#national captain swan day

[sarijournal]

"it's called waltz and there's only one rule... pick a partner who knows what he's doing."

National Dance The Waltz Day

[allaboutjmo]

Happy #NationalEatYourJelloDay !

[greenwitchcrafts]

February 2024 witch guide

Full moon: February 24th

New moon: February 9th

Sabbats: Imbolc-February 1st

February Snow Moon

Known as: Eagle Moon, Horning Moon, Solmonath Moon, Bear moon, Ice Moon, Wild Moon, Raccoon Moon, Big Winter Moon, Groundhog Moon, Quickening Moon, Storm Moon, Goose Moon, Hungry Moon & Red/Cleansing Moon

Element: Fire

Zodiac: Aquarius & Pisces

Nature spirits: House Faeries

Deities: Aphrodite, Brigid & Nut

Animals: Otter & Unicorn

Birds: Chickadee & Eagle

Trees: Cedar, laurel, myrtle & rowan

Herbs: Balm of Gilead, hyssop, myrrh, sage & spikenard

Flowers: Primrose

Scents: Heliotrope & wisteria

Stones: Amethyst, jasper, moonstone, obsidian, onyx , rose quartz, topaz & red zircon

Colors: Light blue & violet

Energy:  Astral travel, banishing, beginnings, breaking bad habits, creativity expressiveness, empowerment, energy working to the surface, fertility, forgiveness, freedom, friendships, future plans, growth, healing, problem solving, purification, responsibility & science

February’s full Moon is a “Micromoon” this year. Think of this term as the opposite of a “Supermoon.” It simply means that the full Moon is at its farthest point from Earth (not the nearest point).

The explanation behind February’s full Moon name is a fairly straightforward one: it’s known as the Snow Moon due to the typically heavy snowfall that occurs in February. On average, February is the United States’ snowiest month, according to data from the National Weather Service. In the 1760s, Captain Jonathan Carver, who had visited with the Naudowessie(Dakota), wrote that the name used for this period was the Snow Moon, “because more snow commonly falls during this month than any other in the winter.” 

Imbolc

Known as: Feast of Torches, Feast of Waxing Light, Oimele & Brigid's Day

Season: Winter

Symbols: Besoms, Brighid's crosses, candles, candle wheels, fertility symbols, fire, ploughs, priapic wands & white flowers

Colors: Black, brown, Earth tones, lavender, light green, orange, pink, red, white & yellow

Oils/Incense: Apricot, basil, bay, carnation, chamomile, cinnamon, dragon's blood, frankincense, heather, jasmine, myrrh, neroli, red sandalwood, sage, vanilla, violet & wisteria

Animals: Badger, cow, deer,groudhog, robin, sheep, snake, & swan

Mythical: Dragon

Stones: Amethyst, bloodstone, citrine, clear quartz, garnet, green tourmaline, hematite, iron, lodestone, onyx, red zircon, rose quartz, ruby, turquoise, yellow tourmaline

Food: Breads, chives, curries, dairy products, grains, garlic, herbal teas, honey cakes, lamb, muffins, onions, peppers, poppy seed cakes, pork, poultry, pumpkin seeds, raisins, scones, spiced wines & sunflower seeeds

Herbs/Plants: Angelica, ashleaf, balsam, basil, bay laurel, benzoin, blackberry, clover, coltsfoot, coriander, dragon's blood, garlic, heather, lemon, myrrh, rosemary, sage, vervain, wheat & witch hazel

Flowers: Celandine, chamomile, iris, rose hips, snowdrop, sunflower, tansy, violets, white flowers & yellow flowers

Goddesses: Anu, Aradia, Arianrhod, Artio, Athena, Branwen, Brigid, Danu, Februa, Gaia, Inanna, Juno, Selene, Sirona & Vesta

Gods: Aegus Mac Og, Bragi, Cupid, Dian Cecht, Dumuzi, Eros, Februus & Pax

Issues, Intentions & Powers: Activation/awakening, animals, beginnings, fertility, healing, hope, illumination, inspiration, light, pregnancy/childbirth, prophecy, transformation, well-being & youth

Spellwork: Air magick, banishings, candle spells, divination, fertility spells, prosperity & purification

Activities:

• Make & light white candles

• Clean/decorate your altar & consecrate your  altar tools

• Go on a walk in nature & look for signs of spring

• Make a Brigid's Cross

• Have a feast with your family/friends

• Give thanks & leave offerings to the Earth

• Set intentions, reflect & look deeper into your goals for spring

• Start a bonfire

• Find Imboloc prayers & devotionals that bid farewell to the winter months, honor the goddess Brigid, as well as seasonal blessings for your meals, hearth, & home.

• Pepare plans for your upcoming garden

• Craft a priapic wand

• Spend time with children celebrating Imbolc by making crafts & or baking

• Practice divination & fire scrying

• Draw a cleansing ritual bath for yourself

• Meditate, reflect & say your farewells to winter

• Cleanse & clean your house to prepare for spring

• Create a Brídeóg: a doll of Brigid made of straw

• Make Bride's bouquet satchets & exchange as symbols of good luck and fertility

• Set aside food & or drinks as an offering to Brigid to invite her in your home

Imbolc is a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of spring. Most commonly it is held on January 31 – February 1, or halfway between the winter solstice & the spring equinox. The holiday is a festival of the hearth, home, a celebration of the lengthening days & the early signs of spring. 

The word "imbolc" means "in the belly" and refers to the pregnancy of ewes at this time of year. The term "oimelc" means ewe's milk. Around this time of year, many herd animals give birth to their first offspring of the year or are heavily pregnant & as a result, they are producing milk. This creation of life’s milk is a part of the symbolic hope for spring.

Imbolc is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and it is associated with important events in Irish mythology. It has been suggested that it was originally a pagan festival associated with the goddess Brigid and that it was Christianized as a festival of Saint Brigid, who herself is thought to be a Christianization of the goddess.

Some use Imbolc to celebrate the longer days which herald the return of Spring & The Goddess's recovery from giving birth to The Sun (The God) at Yule. The God & The Goddess are children symbolizing new life, new beginnings & new resurrections.

Related festivals:

• Groundhog Day-  Is a tradition observed in the United States & Canada on February 2 of every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day & sees its shadow, it will retreat to its den & winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow, spring will arrive early.

While the tradition remains popular in the 21st century, studies have found no consistent association between a groundhog seeing its shadow & the subsequent arrival time of spring-like weather.

•St. Brigid's Day- 1 February. It was originally Imbolc, the first day of spring in Irish tradition. Because Saint Brigid has been theorised as linked to the goddess Brigid, some associate the festival of Imbolc with the goddess. St. Brigid is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland. She is patroness of many things, including poetry, learning, healing, protection, blacksmithing, livestock & dairy production. In her honour, a perpetual fire was kept burning at Kildare for centuries.

A recent campaign successfully established her feast day as a national holiday in 2023.

• Chinese New Year- (February 10th) the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. In Chinese, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival,- marking the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season. Observances traditionally take place from Chinese New Year's Eve, the evening preceding the first day of the year, to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between January 21st & February 20th.

The Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The festival was traditionally a time to honour deities as well as ancestors. Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the New Year vary widely & the evening preceding the New Year's Day is frequently regarded as an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner.

It is also a tradition for every family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep away any ill fortune & to make way for incoming good luck. Another custom is the decoration of windows & doors with red paper-cuts and couplets. Popular themes among these paper-cuts and couplets include good fortune or happiness, wealth & longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers  & giving money in red envelopes.

•  Candlemas- is a Christian feast day on February 2nd commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. It is based upon the account of the presentation of Jesus in Luke 2:22-40. 

While it is customary for Christians in some countries to remove their Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night, those in other Christian countries historically remove them after Candlemas.On Candlemas, many Christians also take their candles to their local church, where they are blessed and then used for the rest of the year.

•Setsubun- (February 3rd) Is the day before the beginning of spring in the old calendar in Japan. The name literally means 'seasonal division', referring to the day just before the first day of spring.

Both Setsubun & Risshun are celebrated yearly as part of the Spring Festival (Haru matsuri ) in Japan. In its association with the Lunar New Year, Setsubun, though not the official New Year, was thought of as similar in its ritual & cultural associations of 'cleansing' the previous year as the beginning of the new season of spring. Setsubun was accompanied by a number of rituals & traditions held at various levels to drive away the previous year's bad fortunes & evil spirits for the year to come.

Other Celebrations:

• Lupercalia-

In ancient Rome, this festival was conducted annually on February 13th through 15th under the superintendence of a corporation of priests called Luperci. The origins of the festival are obscure, although the likely derivation of its name from lupus (Latin: “wolf”) has variously suggested connection with an ancient deity who protected herds from wolves and with the legendary she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus. As a fertility rite, the festival is also associated with the god Faunus.

to purify the city, promoting health & fertility.

Each Lupercalia began with the sacrifice by the Luperci of goats and a dog, after which two of the Luperci were led to the altar, their foreheads were touched with a bloody knife & the blood was wiped off with wool dipped in milk; the ritual required that the two young men laugh. The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the sacrificial animals & ran in two bands around the Palatine hill, striking with the thongs at any woman who came near them. A blow from the thong was supposed to render a woman fertile.

In 494 CE the Christian church under Pope Gelasius I forbade participation in the festival. Tradition holds that he appropriated the form of the rite as the Feast of the Purification (Candlemas), celebrated on February 2, but it is likely that the Christian feast was established in the previous century. It has also been alternately suggested that Pope Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with St. Valentine’s Day, celebrated on February 14th, but the origin of that holiday was likely much later.

Sources:

Farmersalmanac .com

Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kines

Wikipedia

A Witch's Book of Correspondences by Viktorija Briggs

Encyclopedia britannica

Llewellyn 2024 magical almanac Practical magic for everyday living

[juustozzi]

here it is - a fan design for the finnish national team in i11 universe!

I tried to add as many references to birds and finland as I could, and I'll put them under a cut if someone's interested!

general team notes:

our actual national soccer team is named Huuhkajat (the horned owls) after a horned owl that one day randomly started to live in the team's home stadium building - hence the team name and bird theme

that owl got named Bubi, and this team's coach is based on him

general team hissatsu are themed after owls or famous finnish things

all the players are based on the official(?) regional birds

Tuoni:

based on a whooper swan (laulujoutsen), which is the national bird (captain status)

hissatsu is named after a famous finnish song (literal translation: a swan song)

name comes from the swan of Tuoni; a swan that swims in the river to afterlife in Kalevala, and anyone who harms it will die

Ukko

based on a wood grouse (metso)

hissatsu is a reference to a famous painting "Taistelevat metsot" which decipts two grouses battling

name means an older man or a guy, and the male bird is also called "ukkometso"

Erne

based on a white-tailed eagle (merikotka)

name is from the first finnish-built space craft part, and the symbol of the project was a white-tailed eagle

Tintti

based on a blue tit (sinitiainen)

"tintti" is a general nickname for tits (the birds), but also the finnish name for Tintin

Pukki

based on Teemu Pukki, probs the most famous finnish soccer player

and his last name literally means a goat (vuohipukki)

that's all

Kopek

based on a willow ptarmigan (riekko)

most grouses in northern finland make a coil/a nest in the snow for warmth and safety from predators, and his hissatsu is directly borrowed from that

name is literally the sound the bird makes (kopek-kopek-kopek..)

Hakkinen

based on a western jackdaw (naakka)

name is an historical name for the bird, and Häkkinen is a common family name here

Apus

based on a common swift (tervapääsky)

name comes from the latin name (apus apus)

Juha

based on a white-backed woodpecker (valkoselkätikka)

name is.... based on a teacher I had, who was called both Juha and literally a woodpecker.... (this is an inside thing for just me sorry)

Suo

based on a common crane

hissatsu comes from an old belief of cranes carrying the weight of the sky, and they're the most notable species that fly in wedges

name means literally a swamp, which has been the best place to spot cranes here

Valokainen

based on a black-throated loon (kuikka)

name is from an old finnish poem singer, Elessei Valokainen. A loon is in an important role in the earth-diver myth that tells the creation of the world, and Valokainen's story of it from 1908 has been recorded

I also forgot to wrote it in the image but want to mention, these birds have the most iconic cry on summer lakeside evenings, so Valokainen has a laugh that kinda sounds like that

[michiviv]

comfortember, prompt: leaves changing, books

pairing: timeskip! akaashi keiji x gn! reader

sypnosis: akaashi falls in love with the owner of the bookstore along the season.

warning: akaashi calls reader pretty, idk if anything else

notes: slow burn is a joke

word count: 1148

When you officially take over the story the leaves were still green. They framed the shop so perfectly it seemed quaint, homey even. The leaves were still green when you met him for the first time.

By him, I mean the man you'd be silently admiring for months, exchanging few words here and there. He was just so pretty… although he always wore a slightly-exasperated expression as he skimmed through the rows of books. He always made an effort to go through the entire store (it wasn’t much, but he still did), however he always remained near the manga section. Skimming through manga, mostly shonen.

Was he a shonen fan? Did he only read shonen or did he branch out?

Sometimes, when you were tending the counter, he would buy himself a volume and order himself some coffee before sitting on one of the tables facing the counter. The steam from the coffee often fogging up his glasses, which made you giggle as he wiped them. It was a slightly endearing sight. If it wasn't manga, it was a sports magazine, however you would only catch him reading the MSBY section.

You honestly felt like a creep, picking up on his habits. He only came once a week yet somehow you knew all of his reading habits but not his name.

Akaashi was the same too however. He knew your habits, always greeting him with a smile. You always drew animals as your latte art, you drew him a swan once. On your breaks you read romance novels, he saw you pick up a manga once but he didn’t know what you were reading.

Did you read obscure mangas? Like maybe Kiss of the Rose Princess? He didn’t catch anything he personally edited so he assumed you didn’t read much shonen. He had attempted to talk to you, maybe suggest one he had edited but every time he had tried someone wanted coffee. It was his curse.

slowly, overtime the leaves started to grow yellow and the weather slightly chiller. You stared off, outside the window. Thinking of anything you possibly could’ve. Books, rent, taxes, the pretty boy…

“What stage is your favorite?” A voice spoke, it was calm and kind of monotonous. You turned to look at the source and there he was- the man you were just thinking about. maybe you summoned him into exists, “of the leaves, i mean.”

“hm, i don’t think i have one.” you murmured, turning to look at the leaves. you imagined the shift from green to yellow to red to brown. “do you have one…” you trailed off, hoping he’d give you his name.

