#other than working on a bunch of art (in preparation for a pop-up shop)

[silhouettecrow]

365 Days of Writing Prompts: Day 329

Adjective: Flowy

Noun: Dress

Definitions for those who need/want them:

Flowy: (especially of long hair or clothing) hanging or draping loosely and gracefully, or flowing

Dress: a one-piece garment that covers the body and extends down over the thighs or legs, worn typically by women and girls; clothing of a specified kind for men or women; denoting military uniform or other clothing used on formal or ceremonial occasions

[kurayami-ichika]

"A swell day.." Hawks x Reader Fluff

A/N: I’m posting this near Halloween, I’ve chosen violence today.

So fluffy Kei bby ❤🥺

(1,519 words 7,922 characters)

<I had some art posted here but I was informed that the artist didn't like reposts thank you for not biting my head off ❤ I'll find a different way other than art for now until I either stop having art block or learn how to draw good more than once a week, enjoy!>

Hawks x Winged!Reader

You happily flew your way back home after getting off of hero work in the afternoon and going to the mall to buy Christmas things and Keigo’s favorite food. You also bought a few gifts to give to him for Christmas, which was creeping up in the next few days; luckily you still have time for last-minute shopping if you get any ideas.

You landed on your balcony and used your keys to open the door. The house was cold since both you and Keigo were out for nearly the whole day, the crime spike for villains has calmed down, but there are still robberies and muggings. Since the lack of villains, heroes either have more days off or they’re guarding big banks and on patrols. It’s finally peaceful, you just hope it’s not the calm before the storm.

You turn on all of the heaters and shake off your wings. Keigo is getting off soon, thanks to the lack of evil roaming the streets. You prepare dinner plates, Keigo’s plate has a bunch of chicken on it. Meanwhile you with your more healthy meal with rib tips and a salad. Seemingly on cue, Keigo pops his head through the door eyeing the food through the wall as you peak from behind the corner to see him starring at the wall like it’s prey.

“I smell something.”, You pouted at him, “Mhm, say hi to the food.”, he came over to gingerly hug you but you dodged playfully running with your bare feet making the cutest sound on the wooden floor, into the bedroom and hiding in the closet. He slowly opened the door and creeped in, you couldn’t help but giggle. He first looked painfully close to the closet, probably teasing you.

“I wonder..Is she under..here!? No..”, he chuckled every time he looked in a place he knew you weren’t until he snuck up on the closet and scared you. “Boo!”, you half screamed half giggled as he tickled you out of your mind. You were out of breath by the time you mentioned the food getting cold.

He was very excited to try all the chicken you got from different places that were made with all sorts of different spices with different tastes. He was clearly very thankful to you when he kissed you just to push an extra spicey wing into your mouth and watch you run to the sink to wash the pain away while he giggled like a schoolgirl.

Your stomach was very upset after that extra spicey wing so you finished eating early to join Keigo in the living room with all the sparkly ornaments you bought. As you took each one out you both took a minute to stare at each super shiny one because of your shared bird-like instincts.

You finish the tree and you both step back to look at all the shiny ornaments, he puts his arms over your shoulders; his chin in your neck, taking in both your scent and the beauty of the tree. The alarm goes off telling you both it’s 1 AM now, you pout wanting to stay up longer but you know being a hero doesn’t come with a completely out of proportion sleeping schedule.

You cuddle him in the warm bed with the cute white-furred onesie he bought for you on your last birthday and fall asleep. You wake up to birds chirping outside your window chirping louder and louder and Keigo trying to shush your pesky friends until he sees you awake and gives them a tired glare.

When he leaves for a meeting about work, he gives you a kiss on the forehead goodbye. You know you only have until the afternoon for him to come back, so you start to wrap your gifts and hide them. You bought him a love charm with the both of you in it, it caught your eye because of the angel wings attached to the heart.

Your second gift was a cute bear that was bought with your best money. It was a light beige and white color with a luminescent stomach and paws, it was very expensive because it was hand-made and had better quality material to last longer than most. You were tired from all the gift wrapping so you went to go see if you could find anything that would go amazing with Keigo.

While walking to the park to ask the birds a certain outfit caught your eye, it looked as if it had an old design. It was a dark gray suit with an off-white tie and lighter gray sleeves, matching dark gray pants and black shoes. There was also a classy fedora. You walked past but couldn’t stop imagining Keigo’s smirk as he tipped the fedora playfully like an actor.

Your bird friends at the park told you to get it if you couldn’t stop thinking about it so you did. When Keigo came home it was pretty late since he had a surprise mission because of a huge bank robbery. He made sure to text you because he didn’t want you to wait unknowingly. You took the time to decorate the house making sure to put a mistletoe over the front door.

When he walked in you rushed to hug him and then brought the mistletoe to his attention away from all the other decorations. “Oh, you little mischievous- comere.”, he kissed you, playfully poking at your stomach and lower back to tease you. Tomorrow was Christmas eve and there would be a party full of heroes.

You got ready in a beautiful (color) outfit to match your wings and Keigo lost his tie so he just wore a dress shirt and an undone suit. It was still somehow hot. You two only had to come for a speech so you inspected every sweet you could find and stuffed it into a to-go box sticking a few you couldn’t resist in Keigo’s face to give him a taste.

You both did your speech and then got home to take off the tight clothing and fell asleep in each other’s arms. You woke up later than usual because the tweeting birds outside of your window finally left to find somewhere warmer. You then noticed that Keigo was gone and went to the living room with a jump and skip, your gifts to him in hand.

He was dressed as Santa clause to your surprise. He was terrible at impressions but he tried his best. “Come sit on Santa’s lap child.”, you giggled at the terrible Santa clause impression but you did as he said and he handed you a skinny medium box, you opened it and took out a beautiful dress. It was a dark gray with (eye color) roses mixed with tinier (wing colored) roses. There was so much detail it could’ve cost a fortune.

You gave him a huge hug, “Let’s open the next one baby bi- I mean..ah forget it it’s terrible anyways.” your cheerful laughter echoes through the house making Keigo only love you more if that’s even possible. You opened the next present which is a watch you were eyeing to your surprise. He could see the child-like happiness displayed when you put it on and gave him a kiss on the cheek, “I love it!”. You smiled so lovingly.

Then you reached for a medium square box that was very big, “Kid, let us save that one for last.”. You gave him your first present, it was in a bag. He pulled out the paper hiding his present and bought out a soft cuddly stuffed bear. He gave it a huge hug along with you. “How’d you know I liked stuffed animals?!”, he would not let you go at all.

You finally got him to open the next presents and presented him with the beautiful heart love necklace. He instantly put it on and opened it, he opened his mouth but no words came out until he finally spoke. “I love it so much Baby bird, I don’t know what to say!”, he gave you a huge hug.

Now onto your last present, he opened the box to see a new suit just for him and you grabbed the fedora you were hiding and pushed it onto his head. He tipped it with a smirk just like you imagined. He gave you many pecks on the cheeks nose and forehead.

“Now, it’s time for the last present I got you. I’ll be back, I need to get it ready.”, he left to the other room leaving you with such suspense. You didn’t even come close to guessing what it was though. He came back while you had your back turned thinking and got on one knee.

He poked you in the back and when you turned you almost had a heart attack. You were stunned. “Will..You marry me?”, the words you were begging to hear your whole life. You couldn’t hold your surprised tears back, at that moment all you felt existed in this world were you and Keigo. You said yes.

A/N: And then the fire nation attacked- (oh wait couldn’t that be Dabi lmao-) Hope you liked it~! I'm open to criticism (Not insulting)

[gaymershigh]

hulloh! I've only been on tumblr for a few hours, and me and my friend already love your work! Is it ok if I request some TWST parent scenarios with Riddle,Lilia,Sebek,Vil and Floyd? If so, thanks! Also once again, me and my freind love ur works alot!

Of course! Since there's no s/o really mentioned in here but people might still want to be included, s/o will be mentioned just a tiny bit (the kids being biological or adopted is up to you since I want to make the s/o gender neutral.) Also, thanks a lot! I'm still and probably be forever an amateur writer so this means a lot to me 🥺💞💞

Triggers: None

Parents au: Riddle, Lilia, Sebek, Vil and Floyd edition!

From what we've seen, his parents are not the best role models like, at all. They were too strict, pressuring him and treating him like a trophy child. However, he will definitely not treat his child like that at all after Ace slapped him with reality.

He will be a bit strict, having some rules and will scold them if they did something wrong but not as scold them the way his mother does. He won't raise his voice at them, showing them the right path after he scolded them. He will give them freedom and try his best to not make his children suffer the same thing he did, especially when he's the source of the pain.

Though, he might accidentally adapt some things from his mother and project her ways to his children, being completely not self aware. If you're his s/o, please teach him the baby steps to avoid this from this occurring too often.

Unfortunately, having a good life and children won't make his short temper extend. This is the only reason why he doesn't spoil them too much, they might act entitled and may be too late to change them back to the innocent infant they were back then. He tries very hard to control his temper if his children unintentionally knock furniture over or damage something. He just needs a few minutes alone, everything will be back to normal later.

There was one time where his child's birthday was near and decided to bake a cake from scratch, without any assistance from Trey nor his s/o. Thinking he could do it and don't want anyone to underestimate him. He was planning to make a burnt strawberry cheesecake and did the mistake of leaving the oven on for an hour for 400 degrees fahrenheit. The cake went on fire but it tasted very good when he for some reason tasted it. Nobody knew about the incident and the cake was actually used for its purpose. Yay for him, I guess.

He was already pretty outdated in trends when he was in his teens so do expect him to be like a middle aged soccer mom on Facebook every time his children send him memes or something like that. If he does even use any sort of social media and stumbled upon a 'funny' minion meme or something, he will definitely send it to the family group chat. He will make those 5th grade types of edits with one of the family pictures with a "I love my family". It's funny but still wholesome so don't laugh at him.

There is no alternate universe where Lilia isn't a good dad. Silver and his other wards are already an amazing example of how amazing of a parent he is! He has gained a bunch of experience so he got this in the bag.

Though, his way of taking care of children might be different from how it is now. Times have changed, there are probably some new and uncomplicated objects or toys to entertain the baby or child. He would love to go on a shopping trip to buy some fascinating kids toys he found in the toy store. Please stop him from buying everything in there because it looks "intriguing".

If you're his s/o, you're very lucky since if you have a baby who always cries at three in the morning or a kid who really have trouble sleeping, Lilia will sing a lullaby and they'll doze off in any second. He can wake up easily or he'll just always stay up playing his games so you don't even need to break a sweat in this situation.

His kids or any kid in general loves him lots. He will always tell his tales anywhere, anytime. If the kids ask him for a story to tell, he will always have a new one ready to tell. They also make amazing bedtime stories! It can be funny little innocent stories like his funny experiences taking care of his three wards to actual battles he went through. Any story is a good story.

He really got along with his child when they're young and innocent but when they get into their teenage years, oh boy. He will unintentionally embarrasses them but their friends won't mind. If anything, they will love him being around as he's always keeping up with the games and trends, not being a fat, shirtless creepy dad. One of the positive parts about his child growing up is that he can play video games with him just like he did with Silver! Reliving the nice memories.

He would always try to cook something in any opportunity he gets and of course, he gets stopped by either s/o or his own children. Yes, they have to go through the hard way to realize their father is garbage at cooking. He would always try to cook some food everytime something good has happen in order to celebrate but most of the times, he just wants to cook something for them to show how much he loves them. They really made him happy, he finally have a biological/adopted offspring to watch growing up (again).

Sebek unfortunately doesn't have that much time to spend time with his children due to being Malleus' trusted escort. Of course, when he does have free time and is not exhausted he will use the opportunity to spend it with his adorable younglings.

Knowing him, he still loves and worships Malleus but he's no longer his only priority in life when he finally has a life of his own other than just being Malleus' bodyguard. He will ramble and tell so many stories about his young master to his kids. They will be infatuated but will later complain about how everything is just "Malleus this, Malleus that". He will get a bit upset about that comment, so he will only talk about Malleus stories for 3 days a week.

He only has focused his life on guarding Malleus and advancing himself on magic and education. Now that he's now an actual father, this is a new chapter in his life and he's not prepared at all. He will seek Lilia for guidance and of course, Lilia being Lilia will rope him to doing something absolutely ridiculous and he would of course, woefully fall for it. Pretty surprising that no matter how much he has fallen for his teacher's trap, he still seeks him for advice.

His kids will definitely learn how to read fast. He loves reading and he really wants his kids to appreciate it too. He was about to immediately give them the books that have old and poetic language without even knowing what the alphabet was. Lilia put a stop to this and you couldn't even bear seeing how sad he looked because he needs to wait for a few years for him to have little reading buddies. Oh well, it doesn't matter now. He will teach them how to read and appreciate the art of reading no matter how long it takes.

He has exposed his children to a bunch of Malleus propaganda so there's no surprise if the children become just like him. Loud screaming, Malleus worshipping, smart but naive and other things Sebek has. If you're his s/o, please keep the children in check as they might cause problems to the neighbors. As this might be troublesome, it's at least entertaining experience I suppose.

Just like Sebek, he has even less time to spend with his kids as he always has modeling, acting and other businesses to attend. He's probably going to be exhausted when he comes back as well. Though, of course he's going to try to use all his energy to talk to his children till he can no longer open his eyes anymore. He prefers an s/o that is a stay-in mom/dad so the children won't feel lonely while he's gone.

They're definitely gonna grow up just like him. A model, actor, media influencer, or the combination of the three and it's not a bad thing. If they're going on the same route as him, he will teach them in a strict but still in a somewhat caring manner as he has learned a lot from his experience of the VDC boot camp and the overblot incident. He will only show his threatening side if they start to misbehave like those ADeuce rats.

Just because they are his children, doesn't mean they get a free pass if they intentionally neglect or not doing their best at all times, especially when it comes to appearance. He's known to be a neat-freak and a very hard worker to the point it's concerning. He will scold them if more than two pimples pop up on their face but he knows when to cross the line. He learned this easier if their child is rather sensitive and just emotionally fragile in general but they still need to take care of themselves.

He expects his children to follow his footsteps when it comes to where they're schooling. He wants them to enter a prestigious school like he did for his reputation and for the sake of his children's future. This is optional (not really) but he also hopes his children to enter Pomefiore as well and take the dorm head title at least the second week they enroll in this school. If they were sorted to a different dorm, they still want them to have a role in their dorm or in the school at all.

He begs to the Great Seven that paparazzi or desperate losers obsessing over him don't intrude into his personal life, especially if it's about his family. The last thing he wants to witness is his family in pain or being uncomfortable for their whole life. He usually avoids or straight up tells the interviewer that he's not comfortable answering questions when they're going too personal when it's about questions of his family.

You cannot feel anymore blessed when you see his smiling face when he received news about having a vacation. He can finally spend more time with his wonderful kids he's raising with all his heart. He will tell them about some funny incidents in the studio while he was involved in some modeling gig or he will bring them to a private island with gorgeous scenery for both of them to enjoy. Of course, his children's happy faces are more beautiful than the island.

Floyd is seen to be very warm and sweet despite having a very intimidating height. Naturally, he's not going to be ruthless and act the same when it's with his children because it's his children of course, family is precious to him. He has a lot of energy even after a long shift at Mostro Lounge, so he will always spend a lot of time with his kids.

He's physically affectionate so expect him to be always close and wrapping his arms around his children at almost all times. He'll usually let them sit on his lap when they watch TV or sleep with them if they can't go back to sleep because of a nightmare. Headpats are needed, especially if the kids did something good or got good news. Not saying he won't give any headpats if something bad happens, maybe headpats of sympathy perhaps.

He's very patient when it's with his children because he doesn't want his children to fear him when they grow up. If anything, the s/o have to do the scolding to avoid him snapping or anything like the sort. They rarely do anything bad though, since they're aware of how their dad acts from how he treats a dirty burglar who once tried to break in.

Since he's usually very active and hates just standing around, he expects his children to be just like him. It's never boring if your dad is Floyd as he always has something really entertaining to do at most times. If you're his s/o, you have the free entrance to see an eel man dancing around with his kids or playing some basketball either inside or preferably in the backyard. He tried showing the art of parkour but is stopped due to it being very risky. He sulked about this but oh well, once they're ten, they have no choice but to learn it!

Floyd is an amazing cook and he sometimes lets his children be involved like chopping some vegetables or stirring the macaroni. He sometimes teaches them the perfect way of doing it or let's them try doing their own meal with his assistance. There was one time they decided to make one of the weirdest food combinations and try to eat it, he won and ate it all as it was too gross for the kids to eat it. It's not gonna be a surprise if everyone in this household is an expert cook when Floyd is here.

If possible, he really wants to bring his kids at work no matter how troublesome they could get. If Azul has a "bring your kids to work" day (which I doubt of him doing), he's going to bring all his children no matter how many he has. If there's no day like that, who cares! He's bringing his kids anyway and nobody's stopping him. Sure, he will get scolded by Azul but if that's the only thing stopping him then he'll take his chances.

I don't if it's still Christmas or not since I don't celebrate it but if it's still is, Merry Christmas! 🎉 I'll just say this is a Christmas gift for you and your friend, Mouaietaru! Especially for that Jamil and Silver fanfic that you made. It's very good, keep up the fantastic work! ✨✨✨

-𝕸𝖎𝖗𝖎

[red-becca]

Swapping Styles For A Day

I know I said that I won't be posting anything new until Revin week came but I just had to share this new thing I just wrote. It's the two swapping closets, so basically Red's dressed like a geek and Kevin's dressed... Uh, something cool and nothing like Kevin wears bc I see Red as a girl with multiple fashion styles.

Another reason why I am putting this up is because I would love to see art of this. Like imagine Kevin with make- up and like black nail polish and a piercing. Maybe a skirt too? He doesn't put a skirt on here bc I don't see him being confident enough for it just yet.

Also, please don't judge the ending. I didn't know how to end it but I did my best. :/

---

Kevin gulped as his girlfriend had a self- piercing gun in her hands, shaking as she got it ready on his right ear. "D- do we r-really have to do this, Red?"

Red raised a brow as she pulled the piercing device away from his ear, adjusting the glasses she had on. "No, we don't. But you kept on insisting we do this to me all day... So, what? Did you change your mind once we got to piercing your ears?"

"Well, did you have to get pierced ears, Red?! You know, you could have gone through your whole life without piercing your ears..." Kevin nervously rubbed one of his ears.

"I know that but I just... wanted to get my ears pierced. For funsies, I guess." Red shrugged, rubbing her own ears. "Alright, Kev... What's it gonna be? Like you said, you don't have to get it..."

He rubbed his ear some more as he bit his bottom lip before sighing. "I'm doing it! You have pierced ears, so I should get at least one of my ears pierced for tomorrow! Do it, Red! Just do it already!" The male grabs hold of her free hands and squeezes it tightly.

"Okay, if you say so... Great. Now, I'm nervous for you..." Red gulped a bit as she positioned the piercing gun onto his right ear again. "Alright then... One, two, three!" She pierces his right ear lobe once she finished counting.

Kevin screamed at the top of his lungs which makes Red scream at the top of hers. After a few seconds, they had calmed down and Red puts a simple black earring on his newly pierced ear.

"You know there are such things as clip on earrings, right?" Red calmed herself down while handing Kevin a mirror. "We could have just gotten those kinds of earrings for you instead of making ourselves scream there for piercing your ears..."

"Yeah, I do..." Kevin grabs the mirror and admired the new piercing he got. "But it wouldn't have felt authentic to what we have planned for tomorrow, I guess... I don't know. You did a pretty good job with it though. It looks good."

"Heh, thanks. I never even used anything like this before. I had my ears pierced by a professional, after all." She snickered as she looked at the piercing gun in her eyes. "And please, what you have planned for tomorrow... Remember, this is all your idea..." Red rolled her eyes, lying on her bed and putting her glasses on top of her head. "I have no idea where you got the idea of partners swapping closets but it is cute, not gonna lie. But also hard for us, seeing as I have such a wide style of clothes to chose from. I don't have just one aesthetic I regularly stick to. Meanwhile, you just have... Geek." She gestured to his current outfit before snickering again.

"Hey!" Kevin opened his mouth then quickly shut it, pouting as he got up to sit next to her. "Okay, maybe that's true... But like, that's why I let you dress me from time to time. I can see how my geek style can get a little redundant." He yelped when Red suddenly hugged him and made him lie next to her. "Umm, what's this for?"

"To tell you this right to your face, Mister. I may love dressing you and it's fun from time to time, I still like how you regularly dress the most. That's your unique style and one of the many reasons why I fell for you. You are one adorable geek, my Captain." She kisses his cheek, leaving a lipstick mark on it. "Though, for tomorrow, I guess that's gonna change, huh? So, how do you feel about putting on make-up for tomorrow?"

He gulped nervously, gesturing to her face. "Nothing like... This intense, right? Don't get me wrong! There is absolutely nothing wrong with males wearing make-up. But I am a little intimidated when it comes to more intense looks like yours..."

"Intense looks like mine?" She snickered before bursting out in laughter. "Please, it's Goth make-up that looks really intense. I am more diet goth in a way. I don't think any of those intense looks goth do will suit me, anyway. But you know, pretending to be a dark angel awoken something in me that day... It made me want to try some looks that don't border on straight up goth." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, my usual make-up look is just a bit of eyeliner, light blush and then dark colored lipstick so it'll pop out against my bright asshole red hair. That's it, pretty simple really."

"Hey! No!" Kevin pouted angrily at her, gently cupping her cheeks as he looks right into her eyes. "Your gorgeous red hair is one of the many things I love about you, Red. Do not just insult it like that."

"Hmm? Oh, Kevin, honey. I love you so much." She smiles softly as she gave him a few Eskimo kisses. "I just meant that as an expression, okay? You can't really deny that my hair is an overwhelmingly bright red color, right?"

"Mmm, I guess not... But still! No more insulting your hair like that!" His pout grew which makes Red kiss him on the lips. "Hey, I'm being serious here!"

Red smirked as she got up, putting her glasses back on properly. "Oh, were you now? I thought you were begging for a kiss there~" She teased, winking before opening up her closet. "I am very thankful to past me on buying the same shirts you have in my size! What with wanting to match every now and again" She giggles as she pulls out a bunch of geek t-shirts from her closet. "I know the whole thing is swapping closets but let's be real here... There is no way I am fitting in anything that isn't a jacket from your closet... Well, maybe a crop top fit but I don't really wanna freeze, tomorrow..."

