#rus makes moodboards

[charmixpower]

Diaspro Fashion Moodboard

[aropride]

there's a lot of aphoic "joke" posts that circle around from time to time and i don't trust ppl who reblog any of them bc even if they don't intend it to be aphobic the post was made as a way to make fun of us and de-legitimize our identities. like Why would u want to spread that around lol

[kquil]

POLY MARAUDERS | HEROES IN TATTOOS

+ MOODBOARD IMAGINES

SET. : in between chapter 3 and chapter 4

LENGTH : 3.4k

A/N : do you darlings remember this (↓) moodboard? well, i thought it would be a good idea to write the scenarios i featured in it just cause... hehe~ (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) i hope you darlings enjoy the read!

On his break, Sirius has a routine, one that involves lighting a cigarette. Usually he would have the decency to step outside but his schedule was stressful for the day and all he really wanted to do was just sit by an open window, slumped into a chair smoking his cigarette until there was nothing left to smoke. Thankfully the rest of the work day wasn’t going to be as packed so he could finally start taking it easy. 

Grey eyes drifting over to the clock on the wall, Sirius hums thoughtfully. Almost lunch time. He’ll need to cut his smoke break short if he wants to have enough time for a decent lunch. It’s another ritualistic practice for him to not pack anything for lunch; he was a horrible cook and usually prioritises sleeping in over eating breakfast and preparing a lunch, it’s the same for James and Remus too. Thankfully there’s a pretty good fish and chip shop down the street. Or maybe he could get a medium pizza for himself at the pizza local place? Maybe get a large pizza for the whole group? 

Propping his ankle up onto his opposite knee, Sirius drags a slow breath in and waits a moment before releasing the smoke. He tries to aim the fumes out the window as much as possible but the air is a fickle thing and stubbornly lingered around him. Nevertheless, he takes the time to admire the swirling fumes, artistic and free to take any form they so pleased. It was one of the small pleasures in smoking that he could bask in. 

“Siri–!” Sirius promptly snaps out of his daze with your call and the opening of the break room door. One step into the room and you were already having a coughing fit. Hurrying to stand, Sirius smothers his cigarette in an ashtray and reaches for a nearby folder of generic designs to fan the smoke out of the open window. 

“You okay there, sweets?” he calls, brows furrowed into a concerned crease as he watches your struggle for air slowly calm. 

“I-I’m okay,” another slight cough slips past your lips despite the assurance, “sorry for disturbing you,” as most of the smoke escapes the room, pliant to Sirius’ frenetic fanning, you manage a small smile that he shyly returns, ashamed of his inconsiderate actions. Though he truly didn’t anticipate you returning to the shop. His shame doesn’t linger for long, however as he keeps the window open and makes his way over with open arms, pulling you into an embrace. 

“What a pleasant surprise, what are you doing here, Doll?” he looks down at you, admiring your sweet face as it scrunches up in slight distaste and his heart drops. What’s upset his sweetheart? 

“Y-you smell like cigarettes…” you utter without a single thought and immediately clasp your hands over your mouth, muffling a gasp of realisation. That was so rude!

“Shit–”

“I-I’m so sorry, Sirius. I didn’t mean to be ru–” but your apology was cut short when the tattoo artist steps away and begins pulling his shirt over his head and hurries about the room, looking for something.

“Sorry about that, Princess,” he gives up on his search and turns to you with a bashful smile, his toned torso and idiosyncratic tattoos on full display. Your mind goes completely blank as you admire the chiselled contours of his muscles and the beautiful tattoos that decorate his skin.

“U-uhh…” 

“I guess I’ll have to ask James if he has a spare shirt or something…” muttering to himself, Sirius looks up and finally catches your eye, immediately noticing your admiring gaze. Naturally, a devilish smirk tugs at his lips, “or not~”

He has the face of an angel and the body of a jock with the eyes and lips of a demon. 

Over time, you’ve come to visit the boys at their parlour more often and the guilt of distracting them from their work has chewed away at you. They were always quick to say that they adore having you around the parlour so your discouragement quickly dissipates. Nevertheless, you wanted to do good by them and started going on snack duties, not only to provide refreshments for them but also for their clients. 

As a group and as a business, they agreed it would be a good investment to provide complimentary food and drink for their clients and themselves; getting tattoos was just as exhausting as giving them, especially for the big order clients. Therefore each room was fitted with a mini fridge and basket to host an array of snacks and beverages for anyone to have as they pleased. 

The accumulated bill cost a pretty penny but one that the boys were willing to pay, they even managed to strike a deal with the vegan specialty store across the street to provide their best snacks for customers as a form of free advertising. It warmed your heart but it didn’t come close to the butterflies you felt when you found that the boys were first attracted to the shop for their regular donations to a local dog shelter. 

You just came back from your trip over to help restock the fridges and snack baskets in each room. Remus was manning the front desk and handling clients and prospective customers. There was a stack of paperwork piled up next to him so he could multitask and stay preoccupied when there was a lull in business. 

Meanwhile, Sirius was tending to a client and their massive back tattoo. You remember him telling you that this was just their second session and that he still had one or two more sessions left to go. You managed to slip in and out of the room without distracting him or his client too much; both were very busy, except for the emotional-support friend the client had brought along, who appreciated the restock of snacks and raided the stash even as you were restocking. The two of you giggled at that together as Sirius chuckled under his breath, shouting an appreciative ‘thank you’ while his client grumbled playfully, apologetic about their glutton of a friend. Their interaction made you giggle while slipping out the door and making your way to James' room - you don’t believe he’s with a client right now so you weren’t as anxious over potentially disturbing his flow. Though he was expecting one to arrive soon, according to his calendar. 

“Snacks restock,” you call through the door with a knock before stepping inside. 

“Thanks, angel,” James was in an all-black attire today. Black jeans, heavy leather Doc Martens and a black, compression shirt that accentuated his slim waist, broad shoulders and sculpted muscles. That along with his black latex gloves and the beautiful collage of tattoos weaving up his forearms stops you in place. It’s undeniable how attractive these men are but, as James sits in his artist chair, posture relaxed but oozing with confidence, dressed like sin with his boyish grin and adorable round glasses on, an antithesis to his dangerous attire, you stop in your tracks and stutter embarrassingly. It has to be illegal how divine he looks right now…

Using the wheels and mobility of his artist chair, James moves to sit before you as he examines the contents of your bag through the opening at the top and mutters about which ones he’s eyeing for himself. However, your stock-still, frozen figure doesn’t go unnoticed and he’s soon staring up at you. His hazel eyes shine with curiosity and thinly veiled mischief. 

“Something wrong, Angel?” the pleasant drawl of his voice draws you from your obvious daydreaming and you’re stuttering out a pathetic, incoherent answer as he chuckles quietly, “Have you fallen for me?~”

The fucking tease! 

It’s a hot summer day and Remus was sweating buckets up in the office. The heat was torturous and he silently begged for the winter cold to rush back with an icy fever, his desperation for a cool breeze evident in his dishevelled state. 

It was common for James and Sirius to go around topless in their shameless, over-confident ways but Remus was stubborn about keeping a shirt on. They had been warned about the rising heat thanks to earlier weather warnings but preparing with a breezy linen button up wasn’t enough for Remus to keep to his strict dress code. For once, you were seeing him half-naked (almost) and like you were with Sirius and James the first time they surrendered to the heat, you stood in shock as an additional heat tormented your cheeks. 

You didn’t know what to expect. 

Clearly James was the muscular one of the three, Sirius was skinny but it didn’t mean he didn’t have any muscle – his arms and abs were especially defined, his thighs too, probably from his motorcycle. Remus was tall so, as the stereotype went, you didn’t expect him to have much muscle definition. However, as he laid back in his seat, his linen shirt unbuttoned but still tucked into his trousers and draped over his broad shoulders, you’re able to observe significant definition in his chest and the ridges of washboard-abs along his torso. Your eyes almost bulge out when you see the cuts of a V leading into his crotch area.  

Remus despaired over feeling like a sweat-drenched dog, foul-smelling and unsightly with clumpy, sweaty hair when, in actuality, he couldn’t look better. Ths sweat made his skin glisten and helped keep his hair pushed back in the most attractive way. With his head slumped backward, his adam’s apple prominent, his tattoos on full display along the toned expanse of his torso, Remus looked heavenly. Especially with the sun shine pouring in from the open window and showering him in specs of gold. 

So caught up in your silent admiration, you don’t notice when Remus peeks one eye open and spots you with a soft smile. 

“You alright there, Dove?” he asks, chuckling as he sees the exact moment you were brought back to the present, “I see you’ve gotten my water for me,”

“Oh! Y-yeah,” you shyly walk up to him and hand over the chilled bottle of water from the mini fridge downstairs. 

“You really are an angel,” he accepts the bottle and kisses the knuckles of your hand in thanks before taking a thirsty gulp. His sweet action of gratitude makes you want to squeal out loud but you bite your lip, not wanting to expose yourself. It was already embarrassing enough having to be caught staring. 

It was then, however, that you took notice of a small, faded tattoo that didn’t match the gallery of inky art collaging Remus’ torso, “That tattoo looks different,” you say without thinking as you point towards the slightly faded crescent moon on Remus’ chest. 

“Oh!” Remus chuckles and caresses his inked skin gently, fondness swimming in his chocolate-pool eyes, “This one is quite special actually,”

“Really?”

He nods and launches into the story when observing the curious look in your eyes, “When the guys and I finally graduated secondary school, we all got drunk off our asses and went to a hole-in-the-wall tattoo parlour to commemorate the occasion,” you both share a laugh at their reckless but typical behaviour as teenagers, “each of us got a silly little tattoo and the next day, when we were hungover, half-naked in James’ room – James on the floor, Sirius in the bathtub of his ensuite and me leaning against his bookcase, nobody on the bed –” you both laugh again, “we all found out we got different tattoos and from that, came our nicknames,”

You brows raise in interest, “You mean–”  

“I have a moon so I’m ‘Moony’,” Remus confirms as your eyes sparkle with delight, a sight that Remus adores more than he’d ever admit aloud, “Sirius got a dog paw–”

“So that’s why you call him ‘Padfoot’, makes sense. What about James?”

“A stag head so he’s–”

“Prongs!” you cheer and giggle at finally discovering the reason behind their peculiar nicknames. It all made so much more sense now! 

“My Angel calls for me?~” James’ voice sings through the door before he’s sauntering in and opening his arms, expecting you to fall willingly into them. It was tempting, considering he was shirtless and you’d love nothing more than to be held against his muscles but today was already swelteringly hot so you politely decline, to which smug expression James’ drops into that of a pitiful puppy’s. 

It’s not a secret that the boys adore you, not only were you kind and sweet and the prettiest little thing they’ve ever laid their eyes on but you also cook like an absolute angel and they can never get enough, especially when compared to their own mediocre cooking skills. After being spoiled by you so often, they can no longer fathom eating their own inferior cuisine. They’ve expressed this to you multiple times so, whenever you could, you would cook dinner for them and you’d all eat together at their flat. It usually happened over the weekend and they always offered to pay for the ingredients needed. 

Tonight, you had something special in mind to cook for them but weren’t well stocked on ingredients so it was agreed that Sirius would pick you up on his bike when you were finished shopping at the store. You made sure to text the tattooist a predicted time for when you would be finished with your shopping, remaining faithful to your shopping list so that you didn’t keep him waiting too long out in the overcast, chilly weather. Typical England.  

Hurrying to get past self check out, you smile at the singular bag of ingredients you held in your hand, excited to spoil the boys with another night of good food. You aren’t shy in admitting how attractive Sirius was but it was unfair how sultry he looked when on his bike, wearing his all-black, leather outfit, his huge helmet and fingerless gloves. The many eyes eating him up were evidence enough of his ethereal beauty. And with his helmet on too. Perhaps it was the mystery of who he was behind the mask that these strangers fawned over him so much. You couldn’t fault them though, you would be the same in their shoes.

Having made this trip multiple times already, you recognised him and his bike in an instant.. Behind the visor of his helmet, Sirius suppresses an affectionate coo over how you visibly perk up when your eyes land on him. There was no need for sun when Sirius had your smile to light up his day. 

“You good, Doll?” Sirius’ voice comes out muffled by his helmet as he dismounts his bike and opens up the storage compartment under the seat. He exchanges the spare helmet stored in the hidden compartment for the bag of groceries in your hand, “You got everything?”  

“Yeah, thanks for waiting, Siri!”

You don’t see it but he smiles happily at the sound of your twinkling voice, “No worries, Doll,” he mounts the bike once more and takes it off it’s stand, “hop on,” 

At this point, he expected you to be able to put your helmet on by yourself but he doesn’t account for the slight delay as you make sure it’s fitted over your head properly. Unable to help himself, Sirius waits leaning forward with his hand propping his head up as his elbow rests on the body of his bike. The stance makes him look as though he was admiring you like some lovestruck, teenage boy. When you catch sight of him after finally getting your helmet on, you laugh and throw your head back with the movement but end with placing your hands on your hips - scolding his actions, almost, although it was all in good fun. His response was to blow you a kiss by, first, touching his fingers to the front of his helmet and then laying his hand flat towards you. 

You clutch at your stomach to contain the giggles as your shoulders shake before finally deciding to play along and return the gesture, imitating a flying kiss that he catches and holds to his chest. Whenever the helmet was put on, the two of you always got into the habit of exaggerating your movements seeing as your facial expressions were obscured. But that mask gives you two such confidence that you’re more comfortable with being flirtatious with each other. 

You don’t complain but it makes your heart thump with want and a desire you were too afraid to fulfil. 

“Sirius loves his bike,” Remus explains, “and James loves his car,” both men were too distracted taking maintenance of their respective vehicles to listen to Remus’ explanation of their attentiveness. It was the weekend and you had arranged to have Remus keep you accountable for completing your upcoming essay. At some point, you two join James and Sirius in the garage as they do the regular checks of their beloved ‘rides’. Their vigilant focus as they mill about the engines and operations of their car and bike were a great motivator for completing your essay and now that you’ve finished, you observe them in their element. 

Both men had their muscular, tattooed arms on full display, clad in only their tight tank tops, ones that already had stains to begin with so they didn’t mind staining more as their fingers blackened with motor residue.  

“What do you love, Remus?” you ponder, needing a distraction from the beguiling display before you but also curious. Did Remus have a secret love for a particular motor vehicle like the other two as well? You were beyond curious, although you couldn’t think of any other motor vehicle he would likely obsess over. 

“Can’t say,” the tall brunette shrugs, subtly peering down at you from his higher vantage point, “I’m pretty sure those two love it just as much as I do so it won’t count,” his answer leaves you curious but he doesn’t elaborate further. Was he talking about a motor vehicle or something else entirely?

Giggling beside Remus, you watch the exchange unfold before you with amused eyes and a warm smile hidden behind your fingers. Seeing James and/or Sirius become whiny and pouty wasn’t an everyday occurrence but it happened often enough that you were used to their shenanigans and didn’t give in as easily as you used to, especially with Remus at your side to keep the boys in check. Such as right now. If it weren’t for Remus, you’re sure James and Sirius would have continued to whine and throw a strop until their clients got impatient, left and then proceeded to write a very passionate review about the lack of service. Thankfully, the piercer shooed them away as efficiently as always, reminding the two of their responsibilities and scheduled patrons. 

“Stupid Moony,” James mutters under his breath as he walks away with Sirius, “...always getting Angel all to himself…” 

As soon as the two are out of sight, Remus takes his usual seat behind the front desk and pulls out a small paperback book to keep him occupied. With warm eyes directed at you, he smiles and asks, “would you like to join me for a good read, Dove?” as he speaks, he brings his hand down to rest on his thigh and, with your reeling mind, you mistake the gesture for an invitation that you couldn’t refuse.

Remus never expected you to look so adorable when approaching to sit with him for a read at the register but, other than that, he never expected you to sit on his thigh. You didn’t meet his eyes at first so you didn’t see his shocked state or the creeping grin tugging up the corners of his lips.  

It was embarrassing but this isn’t the first time the boys had you sit in their laps. This was just the first time you were made to sit on your own accord. You don’t think your embarrassment could get any more drastic, however, until you finally look up to see the surprised look on Remus’ face and finally realise your mistake. 

“Oh god! I’m so sorry!” 

He laughs at how adorable you are and winds his strong arm around your waist before you could even attempt to hop off his thigh. 

“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart,” unable to resist, Remus presses a soft kiss against your temple and pulls you even closer to him, “you’re welcome to use me as a seat anytime,” he smiles adoringly at your bashful demeanour, “in fact, I encourage it,”

NAVI. | SERIES MASTERLIST

A/N : for those of you that don't know, the moodboard was requested by my darling moot @diputy on my 1k milestone event (now closed) but if you're curious, here are the links to the event and the request masterlist : 1k EVENT | 1k MLIST

TAGLIST : @susyelectra @fangirlninja67 @pagesfalling @thepunisherfrankcastle @axeofwars @imarimon @in-love-with-4-marauders @chicken-taco-burrito @valencia-rou @feast0nmeee @lestat-whore @hvmxjjk @twilightlover2007 @diaryofabiwoman @woohoney @celestialfantasiess @willbedecided @lovelyygirl8 @iiirhiane-g @mangodamochiii @queerqueenlynn @l3xiluve @brain-has-left @bunbunbl0gs @kneelforloki @citrusiove @virtualbuni @awkward-d3rs3-dr3amer @that1nerd-20 @wolfstar4everbitches @skepvids @dearmy-diary @littledollfacebaby @mylifeisnothing @em16cor @krazyk99 @imdoingbetternow @realalpacorn @remussbitch @swiftieeras1989 @lonely-nerd-sodaholic @canthavetoomuchchaos @rckstrbee @b-i-h-i @ennycutie @kneelforloki @theteaobsessedbug @padfoot1313 @d1gital-data @venezsuwayla @melllinaa

[nonclassyparty]

man with the plan (j.wy) - chapter 2.

Summary: "Don't forget Pretty, I'm serving life plus one. So if I get busted for attempted escape, I'll throw in a homicide in there as well with no problem, that’s like a parking ticket to me." When your brother ends up in jail for a murder he didn't commit, the only thing left for you to do is to find a way to break him out. But after a perfect plan is set in motion, you don't expect a romantic variable to get added into the equation.

Pairing: jung wooyoung x fem. reader, jeong yunho x reader (but if u squint)

Status: in progress

Word count: 7.3k

Warnings: idk for this one, still some cursing, nothing too heavy

Taglist: @tinyjuni @hazysan @atinytinaa @tenebrisirae @doggopepper @dazzlingstarrs @lavishloving @cherrypandora @silentcry329 @jeagerist-20 @myunvillage @manipulatedstars @bitteryu @maru-matt @bubbleteakittyy @joonsthethicc

A/N: hi guys! welcome to chapter 2 of man with the plan....i don't really have anything to say so enjoy lmfao!! wait i do!! if u find any plot holes LITERALLY do not tell me i don't want to know kjfgjkdfhgjkf

my main masterlist // playlist // moodboard // ao3

chapter 1 // masterlist // chapter 3

Chapter 2; How’d I get here, sitting next to you?

The sun is high up in the sky by the time you're walking across the gravel, eyes combing through the yard filled out with men in blue prisoner uniforms. The October air embraces you, it's still chilly despite it nearing noon now but the little bit of sunshine makes the whole place feel more alive and less eerie.

"Hello." You greet, a couple of feet away from the wired fence stopping to stand behind a man occupying an empty lone bench with a Calico cat gently held in his arms that he strokes as he watches out at the yard.

He turns to look over his shoulder, faint surprise etched across his features. His dark hair almost covers his eyes, "Hello."

You sniffle, giving him a faint smile, "You're Park Seonghwa, aren't you?"

His eyes scan you from head to toe, not in a lewd matter whatsoever, but more so in curiosity. "Yes."