“akaashi, akaashi keiji.” he introduced himself with a small nod, “i think i like them when they’re green. it’s normal but it’s nice… it’s just right.”

finally you knew his name and it was just perfect. such a pretty name for a pretty boy, you made sure you would **never** forget it. you began to write down notes on his cup, silly little words of encouragement and drawings. one day it’s a cat and the next it’s a pig, he’d never know.

some nights when he came near closing, you’d stay hours just talking with him and learning about each other.

“what were you like in high school?l” you asked him, scrubbing the expresso machine.

“me?” he asked, his eyes widening slightly in surprise before he smiled a little bit to himself. gods, you’d kill for that smile. “i was vice and eventually captain of the volleyball team.”

you gasped a little, listening to his revelation. he didn’t seem like the type to be one of those jock volleyball players, “really? you’re joking.”

akaashi chuckled and shook his head, “dead serious. we competed in the tokyo nationals and my best friend is now a member of the black jackals.”

“that’s amazing, akaashi! show me, who is it?” you asked him, eager to know about his past.

akaashi sought out a sports magazine and brought up a team picture of the team, and started pointing out all of the players he knew and/or played with. in total he had previously met 4 people, bokuto, atsumu, hinata and sakusa. when he pointed out that bokuto was his best friend i could help but let out a ‘damn!’ that guy was ripped!

“you’re telling me— the buff guy is your best friend?” you asked him, sort of in disbelief.

“yes,” he replied, amused, “what? don’t believe me?”

“no, yes… i mean- you two are quite distinct. i can’t imagine you two talking in high school.”

“he was something..” he said with a dramatic sigh, causing both of you to laugh.

as the leaves continued to change, he began coming more often, and maybe his comments became flirtier. you two held contact for a while, began walking around the block together ‘accidentally’ brushing hands. neither of you backed off, yet neither of you took action. which was starting to piss you off.

why couldn’t you just do it. why couldn’t you just hold his hand or ask him out on a date. not that you haven’t tried, the words just get stuck on your throat and you end up asking him to have a walk with you or you offer him a cup of coffee for the cooling weather.

as you berates yourself while decompressing the coffee machine, akaashi walked in. he sauntered over with his hands behind his back. you looked up at him and smiled, “hey, akaashi. how was work?”

akaashi hummed as he pondered a response, “it was alright. work is work.” he started, pausing. he took enough time pondering his response that you had stopped what you were doing and completely turned to look at him; giving him your undivided attention.

“listen, i…” he took another deep breath before looking at you seriously. although his face was serious you could see the uncertainty and nervousness shift in his eyes, “i’ve been interested in you for a while. you’re pretty, you’re smart, you make me feel so happy and alive— basically, what i want to say is that I want to take you out on a date.” he finally confessed, pulling his hand from his back and revealing a bouquet of flowers.

your face had flushed red long before he finished his confession, slowly you took the bouquet of flowers, the grin that slowly grew on your face practically cementing itself there. “akaashi, i-“

“only if you’ll have me.”

“right,” you chuckled, “well, i would love to. these flowers are beautiful.”

“how about tomorrow night… at 7?” he asked, you could see the tips of his ears turning pink as he fidgeted with his fingers, “i’ll pick you up.”

“that sounds perfect.” you reassured him, leaning over the counter to plant a kiss on his cheek.

finally, the leaves had turned red… and they were your favorite.

[berriblossom]

KUKI MY LAD!!!

ITS ME AGAIN! (v)

( Barely proof red im half awake ^^" )

I've been seeing some very good responces to the other ask i had done, and i've just had so many ideas! But i really didnt want to stress you out, do im leaving you with this mini ask ( please dont push yourself to start it, i dont want this to become a chore instead of a little side hobby)

This is another papa zhongli ask, with the beast swan little baby reader (i love them so much platonically ♡♡♡)

Are you able to do a uncle put down for me? (Its like putting a kid to bed) with xiao ? Or... mayhaps a auntie put down with like.. ninnguane or something!! (Idk how to spell her name off the top of my head, i also just see her as the rich aunt typa person)

Once again, please take your time and make sure to have fun! (Btw if its alright with you, i might start leaving little incouragemental askes every once in a while ^^)

Im so eepy TT

GOODNIGHT FRIEND !! (ITS 5 AM HELP ME !! )

- (v)

Ahh, more ask! Im totally fine with all the encouragements! These ask make my day! Headcanon time!

When evening comes, who will tuck you in and kiss you goodnight?

Featuring: Childe, Beidou, Ganyu, Ningguang, Shenhe, Xiao, and Papa Zhongli.

✄-----------------------------------------------

Say what you will about the Fatui harbinger. He may have tried to bring the fall of Liyue, destroy its economy, and somewhat helped in the brutal slaying of its archon before the people's own eyes.

Childe [Uncle TarTag]

But he will be the best uncle no matter what. No matter what.

So when it is time for you to go to bed, he will sometimes procrastinate when you plead with him. "One more game, Uncle Tartag! One more movie, Uncle Tartag! One more!" You bet any money he will watch your favorite movie or read your favorite stories with you before putting you down for a nap or for bedtime.

When he is tucking you in, he is a little rough, to say the least. When you're tucked in. You are tucked in. Like you can't move too much, his strength gets the better of him.

Your bedtime story will have some sort of fighting or violence, which Zhongli has lectured him about. You might be an illuminated beast, but you are still a child. He even got in trouble for telling you to say, "The Tsarita is better than Morax" in a story he told you, and Zhongli wanted to murder him.

Rating: 7/10, he is trying but needs some work in the story department.

You will never be sleeping on her ship. Nit at night, at least. Zhongli has a fear thar if you sleep on her ship, you'll be in another nation by dawn. So yeah, no sleeping on Aunty Beidou's ship. But you can take naps!

Beidou [Captain Aunty Beidou]

Beidou will tell you her stories at sea, how she defeated Haishan, and the stories of her crew. She will never sing any sea shanty's...for reasons. But she'll let Kazuha tell you haikuu's. You can run around the ship until. You're tired out and come lay on her lap for a little nap.

The ship and crew will try to be quiet under Beidou's watch and orders for your nap. She'll let you use her coat as a blankie and kiss your forehead to let you have a few minutes of nap time.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10, only because you can't spend the night but she is good!

Ganyu [Big sister Ganyu]

Now, Ganyu is the queen of naptime with you. Putting you to bed, a little different.

When she puts you down for sleep, she slowly falls asleep, too. She makes your bed extra confy when you're at Jueyun Karst, too comfy. When its bed time, shell read you a bedtime story about Rex Lapis, the Adepti like Aunty Cloudy [cloud retainer].

But slowly and quickly, she will fall asleep with you. She has a small Qilin night light for you, similar to her Cryo globe she makes. She'll have some cool warer near your little setup and some snacks.

By the time she is done reading, she'll be laying beside you, drifting off into sleep with you. She'll let you cuddle her and hold her is you get scared like a good big sister.

Rating: 8/10, she is just a little sleepy, but you're not complaining.

Ningguang [Aunty Ning-Ning]

The times Ganyu has accidently had late nights with you, Ningguang is more than honored to let you hang out with her. Your day is filled with shopping, museums, arts trips, and all the natural beauty of Liyue presented to you on a platter. All for her little swan. Zhongli was fine for you to stay in the Jade Chamber as long as you are respectful and polite.

Ningguang would set you up in a room not far from her desk area or place you on a couch near her office area. She'll get you blankets of the finest cotton, silk, or any fabric. She'll give you some nice cushions for comfort and a nice cup of tea to help you settle down for naps.

She will kiss your head, give you some delicate cuddles, and place you down on her lap if you asked her politely.

If she is in a meeting? Oh, put it on hold real quick, her little swan needs their nightly cuddles and she needs to get it done. Want some tea before bed? Oh, she has it done and will have you in some beautiful silk pajamas while she is at it.

Want to sleep in her expensive bed with her and your plushie, oh she will make some room and let your plushie have its own pillow too.

Ningguang can be really serious at times but if you need her to tuck you in before bed and ask her to tell a story, she will buy the best children's literature book ever written just to read it to you and kiss you goodnight. Yes, she will.

Rating: 7.5/10, your rich Aunty has you covered.

Shenhe [Big sister Shenhe]

She would be lost at first, she knows you aren't human so why sleep like one? But once Ganyu and Cloud Retainer gets it through to her that you are raised in the human world despite being an Adeptus, you act the way you do. Similar to your sleep.

So in some ways, your situation is the opposite but similar to hers.

In comes protective Shenhe mode.

Whatever you want for your nightly routine, she is going to find it, get it, or make Ganyu buy it. She'll learn from Zhongli and Cloud Retainer how to brew and make tea, just for you.

If you ever call her "big sister Shenhe" in your sleep, her yearning to keep you safe even in your dreams grows. Do you want her to kiss your duckie goodnight? She will and tuck it in too beside you. Similarly, with Childe, she can be a little harsh on tucking you in, but over time she learns how to reel it back in.

Do you like her cryo spirits that swirl around you? She'll use them to keep your room cool at night during warm nights.

Want her to tell you stories? She will spend time with the traveler just to come back and tell you about it.

Rating: 8/10, she's a little confused but goodness she has the spirit.

Need him to hold your hand when you get scared of the dark? He will ask Verr Godlet to borrow a night light for you. Or better yet, he will find or make one. He will also still hold your hand.

Xiao [Big Brother Xiao]

Now, this big brother, the conquerer of demons, is the only surviving Yakasha.

He will spoon-feed you almond tofu if you need it before bed. Hell, he will learn the recipe and make it for you. Want to sit on the terrace of the Wangshuu Inn and say hello to the moon? He will have you in his lap while you do it.

Need a little cool air because the room is stuffy or warm? he'll use his anemo vision to bring in a gentle breeze. He will have everything you like and don't like down on a list.

Too much noise? He will find the source and silence it.

Want a bath before bedtime? He will test the temperature himself, and make sure to get your rubber duckies in too.

Need some tea? What's the brew? What type? Hell, where is the leaf so he can pick it himself and make it?

Xiao would sleep beside you too even if he is tense and still as stone. But he will mellow out once hearing you have your big brother here to protect you. Yeah, he will be there to protect you.

Rating: 8.5/10, he will do it only for you. Only for his little sibling.

Zhongli is the standard setter of what bedtime should be like.

Zhongli [He needs no introduction]

Zhongli will not only have your bath ready for when bedtime comes, but also your favorite night-time tea is on the stove ready too. He will pull out your little dragon onesie, with the horns on the hood too. And a little tail, and will put your little yellow socks on too.

You can run around while he folds up your towel and clothes for the next day saying you're a dragon and he will play along, even teaching you about how real dragons act and fly. Zhongli will give you the tea in your special teacup with two pinches of sugar just for you.

Want a little snack? He will be making you little biscuits to enjoy with your tea like little cookies.

When it's really time to settle you in, he will have your nightlight on while reading you a bedtime story. He is the king of bedtime stories he can tell you a story you've heard 100 times like it's never been told before. Want a story about Rex Lapis and the Adepti? He has one, and wants one about the Stove God? he will tell it all.

He will tuck you in gently, making sure you are fully covered and secure. The window will be cracked slightly for some fresh air, and also the coolness.

Have a nightmare and need your Papa?

He will hold you close to his chest and will console you while you cry and talk about it. Assuring you, that your Papa will always come and save you, even from the dark.

He will kiss your forehead and cheeks goodnight, even your plushies too. Repeating how much he loves you, how happy he is to be your papa, and how lucky he is to have you, his little swan with him.

Got scared and want to sleep in his bed?

He will pull you beside him and let you talk to him until you go to sleep finally. He may be exhausted but he will listen to your rambles before bed like it is his morning news.

Rating: ∞/10. No questions, comments, or concerns here.

[whimsicallyenchantedrose]

Throwback Thursday: National Pi Day Meet Cute

Note: This story was first posted on March 14, 2018. Given that it is once again National Pi Day, I was persuaded to repost.

Title: National Pi Day Meet Cute

Fandom: Captain Swan

Rating: G

Words: 1678

Summary:

When Mary Margaret Blanchard finds out her grandson has a very single, very handsome math teacher, she devises a way to create a sweet little meet cute between her daughter, Emma, and said math teacher.

Tagging a few people who may be interested (Let me know if you want to be added or taken off the list): @sailormew4 @annaamell @flslp87 @emmateo26 @bethacaciakay @ultraluckycatnd @effulgent-mind @ilovemesomekillianjones @kat2609 @brooke-to-broch @missgymgirl @galadriel26 @the-lady-of-misthaven @charmingturkeysandwich @jennjenn615 @laschatzi @kimmy46 @snowbellewells @iamanneenigma @daxx04 @nickillian  @gillie  @britishguyslover @ginnyjinxedandhanshotritafirst @kmomof4 @linda8084 @golfgirld @captain-swan-coffee @searchingwardrobes @hollyethecurious @laughswaytoomuch  @allyourdarlingswans  @winterbaby89 @facesiousbutton82 @therooksshiningknight @lfh1226-linda @tiganasummertree @jrob64  @anmylica @booksteaandtoomuchtv @i-will-sing-no-requiem @bluewildcatfanatic @laianely

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Bye mom!” Henry yelled, as he hopped out of Emma’s yellow bug, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and started sprinting toward his friends.  “See you after school!”

Emma waved him off, smiling as she saw her son catch up with a few of his friends, talking animatedly.  It had been nearly a month since the two of them had moved to the sleepy little town of Storybrooke, Maine.  Emma had worried that moving Henry halfway through his sixth grade year would be difficult, but her precocious little eleven-year-old had taken to small town living like a duck to water.  He’d made more friends than he knew what to do with, and he absolutely loved school.

The smile slid from Emma’s face as she looked at the fresh-out-of-the-oven apple pie sitting on the passenger seat before her.

The problem with having a preteen who loved school is that he talked about it.  A lot.  And one of the people he talked about more than any other was his absolute favorite teacher, Mr. Jones, who was, as Henry put it, “the best teacher in the whole world”.

When Emma and Henry had left New York for Storybrooke, the two of them had moved in with her mom and dad, David and Mary Margaret Blanchard, at least until they got settled.    When Henry started talking about Mr. Jones, Mary Margaret had perked up.  When he told her that Mr. Jones was single and “old like mom”, Emma had groaned.

Emma knew she’d never get another moment’s peace.

“Emma,” Mary Margaret had said one morning, a conniving look in her eyes.  “It’s really important you be involved in Henry’s education.  Don’t you think you should meet his teachers?  Maybe we should have one of them over for dinner one night.  How about, oh, I don’t know…Mr. Jones?”