"Hey! We're swapping closets tomorrow! Just what do you think you're doing, Red?!" He sat up as he gave her a serious expression, his arms crossed.

"I know, I know. Calm down, sweetie. I'm just picking out my options of clothes for tomorrow, okay? Because it would be much more quicker for us tomorrow if I just wear what I already picked out than going through my closet for the whole day, okay? Okay!" She beamed and smiled at him as she looked through her closet for something Kevin could wear tomorrow. "So, about the make-up, Kev... You didn't really give me a clear answer, you know."

"I didn't? Well, like I said, nothing too crazy. I'm fine with some lipstick and a bit of eyeliner. But that's about it, I guess. So, yes?" He shrugged then made a noise when Red threw a shirt at him.

"Alright! Good! And how about a skirt? Are you okay with wearing something like that tomorrow?" She threw a few bottom options at him. "Because if not, there are short shorts and ripped skinny jeans..."

"A skirt? I mean, I think guys should be allowed to wear skirts and stuff but I'm not really sure if it'll look good on someone like me..." He hummed. "So, if it's okay with you, I think I'll just stick with the ripped skinny jeans."

"Oh, Kev! Of course, I am! It's not like I always just wear a skirt, after all. I switch it up every now and again. And I get not having enough confidence to wear a skirt... It's not easy for guys who want to try it to just immediately wear it in public without being ridiculed. So, I'm not gonna force you to wear something you don't want to wear." She smiled before sighing, lying in bed again. "Okay, I know I said I wanna plan our outfits for tomorrow but I am beat... What else is there?"

"Hmm..." Kevin played with some of his hair which immediately gave him an idea. "Oh! I know! Since you have such an amazingly crazy hair color, I probably should have one too! But you know, more stylized... Something like..." He taps on his chin. "Luka from Miraculous Ladybug!"

"Oh my God, I always wanted to try out the way his hair is colored on you! But never found the right reason to!" She giggles as she plays with his hair. "Until now, I guess... I feel like we should work on that now because I know that will take a long time."

He nodded. "Alright, let's go shopping for the things we need!" He stands up then turns to face Red. "So, that's the last thing we will be doing to prepare for tomorrow, right? We have picked out the clothes we are going to wear tomorrow, haven't we?"

"We sure have! Now, come on! Let's go!" Red beamed, suddenly getting a burst of energy as she got up from her bed and pulls Kevin out her home.

*time skip to tomorrow because idk how to write them dying Kevin's hair...*

"I'm gonna be honest, Red... I didn't think my hair would end up looking good after dying it..." Kevin continued to admire the work his girlfriend had done with his hair in the bathroom mirror. He had been doing this ever since she finished.

"It's not the first time I dyed hair, Kev... It was way easier this time on someone other than myself." Red snickered as she adjusts her glasses before looking into the mirror. "God, it's weird to not be putting my contacts on when going out. Hell, this will be my first time going out with my prescription glasses..." She examines her reflection while putting her hair up in a simple ponytail.

Kevin finally exited the bathroom, unable to contain the blush and smile on his face as he hugged Red from behind. "Wow, Red... Despite dressing up like a geek, you sure still look so beautiful..."

"Hmm?" Red looked down to face him, blushing at his compliments. "Oh, uh... Thank you, Kev... And you... You sure look more damn handsome with what you're wearing right now."

"Oh? I do? Really? Thanks!" Kevin beamed up at her, giving her a dorky grin which makes her blush more.

"Yes, you really do... And uh, you're welcome. Fuck, I honestly didn't think make- up would make you look even more attractive! But here you are before me looking... Gorgeous! That's just the magic of make- up, I guess..." She covers half her face to hid her blushing.

"Right! The make-up! I mean, I felt you put it on me earlier but I don't even feel it on me right now! Like it feels natural almost." He giggles as he looks down on his nails. "My nails, too! You painting them black feels oddly natural too!"

Red pouts as she looks down at her clear nails. "You don't usually wear nail polish, so I feel weird without wearing nail polish for a day. But I was not gonna give up make- up. I need to put the lightest amount of make- up I could. What with my obvious imperfections in my face, after all."

"Well, with or without make- up, I think you are still the most beautiful girl in the world." Kevin gets on his tiptoes to kiss Red on the cheek, gasping when he left a mark on it and points at where he marked her. "Oh! Now, I marked you with lipstick!"

Red turns to look at the mark he left, giggling as she wiped it off. "Now, while it does compliment the look, I personally like it without this..." She pulls out a black beanie. "Then again, I don't want you getting cold..."

"You say that as I wear a slight crop top along with ripped skinny jeans..." He snickered. "But anyway, yeah. Let me have it. At least my head will be warm..." He grabs the hat from her hold and puts it on top of his head with Red adjusting it a bit.

"And there we are! Our completed swapped closet looks! Ready to go out and have people be staring at you, Kev?" Red asked him as she offered an arm out to him.

"Of course, I a- Wait, staring at me? Why would they be staring at me? You are the more attractive one between the two of us! And before you disagree, may I remind you just how many guys from our school, to this day, still say they have a crush on you?"

Red snickered, grabbing hold of his hand. "Well, you are wearing something very eye-catching... So, trust me when I say that people will be staring at my super hot boyfriend. I mean, I always knew he was hot from the start but this look just really elevates his hotness scale..." She kisses his cheek before walking out of her bedroom with him.

"I, uh... Same with you, I guess?" Kevin got completely flustered at her compliments. "But you know, I would prefer seeing you as very beautiful no matter what you wear."

She giggles as she looks at him before smirking as she saw people staring at them. "See? What did I say? You're the eye candy between the two of us for today..."

He gulped and shyly hides behind her. "I hate it whenever you're right, sometimes... How do you even deal with all these people staring at you, Red?"

She hummed before making him look into her eyes by putting a finger under his chin. "Simple, I remind myself that I have the most amazing person right next to me. Then my confidence just skyrockets..."

His attention wasn't at her words whatsoever as he blushed while looking back at her. "Even in the most geeky clothing, you manage to make me swoon..."

The redhead playfully rolls her eyes at him fawning over her, squeezing his hand that she was still holding. "Focus, Kev... Remember, I'm right here. No one else matters, okay? Just ignore all the staring and focus on me."

Kevin shook his head to stop himself from swooning, nodding with a brand new confident look on his face. "Okay, I got it. Thanks, Red. You gave me the perfect amount of confidence I need."

Red didn't say anything more, simply nodding back as they continued about their day. Not caring if people were staring because they found them attractive or if it was because they looked silly. All that mattered to them was each other.

[theincompetentgenius]

Headcanons with S/O Who Hid Their Birthday (Jonah, Luka, Edgar)

anon:  Can I have Jonah, Luka and Edgar headcanons with an s/o who hid their birthday, or didn’t bother to be vocal about it, and they had to find out through other means?

Here you go and I hope you enjoy them!

Jonah Clemence

Jonah finds out from Edgar, who casually brings up the topic as they’re training. He realizes that Edgar learned about his lover’s birthday before he did, which flares his temper. He drives the blade a little too close to the Jack’s ear and ends the duel. For the next hour, Jonah interrogates Edgar on how he found this information.

Initially, Jonah is confused (even hurt) that his S/O didn’t tell him about their birthday. Did he do something to them that they wouldn’t talk about their birthday? Why wouldn’t they want to talk about the day they were brought to life? It takes some time and reflection that his S/O has their reasons.

He pulls himself together and plans for an extravagant party almost a month in advance. The Queen of Hearts calls all the Red Army officials and assigns each officer a role for the birthday. Kyle and Zero get tasked with decorating the entire palace, Edgar has to plan all the activities, and Lancelot has to gather all the supplies. If you’re wondering, Jonah buys all the gifts, creates all the food, creates/gives out invitations, and is involved in the other officers’ tasks. 

On the day of their birthday, Jonah takes his lover to dress shopping. He tells them to pick their favorite dress, jewelry, and shoes. They spend the whole morning at the fitting room as the couple nit-pick through the articles of clothing. Although his S/O is slightly confused about Jonah’s obsession with picking the “right dress”, they assume it’s just Jonah’s way of taking them out for the day. After the Queen of Hearts manages to convince his S/O to keep the dress on for the entire day, they head to the Red Army Headquarters. 

When they arrive at the palace, his S/O notices that the castle is decorated in their favorite color. They tell Jonah how much they like decoration, who simply smirks and asks “I wonder who put all that effort in making the castle look so gorgeous?”

He’ll take their hand as they climb up the stairs. When his S/O opens the doors, they are greeted to heaven on the Cradle. The center of the room has a 5-layered vanilla-strawberry swirl cake with buttercream frosting (made by Jonah and the chefs) with desserts such as raspberry macaroons, millie-feuille, chocolate fondue, and puff pastries neatly lined up on tables at the side of the room. Jonah’s S/O spends more time eating at the party than anything else.

There are sparklers, balloons, crystals, exotic flowers, silk table cloths, and so much more. As if the throne room wasn’t already something straight out of a fairytale, Jonah only made it even more lavish than before.

Jonah ushers his lover to sit on the throne, claiming that today the get to be royalty. As soon as they take a seat, the entire Red Army pops out to sing Happy Birthday! The fireworks go off as Jonah turns to his S/O and pulls them into a long kiss, wishing them a happy birthday.

Luka Clemence

Luka found out when he came to your room, looking for you to tell you about his next mission (where he’ll be out for a week). Instead, he entered an empty room, so Luka decided to leave a note on his S/O’s table about his sudden departure. When placing the note, he noticed that there were a few other things on their desk, including some form of identification with their DOB.

The Jack of Spades doesn’t think much about it as he leaves the room to attend his other duties. Later in the day, the birthday issue pops into his head again. He thinks about it more seriously this time, but he assumes that his S/O wasn’t a birthday person. Perhaps it slipped their mind since a birthday only comes once every year.

Nevertheless, Luka begins to daydream about all the adorable birthday plans they could make together. He knew his S/O didn’t want anything too flashy, but he had to do something special for them. As he fell deeper in his thoughts, he realized that Jonah would be able to create the perfect party (but he’d never ask that pompous brat). All Luka could think of was making a nice dinner. 

He asks Seth for a little help because Seth is the Black Army’s unofficial party planner after all. The 7 of Spades squeals with glee, being more than happy to help Luka with his plans. 

The two prepare a cozy, candle-lit dinner. The decorations are simple and rustic, but Luka manages to hang his S/O’s favorite works of art and plays their favorite music in the background. Although Seth always wants to add more to the scene, Luka is exhausted. Besides, he didn’t want to go over-the-top since his S/O barely talked about their birthday.

Also, the Jack of Spades wanted his food to be the main decoration. For the main dish, he whips up a gourmet roasted chicken marinated in a savory and spicy sauce with sauteed vegetables and buttered rice. He also bakes his S/O’s favorite cake in a heart shape. The best part is that the cake has cake pops sticking out with the candles on top.

When the day finally arrives, Luka is very nervous. He doesn’t make any reference to his S/O’s birthday throughout the day. Luka doesn’t want to upset his S/O for making plans without them or somehow triggering a painful memory on their birthday. It takes a lot of breathing exercises and pep talks from Seth to calm him down.

Once it is dinner time, Seth ushers Luka’s S/O to a private room that is rarely used by the Black Army. When they enter the room, they are greeted with soft, glowing lights that spell “Happy Birthday!”. Luka appears from the back and gives them a long hug, letting them know how much they mean to him.

Once the lights are turned off, Luka lights the candles and tells their S/O to make a wish. They take a few seconds and blow out the candles. Luka can’t help but ask, “What did you wish for?”

“If I told you, then it wouldn’t come true.” And with that, the couple sits down and starts eating. The meal is so good that his lover nearly cries and asks for four servings. Somehow they have space for the cake too.

Edgar Bright

Let’s be real, Edgar knew about his S/O’s birthday a long time ago. He came across the auspicious date when going through a bunch of legal documents for everyone in the Red Army. He was hesitant to place his S/O’s documents with the other officers’ papers, but he felt that it made more sense than to place it with the information on the soldiers. As he went over his S/O’s documents, he found a line that listed their birthday. At that moment, Edgar realized that his lover never talked about their birthday.

Edgar doesn’t know why his lover would want to hide their birthday, but he understands it because he does the same thing. However, he doesn’t want them to spend their birthday alone either. So he’ll go around looking for clues for the perfect birthday surprise by asking his S/O seemingly-innocent questions. Although he doesn’t have much room for specific questions, Edgar gets all the information that he needs.

He spends the next week preparing for the event. It’s nothing too crazy, but he buys a few gifts and decorations for the occasion. Edgar also has Jonah teach him how to make some of his S/O’s favorite sweets and snacks. Jonah is both surprised and irritated that the Jack of Hearts is able to a great job at his first try, claiming that it was all thanks to his teaching.

The special day has arrived! He’ll act normal throughout the day, dropping a few hints here and there. It’s not until the sky has a tint of pink that Edgar asks his S/O to take a walk with him. He’ll cover their eyes as they walk to their destination.

Once they arrive, Edgar removes his hands and reveals a picnic next to the river. He kisses your hand, wishing his lover a very happy birthday. Immediately, the Creek family appears from a nearby tree and run to his S/O. They jump up and down, squawking with delight. It’s their way of saying “Happy Birthday!”

He has his S/O sit down while he unpacks all the delicious treats from the basket that he brought with him. There are some macaroons, sandwiches, and garlic bread. 

Edgar also has two gifts for the occasion. First, he pulls out a yellow box with a gold ribbon. Inside are the rarest jellybean flavors in the entire Cradle (he’s made sure the flavors are suited for his lover’s palette). The present was him trying to return a fraction of the sweetness that his lover brought into his life. 

The second gift is a lavender box, which has a beautiful necklace with three golden pendants: the initial of both of their first names and duck. He got this present to give his S/O something that will help them remember Edgar and the Creeks, no matter where they go.

The couple spends their time by the river for the rest of the evening. The Jack of Hearts will lay his head on his lover’s shoulder, letting them know that he’s always willing to lend an ear if they choose to tell him why they hide their birthday.

[msmoonfire]

How to prep for Lammas ❂

I know witchy fellas, it’s boiling hot & sunny out there. But we gotta put it in the effort. All together. Till the end. Till Lammas.

Briefly explained, Lammas or ‎Lughnasadh opens the harvest season around August 1st and our ancestors would know the perfect timing of it by watching the rise of the star Sirius at the dawn after a long while not showing. This sabbat originated by the Celts whom used to propitiate Lugh to ensure sunny weather and a fruitful harvest. He was their god of Light, excellently proficient in all arts & protector of thieves, travelers and merchants.  Moving to the southern areas, this celebration was still existing in a more earthy practical variant: mother Earth, plants, fresh produce, seeds and grains were the actual focus. These other people couldn’t care less about Lugh. They only cared about showing gratitude to Nature as a whole, often by baking the first LOAF MASS of the season (Lammas, a bread loaf) after months of summer break - we should stop baking at home from Beltane day till Lammas day, unless we’re home-based bakers and do that for a living;)

So, as usual, in this post I’m going to give you tips & ideas to prep for august 1st. Which means these are not things you should do on the very day, but BEFORE. Don’t rush last minute darlings. We can do this. 

Let’s get readayyyy. ✽

1. Local farmers’ markets should become a routine. Ok, hands down we all need the supermarket to survive on a daily basis but you can surely minimize your shopping list, so you can go buy fresh produce at some farmers’ market. Buy organic stuff there, not at the mall. This is a good easy way to re-establish a direct contact with Earth and welcome earthy energies into your life. Plus, it’s going to be a refreshing walk every time.

2. Improve the lighting in your house/room. Besides Samhain, this is by far the best time of the year to purchase new lamps, led lights, lanterns; fix bulbs that are out, remove useless/broken curtains, buy candles, add fairy lights everywhere etc... Being a metaphor of the sunny weather, daylight and artificial lighting in general must be of primary importance in your environment. Enhance natural lighting during the day, set up a nice and diffused lowlight illumination system at night. Don’t forget your backyard ‘cause...

3. You should take good care of your garden. I don’t care how busy you are, we all have at least 5 spare minutes to trim out dead leaves from our plants. If you own a piece of land or have a rather big veg garden, please don’t forget about it. Pay special attention to your plants/trees, do a little bit of cleaning every day, pick what’s ripe, cut out dead leaves, get creative with your lawn mower, water the vases, work the ground... The goal is to have a beautiful, curated garden by august 1st. But if you don’t have a garden or similar...

3.2. Buy your fav aromatic plant & look after it. Choose herbs that you prefer adding to your meals (if you’re a diy pro or make your own soaps etc.. feel free to use that fragrant plant in your products), so that you’ll be able to use it quite often without forcing yourself. I personally do it with basil. Basil is my daily go-to, I love its smell and taste. Again, the goal is to buy a plant in July and prove to Mother Nature that you can nurture it properly until at least august 1st. Get in touch with the “green world” and upgrade your basic skills. In other words...

4. Try to excel in every project/activity you start. Remember what you read earlier? Blame Lugh for this one. Lammas day is like a test: if you want Nature to be by your side during harvest time, you must earn its trust through proving that you’re able to achieve great results - because you’re a hard worker.  July is about learning, attending classes, practicing, studying. My advice would be to not start a bunch of random projects now: be picky and commit to only one or a few. Be honest with yourself, modest with timing and consistent in everyday practice so that in august you’ll be skilled enough to unleash your best potential. This is your time to shine!

5. Do your research on baking bread. Yes, exactly. Read recipes, articles, books etc... On Lammas day you want to have fun baking your first bread loaf of the season, so you’d better be prepared. It’s a fun experience even if you’re not a pro baker, at least you can try a new hobby to fill your free morning/evening. But baking a beautifully decorated, tasty, fragrant bread loaf would take Lammas to the next level though.

If you don’t own an oven, purchase a small electric one for less than 50$. It’ll be useful to cook other foods in the future without stressing the hell out of your microwave. 

*for our celiac fellas*: grains and gluten are clearly off-limits for you. However, Lammas’ celebration involves CORN as well. Try to make your gluten-free dough with corn flour, rice flour or other ingredients that are suitable for you. Focaccia, polenta and pizza doughs are also suitable for the occasion.

6. Include apples, grapes and corn in you cosmetics or in your diet. Since these fruits are in season, why not take heed of their benefits? Simply buy things like apple shampoo, grape lip balm, apple snacks, grape masks... A BAG OF CRISPY POP CORN...These are valid examples. You have a wide range of choice, you’ve got the powahhh.

7. Grab a book and a glass of Albariño/Pinot Noir/Rosé. That’s how you pamper yourself before Lammas. A rocking chair in the garden, proper lighting for reading, a cushion, your fav book and a glass of fine wine. 

Alternatively, you can elegantly snack on grapes or sip some super refreshing apple juice from a chic crystal goblet!

8. Develop a grounding routine. For those who are new to the grounding concept, I’ll break it down real quick. We’re always moving, on the go, running, rushing, driving, working out, traveling, walking, cleaning, fidgeting, passively entertained, distracted by screens or social media etc... The practice of grounding promotes the exact opposite to reach inner balance and fulfillment. Basically, it’s very good to be swift and active, but being incapable of sitting still while quietly dealing with ourselves is a huge, major problem. Imagine rooting yourself into the soil: you can lay down or sit comfortably on the ground without a mat and really feel the Earth underneath. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, choose a meditation method that you like, visualize yourself being as static and peaceful as a tree... Or simply be. You’ll find a way to contemplate these OFFLINE moments away from photos, screens, sounds, people... This routine should take 10-20 minutes of your day. Make sure it takes place in nature, or alternatively in places where there’s actual grass, ground or nearby your (aromatic) plants so you can touch them if you need to.

9. Get creative with corn magic and corn art. Lammas has a solid tradition of corn use for various purposes. As you’re prepping for the big day, start featuring corn kernel/cobs in your magic. If you don’t practice - which is totally fine - carry a small amulet bag with corn inside with you. If you’re an artist or crafter, paint the kornel or use cobs for artwork!

10. Be out in the sunlight, sun bathe or simply breathe fresh air, get outside, enjoy all things outdoors :)

Hope this was helpful and inspirational fo you all, good luck and happy Lammas darlings.

Floods of love,  msmoonfire (IG: @msmoonfire)

[enbyleighlines]

For your modern au prompts, how about Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang best friends going on a shopping trip?

Oooh, sounds good to me!! I hope you don’t mind that I took liberties with what constitutes as a shopping trip! This idea popped into my head, and I wanted to explore it~

—

The bell on the front door gives a twinkling little jingle as they enter. Immediately, the familiar aroma of Wei Wuxian’s favorite arts and craft store rubs against his nostrils like an affectionate cat.

Beside him, Nie Huaisang walks with a spring in their step. In the crook of their elbow, they carry a small but finely crafted handbag, as though they’re a rich socialite on a shopping spree in the big city. “Here we are,” Nie Huaisang says, excitement giving their voice a fun lyrical quality, “Where shall we start, Wuxian-xiong?”

Wei Wuxian can’t help the wide grin that breaks across his face. He scoops up one of the shopping baskets by the entrance. “We should start from the ground up,” he decides, logically, “Let’s go see how sturdy their poster board is.”

“We can always glue a layer or two of cardboard to the base,” Nie Huaisang points out.

“True, true.”

The two friends make their way towards the poster aisle. They’re on a mission, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have fun.

They’re making a diorama as their final project for freshman biology. Thankfully, they were allowed to pick their own partners, and since they’ve become quick friends over the course of the year, it was a no brainer.

Their plan is to create a miniature factory, with its walls, machines, and workers, but then label everything as though they’re the parts of a human cell. Wei Wuxian is certain that it will appeal to their teacher’s quirky sense of humor, and earn them a grade worth bragging about. Nie Huaisang is less convinced, but they’re just happy for the opportunity to show off their talent for arts and crafts.

They sift through their manyu options, poster boards of all different sizes, material, colors, and even textures.

Nie Huaisang pulls out out of the rack and gasps delicately, as though they’re holding a precious treasure. “Wuxian-xiong,” they say, “Feel this one. Isn’t it just like the gritty texture of cement?”

Wei Wuxian runs the tips of his fingers over the rough surface. “Oh wow, you’re right! But won’t that make it difficult to glue things to it?”

“Ah, I hadn’t considered that!” Nie Huaisang gives the poster board another longing-filled stroke. “Perhaps we can use little metal stands for the figurines, and stick the metal through the poster?”

