#well that made me feel bad about myself! I sure did have to feed off day drinking cravings until 5 pm and it was super hard!!!‼︎

[isdalinarhot]

I know my kinks. And my taste in men. And all that. Is a tad unconventional. But I hope people aren’t using all that to make fun of me. I am worrying big time about that tonight. I don’t want people making fun of me just because I’m horny for old ass Dalinar and Sadeas just cuz they’re big huge large.i dunno man. I’m sorry. Anyway please respect me pleeeeeeeeease

[forever-rogue]

hi miss bee 🐝💛 would you pls bless us w more joel x wife!reader 👉👈

since it was joel being protective of reader maybe this time it can be the other way around where he comes home from a patrol and is slightly injured and she makes a huge fuss over him and then tries to o make him feel better through some sugar and spice 😋🫶

AN | Well, well, well how the turntables have…anyway, I love this concept so much! 💕

Pairing | Joel Miller x Fem!Reader

Warnings | Language

Word Count | 2k

Masterlist | Joel, Main

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

You paced around the kitchen as you waited for him to walk through the door. You’d already been waiting…and waiting and waiting. You’d done so much that you’d made enough baked goods to feed a small army; it was something to keep your mind and hands occupied. 

“Holy shit,” Ellie’s big, brown eyes went comically wide as she stepped into the kitchen and looked at the mountain of cookies and muffins and breads. You turned to face her with a guilty little expression on your face, “that is a lot of food.”

“I…yeah,” you admitted sheepishly, “I was going to go and give some stuff to the neighbors…I needed a distraction.”

“Joel?” she asked hopefully, her eyebrows perking up as you leaned against the counter and shook your head.

“Nothing yet,” you sighed, trying to keep all the bad thoughts and worries at bay, “I’m sure he’ll be back any time. Soon.”

“Of course he will,” she promised, wanting to keep you from panicking while trying to convince herself of the same thing. The truth was that she too was worried about how long he’d been gone. He should have been back two days - he was almost never late, “Joel’s a stubborn old man. He’s coming home no matter what.”

“He is and he will,” you agreed, “I just…I want him home.”

“Me too,” she confessed quietly, “me too.”

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Long after Ellie had gone to bed, and you should have as well, you were still sitting on the couch. Waiting. After every couple of minutes, you’d look at the door as though you were somehow going to will him to come home. You’d read the same page of your book about ten times, but still weren’t fully sure what was happening. 

But then - as you were almost dozing off - you heard it. The unmistakable sound of the door being unlocked and then slowly opening. You tossed your book to the side and jumped, scampering to the door. When it fully opened you found yourself face to face with your husband. 

“Joel,” despite your best efforts, tears were rolling down your cheeks, ‘you’re home.”

“You’d never get rid of me that easily,” he smiled, a tired and crooked thing, “hi baby.”

“Oh my love,” you threw yourself into his arms and held onto him tightly, melting into his familiar body, and enveloping yourself in his scent, “I’m so glad you’re home. I’ve been…”

You trailed off as you pulled and looked him over. You could see the grimace on his face, despite his best efforts. It was then that you noticed the bruising and cuts on his cheek. He could sense you growing worried and shook his head, “baby-”

“What happened?” you stood in front of him and reached up to take his face in your hands, gently brushing your thumb over his cheek, “who did this? Where else are you hurt?”

“It’s fine,” he insisted, but he knew that you weren’t going to relax. That wasn’t your nature; you were caring and nurturing and always fiercely protective of those you loved, “I’m not that hurt.”

“I don’t believe you, Joel Miller,” you reached for his hand and gently pulled him over to the couch. You reached for the hem of his sweater and silently looked for permission to take it off. He gave you a small nod and you tenderly pulled off his sweater, and set it to the side. Your frown only grew when you noticed all the bruising on his left side, “what happened? I hugged - oh no. I squeezed you so hard. Did I make it worse?”

“I did this to myself,” he insisted as he reached for your hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, “I tried and fell - landed too hard on my side. Just a clumsy old fool.”

You huffed lightly - you were still worried. Nothing that he could say would change that, “has one of the medics or anyone taken a look at you? Are you sure-”

“I’m sure,” he tugged you softly towards him onto the couch and you reluctantly sat down next to him, “nothing permanent and nothing terrible. Just a lot of bruising and soreness and some cuts. I’ll be alright, I promise.”

“You know that I’m still going to worry,” you huffed, making a small sound of surprise as he shuffled you so you were perched on his lap. You delicately ghosted your fingers along his ribs, sighing softly at the lavender haze on his skin, “you’ll tell me if it hurts?”

“Of course I will,” he set his hands on your hips and gave them a gentle squeeze, “baby, let me just enjoy being back with you. Let me enjoy you.”

And you almost gave into him - almost. You wrapped your fingers around his wrists and shook your head. Your husband groaned heavily as he tossed his head back dramatically, “nuh uh, Joel Miller. Not right now.”

He was a good man through and through, so while he was going to be dramatic, he was going to respect your wishes. He sighed softly as he took your hand in his and brought it to his lips, placing a delicate kiss to your knuckles, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” you melted under his reverent gaze, “I’m glad you’re home, my love.”

“I will always come home to you,” he promised and you knew it was true. It still didn’t mean, however, that you weren’t going to take care of him. Oh no; as long as he was hurt, you were going to take care of him.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Joel was fast asleep next to you, snoring softly and bundled up in blankets. You, meanwhile, weren't able to sleep and were sitting up and leaning against the headboard, an unopened book on your lap. You were too busy worrying about Joel, and if the extent of his injuries were more than he was letting on.

You'd made him take a long, hot bath before getting into bed, taking care of his cuts and scratches. There wasn't much you could do for the bruising besides be gentle with him. 

"Baby," he murmured softly, eyes still closed as he rolled onto his side, "sleep."

You couldn't help the small snort of amusement that escaped your lips. He knew you way too well. The book was tossed onto the bedside table as you turned the light off and snuggled up to him. He wasted no time in throwing an arm around your waist and pulling into his body. He could feel you tensing up with effort to keep from hurting him.

"Relax," he insisted through kisses pressed to your shoulder, "'m alright."

"Promise?"

"Swear."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

You slipped out of the house before either Joel or Ellie were awake. You pulled on some clothes and walked over to Tommy Miller's house, going over the conversation you planned on having over and over again in your head. You didn't want to be over the top or dramatic but you also felt instinctively drawn to protect your loved ones.

You knocked on his door and rocked back and forth on your heels, trying to remain calm. When Tommy opened the door a few moments later you reached for his hand and pulled him onto the porch light. 

"Hey - hi- what's up?" He looked confused for a moment before noticing the worried expression on your face.

"What happened to Joel?" And yeah, everything you'd practiced in your head faded into non-existence. You sounded as hysterical as you felt, "he c-came home and he was hurt."

"It's okay," he put a hand on your shoulder and gave you a gentle squeeze, "I had him checked out as soon as we got back."

"He's -"

"A stubborn old fool," Tommy insisted as you couldn't help but chuckle at him, "but he's okay. The steps to the cabin on our route were slippery and he fell. He wasn't paying enough attention and down he went. That's all."

"And you're not lying to me?" You visibly relaxed when he nodded. At least now you had the reassurance that nothing was seriously wrong, "good. I know I probably seem -"

"Protective," he finished for you as you smiled softly, "loving. That's all."

"Yeah," you agreed, "thank you, Tommy. Thank you for keeping him safe."

"He does just as much for me. Besides, we're all family," he gently nudged your side as you laughed softly, "but you're welcome."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

By the time you made it back home, you heard commotion in the kitchen and were met with the smell of coffee and delicious foods. Your heart kicked into overdrive as you almost ran into the kitchen, expecting to find the worse but instead -

“Hey baby,” Joel wore a lazy smile as he looked at you from over the cup of coffee he was drinking while Ellie was busy making pancakes. You relaxed sightly at the sight of your family, “what’s wrong?”

“I…” you ran a hand through your hair in exasperation before shaking your head fondly at them, “Joel, you should be resting!”

“Hey,” his voice turned soft as he put his coffee mug down and stepped over to you and touched your cheek gently. You pouted at him, and if you weren’t so upset he might have laughed and kissed it away, “it’s okay, I’m okay - I’m right here. Please don’t worry about me.”

“But you’re all…bruised up,” you looked at him with big doe eyes and he sighed wistfully, “I don’t want it to get worse.”

“I know,” he promised, “I know it’s all out of love. I’m sore, but that’s all. It already feels better just being back home with you.”

“I like to worry,” you admitted as your face grew warm and he brushed his knuckles along your jaw, “I can’t help it.”

“And that’s okay,” he insisted, “I love you, baby. You know you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“Or me!” Ellie chirped from the stove, a bemused little smile on her face.

“I love you yoo,” you went over to the young girl and gave her a tight hug which she pretended to abhor but you knew she loved it. You turned your attention back to Joel and gingerly hugged him too. Joel responded with a bone-crushing hug that had you breathless and giggling, “Joel!”

“It’s alright,” he leaned down and kissed you softly, stealing away all of your worries and fears, “promise.”

“Okay,” and finally, a real giggle bubbled up as you leaned up to kiss him in return, “I love you too, stubborn old man.”

“But I’m all yours, baby.”

“And I’m yours too.”

[swappingforgood]

Missing it Already part 2

Still enjoying the effects of my orgasm, I go to Larry’s bedroom to see his large mattress and lay down. Letting my hands explore every inch of my new form. I’m still in shock, and honestly, being Larry for a week is not the worst thing ever. Day Three was not bad as I went to work and saw Larry in my body who was wearing gym clothes. "Oh, hey Boss,” Larry said as he greets me. I couldn’t help but notice how clean my house was, but I mean it would make sense since Larry is a cleaner. “Did…you clean this up by yourself?” I asked as I sit my larger frame on the couch. “I sure did. I had time after work and honestly figured you could use the break, so I decided to do both of our jobs,” Larry said as he walks around in my body. It’s kinda weird to hear my body sound so happy and cheery and full of energy. He then joins me on the couch and holds my hand. “Boss, you have been so kind to me that I really hope you get to relax in my body. Take the next few days off. I’ll see you on day 7; where will we swap back, okay?” Larry said as he ushered me outside my own home, but I didn’t think too hard about it. Honestly, he is right; I deserve a break. After going to my apartment and feeding my hungry body, I used my typical gay dating apps, but the only people who were interested were guys who looked like me, well, Larry. Bummed out, I didn’t let that stop me as I met up with this one twinkling only for him to ghost me and call me a fat slob. It made me upset because obviously I’m not a fat slob; Larry’s body is fat, not me. However, I find personal pleasure with myself, and on day 7, I go to my mansion and I’m greeted by Larry, who was wearing a robe and underwear. Showing off my hard-worked body and salt and pepper hair. “Hey boss, come on in, let’s celebrate,” Larry said as we share some drinks and discuss our weeks. I couldn’t help but let the alcohol talk for me as I mentioned his choice of attire. “Larry, why do you have my body dressed like that?” I said with a drunken slur as he moves closer to me and puts his hands on my belly. “I’m going to miss this body, so I figured, why not, and plus, you like what you see?” Larry said with my voice, which turned me the heck on, and he noticed it. Next thing I know, he is between my larger legs and we are grinding our cocks together as he whispers, “Do you miss this body?”. I moan in response, “I do; I missed it every day. I loved being in your body, but I miss mine,” Larry chuckles as he lowers our underwear and places his cock against my fat ass. “Let’s have sex as each other, please?” He said with a grin that I didn’t notice due to being drunk. I moaned as I felt my fat ass getting fucked by my former cock and Larry moans. “Can I call you Larry while I fuck you?” He says, and I nod in approval, giving into my desires. “Oh yes boss, fuck my fat body,” I say in a desperate tone as Larry grins and whispers into my ear. “I’m gonna cum inside you, Larry,” and it drives me over the edge. I feel my small cock spurt all over my stomach as I feel the warmth of the seed of my former cock filling my ass. As we lay down together and catch our breath, I ask. “That was amazing; you did good using my body like that, but can we swap back now?” Larry stays quiet as he gets up and grabs the amulet he kept by the bedside, and in a dark tone, he told me to touch it just like before, but nothing happened. I looked in utter shock as I noticed Larry had a massive grin on his face. "Whoops, did I forget to mention? If the swapped people have sex, then the swap would be permanent." I hold onto the amulet tightly and plea. “No, this can’t be happening. Larry, why didn’t you tell me?” “My name is not Larry anymore, you fat loser. It’s Michael, but to you, it’s sir. Now put on your clothes and get to work.” 

[avianyuh]

Deadline; Mark Lee

Summary: You and Mark are coworkers and have a project due by tomorrow morning. But things quickly go off course which leaves the two of you improvising your after work plans.

Office Worker Mark!

Gotta stay focused, I have to stay focused!

This was my only thought. I had a deadline for this project at work and I had barely made a dent in it. My boss, Tim, made it clear to me that I could not leave until this file was fully completed and on his desk. I don't know if it's good or bad that I was working on this with Mark.

Mark has always been my favorite person to talk to at work. He's funny, helpful and not to mention...he's really cute. We've had this back and forth flirting thing going on for over a year now.

So here we were, 6pm, basically no one left at the office, huddled together in my cubicle. We were sitting so close to each other that our knees were touching. But of course, I didn't mind that.

I fiddled with the pen in my hand as I tried not to stare at him.

He had these thin framed glasses on, and he was sitting in his chair, hunched over. His eyebrows were furrowed together, giving off the impression that he was focused on the paper he was working on.

I turned back towards my own papers in front of me. I finished the page in front of me before moving on to the next one. Halfway through skimming it and I realized there was an error. I let out a frustrated sigh, which Mark picked up on.

"What's wrong?", he questioned, looking up from his work in front of him.

"Julia didn't fill this out correctly, the whole thing is wrong."

"Are you serious?", he asked, when I nodded he responded by slamming his fist on the table,"FUCK", he exclamied. Now we were both frustrated.

"Mark, you know what this means right... everything else is wrong. All our work, it's crap". I buried my head in my hands, Mark did the same.

"Well, we're gonna have to tell him", Mark started to talk. I looked up at him, I had an idea of what he was going to say. "We have to tell him that we couldn't complete the file because Julia's a fucking idiot.", I laughed as he finished his sentence. It was even more comical when I noticed he wasn't laughing, he was being serious.

"Mark, you know Julia can do no wrong to management. They love her. Especially Tim."

"Well, it's not our fault. If we start over we'll finish by the time we're supposed to come back tomorrow. Y/n this is two weeks worth of work in this file, there's no way we could finish this", Mark explained.

I knew he was right. There's no way we could finish this file in enough time.

"I feel like we'll get fired if we come in tomorrow morning empty handed...", I said thinking out loud.

"Y/n, I don't about you but me personally? I don't want to work for someone who leaves us here to work all night. We have lives outside of work. I have a dog to go home and feed", I smiled at that. He always talks about his dog and is constantly showing me pictures of him.

"No, I get it. You know what? Let's get out of here and go get a drink or something, unless you have to go home right now?", I asked. I can't believe I even offered in the first place. Mark and I had never hung out with each other outside of the office. We did have each other's phone numbers and we did text quite a bit, but never made any plans.

"What if you just came to my place? I have a bottle of wine in the cabinet.", Mark said. I tried to analyze his tone, but he sounded casual and calm.

"Uh, yeah...sure", I agreed. "Let me just grab my coat...", Oh god, now I was acting awkward.

Pull it together, I thought to myself.

This is what I've been waiting for since I met him. I just hope I don't do anything stupid.

~

By the time we made it inside of his apartment, I felt like the walk over made me break out in a nervous sweat. I was trying to play it cool, act like all I viewed him as was a work friend. Which to the best of Mark's knowledge (hopefully) was all he was picking up on.

His apartment was really nice. His kitchen was small, and you could definitely tell that he loved one sinxe he only had maybe five plates and two cups. One of which was sitting in the sink, waiting to be washed.

He followed my gaze to his lack of dishware and tried to explain, "I don't really host at my place", he let out a light laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck. It was a habit of his that he would do when he was nervous.

Wait, is he nervous?

"No, no, it's all good", I reassured him. He scanned the kitchen, most likely thinking about what we were going to be drinking out of. While he was searching in his cabinets for the wine and cups, I continued to look around.

First I greeted his dog, who sat politely at my feet and allowed me to rub his head. Then I looked around at the living room. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a couch, TV, a window overlooking the city, which he had a curtain covering. He had a coffee table that I assumed he ate his meals on since there was no room for a kitchen table. But most importantly, I tried to look around for any indication of a girlfriend. A hairtie, a hoodie, an extra pair of shoes, anything. But nothing seemed off. He truly seemed to be single.

"Aha!", I looked over, smiling and comfortable now that I knew I had no apparent competition.

"You found the wine?" I asked. He looked over at me with this playful expression on his face.

"No, even better, I found some apple juice!"

"Mark", I laughed,"How are we supposed to drink our problems away when we can't get drunk?"

"We pretend", he shrugged as he poured the juice into two plastic cups.

"For you", he said as he handed me my drink. We sat down on the couch.

