#what the cherry-scented letter taught him...

[keii4ii]

떠나는 이가 남겨진 이에게

[out-of-jams]

Across the Board || i || kth

(banner done by the great @kimtaehyunq )

↠ Across the Board ↞ You’d hit a low point in life. With bills piling up and your bank account empty, you were starting to get desperate. So when you got the invite to your oldest friend’s birthday party being hosted at the most popular underground casino in town, what did you possibly have to lose? You took what little you had left in your savings, put your card skills to use, and entered a private blackjack game.

And you’d won. And went back for more, and more, and more.

Until you lost.

And now you’re indebted to the city’s most dangerous mob boss, forced to pay your dues in blood one way or another. With a gun pushed into your hands and your life at stake; once you’re in, you’re in. You’ll never get out.

Word Count: 4k

Warnings/Genre: Set in the Roaring 20s! Gambling. Mature themes. Mafia!au. Mafia Don!Taehyung. Violence. Law breaking. Alcohol use. Death of minor characters. Explicit language. Enemies to lovers. Short series. 18+

                              || Next | Masterlist | |

Danger.

It was a word right up there alongside the definition for the term “stupidity.” While not next to each other in the dictionary, they were close enough that your brain was unable to pick out the subtle differences. Perhaps you’d just always had a habit for screwing your life up, or maybe it was just genetics. Who knew?

You should have listened to the warnings, should have stopped yourself before you got in too deep. Hell, you should have done a lot of things. But you had no one to blame for your current situation except for yourself. However, if you’d learned anything throughout your twenty-two short years of life, it was that life lessons didn’t mean jack if you didn’t get yourself into messes into the first place.

Though staring down the barrel of a revolver sure was a funny way of going about it.

The air in the dimly lit back corner room was tense enough to hear the sound of a casino chip fall to the ground somewhere beyond the shut door. None of the six men sitting around the round, green felted table spoke a word. Their attention — and yours, consequently — was fixed on the single man in the room who barely even batted an eye at the clear panic evident on your face.

He sat on the opposite side of you; the scowl pulling down his bow shaped lips and the narrowing of his fierce gaze had fear chilling your veins. That man was much like an exotic animal; beautiful beyond belief, but dangerous right beneath the surface. A carnivore staring down his prey. The single light above the table threw his shadow against the wall as he casually aimed his pistol right between your eyes.

“You were saying, dollface?”

His neatly parted, straight black hair fell across his face when he leaned forward as if the next words out of your mouth would seal your fate. Not that the thought of having to have your blood cleaned from the expensive carpet beneath his expensive shoes seemed to bother him in the slightest. In fact, he’d look almost bored if it weren’t for the dangerous gleam behind his espresso irises.

“I—” You cut yourself off, swallowing roughly and glancing back down at the table. A depleted deck of cards sat in the center, two hands laid out on the surface. One was yours — a ten of diamonds and a ten of clubs — and the other his. A red ace of spades and a black jack of hearts.

You were out of money.

Having bet more than you possessed, you were also out of chances.

“It’s simple. You owe me money as promised,” his deep, baritone voice spoke up casually over the noise of your heart beating through your chest. “Either hand it over, or you won’t be leaving this room alive. Your choice.”

You closed your eyes for a moment too long to be called a blink, and cursed yourself for ever getting into this situation.

                           One Month Ago

Final Notice of Payment

Ms. L/n,

This is a reminder that you have a balance of $20.54 that is past due. Please make a one time payment no later than—

“Oh, please.” The bill enclosed envelope hit the top of the small, circular dining room table. Or was it the kitchen table? It was hard to tell, seeing as how they were one and the same.

A sigh escaped your lips as you leaned back against the creaky wooden chair, fingers massaging your temples. That was the third bill you’d come across that morning and every single one of them was the final notice of payment. The last warning they’d give before sending someone to collect what was owed.

It hadn’t always been like that. You hadn’t always been in such an insurmountable amount of debt, not until recently. Two months ago your mother, the last bit of family you had left, died. Passed away clinging to the sheets of the hospital bed she’d been laid up in for the past half a year. Cancer, the doctors had said. From all of the cigarettes she’d burned through in the past decade or so.

Irrecoverable, they’d said.

No amount of “sorry’s” or meaningless condolences could fix the massive amount of money that the hospital billed you. Or the debt that your mother left behind, along with her slim-boned corpse that you’d had to bury in the corner of the city cemetery. Perhaps if you’d known who your father was, you could’ve laid her to rest in the space next to his own, but you didn’t. Weren’t fortunate enough to.

Bills had piled up. Rent for the tiny studio apartment the two of you had shared was demanded by the pigeon-toed old woman who owned the rundown, overpriced building. Her husband had passed away two years ago and ever since then, she’d been relentless. She pounded on your door at approximately eight in the morning everyday, shouting through the thin wood that you had until the week was up to pay what was owed. Otherwise you’d be tossed out onto the street with only the clothes on your back.

Combined with the utility bill and the fact that you still had to come up with the dough to feed yourself, you were trapped. The meagre pennies you got from your waitressing job at the diner three blocks away weren’t nearly enough. Nothing would be enough. Not unless you wanted to sell your body on the street corners in the late of night.

Which you didn’t. And you wouldn’t. You’d be more likely to end up dead in a ditch somewhere with your throat cut than out of debt. The city wasn’t safe for women, less so by those men who saw prostitutes as no more than an object to relieve stress onto. And you refused to become another headline in the paper.

Tossing the opened envelope across the table, you paused when familiar handwriting caught your eye on top of the rest of the mail pile. Addressed to you in a curling script that only ever came from someone who could afford a private tutor. You sighed, carefully sliding a knife along the top to slice it open. A waft of sweet, cherry scented perfume filled your tiny kitchen and you almost rolled your eyes at the unnecessary addition.

Jennie, your oldest friend since high school, always had an inclination for the unnecessary. Born with a silver spoon in her mouth and a gold digger for a mother, she’d had nothing else to waste her time on. How you’d even gotten on as friends with such a gap between tax brackets was still a mystery to you. Maybe it was because she’d always used her wealth and status to get the two of you out of trouble. Whether it was from breaking into the school late at night to get wasted in the halls with the rest of her friends, or to get away with slipping things from the corner store into your dress pockets.

She’d always been a rule breaker.

Which was exactly why when you read the contents of the letter, a laugh tumbled from your mouth. It was an invitation to celebrate her upcoming twenty-third birthday in three day’s time. That wouldn’t have been anything out of the ordinary, however, if it weren’t for the location. There wasn’t an exact address, there never was. Just a thin piece of cardboard the size of your hand that fell from the envelope. A playing card — a red ace. One that looked normal except for the center that had the name of a restaurant in the heart of the most rich part of downtown printed on it.

It was a ticket to the most popular underground casino in the whole city. No one knew how to get one, how to get your name onto the list that only catered to the rich and powerful. Located beneath a restaurant, it had grown to be infamous almost overnight since gambling and alcohol was outlawed. Even the coppers knew well enough to leave the establishment alone.

The only way to gain entrance was by flashing a ticket to one of the restaurant staff. That was what you’d heard, at least. You had no idea how May had managed to secure one, let alone enough to cover what you knew would be a large party of her closest friends.

Flicking the corner of the card, you couldn’t believe your luck.

Your mother hadn’t taught you very many things, had been too busy gossiping with her friends over a carton of cigarettes to bother. What she had passed down, however, was her ability to draw cards. To play blackjack with the best of them. That’d been the only thing she’d ever bothered to teach you; when she’d had too many sips of wine and her eyes had glazed over with memories of the life she used to live. 

She’d sit you down and make you memorize the names and faces of the cards until you could count them forward and backwards. Could predict what card would be drawn and when. Where she’d learned it, she’d never told you. But that didn’t matter now. Couldn’t, seeing as she was dead and all.

Grinning, you flopped back into your chair.

Maybe you’d be able to pay off your debts after all.

And you had. Paid off your debt, that is.

After clearing out your savings account of the last fifteen dollars you had left to your name, you’d dolled yourself up and gone with Jennie and her friends. Had left the group of flappers tittering and groaning drunk at the line of slot machines at the back of the casino. Calls of bets being placed, dough exchanging for chips, and illegal cocktails pouring into glasses played as a soundtrack.

None of the card tables scattered across the underground establishment held what you’d been looking for. Neither roulette, nor craps, nor slots. The bartender had been the one to tell you where the real games were, where the cash was. A door down a tiny back hallway led to a room where private games were held. If you managed to win at one, he’d told you, then you’d win not only the pot, but an invitation to come back and play again.

Which had been an opportunity that you just couldn’t pass up. No matter the risk.

You’d won.

And now you were addicted.

To the money, the lifestyle, the adrenaline that shot through your veins like a particularly harsh sip of gin. Which was exactly why you’d gone back. Again, and again, and again, every single week for the past month. It wasn’t your fault that it was so easy. So simple to swindle your way into getting your name permanently written down on the entry list.

Oh, and the men.

It was a different group every week, but they weren’t all that dissimilar from one another. They’d sit there and smoke their cigars and drink their whiskey, all while silently mocking you with their eyes. Like they thought they were better than you just because they had a dick between their legs.

You were addicted to that too.

To watching the way their faces would fall in disbelief every single time you cleared the pot and took their money. And how their voices would raise in pitch with their countless complaints about how some lowly broad conned them out of their pocket change. Because that’s all that money was to people like them.

Change.

They were rich. You could tell by the custom suits they wore, the cologne they bathed in, the way they carried themselves. The money they gambled with always had a cap, a max amount that they were willing to bet. And the games never got too crazy, didn’t escalate once they lost to you. Which was a shame really, because you wanted more. Craved more. More of what, you weren’t too sure, but the high that playing brought only lasted so long until you came crashing back down.

Which was exactly when fate decided to change the routine.

“Here to play again, miss?” Felix, the same teenage boy who always manned the door to the gambling room, asked with a slight tilt of his head. His light brunette hair was tucked beneath a bowler hat, different from the usual fedora. Back to the door, he was standing up straight instead of his normal slouch. And the way his mouth was taught around the edges was out of the ordinary as well.

The boy didn’t have a cigarette clenched between his teeth, which should have been enough to set off the bells in your head. But it didn’t. Because you were too bullheaded, had gotten too cocky in the terms of things.

“You know me too well, Felix.” You reached out a hand to pat the lanky boy on his suit clad arm lightly, a smile pulling up at your red painted lips. “Is the usual table ready?”

The volume in the casino wasn’t as loud either, nor were there quite as many patrons. But you’d just chalked that up to the heavy rain pounding a path into the concrete outside. Though the lack of customers did nothing to eliminate the permanent smell of cigarette smoke that lingered, hidden in the walls beneath the fancy looking wallpaper.

“I don’t know if you want to play today, miss.” Felix glanced away from you with his bottom lip caught between his teeth. You blamed the flickering light in the corner of the hall for the way his freckles stood out amongst his slowly paling cheeks.

You raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

He didn’t answer. Not at first. Silence lingered in the hall, drowning in the soft jazz music coming from the band on the stage near the back of the joint. It took the raising of your other brow for the underaged boy to finally answer.

“It’s just not a good day for gambling.”

Now that had you leaning forward until you could finally catch his flighty gaze, voice hushed in a playful whisper. “Oh really, how so? Is there a stool-pigeon running about somewhere? Should we be expecting the coppers to come kicking down the door any minute?”

“No. I—”

“Then why can’t I play, Felix?” You were starting to get irritated. The week had been long and you were ready to forget about it all for the next few hours. Buried beneath the weight of a handful of cards and glass full of gin.

Either Felix could see your growing impatience, or there really was something he was hiding, because he stepped even further in front of the door. “You don’t want to play with this group, miss. They aren’t as welcoming as the others are. It’d be best if you just went home.”

“You ca—”

“And what’s going on back here?” That wasn’t Felix’s voice and neither was it yours. You whipped around, surprised at the new addition.

The man behind you had honey brown hair parted and styled carefully until it was brushed back away from his heart-shaped face. Though some of it still hung in front of a single, dark eye. His other was uncovered, a scar running through his eyebrow and cutting it in half. Everything about him was angular, sharp. From his jawline to the slope of his nose and the corners of his full lips.

One look and you already pegged him for a cake-eater, a ladies man, if you’d ever seen one. Hell, he even dressed like he came right off the front cover of one of those Time magazines that littered the newspaper stands on every street corner. With a navy blue suit and perfect, unscuffed shoes.

“No, sir,” Felix attempted to pull the man’s attention from you unsuccessfully. “The missus here was just leaving.”

The Stranger hummed, tilting his head to study you with those sharp eyes of his. “Were you, bunny? Just leaving?”

You couldn’t help the twitch of your nose at the unfavorable nickname, squaring your shoulders and crossing your arms with a scoff. “No, I wasn’t. I want to play a few rounds, you see, but he won’t let me.”

Perhaps you should have felt bad for ratting out the kid, but you didn’t. Especially not when the Stranger huffed a laugh, a distinct ha-ha-ha! in amusement. Though there was something else in his eyes that you couldn’t name. Didn’t want to acknowledge. “You want to play a hand of blackjack, is that right?”

“Ab-so-lute-ly.” You raised an eyebrow at the man and waved a hand through the air. “I can play.”

“Oh,” He asked, taking a step closer until you had to crane your neck back to meet his imploring gaze. “Playing isn’t cheap.”

You shrugged nonchalantly. “I can pay too.”

He must have been waiting for that answer if the smirk that pulled at his lips was any indication. And he finally, finally broke eye contact to wave aside the boy behind you. “Well, did the dame make herself clear or not? She wants to play.”

You happened to turn just in time to catch the alarm that flickered across Felix’s face as he stepped to the side to reveal the door behind him. Felix reached out with a ringed hand to twist the brass knob of the door. It swung open without a sound and he gave you a quick, wide-eyed stare filled with a warning you couldn’t interpret, before looking away.

“Well?” The Stranger questioned from over your shoulder. You could smell his cologne now; husky with a hint of sweet orange.

His words were an invitation if you’d ever heard one. And you didn’t want to look like a bluenose, a prude, so you stepped inside without hesitation. Though perhaps you should have taken Felix’s unspoken warning, for you had no idea just what it was that you were walking into.

Inside the cramped room was filled with a haze of cigar smoke, which wasn’t unusual at all. What was, however, was the group of six men sitting at the circular table as you rounded the corner with the Stranger at your back. They were beautiful, all of them. A huge contrast to the usual rabble that came to play. Hell, even underneath the dim light you couldn't spot a single flaw on them.

No one noticed your entrance at first.  

Well, at least not until the Stranger cleared his throat. “Gentleman.”

His greeting sounded like it toed somewhere on the line between amusement and respect.

All movement in the room came to a halt as six men looked up from where they’d been bent over the blackjack table. If you’d been a little less prideful and a lot more careful, then perhaps the overbearing confidence that bled from their pores would have given you pause. But as it was, you stood standing, back straight and head held high. Even while their eyes roamed your figure like tigers behind a cage at the zoo right before feeding time.

A pause hovered in the air, lingering with a tension that crawled onto your skin. What seemed like hours passed merely in seconds before it was broken.

“And who’s this?” The question came from the fella who sat in the chair closest to where you stood. He was turned around with his arm propped up on the back of it, head tilted to the side in curiosity. His hair was styled similar to the Stranger’s, though his was darker and the gel pushed through the strands made it gleam silver beneath the dim lamp that hung above the table.

High cheekbones and skin the same color as molten honey, his jaw worked around a piece of gum stuck between his teeth. A smirk pulled up at the corner of his mouth, dark eyes glittering with a touch of interest. With a black and white suit that complimented the shade of his hair, the man was nothing if not a billboard: flashy. Handsome.

“I found bunny here outside arguing with Felix. Something about wanting to play a few rounds of blackjack. Isn’t that right?” The Stranger placed a heavy palm between your shoulder blades. What might have been intended to come off as comforting, only succeeded in making you feel the opposite. Like you were being put on display.

You didn’t let it show on your face. “That’s right.”

“Oh?” Gum Chewer’s smirk grew broader at that, but he said nothing else. Just leaned back in his chair.

“What do you say, should we let her play?” Blond hair, pink kissable lips and dangerous, dangerous eyes. The slim man sitting next to Gum Chewer was attractive in a pretty way that made you envious of his easy-on-the-eyes looks.

While the question may have been asked to the whole room, none of them answered it. Instead they looked towards one of the men sitting in the middle who had yet to speak. If you’d thought the rest of them were a sight for sore eyes, well, they had nothing on him. How your attention hadn’t been drawn to him the moment you walked through the door, you didn’t know.

He wasn’t even looking at you and you already felt tongue-tied. Busying himself with shuffling the cards in his hands against the green felt table, the expensive looking rings adorning his slender fingers caught your eye. He was what your mother would’ve called a timeless beauty. The type of handsome that meant he could walk the streets of the city in nothing but a sack and he’d have women throwing themselves at his feet.

Hair the same shade as a moonless sky made him look intimidating, like he belonged to the shadows themselves. A straight nose, cupid bow lips and long eyelashes that would make any broad jealous; he gave off the type of power that could make even the bravest of men cower at his feet. The longer he took to respond, the more the room grew still. As if your fate was in the hands of a man who’s name you didn’t even know.

Though perhaps it was.

A muffled thud echoed throughout the room as he tapped the deck of cards against the table once, twice, before sliding them over to the fella to his left. Plucking up the glass of scotch in front of him, he finally looked up. And graced you with the prettiest chocolate brown eyes you’d ever seen.

“What’s your name, dollface?”

tagged: @bewitch-me​  @jxngkooksthxghs​   @kaitswrld​  @clarissalance​  @namurkive​ @ifntelyinspirit​  @kotaevln​  @red--aren  @ggukkieland​  @moonlitmyg​  @i-like-puppy-mg​  @aianloveseven​  @drumsofheaven​  @figurativehoe00​ @wonhoandonly​ @wacdon​ @hear-me-growl​ @milaridez7 @1088x1088​ @alana-ba​ @vlntaeg​

[heliads]

Away With Me Chapter 4: The Village

Princess Y/N is dreading her looming arranged marriage to a wicked nobleman when she makes an unlikely friend in castle craftsman Peter Parker. Will they be able to become close despite their differences in status?

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When the morning sun is finally too bright to ignore, you blink open your eyes, still tired.

You look up at the arched wooden ceiling, letting a slow smile cross your face. Here you are, lying calmly next to the boy your love. For the first time, you don’t have to worry about any marriage contract or palace decorum- you are finally free of all responsibilities except to live happily with Peter.

Speaking of Peter, the brown-haired boy is waking up, too. He presses a light kiss to your forehead and stands up, stretching. The two of you eat a quick breakfast before he heads out to the town center- he needs to check in on his job as village craftsman to make sure everything looks alright. You, on the other hand, have absolutely nothing planned. Well, what else can you do except go explore?

You pull on a faded green dress from the bag you brought with you, fixing your hair quickly before heading out the door. You bask for just a moment in the warm sun, then start on your journey.

You make sure to walk every inch of the village, not wanting to miss seeing a single street or cobbled square. Most houses have small flowering boxes or neatly trimmed gardens encircling them like a gate of greenery, and you make a note to yourself to look into making a garden of your own. Wouldn’t it be fun to have your own wandering lines of flowers and ferns in the back of your house? You stroll past bakeries and blacksmiths, milliners and marketplaces. At last, you are thrilled to discover a small bookshop, and eagerly slip inside.

The bookseller runs a quiet little shop, closed away from the hustle and bustle of an early morning. The cool air is scented slightly by the old books, and the rustle of fading pages is music to your ears. You feel like you could spend hours in that darkened store, but you tear yourself away after a while. You do allow yourself to buy one book though, a small book of fables that caught your eye with its intricate leather bindings and detailed illustrations.

As you stride out of the bookseller’s, blinking in the sudden sunlight, you catch sight of a young girl struggling to carry two buckets full of water. She barely looks older than five, and the buckets are so full that the water inside threatens to slosh over onto the street, ruining all of the girl’s hard work. Instantly, you run over, taking one of the buckets. The girl looks at you gratefully, and you follow her to a bakery, where she hands the buckets over to a thin-faced woman in a flour-covered apron.

The girl considers you for a moment, then sticks out her hand solemnly. “My name is Charlotte.” You take the girl’s hand with equal formality. “I am Y/N.” Charlotte peers at the book you’ve just purchased. “Thank you for helping me with the water. Is that a book from the bookseller’s down the road?” You nod, smiling. “I just bought it a few minutes ago. Have you read this one?” The girl shakes her head sadly. “I’m needed to help my mother with the bakery, so I don’t have time to go to school and learn to read. I’d like to though, a whole lot.” You smile at the girl, forming an idea. “What if I taught you how to read?” Charlotte’s face lights up. “Really? You mean it?” You nod, taking the book out from your bag and guiding the little girl over to a bench. “Absolutely. Let’s begin.”

Charlotte turns out to be a quick learner, and the two of you go through some letters before her mother calls her once more. Just before she goes, Charlotte begs you to come back the next day and teach her even more, and you readily agree. Smiling over the girl’s excitement, you wander your way back home.

Peter is waiting for you, and he kisses you in greeting once you open the front door. “How was your first day being a commoner like the rest of us?” You laugh, and swat him on the shoulder. “It was just wonderful.” And it was- the feeling of being free to do whatever you want instead of adhering to the guidelines of royalty is one of the best feelings in the world.

Most of your days pass like this- Peter heading off to work, you helping Charlotte learn to read or work on your (admittedly struggling) garden or finding some other way to help out around the village. You and Peter are easily welcomed into the village, and it brings you no small amount of joy that you can live with the boy you love and have such a wonderful time doing so. 

Peter is glad that you fit in so well, too, and whenever he’s out in town he always does his best to come see you at least once during the day. One time, he came to visit during your daily lessons with Charlotte, and the beaming smile on his face when he saw the two of you bent over a book could have outshone even the sun.

