#using every single tag to stir the pot

[barbreypilled]

shifts to the Brontëverse to give her a 4loko (original recipe) and a gun

[rikiislvr]

☕️ height difference : ot7 line

pairing: enhypen x afab!reader

genre: fluff

summary: you and your height difference problems with enhypen

LEE HEESEUNG:

heeseung was waiting outside your apartment, with flowers in his hands, your favorites to be exact, which were tulips. he had on a white button up and light blue jeans to take you out to the park and chill for the rest of the day. he tried his hardest to keep his smile at a minimum, but once you walked out your apartment building, with your pretty light yellow dress, your hair pinned back by white pins, he couldn’t help but grin like a total idiot. “you look so gorgeous baby.” he smiled at you as you skipped up to him, “thank you- oh my! are these for me?” you gasp at the flowers he held, “they are indeed.” he looked down at you before handing you the flowers, your heart melted, heeseung then cupped your face to kiss you, you tried stepping up on your tippy toes but he was way too tall, so he leaned himself down to press his lips against yours.

-

PARK JONGSEONG:

since jay usually cooks for you and him, you decided to take things into your hands for a day. he was sitting across the counter watching you as you cooked, “i’m definitely not used to this.” he chuckled, since he was always the one who was cooking, “i know! but trust me, i know what im doing!” you nod and stirred the pot with sauce, you were making your infamous spaghetti, you walked over to the cabinet to grab the noodles to start them, you opened the cabinet, as your eyes scanned for the pack of noodles, you groaned once you saw them on the top shelf. you stood on your tippy toes trying to reach, but failed miserably, you rolled your eyes and began to get on the counter, “ay ay ay.. i got it, don’t hurt yourself princess.” jay quickly hurried around the counter, grabbing you and setting you back on the floor, and easily reached up to get the noodles, “why are they so high up!?” you sigh, “maybe because since i cook the most, i put it on the shelf i was comfortable with.” he chuckled, “the top shelf? jeez man you’re tall.” you giggled, he smiled and kissed the top of your head before handing you the noodles.

-

SIM JAEYUN:

you and jake were visiting your parents, jake was very well with his presence around them, you were just glad your parents liked him, you got up suddenly from the living room to go back to your childhood room, everything was still left the same way you left it when you turned 18. it was so nostalgia. seeing the pink walls, the pink bed sheets, all the stickers and things you decorated your room with. it was all coming back to you at once, making you smile, your eyes suddenly widened once you remembered you kept a box with all your memories you wanted to cherish in your closet, you walked over to it, and opened the door, seeing the blue box with a ribbon over it on the top shelf, pushed back. damnit. you only pushed it so far because you didn’t want anyone grabbing it and going through it, you stood on your tippy toes in an attempt to grab the box, but it was no help. you sighed and frowned, looking around to find anything to boost you up, jake then came in the room, smiling as he looked around the room, his smile suddenly dropped once he saw you, “hey? are you okay, what’s wrong love?” jake walked over to you, “could you teach that?” you pointed up to the box pushed back on the shelf, jake smiled and reached up, grabbing it effortlessly before handing it to you, “thank you.. i couldnt reach it..” you giggled, “i know.. it’s okay, you’re welcome. now in return can we look through it together?”

-

PARK SUNGHOON: (slightly similar to jakes^^)

sunghoon decided to take you out and spoil you, he took you to damn there every single store in the mall, giving you his card to buy anything you wanted, he would just follow around and adore the way your face lit up at different things, but the way it faded once you saw the price tag, “don’t worry about it babe. get what you want. it’s my treat.” he would remind you, and would also carry all your bags. you guys decided to make one more stop at a bag store, since you wanted a new purse. you walked in the store and began to examine all the purses, but one caught your eye, it was so pretty. it was a black purse with a silver outline, only problem was, it was on the top shelf. you turned to ask sunghoon to grab it, but he was slightly far away, looking around for himself. you sighed and tried to climb up on the shelf a bit, reaching your arm up, but you couldn’t reach, suddenly you feel a presence behind you, a arm next to yours grabbing the bag effortlessly, you turn around and was met with sunghoon, “you could’ve just asked me.” he chuckled and handed you the bag, you smiled and shook your head, “thank you.”

-

KIM SUNOO:

you and sunoo always had these self care days, every saturday he’d come over and you two would do face masks, skin care, each others hair and more, which led you to in your bathroom, as he set all his skin care down on the counter, “want me to do your skin care this time?” you ask him, he smiled at you and shook his head, “no, my turn.” he nod and pat your head, making you giggle. you washed your face and pat it dry with a towel, sunoo then grabbed the toner, and you stood in front of him so he could apply the toner onto your face, but he tilt his head, “hm..” he says, he suddenly picked you up off the floor, making you squeal, he sat you onto the counter, and smiled, “what was that for?” you giggled, “it makes it easier since you’re eye to eye with me.” he shrugged and softly applied the toner to your face, you couldn’t help but blush, he was so cute without even realizing it, “are you blushing or is that the toner?” he grinned, “just the toner.” you nod, both of you knowing it was definitely not the toner.

-

YANG JUNGWON:

you walked into the practice room, you came to cheer your boyfriend on as he practiced for their recent comeback, he stopped dancing and went to pause the music before running over to you, wrapping his arms around you, “missed you.” he chuckled, “you’re sweating!” you groan as he held you anyways, he pulled away and smiled down at you, “here to cheer me on?” he raised an eyebrow, you nod and smiled up at him, “cute. but first, let’s take a selfie.. so i can save it?” he asked, “sure!” you nod and grabbed your phone, you two walked over to the huge mirror in the room, you went to your camera and held up the phone, only problem was, jungwons face was cut off, due to him being taller than the entire camera, you giggled, “lean down!” you tap his arm, he looked at the camera and noticed how he wasn’t even fully in the frame, he chuckled and wrapped his arms around you before leaning to rest his head on your shoulder, the perfect pose for the perfect photo, as you snapped the camera 3 times. “it’s so cute.” you smiled looking at the results, jungwon not leaving your shoulder, “you’re so cute.” he smiled at your phone.

-

NISHIMURA RIKI:

finally, riki had a free day from his schedule to spend time with you after it felt like years since you two had quality time together, and the best way he wanted to spend his free day with you was to go to an amusement park, you guys were holding hands, walking down the amusement park, trying to find any ride that caught both of your eyes, you two turned your head, revealing to you was a huge green rollercoaster, “this one!” you point and jumped up slightly in excitement, he chuckled at your cuteness, “okay then, cmon.” he pulled you along as you two went to the line. before you guys got in line, you saw the “height requirements for ride”, niki chuckled and pulled you to him, then motioned you to stand beside the line that you had to reach, “uh oh, looks like you can’t ride..” he says, you groaned, you were just one inch below the required height for the ride, “damnit! what about you?” you asked him, he walked up to it instead, and expected, he was ABOVE the whole damn stick. “you are literally a giant.” you giggled, “you’re just short.” he scooped you onto his back, “it’s okay, let’s find something else to ride, okay?” he asked you, you smiled and wrapped your legs around him as he began walking with you on his back.

a/n: it’s been a while since i’ve done a ot7 post.. how we feellllinnn? should i do them moreee? i also didn’t pre read so srry for any errors if their is any haha

[marigoldenblooms]

Unica Semper Avis - Chapter 1

Pairing: Cleric!Wanda x Fem!AvianShifter!Reader x MonsterHunter!Natasha

Prompt: Ever since you’ve come of age, you’ve never been able to stop yourself from transforming into a monster. Whenever the sky would dim with a New Moon, you’d ravage the world with a fury unknown by many. Such is the bane existence of your species. This time, however - something was different. Now, you need help. On the feeble doorstep of the so-called ‘Spirit Healer,’ you found yourself both at the mercy of a cleric, and of a monster hunter’s blade. Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

MINORS DNI - 18+

TW/General Tags: No mention of Y/N, slow burn, stranger to lovers (Wanda), enemies to lovers (Natasha), eventual smut (lord have mercy), Swearing, Fantasy violence, occasional descriptions of light body horror during transformation, slight self harm, slight restraint, angst, fluff, will add tags as they appear!

Chapter Warnings: Angst, canon-level violence, use of medieval weapons, body horror description in transformation, magic use, slight dissociation/self harm, restraint, fluff (for five seconds), R is a simp, so is W, N is not here to play, etc.

A/N: I’ve been working on this next chapter ever since the previous. Chapter two is coming along quickly as well! I want to keep a bit of a backlog for my longer fics, so updates will be as frequent as I can manage. The name established in this chapter for R will be used sparingly, but I loved what Missmonsters2 did with Between the Lines when I read it months ago, and thought it’d be pertinent until nicknames/pet names are established (and for as long as I can avoid conversation where names are necessary). 

R’s monster form brought to you by bearded vulture inspiration! Feel free to imagine your own version of avian horror to your heart’s content. Enjoy, y’all!

Word Count: 3.1k - Read Length: 11 minutes, 18 seconds. Pictures aren't mine, credit to their owners!

~~~  The healer’s home was nothing short of overwhelming. 

Multi-colored knick-knacks were strewn on every surface, perched below gatherings of drying, braided flowers which hung from the rafters. Beneath your feet, woven rugs of alternating sizes dotted the cabin’s cool wooden floors, like islands between a chilled sea of timber. The front door lead further into a sitting room, offering glimpses into a small, quaint looking kitchen, adorned with a single well-worn table and chair. Within that same place, a large pot was held still on the counter by wisps of scarlet magic, another more opaque plume coaxing a wooden spoon to stir whatever was inside. 

Paintings hung along every wall, although you could never get a full glance at one, as though they’d subtly shift and change muses whenever you’d look away. The sound of a shutting door would heighten your senses enough to break from the scenery, turning on your heels to face the home’s owner once again. She’d pry at you with a half-smile, and you’d solidify your gaze at the floor before her eyes could have the chance to meet yours. 

“What brings you to my home?” She’d question evenly, her words a pleasing rasp- smooth molasses which could easily cloud your senses if you allowed her to. You’d see her form move to the side of you in your peripheral, yet you’d remain still, your stare continuing to bore a hole into her carpet. 

Wordlessly, you’d tug at your shawled sleeve to show the back of your arm. Running along the skin’s expanse were thin ridges, pin feathers prickling beneath taut flesh. A light down speckled your skin in odd patches, consolidated mostly on your neck and shoulders for now. Your hair had begun to fleck and grow waxy and silkish, akin to dense ostrich feathers, tousled from your trek to her abode. You’d watch the ground as her shadow would shift around you, a curious tsk showcasing her intrigue.

You wouldn’t see her raised expression, eyebrows furrowed as she’d take your wrist without warning, raising it up so she could see the indentation better in the light. She’d drop your arm as soon as she’d grabbed it, falling limply to your side, and her smooth voice would threaten to carry you off again. “Fascinating..your affliction isn’t something I’ve seen recently.”

“Can you help?” You’d mumble, the few phrases coming to you sounding choked from lack of use, and you could hear the healer’s grunt at your lackluster response. You’d swallow thickly, trying to find the words to explain all that you were, but none arrived. She’d circle around you once more, and before you could flinch away, would capture your chin between her thumb and forefinger, wrenching it to make you look at her- green irises narrowing as you’d shut yours, unwilling to look her in the eye. You’d half expect her grip to be cold like the Matron’s, but her touch’s pleasant warmth was something you almost missed as she’d let go of you, the shuffle of her arms crossing heightened behind your closed eyelids. 

“I can’t help a patient I can’t trust,” She’d muse with a teasing lilt, rolling her r’s in a way that made your chest flutter. Was this another symptom of your molt? It had been a long time since you’d been with another and the thought made your heart ache, albeit not more than your bones. “Why won’t you look at me?”

The scoff that came in response to her was almost too easy, opening your eyes after directing your head to the floor again, “Because I am no threat to you.” “And why would I assume that?” She’d retort immediately, and you’d glare into the ground. Why was talking so easy for her? Why couldn’t she understand that you weren’t like her? You’d raise your arm aloft again, the skin burning now as you’d twist the plumage under your flesh for her view. The rage that had been festering in you for days unlocked a torrent of your words, finally finding purchase in your mouth- frustration evident in how each phrase was ripped from your throat. Your larynx would be useless beyond a breathing tool soon, so you better use it now. Your nails clawed at your arms, doubling into yourself, “Because you are human and I am not, healer- is that not something you’re able to understand-?!” 

“Relax for me-” she’d grit, and you’d feel your stomach plummet at her words. Something in them begged obedience, and for a second you felt as though you were back in your nightmare. You’d twitch, glance immediately circling the ceiling as something would restrain you- thin tendrils of crimson magic, keeping your arms from flaring out at your sides. As if seeing your frustration, your panic, the healer’s sorcery would calm, soothing both your body and your mind into an unnatural lull. “You’re…using-” you’d begin, yet words would evade you once again, no longer fueled by anger. There was only a different feeling- regret, and uncomfortable stone in your stomach that you shied away from, wanting to cower from its weight. You didn’t like yelling at this woman, even as she cradled you with her witchcraft. 

You’d feel her heat again, warm hands placing tentative touches to your shoulders, slowly coaxing your glance to hers. “I’m sorry,” she’d breathe, shallow as you’d feel her palms shake against you, “I didn’t want you… to hurt yourself-” Her irises, blooming with clouds of red, would drain into green as you’d feel her magic loosen around your body like unraveling ropes. You wouldn’t shy away from her this time, panting as her gaze would share her soul with you. She, too, held that stone in her gut. Perhaps she didn’t fear you. 

You’d part as her back would stiffen, adding a few feet between the two of you. “What is your name?” She’d ask, and you saw the way her head tilted since you looked at her face. Your words came easier now that you were less tense, muscles losing their rigidity, and yet you didn’t have an answer for her.  You still pried into her windows, eyes flicking across the expanse of her garden from the view you could get from her living room, but it was a start. “I met your gaze, healer..I’ve done my part, you first.”

You’d see the way her nose crinkled at your response, flecks of mirth illuminating her expression, a grin finding its place there, “Talking now, are we? I’m Wanda.” “I’m..Margo.” In truth, you hadn’t had a name in years, the few decades you’d been alive focused more on survival than memory, especially when your molts made it difficult to discern who you really were- humanoid or avian. You’d forgotten your birth name ages ago, and it was a blessing that your words left your mouth as cleanly as they did. She’d tut at your response, taking it in as satisfactory, “Sure…Margo. Would you like to sit down?” 

Wanda would guide you to her kitchen table without much fanfare, settling you on her single chair. With a focused look and a wave of her hand, however- a duplicate would reveal itself from a cloud of scarlet mist. “Your magic is red?” You’d inquire, tilting your head as you’d seen her do, “It’s a violent color. Why is that?”

“Do you really want to toe that line?” Her phrase were humorous, yet you swear a flash of indignation peppered her visage. You were not going to mess with that line, whatever she meant by that. “No, Wanda.” She smiled at that, her name seemingly pleasing in your mouth. You felt the flutter in your chest again, heart drumming a little faster against your shifting ribcage. If this was a sign of your incoming succession, then you had to finish this fast- to return before you transformed in Wanda’s house. And yet, why was the feeling almost pleasant? 

“You said you haven’t seen my ‘affliction’ in a while,” You’d recount, finding her term for your molt unremarkable. You’d offer her a glimpse of your arm again, hesitating to touch the quills beneath. It was always tender before a lunation, and you didn’t want to aggravate the transformation further, “It doesn’t normally happen so soon. In hours before the new moon, maybe- not over days.” 

“And what happens after those hours?” She’d coax your arm down with a gentle wave, seeing how your movements grew stiff as your skeleton hollowed out. You shrug, “I transform.” Wanda’s expression would sour, yet curiosity prickled underneath. Why did she look at you like that? “Can you help me? You said you're familiar with my kind.” 

“..In truth, I’ve never met someone like you,” She’d murmur, expression bashful, and if the circumstances were different you would’ve taken it as a compliment. Instead, spiked embers of dread seared in your stomach, heart beginning to thrum in your ears. She didn’t know. Could she even help you? Her voice would raise a little louder, “However, if you tell me about yourself, perhaps I could figure it out.” With a twirl of her fingers, two cups of..something floated towards the table. Her gaze was an offer, “Thirsty?”

You’d nod, your throat suddenly dry. The drink was smooth and warm, with a bite of something fresh and crisp. It was much better than your rainwater. Gulping more of it down, you notice how she’d smile at your eagerness, careful not to spill as you’d raise the cup from its saucer. “Cider,” she’d mention, motioning to her mug, “Where are you from?” “My cavern is far from here. About half a day’s walk.” Wanda’s eyebrows would raise. “Cavern? You live in a cave?” Her interest was a delight, and you wanted to keep it for as long as you could. You didn’t answer her question, instead throwing one back at her, “Why do you live far from your town?”

“Bellmoor?” Amusement would blanket Wanda’s expression, snorting as she’d shake her head, twisting in her chair so she could lean forward towards you, “Because I like my peace and quiet. I assume the same for you, Птичка?” 

“What does that mean?” You’d ask, and she’d tut again. “Now now, that can be your next question, but it’s my turn.” She’d scrunch her nose at your grumbling acquiesce, and you couldn’t help but smile with her. You liked this game. Wanda rested her hands on her table, and your eyes were caught on the shimmer of her rings as she’d speak, “Can you control your transformation?” That one was easy. “Fuckin’ wish I could...” Wanda’s brows would reach her hairline at your curse, but you wouldn’t give her time to comment as yours would stream from your maw, though it’d stop early, “No Aegypius can. What does..”

“‘Птичка’ mean?” She’d grin, rasping her knuckles on the wooden grain at each syllable, “Little bird, birdie, you have feathers underneath your skin, yes?” You’d send her a taunting look, one that she met in equal measure. You’d smile back at her, “Is that your question?” 

Wanda would balk, gotten so caught up in teasing you that her words just tumbled out with no direction. You’d see her cheeks grow pink, clearing her throat with a stuttered breath, and you swear she felt like you did when you felt that flutter. “No, it isn’t-” She’d respond smoothly, but you caught how her eyes shimmered, and you took another sip of cider. You knew why when her words made your mind double-take, “Would you like to stay with me tonight?”

You almost spit out your drink, coughing on it as you’d sputter, blush alighting your face. You felt it warm and you tried to hide it away, your flustered reaction seemingly pleasing Wanda. She certainly didn’t know what that meant to you, “I..you want me to stay with you- I’m going to molt tonight, Wanda.” 

“And if I am to help your transformation, then I must see it in person,” She’d respond, never losing her smile. It soothed you, that richness in her tone and that calm in her expression, and you’d feel a new pull in your heart. One you hated.

Your instincts wanted you to ruin her. Wanted her vulnerable as she was, to splinter her bones into shards you didn’t even have to chew. 

To take advantage of her weakness, your hunger eating you alive unless you picked her clean, consumed-

You’d swallow, a shaky breath leaving you. Wanda had blinked, and your voice acted quicker than your mind would comprehend, “I don’t want it helped, Wanda. I want it gone.” You’d feel your skin itch at that, and a cold dread filled your gut, like the Matron’s chill held you once again. Your words were a whisper. “But I don’t think my body will let me.” 

“All the more reason for you to stay. Do you have anything that helps you calm down?” She’d ask, leaning forward with a gentle lilt. Her hand would’ve come across the table, offering her palm to yours. It was calloused, warm skin juxtaposed with smooth metal, and you took it in yours gratefully. You were starting to really like her company. 

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

The hours would’ve floated by you, a subtle bliss filling you as you and Wanda would’ve enjoyed the rest of your evening together. You could feel your body shift by the hour, and yet a part of you didn’t care if you were with her. You’d show her your chains, mentioning their unknown inscription and how they’d keep your form….distracted. You would be kept in the barn once the moonless night had begun, the sky within a period of tranquil dusk. She ghosted her hand across the rim of your shackles, and you were surprised they didn’t burn her like they did you. An Aegypius trait, you supposed. 

Wanda had made you stew using that pot from earlier, while you hovered in the vicinity, chopping up carrot and onion into more manageable pieces. The meal was finished after it had boiled for a long time, and it was only when you sat down to enjoy it with her that a blink of movement would catch your eye. The bay windows curved in a beautiful shape that let the last vestiges of light in, and you’d register the sight of silver metal piercing into the glass before you heard it smash. 

A figure leapt through its shattered remains, thick cloak blanketing their form to protect them from the glass. Their armor and longsword was polished beautifully, and they would be regal if it wasn’t for their war shout and barred teeth. You could see their face beneath their hood, just before the glint of their weapon as it’d slice down towards your chest. 

You’d dodge, rushing backwards until your back hit the other end of the wall. As the longsword would finish its downward arc, Wanda’s magic would cradle its blade, her hands outstretched and bent as if trying to push it up. Her voice was strangled and thin, heard between the thudding of your heartbeat in your ears, “run, Margo- go!” 

Turning to bolt, you’d hear the clatter of boots against wood as a rougher hand would grab you by the scruff of your neck. Writhing in their hold, you’d shove your elbow into the ribs of your attacker, before grabbing their hand from your nape to sink your teeth into it. “Fuck, you гриф-” The knight’s heavy breath was audible from behind your back. You’d bite harder, feeling their skin break beneath your jaw as you’d thrash, trying to cleave flesh off. They’d tear their hand from you, kicking your legs with a force that sent you barreling down. 

Your head would hit the hardwood floor, and you could hear the ringing in your ears as you’d look up, vision swimming as everything looked double. Your hooded attacker brandished their longsword with two hands above you, although it looked like they had four. Before they could stab the blade downward, Wanda’s hand would lurch out to their neck- pressing the kitchen knife into their throat as her other palm would scratch towards the knight’s eyes, the pair barreling backwards which left you an outside view that made your pupils retract into pinpricks. 

The sky was dark, illuminated with bright swaths of stars. Tears pricked at your eyes. The few treetops you saw couldn’t even reach its height, blanketing the world in an awaiting gloom. You knew the moon was out there, but you couldn’t see it. Your mind reeled, thoughts growing famished as you’d stare into its expanse. You licked your lips. The sky offered you reprieve, and who were you to deny its feast?

The wheezing pop of bone into stronger sockets would startle Wanda and her assailant into a tense standoff, your witch pinning the stranger to the floorboards while the knight tried in vain to grasp at their longsword that had been kicked many feet away. Your breath heaved with strength you hadn’t felt before, seizing as the voice that came from you was no more than a guttural hiss. Your skull would reshape, mouth widening into a curved beak, hooking into serrated edges, while your skull would become angular, bird like. Anything but human, you were no longer recognizable. Feathers would blanket the creature’s shifting musculature, tearing from roughened skin as they’d fan into shape. Its arms and legs grow as its fingers would lengthen, bat-like wings creaking before they’d be covered in plumage; ivory white on it’s neck and shoulders, cascading into darker blacks and blues elsewhere. The monster’s feathers wouldn’t remain unpigmented for long, as they’d begin to warm on its skin- sparks flying from where they touched, growing into a burnt umber. The beast would groan as its wings crashed to the floor- bipedalism was no longer an option, the force cracking the wooden boards. Horns would thunder from shaking its monstrous head, the beast’s eyes blinking into pale gold with a crimson ring surrounding them. A black line of feathers ran down the side of its face and to its gaping maw, tufted at its chin. Its feathers had heated into shades of orange, flecked with flame- while cyan speckled where its temperature had reached an apex.

Silence would still the room, the shaky inhale of breath marking the presence of living beings in it’s fray. The demon would blink again, a gnashing sound emanating from inside its cavernous beak. It’d then raise itself on its haunches, spread its twelve meter wingspan (shattering the walls in its wake), and echo a deafening, reverberating call into the night. 

The hunt had truly begun. Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

~~~

[towriteloveontheirarms]

New years eve party (modern!Aemond Targaryen x reader, side Alysmond)

synopsis: Every year you and your friend throw a new years eve party for all the singles in your building. When you first invite the new neighbour he declines, only a year later it seems like everything has changed.

warnings: Alys being a bad girlfriend, alcohol, self induldent fluff at the end, afab reader

word count: 2.8k

taglist: @hopelesswritergall @urmomsgirlfriend1

(If you want to be tagged for a specific character/fandom/series or in general let me know in my asks, comments or DMs)

A/N: The year is about to end so happy new year to everyone!

