#((Okay so I went with them letting off some steam XD hope that's okay))
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wormholxtreme · 8 months ago
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@onlyathief | liked for a starter
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"Woo!" Jean shook her head from the strength of her drink. "What kinda tip did you give the bartender to give us a drink like that?"
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tr0p1cal · 3 years ago
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freckles
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Summary: waking up to their s/o charting their freckles like constellations
Pairing: Wilber x gn!reader, Sapnap x gn!reader, Dream x gn!reader
Warnings: not proof read, but other than that it’s basically just a load of fluff-
A/N: had this idea for a while and decided to do it :D hope you enjoy :P this can also be cc! or c!, so you can just imagine it however you’d like :) also pls ignore the weird writing style change in the dream part- I wrote it a month later after some bad writers block lololol XD enjoy!
A/N no. 2: feedback is very very welcomed and wanted as I’m new to writing stuff like this! Seeing what people think is normally very motivating and would be much appreciated if you could spare a moment to let me know your thoughts! If that’s not possible at the time, that’s always perfectly okay, but it would be most helpful to know :) <3 Thank you much ♡´・ᴗ・`♡
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Wilber
Okay, Wilber would absolutely LOVE your freckles
Like 100% simps for them every moment he gets
Loved them before you even started dating
He’d probably randomly come up to you, grab your face, and admire them
Doesn’t matter if you have a bunch or just a few.
Everyone would make fun of him for it too, like it would most definitely be a known fact
There’d be an ongoing joke that he only liked you for your freckles
You’d totally play into it too-
Before you and Will got together, everyone would always play flirt with you to annoy Will because EVERYONE know he had a fat crush on you
Besides you of course- you were so oblivious you didn’t even get it when he asked you out </3 rip Wilber
But even then he loved your freckles and always made sure you knew that <3
You stirred in your sleep, slowly beginning to wake up. As you took in a breath of air, letting it out with a sigh, you gently went to rub your eyes, only to realize there was something in the way. You opened you’re eyes, met face to face with your beautiful boyfriend. “Well good morning lovely,” you said with a growing smile, voice still rough from your grogginess.
“Good morning to you as well, my love.” He smiled back enthusiastically.
“What are you up to?”
“Well I was just occupying my time with admiring you’re amazing freckles,” he said with a cheeky grin
You sighed knowingly. “Were you ‘marking out constellations’ again?”
He faintly chuckled, debating with himself whether to admit it or not. “Yeah, maybe I was.” He shrugged. “What about it, huh? What’re you gonna do about it?”
You rolled your eyes, knowing he was just messing around. “God, you are so annoying sometimes.”
“Maybe, but you still choose to deal with me on a daily basis,” he said with a grin, poking you gently on the nose.
“I hate you,” you joked dryly.
“I love you too my dear.” He smiled, pulling you in to cuddle.
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Sapnap
Sap really didn’t think your freckles would be something he’d come to love so much-
When you first met, he didn’t even notice them
To me, Sap gives off MAJOR himbo vibes-
Idk how that connects here- I just needed to say it...
Anyway-
You were actually just really good friends for a long time, slowly developing feeling for one another
It took forever for you to get together because neither one of you wanted to “ruin the friendship”🙄
George “accidentally” he claims it was actually an accident, but no one believes him outed you feelings for one another on steam
After that you talked it over and bam! The literal power couple of the century🙌
It didn’t take sap long to realize his love for your freckles and never fails to voice his adoration
He’s just a big puppy frfr
You felt gentle hands brushing over your skin as you slowly began waking up for the day, a smile spreading across your face at the sensation.
“Oh I’m sorry bubs, did I wake you?” Your boyfriends gentle voice rang through your ears, causing you to smile bigger and flutter your eyes open to get a look at him.
“Nah, I needed to get up anyway, so don’t worry about it,” you said with a groggy voice, yawning and stretching a little.
Sap pulled you close, snuggling into your chest. “No, I don’t want you to leave yet,” he whined playfully.
You laughed at his antics and ran your fingers through his hair. “Okay okay, I’ll stay a bit longer. You’ve convinced me.”
You laid there for a few minutes just basking in each other’s presence.
“Oh hey, what we’re you doing when I woke up? I just felt you touching my face.”
Sap looked at you and grinned. “Oh! I was charting your freckles!”
You starred at him for a moment. Charting? Like how you chart constellations?” You asked with a raised brow.
“Yes, exactly.” 
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Dream
Freckles. You’re a sucker for them and always have been.
Dream and you accidentally started dating after pretending to be together-
You’d always loved his freckles, but never verbally admitted it
Sap and George new you both had a thing for each other before either of you even realized
They’re the ones that got you to fake date for a bit lololol
You’re honestly just a big simp and so is he
Since you got together though, you’ve made it quite clear just how much you like his freckles
You’re constantly commenting about them or simply just poke them
He’d absolutely love that you’re a big dump for him
I mean- mans do have a bit of an ego to him, so you showering him with compliments and shit would be perfect to him
He’d also like his hair being played with frfr
You woke up to your partner soundly sleeping, cuddled close in a loving embrace. The sight brought a smile to your face as you watched dream sleep. Instinctively, your hand moved to play in his hair.
As you quietly laid there, enthralled by the beauty of the boy you had the pleasure of calling yours, you couldn’t help the lingering stare on his lovely freckles. See, you found them so captivatingly beautiful, you couldn’t help but love them.
You gently reached out towards his face, softly drawing imaginary lines connecting his oh so enchanting freckles to on another. This was an act you did constantly. Though sadly you were interrupted by the eyes of your lover slowly fluttering open.
“Mmm good morning my love. What’re you doing?” His voice was groggy and low due to him just waking, causing you to shudder slightly at the angelic sound.
“Good morning to you as well honeydew,” you said with a bright, energetic smile. “I was just admiring your captivating beauty. As one should always do,” you grinned.
He laughed and shook his head a little. “You’re too much. It’s far too early in the morning for you to start with all the compliments.”
“Dream, my dear, it’s never to early to tell the truth.”