Blessed hours turn into days, and glorious days turn into weeks. Before you know it, you have lived in the village for three months. To celebrate, you brought home a cookbook from the bookseller’s, and Peter comes home to find you studying a recipe for cherry pie with all the solemnity of one of the kingdom’s highest scholars.

“What’s all this about?” Peter walks up behind you, taking in all of the pots and pans you’ve used as well as the cookbook. You turn to him, grinning. “I am celebrating our three-month anniversary of living in the village. I made a pie, which should be ready right about-” You’re cut off by your clock striking the hour, and hurry over to your oven. “Right about now!”

Luckily for you, the pie looks perfect, and you and Peter hurry to set the table before it cools off completely. Just before you can cut into it, though, there’s a loud knock at the door. Peter looks at you confusedly. “Were you expecting anyone?” You shake your head, but Peter’s eyes clear. “It must have been old Mr. Bennett from down the road. He always does this whenever I start on a new project for him- I’ve barely been working for longer than a minute before he’s coming back to the shop and listing some other new idea. I’ll answer him- it’ll just be another moment.

Peter stands up and walks over to the door, unlocking it and pulling it open. At the look of fear flashing across his face you stand up, too, and realize with growing horror that it is not simply old Mr. Bennett at the door, but instead, the King’s Guard stands before you.

“Mr. Parker? You are under arrest for the kidnapping of Princess Y/N. You will be coming with us.” The guards step forward, and you realize that everything the two of you have worked so hard for, the life that you have enjoyed so much, is crumbling around you.

You race forward and stand close to Peter, wrapping your arms around him. “No! You can’t take him!” The captain of the guards moves towards you, and pulls you away from him. You fight as hard as you can, but before you know it Peter is being dragged out of the room and you are left alone. You crumple to the ground, sobbing.

When you finally are forced back to the castle, you immediately go to your room and lock the door. No matter how many times your father or your guards or even your ladies-in-waiting try to convince you to let them in, that door remains locked. You cry and cry for what feels like forever, mourning the loss of your life with Peter. It had all happened so fast- one minute the two of you were sitting down to dinner, no worries in sight, and then the guards had swooped in and taken him away from you. The cherry pie was probably still on the table, uneaten. Would little Charlotte know what had happened to you? Would the people of the village know?

Later that night, you’re finally able to slip away from the newly posted guards at your door long enough to see Peter. You wind your way through the dank passages of the dungeons until you reach Peter’s cell, and, without alerting the dungeonmaster (nicknamed ‘The Vulture’ by the castle staff because of his harsh treatment of the prisoners) or the guards patrolling the cells, you unlock the cell door and fling your arms around the boy you love. He holds onto you tightly, and you cry quietly into his shoulder.

“Oh, Peter, I’m so sorry! I never meant for any of this to happen- this is all my fault- I never should have-” Peter cuts you off softly. “Never should have what? I don’t regret meeting you or falling in love with you for a second. It was my idea to run away together, and I probably should have made sure that we went further away from the castle.” You pull back from Peter for just a second, taking in the sight of him. You lace your fingers in between his, and guide him out of the cell. 

“Where are we going?” Peter asks you in a hushed whisper, desperate to not attract any unwelcome attention. “I’m getting you out of here. Come on!” You guide your love through the passageways and out of the dungeons until the two of you are standing near a castle entrance, lit only by the light of the rising moon. You thrust a bag of food into Peter’s hands. “There’s a horse not too far from here, I saw it from my window. If you hurry now, you should be able to get out of here before anyone realizes.”

Peter looks at you, confused, but you continue on. “The von Struckers are angry that I ran away from the wedding, so my father is going off of some lie that you kidnapped me. By pretending that it was all your fault, he can keep the marriage intact and still get the money and resources that our kingdom so desperately needs. The problem is, kidnapping a princess is a terrible crime and they’d probably kill you.”

Peter laughs at that. “I’m not against leaving. Come on, let’s go.” He takes a few steps towards the door, but looks back at you when he realizes that you haven’t followed him. “Come on, Y/N. You said it yourself- we need to get out of here before the guards realize we’re gone.” You shake your head softly, trying to hold back tears. “The guards won’t realize I’m gone because I’ll be back in my room. You know I can’t go with you, Peter.”

Peter rushes back to you, holding you close in his arms. “Why not, Y/N? We could make it out- no one would notice-” You laugh mournfully. “I would love nothing more than to run away with you. Those few months we had in the village were the best of my life, but the guards found us because they were looking for me. If I stay here, they won’t come and find you, and you being safe is worth a hundred terrible marriages.” You gently disentangle yourself from Peter’s arms. “You need to go. There’s only so much time we have.”

Peter looks at you, and you swear you can feel his heart breaking right along with yours. “I can’t let you go, Y/N, you know that. Please, come with me.” You take one step back, hating yourself all the while. “I need you to be safe. I need you to live! Take the horse, and go as far away from here as you can and never come back. I will miss you every second of every day, but it will be worth it if I know you will be alive.” Peter rushes to you once more, and kisses you one last time. “I will never forget you, Y/N. I will love you for as long as I live.”

With that, Peter holds you tight one last time, and then quickly races off into the night. He turns back once, just before he’s out of view, and you watch him go for as long as you can. Once he fully disappears from sight, you let out the tears you’ve been holding back. Peter is gone, and you will never love again.

[rimaiahwrites]

Slumber party—

Part five

Israel was sitting in her room with a thick book pressed in between her fingers while her cute round glasses hung on the tip of her nose. Since it was Friday, It was a chill day for her. She had no chores or errands to run because she had gotten them all done the day before, so that meant it was just going to be herself, her books, silence, And her baby turtle Franklin, of course. He was cute, small and a bit smelly but he was one of her first friend.

Israel slightly jumped from the screeching sound of her window Flying open and hitting her wall, with a loud slam.

The weather was a bit breezy today but Israel loved when it was like this. The sound of the wind blowing against her window and The soothing clicks and clacks of her mother Wind chimes hitting against each other. It triggered a feeling In her that was hard to explain... It brought her back to a place she missed dearly, her childhood. Summers at her grandparents house playing outside, and sleeping in a full size bed with four of her cousins, scratched up together with nothing to cool them down but the loud fan in the window.

it was a feeling that only lasted seconds before life pulled her back to the harsh reality that she was grown and had responsibilities.

She got up from her window seat and shut it. She glanced out the window and her eyes drifted over to the site of her parents loading the car up with what looked to be suit cases. Her eyes frowned in confusion before she throw her book on the bed and jogged down the crackling stairs. The front door opened before she could reach the bottom of the stairs, her mom came in frantically looking around the room like she was looking for something.

"Mom where are y'all going?" She asked concerned at this point. She had only seen her mother like this once, and that was when her oldest brother got arrested. That was another story for a different day.

Isabel finally grabbed her keys and headed for the door not even hearing her daughters question. Israel followed her outside and grabbed the car door before she could close it. "Where are you going? What happened?" Her mother let out a huff since she was out of breath from running around the house grabbing things.

"your aunt got into a really bad accident this morning, so me and your dad is catching a flight to Chicago to make sure she already, this was the earliest flight we could catch. We're probably gonna have to stay a week or two since she has no one to take care of her. Call and Tell your brothers we're leaving, and make sure to lock the door." Her mom yelled out the car window as her father drove out of the driveway slowly as Israel stood there dumbfounded by the news. She watched as they drove away. It more then odd but why would her mother lie about her sister being in a car crash? She shrugged before going back into the house.

She sat on her knees in front of the couch with her Palms facing The ceiling saying a quick prayer for her aunt before hopping up with a squeal.

She felt bad for her aunt...(even though she only met her once when she was about ten) she really did....but that didn't mean she wasn't excited to have the whole house to herself for the day. Having three older brothers will leave you drained and in-dire need to some privacy and alone time.

She decided it was the perfect time for her pamper routine she tried to do every week.

She jogged up the stairs before grabbing her speaker and phone. She Blue-toothed it to the speaker. Soothing music was a very important part of the routine, or else it was boring. She turn on her Noel soul/feminine empowering play list. Which was full of, erykah-badu, Ari Lennox, Lauryn Hill and Solange, plus more amazing female artists.

She ran her bath water hot, and clear of soap since she was very sensitive in her lower half area. She pull flower prattles in the water to make it look pretty before adding a few drops of some scented oils.

Her bathroom smelled of vanilla.

She stood in-front of her bathroom mirror, slowly swaying her body to the beat and voice of Ari Lennox. Backseat.

Israel dragged her oversized shirt over her head, and slowly dragged the thick fabric of her white sweatpants down her smooth pretty brown legs. She turned away from the mirror and dipped her foot in first before fulling sitting down in the hot water. She took a breath of relief.

She reached over her bathtub to grabbed the book she was reading. 'How to embrace your feminine' it read on the cover, in big bold pink lettering. She was very interested in the topic lately. And it was differently helping her embrace her feminine side more and more. Her mother, of course taught her the basics such as, how to properly clean herself and to cross her legs when she sat, but it was so much more to it then just making sure to cross your legs when you sit.

It was WAY deeper then that. It was the way you dressed, acted, speak.

When you hear that it may seem a bit intimidating but it truly changed the way the whole world looked at you, especially as a brown/dark skin women, Since they were seen as aggressive, anger, and bitter by Society for whatever reason.

It hurt a bit to know you have to change yourself for society to except you, but Israel wanted this. Ever since she was a young girl but never knew how To express her girly side since she was mainly around her older brothers.

A hour later, her music was interrupted by her phone ringing and she sat her book down on her sink before standing up from the water and stepping out, dripping water everywhere.

"Erik." She whispered, a grin spreading on her glossy lips, as she stared down at her phone screen. She jumped on her bed and unplugged it. "hello?" She answered, her voice getting softly automatically.

"Wassup babygirl, what you doing?" He asked, putting his phone on speaker so he could set it down on the floor next to him. Grunting as he pulled himself up, his chin tapping the pull up bar slightly before he lower himself, repeating it over.

She stood up from her bed and grabbed her towel, wrapping it around her breasts. She walked back into her bathroom and drained the now lukewarm bath water. "just got out the tube, and about to shave, exfoliate and put a face mask on." She giggled softly.

"Damn that sounds good as fuck right now, you mind coming over and pampering me?" He half joke, chuckling before jumping down from the pull-up bar to grab his ice cold water. She laughed throwing her head back. "Awww poor baby, you sore?" He sighed laying down on his mat. his hands on his head, feeling the soreness really kick in. It was most likely gonna be worst tomorrow.

"Hell yeah...my legs, arms and stomach feel like they just ran over."

"Why do you work yourself so hard Erik?" Things got quite on his side, she looked at her screen wondering why he was speaking. He was staring off into the distance with his lip in between his teeth. "Because I got some important shit to get done..." he tailed off.

"Life changing shit. Get ready I'm about to pick you up." She chuckled rolling her eyes, dipping her fingers in to the clay face mask that she was in love with. It made her skin so soft and scar free. It was a very important part of her skin care routine.

"How you know I wanna go somewhere with you?" He chuckled standing up from the floor taking the phone with him.

"Cuz you ain't got shit else to do." She opened and closed her mouth, offended but know he was right.

"Fine I guess, but this time I get to stay out how ever late I want since my parents are out of town." She cheered brightly. Smiling into the camera with her gray face mask on. Then She gasped As a genius idea popped into her head. "Oh my gosh can we have a sleep over at your house? That would be so fun!" Erik on the other side of the phone sorted. "A sleep over? What is this 5th grade?" Well shit. Israel thought putting a pout on her face.

"Well I wouldn't know since I never got to have a sleep over or go to a sleep over before of my parents." Having strict parents was a struggle. She knew that they only did it to protect her but she feels like she missed out on a lot stuff when she was a child.

"We ain't having no damn sleep over." He said sternly, pouring some cold water in his glass water bottle. Israel pout got bigger but Erik ignored her. Israel stomped her bare foot on the ground, the smacking sound catching his attention. "Please? Pleeeeeeease! We can get candy, movies blankets the whole thing....pretty please? With a cherry on top?" Erik sighed harshly staring at her with a bored expression. "Alright whatever Sasha, start packing ya shit, imma be there in like 30 minutes." He said chuckling before hanging up on her before she could ask why he called her Sasha. She laughed at the fact that he thought it was only gonna take her 30 minutes to get ready.

Israel shrugged and ran back into her bathroom to shaved, deep condition her kinky curls and moistures her whole body.

a horn honk was heard two times and Israel already knew it was Erik so she didn't bother looking out the window. She ran down the stairs and out the front door with her big brightly blue duffel bag. She locked the door before skipping off the porch happily, with a big grin on her face, Her big duffle bag swinging around from her running.

"Look at her spoiled goofy ass." He mumbled to himself smirking.

"You're 2 hours and 15 minutes late." She stated jokily because sliding into the passenger seat. He chuckled dryly. "Ha ha I was low key rethinking this whole thing to be honest."

Bold.

Israel had been trying to think of a word to describe him and one of them was bold. He didn't really have a filter...or maybe he just didn't really care about other people's feelings. Not saying that it hurt her feeling because she knew he was only joking...probably.

"Stop acting like you wasn't the one that asked me to come with you. You don't be having anything to do ether." She assed back, cutting her eyes at him. Only making him chuckled.

"What the fuck is in that bag? You pack ya whole room?" She rolled her eyes before unzipping it to show him everything.

"No, I just brought some of my favorite movies, some popcorn and the rest is some clothes and stuff."

"The notebook?" He said eyeing it in disgusted, picking it up and throwing it back into her bag.

"What? What's wrong with the notebook? It's a really sad and loving story." She defended her favorite movie hugging it to her chest. "That shit is so soppy-" she smacked her lips. "Ok and? You probably only watch thug where the main character always dies in the end from some gang related shit." Erik sat quietly because she was right. She snickered shaking her head.

"Yeah but that's real life shit, niggas die every in the hood but how likely is it that you meet this girl in high school, y'all parents make y'all break up on some Romeo and Juliet type shit then years later y'all find each other when one of y'all about to get married then y'all fuck fall in love again them find out whole time the bitch had short term memory lose-" Israel gasped at his harsh words, smacking him on the arm. "Erik!" She screamed covering her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

"That's shit is just not possible." He shrugged stopping at a red light.

"You're just looking at it In the wrong way- she grabbed the movie case looking at the back of it. -think of it like this, they had a love so strong that even years later they were still in love with each other, even after ally found love again there was no love compared to the love she had for Noah." She sighed batting her eyelashes towards the blue sky, like she looking at the love of her life.

"It's a beautiful story Erik." He rolled his eyes and mumbled under his breath. "I still don't want to watch that shit but ok."

-

Erik unlocked his front door to his house and Israel stepped in.

His house smelled like him- was the first thing Israel thought, while spinning around to get a full look at the house from the door way.

Since it was a loft his Kitchen, living room and bedroom was all in one room, basically, Except you had to go up stairs to get to his bed. And it was all decorated with a African theme. Masks and ancient looking spears and weapons hung on the wall almost like in a museum. Israel was so intrigued She forgot Erik was even standing there. "Wow..." she whispered reaching out to touch The long sliver spear. "You like it?" Erik whispered in her ear making goosebumps appear on her arms The back of her neck. "Yeah...it's beautiful, where you get it? Is it real?" She said dragging her finger tips down the front of it feeling it's smooth texture. "You mean is it from a real African tribe? Yes it's is, it from a tribe of women." Israel's eyes lit up brightly.

"You have so many cool things up here." He nodded watching her look closely at everything. He went to the kitchen to let her explore a little while he popped the popcorn for the movie. Eventually she walked into the kitchen to find Erik pouring the bag of popcorn into a big bowl for the both of them to share.

"You have a beautiful home." She complemented him as he passed the bowl over for her to grab some. She stuffed her mouth full as she grabbed the bowl. "Thanks, Damn slow down mamas it's not gonna run from you shit." He mumbled watching her barely be able to swallow the rest that was in her mouth before a another hand full was in her mouth. "My bad, it's a habit." She laughed chewing slowly now.

"Nah yo ass just always hungry." He joked. teasingly poking her in the side, making her squirm from how ticklish she was.

"stop that!" She groans smacking his hand before grabbing a another handful of pop corn.

______

Israel plopped down on Erik's bed as he turned on his projector and set everything up for the movie.

She loved it here, his whole loft was a vibe. From the front door to his bedroom— his bedroom was probably her favorite part since she has never really seen anything like this.

"What are we watching?" Israel asked innocently looking up at him through her eyelashes.

"IT." He shrugged clicking on the movie before walking back over to the bed to sit next to her.

"but...I don't want to watch it..." she tilted her head to the side, sticking her bottom lip out at him. "Oh come on you cry baby you'll be fine, ain't no clown ass nigga bout to come in here and get you, and if they tried I'll kill his ass." He said making her laugh out. "I still don't want to watch this shit, imma be scared to night...I'm going to be by myself all weekend most likely and you live all the way out here so what you gonna do?" He only chuckled and hushed her pressing play on the movie.

Israel hide herself on the side of Erik as it began.

-

A hour and 5 minutes later A jump scare popped on the screen and Israel jerked so hard the popcorn spilled over landing on Erik's lap. Erik on the other hand was unfazed and haven't jumped not once yet, and it was annoying Israel. "You're making me look like a scary cat damn...at least jump once." She mumbled cutting her eyes his way. "Because it's not scary, you just a pussy." She gasped and smack him on the arm playfully. He chuckled and throw a piece of popcorn at her face that she throw back without a hesitation and then that turned into a popcorn fight.

Israel throw a hand full of popcorn and Erik won by dumping the whole bowl onto her head. "Erik! That's not fair!" He stuck his tongue out at her and hopped off the bed before she could throw more at him. "I won fair and Square, don't be a sore loser." He chuckled as she sat on her legs with a pout on her face and her arms crossed over her chest with the bowl on her head. "Stop making that face before I come over there and attack your cute ass."

"You always cheat when we play games....like last night when we played 8 ball-"

"I didn't cheat you just trying to make yourself feel better because you know you suck ass." Israel mouth hang open in fake shock and Erik tossed a piece of popcorn into it. She couldn't help but laugh at his dumb ass as he yelled "buckets!"

He pick up the remote and pressed Pause on the movie that they had completely forgot about and scooped some of the thrown popcorn back into the bowl. "Imma go get my vacuum, I'll be right back." Israel Nodded her head, popping a few m&m's in her mouth.

It was popcorn literally everywhere and Israel felt kinda bad that he was the only one trying to clean even though she helped make the mess. She didn't want him to think she was a horrible guest so she started to push the popcorn up in a pile in the middle the bed. As she was reaching over to grabbed more popcorn she stretched her leg out accidentally kicking something off of the bed. It made a loud crashing sound and Israel prayed that she didn't break anything. She was sure Erik would ripe her head off if she did.

She turn around and pecked over the side of the bed. It was a laptop- a Mac book to be exact. A two Thousand dollar laptop. "Shit." She mumbled reaching over to grab it by the screen. She plunged it back into the charger and the screen popped on. it was unlocked which was surprising since not many people left their laptops or phone without a password.

She hummed and focused on what was on the screen. It was a girl with pink prissy Lingerie and tall white platform heels on. Her makeup was bright and her curls were loose and blonde. It caught Israel's attention immediately. It looked to be on Tumblr but she wasn't quite sure. She knew it look familiar to the app that her cousin jazz spent hours. Jazz had tried her to get into it but Israel just wasn't really fascinated by the app. It looked boring and plan to her.

And eventually after looking at the picture for a couple of seconds Her Curiosity got the best of her And soon her fingertips were moving to the scrolling pad and she was invading his privacy.

The page was full of beautiful girls dressed in cute girly outfits and pigtails and she was hooked. She was already a whore for fashion so she was always up for finding and exploring with different aesthetic's. And this was definitely one that she was not TO familiar with. She has dressed in prissy and girly things of course since she was a girly girl but never to this Extreme. The hair bows butterfly clips, knee-high socks pastel color platforms and tutus styled with crap tops were so cute to her. It was nothing like the clothes she had in her closet.

Her style had multiple personalities and this was one that she definitely wanted to add to the Collection. Then something Else caught her attention, the words DDLG, princess, daddy, little, and dom/sub printed everywhere on the site. One girl put #miss my daddydom in her caption and Israel went to click on the tag curious as to what that meant. She knew the girl wasn't talking about her father with the type of picture that went with the caption clearly.

She was so lost in Computer and finding new pages that she didn't hear or see Erik walk back into the room...not until the laptop was being snatched away from her hands. She gasped and scramble to get her words out. "Why were you on my shit?" He hissed slowly pressing his body against hers making her lay flat on the bed with her palms gripping the cushion. She let out a shaky breath turning her head avoiding his eyes. "I'm sorry I-it was a accident-" He let out a deep and scary chuckled that made her blood run cold.

It was like he was a completely different person.

"So you accidentally turn my laptop on and was looking through my shit?" He asked. She then realized how stupid that sounded how much trouble she had just got herself into. She should have knew that he would snap like that since he did that the first she got in his car and was looking through his shit. "Well n-no I just meant I didn't do it intentionally....I accidentally kicked your laptop off the couch while I trying to clean up the popcorn and your laptop popped on and then the cute ass outfits that girl had on caught my attention and the next thing I knew I was scrolling through your st-uff." She whispered trying to Swallow the lamp that was Forming in her throat. The tears filled her waterline and her vision became blurry. Erik's face softened a bit and he sat her up on her butt. With tears now running down her face and a little pout silently asking for forgiveness.

Erik's big thumbs ran across her cheeks taking the tears with it. He let out a deep breath before pulling her head up in the air so that she was looking at him. "Stop all that crying shit, look at me." He demanded. Her doe eyes stared into his. "It's alright just don't be looking through my stuff without my permission, I hate that shit."

She nodded and they sat in silent until her Curiosity got the best of her. "What is...that?....i really like the way they dress... it's cute." She said batting her eyelashes trying to lighten the mood. Erik ran his hand down his face cracking a small smile before resting his hand on his chin, Staring at her.