His voice is gentle. In fact, the man looks entirely misplaced in an environment like this with his soft and pretty-like features. Not to mention the pet.

"I knew your older sister." You tell him, noticing the way his eyes sadden a little at the mention of his older sibling that passed away a couple of months back from lung cancer. 

And well! You didn't exactly get to know her by accident, you purposefully sought her out but Seonghwa here doesn't need to know that.

He pursues his lips, turning to face the yard again and giving you his back, "You knew Nayeon?"

You cock your head to the side, "You mean Sooyoung? Yes, we were members of the same book club. The one in our neighbourhood."

"Ah, the one in Myeongdong." He comments with a nod and your lips quirk up.

"You mean the one in Seongsu-dong? Yes." You bounce right back to him and finally, he turns to look at you again with his own mouth pulling up in an intrigued smile.

"Alright, no more quizzes." He slides around the bench, turning to face you fully with the cat still in his arms, his thumb running across it's head, "What do you want?"

You throw a glance behind you just to notice that there are no guards around before nodding towards the Calico in his lap, "How do they allow you to have it in here?"

"She's not an it, her name is Mijoo." Seonghwa says protectively holding the cat against his chest, "And she's a comfort pet, they allow us to have one or two of those. Only to the ones who are on their best behavior in here, though."

Ah, so he's a goody two-shoes.

You nod with a hum and Seonghwa's eyes leave the cat, Mijoo, as he picks his head up to look at you, "Now you answer my question, what do you want?"

You chuckle, mouth pulling up in a grin as you look to the side in little embarrassment before bringing your attention back to him, "I heard you were Park Ha-ru."

Now, it's Seonghwa's turn to chuckle, "You know, every time they bring a new con in here, he'll approach me and ask the same question," He tilts his head, "Why do you want to know though? Who even are you?"

"I'm Y/N," You motion to the rubble and workers on the other side of the compound, "New supervisor of the construction site."

"Ah," He eyes the building site over your shoulder before looking at you again, "This isn't exactly the place for you, y'know? Surely you must've known that before taking the job and I don't think any boss would be cruel enough to send a young woman to supervise a construction site at a level one prison."

You smile, "I volunteered."

He seems peeved by your response, brows furrowed in deep concentration as he looks you over before sighing.

"Well, I'll tell you the same thing I told everyone else," Seonghwa pursues his lips before placing a small kiss on Mijoo's head, "I'm not him."

Your stomach feels like it's in knots as you stare at him, looking for any signs of dishonesty. Either Park Seonghwa is one hell of a liar or...he just isn't the guy. 

...and you got it all wrong.

You think you'll go with option number one, simply to save your brain from going in overdrive with panic. He has to be the one.

"That's too bad," You sigh with a small shrug, smiling, "It would've been kind of cool if you were."

He laughs at that, "Trust me, no-one is more sad about that than me." Seonghwa snorts, eyes squinting from the sun as he stares up at you from the bench, "Having 1.6 billion won hidden somewhere, waiting for me to get out so I could claim it. Unfortunately, all I have is a re-modelled basement in my parents' house and a shitty car waiting for me when I get out."

You chuckle with a nod as your eyes fall to the grass below your boots, "Right."

"Sorry to disappoint." He adds quietly, eyes burning into your profile.

You shake your head with a smirk, "Didn't disappoint." Taking a couple of steps further back when you notice a guard appearing on the other corner of the fence, "It was nice talking to you, Seonghwa."

You know he's puzzled by you, it's easy to read his face but he doesn't voice it, simply nods. "You too."

You walk up the gravel with your hands dug deep into the pockets of your coat until you near the entrance of the building and let out a low groan, remembering you had an appointment with the warden to help him out with the present for his dear wife.

-

The buzzer followed up by the sound of the door opening and feet shuffling in causes you to look up from the surface of the table in front of you. 

Two guards lead Jongho towards you and cuff him to the table, as per usual. He looks like he's gaining some muscle in there, the color of his cheeks is back and hair is shorter but other than that, he looks like the same old Jongho. The only difference is that your brother looks at you like he's about to give you the scolding of a lifetime.

You're both silent, Jongho cranes his neck subtly to watch the guards walk back to the other side of the room before turning towards you, looking absolutely furious.

"Y/N, what the fuck are you doing?" Jongho hisses out, leaning close to the glass separating the two of you.

You let out a small huff, innocently looking around the room. A full row of glass windows with inmates on one side of the glass with their families on the other surrounded the both of you.

"I don't know what you mean." You tell your brother in a relaxed manner, watching his eyes fall shut in frustration at your purposeful denseness.

"Drop the bullshit." Jongho commands you in a low tone, eyes set in a glare. Except there's no anger in his words but worry, "Whatever it is that you're doing, just stop."

You press your lips together, placing your trembling hands in your lap. "I can't do that."

Your brother watches you in confusion through the glass, mouth lightly hanging open as he shakes his head at you, wondering what you've gotten yourself into.

"Jongho, I only have ten minutes so you need to shut the fuck up and listen to me now." You lean closer to tell him in a whisper, glancing over his shoulder to check on the guards who were still by the wall on the other side. There were too many ears surrounding you even without any wires in the visitations room but you knew Jongho well enough to know that he won't budge until you throw him a bone, so you'll have to speak in your little code praying that he will understand; "Jay is leaving soon."

Complete and utter confusion clouds Jongho's face as he leans even closer, nose touching the glass as he stares at you with furrowed brows.

You bite back on your frustration, "Jay, you remember him?" 

"Jay? You mean m-"  Your brother finally remembers the nickname you had for him when you were a mere child.

"Yes. He's leaving soon. The foster home he's been stuck in, well, they told me the conditions are just terrible," You explain with a soft chuckle while Jongho hangs onto every word that leaves your mouth, you glance to your side where another visitor sits just a couple of inches away conversing with an inmate, "So he's getting out of there."

It takes a second for the words to sink in before the confusion on his face is erased completely and replaced by disbelief.

"Jongho, do you understand?"

He's silent for a short moment, swallowing nervously before his eyes meet yours again, "I understand but...but Y/N, that's impossible."

You give your brother a comforting smile, "Not if you designed the place it isn't."

Jongho's eyes grow wide as saucers, "You're break-"

"Shut up." His mouth clamps shut immediately. "There's no other way."

"Y/N-" Your brother starts again, voice lower but you're too busy noticing that the woman next to you is standing up and with that, the tables on both of your sides will be empty. You lean as close to him you can get with the glass serving as a barrier between the two of you.

"I only have three minutes left, so listen to me." You tell him and he opens his mouth again to interject but you're quicker. The guards are by the wall, unmoving, it's only a matter of time before someone occupies the empty seats. You whisper to him, "The benches in the yard, they have a certain type of bolt in them that you'll need. Use a quarter to unscrew it, you only need one and for fuck's sake, make sure no-one sees you doing it."

"Wait, you're actually serious about this."

You suck in a sharp breath, swearing that if there wasn't the glass in front of you, you would've slapped him by now. "Well, I'm not exactly on vacation here Jongho, trust me."

He looks positively bamboozled.

"Do you understand what we need?" He needs a second before quickly nodding, you nod back, "Good, now tell me, your new cellmate..."

Jongho scoffs with an eyeroll, "It's some guy named Coin. A pain in my ass is what he is."

"Coin?" You question in confusion at the stupid name before quickly shaking his head, "Doesn't matter, can you trust him?"

"Trust who? Coin?" Jongho looks like you've grown a second head before explaining. "If you sewed the guy's mouth shut, he'd find a way to talk through his ass. A thief from what I heard, robbed a liquor store armed and ended up here." He eyes you, "Why do you wanna know so much about my cellmates anyway?"

"Because it won't work without your cellmate. We need him." You whisper back, eyes on the clock as the time ticks away. A minute left.

"There's no way to trust anyone in here, let alone him." Your brother comments lowly. Your eyes fall to the surface of the table in thought before you sigh. He looks at you like you've grown a second head, "You want me to tell him?"

You press your forehead against the glass separating you, the surface cool on your skin as you murmur, "If your cellmate isn't on board, there's no digging and if there's no digging then there's no getting out of here."

"I tell Coin, he'll yapp his mouth off to the rest and then it's over." Jongho mutters back, face set in carefully disguised panic.

"Well, it's just going to have to be a leap of faith then." You mutter to yourself before looking up at him, "Find out if you can trust him first and get the...thing from the yard," You glance at the guards by the door one last time, "I'll tell you what to do next but please, just be careful."

You don't want to even imagine what would happen to him if he were to get caught.

"Y/N, this is too dangerous, you can end up in tr-"

"Don't. Get. Caught." Is the last thing you say before your ten minutes are up and you're standing up from the chair, sparing your brother one last glance before heading towards the exit.

-

You swing your legs lightly from the chair as you watch Doctor Jung write something down behind his desk before he slides on his rolly chair over to you, getting so close that your knees almost brush.

He gives you a playful smile, cocking his head back a little to look at you with a teasing glint in his eyes. "You went to SNU."

You smile, rolling up the sleeve on your left arm and holding it out for him, "You've been checking up on me."

He shrugs at your comment, rubbing the soaked cotton ball over your arm with one hand while holding the needle in the other, "I like to get to know my patients, I graduated from there three years before you."

Your eyes are on the floor, not being able to stand the sight of him sinking the needle into your arm. You try not to think about it, instead focus on his devastatingly handsome face as you give him a quick smile, "Maybe we met before. Drunk, at a bar somewhere."

"Doubt it." Doctor Jung responds, you can feel him pulling the needle out and placing a clean cotton ball on your arm for you to hold, which you do. "I'm sure I would've remembered you."

Your brow ticks up as a flirty grin makes way to your face, "That a compliment?"

He glances at you, a smile of his own growing on his lips and if your eyes don't deceive you, a flush on his cheeks, "It is if you want it to be."

You just hum in response, gaze not backing away from his face that it makes him squirm and he stands up with a flustered cough. Your smile grows.

Too easy.

"Sit there for a little bit, I'll get your blood tests, they came from the lab an hour ago." He tells you, already heading to the door and refusing to look at you.

Cute.

The moment he disappears from view, you throw the cotton ball on the table next to you and walk over to the drain, pulling out two tubes and hurriedly squeezing out their contents through the slates on the grate.

The smell is strong but the sizzling is immediate and you shove the empty tubes back into the inner pockets of your blazer before sitting down on the chair the handsome doctor left you in.

You glance down at your arm where you placed back the cotton pad, staring at the small bottle inked onto your skin with the words 'Cute Poison' hanging above it.

Cute Poison, rather a mnemonic for copper sulfate and phosphoric acid that you carefully poured into two empty toothpaste tubes the night before in your own bathroom should get the job done as soon as the good doctor here confirms that you are, in fact, diabetic and need daily shots. 

You did a lot of research on it in the months of preparation, never been much of a chemist.

But you did know one thing, when these two chemicals are mixed together, they will react violently and corrode metal.

You cast one last glance at water drainage under the sink before your attention is snatched away by Doctor Jung walking into the room with a clipboard.

He sits down on the same chair in front of you, flipping through the papers on it.

"Hmmm." He lets out and you bring your gaze from the floor over to him where he sits with his brows furrowed as he reads off of the papers.

"What?" You ask, trying not to seem too tense although the way your foot kicks up and down might give you away.

"Your blood glucose is at fifty milligrams per deciliter." Wooyoung says in mild confusion and maybe concern.

"So?" You question obtusely, playing dense being the better option in a situation like this despite knowing exactly what it means. But you're already feeling your heartbeat accelerate at the fact that the pills weren't fucking working.

Why weren't they working? You took one this morning before leaving. Did they need more time to kick in?

Your palms are already starting to sweat.

 "Your body's reacting to the insulin as though you're not a diabetic. Are you sure it's Type 1 Diabetes you got?" He voices out with his attention on you.

You nod with lips pressed together before calmly answering; "Ever since I was a kid."

"Alright." He looks down to the chart again, "And you're not experiencing any tingling sensations, cold sweats?"

You silently shake your head with a sheepish smile, the shaky hand gripping the bottom of the chair you're sitting on.

Wooyoung takes a moment to go through the papers again before the ringing of the phone on his desk cuts through the silence (and your inner panic). He stands up to get it but not before turning to you;

"I'd like to run some tests the next time you're in." Wooyoung informs you with his lips folded in a pout that you think comes naturally to him when he's serious. He might not even be aware of it. Cute. But you're in deep shit, you don't have the time to think about that. "The last thing I want is to be administering insulin to a girl who doesn't need it."

You feign a smile as you stand up as well, "Yeah, sure."

He takes a moment to gauge your face again but the phone keeps ringing. The doctor sighs, glancing at it, "Okay."

You head for the door and towards your small, cramped office feeling utterly worried.

Once you reach your office, you close the door shut and stare at your hand that shakes uncontrollably. If the pills, PUGNAC, didn't work and he discovers that you're not diabetic, the whole plan falls through.

No, no, no. You can't think like that Y/N, you tell yourself, have a little faith.

The guy who got them for you said that they were insulin blockers, the real deal.

So they're supposed to work but maybe they need more time. Wooyoung gave you your first shot three days ago, that's when you started to take the pills each morning. 

Maybe they needed more time to kick in.

They'll work.

They have to.

-

Hongjoong deemed himself as a fairly smart guy.

Sure, he was in prison currently serving two life sentences but he did manage to get away with his crimes for years on years before he eventually and inevitably got caught, that had to count for something, right?

So, yes, Hongjoong was a smart guy.

Which is exactly why the moment they walked him into the visitations room and sat him down in front of a complete stranger when usually, only Jeongin would visit him, Hongjoong knew that something was brewing.

He stays quiet, eyeing the guy who seems to be about his age as the guard cuffs him to the table and Hongjoong sighs in annoyance, so many unnecessary precautions. Where the hell would he even go if he tried to run from here?

The moment the guard steps further away, Hongjoong turns to the stranger.

"Who the fuck are you?" Hongjoong stares at the man's face, trying to gauge if he might know him from somewhere but when he comes up blank, he waits for the man's response.

"I'm just here to deliver a message to you Mr. Kim." The man answers, he's in a suit and tie, all perfectly ironed, hair brushed back and an expensive watch hanging from his wrist. 

If anyone else were to see him, they'd probably think he worked a cozy office job and drank scotch like a pretentious fuck when he visited bars but Hongjoong can recognize a thug when he sees one.

"I'm not taking any messages, thanks." Hongjoong dryly responds, already moving to call the guard over before he gets stopped by the man's voice again.

"You might want to take this message." Hongjoong freezes in place when he sees the photo the guy presses to the glass and it causes him to sit his ass back down on the chair once again.

Thrilled, he leans in closer, observing the photo, eyes stuck on the familiar face that's been plaguing his mind for the last four years.

"Gunwoo..." Hongjoong mutters to himself, eyeing the familiar man in the photo before turning his attention back to the stranger, "You know where he is."

"I don't." The stranger responds and Hongjoong almost deflates about to curse him out until the man continues, "But the person who sent me here, does."

That puzzles Hongjoong and he stays quiet, deep in thought for a long moment. "What do you want? I don't have time for games."

Well, that was a lie. He had two life sentences worth of time but he just wasn't in the mood right now.

"The person who sent me here told me to pass on a message which is that you should speak to Choi Jongho."

Hongjoong frowns at that, growing perpetually more confused the more he sits here.

Choi Jongho was brought in a little over a year ago, Hongjoong remembers it well. 

It's hard to forget a kid that killed the Vice President's brother in cold blood. It was all over the news, spread even through the prison like wildfire among the guards. He was the talk of town when they first brought him into his cell.

But once everyone realized that he was kind of boring, just sticking to his cell and one and the same corner of the yard, everyone slowly forgot about him. He didn't do much of anything else to remain remembered, just a guy that killed someone and was now serving life.

Guys like that are a dime a dozen in here.

So why the hell was someone sending him a message to speak to Choi Jongho?

"And Choi knows where Gunwoo is?" Hongjoong asks. Finding Gunwoo was the most important thing for now, he honestly couldn't care less how he'd have to get that information out of anyone.

Let alone Choi Jongho. If he knew where Gunwoo was, Hongjoong wouldn't even try to play whatever game someone wants him to, just ten minutes alone with him during P.I. time and a pair of claw scissors and Hongjoong would get what he wants out of him.

"No." The stranger responds and Hongjoong has to bite back another groan, growing more pissed off by the second.

"Then what?" He snaps back, eyes set in a glare as his patience starts getting tested. "Who knows?"

"The same person who sent me here and is pulling my own strings." The stranger remarks with his lips pursued as if he's nervous. 

He should be, Hongjoong thinks because if he finds out that all of this is a scam he'll make sure his people find this man.

"When you go up to talk to Choi Jongho, you need to give him something."

Hongjoong can't believe what he's hearing. What the hell is he supposed to give him? Money? For information Choi apparently doesn't have?

"What?" He asks bluntly, agitated.

The man places something on the table in front of him and Hongjoong peers at the small object through the glass before letting out a chuckle of disbelief.

-

Gato was snoring obnoxiously on the lower bunk and it felt like someone was grating Hongjoong's nerves as he leaned against the bars of the cell, peering up and down the long two floors of identical cells until his eyes stopped on a specific one.

Choi Jongho mimicked Hongjoong's position in his own cell on the upper floor opposite of him. His hands hanging from the bar as he stares through the bars to the lower floor, eyes empty and unfocused.

Hongjoong spent the rest of the time in the yard after visitation observing Choi, wanting to see if the younger man would do anything, give him some sort of signal, something. But the kid didn't so much as glance at him. Only kept to his little corner of the yard with his obnoxiously loud cellmate hanging around him.

Did Choi Jongho even know Hongjoong was told to approach him?

Hongjoong stared at the kid's face, his dark hair was curling around his ears and he'd look younger than he actually was if it wasn't for the obvious muscle he was packing under his sweatshirt.

"I should also warn you that if anything were to happen to Choi Jongho...or myself after this visit is over, you'll never find out where Gunwoo is." The stranger discloses and Hongjoong wants to let out a laugh.

"Like I give a fuck, I'm already serving life plus one man, I don't care for Gunwoo." That was a lie but he got caught red handed, Hongjoong's first plan was most definitely to hurt Choi for information.

"I think you have much more at stake here Mr. Kim considering that if Gunwoo testifies, your family hidden in Osaka would be left vulnerable and all the assets that allow them to live lavishly while you're in here would disappear. Isn't that why you're trying to find him in the first place? So all the enemies you've made over the years don't target your loved ones." Hongjoong's face drops and he raises his arm to slap the glass in front of him but before his anger could get the best of him, he leans in closer to the man sitting opposite of him.

"Who are you?" Hongjoong hisses, cheeks flushing in anger as he glares down the stranger.

"I told you already, I'm just someone sent in here with orders to talk to you."

Hongjoong inhales a deep breath, getting tired of playing this silly game.

"I have the people to find Gunwoo myself. I don't need anyone else playing detective for me in exchange for whatever it is they want." Hongjoong states with his arms crossed, not being used to anyone seeing him with his defenses down. Playing the one not in charge was never his forte.

"That may be but whoever is pulling my strings isn't just offering Gunwoo's location." The stranger voices out, leaning in closer to the glass window with a glint in his eye, "They're offering you an opportunity to get Gunwoo yourself."

And well, that definitely peaked Hongjoong's interest.

Hongjoong kicks Gato's leg which immediately stirs him from deep sleep and causes the bigger man to open his eyes. "Wake up, knucklehead."

"What, boss?" The man asks in a gruff voice, lightly sitting up on the uncomfortable bunk bed.

Hongjoong really can't believe that he's about to ask this, as he turns to his cellmate holding out a piece of paper.

"What do you know about making dove origamis?"

-

Your nerves were skyrocketing as you walked down the hallway leading to the infirmary, remembering that the good doctor was supposed to run "some tests" today as he promised during your last visit. 