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dreamescapeswriting · 4 years ago
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Stranger Danger ~ KTH [Request]
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WORD COUNT: 3.7K
PAIRING: Taehyung x Fem!Reader
GENRE: This takes place in 2013/2016 when the boys debuted and then three years later, just so no one is confused, strangers to lovers, online friends, cute, fluffy, 
A/N: I hope this is okay for you, I sort of left it like this so that you could come up with your own extension of it <3 
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Taehyung clicked through the in-game chat as he waited for the game to finish, he'd just died and was waiting to see if his team would still win without him. He'd been playing in the same lobby as someone with the name 'XxChickXx' for the last few hours and they were one of the best players on his time. They'd been a good teammate instead of just looking out for themselves, they helped Taehyung out as well and he was trying to find a way to contact them outside of the game so they could play together again, 
Tae: @XxChickXx game tomorrow? 
The small message was blinking on your screen as it notified you that someone mentioned you, you smiled softly before typing out a reply to the name you'd seen. 
XxChickXx: Sure! But add me on steam first? You attached the same name as your Gamertag and smiled to yourself as a friend request came through at the bottom of the screen as quickly as you sent the message. You exited out of the game then went onto steam ready to message whoever this 'Tae person was. He'd been playing great, one of the best players you'd had the pleasure of playing alongside with.
XxChickXx: Never had someone play so nicely before, most people are selfish & rude! Nice to meet you, I'm Y/n. 
Taehyung smiled brightly as the message came through to his screen, he checked the time. He had some time to talk to you before he had to go to practice so he began replying to you. Smiling brightly as he thought about making a new friend, he'd only met a couple online before and then he had the boys he was practising with but that was it really. He'd always been too shy to communicate with anyone else properly.
Tae: Most people are the worst, I'm Tae...Obviously, lovely to meet you XD
You laughed softly as you saw the message and then you began typing out to him again wanting to talk to him more before you headed out for your shift at the local cafe. There was an exciting feeling in your chest as you got the message from him, it was just something simple but it still had your heart racing.
XxChickXx: Tae? Short for anything? Or a nickname...I've never had one before, don't really like going by 'chick' that much. 
Taehyung chuckled to himself checking the time once again as he got up from the desk, installing the app onto his phone so he could keep texting you while he was on his walk to practice. The front door to the small apartment opened and Jimin walked over to the fridge, placing the small container of Kimchi and rice cakes inside. His grandmother was always making sure Taehyung was well taken care of since he'd moved out of his family home. Jimin always let himself into the apartment since he had the spare key for "emergencies" but who cares.
"What's got you smiling so much?" Jimin questioned as he walked up to his best friend, Taehyung physically jumped up. Almost dropping his phone onto the floor as Jimin scared him, he groaned as he began straightening out his clothes again.
"Nothing! Let yourself in why don't you?" His voice was seeping with sarcasm as he stuffed his phone into his pocket as he went to grab his keys to the apartment before they left for practice. Namjoon would have their heads on sticks if they were late again that week, they'd already been late five times.
"I always do, I brought rice cakes from Grandma," Jimin mumbled as they began heading out of the door together but Taehyung wasn't paying attention, his head was back in his phone as he made his way out of the apartment. He never wanted to stop talking to you and he'd barely even begun to get to know you, he could already tell there was a friendship blossoming between you. 
Tae: Maybe I can come up with one for you, favourite colours, fruit, food, place, and clothing item? 
A small frown appeared on your face as you stared at the message, what did any of those have to do with giving you a nickname? You smirked before typing out a response to him, getting a little flirty but it was all fun and games. It wasn't as if you knew one another or would ever actually meet so you just went for it. 
XxChickXx: Trying to find out where to take me for our first date Tae? ;) 
Tae: ...Maybe...You'll find out sooner or later, answer the questions 
Giggling to yourself you stepped into the elevator of your apartment building to see a couple together, both of them holding hands as they waited for you to step in. You brushed down the light pink diner dress you were wearing and took your phone out from the front pocket, this was going to be the only thing helping you get through the shift at the diner. 
XxChickXx: Hmm, you'll have to give me a second to think about it...What about yours though? 
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The text messages continued to exchange between you both for six months, you'd grown closer with time with exchanging messages. Learning lots about one another, coming up with some cute nicknames as well as gaming whenever you were both free. There was one thing you never did though, you would never video call or voice call since you were too anxious for that and Taehyung was far too shy. Neither of you minded though, you would text non-stop as often as you could with one another. Morning, noon and night. During your shifts, you would sneak a look at your phone while you hid it in your apron and Taehyung would check his phone whenever he got a break from dancing in the practice room. Jimin giving him nothing but small jokes and banter whenever he could and tonight was no different. Taehyung had been dying to get on his phone throughout the practice but Namjoon had taken it from him, placing it into the drawer so he couldn't be distracted by it.
"All I'm saying is you live your life on that phone and you don't even know what this girl looks like." You heard someone say as you served a table in your section, you finished pouring the coffee before making your way over. Smiling at the two boys in front of you who had taken some seats in your section, 
"Welcome, I'll be your server. Is there anything I can start you off with?" You questioned, looking at the blonde boy who flashed a pearly white smile at you and the brown curly-haired boy who was shyly smiling at you. Jimin glanced at your nametag and smiled showing off to Taehyung how easy it was to talk to someone outside of a phone screen.
"Hi Caroline, I'll take a coffee to start with and I think my friend needs a reality check." You laughed softly not wanting to get involved in their conversations and how he'd used the fake name on your tag. You'd left yours at home and instead of telling your boss you'd forgotten part of your uniform, you switched the tag for someone else's who wasn't there. Jimin smiled at you, trying to get you into the conversation some more. Customers would do it a lot whenever you would serve a table. Most people would stop talking but there were a select few customers who enjoyed bringing others into their conversations. 
"We don't serve that, can I interest him in something else?" You turned to the shy one who was now avoiding your gaze but nodded, looking over the drink options. 
"I'll just take some sparkling water," You hummed at him before leaving and going to get their drinks, smiling softly as you left their table. It would give them enough time to look over the food menu while you checked your phone to see if there was anything from Tae, he'd messaged saying he would reply slower than usual. That his job was making it harder for his replies to come through.