"You like... the outfits? the only thing you saw was the outfits?" She shrugged. "I mean some of them were half naked but nothing more then their panties and bras" He plotted down on the bed next to her pulling her down with him so they were both laying down staring at each other. "I got some filthy shit on there I don't think you're innocent ass would be able to handle." She broke out into a fit of laughter, she laughed so hard tears came to her eyes. She didn't know exactly why it was so funny to her but it was- maybe it was the fact that she couldn't see Erik as a 'filthy' man. Erik didn't find it as funny as she did. Once she saw he wasn't laughing she stoped, and bit her lip. "Sorry."

"Why you laughing tho?" She shrugged again.

"I just...don't see you as- I don't know a dirty man. When I think of a 'dirty man' I think of a man that's really  really sexual. You talk dirty sometimes but you even talk about your sex life that much- a matter of fact you never talk about you sex life like ever, I mean expect for that one night but other then that you don't." He give her a teasing grin before pulling her closer by wrapping a arm around her waist.

"you want me to talk about my sex life?" She blush And smacked him on his chest, it vibrating from his deep laugh. "No of course not...unless?" She mumbled before placing her hand over her face to hide her embarrassment. "How you gonna say that then get embarrassed?"

He lick his thick lips slowly watching her peck through her fingers with a small smile on her face. "I just mean like....what so interesting about it? My cousin literally tells me everything about her and her man sex life so I'm sure I can handle what goes on in yours."

"'ight bet." He smirked getting up from the couch And over to the cabinet that was across the room. He grabbed a key that was hanging a above it and unlocked the cabinet. Israel leaned over to try and see what was in it but his bold ass shoulders were in the way of her view. Soon he pulled out a dvd case with no picture on the front and popped it in. He jumped back onto the bed with her, he watched the screen load while Israel starred holes into his face.

"What did you just put in?" She asked as she got a bit suspicious. His behavior had changed she could tell by the way his body shifted and the look on his face. It was hard again with a slight smirk glazing his lips. His eyes hazy and low. He shrugged at her question just as she did not to long ago to him.

He pressed play and the smirk he had on his face turned into a full on grin when a dark room with little to no light in it. The only light was a red LED lightbulb that gave the room a dark glow. Israel frowned as she tried to figure out what was happening. Realization hit her when she saw Erik come into the camera shot with a limp girl laying in his arms. She almost looked....lifeless with the way her arms just flopped around.

Erik laid her in the bed and took what looked to be rope from the dresser next to the bed. He brought her arms up to the headboard and tied them tightly. Since the girl was unconscious he had no problem tying her up. He kinda wished she was awake cause he liked the struggle sometimes. After he tired her arm and legs to the headboard he reached In the dresser again and pulled out a long white candle and a lighter. He sparked the lighter and the girl's finger twitched a bit and he grinned evilly knowing she was coming back. He lit the candle and let it malt slowly. The tip of the candle wax was clear now so he slowly pour it onto the back of the girl's legs since they were up in the air. She blotted awake in shook and in pain.

Israel slowly began to sink into her seat as chills were sent down her back, this wasn't something she has ever seen and he haven't even got started yet.

"You're awake.....how lovely of you to join me princess, how was your sleep." The girl breathing was heavy and loud but she calmed down when she saw it was just Erik. Erik ran his hand down her the valley of her breasts all the way down to her naked pussy.

Her body shivered slightly and jerk. "Just fuck me already Daddy!" The girl whin. He had already teased her to unconsciousness she was tired of his games.

"This is what you call foreplay, it's basically just getting the girl turned on before you start fucking her. Mainly because if she isn't wet it'll hurt her and won't feel as good for the guy ether." He answered before she could even ask because he knew she was going to ask. She clueless, poor thing.

She nodded trying to swallow her spit even though her mouth was dry. She was getting hot everywhere. Erik could tell by the way she squirmed and shifted in her seat. Her eyes were glued to the big tv screen. eyes watching his every movement, as crazy as it may sound she was slightly jealous of the girl on the screen. As she got older the more she craved to be touched by a man, she was definitely sexually frustrated and she just had to deal with it.

"Ok Erik I get it now we don't have to watch the whole thing." She huffed out a breath reaching out for the remote to turn it off but Erik snatched the remote from her.

"Nah you wanted to watch it so watch it." He snapped making her roll her eyes. They were now 15 minutes in and Erik was fucking the girl to tears. Her voice was horsed and almost gone with the way she was screaming for him to fuck her harder. Erik's body was glossy from the sweat that was dripping down in tear drops onto the girl's.

The tension in the room had gotten so thick that Israel was feeling a bit uneasy, her cheeks were hot and her hands were shaky but her eyes stayed on the screen.

This was probably the best porn she had ever seen- even though She hadn't searched and looked for porn on her own since she was semi traumatized from All the videos her cousins tried to get her to watch one night at a sleep over they had about a year ago. And all the videos that they showed her were videos of white girls fake moaning 'yes daddy give me that big thick cock' and ever since she it had been a big a turn off for her— but this? This was on a whole different level of sexy. The way his body moved mesmerized against the girl's. she couldn't help but imagine the girl as herself. In a deep arch gripping the sheets begging for him to let her cum.

Israel lip was sucked in between her teeth in a hungry manner and her feet played with each other on top of the blankets that were now at their feet.

"Erik..." he hummed at her, moving his eyes to hers. "Why are you showing me this?" He grabbed the remote and stopped the video.

"Because you asked to see it, don't ask me to show you for no shit like this again-" He mumbled taking the dvd out his dvd. "-cause clearly you can't handle it." He snapped, now facing her.

"I Didn't expect you to show me that..." she mumbled moving her eyes around the room to avoid his.

It was silent on both sides, Israel was more so embarrassed then amused like Erik was. "Why so quite now mamas?" He asked laying back on the bed.

"I feel...tingly, down there" He hummed, smirking. turning his face towards her. "You feel all hot and bothered?" She nodded her head before laying against his shoulder, in embarrassment.

The fact that she just admitted that to him was probably the most embarrassing thing she has every done.

"You want me to fix it?" He asked very softly, against the shell of her ear. She whimpered. "E, stop...can you put my movie in now?"

"You don't want daddy to help you?" He said in a jokily manner, Teasing her while poking her in the stomach.

"Erik stop teasing meeeee you're making it worse!" She whined pushing him off of her. "Nigga put my movie in." She demanded, pointing to the tv laughing nervously.

"Alright alright, Baby." He chuckled loudly before getting up to put her movie in.

Part 1 of 2

[oxhaven]

Good Girl pt. 6 / hybrid!au - Jungkook

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. | Taehyung | Hoseok | Yoongi | Seokjin | Jimin

You looked down at the phone screen with furrowed eyebrows, huffing out in annoyance as your brown eyes searched the keyboard for the letter you needed. Your eyelids squinted as the orange rays of sunlight beamed down on your face, prohibiting your search even more. 

You made a triumph noise when you found the final letter to your word, hitting the ‘send’ button of your message to the group chat of the other furry hybrids. You managed to capture a perfect photo of you outside with the sunlight hitting your skin beautifully at the park. 

Yes you had done it again; going out without Jungkook’s permission but damn it you loved being outside. With Jungkook working all day almost everyday, it was hard to get him to take you out the house especially when he was tired most of the time. You enjoyed staying in and watching shows together and ordering food or being able to cook together with what he would teach you. But you didn’t think it would hurt for you to get a little sunlight here and again.      

‘i might have to tell jungkook you’re being a bad girl’     

You eyed the instant message that came in from Cherry, a pout on your lips as you readied a single finger to type back a response. 

“I guess you don’t like being kept in the house.”

Your head shot up with red-orange fox ears at attention, swinging your head around to find the culprit. You almost didn’t recognize the hooded cat on top of the stone wall, the setting sun beaming in his face making him take on the look of an angel from where you were sitting on the bench. 

“Suga!” You exclaimed, your tail immediately beginning to wag as you watched himself hop off and land on the bench beside before dropping down to take a seat. 

“Calm down, rascal. Haven’t I taught you not to cause too much attention to yourself?” You couldn’t help but wrap your arms around him, giving him a tight hug as you took in the familiar scent of the other hybrid. You hummed gleefully before pulling away with a foolish smile on your face. “Sorry, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”

“Is that a phone?”

You pulled away and looked down at the device you were still clinging onto, a noise of recognition leaving your lips. “Yeah, I’m still not used to this technology stuff.”

“You think you’re big shit now because your master got you a phone?”

“No!” You exclaimed loudly, a color of pink forming on your pale cheeks as you slumped against the back of the park bench. “Plus he didn’t get this for me, I got it from a friend.”

Yoongi hummed with amusement, squinted eyes staring out at the field filled with people enjoying themselves in the perfect weather. “Your master lets you have friends huh? And I thought he had you on a tight leash.”

You glanced over at him, releasing a questioning hum with a smirk on your face. “You sound a bit jealous. Your master doesn’t let you have friends?”

Yoongi eyed you back as he scoffed lightly. “I told you, I’m different from you.” He stretched his limbs out with a groan of satisfaction, playfully hitting the back of your head with his fingers and staring back at the field as you yipped at him. 

“I do what I want.” 

“Well so do I-”

“No you don’t.” 

“You’re right.” You whined, slumping in your seat with fox ears flattening back as you pouted. You had to admit you didn’t have as much freedom as you hoped. You tried not to focus so much on the doubt in your mind whether Jungkook trusted you or not, it was already enough that you felt neglected by his care for you. You tried hard every day to be a good girl for him but you wanted more. More of his touch, more of his eyes on you. More of his attention, more of his dominance-

“How long do you plan on staying out here?” Yoongi interrupts your train of thoughts as you snapped back to reality and looked over at him. He glanced down not far from your face and sighed, “It’s not safe for you to be out here without a collar.”

“Neither is it for you.” you returned back, your ears flattening back on the top of your head in shame for you knew very well he was right. You just wanted to come outside for some fresh air and now you were being reprimanded by a hybrid just like you. 

He huffed and smirked before offering out his hand to you and standing up from the bench. “Come on, I’ll bring you back home.”

You pouted before slipping your hand in his and getting up, your bushy tail slightly wagging behind. Though you didn’t want to admit you appreciated the physical contact even if it was with Yoongi as he pulled you along to exit the park. 

“Hey, you two.”

You made a noise as the pace of your walk suddenly stopped, Yoongi frozen where he stood. You looked behind the two of you, a man you didn’t recognize making his way over to the two of you with a polite smile. You sniffed the air as he got closer and circled around to face the both of you, hands behind his back as he grinned and hummed questioningly.     

“Where’s your owner?”

The tip of your eyebrows scrunched closer as the hand in yours tightened its hold. A growl built up in the back of your throat as your eyes trailed down, recognizing the letters of ‘HCO’ on the man’s uniform. Your claws started to extract until the thumb over your fingers pressed gently into your knuckles and rubbed back. You peeked over in Yoongi’s direction, seeing a calm smile on his face that challenged the stranger in front of the both of you. 

“Sorry about that sir, I forgot her collar at home. We were just getting some fresh air but we’re getting ready to head back-” 

“You’re a hybrid too, boy.”

The smile on Yoongi’s face completely wiped off, feeling the hood of his jacket pulled back from the top of his head sharply. Your eyes widened at the sight of another man beside Yoongi, surprised that you didn’t sense him exposing his cat ears to all of you on full display. 

He cackled aloud and dropped his arm around Yoongi’s shoulders heavily, pulling at one of his ears in a teasing manner. “He sure is.”

The man who stood in front of you pulled out two black leashes from behind his back, shaking his head with a sigh. “No collars and no sight of an owner around, you two are gonna take a ride with us-”

Yoongi’s body moved swiftly, throwing his arm back to introduce the ball of his elbow with the man’s nose and pushing him out of the way as he fell to the ground. You were dragged along into a sprint, holding tightly onto Yoongi’s hand as the two of you made a break for it in the opposite direction with the yelling men behind you.  

Your heart raced in your ears as your senses heightened drastically and you picked up to Yoongi’s speed quicker than he expected. You knew to make a lunge for the tall stone wall as Yoongi ran straight towards it, the both of you jumping up with animal-like instincts to climb on top and get on the other side. 

You didn’t think twice about jumping, as soon as you pulled your body up on the ledge you hopped down to the other side. You yipped sharply when you landed on the ground, your ankle twisting uncomfortably as you dropped to the floor and reached for your aching foot.

“Suga!” you panickedly screamed his name, fear shooting straight into your heart as you were sure you weren’t going to be able to run properly. He was right next to you, hopping in front with his arms flying back hurrying you to climb on his back. 

“Come on!” he yelled, his head swinging to the side with notice to the men approaching quickly when they rounded the entrance wall and sprinted towards the two of you. 

You made another noise of panic before wrapping your arms around his shoulders and your legs around his waist as he raised up quickly, hands clutching your thighs securely. 

He took off, running as fast as he could down the busy street with you on his back. The two of you could hear the men behind you, yelling aloud and encouraging the people around to stop Yoongi. 

You buried your head in his neck, clenching your eyes shut and whined. The pace of his breathing matched the beating of your heart as you felt his warm skin moisten with the effort he exerted, hearing him curse aloud as he rounded a corner. 

You shot your head up, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings as Yoongi took a few more turns trying not to lose his pace. 

“Where are we going?” your shaky voice asked in his ear, peeking back to see a few curious passersbys but the men weren’t in sight. 

“A hiding place.” Yoongi answered through clenched teeth, taking another turn at the end of the street before dropping you onto your feet without warning. You cried loudly before you were cut off with a hand slapping around your mouth and Yoongi’s flaring eyes in front of yours. He moved to the corner and peeked around, another curse leaving past his lips before he stepped back and quickly bent down with an arm swinging behind your legs. You held on as you were raised up in his arms bridal style, looking forward as he brought you down the street as swiftly as he could. 

The jingle of a bell signaled as the two of you entered the underground bar, all eyes turning to you as the door slammed behind. She was the first one you noticed, at a single table with her brown apron clashing poorly with her all black attire but she was undeniably beautiful. Hair pulled back into a ponytail and lightly colored brown eyes wide with the sight of you. You could smell her all the way from where you were...well where you were being carried as her eyebrows knitted together and she dropped the rag as she moved closer. 

“Suga?” she called gently, remaining calm with a hint of worry. Your fox ears flattened back and you tightened your hold around his neck as he moved down the steps.   

“We need to hide.” He responded to her, his voice serious as she wasted no time directing the both of you to the back. You turned your head to the side, noticing another girl behind the bar, eyes wide in surprise as she watched the three of you hurry to the back where inventory was stashed. 

You were placed onto your feet again when the door closed behind, this time more gentler than before. You leaned on Yoongi for support as he moved you into the corner between the shelves of liquor, crouching down and squeezing into the tight space. The girl wasn’t far behind, a baby blue blanket in her hands that she unfolded before crouched down next to you to wrap you with. 

“Who is she?” she asked Yoongi, voice soft as she pulled the blanket around you and you instantly calmed into the softness and smell. The unsureness and curiosity you felt earlier completely washed away as you looked into her hazel eyes, gleaming back into yours as she spared you a small smile. 

“I’m Nari sweetheart, don’t be afraid. Do you have a name?”

A loud bang of the door being slammed against the wall sounded throughout the bar, all eyes turning towards the door as Yoongi stood in front of the two of you in a hunched over position. 

“Hello, we’re not open yet-”

“Where is he!?”

Nari turned to move but was short stopped as she looked back at the hand on her arm, almost instantly retracting back as she glanced up at your widened eyes looking into hers. 

“Jasmine.”  

The smile that she gave you almost stole your heart away, sweet and warm as she nodded at you and moved to get up. A hand on Yoongi’s shoulder and she moved past him, going towards the door and flashing the two of you with a thumbs up before mouthing the words ‘stay put’.

A low growl ripped from Yoongi’s throat as you flinched, watching him inch move back before you reached out and pulled him closer to you in the corner. 

“Who?” Dahyun asked back, her face contorting with confusion as she eyed the two men. One stepped up to the bar across from her as the other remained in the back searching around as he moved between the tables.   

The man slapped his hands against the counter lightly and leaned in, dark eyes boring into hers as his tongue poked against the inside of his cheek. “We heard a little kitten is in here by the name of Suga. He’s a rascal who likes to play hero of the strays. Heard of him?”

Dahyun blinked at him before leaning in as well, leaving only two inches between their faces. “Sir this is a bar where we serve humans, and we’re not open yet. Come back later and I’ll answer all the questions you got.”

A light scoff left his mouth as his eyes trailed down getting a full view below of her chest. “I’m not going anywhere until you give me the cat.”

“Which one?” she challenged back, a smirk playing on her lips as she watched his eyes travel back up when she was sure he caught on. 

“Sir can I help you?”

All heads turned to Nari who entered from the back, wiping her hands on her apron as her eyes darted from both men. 

“I know you’re hiding a cat in here.” the man across from Dahyun exhaled, stepping back as he made his way to Nari. She made a face similar to Dahyun’s as she raised a hand to go up to rest on her hip. 

“I have nothing to hide sir, but I’m afraid I don’t have what you’re looking for.” She chuckled lightly, watching as he stepped towards her, only stopping short of an inch in front of her with his height towering over hers. 

He ran his tongue over the top of his teeth and raised an eyebrow, “I’ll be the judge of that. Me and my guy here are gonna take a look around-”

“I don’t give you permission to.” she quickly uttered, cocking her head up at him as she watched his face fall. There was a long agonizing silence in the room as they both stared each other down. Dahyun was frozen where she stood, only catching the other forgotten man still wandering about from the corner of her eye. 

You held your breath as tight as you could, feeling like you would be caught if you so much as released a breath. You could hear the low hiss Yoongi emitted in front of you, his claws extending out as they sank into your arms. He was shielding you in case they came in here, ready to attack and letting you make a break for it, but his mind was on his girlfriend who was standing right behind that door protecting the two of you. 

You glanced down, realizing your hands had been shaking the whole time you were gripping onto Yoongi. You peeked up to the top of his head, noticing his ears were flattened back as he continued to hiss at the door. You could only imagine the expression he was making; and then you began to regret your choice of coming out today. This must be your punishment for not listening to Jungkook, for doubting him and not being good. You wanted to cry but you were afraid if you made a noise they would come busting in here and take Yoongi away.     

“Are you recording this?”

All eyes in the barroom turned towards the front when only the wandering guard noticed the new person sitting at one of the tables, phone in hand with the flashlight pointed towards the guard and Nari. 

Jungkook focused his eyes on the screen of his phone, aiming the camera perfectly at the man towering Nari. “Don’t stop because I’m here, continue hassling that poor girl for the video.”

The man near Nari turned around, his eyes growing furious as he pointed a finger at Jungkook and stepped towards him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? This business has nothing to do with you, this little girl’s hiding a hybrid in-” 

“I should ask you that but I know how this would end if I physically intervened and laid your ass on this floor. So instead of risking getting arrested I'll let the people decide.”

He nonchalantly cut him off, raising the phone higher the closer the guard got. 

“If you don’t put that phone down boy-”

“You’re pressuring two young women over a hybrid you lost. What do you think the public will react more to - you two hunting down a little cat or two grown men manhandling defenseless women?”

That made him freeze in place, realization etching on his face as he stared at Jungkook with squinted eyes. Dahyun and Nari eyed the two guards staring down the new stranger, realizing as well that the situation played in their favor. It was a long moment before the guard straightened himself with a nod, turning towards Nari who was still posted at the door refusing to move from her spot. 

“We’ll come back for a drink.” His tone low and promising, a small smirk playing on his lips. “Make sure you keep him as an indoor cat for now on. It would be a shame for me to put him down.”

Nari couldn’t hold back the anger contorting on her face, shooting the man a death glare as she kept her mouth closed shut. He chuckled to himself before making his way out, his partner close behind as he waved goodbye. 

Nari fell back against the door when the two men exited out the bar, releasing an exasperated noise and raked her fingers through her hair. Her heart was racing a mile a minute the whole time, feeling like it was going to beat its way out her chest. She opened her eyes and smiled at the man before her, a worried gaze on his face as he closed the distance between them.  

“I’m Nari.” she introduced herself with thanks for his intervention. A small smile greeted her back, round eyes staring into hers as he held his hand out for her to shake.  

“I’m Jungkook.”

“And I’m interested!” Dahyun’s hand intercepted, taking his hand into her own as she introduced herself with a bright smile. “Dahyun.”

“Oppa.” 

All eyes shot towards the open door behind Nari, the two hybrids standing in the doorway as a pair of eyes locked on to Jungkook’s. 

“Jasmine!”

He didn’t mean to snatch away his hand as he reached for you, pulling you into his arms without a care for the others in the room. You fell into his embrace perfectly, wrapping your arms around him and burying your face into his neck. 

“I’m so sorry, I...I-”

“Shh, baby it’s okay. It’s okay, it was scary wasn’t it?”

The sound of his voice almost broke your heart, whining into his neck as you felt the tears sting at your eyes. There was no anger in his tone or disappointment, it was full of worry and love as you felt the slightest tremble in his body against yours. You held onto each other tightly as Jungkook noticed Yoongi wrapping his arms around Nari from behind in a protective hold. There was a shift in his eyes as he stared at Yoongi, his hold on you growing tighter.  

“I would put my hands on you, but I’m more than satisfied seeing that she’s safe.” He released you and took your hands instead, moving you behind beside him as he glared Yoongi down. “Do me a favor and stay away from her from now on.”

Your eyes widened and you put a hand on his chest. “Jungkook-” 

“We’re leaving.” He spoke, his tone calmly demanding. You were in no position to refute, a soft whine emitted towards Yoongi as Jungkook pulled you towards the exit leaving the three alone to collect their bearings. 

*

You stayed quiet on the bed, tail tucked next to your leg as your ears fluttered back. It was a very silent ride home and an even quieter bath alone before you were sat on the bed with an ice pack on your now swollen ankle. You watched Jungkook light the few candles in the room, smelling the wick burn before the scent of vanilla wafted through the room. He continued like that, making himself uselessly busy as he avoided eye contact with you. 