The first time Aemond and you meet, he just moved into the apartment complex, two floors beneath you and your flat mate and best friend. It's late in the year already so you decide to welcome him to the building with some Christmas cookies in hand.

"Hello. I saw you move in here last week and wanted to welcome you to the building." You offer your hand to shake after he opens the door with a questioningly arched eyebrow. Aemond isn't a man of many words you learn quickly.

"Thank you, that's... nice." The platinum blond shakes your hand and takes the cookies from you. "I'm Aemond. Aemond Targaryen. And you are?"

You give him your name. "If you ever need anything, I live two floors above. All you need to do is knock."

Aemond nods curtly.

"Oh and since new years is right around the corner, we always throw a little party for all the singles in the building. You should stop by if you want. We won't bite, I promise." The smile on your face refuses to fade even with his rather cold demeanor.

"Again, thank you, but..." A feminine voice interrupts him.

"Aemond, love, who is there?" The woman who the voice belongs to appears in the door frame as well. Holding onto your new neighbors arm almost possessively.

"Hi, I'm your new neighbor from two floors above. I just wanted to introduce myself real quick and bring over some cookies." You state. Your smile falters a bit as you see the gorgeous dark haired woman.

"Well, you did that now, didn't you? We still have lots to unpack so you'll have to excuse us." She says in a clearly faked friendly tone that hides nothing of her words true meaning. To stay away from both of them.

"Sure. I'm sorry for bothering you in the middle of moving. How silly of me. Have a nice day." You give them a small wave and go back to your apartment.

You couldn't lie to yourself about the disappointment you felt at the sight of Aemond's girlfriend, but he was attractive so was it really a surprise he wasn't single? You shake your head to get rid of those thoughts when a key turns in the door.

"I'm home!" Sarah calls out as the sound of her keys hitting the ceramic bowl sounds through the apartment.

"I'm in the living room." You answer back.

"Hey, how was your day?" She asks with a relaxed smile.

"Same old, same old." You mutter, still kinda in thought.

Together you go to the kitchen to cook, like every night, when you decide to speak up about what happened.

"Have you met the neighbors from two floors down yet?" Curiosity coats your tone as you try to remain nonchalant.

"I thought it was only one. That weird, blond guy. I've seen him around once or twice." Sarah busies herself by stirring in one of the pots.

"Yeah him and his girlfriend. I went to welcome him today and she was really possessive and borderline bitchy. Like, she couldn't get me out of their bubble again fast enough. Didn't even give me her name." Your eyebrows furrow and your nose scrunches up slightly at the memory.

"Maybe she felt threatened by you?" Sarah chuckles and then a moment of silence follows. "Now that you mention her though... I did hear a woman yelling on my way up here earlier."

That´s the end of the topic for then as the two of you change to lighter topics of conversation.

However, the strangers keep occupying your mind. After Sarah tells you about the altercation, you hear them on and off as well, only to see them madly in love the next time you saw them.

New year’s eve passes and so does Sarah´s and your party. The night going by as eventless as it could. Probably because everyone is drunk off their tits, but when you wake up in bed next to one of your neighbors, you just feel bad. You couldn´t even put your finger on what exactly made you feel this way. It just feels wrong. Okay that wasn't entirely right. If you were just a little more honest with yourself you would know that it was because your brain had decided to spend its free time romanticizing the idea of Aemond and how it would be to be in a relationship not only in general, but with him. Dreaming of him wasn't a rare occurrence and whenever you met him at the mailbox, you could feel yourself blushing as if you were in middle school. Simultaneously not far from you, as the months progressed, Aemond's relationship deteriorated more and more. Alys had grown gradually more jealous and toxic to a point where even he couldn't excuse her behavior anymore. Which hurt more than he would ever want to admit. The two break up and make up almost regularly. The day she tells him she is pregnant however, is the day things escalate. You hear the fight even in your apartment. There's screaming, slamming doors and after about an hour there's complete silence.

Like the good (and slightly worried) neighbor that you are, you make your way down the stairs, knocking quietly on the hard wood.

In a matter of seconds the door gets opened with a rather energetic and aggressive motion.

"Alys, I told you it's..." Aemond growled until he realized it is you who had knocked and not his ex-girlfriend. "Fuck, sorry. I didn't realize we were that loud. I promise it won't happen again."

"No, it's... It's alright. It sounded bad though. Are you good?" Your eyes soften and scan his presence.

The knuckles of his right hand were pressed into an ice pack, his chest heaves with every sharp breath. His adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, before he answers.

"Yeah, I mean no, but yeah." His one seeing eye drops towards the floor, unable to look at you. It's obvious he doesn't want to talk and you are not one to pry for answers, so you leave it.

"Okay. Um, if you need something, anything. You know where to knock." You give Aemond a sympathetic smile.

Against all your hopes, he actually does knock on your door a week or so later. Granted it is only for some eggs, but still. A win is a win, you tell yourself as you hand him the carton with the eggs he had requested.

"Fuck, thank you. Really. I don't know where my head is these days." Aemond scratches the back of his neck, giving you a perfect peak of his boxers underneath the grey sweatpants. He must've just come from his morning run.

"No problem at all. I did tell you that you could ask for anything if you needed it after all." You assure him.

"Hm, you did. Still... You'll definitely get those back."

Before much more of a conversation can start up, he is gone again. A pattern that continues for the next couple of months, even though he does warm up to you noticeably without Alys´ influence around. Going as far as to even give a small smile here and there. What shocks you the most however, is when he stops you by the mailbox one day close to the beginning of December.

“So, uhm, I know it´s still a while until new year’s, but I just remembered that you told me about this party you and Sarah have every year.”

“Yeah, what about it?” You look up from the mail to meet his eye and tilt your head.

“I was wondering if that invitation still stands by chance?” His brow is furrowed and his tongue swipes out to wet his lips.

Aemond's question makes your heart beat faster. "Of course. Definitely. I'd be happy to see you there." A wide smile spreads your lips.

From previous talks you had gathered that the blond wasn't much of a party animal, but then again neither were you.

“We usually start around eight, but it´s all very relaxed, really.” You inform him and then say your goodbye as the two of you reach his door.

Until the day of the party the two of you only see each other in passing. Giving a quick nod or wave and a smile to the other as you made your way wherever you had to be. Even the evening of it feels like you are constantly running around. Between preparing snacks and drinks, greeting people left and right, refilling stuff and taking shots and dancing with Sarah there wasn't a single moment to chill, before the doorbell rings one final time for the evening.

"Aem! You made it!" You call out happily and as his eye meets yours he witnesses your face lighting up visibly. The nickname for sure is a surprise at first, but taking in the scent of alcohol in your breath, it all checks out. Still it gets his heart to beat faster, before he can answer anything you already pull him inside. The shots Sarah had made you do, made you even more high energy than you usually were. Yet the moment you take his hand to pull him inside, you feel a strange, warm calm run through you follows by a shiver down the spine.

"You almost had me scared you forgot about me." You tease as the two of you sit down on the sofa with a drink in hand.

"I could never forget about you, but my brother called and tried to convince me to go to some party at some stupid club. Let's just say he was never the best at accepting the word no."

"Oh, you have a brother?" Your eyebrows rise so far Aemond is certainly convinced they are about to touch your hair line.

"Yeah. Two brothers actually and a sister." He admits.

"Wow and are you close with them?" As an only child you could only hardly understand what it was like to have siblings. Even if Sarah had tried to explain it to you multiple times.

"We're as close as we can be, I'd say."

"Huh, for some reason I always pegged you to be an only child..."

"How's that?" He asks while the two of you sip on your drinks, lost in the conversation.

"I don't know, probably because of your dark and mysterious brooding nature?” Playfully you pull your chin higher. “Anyway, now that you are here, do you want to dance?”

“How could I ever say no to that question…”

Over the declining bass of the music, a soft knock on the bathroom door echoes through the room. You hadn´t even noticed someone turning down the music It could have been minutes or hours since you entered the room for all you knew. Aemond´s voice calling out directly after. With a groan you lift your head off the cold tiles on the floor. "It's open...” The blond steps in and closes the door behind him immediately so noone else would see you in that state. Curled up on the floor with your forehead resting against the cold tiles in an attempt to cool down and fight the nausea that climbs up your throat. "Oh I'm dreaming of you again." Your speech is slurred and quiet as if talking any louder would make you vomit. "If I wouldn't be dreaming and if you would be really here, then I would tell you I love you." "You're drunk." He murmurs and shakes his head. "Yes. And hopelessly in love with you." You argue with a weak voice. Nevertheless you wrap your arms tightly around him as he picks you up off the floor. There is no lying about the state of inebriation you are in, but the conviction with which you speak also tells that you are speaking the truth. Even though he doesn't want to believe it yet. "Come on, let's get you to bed." Aemond sighs and begins to more or less carry you back to your room. "No..." You whine in protest. "I wanna go back to the party. I'm not even tired yet. Let's dance."

You're like a child, the blond thinks as he rolls his eyes. "No. No more dancing tonight. The party is over, it's bedtime now." "Awww come on, Aem..." You give him your best try at a puppy eyes look, which is only half successful. Ending up more as just a pout.

Aemond´s heart beats faster at the nickname once again. Something it had done quite often in the past months whenever he saw or spoke to you he notices. Gods, he can hear his brothers laugh at him for being like this when it came to emotional matters. He doubted the excuse of Alys having fucked him up in that regard was applicable, when you where so different from her. Carefully Aemond lays you down on your bed. Taking the shoes off your already half asleep form. By the time Aemond pulls the blanket over you, the sound of soft snoring already fills the room.

The next morning you wake up alone, fully dressed, with a massive headache, a bottle of water and a note on the bedside table for the first time in a while. Telling yourself that this was exactly the reason why you never drank and swearing to every deity above or below that it would never happen again. Groaning some more at the brightness that streams through the window, you sit up in bed to take a sip of water and the pain killer right beside it. With the cotton mouth successfully fought off, you turn to the note. Wondering where the paper even came from you notice how neat and pretty the curly letters are written. The name of the addresser jumps into your eyes next. Signed at the bottom. Aemond Targaryen. As you read his name, your eyes eagerly jump to the top of the page.

I hope this note finds you well and the pain killers help any hangover you might take away from last night. I had a lot of fun with you. Also, you snore when you sleep.

Aemond Targaryen

“Fuck…” You curse under your breath. Trying to remember last night makes the headache only worse, but at least there are no gaps in your memory. Left with the memory of the blond helping your drunk self into bed, you decide to apologize to him. Freshening up and putting on some comfortable clothes, you climb down the stairs in the evening.

“Come in.” Aemond greets you with a smile as he sees the way you flinch ever so slightly at a door slamming shut somewhere.

“Thanks.” Gratefully you sit in his living room, while Aemond gets you a cup of coffee. “I- uhm, I came to apologize for last night.”

“For what?” His brows furrow together so much they almost become one.

“For getting so drunk that you had to carry me to bed. I usually am not like this at all.” Regret laces your words.

“Oh, that. Don´t sweat it. I´m kind of used to it and I still had a lot of fun.” Aemond assures immediately, but it does little to reduce the shame at your own behaviour.

“No, no. Even if you are used to it, I shouldn´t have done that. It was so stupid and unfair to you.” You lay your forehead into one hand and sigh.

“Why did you even drink so much in the first place?” He inquires.

“I kind of wanted to ask you out… but then when I threatened to chicken out so Sarah told me to drink something for courage and somewhere something became a little more and then we ended where we ended.” You feel your face begin to burn at the admission.

“You wanted to what?” A soft pink flush lays over his cheeks.

“I wanted to ask you out…” You repeat even quieter than before.

“Well, you could still do that, if you so wish to.” Your heart threatens to beat out of your ribcage as you take in his words.

Your eyes grow wide and your lips part as you look back up at him. Stumbling over your words for a while before you get out a clear sentence. “Would you like to go out with me sometime?”

“Yes, I´d like that very much. There is a new restaurant that I´ve been meaning to try out. Maybe I could pick you up in an hour?” The request makes you happier than anything. Overshadowing any of the shame you had felt previously.

“Yes, oh my god absolutely.” You jump up in a flurry of excitement, that entirely chases off the remnants of hangover. “Just give me an hour.”

The smiles on both of your faces grow incredibly big, reaching your eyes for the first time in a long time. When you go, it is so hastily you have to be careful not to fall up the stairs and even Aemond feels a certain type of happy as he changes into something more fitting with his heart skipping in his chest.

[b3ach-bunn7]

WET CIGARETTES

Gojo Satoru, your prettiest customer, insists on ordering the most insane drinks possible. As a barista, it’s your duty to fullfill them.

alternate!universe, fluff, happy ending

(This is a long one guys 🙈)

——————————————————————

You love your job. The truth is, the people who romanticise working at a coffee shop were exactly right. Yes, the hours can be long, and the occasional Karen can turn what should be a five-minute interaction into a half an hour one. And sometimes you go home with burns from a hot coffee pot, or spills on your favourite trousers. But you love every part of your job.

Except for Gojo Satoru.

Your most troublesome customer. You know he goes to your university, because you’ve seen him wearing a hoodie with its logo on it. You assume you both have different majors, because you don’t cross paths at all.

But he comes to the shop every day without fail. And he orders the most complicated, diabetes-inducing drinks known to man. He strolls up to the counter, blinking those bright blue eyes at you, with his perfect smile and his hair that looks so soft to touch and starts rattling off his order.

Okay, it’s not the worst thing in the world. Gojo is easy on the eyes, and it’s quite funny to see how far he’ll take it. You’re not exactly sure if he even consumes the stuff he buys. Maybe he’s trying to impress you. Maybe he’s trying to annoy you. You think he succeeds more with the second option, but it’s fine. You like the little challenge everyday.

Today, you’re wiping down the counter when you see him appear behind it and begin drumming his fingers against it.

“Hi, sugar.”

You look up, unamused. He’s wearing a black compression shirt that hugs his muscles and grey sweatpants. He’s probably come back from the gym, judging by the sweat that sticks some strands of his white hair to his forehead. He looks good. Whatever.

“Gojo. What monstrosity will it be today?”

He hums under his breath. He rests his cheek on his palm. His skin is so clear. For all the coffee he drinks, at least.

“I would like… A single shot, 4 pumps sugar free peppermint, nonfat, extra hot, no foam, light whip stirred grande white mocha.”

Your mouth gapes. “Gojo. What? That’s not- what even is that?”

He laughs, loud and boyish. The shop is quite empty, so, you can take your time to mock his ridiculous request.

“I don’t know. Thought I’d try something different, you know?”

“You try something different everyday. I think this one wins the stupidest order yet.”

“Don’t be like that, sweetheart. You know you like it. I bring some joy to the darkness that is your shift.” He pouts and leans forward.

You rolls your eyes. You turn and grab a cup to begin concocting his drink.

“Don’t call me that. And it doesn’t bring me joy. It does test my memory, though,” you pause, “How many pumps of peppermint was it?”

“Four. And what’s wrong with sweetheart?”

“I’m not your sweetheart, Gojo.”

He groans. He watches as you flit around behind the counter, going to steam the milk for his drink.

“Come on, what else am I supposed to call you? I don’t know your name.”

You point to the name tag pinned to your shirt.

“Yes you do.”

“That’s not your name.”

You nod and insist that it is. His eyebrows raise and he nods towards it.

“Your name is Brian?”

“Cute, right? I don’t like strangers using my real name, so they let me print a fake one.” You smile.

“It’s a shame, really. Brian suits you.” You stick your tongue out and Gojo grins.

The drink doesn’t take long. You make one of the fancy milk designs on the top, and slide it over to him.

“Here you go.”

He thanks you. He peers at the design at the top, eyeing the drink.

“I like this. You should learn how to draw my face on there.”

“Ah, yes. You’re right, that does sound like a great way to pass my time.” You nod sarcastically.

He sips the drink carefully. His nose scrunches and he sticks his tongue out.

“Oh, that is not good. At all.”

You laugh. You reach over and grab the drink, taking a swig. Gojo protests, but you can tell his effforts to get it back are half-assed. You wince, the warm peppermint drink sliding down your throat.

“Yeah, gross. How did you even come up with this?”

He shrugs, “They just come to me.” He nods at the cup in your hand, “You know, we basically just kissed.”

You snort, “You can keep dreaming, Gojo.”

“Oh, you’re definitely in my dreams, baby. All the dirty ones.”

Oh, he’s feeling brave today. You turn to hide the flush that dusts your cheeks. You wipe down the steamer.

“Baby is gross.”

“Tell me your name then.”

You point at the name tag on your shirt. Gojo groans and runs a hand through his hair. You glance down at the ignored drink on the counter.

“Gojo, you haven’t even touched your drink.”

He shrugs. “Oh, well. It’s not like I can’t pay for it.”

You hum under your breath. Rich people.

The shop starts filling up, and your manager pops his head around the door to tell you to get a move on.

“Sorry, Gojo. You gotta get a move on.”

“Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

You wave him off, sighing as he drops his drink in the trash.

——

The next day, Gojo walks in with someone else. A girl, short brown hair and an unlit cigarette in her mouth. It’s the first time you’ve ever seen him with anyone else. Maybe she’s a girlfriend. Gojo seems awfully close to her, a smile gracing his lips as she says something to him.

You’re staring. You turn away quickly. It’s none of your business what he’s up to and you don’t care, anyway. Gojo could be married for all you care.

He bounds up to the front. Gojo has a way of taking up every space he’s in, and as he leans across the counter, he’s all you can see.

“Hey, cutie.”

“Hello. What can I do for you today?”

“Aw. No complaints. You like cutie?”

“Feels like something a 12 year old would call his discord girlfriend, but. Sure, let’s go with that.”

He laughs, but he straightens up quickly.

“Look, I’ve got no time for our cute banter today. I’ll have a Venti, triple-shot caramel macchiato, with three pumps of vanilla, two pumps of hazelnut, one pump of caramel, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and extra whipped cream on top.”

“No time for banter, but time for all of that.”

“Oh, and a mocha.”

You smile. “Who’s that normal order for?”

He points at the girl he came in with, who’s gone outside to smoke her cigarette.

“Shoko. Luckily for you, she likes normal people drinks.”

You turn to start making their drinks. Today’s order is much tamer than usual. It actually sounds like it might taste nice, and it’s sugary enough to satiate his sweet tooth. You wonder if he’ll ask that girl to try it for him.

“So. You got any plans today?” You say.

“Mhm. My friend and I are going shopping. She asked me to keep her company, but I think she likes my credit card’s presence more than mine.”

“Makes sense. At least she gets something out of the card.”

“Ha ha ha. Come on, she gets mean when she’s impatient.”

You shake your head, waiting for the milk to steam. “It takes as long as it takes.”

“Okay, Carla.”

“Wrong.”

“Bridget?”

You tell him he’s wrong again and laugh at his whining. You finish his drink off with an alarming amount of whip cream, to his request, and place it and the mocha on the counter.

“Done in record time.” You wink.

He tries it, and perks up.

“I’m impressed. This one actually tastes nice.”

He slides it over to you, and you take a sip.

“Yeah, you’re right. It is nice.” You say, incredulously.

“Can I have a sip?”

You look to the left and Gojo’s ‘friend’ has appeared. She smells a little like cigarettes but she’s so breathtakingly pretty that you don’t think anyone‘s really worried about that. She takes a drink before Gojo can protest, and she winces.

“God, it’s so sweet. You’ll die an early death if you keep going on like this.”

“Well, good thing it’s not for you.” He grabs it and passes her the mocha.

The girl looks over at you and smiles.

“Hey. I’m Shoko. It’s nice to meet you. Gojo doesn’t shut up about you.”

You tilt your head at the boy, who is looking away from the two of you, and coo.

“Aw, how sweet!” You awe, pressing a hand to your heart.

“He calls you Barista girl. Says you make the best drinks.”

You shrug. “I wouldn’t say best. I am the only one who will make his insane orders, though.”

“That’s true. He doesn’t even drink them half the time. Just throws them away the second he leaves. It’s like the only reason he comes here is so-“

“Okay! Okay, we’ve got to go.” Gojo claps his hands together, cutting off Shoko, and steering her away.

She grins, waving at you. She yells it was nice to meet you, and you say it back, much to Gojos dismay, and wonder what the real reason he comes here is.

——-

The next time Gojo comes in, he looks good. He’s wearing a black button up, the top few buttons undone, the sleeves rolled up to show his forearms. There’s a silver chain around his neck, and his hair is done up in a way that looks effortless and prepared at the exact same time. He’s also holding a bouquet of pretty flowers, pink and white and perfect looking.

God. You move away before he notices you blatantly staring at him. It’s almost closing, and you’ve got ten minutes before you’re free to go. You should be annoyed at his presence. You and Choso, the guy you were working with tonight, had just cleaned up, and you know Gojo’s order would probably need every appliance in the building. Any other customer would be shunned away, a quick point at the clock.

But Gojo’s not any other customer. Not that you’d ever tell him that.

“Hey, Gojo.”

He smiles. “Hey, gorgeous.”

Your cheeks heat up. God, if only he wasn’t so attractive. It would be so much easier to act like you don’t care when he calls you all those things.

“You look nice. You going somewhere after this?”

“Mhm. I’m going on a date.”

You pause to where you’re emptying out the coffee pots. A date? He was seeing someone else after spending god knows how long flirting with you?

You shouldn’t be surprised. He’s never asked you out, and Gojo is attractive enough to be someone who doesn’t care about girls' feelings. You know you should’ve seen this coming. It probably was just a little fun he had everyday, joking around with the oblivious, head-over-heels barista who allowed him to act like a dick with his stupid coffee orders.

Whatever.

“That’s nice. What can I get for you? You need to hurry up though, because we’re closing soon.” Your voice is flat, and your hand rests on your hip.

“Uh. Just a coffee.”

You frown. “No obnoxious order today?”

“Nah. I’ve got places to be. And I need to be awake tonight, if you get my drift.” He winks and you scoff.

You turn and fill the coffee pot, a little more aggressively than normal. You unfortunately do get his drift. Before you can say anything in response, Choso comes out from the back.