Tae: Finally out from work. Heading for something to eat and then home...Game later? You smiled at the small message on the screen, you hadn't been gaming for a while together so it would be nice to get home and do that after a long shift. Quickly writing out a response to him you glanced at your boss who was staring at you, hands on her hip but you ignored her quickly hitting send.
XxChickXx: Got an hour shift left, I'll message you as soon as I'm online. 
Walking back over to the table you set their drinks down and began taking their food order, while they were ordering you couldn't help but feel as though you knew one of them. The shy one just reminded you so much of Taehyung despite never having met him or heard his voice. There was a feeling in your chest as the shy one spoke to you or looked up at you, it made your heart leap. Just like whenever you got a message from Taehyung over the app. 
"I think she likes you," Jimin whispered to Taehyung as you walked over to the counter, helping a customer as they dropped their food all over the floor. 
"I'm not interested-" Not true, he'd been checking you out while you and Jimin weren't looking. Trying to ignore the thumping in his chest whenever you would smile at him or the tight feeling he would get in his chest whenever you would look into his eyes for longer than ten seconds at a time.
"No, because you're only interested in Y/n...How do you even know she's real? She could be some creep on the internet, ever thought of that? You never call or facetime...It's weird." Jimin mumbled as he took a huge gulp of his coffee, he was going to need it to get through the night. He was helping out at the shop with his grandma that afternoon/night to make up for going to practice today when he was supposed to have a shift.
"I know she's real, why would they keep up a fake profile for the last six months if she wasn't real?" Jimin rolled his eyes at how naive his friend was being, the internet was full of strangers with weird intentions so who knew what this Y/n person was after. Maybe she knew Taehyung was trying to make it in the industry and this was why she'd tried to contact him. But no one knew about that. No one was allowed to know they were working on debuting unless they were involved in the industry. 
"Just be careful...With our lives, we don't know who we'll be able to trust...Don't tell her who you are, don't give her personal information-"
"Jimin, I'm not an idiot," Taehyung grumbled as he got up from the table, paying for the food and drinks while leaving a big tip for the waitress that had been helping them out, glancing over at you as you began laughing softly to someone. He looked down at his phone as he walked out, messaging Y/n to let her know he was on his way back to his apartment and would be on soon. 
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There was always one last game and one last text but nothing had prepared you for losing contact with Tae. The messages had slowly begun to stop three years ago until the point neither of you could talk. You'd gotten busy with work and studies and Taehyung had debuted so he never had time to check his phone or game anymore. He hated it but he never once forgot about you. There was never a day that went by when he didn't think about what you could be doing now. 
"It's been three years and you still haven't stopped thinking about her...Why don't you try to contact her?" Namjoon questioned as he walked into Taehyung's dorm room. He'd noticed how glum Taehyung looked lately and decided to find out what was going on with his band member and friend. Of course, he knew of you. Jimin eventually told Namjoon what was going on with Taehyung during practices, he thought he had the right to know since he was the leader of the group. 
"I don't even know if they still-" Just as Taehyung was about to mention about you playing games anymore you logged onto the steam account. Sending a small notification tone to come through his computer speakers, 
"Oh." Taehyung began to blush as he saw your name still hadn't changed over the years, he stared at the screen for a couple of seconds. Debating messaging you or just inviting you to a random game, he didn't know if you would hate him for never replying to you again. 
June 13th 2013: 
XxChickXx: Hey...Game later? 
June 16th 2013:
XxChickXx: Game...? 
July 26th 2013: 
XxChickXx: Hope you're okay if I did something to piss you off I'm sorry. 
An invitation came through on the screen making you jump up as you looked over at the screen, you'd just moved into a new apartment building and it was the first time setting up your gaming PC in a couple of months. You'd never had the time before, between moving into the new apartment building and your job you'd not had the time but this week you had some time off. Choosing to get back into old habits. 
Tae Invited You To A Game. The message made you frown, three years after your last message to him he just randomly invited you to a game. No message to explain where he'd been. Not even a small emoticon to tell him if the invite was meant for you or not. 
XxChickXx: You okay? I haven't heard from you in a while... 
Taehyung smiled softly as he stared at the message, setting up the game as he waited for you to join in. Your character appeared next to his and he smiled, it had been so long since he'd done this it felt good to be relaxing again. 
Tae: I've been busy...A lot. Life is weird now...I'm sorry 
XxChickXx: Don't be, just glad to know you're not dead or something XD
He chuckled to himself and shook his head before looking over his shoulder, Namjoon was no longer in the room so he was going to do something he never thought he would be able to do. But being who he was was giving him a confidence boost, 
Tae: I'll explain it all...Maybe over a facetime call? Or I could meet him for something to eat? 
The thought of finally meeting up with him was both scary and exciting to you, you'd always been warned about stranger danger and never meeting up with someone you didn't know but, meeting Tae had been something you'd always wanted to do. You wanted to get to know him. 
XxChickXx: You're not just some creep right...Meet me at Daisy's Diner, booth six.
A public setting was better for you to meet him, it would be a lot easier to meet him somewhere public. The diner where you worked was perfect since everyone you knew would be there, watching out for you in case it was some creep or you were stood u.
Tae: I can be there in ten.
Stepping into the elevator you looked up to see the shy boy from your diner all those years ago, you looked back down at the floor not wanting to make it seem as though you were staring at him. He was dressed in a black leather jacket, some brown shorts with a hat and glasses on. 
Taehyung glanced at you before going back to his phone waiting for time to pass. He'd seen you around since you worked in the diner he and Jimin always frequented, you weren't in your uniform though. This time you were dressed in some black skinny jeans, a white blouse and you had a warm looking jacket on. He glanced down at himself, hiding his face from you as he pulled the hat down properly on his face. He didn't want the paparazzi to find him, they could be anywhere at any moment but that didn't stop him from wanting to go out. Nothing was going to stop him from finally getting to meet Y/N for the first time. 
