#this concludes my impromptu rant

[fanfictionsrookie]

People who criticise Beauty and the Beast, usually do it over the complaint that it romanticised Stockholm syndrome and how the message of the film is trying to encourage women to stay with abusive men.

Excuse me?

Give me one scene where Belle tolerated the Beast's anger, where she wasn't angry, upset or afraid because of it. Belle left the moment she got the chance, only changing her mind when the Beast saved her life, but even then she didn't take any of his shit. Belle was kind but she wasn't a doormat, and it's that kindness that prompted the Beast to be kind in turn and try to change and be a better person. And while Beast might have changed in part with the hope that Belle would break his curse by falling in love with him, she never knew about the curse at all. It wasn't used by the Beast as some bargaining chip or sad backstory. Did people forget that he let Belle go, fully intending to stay cursed forever, if it meant he could help Belle save her father?

Belle never fell in love or chose to excuse the Beast's anger or the way he treated her and her father initially.

Belle fell in love with someone who was trully trying to be a better person, who took interest in her and the things she enjoyed, and who put her needs before his own when it came down to it.

[gompereatsall]

some a3! x enstars headcanons

because they've been consuming my brain!! (while i slowly lose the canon characterizations of a3 characters, and try to understand enstars characters)

As stated in this post, i LOVE the idea that Sakuya is the adopted little brother to Rei and Ritsu. (in the reblogs of the post, @/nobleartsy made super cute art of the idea, and @/otome-crow gave some really good ideas adding onto the post, so please check both of their blogs out!!) kinda just rewording some of otome-crow's post, Sakuya has this whole goth outfit to fit in with his brothers :)) Sakuya tries his best to attend lives of UNDEAD and Knights, but will just have to occasionally settle for watching official recordings of their shows. In turn, Rei and Ritsu also try their best to watch the Spring Troupe's shows! They just want to support one another <3

Banri and Tsuzuru are both fans of UNDEAD (even before they met Rei in person! A couple more Mankai members became fans of UNDEAD and Knights after meeting them in person). They both were stoked to meet Rei, and the latter also gave Banri and Tsuzuru some signed merch!

(Genuinely decided to make Tsuzuru an UNDEAD fan bc i think the image of a sleep deprived Tsuzuru trying to work on a script while blasting UNDEAD's music with his headphones, but is still loud enough for people in the room to hear is hilarious)

One time, Ritsu visited the company and fell asleep on top of Hisoka on the couch. This created an impromptu cuddle pile

Yuki is a big fan of Shu's clothing work, despite it being a bit more underground compared to other Japanese fashion designers. This led him to discover the idol group Valkyrie. Some of their songs are now in Yuki's playlist that plays while he and Taichi sew

(I also think Yuki would have great time with Kuro, letting him help with costumes (: )

Chiaki and Sakyo know each other... somehow. Their relationship is unknown, and they never really elaborate what it is when people ask. On the very rare occasion they see each other on the street, they greet each other but talk with such thinly veiled animosity toward each other; and yet, they have each other's numbers in their phones. Make of that what you will (guess a hero and an ex-yakuza don't mix well together)

Sakyo and Keito went to the same middle school and were best friends. They were really close and mainly bonding with each other over manga. They lost touch when they went to different high schools, so neither one of them knows that one is an actor and the other is an idol

Tsumugi Tsukioka and Tsumugi Aoba are acquaintances! They met because they both frequently go to the same cafe; one day, they just started having friendly small talk, and now they meet kinda monthly? Almost as if they're on a schedule lol They just have nice small talk with one another at the cafe and rant to each other about their lives (without getting into too much personal details), offer each other advice, tell stories from their lives, etc! It's come up in conversation that Tsukioka is an actor, but Aoba never mentioned that he's an idol yet

Kumon is a big fan of RYUSEITAI and would love to go to one of their live shows one day! He doesnt have a favorite member (his favorite is a tie between RYUSEI Red and RYUSEI Yellow)

(Listen, I could probably make another entire headcanons list about the characters favorite idol groups, if they have any lmao)

Tenma met Izumi Sena once, while he was abroad. The actor had no idea who the other guy was, and vice versa (Izumi gave him directions)

I am convinced Wataru would love Homare's poetry; he's been a fan, and ever since Wataru heard Homare joined an acting troupe, he's been negotiating with members of Dramatica to go see a winter troupe play!

And that concludes the headcanons i can think of atm, thanks for reading :) if you have any of your own please add them in either the comments or reblogs!! I would love to read them <33

[lifeofclonewars]

Fives and Echo in Clone Cadets

Okay, buckle in if you're gonna read this. I'm an English major and you can tell bc this started out as a quick rant with a few points in my head at midnight and turned into a full analytical essay on the Domino Twins throughout the entirety of Clone Cadets in one sitting plus some next-day editing. What can I say, I analyze everything I watch even when I'm not consciously doing so. Some pictures and links included.

----

I get the whole “Fives and Echo weren't close until after Rishi” thing because of the poetic-ness of the narrative of brothers who aren't close going through trauma and coming out of it stronger and as best friends all that but listen to what I have to say.

We’ll start chronologically: with their final run-through before the finals. As you may know, I made a list (here) of who argues with whom during Clone Cadets. The other three constantly nag Echo about his habit of repeating things. Hevy and Cutup both call Echo, well, Echo but before he accepts it as a name and more as an insult. Cutup’s the first one to do it, literally almost right off the bat. Hevy does it to purposefully pick a fight after the practice test. DB responds to Echo's “stop calling me that” with “stop repeating every order.” 

Fives argues a bit with the rest of Domino when they're all arguing, but he only says one negative thing toward Echo. But there are so many things that make it different from the things aimed at Echo from the rest of the squad.

He tells him “Will you shut up with instructions? You're not in charge.” Domino’s nagging Echo about the repeating, Fives... doesn't quite do that. The narrative makes it look like Fives is also mad about the repeating orders, given both DB and Cutup have at this point. However, what Fives says doesn't make a direct reference to Echo’s habit, at least. He's definitely frustrated here (they all are, they’re failing again), but, at least to me, he's frustrated because Echo's focused more on getting them to follow exact orders instead of moving forward or working together. And yeah, he snaps a bit while reminding Echo he's not squad leader and not focusing on the right thing. But he never mentions the echoing, and, after this one moment, he never makes a negative comment toward Echo again during Clone Cadets. Also, important to note, Echo wasn’t repeating orders or anything when Fives snapped at him, just saying they’re not following orders again (which is different).

So, basically: everyone’s arguing about everything. Everyone argues with Echo about various things. Fives is the only one that doesn’t go and make a comment about Echo’s repeating during it, though.

That signifies something. Fives has got a better understanding or acceptance or trust in Echo than the rest of Domino. He doesn't mock him for what makes him him. He gets why Echo does it, maybe. Even if he doesn't, he knows it helps Echo and that Echo repeating orders is his way of trying to help his brothers. And this comes into play at a point farther along in the episode that we’ll get to soon. 

Next comes the, like, one moment we see the clones have some downtime. It’s when, once again, they start arguing. Despite DB being the one to tell Echo “stop repeating every order” during the run-through, we see them getting along here. We see them chatting with each other and 99 very briefly when Fives' gives his “you never even met a girl” line and Hevy comes barging in. Hevy insults 99, Echo tells the squad to follow orders, an argument starts, yada yada.

Then, Hevy gives his “care to repeat that, Echo?” line, which I mentioned earlier as Hevy doing it to purposefully pick a fight. When they start to fight, we hear the other members of Domino start cheering Hevy on. One says “Come on. Get him, Hevy!” The other says, “Smack that know-it-all.”

Here’s the thing, though. They show a shot of DB, Cutup, and Fives. Cutup can be seen pumping his fist but his accent isn’t heard. There are two voices speaking, but they’re layered on top of each other so it’s hard to tell who’s speaking and how many people are speaking if you aren’t paying attention. Together, this comes out to look like Fives and DB could be the ones talking, and Cutup’s not actually speaking. 

However, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Cutup’s accent drops in and out all throughout Clone Cadets. Especially during impromptu moments. With this, it is also possible to conclude that he is speaking during the fight, just without a different accent, especially since he’s pumping his fist. 

That leaves Fives or Droidbait as the other person speaking. As you can see, both of them seem to be watching. Now, you could argue that Fives is the one who said something. You can argue the DB is the one who said something. Since they’re showing the fight when the lines overlap (the “Get him” one starting about a second earlier), there’s no conclusive evidence for either. For the point of this argument, you can’t argue that it proves Fives and Echo were close, you can’t argue that it proves they weren’t.

Following that comes Colt’s speech before the final. As I’ve noted multiple times, nobody in Domino is happy with Echo the first time he makes a comment.

Going back and watching it happen in time reveals a bit more, though. They’ve all got facial expressions kinda similar to it when it cuts back to them after Colt speaks. Echo says “thinks he means us, boys?” Hevy seems to be the only one truly angry about the comment. The other three seem to be more of “what are you talking about, you know we’re not that great.” Plus, you know, they’re all nervous about their final. Even more so with how they didn’t make it through the day before. (Here’s a link if you wanna see it for yourself. 0:45; it’s all quick reactions, but you can see what I mean)

(Hmm so maybe I was wrong about that screenshot before. Go figure. There’s a reason screenshots aren’t always completely reliable sources for shows, since none of what I just talked about is visible in a standstill moment. This is why I’ve rewatched Clone Cadets 48209832 times. I’m still picking up new things about Domino while doing it.)

When Echo says, “well bravo for Bravo Squad,” some other things happen. Firstly, Echo’s rolling his eyes. He’s either being flippant about Bravo or he’s being self-aware enough to know it’s a bad pun and that his brothers don’t like his comments. But Fives actually looks over, concerned, when he makes the comment.

That definitely counts for something. Especially since the other three don’t look very concerned about how Echo’s feeling with the comments. (Hevy’s definitely not looking over here.) But Fives seems to be wondering how anxious Echo’s feeling or something along those lines and how Echo’s expressing it. Especially since Echo doesn’t purposely pick fights like Hevy. He’s just making comments that happen to aggravate the Squad more than he’s usually trying to use as his way of showing he cares about his brothers and how well they perform.

After that comes their first run of the final. And with it comes a moment I love so much. Echo’s standing at one of the cover blocks when Fives runs up to him. Not only does this happen, but Echo smiles so much at seeing his brother do so.

He’s just! So happy that Fives is there. I love that. Anyway, Fives tells him, “you flank right, I’ll flank left.” Then comes Echo’s lil pun moment. Fives rolls his eyes, but he looks more fond but exasperated than truly annoyed. 

Right after that, Fives runs off again. Which means he took Echo’s comment about staying on the same side and went with it, even though that wasn’t his initial plan. He’s trusting in Echo’s combat planning there. After DB gets shot down, we can actually see this happen as they meet Hevy at another one of the blocks. They come from the same side, Fives, then Echo. So, it worked out successfully.

When Colt tells them they failed not too long after that, another thing happens! Fives and Echo share a look. They didn’t have to — Hevy was behind Fives and Cutup was in front of Echo. They could’ve shared a look with them. But they didn’t. It’s definitely an “oh crap” kind of look they share with each other. Something that’s usually shared with those your closer to in situations like that, ya know?

“But wait!” you might say. “These are mostly examples of Fives being a good brother than of them being close.” Well, that’s where Echo and Fives talking to Shaak Ti about transferring squads comes into play! Of course, since I’m going chronologically, it’s not the immediate next point on this, but it happens during this conversation.

The two of them talking to her is a pretty big deal, especially since constantly up to that point we see Echo not getting along with the squad. He definitely wouldn't do it with Hevy, who he fights with most. Cutup and Echo don't fight as much as Echo and Hevy but we don't see them actually talk to each other besides whenever they do the sim, right before the second final, and Rishi. And Rishi is Hevy and Cutup making fun of Echo a bit. (Main difference then is that they do understand each other better to some degree and it doesn't escalate like it once might've.) DB, I touched on some points earlier. 

But there’s a reason it’s Echo and Fives here, and it’s more than just Fives fighting with him less.

When they talk to Shaak Ti Fives trusts Echo to do the talking for them (he only speaks up twice with small comments then). While it’s a short conversation, most of the talking is done by Echo. The duo most likely had a conversation beforehand about what they were asking and why. While we don’t know who asked the other if they wanted to do it, they’re both there, and Fives trusted Echo and his memory and ability to repeat the points they wanted to make. It's the exact opposite of what the squad has been doing. Instead of mocking the repetition, he gives Echo a chance to do it without judgment and as a positive thing.

Echo also goes on to do some things that show it’s not just Fives being a good brother, it goes both ways with them. 

There are only two instances where we see Echo touch someone. One is when he fights with Hevy (and Hevy starts it). The other instance is with Fives, during this talk. The two of them had been standing at parade rest and Echo — who's whole thing as a cadet is following orders — breaks it to set a comforting hand on Fives' shoulder! 

He's the one to do it! Echo’s the one that takes the opportunity to comfort Fives and Fives doesn’t shy away from it. And not only did he recognize what Fives was feeling, but he also acted on it. They know each other well enough at this point to understand each other’s emotions and how to react to them accordingly.

And it's not like the other clones don't nudge and pat each other on the back and whatnot. Hevy pats 99 on the head (condescendingly smh Hevy you know better but whatever that's not the point).Both Fives and DB nudge Cutup for a comment he makes.

Echo just... doesn't do it during Clone Cadets. (I will point out he gives 99 a light excited punch on the shoulder during Arc Troopers — but that's after he's been with Torrent and trusts 99 even more than he did on Kamino for helping Hevy out) But he does voluntarily set a hand on Fives' shoulder. He’s comfortable enough with Fives to do it when we don’t see him do it with the rest of Domino or even 99.

Also, we all know Fives smacks some of his brothers, we've all seen that post by now. But he never does it with Echo. Instead, he lets Echo do what he's comfortable with. I just think that's important to note.

There’re also multiple times in this scene where they share looks while they’re speaking or when Shaak Ti says something. If you watch Arc Troopers or the first half of the Citadel Arc, even some parts of Rookies, Fives and Echo have a lot of nonverbal communication. This is just planting the seeds for that.

This scene can also be used for some “Fives and Echo aren’t that close” arguments, especially if you go with the “they are literal twins” hc. The whole “they wanted to stick together because they were twins, not necessarily because they got along better” argument. There are some other points here, like the fact that Fives did say something rude to Echo, or that Fives was talking to Cutup in their downtime and Echo with DB.

The thing is, with these things I've talked about, it shows that they were close on Kamino, regardless of that hc. I highly doubt LF and Filoni actually write them as twins (they probably would've mentioned it by now if they were). So while I personally like to take some of these things as them being twins, mostly they just show that either way, they were close. And the points Echo makes while asking Shaak Ti come into play as well.

Echo states, “Which is why Fives and I are looking out for each other,” when told that the clones, like the Jedi, have individuals and the group be one and the same. He makes it a clear point that they’re looking out for each other, that they’re trying to make the decision they think is best for the other. That’s! A big deal and sign that they’re close, if you ask me. 

Right at the end of the scene, Fives once again shows his trust in Echo. After hearing that they’ve been given another shot at the final, he looks skeptical. What does he do right after? Look at Echo. He didn’t need to, he could’ve stared at the wall, ground, given Shaak’s back a funny look. But he looks to his brother for comfort again. And we see Echo look back at him, doing so, right as it transitions to Cutup’s scene.

(“Wow this is really long, you must be obsessed with Domino Squad,” you might also say. That would be correct lol. We’re almost done, though.)

The next time we see either of them is when they think Hevy hasn’t shown up but then does. This is a nice little moment. Domino must’ve had a conversation or something because Cutup, DB, Fives, and Echo seem to be more at ease beside the whole missing Hevy thing. I should write that conversation someday. Echo even repeats what Fives said and nobody makes a comment about it.

Hevy eventually surprises everyone with his dramatic entrance and marches through their bench area to head to the simulation room. After that, the three of them turn and look at Echo, who shrugs. Not really a moment between Echo and Fives and more about the whole squad, but it’s there. Domino’s getting along better as a whole, matching more of what the dynamic between those two has been the entire time. 

And finally, the second final. Like how the practice test is slightly focused on Echo’s comments and the reactions to it, this one’s focused on Hevy being the natural leader he is. Also, just, Domino Working Together.

When they take cover in the little slit thingies, Fives and Echo take cover in the same one. Part of it was probably which one was closest. Part of it definitely was production trying to make it easier to fit more of them in the same frame there. But also, it says something about how they trust and understand each other on the battlefield. Partially from growing up training together, partially they've got the trust and understanding the whole squad is just finally starting to get within the rest of their dynamics. 

The only scene in this whole episode I don’t know who’s who is during the medal scene. If we base it on where Hevy stands, Echo and Cutup are the ones to talk. However, the second clone doesn’t have Cutup’s accent and it’s not one of those situations that Cutup tends to drop his accent. So I’m not really sure, other than that Domino is very clearly all proud of each other. I’m not really sure why I wrote this paragraph then… aNyWaY, that’s the episode!

TL;DR Throughout the episode, the Domino Twins show multiple signs of them being close to each other. I really think that the episode is supposed to show us that they're close from the beginning and Rishi just made them form an even stronger bond. Paraphrasing Shaak Ti, their journey is about them connecting to the rest of their squad throughout the episode, not necessarily about them also learning to connect with each other. They’ve got that down, after all.

[makeste]

if there is a timeskip, how far ahead do you think horikoshi will move along the story?

okay, so... I sat here for a while trying to work out how to phrase this less harshly lol, but I think I’m just gonna be blunt: I really, really hope that Horikoshi does not give us any kind of timeskip. there are precious few things that could potentially push me to quit this series, but a timeskip is one of them. I’m not saying that to be dramatic, I’m saying it just as a fact, because it’s happened to me multiple times before. in my experience, nothing else out there ruins a story as easily or effectively as a timeskip.

but let me try to break down and explain my loathing of them a bit more in depth.

1.) they make it so the audience misses out on character development. this is probably the thing I hate the most about timeskips. so here’s the thing; there are two different kinds of shounen timeskips. the type where the characters (mostly) stay together throughout the timeskip (think Naruto), and the type where the characters split apart during the timeskip (think One Piece). and I hate both of them equally, and let me explain.

I am reading the series because I am invested in the characters and their relationships. I want to see these relationships grow and evolve. timeskips make that impossible, because the whole point of a timeskip is that it skips right over everything so the audience doesn’t get to see it. and so, if the characters stay together during the timeskip, that’s a huge chunk of time during which their relationships are continuing to evolve, and the audience is missing out on all of that. that’s like starting a book and then finding that the entire middle section of it is blank. like, sorry about that, we decided this part wasn’t important enough to write down. if you’re lucky we might show you little bits and pieces of what happened during flashbacks, but otherwise you’ll just have to deal with it. boooo.

on the other hand, if the characters all go their separate ways to train on their own during the timeskip, then in a way that’s even worse. like yes, we’re technically not missing out on any relationship development, because no relationship development is even happening. those relationships are just put on hold for the duration of the timeskip. like, to use One Piece as an example, that means that the crew was together for like six months or however long, and then they all split apart for two whole years. they were apart for four times longer than they were ever together as a crew! like, you brought this found family together and bonded them so strongly only to rip them apart again?? for two years?? and for what! so that they could become boringly overpowered?? well, speaking of --

2.) they make fights predictable and/or disappointing. now for me, this one isn’t quite as bad as the character development one, but that’s mostly because I don’t care about fights as much. that said, post-timeskip fights are usually a dime a dozen, and I hate it. because here’s the thing: the whole purpose of the timeskip was to power up the character offscreen, so that they come back ready to kick more ass. which is great in theory, but in practice, post-timeskip fights tend to feature one of two brands of disappointment. either the protagonist character powered up so much that they easily win the fight, or else they still struggle even after all of that training and effort. the latter is just frustrating, because it’s like, so then what even was the point? but meanwhile, the former is also disappointing in its own way, because there’s no challenge anymore. yes it’s cool for like two seconds, but then what? if all I wanted was to watch someone reliably and effortlessly kick ass all day, I’d go become a fan of a bandwagon sports team. for me, the appeal of shounen is that the characters are learning and growing and struggling. if you make it easy for them then where’s the fun in that? if your character no longer faces any real obstacles then it stops being an interesting story.

and last but not least, 3.) they change the tone of the series (usually for the worse). so this one is interesting because this is one of the main reasons why a lot of people advocate for timeskips in the first place. ‘they help to make the series more mature’, or something along those lines. people are interested in seeing what kinds of storylines would open up with an older, more experienced cast of characters.

except that when people say more mature, what they usually mean is one of two things. either more romance, or else darker/grittier story content (read: more character deaths). which, just speaking personally, I have approximately zero interest in either of those things. if I wanted a grimdarker shounen series I’d be reading Attack on Titan instead. if I wanted more romance, I would read... well actually don’t really know what I’d read lol, because that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make here -- I don’t read romance, because I’m not interested in it (insert aromantic disclosure here). as an element of a more complex story, sure, that’s fine. but as a focus, I’d just as soon not. nine times out of ten I will lose interest in it. that’s 100% a personal preference there of course, but yeah.

anyways, but the point is, I started reading this coming of age story about teenagers at a superhero academy because I like coming of age stories! I like reading about younger characters and their adventures, learning about themselves and the world around them, making mistakes and getting stronger and the like. this is a specific genre that has a specific appeal to me. there’s an idealism and an optimism inherent in it, and I really don’t want the series to go changing that up. especially if there’s no need to change it up. which imo there really isn’t. as it stands, BnHA is already an unexpectedly mature story in a lot of ways, and it’s already exploring a lot of darker and more complex themes as it is, and doing an excellent job of it imo. basically, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. most of the time you’ll just end up ruining what was so appealing about the series to begin with.

so yeah! thus concludes my impromptu rant post about timeskips lol, and I’ll just belatedly add in a disclaimer as well that this is just my own opinion of course, and ymmv. but for me personally, I think that shounen series in particular rarely come out better after a timeskip (in fact I can’t think of any off the top of my head to tell the truth). also in BnHA’s case I really don’t think there’s any need for one at all. maybe if we get another short one, like the three-month timeskip that took place just before the start of this arc. but even then, there is just so much going on currently in the manga that it would feel weird to just fast-forward through it. TomurAFO is still on the loose. Dabi just blew up hero society as we know it. All Might is prophesized to die in the near future. the entire Billboard Top Ten was pretty much wiped out. and so on and so forth, and that’s not even getting into all of the character development that recently took place.

it just feels like things are too chaotic right now to skip ahead very far. I want to see what’s going to happen in the immediate aftermath of all this. and I don’t feel like the villains will leave the heroes alone to recover for very long. like, I can’t really figure out where someone would even put a timeskip, I guess is what I’m saying? there’s nowhere that feels natural. I could see them skipping a few weeks ahead maybe, but no more than that. anything more, and one has to assume that Tomura simply comes back to wipe out the rest of the heroes and/or the world lol. unless they shove him into another cryotube or something, I suppose.

so yeah, I think we’ll either get a very short timeskip or none at all. at least I am keeping my fingers crossed for as much. I don’t think it needs to happen or should happen. again, ymmv, but at any rate that’s my answer.