Choso is cute. He looks intimidating, always monotoned and looking sleep-deprived, but he was a sweetheart. He always ties his hair into little buns, draws cute designs on top of the lattes, and always makes sure you don’t close alone. Plus, he looks good in an apron. You think you’d like him if it weren’t for an annoying blue-eyed boy and his stupid orders.

“You okay if I clock out?”

You turn to him and smile. “Yeah, I’ll lock up. You working tomorrow?”

Choso takes his apron off and drapes it over his shoulder. You turn to face him, effectively ignoring Gojo.

“Nope.”

“What? Choso, come on, I can’t work if you’re not there, it’s so boring!”

He laughs, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter. It make the muscles in his arms stand out, and wow. Does he work out? Probably.

“You’ll be fine without me.”

“I won’t.” You pout.

“Goodbye.” He walks away, nodding at Gojo, who looks just peachy waiting for his coffee.

“So who’s that?”

You turn back to face him. “Choso. He works here.”

“Yeah, I figured. You like him?”

“Yeah. He’s great. My favourite coworker.”

Gojo nods slowly. A weird sort of quiet settles over you two. A part of you wants to ask who’s he’s going on a date with, but you respect yourself too much for that.

“What time do you get off?” He speaks up.

You pause slightly. “Me?”

Gojo raises an eyebrow. “No, the other barista behind the counter. Yes, you.”

“Oh. I’m done in ten.”

“Okay, good. Our reservation is in half an hour, so we should make it.”

The coffee pot whirs to let you know it’s ready. Instead, you keep staring at Gojo, who’s looks all too serious for somebody speaking nonsense.

“What?”

“It’s a nice place, don’t worry. Thought I’d splurge, to impress you. These are for you, by the way.” He thrusts the flowers towards you.

“I- What? Gojo, what’s going on?” You laugh, a little hysterical, confused as to what the hell is happening.

He grins. He walks right over to the you, leaning over the counter, so you’re a couple inches away from each other.

“You really think I’d ask anybody else out? I’ve been asking for these stupid orders at for weeks now just to throw them out so I could talk to you, that wasn’t a hint?”

“Yeah, but I just. I don’t know, I thought you were just messing around!”

“Are you really that clueless?”

“Hey! You-“ You stop for a second.

You take the apron from around your neck and throw it behind you into the office. You cross your arms and you nearly laugh at the nervous look that crosses his face.

“Did you make a reservation and dress yourself up for a date you didn’t even ask me to?”

Gojo scratches the back of his head. “I-“

“And then come in here and just tell me when it’s happening, without even giving me time to prepare myself?”

“I- Barista girl, I can explain.” He clasps his hands together.

“And you still don’t even know my name.”

He sighs. “The mystery is part of the fun, babe.”

You smile slightly. You have no idea what went through his head, but it’s cute he tried so hard. Even if it was a little weird.

“What if I had plans tonight, huh?”

Gojo shrugs. “I was hoping you’d cancel them for me.”

“And if I didn’t?”

“Not too sure. Maybe throw the coffee I’m still waiting for in your face?”

You perk up suddenly, remembering the pot that was still bubbling behind you. You take a cup and fill it for him, fit it with a lid and give it to him.

“So. Are you going to ask me out properly?”

He nods. His face is determined and he grabs the flowers from your hands. He takes two steps back and he walks forward.

“Barista girl, will you do me the honours of going on a date with me tonight?”

You frown, sighing dramatically, “I don’t know. I’ve had such a long shift. I’m tired.”

Gojo grabs your hands, pulling you towards him. The counter gets in the way, but you don’t think he cares. The two of you are still close enough that if you moved a couple inches forwards you’d be kissing. He smells like something expensive, and it overwhelms your senses. His lips quirk up in a little smirk, and you think your skin is buzzing where he’s touching you.

“I’m sure I can help wake you up, baby. You just gotta say yes.”

“I- I kinda look like shit, though.” You whisper.

“Don’t say that, you look beautiful.”

You know you don’t. Your hair is being held up poorly by a claw clip, random strands falling out of it. Your mascara is slightly smudged under your eyes, and there’s a lovely new coffee stain on the shirt you're wearing, courtesy of Choso knocking into you before you got a chance to put your apron on.

But he’s looking right at you like you’re the most incredible thing that he’s ever laid his eyes on that you feel like you might actually believe him.

“Okay. Okay, fine. If you let me go home and freshen up. Put a dress on, or something.”

“Oh, I can get behind that.”

You snort a laugh, stepping back. The nervousness from before is gone, and he’s grinning at you excitedly. He waits the few minutes it takes you to lock up, and holds his arm out for you to take while he walks you to his car.

It’s seven in the evening and the sun is just starting to set. The sky is beginning to turn, seeping from blue to orange to pink, and the light is catching off Gojos face. He’s speaking animatedly as he talks about the restaurant he’s taking you too, oblivious to your staring. He’s planned every last detail, somehow remembering when you said that you loved Asian food about a month ago.

You don’t really know much about Gojo. You do know enough to say that he is so sweet it makes your teeth rot.

You say your name, then, softly enough that he nearly misses it. He stops mid sentence and turns to you.

“Is that your name?”

You nod.

“You have a very pretty name.”

You smile. “Thank you.”

He nods slowly. “You can call me Satoru, by the way.”

“Okay, Satoru.” The name feels nice on your tongue.

He groans when you say it, hand reaching up to cup your face.

“God, it sounds so beautiful when you say it. It’d sound even better if you were screaming it, though.”

You roll your eyes, face a fiery red, and let a laughing Satoru lead you into his car.

——————————————————————

AUTHORS NOTE

Gojo satoru the man that u r.. also that cosplayer is EXACTLY how I envision him in my brain.. so obsessed..

again, any requests r welcome! (I’m literally lost for ideas)

[anundyingfidelity]

I'M A RUIN — Soldier Boy/Ben (Part VII)

Series summary: After the events of the Seven Tower, you present Grace Mallory a new secret project you're working on already to develop a cure to Compound V. The only problem? You need Soldier Boy for that.

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x female reader.

Word count: 3.2k.

Warnings for series: set after S3 (spoilers), some OOC!Ben, some depressed!Ben, angst, hurt/comfort, eventual smut, slow-burn, language, PTSD, reader has Compound V (she's no Vought supe tho), Soldier Boy being an usual asshole, reader is a fucking liar.

Warnings on this chapter: sexual tension, suggestive stuff.

Notes: bonding chapter of this slow burn aaaa thanks again for reading :D

this fic tags: @k-slla @syrma-sensei @mostlymarvelgirl @cheynovak @drasticemotions @soldirboy @deans-spinster-witch

☕ if you like my writing, support me with a ko-fi !

get yourself in the taglist!

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

GEN MASTERLIST! — SERIES MASTERLIST!

Part VII: No More Doubts

When you left the motel early after a quick and dull breakfast, Ben was a pain in the ass as he kept asking question after question on the road. You knew he could just leave you alone but it wasn’t really something you’d like him to do. He was a fugitive, so were you. Soldier Boy knew better than that and he only had to stay by your side as much as he hated the idea. The only thing you could truly answer was that you were driving to a safer place. At least you were hoping it was. When you pulled the car after driving hours between the grove, Soldier Boy was waking up from his nap. You thanked heaven for that.

“We’re here,” you announced, turning off the engine.

Ben stirred on his seat, taking in the view of the house and nature and got out of your car, following you to the front door. He couldn’t help but to look around in somewhat awe. It was a large cottage-style house decorated with earth tones, great walls and columns. The place was surrounded by countless trees, making the weather bearable and somewhat nice due to the hidden location. The leaves climbed on some of the windows and the plants and flowers rested on the ground perfectly neat. He assumed you came here often. But it wasn’t really the place you used to come by and sleep every single day. It was too far away from the facility. As you unlocked the door, Ben followed inside, not without taking a last glance at your surroundings. No homes were near, nothing was to be seen. Only you and him inside this big fucking house.

The indoors were no different from the impression he got first. The decoration, the expensive sofa where you threw the sports bag, and the paintings and pots all over the place were saying you were rich. Of course, a fucking rich whore you were, he thought to himself. And he wondered where your real place was located.

“So, I’m gonna show you a guest room and then around, please don’t screw my house,” you said, giving him the sports bag.

“Got something to drink?” he asked, a smirk plastering on his face as he stepped closer to where you were standing.

“Water I do.”

Ben chuckled for a bit, eyes not leaving your face. “You’re so fucking boring, you know?”

“Yeah, well, alcohol is not really an important supply. Just follow me and maybe I’ll get you some later,” you said, turning around to get to the stairs.

You knew he did as you asked when his big steps echoed around the place. Once you were on the second floor, you motioned him to the next room a couple of feet away from yours and gave him directions about the bathroom and the manners. If he was going to be in your place, then he had to behave.

“I told you already, I’m not a fucking animal,” he complained after hearing your orders.

“Sure,” you dragged the word, eyes narrowed. “Because last night you were so civilized in the bathroom.”

He scoffed and then chuckled. “Did I get too loud?”

“You fucking tell me,” you replied with a much annoying smile on your face to match his own.

“Could’ve joined me. We’re not patient and doctor anymore,” 

“No.”

Just as the last word fell off your lips, your phone rang. Quickly you took the call, realizing it was Grace. You left Soldier Boy in his room and walked down the stairs a little too fast.

“You made it?” she asked on the other line.

“Yeah, arrived just minutes ago,” you answered, checking the stairs in case he followed. “Where are you, Grace?”

“That doesn’t matter. I have something for you.”

“Okay, tell me.”

“I will text you an address and an hour. Today. Don’t miss it.”

Your phone buzzed, announcing the information had arrived.

“I won’t.”

“I’ll keep calling through different phone numbers. Do what you have to do to complete the cure,” she said, like if she knew what was happening between both now.

Soldier Boy was unbearable but you had to keep him on track. Luckily, you were back home again and you’ll be working on the Anti V soon, praying the last bits of information and results of the last test were there for some reason.

“I’m doing my best,” you sighed.

Grace hummed.

“Good.”

“Any updates so far?”

Ben’s smooth voice woke you up from your daydreaming while you sat together in the dining room.

You had been able to make something quick for lunch after Grace called and you found yourself all jittery and tense, hoping Soldier Boy wouldn’t notice. But he did sense something different from you. So he kept insisting on what was going on.

“I don’t know,” you whispered, taking the last sip of water from your glass. You avoided his eyes, looking away.

He rolled his eyes and narrowed at you. “Has your office contacted you?” 

You shook your head.

“So they’re dead,” he said. Not asking, but affirming it.

A heavy sigh left your lips, your eyes going back to his harsh ones. “Leaving was the best.”

“Who’s that you keep in touch with?”

“What?”

Ben groaned slightly before snapping back with a low voice. “C’mon, Y/N. You called yesterday on the road, and now you receive a call. Who the fuck is it?”

His question is not just an inquiry anymore. He’s demanding to know. But you also know he hated Grace Mallory for putting him to sleep again, confined to a chamber where he’d be a trophy for the government to do whatever they wanted, how they wanted. Until you appeared, offering him empty words. Just like everyone.

“My superior.”

Your answer hit him like a truck. He knew it was Grace, but he didn’t like hearing it from you. 

The truth was, Ben didn’t like you… Not that much. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn’t. Sometimes he wanted to kill you, sometimes the small common sense he still had on his head would say you’d be better alive. He had been thinking of going away, but not he didn’t really want to. He knew you had been working with Grace, he was no idiot. So maybe staying close should get him even closer to Homelander and Vought. He also thought of Ryan back in the cell you had put him in. He was so damn afraid Ryan would become like his father. And since the brat has been protected before by many people, finding would not be easy. That’s where your contacts and network would be a help to him. He was hoping to find something at your place to find them and the information he craved.

“Right,” he said, alarmingly calm and quiet. He took the last bite of pasta on the plate and swallowed down in silence under your gaze. You didn’t know what else to say.

“So, these powers of yours,” he continued, drinking the last sip of juice. “How’d you get them?”

“Why do you want to know?”

He shrugged. “I mean, they’re pretty fucking useless against me,” his words made you chuckle. Of course you knew that. “But I’m just wondering if you’d be with them.”

Your face turned back to a somber demeanor. “The Seven?”

He gave you a nod.

“Well, it’s not like all supes dream of that,” you uttered. “I just wanted to be normal.”

Ben raised a brow at your sudden confession. “Someone exploded everyone’s heads at the CIA. Sorry to say, sweetheart, but you suck at being normal.”

“Yeah, details I have to work with.”

“I take it you never went to them,” he continued and saw confusion on your face. “Vought.”

The word made you shudder for a slight moment, and you quickly tried to collect yourself to avoid him noticing.

“No, I never did.”

He scrutinized your eyes, hearing the poor increase of your heartbeats. They were enough to tell him something was wrong. But he decided to play along, so he nodded and gave you a rather compassionate look.

“Must be thankful they didn’t fuck up your life then.”

He had no idea.

You had parked the car outside an abandoned gas station; it was one of the nearest grocery stores to your home years ago. The now wasteland was almost two hours away, with a gas station around ten miles elsewhere. You had been waiting for Grace outside the car, leaning against the hood. Bored, you checked your phone again. When you arrived it was already past three o’clock. When twenty minutes went by, you wanted so badly to drive and get inside the next store you see and buy yourself food and supplies enough to survive a week or two with the idiotic supe now staying at your home. Grace said would be calling through a different phone but you received no calls so far. You’ve been waiting for more than an hour and the drive home wasn’t going to be shorter. Suddenly another car came into sight, pulling over near yours. Two men came out of it.

“Doctor Y/N?”

The stranger with the unknown voice and a weird accent caught your attention. Soon, you found the two tall men standing in front of you in the parking lot.

“We’re here on behalf of Grace Mallory,” the man continued.

He wore a long dark trench coat, looking rough and intimidating. The total opposite to the younger one, who gave you a kind smile once your eyes settled on him.

“How-”

“We have something for you,” the younger man continued. “I’m Hughie. Hughie Campbell,” he introduced himself, giving you a hand and fixing the backpack on his shoulder with the other one. You took it after a moment of hesitation. “He’s Billy Butcher, we’ve worked with Grace before.”

You nodded. “I thought she was the one coming.”

“She’s not in shape for that,” Billy answered. He realized your face changed at his words and quickly explained himself. “Vought’s cunts are looking for her, not safe.”

“Fuck,” you mumbled under your breath. “Great, awesome. So what do you have for me?”

“We, uhm, we made it to your facility and thought these could do some help,” Hughie took out a pouch and gave it to you.

With trembling hands you opened the pouch and sighed in relief. Five test tubes of the Anti V prototype were laid there. “You found them.”

“And we found a little bit more,” Butcher continued. “Victoria Neuman exploded the heads of your employees back there. We believe Vought had been sneaking and getting spies for themselves.”

“Victoria is a supe,” you voiced out. “A supe is running for vice president…”

“Yeah, long story,” Hughie commented. “She’s obviously linked with Homelander and Vought. Everyone was dead when we arrived; lab assistants, guards, agents, the supes… We believe her mission was to just let you and Soldier Boy out, besides stealing information about the cure you’re working on. Probably to give it to Vought.”

“Anything weird happen there before the attack?” Billy asked, not giving you time to swallow Hughie’s words.

“Uhm, yeah. Actually my lab assistant… She tried to warn me and, well, she was crying and asking me to leave. I didn’t know why until her head just- you know…”

You choked a little with your words. The picture of her body and the last seconds of her life were all you got. Everything was equally horrible that day.

“I’m sorry,” Hughie whispered.

“It’s fine,” you cleared your throat. “And I assume you didn’t find anything else? Information? Files?”

“Computers were destroyed. No files. No info. Nothing,” Butcher answered. “Grace says you’re the leader of the project. You have copies, right?”

“Why everybody keeps fucking asking me that? Of course I do!” you almost yelled, eyes full of rage staring at him.

“Easy there, doc,” Butcher lifted up his hands in surrender. “We just wanna get rid of those cunt supes as much as you want. Nothing wrong to make sure.”

“Well, I do have them,” you replied with a cocky smile. “Thank you very much for your concern, Adele.”

Butcher rolled his eyes, sharing a look with Hughie before switching his attention back to you.

“Yeah, sure you do, luv.”

It was already seven o’clock when you arrived home with supplies and food. Ben, as usually, acted like a fucking caveman claiming he was hungry and you had to act like the housewife, serving him a fucking hamburger and a glass of wine. That was the only liquor you bought. Despite his complaints, his hunger was greater and he devoured the greasy food with no table manners at all.

“You could chew your food like a fucking human being, you know,” you said, eating the last french fries you had. 

He turned his eyes to your face, pointing with his finger. “You were gone for like five hours.”

“So? There’s fruit in the fridge.”

Ben narrowed his gaze, like if he had been offended.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know how to serve something for yourself,” you teased. He didn’t say a word, and you giggled. “That’s fucking pathetic.”

He leaned towards the dining table, eyes locked on yours. “No, you just don’t know your fucking place, woman.”

“I just saved your life, Ben. At least say thanks,” you beamed, having too much fun by seeing him upset for mundane things.

“No, you didn’t.”

You rolled your eyes and took a sip of your wine. “Fine. I didn’t. Let’s go past this and start over. If you’re gonna live here, for now, then you’ll have to learn how to respect me.”

His brows raised. “I thought I already did.”

“Offering yourself to fuck me in a cheap motel is not respectful, Soldier Boy.”

“Well, I didn’t try anything, did I?” Ben finished his sentence at the same time he finished his dinner.

He waited for a smart comeback from you but it never came. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and a stupid grin appeared on his lips. “Unless you want to.”

“No, we’ve been through it. My answer is still no.”

“Then, mind to fucking tell me if you found something by now?”

He changed the topic swiftly. His playful demeanor switched immediately and you sighed, knowing he might have to hear anything to keep him down.

“You’re in danger.”

“I’m the strongest supe ever, that doesn’t make any damn sense,” Ben scoffed.

“Listen, we need to hide from Vought. Hide and not leave a trace, because now I’m involved with you and they’re absolutely looking for your ass,” you gave him a stern look as you went on. “If I fall, you go with me. And if you fall, then I don’t know if they’d still want me. But you’ll be fucked anyway.”

Ben nodded. In his mind, it didn’t sound like a bad plan. In the end, that’s what he wanted; to get closer to Vought and Homelander to get over with them. The world didn’t deserve those fuckers. And as much as Homelander was created with his own DNA, he knew better than to let a scum like him walk around the planet. You already gave him something, a clue. He had to play along for now. If they took you in first, then he might probably bargain to be him instead. It was only fair. He was the one that mattered anyway.

“Okay, I get it. I’ll stay here. But I don’t want those fucking therapies anymore,” he expressed, his gaze not moving away from the surprised look on your face. “Understand?”

You blinked a couple of times, shifting on your seat and chuckling under your breath. “It’s fine, believe me. I can’t stand you more than you do.”

Ben held your gaze, daring you to try something else. Instead, you smiled and got up and took your empty dishes to the sink. His eyes followed your moves, focusing on your small shorts and the softness of your legs. And you knew he was definitely checking you out when you talked.

“By the way, you’ll have to help me wash the dishes.”

He stood up, plates on his hands and walked behind your figure, putting them on the sink as you opened the faucet. His arms surrounded you once he did so and you flinched a bit. Ben smirked, feeling the reaction of your body trapped against his.

“Get away,” you ordered in a whisper, unable to move.

“I’m helping you, Y/N,” he breathed your name against your neck, his hand wrapping on yours gripping on the edge of the sink.

The only sound now was his hot breath on your skin and the water flowing. You quickly turned the faucet off, but you didn’t try to push him away.

It was the second time during the day he had said your name, ever. And you wouldn’t deny it sounded fucking delightful. He had only addressed you as his ‘doctor’, but now it was different. Though, you didn’t want to give into him. He was a huge douchebag and you were basically forced to spend time with him, in your home, without really wanting him there. You felt his lips ghosting over the sensitive skin of your neck, and the primal part of you yearned for his touch, but the rational one won over and you freed yourself from his arms.

“Stop doing that,” you warned once you were face to face. His eyes were dark already and had a sparkle you knew too much since the day before.

“Alright,” he nodded.

“Just- let’s just wash these. I want to sleep.”

With a tired sigh, you walked down the basement. It was already midnight and Ben was locked inside his room, probably jerking off or something since you, once again, rejected him in your kitchen. Inside the dark room, you found the metal door that let you inside the bunker and unlocked it with the code. When you stepped in, you made sure to turn on the power and lights that illuminated the room and the small lab in the back. The computers started to run and you sat down on the main monitor, leaving the pouch with the Anti V tubes on the side of the desk.

Yeah, you might have told Butcher and Grace you had copies of every detail of the project. But you were afraid of the last stuff you discovered just before the attack. You knew well how the information was protected and encrypted, but it didn’t really assure you the profile of Solaris would be there. He was the first and last supe who had his powers off for a couple of hours at least and the feeling of losing it all had been eating you the last few hours after meeting with Grace’s messengers.

It took you a while to decrypt the system, something you had been already used to doing every time you got there to keep working on it, just to make sure no one would steal it. Hopefully, Vought hadn’t discovered it before destroying the facilities, you thought. And after a while, you found the last updates of the last test your team ran. Solaris profile and test was there. Not just in written letters, but the footage of the test and the exact formula that was used too. Now, you were so lucky.

“Well, thank you, Bianca. Wherever you are,” you whispered to yourself and took a tube from the pouch the men gave you earlier. You had a busy night ahead.

[nyaagolor]

Bad Polls and the Art of Engagement Bait

So as anyone who follows this blog probably noticed, I posted a poll yesterday. Sorry ace attorney tumblr, it was bait. That was part of a little social experiment to test some theories I had about engagement bait and the tumblr "algorithm"-- and it was a resounding success!! I even made a replicate, that being a similar poll only hours later, which had basically the same result. Somehow. Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, I thought it would be fun to talk about it!

The entire point of this little social experiment was to combine some observations I had about what posts do well, the general attitude of tumblr users, and how to maximize engagement with minimal effort within fandom spaces. Thus, I'm combining all my thoughts into a little guide: how to make the lowest effort, highest engagement post possible:

Recognize that negative engagement on tumblr travels father than positive engagement Tumblr may not have an algorithm, but the system is still set up in a way where negative engagement rewards the poster more than positive engagement. A simple "like" is enough to show agreement or approval, but dissent or shock requires replies or reblogs (the latter of which are significantly more common). More reblogs = more people seeing the post, and thus posts that elicit a negative reaction tend to travel further than positive ones

Capitalize on the fact that people love to bitch about things when given the opportunity Generally speaking, going onto a random post you hate and exclaiming how much you hate it is a bit of a tumblr faux pas. Same thing with venting about how much you dislike something. While bringing up the topic yourself and being snippy to specific people are frowned upon, however, places like polls that provide an opportunity to bitch about things are a great outlet, and a LOT of people will take it

Take advantage of the poll's inherent anonymity This may seem counterintuitive-- the person posting the poll and everyone reblogging it aren't anonymous at all! This doesn't matter though, only the votes do. The anonymity of the votes on a tumblr poll turn the opinions of others, no matter their relative size, into a nebulous opinion of the indeterminate masses. THIS is the most important part of the engagement bait, because tumblr users love to complain but aren't likely to do so to someone directly for fear of hurting their feelings or getting called out for being rude. If you can take a dissenting opinion and remove the actual user from the equation, people are far more likely to share exactly what they think about it-- this is when the "no reading comprehension" and "you people seriously think (X)" and "ugh I hate fandom" takes come out en masse. Tumblr users may be mean, but more importantly we are also cowards. In the case of the poll I posted above, even extremely small minority opinions were being commented on in almost every single reblog, despite the fact that these opinions made up less than 10% of the votes for a majority of the poll's run.