“Oppa.”

He finally halted with the call of the pet name, finally glancing over at you as the tip of your tail twitched. 

“The ice melted.” You alerted him, hopeful eyes looking at him as your tail began to wag. You watched him come over and carefully remove the ice pack off your ankle and took it with him as he left the room. He came back shortly after, a new fresh pack wrapped in a towel in his hands as he sat on the bed and arranged it on your foot again. You watched him carefully work, your body hunching forward to get closer to him. 

“I’m sorry.” You watched his fingers pause before resuming again, your eyes glancing up at his face. “I went out again without your permission. I wanted to get fresh air and play with the phone, and I only happened to run into Suga. The guards, they came to us and was gonna put leashes on us and Suga-”  

“You should have called me.”

His eyes finally bore into yours, giving you all the answers you seeked with only a few inches between your faces. He was upset, tiredness in his eyes as he released a shaky sigh and rested his head on your shoulder. “Jasmine. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t go out without me anymore. I’ll take more time off of work and-”

“I’m sorry.” your apology cut him off as a whine tore from your throat and you wrapped your arms around him, wanting to bury your body in his warmth. “I’m so sorry. I won’t go out anymore. I promise this time, I’ll stay here and wait for you. Like a good girl.”

Jungkook sighed again, a hand sliding around the nape of your neck and fingers tangling in the back of your hair. He pulled your head back to get a look at you before pressing a tender kiss on the top of your head. “No, baby we can go out. I’m sorry for not making more time for you. I don’t want something like this happening again.”

You understood, knowing how crazy this was for the both of you. He explained earlier how he was on his way home when he heard the commotion from his car of guards chasing after two hybrids and saw you and Yoongi running down the street with you clutching onto his back. He quickly parked and chased after you, finding your whereabouts shortly after the guards did. You thought how he must have felt seeing his hybrid in danger after he thought you were safely at home which he was returning to. 

A small smile grew on your face, a purr sounding in your throat. “I guess I’ll need that on me so they know who I belong to.” 

His gaze was curious as you shifted on the bed and reached for the nightstand on your side of the bed, taking out the collar from the drawer. His eyes instantly widened as you began putting it on, the white studded material wrapping around your neck snugly as you tightened it. 

“Where...did you get a collar from?”

You focused on getting the strap through the loop from behind, biting down on your lip. “Cherry bought it for me. I forgot that I was supposed to wear it when I go out.”

You made a noise of triumph when you got it latched on, shaking your head for your dark brunette hair to fall behind your back and put your white collar on display for Jungkook to see. You straightened up and blinked at him, his attention on your neck as he stared with wide eyes. “Kookie?”

He snapped back to reality, closing his gaped lips as moisture returned to his mouth. “You can take it off, you don’t have to wear it in the house.”

You cocked your head to the side, leaning forward with a questioning gaze. “Do you like it?”

You watched his eyes trail back down to the collar, smiling at the way his attention was easy to grasp. “You like it don’t you?” 

You were taken by surprise, his eyes snapping back to yours as they shifted with a darker glance. Nimble fingers hooked in between the collar and your neck, a light tug towards him as your breath hitched in your throat. You stared up at him, noticing the smirk playing on his lips. 

“I like it. Now get ready for bed.”

[promisesox]

Good Girl pt. 6 / hybrid!au - Jungkook

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. | Taehyung | Hoseok | Yoongi | Seokjin | Jimin

You looked down at the phone screen with furrowed eyebrows, huffing out in annoyance as your brown eyes searched the keyboard for the letter you needed. Your eyelids squinted as the orange rays of sunlight beamed down on your face, prohibiting your search even more. 

You made a triumph noise when you found the final letter to your word, hitting the ‘send’ button of your message to the group chat of the other furry hybrids. You managed to capture a perfect photo of you outside with the sunlight hitting your skin beautifully at the park. 

Yes you had done it again; going out without Jungkook’s permission but damn it you loved being outside. With Jungkook working all day almost everyday, it was hard to get him to take you out the house especially when he was tired most of the time. You enjoyed staying in and watching shows together and ordering food or being able to cook together with what he would teach you. But you didn’t think it would hurt for you to get a little sunlight here and again.      

‘i might have to tell jungkook you’re being a bad girl’     

You eyed the instant message that came in from Cherry, a pout on your lips as you readied a single finger to type back a response. 

“I guess you don’t like being kept in the house.”

Your head shot up with red-orange fox ears at attention, swinging your head around to find the culprit. You almost didn’t recognize the hooded cat on top of the stone wall, the setting sun beaming in his face making him take on the look of an angel from where you were sitting on the bench. 

“Suga!” You exclaimed, your tail immediately beginning to wag as you watched himself hop off and land on the bench beside before dropping down to take a seat. 

“Calm down, rascal. Haven’t I taught you not to cause too much attention to yourself?” You couldn’t help but wrap your arms around him, giving him a tight hug as you took in the familiar scent of the other hybrid. You hummed gleefully before pulling away with a foolish smile on your face. “Sorry, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”

“Is that a phone?”

You pulled away and looked down at the device you were still clinging onto, a noise of recognition leaving your lips. “Yeah, I’m still not used to this technology stuff.”

“You think you’re big shit now because your master got you a phone?”

“No!” You exclaimed loudly, a color of pink forming on your pale cheeks as you slumped against the back of the park bench. “Plus he didn’t get this for me, I got it from a friend.”

Yoongi hummed with amusement, squinted eyes staring out at the field filled with people enjoying themselves in the perfect weather. “Your master lets you have friends huh? And I thought he had you on a tight leash.”

You glanced over at him, releasing a questioning hum with a smirk on your face. “You sound a bit jealous. Your master doesn’t let you have friends?”

Yoongi eyed you back as he scoffed lightly. “I told you, I’m different from you.” He stretched his limbs out with a groan of satisfaction, playfully hitting the back of your head with his fingers and staring back at the field as you yipped at him. 

“I do what I want.” 

“Well so do I-”

“No you don’t.” 

“You’re right.” You whined, slumping in your seat with fox ears flattening back as you pouted. You had to admit you didn’t have as much freedom as you hoped. You tried not to focus so much on the doubt in your mind whether Jungkook trusted you or not, it was already enough that you felt neglected by his care for you. You tried hard every day to be a good girl for him but you wanted more. More of his touch, more of his eyes on you. More of his attention, more of his dominance-

“How long do you plan on staying out here?” Yoongi interrupts your train of thoughts as you snapped back to reality and looked over at him. He glanced down not far from your face and sighed, “It’s not safe for you to be out here without a collar.”

“Neither is it for you.” you returned back, your ears flattening back on the top of your head in shame for you knew very well he was right. You just wanted to come outside for some fresh air and now you were being reprimanded by a hybrid just like you. 

He huffed and smirked before offering out his hand to you and standing up from the bench. “Come on, I’ll bring you back home.”

You pouted before slipping your hand in his and getting up, your bushy tail slightly wagging behind. Though you didn’t want to admit you appreciated the physical contact even if it was with Yoongi as he pulled you along to exit the park. 

“Hey, you two.”

You made a noise as the pace of your walk suddenly stopped, Yoongi frozen where he stood. You looked behind the two of you, a man you didn’t recognize making his way over to the two of you with a polite smile. You sniffed the air as he got closer and circled around to face the both of you, hands behind his back as he grinned and hummed questioningly.     

“Where’s your owner?”

The tip of your eyebrows scrunched closer as the hand in yours tightened its hold. A growl built up in the back of your throat as your eyes trailed down, recognizing the letters of ‘HCO’ on the man’s uniform. Your claws started to extract until the thumb over your fingers pressed gently into your knuckles and rubbed back. You peeked over in Yoongi’s direction, seeing a calm smile on his face that challenged the stranger in front of the both of you. 

“Sorry about that sir, I forgot her collar at home. We were just getting some fresh air but we’re getting ready to head back-” 

“You’re a hybrid too, boy.”

The smile on Yoongi’s face completely wiped off, feeling the hood of his jacket pulled back from the top of his head sharply. Your eyes widened at the sight of another man beside Yoongi, surprised that you didn’t sense him exposing his cat ears to all of you on full display. 

He cackled aloud and dropped his arm around Yoongi’s shoulders heavily, pulling at one of his ears in a teasing manner. “He sure is.”

The man who stood in front of you pulled out two black leashes from behind his back, shaking his head with a sigh. “No collars and no sight of an owner around, you two are gonna take a ride with us-”

Yoongi’s body moved swiftly, throwing his arm back to introduce the ball of his elbow with the man’s nose and pushing him out of the way as he fell to the ground. You were dragged along into a sprint, holding tightly onto Yoongi’s hand as the two of you made a break for it in the opposite direction with the yelling men behind you.  

Your heart raced in your ears as your senses heightened drastically and you picked up to Yoongi’s speed quicker than he expected. You knew to make a lunge for the tall stone wall as Yoongi ran straight towards it, the both of you jumping up with animal-like instincts to climb on top and get on the other side. 

You didn’t think twice about jumping, as soon as you pulled your body up on the ledge you hopped down to the other side. You yipped sharply when you landed on the ground, your ankle twisting uncomfortably as you dropped to the floor and reached for your aching foot.

“Suga!” you panickedly screamed his name, fear shooting straight into your heart as you were sure you weren’t going to be able to run properly. He was right next to you, hopping in front with his arms flying back hurrying you to climb on his back. 

“Come on!” he yelled, his head swinging to the side with notice to the men approaching quickly when they rounded the entrance wall and sprinted towards the two of you. 

You made another noise of panic before wrapping your arms around his shoulders and your legs around his waist as he raised up quickly, hands clutching your thighs securely. 

He took off, running as fast as he could down the busy street with you on his back. The two of you could hear the men behind you, yelling aloud and encouraging the people around to stop Yoongi. 

You buried your head in his neck, clenching your eyes shut and whined. The pace of his breathing matched the beating of your heart as you felt his warm skin moisten with the effort he exerted, hearing him curse aloud as he rounded a corner. 

You shot your head up, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings as Yoongi took a few more turns trying not to lose his pace. 

“Where are we going?” your shaky voice asked in his ear, peeking back to see a few curious passersbys but the men weren’t in sight. 

“A hiding place.” Yoongi answered through clenched teeth, taking another turn at the end of the street before dropping you onto your feet without warning. You cried loudly before you were cut off with a hand slapping around your mouth and Yoongi’s flaring eyes in front of yours. He moved to the corner and peeked around, another curse leaving past his lips before he stepped back and quickly bent down with an arm swinging behind your legs. You held on as you were raised up in his arms bridal style, looking forward as he brought you down the street as swiftly as he could. 

The jingle of a bell signaled as the two of you entered the underground bar, all eyes turning to you as the door slammed behind. She was the first one you noticed, at a single table with her brown apron clashing poorly with her all black attire but she was undeniably beautiful. Hair pulled back into a ponytail and lightly colored brown eyes wide with the sight of you. You could smell her all the way from where you were...well where you were being carried as her eyebrows knitted together and she dropped the rag as she moved closer. 

“Suga?” she called gently, remaining calm with a hint of worry. Your fox ears flattened back and you tightened your hold around his neck as he moved down the steps.   

“We need to hide.” He responded to her, his voice serious as she wasted no time directing the both of you to the back. You turned your head to the side, noticing another girl behind the bar, eyes wide in surprise as she watched the three of you hurry to the back where inventory was stashed. 

You were placed onto your feet again when the door closed behind, this time more gentler than before. You leaned on Yoongi for support as he moved you into the corner between the shelves of liquor, crouching down and squeezing into the tight space. The girl wasn’t far behind, a baby blue blanket in her hands that she unfolded before crouched down next to you to wrap you with. 

“Who is she?” she asked Yoongi, voice soft as she pulled the blanket around you and you instantly calmed into the softness and smell. The unsureness and curiosity you felt earlier completely washed away as you looked into her hazel eyes, gleaming back into yours as she spared you a small smile. 

“I’m Nari sweetheart, don’t be afraid. Do you have a name?”

A loud bang of the door being slammed against the wall sounded throughout the bar, all eyes turning towards the door as Yoongi stood in front of the two of you in a hunched over position. 

“Hello, we’re not open yet-”

“Where is he!?”

Nari turned to move but was short stopped as she looked back at the hand on her arm, almost instantly retracting back as she glanced up at your widened eyes looking into hers. 

“Jasmine.”  

The smile that she gave you almost stole your heart away, sweet and warm as she nodded at you and moved to get up. A hand on Yoongi’s shoulder and she moved past him, going towards the door and flashing the two of you with a thumbs up before mouthing the words ‘stay put’.

A low growl ripped from Yoongi’s throat as you flinched, watching him inch move back before you reached out and pulled him closer to you in the corner. 

“Who?” Dahyun asked back, her face contorting with confusion as she eyed the two men. One stepped up to the bar across from her as the other remained in the back searching around as he moved between the tables.   

The man slapped his hands against the counter lightly and leaned in, dark eyes boring into hers as his tongue poked against the inside of his cheek. “We heard a little kitten is in here by the name of Suga. He’s a rascal who likes to play hero of the strays. Heard of him?”

Dahyun blinked at him before leaning in as well, leaving only two inches between their faces. “Sir this is a bar where we serve humans, and we’re not open yet. Come back later and I’ll answer all the questions you got.”

A light scoff left his mouth as his eyes trailed down getting a full view below of her chest. “I’m not going anywhere until you give me the cat.”

“Which one?” she challenged back, a smirk playing on her lips as she watched his eyes travel back up when she was sure he caught on. 

“Sir can I help you?”

All heads turned to Nari who entered from the back, wiping her hands on her apron as her eyes darted from both men. 

“I know you’re hiding a cat in here.” the man across from Dahyun exhaled, stepping back as he made his way to Nari. She made a face similar to Dahyun’s as she raised a hand to go up to rest on her hip. 

“I have nothing to hide sir, but I’m afraid I don’t have what you’re looking for.” She chuckled lightly, watching as he stepped towards her, only stopping short of an inch in front of her with his height towering over hers. 

He ran his tongue over the top of his teeth and raised an eyebrow, “I’ll be the judge of that. Me and my guy here are gonna take a look around-”

“I don’t give you permission to.” she quickly uttered, cocking her head up at him as she watched his face fall. There was a long agonizing silence in the room as they both stared each other down. Dahyun was frozen where she stood, only catching the other forgotten man still wandering about from the corner of her eye. 

You held your breath as tight as you could, feeling like you would be caught if you so much as released a breath. You could hear the low hiss Yoongi emitted in front of you, his claws extending out as they sank into your arms. He was shielding you in case they came in here, ready to attack and letting you make a break for it, but his mind was on his girlfriend who was standing right behind that door protecting the two of you. 

You glanced down, realizing your hands had been shaking the whole time you were gripping onto Yoongi. You peeked up to the top of his head, noticing his ears were flattened back as he continued to hiss at the door. You could only imagine the expression he was making; and then you began to regret your choice of coming out today. This must be your punishment for not listening to Jungkook, for doubting him and not being good. You wanted to cry but you were afraid if you made a noise they would come busting in here and take Yoongi away.     

“Are you recording this?”

All eyes in the barroom turned towards the front when only the wandering guard noticed the new person sitting at one of the tables, phone in hand with the flashlight pointed towards the guard and Nari. 

Jungkook focused his eyes on the screen of his phone, aiming the camera perfectly at the man towering Nari. “Don’t stop because I’m here, continue hassling that poor girl for the video.”

The man near Nari turned around, his eyes growing furious as he pointed a finger at Jungkook and stepped towards him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? This business has nothing to do with you, this little girl’s hiding a hybrid in-” 

“I should ask you that but I know how this would end if I physically intervened and laid your ass on this floor. So instead of risking getting arrested I'll let the people decide.”

He nonchalantly cut him off, raising the phone higher the closer the guard got. 

“If you don’t put that phone down boy-”

“You’re pressuring two young women over a hybrid you lost. What do you think the public will react more to - you two hunting down a little cat or two grown men manhandling defenseless women?”

That made him freeze in place, realization etching on his face as he stared at Jungkook with squinted eyes. Dahyun and Nari eyed the two guards staring down the new stranger, realizing as well that the situation played in their favor. It was a long moment before the guard straightened himself with a nod, turning towards Nari who was still posted at the door refusing to move from her spot. 

“We’ll come back for a drink.” His tone low and promising, a small smirk playing on his lips. “Make sure you keep him as an indoor cat for now on. It would be a shame for me to put him down.”

Nari couldn’t hold back the anger contorting on her face, shooting the man a death glare as she kept her mouth closed shut. He chuckled to himself before making his way out, his partner close behind as he waved goodbye. 

Nari fell back against the door when the two men exited out the bar, releasing an exasperated noise and raked her fingers through her hair. Her heart was racing a mile a minute the whole time, feeling like it was going to beat its way out her chest. She opened her eyes and smiled at the man before her, a worried gaze on his face as he closed the distance between them.  

“I’m Nari.” she introduced herself with thanks for his intervention. A small smile greeted her back, round eyes staring into hers as he held his hand out for her to shake.  

“I’m Jungkook.”

“And I’m interested!” Dahyun’s hand intercepted, taking his hand into her own as she introduced herself with a bright smile. “Dahyun.”

“Oppa.” 

All eyes shot towards the open door behind Nari, the two hybrids standing in the doorway as a pair of eyes locked on to Jungkook’s. 

“Jasmine!”

He didn’t mean to snatch away his hand as he reached for you, pulling you into his arms without a care for the others in the room. You fell into his embrace perfectly, wrapping your arms around him and burying your face into his neck. 

“I’m so sorry, I...I-”

“Shh, baby it’s okay. It’s okay, it was scary wasn’t it?”

The sound of his voice almost broke your heart, whining into his neck as you felt the tears sting at your eyes. There was no anger in his tone or disappointment, it was full of worry and love as you felt the slightest tremble in his body against yours. You held onto each other tightly as Jungkook noticed Yoongi wrapping his arms around Nari from behind in a protective hold. There was a shift in his eyes as he stared at Yoongi, his hold on you growing tighter.  

“I would put my hands on you, but I’m more than satisfied seeing that she’s safe.” He released you and took your hands instead, moving you behind beside him as he glared Yoongi down. “Do me a favor and stay away from her from now on.”

Your eyes widened and you put a hand on his chest. “Jungkook-” 

“We’re leaving.” He spoke, his tone calmly demanding. You were in no position to refute, a soft whine emitted towards Yoongi as Jungkook pulled you towards the exit leaving the three alone to collect their bearings. 

*

You stayed quiet on the bed, tail tucked next to your leg as your ears fluttered back. It was a very silent ride home and an even quieter bath alone before you were sat on the bed with an ice pack on your now swollen ankle. You watched Jungkook light the few candles in the room, smelling the wick burn before the scent of vanilla wafted through the room. He continued like that, making himself uselessly busy as he avoided eye contact with you. 

“Oppa.”

He finally halted with the call of the pet name, finally glancing over at you as the tip of your tail twitched. 

“The ice melted.” You alerted him, hopeful eyes looking at him as your tail began to wag. You watched him come over and carefully remove the ice pack off your ankle and took it with him as he left the room. He came back shortly after, a new fresh pack wrapped in a towel in his hands as he sat on the bed and arranged it on your foot again. You watched him carefully work, your body hunching forward to get closer to him. 

“I’m sorry.” You watched his fingers pause before resuming again, your eyes glancing up at his face. “I went out again without your permission. I wanted to get fresh air and play with the phone, and I only happened to run into Suga. The guards, they came to us and was gonna put leashes on us and Suga-”  

“You should have called me.”

His eyes finally bore into yours, giving you all the answers you seeked with only a few inches between your faces. He was upset, tiredness in his eyes as he released a shaky sigh and rested his head on your shoulder. “Jasmine. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t go out without me anymore. I’ll take more time off of work and-”

“I’m sorry.” your apology cut him off as a whine tore from your throat and you wrapped your arms around him, wanting to bury your body in his warmth. “I’m so sorry. I won’t go out anymore. I promise this time, I’ll stay here and wait for you. Like a good girl.”

Jungkook sighed again, a hand sliding around the nape of your neck and fingers tangling in the back of your hair. He pulled your head back to get a look at you before pressing a tender kiss on the top of your head. “No, baby we can go out. I’m sorry for not making more time for you. I don’t want something like this happening again.”

You understood, knowing how crazy this was for the both of you. He explained earlier how he was on his way home when he heard the commotion from his car of guards chasing after two hybrids and saw you and Yoongi running down the street with you clutching onto his back. He quickly parked and chased after you, finding your whereabouts shortly after the guards did. You thought how he must have felt seeing his hybrid in danger after he thought you were safely at home which he was returning to. 

A small smile grew on your face, a purr sounding in your throat. “I guess I’ll need that on me so they know who I belong to.” 

His gaze was curious as you shifted on the bed and reached for the nightstand on your side of the bed, taking out the collar from the drawer. His eyes instantly widened as you began putting it on, the white studded material wrapping around your neck snugly as you tightened it. 

“Where...did you get a collar from?”

You focused on getting the strap through the loop from behind, biting down on your lip. “Cherry bought it for me. I forgot that I was supposed to wear it when I go out.”

You made a noise of triumph when you got it latched on, shaking your head for your dark brunette hair to fall behind your back and put your white collar on display for Jungkook to see. You straightened up and blinked at him, his attention on your neck as he stared with wide eyes. “Kookie?”

He snapped back to reality, closing his gaped lips as moisture returned to his mouth. “You can take it off, you don’t have to wear it in the house.”

You cocked your head to the side, leaning forward with a questioning gaze. “Do you like it?”

You watched his eyes trail back down to the collar, smiling at the way his attention was easy to grasp. “You like it don’t you?” 

