#tiny allen having war flashbacks

[ask-tiny-allen]

Riliane: How come I was left out of this fun costume party? You’ll pay for this!

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

THATS DON?!?

Not confirmed (yet) but I'm pretty fucking confident on this one.

A random blue eyed human speedster in purple and grey was being used as the only power source for a city sized ship and Bart just happens to be drawn to him and just happens to decide to steal a 'random piece of tech' (while staring at it like it holds the secrets of the universe) during an arc where Iris and Barry were talking about kids and their future family? That's Don.

On the left? Teenaged Don Allen from a flashback in Finish line. On the right? The mystery kid Don Allen in One Minute War.

I cannot stress enough how absolutely insane it is that this kid was powering the ship.

^ this thing is fucking gigantic and this tiny child was the only power source

That's an Allen. That's just not possible unless he's an Allen or a West. And he's not Wally's kid with those Barry-Blue eyes.

This is also their first time on Earth. And they needed the speedster kid to power the ship to get to Earth. So this isn't a random earth speedster they just picked up. They already had this kid. This kid has a story. Like, say... oh I don't know.... time travel?

Also the kid didn't get to say his name because he got cut off. And Bart was cut off from speaking when he was explaining to Max. Which you would only really do if there was a reason to hide who he is. I'm guessing it'll be the twist next issue.

Oh also also? The kid had no clue who Bart & Ace were but he knew Wally West. Sound familiar? Don and Dawn didn't know about Bart, Jenni or any speedster lore when they were kids. But they did hear about Wally. Non-stop.

No reaction to Kid Flash, Impulse or Max Mercury. Reaction to Wally West.

And I see what they did here with Wally conveniently having his cowl down (when he had it on the scene earlier). Can't have a repeat of Wally's last time meeting the twins when they immediately thought he was Barry. That'd give away the whole surprise!

Anyway yeah this is Don it's just not confirmed yet. I'm ready to die on this hill.

[looniecartooni]

Owl House/D Gray Man Theory: Was one of the inspirations for the Owl House DGM?

Warning: Clunky theory with possible grammatical errors and spoilers ahead for the anime/manga series D Gray Man and the Disney show The Owl House including its finale. If any DGM and/or TOH may have noticed something I might have missed, feel free to (nicely) add on or argue against what I suggest. Also the pictures I use are not all that good and I kept a lot of DGM stuff private to keep any potentially new fans from being spoiled. Also also- it’s a lot longer than I thought it would be- so be warned!

So Owl House and D Gray Man have been near and dear to my heart and the most active fandoms I’ve been a part of for many years.While I’m sad to see the Owl house end and understand it takes time for D Gray Man to update (though it does feel like it may end soon), I’d like to somewhat bring attention what I thought might be DGM referances or inspirations in TOH.

First off- I am going to start off with the idea of brothers kinda Caine and Able-ing eachother for the greater good (yep jumping right into the dark stuff). So in DGM, it is revealed that Mana and Nea were “twins” involved inside a rather secret part of the 100-year exorcist war against The Millenium Earl. Long, confusing, spoiler-free story short, Mana started becoming the next Millenium Earl and Nea believes it is his destiny to destroy him and take his place in order to save him.

Phillip/Belos was also someone who believed he was liberating his brother Caleb from the witches that he thought took his brother from him and actually successfully unalived him according to flashback pictures (which I do not have on me a this second).

Nea’s memory also possesses the main character Allen Walker who is a poor boy that has been through so much trauma and devastation he did not deserve. Oh and since Mana adopted him, that technically makes Nea his uncle. (Allen might also be the reincarnation or something of another Allen- but as of now that has not been confirmed). Allen also has a scar on his eye.

In the Owl House, Hunter- the boy who is a clone/grimwalker of Caleb who has a scar on his cheek and way too much trauma from his Uncle Belos also gets possessed at one point. 

Both of Allen and Hunter also tragically lose their little companions that had originally belonged to someone else in the past (Flapjack belonged to Caleb and Timcanpy belonged to Nea and technically Allen’s alcoholic mentor). 

As for less tragic stuff/ TOH finale spoilers, here’s what DGM things I thought I noticed ...

When Luz was ripping Belos from the Heart, a bunch of tiny hands come out from behind to attack her.

Tiny hands also appear quite often in D Gray Man both by the power of the exorcists and that of the Millenium Earl’s clan.