More buzzwords, less nuance Buzzwords and a lack of nuance work together to make engagement more likely-- buzzwords are often both overused and misused, while a lack of nuance (typically in the form of a yes or no question) eggs people into explaining themselves. Combine these two and you add people justifying themselves, arguing with others, and complaining about the buzzword in general into your reblogs, boosting your numbers even more. In my case, I chose the lowest of the low when it comes to poll topics: "Is (recognizable character) (buzzword)?". How people fell for this twice I'm not sure, but it works!

If things are getting boring, stir the pot yourself You can use alt accounts or just make up tags yourself, but I was too lazy to do this. However, there's always the option of cherrypicking-- screenshot outlandish or dissenting tags, even if it's just one in a sea of hundreds, and post that in a reblog with an incredulous caption. Bringing tags to the attention of the majority invites new focus on those tags AND your poll, giving people another outlet to add their takes. Some people will likely even reblog it Again.

Now that the bait is set, watch people in your notes talk over themselves like a flock of seagulls

Congrats! You've now made a successful bait poll. Fortunately or unfortunately, mine worked so well that people fell for it twice, both of them got thousands of votes each within the day, my notifications are overflowing, and popular blogs have made posts referencing it. Point proven, hypothesis verified. As they say: easy website.

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

Angeeeeee

I'm suffering from terrible cramps at the moment and I just saw your requests are open especially for wlw

can I please have a Skade one where she helps reader with our monthly curse? smut pls I'm begging 🥺

🩶🩶🩶

Bru, my darling, I realise that your monthlies have likely ended by now. But I hope this serves as a comfort the next time Auntie Flo pays you a visit.

Warnings: Time of the month mentions, fingering but not quite, tiddy succin'. Word count: ~1200

Author's note: No gods, no masters, no tag lists. Only scabs community label fics. If you find yourself tempted to slap a label on this, please block me instead.

You groan softly upon waking. The muted sunlight seeping through the canvas of the tent above your head indicates that it’s morning and has been for some time. You clutch at your lower belly with a muffled grunt, silently cursing your body for not allowing you a single waking moment’s peace from the curse of your moon’s blood. It’s your second day of bleeding and though you have tried your best to hide your discomfort from Skade, not wanting to hinder your progress as the two of you travel together, it is becoming more difficult to do so. The dull ache has grown to an insistent nag that plagues your every movement.

You stretch out an arm, surprised when you feel an empty bed roll instead of the warm body you’d expected to be next to you. You sit up slightly, wincing as the heaviness of your lower abdomen protests painfully, and peer through the slither of a gap in the entrance to your shared shelter.

Skade, flaxen hair cascading down her back as she hunches over a small fire, stirs a pot that’s suspended by a tripod of branches.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” You call out to her.

She turns to you, before wordlessly moving to fill two wooden cups with the steaming liquid she’s been stirring and ducks into the tent. She hands you one and sits cross legged in front of you.

You sniff at the beverage, wrinkling your nose in distaste at the unappetising earthy scent. “What is this?”

“Nettle tea,” She says simply. “It helps me when I have my moon’s blood.”

You feel your cheeks heat up as she tells you this. She knew. Of course she knew. It was impossible to hide anything from Skade, she was too perceptive.

“I suppose we should start moving again soon, I have wasted half of the morning sleeping.” You say, eager to change the subject.

“We are going to stay here another day,” She tells you. “You need to rest.”

Your eyes widen, guilt blooms heavily within your chest. “That is dangerous…”

“I am dangerous,” She smirks. “No harm will come to us.”

“You cannot do this for me.” You plead, eyes wide. “We must keep moving.”

Skade sighs, rolling her eyes. “Women are afflicted by this because men are too weak willed to endure it, but there is no shame in being in pain. I see your suffering. Accept my help, and drink your tea before it gets cold.”

You smile gratefully at her and lift the cup to your lips, taking a sip. You grimace, the taste is bitterly unpleasant against your tongue. “That is vile,” You cough. “I cannot drink this!”

Skade grins, snatching your tea from you and turns slightly to place both yours and her cups just outside the entrance of the tent. She fixes you with an intense stare when she turns back, her blue eyes bright even in the shade of the canvas roof above you.

“I have another idea,” She begins. “Something that will soothe you.”

“Will you use your power?” You ask curiously, nervousness and excitement prickling at your skin.

She huffs a soft laugh, shifting forward and pushing you back as she hovers over you. “Not the power you’re thinking of. But this remedy is just as ancient.”

You stare up at her, heart fluttering wildly in your chest as the long waves of her golden locks fan around your face like a shroud. Her face is so close to yours that your lips are almost brushing, but when you lean in, she pulls back with a wolfish smile, a silent denial of what you seek.

Her fingertips deftly push up the hem of the rough spun linen of the shirt you wear, dancing delicately across the exposed flesh of your midriff, causing your breath to hitch. She smooths the flat of her palm over your stomach, before bringing it to rest against your lower abdomen, applying gentle pressure.

The warm sensation of it is a relief against the cramps you’ve been suffering. You sigh, allowing your eyes to flutter closed.

“Better?” Skade asks, her breath tickling softling against your cheek.

“Yes.” You whisper quietly, almost afraid that if you speak too loudly the moment will end.

It is then that she allows her lips to meet yours, slow and unhurried. You kiss back, relaxing as every movement serves to ease the tension in your body. You can taste nettle tea, but it is far sweeter upon her lips than it is from the cup.

Skade breaks away, moving to mouth at your neck and collarbones. Her free hand makes quick work of plucking open your shirt buttons, pushing the fabric apart to reveal your breasts to her.

You gasp, arching your back as she latches onto a nipple, swirling her tongue around it. The added sensitivity caused by your blood serves to heighten the sensation, waves of arousal causing you to clench around nothing.

It is then that you feel her hand move from your abdomen, her fingers breaching the waistband of the trousers you wear. You freeze, eyes going wide.

“What are you doing?” You ask in hushed panic.

Skade releases your breast with a wet pop and stares up at you. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes.” You surprise yourself with how quickly you answer, how certain you sound, how sure you feel.

“Good.” She purrs, eyes darkened by lust. “Then let me do this. It will feel good.”

She moves her attention to the opposite nipple, laving her tongue across it before suckling gently, as her hand continues its downward trajectory. You jolt slightly as you feel her push her fingers across your mound, cupping roughly before pressing down to spread you open. Her middle finger seeks out your bud, circling slowly, and you shiver, whimpering at the way it makes you tense and throb.

Your whimpers increase in cadence, until they are lewd moans as her circles become tighter, faster, more precise. The coil in your gut winds impossibly tight and she kisses you feverishly as she feels you tense up, swallowing your cries of ecstasy as you fall apart, white hot waves of pleasure rippling through you, all the way to your toes.

Skade withdraws her hand once you still, laying on her back beside you, watching you intently as you gasp for breath.

“Better?” She asks with a raise of her eyebrow.

Once you are lucid enough to form a response, you notice that the ache inside you has disappeared almost entirely. You feel boneless in the wake of your peak. “Much.” You breathe.

“It’s a pity that the moon has not seen fit to align us, so that we may suffer this together.” She muses, rolling onto her side and stroking your hair.

“You would want to suffer with me?” You ask, your heart fluttering, a smile tugging at the corners of your mouth.

“For as long as the gods allow it.” She tells you, resting her head against your chest.

[kiigan]

A non-exhaustive list of some strategies that Itachi uses in my post 4th war verse to compensate for his blindness:

His eidetic memory is a huge advantage, because it allows him to perfectly memorize the layout of a room/house/location in general upon a single look, which in turn makes it much easier to navigate without incidents.

Initially, eidetic memory was also a huge help in learning braille.

Being fluent in braille, in turn, makes it much easier to keep stuff organized. For example, the drawers of his dresser each have a label describing what pieces of clothing go where, and each piece of clothing itself has a tiny tag describing what it is and in what color. Likewise, the kitchen cabinets have tags about the contents as well, same for the bathroom cabinets, his big box of meds, so on so on.

Related to the above, he's a big fan of objects and utensils with uncommon textures and/or shapes. Makes it quicker and easier to identify what it is without having to look for a label.

Some tasks are successfully achieved by paying heightened attention to stimuli. For example: counting money value by feeling the different shapes and details of every coin, keeping track of how full a glass/mug/cup is by feeling its size first and then paying attention to the splashing sound of the liquid as it's poured, being able to tell how cooked something is by paying attention to the way it moves in the pot when stirred or how it feels when pierced with a fork, checking the food's seasoning by relying on smell.

This is something that Itachi already used to do before, all the time because he's an obsessive person, but it becomes much more important now: keep everything in the exact same designated spot as it's supposed to be. Valid for furniture and objects alike.

One thing that is tricky is being able to tell how dusty a surface is. This isn't really a problem, though, because he likes to keep everything pristine all the time anyway.

Whenever there's an emergency situation, Itachi can temporarily use one of his crow summons to be able to see through its eyes (more crow headcanons: here).

Battle-related headcanons for this verse: [here].

[chaikachi]

I appreciate you so much for being loud about rg, despite all the unnecessary hostility this ship gets on a daily basis ❤️, it's my comfort ship and these two dorks literally makes me so happy 💕

Awee of course!!! 🥺💕 This ship means the world to me and I don't know how to be quiet about it these days even if I tried, as evidenced by the fact this answer turned into a whole essay somehow uwu

V8 was when i first really joined the fandom/RG and it was rough. I was scared to admit I shipped it romantically for the longest time because of all the discourse/harassment and I know I am very much not alone in that feeling. For the longest time I was scared to even draw them kissing lest it incite something. But ffs I'm over it. This ship is cute as hell, has so much going for it in canon, and so much creative potential in fanon. I love analyzing their story and somehow still discovering old crumbs even after all this time. Not to mention all the new crumbs this volume has given us!! Feels more like a whole loaf of freshly baked bread than anything else!

Every single argument I've ever seen thrown against the ship in the last 2+ years has been made in bad faith, is a double standard not applied to other ships, or is easily debunkable. Some of the loudest RG antis have a terrible reputation even outside of our 'ship wars', and it actually become so easy to not notice or let it get to you when you block without remorse.

I can't really speak for tumblr as I've gotten not-so-good at interacting with people here recently and feel a bit disconnected from the community (aside from the stray asks/tags y'all send me which I always appreciate 💕). But I know on twitter we've had a handful of new artists and vocal shippers come out of the woodwork in light of the new volume that are flooding the tag with positivity, memes, and creations every day. I've seen multiple rival shippers admit that they have to 'prepare for when rg is canon' and they genuinely believe it. We've even got a few bigger RWBY youtubers standing up for us and shutting down that discourse when people try to stir the pot.

Also numbers aren't really indicative of anything on tumblr when reblogs are more scarce than ever, or on twitter where the algorithm is anyone's guess, but there are some rosegarden posts on this site from 2017 that hit over 4k notes. Some of my own rg pieces on other platforms breach 1-2k. Heck, even some of the metas that I have cross posted to twt have hit more than 600 likes.

There are so many rg shippers out there. And what I am seeing with v9 is a few things. First, any people joining the fandom anew that aren't aware of all the discourse fall into RG pretty easily without that bias being pushed on them.

And second, that when we are loud and we are enthusiastic and we are kind to each other... when we foster healthy and approachable community, that is how we tune out all the negativity, and that is when we have the most fun.

So i'm glad you appreciate all my yelling, and I am not trying to pressure anyone into speaking out or participating if they don't have it in them... but this is a very friendly reminder is always room for more of us out here 💕🌹🌲

[karlyboyyy]

Meant To Happen All Along

Pairing: Kazuki x Rei, KazuRei Rating: Explicit/NSFW* Fic Tags: Fluff, Smut, Explicit Sexual Content (oral sex, fingering, penetration), Dirty Talk, Playful Sex, Romantic Gestures, Feelings Realization Wordcount: 10.7k

(*This preview does not contain any of the explicit content, only some spicy stuff. Might still be NSFW though. Link to the full fic on ao3 at the bottom!)

Rei couldn’t sleep. Normally he had no problems with falling asleep, especially ever since he stopped sleeping in the bathtub and instead started sleeping in his actual bed. But tonight, he had a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach that just would not go away. Honestly, the more he focused on the strange feeling, the more he realized that it wasn’t localized to just his stomach. It was like something was swirling around deep in his lower abdomen, mixed with a weird tingling up his spine and down through his thighs, accompanied by a warmth radiating from his entire body. And because he was having such a hard time falling asleep, he was forced to think about why he had this strange feeling. Nothing specifically came to mind as to what was causing it, but he did know that he’s been getting this feeling a lot lately, and at such random times, too.

Like the other day, he noticed the feeling for just a brief moment. It was around lunchtime; he was cleaning up around the living room while Kazuki and Miri were in the kitchen prepping the ingredients for their meal. Miri laughed about something Kazuki had said, which caused Rei to glance up at them. It’s not like what he saw was anything spectacular. It was just Kazuki stirring a pot of soup. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbow, exposing his forearms. He had a stain of something (probably the soup) on his apron. He had a big goofy grin on his face and was laughing along with Miri. And when he noticed Rei looking at them, his eyes lit up as he called out, “Oh hey, food’s almost done. So go wash your hands and get your butt at the table!” See? Nothing spectacular. These were all things that Rei had seen and heard nearly every single day. But for some reason, his stomach fluttered and his face felt hot.

The feeling came again the night before last. Rei was sitting on the couch, playing Morio Kart with Miri, while Kazuki folded laundry. When he was done, Kazuki sat down next to Rei close enough so that their knees were touching. “Hey, how ‘bout you guys let me play for once?”

“Whaaa! Kazu papa wants to play, too?? Yaay!! I wanna play with Kazu papa!” Miri was ecstatic.

“But there’s only two controllers…” Rei said matter-of-factly.

“Then gimme yours!” Kazuki reached over, placing his left hand on Rei’s thigh to steady himself and grabbed the controller from Rei using his right hand. “Here, show me which buttons to use.” Kazuki held out the controller and leaned in closer to Rei.

“Ah… well, X is the gas and Square is the brake. Right trigger is reverse and Circle is used to throw out banana peels and stuff to trip up the other racers.”

“Okay, I think I got it!” Kazuki exclaimed.

He did not get it. Kazuki was terrible at the game and came in dead last every single time. But whenever Rei would look over at Kazuki in the middle of a race, he saw how focused Kazuki was. He had this determined look in his eye that made him look incredibly serious, but it was offset by the fact that he also had his tongue sticking out. Rei thought, “Is that his concentration face?” and laughed to himself. That’s the moment he felt that strange tingling feeling again.

Then, it happened again this morning. Only this time, the feeling was much more intense. Rei was walking around the house gathering clothes for a load of laundry, and figured he should probably stop by Kazuki’s room to see if he had anything to add. The door was open, so Rei walked right in without even thinking. “Kazuki. I’m doing some laundry, got anything-,” Rei stopped mid-sentence, surprised to have found Kazuki wearing nothing but his boxers.

“Oh, hey! Perfect timing! On my way back from the daycare, some bus drove right through a puddle in the street, and it splattered all over my clothes! Ugh, they’re filthy now! Mind if I toss these in?” Kazuki placed the wad of dirty clothes in the basket that Rei was holding, doing so with a big smile on his face. Rei couldn’t stop himself from looking Kazuki up and down. He’d seen him shirtless countless times before but couldn’t recall a time when he’d seen him in his underwear. It was… interesting, to say the least. Rei then realized that he was feeling that strange tingling warmth again, and quickly turned around to walk away before Kazuki could see the redness in his face.

So as Rei lie there in his bed, thinking back on all the times he’d felt this feeling before, he realized there was a common trigger. It was Kazuki. No matter what was happening in those situations, Kazuki was always involved. And now, as he replayed each of those events in his mind over and over again, the feeling just kept getting stronger and stronger. His entire body felt like it was on fire, and his heart was about to beat out of his chest. “What the heck is this?!”

Having the type of upbringing that Rei had, he was unfortunately not very experienced in this department, so it took him longer than the average person to realize what was going on. But the moment he tried to shift his weight and roll over to his side, he felt a stiffness in between his legs and the subsequent pain from being pressed against the mattress. And it dawned on him. “…Oh.”

Rei honestly didn’t feel very surprised. He’d been living with Kazuki for years now, and already sort of knew that the feelings he had toward him were a bit complicated. He’d always felt close to him but was too embarrassed to really show it. But after Miri came along, the feelings he had for Kazuki only grew stronger. He considered Kazuki his partner and his family. He liked seeing him smile. He liked spending time with him. He liked how he started to show physical affection like hugs and the occasional kiss. He liked it all. So it was only a matter of time before Rei would crave even more from Kazuki. “I’m such an idiot for not realizing it sooner…”

Now Rei was definitely not falling asleep. Instead of lying there and continuing to let his thoughts run wild with Kazuki, he decided to get up and head to the kitchen for a glass of water. He paced back and forth in the kitchen for a few minutes, hoping to tire himself out a bit. But he unexpectedly found himself staring at Kazuki’s bedroom door. And his mind was flooded by various thoughts of what might happen if he were to go in there. “Maybe… we can just cuddle,” he whispered to himself. “Yeah, that might help me fall asleep.” But even his own words didn’t sound very convincing.

Standing outside of Kazuki’s bedroom door, Rei took a deep breath before gently knocking. Aware that Kazuki was probably asleep and didn’t hear the knock, he took the liberty of opening the door and walking into the room, carefully closing the door behind him. He tiptoed over to the bed and cast his gaze down on the sleeping Kazuki. “Pfft! His mouth is wide open.”

Rei stood there for a few minutes longer just admiring the sight before him – Kazuki was lying on his back, with one arm raised above his head and the other draped across his stomach. His mouth hung open as he quietly snored. The longer Rei stared, the more he could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. Finally, he called out in a whisper, “Psst. Hey, Kazuki? Kazukiii. Wake up.”

Kazuki jerked his head, turning toward the quiet voice calling out to him. “Mmm-hm? Rei? What is it, what’s wrong?” He still had his eyes closed but sat up slightly as he spoke.

“I, uh… I can’t sleep.” That was an understatement…

“Hm, you wanna crawl in? C’mere.” Kazuki still had his eyes half shut, but scooted over and lifted the blankets, allowing plenty of room for Rei to climb into bed next to him.

Rei’s eyes widened in surprise; he wasn’t expecting this to be so easy! He carefully sat down on the bed, but before he could fully lie down, Kazuki wrapped his arm around Rei’s waist and pulled him close. Rei’s face was now nearly pressed against Kazuki’s chest.

“Wan’ me to rub your back?” Kazuki’s voice was low and groggy, and Rei could feel his hot breath on the top of his ear. This did not help Rei’s… current predicament.

“…Sure.”

Kazuki’s hand slowly wandered down to Rei’s lower back and he gently tugged at Rei’s shirt. “Here. Lift it up a bit.”

Rei did as he was told and pulled the bottom hem of the shirt up a few inches. His stomach and lower back were now exposed to the drafty air around them.

Kazuki’s fingertips began to lightly trace swirling patterns on Rei’s skin. He went up along Rei’s spine and gently rubbed around his shoulder blades before sliding back down to his lower back. “Hey, Rei,” Kazuki said in a hushed voice. “You’re really warm.”

Rei wondered if he could also hear how loud his heart was beating in the moment. “Sorry. Is it too hot?”

“No. I’m comfy.” Kazuki continued to delicately glide his fingertips across Rei’s back and side, every so often grazing his fingernails along Rei’s flesh. He then inched toward Rei’s stomach.

“Ah, Kazuki… that tickles.” Rei was starting to get goosebumps. Although it did tickle, it also felt insanely good. He didn’t want Kazuki to stop.

“Hmm oh yeah? How about here?” Kazuki’s fingertips were now tracing along Rei’s hip near the waistband of his pants.

Rei shuddered and pressed his face further into Kazuki’s chest to stifle the slight moan he made. He now had a hard time believing that Kazuki was still half asleep; he had to be doing this on purpose.

Kazuki definitely took notice of Rei’s reaction… and he was instantly on full alert. He continued to graze Rei’s lower stomach with his fingers as he leaned his head down and whispered into his ear, “Rei. Can I kiss you?”

Instead of using words to answer the question, Rei tilted his head up, reached his hand up to clasp the back of Kazuki’s neck, and pulled him close so that their lips pressed together. Kazuki let out a deep Hmmph, which made Rei even more desperate.

Kazuki placed his hand on the small of Rei’s lower back and abruptly pulled him closer. By doing so, he could feel something solid pressing into his thigh and let out a quiet chuckle. Pulling out of the kiss, he said in a teasing voice, “Rei~, is this why you came in here?” As he said the words, he shifted his leg upward, nudging the hard bulge in Rei’s pants.

Rei jolted, letting a gasp escape from his lips. He looked up to see a sly grin on Kazuki’s face, which only added fuel to the fire that raged inside him. “So what if I did?” Rei then used one hand to pull Kazuki’s face back to his for another deep kiss, and used his other arm to prop himself up. He leaned into Kazuki, leading him to lie on his back as he swung one of his own legs over Kazuki’s waist, landing himself in a straddling position on top of Kazuki. He pulled away from the kiss but remained hovering only an inch or two from his face. “Is that a problem?” he asked, while staring deep into Kazuki’s eyes.

“Holy shit,” Kazuki thought to himself, as he stared back at the man sitting on top of him. Although it was dark in the bedroom, Kazuki could tell that Rei’s face was flushed red. He also felt the incredible warmth in his groin right where Rei was sitting, and knew that Rei would soon be able to feel just how excited he actually was about this turn of events. “I’m not complaining. I just hope you’re prepared,” Kazuki taunted.

“For what, exactly?”

“For the consequences of your actions. Rei, did you really expect me to hold myself back after you’ve climbed on top of me like this?” Kazuki reached for Rei’s upper thighs and gripped tightly, holding Rei in place as he thrusted his own lower half upward, pressing into Rei even more. Rei immediately reacted by dropping his head slightly and letting out a hushed moan, making Kazuki grin even wider.

Rei re-focused his gaze on Kazuki and hesitated for only a moment before finally giving his reply. “Like I’d expect anything less from you. So, come on, Kazuki.” Rei then leaned down, pressed his lips against Kazuki’s ear, and whispered, “Show me the consequences of my actions.”

Continue reading on AO3!