Emma pinched the bridge of her nose.  “Look mom,” she said, “I get what you’re doing, but I’m not looking for a relationship.  I did the whole ‘fall in love’ thing about twelve years ago, and Neal Cassidy cured me from any desire to ever do it again.”

“But not every guy is like Neal,” Mary Margaret said earnestly.  “Not every guy is going to leave you.  And love is so worth it when you find the right guy.”

Emma muttered something about needing to get some work done before she went into the office, hoping her mom would drop the subject.

No such luck.

Last night, Mary Margaret had come up with her most brilliantly evil plan yet, and what’s worse, she’d gotten Henry involved.

“Hey mom,” Emma said as she returned to the loft after her day at the sheriff’s station.  “Something smells good.”

Mary Margaret shot her the kind of smile that Emma knew was trouble.  “So Henry came home from school today and told me that tomorrow is National Pi Day.  I was thinking I ought to do something to celebrate.  I thought I would make a pie for his math teacher, Mr. Jones—you know his very single, very handsome and very eligible teacher?  You know because….pie for Pi Day?”

Emma groaned.

“And…” Mary Margaret said in a way that made Emma sure she didn’t want to hear what came next, “I was thinking maybe you could take the pie to Mr. Jones.”

“Mom…”

“Yeah!” Henry said, coming in and swiping an apple slice from the bowl where his grandma was tossing them with cinnamon and sugar.  “Mom, Mr. Jones would love it, and I can’t carry the pie in myself!  I’d look like a loser!”

“Since when does pie make you look like a loser?” Emma asked.

“Mom!” Henry said, drawing out the single syllable and following it with an eyeroll.  “I can’t take a pie to a teacher.  I’ll look like a teacher’s pet!”

“He’s right, Emma,” Mary Margaret said solemnly.  “Middle school is a brutal place.  You don’t want your son to be ostracized, do you?”

Emma sighed, shaking her head at the two.  She knew when she was beat, and with the two of them ganging up on her, she was most definitely beat.  “Fine.  I’ll take the pie to Mr. Jones.”

And so here she was, bright and early on National Pi Day, weaving her way through a sea of rowdy pre-teens, looking for room 108, where Mr. Perfect himself would be waiting.

Mr. Perfect she scoffed to herself.  The man was a math teacher, a math teacher who was passionate about his topic.  Just about screamed nerd didn’t it?  There was probably a very good reason he was very single. 

She stopped just outside the door and took a deep breath.  She’d get this over with, and then be able to go home and tell her matchmaking mother that her meddlesome schemes had failed miserably.

“Mr. Jones?” she said, knocking on the doorframe, and looking in at the man whose back was turned to her as he worked on his computer.

Mr. Jones turned around, and for a moment Emma forgot to breath, though she’s pretty sure she gasped so loudly her mom could hear it all the way from the loft.  Mr. Jones was quite possibly the most beautiful man she had ever seen in her life.

He gave her an appreciative grin, getting to his feet and coming to meet her with an outstretched hand.  “Mr. Killian Jones at your service.  And who might you be, love?”

Great!  Not only was he hotter than any many had a right to be, but he had a smooth, British accent as well.  Butterflies started doing the polka in her stomach.

“Love?” He said again, and it was only then that Emma realized she’d been staring, mouth hanging open, at the man in front of her for a solid two minutes.

She shook her head.  Emma!  Get a grip!

“Sorry,” she said, hating the slightly husky sound of her voice.  “I’m Emma Swan.  My son Henry is in one of your sixth grade math classes.”

“Henry!” Mr. Jones said.  “I must admit he’s one of my favorites.  What can I do for you Mrs. Swan?”

“Miss,” Emma said, lamely, surprised and annoyed by how hard she was finding it to string two words together in a coherent fashion.

“Beg pardon?”

“It’s Miss Swan,” Emma said.  Henry’s dad and I…well, let’s just say we haven’t been together since before he was born and leave it at that.”

He grinned at her from beneath heavily hooded eyes, and the look made her heart skip a beat.  The amount of gorgeous this man was displaying should be illegal.  It really should.  “I must say, I’m rather glad to hear it.  So what brings you to my classroom, love, though I’m hardly complaining about a lovely and single woman coming to visit me?”

Emma felt the blush covering her face.  She averted her eyes, desperately looking for a way to get ahold of herself.  Her eyes landed on the item she was holding.  “Uh, I came to give you this.  Henry thought you might like a pie for National Pi Day, because, you know, pie, Pi?”

He laughed, and Emma looked up, admiring the dimples in his scruff-covered cheeks, the tiny lines around his shockingly blue eyes.  “I’ll accept this happily on one condition.”

“Yeah?  What’s that?”

“You simply must stay and have a slice with me,” he said gesturing toward his desk.

“Don’t you have, you know classes to teach and stuff?” Emma asked.

“Aye,” Killian said, “but as it happens, first period is my prep period, so I’m all yours for the next hour.”

“I don’t know…”

“I insist,” Killian said.  “You, no doubt have heard about me from your son, but I know next to nothing about his mother.  Just who are you, Swan?”

Emma grinned, giving him a flirtatious look.  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Perhaps I would,” he answered with a wink that did not turn her insides to mush.  (It absolutely turned her insides to mush.)

~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~c~s~

An hour and a half later, Emma pulled up in front of her parents’ apartment building, dropped her head onto her hands on the steering wheel and groaned.

She and Killian had fallen into easy conversation over their pie, and just before she left, he’d asked her out to dinner that night, insisting he must return the favor.

She’d said yes almost before the sentence was complete.  She had a date with her son’s (hot) math teacher.

There would be no living with her mother after this.

~The End~

Notes:

--Happy National Pi Day!  When I heard on the radio this morning that we were celebrating that particular holiday, it brought back to mind something that happened to me several years ago.  My sister had a single math teacher who was around my age.  My mom decided that he would be absolutely perfect for me.  (Why?  I don’t know; she hadn’t even met the guy.  All she knew was that he was my age and single, lol.).  So she came up with this brilliant, devious plan to create a little meet cute.  She made a pie for the guy for National Pi Day, called me at my apartment, and asked if I would take my baby sister into school that morning and take the pie to her eligible bachelor of a teacher.  I rolled my eyes and agreed to do it.  Sadly, my story has an anti-climactic ending.  When I got to the classroom, Mr. Perfect was not there, so I ended up just setting the pie on his desk and leaving.  I never did meet the math teacher, which is fine with me.  We must not affirm our mothers in their crazy matchmaking schemes, lol.

--But, as that story came to mind, I realized it, like so many other things, would make a very interesting CS au.  So happy pi day, everyone!  I wish you all drop dead gorgeous, blue eyed, black haired, ginger-bearded math teachers to make your Pi Day complete!

[dweemeister]

The complete list of films featured on this blog’s 2024 “31 Days of Oscar” marathon

Hello everyone,

Thank you once more for allowing me to present this annual marathon of Oscar-nominated films to your dashboards. This year, the films were grouped by category (for the most part, one day featured only films nominated in a particular category). This is the most exclusive period on this blog, as the selection of films that I can post and queue about is at its most limited. But at the same time, the blog is at its most accessible as this yearly marathon’s selection skews to more popular fare than what I usually queue. I hope you enjoyed this year’s presentation of 31 Days of Oscar once more!

What follows is the exhaustive list of all 381 short- and feature-length films featured on this blog over the last thirty-one days for the 31 Days of Oscar marathon. This is down from 2022’s record of 420. But that count remains only a fraction of the 5,145 films that have been nominated for Academy Awards since 1927 (excluding Honorary Oscar winners that weren't nominated in a competitive category).

Of those 382, 28 were short films (53 short films is the record, which was set in 2022). 354 were feature films.

BREAKDOWN BY DECADE 1927-1929: 10 1930s: 51 1940s: 54 1950s: 44 1960s: 42 1970s: 26 1980s: 26 1990s: 23 2000s: 26 2010s: 26 2020s: 54

TOTAL: 382 (380 last year)

Year with most representation (2023 excluded): 1938 and 1942 (9 films each) Median year: 1966

Time for the list. 59 Best Picture winners and the one (and only) winner for Unique and Artistic Production that I featured this year are in bold. Asterisked (*) films are films I haven’t seen in their entirety as of the publishing of this post. Films primarily not in the English language are accompanied with their nation(s) of origin.

The ten Best Picture nominees for the 96th Academy Awards, including the winner, Oppenheimer (2023)

The fifteen nominees in the short film categories for the 96th Academy Awards

À nous la liberté (1931, France)

The Adventures of Don Juan (1938)*

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Albert Schweitzer (1957)*

Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938)

Alice Adams (1935)*

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)*

Aliens (1986)

All About Eve (1950)

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

All That Jazz (1979)*

Amadeus (1984)

Amarcord (1973, Italy)

An American in Paris (1951)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)*

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)*

The Apartment (1960)

Aquamania (1961 short)

Autumn Sonata (1978, Sweden)

Avatar (2009)

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

The Awful Truth (1937)

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

The Band Wagon (1953)

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Batman (1989)

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Becket (1964)*

Before the Rain (1993, Macedonia)*

Ben-Hur (1959)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Bicycle Thieves (1948, Italy)

The Big Country (1958)

The Big House (1930)

Black Narcissus (1947)

The Black Swan (1942)

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Blue Valentine (2010)*

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Born Yesterday (1950)*

The Boy and the Heron (2023, Japan)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)*

Braveheart (1995)

Brief Encounter (1945)

Brigadoon (1954)

Bullitt (1968)

Butterflies Are Free (1972)*

Cabaret (1972)

Caged (1950)

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

Captain Blood (1935)

Casablanca (1942)

Cavalcade (1933)

Chico and Rita (2010, Spain)

Children of a Lesser God (1986)

The Children of Theatre Street (1977)*

Cimarron (1931)

The Circus (1928)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Cleopatra (1963)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

CODA (2021)

The Color Purple (1985)

Come and Get It (1936)*

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)*

El Conde (2023, Chile)*

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The Country Girl (1954)*

Cries and Whispers (1972, Sweden)*

Crossfire (1947)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Taiwan)

The Crowd (1928)

Dances with Wolves (1990)

Dangerous (1935)*

Days of Waiting (1991 short)*

The Deer Hunter (1978)

The Departed (2006)

Desert Victory (1942)*

Disraeli (1929)*

The Divine Lady (1929)*

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Dodsworth (1936)

Double Indemnity (1944)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse (1947 short)

Drive My Car (2021, Japan)

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Dune (2021)

8½ (1963, Italy)

Elemental (2023)

The Elephant Whisperers (2022 short, India)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

Emma (1932)*

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Encanto (2021)

The English Patient (1996)

Ernest & Celestine (2012, Belgium/France/Luxembourg)

The Eternal Memory (2023, Chile)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)*

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Far From Heaven (2002)*

A Farewell to Arms (1932)

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

The Firemen’s Ball (1967, Czechoslovakia)*

Five Star Final (1931)*

Flee (2021, Denmark)

Flower Drum Song (1961)

For All Mankind (1989)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Forrest Gump (1994)

42nd Street (1933)

Four Daughters (1938)*

Four Daughters (2023, France/Germany/Tunisia/Saudi Arabia)*

Freedom on My Mind (1994)

Frida (2002)*

The Front Page (1931)*

Funny Girl (1968)

Gandhi (1982)

Gaslight (1944)

Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

Giant (1956)

Gladiator (2000)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Goldfinger (1964)

Gone with the Wind (1939)

The Goodbye Girl (1977)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Gosford Park (2001)

Grand Prix (1966)

The Grandmaster (2013, Hong Kong/China)*

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

The Great Dictator (1940)

Great Expectations (1946)*

The Great Race (1965)

Green Dolphin Street (1947)*

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Gypsy (1962)*

Hamlet (1948)

The Heiress (1949)

Henry V (1944)

Henry V (1989)

Hercules (1997)

Here Come the Waves (1945)*

High Noon (1952)

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

How the West Was Won (1962)

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the WIndow and Disappeared (2013, Sweden/France Germany)

The Hurt Locker (2008)

If Anything Happens I Love You (2020 short)

In America (2003)*

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

The Informer (1935)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970, Italy)*

Io Capitano (2023, Italy)*

It Happened One Night (1934)

JFK (1991)*

Juno (2007)

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Lady for a Day (1933)

The Last Command (1927)

The Last Emperor (1987)

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Laura (1944)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

Life Is Beautiful (1997, Italy)

Lilies of the Field (1963)

Lincoln (2012)

The Little Foxes (1941)*

Lolita (1962)

The Longest Day (1962)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Love Affair (1939)*

The Love Parade (1929)

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)

Loving Vincent (2017)

Lust for Life (1956)

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Malcolm X (1992)

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975)

March of the Penguins (2005, France)

Marie Antoinette (1938)*

Marty (1955)

Mary Poppins (1964)

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Merrily We Live (1938)*

The Merry Widow (1934)

Mickey’s Orphans (1931 short)

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Milk (2008)*

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Minari (2020)

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

The Miracle Worker (1962)*

Mogambo (1953)*

Moneyball (2011)*

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953, France)

Monsieur Lazhar (2011, Canada)

Moonstruck (1987)*

The More the Merrier (1943)

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Munich (2005)*

The Music Man (1962)

My Fair Lady (1964)

My Man Godfrey (1936)*

Napoleon (2023)*

National Velvet (1944)

Naughty Marietta (1935)*

Network (1976)

Never on Sunday (1960, Greece)*

Nimona (2023)

No Country for Old Men (2007)

None But the Lonely Heart (1944)*

North by Northwest (1959)

Now, Voyager (1942)

The Nun’s Story (1959)

Odd Man Out (1947)*

On Golden Pond (1981)

On the Waterfront (1954)

Out of Africa (1985)

Papillon (1973)

Parasite (2019, South Korea)

A Passage to India (1984)*

Patton (1970)

Penny Serenade (1941)

Perfect Days (2023, Japan)*

Persepolis (2007, France)

Phantom Thread (2017)

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Pillow Talk (1959)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Platoon (1986)

Pollock (2000)*

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936 short)

The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

The Prince of Egypt (1998)

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)*

The Public Enemy (1931)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pygmalion (1938)

Quo Vadis (1951)

The Quiet Man (1952)

Raging Bull (1980)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Rain Man (1988)

Raintree County (1957)*

Random Harvest (1942)

Rashômon (1950, Japan)

The Razor's Edge (1946)

Rebecca (1940)

Rejected (2000 short)

Return of the Jedi (1983)

Rhapsody in Rivets (1941 short)*

The Robe (1953)*

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)*

Robot Dreams (2023, Spain)

Rocky (1976)

Roma (2018, Mexico)

Roman Holiday (1953)

Room (2015)

Rustin (2023)*

Sadie Thompson (1928)*

Schindler's List (1993)

Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

Seconds (1966)*

Sergeant York (1941)

7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

7th Heaven (1927)*

Shall We Dance (1937)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

The Shop on Main Street (1965, Czechoslovakia)

Silence (2016)*

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Silent Child (2017 short)

The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

The Sixth Sense (1999)*

Society of the Snow (2023, Spain)*

The Sound of Music (1965)

Spellbound (1945)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Spotlight (2015)

Stagecoach (1939)

A Star Is Born (1937)

A Star Is Born (1954)

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1994)

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)

The Sting (1973)

La Strada (1954, Italy)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Strike Up the Band (1940)

Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Superman (1978)

Superman Returns (2006)

Suspicion (1941)

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Japan)

A Tale of Two Cities (1935)*

The Teachers’ Lounge (2023, Germany)

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Test Pilot (1938)*

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

The Thin Man (1934)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Tom Jones (1963)*

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

The Triplets of Belleville (2003, France)

12 Angry Men (1957)

20 Days in Mariupol (2023, Ukraine)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The Two Mouseketeers (1952 short)

Up (2009)

The Valley of Decision (1945)*

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)*

War Horse (2011)

West Side Story (1961)

Whiplash (2014)

The White Helmets (2016 short)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

The Window (1949)*

Wings (1927)

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974 short)

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Woman in Red (1984)*

Woman in the Dunes (1964, Japan)*

Written on the Wind (1956)*

Wuthering Heights (1939)

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

You Can’t Take It with You (1938)

[sofya-fanfics]

The Woman He Loved

Fandoms : Naruto / One Piece

Relationship : Sanji x Sakura

My Flufftober 2023 contribution for the prompt extra : Create a crossover of two or more fandoms.