You were taken by surprise, his eyes snapping back to yours as they shifted with a darker glance. Nimble fingers hooked in between the collar and your neck, a light tug towards him as your breath hitched in your throat. You stared up at him, noticing the smirk playing on his lips. 

“I like it. Now get ready for bed.”

[intoanothermind]

After Quidditch - James Potter

Word Count: 2.575 words

- James Potter x reader

Synopsis: I was almost too late and almost lost the best thing that happened to me in my life because I was too stubobrn

Masterlist

I hurry down the hallways toward the Gryffindor common room, trying hard to get in fast enough to take a shower, put on a comfortable outfit, and go to the Quidditch game. It would be a classic: Gryffindor against Slytherin. And I, as a good Gryffindor that I am, will forget my time studying, to go cheer for my house team. I would probably see James - woe to him if not - take the golden snitch, guaranteeing victory and, once again, dedicating it to me.

I find that quite annoying, yes, but it makes me feel good. Every pick up line, every smile, every nickname, every adverb of possession, every request to go on a date with me, I felt good, I felt honoured, my heart tight and a butterfly festival in my stomach. And I tried, at all costs, to suppress it for myself, but it seemed impossible. After all, I can't like Potter. As much as it has changed over the years, it's still the same womaniser that uses the girls and then dismisses them. And I don't wanna be just one more on his list.

And that was when my day - well, my life - changed completely.

For I see him coming towards me, with a pained and tired look and without the usual mischievous glint in his eyes. I feel the urge to stop and comfort him, but for some reason I don't. Until he stops me.

“S/N” He calls me and I stop, feeling something recoil in my chest. He had never called me before by my last name.

“What is it, Potter?” I ask, feeling my tone coming out rougher than I intend to.

“I just want to give you this.” He says, handing me a piece of parchment. And then he's gone.

No pick up line. No smile. No nickname. No adverb of possession. No asking me on a date. There was something wrong with all this, for he hadn’t pursued me, and then I hadn’t shouted at him. I look intrigued at the letter addressed to me. I didn't know what to think, no one had ever sent me a letter. Since I don't know if I should read that in the middle of the corridor, with great chances of someone taking the letter, running out and reading too, then I simply look around, finding no sign of James, and finally going to Gryffindor Tower.

I walk past everyone, just looking at the letter in my hands, and go up to my dorm. I enter furiously there, wanting to read the letter as soon as possible, but there is always something that prevents it.

“What is that face? What's the matter this time?” Lily asks from his bed, lowering the book he was reading on his lap.

“Dear Lily,” Marlene begins, leaving the bathroom with a towel in her hands. ”You know very well that our friend's problem here has a name, a surname, a beautiful face and is Gryffindor’s seeker.”

I am tempted to talk back, but the letter felt heavy in my hand, and I increasingly need to read it as urgently as possible. Ignoring her completely, I throw my backpack anywhere near my dresser and sit on my bed.

“But that doesn't seem to be the problem at the time.” Says Lene, seeing how I sit and sitting next to me.

“What is it, Y/N, why that face?” Lily asks, sitting on my other side. Seeing that I stare at the letter in my hands, with my name written in crooked and clearly masculine handwriting, asks again. ”What is this?”

“A letter from James.” I answer

“Now he's James, huh?” Jokes Marlene.

“Not now, Lene,” I scold. ”He never sent me a letter before.”

Seeing that this never really happened, she says apologetically, “So this is serious.”

“Open it.” Insists Lily and so I do.

I find something I really didn't expect.

  S/N,

Surely you must be finding it a bit odd that I don't start with the nicknames I usually use. But I think for the purpose of this letter there is no need for it. At first I hadn’t even considered the idea of actually handing you this letter, it was more like an outburst I needed since the third year. I wrote and rewrote that same letter at least six times last night and after much parchment and cursing by the marauders for letting the light on finally came out the one you're reading - and probably the girls are reading with you.

But that is beside the point. I'm sorry to be asking you to read this, but I really needed to say what I want. DON'T STOP READING! I'm sorry for all those years I've been insisting on a chance to go on a date with the most incredible witch Hogwarts has ever seen. I'm sorry for all those years I hit every boy that goes out with you. I'm sorry for all those years when I always pestered you, just asking for a chance. I'm sorry for all those years when I know you had to put up with your friends trying to convince you to go out with me. LILY AND MARLENE, THANK YOU, BUT IT SEEMS THAT IT DIDN'T WORK WELL.

Do you know why I apologize for all this and so much that I can't remember at three in the morning, S/N? Because I got tired and I'm giving up.

I got tired of feeling dizzy and my heart pounding every time I see you. Each time I get close enough to smell this cherry scent intoxicating my senses. I got tired of staring at your mouth every time you bite your lower lip when you're nervous. Or when you blush - and I know that right now your cheeks are extremely red as you read all this - and you start shuffling the hem of your shirt when you're embarrassed. I got tired of feeling enchanted by looking into those beautiful e/c eyes. I got tired of smiling like a fool every time we have a conversation where you don't yell at me, swear at me or hit me. I got tired of staring at the ceiling at night, just thinking about you and wondering if I could ever call you mine. I'm tired of having the green monster of jealousy fidgeting inside me every time you go out with someone. I'm tired of feeling my heart clench with so much force every time you deny me - I may not let it show, but it hurts me a lot. Especially tired of crying at night when I know the guys are sleeping, knowing that you probably hate me with all your might and will never give me a chance.

I can try to say it was a waste of time and all, but I'd be lying not only to you - and Lils and Lene - but to myself. It was the best years of my life. You changed me. I don't go out with five girls a week anymore, I stopped hexing the Slytherins and first years. But I will leave you alone and try to forget that one day I fell in love with you. Yes, S/N, I love you. And that was the most absolute truth I have ever admitted to myself or anyone else - and I still don't understand how you don't believe me when I scream it in the open. Just know that I never said these three words to any other girl. If there's one thing my father really taught me is that I should just say that the only girl to whom my heart belongs. And it if there’s something I’m sure in my life is that I love you.

And that is why I will leave you alone. If I love her, I have to set her free, I can't make you go out with me or like me. So that's it: I give up; and I will do my best to get that feelings out of me, even if it won't be easy at all.

No goodbyes,

Potter

  “Y/N, are you ok?” Marlene asks as we finish reading the letter together and I drop the parchment at my feet.

“He loves me.” I say, feeling a big knot form in my throat.

“Are you okay?” Lily repeats Lene's question, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

“I don’t know.” I say with a raspy voice.

“Do you want to cry?” Marlene asks.

“I don’t know.” I say even more tearfully, feeling the tears cloud my vision.

“You will cry.” States Lily.

“I know.” I confirm, lying my head on her shoulder and feeling thick tears streaming down my face.

“What will you do now?”

And this is when I decide and this is when I have the discussion with myself. I lifted my head from Lily's shoulder and dried my tears. “I’m gonna do what I should have done a long time ago.”

“What would it be...?” Lily asks curiously.

“I think it's time to say yes to James, even if he doesn't accept it.”

~ * ~

The Quidditch game is almost over and I still try to decide if it's the right thing to do. The game was almost over and I was trying to gather the courage to do that. James glanced back and forth for the golden snitch, but the times he glanced at the Gryffindor bleachers, I knew he was confused that I wasn't there. He knew that I would never lose a Gryffindor game, especially against the worms - an affectionate nickname given to me, which quickly spread among the lions. I would never lose a game, and he knew that probably - certainly - his letter had a lot more impact on me than he thought.

But I wasn’t losing the game. I had a privileged view, where I hid near the tents leading to the locker room, where no one could see me. Actually, I didn't know it with the red eyes I could appear in front of everyone, especially him, but that doesn't make a difference after all. Surely I couldn't look at him during the three hours of the game when he finally catches the snitch, getting a 300 to 210 victory. This time he doesn't dedicate it to anyone.

Everyone shouts and cheers and James quickly gets off the broom, clearly downcast, even though his team mates insist on carrying him on their shoulders. He denies it and comes slowly and with his head down toward the locker room. It's my only chance, and I step out of my hiding place, feeling all Hogwarts stare at me as I make my way over to the dark haired boy. He looks at me confused and I smile at him.

“What...?” He tries to speak, but I quickly interrupt him with a kiss. He looks confused at first, but then gladly kisses me back, wrapping me around my waist and deepening the kiss.

I never thought I'd feel anything this good. Sure, I've gone out with other guys, but I deeply regret never having tasted those lips before that had always been a temptation to me. I push my fingers into his hair, realizing that as shaggy as they are, they are extremely soft and silky. He pulls me around the waist closer to him, making my knees go weak and getting yelling, clapping and whistling from everyone - I say EVERYONE - around us. But we didn't care, because that's what we really wanted for years and if I waited a second longer I would lose it forever. Unfortunately, there is a gas we need to breathe called oxygen and I curse it right now for forcing us to move away.

“Let's get out of here.” I say, smiling, and give him a peck before finally opening my eyes and finding two greenish-brown orbs looking at me with a unique glow that I'd missed when he handed me the letter.

“Only if it's now.” He says, riding his broom again and helping me to ride it. I feel my body turning slightly and I hold tightly to his waist, feeling an electric shock pass from his body to mine. “Hold on, love.”

Hearing the word love come out of his mouth, I feel immense relief filling my being; and I know I may be forgiven. He takes off and we fly off the field, still listening to the noise behind us. When I find ourselves far from the noise, we're already landing near Black Lake and James helps me down.

“Can you tell me what that was?” He asks, clearly trying to hide the smile.

“I read your letter.” He arches an eyebrow, urging me to continue. “And since I don't know how to express myself in such a new feeling to me, I want to give it to you.”

And then I handed him a torn piece of parchment, with a simple sentence: PS I S2 YOU .

He reads and opens my favourite smile, the one I know is mine alone. “After years... After I gave up ...” He says, but I interrupt.

“I know and I'm sorry.You can't just enjoy it, can you?”

“No.” He says so confidently that it feels like a stab in the chest and when I threaten to turn back to the castle, he pulls me by the wrist, touches my cheek with his fingers and kisses me passionately, causing me the same numbing sensations. When air is needed - damn it! - we parted and smiled. “No, that's just not what I want. Y/N, do you want to go on a date with me?”

I look at him incredulously, but I know the answer I must give, even if it's not just a yes. It's at least the one he deserves. “Like I've never wanted anything before.”

“Too bad I still don't have a ring to put on your finger and show the world you're mine. But your statement took me by surprise, so I'll have to postpone the moment.” He says and I laugh as he kisses my lips once more and, holding me by the waist, spins me in the air.

Previously, I'd think he said it as a trophy to me, but after reading the letter that I kept in the back of my trunk forever to be rereading - it's the one that changed our lives - I know I’m much more valuable to him than that. For what we have is a true and deep feeling that has completely changed us.

“I love you, James Potter.” I say finally and feel his lips forming a smile over mine.

“I love you, Y/N L/N.”

[lazylazyhowl]

miscue (of snakes and cherry blossoms - sasusaku)

miscue (noun, verb) – failing to respond to a cue; an inadvertent mistake

[“They must call her foolish behind her back, but she supposes there are worse things to be.” Sakura. Sasuke. An open window, and saving the other. Post-war fluffy angst. (But not angsty fluff, no).]

AO3 Link

—

There’s no denying that her office is cluttered. Sakura tries to keep it tidy, but the paperwork that steadily increases together with her responsibilities as Head Medic isn’t so forgiving.

“Can I open the window?”

For a moment, there’s a stab of self-consciousness that there are smells her colleagues might have been too tactful to point out.

“Go ahead, Sasuke-kun.”

Without moving her gaze from her work, she tracks the faint signature of his chakra as he moves across the room to fiddle with the lock. Sai was in charge of keeping watch of him tonight, so they should have some leeway.

The scent of dew and earth fills her nostrils with the slight breeze that enters her office. Beneath her coat, a small wave of goosebumps climbs up her arms from the chilly air. She can hear the rustle of the trees and the lively chirping of birds returning to their nests.

“It’s a full moon tonight.” He announces with his back to her and face tilted up to said celestial body.

He’s undoubtedly losing weight, and she doesn’t know what more she can do to help. His back seems small in those loose-fitting clothes, she thinks, against the orange-blue backdrop of early evening outside. It’s a strange thing to observe when he’s always been tall gait and broad shoulders to her.

She can’t see what he does from her seat, so she simply returns to the papers on her desk with an acknowledging hum. Jotting down the last few notes on the patient case file, she closes the folder and sets it aside before cracking open a new one.

“It’s already been a month, huh,” she says. “Time flies.”

“It felt longer actually.”

“Oh, I can see how.” She checks to make sure she’s getting correctly the kanji for the name of this thirty-year-old patient. Quite a rare spelling. “So much has been happening.”

“I lost track of time,” he says after a bit.

“Right, I need to get a clock for your room!” She grabs her notepad to scribble down a reminder.

“No, I mean-” There’s a slow headshake in his tone “-the moon, it’s beautiful.”

She pauses mid letter despite herself and smiles, knowing he would never mean it like that. He’s always been clueless in these matters. It’s quite endearing.

“Is it ever ugly?”

In the unassuming silence the follows where he says nothing, she finishes writing with a firm press of her pen.

A clock would be good for him. The council is demanding he be drugged up half the time of a day, as if sealing his chakra down to half what normal shinobi needs to move about wasn’t enough. Absolutely ludicrous! With his wounds healing, she’s also run out of excuses for the daily visits that probably used to help him orientate, too.

“I guess not,” he finally says with hints of a chuckle, his shoulders slouching a little more.

Putting away the notepad, she resumes her work again. The key to optimism is to focus on what can be done, rather than what cannot. Being with Naruto taught her as much.

The test results for this patient is fairly straight-forward. Just malnutrition and lack of sleep, a combination not entirely uncommon these days with so much work still needs to be done in Konoha.

They were going through something close to an upheaval. Her shishō has been pushing for changes left and right, sometimes rather ham-fistedly (but with no less cunning), taking advantage of the smoke and debris of war that has yet to settle.

For all the newness of the situation, even the chaos is beginning to bleed into routine after a month. Adaptation is a truly amazing thing.

She prescribes the man two types of supplements and makes some additional notes for his discharge tomorrow.

“I lose track of time staring at it,” Sasuke says.

“Ah, me too.”

“Hn.”

“I look at it sometimes when I can’t sleep.” It was in fact the only thing that got her through many sleepless nights for a while, but her words sound trite to her own ears, like some blatant ingratiation to force a connection with him.

She doesn’t care to look for the hints, but she does wonder if Sasuke has taken offense. He’s never had patience for people who pretended to understand, and she’s still not sure she does. Perhaps she would never.

“Aa, I end up watching it most nights.”

“I’m sorry, I wish I could give you some sleeping aid.” He’s rapidly developing monstrous tolerance for their tranquilizers, and she can only worry for his constitution after this is over.

“No. It’s nothing I haven’t been through. Some of the drugs Orochimaru gave me before also made sleep impossible. There wasn’t much to do outside of training and traveling.”

“Right.” But she’s not sure what is, because to be honest everything he just said is all wrong in her mind. He was barely over thirteen.

“The lulls in between are the worst,” she says noncommittally, but it’s perhaps the one thing they could agree on—he and she, both being single-minded people.

“The moon was there no matter where I was. Wasn’t hard to form a habit.”

She keeps her eyes on the paperwork but fails to concentrate on the words between her hands. Her throat is suddenly dry. She hasn’t realized they could just talk about his time away from Konoha like this. She thought she wasn’t allowed to know about the him of that period. He’s proven as much when he left her on that bench all those years ago.

But maybe that night has never held much significance to him. Maybe from his point of view, he only did the sensible thing, what was probably best for her, if not himself, and she’s the only one who’s still sore, who treats it like the landmine it’s not.

“All those times, it never occurred to me. That’s…beauty.”

Something in the movement of the air tugs at her attention then. She looks up and gapes at the sight of him standing precariously tall on the edge of the windowsill.

“S-Sasuke-kun!”

She runs to him in an instant, knocking over some folders on her way over. Even one arm down, he turns around on the narrow ledge with grace not unexpected of a shinobi. Still, her heart skips an ugly beat.

His inky hair is tousled, bleeding into the cooling sky; his flawless skin paler than the glaring full moon at his back. Mismatched eyes unblinking, he watches her for explanation.

“You need to get down from there.”

“Why?”

She’s sure she had a good reason, but she can only come up with, “It’s dangerous.”

“We’re on the first floor.”

“I-I know.”

But something about the him right now unsettles her.

“Just- Get down, please.”

He considers her words for a moment and dips his head a fraction. “Alright.” And he turns around and leaps out before her wide eyes. She only knows to reach for him on pure instinct.

“Wait!!”

.

“Oi Sakura.” The baleful barb in his voice startles her as she hastily releases her grip on his ankle. He pushes himself off the ground to glare at her over his shoulder with a coal-black eye, looking about to pop a vein. There’s a heated flush to his cheeks that matches the redness of his nose from having fallen face-first into the grass and dirt outside.

“I-I’m so sorry Sasuke-kun!”

She jumps over and kneels next to him as he sits up, green chakra glowing over the minor cuts on his face. He’s as good as new in an instant.

“What was that for?” he asks as he accepts the handkerchief that she meekly holds out for him. It takes the better part of her control to keep from flinching where their fingers lightly brush.

She breaks eye contact from the intensity of his stare and considers lying before telling the truth. “Well, I-you scared me.”

“I scared you.”

“N-no!” She snaps her gaze back to him. “Not you. More like…what you did.”

“Hn.” His shuttered tone says he’s zeroed in on an instant he thinks she’s referring to, and she clambers to clarify.

“You leapt out the window.”

He huffs, eyes turning hard. “It takes more than half a meter drop to hurt me. I’m low on chakra, Sakura. Not crippled.”

He stands and dusts himself off, no longer looking her in the eye. Well, if he wasn’t offended before, he certainly is now. It’s well-deserved, really, but somehow, she finds it easier to breathe.

She rises and tugs at his empty sleeve before he can walk away. “I’m not scared of you, Sasuke-kun.”

She speaks for no one else, but this he has to know. She has to make sure he knows, because it’s probably the insecurity that pervades him these days. That he courts unrest and dissension. That he’s that something to fear, and be shunned and left in isolation and neglect.

That he’s somehow less human than the next boy.

She looks into his eyes until she sees the hardness melt into resignation.

“But I still scared you.”

Her heart quickens again. “That’s because you jumped-”

“-out the window, you’ve mentioned,” he says with an eye roll and something between agitation and a sigh.

There’s a sting in the corner of her eyes she hopes is just reaction to the chilly wind. “You don’t understand!”

“Aa, I’m still waiting.”

“It- You-” Her voice is starting to crack. How she loathes that she’s always showing him this lovelorn, pitiful part of her that she knows he doesn’t care for. She feels eight-year-old again before him, small and bumbling, an unaccomplished mess, and he just stood back and watched her in all his dignified apathy.

“Sakura.” His hand grips at her shoulder firmly, a dash of concern in his countenance. She blinks at the watery sheen in her eyes, wondering momentarily, where he still gets his strength from.

“I thought you were going to disappear.” At his wide, blank stare, she averts her face, her tears spilling anew. She’s aware her words are as silly as she feels.

That stillness to his demeanor, that foreign tranquility—like silence, like rippleless water. It occurs to her sometimes that maybe he’s making peace. That he’s given up before the fight even begins.

Then his suddenly far-too-baggy shirt fluttered in a gust of strong wind, lifting to reveal a vulnerability of skin and bones, the white bandages underneath and stark black seals carved all over his body. And the next moment, he leapt.

“Right then…I was…afraid…” The massive leaf canopy that hangs over them rustles wildly. She picks at the hem of her coat, looking everywhere but at him.

He feels empty and faded when he’s like this. Calm. Placid. Like he could be gone if she blinked too slowly. And then she’d wonder if the reason for this all is that she’s actually just another one who can’t forgive, another one who can only associate him with tumult and discord, despite all her vocal averment for his goodness.

His grip slipping from her shoulder draws her gaze back to him. He’s looking down to where she’s holding a fistful of his empty sleeve, and he wraps his hand over hers, the calluses on his palm grazing her knuckles with such gentleness, it hurts.

She lets go and steps back, never expecting him to step forward and pulls her against his chest.

“S-Sasuke-kun!?”

She flushes. Her body goes rigid as the weight of his chin rests over the top of her head and his large hand fits behind her neck. Her arms are crushed between their chests, and she smells medicine and grass; the spice of detergent in his clothes, the saltiness of the gauzes beneath.

“Sakura.” His voice thrums deep against her forehead, through the skin of his throat. “I made up my mind, you know. I’m not going anywhere.”

“O-oh, that’s…great.”

Nothing is said for a while, and they remain in that position. He shows no sign of budging, and she’s not sure she has ever had it in her to break away from him.

“You’re worried about me.”

His scent, the coolness of his skin. His faint, beating heart against her thundering one. She chokes when she feels his thumb on her earlobe.

“Right?”

“Y-yeah.”

“And you’re not afraid of me.”

“I’m not.” She shakes her head the best she can in his embrace.

“Promise me one thing.”

“O-kay.”

His chest expands in a deep breath.

“Don’t go anywhere, either.”

.

Ah, how sly, Sasuke-kun.

.

She curls her fingers into the front of his shirt and nods against his chest. “I promise I’m not going anywhere.”

.

.

.

.

Sasuke adjusts the angle of his chin against her headband, the metal sapping heat from his skin on contact. Sakura’s grown wonderfully, he thinks, so able and strong; might walk so far out of his grasp, no dōjutsu in the world can find her for him, when all he’s known of her for so long are naïve smiles and spindly arms and legs.

When they finally part, he wipes gingerly at the corner of her eye. They both know that this is in no way fair, because they are both the sort that looks far ahead, and even though she is certain to keep her words, he might never be able to keep his.

But the heat of her breaths breathes something tenacious into his chest, seeping into his lungs, and bones and marrows.

And for at the very least tonight, he decides he will not be going anywhere far away from her.