[ferrethyun]

When The Moon Met The Earth

Pairing: Moon witch!Lee Minho x Male!Moon God!Reader

Genre: Acquaintances to lovers?, Hurt not really much comfort (Absolute minimal comfort), Angst and some fluff

Word Count: 5.3k

Warnings: Supernatural elements, minor slowburn but its 5k so its not that slow, angst oml, minho is a cry baby at the end, swearing at the end, Moon witch! Minho, Elemental witch! Chan, Eclectic witch! Changbin, Divination witch! Hyunjin, Healer! Jisung, Hedge witch! Felix, Witch! Seungmin, Shifter! Jeongin, Moon god! reader, Seungmin has a bit of a breakdown and thinks hes a failure, magical violence with consequences? (It was unintentional violence), hurt and basically no comfort whoops Please let me know if I missed any warnings!!

Notes: This was part of Clownrachas monthly prompts from october! (Very delayed i know) enjoy and if you have feed back id love to hear it!!

Tag list: @snow-pegasus, @wooyussy, @brownieracha

Having the god of the moon in your home was an odd experience and not one many would experience. Minho was sure of that at least. What he wasn’t sure about was how he felt having you watch his every single move. He hadn’t meant to summon you that night; what was supposed to be a simple blessing and offering ritual turned into having the physical manifestation of the moon watching him as he worked his way around the kitchen, spoons stirring pots on their own and herbs flying across the kitchen as Minho used his magic to bring them over. “You have a lovely home, Minho” You mused as you wandered around, opening cupboards and taking a peek as you saw fit.

“Don’t touch anything, please” Minho replied, voice echoing in the cabinet that he was rifling through, “Felix will have my head if his ingredients are even an inch out of place.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t touch a thing” Your eyes shimmering as they followed him, marvelling at the iridescent fabric of the skirt he wore as it flowed behind him, “It’s been so long since I’ve been down here. I’m simply a little curious.”

Minho's actions stilled “How long is ‘so long’?” He asked.

“Give or take a few millennia.” You hummed out, taking a seat on one of the bar stools next to the kitchen island. The kitchen fell into silence, the only noises coming from the stove as a pot bubbled away and the kettle next to it began to whistle. Clattering of cups caught your attention, eyes back on Minho as he placed two cups down on the counter and spooned in a few herbs.

“What are you making?” You asked, head tilted with curiosity as you tried to look around the witch.

“Chamomile tea,” Minho responded in a mumble, concentrating on making the two drinks, “It’s good for nerves.”

“But I’m not nervous?” Came your reply, confusion twitching in your brow.

“Never said you were. Besides, I’d imagine a simple herbal tea wouldn’t have much of an effect on a god” Minho sighed, placing one of the cups in front of you.

“You need not be nervous around me, dear starlight,” A soft smile blessing your features as you inhaled the sweet yet fresh scent of the tea, “You’ve been a devoted follower all these years, just like the rest of your family. Do you remember when you were younger?”

His nose scrunched, Minho couldn’t remember much of his childhood; an unfortunate mishap with a memory spell that he had tried when he was seventeen caused most of his childhood memories to disappear. The only things he could remember were important events and his family “I can’t say that I do.”

He watched as you took a sip of your tea and chuckled into the cup, the sound like gentle wind chimes in his ears “I remember the day you did that memory spell. Very unfortunate mispronunciation was your downfall with that spell, by the way-” Looking into the eyes of the other, mischief danced behind your own, “-When you were seven, your family were preparing to do a full moon ritual, you professed your love for me.”

Minho couldn’t help the scoff that tumbled from his lips “Absolutely not.”

“It's true, you know?” You grinned, “You looked up at me with such awe, turned to your family and started rambling about how much you loved me and that one day you were going to marry me. Of course, I understand at that age what childish words mean and that you only thought of me as ‘the moon’. You’ve been so devout all these years, dear starlight. I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to finally come and see you in person.”

“Please, don’t call me that.” Minho frowned the cup in his hand suddenly becoming the most interesting thing in the world.

“As you wish,” He could hear the way your smile dropped, “I want to get to know you better, Minho. I only have until the full moon till I have to go back; please, at least grant me one wish.”

The words from your mouth shocked Minho. A god asking for a wish? How absurd “What is it?”

“Let me get to know you as more than just one of my followers,” You replied softly, “Let me get to know you as Minho. As one of your coven. I want to know you.”

The following quiet days allowed you time to meet the other members of Minho's coven; what was unusual about the coven is that there seemed to not be one true leader. Instead, the coven was made up of witches from various paths of practice. First, there was Christopher, or Chan as he asked to be called, an elemental witch with a particular affinity for fire magic. Then there was Changbin, who identified himself as an eclectic witch, choosing to incorporate his magic into more mundane tasks such as working out or in his music instead of focusing solely on spells or rituals.

One evening you met Hyunjin and Felix. The two had faces that could not be easily forgotten, their high cheekbones and sharp eyes reminiscent of pixies. Having come from the same village growing up, the two knew each other very well. Hyunjin explained that while his magic was mostly utilised in divination, he would also consider himself a hedge witch much like Felix was.

As you spoke to the two, the feeling of something curling around your ankle startled you. Taking a few steps back, you looked down to meet wide black pupils and a mass of orange fur “Soonie!” Felix called out, crouching down to stroke at the cat's head. As he stroked the feline, two more cats came strolling past. You couldn’t help but wonder whose they were and where they had been the past few days; given that you hadn’t left the house at all, it was surprising you hadn’t seen them at all.

“That’s Soonie, Doongie and Dori,” Hyunjin explained, coming to stand at your side, “They’re all Minho’s but only Doongie and Dori are pets. Soonie is his familiar.”

Soonie turned away from Felix as you crouched down, padding over and sniffing at your stretched-out hand with curiosity. After a couple of seconds, the cat nuzzled its head into your hand, letting out loud purrs that rumbled through the living room. However, the moment of peace was short-lived as someone came barreling into the room, tripping on the rug and falling face-first to the ground with a loud groan causing the three felines to scatter in different directions “Oh stars! Are you okay?” You gasped out, a mortified look washing over your features.

The figure on the floor simply responded with a thumbs up in your general direction before letting his hand hit the floor limply “I think I’m just gonna lay here and die now, thanks.” They groaned out into the rug, voice muffled by the fibres.

“Please don’t. No one wants to clean up your dead body today.” Hyunjin deadpanned with crossed arms.

“That’s Jisungie. He’s our healer.” Felix explained, meeting your eyes with a grin. You could swear that his freckles sparkled under the sunlight for a split second “He’s been away on a trip that’s why you haven’t met him yet.”

“Trust me, with how loud he is, you’ll never not know where he is at any given moment,” Hyunjin spoke up, you could see his eyes roll from where he now sat on the sofa.

“Han Jisung, if you do not pick yourself up from that floor right now. So help me, gods, I will come in there!” An all too familiar tingle ran up your arms and down your spine at the yelling of Minho. Even though he had referenced multiple gods, he only ever honoured you in his practice; the link that this had created over time made you all too aware of whenever he called upon a god.

“We don’t need any more god's help if we already have one with us though.” A new voice chirped from the doorway. Looking up, you saw that it was Jeongin. You had met him the same day that you had asked to get to know Minho better. Granted, it wasn't a normal introduction, especially when a fox suddenly jumps up in your lap and then jumps back down with a squeak after finally looking up at who he had jumped on. That’s how you learnt that Jeongin was not a witch but instead a shifter, welcomed into the coven just as equally as the rest were despite not being of the same magical affinity.

Just over Jeongins shoulder, you could make out the face of the last member of the coven, Seungmin. Despite most witches his age having come to find their speciality, he had not. His magic was abundant, to the point anyone could feel it radiating off his body in waves, but it seemed to never get used outside of helping his fellow coven members with simple spells and rituals. Despite his neutral face whenever asked about his magic speciality, it was easy to tell that it was becoming harder and harder to talk about; the frustration mixing into his aura daily slowly beginning to unsettle your brain. This had already planted seeds of ideas into your brain, all you needed to do was find a way to initiate the plan that began to formulate “Seungmin,” Your words silencing the hubbub of the room, “Can I talk to you? Alone possibly?”

“Me?” Seungmins' features scrunched as he pointed to himself. You nodded in response and headed in the direction of the kitchen,

Seungmin almost tripping over his feet as he hurried to follow. Seungmin couldn’t help the way his hands gripped together and twisted in anxiety as he stood in front of you; the silence in the room was thick and suffocating “Seungmin, it is to my understanding that you don’t have a particular path of magic that you follow, right?” You began, watching as the other's head dipped in what seemed like shame, “There’s nothing wrong with not knowing your path at this age. I’ve known many followers of mine to only discover their path later in life. Most come to their powers naturally but I can feel the distress that this situation causes you. I want to help you.”

The young witch's head shot up in shock, his hands stilling their anxious actions “Help me?” His voice was quiet.

“Yes. Your magical energy is abundant and waiting to find its release and I’m hoping that, with my own powers and influence, I can help you.” You hummed in response, hand coming up with a delicate twirl. Seungmin watched in awe as white mist formed around it before shooting off around the room then dashing up to hit the ceiling; his jaw-dropping further as a starry scene took over the top of the room, the temperature dropping slightly.

“I- I don-” He started.

“Absolutely not.” A voice cut in from the doorway. You watched with a neutral expression as Minho stormed past his coven mate and into your personal space, anger flaring behind his eyes “You of all people should know that a witch's path is their own to find!”

“Minho, do you not understand the distress this causes Seungmin?” You quizzed, watching as the youngers head dipped again to avoid Minho's gaze, “I only want to help him, I’m not here to interfere with the path that he begins on.”

Minho could only let out a low sigh, he hadn’t realised that Seungmin would feel so upset about not having a path. He prided himself on being able to take care of all of his coven members but he had failed to miss this one small detail. How? “Fine,” He eventually murmured, “But I have to be there for anything you try. I don’t want him to go through this alone.”

The next day came the first attempt at trying to find Seungmin's path. You, Seungmin, Minho and Felix had gone out earlier in the day to collect some herbs and other medicinal plants, planning to create various concoctions and baked goods with what had been harvested; it was certainly interesting to watch the way Felix interacted with the nature that surrounded the covens home. The witch would take his time harvesting, leaving offerings and thanks after asking the earth permission to harvest its abundant goods. The forest seemed to sway with gentle winds and life as he laughed at a joke that Seungmin made, the rays that escaped through the canopy making the hedge witch's skin glow. With the way he interacted with nature and it responded, you could tell that mother nature favoured him and offered him her support wherever he went.

Eventually, as the sun began to burn in the afternoon hours, the kitchen filled with life. The counters were covered with various herbs and the smell of yeast began to fill the air as Felix and Seungmin focused on making dough, the two taking turns kneading when the other got tired “Hmmmm, I think it needs more flour?” Seungmin pondered, lifting his dough-clad hands from the bowl.

Felix looked into the bowl and then to Seugmins hands and let out a small huffed laugh “I think so too” He grinned, “Hey, Min? Could you grab the flour? My hands are kinda sticky so I don’t wanna get it all over the cupboard”

Minho ventured in the direction of the cupboard he knew was Felixes, rummaging through the plentiful ingredients as he tried to find the sack of flour “Felix, how many ingredients do you need in one cupboard?” Minho grunted out, his voice lilted with a teasing tone.

“Hey! You can never-” Felix cut himself off with a yelp, “Seungmin!” Minho closed the cupboard door and turned to find the two younger witches wrestling each other, Felixs’ cheeks covered in sticky dough and Seungmin grinning like a fool as he tried to get more over his coven mate's face.

“You two are unbelievable,” Minho sighed, placing the flour on the kitchen island in front of the two bickering males, “This bread will never be made if you keep it like this.” This caused the two to split with shy grins on their faces, though Seungmins held a more gloating look as he preened at his win. Minho's eyes flitted to your form, your shoulders shook gently as you tried to hide your laughter behind your hands.

“Come here Felix, let’s clean you up.” Your voice was warm as you made your way towards him with a cloth in hand. Minho watched as you wiped at the youngers cheek with a gentle touch, his eyes softening when he saw the gentle gaze your eyes held “There, all clean!” You grinned, ruffling at Felixs’ hair. Minho didn’t miss the way that Felix's head tilted into your touch, his heart warming at the sight of the interaction.

“Uhm… Moon?” Seungmin said, “You have flour on your nose.” Your face contorted in surprise, nose scrunching and wiggling as if you were trying to get it off. Felix and Seungmin couldn’t help the boisterous laughter that left them as they watched you go cross-eyed trying to look at the offending flour. Minho let out a soft huff before making his way around the island and towards you, thumbing the flour off your nose when you turned to him.

“There, it's gone,” Minho said, grinning at the surprise in your eyes, “Now, can we get back to the bread? We’re supposed to be helping Seungmin see if he’s a hedge witch you know?”

“Oh yeah! The flour, could you pass it over here, Moon?” Felix asked, grin never leaving his cheeks as he watched you move the flour across the counter. The baking continued with a warm hum, the kitchen buzzing with Felix’s magic; soon enough, the bread made its way into the oven and the kitchen was in the process of being cleaned.

“Hey, Moon?” Felix called out across the room

“Hm? Yes?”

“Do you have a name? It feels weird to just call you moon even though you are the moon, you know?”

“I haven’t had a name in a while…” You pondered in response, “How about you pick one for me?” Felix let out a noise at this, muttering to himself as he thought through all of the options his brain could create.

The room sat in silence for what felt like hours before someone spoke up “What about Y/n?” Minho’s voice was small as if he didn’t want to be heard.

You paused, eyes studying the moon witches form with a tender look “Y/n…” You tested, “I like it. Thank you, Minho.”

When the first attempt at finding Seungmins path came up fruitless, you moved to Hyunjin. Divination was a common aspect of many witches' paths but some, like Hyunjin, excelled in it. That's how you found yourself in a small room that was tucked away in the back of the coven's home; the room had no windows and relied on candlelight to light the space. The hardwood floor was covered with various rugs, cushions and blankets. In the centre of the room was a round low table, atop it sat a teapot and four cups with loose-leaf tea in them. “You know, when you said we’d be reading tea today, I imagined it would be Seungmin only.” Minho huffed as he took a seat next to the table.

“Just because my tarot cards told you the truth that you didn’t want to hear that one time, doesn’t mean you can be grumpy every time it comes to divination,” Hyunjin quipped while rolling his eyes “Besides, I think it will be fun to see what happens since it's been a while since I’ve done this with any of the coven.”

“I think this will be rather interesting.” You spoke up watching as Seungmin nodded in agreement.

Hyunjin grinned “You’re outnumbered Mr.grumpy gills. Now, let's read!” Hyunjin took his time explaining the steps that would occur as he poured out the hot water into the cups, taking his time to pour with intention. The four of you conversed as the tea steeped, Hyunjin eagerly recalling the story of Minhos tarot reading when you asked about it. Soon enough, the tea had steeped long enough and Hyunjin explained the steps once more, making sure to watch over the other two witches and make sure that everything was done correctly. Once the teacups had been flipped back over, Hyunjin peered into each of the cups, murmuring softly to himself but his face never budging from a neutral expression “Okay, Seungminnie we’ll start with you,” Hyunjin spoke up, clasping his hands together gently,

“What symbols can you see in your cup?”

The younger witches brow furrowed as he glanced into his cup, squinting at the leaves “I mean, not much?” His lips pursed in a thin line, “This one at the bottom kinda looks like a star? But other than that, none of this makes sense to me. I can’t even feel a stir in my magic right now”

Hyunjin hummed in response “That’s alright, divination may not be your path but the leaves still tell me a lot,” Hyunjin grabbed the youngers up and began explaining what he saw “You were right about the star at the bottom and at the top here you can see an axe. Things are looking good for you, Seungie”

“That’s amazing,” A smile took over your face, your voice calling attention to you, “You really are an amazing witch Hyunjin. Do you think you can see anything in my cup?” Hyunjin grinned at your praise, pink dusting his cheeks as he reached over and took your cup. The room was silent for a moment, breaths held as you all watched his brow furrow and how his eyes darted around the ceramic “Is everything alright?”

Hyunjins head snapped up as if he had been pulled from a trance “Y-yeah! Everythings fine, it’s perfect even,” he stuttered, “Your leaves are all at the top of the cup, which confused me a little but there’s nothing bad at least” You could feel the soar in the witches magic, a grimace taking place on your face for a fleeting moment before you smiled once more.

“I’m glad to hear that” You spoke softly, taking the cup out of Hyunjins shaking hands. Hyunjin could feel the warm pulse of your magic flow from his hands and wash over his shoulders, you had to know what was in that cup, there’s no way you didn’t. The witches eyes locked with yours, a small pleading look behind his own eyes as he glanced over at Minho and Seungmin and then back to you; your own eyes held a gentle sorrow as you subtly shook your head at him. He let out a soft sigh as he pulled his hands back, now reaching for the moon witches cup.

“Before you start, I don’t want to know what anything in that cup means” Minho grumbled, his eyes darting to your form, not missing the interaction that you had just had with Hyunjin, “Just read it and tell me what you see.” It wasn’t that Minho didn’t want to know, in fact, he already knew what his cup meant; he’d rather not acknowledge the truth that the leaves held for him.

“Well, I can see a few things.” Hyunjin started, “A broken wheel, an umbrella, rain and a question mark to name a few. Jeez…”

“Maybe it’s best if we stop?” Seungmin cut in, voice strained, feeling the rising tension in the room.

Murmur's agreement filled the room “There’s still some bread and other bakes from the other day, maybe we should have some?” You suggested, “Help take our minds off of things for now”

“This already feels like a terrible idea” Seungmins tone was nervous as he stood in front of the lit bonfire, “If I was an elemental witch, surely I would have figured that out by now?”

“Don’t be silly, Seungmin” Chan grinned as he shook his hand to put out the fire that lit the tips of his fingers, “I didn’t figure it out till I was twenty so there’s nothing out of the ordinary about it.”

“Still. I don’t think trying to control literal fire is the best way to go about this!” the younger witch exclaimed, emphasizing the words ‘literal fire’, “Maybe water would be easier to start with? or maybe even earth?”

Chan looked as if he was sulking “You and I both know that’s a terrible idea when I’m around”

“If worse come to worse, we can always seek out elemental witches outside of the coven” Your voice piped up from next to the bonfire,

“Being an elemental witch is another one that takes time due to how many elements there are”

“Hey! This’ll work, I know it!” Chan pouted.

“It’s best not to get Seungmins hopes up Chan,” Minho hissed in the elemental witches ear, “We spoke about this.”

Chan muttered a small apology before going back to the bonfire, the flames leaning towards him as if they were trying to hug the elemental witch. His hands waved over the fire, the flames turning a darker red instantly “The cooler flames are easier to control if it's your first time,” Chan began explaining, “You have to connect with it, feel the bond between the flame and your own inner flame. The fire will be attracted to your magic, let it get a sense of you first before trying to control it.”

You could see the hesitance on Seungmins face, his hands wringing together with anxiety; a habit he couldn’t seem to kick “Maybe, we should have started with a smaller flame?” You suggested, unsure of how this situation would turn out, “A bonfire is rather… much.”

“You don’t have to do this today, Seungmin,” Minho added, his voice softened by the tension.

“N-No, it’s fine! I got this” Seungmins tone was shaky at best, “It’ll be fine!”

It wasn't fine.

The moment that Seungmin had felt the flames' warmth under his hand, the flame spat ashes and embers at him; the young witch recoiling and falling to the ground with a rapidly approaching flame headed towards him. All he could do was watch in horror as he scrambled backwards.

“Chan do something!” Minho yelled out, panic racking through his bones as he ran towards Seungmin, “Fucking do something, you dunce!”

“I’m trying!” Chan grunted back, eyes aflame, “It’s outside of the boundary I set for it. It has to be extinguished!”

“What do you think I’m trying to do, Christopher?” Minho hissed, trying to snub out the flame with his foot.

Having heard and then seen the chaos that was occurring outside, it was no surprise when Felix came running over with a bucket of water; quickly extinguishing the flame, breath heaving from how fast he had run over “Are you guys alright?”

No one responded, the air thick and reeking of tension. Your heart was racing from anxiety and shame, you could have done something and didn’t “I think-”

“This is all your fault!” Minho cut in, having appeared in front of you, “I should have never let you do this to Seungmin. He could have died!”

“Minho, you need to calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” He seethed, pushing you back with force, “I could have lost a coven mate and for what? Yet another failed attempt at finding his path?”

“Min-”

“Don’t! You of all people should know better than this! To think I was letting you in and-”

“Stop it! Just stop!” Seungmin cried out, now standing on trembling legs, “I get it- I’m the one failure in this coven because I don’t have a path!” Everyone stilled, no one moving even an inch. You watched as the young witch hugged and curled in on himself; shaking shoulders warning you of the impending tears.

“Seungmin…” You breathed out, taking a small step towards him only to be met with an arm. Minho blocking your way.

“Don’t even think about going near him” He gritted out, “You’ve done enough damage already.”

“Minho can you not see-” your words fell on deaf ears.

“Just be quiet! Both of you!” Seungmins hands were now covering his ears in an attempt to block out all of the yelling, “I swear on the moon if you two don't shut up, I’ll make you!” Everything seemed to slow at that moment; from Seungmins outburst of yelling and power to the cold feeling of magic that hit you square in the back after shifting places with Minho. Seungmin was once again on the floor, curled in on himself with black swirling masses surrounding him in a protective circle.

Minho couldn’t help the way that his jaw dropped open “W-What?” He stammered out, not attempting to move your hand that now lay on his shoulder, “Seungmin?”

You looked at the moon witch then at the younger witch on the floor and sighed “So it seems he does have a path after all” You grimaced, a shudder filling your body.

“What is it?” Minho asked, his voice now meek and shaken.

“That, starlight, is black matter-” making your way over to the black voids and holding a hand out to it “-It seems that your dear Seungmin is a cosmic witch.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“When handled correctly, it’s not” You let out a shaky laugh, “This explains why his magical energy was so abundant. In order for it to leave, he needs to calm down and settle his energy.”

The moon witch shook his head, trying to break the haze of shock that glazed over his brain “How do we do that?” His hands wringing together. Huh. So that’s where Seungmin got it from.

You pulled your hand back from the black matter, noticing the faint translucent greying at the tips of your fingers that was moving to creep up your hands. Looking down, you were greeted with a similar sight licking at your ankles “Well, it seems he got most of the energy out when he shot out his magic at us to protect himself. So, it shouldn’t be hard to do” You gave Minho a tight-lipped smile, watching as his eyes widened as they fell to look at your rapidly disappearing hand.

“W-Wait. What’s happening? What do you mean he shot at us? What’s wrong with your hand?” Minho's questions came at you rapid fire, your lack of answers doing nothing to quell his anxieties.

“Looks like I have to leave a little early, starlight” Your words were soft, so soft but swimming with sorrow.

“Leave? What- No!” The moon witch exclaimed, grimacing at the way his hands shook and the lump in his throat refused to go away “You can’t! I’ve only just-” He sucked in a breath of air “-Just started to know you. To care for you. To love you! You can’t…”

“Oh, starlight…” Your voice was soft, threatening to shake with tears

“You have to stay, please!” Tears started to flow down the moon witches face with no sign of stopping any time soon, “Please, please, please just stay…”

“Don’t worry, my dear starlight. I’ll tell the stars all about you. ”

A stuttered breath fell from Minho's tear-wet lips “You can’t go, not now. It’s not fair!” His hands grasping at the front of your shirt, the wrinkles deep with hidden pain.

