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mentallyisekaid · 7 months

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「 ✦ Fatui Harbingers x Signora's Sister! Reader, PART 2 ✦ 」

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Part 1 [Part 2] Part 2.5 Part 3

It's highly recommended to read the parts in order, otherwise few things will make sense!

Author's note ~ From this chapter forward, Y/N will develop a strong, somewhat intimate bond with her fellow Harbingers, but it's still, essentially, platonic. After coming up with the full storyline for this series, I figured it'd best to keep romance to a minimum, so it won't distract me or the readers from what's happening plotwise. But make no mistake - all of them care quite fiercely about you... it's not labelled "Harbingers x Reader" for nothing :) And of course, you're free to interpret their relationship in any kind of way you prefer <3

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Featured in this chapter, we have (drum roll, if you please)... Scaramouche, Childe and Columbina!

Warnings: brief/indirect spoilers regarding Sumeru's Archon quest and Scaramouche's lore

Word count: 3k

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A month had passed since the funeral, and the day you'd become the 12th of the Fatui Harbingers at Pierro's request. Truth to be told, you hardly cared whether such a dubious position had been offered to you out of respect for Rosalyne's legacy, or merely because they'd wanted to keep an eye on the immortal girl who possessed two Visions.

For the past five centuries, your life had lacked any clear purpose - perhaps this new title could change things to something a bit more... colorful?

Perhaps they could be the change.

On that note, there was something quite peculiar you'd come to notice about the infamous Harbingers.

Despite joining their ranks, you had kept the reason behind your questionable situation as a secret, so on a very essential level they still knew next to nothing about you (except for the Director who definitely knew enough to make you very uncomfortable!) In this regard, shouldn't they have considered you a stranger, or at least a high security risk?

Yes, yes they should have.

Yet not only did they treat you as one of their own, but it appeared that for some reason, these people cared about you to an extent beyond just professional relationships, always looking out for you in weird ways, like making sure you didn't overwork yourself, stayed healthy and never lacked any weird luxuries like expensive bath salts - that, and the fact that they were almost constantly lingering around you...

As someone who'd grown used to getting by on their own, you didn't really know what to make of their behavior. Or how to return it.

But did you dislike it? Not really. Why? Well, you were still sort of figuring that out.

You were currently sitting in Pantalone's office, looking through some financial reports while the Regrator himself was away on a business trip. As things stood, this was pretty much all that your title as a Harbinger was good for - assisting your colleagues by handling the less direct approaches to their duties as diplomats of Snezhnaya. It was only natural that you weren't yet expected, or trusted, to do any actual fieldwork.

So, your days were mostly spent being surrounded by endless piles of documents...

*knock, knock!*

...and them, as you might have guessed.

You sighed, placing the papers down on the desk when another round of impatient knocks came in. Clearly, that someone was going to invite themselves in regardless of your answer, and it wasn't hard to narrow down the list of possible suspects since only the highest ranking members of the Fatui were allowed in this part of the headquarters - frankly, the doors here tended not to be Harbinger-proof?

But it's not as if you really minded, breaktime was due anyway. Also, their company was always vastly more entertaining than work!

"It's not locked, you know" you commented, leaning back on your chair.

A scoff was heard before the door was rudely pushed open, and an unfamiliar character marched with such arrogance you'd think they owned the place. This made you raise an eyebrow; what an admirable sense of superiority? It wasn't someone you'd met before, but judging from the way they carried themselves, you recognized them nonetheless.

The man with child-like features (and a rather beautiful face) stopped in the middle of the room, staring curiously, though somewhat condescendingly, at the girl behind the desk.

"Are you," he started, "perchance the Director's newest recruit?"

"It's already been a month, but I suppose... in any case, what can I do for you, mister?"

"Mister?" The Harbinger crossed his arms, both amused and irked by your way of addressing him. "Ha, do you not know who I am?"

"Oh, no, I'm fairly certain I do," you sighed. "A presumptuous attitude, and a strikingly non-traditional kasa hat... the Balladeer, I presume? I heard you were busy playing a god in Sumeru with one of Dottore's segments, so I thought it might be a while before I get to meet the last one of my colleagues. But here you are - Scaramouche, was it? To what do I owe the pleasure?"

He was being rude too, you were just returning the discourtesy.

Scaramouche held back a chuckle, the bells from his hat jingling.

"Ah, yes, that would be me. And as to why I bothered coming all the way from Sumeru just to meet you, miss Twelfth..."

"I have a name. It's Y/N."

He clicked his tongue, taking a step closer.

"Yes, yes, whatever. Now, sit there and listen. I was in the middle of my little experiment on blasphemy when I suddenly heard that the Jester had recruited a new Harbinger, who, incidentally, has two Visions and is supposedly immortal - but she blatantly refuses to reveal anything about herself. Surely, you can imagine my slight annoyance at this, seeing as you, on the other hand, seem to know an awful lot about us."

You smiled a bit, fiddling with the quill pen in your hand.

"Yes, I don't exactly go around advertising my past to others. But aren't you same in that regard, Scaramouche?"

"I won't amuse you by answering that." He smiled eerily. "The point is, I don't like being kept in the dark - it gives people the chance to stab me in the back, and that's not something I'm particularly fond of."

"Ask the Director, then. I can assure you he knows all kinds of scandalous things about me - about all of us, no doubt."

He shrugged. "That won't be necessary."

In the blink of an eye, Scaramouche was no longer where he'd been standing before. The Sixth Harbinger had suddenly jumped on top of your desk, scattering the paperwork you'd spent hours organizing. He leaned forward with a smug look on his face, grabbing your chin between his delicate fingers.

"So, our little miss Harbinger refuses to reveal her secrets? We'll get those out of you, don't you worry~"

"My goodness?" Your previously dull eyes sparkled a bit. "What a bold move - it's certainly... something. I must say, I find your character quite fascinating, Balladeer."

"Likewise."

Behind that ruthless, indigo gaze, was a forlorn soul that had faced so much injustice...

When travelling around Teyvat for the past centuries, you'd caught bits and pieces of hearsay about Scaramouche's tragic past - most of it probably accurate. But it wouldn't have been wise to bring up such matters when you'd only just met him, especially since the Balladeer was widely known for his foul temper.

Though, judging from the way was looking at you, he probably knew what you were thinking. Even so, there was no ill intent in his eyes.

A new voice suddenly interrupted your odd encounter.

"I hope you're not harrassing our princess, dearest Scara!"

Tartaglia waltzed in to the office with an ominous smile. Scaramouche jumped down from your desk, scoffing at the sight of his ginger colleague.

"Ha, barely! I just happen to find her very intriguing."

Childe laughed a bit, stepping forward to pat your head.

"Well, I did tell you she was special, comrade. And to think you didn't believe me? Yet, here I find you. It seems Y/N Lohefalter is capable of drawing the attention of even the Balladeer himself, ahahhah~"

You followed their interaction, thoroughly entertained - compared to your previous uneventful life, this was certainly refreshing.

"Foolish boys," yet another familiar voice was heard, and Columbina strode in gracefully. "Avoiding your work to disturb Y/N with these shameful antics? Pierro would be quite displeased. Now, perish."

Damselette then turned her attention on you, smiling sweetly.

"Would you like to have an afternoon snack with me? I hope you've been eating enough, my dove."

"Now, now, don't be greedy..." Scaramouche taunted. "It's rather obvious that she and I were having a conversation."

You smiled a bit, pointing at each one of them with your pen.

"Technically, you're all are here equally uninvited. And on that note - as much as I'd rather do anything else right now - I really should continue with these documents or they're going to pile up..."

"Hey now, you know Pantalone doesn't like it when you overwork yourself, Y/N," Childe pointed out, crossing his arms.

Columbina smiled gently. "Yes, how about we go and have some tea instead?~"

Scaramouche raised an eyebrow at this.

"You sure speak to this girl in an unprofessional manner, Tartaglia, Damselette - if I didn't know better, I'd say it sounds almost intimate. Trying to snatch her away from me, perhaps? But you've already known her for a month; it ought to be my turn to get acquainted with our new little Harbinger. Y/N and I have some things to discuss, after all..."

"Oh?" Childe raised an eyebrow. "Then what exactly were you and her chatting so intimately about before I came?"

"Enlighten us, Balladeer," Columbina chuckled.

You shook your head a bit.

"Let's not go down that rabbit hole-"

"No." Scaramouche cut you off with a smug expression. "These two, and the rest of them... would agree with the opinion I shared with you, don't you think? Surely it's something that we've all been wondering about."

Columbina and Childe shared a brief but knowing look - it wasn't hard to guess what the Balladeer had said to you, and though he should have gone about it a more discreet manner, they couldn't deny their curiosity either.

The angel-like Harbinger walked next to you, brushing back a loose strand of hair from your face.

"I'd rather hear this from you," she hummed.

Her touch was a little cold but gentle, not at all unpleasant. You just weren't used to this kind of physical intimacy, or rather, it had been so long since you'd experienced any kind of intimacy, that it caught you a bit off-guard whenever your co-workers offered these weird gestures. It's not like you... really minded this. But it did make it hard to refuse when they the asked you for something.

You sighed, leaning back on the chair.

"Of course, I... know you're all somewhat displeased that I'm keeping these secrets from you, about my past, that is - how I've lived for this long, and how it's possible that have two Visions. It might be difficult for you to trust me because of this, but even so, I am not obliged to reveal anything. And you know as well as I do that the Jester already knows what there is to be known; he wouldn't have let me join otherwise."

Scaramouche narrowed his eyes, not content with your answer.

"Yes, but I also know that the Director is a man of his principles - either those secrets are shared of your own accord, or not at all."

"Then maybe you don't need to know? Maybe you're better off not knowing?"

Tartaglia frowned, leaning against the wall next you.

"Being a part of the Fatui already means that we're in way over our heads when it comes to anything questionable that's going on in Teyvat. Your... situation, is included in that, even more so because you're one of us now. And in case it's not clear yet, we do care about our own, even if that often gets a bit lost behind our agendas and differences." He put a hand on your shoulder and offered a reassuring smile. "So, we'd like to know more about you, Y/N. I'm sure that's what Scaramouche has been trying to tell you too, albeit he has a weird way of choosing his words."

The Balladeer crossed his arms. "What a speech, Childe." It sounded like a snide remark, you somehow sensed that he didn't mean it as one.

"For once, I agree with these two," Columbina said. "Though both are going about this in a rather thoughtless manner. Regardless of her past and whether or not she chooses to disclose it, she is a Harbinger - and that does not necessarily mean we should know all these things about her. Her only responsibility is to serve the Tsaritsa, after all."

She smiled at you. "But it is a shame you don't seem to trust us very much, Y/N."

Reverse psychology? Smooth.

"I think you've misunderstood me, though. It's not about trust."

You stood up from Pantalone's fancy office chair, stretching a bit.

"At this point, revealing those things might or might not cost me, but I'm pretty sure I won't gain anything from it either. If that's the case - well, is survival not about keeping the trump cards you have, or at least not giving them away for free? And information is often more valuable than Mora."

"You sound like the Regrator, though I'm sure he would disagree about the Mora part." Tartaglia chuckled. "But I like the way you think! So, what is it that you'd like in return for those secrets?"

"I'd be happy to arrange whatever it is~" Columbina singsonged. "Within the bounds of good taste, of course."

Scaramouche clicked his tongue. "What an insufferable girl - what is it you want, then?"

You tilted your head, wondering why these people were so invested in you. One day, you'd surely understand... but in this moment, you could only think about their offer and how it was just slightly too tempting to refuse.

"Well, right now, I'm craving for some excitement. Something more thrilling than this paperwork I'm drowning in day after day. I don't suppose one of you has a solution for that?"

Columbina's soft laughter jingled in the air.

Scaramouche was glaring at you.

Childe's eyes were sparkling.

"Excitement, you say?!" the ginger exclaimed. "Oh, that won't be a problem. How about we make a little bet, Y/N?"

"I'm listening."

"Let's fight a bit~ I've been wanting to see what you're capable of, and a match against the Eleventh Harbinger is far from playing around, so I'm sure it would prove exciting enough for you." He nodded toward the two gemstones hanging from your belt. "Use those Visions, any weapons and all the shenanigans you can possibly come up with - if you think you can. I promise to make it worth your while. Naturally, you'd have to share some of your past in exchange..."

You raised an eyebrow at his suggestion. "...if you manage to win, that is?"

Columbina chuckled. "Careful, Y/N. You'll get Tartaglia too excited~"

Scaramouche rolled his eyes.

"I'm not sure you understand what you're agreeing to, miss Twelfth. But by all means, go play with this idiot - I'll gladly come and watch, it ought to be entertaining. The next phase of my mission in Sumeru is not due in a while anyway." (And if by some miracle you do manage to beat Childe, I'll come up with other ways of discovering those secrets.)

The Balladeer as well had grown quite captivated by you.

Childe smiled innocently. "How about it, Y/N? Are you in?"

"You bet."

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...who in their right mind had recruited this maniac?

Sure, the Harbingers had inhuman abilities, but this was pure madness. Tartaglia had yet to even demonstrate his Hydro powers, much less a Delusion, but merely by using his agility and a pair of escrima sticks he had already brought you to your knees.

It's not as if you considered yourself to be a particularly skilled fighter, but you did have five centuries' worth more experience than him, and quite a few tricks up in your sleeve. But Childe only ever gave you the time to use your polearm - no Visions, no shenanigans - and even so, you didn't manage to land a single hit on him.

You lay on the floor of the training grounds, breathlessly gazing up at Tartaglia who was pinning you down with his knee.

"Ready to yield, girlie?"

"Ha... I'm not, *huff*, giving up that easily..."

He smiled, putting a bit more pressure on your chest - not in a painful way, but it was still enough to diminish your remaining fighting spirit rather quickly.

"Alright, alright, fine... please, *huff*... stop, Tartaglia... I, *huff*... give... up..."

"You can call me Ajax, by the way."

The ginger stood up, gazing down at you with a grin on his face. Well, at least now you knew that the rumors about his martial arts prowess weren't exaggerated? Neither was the fact that whenever he did fight, there was this euphoric (honestly a bit scary) aura around him. Reminder - think twice before you accept a challenge from this guy in the future!

That said, you had quite enjoyed yourself...

Ajax offered his hand to you, and you meekly took it, allowing him to pull you up from the ground.

Columbina and Scaramouche, who had been silently observing from the sidelines, appeared slightly amused and certainly pleased by the end of your struggle. This outcome had been more or less expected, but ever so welcome. A Harbinger never backed on their word, after all~

"Now then, my angel..."

"...you better keep that promise."

The three of them led you to a small lounge, dimly lit by a fireplace and deserted from any members of Fatui. Exhausted, you slouched down on a couch and closed your eyes.

Damselette came next to you wordlessly, laying down and letting her head rest on your lap. This was a habit of hers that you didn't mind; while admittedly rather intimate, it was something like this that you had long yearned for.

Childe leaned against a nearby wall, smiling at you encouragingly. For some reason, you always felt at ease around him. He was like an "older" sibling - more than she ever was, the one you'd already lost before her death.

The Balladeer was sitting on an armchair, observing you with an unreadable expression. The slight softness in those cold eyes was perhaps only noticed by you; an abandoned soul recognizes its own kind.

"Now then, Ajax, Scaramouche and Columbina. Allow me to tell you a story - one that discloses how my first Vision came to be. While I'm at it, I suppose I might as well reveal why Rosalyne and I shared such a difficult relationship..."

(to be continued)

#harbingers x reader #genshin impact x reader #fatui harbingers x reader #signora's sister reader #signora's sister #platonic genshin x reader #but it's VERY INTIMATELY platonic #scaramouche #columbina #childe #platonic scaramouche x reader #platonic columbina x reader #platonic childe x reader #genshin impact #genshin

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chimaerakitten · 6 months

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Malaria, Sickle-Cell, and Dragons in the Temeraire Universe

so I've been thinking about sickle cell all day because of the very cool real-life FDA crispr treatment approval news, and also I'm just about done rereading empire of ivory so thusly it is time to write the sickle cell/malaria/dragons/benefits of human-dragon mutualism breakdown I mentioned ages ago.

