#wtf is a quarter back ??

[justaz]

like i’ve said time and time again, i haven’t watched bbc merlin in years but i was just wondering when the first time merlin called arthur by his name to his face and im scrolling thru the transcripts on the fandom wiki (supposedly it was s1ep4 btw) and im skimming the script for all these episodes and getting angrier and angrier. gaius was wrong for all that. morgana deserved so much better. edwin muirden was valid as hell (for targeting uther AND gaius. yeah. i said it.). also kilgharrah ate with that one lil line “then turn a blind eye. that is, after all, your talent” okay lizard brain pop offff.

[skhardwarevers1]

how much aura did I lose when my Spanish teacher got so mad about students being on their phones he slammed the whiteboard and it scared me so bad I started crying and had to be excused from class

[fjordfolk]

unpopular opinion but ig and various other media algorithms keep serving me videos of border collies (which i obviously appreciate) pressuring sheep to the point of confrontation through several takes and for no other purpose than to show off how ~*well trained*~ and ~*disciplined*~ the dog is which im sure people find super cool and stuff, but stop pestering your animals maybe

[hafwen]

Dentist can fit me in today so off I go

[frodolives]

1850s Tumblr Dashboard Simulator

👸🏻 girlbossladyjane Follow

It really makes me sick to see people giving money to penny weeklies when Franklin's expedition STILL has not been found 😭 There are good men out there trapped in unimaginable temperatures and literally all that's needed is a little more funding for another rescue mission yet all you guys seem to care about are your vulgar little stories...

🧔🏻‍♂️ queerqueg Follow

the franklin expedition is dead as hell

👸🏻 girlbossladyjane Follow

Disgraceful thing to say but I'd expect nothing more from a M*lville fan

10,558 notes

👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 hartgrindisreal

Sorry for posting so much about Tom Gradgrind/James Harthouse from Hard Times lately. It turns out that I was getting arsenic poisoning from my wallpaper? Anyway I took a seaside stroll and I'm normal now. Check your walls y'all

#whyyy did i assume they were committing unlawful actions together like where did i even get that from lol #hard times isn't even that good by dickens standards tbh

659 notes

🎨 asherbrowndurand

Just painted this

2 notes

ss-arctic-girlie-deactivated18540927

RIP Napoleon... you may have been unable to conquer Alexander's Russia but you sure as hell conquered Alexander's bed

🖼️ preraphaelitebro Follow

HERITAGE POST

📝 shakespearesforehead Follow

How does this have less than 100k notes you could literally not avoid this post back in the 20s lol

82,170 notes

🌄 loyalromantic Follow

poets just aren't dying young in mysterious water-related incidents like they used to :/

#as useless and degenerative as i find 'the living poets' and i'm glad we're finally moving on from them #i have to agree with op in this respect

6,884 notes

🎀 thefopdiaries Follow

I finally got a daguerreotype of myself ^_^ Porcelain urn for scaling

📜 bartlebi-thescrivener

i think i hauve consumption

112 notes

🐋 whaler4life

They found oil in the ground??? WTF. THIS IS LITERALLY THE WORSTTTT. FUCK MY LIFE FOR REAL THIS TIME

11 notes

🌿 naturesnaturalist Follow

I swear this website has 0 reading comprehension skills. Darwin NEVER claimed we "evolved" from apes like if one of you guys actually bothered to open his new book you'll see all his arguments are backed up by evidence. He actually makes a lot of sense

#sure there's nuance like i don't fully agree with all of it #but his general theory of natural selection seems pretty sound imo

56 notes

🤵🏻‍♂️ byronicherotournament Follow

🙈 butchbronte Follow

Of course these are the finalists lmao this website is so predictable. Anyway vote Heathcliff if you dont i'm going to assume you're a phrenologist

📖 sapphichelenburns Follow

It's not problematic to acknowledge the fact that Heathcliff was a brute like he literally killed dogs in case you forgot. #rochestersweep

🙈 butchbronte Follow

I love the implication here that Rochester never did anything cruel either. He literally locked his wife in the attic and lied to Jane about it 😭 like that was a pretty significant thing that happened

📖 sapphichelenburns Follow

And? God forbid women do anything

#why'd you have to pit two bad bitches against each other #anyway i'm not attracted to men but still went with rochester #bc in terms of living quarters thornfield hall > wuthering heights easily

8,027 notes

👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 hartgrindisreal

Not the Russian tsar dying immediately after hartgrind became canon

#i know dickens hasn't technically confirmed it yet but like. SOMETHING was strongly implied ok #see: my previous post #dickensposting

522 notes

👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 hartgrindisreal

LORD HELP ME. THE BODY LANGUAGE. THE WAY THEY'RE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER. AHHHHHH

#this installment!!! im-- #dickensposting #i can't fucking cope #dickens wants to KILL us he wants us DEAD....

2,309 notes

⭐️ newamerican

Hi guys sorry I haven't been posting lately it's been so difficult getting to California 💀 I'm finally here now though just need to find a pickaxe and soon I'll be digging! :-) wish me luck lol

#gold #gold rush #gold rush grind #california #adventure

0 notes

[meiffy]

someone explain sports to me 😭😭 I met a guy who loves football & my brain literally cannot comprehend-

maybe I can zone out during the game without him noticing 😭

[yoonstudios]

Y'ALL I FUCKING PASSED OUT TWICE IN 5 MINUTES LMFAO

[binniesbooks]

• REWINDING TO TOMORROW

SB 000 .F23 2024

wc 7.1k

pairings ex-boyfriend!Soobin x fem!reader (a little bit of bff!Taehyun x you)

warnings angst, a lot of crying, comfort, blowjob (m receiving), swallowing, unprotected sex (usage of condom at first tho), creampie (+ if I missed anything)

faye's note GUYS! THIS IS MY BIRTHDAY SPECIAL! 🥳 ㅋㅋ And since it's my birthday, I made something about Soobin, my lifeline! 🫡 Hope you like this one too! I'm stepping closer to the quarter life, I'm officially 21! Cheers to more years of supporting TOMORROW X TOGETHER! Btw, fuck Tumblr for being so glitchy, I had a hard time posting this because it kept on messing and realigning the pictures, wtf. 😒 The end felt rushed, please don't judge, for I, accidentally, fell asleep early last night! ㅠㅠ

You and Soobin have been dating for a while now. The relationship that bloomed from your friendship was the reason why your relationship was going well. You both also share a close-knit circle of friends who often hang out together making your bond feel even stronger.

So of all people, why are you and Soobin suffering from the heartache you were not supposed to feel in the first place?

"Y/n, are you going with us this weekend?" Chae was the one to wake you up from your thoughts. You are currently in the library for a group study for the upcoming examinations and your friends are planning to go out this weekend for dinner as a celebration.

You meekly answered a quiet yes, throwing a glance at Soobin, who is sitting six seats away from you, too focused on writing down his notes. "How about you?" Taehyun asked him as he slightly nudged him with his elbow. "I don't know. I might not be able to go." Soobin fixed his glasses without sparing a single look at the group and took a sip at the grape ade he had grown accustomed to when you two were still dating.

Despite the fact that you two broke up, your friends still tried to mediate between the two of you. Always trying to make the environment light whenever you two were present. But the hurt runs deep to the point that you both struggled to navigate your feelings in the presence of each other. Feeling the long lost love and the absence of trust you two once shared.

"I'm not going to eat if anyone from this circle is not going." Kai, the youngest, pouted. Only to receive soft chuckles and light laughs from the others.

"I'd rather hit the gym then. Besides, I've been skipping a lot nowadays." Taehyun sighed.

"Should I just play for a diamond this time?" Beomgyu muttered, pondering on whether to go or just play his favorite game at home.

"Then I should go shopping then, it's the weekend anyway," Ari exclaimed.

"Goodness! I'll pay this time! Just... just go with us, Soob." Yeonjun whined as he lightly slammed his card on the table. His action got your friends exclaiming "Oh, I'm going!" Yeonjun threw a tantrum, knowing his card was at stake. A laugh was once shared again in your circle. However, you weren't dumb, you knew that they were just trying to make the atmosphere lighter. They are trying to break the awkward tension that settled between the two of you.

"Let's wrap up and ace our exams! I'm prepared for Yeonjun Hyung to go broke." Kai cackled at the thought, receiving a neck slice from the older. While the others walked ahead with Soobin, Taehyun stayed behind for a bit to talk to you.

"I seriously don't know what happened between the two of you. You used to be sweet with each other, not like this," he helped you pack your things, your moves coming to a halt.

"Have you not heard about the rumor?" you inquired.

"Rumor? What rumor?" his brows furrowed.

"That he and..." you paused, trying your best not to break down, " He and Yunhee are back together. They've been screwing behind my back."

"Have you talked to him about that?" Taehyun's brow furrowed. You shook your head. "I did not. The moment I heard about it, I distanced myself from him."

"I suppose those are baseless rumors, y/n. I'm not siding with him but I will talk to him about that." His voice hinted with irritation about what he had just heard.

"Please don't, Tyun. I can't afford to destroy their relationship. Yunhee is Soobin's first love." Your eyes welled up with tears as you held both his hands, pleading. Scared about the thought that it might embarrass you more.

"How could I not? Am I supposed to stay put while the girl I-- no, this friend of mine is hurt?" He gently cupped your face rubbing his thumbs on your cheeks. You were not able to catch a few of the words he uttered, as you looked at him with watery eyes.

Taehyun sighed once again and pulled you closer to hug you. The tall guy let you sob on his chest. "I'm not used to this y/n. I can't see you like this." He breathed words drowning with your silent sobs.

One day before the exam, you weren't able to spot Soobin in the classroom, or the wide field of the campus. You can't help but get bothered. Soobin never skipped classes especially when it was exam week. He can't afford to miss out on important lectures. As a concerned friend- no, probably just a mere classmate at this point, you jot down important notes from the lectures that day. Planning to at least give him a copy of the lectures.

It was your exam day, only two subjects were scheduled for today, excluding the subjects Soobin missed. You brought the written notes with you, praying that Soobin would be going to school and at least take his exams.

The moment you stepped inside the classroom, you saw the familiar figure sitting near the window with a sprout in his hair. You weighed whether to give the notes to him now or later. A few of your classmates, one who happened to be his seatmate, passed by near you, and was talking about Soobin.

"He said he caught a cold yesterday, so he wasn't able to come to class." You were quietly listening to them.

"He was asking me if I have some extra notes but I wasn't able to take down notes yesterday." The guy scratched his head. You smiled a bit, you wanted to check on him knowing that he caught a cold. You told yourself to meet him after the exam today to give him the notes you wrote.

"One subject is done." You muttered, stretching your arms above your head. You glanced at Soobin sitting in the front row. You were able to catch a glimpse of his face as he looked outside the window. His pointy nose was a hue of red, he kept on sneezing. His eyelashes fanning beautifully. Eyes with a glint of sadness, you can't tell why. He fixed his earphones as he closed his eyes, chin laying peacefully on his palm, feeling the cool breeze of the wind from the open window.

Your exams for today are done. You clutched the notebook where you compiled the notes you were supposed to give him. As you got up from your seat you saw Soobin down the other end. You stiffened, pondering whether you had the courage to talk to him and check on him after his absence. You wanted to ask if he totally recovered from the cold he caught, an obvious question, you heard him sneeze many times. When he passed by in front of you, you wanted to give him the notes, "Soob-", you were cut from what you were supposed to say.

"Thanks for the notes, I'll give it back tomorrow." He said. To your dismay, it wasn't you who he was talking to, it was the other guy behind you.

You smiled bitterly as you crumpled the notes. Of course, he won't pay attention to you, he's dating Yun Hee now, wasn't he? Besides, what business does he have to do with you anymore? You walked outside the classroom with heavy footsteps The extra notes were long discarded in the bin near the door.

You felt arms wrapping around your neck, causing you to almost fall. "How's the exam?" It was Beomgyu. "Move your hand. She almost fell." Taehyun spoke with an annoyed tone.

"You are so stingy, even these past few days." Beomgyu rolled his eyes, referring to Taehyun. Taehyun took your bag over your slumped shoulders, carrying it instead.

"Math is hard." you only exclaimed, mouthing a quiet 'thank you' and a smile to Taehyun, to which he responded by ruffling your hair.

"I know you still did well." Beomgyu gently pinched your cheeks.

The two males walked with you side by side to the bus stop. They kept on spitting jokes, bickering with each other, and teasing you. But neither of the two spoke about you and Soobin. They know it themselves how it got awkward whenever the topic is all about you and your past relationship.

You and Taehyun got inside the bus waving goodbye to Beomgyu who was currently making faces outside. Beomgyu lives near the school while Taehyun and you, along with Soobin were neighbors, 4 stops away from the campus. It was time-consuming traveling back and forth, but you were used to it now. You were just thankful that Soobin takes another route, a longer one when he goes to school and when he goes home, leaving you and Taehyun to travel by yourselves. Maybe Yunhee told Soobin to do so, or maybe he walked Yunhee home first. It doesn't matter, besides, you two are already over.

"Tyun." You call out to your friend as you scoot over the side of the seat giving him space to sit down on. He gladly sat down, placing both of your bags in his lap.

"Did you two talk already?" He inquired, glancing at his phone to check the time. You just shook your head. "You?" You simply replied. He places his hand above yours on your lap as he closes his eyes while leaning his crown on the headrest of the bus seat. "I don't want to hurt you. You asked me not to talk to him about it, so I did not." He bit the inside of his cheek, words coming out unintentionally. He wants to be careful with his words but they keep on slipping out as if betraying him. He wants to come clean. He does not want to be selfish, he thinks to himself. But Taehyun has been the most caring friend ever. His tender touches whenever you cry when you were kids are so special to you. Maybe you are dumb, but Taehyun has always been your shoulder to cry on. Your best of best friends. The most sympathetic person you ever met.

"I... I tried to talk to him earlier though." You stare at his hands on yours. "But I was ignored, he was talking to one of our classmates." You added.

"Do you want to drop by our ice cream shop?" He asked changing the subject as he let go of your hand, your stop being announced on the bus speaker. "Your treat?" You giddily asked. "It's on the house." He smiled back at you.

Taehyun's big sister owns an ice cream store down the street where you live. Your favorite spot with the two of them, Soobin and Taehyun, is the ice cream shop. And when you three just wanted a breath of fresh air, you often hung out at the mini park mid-way. Just in the middle of your house and the shop.

You got off the bus, with Taehyun still holding your backpack. You are used to it anyway, whoever was with you does it without a second thought. It may be your ex-boyfriend, Soobin, your childhood friend, Taehyun, your seniors, Beomgyu and Yeonjun, or your junior slash smaller brother-like, Heuningkai. Nevertheless, they also do this to Chae and Ari.

As you two were enjoying your ice creams while having some chit-chat about your exams, Taehyun suddenly stopped talking, staring out the glass window pane. "Is something wrong?" Your brows furrowed as you looked at the window behind you, and met with nothing but kids running. "Nothing." His sharky smile comes back as he looks at you again. "What were you saying again?" He added. You continued talking again as he glanced one more at the window, looking at Soobin who was currently talking to a girl. Her waist-length hair flowed with the air, it was Yunhee, at the very corner of the street just behind the big tree. Maybe the rumors were true.

Two more days passed and exam week was done. Students are gathered in different restaurants to celebrate, for their graduating seniors, for their top 1 classmate, their aced exams, or for just barely surviving the exam. One of the restaurants has their reservation, named after one of your seniors, Choi Yeonjun. Your circle comes one by one, choosing their desired seats. Leaving two seats beside Taehyun.

Soobin came up a bit late, the shoulder and hood of his jacket wet with the drizzling rain outside. You wanted to trade seats with Taehyun because you were afraid and nervous about the thought that Soobin was sitting beside you. But Taehyun was preoccupied with Beomgyu's non-stop talking. His sharky teeth show as he laughs. You end up sitting between the two males.

A few rounds of drinks and some of you are flushed red. Some are barely able to open their eyes. A few more students joined your table as the atmosphere became louder and rowdy. Final exams were done anyway, being wasted shouldn't be their problem right now. You flinched at the scraping sound of the chair beside you. Soobin excused himself saying he wanted to get some fresh air. He still can hold his liquor, you mumbled to yourself. It wasn't that long before the crowd got bigger so you excused yourself too. And maybe it was also just your alibi to look for Soobin.

You looked for him outside, and even the dark alley on the side. You were stunned at what you saw right in front of your eyes. The tall shadow of a big man, most likely kissing a waist-length-haired woman, according to the silhouettes. It was all too familiar. You don't need more shreds of evidence. The rumors aren't baseless at all. You covered your mouth until you felt a hand cover your eyes as well. You were pulled back to the bright corner of the alley as you felt big and warm hands wrap around you.