[pilot-boi]

Coffee Cup Woes

Jaune's history tutor is really pretty. Like REALLY pretty. Like way out of his league pretty. And he liked her, a lot. Liked her liked her. Head over heels for her. Pyrrha's history student was a delight. His smile lit up her darkest days, and he was sweet and kinder than anyone she'd ever met. She liked him, a lot.

They were perfect for each other, but sadly, both of them were idiots, and were too scared to make the first move.

Sometimes people needed a little push. Luckily their friends were more than up for the job.

Sometimes complementary mini muffins are the only comfort in this cold dark world.

AO3 LINK

“But what if she doesn’t like me?” Jaune lamented, stopping and sitting at their table instead of working like he should have been.

“Don’t worry, she likes you,” Ren reassured him, jotting down something from his text book.

“But how do you know that?”

“I read her diary,” Nora shrugged, popping one of the complementary mini muffins into her mouth.

“You what?!” Jaune squaked, and winced when his tone drew the curious stares of nearby patrons. “You what?” he repeated, in an outraged whisper. “Why?”

“Well, she left it on her dresser when she went to track practice,” Nora explained to Jaune’s dumbfounded expression. “And Ren wasn’t around to stop me.” She said this like that explained everything, but it mostly just left Jaune gaping like a fish out of water.

“I am about ninety percent of Nora’s impulse control,” Ren reminded him, and plucked a mini muffin out of her hands without looking up from his book. “And no more muffins unless you don’t want to get pancakes for dinner.”

“Yes, Ren,” Nora sighed on reflex.”

“Nora, you can’t just read your roommate’s diary!” Jaune spluttered, flapping his arms about in an excellent impression of a drowning goose.

“In my defense, I didn’t know it was her diary at first. I thought it was just a very formal handwritten book.”

“The words “Dear Diary” didn’t clue you in at all?” Jaune asked, making quotes in the air with his fingers.

“She didn’t write “Dear Diary,” Nora retorted, copying his quotes with exaggerated gestures, “she just wrote the date. Besides, I don’t think she’ll get mad about me reading it.”

“Of course she won’t!” Jaune seethed as loudly as he could without drawing stares again. “She’s like the nicest, sweetest, forgivingest person who ever existed! You could pour boiling hot soup in her lap and she’d probably apologize.”

He slumped down in his chair and put his face in his arms. “I’ve really got it bad, don’t I?” he mumbled.

“You sure do, Jauney!” Nora said happily, ruffling his hair fondly.

“Shut up, Nora,” he grumbled, beating away her hands and fixing his unruly hair as best he could.

“I don’t think “forgivingest” is a word,” Ren commented.

“You also shut up,” Jaune muttered, his voice muffled behind his arms. “You aren’t helping.”

“But anyway, the morality of diary read aside, she definitely likes you,” Nora concluded, eyeing the mini muffins and wondering if the threat of no pancakes was worth the risk.

“But does she really?” Jaune asked, rolling his head to the side so he could gaze up at her with a truly pathetic expression on his face. “Like, girls don’t like me, Nora,” he explained, straightening up.

“What about Ruby?”

“She’s different,” Jaune said, waving away Ren’s comment. “I’ve known Ruby since forever, she’s like my sister.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you really need more of those,” Nora muttered, rolling her eyes.

Jaune plowed on like he hadn’t even heard her, and with how tunnel-visioned he was, maybe he really hadn’t heard her.

“No like, like me like me, ya know?” Jaune clarified, but not really. “I barely even get to the friend stage with most people, let alone with girls. I don’t think a girl has ever has a crush on me in all eighteen years of my life.”

He was running out of momentum, which was good, because she’d known him to rant for hours if you let him get a full head of steam. “So I need you to be totally, absolutely sure,” he was saying when she checked back into the conversation, “because I really like her, and just...ya know...I hope she likes me,” he concluded rather lamely, stealing one of the mini muffins Nora had been eyeing and stuffing it in his mouth.

“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Ren asked, glancing up at his friend.

“Shush, I’m on break or something,” Jaune mumbled around a mouthful of muffin. “Neptune’ll cover for me.”

“I don’t know how many times we have to tell you before you get it,” Nora grumbled. “She’s into you! Why don’t you see it?!” she fumed, miming strangling him.

“But does-?”

“Yes! Yes she does!” Nora interrupted him, throwing her hands up in the air. “I read what she said about you, and if I have to read one more sentence about your cute butt and floofy hair, I think I might vomit.”

“You didn’t have to read the original sentences, to be fair,” Ren pointed out, pulling a different, and somehow larger, reference book out of his bag.

“Shush you.”

“She thinks it’s floofy?” Jaune asked, touching the messy curls and blushing with delight. “That- that’s a good thing, right?” he asked, looking unsure.

“I give up,” Nora announced, “You’re hopeless, and I give up.” Then she stood and marched dramatically away, already texting furiously to somebody.

“You think she’s serious about that?” Jaune asked his friend out of the corner of his mouth as he watched the red head push her way through the throng of exhausted students.

“I’ve never known Nora to be serious about anything,” Ren assured him, checking his phone when it buzzed with texts, undoubtedly from Nora. “She’ll be back soon enough, once you stop acting like an idiot.”

“Hey!” That’s not fair,” Jaune pouted.

“It’s true though, you’re being an idiot about this,” Ren argued, glancing in the direction of the door when the bell indicated that someone new entered the already crowded coffee shop.

“Now come on, that’s not even remotely true,” Jaune scoffed, and deflated a little under Ren’s skeptical look. “Okay, it’s not entirely true, but-”

Ren fixed him with a piercing look from through his glasses. Jaune could only hold his intense gaze for a few moments before he was forced to look away. “Jaune,” Ren started, face and voice softening, “Why is it so hard for you to believe that she cares for you?”

Jaune looked like he was trying to collapse in on himself. “Because...she’s just so fantastic,” he mumbled, not meeting Ren’s gaze, “And I’m just sort of...not, ya know?”

“Have we ever lied to you before?” Ren asked, closing his books.

“I- what?” Jaune looked more taken aback by the sudden topic change than anything else.

“Answer the question, please.”

“I mean, no I don’t think you have,” Jaune answered, looking confused. “But why are you asking?”

“I’m asking, because if we haven’t lied to you before, then why would we start now?” Ren explained, glancing up at someone over Jaune’s shoulder and waving them over.

“So believe us when we say that she does like you,” Ren reassured him, standing and packing up his things. He patted Jaune on the shoulder, breaking him out of his shock.

“I’ve got to go and make sure Nora hasn’t decided to break anything in the five minutes I wasn’t there to stop her,” Ren said, beckoning the same person over again. “Besides, I believe there’s something you need to talk about.”

“Talk about with who?” Jaune asked, turning around and blushing right to the roots of his hair at the sight of the person Ren was talking with. “Oh hey, Pyrrha!” he said in a much higher pitched tone of voice.

“I assume you got Nora’s text?” Ren asked, a little too knowingly.

“I- yes,” she said, glancing at Jaune before focusing on Ren. “She said you needed to speak with me?”

“Actually, it’s Jaune who need to speak with you,” Ren clarified, glancing at his phone. “You can take my seat, I’m leaving anyway.” Hopefully Jaune could handle this by himself.

Jaune could not handle this by himself.

His face was bright red, and he knew it. Curse you Ren and Nora for obviously setting him up with this impromptu and definitely not-casual meeting. He had to tell her, he was going to tell her. But as soon as she sat down, Pyrrha flicked her long ponytail over her shoulder, and smiled shyly just at him. And he forgot how to speak in complete sentences.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” she asked, smiling softly. Her eyes were twinkling like emeralds, and she was actually sitting there and speaking to him. Pyrrha Nikos was sitting and talking to him over coffee.

Sure they’d spoken before in class, but this was different. They weren’t talking about history and the social implications of whatever, they were talking about potential emotions and stuff.

Or at least they would be if Jaune could stop staring at her.

Thunderstruck: so are they talking??!?

Dad: I did my part. They’re at least sitting at the table together.

Thunderstruck: mission “get these two idiots to make out” is a go!

Literal Child: Ice Queen, are you in position?

Mom: I don’t understand why I have to be the one to do this.

Goldilocks: because youre the only one of us who drinks that much coffee while you study

Mr. Kitty Cat Meow Face: She’s right you know

Goldilocks: thanks babe <3

Mom: And what is the point of code names if they are only getting typed in a group text?

Literal Child: LESS TEXTING MORE WATCHING!!

Literal Child: And it’s not a real mission without code names!!

Ocean Man: Remind me why Jaune gets to take off work but I don’t

Monkey King: because youre the only one we could get who could cover for lover boy during this whole schtick

Ocean Man: Thanks dude I always knew you’d have my back

Mr. Kitty Cat Meow Face: Shouldn't you be working and not texting us

Ocean Man: Shut

“Jaune?” Pyrrha prompted, now looking concerned by his silence.

He couldn’t say anything. It was like he’d swallowed a golf ball. Why couldn’t he say anything?!

Mom: Oh no.

Thunderstruck: what? WHAT??!

Mom: That blonde dolt is too love struck to speak.

Literal Child: you’re kidding

Literal Child: you’re kidding right??

Ocean Man: Nah, I can confirm that he’s just sitting there

Goldilocks: oh come on lover boy pull it together

Dad: We did think that this was a possibility. He does have a tendency to freeze up.

Mr. Kitty Cat Meow Face: Wait if we saw this coming then why did we leave this up to Jaune

Monkey King: it was basically the only option

Thunderstruck: believe me, she’s not much better than him

Mom: Wait hold on, shut up, I think they’re saying something.

“Are you feeling okay, Jaune?” Pyrrha asked, concern clearly rising in her face. 

Come on, pull yourself together. You have to say something. Can’t just keep sitting here silence! Say something, anything! Anything but just sitting there staring at her like an idiot. And it was this thought that finally had Jaune creaking open his jaw and blurting out the first words that came to mind. 

“Nora read your diary,” he all but yelled, still sitting as straight as a board, and bright red in the face.

Mom: Oh for fuck’s sake, you idiot.

Ocean Man: Mission failed, we’ll get ‘em next time

Literal Child: Ice Queen report!! what happened??

Mom: He just told her that Nora read her diary.

Thunderstruck: new mission operative: don’t let him die from embarrassment

Thunderstruck: i want to kill him first

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 6x08 Tabula Rasa

aka i don’t think this is going to work either

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And today’s episode outs itself as a product of early 00s television as Michelle Branch performs in-universe to create a sad music montage, concluding an ep that’s otherwise generally remembered for its comedic beats.

Tabula Rasa is the episode that I alluded to most with Something Blue way back in season 4 – so I actually went back to that post before sitting down to write this, to fully appreciate that connection. Apparently I closed that rant saying “we’re here to do a Buffy rewatch, not to have fun”, and that’s the same energy you can expect here.

I mean, I love the silliness in Tabula Rasa, don’t get me wrong. The insane assumptions the characters make after the memory spell, based on stuff like Giles and Spike’s accent, Willow wearing Xander’s jacket, and Anya and Giles nodding off beside each other, lead to all kinds of hilarities. Just as it’s nice to see all the things that still stay the same, and what the characters do get right – like Buffy and Dawn realizing that they’re sisters as a result of their natural banter, or Willow and Tara’s sexual tension seeping through despite everything.

But the most interesting scenes for me remain to be the ones preceding that. Specifically, the talk the gang has about the revelations regarding Buffy’s resurrection at Xander and Anya’s place.

It’s just so juicy, guys, down to its smallest details. It starts with Anya wondering if Buffy walked on clouds or had a harp in heaven, and Willow just kind of looks on with dead eyes, and Xander upon prompting says something dismissive like “you have many good qualities”.

Tara though? Tara’s quick to validate Anya, saying that it’s not stupid to think about what it’s been like for Buffy, but there are many heavenly dimensions, and they just don’t know.

God, I love Tara. Did I mention that already? I think I may have been too subtle about it the last 40 times.

I LOVE TARA.

There, that felt right.

Afterwards, we get a surprising amount of self-reflection from Willow. I say “surprising”, because it’s then followed with another insane plan of “let’s wipe my friend’s memory with magic to make this go away”, so clearly, Willow needs some additional work in that department.

WILLOW:  And we took her away from that. We wrecked it for her. XANDER:  We didn’t wreck. We didn’t know. WILLOW:  We didn’t wanna know. We were so selfish. I was so selfish.

I love this, because not only is the narrative confirming what as a viewer I already deduced, it also reaffirms a quality in Willow that’s easy to look over at this stage of her character arc. Her self-awareness.

Xander is a mostly emotion-driven character. He rarely if ever interrogates his own motives, just goes with what his gut tells him is right. In this case, his go-to approach is to simplify, and focus on what feels important. Buffy’s alive, and he’s happy that she’s alive. The rest they’ll just need to work on.

Willow is pretty much the exact opposite of that. For better or worse, she needs to justify all her actions to herself, and she’s ready to beat herself up over any perceived imperfection.

Or find a quick solution to her problems that stops her from feeling any pain or guilt about it...

Tara is of course the one that gets to the heart of it all, by saying that they need to stop obsessing over what’s been already done, and just focus on helping Buffy. (To quote myself from literally 2 seconds ago: “I love Tara”.) Anya’s quick to agree with her, and Xander supports it too by saying that they just need to spend more time with Buffy.

Willow though instead has the insane idea to just wipe Buffy’s memory, because “video clubs won’t fix this”. But she can. She can fix it. Fix the world. She can make it go poof. And that’ll make her stop feeling horrible about it too.

Tara, whom I love, obviously gets upset at that. And Xander and Anya at this point just… leave. Which, you know, I get it, things are starting to get personal and they can read the room, but also…  This sort of leads to a pattern for me of the Scoobies not really holding each other responsible this season. The argument that Tara and Willow are about to have is about Willow’s approach to magic and the world and people around her. This isn’t only affecting their relationship, as the episode itself will point out.

So, ideally I feel like Xander and Anya should’ve said something too. But then again, maybe they haven’t yet truly considered the implications of what Willow was suggesting at this point, as opposed to Tara, who just found out that Willow used the same spell on her.

Remember all that self-awareness that I mentioned with Willow? Well, that goes right out the window the minute she’s confronted with something that she’s already justified in her mind. Tara specifically uses the phrase that Willow “violated her mind”, and tells her that she’s just helping herself at this point. Fixing things to her liking, including Tara herself.

Which Willow completely fails to internalize, because justifying her actions to herself is so much easier. Instead she focuses on her own fears of abandonment. (“Are you saying you’re gonna leave me?”)

With the ultimatum Tara gives to Willow about not using magic for a week, this is also perhaps our first sign that we’re heading into the direction of a magical addiction metaphor this season. I will probably talk about that more later on, but for now, I’ll just say that while the substance abuse comparison will mostly fail and muck up the original idea behind Willow’s misuse of magic, it does work to a certain degree. It’s ultimately an addiction to power.

And then there’s Giles. I pretty much already said what I wanted to say about Giles leaving with the last episode, and he’s only confirming what I already suspected there, so I’m not really going to reiterate that. In short: I get it, but it’s also the wrong way to help Buffy.

This turn of events of course doesn’t really help Dawn either. No wonder that she’s super upset with Tara for leaving by the end of the episode.

Remember: not only is Dawn the child of divorced parents, her dad has also been absent for most of her life. And then her mom and sister died, and she basically became the foster kid of this ragtag group of young adults (ft. Giles), with Tara and Willow acting as primary parenting figures.

So yeah. I feel super bad for Tara in that moment when Dawn pulls away. You can see how hard this is for Tara, but she refuses to stay in a toxic environment. But I can’t blame Dawn for being a 15-year-old with her own set of abandonment issues either, especially as she’s unaware of the context.

Meanwhile somewhere in town Buffy is making the opposite choice. This time in my rewatch, I was especially hit with seeing Buffy’s reaction after regaining her memories. During the fight, she’s all quippy as Joan, but she checks out the moment the spell is broken. I can’t help but wonder how it was probably even harder for her to have those memories rushing back after forgetting about them.

So Buffy continues her hook-up routine with Spike in order to feel something. And Spike is already being a sleazy manipulative asshole about it, with lines like “I know what kind of girl you really are”.

But then again, Spike is a vampire without a soul. We can’t really expect more from him, and neither does Buffy. That’s kind of the point, sadly enough.

Oh, and of course we’re ending the episode with Michelle Branch performing in the Bronze. Which is very early 00s of her, but strangely enough, I can’t really remember any musician of the same recognition playing before on the show. Even though the Bronze – much like the P3 club on Charmed – serves as the perfect set-up for that.

Goodbye to you all, I guess.

[erialcraeb]

Road Work Ahead? Uh Yeah, I Sure Hope It Does

Summary: Hank rediscovers old memes, and annoys the shit out of everyone.

“Captain, you asked to see me?”  Connor asked when he reached Fowler’s office.  Hank was already sitting in one of the chairs, looking at his phone out of Fowler’s sight.  “Yes Connor.  Come in please.”  Connor stepped into the office and shut the door behind him.  “Hank, would you like to do the honors?”  Fowler asks.

Hank looked up from his phone.  “Officer I’ve got one question for you.”  He started.  Connor tilted his head in invitation for Hank to finish.  Hank stood up, and pocketed his phone.  He placed a hand sideways over his mouth, so his fingers were touching the tip of his nose.  Hank took a deep breath before bringing that hand down to point at Connor’s shoes.  “What are those!?”  He exclaims, Fowler instantly bursting into laughter.

“They are my shoes?”  Connor asked, confused.  Hank finally stands up and pats the android on the shoulder.  “Don’t worry Connor.  We’re just messing with you.  Hank and I just rediscovered Vine, so we’ve been quoting old memes.”  Fowler says.

Hank and Connor go back to their desks not too long later, and everything is normal, save for when Hank laughs to himself about something on his computer.  But the day just had to be ruined by Gavin coming over and gracing them all with his presence.

“What the fuck are you so goddamn happy about?”  Gavin glares at Hank.  Before anyone can speak, Gavin continues on a rant about Hank’s work ethics.  Hank only rolls his eyes.  “Fuck off Janet, I’m not going to your fuckin’ baby shower.”  He then stands up and walks away, leaving Gavin dumbfounded.

The next few days were practically torture for Connor.  Hank would constantly watch, read and quote old memes just to ‘refresh his memory’ as he puts it.  He even made Connor look at some of his favorites just so he could join in if he ever decided to quote it.  One of these instances happened on a quick shopping trip.

They were at a dollar store, having gotten everything they needed for their impromptu shopping trip, Connor decided to look at the dog toy section to see if they could pick anything up for Sumo while they were there.  Hank took something off the shelf and held it out to Connor.

“Con look, it’s the good kush.”  Hank had a smile on his face as he waited for the android to reciprocate.  “This is the dollar store, how good can it be?”  The android said deadpan, just to humor the man.  Hank let out a victorious shout as he threw the object back onto the shelf and did a victory lap around the store, despite the strange looks he was receiving.

Hank was especially annoying about it when they were home.  It seemed that he was holding back when they were at work, but at home he quoted to his heart’s content to Connor.  Someone should give Connor a fucking medal for just how patient the deviant android could be with the older man.

“Hey Con?”  Hank asked Connor, totally out of the blue.  “Yes Lieutenant?”  Connor didn’t look up from petting Sumo.  “Do you remember?”  Connor is confused by the extremely vague question.  “Remember what?”  Hank suddenly bursts into song.  “Ah ah ah!  Ba de ya!  Say do you remember?  Ba de ya!  Dancin’ in September!  Ba de ya!  Never was a cloudy day!”  Connor was suddenly regretting moving in with Hank.

One of Connor’s least favorite occurrences was when they were driving.  Whenever they drove past a certain sign, Hank just had to come right out and say it.  “Road work ahead?  Uh yeah, I sure hope it does.”  During those times, Connor would internally decide whether or not to jump out of the moving car.

There was a day where Hank was quiet.  He had not said a meme all day and Connor was seriously starting to worry for the Lieutenant.  “Hank, are you ok?”  Asked the android.  “Oh hi, thanks for checking in.  I’m still a piece of garbage.”  Connor walked out of the room.

During an investigation, they came across the dead victim.  Hank sighed.  “This is so sad, Connor play Despacito.”  Connor furrowed his eyebrows, but the song suddenly began to play anyways.  “Lieutenant, I hardly think this is the time.”  The android said over the music.