Standard disclaimer that I am not in fact anywhere near an expert on this, this is mostly recall from ANTH 102/215 classes I took five years ago, the info is very simplified and possibly somewhat out of date. I'm doing some quick checks and I write this but only enough to make this an appropriate fantasy novel fandom post, not enough to make it actually reliably informative. I do have a couple citations, but mostly for the parts I'm lifting straight out of a class assignment I wrote, and they're a short documentary hosted on YouTube and the textbook for the class. also none of my links are live because I want this fandom post to actually show up in the fandom tag lol.

second disclaimer is I'm starting at the basic obvious stuff because I genuinely have no idea how much most people know about this and better safe than confusing.

Intro and Background

So the first thing to know about any of this is that human genetics for the most part to not operate on mendelian inheritance. So the punnet squares in high school biology that did human hair or eye color as basic dominant/recessive one-gene traits were totally lying to you. Like they're a teaching tool for a very simple model that works well enough but they're not accurate. Most human phenotypes are way way more complicated genetically than that.

That said, there are exceptions. Mendelian traits (Characteristics that are influenced by alles at only one genetic locus) do exist in humans, a number of them being related to genetic diseases. The list in the ANTH 102 notes I just dug up was: Wet (dominant) or dry Earwax; Albinism; Brachydactyly (dominant); Blood type (ABO, not the positive/negative part); Hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome (BRCA-1, BRCA-2, unknown genes); Huntington’s disease; Lactase persistence (dominant); and Sickle-cell disease (recessive).

So the sickle cell punnet square looks like this for two parents who both have one copy of the sickle cell gene:

Sickle cell is a very painful and life threatening disease, (That's why the FDA approving a crispr treatment for it allowing patients to be their own bone marrow donors is very exciting.) and from an evolutionary perspective, one that very often prevents people from reproducing. It's also not strictly dominant/recessive, in that people heterozygous for sickle cell can have some symptoms like the possibility a sickle-cell crisis triggered in low-oxygen situations (high altitudes, intense exercise, etc).

So one might think that Sickle cell would be a vanishingly rare disease, since having it can be deadly and even having the trait can in some cases cause problems. Only it's not rare by genetically inherited disease standards, not at all.

And to make a long story very short, the reason is malaria.

Malaria

People who are heterozygous (possessing one sickle cell gene and one normal gene) for sickle cell anemia are resistant to malaria. In areas of the world without a high incidence of malaria historically, there is a strong selection against the sickle cell gene, (Biointeractive Malaria and Sickle Cell Anemia, 9:33) but in areas with malaria, both having sickle cell disease (homozygous HbSS) and not having the trait at all (homozygous HbAA) are selected against. People with sickle cell were historically less likely to reproduce, and people who were not resistant to malaria were more likely to die of malaria and also not reproduce. Because being heterozygous with sickle cell is selected for, the gene persists in the population.

The implications of that are best summed up from this map that I just stole from Britannica.com:

I dunno if the percentages on that second one are accurate tbh, other infographic maps I'm looking at give different ranges. but sill, you get the gist about how common it is in equatorial Africa. In the modern United States Black children are much much more likely to be born with sickle cell than white children—the genes don't just go away when the threat of malaria is removed. (And yeah, that's a historical consequence of the slave trade.)

There's some other stuff wrapped up in here too about bio-cultural evolution: There's indications that malaria was not a “significant problem until humans abandoned food foraging for farming” (Haviland, W. A., Prins, H. E., Walrath, D., & McBride, B.). Humans cleared away the forest, which had kept the soil absorbent. Without the vegetation, more water built up on the surface, forming stagnant puddles which were a perfect environment for malaria-causing mosquitoes to thrive, thus creating the conditions for sickle cell anemia to be advantageous. Farming creates caloric surplus which is great for humans, but it also changes the environment in ways that can be detrimental. Malaria is one way, creating the conditions for other epidemic diseases to thrive is another, etc. etc.

But if you've read this far you're probably going "Chi, you promised this would be a fandom post but so far this has been a serious and kind of sad post about disease. when are you going to get to the dragons?"

The Dragons

So the first time malaria comes up in the Temeraire books is in Throne of Jade, when a bunch of the sailors on the Allegiance come down with "malarial Fevers."

Jane, I must ask you to forgive the long gap in this Letter, and the few hasty Words that are all by which I can amend the same now. I have not had Leisure to take up my pen these three weeks—since we passed out of Banka Strait we have been much afflicted by malarial Fevers. I have escaped sickness myself, and most of my men, for which Keynes opines we must be grateful to Temeraire, believing that the heat of his body in some wise dispels the Miasmas which cause the ague, and our close association thus affords some protection. But we have been spared only to increase of Labor: Captain Riley has been confined to his bed since almost the very first, and Lord Purbeck falling ill, I have stood watch in turn with the ship’s third and fourth lieutenants, Franks and Beckett. Both are willing young men, and Franks does his best, but is by no means yet prepared for the Duty of overseeing so vast a Ship as the Allegiance, nor to maintain discipline among her Crew—stammers, I am sorry to say, which explains his seeming Rudeness at table, which I had earlier remarked upon.

I do not know enough about what people thought about malaria in the 19th century to be 100% sure that this is actually malaria, but I think Novik wouldn't want to confuse her readers by calling something malarial that isn't you know..malaria. So I'm going to assume thats what it is. Google is not giving me figures on malaria survival rates before modern medicines for it which is driving me kind of nuts and means I can't say how lucky Riley and Purbeck were to survive with apparently no complications, but that's not the point here anyway. The point is the comment about the aviators not getting sick.

And not only (mostly) not getting sick, but not getting sick even though they aren't actually always near Temeraire. Laurence for example has been working watch shifts near constantly because he's the only one left on the ship who knows what he's doing. That means probably less read & cuddle time than is normal for him and Temeraire, and yet—no malaria.

We modern readers (and Novik) know that malaria is not caused by "miasmas" but by parasites carried by mosquitos. And lo and behold when we get to Empire of Ivory we get:

Mosquitoes sang happily as dusk drew on, though they did not come very close to Temeraire; the flies were less judicious. The shapes of the trees were growing vague when Temeraire woke with a start and said, “Laurence, there is someone coming, there,” and the grass rustled on the opposite bank.

So yeah, the dragons are keeping the mosquitos away. I know fuck all about why—it's probably not heat since you know, mosquitos like warm blooded organisms, but maybe it's an oil or a chemical or some artifact of the way some of them can breathe fire that's present in all dragons or something, they're described as smelling weird a few times, so who knows. If it's a substance like an oil in their skin that could explain why the aviators don't get sick even when they're not nearby, since they could have some on them from contact, but that's just speculation. The point is not the mechanism, just that it's happening.

The Point

This whole post grew out of a throwaway comment I made about the benefits of mutualistic symbiosis with dragons from the human perspective in that one post about how the series has some interesting stuff obviously going on psychologically/biologically. The point of going in-depth on malaria and sickle cell is to show how this is really impressively solid worldbuilding in relation to the Tswana.

See, Empire of Ivory describes locations that seem like they're in modern day Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, regions which will have had long-term problems with malaria-causing mosquitos. That's not the densest area for sickle cell, but still definitely in the region where malaria would have exerted selective pressure.

Selective pressure which, in a universe where just being around a dragon is going to drastically reduce malaria rates, is going to leave dragon-friendly populations a lot healthier than dragon-unfriendly ones. A community that has a dragon stay every night and work alongside humans during the day is going to have a lot less malaria even without the sickle cell resistance than a community which has no dragon. And considering that malaria is bad enough that sickle cell genes persist despite it also having a high chance to cause a deadly disease, whereas a dragon that's a fully prosocial member of the community is not going to cause more death and instead will probably help with defense and create more caloric surplus (at the cost of consuming most of that surplus) a dragon is just obviously the better option. From there, it's extremely easy to see how the Tswana in the series could develop such a dragon-centric culture and have it be so wildly successful. The dragons provide fertilizer, the dragons allow for fully domesticated elephants, and the dragons render malaria—one of the deadliest diseases in history—nearly a nonissue. Of course they're family.

Citations:

Biointeractive. (2014, August 26). Malaria and Sickle Cell Anemia - HHMI BioInteractive Video. Retrieved October 3, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsbhvl2nVNE

Haviland, W. A., Prins, H. E., Walrath, D., & McBride, B. (2017). Anthropology: The Human Challenge (15th ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning.

#Temeraire #it’s more bio-cultural evolution #wikipedia claims that malaria may have killed 50-60 billion people through history but I do not trust that citation AT ALL #regardless its still one of the deadliest killers ever #the kitten rambles #malaria #sickle cell anemia #Artemis if you read this I am sorry for the butchering I made of some anthropology concepts

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twimshi · 1 year

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Shattered Realities Prt.1 (Hobie brown/P!Reader)

ALSO THIS IS A ROUGH DRAFT SINCE IVE NEVER WRITTEN LIKE THIS BEFORE.

What happens if someone from our universe where no superheroes exist, falls into the society of superheroes

"She isn't glitching"

She doesn't remember falling until she feels her stomach flip, her eyes flying open with the multitude of colors that blind her vision as she catapulted.

She also dosent remember screaming but she most definitely was.

"Holy shit-" Her arms are flailed and bent in all types of positions trying to possibly slow her descent as she hits the hard pavement.

It doesn't.

She thinks something pops but pays no mind to it because of the crowd forming around her.

Multiple people in a familiar red jumpsuit surround her vision.

She slowly gets up despite the pain in her left shoulder to examine everything around her.

Before she even tries to run away someone shoots something that reminded her of a tazer she saw in a minions movie once, but without the electric shock part, causing her to fall before her hands were stuck together making her fall on her face.

Though the impact alone didn't hurt her elbow sent a jolt of pain across her entire body making her scream in pain.

"Who is she?" One says on a horse.

Oh my god was she on drugs?

"Is she another Spiderman?" Another who looks almost the same as the other's outfit but blue says.

No way she can't be on drugs.

"Why is she here dressed all normal" A talking Lego says.

So many questions were asked before someone pulled her upright by a strong person, he kind of looked like a bear.

She considers the idea of her being on LSD at this very moment.

A really buff one in fact.

Who was also wearing a skin-tight suit?

He summons, well calls some robots to do a scan on her which sends a little shiver down her body.

The machine speaks "Foreign entity, no universe"

This sends the crowd of people into a frenzy, are they people? Probably some weird nerds.

Why are so many lights?

The strong angry teddy looing man manages to calm everyone.

"Who are you?" He says not even introducing himself, what a rude bear she thinks to herself.

So many red people.

Her eyes hurt.

Her shoulder hurts.

She wants to vomit.

Her head lolls to the back, something he recognized making his heart almost drop before going back to interrogation mode "Kid answer- Hey, hey hey don't just fall!"

She vomits and passes out.

".............We can't find out where she's from"

"............Maybe your system is bugged"

"............Maybe your brain is bugged"

Then the door closes when she hears someone complain about them being too loud and hears whoever that was talking stomp out.

She groans waking up, throwing off the blanket that was kindly placed on her, and stretches her arm - was it fixed? "Can you guys keep it down, my head hurts"

"You're awake" The one with The hijabi says, coming toward her "How did you get here?"

"I just fell?"

"Fell?" The girl in twin buns said before retracting her words "I'm Byte by the way, but is that all you remember before you fell? Like can you at least tell us your name so we can narrow down your location?"

"Yeah, it's..." Her heart drops.

Her brain is swirling on itself.

"My name is..."

The two share a look that makes her play with her hair nervously, trying to figure out what was happening.

Her body feels empty all of a sudden.

Sun-spider who has entered the room for nothing other than snooping coughs (who has not introduced herself by name) to try to break whatever nervous silence that was forming "As much as I love suspense, please tell us. I gotta get the ice cream machine working again"

She tries again, this time she's clawing her hair to grasp on anything - but every time she seems to get closer to anything, the memory falls into itself.

A nervous smile exits her lips.

It seems like the static in her head becomes louder and louder.

"I don't know..."

Byte raises a brow in concern, checking her head for injuries while questioning her "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I just can't, I don't remember anything" She says, all of the uncomfortable aura leaving her in an instant like a reset button.

Essentially returning her back to her ditsy self.

But Byte isn't convinced

"Are you sure?" She says moving closer to her and turning on another device to scan her heartbeat in case she was lying.

"Yup" The girl replies her bright mood suddenly lifted, which the others found odd, but she spins her head around "Where is the scary guy?"

"Why are you asking?" Byte says

"Just so I can avoid him, he scares me"

Byte chuckles and turns off her device, grabs the other girl, and shakes her head.

"He uh...A little rough on the edges"

The girl nods suddenly like she gets it "Like a cool brooding backstory?"

"Brooding?"

"Ah you know like usually that's what you describe an angry old person with a backstory that made them all like lonely and sad when originally they were a happy and nice person"

Malala nods trying to understand the girl, but also invested in anything about that is about Miguel.

"I haven't read a book in ages so it's like a character thing" Byte tries.

"Yeah! It's like that..."

"What's wrong?"

"Just remembering something, I used to write fanfiction"

Malala claps her hands seemingly finding it amusing as Byte signals the girl to continue "And?"

The anomaly girl looks slightly confused, what else was she supposed to say? "And that's all"

"That's all you remembered?"

"Yup, I used to write stuff like ship stuff that was a little canon divergent I think? I don't remember-"

Malala jumps onto the girl "Dont say that out loud again"

The girl looks at her and Byte whose expression was similarly as frightened as the Hijabi.

"But it-"

"Remember big Bear man?" The girl nods and lets Byte continue "Well he is rather....what's the word"

Malala awkwardly twidles with her headscarf "...Sensitive"

Byte nods "Yup that word, he's already worked up about you being here. I don't think he is getting much sleep so we need to just ban that word"

"Yup, banzo it" Malala adlibs on top of the girl.

Byte feels a lightbulb appear on her head "Why not we just talk about hobbies to try to get you to remember stuff about yourself so we can narrow your universe's location now?"

The anomaly girl gasps "You want to talk about my hobbies? Wow " She stays silent for a moment before saying "Wait universe?"

Somehow they've only found three things after three hours.

"So we narrowed down your universe with the little information you gave us about...Whale calling noises and the Lorax musical with the deleted song biggering"

"Hey, the noises whales make are cool and doesn't every universe have a deleted Lorax song?"

"Well, a couple but most of them use 'Biggering' in the musical number"

"But that's like the best song ever. Does my universe just suck?"

"Maybe" Byte shakes her head "We're getting sidetracked, is there anything else you remember?"

"Nope. Anyways, back to the Lorax-"

Miguel cusses something inaudible in Spanish when he overhears the conversation and calls Lylla "Did you do a scan on her yet?"

"Already did" He groans and signals her to continue "She showed no signs of memory loss or even anything developing like dementia"

He looks back at the scene, of the glitch he likes to call rambling to Byte about the amazing soundtrack that is 'Biggering'

"Lylla scan possible universes with minimal to no superheroes"

"Gotcha"

Jessica comes back from a mission thinking she can just report to Miguel that her mission went smoothly and go home, she always thinks that "You're telling me you just want to drop the girl to a random universe?"

"Ideally, no. But we need to then yes" He said, catching her up on the situation that happened while she was out.

She watches Miguel pace back and forth "Won't that affect the canon?"

"From the information I gathered from Malala and Byte who are getting along with her just fine. She says that Spiderman is fiction where she's from, from what she remembers at least. There were many but with her knowledge of her musical we managed to narrow down surprisingly three potential universes"

Jess nods at this information and watches the security footage to analyze how she got here in the first place until she notices something abnormal and zooms into the anomaly girl and rewinds the video.

She calls for Miguel and replays the footage, which he replies with "Dont bother I've rewatched that footage and analyzed all the portals"

"Please tell me you at least noticed this"

"Notice what?" Miguel has not had time to take an actual look in the mirror for a couple days due to a new anomaly from earth-1048, a video game anomaly, nothing new, but another headache.

Jess zooms into the anomaly girl for the rest of the footage "She isn't wearing a wrist band"

His eyes widen, she's right.