For awhile, we sat there just talking like we usually do in the office. Though we never met up out of work, we were always in the loop on each other's lives. He'd tell me about his friends and all of the dumb stuff he did with them, which was always entertaining to hear about. We always talked about out families. I had even told him about that horrible blind date my friend set me up on. Conversations always flowed naturally between us and tonight was no exception.

He had just finished telling me this story about his friend who forgot his passport right before they were going to get in their flight. Long story short, his friend tried to sneak past the staff and almost got detained. We were laughing hysterically for what felt like ten minutes but was probably at most two. Then when the laughter died down, Mark started to speak.

"Honestly", he started but cut himself off momentarily to take a sip of his drink, "I hate our job, but I don't want to get fired, cuz then I won't see you as much.", he said, staring at me intently. I waved him off and tried to conceal the fact that I was now blushing. "No I'm serious. You're like, the highlight of that job for me. I hate it but I look forward to going to work everyday cuz I know I'll see you."

"Markkk", I said. I honestly didn't know what to say. I wasn't sure if he was being sweet and sentimental since we were probably going to be getting the boot tomorrow morning, or if he was trying to hint at something more. "You're my favorite thing about work too. I always look forward to seeing you." I responded. He gave me a soft smile, before staring down into his lap.

"Can I tell you something else?" he asked as he looked back up at me.

"Sure", I nodded.

"I hated when you told me about that date you went on. And I wasn't sure why I was so bothered by it..." he scoffed before continuing, "I think it's because I was jealous".

I felt my heart skip a beat. I looked at him with even more intensity than he was giving me moments ago.

"Why were you jealous?"I pressed, trying to play dumb.

"I don't know...I guess it's because I sort of have a thing for you." I noticed that he was avoiding my gaze now. He was looking to the left, near the window.

I figured that it was now or never.

"Well, if we're handing out confessions, I have a thing for you too", I said, not even hiding the blush that by now had spread across both cheeks. We both were quiet for a minute. We just sat next to each other, staring right into each other's eyes. I noticed his were dodging back and forth between my eyes and my lips. But he wasn't making any kind of move and I was getting impatient. So, I grabbed him by the shirt and pressed my lips to his.

I closed my eyes and there we were. My coworker and I who I had had the hots for, basically over a year now. Eventually the kissed became steady. It was hot and sloppy and longing. It was the sexual tension that was being released as our lips collided continuously.

His hands started to travel up and down my body. My hands found their way into his black tresses of hair.

~

Though we did indeed get fired the next morning, we walked out of that building hand and hand. I lost a job but gained a boyfriend and to me that was a pretty fair trade off.

[urfavstonr1]

Unsweetened Lemonade

Series- Delicious In Dungeon

Pairings- Chilchuck Tims/reader

Word count- 4698

Content Warnings- mentions of trauma

traveling alone was never easy, especially in the island dungeon. when (Y/N) finds herself a new party can she handle resisting inner-party relationships? maybe finally sharing her past will make her strong enough to overcome it, or will it only make it harder?

I have no clue how long this is gonna be yet lmao some things are being left out for a few reasons, mostly cause my memory is shit and I don't feel the need to rewrite scenes already in the anime.

Chapter 1

The dungeons were harsh to say the least, but that didn’t seem to matter to (Y/N). A mage without a party wondering the third floor, how she made it that far only she knew. Maybe it was luck or maybe it was fate, but here she was. Reaching over her shoulder she grabbed a map from her bag, finding where she was and where she needed to go. 

Lifting her head to commotion just ahead of her, was that talking? Slowly approaching what was now a source of light with her hand on the hilt of her dagger, monsters didn’t usually start bonfires, especially not on the third floor. Other adventurers? Most likely, but who knew if they were friendly. The closer she got the louder the voices were, the more clear the conversation got. She knew one of those voices…

“Marcille?” (Y/N) asked, looking through the doorway at the blonde elf. 

The conversation turned silent as all eyes turned to her, making a shiver crawl up her spine.

“(Y/N)?” Marcille slowly stood from her seat on the floor, before running and nearly launching herself at her, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug, “(Y/N)! It’s been ages! And you haven’t grown a bit!” Marcille laid her head on top of (Y/N)’s as she held the short mage tightly. 

“Thanks..” (Y/N) tried to laugh off the remark on her height, returning the hug happily, “I didn’t think I’d see you down here.”

“Fate brought us together again!” Marcille loosened her hug and pulled back to look down at (Y/N). “Where’s the rest of your party? Did you make your way down here all by yourself!?” 

“Well I-“ before she could finish, a blond tall-man approached them. 

“Who’s this Marcille?” He asked, looking over the elf’s shoulder down at (Y/N). 

“My name is-“ she was cut off again. 

“This is (Y/N)! She went to school with Falen and me.” Marcille beamed, pulling back to show off her old friend to her party. (Y/N) gave a wave to the tall-man before looking to the rest of the party, a Dwarf and a Half-foot. The dwarf looked happy to see her and the half-foot looked less than pleased. 

“I-It’s nice to meet you all. I’m (Y/N) (L/N).” She gave a friendly smile as Marcille ushered her into the room. 

“You should join us! We were just about to start eating.” Marcille stopped herself, “actually, I don’t think you’d want to eat this..”

“What’s wrong?” (Y/N) looked up at her confused before whispering, “is their cooking that bad?” 

“I pride myself in my cooking.” The dwarf remarked. 

“It always tastes good but I don’t think you’d like the ingredients…” Marcille mumbles, trying not to stare directly at the dinner that awaited her. 

“You make it seem like the worst thing in the world.” (Y/N) rolled her eyes, “what are you eating monsters or something?” She mused, only to be greeted by silence and a guilty look from Marcille. She let out a laugh, “seriously? I’m sure it tastes great!”

“Not you too..” Marcille whines as (Y/N) walks into their camp. 

“Is it alright if I join you?” (Y/N) smiles warmly at the party.

“Of course! I’m always happy to feed the youth!” The dwarf, she assumed, smiled at her, “I’m Senshi, it’s nice to meet you young lady.”

(Y/N) let out an annoyed laugh but joined the group on the floor, sitting herself next to the half-foot, Senshi handing her a bowl of whole stewed cabbage, “Thank you Senshi. This looks great.”

Marcille sits of the other side of (Y/N) and gives her a smile as she digs into the food gratefully. 

The Tall-man places himself back on the floor, “I’m Laius, and that’s Chilchuck to your left. How long have you been in the dungeon by yourself?” 

(Y/N) thinks to herself for a moment for swallowing her food to answer, “uhm. I think a few weeks? My party wasn’t making enough money so they fucking dipped out on me and I’ve been down here alone since.” She shrugs and takes another bite of her food, thankful for the warm meal after having run out of food 2 days ago. 

Chilchuck still hadn't said a word, just stared at the (H/C) haired mage next to him. Looking at her pointed ears and (E/C) eyes. “You know you’re pretty short for an elf. If Marcille hadn’t said you went to school together I would’ve thought you were still a kid.” He snidely remarks, earning him a glare from (Y/N). 

“That’s big talk coming from a Half-foot, for a second I thought someone brought a child into the dungeon.” (Y/N) returns the attitude before thankfully handing her empty bowl back to Senshi, “it was delicious, thank you again.” She gives him a smile and turns to Marcille, ignoring Chilchuck’s angry mumbling. 

“For your information I’m 29, which might not be old compared to an elf, but maturity wise I’m far older than you.” Chilchuck huffs out, crossing his arms over his chest as he glares smugly at (Y/N). 

An agitated laugh leaves her lips, not even turning to look at Chilchuck or dignify him with a response for that matter. “Chilchuck, I think it would be best if you dropped it..” Marcille tries to cool the air, feeling (Y/N)’s malice emanating from her body.

She takes in a deep breath before blowing it out and smiling at Marcille, “as I was saying, I thought Falin was at your party?” Her question was met with saddened looks throughout the party. 

Marcille lets out a sigh and explains what happened to Falin, their fight with the red dragon, and their mission to save her. 

(Y/N) pulls Marcille into a tight hug, “I know how much she meant to you…” she pulls away, (E/C) eyes staring into green ones, “if you’ll let me, I want to join you on your journey.”

Before Marcille could answer another snide comment came from behind her “yeah, like we have the money to pay you.”

(Y/N) whips around, glaring down at the chestnut haired Half-foot, “this isn’t about money, this is about saving my friend. Not that you would know much about friendship with your attitude.” She nearly growls at him, her (E/C) eyes ablaze with anger and determination.

“Well, if you’re joining us, I think it’s time we all get some sleep. It’s been a long day.” Senshi speaks up, the group nods as Laius digs into his back, pulling out sticks to decide the order of watch.

“Please, let me take first watch, it's the least I could do after you guys fed me.” (Y/N) speaks, holding her hand out to pause him.

“Uhm, sure. Sounds good to me.” Laius returns her smile, holding the sticks to the rest of the part. Marcille taking second, Laius third, then Senshi, and lastly Chilchuck. Not that he’d be sleeping much tonight anyway, he never did. 

Everyone rolled out their beds, settling in for the night. (Y/N) dug through her bag, retrieving a ball of yarn and a crochet hook.

“I didn’t know you knew how to crochet.” Marcille comments, brushing out her hair before laying down to sleep.

“Yeah, it’s a hobby I took up during-” She cut herself off, “I picked it up not too long after school.” She feigns a smile, beginning her work on a new project, “It helps keep me occupied during breaks.” 

Marcille nods before laying down. “Good night (Y/N), wake me up in a few hours, kay?”

“Yep, I will. Goodnight Marcille.” (Y/N) smiles at her school friend as the party slips off to sleep. She quickly got to work on her new project, a dark blue scarf from yarn she had dyed herself on the surface. Little did she know brown eyes were watching her from just beyond the light of the fire. 

Hours had passed when she finished the scarf, sealing her work with a slip stitch to secure it. Setting the scarf back into her back she crawled to the sleeping elf, gently shaking her awake, “Wakey wakey Marcy~” she sang in a hushed tone.

Marcille stirred awake, looking up at (Y/N), “Is it time already?” she yawned, sitting up to stretch.

“I let you sleep long enough to finish a scarf, it's honestly about half way through your shift.” (Y/N) chuckles, sitting back to lean on her hands, “God I could use a drink.” She breathes out a sigh.

As Marcille crawled out of her sleep roll she stretched again, “Hey, I just wanted to apologize for Chilchuck earlier, he’s not exactly friendly towards new people.”

(Y/N) lets out a snort of a laugh, “It’s ok, I think it's a half-foot thing. We know my dad wasn’t the friendliest either.”

Marcille laughs while sitting next to (Y/N), “I remember my first time meeting him, I was so terrified.”

“Aw come on, he was a big softy once you got to know him.” her face turns from a smile to melancholic, “I still miss him everyday.”

“We should go visit him when we Falin, I know she’d want to go too.” Marcille gives (Y/N) an empathetic look, leaning against her for comfort.

“Sounds like a plan.” (Y/N) smiles, laying her head on Marcille’s shoulder as they watch the fire. After a few minutes passed (Y/N) finally pulled herself off the floor to ready herself for bed, kicking off her boots and setting them next to her bag. Pulling her jacket off before finally reaching her pants and stripping those off as well.

“W-what are you doing? Someone could see you!” Marcille whisper yelled at the short mage.

“What? No one else is awake, and you’ve seen me with far less clothes before.” (Y/N) shrugged it off, fully pulling off her pants and letting loose her undershirt. Thankfully it reached her mid thigh and covered everything she deemed private.

Marcille groans and rubs her temples, “You’ve never been the modest type have you?”

“Nope!” (Y/N) laughs as she gets into her bed roll, snuggling into her blanket with a satisfied sigh. “Oh how I’ve missed you~” she mumbles into her blanket. Closing her eyes she prayed for sleep to take her, and hopefully she wouldn’t be plagued with nightmares like usual.

After hours of thankfully dreamless sleep she was woken with a shake, sitting up urgently only to knock foreheads with whoever woke her up. Bracing her head with a pained groan she looks around, no one else was awake. Turning to her attacker she found Chilchuck, knocked back on the floor with his hands on his forehead.

“Shit I am so sorry!” She blurted out quickly before moving to check on him, reaching out a hand only to be swatted away.

“Do you always wake up that violently?” he groans, opening his eyes to glare at her only to be greeted with a concerned (Y/N) and her cleavage in full view. The top buttons of her shirt had come undone in her sleep and left nearly nothing to the imagination. She was on her hands and knees, her face still filled with concern as she looked at the mark she left on his forehead, she probably had her own matching mark. “And for god's sake cover yourself up!” Chilchuck said sternly, looking away from her as his ears and face turned red.

(Y/N) looked down at herself before scrambling to find her pants, “W-why isn’t anyone else up yet?” she pulled her pants on, trying not to look at Chilchuck as she got dressed.

“You were so exposed I wanted to make sure no one else saw..” He mumbled sparing a glance at her only to be faced with her ass as she pulled her pants on fully, only making his blush worse. She must have thrown her blanket off during the night. Ugh. 

“Thanks.” She managed to squeak out, clearing her throat as she turned back to him while buttoning her shirt, “About yesterday-”

“Forget about it.” He waved her off, still not looking at her. Trying to get the images of her out of his head, “You said it yourself, half-foots aren’t too friendly with new people.”

(Y/N) breathes a small laugh, “I didn’t think you were still awake.” he only shrugs in response as he stands.

After waking the party Senshi got to cooking breakfast, after the meal the party picks up and gets going. Finally making it down to the fourth floor. 

“That's a lot of water..” (Y/N) mumbles, looking out across the lake before them. Staring down into the depths of the water brought a shiver up her spine. Whatever conversation was being had was tuned out through her deep thoughts, staring endlessly down into the deep- she jumped as a hand touched her shoulder.

“Are you ok (Y/N)?” Marcille looked down at her concerned, “I was going to cast water walking so we could cross.”

“Y-yeah, just lost in thought.” She smiled up at Marcille who smiled back. Tapping her staff to (Y/N)’s head she was enchanted by the spell, finally pulling her back to reality. “Is that a fucking kelpie?” 

“Language!” Marcille nudges her with her staff, giving her a glare.

“I’m not a child, I can use whatever words I want..” (Y/N) mumbles, walking closer to Senshi and the Kelpie, “I’ve never seen one this up close before.” reaching out a hand to touch it before retracting, “Don’t these kill you if you touch them?” 

Senshi reaches out and pets its snout, “I’ve been bonding with her for a long time, she wouldn’t hurt me.” his words were filled with such confidence and yet (Y/N) still felt a ball in the pit of her stomach watching him touch it.

“You don't plan to ride that thing do you? Please tell me you’re joking.” (Y/N) shudders at the thought, staring skeptically at the kelpie.

“I really don’t think that's a good idea.” Laius speaks up, “They are known for luring their prey into a false sense of security.”

Senshi, ignoring their comments, climbed upon the Kelpie anyway, beginning to ride it across the water before plummeting into the depths below. 

“Shit! SENSHI!” (Y/N) began to run after the diving kelpie only to stop herself on the edge of the water, anxiety and adrenaline shaking through her body. 

“What are you doing!? We have to go after him!” Chilchuck yells at her as the party runs after Senshi. 

(Y/N) trembles as she stares into the water, “I-I can’t!” She breathes out desperately trying to will herself to run out onto the water. The deep, dark water…

“What do you mean you can’t!?” He stops, turning to yell at her. 

“She's scared of deep water.” Marcille yells over her shoulder, trying to think of the best way to save Senshi from his watery doom. 

“Then use your magic! You're a mage aren’t you!?” Chilchuck looked between the terrified (Y/N) and the rest of his party. 

“My magic doesn’t work well under the water!” She yelled back. ‘Shit shit shit. Fuck.’ Was all that ran through her head, before clenching her eyes shut and running out onto the water. Trying to keep her screams of fear trapped in her throat.

When the kelpie emerged from the water she finally let out a scream directed at the monster, the sound waves quaking through its body as it collapsed to the surface, allowing Laius to stab it with his sword and thankfully killing it. 

“What the fuck was that?!” Chilchuck looked astounded at the scene.

“Magic?” (Y/N) responds, a questioning tone to her own words. Carefully opening her eyes only to close them again, “Ohhhh fuck.” 

“What kind of magic was that?” Laius stares with wide eyes at (Y/N), “That was so cool! You screamed and it collapsed! Can you do that to any monster?” he kept asking more and more questions as he walked closer, rambling further about his theories.

“Someone get me off of this water and I’ll tell you!” She tried to breathe deeply, putting her hands out to balance herself in her blindness. She felt a hand grab her own, turn around, and lead her back to shore.

“I think we should set up camp for the night..” Senshi suggests, a melancholic tone laces his words as he looks back to the kelpie he believed he befriended.

“Sounds good to me, anything to get away from this water.” (Y/N) mumbles, trying not to look into the water.

“You’re supposed to tell us what that was.” Chilchuck grumbles, releasing her hand and looking away with a grunt, trying to hide his pink tinted cheeks.

“She will after we eat, she’s shaken up enough as it is.” Marcille defends, wrapping an arm around (Y/N)’s shoulders and leading her further away from the water.