Ironically- all the exorcists’ weapons (known as Innocence) originates from something called The Heart of Innocence which the Millenium Earl wants in order to destroy humanity (and possibly save it? It’s still a mystery.

And finally- we have these weird blob things that Belos also tried to use to attack King, Raine, and Eda.

They reminded me a lot of Jasdevi’s hatred.

There’s also a lot of immortal children, darker undertones than realized, ect. but it’s past midnight and this post is long enough so I’m going to say that this is all I could find.

If Dana Terrance was at all inspired by D Gray Man at all- I think that would be awesome. I enjoyed watching the show and I enjoy D Gray Man even though I don’t post about it as often as I used to. Thank you Owl House crew for such a wonderful show for all of us to enjoy and also thank you Hoshino Katsura for the amazing series D Gray Man. 

[comicweek]

Some Thoughts on The Forgotten Queen #1

In This Issue, a Warrior meets her Queen and we see a bloodier version of the start to Titanic 

The Forgotten Queen #1 Written by Tini Howard Illustrated by Amilcar Pinna Colored by Ulises Arreola Lettered by Jeff Powell

My interest in and reading of Valiant has been a rollercoaster over the past year as the buyout from DMG and various editorial shakeups took place. Currently I am cautiously optimistic about their product. The relaunch of Valiant was to me the successor of the old Wild Storm U, which informs one of my constant criticisms of the publisher that they are very straight-white-guy centric. That seems to be getting a bit better with their recent and upcoming books. You have Vita Ayala with artists Raul Allen and Patricia Martin on Livewire. Kevin Grevioux is writing Bloodshot: Rising Spirit. Jody Houser recently wrapped another, delightful, Faith mini. And you have this book, The Forgotten Queen, written by Tini Howard with art by Amilcar Pinna and Ulises Arreola, and letters by Jeff Powell. The four issue Queen miniseries focuses on Vexana aka the War-Monger, a foe of the Eternal Warrior seen in Matt Kindt’s run on Unity. Queen shirks pretty much all the usuals of a Valiant book: a series about a woman of color, written by a bisexual woman, with an artist of color, and, the thing that caught my eye, it’s queer! I can count the number of major LGBTQ+ character in the Valiant U on pretty much one hand – most of them are women, one of them is dead - but, hey progress.

As previously mentioned the War-Monger was a villain from Matt Kindt’s run on Unity, appearing in issues #19-22 (volume 6 “The War-Monger”.) You don’t really need to read that to start this, just know the Unity squad eventually gave her some cement shoes and tossed her in the ocean to finally stop her. That not so final resting place is where Queen begins in the present as an archaeology team with a mysterious baker are hunting for Vexana’s armor. The scenario echoes the start of Titanic, which the creative team give a bit of an ironic twist to.

To tell the story of Vexana, Howard employs a bit of a nesting doll like structure of split narratives and flashbacks as we see War-Monger work her way up till Late Antiquity and a meeting with Genghis Khan. The use of narration make sense within the issue but also gives moments a bit of a tell more than show appearance at times. These moments are more flashes than extended sequences, that when mixed with Pinna and Arreola’s art make for a solid montage. Pinna and Arreola make one page with a sort of graphic black-figure style (Greek pottery) to track Vexana’s passage through time and the monotony.

One of the things Howard, Pinna, and Arreola, are doing is quintessential superhero comics and an upside to the story universe model of narrative. They are using something created by Matt Kindt and a bevy of artist, that was pretty much forgotten. They are picking up these pieces and adding to them. By changing the characters position in the narrative structure from antagonist to protagonist, we get a whole new perspective on the character. Cecil Castellucci and Adriana Melo are doing something similar with Granny Goodness and the Furies in Female Furies.

Amilcar Pinna and Ulises Arreola make for some striking art, it isn’t super stylized but Pinna shows strong framing and perspective while Arreola gives it solid palette. There’s a realism to things but it’s just turned up a few notches. It comes at you on the credits page, the first page you see after the cover, with a not quite pinup of Vexana making a mocking face at the reader. I’m struck by the fierce look in her eye in contrast to the mocking tongue extension. The art team emphasize Vexana’s gaze throughout the issue as she makes those around her passions boil over. As she is being led out of Genghis Khan’s camp for the first time Pinna and Arreola give her this sort of playful look as she riles them up, she knows she is better than everyone for a hundred miles and is toying with them. The creative team showing Vexana enjoys the chaos she sows isn’t revelatory but there is greater sense of ownership and reason behind it, due to her position as the protagonist of this story. It adds a bit of texture to the character, and makes the moment she looks upon the woman falls for land even better. You see that transformation in her eyes.