The whole walk over Taehyung had been behind you, frowning whenever you didn't turn off somewhere and continued in the same direction, he didn't want it to seem as though he was following you when he wasn't. Then when you walked into the diner he thought maybe you'd started a shift but then if you had, you would surely be in your uniform. That was when you turned into a booth, the same one he'd arranged to meet Y/n in and it made him chuckle deeply at the thought of it all. After all these years he'd seen you many times, talked to you a lot without even knowing it. Talking to you, exchanging polite conversations even after all the years of not talking to "XxChickXx" he'd still been talking to you.
"Is this seat taken?" You slowly looked up at the shy boy, not wanting to hurt his feelings, this was the most he'd ever spoken to you without his friend there. 
"W-Well I'm waiting for -" Before you could say you were waiting for a friend he decided to cut you off politely,
"Tae? I'm assuming you're Y/n...XxChickXX?" You saw the blush spread across his face as he questioned you to make sure his intuition was right about you.
"Tae?! It's been you this whole time?!" You laughed loudly gaining the attention of a few people but he chuckled, sliding into the booth and sitting across from you so he could talk to you properly.
"I could say the same, I can't believe I never put it together. I know you had the same name but...I just figured it was a coincidence." He chuckled as he remembered seeing your name on your nametag before but it could always be a coincidence. The world was full of them. 
"Well, it's nice to finally meet you after all this time...I'm sorry for the radio silence." He whispered as he looked at you, wondering if he should tell you or not about his lifestyle, you knew they were singers since Jimin regularly told you about their jobs.
"So singing is why you've been so busy?" You questioned, turning to your boss and ordering your favourite along with Taehyung's since you knew it by heart. 
"Yeah, I never knew you moved into my apartment building though." He chuckled thinking back to living above you, the world was really trying to make you guys see that it was meant to be sooner or later. 
"I only moved in a few months ago, after all these years we've been so close." You laughed softly shaking your head as you thought about it. 
"Tell me about your singing? I want to hear everything in detail. Especially since we haven't spoken much in a while." He smiled, getting comfortable in the seat as he looked into your eyes wondering where to start with it all. 
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Your head was hanging low as you walked into the back entrance of your apartment building, Taehyung doing the same as you walked side by side laughing together about something he was telling you about Jimin. The whole night you'd spent together catching up and telling one another about your lives. It was late, later than Taehyung was supposed to be out since he was getting non-stop calls from Namjoon to tell him he wanted him back at the apartment since it was currently 1 am and they wanted to know what he was doing out so late.
"Jimin had a crush on you at one point, wouldn't stop going into the diner for hot chocolates." You laughed remembering Jimin coming into the diner about seven times a day just to buy the same drink from you whenever you were on a shift. 
"Is he over that? No offence to Jimin but he's not my type and I...I kind of like someone else." You whispered as he opened the door to the apartment building for you, looking around he lead you over to some of the seating they had in the main lobby. His heart sinking at the thought of you liking someone, someone that wasn't him. He knew he should be happy for you, after three years he couldn't expect you to like him...Or even still want to be friends with him. 
"You like someone?" He questioned trying to ignore the way his voice cracked just like his heart, felt as though it was doing when he had no real reason to feel this way.
"Yeah, I had a crush on him a while ago...It's growing more after finally meeting him." You whispered as you looked up into his eyes, hoping that he would get the obvious inkling that it was him you were referring to but by the sunken look on his face he hadn't gotten the hint.
"You." You whispered as you heard the elevator ding to let you know someone was coming, you glanced up and saw it was someone around Taehyung's age so you acted fast. Leaning close to Taehyung and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. 
"Call me when you're out of trouble." You teased him, kissing his cheek again before jumping into the elevator right as the boy got out. Watching you as you waved at a blushing Taehyung who couldn't wait to get back to his dorm room and call you. Ask you out on a real date...Right after he got out of the scolding session he could feel coming from Namjoon who was storming over to him with a look of both disappointment and happiness on his face. Namjoon was never able to stay long at him for long so he knew he could get out of this soon and be able to call you.
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Tagline: @lyoongx​ @mitzwinchester​ @fan-ati--c​ @kneel-begyourpardon​ @rjsmochii​ @taestannie​ @bisexualmess007​ @sw33tnight​ @innersooya​ @sweeneyblue1​
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eijie-cavies · 4 years ago
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Wen Kexing, Scorpion King and Gu-Xiang raised together in ghost valley.
This lovely user had produced a VERY interesting Au that I couldn't help myself but make a lil drabble/one shot on it. @naniya27 I hope you like it! I had fun playing around with Xi'er hahahah. (one shot under the cut)
Zhou Zishu didn't know if he should gape in surprise or tilt his head in confusion at the sight of Wen Kexing and a VERY familiar man clad in black conversing by their table. He had only stood up to order himself some more wine and all of the sudden there was an assassin sitting beside Wen Kexing, more so, this assassin wasn't even trying to kill him.
"Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you-" The man whined.
"I told you I will be "around" little brat, didn't A-Xiang inform you of my whereabouts?" Wen Kexing retorted, his carefree smile widened as he tilted his head back to drink his beverage as if this assassin was not in the least bit dangerous.  "Da-ge, you know I would be busy, did you purposely send me away to have your little adventures?" The man pouted, POUTED, as though he was a little brother feigning hurt just to gain favor from his older brother.
'Have I missed something here?' Zhou Zishu internally blanched, approaching their table slowly.
When the man's eyes landed on to him all the traces of playfulness disappeared and a hard mask was set in place. The man straightened in his seat like a proper gentleman with his eyes cold and observant. Zhou Zishu internally shivered, The man looked every bit like he was once did back when he was still serving the prince.
"Ah! A-Xu, come come, you took too long" Wen Kexing whined pettily which gained a slightly shocked but nonetheless passive expression from his companion. "I was gone for 5 minutes Lao Wen-"
"Five minutes too long, a-xu don't deprived me of your beauty" His soulmate winked.
The scandalized look on the scorpion's face ALMOST made Zhou Zishu want to play along with his fan man's antics, but his mind was still too muddled to comprehend just WHY this man was even here.