You were an optimist by nature, always holding onto the last shred of faith no matter how miniscule it was but your brain couldn't help but taunt you, what if the pills didn't work this time either? What if you got the wrong prescription? What if...

Hence the nerves.

"Hello." You greet quietly, walking into the room where Doctor Jung was already sitting with a kit prepared in front of him. 

"How are we doing today, Miss Y/N?" He asks casually, motioning for you to sit on the usual chair in front of him.

Immediately, you find your way over there and plop down on the chair, "I'm good."

He looks at you with a faint smile, honey skin looking healthy and smooth under the sunshine beaming through the infirmary windows. "Everything good on the construction site?"

You barely register his question, too busy watching as he takes your index finger and swabs it, getting ready to administer the test.

"Uh, yeah." You respond distractedly, the fact that needles made you queasy didn't exactly help calm the nerves.

 He gives you a weird look, probably expecting a flirty response but you weren't in the mood today. What happened next could make or break the plan you've spent the last year making and you can only watch as he punctures the skin, drawing blood and applies a testing pad to take the blood from your finger.

You observe his actions, clearing your throat. "How long does this take?" "It used to take hours, but we've come a long way with the new glucose kits. This'll take us about ten seconds."  Doctor Jung explains with ease and you look away in apprehension when he continues to speak; "Slide this strip into the meter then we're ready to go." After he places the strip into the meter, he leans back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, "I'm sure you know this but, the average glucose for a non-diabetic is about one hundred milligrams per deciliter. We see a number like that here and we know you've been misdiagnosed."

You're starting to feel ill. What's even worse, you probably look ill. But you can't help but fidget around, scratching the inside of your sweaty palm as you turn your head to glance at the grate under the sink.

You could feel blood rush to your head the more you think about what the hell you were to do if the diabetic excuse fell through. With a soft sigh, you bring a hand up to rub your temple out of habit.  "You seem nervous." Doctor Jung softly remarks, bringing your attention back to the fact that he can see you. Can notice you quietly losing your shit.

How the hell do you fix that?

Turn on the charm again, Y/N. It doesn't matter if you're pale as a ghost. He likes you. Your lips perk up and eyebrows raise in an act of amused surprise, you hope your face is at least a little bit distracting enough for him to let it go, "I do?" To your surprise and chagrin, he doesn't bat an eye though, "You're sweating." You shake your head, mouth pulled in a sheepish smile, "Must be the needles. Never got used to them." The beep of the meter brings your full focus from Wooyoung to the meter itself. "Somehow, with diabetes and that tattoo, I find that hard to believe." He comments quietly and it sends a zap through you, your weird behavior undoubtedly will be raising suspicion if you don't get it together. It also might be harder to have the good doctor wrapped around your finger than you thought. You pull the sleeve of your shirt down to cover your tattooed arm.

Wooyoung takes the meter, reading the results off of it as you straighten up in your chair.

 "Ah. Bad news I'm afraid." You hold your breath, feeling like your heart is in your throat when he turns the meter towards you with his lips pressed together. "One hundred and eighty milligrams per deciliter. You are definitely diabetic."

Relief floods your body with such strength that you seem to forget yourself in front of him as you try to suppress the huge smile threatening to take over your features that you have to lower your gaze to your lap. They worked. The pills finally worked.

But then you feel his curious eyes on you and you quickly straighten out in the chair again. Doctor Jung looks at you with brows slightly furrowed in obvious puzzlement as to why someone would look so happy to find out they are in fact diabetic and you figure that you need to leave immediately. "Do you need anything else from me?" You ask, suddenly feeling rejuvenated and he looks perplexed as he shakes his head at you. "Just an arm to stick a needle in."  You give him a big smile, nodding and getting up. "Okay."

But just as you're about to reach the door you slow down in your steps; the way he was looking at you, the curiosity not sitting too well with you. Because you know there will be a time when you will have to do questionable things, if something simple as this test raised suspicion then there was no hope in the long run.

You had to gain at least a sliver of his trust, grow some type of bond between the two of you where you could act a little foolish and he'd look past it without second thought because he didn't consider you to be a danger of any kind.

Only way to do that though was something you weren't awfully good at; being vulnerable.

You clear your throat, turning to him again to see Wooyoung already going through another pile of papers.

"I am scared of them. Needles." You tell him truthfully, probably the first truth you told him ever since you meet him a week ago. He looks up from the papers in surprise that you're still in the infirmary with him, his hair falling into his face that he has to run a hand through it to get it out of the way.

Wooyoung stays silent, brows stitching together and it's obvious he doesn't quite buy it as he glances down at your tattoos. The thing is, he doesn't know why you're lying but he knows that you are.

Which is a problem in itself.

You follow his eyes that are still stuck on your bare arm as the sleeves of your button up are rolled up to your elbows. You chuckle, folding your hands behind your back to hide them from view.

"It's not the same with the tattoos." You tell him and for the first time around him because you're feeling a little stupid since you can't explain yourself, you blush. "I don't know how but...I mean I think it has something to do with the veins and holding my hands out like this-" You stretch out your arms so your veins are showcased, "It makes me feel at unease."

Wooyoung listens to you carefully, papers long forgotten as he sits at the edge of the table.

"That's the most textbook example of how someone with trypanophobia would feel." He voices out, his attention entirely devoted to you that it makes you slightly shift on your feet. As much as you enjoy his eyes on you, they also make you equally as nervous.

"Huh," You chuckle, glancing away with your lips pressed together in discomfort under his dissecting gaze.

"Well, at least you know that you could never be a junkie." He adds in a lighthearted tone that you almost miss the way the smile doesn't entirely reach his eyes. Almost.

"Right." You chuckle, taking a step back as you deem the conversation to be over. You send him a small wave as you head for the door.

"See you tomorrow." He calls after you and you just keep walking without looking back.

-

When you walk out into the cold morning air the next morning on your way to the construction site, your head instinctively turns towards the yard where the inmates were already released to and spot a familiar figure lingering near the fence closest to you.

Jongho straightens out with his hands shoved deep into the pockets of the same jacket everyone else in the yard is wearing when he sees you walk out of the building and you inconspicuously glance around for any guards.

Once you realize that there aren't any in the vicinity nearby, you make your way across the gravel towards him.

"That outfit really highlights your figure, bro." Is the first thing you tell him with a teasing smirk as you stop to stand in front of him. He chuckles but it has no humor as he looks over his shoulder before turning to you.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm not here to discuss prison fashion." He mutters with an eyeroll but you can see a glimpse of an amused smile threatening to pull on his face and your chest warms at the sight. "Listen, I got what you asked for."

He pats the right pocket of his pants subtly where you presume he's hidden the bolt and you nod in approval.

"You really meant what you said, huh?" Jongho asks again, referencing your last visit and you let out another huff of disbelief that he didn't take you as seriously as you hoped he would.

"I already told you, I'm not here on vacation."

He stares at you for a silent moment before clearing his throat, glancing over his shoulder to make sure there's still no-one around to listen in.

"Whatever you got going on, fill me in because I'm still in the dark here." He expresses quietly, eyebrows pushed together as he waits for a response. You sigh.

"Lim and Associates got the contract to retro this place in ninety nine. Four billion dollar contract, head partner couldn't crack it, so he subcontracted out. An under the table sort of deal with a former associate." You quietly explain, turning to stand sideways in front of him to not seem too suspicious while still being able to be on lookout for any guards that might be watching you. 

Although that doesn't seem to be a problem since, with the exception of the officers stationed on the four towers surrounding the compound, most of them are still having their morning coffee in the break room.

 "That guy was one of the partners in my firm. We basically ghostwrote the plan, crossed the t's, dotted the I's, grouted the tiles." You tell him, lips perking up in satisfaction as you watch him digest the information. 

Jongho seems confused as he digests the new information, probably trying to connect what that has anything to do with your current situation of supervising a construction site while planning a detailed prison escape.

"You've seen the blueprints." He concludes before his face turns serious, "If anyone finds out you have copies of them, you'll be in deep shit. They can report you for missing documents at work, Y/N-"

You snort, "They won't find them because I don't have them on paper anywhere."

His brows furrow, "You memorized them?"

"Better than that," You disclose, subtly pulling the sleeve of your coat and shirt underneath to show him your inked arm, "I have them on me."

Jongho stares at the tattoo's lining your forearm with wide eyes. "Are you fucking kidding me?" He hisses, glancing over his shoulder again. You imagine that you always have to be on guard in a place like this. "Am I supposed to be seeing something there?"

"Don't worry about that." You calmly respond, tugging your sleeves down before shoving your hands back into the pockets of your coat, "Your cellmate...how well do you know him?"

"Ah, as well as a man can get to know another man in a week." Jongho sighs, head turning in the direction of a tall guy huddled on the bench conversing with a couple of others. You observe him in curiosity, guessing that's your brother's roommate, watching as the guy glances in Jongho's direction before his eyes stop on you. "We can trust him."

He doesn't look much older than Jongho, you can't gauge his features that well from this distance especially with his dark fringe covering his forehead obstructing his eyes from view.

The guy, Coin, nods at you.

"At first I thought it was a lost cause, he has eighteen months left in here." Jongho states making you turn to him in concern that his cellmate wouldn't want in. If he got caught, he'd be adding years to his sentence. Jongho was already serving life but others weren't, they could lose more than they could possibly gain if they got caught. Jongho grins, "But then he found out his cousin is making a move on his girl the other day and getting out of here become his priority."

You scoff, hiding a smile as you mutter, "Men."

You return Coin's subtle nod and he immediately glances away, like he never even saw you.

"Also," Jongho shuffles through the pockets of his jacket again before he pulls out a small paper object. An origami dove. He glances to somewhere on the yard and you follow his gaze when it stops on a two toned head of hair sitting at what seems to be a usual bench for him and his cronies. "Kim?"

"Ah," You chuckle, not being able to hide a smile as your eyes fly back to your brother who seems peeved by your reaction, "He got my message."

"Y/N, being involved with that guy can't be a good idea. He's crazy." Jongho comments, frustration clear as day on his face.

"Maybe but he's your express ticket out of here." You calmly voice out, glancing at the guards room to make sure the door remained shut.

"How?"

"You ever heard of Top Flight Charters?" You ask him, shivering lightly in the cold air as you watch a group of inmates play basketball on the small makeshift court of the yard.

"Yeah." Jongho nods, confused.

"They operate flights from small air fields. Like the one ten miles from here. They're run by a shell company Kim Hongjoong owns." You explain to him, inching closer to the fence, "We get him on board there's going to be a midnight flight waiting for you the night you get outside those walls."

"You're willing to risk the entire escape on a guy you don't even know?" He hisses, hands curling around the wired fence.

You sigh, "Preparation can only take you so far, Jongho." You tell him, looking up at the Correction Officers stationed on the tower behind his back, "After that you just have to take a few leaps of faith."

Jongho chuckles in disbelief, acting as if you're not understanding the weight of the situation, "Kim is a huge leap of faith, Y/N."

You nod once again, understanding that completely, "Definitely but apart from fixing you a flight, he also runs P.I. Tell him to give you and your new roommate a job there."

"P.I....Prison Industries?" He questions and you nod, glancing over your shoulder to check the guards room once again.

Jongho stays quiet, seemingly lost in his thoughts and you give him some time as your eyes scope out the yard once again.

"Y'know, getting out of here is just the beginning." He utters, "We're gonna need money if we plan on disappearing."

Your head turns to where Park Seonghwa sits, his cat Mijoo nestled in his lap as he softly strokes her. "I'm working on it."

"They'll come for you as well, you do know that right?"

You meet his gaze straight on. "Of course I know that."

That seems to make something shift on Jongho's face, something heavy appearing in his eyes. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do this?" Your brother asks, sad expression on his face as he presses his lips together in anguish, "You're throwing away your life, everything you worked so hard for all these years."

Your eyes start to burn as you clench your jaw, anger burning your insides at his question, acting like he's not your only family. Like he didn't raise you. "I wouldn't have any of it if it wasn't for you so don't ask me stupid fucking questions. You're my brother."

Jongho seems to understand your feelings, his own eyes misting over before he nods, gaze falling down to the soft grass below his feet, seemingly giving up on talking you out of this, "So...what now? What should I do next?"

You clear your throat, "Tell Kim to hire you and your cellmate at P.I. first, he should know what for by now but if he asks anything or tries to do something to hurt you, mention 7th March of next year. He'll understand. It's the date when a witness is supposed to testify against him in court and send his entire empire crumbling down."

Jongho nods again, soaking up every word.

"You're in cell forty, right?"

After another nod, you explain to him as quickly as you can just how he'll use the bolt he stole from the bleachers.

"When you break the wall, don't do anything else. Return the toilet the way it was, screw it back on and wait." You hurriedly finish and he quickly nods in confirmation that he understood before you take a couple of steps back when you see from the corner of your eye the door of the guards room opening.

You can't even tell Jongho goodbye because you're already making your way across the gravel with your head ducked down.

But not before sparing one last glance at the yard and connecting eyes with none other than Kim Hongjoong who now stands by the fence and stares directly at you.

[blog-de-segunda]

Tag Game

Thank you for tagging me @oo-mi-ru-oo <3

What to do? type "[your name]core" in pinterest/google and make yourself a moodboard from the results!

I'm tagging: @tiburonc1n @kuudenshi @anime-to-the-t @glockjaw @flderwin @shinigami-thighs @helianthus-xi @lostkunai @reaxzs @reclaim-your-crown @kk0n @dyed--red @knifepurrty

[mistress-of-words]

I like making moodboards, so I thought why not make some for the various Logyn fics out there? And well, here we are.

Snakes & Flowers by me

Pride and Fidelity by @jonquilclegane

Artwork by @shirai-ru

Dance of the Hours by @roruna

[its-tea-time-darling]

It's Show & Tell Time!

Reblog and tag a blog (or blogs) you think others should follow!

marvelous. love this. thanks elise for reccing my blog <3 @abtyouandme

so. this will probably escalate ever so slightly, but it is not ME who is to blame, instead it is my many talented, wonderful and adorable mutuals who should be blamed here.

maze runner blogs you should follow:

@manako-no-yami clod's writing sideblog. read her fics.

@newtedison sami's tmr (side?) blog that has an archive of wonderful edits

@crestfallercanyon who writes loads of good things and if you're lucky you're gonna catch her ramble on about a wonderful, intricate new headcanon she's thought of

@persnickett moodboards and edits and snarky comments, AND links to her fics and fic updates.

@subjecta5newtella whatever santeri says about minho, i agree. (coined the term white boy summer agenda, like please.)

@dahliia04 who has equally smart things to say.

@timgayne search dee's blog for fic rec lists, thank me later. i most prominently remember the minewt and nalby ones. a gem for collecting them! do also read dee's thomally.

@nice-to-meet-ya-shank swift's tmr sideblog, thomesa fan and friend of the first hour. @swift-creates for her fics moodboards etc.

@thomesa-week-2022 this is kind of tooting my own horn, but check out the blog for thomesa week 2022 that took place in january this year. such wonderful creations!

@translated-tmr if i've already started tooting my own horn: look at the event blog for the translation gift exchange that took place this spring. maze runner fics, translated into 9 different languages!

@iasconsumesmedia ias' writing sideblog. if you love yourself you'll read her thomiho, thomally and thomesa.

@thominho-incorrectquotes momo. momo thinks about thominho. you wanna watch him do that, believe me. (he also writes, and. yes.)

@mazegays nix has lots to say. (and writes and organizes thominho week and does so many cool things:000)

@thominho-week2022 speaking of - the thominho week blog. archives from years back, treat yourself!

@thomallyweek speaking of ship week blogs: treat yourself to this year's thomally week sweets. thanks to clod and crest for organize it you did an amazing job ily

@itsthemxze molly makes edit and writes and reblogs funny stuff, i think you want to follow them

@voidstilesplease so shara is most notably a steo shipper, but i have cried over her thomally and thomesa writings and edits. treat yourself.

@dont-bee-shy alexie writes, and when she does she will wreck your heart (but you will thank her) (esp. recommend the soniet royalty au, it's *chef's kiss*)

@go-catch-a-chickn fabs makes wonderful moodboards and writes equally wonderful fics. recently (or not so recently anymore actually) converted to also enjoying thomally in addition to newtmas. what a joy.

@ohbluesky juliette draws. (and does so wonderfully)

@hope92100 finds all the beautiful edits that have been buried in the depths of tumblr. daily gems. also brenderesa moodboars!

@gladerscake gally x reader writer and producer of countless incorrect quotes of which i can never settle on a favorite.

@newtmsa angie writes and makes beautiful moodboards/fanart thingies for her fics, it's amazing.

@00250 jamie isn't so active anymore, but she has made so many amazing edits, search her blog.

@nachoupala lena likes to hit her characters over the head with polyamory, and i think you want to watch her do it.

@visro has lots to say about zart. was also the one who wrote that tweet to which trashner replied newt was gay. (legend behavior helloo)

and last but not least:

@mazerunnersecretsanta the blog for the annual maze runner secret santa. an amazingly wide array of content that is produced each year. browse the ao3 and the blog, and find gems you never knew you needed!

-

wow, i was so good at keeping it short, only 25 blogs listed! <3

this was by all means not be a conclusive list, please add on if you want to.

also: if you're looking to find more community in the maze runner fandom, there is various discord servers. drop me an ask or a message and i'll enlighten you.

[fandomficsnstuff]

Across Time -26

Summary: Infiltrating the Ministry of Magic for the locket was hard enough, but what will you do when the time turner you were wearing starts to spin as you’re apparating out of there in a panic? Letting go of your friend’s hand to stop it turning, you land on soft grass, hitting your head on something hard and knocking out. When you come to, you’re in a cabin with an old man, eyes crystal blue as he takes care of you, speaking a language you’d never heard before, he introduces himself as Ragnar after you’ve cast a spell to understand his language. You travel to a small town with him, everyone is dressed as though you’re in the ninth century and you're greeted by four men, all of them sharing the clear blue eyes of the man you had been travelling with, all with the same colored hair, all except for one of these men. Raven black hair and the most blue eyes you’ve ever seen, even the whites of his eyes are blue. Ragnar introduces you to Ivar, the raven haired cripple who is one of his sons. As you travel to England in hope of finding a way back, you realise that this was not your England, not the one you grew up in. Defeated, you return to Kattegat with Ivar but soon he figures out, as Ragnar did, that you are not quite all you seem. How will you get home, if ever? A broken time turner, stuck in a time before your own, how can you fix the time turner and get back to your friends before it’s too late?

(Warnings: hint at previous suicidal thoughts)

Credit for the moodboard goes to @quantumlocked310

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You couldn’t help but shake a little as you walked behind the men dragging Ivar, Minerva sitting heavily on your shoulder, your eyes scanning the area, the two soldiers escorting you behind Ivar making sure to keep you in their sights at all times, leaving you with no choice but to comply with their every word, one of your hands resting over your still wounded stomach, you were almost healed but that wasn’t why, you sometimes forgot what happened, which was a very peaceful moment for you, but then you remembered, and your body shook a tad more. You grimaced when they dropped Ivar on the floor in what appeared to be a pool of blood. Your eyes moved nervously from Ivar to the man as he turned, a bloody axe in his hand and without realising it, your hands instantly clasped over your stomach. You glared at the man as he noted how Ivar couldn’t walk, his gaze turning to you, a smirk playing at his lips as he asked if you were with Ivar by force or choice, your blood boiling at the way he arrogantly smirked when asking, and you knew for a fact that Ivar’s was boiling as well. “No, I’m a cripple, from birth… You speak my language…” Ivar noted, shifting the topic from you to something else, an act you were very thankful for. “It was once the language of my people too… we are Rus Vikings… what did they call you?” the man asked and you couldn’t help but glance at Minerva on your shoulder before placing your attention back to the man interrogating Ivar, Prince Oleg. “My name is Ivar… they call me Ivar the Boneless… this is my wife, (Y/N)” Ivar introduced, knowing the question would be asked sooner or later, but at least now it was under Ivar’s control, sort of. Oleg eyed you up and down, as if sceptical that Ivar could have a wife to begin with and you glared at Oleg, something he seemed to almost enjoy, as though he enjoyed the small battle going on between the two of you before finally looking back at Ivar “I’ve heard of you and your wife… I must admit, I am very curious about your her, I have heard rumours…” he admitted, his eyes lingering on you for a second too long, an uncomfortable feeling taking hold in your gut as you glared at him. Oleg pointed the bloodied axe at Ivar while speaking “Ivar, the Boneless,” he moved the axe to point at you next, a lump forming in your throat as he spoke “and (Y/N), the Queen of Owls… your fame has traveled along the Silk Road” he noted as he turned around, casting a glance at you over his shoulder as he placed is axe down near a seat, “like honey, beeswax, furs and slaves” he added while sitting down on the fur covered seat, cleaning his hands of the blood that covered them as he looked at Ivar again “but why do you travel along it now?… Without announcing yourselves? Like a thief” his questions made you tense, Minerva fussing slightly on your shoulder but you managed to calm her down rather quickly.