If this issue has a minor annoyance, it is the use of swearing/the unimaginative censorship of swearing. Her swearing fits the character and the sword and sorcery vibe of the issue, but the gibberish character do nothing to enhance the dialog or moment. When she drops an expletive on the final page, it lands but more often it didn’t in this issue.

[whetstonefires]

d gray man liveblog part 4! (part 1)(part 2)(part 3)

No but seriously, Cyril Camelot is the English Foreign Minister and just staged an assassination attempt on himself for an excuse to declare war on the people he just spent a while negotiating an agreement with.

Why? In what way does this benefit the Noahs?

(...why is the name of the country censored, I feel like hoshino-san just didn’t want to try to come up with a plausible European country for England to go to war with in 18-mumblety.)

I mean Bookman says tragedy breeds akuma in his analysis, but they took Japan while it was so emphatically not at war that it had zero foreign relations at all; war is clearly not necessary for the Earl’s bargains to go through apace.

Cyril kind of looks like he just does this shit for fun.

...”the evil man who made the world his enemy” is a fascinating choice of words, Tykki Mik, I really wonder very hard about you.

And you’re right, when he’s not wearing his balloon costume, and talking normally, and buying flowers from little girls, he looks normal! Weird how that works.

Question: is that umbrella he declined so he could walk in the rain Lero? Does Lero have to share the Earl with other umbrellas outside of official monster business, or disguise himself as a normal bumpershoot when out in public? Is that servant another disguised akuma, or a normal person who has no idea?

...it’s probably an akuma.

YAY KRORY WAKE UP!

why so many chain. it’s not like he lost track of who his enemies were in that last fight, even when he was made of blood. rude to chain.

aw he cry. he cry! ;_; he cry for his friends!

this is the kind of sad boy i like. he can be annoying but not in, you know, a murdery way.

holy shit creepy ghost girl?! i...logically must have read this part before but i don’t remember it, damn i was bingeing like a mad thing.

where...where did the poison come from. why is Krory’s arm sticking out like that. what is going on.

Why Are The Order So Bad.

aaaaand cut to the kind of random hijinks that seem intended to lift the mood but tbh they’re kind of too grim in their own right.

lmao alternately this is an excuse to draw kanda and lavi as chibis and Allen with long hair.

If it’s not because of structural damage, why are they moving to a new base? No one’s said anything about the new headquarters being any more secure against frickin’ teleportation. Maybe the Pope just wants the Order distracted with moving chores?

(I like referring to the higher-ups at the Vatican as the Pope; I realize we have no actual evidence the actual Pope even knows any of this is happening, but if hoshino is gonna be having people shout that other people are ‘property of the Pope’ i’m gonna use the word Pope as often as I can get away with because

1) it makes the whole thing more ridiculous b) it emphasizes the European Gothic Via Japan vibe going on here which is at least 20% of the entertainment value and thirdly, ‘Pope’ is fun to say.)

Oh, right, Allen’s ongoing identity crisis! (it only gets worse from here, kid)

The bosses were logically correct to make Cross Marian do his ‘report to Vatican and be responsible’ part before giving him the pay-off of ‘allowed to talk to Allen’ because otherwise he’d just fuck off but damn it’s hard on the kid, being left hanging.

I absolutely do not believe for one second this business with Mana’s past and secret motives was planned before the series started, but that’s honestly for the best; it’s more wrenching when we didn’t have any more reason than Allen to suspect something was off.

...i like when nice clowns adopt people tho... :o(

not telling the brass or their stooge about your creepy extra reflection was a Good Call.

yes link really truly allen is a good kid who is not plotting evil shit. sheesh.

more Potion Accident gags, i’m sorry, i can’t keep up with your taste in mood whiplash and i never liked most slapstick anyway. the bunny ears are. strange.

...never mind who made the ‘talk like a cat’ potion, who packed that box Miranda spilled; that is such an absurd chaotic collection of items organize your shit people. eesh.

Lmao everyone’s #1 creepy ghost theory is, Komui Playing A Dumb Prank.