Since she's arrived here, she has never glitched.

Not even once.

Thats...impossible

"What do we do now" Jess says equally as distraught as him.

Miguel sends a quick text to Byte and gets an immediate reply then looks back at Jess "I don't know either, but Byte is running a few tests on her while she naps with her and I quote 'Enthusiastic consent'. Everyone was so shocked by her being a non-spiderperson and since she never glitched no one noticed"

Miguel takes a very slow exhale to think.

If she wasn't glitching then she can't be an anomaly.

Maybe that was a glitch on its own?

He notices Jessica scanning his face for a response, so he gives her one "Let's just put it to rest for now, since she isn't causing any trouble" He had stayed up monitoring the activity of the universes that involved Spiderman.

She nods her head, seemingly tired out for the day also, before she leaves a question pops up in her mind You said that you narrowed down her universe to three, that's a tight deduction. What musical was it? Hamilton?"

Miguel does not want to say the ridiculous cartoon name but says it anyways "......It was the Lorax"

Jessica almost snorts when she leaves the room leaving him alone.

He might as well get some sleep while he can.

After he knocks out for a thirteen-hour nap, Miguel looks at the anomaly girl and is reluctant on how to call her while she's converting with Malala and Byte so he just barges in and calls out "Girl"

The three girls turn to him with a confused expression.

"The one that's not Spiderman"

They all make an oh noise.

"Webby tie your shoe lasses you might trip" Says Byte.

"You remember your name?" Miguel is almost hopeful.

She placed her hand on her hip "Uhm no? I just named myself Webby since all of you have web designs on you"

Miguel is hopeless.

Anomaly girl- no Webby says with sass with her hands on her hips after poorly tying her shoe lasses like it's a fact that everyone should know but Miguel certainly does not seem to care enough.

He tosses her an empanada from the cafeteria which she catches, he notes her reflex "Eat something now because we're going"

"Goinsh?" She asks while chewing.

"Yes going" He cringes at her and gives her a tissue to wipe her face, she blows her nose instead "Just eat some motion sickness pills before we go"

Webby rolls her eyes but nods at the tall man as he still intimidated her, so she quickly finishes her food and gets some pills before meeting up with Jessica Drew, who had a small bump on her belly.

It was either bloating or that she was pregnant, Webby didn't want to ask but she thinks it was the after when Jessica held her stomach in a cradling motion.

Webby made sure she mentally remembered every single detail about this place so she could never forget it in her brain.

Jess looks at the girl whose eyes were becoming a little bugged out and red from how much she was forcing the open to take in the view.

"You know you can just take a picture right?"

She finally blinked her eyes in pain "Ouch, I would if I had a phone. It might have fallen when I was uh...Falling through the portal"

"I'll make sure we do a full sweep of the place to find it"

The girl's eyes widen and profusely thanks her hand as they walk "Thank you so much"

"Likewise, we can walk slower, just so you can get a good look at everything"

And that's exactly what they did, Webby is sure to talk about this to her friends (If she can remember them) about this.

Something catches her eyes in the distance, it was a boy whose entire border was changing as if he was made out of scrapbooks, his ears adorned with piercings.

As he played the guitar, every new strum seemed to change his color palate.

Webby couldn't help but stare

Jess also couldn't stop staring, mostly because she was telling him that his guitar was untuned.

He yelled back something about consistency and groaned when Jess told him to show the newbies around saying "I'm doing this because I like to see newbies, not because you told me to"

For a split moment, they both retain eye contact before Jess pulls her aside to go to Bytes lab because they needed to go.

Byte, Malala, and Sun Spider share a hug before Miguel calls for her and opens a portal, coincidently what she can assume emo punk was in the room bringing what she can assume is a newbie.

"Hobie what are you doing here, we're kinda busy" He says tiredly.

The guy who she assumed was Hobie just shrugs "You told me to show 'em newbies around, just gotta grab one on these and this-" They all were staring at him "Just imagine that 'm not here"

Miguel ignores him and offers Webby a hand to grab which she accepts reluctantly and waves goodbye to her short-term friends who waved back.

Once they reach the other universe Miguel readjusts his armband and looks for Webby to find her on the ground.

"Don't tell me you got sick again, I told you to take the medicine-"

But he dosent finish his sentence because Webby was glitching.

He wanted to help her up and call Lylla until she let out an excruciating scream like she's been stung by something and cradled her stomach. The pain was travelling all over her body as if she were electrocuted in the rain.

Webby doesn't know what's happening or what to feel other than the pain that surrounds her, she dosent even realize she isn't in control of her body and is slamming herself on the floornofnthe hard roof.

Miguel rushed to open a portal as her body was quickly becoming translucent.

The same type of translucent he's all too familiar with and grabs her to the portal.

She can't bare to open her eyes, her irises were stinging.

It was a bodily reaction, he wasted no time to grab her.

"That was quick-Oh God" Jess frantically calls for help

Webby thinks breathing slowly stabilizes because her body isn't burning , but not relaxing.

"Get the medic, now" Webby thinks the scary bear yells something.

Her eyes close, and finally, her body stops hurting when a mask is placed over her head as the coloured lights she thinks she sees now dissappear as her consciousness.

"What exactly happened out there"

"I.." He rubs his temples "Don't know"

Jess looks over to Webbie's vitals as Byte observes them carefully and Malala watches her from a distance.

Jess hasn't known Webbie for a long time but the gas mask on her face irks her so she tries one more time "Miguel, what happened out there"

"She stopped glitching only when we came back but was glitching hard when she got to the other universe, but not like normal" He looks at Jess's shocked face knowing Miguel spoke from experience as he continued his sentence.

"It was like her body was collapsing into herself"

HI AUTHOR HERE, this isn't my first fanfic but I haven't really written in this type of format (Also I'm bilingual so my English might be not epic) so it might be wonkey (I write mostly self-loathing type of things) I might or might now make this whole thing int a mini series of 6 chapters. ALSO I JUST GOT A JOB?! So if I do make it into a miniseries plz be patient because the 10 hour shift is no joke

#hobie brown x reader #spider man: across the spider verse #hobie brown #miguel o'hara

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renaiswriting · 8 months

Text

The secrets the moon sees

Pairing: Jeon Wonwoo/Reader

Summary:

Nobody knew Wonwoo aside from his bad family reputation. Nobody knows him the way you do.

Word count: +7.5k words

Warnings: mentions of death, mentions of illegal substances, mentions of prison, mentions of house burning down. (If I missed something, please let me know!)

Author's notes: Please keep in mind that this was made for entertainment purposes only and does not, in any way, represent the people in the story. Enjoy!

Tag list form

Masterlist

Tag list: @phoebe0 @sahhmochi @everyw0nu @darkdayelixer

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You held your books closer to your chest as the strong wind caused by the motorcycles passed right onto you.

Your hair moved in all directions. Your lips were pursed into a thin line as you tried your best to swallow a sigh.

You glared at the one that passed really close to you, laughing as you jumped because of the sudden noise coming from the motorcycle engine.

He smirked in your direction; the motorcycle had stopped, and he was staring in your direction, looking at you from head to toe. He raised his eyebrows in a teasing manner, raising his hand and sending you a flying kiss.

You hated him.

You hated all of them.

There was no use in doing anything. Unfortunately, there were five of them, all men. And you were alone.

The smartest decision was probably to just turn around and continue with your life as if nothing had happened.

But God, it was irritating.

Why did they have to feel the need to annoy you?

Why?

You were doing anything to annoy them or to attract his attention.

Nor that you wanted to.

So why couldn't they just leave you alone?

You sighed as you turned around, your knuckles turning white as your hands slowly transformed into two identical punches.

The sky was already orange-ish, as the sun was slowly letting the moon make its way to the earth.

You had been studying up until that moment; your exams were close, and you just knew that if you didn't put in extra hours, you would be failing them.

Your family was probably already waiting for you. Your phone had died, and you couldn't tell what time it was, but the sky and the practically empty school building were clues enough that it was time to go back.

You just hoped it wasn't too late because otherwise you would have to deal with your father's nag and punishments, and you were simply in no position to lose your phone at that time.

You had everything you needed to study—the important dates and schedule for the whole month—written in your notes.

You hoped your phone had at least some percentage of the battery for you to listen to some music on your way home.

Walking home alone was not really an issue, but it made you feel slightly... in constant alertness.

You took a deep breath, trying to relax your tense shoulders, and decided to simply enjoy the beautiful colors of the sky.

There was a soft breeze touching your cheeks with such delicateness that, if you weren't drowning in the multiple exams you had to study for, you would have actually enjoyed it.

You noticed, however, when he came closer to you once the breeze turned into a more aggressive wind.

"It's pretty late." He was the first one to speak; both of his hands were now resting on the motorcycle handlebar, his body moving so close to it that his chest was barely millimeters away from it.

His hair was shorter than the last time you had seen him, and even though you liked how his forehead could now breathe, you allowed yourself to mourn the loss of his long, curly hair for some minutes.

He chuckled when he saw your eyes looking a minute too long at his forehead.

"You like what you see?" Wonwoo asked.

"Yeah. I do." You confessed, biting down the smirk that wanted to escape your mouth so badly when your words hit his brain, his cheeks turning a pale shade of pink, and his eyes moved to the floor with a shy smile on his face.

"Oh." He mumbled, still not able to look directly into your eyes.

Wonwoo reached for his jean jacket; it was somewhat worn, and the cuffs were stained with what looked like motorcycle grease.

Without looking you in the eye, Wonwoo held out his hand, revealing a chocolate bar that he knew was your favorite.

"And this?" you asked without hiding the surprise in your voice and the sparkle in your eyes. Your heart was pounding as you saw Wonwoo's shy smile as he watched you open the package with immense happiness on your face.

You took a small bite, letting the sweetness of the chocolate sweeten your palate, causing the smile on your face to become even bigger.

"I saw it and thought you'd like it." Wonwoo murmured.

You pressed the chocolate against his lips, forcing him to open his mouth to take some of the chocolate as well.

"But it's for you." Wonwoo protested. You didn't respond; instead, you slammed the chocolate against his teeth. Wonwoo rolled his eyes, but took some of the chocolate and hummed in happiness at the delicious treat.

"Thank you; it was just what I was needing."

"It's just chocolate." Wonwoo shook his head.

Wonwoo shook his head, playing it down.

But you were grateful for every little gift or detail Wonwoo had for you.

He hadn't bought it because he had to; he had done it because he had wanted to.

"I don't have anything to give you back." You muttered, your brow furrowed.

"You don't have to give me anything." Wonwoo shook his head, his monolid eyes widening. "It's just chocolate." He repeated.

But it wasn't just chocolate.

Wonwoo had no money.

Not as much as your family.

And no matter how much you told him that it wasn't necessary for him to buy you something or that it would be better if you spent it on himself, Wonwoo always showed up with some gift for you.

"What are you doing here?" You asked; you were not sure you could let his silence continue for too long before you started feeling self-conscious of it.

"Doing some favors for my father, I'm going to Sheuryung's house to see if I can sell him some old junk. What are you doing? It's late."

"Studying."

Wonwoo nodded, looking over his shoulder, when a loud motorcycle sounded like it was coming in your direction.

Wonwoo was two years older than you. And you both had been—whatever this was—for a little too long for you to remember accurately the exact date.

Your brother knew him. When he was a kid, he used to go to school with him in the same class.

And as far as you knew, Wonwoo was one of the best in the class.

Your brother never really befriended him, and you weren't really sure it wasn't because of Wonwoo's family background.

Your family was not classist, or so you thought, but it was true that Wonwoo's family was known for being into heavy stuff.

Wonwoo's own older brother and dad were in prison before you and Wonwoo became friends.

Wonwoo watched you for a few moments, smiling at your lost gaze on the ground.

His soft laughter brought you back to reality.

He was still sitting on the bike, his long legs stretched out on either side of it.

His black shirt looked a little too good on him.

"Get on." Wonwoo spoke, pointing toward the back of his bike with his chin. "I'll take you home." Wonwoo was wearing a helmet there, but he wasn't wearing one.

You'd already lost count of the number of times you'd stressed to him how important it was to wear one.

"That you don't have to go sell your junk?" You asked in confusion, but your wrist was caught between the long, slender fingers of Wonwoo, who gently pulled you toward the bike.

"Your house is on my way there; I'll just be five minutes."

You carefully stowed the chocolate packet in your backpack before slipping behind Wonwoo, your arms wrapping around his prominent waist. "Here." Wonwoo turned around, carefully placing the motorcycle helmet on your head.

Beyond protection, it would serve to help you so that, if your family was nearby, they couldn't recognize you as easily.

Wonwoo made sure it was properly positioned and that it wouldn't hurt if it was too tight before turning around and starting on his way once more. "Hold on carefully." He warned you.

But you had been riding that bike so long, behind him, that the warning was almost in vain, your arms already out of habit wrapped around his waist within seconds of sitting on the bike.

His body heat invaded you, and your body moved closer to the heat source by instinct, staying as close to him as possible.

His big arms never made any move to move you a bit away from him, so you assumed he didn't care.

"Can we go a little slower?" You asked him. Wonwoo wasn't going extremely fast, and that was something you had noticed the first few times you had accepted a ride from him.

When he was riding alone, the speed went much higher than when he took you along.

But you were going a little faster than you would have liked; you didn't want to get home already. You wanted to be able to enjoy his company a little more.

Wonwoo nodded his head, his hand resting for a few seconds on your leg, almost as if he were asking you if everything was okay.

You sighed.

Wonwoo moved until he was in a meadow near your house, not far away. If you squinted, you were sure you could see the roof of your home.

The motorcycle's engine stopped, and Wonwoo helped you off the bike, carefully pulling the helmet off your head.

"What happened?" he asked, frowning. His eyes moved quickly back and forth between your face and body, trying to pick up on whether any injury had occurred on the short ride you had taken.

Some dirt had surely left a trace on your cheek, because Wonwoo's fingers took a few seconds to caress the dirt off your face.

His face was expressionless, and his eyes were intimidating to anyone who held eye contact with him for more than two seconds.

His hands were a little rough, and his hot breaths were crashing against your neck.

The sudden closeness made your throat go dry, and you swallowed dryly as you felt your eyes widen.

You didn't need to see your reflection in the small rearview mirrors of the bike to know you were completely red.

You dry swallowed all the saliva that had accumulated in your mouth, the glup being clear enough to be resonant even with the noises of the city.

Wonwoo didn't look away, his hand still on your cheek and his thumb under your chin, moving your head higher.

Your eyes went from his eyes to his thin lips, and you could have sworn you heard his breath shaking.

His tongue moved his lips, and your eyes followed the movement until they again connected with his eyes.

Wonwoo was staring at you so intently that you felt he was reading your mind and seeing your every little, most private secret.

"Are you okay?" Wonwoo asked. His voice sounded deeper than you had ever heard it before. The breeze began to move your hair again, moving until it reached your eyes.

The hand that wasn't on your cheek moved up to your face, catching the lock of hair that was dancing in the open air above your face and leaving it safely behind your left ear. "You look a little more flustered today."

You made a sound to reassure him that you were okay, your eyes still on his face.

"We're friends, right?" You asked him.

Wonwoo frowned, looking away and letting both of his hands fall to either side of his body.

His body moved as far away from your personal space as possible, and your body automatically missed the heat coming from it.

Even his hands, which were always colder compared to the rest of his body, left a certain warmth on your face. The ghost of his touch was still on your face.

"Of course." Wonwoo replied, his voice sounding slightly more muffled than before. His shoulders were just as tense as his jaw.

Wonwoo looked at the sky and his surroundings, and all you could think about was whether or not you had screwed up.

Wonwoo already had too many problems for you to have to add weight on his already tired shoulders.

Wonwoo was nice.

Too nice at times.

His reputation and his family's reputation preceded him.

You knew that had already alienated many.

But you still feared the world would turn its back on Wonwoo.

That his journey would cross paths with those of evil intent.

You had never met his mother, and of his father, you only knew what little Wonwoo told you.

As ironic as it was, you heard more about his brother, who was locked up in jail, than you did about his mother.