Once when Hank was tipsy, he got Connor with a really good one.  “Hey Con?”  He tried hard not to laugh yet.  “Yes Hank?”  Connor could only guess where this was going.  “Have you seen up dog?”  Hank asks.  Connor’s LED circled yellow for a while.  “I don’t believe I have.  What is, up dog?”  Hank FROZE.  The man had never in his life, ever gotten that line to work.  He then proceeded to burst into tears of drunken joy.

Finally, there was one day where Connor wanted to retaliate against Hank.  So he prepared his prank.  He ordered a tape that would work in Hank’s old car with a tape deck.  When his order came in, he then loaded the song onto it.  Connor managed to get it into Hank’s car without being caught, and made sure the volume was turned up loud.

The next day when the two of them got into Hank’s car for work, Connor anticipated the moment Hank turned the key.  Suddenly, “Ocean man, take me by the hand, lead me to the land.  That you understand!”  The music blared loud over the speaker, scaring Hank slightly.

He reached the for volume button and quickly turned it down to a more acceptable level.  “Oh man, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve heard that song.”  He chuckled once the excitement wore off.”  Hank shrugged and began the drive to work.

It wasn’t until the song played a fifth time that Hank started to get annoyed.  “Connor, it was fun the first few times, but it’s fucking annoying as shit now.  Turn it off.”  Hank said.  Connor reached for the eject tape button and pressed it.  And pressed it again.  And again.  And again.  “Lieutenant I can’t, it appears to be stuck.”  Connor concludes.

“Shut the hell up, no it’s not!”  Hank barks.  Connor starts to press any of the buttons now and even tries hitting his hand up against the tape deck.  But nothing works and the song continues to play.  “Hank, I’m serious, it’s stuck.”  Connor’s LED was yellow now.  “Connor I swear to god!  Just hit the next button at least!”  Hank says angrily.

“Hank I only put the one song on here, it’s jammed.”  Connor concludes.  “I’m going to drive us off this bridge if that plays again Connor!”  Hank yells, the song ending for the fifth time.  The car is filled with silence then and they both let out a sigh of relief.

“Ocean man, take me by the hand, lead me to the land.  That you understand.”  Cuts through the speakers for a sixth time and Hank screams in anguish, beating one hand against the horn a few times.  He pulls the car over to the curb and parks.  Hank decides to just sit there, song still playing.  They sit through the song playing two more times before Hank finally says anything.

“Ya know?  It’s growing on me.”  He starts the car up again and they drive to the DPD.

Many months later, Hank, Connor and Gavin are tasked with dealing with a case far out of town.  “We can’t use my car because it’s in the shop.”  Gavin says, already walking towards Hank’s car.  When he tries to get into the front seat, Hank yells at him.  “That seat is saved for two people, neither of them are human so get your ass in the back.”  Hank growls.

“Lieutenant, who else sits in the front?”  Connor whispers.  “Just you and Sumo.  Sumo takes up a lot of space, so he usually sits in the back anyways.  But sometimes he’s brave and sits in the front.”  Is Hank’s response.

Ocean Man is still stuck in the tape deck, so that is what they have to listen to during their long road trip.  It isn’t long before Gavin breaks.

“Can we fucking play a different song?  This one has played on loop for half an hour now which means it’s played fifteen times!”  Gavin shouts angrily.  “Well Gavin, you lucky bitch, you only have to listen to it a few fuckin’ times!  We’ve had to hear it for three months straight because I refuse to drive in silence!  Now shut the fuck up and enjoy the trip to Hell!”

Hank doesn’t even spare Gavin a glance as he reaches forward and turns the music up louder to drown out his bitch whining.  “This trip is a fucking nightmare!”  Gavin shouts.

[wonderlustlucas]

warmth - wong yukhei

⇢ prompt It’s like a breath of fresh air on the first day of spring, filling you to the brim with new life and you can't get enough. ⇢ pairing yukhei x female reader ⇢ word count 16k ⇢ genre fluff & slight smut ⇢ warnings oh my GOD the fluff in this killed me, resuscitated me, & then hit me with a car. if you squint really hard there is like a teaspoon of smut & implied s e x ⇢ summary Meeting NCT was definitely not something you or your best friend ever imagined would actually happen on your road to stardom, but Wong Yukhei falling for you never once crossed your mind. Lucky for you, a touch of jealousy, fifteen rounds of Fortnite, impromptu snuggling, and a splash of soju is the perfect recipe for falling in love. ⇢ a/n ok FIRST OF ALL since this is my first actual fic im posting i feel like i should warn u all & apologize for my use of italics, im a little obsessed cuz when i go over & read what ive typed i always put emphasis on specific words so ya just roll w that. secondly i tried sosososo hard to include every member but obviously some got more spotlight than others thats just how the cookie crumbled BUT I TRIED. and lastly the beginning to this is a little rough but i swear it gets better trust me on this, warmth is my bby rn & im proud cuz it gets real good as u keep reading. enjoy:)

“Kim Mina and ___ ___, welcome! Take a seat! How are you?”

Yuna’s greeting is welcoming but it barely calms your nerves. Your grip on Mina’s hand is like iron, but you finally have to let go and give your best smile before shimmying onto the high stool. Mina starts the small talk with the two anchors and you can’t help but silently thank her. Lord knows small talk was not your thing.

Meanwhile, you glance around the large room, taking it all in—from the brightness of all the screens to the professional video cameras facing in your direction and all the way to the small crowd of fans cheering outside. How did you end up here?

“So, tell me, what started this amazing journey the two of you have gotten yourselves into?” Seojun, the second anchor, asks with a beaming grin. You look to Mina and she nods to you in approval. Deep breathe. Don’t panic.

“Well, Mina and I have been best friends, if you’d like to put it that simply, since we were freshmen,” the three chuckle at your comment, “we both shared and bonded over our love for BTS, actually, and then Seventeen, NCT, Red Velvet, and so on.”

You pause to lick your lips and take a deep gulp of air.

“We both weren’t very active nor athletic. First, we played volleyball, then lacrosse, and we even tried golf but sports just wasn’t really our thing. So, we eventually settled for a gym membership and spent a lot of time there together, and over time we really got into shape,” you stop again to laugh when Yuna reaches out to poke at Mina’s very prominent bicep muscle.

“And so one-day junior year we were jamming to, uh, I don't know,” you laugh, glancing to Mina. “BBoom BBoom,” she says, “by MOMOLAND.”

You smile to yourself at the fond memory. “Anyway, Mina randomly suggested that we should learn the full choreography and not just random parts. At first, I laughed at her ‘cause I thought there was no way either of us was bright enough to remember the full thing. But she was so serious about it that I eventually just agreed to it to humor her, and we actually learned it by ourselves.”

“It wasn’t as easy as I thought, though,” Mina interrupts, “it took a really, really long time just to get the footwork and so many times I knew ___ wanted to shoot herself for agreeing to do this,” she laughs and the three of you join her. “But once we got it, we recorded it, and we were just amazed. Like, ‘Wow, we did that! That’s us!’ and we showed everyone we knew. The sense of pride motivated us to do it again. So we did Mic Drop by BTS, and when we uploaded it on YouTube it really blew up within our school,” Mina stops and looks at you to continue.

“Our friends and family really started spreading the word about us after the fourth or fifth video we uploaded. In the meantime, a lot of kids thought we were really weird for, you know, putting ourselves out there like that. But it was just so fun to dance that we really didn’t care about both the positive or negative feedback we were getting. After all, we were only seventeen, you know. But things really started getting serious about two months ago when we uploaded Baby Don’t Stop from NCT U and CLAP from Seventeen. Someone big must have stumbled upon our account because a week later we were in the newspaper. Something about ‘arising local stars,’ I think,” you pause when Yuna shuffles through her papers to pull out the exact article you were talking about.

“Yep,” she pauses to flip through the papers, “‘___ ___ and Kim Mina: Small-town Seniors to Stardom,’ wow, so you two really caught someone’s eye,” she comments as Seojun nods in agreement.

“So yeah, that’s basically it. We still plan to graduate high school and all, but right now we’re not sure if we want to go to college at this point. We have a steady income as of right now and hopefully, we can really make this into a career. It’s kind of our passion at this point, not just a hobby,” you finish, fixing the collar of the rather fitting romper you were wearing.

“Wow,” Seojun comments and brings his hands up to clap, “talk about an inspiring story.”

“Hopefully. We tell our followers that even if you may feel really lost in the world right now, you will find something that you’re passionate about, it’ll just take time and probably some stupid idea,” Mina concludes with a beaming smile and an arm around your neck, tugging you in close.

Yuna and Seojun coo in unison at the affectionate act and you can’t help but squeeze Mina back.

“So, we have a few more questions,” Yuna finally says after you pull away from your best friend. You sit up straighter in your seat and nod excitedly.

“This one’s easy. Who is your favorite group?” Seojun asks once he’s done flipping through the pile of note cards in his hands.

“NCT, for the both of us,” Mina replies easily, and you nod in agreement. “And do you have a bias, as I’ve heard you call it, in the group?” Yuna asks and you immediately feel the heat rush to your cheeks. It wasn’t that you’re embarrassed, you just don’t want to talk about it.

So, yeah, maybe you’re embarrassed.

“Uh-oh, ___ is red,” Seojun catches on and you squawk in embarrassment, having to hide your face from the cameras just so those watching wouldn’t be able to see you flush so badly. “Well, my bias is Taeyong,” Mina replies while soothingly patting your arm to get you to look back up.

“Yukhei,” you eventually squeak out after sitting up.

“Which choreography so far has been you’re favorite?” Yuna moves on instead of picking on your red-hot embarrassment anymore and you quietly thank the gods.

“Oh geez, I can’t choose one. CLAP, HIGHLIGHT, Burning Up, DNA, Cherry Bomb, 7th Sense, Baby Don’t Stop, Boss... all favorites. No way we could simplify it to one,” Mina laughs after naming off a few.

“Alright, last question before the surprise,” Yuna says, winking at the camera mischievously, “if you could go back in time, would you have started this journey earlier than you had?”

You glance at Mina and pause to think for a moment. Would you? Mina opens her mouth to say something but closes it again, clearly stumped by the question.

“No,” you speak up, “I think the way we did it worked out in the best way possible. It started as a joke for us, but the music we love turned it into something we’re passionate about. If we started this when we were any younger, we wouldn’t have been as mature and probably wouldn’t have gotten as much attention as we have. We would’ve looked like even more idiots to the public. It all happened for a reason, and I wouldn’t want to change it one bit, you know?” You rant, picking at your nails as you do so. Was that too much? Too little? Hopefully I didn't sound cocky.

“There you have it, folks! Wise words from eighteen-year olds ___ ___ and Kim Mina!” Seojun cheers and Yuna claps. Mina bows and you smile appreciatively. “Don’t leave just yet! After this commercial break, Mina and ___ will be performing live before the show ends! Stay tuned everybody!” Yuna finally announces and you can finally breathe again now that the cameras are off.

“Go on and get changed, kiddos. Don’t wanna miss your own performance,” Seojun smiles. “Thank you. And thank you for having us. This was amazing,” you reply, hopping off the seat and giving him and Yuna firm handshakes before storming backstage with Mina.

“You spoke so well! What the fuck? What happened to little ol’ ___ stuttering and dying when she has to present?” Mina exclaims excitedly, spinning you into a hug in the dressing room. “I don't know! I just—I have no idea! I felt so, so... proud, you know? Look how far we’ve gotten,” You speak hurriedly, peeling everything off your body.

“I know, this is crazy. I feel like I’m gonna shit myself,” Mina replies as you both unclasp each other’s bras to replace them with sports bras. “Me too. I don’t know why I’m so nervous to perform, we could do this choreo asleep, with our eyes closed, and our legs cut off,” you exaggerate, tugging up your ripped black skinny jeans and hopping around to get them up.

“With our legs cut off?” Mina laughs as she pulls up her denim shorts. “But no, I feel you. It’s because it’s live, we usually have the comfort of knowing that we can mess up without anyone knowing,” she explains as you push your arms through the sleeves of the cropped white tank you decided on.

The two of you finish getting dressed, quickly stretch, and hurry back out before you actually are late. “Good luck, don’t mess up,” Mina whispers, fixing your braids and giving your hands a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “Thanks, asshole. You too.”

Baby Don’t Stop starts from the speakers, extremely loud but too quiet and exhilarating but soothing all at the same time. It’s a natural habit now—the way your body moves to Ten’s absolutely panty-dropping voice and Taeyong’s aggressive rapping—arms twisting in ways that used to hurt and legs reaching new angles every second.

But it’s happening all too quickly—you want it to slow down so you can bask in the feeling of doing what you love for everyone to see.

You find yourself singing along like you usually do, and start to worry that it could be heard. What if you sound like a crow, squawking Ten and Taeyong’s beautiful lyrics? Focus. You mentally slap yourself when you lean over a minute and a half in to scratch Mina’s chin and head. So you keep going.

You always dance Ten’s role—it was something you begged Mina when you chose Baby Don’t Stop as the next choreography you two would learn. Mina had no problem with it, considering she wanted to dance her own bias’ moves.

Two minutes in and you were officially breathing heavier after the last few complicated moves you had to do. Then the transition to Cherry Bomb started and you took a couple much needs breathes before continuing.

These last two minutes of Cherry Bomb you performed were always the hardest, especially since it was mainly beats rather than actual singing or rapping. There were so many movements that needed perfecting, so many angles that needed to be reached, and so many changes that had to be done quickly all had your head spinning.

Your legs are burning. God, they hurt. You can feel the sweat dripping across your neck, down your spine, and into the waistline of your jeans like a waterfall. However, you receive an adrenaline rush sent by the heavens after the first time you have to fall back onto the floor only to quickly lean back up and do a few more grueling flips and tumbles.

After your very difficult part on the floor, you finally rejoin Mina for the last forty seconds to begin your descent to an almost-split before jumping back up and finishing the song.

The loud music is cut off and you are left with only you and Mina’s heavy breathing, blood rushing in your ears, and the loud applause coming from the crew, anchors, and friends and family off to the side.

Oh my God. We did it. You quickly turn to Mina and engulf her into the tightest hug of your life, not caring about the slick layer of perspiration between you. “I’m so proud of you,” you mumble into her neck, giving her one last squeeze. “Of us,” she quips as Seojun and Yuna stop next to her.

“Kim Mina and ___ ___, ladies and gentlemen! Thank you all for watching and have a wonderful night!”

You wave tiredly at the camera and give a weak smile, but all you can focus on is how heavy your breathing is and an annoying bead of sweat rolling down into your asscrack. Seojun and Yuna say something about relaxing for a while in the private lounge upstairs and as soon as you hear water and brownies you’re off, racing Mina up the stairs no matter how badly your legs scream at you not to.

“I can’t believe we did that!” Mina screams, spinning around and making a bee-line for the table full of beverages and food. You quickly yank your sweaty tank off your body, crumble it up in a ball, and toss it at her head. “Oh my God, you’re a disgusting, repulsive, ugly, sickening rat,” she hisses, swatting your outreaching hand away.

You chuckle to yourself as you grab a water bottle, pausing for a moment to grimace at the copious amount of sweat in your cleavage before cracking the cap off of the bottle and nearly inhaling the delightfully cold, refreshing liquid.

“You know, maybe we should just forget about this. I’m so tired of the way you treat me,” you start, finishing the bottle before cracking open another one without even glancing her way.

“___,” she starts to interrupt, but you don’t let her. “Like, the amount of disrespect I get is nauseating,” you continue while reaching for a brownie and basically shoving the whole thing in your mouth. “___,” she says again.

“I just don’t understand. I do nothing but love and support you, clean the house, nurse our children,” you pause to chew on a chocolate chip cookie, “pick up the dog’s shit, for crying out loud! And this is what I get back?” You finally end your sarcastic rant, popping pieces of cut fruit into your mouth before breaking into a fit of giggles.

“___!” she shouts this, and you finally look at her, wondering if you’ve somehow offended her. You follow her gaze once you realize she’s not even paying any mind to you or your shenanigans.

And there they are.

All eighteen of them.

Right across the room.

The water bottle doesn’t make it to your mouth this time but instead falls from your grip and onto the floor. You don’t even notice it, considering all eighteen fucking members of NCT are sitting only a few yards away, their mouths slightly agape and a shocked expression mirroring your own.

You don’t know how long it takes for one of you to finally say something. “Am I hallucinating or is NCT in our room?” Mina whispers.

You blink hard. Rub your eyes. Pinch your skin. “No. They’re there.”

And then you sob. You don’t know what happened, but something within you snaps and a choke sounds from your lips and tears swell from your eyes.

“Oh my God, don’t cry,” someone says and seconds later engulfs you in a hug.

They were here. In the same room as you. Had they watched you perform? Were they invited, or did they coincidentally have an interview here as well? You sob into the jacket of whoever is holding you, your knees buckling beneath you as they hold you.

“Why are you crying?” None other than Nakamoto Yuta asks quietly, his hand placed gently on your head rubbing soothing circles.

You finally pull away and wipe underneath your eyes. When you look up at him you nearly choke again. He’s so beautiful. “I—how? I just—where did you? What the fuck?” You cry again and nearly melt into a pathetic puddle when he wipes the tears from your eyes.

“Should we leave?” Yuta laughs, his hands resting on your bare shoulders. “No!” You shout, too loudly. You look down in embarrassment. “Okay, good. I was beginning to wonder you actually didn’t like us,” he chuckles again, and this time you look at his face and nearly faint when you see his gorgeous smile you’ve spent hours gawking over.

“No, never. I’m just... confused? How—who? How did you guys get here?” You stutter, shaking under his gaze.

“Well, we were kind of notified that you two would be performing our songs and thought it would be pretty cool to surprise you,” a new voice appears. You feel like throwing up when Mark Lee comes into view.

“I don’t—I literally don’t know how to talk anymore. How is this happening?” You whisper to yourself, hoping they don’t hear you but by their chuckles they apparently do. “Sorry we surprised you to the point you practically shit yourself,” another someone laughs.

Lee Je No has joined your little circle now too, and you reach out to the table next to you to stand properly. “Sorry, give me a moment,” you chuckle, not because you find it funny, but because you’re so entirely wound up you think death is quite possible.

After a moment or so of you controlling your breath and the three awkwardly standing there, you finally lean up and look over them again. Calm down, idiot. They’re people. People that you have read smut about way too many times and have cried your heart out over. But still people.

“Hi, I’m ___,” you eventually opt for, reaching out to whoever. Yuta takes your hand first, then Jeno, and finally Mark. They introduce themselves as if it was totally normal. Mina!

“One second,” you quip, shuffling over to see Mina in her own little circle of Park Ji Sung, Kim Jungwoo, Kim Dong Young, and Lee Tae Yong.

She was with Taeyong!

You scan over the rest of NCT some who are in their conversations or awkwardly standing there. After all, it was eighteen meeting two. Your eyes don’t stay on one person for too long, just because your excitement is so overwhelming and you need to see everyone.

Wong Yukhei. There he was. Six feet tall in all his glory, rocking on his heels as he laughed loudly with Qian Kun. “Lucas is here,” you say suddenly and to no one in particular.

Your statement comes off more as a question and the trio laugh. “Well, he is part of NCT, is he not?” Mark asks with a grin. “Shush, she’s going through a midlife crisis over here. You heard her earlier,” Yuta retorts with an elbow to Mark’s side.

“Oh God, did he hear me say that he’s my bias?” You hiss, slapping yourself on the forehead. “Well, we were all watching, so I’d say so by the way he blushed about a hundred shades red,” Jeno says, giving your shoulder a squeeze. He blushed?

“C’mon, you should meet everyone,” Marks luckily saves the day and changes the subject. He reaches for your hand and you take it gently, looking down in hot embarrassment. You aren’t wearing your shirt! You’re mouth forms an ‘o’ as recognition hits you like a train and you let go of his hand to pick up the crumpled shirt on the floor.

Even after you pull the damp tank back on you still feel incredibly embarrassed for having been so exposed to the boys and can’t seem to shake it from your mind until you start meeting everyone.

It’s awkward at first, but they’re all incredibly sweet—sweeter than they are online—and you fit right in. After thirty minutes or so, you’re finally led to the last few members.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Lucas. What do I say? Act normal? Pretend he isn’t my lock screen or the reason I’ve been up until four in the morning on so many nights? You have yet another midlife crisis and opt to just smile at him.

But you can’t look away. The tall, beautiful, genuine, hilarious, pure, wonderful boy you never in a million years thought would be so close. You can barely breath when his eyes lock with yours and every working brain cell disintegrates.

His lips. They were even plusher and poutier in person and you wanted nothing more than to touch them. His dark hair fell messily over his forehead while a few blonde strands brushed his long eyelashes and you nearly cried at how soft and fluffy it looked. Defined eyebrows, darkdarkdark brown eyes, sharp jaw, and the soft slope of his nose were the only things you were focused on and yet you couldn’t find yourself to care despite the incredibly long staring contest the two of you were having.

“I was just telling everyone that you’re my mini-me,” Ten giggles and it finally brings you back to reality. You look away from Lucas to quirk an eyebrow at Ten’s statement. Just how long were you staring? Long enough to not know what they’re talking about, clearly. “You know,” he elbows you, “you dance my part in Baby Don’t Stop.”

“Oh,” you laugh, curling into him when his arm drapes over your shoulder, “I wouldn’t say I’m a mini you. Nowhere’s close.”

“You’re lying,” Lucas interjects and it takes everything in you to look at him again. “I think you dance it even better than Ten,” he teases and when he laughs something deep within the confines of your heart sparks—it’s a loud, hearty laugh that you swear on your life is the best sound you have ever heard. Your mouth falls open at his compliment and can’t help the hotness that rushes up your neck and onto your cheeks.