"Lao Wen, i don't think you need me here if you got a companion?" Zhou Zishu challenged, the man's eyebrows twitched. Either from annoyance or anger he didn't know. "Ah, my bad, A-Xu this is Xie Wang, Xi-er say hello to my beautiful A-Xu" Again, Wen Kexing had that silly sparkling look in his eyes that quiet frankly Zishu decided he would never tire from. "Wen Gongzi, I was not aware you harbored stowaways in your journey" Zishu wanted to snort at that. as if he had not seen the way this "Xi-er" acted while he was not there.
"I know who he is Lao Wen, did not know the Ghost valley is familiar with the Scorpion" Zhou Zishu tilted his head, sitting down across from Wen Kexing. Xi-er looked ready to retort a smartass reply, probably something Wen Kexing had taught himself when the older man beat him to it.
"Ayiah, the ghost valley and Scorpions had always been allies A-Xu, is it not a common knowledge?" he asked.
Zishu only shrugged his shoulder. being an ex-assassin he could always read people based on their body language, and though the man in front of him was of similar occupation, Zishu could not help but chuckle at the way Xi-er's knee slowly moved to touch Wen Kexing's in a protective manner ,or how his jaw flexed slightly indicating that he was grinding his teeth behind his mouth, the piercing eyes never left him for a moment as if anticipating Zishu's attack at anytime. truth be told he looked about ready to drive Zishu away himself.
"Ah that reminds me, I seemed to have forgotten to buy some herbs too take back to the manor, eh A-xu i'll be back in a bit" He smiled warmly before standing up to leave. Zishu knows it's bullshit, Lao Wen would never run off to "buy" something not unless he asked for money first, so Zishu figured that this was his chance to get to know this person, whatever Lao Wen had in mind anyway.
"So...Leader Zhou, we meet again" Xi-'er smiled politely, though the ex assassin knew that that was FAR from a friendly one, more like a challenge. "Yes, after you abducted Chengling" he fired back, smile as taxing. Xie'er ,in a moment of weakness, groaned "Please, don't remind me, i already got an earful from Da'ge about that, I don't want to hear the same from you"
Zishu raised his eyebrow in surprise and confusion, okay so he was not hallucinating then. this scorpion DID call Lao Wen "Da ge"
"Pardon?" said Zishu.
"How was I supposed to know that Zhang boy was your ward and you were with Da ge anyway? he hadn't contacted me ever since he got out of the valley" he pouted...again. "Besides, I already said sorry to him" he reasoned again. Zishu smirked at that "So you said sorry to him and not me or Chengling?"
"Hell no, I don't even know you. and why are you even sticking to Da'ge anyway? this wasn't even in his plan" Xie'er rolled his eyes so far back he was sure it would pop out. The ex- assassin only laughed at that. No, Lao Wen did NOT anticipate their meeting nor did Zishu himself, but he'd be damned if he was the one sticking to Wen Kexing. that fan wielding man was the one who clung to him in the first place.
Just before he could retort Chengling arrived just in time to See Xi-er slightly leaned forward at the table as if he was about to attack Zishu. "Chengling" the swordsman started, but Chengling was fast to run to his side and position himself just behind Zhou Zishu. Xie'er was not pleased. "Little idiot, I thought you went off to buy more supplies for-"
"I was! but Shishu told me to come back here and that he would handle it himself"
'Lao Wen I swear to-'
"Shishu? hah, who are you calling shishu? my Da'ge would never let anyone call him that" Zi'er
"Your Da'ge, definetly did" Zishu almost could not contain his laugh at the scorpion King's scandalized and shocked expression. "This is ridiculous" the scorpion King stood up with al the gracehe could muster in anger "I'm going to find him and set this right" he harrumped, swishing his robes as he disappeared out the tavern.
Chengling, who was still slightly cowering behind him stuttered. "Sh-Shifu, wasn't tha-"
"Yes, don't worry i'll talk to your Shishu about this, come on. Let's go and finish getting those herbs before we go home"
____________________________________________________
"Lao Wen"
"Hmmn?" Wen Kexing hummed, stirring a pot of hot steamed vegetables with chicken soup simmering by the side. "Xie'er was...something" at the mention of his brother Kexing stopped for a second before continuing his minstrations. as if reading Zishu's mind on wanting a clearer explanation, Wen Kexing caved "I found him when I was still in ghost valley. he was one of the children who had been abducted and brought to us" the taller man swallowed hard, clearly struggling, though his face showed little emotion.
"He almost died, luckily I got to him in time and managed to save him, hiding him away was the hardest part. it took a while before he trusted me but once he did I found that I could not turn him away"
Zhou Zishu sighed, with a burst of bravery he walked over to his Zhiji and wrapped his hands around his waist, his head came to rest on Lao Wen's shoulder. "He lived with me for several years,and then Gu-xiang appeared. We barely managed to save her but when Xie'er promised ties with the Scorpion to the former Ghost valley chief he let her go, when I became chief I finally let him go back to his home where he can see his parents again" Wen Kexing stopped, longer this time. His hand shook as he removed the pots from the fire to prevent them from burning, he turned to Zhou Zishu, eyes full of guilt and sorrow.
"But...it was too late, his parents had been killed and with no one to take the title Xi'er had to assume the role and had to band together the scorpions that we know today. He was only 17 that time A-Xu, it took years before he could properly  get a hold of the others and most of the time I wasn't even there to help him. I still had Gu-Xiang to raise and it wasn't time for me to emerge from the valley. He had to come to me multiple times-"
Wen Kexing faltered. Zishu figure that was enough, he didn't think Lao Wen would actually tell him that much. The shorter man steadily turned his soulmate to face him, his eyes soft and understanding as he slowly leaned in, just enough to let Lao Wen back out if he so wanted. but the other man stayed in place. He finally rest his forehead against Lao Wen's. in an instant, his partner loosened up, hand began to encircle around his waist as Zishu moved closer, feeling their noses touch.
"Lao Wen, you did great"
At that high praise and implication, Wen Kexing could not help but to shed tears of relief and gratefulness. Zishu understood, Zishu accepted. and most of all Zhou Zishu stayed.
Bonus: Timeline.
Wen Kexing was around 7 or 8 when he was brought in to Ghost valley. so let's say he was 7.
Xie'er came to ghost valley when he was 8 years old making Wen Kexing 15.