You had seen a picture of his twin sister only once. It was, as far as you knew, the only photo Wonwoo had of her.

It had been one of his few possessions that his father had been able to get out of the fire, where they had sadly lost her.

She had been an adorable kid, and every time Wonwoo smiled, you could see the tracing of her face in him.

They were identical twins, but it was, in some sort of way, kind of scary how similar they were physically.

Wonwoo had been around eleven years old when this happened, and shortly after, his brother went to jail for being found in possession of illegal substances.

Wonwoo had mentioned to you that his brother had been released from jail on a few occasions but always, for some reason, returned.

According to what your own brother told you, it was around that age that Wonwoo stopped going to school.

Or at least the same school as him, because Wonwoo had mentioned to you some memories of his high school studies.

Wonwoo frowned once again, staring at you. His lips moved as he called your name again.

"Sorry, it seems like I got in my head too much." You apologized, noticing that he had been calling your name a couple of times already.

"It's fine. Are you sure you're okay? You seem too lost in your own thoughts today."

"Yes, sorry." You apologized once again. "I guess with all my exams, I'm kind of...you know."

Wonwoo shook his head and said, "You'll do fine; you always worry too much, and you always end up passing all your exams and turning in all your papers on time."

"Not this time," you denied. "This exam is too hard. I feel like I'm just about to go bald from stress."

"Nonsense, you're the smartest person I know; I'm sure I could read any word in the dictionary and you'd know the definition without having to think about it for more than two seconds."

You laughed, not finding what I was saying funny: "I regret to inform you that my reputation as an intelligent person ends in a few days."

Wonwoo rolled his eyes as he laughed, not believing you. "Well, if you do poorly on the exam, I guess we can escape the city and go to a nearby town and start a life on the farm together." He joked.

"I don't see any other logical option," you shook your head, feigning seriousness, following his joke, "my family would never forgive me for a failed exam." You feigned distress, only to start laughing loudly. Your family was fine with any grade as long as you passed the exam.

But it was the pressure you put on yourself that made you feel bad if you did not get a perfect grade.

"Does it really matter, though?" Wonwoo asked after a while, "I mean, you're going to pass it anyway; why does it matter if you get an A or a C?"

"I take pride in my grades; I take my studies really seriously."

"I know." Wonwoo replied. "But if you have an A+ in everything, getting a C wouldn't change your future that much."

You cross your arms over your chest, trying to hold back the anger that came from feeling that no one understood you. But once again, you couldn't really be mad at him, could you? You were more than aware that the future that he had ahead was not the same as yours.

"Let's just go. It's getting late, and my parents are probably starting to get worried."

Wonwoo opened his eyes, holding your shoulder for a second before you moved backwards, avoiding his touch.

He seemed hurt by it.

"I'm sorry if I said something that bothered you. It was not my intention." Wonwoo apologized. You nodded but did not look at him in the eyes.

"Please, just take me home."

Wonwoo stared at you for a few instants until he gave up, noticing that you were not in the mood to talk anymore, and the rest of the ten minutes that took him to reach your house were spent in complete silence between the two of you.

He stopped his motorcycle in front of your house, hiding it behind the wall of trees that your father proudly took care of for years, getting more than ten trees standing in front of the family house.

"(Y/n)—" Wonwoo started once you removed the helmet.

"Thank you for the ride." You interrupted him, handing him the helmet and walking back to your house, ignoring the noise of the motorcycle driving away.

You closed the door behind you, and your nose quickly flooded with the aroma of meat ready to be eaten and the famous chocolate cake your mother had prepared for dessert that night.

The TV was on, and your brother was sitting comfortably there with his phone in one hand and a can of Coke in the other. His feet were resting on the small table in front of the TV, and his mouth was full of the soda he was drinking.

He paid you no attention as you took off your shoes and headed straight to your room so you could change into more comfortable clothes.

From halfway up the stairs, you could see your father talking to your mother in the hallway near the dining room.

Your room was in complete chaos and reflected exactly the state of mind you were in at that moment.

Your bed was undone, some of your pillows were on the floor, and your clothes were everywhere but in the closet.

You checked your reflection on the mirror near your window, and you almost tore your hair apart because of how bad you looked.

Your dark circles under your eyes were way more obvious than what you had remembered that same morning; your hair was a mess, and your face was red.

So red that it almost felt like you had a pretty bad case of sunburn going on from the neck and up.

You tried to chut down the thousands of thoughts that rushed to display in your mind, deciding to take off your shirt to change it for a new one.

You stopped, frozen in your spot, as your nose touched the fabric of your shirt.

It smelled like Wonwoo.

Like his perfume.

You took a deep breath, inhaling as much of it as you could.

You finished taking it out, looking at your reflection once again.

Your cheeks were much redder than before, and your pupils were completely dilated.

Her perfume felt like a drug.

You shook your head, trying to come back to reality, throwing the shirt in the laundry basket and deciding to put on your favorite pajamas.

The table was already completely set when you finished getting ready. Your brother was still texting on his phone while your mother poured the orange juice she liked so much into the four glasses.

"It smells delicious." You smiled at your mother as you sat down next to your father, who gave you a kiss on the temple and messed up your hair.

"How did your studies go, sweetie?" He asked as he handed you a portion of meat on your mother's plate and proceeded to place another on yours.

"Fine," you shrugged, taking a sip of the orange juice. "But I still have more to study."

"I didn't see you when I went to room 4B; I think you'd be studying all day." Your brother asked, raising an eyebrow as he took his first bite of the meat your father had cooked.

"I was in the library until they closed the doors and kicked me out."

Your brother laughed. "And you still have more to study? Your eyes are going to dry up from reading and reading."

"But at least enjoy dinner and dessert before you go back to your studies. Clear your head a bit." Your mother pointed it out, smiling.

"Were you able to go visit Uncle Kang?" your father asked your brother, who shook his head in annoyance as if remembering something that had been haunting him for some time.

"Can you believe those criminals were taking up the whole road?" Your brother spat out every word as if he were spewing venom out of his mouth. "They almost scratched my whole car, ugh. One went by so fast I thought it would fall on top of the hood."

"Again?" Your father frowned, taking a long sip of his drink thoughtfully.

"Yes. It was the Lees'; they were probably going to meet with Jeon. Those guys are always into every little thing. I had to rush home before dinner because I had to get robbed. God knows what those desperate people will do for some money."

"How do you know if you didn't see him there?" You asked, trying to keep your annoyance as inadvertent as possible.

"Because those four are always getting into weird stuff, illegal stuff. All the time. I run into them often. One is worse than the other. Let me start dropping you off and picking you up after your classes; I couldn't think what would happen if my poor little sister had to deal with them." Your brother wailed.

"Thanks, but I can take care of myself."

"(Y/n) Maybe you should listen to your brother; if he has come across them more times than you, he will surely know what to do in those situations better than you. It's a really dangerous world out there; I already have too much to worry about about one of my children living in another country to have to worry about another one of my children being attacked in the street for not listening to their elders."

"But it just doesn't make sense; why are you blaming a person who wasn't even there?"

"I know him; believe me, that family is dangerous. Even as a kid, you could see he was going to end up being the criminal he is; all he does is sell junk, but you're not going to tell me that's how they survive; I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up in jail like his brother for selling drugs."

"And when was the last time you talked to him?" You asked, already annoyed, "When you were eleven? Please stop going around spreading disinformation."

"Why are you taking this subject so personally?" Your brother looked at you incredulously, laughing at your sudden surge of anger. "It almost looks like I said your favorite childhood stuffed animal is horrible or something. Go get some fresh air; you'll get a nosebleed from high blood pressure."

Your parents were given it, and you could only emit a fake smile. The last thing you would want to do is keep trying to defend Wonwoo.

The rest of dinner went by too quickly, and before you knew it, you were alone in your room, sitting at your desk with your computer on, working on a job that you were clearly too tired to understand.

The cup of coffee you had made yourself a while ago had already cooled, and your glasses were on the desk.

The twenty different sheets of paper were scattered everywhere, and there were three different books open on different pages at random.

You were already on the verge of tears, because if you couldn't answer those simple questions, how could you solve an exam?

Your phone vibrated next to your computer, and your phone screen lit up, revealing the notification of three separate messages from Wonwoo.

You hadn't ignored it, but you hadn't realized that he had texted you almost forty minutes ago already.

Wonwoo: You there? 22:48

Wonwoo: ? 22:59

Wonwoo: I guess you're sleeping, good night. 23:32

It was not unusual for Wonwoo to write to you at that hour; most of his conversations occurred at night when you knew no one could appear over your shoulder and read the texts.

It had become almost customary to delete all conversations before you went to sleep, but your heart beat fast every time a new text was received.

Like the first time, he asked for your phone number and sent you a text.

Me: Sorry, i'm still studying 23:47

You didn't even get to lock the phone before his reply made your phone turn its screen on again.

Wonwoo: it's late. 23:47

Wonwoo: Go to sleep. 23:48

You: I can't sleep. 23:54

Wonwoo: Me neither. 23:56

Wonwoo: My mind keep coming back to you. 23:57

Wonwoo: I'm sorry for upsetting you earlier today.

Wonwoo: I didn't thought how my words might have come off to you.

You: it's okay.

You: i was still pretty stressed from all my exams, so I'm sorry too

You: why aren't you sleeping? 00:09

Wonwoo: I've got a lot on my mind. 00:12

Wonwoo: Are you going to be up studying all night? 00:13

You: that was the plan 00:17

You: but my brain just cannot concentrate 00:18

Wonwoo: Do you want to meet up? 00:20

You: now? 00:22

Wonwoo: If you want to. 00:23

The idea was tempting; you would rather spend a thousand times the night circling Wonwoo's tiny waist as they moved through the deserted streets under the starry night than sit alone in your room crying because your brain couldn't memorize three words in a row.

A smile came across your face, and you felt the need to put your phone down on your desk for a second so you could think clearly.

Your reflection was looking at you from across the room, and you ignored the goofy expression on your face.

Like a little girl, when your first crush ever gave you a flower or held your hand for the first time,

You opened the door to your room carefully, sticking your head out through the small peephole you had opened to take a little peek at the water.

Your brother's door, at the end of the hallway, was closed all the way, but some light could be seen from underneath it.

You sharpened your hearing as much as possible, and a melody or two could be heard.

He was listening to music.

Your parents' room was upstairs, and as far as you could see, they were in complete silence and darkness.

The fact that your brother was awake listening to music was good because the same melody could surely cover the noise of the front door opening and closing.

But on the other hand, if he were awake, he could come to check on how your studies were going.

The best option would be to turn off the lights and put your pillow and clothes on the bed to pretend you were sleeping.

You stepped out into the hallway cautiously, mentally insulting yourself as the door to your room closed behind you with a small tsk.

You stood motionless in the hallway, waiting for your brother to come out of his room to see what the noise had been, but he continued in his room undeterred.

Almost on tiptoe, you made your way to the third floor of the house, stopping at the door of your parents' room and leaning your right ear against it.

Only your father's snoring could be heard.

They were asleep.

You rush off to find the jeans you felt you looked taller in, and that jacket Wonwoo had once mentioned he liked the way it looked.

You: Can you come get me? 00:27

The truth is that your creation in the bed of a fake you left you quite pleased. With the lights off, it looked as if you were watching yourself sleep.

You closed the front door as quietly as you could, running quickly to where Wonwoo was waiting for you on his motorcycle.

Your hair swayed on your back with every step you took.

Wonwoo had parked his bike close to your house, but not too close for its noise to be obvious.

"Hello," Wonwoo greeted you, a small smile on his face as his eyes traveled from your eyes to the jacket you had purposely put on.

Wonwoo was wearing black pants and a jacket of the same color. He had glasses that had seen better days on his face.

Wonwoo needed glasses, but you only remembered seeing him wear them when no one else was around.

His hair looked like it was fresh from the shower, and when you got closer to him, the scent of his perfume washed over you almost instantly.

"Hello." You said back to him. Zipping up your jacket and making sure your house keys were safely in your pocket before sitting behind him in your designated spot

Wonwoo carefully placed the safety helmet on your face, making sure that it wouldn't bother you before turning around.

"Do you know where we're going?" You asked him, though you didn't really care what the answer would be.

"No," he answered you, "I just wanted to ride the bike around until I found somewhere to rest a bit."

And with that, Wonwoo started the engine, and slowly his journey into the empty streets began.

His back was pressed against your chest, while your hands held tightly to your jacket.

You just hoped he wasn't feeling the pounding of your heart beating against his back.

It would be too embarrassing if he was feeling it.

You could feel your fingers starting to freeze in the cold breeze and could only wonder how Wonwoo could drive when his fingers were always so much colder than yours.

Your eyes closed for a few moments, feeling free of all frustrations and obligations. It was as if every single thing that caused you any sort of frustration was getting away from you as the bike sped off into the night.

You sighed, looking at those people who were walking on the dark sidewalks.

Wonwoo made a couple of turns and turned one last time before stopping in a park that looked completely deserted.

Wonwoo stopped near a small kiosk, sitting there, his back leaning against the cement wall behind him.

You followed him, sitting with your knees drawn up to your chest, looking at your surroundings.

"Were you able to finish studying?" Wonwoo asked.

"No," you said, shaking your head. "I wanted to stay up late studying, but..." you clicked your tongue, your head cocking a little to the left. It was an obvious frustration.

"I hope I wasn't the reason your studies were interrupted."

"Oh, no," you assured him. "I was getting frustrated with myself; I guess my brain had reached its limit for the day, and I just didn't want to accept it. I could use your message; I needed to clear my head a bit."

Wonwoo smiled at you, playing with his own fingers. "I'm glad I was able to help in some way." Wonwoo took a deep breath before raising his eyes from his fingers to your face for a brief second. "I wanted to apologize again. I'm sorry for upsetting you today."

"I know I already apologized to you over text, but I wanted to do it in person as well; I wanted to make sure we were alright."

"We are." You replied to him, not really liking the way he was frowning or the way his voice didn't sound so sure.

"Alright." Wonwoo breathed, nodding. His features seemed more relaxed now that you both had talked it out.

"How did the junk stuff go?" You asked him, "Did you make some money?"

"Well, no, really. I sold some, but most of it just went back home with me again. I'll have to try luck again tomorrow. Jihoon told me about an old dude who usually buys lots of his own family stuff, so it might help."

"Speaking of your friend, today they attacked my brother." You mentioned cleaning your throat. Suddenly, you did not want to make eye contact with him.

"Attacked your brother?" Wonwoo asked in confusion, "When?"

"He told me they were on the road today; they almost scratched his whole car."

"But today they were at my house all day. They helped my mom to clean the garden and fix some old cars to see if they could be sold."

You frowned, not knowing who you should believe.

"But still, this is not the first time my brother mentioned them getting on his way; could you talk to them so they can just leave him alone, please? I just don't want them to keep fighting."

"I'll talk with them," Wonwoo agreed, "but just so you know, your brother is usually the one who's on my and my friends' asses; he's hanging out with people I don't recommend hanging out with. Dangerous people. I don't know if you're aware of it; probably not, but I'm telling you this just so you know."

"What do you mean? What's he's on?"

"Well, he started buying stuff from Jihoon, like, you know, stuff. But they started buying big amounts, so Jihoon retracted and didn't want to sell any more. So that's when the fights started; your brother started hanging out with others who were on much heavier stuff."

"No, I think you have mistaken him for someone else; my brother doesn't do drugs."

"It's up to you to believe what you want to believe; I'm just telling you that I saw it with my own eyes, buying it from Jihoon."

"And why do you let your friends sell those things?"

"What Jihoon does is his business; I can only take responsibility for my own decisions and actions. I do not consume, nor do I sell. If Jihoon, your brother, or anyone else wants to buy it, it's on them."

"But if you're so sure he's not the type of person to do that, maybe you're right." He told you, "Maybe he bought it for someone else instead; who knows?"

"Yeah," you mumbled, "that sounds more like him." You agreed. "Let's just talk about something else. Please."

"Like what?"

"I don't know; tell me something."

"What do you mean?" Wonwoo asked, his back leaning against the cold wall. His legs stretched out on the floor were almost twice as long as yours.