“Something tells me Marcille knows about her magic.” Laius thinks aloud, bringing a hand to his chin as he thinks.

“No shit, they went to school together.” Chilchuck rolls his eyes, walking after Marcille and (Y/N).

After finding a spot to make camp Marcille left Chilchuck and (Y/N) to return to Senshi and Laius.

“So… water?” Chilchuck begins, only to be cut off.

“I really don’t want to talk about it.” (Y/N) objects, taking a seat on the floor and taking deep breaths to calm her nerves. 

Chilchuck nodded, seating himself on the floor nearby. (Y/N) lets out a breath and looks at a spot on the floor, tracing out a summoning circle on the ground before splaying her hand to the spot and speaking, “Fire.” with her words a fire lit in the circle and she moved away, trying not to burn herself for the thousandth time she’s cast the spell.

“That’s… a unique magic.” Chilchuck tries to joke, attempting to lift the mood.

“Heh.. yeah. You could say that.” She gives him a lazy smile before looking back at the fire.

It was a while before the rest of the party rejoined them, Senshi appreciating the fire for cooking, Laius still rambling about monsters and (Y/N)’s ‘new magic’. The party chatted amongst themselves until dinner was served. 

As everyone began eating (Y/N) took the opportunity to explain her magic. “At the school we went to, they had many different tracks to take. I took the bard class. No matter your specialty there are always base classes to learn about magic, one of them being how to channel your magic. Marcille uses her staff to channel her magic, in the bard classes you’re taught how to channel your magic into other things, some people use instruments and some choose to channel it into your voice. It’s not as strong on its own but when paired with an instrument you can cast very strong spells.” she explains, trying to recall as much as she could.

“How exactly does that work?” Laius couldn't keep himself from asking, desperately wanting to learn more.

“Instead of using incantation we learn to cast with intention. I channel my magic into my vocal cords and guitar, as long as I speak or sing with the intention of the spell I want to cast it does not require an incantation.” (Y/N) nods to her own words as she speaks.

“So you’re less a mage and more a bard.” Chilchuck says bluntly, taking a bite of his food.

“Yes, but being a bard isn't the only magic I know, it's just the one I choose to use the most. And bards don’t get a lot of respect compared to mages.. If certain people were to find out I was a bard I think it would make my personal life a lot harder.” She lets out a laugh, scratching the back of her neck.

“And her magic is very strong! You saw how just her scream made the kelpie collapse.” Marcille praises, gushing about her friend’s talents.

“And I didn’t even have a true intention behind that scream, I was just scared.” (Y/N) laughs again, finally digging into her food. Another delicious meal that she relished in, cherishing every bite.

Setting up their bed rolls (Y/N) volunteered for the first shift once again, the party agreed and set up to sleep. Once she was sure they were sleeping she pulled her guitar from her pack, gently strumming the strings, playing a soft melody she hoped wouldn’t wake anyone. Humming to the melody as she tried to come up with a new song, a song she deemed her strongest. A song to slay even the red dragon.

When her shift ended she carefully walked to Chilchuck to wake him for his shift. He lets out a groan as he wakes, having probably the best sleep he’s had in awhile after being lulled to sleep by (Y/N)’s playing.

“Please tell me you aren’t going to strip down like you did last night.” He grumbles, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Too late.” (Y/N) snickers, already having her boots and pants removed.

“What if Laius or Senshi sees you!?” he begins to yell before quieting his voice, “Do you have even an inch of modesty in your body?”

“I literally saw the outline of Senshi’s dick today, I think that boundary has already been crossed. And it’s not like I’m completely exposed.” she brushes out her shirt, making sure it covers everything before Chilchuck can catch a glimpse.

He lets out an agitated groan while rubbing his temples, “You are unbelievable.”

“You try pushing out a kid in a room full of people and still find the will to care what people see.” (Y/N) scoffs before cursing herself at her words, turning her eyes to the floor in disappointment with herself, trying to stave off the memories.

Chilchuck stays silent as he climbs out of his bed roll, “Get some sleep, you need it.” choosing to push her words to the back of his mind.

“Yeah..” she speaks quietly, laying in her bed roll facing away from the fire. Away from chilchuck.

Sleep was not an easy task, her mind plagued with thoughts of her past. Her failures. Her massive fuck ups. How could she ever forgive herself?

What felt like hours passed before she finally drifted to sleep. Her dreams filled with images of a baby boy, with the most beautiful blue eyes and tufts of brown hair. An elf with those shared features by her side. Until he wasn’t.

(Y/N) awoke with a gasp, having been awoken by a familiar blonde elf.

“Good morning (Y/N)~” Marcille greeted with a smile. The rest of the party was slowly waking up themselves and preparing for the day.

(Y/N) felt a cold sweat drip down her face, using the back of her hand to wipe it away. 

“More nightmares?” Marcille looked at her with concern, reaching out to help her stand. 

“Not quite..” (Y/N) shrugged it off, reaching for her clothes to get dressed. Her mind never strayed from her dream. 

“Woah hey!?” Marcille uses herself to Shield (Y/N) as she stands, her shirt one again not leaving much to the imagination.

“Huh?” She looked at Marcille in confusion, pulling her pants on, still in a state of tired oblivion. 

“What if one of the boys sees you? You’re completely exposed!” Marcille whisper yells, glaring down at (Y/N) who only tilts her head to the side. 

“I feel like I just had this conversation…” (Y/N) blinks away the sleep as she speaks. 

“We had the same damn conversation last night.” Chilchuck grumbles, trying not to look at (Y/N), still being able to see her despite Marcille’s efforts. 

“I still don’t exactly see the problem, I mean. Who wouldn’t want to see me half dressed~?” (Y/N) lets out a laugh, pulling her boots on and pulling Marcille’s arms back down from shielding her. 

Chilchucks blush only brightens as he lets out a tsk. 

Marcille lets out a whine, “what happened to the sweet and innocent (Y/N) I went to school with?”

(Y/N)’s expression turns cold, “I genuinely don’t think you want to know.” She brushed past Marcille, walking to help Senshi prepare breakfast. 

Marcille stared after her, worry and sadness laced her features. What she didn’t know was a certain Half-foot shared in the worry. It’s been two days and yet (Y/N) already seemed like someone to worry about. 

Standing back at the edge of the water sent chills down her spine, “ha. Hahaha no. Nope.” She turned on her heel only to be caught by the shoulder and turned back around. 

“If Senshi can get over his thing with magic you can get over your fear of water.” Marcille smiled but spoke sternly. 

“Marcille, I-“

“No. No buts.” Marcille cast water walking on the party and began pulling (Y/N) towards the water. 

“Nooo no no please no.” (Y/N) whined, digging her heels into the ground to no avail. 

“You're such a crybaby.” Chilchuck grunts, walking ahead out onto the water.

(Y/N) let out another cry, clenching her eyes shut. “You're gonna be fine, stop whining.” Marcille says while tugging on her hand.

“How can an adventurer be so afraid of water?” Chilchuck asks over his shoulder, looking back at the terrified (Y/N) and Marcille pulling her along. 

“It’s a long story and I don’t think it’s any of your business.” (Y/N) shouts back, peeking between her fingers at her surroundings before closing her eyes again. 

Making it safely across the water (Y/N) collapses to the ground as she breathes through her anxiety. She felt herself get pulled up by the collar of her shirt and set back onto her feet.

“We gotta keep going.” Laius says as he lets go of her shirt, “The water is behind us now, you’re ok.” He pats her head with a smile only earning him a frustrated pout and his hands swatted away.

“I’m not a child!” (Y/N) nearly growls, marching forward as she rolls her eyes, “Thank you.” She says over her shoulder to Laius before catching up to Marcille.

“You’re being quite the grump today.” Marcille giggles, grabbing (Y/N)’s hand as they walk.

“I didn’t sleep for shit so that doesn’t help.” (Y/N) grumbles, trying to suppress a yawn.

“Maybe if you didn’t stay up past your shift you’d sleep better.” Marcille scolds, looking down to her short friend.

“You weren’t complaining when you got to sleep in.” (Y/N) nearly snaps back, trying to watch her tone.

“Sacrificing your sleep for others is only going to hurt you in the end.” Chilchuck interjects, side eyeing the two mages.

“I hate that you’re both right.” (Y/N) mumbles, glaring down at the floor. “Sometimes it’s easier to stay awake than it is dealing with my dreams.”

“Do you have nightmares in your pillow? We can help get rid of them.” Marcille asks, taking a peak at the pillow that was wrapped in her bed roll.

“No it's not that, I’ve already looked.” (Y/N) sighs.

“Dreams are often a way our brains use to try to cope with things that have happened to us.” Senshi begins, “it sounds to me you have unresolved issues. Talking about them sometimes helps.”

(Y/N) shakes her head, “I’m fine. I don’t have issues I need to talk out. I’m a big girl, I can handle them on my own.”

“But (Y/N)-” Marcille starts before being cut off.

“Just drop it ok? It’s not like now is a good time to hash up bad shit.” (Y/N) states, hopefully finishing the conversation. Marcille nods and looks to the side, hating that she pushed enough to make her this upset. What could possibly be bothering her this much?

[odyssean-flower]

Have another deleted scene

(all i can say is that the chapter is coming together, so here, have this scene)

For a few moments, neither of you spoke. You stared at the misty scenery before you. It somewhat reminded you of the painting you did for Neuvillette.

I should get straight to the point, you thought, then turned to him. But before you could speak, he beat you to it.

“What is that?” he asked, pointing to the wrapped bundle on your lap.

“Oh, this?” you looked down at it. “These are the macarons I made.”

“You made them?” he leaned closer towards you. His eyes looked more animated than you had ever seen them before. They made for a strange contrast against his serious features, and you couldn’t help but stare at them. Even though he had an ageless sort of look, he looked younger somehow.

It took you a few seconds before you realized you were, once again, staring at him for too long. One would think that you would know better by now.

“Yes. There was a baking workshop happening in town, so I decided to join it for fun. I don’t think they turned out very well, though, so I’m planning to feed them to the ducks.”

“I see,” Neuvillette stared at the bundle in consideration, then spoke again. “You may not be aware of this, but Fontaine’s laws state that it is illegal to feed cakes and other baked goods to birds. It is detrimental to their digestive systems.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” you said. “Well, of course you would know about these things. I’ll just throw them away, then.” You decided not to mention the many times you fed burnt bread to the finches and pigeons back home.

“Throw them away? How wasteful. Surely they could be served for some better purpose.”

“Well, I’ve already eaten, and I don’t want to give bad macarons to Marie or the Melusines, so I’m not sure what to do with them.”

“I could think of a few solutions,” Neuvillette gave you a meaningful look.

“Hold on…are you saying that you want to eat them?” you said incredulously.

“Is that so surprising?”

“Yes,” you nodded emphatically. “I’ve never seen you eat desserts at home, and macarons aren’t exactly brimming with moisture. Plus…I was not exaggerating when I said they aren’t good. They really aren’t.”

“It is good to try new things. Also, I doubt anything you made could be truly terrible.”

Where is his high opinion of me coming from? You wondered, not for the first time. “I don’t want you to eat bad food. I’ll make something better for you next time, I promise.”

“I still wish to sample them, though,” Neuvillette was being strangely insistent about this. The rain seemed to be coming down harder. “Even one will do.”

“If you insist. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” you unwrapped the bundle and handed him a pink macaron. He took it from you and put it in his mouth without even so much as inspecting it. Somehow, he admirably managed to keep a straight face as he tasted the cake and swallowed it. He took out a handkerchief from his breast pocket, and for a moment you thought he was going to spit into it. But no, he only wiped his mouth.

“Another, please,” he said. He didn’t even sound a little winded.

“I can’t do that to you,” you said, feeling as though you had committed a crime. Neuvillette was known to not have many good words to say about Fontainian cuisine, and yet, here he was, choking down your terrible macarons. Maybe he’ll completely swear off human food after this. “Don’t force yourself for my sake.”

“I’m not forcing myself,” Neuvillette said, and it was almost convincing. “It isn’t as bad as you said. It…certainly possesses a unique flavor.”

“Neuvillette…” you said in exasperation. “I wish you would stop being so overly considerate. It’s alright to say what you feel, I can take it.”

“But I do mean what I say, always,” Neuvillette said, sounding baffled. “May I please have another macaron.”

You stared at him for a minute, and he stared back at you. He was always so sincere. It only strengthened your belief that you were making the right choice here.

“Fine, since you seem so keen on torturing yourself. But we’ll split this one, okay?”

You broke a blue macaron in half and gave one half to him. You made a face as you chewed and swallowed the cake. You had no idea what possessed Neuvillette to ask for seconds.

After you finished your baking mishap, you washed it down with the bottle of Fonta that you had thankfully brought with you. Neuvillette was similarly taking a sip of water from his cup. You could feel his disapproving gaze on you, but chose to ignore him.

At last, you managed to wash the flavor of paste out of your mouth and calmed your nerves down somewhat. Now, go for it, or else you’ll never get the nerve again! You mentally cheered yourself on.

[p0rk-guts]

waitt but what's different about your ocified velvette... i like her a little but find myself wanting more substance from her in canon tbh

TEEHEE WHAT A GOOD QUESTION I TOTALLY DIDN'T SET PPL UP TO ASK ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay sew me and @ajistorpid were talking and they inspired a good chunk of my ideas so you can blame them for feeding my sick delusions.

Read more just like last time bc I talk too much sorry but there's art in there too oooo you should look u should read my ramblings

As far as I know, Velvette has no canon age at death, cause of death, or death date so based on what we know we just crafted our own headcanons. AJ proposed she might've had parents who ran one of those family vlog channels with her as the face of it, becoming a child influencer under her parents' control. I was thinking she could've been a child model- yk like. dance moms or something. Idk I don't remember what was happening on that show— anyways. Yea

Either way she grew up constantly controled and perfection was her standard. All of her outside thoughts and feelings and interests and opinions were constantly dismissed in favor of what made her more marketable. She never did get that popular in life tho, and her mentors always shamed and blamed her for it.

Idk if this is canon or not, but the idea of the sinners designs reflecting their vices or things they regreted or hated in life is an untapped gold mine to me so that could explain where Velvette's supposed doll and clown themes come from. Became a toy dressed up and paraded around for the entertainment of others + joke never taken seriously. She'd hate that

(As for how that ties into my redesign…. me and AJ were thinking she could be a vampire doll, but I'm not sure IDK I wanna sketch that out and see what it's giving)

In hell she easilly fell back into this warped facsimile of her old life bc it was all she knew. "she feels some form of pseudo control and enjoyment because she has no one pulling her strings now" (<-AJ) SHE'S running things!!! Who's the puppet now!!!!!!

Then THAT had me thinking too because now that I think about it. Why Is she the backbone of the V's?? She's like. An undergrad student in my mind at the MOST and Vox and Val are two men pushing 40 I'm sure. I think a big part of it is the fact that those two are almost complete and utter buffoons who let their emotions cloud their actions constantly, Valentino most obviously but even tho Vox seems more composed like when he's talking Val down from his outburst and when he was talking to the press, we can still see he's a total mess—especially where Alastor is concerned. He lost it so bad during their duet HE SHORTED PENTAGRAM CITY'S POWER.

Now out of all the V's we've seen the least of Velvette (I'd call it what it is but yall gon get real mad at me), The most we really got out of her character was the overlord meeting (and despite her huge ego and unruly behavior she did end up speaking facts), so maybe she Is just as unstable as them in canon but canon is SHIT and this isn't about canon anymore. In my mind she's very much in charge of the back end of their work. Vox is obviously the head of the operation—or at least he seems like it to me—what with the tech company having his name and with him answering the interviews, but I think that's all he is. The figure head. Velvette is the brain behind it all. When Vox proposes new buisness endeavors off the cuff she's the one who goes back and makes sure they're getting handled properly because he doesn't really dig into the backend of how things happen. Vox goes to most of the conferences or whatever (Vel's too busy running her shows and serving cunt after all) but Vel follows up on what was learned.

(also yeah all that makes this very much an au of an au bc it'd take a lot of radical changes for the two of them to be friends I think. It's fun to imagine anyway)

Quoting AJ here bc I'm bad at paraphrasing and they said it well:

"And if we're going to make her sympathetic, (obviously not excusing her enabling a rapist) Val and Vox are grown ass men and she never got to experience the world outside a camera

Velvette is easily malleable with no real relationships!! Some victims tend to gravitate towards people who are similar to their abusers the only exception is that she feels like she has control this time"

THIS this. THIS! Okay uhh vague personal experience w/ abuse cw ig. skip this paragraph if you don't wanna hear it. But It kinda reminds me of my relationship with my parents- NOT THAT I SEE THEM AS TWO DADS AND A DAUGHTER I DO NOT BELIEVE IN THAT NOTION IN A POST PILOT WORLD If future content proves me wrong it proves me wrong but at this moment they're all equals in my mind (…and I hc them as poly BUT WE'LL GET THERE) but In my situation it's like. I hate my parents for the abuse they've caused me, my mom more than my dad bc she's satan incarnate, but there are still things I like about my dad and. Tolerate. About my mother. We still can talk cordialy and spend time together, have fun together even, and I show affection to them, but deep down I know I wanna cut my mom off later and maybe my dad too depending. Additionally my mom is completely Incompatent and pulls none of her weight so despite it all I've been forced to pick up the slack and become half the brains of this family. I do chores she should take care of. Handle money. Make important decisions about our health and safety she doesn't care about.