...okay, Allen’s reaction as the Matron gnaws on his arm, and the fact that everyone’s first assumption is that Allen has annoyed this very sensible woman to the point that she is communicating via teeth, manages to be funny but noooooo, why would you, not Awesome Shoes Lady after she made it through the Level 4 Akuma attack unscathed, come onnnnnn.

okay, uhhh...contagious vampirism zombie thing...lmao everyone gets worried about matron when she bites Miranda, everyone is super embarrassed when Miranda bites Noise, this is just some impressive Not Realizing Shit’s Fucked guys.

okay, zombie horde of various survivors of all the recent massacres.

uh, if this weren’t being dropped at a time of total emotional exhaustion, it would work better. it’s already working better the second time around for the fact that i took a break after the last arc.

considering it comes out monthly and we had a Noah interlude, it probably worked in the original context just fine, but daaaaaamn did this storyline piss me off the first time, all i even remember about it is the rage.

:D Lenalee rescued Tiny Kanda. Who for some reason can interpret her ‘nyah’ sounds.

...how is a stimulant drug contagious via biting.

i remember the first time i read this i naturally assumed the biting disease was derived from Krory. that still would have made more sense.

robot eats notebook, lol...bickering...”my pride won’t allow me to become a zombie” yes allen excellent logic you weirdo.

okay i’m done checking back in when slightly less stupid shit starts happening....

okay never mind the robot’s fireworks blew Allen through a wall, where Krory was suffering in chains, and then the blanket spontaneously combusted, and then there was somebody with an axe...

...and then Allen wakes up and is informed he was knocked out and concludes Krory’s situation was a dream oh come on.

krory is at the door! but being creepy! the robot refuses to open the door out of self-preservation! allen seduces the robot into risking its life!

...

‘this is nostalgic’ with the hero face on i can’t.

okay, so it was Krory, who apparently swallowed the entire bottle of poison, lid included? for some reason?

oh great there’s a parasitic zombie ghost thing riding Reever and sticking its face out his stomach. horror! nope, now played for laughs.

aaaand suddenly veering back into pathos. bonus info about evil human experiments!

...aaaaaand touching bonding moment for the Lees. Aww.

Not only is Komui protective and self-sacrificing, when he isn’t being psychopathic, he has absolved Lenalee of his having sacrificed his entire life to watch over her after she was kidnapped into this.

then a stupid gag! and the ghost does a creepy jealous possession thing! and meanwhile everything is on fire.

et cetera, mood whiplash back and forth at least once every other page...komui starts reciting from memory the names of every single person killed in the Order’s human experiments...

...i don’t think the names are intended as an additional gag, but most of them are fairly odd and many downright improbable, though none truly syllable-mashing outrageous. I’m rather fond of Asia Smet and Oona Boelyn.

a page and a half of heart-rending pathos, and then the robot falls off the ceiling with a huge syringe of ‘vaccine’ it synthesized from Krory’s blood because he was the first infected by the...stimulant...egad, that’s not how any of that works.

and then, and then...anyway then everyone was zombies and the boss from China came in off-panel and fixed everything, as you do.

i truly hate you hoshino katsura, all the more for the fact that i genuinely loved about 15% of that parade of neck-wrenching bullshit.

anyway! that’s all over and done with, we are now on a boat being cute, because allen is using the stolen teleportation Ark that only he can drive to open a door between the old Castle headquarters and this...uh...cave? that they’re moving into.

...oh hey Shadow Of Allen (XIV) is now sporting wings remarkably like the ones Krory had during his drugged vampire zombie freak-out. i bet that means nothing whatsoever.

man whenever Leverrierererererer turns up i hallucinate ominous music. smug assholish ominous music. slimier sounding than the Imperial March, you know?

that’s not just my biases, hoshino-san lights the panels very effectively to create that effect. egad, he’s going to be in command??? is that why the move, because it was easier to undermine komui’s authority if he was removed from his entrenched power base?

...we just covered last chapter that that castle was a leverrier family fortress originally tho. huh.

excessively creepy secret Pope police involved in isolating and depowering Allen.

also lol that is very Japanese-style religious magic going on, that is not what a Catholic ritual binding would look like at all. not that they have as much settled precedent, their demon-fighting standards run much more toward ‘make it go away.’

aw shit komui’s right there and he can’t do shit, best he can get is a promise that ‘if Allen is a good child’ he won’t die.

flashback! aw man allen the first lesson mana ever taught you was to make peace with the dead and let them lie. should’ve listened.