Wonwoo had his eyes closed, and his breathing sounded soft and slow.

"What's your favorite movie?" you decided to ask; it was a simple enough question to distract both of you.

"Titanic," Wonwoo answered after thinking about it for a few moments.

"Titanic?" you repeated in surprise. "I thought you were going to say Marvel." You laughed. Wonwoo laughed too, his eyes looking up at the moon that was shining beautifully that night.

"I never saw Marvel. I don't quite understand them." Wonwoo scoffed at himself. And hearing your voice say that you would never have taken him for a guy who would enjoy romance movies, he replied, "It was my mom and Woohee's favorite movie."

And somehow, it made sense.

"The stars are beautiful tonight." You mumbled.

"Yeah," Wonwoo whispered, his face lifting to see the stars, his glasses almost falling out of his face in the process.

"Do you know any constellations?" You asked him, taking a few seconds to glance at his face before focusing on the shining star above you.

"I know that's Leo the Lion," he pointed out at a backward question mark shape you could see in the sky. "And that's Cassiopeia."

You chuckled at the shape of it. "W as in Wonwoo."

He chuckled. "It can also be an M."

You both stayed like that for some time. "When I was a kid, I used to think that each star had its own secret. And everybody had their own star. I always tried to find out which one was my sister."

Your hand found him without needing to lock at it, and your fingers easily interlocked with his. "And did you find it?" Wonwoo shook his head, his eyes still on the sky, but his thin lips were now in a thin line. "Well, if you want my opinion, I think your sister's that star." You pointed out the shiniest star you could find in the sky.

"When everything happened, I wanted to become an astronaut. Because my mom always told me and Woohee that once we're done with this life, we all become stars in the sky. But," Wonwoo chuckled, "life happened, and I kind of found out that's not what actually happens."

"Oh, c'mon, how can you be so sure about what happens once we die? Who knows, we might end up becoming stars—what? What do you think happens when we die?"

"Nothing." Wonwoo replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the whole world. "Nothing happens; it's just game over. Everything turns black, and then you're gone."

"So you think that happened with your sister?" You asked. And the question actually made him think for some time.

"No," he eventually replied, "that could never be her end; she deserves to be that pretty star."

"And what do you think your star is?" You asked him to get a little distracted. Every time he remembered his sister, it seemed like a part of him shut down, and while you knew it was necessary for him to be able to make that transition so he could feel better, you didn't want to make him spend the rest of the night having a hard time asking about her.

"I never thought about it; I guess that one's okay." He replied, pointing to a star that was barely visible.

"Nonsense. Yours has to be that one," I argued, pointing to one that was in the direction of your house, which shone brightest among a whole circle of less visible stars surrounding it.

"Then yours has to be that one next to it, the pretty one." He beamed in seconds, smirking when you ran out of words to add. He raised his right eyebrow when your eyes met for a brief second before you quickly looked away. "Cat got your tongue?" He teased.

"No, I just wouldn't have believed that of all the stars, you would choose that one. Won't you have to know what my favorite constellation is?" You stuck your tongue out at him, trying to change the subject.

"You don't even know the names of the constellations; how would you have one?" He replied with a chuckle. His breath was beating directly against your ear. You hadn't noticed in what instant he had come so close; the realization made you startle. "So use that pretty mouth of yours and tell me what it was that made you so shy."

It was an addition to moments like these when Wonwoo would get so... bold. You loved the moments where his shyness got the better of him, and you were the one who made him blush for looking into his eyes for more than two seconds.

It was unbelievable.

The power it felt to know that your presence alone was enough to make him so flustered

But when he would experience the opposite, when he would take the reins and turn the game around, it was inexplicable how it made you feel.

It brought out a shyness that you don't usually have with other people.

You wanted to hide in his chest or his neck. You wanted to hide anywhere because your face would simply turn into a tomato and the ease of speech would simply disappear.

It was more than obvious that you were nervous.

It was more than obvious that you enjoyed every second of it.

And what you feared most—your feelings for him—were all too visible.

"Who would have thought that the Jeon Wonwoo would call me, of everybody, pretty? A dream come true." You tried to joke around, making the sudden tension between you both dissipate.

You were most likely the one who felt it anyway.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes, "as if it were necessary for me to say it."

You raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what you want from me, Jeon, but you're not going to get it." You joked again.

"Damn, and I was looking forward to that new car." Wonwoo clicked his tongue, feigning disappointment.

They both laughed loudly, their laughter filling the silence of the quiet night.

"Do you mind if I rest my head on your legs?" Wonwoo shook his head, telling you to go ahead, so carefully to not hurt him, you laid your head in his tights. From there, the sky above you felt like it was the only thing in the whole world.

Wonwoo's fingers started playing with your hair, softly massaging your scalp.

"That feels nice." You mumbled, closing your eyes for a second. Wonwoo hummed, continuing.

His hands stopped playing with your hair and started tracing the bridge of your nose and the outline of your lips.

Your eyes widened, only to find his eyes staring at you with an intensity that seemed to be trying to convey a message mentally.

"Oh, uh... Wonwoo?"

Wonwoo responded with a "mmm?" His eyes still roamed over every millimeter of your face, his hand holding your cheek with such delicacy that it made you feel as if you were made of glass.

You remained silent, not quite understanding what it was you wanted to say to him.

He brought his face close to yours, his breathing colliding with yours.

You could feel your ears throbbing and your throat suddenly dry.

His eyes were closed, and you felt yourself imitating him as your faces came closer and closer, leaving less and less space between you.

His warmth invaded you like a blanket that wanted to embrace you and never let go.

Your phone began to ring noisily.

Your heart, which already seemed to be beating at full capacity, felt like it was breaking its own record.

Your cheeks were flushed, realizing what had almost happened.

"Hello?" You asked in a shaky voice, clearing your throat. It felt so dry that you could drink a bottle of water in seconds.

"Where the fuck are you? I went to your room, and you weren't there!" your brother asked angrily. He spoke in whispers that slowly seemed to turn into screams.

"Are mom and dad awake?"

"No. I had the decency not to wake them. I want you to come home now. Or I'll have to wake them up, and we both know what awaits you if they ever find out you left the house at night without their permission."

Your brother hung up the call before you had time to answer, and you sat on the floor for a few moments staring at the screen of your phone while you processed what had happened.

"I've been wanting to tell you something—" Wonwoo started, but was quickly interrupted.

"I'm sorry, Wonwoo, but I've got to go home now."

Wonwoo looked at you before nodding and making his way to his motorcycle.

This time, you didn't bother to ask him to go slower.

You were scared that, by the time you made it home, your whole family would be up.

When you finally put your feet down, your brother was walking from the front door angrily.

"Where on Earth did you take her?" Your brother asked him. Wonwoo, sensing your brother's anger, decided to stand up in front of you. "Oh, what are you now? A guardian dog in your free time to gain extra money? Leave my sister alone. I don't know what you have to tell her to make her believe you're a good guy, but stop your games now. Leave. Her. Alone." He started pushing Wonwoo backwards, not really caring that you were behind him.

"Stop it." You told your brother, moving from behind Wonwoo's back. "I'm not a kid anymore; I can make my own decisions." You faced your brother. "And more surely, I can protect myself. He did nothing."

"Go inside the house. We're on for a really long night; we have to talk." Your brother told you before taking a last glance at Wonwoo and walking inside the house.

You looked at Wonwoo, feeling bad for what your brother had said.

You wanted to apologize.

To tell him that you were not like him.

To tell him that you thought highly of him.

And if you could, you would give him the world.

"I should go." You said instead.

"Yeah, you should." Wonwoo agreed, taking a last glance at you before jumping on the motorcycle.

104 notes · View notes

nicomundthered · 1 year

Text

A Kiss and a Bounty

pairing: Arthur Morgan x fem!reader

warnings: little blood, little violence. nothing too intense.

summary: from the prompt- ‘for gods sake just kiss her!’

word count: 2,158

a/n: repost from ao3.

Masterlist

You and Arthur had traveled everywhere searching for this bounty.

This damn bounty. He was a wormy type of man that kept sneaking out of your grasp. How? You’re not exactly sure. But one thing was for certain, this man was either dangerous or lucky.

What was supposed to be a quick day trip, ended up taking three and a half days of hunting him all over the Grizzlies.

To be honest you were about ready to give up. You hadn’t packed for this type of trip. You were cold and miserable, and weren't quite sure if all this hassle was worth a hundred dollars.

And you really didn’t want to hear it from Arthur.

He was always so quick to fuss over you. And you weren’t positive as to why. The two of you got along great and always had, but something was different lately. You’d caught him staring a little harder, offering to help ya when ya didn’t need it. Which, in retrospect, didn’t really bother you. You knew what a kind soul he was even if it was shielded by the big broad shoulders and all around rough exterior.

“You know Arthur, maybe we should just turn around.” You called up ahead. It was getting late, your stomach was gnawing, and you felt a headache coming on. You were just ready to return to camp, eat a bowl of questionable stew, and lay down on your lumpy bedroll and not exist for a couple of hours.

He knew you were right, of course you were, you were the smart one. The Grizzlies were dangerous not only because of the wildlife, but also the Murphee brood. They were dumb but unpredictable and dangerous. So all of this wasn't really his best idea. But this particular bounty by the name of Jim, Gold Tooth Jim, had gotten under his skin. He’s never had a bounty make him feel inadequate before. Usually if you gave him the poster in the morning he’d give you your bounty by nightfall. What made Jim so different? Why was he able to string them along for so long? It was infuriating.

Plus, if he were being honest. He really wanted to impress you a little. He knows he doesn't deserve you, but dammit if he couldn’t stop thinking about ya. You were pretty much the only topic in his journal as of late. And he knew you were not a shallow woman, but this whole big-strong-tough-guy was the only thing he felt he had going for him. The only thing that might possibly tempt you.

Thus, it was his stupid pride that wouldn’t let him quit. Even when he felt the exhaustion deep within his bones.

“Just a little while longer.” He called back.

You rolled your eyes. He didn’t even turn to speak to you. You could tell by the tension in his voice and how high he was sitting on his horse that he wasn’t playing around. So you bit your lip and dropped it. This Jim fellow, for some reason or another, had obviously gotten to him.

A few moments later, you blame it on your hunger or maybe even your boredom, missed the sound of a horse coming in hot. And before you could you could even process what was happening, two horses went skidding and two riders went flying.

“Arthur!” You practically screamed jumping off of your moving horse and ran to him gun drawn.

“I’m al’ight.” He said slowly through his wheezing breath. “What the hell happn’d?”

It was getting too dark to see, and from what your sluggish memory could recollect the man was dressed in dark colors, so you kicked around a bit searching for the son of a bitch who apparently had some kind of death wish.

You were distracted, yet again, this time by the sound of Arthur making his way to his feet. You were still slightly concerned for him, it was a hard hit at full speed. Your eyes checked him over just as the stranger leapt forward pinning you to the ground.

You hit the ground hard and your cheek landed on a rock, you yelped at the sudden contact.

Then the human pile got even heavier as Arthur tackled the man. You heard a faint-familiar “sonofabitch” before you stood quickly, relieved that the two men were off of you, and cocked your revolver aiming it at the dark pile of limbs.

“You are one big idiot aint’ ya mister.” You said as Arthur hauled the tall man to his feet.

The man smirked wildly as the moon reflected in his gold teeth, which you recognized immediately.

You returned the wicked smile “Well, Arthur I believe our luck has changed.”

“Wha the hell you talkin’ about?” He looked up at you and worry flooded his features. “Hey you ok?”

You wiped the blood from your cheek, realizing it was bleeding heavier than you thought. “I’m fine.” You responded with more venom than intended.

“This here is ol’ Gold Tooth Jim.” You said bringing Arthur’s attention back to the matter at hand.

Arthur whipped his head to study the man, and when he seemed to be in agreement, gave you a big grin.

He was so handsome. And it broke you every time you saw him happy. It was so rare that he ever was, it hurt your heart. Your eyes locked with his and his smile slowly disappeared. Worry crept back to his face as a large drop of blood landed on your collar.

A horrible creepy chuckle broke the moment.

“I see you finally caught me. Well done!” The sarcasm was palpable.

You were shocked to hear a british accent, the smooth voice not fitting the appearance of the dirty stringy man before you.

“Why did you run into my horse?” Arthur asked, sounding more than a little confused, he too seemed a little thrown off by the man.

“To be perfectly honest, I hate being hunted like some animal. And since the two of you were so relentless, I thought I’d just...give it up.” He chuckled again giving you goosebumps.

“By trying to kill em’?” You were annoyed that he had almost hurt Arthur. It frustrated you that that was what he called ‘giving up’, plowing into a man with a horse.

“Don’t get me wrong I was hoping it would kill you. In fact I was hoping to kill you both.” His eyes seemed to darkened even further as he stared you down, but his smile was cut short by Arthur’s fist hitting him square in the face.

He landed hard and when he looked up blood was oozing from both his mouth and nose.

“What was that?!” Jim asked furiously from the ground.

Arthur landed on top of him, easily turned him over, and reached one hand back to you. You, familiar with his thought process quickly got the rope ready and passed it to him.

Then you turned to find Arthur's horse, hopefully unharmed when you heard him whisper to Jim “If you say one more goddamn word to her, I’ll smash your face in.”

Chills ran up your spine. You wish you could say that that didn’t do it for you, but that would make you a liar. You didn’t need your honor defended, you didn’t deserve it, you too were a no good outlaw, but hearing him do it made you feel special. And the fact that he hadn’t even wanted you to hear it made it even...sweeter.

You found his horse, thankfully unharmed, and led her over to the two men.

He lifted Jim easily, causing you to swallow harder than necessary at how strong he was, and placed him on his horse.

He turned to you suddenly, without any warning and lashed out with a loud booming voice. “Why did you turn your back on the man?”

Confused at first, but then you picked up on the fact he kept glancing at your bloody cheek.

But that didn’t matter, you didn’t deserve to be spoken to that way. “Like I could even see where he was Arthur.” You rolled your eyes and tried to pass him to find your horse.

He grabbed your forearm hard and turned you back to face him. “You can’t be letting you guard down like that, what if he would have had a knife!”

His voice was still too loud for your liking

“Oh like you did any better. I wasn’t the one that went flying.” You chuckled and tried to shrug everything off, this for some reason or another, was getting too intense.

His eyes squinted and he let go of your arm like it burned him. “I reckon this’ll be the last bounty you go on.” He slipped his tough guy mask on. His features turned sharp and intimidating.

It’s never worked on you. You could never be scared of him. For him, yes, everyday. But never of him.

“You can’t decide that for me.” You hissed and hated the way tears welled in your eyes.

“Sure I can.” He stood even straighter brows furrowed and lips tight.

“I’ll do whatever I want, whenever I want Arthur. I’ll catch every damn bounty the sheriff posts, in every county if I want to, and you can’t stop me.” You stood slightly on your toes trying your best to reflect his body language. You could feel your face flush as the anger flared. “Besides, if we would have turned back when I said, this never would have happened.”

You hated that you knew how to hurt him. You could see it as his eyes fell and his fists clenched. Guilt smacked you as hard as Jim and his horse did earlier to Arthur.

You reached out to him, feeling like a piece of shit “Hey…”

He backed just out of your reach. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I always seem to get ya into trouble.” He sounded ashamed and somehow small. You didn't like it, not one bit.

“No, Arthur, look I didn’t mean that. The camp needs money and I offered to go with you. This was your run, it was your call. I should have just been more prepared is all.”

You smiled at him but he couldn’t look at anything but your cheek.

“It’s just a scratch. Don’t be so silly about it.”

His eyes hardened and looked at you with an intensity that you’ve never seen directed towards you. But his voice betrayed him, it was still as soft as the breeze. “And what if it’s not just a scratch next time? What if it kills you instead of just cutting your pretty face?”

“You, you think I’m pretty?” You hated that that was what your mind chose to focus on, but in your defense, it caught you completely off guard.

“Dammit! I’m serious! What if next time it’s a bullet? Or a…”

You stepped forward, reached out, and touched his dirty face. In an attempt to calm him down. You were surprised by how fast he leaned in, closed his eyes, and exhaled loudly.