“Life is not always fair.” your voice was soft. Minho let out another soft sob as he met eyes with your glistening ones, leaning his head into your faint hands as they came to cup at his cheeks. He could feel the way you wiped at his never-ending tears, your touch as gentle as the comforting words you murmured out; not that Minho could hear them, his head full of white noise and a dull thudding from trying to catch his breath.

Suddenly, he pushed forwards into your arms, head coming to the crook of your neck and arms now around your torso. Your hands stilled in the air for a moment before coming to wrap around the witch, one hand rubbing at his back and the other resting on his head. Even though they weren’t visible, you could still feel Minho's shuddering back. Looking up at the star-clad sky, you couldn’t help but sigh “It’s time for me to go, dear starlight”

“Please… No…” Minho's voice was weak now, all of his pent-up energy gone, spent on tears.

“I don’t have long my starlight, so let me say this” You breathed out, your own eyes shimmering when the moon witch lifted his head to look at you, “You’ve always been more than just a follower to me and being here has only developed my feelings towards you more. While I admit, I originally wanted them to stay solely platonic. I think we’ve both found ourselves a little deeper than we thought we would end up. Fate played her hand for us-”

“If fate was involved she’d let you stay!” Minho sobbed out, a fresh stream of tears cascading down his cheeks.

“Fate works in so many ways, starlight.” You murmured out, “Just as it was fate that you summoned me. It’s fate that I have to return early”

“Please… Don’t go.” Minho was now whimpering, “You can’t. I’m your starlight. You said it yourself”

“Yes, you are. Just as I am yours and always will be”

“My moon” Minho tested, his voice a little less shaken. His hand coming to cup at your cheek.

“Your moon” You confirmed, tilting your head into his hand. The next few minutes flew by in seconds. One minute you could feel Minho's lips on your own and then the next they were gone.

Minho could only stare into the empty space in front of him, hands grasping to a form that was no longer there.

[shadyruinskryptonite]

Titan Bending Chapter 21

Warning: Violence consistent with cannon, NSFW so MDNI, language, major character death (both consistent with canon of both AOT and ATLA as well as diverging from canon), so much trauma literally everyone is so traumatized, very much slow burn, a little enemies to lovers, SO MUCH ANGST, hurt/comfort, hurt and delayed comfort, AFAB reader

Anything in bold is considered to be a different language and the context will specify what that language may be.

Chapter Warnings: None for this one!

WC: 3937

Previous Chapter, Next Chapter

Masterlist

Tags: @mochminnie @sseleniaa @naruwitch

“Mikasa, how are the veggies looking? And Connie, can you stir the pot? Also, when was the last time someone - Sokka, whatever you’re doing, don’t - checked on Sasha to make sure she’s still tied up?” I call out like a chef.

“Good! Just finished chopping!” Mikasa yells as Connie moves to stir the aforementioned pot.

“I’ll go check on her,” Jean sighs.

Preparations for the picnic are coming along swimmingly. With everyone helping out, I’m able to step away for a moment to get ready. 

“Okay, I’ve gotta shower quickly so while I’m gone everyone listen to Katara,” I say as I take off my apron.

I practically run to the bathroom to shower as quickly as I can so I’m not away for long. When I get out, instead of braiding my hair like I normally do, I wrap it in a towel on top of my head. Once I’m back in my room, I throw on my new dress and, for the first time in years, I begin lacing my watertribe beads into my hair. I do loopies similar to Katara’s, two on each side, that feed into a loose top knot secured with larger medallion. 

As I’m fixing my beads into my hair, I’m able to take a real, hard look at myself. It’s weird to have the realization that I haven’t seen myself dress like a person since I was a small child. 

When was the last time I openly wore my beads? When I was seven?

I’m ripped out of my thoughts by a knock at the door. 

“Y/n! We’re taking stuff out of the oven, hurry up!” Sokka calls.

With one last quick joosh of my hair I swing my door open to find Sokka still standing there.

“Holy shit, you look like a girl!” He exclaims.

I merely roll my eyes at him before heading to the kitchen.

When I walk in, Jean is pulling out a casserole, Connie is STILL stirring, and Katara and Suki are putting finishing touches on the veggies and fruit. I can’t get over how amazing everything smells.

As I enter and get straight to work, I ask, “Is everything set up outside?”

Instead of people answering me, I’m met with a loud silence. All of the sounds of the kitchen stop simultaneously. Pausing what I’m doing, I look around a bit confused. “What?”

It’s Suki that whispers, “You look really pretty.” 

I’m immediately a bit bashful and I can feel a blush creeping up on my face. “Oh, thank you.” After I regain my composure, I clear my throat and ask again, “Is everything set up outside?” 

“I-I think Commander H-Hange and C-Captain L-Levi are already out there. Connie! Let’s go grab Sasha and we can put the blanket out!” Jean stammers, making me chuckle a bit.

“Y-yeah! Sure!” When Connie stumbles over his words, I glance down to make sure I didn’t accidentally come out naked.

With the casserole having sat for a few minutes to set, I begin cutting it into serving sizes. “Oh, Mikasa, will you grab the lemonade out of the fridge? Eren, you can take the fruit and veggies out and Armin, why don’t you grab the cups, plates, and silverware. The five of us can take care of the food.”

Mikasa and Eren nod in agreement, but Armin looks like he wants to say something. I stand there expectantly, but when he opens his mouth a strange squeak is all that comes out, so he quickly closes it and nods like Eren adn Mikasa. Again, I chuckle and ruffle his hair which seems to short circut him even farther. Once they head out, Toph turns in my general direction.

“You must look crazy because every single one of those boys little hearts were beating like run away trains.”

The five of us that are still in the kitchen all burst into laughter. “For god’s sake, I’m wearing a dress not my birthday suit,” I say between giggles. 

“I think it’s the combination of the dress, the color, and the hair,” Katara postulates.

Before I pick up the casserole, Suki elbows me in the side playfully, wiggling her eyebrows and saying, “If that’s how these kids with their crushes act, I’ll be interested to see the Captain’s reaction.”

“Oh my god, here we go,” I say rolling my eyes.

“Wait! Wait! The short angry one?! You two…?!” Sokka questions, desperately trying to catch up.

“No!” I say looking back and forth from Suki to Sokka and back again. “There is nothing going on! He and Hange are just the only other adults in this place so I’m good friends with both of them!”

As we walk outside, Toph speaks up once again. In a sing-song voice she says, “That’s not what EITHER of your hearts say though!”

Grunting at her comment, I can see the group in the distance. “Alright, enough! All of you!” I hiss.

They’re all still cackling as we crest the hill. A small table has been set up for the food, presumably by Levi so that nothing gets set on the ground. Everyone is sitting on the blanket with the exception of the Captain who stands with his arms crossed. 

Once we’re finally close enough for everyone to get a good look at each other, I can hear Sasha yell, “Holy shit, she DOES look really hot!” I try to ignore it as to not embarrass them further but she doubles down. “Y/n, has anyone told you you look really hot?”

Now I can’t hold back my laughter, especially when all of those boys look like they’re praying for a titan to come out of nowhere and swallow them whole. Still laughing but also fighting my own embarassment, I say, “Not in so many words, but thank you Sasha.”

We all settle in with our plates and I can tell everyone is enjoying the meal because no one is saying anything. That is, until Katara leans over to whisper to me.

“Your man hasn’t been able to keep his eyes off of you.” She says with a wink.

On instinct, I punch her in the arm. But even so, my curiosity gets the better of me and I can’t help but sneak a glance in his direction. And, sure as shit, he was already looking at me. When we make eye contact, I swear I see him blush again.

Seriously, there’s no way they’re right…right?

As everyone finishes up, the sun is just barely beginning to set so the entire field is washed in a beautiful golden light. I flop down in the grass and close my eyes, happy to soak in the day’s last few rays. 

From the other side of the blanket, I hear Hange ask, “So, what’s the plan for this trip?”

It’s Sokka that replies, explaining, “I think we should leave first thing tomorrow. We’re going to fly straight through to Ba Sing Se which will take a large part of the day. We’ll land at King Kuei’s palace probably in the early evening. If we plan it right we should be getting there just as Aang and Zuko are finishing up the day’s meeting so we should be there for dinner.”

Curious, I butt in, “Are we staying at the palace overnight? And how long will we be in Ba Sing Se for?”

A little uneasily, Sokka answers, “Well, team Avatar will for sure be staying in the palace, but I’m not entirely sure about everyone else. We’ll be there for maybe two days and two nights, so there’s a chance it will be no big deal, but just in case it is a problem, everyone else will probably bunk at Iroh’s -”

I immediately shoot up, absolutely beaming. “We’ll get to see Uncle Iroh?! I don’t care what the plan is, I wanna stay with him!”

Sokka, Katara, Suki, and Toph grin. “I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to have you,” Katara says warmly.

“Does he know I’m coming?” I ask excitedly.

“No, he shouldn’t. Zuko, Aang and I agreed that it would be a fun surprise. When we talked they agreed that they’d just give him a heads up that there’s a slim chance he might need to house some people for a few nights,” Sokka explains. 

Looking to the others and lingering on Levi for an extra moment, I explain, “Uncle Iroh owns a tea shop. He’s who taught me how to make tea. You all will absolutely LOVE him!”

“You keep calling him ‘Uncle.’ Is he YOUR uncle?” Hange asks.

I giggle a little. “Oh, no. Actually, he’s Zuko’s uncle. But I just call him that from the time the three of us spent traveling.”

Under his breath, Sokka mumbles, “He was ALMOST your uncle.”

God I hope no one heard that.

Suki and Toph both almost choke when they start laughing and based on everyone else’s faces, I know they all heard it. I merely glare at Sokka. 

Of course, it’s Hange that questions it. “What do you mean?”

The Gaang laughs harder and I try my hardest to dismiss it. “He doesn’t mean anything by it.”

“When I said that she probably hasn’t told you anything remotely personal, this is what I mean,” Suki says through her laughter. “I take it that she hasn’t told you that she and Zuko were engaged at one point?”

“WHAT?!” They all say in unison. 

Glaring at Suki now, I swear I feel my eye twitch a little. Without looking away from her, I continue trying to end the conversation by saying, “Yeah, we were engaged for a few months after the war. It’s not a big deal though.”

“That sounds like a pretty big fuckin deal to me!” Hange almost squeals. Everyone is incredulous, but she’s the only one that really pushes for more information. “Wait, does that mean you could’ve been the…Fire…lady?”

I sigh, finally turning to look at her in defeat. “Yes, I was in fact supposed to be essentially the queen of the Fire Nation.”

Now, it’s Sasha that chimes in. “So you were literally royalty and…chose to live in titan country instead?”

I laugh a little. “I mean, it’s a little more complicated than that but yes. I left because, well, I don’t exactly scream royalty.”

“And the Fire Nation has a ton of rules, which aren’t exactly her thing,” Katara adds.

For the first time in this entire conversation, I’m infinitely grateful for something one of them said because that seemed to end the barrage of questions for the time being.

With the sun now setting further, I smack my legs a little and stand up, saying, “Welp, I think we should probably start tidying up and head in.”

Wordlessly, everyone starts pitching in. Once everyone is inside, I dismiss the kids to get ready for bed since we’ll have an early morning and I start doing the dishes. After a few minutes alone, I feel someone approach. Without turning around, I scold them a little. “Hey, I said go get ready for bed, I’ve got this under control.”

Without responding, the figure gets closer and starts drying the dishes. Glancing sideways, I realize it’s not one of the kids but instead Levi.

“Oh, Levi, you don’t have to do that,” I say in surprise.

“I know,” is all he responds.

Typical.

We work quietly like this for a few moments, but as we do I realize something feels off. I don’t immediately address it, figuring that he wouldn’t appreciate that. As we finish up, he offers to make tea and I happily accept. Watching as he steeps the leaves, I help him carry the cups up to the roof where we sit in our usual places.

Wanting to break the silence and hopefully get him talking, I ask, “So, did you like the meal.”

“It was good,” he states simply. I nod in acceptance.

Another beat of silence passes and I think through my options. Luckily, I don’t have to ponder for long.

“Why haven’t you told us more about yourself?” He asks distantly, staring out at the walls on the horizon.

I shrug a little. “Just not important, I guess.”

He finally looks at me and I can’t discern the emotion on his face. What I can tell though is that he’s thinking over his next words. Finally, he says, “It would help us understand you better, so seems important to me.”

I shrug again, looking away from him. “My experiences aren’t the important part. Understanding my bending and my world is what’s helpful.”

Another silence passes between us before I add, “It’s not like you’re exactly forthcoming with your past, either.”

I hear him snort a little, a quiet acknowledgement that I’m right. 

Before much time passes, Levi quietly asks, “Is that what your fight was about a few nights ago?”

“Huh?” I ask, knowing full well what he was referring to but wanting to buy myself a little time to think over what I wanted to say.

“You know what I’m talking about,” he calls my bluff.

I snort a nervous laugh. “Yeah, I uh, I guess I do. And, um, yeah. Something like that.”

Levi snorts again before saying, “Interesting tactic.”

I furrow my brows. “What do you mean?”

“Just that I wouldn’t think trying to kill someone would be the best way to win them back. What do I know though, everyone always tells me I have shit people skills,” he says dryly.

This makes me fully belly laugh, and I can tell Levi is innitially caught off guard my boisterous reaction. When my laughing subsides, I agree. “No, you’re spot on, I had that exact same thought as I was dodging fuckin’ fireballs.”

Levi laughs at this, and it’s maybe the first time that I’ve ever heard him laugh that genuinely. I put my hand on his arm and he stops instantly, making me regret touching him. However, when he looks at me, I softly say, “I think you have great people skills, actually. Unconventional, sure, but you always seem to know exactly what people need.”

“I-I do?” He responds a bit dumb founded.

My hand still on his arm, I smile and nod. “Yeah. Like, for example, when the interior took Eren and Historia and Armin had to kill that woman, you knew that they needed to talk about it. You got them talking with some stupid joke or something. And then, when Armin was spiraling, you knew when to cut him off so that he didn’t have to verbalize that he was a murderer. You were still honest, but you reassured him.” I look away, laughing a bit as I say, “I remember that instance specifically because that was the first time I really noticed that you weren’t just a dick.”

Another snort.

I go to move my hand away but Levi quickly puts his other hand on top of mine, holding it in place. My head snaps to look at him but he isn’t making eye contact. In response, I squeeze his arm a bit and leave my hand where it was.

Suddenly feeling very hot, I change the subject. “To sort of explain Zuko a little bit though, I don’t think it’s that he was trying to ‘win me back’ by attacking me. I think he just had a lot of anger that boiled up all at once.”

“Why was he angry, because you left?”

“I mean, yeah. Not just that though, I think it was the circumstances that made me leave. I kept telling him how much I hated the stupid etiquet classes that I had to take. One day I just sort of realized that that wasn’t the life I wanted to live. I mean,” I gesture to myself, “I suppose this outfit isn’t the best example, but I’m really not cut out for any kind of prim-and-proper life. Plus, the people of the Fire Nation had to be completely deprogramed after all of the propaganda they had been forcefed their entire lives. They literally thought that all other elements were inferior, so there was a lot of anger over the fact that I’m a water bender. I just decided that I didn’t want to put up with that so I thought about it and realized that in my life, I was the happiest when I had lived on my own in the woods, so that’s what I opted to do. Whether he accepts it or not, I can guarantee it has also made his time as Fire Lord easier because that’s one less thing he’ll have push back about.”

Levi nods, seemingly in understanding. “It’s got to be hard to walk away from a royal life though,” he postulates.

“Eh, it was easier than you’d think. I mean, put yourself in that situation. While yes, you’d want for nothing, after living a life based on survival it’s nearly impossible to adjust to. I had lived so many years just wanting a normal life that going from an essentially nomadic lifestyle to an opulent one was a huge shock to my system. I had spent so many years resenting the rich that I couldn’t stand being in that environment. I can’t help but think you’d be disgusted with it, too.”

“I guess you’ve got a point there,” is all he says. 

I squeeze his arm again, but this time I do retract my hand. I stand up and say, “Well, we probably should try to sleep a little. We’ve got a few pretty busy days coming up.”

He nods wordlessly and gathers up the tea supplies that we had brought with us. I help him with the dishes and finally part ways at our respective doors.

The next morning, Suki and I take our run before the sun comes up as that was the only time we’d be able to squeeze it in. About a mile in, she turns to me and asks, “So, where’s your head at?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Zuko is obviously still in love with you and then you’ve got your entire fan club here, not the least of which being Levi. Ya know, no matter how much you deny it we know you have feelings for him too,” she states.

I roll my eyes. “I’ll tell you what I told Katara, Zuko needs to get over me. I would be lying if I said a part of me doesn’t still love him, but no amount of love can make up for the unhappiness I felt living in the palace. The man I was with there was not the version of Zuko that I fell in love with. I also can’t go back because I couldn’t live everyday in peace knowing that the people I care about here could be fighting for their lives. As far as the ‘fan club,’ they’re kids with crushes, simple as that. I adore them like I do you and the Gaang but they are all literal children and I think I would call the police on myself if I returned feelings for any of them. Levi though…”

I trail off, giving Suki a chance to add, “He’s certainly not a child.”

“No, that he’s not. We really couldn’t stand each other when I first got here so it’s taken me a little while to get past some of my original impressions of him. Honestly, until you and Katara said something I hadn’t even considered anything romantic there. Ya know, boys have never really been a priority for me. Any relationship I’ve found myself in I just sort of stumbled into so I’m not really observant with these types of things.”

She huffs out a laugh and chides, “Yeah, you could say that again.”

Once again confused, I spare her a quick sideways glance. She explains, “You are SO oblivious when it comes to men and romance.”

Slightly offended, I bite back, “I am NOT oblivious! I just don’t care to notice!”

Without breaking stride, she pats me on the shoulder and says, “No offense, but you have no clue the spell that you put most men under.”

Still shocked, I say, “Well, I’m not trying to!”

“Exactly, I think that’s part of what does it. You’re magnetic because you’re so self assured. But seriously, did you see the way Levi’s eyes almost jumped out of his head when you walked out last night?”

Truth be told, I had not noticed that. But I wasn’t about to let her know that. “Whatever,” I mumble. “This is a dumb conversation anyway, we sound like some pre-teen girls.”

She laughs as Sokka emerges in the distance. We can’t hear him, but I’m pretty sure he’s waving to us so we finish our workout and head over to him. As we get closer, I can see everyone bustling around and loading up the airship. This is the first time I had taken a good look at the airship and something dawns on me.

“Sokka, did they refurbish one of the airships from Sozin’s Comet?”

Suddenly a bit gloomier, Sokka nods. I stand back to take a better look at it. The platform where soldiers stood to incinerate the Earth Kingdom is still attached. I lose myself in thought, a strange combination of sadness and anger washing over me.

As Sokka tentatively approaches me, I ask, “I could get past maintaining some of the design elements, but did they really have to keep that?”

“Zuko tried to have it removed, but unfortunately it’s connected to some important infrastructure on the ship itself,” Sokka laments.

“Why doesn’t he just chop off the catwalk part then?” I enquire.

“Can’t do that either, it’s too heavy and the way the ship was constructed it would thow off the balance.” He pauses before whispering, “Trust me, he wanted to.”

I give a curt nod. It’s pretty plain to tell that this wasn’t just an explanation but rather a defense of Zuko. Patting Sokka’s arm, I say, “C’mon, let’s have some breakfast.”

At the table, everyone is absolutely buzzing with excitement and I can’t help but smile at them all. Everyone ate at Sasha speed so we could head out as quickly as possible.

As we all start loading onto the airship, I see Levi hesitate. Turning to question him, he says, “Are you sure this thing is safe?”

I laugh and grab him, practically dragging him towards the balloon. “Yes, Levi. It’s perfectly fine.”

Once on board, Sokka starts pulling handles and turning buttons and you can hear the engine room roaring to life. As the scent of burning coal completely takes over, the ship lifts off the ground. Everyone plasters themselves to the windows to watch the ground grow smaller beneath us, and I even see Levi trying to be nonchalant about the experience. 

In about 20 minutes we’re over the ocean and at this point Hange has realized that Sokka is a captive audience for her ramblings, so she starts birating him with rapid fire questions about the airship and how it works. Luckily, Sokka just seems happy to explain it. With everyone settled in, I sneak away to enjoy the journey on my own.

While I hate the original purpose of the catwalk, I also recognize that it would have the best views, so when I’m alone that’s where I take up residence. There’s nothing but water in every direction, the wind is blowing through my hair. All-in-all, it’s very peaceful. So, I pop a squat and prepare to enjoy the next few hours.

[silvaswiftcast]

Good Morning

Characters: Silva Cataracta, Ricmorn Cataracta, and Hien Rijin

Rating: Mature

Notes: Old FFxivWrite Prompt from 2022 that's been cleaned up a little! The unedited version and the collection for this challenge on my AO3 are linked in my profile! This scene takes place sometime in Stormblood between patches 4.3 and 4.5. Words contained in [brackets] are in another language, in this case, it's Doman.

Content Warnings/Additional Tags: Polyamory Relationship (V Relationship), M/F/M relationship, Nudity, Playful Banter/Teasing, Groping, Suggestive Sexual Themes.

Hien had always favored mornings. He loved the peace and serenity that came with the light fog that rolled down the mountains surrounding Doma, feeling the warm sunlight on his skin as he trained with his fellow samurai.

Sometimes, should he be lucky, one or both of the Warriors of Light would join him for a few rounds of friendly sparring. It was always a fun challenge for him, and Ricmorn and Silva did a great job of keeping him on his toes and alert. Especially the smaller Auri woman, who had a similar training background as he did. However, she relied on a fine mix of the shinobi arts and long wooden poles for their matches.

She never held her raw strength back. And in return, he never did either.

But for the times when the young lord was the only early riser out of the three, his favorite thing to do once he finished training was returning to find Silva still asleep. Whether it was his bed after sharing a night together or the one she shared with her husband. A room the two Raen used while staying in Doma that he often snuck out of as of late. Usually, he would make a fresh pot of her favorite tea. An herbal blend that had quickly become one of his favorites since she first shared it with him while he waited for his beloved to stir from slumber. They would share the tea and steamed buns filled with spiced meat as they talked before separating to perform their respective duties.

However, he treasured the rare times when his late mornings weren't filled with long, arduous meetings with her.

Hien would rush through his morning routine and clean the grime and sweat off his body so he could climb back into bed with the woman who held his heart. He watched Silva dream away as he carefully combed his fingers through her short purple and magenta waves, looking so calm and unburdened by the tremendous weight she carried on her shoulders. The quiet moment always put him at ease. It reminded the Doman that he needed to pause more often and enjoy the little things in this brief life.

To enjoy every single chance that he and Silva spent together.

