHAME forever for saying “Flashverse” instead of “Flashpoint.” I will never shake off that shame. I was proud to be able to answer the question about all the Weasley siblings (including next generation) and probably could have done the hockey siblings one, but two people on my team JUMPED at that, so I let them have at it. I’m also sad I couldn’t remember the names of the Hansons! Terrible fangirling on my part; I’m just not good at remembering things when there are time constraints! In all, we had a great team and we came in second… though later I heard we misgraded another team’s paper and actually came in third. Just like the Puffs play says “Third or nothing!!!”

After trivia was Badfic Idol. My fic “Five Times Something Happened and One Time Something Else Happened” was read at the beginning. It was my first attempt and it didn’t win first place or even second. But it did get some laughs. And my friend appreciated the Picard on a Horse inside joke from Wincon I threw in there. Actually, 80% of the fic was thought up during Wincon a few years back, so it was fun to share it. Instead of the judges giving their thoughts after each fic like last time, they gave them all at once at the end, which was a little more confusing, but we got there in the end. The winning fic had no words and was written only in emojis starting with policeman knife fireman and ending with sailboat. I mean… sailboat, you know? That’s a damn powerful ending. Definitely deserved to win! It was a great event; all the stories were hilarious; I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. And the judges’ comments were amazing!

After Badfic Idol, I stuck around for a game of Cards Against Humanity. I actually won a round, which was great. I played some fantastic cards but just the one win. Everyone was bringing their best to the game, and it was definitely a hoot.

I headed back to my room and packed up so everything would be ready the next morning.

On Sunday, I woke at 8:45 sleepy but fine (one nice thing about never drinking is not worrying about con morning hangovers). I finished packing and, once again, headed to the dealer’s room for a morning purchase. I had forgotten a button I HAD to buy a friend and, luckily, there were still a few left (in various styles). Score! I’m not posting the photos of things I bought for people, BTW, because that would spoil the surprises.

Sunday Morning Schedule:

10:00am–11:00am The State of Fandom I had to ask but, yes, everyone agreed that LJ is DEAD. Someone suggested Pillowfort, which is like Tumblr only fixes all the problems Tumblr has and lets you have actual conversations. Someone else suggested Pinboard for bookmarking. We talked a lot about building our “brands” and the differences between us oldtimers and the new internet generation in terms of privacy concerns. We also talked about things like how releasing whole seasons at once erases that anticipation we once had for week-to-week shows, how there used to be a fannish code and norms that get passed down but are being challenged now culturally, and how freakin awesome Fanlore is.

11:00am–12:00pm Hamilton: Who Tells Your Story? We started off talking about race and how it puts so many marginalized groups back into the narrative of our country. Then we went into discussions about gender (how women are in the war scenes and how it’s kind of Eliza’s story, or would be if she were in it more). I loved the point one person made about how in Revolutionary War times, a person’s writing style was uniquely identifiable just the way the musical styles for each character are uniquely identifiable for us today in the musical. I was shocked that more people hadn’t read the Ron Chernow book, and I was going to recommend it for people who write Hamilton fanfic, but then the discussion moved on (it’s filled with amazing details like the fact that Hamilton & Eliza had a dog named “Old Peggy” and how Washington’s aides usually shared beds at camp). But we did talk about how the American narrative actually wasn’t as rose-colored as we thought and how the musical humanizes history. Some recommendations included the book Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes, the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, and a Sleepy Hollow crossover where Alexander Hamilton comes forth into modern day and is stuck here. Also, I was given a rec that has Asexual!Dom!Washington and subby!Hamilton that is currently my favorite Hamilton fic EVER!

12:00pm–1:00pm Family Affairs: Incest in Fandom Was great to end the con with a good ol’ incest panel! We talked about our first and favorite pairings. I asked about Bates Motel because I LOVE me some Bates Motel and was told the fanfic is not good, which wasn’t too surprising. We also talked about what makes incest fic good and the different kinds (I’m in love with the term Gencest now!).