Jim, completely forgotten by now, chucked again and called out “Oh for god’s sake just kiss her!”

Arthur moves to turn and presumably ‘beat the man's face in’. But you didn’t want him to do that. You were certainly tired of Jim, however, you were thankful for the suggestion.

You grabbed a hold of Arthur’s arm and turned him to you, one hand pulled his collar, the other pulled his head down, and you pressed your mouth firmly against his.

At first he doesn’t move, and all you can hear is Jim's ridiculous cackling, but then, then he started to kiss back. And nothing else existed in that moment other than Arthur Morgan.

It’s delicate so very delicate. Like he was afraid you'd shatter, or maybe he was afraid that he'd shatter? He lifts up slightly and kisses the tip of your nose, and then the center of your forehead. You smile largely, it hurts but you can’t help it, and he returns it with another soft kiss to your patiently awaiting lips.

After a few moments of his mouth gently playing with your mouth, he reaches to grab your cheek to deepen the kiss.

You gasp as his hand pulls your wound and he opens his eyes horrified.

“God I’m sorry.” He reached into his coat and pulled out his favorite handkerchief, pressing it firmly, yet gently, to your cheek.

It was your turn to close your eyes as his palm comforted you.

“We’ll get Miss Grimshaw to look at that when we get back.” His voice sounded almost hoarse.

“I told you it’s nothin’.” Your voice didn't sound much better.

You opened your eyes to see his shining back, with a beautiful smile on his face as he pulled you back in and kissed you.

You had never seen him so happy.

--------

#arthur morgan x reader #Arthur Morgan x you #arthur morgan x female reader #my fics

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thesithdiaries · 2 years

Text

Traitor (Harwin Strong imagine)

Pairing: Harwin Strong x female Targaryen!reader

Requested: Yes. Whoever sent this in, you are a monster

Warnings: y’all this is sad, like episode 6 type of sad, angst central, possibly triggering for some, mentions of death, my friend doesnt even want to help me write this

Y/N Targaryen has been married to Harwin Strong for four years.

Since she was not the heir, her father was not too focused on her and her duties. He had given her the option to choose the man she wanted to marry. Y/N and Harwin fell in love immediately when they formally met during Rhaenyra and Laenor’s wedding feast. It was blissful. They took their courtship slowly, getting to know each other correctly, there was no haste.

Now, after many years of having fun and enjoying marital bliss, Y/N had given birth to a son, Aethan, and he was now just about two weeks old. He looked exactly like his father.

They resided in Dragonstone. Rhaenyra had decided to move there after she gave birth to Joffrey. Y/N did not even know what exactly triggered it, just that it had something to do with the Queen and Ser Criston. Additionally, Harwin had fought Criston during a training session with all the boys. He still would not say why.

Y/N woke up late in the night, feeling disoriented. She had fallen asleep at the library, again. Laenor was dozing off in one of the chairs, he was teaching her about the wars at sea. She slowly made her way toward her chambers when she heard a noise. A very distinct noise. A moan. From her sister's chambers. She smirked at first but then stopped in her tracks. Laenor was sleeping. Suddenly. Y/N’s heart started beating erratically, the fear sinking into her soul. Without giving it much thought, she pushed open the door and at that moment she just wished she had not.

Her husband and her sister were together, naked, on her bed. They still had not noticed her presence, too wrapped up in what they were doing. Y/N turned around and closed the door, quietly heading to her chambers.

When the door was closed, she sobbed. It all made sense now. Harwin’s devotion to Rhaenyra, the affection he had towards her sons. Y/N always thought the boys had dark-colored hair because it came from their grandmother's side since Princess Rhaenys’ mother was a Baratheon. She felt like a fool for not noticing it sooner. All the snide comments made by the Queen and Criston were too obvious.

Aethan slept peacefully in his cradle. Y/N sat on the bed beside him, staring at the ground. Waiting for Harwin. Just mere hours later, the door opened.

“My love, why are you awake at this hour?” Harwin asked, his voice faltering from the nervousness that came from seeing her.

Y/N sat there motionless. “Why are you awake?” She asked back.

Harwin felt a sense of dread wash over him. “I was… talking to the knights outside. It is a new place for them and they still do not know some places around the island.”

“Did you also show them the inside of Rhaenyra's chambers?” Y/N stood up to look at him. Her face looked somber, flushed red with dried tears. “I saw you with her.”

“My love, let me explain-” Harwin began but she cut him off.

“You fathered her three children,” she lamented. “You professed your love for me while you laid with her. You lied, again and again, made promises that you knew were false.”

Harwin’s eyes filled with tears. He reached for her but Y/N flinched and moved away. “Y/N, please.”

“I am returning to Harrenhal with Aethan for the time being, until this farce of a marriage can be annulled.”

“No, you cannot leave,” Harwin begged. “We are not annulling our marriage.”

“You are in no position to say what we can or cannot do,” Y/N reminded him. “I despise you, Harwin Strong. If this is what you wanted, you should have married Rhaenyra in the first place and not me.”

“It meant nothing,” he told her. “You were always in my mind.”

Y/N scoffed. “Nothing? It meant nothing but you gave her three children. One child could be a mistake but three? You played me like a fool for years. Did you even love me?”

“Of course I do, I always have,” Harwin told her. “I have loved you from the moment we met.” Y/N shook her head at this.

“Get out before I make them get you out.”

Harwin did not even know what to say. He knew it was over. Y/N had never believed in second chances. He moved to the side to kiss his son but she blocked his way. He sighed in defeat and left without saying another word.

When he returned that morning, his heart stopped. It was empty. Y/N and Aethan were gone.

She had taken everything that belonged to her, but left everything that Harwin had given her throughout the years. Harwin yelled in rage and sadness before breaking down crying. He was a fool, betraying his amazing wife in the vilest way.

Rhaenyra went to the chambers to see what was going on. She glanced around, quickly putting the pieces together. “Harwin?” She called out to him but he cried harder. “Come on, let's go.”

“No!” He sobbed. “Leave me alone.”

Rhaenyra also felt guilty for what was happening. She was the one that sought comfort in Harwin’s arms, not bothering to think about how Y/N would feel if she found out. She was selfish and how her sister was suffering because of it.

Days later, Y/N and Aethan were in Harrenhal.

They were received with open arms. People fussed over them, making sure they were not hurt after traveling that far. Nobody asked for Harwin. They knew something had happened from the expression she had on her face.

After her belongings were moved into her new bedchamber, Y/N stated she did not want to be disturbed. She wept for hours, the tight feeling in her chest was not going away. All she could think of was all the times Harwin talked to her about this place. The now empty promises about ruling it together and raising their children there.

Y/N settled in bed with Aethan by her side. The long trip and the hours she spent crying had her exhausted. With a kiss and an “I love you”, Y/N fell asleep.

A single raven arrived in Dragonstone. It was an urgent message for Harwin Strong. The maester gave him the letter immediately and left him alone to read it. Harwin felt his whole body shutting down at what it said.

Ser Harwin,

I regret to inform you this way. There was a fire in the chamber's tower, we still do not know what caused it. Unfortunately, Princess Y/N and the babe perished from this, as did a dozen knights trying to get to them. I am sending their bodies to King’s Landing with the silent sisters, so they can receive a proper burial based on their traditions.

I am deeply sorry for your loss,

Maester Brennet

Harwin yelled until his voice gave out. Rhaenyra, Laenor, and the children ran to see what was going on. They found him on the ground with a crumpled piece of paper next to him. Jace and Luke stayed by the door, afraid to go to him. Rhaenyra picked up the paper to read what it said.

She gasped, tears immediately flowing out of her eyes. Laenor peeked over his shoulder to read it. He grabbed the kid's hands and pulled them outside to talk to tell them. Rhaenyra sat next to Harwin, clutching onto him while they both cried.

Harwin felt that the guilt was eating him alive. It was his fault, everything was his fault. Y/N left because of him and now she is gone forever. Their beautiful son was gone. Now Harwin had no one.

Taglist:

@my-dark-prince / @Daemonloversblog / @littlemoonash / @mypatrochilles / @beefbaby25 / @sweetybuzz2 / @Fin-never / @asexualaromosafezone / @nerdy4itall / @yelchinweasleylothbrok / @Juless_world / @thatgaytevinter / @kaitieskidmore1 / @chevelledahuman / @rozendiors / @claudiajacobs / @savagemickey03 / @multifandom-loser / @direluvr / @dandycandy75 / @bitchyglitterfox / @rumandtearsflowerisevil / @dkathl / @holysmokesblog / @derzauberermitlilabademantel / @daydreamin1220 / @redpool / @bxdbxtxh15 / @vinceelsner / @watersofmars / @popsycles / @holysmokesblog / @madelineannmolder / @poisxnedmind / @lilithArtAndStuff / @mostclevermiss

#hotd imagine #hotd fanfic #harwin strong imagine #harwin strong x reader

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cancerian-woman · 3 months

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I wish we saw some bonding between Bonnie and Qetsiyah or something, like imagine meeting your ANCESTOR who started all of this shit (besides Dahlia, Inadu, and Esther, the whole doppelgänger thing existing is what I’m talking about). How would you have wanted Bonnie and Qetsiyah’s relationship to have been like? Like Qetsiyah is arguably the most naturally powerful witch on the show, more powerful than Dahlia and Esther (I’m sure there’s like 20 posts on reddit explaining their feats), I just wish her and Bonnie could’ve had more interaction ughhhhhh.

Like isn’t Qetsiyah Egyptian or Greek or something? Wouldn’t it have been cool to incorporate that into a storyline with Bonnie and her magic?

Isn’t it crazy that even outside potential romantic relationships, there’s still so much lacking in Bonnie’s writing in the show? Like besides the MFG, she has ZERO FRIENDS. Stefan isn’t really her friend, she wasn’t friends with Damon until the whole prison world shit, I think, Stefan and Caroline were friends with Klaus (Caroline being more of a fling than a friend, but whatever), I forgot who Elena was friends with, but my point is that Bonnie is actually more sidelined than I thought. Bonnie never even had enemies that were strictly HER enemies. Kai could count as one, but he was more focused on Alaric and the Parker family when he left the prison world, Elena was one of the vocal points of the show, so she had all that shit, Caroline had that whole thing with Tyler and Klaus and other storylines, where was BONNIE’S STORYLINE.

Like isn’t it crazy that Klaus and all these people talk about how powerful and epic the Bennetts are, so why isn’t Bonnie considered a threat? Like… it literally doesn’t make sense. Like you’re telling me that everyone knew Bonnie was crazy powerful and had a crazily powerful ancestral background, she’s a psychic, she can create dimensions, etc… but she’s somehow just the MFG helper… right.

It’s giving mammy in the form of the magical negro. A motherly figure who is always moral and takes care of everyone and is so strong and blah blah blah, I’m so sick of it.

And I don’t mind black witches being a thing in shows. As an African, it really intrigues me to see how shows tackle the topic of black people and witchcraft but WHY do us black folk have to be helpers to EVERYONE. EVEN IN SHOWS. GOSH. She doesn’t even get a proper ending in the show. “Bonnie travelled to Africa”…😐😐😐. Wow. Ok.

And I wish we saw more scenes of Bonnie just LEARNING. Like yeah, great. We have like one or two scenes of her playing with feathers, but imagine if she was in the originals and Vincent was mentoring her or some shit. Idk. Or if her and white Bonnie!Freya or white Bonnie!Davina were just chilling and practicing witchcraft together or whatever. We never really get to see Bonnie CHILL or just learn without having the goal of saving Elena or someone in the MFG. Do we ever see her relax? Nope. My brain just reminded me of Plec tweeting to Megan Thee Stallion that she sees black women as superheroes that will save us all and I’m even more mad now.

Sorry for the rant.

You summed up everything perfectly! I’ll answer the Qet part.

I would’ve liked to see Qetsiyah and Bonnie see each other as family. Have Qetsiyah uplift Bonnie rather than cause her pain by being the anchor. Qetsiyah was arrogant as hell. Why should Qetsiyah lessen who she is? Everything ties back to her as the oldest Bennett witch we meet.

Qetsiyah made Silas suffer for his manipulation and abuse of her magic. Bonnie’s in the same position Qetsiyah was in. A young Bennett witch being used by vampires for their own deeds. So why not have Qetsiyah remind Bonnie she’s not just any witch she’s a Bennett witch. She’s stronger than them, she doesn’t have to take their shit just because she loves them. Fight back.

TVDU has no value for their characters of color and doesn’t want the Bennett’s as a family. I do think it would’ve been nice if Bonnie’s magical education was handled better but Bonnie being a self taught witch through it all really makes her stand out more.

#bonnie bennett #qetsiyah #tvd #the vampire diaries #i took some things out this to try not to make super lengthy 😭

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dumbkiri · 8 months

Text

her muse pt. 1

being childhood friends doesn't matter to katsuki if one is quirkless and the other is stronger than him. he's going to be better than them no matter what. [name] can't take anymore of katsuki's bs and defends Izuku by challenging the hot head to a fight.

midoriya izuku x fem!reader

“Hey, Izu.”

Midoriya turned around and saw a girl with [h.color] hair and rainbow colored eyes looking at him. She was sitting in the cool stream of water with the small fish swimming past her. Her lower body was completely submerged and she was unbothered by the creatures near her.

“Why do you still follow Katsuki?” It was an innocent question she asked out of concern for her other friend. Her hands skimmed the top of the stream and the water collected in a sphere when she flipped her hand over. Her rainbow colored eyes flickered with curiosity as two tiny fish swam in quick loops in the ball of water floating in her hand.

“What do you mean, [Name]?” Midoriya asked and walked up to her to look at the sphere with admiration. He kneeled down in the stream looking from the fish to the girl. His green eyes shining with fun, “You’re quirk is so cool! You said it was mixed between your parents?”

[Name] nodded her head and she plucked the fish from the water sphere and put them back in the stream where they belonged. “Papa can control the elements and mama…well she can sing. Anyways, don’t change the subject!”

The girl splashed Midoriya in the face with the small water ball and he laughed with joy. He wiped his face and smiled at her, “I follow the both of you because I want to be just like you guys! I’m waiting patiently for my quirk! I’m sure that it’ll come in!”

[Name] stood up and Midoriya repeated her action. They stepped out of the stream and a whirl of wind came towards them drying their clothes off naturally. They both giggled as the wind tickled them and it lifted them off the floor just a few inches.

“Oh Izuku, I can’t wait for you to get your quirk!” [Name] flipped in the air while Midoriya flapped his arms with a giant smile on his face. “We’ll have so much fun and-”

“Hey! What are you guys doing?” A loud voice asked, interrupting the happy scene with his holler. [Name] and Midoriya looked over and saw their friend, Bakugo Katsuki, looking up at them with a flicker of jealousy in his red eyes.

[Name] set herself and Midoriya down on the ground and she waved at the blonde boy, “Hey, Katsuki! We ended up playing in the stream together!” The girl giggled and took a small leaf out of Midoriya’s green fluffy hair.

“So I used my quirk to dry us off!” She finished saying and tossed the leaf away. It swirled down and rested on the dirt floor alone.

Bakugo didn’t seem interested anymore and turned away saying, “ Anyways, come on! We got things to do!”

……

[Name] quietly stared out the window, barely listening to a thing her teacher was talking about. She watched as two birds were dancing in the sky together and she unconsciously looked to her right to gaze at Izuku.

He was diligently writing in his hero journal as usual. She could only smile at that.

“Hey teach, don't lump me in with these buncha’ losers.”

[Name] looked forward and saw the laid back position Katsuki was in. She rolled her eyes as he said, “I’m the real deal. These guys would be lucky enough to be a sidekick for a d-list hero.” An outroar erupted in the classroom as they all shouted at Bakugo for his remark.

Their teacher analyzed the paper and said, “You do have impressive test results, but [L.Name] is the one that tops you. She has a higher chance of getting into U.A than you do.” [Name] grimaced and ignored everyone that admired her for being so humble. She had to give her thanks to her teacher for calling her out like that.