I’m sorry for the mistakes, English is not my native language. I hope you like it.

Summary : Sanji walked quickly towards the deck of the Sunny. He knew she would be there. Sakura-swan, he thought with a dreamy look and a huge smile.

Disclaimer : Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

@flufftober

AO3 / FF.NET

Sanji came out of the kitchen. Night had fallen and the cool air made him shiver. He buttoned his jacket and lit a cigarette. He had tidied up the kitchen and he had planned his meal for the next day. His day was finally over. He always went to bed after everyone else and woke up before everyone else. But he was not complaining. He was a cook and he loved it. It was his life and he would not change it for anything.

He walked quickly towards the deck of the Sunny. He knew she would be there. Sakura-swan, he thought with a dreamy look and a huge smile. He arrived on the deck. She was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall and she was watching the stars. She seemed so peaceful that he felt guilty for disturbing her.

“Here you are at last,” she said.

“I was delayed by Luffy. I had to stop him from eating all the meat we have.”

She laughed lightly. Sanji sat next to her and Sakura moved a little closer to him, closing the gap between them. He could feel her arm brush against his. He did not know if she had done it unconsciously.

It had become a ritual between them. In the evening, when the entire crew had gone to bed, they met on deck to watch the stars, to talk, or to enjoy the quiet after the eventful dinner that had taken place a few hours earlier. They only stayed for a few minutes, but this time spent with her was the best moment of his day.

Sakura had become a member of the crew after their fight against Arlong, when they headed for Grand Line. They had landed on an island where she was a doctor and after preventing pirates from invading the island, she had accepted Luffy's offer to join them. One day, Sanji had asked her why she had decided to follow them. She had answered with a smile filled with sadness :

“Because he reminds me of someone important to me. He has this impossible dream and yet, we are ready to follow him and to trust him unreservedly.”

She had described perfectly how everyone felt about their captain. Even if Sakura still remained a mystery to him, he knew that she was from the ninja nations where there was a war a few years ago. He remembered that all the newspapers had talked about it.

She told him about her two friends that had died during the war. They had fought until they killed each other. She blamed herself for not having been able to save them. When she told him about this part of her life, tears were running down her cheeks, saying that if she had been faster, stronger, she could have stopped them and saved them. Sanji had hugged her until she felt better.

It was the first time they had been alone on deck and their ritual had begun.

When he was on Whole Cake Island, it was those moments with her that he missed the most. When he thought he would never see her again, he had been hurt. But she had come to get him with all the members of the crew, she had fought for him and for him to return to them. He had always loved her, like he loved Robin or Nami. But in that moment, he realized that what he felt for her was true love. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He had not told her his feelings. He was afraid of her reaction, afraid that she would not believe him. He was not ready to lose what they had.

He saw her shiver. He took off his jacket and put it on her shoulders. She opened her eyes wide, surprised, and thanked him. She hugged the jacket, wrapping her arms around her to warm herself up. She laughed lightly.

“What ?” Sanji asked smiling.

“Nothing. It's just that your jacket smells like you. A mixture of cigarette and bread. It’s comforting.”

Sanji blushed and his heart skipped a beat. Every day he fell in love with her a little more. He felt her put her head on his shoulder. He looked at her. Her eyes were closed and she was smiling. He smiled, drawing on his cigarette, and closed his eyes too. He enjoyed this moment alone with Sakura, hoping that it would last as long as possible.

The end

[storytimewithnova]

you were my mother too TW

It was a normal day inarizaki are practicing for an up coming match well are meant to be they noticed it was quite too quite Like 3 members are missing kita Search for them he also asked seijoh who are currently in the gym but not for volleyball practice

Kita:Where is the Triplets its quite to quite

Before anyone could answer the gym doors opened

Atsumu:guys lets hustle we're late

Osamu:We would of been on time if shona wasn't in front of the mirror

Sho:sit on a dick onii chan emma Natsu lets get you settled

The twins:Hai

She settled the twins down and said you sit here be good and watch me and your big brothers in action

Tooru:i will be staying with you too monkey's my team has a day off so you get the pleasure of Tooru Ni

The other miya siblings went to change leaving their youngest with Tooru the triplets then came out bowed to their captain and said

The miya siblings:Sorry we had to bring our siblings on such short notice normally we can get a babysitter or the will be in school but as their school is closed due to renovations they are home with us

Suddenly the door swings open again

Atsumu:oh fuck no not today satan

Aran:Miya atsumu kids present so language

Sho: let him be ojiro san he has a right to swear

Atsumu:twins get behind me Tooru samu and sho

The twins: Hai

Atsumu:why are you here?

Miya Akemi:Atsumu please roberto and I want to start a family of our own

Atsumu:That's fucking great and all but here's an idea Akemi how about you finish this one first instead of swanning off with you new fancy man

Emma:Their taking my twin

Miya Akemi:Yes

Miya triplets: No!

Tooru:No nobody is taking anybody anywhere

Atsu walks up to his mom

Atsumu:You don't get to abandon your kids and then show up one day to take your pick of the litter

Kita:i'm sorry WHAT?! Shona honey is that true

Sho:sadly this Sadist  abandoned us Love

Aran:i see why you said atsu has  a Right to swear What kind of fucking mother does that

The siblings: OURS!

Sho:Trust me Ojiro San its ours just let Atsumu Ni Chan handle this he has been dying to say this to her for ages also he need to blow off steam just  listen to see how bad it is yeah we seem all smiles but in reality its fake

Haru:Oh now that not fair your mothers made mistakes but she's here now thats got to count for something 

Sho:shut the fuck up Haru what do you even know

Atsumu:she right what do you know plus this isn't about you its about you 

He points at his mother and continues

Atsumu:This is about you did or rather what you didn't do its about what I did and You know what I did a fucking great job

Tooru:hell yeah you did

Atsumu:our sunshine here is a  Model student she is in our volleyball team the only girl I might add we are going to Nationals because of her yes it's a team effort but she always has a trick up her sleeve to get us the win

Sho:❤️ Love you bro

Atsumu:back at ya sunbeam

Atsumu pointed to his twin and Tooru and said

Atsumu:Tooru and osamu they are top of their class Tooru is about to graduate osamu me and sho are about to go in to our 3rd year  we all set the cuve

Osamu and Tooru together:❤️ Thanks Tsu

Atsumu:Welcome brothers emma is a manager for her school basketball team  while also juggling  her band practice Also natsu made something blow up for her Science fair

Emma:❤️Love you Onii chan fight for us

Natsu:🥰 fight for me big bro

Atsumu:love you too and always will my honey bees And you know what they did it all no thanks to you because you weren't here

Akemi start to fake cry to get sympathy

Miya Akemi:Yeah I Appreciate that Tsumu but I'm here now

Suna:too little too fucking late don't ya  think

Kita:Tf  i'm about to stab a bitch you Appreciate it Atsumu has basically been a parent to his siblings with the help of shona osamu and Tooru well you basically screwed around and played the village bike

Sho:kita is not wrong mom you basically sleeping around while we are left holding the baby

Aran:Holy fuck and i though my family were messed up but your family makes mine look normal

Sho:Most people say that when they find the truth this is not the first time she has pulled this

Miya Akemi:Atsumu Natsu belongs with me

Atsumu:oh really because She doesn't even know who you are

Miya Akemi:I'M HER MOTHER

Atsumu:YOU WERE OUR  MOTHER TOO OR HAVE YOU FORGOT THAT AND YOU WEREN'T EXACTLY MOTHER OF THE FUCKING YEAR

Miya Akemi:Look maybe i will never be able make things right with you  osamu or Tooru or Shona but their still time with Emma and Natsu I'm so sorry if I hurt you please I love you so much please let me be your mommy please

Osamu pulls the twins  away and goes to Oikawa

Natsu:Onii-chan don't let me go with them please

Atsumu:not happening my little sunflower 🌻

Iwa:You got your answer lady you're  scaring the twins now please leave the way you came before i call the police

Akemi left upset and disappointed she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings she got knocked down Tooru looked at his boyfriend

Tooru: I-Iwa chan

Iwa:sorry baby i heard enough that i had to step in

The twins: iwa Ni

Iwa:hey girls

Haru:kids please just hear you mother out she wanted to leave you with something

Atsumu:METH

As soon as meth was mentioned the coach was on the phone to the police

Makki:DID I HEAR RIGHT

Sho:get why we are hostile towards our so called parents Now

Everyone:yes

Haru grabs Atsu and gets in his face

Haru:ATSUMU THAT ALL SHE HAD LISTEN UP YOU BRAT YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR MOTHER THE STUGGLES THE SUFFERING THE PAIN

Tooru hears this runs at Haru

Tooru:She was never here

Haru:She was a beautiful crazy Fragile Wonderful woman

Tooru:She deserted us

Haru:She loved us

Sho look at her siblings then at haru and said

Sho:That was love

Haru:YES YES IT IS

Sho:Buddy I think me and you have a different idea of love

Tooru:come on if she loved us as much as you clam she did  then why did she  leave why wasn't she here?

Kita:it's a reasonable question so it should be easy to answer

Haru:.... She tried she always tried

Atsumu:SHE WASN'T HERE

Tooru: SHE WAS NEVER FUCKING HERE SHE LEFT

Haru shut up trying to think what to say if he should say anything he know the kids were right there was no justify what she did but he wanted to keep defending her honour then Tooru spoke up again

Tooru: the triplets 9 and I was 10 seeiously Haru 9-10 9-10 and taking care of you taking care of all of us we were in 4th grade dragging your sorry ass passed out in from the yard so you wouldn't freeze to death  Atsumu and I staying up all night with  osamu when he had chicken pox Atsumu and I  washed Natsu's shitty Diapers and Atsumu and I pick lice out of Emma's hair we were here when Shona got her first Period not Akemi no Us.

Everyone in the gym was watching in horror and disgust at the kind of parents the miya siblings have

Atsumu:Yeah Tooru's right and it was never you here to help because you were to fucking loaded she was a junkie and a drunk

Haru:Enough

Tooru:It's time you grow a pair Haru and face the truth she didn't love us she didn't love you she didn't give a shit about anyone but herself

Haru:*sobs* please

Atsumu:I'm glad the bitch is dead at least now she can't fuck us over anymore come Tooru i suggest you fuck off too I don't want to see you near my family again Leave me and Tooru to be the parents like we always have been 

Osamu:before you leave you think our life is easy huh have you stopped to think it hasn't been a fucking barrel of laughs for us you think we haven't struggled shona is working two jobs modling and running her own small cafe tooru has a part time job that may become full time we have had to morgage the house and borrow loans just to keep a roof over us we are stuggling to keep up with payments we are kids we shouldn't know that kind of thing but here we are no thanks to mom and you

Haru  walks off atsumu and oikawa walks back in side to their siblings and hugs them

Emma:You kept your word thank you brothers and sis

Atsumu &Tooru:Always

Shona & osamu:aWe didn't do much but always

Natsu:Being with me and Em was enough Sho Nee san Onii chan

Suna:hayo Captain are we going to finish practicing or call time after todays drama of how to be a shitty parent

Coach walked up to Kita and said call it for today i have informed the police of the events that went down today

Iwa:babe do you and your siblings want to live with me i live alone so I don't mind having you guys around

Tooru:i- are you sure you have too put up with the triplets antics

Sho:hey don't lump me in with them

Emma:Atsu Ni chan i need to practice for my next band rehearsal can i use the music room i saw earlier

Atsumu:sure honey bee i get you later okay or do you want shona to go with

Emma:please

Sho:come on the sis lets get you ready i can even let you use the song i wrote because I want to  watch and cheer you  and the Promised Neverlanders perform

Emma:🤩 you wrote a new song thanks Nee san

Suna:Wait as in promised  neverlanders the Japanese Korean punk pop band

Emma:Hai that's my band

Suna:i think i just fell in love again with your sister

Sho:back the fuck off my sister you sly fox my sister has a Korean boyfriend

Emma:had sis past tense plus  its fine i am dating Rin already

They were at Iwa's house BTW

Iwa:we're gonna do about your sisters love life or you're gonna come and eat I don't spend this time making food just had to sit here and pretty

Iwa spoke up again

Iwa:Eat up everyone and atusmu samu I made Onigiri for you suna katsu kita yakisoba shona meatbuns

Sho:thanks Iwa Ni this all looks so nice also suna I know emma said its fine you and her are dating but hurt her make her or cry i will not only break your legs i will break your phone are we clear 

Suna:Crystal Shona

Kita:sunshine you can be scary you know that right

Sho: *Walks up to kita kisses him* fuck with me and my family its not The twins  you need to be scared of its me why do you think my family call me small but dangerous