1:00pm–1:35pm Closing Ceremonies I had to leave during the closing event, because of my hotel checkout time and because I wanted to get home before it got too dark, but it was nice being there for part of it. And people waved to me as I left, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy. The con com did an amazing job putting this together and making it special and unique. I really hope the next Confab Con is somewhere close to me so I can attend it!

On my way home, I attempted to find some postcards of Pittsburgh to send to people and struck out everywhere I looked. I picked up a grilled cheese with onions and some more onion rings (did I mention I was driving home alone?) as well as a frozen slushie drink at Sheetz. My GPS wanted me to go one way that was blocked off with a detour, so I took the scenic route out of Pittsburgh and quite enjoyed the drive. Then I ended up on 40 heading to a big snarf stop I’d seen when I was driving up but couldn’t stop for because I’d been worried about Penguins game parking. I finished earreading Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer and put on In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord, which I also ended up finishing on the drive. So then I started Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

I found the historical markers (snarfs) I’d been looking for and discovered it was General Braddock’s grave. Just down the street from that was Fort Necessity. I thought about just doing a drive-by with it and coming back some other time. I even went into the park, drove around the lot, and then went back to the highway again. Then I decided to just do it and went to the fort. I was still on a Hamilton high, and what better way to end my con weekend but with a George Washington fuckup? The park ranger was sad to inform me that the reenactments were all done for the day and that there was only one showing of the film left; I didn’t really care about either. I went through the museum and headed out to the fort. Apparently the Braddock Road by my home is, actually, the very same one I’d been driving on for an hour up in Pennsylvania. I snarfed all the signs and took some nice shots of the fort, the tavern, and the monuments. Hopefully no one thought less of me in my wearing my Hamilton/Harry Potter mash-up t-shirt.

I found a few more historical markers on the drive home, stopped for gas in the little town that literally has an interstate running right through its middle just above it, and got home around 8:30. My cats were happy to see me, and Ozma kitten has already claimed my CONfabulation bag as her own.

CONfabulation 2017 was originally published on The Fangirl Project

[dirtdiggersanddinosaurs]

Congratulations!

If you are reading this you’ve successfully survived 100 days of lockdown – whoop, I’m giving you all a virtual, socially distanced and gloved pat on the back!

Reaching the milestone this week gave me a nudge to look back on what we have (or haven’t) achieved so far. To be honest, I have had more than a few moments of mum guilt and feeling like I’m failing to juggle everything properly as, [I imagine] we all have at some point?

We’ve muddled through with some really good days and some god awful ones that we must never speak of again! On the whole though it’s been lovely to have this extra time together, and we have done some pretty cool things on our journey into home learning. I’m not going to use the term home schooling because really it’s been anything but, let’s just say I have a whole new level of respect for all the teachers out there!

We’ve been completely disorganised…no detailed schedules/planners here I’m afraid! Things have been inconsistent, surprisingly spontaneous and sometimes we’ve just been downright lazy. We’ve also never put any pressure on ourselves. Keeping safe and well has always been our priority and very much still is, so that in turn means that we’ve also had a lot of fun along the way. Read on to see a few of our more enjoyable home learning projects:

Egyptians

This was our first foray into a proper topic. It started with an innocent share of a virtual tour of Queen Meresankh’s Tomb to my Facebook group and quickly snowballed as our friends commented. It was decided our friend group would learn together about Egypt and then have a 3 way videocall at the end of the week for a ‘show and tell’.

At this point we were in full lockdown so everything we made was from repurposed household items and using what we found in the depths of the craft bag. We started by researching Egyptians online and I printed out the hieroglyphic alphabet. We decided to have a go at making our own ancient scroll. To age the paper I gave Stanley some cold black coffee and he painted the paper all over (while complaining about the smell, I might add). Once dry I used a lighter to carefully singe the edges and create blackened areas to give an appearance of age (I wouldn’t recommend letting any child under 10 years do this part as it was quite tricky). I then gave the paper back to Stanley and he used the printout to lookup the letters needed for his name then wrote ‘Stan’ in hieroglyphs.