“Uh, I believe anyone can get into U.A with the right mindset. They don’t look for students with particularly strong quirks.” [Name] said quietly and the class agreed with her in hopes that they could get in. But some disagreed saying that the acceptance rate of U.A was exceptionally low.

“Which is why that school is worthy of me.”

Katsuki jumped on his desk and declared to the whole class, “[Name] may have a strong quirk, but I top her attitude in terms of confidence. I aced all my mock tests and she failed two. I’m the only one at this school who stands a chance at getting in!”

Katsuki went on for a bit and the teacher got him off his high horse, calling out to another student, “Oh yeah, Midoriya, don’t you wanna go to U.A too?”

Silence consumed the entire classroom before it burst out laughing. They all mocked Midoriya for being quirkless and he stood up for himself which [Name] was proud of him. He didn’t have a lot of confidence just like her, but that was because of a certain ash-blonde kid.

Katsuki roared out and used his quirk on Izuku’s desk to blast him away from it. Midoriya slid backwards and looked up at Katsuki to hear him say rude things. “Listen up, Deku. You’re even worse than these damn rejects, you quirkless wannabe!”

[Name] stood up from her desk and took her coat off to roll up her sleeves of her white button up.

“You really think they’d let someone like you in when they could have me?”

“You got it all wrong! I’m not trying to compete against you!”

The nervous waver in Izuku’s voice pushed her to protect him. “Some kind of hero you’d be, Katsuki.” [Name] harshly said and everyone looked at the girl with fire in her eyes. She stood in front of Izuku as he backed up into the wall and hit his head. “Do you think All Might bullies the weak? You said you were going to be more popular than him, but you can’t even get along with the people around you.”

Katsuki tilted his head and glared at her, “You know you can’t always jump in for this loser. He can’t hang with the best of the best, he’d die in the exams!” His hands crackled from his performance of his quirk, yet [Name] didn’t step down.

“We have known Izuku for a long time, it’s been his dream to become a hero. Quirk or no quirk, I trust Izuku to be more of a hero than you could ever be. Now back off.”

Katsuki scoffed and turned his back to her. The class had settled down with the complete dominance [Name] demanded. She knew Katsuki wasn’t done with Izuku, but she was here to protect him this time. [Name] turned around and gave Izuku a hand out to help him up. He took it and quietly said, “Thank you for that.”

[Name] saw the blush on his face and she averted her eyes quickly releasing his hand when he stood up. With an awkward cough, she said, “It’s no problem, Izu.” Then she returned to her desk putting the black coat over her button up shirt.

……

“Hey, [Name], what you said back in class,” A girl with small horns on her head walked beside her classmate and spoke up, “do you really think any one of us could get into U.A?”

[Name] stopped walking and looked at her shorter classmate, “Well yeah, like I said, I don’t think U.A looks for strong quirk users. Most heroes benefit off on one another and-”

Fwoop!

A notebook flopped on [Name]’s head and she pulled it off her hair with her rainbow colored eyes settling into a glare. This was Izuku’s hero journal, but it was burnt to a crisp. This was the work of that good for nothing Katsuki. “Kaya, I’ll be right back.” [Name] politely told her classmate before flying into the sky near her classroom window to hear Katsuki’s cruel words.

“Just pray that you’ll be born with a quirk in your next life. Then take a swan dive off the roof of a building.”

She didn’t know what Izuku did, but the threat from Katsuki made her blood boil. [Name] flew into the classroom with the journal in her tight grasp. “Yeah, something is wrong,” She set the notebook on Izuku’s desk and approached Katsuki.

“I want to settle this stupid debate in the class. You and I, one versus one. If I win, you stop bullying Izuku and leave him alone.”

“Yeah and if I win, what do I get?” Katsuki asked with a cocky smirk on his face.

[Name] rolled her eyes and set her hands on her hips, “Whatever you want, who cares? I’m going to win anyway.” She was full of attitude and anger, it was laughable to Katsuki.

“Fine, follow us and we’ll settle it there.”

[Name] turned around and gave Izuku a reassuring thumbs up with a determined expression, “Stay here, Izuku. I’m going to stop this today. I’ll text you when it’s over.”

That text never came and Izuku watched in horror seeing his childhood friends being harassed by the same villain that bothered him earlier that day.

#x reader #anime imagine #manga imagine #my hero academia #x female reader #midoriya izuku x fem!reader #midoriya izuku #midoriya x reader #bakugo katsuki #bakugo x reader #midoriya izuku imagine

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pokeblader3 · 1 year

Text

Tbh I feel like an element of Huntlow that a lot of people miss is that Hunter is skinny, and it's depicted as a bad thing he's recovering from and his character is in general horrifyingly unhealthy, while Willow is plump, exercises to be strong and build muscle and not weight (as a chronically ill person who can't afford to lose weight you don't know how groundbreaking that is either btw, so common to see/hear as a motivation from people in my experience), and is seen as the pinnacle of health?

The only way I could write a more fat positive story is if Willow was a bit heavier, but I've seen and spoken to lots of plus sized people who like the ship and have gotten hate for it from people who don't see it as valuable because it didn't personally relate to them (and based on her two dads' looks and her and Hunter's arc being a metaphor for recovery from mental problems and judgement from society's values, if we ever get to see another timeskip she may be bigger). I totally get why plus sized people would think it's groundbreaking, you don't know how hard it is to be fat if you haven't been, and when considering other intersectionalities (a lot of these fans I know were women of color), it can be at times as marginalizing as being some ethnicity or having some disability they are

#huntlow #willow park #the owl house #toh

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2kyo7 · 1 year

Text

𝐂𝐀𝐈𝐌; 𝟎𝟒

metkayina!reader x avatar 2

"SO GOOD!" TUK SHOUTED, wanting everyone to know the goodness of the fruit she'd just bitten into, its pink essence lining her lips and cheeks. The same fruit you'd brought to her family in a basket earlier that week and no one dared to eat from your gift either, except Tuk who absent mindedly picked out the food when no one was looking due to its beautiful color. "No Tuk, don't eat that!" Kiri said, attempting to snatch the item away from her younger sister's hand, a game of cat and mouse being played until their father interjected. "Knock it off baby girl, just let your sister eat."

"But Dad..."

"And I don't wanna hear another word about it." Jake was fast to shut down his daughter's words of opposition, he understood Kiri's dislike for you after your harsh treatment these past few days, but he also understood why you had such a hard time accepting them. Neytiri hissed at her mate, "Jake...your daughter is not in the wrong, that girl has been cold to us for several days and has taught our children nothing of this new world." She reasoned with Jake to prove that their Kiri's actions were just, half scolding him for taking the side of someone he barley knew. "For all we know these fruits are infested with bugs."

Jake considered his wife's words for only a moment before jumping to choose a fruit for himself, a yellow one covered in spikes caught his eye as he took it out of the basket and devoured the snack in one large bite. He expected the fruit to be bitter and sour, instead his taste buds were met with an refreshing, almost enlightened flavor filled to the brim by juice.

The Sully's watched in interest while Jake's eyes opened wide, "this is pretty damn good. 'Tiri you gotta try one." Neytiri wondered if his reaction was exaggerated for the sake of being kind as she hesitantly took a bite of the fruit Jake held out to her. She would of course, never show her true feelings to the tasteful gift, opting to continue arguing against Jake. "Just because she brings us fruit, does not mean we can allow her to torment our children any longer."

Lo'ak winced at his mother's wording, sure you had not been the warmest towards them, but he's more than positive you could be much worse. "Torment is a strong word Mom, more like—" He found himself caught on how to better describe you in an attempt to salvage your reputation in the eyes of his mother. Sure he had not spoken to you as much as the others, and it wasn't because he'd been scared of you by any means, more like intimated.

Yes, Lo'ak can't remember the last time a girl "intimidated" him besides his own mother. You'd walked up to the foreign na'vi without any hesitation at all, while the rest of your people only stood and gawked—he always wondered if Ronal had not said what she had, was there any possibility of the two of you...being more? Not to mention your eyes, they were striking, pierced into the soul of anyone you simply glanced to. At least, that's what Lo'ak felt whenever he'd barely even be in your line of sight. But most of all, you were respected by everyone in your tribe—something Lo'ak would never accomplish, not now, not ever.

Sometimes he wondered if the intimidation sprouted from a place of envy. The people were always quick to flock to your side when in need, you were constantly praised for anything by all, young and old. Never ending stories were told to him by the other Metkyania whenever he'd ask, he sometimes questioned their reality, but every great legend has their fonnies too.

If only Lo'ak had the courage to speak this amazement he'd grown for you, maybe things would be different.

Kiri groaned at Lo'aks affinity towards you, "okay...she tolerates us, at most." Neytiri moved to wrap an arm around her daughter to relieve some of the stress she felt, "maybe the two of you are more alike than you know." Neteyam chimes in, now holding his own fruit that he broke in half to share with Tuk who happily accepted. "You both share a love for animals and stuff, that's why you butt heads so often."

"No, we butt heads because she provokes me." Leaning into her mother Kiri continued to think of every interaction she'd ever had with you, most of course, terrible but she did recall a time where you'd taught her about an animal she'd subtly caught interest in. But nothing could outweigh the negative affect your words and actions left. "Learn to get along with ___, alright? Let everything that's happened this far go. Maybe this is just her teaching best she knows how." Everyone went silent after Jake's words, he knew what it felt like to be looked down upon because you're an outsider, but he also knows what it feels like to be accepted when proving your worth. "Your mother wasn't exactly open to the idea of me comin' into the clan either, look at us now."

Neytiri grumbled something inaudible beneath her breath, at the mention of her actions so long ago being compared to now's events. The story was something they've heard a million times before, but never did they think it would be applied to their own lives. "She'll come around kids, I promise." Jake grabbed ahold of Neytiri's hand lovingly a small smile adoring his face.

The Sully children looked to one another with looks of uncertainty, only hoping their father's words would come to fruition.

You hummed to yourself, following behind Tsireya as the both of you carefully watched the shore for any signs of life. She carried a round bowl that carried many small aquatic animals, all of the same species—though there were many slight differentiations between each of them. "I cannot wait to eat these Tsireya! This year's cook will be wonderful." She nodded at your words in agreement, "hmm yes, the crabs grow bigger every year, maybe it is a good omen."

A good omen? "For what exactly?" Your question was simply an aloud thought, not particularly expecting Tsireya to answer. She shrugged, "who knows? For the clan's good health or..." Tsireya trailed off, her eyes looking to something within the near distance, "something else." Shifting your gaze to follow hers, your eyes landed upon the Sully children. Today's lessons were cancelled because of your chores, but from the looks of it they'd still gone out to enjoy the day. They laugh loudly amongst each other, splashing water and kicking up sand—sometimes picking one another to twirl around. Not a care in the world, they looked truly happy. Like a real family.

You find yourself staring a bit longer than intended, unable to pull away from the scene. There were many nights you dreamed of what they had, and even more where you woke up in cold sweat to the harsh reality that a dream is still only a dream. Pathetic, you think—jealous of a bunch of outsiders.

"Oh ___." Tsireya calls to you in a sweet soft whisper, she captured both of your hands in one of hers, "don't cry you're too narlor, your eyes go puffy and wide like a fish when you do." You let out a small laugh at Tsireya's playful insult as she began to lead further down the shore, hand never leaving yours.

narlor - beautiful

Many minutes passed and both you and Tsireya assumed the Sullys to be long gone, but instead a much shorter figure approached both of you. "Tsireya, ___! Wait for me!" The youngest Sully child ran to where you and your friend stood, releasing uneven breaths from her gasping lungs.

"Kaltxì Tuk."

"Kaltxì Tuktirey." You both greeted simultaneously. "Kehe silly, everyone calls her Tuk." Tsireya was fast to correct you, looking to the young na'vi herself for confirmation, "isn't that right?" Tuk bobbed her head up and down, "just call me Tuk! Not Tuktirey ____!" A smile grew on your face at her effortless energy and joy, it's something that you loved about all children her age. "Ah, Tuktirey is such a txur name." You lowered yourself to be more leveled to Tuk, your tail swinging widely behind you. "It's the name of a tsamsiyu after all."

kehe - no

txur- strong

tsamsiyu - warrior

Tuk's mouth stretched widely to voice something, but for a moment's time she looked to hesitate before speaking again. "____ please show me where those tasty fruits are! We really like them a lot!" Her hands formed a cup to emphasize her desperation, stretching the please extra long as a final touch. Your eyes went bright with happiness and smile growing even wider (if that was possible) a small deep intendment appearing on your right cheek while faint wrinkles form around certain features.

"I would love nothing more Tuktirey—" Tuk wraps the length of her arms around your waist, nearly tipping both of you over onto the ground, giggling wildly in the process. "Join us Reya," Your form now hunched over to grasp Tuk in an equally playful hold. Tsireya smiled warmly at the scene, leaning over to gather a few crabs. "Mother will be looking for me soon, you two go." An obvious excuse, but neither yourself or Tuk barely paid any mind as you hurriedly raced each other down the beach.

"Tsireya tell me—was this a good idea?" She jumped, spooked by the sudden deep base of a male's voice behind her, turning to greet him. "Oh Neteyam, hello. You scared me." Holding a hand to her chest to settle her racing heart, "you surprise me in more ways than one." Tsireya's slow pace came to a complete stop, allowing Neteyam a moment to catch up. "This was your doing? Very clever, how did you know about ___'s weakness for children!" Gasp, "You have been watching her, yes?"

Neteyam's lit up at the realization he'd been caught, ears lifting to stand straighter on his head. "W-well perhaps not watching, maybe simply seeing a how she treats Tuk and the other children. That is it." Tsireya places a hand over her quaking mouth to silence the eruption of giggles threatening her lips. "I'm afraid the difference is none."

"Believe me, I know she has not been the kindest to us, but I can tell in truth she's only scared—I couldn't blame her for it." He watches as you and his sister carefully submerged into the ocean's water a ways away, but even from that distance he could see the smiles of joy on both your faces. Tsireya turned to begin the short journey back home, continuing conversation. "Despite what many think, ____ is simply still a child in many ways."

"What ways?" Neteyam's interest had been perked, he followed behind Tsireya closely to hear her words. "I have no right to say, in fact, I've said more than enough as is." She shook her head from side to side in an collection of response and disappointment in her own self. "Please forget what I've told you just now, Neteyam." Tsireya paced fastened, the oldest Sully sibling took this as a sign to stop trailing behind his friend. "Forgive me — I have overstepped many lines."

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dreamtydraw · 10 months

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i gotta know more about your mc and baxter (i am never free from this man somebody help me). do they date in step 3, or just crush on each other? and the angst, pls gimme some angst >:D

oh, and do you have any headcanons about them together? :3

*slap my knee* WELL HONEY you have a BIG storm coming-

I’m a multi-shipper so Cerise has a storyline where they date and one where they were just really good friends and in both cases: Baxter was someone extremely important to Cerise.

Important context to understand: Cerise was nonverbal for almost half of her life. She has an important communication problem that actively ruin her personal life as she struggle to talk to people and so not isolate herself. Regardless of the nature their relathionship take, Baxter is extremly important to her as he's the first person she managed to befriend by herself. He came off strong and she took her chance to try talking with someone else and it ended up feeling easy around him.

They are vastly different and this is one of the main reasons they work together: They get to experience, learn and witness a new way of living life. Cerise gets to build her confidence slowly, they have an agreable moment and the dating is all new and attracting to her. She feels a lot and is in the company of someone who appreciates her and makes her come out of her shell.

You can imagine how such an impactful relationship can turn from the loveliest encounter of your summer to the most emotionally damaging event of your life.

Also worth mentioning is that in my playthrough Baxter closed the door in Cerise's face while she was bawling her eyes out on his porch... Yeah it didn't went well....

The reason why this breakup impacted Cerise so much is how some little details spiral in an endless train of negative thoughts: "If I was worth it, he would have tried" and "I am not even capable to move on from something so insignificant for him" "I feel stupid for having felt confident" "I should have known that I was not made to be around people, I can't even talk to someone properly" "I'm too much"

Cerise's self-confidence got shattered, having walked right back of all the effort she managed to make and her mutism coming back into her daily life. It only took one conversation to ruin an entire process of self grow.