...man allen was a grouchy brat. i wonder what color his hair was, before it went white. haha apparently he acquired his adoptive dad by running away from the circus with him.

pfffffft little allen hated clowns, that achieves the level of actual irony...welp, suicide joke.

aw shit mana was too burned out on grief to cry for his dog but allen could, for the doggie that licked his hand once. imma cry now.

whoa actual conversation with Cross Marian! under the supervision of papal ninjas (known as Crow) within a magic cage of paper. and wow! an actual answer to a question! unprecedented!

...it isn’t labeled which of these kids was Mana and which was (the most recent incarnation of??) the Fourteenth but imma hazard a guess that the one with hair that matches little Allen’s is not Mana.

oh also Adam Puddinghead killed the 14th, i don’t think we officially knew that until now? or maybe it came up when he blew up Edo i don’t recall.

oh my god i was definitely bingeing too hard last time; by the time Cross Marian started referring to the 14th in the second person to Allen my capacity to be astonished or distressed was burned right the fuck out. i was just like ‘yeah yeah figured get on with it.’

it’s actually a pretty dramatic scene, but it’s weird to be getting this shit in straightforward exposition after all this absence of any information at all.

wait “the human implanted with” ... “the host for his revival” ... i can’t tell if Cross Marian is referring to whatever the normal noah transfer process is or some way 14 found of circumventing that.

ohhhhhh man this title page has tiny clown Allen and it is the cutest shit ever.

did i ever tell you guys one time when my mom was two and a half, she had her stage debut as the cutest little pigtailed clown? and she ran onstage toward her daddy just like they’d practiced and the whole audience burst into delighted laughter.

and Tiny!Mom turned to look at them in appalled horror, and u-turned right back around and ran offstage again.

no one had successfully communicated to her she was going to be laughed at by a bunch of strangers. possibly they didn’t expect a toddler to mind.

oh sure Cross Marian, tell the kid the horrifying truth about himself and his dad in the most overdramatic way possible, in front of witnesses, and then when he dissociates in horror just beat the shit out of him until he resets.

the amount of playing abuse for laughs in this series is one of the many emotional strains that led me to drop it the first time.

it’s honestly a contest sometimes who i currently hate most, Marian, you or Labradorito or the Earl. Ech.

‘no idea’ tch. but if you’re saying he implanted his memories into Allen before he died, then...the Earl caught up with the 14th really recently, then?! How long were he and Mana on the run? I totally forgot these details, wow. i suspect some of them will turn out to be false.

...why the fuck are you saying it like this? bastard.

wow CM you almost look spooked by the fact that allen cares more about the possibility that his dad never actually loved him than the prospect of having his mind eaten.

maybe he’d care more about the mind-eating if the 14th was the Earl’s ally instead of planning to use allen as a weapon to kill him? allen is already using himself as a weapon to kill the Earl.

oop, way to get him back on target! “what if i told you you’ll kill the people you care about?”

aaaand cut.

that was like ten chapters’ worth of blather, i need to get more efficient.

[jinkisbelly]

The Boyfriend Tag

Yes, mm, hello. This is youtuber au finally rip me

Onkey, pg 13ish for the one sexual comment, and yeah this is about Jinki introducing Kibum to his subscribers through the boyfriend tag thing.

about 2.83k words, I hope you enjoy this~

He felt the bed dip to his left and he smiled when his boyfriend kissed his cheek, “What you up to Babe?” Was softly whispered against his ear.

“Reading the comments on my last video,” Jinki replied, eyes not leaving the screen as he scrolled.

“Ah, any funny ones?”

“One said they wanted me to sit on their face.”

Kibum hummed softly as he looked over to follow the man’s finger. “Sorry user pkingfisher2, that’s my job already.”

Jinki was shaking his head as he continued to scroll, “There’s a number of them asking where’s my girlfriend.”

“Apparently they don’t follow you on any social media platform.” The younger man smiled softly and pushed up to plant a warm kiss on Jinki’s cheek.  “Mm, I’m very glad you don’t have a girlfriend, though.”

The laptop was softly closed and pushed on the table next to him before he turned with a big smile. His hand moved to curl around Kibum’s jaw, their noses brushing as he got closer. “I am too.”