[intothewilde]

⌠ ellie bamber, 20, cis female, she/her ⌡ welcome back to gallagher academy, GIORGIA WILDE! according to their records, they’re a FIRST year, specializing in UNDECIDED; and they DID NOT go to a spy prep high school. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of (first edition books, walking in the rain, candy-scented lip gloss, getting lost in a museum, millions of twinkling city lights). when it’s the (sagittarius)’s birthday on 12/13/1999, they always request their CHERRY PIE from the school’s chefs. looks like they’re well on their way to graduation. 

she can’t do shit with knives yet but it’s a great gif, don’t @ me) but DO like this if you want me to hit you up for plots

@gallagherintro​

tw: implied neglect, brief mentions of mental illness and addiction

ok! so giorgia was born and raised in new york city. both of her parents came from extremely wealthy families. her mother was a french socialite and her father was the golden boy of a hearst-like (founders/owners of a distinguished publishing conglomerate) family from connecticut. some of his family members claimed to be descendants of one of oscar wilde’s cousins (a rumor that has yet to be confirmed) and he believed he had it in him to become a literary great himself. he seemingly succeeded, having published multiple best sellers popular with young pseudo-intellectuals. 

giorgia was never sure if her mother had wanted a daughter or a life-size doll. from a very young age she was primed to fit into high society and paraded around her parent’s lavish parties. most of her time was spent with nannies and violin tutors, studying her father’s poetic heroes, and dancing ballet. she was taught how to socialize with society’s elite, but she never felt comfortable doing so. she felt safer hiding behind her mother or sitting beneath the stairs with her nose in a book.

while her mother wanted her child to be pretty and proper, her father wanted someone to continue his family’s legacy. she learned to read when she was four, and by the time she was five, gio was forced to write in a diary every. single. day. (over the last fifteen years she’s filled up dozens of notebooks that live on a bookshelf in her childhood bedroom). she didn’t particularly like her father and she didn’t want to want what he wanted for her. (did that sentence make sense? i hope so). but she did like to write and she was damn good at it. her poetry was published in online journals and lit mags, her short stories won young artist awards. on the outside, she was everything her parents wanted.

but like i said before, gio struggled with the social part or being a socialite, and the life of an heiress was never something she wanted. she didn’t seem to have the right attitude - she was demure and diffident, a textbook wallflower. she was never happier than when she was reading a book or roaming a museum, always curious about the world around her. she never misbehaved or did anything wrong, but her parents wanted her to behave differently. 

their tribeca penthouse always had a certain cold air to it and the high ceilings only seemed to add to the lonely feeling that gio couldn’t escape. her relationship with her parents seemed to become more strained with each passing day. the more she learned about them the more gio realized she didn’t know them at all - the spa retreats her mother went on were really trips to psychiatric facilities and rehabs, and the endless slew of young women her father employed as assistants were all lazily hidden affairs. they never talked about it, if she tried to she was shut down or ignored entirely.

gio grew up wanting to go to nyu. she didn’t know where the dream came from (her parents wanted her to go to vassar or dartmouth) but she loved her home city and something about nyu had always called to her. she was accepted early admission to the gallatin school where she planned to major in an individualized study of creative and dramatic writing.

she loved her freshman year of college. she was finally out of her parents’ home and into a postage stamp of an apartment with an eccentric girl studying theater. she was around people from all over the world and all walks of life instead of the tiny bubble of rich snobs and private schools. she was around people she actually had things in common with. she was still shy and she still found it extremely difficult to talk to people. the easiest way for her to interact with people was to overcompensate for her shyness and be excessively friendly. when she was actually able to talk, she found she had many things to say, and once she started talking it was hard for her to stop.

her roommate was a big fan of movie marathons (in october they watched all of the scream movies, and then all of the saw movies, and then all of the children of the corn movies. that’s twenty horror movies. gio still has nightmares from them). for a few weeks in the fall she had a spy movie marathon. mission: impossible and jason bourne movies, mostly. something about them piqued gio’s interest, and she started reading spy novels, which quickly turned into her writing one of her own. she wanted the protagonist to be a woman for once, and one who’s main personality trait wasn’t tits. her novel, at dawn beneath the bridge of sighs, followed a cia operative and an italia aisi agent who are forced to work together to find the kidnapped daughter of an american diplomat along with the priceless jewelry she was wearing at the time of her capture. (do i know what the fuck im talking about? no!!) 

gio comes from a family of publishers so it was fairly easy for her to find someone who wanted to publish it, but the nepotism ended there, the success was all her own. it was lauded as an impressive debut novel and critics praised her subversion of genre tropes and inventive action sequences. but it stuck out to a select few for a different reason - the heroine used tactics uncannily similar to those used by actual spies, and she used them well. some people were curious as to how the character would handle other situations in the spy world, or really how the author would plan it.

so yeah she got a letter from gallagher, and she thought it was a joke at first. she eventually figured out it was very real (how? idk!) and her curiosity got the better of her. she decided it would be good for research, and that she could go back to nyu if she wanted to. once she arrived at gallagher, giorgia... did not know what to do. she had never been so out of her element, and she felt like she was terrible at everything. but that wasn’t really true, all the things you could study for were things she was actually learning. she became determined to actually do well, and as her first year comes to an end, gio still feels extremely unsure of herself, and unsure of where she wants to focus her studies, but she’s starting to feel like gallagher is the right place for her to be.

personality: she’s very sweet, very earnest, sometimes has a tendency to retreat into herself and get quiet, but she still combats her shyness with an outgoing attitude she learned from her mother that takes her far out of her comfort zone. basically as outgoing as an introvert can be. she tries to see the best in everyone and every situation. emphasis on tries, because she’s a total worrier and is often pulled between the desire to find a silver lining and the fear that something horrible will happen. she will give people more chances than they deserve and let them walk all over her. her self esteem can be pretty low, but one thing she is confident about is her writing (although she won’t tell you because she doesn’t want to seem boastful). art and literature in all forms are her favorite things and she could talk about it forever. she’s the kind of person who tries to learn everyone’s names and once she knows it she’ll say hi to you every time she sees you.

other stuff: she’s fluent in french and english and grew up speaking them equally. (she also knows some spanish, italian, german, and russian from her nannies, but she’s not fluent). she has a deep love for photography, usually bringing a camera with her at all times. she can play classic violin and piano, but hasn’t in a while and is probably rusty, she continued to dance until she came to gallagher and no longer had time to practice. she has a cat named pierre (named after pierre-auguste renoir). she's a vegetarian. she’s basically addicted to fruit. she listens to a lot of sad pop music. her favorite colors are blush pink and forest green. she watches a lot jean-luc godard and wes anderson movies. she’s kind of a sad girl/art ho. she gets crushes on people easily and all the time. she is very impressionable, and seems to experience heartbreak often. she just wants someone to lover her for her, you know? 

wanted connections: (im super fucking tired so im just gonna write some really basic shit but hopefully i’ll edit it tomorrow).

a best friend: it’s not easy for her to make friends but i want gio to have one person she can truly be herself around. a platonic soulmate, if you will.

friends: really just anyone who is understanding of how she’s not always comfortable talking but will also listen if she starts ranting about queer representation in 20th century poetry and plays, ya feel?

big brother/big sister: because she hated being an only child and she really needs someone looking out for her

bad influence: its not hard to be a bad influence on her but someones gotta do it!

good influence: someone who lets her baby ways rub off on them

idk what to call this but a sort of mutual respect with someone she’s had a class with?

idk what to call this either but someone she really clashes with, they just don’t understand each other

people she knew in nyc: she was there for the first 19 years of her life so if your character was there in early 2019 or any time before that, they could’ve run into each other

someone from a similar background who she can just be like... felt with?

hookups/flings: she loves love but love does not love her

an ex: could be good or bad terms idk 

crushes, mutual or unrequited

give me literally anything, the more angst the better!!

[grimmjowkurosakidrake]

Gravitation

Sumary: Canon divergence! Gennin fic! Sakura shares the joys of her mom’s pregnancy with her team, Sasuke unconsciously invests himself too much. 

Rating: K+

Characters: Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, Mebuki Haruno, Kakashi Hatake.

Relationships: Sasuke Uchiha/Sakura Haruno, Mebuki Haruno/Kizashi Haruno

For the Sasusaku day 12: Gravitation

Sakura is prone to giving them surprises.

She’s not a mysterious girl with a dark past and the death of her loved ones behind her like Sasuke and Kakashi, and she’s definitely not, Lady Luck’s favourite person with a knack for saving everyone in the last single minute like Naruto.

But she comes from a different world than her boys, moves in different circles. She’s all sincere smiles and infinite love to give, she’s also all girl defiance and anger controlled in the little space that is her tiny body.

Naruto still remembers the Saint Valentine’s day she rejected him because she had a date with Ino. Apparently girls did that. They went hand in hand to the market, gifted each other flowers and fed each other ice cream by hand without worrying if it looked weird to the rest of the world.

“Valentine’s day is also Galentine’s day,” she told them the next day after scolding both: Naruto and Sasuke for spying on her date with her best friend. “We girls like to go out from time to time. You know?”

And that was that.

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Sasuke still can remember the day she cried during a sparring to trick him into loosing a Taijutsu-only training.

It was uncanny in the first place that Kakashi decided to put Sasuke against Sakura in a fight, but it was definitely weirder for Sakura to take any form of physical contact with Sasuke in a serious manner.

Therefore, when Sakura broke out crying after a well placed punch to her face, Sasuke reacted almost instinctively and approached her with his guard lowered to assess her wounds.

She, then proceeded to punch him so hard in the middle of his face that he went flying a few meters and got his nose broken. Kakashi declared her the winner.

“They taught us how to use men’s weakness for girls as an advantage in Kunoichi training.” She told him matter-of-factly after training. “You can’t lower your guard around me just because I’m a girl, Sasuke-kun.” Instructed the Kunoichi.

“And what are we supposed to do against girls, Sakura-Chan?” Asked Naruto, curious as ever by anything that had to do with the female gender.

“I don’t know…” She stressed. “What did they taught you?” Sasuke doesn’t remember any teacher schooling him about best friends and loved ones using his care for them against him.  

Maybe they should have.

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Sakura has proven time and time again to be quite the anomaly for them.

Hence, when Sakura gives them three cherry scented little pink cards decorated with a blue ribbon and the words ~ Please Joins Us to Celebrate! ~ In bold, golden letters.

They’re obviously surprised but maybe, not so much.

“What is this, Sakura-Chan?” Asks Kakashi with a fake smile lightening his one squinted eye.

“My mom is pregnant and already passed her third trimester!” She annunciates with the happiest grin they’ve ever seen on her. “So we are throwing a baby shower to celebrate.”

“A baby shower?” Asks Naruto confused.

Sasuke is equally confused, he’s only accustomed to celebrate a baby after they are already born. But it was rare for him to be able to celebrate with the mothers of his clan when they were alive and now is even odder.

“Yes! It’s foreign custom.” She explains “we throw a party to celebrate and cheer up the mother, we play games and give her gifts. We are also supposed to know the baby’s gender in the party but mom doesn’t want to know until the she gives birth…”

“Ah! But Sakura-Chan! We don’t have any gifts!” Exclaims the Jinchuriki agitated.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to bring anything.” Smiles Sakura, “and if you don’t want to come bare handed then you can adhere yourself to my gift, the party is in a week anyway and I haven’t bought anything yet…”

“Then we can buy her ramen!” 

In a strange act of unprompted violence Sasuke hits him right on the middle of his head “She can’t be eating that crap, idiot!” growls Sasuke “It can hurt the baby!”

“But what can we buy it!” Cries Naruto, holdings his head in pain “We don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl!”

“It doesn’t matter, Naruto. Mom and dad hate gender stereotypes, besides” explains Sakura “I wear red even though I’m a girl and everyone on Ino’s team wears an earring, also Sasuke-kun wears purple sometimes,” exemplifies the pinkette looking directly at her crush, “No one knows about weapons more than TenTen-san and Neji-San has the prettiest hair in the whole village.”

“So that means…” Tries Naruto.

“It means gender equality or death, Naruto.” She smiles creepily “Now, are you going to accompany me to buy my mom a present or not?”

“I will,” volunteers Sasuke hiding his blush under the high collar of his shirt.

“Then Naruto and I will be buying her another gift” smirks Kakashi, directing a conspiratorial look towards Sasuke who in turn, glares at his teacher. Kakashi then hoists Naruto by the collar of his track jacket and takes him away against all of Naruto’s complains.

They spend the whole afternoon in the market after her announcement, it’s the longest time they’ve ever spent together alone outside of training or missions and Sakura doesn’t even squeal or blush one single time.

It’s actually really fun.

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After the baby shower Sasuke starts to gravitate towards her house.

The first time it happens Sakura thinks it’s cute and a noble gesture coming for a normally aloof Sasuke.

She comes back home from a date with Hinata and TenTen when the sight of Sasuke stocking her mom’s shopping bags in the kitchen takes her by surprise.

“Hello, Sasuke-kun!” Sakura blushes red up to her ears and squirms under his cold gaze. “I didn’t know you were coming over.”

“Oh, Sakura-Chan!” Welcomes Mebuki “your cute little teammate found me on the market and insisted on helping me home” Relates the pregnant woman holding her own cheek, smiling wide while recalling her encounter with Sasuke “I was about to invite him over for dinner so why…”

“I have to go.” Interrupts her the prodigy “Take care, Haruno-San” He bows to the older woman, uncharacteristically polite “bye, Sakura.”

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The next time he actually invites himself over for dinner when Sakura comments on his father having to go away for the weekend.

“But he’ll come back by Monday.” Explains Sakura “So mom and will make do until then.”

Sasuke waits until they finish every mission for the day to talk to her, he doesn’t want Naruto or Kakashi to hear him and think they’re invited too “I will accompany you to your house today” he says in a serious tone of voice, “it’s not good for you and your mom to be alone.”

Sakura of course accepts his offer, even when Sasuke didn’t ask her anything.

In a weird turn of events Sasuke cooks them a healthy dinner and prepares green juice for her mom.

“The women of the clan used to gather around our house and talk about pregnancy and babies when anyone of them got pregnant.” He explains late at night when Sakura’s mom goes to sleep and leaves them to clean the table. “Father didn’t like us boys to share those moments because it was for the women, but I sneaked away with them nevertheless.”

Sasuke smiles nostalgic and sad all at the same time, as he usually does in the rare moments he talks about his past with Sakura.

“But why?”

“Because gender equality or death, Sakura.” 

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After their talk is easier for Sasuke to visit Sakura’s home or walk alongside her to the market. They both enjoy the experience of expecting the new life coming onto their lives even if is only Sakura who’s getting a new sibling.

Naruto smiles sadly every time he sees his teammates walk together after training but allows them their little piece of heaven.

Kakashi always smirks when he sees Sasuke at the market and he’s not buying weapons or vegetables and instead buys China Roses, Mimosas and Lilies for a calming pregnancy. But also buys Cosmos and Sakura branches in bloom, seemingly only on a whim.

He gravitates around Sakura and her family, attracted by the warmth and the kindness emanating from them, allows himself to enjoy Sakura’s world as if it belonged to him.

Next

[yingyuerc]

Note (skippable): Hi, I’m going to post about my character from Royal Chaos. A lot of stuff here is gonna contradict the canon story in the game but who cares about canon I came here for a good time baby. Anyway I don’t expect anyone to ever read or find this post cause Royal Chaos isn’t very popular on tumblr but I was bored and wanted to break writer’s block. I got very inspired by @sister-ruan and @lady-reinian so thank you guys for posting amazing content!

My Royal Chaos character — Jiang Ying Yue!

Name: Jiang Ying Yue, but call her Ying or Yue for short

Name meaning: Ying Yue means “Reflection on the moon”, Jiang means “river”.

Age: 17 years old.

Birthday: January 21st, she has always celebrated her birthdays on a beautiful winter day.

Western constellation: Capricorn.

Title: Consort decency, upper 2.

Appearance:

Ethnicity: East-asian (chinese) and European (unspecified)

Height: 5′5, or 165 cm.

Hair: Yue has black, straight hair and it’s very long and silky. It reaches below her waist and she usually wears her hair down. Yue takes very good care of her hair and has a strict routine she uses everyday. Yue has a special and expensive jade comb that she uses. She wears golden accessories on her head & hair to enhance her beauty.

Eyes: Ying Yue has sharp, cat-like upturned blue eyes that seem to appear more purple than blue. They’re framed by long, black lashes. Her eyes are a prominent feature to her beauty, and they always appear to be pensive.

Complexion: Yue has a natural olive skin complexion, but she uses pale make up on her face to match the fair skin tones of the other concubines. Although her skin is glowy and sunkissed, a pale complexion is unfortunately the beauty standard in China.

Body shape: Ying’s body is slender, svelte, thin, gracious, elegant after years of serving as a concubine and having to dance and entertain the emperor. She has long legs and soft, dainty features.

Voice: Yue’s voice is sharper and deeper than you expect. Her face is dainty and meek, but her eyes have an edge of sharpness to match her voice. she has a bossy tone when she speaks but still sound as smooth as the dewdrops on a lotus.

Personality:

Personality traits: |Daring|Bold|Brave|Determined|Bright|Clever|Smart|Cunning|Sneaky|Passionate|Ying Yue is a very daring and bold girl. She is not afraid of speaking what’s on her mind and she always faces a challenge head-on. Yue is strong and brave and doesn’t let other people put her down. She is also bright, clever and smart, and she can solve problems easily thanks to her cleverness. Yue enjoys a good challenge such as a good chess match, a tricky word game, or a tough riddle. Although years as serving as a concubine has made her sneaky and cunning, she lies to get what she wants and often work behind the curtains. A mastermind behind a devillish plan. She would do what it takes for the people she cherish. She is very passionate and persuasive.

Hobbies: Ying loves dancing and playing instruments in her free time. She practices dancing a lot and she is very good at it. She plays various chinese instruments as well as western instruments. Ying Yue paints a lot on beautiful days. She enjoys singing in the palace garden when the stars are shining and the moonlight cascades from the sky. Ying Yue adored board games and always play them with Yuexiu. She spends time with Wen Ruyan and solves crosswords-puzzles when Yuexiu is busy.

Likes: Pretty accessories (especially gold), purple, luxurious gowns, board games, puzzles, art, music, dancing, delicious food, sweets.

Dislikes: Being ignored, getting dismissed, disrespectful behavior, rival concubines, being underestimated, worms.

Strengths: Clever mind, very brave, caring for those she loves, an extraordinarily great dancer and musician, good at solving problems.

Weaknesses: Selfish, apathetic toward those she doesn’t care about, appears to be very untrustworthy if you don’t know her.

Misc:

Favorite food: Candied fruits. Especially candied cherry tomatoes.

Favorite color: All shades of purple, but favors Lavender. She often wears purple clothes.

Favorite animal: Koi fish.

Favorite mythological animal: Dragon.

Favorite scent: Lavender, floral scents.

Occupation: Concubine, consort decency.

Love interest: Er, the emperor Consort Nian  

Background:

Financial situation: Poor, any money she hoards from the emperor she immediately sends to her family.

Previous relationships: None, aside from crushing on a dear friend she’ll no longer meet.

Location: China.

Family: Jiang Ying Yue has two brothers and one younger sister. Her brother, Yuan Wu, is 19 years old and is the oldest child in the Jiang family. He’s studying to become a physician, although the family is struggling financially. Yue’s other brother, Zhen Kun, is 15 years old and is the middle child of the family. He spends a lot of his days fishing. The youngest child in the Jiang family — Jiang Lei, 12 years old and loves picking flowers and attending their family garden. Yuan Wu has a sharp intellect, while Zhen Kun is laidback, Jiang Lei is meek and sweet. Ying Yue had a mother and a father, but they tragically drowned when traveling to a foreign land to sell wares. Ying Yue was seven years old when her parents died. She and her siblings had to live in poverty without parents to take care of them. Jiang Lei was often sick and they couldn’t buy her medicine. So when Yuan Wu grew older he wanted to study and become a physician. Meanwhile Ying Yue danced to get enough money for her family, and Zhen Kun sold fish and sea creatures that he found. 

Backstory: Yue was born into a wealthy family that survived off on trading exotic wares and fine silk with foreigners. She and her family lived in a relatively lively village and they had relatives in big cities. Although her relatives had never visited her, or even acknowledged her existence due to her being half-foreigner. Her mother was a western woman with brown hair and peculiar blue eyes. Meanwhile her father was from a wealthy chinese family of merchants. When he married her his family protested and in the end disowned him. They moved to a nearby village and had four children. When Ying Yue was only seven, Yuan Wu nine, Zhen Kun five, and Jiang Lei two years old, their parents passed away by drowning. They were sailing to Yue’s mother’s homeland to sell wares until a storm hit them. Without any parents to look after the children, they had no other choice but to live in poverty. No relatives would help them, and Ying Yue had playmates from the village’s orphanage but they all told her the living conditions at the orphanage was awful and that she was so lucky to have a mother and father. Ying Yue broke down crying, and soon her older brother Yuan Wu decided that they should move into a bigger village, because at least there they’ll have a chance to beg for money from richer merchants and businessmen. Ying Yue was against the idea because she didn’t want to leave her best friend, Xia Lin from the orphanage. Xia Lin was a very stubborn girl, feisty, scheming and cunning. Xia Lin taught Ying Yue a lot and they were the closest of friends. Ying Yue had to say goodbye to her dearest friend and moved to a bigger village with lots of markets and merchants. Since Jiang Lei was only two years old at the time the sudden change of environment affected her the most. She got nervous and very sick, but they couldn’t get her medicine or see a physician. Ying Yue learned how to play and dance to entertain the villagers so she could help her family. Zhen Kun spent a lot of time around the lakes and rivers, occasionally fetching crabs and other sea critters. He sold them cheap to help his family. Yuan Wu wanted to become a physician to help his sister, but of course he was very young and found a physician to mentor him. As the years passed the Jiang siblings grew older. Ying Yue became extraordinarily beautiful, her dance movements more graceful and elegant, and she matured. Yuan Wu wanted to continue studying to finally become a capable physician. Zhen Kun loved fishing and spent most of his time near the water to find food for his family. Jiang Lei’s health improved, but she was still weaker than most girls her age. Unfortunately Yuan Wu couldn’t afford to continue his tuition since the Jiang family lacked money. Zhen Kun’s money from fishing couldn’t help much but feed the family. Jiang Ying Yue only saw one option, she forced herself to become a concubine to help finance her family. Ying Yue was 15 when she entered the palace as a concubine and she has served as one for two years, sending back the luxurious riches to her family. She regularly keeps in contact with them via letters. Yue didn’t like the emperor that much, she faked her nervous giggles and blushes to get money for her family. She doesn’t hate the emperor, in fact she’s very indifferent about him and quite apathetic. But she could never love him. Ying Yue never had time for men and she simply wasn’t interested in them. A lot of dramatic events unfolded, but Jiang Ying Yue kept going strong.