It was Taehyun. It was him again. It was he who accepted you in his warm embrace. The guy who lets you sob on his chest for as long as you want. He gently rubbed your back as you wept on his chest, hushing you. "Please don't cry. it's hurting me." The latter words were inaudible. He cups your face as he looks at you with pity. He tried to dry your tears with his thumbs only to be wet again as your tears flowed down.

"I-it wasn't b-baseless a-at all, Tyun." You sniffled. "It's all true. I-it's all fucking true!" Taehyun did not want to believe it. He did not want to think about Soobin like that, but what you both saw gave him everything he needed to know.

"I'm taking you home." He declared. "Wait for me at the entrance, I'll just grab our things." He held your hand as you walked with him by the entrance. "Give me a minute, don't go anywhere." Taehyun took you home that night, giving you the comfort you needed the most. "I'll crash at your place." He uttered as he engulfed you once again with the warmest embrace he loves to give.

Soobin stared at the two empty seats beside his when he got back inside. "Where are they?" he asked Chae, referring to the two people who were sitting beside him. "They've gone home, I think." the girl answered.

The session ended after a few moments, the two girls carrying Kai on their shoulders. "We're taking this baby with us" the two girls referred to the tipsy and all-smiling junior.

Classes can be skipped after finals. Making you the most grateful person to the heavens above as you chose not to go to school. Taehyun stayed beside you, always checking on you, going home sometimes only to go back again to your place because he couldn't stay put at all. Knowing how you bawled out your eyes that night last week until you fell asleep.

As you are in the comfort of your own house, you can't help but pity your friend who's currently cooking for you. "Am I giving you too much headache? I feel like a burden to you," you whispered as you lay your chin on the kitchen island, arms splayed out, as you stared at him. He walked closer to you and ruffled your hair. "You never did and you are not. If anything, I'm more than glad to do this for you," Taehyun explained.

One week. Taehyun has been taking care of you for a week now. Today was supposed to be you and Soobin's 3rd anniversary, but here you are with Taehyun, out in the streets, drinking your hearts out on some street carts. He's silent, unlike you who kept on blabbering and kept on drinking. He's taking little to no shots, he can't afford to get wasted when he still has the responsibility to take you home and take care of you.

"Y/n, that's enough now, you've drunk enough," he said as he stopped your hand from taking another shot. You clicked your tongue and glared at him, "Don't tell me to stop when you don't know what I'm feeling." No, Taehyun did. Taehyun knows. He knows more than anyone else. How can he not? "We're going home." Taehyun paid your drinks without paying attention to your whines and complaints.

You crashed at his house since it was a bit closer than yours. Plus he is already tired and tipsy, it's not a joke to carry around a wasted woman out from the street, no? However, you haven't stopped complaining, not even a little bit, even when your words are already slurred. He slumped you on the couch, arms sore for keeping you in balance. "I'll grab some towels and fresh clothes to clean you up."

You closed your eyes, feeling the sleepiness take over you. You jolted awake when you felt a cold towel touching your face and neck. "S-soob, what a-are you d-doing here?" You forced yourself to sit up, your eyes looming to burst into tears. "Hey--" you grabbed his face and kissed him. "I m-missed you, I missed you s-so much," you sobbed. You held his face once again, pressing the kiss you longed for.

"We.. we shouldn't..." he whispered, as he held your face and pinned you on the couch. Maybe it was revenge for what Soobin did, or maybe it was the liquor, but Taehyun did not care at all, he wanted to give in. He's slowly giving in.

"Hng-" Your small whines and whimpers drive him up the wall. The kiss gets deeper, hungrier, sloppier. Taehyun's mind is nowhere in the room anymore. He's going nuts, he can no longer control himself. With the pent-up frustration of watching you being tormented, he cannot wrap his head around this matter anymore. The longing feeling he wanted to show, the tender touch he wants to make you feel. He pulled away for a bit, causing you to pull him towards your neck. Who was he to decline, even if you mistook him for someone, it wouldn't hurt, right? He planted delicate kisses on your neck down to your collarbone. You moaned at his action. He snapped back to reality as he pulled away again, panting, lips swollen from the occasional biting. You looked up at his big and trembling figure.

"Y-you should sleep... Please..." he stutters as he covers your eyes with his hand planting a soft kiss on your tender lips one last time. "Good night," he whispered once more.

You drifted to sleep, nothing registering in your mind. He quickly stands up to his feet and scurries away to the bathroom, flushing his face with cold water. He sets down both of his palms on the sink, staring at his blown eyes. Hands coming up, caressing his lips. "Fuck you," he whispered. "Fuck you Taehyun!" He screamed at his reflection as he punched the mirror. "You've gone overboard, that's not something you should do. Fuck you, you idiot..." he scolded himself, teardrops escaping from his eyes.

The next morning, you woke up from the smell of the toast and the sound of a sizzling pan. You grunted as you tried to walk to the kitchen, still in a groggy state. "Taehyun?" you roamed your eyes around the house once, no Soobin to be seen in the room, nor his presence to be felt. You were about to ask Taehyun but we're distracted by the doorbell.

Three people came crashing into Taehyun's house, Kai, Beomgyu and Yeonjun. All of them carrying plastic bags with, what you think, is full of chips and different snacks. "Movie day!" Kai screamed who got a neck slice from the oldest. "You're quite noisy in the morning," he grunted, Kai then faked cries, emitting a laugh from all of you.

"I called them over," Taehyun announced as he placed the plates on the table. "But just the three of them came, the others are busy I guess," he added. "What happened to your hand?" You asked as you pulled a chair, the other three sitting on the other side of the table. Taehyun sat beside you, "I knocked a cup earlier," he simply replied.

The day rolled over like nothing with the five of you busying yourselves with watching movies, bickering with each other, eating and of course playing.

The following week, you were all called to the school campus for the preparation of the graduating students. You need to fix and clean up the whole campus so your attendance is a must.

You groaned while dragging two trash bags full of garbage. You sighed as you came to a stop, stomping at why no one was helping you with this. You were just a corner away from the garbage school pit when you hear voices from the other side. You peeked from the bushes. You saw how Soobin shoved Yunhee's shoulder.

"Hey! You shouldn't be treating your girlfriend like that!" you shouted, brows furrowed. You don't like Yunhee and her guts but this is not something Soobin should do to a girl especially if he's dating her.

"This is what I'm talking about!" Soobin raised his voice over Yunhee as you walked over between them. "What are you saying? Are you nuts?! How can you stomach the fact that you are hurting your girlfriend right now?! Physically, at that!" you retorted.

"Move, y/n," he said with a firm voice.

"I'm not moving! Unless you stop shoving her! You are hurting your girlfriend, you dumbass!"

"Shut up! She's not my girlfriend!" It was the first time. The first time Soobin raised his voice over you. "Now move."

"W-what are you talking about?"

"Did you not hear me well? I said she's not my girlfriend."

You turn to Yunhee, she looks down on her feet, fidgeting with his fingers.

"She was just spreading baseless rumors. Rumors that made you break up with me, isn't that it? That you didn't even let me explain myself to you. You just left me. You left me without hearing my side, y/n," his pouring anger is making him frustrated, huffing, chest thumping loudly.

You looked at Yunhee once more and she slowly backed down, running away.

"Baseless rumors you say?" you scoffed. He looked at you with a confused look. "Baseless, I see..." You pushed your hair back, you were also about to burst. "Baseless when I saw you screwing her that night after the exam in the dark alley."

His mouth hung open, "What are you saying?" he couldn't believe what he just heard. "I was talking to my mother that night when I got out of the restaurant. And I am sure, I wasn't even at the alley."

"W-what?"

"What do you mean what? How am I supposed to do something like that when you occupy my mind all the damn time!"

"H-how... How is that possible? I literally saw your tall figure, and I was sure about Yunhee's hair length." You mumbled.

"Ah, right!" As if there was a light bulb that sparked above his head, "It was Kai."

"Kai?"

"Yes, Kai."

You were equally confused by what he said, what does he mean Kai?

"What you saw was Kai, not me." He started. "Can't you remember? That night, we were both wearing the campus jacket. People often mistook the both of us for each other, especially with our height."

"Y-you mean, it wasn't really y-you?"

"I fucking swear y/n, it wasn't me!"

You slumped your shoulders as you leaned on the wall, dumbfounded by the newfound information. Truthfully, all you just saw were mere silhouettes, not their face. How did you even come up with the idea that it was Soobin?

"Kai told me himself. He and Yunhee's younger sister was a thing," he said as he ran his hand on his face. "Yunhee was my girlfriend. Knowing about Kai and her younger sister, she came up with the idea of spreading rumors saying we're back together." He explained one again.

"S-soob, I didn't know."

"Because you did not let me explain my s-side," his voice cracked. "You just cut me off, and blocked me." His voice is low and tears are about to fall from his eyes.

"So many times, I wanted to approach you," you saw the hurt inside his eyes. "But I always see you with the guys, especially Taehyun. Knowing the two of you grew up together, I know you told him about us." he wipes his tears, you can't bring yourself to wipe them.

"I was so scared... Scared that what if he took you from me? What if we won't be back together?" You felt the pang in your chest and the twist in your stomach. "That's why I distanced myself. From our friends, from Taehyun... From you, y/n," his tears are freely flowing from his cheeks. You quickly wiped them away as you cupped his face staring at his eyes with guilt.

"I even saw you..." he paused, choking on words, "with Taehyun. At the ice cream shop down our street. The time when I tried to talk to Yunhee about this issue." He closed his eyes as he felt the pain in his heavy heart. "I know Taehyun saw me, our gaze met."

"Soobin.." you pulled him in for a hug, as he buried his face in the crook of your neck.

"I was s-so scared. I can't talk to you because I w-was so scared. I'm not s-supposed to ignore you. B-but I can't bring m-myself to t-talk to you." He explained between sobs and hiccups. Guilt ate at you that very moment, how can you just ignore him and believe all the rumors without talking to him and hearing him?

You cupped his face am you pulled him in for an apologetic kiss. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry for not letting you explain. For shutting you out." He pressed his forehead to yours as he mumbled a soft sorry. "Sorry, for being a coward. Sorry for not cleaning this mess up as early as possible." He hugged you tighter.

That afternoon, your group of friends felt the easy atmosphere while having the snack at the cafeteria. They don't know what's up this time but everything just feels light and good. No one dared to talk about the atmosphere but everyone was relieved to their core.

"We'll go first, senior's duty. See you later again." Yeonjun announced.

"We'll go with you." The two girls chimed.

"I'll get going, still have something to do." Soobin excused himself as well. "Hyung wait up, I'll tag along!" The youngest trotted away, leaving the three of you in the cafeteria.

"What should we do now?" You asked the two as you tapped your fingers on the table. "I want to sleep, let's go to the infirmary." You and Taehyun followed Beomgyu to the school infirmary.

Taehyun sat at the window, hands inside his pocket. "What's gotten into you?" You asked him. He glanced at Beomgyu fast asleep before he looked down at his shoes. "Have you two made up? I mean, Soobin." He looked up at you, voice tinged with disappointment that an oblivious heart wouldn't notice. You nodded. "Everything was a simple miscommunication." You replied to him as you fidget with your fingers. "Oh, I see." "Yunhee was the one responsible for spreading the rumors, and that night... It wasn't Soobin. It was Kai." He almost scoffed at what you've said.

"Can you remember anything that happened after that night? He asked, hoping for a specific answer. " Nothing. Just you, taking care of me and being my shoulder to cry on." He faked a smile, "I'll just stay at the rooftop for a while."

"Is there something wrong?" You asked him, standing up from the bed you are seated on.

"None. Just want to clear my mind, I'm tired." He said as he walked out of the room.

Down the hallway, he saw Soobin carrying some boxes along with his classmates. He purposely bumped into his careful. "You should be careful. Hyung." He talked without looking back at Soobin, emphasizing every word. The latter merely confused with questions like 'What's his problem' thrown to him by his classmates.

Taehyun's words have a deeper meaning supposedly. He doesn't know how to act right. He's not like this. He used to be a calm and collected guy. He slumped down with his back on the rooftop door, whispering curses as tears flowed down his cheeks once again.

In the following days, you didn't see Taehyun anywhere. He's not home either whenever you went to visit him, or so you thought. He got distant from you. However, you did not pay it much mind. You think, maybe he was just busy.

You opened your door at the knock, welcoming Soobin inside. "You ready?" His smile is back once again, the bunny-like smile you loved seeing. His smile shined brighter than the sun outside. You intertwined your hands with him. You two were supposed to be on your first date, as a couple that got back together.

Soobin is always careful when planning for dates. Making sure to do and follow things according to plan. He makes sure that everything is aligned with what should be done at that certain time. From playing in the arcade to buying groceries, eating lunch, watching movies, going shopping and watching the sunset by the bay. He knows you love these types of dates. In order to earn back your trust, he made sure everything was alright.

"I enjoyed today. Thank you Soobin." You said as you opened the front door.

"I'm glad you did because I did too. Especially when you almost fell skating." He chuckled.

"Hey, that's not funny!" You frowned, plopping the grocery and shopping bags on your coffee table.

"Come here." Soobin motioned you to sit beside him after piling up the bags he was carrying along with yours.

"I'm really sorry, Soobin, I should've at least listened to you. It was my fault." He pulled you into a hug, gently caressing the back of your head with his huge hand. "Don't sweat it anymore, y/n. Besides, we're good now, aren't we?" He cupped your face. "I just hope miscommunication never happens again." He added. "Promise?" You showed your pinky finger, "Promise," he answered with a smile as he intertwined it with his.

He held your face once again as he pressed the softest kiss. Things escalated quickly, you can't deny that. Because your dress that you carefully picked this morning, was being taken off of you. The searing kiss you're sharing is making the both of you go nuts.

He pulled you on his lap, sliding the straps of your dress down your smooth shoulder.

"Fuck, love," the pet name he used even before rolled off his tongue casually, but hearing it again just now gives you goosebumps. He controls your waist as he lets you grind above him while you are straddling him. "Please, y/n keep going," he looks at you with pleading eyes.

You halt, earning a groan from him, bulge twitching beneath you. "Let's go to my room," eyes filled with love and longing. He carried you to your room, placing you down on the edge of the bed as he touched your lower lip. You looked up at his tall figure towering over you. You reached out your arms above you to his chest, unbuttoning his dress shirt, uncovering the hidden defined abs of your boyfriend. You slowly unbuckled his belt, pants pooling down to his feet. His mind flew somewhere, head reeling.

"W-what are you trying to do?" you chuckled at his obvious question. "Making amends," you shrugged.

He has nothing to hold on to aside from your shoulder as you palm him in his boxers. The soft gasps and groans he tried to muffle, came out hotter than you thought. You hooked your finger on the waistband of his boxers, his breathing hitched at the hot puffs to his exposed length that came from your mouth. He brushed your lips with his thumb once more, biting his own lip.

You give him a few kitten licks as you look up, practically making him hold his breath in with the sight in front of him. Your tiny hand wrapped around his hot and girthy cock, stroking him and prodding your tongue on his slit. Soobin hissed through his teeth as he closed his eyes at the sensation. This is not a normal way of apologizing but he is loving this.

You swirled your tongue on the head of his shaft resulting in him thrusting his hips forward. He muttered half-assed sorry with his mind flying around. You pressed your thumb on his tip, emitting a guttural moan from Soobin. It takes everything for him to keep himself steady.

"Y/n, love, please, n-no teasing," his voice hinted with urgency, "I-i thought you were s-supposed to m-make amends, n-not to t-torture me," he added.

"Okay then, whatever you say," you chimed.

"As much as I l-love the w-way you ap..apologize, I can't s-s-fuck!" you caught him off guard when you hollowed your cheek to suck his cock, the tip kissing your throat.

He was trembling, and his legs felt like jelly at the sensation, he wanted to pull back but his body was betraying him with how he slowly thrusts in your mouth. Your moans caused shivers to go down his spine and his needy eyes grew stronger.

"Y/n... Y/n.. fuck.. ohh," he was going out of his mind, the knot in his stomach about to burst as you taste the sweet and salty taste of his pre-cum. You once again looked up at him as he gently held your face, thrusting a bit stronger chasing his high. You gripped his legs to ground yourself.

"Mmnn! Fuck!" white spurts of cum painting your hot mouth and tongue, his legs and hips spasming. You showed him your cum-filled tongue before you swallowed it, licking the sides of your lips. "Pretty.. fucking hot," he commented as he swipes his fingers on your lips, checking if you were hurt.