AAAny ways. This is so my version of Velvette. No I'm not projecting (I am). She pulls a big chunk of the weight around there (some of it being carried by Vox and virtually none by Val). She's very close with the two of them but isn't a fan of everything they do (Cares more for Vox than Val in my mind). Speaking of, she definitely isn't some saint now, she still makes the love potions and is Impassive to both Val and Vox's behavior, but part of that Is her just seeing it as part of the business. Shady practices and exploitation are par for the course in any business to her. She never truly grew out of the harmful mindsets ingrained into her by whoever her enabling caretakers were in life and they're still apparent in hell. (Maybe she even experienced some of the darker sides of exploitation in life but was groomed into thinking it was okay contributing to why she doesn't see Valentino's actions as heinous. Idk. thinking on it)

Circling back to my poly V's idea. Idk it just seems plausible to me. Vox and Val already have their whole thing going on, they all live together, and they all have nicknames for each other (Vox calling her my dear, Val calling her baby doll, Vel calling Vox darling). Ik that could just be their personalities and the pet names don't have to mean anything more but this is MY au and my word is gospel hope this helps. It just makes sense

I could go on and ON about the toxic insanity of the Poly V's in my mind— particularly between Vox and Valentino— but this is NOT their post so maybe next time. As for Velvette, I get the vibe that she'd be intimate with both of them and enjoy it but she's never the one to initiate anything. Sometimes they're all like this 🤞🏾 and others the boys are a complete turn off to her (main example being the difference in her attitude towards Vox in episode 3 vs episode 8). Her tolerance of them flips on a dime depending on how they're acting. She also prefers to be a casually entertained observer to VoxVal more often then not (ex. end of episode 8 imo)

Boys aside. My Velvette is still a social media influencer and she's all about advertising. advertising products (like the love potion), clothing looks, technology... Heck even herself. "You're nobody if you don't wear this or use this or look like this ^ - ^". Projecting on her even further by making her have a love/hate relationship with her profession aka the modeling aspect of it: she's always had a genuine love for fashion and dressing up but the internal pressure for perfection she's placed on herself makes it hard for her. She's very hard on her models and designers bc of this

Couldn't think of a segway for this but also WHAT HAPPENED TO VELVETTE WANTING TO FIGHT THE ANGELS??? The "full assault plan" against the angels??? And then when the fight actually came they were all just lounging around watching it go down like it was afternoon tv????? This isn't even a "we'll get to it in season 2" thing did they honest to god forget? Did that line not mean anything??

Well I didn't forget and it's pissed me off since my first rewatch of that meeting scene. Don't think we don't know how the V's got the angel head, but In my head Velvette was the one who initially proposed the idea for an assault against heaven and her insatiable need to feel respected and feared only spurred this plan on, incredible risk be damned.

It also felt weird to me that Velvette just. Let it go when Carmilla said the meeting was over. Just. "Oh ok! Plan cancelled no more attacking heaven ^ - ^ I'm gonna go scroll for the rest of the show!" Hu h. My au-ified Velvette would definitely fight her on it— if she thought killing angels would change the game and Carmilla held the secrets behind it she would pry! Blow up at her about it until she wasn't getting results and bitterly storming off with as much composure as she could muster. Not wanting to team up with Carmilla but find some way to use her for all she was worth and get her way in the end, use the power and resources the V's had to actually make a plan. Would it have worked without the Morningstars? Eh. Either way I'm sure she could delude herself into thinking they were the most powerful people in hell. Ugh I don't wanna make an au rewrite of the show and I that was never my plan so idk where that'd go but. Yea

ANYWAYS anyways. wow you made it to the end somehow! Here's your treat :3

Context u didn't ask for: Some days Velvette overwhelms herself with her own impossible expectations. Nothing she creates or puts out is good enough. She gets extra anxious about her following; nothing's happened to them, but what if they see the miniscule flaw in her latest clothing that she sees? What if she's no longer perfect? (Even worse in the vamp Velvette redesign of her bc she literally feeds off their attention and admiration)

She'll snap at everyone and disapprove of every look and then hole herself away somewhere where she crashes and is just. So. Tired. But she'll be out of it the next day, ready to keep the conveyor rolling.

[oh2e]

A (long) Collection of TTOI Quotes

He’s as useless as a marzipan dildo

I’m going to have to mop up a hurricane of piss here

He and Hewitt are tight as arse cheeks

‘How fucked am I? On the fuckometre?’ ‘Oh 12’ ‘yeah 12’ ‘out of what?’ ‘50’ ‘oh…. mine was out of 10’

Tiny little dick the size of a bookie’s biro

There’s no time to go home I’ll pass myself on the way back in

I can only cook with what I’m given. You give me Hugh Abbot I’ll give you bangers and mash, you give me Jerry from home office then I can raise it to fucking risotto and scallops

I am king of remembering my own password

‘Shagging your way to the top is it?’ ‘Yes well I’m not Scottish so I’ve got to get in somehow’

How much shit is on the menu and what flavour is it?

‘What do you want Malcolm’ ‘Two bits of tit. Two titties.’

Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off

“What about just firing him at a wall from a cannon?” “I know we force feed him a mixture of garlic and Dettol in cup a soup” “What about the old red hot poker up the arse?” “I’d like to nail him to a tree through the head and watch lice slowing crawl over his body eating off all the flesh”

“Has security checked this [plant]?” “For little terrorists?”

This is the problem with the public - they’re fucking horrible

Not only was it a shit idea to ruin my holiday, it was a shit idea you stole from the government to ruin my holiday

Ah that’s like smoking dead skin that is

You’re the fucking shittest James Bond ever - you’re David Fucking Niven!

You’re like a sweaty octopus trying to unhook a bra

You take the piss outta [Al] Jolson again and I will remove your iPod from its tiny nano sheath and push it up your cock! Then I’ll plug some speakers up your arse and put it onto shuffle with my fucking fist

Ithought you said no one reads these except political obsessives and mad Christians in wheelchairs but loads of people read mine

“I am not the story here” “Well no you kind of are though Malcolm, they spelled your name right and everything”

Come with me before I put your nuts in a book and squeeze them so hard that they come out like pressed fucking flowers

You’re The Ben….Ben Nevis…Bentally Ill…

Tickety fuckity boo

“Anyone seen Jamie?” “Oh don’t tell me he’s gone feral cos he was fucking terrifying when you had him on the leash.”

I’d love to stay and talk to you but I’d rather have type 2 diabetes

Mr Baby New Potato Head

It sucks cock so deep the bell end is wearing your appendix as a little hat

This is an operations room so unless you want your tonsils out by keyhole surgery from this key here, piss off!

Cliff Fucking Lawton! Nice. Was the Cilit Bang man not available?

To a guy who loses it so bad he needs a sat nav to find his own nipples

I’m feeling about as up to date as a Gregorian calendar

“You couldn’t organise a bum rape in a barracks.” “Au contraire”

You’re about as secure as a hymen in a south London comprehensive

Stop fucking blinking or I will take your optic nerve and fucking strangle you with it

Hanging round like a couple of school secretaries in the summer holidays

It’s like a prostate consultant’s waiting room in here

You will be sorry you inflatable cock!

I am going to have your intestines as a skipping rope and your lungs sundried and turned into a fucking waistcoat

Or will Dan Miller pull his scalp off and use it as an oven glove?

Enough of the pleasantries let’s just oil up and get fucking

A towel rail shouldn’t take up a whole wall, that’s not a towel rail it’s a climbing frame.

I’ve got a to-do list here longer than a fucking Leonard Cohan song

More on my plate than a spinster at a wedding

The only other candidate is my left bollock with a fucking smiley face drawn on it

Feels a bit like my head’s made entirely of smoke alarms

Fuck the Is and fist the Ts

May as well ask what I think of skirting boards, I’m sure we need them but I don’t know why

“No no I didn’t say that” “Well you sort of did with your face”

Let me row back a little bit, perhaps all the way back to the boathouse

She’s not bent either in the sense of being corrupt or being gay and by the way that’s an incredibly homophobic headline you massive poof

Omnishambles, from bean to cup you fuck up

I’m on my way to wipe my arse on pictures of Nick Robinson

“And I’m not doing terribly am I?” [Malcolm looking out the opposite window] “I love the way they’ve sandblasted here. It looks so clean.”

No no, don’t get up - I’m not viagra

He’s a fucking knitted scarf, he’s a balaclava.

The only thing John Duggan is doing here is depriving a village somewhere of a twat

You write almost entirely in generic meaningless buzzwords don’t you?

I will tear your fucking skin off, I will wear it to your mother’s birthday party, I will rub your nuts up and down her leg while whistling Bohemian Fucking Rhapsody

She’s behaving like a squirrel in a pedal bin.

Or I’ll have to tear my eyelids off and scrunch them up into fucking earplugs

I’m flypaper for dickheads

I think you’re wrong Malcolm you’re like a sultana in a salad

Sorry I can’t make espresso but I’ve made this so thick and black it’ll be like drinking fucking plimsoles

Well fuck a pot noodle. Sam, prepare my horse. I ride to DoSAC

The only fucking vibe you need to worry about is the one your wife hides in her knicker drawer

See you later and remember my door is always locked

* Tintin’s sexy sister to Ollie

What I really need is to shoot you all in the back of the head FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK. but I can’t because it’s illegal.

I reserve this level of anger for when I’m flying Ryanair

As about a strong defence as ‘the fertiliser in my homemade bomb was organic’!

She’s a fart in a frock and we both want her wafted out of here

She’s going to have to fall on her sword, which means that we’re going to have to stick one in the ground, trip her up onto it and get someone jump up and down on her back for ten minutes

She’s going to kick her own head in which’ll be easy because she does yoga

I’m looking for Mr Oliver Reeder? He looks a bit like a Quentin Blake illustration

“Is she fucked?” “Like Caligula’s favourite watermelon.”

Can I bring you a shot glass? And some bleach?

You can’t look a gift corpse in the mouth

“It’s over the fat lady’s singing” “No she’s not, the fat man from the go compare advert is talking”

I’ve got my cock out, it’s covered in breadcrumbs and the fucking pigeons are circling

Have I just stepped through a portal into a sausage machine because this is making mincemeat out of my head

Sit there and ogle me like a page three girl

I’m as busy as a two-twatted hooker

Now I have to step in your shoes but after you’ve shat in them

I don’t just take this fucking job home you know. I take this fucking job home, it ties me to the bed and it fucking fucks me from arsehole to breakfast then it wakes me up in the morning with a cupful of piss lung in my face then slaps me about the chops to make sure I’m awake enough to kick me in the fucking bollocks. This job has taken me in every hole in my fucking body.

Everything is fine I’m like lube at a funeral

If you pull off again I’m going to stick the meter so far down your throat you’ll be able to tell the price of your next shit

You closeted regency homosexual

It’s been a bit like renovating an old, old house. You can take out a sexist beam here, a callous window there, replace the odd homophobic roof tile, but after a while you realise […] the foundations are built on what I can only describe as a solid bed of cunts.

Shit in the couscous

[beewolfwrites]

you’re one of my favorite authors so i’m so glad you’re active again! <33 I’ve started rereading awiaf just to remind myself why it’s my favorite fic ever so thank you for feeding into my brain rot since you started awiaf until now.

on the other side of this ask

I have worms for brains and I desperately need chishiya trying to drop hints that he likes the reader but just… is so terrible at it and gets frustrated because if it. He probably doesn’t even know the first thing about flirting, let’s all be honest.

Hey Anon! This probably strayed a little from your request, but if you'd rather have a fluffier version, I'm happy to redo it :)

The idea of Kuina being a horrified wingwoman to Chishiya's terrible flirting attempts was just too funny not to write about.

(Chishiya x gn reader)

(Kuina = losing hope in all humanity)

________________________________________________

It was killing her to watch. 

She’d given him more expert advice than she’d ever given anyone - heaven only knew that boy needed it - but he was still so stiff, so standoffish, and so goddamn terrible. And now, hiding behind a pillar in the hotel lobby, Kuina felt like crawling into a corner and burying her head in the sand. 

‘Thanks… That’s really nice of you Chishiya.’  

The words had come out in the same awkward tone that one might use when humouring children, or fending off an over-familiar stranger on the bus. And what’s worse, Chishiya hadn’t even realised. 

‘You just pull the pin and it should work,’ he explained, showing off the “pin”, which was actually a keyring attached to a piece of string. 

‘Great,’ (Y/N) said, eyebrows drawing in bizarre confusion. ‘I guess it’s useful to have… maybe.’ 

Kuina bit her hand, fighting the urge to drag him away at his heels. Luckily, she didn’t have to, because without even saying goodbye, or ending the conversation whatsoever, he was now walking away, smiling with satisfaction and leaving (Y/N) standing in the hotel lobby looking utterly bewildered by the events that just occurred. As Chishiya passed the pillar, she grabbed his white hood.

He shook her off immediately. ‘Was that really necessary?’ 

‘What the hell was that?’ Kuina hissed. ‘What about everything we practiced?’ 

He shrugged lazily. ‘I thought it went well.’ 

You can’t be serious?

‘That right there? That was a car crash. You can’t just walk up to someone and give them a bomb as a present. They think you’re insane now.’ 

‘I doubt that. I left a note in their room beforehand.’ 

Kuina felt the colour drain from her face. ‘You did what now?’ 

Chishiya gave a knowing smile. ‘While the games were on, I left a note on the bed explaining that I had a gift. It was hardly a surprise.’ 

Oh my god… This is a disaster. 

She placed both hands on his shoulders, locking him in a firm grip that he couldn’t escape from no matter how much he tried to squirm away. 

‘Chishiya, listen to me now. Normal people don’t do things like this. You don’t know (Y/N) well enough to just walk into their room. You’re gonna end up with some really weird rumours going around, and I don’t want to be part of that.’ 

He finally broke away with a scowl. ‘You’re overreacting. If you’re not going to help, you can find somebody else to annoy.’ 

‘I’m literally trying my hardest to help you, but you’re impossible. This is impossible.’ 

He made a small noise of irritation and stared aimlessly at the white lobby wall. ‘Do you have any other suggestions then?’ 

‘What about telling the truth?’ 

‘No.’ 

‘It’s not that bad. Tell them how you really feel. Admit that you weren’t sure how to show it, and you screwed up —‘

‘I didn’t.’ 

‘Yeah, you did. You haven’t got a clue how to flirt, and that was a horror show to watch.’ 

He averted his gaze, looking anywhere but at Kuina. ‘Any other bright ideas?’ 

She rubbed her temple. ‘I’ll see what I can think of,’ she said. ‘Just let me work on it, okay?’ 

As she parted ways with Chishiya in the lobby, Kuina didn’t have much hope. The situation was eating away at her, because believe it or not, she wanted Chishiya to be happy, even if he was an asshole sometimes. Well, most of the time. However, even after borrowing all of her expert advice and tips, he still couldn’t quite make flirting seem natural. 

And worse, he actually did like (Y/N), even if he had never really shared the depths of his feelings. But Kuina wasn’t blind. She’d seen the way his eyes trailed after them, no matter where they were in the room. He would only ask how Kuina’s games had been whenever (Y/N) was placed in the same group. Anybody else wouldn’t have noticed. Except Kuina wasn’t just anybody. 

I think I might actually feel bad for him. 

Stepping into the elevator, she pressed the button for the sixth floor. She was so lost in her thoughts that when the doors opened, it took her a good few seconds to realise that she was standing face to face with the object of those thoughts - the object of Chishiya’s affection.

‘Oh! Hey Kuina, this is actually kind of cool. I was just looking for you.’ 

Oh no.

Kuina could already see where this was going. ‘Really? We can go into my room if you want to talk,’ she suggested. ‘It’s better than standing out here.’ 

They must have been knocking on Kuina’s door, and since the timing was right, that could only mean one thing. There would be a very long conversation ahead. The two shut themselves away in the privacy of Kuina’s room, sitting on two small chairs in front of the window. 

‘Sorry for the mess.’ Kuina began scooping up the array of lipsticks rolling around on the desk behind her. ‘I think I already know why you’re here.’ 

There’s no point beating around the bush.

(Y/N) tried to hide a grimace behind their hand. ‘It’s… well. Have you noticed Chishiya-san acting strange recently?’ 

‘Strange?’ 

‘It’s just that - this is so weird. He stares at me so much, and earlier when I came back from my game, I found a note from him on my pillow. I didn’t even know he’d been in my room.’ 

Seriously, Chishiya? The pillow?!

Kuina feigned surprise. ‘What did the note say?’ 

‘He wanted to meet with me in the lobby, so I did. Just now, actually, and…’ (Y/N) pulled out a soda can with red and blue wires stretching from the lip to the base, and a tiny pull ring on top. ‘He gave me a homemade grenade.’ 