The twins:trust us our sis didn't get that nickname for nothing kita-san

Sho:it was one guy okay he was my ex and he fucking deserved it no one i repeat no one touches my siblings let alone tries to grope my little sister

Atsumu:Wait What?! What  did you do to him how bad was it and is there a body we have to dispose of

Sho:Tsu tsu You make me sound bad  I just put him in his place aka the hospital with maybe fee broken ribs there is no bodies this time but if I see him around Natsu again i won't guarantee There  won't be a body next time

Everyone😰

Emma:the things big sis sho does for us

Sho:💕

They carried on with dinner when there was a loud obnoxious Knock on the door Roberto comes back but Haru is with him

Roberto:Atsumu I'm just here to fulfilling your mother wish so I am taking Natsu

Atsumu:like fuck you are and why are you here Haru I thought you were in jail

Haru: I was I got out

Tooru:you mean you broke out again didn't you

The rest of the seijoh four were their visiting their bfs

Makki:Shona I guess you want us to see back and observe again

Sho:yes and Shin love can you and Iwa  take my sisters if things get too heated

Kita:of course i will honey

Sho:thank you shin

Atsumu:mother died of an overdose of METH you think I am going to trust Natsu to you two your just as bad as her you know what your lucky I didn't bring the baby here Remember Hana failed excuse of a father of course you wouldn't because I'm her dad now legally

Iwa:wait so Haru is

Iwa:our poor excuse of a father yes and Hana is his daughter well  Atsumu's  daughter now and we have never corrected her when she calls onii chan dada as far as onii chan is concerned She is his daughter so if anyone concerned he normally tells people his a single dad but has the help of his siblings

Atsumu:Brothers sis help me out it's time they learn what we stand for

Tooru:oh are we doing it

Sho:excuse me guys this is my cue Emma get your ass over here we need you on base

Emma:yay thought you never ask

Atsumu:🎵listen up you too Family, family (family) I go to war with my family (raah, raah) Ups and downs (up) Wrong or right, this family (yeah, hey)🎵

Sho:🎵They think that we crazy🎵

Tooru:🗣(crazy)

Sho:🎵They say that we crazy, can't handle it 🎵

Osamu:🗣(crazy, yeah)

Sho:🎵My back on the wall🎵

Emma:🗣 (back)

Sho:🎵Who I'ma call? My family (brrr) We different (woo) We stick out🎵

Atsumu:🗣(stick out)

Tooru:🗣Wig out

Emma:🗣Bug out

Osamu:🎵 (hey) Pop out (ooh) Hop out (go) Ball out (hey) Show out🎵

Roberto:we just came for natsu not to start anything

Atsumu:🎵 Aye, this a party, let's not make a problem (no) Why you lookin' at me like you startin' somethin'? You should know it's not just me that you'd be wrongin' You wronged me so you better think twice🎵

Sho:🎵 You shouldn't mess with me You don't wanna mess with me 'Cause if you mess with me You're messin' with my family (yeah, yeah, yeah)🎵🔪

Kita:babe where did you get the knife

Sho:☺️

Natsu:That's big sis silent but deadly

Tooru:🎵 You shouldn't mess with me You don't wanna mess with me (no) 'Cause if you mess with me You're messin' with my family (uh)🎵🔪

Iwa:baby you too

Tooru:😇

Iwa:Angel my ass 😇

Osamu:🎵 Aye-aye-aye You might think that we all loco Aye-aye-aye Don't mess with my family But this family 'bout to go global We blowin' up🎵🔪

Suna:love

Osamu:😚

Emma:🎵 Raah, raah (aye) Raah Yeah, yeah (aye aye) Yeah, yeah take it Tooru onii chan🎵

Tooru:🎵 En mi familia si hay problema' no jugamo' (yeah, aye, no jugamo') Y si hay party hasta mañana celebramo' (celebramo, yeah) Si te dicen que estamo' loco', loco' estamos (yeah, loco' estamos) Y en las buenas y en las malas nos quedamo' (nos quedamo') No traicionamo' (don't mess with my family)🎵

Iwa:you can  speak Spanish

Tooru:🤪

Emma:🎵 Aye, this a party, let's not make a problem (no) Why you lookin' at me like you startin' somethin'? You should know it's not just me that  you'd be wrongin'🎵

Sho:🎵 You wronged me so you better think twice You shouldn't mess with me You don't wanna mess with me 'Cause if you mess with me (don't mess with my family) You're messin' with my family (yeah, yeah, yeah)🎵

The miya siblings:🎵 You shouldn't mess with me You don't wanna mess with me 'Cause if you mess with me You're messin' with my family (uh) Yeah, yeah, yeah (oh oh, yeah, yeah) You're messin' with my family La familia Hey, oh oh (yeah, yeah, yeah) Don't mess with my family (no) Aye-aye-aye (brrr) You might think that we all loco Aye-aye-aye But this family 'bout to go global🎵

Emma:🎵  They say that we mean (mean) They say that we rude (rude) They say we got problems (problems) But we say it's cool (we turning up) Family, family (family) I go to war with my family (raah) Ups and downs Wrong or right, that's family (uh)🎵

Sho:🎵Aye-aye-aye You might think that we all loco (don't mess with my family)Aye-aye-aye But this family 'bout to go global🎵

Atsumu:do we make ourselves clear mess with one of us you mess with all of us Tooru did you dial the police to tell them they are missing a prisoner

Tooru:I did indeed they are on their way now pardon my English Roberto but can you kindly fuck off and expect a restraining order coming your way Sisters  over here your older sister and brothers have you

Sho:always and forever

Atsumu:always and forever Oh shit since I mentioned Hana I need to go get her from her nanny so I will be back with my daughter

Tooru:do you want me to come with you

Atsumu:no its fine look after this lot i will be back as so as possible

With that said atsumu went off to get Hana by that time the police got Haru he was going back to prison and a restraining order was issued if Roberto went anywhere near the Miya kids he would be sharing a cell  With Haru as for he miya siblings they finally got the normal life the wanted living with one of Tooru's Bfs but it worked out for them

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.2

1194 – King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first royal charter. 1230 – William de Braose is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great. 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft. 1559 – John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the nascent Scottish Reformation. 1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Loch Leven Castle. 1611 – The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker. 1625 – Afonso Mendes, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Latin Patriarch of Ethiopia, arrives at Beilul from Goa. 1670 – King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America. 1808 – Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808. 1812 – The Siege of Cuautla during the Mexican War of Independence ends with both sides claiming victory. 1829 – After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia. 1863 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later. 1866 – Peruvian defenders fight off the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao. 1876 – The April Uprising breaks out in Ottoman Bulgaria. 1885 – Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion. 1889 – Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs the Treaty of Wuchale, giving Italy control over Eritrea. 1906 – Closing ceremony of the Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece. 1920 – The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis. 1933 – Germany's independent labor unions are replaced by the German Labour Front. 1941 – World War II: Following the coup d'état against Iraq Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah earlier that year, the United Kingdom launches the Anglo-Iraqi War to restore him to power. 1945 – World War II: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin. 1945 – World War II: The surrender of Caserta comes into effect, by which German troops in Italy cease fighting. 1945 – World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1,000 dead prisoners, most of whom starved to death. 1945 – World War II: A death march from Dachau to the Austrian border is halted by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners. 1952 – A De Havilland Comet makes the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, from London to Johannesburg. 1963 – Berthold Seliger launches a rocket with three stages and a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) near Cuxhaven. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany. 1964 – Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the American aircraft carrier USNS Card while it is docked at Saigon. Two Viet Cong combat swimmers had placed explosives on the ship's hull. She is raised and returned to service less than seven months later. 1964 – First ascent of Shishapangma, the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and the lowest of the Eight-thousanders. 1969 – The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City. 1970 – ALM Flight 980 ditches in the Caribbean Sea near Saint Croix, killing 23. 1972 – In the early morning hours a fire breaks out at the Sunshine Mine located between Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho, killing 91 workers. 1982 – Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano. 1986 – Chernobyl disaster: The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster. 1989 – Cold War: Hungary begins dismantling its border fence with Austria, which allows a number of East Germans to defect. 1995 – During the Croatian War of Independence, the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina fires cluster bombs at Zagreb, killing seven and wounding over 175 civilians. 1998 – The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy. 1999 – Panamanian general election: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama. 2000 – President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military. 2004 – The Yelwa massacre concludes. It began on 4 February 2004 when armed Muslims killed 78 Christians at Yelwa, Nigeria. In response, about 630 Muslims were killed by Christians on May 2. 2008 – Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless. 2008 – Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people. 2011 – Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man, is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 2011 – An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others are taken ill. 2012 – A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for a work of art at auction. 2014 – Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave up to 2,500 people missing.

[sarijournal]

happy National Wedding Ring Day 💍💍

[diana--williams]

English movies 2015-2005

The Age of Adeline

Fifty shades of grey

Tomorrowland

Crimson Peak

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

The Martian

The Intern

Brooklyn

Goosebumps

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Insurgent (The Divergent series)

Jupiter Ascending

Cinderella

Tangerine

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

The Boy Next Door

Minions

Inside Out

Fantastic Four

Ant Man

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Jurassic World

Pan

The DUFF

The Good Dinosaur

Home

Hotel Transylvania 2

Paddington

Love, Rosie

Seventh Son

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Victor Frankenstein

UnIndian

The Man who knew Infinity

X Men: Days of the Future Past

The Fault in Our Stars

Vampire Academy

Maleficent

Divergent

The Maze Runner

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Dracula Untold

Lucy

I, Frankenstein

Mr. Peabody and Sherman

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

300: Rise of an Empire

Interstellar

Kingsman: The Secret Service

The Amazing Spiderman 2

Rio 2

The Theory of Everything

Guardians of the Galaxy

Godzilla

That Awkward Moment

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Big Hero 6

How to Train your Dragon 2

Step up: All in

Annabelle

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

Seventh Son

The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones

The Conjuring

Oblivion

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Man of Steel

Oz, The Great and Powerful

Gravity

Frozen

Wild

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

G. I. Joe: Retaliation

Jack the Giant Slayer

Iron Man 3

Star Trek Into the Darkness

The Croods

The Wolverine

Thor: The Dark World

Epic

Now You See Me

Monster's University

The Smurfs 2

Despicable Me 2

Safe Haven

Romeo and Juliet

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Snow White and the Huntsman

Pitch Perfect

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Amazing Spider-man

Mirror Mirror

Step Up: Revolution

The Hunger Games

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Life of Pi

The Avengers

Brave

Rise of the Guardians

Hotel Transylvania

Underworld: Awakening

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

Taken 2

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Ice Age: Continental Drift

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

John Carter

Titanic 3D

Monsters Inc.

Finding Nemo

The Twilight Saga: The Breaking Dawn Part 1

Crazy, Stupid, Love

I am Number Four

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Beastly

Sucker Punch

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The Art of Getting By

Rio

Hugo

Real Steel

Green Lantern

Thor

Captain America: The First Avenger

X-Men: First Class

The Smurfs

Kung Fu Panda 2

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

The Adventures of Tintin

No Strings Attached

Jane Eyre

Mars Needs Moms

Prom

Hanna

Monte Carlo

Colombiana

Puss In Boots

Happy Feet 2

Two Brothers

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Twilight

Remember Me

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Alice in Wonderland

Black Swan

Salt

Barbie in a Mermaid Tale

How to Train Your Dragon

Love and Other Drugs

Despicable Me

The Last Airbender

Tangled

Clash of the Titans

The Losers

Piranha 3D

Iron Man 2

Tron: Legacy

Shrek Forever After

Megamind

Toy Story 3

The Spy Next Door

Legion

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

The Karate Kid

Knight and Day

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Flipped

Step Up 3D

Eat Pray Love

Nanny McPhee and the big bang

Avatar

Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale

Resident Evil: After Life

Its Kind of a Funny Story

Easy A

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Tourist

Gulliver's Travels

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Orphan

Sherlock Holmes

Angels and Demons

The Da Vinci Code

The Proposal

17 Again

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Up

Land of the Lost

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Star Trek

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

G. I. Joe : The Rise of the Cobra

Bride Wars

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

Inkheart

Taken

Astro Boy

2012

The Princess and the Frog

The Young Victoria

Dorian Gray

What Happens in Vegas

Step Up 2: The Streets

Journey to the Center of the Earth

10,000 BC

Wanted

Wall-E

Ironman

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Kung Fu Panda

The Incredible Hulk

The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Eye

Babylon A.D.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Scorpion King 3

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

The Forbidden Kingdom

Hancock

Slumdog Millionaire

Bolt

The Golden Compass

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Ghost Rider

Evan Almighty

Music and Lyrics

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Enchanted

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Shrek the third

Spider-man 3

Ratatouille

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked

Transformers

300

Resident Evil: Extinction

Step Up

The Devil wears Prada

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Night at the Museum

Monster House

Mission Impossible III

Ultraviolet

Ice Age: The Meltdown

Just My Luck

X-Men: The Last Stand

The Ant Bully

Underworld: Evolution

Eragon

Happy Feet

The Pursuit of Happyness

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Constantine

Pride and Prejudice

King Kong

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Aeon Flux

Sky High

Madagascar

Fantastic Four

The Son of the Mask

Tom and Jerry: Blast off to Mars

The Ring Two

She's the Man

[rsfannan4]

Day Eighteen: Our last days on the water before we head home.

We woke up in Windsor with a hankering for an American breakfast, so we walked on over to the train station near the castle and sat down at Bill’s Windsor Restaurant. Eggs, pancakes, omelettes, home fries. Delightful. From there we did a little shopping before going back to our boat for our last full day of cruising.

Our journey took us to Staines-upon-Thames, a rather happening small town with several pubs and restaurants on the water from which to choose. We chose The Swan, a hotel/pub right across the river from the spot where we moored. We were joined by many locals rooting for their favorite teams competing in a slew of rowing races. Quite a boisterous lot. They were not what you would call Olympic caliber contestants, but what they may have lacked in top-level skills, they certainly made up for in enthusiasm. They had us cheering them on as if we were at the Grand National at Ascot. Yes, alcohol was present before, during, and after the events.

For our last dinner, Renee and company prepared fruit salad, mixed green salad, fettuccine with pesto, and bread with wine, of course, and more gin and tonics. A wonderful feast to end a wonderful cruise.

As day turned into night, we went topside and had a last concert singin; and strummin’ to the delight of the crowds that were still around at the pubs after the races had concluded. (A bit of hyperbole here. We seemed to be a big hit with a group of rather inebriated young folk having a party on the balcony of their apartment overlooking the river)

After playing for a while, an old curmudgeon strolled up and poo-pooed our performance, telling us that we were in a residential area and that not everyone was enjoying our music. He even mentioned something to the effect that he could call the police. Oh well, you can’t please everyone.