“I lost my kingdom to my brothers… I am nothing… and I have nothing to offer you, Prince Oleg. It was not my intention to trouble you with my presence” Ivar stated calmly, watching Oleg as he considered Ivar’s words for a few seconds, Oleg’s eyes finding your form for a second before looking back at Ivar “and where were you going?” Oleg’s words made a tinge of sadness run through you. You had finally started to feel like you belonged in Kattegat, with Ivar, and then you lost that, lost a safe place for you to heal. “Nowhere, I have no plans, I am simply fleeing the retribution of my brothers… I fear for the safety of my wife, that is why I kept us moving and didn’t settle” Ivar admitted and Oleg glanced at you again, studying you before looking away again “well… you’re here now, all of you,” Oleg got up and walked down the steps towards Ivar, that lump in your throat returning and when you tried to take a step closer to Ivar, it was like he sensed it, he lifted a hand to subtly tell you to stay put and you did. “Who knows, if your presence will trouble me… let us see…” was Oleg’s last words as he walked past Ivar, his eyes lingering on you as he walked by, close enough that you felt the need to lean away from him as he walked by. You tried not to wince as the guards picked Ivar up under his arms again, dragging him past you with you following quickly, at least now you could see him, see his face, and he could see you.

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Ivar’s eyes widened as his man was ripped apart, his last words hailing him as a god before he was killed, Ivar’s eyes instantly landed on the bruised woman who was placed in his stead, her nose broken, her left eye blue and swollen so badly that she couldn’t even open it. Her lip was split at the right corner, dried blood stuck in a line down her chin. She had several cuts on her hands and arms, as well as her neck, swallow cuts to maximise pain without killing her. Ivar felt sick at the sight of Mathilda, at the thought of what was going to happen next. Mathilda’s head hung low, her healthy eye shut as she heaved for breath while being tied up by her bruised wrists. Ivar had the sense that she had been through worse than what was about to happen now. “She hasn’t done anything wrong. Prince Oleg, she hasn’t done anything-”

“She refused to tell me if the rumours of your wife were true, she insulted me by doing so” Oleg stated calmly, interrupting Ivar who turned his panicked gaze to Mathilda, her head slowly raising as she managed to give Ivar a small smile. “Hail the Queen of Owls, of Kattegat, she has been my Valhalla” the second the words were out of her mouth, the string was snapped, Ivar flinching as he looked away, eyes wide as he heard the bones crack, the flesh being torn apart, thrown through the cold air like a discarded piece of rotten meat. Ivar actually felt sick. He felt horrified when his man was killed but Mathilda was different. She had been there at the birth of his child, even though Balder died, she was still there, helping you through it. He knew how much Mathilda meant to you, she had helped you through the birth of his child, something he thought he would never achieve. She had been at your side for two whole months, managing to get you to eat just enough to keep you alive. She, in his mind, was the reason why you were still standing, instead of having starved yourself to death after Balder’s death. Mathilda was loyal to you, truly loyal.

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You paced the small room endlessly, chewing on your bottom lip as you couldn’t help but worry. Prince Oleg had sent for him, just him, and that was a little over an hour ago, fear and worried nagging at you as you paced the small room, eyes repeatedly glancing to your bag in the corner, they had allowed you to keep it when they saw nothing was inside, Ivar convincing them it was merely sentimental value. As you heard some distant screams you looked out of the small window in the room, over the bed, your eyes widening when you saw Ivar with Prince Oleg, strapped to… a balloon?? You heard Ivar’s scream as they nearly hit a gate, a gasp leaving your lips as you watched with worry, heart beating a thousand miles per hour in your chest, nearly crushing your ribs with how hard it was beating. You continued to nervously glance out the window, even after the giant balloon was gone from your sight, even after everything was quiet once more, your gaze nervously shifting between the floor and your bag with your wand in it. A second before you choose your wand, the doors opened, your eyes wide as you turned and faced Ivar. You barely registered that you had moved at all but suddenly you were hugging Ivar tightly, clinging to him as you tried to calm your nervous breathing, feeling his arm wrap around you tightly, hugging you back as he felt just how nervous you had been for him.

You sighed heavily as you let go of Ivar, sitting down on the bed with him, not letting go of him for a second as you looked him over for injuries “what happened?! I heard some screams and then I saw you-”

“I was out flying” Ivar stated with a smirk, watching you as your entire body froze, stiff as a plank except for your eyes, those you batted quite a few times before finally looking back at Ivar in disbelief. “You-.. what?” Ivar just kept grinning at you “I now know what you enjoy so much about flying, my dear, it was-”

“Exhilarating?” you asked, seeing him nod with a smirk, a chuckle leaving your lips as you sighed “I was so worried… I saw this large balloon thing and then I heard you and bloody hell Ivar I nearly blew up the whole damn place” you said with a nervous laugh, laying your head on his shoulder, closing your eyes and enjoying the moment of peace until a thought struck you. “I’m guessing everything went well with Prince Oleg? Have you heard anything about Mathilda?” you asked with a grin, ready to perhaps put all your anxiety behind you for now, until you saw his face fall, prompting your own joy to fade as you frowned at him. “She-...” Ivar cut himself off as you began to shake your head, tears forming in your eyes as you began to sob, Ivar quickly wrapping his arms around you as you sobbed against his shoulder. “She wanted you-.... she told me to-.... she wanted you to know that knowing you, was her Valhalla…” Ivar finally managed to get out, hearing and feeling your sobs increase at his words, still shaking your head as you clinged to Ivar. “She was proud to have known you… she wanted me to tell you this…” he added, hugging you tighter in an attempt to comfort you.

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You were sitting next to Ivar as you watched the puppets with him and Prince Oleg. Truthfully you weren’t overjoyed to sit near Prince Oleg after he murdered Mathilda but you didn’t want to let Ivar out of your sight for a single moment and you even found yourself following the story a little more than you thought you would’ve. “(Y/N)?” you turned your head to look at Ivar as he said your name, smiling softly at him as he gestured to the puppets “what do you think, my dear wife?” His question made you chuckle quietly as you turned your eyes back to the puppets “I like them” you admitted, nodding to yourself as you looked back at Ivar “I wish someone could hold me up like that…” he mumbled as he looked back at them with interest. “I thought the Gods did that” Oleg’s voice always managed to make you feel uncomfortable, and the way he chuckled afterwards didn’t help either. “Just say the word, I once tried it on Ron during our DADA meetings, though he said it wasn’t as fun as it looked” you whispered to Ivar, earning an amused scoff and a quick glance your direction as you gave him a brief wink before looking back at the puppets. You frowned as you heard a voice speaking behind you, turning to see yet another puppet, this one dressed as a king with a moustache, you couldn’t fully understand what was being said but when you glanced at Oleg, you had a feeling it was about something that struck a cord with him, tears running down his face as the puppets depicted the king murdering the other puppets.

Ivar had turned his attention to you when the show was almost done, smirking softly as he saw that you hadn’t noticed that he was looking at you, you looked so beautiful, your hair in the same braids they had been since you both left Kattegat in a hurry, fiddling with the torque necklace he had given you so long ago, you had worn it for so long, it made him proud, so, so proud that you had chosen him. It was clear that Hvitserk liked you at one point or another, he knew that Ubbe felt something for you, he just wasn’t sure if it had been friendship or something else. But you choose him. The crippled little brother of the famous sons of Ragnar. The one everyone never picked, the one everyone hated, but not you. You choose him.

Ivar was, however, unaware of Prince Oleg watching you with a small smirk, taking his time in studying every bit of you, the clothes you wore, the way your hair was done, He had to admit, he admired the woman he had heard so much about, so many stories had been told of you, or what you could do, or how powerful you were, a worthy ally of The Prophet, he’d almost say, but what he wanted more than anything was to see that true fire in you, that fire that he knew burned. He had seen a spark of it, just a small ember of what he had heard you could do, and he would go as far as to say he longed to see if they were true. He wondered if any children you would have were the same, powerful beyond imagination, able to work miracles, cure any illness and make objects fly as though they weighed nothing. He would definitely have to get closer to you and he had an idea as to how.

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“When will you be back?” your voice made Ivar smile softly at you, his hand cupping your cheek lovingly as he leaned closer “I’m not sure, perhaps I will be back soon, perhaps a day or two, but I will hurry back to you, I promise” Ivar’s sweet words brought you a sense of comfort that you hadn’t felt in a while, your eyes downcast until you felt one of his hands gently being placed over your stomach. “Perhaps, one day we could have another child, yes?” Ivar asked with a pleading look in his eyes, tears forming in your eyes at the memory of Balder, it was almost a year ago now. You found yourself giving him a weak nod, one that seemed to comfort Ivar a small bit. You knew he desperately wanted a family, children of his own, and you wanted that with him, but Balder still somewhat haunted you, the thought of losing another child made you feel sick enough to throw up. After losing Balder you had to admit, there were a lot of times where your dagger looked appealing, but you didn’t do what you yearned for, thinking of those you’d leave behind. “Maybe one day” you whispered with a soft nod, leaning up and kissing Ivar goodbye as Prince Oleg got up in the sled, Ivar sharing one final look with you before riding off with Oleg.

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You barely managed to walk without tripping over your own feet as you walked outside of the palace, gaze locked on the gate as you were waiting with a big grin as you saw the sled inch closer through the city. The second the slade came to a halt, you hurried towards Ivar. Ivar luckily noticed and the second he was out of the sled he made sure his crutch was firmly in the ground so he wouldn’t tip over when you hugged him, and hug him, you did. Your arms wrapping around him as you crashed against him with force from running so quickly. Ivar chuckled lightly as he wrapped his free arm around you, taking in the natural scent of your hair, eyes closed in utter bliss until you parted from him, cupping his face in your hands with that same grin, the grin he hadn’t seen you wear in over a year. “What is it, my dear wife, hm?” Ivar asked with a chuckle and you shrugged lightly, fiddling with some of the fur that was draped over one of his shoulders, looking away from him shyly. “I’ve thought about what you said… and I agree… m-maybe not right now, but… at some point, yes” you said, looking back at Ivar to see his eyes wide, you almost thought he had frozen in place until you felt his lips on yours, a smirk tugging at your lips as you eagerly kissed him back, parting from him with a chuckle as Ivar chased after your lips.

It was only after Ivar turned his gaze away from you, to someone behind you, that you turned and saw a young boy, a confused expression forming on your face as you turned to Ivar for an explanation. Before Ivar could say anything, however, Prince Oleg spoke up, “Lady (Y/N), this is my ward, Prince Igor. Prince Igor, this is Ivar’s wife,” the way he said it held subtle spite as he gave you a small smirk before looking back at Igor, “The Queen of Owls, just as famous as her husband, if not more” he ended with a small bow of his head towards you, it would have been flattering if it wasn’t for the odd vibe he constantly gave you. You faked a polite smile and chuckled “I don’t know about that, but it’s nice to meet you” you turned your attention to the young prince and bowed your head, smiling softly at him. He seemed horrified but like he was hiding it. You’d have to ask Ivar later on.

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You carefully knocked on the wooden door, waiting patiently until you heard a voice speak what must have been russian, and since you couldn’t understand, you had no choice but to gently open it and peek your head inside. “Prince Igor? I’m sorry, I didn’t understand what you were saying just now, I hope it’s alright that I’m coming in” your voice seemingly reached an empty room, until you looked up. Your eyes widened and you let out a gasp as you saw a nest-like thing in the room, with Igor’s head peeking over. You couldn’t stop grinning and chuckling “it looks just like one of the nests in the owelry at Hogwarts…” you muttered as you circled the nest from below, admiring it as Igor watched you with a curious gaze. You smiled softly at Igor as he climbed down to face you, his eyes narrowed slightly at you as he studied you. “What is ‘Hogwarts’?” he asked with curiosity and you couldn’t help the fond smile that formed on your lips as you briefly looked down “my home away from home” you admitted before looking around the room and gesturing to a chair, silently asking if you could sit down and when he gave you a brief nod, you sat down on it with Igor sitting next to you. “I have heard rumours of you, of what you can do, I am curious” Igor’s words made you smile softly “I figured. So I came to show you this,” you got out your wand and showed it to him, letting him examine it but when he reached for it, you moved it slightly out of his reach, giving him a serious expression “it is very powerful. You can hold it but only if you just look at it, don’t wave it around” you warned and he nodded, with that you allowed him to pick up your wand and examine it with great fascination. “It is a stick, yes?” he asked and you couldn’t help but laugh, shaking your head softly “no, no it’s not. My kind uses these to control what we can do, sort of like pouring water from a jug. Without the jug, it’s just a splash of water on the floor, but with it, you can easily pour it into a glass without trouble” you explained, seeing Igor examine it more closely, as though he expected to see something other than the carvings engraved on your wand. Once he found nothing, he carefully, like it was made of thin glass, handed it back to you and you smiled. “It may look like a stick, but it’s not. The wand, as it is called, is made from a special kind of tree. There’s several different trees that the wood can come from. Then there’s a core, unique to each wand. Two people can have a wand made from the same type of wood, but never with the same core, it is very rare and I only know of two wands where this has happened. Anyway, you get the wood from these special trees, then a special core, and finally there’s the length and flexibility of the wand” perhaps Hermione had rubbed a tad too much off on you, but the way you said every word like it was a proven fact, which in your world it was, was enough to completely enchant Igor, his eyes wide as he clung to every word you spoke.

“Can I see it?” he asked after a while and you nodded, looking around and when you saw a mug on a table you pointed your wand at it, doing the proper hand motion as you said the spell, “Wingardium Leviosa” the mug lifted itself off the table and flew towards you and Igor, like it was sliding along an invisible surface, and it only stopped when you grabbed it and lowered your wand, giving it to Igor with a smirk. You next pointed your wand into the mug “Aguamenti” water filled the mug almost to the brim, Igor’s eyes wide in shock and wonder as he stared at it, then stared at you as you put your wand away, giving a quick nod towards the mug, silently telling him it was safe to drink, which he did, carefully taking a sip to taste it before downing the entire mug in one go, making you chuckle. “Merlin’s Beard, you’re that thirsty?” you asked in a laugh as Igor showed you the mug again, your wand tip pointing into it, the spell leaving your lips and once again it filled itself with water, water he eagerly gulped down. “I have not dared to drink anything after Novgorod” Igor admitted and it made you frown, confusion clear on your face “why not? That’s not healthy” you weren’t sure why but suddenly he became so nervous, like he expected you to know something and when he realised you didn’t, he was too scared to tell you what it was. “Igor, you can trust me, I’m not going to tell anyone anything if you don’t want me to” you placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, his eyes downcast as he nervously fiddled with the mug still in his hands.

“In Novgorod… My uncle, Prince Oleg, poisoned my other uncle, the one watching over me. I do not want to drink anything he or any of his people give me” he stated quietly and you felt your blood run cold at his words, but you forced a soft smile anyway, gently rubbing his shoulder in a comforting manner “it’s alright, he won’t hurt you… and if he does, don’t worry, I have an antidote to any common and uncommon poisons, I won’t let anything happen to you” you vowed with a soft smile, seeing him look up at you with a sceptical look before looking back down “why? You have your own things to worry about” he mumbled and you couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, shrugging lightly “everyone needs someone in their corner, you have Ivar and me. Ivar and I will figure things out on our own, but you’re still just a child” you admitted with a small whisper, Igor perking up at your words, nodding softly as he hesitantly leaned towards you, as if testing the waters, ready to withdraw if you slapped him or pushed him away but you didn’t, you gave his shoulder a small push towards yourself and let him lean against you. You got the sense that he hadn’t been held in a long, long time. “You’re just a kid Igor… it’s alright to be scared… I’m still scared sometimes…” you admitted, looking down at Igor as he lifted his head to look at you with a frown, making you sigh softly as his gaze silently asked you to explain.

“Where I’m from there is someone very dark, very evil… power hungry… I would be lying if I said that he didn’t scare me… because he does, but admitting your fears if the first step to conquering them” you said with a small smile, tilting your head softly at Igor as he pondered over your words for a moment “I’m still scared of him, I think I always will be, even after he is long dead if I’ll ever live that long… but I still fought against him, back home” you said with a small smile, watching as Igor furrowed his brows “at Kattegat?” he asked and you felt a tinge of sadness but you smiled anyway “no, back where I’m really from. It’s a long, long way from here…” you admitted before looking away from Igor, trying your hardest not to cry and he saw that. Igor got free of your grasp and hurried somewhere in his room, getting out an instrument that looked sort of like a guitar, sitting down on the chair again and beginning to play, a smile tugging at your lips as you listened, unaware of the angry eyes watching the scene unfold from the doorway.

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You couldn’t prevent the smile that tugged at your lips as you quietly left the room, glancing at a sleeping Igor who had fallen asleep on the floor amongst many pillows and blankets that the two of you had built. The second you closed the door quietly and turned, you were met with a smirking Prince Oleg, your throat closing up for a brief moment in shock until you gathered your composure “Prince Oleg, did you want to speak with Prince Igor? He’s asleep right now” you informed as you managed to sneak your way past him, although he did not make it easy for you, he didn’t move an inch in the hallway so you had to go around him. “No, I wanted to speak with you” there it was again, that nervous gut feeling you got as you heard him follow you, eventually walking by your side. You kept quiet as you walked back towards the room you shared with Ivar. “I want to know more about you, you intrigue me” Oleg admitted as he walked beside you, hands clasped behind his back as he mostly kept his gaze locked on you even though you didn’t even glance at him while walking, something he surely noticed. “Tell me, what is it like where you’re from? England, right?” he asked and you just knew he enjoyed the way your steps halted for a brief second before resuming, the way your stance tensed even more than before, he seemed like the kind of man to enjoy making others uncomfortable for his amusement. “Yes… but it’s very different” you muttered, trying to keep your answers as short as possible, that nervous feeling in your gut growing with each passing second. “Tell me, is it common for a man to take more than one wife?” His casual way of asking made you halt completely, eyes wide for a brief second before you managed to snap out of it, narrowing your eyes at Oleg, looking at him for the first time.