He was about to go down on you when you stopped him, "You don't want me to?" he asked, confusion written on his face. "Do it next time. I-i want you inside me n-now," you shyly whispered, scooting over to the spacious bed. You felt the bed dip when Soobin climbed up as he removed his unbuttoned shirt. He kissed your shoulder, swiftly unzipping your dress with so much ease, throwing it away. "Condoms?" he pulled away, "Drawer, to the left," you replied.

He clumsily pulled the drawers, knocking other bottles as he grabbed the condoms out. "Let me do it," he smiled at your initiative, chuckling at how you fumbled to open the packaging. You wrapped it around his shaft in a slow sensual manner, making him curse from his post-nut sensitivity.

He lays you down carefully, littering your chest with a sloppy kiss, leaving you with splotchy red marks all over your neck and shoulder. "Tell me if it's too much," he strokes your hair, leaving a sweet tender kiss on your forehead, to which you simply nod.

"Should I tease you too?" he smirked at the thought forming in his mind, you pouted and whined a needy no to his face. But he did otherwise, gently tapping his heavy cock on your wet cunt, collecting your slick that's been dripping for a while now.

He started thrusting with only the tip of his cock while his face has a smirk plastered on his plump lips. "It won't fit," he lied. "P-please Soobin, I need y-you," your voice coming out with so much need. "Yeah? Is that right?" he kept on teasing you as you tried to lift your hips and fuck yourself on him. "How am I supposed to handle your oh-so-needy attitude," he chuckled, as you are slowly turning red from embarrassment. But you know he'll give in in no time, "S-soob please, I'm a-aching d-down there," you tried to reach for your clit to give it some friction only for your hands to be pinned by Soobin above your head. "Not so fast, darling, I thought you wanted to apologize?" His eyes speak volumes of lust, though. His eyes tell you he wanted to ruin you at this very moment, to fuck your brains out. "I'm really s--sorry Soobin, l-love, please let me h-hold you," he lets go of your hands to hide on your neck as he slowly entered your wet cunt.

You yelped at the sensation, he was big enough to give you a good stretch, and you clawed his back at how good you felt. You are sure that your scratch marks would last for days, he knows it too when he winced at the pain, but he loves the thought of it. Neither of you cared about it, all you wanted to last is the pleasure you are both feeling.

He stilled inside you, "Think you can do it? Can I move now?" He kissed your teary eyes. "I-i can take y-you," his ears rang at your words, and you felt his cock twitch inside you. "A-are you turned on by that, Soobin?" you wanted to make sure. "Mmm, you're so little compared to me, yet you're saying such a thing," he squeaked out, "What a brave little girl."

He started by thrusting slowly, elbows propped on both sides, hands continuously caressing your cheek as he occasionally pressed lingering kisses on your face.

"Fucking tight," he grinned, "stop c-clenching, I won't last long w-with that," his hips stuttered a few times.

"I-i can't, you f-feel so g-good, Soob, s-so... So b-big," you grab one of his arms to make him feel the bulge on your stomach. "Here. Ahh.. you are reaching h-here, ohh fuck, feels... Agh..." he smiled at how you can't form coherent words, his cock twitching inside, thrusting harder with a goal in his mind, to poke a bigger bulge on your stomach.

You clenched again, for the second time around, about to cream his cock. "I-i'm close," he stopped thrusting and rubbed slow circular motion on your clit, you thrashed around, complaining and wailing. "S-soobin, no, love, please. Ngh! Ahh! I want to c-cum!" A tear dropped from your eyes as Soobin cooed at you, "You wanted it so much, sweetie?" he grinned and you nodded eagerly. He pulled out of you all the way, and you cried at the empty feeling, "Fuck yourself on me then," he ordered as he lays down and let you climb up above him.

You weren't happy at how he was edging you, so you pulled his condoms out, sinking yourself on his cock in one go, Soobin was stunned as he cursed loudly along with your soured face from the stretch, "B-baby, this is w-wrong," he was so nervous at what can happen. "I'll let you p-pull out," you simply replied as he nodded back at you absentmindedly, because how is he supposed to pull out when you are on top of him?

You started fucking yourself on him, as you placed your hands on his hard chest. "Shit, I can feel you so r-raw," he cursed multiple times at the dragging feeling.

The familiar knot in your stomach is about to snap when he angled you hitting the best spot. Soobin saw how your expression was gone from soft to a fucked out one. You did not say anything, afraid that he might edge you again, so you just continued moving until your legs trembled. White ring pooling on the base of his cock as you creamed his shaft. "F-fuck Soob... Ahh." The soft moans seemed like they were coming straight out of porn as he helped you ride your high. And that's when you decided to overstimulate yourself to make him cum again.

"Angel, d-don't.. shit, w-what are you d-doing!" He can no longer grip your waist, his hands felt weak nearing his high. His mouth hung open, head buried back on the pillow with his hand clasped on his mouth.

You felt his hips stutter, along with the spasming of his legs as he gripped at the bed sheet, knuckles white.

You crashed down on his chest and you let him thrust more into you slowly as he hugged you tight. "A-apology.. apology accepted." He muttered lowly. You planted a visible love bite on his neck, emitting a groan from his hoarse voice. "Y/n.. no more..." He's straight out tired, whining, yet loving the feeling of how your tongue dances on his neck. "No more? But you're still thrusting." You popped the bubble above his head, chuckling at how he bit his lip with red cheeks.

He slowly pulled out and you both winced and hissed at the sensation, your mixed cum flowing out of your cunt. Too tired to clean yourself up, Soobin just grabbed his boxers and pants to put them back on and covered you with his dress shirt, you didn't even know when you fell asleep.

You woke up with an arm wrapped around your waist, the steady rhythm of a heartbeat, and the quiet puffs of breath. You squirmed slowly to get off the bed without waking Soobin up as you headed straight to his bathroom, washing your face and cleaning yourself. You rummaged through his cabinet, finding some proper clothes to wear. You pulled on his black t-shirt and put it on without anything beneath, going back to the bed to be engulfed in a warm embrace.

You stared at his peaceful sleeping face as you thought to yourself, "Miscommunication isn't a good thing, we need to work on this, or else we might end up separating completely." You kiss his cheek as you get back to sleep again.

@binniesbooks 2024

[sadiecoocoo]

Thinking abt an au where Rex and the 501st adopts Boba instead of letting him go to jail… I feel like Rex has a lot of the mando genes urging him to adopt feral children

Fives would tease boba and say that he’s like a little angry tooka

Tup would be happy to not be the youngest anymore and would be really sweet to him

Hardcase and fives would both help him cause chaos

Echo would try to teach him some of the regs but end up letting him do whatever because he has cute little tooka eyes that works very well

Rex would treat him sort of how he treats the domino twins, but would probably be more openly affectionate and would make sure that he’s never on the field (he totally doesn’t steal boba from the barracks and lets him sleep in Rex’s quarters and holds him like a pillow… it’s okay Boba likes it, he missed having a dad)

boba would try to sneak out on campaigns, but the 501st all collectively agreed that clone or not Boba was their baby brother and he is not going to an actual battlefield

they also have a teensy bet on who boba actually listens to the most (it’s echo but Fives refuses to accept it)

Anakin, to Rex’s dismay, would teach him how to be a pilot

Ahsoka would help with any chaos

The 212th would try to get him transferred to them because they want a baby brother too but Cody would just say “we already have a baby brother (Wooley) and they’d probably kill us if we took Boba”

Plo Koon would start trying to get the Wolfpack placed in more campaigns with the 501st and Wolffe also starts helping with a bit of chaos (both Wolffe and Boba are biters and you can’t convince me otherwise)

A lot of them would ask what Jango was like and Rex would storm up and cuff them on the back of the head because “wtf this kid is still grieving give him a god damned minute”

And yes they put him in the center of the clone piles when Rex doesn’t steal him (Rex will join usually anyway)

But the bad thing abt this would be when one clone doesn’t come back… after the citadel Boba would’ve been devastated to hear about Echo. After Umbara he would’ve been crying himself to sleep from all the deaths. When Ahsoka left he would’ve clung to Rex or one of his brothers because what if they leave too?

Boba is a hurt child and needs his brothers to fully heal, but when he’s with his brothers he can still get hurt

[nico-di-genova]

Prompt?? Request?? Idk what this is but it’s been stuck in my head and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it!!

——

Frat boy au where lance is super straight passing and acts really frat bro-y. But it’s Outside POV from another person in the college who assumes he’s probably homophobic and doesn’t treat women well/ all that stereotypical frat boy stuff. They complain abt fratboys all the time to their friends too and it’s this whole known thing in their friend group. Then they see him get into this super fancy car with a hot older man (nando ofc) and is like what’s up with that. Person keeps trying to ironically figure out if lance is part of the mafia or some other mystery. Turns out he’s in a loving relationship with his sugar daddy nando (person sees them kissing at a gay bar one night, among other things 😏) and after that they’re like damn wtf and have a change in perception of lance and can’t shut up about it and tells everyone “did u know lance is gay?!!” Other shenanigans ensue.

Bonus if they become friends in the end and lance tells them all the different ways and places nando fucks him.

I need you to know that this has unlocked something that I have been talking with my irls about for literally a month now. I will write this whole thing for you, but right now please enjoy this snippet and some Lore ™.

Also this may be so uniquely specific that no one will enjoy it, but I need everyone to know this has been my secret passion project for weeks now.

Logan absolutely despises group projects. He especially despises them when he’s partnered with perhaps the worst possible group of people you could be partnered with on an assignment that is responsible for a quarter of their grade. Other than the girl sitting to his left, her blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail, spreading out notes in multi-colored pen and highlighter, their table is the least inspiring of the lot. For one, there’s him, who had barely passed elementary calc. last year and was on his way to failing macroeconomics this semester. But it’s the two sitting across from him that instill a particular sort of dread.

“You going to Rusty’s tonight?” one of them asks, Esteban, tall and lanky and slumped so low in his chair that Logan can almost touch his feet even though he’s clear on the other side of the table.

The other one, Lance, broad and just as long as his friend, shrugs, “I don’t know, man. Getting kind of bored of it.”

Logan watches as Lance takes off his backwards cap long enough to ruffle at his hair before sliding the hat back down onto his head. There’s Greek lettering embroidered along back for some fraternity Logan doesn’t know the letters of, but is sure they’re assholes, nonetheless. He’s seen the way Lance strolls into class enough times, backpack slung over one shoulder, if he even bothers to bring it, his phone in the other. He wears his AirPods during class, which easily outs him as the elitist snob he is – the type of student who’s here partying on daddy’s dime, who wouldn’t know what the term ‘work study’ meant if it ran him over with the  bike Logan knows Lance keeps in the University Village parking lot. Logan couldn’t afford off-campus housing, but he knows Lance can, the bike is always parked in a resident spot.

The girl beside him shifts her notes closer, he turns his attention to her, so he doesn’t have to hear Lance recount his exploits at the local bar that is known for serving underage undergrads.

“You took all of these?” He asks the girl, mildly impressed. Her handwriting is neat, so neat it almost looks unnatural. She’s color coded them, bolded certain words and underlined others. Logan is suddenly ashamed of the chicken scratch in his notebook that’s tucked beneath his arm.

For those that don’t know, Florida Gulf Coast University is a school in Fort Myers (in south Florida, on the opposite coast of Miami). Their big draw is being “close” to the beach, realistically it’s like a 30 minute drive.

They typically attract local kids on scholarship, or rich northerners who are just looking for an easy education. But they do offer a unique golf management degree, and their claim to fame is that they’re sometimes decent in the basketball department (like 1 time in 2015 but they just will not let it go). They also somewhat have a reputation as a party school (tho I think Miami definitely more than them).

Being built predominantly around preserved land, FGCU also has a big “eco-friendly” outlook. So lots of walking paths, a course called colloquium that all students have to take, and the one everyone dreads because you have to walk through the swamp for part of it. Lucky for Lance, he would have attended during the COVID years, and thus could avoid the swamp walk because all courses were virtual.

He’d probably be a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Jewish fraternity on campus. They’re lowkey, but also kind of throw the best parties, off-campus of course because FGCU doesn’t have official fraternity or sorority housing. In this world Lance has definitely drank jungle juice from a trash can with a nozzle cut into the base. He is aware of the existence of “Saturdays are for the boys” flags, frat boy Lance is something that can be both repulsive and endearing.

He has a car, but most the time he opts to take his bike places. Fernando first runs into him when he’s in his bike gear actually, which, you know, hard to resist that. Plus, picture Fernando being Lance’s backpack. Please envision it, it’s a very important image. It’s definitely happened in this universe.

Strollonso beach dates??? Yeah, 100% happened here too. One of the reasons Lance even ends up at FGCU is because of the beach, so you know his ass is there most weekends. He forgets sunscreen frequently, Fernando is used to applying aloe to his back after they’ve spent a long day on the boat. He probably has that sunburned warmth to him like 24/7. He never forgets his sunglasses though, so he also maybe has raccoon eyes.

Oh yeah, and Logan, being a South Florida boy, probably would have attended FGCU too. His tinder profile unfortunately probably does feature a photo of him holding a fish. Just Florida boy things.

Anyway, this maybe is nothing. But if you want to talk more about this au please feel free to message me/send an ask. And I will 100% be ready to ramble more about this ultra specific fic. A chapter coming after keep to the line this weekend maybe.

[tanglepelt]

Dp x dc idea 40

Quick summary: Danny finds Ellie in the basement strapped to a table. They book it after destroying portal. Fentons think Danny’s possessed and chase. They capture Ellie again with GIW. Danny pretends to be an ambassador to the infinite realm. They don’t need to know he’s the king. Threatens war. Batfam are near. They intervene.

The fentons find out about Ellie. The whole halfa thing not the clone thing. They decide obviously a ghost possessed a dead child and was using their body. That’s why she could transform back and forth.

Que the metal table and straps.

Danny was very concerned when Ellie didn’t show up to there monthly meet up. He tried to text her and call her to no response. Being the good older brother he is he went hunting.

Not able to find her, Danny is ready to beg frostbite for the infamap. He promised not to take it again. But no one said anything about begging.

When he goes to the basement he sees ellie. Thankfully before and vivisection or cutting began. She was just strapped down with a machine taking blood.

Que him freeing her. Destroying the record they had. Injecting her with a ecto-dejecto to get ectoplasma in her system to kick up the healing factor. He breaks the portal.

None of his rouges were out. They had a monthly agreement. No one was to interfere with his Ellie day. The box ghost tried it once. He had to deal with a feral Ellie. The rule is in place for there safety.

He knows he’ll be hearing the complaints for the rest of his afterlife. The fact jack and Maddie strapped what looks like a human down. Who knows what they’d do to his rouges. Those ones actively cause problems.

Danny and Ellie have a lovely road trip. Constantly running. Watching that back. Barley sleeping. One for the scrap book.

The end goal is to get to Gotham. Jazz goes to Gotham u. She’d hide them. She’d meet them if they had there phones. They got left behind in the panic. Getting to Jazz would be safe for them. She has a Fenton creep stick after all.

Upon getting to Gotham. They realize they both have no idea where the university is. So no idea how to get to jazz.

It’s late when they showed up. Like the middle of the night late. So they can’t even ask. Not to mention pay phones don’t really exist anymore. They didn’t have quarters regardless.

That’s when the Giw show up surrounding them. Jack and Maddie show up from nowhere grabbing Danny from behind. Yelling that he’s just possessed. He wouldn’t be helping the ghost girl if he wasn’t. He wouldn’t of destroyed there life’s work.

Danny. Thinking fast starts yelling at them asking if they really want a war. That he’s seen what they can do. It won’t even be a battle. They’d just close off access to the afterlifes. You have to travel through the realms to get to them. Leaving the dimension to suffer. No relief of death. Just pain and suffering.

Screaming how that she was the second in line for the throne. The princess.

Ellie just stares at him the whole time. Like wtf. She’s fought off a lot of the GIW agents. But they have blood bosoms that force her down.

Danny couldn’t get free from jack and Maddie. Going ghost would just force him to the ground as well.

Starts yelling how he hasn’t sided with his parents from the beginning. That he had tried to play ambassador. Freeing those taken. Making sure the realm didn’t fight back.

He lies about how he totally stopped the master of time itself from destroying the timeline. That pandora has not attacked because of him same as the mighty frostbite of the far frozen.

Basically he’s just spouting nonsense. Then threatens to summon frostbite. Frostbite taught him how after an incident where he very much hurt himself.

