#yesterday I was able to start working at 5 something and then had most of my afternoon and evening free and it was a Good day

[danielnelsen]

im rereading asunder and keep having to remind myself that all these characters have french accents fml

[lila-lou]

✨ His only exception - Pt. 5/? ✨

Summary: 12 months ago, Butcher went above and beyond to have you join his team. You had a simple office job at Supe Affairs. The same thing every day, working from 9 to 5 and watching Butcher and his team defeat one renegade after another. One evening, however, something changed.

Pairing: Soldier Boy x Reader

Warnings: Language, angst, soft Ben, injured Reader

Word Count: 3117

A/N: This is part 5 of “His only exeption”.

English isn’t my first language, so please be lenient. 💙✨

After a few minutes, Ben finally had control of himself again. Looking around, he saw the chaos he had caused. "Fuck!", he cursed loudly before looking out for you. For a second the thought that he had killed you overwhelmed him. However, when he heard your weak heartbeat, he immediately ran towards you.

Ben was more than surprised that he had lost control. Of course he wasn't happy at all about what he had just saw. About the fact that you had made such a scene for him last night, but let yourself be touched by that fuckface. Still, he had absolutely not expected such a reaction from himself. What have you done to him?

It all started when he first saw you at Supe Affairs. He knew even then that he wanted you. He had to have you. You were the only reason he came back to Butcher's team, why he didn't blow up all the cocksuckers. When he finally got Butcher to let you join his team and you met him for the first time, his urge to make you his own only grew stronger. He would never forget how you stood in front of him back then. How you started to stutter as he walked up to you and held out his hand to introduce himself, something he didn't do with any of the others. How you bit your bottom lip as your sparkling eyes looked up at him. You barely reached his chest, you were so delicate that he was afraid of breaking you the first time a mission became dangerous and he had to push you out of the way to save you.

However, as you slowly got used to everyone, especially Ben himself, and started showing your true self, he couldn't cope anymore. You had way too big a mouth and absolutely no problem expressing and justifying your opinion until the other person gave up. You were damn smart, able to articulate yourself properly and had the ability to convince anyone without even trying. And fuck, you were cheeky. He liked that most. Your sassy retorts when Butcher approaches you and your snarky comments to Frenchie's nonsensical ideas. He just liked you. And more importantly, he respected you. And that meant more to Soldier Boy than anything else. Even if someone held a gun to your head, you stuck to your fucking attitude. Many might have described you as stubborn, but for Ben it meant being strong and staying true and loyal to the end. Even though you were human. Even though you were just a fucking woman. For him, the weakest creature in the world. He respected you.

From the first moment he had a connection with you that he couldn't explain to himself. And this connection grew stronger hour by hour, day by day. Until yesterday when he finally lost his self-control.

When Ben saw you in the rubble of the bar, he almost felt guilty. As carefully as he could, he picked you up from the ground and held you lightly to his chest. You were unconscious. Your legs and arms hung limply from your body as he carried you to the car.

“I got you”, he murmured.

At that moment he didn't care about anything. He didn't care that he screwed up the plan, he didn't care that the deep escaped, he just wanted you to be okay.

While he held you with one hand, he used the other to push the seat into a reclining position before placing you on it. For a moment he just looked at you. Your face and body were covered in dust and small scratches, your sprained wrist was definitely broken now, as were some of your ribs. He was sure that despite your injuries and pain, you would insult him, scream at him or even be mad at him. That was the last thing he wanted. Ben didn't want to hurt you in any way, and yet he did. It was unintentional, but unfortunately it didn't change the end result.

Ben got behind the wheel, started the car and drove to your apartment. He knew your life wasn't in danger because he heard that all of your organs were functioning normally. You had hardly lost any blood either.It seemed like the force of the explosion had thrown you too hard against a wall.

After a while you started to move. “Ben?”, your voice was weak and you were more than disoriented. “Yeah?". His large, heavy hand found its way to your thigh, where it lingered as his thumb repeatedly stroked up and down your soft skin. You blinked a few times before looking at Ben, who was watching you with a blank expression, even though he was still driving.

“Ugh…my head hurts”, you grumbled, narrowing your eyes. "What…what happened? Why did you blew up?".

Ben just took a deep breath and looked back at the road before removing his hand from your thigh. A familiar silence filled the car, broken only by your panting as you tried to sit up.

“Don´t fucking move. You probably broke a rib or two".

"Yeah, it feels like that".

You didn't exchange another word the entire drive home. Instead, you kept looking at each other, trying to read each other's minds, but even more wanting to make sure the other was okay. He wanted to make sure you didn't suffer any more serious injuries while you kept an eye on Ben for fear he might explode again.

After almost half an hour, Ben parked the car in front of the apartment. As Ben unbuckled himself, you spoke up. "I thought you had it under control?". No answer. Ben stood up, walked around the car and picked you up before you tried any longer to somehow get out of the car. As he carried you in like a bride, you looked at him from below.

"Don't look at me like that", he grumbled, his voice deeper and rougher than before.

Just as Ben was placing you down on the living room couch, Butcher stormed in with Hughie.

“I almost had him!”, Butcher shouted, ripping off his jacket and carelessly throwing it towards the armchair.

“Almost had it? Are you kidding me?! If I hadn't pushed you away, you would have been cut in half by now!", Hughie scolded back before spotting you and Ben.

"What happened?", he immediately asked in shock, walking towards you. "Fucking perfect! So, no Homelander and no fucking Fishcunt either", Butcher raised his hand, waved off and went into the kitchen to get a beer.

A soft, pained groan escaped you as you slowly sat up. While Hughie's worried gaze was on you, Butcher stared at Ben from the kitchen as he sipped his beer. “The plan didn’t quite work”, you mumbled, but as you answered, you continued to stare at Ben, who maintained your eye contact before straightening up. “She’s fine”, Ben commented. “I'm going to take a shower”, he added and disappeared into the bathroom.

“Oi, what happened?”, Butcher joined you and Hughie and held out a beer to both of you.

“Kevin knew all too quickly that something was off. As he and Ben were fighting, I somehow got in the way”, you lied, looking at your broken wrist. “And the cunt won or what?”, Butcher asked incredulously. “No, but… Ben helped me and Kevin was able to escape”, you mumbled. “Well fucking shit”, Butcher cursed. “Hopefully MM and the others had better luck”.

Butcher didn’t believe a single word you said, but he was still too angry at Hughie and himself to pursue your lies any further.

“You really should see a doctor (y/n)”, Hughie took your injured wrist. “You need a ride?”.

You just shook your head in response. Your nerves were on edge and all you wanted to do was to hide under the covers. "It's not that bad… I… should sleep, my head is buzzing and everything hurts… wake me up when there's news from the others, okay?". Hughie narrowed his eyes briefly before he sighed. “Lie down in my room. At least you’ll have some peace and quiet”. You nodded gratefully at him before disappearing into Hughie’s room.

The next time you opened your eyes it was pitch black. You sat up sluggishly and weakly and took slow steps towards the living room. You feel like you're being run over. Your forehead was beaming, your face was red and your eyes were glassy as you saw Ben on the sofa with a bottle of whiskey. "Where are the others?", You asked quietly, leaning on the armrest of the sofa. "They have A-Train. Trying to get something out of him", he grumbled, still looking at the television. Your legs started shaking and your vision blurred. It felt like your body was burning. “Ben, I think…” You couldn’t even finish your sentence before you collapsed. Ben's quick reaction prevented you from hitting the floor. “Alright, I got you drama queen”, Ben murmured as he caught you.

“Hey, (y/n)”, he tried to wake you up by lightly slapping your cheek a few times

However, when Ben heard your weakening heartbeat, he actually became slightly nervous. He focused on you and your body. A few seconds passed before he heard blood running down inside your upper body.

"Fuck", he cursed loudly. While you were already unconscious, Ben thought about what to do. He fought with himself for a bit, but he knew that no matter what he decided, time was running out.

“It’ll either kill you or it’ll help you”, Ben muttered to himself before taking Butcher’s injection kit and pushed you onto the couch with him.

By now it was a race against time. One of your broken ribs must have punctured your organs and the fact that you were still alive was a miracle.

Ben was sure you wouldn't survive an operation, let alone the drive to a hospital.

As your breathing and heartbeat grew weaker, Ben cut his wrist and collected the blood that dripped from the cut in a mug. Due to his fast healing, it took a few tries before he had enough blood. “Come on (y/n). You can do that”, he whispered hastily, pulling your almost lifeless body onto his lap and sucking up its blood with a syringe. Without further ado, Ben tore your shirt off your body and felt your vena cava with his fingertips. When he felt the strong pulsation, he positioned the tip and hoped for the best as he pushed the needle through your soft skin and pumped his blood into your bloodstream.

If Ben hadn't been so focused on you, he might not have missed how hard his own heart was racing as he waited for his blood to take effect.

“C´mon, Sweetheart”, Ben almost whispered as he held you in his arms, stroking your cheek with his blood-stained fingers. If you died now, it would be his fault. Your life would be over because he would have lost self-control.

He bit his lip nervously, his eyes glued to your face. No one should ever see him like that. He was afraid. Afraid for a small, weak human. Afraid for a fucking woman. What did you do to him to make him soft enough to care about you? To care about anything than himself.

He knew he had to put an end to it all. Soldier Boy couldn't be vulnerable. He couldn't have any weak spot at all.

After a few minutes that felt like hours, you suddenly jumped violently, inhaled sharply, and sat upright on Ben's thigh. Your eyes were big and sparkled blue for a few seconds. Shocked and overwhelmed, you rubbed your chest where you felt a strong tugging sensation. Only then did you notice that you no longer had a shirt on. “What the…” you breathed, confused. Your hand slid to your temple, which was throbbing like it was about to explode.

“How you feeling?", Ben looked at you from the side, his eyebrows furrowed. One of his arms was still around your waist. He was just relieved that you were still breathing.

“I…I think”, you started, but the pulsing of your heart interrupted you. The voices on the TV, Ben's breathing, the sound of his thumb stroking your thigh - it all overstained your thoughts. You pressed your palms against your ears, your face contorted in pain. "Make it stop", you begged. With each beg your voice became shriller, more and more tears ran down your cheeks while Ben looked at you disturbed.

“What should I stop?”.

“The noises!”.

The realization was written all over Ben's face. He looked around, wondering how he should help you, before finally knocking you out with a well-aimed blow to the temple.

“Sleep well, sweetheart”, he chuckled, sliding you onto the sofa so only your head was on his lap and pulling the blanket over you. You had some side effects, but that was probably part of becoming a supe this way.

24 hours.

You were asleep until you were rudely awakened by the sweet roar of Butcher and Soldier Boy.

"I didn't fucking kill her!", Ben growled angrily. “It’s been 24 hours! And (y/n) looks absolutely anything but alive!”, Butcher bitched back.

When the rest of the team came home yesterday and Ben told what he had to do, none of the others believed that he really wanted to save you with his half-hearted and hasty action, but he couldn't admit what he had felt in that moment. Not to himself and especially not to Butcher and the rest of the gang.

“I know what your bloody plan is. You've wanted to make her a supe since you first saw her. You think she would be looser and easier then. That she finally lets you into her panties. But I can promise you mate, it won’t work on (y/n)”, Butcher hissed. Ben laughed bitterly and derogatory. “You’re fucking delusional”.

Ben paused for a moment. Unfortunately, Butcher had a point. It would really be an advantage if you were no longer human. No longer easily breakable. But those weren't the reasons why Ben gave you his blood. Not at that moment.

“She would be dead if I hadn’t given her my fucking blood”, Ben insisted.

“Why the hell was she even hurt in the first place? I assigned her specifically to you because I thought if anyone could protect her, it would be America’s ex-golden boy!”.

“You fucking going to start this again?”, Soldier Boy approached Butcher threateningly and stood in front of him. The two of them were so busy measuring the length of their cocks that they didn't notice you slowly sitting up in Soldier Boy's bed. You could hear everything, but it took a while for not only your head but also your body to come back alive.

“Well, that’s a lot of testosterone for a small country like this”, you whispered in a husky voice, catching the attention of the two alpha monkeys.

“Oi, you’re alive. What a damn nice surprise”.

Even though Butcher was talking to you, half-heartedly asking about your well-being, your eyes were on Ben. It still felt like your brain was swimming in your head, so you attributed the tightness in your chest you felt as you looked at Ben to the side effects of… whatever.

“I’m feeling much better, thanks”, you murmured, continuing to maintain eye contact with Ben.

"What happened? Like… after the mission went terribly wrong".

As Ben lowered his head slightly to look away from you, you looked around the room. You were in Ben's room.

"Well, young lady, the twisted Dracula here can tell you", Butcher clapped Ben's shoulders from behind with both hands before leaving the room without another word, knowing full well that if his hands touched Soldier Boy two more seconds, he would have literally ripped his head off.

“Ben?”, you whispered after a few minutes of silence.

He heard your heartbeat and his switch turned.

"You fainted. I gave you my blood. You're alive”. His voice was as monotonous as his facial expression. You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion before asking. "What do you mean fainted and you gave me your… blood?“.

Ben rolled his eyes dramatically as always. He was so annoyed with this world today and the fact that everyone was so slow to understand anything or always had to question everything.

“You’re not that fucking stupid, are you? Do I really have to explain every little thing to you now?.

Your look probably said more than a thousand words as Ben groaned in annoyance, crossed his arms and explained to you exactly what had happened.

“I injected you my blood to prevent you from dying. Apparently, it worked. You're still breathing", he shrugged.

"Wait. You didn't know if this would work? Are you kidding me?”.

“Do you think one of my hobbies is to distribute my blood like a sperm donor? The last time I provided my DNA to someone, they bred this fucking son of a bitch. So, no. I didn't know if it would work. And yet, I saved your fucking life! How about a fucking thank you?!”, Ben hissed and took a few steps towards you.

“Did you miss the fact that I broke my ribs just because of you?”, you replied, now also with your arms crossed.

You stood facing each other. So close you could feel the warmth radiating from his chest.

“Why did you lose control in the bar?”. You wanted an answer more than anything.

Ben knew the answer to your question. It was on the tip of his tongue. But he knew it wouldn't change anything. And even if…then what? You thought so poorly of him that you didn't even wanted to kiss him. You were so disgusted with him that you never wanted him to touch you. What on fucking earth would make you let him call you his own?

“Uhhh, there's a lot of tension here, mes chéris. You should definitely talk to each other…naked is best”, Frenchie chuckled as he came in to check you were okay.

———————————

A/N: I'm not a supe-doc, so I had to get creative😅

Hmmm, what could happen in the next chapter? Probably not what you expect 🫣

Please let me know what you think.🥰

-

Part 6

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Taglist: @deangirl96, @thatgirljayy, @suckitands33, @deans-spinster-witch

[writerslittlelibrary]

You should make one where Wanda and nat get taken by the snap and it leaves there 14 year old daughter for her to grow up alone, later when they return there surprised to see her grow up at first they dont even recognize her because she turns out to be a cold badass. You can add some angst of her not being able to trust them and so on. But over time there family dynamic falls back but they notice y/n is hiding something because she always disappears and is seen talking on the phone. One night they think they hear talk in y/n’s room so they wait a few hours before they check it out and its y/n being super cute with her gf. she introduce her gf who helped her through the snap.

5 years is a long time

masterlist requests masterlist

pairing: WandaNat x daughter reader

warnings: grieve, loss, pain

genre: angst, fluff

words: 2093

a/n: thank you so much anon for the request. I love the idea and I hope you like it 🫶

You do not have my permission to repost, copy or translate my work 

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Tears. That’s all you remember. The endless crying of that night. Your moms had told you they had to leave for a while to fight an important battle. They told you they would be back. They lied. 

You remember Steve coming to your home. The home you grew up in. The home you three had lived in for your entire life. You were excited when you heard the door open. You thought your moms had returned. They hadn’t.

Steve was standing in the door opening, and the look on his face alone was enough to make you cry. So that’s what you did. For the entire night you did nothing but cry. You couldn’t believe your moms would break their promise. You couldn’t believe your moms would never hold you again. 

Steve had taken you out of your home that night. He said he wanted you to stay with him, so you would be safe. He told you it’s what your moms would’ve wanted, but you had no interest in listening to him. You didn’t sleep that night. What happened wouldn’t leave your brain. You were devastated. 

After a few weeks in the compound, you had started feeling angry. The first few days you felt numb, and you supposed feeling angry was better than that, but in reality it wasn’t.

You would ignore Steve. You wouldn’t eat or take care of yourself. All you could be was angry, and you and Steve fought all the time. After two months, you decided to leave. You were a few weeks away from your fifteenth birthday, and Steve was trying to get you excited for it, but you didn’t want to be.