Gu-xiang came to valley when she was 7 making Wen Kexing 18 and Xi'er 11.
Wen Kexing was 20 when he took over, Xie'er now 17 years old and given free reign over the scorpions and Gu xiang 9.
Finally current drama:
Wen Kexing - 28
Xie Wang- 21
Gu-Xiang - 17
(These aren't the real ages btw XD just estmation. i had big brain moment trying to sort out the timeline hahaha)
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gureishi · 4 years ago
Note
I had spam and eggs for breakfast
XD though can I request 20 with zen, fluff please :D
Truly thank you for telling me, breakfast is everything
Yes, of course! What a sweet prompt for lovely Zen—I had a lot of fun writing this. I hope you enjoy it!! ♡
twenty: fall in love all over again
ZenXReader, T, words: 1988
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・
The big analog clock on the wall tells you it’s long past sunset. In the studio, there’s no indication of day or night—there are no windows, and the high-ceilinged room is lit for mid-morning. As far as you can tell, it’s been mid-morning for over ten hours.
You slip out of the soft, low-backed chair, and wander over to the craft services table, mostly for something to do. You pour yourself some decaf coffee (because you really want to sleep tonight) and hover near the obnoxiously large snack platter, stretching your stiff arms.
A youngish man with a beard appears beside you. You shoot him a sideways glance; his badge identifies him as a PA.
“So you’re his manager, huh?” he says. You follow his gaze across the expansive room; it falls, of course, on Zen, who is resplendent in a black mock neck sweater and blazer. He’s getting his makeup touched up, perched delicately on the edge of a stool. You smile at the sight of him: he sits perfectly still, his face tilted up obediently. His hair glitters under the studio lights, like it’s been adorned with ice crystals.
“Yes, I am,” you say politely, because you don’t know this man, and what are you supposed to say? Yes, and also we sleep in the same bed?
“Lucky you,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows. You sigh. Like you, he’s just looking for a way to pass the time. “He’s crazy hot. Any good stories? Drama?”
You laugh. You seem to have fallen head-first into an impossible situation. You have plenty of drama, you suppose—that morning, Zen had accidentally put berries in his yogurt before remembering that their sugar content is too high for a filming day. You doubt this is the kind of drama the PA is looking for.
Before you can say anything, a script assistant who you vaguely know from another set drifts over to the table, croissant in hand.
“You idiot, they live together!” she interrupts, face alight, evidently thrilled to drop this particular bomb. The PA gawks; the assistant speaks in a low voice, filling him in on the more public details of your relationship.
You slip away as discretely as you can, stifling a yawn. Seeing people make the connection, put together the pieces of your relationship—this was thrilling, once. Nowadays, you feel like there’s no crazy, misconstrued version of your relationship that you haven’t already heard. Today, you really just want to go home, crawl into your warm bed, and sleep for as many hours as humanly possible.
You collapse back into your chair, pulling out your phone out of habit. It’s useless—there’s no service in the studio. 
You watch idly as they do a few more takes. It’s not a very exciting shot: Zen turns a corner and walks toward the camera. Then he does it again. And again. It’s boring, but you don’t really mind—you love watching him work. He’s so serious when the cameras are on and so enthusiastic between shots, bouncing on the balls of his feet with anticipation. You’d never know, from looking at him, how many hours you’ve all spent in this chilly, windowless warehouse. He’s practically radiating zeal.
Finally, finally, they wrap for the day. The director whispers to her assistant and the call is repeated, echoing throughout the huge room. Suddenly, there’s a bustle of activity. You draft a quick text to Zen’s agent and another to his publicist; they’ll go through when you get out of this cellular data dead zone.
You linger as people start to disperse. It’s chaos as the crowd moves and shifts, packing up and yelling goodbyes across the room. The first day of filming is always this way: long, boisterous, draining.
You’re drafting a longer email when he finally approaches you, his tall figure casting a shadow over your phone screen.
“Ready to go home, babe?” 
He’s in full anti-paparazzi gear, a baseball hat and a mask and a giant scarf. His eyes—the only part of him that’s visible—glimmer, and he winks at you.
“Please,” you sigh, tossing your phone into your bag.
He doesn’t take your hand, because his publicist has repeatedly asked him to please stop doing that while on location. He nudges you with his shoulder, though, offering you a little bit of his warmth.
He’s tired, too—you can tell, though you’re sure no one else could. You see it in the way he walks, his strides just a shade shorter than usual—and in the way his voice sounds, a little bit deep, a little bit muted.
You’re quiet as you walk to the car; he waves goodbye to everyone, calling them all by name—the actors, the assistants, the hair stylists and set dressers and boom operators. It’s just like him to have learned all of this already, you think.
You make your way down a bafflingly long hallway and—at last—into the parking lot. It’s fully night, the moon high in the sky. You take a deep breath, relishing in the feeling of fresh air in your nostrils.
Your phone buzzes repeatedly as a day’s worth of texts come in. You ignore them and shoot a quick text to the driver. Zen throws his arms up over his head and breathes deeply.
It’s routine, you think, as the car pulls up, as Zen tosses another goodbye over his shoulder at a departing electrician. All of it: waking up together, going to work together. Leaving work together, riding back home.
As soon as the door is closed, Zen slumps against you, his head on your shoulder. You lay a hand on his knee.
“How do you think today went?” you ask him. He can be tired, now that he’s alone with you. He’s always acting when he’s at work, even when he’s not on camera.
“Mmmm,” he mumbles into your neck. “I’m not sure. I didn’t even say any lines yet.”
You giggle. “Yeah. It was mostly you walking back and forth, huh.”
He laughs his sweet, breathy, sleepy laugh—the one that never fails to give you butterflies, even after all this time.
You fall into silence. You feel the tiredness in your bones: the hours of sitting have made your butt a little numb, and your eyes burn from the studio lights. You remember, vaguely, the way you felt the very first time you came to a shoot with him—like the world was unfurling before you. You wish you could rekindle just a little of that naïve enthusiasm.
You almost don’t notice the car pulling up in front of the apartment. Zen lifts his head off your shoulder and presses a feather-light kiss to your cheek.
“We’re home, my love.”