The reunion was a painful one and here is where I call my phase the: Baxter pain and regret.

Just imagine for a second, you are so miserable because of your own choices, you left someone who loved you by convincing yourself they'll move on and 5 years later when you meet them again they are a shell. You hurted them so much that to this days your presence haunted them, the person you loves because of their positivity, their smile and bright kindness are now dull, sad and scared. The regret of it all and the pain of wanting to ask why, to wanting to help but also desperetly not wanting to furter implicate yourself while they still look at you with hope. How much would it hurt you to be given a chance even after all you destroyed ? After all the joy you denied for both of you and with all the regrets of have spent so much time in your selfish perception of the world. It would sting and that something that can never dissapear, even if she's back, even if you try again, even if you make progress, you simply can't make up for what you caused and it hunt you at night. You always been loved, you always loved them, and like a fool you reciprocate those feelings by doing the opposite of what love is suppose to be.

NOW THAT ANGST HAVE PASSED- Here is some cute dating headcanon I have of these two :D

Oh and one last sad stuff :

Cerise cut and dyed her hair because Baxter used to say he liked her long orange hair and the compliment felt so bittersweet that she couldn't stand seeing herself in the mirror...

ANYWHOOZIE

-Cerise likes jewelry and likes to make colorful jewelry so she wanted to make bracelets for Baxter. One colorful green to keep as a souvenir and one black and white.

-Still on jewelry, they traded. In exchange for a bracelet, he gave her some rings of his (that she kept wearing for the 5 years )

-They kissed in the car watching the firework because Cerise doesn't like loud noises

-Cerise doesn’t like sudden louse noise but had fun listening to Baxter’s music during some car rides.

-Because she can’t drive she asked him to pick her up or give her a ride to some stores just to have some time with him.

-They met at the cypres during the "soirée" moment and this fun fact always makes them laugh, life sure like them together.

-Fear of the ocean vs Fear of height, both are here to help the other fight against their fear with a little help

-Cerise gave Baxter a glass shot as a souvenir and he only once drank in it alone but was too scared to break it so he kept it hidden.

-I have this hc that once they get married ( because yes they will ) Baxter has a picture of her somewhere in his office and if someone asks "Are you married ?" he just pull up the pic of his very colorfull and and cheerful wife so people look at him confuse

you married a rainbow ?!

-Everyone had their moment of "don't ever hurt her again" with Baxter but the worst one was Liz who profaned murder hunt if he did.

-Still, Baxter got accepted nicely back into the family.

-Cerise's services as a photographer got added to Baxter's wedding contact of people he can recommend and they at least worked on some weddings together.

-Neither of them are morning people, but they spend a lot of their nights hanging out and simply talking until late.

-Some dinner nights they take a detour to dance a bit on the side near the beach

-Travel around the world travel around the world! Cerise has some nice vacation places she wants to do with Baxter and they sometimes need some calm time.

-They just love each other, 5 years are nothing compared to the rest they spent together

THANKS YOU FOR READING THIS FAR

#my art #my oc #ask about my otp #olba oc #baxter ward #dreamty's ramble #olba #our life begining and always #baxter x mc

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generic-whumperz · 4 days

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OC Week Day 5: Weapons/Powers

Baby boy is brimming with supernatural powers! If only he had better control over them and wasn’t haunted.

Wow, I remembered to draw his glasses (pretend they’re even) this time and look at how bright & happy he was before Wyatt happened to him!

*No, he’s not a priest; he’s wearing his custom uniform and a type of incognito collar he’d typically wear that looks more like jewelry.

(Ability deets under the cut)

These abilities develop more as he ages, and he doesn’t have the best relationship with all of them, but they were enough to impress a dying old wealthy lady and snag his first posting!

I won’t divulge anything that’s a spoiler, but his relationship with his abilities changes throughout his character journey. I will save the meta-analysis and use of metaphors and just do a simple run-through of each ability and rate them out of 5 stars for how much control he has over it and how useful he thinks it is.

I would consider all of these to fall under the umbrella of Extrasensory Perception (ESP). There are many terms for these abilities, and by no means is this a thorough rundown of them; this is just what they mean and how they work for him specifically! Also, just because he has these abilities doesn’t mean he always listens to them; in fact, sometimes he works against them out of spite, but they come back to bite him in the ass!

Clairsentience/Telepathic Empathy

Control: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Usefulness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is his primary ability, and it is the one that he’s had since he was a small child. Therefore, it’s the one he has the most control over and one that he thinks is the most useful. He can’t read everyone the same; some people emote more than others, while others don't at all. This one runs in the background most of the time; he can usually turn it on or off, but not always. He’s most sensitive to others’ emotions he doesn’t feel himself or has never experienced. He’s discovered that most people have a “baseline” emotion, whether happy, depressive, content, or apathetic (etc), that usually colors their emotional ranges. He doesn’t like to use people’s emotions against them, but if he needs to, he will.

Claircognizant

Control: 0

Usefulness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This just means he has heightened intuition and usually navigates life through incoming vibes. These come to him, and he reacts accordingly; he has no control over what he receives as input. This usually comes across as him “knowing things he shouldn’t” and having a strong gut feeling to do XYZ. It can be something as simple as an inkling to grab an extra utensil. He may not know why at the time, but when he drops a fork—hey, look, he has an extra one. This one isn’t usually that deep, and he doesn’t always get them. These are more sporadic and very inconsistent. He may have a day where he gets one or two, or several, and then go weeks or months without.

Precognition

Control: 0

Usefulness: ⭐️

He occasionally gets glimpses of the future—it may not even be his future. He has no control over the visions he receives, and this ability is very weak. He does not like this one and has a lot of self-hatred about it. Visions come to him while awake or asleep. They are very unreliable and happen rarely.

Psycometry

Control: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Usefulness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Psycometry is the ability to receive glimpses of the past through objects. This is his favorite nifty trick, but it is not one that can not be applied to all objects. Only emotionally charged things carry a memory attached to them. It takes a lot of mental discipline to get a reading, and it is not always clear, but glimpsing in the past has its rewards. This is a tough trick to master and has come in clutch a time or two.

Haunted

Control: ⭐️

Usefulness: 0

Being haunted is a bad time. It comes with no perks—well, unless he counts having his abilities siphoned out of him by the prowling sleep paralysis demon that has claimed him as its feeding ground (which he sometimes does see as a positive). As if having a personal paranormal parasite wasn’t enough, sometimes he hears disembodied voices or catches glimpses of ghostly swooshing in his peripheral. His only form of control is ignoring things or repeating an affirmation mantra and hoping they fuck right off.

Many things can affect his abilities, including mental & physical state (especially anxiety), medication (these usually dull his control or take away his ability to read people), substances like drugs and alcohol (can heighten—think bad trip), lack of sleep, starvation, headaches, sickness, foods, (number of) people he’s around, exhaustion, etc.

#The Aid #oc week #ocweek2024 #ocweekday5 #oc powers #oc art #paranormal whump #whumpee #haunted

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ewanmitchelll · 1 year

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• “Check yes, Y/N...” (II)

Imagine you are the youngest daughter of Lord Stark and Aemond Targaryen falls in love with you right before civil war starts. What then?

Warnings: smut mention/fluff.

***

"So it is my understanding that the Lord Velaryon is of your liking", you hear a husky voice out of nowhere, getting you goosebumps.

Two days have passed since the feast to celebrate the king's nameday. His health had been deteriorating and those attentive to details could tell he would not last long and that Otto Hightower, recently reinstated to the position of Hand of the King, was behind some wicked plot to place Aegon on the throne in opposition to Rhaenyra.

But you are oblivious to politics--they are not of your liking anyway. You are now friends with Lady Baela Velaryon and Lord Jacaerys Velaryon, which annoys Prince Aemond--who does not wish to share you at all.

So you are holding a book, walking with it around, when he comes out of nowhere.

"What?", you frown, thinking to be your brother before seeing it's Aemond. The prince's face goes slightly red when he sees the change in your demeanor because you beam at him. "My prince! Lord Aemond, why'd you think so?"

"You've been hard to find", he says simply.

You close your book and hold it against your chest, that is until he takes it from your arms.

“Lord!”, you protest, but Aemond ignores you as he investigates the book that has been distracting your mind off him—and it is only now it occurs you that he is taller than you. “Lord Aemond! Would you kindly consider give it back to me?”

He chuckles at how adorable you sound, trying to get the book back, very conscious at how you are surprisingly smaller than him.

“Nay, lady Y/N. Why would a book like this hold your mind instead of me? Or perhaps is it a way to prevent your thoughts going to Lord Jacaerys Velaryon?”

It is then you stop chasing after him because a strange thought occurs you.

“Wait… This is only the second time you bring his name. Is it because we danced and became friends? And… Wait again! Why should I explain myself to you? My prince, are you jealous?”

To realize it, makes you laugh. Aemond rolls his eyes, but because his back is now at you, you don’t see a shade of pink coloring his cheeks.

“Of course not”, he scoffs at you. “But why on earth would you choose him to be friends with goes beyond my intelligence.”

You are still giggling at his nonsense.

“Do you realize how foolish you sound, my prince? For a man who presented himself with considerable brain, you cannot serious entertain arrogance as a plausible argument to prevent my friendship with the aforementioned lord. Unless this means you are jealous. But why would you be if we are not yet intimate enough to form such a bond? And I thought you were engaged to Lady Rivers?”

Aemond sighs heavily, shooting you a disdainful glance. But you remain where you are, eyebrows raised and staring at him with amused eyes.

“Frankly, my dear, why do you think I care? To the seven hells with Lord Velaryon and yourself.”

Your smile is wiped off your lips when you notice how serious is the antagonism he feels for the said lord. Which is a pity, because Jacaerys isn’t someone prompted to be disliked. And you do have a strong intuition for matters like these—you’d not dare to voice it, of course, but you never liked Otto Hightower very much.

Perhaps it is the wolf in me that is always alert to such people.

“So you are reading about ancient love stories such as the honorable knight who left all that was in his power to be with his damsel?”, Aemond asks you casually in order to appease whatever tension that the mere name of Jacaerys Velaryon caused.

“Well”, you relax your shoulders in response to the swift of his demeanor, though Aemond can tell you still cannot be sure how to play with him. “Yes. I fancy such stories even though I particularly don’t find them to be true.”

“Really? How so?”, asks the silver haired prince, now leading you two to outdoors.

“Because honor is the death of love. It is known”, you tell him, sounding more melancholic than you’d like to admit.

Aemond considers such a thought, unsure how to interpret it.

“Do you not think possible that they can coexist?”, asks him, intrigued. “Towards the end of this novel, the said knight fulfills his duty to his sovereign and his lady, redeemed from his sins by proving his loyalty to them both. And his union is blessed.”

You smile at him. Before you realize, your hand is on the prince’s arm. But he notices it, and despite feeling subtly shy, he does not move away. On the contrary, he shortens the distance.

“So you are familiar with the story”, you remark. “I wouldn’t take you as romantic, lord.”

Aemond chuckles under his breath, avoiding your curious gaze.

“Never judge a book by its cover”, he says. “I read a lot, that is all.”

You remember hearing from your brother that lord Aemond is as rogue as lord Aegon. (“He may not behave like his whoring brother, but his association with Lady Rivers of Harrenhal shows is what we ought to think of such a prince. I believe you’d do better in becoming friends with Lord Jacaerys, a far more decent company to surround with”, so he said, echoing the words of carefulness of your father.) but you cannot distance yourself from the prince. Your heart knows he is too magnetic to be pulled far from his grasp, your body seems to melt by the fire his presence ignites.

“Yet, here you are. What secrets are there behind your heart, lord Aemond?”

“Maybe it should be up to you to figure this out”, Aemond responds, seeing in your y/c eyes an unposed challenge.

“A secretive prince with an endless path of knowledge”, you tell, smiling gently. “Pray tell me, dragon lord, what else is there to know? I hear your heart has been taken.”

It slips your tongue before you know. But you don’t want to waste your time, to be made a fool. Aemond is surprised by how it comes too, the unspoken truth that has reached you. He sort of hoped you’d not know it.

I underestimated the fierceness of the she-wolf.

The prince studies you quietly. He watches as you untangle your arm of his and start going around the gardens, free in every movement, despite the tightness of your gown—and he sighs quietly when noticing the silk of it slipping in your curves, reinforcing them.

Oh if the dragon let the fire consume… He could picture you under his touch, mewling as he explored your body. He’d die to see your hair loose, a complete mess as his tongue dived against yours, his famine fingers holding each freed nipple possessively as he claimed you, your pleasure, your flesh.

The mere thought arouses him and Aemond must be careful not let it evident. He swallows hard and represses it. But there is something more… so much more than the mere needs of his flesh could content with.

When you turn around and you see he’s stopped, Aemond sees innocence stamped in your delicate features.

Oh the guilt for desiring you, Lady Stark. For fuck sake, how could you be gifted with handsomeness and a pure heart so unfit of any living men?

“Why are you standing there?”

“I’m merely…watching you.”

Aemond’s lips twist into a small smirk when seeing you going red at his unexpected bluntness.

“What for? There is nothing to watch”, you protest.

He sees you are about to say something, he can tell you are indecisive about doing so. Aemond wonders if it’s about lady Alys and the idea wipes out his smirk off his face.

“What are you thinking about?”, he asks you, rather anxiously, going after you.

“There are many things I am thinking about”, you divert away nervously, as he stands now far closer than you’d like to admit.

Aemond holds your wrist, going as bold as pulling you closer. Your eyes go wide at his posture, so domineering. And yet…

Yet…

You like it. You feel it in your legs. But in your heart too. Like the prince of your stories, he is ready to reclaim you.

Until you remember he belongs to somebody else. Aemond sees the conflict in you.

“Lady Y/N, why are you playing with me?”

“This is a question I should ask yourself.”

Aemond sighs heavily, not the most patient of the men.

“Then ask away.”

But he meets your pride instead. You raise your chin and say:

“I will not.”

“Lady Y/N, I am not here for games.”

“Neither am I. Who do you take me for, prince?”

“I take you for many things.” He softens, bent to his heart’s desires. “You have a mind of your own. Your wit is impressive. But underneath your pride, you are not a loner as you like to present yourself. I read you, Y/N Stark. Your heart is not different than mine. You don’t feel your worth is seen, perceived, appreciated mostly due to your sex, or, what I believe to be more plausible, because no one sees who you really are.”

You stare at him baffled. The few times you spent together and yet he makes a far more accurate reading of your essence than even Lord Jacaerys could ever do.

Your silent is meaningful, you are clearly disconcerted. Aemond gently places a hand around your cheek and strokes it as you eventually give in to his touch—so warm and cozy, in contrast to your skin naturally cold.

“Let me be the prince you need”, he whispers. “You are the true muse I’ve been in secretive pursuit. Whatever my soul is made of, it is made of the same material yours is. Are we this different, Y/N? Are we?”

“I’d never think you to possess a sensitive soul”, you whisper, enjoying the proximity of your bodies. “I hate how easily you steal the tranquility of myself.”

“You’ve never been at ease”, his arms now rest around your waist. “We are still looking for our place in this world, Y/N. So let us make it.”

You do not wish to part the spell, but your ever suspicious and distrustful heart speaks out without your control, slipping through your tongue words that betray the state of your heart, constantly under arrest as perceived by Lord Aemond.

“You cannot say these words when lady Rivers is still out there. I cannot give you who I am if you are still attached to her. Love maybe sweet, my prince, but it does not change any man’s nature.”

He is not expecting to hear what he heard. Yet before Aemond could have the chance to explain himself, princess Helaena comes out of nowhere with her typical gentleness:

“Oh there you are, lady Y/N! My mother asked me to search for you. It appears the king wishes to talk to you.”

The next events would change significantly the lives of you and Lord Aemond, who is definitely not ready to let go of you…

(To be continue)

#ewan mitchell #aemond targaryen #aemond targaryen x female reader #house of the dragon #aemond targaryen x y/n #aemond fic #house targaryen #aemond x fem!reader #aemond x you #Aemond Targaryen x Lady Stark

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