We called it an evening and hit the sack, knowing that we had an early start to get downriver to the Penton Hook Marina at Chertsey, where we had to turn in the boat around 9:00 in the morning.

As we entered our last lock, I think we all experienced the same sad feeling. I think that I speak for all in saying that I hope to have the opportunity to board another of these vessels in the not too distant future and go exploring another part of the inland waterways of the U.K.

Sadly, we arrived at the marina early in the morning because at noon the Penton Hook Yacht Club was hosting its yearly flotilla of boats that had taken part in the evacuation of Dunkirk at the beginning of World War II. One of the maritime patrol officers that we talked to at the last lock told us that 7 of these original ships along with the four surviving captains would take part. We did, however, get to see some of these watercraft as we passed into the marina.

After packing up all of our stuff, we said goodbye to our Horizon 4, bid a tearful farewell to our river Thames, hoping that we might ride upon her waters again.

Our next stop was our fantastic Holiday Inn Express near the Heathrow Airport. Thanks to Diane, we had arranged a van to take the seven of us, so it was not too long until we were napping in our rooms on real beds. That night, we had a buffet dinner at the hotel, and said our sad goodbyes to Chuck and Shirley, who had to wake up super early to catch their flight back to Illinois. The remaining five of us would get to have one last breakfast before heading out to fly home.

It had been a really great adventure, but it was time to go home. (It would be nice to get into some clean clothes. Mine are pretty gross)

[petnews2day]

7 albums to listen to this summer

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/?p=50994

7 albums to listen to this summer

The daily chaos that surrounds us has reached alarmingly high levels this month as we come face to face with a bear market and a very public breakdown of the events that surrounded Jan. 6, 2021. I don’t know about you, but I’ve retreated into a sort of buzzing trance, a vibration that connects me with a more energized, if not ruffled spectrum of music. In fewer words: I’m irritated, and so is the music I’m listening to.

What better way to manifest action than to listen to music that moves you. The seven new albums that I’m sharing with you are all movers, all fueled by angst and inquiry and agenda. I can confidently say it’s the most probing guide I’ve ever sourced, and for that, it’s probably my favorite. We have plenty of local rock groups returning with thorny and contemplative new offerings, some jazz-tinged R&B and crunchy future soul, and a particularly compelling release echoing a collection of voices of the Northeastern Native Americans. This guide is meant to conjure energy and channel force; it’s my way of operating in the world these days. With that, dive right in without looking back.

Boston’s Pet Fox — made up of current and former members from Ovlov and Palehound respectively — are hurling alt rock back into the fold. “A Face In Your Life,” the group’s first full length release since 2019’s “Rare Occasion,” is crammed with hooky guitar lines and a pavlovian soft/loud dynamic that will snag anyone who fawned over their copy of “Pinkerton” as a teenager. Pet Fox’s newest release is a seamless piece of power pop meets alternative rock, the kind of heady, vigorous record Failure or Silversun Pickups would make in the wake of the post-grunge boom.

Horse Jumper of Love, ‘Natural Part‘ June 17

“Natural Part,” the third full-length album from Boston slowcore indie trio Horse Jumper of Love, is undoubtedly their best release. Dialed in, deliciously textured and indulgent, the band distilled their sticky, sprawling slow rock into a crystalline, multidimensional body of work as densely rich as a chunk of quartz. “Natural Part” is a triumph of dogged proportions, an unfaltering evolution of angular slowcore into enveloping indie pop.

You’ve never heard a powwow quite like this. Medicine Singers, fronted by Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson, clan chief of the Pokanoket Nation (Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts), had a chance encounter with guitarist Yonatan Gat at SXSW in 2017, where they shared the stage for an impromptu set of traditional Eastern Algonquin powwow music and thorny, psychedelic guitar improvisation. Much of their collaborative new album, the self-titled “Medicine Singers,” capitalizes on the magic they caught that day, with additional contributions from members of Swans and DNA. A truly haunting and spiritually probing release.

Zenizen, ‘P.O.C (Proof of Concept)’ July 27

New York-based singer-songwriter and producer Opal Hoyt, otherwise known as Zenizen, has spearheaded the latest breakthrough in the lush, warbly world of future soul. The artist’s newest release, the kaleidoscopic “P.O.C (Proof of Concept),” offers a glimpse of her transient life with poetic vignettes and music production swathed in vibrant layers. The 8-bit groove of single “Aja” recalls the eccentric beats of Dev Hynes’ Blood Orange, melded with the soulful electronic exploration of artists like Hiatus Kaiyote and Sampha.

Boston noise rock sentries Kal Marks, captained by founder Carl Shane, have returned from a two-year hiatus with a new lineup and a new prickly vision. “My Name Is Hell,” the group’s tempestuous fifth album, might be their most melodic, but don’t be fooled: It’s still a monster trying to claw its way out of your speakers. It’s a broad exercise in cynicism, a jaundiced study of humanity, grief and religion, all somewhat familiar territory for a band that spent the better part of a decade sweating and screaming it out from within the walls of Great Scott. But really, this is the Kal Marks record that we need for this moment.

Sleepyhead, ‘New Alchemy’ Aug. 19

Formed in an NYU dorm room back in 1989, Boston-based trio Sleepyhead found a niche in the loose, jangly indie rock scene of the 1990s, sharing the stage with groups like Polvo and Yo La Tengo. On their peppy sixth album, “New Alchemy,” the group revel in the homespun simplicity of feel-good slacker rock and the melodic and structural sensibilities of ‘90s-era Big Star. A little twangy, a little rickety and a little rough and tumble, Sleepyhead’s venture into its fourth decade is all heart and big hooks at its core.

Source link

[iverna]

Her Pirate

Emma is getting pretty annoyed that everyone keeps referring to Killian as “her pirate”. He’s not her pirate. He’s not hers at all.

It takes her a while to realise that that’s exactly the problem.

Rated T | ~7,600 words | read on ao3

I started this a while back after a conversation with @thesschesthair which like many of our chats ended up being one big fic prompt... Happy birthday, this one’s for you!

It starts as an annoyance, just another little source of irritation in this town that never seems to run out of them.

“Here you are,” Granny says as she hands Emma her morning coffee with a smile. “And hey, if you see your pirate, could you send him my way? I want a word about my lilac bush.”

Emma’s thoughts snag on your pirate, and it takes her a moment to catch up to the rest of the sentence. “What happened to your lilac bush?”

“Seems to have run into a sword,” Granny says with a glower.

Emma manages a vague sort of reassurances and leaves the diner. By the time she reaches the road, annoyance has taken over. Her pirate? He’s not her pirate. He’s not her anything. If Granny has a problem with him, she can sort it out herself. Hook is not Emma’s responsibility.

But it keeps happening.

Ruby mentions that she saw her pirate earlier and he was looking for her.

Regina makes a sarcastic comment about, “if we can stop your pirate from just rushing in, sword first.”

Geppetto, all friendly smiles and polite tones, asks her whether her pirate knows anything about enchanted wood.

Even Neal smirks at her as they wait for Henry after school, saying, “So, how’s your pirate?”

Luckily, Emma can just stick out her tongue at him. He can’t call her juvenile; she was there when he and Henry had a competition to see who could fold himself into one of her kitchen cabinets.

But it has dawned on her that the your pirate thing has nothing to do with responsibility and everything to do with the fact that people just... associate Hook with her.

She tells herself that it’s just because she invited him into the fold, as it were. He helped her rescue her kid. She trusts him. Half the town still eyes him a little warily, given his past, and Emma has admittedly made a point of going over to him in the diner, talking to him, enlisting his help for patrols, walking down the street with him.

For the sake of reassuring the people of Storybrooke and making him feel better about being here. That’s all. Not because she enjoys his company, or the way he grins at her when she seeks him out, or the dumb comments he makes. She does, but that alone isn’t reason enough—in fact, if anything, it’s reason not to.

She knows that he’s dangerous to her. She knows that there’s a spark between them, that connection she has felt since the first real conversation they had. And since Neverland, it’s got worse.

It’s okay to be attracted to him—she can handle that. But she’s started to like him, and that’s a problem. Their tentative alliance is turning into friendship, and it’s nice, but it’s also dangerous, because it’s making her want more. And she’s not at all sure that she wants to go down that road.

But she has been spending a fair amount of time with him, so people associate him with her. That makes sense. That’s normal.

Except... no one calls Neal her anything, even though she brought him to Storybrooke. No one calls Regina her anything, even though she invited her onto the team, too. You don’t refer to people’s friends or allies like that. Anton isn’t her giant.

She wonders how people refer to her around Hook. Then she wishes the thought never occurred to her.

Is she his sheriff? Or is this a one-sided thing?

It doesn’t matter, because there is nothing going on between her and Killian Jones. He isn’t hers, and she isn’t his, and she’s getting aggravated.

“He’s not my pirate,” she tells Granny, the next time the older woman says something.

Granny dismisses that with a wave of her hand. “You know who I mean.”

“Only one pirate in this town,” Emma mutters, unwilling to concede the point that, yes, of course she knows who they all mean. And she’d know it if a whole fleet of pirates were in port, too.

“He’s not my pirate,” she tells Gepetto when he asks her if she can pass on a message.

Gepetto looks taken aback—by her tone more than her words, she thinks. “Oh,” he says, in that quiet, gentle way he has. “I apologise if I misspoke.”

He’s so damn nice that Emma’s annoyance vanishes in the face of her guilt. “It’s fine,” she mutters. “Doesn’t matter. I know who you meant, I’ll tell him.”

“He’s not my pirate,” she tells Regina firmly, maybe a little defensively.

“Maybe,” Regina says, and then she smirks in that smug, superior way that never fails to grate on Emma’s nerves. “But he wants to be.”

Seriously. What do you even say to that?

“What’s up with you?” Neal asks when she joins him for a late breakfast after seeing Henry off to school.

“Nothing.” Emma scowls at her plate and cuts her food, maybe a little savagely.

“I know for a fact you love pancakes, so it can’t be them you’re mad at,” Neal says with that grin he always uses when he’s trying to make light of the situation and draw her out at the same time.

“I’m not mad.” Emma stuffs a forkful of sweet, syrupy goodness into her mouth.

“Killian do something?” Neal asks casually.

Emma stops chewing. It’s not like Neal never mentions Killian; they even hang out sometimes, these days. She’s just still shocked every time Neal brings him up.

Okay, that’s not the only reason the name gives her a jolt. But it’s part of it. So there.

Neal looks back at her, expectant, mildly curious, maybe a little concerned. “What? Nothing, I’m not mad... you’re mad. You guys on the outs?”

There’s no trap in the question, like there might have been a month or two ago. Emma kind of wishes there were, because then she could spit something about boys and their stupid jealousies. But Neal seems to have put that behind him, coming to the same realisation she had a while ago: there’s no going back.

But right now, she’s not sure she likes this new Neal, this concern. She can’t spit at concern. He cares, and it’s... it’s nice.

“We’re not on the outs,” she says, finally swallowing her mouthful of pancake. “We’re not anything. I wish people would just—"

Stop making assumptions.

Stop calling him that.

Stop throwing it in my damn face.

“What?” Neal looks at her for a moment, then sighs, that grin still hovering on his face. “Y’know, sometimes it really helps to talk.”

“Fine,” Emma says, putting her fork down. “You want to know why I’m mad? I just walked into the diner and some woman I barely know asked me if I knew where my pirate is. I mean, how should I know where he is? I don’t. ‘Cause he’s not my pirate. Everyone just keeps assuming he is.”

“Ah.” That’s all he says.

“It’s just annoying,” Emma says, a little lamely. It’s dawning on her, as she says it, that as annoyances go, this one is really quite minor.

Neal’s eyes are narrowed in a way she really doesn’t like. “So,” he says. “Are you mad ‘cause people are making wrong assumptions, or are you mad ‘cause it’s not true?”

Emma scowls at him. “What?”

It’s more a tactic to stall than anything else, because she has a feeling that she knows full well what he means. He elaborates anyway, still all casual, although he’s starting to look like he’s enjoying himself. “I’m just saying, the way you two keep dancing around each other... are you actually mad that people think he’s yours, or are you mad ‘cause they’re reminding you that he’s not?”

She keeps scowling. “It’s none of their business.”

“Sure,” Neal agrees readily. “I’m just saying, your mother doesn’t get mad when people talk to her about her husband. Or her prince. Whatever.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“Sure it’s not,” Neal agrees, and now there’s a smirk tugging at his mouth. “Think maybe that’s exactly what you’re mad about.”

Emma has the very unsettling feeling that he might be right, damn him. She glares at him again. “Since when are you on Team Hook?”

Neal laughs. “And you’re not?”

“No,” she says, just to say it, hearing the lie in her own voice. Stupid superpower.

“Right,” Neal says, leaning back and draping his arm over the back of his chair. Nonchalant, but with a hint of that swagger he sometimes has—and Emma is pretty sure she knows where he got it. “Well, it’s none of my business, really, except I’m the one who’s gonna be hanging out with Killian when he’s all...” He trails off right at the interesting part. Typical.

“All what?” The question is out before she can stop herself.

Neal smirks at her for a moment before he says, “Brooding. Moping. Pining. All that.” He grins. “Not that you care, though, right?”

“Right,” she says, through clenched teeth.

Neal’s grin holds for another moment, then he blows out a sigh, his expression turning sober. “Emma. I know that what I did—I messed up, and it messed you up. I know that. But he’s not me. He—I—we—" He breaks off, searching for words. “He doesn’t let go of people he loves. Unless they walk away, I guess. I did, but even then...” He swallows. “Even then, when I needed him, he came back. Helped save my kid. And he’s still here.”

For a moment, Emma can only stare at him. Neal isn’t usually one for speeches—nor for acknowledging Killian’s positive sides.

“Still a pain in my ass,” he goes on wryly, proving that he definitely is Neal. “Anyway. I’m just saying, if—as people go, y’know, he’s a pretty safe bet.”

It’s stuttering and disjointed, and half of it stays unsaid, but the words settle something inside of her. They’ve talked about the past before, and she knows that he accepts the blame for what happened, but this... this is more.

This feels like—dare she even think it?—healing.

“Right,” she says again, not managing to grit her teeth this time. “Well, you’ve changed your tune, huh?”

Neal laughs again. “Guess so. You were right, though. You and me, we’re better as friends.”