Seeing that his friend’s heart is set on the poster board, Wei Wuxian nods. “Yeah, that could work! We’ll definitely need to add some cardboard to the base, though. We get a bunch of cardboard boxes at the restaurant from shipments and stuff. I’m sure Jiang-shushu won’t mind if we take one.”

Nie Huaisang eagerly takes the paper board and rolls it up. It’s still too long to fit in the basket, but at least they could carry it one-handed. “What next, Wuxian-xiong?”

“Metal wire for the stands, probably,” Wei Wuxian answers, “And maybe some of those things they use in gardens, with the names of plants on them? We can use those to label stuff. Would they have those here? If not, we can probably make our own...”

“There’s a gardening store around the corner,” Nie Huaisang says helpfully.

Wei Wuxian nods sagely. “That’ll do. Oh, and we should probably be keeping track of how much everything costs. How much did Nie Mingjue give you to spend?”

Nie Huaisang gives Wei Wuxian an incredibly self-satisfied smirk. They dig into the handbag and fish out a stack of folded bills. “Oh, we don’t need to worry about money,” they assure Wei Wuxian smugly, “My Gege gave me more than enough.”

Wei Wuxian whistles.

Nie Mingjue, Huaisang’s half-brother, took over management of the family business recently. He’s also been the one looking after Huaisang ever since their parents retired to travel the world. Mingjue likes to pretend that he’s a strict disciplinarian, yet he spends money on Huaisang like it’s going out of style.

To hear Nie Huaisang tell it, they’ve always been a spoiled child. But it seems as though it’s gotten even worse ever since Nie Mingjue became Huaisang’s primary guardian.

Nie Huaisang giggles behind their wad of cash. “So, yeah,” they say, “Money is not an issue.”

Wei Wuxian might be jealous if he was the type of person to get jealous. Instead, he only laughs in delight. “That’s good to know! Let’s take proper advantage of your Da-gege’s generosity, then!”

—

They quickly fill up the basket and have to upgrade to a cart. They take their time choosing the plastic figurines. There aren’t any factory workers, but there are some crossing guards, and a man in an astronaut suit, and they figure they can just pain over them. Nie Huaisang already has a decent collection of paints, but they also grab some new brushes, along with a fine point pen.

Then it’s off to the gardening store for some plastic plant markers, with tips sharp enough to pierce through paper and cardboard. While they’re there, they also grab some short two-inch fences and some mesh to use in constructing the cell walls.

They bring their haul back to the Jiang residence, because it’s closer.

The Jiang house is unusually quiet. Jiang Cheng is at soccer practice, and Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan are both at work at the restaurant. Jiang Yanli is home, though. She greets them at the door, and then immediately moves to prepare tea and snacks for them.

“Your supply run went well, I see,” she says, as she putters around the kitchen.

Wei Wuxian makes sure to plant a big, loud kiss to her cheek before he starts unloading things onto the dining room table. “It went great, actually,” he says, “Jiejie, you have to see all these awesome things we found!”

Nie Huaisang hovers a tad awkwardly in between the kitchen and dining room. It’s not the first time they’ve been to Wei Wuxian’s house, but it’s not a routine experience, either.

Glancing over her shoulder, Jiang Yanli examines the enormity of their haul with a worried expression. The cause of her concern becomes clear when she says, “I hope you didn’t have to use up all of your allowance on this school project, A-Xian.”

“Nope!” Wei Wuxian beams at her. “I didn’t spend a penny. Huaisang-xiong’s rich Gege footed the bill.”

“That... was probably not the best way to phrase that,” Nie Huaisang murmurs to Wei Wuxian, “Please let your Jiejie know you meant my actual Gege, and not an older guy who spends money on me like I’m his sugar baby.”

Wei Wuxian blinks. And then he starts snickering loudly. “She’s not going to assume that,” he assures them.

“What will I not assume?” Jiang Yanli places a plate of rice crackers on the kitchen’s island, and raises one of her brows at them.

Nie Huaisang grabs Wei Wuxian’s arm to stop him, but it’s too late.

“Huaisang-xiong doesn’t want you thinking they have a sugar daddy,” Wei Wuxian confesses, “So they want me to emphasize that, in this case, I used the term ‘their Gege’ to refer to Nie Mingjue.”

Nie Huaisang looks like they want to melt into the floor.

But Jiang Yanli only giggles, demurely, behind the cover of her hand. “Well, I’m glad you clarified that,” she teases both of them, “Both of you are too young to have sugar daddies, anyway. Come, and have some rice crackers while the tea steeps.”

The two freshmen each hop up onto one of the stools obediently. Wei Wuxian stuffs his mouth without thought, while Nie Huaisang carefully nibbles at their cracker like a timid mouse.

There’s a bit of companionable silence. Jiang Yanli pours them each a cup of green tea, and then moves the sugar bowl within their reach.

Then she sits on one of the stools opposite them, and asks, “How are your other final projects coming along?”

Wei Wuxian heaves a dramatic sigh. “Bo-oring,” he singsongs, “It’s all essays and making flashcards for the exams. The same old generic stuff we did in middle school.”

“I get to make a poster for home ec.,” Nie Huaisang offers.

“Ooh, about what?”

“We have to try to design the food pyramid,” Nie Huaisang answers, “Other kids are just making collages out of newspaper clippings, but I want to try my hand at painting the food. I’ve never had a reason to paint food before, except for maybe an apple, back when we were learning how use shading.”

Jiang Yanli smiles. “That sounds fun,” she says, “Just don’t get so caught up in your fun projects that you don’t leave any time for the boring ones.”

“Right,” Nie Huaisang answers automatically.

Wei Wuxian is more lax. “I’ll be fine,” he assures his Jiejie, “Besides, I get my best work done at the last minute.”

Jiang Yanli gives her Didi a look. “That’s not how that works.”

“It is how it works! That spike of adrenaline really helps me get things done,” Wei Wuxian insists, and taps the edge of his nose with a cheeky little smirk.

“But it doesn’t leave you much time to go back and edit, does it?”

Wei Wuxian shrugs. “I make less mistakes on my first drafts than everyone else does on their final copies! If I start turning in perfect papers, then people might think I’m just showing off.”

“You ARE showing off,” Nie Huaisang snips.

That makes Jiang Yanli giggle again. She shakes her head at Wei Wuxian, but in a fond sort of way. Neither try to continue the argument.

“What about you, Jiejie?” Wei Wuxian asks suddenly, “Any fun final projects?”

“Just exams,” Jiang Yanli answers. She’s a high school junior, two years ahead of them. “Though, my math teacher said that anyone who already has an A in the class doesn’t have to take the final exam.”

“Let me guess,” Wei Wuxian says with no little hint of pride, “You have an A.”

Jiang Yanli hides her mouth behind the rim of her teacup. “I do,” she confirms, and her smile is audible in her tone. “So that’s one less thing for me to worry about.”

“That’s my Jiejie! Smartest girl in the whole world!”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“Think so? I know so!”

Nie Huaisang smiles at that. Though the dynamic between Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian is completely different from their relationship with Mingjue, there’s still something vaguely familiar about it.

Just like Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang, really. They’ve got completely different temperaments. Wei Wuxian is a natural leader, charismatic, bold, and optimistic. Nie Huaisang tends to follow the herd, being as indiscisive and anxious as they are. Yet the two of them are often on the same wavelength.

That’s probably why, even though they only met for the first time that year, it already feels like they’ve been friends for a long time.

[artificialqueens]

It's you, it's all for you (Branjie)--athena2

Brooke is stressed at work and Vanessa starts a soft prank war to help her relax. This is just some extremely soft fluff I wrote for Writ, because they are so lovely and I just adore them. Please leave feedback if you’d like! Title from Video Games by Lana Del Rey.

Vanessa sneaks inside Brooke’s office, one eye on the door in case her wife walks inside for the protein bars—or if it’s a rough day, candy bars—she has stashed in her desk. (Maybe Vanessa had made use of the stash a few times, who’s to say).

She arranges the bouquet of flowers—sunflowers, Brooke’s favorites—and cuts up the magazine she bought at the hospital gift shop, taping pictures of Jennifer Lopez’s face to the stems, so Brooke will be met with JLo staring at her when she opens the door.

Vanessa hears footsteps and has no time to admire her handiwork and picture Brooke jumping in the air before she’s running out of the office, a Milky Way shoved in the pocket of her coat.

Yes, a prank war is foolish and childish, but they work in the children’s ward of the hospital, and they could use a little fun. And Brooke has been so stressed lately, barely sleeping due to her increased responsibilities assisting Nina, head of the department, and Vanessa wants to help her relax, get her out of her head a little.

Vanessa is safely out of sight around the corner when she hears Brooke yelp in her office, a heavy thud that sounds like her work bag hitting the floor.

Vanessa smiles to herself, more than prepared for what she’s sure Brooke is planning in return.

—-

No one but Vanessa has access to Brooke’s office, or could have cut the strangely-disproving pictures of JLo so neatly, Vanessa taking any free time she had to do arts and crafts with the kids in the children’s ward.

Brooke doesn’t mention it when they eat lunch together that day, Vanessa stretching her legs out under the table to rest in Brooke’s lap. Brooke has one hand lifting her fork and the other running up and down Vanessa’s leg, feeling the softness of her skin even through her scrubs.

She can see Vanessa barely concealing her smug grin between bites of her turkey sandwich, just waiting for Brooke to say something, and maybe Brooke wants her to sweat a little longer, wants Vanessa wondering what Brooke will do next.

But Vanessa’s eyes are shining so bright, making Brooke’s heart soften, and she can’t drag this out any longer.

That afternoon, Brooke arms herself with sticky notes and begins applying them all over Vanessa’s desk, layering the neon colors as fast as she can.

“How’s lookout going, Nina?” Brooke calls.

No answer.

“Nina?”

Brooke jumps out and looks outside, Nina having abandoned her post to talk to Monet down the hall. Nina’s had a crush on Monet for years, one she attempts to hide by abruptly changing the subject–once she even started talking about bird migration patterns–anytime Monet comes up in a conversation.

“Get your girl, Nina,” Brooke whispers under her breath, resuming her task quicker now that she has no lookout.

She hears her wife’s booming laugh rounding the corner and doesn’t have time to leave. There’s a closet by the desk since the office used to be a patient room, and Brooke throws herself inside, smothering a laugh at the irony of it all.

“You got me, baby,” Vanessa mutters.

Brooke covers her mouth to keep from laughing, just picturing Vanessa’s smile, the full one that makes Brooke smile herself no matter how many times she sees it. She peeks through a crack in the door and sees Vanessa picking up one of the sticky notes, the exact smile Brooke imagined on her face. She almost wants to pop out of the closet and pull Vanessa back inside with her, to kiss her and do so much more.

“Get ready for me, B,” Vanessa says, like she has X-Ray vision and knows Brooke is in the room.

I’m ready, Brooke thinks.

—

Things go on for a few weeks, and it works.

Vanessa has to deal with a latex gloves raining down on her after Brooke propped the box on top of her office door, Vanessa yelling that it was unfair to her because Brooke was too tall. Brooke says she’s just too short.

So Vanessa orders a 100-pack of rubber ducks online and lines them up like soldiers on Brooke’s floor, making her long legs wade through them to get to her desk. She even hides some around the house–in the pantry, in Brooke’s makeup drawer, in their coffee table, just imagining Brooke’s face when she finds one after this is over.

Brooke takes the candy wrappers from Vanessa’s garbage can, knowing they’re from her stash, and leaves them in Vanessa’s coat pockets before pulling her into the supply closet and sharing kisses that taste like chocolate.

Vanessa nearly has a heart attack at the frog figurine Brooke leaves on her desk chair, so ugly it shouldn’t even be sold in a hospital gift shop, but it’s worth it, because it works.

Brooke stops bouncing her leg so fast the whole table shakes when they eat, stops running her hands through her hair, and manages to sleep normally again, curled into Vanessa’s side.

Vanessa has plans for one last prank, hauling Nina and Monet—who had some kind of moment in the hall last week they keep giggling over—to tie a bunch of heart-shaped balloons to her and Brooke’s car.

“Come on, Nina, fix your knots!” Vanessa commands after a balloon floats away.

Vanessa is tying the last of her bouquet to the door handle when something cold smacks into her back.

“Hey!” She barks, turning around to see Brooke with another snowball in her hand, with that wide grin Vanessa stoops to anything to bring out of her.

She scurries for her own snow, but Brooke has already beat her, scooping her up and spinning her around in the parking lot, cars and snow blurring by as Vanessa twirls, safe in Brooke’s arms.

Brooke walks backward, trailing little kisses all over Vanessa’s neck, the touches making her heart flutter.

“Brooke, look out!” Vanessa yelps, seeing that they’re about to walk in to Nina and Monet having a make out session, but it’s too late.

Brooke tumbles over on to the concrete, her arm scraping across the pavement. Vanessa knows she’s okay, but can’t stop herself from shifting into full doctor mode, worry shining in her eyes as she looks at Brooke’s arm.

It’s bleeding a bit, and Vanessa drags her inside, her heart aching over seeing Brooke hurt in any way.

But she knows how to make it better.

—-

“Really, Ness?” Brooke whines, rising from the chair Vanessa put her in. “Is this necessary? It’s just a scrape.”

Vanessa pushes her back down, her hands smoothing up and down Brooke’s sides, making her shiver.

“That’s Dr. Hytes-Mateo to you,” Vanessa says, and the stubbornness flies out of Brooke. It’s been three years since they got married, but hearing their last names together like that, the two of them becoming one, still makes her heart swell, and she suspects it always will.

“Sit nice and still and I’ll give you a lollipop,” Vanessa says, patting Brooke on the back.

“Orange?” Brooke asks, forgetting her annoyance.

“Of course, orange,” Vanessa says. “Now, does someone have a boo-boo?”

Brooke groans and holds her arm up for Vanessa to see. Her hands are soft and light on Brooke’s skin.

“Think we’re gonna have to cut your arm off, baby,” Vanessa says with a soft smile. She’s enjoying this far too much. Vanessa loves taking care of people, but Brooke doesn’t give her much of an opportunity. She got a cold the first year they were married and Vanessa forced her to stay in bed, delighting in bringing her soup and rubbing her back. It had been kind of nice, once Brooke let someone else take care of her. She lets any argument left go, because Vanessa cares so much about her, and is so beautiful in doctor mode that Brooke is in awe of her. God, she loves Vanessa.

“I’m suing for malpractice,” Brooke teases.

Vanessa just laughs. “Don’t you worry, baby. I’ll get your arm all fixed up.”

Brooke watches, mesmerized, as Vanessa’s graceful, gentle, hands clean the scrape and spread on antibiotic cream, carefully winding gauze around her arm. Brooke could stare at her hands all day. She pulls out a Band-Aid for one of Brooke’s smaller scratches, and Brooke squeals when she sees the lightsabers on it.

“I picked it just for you, you dork.” Vanessa grins and gives Brooke a gentle kiss. Brooke lets her hands wander up Vanessa’s back, the joy of having Vanessa, of getting to love her and see her all the time soaking into her. Brooke reluctantly pulls away before this goes further and someone walks in.

“What about my lollipop?” Brooke pouts.

Vanessa winks. “Wait till we get home, and I’ll give you something even better than a lollipop.”

[romancandlemagazine]

An Interview with Brian Cannon

This is probably a pretty obvious statement to make, but there’s more to music than just the music. Things like melody and chords and all that are fairly important, but there are a thousand other factors that help turn a song, track or album into something more than just a bunch of sound waves smacking into your ear drums.

Record sleeves are one such factor — and not many have created quite as many stone cold classics as Brian Cannon.

As the man behind the infamous Microdot agency, Brian was responsible for looking after the visual side of both Oasis and The Verve, as well as designing covers for bands like Suede, Cast and Inspiral Carpets.

Here’s an interview with him about doing graffiti in Wigan, his trademark ‘in-camera’ style and the logistics of putting a Rolls Royce in a swimming pool…

Maybe an obvious first question – but how did you get into designing record covers? What were you into when you were growing up in Wigan.

I specifically set out to design record sleeves, because I was a fan of punk rock. I was 11 in 1977, when I first got into it all.

Do you remember the first time you saw ‘punk’?

I’m the eldest in my family, so I didn’t have the influence of an older brother – but I did have an older cousin called Tony who was 15 at the time — and when you’re 11, that’s a massive difference. I’d heard about this phenomenon from Tony, and then I saw the Buzzcocks on Top of the Pops — and to actually see it in the flesh — it blew me away.

Why do you think it had such an impact on so many people? Was it because it was so different.

Exactly, it was totally different. At that time, Top of the Pops was your barometer, and glam rock was pretty much all you had — things like Sweet and Mud — long hair, flares, platforms and mad outfits. But then all of a sudden you had these lads who looked like your mates, with short hair and tight pants, making this fast, aggressive music. And I loved it.

How did this lead into doing design?

Me and my mates thought, “We’ve got to get a band together.” So we met up at my mum’s house in Wigan, and I realised instantly that I couldn’t play guitar. I just couldn’t get my head around chords.

But I’d always been good at drawing. My dad was a fantastic illustrator, far better than me, but the opportunities for illustrators in Wigan in the 1940s were zero – so he worked as a coal miner and never did anything with it. But he was very much in favour of me doing drawing, and he always encouraged me.

And with punk, if you looked at the graphics and the visual identity, it felt like it was in reach. I think that was the point of it. Before punk, bands were like creatures from another planet — but with punk, the whole process was demystified – the man in the street could get involved. That was a massive inspiration to me.

So I married my love of the music with my talent for art, and thought that I’d become a sleeve designer instead.

It’s interesting how even in your early teens you knew exactly what you wanted to do.  

I remember doing this art foundation course, and the tutor was going around, asking us what we wanted to do when we finished our education. He came to me and I said, “I want to design record sleeves.” But straight away he said, “No, no, no – you can’t be so specific, you need to get a job in graphics and learn your way.”

I was almost derided for it – because not only was I going to do record sleeves, but I was going to go freelance from the get go. I think anyone can do it these days, because you just get a laptop and then you’re a graphic designer all of a sudden. But back then, not only was there no social media and no internet, but the equipment required to do the job of a graphic designer, the forerunner to Photoshop, cost £300,000. It was this machine called Quantel Paintbox.

What was that?

It was a computer, about the size of your house, with less power than your mobile phone. It was way out of my reach — I could hardly afford a paper and pencil.

What did you do then?

This punk style was really stark, with high contrast black and white, degraded imagery, and it just so happened that if you photocopied an image over and over, it went like that. And that was handy, because all I could afford to use was a photocopier.

There was a little print shop at the bottom of Library Street in Wigan, and I’d be in there all day, with a scalpel and a tin of glue, putting these things together in the shop – and that’s how it all started.

How did your first sleeve come about? Was that the Ruthless Rap Assassins one?

Yeah — I did a graffiti mural on the side of a warehouse in 1984, and it was noticed by a guy called Greg Wilson, who was a very influential DJ at that time. He’d thought to himself, I’m going to see this New York style graffiti in London or Manchester or Birmingham at some point, but he couldn’t believe it that he’d seen it in Wigan. He sent word out on the street that he wanted to meet whoever had done it, and I was summoned to his house. We ended up becoming friends and I did this sleeve. And then off it went from there.

What happened next then?

I then met Richard Ashcroft at a party and got chatting, but then The Verve got signed and I didn’t see him for another two years. I ended up bumping into him in a petrol station at six o’ clock in the morning. He said, “Wow, you’re that sleeve guy. We’ve just been signed – do you want the gig?”

So I went to London to have a meeting with Virgin, who The Verve were signed to. Vigin obviously had some big London agency lined up to do this work for The Verve, so they were horrified when Richard Ashcroft said he wanted this unknown student he’d met at a party in Wigan to do the artwork. But they were cool enough to think, “Well, this is what the band wanted.” And then after the first single came about, they were like, “Sorry we doubted you.”

What else were you doing at that time?

On the back of doing the stuff for The Verve, Suede got in touch. And then I met Noel Gallagher. I used to have an office in Manchester on New Mount Street in the same building as the Inspiral Carpets office, and I got chatting to him in the lift about trainers.

What were they?

They were a pair of adidas Indoor Super. I took my mother to Rome for her 60th birthday, and I found these trainers in some tiny backstreet shop.

Wasn’t the Oasis logo based roughly on the adidas logo?

The original was kind of the adidas font – but we binned it, because with the adidas font, the ‘A’ is just like an ‘o’ with a line on the side, so it just looked like ‘oosis’.

I did the logo in ’93, and then their first album came out in ’94. After Oasis it went buck-wild... Ash, Cast, even Atomic Kitten… it was mental.

Was it hard to keep up with it all?

No, because if you think about it, even a busy band back then would only put out three singles and an album out per year – so even if you’ve got five bands a year, that’s only twenty jobs a year. Mind you, it was labour intensive as there was no Photoshop.

I was going to ask you about that. As a lot of your images were done without Photoshop, ‘in camera’, how did you go about getting them? Creating an image like the Oasis Be Here Now cover doesn’t look easy.

This is a very important point to make. Because it was all shot on film – we didn’t have the luxury of looking at the back of the camera and seeing what we’d got. We had no idea what we’d got until we got the photos back from the lab. Imagine putting a Rolls Royce in a swimming pool and realising the photos weren’t exposed correctly.

Before the shoot, there’d be a massive process of research and preparation, so when the day comes, nothing was left to chance.

Were you given free reign with all this?

Yeah, it was a beautiful situation. With both The Verve and Oasis, the record companies just let us get on with it. All they did was pay for the bills. And that was great, because we knew what we were doing.

A lot of the Oasis ones are particularly complicated. What was the hardest one to pull off?

Putting a Rolls Royce in a pool was pretty tough. Finding a pool that someone’s going to let you put a Rolls Royce into was the hardest part. And then we had to find a Rolls Royce that wasn’t worth £50,000 – because Oasis weren’t that rich. It was a scrap Rolls Royce, with no engine in it, but it still cost us £1,000 to hire it. And then we had to get a crane and dangle it in.

How many shots did you take of that one?

That one was ridiculous, because like I said, we didn’t have the luxury of seeing what we’d shot. For that shoot there was something like 30 odd rolls of film, with 36 exposures on each roll – so it was almost a thousand frames of something that’s really just a still life. That’s excessive.

We stayed there that night, and then we got the films processed in London. Then there was the wait, like an expectant father.