Usually, you would be so excited you couldn’t sleep, but this time you couldn’t find it in yourself to care. Steve talked about it non-stop, and you just couldn’t take it. What was the point in celebrating your birthday if the most important people wouldn't be there?

That was when you decided to leave. 

You found an apartment in Seattle, wanting to be as far away from the compound as you could. That’s where you lived for the past 5 years. You were 19 now, and your life was different than it was when the snap happened.

You used your training to kill. You found that killing people was the only way to ease your anger, ease your thirst for revenge. 

You weren’t proud of it. How could you? Your moms had taught you how to fight to protect, not hurt. You couldn’t find it in yourself to care, however. Your moms were gone. There was no reason in thinking about what they would or wouldn’t agree with. 

You were currently sitting on your couch, cleaning some of your knives. You had another successful assignment yesterday and you were exhausted. There was a lot of commotion in the world, and your assignments were flooding. It seemed that suddenly everyone wanted each other dead. You didn’t know why, but then again, you didn’t follow the news.

Your thoughts were interrupted by a knock at your door. Besides Charlie, no one knew where you lived, and she wasn’t set to come home for another few days. 

Hesitantly, you opened your door, and you almost broke at the sight. 

In front of you were two people. Two people who you believed you’d never see again. Wanda gasped, clearly shocked by the wounds you carried on your face. Maybe the fact you’d grown 5 years shocked her too. Natasha just stared. She couldn’t believe it. Their little girl was all grown up, but that isn’t what shocked them the most. 

The emptiness in your eyes did. 

Wanda made the first move to hug you, and in your shock you didn’t react. You hadn’t thought this day would ever come, and now it did. 

Natasha seemed to snap out of her shock, moving to embrace you as well. 

They cried. You didn’t.

When they moved into your apartment you were quick to clean the knives from your coffee table. You were afraid of how they would react. You knew they would be disappointed, but you just weren’t ready for a lecture of them yet. 

Natasha and Wanda stayed in your guest room, and much like the night you lost them, you were awake. You couldn’t sleep, and you knew they wouldn’t be able to either.

The next day Natasha and Wanda had convinced you to move back into their apartment. They kept telling you how sorry they were for leaving, and how they wanted to make up for all the years they lost. You agreed, moving back into your childhood home. You didn’t know how you’d react if they ever were to return, but you never expected to feel so… numb.

You had lived together for a few days now, and you had a hard time trusting them. You fought a few times already, mainly with Natasha. You refused to call them mom and mama again. You just couldn’t. Wanda was just trying to be there for you, while Natasha was more set on getting answers.

You were frustrated. You couldn’t provide your moms with any answers. You didn’t have any. 

Last night you and Natasha fought again, and she yelled at you saying she couldn't recognise you anymore. You were lost. You didn’t know how to react.

All those nights you wished your moms would return to you, and wishing things would go back to the way they were. Now you wished things would go back to the way they were after they disappeared. You didn’t want to face them, and living with them again after so many years proved to be much more difficult than you initially thought. 

Most nights you spend in your room, talking to the only person that stayed the same through all of it. 

You spoke to Charlie most nights. She was the only person you had found comfort with all this time. The only person you felt you could trust, and the only person you felt you could be yourself around.

Charlie lost both of her parents in the snap as well, and when you were on an assignment one day to kill a dangerous man, you had found Charlie in one of the rooms in his house.

She was locked up, and she looked sick. You had taken her home with you, caring for her wounds. She didn’t speak much, only thanking you when appropriate. You didn’t mind much. You were happy you could still do some good. You were both 17 at the time, and you grew close quickly. 

Charlie had told you what happened. How she lost her parents and the man had taken her. You offered her to stay with you, and she agreed. You grew closer quickly, and your friendship soon developed into something more. 

Charlie was the only person you cared about. The only person you could be yourself around. The only person you loved through those years. 

Charlie had reminded you of your humanity, and she never scolded you for doing what you did. 

It’s funny, really. All those nights you spend on your own, in the bed of your new apartment, you longed to be laying in your own bed, with your moms downstairs. Now, while you were lying in the bed of your childhood home, with your moms downstairs, you longed for the nights in your own apartment. Spend watching movies and eating cheap take out with Charlie. 

You hadn’t told your moms about Charlie yet. You didn’t know how to. You didn’t know you wanted to.

Your moms were downstairs, discussing your behavior. Wanda was crying. She felt so incredibly hurt by the fact you called her ‘Wanda’ now. She missed the days you called her mommy. When you would come running downstairs all excited because you had a random thought you felt like Wanda should know. 

Her and Natasha were talking about how you seemed so closed off. So cold. How you were always in your room and how it seemed like you were hiding something.

Tonight, while you were on a call with Charlie, Natasha had decided to check on you, wanting to talk to you about their concerns. When she reached your room, she could hear you talking to someone. She decided not to knock on the door, instead opening it to see you lying on your bed, with your back turned to the door. You didn’t notice she was standing there, to captivated by your phone call.

You were giggling, and Natasha wasn’t sure when she last heard you laugh. 

Natasha just stood there, soaking up your happiness. When you ended the phone call, you told Charlie ‘I love you’, which didn’t go unnoticed by Natasha.

When you turned around you were startled, and when you released Natasha was eavesdropping you were upset. 

“I’m sorry,” Natasha told you, and you sighed, sitting up in your bed. Natasha sat at the end of your bed, not wanting to make you uncomfortable by sitting too close. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, it’s just been a while since I’ve seen you laugh.”

“I’m sorry too,” you told her, not wanting to look at her.

“I understand it must’ve been hell for you, and it must have been so confusing, even now we’re back. It’s confusing for us too. A few weeks ago you were our little 14 year old girl, and now you’re all grown up. I’m sorry we don’t know how to help you, and I’m sorry we weren’t there,” Natasha told you with tears in her eyes. 

You sniffled and shook your head. “I’m so sorry. I’ve been a terrible daughter. I was never mad at you. I’m just so angry, and I didn’t know how to handle that,” you explained to her, tears rolling down your cheeks.

Natasha pulled you into a hug, the first you’d had since the night they returned. You cried together, and Wanda, who probably heard the crying, came upstairs and sat next to you on the other side. 

You kept crying, repeating ‘I’m sorry’ until you were so tired you couldn’t keep your eyes open anymore. 

You fell asleep in their arms, and when you woke up, they were still there. 

You had all moved down to the kitchen for breakfast, and for the first time in 5 years, you were eating breakfast together, talking. There was no tension, no crying, no fighting and no yelling. Just talking.

“So who was that girl on the phone yesterday?” Natasha suddenly asked you. 

You looked up at her quickly, surprised with her question. “What?” you asked her confused. “Yesterday you were talking on the phone with a girl. You seemed really happy.” 

You looked at your plate, pushing the leftover fruit around on it. “We’re not mad, just curious,” Wanda told you. “Her name’s Charlie. She’s kinda my girlfriend,” you told your moms hesitantly.

You didn’t look at them, but you felt Wanda scooting her chair closer, engulfing you in a hug. “We’re so happy for you!” she exclaimed, and you relaxed in her arms. “Thanks,” you mumbled. Natasha sat down in the chair on the other side of you, rubbing your back. “Where is she now?” Natasha asked. 

“Still in Seattle. We lived together in that apartment,” you told her, sitting up straight again. 

“We should invite her over, if you want too,” Wanda suggested. You nodded. “I’d like that,” 

Two days later Charlie was standing in front of your door again, and she hugged you tight. “I’ve missed you,” you murmured. She nodded, kissing your forehead. 

When she let you go, she noticed your moms standing behind you. Natasha was the first one to introduce herself, telling her it was nice to meet her. Wanda was next, giving her a small hug. 

You had dinner that night, the four of you, and after finding out you had lived together for 2 years, Wanda suggested she should stay for a while. Charlie agreed, and you couldn’t be happier. The night was ended with movies, you in Charlie’s arms, just like all those other nights. The only difference was your moms sitting next to you, smiling at the wonderful young woman you’d grown into. 

[issdisgrace]

Can I please have Thomas Hewitt x male reader where the reader is also serial killer?(he was a serial killer before he met Thomas)

🔪

MOVED AWAY

WARNINGS: Talks of bullying. use of the f slur, murder

I met Thomas Brown Hewitt when I started working at the local slaughterhouse. He was a big quiet guy that wore a leather mask covering the bottom half of his face. Because of said mask and his quiet nature, he was frequently made fun of, called names, and made the butt of many jokes. But Thomas was a hard worker. He worked harder than any of the low lives that made fun of him. He was always the first one there and the last one to leave. I admired him from a fair for a while until one day the harassing was just so bad and Thomas was just taking it. It had started since those low lives arrived for work today, and now it was well into the afternoon. It was getting on my last nerve and when they started calling him an inbred faggot, something inside of me snapped. I finally said something and let’s just say some words were exchanged and coupled with the fact Ii was similar in height and stature as Thomas, they backed away, clearly not brave enough to face me like true men.

 From then on, me and Thomas started to become friends and good ones at that. He was much smarter than they had given him credit for. And as I grew to know Thomas more, that burning desire that got me here in this shit town was back again. The only reason why I was in this town in the first place was because my little hobby was discovered, but I manage to avoid police and ended up here. The law didn’t take too kindly to people like me, anyway I guess they just don’t enjoy ridding the earth of scum. God where those people that said all those things to Thomas scum. A couple of them had already “moved away.” But there were still some to go, like David Sinclair, one of the biggest piece of shit that made fun of poor Thomas. He “moved away” a yesterday.

Now with every mostly quiet. Me and Thomas were left in peace for the most part. Our relationship was flourishing. It was nice, so nice that today I asked Thomas if he would like to have dinner with me tomorrow as it was both of our day off. He nodded, and we made it a date. It was around 5 when I started getting dinner ready nothing to fancy, just some steak and potatoes. It was around 5:30 when Thomas arrived. He looked nice. You could tell he cleaned up, and he cleaned up nicely. No doubt by his mother??? Luda May that I have been told much about but yet to get the privilege of meeting. I let him in and we made small talk while we ate.

It was halfway through dinner when a thud is heard, then followed by David bolting out of the room, he moved to down the hallway towards the front door. I quickly get up, not paying attention to Thomas any more, grab one of the steak knives and chase after him. Stabbing him in the back before he was even able to make it off the porch. He screamed as I dragged the knife down his back, cutting him open. I got off of him as he started to bleed to death. I sighed as I stood. This was definitely not how I expected my night to go. I look back to the door way there Thomas standing there watch his eyes flicker from David to me.

“Look, I can explain. Trust me.”

The conversation that followed was quiet, along with one. Starting with why I moved to the town in the first place and my hobby. Then to why David was well kidnapped and now dead to the others that “moved away.” It was hard to tell if Thomas was flattered or not, but he didn’t seem bothered by it at all. Not by the murders and, least of all, not bothered by my feelings for him. It was nice to have confirmation that he felt the same way I do about him. It was refreshing, to say the least. I could tell that this would be the starting of a very long relationship. 

[hotxcheeto]

━ 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄

𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜(𝙨) - Ellie Williams x Fem!Reader

𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 - Cursing, smut, oral sex ( r! receiving ), vaginal fingering ( r! receiving ), kissing, making out, hickey's, talk of sex, talk of shitty moms, talk of foster care, mentions and talk of reader and ellie being nervous/having date anxiety, legal alcohol consumption ( they're over 21 ), mentions of drugs ( no actual use ), super fluffy and cute, awkwardness of a second date 

𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 ? - Yeah/Nope/mostly

𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧'𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙚 - SHE'S BACKKKKKKKKKK, I'm so sorry this part took so long I started writing it yesterday because I forgot about this series but she's here, she's queer, and she's smutttyyyyyyy, part 5 is already being worked on ;)))

𝗔𝗨 - Modern !

PREV | NEXT

☾ ONE NIGHT STAND MASTERLIST ☽

PLEASE REBLOG! I NOTICE YOU ALL!! THANK YOU!!

Barely a week had gone by since the shit show of the first date.

So Ellie had took it upon herself to try and fix what had already happened.

But something about this second date was different for both of you. Something had shifted. Whether it was the horrid end to the last one or maybe it was the fact that you would be completely alone with her instead of in public.

Just you two, meaning the only people who could fuck up this chance was yourselves. And neither of your minds let you forget that fact.

To say Ellie as nervous was an understatement.

Her palms were always sweaty, but by God she swore her jeans would have hand prints if she kept wiping away the anxiety onto them.

It wasn't the first date, but the date was at her place. She planned it because the one you'd planned went to shit. Neither of your faults, but she felt she had to make it up.

But now she'd probably ruin it by passing out the moment you stepped through the threshold.

The girl had cleaned her apartment a thousand times. Maybe it'd been more, she'd lost count. Jesse was openly shocked when he'd came to hang out with her two days before, almost positive Ellie had been under the influence from how spotless the usually cluttered place was.

But now Ellie was trying to make it look 'lived in', Dina telling her you'd know as soon as you walked in she'd only cleaned for you.

According to Dina, it was a red flag.

The auburn haired girl found it stupid though, despite listening to the advice and trying her best to make it look natural.

To clean or not to clean. To live, or look like a fucking magazine. What did it matter, if you didn't like her, you didn't like her.

But that's not how it felt, it felt like she was ready to implode every time she even thought of your face. Or how the last date had went, or the fact that you'd be coming to her apartment and be at the door in less then..

"Fuck." She whispered, looking at the time on her phone while she buttoned her shirt up, leaving enough showing to ensure she didn't look like a child trying to wear a school uniform for the first time.

She then rolled the sleeves to her elbows, showing off her tattoo. Soon beginning to start the pacing once more, letting out a few whispers to herself that were filled with encouragement and a shaky tone.

For a moment, she even pondered texting you and telling you that her apartment had spontaneously burned down and that she'd never be able to talk to you again because she was relocating to the most secluded town in Alaska.

But then a knock made her jump, swallowing hard to push back any embarrassing things that might try to crawl out of her throat to fuck with her. Praying the anxious rambling would stay at a minimum.

You waited at the door, rocking back and forth on your heels. Wondering if your outfit was too much, or was it too little? Jeans were enough, right? Or was this too dressy? Should you have decided against flats? But it was an apartment, not a fancy restaurant. You'd probably just take them off anyway.

You didn't get to run away from your thoughts though, the door opening too quickly making you look up with a smile. Trying your best to hide the overthinking.

"Hey." You greeted, voice excited yet soft. Ellie immediately noticing the vanilla scent that practically radiated off of you, like a candy shop. It was comforting, making her relax and her fears calm for just a moment.

"Hey, you look.. amazing." Your smile seemed to get even larger at her compliment, making something inside her flutter. "Here,"

She finally seemed to get a grip, moving to the side to let you in, nearly fainting when you began to look around.

"Your apartment's cute, and you said it was too nerdy." You referenced her texts, stepping forward so that her living room was in sight, looking at the small figurines on her TV stand along with the art on her walls. "I think it's nice."

You turned around as she shut the door, awkwardly standing in the tiny entrance while glancing around, not exactly sure what to do next.

Like you were lost in the middle of the woods, except it was only you two and you'd never met one another. The silence thick for a moments time, suffocating yourself while the sound of her front door lock echoed against the walls.

"Do you want me to take off my shoes?" You broke the quiet first, hating the way it felt on your ears.

"Yeah, if you want. It doesn't really matter." So you did, noticing that she obviously didn't have hers on, instead black socks that went with the rest of her dark outfit.

The entire apartment smelled like faint cologne and another scent you couldn't recognize, you assumed it was her own. Looking at her back as you followed her while she moved away from the door, feeling like a lost child in a new environment.

"Sorry I haven't had anyone over in a long time. Anyone meaning like a date, or... whatever. Yeah, you know what I mean." You grinned, agreeing with her. "Yeah I do. Trust me, it's been a while since I've done anything like this."

On her small coffee table were a few comic books she'd told you about, along with a bottle of wine and two glasses set out and a few other things scattered about neatly.

You sat down, setting your bag on the ground beside you while looking at Ellie. The girl plopping down on the cushion, immediatley grabbing the bottle of alcohol.

"M'gonna be honest, I don't really drink wine but you don't really look like a dark whiskey or scotch type." You giggled, watching her arms flex as she took the cork from the top, pouring the red liquid equally into both of them.

"You drink whiskey?" You asked, ignoring your hot face as you watched her hands grab the glass, handing it to you. "Big fan, Joel mainly got me hooked, he's a bourbon drinker." "By how he sounds, I thought he was a Pink Whitney type." You joked.

Ellie snorted, taking a large drink of the wine while you sipped. Nodding as she pulled it away from her lips.

"Definitely, he's a partier. Gets high on the weekends for fun." You laughed, swirling the alcohol around the glass before drinking some more, hoping it would calm your beating heart.