“Ouch,” Ten fakes to cry, finally removing his arm to place his hand over his heart. What were you to say? You simply could not form a coherent reply and instead stood there like an idiot, completely starstruck.

Eventually, conversations start to slow down and everyone is sitting, either on their phone or piling junk food onto plants and chowing down. You find yourself gravitating to the empty seat next to Mina and as soon as you sit down, she grins at you.

“What have we gotten ourselves into?” You laugh, toying with rips in your jeans. “I don’t know. All I do know is that I don’t ever want them to leave,” she sighs, and the realization hits you.

They were going to have to go eventually, and no matter how close they lived to you or not, the chances of ever being able to see them were incredibly low. It was like a dagger to the heart, twisting and digging into you as the disappointment settled in. “At least we got to meet them,” you whisper, trying to be optimistic.

“I know, but now that I’ve had a taste, I want the full platter,” she mumbles and you feel like smacking her for having to sound so wise.

Before you can reply, Chenle appears next to Mina and leans on his elbows, wisps of blonde hair falling into his eyes. “Hey, so, would you guys want to come back to the dorms with us? We’re doing a vLive and thought it would be cool to have you guys in it. It’ll be a truth or dare kind of thing with all of us. You guys should come.”

You gape up at him. Go back to the dorms with them? “Could we take a shower?” Mina asks.

“Yeah, of course. vLive can wait,” he laughs, the high pitch of it makes you laugh as well. Mina looks at you, silently pleading to agree.

“I’ll have to ask my mom.”

It took a lot of pleading and begging and fake crying for both you and Mina’s parents to finally agree. After a whole lecture about boys only wanting to get into girls’ pants, arguing that they aren't like that, and making you promise to never leave each other’s sides, you were finally at the dorms.

After Jaehyun guided you both to the bathrooms, you finally got the shower you desperately needed. After shampoo and conditioner, you scrubbed the layer of dried sweat off your skin and simply stood under the warmth of the water. Your muscles were so damn sore, and you were so incredibly exhausted that you feared you would be knocked out and miss out on the fun.

When someone knocked on the door and teased you about taking forever, you started to feel bad and eventually turned the water off. You dried, brushed your damp hair, and swapped your towel for leggings and a black t-shirt that stopped mid-thigh all under fifteen minutes before finally exiting the bathroom.

You hear laughter coming from down the hall and aimlessly follow in that direction, hoping to find your newfound... friends and not walk into some important meeting. Although, who would be meeting at seven o'clock at night?

“___, we got pizza!” Johnny calls from across the room, being the first to notice your entrance. Wow. The dance practice room is even bigger in person? Your fingers trace the mirrors on every wall as you make your way over, completely entranced with the large room.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Win Win asks, clearly catching onto your awe. “Yeah, I can’t believe how... how big it is,” you gape, spinning on your heels to take it all in again. Imagine how awesome it would be to have all this space!

“That’s what she said,” someone comments, and you look over to see Jaehyun smirking and can't help but laugh at his stupid line. “How original,” you snort while the rest of the boys roar in laughter.

“How did you manage to finish before me?”

You’re surprised when Mina appears by your side but also relieved that she’s finally here. “’Dunno, a lot of weird things have happened today.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Are you guys going to eat or did we order four boxes for nothing?” Taeyong asks and you roll your eyes while Mina mumbles something along the lines of ‘so damn aggressive’ in your ear.

You skip over to the table and grab at a slice while discerning where to sit. Were you to just sit anywhere randomly? By yourself? With someone in particular? This is awkward. Jaemin must have read your mind since he calls you over and pats the open spot on the windowsill next to him.

“Thanks,” you smile, pulling your legs up and sitting crisscross. “So,” he starts, and you glance up at him.

Damn.

Jaemin always had a special place in your heart, so having him right here in front of you made concentrating on one part of his face rather difficult. “So.”

“I thought you and Mina’s whole story was really cool. Since it started as a joke and such,” he says, casually leaning back against the window. “Aw, thank you! As much as it would be super cool to be able to tell people dancing has been our passion our whole life, that’s just not the case. We just lucked out, I guess.”

“Heck yeah, you did. I mean, look at you! It’s a shame you don't sing too—you’d really be a knock-out,” he compliments rather smoothly, crisscrossing his own legs so that your knees were now touching. You couldn’t tell if he was flirting or not, not that you minded, but quickly brushed it off.

“Nana, are you flirting with a girl older than you?”

You look up and nearly shit yourself when Lucas leans against the wall next to you, his muscular thighs just barely pressing gently against your bent knee. “That’s exactly what I’m doing,” Jaemin replies, clearly not fazed by Lucas’ sudden bossy front.

“Anyway, I’m off. Catch me later, yeah?” Jaemin beams, playfully bumping into your shoulder before hopping off the sill and walking away. Leaving you by yourself. With Yukhei.

“Hello,” he greets, his voice deep and his grin wide, making his big eyes scrunch up in delight. “Hi,” you squeak, voice quiet and rather pathetic. “I’m starting to think you don’t like me, ___, and I’m really hurt,” he sighs from his position still next to the wall. Very intimidating for such a soft boy. You take a deep breath. Act normal.

You scoff. “Ah, yes, Yukhei, I’m sorry to break it to you, but I don’t like you.”

“You know you can call me Lucas.”

“I’m aware,” you laugh, suddenly hyper-aware of the sudden lack of space when he leans even closer. “Then why do you call me Yukhei?”

You swallow the thump in your throat and force yourself to look at the boy you have once claimed your undying love for. “’Dunno. I’ll start calling you Lucas if you really want me to.”

“No! No—I didn’t mean it like that. I just—never mind.” Bingo. Finally broke his little facade. “Gosh, Yukhei, you shouldn’t be flirting with a younger girl,” you use his words to Jaemin somewhat against him, and the sudden confidence has you grinning up at him. His mouth hangs open a bit.

Before he replies, Taeyong claps and everyone’s attention is on him. “We’re starting the vLive so if everyone could somehow come over here that would be fantastic.”

You shift off the windowsill after popping the last piece of pizza in your mouth and look up at Lucas, who’s still looking at you with his jaw slack. “Sorry, I’ll go back to being nervous around you,” you tease before bouncing back over to the two sofas.

Despite everyone’s pleas for you and Mina to sit on the couch, you opt for the floor and sit next to Jaehyun who greets you with a heartwarming smile. “Have you ever done a vLive before?” He asks once you’re comfortably settled next to him.

“Oh yeah, we’ve done a few. It’s kind of hard when you’re still a senior and have a shit ton of homework. Plus trying to learn new choreography takes a lot of free time,” you laugh. “I mean, you would know,” you add, hoping to not sound cocky.

“I feel that,” he smiles, moving his arm from between you to rest around your shoulders. You can’t help but smile at it.

“And... we’re on!” Jungwoo cheers, finally moving away from the phone set up on a tripod a few feet away. Everyone cheers and waves so you awkwardly join in, hoping to somewhat seem as if you aren’t freaking out internally.

Taeil, Mark, and Renjun go back and forth asking everyone watching to drop questions along with ‘good dares because we’re not pussies in this bitch,’ as Haechan whispered from behind you. It doesn’t take long for the comments to start flooding in, and you watch from Mina’s phone that a lot of them are mainly asking who you and she are.

“Guys, this is Kim Mina,” Taeyong finally announces, patting her head from his spot on the floor next to her.

“And this is my best friend ___ ___!” Jaehyun shouts, pulling you into his chest. “Woo!” You cheer, your heart ready to burst at his outburst of affection. “If you guys didn’t catch their performance today, definitely check out their YouTube channel. Super talented gals,” Taeyong finishes.

“Except they don’t sing!” Jaemin shouts and you glance back to give him a playful glare.

“Actually, I heard ___ singing my part in Baby Don’t Stop today,” Ten interjects and you want to die. The boys break into a chorus of ‘oooh’s, turning their attention to him. “She’s pretty good, not gonna lie. Not as good as me, of course,” he giggles.

You laugh, more thankful that you apparently don’t sound like a toad from Hell itself when you absentmindedly sing along during performances.

“I found a question!” Yuta hoots. “Mina and ___, are you dating anybody?”

You glance at Mina and break into a fit of laughter. “If we were dating anybody we definitely would not be here right now. Plus no one in our school wants to date us, we’re losers. So no, we’re not dating anyone,” Mina laughs.

“Way to lighten the mood,” Chenle cackles like a dolphin somewhere behind you.

“Oh, I got a dare. Jungwoo, you have been dared to slap Doyoung’s booty,” Jaehyun calls from next to you. Ah, yes. You’d finally get to see Dowoo in action.

After a few moments the two get up and stand right in front of you, and Jungwoo gives the most aggressive slap he could have done that has the whole room roaring in laughter while Doyoung basically cries.

“Mina, someone asked you to marry them, what do you say?” Ten shouts. “Sure! I’ll marry you!” The pretty girl next to you says to the phone, adding a charming wink that has them laughing again.

“Wow, I feel left out on this one. But someone asked that Mina, ___, and everyone from the Firetruck music video perform the first minute of the choreo,” Jeno reads and your eyes nearly bug out of your head. More dancing? “I don't think my legs can take any more moving,” Mina sighs.

“I’m with you on that one.”

“Do you know this?” Mark asks, walking with you to push the tripod back so everyone could fit within the frame.

“Yeah, might be a little dusty though,” you laugh. “That’s okay, so are we,” Yuta reassures before getting into his position. The song begins and luckily it only takes you a few moments for it to come back to you, but the song is paused after at the minute mark even before you can really get into it or break a sweat.

“That was fun,” you comment, sitting back down next to Mina and Jaehyun. His arm goes back around your shoulders and you’re left thinking way too far into it, your heart beating wildly at the older boy’s sudden attachment.

“Truth for Mina again: how are you so gorgeous?” Chenle reads and you watch as her face turns a deep shade of red that has you all cooing at her. “I’m not. But thank you,” she rushes and you smack the back of her head.

“I got a dare! Ha. Jisung, you have to eat a raw egg,” Jungwoo giggles and everyone cries ‘eww’ in unison. “I hate you all,” he grumbles, getting up and jogging out of the room. Moments later the blue-headed boy returns, glass in hand.

“You’re all going to burn in Hell for this,” he says before bringing the glass to his lips and chugging the egg down like a shot.

“Ehhhhhhh, ew, oh gosh, ewww,” he whines second later, his tongue wiggling out of his mouth and his face contorting into a disgusted grimace.

“Dare for ___ and Mina! You guys have to do splits,” Johnny reads, glancing up from his phone to wiggle his eyebrows at you.

“I can’t do a split,” you grumble, stumbling up to your feet. You move away a little and suddenly feel incredibly self-conscious when Mina goes down once and gets it perfectly. Your mouth hangs open. “Yeah, I don’t do that.”

“Try!” Someone hoots and you opt for a straddle since you almost have that during Cherry Bomb. You start to spread your legs, going lower and lower until the muscles in your thighs are screaming. “You got it!” Mina cheers you on, “helping” you by pushing your back lightly.

Instead, you lose your balance and stumble over, groaning when your chin hits the hard floor. “Thanks, stupidhead,” you mumble, your face red in embarrassment because you just face planted in front of NCT and their fan base.

You stand back up and brush yourself off with a smile, trying to seem unbothered, especially when Jaehyun shoots you a sympathetic smile from the floor. You make your way to the table and pour yourself a cup of soda despite the fact that Lucas was right there, ignoring him altogether to avoid another awkward encounter.

But, unfortunately yet somewhat, fortunately, he has a different idea. Before you can manage to walk away, his large hands reach out, attach to your waist, and pull you down until your sitting rigidly on his lap, perfectly set within the space of his chest and the arm of the sofa.

You attempt to not think too far into it, reminding yourself of all the times members randomly pull one another into each other’s laps. But this was Lucas, pulling you onto his lap. Your heart is beating sporadically now, all the blood rushing to your head and goosebumps rising along your skin.

He clearly notices it, too, since his one hand still on your waist squeezes while the fingers on his other trace the bumps on your forearm. You twist your head to look at him. “What are you doing?” You hiss after it finally hits you—people were watching.

“Am I still you’re favorite?” He grins, obviously mocking the question posed by Yuta. “Not right now you aren’t,” you retort, eyes wide when he laughs loud and incredibly obnoxious. Now everyone was really looking.

“Sorry! ___ is just super funny!” He laughs again and your eyes go wide as everyone takes in the scene before them. After they all get over it and go back to the vLive, you look at him again.

“Are you on drugs? What’s up with you? You’re even crazier in person,” you whisper, your voice clearly shrinking when his hands go back to wrap snugly across your stomach. “Not crazy.” Is all he says.

“What, then? Are you suddenly super clingy or something? Or just drunk out of your mind?” You keep egging him on—you need to know what’s going through his damn head. “First Jaemin, then Jaehyun, and then everyone’s whispering about you,” he replies, his voice deep and raspy in your ear.

“Excuse me?”

“Gotta make sure I’m still you’re favorite,” he whispers, smiling innocently against your shoulder. Your mouth falls agape. What the fuck was going on? Since when? How? When did this all happen?

As the vLive dragged on, there wasn’t many dares or questions posed anymore, and everyone was just joking around and talking. At times when both you and Lucas were laughing, you thought you could make an escape but his long fingers became an iron grip on your ribs if you even tried moving. And he was acting so normal; still cracking jokes and making faces and acting like an idiot as if you weren’t even there.

So, you eventually give up and decide you might as well get comfortable, moving around so his hip bone wasn’t uncomfortably digging into you or that you weren’t awkwardly just plopped on his lap. After all, it’s not like your making out with him or doing anything bad. Sitting on laps was a fairly normal thing, right?

And oh God, did he smell like heaven. It was as if sandalwood and peppermint were clouding your brain, and every time you glanced up you got a little peek at his gentle features you had found yourself so in love with when he first debuted. How did you find yourself so close to someone that nearly fills up half of your camera roll?

“Anyway, guys, I think we’re gonna log out for tonight.”

You turn your attention back to the original reason you were even here, heart thumping against your chest and whole body on fire. You cannot concentrate with Yukhei’s body heat warming you head to toe and his breathing against your neck or his occasional laugh, let alone his long fingers spread across the dips of your waist and his thighs beneath your own. You blink until you refocus, quickly realizing everyone was waving and shouting goodbye. With an apprehensive and rather awkward wave, you watch in relief as Taeyong finally ends the live.

You hold your breath—what now? As soon as his grip loosens you’re up, moving a few feet away to stretch and simply breath. Lucas follows after a few seconds, raising his long arms over his head and stretching them with a yawn.

“That was fun,” he says with a smile plastered on his face. You glare at him, not entirely too sure what to say. What was there to even say? ‘Hey man, what the fuck was that?’ or were you to just act normal about it? And what were the NCTzens going to say or do, and how many questions were going to be asked? Hopefully, people wouldn't delve that far into it.

“You guys should always come over when we go live,” he says, rocking on his heels. Oh, was this what we were going to do? Act normal? “I don’t think your fans would like that very much,” you laugh awkwardly.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I mean, or we could always use more members for NCT. Make it twenty,” he jokes and you truly laugh this time. “Yeah, no. I’m holding out until NCT Antarctica.”

“That would be exciting, you could impress everyone with your almost-there-but-not-really split,” he teases, laughing loudly again. There you go being embarrassed again, face burning red. “Shut up.”

“I’m kidding, I certainly can’t do that,” he says. “Gee, that makes me feel better,” you scoff playfully, rolling your eyes. He gasps. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hey, I hate to say this, but are you ready to go? I’m so knocked.”

Before you can reply Mina is next to you, pressing her body weight onto your side. “Uh, yeah, I’m ready if you are,” you smile to her sympathetically. “Thank the heavens, I could sleep for a year.”

“Mina and ___ are leaving, guys!” Lucas suddenly shouts and everyone breaks into a chorus of ‘aww’s. Ignoring the painfully obvious disappointment, you and Mina say goodbye to each member, offering a hug and quick exchange of appreciative pleasantries.

“What’s your numbers? We’re adding you to a group chat,” Ten says after releasing you from a hug. “What?”

He beams at you and you stutter your number out, Mina doing the same, and watch in complete astonishment as Ten types them into his phone. “Thanks,” he grins again, bringing you into another quick hug. He and Lucas walk the two of you to the door, and when Lucas wraps his arms around your waist after hugging Mina you feel as if you’re literally flying—physically and emotionally—as he lifts your feet up off the ground.

“Bye, ___,” he mumbles after setting you back down. “’Night, Yukhei.”

“Am I still your favorite?”

“Yeah, don’t you worry.”

Forty-eight hours later when you’re in the middle of studying AP Chemistry vocabulary, you receive a text from a number not saved. When you swipe it open, it’s a group chat full of exactly twenty people, and the only name in there is Mina.

Seventy-two hours later you have plans for Saturday night.

Forty-four hours later, you are sitting on the same sofas from last week, watching NCT U practice Boss while the backup dancers give you and Mina the rundown.

You’re nervous. You’ve done this choreography before, basically have it memorized like the back road you take on the way home, but you never did it as a group. The version with just two people was significantly different; plus having to do it with NCT? You would’ve never dreamt of this in a million—trillion—years.

You spent way too much time watching the dance practice on their channel and practicing it with Mina. Both Jaehyun and Win Win were feeling ill, and although the live could have just been pushed back, Taeyong insisted the two of you came and joined in for ‘shits and giggles,’ as Mark texted.

Thankfully it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing and it wouldn't be uploaded anywhere. But it would be live, which meant absolutely zero mistakes.

Mina squeezes your hand when the two of you finally move to the boys and get in your respective positions, the live already started a few minutes ago. “You ready?” Lucas turns around from in front of you, offering a reassuring smile. You nod quickly, swallowing the lump in the back of your throat and focusing on the positives.

Hey, maybe this would help your future career. Being with NCT for the second time may shine some light on you and Mina and could possibly give you major popularity. Nothing but good could come out of this, you tell yourself.

The song starts and your mind completely goes into business mode, your brain remembering twists and turns correctly until you’re following each part spotlessly, especially Jaehyun’s solo part, no matter how awkward it is looking into the phone all to yourself.

And you can’t help but feel as if your pushing yourself harder simply because Lucas is there with you. Sure, you’re scared shitless of messing up, but knowing he might be watching most definitely gives you a push, even if you don't want to admit it.

But you mess up.

It’s minor—incredibly minuscule that no one besides you probably notices it. Your ankle twists in an awkward angle and a searing pain shoots up your Achilles tendon that has you breathless for a moment. You dance through it though, and the song ends before you even know it.

The only sound throughout the large room is the heavy breathing from everyone followed by a joyous cheer. “That was so fun, holy shit. Dancing with a group is so... so empowering,” Mina stammers with her hands on her hips, breath heavy. You simply nod in agreement, your mind too caught up in how much your foot burns. Fuck.

“Showers and pizza, yeah?” Doyoung asks, running a hand through his dampened hair. Everyone nods in silent agreement before splitting up in different directions in search of a free bathroom.

You wobble behind Mina and it doesn't take her long to realize something’s up.

“You're hurt,” she notes, watching the way you limp. “Yeah. It’s fine. I’ll be okay,” you mumble, shooting her a smile and ignoring the rise of her perfectly sculpted right eyebrow.

But it still hurts, even after your shower.

Simply trying to pull your cotton shorts up your leg is an ordeal and you’re left out of breath once you have them on. Instead of heading back to where everyone else is, you wander through the corridors for the kitchen and once you’re there, you open the freezer in search for an icepack.

“Whatcha looking for?” You practically jump out of your skin at Lucas’ sudden appearance, leaning on the counter. “An ice pack,” you grumble, shoving an ice-cream carton out of the way.

“Yo, yo, yo, no need to get aggressive with the Rocky Road, man. What do you need an icepack for?”

“Foot. Ankle. Tendon. That area,” you reply, lifting your foot and pointing to the now swollen area. “Foot-ankle-tendon, that’s new.”

“Shut up,” you laugh, lightly smacking his hand. “Sorry, sorry,” he laughs freely now, the loud, angelic sound filling the room. He scoots you out of the way and continues digging through the freezer until moments later, he comes up with a beloved icepack. You beam at him in appreciation.

“C’mon, follow me,” he says, linking his arm through yours and leading you down a different hallway. Once he opens the door and flicks the light switch on, you realize it’s his and Kun’s room and your mouth slightly falls open. “Sit.”

You do so quietly, watching from his bed as the tall boy rummages through a dresser and seconds later whips out an ace bandage. “I can do that, you know,” you laugh awkwardly, ogling at how his beautiful face scrunches up in concentration as he kneels down and begins to snugly wrap the whole area.

“You can also call me Lucas,” he retorts, pinning the bandage in place and kicking his door closed. Your heart beats faster now. “Oh my God, what’s wrong with calling you Yukhei? Unless you truly don’t like being called that,” you laugh as he plops down beside you and turns the television on. Your heart settles.

“No, I don’t mind. I’m just not used to people I’m not super close with calling me Yukhei,” he admits while flipping through channels. “Oh. I’m being honest, I’ll call you Lucas from now on if you want.”

“I’m teasing, you can call me anytime,” he looks over with a wink, but then his face falls, “wait.”

You genuinely laugh at him this time, watching as he frowns. “How did you forget the whole beginning to that pun?”

“I don’t know. Shut up,” he snickers, then tosses the remote down next to your leg with a huff. He quickly turns to you and you look expectedly at him. “Have you ever played Fortnite?”