“No, it’s not…” you stated coldly, watching him smirk as he took a tiny step closer to you, not enough to stand chest to chest with you, but enough for you to want to lean back, except there was a wall preventing you from doing so. “No? What about a wife taking more than one man? Are you not… curious?” he asked as he leaned closer and you couldn’t help but glare coldly at him, crossing your arms across your chest in annoyance “no, I’m not. If you are insinuating in any way that I’d ever even dream of being with someone who isn’t Ivar, I’ll hex you so bad you won’t be able to stand looking at yourself, which I get the sense you quite enjoy already” you snapped in a cold voice before turning and walking away from him with fast steps, quickly reaching your room and the second you were inside you slammed the door, turning to see a very confused Ivar who was sitting with Minerva, gently stroking her feathers until you had come along. “What are you doing?” Ivar asked as you hesitant, standing in the middle of the room before getting out your wand and pointing it at the door, whispering something Ivar couldn’t make out but when that was done, you sat down next to him by the table, avoiding his gaze as you looked as though you were deep in thought. “(Y/N)-”

“He’s like a damn Pixie… annoying as shit” you whispered to yourself with a harsh tone before softly shaking your head. Ivar tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at you, studying you, your tense shoulders as you tried to force yourself to relax, the way you blankly stared at the ground with silent rage and annoyance. “I have never heard you use that word before…” Ivar noted as he dropped his hand from Minerva to focus on you instead his, a soft, concerned frown on his face as he continued to study you “what has happened, hm? You can tell me” his soothing voice broke down your walls and you sighed softly. Ivar studied you for a while longer before getting off his chair and crawling to the bed, pulling himself up on it and then patting the space next to him, a silent question that didn’t need an answer. You moved over to him, sat down next to him, leaning against him, your head on his shoulder as you closed your eyes. “Nothing I just-... I went to see Igor and lost track of time, and when I got out of the room to come back here he was there, Prince Oleg… he started to ask about me and England… then he started to ask if-... husbands where I’m from had more than one wife, and when I said no, he asked if wives took more than one husband, as he put it… he asked me if I was curious and I-... I-I mean I might’ve threatened him but it wasn’t anything bad” you babbled and Ivar had to lean away from you, raising a very serious brow at you “you-... threatened Prince Oleg… and walked away?” he asked with confusion and you shrugged lightly, Ivar scoffing with a soft smile as he shook his head and allowed you to lay your head on his shoulder again “what is it you say, hm? ‘You learn something new every….’?” he trailed off and you chuckled quietly “day, it’s ‘you learn something new every day’” you finished and snuggled up against him even more, feeling his arm wrap around your shoulder, allowing you . You closed your eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Ivar holding you, slowly beginning to feel sleep take over, and Ivar knew it as well, letting go of you momentarily to lay down on the bed and have you snuggled up against him, your eyes shutting once more as you slowly began to fall asleep. Though Ivar didn’t fall asleep, his eyes open as he thought over what you had told him about Oleg.

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

You enjoyed watching Ivar teach Igor some of the words in what he called the Language of the Gods, a grin on your lips as you watched them with a grin, Ivar would have been a wonderful dad. You watched as Igor began to move his legs like Ivar did, your eyes moving to Ivar and you almost split your face in two with how big your grin was as you watched him smile in awe at Igor as he crawled around like him. You chuckled as Igor grabbed one of his dolls and called it Oleg, it was nice to see the boy enjoy himself without the fear of Oleg looming over him. As a dog began to bark, Igor’s attention moved from the doll and out towards the balcony, Ivar’s eyes following as you turned to look at Ivar when Igor ran out on the balcony. You nodded towards it and he smirked at you before grabbing his crutch and following after Igor while you stayed in place, deciding to eat some of the food on the table while they were out looking.

Your eyes moved from the table as Igor ran inside again and straight past you, Ivar following afterwards, shrugging lightly at you as he was about to ask you something but you already knew what, a smirk tugging at your lips as you nodded the way Igor had ran “go, I’m heading back to our room soon anyway, I’m getting tired” you commented and Ivar nodded, smiling at his dear wife before following after the eager Igor.

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Tags: @youbloodymadgenius @profoundtyrantharmony @draculasbride-blog @sarai-ibn-la-ahad @nerds4life246 @heavenly1927

[recurring-polynya]

Renruki for the OTP!

4, 9 , 22, 31, 35, 44,

4. When they can’t sleep, what do they do?

When she’s still living at Kuchiki Manor, Rukia likes to walk around the gardens in her pajamas in the middle of the night and talk to the koi. Byakuya does this, too, and they have passed many an insomnia night together. Once she’s married, if she can’t sleep, Rukia will get up and go do something-- make a cup of tea or draw or catch up on paperwork, and she’ll almost always wonder if Byakuya’s out talking to the fishes.

Prior to their marriage, when Renji can’t sleep, he likes to stare at the ceiling and stew in his past failures. Once they’re together, he almost never has trouble sleeping, but if he does, he’ll just snuggle Rukia until he drifts off again.

9. Who accidentally pushes a door instead of pulling?

Rukia has never, in her entire existence, pushed a door that said “PULL” on it. How could you even think this? How dare you think this.

Renji pushed on a pull-door one time 45 years ago and Rukia has never let him live it down for even a second.

22. Who texts more often?

They text each other in roughly equal measures, but Renji texts more, overall.

Renji is friends with a good 90%+ of the Seireitei, and even though he’s not really a gossip, he is sort of a nexus of gossip. He is on 16 different group chats and his DMs are the true forbidden archives of everything that happens in Soul Society. Aizen may have tracked the growth of Ichigo’s potential for 15 years, but he doesn’t know the full details of the time Shinji may or may not have caught Yoruichi hooking up with Soi Fon at one of Byakuya’s flower-viewing parties (an incident which had to be pieced together in postmortem by at least seven different lieutenants)

Also, Renji tries to use some semblance of grammar when he texts, but Rukia is absolutely feral in terms of sending things like “y u do this 2 me?”

Both of them are embarrassingly heavy emoji users.

31. Who has bigger cravings? What are they?

They both grew up in food insecurity, but have sort of come out of it with opposite outlooks. Renji eats on opportunity. He doesn’t really get cravings for particular things, but he’ll eat almost anything, including horrifying combinations of things. If a diner has a menu item called Garbage (anything), he will order it immediately. He is absolutely a pineapple on pizza guy. He thinks Orihime is a culinary genius. He’s somewhat thrifty by nature when it comes to eating--he’ll go out to be social, but he’s more likely to eat in, or get in a good meal at the mess hall. Over the years, he has spent a lot of time at other people’s family gatherings, and grandmothers instinctively love to feed him things.

Rukia also has a very generous palate, but there are particular things she really loves, and the one nice thing about being a Kuchiki is that she’s not shy about Treating Herself when she wants something. She loves to eat out, and since Byakuya is very Judgy about food choices, she especially loves going out for greasy junk food with Renji. The primary thing she craves is atomically spicy stuff. Poor Renji doesn’t handle spice very well, but he’s always good to come along to hype her up and take pictures of her conquests and to help her get home when she overdoes it and has tears and snot running out of her face. She will also declare that she needs dessert sometimes, and they’ll go get ice cream or some other extremely indulgent sweet, which Renji loves, even if he would never do it just for himself.

35. What do they smell when they smell amortentia?

I had to look up what this was, and apparently, it’s the love potion in Harry Potter, which smells like whatever you find most attractive, according to the HP wiki.

To Renji, it would smell like the promise of snow on a winter day, pine, wintergreen, and a jasmine perfume Rukia wore exactly once to a fancy party. It smells like a Kuchiki Rukia moodboard, and absolutely nothing like the actual Kuchiki Rukia, who smells mostly like soap, pickles, Captain Ukitake’s eucalyptus cough medicine, and cherry-flavored Chappy-brand chapstick.

To Rukia, it smells like a not-as-bad-as-it-sounds blend of gym sweat, hair tonic, soy sauce, ink, and camellias. It smells exactly like Renji actually smells. 

44. What are their nicknames for each other?

A long-standing feature of my fanfic is that Renji calls Rukia “Ru”, but only when it’s just the two of them, and he’s feeling particularly mushy toward her. It was something he started doing in their latter days in Inuzuri as his way of telling her he loved her. Astute readers may have noticed that I have had her called him “Ren” exactly once, in one of the later chapters of Between Tides.

Everyone knows this already, but their texting handles for each other are 🐒🐍🕶️ and ❄️🐰

otp meme

[charmixpower]

My idea Trix styles in a reboot/rewrire

I really love the Trix's style, especially in their bodysuits, and especially Darcy's civilian look, but everyone in Winx Club has the same crop top, mini skirt, sort of clothing even with different styles. So I wanted to try my hand and giving them their own more separate fashion tastes. Senior alpha bitch fashion only

Stormy:

Civilian-

Stormy's civilian outfit isn't the iconic darling that is Darcy's outfit but I still think it looks amazing on her, and is pretty memorable.

Out of all of the Trix Stormy has the most "I wear what I want, when I want, if I wanna." vibes.

She probably doesn't dress much differently than the way we see her in canon. Strappy bra tops and short skirts fill out her closet, and she doesn't own a single pair of pants.

All of her clothes are utterly impractical and she could not care less.

Stormy is easily the shortest of the Trix and definitely wears big platform pump heels to remain eye level with her sisters.

In highschool I imagine she near constantly got dress coded for showing too much skin. Growing up I can definitely see her getting comments about wearing too little or clothes not being right for her body type (esp if you see her as cubby) and I think that she wouldn't give a single fuck.

If the outfit makes her happy then she wears it, and anyone who has something to say better watch their mouth.

She wears a pair of safety shorts under her skirts because she has no manners and refuses to sit with her legs closed when wearing a skirt.

She often has very long stiletto nails, and gets incredibly angry when she breaks one.

Despite being the most agressively femme out of the Trix, Stormy is also the most sporty. Which is to say that she can run in what ever outfit she's wearing at any point in time.

Darcy cannot understand how the only time Stormy falls when doing this is when she breaks a heel.

Stormy has big party girl vibes to me but only if the party is the end of the world.

Trix-

As a child I used to think it was really weird that Stormy was wearing a skirt. Mostly bc Darcy's outfit looks so similar to Icy's it made Stormy stand out a lot and it confused me.

Now however, I love Stormy, and I love her skirt. It really shows her personality of a bit of a girly girl who still wants you dead.

Though I can't see Stormy in a pair of tights? Honestly remove the tights and give her a pair of thigh length shorts instead and I think it fits her better. Or at least have the tights be full of holes. You could not pay to convince me that she wouldn't constantly stab her nails though any tights she had to wear.

Stormy's outfit most blanetly looking like her civilian style would be a fun way to signal that she's the most uncomplicated and bluntly honest of the Trix.

She likes what she likes and she doesn't what she doesn't.

As far as her eye makeup goes, I'd imagine hers would always be messy. Like she did it in a rush or it was her first time putting it on.

Aside from that I love Stormy's witch outfit so much, you go girl.

Darcy:

Civilian-

Darcy easily has the best civilian design, especially with her glasses? Muwah! We love a fashion icon.

I will be doing nothing more than elaborating that her style falls somewhere between chic and comfortable.

Stormy and Icy seem like the kind of people who genuinely like dressing up, while Darcy has the vibe that she likes being hot but doesn't like putting all that much effort into it?

Darcy comes off to me as the only really practical member of the Trix. She seems to care more about assignments, other people, logistics. I think that while she envys Stormy and Icy's like multiple hour routines to look that good, she also prefers a more low key look to her sisters.

I also genuinely don't think she has the same energy that Stormy and Icy do to keep up a intense appearance on top of everything else. Shes a bit more frail and needs more rest compared to her sisters.

She doesn't have the fucking energy to do all the shit that Stormy and Icy do to look good and she doesn't want to either sort of thing.

I think her fashion strikes a balance the updo more intense fashion that she'd wear if she had the energy to do all the stuff Icy and Stormy did every morning, and the sweatpants she wants to wear bc she didn't get enough sleep again.

Because of this she's the most popular and well liked of the Trix in Cloud Tower bc she's the most approachable. She's kind the Trix's pr member, and the main reason they have people doing their homework.

Trix-

Darcy's witch outfit is underwhelming compared to Stormy and Icy and she's the main reason I added witch outfits to this post. Her outfit looks like Icy's and Stormy's but with less personality.

Stormy has her skirt and pointy top, Icy has har cape and thigh highs, and Darcy has...what? Pants that cut off? Gloves?

This almost fits bc yeah I can imagine Stormy and Icy picking this out for her after Darcy tells them to do what ever they want but it's low-key boring to me.

I think her outfit having some intense sleeveage going on would make her stand out more. Her outfit being the only one that has sleeves would make her stand out more. Her top being tight and strapless like her og outfit but with some flowly off the shoulders sleeves that flair out. Think Dark witch outfit except less intense and the sleeve part starts at the upper arm instead.

I think this would make her stand out next to her sisters a lot more and let her personality shine though her outfit like it does Icy and Stormy.

Also I think she deserves more flare in her pants, maybe their long enough to cover the top of her shoes. These combined would definitely give her a comfy which look.

Her eye makeup is def the same as in canon, canon. Cute and classic.

Icy:

Civilian-

I feel like out of all the civilian looks Icy's was the worst and the least memorable.

A collated crop top is incredibly hard to style and not look weird and out of place in an outfit. I think Icy's civilian design definitely fails making it work. They only really look good in sporty and super casual looks (or else they look like weirdly provocative middle school attire) none of which are Icy.

Everyone remembers Darcy's glasses and spiral top, and Stormy's laced top always feels vaugely familiar everytime I go back to this show, but everytime I've re watched Winx club I've always been caught off guard by Icy's civilian outfit bc I forget it, and then go "really? That's her outfit?" So this was the one that I most wanted to redesign.

My idea for civilian outfit is 100% inspired by Stella trying to pass off Bloom as a princess, bc it got me thinking that in a world of so many obvious royality and nobles everywhere, would some people not just lie about their status? And I think Icy is the perfect candidate to pull this.

Out of all the Trix Icy is the one who wants to become royality/a ruler the most, and I think she'd go out of her way to preemptively dress the part. She's also the only one with enough patience and self control to learn all the manners necessary to pull a lie like this off.

I'm thinking she's the type of person to wear colored trenchcoats, never closed, to give of a sophisticated old money vibe. I'm thinking a lot of dresses or pants and almost never skirts, bc skirts tend to come off as more playful compared to smart cut pants and gowns.

She'd probably look like she's vaugely business casual with carefully selected accent and jewelry pieces to make the outfit go form formal to regal.

I feel like she probably dresses more modestly compared to her sisters out of a sense of superiority disguised as self respect.

She is trying to pass off as a Noble instead of royality but if she could get away with it she would wear a crown.

She wears her hair up in a bun or leaves in down instead of the eye catching high pointy tail she wears in her witch form because she wants to blend in with the other nobles.

Icy desperately wants to be classy and a pinnacle of royal grace, so she probably accidentally over sells it a bit but no one questions it bc they just assume that that's just her personality/how her parents taught her to dress.

Shes definitely does all this on a budget so she spends hours thrifting and buying moderately priced clothes that can be styled to look as expensive as she feels she should be.

As for what the noblity think of Icy's outfits/style, she probably fits right in and doesn't catch a single second glance. Icy would spend a lot of time perfecting her aura to the point where people just assume she belongs in these spaces.

Bonus: I feel like Stella would really like Icy's aesthetic and fashion sense but think Icy looks a bit pretentious, Sky probably would just assume that she's old money traditionalist and remind him of a modern version of his mother, Diaspro and Chimera would definitely envy Icy's grace and be similarly jealous of how Icy comes off as a mature woman compared to them bc of the way she holds herself.

Trix-

I love love love Icy's witch outfit but I think it could do more.

This is Icy's "future Empress of the world" outfit and it should look as such.

Her cape could come over her shoulders, she could have thoese evening gloves, having sleeves on her suit. Her outfit already has alpha bitch energy, but I think she could have more of it.

Her cape swishing everytime she moved her arms would be wonderful.

The boots and high pointy tail are a staple of this outfit and nothing can improve them.

Icy would be so dramatic with her outfit and you cannot change my mind. Her eye makeup is equally as dramatic and she probably made hers pointier and more agressive looking than her sisters. Ya know. To make sure the alpha bitch enegry permeates the whole outfit.

[aliceaddellheidde]

His Celtic girl

A/N: This one is for @youbloodymadgenius 1K celebration. It´s first time I´m doing something like that. I lost my grandfather and bunny while writing so I´m sorry if it sucks.

Prompts in bold.

WORDS: 4869

WARNINGS: 18+, angst, smut & violence (graphic), blood, swearing, death

PAIRING: Ivar x OC (Moko)

DISCLAIMERS: I tried to be historically accurate as much as possible. I don’t hate Christians. English isn´t my first language.

Moodboard by me; pics from internet.

Divider by @firefly-graphics

Moko from Mokosh – Slavic goddess of fertility & water.

Ivar awakes from his long sleep. His head is hurting like Thor hit him with his hammer. He remembers fighting. Saxon's soldier with dagger. Hvitserk in tears. Grey sky. And then dark.

When he opens his eyes he sees wooden ceiling and small window on his left. „You are finally up.” says voice from his right with foreign accent and when he turns his head that way he sees young woman sitting on a chair by fire, mixing something in kettle. He tries to sit but agonizing pain stops him. „If I was you I wouldn't move. I bet your body still hurts.” It does but he will not tell it to that girl. With clenched teeth he pushes himself up, leaning against wall. „Who … ?” he tries to say - his throat dry, voice raspy. „Who are you?” he asks after few moments. „Moko.” She smiles a little, handing him cup. He watches it suspiciously before he takes it and drinks small gulps. „You have weird name.” he snorts. „Says nameless man whose I found on battle field almost dead. With no one around. Forgotten.” „I'm the king of the world! You stupid bitch knows      nothing!” he screams, throwing cup her way, his calmness turning into anger in mere seconds. „Don’t look like king to me.” she shrugs and turns to kettle again. He´s fuming, looking for something to throw at her. All he finds is fur over his legs. Fuck. Did she see them? „Why am I here anyway? You said I was dead. How I could be when I'm here, hm?” he asks with scorn. She said nothing. „Answer me! Where am I? Where is my brother!” He punches wooden bed under him. „I don’t know. My dog found you and I took you to my home. Now I think it was a mistake.” She was standing with hands on her hips. „I don’t need your help! I can take care of myself!” „Go then! I don’t give damn if you do!” she screams, stepping closer to him. He sees red. „At least I will not have to take care of crippled idiot!” He throws himself onto her but she just swiftly moves away from him, hand on sword. He almost screams from pain as his body hit the floor. Yet he stops    himself, spitting blood her way. Then he finally looks at her properly.

She is short, long dark hair falling to her waist, dressed in light yellow dress with golden armoured corset, belt around hips with few small pouches and sword scabbard. Her widen eyes watching him like falcon. He moves again and she unsheathes her weapon. ,,You are not gonna kill me.” he smirks. ,,No, but I can still hurt you.” They are watching each other for few more minutes before she puts sword away, takes cloth from table and cautiously sits next to him on the floor. He flinches when her hand moves to his face to wipe blood away. „Look, I took you here to take care of you. Once you are healed, you can leave. But until then it's better for you to stay with me.” She smiles when he lowers his head to avoid her gaze. ,,Ivar.” he whispers. ,,I'm sorry?” „My name is Ivar.” ,,You have weird name.” He only chuckled. ,,How about you take bath and I finish food? Then we can talk.” He looks at his useless legs and back at her. ,,Oh, I will give you some privacy.” She turns away with flushed face but he stops her. ,,Wait. I ... I need your help.” He already hates idea of her touching him or seeing him naked but he has no other choice. ,,So now you need my help?” she teases. ,,Shut up.”

She goes for water while he is looking around her home. There is big fire pit in the middle of room, on right side of room is wooden table with different knives, daggers, food, plates, bowls and cups. Next to it is longer lower table with wooden benches and flowers on it. On left side is his bed and then hutch with different herbs, flowers, books and bottles. Ivar never saw material like that.