“Have I mentioned how much I loved the suit you wore in your last video?” Kibum’s eyes flicked down to Jinki’s lips before back up to his eyes. His gaze was heated, the edge of his lips curving up as he felt Jinki’s hand working to pull his shirt up. His fingers were slightly cool to the touch as their lips met. Kibum groaned against him, pushing his fingers into his hair and tugging slightly. “It took a lot of me not to interrupt your taping for a kiss.”

——

Jinki squinted at the laptop screen in front of him and laughed as he read the question, “I lost my glasses, yes, but I had backup contacts.”

He hummed as he read another, “If I had to pick between pizza and hamburgers I would cry honestly.”

“Hey, babe?” Came Kibum’s soft call of his voice as he pushed open the door leading into the kitchen. “What are you doing?”

Jinki looked up from the computer and his face slowly bloomed in a smile at the sight of Kibum leaning against the door frame in one of his old hoodies and jeans. “I’m doing a live, why?”

Kibum shuffled over in his fuzzy socks and placed the mug in his hands on the table before Jinki, “I made you tea. Try not to work too hard.” He leaned down to kiss the top of Jinki’s head as Jinki lifted his hand up to squeeze his arm.

“I’ll try. Thank you,” Jinki lifted the cup to gently sip at the steaming liquid as he tried to catch a comment in the quickly updating messages. He laughed softly and replied to one, “Yes, that was my boyfriend.”

“You should have asked him to stay!” Jinki mumbled the question out loud, a smile pulling at his lips, “I have something planned to introduce him to y’all.”

“I cannot see anything but emoticons and exclamation points.” With a snort, he put his tea back on the table, “Ah! One thing I planned on doing on this was open some of the packages you guys have sent me, gimme one second!”

He slipped from under the coffee table and shuffled over to the closet to pull the huge box from the floor next to their dogs’ toy collection. Comme des and Garcons were in the bedroom with Kibum probably,  rolling around on the robe Jinki more than likely forgot to hang up. Once the box was pulled over to his place he flashed a smile and pushed the table out just a little more so he could have a package in his lap to open it comfortably. “Okay! So this one is from Sarah Allen from Texas, so thank you, Sarah.” He popped open the tape holding it together and scrunched his nose at all the packing peanuts before pulling out the book and letter. “Ah! I’ve been saying I wanted to read this for months, thank you! Wait.. maybe I should read the letter first.” He read the letter quickly, a smile pulling at his lips as he hid his lips with a fist. When he looked up at the camera again he flashed a big smile, “I love you too, thanks again Sarah. I’ll most definitely find time to actually read this.”

He tossed the box over the camera and placed the book on the couch behind him before grabbing the next package. “Ah, okay, so this one Garcon’s chewed through so I had to finish opening it, but I only saw the pack of gummy worms that I promptly ate so I’m sorry you won’t get to see me open those .. Etienne Fox from Quebec, Canada, but let’s open this other thing. I apologize if I pronounce your name wrong.”

It was when he pulled the item out that the letter fell out into his lap, “Oh, there’s a letter.” He frowned when he finished reading, “Please don’t apologize for your English. You write really well.” He gently folded the letter and returned it into the envelope before placing it on top of the other one. Then he turned toward the item in his lap and laughed, “Oh my God, they’re penguin mixing spoons.” After getting the plastic from them he held them up gleefully, “Look at this, isn’t it the best thing ever? Thank you, Etienne!”

Slowly he worked through the box, keeping the letters from them on one side of him on the couch and the gifts on the other. After he was finished he peeked around the computer. “My boyfriend will actually kill me, but the pups are gonna have a field day.”

He glanced at the time and his eyes widened, “Wow, it’s been almost 2 hours. I should get going. Thank you to everyone for hanging out with me. I’ll have a special video up Thursday! Bye~” After waving for a moment Jinki turned the camera off and closed the laptop. He pushed off the ground and gently gathered his letters before shuffling out the door toward the bedroom. Kibum was laying on the floor Comme des sitting by his shoulder and Garcons playing tug of war with him. The man lit up at the sight of Jinki.

“You done?”

“Just cleaning up, I kind of made a mess of the boxes and packing peanuts so…..” Jinki smiled bashfully as he pulled the box from under the bed to put the letters in with the others.