You laugh again. “I’ve played mobile but never Xbox or PlayStation,” you admit, watching joyfully as his eyes light up. “Can I show you how to play? We can do duos. We have two TVs, Kun and I usually play together. I mean, only if you want, you don’t have to, but—”

“Yes, I’ll play!” You interrupt, your mouth truly hurting from laughing as the beautiful boy in front of you rambled on. “Really?” He beams.

“Really.”

“Oh my gosh, this is probably the best day ever. I’ve never been able to teach anyone how to play, it’s really so fun, well you said you’ve played before so you know, but still. I feel so bad for all the girlfriends in the world who don’t play and just get annoyed ‘cause they're really missing out, you know? I’m so happy you’re somewhat experienced though, that kind of makes this a little easier. But, ah! This will really be fun,” the tall boy goes on and on, and you simply listen with a smile on your face as he sets up the two screens.

“Oh, gosh, I’m sorry, I got super excited. I promise I’m not that weird,” he chuckles uncomfortably, looking at his feet while the Fortnite screen loads. “Pfft, don’t be sorry. And that wasn’t weird at all; super cute, actually,” you smile, surprising even yourself with your blunt honesty. The pink hue of his cheeks darken and your stomach leaps—you did that!

“Okay, this is just the lobby so I can show you some stuff before it actually starts,” Lucas says, sitting back on his bed and scooting to lay back against the wall. He passes you a PlayStation controller and cups your hands in his. “Okay, this is to move,” he demonstrates and you look up to your screen and back to his fingers.

He goes on and on from explaining the simple goal of the game to shooting, jumping, crouching, and so on, but in all honesty, all you can focus on is his soft hands on yours. Luckily once the game starts you sit in comfortable silence aside from random comments about finding a chest or ‘there’s a shield over here,’ until, alas, there are only twenty people left and you encounter another duo.

The two of you break into a chorus of shouts, warning each other and groaning when you mess up. Your aim isn’t horrific, but definitely not amazing, and you’re wasting ammo terribly. When you have to reload, the opponent shoots you dead and you drop your controller with an annoyed sigh. Seconds later, he dies as well.

“Sorry, that was my fault,” you grumble, wiping your now sweaty hands on your t-shirt. “Don’t worry, eighteenth place isn’t too shabby for your first duo,” he reassures you and sets his controller down.

“Are we going to play another?” You inquire and he raises a thick brow in response. “Do you want to?”

“Um, yeah!”

You play fourteen more rounds, ranging from fiftieth, seventeenth, sixth, and sometimes even fourth place. On your last round, however, Lucas dies and leaves you to battle the last duo.

With a clever jump while reloading, you’re able to quickly kill one player and when the last player hides behind a tree, you find the perfect angle and come in first place.

“Oh my God, we won! You won!” Lucas hoots, shaking you by your shoulders until you’re cheering with him. “Yes, yes, yes!” You shout, grinning ear to ear. “I’m so proud, now you can tell everyone I’m the best Fortnite tutor ever,” he brags, running his hand through his hair and you have to keep yourself from drooling.

You check your phone. 9:47 PM. You’ve been in here for two hours. “I think we’ve played enough for tonight,” he chuckles, turning one television off and switching the other to cable. Now what? Should I leave?

“Holy shit, Zootopia is on,” he suddenly gasps and you look over to see him wide-eyed. “I thought guys weren’t supposed to like stuff like this?”

“We’re not supposed to,” he shrugs, looking over at you with a wide grin, “but I can’t help myself.” You don’t reply and instead sink lower into the mattress, fixing the pillow behind your head in order to get comfier. You keep going back and forth from watching the movie and sneaking glances at Yukhei in his red sweatshirt, hood up and hiding most of his face. Regardless, you can still see strands of his soft hair falling into his eyes and the outline of his lips and begin to feel dizzy by something so incredibly simple but still so breathtaking.

Your eyes begin to grow heavy and burn from the brightness of the television compared to the darkness of the rest of his room and you force yourself to blink hard a few times to keep them from fluttering closed. Don't fall asleep now, he's so close. He was leaning his weight on you, slightly slumping on his side with his arm and thigh pressing against yours and you could feel him breathing.

You blink again, but you don’t open them right away this time just to give them a rest. A few minutes won’t hurt, right?

You quickly fall asleep to Nick Wilde telling Officer Judy Hopps that she needs to give him that pen.

Warmth.

That’s exactly what you wake up to—you can feel warm sunlight dancing on your bare arm and face as it shines shamelessly through the curtains, the white duvet tucked up to your neck engulfs you like a hug, and overall warmth surrounds you on this lovely morning.

Never getting up, you think to yourself, or maybe you even grumble it, you don’t know. You sigh softly and curl your arms and legs tighter around your body pillow, pressing your face against it and breathing in the familiar scent—

Wait.

You inhale deeply again. Sandalwood and peppermint.

Sandalwood and peppermint?

Your eyes are open in a millisecond, but you quickly squeeze them shut in fear of that what you think you saw isn't what’s actually there. You force yourself to peel an eye open again and nearly vomit at how breathtaking the view before you is.

“Yukhei,” you finally breath, barely audible, testing to see if he was up. He doesn’t budge or flinch or sigh—nothing. He stays asleep, his breath softly fanning over your chest from where he lies. The same soothing sunlight warming your skin makes his honey skin gold, and his eyelashes cast soft shadows across his cheekbones while his lips are just so pouty you aren't even thinking when your hand leaves his side to trace his Cupid’s bow.

If your phone was in reach you’d take a picture right then and there and selfishly keep it to yourself, something no one else could have because it’s your memory to keep. But you can’t seem to move. Instead, you stay still, memorizing every plane and curve of his face because you know nothing will ever be as ethereal as what you see right now.

One, five, ten minutes later, you have no idea nor do you care, you realize you should leave. This wasn't right, as much as you hated to admit it. Your heart was completely on the line here and you weren't prepared to be utterly heartbroken in the long run.

You start to shift, slowly, barely an inch at a time, further from the comforting warmth radiating off his body. You’re closer to the window now, and once you detach his remaining hand, you can easily lean up and make your escape.

You shakily reach for his long fingers spread across the small of your back and gently slide it off and lay it on his pillow.

Yukhei groans into his soft pillow and you freeze, hoping he’ll just turn away but no—both hands come back this time, reaching for your body. And once they find your waist you’re being pulled back even closer now.

He sighs against your collarbone and you start to melt. “Don't go. You’re so warm,” he breathes, turning his face so that his cheek lies flat on the center of your chest. “I think I should.”

“No, shut up,” he mumbles back, completely locking his muscular arms around your back.

You huff in defeat and rest your hands around his shoulders. He seems to already be back asleep, so you absentmindedly run your fingers through his hair you've been dying to touch and practically cry when he hums in response. So you continue to, gently scratching his scalp and untangling the ends until he's softly snoring against your collarbone once more.

Your heart genuinely aches—you can feel it in your chest, months and weeks and days and hours of adoration for the boy clinging to you swelling from inside and out and you cannot comprehend that you're even here with him. What did this mean? Friends who have only met twice and randomly texted throughout a single week did not share a bed, let alone spend the morning like this.

You sigh, mainly out of guilt but also sadness—you wanted to wake up like this every morning, stay up every day the way you had, fall asleep with him beside you every night. But would it happen? It was incredibly unlikely and you wanted to sob.

You huff again, pushing your thoughts into another corner of your brain and deciding to just relish in the moment now. You wiggle further down until finally, you’re face to face with perfection himself, his nose just barely brushing your own.

You close your eyes again, hoping maybe you’d fall back asleep and when you wake up again he wouldn’t be there anymore.

“I knew you wouldn’t leave.”

Your eyes are open in a flash, widening at his words and at the fact his own were staring at you intently. “Only because you asked. And you’re very comfy,” you admit, hoping he wouldn’t see right through you. “So I’ve been told.”

“Oh, yeah? By who?” You can't help but ask, not only were you curious but you genuinely wanted to hear his raspy morning voice again. “Oh, you know...” He trails off, and you’re not aware of his hands on your waist until they start tapping against your skin.

“Jungwoo?”

“Yeah, Jungwoo,” he breathes, nuzzling his face back into the crook of your neck and you can’t help but notice that he inhales deeply. “You alright?” You ask gingerly, placing your free hand back on his head and playing with an oddly darker strand of hair.

“Mhm,” he hums against your skin, “comfy. And you smell good.”

Your heart jumps over hurdles at his words and you’re so entirely grateful that he can't see the way your cheeks burn. You stare at the wall for the next few minutes in silence, your mind blank until he starts to breathe heavily and you can only assume he’s fallen asleep once more.

You must have fallen back asleep as well because when you open your eyes again the tall boy isn’t next to you, but sitting on the edge of the bed and prodding you awake. And by prodding, you mean attacking your sides and tickling you until your mind registers the dull pain.

“Stop, stop, stop!” You cry, leaning up and tearing his hands away. “I’m up, I’m up. Jesus,” you hiss, leaning against the wall and smoothing your hair.

He’s grinning so big you fear his face might break. “Sorry, you wouldn’t wake up so I had to do it the hard way,” he laughs.

“Did you try saying my name?”

“Yeah.”

“Poking me?”

“Yep.”

“Oh,” you sigh, “sorry. I guess I was really knocked.” He laughs. “Don’t worry about it. I would’ve let you just stay there all day but your phone was blowing up,” he explains, standing up and stretching. He’s already dressed, so when you check the time you aren't surprised to see that it’s noon.

Mina has texted you nineteen times. Some are from last night simply asking where you were, then calling you out for leaving her alone with Jeno, followed by texts from this morning calling you ‘such a thot and you know why’ and ending with something along the lines of ‘Taeyong isn’t my bias anymore;)’ and you’re laughing.

“What?” Lucas asks and you just show him, watching his expression grow until he’s laughing too. “I feel bad, I stole you from her,” he chuckles, running a hand through his hair. How were you supposed to reply to that? “That’s okay, she’s left me all by myself at parties plenty of times, this isn’t a big deal.” You notice the way his face falls but brush it off when he smiles softly and sits down beside you. “Good. How’s the foot feel?”

“Uh, better, I think. I haven’t walked it yet so I’m not sure.”

Goosebumps rise along your limbs the second he reaches for the white blanket and his knuckles brush your skin and you just pray he doesn’t notice. You watch silently as he unwraps the bandage and presses the skin around your ankle. “Well, it’s not nearly as swollen so that should be a good sign, right?”

“I suppose so,” you laugh, twisting your ankle in his gentle hold. Luckily there’s no major pain so you shimmy off the bed (as much as you don’t want to) and stand up, testing your weight as he watches on. “I think it’ll be okay.”

“Phew, thank Jesus,” he smiles, getting up as well and swinging the door open. “There’s still some leftovers from breakfast if you want some,” Lucas says as you walk down the corridor to the kitchen. Jisung and Haechan pass you on the way and when they wiggle their eyebrows, all you do is smile and look down at your feet.

“Breakfast sounds amazing.”

When you enter the kitchen only Mina and Jeno are in there, sitting on high top chairs at the counter. Mina sees you first and her eyes light up. “___! Look who decided to wake up!”

“Sorry,” you laugh, “I was super tired I suppose.”

“Mhm, I wonder why,” Jeno smirks and your mouth falls open. “NO!” You and Lucas shout at the same time and Mina and Jeno break into a fit of giggles. “We played Fortnite all night. And watched Zootopia,” you grumble, smiling appreciatively when Lucas passes you a plate.

“Is Fortnite a new code for f—”

Lucas glares at Jeno angrily and he quickly shuts up, turning to Mina with a grin. “When did that happen?” You scoff, pointing between them. If they were going to play like that, so would you.

“Well, when you two disappeared she was all alone so we hung out and even practiced Go,” Jeno retorts back. You roll your eyes in defeat and hold your plate out as Lucas spoons what’s left of scrambled eggs and toast on your plate. “Thank you,” you beam at him.

You eat in relative silence except for the occasional snicker when Lucas leans over to show you a meme on his phone. After helping to clean up, you and Mina finally deem that it’s time to leave and say goodbye to whoever is out and about in the dorms.

You find yourself wrapped in Lucas’ muscular arms once again and you can't help but feel at home in his warm embrace. Discreetly as possible, you scrunch his sweatshirt in your palms and breath in his alluring scent, praying, hoping that this won't be the last time you’ll ever be so close. “Text me, okay?” He mumbles in your hair.

“Yeah, sounds good,” you smile, finally pulling away from his hold.

And so you do. You’re lying in bed, fresh out of the shower on Tuesday night with all homework complete and Mina on FaceTime.

“Jesus Christ ___, just send it. You slept in the same bed for crying out loud,” she hisses and your face flushes at the recent memory. “Okay, okay. I’m sending it.”

9:53 PM - To Lucas: hey yukhei!!

“Oh gosh, I sent it,” you gasp, tossing your phone onto the floor and smacking your face. Mina looks at you with a raised eyebrow from the screen of your laptop. “I have to tell you something.”

Now, this makes you look up, completely forgetting about the text. “I hate that sentence,” you say, but luckily she doesn't seem too fazed. “No, it’s not bad. Well, kind of. I don’t know,” she sighs, worrying you, “remember when I texted you saying Taeyong isn’t my bias anymore?”

“I’m guessing you weren't just joking around?” You ask slowly.

“I wish. Well, when me and Jeno were hanging out all night I hadn't really realized until he was talking all philosophical to me just how cute he was. And once I did, I noticed how hardcore he was flirting,” she rambles, never looking directly at the camera, “so while you were sleeping in the same bed as Lucas I was, you know, flirting back, and we uh—we kissed. And then he apologized for rushing and I said that I was sorry too and, well, now we’re going on a date tomorrow!”

Your mouth falls open. Mina and Jeno? “I—wow. I don't know what to say,” you laugh, “that’s amazing!”

“You think so?” She’s beaming like a little girl on Christmas morning now. “Yes! While Taeyong is a god, he’s way too old for you while Jeno is our age. Plus, he’s a sweetie so I support.”

“Oh, gosh. He’s such an angel. He’s so adorable and so funny but if he thinks a joke is rude he always apologizes and God, he’s so sweet,” she goes on and you can't help but smile for her. Your phone dings from the floor and Mina stops to smirk at you. “That might be him!”

You squeal, leaning off your bed and picking up your phone.

9:57 PM - To You: Hello ___ !!!

“Oh my God, he replied,” you squeak excitedly, bouncing excitedly. “Yes!” Mina shouts and you can’t help but laugh. “Ask him how he is.”

9:58 PM - To Lucas: how are youuuu

“So yeah, I guess we’re going to have to double date now,” she giggles and if she was next to you, you would have smacked her. “I don’t want to mess this up, you know? It’s still so unreal to me,” you sigh.

“I mean, you’re already pretty good friends with him and you had a major snuggle session, plus I think you’re both whipped and should just marry now,” Mina says and you laugh at her honesty. “Ah, yes. Marriage is always the answer.

10:01 PM - To You: Im doing better now, how are u?:))

You can’t help but squeal again. “Anyway, I’m going to go. I still have to do these god-forsaken note cards,” she sighs, waving her blank cards dramatically, “have fun talking to your boyfriend. Text me if anything juicy happens.”

“Okay, I will. Goodnight sweaty, love you.”

“Love you too shithead,” she giggles before hanging up and you close your laptop to finally head to bed. Or, lie in bed while on your phone.

10:03 PM - To Lucas: im swell. school SUX tho

10:03 PM - To You: Aww I’m sorry, is something wrong?

10:04 PM - To Lucas: no, i just want to be out of there and live my life u kno?

10:04 PM- To You: Yeah, I understand:(

10:04 PM - To You: I have a question

10:05 PM - To Lucas: sure

10:05 PM - To You: Is my bed comfier than urs

The butterflies in your stomach are becoming painful now, stirring such emotions within you that you feel as if you might just explode. You’re grinning like an idiot, too, typing back quickly just so the conversation doesn’t die.

10:06 PM - To Lucas: it depends. theres a few factors that could change my answer

10:06 PM - To You: Such as?

10:06 PM - To Lucas: whether you would be there or not

You have to bite your lip to hold back another squeal of excitement. Where did this confidence come from and how did you just say that? You can’t believe you actually texted it and hope it’s as smooth as it sounded in your head. You could only pray he would flirt back.

10:07 PM - To You: Idk how to reply back smoothly but I hope u know Im smiling like a dork rn and Kun is making fun of me

10:07 PM - To You: How do you do that???

10:08 PM - To Lucas: <33

10:08 PM - To Lucas: do what?

10:09 PM - To You: Everything you say or do makes me smile. And idk why like even when u told me to shut up I couldn't stop grinning. Or when you pretend to be disinterested and lie so I can't see how u actually feel. It makes me smile and I feel weird when Im around u

You can't breathe at his text. Your head is spinning and you have to read it three times to actually comprehend that Wong Yukhei sent that to you.

10:10 PM - To Lucas: i could say the same ab you. you make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside

10:10 PM - To Lucas: gosh, was that too much? sorry

10:11 PM - To Lucas: sorry for always being a mess around u. u still make me nervous

10:11 PM - To You: Yeah. Me too

10:11 PM - To Lucas: really?? u hide it really well

10:12 PM - To You: Yeah man. U make me really anxious. In a good way. I know you won't but I always get scared you'll think im a weirdo

10:12 PM - To Lucas: i could never

10:13 PM - To You: I don't know how to end this conversation now Im too happy but Im super tired and I have practice tmrw

10:13 PM - To Lucas: hm. well. how bout one of us says goodnight and then the other says it back ?

10:14 PM - To You: Clever

10:14 PM - To You: Goodnight ___💗💗

10:14 PM - To Lucas: gnight lucas❤️

You don't fall asleep for another half an hour, your mind buzzing with excitement and affection for the boy who still is your lock screen.

Saturday evening Ten calls you. “___!” He shouts, nearly deafening you.

“Hello!” You shout back.

“I know it’s last minute but I have an invitation for you and Mina,” he’s still talking excessively loud but you find yourself not minding but just grinning at his clear excitement. “Ooh, an invitation for what?”

“If I’m being honest, an invitation for a terrible hangover and quite possibly things you’ll regret. But no, seriously, a friend of Johnny’s friend is having a big ol’ party in his disgustingly large frat house for the end of the semester and it’s open invite. So,” Ten explains, “some of us are going and thought, ‘Hey! Let’s invite our bestest pals Mina and ___!’”

A frat house? A party in a frat house? This would be a precursor to every party ahead of you if you do in fact go to college.

“We’ll be there.”

You should have mentally prepared yourself for this kind of party. You aren’t a very big high school party-goer to begin with, so when you entered the large house with Mina at your side you couldn't get over the sheer magnitude of it all.

Everything was extra—from the extravagant chandeliers and metal railing along the marble stairs to the large rooms seemingly bigger than your own home, to the swarm of sweaty students bouncing to the incredibly loud music, and even to the amount of liquor on counters and tables and the intense smell of hormones.

It was quite suffocating at first and you found yourself clinging to Mina, the extrovert between the two of you, and followed her around like a puppy. Eventually, you warm up after two drinks she passes to you, starting to feel more relaxed in Mina’s navy bodycon dress she forced upon you.

“I think I see Jaehyun!” She shouts in your ear even though you can hear completely fine. You watch against the counter as she jumps up and down like an idiot, waving her arm to catch his attention.

You’re even more surprised when it works. You can tell the gears are short-circuiting in his brain until recognition finally lights up his features and he smiles brightly. He turns for a moment, but then looks back and waves you over.

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” you sigh, downing your fourth shot in a weak attempt to wash all your insecurities away. You slowly follow behind Mina, hopping along to take your heels off so you don't end up embarrassing yourself.

“I didn’t know you guys were here yet!” Is the first thing you hear and it’s Yuta, standing up and grinning beautifully before enveloping you in a hug.

“Surprise?” You draw out once he pulls away.

“C’mon, everyone’s downstairs,” he continues, intertwining his fingers with yours and leading you through the crowd. “Who’s everyone?” You ask on your descent down the steps. “Ugh, well. Me, of course. Taeil, Johnny, Tae, uh...” he trails off, “everyone but Dream members.”

You want to ask if Lucas was there, of course, but you also don’t want to seem clingy and instead kept your mouth shut. After all, you had been texting quite a lot and he never mentioned if he was going tonight. Poor Mina, you think, Jeno won’t be here and their date went well.

“God, he’s already staring and we just got down here,” Yuta mutters, and it takes you way too long to process what he means. “Who?”

“Yukhei. He hasn't stopped talking about you since last week, and now you’re here when he’s been drinking? You’re in for a ride,” Yuta explains as you near the group, but you already feel the anxiety blooming inside your gut. “What does that mean? What do I do?” You hiss, walking slower now.

“I dunno. That’s something you gotta figure out,” he says with a shrug, tapping your forehead with his free hand. You swallow the lump in your throat and just nod, your head suddenly throbbing and you’re not sure if it’s from the soju or what Yuta just told you. Or the fact that Yukhei looks like a whole meal and he’s staring at you just the same way.

Your stomach flips as he scans you head to toe and back again, from your bare legs, up to where the navy lace stops at the expanse of your thighs, to the way the dark material hugs deliciously at your waist and dips sinfully to reveal cleavage that could give a nun a heart attack.

And you can't take your eyes off him. Why did he always have to look so... so good? He could wear a trash bag and still look like a model.

He’s in regular denim skinny jeans that, although he’s sitting, show off his thick thighs and leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. The white, long sleeve tee he’s wearing has a low collar and you can see his collarbones and the way his Adam’s apple bobs. His fluffy hair is messily parted down the middle to show off his forehead and his eyes are so dark you feel as if you suddenly can't breathe oxygen and can only survive off him.

You don’t know how long you’re staring at him until Mina accidentally bumps into you on her way to sit down on the carpet, shaking you from your thoughts. “You good?” You ask each other at the same time. She laughs obnoxiously, the alcohol in her system already in effect.