„It´s glastos. Or how they call it here in Anglia – glass.” says Moko when she comes back with two buckets of water. „We are still in Wessex?” „Sussex. But I always wanted to travel around the world. Meet new people and try new things.” „So are you Christian then?” „Oh Gods, no!” she laughs. „You are not Viking either. Then what are you?” He watches her as she is moving around house. She takes few herbs and puts them into tub and then fills it with boiling water. „I'm from old Celtic tribe called Anartes. We lived in Europe. But one day my family decided that we should move and so we did. I lived here with my parents and brother. But they are all dead. And now it´s my purpose to keep our legacy alive. And what about you Ivar?” „I'm Viking.” „Rus´ Viking?” „No. I´m from Norway. How do you know about the Rus?” „My people had deals with them. We   exchanged animals, food and other stuff.” „Have you ever been in Kiev or Novgorod?” „No. But my father was there once.” „They are Christians now.” „Poor people. How do you know them?” „I had to r… . I travelled there with my friend. But then my brother came for me to fight king Alfred. We had some unfinished business.” „You were talking about you brothers in your dreams. Asking one of them for forgiveness. His name is Hvitserk. Am I right?” Ivar is quiet. „I don’t know what happened to him. Maybe they imprisoned him or he died.” „My brother is not dead!” he screams and she jumps a bit. „You don’t know that.” „I have to save him. Like he saved me.” „You are so stubborn! When I found you I thought you were dead but you were breathing still. I took care of you for three bloody days and you are still wounded. Yet you want to go to Winchester and be hero for your brother?” she wasn't screaming but she was angry. „That´s exactly what I want to do.” he half-smiled. „And how? You don’t have an army. You will never break through their defence.” His upper lip twitches in indignation because she is right. „I can´t leave him there. What would you do if it was your brother?” „Saved him.” „See?” „But not if I was hurt and with no warriors.” „Then we will find some.” „Ivar, these people are Christians and they love Alfred because he won over The great heathen army. They will never defraud him.” „We will see about it.” „In few days I´m  going to Chichester. I can ask if someone knows what happened to survived Vikings.” „I'll go with you.” She sighted and checked water temperature. „I have few conditions if you want to go with me.” Ivar rolls his eyes. „What do you want from me?” „You will sit on your arse and will not try to investigate on your own or try to kill anybody. Deal?” „Deal.” „Great. Now come and have a bath.”

„Earlier you said I´m crippled idiot. How did you know?” Ivar asks while he takes his tunic off. „Well, I had to take your braces off of your legs and I saw them.” He frowns at her. „Help me with trousers. But keep your eyes on my face.” he growls. „Is there a problem I saw them?” she asks as her small hands untie strand from around his hips. „They are hideous.” „I don’t really care about it.” Her brown-green eyes bore into his blue ones. „What do you care about then?” „If I and my animals will be healthy and if we will have enough food, water and home. And overall if I will have long, happy life.” „That´s so deep.” Ivar rolls his eyes. „Stop mocking me. I like simple life.” She helps him into tub, avoiding looking at him, gives him cloth and walk back to kettle. „Have you ever been with a man?” he asks suddenly. „Why?” „You are shy. Can´t even look at me when I´m naked. So I assumes you are still virgin.” he has wicked smile on his face. „That´s not something you need to know.” „Hm, maybe.” he smirks. „I also want to know what is all that.” He points on herbal hutch. „That´s my work. I´m making potions, herbal remedies and different things from it for other people.” „Clever girl.” „Yes, I´m.” She straightens her back and he laughs at her. „What did you put in bath?” „Lavender. You can make oil from it and eat it.” Ivar thoughtfully takes herb from water and bits a small bite. And second later she smacks his head. „Not from that dirty water! That´s    disgusting.” „I don’t like the taste anyway.” he frowns. „You didn’t try my lavender cake.” „I need proper food. Meat. Not some stupid cakes.” „It´s almost ready. Better wash your hair and come  eat.” When he goes out of the tub she hands him clean towel and clothes, averting looking at him again. „Virgin.” he murmurs for himself.

Over lunch – deer with plum sauce – they get to know each other. He tells her about his life, family and wars, hiding some details he´s ashamed of, and is pleasantly surprised how excited she is. „My parents taught me and my brother how to fight. My mother was warrior alongside my father.” „I usually had few my the most trustworthy warriors for my protection. I can´t really move on legs but in hand-to-hand combat I´m perfect.” „Maybe we can learn from one another.” „Maybe.”

After food Ivar meets all her animals and she shows him her gardens. Few metres from them is river with small boat. „It´s yours?” „Yes.” „It looks funny. I was on massive ones. My friend Floki built them. This one here is just joke.” „Ivar I swear that if you make any more stupid comments about my things I´ll leave you outside!” „Oh come on darling. You wouldn't do that. Not after your hard work.” He twirls slowly around his stick and bows. „You even put lavender oil into my hair.” He tosses his braids over shoulder. She laughs so much that she misses how he´s looking at her with goofy smile.

*few days later*

Ivar feels movement next to him and sits with dagger in hand. „It´s just me, you idiot.” says Moko, ruffling his hair on way down. „It´s still dark! Can´t we sleep a bit longer?” he shouts after her. „No. Today we´re going to Chichester so you better come for breakfast.”

In those couple of days he lived with Moko he learnt a lot about her, her people and culture. She was teaching him how to speak in her language, she showed him all her herbs and flowers and her knowledge in fighting, manufacture and farming. He wasn´t really fond of all of those things but he liked how excited she was when she was speaking about them or doing them. And if he tries those things too, oh gods, she even hugs him. It felt good.

Ivar is seating in covered carriage, petting her dog and listening to her singing. They travels for hours now with only one break and Ivar needs to sleep but he can´t. He somehow wants to protect her even when he doesn’t know why and how. „We will settle down here. Tomorrow morning we are in Chichester.” Her voice interrupts him from his thoughts. He looks out from carriage into darkening countryside. „Don´t just stare. Bring the chicken and make fire. If your puny regal ass can do that.” she smirks and starts to build a tent. Ivar is used to it by now, nonetheless he is surprised with how much ease she´s talking to him. He did what he could but that damn fire not and not to burst to life. „I thought you Vikings are fearful people and you can´t even make fire. Want some help?” He blames his shaking hands on cold not her presence. She makes fire in mere moments and then put kettle on it. „We will have chicken stew with vegetable and mushrooms. Is it ok?” He nods and watches with dilated pupils when she knocks off the poor bird. „It´s the last time I can have chicken or rabbit before Ostara.” „Then what?” „Bath in spring water, sacrifice hare and chicken but leave eggs for altar. We will have flower crowns and we will sow few seeds.” „Oh no, no. Leave me out of this. I will not have flowers in my hair.” „It will be fun.” „I doubt it.” „Shush and cut this please.”

Ivar sees stone towers and soldiers guarding big gate into Chichester. They are watching them suspiciously until Moko asks them for direction to market. „Don´t forget your name.” she warns him when she´s helping him out of carriage. „Leofric. I know.” he rolls his eyes. „Try to be more nice. Smile.” He turns to her and smile. Then smirks when she blushes. „I will find us room to sleep and you can put things on table. And leave your hood on.” „Gods woman! I´m not a child.” She giggles and walks away.

„We have room for three nights … Leofric, let him go!” Moko rushes to him and tries to separate him from another young man. „He tried to steal!” says Ivar. „I just wanted to see it better.” protests the other man, still with Ivar´s hand around neck. Moko smacks it and he growls at her but let go. „Thank you milady.” The other man tries to kiss her hand but she turns it palm up. „Return that bottle you stole. You may hurt yourself with it.” She waits few seconds and when nothing happens she jumps at poor man, turns his arm behind his back and yanks bottle from his hand. Ivar watches her with awe on his face. „Get off, idiot.” she spat at pathetic man and they both laugh when he runs away.

„That´s not funny Moko.” says Saxon soldier, walking to them. „Osgar, welcome.” „I see you keep up with tradition.” he snickers. „Every year someone tries something. They knows I can protect myself and my stuff but still.” „And you brought some friend.” He looks at Ivar sitting on stool. „That´s Leofric. I´m taking care of him.” „What happened?” „Bear in forest.” Ivar snorts. „I can say God is with him when he found the best healer in whole Anglia.” „Stop it Osgar!” Moko blushes again. „Rather tell me what happened after battle. Last time you didn’t have time.” „There is not much to say. We captured survivors and turned them into Christians. They live in their settlements. Our king trusts them.” „And you don’t?” He smirks. „I kind of envy those whose ran away. You knows my parents were Vikings, right? I live for day I will leave this land and will live like them.” he says quieter and looks around if someone hears him. „Adventurous Osgar. Any news about their kings?” „As far as I know Harald and Ivar are dead. But one son of Ragnar lives with Alfred in Winchester. I don’t know his real name. But his given one is Athelstan.” „Thank you. And what about your family?” „Good. My little girl is fighting with everyone and my wife isn´t very happy about it. My son still has mark on his face. He´s on guard now and I should replace him. See you later.” Day goes well, some of Moko´s customers comes and after sunset they goes to tavern for good night sleep.

„There is only one bed!” Ivar exclaims when they enter the bedroom. „Afraid of sleeping with me?” „What? No!” He puts their belongings on table, trying to calm down his too loud beating heart. „I'm going to have a bath. You will be ok here?” He nods. She disappeared behind the curtain  and he´s listening to her movements and noises she makes when she dives into warm water.

Moko feels water in the tub move. When she opens her eyes she sees Ivar sitting next to it. „What are you doing?” she squeaks. Ivar chuckles. „What does it look like? I have to wash as well. Or you want me dirty in bed?” She sinks more into water, only her head visible. He puts his hands into water again and his fingers brush her calf. She freezes and he smirks. „Your skin is so soft.” And she's blushing again. But both can play this game. „Will you wash my hair, please?” she asks innocently and his hand pauses in the middle of his face, eyes wide, shining. „Are you sure? I never done this.” Moko moves to him. „Please.” She turns her back to him and he clumsily takes her hair in one hand while the other is putting soap on it. Then he moves to her scalp. „That fells nice.” When he's done he smooths it on her back, his fingers lightly touching her skin. „Thank you. Give me a minute and you can go in as well.” She quickly rinses her head. „Close your eyes.” „Why?” „I have to go out and you can´t see me.” ��I saw many naked women.” She glares at him over shoulder. „Fine.” But of course he cheated. He watches as she stands up and puts on linen tunic. After that she helps him in tub, she washes his hair and gives him his clothes.

„I said to the owner of this tavern that you are my husband.” says Moko nonchalantly when they are tuck in bed under warm duvet. „What!?” He sits up and frowns. „So we can have same room” ,,You are little minx.” he laughs and move closer to her. ,,What are you doing?” ,,Keeping us warm.” She turns her back to him, hiding her face into pillow. ,,Good night little minx.” he smiles into dark.

They wake up tangled at each other limbs. Moko tries to get up but Ivar´s arms around her are too strong. He nuzzles her hair and murmurs something. ,,Ivar, we have to go and sell otherwise we will have no money.” He groans when he opens his eyes. ,,I'll come later and brings you breakfast.” ,,You better be quick.” She kisses his cheek, throws her clothes on and she's gone. Ivar is still frozen on the bed processing what just happened.

,,I have bread, meat and wine.” ,,Oh, you are saviour! I'm starving.” He gives her plate with a cup on it. ,,Where is your food?” ,,I ate. Have only one hand free.” He waves with his right one and she grins at him. ,,Is it ok if you work until I finish?” ,,Sure.” He sells few pots and potions already when Osgar comes to them. ,,Hello you two.” ,,Good morning. Do you need something?” Moko asks. ,,Just to say you the news.” ,,What news?” ,,King Alfred will come here in five days to deal with Vikings in prison.” Moko sees Ivar stiffs. ,,Thank you. What do you think he will do to them?” ,,Probably gives them an option between conversion or death.” „And do you know if Viking´s prince will come too? I would like to see him.” He shrugs and goes back doing his work. „We need a plan how to get my brother and leave this stupid country.” „You don’t wanna kill       Alfred?” „Of course I want! But as you said, I need an army. I avenged death of my father on his grandfather and now I´ll avenge my own death on him.” „And rule Wessex?” „Maybe?” „Good luck then.” „You will not stay with me?” „I want to explore the world.” „If you will help me with Alfred I´ll give more treasure than you will ever need for fulfil your dream.” She looks at him sceptically. „Really?” „Word of the prince.” „I will think about it.”

„That one next to king on left is my brother Hvitserk.” Ivar whispers into her ear when Alfred comes to Chichester. „You remember our plan?” „Yes.”

They have to wait until next day but when Hvitserk comes to Moko´s stall she's nervous. He's handsome as Ivar but with lighter hair. They talk about different herbs for his problems and then she takes small dagger from her sleeve. „Prince Hvitserk, your brother Ivar wants you to have this.” „My brother is dead. I saw him fall in battle.” „I can assure you he's alive.” „How can I trust you?” „Because she's telling you the truth my brother.” says Ivar from shadow behind her. Hvitserk flinches a bit and can´t believe his eyes. „You are a witch! This is some stupid trick. My brother is dead!” „You see he's not.” Hvitserk slowly walks to Ivar and then he suddenly hugs him with teary eyes. „You fucking idiot! How comes gods saved you?” „They sent Moko. She took care of me.” Hvitserk looks at her and she smiles at him. „Nice to meet you.”

*month later in Winchester*

Ivar is excited all morning as helps Moko with selling. He sees men Hvitserk told him they are their allies when they walks around courtyard. They planned everything carefully. It took some time to collect enough men for attack to Winchester royal villa.

Once the night falls they moves. Quietly under veil of darkness their backups shoots guards on walls and at the gate and they are inside dim corridor. Hvitserk comes out from his hiding spot in kitchen with few warriors and silently they go forward to king´s chambers. His legs hurt and he's cursing on himself because Moko told him to rest during day but he didn’t listen. He sees her in the front of the group with plaited hair, sword ready for fight, serious look on painted face. Beautiful, clever and dangerous. That's what she is. Hvitserk is next to her eating something he stole from   kitchen.

Villa is suspiciously soundless and Ivar is suspicious. He feels it in his bones. It´s several minutes after they killed guards and until now they didn’t meet any more nor there was horn signal. For sure someone found bodies. But they have to do it. Even if it´s trap.

They reach their destination and Osgar goes first. The room is dark, only light from candles elucidate it. Ivar gives signal to his men and they encircle bed. Another signal and they are penetrating it with their swords. At same moment all other three doors of the room open and Alfred runs in with his soldiers, attacking mercilessly. Ivar watches as his warriors die one by one,        outnumbered. „Fight! Fight!” he screams, killing Saxons on his way to Alfred. Then everything freezes as he watches Moko moving between soldiers like air, sword and axe wet from their blood. One of Alfred´s bodyguards cuts her cheek and she stabs him in the neck, decapitating another one with other hand. Now she's face to face with king. What nobody awaits is Elsewith with sword assaulting Moko. English woman cuts her deep into hip when axe, thrown by Ivar, cuts through her back right after. His raging scream encourages his men. He assaults Alfred with blazing fury, maniac urge in the eyes. He effectively disarms young king, cuts his neck, fresh blood splashes him. Ivar throws himself onto Alfred stabbing him with all his power, shouting in old Norse, breathing heavy air with smell of sweat, dead bodies and taste of iron. Surviving Saxons watch in disbelieve and fear before they meet same fate from his fellow Vikings.

Things happens so quickly after that. One moment he is in king´s chamber, then he´s fighting his way from villa and in carriage fleeing into safety. He can feel adrenaline flows through his veins. Hvitserk sits opposite him, covered in blood too. They smile at each other. Moko´s next to him, patching her wound. „We did it.” he says victoriously and suddenly kisses her. She doesn’t protest and he's happy.

Following three months they are travelling and stealing all over Anglia. After that they build boats for way home. Night before their departure Ivar and Hvitserk are sitting by fire, enjoying peaceful quiet. „Will you go back to Norway or you´ll stay with Moko?” asks Hvitserk. „I don’t know what are you talking about brother. Of course I´m going with you!” „Are you sure Ivar? I see how you are looking at her.” Ivar glares at his laughing brother. „She doesn’t want to stay with me. She wants to travel.” „Then I´m gonna tell her i´ll accompanish her.” He turns to leave when a cup hits his head. „Don´t you dare!” Ivar screams. „Why not? She's free woman. Maybe I´ll ask her to marry me.” Hvitserk walks slowly backward with smirk, watching Ivar crawling on the ground as fast as he can to Moko´s tent.  

She walks out of it at same time as they show up. „Hello boys. Can I help you?” „Ivar wants to speak with you.” Hvitserk blurts out and Ivar hits him in the ankle. „Sure. I just need to get some food.” „I will get it. You two have fun.” „Come in then.” Moko smiles at Ivar.

„What you wanna talk about?” she asks, sitting next to him on bed. „Are you really sure you want to leave Anglia? And travel by yourself?” he asks straight away. „We spoke about it. I have small crew, you know.” „I know. It´s just … I don’t trust them that much. I would like to have you next to me more.” „As your friend, bodyguard or …?” „My right hand.” He looks at her. „And as my queen too, maybe?” She´s quietly staring at him and in next moment her lips are on his, her soft body collides with his hard one as they fall on bed.

His hands are on her hips, pushing her more and more against his prick. She takes off his tunic, her fingers grazing his tattoos. „You like them?” She nods and kisses him again. „Have you ever done this?” „No.” „Let me make you feel good then.” He is nervous like never before but also determined to do it right, to show her he really cares about her. His fingers are trembling when he unties her dress and takes it off. She tries to hide from his curious eyes but he catches her hands, kissing them and putting them next to her. „You are beautiful.” He kisses her whole shivering body until he reaches her warm core. When he looks back at her she's watching him already with flushed cheeks. They hold their gaze when his tongue touches her and she lifts a bit from bed. He's not  stopping her, only diving his head deeper. She's making those small noises he knew were good sign. „Ivar.” she moans his name. „I want more.” He hovers over her, kissing her. „If it hurts too much, you have to stop me, ok? I might not be able to control myself.” „Ok.” „Do you trust me?” „Yes.” He pushes slowly in her tight hole and kisses her tears away. „I'm sorry my Queen.” Her nails scratches his back, leaving bloody marks when he bottoms up. He waits few moments, then moves slowly, searching for any clues of her discomfort. None appears. She even smiles at him slightly. „Feels good?” „Yeah, it´s nice.” „Should I move faster, or is this fine?” „I have no idea!” she laughs. „You are the one with experiences.” „Yeah, right.” He nuzzle into her neck, his hips hitting hers as he quickens and she surprisingly pushes against him.

They are lost in their own pleasurable world, they didn’t even notice Hvitserk when he comes with food. He smirks proudly and walks away.

***

„I never thought I will love someone again but it happened.” Ivar smiles in Moko´s hair as they lies under warm furs, her head on his chest. „You love me?” „Yes. You have bewitched me, body and soul. My Celtic girl.” „I love you too Ivar.”

*next day*

A storm comes from nowhere and Moko´s watching as ship with Vikings is burning from     lightning strike. „Can´t we help them somehow?” „I'm sorry my love. They are probably all dead by now.” But much to his own surprise he can see some men jumping into the sea. „If I´ll die saving those idiots, I´m going to annoy you in Valhalla forever.” „And I will enjoy every second of it, my king. Now go and be a hero.” He kisses her briefly and then shuts orders. At the end they saves ten men but loose control over own boat.

***

„Land! Land!” Ivar hears shouting and stands up to see if it´s really true. „Not really how I imagined my travels but it´s still new land to explore.” Moko says next to him, hugging him. „Our new start my Queen.”

She turns in his embrace as they are looking towards their new adventures.

[carewyncromwell]

[HPHL] Rudolph “Ru” Ollivander Moodboard

“Take my all -- I surrender, surrender! Look at me and the way I ask for forgiveness, kindness, and help! Take my all -- I surrender, surrender! I will die another day, another way...”