Emma nods, and decides to pay him back, just a little. “I think you and Killian are better as friends, too.”

And now it’s his turn to scowl, and her turn to grin, and she finishes the rest of her breakfast feeling much better about the world.

 *  *  *

 The next person to ask her for the whereabouts of her pirate is Tinkerbell. Emma is still a little ambivalent about Tink. She knows full well that there’s nothing going on between the fairy and Hook; Killian alluded to it once, but Tink’s indignant reaction was a lot more convincing than his smirk. In fact, Tink treats Killian with a sort of fond exasperation that Emma finds she can sympathise with. She likes Tink.

But all the same, there’s a part of Emma, deep down inside, that wants to bring out its claws. A long-dormant beast that thinks in feelings and impulses and doesn’t care about reason, and it likes the sound of my pirate.

She doesn’t point out that Killian isn’t hers. She simply smiles, and says she just ran into him in the diner, and thinks he was heading down to the docks.

“Great,” Tink says, with a bright smile. “Thanks. I swear the guy never tells me anything. I just want to talk to him.”

She says it casually, but Emma hears the reassurance beneath it. Tink and Hook are friends, like she and Neal are, and there’s no danger.

Emma doesn’t care what Killian does or who he talks to. But the beast inside lies back down, and begins to purr.

 *  *  *

 Much as it galls her to think that Neal of all people might be right, Emma has to admit that he just might be. Now that the idea of Killian being hers is lodged in her head, it’s hard to get rid of it. Or stop thinking about it. Or hate it.

In fact, the more she really thinks about it, the more she likes it.

Him. Hers. No one has been hers in a very long time. Before coming to Storybrooke, she’d resigned herself to the fact that she doesn’t get to keep people. One way or another, they always leave.

It hasn’t escaped her notice that Killian has never left. Even when he did—even when she made him—he came back.

That’s not the reason why she wants to throw her arms around him or drape herself over his shoulder when he’s sitting at the counter in Granny’s or grab his hand when they’re walking down the street. It’s not the reason why her breath catches when he walks into the room, why she wants to ask him whether his ever does the same. It’s not the reason why she wants to kiss him again, and do it properly this time, without walking away.

It’s just the reason why she wants to let herself do those things.

She tells herself that she shouldn’t be listening to Neal of all people. But somehow, it carries more weight coming from him—the man who left her, the man who carried a grudge against Killian for years. He has no reason to endorse the guy, and several reasons not to.

She doesn’t even know why he did. Until it occurs to her that it might be a simple matter of a guilty conscience. For leaving her, for trying again, for getting between her and Killian when it’s clear that Killian feels... well. Whatever he feels.

She finds herself wondering what exactly he says to Neal, when they hang out and sail or fish or drink or whatever they do. How he looks, for Neal to call it moping and pining with sympathy in his voice, rather than rolling his eyes and scoffing at the very idea of Killian having feelings.

He sure doesn’t look like he’s brooding when she sees him. Usually he’s all smiles, a cheeky comment, that teasing glint in his eyes... no, definitely not brooding. He always looks pretty happy to her.

When she sees him.

More to the point, when he sees her.

Oh. Right.

Emma steers herself away from that thought, but it’s no use. No matter which direction she turns, in her own mind or in Storybrooke, there’s another reminder of Killian.

Damn him, and damn everyone who keeps making her think of him.

 *  *  *

 The only people who never refer to Killian as hers, other than Killian himself, are her parents. Her mother has stopped asking about or commenting on her love life altogether, though she seems to have changed her tune when it comes to Killian. Emma suspects that it took her mother a while—or, well, Neverland—to see past the swaggering bravado and innuendo.

But while she usually has a smile for Killian when they meet these days, he’s always simply “Hook”. And never any comment about his relationship with Emma.

Her father, of course, is a different matter.

“Maybe Emma can get her pirate to help,” Granny says as they’re discussing the day’s plans while getting coffee.

David scowls, and Emma feels a pang somewhere in her gut. Her father and Killian didn’t get off on the best foot—par for the course, really, where Killian’s concerned—but since Neverland, they seem to be getting along better.

Except whenever she’s involved. David might accept Killian as part of the team, but he definitely doesn’t accept him as his daughter’s—lover? Suitor? Whatever you want to call it, David’s not a fan.

It shouldn’t matter. Emma has been making her own decisions her whole life, and she intends to keep doing so. But she’s never had a family before. She’s never had people to disappoint before.

She really needs to talk to someone.

“Hey,” she says, as she helps her mother clear the dishes after dinner and begins loading them into the dishwasher. “Can I ask you something?”

Snow looks up, a smile on her face as always. “Sure.”

“Y’know how Dav—Dad isn’t... uhm. How much does he hate Hook, really?”

Snow’s eyes widen. “He doesn’t hate him!”

Emma waves her mother’s objection away, impatient. “Okay, maybe not hate, but like, how mad would he be if I—if we were, y’know, a thing.”

Snow’s eyes are still wide. “You and Killian?”

“Yeah.” It’s hard to look at her. Emma gives up and turns her attention back to the dishes.

“Emma, your father wants what’s best for you,” Snow begins.

“And that’s not a pirate,” Emma adds, because she’s heard this before. “Right.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Snow takes a deep breath. “Do you want to be with H—Killian? I know it’s... a little complicated, with you two.”

Emma looks at her again, sees the careful, almost anxious edge to her smile, like she doesn’t want to pry but she doesn’t want to seem disinterested either. It’s begun to dawn on Emma just how difficult it is for Snow, trying to reconcile the role of mother and friend, trying to be there without smothering.

Weirdly, it makes it easier to keep talking. “Yeah. I don’t know. It’s just a thought, really. Just wondering.”

“Well, don’t worry about David,” Snow says. “He dragged you on that date with Neal, and that was a disaster.”

Emma grimaces. She’s not wrong.

“And he knows that,” Snow goes on. “We both do. We were trying to be supportive, but we got it wrong.”

Emma shrugs. She can’t entirely blame her parents, not when she knows full well that in a lot of other situations, their encouragement might have been exactly what she needed. “You didn’t know.”

Snow nods, fiddling with a tea towel. When she looks back up, her eyes are a little bright, and she’s got that soft smile on her face again. “He’s protective because he loves you. It kills him, what happened with you and Neal. He feels like he failed you, and he doesn’t ever want to do that again. He’s just trying to be your dad.”

Emma’s throat constricts a little, and her voice doesn’t quite come out right when she says, “I know.”

“Good.” Snow sniffs, just once, and raises her chin. “But, look, you’re a grown woman, you make your own choices. He doesn’t get a say in your love life.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Emma agrees. “I just don’t—I don’t want him to—I don’t know.”

Snow nods, like she understands. “It’s not Hook, you know. It’s—well, honestly, after Neal, I think it’s everyone. He just doesn’t want you to get hurt again. But if he overdoes it, just tell him. Or tell me, I’ll sort him out.”

They both laugh.

“So,” Snow says, after another moment. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on with you two?”

Emma presses her lips together. “Nothing.”

Snow has already started to nod in acceptance when Emma goes on, “Just... maybe I want it to be something. You know? I don’t know.”

She’s never said it out loud before, not even this much. She’s not about to get into the way she feels around him, the butterflies, the way his stupid comments brighten her day or the way she got entranced the other day watching him add ketchup to his burger with a suspicious frown on his face.

Snow beams at her. “I take it you haven’t talked to him about it.”

Emma lets out a helpless little laugh. “Wouldn’t know where to start. I mean—I don’t even know what to talk to him about. It’s not like I’m ready to—I don’t even know how I feel.”

“Well, then,” Snow says, still smiling as she joins Emma in the kitchen nook and puts the last of the cups into the dishwasher, “just play it by ear. Spend time with him. Give yourself time to figure it out.”

Emma raises an eyebrow, to cover the almost giddy feeling bubbling up inside her. “You’re encouraging me to spend time with the pirate? David’s gonna be happy.”

Snow grins. “After the amount of time he spent with a bandit, he doesn’t get to judge.”

 *  *  *

 Emma has second and even third thoughts about confiding in Snow. But, to her relief, Snow doesn’t meddle.

Much.

At least, not directly.

And when she does, Emma is so pathetically grateful that she can’t even argue.

They’re in Granny’s for dinner—she, Henry, and her parents—and Emma is barely through the door before her eyes land on Killian.

He’s leaning against the bar, talking to Ruby. She’s not sure whether he’s here to eat, or drink, or just waste time. He looks up, his eyes meeting hers before she can look away, and his mouth lifts in a smile.

She wants to go over to him. Make a comment about his new shirt—he’s begun to settle in here, and along with that has come a new wardrobe—or ask him if he’s loitering or tease him about bothering Ruby at work. But she has no excuse to, and she can’t just go for no reason, especially not when she’s here with her family.

She smiles back at him anyway, then quickly turns away—right to Snow. Snow, who clearly caught the byplay, an astute gleam in her eyes.

“There’s Hook,” she says, unnecessarily. “I wonder if he’s here for dinner, too?”

“It is a diner,” David mutters. Snow ignores him, and waves at the pirate.

He lifts a hand, a little hesitantly, and Emma thinks that the only reason he doesn’t glance behind him to make sure she doesn’t mean someone else is that he already knows there’s no one at his back.

“Hook,” Snow says, determinedly stepping a little closer and flashing her most disarming smile. “Will you join us for dinner?”

Emma almost reaches for her to hiss for her to stop. But it’s too late, and if she’s honest, she doesn’t even mind. More the opposite.

She really is pathetic.

“I—" Killian’s gaze flicks from Snow, to Emma, to Henry, then briefly snags on David before a grin tugs at the corner of one mouth and he straightens a little. “—‘d be honoured, milady,” he finishes smoothly, pushing away from the bar. “Excuse me.”

This last is to Ruby, who gives him a cheery smile before waving over at the rest of them, and gesturing that she’ll be over to take their order in a moment.

“There’s no room at the table,” David is saying to Snow.

“We’ll make room,” Snow says, still in that determined way she sometimes has. “Don’t be so dramatic, my love.”

“I am not dra—" David sputters, but by then Killian has reached them and he shuts up.

Suppressing a laugh, Emma follows her mother over to a booth. Snow snags a chair and drags it to the head of the table while Henry leaps onto one of the seats. Emma slides in next to him, across from her parents, leaving Killian to take the chair.

Even as she sits down, she has no idea how Snow managed to manoeuvre them all so neatly. David is now sitting back by the wall, across from Henry and away from Killian, and Emma is almost sure that that was not what he intended.

Killian catches her gaze as he sits, cocking an eyebrow in a mix of amusement and curiosity, as if asking her what’s going on. She grins—she can’t quite help it—and gives a minute shrug. “Hey, you.”

Even as she says it, it sounds far too intimate. He doesn’t seem to notice. “Hello, love. May I ask, what’s the occasion?”

She shrugs again. “Just dinner. No one felt like cooking.”

“Have you eaten?” Snow asks him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to just commandeer you.”

“Not that he could point fingers if you did,” David says.

Snow rolls her eyes and digs her elbow into her husband’s ribs. “David!”

Killian chuckles. “He’s entirely correct. So I truly do not mind being commandered.” He smirks over at David before turning a more genuine smile on Snow. “I was about to order dinner myself, in fact. Ruby was trying to talk me into trying something called ‘mac and cheese’, again.”

Emma’s eyes widen. “You’ve never had mac and cheese?”

“No. It sounds rather unappealing.”

“You’re crazy,” Emma says before she can think twice. “It’s the best.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You order it, then.”

“Fine. I’ll order it, and you can try it, and I bet you’ll like it.”

If she thought about it beforehand, she wouldn’t have said anything of the sort. It’s too easy to fall into this with him, the teasing, the stupid competitions and challenges.

Killian holds her gaze for a moment, then grins. “All right. Deal.”

And that’s how Emma ends up having mac and cheese for dinner, always a win in her book, and holding a bite of it up to Killian’s mouth for him to try.

It occurs to her that she didn’t need to use her fork. He has his own.

But by the time she realises that, his lips are closing around the fork and his eyes are burning into hers and she can’t quite bring herself to call this a mistake.

Until he draws back, chews, swallows, and grimaces. “You eat this voluntarily?”

“Hey, mac and cheese is great!” She turns to Henry. “Back me up here, kid.”

Henry, much more interested in his own food than anything else going on at the table, spares the time for a thumbs-up and a muffled noise that, honestly, could have meant anything.

Emma shakes her head. Killian laughs, a soft sound that she hasn’t heard often and suddenly wants to hear more of. “Whatever,” she says, jabbing her fork back into her food. “It’s good. You just have terrible taste.”

“Oh, now you’re insulting yourself, love,” he says with another laugh.

It takes her a moment to get it—and then she rolls her eyes, and tries to smother the frankly ridiculous grin that wants to take over her whole face.

It’s not like it’s a secret that he fancies her. He’s said as much, many times. It’s just that the words sound different these days. Especially when he says it like that, all matter-of-fact. It’s not even a compliment. He’s just stating a fact: he doesn’t like mac and cheese, and he does like her.

There’s no expectation behind it, no question, nothing. And she knows, she just knows, that he makes comments like this when she’s not around, too. He’s not doing it to push, or pressure. He’s just being honest about how he feels.

It’s... kind of nice.

“And I won’t stand for that,” he goes on, mock-stern. “Bad form. As regards this mac and cheese, though, I submit that you’re the one with terrible taste.”

It’s on the tip of her tongue to tell him that now he’s the one insulting himself, but she can’t say that. She can’t. “Excuse you, my taste is impeccable.”

“Questionable,” he counters cheerfully.

She gives his meal—chicken fillet a la something, she thinks—a haughty look that she learned from Regina. “Well, we can’t all be Mr. Fancypants.”

Henry laughs. So does Snow. Killian’s eyebrows rise almost to his hairline. “Fancypants?”

She grins at him, and pops another forkful of mac and cheese into her mouth with all the relish she can muster.

And maybe she offers to share her chocolate-laden dessert with him to prove that she does, in fact, have good taste. It’s meant for two, anyway, not that that usually stops her from eating it all by herself.

And if her heart does a stupid little somersault when they battle it out for a chocolate-chip-heavy piece—if it trips again when he cedes it to her... well, no one needs to know.

 *  *  *

 She spends time with him. It’s not difficult; he tends to seek her out, sometimes under the flimsiest of pretexts, and all she has to do is not call him out on it.

Not that she doesn’t have excuses of her own. Ever since Neverland, she’s roped him in as an occasional babysitter for Henry—he offered, and he seems to like the kid, so she doesn’t feel bad about it. In fact, the sight of them together, Henry laughing, Killian smiling, never fails to make her chest fill with that weird, warm feeling she’s getting more familiar with these days.