“I’m good, but are you good?” She asks knowingly, twitching her head in the direction you were just entranced by. “Yeah, just peachy.”

You don't know if you really are good, but what you do know is that that was the hottest checking out experience you had ever shared and can't shake the feeling of excitement setting fire to your nerves.

“C’mon, sit. I’ll get you a drink?” Yuta speaks up again, finally letting go of your hand and moving it to your back to walk you over to an open spot on the couch. “Um, yeah. Sure,” you smile, trying to brush away the feeling that Lucas is still staring, “thank you.”

He only beams back in return before he’s off, and you’re left sitting between Taeil and Kun. “How’s the party so far?” Taeil shouts from beside you and you’re fairly surprised that he initiates small talk, considering you haven’t spoken with him much. “I don’t know, to be honest,” you answer, realizing your throat is going to be dead by the end of the night with how you have to shout, “I’ve only been here like, fifteen minutes. And I’ve never been to a place so big!”

“Really?” He asks, clearly surprised.

“Yeah, not really a party person. High school parties are always in smelly basements and all there is is cringey rounds of truth or dare, spin the bottle, or seven minutes of heaven.”

“Still happens in grown-up parties, sorry to tell you,” he laughs, pausing to take a sip of whatever’s in his cup, “it’s okay though, it’s always fun no matter what we do.”

“I can tell. Except I feel like I’m going to go deaf,” you exaggerate, spinning to look at the monstrous speaker on the wall. “At least they play good music,” Taeil replies and you shrug, “I guess. It’s probably better when your dancing, though,” you say, turning back to him.

Yuta returns moments after that, holding out a cup and you take it and smile appreciatively. When you take a sip, you practically choke on how strong it is but swallow it anyway with a grimace. Once the burn goes away you take another sip and deem it’s not as bad as you initially thought.

“Jesus, slow down before you give him a heart attack,” Kun hisses in your ear, and you glance at him with widened eyes. “Who? And what about me? What if I have a heart attack?” You joke.

“I swear you’re clueless, but I’m hoping that it’s just alcohol shutting down your brain,” he sighs in defeat, “Lucas, of course. He looks away for one second and then when he turns back you’re doing something that surprises him.”

You roll your eyes. “What, am I not allowed to drink?”

“Well, you are underage. But no, seriously. I can tell he thinks it’s hot. Plus, I can practically smell his jealousness from here,” Kun replies, side glancing for barely a second before looking back at you. “You should have seen him when you walked down holding Yuta’s hand.”

You swallow, suddenly feeling guilty.

“Don’t worry about it, he’s not one to stay pissed. He’s obsessed with you already,” Kun smiles, but hides it by taking a sip from his cup, “but hey, next time you sleepover, warn me? Please? I walked into our bedroom the other night and nearly shit myself when I saw you wrapped around him.”

“Sorry, I probably would’ve shit myself too,” you giggle and when something moves out of the corner of your eye, you frown to see Lucas walking away. “He’s getting away,” Kun sings and you look back to him in a panic. “If I follow him I don’t know what could happen,” you sigh honestly.

Of course, you want to go after him just to talk to him privately, but Lord knows what could happen when you have liquor in your system.

“Bullshit! Don’t let that stop you,” Kun smiles, slipping his hands to your back and shoving you to your feet. You sigh, finally standing up and chugging the rest of your drink. “Do I look alright?”

“You look stunning, stop worrying. He went upstairs, probably to piss. Go get ‘em, tiger,” he replies, and you smile and lean back down to squeeze him in a hug. “Thank you,” you whisper, and then you’re off.

You don’t know if it’s the sudden buzz in your brain or not, but going up two flights of stairs leaves you way too winded and dizzy then it normally does. You lean against the wall to catch some air while scanning over the crowd from a higher view. C’mon, where are you?

“___?”

You practically jump out of your skin when he says your name and slides his hands around your waist, tugging you around to face him. “Ha. Hi Yukhei. I was just looking for you,” you gulp, suddenly losing brain cells with him being so close again.

“You were?”

“Yeah, I thought we could, um, catch up. Or something,” you chuckle awkwardly, mentally slapping yourself for being so nervous again.

“Actually, I have something to tell you,” he suddenly says, standing taller and you feel so small when he does that. “You do?” You squeak, afraid it would be something terribly disappointing or terribly heartwarming.

“Yeah, c’mon,” he says, reaching for your hand and guiding you to an open door. Luckily it’s not a spare bedroom but just the bathroom and you can’t help but sigh in relief once he’s locked the door and flicked the light switch up.

“So, we recently had a meeting with our managers and stuff,” he starts, and you can’t help the quiet ‘oh’ that slips from your lips. That was not what you thought he would be talking about.

“What?” He stops, a look of worry crossing his face.

“Oh, oh. It’s nothing. I was just, ugh,” you pause, racking your brain to say the right thing, “expecting you to say something else.”

“I’ll get there in a bit, don’t worry,” he smiles softly, bumping into you until you’re pressed against the sink and straining to look directly up at him now, “just listen to this first, yeah?”

You nod quickly, your throat completely dry and brain on fire with his body so flush against your own. “Anyway, we were talking about backup dancers, for the most part. And it occurred to me that we don’t have any female backup dancers. So I asked why and they kind of just... ‘I don’t know’ed it, you know?” He explains, and you genuinely have zero clue where this is going. You nod anyway.

“So Taeyong asked what they thought about hiring some female backup dancers. Like, long-term jobs, not just a one-song-and-done. And they kind of did a little manager huddle and said why not and to let them know of anyone we know so they can do auditions and stuff,” he goes on, and by now you can’t think straight. He hasn’t said it yet, but what if?

“We all thought the same thing, but I said it first and, so, I told them about these two girls I know and how talented they are and how, well, sweet and smart and genuinely amazing they are. And pretty, but that’s beside the point. So I showed them some videos and stuff. Anyway, that’s not important,” he pauses to lick his plump lips, looking at you directly now, “and so they said that if you and Mina came in and auditioned it would be a delight to have you on the team. If you want, of course.”

You don’t know what to say, do, or think. You’re hyper-aware of his large hands cupping your face, index fingers rubbing soft circles beneath your ears but also still have the weight of what he just said sinking into your brain. You don’t know whether it’s the alcohol or simply shock but no words come out, your lips staying parted in complete and utter surprise at such a bombshell.

“I don't—I can’t,” you stammer, shaking hands gripping his shirt to steady yourself, “thank you. Fuck. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Holy shit. Oh my God. I don’t know what to say, holy fucking shit.”

You’re breathless, slumped against the granite and nearly pulling the lanky boy down with you. “I have more to say,” he says, quieter this time. You gulp, eyes searching his face. Still, you can’t comprehend anything besides you and Mina may have just fallen into one of the best opportunities of your life.

“Okay,” he sighs softly, his large hands still cradling your face. “My first thought last weekend when I woke up with you beside me was ‘Fuck, what did I just get myself into?’ but when you said something about never getting up and whispered my name in that scared little voice I nearly lost it,” he goes on, eventually looking away from your face and fiddling with the lace material on the neckline of your dress. He suddenly looked incredibly innocent and you wanted nothing more than to hold him once more.

“And then you didn’t leave, even though I know you wanted to. But it suddenly felt so right, you know? Like everything that had happened that night ended with such a perfect morning,” he sighs, glancing up for a second to check how you were taking it all so far. When you offer him a warm smile, heart beating wildly against your chest, he returns it with pink blush adorning his cheeks.

“I thought you felt it too, but then later when I woke you up you had said it wasn’t a big deal, and I was so sad because I thought it was. I mean, how often do you play fifteen rounds of Fortnite, share the same bed, and wake up cuddling with someone you don’t have feelings for? And then I got even more confused when you texted me during the week, and fuck, everything you said had me smiling at my phone and Kun was making fun of me,” Lucas goes on, never stopping to breath until now.

“So, my question is, what are you thinking? Because I know I was your bias, or whatever the heck you guys call it before we met, and you still act nervous around me. And those texts and even this is not something just friends do. And you look so damn kissable right now, and while I want nothing more than to kiss you, I won’t in case that’s not what you want,” he finishes, his voice noticeably lowering as he tentatively leaned closer, his face and nose and lips only mere centimeters away.

You swallow once more, finally letting the reality of his words hit you. You swipe your tongue over your lips once, just in case, and he glances down just in time to catch it.

And that’s it.

He quickly surges forward, and the cord holding you together suddenly snaps when his lips are finally on yours. It’s like a breath of fresh air on the first day of spring, filling you to the brim with new life and you can't get enough. You both are doing nothing but everything at the same time, hands not knowing where to go but stinging skin in their wake. His lips make it impeccably wet and messy, teeth and tongue, but you don’t care, and your hands finally find the collar of his shirt and yank him to come closer, allowing his tongue to finally swirl with yours and you feel as if you’re drowning in him and the way he tastes and feels. It’s like sunlight in the morning, washing over your skin until it’s warmed all the way to your very being.

After what feels like an eternity you pull away, your head swimming with the fact he just kissed you. He leans back, breathless but seemingly more alert now, blunt fingernails digging into your bare thighs. His eyes scan your face again, searching for any trace of regret and when he finds none he comes back for more, kissing you softer this time. It’s so raw that it hurts, adoration and admiration flowing from the depths of your heart and you can’t fight it anymore.

You’re practically limp against him when his warm lips move from your lips to your jaw, down the column of your throat and to your bare chest. “God,” he breathes, moving back up to suck the delicate skin on the side of your neck between his teeth before going back with his tongue to sooth the pleasant pain, “I didn’t know if I’d be able to wait any longer to kiss you.”

Your head lolls to side as he continues his ministrations against your throat, completely lost in his touch. Your grip on his shirt finally slackens and you finally find the confidence to slide your hands under the fabric, leaning into him so you can further trace the expanse of his torso.

“Stop,” he suddenly hisses, pulling away to grab your wrist, “you’re going to give me a terrible boner and I’m not fucking you in this dingy house.”

His words made your stomach squirm even at the possibility and he clearly notices, lips quickly finding yours and hands holding your waist once more. You’re almost too busy trying to slip your tongue within the confines of his mouth to notice his right hand slowly descend until it’s resting between your thighs, pushing them apart and you gasp into his mouth.

You feel his mouth quirk into a sly smirk and can’t help but smile too, that is until his fingers slip past the hem of your dress and brush against the cotton of your underwear.

He breaks away and laughs at you when you whimper at the loss of contact. “Don’t frown,” he mumbles, keeping eye contact even as his fingers drag agonizingly slow along your clothed folds and it’s the most sensual thing you might ever experience.

A loud knock on the door quickly interrupts your faintest of moans and you suddenly feel incredibly exposed. “I swear to God, if you two don’t get out of there soon, we’re leaving without you. We’re going home, they ran out of Malibu and that’s apparently the only thing Jaehyun likes!”

You swallow, looking away from the door and back to the panting boy leaning on you, irises blown out and lips pink and plump.

“Do you want to have another sleepover?” He asks quietly and you can’t fight the smile that tugs at your lips.

"Oh my God,” you wake up with a low groan escaping your lips, a headache throbbing painfully in the refines of your skull as soon as you gain consciousness. Is this what a hangover felt like? You sigh, squeezing your eyes to shut out the sunlight. You turn away from that direction only to not-so-gracefully bump into something.

By the entanglement of limbs and bare skin pressed flush against yours, you can only assume something is actually someone and everything from last night crashes back, your headache increasing tenfold. Your eyes are open in a flash, not because you're scared or regretful, but just to make sure you were correct. And safe, not in some stranger’s bed.

Just like last week, Wong Yukhei is beside you, cheeks flushed pink against his warm honey skin and lips pouty as always. Except, this time, he’s awake, lying on his side and staring at you with wide eyes full of something you could only pinpoint as adoration.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” he replies, and not until now do you notice his hand on your very, very bare hip. “Do you want something for your headache?” He asks, voice low before leaning inches closer and pressing a chaste kiss to your forehead. “Yeah, but I can wait—”

You don’t get to finish because he’s already rolling out of bed, taking most of the sheets off of you and you’re left completely naked, forcing you to grasp for the white duvet crumpled at your feet to cover your body.

Except, not that it matters, because he’s incredibly naked too, and you’re amazed at how tall he is when he’s like this, no matter the circumstances. You quickly look away in fear he’d catch you staring, a blush working its way up your cheeks as you suddenly become aware of the pleasantly dull ache throbbing in your abdomen.

He’s back at your side moments later, this time with pineapple print boxers on, holding out a half-full water bottle and two Advil’s. “Thanks,” you sigh, swallowing them quickly.

“This wasn’t just a one and done thing, right?” He asks suddenly, and you look up at him where he’s leaned against his dresser, fingers tapping the edge. You could quite literally cut the tension between the two of you and suddenly want nothing more than going back to sleeping in his arms.

“No! No, I hope not. I mean, unless you want it to, in that case, I’ll go n—”

“No, please don’t go! I just wanted to make sure, in case... in case I completely misread this whole situation,” he sighs in relief, finally moving away from his dresser and rolling back into bed beside you. “Did you mean everything you said last night?” You say quietly once he’s settled and pulled you back against him.

“Of course.”

“Okay,” you let out a sigh of relief, reaching up to play with a strand of his caramel hair. “I’m sorry, too. For when I said this wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t realize that you—you felt something. For me. Which is dumb, because it was kind of obvious. But it’s kind of scary assuming things when it comes to someone who didn't know who you were when you’ve been in love with them for months,” you talk absentmindedly now, not realizing the words are spilling out of your mouth until they’re already out. After all, you were a NCTzen before any of this and there was no way to avoid that when it came to your love for not only him, but the rest of the group.

“I knew who you were,” he laughs above you and you glance up in confusion, quirking an eyebrow. “One of your videos came up on my recommended one day and I was kind of obsessed with you guys since,” he admits and it’s by far the cutest thing you have ever seen.

“No way.”

“I swear on my life,” he grins brightly, wrapping his muscular arms around your back and pulling you up beside him so you were face-to-face. It’s quiet again, and you find yourself once again tracing the outline of his face; his defined eyebrows, big doe eyes, his cheekbones, his chin, his lips—everything.

“What now?”

“Well, we probably should have gone on a few dates first and fallen in love, even though I’m already full of adoration for you already, and then I would’ve asked you to be my girlfriend and then we would’ve had mind-blowing sex. But we kind of went backward and already had the mind-blowing sex, so how about grabbing lunch as our first date? I mean, even though you’re a younger girl.”

You’re grinning like an idiot now and can’t help but kiss him. It’s soft and gentle and sweet and makes everything inside of you warm and fuzzy only because it’s him.

“Okay, I like the sound of that,” you whisper against him, kissing his cheeks, his nose, his forehead and finally his velvety lips again, “only because I’m full of adoration for you too.”

After all, Wong Yukhei was the warmth you so desperately craved for and needed in your life.

[diaries-of-a-shut-in]

My impromptu Hiatus

trigger warning: depression, anxiety.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOTHERFUCKERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that that’s out of my system, let me tell you about my impromptu hiatus.

It was a real dumpter fire, let me tell you. Basically, I kept telling myself that it was totally fine that I kept staying up until 5 am and waking up at 10 am over and over. And one night was truly poetic in its irony. I was trying to prepare for class, and I realized that I didn’t do a good job of taking care of myself, and end up pushing myself too hard with now discernible improvement in performance because my being tired led to decreased productivity. From this, I concluded that sometimes, it’s okay to be slightly unprepared for a class so long as I get the rest I need. So I decided to treat myself to a pancake that night.

I tried to, anyways.

You see, I’ve never shared this with you, my anonymous and nonexistent audience, but I live with hoarders. Not like my room is messy, like, somehow the house is full of shit that can’t go anywhere because everywhere else is full of shit and it’s literally be impossible to be organized in any capacity. The kitchen is no different. So when I tried to make a pancake I kept being interrupted with shit falling from the fridge(seriously it happened like, 8 times), not knowing where to find stuff I just placed, etc. By the time I had cooked the pancake and ate it, I was more stressed out and anxious than when I started, and ended up staying up through the night.

Because of that, I finally overslept and missed a class, which made me spiral into a depressive episode, where I played a lot of pokemon. 

Fun, right?

Jeez, I’m tired. Anyway, after some rest, I’m feeling better now. I’d like to philosophize about all the lessons I’ve learned, but I’m honestly mentally tired, as opposed to physically tired. I’m going to have to be doing a lot of writing as the semester ends, and I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to keep up. I’ll still rant about stupid and contrarian shit when the mood strikes me, like how Yu-Gi-Oh is the best shonen anime because it’s feminist, but don’t expect a post on a daily basis.

I’m also going to be shortening the time I write to 20 minutes when it’s 3 am and I need to go to sleep. I’ve been doing that anyways, but it’s good to formalize it. I think a good rule of thumb is that if I manage to sit myself in front of the tumblr page before 1 am, I’ll make it 30 minutes. Otherwise, I’ll make it 20 minutes.

Well, that’s all for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed my authenticity which the internet so dearly craves.

well, not really. I still have a couple pets on the timer.

How about this? One of my friends was sad and asked me to tell them a joke, so I panicked and said that my dick was made of cotton candy.

I know, I’m a funny guy. Just like my grandpappy and his pappy before him. It’s too bad that I inherited their cotton candy dick to a strange genetic disorder. On the bright side, my dick tastes sweeter than most other dicks, so I have that going for me.

NOW the timer’s done!

[fardell24b]

Quinn’s Code - Cafe Geekdale - Conclusion

“Good Evening, Students of Lawndale High and other Coffee House patrons, I have prepared this statement to tell you that Geeks are not welcome, like as members of the popular cliques,” she began.

“Oh dear,” Mr. O'Neill said, as he realised what Sandi was trying to do. He hoped that not too many self identified geeks in the audience wouldn't be traumatised.

'This doesn't sound good,' Quinn thought as Sandi began. She listened in disbelief as Sandi continued her rant against Geeks. 'Good thing I came prepared.' She took the speech she had written the night before out of her pocket, and gave it a look over. 'It will have to do.'

“You are going to read that?” Cindy asked.

“I'm going to have to,” Quinn said.

Kristen nodded in agreement.

Sandi came to a conclusion.

“And, that is why I believe that Geeks should not be popular and that new kids should not, like, rock the boat. Thank you for your time.”

She then stepped off the stage, smiling.

“That was great, Sandi,” Tori said.

“Thanks.”

Quinn stood up as Sandi went to her seat. “Mr. O'Neill? Can I read a rebuttal of Sandi's speech?”

Mr. O'Neill lit up. “Sure, Quinn,” he said.

Quinn went up to the stage.

“Why Geeks can be popular, a general rebuttal of the previous speech. Good Evening, Students of Lawndale High, and Lawndale and Glenfield Middle Schools. Some shallow and yet popular students may take umbrage at Geeks being popular for what may seem to be petty reasons. Why do they do this, you may ask...”

Sandi seethed as Quinn went on, rebutting most of the points of her own speech. 'This cannot stand!' she thought. She turned to Tori. “Tori, we need to rebut this speech!”

“How, Sandi? We; and by we, I mean you, didn't plan for this occurring,” Tori said.

“Then I will have to, like, improvise.”

'I hope Sandi's improvising skills are up to the task,' Tori thought as she looked at the Coffee House patrons taking in Quinn's speech.

As Quinn continued her speech the Three J's smiled more and more in admiration of her eloquence.

“...And that is why Geeks can be popular amongst their peers. Thanks for your time,” Quinn said as she concluded.

Most of the audience stood up and gave a standing ovation, even Daria. 'What Sandi is trying to do is wrong,' she thought.

Only the Fashion Club didn't. Stacy started to, but was cut off by Sandi's glare.

“Eep!”

“What were you thinking?” Sandi asked.

Quinn bowed, as she took in the adulation, before going back to her seat.

Sandi then stood up. “Um, Mr. O'Neill. I would like, like to rebut Quinn's rebuttal,” she said, with an edge to her voice.

“Oh, a debate. Go ahead, Sandi.”

Sandi then walked up on stage again. “My points from earlier are still valid. Now, I'm like, going to explain them...”

She struggled to rebut Quinn's points and the audience began to laugh at her.

“Oh, dear!” Mr. O'Neill said.

Sandi's face hardened as she remembered some speeches that her mother had made. The reminiscence allowed her to make a recovery, and thus she continued.

“Uh-oh!” Jennifer said.

“She's weakening though,” Jane said.

“Probably going to be close one,” Jennifer said.

“What is up with her?” Quinn asked Kristen and Cindy.

“She won't admit defeat,” Cindy said.

“I agree,” Kristen said.

“I will have to rebut her rebuttal,” Quinn realized.

“Good luck,” Cindy said.

“I'll need it,” Quinn said with a nervous laugh.

By the end of Sandi's rebuttal most of the audience had given her their rapt attention. Half of them clapped as she came off the stage.

“Oh, dear! Quinn, would you like to come up for your rebuttal?” Mr. O'Neill asked.

“Of course,” Quinn said as she took up. Cindy, Kristen, Jennifer, Joey, Jeffy, Jamie and Mack gave her encouragement as she passed them. She said “thanks,” to each of them. The eyes of the audience were on her as she went up to the stage...

She paused briefly before beginning.

Again the audience listened to Quinn attentively, even Kevin.

“Go, Quinn. All right!” the QB shouted.

Brittany sighed.

Quinn rebutted most of Sandi's rebuttals, before stepping down once more. Most of the audience clapped.

“Now, Sandi will come and give her concluding remark,” Mr. O'Neill said.

Sandi came out again, although she knew that most of the audience was on Quinn's side. 'How could this go so wrong?' she thought. She concluded weakly.

She seethed as Mr. O'Neill asked Quinn to go up for her concluding remark.