Stanley’s ancient name scroll

The next stop was to go back to our original plan and explore Queen Meresankh’s Tomb online, this was really interesting and Stanley recognised some of the hieroglyphs, however I think James was just hoping to spot a mummy! This led nicely into looking up pictures of the Pharaohs and Queens and what they looked like.

We decided to make some Egyptian jewellery to jazz ourselves up a bit for our video call, as you do! Paper plates came to the rescue, we cut the centre out, leaving just the rim of the plate. We then painted them with silver paint (we didn’t have any gold, budget conscious Pharaoh’s here). We cut some jewels out of tissue paper using pinking shears and stuck them on. Stanley drew some scarab beetles working from an illustration we found online and coloured them in. We stuck these to our collar necklaces to make the centre pendant. Using a similar technique on a empty toilet roll Stanley made a wrist cuff, and my headband was made from thin card and tinfoil. I drew the serpant because by now I was fully invested!

For more Egyptian craft ideas see my Pinterest board.

Cleopatra coming atcha!

After a quick rummage in the shed I found some weed suppressant fabric and I became Cleopatra, the eyeliner came out and my eyebrows had a less than subtle makeover too. A couple of old sheets were artistically arranged, and we were ready for our videocall. Luckily we have friends who are just as crazy and wholeheartedly threw themselves into the theme too!

Talk like an Egyptian

Space

This was a week long project that coincided with National Space Day (May 1st), which just goes to prove I can actually plan things when I try!

Stanley has always been interested in space and rockets so he was more than happy with this subject. We started off by watching the moon landing on YouTube which he was absolutely glued to, and he told me all about the lack of gravity which I admit really impressed me. From there we watched a Facebook live from the National Space Centre explaining the phases of the moon, which was really informative in a child friendly way. Stanley drew all the phases of the moon and coloured them in. He then cut them out with a little help from me. I covered some thin card with black tissue paper and Stanley used white paint and a toothbrush to ‘stipple’ and splatter what looked like the night sky. Once dry we stuck on the moon phases in order and Stanley labelled them.

Learning about phases of the moon

Have you ever made moon sand? If not, I really recommend it. I know that many people inwardly cringe at the idea of moldable sand, but I love it as a rainy day activity. It’s one of those things that can keep my boys entertained for hours, so a bit of mess is totally worth it for a quiet cuppa. It’s also really easy to make requiring only 2 ingredients that you’re likely to already have in. We used 8 parts flour (a mix in our case of bags that had been in the cupboard for quite a while) to 1 part oil. We used baby oil, cooking oil would work too but might not smell as nice. You can also add food colouring to make different colours but we stuck with natural colour sand to represent the moon’s surface.

Homemade moon sand

Next, was a space themed craft session that everybody enjoyed joining in with while Eli was down for a nap. I honestly don’t know what we would have done without the humble paper plate during lockdown, this time we saw them transformed into an alien spaceship via some tinfoil and an empty yogurt pot. They also became an alien mask, and impressive solar flare.

Tony Hart would have been proud!

Again, we did a show and tell with friends at the end of the week which started off well but descended into silliness and Messenger games. It was lovely to see the boys catching up and playing together though – if you can’t be silly when you’re 6, when can you?

UFO spotted in Leek, Staffordshire

For more Space based learning inspiration head over to my Pinterest board.

VE Day

I’m not going to lie, this was my absolute favourite topic. If you haven’t got a pen then grab one now, you are going to want to write this down….ready? I put my boys on RATIONS for a whole week leading up to VE Day! OMG it was amazing, we saved approximately eleventy million pounds in snacks alone! Joking aside, [it wasn’t a joke, it really WAS amazing!] it helped to bring home the hardship that people endured during and after the war years in a way the boys could easily understand.