[adiabolikpastel]

Give me all the fucking fairytale asks for Yukio too

MAGICAL ASK

Mun Yu: oof here we go again! 

Silas belongs to @spellboundsonnet

witch’s broom; Do you ever wish you could be a child again? Why?

Huh? That’s a stupid question. No. 

stardust; How was your first kiss?

Fufu~ my first? How abut my first with Silas-kun? He was so scared, thought I was going to hurt him. It was so magical. 

herbs; Do you believe in magic?

Of course, I can do it easily. 

luna; What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

Haaa... I don’t like to show off this side of me. Can’t we just pretend I don’t read. 

magical land; Name a person that inspires you.

No one, I inspire myself~ 

hobbit; Looking back those last 4 years,is there something you regret doing?

Excuse me! Why would I regret anything!? I have done nothing wrong! 

pixie dust; Have you ever loved somebody? And if you have, do you still talk to each other?

Of course~ I adore and love my sweet boyfriend Silas! You have seen him yes? He is so sexy~ I can leave him alone for a moment. 

secret garden; Do you believe in soulmates?

Eh? I suppose. Silas-kun and I must be, for I am never letting him go~

wonderland; What are you looking for in a friend?

Friends? I do not need them. Silas is all I need~

forest nymph; Do you ever daydream?

Do dirty fantasies count~?

snow white; What is your biggest dream?

A dream? To be with Silas-kun forever!

enchanted; Do you have a crush right now?

I wonder, fufu~

elf; What’s your favorite time of the day? Why?

It matters not. 

owl; How do you want to be remembered?

IT is my life’s goal is to sexually confuse everyone who sees me~

spells; In what time period would you rather be living in?

No

muse; How do you like to relax?

I am always relaxed~ but of course... doing something naughty is fun too

mythical; Dream destination?

Stupid question

rose petal; A few small things that make you happy?

Silas-kun of course! I only need him to be happy~

twinkle; A quote to live by?

“if a guy ever spreads a rumor that he slept with you, don’t deny it. 1- Because there will always be people who believe it. And 2, because that dumb ass boy just handed you the power to say anything you want about what he he’s like in bed. And people will believe it.” 

spark; Favorite film?

I really liked those... Pirate movies? The captain is very attractive~ 

angel; What’s the last person you talked to?

My mother. 

roses; What fictional universe would you like to live in?

Hmm... ah! I enjoy the one with the rocks who fight other rocks! 

castle; Favorite fictional character?

I suppose I enjoy... looking at Doyeol from MY Lover, My Teacher~ He looks like Silas-kun no~?

swan lake; Do you like poems? If so, what’s one of your favorites?

No, unless Silas-kun wrote me one~

doe; Have you ever written a letter?

Yes, in the Demon World we do not have all the technology there is here in the Human World. 

once upon a time; Do you dream every night? And do you remember last night’s dream?

Dream... can’t say that I do. 

he actually has nightmares quite often.

dandelion; What’s your favorite plant/flower?

Gross

shooting stars; Are you more of a cat or a dog person?

More gross!

He isnt a fan of anything taking attention away from himself, pets included / plus he is rather lazy. 

candlelight; Coffee or tea?

Gross! Why so many disgusting questions?

princess; Favorite tv show at the moment?

I enjoy Harlots! 

love potion; Have you ever had any magical/paranormal experiences?

My life is a magical experience~

pressed flowers; What’s the first beautiful thing you see around you?

Silas-kun sleeping~

sweet daisies; Do you believe in love at first sight?

Twas just this that drew me to Silas-kun. I knew from the moment I saw him~ 

jasmine tea; Forest or sea?

Both are awful.

moonlight; Sun or Moon?

I do not care.

cherries; Do you keep a journal?

Of course. It is something common, no? Father and Mother taught us at a young age this was something important. 

starlight; Share a secret.

Hmm should I~? Let me think... Ah! Most of the time... I wear women’s under garments. They are much cuter on me, fufu~

velvet; Have you ever wished upon a star?

No? Why would I do this?

crystals; What’s your spirit animal?

Please do not give me one! I am me, no animal is like I am! 

glow; What do you value most in people?

Adore me and we will not have a problem. 

sugarplum; Do you like children?

No. 

honey; Favorite song with meaning to you?

Fufu, I suppose you were thinking something dirty, right? Wrong~ I very much love Can’t Help Falling in Love, my favorite rendition being by Haley Reinhart

gardenia; Rain or Sunlight?

I dislike both.

dwarf; Do you enjoy horror films?

I suppose? They do not scare me.

magic mirror; Zodiac sign?

Sagittarius

merpeople; Favorite scent?

Must you ask? Silas-kun.

mystical; Most beautiful name and word you can think of?

It has to be both? That is stupid. 

cloud kingdom; Have you ever been to a concert?

Not interested. 

feather; What excites you about life?

Many things~

glittery dream; Baths or showers?

Baths! I adore bath bombs!

unicorn; Favorite food?

I love lolipops~

elven palace; Self care tips?

Keep your skin silky! Everyone has different types, but find yours and maintain it! 

rabbit hole; What color are your eyes?

Purple

mermaid lagoon; What color is your hair?

Pink~

[buckyos]

Unsteady

Pairings; Sirius Black x Reader

Request; hello love! can you write a fanfic with Sirius maybe with the song unsteady by x ambassadors? pretty please? 

Warnings; My English, I kinda doing the imagine thing to improve them. Language, yeah... I guess it’s a bit crappy cause I’m not writing regularly and it’s not in my first language so yeah. The photo it’s not mine so all credits go to its original owner.

A/N; So this is an old fic of mine, repost from my old blog that now it doesn’t exist. I think I’m gonna re-upload all the fics with the marauders I have. If you find mistakes feel free to correct me because you’re learning from your mistakes and I want to improve my English because they suck. 

Word Count ; 1,027

It was midnight and you were on the road towards to Sirius’ home. It was the summer holidays and on the train from Hogwarts, you and Padfoot had a terrible fight. You communicated a little through owls and made the things up but suddenly he stopped writing to you. His mother, of course, wouldn’t want his son to talk with a Muggle-born like you.

After a week without his news, you decided to go visit him at Grimmauld Place. You actually climbed the whole way while you were praying to not fall down. You didn’t know which window was his so you should look through them. Unfortunately, you found his brother’s room first so you had to go to the next one.

You looked inside and you let a small scream because you finally found it. Sirius was lying on his bed with his eyes closed and he faced the ceiling. You knocked the window but he didn’t hear you so you did it again a bit more intensely. He raised his head and you waved at him with a big smile. Immediately he got up and opened the window to you.

“Y/N what are you doing here babe. Oh my god if my mum sees you she will hex you.”

He was whispering to be sure that no one would hear him and helped you to get into his room. You hugged him tight and you smelled him, his scent was a mix of cinnamon with rain, cigarettes and motorbike’s oil. And that’s all the things you smell in your amortentia as well. Because you were so deeply in love with Sirius that all you could think was him.

“I wanted to see you Padfoot. I missed you so much.”

“Love, I missed you too. I’m so sorry that I stopped writing to you but my mother burned every single letter I wrote to you and I didn’t want to piss her off more.”

He kissed you on your forehead once and then on your lips, he said that every time he kisses you he can taste cherries and he loved it. He headed you to his bed and lied there together. You cuddled for a while with Sirius kissing the back of your neck.

“I’m thinking to leave.” He told you and you turned to face him. His grey eyes were full of sadness and you couldn’t bear this. You kissed him.

“Where to?” you had no idea what he had on his mind, of course, he could come to your house and stay but you weren’t sure if your parents would agree with the whole summer thing.

“James’, his parent won’t have any problem they always seemed to be okay with me there. Actually, I think that Euphemia once told me to go live with them. But, I didn’t consider it much back then.”

You didn’t know what to tell him so you did the only thing that you were sure he needed. You hugged him, tight. So tight, that his shattered soul would be whole again. And then he started singing a muggle song from your favorite band.

“Hold, hold on, hold onto me

‘cause I’m a little unsteady

a little unsteady.”

He was talking so low that if you didn’t know the song you wouldn’t be able to know what he was singing. It was a song that it suits him so well. Like it was written for him.

“Baby, I would never leave you. You know that. You have to know that. I love you, Sirius.”

He stopped. It was the first time that you told him that. You weren’t a person who used the word ‘love’ easily so it was a surprise for him.

“Wha- what did you say, love?” he was smiling and his eyes were shining from love.

“Sirius, I told that I love you. I love you.” You smiled at him and he kissed you, slowly, like it was the last time he would do it.

“I love you too, you know that?” you nodded and you told him to continue the song. You loved it so much when he is singing. You had taught him how to play guitar and his already beautiful voice started to have a rhyme.

“Mama, come here

Approach, appear

Daddy, I’m alone

Cause this house don’t feel like home.”

And it wasn’t. You knew. The Grimmauld place wasn’t his home. His friends and you were his home. And that’s why he wanted to leave. It wasn’t his home. He was full of bad memories from this house.

“If you love me, don’t let go

If you love me, don’t let go.”

He stared at you for a while and then he got up and started packing up his thing.

“Padfoot, what are you doing?”

“I’m leaving. I’m leaving now Y/N. I can’t stay here more, I can’t live with her, not anymore.”

-Hold, hold on, hold onto me

‘Cause I’m a little unsteady

A little unsteady-

You stand up as well and helped him put all the things in his trunk and then you noticed a photo of you and him on his wall alongside his one with the boys.

“It’s a permanent spell. No one will be able to put it down.” He smiled while looked at the photos and then together you closed the trunk.

-Hold, hold on, hold onto me-

You left the house from the window together, you were going at James’ with him. You took the knight bus to drive you to Godric's Hollow.

-Cause I’m a little unsteady-

The whole time you were hugged and kissed each other.

-A little unsteady-

When you arrived at Potters they opened the door and James’ mother hugged Sirius so tight and asked him if he was okay. They didn’t ask anything else. They were happy that finally, Sirius was free from his awful family.

You slept with him that day. Cuddled up in the bed with him whispering in your ear. Finally, after all this time, he had a peaceful sleep.

“If you love me, don’t let go

If you love me, don’t let go.”

And you wouldn’t.

MASTERLIST

[laythornmuse]

Merry Christmas!

To  @mybeautifuldecay

It’s been so fun getting to know you a bit this Holiday Season!  Your drawings and fanfictions are beautiful and I’m so grateful to have gotten to know you better.  I hope my messages brought you an extra helping of cheer, and I hope you love this story.  It’s taken on a life of its own, and I have you to thank for it <3

Thank you @moghraidhjamie for hosting this wonderful event!

To all the wonderful Outlander fans,  I hope you all get some downtime this holiday season and get to catch up on all the wonderful fiction the writers are pouring out!  I know I will. 

PROLOGUE

Claire first felt it when she was 9 years old, a warm, delicate flower blooming in her chest, that made her stomach tingle and her knees wobble. It occurred every time she greeted James Fraser, the laird’s son.  

At 12 years old, Jamie was tall for his age, though his face held a softness to it that magnified when he smiled.  It was that smile and the gleam in his blue eyes that made her say yes when he invited her to play, and she quickly found herself with three new siblings as Ian, Jenny, and Jamie counted her as their fourth.

A resident of Broch Morda all her life, she and Uncle Lambert moved into a cottage at Lallybroch later that year when Brian Fraser hired him to tutor his children. Though Jamie would be sent to Paris in a few years, he needed instruction to prepare him for the rigors of University, and as a learned man, Uncle Lambert suited this position well.

Living at Lallybroch also suited Claire. She was an adventurous and spirited child whose curiosity often lead her into hour-long discussions about every topic imaginable, but her latest obsessions were plants:  the purpose of plants, how they grow, and why there were so many of them.  

She hated the Church’s answer.

“But WHY did God make them all?” She whined one afternoon, tapping her pencil along her ledger. She puffed out a breath that made her curls bounce against her brow, and frowned at her uncle.

“Maybe God was bored,” Jamie muttered, too engrossed in his arithmetic work to look up. Jenny rolled her eyes at him and kicked his shin under the table. She looked at her friend and chewed her bottom lip.

“They offer wonderful variety,” Jenny said, contemplating the question.  “They’re all so unique in shape and color, and they change as all living things do.”

“Variety can’t be the only reason,” Claire argued. “And they’re not all pleasant. Some are sharp and grotesque.”

“Good use of your vocabulary word,” her uncle murmured, before tipping his head up and smiling at her. “Why, it’s quite simple,  my dear.  They each perform a special task in nature. Plants can heal and kill, and some can do both. The real pleasure comes in studying how.”

With those words and a copy of Phillip Miller’s “The Gardener’s dictionary,” published just last year and a prized possession in the Fraser home, Claire took to botany and the healing power of plants and herbs.

When not sleeping or doing her chores, Claire would spend hours reading and collecting plant samples. When Brian Fraser bought her a mortar and pestle and some herb seedlings, Claire added gardening to her daily joys.

Her love for plants proved useful one winter when Jenny, Ian, and Jamie were confined to their beds with awful fevers and coughs. Claire dutifully made eucalyptus pastes and ointments and applied it to each of her patients to help them sleep.

Jamie however, wanted no part of it.

“It smells awful,” he moaned, pulling his blanket up to his chin and shifting away from her.

“I’m surprised you can smell at all. Your nose is redder than cherry.” She tutted at him and circled around to the other side of the bed. He immediately moved away from her. “Really, Jamie if you don’t hold still, I’ll sit on you.”

“James Fraser!” Brian barked from across the hall. “Let Claire treat you or I’ll make you wish ye had!”

He glared at her and her smug grin and huffed in defeat. Claire crawled on the bed next to him and applied the ointment to his throat and chest.

“You’re less fevered today, at least. Do you want me to read another chapter?” Claire asked with a smile, as she tucked the blanket back under his chin.

Jamie yawned and turned on his side. “Aye, but start at the beginning of Chapter 2? I fell asleep during it.”

Claire smiled and pulled the book into her lap as Jamie shifted closer to her knee.

“That evil influence which carried me first away from my father’s house—which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands of my father—”

“Sounds like a trouble you two share,” Brian Fraser said under his breath as he tucked an extra blanket around his son’s feet. He soundlessly padded out of the room before tossing a final glance at the pair, not missing the gentle smile his son wore as Claire turned the page.

In the spring, Claire would lead the group on foraging expeditions, and she often found new specimens in between their games and adventures. Jenny would sketch the plant, and if deemed necessary, Jamie would painstakingly dig it up so it could be relocated to Claire’s garden and studied.

This morning Jamie and Claire were alone,  as Ian and Jenny were still working on their lessons.

“I’m not having much…” Jamie sneezed violently.  “Luck…with this one…”

He carefully wiped his 15-year-old face on his sleeve as his eyes watered. Claire, now 12, grinned and took the plant from his hands. He blinked rapidly, and when his eyes cleared, he saw Claire’s smile, radiant as a spring morning’s glow.

“I think that’s three allergies I’ve discovered now, Jamie.  One could wonder why you bother helping me anymore.”

Jamie’s cheeks turned pink as he kicked at the dirt by his feet.  He never turned down an opportunity to spend time with her, even if it was to dig up ragweed. He shrugged, but Claire saw the telltale drumming of his fingers against his thigh. His expression settled into one of determination, and before his bravery waned, he closed the distance between them.

The kiss was a quick beat of butterfly wings against her lips, and too soon his wings were gone.

“That’s why,” he whispered.

A moment later, courage fully expended, he was gone, headed to the barn to finish his chores. Claire held a hand to her mouth, a giddiness filling her as her lips tingled, still wet from his. She could smell his lingering scent, grass and salt and fresh hay. She stood still for another ten minutes, taking inventory of all that would or could change from that kiss before she returned to her garden with her new specimen.

When the sun began to lower into the hills, Jamie found her in her garden where she usually ended her days. He smiled at her as she stood and was about to speak when Brian Fraser called them both inside.

“Jamie, you remember your uncle, Dougal?” Brian said curtly, eying Dougal where he stood in their parlor.

“Aye. Welcome, Uncle.”

“You’re a braw lad, Jamie,” Dougal began, “and your father and I thought it time for you to know your Makenzie lines.”

“Aye?” Jamie looked at his father whose face was blank, masked to hide his true feelings on the matter.

“Your mother and I agreed to it after Willie passed.  Your uncle Colum is a wise man, but unable to travel.  A season or two at Castle Leoch, under Mackenzie care,” Brian’s eyes burned into Dougal’s, “and then three years at University in Paris.”

Jamie’s mouth gaped like a fish for a few moments before his father’s raised brow made him close it. He had yearned for this day for years, anxious to advance his sword skills his father had taught him.

A smile broke across his face as Dougal’s hand clasped his shoulder. Brian ruffled his son’s hair, a sadness drifting through him at the thought of parting from him.

Claire watched the exchange from the doorway, her mouth clamped shut to prevent it from trembling.

Four years? From her closest friend and…her thoughts traveled back to the kiss and she tasted acid in her mouth.

Not to be. Not now, at least.

And so she forced a smile on her face, for Jamie seemed overjoyed, and went to set the table with Jenny.

2 Years Later

“The Fool.  His letters get shorter and shorter while his requests only grow longer.” Jenny muttered.

Claire laughed as she looked up from her knitting. “What now?”

“Three shirts, a scarf, and a package full of mending. Apparently, he’s too busy to darn his own socks.”

“You’d think with his exams he’d look forward to distraction.”

“Oh, he’s plenty of those,” Brian Fraser muttered, not looking up from his book.  Jenny’s eyes darted from her father to Claire,  whose attention was now focused on her pearling.

Jamie’s letters had turned from warm to formal, and their length from 5 pages to 1.  Brian’s messages with his son, however, had become longer and solicited more exasperated sighs and Scottish affirmations.

For several months, Brian was tight-lipped about their contents, but finally a month ago the contents had mingled into Jenny’s letters as well.

Jamie thought himself in love with a woman named Annalise.

Claire, simply put, was devastated.

The letter had arrived months ago,  and Jenny had shared it with Claire without knowing the contents.  Claire had held her face until she was back in her shared room.  She cried until her chest ached, and tried her best to keep quiet to not disturb Jenny.

Eventually,  Jenny slipped into bed behind her and pulled Claire to her shoulder.

“Sob if you must, Claire, and hold onto me. I’ll never tell a soul, mo chridgh.”

She let her tears roll freely down her face, gasping for air as her heart throbbed and her lungs shook with the strain of loss.

Jenny held her through the night, stroking her hair until Claire fell into a fitful sleep at last. In the morning, Jenny felt a shift within Claire.  Her face was solemn, having tucked away the shards of her heart, and by afternoon she renewed her vigor in her studies.  

Jenny watched her now with pursed lips, but Claire’s indifferent mask did not falter.

That night, there were no tears.

Chapter 1

[icy-warden]

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

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

Vergil

The bodies of his attackers were mocking him. The one on his left twitched weakly, so he summoned the sharp gland of ice, finishing it off with a sneer.

He contemplated leaving them here and carry on.

Three mauled humans should make an example for any other trying to ambush a lone traveler.

He grimaced. If not for the crow leading him through the path in one moment, and suddenly hurtling itself at Vergil with a loud screech, the Warden would be the one on the ground, bleeding out from the arrow in his throat. The bird saved his life, when he was too deep in his thoughts to pay attention to the surroundings.

He almost twisted his ankle trying to hop off quickly from the horse's back, hurriedly casting shields. Thankfully, the animal lived through the scuffle, too valuable for the bandits to simply kill it.

There were three of them and the closely growing trees were their advantage in the surprise attack. But once the surprise part was over, Vergil striked them as hard as his rage fueled him. He was in a hurry and they dared to slow him down.

Lightning and ice cracked in the air, and when the crow unexpectedly dived for one of the bandits, slashing her face with its claws, Vergil saw his opening and lunged for it. The blood of the wounded one was the source of the fall for the rest. He didn't even need to draw his daggers.

The inhuman screams faded quickly enough and now he was left with the remains.

He blinked slowly, trying to recall the spell Aether taught him long time ago. The one with the earth elements, using nature as its base. The one which, when Vergil once used in some other fight, had Velanna shouting in outrage. She was less than impressed about someone spilling Dalish secrets, but later, after a lot of grumbling and some small bribing, helped him with understanding it's mechanics better.

For proper use, she said.

And it should come of use now, as Vergil concentrated more than usually, on bringing out the vines and roots from beneath the earth. Willing them to entwine the bodies and swallow them down, leaving the scattered dirt behind.

After it was done, he exhaled slowly, standing for awhile and just breathed. Earth spells were difficult and took more of him than what came naturally. Fire was something he never could harness properly, just the small, simple things.

Earth and fire were not his fields of magic, but Aether wielded them like Vergil his lightning and ice.

Easy like breathing.

The crow cawed at him from its place at the nearby branch, the sound loud in the forest silence.

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

Doors opened so quickly, that Vergil had to take a step back. What greeted him was Aether's paled face, the eyes widened and frantic, looking like he saw a ghost.