How did you work out which was the best one, when you had a thousand pretty much identical photos to look at?

It was like snow blindness. We’d start with the obvious non-starters, and whittle it down and down. It was a very laborious process of elimination, but we didn’t know any other way.

Do you think this real life, ‘in camera’ method of creating these really detailed images helped elevate them a bit?

By that point we could have easily Photoshopped it, but we just did things for real because it was our trademark, and I enjoyed doing things that way. We started doing it that way out of necessity, because we couldn’t afford computers – but even when we could afford them, we still did things the real way as we preferred it.

And it must have been more fun that sitting around staring at a computer.

Yeah – I loved it. Just to see a Rolls Royce in a swimming pool – it looked amazing.

What about the Definitely Maybe cover? Obviously now that’s talked about as being one of the best record covers of all time, but were people saying that when it was released?

No, they weren’t. It’s all very well saying things with the benefit of hindsight. It’s just been voted as one of the top 70 record sleeves of all time – and do you know what? I’m not going to rain on my own parade, because I think it’s a great sleeve — but had that been for a band you’d never heard of, it wouldn’t be in the top 70.

I suppose there’s a lot that’s tied in with that. The memories that come with it and everything else – it’s a full package. What was the story behind the Definitely Maybe cover?

It’s an anti-band shot. That was the idea. There’s a Beatles album called A Collection of Beatles Oldies (but Goldies!), and on the back there’s this shot of them in this dressing room in Japan. And I just loved the fly on the wall nature of it – none of them were looking at the camera. And whilst it looks nothing like Definitely Maybe, that’s where the inspiration came from.

That documentary style?

Precisely. The band are having their picture took, and they’re all watching the telly.

It’s designed to look candid, but what was the reality of it?

It was incredibly staged. It’s too perfect of a composition to just happen. We positioned everyone very carefully. Even the still on the television was specifically chosen – it’s the shot in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly where he’s got him by the face. It was paused on VHS. That’s how meticulous it was.

A lot of your sleeves are photography-based. Was there a particular reason for this?

My favourite record sleeves, with the exceptions of Never Mind the Bollocks, are photographically based. I just think it’s the best way of doing it. And that’s why, in the cases of both The Verve and Oasis, there’s very little intrusion with type or logos.

With The Verve, the logo would be in the shot, and with Oasis, the logo would be in the top corner. We’d spend ages coming up for the idea and staging the shoot, we didn’t want to ruin it by plastering a logo in front of it.

It seemed like there was definite styles for each band you worked with. Your covers for The Verve always had real text in the photo. Was that a faff to do that? Setting the letters on fire on the Storm in Heaven cover looked tough.

Yes, it was. I had the letters made by a steel fabricator in Oldham, and covered them with this cladding that street jugglers use when they’re juggling fire, and then poured paraffin onto it. The only downside was that the letters gave off loads of smoke – and because we were in a cave, it just wouldn’t clear. We were having to wait about half an hour in-between each shot for the smoke to clear.

Where did the idea for that one come from?

I’d never seen letters set on fire and photographed before, but I just thought it’d look good. I do a lot of lecturing at colleges, and I always say, much to the chagrin of the lecturers, that you don’t have to explain everything away. Some things you just do because they look good – there’s no further explanation required.

Very true. Maybe a tough question, especially considering what you’ve just said… but what makes a good record cover?

What makes a good record? You just know, don’t you? There can be a thousand reasons why one might be bad, but I can’t think of one reason why one will be good. There’s no formula to it. It’s down to the individual too – it’s all opinion.

What do you think the purpose of a record cover is? Is it marketing, or is it art?

I don’t think it’s a marketing tool — I’d regard it as a bonus for the fans. I don’t think it sells records. I’ve bought the odd record because of the sleeve, but then again, I’m a sleeve designer.

Were the covers always influenced by the music – or sometimes did you just have an idea you wanted to use on something?

No — that never happened. We were quite vehement about that. Every sleeve was like a bespoke suit, cut for that particular piece of music.

From what I’ve read, you weren’t just some guy in an office sending off designs to the bands – you were involved with the bands a lot more, going on tours and things like that.

I was of the opinion that the more I got my head around what the band were into and how they thought, the better the visuals could be… and hanging around with a rock and roll band is good fun. I toured American with both Oasis and The Verve, but it was mad, because I was the only person on the tour-bus who had nothing to do.

What was it like being around those bands when they suddenly became massive?

It was all a bit weird really. Anybody will tell you this – the best bit of any band is that bit when they just start taking off. The best bits are when it’s still pretty innocent.

Did you have a few people working for you by that point?

Yeah – but it was never massive. At Microdot’s peak, there was five or six of us. In the late 90s we started branching out into all sorts of mad stuff. We were running night-clubs, we were publishing magazines, we were managing bands… at one point there was talk of importing Volkswagen Beetles from Mexico.

A brilliant idea.

I’d gone to Mexico on holiday, and I kept seeing these old Beetles. They were still making them there, and we’d worked out that if we shipped them back to England, and even if we turned them right hand drive, we could still make £2,000 on every one we sold. If we sold 500 of them, we’d make a million quid.

We were all set to go, but Volkswagen head office in Germany had told the Mexicans they couldn’t sell us the cars, as they reckoned it’d harm the Golf market in the UK.

But it would have been mint.

I know. So we then tried the Brazilians as they were making them there too – and this was so Microdot it was untrue. On the street in Shoreditch where we had our studio, there was a little café called Franco’s that was run by a Portuguese family. Now they don’t speak Spanish in Brazil – they speak Portuguese, so I went in to Franco’s one day and I said I’d give the man who worked behind the counter a tenner if he’d come to the office, and speak down the phone to Volkswagen HQ in Sao Paulo. He did it, but it still didn’t happen.

What do you mean by things being, “so Microdot.” Was there a certain attitude there?

Absolutely. The reason why it was like that was because I didn’t have any experience of working in an agency. I had no idea how things should be done — we were just making things up as we were going along.

It was bonkers. When we moved to London, we had enough money from Alan McGee to buy this computer, and to set up a studio in Shoreditch. But in this mad rush to move to London, I’d forgotten that we needed somewhere to live, so me and Matt, the lad who worked with me, had to live in the studio. There was one room, and a toilet, and we lived in there for four months. We had a couch that you could take the cushions off, and we’d take it in turns every night – one of us sleeping on the couch, one of us sleeping on the cushions on the floor.

And we could party hard, because we knew that the only person we had to answer to the following day had been out with us previous night – there was no way Noel Gallagher was going to ring us at nine in the morning, because we’d just left him at seven in the morning. There’d be occasions when a client would turn up, and there’d be somebody asleep on the floor in the studio.

Nowadays you do all sorts of stuff – and amongst various design bits, you’ve been photographing northern soul nights. How did this come about?

That was a massive project for me. It started in 2012, when the renaissance was under way. A friend of mine from Wigan said that I should go along to this club run by these kids who were into northern soul.

I was very aware that when you take photographs of people dancing in dark rooms, they just look like statues at a wedding, but I wanted to get some soul or some atmosphere into the shot, so I thought I’ll use an off-camera flash.

I went to this club-night with my mate John, who was going to be my lighting guy, holding my flash in his hand, at a 45 degree angle to me. But when we get there, his phone rings — his wife was pregnant and her car had got a puncture — so that was my lighting gone. So I just put the light on the stage or on the floor, and worked around that, and the results I got were astonishing, purely by accident – I got these massive long shadows, cast from behind.

I suppose that comes from the same place as your record covers – you’re a fan.

Absolutely. Growing up in Wigan in the 1970s made it kind of inevitable to be a northern soul fan.

Alright, I think I’ve pretty much ran out of questions now. Have you got any wise words or anything to finish this off?

Never give in.

[peterstanslizzie]

Re-watching Lizzie Mcguire: Episode 1.12 (Between a Rock and a Bra Place)

The Fan Favorite Episode

- Lizzie and Miranda are lamenting about having to play dodgeball in PE class. They also express their concern about falling behind some of the other girls in their grade because they are now wearing bras unlike them.

- Because of girls like Kate Sanders, they think that wearing a bra will automatically make one popular and empowered in a way. So, they feel like it’s high time they should start shopping for bras.

- Miranda asks Lizzie if her mom, Jo could drive them and drop them off at the mall after school. However, Lizzie thinks that she will want to come along with them. Miranda suggests they should lie to her and tell her they want to shop for school supplies, which should be able to signal to Lizzie’s mom that they are going on a safe and innocent shopping excursion.

“I want a bra!”

They sure do look like they are up to something huh?

- Lizzie and Miranda arrive at Lizzie’s house after school and they prepare themselves to let Jo know that they want a ride to the mall to shop for school supplies. However, there are a couple of cracks in this seemingly full-proof plan; They are not specific enough in mentioning the type of school supplies they want and Jo even called Gordo to come over and join the girls.

- Obviously, Lizzie and Miranda are not keen for Gordo to come along because they are shopping for bras. They then express how Gordo doesn’t need to come along because he’s not in their class where they need those school supplies. But Gordo is in all their classes (except gym); So he doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Looks like they are dropping the ball on this one.

- Jo becomes highly suspicious towards all of this and she questions only Lizzie specifically on what she needs to buy at the mall and Lizzie starts to break down and well, we then get this iconic moment:

Lizzie really wants a bra y’all

- Jo is feeling extremely elated about this revelation from Lizzie and she is delighted to take both Lizzie and Miranda bra shopping. On the other hand, Gordo just feels weird about what just happened and he decided to dis-invite himself from this shopping trip.

Matt: The Martial Artist

My favorite episode of Matt to date

- Matt shows his dad, Sam a page of a magazine showing an advertisement for a ‘Jet Li Sweepstakes’ contest where one lucky person will get the opportunity to appear alongside the Chinese actor and martial artist in his new untitled movie as his new sidekick.

- Sam asks for his wife’s opinion about Matt applying for this contest and she isn’t down for it at first but after Sam tells her that Matt probably isn’t going to win and they will be seen as ‘cool parents’ after this, she then agrees to it.

- Sam wants Matt to go for the conservative essay writing option as their contest submission and as predicted, Matt isn’t too fond of writing one. But because Gordo has decided to stay back to help Matt and Sam with the contest by using his camera to film a short video submission for Matt, Sam has no other choice but to now go for the option of filming and submitting a video.

Lizzie and Miranda Are Grown Young Adults

Miranda is thinking to herself, “How did I get myself into this mess?”

- At the mall, Lizzie and Miranda feel very embarrassed about having Lizzie’s mom to help them shop for bras because Jo is a little too excited about it and teenagers are you know, embarrassed by their parents most of the time.

- They both try to ditch Jo by pretending to be lost but as soon as they scrammed, they bump into their English teacher, Mr. Coppersmith. Okay, who is he and why haven’t I seen or remembered him? I think he is a one-time, one-episode teacher?

- Jo spots them and their teacher and doesn’t seem to pick up on the awkwardness in the room and proceed to hand over a bunch of bras for them to try on, right in front of him.

- Next, we cut to Lizzie and Miranda at the changing room and they are discussing about really telling Jo that they want to shop alone. Jo interrupts their conversation and opens the curtains of the changing stall Lizzie is in. This clearly agitates Lizzie and she kinda snaps at her mom and tells her that they don’t need her help shopping and she needs to leave them alone.

That sudden change of expression done by Hallie was brilliant.

- I feel so bad for Jo; Teenagers can be so insensitive sometimes like me back when I was a teenager. Jo recognizes Lizzie’s frustration and decides to play it cool by not scolding Lizzie and even offers her $40 for them to shop for their bras while she waits for them at the food court.

- Honestly, this is some of the best acting in the show thus far by both Hallie and Hilary.

Gordo: The Director

I think Gordo is a really good male-figure for Matt to look up to, besides his dad.

- Gordo is using this opportunity to put his skills as a director and filmmaker to the test and already, he has planned out the kind of establishing shots he wants to take of Matt. Sam is quite unsure about all of this and he thinks that interviewing Matt and asking him generic questions is good enough for the submission.

- Gordo wants this movie to be big and is confident that this martial arts movie he is about to film is going to set Matt’s entry apart from the others.

One good thing I can say about this is nice try I guess?

- We watch some snippets of the film at first and it doesn’t look too good nor realistic. There was a weird voice-over work done by Gordo, which I guess is the style of dubbed Chinese martial arts films back then and the action scenes were terrible.

- We move over to the scene where Matt tries to take a pebble from his master’s (played by Sam) palm but the scene didn’t go as planned because Sam didn’t stick to the script. He feels that everything Gordo is doing so far is a rip-off of Kung Fu movies out there.

- He then pulls a Jo Mcguire and leaves the kids to do their own thing without him. But what they don’t know is that he has secretly called this guy named ‘David’ for some help. And we all know that this is the late great David Carradine (older brother of Robert Carradine who plays Sam), who starred as  Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s series, Kung Fu and as Bill in the Kill Bill film franchise.

Kate and Claire Alert

- Lizzie and Miranda are not exactly sure on what they need to look out for when picking out a bra. The are just not familiar with bra sizes. To make matters worse, they bump into Kate Sanders and Claire Miller at the same store.

I think it’s cute that Kate is shopping with Claire and her mom

- We get some bickering at the beginning but things took a turn when they find out that Kate and Claire are both shopping with Claire’s mom. Lizzie and Miranda rub in their faces that they get to shop alone. I think shopping alone as a teen without your parents isn’t what I consider as ‘cool’.

- Anyways, this doesn’t stop Claire from giving them one her shady comebacks before they leave:

Their secret handshake is just a high five and a hair flip lol

Lizzie Needs Her Mom Back

- Lizzie and Miranda continue to be lost when it comes to bra shopping and Lizzie finally recognizes that she needs her mom now more than ever. They find Lizzie’s mom at the food court and try to apologize to her but Jo tells them that she can understand where they’re coming from and admits how embarrassing she can be.

- They admit that although they try to act like adults, they are far from being ready to handle all of this alone. Lizzie also apologizes to her mom for the rude behavior she displayed at the dressing room earlier. She realizes that the adult thing to do is to actually ask her mom for help instead of trying to figure out everything on their own. This is honestly a great lesson to teach to young girls and boys.

Here Comes David

I just get chills from this entrance. David had such amazing presence on screen.

- Matt and Gordo are struggling to film the ‘pebble taking’ scene without Sam and they decide to find him and plead for him to help them. The next thing they know, David pops into the backyard and greatness has basically arrived.

The Carradine Brothers

- Matt demonstrates some of his martial arts ‘skills’ to David and David tells him that he has a lot of work to do. That’s definitely a sure thing.

When the pupil becomes the masters

- We then get a cool montage of Matt’s Kung Fu training and fight scene with David to the legendary song ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ by Carl Douglas. Matt even nails the ‘pebble taking’ scene down. Afterwards, we get a chilling exit from David as he walks back into the house and disappears from a distance.

- Gordo then asks Sam who was that man who all of a sudden came and taught Matt Kung Fu and Sam responds to him and says he has “known him all of his life and is like a brother to him”. Well, that’s because he’s your real life brother lol.

Closing Off

- During Lizzie, Gordo and Miranda’s three way phone conversation, Lizzie remarks how she cannot believe Gordo spent an entire day with her dad and brother but considering the other alternative he had, he was happy with his decision. He just wants Lizzie and Miranda to give him the heads up next time when they shop for bras and other female-gender related items.

What a way to close an episode

- Sam pick up a phone call and on the other end of the line is the person calling from the Jet Li sidekick contest and to his shock and horror, Matt won the contest!

Overall Thoughts

- I can honestly say that this is one of the best episodes of the season so far. Lizzie and Miranda’s bra shopping story-line with Lizzie’s mom was hilarious and cringe-worthy to watch, but in a good way. I’m sure this scene had so many young girls who were able to relate to it.

- The lesson of recognizing and admitting you need help from your parents despite the flawed perception that adults always have to do things solo is very deep and it should be ingrained in every person’s mind.

- And finally, this is the first episode that I actually love Matt and Sam’s story-line. It was super entertaining to watch and although you can say it’s all action and comedy and there’s no lesson to take away from it, everything was executed perfectly. And I appreciate how they were able to get Robert’s brother David to appear in this episode since he was such a icon in the martial arts film and television genre.

[cchellacat]

Working On It

Love All The Marvel Ships Challenge 

Day 5 ~ Kissing

Exactly no one in the Tower was surprised at how well Darcy and Bucky Barnes bonded once he and Steve moved back to New York.

Darcy’s bubbly personality coupled with her insatiable drive to fix people had her stalking the former Winter Soldier within hours of him stepping foot in the Tower.  She was dogged in her determination to welcome him.

Under her constant assault of charm, light flirting and encouragement to join the larger group for dinner and movie nights, Bucky slowly came out of his shell.

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The first time she kissed him was in the heat of the moment.  She’d been running form Sam after he discovered she’d replaced all his coffee with de-caff.  She’d burst into the gym, breathless and giggling wildly when she came across her new friend.

“Hide me, quick, or Sam is gonna string me up.”

Bucky had flicked his eyes towards the vault box and lifted the top, revealing the cavity within.

Darcy wasted no time in running over and trying to climb in, but being short had its disadvantages.  Before she could complain Bucky had lifted her up, princess style before lowering her in with a wink and replacing the top.

A few minutes later Sam had come huffing into the gym.

“Barnes, you seen Lewis?”

“Not since yesterday, why?  You need her for something?”

“Yeah, something.” Sam muttered angrily before leaving.

Darcy held back the cackle that was threatening to burst.  The top lifted and Darcy spring up like a jack-in-the-box, flinging her arms around his neck in a victory hug.

“My hero!”

He pulled her out and placed her down again but before he let go of her she placed a smacking kiss on his cheek.

“Thanks, big guy, gotta go…  don’t forget, Saturday at 7, dinner and a movie.”

She was gone before he could do more than lift a hand to where she had pressed her lips.

Bucky stares in consternation at the door, wondering what the hell just happened.

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

Steve’s not stupid, he’s seen the change in his friend ever since Miss Darcy Lewis had steamrollered into their lives.  The girl is hell on wheels and doesn’t seem to take no for an answer.

There had been the Welcome Back cupcakes with silver frosting and red star sprinkles, Steve had nearly choked when she’d thrust the plate into Bucky’s hands, fully expecting him to react badly, but instead he had frowned at the girls hand, a tiny crinkle appearing in the corner of his eyes as he took in the silver pained nails, her middle finger’s adorned with a bright red star on each.  Steve wasn’t sure what it was that Bucky found funny about it, but he had.

Then there had been the Harry Potter movie marathon she’d insisted they sit through.  She’d provided pop corn and chips and beer and had proceeded to talk the whole way through, her feet propped up in Bucky’s lap like they belonged there as she explained everything she felt was culturally relevant.  She ignored Steve’s attempts to indicate that she was invading Bucky’s space and, when about an hour into the first movie Bucky had grabbed her ankles to keep her still he’d thought the worst.   Instead Bucky had just pulled her closer until her calves were over his lap and he’d slung an arm round her to support her back.  Darcy had just snuggled right in and continued her ramble while Steve gaped from the armchair.

It had taken a few months for it to sink in with Steve that Darcy treated Bucky the same was she did everyone, with irreverent respect, tongue in cheek humour and tactile affection.  She was a hugger, she cooked for people, she always had a way of cheering everyone up, even on the worst days.  Other than Pepper, Darcy was the only one allowed into Tony’s lab without a security override.  Bruce positively beamed as she chattered to him over breakfast tea and even Natasha let the girl drag her off shopping or to the spa.  He’d thought at first that the art supplies that kept showing up in his apartment were from Tony or Natasha, but no, Darcy Lewis had somehow figured out his favourite brands and needs and provided them without expectation of thanks.

Bucky seemed to get the full experience though, she brought him shopping and encouraged him to buy things that made him feel good.  She brought a pile of books after Bucky had casually mentioned his love for science fiction.  And every Saturday night she made him dinner and played the big band music Bucky had loved back in the 40’s.

That’s what he walks in on, the music’s blaring loud enough that neither of them hears him come in and he stands still and watches the couple before him.  It’s like he’s suddenly back in those crowded dance halls in Brooklyn.  It’s like seeing a ghost he’s thought long dead.   Bucky is grinning at her as she laughs, spinning out on the floor and letting him swing her through the air with shrieks of delight.

He doesn’t stay, but backs out of the room slowly, feeling as though he’s seem something he shouldn’t have.  Before he can close the door, the music stops and the two clutch each other breathlessly, Darcy leaning into him, Bucky’s hands on her waist.  He watched as his friend presses his lips into her hair-line bestowing a kiss, and thanks her for the dance.  The radiant smile she returns to Bucky hits Steve like lightening.

As Steve walks away he ponders exactly what it is he’s feeling, but honestly it’s a jumble of emotions that all lead back to one fact.   Where Steve had failed to find his old friend inside the damaged shell of the winter soldier, Darcy Lewis had succeeded.  She’d brought him back, slowly but surely.  Instead of the jealousy and resentment he knows is itching in the back of his brain he focuses on the gratitude instead.  He can see where it’s headed, this thing between them and he resolves then that he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure they get their chance at happiness.  Bucky deserves nothing less from his friend.  Steve will protect Darcy Lewis till the day he dies because he knows, if something happens to her, Bucky will retreat and allow the soldier back.

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

The first time he does more than press a kiss into her hair, it’s not because anything monumental happens.  It’s a day like any other, Darcy has handed out packets to all the Avengers with the briefings for the press conference later that day and she is rushing around the common kitchen making sure everyone has had breakfast as she tops up her coffee and fixes one for Bucky since he’s only just come in.  When she brings him the coffee and places it on the table in front of him he turns his head and gives her cheek a quick peck in silent thanks, she squeezes his shoulder briefly before leaving, calling out to remind everyone they’re due in the lobby at four.

Darcy keeps her smile fixed firmly in place until she reaches the elevator and the door close and then she allows herself a moment to freak out a little.  He’d just kissed her, right in front of everyone and yeah, okay, he’s been pressing tiny kisses into her hair for a month now when they danced or snuggled on the couch and she hadn’t taken it as anything other than brotherly, but that…. That was… well it was something else entirely.  It had felt like a sleepy morning hello, the sort of kiss you gave your other half after months of living together, like a part of your daily routine that needed no explanation, but they were just friends, right?  Except friends didn’t have lunch every day and spend evenings watching Netflix together while cuddling on the couch….  Christ on a cracker, has she been dating him and never even noticed?  Did he think they were dating?  Were they?