“So no pups outside for a while got it,” He laid his head on his arm and gazed over fondly at their pups trotting over to sniff at Jinki kneeling by the bed. The man ran his hands over their fluffy head with a big smile. “They heard you and kept scratching at the door.”

Jinki frowned, “Sorry babes, daddy had to work.”

Kibum pushed off the ground so he was sitting and pouted, “I mean I missed you too.”

“Oh,” He walked over to leaned down and kissed his forehead. “I have to clean up, but then we can go to the food truck festival down at the park.”

“Ooo Mini tacos.’

“Thought you’d approve.”

“Okay, Okay, let me help you I want tacos sooner.” Jinki snorted but let Kibum drag him out into the living room by the grip on his wrist.

“Just wait until you see my new penguin mixing spoons.”

Kibum paused and stared back at him, “Penguin mixing spoons?”

“Aka the best thing ever, come on.”

——

“Hi everyone, I know Thursday is usually Cupcake Day, but today I thought it was a good time to do something different.” Jinki smiled wide, pushing his glasses up his nose with his finger and looking past the camera for a moment before staring at it again. “As you can see from the title of the video I’ll be doing the boyfriend tag, so may I introduce my boyfriend Kibum.”

Kibum slipped into the stool with a big smile, dark blue hair pushed off his forehead in little curls. “Hello~”

“You guys have been asking about him a lot and I asked him if he felt comfortable doing a video with me and he said yes,” Jinki leaned his head on Kibum’s shoulder causing the man to have slightly pink cheeks. When he rose his head he smiled at Kibum, “So you know what the boyfriend tag is right?”

“I’ve watched a few videos yes,” Kibum’s hand was warm as he curled their fingers together in his lap out of view from the camera. “Are we both answering?”

“Yes,” Jinki pulled his phone in front of him and pulled up the link he found earlier that week. “I looked at like 7 different websites for good questions. Okay so basically I’ll read a question, we’ll write down our answers and flip them at the same time, Understood?”

“Yes, Babe,” Kibum’s facial expression was soft and fond as he asked, “What’s the first question?”

“When did we meet and where?” Jinki frowned for a moment as he squinted over at Kibum immediately writing on his whiteboard. “This is unfair I suck at dates.”

“I’ll love you even if you get it wrong.”

Jinki grumbled as he picked up his marker, “Who says I’ll get it wrong.”

Kibum paused in writing his answer to look over him all gently for a moment before finishing his answer. He waited for Jinki to finish and count to three before flipping the boards with him, “We met at this water park in August 5 years ago. You were out of sun block because your brother used it all and I gave you some of mine.”

Jinki’s eyes lit up as he flipped his board over, “Water Park in August over Sunblock, Ah ha I’m right too.”

With a soft laugh, Kibum wiped off his board with the cloth, “Okay next question.”

“When and where was our first kiss,” Kibum’s brows furrowed at the question before he slowly wrote it down. Jinki was done first this time, and on the count of three, they flipped. Kibum leaned forward in order to read what the man said, but a smile was warm on his face when he managed to. “I said in the parking garage after watching the horrible movie that Shall Not Be Named.”

Kibum snorted, “I said against the car because we had to make the experience of That Movie better.”

With a groan Jinki made a face, “I’m having flashbacks.”

While softly laughing, Kibum nudged him, “What’s the next question?”

“Oh,” Jinki smiled, “This one is easy. Who said I love you first?”

Writing their answers were quick. When they flipped them over both were just arrows, pointing toward Kibum. “He was making these tiny cupcakes and he had flour all over his apron and up in his fringe. How it was still there I wasn’t sure, but I went over to brush it out with my fingers and I let the words just spill from my mouth. I didn’t mean to say them, but I meant them if that makes sense.”

“I squeezed icing all over my hand because of it.”

“It wasn’t the most romantic, but that’s us.” Kibum reached over to pull Jinki’s phone closer to him, “Are we doing the birthday question?”

“No,” Jinki glanced over at the screen. “Just pick a question you want to do.”

“Okay, then,” Kibum hummed before saying, “Ah, what would I eat every day if I could?”

When they flipped Jinki explained his answer of Tacos. “You absolutely love Tacos. All tacos. You don't discriminate on Tacos, but if I had to guess your exact favorite, I’d say they are the tiny ones they sell at the food truck festival every year. You look forward to those almost religiously.”