Just then people with grappling hooks show up. They end up detaining the GIW and jack and Maddie. Which is a good thing.

The bad thing was the bat furry wanted to ask questions.

Good thing the furries got rid of the blood blossoms.

Danny just gets through them. (They let him go to Ellie). The fight left Ellie injured. The blood blossoms had made the injured way word.

We’ll look like he was summoning frostbite.

Not to fight but because Ellie was hurt. The bat people barley reacted to the yeti appearing from a glowing green portal. But they did tense and take up new stances.

It’s quickly seen that frostbite is in fact a medic. Not a mighty warrior (from what they can tell).

They actually think Danny was actually the voice for the infinite realm. That was enough to get him dragged to space.

Who knows how’d they react if they knew he was the king. But hey the GIW got disbanded.

Now has a fic started. Feel free to steal this idea still!!!

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[eyelessfaces]

𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐓𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐑: 𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐓𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

poe dameron x reader

𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐤: sex pollen

warnings: tiniest bit of angst, handjob (m receiving), unrealistic amounts of... fluids, no refractory period

word count: 1k

updates blog: @eyelessupdates

(birthday fic wtf)

Poe wasn’t doing well. He wouldn’t want to admit it not to worry you, but you knew him too well so you were aware of that, which meant you therefore knew he wasn’t doing well.

He had been pacing around your shared quarters for the past ten minutes, scratching at his neck and wiping away his sweaty forehead.

“Poe sweetheart, you need to go get checked up” you tried to convince him once more, voice filled with concern.

“No– I’m okay." he shook his head frowning, brushing off your request as if it was delirious. He mumbled something about the temperature being too hot as he hastily took off his jacket, mindlessly throwing it on the floor.

"It's not even–" you started, looking at the red stripes starting to form at his neck from him scratching it too much. "You're feverish, or you're having an allergic reaction to something you came across while on mission" 

He should have known that the blaster shot blowing up a bag of dark orange powder right next to him, causing him to sneeze and rub his eyes at the moment would have other effects later, but he didn’t expect them to be so… peculiar.

"Come on, sit down at least, you're stressing me out" you sighed as you reached to grab him by the arm before he abruptly stopped you.

"No– Don't touch me." you frowned in incomprehension as you backed away, unused to Poe refusing your touch. “It’s just– I don’t wanna hurt you.” he continued, sitting down on the couch. You frowned, confused, and sat down next to him.

He looked up at you, his eyes weak, sweat pearling over his brow. He looked in so much distress, but you didn’t know how to help him; you couldn’t convince him to do something he didn’t want to, no one could. 

Your fingers brushed back his damp curls, and you felt his body tense at the faintest touch. The vein at his forehead was bulging out, and you could feel the hotness radiating off of his skin.

“What can I do to help you?” you offered in a weak sigh, not sure of what you could do. You wanted to help him, he looked like he could faint at any moment.

“Nothing. Get away maybe. I don’t want to hurt you” 

You chuckled. “Why? Why would you hurt me?” you asked in disbelief. He was getting nonsensical, maybe this was another symptom. 

He pinched his lips, looking down at his lap. Your eyes followed where his gaze was directed and you immediately understood. A tent was formed in his pants, the bulge so prominent you wondered how you hadn't noticed it before.

"Oh."

"It aches, and your presence makes it so much worse, your touch makes it so much worse" he hissed almost angrily, squirming in place. "You have to go away until I find a solution" he declared, ready to stand up before you stopped him, your hand resting over his thigh.

"I can't leave you like that" you shook your head. "I can help you" you continued. "Maybe if you… It'll go away. Maybe you just need relief, and I can help you with that." 

He bit down on his lip at the thought of your offer, and the feeling of your hand over his lap was enough for him to accept it.

His hand gripped tight onto the couch armrest as you unbuckled his belt and worked on freeing him, the faint feeling of friction simultaneously being too much and not enough.

He was painfully hard, his cock red and swollen, leaking and twitching in place. 

"Fuck, Poe" you gasped, you couldn’t believe what you were seeing. He looked like he was about to burst at any moment.

"Please" he wailed. "Please do something"

He bit down on his bottom lip as your fingers brushed his throbbing length, the tip of them gently, tentatively running along a vein. You knew you shouldn’t tease him, you knew he was in pain, but seeing him so desperate, aching with need felt exciting.

A small exhale left his mouth when your fingers caged around his cock, taking him in your hand, starting with slow, gentle strokes that made him bite down hard on his lip to try to contain himself.

You looked up at him, trying to read on his face to see if this was giving him any relief, but you couldn’t even tell; his breath was ragged, he was already making wrecked sounds as he was squirming in place, trying to chase after your touch, spurring you on going faster.

He was far more sensitive than usual; small whimpers were escaping from his mouth as he writhed in his seat, bucking into your hand as you stroked him in a firm rhythm; you didn't have much to do, he was practically fucking your hand at this point, hips moving upwards as he panted loudly, so desperate for friction.

"Fuck– shit– yeah" he breathed out as you twisted your hand around the tip of his cock, thumb rubbing over his weeping slit.

His fists clenched, his knuckles turning white as his nails dug into the palm of his hand.

His eyes rolled to the back of his head and his mouth gaped as he suddenly came with a broken sound, his cum shooting in the air in firm spurts as his cock throbbed and twitched. 

He had more than usual; he groaned as his cum kept spilling over your hand and over his lap, his head thrown back over the back of the couch.

He didn’t last long, but this wasn’t the point – he needed relief, and the faster the better. You wiped your free hand over his sweaty forehead, brushing back the hair falling over his face.

"Better?" you asked as he panted loudly, his heart beating fast as he came down from his high.

"A little." he huffed between ragged breaths, looking back down at you.

"A little?" you repeated, shocked that he wasn’t sated despite how hard he had just came.

You looked down at his lap, and noticed his cock was already swelling again, slowly growing back to life.

"Need more." he chuckled between sharp breaths as he pushed you down onto the couch, hovering over you.

"Need so much more."

—

as always please reblog and tell me your thoughts it helps a lot!!

star wars taglist: @apollo-enthusiast @lockleysgrl @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction @alexxavicry @mystinky-butt @anightshift @whatthefishh @dameronshandholder @campingwiththecharmings @mintgreen24 @dameronshandholder @spider-starry @jakecockley @cocodiem @spxctorsslxt @friedwings @luxisluxurious @stvnnie

+ @flightlessangelwings

[runningfrom2am]

in this life or the next

summary: It's the seventy-fifth annual Hunger Games, and you were just unlucky enough to get picked; but lucky enough for this Quarter Quell to feature pre-selected teams. You get paired up with District One's pride and joy, the one and only Rafe Cameron.

pairing: rafe x fem!reader

wc: 15k (oh my LORD)

tags/warnings: its the hunger games so like... yeah... violence and gore and stuff. definitely swearing, spoilers for the og Hunger Games movie I guess (but also not bc i changed it up a bit- you'll see), reader has a special talent that i won't spoil here, Rafe is lowkey a dick at the beginning, Ward being a shitty dad (what's new). also this isn't thoroughly edited bc.. its 15k words and i'm lazy.

masterlists // nav // requests

join my taglist here

a/n: hello lovelies!! oh my gosh i have been slowly chipping away at this for actual literal months, and i am so proud of how it turned out!! i’m really glad i could finally post it by my birthday!! (i’m 23 wtf??)

thank you so much if you're going to put in the time to read this, but it honestly means a lot to me that you've made it this far. reblogs and likes would be so appreciated and let me know your thoughts in the replies! i really, really hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it. let me know if you want a part two of what happens post games, bc i think i left it at a minor baby sized cliffhanger. anyway, i’m off to eat cake now! enjoy!

Staring blankly out at the crowd in front of you, you attempt to process the echoing of your heartbeat in your ears.

"I'd like us to give a round of applause for our brave, brave tributes this year, and wish them the best of luck in this year's quarter quell!" Your attention is drawn to the woman next to you, the District Five escort, Opal, dressed head to toe in bright yellow. A universally happy color- what a joke.

The crowd is mostly silent and you can't bear the thought of even glancing in the direction of your parents. You turn silently as you're ushered back into the building from the stage, tripping slightly over your feet as the shock sets in. People are talking, possibly to you, but you can hardly hear a thing. You almost made it. You were almost eighteen- one more year and you would have been free.

You were granted the briefest of goodbyes to your family, but you were tempted to even turn that down. An action you regret not taking as your parents walk into the room, your mother with tears already coating her cheeks and your father trying to keep a strong resolve for you and your siblings.

"We'll see you soon, Bug. Remember we love you," He whispers into your hair as you sob into his shoulder. You know he doesn't necessarily mean in this lifetime.

Your tunnel vision settles back in as you're walked out of the room, glancing one last time over your shoulder only to see your dad's shoulders shaking from his silent cries as he turns his back to you.

You are quickly pushed onto the train taking you out of District Five, ignoring the other three tributes and your mentors as they talk. You just stare out the window with tired, red eyes and say a silent goodbye to the home you're already sure you'll never see again.

"Y/N..?" The girl next to you says, tapping you on the shoulder and making you jump.

"Hm?" You hum your acknowledgment, looking at the girl beside you. She's only a year older than you, and you went to school together for years; Maisie, you remember.

"I just wanted to make sure you hear them," Maisie whispers, gesturing to Opal as she starts to explain what the premise of the games is this year.

"So," she claps her hands together, clad in tacky yellow gloves. "I'm sure you have noticed that this year there are four of you, and you'll each be paired up with another tribute to compete. Not necessarily from your own District, but, anything is possible, I suppose. The exciting news is that there's a possibility for two winners this year! You and your teammate will be given a score throughout the games, and if your score as the final two is above ten, you will both be crowned victors!" The woman says excitedly- like it's a good thing.

"And if we don't have over ten?" The boy sitting across from you asks flatly.

"Well... the games shall continue," Opal explains vaguely, but you know what that means. You've seen it before.

"Okay, well, how do we get a good score?" The boy asks.

"I-" The escort starts, hesitance clear in her tone as she's quickly interrupted.

"You kill people," Your female mentor answers. She's leaning her elbows on the end of the table, standing with a knife in her hand, spinning it around like it's some kind of toy.

Your eyes drop from her form, staring down at the table in front of you, suddenly remembering your glass of water and quickly grabbing it when you realize your mouth has gone completely dry just from the idea of what's to come.

You arrive at the Capitol in the middle of the night and despite this fact, the crowds are still there. You didn't expect this, even though you've seen it on the beat-up television in your living room every year. It feels less real, somehow, when you're the one getting pushed through the crowd, not knowing what to do besides give awkward smiles to people yelling your name.

Your room is beautiful. You've never seen anything like this, but you can fully customize it at will with a remote, and this level of technology fascinates you. You spend hours flicking through different images that can appear on the walls, surrounding you in another world. Exhaustion and the sound of an artificial thunderstorm put you to sleep with the remote still resting in your palm.

"Up, up, up, my dear! We've got a big day ahead!" Opal's cheery voice startles you awake from your less-than-cozy spot on the floor. "There's breakfast on the table then we've got to get you down to prep, so hurry up, please." She says, and just like that she's gone, no doubt off to wake the other District Five tributes in a similar fashion.

"You're going to be meeting your teammates for the first time today so you can train together- gosh isn't that just so exciting!" Opal claps as you all stand in the elevator. There's a silence that follows as you and Maisie just nod, not excited about the whole idea. You're about to meet someone who will either be spending the last days of your life with you, or be killing you themselves, and you're not fond of either.

"This way you'll get to train together first, which I do believe to be a very generous act on behalf of the game makers." She adds, making you roll your eyes. How considerate. The most you can hope for is someone who is capable, and preferably someone who isn't in the twelve to fifteen age range, having seen that there were several drawn from different districts.

You shift on your feet as you try to adjust to the uncomfortably tight catsuit they squeezed you into, covered in what must be sapphire and diamond rhinestones, pinching your skin with every slight movement. Gold accents line the seams of the suit, extending out into something that resembles wings and lightning bolts protruding from your back. District Five; power. You get it, but we're the diamonds necessary? You hardly take note of the varying outfits you're surrounded with from the other kids in your district, before Opal is guiding the four of you up the line of extravagant carriages you're meant to parade out on for the people of the Capitol to fawn over.

You take note of where all of the other tributes from Five are lead, guessing based on the order of carriages that Maisie got paired up with another girl from Eleven, and the boys somehow ended up paired together. There must be some sort of personal aspect to this decision, considering you have watched those two boys fight back home. You're last, and Opal looks at you excitedly as you follow her up, and up, and up- to the very front of the line.

"Surprise!" She grins, clapping excitedly as you approach the very first carriage. "Y/N, getting paired with a career is huge. Your odds are good already, your partner has trained his whole life- he even volunteered."

"Sucks for him." You mutter under your breath as you get closer, eyeing up the boy in front of you, wearing an almost matching outfit. All the rhinestones make sense now, blending power with luxury could only mean as much.

"Y/N Y/L/N, meet Rafe Cameron. He'll be your teammate in the games." She smiles as she introduces you.

"Hi." You say quietly, taking his hand as he holds it out to you to help you up onto the carriage.

"Hey." He mutters, avoiding your gaze. It's off to a rough start for him for sure, seeing he's being paired up with someone from an outlying district must be daunting, when for you it should be exciting. Rafe did volunteer, yes, but he doesn't want to risk any kind of attachment- despite what the people of the Capitol want for their entertainment. He wants to come out alive, he doesn't care so much about who he's with.

"Okay, Y/N, remember to smile, please." Opal reminds you and you nod, looking down at her as you hold onto the handle in front of you.

You promise her with a nod, willing to do almost anything at this point to win the favour of possible sponsors. Again, your odds look better next to a career on that front, as well.

Quickly everyone is cleared away from the horses and the carriages and you start moving, catching you off guard and you stumble a little, readjusting your grip on the railing. "Careful." Rafe says beside you, quick to reach out to steady you if you needed it. You think you see the smallest of smiles on his face, but that must have just been your own mind trying to find comfort in anything around you.

"I got it." You whisper, blushing slightly. You've been with your teammate for all of a minute, and you're already proving yourself to be clumsy.

The lights hit your eyes the same time all the cheering does, being the first carriage, it's already so loud you can hardly hear yourself think. You snap out of it quickly, plastering on a smile once you see your own face on a giant screen ahead of you, you don't even look like yourself anymore. Your eyes land on the screen adjacent to the one showing you, seeing Rafe as well. He's smiling too, clearly having headed Opal's advice, or his many years of training is getting to him and he's excited. You really don't know. Then his head turns, and you turn your head as well, making dead eye contact with him for only a moment before he's looking past you into the crowds, taking in the moment.

When you finally get out of the extremely public eye and back into the building you exited from, you feel like you can finally breathe again. Not fully, in the tight, rigid suit they had you dressed up in, but more than you realized you were with all that yelling in your ears and lights in your face.

"District Five, right?" Rafe asks you as you're both stepping down and you nod. "Jeez, you don't talk much, do you?" He follows up with, taking a water bottle from someone who's walking by with them.

"I talk." You reply quietly. "Just... not much to talk about at the moment."

"The shock? Yeah, that'll do it." He nods, taking a sip from the water bottle and holding it out to you. You shake your head and push it away, making him shrug. "Shitty bust when you're not a volunteer."

You just stare at him, taken off guard by the comment. "That being said..." He leans in closer to make sure no one else hears. "I've been waiting my whole life for this, so don't ruin it for me, yeah?"

You pull back away from him and just nod again, not wanting to get on his bad side already. He won't be the one to kill you, probably, but it would still be nice if you spent your final days without your teammate hating your guts. "Thanks, darling." He smirks, patting your shoulder and brushing past you to go to the elevators.

The next day, bright and early yet again, you have your first day of training. You're sure Rafe won't even need it, but you certainly will. Your mentor told you he will likely be using it to size up the other tributes, especially considering there is a staggering amount of them this year, and you will need to focus on survival skills. Only survival skills, if you had to pick one thing- and your mentor drove that into your head until it was all that was echoing in your mind when you entered the training center.

After the trainers speech which ironically tried to do the same thing, you beeline straight for the fire making station. You're shocked to see almost no one else listened, definitely none of the boys, mostly lining up to show off their physical strengths, likely to try and intimidate each other. You'd be lying if you said it wasn't working.

You look up as you hear echoing laughter coming from the other side of the room, eyes scanning over the wall lined with silhouette targets, and racks with an array of weapons before landing on your teammate, laughing away with the other career tributes over a joke you didn't hear. He's got a spear in one hand, leaning his weight on it as his head drops back with laughter. You shake your head to get back on task, rolling the rough wood in your palms in hopes of making a spark. Good to see at least one of you is having fun, especially in your final days.