You thank the driver and follow Zen—out of the car, down the steps, through the door.
“Okay.” He turns to you, tossing off his hat, his mask hanging from one ear. He’s grinning like he has a secret. “Please wait in the living room, darling.”
“Why?” He shakes his head and kisses you swiftly on the lips, darting away before you have time to respond.
Puzzled, you hang your jacket and flop onto the couch, finally catching up on the messages you missed all day. Almost everyone is in the RFA chatroom; you check in, tell them about the filming. They are amused that Zen was just being filmed walking around all day; there’s more to his character than that! you want to yell at them.
Just then, you notice an unexpected flowery scent drifting into the room—roses and lavender. You sit up, sniffing the air. What on earth could he be doing right now?
As if on cue, Zen appears in the doorway in a cloud of perfumed air. His hair’s untied, splayed artfully over his shoulders. He holds out an arm for you and you scramble to your feet. He laughs gleefully—it’s a beautiful sight to behold; he’s all sparkles and unbridled joy.
“Where are we going?” you ask, laughing as he dramatically sweeps you down the short hallway. It’s not a big apartment—there isn’t really much of anywhere to go.
“Ta-da!” He opens the bathroom door with a flourish.
You inhale sharply.
The overhead light is off and he’s lit every candle in the house—they’re on the sink, on the floor, on the edges of the tub. Through the warm, flickering light, you see light, faintly colored steam rising—you peer down and see that he’s filled the tub with hot water and bubbles in numerous pastel colors. There are rose petals and tiny sprigs of lavender floating on the surface.
“Zen!”
He lifts your hand to his lips and kisses it ever-so-gently.
“You gave me nearly twelve hours of your precious time today,” he says, and his voice comes out a little too fast, the way it does when he gets excited and his mouth can’t keep up with his mind. “I know how exhausting it is sitting in the studio. I can’t bear thinking about you feeling cold and tired and sore, all for my sake.” He pauses; caresses your cheek with one long finger. “You’re my whole world. I just want you to feel warm.”
You throw your arms around his neck and kiss him enthusiastically; he stumbles a little, caught off guard, and then catches himself against the doorframe, kissing you back with surprising energy.
You pull away just slightly, your lips centimeters from his. His breath tickles your nose.
“You’re the sweetest, kindest man to ever live,” you say.
“And the most beautiful,” he reminds you, lips just grazing yours, making the bottoms of your feet tingle. “But in this case, all I’ve done is fill up the bathtub. I can do a lot more.”
Your breath catches in your throat. His large hand is at the small of your back.
“C-can I tell you something?” you stammer, before you’re completely swept off your feet.
“Anything, my love.”
“Do you ever feel…hmmm.” You pull back and he lets you, swiping a hand through his perfect silver hair. “Do you ever feel like we’ve sort of fallen into a routine? Like we live together and work together and…do you know what I mean?”
He tilts his head to the side, as if considering it for the first time.
“I suppose that’s true,” he says. “We are together a lot. Which is the only thing I’ve dreamed of since the day I met you, by the way.” 
You laugh. “I didn’t mean anything bad by it. I was just thinking…our lives feel so normal nowadays. You know? But then you go and do something sweet for me like this and…”
“You fall in love with me again?” He winks at you, his red eyes glittering. “That’s exactly what I was just thinking. Sometimes when I’m feeling tired or out of it I look over at you and I just fall head over heels. So much I can’t even bear it.”
“You’re not already head over heels for me?” 
He throws out an arm and catches himself on the doorframe just above you, pressing you body into his chest, leaning over you. You’re wrapped up in the intoxicating, fresh scent of him.
“I am crazy about you,” he says. “I am crazy about you today and I’ll be crazy about you tomorrow and I’ll be crazy about you in one hundred years.”
You breathe in deeply. He still makes your head spin.
“I love you,” you tell him.
“I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you!” he sings, his voice high and sweet. “Now go take a bath while the water’s still warm, my darling. I’ll be waiting for you when you get out.”
So you do.
And of course he will be.
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xmagicxshopx · 5 years ago
Text
Rush Hour Pt 1
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Genre: Action Adventure, Angst, Romance, Comedy Rating: PG-13 - M Warnings: drug trafficking, human trafficking, language, smut (in pt 2) Pairing: officer!jungkook x reader , officer!taehyung x oc (Nari) Notes: AU fic. Not idol!bts. Single quote marks ‘ ‘ are for thoughts and double “ “ are for talking. Additional Notes: Thank all the crime shows my parents watch for this. XD Not to mention I love the Rush Hour movies. @u@
Tagging: @grxnadxs​
Summary: You and your best friend are being framed for a crime you didn’t commit and there’s only two people who believe you. Agent Inspector Jeon of the Busan Police Department and Detective Kim of the Daegu Police Department. Can they rescue you before it’s too late?
MASTERLIST
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Organized Crime.
South Korea’s biggest enemy.
Financial fraud, drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, human trafficking. It was all because of organized crime and it made the police departments absolutely sick. A beast they couldn’t contain, let alone kill. Drugs were their biggest problem, really. And what drugs couldn’t produce in real cash flow, fake won made up for it. Sickening. Absolutely sickening.
“Detective Kim---Agent Inspector Jeon has arrived.”
Having been standing there watching the city with his steaming mug of hot chocolate because he’s not a coffee drinker, he simply turned his head to the officer-in-training and smiled a friendly smile before nodding his head and saying casually,
“Let the asshole in.”
“Hey, I heard that, asshat!”
Detective Kim, more commonly known as Kim Taehyung, just laughed as he set his mug down to greet one of his best friends and favorite partners in law enforcement. Walking through the door was one chuckling Jeon Jungkook, otherwise known as Agent Inspector Jeon. After performing their super secret handshake, the both of them took a seat in which Jeon sighed heavily.
“They briefed me on the situation. One of them is from Busan so they sent me over. It’s a pretty ugly case. This organization seems to have quite the record.”
“No kidding. Drug and human trafficking?? Disgusting. Makes me sick.”