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

Christmas was only a week away and the Tower was hung with holly and mistletoe, trees were festooned with ribbons and tinsel and Darcy was about ready to cry with the preparations for the Christmas Eve ball.   All she wanted was to go home and sleep for a week.  Instead she was stuck counting chairs, ordering the place cards for the dinner and finding a seating arrangement that wouldn’t lead to a political nightmare.

She was just about to leave the common room and head to her apartment when a voice stopped her.

“Darcy, I’ve been looking for you, Doll.”

“Hey Bucky, what’s up?”

She was standing in the hall just outside the kitchen when he caught up with her.

Before he said a word, he looked above her and raised an eye brow.   She tilted her head and smirked.  There was a bunch of mistletoe hanging right over where she stood.

They both unconsciously moved a little closer.

Unbidden, her thoughts all went right there.  He was so close she could smell him, the intoxicating scent sandalwood and gun oil making her dizzy.  Although they spent a frequent amount of time together and he had kissed her cheek a few weeks ago, she still hadn’t managed to figure out a way to make a move on him.  Now, overhead was the perfect way to settle the question once and for all.

“Huh, I guess I’m just gonna be stuck here till someone kisses me.”   Her teeth catch her lower lip and she looks up at him with big blue eyes, willing the universe to please, just please listen to her just this once.

Bucky thinks if he doesn’t make a move now, they’ll still be where they are this time next year.

“Could be a while, everyone’s out right now.”  He drawls mischievously.  

“Yes, they are.”  The smile on her face widens as he draws closer.   He’s got this look in his eyes, like he thinks she might back out, but that is so far from the truth as to be laughable.

Darcy hooks her fingers through his belt loops and tugs him even closer, till there’s hardly a space between them at all.  He mirrors her earlier expression, that bottom lip of his held down by his teeth like he’s stopping himself form saying something particularly filthy and a thrill runs up her spine

Slender fingers walk a path up his chest, and he catches her waist in one hand, their bodies now pressed together hip to chest and Darcy feels the hitch in her breath at the warmth of him.  His other hand runs through her hair, tugging the locks back from her face before his thumb traces a line down her neck.

There’s a moment in that silence between them, before they kiss that feels like the universe paused for just a second and it makes her head swim.

Pressing up on her toes, her belly fills with butterflies.  His eyes darken and the hand on her moves smoothly around till it’s splayed against her back, keeping her steady.

At first, it’s just a light brush of lips, both of them figuring out how this will work.  It grows stronger and deepens, heat rushes through her blood as she hooks her arms round his neck and sinks her fingers into his hair.

The little moan he makes draws a smile to her lips and he traces the seam of her mouth with his tongue, begging entrance.  Now it’s her that moans, as he teases into her mouth, all hot and wet and tasting like coffee and cherries.  Nothing could have prepared her for the sudden zing of fire rushing through her core, the insistent need that ached for far more than a simple kiss.  He felt it too she knew, if the way he intensified the assault on her mouth was anything to go by.  Then she was drowning in him, sparks dancing over her skin where he touched her, his hands seeming to be everywhere at once.  For those blessed minutes the only thing that existed for her was him, the firmness of his chest, the soft sweetness of his lips and the strength of his arms holding her up.  Lightheaded they finally broke away from each other, surety and excitement in every short breath.

“Do I need to hang mistletoe everywhere to get you to kiss me like that again?”  She asks him with a grin.

The soft smile he gave her turned to full blown laughter and he picks her up, spinning her around as she yelps in surprise.

“Don’t need nothing except you, Doll.”

NEXT

@captain-rogers-beard

[anobscenesumofsadforklifts]

Todoiida headcannons?

since you didn’t specify what you wanted, i put a bunch of ideas on a wheel and spun it. and i got: tattooartist x florist au.

Alrighty then my children, sit the fuck down, buckle up, and get ready for some god damn headcanons

TodoIida Tattoo Artist x Florist headcanons

Todoroki is most certainly not the tattoo artist

Nonono he is the florist.

Our dear Todoroki Shouto runs a small flower shop called “Phenomenon”.

It’s a simple shop, nothing too fancy in terms of decorations, since it was full of flowers. you had big, barrel-like pots on the ground in one section of the shop, tiered shelves in another, plants hanging from the ceiling

The shop just so happens to be right next door to a tattoo parlor.

Ingenium, a world famous tattoo parlor, owned and operated by Iida Tensei.

Well, I say operated, but, since he’s always out and about doing pop-ups and conventions and things, it’s actually operated by one Iida Tenya.

Now, these two shops don’t generally interact with each other, because why would they?

They generally just let each other be, save for the times fuyumi and natsuo come by to see shouto and then gone to the tattoo parlor. Apparently fuyumi knows the owner somehow?

Until one day, a tall, muscular, and heavily tattooed man walks into todoroki’s flower shop.

Strange, he isn’t the type of person who enter his shop. But who is he to judge?

He did look familiar, but shouto just couldn’t put his finger on it.

It wasn’t until after the man had turned to look at an arrangement todoroki had put together earlier that day that he sees the back of his shirt and immediately knows why he recognizes the man.

He’s the manager of the tattoo parlor next door! tensei’s younger brother.

“may I help you find anything?”

shouto you startled him. you idiot.

“o-oh! yes, i wanted to get a bouquet of flowers. they’re for my brother. he was in an accident.”

With an understanding nod, shouto begins into a spiel about various types of flowers and their meanings as he goes about putting the bouquet together.

“i see. well, it’s good to know that you’re quite knowledgeable about your craft.”

…

“n-not that i thought you wouldn’t be!”

Shouto dismisses it with a soft, borderline inaudible laugh. ‘cute’ was all he could think as he heard this mans nervous rambles.

He gives him the bouquet, and just as the man gets ready to pay him, he waves his hand.

“just take them, iida,” he says “and tell tensei that shouto todoroki says to get better soon, or fuyumi will get upset.”

“wait, you’re shouto? fuyumi and natsuo’s younger brother?”

“so you’ve heard of me.”

they delve into a conversation about how iida says “fuyumi has told me so much about you.”

“she always said you were quite a stoic person, but from what i see, that’s not quite true.”

“guess you caught me on a a good day then. you might want to get those flowers to your brother before they start to wilt.”

“oh, yes, i believe i should.”

he thanks shouto for his time and begins to leave when he suddenly stops, hand on the door handle, and turns back to shouto.

“i really am grateful for this, todoroki. maybe i can make it up to you? i could give you a tattoo, free of charge.”

a tattoo, huh? free of charge, plus he gets to see the cute blue-haired guy again. hmm…

“i might just take you up on that offer.”

BADADADA two weeks later and he’s still thinking about that offer iida gave him.

And how could he not? seeing as iida came over every other day or so to give him updates on tensei’s condition, shouto relaying that information to his siblings so they’ll stop worrying. They don’t stop worrying. It’s a lost cause.

They had actually become friends within those times he came over, and shouto felt himself falling more in love with iida, and iida found himself doing the same with shouto.

Fuyumi keeps telling him he should ask iida out, and he’s contemplated it, but talked himself out of it everytime. He couldn’t handle the rejection.

but now, shouto finds himself closing up the shop one afternoon as he prepares to go on his lunch break, thinking about that offer from iida.

He had put quite a bit of thought into what kind of tattoo he would get, where he would get it, he looked up care instructions, despite knowing iida would tell him what needed done to take care of it. the boy does his research, okay?

he ended up settling on a simple floral design on the inside of his left forearm.

So, taking his design with him, he walked next door.

The tattoo parlor looked exactly as he remembered the first time he entered it to introduce himself as the shop next door. well, almost exactly. it had been touched up and got a few new decorations, but other than that, it still remained with its sleek and modern industrial style design.

Exposed metal beams across the ceiling, black leather seating, etc. Y’know, the exact opposite of shouto’s store.

“hello, how may i- oh! todoroki, you came.”

“hello, iida. yes, i decided i’d take you up on your offer.”

shiiiiiit iida nooooo stop smiling, you’re making todoroki nervous.

“great. right this way then.”

he was led to one of the many different stations, iida asking him various questions about what he wanted and where he wanted it, shouto responding with short yet descriptive answers.

As iida is preparing everything for his tattoo, he starts to explain the whole process.

“well, it’s good to know that you’re quite knowledgeable about your craft.”

that cause iida to stop mid sentence and mid action, and when he looks up at shouto again, they both start to laugh.

holy fuck iida’s laugh is so nice.

god dammit shouto, you’re in too deep.

Iida continues on with his work and, after receiving the design and lining out the piece on shouto’s arm, he begins to permanently put the art in shouto’s skin.

it was a lengthy process, as iida said it would be, but it was rather calming, to shouto’s surprise. he’d never liked needles, but this didn’t bother him. in fact, he’d have forgotten the needles altogether if it hadn’t been for the fact that they were putting ink in his arm.

as soon as it was over, shouto kinda wished he had picked a more intricate design, simply so he’d have to be here longer. but, looking down at his plastic covered forearm, he decides that, yes, this one is perfect.

Once again, iida goes over all of the care instructions, despite already having given shouto an entire pamphlet of them.

Ask him out shouto. You know you want to. It’s now or never.

“Hey, iida?”

“Yes todoroki?”

…

Say it shouto! Say it!

“Would you like to go on a date with me?”

Nice! Now for his response.

The inevitable rejection.

He obviously doesn’t like you like that. I mean, you only just became friends, he doesn’t know you that well. What made you think he’d like you like that? Absolutely insane. You never should have said anything-

“Yes. I’d really enjoy going on a date with you, Todoroki.”

HE SAID YES? OH THANK GOD. i thought shouto was gonna have a breakdown for a moment there.

“Well, if we’re going on a date, then call me Shouto.”

“Alright Shouto, since we’re going on a first-name basis, then you have to call me Tenya.”

“Okay Tenya. I’ll see you tonight? At 6?”

“Absolutely. I’ll see you tonight, Shouto.”

And with that, Shouto went back to his shop.

You can bet your ass that the first thing he did was tell Fuyumi that ‘he has a date with the hot tattoo artist from the parlor next door’.

i hope this is what you wanted when you sent this ask, my dearest anon.

thanks to @psychic-tagalong for naming suggestions for todoroki’s flower shop, as well as helping me past writing blocks that i ran face first into. my nose still hurts.

[cynoirsure]

sweetener | jjk

pairing — jungkook x reader

word count — 12.4k

genre — bakery!au, fluff

summary — running your up and coming bakery with an attractive boy named Jeon Jungkook turns out to be harder than anything you learned in pastry school.

warnings/tags — none!!

a/n — im telling you now, i’ve been thinking about this fic since september. i had this as a bulletpointed idea but after seeing bts live i’ve been uhh looking like the kermit furiously typing gif. i have not written a fic in a HOT second so this might be a lil mediocre!! also publishing a fic for the first time!! big scary!!

“Add 70 g of egg whites into a bowl, when the egg whites become frothy, add half the sugar,” You mutter to yourself, before pausing. “...and multiply the recipe by 40.” Ever since your best friend left your co-owned bakery for grad school, you’ve been feeling spent by the amount of work being done at your bakery by yourself. You and your friend had never felt the need to hire anyone else since you two were pretty productive, but since you were alone, you took on a lot of responsibilities at the bakery now, including but not limited to: finally nailing the macaron recipe, actually confronting your fear of making croissants, and even sucking it up and actually making the damn tart crusts.

You sighed, zoning back into the macaron shell recipe that your friend had written down, and you realized you really couldn’t do this alone. The bakery could only be open for so long with only one person in the back of the house and also working the cash register. You stopped the stand mixer, walking into the office and typing a simple sign that did the job: Now Hiring Bakers!

The next few days were filled with numerous hopefuls, including teenagers with similar ambitions of yours when you were in high school, amateurs who only knew how to make box cake mix and chocolate chip cookies (you shuddered at the fear of inaccuracy), and other people who only wanted to work because you were cute. After shoving the last person out for said reason, you hit your head on the stacks of resumes in your hand. You were beginning to lose hope in whoever would aid you in helping out the bakery, and at this point you were thinking of switching locations to a smaller storefront so you could manage it all by yourself. Just as you set down the stacks of papers, you hear the door’s bell jingle, and a man who couldn’t be much older than you walks in.

And you couldn’t miss how cute this guy was. He walked in with a simple outfit on, a simple white t-shirt and black jeans, but you could tell that he was fit from the way his arms contoured as he pushed through the door.

“Good uhh...afternoon!” He starts off, pausing halfway to check his watch for the time to make sure he was accurate with the time. “My friend Hoseok was telling me about how one of his favorite bakeries was hiring and I was curious if the position was still open?” His fringe fell in front of his eyes and you were faintly reminded of a coconut.

You hummed in approval, smiling softly. “Ah yes, Mr. Jung and his love of strawberry shortcakes, my own specialty! Well, we are still hiring indeed,” you nod towards the table with the stacks of resumes still stacked. You both take a seat at said table, and he rummages around in his backpack before giving his own resume to you.

“My name is Jeon Jungkook, I’m fresh out of undergrad and I would like to help out in the kitchen!” Jungkook introduces himself to you with a small smile, and you gloss over the resume that he had just given you. He recently graduated from one of the top schools in the nation and his previous job experiences have all been working at Michelin star restaurants. Quite honestly, you were shocked. Whatever deity above had planned for you, you were pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Your mouth opens to a small o as you set down the resume, blinking at him.

“You graduated from one of the best schools in the nation, used to work at a Michelin star restaurant, and now you’re here? Why?” You questioned carefully, not to sound too harsh with your word choice. Jungkook’s ears went pink and he looked down into his lap.

“I… Really like the small bakery concept.” He says quietly, his voice suddenly softer and lacking the confidence that was once in his voice. You had to lean in a little more to hear what he was saying, intrigued. “I found my passion of baking when I studied abroad in France my junior year of college, seeing all the different ways this art had come along.” You smile softly, the memory close to your heart as well.

“What’s your favorite thing to bake, Mr. Jeon?” You asked after a pause of comfortable silence. He smiled to himself, before looking up at you. “I love making tarts!”

And with that, you knew the search was over. A cute guy with a passion to making tarts, something you could never nail yourself? “Welcome to the team, Jungkook!” You grinned, holding out your hand.

—

Hiring Jungkook was arguably the best and worst thing to happen to your bakery. On one hand, he was bringing in a lot of customers, the bakery was more busy than it has been before, you could get him to carry most of the deliveries in, and you could finally reach the Good Stand Mixer that your friend put on the top shelf, for some reason. Maybe it was so that the next person you would hire would have good muscles, or by some miracle, you’d grow a bunch so you can reach the top shelf.

However, since the bakery had been getting more busy, you couldn’t be as lax as you were before. With the amount of girls coming in to ogle at Jungkook when he would work at the counter, you had to wake up 2 hours earlier than you would usually to make enough to last you to at least 2:30, and your bakery opened up at 11 AM every day.

Not to mention, he wasn’t just a distraction to the girls coming in. You couldn’t stop yourself from watching his muscles flex while he stirred the last of a cake batter together, or feel a slight twinge of jealousy when he would arrive before it’s time to open up the shop and see his snatched waistline before he put on his apron over his outfit.

You couldn’t blame him, though. He was as equally as dedicated to the bakery as you were, as shown from the multiple times you’d come into the bakery early and he’d already be there, working on something in the kitchen, his oversized black shirt covered in flour.

“Oh? You’re here early, Jungkookie.” You muse, sipping from the mug of cherry blossom tea that you brought down. You lived in the apartment right above the bakery, so you were comfortable with coming down in the morning in your pajamas before Jungkook would come in to help finish off what you had started to decorate. He grinned at you, revealing what he had been working on so early in the morning.

“Ta-da! Try this, it’s a blueberry basil tart!” He smiled so hard that the crinkles in his eyes appeared, a different kind of smile than the one he would show the girls who would come in. You set down the mug, walking over and grabbing a pair of forks for you and him. He already had grabbed a knife to slice a piece of tart for you, beyond excited for you to try the tart. You hold out another fork with him, clinking the forks together before taking a bite of the tart.

You knew this boy said he was famous for his tarts, but what he had put in front of you was like nothing else of its kind. You looked up at his smile, eyes wild in bewilderment.

“Hey Jungkook, do you think you can make like… 4 more of these, full sized? I think I might put them on the menu for today…” You start off. You had never even entertained the idea of a pastry of the day until he came along. His eyes lit up and he grinned at you, suddenly enveloping you in a hug.

“Thank you for giving me a chance, this is what I was truly missing in the Michelin star restaurant experience.” He whispered into your ear, you still being frozen from the sudden hug. You awkwardly hug him back, patting his back and nodding slowly.

“No problem, Kook. Now get to work! We need to put this on the menu.” You pulled away, giving Jungkook two thumbs up and going to the front of the house to find the whiteboard marker to write on the mirror behind the cash register. Jungkook went into full concentration mode, and you started to clean in preparation for the wave of girls that were to come in soon.

—

Turns out that Jungkook making new pastries every day brought out your own creative side as well. Often times, instead of waking up early, you would make some cold brew coffee in the morning and drink it while you were brainstorming ideas to make at night. Jungkook would also stay up with you to a certain extent, but you found out that he lived an hour away from the bakery and when 10:30 would hit, you’d practically push him out of the bakery and wait for his bus with him before going up to your apartment to sleep.

This would become a regular occurrence, even if it meant he would try to pout his way through asking you to stay over. However, one day, you forget to do so. You and Jungkook were super invested in making an earl grey lavender panna cotta that you had seen in a recipe book beforehand but didn’t remember any of the measurements that came along with it. Needless to say, the last 7 hours were tweaking the perfect earl grey to lavender ratio, as well as scooping out the usual popular cookie flavors so you could just pop them in the oven tomorrow morning.

“Let’s take a break, yeah Kookie?” You arched your back, hearing your spine pop in satisfaction before grabbing your phone. He picked up his phone as well, shooting a look at you when the clock read 1 AM.

“Were we really… Grinding for 7 hours for opening today?” He questioned, confused. You raised an eyebrow, checking your own phone and your eyes almost popping out of their sockets. You were pretty sure that the buses weren’t running anymore and you didn’t know how to get Jungkook home since rideshares in your area weren’t always the best.

“Uh, do you have a car or something to take you home?” You asked, leaning onto the counter when he ruffled his hair, shaking his head. “I can call you an Ube--” “Is it possible for me to stay over tonight? I don’t wanna worry my my mom if i’m in an untrusted car,” he smiled, pinching your cheek. “And I don’t want you to worry either. What if I get kidnapped?” He jokes lightly, but your eyes widen in realization that he’s probably right, what if he had died on his way home? You couldn’t bear to lose another beloved worker, especially one that had done way more for the business than you would like to admit.

“I haven’t cleaned in like, a week, but I guess you can come up and crash on my couch for the night?” You were skeptical. Not to mention, Jungkook would be the first boy (that isn’t your best friend’s boyfriend) that would be up in your apartment, and needless to say, you were extremely nervous. Not like your apartment wasn’t dirty, you liked to keep it pretty tidy, and even all your Rilakkuma bears were arranged pretty nicely on your bed and couch.

Even so, you couldn’t drive and it would be cruel to send him home so late. “... Mayhaps, but you still have to show up for work tomorrow, yeah, Kookie?” You say sternly, and he smiled happily, nodding.

“Thank you so so much! I owe you my life, mon petit chou!” The nickname slips out of Jungkook’s mouth and his eyes widen, covering his mouth.

You blink, tilting your head. “A small cabbage, how cute.” You laugh softly, going over to the door that led upstairs. “Well, what are you waiting for? Are you gonna stand there shocked all night or are you coming up?” You ask, making Jungkook snap out of his shocked state and follow you up the stairs. You fumbled with the keys for a quick second before opening the door and toeing off your shoes. Your apartment was a small one bedroom apartment with a futon couch in the living room with 3 bear plushies on it. You went to go grab the spare pillows and blankets in the bedroom closet, gently reminding Jungkook to take off his shoes before setting up his bed for the night.

“Why don’t you go shower so I can set up your bed? I can get you a towel and something to change into?” You turn to Jungkook, who was currently taking off his sneakers. You smile, ruffling his head and opening the door to the bathroom. You grabbed a towel and large shirt that you hoped would fit him as well as some flannel pants, both acquired from when your friend moved away, and set it in the bathroom. As Jungkook went in to shower, you set up the couch to be bearable for at least one night.

When Jungkook came out of the bathroom, you were half awake, watching Great British Bake Off on Netflix and wrapped up in the fleece blanket you had set for him to sleep with, already changed into your sleepwear. He smiled softly, sitting on the opposite side of the couch.

“Are you having fun, petit chou?” He laughed softly, you nodding in and out of your sleep. You were too tired to form a response, you two watching together as they struggled to bake their roulades in time. By the time the episode was over, the room was more quiet than usual. Jungkook stretched his limbs out and sat up to ask you a question, however, you were knocked out, curled up in a warm fleece ball and hugging the Korilakkuma plush close. He smiled, rearranging you so you were laying down on the couch, laying on the floor and preparing himself for a less comfortable night than what you attempted to prepare for him.

—

You woke up the next morning, unfamiliar with your surroundings for about 5 seconds before realizing you were on your couch. You relaxed back into the couch, before freezing up once more. Why were you on the couch?

You sit up on the couch, turning towards the TV and noticing the sleeping figure on the floor. Jungkook had fallen asleep on the floor, one arm cushioning the back of his head and the other one lazily wrapped around his waist, making you feel terrible. Gingerly stepping around Jungkook, you started to make breakfast for the both of you. You plugged in your headphones and started playing music as you took out the ingredients for Nutella crepes.

Jungkook woke up half an hour later, sitting up and watching you wrap up the crepes before clearing his throat. You didn’t pay attention to the sound, Shawn Mendes’s In My Blood blasting in your earbuds. One moment you heard Shawn’s voice loud and clear, and suddenly, one earbud was gently tugged out of your ear, but enough that it startled you.

“Jesus, Kookie, can’t I enjoy Shawn Mendes in peace?” You frown up at him. He flashed a grin at you, shaking his head. He stepped away from you and walked around to go stand at the opposite side of the table, grabbing a plate and thanking you for the breakfast. You both eat in a comfortable silence, your headphones long discarded in favor of the quiet morning with Jungkook.