James didn’t look this happy about it towards the end of the week!

I cut up an old colouring book and designed the front cover with some details from the original ration books. Inside I made a page for each day, listed snacks (of my choice) and then cut slips that could be torn off as ‘coupons’ and handed over in exchange for the desired food item.

Best mum hack EVER!

After introducing the ration books Stanley had lots of questions so we looked up what was available on ration during and after the war. We talked about how food was never wasted and had to last.

We also learned about Dig for Victory and how people were encouraged to grow their own fruit and vegetables to help with food shortages. Stanley drew pictures of the veggies that we have planted then labelled them. We then found some examples of Dig for Victory propaganda posters online and had a go of recreating one in our backyard. I think it was a reasonable effort, what do you think?

Our recreated propaganda poster.

My boys have always been interested in anything with an engine so we looked up the Spitfire which of course was designed by Reginald Mitchell who was a Stoke-on-Trent man, so local to us. Stanley remembers going to see the Spitfire at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery with his Grandad. I ordered some cheap model airplanes online, see similar here and we had a flying competition and measured how far they flew.

Honing his flying skills

Anybody who knows me in real life will know that I like to celebrate, I’ll go all out to make something special and VE Day itself deserved some special recognition. So, I set to making some decorations out of crepe paper from our bottomless craft bag and cut up some old Aldi carrier bags. I know that I tread a fine line between being resourceful and just plain tight!

VE Day decorations in the making

We had already read about evacuees and how parents sent their children away to the countryside to keep them safe. So on the morning of VE Day I had outfits ready for my three little evacuees who I was keen to welcome home. School polo shirts and trousers provided the majority of the outfits and I added flat caps to finish them off. All evacuees were labelled so that they got home safely. The labels I made from a pack of luggage tags and Stanley being the eldest was in charge of carrying the gas masks (gas mask case made from an empty washing tablet box). They looked so cute!

My evacuees were home at last.

Meanwhile, I channelled my inner land girl in a khaki jumpsuit and red lippy. We listened to 1940’s music together and tuned in to hear Winston Churchill’s speech. We looked at photos of how people celebrated VE Day with huge street parties and Stanley commented that “we can’t do that today because of the virus germs” so I told him not to worry as I had our safe party planned.

This landgirl complete with her essential gruffalo gardening tools

To round off our week of interactive history lessons we celebrated Victory in Europe in style with a traditional afternoon tea party. The weather was lovely so we had it outside, I’d arranged for more afternoon teas to be delivered to my mum and sister too, and we scheduled a group videocall so that we could all enjoy the treats ‘together’. It was a fab day and a great end to that week’s project.

To plan next year’s VE Day celebration or to get inspiration for a WW2 project visit my Pinterest board here.

Science

Who doesn’t love a good science project? Well, after being fascinated by Professor Pumpernickel‘s show (he’s a mad scientist with blue hair) at Timber Festival my boys are pretty keen on anything that has the potential to explode, smoke or ooze.

We had a go at creating our very own lava lamp, and again all the ingredients were already in our cupboards. From what I’ve seen there are a couple of ways to do this, but our method was fairly simple.

Starting off slowly

We added a generous layer of bicarbonate of soda to the bottom of our ‘lamp’, then carefully filled with cooking oil. In the paper cups we had food colouring (yellow and blue) mixed with vinegar. Slowly Stanley poured the food colouring mixture into the lamp, a few drops at a time.

Building up the colours

Here’s the science bit: the oil and vinegar do not have the same density. The vinegar is more dense and does not mix with the oil causing it to sink to the bottom. Once at the bottom the vinegar (acid) reacts with the (alkaline) bicarbonate of soda and releases (carbon dioxide) gas bubbles which then rise back up to the surface.