Is it because I am here? The thought nibbled at him, bringing back that odd feeling of sour disappointment. Still, Vergil's gaze stayed on Aether's face, taking in the visibly changed features. Too sharp cheekbones, usually tanned skin lost its glow. He stared at the panicked man before him with a dare, slightly tilting up his chin.

Blocking the escape route and not having the intent to move without a talk.

And he will have the man talking, willingly or not.

He took a step forward and Aether backed away as well. Few steps in, like a weird looking dance. Vergil advancing forward, the healer retreating equally, until he bumped on Josephine's desk. Only then Vergil glanced away from him, as there was another person in the room.

“Lady Montilyet,” He greeted her, nodding slightly. “Thank you for your letter. I've found it exceptionally intriguing. So much, I decided to visit without proper notification.” He brought his gaze back at Aether. “I apologize for the eventual inconvenience.”

“You needen't apologize, and it is I, who should be thanking you for taking the time to travel to Skyhold.” She answered gracefully, standing quickly from behind her desk. “I should leave you both to your privacy, now if you'll excuse me.” And with that she was gone, door quietly shutting behind her.

Aether winced at Josephine's departure, fingers clutching at the desk's edge. He was looking anywhere, but not at the Warden. Neither of them seemed eager to break the uncomfortably stretching silence. Vergil busied himself with taking off his gloves,  movements slow, calmly scrutinizing Aether's form.

He didn't utter a single word. So thin, the clothes are hanging on him. Is it illness too? He rejected the fleeting thought.

“The truth is,” At the sound of his voice Aether seemed to shudder a little, but finally looked at him. “The truth is,” Vergil began anew, “that I did find it curious Lady Montilyet contacted me.” He paused for a moment, using teeth to help himself with somewhat stuck glove. “What I neglected to say, was why such knowledge has not come from the interested party himself.”

Aether scoffed. “I haven't known she'd written to you. It was not her right to tell and,” He brought his arms up, crossing them tightly. “I would prefer it to stay this way.” He swallowed, looking away. “I should have done it myself.”

“But you have not, and I'm inclined to think you would not.” Vergil said, putting the gloves under his belt. “Not without a proper push anyway. Which brings us here.” He shifted, bringing off the weight from the leg. It must have been strained form the scuffle in the forest. “You look awful.”

“Tell me something I don't know.” Aether huffed, irritated. Then the shadow of anger seemed to leave him, his shoulders dropping wearily. “Last time we've seen each other I've... said things I should not have.” He closed his eyes briefly. “Bothering you to show up here was-”

“Then you are a fool,” Vergil's sharp tone interrupted him, “thinking I would be somewhere I not wished to.” Aether looked at him in disbelief. His cheeks reddened, eyes suspiciously moist. “This,” Vergil gestured between them, “is making me unsure if it is my presence, that reduces you to shaking mess you want to escape so badly.”

And it's a cold shard in my chest, seeing I am the source of your fear, he didn't add.

“And pardon me for cutting the chase,” Vergil stepped closer to Aether, “but I need to know if I am truly not welcomed here by you.” He paused, collecting himself visibly. “The time for distractions has ended.” He continued in more soft voice. “I need straight answers to simple questions. If you truly wish me to leave this time, I will. No more visits, especially when it's not you who would explicitly write it to me. What I need, is to know, how I-... we cut it cleanly, and just stop.”

Even if just saying this feels like I'm drowning.

Aether watched him, eyes gleaming, surprised. And upset. He opened his mouth, but not a sound came out. He tried again, and the words still seemed to leave him. Vergil sighed, suddenly so tired, stepping away from the healer.

Bad decisions haunted him lately. At least, they didn't cause the emptiness, numbing him with the feel of loss.

“I think I have my answer.” He rasped, not even angry at himself. “What I ask now is a place to stay for the night, I will be on the road-”

“Why?” The quiet, slightly wobbling voice cut him off. He glanced at Aether, annoyance painting his features in cherry red.

“Why do you say you'll leave again when I...” He sniffed, hand coming up to rub quickly at his eye. “I miss you.” His voice cracked slightly. He curled on himself, like expecting a blow. The shape of his collarbones even more obvious, visible throught the opened shirt.

Vergil straightened his back, striding to crowd into the healer's personal space. The whirlwind of strange emotions seemed to calm down at Aether's confession. He brought his fingers to grab at Aether's chin, gently, but still forcing him to look at Vergil.

“Was it so hard to say?” He asked in deliberately lofty way, quickly seeing his mistake. The healer's stubbornly bitten lip quivered, tears in the verge of spilling. At the sight of them, Vergil didn't think, just moved, embracing the shorter man. His hold was tight, hands coming to cradle the back of Aether's head and his back.

And it seemed to do it, as after a moment of shocked stiffness,  Aether started crying. With quiet sobs and gasped “I missed you”, face tucked into the crook of Vergil's neck, he weeped, clutching almost desperately at the man holding him. And Vergil cradled him even closer, both relieved and worried, stroking Aether's back with slow caress, whispering “I'm here”. The lump in his throat making it hard to swallow freely.

And when Aether exhausted himself, tears drying, and swaying on his feet, Vergil just leaned down enough to get his arm under Aether's knees, hauling him up to carry him to his chambers.

So light, so fragile, Vergil thought, walking through empty corridors, not even in need of helping himself with magic boost. Aether was quiet, letting himself being held without protest, arms around Vergil's neck. Warm puffs of his breath and delicate fluttering of his lashes on the mage's skin as the only signs of him being conscious.

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The water was pleasantly warm, the calming scent of oils freely mingling with steam.

Aether had his back on Vergil, as the man applied the creams to his hair. He gently held the strands, spreading the balmy substance on the strands, hopefully making them glossy and healthy looking once again. He openly fussed at the state of Aether's skin, checking his pack for more essentials to use, making the healer's shoulders lightly shake in quiet amusement.

The bumps of his spine so sharp, sharper than he ever seen them, made him both want to kiss them one by one and grith his teeth in helpless anger. Vergil kept his touches smooth and careful, the movements precise and limited only to the bathing. Even if he wanted to let his fingers to linger, to let himself feel more of Aether's warm skin, bite and mark, he controlled himself.

He would not jump into old habits, not with Aether's current mindset, even if the man himself offered a tub-sharing.

“To save the time on water heating. And you are in a need of bath, too.” He said with a tentative smile, his eyes tired and still slightly puffy from earlier outburst. So he hadn't hesitated, leaving the room only to collect his travel pack and making some orders to the first met servant.

And now, they relaxed, unhurriedly washing themselves, taking care of their bodies to calm their minds, even for a moment. Vergil get out first, after hearing the knocking of a servant bringing food. He winced slightly, as stepping out of the tub he brought more of his weight on the strained leg. Still, turning away from the man in the bath, he grabbed the towel, getting one more for Aether.

“I told them to leave the trays beside the doors.” He said, toweling himself quickly and getting the black pants on, not bothering with covering his scarred arm and back. Aether only hummed in affirmation, slowly getting out of the water.

After short time, they were lounging on the sofa, their sides constantly brushing, the trays with food splayed before them on low table, pitcher of water in the middle (the wine bottle apparently meant to go with Vergil's meal left behind the doors). Vergil rehearsing some silly anecdotes from the Keep between the bites, watching Aether feebly nibbling on pieces of bread. He didn't bring it up, though, seeing the exhaustion seeping from the man in waves. But his trivial tales seemed to brighten him a little, so he continued, until his plates were clean. Aether was done with his long before him, the food nearly untouched.

“Do you want to lie down?” Vergil asked, turning to the man properly. The Warden felt tired, mostly because of the swift pace he forced himself to maintain in order to get to the castle faster. He needed to rest, but not without knowing Aether would get some rest too. Not with him looking like he'd shatter at the mild push.

“I'd like that.” Aether replied softly. He hesitated, then covered Vergil's hand with his own. “And I'd like to you lie with me.” His cheeks reddened at the implication. “For a nap only.” He quickly added.

Vergil gave him a fond little smile, pleased by the warmth of Aether's palm. The other kind of warmth spreading in his chest thanks to the simple words and gestures.

“Of course.”

You need only to ask.

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Later, both of them lied tangled in blanket and themselves, Vergil gradually dozing off with the top of Aether's head under his chin. Warden's fingers lazily thumbing the skin under Aether's ear, listening to his slow breaths.

The warmth in him seemed to grow, something he wouldn't think of possible missing, until it was snatched so cruelly all this time age.

By his own hand.

He vowed not to make the same mistake again.

[mogadichu]

SOAST- Chapter 2: The Scholar’s Jewel

An archiver’s visit to the western monastery usually lasted under twelve minutes. For Sahn, it was over an hour. The Kelshin monks walked silently around him as he wandered up and down the rickety stairwell of the monastery library, practically gliding in their thick wool robes. Sahn breathed in the tower’s musky scent, wanting more than anything to vanish into the hundreds of scrolls that surrounded him. Every wall was covered, floor to ceiling, in octagonal shelves filled to the brim with sacred texts, all coated with a thin layer of dust. He ran his fingers along the carved wooden covers, leaving a stark trail behind him. These stolen moments were Sahn’s only opportunity to lose himself in perfect silence. Today, however, silence could not drown Aurie’s words out of his mind.

I want to see a joghon. Just once.

The phrase had repeated in his thoughts like a song ever since he left her in the fields. It was not the first time she had shown her interest in the monsters that lived beyond the horizon, the monsters whose very presence, according the sacred words written on the stone walls of the High Temple of Shianyi, perverted the very nature of the Kelshin soil.

The Only Order Is the Natural Order

They were sacred words, to swear by, to never be questioned. Yet, Aurie had practically walked out of their mother’s womb asking question after question about the monsters. “What do they look like? How do they live? Do they pull magic from the air? From the earth? Do they truly sacrifice animals? Do they truly dance naked in their blood?”

Their mother’s earlier response was tame compared to the usual slap on the ears and wild-eyed command to not ask such “heathen acquisitions.” Sahn never blamed her for it. They did not need magic curiosity to add to their oddness.

Sahn circled around the tiny scriptorium, peering over the monks’ hunched shoulders. With steel fingers, they painted a map of Kelsh along the thick beige paper.

Kelsh and only Kelsh.

A hiss from the dark-eyed men signaled that Sahn had once again overstayed his welcome. He strapped the newly-copied scrolls into the wooden pack on his back and, with a bow of gratitude, set off in his little raft. His long, thin oar pierced into the rocky bottom, pushing him along Rin River. The land on either side of him was sprawling rice terraces and grain fields, copses of birch and curved tiled roofs. No mountain, not even a hill large enough to block the view to the blurred line of the horizon.

Devoid of mountains and magic, eh, boy? Novoyai chuckled, sitting cross-legged on the braided reeds, sliding a flat rock along his ethereal cutlass. What am I going to do with my qigara blade, then?

What the exact purpose of a qigara blade was, Sahn did not know. But, he still chuckled at his imaginary friend’s quip. “Let’s hope you never have to use it.”

Oh, come now. No need to be such a pacifist. The hero’s thick black whiskers curved in a cold smile, his braided beard wrapped around his neck like a scarf. What about your grandfather?

Sahn stiffened. “What about him?”

He could use a close shave, I’m sure.

“Novoyai…”

I bet I could slice him clean in half, and I’d never hurt him half as much as-

“No,” Sahn shrieked, startling a flock of sparrows off a nearby willow. “No magic blades on my grandfather. There’s no…” His face heated again at his own silliness. Of course, Novoyai would never be able to even touch his grandfather. Still… “There’s no need for violence, Novoyai.”

Tell that to-

“No,” he said again. “No violence, and-” his teeth gritted behind his lips. His fingers drifted to the long, thin scar at his collarbone as he whispered, loud enough only for Novoyai to hear, “and no magic.”

Novoyai snorted before returning to his sharpening. Where’s the fun in a world with no magic?

 The citadel stood at the tip-top of Gleaner’s Hill, first to touch the light in the morning and last to touch it at night. The building was of rich burgundy wood carved in patterns of leaping carp and blooming water lilies swept up in lapping waves. A gleaming gold sun stood at each curved tip of the green tiled roof. The inside was paneled with dark wood, the walls varnished with oil murals of sailing ships and groves of cherry trees. The floors were inlaid with shining squares of gold and turquoise stone. Sahn’s footsteps echoed as he weaved through the maze of the same octagonal shelves, stacked atop each other like honeycomb, filled with newer, sleeker copies of Kelshin history and lore, folktales and sacred texts, from the adventures of Tuma and Moyane to simple accounts of village residents. Most of Kelsh’s books were archives of the nation’s history, retreading its many great achievements in its five thousand years of existence. Their fiction, what little there were, held no magic in them, not even their children’s stories. They held monsters and otherworldly beasts, they even held gods. But never magic.

Each citadel was meant to be a beacon of knowledge, a scholar’s jewel, a place for every Kelshin, no matter their station. Everyone of Gleaner’s Hill being illiterate was either an unfortunate accident or a cruel twist of fate.

Their citadel may have been a marvel to behold, but the scrolls remained unread, the gleaming stone never grew faded from the feet of a curious reader. All but few of the people of Katha ate and slept and plowed from the cradle to the grave without ever learning their letters. “I’ve got no time for letters,” Old Maga, a rice farmer with thin arms and a pot belly, grunted when Sahn had asked about it. “I wake up in the morning, I plow, I muck, I seed, and I go home and sleep. Besides, knowing your letters doesn’t make you smart.”

“But, my ma and da know their letters,” Sahn had protested, “and they’re smart.”

Old Maga had scoffed. “If your ma were smart, she wouldn’t have married a foreigner.”

Kale never spoke of Vyorn, never spoke of his family (if he ever had one) or what his life was at all before Kelsh. “There is nothing to tell,” he would say. All his children ever knew about his heritage was from his sheer size, all shoulders and legs and scraggly brown beard.

Of the three of them, Sahn bore the least resemblance to his gentle giant of a father. Jerra inherited his massive stature and copper skin, arms taught with hard muscle, flecked with scars from years of plow work, and a beard that grew like mad if he did not shave regularly. Even Aurie, with their mother’s kind amber eyes and clear sandstone skin, obtained Kale’s curved mouth that made her seemed to always smile, even when she was not.

Sahn, inherited everything from his mother, only in short supply. His figure was tall and wiry, his hair thin and black as mulch- kept a short, straight mop so as not to fall into his eyes as he read- and his skin the sallow yellow of aged parchment. Not to mention his rather humiliating inability to grow facial hair. His features were soft, unthreatening, “effeminate,” some said. The only thing he gained from his father were his large angled eyes, a bright, striking peridot green.

He unloaded the strapped scrolls onto a nearby table, the noise echoing off the polished walls despite his delicate touch. He noticed silhouettes showing through the paper windows of the mezzanine. Okan-Isan was pacing back and forth, flailing his arms. Another figure, hunched shoulders and bent knees, was standing still. Voices rang as Sahn silently slid the new scrolls into their shelves, his movements slow and deliberate. “… don’t care who they are and why they are here. We are under treaty.” Okan-Isan’s voice, high pitched and raspy as a crow. “How dare they come into these lands. Who do they think they are?”

Sahn blinked. He glanced at Novoyai, but he did not seem quite so interested. He pulled a scroll from the shelves and tapped it rhythmically against his forehead. Sahn gasped, nearly dropping his satchel. “What are you doing?” he cried.

I’m bored.

Sahn gently set his satchel down on the table long enough to snatch the scroll out of his imaginary friend’s hand. “Have some respect, Novoyai,” he said as he caressed its carved wooden cover, green rice terraces filled with water. It was a document of Great Batti, the lonesome shepherd who brought the groundbreaking art of irrigation to the Kelshin fields. Sahn knew every scroll in the archive forward, backward, and sideways. “This is nearly four hundred years old.”

Old. Everything is old, in here. Novoyai hopped onto the table and returned to his whetstone, his gaze lingering on Sahn. Would you hold a girl like that, boy?

Sahn put the scroll back, his face heating.

“How do you think I feel, Okan?” the stranger’s voice cried from above. “I’m the one who had to let them port.” Sahn stopped altogether. It was Matsu-Isan, of Agaoka. The last time he was in Okan-Isan’s quarters, Sahn and half the nation had been bed-ridden with pox. “I had to watch them set their filthy feet on our beautiful cobbles,” he continued. “I had to look into… look into their…” He did not finish. Moths fluttered in Sahn’s chest. “Let us hope it’s only temporary.”

“Temporary,” Okan-Isan snorted. “And how long is ‘temporary,’ Matsu? Weeks? Months?” His voice grew higher with every question. “Years?”

Matsu was silent. Sahn turned to Novoyai, who had finally ceased his sharpening. “What in the world are they talking about?”

Novoyai said nothing. He was interested now, his narrowed eyes focused on the windows. The shadows danced behind the mural of golden Tuma and silver Moyane stretching their hands to each other.

“It doesn’t matter, Okan, and it doesn’t matter what we think,” Matsu-Isan finally spoke. His silhouette shook with his voice. He was as afraid of Okan-Isan as Sahn was. “They won’t listen to the Shianyi Council, and they certainly won’t listen to us. If you want to go down there and tell them to leave, be my guest.” His figure backed away, toward the door. “See how long you last.”

He raced through the threshold, slamming the sliding doors shut, denying Okan-Isan the last word. He shuffled down the ornamental staircase, shivering like an excitable dog, his large brown eyes darting back to the mezzanine over and over. Sahn called to him from his place in the corner.

“Matsu-Isan.”

The old man jolted at the sound of his voice, his eyes widening to extraordinary size as they fell on Sahn. No doubt Okan-Isan had informed him of the Mad Darru on his arrival. “What were you two talking about?” Sahn asked, attempting to sound bold, and failing. “Who is staying?”

Matsu-Isan wrung his hands, plagued with gnarled skin from fish hooks and sea water. He was much older and thinner than Sahn remembered, bony and malnourished. His hair grew in clumps of silver fuzz. His back made a perfect curve beneath his stained, threadbare robes. He glanced once more at the murals (Okan-Isan’s silhouette was no longer there) before speaking. “Joghons,” he whispered, too softly to echo. “Joghons are here.”

Sahn’s breath caught. “What did you say?” Surely, he had not heard him right.

“Joghons are here,” Matsu-Isan whimpered. “The disgusting, defiled perversions are on Kelshin soil.”

It was as though the room no longer had a floor. Joghons, monsters, majysts, here. “Why?”

Matsu-Isan shrugged.

The scroll in Sahn’s hands twisted and creaked. There had not been a majyst in Kelsh since- a pang rippled through Sahn’s heart. So many questions suddenly crowded his tongue all at once, climbing and clambering over each other, fighting for the chance to be asked first. How long had they been here? How many were here? Were more coming? Sahn had thought the terms of the treaty were unbreakable. But perhaps they had found some sort of loophole? If that were the case-

           “All Kelshins are forbidden to approach the port towns of Orutan and Agaoka. No exceptions.”

           Sahn’s thoughts shattered like glass. “Why?” he repeated.

           Matsu-Isan loosened a sigh laced with irritation. This was a question he had been asked a lot already, a thought that surprised Sahn. “It is Moyane’s will to remain among the green, to keep to the natural order.” Sahn swallowed back a sigh. Moyane’s will. Always with Moyane’s will. “Besides, if we come to them, interact with them, it might tempt them to enter further. It is best to… leave them where they are.” Sahn knew what he had wanted to say. It is best to keep the disease from spreading. He also knew that Matsu-Isan was not a human man saying his own thoughts in that moment. He was a silver-winged kess repeating Okan-Isan’s words in a monotoned squawk. “Agaoka and Orutan are being evacuated as we speak.”

           “Why?”

           “To keep our people from the joghons,” Matsu-Isan snapped. “Moons, have you heard anything I said? Or is that the only word you know?” His mouth clamped shut as he looked away. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I haven’t really been myself lately.” His hands pressed into his stomach as though furthering his point.

           Beside him, Novoyai fidgeted in his spot. His trembling fist clutched the jeweled hilt of his cutlass. Oh, there’s no need for that. We already know a majyst. Sahn’s gaze darted between the two men standing before him, one real, one imaginary. Go on, boy. Tell him.

           Now is not the time, Sahn wanted to say. Matsu-Isan still held his stomach, gritting his teeth.

           Tell him, Novoyai pushed. What’s the matter? Are you ashamed?

           Sahn gulped.

           Ah, Novoyai said disappointedly. You are ashamed.

           Stop it, he thought.

           Don’t know why I’m surprised. After all, is it not Moyane’s will to hate anything different-?

           “Stop it,” Sahn blurted out to him, immediately thinking he might burst in flames from the heat that exploded through his face. Matsu-Isan looked in Novoyai’s direction and, when he saw no one was there, Sahn watched in horror as he turned from beige, to pale, to bone-white.

           “Stop what?” he asked slowly.

           Sahn mouth opened and closed. “Are you hungry?” he asked far too loudly. He rifled through his satchel and pulled out Aurie’s uneaten breakfast box. “Here. It’s a bit cold now, but…” His gaze remained on the checkered tiles.

           Matsu-Isan chewed on his lip, his fingers wiggling, aching to take the box, but he hesitated a moment before tentatively closing the space between them and plucking it from Sahn’s hand. He gulped at the sight of the food. When was the last time he had properly eaten? Sahn wanted to ask, but he felt he had asked this poor man enough questions, though more still burned his tongue.

           “Thank you,” Matsu-Isan croaked, gawking at the boy, wondering why he would give him such a gift. Sahn did not know himself. He only nodded, flushing a bit.

           Matsu-Isan left the citadel licking his fingers, his belly full for the first time in days. He had been in such a hurry getting his people out of Agaoka, making sure they were housed and fed, that he had entirely forgotten about himself. He glanced back through the lattice window, watching the boy reading the archive scrolls, still as a tree in dead wind, his free hand always on that little satchel. “Stop it,” he had said to the air. Matsu-Isan’s eyes narrowed into slits. What are you hiding, boy?