After breakfast, you got ready while he washed dishes, much to your protest. You also figured out over breakfast that you would be in charge of the front of the house, so you went into the bathroom to put on your face of makeup and putting in your contacts before coming out. You were mesmerized by the way his muscles moved while he was doing simple things such as washing the dishes. He catches you staring, grinning when you blush and turn away, shaking his head.

“I’m gonna go downstairs and start baking off the cookies, yeah?” You say, still not looking up at him. “You go wash up, you smell, Kookie.” You waved to the younger, laughing awkwardly. You didn’t want to make eye contact since you knew Jungkook had that stupid shit-eating grin on his face. “Don’t forget to lock the door before going down, yeah?” You were putting on your shoes, checking if you had everything one more time (even if you did live upstairs from where you worked).

And it baffled you as to why you suddenly got extremely jealous with every girl that walked through and flirted with Jungkook that day.

--

There are 14 days in 2 weeks. In the last 14 days, Jungkook stayed over 10 times.

You weren’t complaining at all, however. You were kinda glad that the weird tension from the first time that Jungkook had stayed over had gone away, and even if he was staying on the couch, it wasn’t weird. You two even stayed up sometimes running to the 7/11 near your house to pick up some things that you could easily distinguish as his in your house including a child’s toothbrush of Ryan, the Kakao Talk character, some bunny slippers for wearing inside the house, and a bunch of candy that you guys could snack on while watching The Great British Bake Off.

Some nights, however, you felt lonely, even if there were two people in your one bedroom apartment. You would fall asleep thinking about if Jungkook was in the empty space next to you, cuddling into your bear plush harder and wishing it was the brown haired boy instead. You would dream about doing extremely domestic things with him, waking up and bitterly drinking a cup of coffee within the same boat as your emotions.

You couldn’t even get started on seeing him in the morning. While he was at the stand mixer making the first batch of meringues for the day, you had to refrain from hugging him from behind. You know he probably wouldn’t mind you back hugging him but to be safe, you just stood next to him and quietly leaned on him. You didn’t miss the soft smile that would curve onto his face and the arm that wrapped around you to pull you into a side hug. Your heart was beating so loud that you feared that he would hear and tease you, but he never said anything about it.

As the days passed by, you noticed that Jungkook would bring upstairs more and more of his personal items before work began (if he went home that previous night), and the sun started to set before 6:30. This was the prime time to finally make a move that could change gears on your relationship with Jungkook. “Ah, the autumnal equinox. The rise of pumpkin spice, chai tea, apple flavored baked goods, and cuffing season.” Jungkook saunters into the bakery bright and early, his voice snapping you out of your thoughts. You turned to him, squinting at all of the things he had just listed. He grinned at your reaction, peeking over your shoulder to see the words flavor of the day: chai spice macarons written on the announcement mirror.

“And I see you’ve fallen victim to at least one of those things.” He chuckles and you roll your eyes, turning back around with the whiteboard marker in hand. You continue to mind your own business decorating said mirror, humming along to Don’t Forget by Crush and Taeyeon playing in the background. A few beats pass before you feel a pair of arms wrap around your waist, his brown hair coming into view on your right side as his chin rests comfortably on your shoulder. Typically, the height difference would’ve been a lot more noticeable, but since you were standing on a stool to write on the mirror comfortably, the difference was bearable for once. You freeze up a little and you bump your head lightly into him, heat rising to your cheeks.

“Do you need something, Kookie?” You question, and he squeezes his arms lightly around your waist. Since the weather was cooling down, you opted to wear a fluffy knit sweater over some high waisted shorts, and when he squeezed, you could feel his arms around you instead of just the fabric lightly pressing into your skin.

“Do you think… I could sleep with you in your bed tonight?” He asks softly, and your eyes widen, dropping the marker in your hand. Upon seeing your reaction, his own eyes widen for a second before he laughs. “No, not like that, silly! Unless you want to-” he starts, before you start to wiggle out of his grasp.

“You’re disgusting, Kook,” you laugh off, hiding your embarrassed expression and shaking your head. He grins, squeezing you tighter in his grasp. “... But since you asked so nicely, I guess. Don’t expect me to cuddle you, though! I would still prefer to cuddle with my bear rather than you!” You joke lightly, the lie going right through your teeth. He grins, nuzzling into your neck and making you blush even more. This was the first time that he’d ever been so affectionate with you aside from the casual side hug, and you weren’t sure if it was because of the favor or if he was being legitimate with laying on the affection so heavy.

“Mhm, but you’re still warm nonetheless so don’t be surprised when you wake up and I’m spooning you.” He releases his hold on you, grinning and going into the kitchen. You were stuck in your place, hearing the pans start to bang in the back and you just sighed, burying your face into your hands. Tonight will be a long night, and you’re not sure whether or not you’re on board with it or you’re against it.

—

“Hey, I think we should head up, yeah?” Jungkook nudges you as you pull out your latest attempt at your friend’s famous recipe for apple cider donuts. You purse your lips, looking at your watch. The watch read back 2:30 AM, and you realized that meant by the time you got into the bed (with Jungkook, you mentally reminded yourself), you would have to wake up in 3 hours.

“Kookie, why didn’t you tell me earlier? You knew we would have to get up early to finish the cakes anyways!” You huffed, pouting at him. He laughed softly, pulling the tray of donuts from your hand and placing them onto the speed rack.

“I’m sorry,” he smiled, taking your hand as you both headed towards the door that led to the upstairs apartment. “You just looked super in thought with whatever you were baking, I didn’t want to interrupt.” You noticed the way he held your hand, as you guys both went up the stairs. “I was also busy with closing up the shop, since you were in the back of the house all day. Why don’t you wash up first, hm? I’m gonna make some tea for us.” He patted your head, going into the kitchen, toeing off his shoes on the way. His uniform was still on, you noticed, making you smile as you went into the bathroom to prepare for the night.

Once you were out the bathroom, you could hear Jungkook on the phone when you waddled out in your pajamas, and he turned when he heard your feet padding through the hallway. He bid goodbye to who he was on the phone with (his mother, you presumed) and he held out the mug full of sleepytime tea to you. He had taken off the apron, and his hair, once styled to reveal his forehead, had been reverted back to his natural hairstyle. You waddled over, taking the mug with a silent thanks and you sat across from him at the bar table.

“What’s your fondest memory?” You ask him after you finished half your tea, making him look up from absentmindedly scrolling on his phone. He purses his lips in thought, before sighing.

“When I studied abroad during my junior year, I was stuck at the train station and I didn’t have enough money to get home. I didn’t know what to do, so I set down the hat I was wearing at the time and I started to sing.” He nodded, taking another sip of his tea. “I only say it was fond because so many people gathered around to hear me do this mediocre cover of Sofa by Crush, and so many girls offered to pay for me. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t even hit most of the lower notes.” He laughed softly, finishing the tea in his mug, watching as you also finish your tea. “What about you?” He questions after setting both mugs in the empty sink, you standing to join him at the other side of the table.

“I think my fondest memory has to be opening up this bakery. Me and my best friend had always talked about opening up a bakery together, and seeing it all come together seems like it happened so long ago, when in reality the bakery’s only been open for two years, going on three in February.” You smile fondly at the memory of the first day, leaning on him. “I’ve always been super dedicated to the bakery, if there was a day that passed that I didn’t want to work to open it, I feared I would lose the passion to open it...” You were beginning to fight the sleepiness, and he could tell.

“Let’s get to sleep, yeah?” He picks you up, your arms wrapping around his neck on instinct. You clung to him like a sloth, nuzzling your head into his neck. Once you two got into your room, he laid you down gently, pulling the bear you promised to hug from where he was to lay and into your arms. He went to go change into his nightwear, and soon enough, you felt the bed dip and a certain pair of muscular arms encircle you, as well as a soft whisper of your name.

“Goodnight, mon petit chou.”

“Shut up, Jungkook”

—

When you woke up the next morning, the bear you promised you’d cuddle all night had ended up on the floor, the bed sheets tangled between your and Jungkook’s legs, and you were cuddling into his chest as much as you could. He was still fast asleep, holding onto you like you were about to fall apart in his arms any moment. The warmth that you two created was too comfortable to move, and you contemplated closing the bakery for the day to stay in bed all day with him.

An alarm went off what felt like 10 minutes later, Troye Sivan’s Youth playing throughout the room. Of course that was Jungkook’s ringtone. You laughed at the thought but when you saw that he wasn’t waking up immediately, you took matters into your own hands. Rolling over him so you were on top, you sat up straight before shaking him a little.

“Kookie, it’s time to wake up for work!” You chirp, seeing a grin rise on his face. Suddenly, you were pulled down from arms that snuck up to your face. You yelped in surprise, wiggling wildly when he laughed softly against your struggle.

“You make too much noise in the morning and you’ve barely moved.” He says into your ear, one arm letting half of your body free as he snoozes his alarm. “Let’s just stay in~ I don’t want to leave the bed.” He grinned, nuzzling your neck. Right as you were about to answer him back, you hear your text tone go off, your best friend’s name flashing across the screen. You sit up on top of Jungkook, pursing your lips in curiosity of what they had wanted so early in the morning.

“I think we’d have to close today anyways, we’re busy!” You grinned, showing him your screen. Your friend had sent a message about a cake for a locally famous artist, Kim Taehyung. Jungkook raised an eyebrow as to question why you would need his contact. “My friend and I have been in talks with Taehyung since we opened this place, and we’re in charge of making the star of his next gallery opening, the most over-the-top cake you can imagine!” You were ecstatic, much like a kid being given an unlimited budget in a candy store. Jungkook smiled at your excitement, happy for you as well as the bakery.

“So we’re closing up shop today so we can work on this cake with the artist?” Jungkook questioned. He wanted to know more about this Taehyung character and your relation to him. He knew of the artist from some of his shows at art museums around the city, since Jungkook was also a fan of art. You crawled back into the bed with Jungkook, nodding and smiling up at him.

“Yep! And not to mention, since it’s only the appointment today, we can stay in and sleep a little longer.” Your arm lazily draped around him, giggling as he pulled you closer and enclosing you in his arms.

“Oh? More time with you is always great.” He grinned down at you. You couldn’t look at him long, since you knew you’d get lost in him if you stared any longer. You felt something soft brush the top of your head, and as quick as it was there, it was gone. “What time do we have to be downstairs then, hm?” He asks quietly, stroking your hair slowly and you felt yourself falling asleep under his touch.

“We go down when the bakery typically opens, and we just talk with the client,” you say sleepily, snuggling into him, “and then we draw up the cake and make the dream come true, since we only get a 48 hour notice, unless it’s a wedding cake.” You two fall in a comfortable silence, and when Jungkook realizes your breathing has gone even and you were fast asleep, he smiles, kissing your forehead and bidding you a goodnight before falling asleep himself, his head resting comfortably on top of yours.

—

Jungkook’s first love was you. He always thought that falling in love hit you immediately, but he fell in love with the way you did small things, how you used to wait with him for the bus home, telling him to text you when he gets back, and even the way you looked when you were so deep in concentration while decorating a single dessert. It was one of his own mottos that living without passion is like being dead, and it filled his heart with joy to see how passionate you were about the bakery.

He didn’t understand why it was so hard for him to make eye contact with Taehyung when the three of you were in the room together. You and Taehyung had clicked and when he decided to zone back into the conversation, you two would be reminiscing about your high school days. From the information that he gathered, you two and the original co-owner of the bakery were the inseparable trio during high school, and while you were drawing out the cake, he noticed that sometimes Taehyung would take the pencil from you and draw some of his own things, and he wasn’t sure if you were totally okay with that.

The hour consultation felt like years to Jungkook, and when it was over he was more than relieved. You and Taehyung said your goodbyes and once Taehyung left, Jungkook wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around you and never let you go.

--

“What’s up, Jungkook? You seem a little off.” You frown, poking at Jungkook’s side. The time after Taehyung left, Jungkook had been uncharacteristically silent, literally punching into the fondant while he was kneading it out. You figured the poking was going to do nothing, so you went with the second thing that would definitely get his attention. Your arms wrapped around him from behind, the younger boy immediately going tense. He stopped kneading the fondant, sighing and turning to you. He enclosed you in a warm hug, nuzzling his nose into your hair.

“I don’t know, I felt super out of place when you and Taehyung were talking.” He admits, not wanting to look at you. He didn’t want to see how sad you would get when both of you would make eye contact. You blink, trying to figure out why he was so sensitive about Taehyung, when it all clicked in a second.

“Kookie~ Are you jealous of Taehyung?” You giggled, pulling away and scrunching up your nose at him. “Why would you be jealous of Tae?” Jungkook’s ears went red. He turned away from you, the embarrassment creeping up on him quick. You laughed softly, shaking your head at him.

“I don’t know… I didn’t like the way he was looking at you and stuff. It sounds stupid, we’re not even dating, let alone roommates, but like--” Your laughing caught him off guard from him spilling his feelings, and for a split second, he was offended. You made eye contact with him, a mischievous glint in your eyes.

“Kookie… He’s gay and we’ve been best friends for years, it’s nothing big, okay?” You patted his head, pulling away completely. He stood there shocked, mouth wide open. You tilted your head slightly in curiosity, a slightly amused look on your face as he started to stutter. “Enough of that, Jungkookie! Let’s get to baking this cake! The event is tomorrow and I’m not letting you stay in my apartment to just gawk at my friends and their sexual orientation!” You grinned, going back to trimming the cakes. Jungkook shook his head, going back to kneading the colors into the fondant. He really should’ve asked more about Taehyung preceding the consultation, but what was done was done, and he just made a big fool of himself in front of you.

----

The cake that Taehyung wanted was requested as such: “This is my first solo show, and a lot of my pieces are based off of my trip to Italy. Can you make something reminiscent of the Spanish Steps in Rome? But in a fashion that it incorporates mostly this one specific blue palette! Oh, and the cake flavors could be chocolate cappuccino torte!”. Even if you did love Taehyung with all your soul, him being the missing third in your best friend trio, his request was insane and you had to brainstorm the final idea 4 times before both of you compromised on the final look.

You and Jungkook worked nonstop on the cake, only pausing when an alarm went off at 7 to eat food instead of just sustaining off of small pieces of cake and other various leftover desserts that were left in the fridge that had not spoiled.

As you guys ate dinner, Jungkook had a million questions about Taehyung. Such questions included things as how you met, craziest thing you had done together, and if he ever kissed you, which you couldn’t help but look at him as if he was insane. The conversation was so extensive that it had gone into past dinner and into your round two of throwing the cakes in the refrigerator and molding fondant flowers.

You couldn’t help but look over at Jungkook’s concentrated state, watching him delicately thin the edges of the petal and attach it onto the rest of the fondant flower. Taehyung had chosen the crocus flower for this cake, a flower that both you and Jungkook were unfamiliar with. You took it upon yourself earlier to google what the flower was and it what it looked like. The crocus flower is a late blooming flower, an autumn flower that represents youthful joy, which you thought was extremely fitting for Taehyung. Once you and Jungkook saw the image, you set to work with the fondant, teaching Jungkook since he had never made fondant flowers before.

The quiet of the bakery seemed to be too much for the both of you, so a while after dinner, you turned your phone back on to blast music in the back of the house on the overhead speakers. You two worked all night, leaving the fondant flowers out to dry, doweling the cake, and making the basic structural components to the cake. Time seemed to pass by faster when you were working with music, sometimes you would catch Jungkook staring at you while you were working, and while you joked with him to get back to work, you also couldn’t help but stare at him when it was his turn to be busy.

A pot of tea later you and Jungkook had finally finished, watching the sun rise through the window and the early morning businessmen speed walk their way to the train. The clock read 8AM as you both went back up into your apartment, not even bothering to change as you both wiped out on your bed, your head resting on Jungkook’s chest and his arm wrapped around your waist.

By the time you had woken up, it was 3PM, and the lack of warmth from underneath you had woken you up. You smelled something coming from the kitchen, which automatically registered as fear in your brain. The last time Jungkook had cooked in the kitchen, he ended up burning the scrambled eggs that he tried surprising as breakfast in bed for you, and you had woken up just in time before your kitchen (your most sacred area in the house) had burned down. You immediately kicked off the covers, speed waddling into the kitchen to be met with Jungkook’s back, bent over to the oven to pull out a pan of roasted brussel sprouts, potatoes, and beets. Jungkook turned around, flinching a little by your presence, but laughing at your surprised reaction because of him cooking with ease.

“I googled a recipe, if you were wondering.” Jungkook smiled, setting the pan down over the stove and removing the oven mitt. You breathed a sigh of relief, walking over to Jungkook and grabbing bowls and forks from the cabinet.

“We shouldn’t eat a lot, Kookie. If we have a lot of time tonight, I’ll make dinner, okay?” You passed him a bowl, pulling out a spatula to spoon some of the vegetables on the pan onto your plate. You and Jungkook ate in silence, and you took into account the different spices he had used, each differing with the vegetable he had used. After your meal, you both went back downstairs to put the cake into the box, carrying it into the car. The cake ended up being 4 tiers and if you were honest, one of the best cakes you had done. You felt a surge of pride as you and Jungkook went back, a smile so wide on your face that Jungkook couldn’t help but notice.

“What’s with the smile, hm?” Jungkook pinched your cheek lightly, your attention going back to him. He seemed to beam when he was opening the door for you, the sun setting by the time you went back into the store front. You gestured to go back upstairs, your smile less wide but still with as much heart as before.

“I’m just really proud of this cake, as stupid as it sounds. I’ve made and decorated a lot of cakes in the short time of me being a professional baker, but this one really does hold a special place in my heart because of the aesthetic Tae was going for. I went to Italy for a semester abroad in college and just seeing how similar it looks to when I went, I feel proud with the outcome of the cake.” You smiled, unlocking the door and kicking your shoes off immediately. As you walked over to the couch, Jungkook couldn’t help but feel his heart surge with a new wave of love for you.

“Let’s go to Italy someday,” Jungkook blurts out, making you turn around. His eyes widen and he’s quick to follow up “... soon! Like as a friend vacation or something, we can bring along like, Hoseok and Taehyung or something.” He scratches the back of your head. You blush at the idea of going out to Italy, just the two of you on a gondola, leaning in for a kiss--

Your text tone snaps you out of your thoughts, a specific sound only set aside for texts from Taehyung. You whip out your phone, unlocking it quickly to see the message.

[From: Taehyungie 4:15 PM]: heyyyy bb forgot 2 tell u

[From: Taehyungie 4:15 PM]: yr invited tnight!! bring ur bf

[From: Taehyungie 4:16 PM]: cocktail party, not too formal, dont forget the cake

You furrowed your brows at the text, completely disregarding the second part of the second text. Taehyung must have something up his sleeve if he was inviting you along, but you knew you couldn’t get it out of him. You knew Taehyung was good at one thing particularly, and that was the element of surprise.

“Ah, looks like we were invited? It’s not out of the ordinary, but I don’t know if you brought any semi-formal clothes?” You looked up at the younger one, who’s current outfit was his usual white shirt and black pants, only instead of it being clean, it was covered in flour, freeze dried fruit powder, and powdered sugar.

“Oh, I think you mentioned it to me, I can go see what I brought? You can change first, I’ll just change after you.” He nods, watching you type away on your phone. You quickly typed a response, making sure Jungkook couldn’t see your phone. You got up from the couch, walking into your room and into the closet.

[To: Taehyungie 4:23 PM]: o,,, ok

[To: Taehyungie 4:23 PM]: hes not my boyfriend tae

[From: Taehyungie 4:25 PM]: ok but dont blame me when i claim his as mine :P

[From: Taehyungie 4:26 PM]: set up the cake in the main room and then come into the main gallery, you wont miss much with the way you work!!!

You looked up at the dresses that were hanging in your closet, opting for a black halter neck keyhole dress. You hurried into the bathroom, changing quickly and grabbing all the makeup and your contacts, doing your makeup in the vanity as Jungkook went in to change into whatever he pulled out.

When the bathroom door opened once you were done doing your makeup, you knew if you weren’t gone before from what charms Jungkook had, you were definitely a goner by now. Jungkook walked back out with his hair styled to reveal his forehead, a little makeup on, with a fitted all-black tuxedo look, dressed down a little with a few buttons unbuttoned so that it was more casual than having a tie on over the black dress shirt. You don’t think you’ve ever seen a man dress up this nice and this well, and you’ve gone to numerous opera nights where the dress code was formal. Your face went red as he turned to face you, a smirk on his face. It was different than the shit eating smile that he would give you when he wanted something from you.

No, this was some kinda Big Dick Energy smile you had only seen once before. You shuddered when he checked you out, a lazy grin on his face. This was not the first time Jungkook had teased you like this. He’d only done this once before when you were seeing him off one night at the bus stop, after he asked for a kiss on the cheek goodbye.

“You clean up pretty well, mon petit chou.” He chuckles, and you had to hide your blushing face from him. Your hands quickly flew to your face, and all you could hear was his faint laugh. “Why won’t you look at me, hmm?” He typically didn’t like to play around like this, but seeing you all flustered over his look made him feel more confident in the look.

“There you go with the cabbage thing again! Why do you keep calling me a cabbage?” You pouted up at Jungkook, trying to wiggle your hands out of his grasp. He chuckled, letting go of your hands.

“I’ll explain later, but for now, we have an event to go to, don’t we?” Jungkook grinned, standing up and extending his hand to you. You sighed, rolling your eyes and grabbing his hand. Once he pulled you up from the bed and you rearranged your dress, you both went to go slip on your pair of easy black heels, and respectively, his own dress shoes (which you had never seen till today? Jungkook was full of surprises). When you were coming up from fastening your shoes, you felt something wet brush your cheek, making you go red once more. Jungkook had just kissed your cheek and you were trying your hardest not to freak out.

“I bet you’ll be prettier than the art there.” Jungkook says softly, his body ridiculously close to yours. He was being ridiculously flirty, and if he wanted to play like that, well, two people can play that game. You grinned, biting your lip and looking up at him.

“Careful Jeon, you might distract me from the art.” You giggle upon seeing Jungkook’s shocked reaction to flirting back with him, grabbing his hand as you both go down the stairs, almost forgetting to lock the door on your way down.

The car ride there consisted of small playful banter and small flirting back and forth. You couldn’t miss the way how one of Jungkook’s hands rested on your thigh for the ride there, but your mind was stuck on how much you still had to put together at the venue, most of the flowers that you had made still not on the cake in fear of them falling over and breaking during transport. As if Jungkook could feel your worry radiate off of you, he would draw small circles on the flesh of your outer thigh where his hand rested near your knee, calming down your nerves.