After a few minutes you get it, sitting back into your calves where you were kneeling on the ground, taking a breath of relief as you're satisfied with your success. You glance around to see how others are doing, giving a small smile and wave to Maisie when you see her, reading a book about different edible plants and trying desperately to memorize every image. You watch as Rafe takes the same spear he was leaning on before, hurling towards one of the targets. A direct hit, right in the chest, slightly right of the centre. You jump a little at the sound it makes on impact, looking finally at the boy who threw it.

He's pacing, huffing and looking a little frustrated with himself. A little to the left would have been perfect, but it was a kill shot nonetheless. There would be no coming back from that, and you count yourself lucky that it likely won't be you in place of the target in the games.

You quickly put out your fire and try again, making sure you've got the hang of it. You'll sit here all day if you must. After three more successful attempts, you're satisfied for the day, deciding you'll return to that station tomorrow and try again. You get up and brush the dirt off your knees, trekking over to where they have supplies to make game traps. You've never done this before, but there's no better time to learn, especially since your teammate has shown no interest in survival skills so far today.

"What are you doing?" Suddenly Rafe is standing behind you, as you're once again kneeling on the ground attempting to get the trigger on your bladeless trap to work.

You jump a little, startled by someone talking to you. "Uh, trying to make a snare, I think." You answer, turning to look up at him.

"Looks good." He nods, crouching down next to you. "Uh, isn't there supposed to be a blade or a spearhead or something on that piece?" He says, pointing to it.

"Well, yeah, I just didn't want to stab myself by accident." You laugh slightly, trying the trigger again- and this time it works, snapping forward into his arm.

"Ouch, yeah, fair enough." Rafe chuckles, rubbing the spot on his arm where the wood made contact.

You just nod and begin to reset it to test it again. "What if you can't get any of this shit in the arena?" He asks.

"What, a stick?" You ask, hitting the trigger one more time, sending the stick into his arm again, which he had decided not to move.

"Ow! Yes, a stick. We don't know what it will look like." He rubs his arm, examining the trap you built closer now.

"Then we're screwed I guess." You joke, leaning back on your calves again, watching him dissect it piece by piece to figure out how it works.

"So, is this like, your thing?" Rafe asks, and you tilt your head at him as you think it over.

"My thing?" You ask, unsure entirely what he meant. "I've never made one before, if that's what you're asking."

"Really?" He seems shocked by this.

"Uh, yeah, really. Unfortunately for you, you got paired up with someone who has zero survival or combat skills."

Rafe looks at you, a smug grin crossing his features. "Ha ha, very funny." He clearly thinks you're joking, but you're definitely not.

"I'm serious." You say, confused as to why he doesn't believe you.

His smile falters, replaced with wrinkles of confusion on his forehead. "But- I just watched you look at the instruction book for no more than like, three seconds before sitting down to make this."

"And..?"

"If you've never done it before it's supposed to be harder than that."

"Well, I've seen other people do it on TV and stuff every year for like, ever." You shrug. "I've just got a good memory, I guess."

Rafe nods, looking at the deconstructed trap in front of him for a moment, thinking about the implications of this. How far does this go? Could he use it? He'd never dreamt of having to work in a team in his games, but maybe it would benefit him after all. "Come with me." He stands up, and you follow as he paces over to two big screens, covered with a large array of different symbols.

"Try this, I just want to see something." Rafe says, standing next to you with his arms crossed as you quickly look over the screen, reaching down toward the one in front of you. You notice quickly that the screens mirror each other, all the images placed in the same spots as they are above. You look up at your teammate briefly who nods at you and then you tap one, watching it disappear from both screens before you tap the matching symbol. It's a matching game.

Your eyes are locked on the top screen as you tap away at the bottom one, quickly making all the images disappear one by one. It takes you no more than a minute to get rid of them all, and then a timer appears on the screen replaying your every move in real-time. Forty-two seconds. Were you really going that fast?

"Neat." Rafe says to himself, nodding as he watches it replay on the screen. That was impressive, sure, but his mind is straining to find a practical implication for this in the arena. "Go back to survival stuff. Learn as much as you can." He settles on, turning and walking off back to where he was before, returning to combat training.

The four days of training fly by insanely fast, and that's likely due to your dread of what's to come. you've got through everything in survival no less than three times, and you're pretty sure last night you dreamt of plants and making a fire. Not surprisingly, Rafe has left you pretty much alone the whole time, but you did watch from a distance as he cycled through every weapon the training center had to offer, proving he's almost mastered every last one. Of course, with over ten years of training, anything less wouldn't make sense. What scares you is the other careers showing a similar skill level to that of your teammate, but he seems to be on good terms with them. Again, maybe this would be a good thing in the beginning of the games.

You sit down for your last day of making fires and fishing hooks, working solely on memory since day one, you're feeling pretty confident that the elements or exposure won't be what takes you out- but you don't know if that's a good thing or not. You just hope your death will be quick.

"Y/N, c'mere." Rafe is suddenly calling to you, motioning for you to join him in the combat area. Not seeing much of a choice, and not looking forward to another day of doing the same thing over and over, you listen.

You make your way over, avoiding the gaze of other tributes who are looking at you like you're about to make a fool of yourself. It's possible you are. "I want you to learn how to use this." He says as you walk up, holding out the handle of a knife to you.

You take it, turning the sharp blade over in your hand. "I thought you were the weapons master." You joke, looking up at him briefly.

"Well, I need you to make fires and shit so you have to stay alive somehow, and if we get separated or something I need to know you can at least defend yourself. These are good from a distance and up close, but remember that any weapon you have they can take and use against you. So keep distance whenever you can." He answers, pointing over to the target about fifteen feet away. "So, throw it."

You look over to where he was pointing, adjusting your grip on the handle as you nod, taking in the information he's dumping on you. He is probably right, especially since you don't think he plans on protecting you himself. Why would he? If you die, he can still win without you.

You lift your arm over your shoulder, closing one eye to narrow down your aim before throwing it hard towards the target, which the knife bounces off of and clatters to the ground. You and Rafe both turn at the same time to look at the group that's laughing at you, the clang of the metal on the cement echoing loudly in the vast space.

"Don't worry about them. They're not there." Rafe is quick to grab another one, handing it to you the same way. "Try again, this time, hold it like this..." He says, grabbing your hand and placing your fingers in the correct spots on the handle. "Keep your wrist tense and straight, don't flick it or anything. Yeah, like that." He nods, taking a step back.

You look over how you're holding it, committing the feeling and finger placement to memory before raising your arm again. You throw it again, and this time it sticks, but your aim is off and it ends up in the target's leg. You look over at Rafe, unsure if you're hoping for approval or just satisfaction. "That's perfect." He nods. "Not a death blow, but that'll buy you time to get away. which is all you need."

"Okay." You agree quietly.

"Would it help if you watched me?" He offered, already grabbing a new knife while you nod. "So, you want to follow through with the throw, your shoulders should end about here if you're doing it right. You get more power that way, and better aim." He explains, standing with one foot forward, parallel to the target.

You step back to watch his strategy, noting the way he held the blade and his form when he aimed to throw it. He lets it fly from his fingers as his shoulders fall forward, smirking to himself as it hits the bullseye circle, right in the chest.

"You got it?" He asks, standing up straight again. You nod in response and he's handing you yet another knife to try again.

You go back and forth for hours, not caring that you're keeping anyone else from practicing. You're not the best at it, but it's become muscle memory now, and every time it sticks, most of the time hitting the silhouette somewhere. You tried the moving targets briefly, the gold, pixelated figures running at you quickly. You were immediately overwhelmed, and Rafe ended up having to step in to help. He said after that the minimal skill you had would be good enough to get away, and that is all you would need. You just have to focus on that.

You didn't talk a lot, besides taking a few short breaks to gather the knives and his arrows as Rafe explained the pros and cons of every weapon they had present, showing you briefly how to use some of them. Mostly how to defend yourself against them. It's hard for him to sum up years of training in one day, but he's dead set on the idea that you won't need most of it- just having to focus on keeping the two of you sheltered and fed, he can handle the rest; hopefully.

You sit outside the training center next to Rafe, waiting for your name to be called. It was the youngest female tribute from his district first, so if you had to guess, you would be third and fourth to go, which doesn't buy you a lot of time to decide what to do to best show your skills.

"What are you gonna do?" You ask, whispering in the deathly quiet room.

"Huh?" Rafe hums, leaning closer to hear you better.

You clear your throat, before speaking this time, unsure if you were clear enough. "What are you gonna do? Like which skill?" You clarify.

"Oh, uh..." He mutters, adjusting how he's sitting as he thinks about what to say. "I'm just going to cycle through some different weapons, different distance targets, I think. My mentors want me to show like, a variety of what I can do."

You nod at this, making a mental note of that. Maybe you should do the matching game and then try the knives. Opal told you that you would be scored both individually, and as a team. You hope you won't bring down his score too much, since you know he's aiming high. You planned on going for a mid-level score, not to be seen as a threat but also not as an easy kill. A perfect six would be your ideal score. "What about you?" Rafe interrupts your thought process.

"I'm not sure." You answer honestly.

"You should do your survival stuff. That will improve our team score, if we show them we have strengths at both." Rafe suggests. That's not actually a bad idea. Your individual score will likely be lower, but that's a risk you're willing to take.

"Yeah, I'll do that."

You ended up scoring a six, the judges obviously not seeing you as any kind of threat. This is what you expected, though, and you were correct about your group score as well. Rafe and you together scored a ten. On his own, he scored a ten, so you hadn't affected it in the way you feared. This left you reeling over the idea of other tributes seeing you both as a threat as you stand in yet another extravagant dress, waiting in line to be called out for your interview. The games were tomorrow, and the last thing you wanted was to get in front of a crowd and subtly plead with them to let you live, to send you gifts, and to give you their sympathy.

So far it's been in the same order they called everyone for assessments yesterday, which means you would be next. Rafe stands behind you, arms crossed in a suit that looks more expensive than any you've seen back home in all of your life, but he looks comfortable in it. Your dress is once again covered in rhinestones, and your waist is cinched in so tight you can hardly breathe as it is, so you're not looking forward to going on stage.

"Our next tribute, welcome to the stage from District Five, Miss Y/N Y/L/N!" You hear the familiar voice of Caesar Flickerman calling you out and some guards usher you forward onto the stage, very briefly glancing over your shoulder at Rafe.

You're quick to smile as you turn back around, giving a small wave to the host and then out to the audience as they cheer for you. For a brief moment, you feel as if they don't plan on watching you die as early as tomorrow, you feel as if they're rooting for you. "Hi!" You say as you get closer and Caesar stands up to greet you, shaking your hand and giving you a quick hug before gesturing for you to sit down across from him.

You look around the large theatre, spotting every camera you can. Your family is out there watching, somewhere, and you know they'll see right through this show you have to put on. You wish they wouldn't. You can picture so vividly your living room back home, with your parents and siblings scattered across the couch and the floor watching you with bated breath, they can see you- and on some level, you can see them too.

"Miss Y/L/N. Thank you for being here." Caesar sighs, reaching out and patting your hand where it sits on the armrest next to you.

"Well, I didn't have any other plans for the night, so..." You shrug, making him laugh. Laughter echoes from the audience and you smile, hoping that your plan to win people over is working.

"What? A beautiful girl like you?" He asks after he's done laughing. "You weren't planning on spending some of your free time with your teammate?" As if you got even a minute of free time since you've been here.

"Well, I guess we'll never know." You chuckle, looking back at the boy where he stands in the wing, giving you a small smile.

"Now listen, Y/N, Rafe is..." He has to stop after mentioning his name as cheers erupt again, laughing as he waits for the audience to quiet down. "Your teammate is, as you may have guessed, a popular face in the Capitol right now. Are you feeling lucky about your pairing?"

Rafe crossed his arms as he watches intently, feeling smug about his odds, especially now knowing the Capitol's opinion of him. He knows his dad is back home watching, full of pride that his son has become a fan favourite.

"I am." You answer honestly. "He's very talented."

"And handsome, don't you think?"

"I mean, who am I to argue with the people?" You joke, waving your hand dismissively as you hear the cheers pick up again. "Besides, his looks won't save us. We will save ourselves." You add seriously.

Caesar nods in acknowledgment, showing that to an extent, he agrees with you. "Well, I hope that you are right, dear." He smiles, getting up to signal you've run out of time. You stand as well, taking his hand as he holds it up above your heads. "It was so lovely to meet you, and may the odds stay ever in your favor. Y/N Y/L/N, everyone!"

You smile and thank him quietly, waving to everyone with both hands as you walk across the stage to exit on the other side. You take a few deep breaths as you step into yet another waiting room, watching the screen as Rafe is called out right behind you.

Rafe sits down on the chair across from Caesar after his introduction, which allows a few moments for the audience to quiet down. He smiles proudly as he rests one of his feet on his other knee, bouncing his leg with anxiety. He hopes it's interpreted as excitement. "Rafe." Caesar smiles at him, sitting back down as well. "I'll be honest, I have been so excited to finally meet you."

"It's good to meet you too." Rafe grins, chuckling slightly at the few whistles he gets scattered from the crowd.

"You got a fabulous score, how are you feeling about that?"

"Really good, yeah. Obviously I've been waiting my whole life for this opportunity, so it feels amazing to see it all paying off." Rafe answers, focussing on keeping the confidence in his tone.

"We can tell, can't we?" Caesar laughs, riling up the audience again, making Rafe laugh to himself as he softly shakes his head. "Yeah, yeah. So, with all this planning you've been doing, how do you feel about getting paired up? You probably expected to be going in solo."

"I did, for sure, but I don't think this is a bad thing." Rafe admits.

"Oh, getting along well with your teammate?" Caesar asks, a hint of suggestion in his tone.

"Yeah, we get on really well." Rafe exaggerates your relationship a bit, knowing it will earn you more sponsors, and maybe keep other tributes away from you in the games. "At least I think we do, I'm not fully sure about her thoughts on me, though."

"You scored incredibly well together, despite Y/N having a fairly average score on her own. What are your thoughts and feelings on that?"

Rafe chuckles as he leans forward a bit, pointing out to the audience as he speaks. "Don't underestimate her based on the score. I won't give you any spoilers, but trust me, don't overlook her. She's got as good a shot as any of us. Maybe better."

Caesar makes a surprised expression as he nods. "Well okay! Does she have some sort of secret weapon we should be worried about?" He chuckles, gripping the armrests and looking around as the audience laughs.

Rafe just shrugs in response, smirking slightly, which you can tell the audience just eats up. You're trying to decide if this is good or bad for you, though, as you watch, gnawing at your nails in anticipation as you stare at the screen.

"Okay, alright, don't spoil anything then." Caesar laughs. "It'll make for a better show, and I can get behind that."

After a moment of waiting for the cheers to die down, Caesar speaks up again. "Rafe, if I can ask, I know your father has a lot of influence in your district- how is he feeling about your selection for the games?"

You furrow your brow a little bit as you look at the screen, finally learning something interesting about your teammate. If he's from a prominent family in District One of all places, that would certainly explain his attitude. Rafe, on the other hand, doesn't want to talk about his father at all- but of course they would bring him up.

"Yeah, of course." Rafe replies, shifting in his seat. "He's thrilled, it's a huge honour to be here, and to be the first out of his children to be chosen is really special to me. I just hope I can make him and my sisters proud, he's always encouraged us to volunteer."

"I'm sure that you will." Caesar smiles at him. "I hope I will have the honour of hosting one of your sisters on this stage one day, as well."

Your stomach churns just watching this. How can any father who loves his children want this fate for them? This was your father's worst nightmare. You watch as Rafe nods with a smile, and you can see behind his eyes that he doesn't want that, not at all.

The audience cheers as they both stand up, shaking hands before Rafe leaves the stage, a cocky smirk on his face as he waves and winks at the audience. Before Rafe makes it down to the waiting room, you're grabbed an escorted out, heading for the elevator back to your room.

You can't eat, but you know you should. This will likely be your last meal for a while. You decide on just taking a large bowl of fruit and toast to your room, trying to get it down slowly with all the nerves, while you have a bath. Your parents never let you eat in the bath. It's hard to get out knowing this is likely the last bath you'll ever have.

The morning goes by in a blur, you feel Opal's arms around you as she hugs you goodbye and wishes you luck. You know you'll need all of it. You stare down at the ground in front of you as you're pushed onto a plane, of sorts, along with all the other tributes. Once you're sat down, you look around at everyone else. You remember all of their names as you scan over their faces, but you wish you didn't. You get stuck on one of the girls from District Eleven, Hope, who was only thirteen.