And when those beautiful sea-green eyes of hers opened in the late morning sunlight — shimmering with so much love for him as their gazes met — his heart always stopped for a second before it would thunder against his ribs. Or how she would flash him a soft, shy smile every time. It always felt like the world around them stopped when it happened, only to start again when the pair exchanged mumbled "good mornings" between sweet kisses.

Lucky for him, this morning was one of those days.

Hien quietly exchanged pleasantries with Ricmorn as he arrived at his bedroom once he wrapped up his training. He asked the tall Au Ra to pick up some steamed meat buns for the three to share after his meeting with Silva's uncle concluded. The white mage promised to grab breakfast and told the king to enjoy the rest of the morning with their lover should he take too long. Ricmorn chuckled as he walked away when his friend's cheeks flushed red at the implied innuendo.

The Hyur quickly gathered himself and quietly slipped inside his room to not disturb the still-sleeping black mage. Soft snores left her and filled the air, and he couldn't help the wide grin spreading across his face as she nuzzled the pillow he slept with. He watched her for a few minutes before taking a series of slow steps toward the large, enclosed washroom, closing the door behind him, and getting ready for the day.

A half bell later, Hien was all cleaned up — mostly. He was in the middle of toweling his long, unruly hair dry when the soft metallic click of the door sliding open sounded in his ears. Bright hazel eyes flicked towards the mirror before him to see his sleepy Au Ra standing behind him a few paces away. Light, rumbling laughter left him when her sea-green orbs widened with surprise when she realized he was wearing nothing but a fluffy towel around his waist, sun-kissed skin glistening with moisture.

"O-oh," she stuttered out, her light blue-gray cheeks flushing a shade of lilac. "I can leave and—"

He shook his head. "Stay."

Silva bit her bottom lip, her long tail swishing behind her with a mix of glee and uncertainty. "Are y-you sure? I don't mind if—"

Oh, her sudden bouts of shyness were always endearing to him, and he couldn't help but love her more each time they occurred.

The young lord turned to face her, tossing the damp towel in his hands towards the small pile of dirty clothes he would grab for washing later. "How many times have you seen me completely naked now, [my beloved wildflower?] Who knew that seeing me in just a towel and still wet from a bath would be your downfall," he teased, more laughter escaping him when her tail began wagging.

"Seven fucking hells, Hien!" she gasped, looking anywhere but at him as the blush painting her cheeks darkened to lavender.

Gods, it was way too early in the morning for his teasing! She had yet to have breakfast or even some coffee yet.

Her ivory horns picked up on the faint sound of his footsteps against the dark hardwood floor coming toward her, only looking at him when he gently grasped her chin and tilted her head. She let out a pleased sigh when his lips found hers, returning the sweet and slow kiss as her arms wrapped around his neck.

"[Good morning, my heart,]" she whispered against his mouth. She enjoyed the sound he made when she tugged his wet hair and kissed him.

"[Good morning to you, my dear,]" he replied, smiling when the melody of her bubbly giggles filled what little space was between them. "[Did you sleep well?]"

"[Mhm, I always do when I'm squished between you and Ricmorn. I take it you have no meetings this morning?]"

Please. Please let him have no meetings.

Hien shook his head again, pulling back enough to press his lips to the small patch of ivory scales decorating the middle of her brow. "[No meetings — I am all yours for the rest of this morning,]" he promised.

A pleased hum left her at hearing those words, a thrill of desire rushing down her spine at all the things they could do before they had to part from one another. Judging by the lustful mischievousness that gleamed in those pretty hazel eyes told her he knew what she was thinking of right now.

"[You wanna have some fun while we're alone for the moment?]" he suggested as one of his hands ghosted down her bare side. His fingertips brushed against the sensitive scales at her waist, loving the soft trill rumbling in her chest. "[We both know I'll make it worth your while.]"

Her breath caught in her throat at her beloved king's sweet teasing, taking in a shuddering lungful of air to steady her already rapidly beating heart. "[You just took a bath, my lord. I would hate—]"

Silva didn't get to finish her thoughts as his mouth sought hers again in a hungry kiss. He swiftly removed what little clothing she was wearing and pulled her flush against him, causing a moan to escape her throat. His hard, warm flesh met her soft skin and cool scales, and the feeling of it was enough to make her shiver with anticipation.

"[I can always take another — perhaps this time you could join me, wildflower.]"

[black-occamy]

The Enchanted Cafe - Season of Pumpkin Spice

(Self-indulgent coffee shop AU. Words: 5,492 - I know, long!!!!) tags: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Sirius Black/Reader, Remus Lupin/Reader, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin/Reader, Coffee Shops, Autumn, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Romantic Fluff, canon characters behaving canonically, with a dash of homebrew to this coffee pot, Gender Neutral Reader - Character, no y/n, alternate happy universe

Out of many obvious perks of working at a coffee shop - like actually being paid and having near unlimited access to coffee - if you had to select one, you would point to the customers you could observe. Of course, you knew all the stories about how working in customer service was a pain, people being basically just people, sure. But it has never been the case in the coffee shop that you worked for now. It was hard to explain why. All kinds of different types of beings would parade in front of the counter on any given day, but either there was some actual magic at work, or the Enchanted Cafe only attracted the polite ones.

Like the constantly smiling owner of the bookshop two streets over, an avid fan of white three-piece suits and vanilla latte. Or the mother, who would come in with twins, a boy and a girl, both of them drawing at the children's table while she drank her Saturday afternoon espresso. The solemn, tall man, who only ever ordered a single cup of the simplest black coffee and for whom you kept a lavish porcelain sugar bowl filled with sugar cubes behind the counter; he would put only one cube in his cup using pair of silver tongs and stir it slowly with left hand, while writing down rows and rows of notes in his small notebook. The older lady who had walked her cat around the neighbourhood every Monday and Thursday, and stepped in for an americano with a cookie on the side.

And then there were those two guys that made your heart skip a beat whenever they entered the shop.

The Star - Sirius x Reader (on AO3) The Moon - Remus x Reader (on AO3) The Celestial Phenomenon - Wolfstar x Reader (on AO3) (you can skip either or read all, makes more sense as a whole) (full story under cut, enjoy!)

The Star

Come to think of it, they actually started coming in for coffee around the same time. Sirius was the first to make an appearance.

You remembered it well; it was the first of the warmer days of late spring, and it was starting to get really sunny. He walked briskly into the coffee shop in full leather jacket, long sleeves and all, and for a good ten seconds you wondered what kind of person would dress like that in a weather like this. Then, when he approached the counter and flashed you a smile, you instantly knew the answer.

Hot. A hot person.

“Double espresso, to go,” he ordered, without even looking at the menu. You overcame the momentary stupor, responding with a practised salesperson grin of your own.

“Right on it! Anything else I can tempt you with? Chocolate chip cookies?”

“Hmmm, tempting indeed,” he hummed, pretending to consider the desserts on display, but you felt his eyes on you. It was quite funny, the way you suddenly felt like a rare piece of highly appreciated art. The man winked at your slightly flustered cheeks. “I'll give it a pass today, thank you very much for the suggestion.”

“Very well,” you picked up the paper cup and a pen. “What should I write on the cup for you?”

“Oh, I'm Sirius.”

“About what?”

There was a second of silence, then another and you cursed yourself internally. That kind of blunder never ever happened to you. It had to be the face of that man, that mischievous smirk pulling the corners of his lips upwards, those silvery-grey eyes that gleamed now that he began to chuckle, that line of carefully trimmed beard which highlighted his sharp cheekbones, that long black hair, falling gracefully on the leather jacket. You blinked.

“I'm extremely sorry for that! Sirius, like the star?” You forced your hand to scribble the name on the side of the cup, letters coming out sharp and uneven.

“Yeah, like the star,” he confirmed, still chuckling quietly. “Nice to meet you, Pumpkin.”

You caught his eyes reading the name tag on your lapel. One of the curious little quirks of the coffee shop was that each worker was expected to pick a name for themselves. It had to be related to coffee in any way, proper - obviously - and it would be used among the staff and towards the customers instead of real names. You liked the idea and you became Pumpkin Spice without a second thought.

On a third thought, however, exactly at this moment, you wished you had picked something else. Something more classy, perhaps.

Like Espresso.

“The pleasure is all mine, Sirius.” The coffee dispenser whirred its happy grinding tune. “That would be 8.50.”

Sirius put a 20 bill on the counter and as he waved dismissively when you reached for the change, you noticed his fingers and wrists were adorned with sharp, black lines of tattoos.

“See you around!”

It was maybe a week later when he paraded in again, the same leather jacket on his shoulders, the same grin on his handsome face. This time there was a small queue in front of the counter and while you talked to other customers, you allowed yourself a few discreet glances in his direction, taxing his silhouette in more detail. He was tall, slender in that subtle way that he could pretend not to work out if he didn't want to. Raven black hair fell loosely on his shoulders, and every now and again he'd run his fingers through it, pushing it back. Under the leather of his jacket, his shirt was nonchalantly unbuttoned on the top, black line of tattoos showing over his clavicles as well.

When Sirius finally approached the counter, he rested his elbow against it casually and you noticed that one of the tattoos on his left palm was a small paw print, like that of a dog.

“Hello, Pumpkin,” he flashed you the same smile as before.

“Good afternoon, Sirius. What can I tempt you with today?”

“Again with the cookies?”

You smiled and performed an exaggerated shrug, pointing with your open arms to the display counters around.

“We at the Enchanted Cafe are dedicated to tempt you with all sorts of sweets,” you recited. “Along with a large selection of assorted coffee, ready to put a spell on your taste buds.”

He laughed - and it was a laughter designed to melt the knees of those affected. Your knees were ready to gleefully oblige.

“Double espresso to go, please! You will find me not easily tempted,” he declared, winking.

You prepared a cup, adorned his name with little stars above both "i's" and accepted the exact same tip as before.

He came in several more times over the following week or two. "Double espresso to go" became a regular order and you found yourself preparing a cup with stars on it every morning if it wasn't already there. Sometimes, if there was no queue, he would chat you up and you would learn something about his taste in music (you shared an interest there) or his motorcycle (that he once parked in view of the cafe window and damn, that machine was gorgeous).

Then, when summer started in full, Sirius ditched his leather for a sleeveless black shirt.

Unsurprisingly, his tattoos extended to his arms and visible portion of the chest. Equally unsurprisingly, you found them extremely attractive. Along with the rest of him, naturally.

“I can see that the weather has forced a change,” you remarked casually when he walked in on that first day of summer, and Sirius grinned widely at you.

“Is it a good change or a bad change in your opinion, Pumpkin?”

“That depends,” you picked up the cup that had waited for him for two full days. “Will I be able to tempt you for a summer special coffee?”

“Let's hear it!” He leaned over the counter, as per his usual manner, and a subtle mixture of sweat, petrol and spicy cologne drifted towards you, somehow discernible among the overwhelming aroma of coffee.

“We have a mint-and-chocolate scented blend, ideal to go on ice or with milk,” you wondered briefly if white coffee was even his thing. “The official name is 'too cool for school', by the way.”

“For real?” Sirius chuckled. “Or are you making it up as you go?”

“You're offending my honour as a barista, good sir.”

“My most heartfelt apologies!” Theatrically, he took a step back and bowed. There was a subtle grace to the movement, something that told you he had been practising etiquette for years. “Although it does sound like my type of coffee, Pumpkin. Consider me tempted.”

“I'll write it down as an achievement in my diary,” you grinned. “On ice? Or do you want to experiment with double espresso? I should warn you, the aroma gets sharp.”

“Do you get to write two achievements if I decide on ice?”

“I get to write three if you order the cookie as well.”

The way he smiled always made you grin in return and that was the most natural grin you ever had - not the polite, trained smile of the barista, but something more… real.

“Not today, Pumpkin, not today... Summer special on ice only, please.”

“You know I will keep on trying,” you puffed with pretend offence and he winked at you when you handed him the freezing cup, perspiration in the air already shimmering on the sides. It’s a policy to put the cutlery on the counter or directly on the table, but before you did, Sirius caught it mid-air from your hand and just for a brief second your fingers connected with his tattooed ones.

For some reason you kept thinking about that for a long time and from that moment on, whenever he ordered the summer special on ice, your fingers touched. Again. And again.

You almost didn't want the summer to be over, wondering if the “double espresso to go” will replace this little ritual of yours. Sometimes you pondered if Sirius had ever noticed, or if he just kept picking the cup from your hand and walking out towards his motorcycle oblivious to the spark of joy that he had yet again brought into your day.

The Moon

There was another reason for you to smile widely when you prepared the shop each morning before it opened for the customers. It was reflected in a small collection of neatly stacked receipts that you kept in an envelope at the side of your breakroom drawer. The receipts themselves were as insignificant as they could be - each one for the exact same cappuccino on rice milk, no extras. But each one had a small, pencil drawing at the back. It was always something simple: sometimes a cup on the table, a car visible from the cafe window, or a book that he was reading, but there was something soft and warm in the graphite lines that made you feel equally soft and warm on the inside.

First time Remus paid a visit to the Enchanted Cafe there was no receipt yet, however. You spotted him in the queue of regulars that was attended to by Latte when you came back from your break. It was raining and the coffee shop was packed full of people not entirely ready to go and face the weather. Umbrellas in the stands and several coats were drying on the side, adding a unique scent of moisture to the air full of mingling conversations.

You took the queue over from Latte before Remus had approached the counter and you had just enough time to take a good look at him. He was tall, probably a little bit taller than Sirius (well, you DO have a type), with long, slender limbs. His patched-up coat seemed to be a bit too loose for his body. Brown, curly hair was marked with ashen grey on the sides, even though he didn’t seem old at all - maybe late twenties? Early thirties? When you greeted him and he gave you a small, apologetic smile, you noticed his honey-coloured eyes had tiny wrinkles in the corners.

But what had your curiosity piqued was the scar that cut diagonally through his face. It started above his left brow, arched across the nose and right cheek almost to the corner of his thin lips. You allowed yourself only one stare, as discreet as you could in the circumstances.

“Good morning, what can I tempt you with today?”

“I'd like a cappuccino, please,” his voice was rich and soft, somehow bringing about an image of a warm blanket and a fireplace. “Do you have any vegan options?”

“Absolutely!” you mentally listed the content of the fridge. “We have soy, almond and rice at the moment.”

There was a short moment of hesitation from him, and as you looked at his face expectantly, you noticed that the scar was just a central one of three. Much less prominent, two other long gashes were visible in regular proximity from one another. It sort of looked like a huge claw mark.

“Are any of those options paid extra?” He asked finally and you shook your head.

“Absolutely not. Regardless of the milk type, cappuccino will put you at 6.20,” you explained, then added after a sudden afterthought. “There is no price difference between having coffee in or taking it to go, either.”

“Thank you... Pumpkin Spice?”

“That's me.”

“Unusual,” he smiled softly and his eyes gleamed with golden sparks. “I might take the opportunity to enjoy the coffee inside, but not today. A cappuccino with rice milk to go, please.”

You nodded and picked up a paper cup.

“It's not often this packed,” you remarked, seeing how he kept glancing around with that awkward unease some people displayed when in a crowd. “What should I write on your cup?”

Another slight pause, reluctant and a little wary. You knew that kind of silence - an introvert in the wild. You sympathised.

“Enchanted Cafe believes in a personal approach to customers,” you made your best effort to sound light and encouraging, “but I could swear some of the things I write on those cups are most definitely not the real names. There's this one older guy who always asks for his coffee to be signed 'Real Elvis' and, mind, there's not even a trace of resemblance.”

He chuckled softly in response, visibly disarmed.

“My name is Remus, thank you for this... insightful piece of trivia.”

“Humour is completely free of charge, Remus,” you grinned and the coffee machine whirred gleefully. “That will be 6.20.”

He meticulously counted the coins and picked the cup into his hand. You noticed that his wrist also carried thin lines of three diagonal scars, almost completely faded against the skin.

“It was an absolute delight to chat with you, Pumpkin, thank you.”

“Pleasure was all mine. Until next time!”

As it were, the next time happened on one of the following mornings. Remus came into the cafe looking quite exhausted, his face pale with bags under his gentle eyes. You were familiar with the look. After all, it was a coffee shop and people worked all kinds of hours.

“Good morning, Remus. You look like you could use a solid espresso today,” you remarked lightly and smiled at the look on his face.

“Good morning, Pumpkin. I'm surprised you remembered my name.”

“It's a very nice name,” you reached for the paper cup. “Plus, my memory is insanely good when it comes to my customers. Cappuccino with rice milk to go?”

You watched his eyebrows rise in an incredulous expression.

“Insanely good indeed... However, I was actually looking forward to spending some time here, I have about an hour to spare.”

You beamed at him gleefully. “Splendid! Would you like the same coffee or can I tempt you with a seasonal special?”

“Same, please.”

“Cookie? Cupcake? We have vegan options too.”

Remus smiled softly and shook his head.

“Thank you for this consideration, but I will pass.”

“Sure thing! It will be 6.20, please take a seat wherever you like and I'll bring your coffee momentarily,” you smiled widely at him, some part of you sensing that he needed the positive vibes.

Keeping that in mind, you selected a cup with celestial motifs on the side and when you put it on the table next to Remus, you rotated it so that the yellow drawing of the sun was facing him.

“For a good day,” you said and he gave you one more tired smile from above the book he was reading.

Remus left some time later and while you were cleaning the table, you found the receipt tucked under the saucer, with a pencil drawing of the sun and the words 'Here's to hoping'.

He became a regular after that, usually visiting on mornings, reading a different book every week. Most of the time you only exchanged a few sentences and you would leave him in the corner next to bookshelves in peace. On occasion, when the coffee shop was less crowded, you discreetly watched him read from behind the counter. Remus, while reserved and collected when you talked, was what you referred to as 'an emotional reader'. By far, he was not the only one you saw - people would often bring their books or pick up any of those you had on the shelves. But there was something both vulnerable and exhilarating in the way a range of emotions crossed his handsome, scarred face when he read. You watched him smile to the pages, knit his brows, pick on his moustache and drum his fingers on the surface of the table. You imagined the stories he saw in his head and, for some reason, you also envisioned a comfortable sofa next to a fireplace and his long arm wrapped around your shoulder as you were reading the same book together.

The softness and warmth of that imaginary scene lingered with you throughout the summer, as you collected his drawings on the back of each receipt. You never did anything to act upon it. It was a pleasure that you enjoyed silently in your mind, a small cosy thought that made your heart flutter whenever Remus entered the cafe. You tried to reflect that through the selection of cups you picked for him every time - especially on those mornings when he came in looking twice as tired as anyone else. The sun was there often, so was the moon, and your personal favourite - a set of cups adorned with quills and ink pots. Somehow, you made it a sort of a challenge to bring a smile to his face on those days and each time you accomplished one, it was worth more to you than almost anything else in the world.

The Celestial Phenomenon

The summer ended in a string of warm days that slowly gave way to cool mornings and evenings. You knew it was over one late afternoon when a deep roar of the motorcycle announced Sirius’ arrival and you watched him saunter into the near-empty coffee shop in his regular leather jacket. On the inside you sighed with regret. On the outside you smiled, waiting for him to approach the counter. Uncharacteristically of him, he was looking around the place, as if searching for someone.

Whoever that was, however, they weren’t inside yet.

“Hiya, Pumpkin!” Sirius leaned over the counter and flashed you one of his grins.

“Good afternoon to you too, Sirius!” In a way you had been dreading this moment for weeks now, but it was time. “I’m sorry to inform you that our summer special is no longer on the menu.”

“Figures, what with the weather changing, and all,” he patted the side of his jacket, winking as if the two of you were real co-conspirators. “I suppose it’s back to my favourite double kick then?”

“Unless…” your throat tightened for a second. “I could tempt you with our replacement autumn special, perhaps?”

You saw it. Sirius’ eyes flashed towards the menu over your head, reading the words in a fraction of a second. 

“Oh?” He locked his silver eyes with you, a mischievous smirk playing at the corner of his lips. “Please tell me what that is. I’m extremely invested in hearing you say it.”

“There is no doubt in my heart that you are,” you replied, sighing. You were a seasoned salesperson, dammit. You could say it to this gorgeous man without fainting, for sure. “Can I tempt you with our very own, magical pumpkin spice scented coffee blend? Goes really well with milk and gets really spicy as an espresso.”

“I thought you’d never ask, Pumpkin.”

You almost choked on the next sentence, “To go, I presume?”

His laughter was doing something really weird to your knees.

“To leave and not have the pleasure of watching this delightful fluster?” Sirius teased and you rolled your eyes theatrically. “In fact, I’m meeting with someone here today. It seems I got here first, though.”

“I suppose I’m an architect of my own anguish,” you said with mock self-pity, even though your heart sank somewhat at his words and the dreamy, far-off look that crossed his face for a moment. “Milk, no milk? Cookies and such?”

Sirius shook his head. “Double spicy espresso sounds amazing enough.”

“Coming right up. Please take a seat wherever you like and I’ll be there with your order momentarily.”

When you fumbled to pick a cup for him, your gaze fell on the paper one that you prepared earlier, stars and everything. For a second you pondered whether Sirius meeting with someone would be an end to something for you. Something less tangible than a cup of frosty summer special. Something like a wistful daydream of the black-haired man on his motorcycle, smiling at you. For you.

The coffee machine buzzed comfortingly as the aroma of cinnamon filled you with its familiar sense of calm. What will be, will be. Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed that Sirius took a table for two next to the window. It gave him a good view both at the counter and the entrance door.

“Double espresso pumpkin spice for you.”

You placed the cup on the table in front of him right when the doorbell rang, announcing another customer. A spark appeared in Sirius’ eyes when he spotted the person coming in and for a split second you didn’t want to turn around. You did, of course.

It was Remus.

“Oi, Moony!” Sirius called and Remus' head snapped in the direction immediately. He noticed you and you smiled lightly as Sirius passed by, catching the other man in a quick embrace.

“Really, Padfoot...” Remus sighed under his breath, loud enough for you to hear. His face, visible from an angle, was a mixture of joy and fluster.

You tried to casually edge back behind the counter, distancing yourself from their exchange of greetings. There was something distinctly intimate in the way Sirius rested his tattooed hand on his companion's arm and in the way Remus' head leaned in his direction. You could tell those two knew each other for a long time.

Long and close enough to become familiar and aware of each other's bodies. You’ve rarely seen this kind of connection and it was something that deep in your heart you kept dreaming about.

“Did you wait?”

“Just came in,” Sirius glanced over his shoulder and grinned. “Pumpkin has been telling me about their autumn special, I'm pretty sure you're going to love it.”

“I am?” Remus smiled at you, and you returned the grin.

“Please don't mind me and good afternoon, Remus! I'll be at the counter whenever you are ready to place your order.”

“No time like the present,” Sirius clapped his hands together, pushing the other man gently towards you. “My treat, so… anything you want, Moony.”

“Sirius, honestly…” There was something reticent in Remus’ voice and in your mind you recalled his receipts, each one exactly the same, no extras.

“Enough!” Sirius laughed. “I told you we’re here to celebrate and celebrate we shall. Pumpkin, don’t let him wiggle out of it. We will take cake and coffee, and anything else you can tempt us with.”