"The food would be here, but I fucked the order up the first time. Then it said another hour or two like five minutes ago. Dinner rush." She awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck, grinning when you found the statement funny. "It's okay, I'm gonna be honest I thought I was gonna end up super late because I couldn't find my way here, so cheers to that."

You both downed the rest in your cups, Ellie leaning over to pour you some more while also doing the same to hers.

"How's work been?" She asked, the wine bottle clinked as she set it down, meeting your eyes once again. "Boring, besides me and my boss getting into arguments every now and again. He just doesn't understand the demographics these days, he's stuck in the past."

"Old fuck." She muttered, hearing you chuckle while taking a sip. "For sure. Especially with how condescending he is." You rolled your eyes, leaning back as the wine slowly began to relax you.

"How's it been at the shop?" "Oh!" The excitement on her face made you feel the same, laying your head against your knuckles while she set her glass down. "Hold on, I wanted to show you this."

Ellie got up from the couch, walking down a small hallway before disappearing leaving you to enjoy the quiet comfort of her living room.

It was warm, she kept all the big lights off and instead opted for lamps and string lights. The yellow glow reminding you of your own home. You wondered in the moment how Poppy was and if she'd finished her dinner.

You also wondered how long she'd lived alone. And where she'd gotten the pictures she'd hung up that were far from fancy, more like collectable. But they were interesting, especially the few above the TV.

She sounded so shy about her place in writing, almost scared you'd think she was weird. You promised that you would go in judgement free. Besides, it made you feel even more excited to see it, wondering what hers could look like compared to yours.

"New back piece I came up with, guy came in yesterday to get this approved." Ellie appeared in the hallway again, her voice shaking you from your thoughts.

In her hands was a very colorful, thick-looking sketchbook. The couch dipped making you bounce while Ellie flipped through to find what she was looking for.

As she went through, you spotted small sketches of her friends and who you presumed to be Vegas and Joel. There were some others you weren't sure about, a couple sceneries, animals, but then she passed a sketch of Cat, the girl who you'd met on your very failed first date.

A strange feeling entered your stomach, shifting uncomfortably and pretending you hadn't noticed. But you knew that she had known you seen it, choosing not to say a word as she finally found the right drawing.

"It's based off a bunch of scary movies." She let you set your glass down before she handed it to you, allowing you to examine her art while carefully watching your face. "This is amazing. You really drew this?" Slightly stupid question, but it had already came out before you could stop it.

"Yeah, took me forever." Her eyes bounced back and forth between your fingers lightly moving over the pen and pencil marks, and your expressions that subtly shifted here and there.

"That's so cool, especially the ghostface. And I like where you put Sam, Trick 'r Treat is one of the best scary movies ever made. Just saying." You turned to face her, handing her back the sketchbook. Picking up your wine once more and drinking the rest, neither of you noticing how close your bodies had become.

"Thanks." Her cheeks were flushed, a light pink dust that was hard to hide. So instead she grabbed her drink, doing the same thing you'd just done.

"Fuck I'm hungry." You nodded in agreeance, pouring you both a third glass. Thighs bumping while you shifted to sit more comfortably.

"Y'know, you're way too humble about your artwork. That's fucking awesome, and here you talk about your work like you're some amateur." "They're really not that good." You lightly hit her shoulder with your fingers, huffing.

"You're so annoying. Trust me, they are." "Yeah, yeah. How's the book going?" "Ah, changing the conversation, how subtle." Ellie leaned against the back of the couch, playfully swatting her hand at you.

You turned your entire body to the side, facing her, laying your hand on your head while the other held your wine. Raising your eyebrow at her before you decided to instead leave the art talk in the past.

"It's going slow, but writing book is always slow. Unless you're using the power of plagiarism." "Fuck, I used to plagiarize all my essays in high school, if only I had you back then." You scoffed, smiling, "Oh yeah, I was a stellar essay writer. But you would've had to pay."

"What, I wouldn't get a discount?" You shrugged, bringing the rim of the glass to your lips. "Not without something in return." "Oh... I see how it is." "Can't have nothing reduced nor free in this world, Miss Williams. Gotta survive out here."

"Hey, m'not judging." She put her hands up in faux innocence.

"What were you like in high school?" Shrugging, Ellie took in a breath, eyes wide before you both began to chuckle.

"Dork. I was such a dork, and I was a closeted lesbian who had no idea what I was feeling. I dressed like a twelve year old boy on top of that, so I was closeted to... myself? It was pretty fucking obvious."

"Oh God.' You covered your mouth, Ellie hiding her face with her free hand. "Oh my fuck, I can't believe I had friends. On top of that, I was just getting out of foster care." "Geez, that had to have been such a shit time."

She nodded, finishing her drink and moving forward to set it down before returning back to her old position.

"It helped though, when Joel took me in. I had somewhere to go everyday. Going from house to house, family to family, fucked up my shit."

You moved a piece of hair from her face, tucking it behind ear while she talked. Staring forward, and around the room, but not at you.

"We ran into each other a few times before that. I'd fuck with him, make fun of him. He kind of... took me in on accident, like a stray dog, even after I drove him insane. But it helped both of us."

"You guys sound like you have a pretty good relationship."

"It was rocky, for a minute there. Angsty fucking teenage shit. But we're good now, really good."

Her gaze finally settled on yours, spotting the softness in your irises. Trying not to smile to herself when she seen your own small one dancing on your lips.

"What about you?" She watched you take in a deep breath, biting on your lip while looking down.

"My mom is... a piece of work. We're not really the greatest when we're together. She's gotta be the better one in the relationship, the one with the upper hand every time, the one to get the last word. Y'know what I mean?"

Ellie shook her head.

"I went no contact after I turned nineteen, I just couldn't take it anymore. My dad, he understood even if he wasn't the best along the way, they're divorced now, my siblings understood too. But for a while my other family didn't get it. That was until she couldn't target me anymore. Fuckers."

"She sounds..." "Like a bitch?" "Just a tiny bit."

You rubbed your face with your hands, letting them fall into your lap.

"Yep. Mother dearest." "So sweet."

You grabbed the bottle again, filling up both the wine glasses. Taking your own and handing Ellie hers.

"Alright, enough of the sad shit. Truth or drink." Ellie laughed, shaking her head while adjusting her entire body parallel to yours. "What are we? Thirteen?" "Yes, I get to go first."

Ellie motioned to you, a silent 'go ahead' while glancing at her phone that had lit up from a notification.

"Have you ever done any drugs besides weed?" "Yes, not telling what though." You brought your legs up, sitting criss cross on the couch. "Boring. Your turn."

"Are one night stands normal for you?" You made an indescribable noise, shaking your head. "Nope. Not usually. You're one of the firsts. Despite my drunk confidence, you were actually probably only the second or third."

"Well shit, guess I'm special." "Fuck off, my turn."

You thought for a moment, swishing the red drink around and around.

"Do you stay friends with all your exes?" Her mouth dropped while you cackled, taking a drink just to drink while giggling to yourself.

"C'mon, Cat literally introduced herself as your ex. I have to ask!"

"I don't, promise, she's the only one and technically I don't think of her as a friend." "What do you think of her as?" "First of all, that's two questions. And two, an annoying date ruiner." Ellie drank for no particular reason, looking at you with a curious face as your amusement calmed.

"What happened between you and Ava, or whatever the fuck her name was." You choked, looking up at the ceiling as you thought of how to word your response.

"Anya. Just didn't work out, she was about as bad as my mother. But at least my mom leaves me alone now. She also cheated on me, like, a lot." "Fuck, man, that's horrible." "I know right?"

You both seemed to realize you were answering and drinking, taking a sip at the same time while you thought of a question. Biting the inside of your cheek.

"Why do you have a sketch of Cat?"

"Walked myself into that." You nodded, "Yep."

"Forgot I did. That sketchbook is old, I just found it a few weeks ago, wanted to use the rest of the blank pages." "Hmm... bet you were her knight in dull armor."

Ellie flipped you off, grabbing the half empty bottle while then filling the cups, not caring about it being equal or a small amount, it was clear the end of the night was far from over.

"Nah. Got another girl in mind." "Is that so?" "Right, my turn."

Ellie went quiet for a second, her eyes running over your face a thousand times while you just stared back. Letting her come up with her next question.

"Last person you had sex with?"

You didn't hesitate.

"You."

"Oh really?" She whispered.

"Mhm."

"And how was that?"

You shrugged, taking a large drink of the wine.

"Not bad. Would probably do it again, great service."

You hadn't realized that her hand had settled on the knee closest to the back of the couch. Her fingers moving to run up and towards your thigh, you now also realized how close she was, your ability to see every individual freckle on her face seemed to give it away.

"My turn. Last person you had sex with?" Ellie faked thinking for a second, tapping her finger on her cup. "Umm... right, you."

"Really?" "What? Do I give off a different feeling?" You nodded very widely, downing the rest of your wine. "You give me nerdy fuckboy vibes." Ellie coughed a laugh, her grip on your thigh tightening.

"No fucking way." "You bet. It's kind of attractive. Unless you're a fuckboy cheater, and not the fuckboy hot character in a romance novel. That's not attractive." "Right, there's a difference." "Obviously."

You let your fingers run along her knuckles, still feeling her grasp on you. Nails running up and down her wrist. Watching your own movements.

"M'gonna be honest, but only because I'm wine drunk." You were tispy, but when it was wine it was different, everyone knows that. And something about it made you want to tell her, a flirty confidence, something you sure wouldn't have if you were sober.

"You were like one of the best." "Better than Anya?" You snickered, humming. "Yeah, way better. But I dunno, that liquor was a lot stronger than the wine, some of its a little fuzzy."

Her warm palm moved inwards, your own hand ending up on her arm. A tight, pulsing feeling entering the area between your legs making you want to squeeze them shut.

"What? Want me to remind you?"

You moved your shoulders,

"Depends, how much do you want me to remember?"

A second passed, wondering if she'd make a move or if she was waiting for you to do so. But all your questions were quickly answered when she drank the rest from her cup and grabbed yours. Clumsily setting them both on the table before turning back to you.

She grabbed your face, pushing lips against yours so suddenly it pushed you backwards. Your entire being welcoming her in when you kissed back, tasting the berry flavored drink on her tongue paired with the feeling of her soft lips.

"Ellie.." She cut you off, kissing you again, letting your hand run through her hair and undo any style that she had. Nails raking against her scalp when she grinded her hips against yours, a light sound passing your lips.

Her touch was less rough than the first time, her sensual caresses never going unnoticed.

"Marks or no marks?" "Deja vu much?" "I had to ask."

You smiled, letting your thumb run over upturned line of her mouth.

"Whatever you prefer."

She moved back down, kissing even deeper than she had before. Hand cupping your ass while she pushed into you, burying you into the cushions, her other arm keeping her body above yours.

Her lips moving down to your jawline, teeth lightly grazing your flesh as she made her way down to the collar of your shirt.

Ellie's hands then slipped under the bottom of your top, harshly tugging you forward making you laugh, grabbing her shoulders to keep yourself steady.

"Go ahead."

She didn't wait either, pulling it off your body and throwing it off somewhere. Lips meeting the valley of your tits, your bra keeping them perfectly pushed up for her to see.

"You're so fucking pretty.." Your breathy laugh made her smile, moving her knee to the middle of your legs while her mouth met yours again. Her fingers messing with the button of your jeans leading to the sound of the zipper coming undone.

"Sit up for me." You listened, lifting your hips and feeling your pants disappearing in just a swift movement.

"Someone's impatient."

"Fuck, if only you could see yourself." She whispered.

It sent your mind into a frenzy, shy under her watchful eyes that scanned your body, wanting to remember every detail she didn't care to look at the first time.

"I could say the same about you, pretty girl." Her blush darkened, noticing the way you sat up to take your bra off, throwing it away before you grabbed the hem of her shirt just as she did yours.

"Your turn." Silently, the girl ripped her top off, throwing it away. Looking down at your fingers undoing her bottoms, yanking her towards you by the waistband and giving her another kiss.

"Lay back." She muttered, kicking her jeans onto the floor, moving backwards to put herself between your legs. "Please.. please just fuck me." "Since you're asking so nicely."

Fingers hooking around the band of your underwear, slowly dragging them down your thighs, her nails tickling your skin. The sight of your wet cunt drove her insane making her spend no time getting rid of the garment.

Her warm tongue then swirled around your clit, a strangled gasp escaping your throat, your hand slapping over your mouth to keep yourself quiet.

"Oh my God." "Remember that?" She teased, not letting you answer when she sucked roughly on the small bundle of nerves. Moving your hand over your tit, the other threaded itself in her hair.

"Mhm! Oh fuck- Ellie I-" Your legs tried their best to squeeze around her head but she wouldn't let them, pushing your thighs down keeping you perfectly spread for her.

"Fuck you taste good." Ellie removed one of her hands from your thigh, two fingers prodding your hole making you unintentionally let out a loud, girly moan.

"More please.." You squeaked out, but she could barely hear you, seemingly getting the message though when her two fingers dipped inside. Pushing against your favorite spot while reaching deep inside your cunt, kissing your clit as she entered.

"Ellie!" She kissed the inside of your thigh, going back to circling your bud her tongue again.

You swore you were seeing stars, head digging into the couch while your back arched right off the cushions. Your belly tight, legs going numb as your entire body tingled.

Nails digging into her scalp, her arm keeping your hips down by keeping her arm wrapped around your thigh.

She didn't go slow, fingering you as deeply and quickly as her stamina would allow. Fingers running along your gushy walls, and this time she actually got to enjoy it.

Enjoy how you squeezed around her while she slipped a third finger in, sitting up slightly to push her knuckled even deeper. Never letting up, your wet sounds going unheard of by you surely but complained about by her neighbors.

"You close babe?" You nodded profusely. "Uh huh, fuck." She wouldn't slow down though. "You gonna cum?" "Yes- yes- please- oh fuck!"

Your hand moved over your mouth again, keeping your whines to a low volume when you let go, Ellie's hand wrapping around your wrist and tugging it away from your face.

"Oh my God!" You all but screamed, shaking as you came against her tongue, her pace never stopping. Instead her fingers sped up, a loud squelching sound then entering your ears as the fuzzy cotton feeling left your mind.

Coming down, you felt empty when her fingers slipped away, rubbing your clit lightly while her face pulled away. Lips glistening with your cum, her tongue running over them while you watched.

Ellie moved to then kiss the area on your lower belly a few times, moving up to do the same to your lips. It took you a moment to kiss back, brain still scrambled but eventually you did so, grabbing her cheeks to keep her there.

"I..." Your chest moved up and down quickly, Ellie nuzzling the side of your face as you tried to catch your breath. Entire body shaking lightly while your mind raced to run at the same pace as the rest of you.

The silence comforting unlike it was earlier, no longer awkward or shy, it was comfortable. It was becoming familiar to you, you liked it.

You liked it a lot.

The moment was interrupted though, a knock at the door then made you both jump, the girl gripping you close while looking up towards the front door that was out of her sight.

"I'll be right back, okay?" You nodded your head, finally meeting her eyes. "M'kay. I have money-" "I got it."

She kissed you again, running her thumb over your cheek.

"Be right back."

"Are you sure? I can do the tip."

She sat up, pulling her shirt back on as quickly as possible, another knock coming from the door making her yell out.

"I promise, besides, there's always next time."

"That's what you said last time."

"Fuck, that sucks, already got my wallet."

"Oh my God, Ellie."

[gracelaurie]

Falling into your ocean eyes 🌊❤️ | Orm Marius x Fem!Reader

Part 5

Warning : just harsh words, no other warning. The next part would be a real smut

A/N : This is set after the end of the Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom movie. 🥰

for the next part ➡️ masterlist

She put all her clothes in the cupboard into her suitcase. She had to admit, for the past 4 years living without relying on her magic powers had been very difficult.

She has 3 large ones containing her clothes. She works as an accountant in a fairly well-respected company. That made her have quite a lot of money. But yesterday she just officially left her job because she was going to face something new.

She realized that he couldn’t hide forever as an ordinary human being, and that was not her way of life. Her current path in life is with the son of Queen Atlanna and Arthur Curry's half-brother…Orm Marius.

She closed the zipper of his very large suitcase, then took it out of the house.

“Do you want to go now?” Mera asked Y/N while she holding her baby who’s crying more and more. She motioned to her younger-sister to come back into the house for breakfast.

“Yes, I know it's early, but I can buy breakfast on the street.” Y/N replied with a smile.

“Well, I think you want to meet someone…” Y/N heard Arthur's voice say that, then she quickly turned her head.

She saw a man with blonde hair, ocean blue eyes that looked like waves caught in sunlight from the morning sky. His body looks muscular and healthy, and once again for good measure... his eyes look happier than before. A pure happiness. She didn’t see any sadistic or evil King in those eyes. All she saw were calm ocean blue eyes. Calm waves.