Quinn once again rebutted the majority of what Sandi had said about Geeks, and the reasons why they shouldn't be popular. She concluded the discussion by saying; “...and that is why Geeks can be popular. Thanks for your time!”

Mr. O'Neill began the standing ovation.

In the midst of that ovation, Sandi ran out of the Coffee House, holding back tears. Tori followed her. 'I hope that she isn't too devastated,' she thought.

Quinn took in the adulation.

Sandi ran from the Coffee House in the direction of her home.

“Sandi! Wait!” Tori called as she exited the Coffee House.

“Why should I, like wait! The Geekendorffer won!”

“Sandi, she may have won now, but there is still a lot of high school left! Besides not everyone was here tonight,” Tori said.

Sandi lit up. “That's right,” she said. She turned back to the Coffee House. A stern expression came onto her face. “You may have, like, won tonight, Morgendorffer! But I will have the last say, and I will be more popular!”

“That's the Sandi Griffin I know!” Tori said.

“Absolutely.” She turned back in the direction that she was already going in. “Come, Tori, we must prepare for next month.”

Tori groaned slightly. “Why Sandi? What are we doing next month?” She asked.

“The same thing we will do every month, Tori. Try to take over Lawndale High,” Sandi said with a little humor.

“We don't need to start planning now, and I would like to see what performance was scheduled after your speech.”

“It's only the Misanthropic sister of that Geek. It would be like, almost as bad as Andrea's poem,” Sandi said as she led Tori away from the Coffee House.

“It might not be,” Tori said.

“Let's go anyway,” Sandi said.

Tori followed her away from the Coffee House, in the direction of the Griffin residence.

Hardly anyone saw Sandi, or Tori, run from the Coffee House; only Stacy and Tiffany. Stacy took the opportunity to applaud Quinn.

“Where's Sand-di?” Tiffany asked.

“Who cares!” Stacy said as she applauded Quinn.

Tiffany joined her.

It took a few minutes for the adulation to die down once Quinn returned to her seat. “Guys, guys, that's enough, thanks,” she said.

Once the noise had died down, Jane said; “She was really good.”

“I would never be able to do that,” Jennifer said with slight shake of her head.

“She was in the Highland Middle School debate team,” Daria said as she grabbed her guitar.

“Oh.”

“Now our final performance of the evening; a song by Daria Morgendorffer,” Mr. O'Neill said.

Daria started playing.

“Melody reflected; What special agent could resist the opportunity to fill a few Bolshevik cemeteries?”

Most of the audience wasn't sure what she was singing about, but the tune was good...

Aleesha Nibblett walked out of the Coffee House by herself. 'That was a very interesting discussion,' she thought. She thought that Quinn was interesting. 'Maybe we can be friends?' she pondered.

She continued to think about the debate as she went home. 'Sandi is becoming a megabitch' she thought.

Saturday, October 23, 2005

Jake read from the Sun-Herald as Daria and Quinn ate breakfast.

“'Cafe Lawndale is a success'. Isn't that the coffeehouse you were working for?” he asked Daria.

“It is, I have the extra credit,” Daria said.

“School authorities have declared that Lawndale's new young adult Coffee House is a success after an impromptu debate against bullying of geeky students resulted in a few standing ovations. 'The students who participated in the debate wish to remain nameless,' explained Coffee House director Timothy O'Neill, a teacher at Lawndale High."

Quinn smirked briefly before taking another spoonful of cereal.

Helen entered the kitchen at a brisk pace; “Breakfast meeting at the Royalton,” she said as she grabbed a snack and ran.

“But you haven't even tasted my soufflé,” Daria commented sarcastically.

“'Cafe Lawndale will remain open to allow students to maximize their potential,' O'Neill said,” Jake read aloud as he continued to peruse the paper.

“That's cool,” Quinn said.

“I'll say! It's great that they get a place to 'hang out'.”

[nightglider124]

how about writing dick and kory getting caught together on kory's room when the rest of the team didn't even know they were together? damian would probably be like "can't believe you fools didn't notice it before..." :D

I’m still not doing requests but I will write this one purely because my inbox will then be empty of any more requests. Also, I like the idea of this one.

I’m placing this like just after the first film because there wasn’t a great deal between the two to suggest a relationship in that one. Like, not enough to make it obvious at least.

Busted

Nightwing leaned against the edge of the desk, glancing at all the things that sat atop the surface. He folded his arms over his chest and lifted his head to her direction.

Starfire lay in the middle of her bed, her hands clasped together on top of her stomach. Her eyes were closed and she had this serene air about her.

“So, how has the demon child been then?” He asked, his eyes running across her form, hidden by the mask he wore.

She peeked an eye open at him in question.

He smirked, “Damian.”

Closing her eye again, she shrugged, “Actually, he has been much better since you first brought him here.”

“Really?”

“Mhm. He still seems to struggle with being social with the other Titans but I believe he is learning. His skills are extremely impressive and his temper has started to reign in somewhat.”

“Well, bravo miss leader. I knew he’d straighten out a little with you guys.”

Starfire smiled and turned her head to look at him. He tilted his own to match her expression,

“He may be troublesome but… he is a good person, deep down.” She admitted,

Nightwing exhaled, “I know. I just wish he’d show that side more instead of being an annoying little shi-”

“Dick!”

He winced at the admonishing tone of his girlfriend.

“Sorry.” He mumbled, sounding very much like a little kid,

“I believe he needs some time but he is already showing growth and change and it has only been a matter of weeks since he accepted us as a team. He was remarkably mature and handled things well when Trigon was threatening Earth.”

Nightwing nodded, “He’ll be a great Robin once he fixes some of his issues.”

Starfire gave him a look, “He is already a great Robin, Dick... he will simply become better with time.”

Nightwing lifted an eyebrow at her, “I meant to tell you; Batman wants a report from you regarding Damian’s behaviour.”

She looked startled, “But... is that not the purpose of your visit?”

He shrugged, “He wants a formal one too. You know what Bruce is like.”

Starfire groaned and threw an arm over her face, “Ohh, I do not like writing reports for our superiors. Especially Batman.”

Chuckling, Nightwing let his arms drop from his chest and wandered over to her bed. He crouched at her feet and touched the back of her calves, kissing her knee before resting his chin on top of her thigh.

“It’s part of the job description, babe. Besides, it’ll be fine. He just wants a rundown of Damian’s progress, is all. He wants to know he’s in good hands... which he is.”

Starfire removed her arm and peered down at him, a soft, grateful smile on her lips.

He grinned, “Also, I came to hear about Damian... but, I came to see you as well.”

“Oh?”

He nuzzled her soft skin, “I’ve missed you.” Dick admitted, “We haven’t seen each other properly in a long time.”

Slowly, he began to climb up and over her, leaving tiny kisses in as many places as he could until his face was hovering above hers.

Starfire gently cupped his face and her eyes turned sad for a brief moment, “We have both been busy.”

Dick sighed, “I just... wish we had more time together.”

She shrugged, “It would be easier if we were not hiding our relationship.”

“We’re not hiding it, Kory. I just want to keep it professional around the Titans. With you as acting leader now... I don’t want them to make assumptions on how you got that position.”

Kory opened her mouth to give an indignant response, only to consider it and realise he had a fair point.

“For the record... I have missed you as well.” Kory whispered, brushing her lips against his.

“Well, thank god I’m not the only one.” He cheeked,

Kory giggled as he moved to kiss her, only to be stopped by her hand on his shoulder. He raised an eyebrow and she narrowed her emerald orbs at him.

Slipping her fingers to the edges of his mask, she peeled it away to reveal his ocean blue eyes.

“I do not want to kiss Nightwing.”

“He’s pretty awesome though, don’t you think?”

She smiled, “He is but I much prefer Dick Grayson.”

Dick grinned down at her, stroking her cheek before he continued with his earlier ideas. He caught her lips with his and ran his fingertips across her jaw and her chin before moving down to her neck and shoulders.

He could feel her shiver beneath his touch which gave him a jolt of pride that he could bring that kind of reaction out by merely running his hands over her.

Kory sighed against him, loving and missing his kisses simultaneously. He was right, it had been a long while since they spent any proper time together. She had missed the way he held her, the way he kissed her and the way they looked at each other like they were the only two people that existed.

It was a dull ache in her chest that was slowing ebbing away with his presence here tonight.

She usually busied herself enough with missions and the Titans, not to think of him and how far Bludhaven always seemed to be from the tower.

But, every so often, the bite of loneliness got to her and she found herself feeling somewhat depleted without him by her side.

Kory ran her hands up his back, toying with the zipper of his uniform at the very top of his collar. Her fingers wove their way into his hair, pulling and effectively tethering them together.

Dick panted against her mouth, breaking away just enough to rub his nose against hers in a loving gesture.

“God, I love you, Kor.” He murmured, nuzzling her cheek,

She smiled lazily, leaving a trail of kisses against his ear and jaw.

Dick rested his forehead against hers and gazed into her deep green eyes, never wanting to separate from her again.

“Maybe I should stay for a few days before going back to Bludhaven...” He whispered,

Kory gave him a slow, tender smile, “That would be most appreciated, my love.”

Dick grinned and tilted his head to give her another kiss,

“Hey Kory- OH MY GOD!” Garfield shouted from the doorway.

The two older Titans froze and merely stared at each other, both aware of the position they had been caught in.

“My eyes! MY EYES!” Garfield continued, in that dramatic way of his.

Just when Dick and Kory thought they might well die from the embarrassment of being sprung like this, it got worse.

They heard faint yet hurried footsteps accompanied by two quiet gasps.

“Oh Dios mío” Jaime breathed,

“Well... this isn’t what I was expecting to see...” Raven’s tone almost sounded amused,

Dick cleared his throat and lifted away from Kory to sit on the bed beside her. He opened and closed his mouth several times before just sitting there, the blush oh so evident on his cheeks.

Kory sat up and folded her hands upon her lap, trying to look dignified and professional all in one.

Jaime was the one to smirk and cross his arms over his chest first, “Didn’t know you were visiting, Dick. Must have missed you come in.”

Dick glared at the teenager before rubbing the back of his neck, “Stealthy as ever... I guess.”

“Titans, why don’t we-” Kory was abruptly interrupted,

“Nuh-uh! What... what is this!?” Garfield challenged,

Dick and Kory shared a look before they both sighed,

“Kory and I are dating, guys... if that wasn’t... y’know... already obvious by now.”

“Since when?” Raven wondered, her eyes slightly wide. She was mildly surprised but more so surprised that the two had been able to keep it a secret and also that she hadn’t been able to pick up on their emotions.

“Erm...” Dick trailed off,

“Since Dick left the Titans.” Kory admitted,

“What!?” The three younger members blurted, stunned beyond belief.

“Wait... I’m so confused. I thought you two were briefly together after Kory kissed you that first time when she came to Earth. I thought you just then broke up.” Garfield claimed, his face scrunching up as he tried to remember all that time ago.

Raven and Jaime blinked; completely out of the loop there. They were aware Gar was talking about the period of time when the two were not Titans whereas the other three were.

“Uh, no... we got together as the team started to split and we recruited Raven and Jaime in. Then...” Dick found himself trailing off again,

Kory sighed, “Then Dick left for Bludhaven after becoming Nightwing.”

Dick winced a tiny amount. He knew she was still a little sore over his departure. She had somewhat been forced into leadership and she had to do it by herself, without the aid of her boyfriend and former leader.

“So... you’ve been together since then?” Jaime concluded,

Kory and Dick nodded.

Raven offered the two them a small smile, “Well, good for you... You suit one another.”

Kory smiled at Raven, her expression softening. She always favoured Raven’s nature. She was like a little sister and Kory had come to greatly care for her.

“Thank you, Raven.” Dick commented, also shyly smiling but having similar thoughts as his girlfriend.

“HOLD ON.” Garfield boomed, thrusting his hands out in front of him, “How could you guys not tell me!?”

Dick awkwardly shrugged, “Gar... we didn’t tell anybody-”

“Yeah but I’m from the original days, dude! I am hurt!” Garfield huffed,

The former boy wonder fought not to roll his eyes at his friend’s dramatics.

“Look, we just-”

“And for so long too! Oh my god, and you’ve been doing it without us knowing too! I mean, c’mon, you’ve totally been doing it.”

Dick half wanted to boast in that moment, just to make Gar squirm but resisted the urge.

“Eww.” Raven shuddered, shaking her head,

“Hey, that so explains all Dick’s late night and impromptu visits too, even before Damian joined!” Gar pointed out,

“Garfield!” Kory scolded, ending his rants immediately, “Do not be inappropriate about this.”

He scuffed his toe against the floor as if having been given a time out or something akin to it.

In the silence that ensued, Dick took the chance to explain it a bit better,

“Guys, we just didn’t want it to be a big deal. We want to keep that part separate from being heroes. Us dating has no bearing on missions or teamwork. We’re allies and friends, first and foremost. Can we ask you guys to keep it at least a little professional? Please?”

The three of them exchanged glances before nodding at their older teammates.

“Thank you.” Kory breathed,

With that, Damian calmly walked into the room, hands on his hips, “What are you all shouting like children about?”

“Dick and Kory are totally a thing.” Gar stated, sounding a little gossipy.

Damian stared at them all for a moment before scoffing and giving them all that trademark ‘you’re inferior’ smirk of his.

“Well, yes, obviously.” He cheeked, “I guess you three need to work on your perceptiveness if you couldn’t even work that out.”

Gar blinked before turning to Dick, “See! Damian knew before I did! That’s so unfair!”

Dick sighed and let his head fall against Kory’s shoulder in exhaustion.

[lokifiction]

Relationship Status

Category: Fanfic

Rating: T

Notes/Warnings: I don’t think there’s any warnings for this chapter. As always, sorry for the long delay!

First Chapter

Previous Chapter

Chapter Fourteen: Stressful Sleepovers

           “I think that’s good for now,” Ulyana, my favorite ballet mistress, praised in her signature thick accent. “I’m pleased with our progress so far. This is your last rehearsal of the day, correct?”

        I simply nodded, still too breathless from our last run-through to form any understandable verbal reply.

        “Well, I’ll let you go early, then. You’re looking far too pale lately. Go enjoy this warm weather before the evening comes and takes it away.” She patted my cheek before making her long trek out of the studio, leaning on her cane all the way. Once she had rounded the corner, I exited, as well, turning the other way to reach my dressing room. Once there, I made quick work of unhooking my practice tutu and dropping it on the dressing table as I plopped down in my chair to undo my pointe shoes.

        After melting into my seat for a few minutes, decompressing from a long day, a playful knock sounded on the doorframe. I peeked over and discovered Chantel, beaming brightly as per usual.

        “Did you get let out early, too?” I inquired, wadding up the day’s toe tape and tossing the ball into the trashcan.

        “Nah, my rehearsal got cancelled.” She stepped further into the room. “But that meant I got to watch yours. Your Paquita stuff is looking phenomenal.”

        “That wedding variation kills, though. The one from the first act is fine enough, but the last one is all turning, exactly what I can’t do.” I went to grab my tutu and return it to its hook on the wall, but in the process the tulle dislodged a picture from my mirror. I moved to retrieve it, but the photo fluttered instead towards Chantel’s feet. She picked it up and looked at it for herself, giggling.

        “This one’s my favorite,” she declared, turning it around so that I could see. It was a snapshot of me and Loki in Disney World, posing in front of the castle. In the photo, it was apparent that I was beyond excited as I stood with a face-cracking grin that made me appear insane, but Loki had been dubious of the “Most Magical Place on Earth,” only going along with the trip because of how happy the prospect made me. The look of silent resignation, dread, and slight fear in his face was a complete contrast to his experience during the rest of the vacation, however, for he turned out to love the place as much as I did.

        “I love that one, too,” I gushed, pinning it back up where it belonged. “There’s a lot of good memories in this photo.”

        “Speaking of,” Chantel began, “where has Loki been? I haven’t seen him around lately.”

        I hesitated. After our contract signing, Loki and I were called for daily meetings with the Avengers to go over even more consultant terms, draw up a list of duties and missions Loki and I would be assisting with, and more importantly, test our allegiance. Once my season started back up, however, I had rehearsal all day and could no longer attend. Due to that, Loki became the sole representative and person of action in our family, which is how it should have been in the first place, for I knew that my addition as a co-consultant was only a formality due to the inevitability of Loki telling me everything.

        After a week or so, the meetings tapered down to only twice a week, and eventually once. However, Loki had been given several duties, primarily under the category of observation in the ways that his skills in magic gave him exclusively. The tasks that went along with that duty occupied quite a bit of his time and the meetings left him emotionally exhausted, so I insisted that since I was in the middle of a rehearsal period and wasn’t performing, there was no point in him coming to work with me all the time and taxing himself unnecessarily.

        “He’s been added to this new project with some people he knows,” I replied, aware of my vow of secrecy regarding the consultant program. I bit my tongue and prayed that Chantel wouldn’t ask what kind of project. “It takes up a lot of his time, so he’s been staying home to work on it.”

        “I see. Well, I’m glad he’s found something to occupy himself. It’s just that you two are usually inseparable, and a few of us worried that you were fighting when we hadn’t seen him around.” Chantel stepped over and gave me a quick hug. “Anyway, I’ve got to go now. See you when I see you.”

        I called a goodbye down the hall after her, then resumed tidying my dressing room and getting changed. Once my sweaty dancewear was off and I was savoring the feeling of finally wearing a short-sleeved dress and open-toed shoes, I made my way out of the building and to the nearest Metro stop. Whenever I wasn’t with Loki, I preferred taking the subway as opposed to catching a cab, for the walks to and from the stations allowed me time to think, and resting on a cool seat in the crowded cars made me feel truly a citizen of the city, which was sometimes a bit suppressed when entering our high-class neighborhood and living in an apartment larger than any house.

        As I entered our building, my excitement to see Loki heightened. We weren’t used to being apart for as long as we had been lately, and the highlight of my day became when I got to come home and see him. The moment I stepped off the elevator, however, I was greeted not by his usual hug and kiss, but by Henry’s signature high-pitched yowls of hunger.

        “Hey, drama king,” I greeted, kneeling to rub his head. “Why are you screaming like that? Isn’t Daddy here to feed you?”

        No sooner had I uttered the question than I spotted a folded note on the side table next to the coat rack. I opened it and noticed Loki’s elegant scrawl immediately, which read:

Camryn,

An impromptu meeting was called at Stark Tower, so I’ve left to attend that. I’d like for you to be here if you can, so when you read this, please head that way as soon as possible. If the meeting concludes before you arrive, I’ll give you a call to save you the journey. I love you.

Loki

P.S. Do NOT feed Henry. He’s already eaten several times today and is being a big faker.

        My wonderment as to what the meeting could be about faded into anxiety the more I thought it over, but Henry began yowling again before I could venture too far into my thoughts. I turned my eyes towards the cat, and saw that he had been joined by Bellatrix, whom I could somehow tell was flashing her companion a look of annoyance.

        “What Daddy doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” I assured the two, taking them into the kitchen for some cat treats before heading right back out again, this time submitting to a cab to take me to Stark Tower.

        When I entered the building, my consultant status made it no longer necessary for me to attend to the fuss of a lengthy check-in, for all I needed to do was scan my badge and thumbprint at the staff entrance and check in with a security guard before going on the elevator. Though I didn’t yet feel quite comfortable walking the halls of the tower, worrying every moment that some joke was being played on me and at any minute I would be forcibly escorted out, being there with my badge and status gave me a sense of importance that I’d never felt before, not even when walking the halls of the palace of Asgard.

        “There she is!” Stark called out as I entered the conference room, and I flashed Loki a look from where the guard on duty was giving me my usual probe with the metal detector.

        “What’s all that about?” I inquired, my words directed at my fiancé only.

        “Nothing of import. Please, come sit.” He gestured to the chair next to him and I hurried to take it.

        “What was this meeting called for, and why is it so important that I attend?” I continued as I situated myself. “Catch me up.”

        “Do you recall the rifts in time and space that we investigated a while ago?” Loki began.

        “The ones that I found out existed by hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s private communications to improve their views of you, then got sucked into, only to get arrested after we successfully closed them?” I ranted, leaving everyone staring at me with gaping mouths. “Those?”

        “Yes,” Loki answered quietly, slightly stunned as he usually was when I took control.

        “Well, what about them?”

        “When it became apparent to us that Loki had extensive knowledge on how these rifts worked, we put him to the task of observing them: locating any remaining ones, seeing if any new ones popped up, et cetera,” Steve answered. “He found a fair few left over from the Chitauri invasion. We didn’t want to close them yet for fear that there could be other people trapped inside, like those you found on your personal mission, but that plan is backfiring on us now.”

        “Backfiring how?”

        “We’re not sure the true reason, but somehow one of the portals got directed somewhere other than the Chitauri world,” Bruce explained. “We don’t know if things got shaken up during the Convergence or if someone was able to switch it, but there have been beings from another world coming through and terrorizing the citizens.”

        “Judging by their appearance, Loki and I have deduced that they’re most likely from Muspelheim,” Thor added. “So far, their numbers have been few, but they appear to simply be scouts. Natasha and Clint are stationed where the portal opens to control those that do come through, but we fear an army is coming.”

        “This could become a catastrophic situation,” Loki finished. “That’s why I wanted you here: in the case that the city went into turmoil.”

        “Oh.” I attempted to process the situation, but all I could think of was fear for the safety of my friends who were not so fortunate to be sitting inside the most secure place in New York.

        “To catch you up as far as this meeting, we’re currently discussing options as to what to do about this situation,” Loki continued. “Of course, it’s preferable to close the portal immediately, but we need to send a scout in to make certain there are no trapped civilians, which will be difficult, seeing as we have no idea where it opens. It could be a pit of fire, for all we know. Also, there’s the issue of making sure that the other rifts aren’t going to start spilling out these creatures, as well as locating and exterminating any scouts that may have escaped our notice.”