~“Dance with the Dragon,” by Dark Sarah and JP Leppäluoto

x~x~x~x

The fifth and youngest son of the pureblood Ollivander family originally was...well...not very well-liked by his classmates at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The young Ravenclaw was arrogant due to his family’s placement among the Sacred Twenty Eight, overly critical due to his suppressive family life, and ruthlessly ambitious due to his inferiority complex about being the unwanted fifth son. Then one night, the boy -- after doing some mysterious research in the Restricted Section of the Library -- ended up almost drowning in the Black Lake. When he was found the following morning, he was in very bad shape, covered in bleeding gashes and shaking from head to toe. As he recovered in the Hospital Wing, the matron came to discover that the young wizard lacked more than just his composure -- his magic had also decreased significantly with no explanation, making it much harder for him to perform even basic Charms and Transfigurations. Despite this, his brain seemed just as sharp as ever -- and perhaps because of his trauma, the Ollivanders’ youngest son’s entire outlook on life also seemed to change. Although he remained rather eccentric, aloof, and solitary, he was suddenly wittier and more laid-back. He also expressed a lot more creativity, intellectual curiosity, and open rebellion against everything from school rules to societal expectations. All in all, it was like he was a completely different person...which, little did everyone at Hogwarts realize, was true. But then again...not even the Care of Magical Creatures professor himself had probably ever heard of a kelpie taking a human’s place just to attend a school.

  thanks to @that-ravenpuff-witch for helping me develop this kiddo! xoxo

[nightmare-niko]

Chapter seven

Character moodboard: Yoon Sanha (Astro)

A/n: Nightmare will be taking Everglows songs and concepts. It’s easier for me when I know my band's sound. So while the songs are ever glow they will be nightmares in this universe. (If that makes sense to y’all)

[February 2020]

Overjoyed with the news of her becoming a trainee after almost 4 years of training she calls her mother not caring about what time it is in California:

“Mom I’ve done it I’ve gotten into a company mom I’m going to be an idol… Well maybe but I’m sure it’ll happen-”

“Haruhi, I know you’re excited but you should say hello first speaking of your member that boy you were friends with in middle school and high school. What was his name again Jaemin?”

“No mom, his name was Minjae, yes I remember him, what about him?”

“His dad called me. He also auditioned for a company and he was very proud of his boy.”

“Well maybe I’ll see him One day, maybe not though it really depends on what company he’s under.”

“Well I have something to do Haruhi, I’m proud of you my daughter.”

And with that Haru woke up.

That’s how the conversation would’ve gone if her mom didn’t only use her as a form of income. and her mother wasn’t the one to tell her about Minjae it was him himself she got a DM one day from him saying “Hey Ru remember me I can’t do a company I can’t say which one yet but Hope to see you soon!” You see Haru never was a mommy‘s girl. Her mother loved her as a child, but when her father died Haru got most of the money. Her mom quickly spent what she was given so then she began asking her daughter for money in the beginning Haru compiled because she was her mother after all.

But then she got tired of it so she began denying and her mother didn’t enjoy that so at the right age of 18 she packed up and moved to South Korea her father would take them to Korea to see family during winter holidays she has some cousins who let her stay with them until she found a place to live.

During that time she never heard from her mother not until word spread about the hot new girl group that was debuting in a few months. That was when Haru got a call, but she didn’t get them because she already has family in Korea. Not blood family but her friends were the closest thing to it she also had Astro she didn’t need her mother in her life. She loved her mother of course but she wasn’t ready to see her again, not yet, and maybe not ever.

Today was the day that Nightmare was officially moving into their company dorm. They've seen it before and all they need to do is move boxes in, but since it is a group of five people it’s going to take a while so they enlist the help of Astro and their manager. Haru tried to ask her boyfriend to help but he simply didn’t want to.

A lot has happened within the ten months of preparing for a new group debut. Haru’s relationship with Jaehyun has gotten rocky extremely rocky it’s hard for them to even have a conversation without getting into an argument and at this point she doesn’t want to try anymore she’s exhausted she has too much on her plate with preparing for her debut so she just barely text him she only texts if he texts first she only calls him if he is the one to call her.

Nightmare also officially lost a member within those idle months, nothing dramatic there’s no type of scandal, just simply an injury. You see Sua was always really hard on herself. She was really destined to be perfect for her debut stage but alas one day while practicing her dance choreography she heard herself really bad, nothing fatal. But it was clear that Sua could not heal in time for debut so she took it upon herself to temporarily leave the group. They all had plans for her to come back once she was fully healed.

However instead of delaying Nightmares debut they replaced her. They replaced her with a girl that has the exact same skill sets as Sua, maybe more. She was something Haru had never seen before; she was shorter with pale skin and light hair. it was revealed that she was Japanese born and raised in Osaka but that wasn’t what Haru was amazed at. she was amazed because the girl had light green eyes, she’s never seen it before. The girl was beautiful, and extremely nice, a vast contrast to Sua’s snarky and quick witted attitude. If anything it was a refreshing thing for such a nice girl to replace such a sour one.

It was extremely easy for all of the members to feel close to her. It was like they’ve known each other all their lives so she was the one Saturday view as their fifth member.

“Okay does everyone have everything? This is our last trip so whatever you leave is staying.” Jaehyuck is holding the door for the members who are carrying boxes holding their things. And the guys of Astro, half of whom are helping haul the heavy boxes. And the other half are with Haru and Jia ‘cleaning’.

“Guys can you actually clean and not throw things at each other. What are you twelve?” Eunwoo scolds his friends for goofing around.

Everyone else listens and continues cleaning, Jia throws a bottle at his head. And then starts cleaning. Haru notices that Jia and Eunwoo had a lot in common and became really good friends, they were the same person just in a different body. But you could say the same thing about Haru and Sanha, they were best friends and chaos.

“You girls need to get to the dorms first because you’re going straight to the company to meet with the stylists to go to your music video shoot”. Jaehyuck begins leading the girls out of the apartment. “And your driver is gonna pick up Marina on the way so don’t take up all of the van!” He yells after them as they head to the lobby to get into their company van.

“Isn’t it crazy how quickly Marina got a hang of the song and choreography? It’s been a month and she’s as good as us!” Aeri swoons over the newest member while getting into the car.

“Yeah she’s amazing,” Haru agrees and sits.in the front seat because she needs to look after her members like a mother.

They indeed pick up Marina from her past apartment because she’s also moving on the same day. And with all of the members in the car they make their way to their company.

We’re at the company they all get out of the car one by one I’ll be at a little bit chaotic and they walk into the building and go to their studio where their stylists are waiting for them so they can all leave but instead there is two extra people one of the trainees that they have gotten close to, a girl Harus age by the name of Narae. And the same bland staff member that gave them their positions are waiting for them to walk into the room.

“Hey everyone!” Haru greets making their presence known. “What’s this?” She asks the staff.

“She’s your new member.”

Shocked Haru scoffs, “excuse me? When were we getting a new member?”

“Since today, we already added her vocals into your song and she knows the choreography. My job here is done. Good bye.” And with that she leaves, leaving all of the members, staff and the new girl shocked.

“Narae, did you know about this?” Aeri looks at the confused girl.

“I was told I was being added to a group set to debut but they didn’t tell me it was you guys, they had me record and listen to the song and learn the dance without you guys.” She shrugs visibly upset at the staff's coldness towards her.

Haru sighs, “at least you know the song and dance, and we all know each other so we’re gonna be just fine.” She pats Narae’s shoulder to calm her. “We need to leave if we’re gonna be late to the shoot.”

When the band; newly extended, arrives at the shoot everything goes as planned they figure out their new formation for the dance which is pretty easy and they can do hair and make up and begin filming.

The concept of their band is deception, so while their band's name is Nightmare the teaser photos seem as if they are fun and light and almost ethereal. The actual music video is going to be dark and hard-core and scary. Their music is intense as well.

But all of the teasers and concept videos that they have the plans for are completely different; they look nothing like the core of the music video and the songs teasers are the parts of the song where it sounds different. Haru made it clear that she did not want the main part of the song to be spoiled; she wanted one verse where she went out of her way to make it sound soft to be put into the teasers.

On the way to the shoot the staff member with them, described the companies plans for future groups. “What they wanna do is have multiple groups with the same concept and same theme that come together and participate in shows together and fun activities. as well as music videos and songs and albums.” She beams at the idea, Haru likes the idea, she finds it cool.

“What we want to do is have a girl group. Which is a girls a boy group which we are working on forming right now in the unisex group. We know it’s gonna be a lot of people but we hope that you all get along just fine.”

“Do we know any other members of the other groups?” Jia looks up from her phone to ask.

“No I don’t think so, once we make the group completely we will introduce you.”

Haru thinks the idea is cool, no one has done something like that since SM. She thinks it will be a good opportunity. “Okay girls we are here, Narae, stay by me. I have to teach you the greeting.” And with that they all file out of the car and into the dressing rooms.

“Okay so they just told me that we’re gonna start off with some duo shots and they want Jia and Marina, so once you're done go out to film.” Haru calmly tells her members as she sits down in her makeup chair.

[timeskip]

“And that’s a wrap!” The director calls out to the workers and they all begin cheering.

Nightmare lines up to say goodbye, Haru counts off “In the dark-”

“We’re the nightmare, thank you” they bow and go into their dressing rooms.

Only a month before we officially debut.

[popatochisssp]

Hi there! I'm a bug fan of your stories and I saw people are submitting moodboards for Mal, but can we make other moodboards based on your fics? For someone like Rus from Dirty Laundry or the boys from Fur a Good time, Call? I would post them and tag your blog in it. I've made some ut moodboards before, and I love your fics so much! I'd love to try and make you something nice in return. -mystery

Oh hell yes, absolutely! *o*

I have five DL moodboards now from lovely people and I adore every single one of them, I would happily accept any kind of anything anybody wants to make! Thank you for asking, you’re the sweetest! uwu

[nerdypinupcrystal]

Every Breath You Take Chapter 7: Reach Out, I’ll Be There

Hiiii guys! Sorry for the long ass wait! School was kicking my ass, but I’m on summer break for a month now so YAY! And I’m back with a nice long chapter for you and man are you guys in for a ride! Btw thank you @hufflebucky for the beautiful moodboard! I love it so much! And thank you @probably-a-velociraptor for the certain line you mentioned in your ask that I just had to put in here! You know which one I’m talking about ;) Without further delay....enjoy!

Masterlist

Chapter 7: Reach Out, I’ll Be There

The men of Nelson & Murdock were both on missions today. While Matt was following Iris to make sure she was safe, Foggy took that opportunity to stop by Sweet Heaven to see a certain stunning brunette he might or might not have already told his mom about.

Foggy Nelson has done his fair share of chasing after women he was attracted to throughout his life, though admittedly not all of those times were successful since beautiful women seemed to flock towards Matt instead. But the moment he laid eyes on Lucy Addams, all those memories of women he chased in the past had erased from his mind. He only had eyes for Lucy, and it appeared the feeling was mutual.

He couldn’t even begin to explain this feeling he had in his heart that was stronger than anything he had ever felt before. Why so sudden for someone he just met? Love at first sight couldn’t possibly exist, right? And with that, Foggy’s heart argued, Why the hell not? Would that really be so wrong?

Whether or not it was love or just attraction, Foggy was determined to get to know the dark haired goddess who runs the adorable bakery that’s quickly becoming his favorite spot.  

Which has lead to the present moment where Foggy was currently standing outside of the bakery, seeing the woman of his dreams handing out cupcakes to a couple of excited little kids while their parents paid. Seeing her interact with the kids with a genuine glowing smile on her face made the butterflies in Foggy’s stomach flutter like crazy.

As if feeling his eyes on her, Lucy’s eyes shifted until they met his through the window. Her grey eyes brightened to greyish blue as she brightly grinned at him and waved for him to come in.  Foggy couldn’t contain the grin on his face that shined brighter than the sun as his cheeks flushed into a rosy pink.  Foggy quickly pulled out his phone to leave Matt a message telling him to meet him at the bakery to talk about a potential client instead of the office. He smoothed back his hair and straightened his tie before entering the bakery to see about a girl.

2 Hours Later

The bakery was empty aside from Foggy and Lucy currently occupying one of the small tables. There laid two half empty porcelain mugs of coffee and hot chocolate as well as an array of different pastries and cakes for Foggy to “sample”, only for him to split between them, always giving Lucy the bigger half.

But those desserts were ignored as the two occupants only had their attention focused on each other, the song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” by Frankie Valli playing appropriately in the background.

“What’s your favorite show?” Lucy asked with eager curiosity as she leaned closer to him with a dreamy gaze in her eyes.

Without missing a beat, Foggy replied “I Love Lucy.” It took him a second to snap out of his daze to realize how that might sound. “I mean, not because it’s your name,” he cleared his throat, his face flushing tomato red. “It’s just a great show! My mom had me watch it with her growing up, you’d love her by the way, I already told her about you- I mean, it’s a funny show!” Foggy was trying so hard to save face, he didn’t realize he was babbling.

The melodic sound of Lucy’s giggles stopped him from babbling any further. Foggy felt incredibly embarrassed by his word vomit, but all Lucy did was smile.

“You’re really cute when you get all flustered.” She told him, causing him to blush even harder. “And I love that show. She’s hilarious! And by the way…” She trailed off as she leaned toward him even closer. “I would love to meet your mother, since she’s raised such a fine young man.” She gave a flirtatious wink.

I love you baby And if it's quite alright I need you baby To warm the lonely nights I love you baby Trust in me when I say

Oh pretty baby Don't bring me down I pray Oh pretty baby Now that I've found you stay And let me love you, baby Let me love you

Foggy’s heart raced as the song declared everything he was already dying to say. He took a big gulp of his warm coffee before quickly asking her, “So what’s your favorite show?”

“The Addams Family.” Lucy replied with a smile.

“Really?” Foggy asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

She gingerly nodded. “Yep! I’ve always loved the dark, creepy and kooky stuff. And since my last name also happens to be Addams, I always imagined that I was related to them.” Lucy’s cheeks turned into a light rosy pink. “I love The Munsters too, but Addams Family has always had a special place in my heart.” Lucy’s eyes locked with Foggy as she reached for his hand before she continued, “Plus, I’ve always dreamed of having a love like Gomez and Morticia.”

Oh god, me too. Please let me be your Gomez! Foggy thought.

Before he could respond, however, the bell rang as the door opened. Foggy turned to see who rudely interrupted his time with Lucy, only to see Matt enter the bakery.

“Matt, so nice of you to join us.” Foggy greeted, his mood dampening slightly.

“Don’t sound too excited to see me, Foggy.” Matt sarcastically replied as he took the seat Lucy led him to at their table.

Foggy could see how visibly tense his friend was as he took a good look at him. His body was straight and tiff from tension, his fists tightening then loosening up. Foggy looked closer at Matt’s fists, noticing the knuckles were red with angry scrapes from punching something...or someone.

“Holy shit, Matt! Did you get in a fight?” Foggy exclaimed in concern.  Lucy saw Matt’s fists and rushed to the back room.

“No, I didn’t get in a fight.” Matt replied through clenched teeth. “I just needed to blow off some steam, and the punching bag was the best option.”

“Well I’m glad it’s just a punching bag and not a person.” Lucy said as she returned to the table with a first aid kit. “It’s a little too early in the day for you to be doing your Daredevil thing.”

Matt’s stomach dropped at Lucy’s words. His fists clenched even tighter as he addressed his best friend. “Foggy?”

“What?” Foggy shrugged defensively. “I can’t start a relationship based on lies! Besides, she’s cool. We can trust her.”

“What the fuck, Foggy?!” Matt snapped, thankful that the bakery was still empty. “You told a dangerous secret to some woman you just met?!” Lucy’s grip tightened on Matt’s hand as she continued treating it. “No offense, Lucy.”  He muttered apologetically.

Foggy, on the other hand, took great offense to Matt. “First of all, watch your language in front of this beautiful lady,” He angrily pointed out. “Second, we may have ‘just met’, but I’ve already named our future children!  And I know for a fact that Foggy Jr. and Lucy Jr. would appreciate total honesty in this family!” He finished with a pound of his fist atop the table.

The bakery went silent. Matt’s lips twitched while he tried to keep his angered expression. Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t meant to last as he let out and amused snort.

Lucy didn’t bother hiding her giggles, she found the blonde teddy bear so adorable and endearing.

Foggy looked confused as to what was so funny. “What?”

Matt couldn’t hold it in anymore, he let out a belly laugh, “Foggy, you make it really hard to stay mad at you.”

Foggy still looked clueless until Lucy leaned her head on his shoulder affectionately, still giggling, “Foggy, you are too precious for words, but let’s hold off on baby names until we’ve had our first date at least.” She finishes with a kiss on his cheek, causing him to blush into a bright tomato.

Before Foggy could think of how to respond, the bell chimed as a few customers entered the bakery. Lucy quickly rose from her seat to assist the customers, her fingers softly grazed through Foggy’s blonde hair as she passed by.

Matt smiled, knowing his best friend kept his “heart eyes” (as Iris called them) on the enchanting baker that’s captured his heart.

“You must really like her a lot if you trust her with this kind of information.” Matt spoke quietly, sounding more calm and understanding.

Foggy’s eyes turned downcast in guilt before facing Matt again. “I’m really sorry, Matt. You know I wouldn’t announce it to the world, or tell just anyone.”

He paused to gaze at Lucy, who was chatting with a middle aged couple while showing them her delicious creations. He felt his heart practically dancing when her eyes shifted towards him and she gave a blushing radiant smile.

“I’m in love with her.”  Foggy continued softly, not realizing he voiced his feelings out loud; his eyes still on Lucy. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, man. I know it’s crazy and it’s sudden, I mean we’d only met yesterday! But the moment I saw her, it just hit me like I got punched with lightning or something. I know this feeling I have is real. I mean, sometimes you just know as soon as it hits you, you know?”

“Yeah.” Matt softly replied in complete understanding. “I know exactly how you feel.”

Foggy’s eyes widened as he snapped out of his love daze. “Oh shit, how is Iris? Is she okay?!” Foggy didn’t notice his voice had raised in alarm, catching the attention of the two remaining customers in the bakery.

“I would also like to know how Iris is doing, Matt.” Lucy chimed in as she walked towards the middle aged couple to deliver their treats.

Matt hesitated, “It’s...a little personal. Actually it’s extremely personal...and..disturbing.”  He finished with a strained angry grimace.

Foggy’s eyes narrowed in concern as he leaned towards his friend. “What’s wrong? She is in trouble, isn’t she?” He asked, already knowing the answer.

Lucy rushed to their table and yanked back the chair next to Foggy to take a seat. “What’s going on with my best friend, Matt?” She asked, sounding more serious and intimidating than either of the two men have heard yet.

Matt, while touched by their concern, was still hesitant. “I don’t know if I should really say. It’s bad enough that I know when she hasn’t actually told me herself. It’s..” Matt felt his throat tighten and his eyes dampen at how painful it was to hear everything Iris had said. “It’s horrible.”

Foggy and Lucy stiffened at Matt’s words, trying to imagine what it was that Matt knew.

“Matt, we care about Iris, too.” Lucy replied.

Foggy fervently agreed. “Seriously, man. I’ve only known Iris for a day and a half, but if anything happened to her, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself!”

Foggy didn’t realize how loud his voice carried until he heard how silent the bakery got. The middle aged couple clearly heard Foggy’s passionate statement, because without a second thought, they jumped out of their seats and bolted out the door.

Matt, Foggy and Lucy were alone once more.

Foggy bashfully asked, “Do you think they heard me?”

Matt’s eyebrows raised in perplexity while Lucy let out a soft chuckle.

“Yeah, sweetie. I think they did.” She said with a pat on his head.

Foggy shrugged, “Well, I said what I said. But that’s not important right now.” He leaned towards Matt once more. “Please tell us. We want to help Iris, too.”  

Matt sat quietly, contemplating his decision before faintly replying, “Okay.”