‘I’m so sorry.’ It was the only thing Kuina could bring herself to say. ‘I really am. I can have a word with him if you want?’

‘That’s not all,’ they added. ‘The other day when I woke up I found something in front of my door too. I don’t have it here, but it was a… a shank, I think?’ 

Kuina fought the urge to put her head in her hands and cry. Chishiya hadn’t told her about this, probably knowing she would disapprove. And disapprove, she did. 

‘I don’t have it with me, but it’s a piece of shaved metal tied to a screwdriver. There wasn’t a note but I think it was him. I didn’t really know what to say to him before. I just, I’m a little confused. I always thought he was kind of cute, but all of this is weirding me out…’ 

Hold on. 

Kuina’s eyes widened. She replayed that last sentence in her head. 

Hold on just one second. 

‘I’m only asking because I care,’ they said, ‘but is he okay, you know, mentally?’ 

‘Look,’ Kuina interrupted. ‘This is going to sound crazy, but hear me out.’

Maybe honesty really is the best policy. 

She took a deep breath. ‘Chishiya actually likes you. As in, he likes likes you. He’s just fucking awful at flirting.’ 

(Y/N)’s whole body froze, eyes flashing with hope. ‘You mean he likes me in that way? He has feelings for me?’ 

Kuina nodded and leaned back in her chair. It was like a huge weight had suddenly been lifted from her chest.

‘I wasn’t going to say anything since it’s not really my place, but the two of you are getting nowhere like this. I know how he looks, but Chishiya’s not made of stone. I think he just wasn’t sure how to tell you and decided to make you weapons for protection. He’s really logical like that. I guess he figured regular gifts didn’t have any value in this place.’ 

Have I ruined it?

She had tried to explain the best she could, to put Chishiya in a good light and dissolve any rumours of him being a homemade weapon-obsessed stalker. But by doing this, did she also sabotage his chances? 

(Y/N) smiled gently. ‘I guess when you think about it that way, it’s actually kind of sweet.’ 

Kuina was perplexed, to say the least. There was no way in heaven or hell that Chishiya was sweet. Not a chance. The man was cold, stoic, calculating, basically anything but boyfriend material. But she wasn’t going to say this to the one person who might actually be able to change him.  

(Y/N) stood up and grinned at Kuina. ‘Thank you! I think, I might actually go and talk to him now. His room is just down the hall, isn’t it?’ 

“It’s room nine,’ Kuina got to her feet too. ‘I’ll come with you, but I’ll be hiding around the corner. If it’s okay with you, I want to see how this works out.’ 

‘That’s okay,’ they said. ‘I’d like you to come. It’ll be good having you there, for support.’ 

The pair left Kuina’s room and headed down the hallway towards room nine. Judging from the vague shuffling noises they could hear through the door, Chishiya was inside. Kuina gave a wink of encouragement and hid just behind the corner, the perfect place to listen in and spy from afar. (Y/N) knocked on the door, holding the soda can between both hands.

The shuffling noises paused, then the door opened, revealing Chishiya. When he saw who was on the other side, his lips parted in mild surprise. 

‘Hey Chishiya.’ (Y/N) shuffled awkwardly. ‘I just wanted to stop by to say I’m sorry about before, if I seemed off. I was still kind of thinking about my game earlier.’ They held up the soda can. ‘Really, thank you for this. It’ll be really handy in a pinch.’

To anybody else, Chishiya’s expression would seem static, bored even. But Kuina saw the vague tug of a smile on his lips; she knew better. 

‘If you use it in your next game, I can make you another one,’ he replied. ‘Or if you need a knife that you can hide in your jacket. Tasers too.’

‘Tasers?’

He smirked. ‘All you need is an electronic device. It’s a simple rewiring trick.’ 

The two spoke in hushed tones, Chishiya faintly smirking and (Y/N) taking in every word he spoke. Watching from behind the corner, Kuina was delighted to finally see her efforts come to fruition, and she had to admit, these two oddballs kind of suited each other. Who would’ve known? 

(Y/N) peered over Chishiya’s shoulder, their face lighting up. ‘Wait, is that your workbench? Can I see it?’ 

‘Sure.’ He opened his door wider and (Y/N) slipped inside. 

This is the cutest thing I’ve seen in ages, Kuina thought. Maybe I should become a professional matchmaker. 

And then she froze. 

She froze because Chishiya didn’t close the door behind him. Instead, his eyes jumped over to where she was standing, looking at her squarely. 

Busted!

She gave him an awkward wave of her fingers. However, instead of scowling at her for meddling too much in his affairs, he gave her the briefest of nods - a small thank you for the world’s greatest wingwoman. 

[canirove]

My neighbour Rúben | Chapter 4

Author's note: On this chapter there are some things that give away that this story was written a long time ago, like the fact that it says that he is City's captain... Or that he dresses well 😅 P.S. I'm joking, please no one get mad at me 😭

Previous chapter | Next chapter

Masterlist

"Did you sleep well, darling? You look tired" grandma asked me the morning after the game.

"It probably was all the excitement from yesterday. She was still buzzing like young people say" grandad laughed.

"I think it was a mix of not being on my own bed and getting out of my comfort zone. I'm not used to it." 

Which was a lie. Mostly. I did miss my own bed, the one at my grandparents' house had the worst pillow ever. But if I looked dead and tired, it was because I had stayed up until 2 am reading about Rúben, watching his videos and looking at his photos.

Some would call it stalking. I call it doing research.

I read about his career, watched proper interviews and other videos where he was being silly, finding myself smiling like the idiot I am. I even watched some in Portuguese, the fact that I speak Spanish being very helpful to understand what he was saying. Or at least half of it.

I spent an hour just on his Instagram account, looking at everything he had posted, and especially the posts where he was topless. Like... He couldn't be real. He couldn't have a body like that, it had to be Photoshop. And it wasn't just the abs and the biceps. It also was his back. His legs. Everything. And judging by the photos where he was wearing clothes and the couple of times I had met him, he also knew how to dress and make the most out of that perfect body of his, which was unfair for the rest of the human population, both male and female.

I also spent a lot of time reading fanfic about him. There are so many talented people out there! And horny, which made me feel less alone. Because my dreams... Well. They were similar to the ones I had been having since meeting him for the first time, but now I knew what was under his clothes, and they weren't happening just on the lift or Lucy's house. Now that I knew that he was a freaking professional football player, there were so many new scenarios to explore... And I explored a few last night, like the changing room at the Emirates.

"Darling, are you sure you are alright? Should I take you to the doctor?" grandad said, bringing me back to reality. 

"To the doctor? Why?" 

"You look... I don't know. Off. And look at your cheeks."

"My cheeks?" I said, touching them. They were feeling very warm.

"Let me take your temperature" grandma said. "I don't want you traveling alone back to Manchester with a fever."

Oh, if only she knew. 

I wasn't traveling back to Manchester with a fever. I was actually traveling back to Manchester to meet the cause of my fever. And just the thought of it was making my stomach do funny things, not sure if good or bad ones. 

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"Oh, c'mon!" I said when the shopping bag slipped from my hand as I reached to call for the lift, all its contents slipping on the floor.

"Let me help you with that" a male voice said behind me. No. Not just a male voice. The male voice. Rúben. 

"You don't need to, I can manage."

"And I want to help" he said, already picking some things from the floor. "Doesn't Lucy have someone to do the shopping for her?"

"Yes, but that's the weekly shopping. This is different."

"I can tell. I don't see Lucy letting Julia eat so much chocolate and sweets" he chuckled.

"Tonight we are having a movie night, that's why I bought all this. I'm not planning on feeding her just sugar for the whole weekend, I'm not crazy."

"Good to know" Rúben smiled. "What movie are you watching?" he asked while calling for the lift, the shopping bag on his hand.

"Not sure yet. Something from Disney I guess."

"What's your favourite Disney movie?"

"What?" 

"Mine is "Aladdin". Love the songs" he said, walking into the lift once the doors had opened. 

"I'm not sure about mine" I said, following him. "As a child I loved watching the "Swan Princess", but that isn't Disney."

"I think I've never heard of it before. Is it cartoons?"

"Yep. It is about a princess who is under a spell that turns her into a swan during the day, and at night she goes back into her human self but only if she is on a certain lake and when the moon is shining."

"Do they sing?"

"Oh, yes, they do. They have great songs."

"I'll have to check it out."

"What?" I laughed.

"Don't tell anyone, but I love watching kids' movies." 

"Worried your teammates may bully you?" I chuckled as the lift's doors opened at our floor.

"Nah, they already know. By the way, the Emirates was the last place where I expected to see you" Rúben said, walking towards my door.

"Same."

"Lucy hadn't told you?"

"We've never talked about you." Which is true. But mainly because I knew my face would give away that I am very attracted to Rúben. Like, a lot.

"Now that you know... What do you think about it?"

"I don't know" I said, opening the apartment’s door. "It's just a job. A special one, but a job."

"Your opinion about me hasn't changed then?" he asked, following me inside and into the kitchen.

"Why would I change my mind?"

"You know what they say about football players. Just a bunch of idiots that kick a ball, who earn way too much money, who just party and cheat on their wives... Those things."

"I don't know enough about you to judge."

"Then we must do something about that" he said, leaving the shopping bag on the table. "Do you think Julia would mind if I joined you on your movie night?"

"I'm sorry, you want what?"

"It'll be a way to get to know each other a bit better. And I don't have plans tonight, so watching a Disney movie in good company sounds great."

I don't know what happened after that, what I said or did. Probably that yes, that he could come, because I remembered his smile and a "see you tonight." But my brain was stuck on his previous two last sentences.

For some reason, he wanted to get to know me better. Me. And I apparently was good company? He could have said it just about Julia, he clearly adored her. But he wasn't talking about her. We weren't talking about her. So... It was about me, right? I was good company. Did that mean that he was flirting with me? Rúben Dias, Manchester City captain and international player with Portugal, was flirting with me? The piano teacher turned into nanny?

It had been years since a guy had tried to flirt with me, I was very rusty. So maybe he was just being nice and I understood everything wrong. Or maybe not.

Whatever it was, I would be finding out in just a few hours... 

[ebonysplendor]

Perfect Love: Milo Change -- TS4 Edition

This is totally not becoming a Perfect Love fan page ^^;; I swear I'll shut up about this game after today...

...ANYWAYS! Show and tell time!

So, I made the Milos in The Sims 4, so that's cool, I guess!

Introducing OG Milo Change, "Deceive, defame, and deny" Milo, and "Always choose violence" Milo.

Peep the eye colors though; red for violence, blue for manipulation

This is pretty much it, but it you wanna see me ramble more and/or the other pics, you can keep going :)

Okay, so hear me out. I think these actually came out pretty okay?

First off, it's very hard for me to make faces. What I mean by that is, usually, whenever I recreate characters in The Sims, I find a base "face" and then I edit it. I can dress them, sure, but the "genetics" part kill me; I can't recreate a face to save my life, and I absolutely rely on other simmers for that. That being said...I was on my own this time, so just ignore the faces altogether if they look off, even though, this time around, I think I did pretty okay.

Now, I do feel like I did pretty damned good on the wardrobe, especially for my "always choose violence" Milo; that one was my favorite, and he came out pretty close to the actual sprite, which was a big "yay" moment. At least, I think it did. Am I being delusional or overly critical...? I'm not sure lol. Like, I'm not trying to drag myself but I def do not want to overhype myself because these probably could've been better, but I honestly don't know, like... how to make it better. Whatever though, I did it for funsies, and now, I have the option to put them in one of my playthroughs, which is super exciting.

Now, admittedly, I'm peeved that I couldn't find exact clothing, and that's my toxic trait when trying to recreate a character in sims. For some reason, if I can't find the exact clothes and/or hair, it throws the entire thing off for me. It's not as bad when I can find something relatively close, but if it's not pretty much it, it bothers the living hell out of me. That's just a thing with me, for whatever reason, and that being said, why, oh why, could I not find a damned jacket with the sewn on patches and why could I not find an accessory hoodie for the guys? I have a shirt with an eye on it. It killed me not to use it, but I used what was the closest.

Anyways, enough rambling and trying to explain myself. Please either enjoy or criticize these Milos that I made to feed my obsession for this game.

Big preesh for checking this out, brah.

Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around!

Until next time~!

p.s. Just in case you were wanting to play it, or you somehow stumbled upon this and was wondering what game I was talking about, here's a link to the Perfect Love visual novel. If you just so happen want to read my review and see me absolutely foam at the mouth over this game, here's a link to that as well.

Okay, I'm leaving for realsies now. Lol later~!

[rmtndew]

Come Home to Me 

Summary: A weekend with Walter, Fiona and Faye as their little family grows closer. 

Pairing: Marshall and OFC Fiona

Word count: 6,802

Rating: PG

Warnings: Mentions of a panic attack

I wasn’t sure what had happened. The day had started out fine. Walter and I had gotten to see each other for a little bit before we both left for work, which wasn’t always the case. We had coffee and breakfast together. I snuck extra snacks in his lunchbox while he was out warming up my car. It was a good morning. So where it went wrong, I couldn’t quite say. All I knew was that at some point in the afternoon, my anxiety started getting the best of me. 

I ended up locking myself in the bathroom at work and having a panic attack, then feeling bad that I wasn’t actually working and the guilt just made the attack worse and last longer, which just continued to fuel the guilt. It was a cycle that kept feeding itself. I finally managed to get myself under control enough to go back to work but Darcy knew something was going on and she sent me home. 

When I got in my car, I was feeling like garbage and needed to hear Walt’s voice, so I called him. I knew he might be busy and not be able to answer, but he did after just a couple of rings. 

“Hey, love,” he said, his voice instantly making me feel better. “Is everything alright?” 

I leaned my head back against the headrest of my seat. “I’m having a rough day.” 

“What’s wrong?” 

My teeth sunk into my lip as I chewed on it for a moment. “I don’t know,” I finally admitted. “A panic attack hit me out of nowhere. Darcy’s sending me home but I feel terrible that she has to do without me just because my stupid brain decided to have a random meltdown on Friday afternoon with literally no trigger.” 

“Hey, do not talk about yourself like that, young lady. I won’t have it,” he said, his voice taking on a very fatherly tone that he’d never used with me before. “Your brain is not stupid. Do you hear me?” 

I smiled. “Yes, bear, I hear you.” 

“Good. Now I want you to come home.”

I raised my head up from the headrest. “Come home? Not go home?” I questioned. “As in, you’re already there?” 

I could faintly hear him laugh. “I’m meant to be the detective in this family, Miss Sparks. Not you,” he teased. “But yes; I’m already here.”

“What are you doing home so early?” 

“We were able to connect our murder to similar ones in different states so we had to hand it over to the FBI. We’ll work it alongside them but for today, there’s nothing else I can do. Not until they review it. So for now I’m at home. I was going to surprise you with dinner when you got off work but I’ll have to find something else to surprise you with, unless you want dinner at two in the afternoon?” 

I laughed. “No. I just had lunch not long ago. I’m good. But you don’t have to surprise me with anything. Getting to spend the day with you is a good enough surprise.” 

“Then come home to me, darling. Let me hold you.”

I felt myself grin. “I’m on my way now. Love you.” 

“Love you, too, Fi. Be careful.” 

When I got home, Walter greeted me outside on the doorstep. He was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants with socks. His perpetually tired look seemed packed away for the moment and strangely enough, he looked actually, well…rested. It wasn’t something I saw very often. 

“Hiya, handsome,” I said, smiling at him as I walked up the steps. 

He returned my smile. “Hey,” he said as I reached him. He pulled me in for a short kiss. “How are you feeling?” 

“I’m alright.” He gave his little grunting-humming sound as if he didn’t believe me and I laughed. “I am alright,” I said. “I’m tired from my panic attack but just because it feels like I’m dying at the time, it doesn’t mean they can actually hurt me. So I’m okay.” 

“Would a cuddle make you feel better?” he asked, the corner of his mouth ticking up in a slight smile. 

My own smile couldn’t be bothered to play it cool. It spread across my whole mouth as I nodded. “Yeah, a cuddle would definitely make me feel better.” 

“Good.” 

He kissed my forehead, then took my hand and led me into the house. Inside, I stopped short in the entrance as I was greeted with the sight of the biggest blanket fort I’d ever seen. It was in the living room and made from the couch and kitchen chairs. Sheets were held to one another with heavy duty plastic clamps and draped across the whole thing, and inside I could see that it was stuffed with blankets and pillows. 

“What’s this all about?” I asked. 

He shrugged a shoulder as he looked a bit bashful. “I couldn’t surprise you with dinner but I thought this might turn your rough day around,” he said. “If it’s too childish -” 

“Shh,” I said, cutting him off. “Sometimes childish is good. I could definitely use a break from being a grown up for a little bit.” I kissed his cheek. “Thank you.” 

As much as I wanted to crawl right into the fort, I wanted to get comfortable first. I changed into a pair of leggings and one of Walter’s shirts, happy to do away with my bra. Then I pulled on some thick, cozy socks and padded back out to the living room. Walter was already inside. I could see his feet sticking out and noticed that there was a hole in the bottom of his sock. I made a mental note to toss it and buy him a new pair. He must have heard me because he started moving around, then pulled back one of the sheets that was draped down over the front. 