“Fine by me,” you grinned. “But only if Remus is okay with it as well. I would not want to force any sort of sweets on anyone.”

“Oh, for… Fine!” Remus took a long inhale, closing his eyes for a moment. Small smile appeared on his lips. “But please remember, vegan options only and…”

“...no cocoa, because of allergies,” Sirius finished smoothly. “Any recommendations, Pumpkin?”

You took a quick glance at the treats on display, a little cleaned out now at the end of the day.

“There are fruit tarts, muffins and a carrot cake that I can readily suggest.”

“All of it.”

“Padfoot!” Remus gasped and Sirius grinned at him with that disarming smile of his.

“All of it! Pumpkin, don’t listen to him.”

“That’s quite a celebration you two are having,” you noted, trying to discern whether Remus was actually on board with the plethora of sweets that was just ordered. You noted his brown eyes shooting you a look that was both slightly embarrassed and secretly pleased.

“I… I have a new job,” he said in an apologetic tone. Sirius threw his arm around his companion’s shoulders.

“Way to downplay achieving your dream, Moony!”

“Oh, please…”

“Either way,” you decided to gently interrupt, “I understand that congratulations are in order, Remus. Please accept mine as well.”

“Thank you, Pumpkin,” he replied with a smile, as Sirius rubbed his shoulder gleefully. “So… about that autumn special…”

“Absolutely,” you caught a wink that Sirius made explicitly at you and fought the urge to wink back. “Would you be tempted by your regular cappuccino on rice milk, but with a dash of pumpkin spice?”

You saw him stiffen a little, confusion flashing across his face for a moment, until Sirius leaned in.

“The coffee is scented, Moony,” he announced in a conspiratorial whisper and Remus shuddered visibly, as if waking up from a thought. You watched it, trying to understand what was going on. “Like I said, I knew you’d love the idea.”

“Of course, pumpkin spice, autumn, makes sense,” Remus said quickly. “Such a wonderful seasonal tradition, isn’t it?”

“Are you a fan of autumn, Pumpkin?” Sirius turned his silver eyes on you and something deep in your soul made an unhealthy squeal.

“I thought it was obvious, I did choose the name myself,” you smiled, watching Remus absent-mindedly rub the back of his neck. “If you two could take a seat at the table, I will go about preparing your celebration feast. Two of each dessert, I assume?”

“You know it! Go on, Moony, I’ll take care of the rest…”

Remus opened his mouth as if ready to comment on it somehow, but gave up and shook his head with a sigh. Sirius gave him a gentle slap on the shoulder and leaned over the counter towards you.

“Care to tell me what was that about?” You asked in a low whisper through the unchanged smile on your face.

“Whatever do you mean, Pumpkin?” His eyebrows rose in a surprised expression that you couldn’t decide was genuine or not. It made you hesitate. You could have been imagining something that wasn’t there and asking a question would make an idiot out of yourself. Was it even possible…

Something glimmered in Sirius’ eyes and you decided to withdraw.

“You could have told me that you wanted to throw a feast,” you chided quietly. “I would have prepared it before Remus arrived. But, no worries!” You added, when he straightened up. “I’ll get it done in no time.”

“I’m sorry, Pumpkin, I didn’t really…”

“It’s fine, completely fine! Forget I even mewled about it,” you said with a grin, pulling a cup from the cupboard. The sun-and-moon celestial cup that you usually picked for Remus on his visits. “I’ll bring everything to the table in a moment, don’t you worry.”

For a second or two Sirius stared at you thoughtfully, his eyes narrowed, as if he was considering saying something. Or maybe you imagined it. You definitely did.

“You’re right, I could have warned you,” he said finally with a rueful grin. “Will do it next time, promise.”

You waved your hand, regretting that you even started the subject. It was a lousy attempt to redirect the conspiratorial whisper you led with and now you were quite angry with yourself. It wasn’t Sirius’ fault. You watched as he placed a considerable amount of money on the counter, far more than the order's cost, and shook his head when you turned to the cash register.

“Really, Sirius…”

“Not you too!” He laughed. “Please, Pumpkin, you deserve it. You have never been anything less but a delight to either of us.”

You froze. Sirius was still smiling, knowingly. You suddenly realised that they must have talked about you sometime earlier. They knew each other. They must have. It was difficult to decide at this moment if the realisation was more of a surprise or…

A delight.

Next hour or so passed in a dreamlike haze. You bid goodbye to a few passing customers and began to slowly clean up the shop, while the two men you grew so fond of were chatting quietly at the table, slowly going through the desserts. Afternoon turned into evening and you realised that closing time was getting nearer. You didn’t want it to happen. There was something exciting that filled the air in your lungs, as if simply being in proximity to both of them together made the world a slightly better place.

 Eventually, you approached their table. “I am really sorry, but it’s getting late,” they both looked up, silver and brown eyes locking at your face. “It’s been a pleasure to host you in Enchanted Cafe. I hope everything was to your liking?”

The words felt insincere, maybe for the first time since you have been working here. You wanted to keep watching them. The golden gleam in Remus’ eyes when Sirius was telling him something quietly. The movement of Sirius’ hand, just lightly touching the fingers of the other man. There was something enthralling in the connection that you witnessed. You wished that you were a part of it, even as a spectator, for the rest of your life.

“Pumpkin…” Remus began, but his voice trailed off. Sirius smiled at you.

“Could you sit with us for a moment?” He asked and you found it difficult to respond with your suddenly tightened throat.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand…”

“Please,” Sirius stood up, offering you his chair. “Just for a moment. We hope that you could settle one debate for us.”

“Uh-huh…”

“Pads, you’re making it awkward,” Remus complained, and you noticed his cheeks were reddening slightly.

“I’m not!” Sirius scoffed. “I just wanted to show some manners, for once. Don’t you always grumble about that?”

Remus rolled his eyes but said nothing. You couldn’t help but smile, even though you were rapidly losing your train of thought.

“What debate?”

Sirius grinned at you. “A hypothetical question, Pumpkin. If you were to go to dinner with one of us, which one would it be?”

You didn’t hear that right.

“Wait, what?”

“If you were to…”

“Both,” you blurted out before Sirius had the chance to finish the sentence. For a long moment they stared at you in complete silence. Remus’ brows rose up while Sirius’ smile widened. “I don’t see why I would want to choose between the two of you. It’s both or none.”

“Wow,” was all Sirius replied with. Remus didn’t say a word.

“Not what you expected?” You grinned. “As far as hypotheticals go, I suppose the debate remains unsolved. Sorry to disappoint. Now, I really, really need to start closing, so if I could kindly ask you to…”

Your voice trailed off into silence when neither of them moved. They exchanged glances again and Remus laughed. It was a warm laughter, pouring over the silence like honey. You realised that you never heard it before.

“Dearest Pumpkin, what if it was not a hypothetical?” He asked finally, getting up and reaching out towards you with his hand. On your other side Sirius mirrored that gesture, his silver eyes regarding you with intensity you have not seen before. You hesitated just for a fraction of a second, before reaching out to both of them, feeling their fingers close around your palms. It was most likely not a dream.

“Both,” you repeated, a little hoarsely. “But there will be no dinner until the cafe is closed, so you two either help me with the dishes or… Dunno, wait here? Is that even an offer for tonight or…”

“If you agree, yeah,” Sirius smiled, leaning just a tiny bit closer to you. You felt your heart flutter in your chest, threatening to stop or explode, you weren’t sure. Their hands were warm and amazingly real, sharing that warmth of their connection that you watched all afternoon.

Autumn was off to a surprising start, it seemed.

[rinstars]

MELANCHOLY.

PAIRING : Suna Rintarō x Reader

GENRE : Angst. SFW.

TAGS/WARNINGS : Best friends. Mentions of one night stands but nothing detailed or explicit, just literal mentions. Hurt. No comfort. Or maybe a little.

WC : 3.6k+

NOTE : My entry for Violet's (@rintarhoes) "but my feelings" collab hehehe <3 This took a long time because I kept trying to make it as good as I can but in the end idk if I'm satisfied 😭 Anyways I hope you enjoy itttt

It was almost like a reflex—the way your hand reaches to peel your blanket off the moment your alarm rings, your body immediately positioning itself and bracing for the sudden surge of dizziness about to take over your head for a few seconds as a result of standing up so abruptly. The nagging feeling at the back of your head you're so used to ignoring and a voice telling you to just quit it is just as present today too—but you brush it all off.

After all, it's a weekly routine you've gotten used to. And despite the fact that you harbor great love for the way routines help you get your tasks systematically done, you don't suppose you can say the same for this one.

Not that you can do much about it.

Not when it involves Suna Rintarō and the stupid commitment you made. The foolish promise you sealed months ago.

Once you thought of just abandoning him. Maybe leaving him to deal with the troubles he's put himself in—after all, he's grown and it's the consequences of his own actions. But when he pulls you to his lap, hand on your waist as he nuzzles his nose into your neck, the tip grazing the skin of your jaw with a small thank you, all of your hesitations dissolve into nothing but a little thought you spared for the sake of your wellbeing.

Perhaps you really wouldn't be able to leave him alone, especially knowing how clumsy he can get and how he would probably start being unnecessarily mean had you left him to deal with it. You inwardly laugh at the list of possibilities of excuses he'd come up with and the annoying sting returns back in your chest at the realization of how much you really know about your best friend as a result of spending all these years with him.

You're lucky I love you, you jokingly mused to him one day as you help him change the sheets of his bed, tucking the white linen around the corners of his worn-down mattress.

He looked at you for a moment then, the silence drawing out and you thought—no, hoped, that he was about to say something that could possibly change everything about your relationship. But instead, he opted for a smile at you, breathy chuckle following after as he tells you, Yeah, yeah. Just what would I do without you?

That's probably how it began—his stupid five in five or whatever he calls it.

Five steps in five minutes to help him get rid of his one-night stands who according to him, always seem to have something in store every morning they'd wake up in the same bed. They're very demanding, they think it goes beyond a single night of pleasure—that's why you have to help him. You remember looking at him funny over your shoulder when he suddenly brought it up one night while you were cooking him pasta.

"Why do I have to be involved with those types of affairs?" You frowned at him, stirring the pot as you mix the sauce with the pasta, the sting of the metal on the back of your hand as you accidentally touched it nothing when compared to the sting you desperately avoid in your heart.

"Because you're my best friend," He shrugged at you, popping a cheese in his open mouth while bouncing a knee from his position at the table. "Can't trust anyone else about it, y'know?"

"You can't just tell them to leave?"

"No, princess. I need your help," He smirked at you, arms reaching out to call you on his lap. Turning off the stove, you slowly walk over to him, letting him talk you into something so ridiculous with his slender fingers tapping on your waist. He rests a chin on your shoulder, knee bouncing below your thighs. "Will you help me?"

You hesitated for a moment, sucking in a deep breath while the cogs turn in your head. A lot of things tell you it's a bad idea to see him wake up every morning undressed with another woman equally as bare on the bed he takes you to for movie night.

"Rin," you began slowly, as if testing the waters to see how far you can push him. And if he'll hear you out that way you do him. He hums on your shoulder, lips against the dip connecting your neck and shoulders. "Have you ever thought of just—I don't know, stopping these flings?"

His knee never stops bouncing below you, fingertips still drumming against the thin material of your shirt, and without hesitation, he told you that night, "Of course not," he pressed a kiss to your jaw "It's all good fun, takes my mind off a lot of things."

His keys missing from their usual spot at the front door making you snap back to reality, looking around a bit deeper in the kitchen until you found it on the corner of the table. Fishing it out of its position, you tuck it in your pockets.

Great. As for the third step, he'd have an excuse to not take her home, just like he's always asked you to do.

Maybe you should've given up that night. Even as his hold on you only gets tighter when you lay with him, and his kisses even softer every time he does it, you suppose you probably should've just brushed the thoughts that plague your mind. The what-ifs that keep you up at night might be nothing but false hope after all. It should've been clear to you by now that you wouldn't be more than his best friend—hard as you try to always make him happy.

His insistence to keep sleeping around should've hit the nail on the head, the lack of refusal even in your presence a red flag everyone would've started to avoid by now. Yet your stubbornness refuses to back down. You think maybe you'd rather hear it for yourself, the words that will crush you down to nothing but ashes.

Locking the last room in the house, you sigh on your way to the guest room you sleep in every Friday evening. Now, all that's left to do is wait and as you check the time on your phone. It should almost be time.

As if on cue, the door opens to reveal a disheveled Suna Rintarō, shoulders slacked and feet tripping over itself as he makes his way over to you. You hold him by the forearm as soon as he was within your reach, trying to steady him when he slams his body on top of yours.

"Morning," He mumbles in your neck, your fingers caressing the chocolate locks sprawled all over your chest. Then he sleeps in your neck for a few minutes, light breathing being the only sound in the room along with the occasional ruffle of the sheets when he moves to find a more comfortable position.

Around five minutes after Suna's arrival comes the woman of the night, slamming the door open with a sigh of relief at finally finding an unlocked room. The sight inside however makes her stop in her tracks at the sight of you and Suna on the bed.

You quietly bicker for a few minutes. Her insisting on you to wake him up and drive her home and you telling her to just give it up and go home. The same type of headache you receive every week—but the quiet rumble of Suna's chest against yours when the door closes, his laugh echoing in the room before kissing you on the lips as a sign of gratitude makes you think it's all worth it.

He makes you feel very appreciated, very loved.

Until he suddenly tells you one night that it's fine to not drop by on Friday evening. That he will take care of the morning after himself and for the first time in 6 months he wouldn't need your help. He wouldn't be barging in the guest room at 7 in the morning trying to find escape in your arms as he lets you deal with the aftermath.

He said it so casually too. While he was eating ramen on a convenience store table beside you as you both look over the glass walls to watch the people passing the glistening pavement wet from the rain.

It takes you a beat, or two, or three to respond. Only finding the voice you were starting to lose when he nudges an elbow at you—not to find an answer but to drink from the carton of milk you've long since abandoned. You guess he just assumed you'd immediately get it. After all, there's no reason for you to question it.

Aren't you supposed to be happy? The routine of weekly torture finally setting you free. You wouldn't have to see the face of the next woman he would send to the moon while you endure hearing the noises you didn't even want to imagine on the room just two doors away from his.

You wanted to ask why but you didn't. For now, it might be better to just let it be quietly. Suspicions are the last thing you'd want from him. You believed you'd find the answer sooner or later and he'll laugh to you about how his first experience in kicking a girl he slept with the night before went.

But when curiosity got the best of you and you drove to his house that morning he told you not to—the drop of your heart that seemingly echoed throughout the whole space of your car when the woman you were expecting to retreat from his house alone, comes out instead with a hand around her waist was way louder than any of the alarm that went off in your head every other morning you had been here.

A foolish part of you trusted Suna too much, thinking he probably decided to be a gentleman for once—taking the girls home for the good time they've spent together albeit short.

Yet how do you keep denying what's so painfully clear in front of you?

How do you keep averting your eyes at her face all over his Instagram stories, slowly taking over the ones he shared of you? What other position do you have in the life of someone whose time is now spent with someone other than you?

He tells you all about her like he doesn't hear your heart splitting into two with every word that falls from his lips—those you wish to hear for yourself but never do. He asks you out to join them on a picnic date, come over for a movie night, like he doesn't see the sting behind your eyes and the sudden glisten of your irises. Maybe he doesn't, maybe he does. And as long as you are concerned, you can't show more than you already did.

Suna had a way of looking at you and knowing exactly what lies beneath the surface you're trying so hard to maintain and you're afraid if you give him enough chance to dive deeper, he'd rip you open piece by piece until there's nothing left of you.

So you distance yourself from him.

Slowly but efficiently. The excuses you make all but reused and unbelievable but you figured he wouldn't care that much when he has another company to keep his bed warm. He wouldn't look for your kisses or the feel of your arms around his neck or his hands resting on the curve of your waist. Not when he gained more than he lost.

"Everyone hates me," you grumbled to him one day back in uni, one of his arms around your shoulders while he uses the other to suck on his blueberry flavored chuupet. "The girls in your class won't stop giving me the death glares."

"Who cares? Just don't pay attention to them," he shrugged at you, releasing the stick with a pop.

"They think I'm taking you from them."

"Too bad," he kept walking, fingers absentmindedly twirling the hairs falling on your shoulders before lightly tapping on your cheeks—offering the chuupet that was once resting on his tongue to you. "I'm all yours."

He shrugged at the questioning look you gave him, small smile playing on his lips as he waits for you to take it on your mouth. When you do, he laughs at you, arms around you tugging you closer to him. Only when you take your eyes off him did you notice the girls starting to take their eyes off you and Suna.

Looking back at it now, you think it was foolish you even thought that Rin was trying to make a statement, trying to prove a point among the many others who wanted to go after both you and him—hoping to seal a spot in your lives. But the ache in your chest now seems too true to be a mistake.

The first few weeks avoiding him were the hardest. Especially when you see the efforts he's taking in trying to spend more time with you. More than anything, it's probably the guilt eating him up seeing as he's suddenly a lot more preoccupied with someone he didn't even bother telling you about until you noticed just how serious he actually is with her.

He'd stop sleeping around too. Atsumu and everyone else in your friend group taking notice and asking you for the details they couldn't get out of Suna himself.

"I don't know anything, 'Tsumu," you sigh at him for the nth time, digging in your cheesecake at the café you're so used to going with everyone.

"What do you mean?" The blonde guy across groans at you, arms crossed as he continues pushing for whatever. "He's your best friend."

"Well I guess not, seeing as I also know nothing about this," you glare at him with a sigh, sitting back on the chair to close your eyes as you feel a headache creeping up your head.

Sure, you know her name, her face, the kind of dates he takes her to but Suna never really let you in anything more than that. How he met her, what she is to him, who she even really is, what's so special about her? And you respected that privacy and intimacy he shared with her.

You just thought maybe you meant more to him and he trusted you enough to let you in on things like he once did.

"Doesn't he seem pretty serious with her, though? I keep seeing her face everywhere."

"Probably," you blink away the sting in your eyes, quickly sipping from your drink to calm yourself down. "It's none of my business."

He stopped trying to text you after two weeks. And it would be a lie to say it stopped hurting and made things better for you. Despite it being the best choice, you can't help but wonder if that's how things will end for both of you.

Sure, you felt it was also unfair for him how you distanced yourself just because he started catching affections for another woman but the smiling faces staring back at you on your phone screen, almost like a mocking response to your miserable face, tells you he's doing just fine.

Trips to the convenience store a few blocks away from your house lack the usual joy you used to get when you walk to it with him by your side, thumb caressing the back of your hand while you walk through the dimly lit street with flickering post lights.

You thought you couldn't possibly feel worse as you caught the sight of the last pack of chuupets sitting alone on the shelf where there used to be tens of them. But as you reach to grab it for yourself along with another hand reaching the same time as yours, you decide you definitely could feel worse at the sight of the fingers you could tell apart probably even from a single glance.

Despite your resistance to look, it was your own reflex that betrayed you—eyes snapping up to meet the golden-green ones you haven't seen in weeks.

He's beautiful. Just as disheveled as you remember him to be but the night has always looked good on him. The fluorescent lights reflecting on his pale skin, eyes darker and pupils blown. The rings on his fingers seem so much more beautiful than what you remember it to be. The stupid chain on his neck that never failed to catch your hair still hanging on his chest.

He looks even more beautiful with her.

You didn't even need to try and recognize her face. There was no question with the number of times you've seen her all over your screen and the way Suna grips her fingers against his—thumb caressing the back of her hands like he once did to you.

She looks at you curiously, like you haven't even been brought up in the stories he tells her. Either that or she, too, wonders why you've gone out of his life when you've always been in it.

"You can take it," you whisper at them, eyes on Suna as you softly smile at him.

He doesn't even look at the candy, eyes on you as he gently exhales, "No, it's fine. We— I can just look somewhere else." He stops himself like he knows the reason why you're so far from him.

Shaking your head, you reach for the pack, thrusting it to his free hand. "It's your favorite, Suna. It's fine."

A look flashed in his eyes at his last name spilling out of your lips, but it's gone just as soon as it appeared. If you didn't know him any better, you would probably even think this was boring for him—nothing but a stupid exchange on who should take the last candy on the shelf.

"It's your favorite too."

A beat passes.. then two, until your eyes are stinging, making you swallow the lump that keeps growing in your throat. With a bite on your lip, you're pretty sure he knows what's happening by now. The sharp inhale you took being the final straw for Suna as he wraps a hand around your wrist—firm but hesitant at the same time.

"Y/N I—"

"It doesn't matter, Suna," you shake your head at him, the tears starting to blur your vision and you thought fuck it, well now he definitely knows what's up with you. You glance over his shoulder, she's staring at both of you with a look on her face. "She's waiting for you."

He tries. He really does. Especially when the woman behind her puts a hand on his shoulder, he really tries—to just give up something he knew he already lost and just leave with the woman he's always been spending his time with. But he knew the look of contemplation that passed his face was too real, much too real. And it feels even more genuine than the feelings he's been forcing himself to believe.

"I just need a minute," he almost pleads, voice quiet like he doesn't want her to hear him. "Please."

"Don't make it harder for me," you choke out, eyes landing on her whose face has a shocked look on it. Only then did you notice the warm liquid falling over your cheeks, and when you look back at Suna, he stares at you with furrowed brows—almost as if he's just as pained to see you like this.

Wrapping your other hand around his wrist, you pull him away from his hold on you. Face nothing but a reflection of the regrets eating out at your chest, the multitude of maybes and what-ifs that plague your mind.

His arm falls defeated on his side, jaw clenching as you try putting the pack of jelly sticks back at his hand. He looks away from you, grip on the plastic loose like the appetite he had for it earlier has disappeared.

Turning your back to him after a quick bow at the poor woman caught in what she would imagine as a simple best friend affair, you grit your teeth, mouth parting to say what would probably be the last thing you'll say to him in a while—at least until you feel stronger to face the raging emotions that never seem to calm down inside you.

"I miss you," you sniffle as quietly as you can. "Please be happy."

Even if it's without me.

Nothing is clear, not to you, not to him. His feelings didn't make sense and yours didn't to him either. He had words to say but they never seem to roll off his tongue as easily as they should be.

He misses you too, he wanted to say. So much that he wants to drive out of the park he's sitting in with her, chuupet in hands as the woman beside him tells a story during college. So much that the cold breeze barely does anything to affect him despite the thin material of the shirt he's wearing.

Looking up at the night sky he decides maybe counting all the stars would be easier than trying to find out whatever the fuck is going on in his head and picking up the leaves which have fallen over from the trees is way better than trying to make sense of your relationship.

All he does know, however, is the bitterness of the jelly fruit stick resting on his tongue. The longer it sits there the more he wants to spit it out, the more he eats the more he feels like gagging—yet beside him is a pile of the wrapper staring at him and his idiocy.

All he's certain of is that nothing ever tasted the same these past few weeks, and that the chuupet he loved eating with you seems to be the thing he hates the most now—even as he eats it with the woman he swears he loves.

🏷 : @kageyamakock @basicallystillafetus @kililovesqueen @nozomiasl @moonlightaangel @mysticstrawberryballoon @devilgirlcrybabiey @fairyxkisses