Iris

Claire’s impromptu checkup was relatively quick and painless. I cringed at her sympathetic gaze as she examined all the bruises and scars on my body, I felt embarrassed that she saw the extent of what he had done to me. She was considerate enough to not dwell on it, for now anyway. She did, however, diagnose the bruised ribs I didn’t realize I had. That explains why that hideous bruise on my torso hasn’t healed yet. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about that, except to take it easy and let it heal naturally, which will apparently take six weeks at the most.

After the exam was over, Claire gave me a prescription for some pain relief and antibiotics, as well as demanding I get some sleep.

After promising Claire I would rest on the condition that she stopped by the bakery for any treat on the house, I hugged her goodbye and exited the hospital.

I still wasn’t ready to go home yet. Not only out of fear of the lingering nightmares, but also out of fear of facing Matt. Despite Claire’s reassuring words, I still felt doubtful about whether or not he’ll want anything to do with me.  I still can’t get over the crushed look on his face when I walked away from him.  But maybe Claire’s right. I should just swallow my pride and talk to him. I owe him that much.

I snapped out of my inner thoughts and paused in my aimless wandering when I heard music in the air. I turned to the right of me, in the direction the music came from, and saw the tall building with the red neon sign in the shape of a guitar that read Guitar Center.

My fingers twitched with an aching need that I’ve repressed for far too long, my feet made the decision for me and led me inside the music store.

A wave of euphoria flowed through me as I took in the view of various instruments as far as the eye can see.  The sound of live instruments playing sounding more and more prominent.

I walked further into the store towards the music until I found a small group of three guys and a young woman just lounging around. They all had a unique style, mix of rock & roll edge with a wild and colorful bohemian flair. The choices of instruments were oddly mismatched. The woman, who had a rockabilly style black and pink polka dot wiggle dress, was on her feet playing an upright bass, one guy was playing the violin, the second was playing an acoustic guitar, and the third guy sat on the floor playing a tambourine with drum sticks like it was a mini drum set. This was such an odd and fascinating mix of musicians, I couldn’t help but be drawn to them.

My eyes drifted past them and landed on a beautiful red upright piano. My fingers twitched with the urge to play. Should I? It’s been so long since I’ve touched a piano, I was afraid that I would be so rusty that I really would sound as mediocre as he always said I did.

Well He was an asshole who didn’t want you to enjoy anything that didn’t involve him. Play the damn piano. It’s been too long since we’ve done anything we were passionate about. We deserve this. You deserve this!

My feet obeyed my thoughts quicker than I did as I now found myself seated in front of the piano. I barely noticed the quirky musicians go quiet next to me, all I could really hear was my heartbeat thumping in my ears. My hands trembled as I delicately caressed the keys, saying hello to an old friend.

Without any more hesitation, my muscle memory kicked in as I played the beginning notes of the first song my mom taught me. I started slowly at first, then my fingers sped up as the song began to build up. I could faintly hear the jingles of the tambourine, and it was quickly followed by the instruments of the musicians next to me. One of the musicians started singing, the lyrics confirming that they were playing my song alongside me.

She comes in colors everywhere

She combs her hair

She's like a rainbow

Coming, colors in the air

Oh, everywhere

She comes in colors

I looked over my shoulder towards the quirky group. The man with the guitar, who had his long hair tied back and wore a red Hawaiian shirt with black jean, met my eyes and nodded with a smile, signaling me to continue playing.  

My heart was dancing as I played on, my confidence growing more and more. I didn’t even bother holding back the beaming smile from my face, as I played the music box-sounding notes on the keys. My eyes began to mist from the pure joy of doing something I thought I’d never be allowed to do again.  I continued playing, with an energy and passion that have waited years to be reawakened.

Have you seen her dressed in blue?

See the sky in front of you

And her face is like a sail

Speck of white so fair and pale

Have you seen a lady fairer?

She comes in colors everywhere

She combs her hair

She's like a rainbow

Coming, colors in the air

Oh, everywhere

She comes in colors

Oh how I wish Mom was here with me, she would’ve loved to hear me play her favorite song again.

Have you seen her all in gold?

Like a queen in days of old

She shoots colors all around

Like a sunset going down

Have you seen a lady fairer?

She comes in colors everywhere

She combs her hair

She's like a rainbow

Coming, colors in the air

Oh, everywhere

She comes in colors

I wish Matt was here too. Would he like hearing me play? Would he say he loved it? Would he ask me to play more? Would he want to sit beside me as I played? Oh how I wished I knew for sure.

She's like a rainbow

Coming, colors in the air

Oh, everywhere

She comes in colors

The room went quiet as the final notes faded in the air. The quiet didn’t last long, though, as a few patrons of the store had started applauding; I didn’t even realize we had actually drawn an audience.  My face heated up, my cheeks flushed bright red amongst my pale skin. It’s been so long since I’ve played in front of everyone, I forgot how amazing it felt to get a positive response.

The musicians that accompanied me nodded with approval at me, and that simple gesture warmed my heart with a sense of belonging.

The tambourine man, who wore heavy eyeliner and a wildly colorful abstract shirt with leather pants, stood up to sit next to me on the bench and eagerly asked, “Play us another song, darling?”

I hesitated for a second, not used to getting such a request. “I’m not sure what you would like to hear.” I replied meekly.

“Anything you want.” The violinist replied. He wore black and white striped pants with a fitted pink and blue paisley buttoned shirt topped with a black bow tie and a black vest. “Just start playing and we’ll follow along.”

My brows furrowed in concern, “What if you don’t know the song?”

“We don’t need to,” The guitarist spoke up. “We just let the music guide us through.”

The pinup bassist sweetly chimed in, “That’s how we always play, so don’t even worry about that, dollface. Play us something.”

I took a second to think over what other songs I knew before I started playing with my musical acquaintances for the next couple of hours.

After we were done playing together in the music store, my new friends dragged me along with them to an indie record store that also had a small cafe inside.

I easily lost track of time, I was too caught up in my new friends; the sun had already set by the time we had all parted ways. I left the record store with a bag full of new CDs, a chocolate chip muffin for the walk home, four new phone numbers added on my phone, and a smile of contentment on my face.

Claire was right. I wasn’t alone in this anymore. I don’t have to be.

My thoughts drifted back to Matt. The thought of telling him the truth terrified me still. I want so badly to let him in, but I can’t help but let that shred of doubt nudge it’s way into my mind.

Can he accept me completely? Will he judge me for what I’ve done? Will he hate me for lying? Or will he still want to help me?

I was too lost in my thoughts, I wasn’t alert enough to notice I was being watched, and also being followed.

I felt a hand grab my arm in a painful grip as I was yanked into a dark alley, a second hand covered my mouth before I had a chance to scream for help.

Oh god. He found me! How the hell did he find me?! He’s gonna kill me before I can even tell Matt how sorry I am. I didn’t even get to see Mom. I wish I had actually spoken to her-

My thoughts were cut off when an unfamiliar voice growled from my captor. “Give me your money now, and you won’t get hurt.”

Oh thank god, it’s only a mugger! My body sagged in relief.

The man then held a knife against my throat, causing me to stiffen up again. Oh shit, it’s a mugger!

I started to panic as I struggled to get out of his grasp, biting hard into his hand in the process.

The mugger growled in anger as he moved his now free hand into my hair, yanking it to the point where I feared it would be pulled out of my scalp.

“You fuckin bitch!” He sneered as he shoved my face against the wall.

I was hyperventilating at this point, unable to hold back the tears that flowed down my face. “Please let me go! I don’t have any money!” I pleaded desperately.

The mugger then pressed himself against my back, pressing his groin into my back.

“Then I’m just gonna have to get something else from you, huh?” He replied as he licked my ear, my body shivered in fear and disgust.

Then suddenly the pressure from his body was lifted abruptly as he was pulled off me and thrown against the wall.

I quickly turned around and was staring in stunned silence as I saw my mugger getting his ass handed to him by a mysterious man dressed in head to toe black. The man in black moved with speed and grace as he punched and kicked the mugger around like a ninja. The mugger tried to get some hits in, but he never stood a chance. The man in black hurled him against the wall, landing a foot away from me.

I shrieked in surprise as the mugger grabbed my ankle.  I kicked and stomped repeatedly on his wrist, but he wouldn’t budge. The man in black rushed to my aid and pulled the mugger away from me. He let out a growl of anger as he threw him against the opposite wall.

“Keep your hands off of her!” The man in black threatened, his voice low and deep with rage, sending thrilling shivers down my spine.

He knocked the mugger out with one last anger-fueled punch, causing said mugger to collapse like a jenga tower.  He squatted down towards the mugger and proceeded to restrain his hands and feet, causing the mugger to start twitching back into consciousness, prompting the man in black to deliver one more knockout punch to the face.

My breathing slowed down as he stood up and turned to face me. My heart started to beat faster as he started walking tentatively towards me.  I took in his full appearance before me.  He stood almost a foot taller than me, his fitted black outfit did nothing to hide his muscular build that my eyes struggled to stray from.  The top half of his face was covered by the thick black fabric that tied around his head, leaving the bottom half visible; which of course drew my attention to those perfect full lips of his.  

Perfect full lips that started speaking.

“Are you okay?” His deep voice was gentle with concern.

I shakily nodded, taking a deep breath as I replied. “I am, thanks to you.”

He tilted his head as his hand reached toward the side of my face that had been shoved against the wall.  Even though his hand was gloved in thick material, my cheek came alive with a spark of electricity at his gentle touch.

“Are you hurt?” He asked with genuine concern.

My heart skipped a beat as his kindness reminded me of a certain neighbor, causing my eyes to water. “No, I’m fine.” I replied.

His head tilted once more as he asked with uncertainty. “Are you sure? He made you hit that wall pretty hard.” His thumb gave gentle feather light caresses across my newly bruised cheek.

I gave a shrug and replied tensely, “I’ve had worse.”

His whole body stiffened at my answer, he was close enough for me to hear him grind his teeth. I could just barely hear him mutter angrily under his breath, “I know.”

My brows wrinkled in confusion at what he could have meant by that. Before I could question him, though, he slowly began to step away from me, his lingering fingers grazing my cheek until he dropped his hand completely.

“You should go home.” He declared when he stood an extra couple feet away from me. “And be careful. The city’s dangerous at this time of night.”

“Okay.” I readily agreed. He started to turn around to walk away, prompting me to call out, “Hey!”

He abruptly stopped in his tracks, tilting his head once more to patiently listen.  

“Thank you.  You saved my life.” I finished, my voice heavy with gratitude.

I could just barely see the side of his mouth rise into a small smile as he replied, “You’re welcome. Please be safe.”

And with that, he disappeared into the shadows.  I didn’t waste another second to bolt out of the alley and rush home.

I finally made it back to the familiar apartment building and didn’t stop running until I made it safely inside the elevator.  Now that I had stopped and taken a breath, I began to feel the lead weight my legs had become; along with the exhaustion from lack of sleep and the series of events from this long day hitting me all at once. I definitely needed to go to sleep.

I got off the elevator on my floor and tiredly stumbled to my door. Before I unlocked it, I turned my attention towards Matt’s apartment. My run in with the mugger gave me a serious wake up call. I can’t keep wasting time being miserable and alone like this. I need to talk to Matt and tell him the truth, or forever wish I did. But not tonight. Not when I already felt dead on my feet. Tomorrow. I’ll tell him first thing tomorrow.

With my decision set in my mind, I entered my apartment and locked the door before I stumbled to my bed and finally succumbed to sleep.

I woke up the next morning feeling far more rested than the day before. I slept so heavily, I couldn’t even remember if I dreamed, much to my relief. I got up to brush my teeth and get dressed for the day, but not before texting Lucy to let her know I needed an extra day off, which she happily replied was no problem at all.

I could feel my stomach twist and tangle in anxiety at how this conversation with Matt can possibly turn out; I was ready to throw up. I was determined, but still terrified to tell him everything. I hate how scared I am about this. Matt has been nothing but sweet to me, I should feel comfortable enough to talk to him. But with the way I’ve acted towards him, and the weight of my secret, will he even want anything to do with me again?

My thoughts were interrupted by music playing muffled through the wall connecting my apartment to Matt’s. It was the beginning notes to The Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There”, as if he knew what was going through my mind

Now if you feel that you can't go on (can't go on)

Because all of your hope is gone (all your hope is gone)

And your life is filled with much confusion (much confusion)

Until happiness is just an illusion (happiness is just an illusion)

And your world around is crumbling down, darlin'

(Reach out) Come on girl reach on out for me

(Reach out) Reach out for me

Hah, I'll be there with a love that will shelter you

I'll be there with a love that will see you through

My eye started tearing up again as I paid attention to the lyrics. Was Matt trying to tell me something through this song, or am I just reading too much into it?

When you feel lost and about to give up (to give up)

'Cause your best just ain't good enough (just ain't good enough)

And your feel the world has grown cold (has grown cold)

And your drifting out all on your own (drifting out on your own)

And you need a hand to hold, darlin'

(Reach out) Come on girl, reach out for me

(Reach out) Reach out for me

Hah, I'll be there to love and comfort you

And I'll be there to cherish and care for you

(I'll be there to always see you through)

(I'll be there to love and comfort you)

My heart was beating uncontrollably, my skin riddled with goosebumps. Matt doesn’t usually play music out loud, and now he plays this song. He was definitely telling me something, and the song couldn’t spell it out anymore clearly.

I can tell the way you hang your head (hang your head)

You're not in love now, now you're afraid (you're afraid)

And through your tears you look around (look around)

But there's no peace of mind to be found (no peace of mind to be found)

I know what your thinking

You're a loner, no love of your own, but darling

(Reach out) Come on girl reach out for me

Reach out, just look over your shoulder

I'll be there to give you all the love you need

And I'll be there you can always depend on me

I'll be there

Don’t worry

More determined than ever, I finished getting dressed and bolted out the door, and walked straight to Matt’s door.

My palms began to sweat, but I forced myself to stay strong as I rose my hand up and knocked on the door. The footsteps I could hear coming towards the other side of the door matched the heavy heartbeat within my chest.  The door opened revealing Matt, dressed in grey sweatpants with the ends tucked into his grey tube socks, a navy blue hoodie zipped up but revealing a peak of a white t-shirt, his hair combed back and slightly wet from the shower he must’ve just taken; and for the first time since I’ve met him, his eyes were free of his usual red sunglasses, revealing his deep soulful brown eyes. He looked more beautiful than ever, and it simply took my breath away.

“Hi, Matt.” I spoke before I lost my nerve, keeping my focus on the task at hand.

Matt’s perfect lips rose in a soft and sweet smile. “Hi, Iris. Are you okay?” He asked, being the sweet gentleman he is.

“Yeah, I’m-” I started to automatically say before I cut myself off. Honesty. I have to start with honesty. I took a deep breath before I continued meekly, “No. I’m actually not okay. I haven’t been for a long time.”

Matt frowned in concern and sympathy. I spoke up once more, “That’s actually why I came to see you. Can we talk? I mean, if I’m not taking up your time of course. I can always come back later if this isn’t a good time.”

Matt rushed to respond before I considered backing off, “You’re not taking up my time, I’d love to talk to you. Please come in.” He opened his door wider to welcome me inside.

I stepped inside the apartment for the first time and noticed the space was almost identical to mine in terms of size, minimal amount of furniture as well.

“Would you like anything to drink?” Matt asked, being a gracious host. “I don’t have much except for beer and water, or I can make some coffee if you’d like.”

I shook my head with a smile, “No thank you, I’m fine.”

He then directed me towards the couch in the center of the room and took a seat with enough space apart to face each other. My hands started shaking as I tried to figure out what to say first. I decided the best to start with was an apology.

“I’m sorry.” I began as I shifted to face him. “For yesterday. The way I acted was inexcusable.”

Matt shook his head, “You don’t have to apologize, Iris.”

I fervently replied, “Yes I do. You’ve been nothing but kind and gentle to me, and I’ve been so terrible in comparison. You were so concerned about me and wanted to help me, and I repaid you by pushing you away and being so rude to you. You deserved better than that, and I’m so sorry, I’d understand if you didn’t want anything to do with me ever again. I wouldn’t want anything to do with me either-”

“Iris, stop.” He cut me off as he grabbed my hands in comfort. “I hate hearing you degrade yourself like that. You’re not a bad person. You’re a sweet and wonderful person, who has clearly been through something painful. And as long as you’ll let me, I’d really like to stay by your side more and help you in any way I can.”

My fingers gripped tightly to his hands, my eyes powerless to keep the oncoming tears at bay.  

I took another deep breath before I finally got to the point. “You were right.” I started. “I am in trouble. I did go through something painful. I…”

Matt squeezed my hands slightly tighter in reassurance. “It’s okay, you can tell me.” He spoke with the utmost gentleness.

I used that bit of encouragement to finally reach the point of no return.

“His name is Paul.”  Matt cocked his head in curiosity before I continued.

“My husband.” There it is. No turning back now. “He was hurting me. All the time.” My throat began to tighten at the memories. “At first he was so charming, sweet, loving. I thought he was so handsome and mysterious. He swept me off my feet instantly. Always doting on me, gave me gifts. I never really cared that he had money though, I just cared that he made me feel so loved, like I was all that mattered. When Mom had her stroke, I was devastated. It was just her and me, she was the only family I had left and I didn’t know how to take care of her. I was 20 years old, working minimum wage, I had no idea what to do. And Paul came in like a knight in shining armor. He paid for Mom to stay in one of the best nursing homes, he proposed to me and promised to move her in with us and provide a nurse to help me take care of her. He promised to make me so happy and loved.” I let out a scoff at my naïveté from back then. “I believed him of course. I married him in this big, expensive, show off ceremony he insisted we had to have. I was so in love and stupidly happy. I thought, ‘Life couldn’t possibly get any more perfect.’ And it didn’t.”

I looked away from Matt with a frown as I delved even further into the worst years of my life. “As soon as we came back from our honeymoon, everything changed. He had little obsessive compulsive quirks I didn’t know about before. The towels always had to hang perfectly neat and even on the rack. The cans in the cupboard had to be stacked neatly with the labels facing out. The house had to be completely spotless. The table had to be set appropriately. I learned the hard way how much he hated rules being forgotten.”

Matt’s body tensed up and his hands started shaking over mine. I continued further. “You could probably guess that he never followed through on his promise to move my mom in with us. His reasoning was that he loved me so much that he wanted to keep me all for himself.” I shook my head in disgust. “That’s also the reason we never had kids. He hates kids and hates the idea of someone stealing my attention away from him even worse. He got a vasectomy a month before we got married.” I cleared my throat to swallow down the lump of tears in my throat. “He took away my mom, my chance of being a mom, my music, my spirit. It didn’t take much to set him off and punish me as he saw fit. I was dying in there. He had been killing me slowly for three years.”

Matt’s voice cracked as he finally spoke up. “Oh god Iris, I’m so sorry.” He shifted a hand to intertwine our fingers together. “How did you get out of there?”

I knew he would ask me that.  This was the part I dreaded. “I tried calling the police. A lawyer too. They were no help whatsoever. The best they offered was a restraining order. As if that would keep him away.  I realized the only one who could help me was me. So I made the necessary arrangements I needed to make, and I escaped.”

Matt looked skeptical like he knew I wasn’t elaborating enough. “Is he looking for you?”

I shook my head, “No. He couldn’t possibly be looking for me. He has no idea what I did.”

His face scrunched in confusion. “That doesn’t make sense. How could he not be looking for you?  How could he not know you left?”

My heart was beating rapidly as I took a deeper breath and replied.

“Because he thinks I’m dead.”

A/N: Annnnd that’s chapter 7! Chapter 8 will come A LOT SOONER this time around and it’s gonna be a flashback chapter.  It’s gonna be rough, so be ready. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, I hope it was worth the wait.  PLEASE comment what you thought of the chapter and reblog, be sure to follow me and hit me up if you wanna get on the taglist.  Thanks for your patience, I love you all! Until next time...*kiss noise*

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[charmixpower]

> What do you mean Brandon?! This is Sky, Prince of Eraklyon, successor to the throne and my future husband! Now I—