It worked surprisingly well and the boys were very impressed. You can read about our other bicarb science lesson where we made a volcano here.

Nature

Again, if you know us beyond your screen it will come as no surprise that we’ve been learning more about nature more than anything else. We are (usually, pre Covid19) an outdoorsy bunch. We like being surrounded by nature in all its leafy, feathery, slimy, furry and muddy glory. So it was very easy for us to bring the natural world into our lessons.

World Bee Day is celebrated every year on 20th May so we took this as our starting point and focused on bees for that week. I printed off a bee spotter sheet and released the boys into the yarden to burn some energy off. Luckily the weather was perfect and the bees were a’buzzin.

Image Credit: Wild About Gardens

Next on the list was to learn about how bees construct their hive. We watched a live stream from a local apiary that explained the process. I then set Stanley the task of making a honeycomb from an empty toilet roll.

*at this point if it can’t be made from a paper plate, tinfoil, yogurt pots or empty toilet rolls then we’re not interested *

I cut the toilet roll into sections and armed Stanley with some sticky tape. He soon had a decent looking honeycomb although he was quick to point out that they weren’t the right shape.

Busy bee making his honeycomb

Once completed we looked at the life cycle of a honey bee using toy figures. The boys played bees for a little while together using the honeycomb we’d made.

Learning through play

Afterwards Stanley completed some worksheets I’d printed, he labelled the different phases of the bee life cycle and then completed a bee themed wordsearch.

Wordsearches are great for word recognition, sounding out and hand eye coordination too.

Staying with the bee theme we tried a little science experiment involving honey. Supposedly you can tell how pure your honey is by doing this.

First pour some runny honey into a bowl, add a small amount of hot water and move the bowl to swirl the water over the surface of the honey. If the honey is pure then the heat from the water makes the honey react causing the cells ‘remember’ their last state so they start to reform a honeycomb pattern.

As you can see we did get a pattern but I’m not convinced on the scientific merits of this experiment but it was fun and easy to do. Unfortunately we only had one type of honey in the house, but it would be a good experiment to do with different types of honey to see if they produced different results.

We also rescued a bumblebee that was a bit worse for wear in our backyard, Stanley made up a teaspoon of sugar solution and let the bee get its energy back. The boys kept going out and checking on it and finally got to see it fly off which was great.

Rescue mission

We did a similar study with the frog life cycle, I had every intention of finding some frogspawn and raising the tadpoles but as we’ve been shielding we didn’t get out far enough to find any. But, never the less we learned all about the stages of the life cycle and the boys made their own little froggy habitat using gravel and water. I made my own ‘frogspawn’ using cornflour and peppercorns for the boys to play with. It was good old messy fun, which was very much confined to being outside!

Making a frog habitat

For those wondering, I found the life cycle toys here. We have still got the mosquito, butterflies and ant lifecycles to explore so plenty to go at yet. More kids life cycle activity inspiration can be found on my Pinterest board.

So there you have it, 5 of our best bits – the projects that we’ve really enjoyed doing over the last 100 days. I’ve tried to combine fun with learning to keep my boys interested and entertained, hopefully one day they will look back on our time shielding in lockdown with a smile. I dread to think what my offstead rating would be though, coffee always seems to rank quite highly in my teaching priorities!

100 days and counting…

If you’ve enjoyed this post, or found it helpful then please come and over and join my Facebook group. I set the group up at the very beginning of lockdown as obviously my usual days out and activities were non existant, it’s called ‘Let’s Do This Instead’ and is packed full of ideas for home learning, entertaining the kids and having fun. We are now over 1.3k parents strong but the more the merrier!

All images are my own unless otherwise credited and must not be reproduced without permission.

100 Days of Lockdown Learning: Our Best Bits Congratulations! If you are reading this you've successfully survived 100 days of lockdown - whoop, I'm giving you all a virtual, socially distanced and gloved pat on the back!