The venue was on the opposite side of town, so while you and Jungkook drove down the scenic highway along the lake, you couldn’t help but roll the windows down and let the wind blow through your hair. You heard Jungkook laughing while you watched the skyline come into view and disappear down the highway, marveling at the city. Had it not been for the changing scenery from blues to the yellow leaves on the trees on the way down, you would have thought this was a normal summer night between a couple teenagers.

Once you two got to the venue, you found a cart to wheel in the cake while Jungkook found the last of the fondant flowers in the back, safe from any damage even if the ride down to the venue was smooth. You and Jungkook wheeled in the cake, carefully putting it on the table. The space you and Jungkook were in was quite empty, which gave you a nice ambience so that you could finish the cake.

Rather, you take out the fondant flowers while Jungkook put them on the cake, since he could actually see to the top of the cake. After placing the last few flower buds on the cake and doing some last minute touch ups, you two went into the main room, as Taehyung had instructed in his text. Before opening the door to the gallery where bossanova jazz played softly, Jungkook held out his arm for you to link with, a soft smile on his face. Grinning back, you swallowed your heart back down as you linked arms with him. He kissed your cheek, to your surprise, and when you looked back at him, he chucked softly.

“Let’s give them something to talk about, mon petit chou.”

The gallery itself seemed smaller than you remembered from when you were younger, a lot of ridiculously large prints of photos and abstract oil paintings contributed from Taehyung’s collection. There were some you had recognized from older exhibits where his art had been featured, and seeing how his art had grown made your heart swell. You had known Taehyung for a ridiculously long time now, and just seeing where his art had taken him made you extremely proud.

As you and Jungkook marveled at Taehyung’s work, you heard someone yell your name in the venue, and hurried heel clicking. Before you could register who could be yelling your name, a body slammed onto yours and a familiar laugh filled your ears, one that you hadn’t heard since Jungkook came into your life.

“I didn’t know you’d be here!” Your best friend, Ji Hae, who you had opened up the bakery with beamed at you. Ji Hae looked Jungkook up and down, and it only took her a split second to recognize him. “And you must be the new baker that every Yelp review is talking about! I’m Ji Hae, co-owner of the bakery!” Ji Hae held out her hand to shake Jungkook’s hand. Jungkook’s arm around you slipped off and shook her hand, smiling.

“Ah, I’m Jungkook, it’s nice to meet you, Ji Hae.” He smiled. After he introduced himself, Ji Hae snaked her arms around your waist, grinning.

“You won’t mind if I borrow her, right? I need to catch up with her.” Ji Hae didn’t leave any time for Jungkook to reply as you were pulled away from him. You were completely confused but once you realized you were moving, your senses kicked in.

“Ah, Jungkookie, if you wanna go home and I’m not back, just text me!” You called out before your friend pulled you to another part of the gallery. Jungkook shook his head, going back to admiring the photograph in front of him. It was only a few beats before a flute of champagne was held in front of him. The flute was being offered by Taehyung, who was also holding a glass himself.

“Did they leave you alone? I told Ji Hae not to do that…” Taehyung tsked. Jungkook accepted the champagne from him, nodding.

“Ji Hae surely is a character… The both of them get along well.” Jungkook chuckled, looking over at Taehyung. Jungkook took a sip, watching Taehyung in his peripheral vision nod thoughtfully.

“How much do you know about your co-worker, Jungkook?” Taehyung questioned, Jungkook almost spitting out his champagne. He blinked slowly at the older man, Taehyung looking back at Jungkook with a raised eyebrow. The younger brown haired man coughed a little, wiping his mouth a little from the champagne that threatened to escape his mouth.

“W-well, I know she knows minimal french from high school, her birthday, her favorite tea is herbal and she only has real coffee once a month--” Jungkook rambles before Taehyung holds up a hand, shaking his head.

“No no, what do you know about her? All that stuff you just listed out is basic. Is there anything that catches your attention? It doesn’t have to be big and glaring, small things are things as well.” He grins at Jungkook. Jungkook tilts his head in confusion before it finally clicked in his head.

“Well, when she’s deep in concentration, she tilts her head just slightly, even if the orientation of whatever she’s working on is completely straight. Her favorite color and the colors that she’s attracted to are completely different, and if anyone sings around her, her nose scrunches, although I’m not sure why…” Jungkook trails off, thinking harder about your little nuances, but Taehyung’s chuckles snapped him out of the thoughts before he could delve deeper.

“That sounds so classic of her. You know she was a music major in high school? She’s an amazing singer and it’s sad she doesn’t use her voice all that often anymore. I think you’re the only person to know that about her outside of anyone who knew us back then. I have also never heard of any guy observe her that hard.” Taehyung nods. “Do you spend a lot of time looking at her?” Jungkook goes pink, matching half of Taehyung’s half-and-half pink and blonde hair.

“I’ve been uh… Living with her for the last few months, maybe 3?” This time, it was Taehyung’s time to sputter at the comment. He looked at Jungkook, jaw slack. “So yeah, I guess I’ve been looking at her a lot.” He chuckled nervously.

“I saw her come in with you and she was clinging onto your arm. Is she always that touchy with you or was it just for show tonight?” Taehyung was completely intrigued with your relationship with Jungkook, and Jungkook didn’t know how to avoid the questions, this was Taehyung’s show and he couldn’t go anywhere else without you. You’d probably punch him or something.

“Well, we sleep in the same bed, nothing goes any further than hugging, but sometimes she’ll reach out for my hands to hold, or she’ll automatically lean on me when we’re doing something together.” Jungkook shrugged casually, finishing the champagne that was given to him earlier. Taehyung’s eyebrows raised in surprise, before he set down his half empty glass. He scanned the room before leaning into Jungkook.

“She’s being really touchy and she hasn’t said anything about liking you? Are you sure you aren’t dating?” He reaffirms with Jungkook, who just nods in return. “Just shoot your shot, Kook! She probably does like you, but she doesn’t think about it because she’s so into the bakery.” He flashes Jungkook a boxy grin, punching Jungkook’s arm. Jungkook looked at Taehyung in disbelief, and he was skeptical about Taehyung’s advice. Surely, you couldn’t be into him, right?

“Ah, there you two are!” You came back, automatically going to stick on the side of Jungkook. Taehyung shot Jungkook a look and only wiggled his brows. “Let’s go see the other art!” You smile happily, lightly tugging Jungkook away.

You two continue your night right where it left off, a little bit of flirting here and there, and soon enough, the cake that you two had created was cut. Jungkook noticed that your grip loosened a little, so he took it upon himself to grab a piece of cake off the table and cut off a bite size piece.

“Hey, Earth to mon petit chou, say ah~” Jungkook cooed, snapping you out of your trance. “You’re really distant, are you okay?” He smiles at you, his fork in front of your mouth. You gladly accept the cake at first, watching as his hand sets down the fork on the plate and his arm travels down to hold your hand, squeezing it lightly. You lace fingers with him, nodding a little and smiling. You swallowed the bit of cake before replying to him.

“Yeah, just a little sleepy, should we head back?” You yawn a little, emphasizing on your exhaustion. “I think this is the most human interaction I’ve had in a minute.” You giggle, leaning into Jungkook.

You two congratulate Taehyung on the art show once more, and after numerous hugs and goodbyes are said, you and Jungkook finally make it into the car. Jungkook puts on music once more, but it’s more calm music instead, lulling you to sleep in the car. Once he stopped at the stop sign, he looked over to you, smiling softly as you fall asleep with one of his hands linked with yours. Once you two pull up to your apartment, Jungkook stretches in the car seat and sighs once more. You were dead asleep in the seat, and he figured he would have to carry you back up. He unbuckles his seat belt, cutting off the engine. Getting out of the car and opening your door, he made sure that you wouldn’t fall out, scooping you into his arms bridal-style.

Jungkook fumbles with the keys for a split second, but he managed to open the door with you not waking up, which is a personal surprise for himself. Slipping out of his dress shoes, he opens the door to the bedroom. He lays you down on the bed, taking his time to change into his sleepwear. He kept thinking about Taehyung’s words about how you might like him back, as well as the other facts that he had heard from him.

Jungkook walks back out, frowning when he realized you were still in your party clothes. It didn’t vibe with him for you to sleep in the clothes you had gone to the party in. He nudged you gently, watching you stir to face him.

“Hey, don’t you want to change out of your contacts before we sleep?” Jungkook’s voice rang in your ears. A groan escaped your throat as you stretched out in the bed.

“You don’t live enough, Kookie.” You grumble, sitting up so that you could go change out of your contacts and your dress. You padded over to the bathroom, grabbing all the necessary items such as your makeup wipes and your pajamas, slowly getting ready for bed. Once you were back out of the bathroom, you spotted Jungkook lounging on your bed, checking his phone once more and turning on his alarms. You crawled onto his side, pulling the sheets over your shoulders.

“Goodnight, Kookie~” You cooed before falling back asleep by his side. Jungkook’s heart skipped a beat, gulping nervously at your sleeping figure. Maybe he could entertain the idea that Taehyung was right for a second, that you were in love but you were too oblivious to see it.

Jungkook wasn’t sure how he could live out this imagination, and his heart told him not to pursue anything. He wouldn’t want to ruin anything with the best thing to happen in his life.

----

It was an uncharacteristically slow day at the bakery, you guessed it was because it was finals week for a lot of the schools around you, but nonetheless, a bit too quiet in the bakery. It was actually so quiet that you could hear your thoughts over the soft jazz music that always played at the front of the house. Pursing your lips, you went over to the stereo and turned the music up a little more, bobbing your hair to the music while also rearranging the baked goods.

“First in, first out.” You chanted softly as you rearranged the macarons, making sure to set aside the broken cookies (how did they manage to break?) and the less appealing tarts. Jungkook walked out into the front of the house, seeing you bob to some bossanova before grinning. He goes over to the stereo, turning on a certain album that both you two enjoyed. There was no one in the bakery at the time, so when the song’s beginning started playing, you were thrown off from your flow.

“Jungkook, what the hell?” You sighed, rolling your eyes. You weren’t mad about the music change, but there was a mischievous glint in his eyes when he wrapped his arms around you.

“You don’t have the urge to sing along? We’re too busy to go to karaoke and I’ve never heard you sing, only occasional humming from time to time. Didn’t you go to an arts school for voice?” Jungkook teased, remembering the conversation he had with Taehyung at the gallery opening. Your face flushed, which he took as a positive and he started to sing along first. It was Daniel Caesar and H.E.R’s Best Part, and due to the copious amounts of times you had listened to that song, you memorized the lyrics. The chorus came up quicker than you thought, and you found yourself singing along with Jungkook.

“I just wanna see how beautiful you are…” You start singing along in the octave that H.E.R is singing in, only tuning in a little to hear Jungkook’s lower register. You grin and sing along to the rest, wiggling out of his grasp. You never took the time to actually sing full on anymore, and you felt a little rusty singing along. A little while later, you peeked over to Jungkook, who had apparently stopped singing. He was staring at you in awe, his eyes wide. You sauntered over to him after you were done cleaning out the display case, resting your arms on his shoulders, slow-dance style.

“If you love me, won’t you say something?” You smiled up at him. Your heart swelled when you felt Jungkook’s arms wrap around your waist, slow dancing with you as he found his voice to sing back to you. He touched foreheads with you, closing his eyes as you closed yours. You both savored the moment, his breath on yours. You could feel your heart beating as if you just ran, and you opened one eye, starting to lean in. The bell on the door suddenly interrupted both of you, Jungkook flying off of you as you turned away from the door, face as red as the raspberry macarons.

“W-welcome to--” Jungkook cleared his throat, silently gesturing you to go to the back of the house while he regained his composure, saying the name of the bakery as you went into the back, fanning your face. You watched as he helped out the mom with her baby, a soft smile on your face.

The music in the bakery continued to play one of Jungkook’s R&B playlists, a Sabrina Claudio song playing next. As you continued to watch him clean up where you left off, you couldn’t quite place the feeling that Jungkook gave you, and you weren’t sure if you liked it or not.

--

According to a lot of love language profiles, your heart usually warmed with the idea of someone surprising you with little things, acts of service, to be specific.

It was a trend with all of your romantic partners in your past, you usually felt extremely appreciative when they did small things like make your cups of tea, wash the dishes, or other extremely domestic things along that sort. In return, you would always try to help them out, but you never felt a click with the people you dated.

You never noticed it, but Jungkook would always do these things for you. He would make you cups of tea and remind you to eat when you would go long hours without any breaks, making you your favorite tea when you were having a down day, or even making you a quick sandwich that sat by your side as a gentle reminder. By the time you would notice these things, he’d always be back to the task at hand, whether that be entertaining the girls in the bakery or making more goods to put out.

The winter season where your bakery was located felt like they started from mid October to April. When November hit, you could feel yourself struggling to get out of bed, the motivation in your body slowly decreasing. Jungkook had started to notice this in you, but he wasn’t sure what was wrong. You usually were extremely happy and upbeat, but for a few weeks, you would barely talk in the morning and would prefer to work in the back of the house. Not to mention, you were a lot more touchy and would typically lean into Jungkook more or back hug him when you had the chance.

Although he didn’t mind, and he would typically reciprocate the touchiness, but he wanted to do more, and worried himself about you to the point where he fell under the weather. You seemed a lot more distant when both of you were upstairs, and you would typically stay downstairs for a little while longer, dismissing Jungkook to go upstairs so that he could sleep earlier and not be so sick coming into work.

You didn’t want to tell Jungkook that you would dismiss him upstairs so that you could meet with other people without worrying him. Although you liked Jungkook a lot, you were scared of how he would look at you if you confessed to him. You didn’t know if he even liked you like that, so it was better to be safe rather than sorry. You’ve been distracting yourself from falling further into the seasonal depression and in love with Jungkook by throwing yourself into the world of online dating, swiping absentmindedly when Jungkook worked front of the house. You had a date tonight, and you attempted to look better than normal before closing up the shop and waiting in front.

You had planned on going out with this guy (His name was Kim Seokjin, a nice guy, really) twice before, but he had always rain checked before you could go out with him, and you guys were planning on going to the holiday market downtown. The meeting was supposed to go that you guys met at the bakery and then make your way down, since the train near your bakery went directly down to the market. You both agreed that you would meet at 7:30, 30 minutes after the bakery closed, but once the clock hit 8, you were losing faith in meeting up with him. You waited for him for another hour, and as much as you wanted to not believe it, you had just been stood up.

Admitting defeat, you sulked immensely, going back up to your apartment. This wasn’t the first guy to do this to you, and you were actively seeking for love from people you thought you clicked with. Your brain started to fill itself with self deprecating thoughts as you opened the door, the soft sounds of the Netflix series Nailed It! playing. Jungkook looked up from the couch, already all showered and ready to go to bed, but on nights like these he would wait for you to come back before you both went to sleep. That, along with all your other overwhelming internal dialogue seemed too much that you started to feel the tears well up in your eyes.

“I’m home…” You barely managed to get out from the overwhelming emotions that washed over you. The TV had no noise coming from it, meaning that either Jungkook had paused it or muted it. You avoided eye contact in the general direction from where he was, the tears falling silently down your face as you yanked off the scarf and fumbled with the buttons of your pea coat. Jungkook noticed the way you rubbed furiously at your eyes almost rhythmically, after every button on your coat was becoming undone. He frowned, sitting up on the couch.

“Is everything alright, chou?” He wanted to stand up, but something in him told him to keep rooted. Jungkook was about to turn back to the tv when he heard something rushing towards him, and suddenly you were in his arms, your own arms wrapped around him tightly as you openly sobbed on him. You had never cried on Jungkook, and here you were, bawling on him. Jungkook started to rub your back gently, squeezing you. He had learned somewhere that during a panic or anxiety attack, you should squeeze the person in order to ease their anxiety. He didn’t know what was wrong, but obviously it was something bothersome enough that it would send you into tears like this. He whispered words of reassurance in your ear, continuing to rub your back slowly.

You both stayed like this for a while, your breathing evening out before Jungkook rolled you over so that you were on the couch. He slowly peeled away and before you could protest, he smiled softly at you and stroked your cheek. “I’m gonna get some stuff, okay? I’ll be back soon. Don’t miss me too much.” True to Jungkook’s word, he came back quickly, your blanket, some milk tea that was sitting in a thermos (he probably had made it earlier for you to have when you came home), and a plush that you thought was hidden from him, a little black bear with a heart shaped patch. He sat down next to you again, you automatically curling into him as he wrapped you both in the blanket and made the little bear plush kiss your cheek before setting it in your lap. His arms wrap back around you, stroking your hair softly. “If you’re comfortable, you can tell me what’s wrong, yeah? No rush.” He reassures you. You both sit in a comfortable silence before he hears a sigh come from you. You curl closer into him, the bear being a slight barrier between you and him as you spill to him about the whole date ordeal.

“Jungkookie, I’ve been taken for granted for so fucking long… I always give so much and I never get it reciprocated. It’s almost cruel how scary that giving and receiving ratio is. I’ve been stood up so many times, I’ve never clicked with any of the people I have dated, and I just think something is wrong with me, or maybe I’m too dedicated to this bakery that I can’t ever date.” You bite your lip, smushing the face of the bear in. You had to keep your hands busy so that Jungkook wouldn’t see the trembling in your hands. You couldn’t prevent it for long, however, since Jungkook looked down at your hands playing constantly and held them in his own. You couldn’t look at his eyes, but you could feel his frown. His hands squeezed yours and tears began to resurface. “I just don’t know if anyone will love me for me, in all the times that I’m here running the bakery, love me even with the lack of time.” You could barely get the last part out, hiding your face in Jungkook’s chest once more. Jungkook lets go of your hands, squeezing you once more so that you wouldn’t say any more.

“That’s not true, you have so many people that love you. You have so many friends and I’m sure that they would all hate to see you so sad.” He starts off. There’s a reluctant pause in his voice, a space where he would say he loves you, but before he could say more, you open your mouth.

“I know that there’s that kinda love, but Kook,” you start to emphasize, sulking. “I want someone that I can imagine in my life that kisses me awake and stuff. You have so many girls doting over you, I want to feel like that for someone, you know?” You whine, “That’s just never gonna be me with anyone so I’m just-” He cuts you off by squeezing you again, pressing his forehead against yours.

“You need to hush sometimes, you know?” Jungkook sighs softly, his heart about to burst from what he’s about to say. “I know you won’t give love another chance, but I want to be the one to show you how love can be reciprocated.” His cheeks dust a light pink and you didn’t know how to react. “I promise I won’t break your heart intentionally, I love you too much for that to happen.”

You were in complete disbelief over his confession, because that confession was something that you thought would never happen to you. You would’ve thought that eventually, Jungkook would’ve gotten a girlfriend (that wasn’t you) and would have to quit the bakery and leave you alone once more. For a split second, you thought Jungkook was lying before you realized he was a man of his word. Even with the smallest promises, Jungkook would always be able to live up to the promises.

“It’s always been you, mon petit chou.” He smiles softly, wiping the last of the tears that were on your face. That was the last thing you heard before you pulled him in, a sweet kiss that tasted like the earl grey vanilla tea. He gladly returned the sweet little kiss, pulling away from you.

“I kinda… wanna bake with you for like a long time. Maybe forever.” You blush, covering your eyes at your stupid confession. You didn’t know how else to phrase it, and the way you said it made Jungkook chuckle.

“Is that so, mon petit chou? Well I’m glad you feel the same way.” He cooed, pulling you into another kiss.

The rest of the night was a blur, nothing further than a few kisses here and there, but nonetheless, a night that turned bad events into things that made you smile instead.

--

“You know how I call you mon petit chou?” Jungkook was currently hunched over the worktable, carefully peeling away the chocolate decorations from the parchment paper. Since it was the holiday season, you two had gotten a sudden influx of requests for yule log roll cakes (“that’s not all we make, but they always ask us to make it!”). Jungkook’s friend, Jung Hoseok had also requested for one, but specifically requested for you to make it, despite Jungkook’s protests that he made roll cakes much better than you.

You perked up at his voice, setting down the whipping cream that you were weighing out for the filling of the roll. “Yeah, I thought you just wanted to call me a little cabbage because of how short I was.” You chuckled, shaking your head at the absurd term of endearment. You heard Jungkook’s soft laugh as you poured the whipping cream into the stand mixer.

“No no, not chou as in cabbage, babe. Mon petit chou means my little cream puff. Your favorite dessert are cream puffs, aren’t they?” He hummed, rearranging the chocolate he had just peeled away on the log he was finishing up. “Plus, you’re sweet. I thought it was fitting, and when I was in France, my host mom said I should only use that name with someone I love. And I love, well, you!” He grinned, a light dust of pink on his face.

You couldn’t help but smile at the way he explained the nickname, covering your mouth from smiling too much.

“Jeon, you better get back to work before I kick your derrière.”

[internetremix]

I was wondering... Do you any of you have tips for a rookie GM? I'm setting up a game night here soon and I'm stressing the heck out over it.

Alex: No matter what game system you play it's usually quite intimidating because there are like 600 pages of information to digest. At any given time you need to have memorized only, like, thirty. At the end of the day most tabletop games are just two things - math and improv. Admittedly things that, outside of tabletop games, people go out of their way to avoid, but still.

Stress can lead people to get things done fast but also get things done sloppy. You don't need to plan out every single detail of what the characters might encounter eventually in a session. You can flesh out a couple of interesting people, places, or things you want them to see and just keep a scratch card of notes and traits for if/when they go off the beaten path. Remember, no matter what you plan, there is no accounting for the actions of players, and rolling with them provides a far better experience than slamming your fist down and saying "NO" to every deviation.

And above all else, remember that tabletop games are a collaborative effort. People come together to play games, tell stories, and shoot the shit. If shooting the shit overtakes the game you can rein that in a little but at the end of the day everyone's there voluntarily to have fun, and no one is there to see anyone fail.So to recap -

1. You are the arbiter of rules no matter what the book says. You can double-check later and take notes for future games if it becomes an issue but generally you only need to have in mind rules that are actively going to be used in game. If you don't know the exact way to handle something just make up what the closest action would be and if the player rolls what you think is well enough to do it, they did it.

2. If you don't have time to take notes on every single thing the players might encounter, congratulations, you're an average person. You only need a few based on the following factors - what do you want the players to do, how do you think they're going to do it, and do you have something prepared for when they go off the beaten path.