Orm wears shirt with a picture of a whale and pants like most surface dwellers. That simple thing made Y/N laugh softly. It’s funny for her to see Orm who now really looks like a surface dweller even though he was previously the evil king of Atlantis and wanted to start a war with the surface.

It’s different now. And she really liked that.

Y/N and Orm simultaneously ran over like children and hugged each other. This was completely beyond his expectations. Orm tucked a strand of Y/N’s brown hair behind her ear then kissed her lips gently.

“Your lips taste the same as in my dream,” said Orm, stopping the kiss.

Y/N smiled, “because it was real.”

“But how?” Orm asked then continued the kiss.

Y/N postponed the kiss and said, “you can never think about it logically. But it was all real. I deliberately made you think that it was just a dream.”

“So you bewitched me 5 times, basically because you really have a huge crush on your Ocean Master?” Orm teased Y/N, then Orm kissed her passionately.

Y/N stopped kissing, “That's not really the main point. I’m even a surface-witch how can I like you that much?” Y/N smiled holding back laughter.

“You may be able to bewitch me very cleverly and play with my mind, but you are not good at lying.” Orm answered. When Y/N tried to deny it and wanted to say something, Orm quickly kissed Y/N so that her mouth was covered with Orm's lips which were full of hunger and desire.

“Okay this is enough.” said Arthur objecting. It turns out they just realized that there were still other people around them.

“Are you coming in for breakfast or…..are you guys leaving straight away?” Arthur said that because he saw his brother's closeness to Mera's very romantic sister. This will seem strange, but there are no specific prohibitions in their relationship. King Nereus and Queen Atlanna themselves even matched them.

“Are you really asking that?” Mera asked with a smile indicating that she knew that Y/N and Orm would soon be spending time together.

Y/N quickly hugged her sister tightly. She felt guilty at the same time. She indirectly became Orm's mistress when Orm was still engaged to Mera. Y/N knows that Orm and Mera don't really love each other, but Y/N still feels that she has betrayed her own sister.

For the past 4 years, Y/N has lived in the same house as Mera on the surface, but the two of them never really talked about Y/N's relationship with Orm, but now it feels like Mera and Orm had forgotten their past events as if the engagement had never happened.

“Take care of yourselves….” said Mera while looking at Y/N and Orm alternately.

“And let us know when you guys ready…” said Arthur teasing them about the wedding plans ordered by Queen Atlanna.

Orm and Y/N simultaneously shook their heads. Y/N said, “Definitely not now.”

“Definitely not.” Orm agreed.

***

The burger they ordered was delivered by the waiter. Orm was impressed by his burger and potatoes. Actually, Y/N is not used to having breakfast directly with heavy food, but to satisfy Orm's curiosity, they had breakfast with burgers and potatoes that morning after leaving Arthur’s house.

“Do you like it?” Y/N asked with a smile.

“Yeah.” Orm said briefly because he was still trying to digest the taste of the burger.

Y/N smiled at Orm who was the first to eat surface food. Again it was really funny to her.

“How do you stay skinny when everyday surface foods are like this?” Orm asked confused, but at the same time he really enjoyed his burger.

“I don't eat food like this all the time. Arthur is like that,” said Y/N smiling faintly, “I eat a balanced food, such as vegetables, fruit and fish.” Y/N said.

“Fish?” Orm raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, you can’t be angry because that is also our staple food. but we don't eat it raw, we usually process it.”

“Process it? How?” Orm asked.

“Well, we are usually fry it, or you can also—“ Y/N's words were cut off when Orm suddenly took the cockroach that was next to Y/N’s hand.

She screamed because she just realized that the cockroach had been beside her all this time. It’s kinda weird because she is literally a powerful witch but still has a huge phobia of cockroaches.

“Why are you screaming?” Orm asked in surprise then put the cockroach into the burger.

“Why the fuck you put that dirty cockroaches in your own burger?” Y/N screamed.

“This is mainland shrimp, right?” Orm asked innocently then chewed the burger containing cockroaches with a crunchy sound.

Y/N held back her disgust and said, “Please don’t tell me Arthur fooled you again?”

“What do you mean?” Orm asked in surprise, and finishing his burger.

“Well actually it's up to you, but some of us surface dwellers are disgusted by cockroaches.”

“Why? You should eat it next time. It’s delicious—“

“No thanks.” Y/N said quickly.

[wordyneonlights]

Strawberry Flavoured Love

Ahahahahah heyyy. I did a rewrite of season 4 episode 5 kind of. purely based on @golden-redhead 's post about five getting a thank you and a genuine hug from his siblings. Sorry if you hate this though, I've never written for tua before!

6 years five months and one day.

Five turned over to see Lila sleeping a smile playing on her lips. This past month, that had been the only time he'd seen her smile. When she was dreaming.

It had been a sort of strange adjustment for her, he supposed. Being stuck so long never sat too well for Lila whether it was as a suburban mom or in this subway hellscape.

Five had adjusted remarkably well to their predicament... Lila had adjusted better than most. He could imagine being down here with someone like Diego who would have broken dowm months if not years ago.

Out of all his siblings, he figured Klaus would be the most enjoyable to spend this time with, him or Viktor.

That being said, Lila had proven to be more than mediocre company. He'd even go as far as to say, she was an almost pleasant person to be around.

She hadn't said a word about his reaction to seeing Dolores after all these years. His outburst had surprised even himself.

She'd just hugged him, wiped his tears and made rat stew. They hadn't talked about it since. He was sure he had to do something to thank her, something to show his appreciation and it found him in the form of a strawberry farm.

"I've got something to show you," he told her once she had woken up

"I'm guessing it's not a portal back home,"

"It's a shower and a bed to sleep in,"

She frowned slightly before eyeing five, "You're not giving up are you? Because I'd hate to do this whole thing on my own,"

Five rolled his eyes, "I'm giving you a chance to shower, trust me you need it." Lila eyed him before shrugging, "Ok then,"

It was about an hour later when they found themselves situated, behind the strawberry plants picking and occasionally eating in silence.

"Grace loves strawberries," Lila whispered softly and five's heart hurt for her. He'd spent more of his life away from his family than with them but he understood how she felt. Helpless but driven, tired but still willing to keep moving.

He turned back to his own strawberry plot, "We'll just have to pack some to take with us," he replied simply, pushing some of his pile to the side and placing them in a makeshift bag before turning to face her, "We're going to be back soon, you will see your family again," he said and she laughed wryly

"You said that yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that,"

"And I'll keep saying it until we get back,"

Lila sighed, and Five shifted on his feet. He suddenly wished that Diego was here. They were going through their troubles but Five sort of applauded his older brother.

They had had an awful blueprint for relationships, and that was putting it lightly. It was surprising but admirable that Diego was able to have a family like that; weirdly, Five was kind of proud of his brother.

"About Diego," he started and Lila frowned before her expression melted into something more wistful. "He's... my brother,"

Lila rolled her eyes, "Oh really?"

"In the sense that he's annoying and rushes into stuff and he can be brash, but he's a good guy,"

"I don’t know Five. It's great being able to see my parents again, being able to know my family? That's something I never even dreamed was possible. And I love my kids ok, I love my kids but marriage? That's- "

"Marriage only works as long as you’re willing to make it work,"

"Yes but-"

"Are you willing to make it work?"

Lila paused, looking down at the strawberries for a while before responding "Yes I am,"

"And so is Diego,"

Lila scoffed a small smile playing on her lips and Five smiled inwardly. He felt strangely accomplished.

"When'd you get so wise about marriage? Huh old man?" She joked elbowing him

"I guess Dolores taught me a few things," Five responded, sorting more strawberries.

"That she did."

-

6 years 5 months and 2 days

There was something beautiful about finally cracking a code. He'd personally never been involved in the world of drugs but Five supposed that this would be what a hit felt like.

Out of this fucking world.

He stumbled over to Lila shaking her, "I've got it!" He said, "I've cracked it we can go home!"

Her eyes opened and she blinked at him blearily, "What?" She muttered

"We're going home," Five responded placing a hand on her shoulder, "You're going to see your kids again"

"Am I dreaming- ow!" She asked before glaring at Five who had punched her hard enough to let her know that this was real.

"C'mon, we don't have much time left,"

"We never have much time left," she muttered getting up.

The walk back was full of tension, on Five's part he wasn't that worried. For his siblings, this had been a couple of hours. Lila however was fretting.

"Do you think they'll remember me? My kids, my family, Diego..."

"It's only been a couple of hours for them remember? They probably think you went out or something, d'you have the strawberries?"

She nodded, wiping her palms on her trousers before walking up to her door.

She was about to put her key in the lock before the door opened revealing Diego.

"Where've you been? I missed you!" He exclaimed and both Lila and Five's eyes widened. Did he somehow know something?

He embraced Lila who was fighting back tears, burying her face in Diego's shoulder.

"I missed you too,"

Five walked inside not trying to get in the middle of their moment. Walking into the living room he caught sight of the rest of his siblings. He hesitated, thinking about the subway. It was probably something he should tell them about.

"You alright Five you look kinda pale," he heard Luther ask

"Doesn't he always look kind of pale?" He heard Allison whisper

"This is a more... haunted pale than his usual pallour," Klaus chimed in

"Guys..."

"Five!" He heard, turning around to see Diego, he was about to say something when Lila noticed Grace and immediately ran to her.

"Mommy, you're squeezing me too tight!" The girl exclaimed to which Lila hugged her even tighter before loosening the hold, "Where are the twins?"

"Kitchen, come on!" Grace responded tugging on her mothers hand.

Five watched the scene unfold a small smile on his face reaching for the strawberries before he felt a hand on his back.

"Lila told me everything, I just... I want to say thank you,"

Five turned to face his brother, nodding but before he could speak, Diego had bent and wrapped his arms around him. "And thank you for everything else you've done. For us I mean, thank you for saving us, thank you for choosing us. We do love you Five, I hope you know that."

Five was (to say the least) shocked. The last time he had hugged any of his siblings was... could he even remember? Not any time in the last six years... or the six years before that.

He reciprocated the hug anyway although he still felt awkward

"You're family," he said, "I'll always choose you,"

Diego just hugged him tighter in response, staying that way for about a minute before pulling apart. Five barely had a moment to breathe before Klaus pulled him into another hug.

"If Diego gets a five hug, I get a five hug," he said simply to which he got a small smile in response

"Well now I feel left out," Luther complained standing up, and looking at Five who rolled his eyes in response before sighing and opening his arms.

Luther, as he would later admit to himself, was probably the best hugger out of all his siblings.

"Alright," he said turning to face the rest of his siblings, "Are we done?"

Allison and Viktor eyed each other before looking at Five. Viktor got up first awkwardly surveying five before wrapping his arms around him.

"Guess that was about as awkward for you as it was for me," he said pulling away

"I've been through worse things," Five mused to which Viktor laughed

"I guess we all have,"

"Well?" Five said facing Allison, "I've got about one left in me,"

"A five hug is the best type of hug," Klaus commented giving Allison a look

"Plus we've all done it, you don't want to feel left out," Luther quipped

Allison sighed before getting up and walking towards five. She bent down and hugged him gingerly.

"I am sorry for everything," she whispered, Five nodded in response and she pulled back.

"Now that everyone's done, Lila and I have something to tell you."

It was strange how six years five months and two days could be condensed into five minutes and about a half bowl of strawberries. Five almost smiled and the strangeness of it.

"It seems like you're always finding your way back to us," Luther mused as the weight of his and Lila's revelation eased slightly.

"I guess it's a good thing, that way we stop the world from ending," Allison said

"Ending huh," Viktor muttered

"Either way, you always end up saving us," Luther finished, "I'm not sure we've ever thanked you for that,"

"Well, staying alive is thanks enough," Five responded

"No, no, the big guy's right," Klaus chimed, "Our thanking should be oratory, expressive. You've saved our lives so many times now,"

"And you spent like forty years in the apocalypse," Viktor said

"Plus six years in the subway with Lila,"

"I think what we're trying to say is thank you," Diego finished

"Merci merci Five-a-rino, I suppose we owe are lives to you," Klaus added.

"Thank you Five," Luther said, squeezing his shoulder.

"Can't promise I won't fuck it up again but thank you," Allison echoed

"If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have been able to get closure with dad so... yeah thank you," Viktor mused giving Five a half smile.

Five himself wasn't really sure what to think about the whole situation. Appreciation was always welcome, but for his siblings to all be in agreement and sincere... that touched his heart somewhat.

"You're welcome," he replied. The statement felt perfunctory in the wake of the others' vulnerability so he cleared his throat and tried again.

"I mean, all this is... I would do it over again. You all aggravate me to no end but at the end of the day there's really nothing that means more to me than you all,"

There wasn't much to say to that, but there was an agreement that nothing more really needed to be said. For once, the siblings were at peace and Five was ... well he was happy.

He wasn't sure what would come next, if there would even be a next but he knew that sitting here he felt more ok than he had in years.

And really, what more could an old man want?

[aninspiringwriter]

"Proper Date" Gn!Reader x Raiden (2/5)

Summery: Y/n and Raiden have a date at the Sun Do festival, and maybe makes it official.

A/N: I cannot wait for yall to read what I worked 1 whole week on.

Part 1: "Injured and Grief"

Word count: 1.2k

Mentions: Kenshi, Johnny cage, Kung Lao

It's been a week since you have gotten injured, luckily Raiden has been by your side since you got hurt.

To ever think about 1 week ago you were in the medical ward with an absolutely horrifying, gaping wound. Raiden's crying and panicking and overall guilt. But now he does seem better, but also so many people have visited you in that 1 week before you can get out the ward, mostly Raiden but also Kung Lao, Johnny Cage, and even Kenshi visited you once. All wishing for your quick recovery and to keep your spirits high… One day, actually, 2 days before you're supposed to leave the medical ward Raiden came to visit, like he usually does.

"Hello Raiden! How lovely to see you again." You say cheerfully, he visited only yesterday yet the nice butterflies in your stomach makes you so happy.

Raiden smiles like he always does, small light pink blush is on his face. "Hello Y/n, how are you today?" Raiden asks, he is hiding something behind his hand, which makes you curious but Raiden pulls your head in for a forehead kiss, he keeps doing it after you accidentally confessed to him while injured and in the ward.

"What are you hiding Raiden?" You ask him, your head and eyes try to look behind Raiden. Raiden chuckles then shows you, it's a long, small box with a note on it. You smile as you stare at Raiden's beautiful smile, his radiant smile makes the butterflies in you flutter more. "It's a present for you, Y/n." Raiden says, sitting down at the edge of the bed as you read the note Raiden wrote by hand.

"Y/n, I hope you heal fast so you can wear this for the festival." 

You look at Raiden before opening the box, it's a beautiful necklace with gems in it. The necklace had your favorite gems, jade, amethyst, and topaz in it, the jade in the middle in a star shape, the amethyst and topaz are in circles and alternating on both sides. You feel happy tears in your eyes, you chuckle as tears fall out of your eyes. "Y/n, are you ok? Is the gift not enough?" Raiden asks you in concern, you close the box and hug him. "The gift is perfect, thank you so much" you start to say, wiping away the happy tears from your eyes. "this must've cost you a fortune to buy!" You say, opening the box to see the beautiful gems on the necklace. Raiden chuckles before pulling you in for a small kiss. You close the box again and leaves it by your side, now the days seem faster. You and Raiden talk about the Sun Do festival. You have never had the time to even go to the festival, but now you can and you and Raiden will be able to have a… a lovely date.

You were finally able to leave the medical ward, and lucky you, carrying the box you see Kung Lao. You and Kung Lao have been friends for a long time, he is one of your most trusted friends.

"Ah Y/n! How are you? I heard you have healed almost fully, and that you are going to the Sun Do festival!" Kung Lao says, his voice very happy that you are doing well. "Hello Kung Lao, I am doing well and… How did you know I am going to the Sun Do festival?" You ask, Kung Lao and you walk around the Wu Shi Academy to your chambers. Along the around 20 minute walk to your chambers, Kung Lao starts a new convo mere minutes after ending one.

"So… You and Raiden, never expected you to fall in love with Raiden." Kung Lao says, chuckling in surprise. "Wha- How do you know?" You asks shocked, your face starts to get hotter as the blush fills your face. "I heard Raiden in his chamber, talking to himself about a date with you, plans for a date, you know? The usual fresh love stuff?" Kung Lao confesses, you are just outside your chamber now and inside. "Bye Kung Lao." You say bluntly before shutting the door to your chamber. Hours pass and you finally find the outfit to match the necklace Raiden got you, and you found the perfect combo, a yellow hairpin to hold some of your hair up and then a yellow fabric belt to hold up the other parts of the outfit. A beautifully made purple shirt, the right side has no sleeve and the left is of a rainbow, beautiful long sleeve. The pants are the same, long, flowy purple pants, the left side a rainbow of patterns and beautiful colors.