“There’s not quite so much room as I thought there’d be so it will be a bit of a squash and a squeeze in here,” he warned. 

I smiled. “I was planning on squashing and squeezing you anyway, so that’s fine.” 

I bent to my knees at the ‘doorway’ and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back as he laid down. The sheet dropped, covering the entrance to the fort and dimming the light inside. I gave Walt a final kiss, then lay my head down on his chest and wrapped my arm around his thick waist. He rubbed my back and ran his fingers through my hair, playing with strands of it.

“This is exactly what I needed and I didn’t even know it,” I said, rubbing my cheek against the soft fabric of his shirt. I could feel the texture of his chest hair beneath it. “Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome, my love,” he said, then kissed my forehead. 

My hand strayed from his waist, making its way under the hem of his shirt. “Can I touch you?”

He hummed. “Of course. But if it goes past that, we’ll have to take it out of the tent.”

“Afraid you’ll pull a muscle in here without more leg room?” I joked. 

He laughed. “No. I ran out of blankets to put down under us so I borrowed Faye’s. I can’t do that to her stuff,” he said. “But also…pulling a muscle is a possibility.” 

“I’ll behave myself then. On both accounts.” I slid my hand under his shirt and ran it across his stomach. He hissed and sucked in for a moment. I looked up at his face. “Sorry.” 

“It’s alright. It just always surprises me how cold you are.” 

I smiled. “That’s because you’re always so warm. Everything and everyone feels like an ice block in comparison.” 

He laughed, his fingers dancing up my spine. “That’s true.” 

I buried my fingers in the patch of hair on his stomach and let my hand warm up before moving it up to his chest. There was something so comforting about touching Walter. About feeling his skin against mine. He was warm and his hair was soft and I felt safe with my hand laying against his heart, feeling it beat underneath my palm. I kissed his chest through his shirt. “Thank you for loving me, bear.”

“Hey,” he said softly and I looked up at his face. “You never have to thank me for that. I’m honored that I get to love you.” His hand stilled at the back of my head, cradling it. “I never thought I’d be in love again. I thought I screwed it up with my marriage and that was it. But you gave me a second chance. And I know that I’m by no means perfect, and I know that I’ll manage to screw things up down the line somewhere, but now I know how important it is to try everything I can to make it work.” He brought his hand around to my cheek and stroked it with his thumb. “I’m not an easy person to love. I know that. But you never let me see how difficult it is, Fi. You don’t know how much I appreciate that.” 

I smiled. “I find you exceptionally easy to love, Walt. I’ve been in relationships before and I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you,” I said. “It breaks my heart to know that you have felt this way and you had to watch it fall apart even while you were trying to fix it. It hurts me to know you thought you’d never feel this way again.” I lightly scratched his skin through his chest hair. “But I am so happy that I get to be your second chance.” 

That weekend was Walt’s weekend to have Faye. Typically he’d pick her up in the afternoon and bring her home. But on Saturday, I picked her up instead. My cousin Mel had invited the two of us to go to the mall with her and her daughter Juniper. One of Faye and Juniper’s friends was moving soon and she wanted to buy her a going away present and asked Faye to help. I was tagging along just to spend time with them. And to also get a cookie from the cookie shop. 

“Didn’t this place used to be like, a big deal when you were our age?” Juniper asked Mel and me as we walked through the very empty shopping center.

“Oh, it was hopping back then. Saturdays were crazy and it would have already been packed by now,” Mel said. “But Fridays?” She looked at me. “Fiona and I were mall rats on Friday nights.” 

“Ew. What’s a mall rat?” Juniper asked. 

Mel and I both laughed. “It was someone who spent a lot of time at the mall,” Mel answered.

“What did you do here?” Faye asked, looking around at the closed stores.

“We’d just hang out,” I said. “We’d eat at the food court and walk around. Back then, there was a store in every part of the building and sometimes there were booths and kiosks set up in the center or walkways, too. It’s hard to picture but there was a lot more to look at than there is now.”

Mel nodded. “Which was good because Fiona and I had very different tastes at the time so there were stores for both of us.”

“Different how?” Juniper asked. 

“Well, I was more concerned with buying push up bras from Victoria’s Secret and tube tops from Wet Seal, and she was wanting to buy American Eagle jeans and tank tops from Aeropostale,” Mel said. “We always agreed on the music store, though. We’d hit up F.Y.E. and look at CDs for hours.” 

“What kind of music did you listen to?” Faye asked. 

“At your age? Boy bands,” I said. “There were a lot of arguments over who was better: Backstreet Boys or NSYNC.” 

“You listened to boy bands?” Juniper laughed. 

“Yes, squirt. We listened to boy bands on our Walkmans while skating around the neighborhood together. And it was the best,” I said. 

“It really was,” Mel agreed. “If we’d only known then.”

We walked through the mall, letting the girls take their time as they tried to decide what to buy their friend who was moving away. Nothing seemed to spark their interest until we came to the Build-A-Bear store. There was a cute stuffed penguin in the window that they seemed to spot at the same time. I guess their friend Lexi was a fan of penguins and collected them and making one for her seemed like the perfect gift to them. I thought it was sweet. And it reminded me that they were still young. Still innocent enough to want stuffed animals and to want to give them to each other. That time didn’t last long. With high school, boys, stress, anxiety, and everything that came with growing up, it would eventually wear that thread down and separate them from the things people deemed childish. But right then? Right then a stuffed penguin was the most genuine thing they could buy their friend to remember them by.

They wanted to do it on their own so Mel and I bought coffees and sat at a table just outside the shop where we could see them inside but they had the freedom to do it on their own like they wanted. As they moved to a different part of the store, Faye saw me and waved. I smiled and waved back, then she and Juniper disappeared behind the big machine with all of the stuffing inside it. 

“She’s a good kid,” Mel said. “And you both seem to get along really well.” 

“We do. I never thought this is where I’d end up. You know that. When did I ever picture myself with a guy who had a kid? Especially a teenager?” 

She shook her head. “Never. And honestly, it was a surprise when I found out you were dating him.”

“It could have gone so bad. She could have hated me. I mean, I remember being fourteen. I remember how angry I was at that age. And I had basically a perfect life. If Mom and Dad had gotten divorced and I had to watch some odd, gangly lady hit on Dad? I would have hated her.” 

Mel laughed. “You’re not an odd gangly lady,” she said. “And I know for a fact you weren’t ‘hitting on’ her dad in front of her. You don’t even know how to flirt so you definitely weren’t forcing that with his daughter around.” 

“You know what I’m saying, though. She really could have hated me and no one would have blamed her for it.”

“I’m sure she was worried you might hate her, too. Juniper has friends who’s step-moms want nothing to do with them. Faye probably knows the exact same girls.”

“That’s something I never understood and I understand it even less now that I’m with Walt,” I said. “Why would you ever get into a relationship with a guy who has kids if you don’t want anything to do with them? And why would you want to be with someone who could abandon their own kid that easily? I just…” I shook my head. “I don’t get it. Honestly, I don’t.”

“I don’t get it, either, Fi. Some people are just selfish, I guess.” 

It took the girls close to an hour to do their thing. Mel and I talked and people watched while they did, occasionally catching glimpses of them in the store. Finally we could see them get in line to pay. Once I saw they were nearly done, I drank the rest of my coffee and took my and Mel’s cups to the trash. I was walking back to the table when Walt called. 

“Um…listen,” he said with a sigh after we’d greeted each other. “I know we both loathe socializing but…my cousin called. He lives out of state and we rarely get to see one another, but he’s been away for holiday and he’s having a layover here and wants to visit. I told him he could.” 

“A cousin? I finally get to meet another branch of the Marshall tree? I’m very intrigued.”

He did his grunting-humming thing. “Before you get your hopes up, he’s not like me. He…talks. A lot.”

I laughed as I joined Mel back at our table. “Are you saying your brooding nature may not be genetic?” 

He chuckled. “No. That’s the English coming out in me. But you’ll see soon enough. I’m heading to the airport to go get him now,” he said. “I thought instead of cooking tonight we could go out for dinner. Do you and Faye want to meet us when you’re done?” 

“Yeah, that sounds good. Just let me know where you’re going after you pick him up and we’ll meet you.”

“Thank you, love. See you soon.”

I hung up as Faye and Juniper were coming out of the store. Juniper was holding the traditional Build-A-Bear gift box that looked like a house and Faye was holding a plastic gift bag. They came and sat at the table with us and Juniper showed us the stuffed penguin they made. It was pale blue and wearing a scarf and ice skates. It was adorable. I didn’t know their friend Lexi but I couldn’t see how she wouldn’t love it. When she was done, Faye showed us what was in her bag. I had assumed it was something that would go with the penguin, but I was wrong. She pulled out a teddy bear with dark brown fur that was dressed in jeans and a blue sweater. 

“Aw, how cute!” I said. “Did you make it for yourself?”

“Actually I…made it for you,” she said, her mouth twisting off to the side in a worried look that reminded me so much of Walter. She held the bear out towards me.

“For me?” I asked, taking it from her. She nodded. “Faye, that was so sweet! Thank you!” I didn’t know why she’d made it for me but I couldn’t stop smiling as I looked him over. After a moment, I saw that there was a police badge clipped to the side of his pants and suddenly it all clicked for me. “Wait…” I looked back to her, grinning. “Is this your dad?”

She nodded again but smiled properly that time. “The sweater looked like one of his and when I saw the police badge I thought it would be fun to make him for you. You know, since you call him ‘bear’.” 

“It’s perfect. I love it! My own little Walter Bear for when he’s not home.”

“I thought maybe he can be friends with the monkey and hedgehog that Dad won you at Naples.” 

My face hurt from smiling so wide. “Yes! He’ll make an excellent friend for them. Thank you.”

She leaned over and hugged me and I hugged her back tight. I couldn’t imagine trying to push Faye out of the picture. She was an extension of Walter and if I loved him, then I had to love her. She wasn’t a burden in our relationship; she was a bonus.  

Once they had their penguin, the girls were done with the mall. Faye and I said bye to Mel and Juniper and then we went to my car. Walter texted as I was getting it warmed up and said that he and his cousin were going to a diner that was about midway between the airport and the mall and sent me the address. When we got there, I saw Walter’s truck. He and his cousin were standing at the tailgate, waiting for us. There wasn’t a parking spot beside it but there was one directly across from it. As I parked, Faye turned her head to look at Walter. 

“Wait, who’s that with Dad?” she asked and I realized that I’d forgotten to tell her about her cousin. She unbuckled so she could peer through the back window better. Then she gasped. “Is that…? It is!” She flung open her door and started clambering to get out. 

“Watch for cars!” I told her. 

I watched her go across the short distance to Walter and once she was safely there, I turned off the car and grabbed my purse, then joined them. Faye was being swallowed up in a hug by their cousin who I was surprised to see was bigger than Walt. They seemed to match each other height wise but he was broader. After he released Faye, he looked at me and I could see the family resemblance. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought they were brothers. Walter’s cousin had shorter hair than him but they shared the same brown curls, they sported the same thick beard, and their eyes were practically identical. And when he smiled at me, he even had the same lines that crinkled around them just like Walter’s. 

“You must be Fiona,” he said, his voice surprising me with the thick southern accent. 

“I am.” I held out my hand and he shook it. “You must be one of the Texas cousins, right?” 

He laughed. “Yes, ma’am. I’m Sy. It’s nice to finally meet you,” he said. “Walter ain’t much of a talker but I knew you had to be something special because he won’t shut up about you anytime we do talk.” 

I smiled. “I hope he doesn’t bore you too much.”

He shook his head as he let go of my hand. “Not at all. I’m happy for him,” he said. “And I appreciate y’all letting me visit. I know it was last minute but I hadn’t been planning on coming this way until my flights got mixed up heading back from vacation and I ended up here. Then my layover got extended until later tonight and I figured if I didn’t come by now, it’d be a while before I got the chance to again.”  

“Of course. I’m excited to meet you. Walt has already met a lot of my family but Faye is the only one from his that I’ve gotten to meet in person so far. I’ve spoken to his parents and Charlie on the phone a few times but that’s it. So it’s nice to put a face to a name now.”

“Same,” he said. “Although, for me it’s putting your voice to your face because Walt sent me your picture not long after y’all started dating. Told me he was going to marry you.” 

“Stop,” Walter ordered as I laughed.

“What? You don’t want her to know how love sick you are?” Sy teased. Walter gave him a stern look but Sy just grinned at him before clapping his hand on his shoulder. “I bet you wished you’d ignored my call earlier, huh?” 

“I can still send you back to the airport,” Walter said. 

Sy laughed. “Yeah but you won’t.”

“You have far too much faith in that.”

“If you do, I’ll call your momma and tell her what you did.” 

Walter crossed his arms over his chest. “You’ll call Mum and tattle on me?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “Like we’re twelve again?” 

Sy gave another laugh and nodded. “Yep. Just like that. I ain’t got no shame about it.” 

“You don’t have shame about anything.” 

I saw Sy’s face do the same frowning-smile that I’d seen Walter do before. “You’re not wrong.”

“I rarely am,” Walt said

“Can we go inside? I’m freezing and I want a milkshake,” Faye said. 

Sy laughed. “That makes sense. You’re cold, so let’s drink something frozen.” 

“It makes as much sense as drinking coffee when it’s hot outside. It’s like a hundred degrees in Iraq in the summertime and you were there for ten years, did you not drink coffee at all in the summer?” 

“Coffee is what keeps people alive. It’s different.”

“And milkshakes are what makes being alive worth it.”

He smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “I can’t really disagree with you on that one, kiddo,” he said. “So let’s go get us a milkshake.” 

“Banana and peanut butter?” she asked, looking up at him.

“You and your daddy can keep that one for yourselves. I’ll take chocolate.” 

Walter grabbed my hand and gave it a light squeeze before he began walking towards the diner, leading me with him. I turned and pressed a quick kiss to his shoulder and before I could move my head, he kissed the top of it. 

Once we were inside, we didn’t have to wait long for a table. Walter and I sat together and Sy sat next to Faye. She borrowed a pen from me and flipped her paper placemat over and started doodling on it. “You said you were coming back from vacation,” she said to Sy. “Where did you go?” 

“I went to Florida with some of my old army buddies.”

“Was it fun?” 

“It was alright. They seemed to enjoy it,” he said. “Me personally? I’ve seen enough sand in my lifetime, I don’t have any desire to ever set foot on it again.”

“Are you still in the army?” I asked. 

He shook his head. “No, ma’am. I retired a few years ago. I felt like I needed to be closer to home,” he said. “I’m a firefighter now.” 

I smiled. “Did you and Walter ever consider jobs that weren’t superheroes?” 

He laughed. “There was a minute where I thought I might want to be a chef, but that was it. I was stuck on being in the army since I was a little kid. As a matter of a fact, when Walt and his family would come visit us, me and him would usually be out in the woods playing army men or SWAT team. It didn’t surprise anyone when we both ended up going that way with our careers.”

“Walt went on his first SWAT raid since we’d been together last week and I was a nervous wreck until he called me and told me he was safe after it was over. I don’t know how your families handled you both being in dangerous fields like that.” 

“We put them through a lot, that’s for sure,” Sy said. 

“You longer than me,” Walter pointed out. “I’ve stayed relatively safe in homicide. You jumped out of the frying pan into the fire with your job change. Quite literally.” 

“I did but you know I couldn’t have done anything else. I mean, can you imagine me in a suit every day going into an office and selling…insurance or something?” Sy shook his head. “There’s not a lot of civilian jobs that would’ve worked for me,” he said. “Same for you. If you left homicide right now, tell me that you could take a job where you didn’t have a gun on you twenty-four-seven.”

“You know I couldn’t.”

“Exactly,” he said. “Coming home didn’t have nothing to do with being safer or not putting my life on the line for other people. It just meant doing it closer to my family. I get to see them more. I don’t miss out on stuff like I used to. And if I die doing this, they don’t have to wait for a casket to be sent home so they can bury me.”

“That’s depressing,” Faye said, looking at him. 

“But it’s the truth.” He put his hand on her head and ruffled her hair. “We won’t talk about it anymore, though,” he said. “Tell me what’s been going on with you? How’s school?”

“It’s…meh.”

“I heard it was a little more than ‘meh’. I heard you broke a boy’s finger a few weeks ago.” 

Faye looked at Walter. “Dad, you told him?” 

“Did I tell him that my daughter stood up for herself when a boy put his hands on her? Yes.” 

“Why?” she asked. 

“Because he was proud,” Sy answered for him. “In our day, girls were taught that if boys were mean to her it meant he liked her. The moment your daddy found out you were going to be a girl, he was determined to make sure you knew that wasn’t true and you knew how to take up for yourself. Not just as a kid but when you get older, too.”

“Especially when you get older. It doesn’t get better, it’s just different,” Walter said. “Because no matter the age, men are -” 

“Pigs, yes,” Faye said, shaking her head. “I know.” 