She's shaking, and you can see that from where you're sat down the row from her. She reminds you of Rue, the tribute from last year. Her death was a tragedy, it broke the hearts of everyone outside of the Capitol and the career districts. Hope's curly hair sat in a bun on top of her head, and tears fell down her cheeks as she sniffled. She got paired up with a girl from Twelve- the lengths the Capitol will go to to make a mockery of last years games will never cease to amaze you.

"Hey, you look a little pale." Rafe whispers, leaning close to you. You didn't even notice him sit down on the other side of you.

You shake your head slightly, looking down at your knees. "I'm fine."

"Don't think about it." Rafe instructs you, holding his arm out for the tracker to be injected as a guard approaches with the device.

You wince as you hear it get shot into his arm and he chuckles, shaking his arm off to ease the sting. You raise your shaking arm as they hold their hand out expectantly to you. You don't know what it is they're putting in you, but you've never been fond of needles. This is a million times worse. "It's not that bad," Rafe tells you, and you squeeze your eyes shut as you feel pressure on your forearm, followed by a sharp, stabbing pain. You bite your tongue to keep from making a sound, dropping your arm onto your lap as they quickly walk away.

"What did they do?" You ask him, trying to keep a steady tone.

"It's a tracker, so they know where we are in the arena." He explains quietly. You were the only two talking, and you notice it's earning you glares from several other tributes. Rafe notices this as well, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms, taking this time to size everyone up.

The plane takes off, and before you know it, you're landing at the arena on the outskirts of Capitol property. You wonder if you're close to the ocean, not that you'll get to see it anyways.

You're paraded off of the plane, still trying not to let it show how afraid you are of what's to come. You make the briefest of eye contact with Maisie as she's pulled towards a different hallway, and neither of you have it in you to smile anymore.

"We've gotta get supplies, that's our first move." Rafe says to you as you're led out of earshot of other tributes, into your own hall.

"My mentor said to run." You reply quietly.

Rafe scoffs, shaking his head. "Your what, one mentor said that? Cool. I have fifteen that are still alive and well enough to show up every year. I think we should get supplies." He tells you firmly, but you know that will get you instantly killed, maybe not him, but you stand no shot. "Just stick with me if you want to live."

You just nod a little bit, glancing at him again briefly before you're directed into a separate room across the hall from him. His pedestal will be next to yours, which is a bit of a relief. Your stylist quickly instructs you to strip, and then she helps you into the uniform you assume you'll all be wearing. It's exactly the same as last year, you notice this quickly, but with a '75' logo embroidered on the chest where the District Twelve tribute had her pin placed. Katniss, you remember her name was. She had volunteered for her sister, and at the time you contemplated heavily on whether or not you would do the same. She was so, so close to winning- to getting to see her sister again, but she and the boy from her district, the final two tributes, ended up committing together rather than giving the Capitol their Victor. It was an admirable stance, but you couldn't imagine what that was like for her family, and his.

You step off the concrete floor once you're dressed, instructed to get into the pod that will lift you up into the arena; a glass elevator. Your stylist says nothing to you as they walk out of the room, the glass door sliding shut in front of you. Your knees get weak as you realize you are totally, completely alone, and likely no more than twenty minutes from dying. You think of your family, your siblings, your dad- and the last words he said to you. You'll see him soon.

Your thoughts are halted when the elevator starts to move, lifting you up as the ceiling falls away and you can see sunlight coming through. You squint and shield your eyes as you try to look up to get a better grasp on your surroundings before you can even see anything. Once trees come into view you're frantically looking around, trying to process as much information as you can, and quickly. It's exactly the same as last year, but from what you can tell, flipped in reverse, and made larger to accommodate twice as many tributes. Or everything on camera last year was flipped. There's a silver cornucopia in the middle with the timer that's immediately counting down and supplies inside and scattered around the field in front of you. Rafe is to your right, and a boy from Seven on your left. He scored a six, the same as you, so he's not the biggest threat to you immediately.

You adjust your stance, getting ready to run once the timer hits zero. In what direction, you don't know yet. Rafe wants you to run to the supplies, but statistically, the most deaths will happen in the next five minutes and you don't want any part of that. The supply bags and weapons spread out on the grass are all the same too, by the looks of it. The closest bag to you got picked up by the girl from Seven last year, and it didn't have much of anything helpful. If you're remembering right, it had a rope and some matches, and that was it. It definitely would be useful, but you know you can do better. There should be a bag four pedestals to your right, with a water bottle, an emergency blanket, a fire starter, a first aid kit, and a knife. Right now, that's the one you have to get to. That's your best bet.

Ten, nine, eight... The timer ticks down to the final seconds as you look over at Rafe, who's already looking at you. You point to the bag as your eyes land on it on the other side of him across the field, and he looks at you confused. He's closer, he has a better shot, but you know he won't take it.

Rafe is confused, following your finger and spotting the bag. Why would you want that one specifically? There are others closer, he doesn't feel like now is a time to be picky.

Four, three, two...

Your ears ring with shock as the clock reaches zero, and you're watching most of the other tributes booking it for the center. No one has seen your bag yet as you jump down, beelining across the field and narrowly brushing past Rafe in your move for the small backpack. He stops to let you pass, almost crashing into you head-on. He doesn't have time to worry about you, so he continues on his path to the middle, but he's lost time. Precious time that he doesn't have to lose right at the beginning of the games.

He gets into the bloodbath that the cornucopia has already turned into, looking back over his shoulder quickly as he grabs at any weapon he can get his hands on. He quickly has to sacrifice the blade he just grabbed when he hears footsteps quickly approaching from behind him, turning quickly and plunging it into the boy's chest. He doesn't think to look at who it was.

Cannon's echo around you, and you're counting how many internally as you get to the bag, reaching down to grab it as you run past, trying not to slow down. You look back over your shoulder, hoping to spot your teammate somewhere, but you can't see him. You're scanning the area, blocking out the blood you see flying and scattered along the silver metal of the cornucopia. You can hardly hear any screams over the sound of your heartbeat pounding in your ears. You can't help but watch as the girl from Three jumps on who is supposed to be her partner, a girl from Twelve, snapping her neck in a second. Within moments, she just drops to the ground next to her- another cannon following. That makes a strong incentive for working in teams. At least Rafe won't betray you early on.

You freeze up for a moment, stopping to scan your surroundings. You still can't find Rafe, taking in the number of bodies scattered around the cornucopia and a few tributes running into the tree line. At least some people were smart. Something flies past your head, making you jump back a step as you look up ahead of you. Within an instant, you're being tackled back by the body of the boy from your district.

"Y/N, fancy seeing you here." He chuckles darkly while you try and fight him off.

"Don't!" You squeak out, him pressing his forearm down against your throat on the ground.

"I've wanted to do this since the second they called your name." He growls, shoving you down again.

"We can help each other, Jack..." You say weakly, clawing at his arm.

"You don't need me. You've got your career boyfriend- and whatever your secret weapon is." He scoffs. "You don't have a secret weapon, Y/N. He's bluffing and he won't convince us."

You gather all your strength and knee him in the crotch, scrambling to get away as he fumbles for just a moment. "God- you are a bitch!" He shouts, grabbing for your ankle just has you pick up the knife he had thrown at you. You grip it the way Rafe had shown you, quickly shoving it into Jack's leg. You just needed to get away.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" You exclaim, backing away quickly. Jack doesn't say another word, cutting his losses and getting up to make an escape for the woods. You hope he ends up okay.

You make your break for it as well, running back towards the woods as you once again scan your surroundings for your partner.

Suddenly you're on the ground, having run straight into the side of one of the pedestals and falling over it. You yelp with the sudden impact of the ground, scrambling to get up and continue when suddenly someone is grabbing your jacket, slamming you into the pedestal again. You scream, trying to shove them off, but they're much stronger than you. "Jael! Wait, wait- Jael!" You make out your own voice yelling the boy's name, which makes him falter. He's the oldest tribute from Eight- he seems shocked you even know his name.

In the moment when he loosened his grip, he jerks forward and then falls over you, a cannon booming making you gasp as you panic to get away. Rafe is quickly running towards you, slinging the bow he just used over his shoulder and yanking the arrow out of the boy's back. "Y/N, let's go!" He shouts, motioning for you to follow him as you continue toward the tree line, both of you keeping an eye on what's happening behind you as you disappear into the woods.

"Let's stay close, but not too close," Rafe suggests as soon as you feel safe enough to slow down, your chest heaving with the exertion of energy and boost of adrenaline. He glances at you briefly, then does a double take. "You okay? Are you hurt?"

You shake your head, coughing to ease the stinging in your throat. "I'm fine. You?"

"Good," Rafe answers, slowing his pace to match yours.

"We, uh, I think we should go the other way." You say, looking around to try and mentally place where abouts you are.

Rafe stops and furrows his brow at you, seemingly frustrated by your resistance. "Why does it matter?"

"The arena, it's the same as last year. Exactly the same. Just, scaled up a bit." You explain. "We should head south, that's where the river is. We'll need water soon."

Rafe laughs slightly, his demeanor changing as he places his hands on his hips and looks at you. "No shit," He says, truly surprised and impressed that you could tell. A lot of the games tend to look like this, and he would never notice a repeat arena down to the rivers if it punched him in the face. Your 'secret weapon' is already paying off. "And you could tell that right away?"

"Yeah, I mean, I guess so. The bags were all the same, everything was laid out the same. I bet there's a river down south." You nod, having a sudden realization. "We should get to that cave- the one the tributes from Twelve holed up in last year. That'll be a good, stable shelter. We can pretty much wait it out." You say, starting to walk in what you believe is the right direction.

"No," Rafe replies, making you stop in your tracks. "Unless you want me to have to kill you in the end."

"Oh, right." You forgot about that part, keeping score. "We're still going to need somewhere to sleep, though."

"Yeah, we'll find it anyways." Rafe nods, carrying on in the direction you started heading. You follow a few steps behind, keeping a bit of distance in the somewhat awkward silence that fell over you two after his comment about having to kill you.

You walk in the thick of the woods for about an hour before you feel like you're reaching the river. You can feel it under your feet, the soil is slightly softer, and the trees a little more green.

Cannons interrupt your thoughts a few times in the hike, totaling up to twenty-three by the time you reach the riverbank. "You were right." Rafe chuckles, mentally disparaging any skepticism he faced during the long, quiet walk.

"Thank god." You giggle, dropping your bag and crouching down to dig through it, hoping for a water bottle. You were right, everything you expected was accounted for.

"Why that bag?" Rafe says, already sitting down on the rocky water's edge to rest for a moment.

"Huh?" You question, unsure you heard over the shuffling of the bag while you zip it up.

"You pointed to it, during the countdown. Why did you want that one?"

"Oh, uh, like I said they all looked the same as last year, and I hoped I remembered what was inside." You say, laying down to reach into the water and fill up the bottle.

"Were you right?"

You nod with a small smile, sitting back up and holding the bottle out to him as you cross your legs.

"That's actually insane." Rafe shakes his head in disbelief as he takes it, downing just about everything in it before handing it back.

You take it and refill it again for yourself. "I'll choose to take that as a compliment."

Rafe wouldn't admit it, but at this moment as he's watching you drink, he's grateful that he got paired up with you. But now, that it's been shown on national television that you know the arena in and out, he wonders what obstacles the gamemakers will desperately throw your way.

"We should keep moving. I feel like a sitting duck out here in the open, I don't like it." Rafe mutters, checking his attitude as he stands up. You're quick to fill up the bottle again, following behind him yet again as the arrows in his quiver rattle together against his back walking over the rocky and unstable terrain, knife gripped tightly in his hand.

You wonder to yourself how he's feeling about leaving behind his predestined alliance of the career pack, but with the factor of most of them being paired up with other districts, it was already too unpredictable. You wouldn't have stuck around either.

The sun started to set as you followed the river upstream. You didn't want to settle without some kind of shelter, and you were committed to finding that cave before you could relax. You could tell that Rafe had the same idea, his steps ahead of you gradually picking up speed with the bow still gripped firmly in his palm.

"It's a beautiful sunset." You speak your mind before thinking, desperately wanting to fill the silence.

Rafe just hums in response, looking up only briefly before training his gaze once again on the ragged rocks at his feet and continuing on. "What's it like in District One?" You ask.

"Fine." He replies coldly. You aren't sure what you expected, but this response was pretty on par. You knew you had almost no chance of survival, so it would at least be nice to get to know the person you spend your final days with, even if he would be the one to kill you in the end.

"I've never been, but I've heard it's... nice." You've only ever heard about it from the perspective of other bitter individuals from Five, jealous of the cushy lifestyle everyone knew they must have lived.

"Yeah." Rafe agrees, clearly not wanting to discuss it.

"What are your sister's names?" You ask, deciding to push a little bit. It's not like he can kill you just yet.

Rafe sighs, but answers anyways. "Wheezie and Sarah."

You're shocked that he answered at all, but you could tell in his interview that he has a soft spot for them. "Cute." You nod, smiling to yourself. "Is Wheezie a nickname?"

"Yep, it's short for Louise."

"That's adorable." You grin, shaking your head.

"Hey, look. There." Rafe says, changing the subject and pointing down the rocks, where there's a small opening under a ledge.

"That's it!" You exclaim, deciding to drop the topic of his sisters in favour for finding your shelter for the night. You rush past him, watching your step as you climb down into the small cave.

Rafe quickly draws his bow, slowing down and peaking into the cave and bracing himself for your screams. How could you be so careless in a game like this? He doesn't understand your lightheartedness, your somewhat positive attitude, and your ability to make small talk despite the circumstances. "Hey, careful!"

"It's perfect!" You call back out as you look around, and Rafe steps down carefully, looking around more carefully than you had. He relaxes once he's satisfied that there's nothing down there waiting to kill you.

"Nice, okay." Rafe nods to himself, and you both get to work making a small fire near the entrance, hidden from view.

You take off your jacket and roll it up, using it as a makeshift pillow as you lay next to the fire, staring at the orange flicker of the flames you made.

Rafe is sitting across from you, knees tucked up to his chest as he does just the same. His mind is absolutely reeling- he needs to find something to eat, and soon. That will be the first thing you'll do in the morning, he'll have to employ your help to find something edible. "How are you with making traps?" He asks.

"I can do it." You reply, sitting up and leaning on your elbow so you can see him. "I'll set some up in the morning."

Rafe nods a little bit. He already knew you could, of course, but he's wondering about the logistics of how they work. "So like... hypothetically, would they work the same if you made them bigger?"

"Like... human-sized?" You ask, catching on to what he's suggesting. It's not ethical- but nothing about this game is. For you, this would definitely be preferable to fighting other kids to death over and over again.

Rafe nods, adjusting how he was sitting and crossing his legs.

"Yeah. I can't see why not." You answer. "It would be harder since I've never done it, but I think it could work."

"Then I say we try it."

The next day, you wake up as the sun rises and the light beats down on you from the entrance of the cave. You didn't sleep comfortably, that's for sure, waking up twice throughout the night to the sound of the cannon. That's twenty-seven. You wonder how many teams have already reached their ten-kill quota, you imagine someone in the career pack already has. Both times when you were startled awake, Rafe was standing at the cave entrance, bow drawn as he squinted into the darkness, hoping that whoever was out hunting other tributes wasn't nearby.

You sit up slowly, stretching out your tired limbs as you look over to see Rafe, fast asleep with a blade in his hand. You should let him sleep, and get to work on finding something to eat, and making some traps.

You grab one of the knives Rafe somehow collected from the bag laying next to him as quietly as possible, sneaking outside and taking in your surroundings. The sound of the river flowing and the smell of morning dew was amazing- you wish you could truly enjoy it in different circumstances.

You quickly get to work tracking down something to eat, landing on a few different plants you know to be edible. You're trekking through the woods near your cave when you come across an apple tree- making you pause as you look it over. It looks out of place- and maybe no one got close enough to it in the games last time that you wouldn't have seen it, but that seems unlikely. It must be new; it makes for the perfect place to try and set up a trap for the next hungry tribute who would be unfortunate enough to wander too close to your hideout.

You're digging a hole in the ground with your hands, avoiding the roots of the tree and sticking in some sticks you sharpened when you hear a twig snap behind you. You freeze, hoping that by some miracle, it's just an animal. You slowly turn your head to try and look, picking up the knife from the ground next to you and holding it tight.

"Just me." Rafe's voice relaxes you, and you stand up, brushing off your knees.