        “That’s a lot of important decisions to be made,” I commented. I had never been with Loki when he was dealing with duties such as that, and it was a completely different level of anxiety for me. I knew that those situations would be a reality when he was king, so I had been preparing myself to deal with it for years, but I had not expected the day to come so soon.

        “Excuse me, Captain Rogers.” An employee in a uniform bearing the Avengers insignia poked her head into the conference room. “We’ve just had communications with Romanoff and Barton. They said that there’s no more time to deliberate and that they need you at their location now.”

        My stomach dropped to my feet as I realized what that meant, and I grasped Loki’s hand.

        “Guess we’ll be making decisions on the fly, then.” Let’s suit up,” Stark declared, pushing back from the table. As everyone followed, I jumped to pull Loki down by the collar of his shirt.

        “Keep yourself safe,” I commanded, boring my eyes into his. “You’ve got a wedding to go to.”

        He searched my face for a few moments before leaning down and kissing me hard. He smiled softly as he pulled away, but I could see the worry in his eyes.

        “No need to fret, love,” he lied. “This will be mere child’s play.”

        He quickly kissed me once more, then hurried out with the rest of the group, leaving me glued to my seat, stupefied with anxiety. Pepper, the only other person remaining in the room, came over to join me, draping her arm around my shoulders.

        “I wish I could tell you it got easier,” she lamented. “But I can say that the first time is the worst. Eventually you’ll trust his and his companions’ abilities more and the fear won’t be so front-of-mind, but, unfortunately, it’s always there.”

        “We should just consider it reassurance that we really do love them as much as we think, I suppose.” I sniffled, wiping my eyes. “Plus, I know Loki wants me to stay here because it’s safer, but I have no clothes, and I’m really worried about my cats.”

        “Pepper chuckled. “If you want, we can take a few agents to head to your place and pick up some stuff. The action is way downtown, so we should be safe if we hurry.”

        “Can we please?” I begged, pushing out of my seat. “It would make me feel at least a bit better.”

        “Of course we can,” she assured. “Let’s go.”

***

        An hour later, I was situated in my pajamas in the lounge area of Avengers Tower, sitting opposite Pepper. She had graciously allowed me to bring the cats, and Bellatrix was purring in my lap whilst Henry sniffed around our takeout containers.

        It had turned out that both Pepper and I were stress eaters, so we agreed upon ordering some food for the wait. We had been unable to decide between Chinese and pizza, however, so we ordered both, plowing through massive amounts of each in front of the television. We had originally been watching the news, but that was giving us no information and only making matters worse for the both of us, so we eventually switched to old 80’s movies. After a while, it started to feel like we were teenage best friends at a sleepover, and a few times that’s what I believed was going on until a commotion or agent outside the door would remind me what we were waiting for.

        As Pepper had said, most of the action was downtown, and it appeared that the team was doing a good job of containing it, for, other than the occasional massive blare of sirens of police cars and ambulances rushing to help, no evidence that any fight was going on could be seen from the windows. I couldn’t decide if the eerie calm improved or hindered my fear.

        After we exhausted our movie stash, Pepper and I began to gossip about our men, giggling like schoolgirls. Eventually, though, the subject became a bit more serious as Pepper inquired about my wedding. After revealing a few tidbits regarding plans and my dress, I decided that then was as good a time as any to do what I’d been considering for a long time.

        “You know, I wanted to give you something,” I began, reaching into my overnight bag for the envelope I had slipped inside in anticipation of that moment. “Don’t feel any obligation just because I’m giving you this, but you guys put up your white flag by adding me and Loki on as consultants, so consider this ours.”

        I held my breath as Pepper pulled out the invitation to Loki’s and my wedding, addressed to the Avengers. When I first pitched the idea to Loki as a method of reciprocating their peacemaking actions, he fought it immensely. I considered the prospect a lost cause and nearly forgot about it, until a few weeks on his new job brought Loki to me, asking if we could give it to them after all.

        “This is amazing,” Pepper commented. “Consider this our official RSVP.”

        “For all of you?” I questioned. “You haven’t spoken to anyone about whether they’re available or not.”

        “If you’re going to think of us to include in on your special day, despite the risks, you can be damn sure we’re all going to be there, previous plans or not.” With a grin, she brought me in for a hug, which was interrupted by an agent entering the room. My heart jumped to my throat at his worried look, and I sprang to my feet, blurting out questions as to what happened. Pepper rose behind me, much calmer, interrogating the man much more cohesively.

        “They’re back,” the agent replied, obviously a bit unsure what to do with me. “Fortunately, there have been no casualties or major injuries. They’re docking now, and they’ll meet you in medical.”

        Pepper visibly deflated in relief. “Thank you, Agent Hummel. Shall we go, Camryn?”

        She made for the elevator, staring at me in confusion as I launched myself towards the stairs.

        “This will be faster!” In insisted. With a chuckle at my rookie excitement, she relented, watching in bemusement as I nearly tumbled over myself on the way downstairs.

        When I reached the medical deck, I went into a state of tunnel vision, everything around me going black except for Loki, sitting on the edge of a table, his armor in a heap next to him, wearing only his padded undershirt and pants. He was bruised and a bit bloody, ash and sweat coating his face, complexion a bit paler than usual, but other than that, he appeared relatively unscathed. I launched myself over to him, gathering him into my arms as he stood to meet me. Holding him as tight as possible, I buried my face in his shoulder, noticing that he smelled vaguely of burning.

        “How did everything go?” I breathed, pulling away.

        “Well, the portal did open into Muspelheim,” Loki replied with a dry smile. “I’ll talk to you about the details later, but all you need to know is that the situation has been resolved and all of the rifts have been closed, never to bother any of us again.”

        “It was actually a stroke of brilliance on his part,” Natasha interjected, bringing my notice to the rest of the group, all appearing to be in a similar condition as Loki. “We thought we were going to have a full-on battle on our hands, and were almost completely overwhelmed, but somehow he managed to close all of the portals at once, leaving us with only the creatures already on the ground to deal with.”

        “That’s my Loki,” I praised, hugging him once more. “Well, if you’re sure the city’s safe, let’s get you home and cleaned up.”

        “Actually, I think I’m going to need him to stay here,” a new voice put in, and a pretty young woman in scrubs put her hand out for me to shake. “I’m sorry I’ve not introduced myself yet. I’m Helen Cho.”

        “Camryn Potts. It’s nice to meet you,” I reciprocated. “If you don’t mind me asking, why do you need Loki to stay?”

        “For some reason, the heat affected him more than it did everyone else,” Helen explained. Loki and I exchanged a look, knowing full well that the reason was his true heritage that he refused to divulge to anyone.

        “He’s showing signs of heat exhaustion and dehydration,” she continued. “I’d like to keep him for at least the night for observation and some I.V. fluids.”

        “Oh.” My heart sank, but the more I looked at Loki, the sicker he appeared to be. The dark circles under his eyes were unsettlingly prominent, his lips were nearly white, and the sheen of sweat that had long faded on everyone else was still constantly upon his brow. He had sat down with a plop soon after our embraces, clutching at the table with white knuckles, and his eyes were pale and unfocused.

        “The house will be lonely without you,” I murmured, placing one last parting kiss on the top of his head, resolving myself to spend the night alone, worrying instead of sleeping.

        “What are you talking about? You have a packed overnight bag, don’t you?” Pepper cut in. “I won’t hear of you going home tonight. You’re staying here.”

Next Chapter

[whynotzoidbergdotorg]

Rant: Squillarah, AKA A Person to Avoid

Speaking more on my post from earlier... I have no problem dragging her to hell and back because she is nasty. She is racist and thinks it's """""cute"""" to make sausage party ocs. She made on who's a racist caricature of natives and I called her out and then her bajillions of white knights came after me. Did she ever apologize and stop? Nope. She gave a "half assed" apology, kept making art of the character, and encouraged her supporters to "roast me like beef". Worst of all she deleted the journal where that comment thread is so I can't fucking use it as proof but whatever. Anyways she's a fucking grown ass woman who's been on dA for more than half a decade making disease ridden fetish art. She has not concept of anatomy or color theory, all of her art has so many colors that it burns the eyes to look at, not to mention she draws all of her female characters practically the same (lumpy and potato looking with misshapen tits, unnecessary eyelashes and make-up, wearing impractical clothes for the situations they're in) and the same goes for her gay male characters (covered in rainbows, wearing borderline bondage gear, leather, impractical clothes, skimpy clothes). She can't take any criticism and when ever someone gives her a critique she goes off the deep end and acts like the victim, which was her immediate response to when I called her picture racist. She gets way more praise than she deserves when her art is mediocre at best, doesn't follow anatomy, she has no art style of her own (which leads me to believe her art MAY BE TRACED since she used the same poses repeatedly for the same characters, except maybe flipped) Also she draws fetish art of EVERY character. Every single one. Including ones that are minors, hinted to be minors, or have the mentalities of children. (She has drawn porn of the two main characters of breadwinners, and of the minions as well) I'm finishing my little impromptu "rant" with a link to her gallery. But before I put the link, I DO NOT want ANYONE to harass her. I have been harassed enough to never wish it on anyone. She's a bitch, yes, but that's never an excuse to bully someone. http://skunkynoid.deviantart.com/gallery/?catpath=/ And with that I conclude my rant.

[canaryatlaw]

today was decent. up at 6:30, still amazed that the train is less crowded when I’m on my later timeline. made it to the courthouse just before they started to let the public in, which is always easier lol. I had some stuff to take care of from being out yesterday and some other stuff for court tomorrow so I spent most of the morning taking care of that and sending out different things. we have this really cool set up with our printer where you can select the envelope option and highlight the address you want printed and the printer will print the envelope with the address on it right from the main feed and I probably shouldn’t be as impressed by this as I am but oh well. we also recently discovered that our postage machine can also seal envelopes for you while printing postage on them, so that’s all sorts of cool. once we got into the afternoon we had our case acceptance meeting which is always interesting, I don’t want to say it’s fun because the subject matter is obviously rather morbid, but it’s somewhat fascinating I suppose hearing about all the other cases that have come in. and we do accept most of the cases for representation unless there’s a glaring issue that would make us pause. after the meeting was over I ended up pulled into another impromptu meeting with one of the other staff attorneys and our supervisor related to two different cases that had ran into some issues with. not getting into any details, but for this one case I kept stumbling upon information about it in the most random and accidental ways, and knowing everything we did we ended up concluding we couldn’t be sure the side we were evaluating was actually the victim in the situation, so we chose not to offer them representation. the other one was one of the EOPs I took up (where they didn’t let me talk) that has just kind of turned into a whole clusterfuck of a case. Initially I was a little sad when I didn’t get assigned the case, but at this point I’m really glad I wasn’t, even though I feel like I really bonded with the client in the time we talked. again, no details, but it’s turning out to be a lot more complicated than originally presented and it was just kind of a perfect storm of things slipping through the cracks that led to our current less than ideal position. I felt kind of guilty about the whole thing because I had taken it up, but at the same time I didn’t write the affidavit at issue and didn’t have any say in it, and the facts are the facts, there’s not much I can do about that. so that was that. we had like an hour left of work at that point, so we really didn’t get much done, pretty much just small things to prep for tomorrow. our one volunteer that’s in my small group at church got moved to the afternoon shift and she was heading out around 4:30 and of course had time to kill between then and small group at church, so we made plans to meet up at the starbucks I usually kill time at after we each ended up leaving. when it turned 5, my work buddy and I kind of just ended up waiting for each other to get ready to leave without any actual words exchanged about it, which was just kind of nice I suppose lol. so we walked to the train and then I got on the one going further west towards church as opposed to my typical one going east. met up at starbucks and chatted for a bit, then walked over to church together. small group was alright, I feel like it was a lot more intimate and genuine last week, which I don’t think is a coincidence that it was when our “leader” wasn’t present. I really just don’t get this guy other than having to think he’s a pretentious douche and he just says the dumbest fucking things. the conversation was still good though, I talked a bit and at one point kinda went off on how children growing up in the church are mistreated and so much is expected of them. the other co-leader guy (not the douchey one) who grew up in a strict christian upbringing as well had said he that while growing up he was always told this verse about how “if you deny God before others than I will not recognize you in front of my father” or some stuff like that and I was just like....what a tremendous burden to put on a child like that. so much of the issues with Christianity is driven by fear, fear that anything secular will corrupt, and we end up teaching our kids, intentionally or not, that one misstep can have them falling into the hands of the devil which is just like, complete and utter bullshit. and this goes into the whole not celebrating halloween/no harry potter type thinking like, if you have the God of the universe who created all of existence and has power beyond measure living inside of you, do you really think wearing a pointy hat and going to get some candy from neighbors is going to give the devil a hold over you? what are you so afraid of?? do you not believe your God is big enough and powerful enough to keep his children safe? do you think he’s going to give up on you because you stumbled once?? so much of our current christian culture is driven by fear, and it perverts the actual message of the gospel beyond belief, because fear is never an adequate reason to act- especially for a christian, whose actions should always be driven by love. I’m ranting I know, I’ll stop now. anyway. after small group I headed home, still had to wait like ten minutes for the bus and I wasn’t really hungry for anything so I didn’t want to chill in the coffee shop across the street so I just stuck it out and got very cold hands as a result. ah well. once I was home I watched tonight’s episode of The Good Place and then some news before showering and starting to get ready for bed, and now I’m here and damn did time really get away from me, it’s 1 am and I have to be awake in 5 hours, so suffice to say I should be signing off right now and that is what I’m going to do. Goodnight babes. Happy Friday.

[blogwonderwebsites]

Business Kanye West goes on 10-minute soliloquy, references Superman cape and swears during White House visit

Business Kanye West goes on 10-minute soliloquy, references Superman cape and swears during White House visit Business Kanye West goes on 10-minute soliloquy, references Superman cape and swears during White House visit http://www.nature-business.com/business-kanye-west-goes-on-10-minute-soliloquy-references-superman-cape-and-swears-during-white-house-visit/

Business

Maeve McDermott and Jayme Deerwester

USA TODAY

Published 1:33 PM EDT Oct 11, 2018

Kanye West is in the house – the White House, to be precise.

The rapper, who has become one of Trump’s highest-profile celebrity supporters, visited the president at the White House for a planned meeting Thursday afternoon. West dined on  roasted chicken and fingerling potatoes over lunch with Trump, Jared Kushner and Ivanka, fellow musician Kid Rock and Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown.

After running up to hug Trump in the Oval Office, West told reporters that Trump gave him ” a Superman cape” to help do good … My dad and my mom separated so there was not a lot of male energy in my home and also I’m married to a family where, you know, there’s not a lot of male energy. It’s beautiful, though.” 

The rapper, who sported a red “Make America Great Again” cap, also reiterated his claim that “they tried to scare me to not wear this hat,” as he did during his recent appearance on the season opener of “Saturday Night Live.” 

West then gave a 10-minute soliloquy which he dropped an F-bomb, shared the password to his phone (apparently, it’s 0000), likened his rhetorical style to “fine wine” (“it has complex notes to it”), announced that he had been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and instead was merely sleep deprived.

“Let’s stop worrying about the future all we have is today,” he continued “Trump is on his hero’s journey right now. He might not have thought he’d have a crazy (expletive) like (me).”

After he finished, The president concluded, “He can speak for me any time he wants. he’s a smart cookie. He gets it,” adding that West “could very well be” a future presidential candidate.

“Only after 2024,” the rapper clarified.

Kid Rock, another celebrity Trump booster, watched the president sign the landmark Music Modernization Act, which guarantees increased and faster royalty payments for performers, songwriters and producers.

The Detroit musician arrived around 11 a.m. and later posed for photos with White House advisor Kellyanne Conway in front of the West Wing Colonnade. 

After the signing ceremony, he said, “Everybody knows that this music of business is a pretty dirty business … But this is a great start to protect songwriters, producers, engineers – the unsung heroes behind many of these songs that go out there.”

Turning to Trump, he added “There’s a whole lot of people in this country that do give you a lot of credit for everything you’ve been doing for this country. We know that some people don’t give you as much as maybe they should sometimes.”

This isn’t the first high-profile meeting between Trump and either musician. Kid Rock visited the Oval Office in April 2017 and West famously traveled to Trump Tower in December 2016, where he discussed “multicultural issues” with the then-president-elect and posed for photos in the building’s lobby.

The White House confirmed that West would be meeting with the president, with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying that their conversation topics would include “manufacturing resurgence in America, prison reform, how to prevent gang violence, and what can be done to reduce violence in Chicago.”

West’s wife Kim Kardashian has also visited Trump in the White House several times, first meeting with Trump to champion the case of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old grandmother who spent more than two decades in prison on drug charges. After Trump granted Johnson clemency, Kardashian traveled to the White House again for a meeting about prison reform.

West’s visit comes after he deleted his social media accounts following his appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” where he donned his “Make America Great Again” hat to deliver an impromptu speech praising Trump and criticizing Democrats.

West noted that white people ask him, ‘’How could you like Trump, he’s racist’? Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism, I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.”

Contributing: John Fritze, USA TODAY

Taylor Swift, Kanye West at odds again: And this time, it’s on unexpected sides of political spectrum

More: Celebs react to Kanye West’s post-‘SNL,’ pro-Trump, anti-13th Amendment rant

Read More | https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2018/10/11/kanye-west-meets-trump-white-house-jared-kushner-ivanka-kid-rock/1599752002/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=amp&utm_campaign=speakable | Maeve McDermott, Jayme Deerwester

Business Kanye West goes on 10-minute soliloquy, references Superman cape and swears during White House visit, in 2018-10-11 17:41:02

[computacionalblog]

Business Kanye West goes on 10-minute soliloquy, references Superman cape and swears during White House visit

Business Kanye West goes on 10-minute soliloquy, references Superman cape and swears during White House visit Business Kanye West goes on 10-minute soliloquy, references Superman cape and swears during White House visit http://www.nature-business.com/business-kanye-west-goes-on-10-minute-soliloquy-references-superman-cape-and-swears-during-white-house-visit/

Business

Maeve McDermott and Jayme Deerwester

USA TODAY

Published 1:33 PM EDT Oct 11, 2018

Kanye West is in the house – the White House, to be precise.

The rapper, who has become one of Trump’s highest-profile celebrity supporters, visited the president at the White House for a planned meeting Thursday afternoon. West dined on  roasted chicken and fingerling potatoes over lunch with Trump, Jared Kushner and Ivanka, fellow musician Kid Rock and Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown.

After running up to hug Trump in the Oval Office, West told reporters that Trump gave him ” a Superman cape” to help do good … My dad and my mom separated so there was not a lot of male energy in my home and also I’m married to a family where, you know, there’s not a lot of male energy. It’s beautiful, though.” 

The rapper, who sported a red “Make America Great Again” cap, also reiterated his claim that “they tried to scare me to not wear this hat,” as he did during his recent appearance on the season opener of “Saturday Night Live.” 

West then gave a 10-minute soliloquy which he dropped an F-bomb, shared the password to his phone (apparently, it’s 0000), likened his rhetorical style to “fine wine” (“it has complex notes to it”), announced that he had been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and instead was merely sleep deprived.

“Let’s stop worrying about the future all we have is today,” he continued “Trump is on his hero’s journey right now. He might not have thought he’d have a crazy (expletive) like (me).”

After he finished, The president concluded, “He can speak for me any time he wants. he’s a smart cookie. He gets it,” adding that West “could very well be” a future presidential candidate.

“Only after 2024,” the rapper clarified.

Kid Rock, another celebrity Trump booster, watched the president sign the landmark Music Modernization Act, which guarantees increased and faster royalty payments for performers, songwriters and producers.

The Detroit musician arrived around 11 a.m. and later posed for photos with White House advisor Kellyanne Conway in front of the West Wing Colonnade. 

After the signing ceremony, he said, “Everybody knows that this music of business is a pretty dirty business … But this is a great start to protect songwriters, producers, engineers – the unsung heroes behind many of these songs that go out there.”

Turning to Trump, he added “There’s a whole lot of people in this country that do give you a lot of credit for everything you’ve been doing for this country. We know that some people don’t give you as much as maybe they should sometimes.”

This isn’t the first high-profile meeting between Trump and either musician. Kid Rock visited the Oval Office in April 2017 and West famously traveled to Trump Tower in December 2016, where he discussed “multicultural issues” with the then-president-elect and posed for photos in the building’s lobby.

The White House confirmed that West would be meeting with the president, with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying that their conversation topics would include “manufacturing resurgence in America, prison reform, how to prevent gang violence, and what can be done to reduce violence in Chicago.”

West’s wife Kim Kardashian has also visited Trump in the White House several times, first meeting with Trump to champion the case of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old grandmother who spent more than two decades in prison on drug charges. After Trump granted Johnson clemency, Kardashian traveled to the White House again for a meeting about prison reform.

West’s visit comes after he deleted his social media accounts following his appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” where he donned his “Make America Great Again” hat to deliver an impromptu speech praising Trump and criticizing Democrats.

West noted that white people ask him, ‘’How could you like Trump, he’s racist’? Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism, I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.”

Contributing: John Fritze, USA TODAY

Taylor Swift, Kanye West at odds again: And this time, it’s on unexpected sides of political spectrum

More: Celebs react to Kanye West’s post-‘SNL,’ pro-Trump, anti-13th Amendment rant

Read More | https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2018/10/11/kanye-west-meets-trump-white-house-jared-kushner-ivanka-kid-rock/1599752002/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=amp&utm_campaign=speakable | Maeve McDermott, Jayme Deerwester

Business Kanye West goes on 10-minute soliloquy, references Superman cape and swears during White House visit, in 2018-10-11 17:41:02