“It’s funny,” Neal says when she meets him in the diner to bring Henry to him, “how it always seems to take forever to pick the kid up from Killian. He kidnap him or something? Did you have to stage a rescue?”

Emma does her best to glower at him. “No.”

“I got to play on the ship!” Henry says, grinning. “Killian made a swing and Mom let me play on it for a bit.”

“Did she,” Neal says, chuckling. “That was real nice of her.”

The look he shoots Emma says that he knows exactly why she let the kid play for a bit longer. Emma wants to deny it, but at this point, that would be more pathetic than anything else. She did take the opportunity to talk to Killian for a while, sitting up on the deck of the ship in the sunshine while he asked her about her day.

So she just shrugs. “Yeah. Well. Everybody wins.”

“Except for me,” Neal says, mock-annoyed. “’cause you were late.”

“Please, you got here like five minutes ago.”

He grins again. “Yeah, ‘cause I knew you’d be late.”

It’s weird to have Neal, of all people, teasing her about her love life. But if Emma is honest, she much prefers it to him trying to insert himself into her love life.

In fact, it’s kind of nice. It makes it real in a way that she still struggles to believe. Not that she doesn’t believe Killian when he smiles at her and calls her gorgeous and casually implies that he’s been thinking about her. But there’s something about everyone else acknowledging it that’s... well, it’s reassuring, and it makes the little beast inside Emma stretch luxuriously, contentedly, and smile.

 *  *  *

 The next time Granny asks her to tell her pirate something, Emma gives a good-natured little eye-roll and smirk, and promises to pass on the message.

 *  *  *

 The only problem—aside from the push and pull of her own feelings—is her father.

The talk with Snow reassured her somewhat—not that she needs her parents’ approval, but she’s not so stubbornly independent that she’ll refuse to listen to advice, and she knows that sometimes, an outside perspective on a situation is clearer. If Snow genuinely thought that Killian might hurt her, it would give Emma pause.

But that’s clearly not the case, going by the way she smiles at him and makes sure to include him in conversations whenever they’re all together.

David, however...

Emma comes home after spending the best part of two hours hanging out at Granny’s with Ruby and Killian, joking, chatting, laughing. There’s a little bright spark of happiness deep inside her somewhere, a secret treasure that she just wants to bask in for a while.

Snow takes one look at her as she walks into the loft, and her face breaks into a soft smile. “Hey. We didn’t wait for you, but there’s some dinner left. Have you eaten?”

“I ate at Granny’s,” Emma assures her, that bright spark bubbling up into giddiness again as she can’t resist adding, “Killian bought dinner, said he wasn’t letting me starve on his watch. Drama queen.”

She rolls her eyes as she says it, as if it’s not another little bit of proof that she’s locking away somewhere—he likes me he likes me he likes me.

Snow beams at her. David, standing behind her in the kitchen, scowls and says, “Well, that’s something.”

The little spark goes out. Emma feels her smile fade.

“David!” Snow turns to scowl at her husband. Emma uses the distraction to slip away upstairs, where she lies on her bed and shuts her eyes as if to shut out the world.

She knows what he’s doing, and she appreciates it; she’s never had a father to look out for her before. So she can’t say anything, even if she wishes he’d stop. She’s only just stopped having to walk a tightrope between Neal and Killian, she doesn’t want to do it all over with her father.

So she tries to keep it quiet. She avoids mentioning Killian when he’s around, and she avoids Killian himself the following day.

She misses him, as much as you can miss someone after one day. Which really shouldn’t be a whole lot, but she’s begun to realise that “should” is a pretty meaningless word. She lies in bed that night, her thoughts stubbornly returning to him over and over, mulling over her dilemma. Maybe she does need to talk to her father.

She remembers Snow’s explanation for David’s behaviour. She forgot about the other thing her mother said.

As her shift draws to a close the next day, David says, “Hey... I can finish up here, if you want to head out.”

“Oh,” she says, and then she frowns, because that’s her job, and David never volunteers to stay any longer than he has to. “Okay... why?”

David shrugs, all casual, but subtlety is not his strong suit. As proven when he says, “I thought you might like to swing by the docks.”

Emma raises her eyebrows. “Oh?”

“I ran into Hook earlier,” David admits. “He, uh, wanted to see you.”

Well, the man certainly doesn’t lack courage. “He told you that?”

“He didn’t tell me anything.” David shrugs, looking away for a moment before his gaze returns to her. “I just got the impression that he’d like to see you, that’s all.  I’m not trying to push,” he adds quickly, holding up his hands. “Not saying you should go. I just thought, if you wanted to.”

And Emma realises that her mother must have said more than just “David!” the other night.

She narrows her eyes, trying to ignore the little warm squirm in her chest. “Mom talked to you, huh?”

David grimaces. “Yeah. Look, Emma, I really...” He lets out a sigh. “I just want you to be happy. The last thing I want is to stand in the way. And with Hook, I wasn’t sure...”

“Yeah,” Emma says. “Me neither.”

He nods. “Like I said, not trying to push. I just want to make sure you’re not avoiding him because of me.”

Emma tries to hide her amazement at that. It’s not that she doubts his abilities; lack of subtlety notwithstanding, David is surprisingly good at picking up on things sometimes. No, she knows that most of her amazement stems from the fact that he bothers trying to figure her out. That he knows her, not because she’s shared everything with him, but because he takes the time to listen, watch, and understand.

She swallows. “Right. Yeah. I just don’t want to... you know, if you really think it’s a bad idea...”

He huffs out a laugh. “I think we all know by now that we shouldn’t trust my taste in men. Anyway, Hook clearly isn’t the love-‘em-and-leave-‘em guy I thought he was. It’s all bravado.”

It’s Emma’s turn to laugh. “Yeah. Well. Think it’s a job requirement.”

“And I saw how your eyes just lit up when I mentioned him,” David goes on, and Emma is suddenly both mortified and tempted to break into giggles, which is a first. And not happening. She does not giggle.

Luckily, David keeps talking before she can. “Look, I’ve.. I’ve been going about it a bit wrong, I think. I just want to support you, okay? I want to help. You want to spend time with him? Go and be with him, I’ll cover things here. You want to run him out of town? I’ll help you. I want whatever you want, okay?”

She has to swallow again. “Okay.”

He smiles, bright and honest. “Okay.”

She hesitates. “Okay, so I’ll... You sure that you...” She waves to indicate the station.

David laughs. “I got it. Go.”

 *  *  *

 Emma has not had a huge amount of time so far to enjoy everything that Storybrooke has to offer. Her hikes through the forest are usually work-related, her trips to the park few and far between, and it’s only recently that meals in Granny’s aren’t fraught with tension of some kind or another.

So when Killian mentions that he’s been walking along the shoreline and it’s got quite a view to offer, she says, with complete honesty, “Oh. I’ve never... you know what, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen it.”

He looks surprised. “Never?”

“Haven’t really had a lot of time to see the sights,” she says.

And there’s a moment, where he looks at her and she at him, and she knows that he wants to ask. And she wants him to ask. And she’s suddenly scared, terrified, that he won’t. That she’s scared him away with her constant... well, not rejections. She’s never rejected him. She just hasn’t encouraged him.

But while Killian Jones is a lot of things, gun-shy or cowardly isn’t among them. “Well, I could tell you about it,” he says, raising one eyebrow, “or you could come see for yourself.”

It’s just a walk, she tells herself. There is absolutely no damn reason why her heart needs to trip all over itself at the prospect of a damn walk. “Sure,” she says. “Right now? I mean, you’ve already been...”

He beams at her. “I have the time if you do.”

She does. Her shift is over, Henry is at Regina’s, and she has absolutely nowhere to be. She also has absolutely no excuse to be down at the docks in the first place, but thankfully, Killian didn’t ask.

It’s a nice evening, springtime warmth in the air as they walk along the stretch of beach and beyond. There’s a little promontory a ways along the coast where she can sit on a rock while Killian explains something about water currents. After a moment, he sits on a rock nearby and, spurred by her questions, launches into a pirate story.

He’s looking out across the sea, the evening sun gilding his hair and eyelashes, a faraway smile on his face, and Emma thinks, oh, I like him.

It’s not a new realisation. It’s just never been quite so... active, before. It’s never made her want to brush his hair back and put her arms around him and hold his hand on the walk back.

She doesn’t, but it’s a close call.

 *  *  *

 She introduces him to ice cream on the pretext of proving to him that she does have good taste. He’s gratifyingly delighted by it, though less so by the brain freeze that follows when he eats it a bit too fast.

“Slow down,” she tells him, laughing. “Too much of a good thing, you know?”

“Ah, yes.” He slants her a look, blue eyes glinting as he slides his tongue out and gives a delicate lick. “Delicacies ought to be savoured.”

He’s doing it on purpose, but that doesn’t stop Emma’s throat from feeling a little dry as she says, “Exactly.”

She debates trying to turn those tables on him, but she’s not about to get into a competition of suggestively eating ice cream with this man.

But he’s got raspberry sorbet clinging to the scruff on his cheek, right beneath the dimple that shows up sometimes when he laughs, and she reaches over to swipe it away without thinking.

And he watches her do it, holding so still it’s like he’s frozen, swallowing hard as she steps back.

She wants to do it again. Maybe with her tongue next time.

She finds herself taking these liberties with him, without even thinking about it, and she knows damn well what it means. She wants these moments all the time, and she wants them to last.

They don’t, because if she doesn’t step back, he will. He’d never take those liberties with her, much as she wants him to. His hand might brush against hers as they walk, but he’ll never thread his fingers through hers, because he doesn’t know she wants him to.

She needs to tell him. She needs to sort this out. She needs to put an end to this dance they’re doing.

She has no idea how.

 *  *  *

 Ironically—or fittingly?—it’s everyone’s assumptions and phrasing that gives her an opening. At least, that’s the thought that occurs to her one evening when they’re standing on the pier beside his ship and she’s trying to draw out the conversation so she doesn’t have to leave just yet.

She’s given up denying that she does that, at least to herself.

“By the way,” she says, as casually as she can, “Granny was looking for you earlier and asked me where my pirate was..."

He raises his eyebrows, mildly interested. “What did she want?”

Emma wants to shove him, even as she notes the fact that he knows who Granny meant. “I don’t know,” she says, maybe a little impatiently. “Did you know people call you that? My pirate?"

He stills at that, a cautious look in his eyes as he says, “Ah... I've heard it said, aye.”

That doesn’t really give her much to go on. Emma wishes she’d thought this through more. She has no idea how to get to what she actually wants to say. “Yeah?”

He nods, and the caution deepens. “I have tried to set her straight,” he says, a note of defensiveness in his voice now. “That we're--that I’m not, well, yours.”

If he’d doused her with cold water, it might have been less of a chill. Maybe she misread this whole situation. Maybe it really was just people making stupid assumptions. It’s been months since Neverland, and it’s not like she’s given him any kind of encouragement.

Emma swallows hard. “Right.”

He’s still watching her, brow furrowed—and then his eyebrows jump upwards, and he says, “Though I would be, of course.”

Still caught up in self-recriminations, it’s Emma’s turn to frown. “What?”

“Yours,” he says simply. “If you wanted.”

“Oh,” she says. And then, “Okay.”

The smile she expects doesn’t come. Instead, he keeps staring at her, searching, waiting. She needs to say more—to explain, except she doesn’t really know what to explain, or how. His expression is turning vaguely worried, and she can almost see him thinking: that he overstepped, that she doesn’t want him, that he needs to back off.

Fighting back a flutter of panic, she reaches for him. Not very gracefully, either: she grabs onto his upper arm, with no real plan except to make sure he stays here. With her. It’s clear from his expression that he wasn’t expecting that, nor does he know what to do with it.

Emma has no idea where to even begin explaining, so she leans in and kisses him.

After the briefest of moments where she almost starts to panic again, he gets the point, and kisses her back.

Elation sweeps through her, and it’s ridiculous—all he’s doing is kissing her, just his lips pressed to hers—but she doesn’t care. It’s not like the last time, all frenzied urgency and need boiling up inside her and wanting more. She can feel all of that lurking somewhere deep down, but for now, his lips are soft, gentle, almost reverent. She could fall into this, just let herself go, forget the rest of the world and just be with him. She wants to.

It doesn’t last nearly long enough before he’s pulling back, gently, just letting it end.

“Emma,” he whispers, and it’s a question and a wish all at once.

“Yeah.” She kisses him again, just a peck, though an enthusiastic one. Just to make clear that it’s not a one-time thing.

“Yeah?”

She knows what he’s asking, and she knows why—he can’t quite bring himself to believe her answer. And, to be fair, she just said “okay”. In hindsight, maybe not the most romantic of things to say.

She dips her gaze, trails her hand down over his collarbone, over the expanse of skin left bare by his barely-buttoned shirt. The dark hair dusting it is softer than it looks—much like him. Her hand lingers, toying with the charms he wears. “I used to get real annoyed about it, you know. Everyone calling you that.”

He hums, and he seems to be getting the picture, because his hand is resting on her waist and there’s a smile edging onto his face and he’s swaying into her. “And now?”

“Now...” She sways back, meets him halfway, feeling a fierce, almost predatory satisfaction as she smiles at him. Hers. And she’s not letting him go. “I like the sound of it.”

Part of her, the cynical, lonely part, maintains that it’s pathetic, that she shouldn’t feel as giddy and elated as she does. But he’s beaming at her, blue eyes shining with affection and tenderness and more besides, and she can’t hold it back. She doesn’t want to. She wants to throw herself into this with him, to be pathetic and giddy and happy with him. To replace those old habits with new ones.

So when he wraps his arms around her, she throws her own around his neck and lifts her legs so he can spin her around. He’s laughing, and she’s giggling, and then he’s kissing her again and she lets the last of her reservations melt away. He’s hers. She’s his. That’s what she wants, and she’s sick of denying it.

Besides... everyone already knows, anyway.

*  *  *

Tag list - please let me know if you want on or off! @optomisticgirl @mariakov81 @courtorderedcake @tomeandflickcorner @spartanguard @snowbellewells @karl0ta @heavenlyjoycastle @queen-serena88 @stahlop @inkerii @therealstartraveller776 @bubblegum1425 @iamanneenigma @elegies @itsfabianadocarmo @winterbaby89 @kday426 @sals86 @superchocovian @pirateherokillian @laschatzi @scientificapricot @kmomof4 @thisonesatellite @ilovemesomekillianjones