You hear a knock at your door, you know the Sun Do festival will be soon so it may be Raiden, all you need to do is put on the necklace and shoes. "In a minute!" You yell to the person outside your door, as you quickly put on your jade color slippers and opens the door to see Raiden there. He is wearing the clothes he usually would wear but… they were fancier and in a nice light blue color, he wasn't wearing his hat like he was hours before and his hair is combed unusually better than usual.

"Wow… you look stunning Y/n." Raiden says, looking at your outfit combo. His face seems to be getting redder, but you drag him into your chamber. "Good, I need help putting on the necklace you bought me, I will be honest with you my love. I cannot get my fingers to keep the necklace on." You say, not even realizing you gave Raiden the nickname 'My Love', but Raiden decides to help out his date. Who wouldn't help out their date? Raiden takes the necklace he bought you and puts it on your neck which perfectly matches your outfit. Raiden then looked at the outfit more and couldn't help himself from kissing your neck… Man his love is severely tender. But then you and Raiden realize the festival is gonna start soon. You kiss and Raiden rush out of your chambers to the festival, and wow have you been missing out on it all your life, you hold Raiden's hand as you and him walk through the festival, and it is truly magical. You and Raiden have delicious food, talk a lot, and walk around. It must have been at least 1 hour until Raiden pulls you close.

"I know somewhere to watch the fireworks." Raiden whispers in your ear, you follow him as you and him just run across a bridge and to a beautiful lake, it's still close to the Sun Do festival but it is still a perfect spot for the firework show. 

You and Raiden sit on the edge of the clear lake and look up at the sky as the fireworks start. "Thank you for this date Raiden." You say as Raiden's hand hugs your side, his hand rubbing your hip. "No problem… it's the least I could do for you…" Raiden says to you in a loving voice, but before he could speak again you interrupted him. "I wanted to ask you something… Something important." You say, your tone makes Raiden nervous. He maybe wasn't prepared for what you are about to say.

"Do you want to… Be my boyfriend?" You say, that small hesitation was of the small chance Raiden maybe didn't want to officially start dating. "Yes…" Raiden says hastily, pulling you in for a kiss. After that sweet kiss you chuckle and touch Raiden's forehead with yours. It was the start of a long and wishful relationship between you and Raiden.

[layraket]

okay finally the most waited post (of mine (maybe)) since yesterday!!! me rambling in a weird/deep way!!!!

first of all we start strong

the Wolfie thing was something that i've been wondering when will be adressed, and when i read the word "wolf" i got nuts

I felt weird here cuz Four just mentioned Time and himself??? im crackling at Leg's face "my guy you forgot someone" now thinking better abt it Legend didn't tell anyone abt the bunny thing appart of Twi and Sky, so it makes sense they not knowing he already found out

It makes sense that he didn't wanted to show his wolf form to them at the start, he can't just go "hey guys look i can turn into a wolf *cool shadow transformation* AUUUUUUUUUU-" and not freak them out.

and i find a little amusing Wind wanting a confirmation, he wants to make sure that now there's not fractures between each other's trust. They still got their secrets, yeah, but he still wanted to at least hear that theyre cool about this one

Twi almost died, and the only reason that he's still breathing is because of them, obviously he will trust them now.

my poor guy has been working so hard, being the emotional support dog in the group together with big brother duty is exhausting

still makes me laugh that nobody really made 2+2 and realised that it was a little suspicious that every time Wolfie was there Twi was patrolling. They really share the name Link huh

Wolves are beautiful but dangerous animals, they are strong and usually agressive to invasors, makes sense to hide something that makes people run away from you. You might be able to defend them, but they will only pay back with scared glances

ohhh i would really love to see this! Wild already knew Twilight, well, future Twilight. He saw the giant dog wandering around and thought "hey i know him thats the strange wolf! hey hiii buddyyy" this guy really

love them trying to explain time shenanigans. keep it up buddy. you know basic math you can do this.

the rest of them talking abt the wolf thing while here my man fighting with the gps

Wild you already established your point calm down

Something that i and a lot of people noticed: Wars seems more relaxed, the past updates he was at the verge of screaming at the void. Now here he is, bothering his brother. Happy Warriors is back!

See the only thing he needed was his emotional support scarf back

if i had a coin every time a character hide their true identity in the zelda series i would have 16 coins, which is a lot considering that i thought it would be just 5 or 6 times what the hell

oh i know that look. He has already an idea of what wars menat with that, he has already experienced the same situation

Four doesn't fully approve the use of shadow magic yet. He remembers someone that because of that lost himself in the power. What if this happends too with Twi? How will they handle that situation? His mind is already too noisy just with thinking it a little

He hopes they will not have to confront the consecuences of dark magic's abuse

i remember that someone said Wolfie looks weaker, and honestly i agree

im not sure if this is the case, but if it is i wouldn't be surprised. He looks thinner, his fur more tangled and less flat

Still fluffy boy, tho

AND NOW. the panels that made me laugh for some weird reason/i liked a lot without any comments of why

art at its peak as always

(art credits goes towards @linkeduniverse as always!)

[zeesodacan]

"I have no clue"

Zee x Reader

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

this one's kinda cringe to be honest, i wrote it for my old td account but oh well!! it's still kinda sweet

i remember this being a request, but i've completely lost the ask, since it was on my old blog

☄. *. ⋆

fluff

word count: 1,575

proofread: yes but i'm tired so i might have skipped over something

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Ever since you got to the island, you'd been a confident and straight forward kind of gal. Whenever Ripper opened his mouth to say anything, you were able to combat his statement and shut him up for 5 minutes. Better than anyone else on the island could, at least.

Most of the other contestants enjoyed your attitude and your willingness to speak your mind. You helped lead your team to victory many times and worked hard.

There were moments when you 'lightly' berated a teammate for slacking off, but there was that one person that you just... let slip under your radar.

Zee.

You hadn't truly realized your feelings for the boy until Bowie said something about it. You two were walking in the forest alongside Emma, as you all had formed a little alliance due to hitting it off on the first day on the island.

"So," Bowie began. "Y/N. You and Zee?"

This caught you off guard, quickly looking over at Bowie. "Ex-Excuse me?" You felt your heartrate pick up and your face go red, your eyebrows furrowed trying to figure out what he meant. "Oh my god, it is true!" Bowie laughed, holding onto Emma. "You so totally like Zee."

"No, I don't!" You objected. Where did he get such a stupid idea from?

"You definitely do." Emma butted in, laughing alongside Bowie. "It's so obvious! You're harsh on everyone but Zee! Even though he's the easiest to be harsh on."

"I mean, just yesterday during the catapult challenge you literally cheered for the guy! We aren't even on the same team as him!" Bowie added on. "You do not do that to anyone else. There's some love goin' on and I'm gonna get to the bottom of it."

"No, you will not. And, if you do, so help me I will beat your ass tenfold." You threatened, staring straight into his eyes. "Ooh, feisty." Bowie snickered, waving you off. "Listen, girl, he totally likes you back. You just gotta, you know, push yourself out there! I know you can do that, at least."

You breathed in and sighed. Maybe… just maybe… Bowie was right.

"I'll... think more about it. Can we drop the subject? Thanks." You pinched the bridge of your nose in an attempt to release the tension building up in your face. “Alright." Bowie shrugged, sneaking a glance over at Emma and smiling.

A few more challenges passed and you'd slowly managed to grow closer with Zee, especially after the merge. It wasn't much, just a simple friendship. To say the others were shocked by this was an understatement. Someone as straightforward and determined as you, friends

with the chill, laid-back Zee? It was unheard of!

Today's challenge Chris said you all had to canoe across a river, walk through a field, climb a mountain, and ring a bell! Easy, right? Wrong. While the challenge had hardly started, you were already being plummeted with jumping salmon! Disgusting.

As the taste of salmon filled your mouth every time you were hit in the face, your canoe was being assaulted by said salmon even more. You hadn't even noticed you started sinking until you felt water on your ankles, causing you to look down and take notice of your canoe flooding.

You tried to keep a calm head, but there was no one in your alliance close by, so you slowly accepted your fate. You could try to swim to shore, but that would only end up in you drowning from the salmon and the extreme waves of the river.

You braced for impact with the water when the canoe flipped, and you desperately held onto what was floating as a last attempt.

Just as you were about to go under, you saw someone’s oar appear in front of you, signaling you to grab on. Immediately you grabbed it and watched as your canoe fell into the river, never to be seen again for hundreds of years...

You looked over to your savior and your eyes widened when you realized who it was. Zee! You smiled at him gratefully as you climbed onto his canoe, sighing.

"You looked like you were in trouble." Zee chuckled, looking over at you.

"Man, those stupid salmon destroyed my canoe. If it hadn't been for you I would have been fish food." You laughed along with him, the familiar feeling of fuzziness appearing in your stomach. “I can't thank you enough."

"Nah, it's nothing, man. Anything for a friend." He smiled at you. Friend. Right.

"Well... let's continue the challenge, alright?" You stated, looking towards the ever-looming fields Chris mentioned.

You both sat in an awkward silence before you made it to the field, noticing there were already a few other contestants ahead of you two. Not a moment later, the ground started shaking, and out poured water from the ground.

"It's a geyser! Sorry, geysers!" You exclaimed, looking all over at the small indentations with holes in the field. "How are we supposed to get through without being blown sky-high?"

"I have an idea,” Zee said nonchalantly before grabbing your wrist and running off into the field.

"Zee, what the hell are you doing?" You yelled, trying to be louder than the geysers exploding behind and in front of you.

"Trust me!" He yelled back. "Just gotta run fast so the water doesn't find you!"

You couldn't help but furrow your eyebrows in confusion. Why your heart chose this man, you had no idea.

After a few more seconds of blindly following Zee, you guys actually made it to the end of the field. You sighed in frustration, knowing this wasn't the end.

Emma had caught up to you two and exchanged glances at you both. She gave you a tiny wink and a grin, which you returned with a glare, before looking back at Zee.

"I gotta admit, Zee. You're way sneakier than I thought."

"I don't know what you mean?" Zee replied, clearly confused.

Emma just responded with a sarcastic "right" before being blown up by a geyser. Karma truly is real in the world.

You looked away for a couple seconds to take a look at the mountain and gaze at its beauty. Nature truly was magnificent when you tried to forget the fact that you were on an island for a few more weeks with a sadistic psychopath for a host.

And yet, you looked back to Zee stuck in a geyser, and you couldn't help but groan as he got flown into the air. At least he was enjoying himself, you thought.

After that, you two got separated for the rest of the challenge. Nothing truly eventful happened to you, other than some small bee stings that were mere minor inconveniences. You pretty much knew you weren't going to win after becoming so far behind with the little canoe incident.

In the end, Julia ended up winning, to your alliance's dismay. That girl really needed to be gone and put in her place. But alas, not today...

In the short time between the end of the challenge and nightfall, signaling the beginning of the elimination ceremony, you decided to talk to Zee.

"Hey, Zee." You caught up to him, apparently today he decided to take a stroll across the beach. He had his signature soda in hand, taking a few sips here and there.

"Oh, Y/N! What's up?" Zee's face brightened when he saw you, smiling.

“I... had something I need to talk to you about." You muttered, taking deep breaths. You fiddled with the hem of your shirt, closing your eyes for a moment. The worst he can say is no.

Suddenly overcome with a wave of confidence, you look him in the eyes and confess these feelings that have left you sick for the past weeks. 

"Zee, I've really been wanting to tell you that... I like you. Like, like like you. It's weird, I don't normally do relationships, y’know? But like, you're the only person that doesn't constantly frustrate me and that I don't have to put in their place like, ever." You took one big deep breath before finishing, "What I'm trying to say is, will you go out with me? Once the show is over?"

You looked back at Zee awaiting an answer, but he just looked at you absolutely dumbstruck. "Zee? Please say something..."

After you said that, a grin appeared on Zee's face, causing you to release some of the tension in your body. "Sure, I mean, yeah!" Zee nodded. "You're super cool and awesome. I'll be honest, I've kinda like you for a while. I didn't realize until Chase told me how obvious it was. Was it obvious?"

"If it was obvious, it wasn't to me. Probably to everyone else, though. I mean, Bowie and Emma figured it out before even myself." You laughed. "It's so weird, being able to just relax around a person. I like it."

"Me too." Zee smiled. "I'll be honest I... don't know much about relationships. Never been in one myself."

"Me neither..." You admitted. "But I suppose we could figure it out together." You smiled up at him, taking his hand in yours.

"Cool." Zee grinned, taking a sip of his soda.

"I've always wondered... What flavor is your soda?

“Like what kind?"

Zee pondered the question for a moment, staring at the can, before looking back at you.

"I have no clue."

[sawrinwrites]

March Content Plans (Long Update)

As it is now the 25th here in frosty England, it has officially been 2 months since I published my first piece of fan fiction. In that time, I've released:

A one-shot containing my first ever attempt at both monster smut and an explicit F/F sex scene (which is currently my most popular work????)

A low angst (I know, I can't believe it either) romantic one-shot from the POV of a golden retriever

4 chapters of an emotionally intense story that is so far from my usual writing style I have to re-read earlier chapters to remind myself how to write it (a deliberate stylistic choice but boy, am I paying for it)

3 chapters of what was meant to be a fun side project and is quickly turning into something deep and dark and wonderful in its own right

All in all, that's 4 bodies of work spanning 57.7k words released over a period of 9 weeks (not including the 15-20k which got rewritten / replaced / outright cut). Which is, for me, insane. It's also a pace that I won't be able to maintain going forward, so for the sake of setting expectations (my own, more than anyone else's), here's the current plan for March:

The Monsters At My Side And In My Shadow Ch 1-3 update Given that this has gone from "werewolf smut hiding in a multi-chapter fic" to "multi-fic exploration of abuse with a healthy dollop of smut", I want to revise what's already been released to better align with what I have going forward. There won't be any plot / event changes, scenes that get altered will be getting either an expansion or a rewrite, depending on the work needed (which will include adding more smut-adjacent content because it's currently lacking and I want it to be better).

Untitled - An Ember POV Story to Celebrate 1yr Since The Bees Kissed (March 25th) @reeves3 put the idea in my head and now I have a collection of outlines covering various points in Yang and Blake's relationship all told from the perspective of the Best Girl. They won't come out in chronological order as I'm looking to line them up with various events, but the current plan is that March 25th will cover the introduction of a new member into the Xiao Long-Belladonna pack.

Additionally, I'd like to release the following chapters but I am forcing myself to accept that these will likely get bumped to April:

The Monsters At My Side And In My Shadow Ch 4

Shattered Divinity Ch 5

There's a few reasons for the (temporary) slowdown in content:

I am supposed to draft 1 - 3 OC novels this year (the mistake of mixing alcohol with an empty resolutions boards and the word "bet") and I need to dedicate more time than I have done to those projects to have any hope of doing that.

Rather than wait for the fan fic writer's curse to hit, I've gone and done it to myself by buying my first house. The offer got accepted yesterday, so now I have to deal with the joys of legal and financial paperwork. And start prepping for a move. And every other stressful time consuming thing that comes from this period. Don't get me wrong, I am fucking ecstatic, not least because it means me having an actual bedroom for the first time in almost 4 years, but the next steps are going to take a chunk out of my usual writing time.

@kaelidascope is about to drop a veritable feast of content. Look, I'm not subtle about how much I enjoy her work. She's my favourite fan fic writer. She's probably one of my favourite writers period on account of the emotional damage and veritable joy Mightnight Menagerie has brought me. And I'm not just saying this because she's been exceptionally complimentary of my own work (which, by the way, I am still freaking out over). She is one of the main reasons I started writing fan fiction. If it wasn't for the original Beestfic, I'd never have written The Hunt. Which means I'd never have had the concept ideas that initially led to starting The Monsters At My Side And In My Shadow, and without that fic, I wouldn't have had the 3 experimental scenes between Yang and her grimm which ended up inspiring the idea to write Best Laid Plans from Ember's POV. So I will be setting aside some time (translation: every waking moment I have during release weekend) to thoroughly immerse myself in the relaunch. Also there's two Menagerie chapters due and the previews are already threatening my analytics brain and unfortunately it takes time to launch that kind of assault on AO3's comment section.

So yeah. A few things going on in March. I'm gonna try and do this as a rolling monthly thing going forward in lieu of trying to have a timed release schedule. Hopefully the April one will be a bit lot shorter.

[mysterious-moonstruck-musings]

Destiny & Deliverance Chapter 4

Destiny & Deliverance Masterlist ||| Dieter Bravo X OFC

SUPPORT YOUR CREATORS. REBLOGGING & COMMENTS ARE APPRECIATED.