“I keep trying to get my very good cook of a boyfriend to make me them but he refuses.” Kibum playfully glared at him as he tapped his fingers on his white board’s edge. “But you would probably eat chicken every day if you could. Fried chicken specifically.”

“You can never go wrong with chicken.”

“There was that one time it was pink inside.”

Jinki frowned as memories flashed through his mind, “I could have gone without remembering that thank you.”

Kibum leaned over to kiss his temple out of instinct, forgetting the camera was rolling, “Sorry Babe.”

With rosy cheeks, Jinki read the next question, “What is my favorite cereal?”

After a moment Kibum answered, “You don’t even like cereal.”

“And you love lucky charms.”

“And someone likes to take my marshmallows.”

Jinki pouted, “There’s no point in me getting a bowl if I’m just gonna waste the cereal part.”

“So it’s about conserving the product?”

With a huge smile Jinki hummed, “Yes, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

Kibum gently shook his head fondly as he asked the next question, “Where was our first date?”

Jinki went first in explaining his answer of, Boat Date. “So Kibum’s best friend had this boat they went out onto the ocean a lot in, and that weekend they were going and he invited me to go. He had extra sun block prepared for me just in case, and going out I got sea sick so that was fun.”

“Jinki showed up at the dock in cargo pants and this pineapple shirt, in this cutest hat I’ve never seen. This huge smile on his face because he’d never been on a boat before like this. Now I hate cargo pants, but he made them okay.” Kibum smiled lovingly over at him, “You got so sick we spent most of the ride out there down in one of the bedrooms slowly drinking water and trying to stop the room from spinning, but it was a good first date. I’m glad I invited you.”

Jinki visibly melted at the fact Kibum remembered what he was wearing 5 years beforehand, and only snapped out of it when Kibum pushed the phone back over to him to read the next question. “We’ll do two more, uh, What is the one thing you wish I didn’t do?” Kibum cocked his head to the side as he tried to put his finger on something to write. Once finished and they flipped his board only said one thing, mini sweets. Jinki looked completely puzzled when he read it, as he said his answer, “You often forget when I’m making videos and you’ll use the eggs and not tell me to get more on my way home, but what do Mini sweets mean?”

“You make these little versions of all the best things, like cupcakes and cookies and that one time you made a tiny macaroon, and you know how much of a sucker I am for tiny things.”

“But I make them tiny because I know how much you like tiny things.” Jinki nudged him, “What would I be without my taste tester?”

“40 lbs heavier.”

Jinki elbowed him before asking the next question, “Finish the phrase, My boyfriend is…?”

When it was time to flip they did so slower, and Kibum went first. “I wrote down that my boyfriend is the best choice I ever made.”

“Kibum~” Jinki softly breathed out, eyes soft and loving as his chest warmed up at the words.

Kibum was getting shy then, cheeks pink and eyes cast down away from Jinki. “Don’t look at me like that you’re gonna make me look like a tomato.”

“Well I mean if that doesn’t this will,” Jinki looked down at his board and read it softly, “I said my boyfriend is my foundation. I wouldn’t be able to do anything I’ve done if I didn’t have you waiting for me after the camera stopped rolling.”

Kibum frowned at him, gently hitting him with his fist, “You told me you wouldn’t make me cry, meanie.”

“That’s all for today,” Jinki beamed over at the camera, “I do hope that you think he’s as amazing as I do. Monday will be another edition of Mocha Mondays, see you then!”

—–

Jinki smiled as he slipped behind Kibum, wrapping his arms around him as the man gazed at his phone in one hand as he brushed his teeth with another. “What are you doing Baby?”

Kibum’s voice was muffled from the vibrating toothbrush in his mouth as he said, “Checkin’ comments.”

“Ah,” He nuzzled against his neck before pressing a kiss against the skin, “How does it feel to have people who love our relationship?”

“Strange,” Kibum leaned down to spit into the sink, “But I guess it’s how Brangelina feel.”

With a shake of his head, Jinki moved toward the door, “Do you still have to do your face?”

“Nope, I’ll be in bed shortly Babe.” Kibum smiled at him through the mirror’s reflection before Jinki left to get into bed. He called out to the man, “Love you.”

“Love you too,” came the soft, distant reply. So quiet Kibum knew Jinki was already swaddled in the comforter on the bed.