"You scared me." You admit as he takes to looking down into the hole you just dug.

"That looks... awful." He chuckles, patting your shoulder. "It won't kill, but it'll slow someone down enough that I can finish the job."

You nod slightly, staring into the dirt as well. You hated the idea that you were crafting something intentionally to bring harm to another person, but realistically you have no choice. "We'll set up more, along the riverbed and closer to the career pack. We can't monitor them all at once, though- can you make more fatal ones next time?" Rafe asks, pointing back towards the river to accentuate his point.

"That depends, how many arrows can you spare?"

The next few days saw the death toll rise to thirty-six. You kept track every night, scratching their numbers and names into the walls of the cave despite being able to remember anyway. You viewed it as a small memorial, Rafe saw it as a timer ticking down to when he'd have to kill you.

Your first trap had worked on one person, their screams of pain from a cut-up leg summoning your teammate back to the apple tree. He insisted you stay behind as he finished what you started. You had to reset several other traps as well, closer to the cornucopia.

Rafe would never admit it, but he was really starting to like you. He didn't want to hurt you- he was worried the traps wouldn't do enough. The passive approach you so preferred wasn't what he expected, and he knew his dad would be disappointed in him. But Ward would never understand.

He sighed as he poked at the fire with a stick, leaning his head back against the rocky wall of the cave, another cold night ahead of you.

You had your head laid on his lap, his thigh replacing the thin material of your coat that you had been using the last few days.

"How old are your sisters?" You ask out of nowhere, prompting him to look down at you. He had thought you fell asleep a while ago.

"Why does it matter?" Rafe replies, and you just shrug a little bit.

"Gives us something to talk about."

"Fifteen and Eleven." He relents.

"Hey, me too." You smile a little to yourself.

"You have sisters?" Rafe asks. He never asked much about you- he didn't really want to know, in the case he had to kill you.

"Yep. And a brother." You nod, sitting up a little bit. "He's older though, he aged out last year."

Rafe finds himself clenching his jaw. He can't hear that- to see you as a little sister. He doesn't want to imagine what it would be like to see his sisters face the same fate. "Lucky guy." He says quietly.

"Why? I thought it was a privilege, and all that." You chuckle.

"Well, yeah, but not for most. For the outlying districts like you."

"At least you get it." You agree. "How does it feel? Now that you're here, I mean."

"Scary." Rafe admits, throwing caution to the wind now with what his father will think. "Not what everyone tells you it'll be like."

"Is that because of me?" You ask after a few moments, and he nods slightly.

"Not in a bad way, though. It's just different. I expected to be on my own, to die alone, or kill my allies if I had to. Now... I don't know that I have to. Or if I even could." He can practically hear his father shouting at their large screen at home, or storming out claiming he was an embarrassment. He was told his whole life to never show weakness, to 'be a man', but now, at the end, that doesn't matter to him.

"I won't take it personally." You giggle softly, voice shaking as you try to make light of it. "My family won't either, I don't think. Maybe my dad, at first, but eventually he'll understand. They'll forgive you." You try and ease his mind, knowing that in the case that Rafe does win without you, he'll have to face your family in the next month or so during the victory tour.

"I wouldn't ever expect him to." Rafe tells you, tossing his stick into the flames now. He feels sick hearing you talk about it like it's inevitable- but if he has anything to do with it, you'll be coming home with him.

"They're good people." You assure him.

"Don't say that." Rafe chuckles, shaking his head. "I would never forgive myself."

"Okay, fine. They're awful. Just... the worst." You smile, looking up at him and resting your chin in your hand.

"That's better. Thank you." Rafe laughs, poking your forehead and gazing out onto the river as the flames illuminate the water.

In the morning, you're awoken to something brushing your leg. You groan and roll over, head landing once more on Rafe's extended arm underneath you. At least he was finally getting some sleep, pretty much unable to close his eyes since you set foot in the arena. You feel the brush again, followed by something moving on your arm, several things, suddenly, and your eyes fly open and look down when you remember where you are. You let out a scream, scrambling to sit up and pushing yourself back against the wall.

Rafe wakes up quickly, scrambling for the bow next to him when he realizes it won't be any help. You're surrounded by and quickly almost covered in a sickening combination of snakes and spiders.

You're still screaming, trying to shove the creatures off of you. "Come on- come on!" Rafe is yelling at you, grabbing your arm and pulling you towards the exit. You don't get the chance to grab your back and you regret that as you're jumping into the river in attempt to get the spiders off of your skin and out of your clothes.

You're breathing heavily as you come up for air, and Rafe is quickly there, brushing his hands over your hair to make sure every last spider is gone. He looks back at the entrance of the cave, chest heaving like yours as the bugs and snakes spill out of it. It sends a shiver down his spine- he was never a fan of snakes.

"I guess that's the gamemakers telling us enough was enough." He sighs, gently pulling you towards the shore again a safe distance away. "Are you bit?" He asks once you're a safe distance away.

"I don't think so..." You reply, hiking up the ankles of your pants to look at your calves and over your bare arms as you sit on the shore. "You?"

Rafe shakes his head, doing the same. "It was probably just a warning. We have to move." He quickly lowers his pant leg over the puncture wounds in his leg, hoping you didn't see. If it gets worse, he'll tell you. The bite itself didn't hurt much, so if it's going to be fatal, he's glad he won't have to hurt you.

Rafe helps you up, leading you up towards the tree line. "They probably want to push us in toward the other tributes, I think we should go with it before they throw something worse at us." You, the two of you now left with nothing but what you had on you, along with Rafe's bow and a few spare arrows.

He nods. "It's our best move anyways. How many tributes are left?"

"Twelve including us." You answer quickly. "There's Avril, a boy from six, Maisie, she's from my district, most of the careers I think are still in it but not their teammates," You begin to rattle off the list,

"I don't want to know names." Rafe cuts you off, and you understand why. He's been doing all the dirty work, and part of you knows it's because he's hoping to have time to learn names and feel guilty about it later. Right now, he can't afford to see them as human.

"Right." You agree. "It doesn't really matter, anyways."

"Do you know scores?" He asks, walking alongside you now.

You nod, beginning to list off all the remaining tributes and their scores, from lowest to highest. The lowest being you- and the highest being ten, shared by Rafe and a boy from district two.

After hearing two more cannons that day, and checking all the traps you had set, you're circling back to the river to be near fresh water before you set up camp again. You don't have your water bottle anymore, or anything to set up any kind of shelter with, you do your best. You set up a fire, Rafe insisting that if it draws other tributes to you so be it- he's ready for this to end just as much as you, but you don't want to rush into your death or an ambush. It's safe to say you won't be sleeping tonight.

You didn't sleep, but at least, curled up under a tree, the night sky was beautiful. The stars seemed realistic, and you wondered if somehow they were real. Between the two more cannons that struck overnight, you still wondered if you were somewhere near the ocean, or somewhere closer to home. While you're sitting next to each other in a peaceful silence, both admiring the vastness of the night sky, you hear a ringing sound coming from above.

Rafe quickly stands, reaching for the small silver pack with a parachute before it hits the ground. He's quick to open it as you stand up, looking into the container. You grab the small card, tilting it into the light of your fire to read it.

For our Y/N,

Keep fighting. Please come home to us.

Love You Always, Dad

Tears form in your eyes almost instantly, your hand coming up to cover your mouth. "It's just a water bottle and some kind of granola bars... or something." Rafe says, turning the water bottle over in his hand.

He looks up at you, frowning when he sees how upset you look. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." You quickly shake your head, wiping your eyes. "Uhm, it's from my dad."

The fact that your family could spare enough money to send you something in the games at all was amazing to you. You heard horror stories of the astronomical prices of trying to send something from outside of the capitol, without the status and funds of a sponsor.

"Oh." Rafe replies, handing you the tin and bottle now, taking the card from you gently. He reads it over slowly, and over and over again. His family had seemingly endless amounts of money, and they had sent him nothing. He knew his father viewed it as cheating, and that you shouldn't need any kind of help to win. If he loved him, though, that wouldn't matter. He should be willing to do anything he could to keep his son alive. The way your parents did.

"My mom made these." You sniffle, grabbing a small bar from the container in her hand. "They're my favourite, she only makes them on birthdays or special occasions." You explain.

"That's... that's really nice." Rafe says, putting the card back in the tin. He doesn't know how to handle this, or what to say.

You smile sadly as you sit back down against the tree, placing the tin on your lap as Rafe joins you. "Here." You hold the bar out to him.

"They're for you." Rafe shakes his head, pushing it away.

"They're for us." You insist, holding it out to him again. "They wouldn't have sent two if I wasn't meant to share."

"Thank you." Rafe smiles genuinely, for the first time in weeks as he takes it. He's starving, having eaten only small amounts of meat and plants over the last week or so, so he's quick to take a bite. It's sweet, more so than he expected. He never thought he could enjoy sugar this much.

"No wonder they're reserved for celebrations, hey?" You giggle, having intently watched his reaction.

Rafe nods. "Yeah, it's really good. Super sweet." He says, mouth still full. You grin, satisfied as you take a bite of your own.

The night flew by so quickly, you're feeling as though it must have gotten shorter. The sunrise went by fast too. You're guessing the gamemakers and the viewers were getting antsy. To be honest, you were as well.

Renewed with your energy the sugary baking your parents had sent, you set about gathering food and water, while Rafe goes on to check a few of your traps to see if they needed to be reset. He could do it on his own, but he liked watching you do it, working the ropes between your fingers and tying intricate knots, pulling back on the stick used to trigger the arrow. By the afternoon, having taken a mental note of the amount of cannons that had fired. It was a few, at least. You must be getting down to the end. He prayed it wasn't you, but the cries of some kind of mutts in the distance right before the cannons lead him to believe that you were fine- but he should be getting back soon anyways.

You were wandering down to the water, reluctant to leave your camp, but you knew water was a priority. You were just filling up the new bottle when you heard a scream. It sounded like a boy. You quickly look back over your shoulder, noticing it was nearby. Toward the apple tree. You stand slowly, looking around as you attach the water bottle back to your side with a carabiner, reaching instead for the knife Rafe had left with you. God, you hoped it wasn't him. The absence of a cannon gives you hope, though.

You quietly head in that direction, watching your step so your presence isn't detected. When you get closer to the tree, you hear crying. Painful crying, as you're faced with the reality of the trap you set.

You watch from behind a tree as the boy from eight tries to pull his leg up from the ground, screaming out again as the sharp sticks dig into his flesh. You should go get Rafe- you feel guilty, but you can't kill him yourself. You turn quickly, and before you can get a step away you're face to face with one of the other careers- a sword held up against your neck.

"Don't move." Blake says, a smile that can only be described as evil spreading over his lips.

You try and scream out for help, hoping Rafe was still in earshot but a hand is quickly covering your mouth. "Not yet." He whispers, shaking his head. "We've got a plan, it'll be fun. You wouldn't want to ruin that, right?"

As Rafe gets back to your small camp, he expects to see you there waiting. He scans the trees above him, wondering if you had climbed up for some reason. He calls your name when he doesn't see you, brow furrowed. You definitely should be back by now. As he's heading down to the water to look for you, he hears a cannon, which at this point wouldn't bother him- if it wasn't for the scream that followed after. It was you. No doubt in his mind that it was you. With his bow drawn, he's moving quickly towards where he heard your voice, throwing caution to the wind.

You scream again, crying as the tip of the sword is dug into your shoulder, laying down next to the apple tree. You can't help it- but you don't want their trap to work. You don't want Rafe to come, so you bite your tongue until you taste blood, hoping to keep quiet. "It'll only get worse for you if you don't scream, Y/N/N." Blake scolds you, digging in the blade more. "He has to hear you." He adds through gritted teeth.

You hear a twig snap just outside the small clearing, and Blake is quickly turning to look with the sword still pinning you to the ground. "Rafe it's a trap!" You shout, hoping that it's him.

Rafe steps out then, into full view with his bow drawn as he aims at the boy in front of him. When they first met, he knew they would have been good friends if they met anywhere else. "You won't shoot me." Blake chuckles, and Rafe quickly readjusts his grip.

"I will." Rafe says sternly, pulling the string tighter as Blake moves the sword to hover over your chest. Over your heart.

"If you shoot, the last of my energy will go into killing her. I don't think you want that." He shakes his head, smiling smugly.

"I don't care." Rafe says, making your heart clench. You know that you're friends, at the very least. He does care. He's bluffing- you have to believe that.

"If you didn't care you would have shot me already." Blake calls it, and Rafe tenses up, looking down at you only briefly.

"Then what do you want?" Rafe spits.

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted you to watch." Blake shrugs. "Just makes it a little more fun, you know? But don't worry, you'll be next." You know he just wants to prove himself, somehow, not having scored as high as Rafe did. You wonder if his family was somehow similar- that he needed some kind of approval that he thought he might find through sadism.

Rafe looks down at you again, and you just nod, tears streaming down your temples to your ears. He quickly readjusts before letting the arrow fly, planting straight in the shoulder that held the sword as you quickly roll over, slicing across your chest and shoulder in the process. It was well worth it.

Rafe fires another arrow into his chest, not taking any risks and the cannon quickly follows as he rushes to your side.

"Are you okay?" He's asking, hands hovering above you as he's kneeled next to you, unsure what to do.

You nod, still biting into your tongue as blood continues to slide down your skin, dampening your now torn up clothes.

"It's not that bad." Rafe says, looking over the cuts as best he can, but you wince when he pulls the fabric away. "You're gonna be fine, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah..." You mumble, letting your head fall back against the brush below you. Rafe is quick to take his coat off, using it to push down on the deepest part of the wound on your shoulder, trying with his other hand to apply pressure to the rest of it. You try and focus on your breathing, rather than the pain, but it's hard when a significant amount of weight is being applied to your shoulder and chest.

"I'm sorry, I have to." Rafe tells you, jaw tense as he lifts his coat to check whether or not the bleeding has slowed. You didn't even realize you were crying.

After a few minutes, he's lessened the pressure a bit, still holding the fabric firmly over your skin. "You could have ran." You mumble, voice hardly above a whisper.

"I wasn't gonna leave you." Rafe shakes his head, gently peeling away his now blood soaked windbreaker.

"You at least shouldn't have saved me. Not much point in that, is there?" You smile softly, trying to sit up and Rafe is quick to help.

"There is. You have to win." He mutters.

"I'm not winning, Rafe." You smile sadly at him. "Infection will kill me if you won't, and if no one else does first."

"No, they'll fix you up. This cut will be gone in a week, the technology they have is-"

"Rafe." You grab his attention again and he looks up to meet your eyes. They seemed to suck in all the light of the sunset above the two of you, reflecting back at him in a way that makes his breath hitch. The thought is cut short, however, when you say something that breaks his heart. "Don't give me hope like that."

"Why? You're gonna go home. I mean it." He promises. "I'll make sure of it."

"I don't think we have enough." You remind him sadly, a small smile still evident on your lips as you reach up to cup his cheek in your palm. "I never expected to go home. I'm okay with that."

Your friend shakes his head softly. "That doesn't matter. You have your family to get home to, I read that note from your dad. They need you, I can see that. For me, these games are all I was raised for. I have nothing left for me after this." He admits, avoiding eye contact with you.  "I could never forgive myself if I didn't get you home."

Tears are forming in your eyes again as you look up at him. The world is watching, and in this moment of vulnerability you feel that more than ever- despite the quiet sounds around you being only the rushing water in the nearby river and the birds chirping around you. "You're a good person, Rafe." You smile at him, watching as he gently raises his hand to yours, grabbing it in his own. "I hope you know that."

In this moment, you settle on the idea that you would die for him. You never understood last years tributes, honestly, how they were willing to die for each other instead of getting home to their own loved ones, but now you do. Completely.

Without a second thought, you find yourself leaning closer, Rafe doing the same as he kneels next to you in the dark. Your eyes meet once more, lips only an inch from touching when you hear a howl in the distance, and you snap your head to the direction it came from. "The Mutts... Already?" You say, scrambling to get up and ignoring the pain in your shoulder.

"I- I heard them earlier, they sound far away." Rafe says, trying to calm you.

"You heard them? You didn't tell me?" You ask, frantically grabbing his bow from the ground and handing it to him as he goes to pull the discarded arrows out of Blake's body.

"I didn't think it mattered!" He defends, trying to hide the panic in his voice.

"There were four left last year when they sent them out. I think... yeah I think that's right. There's four of us. We have to run." You say in a panic, pulling on his hand. "Our best bet is making it back to the cornucopia."

"It'll be too open- can't we climb a tree or something?" Rafe says, following after you as you're running through the bush now in the direction of the open field.