Series Rating: Explicit (18+)

Series Summary: Natalia Cohen is experiencing major life changes, beginning with leaving an emotionally abusive husband. She is learning how to navigate life on her own while dealing with high functioning anxiety, depression, and mild PTSD. Everything is looking up for her. She is a highly respected consultant for a major LA firm, has her best friend, Lauren, by her side, and is on her path to healing. Everything changes when she meets a handsome and broken stranger on a work trip. He turns out to be a well-known actor, with a heart-breaking past. They quickly develop a connection that will forever alter their lives. 

Warnings: Themes dealing with mental health, emotional trauma, alcohol use, and discussions about suicide. There will be fluff, tears, spicy language, and smut. This will be a slow burn type of story. Read at your own risk.

Chapter Quote: “This must be the ‘fucking scary’ side that I heard about.”

I awoke to my neighbor’s alarm going off, again. I didn’t want my Tuesday to start like this. I was annoyed, but it really wasn’t even that loud. A normal person would probably sleep through it. I laid there attempting to go back to sleep. It went off again twenty minutes later. Seriously, what is the point of hitting the snooze button? Just get up already and be done with it. 

I rolled over and grabbed my phone to do a quick email check. I had an email from Aubry saying she hoped my trip was going well. Nothing else. She was phishing for information. I hit reply and typed out, “It’s fantastic.” then hit send. She was going to love that. I was giving her nothing.

I sat there for a moment wondering if Dieter had social media. This is a slippery slope, I thought. Then I opened Instagram anyway and found him. It was a verified public account, so I’m not sure what I expected to find. There was a lot of promotional stuff for his movies and shows. Some pictures from his travels. Typical celebrity stuff most likely. The latest post was an advertisement for a talk show that was happening this morning. I went to the search bar and entered his name in. Tons of images came up. Pictures of him out with friends. Paparazzi images of him walking around LA. I actually felt kind of bad for the guy. He couldn’t even walk down the street without someone shoving a camera in his face. 

The alarm next door went off again ten minutes later. I huffed and threw my phone down on the bed. I decided to get up and start my day. My morning started the same as yesterday’s, minus the encounter with Dieter. Joe was waiting for me with coffee and a blueberry scone at 7AM. Megan met me outside the building when I arrived. She shared a funny story about her dog on the way up to the office. I felt like she was slowly warming up to me. 

I spent the entire day doing observations and meeting with different staff members to ask questions. My lunch break was quick. I scarfed down the chicken alfredo that Megan had ordered, then immediately got back to work. I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of information that was coming in. I was starting to worry that maybe I wouldn’t be able to get through everything before the end of the week and I still hadn’t come across any obvious red flags. I was concerned that I had missed something. That familiar feeling of anxiety was really starting to kick in by the end of the day. I, of course, did not let it show. I was also feeling pretty exhausted. I thought about taking it easy on the workload this evening at the hotel. Maybe even try to go to bed a little earlier.  

When 5 PM hit, I was ready to get out of there. I was peopled out for the day. Talking to people could be so mentally and physically exhausting for me since I tend to be more introverted. These were always my worst days. I would much rather be locked in a room reviewing data.  

I walked out to meet Joe. He greeted me with a smile and again asked if I needed to make any stops before the hotel. I declined and slumped down into the seat. He didn’t try for any chit chat today. I think he could tell I was worn out. He just let me be. We pulled up in front of the hotel and he opened the door to let me out. He told me to have a good evening and he would be here at his usual time in the morning. I nodded my thanks and gave him a small smile. 

I slowly walked into the hotel entrance debating on if I wanted to post up downstairs again while I had dinner or go back to my room and just eat junk food. I stopped in front of the restaurant and looked in. Not a soul in sight, except for Tim the bartender. He saw me, pulled out a wine glass, and started pouring whatever it was he gave me yesterday. I walked in and smiled thanking him as I took it to my back corner booth. He followed behind me. 

“Tough day?” he asked. 

“Not tough. Just long and I still have more to do.”

“Are we having a steady flow of wine and appetizers tonight?” he asked with a sympathetic look on his face.  

“Why not.” I said as I shrugged. He laughed and walked back to put in my order. 

I started pulling out all of my stuff and got to work reviewing more documents. It was an hour and a half later and a glass and a half of wine in when a voice asking to join me snapped me out of my intense focus. It was Dieter. I knew it as soon as I heard his voice. I looked up and he gave me that big, brilliant smile that made me want to melt. I smiled back, “Of course, have a seat!” 

“I hope I’m not distracting you from your work. I can go somewhere else if I need to.”

“No! Not at all. Actually, I think I could use a distraction right now. I need a break. I told myself I was going to take it easy tonight, yet here I am.” I gestured to my stuff spread out on the table and gave an exasperated laugh. 

“Well, if you insist on a distraction…” he chuckled as he sat down in the curved booth, rather closely on my right side. I could feel the heat from his body due to his proximity. It was a miracle that I could focus on anything else. 

“So, how’s it going? Have you uncovered the big secret yet?” he asked with what seemed like genuine interest. 

I sighed heavily, “No, not at all. I have suspicions, but nothing to back it up so far. I’m hopeful I’ll find something tomorrow when I really start digging into their data and tech stuff. I’m starting to get a little worried there may be nothing. Which, if that’s the case, it is what it is. The CEO doesn’t have any definitive proof of anything going on, he just suspects. I didn’t want details on the who or why yet. I don’t want any potential bias to affect what I am doing.”

“I am sure you’ll figure it out. You seem pretty intelligent.” he said as he gently bumped his shoulder against mine. I felt hot suddenly.

“Wha…what about you? Have you heard back about the audition or whatever it was you were anxious about?” I stuttered out. 

“I haven’t. I think I should probably hear something tomorrow. I know they’ve inquired about my filming schedule, so that could be a good sign.” 

“That’s awesome. Hopefully you’ll have something to celebrate tomorrow.”

Bartender Tim came over to take Dieter’s order. He ordered a beer and asked what I was having. 

“I am partaking in endless appetizers and wine tonight. Feel free to have some of whatever I get surprised with next.” Dieter knitted his eyebrows together and started laughing at me. He looked back at bartender Tim and said, “Yeah, bring extra of whatever you're bringing her. We can split it. I’m down for a little appetizer roulette.” Bartender Tim sniggered at us and walked off. 

“Bartender Tim and I have become BFFs already. He’s making sure I’m taken care of.” I said as I raised my wine glass as if to give a toast, then finished it off. 

“How much of that have you had?” Dieter asked. 

“Why? Do I sound drunk already? This is just my second glass. Trust me, I can tolerate more.” He chuckled. 

“I don’t know about drunk, but you’re definitely amusing yourself. How long were you down here yesterday? I saw you as I was leaving.”

“A while..and you didn’t say hi? I feel insulted.” I said jokingly and lightly pushed on his shoulder. For fuck’s sake, I was flirting. I should stop drinking. It’s going to get me in trouble. 

Bartender Tim came back with Dieter’s beer, cheese sticks and jalapeno poppers, more wine, and a glass of water for me. I didn’t even ask for the water. I think he was just doing me a solid before I got sloppy. 

Dieter continued our conversation, “I actually wanted to pop in and say hi, but I was running late. As usual. A fucking disaster as you say. There just isn’t enough time in the day sometimes.”

My phone buzzed. Lauren always had impeccable timing. I tried to ignore it, but it kept buzzing. I looked at him and said sorry as I picked up my phone.

LAUREN: What are you doing? 

LAUREN: I haven’t heard from you much. You need to take a break and call me.

LAUREN: I’m bored. 

LAUREN: What do you want to do for our girl’s day when you get back? Maybe a spa day? 

LAUREN: You DO need to learn how to relax occasionally. 

I rolled my eyes at her. She always did this when she was bored. Normally I found it to be hilarious, but I didn’t have time for that right now. I hit reply. 

ME: I can’t talk right now. 

LAUREN: Why? Are you being held hostage? 

LAUREN: If it’s because of work, then yes you can. Take a break already.

ME: I’m busy. 

LAUREN: Are you ok? These are weird responses for you. 

LAUREN: Waaaaaaaait. Are you with the hottie? 

LAUREN: You better tell me if you are. You know you can’t lie to me. 

Dieter was giving me the side eye. 

“I’m sorry. It’s my best friend. She is being needy and ridiculous right now.” He gave me a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “That’s fine. No biggie.” I started typing out a response. 

ME: Ok, yes. I am. We will talk later. 

LAUREN: Hell yes! Get it GUUURL!

ME: Stop it. Bye. 

I set my phone back down on the table. “Everything ok?” he asked. 

“Yeah, she’s just bored. She gives me hell for working too much. She tends to be a bundle of energy, so she starts about five different conversations before I can get the first response in.” He laughed at my description of her. 

“I can’t fuss about her too much. She’s been amazing the last few months. Helping me with things and all the drama I’ve been dealing with.” I said without thinking. Hopefully he didn’t ask me to elaborate.  

“Drama?” he asked. I gave him a contemplative look. Ok, I guess we are going there, I thought. Without thinking, I put my right hand up to my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.  

“I’ve been going through a divorce. He was an asshole and a cheater. I put up with it way longer than I should have. He really messed me up, but it’s done now. Hopefully I’ll never see him again.” I looked down at my glass of wine, expressionless and unblinking. Dieter reached over and grabbed my right hand away from my shoulder, breaking my thoughts. He sat it on the table and gave it a squeeze. I looked up at him and our eyes locked. I could feel my heart almost beating out of my chest. 

“No one deserves to be treated like that. Karma is a bitch. It’ll bite him back one day. He’ll never be happy and live a miserable existence.” 

He said it with conviction. At that moment, I felt like he was looking into my soul with his dark eyes. I could see the sadness hidden there again. It made me wonder if someone had hurt him in the past. He slowly let go of my hand.   

I let out a measured breath, “I certainly hope so. Who knows, maybe one day karma may come in the form of slashed tires and sugar in the gas tank of his fancy car,” I said casually. I was attempting humor to lighten the mood. He took the bait and started laughing at me. 

“This must be the ‘fucking scary’ side that I heard about,” he said through his laughs. 

“Welcome to the show, I’ll be here all week.”

Thankfully that did lighten the mood. We spent two and a half hours chatting, eating, and drinking. The conversation and laughter never stopped. His fun and boisterous side was more evident now than our previous encounters. He had a hilarious sense of humor and even a touch of dark humor that I could appreciate. The small touches continued. He would lean into me and lay his forehead on my shoulder when he laughed. I had seen pictures of him with his friends appearing to do the same thing, so I couldn’t tell if this is just the way he was with people or if he was being flirty. He was very hard to read. I did, however, feel very at ease with him. My anxiety was non-existent once we got past the initial awkwardness. He seemed to be more at ease as well. 

Around 10 PM we decided to call it a night since we both had an early start. I slowly stood up and started packing all my stuff that had been scooted to the other side of the table as he handed it over to me. I was still slightly tipsy.  

“So…” he started to say, then gave a long pause. I stopped what I was doing and looked down at him. “Is it possible that I might run into you down here tomorrow evening? I should be done kind of early.” He looked down at the nearly empty glass in front of him and started lightly tapping on the table with his index finger. He was clearly nervous to ask. He kept his head lowered but looked up at me through his lashes while he bit his lip. Was he trying to give me a heart attack? My mind momentarily wandered to me biting that lip. I shook my head. What the hell was my problem? I suddenly felt embarrassed, like he could read my thoughts. I finally pulled it together enough to respond.

“It’s a very good possibility. We do have to celebrate tomorrow after all.” 

He gave me a questioning look. 

“We’ll be celebrating you getting that role. I have a good feeling about it.”

He gave me a huge smile and said, “Please don’t jinx it” as he got up out of the booth. 

We walked over to the elevator and got on. 

“Which floor?” he asked as he hit the number “9”. I froze and looked at him, slightly confused. 

“What?”

“Are you on the 9th floor?”

“Yeah, why?”

The doors slid shut and I started laughing hysterically. Immediately thinking of Lauren talking about all the destiny garbage. This was getting comical. 

“What’s so funny?” he said with a very confused look on his face. 

“Nothing. It’s just that we’re on the same floor.” He kind of laughed too. The door slid open, and we both stepped off of the elevator. We stopped, awkwardly standing in the middle of the hallway. I had a gut feeling, and I wasn’t sure if I could handle the answer, but I asked anyway. 

“Which room is yours?”

“The second to the end on the left side.” 

I absolutely lost it and doubled over in laughter. “You’re the snooze guy!” I said through my laughter. He stared at me wide eyed and confused. 

I finally got it together and had to wipe tears from my eyes. It was absolutely absurd at this point. 

“Just so you know, I’ve been internally cursing you every morning because I can hear your alarm every time it goes off.”

“You can hear that?” he said in disbelief. 

“Yes, I can. I’m pretty sure our beds share a wall.”

He looked slightly embarrassed for a minute, but then started laughing too. We began walking toward our doors, both still laughing and shaking our heads. We said our goodnights and keyed into our respective suites. Our eyes lingered on each other as we walked through the doors. 

I walked into my suite and shut the door in utter disbelief. There is no way this is actually happening. I threw my stuff down on the couch in the sitting area and dug my phone out of my bag to text Lauren.

ME: You’re never going to believe this. 

LAUREN: Well, hello to you too, jerk. I’ve been waiting to hear from you.

My phone started ringing. She wasted no time calling me. I answered, acutely aware that he was right next door. I was paranoid he could hear me. I stayed on the opposite end of the suite, pacing and talking in a hushed voice. 

“Well? What’s the big news? Did you finally get laid?” Lauren said sarcastically.  

“What?! No. Shut up. I am dying right now. His room literally shares a wall with mine. He’s next door. It’s his alarm that's been waking me up the last two mornings.” 

She was quiet for what seemed like forever. Then there was a burst of laughter. 

“You absolutely cannot make this stuff up,” she said through her maniacal guffaws. 

“So, are you going to tell me what you’ve been doing all this time? I need details.”

“Not many details to be had. We’ve been downstairs at the restaurant talking. We realized our rooms were next to each other after we called it a night. We both laughed about it.” 

“That’s all I get? Really?”

“Yes.”

“You. Suck.”

“I’m sorry, I just don’t want to read into anything that’s not there. I know if I tell you, we’ll both be doing that. Honestly, I think he’s lonely and just wants someone to hang out with who isn’t fawning over who he is.”  

“Wait, so does he know that you know who he is?”

“No. I haven’t said anything.” 

“Don’t you think maybe you should?”

“Yeah, maybe. I don’t want him to think I was looking him up though.”

“Good point. Maybe it’ll come up naturally next time you see him. Assuming you do.” 

I was quiet. I wasn’t sure if I should tell her we had already discussed dinner tomorrow. 

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Oh my gosh, fine. He’s going to be done early tomorrow, so we’re going to meet for dinner again.”

“Oh. Yeah. There is totally nothing to this,” she said sarcastically.

“That’s it. I’ve got to go. I’m tired. Bye. Goodnight.” 

“Let me know how tomorrow goes!” I heard her yelling as I hung up.  

I got ready for bed. After laying there in the dark for what seemed like forever, I reached for my phone and searched his name again. There were so many pictures and videos of him out with his friends. There were also a lot of him with people he worked with and at events. Nothing recent romantically linking him to any girls though. I skimmed comments on the pictures. On several, there were people arguing about his relationship status and preferences. Poor guy, no wonder he wasn’t dating anyone. The general public and paparazzi were all up in his business.  I heard the faint sound of a TV click on, next door. It seems Dieter was having trouble sleeping too. It was nearing midnight, and I was still wide awake. Knowing that he was just on the other side of the wall was kind of driving me crazy. I could feel the magnetic pull, drawing me to him. I decided I was going to get up and take some melatonin in hopes that would knock me out. About 30 minutes later, I finally drifted off into another restless sleep. 