“He’s right. And he should know all about it,” Sy said to her. “Because cops are pigs, too.” 

I didn’t mean to laugh but I couldn’t help the snort that came out. Walter looked at me. “Really?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow. 

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. 

“If they call cops pigs, what do they call firefighters?” Faye asked Sy. 

“Heroes.” 

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing that time. Walter watched my face and shook his head at me before looking back to Sy. “You’re paying for this meal,” he said. “And I’m getting pie afterwards.” 

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

I liked having dinner with Sy. He and Walter playfully bickered throughout the whole meal and it was nice to see Walt joking around with someone. And Sy wasn’t intimidated. Even when I thought Walter may have said something that crossed the line, Sy would just laugh and dish it right back. They clearly loved each other, even though it didn’t necessarily always sound like it. 

After we ate, Walter and Faye went to the front of the diner to look at the dessert case and I stayed with Sy. “You’re good for him,” he said. “I haven’t seen him this happy since…well, I don’t know when. But it’s been a long time, that’s for sure.” 

I smiled. “He makes me happy, too.” 

“I wouldn’t say this in front of Faye but Walt never had with Angie what y’all seem to have,” he said. “I know he loved her at the time but that’s not always enough.”

“Despite what the Beatles say?” I joked. 

He laughed. “Yes, ma’am. You need love but love isn’t all you need,” he said. He was quiet for a moment but I could see it was because he was thinking so I waited. “He told me how you said you were proud of him. Proud of what he does, who he is.” 

I felt a little taken aback that he would mention that but I nodded. “I am. I’m incredibly proud of him.” 

“See…you’ve got to understand that Walt doesn’t hear that much. He never has. His father is the typical Englishman and keeps all his emotions buttoned up. He didn’t brag on him or Charlie ever. Not out of meanness but just ‘cause that’s how he was raised. And his mother, my aunt, she’s sweet and she made sure Walt and Charlie knew she loved them but it was still done with her husband’s English mentality of only a few words,” he said. 

“Then when he met Angie, she never liked him being a part of SWAT. She wanted him to change to something less dangerous. He held his ground until she had Faye and then he changed over to being a detective, but it still wasn’t what she wanted.” He let out a breath. “The point is…he’s always tried hard and it’s never really been acknowledged. At this point, he does it because that’s just who he is. He runs himself into the ground to do his job. And you are the first person who’s just flat out told him you’re proud of him like that.” 

I remembered the night I’d told Walter how proud I was of him and he’d cried. I’d just thought he was exhausted but hearing Sy talk about it brought a new light to it. Especially knowing it had meant enough for him to tell Sy about it. “I’ll make it a point to tell him more often then.”

“Whether you know it or not, that man takes everything you say to heart. The amount of times we talk and he says, ‘Fiona said this’, ‘Fi said that’, is more than I can count, honestly. And I don’t have a problem with it. Because everything he tells me is something good. I just…I know he’s not great at opening up so I know he probably hasn’t told you what it meant to him but…it meant a lot.”

“Thank you for telling me,” I said. “I’m glad he has you to talk to.” 

“I’m glad I’ve got him, too,” he said as Walt and Faye began walking back towards us. Sy shook his head at me. “Just don’t tell him I told you that. Far as he knows, I only like to call and agitate him.”

I smiled then mimed zipping my lips. “I won’t say a word about it.”

We stayed at the diner probably longer than the staff would normally be happy about but despite Walter’s quiet, introverted nature, Sy was loud and outgoing and made friends with our waitress fast. He explained the situation about catching up with family while killing time - two birds with one stone, he said - and the woman, who looked old enough to be his grandmother, told him to take all the time he needed. For every ‘sweetheart’ and ‘honey’ she called him, he flashed her a grin and made sure to use all of his manners. I could hear Walter quietly groaning at his antics, but I found it fascinating. They looked so much alike and were clearly close but they were so different from one another. 

When we finally left the diner, it was dark out. The already cold air had grown almost frigid and even with my coat on, I was shivering. So we didn’t linger with goodbyes. Faye gave Sy a hug, then huddled next to Walter for warmth. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her to his side. Sy turned to me then. 

“You alright with a hug or is it too soon?” he asked. 

I smiled. “No, I’m alright with it. I feel like I’ve known you longer than four hours.”

“It feels like six at least, right?” he joked.

I laughed and nodded. “At least, yeah.” He opened his arms and pulled me into a big bear hug and I noticed that he ran warm just like Walter. I hadn’t realized that ‘human space heater’ was an inheritable trait until then. “It was really nice meeting you, Sy. If you were going to get stuck somewhere with a delayed flight, I’m glad you got stuck with us.”  

“It was good meeting you, too,” he said. He released me from our hug and took a step back. “And I definitely could’ve gotten stuck somewhere worse. Like the airport Quiznos.” 

“That would have been much worse,” I agreed with a laugh. “Next time you’ll have to come back on purpose and we can cook for you at the house instead of you paying for us to eat out.”

“That sounds like a deal.” He looked at Walter then tilted his head towards the truck. “We better mosey on down to the airport.”

Walter gave Faye a hug, then gave me a kiss goodbye, then he watched the two of us get into the car and leave the parking lot. Once we got home, Faye and I both changed into pajamas then made hot chocolate to drink while we watched a show about baking fails in the living room while we waited for Walter to come home. But she fell asleep about half an hour into it. I did my best to make her comfortable there, carefully placing a pillow under her head and covering her up with a blanket and tucking her in. Then I made sure the doors were locked and sent Walter a text telling him that I was getting ready for bed and to try to be quiet as he came in because Faye was asleep on the couch. 

After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I went to our bedroom. I saw Walter Bear in his bag and I took him out, spraying him with some of the real Walter’s cologne, then put him on his side of the bed before turning out the lights and laying down. I had a hard time sleeping on my own anymore so I was awake when Walt came home. He was trying to be quiet but he was so heavy that his boots made a clomping sound as he came down the hall towards our room. He carefully pushed the cracked door open, allowing himself inside before closing it completely. 

“Hey,” I whispered to him. 

He froze by the bed. “Hey,” he whispered back. “Did I wake you?” 

“No. I was too lazy to get my weighted blanket and without it or you, I can’t sleep,” I said. “Did Sy get on his flight okay?” 

“Yeah. Thank you for letting him join us, by the way. I know it wasn’t what we had planned for this evening.” 

“We were planning on having dinner with Faye to celebrate your weekend off, that’s what we did. We just had an extra guest,” I said. “One, who, is quite entertaining, by the way.” 

My eyes had adjusted to the dark and I watched him shake his head as he walked to his dresser. “Don’t ever tell him that. He will take it and run.”

I smiled. “I like him. He’s nice. And really funny. I loved the stories he told about you two as teenagers.” 

He groaned as he began emptying his pockets. “He embellishes things, by the way. Not all of those were true,” he said. “But he liked you, too. Though you are far more likable, so that makes sense.” 

“So I have his seal of approval?” 

He turned towards me as he pulled his sweater over his head, followed by his t-shirt, then tossed them in the clothes hamper. “You do.”

“Did you really tell him that you were going to marry me after we met?” 

He let out a sigh as he kicked off his boots. Then he unbuckled his jeans and tugged them off. “Not that soon but…yes, I told him that I wanted to marry you fairly early on,” he said. “Does that bother you?” 

“Bother me? No. I think it’s sweet.” 

He came to the bed and pulled the covers back but stopped short of climbing in beside me. I didn’t know why until he held up my teddy bear. “And who is this?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. 

I smiled as I took it from him. “This is Walter Bear,” I said. “Faye made him for me today.” 

He looked confused as he finally lay down beside me. “She made you a stuffed animal version of me?” 

“Yeah, because I call you ‘bear’,” I said. “It was really sweet of her. They’re not cheap. So I’m tasking you with somehow funneling money from me back to her without her knowing that I’m paying for it.”

He laughed and shook his head. “No you’re not.”

“She paid for it with her own money.”

“And I will give her an extra allowance or something but you’re not paying for a gift that she gave you.”

“I can bring her extra cookies home.” 

He did his frowny thought face as he squinted. “You could bring me extra cookies home and I’ll funnel the money.” 

I laughed. “You’re easily bought, mister.”

“Only by you, Miss Sparks.” 

I reached out and put my hand on his cheek. “When we get married, are you still going to call me Miss Sparks or will you call me Mrs. Marshall?”

“You still want to marry me?” he asked, his voice quiet. 

I smiled and nodded. “You’re the only man I’ve ever wanted to marry.” I brushed my thumb against his skin softly. “Most girls dream about their weddings - my cousin Mel even had this big binder full of things that she ripped out of magazines that she wanted for hers - but I never did that. I never pictured myself in that position,” I said. “Even now, I don’t think in terms of a big wedding. I don’t see colors or a cake or a reception. I see you and me. Exchanging rings, or having a first dance, but that’s it. Everything else is hazy and in the background. The only thing I see clearly is…you.” 

He was quiet for a moment then softly nodded his head against his pillow. “I see you clearly, too, Fi.”

[avorbl]

Avor's Watchlist for weeks 36 + 37

Fall has begun and I am watching 16 currently airing shows 14 of which are Qls. My rewatches have been on hold for a few weeks now.

Currently Airing

Battle of the Writers 7/12 Beautiful Boys kissing, tropes and even a bit of a story if you look hard enough

Sugar Dog Life 6/10 Lonely people, food and not enough communication the Japanese recipe for a good watch

First Note of Love 6/12 Compared to all the loud stuff thats currently airing this one is very quiet

Seoul Blues 7/8 Messy people messing around Jeonha finally reacted to something but it feels very much like they stitched two scripts they had and made it 8 episodes with the same character names

The On1y One 8/12 Best thing currently airing beautiful cinemaphotography and wonderful acting

Love Next Door 10/16 The first 8 episodes showed us why Seokryu did not feel that she could be open about her problems with anyone at home and now I am supposed to find her at fault because she kept her illness a secret?

Live in Love 3/5 The colours keep colouring and with all the talk about tone this week the tonal dissonance between what his happening to Cake and how they react to it is a bit distracting

Room 2/5 Fun and chaotic not sure what it wants to tell

Happy of the End 2/8 I am waiting for the sub of the fourth episode to continue because I dont think I can get myself to watch each episode on its own its heavy and beautiful

Kidnap 2/12 I get to see Ohm again

The Hidden Moon 2/10 A propos Ohm a ghost romance. They rank right after robot romances for plots to avoid for me. I am cautiously optimistic about this one though as long as they are not introducing time layers.

Jack & Joker: U Steal My Heart! 1/12 War is a good actor and I liked Yin whom I havent seen outside of En of love. But I was promised a heist.

Love is Like a Poison 1/10 The colour intensity was to mismatched between the poison transitions and the rest of the episode hopefully that changes

Unlock Your Love 1/8 I am not sure about this one the character interactions and the main characters action compared to her flashback experiences feel a bit too contrived

Bad Guy My Boss 1/10 20 year olds in charge of a company are always so in control. A fantasy office setting to forget work on Sunday evenings

Love Sick 2024 1/15 Real children bringing me a highschool story. With a big cast I am bit scared that I am supposed to remember and differentiate all these boys in their highschool uniforms

What I am catching up on

My Best Boyfriend 4/17

Unstoppable High Kick 25/167

Gym Affairs 15/24 Loneliness and desire (for love)

The Princess Royal 21/40 A typical mid show slump with this one, its promising

Word of Honor 17/36 I think of all the gay characters Gong Jun could have played while watching this

Like Love 8/15 2014 BL

Fight for My Way 4/16 I really need to watch everything Park Seojoon has been in

Finished in the last two weeks

Takara’s Treasure 02.09.24 9,5/10 Loved how they got gradually closer. Taishin getting a better understanding of Takara and Takara's reason for being so withdrawn getting revealed. The depiction of the "creepy uncle" really is the only blemish on this otherwise well thought out series.

Mr Mitsuyas Planned Feeding 06.09.24 9/10 A lovely story about finding support and yourself.

Takara’s Treasure Spin off 09.09.24 8,5/10 A nice end cap to this wonderful story

I Hear the Sunspot 12.09.24 6/10 This is the series I ve written the most notes for this year and it all boils down to: Great visuals but a dissappointing second half. We got the introduction of a secondary character instead of the growth and adaptation the couple needed

4 Minutes 13.09.24 9,5/10 The finale was truly unnerving, limbo made palpable. Those first minutes of surreal softness really got to me. A perfect ending to a good show. Regrets, Consequences, Redemption, LIMBO This series makes a strong case for how choices influence our lives and if we dont make choices life wont be better. Simplistic solutions only work in fantasy

Boytoy 14.09.24 7,5/10 Deeper than I intially thought. But a classic gay people at the edge of society BL with a happy ending though.

With You I Bloom 15.09.24 8/10 About social bonds and priorities. Would have been better if the credits werent as lighthearted/ the opening credits did not have such a sports drama vibe. Probably would have worked better as several movies .

Love Enemy 15.09.24 7,5/10 Fourty minutes of fluff to pass the time

Dropped in the last two weeks

The Founder of Diabolism Season 1 5/15 03.09.24 -/10

Addicted Heroin 4/10 03.09.24 -/10

[exalted-dawn-drabbles]

lmaooo unhinged thought but

"glad to see you haven't become food for the vultures" for the "Talenna and Thalia escape the Circle together" idea?

hehehehehehehehehe you can have a little bit of depressed Thalia and pissed off Talenna uwu ass a treat

for @dadrunkwriting

Rated T: For semi-graphic depictions of the cleaning of dead animals, ~750 words

Carrion | By Exalted_Dawn

“Glad to see you haven’t become food for the vultures.” Thalia started, her head snapping up from where she had buried it between her knees, cradled in the mud-stained, tattered skirts of her robes. Her face was sticky with dirt and tears, causing the strands of her currant-stained hair to cling to her cheeks and shroud her eyes. Through the shredded curtain of tangles, she could see the deep plum color of the Ansburg robes, torn at the knee by the clean cut of a dagger. 

Her lip wobbled and pulled tight, before she dropped her gaze again. 

“I see your plan to be found by the Templars has failed.” 

Maker, why did she have to come back? It had been three days since she left– she should have been miles away by now. Thalia wasn’t sure whether she should feel relieved or mortified. Though, she was probably too hungry, too tired, to feel much of either. 

She just wanted all of this to come to an end. 

“Why are you here?” she whimpered, the weight of her situation coming back to bare. 

Rather than an answer, something thudded to the ground at her feet. A dead rabbit.

“I figured you might be hungry.” 

She was. 

“No- why are you here?” she repeated again. Why would she come back? She should have been long gone. Returned to her clan or whoever was waiting for her. She had made it plenty clear that she had no intention of staying around, and Thalia, she… she wasn’t sure what she wanted. She still wasn’t sure. 

But then, she supposed most of her life had been decided for her. Stands to reason that she would not even be able to pick a direction to walk in.

Another wave of emotion surged against her chest, pressing so hard against her ribs that she felt like they might break. Her body ached with it, the need to simply break down and cry. But what good would that do her?

There was a scuffing of earth beside her. “What do you mean? We need to eat, do we not?” The sound of snapping branches shifted to snapping fire. The hollow thunk of wood being piled on wood. A campfire. 

Her body was bumped as the woman sat down beside her, grabbing at the rabbit and setting to work cleaning it. Well, if nothing else, now she had a good excuse to keep her face hidden. She wasn’t sure watching a rabbit get skinned would be good for her appetite. 

But that begged the question– 

“You came back just to feed me? Why didn’t you just keep the rabbit to yourself and keep traveling?” she mumbled. “I believe you said something about me ‘having an obligation to live for myself’...” The sharp snap of that memory echoed in the back of her head. A snarl. A slap. Disappointed, disapproving eyes paired only by a harsh, scarred scowl.

Now though, even the scoff she made sounded empty. As if she could not even be bothered with derision. “We both know there’s no Void-born way you would be able to survive out here on your own. I was the one that pushed you to leave that tower. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if you were to die out here now.” 

Great. So she was just a burden then.And a pointless one at that. 

“You would have a better chance of making it back to your family if you just left me…” she grumbled. 

“Aye, probably, but I don’t want to deal with the guilt, and over a shem no less. I’ll make sure you live long enough to make it out of these woods and to some city or something. After that, if you want to give up and turn yourself over to the Templars, then that’s your choice. But until then, we’re stuck together. So do me a favor, shem-” 

Two more ‘thunks’ against the ground in front of her. One dull and the other metallic. 

Thalia lifted her head– it was another rabbit. And a knife.

She, Talenna, was looking at her again. Her eyes were sharp. Expectant. Impossibly, irrationally expectant.  

“Make yourself useful,” she said flatly, and turned her attention back to her own half-cleaned rabbit. “You might not care, but I have no intention of becoming carrion for the birds. And for that-” 

There was a disgustingly wet tear. Talenna took a leg and stabbed it onto a stick. Ew. 

“-we need to eat.” 

[cainluvr69]

Cooking Lines - Full Cast

i found out a couple hours ago that what the cast says in their cooking lines is for the most part completely unknown to the eng-only fans, so i sat down and slammed this out in a couple hours! technically each character has six lines, not five, but the final one is only available some of the time. so think of it this way: next time you remember the translations of these lines exist, the whole thing should be filled out!

thank you to @Lenofauris on twitter for recording cain's hated food line for me!