"I don't know if that will work, but I know we'll be safe there." You explain like it's obvious. "We have to risk it- and if you can get to the others first, if they have the same idea, we'll be at ten."

You're out of breath already, adrenaline pushing you through as you hear scattered barking getting steadily closer after one more cannon. Part of you wants to stop, turn, and force Rafe to take the win if you couldn't have it, but with any hope left, you have to try and get back to where this started. The traps was an unfortunate choice in how you got your kills, because you couldn't keep track of how many since by the time you got around to checking them, the body's would have been airlifted off if it wasn't a misfire. If you had to guess, though, you were sitting at eight.

Rafe is running similar calculations in his head as he lets you lead him by memory straight to the field, mind short-circuiting as he sees the silver moonlight reflect off the cornucopia.

You sprint across the open field, blood pouring from your undressed wound again with the intense exertion of energy. Rafe doesn't pass you, though, despite you expecting that he would. You have tunnel vision as you make it to the metal structure, practically slamming into it before you can even stop. Rafe is quick to lift you and shove you up, both of you looking over your shoulders as you struggle to hold onto the edge, kicking the sides to hold yourself up.

You finally get up, reaching down to help pull Rafe up. He grabs onto your arm for leverage, mostly pulling himself up and you wince as you feel the tension from his weight in your cuts.

You flop down onto your back on the cold surface as he climbs over you, immediately standing up with bow drawn as he intently scans the surrounding area. He's only got the two arrows left, which makes him nervous if that's all he has to defend the both of you with.

You try to settle your breathing, which only lasts for a moment until the sky lights up with the recap. You miss your cave, where you could contribute to your memorial, especially seeing the face of Maisie flash above you on the sky while the anthem plays.

You close your eyes, just listening to the music now until you hear barking just outside of where Rafe can see, and you're quickly sitting up. He draws the bow tighter, aiming in the direction the howls came from just as someone pushes out into the clearing. Rafe is aimed straight at them, bow string pressed to his cheek. He's getting dizzy, and quickly. His aim can't fail him now, he doesn't have that option.

You watch them, in the dark you think it's the other boy from district one, and in your exhaustion you can't remember his name. You wouldn't dare say it, anyways. He's screaming for help, a call you know you can't answer, and you watch as they stumble on their feet, shoes and hands digging into the ground as they try to get up, just ten or so yards from you by now.

Rafe wants to shoot just then, it would be as simple as letting his finger loose and the arrow would fly towards its target. It would be a merciful end for the boy he's trained with for years now, only a couple years younger than him. The muscle in his jaw is aching from the tension he's put on it when he forces himself to let go. He has to do it, for himself, if he wants to go home.

He misses. The yelp of one of the mutts tells you it landed in a paw or back, and you look up at Rafe who's already drawn his second. "Rafe!" You cry out, pushing yourself up onto your feet and standing behind him now.

He hates to admit that your empathy has rubbed off on him. Watching you every night carving seemingly endless names and numbers into the rocks that lined the space you stepped in. He recalls waking up one morning and seeing your name and his carved in as well, closer to where he laid by the fire, his underlined and yours with a heart at the end. Like a signature on the top of a math test. He had wondered if you always wrote your name like that, and in this moment as he releases the bow again, he knows he has to find out for himself.

It happened so fast, the mutts knocking down the boy and the arrow flying from Rafe's shaky hands into where he should have been right as the cannon sounds. You don't know that it was Rafe's arrow that did him in.

"No..." You mumble, clamouring forward and onto your knees again to look over as the boys body is torn apart by the mutts. "You had to have done it. You had to." You say, trying to get a better view.

In a second, Rafe's arms are around you and he's pulling you back from the edge, sitting now behind you with his arms wrapped tightly over your body. "It's okay.. it's over." He mumbles, kissing the side of your head as the sunlight comes over the trees. He's fighting off the urge to vomit, everything spinning around him now.

You sit with him, gripping onto his arms and crying. Nothing is happening, so you must not have made it to ten. You feel sick- your heart is in your throat and suddenly you're really hot, moving away from him to look over the edge again, this time incase you have to throw up. You freeze, looking over to where the boy's body once was. The second arrow was in the ground. He missed again.

Rafe sees it at the same time as you. He sighs, hanging his legs over the edge. "Shit... Y/N, I'm sorry." He mumbles, gently reaching over to rub your back.

"No, no. It's okay." You insist, sitting up next to him. "I knew this would happen."

"I'll get you home." Rafe says, sliding down the side of the cornucopia before you can stop him. He stumbles the landing, swaying in his walk as he heads towards the arrow lodged into the dirt.

"Wait! Wait, wait, Rafe!" You're sliding down after him, running to his side and grabbing his arm before he can get to the arrow in the ground.

He turns to you quickly, hand on your cheek and he's pressing his lips to your forehead. "Sit with me?" He asks, knees already giving out as he falls to the ground.

You're instantly on the ground beside him, practically holding his head up with your free hand as you search him visually for some kind of injury.  "What happened? Are you hurt?"

"Uh, I guess so." Rafe mutters. "Snake bite. I think."

"You didn't tell me? I could have fixed this, I could have helped..." You ramble on, his eyes dropping shut now. "Hey, eyes open."

"It's okay. Just sit with me..." He says again, smiling weakly. "Wait with me... please?"

You nod, sniffling as you fight back the tears that want to fall. "Yeah, of course. I'll stay."

Before he closes his eyes, the music starts again and your eyes are drawn up to the sky after you notice Rafe is looking first.

Then, begins a similar slideshow of faces you recognize. Ten in total. Rafe's eyes flicker with slight recollection, remembering any kills he made himself and you gasp when you see Jack. Whatever damage you had done when he tackled you on the first day must have killed him. "Rafe.." You mumble, lowering your eyes to meet his. "I think we won."

Your point is accentuated by the voice of the head gamemaker over some unseen speakers. "Introducing the Victors of the Seventy-Fifth Annual Hunger Games!"

"We did it." Rafe laughs weakly, squeezing your hand.

You fully ignore the aircraft hovering down in front of you on the grass, turning your head to look down at him. You don't say anything, neither of you do, and you finally feel your lips against his. The kiss is bad, it doesn't really work when both of you are stuck smiling ear to ear, but you don't care one bit. The only thing that matters is that you got this chance at all.

Rafe pulls away from you slowly, using all the strength he has left to lift himself onto his feet as you steady him. "He needs help!" You shout to them, and you're quickly being lead onto the plane.

"They've got really good technology," You mock what he said to you just the day before. "It'll be like it never happened in a week, okay?" You chuckle, feeling waves of happiness, worry, and relief all at once as you quickly wipe away a tear with your free hand, other arm wrapped tightly around Rafe's waist to hold him up.

He laughs, and you lean into him more, your forehead against his shoulder as the aircraft door slides shut behind you.

taglist: @bookishbabyyy @madelynie, @whore-4-drewstarkey, @slut4drudy, @winterrrnight, @totalswag, @sadfury @fullfledgedemo @rafemotherfuckingcameron, @urfaveluvr, @chenslucy, @hxnnah-397, @s-we-e-t-t-ea, @tahliac11, @saccharinesammie, @ietss, @maybankslover @redhead1180, @suzyheartsrafe, @wpdailyminimeta, @aegons-bitch, @rafegirly, @lovelyxtommy @dee127

[justaz]

s1ep10 will says “oh so you told arthur your secret then?…face it merlin, you’re living a lie” and i desperately need someone to say that to him again in front of arthur and the knights. shiiit au where will survives and visits merlin in camelot years later when arthur is king and they have the same argument. will turns to the peanut gallery where arthur staring at him with a raised brow and goes “how many years have you lived here merlin? and you still haven’t told him. you haven’t told any of them. you may surround yourself with people you call friends, but you are completely alone here.” and storms off.

merlin who also storms off after standing still in shock for a moment, fighting back tears bc will is right. it’s been so draining for merlin to live a life built on lies, to hide himself from his friends, to pretend to be something he’s not. all he wants is to be loved and appreciated for what he is. everyone in camelot loves the merlin he’s carefully crafted, not the merlin he is. lancelot follows after him and is his shoulder to cry on after that whole show.

the other knights are sitting around going “wtf just happened” and theorizing on this secret will mentioned. there’s also a quieter, secret conversation going on where unnamed knights plan out will’s murder for making merlin cry. anyways, lancelot tells them to drop it after they prod him for answers and call him out for being the only one of the knights to know merlin’s secret.

from then on the knights keep at least a quarter of their attention on merlin when he’s near. they watch him as if he’ll slip and say whatever his secret is out loud. gwaine keeps the most attention on merlin and is the first one to find out. he follows merlin out of the room and lowers his voice and goes “you know, i would commit regicide for you if you asked. if you came into my chambers and were like ‘gods arthur is so annoying, lets kill him’ i’d do it in a heartbeat.” he then leans in closer and whispers “and if you had magic, i wouldn’t tell. i’d probably just convince you to use it for pranks.” elyan finds them hugging in the hall, merlin crying into gwaine’s shoulder and gwaine holding back his own tears.

the other knights are slow on the uptake but all eventually get there in the end, except arthur. the king cannot for the life of him sniff out this secret the other knights found out. whats infuriating is that they had banded together in determination to figure out the secret and said they’d help guide one another to the truth once they did or just outright tell each other. instead, every time one of them figured it out and the others asked them about it, they’d just get all sullen and serious and say “it’s not my secret to tell” so arthur really has no idea

merlin has to work up the courage to face arthur and tell him himself. it takes a while. like a WHILE. like A WHILEEEE. merlin makes up with will and the other knights find out about his magic one at a time and express their support and love and apologies for all the inconsiderate and harmful things they’ve said in the past. slowly, merlin’s resolve and confidence strengthens. yet he stalls and stalls and stalls and eventually gwen and audrey the cook and even george figure him out before he can tell arthur.

he’s so nervous he ends up just letting the words fall out of his mouth, “tomorrow you have to be up bright and early for a meeting about queen annis’s visit next week also i have magic” arthur just stares at him from his bed. he’s miffed bc he was SO CLOSE to figuring it out, he knew it!! if merlin had just waited like another week or two he would’ve got there eventually. probably. also he’s been lied to but that takes back burner rn bc merlin just spoiled all the progress he made in figuring out what he’s been hiding. he throws a pillow at him and complains about it.

[meeks-just-wants-to-scroll]

I KINDA HAD THE SAME IDEA with the low honor high honor thing! Im currently figuring exactly in what way the story would change [granted it does involve one of my ocs so maybe a lot more than it should] but its fun to think in what way Micah would be 'better' or more loyal to the gang

I feel like he'd still pick fights in camp, but like in a way older siblings would. Its more teasing/bullying and shit instead of straight up slurs. Idk, might just be me NNXJXJC

I also think he wouldn't go out of his way to help someone if they asked him to, but he'd watch them continue to struggle with mayne like a gun to the point where he like has to get up and be like 'OKAY you are so pathetically shit at this - im going to show you how to do this and we're not taking a break until you shoot 3 targets in a row' or something

I dont think he'd willingly be vulnerable anytime soon based on his upbringing and shit, but iiii like to think it happens sometimes accidentally idk JXJXJC

Weep weep weep this is making me wanna explore what RDR2 would be like if Micah was a marginally better person (mainly what id he never ratted).

i am glad we have converging ideas when it comes to high honor micah! I’ve talked with mutuals before on wtf micah could do that could be considered high honor, and we came up with little. One idea i suggested is that he accidentally saved people)s lives through his own selfishness (ex: saves someone from rabid dog because “if i didnt kill it, it would have gone for me next.”)

Micah's high honor is selfish in a unique way compared to low honor. Instead of focusing on himself and his survival, it more becomes a common goal to keep the gang as a whole surviving. He is no hunter, but he can bring in money and be a daaaaaamn good shot. Guard duties are often reserved for Lenny and Sean and Charles and whoever else is free. Micah *can* go on guard duty but keeps himself out of that tiresome job by being out of camp and bringing in money. “Sorry, can’t got on guard duty, I just got back from a stage coach robbery and I want to enjoy my well deserved relaxation.”

he is still a snarky sounding piece of shit, but like you said, he is less of a full on hateful man. He is still a sly, observing snake and studies the flaws of his gang mates, but he keeps his fangs sheethed. The idea with the snake animal for high honor is that Micah is still as lethal and capable of assholery as he is in bad honor, he is just deciding to not. He holds his venom to be inflicted on those who the gang need (or want) dead. He also leans into the snake vibes by being a slimy slithering manipulator. He isn’t a charmer, but he has a skill for talking people long enough to get plans into action (or to just backstab the enemy).

i feel like Morgan would still dislike Micah for being a man with bad vibes. Morgan is also just a hater sometimes (look at how he perceives Kieran). Micah still murders and has bad plans like Blackwater so it’s not like Arthur has *no* reason to distrust Micah.

i imagine high honor micah makes an effort on occasion to be involved in camp socializing, Sean and Jack’s return for example. He mainly drinks and flirts with the girls and boys at the event.

and because i like the red vs blue honor color association of the game, Micah’s design would be a little different, making the blue in his design a little more present. A neckerchief is an example of blue, but i am sure more blue could be worked into his design somewhere. Idea is that the ratio of red to blue in character’s designs can allude to how honorable they are (though it is not a 1:1 visualization). I imagine Micah would be 1:3 blue to red. Maayyybe. One quarter an okay man, three quarters a pretty sleazy man.

micah is still deeply troubled soooo no sweetie pie vulnerability for him! At most he tries to flirt (like asking Mary-Beth to dance) and the people are 1-2% more polite about turning him down when he’s high honor. He’s still all alone and his prickly exterior deeps people at arms length from him. He is both deeply dependent on attaching himself to a gang/someone to follow (my hc), but he also aspires to be independent and run his own gang. I suppose in high honor, he hopes to earnestly stick with the VDL gang and rise in the ranks by impressing Dutch (because Dutch is kind of an easy man to impress when you bootlick).

[padawansuggest]

AU where Jango lives and somehow Jango and Dooku manage to get a hold of Obi-Wan at the same time and for once Jango is torn on who to go for first, arguably, Obi-Wan is the better target, seeing as Obi is less likely to hurt his son if he manages to win their fight and will likely drop Boba off with a more pandering adult to take care of him, but Dooku is Right There and he would very much like to murder him, but who knows if Obi-Wan’s family instincts will kick in and protect his ba’buir. But then. Dooku. Is just standing there. Vibrating at a frequency so high he’s almost able to perceive Qui-Gon in the force through that alone, 17 caffs into a binge on day 5 away with an annoying ghost son in his ear threatening that if he hurts Obi-Wan in any way whatsoever the first thing Qui-Gon is doing when he dies is punching him in the face and no he can’t hurt the baby clone either might as well just take a step back from this situation as a whole cause it’s not gonna go good, so, being the smart man Dooku is, Dooku just sorta shrugs (in the force, he’s so tense rn he couldn’t shrug if he tried) and proceeds to kidnap all three of them (confused preteen Boba is confused but relatively okay lmao) and that’s how Obi-Wan and Jango wake up locked inside a lovely set of ‘guest quarters’ in the Count’s palace with Boba and now they have to cohabitate with Dooku occasionally coming in to cry about how perfectly stupid Qui-Gon was as a small child and how he’d bitten So Many People and Qui-Gon says Obi-Wan bit even more as a kid than he did and Jango is just sitting here listening to a (tired??? Drunk???? Unsober. We’re calling that Unsober) Dooku cry about how perfectly feral his kids were and how most of their family is DEAD and it’s always falling to the dark side that does them in and Komari was ferally adorable as a wee one and Xanatos had been the bubbliest lil boy before Qui-Gon spoiled him too much and now Obi-Wan is somehow the most sunshine of their lineage while Obi-Wan looks on in horror at his childhood being spilled like this before mentioning that maybe Grandmaster should take a nap only to be picked up by said grandmaster and cried on because ‘he called me grandmaster! Fett did you hear that the sunshine baby called me Grandmaster!’ And Jango is like ‘god I wish I had a camera this could be so much blackmail’ and then finally Jango and Obi manage to escape with a still confused Boba (it’s his natural state) and make their way back to a very annoyed 212th where Jango is all ‘listen. I’ve thought about it. And I’ve decided I’m marrying Kenobi.’ And Obi is like ‘you are???? Why???’ ‘According to your ba’buir you’re the only good one’ and now Cody and Waxer and Boil are staging a ‘YOURE NOT MY DAD’ protesting fit and Obi-Wan is so confused at this turn of situation. Wtf.