A/N: Things really start heating up between our dear Dieter and Talia in the next chapter. I promise, it’s coming soon. 😉

Next Chapter

[shion-yu]

just talking to absolutely no one really here but felt like I should have it somewhere floating around as it came up on discord yesterday: my personal thoughts about having minor whump (teenage characters, childhood flashbacks) in my sickfics/the stuff I reblog

I don't personally find whump inherently sexual. I wouldn't say it's something kinky for me, nor do I find sickfics in general sexual. I just really enjoy them and they make me happy like I sorta imagine ASMR does it for some people? and that's been true my entire life.

that's why I feel comfortable having minor whump on my blog, and that's a personal preference only. I tag stories even when the characters are 17 as minor whump to be respectful, but it's not like I have a thing about writing kids being beat up or something. I like writing a full lifetime story for my characters including their possibly traumatic childhoods. like... nobody's tagging One Piece or Harry Potter fan fiction as "minor whump" but it is, right? if you're not comfortable having characters that are under 18 anywhere near your own blog, cool. but when I started this blog I had no followers for a long ass time so I made no differentiation between my personal enjoyment (95% of what I post/rb) and stuff that makes me horny (maybe like 5%). as it stands today the only stories of mine that broach the category of "kink" would be the Shu/Julian sick love verse stories which of course includes no minors (I feel like I shouldn't need to say this but nothing that includes minors is to me/should be!). that being said I've ALWAYS had this as an 18+/NSFW labeled blog to be safe, but that doesn't mean all or even most of the stuff is remotely sexual content and of course I can differentiate the things that are. I just wanted to clarify if literally anybody ever wondered or cared, which I doubt but hey, it's a blog, you're supposed to be able to shout your thoughts into the void right?

if anybody bothered reading this I'm interested in hearing your thoughts too. for example one person told me they only allow exclusively kink blogs to follow them simply because they themselves find the stuff sexual, not because the work inherently is. and I think that's actually a very conscious thing to do! but for me that's not the case so I think it's okay...

[gargelyfloof118]

The Tale of Yesterday: A Saga in Most of Its Parts.

To start, I don't have the best luck with my vehicles. I tend to break things or just be the common theme among things that break. I have had 4 spark plugs blow, a gas pump die, a leaf spring pop, tread on my tire shred off, been hit by a cop, hit by a plumbing truck, the AC fail in the summer in Texas, among a smattering of other things that were simple to fix or cosmetic. We've been down to one vehicle since before school was out due to a failed starter.

Grandma offered to take a kid on Friday and asked for some eggs. My friend (let's call her A) wanted some eggs. All things I can take care of in one round!

I hauled the kid up, gave Grandma the eggs she wanted, and headed down to my friend's house. I decided to take back roads, thinking it would take me more directly to her house and I could have some much needed down time to myself at the same time. Two birds, one stone.

This particular back road is full of hastily patched pot holes. This particular back road has turns that could rival an A5 race track. I don't know if it was a factor, but I wouldn't be surprised.

I was about a mile from A's house when I heard it. The distinctive clank of something metal bouncing along behind the truck.

Eek! Pull over! What is that??? WHAT IS THAT?? Aw crap... that's not safe.

I get moving, going more gently than before and wincing at every clang. Call Hubs. "Hey, uh yeah, I know you want me home sooner than later, but something fell off the truck and is bouncing along under it. I'm leaving the truck at A's house. I'm sure she will take me home but I need to call her." Call A. "Hey, uh.. I need to leave my truck with you, can you take me home?" And she starts laughing.

She starts laughing for 2 reasons.

1. Her husband (who we will call J) is a mechanic. He does a lot of sidework to help out the family and this sort of thing happens often. He's our go-to mechanic and we are often over at their house. (Like I said, I don't have great luck with vehicles)

2. She had a friend just the night before in a similar situation. Apparently, A went out to book club the day before and her friend bought her home. On the way back, they hear a thud and then metal clanging. Her friend's car dropped its muffler.

So A goes "Did your muffler fall off?" "I think so?" "Is it a long tuby thingy?" "Yeah" "Just park it next to my friend's car, we will have matching pair" I'm trying not to laugh while she's saying this. What are the odds?? Two dropped mufflers within 24 hours! Both on the way to her house?!

I get there, park, take a picture for Hubs, put her eggs on the porch, and she takes me home in a fit of giggles.

I had to then call my mother-in-law and give her the news. "Hey... I need to ask you to do something that you might not like... can you bring the kid home?"

I explained what was going on. We have no vehicle. I, currently, have no way to come get my child. Can you bring him home?

She's not entirely comfortable with the idea. (Understandable) She doesn't have a carseat and hasn't had to drive the kids anywhere before. She might just keep him overnight. We will keep in touch.

Hubs got in touch with our neighbor (the same neighbor who has 2 horses in our pasture) and asked if we could borrow a car just in case. Of course!! Neighbor jumped on it so fast we had a spare car in 5 seconds flat! He's awesome! I was able to go get the kid and get him home. Grandma didn't need to do it, which I could see really made her shoulders relax. She's a good driver, but she was worried.

J decided it was easier to fix the starter in the Jeep than it would be to work on the truck. He came over after dinner and worked on it in our driveway.

Starter works now, but the battery is dead. Neighbor brought over a trickle charger and a jump box to help out. We figured out the battery has a fault and we need to replace it. Neighbor left his car so we could continue to use it. Hubs is supposed to go this morning, but isn't up yet.

On all these parts, I am extremely lucky that everything happened when it did. My child was somewhere safe. I wasn't in a rush to get back to him, and it wasn't necessary that I get him at a certain time. I was very close to my mechanic's place AND his wife was there to take me home. My wonderful neighbor was willing and able to lend a car. Even when I called Hubs to let him know what was going on, I didn't interrupt an important business call. It might not seem like a comedy from the outside, but everything landed so absurdly perfectly that all I could do was laugh the entire day. How odd a day it was.

[meimi-haneoka]

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Chapter 70: Comments + JP-ENG translation differences

CCS FANS!

It's here, finally!! My post for this chapter took so long and I'm sorry for it but man....the mess they made with the releases AND the content of the chapter certain didn't help with the writing and posting of this commentary!! 😅 I haven't been able to focus for most of today and yesterday, took some time to elaborate....man, I KNEW chapter 70 was going to be special because it's a round number and because it's going to be (at this point almost certainly) the last chapter of volume 14, but was I prepared for this storm of feels? No, I really wasn’t. I think no matter how much I would’ve tried to prepare myself, I would still be in the mess I am right now. 😂 After all, I love Kaito very much. And I think I can say with confidence I wasn’t the only one, I pretty much saw everyone around me being completely shocked by what happened, as it was mostly unexpected (some people knew and actually believed in this outcome till the very end, and my love and greatest appreciation goes to them – you know who you are) Therefore, you’ll forgive me if this post will be particularly long, but I feel like I need to analyze a lot of things and I would like to include them in my analysis of the script and translation. This chapter has been focused on Kaito for a good half of it, but due to the magnitude of the revelations, it felt like it's mostly about him. It's ok, these things needed to be addressed at some point. This month we had few translation mistakes, but quite annoying, especially about a translation that ended up suggesting an incorrect interpretation of what happened in the chapter, so I definitely suggest to check it out! Let’s start with the usual tradition that I hope to include till the very end, the gif of the month!

And now, follow me under the cut to find out why chapter 70 shocked everyone!

The Color page

What a pretty Sakura in kimono!! Yes, she’s sad, probably the saddest and melancholic she’s ever been in the color pages of Cardcaptor Sakura, but she looks...so mature, so grown up, I can’t help but think about how beautiful she looks. I know this color page made many people worry when it appeared online before the actual chapter was released, but in the end we found out that the sadness of this chapter isn’t directed at her at all. The JP text here says “Exchange, the Card that was born out of Sakura's wish. With the [magic] that is here, one story ends and begins”

The Two Alice

Sakura opens her eyes. We’re back to the play, the real play. It’s the moment of the meeting between the Red Queen and Alice, and……..Akiho and Sakura switched roles. Sakura is now playing the role of the Red Queen, wearing a cute dress that honestly it’s really reminding of a more classic Red Queen, while Akiho is Alice, wearing a very Alice-like outfit too. Can you recognize these two outfits? Yes, they are the costumes Tomoyo originally worked on, before changing her mind and re-doing them completely:

When Tomoyo made Sakura and Akiho try them on, they were still pretty much in tacking stage, while we can see that now they have “colored” parts and details/accessories added, but they’re the very same outfits. The lines they say are those we know well by now, Sakura says she’s the Queen of this land and Akiho asks her name, to which Sakura replies “They call me the Red Queen”.

The font, something we became used to check in the last 5/6 chapters, is indeed that used when Akiho and Sakura speak in their roles of the play. Akiho makes a curtsy and introduces herself as “Alice in Clockland”. And here we get the second surprise of the chapter: Syaoran, behind the curtains, is voicing the Cat, exactly like he intended to do initially. The Cat welcomes Alice to this land, and she realizes the one who’s talking is her beloved cat from her home – and here we get our first little translation difference:

ENG: Didn’t you promise me you’d come with me to the world I wanted to show you? JP: I did promise to escort you to the world I wanted to show you.

In all the instances where we’ve seen the kids reharsing or talking about the play, we always got only to the point when Alice meets the Red Queen. Even in the play itself (the first time around), the story was pretty much interrupted by Kaito sending them all into the *real* Clockland. Now we finally find out how the story continues. The Cat asks Alice if she met the Red Queen and what she thought about her. Akiho replies “She looks like me”. Choir comes back on stage, singing again the iconic song that was composed by Yamazaki:

JP: This is the story that Alice chooses (for herself). A story for Alice. The [Cat] guides her, and her wish is waiting for her at the end of the road. The wish Alice had forgotten is waiting for her. Remember, Alice.

I wanted to put the JP as the ENG changed/omitted some words, but nothing serious.

Alice asks the Red Queen if she’s always been in this land. The Queen replies that maybe yes, maybe not, she can’t really remember anything aside from her name being the Red Queen and the name of this land. She can’t even remember why she became Queen in the first place. Alice reiterates that they’re very similar. So she tells the Queen something. An anecdote from her own family. They’re 3 people in her family, but at their table there’s always a fourth chair. She always wondered who that chair was for, and why they never put it away. So she wondered if that chair was meant for someone very dear to them. The Cat, projected on the curtain and with Syaoran’s voice, tells Akiho to touch the person she’s thinking she wants to touch right now...because when she does, she’ll remember something she forgot. And so Alice touches the Queen’s hands.

The scene here is really beautiful, loaded with emotion, and a huge callback to this other scene here that happened precisely during the reharsals of the play:

Alice finally remembers. She wasn’t born as an only child, but had a twin. That twin sister disappeared to another world, and with her all the memories she and her parents had of her. Here there’s a small difference between the ENG and the JP: the ENG says not all of their memories disappeared, while the JP uses a different word that got a slightly different meaning - 想い, which means “thought” and even more often “feelings”. So the memories of the lost sister disappeared, but the FEELINGS survived the loss. Remember this. Remember it well, I’m telling you now, as I suspect this play will also work as a parallel with another situation.

That’s the reason why they never removed the 4th chair. For the other “Alice” that had disappeared. The Red Queen finally understands, shocked. Alice says:

JP: Guided by the Cat, I’ve come to take you back home. You, the other “Alice”.

On the top of the school building, Kaito observes from afar the play coming to its final moments. Momo is with him, in her full form. She asks him how he’s feeling right now. Kaito answers “I suppose I’m relieved...because the Exchange Card was created”. But pay attention to his face and the background of that panel. There’s the usual “smoke effect” they use when the character is distressed or *not* having happy thoughts. Kaito seems indeed relieved here at first glance, but if you look at him better, there’s a streak of sadness to his expression. And what’s that “I suppose I’m relieved”? He’s not even sure himself of what he’s feeling right now.

Momo frowns at him after hearing his reply. She *knows* there’s something he’s not saying. She continues saying that the Card has indeed changed things. First of all, by Sakura’s wish, the Card changed her role with that of Akiho, making her the Red Queen.

I gave you all of me

And then, finally, Kaito’s wish. In a shocking revelation, we find out that Kaito’s wish and intended use of the Exchange Card was NOT what everyone thought. Kaito says it himself: he wished to exchange his own magic artifact -the pocket watch that we learned to identify him with- for the artifact inside Akiho’s body -the infamous book that is currently hosting magic from a multitude of books that her Clan forced her to record on herself. And thanks to Exchange, that swap succeeded. Kaito is once again using “ore” as a pronoun here, while still talking in keigo. He will keep using it freely till the end of the chapter. A sign that at this point he doesn’t have to pretend to be the perfect and polite butler anymore, but he still holds lots of respect for Momo, hence the use of keigo. The panel where he explains his intended exchange takes an entire page, and the fact they used a portrayal of Akiho when she started travelling with Kaito (the outfit is the same of the flashback featured in chapter 39) makes things even more bittersweet. This has always been his goal all along. Taking onto himself what he mistakenly caused to be engraved into her when they both were just small children. But more on this later, at the end of the post.

Momo points out that Kaito’s watch is all broken, and Akiho doesn’t have magic (remember this well, she STILL doesn’t have magic! Cause giving her magic was never Kaito’s goal to begin with) so she won’t be able to use it. Kaito comments “There’s no reason for her to use it, right? Because with the Transparent Cards that Sakura-san had created, along with all I could give of me, I was able to activate the forbidden magic of the Book of Time, which you watch over”. Momo keeps frowning at him, while he says so.

The infamous play is finally over, everyone in the audience is clapping their hands enthusiastically. Sakura and Akiho go backstage where Naoko, Chiharu and Tomoyo await to congratulate them! Chiharu even says she teared up a little when the two Alice made it back home! We see that Yamazaki is still his usual self, praising/teasing Syaoran over his meowing skills (to which he yells that it's not true), and Naoko joins the kids in congratulating the girls, saying how happy she is that she casted Sakura and Akiho as Alice and the Red Queen. Then, nonchalantly, she delivers the second surprise of this chapter:

JP: You’re twins, and it shows!

BOOM. Kaito explains that inside Momo’s book it is possible to record the events of someone’s life, and with the use of the Forbidden Magic, it is also possible to rewrite them. Therefore, he wished to record the memories of Akiho and Sakura into that book, and then change them to make them twins born on the same day, who spent their life together. In the beginning, I thought Kaito changed to a very deep level the events that happened in Akiho’s and Sakura’s life, but thanks to a follower on Twitter I’ve actually re-read better the JP text and it seems Kaito changed only the memories of the people. Sure, that also brought substantial, concrete changes to their reality (I suppose Akiho lives with Sakura and so there surely will be a bed for her, all her stuff etc) to accomodate Akiho into the “new” version of their lives. The ENG translation in this sense is quite deceiving because Kaito talks about rewriting the lives, but in the JP it’s clearly written 記憶, “memories”. I’m not sure to what level we should consider this change to take place (like, did Nadeshiko actually gave birth to both of them or it’s just a collective hallucination the forbidden spell put all of them under?), but I’m sure we’ll understand better with next chapters. We can clearly see how everything else in Sakura’s life seems to be exactly as it was before, Kero and Suppy are still there, Nakuru too, even her relationship with Syaoran seems to be still the same (for a small detail at the very end of the chapter, that I will point out later, but you can stop freaking out about that). The only difference is that Akiho has been included in Sakura’s family. Kaito observes that’s something else that successfully changed.

Momo points out that every successful “rewriting” leads to some kind of discrepancy. However, Kaito answers that thanks to this change, Akiho won’t be harassed by the Clan and the Association anymore, and she would be protected by the Kinomoto family and all their kin.

(I know, I’ll leave my comments for last, as I said).

Momo asks the question. She always asks the questions.

JP: What about you?

For how formidable he can be, Momo hints that it’s impossible for him to deal with the huge amount of magics that were written onto Akiho (just imagine how magically battered her body was), especially in the state he’s in now.

And that’s when it happens. We all more or less imagined that we might end up seeing a tragedy happening in front of our eyes, but being this CCS, we probably didn’t believe it 100%.

The Seal of D.

Kaito doesn’t reply to Momo’s question, but keeps his usual enigmatic smile, that at this point is more a weak smile of acceptance of his destiny. A book appears under him, the huge book that used to spread at Akiho’s feet whenever the artifact was going to overcome her.

The effect Mokona sensei used on these pages, like blots of ink, looks actually like it’s blood. It’s terrifying to see that in CCS.

A flashback. The Association headquarters. There are both representatives of the Association and of the Squids Clan.

Kaito looks like a child, a teenager at best. He really looks like he’s the same age as Syaoran, or one year older. And yet, the ENG translation stubbornly keeps making the same mistake over and over again.

Because Kaito IS A MAN in their heads, even when he’s clearly a kid. Below the JP version which stays more true to the original meaning: JP: Letting this magician travel along with the artifact… is too dangerous. If he uses time magic, he might exploit the magic artifact. Let’s cast the “Seal of D” on him. There’s a sealing spell that can be casted only on magicians of rank D. If you engrave this spell onto your body, we’ll let you travel (with her).

Alright, on top of being already emotionally compromised by the sheer cruelty of this scene, there are also two mistakes in the ENG translation that make me see red. The first, as I said, is the use of the word “man” instead of “magician”, which is the word used in the JP version. It doesn’t make sense to use “man”, since Kaito here is a kid, because this is a flashback of when he offered himself to go travelling with Akiho. The ENG translation criminally contributes to the misconception that Kaito was already an adult when he decided to accompany Akiho, when in fact it’s not true. Do you find it hard to believe that a teenager could escort a little child around the world? Then how do you believe that a ten years old could live all alone in a foreign country? Come on folks, these people have magic. Moreover, I’ve seen some fans genuinely confused due to this mistake, and they had to re-read twice to understand exactly who the members of the Association were talking about in that moment.