3. Have fun! Seriously, it's called a tabletop GAME, not a tabletop dictatorship.

Kristen: All of my games are Tabletop Dictatorships, all of them. Unfortunately I'm a terrible, weak-willed dictator so this helps nothing.

Alex: Discord Murder Party is different. Mafia/Werewolf operates way differently than D&D and needs a GM SPECIFICALLY so that players don't go off the rails.

Kristen: You are 100% correct.

God my first tabletop I ever DMed for I made my own thing and wrote like... twenty pages for my first session. And then as soon as I started, my players were like HEY I WANNA EXPLORE THE SHOPS

"O-oh.... y-yeah, here's uh... heeeere's a list of shops..."

So then I had to improv like... five shops and make multiple NPCs on the fly and then I found out "it turns out writing an entire paragraph for every NPC is an awful idea because you can't fucking read those notes mid-session"

So my point is don't do that.

Juno: Oh yeah. Last night I had to make up a guy named Lucas on the spot because JoJo's character wanted to convince a guy not to kill them

Kristen: YEP I ran the generic 5e DnD starter for a group of friends and somehow it went from a generic "you all hunt down and kill a bunch of goblins and a bugbear in a cave, way to go" to "You spared a Goblin who has a ridiculous Brooklyn accent who hates his job and now you're starting a ridiculous worker's revolution and this has ended with you all enlisting every other goblin you were supposed to fight into swarming the bugbear boss. Okay."

Juno: I mean. That's a pretty bomb plot twist if you ask me.

Kristen: Oh yes, I enjoyed it immensely. Also really in the context of a DnD game I'm pretty sure that shouldn't be doable cause I don't think any of them were supposed to be able to speak common. If your players are setting themselves up for a more interesting story and you have to bend the rules a bit to make it happen, go for it. One of the most important things for GMing is making your players feel like they have agency- as Alex said, it's collaborative, it's not just you telling your players a story.

Another thing to keep in mind is what sort of players you have. I usually prefer to play with people who are more into the RP/story aspect, but some people are gonna be more into them fighty fights and mechanics and such. Which is fine and can work, it's just a matter of striking a balance in your game.  I usually try to tailor things in such a way that everyone's getting a chance to get what they want out of a game and their shot at the spotlight, in whatever manner that takes. For me it's helped to ask my players directly "hey, what do you want out of this game? Do you have any ideas or anything you're really into?"

Mostly what I'm saying is just try to keep in mind what your players are in this for, since that contributes a lot to how much fun you all have.

Atwas: Something that's helped me a lot is to not stress out or stop the game entirely to double check rules. It sort of kills momentum. In my experience, ruling a situation and then looking something up later is a lot less stressful than the pressure of putting something completely on pause while you flip through a book/google something.

If you're doing stuff in real life, I would recommend making a little cheat sheet of your PC's information. My DM screen has sticky notes with each party characters HP, AC, Passive Perception, and Spell Save DC to keep things streamlined.

Kristen: Oooo smurt

Alex: Hell yeah dude. Also there are custom DM screens you can get tailor-made to give you quick rules references. Fairly cheap on Amazon.

Atwas: Also your players don't know if you're winging stuff unless you tell them. ;^)

Also also don't be scared of bumping monster hp up or down depending on a fight or having monsters run away or call in reinforcements. If you go off script in an encounter--surprise! Nobody knows but you. I did that quite a bit when I was starting out because balancing encounters is a bit of an art and CR is a loose guideline at best.

Also also also the point of the game isn't to win. Don't fall into the trap of "beating your players" or stuff like that. Imo that kind of messes with the table dynamics unless 100% of everyone is on board with that type of game.

Kristen: Yeah, don't fall into that and also be careful not to go into the mindset of "punishing" your players if they do something dumb. Like if it's a silly "you did this thing and consequences have gone WILDLY outside of what you expect wheee", awesome, but I've had DMs who basically would act like if you didn't somehow read their minds and find their exact solution, welp you made a dumb choice and now everyone is penalized for it. Made for a pretty toxic atmosphere, do not recommend. Kind goes hand in hand with "don't be a tabletop dictator".

Atwas: oh gods i could go on and on about how punishing someone in game never works for out of game behaviour but i digress. also please don't feel afraid to talk to your players, even if having adult conversations is difficult.

Juno: Cause and effect is the biggest thing to think about I think, especially in a DMing situation.

Alex: For instance, siccing a Revenant on the party? Thavagath made a bad decision in character, that's the natural consequence, he gets a chance to save his ass. Someone makes a dick joke about your carefully crafted NPC? Don't be a dick right back.

Atwas: sweats, trying to think back to the last time a dick joke was made in Fallen Empires

Alex: Like I think the last major one was Phill pulling a muscle stretching so hard to make a joke for five minutes about the "Male Room" rather than the "Mail Room"

But then we - wait for it - ACTUALLY DISCUSSED THE ISSUE OUT OF GAME and stuff like that doesn't pop up any more.

Atwas: WHAT? SPEAKING LIKE REASONABLE ADULTS?!?! IN MY TABLETOP?!?!?! it's really useful. please have those conversations, even if they're uncomfortable. and if something is becoming an issue, bring it up sooner rather than later--turns out that people can't change stuff if they don't know about it! Most people want to stay friends after a campaign after all.

Jojo: Have your story planned, npcs, and what you want an end goal to be. Make sure it's all planned out BEFORE asking people to join it. And if you need a second DM to help you with Dice or story, then that's ok too! I'm still a beginner DM myself, so that's the best advice I can give

These guys are pros, so listen to them

Phill: Heheh... male room

Alex: Phill no you'll pull your hamstring again

Phill:

Atwas: what do you think is Phill's average Henderson rating?

Alex: Phill has at least One Henderson in him, he destroyed Underdark to the point of we can't go back to it ever now.

Phill: I mean. Yeah. Honestly, I could've very easily seen phresh reach a 1.75 hendersons eventually.

Atwas: I'd say 1.75 works. 2 is still out of reach, but one day...

Xander: Underdark is cursed content and deserved better

Atwas: How many of he players had that as their first campaign? 3/5?

Xander: I believe so

Alex: Uprising and I had played before, I don't think Jojo, Dawn, or Phill had.

Xander: I'm probably gonna reboot Underdark one day. Wipe the slate clean. Probably not gonna be done on IR

Alex: We did it! We reached two Hendersons!

Xander: Two full Hendersons.

Phill: time unveil my new original character. Blesh

Alex: Blerish

Xander: More like Blemish

[acostarsandwritings]

A Winter Wonderland

AO3 link @pure-ninja @homicidalbaker

Elain wiped her hands on her apron, examining the freshly baked batch of cookies in front of her. She’d been in the kitchen for days, working on the winter solstice dinner. Nuala and Cerridwen had flown in and out of the house with supplies, groceries, and decorations for the mansion her sister and her mate had built. But today, Elain had decided she wanted the kitchen to herself. Cassian was still training with Nesta in the mountains, Feyre had a gathering with her new art school, Rhysand had court business to attend to, and Mor and Amren had gone shopping. Again. The only other person that had no obligations was Azriel, but he knew better than to enter the kitchen when Elain was baking.

Elain looked around the room. In hindsight, she could’ve used the shadow twins’ help – the kitchen was a mess. Pots and pans lined the stove, the counters were covered in cookies and flour, and the table in the corner was stacked with food ready for their winter solstice dinner. More food was still waiting to be prepared, as Elain had insisted they’d prepare something extra for the people of Velaris that had lost loved ones in the war. She didn’t speak of it much, but the cooking made her feel like she could give them back a bit of happiness again. After all, it had worked for her.

Outside, snow had started to fall, and the lands had been covered with a blanket of white. She was so focused on watching the flakes swirl down, she almost didn’t notice the shadows creeping into the doorway.

“Admiring the view?” Azriel’s voice had a bright tone to it, at odds with the shadows curling around him. A few flakes of snow were still stuck in his dark hair, as if he only just came in. “If I’m correct, we’ll have another night of snow. Rhys had better hurry himself back here before I have to shovel all of that away myself.”

Despite herself, Elain giggled. “Afraid of the cold, shadowsinger? Maybe you need a coat as a solstice gift…”

Azriel’s brows quirked up, but then he smiled, shrugging at the suggestion.

Elain turned towards him. “As it happens, I actually do still need to do some gift shopping. Maybe I can spare you the embarrassment of getting one from my sister. Plus, I could do with some fresh air…” She gestured to the mess behind her. “I think I’ve seen enough flour and dough for the next couple of hours. If I stay here any longer, I might become a cookie myself.”

Azriel held out his arm to her. “I would be happy to chaperone you through the city, Elain. I can even make sure you won’t turn into a holiday pastry.”

Elain’s heart fluttered at his words, the mischievous look in his eyes. She would’ve chided herself for even thinking of it, but she and Azriel had warmed up to each other lately. She could’ve sworn she’d seen him blush a few times, even. The shadows made it hard to doublecheck that, though.

“Alright then. But you’re flying me through the worst of the snow!”

Azriel only winked at her, which was so unlike him that she was too stunned to find a quick reply. Once she found her voice back, Azriel had already disappeared into shadows.

Less than half an hour later, they were walking through the heart of Velaris, looking for presents. They soon had a bunch of bags and boxes with jewelry for Amren, paintbrushes for Feyre, a beautiful new dress for Mor, and Illyrian blades for Cassian and Rhysand. She even found a small set of earrings for Nesta. The only person Elain still needed a gift for was Azriel himself.

“So,” she started. “Is there anything you would like to have as a gift?”

Azriel’s breath clouded in front of him as he sighed. “I have everything I could wish for, Elain. Plus –“ another one of those mischievous looks – “wouldn’t it spoil the surprise for me if I tell you what I want?”

Elain fought the urge to shove him. “That’s not fair, Azriel. You have your spies to figure out what we want to have by summer solstice! I could never surpass that if you have such a head start.”

Azriel chuckled. “Aren’t you the seer? Speaking of an unfair advantage, I’d say you win from all of us.”

Elain stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at him in exasperation. “You wouldn’t dare! Insufferable Illyrians…”

Azriel looked at her for a second, taking in her face, flushed from the cold, the utter look of disbelief in her eyes… and burst out in laughter. Elain felt a grin spread on her face – and an idea pop in her head. Azriel’s eyes sparked as he swirled around, lazily walking ahead. “Welcome to the family, Elain…”

For a shadowsinger, Elain had expected him to react faster – but the snowball hit him square in the back of the head. This time, it was Azriel whose face was a display of total shock.

“Elain Archeron.. Did you just hit me with a snowball?”

Her only reply was a grin that went from ear to ear. Azriel replied with a grin of his own, slowly turned himself fully toward her. “You’re going to regret that, lady.”

His snowball hit her in the middle of her nose. A squeal left her throat as it exploded over her face. “AZRIEL!”

Azriel, however, had double over from laughing.

“Oh, you’re gonna get that back, shadowsinger!”

Before she knew it, she and Azriel had launched into a very serious, but very unfair snowball fight. Azriel just kept disappearing and popping up behind her, resulting in her snowballs missing their target, and his consistently smashing against whatever piece of her body that wasn’t covered in snow yet. When one of them hit her bare neck, she yelped from the snow sliding into her coat.

“Cauldron, that’s cold!”

Azriel just smirked. “Ready to surrender yet?”

She met his eyes where he winnowed in front of her. “You wish, shadowsinger. I’m not going to go easy on –”

SMASH. A snowball came flying out from behind, hitting Azriel in the shoulder. High pitched giggles rose from the bridge, and when Elain turned, she could make out two high Fae children in winter clothing peeking out from behind the stone.

“Who dares to challenge us?!” Azriel’s voice boomed through the street, but there was only joy in it. More giggles rose from behind the wall, followed by a snowball that landed harmlessly at Elain’s feet. She glanced at Azriel. He only grinned at her and nodded in the direction of the bridge. They both scooped up a handful of snow and launched it towards the bridge. For the second time that day, Elain was in a snowball fight – except this time, she was actually winning.

A little while later, after the kids had waved goodbye, Elain was left with a soaking wet coat and frozen fingers and toes. Azriel took one look at her shivering form, burrowed his eyebrows, and wrapped his arm around her.

“Let’s get you somewhere warm, shall we? I wouldn’t want you to freeze to death right before the winter solstice. Feyre will never let me live…”

Elain, however, was so cold that she didn’t care about where they went anymore, as long as it was warm. She let Azriel lead her to a small café that looked out onto the Sidra. Snow stuck to the windows, giving the inside a cozy glow. A fire crackled in the corner of the room, warm enough that Elain finally felt her fingers thawing.

“Are you feeling a bit warmer already?” Azriel took her in over his cup of mulled wine. In the faint glow from the snowy light, he looked almost concerned.

Elain nodded. “Yes, although I feel like it might be an entire century before the ice has left my toes.”

Azriel seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then slid next to her, wrapping is arm around her. “I would hold them for you, but I might freeze myself.”

Elain pouted. “Then no one can winnow me home. I wouldn’t like that.”

Azriel laughed, and it warmed Elain more than any fire could. She looked up to him through her eyelashes, taking in the light in his hazel eyes and the tufts of his hair, now all wild from the snowball fight.

“I had a lot of fun, Azriel. Thank you for coming along with me.”

He smiled back at her, pulling her a little bit closer to his side. “You make a fine icicle, Elain Archeron.”

Elain nudged him in the ribs. “You’re insufferable, shadowsinger. I’d almost be glad I haven’t found your gift yet.” And before she could think better of it – before she could tell herself she shouldn’t – she kissed him on the cheek.

And Azriel – Azriel blushed. “Well… I’d say that was a better gift than I could ever have thought of.”

“Even with your spies?”

Azriel let out a nervous laugh. “I’d hope my spies wouldn’t say those things out loud, no…”

Elain’s heart felt like it would jump out her chest. “Why not, Azriel? What do you want?”

She had never seen Azriel – the ever composed shadowsinger, the silent, unreadable Illyrian – so lost for words. It made her heart flutter, and it made her bold enough to put her hand on his cheek.

“Would you like to know what I see in the future, shadowsinger?”

Azriel met her gaze, silently encouraging her to continue. Elain felt every beat of her heart in her throat, beating so loud that she knew Azriel could hear it from where I sat next to her. She let out a shaky breath.

“I think… I think I see a lot of mistletoe.”

Azriel blinked – once, twice – and let out a nervous laugh. “Well... let’s not wait for that, please.”

His lips on hers were the best thing she had ever felt. And in the end, it turned out that Elain had been right: Azriel had stopped her under every bush of mistletoe he could find, to kiss her again and again and again. The snow suddenly didn’t feel all that cold anymore.

[chogiwank]

Milkshake Boy - Art Student! Renjun AU [Part 2]

part 1, part 3 [ in progress]

**a/n: repost bc something went wrong**

Pairing: Art Student!Renjun x Art Student!Female Reader

Summary: Y/N is new in town and works at an Arts Shop which old ladies, teachers and parents picking up supplies for their children mostly visit, and a cute boy who comes by every day. Having an accidental encounter with the boy they develop a friendship and a love of milkshakes, art and of course each other. Because what is even a love story if they don’t fall for each other with cheesy shit involved

Summer was ending and I hadn’t seen Renjun, you know the milkshake boy who visits the Arts Shop I work at every day? He came for three days but for two weeks he was nowhere in sight, still with five days left I had no idea for his whereabouts. I never got his number or email - do people still do that? I’m not sure but hey it would’ve been better than nothing.

Some days I took the night shift, others I took the morning in hopes of seeing him, but sadly I didn’t. Was I getting my hopes up too much? Did I misread the situation that happened that day? He was probably like that to everyone, maybe I was just being delusional - desperate to have someone whether it be a friend or a love interest, anyone at all really - to be accepted in a foreign place. I probably was and that’s my own fault, a hopeless romantic.

Today was my last day at work, it was around 6:30 in the evening I decided to stroll through the park instead of heading straight home. Sitting on the bench placed under a tree which tiny white flowers bloomed on, I took in the beauty of the park - a path set for walks and jogs, a playground for the children which I oh so badly wanted to play in, and a splash pad which was open on the hot days of summer. Many people already left the park to return home for dinner and a good night’s rest leaving the park silent with bird chirps now and again.

Feeling my stomach growl from hunger I abandoned my place on the bench and began to walk to my apartment until I felt a push and fell face first my head hitting the hard ground and elbow scrapping against the pavement, someone’s body weight on my back. A wince leaving my mouth from the sudden fall and hit.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” And there I heard it, a familiar voice. “Here let me help you up.”

The boy helped me up off the ground standing onto my feet, I looked up at the so-called stranger and smiled at him,

“Wow look who bumped into me, again.” I teased. “We really have to stop meeting like this.”

The two of us burst into laughter from the comment.

“Hi y/n” He flashed a bright smile. “Nice to see you again.”

“Yeah, nice to see you again after ditching me for two weeks, Renjun.” I playfully pushed him with a teasing smile.

“Okay first off, I know that was probably really bad but…” he trailed off, I raised my eyebrows. “It wasn’t my fault, my parents planned a trip to Hong Kong and I couldn’t make it to the shop to tell you! It was last minute I’m so sorry!”

Letting out a sigh I accepted his apology, “it’s cool don’t worry about it, but you owe.” I smirked, “you got to make it up to me for the time we lost.”

“Well, how can I do that?” He cocked his brow.

“That’s up to you.” I shrugged my shoulders.

“I have an idea!” I tilted my head and furrowed my eyebrows at him. “Let’s go to this cafe!” He exclaimed excitedly.

“Cafe?”

“Yeah it’s nearby we can go right now if you have time.” His eyes lit up a look of hope that I might just join him, and of course, I did. The walk wasn’t that long like he said, maybe around 5 minutes? And it wasn’t far from my apartment either estimating only 10 minutes.

“I’m pretty surprised I never found this place before.” I looked around the cafe, it wasn’t much but it was very pretty with beautiful decor around the room, paper stars hung from the ceiling, a couple of round tables set up with chairs and a neon sign on the wall with the text: “Don’t Kill My Vibe”

“Well many people don’t know it since it’s so small you know.”

“Yeah, but that’s a shame it’s really so pretty.”

“Tell me about it, it’s also a shame because they have such good milkshakes.”

“Ahh, so this is where you get your daily milkshake?” I teasingly asked him.

“Oh, what’re you a stalker?” He chuckled.

“Kind of hard for me to not notice when you come in the store every day, sit in the same spot and drink the same thing right in front of the counter.”

“Hmm fair point.” He clicked his tongue and let out a laugh, wow I missed it so much - it was so pretty, such music to my ears. “Now would you like anything to drink? Milkshake? Coffee?”

“Milkshake, please!” I flashed a smile. “A [your favourite flavour] one!”

“Coming right up.” He said placing our order at the counter. “Take a seat I’ll bring the drinks.” I nodded finding a comfortable seat at one of the tables. In no time the milkshakes were made and Renjun brought them over to our table sitting across from me.

Renjun talked about his trip to Hong Kong - visiting in his grandparents and going on a boat ride, he told me about eating the food at a restaurant, a really expensive one but it had tiny servings so by the end he was still starving and came home shoving a bunch of Cheetos down his throat. I laughed at that, he was cute and funny. His voice was so nice to listen to, I didn’t want him to stop, I continued the conversation and we talked and talked on many different topics and in all honesty, we had a lot in common. I was glad we did, and he didn’t seem like a total dick yet so it was pretty much a win.

The clock ticked as my phone rang, halting our conversation I excused myself receiving a call from my mom, I checked the time and it was oh my goodness, 7:45 PM. I apologized and told her I was on my way home, rushing over to Renjun and wishing him goodbye.

“Wait, why don’t I walk you?” He asked.

“What?”

“Walk you home.” He flashed a bright smile. “I’ll walk you back to your place.”

I blushed at his offer. “Walk me? Don’t you have to get to your place?”

He nodded in response. “Yes I do but my place is at most 10 minutes away from yours.”

“Really?” He lived so close.

“Yeah, of course, let’s go!” He cheerfully got up from his chair throwing his and I’s empty cups in the trash, gesturing me to walk out. “Ladies first.” I curtsied and walked out of the cafe with him trailing along beside me. Walking past the park the sun was setting turning the sky into colours of pink and purple, the clouds calm and white in different shapes as we continued our non-sense conversations with giggles and admiring the beauty of the current scenery.

Arriving outside my apartment I thanked him for tagging along.

“It’s not a big deal really, plus…” he scratched the back of his neck. “I kind of owe you for bumping into you twice and uh making your head smash to the ground.”

We both laughed at the situation, “it’s true you do, also considering I have a big bump on my head now.” He cocked an eyebrow. “And unlike a pimple, I can’t pop it.”

“Sorry.” He giggled. “You still look cute though.”

“I look what?” He looked up surprised from his slip up. “Can you repeat that?”

“Uhh…” Renjun nervously fiddled with his thumbs. “You look fine, it’ll go away just apply some ice on it.”

“Yeah okay, but I meant the other thing,” I smirked teasing him.

“W-what other thing?” He stammered.

“Hmm c’mon don’t-“ he cut me off saying a goodbye and running off home.

“Sorry, I’m late! I’ll catch up with you soon!” And with that, he left once again and I Well kind of felt…sad? I guess you could say that. It could be because I’m probably liking him a little bit, but also since I’m not good at saying goodbyes, every time I hang out with someone and they leave I feel a deep hole in my chest. I feel empty. I don’t know why it’s just upsetting for me to say goodbyes no matter how little or big.

Returning back home I apologized to my mom for being late, telling her I got held up in work. Giving her a kiss on her forehead I continued to my room closing the door behind me. Changing into an old shirt and a pair of shorts I brushed my teeth and washed up preparing for bed. Plopping onto my bed I hugged my pillow tight and squealed into it remembering Renjun’s slip up. He thinks I’m cute? He really thinks I’m cute, does this mean he’s interested in me? I don’t know, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s like me, he’s just figuring out his feelings - yeah that’s it most likely. But wow, he called me cute. I felt my heart do ten backflips out of joy and oh boy that was probably the best sleep I had in a while.

a/n: I apologize for this being a little bit short but I’ll be making a part 3 as soon as possible bc it looks like you guys are enjoying it !! (^_^) I’m so so glad and thank you for the feedback and support guys !! I love you I’ll be updating soon !! - Doyoung’s Darling