Oz

Loves: Did I…look properly happy just now?

Likes: I am content.

Neutral: Thank you.

Hates: Do not come close if you value your life.

Thinking of: You watch the people around you well.

Arthur

Loves: You must've gone out of your way to prepare something I liked. Thank you very much.

Likes: There are so many new flavors in what you cook, Master Sage, that it's like going on an adventure!

Neutral: You're very good at cooking, Master Sage. Thank you so much for everything you do for us.

Hates: This tastes off, but…it is important to face life's challenges directly.

Thinking of: I'd just been thinking of how I wanted to eat that, so I admit I'm a bit surprised. Is this that "telepathy" thing I've heard of?

Hungry: It's difficult to do my professional duties while hungry. Thank you very much.

Cain

Loves: Ah, this is one of my favorites. But knowing it's been made by you will make it taste even better.

Likes: Mm. The things you make have this relaxing taste to them.

Neutral: Eating that made me feel like I got refreshed a little. Thank you, Master Sage.

Hates: I feel bad saying it after you made it for me, but this flavor's not really my thing.

Thinking of: I was just thinking about how much I wanted to eat this! I feel so lucky.

Riquet

Loves: It feels like my mouth has gone straight to heaven…

Likes: …Delicious…This is very delicious…!

Neutral: Thank you very much… I must be sure I don't let myself fall to depravity…

Hates: I…will not put corrupted food into my mouth.

Thinking of: To think the outside world would have such wonderful things…

Snow

Loves: I adore this! Even the inside of my mouth is happy!

Likes: Wah, I'm all full! Thanks for the food!

Neutral: Your cooking is so delicious, Sage. Perhaps because our love is in it?

Hates: Trying to feed me something like this… You must be in your rebellious phase…

Thinking of: I should've only expected you could know what I wanted to eat, Master Sage.

White

Loves: I must extend my appreciation for grasping my tastes. Mm, delish!

Likes: Ahh… My heart and tummy are both satisfied. Thanks for the food!

Neutral: Sage, thank you so kindly for always making us such wonderful food.

Hates: …Are you trying to feed me this…because I'm a ghost?

Thinking of: Ooh, I was just thinking of how I wanted this!

Mithra

Loves: Thank you. (this is the same for real food and charcoal)

Likes: It's chewy.

Neutral: Well, everyone's the same in your stomach…But this is tasty.

Hates: If this were the North, you'd be dead now.

Thinking of: That filled my stomach pretty well.

Hungry: I've seen this before. It must be delicious.

Owen

Loves: I want more of this.

Likes: …I guess I can compliment you a little.

Neutral: Hmm. It's okay at best.

Hates: Thank you. I won't forget this meal for the rest of my life.

Thinking of: I wanted to eat this.

Hungry: I was hungry, so it was tasty.

Bradley

Loves: Yeah, that rules! The guy who came up with this one is a genius, if you ask me.

Likes: Damn, that hit the spot. So what's up next?

Neutral: Nero's cooking is pretty damn good, but yours is up there too. Thanks. Lemme have a bite again sometime.

Hates: How 'bout I make it so you can never pull that move again?

Thinking of: Good work telling this was what I wanted. I'm in a good mood, so I'll even let you have a bite.

Faust

Loves: This is…as good as I should've expected.

Likes: I'm satisfied. Can't you tell just by looking?

Neutral: The food you make isn't bad. …I guess I could eat it again sometime.

Hates: Should I remind you not to irritate me? Or are you trying to get cursed?

Thinking of: Heh… Looks like our Sage has the power to read their wizards' minds.

Shino

Loves: …! This is…on par with the Mistress's pie…!

Likes: I really am happiest when I'm eating good food.

Neutral: The food you make isn't awful. Make me more, Master Sage.

Hates: If there's no other option, then I'll eat it. But only because I hate wasting food.

Thinking of: Could you tell that was what I wanted?

Heath

Loves: Wah, this is my favorite. Munch, munch…mm, I'm so happy…

Likes: This is amazing…! Master Sage, how did you make this?

Neutral: Thank you so much, Master Sage. I feel much stronger now.

Hates: Umm, this isn't something I like very much. I'm sorry.

Thinking of: I was just thinking about how I wanted to eat this. How did you know?

Hungry: This is a little embarrassing, but I was feeling rather hungry… It tastes even better than usual.

Nero

Loves: I'm surprised. I mean, my favorite food's always tasty, but it feels like this was the tastiest of all. Have you been practicing your cooking?

Likes: Hey, you ever consider opening your own restaurant? With food like this, I know it'd be popular.

Neutral: When it's this freshly made, anyone's cooking tastes good. Thanks.

Hates: Hold on, are you really sure you can call this "food"?

Thinking of: I just popped open a new bottle of liquor from the stock, and what do you know. This would go with it perfectly.

Hungry: Damn, hunger really is the best spice. This tasted extra good.

Shylock

Loves: Gulp. …Fufufu.

Likes: It seems you know what I like, Master Sage.

Neutral: Shall I open a bottle of wine in return?

Hates: You're terrible.

Thinking of: What a luscious flavor. Perhaps I'll add this to my menu.

Murr

Loves: I love this! So much I could ask for seconds!

Likes: Nomnomnom… Mmmm, delish!

Neutral: Wah, Master Sage, thanks so much! I'll be able to bounce around even more now!

Hates: Wow, even Mithra couldn't eat this! I'd love to see inside the head of whoever made it!

Thinking of: Oh, this is perfect for me right now! Exactly like the moon hanging there in the sky!

Chloe

Loves: Wah, I'm so happy! Is it really okay for me to eat this?

Likes: Thanks for the food! Master Sage, I feel all pepped up now!

Neutral: Is it really okay if I eat something this tasty…? Master Sage, really, thank you so much!

Hates: I'm so sorry, Master Sage. It looks like I don't really like this dish… Uugh…

Thinking of: Ah…! I was totally just thinking about how I wanted this. You're amazing, Master Sage!

Rustica

Loves: What a lovely aroma… I've fallen in love at first scent.

Likes: Haha, I can feel your love in this, Master Sage.

Neutral: My heart is at peace. Thank you, Master Sage.

Hates: Must I eat this no matter what?

Thinking of: Master Sage… Surely, Master Sage, you must know the intricacies of my heart. For you see, I had just been thinking I'd like to eat this.

Figaro

Loves: Mm, perfectly delicious to make me perfectly happy. As thanks, you can eat me, too.

Likes: Now I can keep up the hard work. Dr. Figaro's perfectly satisfied!

Neutral: Living here really lets me eat so many delicious things. Thank you.

Hates: Hmm, I wonder if I can accept just your feelings here.

Thinking of: Thank you. Say, are you trying to hit on me?

Rutile

Loves: It's really okay for me to eat all of this? Thank you so much. I'm so happy…

Likes: Eating delicious food will put a smile on anyone's face.

Neutral: Thank you so much for everything you do, Master Sage. The food that you make for me is always so delicious.

Hates: I know it's unbecoming to be picky but…I'd still like to skip this…

Thinking of: Master Sage, can you read minds? I'd just been thinking I'd like this.

Lennox

Loves: This is my favorite. …Thank you very much.

Likes: That was satisfying. Thank you very much.

Neutral: Thank you very much. I'll work extra hard in return for what you gave me.

Hates: Hmgh… It's a bit difficult, but I'll do my best.

Thinking of: I was just getting hungry for this.

Hungry: I was so hungry I thought I might collapse.

Mitile

Loves: Mmm, I'm so happy… Thanks to you, I can do my best, Master Sage!

Likes: This is delicious! I didn't know you were so good at cooking, Master Sage.

Neutral: Master Sage, thank you for making me something so tasty!

Hates: Uu… Is it okay if there's leftovers? I'm feeling tired of eating…

Thinking of: Just now, I was thinking I really wanted to eat this. …How did you know, Master Sage?

[mal-urameshi]

I’m still waiting for Shuri’s confession😫😫 you can’t end it plsss I’m on my knees 😫😫😫😫

A/N: Heh. You guys weren't playing about wanting it. So here. Fresh out the oven. All these confessions drained me. Mm. Mm.

Shuri bit into the last of her seventh ice pop for the morning. She let the stick hang from her lips as she vented to one of the Doras a mile a minute, “But what if some girl wants to get to her before me like my mother said?” Shuri chewed on the stick until it splintered her tongue some.

“I’ll have you know that Riri and I are a 101 percent match! With a 1 percent margin of error. Nobody deserves her. Nobody else gets her like I do! Nobody else can appreciate her like I can!” Shuri placed her hand on the Dora’s shoulders and shook her, “Why am I such a coward!”

Shuri hung her head and took a deep breath, “I was so scared. I want to be with her so bad. I could have lost her to some stupid school boy if she liked him back.”

Kholwa, the Dora in question that was subject to Shuri’s ranting, pat Shuri’s hand in comfort, “Princess. It’s okay.”

Shuri wiped her eyes, “No! It’s not okay! I’m a poor excuse of a..of a- ! I can’t even think right now. I had my chance to tell her and I missed it.”

Kholwa pulled Shuri in for a hug, “Princess, you didn’t miss anything. You just got nervous. You have plenty of time to tell her your feelings. You just have to calm yourself. And lay your feelings bare.”

“No! What if she feels disgusted by me?”

“Disgusted?” Kholwa questioned, “What?”

“Yes! Her long time friend who secretly loves her, pretending everything is just fine, when in reality she craves her love and affection? She’s going to think I was being disingenuous. Keeping her around for my sick fantasies!”

Kholwa tried to calm Shuri down, “Princess, do you really have sick fantasies about her?”

“Of course not! Sure, I..” Shuri shrugged, “I think about her in more…romantic ways. So to speak. But that is normal teenage stuff! Not sick fantasies.” Shuri crossed her arms with a huff.

“Exactly! She isn’t going to think that. You can’t help who you fall in love with. Riri won’t think that way of you. She adores you too much.” Kholwa tried to keep her composure. She felt for the Princess. She really did, but the way Shuri lamented the feelings she perceived to be unrequited was absolutely amusing. 

Both girls could have their happily ever after if someone just made a move!

Shuri sulked. Does Riri have her eyes on anybody in her class? Do any girls have crushes on her like Sipho-boy? When would somebody make their move on her next?

Shuri put her palms over her face and screamed into them.

Kholwa silently laughed before patting Shuri’s head, “Are you feeling better now, Princess?”

“Yes, just a bit.” Shuri nodded solemnly.

“Okay, let’s go get some more ice pops.”

Shuri paced a bit in the greenery. Kholwa had convinced her to practice confessing her feelings of Riri to her to work off her nerves.

Kholwa sat under the Acacia, enjoying the shade while Shuri sorted herself out.

“Princess, you shouldn’t think too hard about it. Just take a deep breath and go with the flow.” She wiggled her hands to mimic an undulating wave, “Let the words overflow from your heart like a fractured dam! Your love can’t be contained anymore and it needs to be released. So don’t hold back! Don’t hide!”

Shuri nodded and did a few jumps while shaking herself off, feeding off of Kholwa’s hype.

Shuri walked over to where Kholwa sat and took her hands into hers, “I can’t hold back anymore.” Shuri closed her eyes and envisioned Riri’s face.

“You mean so much to me. I want you for myself. And only for myself. I hate the thought that at any point of any given day, someone could just take you from me. Well…” Her eyes fell open just when movement at her peripherals caused her to look at who was at the greenery entrance.

“Nobody can love you like I can.”

Riri didn’t know what to do with herself. Shuri was kneeling down in front of one of the younger Doras. Professing her love for her. She looked so into it too. Riri looked around, feeling awkward for probably ruining the moment before running back the way she came.

“Riri! Wait! Bast! No! No! No!” Shuri’s vision blurred, the stress of the situation already getting to her.

“Princess, go get her!” Kholwa urged as she pushed Shuri to the way Riri ran off to, “This is your chance!”

Shuri wiped her eyes and allowed herself to be pushed forward by the Dora, “Riri, wait!”

Riri didn’t know why she was so upset. Shuri could have had a girlfriend if she wanted. She hiccuped while maneuvering her way through the palace. She just wanted to get out of here. 

Now she was definitely sure Shuri didn’t have feelings for her.

Riri just wanted to hurry home so she could stay holed up in her room to try to get over herself. She couldn’t help but be pissed though. Shuri talked all that talk about drifting away from each other and feeling replaced.

What about how shitty she was feeling now?

“Riri!” Shuri caught up to the shorter girl and grabbed her arm.

Riri sharply inhaled and exhaled, “Let me go, Shuri.”

“No! I have to tell you something.”

Riri refused to face Shuri “It can’t be as important as you confessing to your Dora girlfriend.”

“She’s not my girlfriend!”

Riri tried to keep her composure, but that was a tall order.

“I just saw you telling her you loved her!”

“I don’t! She was just practice!”

“Practice?” Riri finally turned around.

“Yes, for you!” Shuri looked around and noted the wayward Doras in the hall. She really didn’t want an audience for this.

“For me?” Riri frowned, “So you're just telling everybody you love them besides the person you supposedly love?” Riri tried to pull her hand away but Shuri wasn’t allowing it.

“You expect me to believe that shit?” Riri tried to tug her hand away again.

“Yes, Riri! If the girl I supposedly loved was back there, I wouldn’t have run after you. I only want you!” She tugged Riri closer to her and wrapped her in a hug.

Riri tried to pull away from Shuri but she had her in a near unbreakable grip.

Shuri felt like she could have passed out. Riri was trying to get away from her as fast as possible. Her worst fears were being realized.

“Please don’t run away from me. I don’t want you to go. Please, Riri. Can we just talk?”

Riri had settled by now and just nodded. Shuri took Riri’s hand and guided her back to her room, enveloped in silence. Both lost in their own worlds.

The door closed after Shuri stepped in behind Riri.

Riri sat on Shuri’s bed while the older girl decided to stay standing.

‘Before you say anything. I don’t have any hoes. I’m not entertaining anybody else. Kholwa was just helping me with how I’d confess my feelings for you. I was a mess. After that Sipho boy gave you all those presents and a confession, I lost it. Then my mother had also asked what I would have done if a girl liked you next. And I hate the thought of you liking someone other than me.”

Riri clasped her hands to keep herself together, absolutely not believing the words filling her ears.

Shuri took some time to gather herself, her throat felt tight, but she had to get through this!

“I wanted to tell you back in your room that I liked you. But I was scared you’d have pushed me away. But I love you so much Riri.” Shuri walked over to Riri and kneeled in front of her.

Shuri gathered Riri’s hands that were in her lap and gazed into her eyes, “I love you so much it hurts. I hated that I couldn’t tell you how I felt, for fear of making you uncomfortable. I hated that some boy confessed to you first. I hated how my jealousy made me react and in turn hurt you.”

Shuri’s voice broke on the last word, screwed her eyes shut and pressed her forehead against Riri’s lap.

“I love you. I love you. I love you, Riri. I loved you ever since we were children. I love you now. And I won’t ever stop loving you.”

Her tears were freely flowing now, wetting Riri’s lap. But she didn’t care. This was probably the last time she could be close to Riri like this.

Riri looked down at Shuri. Her own vision was swimming. She wiped her tears and allowed a hand to fall atop Shuri’s head. She’d lost count of how many times she said she loved her.

“Shuri..” She cleared her throat and quietly tried again, “Shuri?”

Shuri didn’t answer her, for fear of what Riri had to say.

Riri cupped the sides and Shuri’s head and slowly lifted her face so she could see her properly.

Shuri looked up at Riri with sad eyes, but Riri still found her to be beautiful. Puffy red eyes accompanied by a watery nose and all.

Shuri tried to blink away her tears but they slid down her face instead.

Riri gently wiped Shuri’s nose, “I wouldn’t have ran away from you, Shuri.”

Shuri sniffled, “No?”

“I was actually hoping that you would have confessed back in my room. But when you didn’t, I said that I should stop kidding myself.”

“I’m sorry, Riri.”

Riri shook her head and affectionately stroked her cheek, “Don’t apologize. You were afraid. It’s okay.”

Riri leaned down and pressed a kiss to Shuri’s lips, “I love you, too.”

Shuri’s eyes lit up at the show of affection, which wasn’t lost on Riri.

Riri pressed another kiss to her lips, “I loved you for a while now.”

Shuri sat up straighter, ecstatic that her feelings were returned, but hoping even more that Riri would give her another kiss.

Riri chuckled at Shuri’s lightened mood and pulled her up to the bed.

Shuri had yet to break eye contact with Riri, giddy from their close proximity.

Riri closed the distance to give her another kiss and Shuri eagerly cupped her face to make it last just a few moments longer.

When they finally broke apart, Shuri bit her lip in a futile attempt to stifle her dopey smile.

Riri aimlessly fingered the bedsheets under Shuri’s lovesick scrutiny, “I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving you too.”

Taggies: @somethingcleaverandwhitty @karimwillia @neptoons1998 @pantherheart