Not only that, but they also translated the fact that Kaito could’ve exploited the artifact with “suppose he uses the artifact for evil?”, paradoxically making them look like they’re wary of Kaito using the artifact for evil!! THEM! THE SOURCE OF ALL EVIL OF THIS STORY! Like, this is completely ridiculous. Of course they wouldn’t give a damn about that, they don’t have morals, they were only worried about Kaito misusing the artifact however he wanted, and not in their interest.

My grievances with the translation aside, I would like to bring attention to the use of the word 封鎖 fuusa, which can be meaning “block, seal-off, lockdown, sequestration”. I wanted to point it out because it might be useful to guess what will happen to Kaito after a couple of pages.

Kaito agrees without hesitation to that demand.

To my bafflement, the members of the Association and the Clan ask Kaito if he knows what he’s agreeing to. Because not even someone with the level of magic he’s got can remove that spell. And if he dares doing anything to the artifact, that spell will be put into execution at once. And when it activates, he won’t be able to come back.

Here it is!

“Omae wa mou modorenai”. The phrase Sakura kept hearing from an ominous voice in her dreams. I’m positive this is the final source of that phrase, because in fandom we’ve been wondering for years who could’ve used “omae” while talking to Sakura, since there aren’t many characters that use that kind of pronoun for “you”. And it totally makes sense that the Association uses that with a younger member. Turns out, the “warning” wasn’t directed at Sakura at all, but actually at young Kaito. Sakura, thanks to her magic power, has been hearing the warning that hinted at Kaito’s destiny this whole time.

And now, the scene that tore apart the heart of so many fans.

JP: “I...am glad I was able to successfully complete a magic I’ve sincerely wanted to use for the first time”

Kaito uses a particular verb here, 編み終えられて, which caught my attention and literally translates to “finishing knitting, weaving”. The verb 編む amu, “knitting”, gets associated a lot with creating magic spells. I’m not really sure if it’s a use of that verb that only CLAMP makes in this sense, or if it’s common to refer to the creation of magic spells as if you were knitting a sweater, but I think it’s kinda...warm? Cute? In this specific case I get really emotional about it, because I can’t help but feel that the magic Kaito created was like a warm blanket he knitted for Akiho with all of his love, to protect her, cherish her and give her the happy life she deserved when he'd be gone. I know, I’m probably projecting on a simple verb but I don’t think I’m far from the truth.

Anyway, with these last words, the Seal of D. activates on Yuna D. Kaito, engulfing him.

Momo, the only one who is able to witness his departure, can’t contain her emotions anymore. A tear mixed with anger, frustration and sorrow appears at the corner of her eyes, and she yells with all that she’s got “This...blockhead!!!”.

It’s like Momo’s shriek reaches Sakura’s ears. She turns around towards the top of the school building, with a strange feeling. Syaoran immediately noticed her unrest, and rushes to her side to ask what’s happening (I told you, this is the most evident proof they still have the same relationship. He does that all the time with his girl). Sakura answers…

JP: I...thought I felt something...but now it’s gone.

In front of Sakura, the top of the school building is empty.

And just like that, the chapter (and probably volume 14) ends.

Alright, now that the technical part with the analysis of the text/translation is over, let me express my feelings on this chapter.

Oh, I have so much to say. So much. Starting from the fact that yes, I’m not ashamed to admit it, this chapter made me cry. Like, real tears, not figuratively. Yes, I love Kaito just that much. My general feeling he was a good person all along has been confirmed at last, but also the heartbreaking smile he embraced his “end” with, that really did it for me. I always knew Kaito was a kind soul. I was sure of that. I was just scared that his self-loathing, his desperate situation while being driven to a corner would have lead him to a dark place, where he might have crossed what’s morally considered acceptable. When Exchange appeared, I fell into CLAMP’s trap. And I really have to commend them, because they were able to lead the fans to think something for 70 chapters (alright, a bit less) while in the end it turned out to be something completely different, and everything STILL makes perfect sense.

But let’s start from the beginning. The play finally got to its conclusion, one way or another. We finally witnessed the whole story for how it was intended by Naoko, and it was a simple, but cute story with a happy ending. And we found out that this is basically a reality where everything seems to be exactly like before, but the memories of the characters have been rewritten to accomodate for Akiho becoming Sakura’s twin sister. Certainly the memories weren’t the only thing that was changed, as I was saying above, but it probably doesn’t entail a complete rewriting of history like the ENG translation suggested? Therefore, it’s a less drastic change that will be easier to rewind? We’ll see with next chapters, especially I’m curious to know if Sakura still got her problem with the rampant powers.

Akiho becomes Sakura’s twin sister, then. I’m pretty sure nothing changed about her, we’ll still see her with her passion for books, her singing skills, her friends are all still there, her best friend actually became her sister, now she’s got a lovely family who can protect her (how is Touya going to interact with her? I...suspect he won’t tease her), but most importantly, she doesn’t have that ticking bomb of an artifact that was about to annihilate her soul. And, she stays magicless. Kaito never wanted to give magic to Akiho. He never showed any sign of it, not with words, nor with his actions.

On one side, I’m glad to see this development just as a “what if”, provided that...it goes back to normal, in the end. Because I always envisioned Akiho’s family to be Kaito and Momo, and I always wanted to see them living together as a funny household, with Momo finally dropping her secrecy and walking around in all her glory while spoiling Akiho with love and scolding Kaito till kingdom come 😂I think Akiho would be very happy. They are her most beloved people, after all. Sure, the idea of the Kinomoto family adopting her is sweet and all, but who has always been by her side? It was Momo and Kaito. Momo, in particular, I feel like she deserves her quality time with Akiho, after watching over her ever since she was born, in complete secrecy. Unable to reply to all the lovely chats Akiho had with her, thinking she was just a plushie.

Oh, don’t get me started on Momo in this chapter. How I sympathized with her. I always have, but in this chapter we finally see her losing all composure and crying her tears for how UNFAIR everything is. Once again she's the spokeperson of a good chunk of the fandom. Kaito’s goal was noble and all, but it was at the cost of his life (?) and he ended up sacrificing himself without even acknowledging why he did all of this. Her angry “insult”, わからずや literally means “someone who doesn’t understand and listens to reason, no matter how much you try to persuade them”. And for Momo that is a huge failure, in itself. She witnessed another tragedy happening. Still, I remind you she left some help behind, precisely at Kinomoto’s home (probably something that would stay even after the activation of the forbidden magic) so she’ll probably be waiting for the girls to realize it.

And then, Kaito. My beloved Kaito.

I know many people might be shocked at this turn of events, as they didn’t see it coming. CLAMP have carefully laid down a pretty game with us, where they tricked us on purpose into believing that Kaito had ill intentions till the very end. But at the same time, carefully leaving all the hints that he actually was a kind soul and he wouldn’t have hurted Sakura to give Akiho the happiness she deserved. It all clicks perfectly. One of the simplest hints is that he always spoke very politely of Sakura, using keigo and praising her skills multiple times (not only hers, but Syaoran’s too), while for the Association he always had a spiteful speech pattern. He hated them, for what they’ve done to Akiho. Kaito ensured that the forbidden spell would’ve influenced Sakura’s life at the minimum, so she would still have all of her friends, her most beloved person, her family, her happy memories. The only different thing is that now she’s got a sister (I still have to wrap my head around this, even though I’m pretty sure it’ll be momentary. It’s too big a change to keep it permanent).

As I said previously, I’ve wavered multiple times on the way he would’ve brought to completion his plan, while I never had a doubt about what his goal was. Never. I never even thought he wanted to give magic to Akiho, as he unfortunately knows very well how magic can lead to unhappiness. It certainly did, in their case. I knew Kaito had a kind soul, because kind people seem to be the ones who suffer the most. And Kaito suffered too. A lot. Not only physically, due to the time rewinds. He’s grown up completely alone, never experiencing love from anyone. Feeding on energy bars, till Lilie tried to make him change habits. Lilie planted a seed in him that bloomed only now. It’s just that, it didn’t bloom in the correct way. We will certainly learn what’s behind his persistence in not understanding that he did all of this for Akiho because he cared for her, cherished her. And so he should’ve asked her what kind of happiness she wanted. Is it fear? Did he purposely keep himself distanced from her, forcefully stopped his hand that everytime was going towards her, because he knew that he soon would be gone? I’ve theorized about that many times, here. What’s the point of creating a connection with someone if you know you’re gonna leave them? Moreover, would he deserve creating that connection with the very person he contributed to condemn to a tragic destiny? Kaito’s self-loathing goes to those lengths and way beyond. But in that last page, before he disappears engulfed by the book, he looks so….satisfied with the result he achieved. He *really* gave all of himself to ensure that Akiho would have a happy ending. He villainized himself in the eyes of her friends, dispelled all the attacks from the Association along the years, suffered the consequences of the time rewindings on himself, all while knowing that he was carrying upon himself a horrible curse. Touch the “artifact” and we seal you off forever. When I found out, I was livid. I kept saying “I should’ve known, they are stupid but *not* that stupid”. They imposed a curse like that on such a young boy. For Kaito to accept it without a second thought, it either means he was so disillusioned with life that he didn’t care about dying, or that he wanted to make things right at all costs. Judging by the word used in the JP version, Kaito might not be exactly dead in this moment, but just sealed off somewhere. Since the book appeared at his feet, he might have been sealed inside the artifact itself. I’m just picturing what would’ve happened if Kaito tried to remove the artifact while it was still inside Akiho….and I shiver, because she would’ve absorbed him, sealing him and all his power inside herself. Such huge power would’ve annihilated her soul at once, destroying all that Akiho was. Exactly what I’ve imagined as a “bad ending” in one of my angsty moments.

But the problem is, how do you reach him there? And how do you bring him back, while he’s harboring in himself all those damn magic spells? Because he deserves another chance. Another chance at life where he can experience happiness too.

The fact he thought of taking into himself the artifact that was engraved in Akiho because of what he said is honestly so heart-wrenching. He took full responsability for a thing that wasn’t even really his fault. And also goes to show the lenghts he would go for her.

Ironically, the fact he was sealed off might be precisely the thing that’s saving him, for the moment, because those spells will certainly kill him for the state he’s in right now. But while being sealed, maybe they won’t have effect on him. This is going to be a tough task, for Akiho. Yes, because I know she will remember at some point and will go out there to save him. And that’s why we have our wonderful heroine Sakura with her, whom for the first time might get to use her immense power not to play with a deck of cards but actually to save someone’s life. The bar has been raised quite a bit, right?

Kaito’s idea to exchange the book with his pocket watch was very clever. But also...it left with Akiho an object that will certainly lead her back to him. The watch will be “the chair” of the “Two Alice” play. An object left behind by someone dear. Whose watch it is? Why does she have it with her? Why is it all broken? Akiho used to associate that watch so much to Kaito, she recognized that it must have been something very important to him, so I’m CERTAIN that it will trigger a memory in her. Ohkawa in one of her Spaces at the end of December said clearly that Akiho will work very hard in the finale of Clear Card, and honestly I can’t wait to see it. She’s been accused by the fandom of literally doing “nothing” for the whole series, so the time has come for her to show what she’s capable of. Without magic. Heh, when Kaito said “she won’t need to use it (that watch), right?” my heart squeezed because he was so resigned to the fact that she would forget about him and go on with her life….little does he know, that watch is going to lead her back to him.

The final scene with Sakura feeling a glimpse of something before it disappeared was another smack to my face. It’s really worthy of the most tragic scenes, when someone can feel that someone else is gone.

I think next chapter we might get a glimpse of the life of Sakura and Akiho as sisters, and I’m very curious about that...curious to see if Akiho knows that her sister got magical powers, how Akiho interacts in the new family….for me it’s like witnessing a temporary AU. But as I said, I want things to go back to normal because somehow I feel that’s the right thing for both girls. Hopefully the discrepancies Momo mentioned will start showing up right away, so we can move to the final big task quicker. And then it’s hopefully icha-icha time for everyone, as Mokona sensei wished.

Well well, this post has been infinite and I DEFINITELY didn't say everything I wanted to say over the big revelation of this chapter, but I can create another post for that. So, a quick reminder of the dates for the next chapter, chapter 71: March 1st, on CLAMP's Youtube channel (digital, JP and other languages) March 3rd, on Nakayoshi (paper and digital, JP)

As you can see, I can only give you these two dates as the situation with the digital releases of the ENG and JP version is still very chaotic. We'll see if anything changes till March.

As usual I await your asks in my inbox!!

[good-beanswrites]

Yor Week Day 5: Family ☕🍵

A quick drabble of Yor and a teen Anya! I just wanted a sweet little snapshot of their daily life post-canon/post-reveals

“Your birthday’s coming up.” Yor stirred her coffee. “Are you busy? Your father and I were thinking of taking you to the aquarium, he said there’s a special event going on the same day.”

“I’m not sure,” Anya leaned her chin in her hands. The pair sat at an outdoor table at the local cafe. “Becky wanted to go out. She and a few friends wanted to spend the day together.”

The aforementioned friend’s sense of fashion had started to rub off on her. Happy to lose her high school uniform on breaks like this, she was dressed in current trends and styles. She’d grown her hair long to style in her own way, refusing help from her friends. Yor never said anything, but she recognized the way the thick braids tucked just at her neck, with curling pink locks framing her face.

Anya’s features scrunched up, lost in thought for a moment. “So...” 

She was slowly ridding herself of the habit, but Yor couldn’t help her thoughts from carrying her away in nervousness. Of course the girl’s friends would want to take her out. She thought the aquarium was a good idea – Yuri had loved going too, as a kid. But that was just it, Anya wasn’t a baby anymore. She had to stop thinking she knew how to care for a family just because she’d cared for her brother for a little while. Having a daughter was different.

“That sounds fun,” she forced a smile. Knowing it wasn't the most convincing of looks, she flooded her mind with the thought. She did believe it. It did sound fun. Things with friends were always great. Yor was so happy Anya had such wonderful friends in her life. Anya deserved to have fun with them.  “Yes, you should do that!”

Sure enough, she saw Anya’s bright eyes studying her. Though her mind was spilling with positivity, the conflicted look on the girl’s face didn’t lessen.

“The thing is… we’ve been doing a lot as a family recently, and, well…”

Yor’s hands clutched around her mug. Hairline cracks appeared on the side. She willed herself to calm down, but her heart was breaking as much as the cup. It was no wonder her daughter would rather spend the day with others! She’d been too overbearing, too enthusiastic to do lame things. She’d been keeping Anya from being the free teenager she wanted to be. 

She’d heard accounts of children growing up too fast, but it was even more painful than she’d expected. It seemed like only yesterday she was threatening parents of students who were insulting Anya’s tiny stature, and now she was grown and running off to make her own birthday plans.

“So it was you that scared Mrs. Greene our first year!”

“What?!” This time, the mug did shatter. Coffee and porcelain shards spread across the cafe table.

“I knew it!” She let out a giggle. “You had papa fooled, though.” Anya handed her a napkin, and helped to mop up the mess. “And mamaaaa…” She tugged on one of her pink curls, looking away.

Yor was surprised; that little gesture was a habit of her own. “What’s wrong?”

“I was going to say… I really want to hang out with you two.”

Her eyebrows raised.

“I just thought it would be silly to cancel on Becky, you know? Since we’ve already done so much together lately. But… the aquarium sounds fun. I really want to spend my birthday with you.”

Yor nodded, trying not to let her face betray her giddiness at the sentiment. “That sounds wonderful!”

The two continued making plans. Yor wanted her to be able to see her friends as well, and there was certainly room for everyone at the aquarium. Anya wanted to make sure the 'special event' wasn't an invention of her workaholic father. The three were used to working cases together, but it was her birthday, after all.

Suddenly, Anya’s eyes narrowed. Her lips twisted into something mischievous. “So… what are you guys getting for my present?” 

“I told you, it’s a surprise,” she said as her daughter stared intently.

Her look of triumph immediately turned to horror. She swatted her hands at Yor. “Noooo! Stop that! I don’t need to hear about you and papa making out!”

“Maybe you shouldn't have been snooping.” Yor grinned shamelessly. “Come on, I get to keep one thing from you all year.”

“That’s still gross.” She made a theatrically disgusted face, which only made Yor’s smile soften. “Hey! It's not adorable when I do that.”

“You’re always adorable.” 

Anya huffed. 

“And also,” Yor grimaced.

“Mm?”

“That whole thing about Charles’ parents stays between us, alright? Your father can never know.”

The girl let out a laugh. “Aw, mama. I'm you're daughter – you know I can keep a secret.”