Jungkook watched his older bestie tossing the folder full of files onto his desk and he couldn’t help but feel bad for him. Kim Taehyung was a good man. An honest and traditional man. Someone who one day wanted to settle down and have a family. A wife and kids. He cherished his fellow human beings so human trafficking always hit harder for him than anything else.
“Hey. We’ll catch them, hyung. They’re going to slip up and that’s when they’ll hang themselves with their own rope. In fact, it sounds like they might already have. It says they’re on the run. Armed and dangerous. But we’re more dangerous. Besides....”
Kim looked away from the window once more to see what his younger friend might be trying to say. The sight before him made the male snort and shake his blonde head in amusement. Jeon Jungkook had since stood up from his seat and was standing in a fighting position while saying with confidence that only he could pull off,
“I’ve been taking boxing lessons. These dirt bags won’t see me coming.”
“Whatever you say, Jeon. Whatever you say.”
Meanwhile, on a train heading out of Daegu.....
“I’m scared....”
You could hardly hear your best friend and honestly you couldn’t blame her. Both of your voices were hoarse from the lack of hydration. The first thing you’d do once getting to the next town would be trying to buy some bottles of water. Your tongue felt like sandpaper. Trying your best to comfort the female next to you, you simply reeled her in and let her head rest on your shoulder.
Criminals.
In the eye of the public, that’s what you were.
The world knew you both as criminals but the world couldn’t be farther from the truth. You two were just a pair of best friends who had found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Simple on paper but oh-so complicated in all actuality. With an internal sigh, you gently stroked your best friend’s raven locks as you spoke up softly,
“It’s going to be okay, Nari. I’m going to take care of us. Just stick with me and everything will be fine.”
Nari, your best friend of four years, nodded gently against your shoulder as she shifted a little closer in the bus seat the two of you were sharing. Honestly, the two of you weren’t used to the silence of the bus. The life you both had been living for the last four months was anything but silent. Guns, violence, moving from home to home. It was all so chaotic.
Human trafficking.
You were no longer considered a person. No. You and your best friend had become objects to be used by scum bags who called themselves men. To be used as they saw fit. Whether it be as a cover-up for a smuggling operation or to release sexual frustration, you were no longer considered a human being. It may have only been for four months, but it’s been the longest four months of your lives.
“Once we get off the bus, I’ll get us a hotel room, okay? I managed to knock the one guy out and grab his wallet. Let’s just hope this won is legit and not fake. Otherwise we’re screwed.”
You didn’t want to scare Nari, but you had to be realistic too. The situation was not pretty but you were going to do your very best to make this as easy for her as possible. Your best friend was a soft and sensitive soul so naturally this was extremely hard on her. Not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally. The physical scars would heal, but the mental and emotional? That was a whole other ballgame.
“Let’s get off here. Surely there’s a hotel or motel near by. If not, we can always ask around.”
Back at the Daegu Police Department....
“Okay. So your prime suspects are two females, both in their 20s and South Korean natives. Squeaky clean criminal records. Not even a parking violation.”
Both Taehyung and Jungkook found themselves sporting identical expressions of confusion as their eyebrows knitted together. While the younger of the two was staring at the huge TV screen that had the suspects’ passport photos on display, Taehyung was looking through each of their files and couldn’t believe his eyes.
“The one was going to school to be a kindergarten teacher with a minor in journalism while the other has an online degree in Police Science and has taken several self-defense classes.”
While the blonde detective was rattling off more information from the files, Min Yoongi who was Daegu’s Intelligence Analyst was bringing up those very same records up on the screen for Jungkook to look over as well. Dang. It was hard to believe these girls were their prime suspects.
“The files go on to say the university student, Nari, was currently shadowing a kindergarten class when she went missing four months ago. The Police Science graduate was currently working at a cafe in Busan when she too went missing four months ago.”
“So they were together when they went missing?”
Just as Yoongi and Taehyung were about to wager a guess to the younger’s question, a new voice entered the room as a young man that went by the name of Jung Hoseok strolled in. Hoseok, or otherwise known as Hobi, was a Forensic Psychologist and had been brought it to try and figure out why two girls with absolutely no prior criminal records would be suspects in one of South Korea’s largest drug trafficking ring.
“Possibly. According to their records, they live at the same address. An apartment building on the shadier side of town. Judging from their day jobs, I would say it was all they could afford. The Busan girl commutes.”
Jungkook turned around to look at the older males with his hands stuffed in his pockets, expression pensive as he stood there in deep thought before asking out loud,
“So maybe they did it for the money?”
With a casual shrug, Hoseok looked to the TV screen where the records and photos were on display. It just didn’t add up to him. He had dealt with a lot of cases and in all his years of forensic psychology, he had never seen anything quite like this. But then again.....
“It’s not uncommon for financial stress to drive a person to commit crime. For now, they’re probably going to be your only suspects. They were seen on the storefront’s security footage with the bag as they fled the scene. Looks like it was a deal gone South.”
It was then that Yoongi pressed a button on his tablet and brought up the exact footage Hobi was referring to. The four young men watched as the two female suspects approached two men who were twice their size. Again. It didn’t make sense to Hobi. This was a professional ring. Why would a ring leader who was supposedly one of the smartest men in crime......be sending in two puny girls in their 20s to perform a hand-off???
“Looks like the one put her self defense lessons to good use. But she’s lucky neither one of them got shot.”
While Yoongi spoke in his usual calm tone, the rest of the boys watched on as the footage soon revealed the spat that took place. One man was knocked out and Taehyung could see one of the girls swiping his wallet. The last few seconds of the recording was of the girls running off while leaving the bag behind. The bag was then taken by the two men who ran in the opposite direction. Dang.
“Okay, Hobi hyung. Put your brain to work. Why would those girls try to fight when they were just going to let them have the drugs anyway? What’s the purpose here? The only crimes they committed were assault and stealing a dirt bag’s wallet.”
The psychologist took a moment to consider the young inspector’s questions. Yes. What was the purpose of the whole transaction??? All the girls got away with was a wallet and who knows if it had any actual won in it. Even if it did, the odds of the won being legit were slim to none. Still......it wasn’t adding up......there was more to this story here. That’s for sure. It was then that Taehyung spoke up as he said in an authoritative tone,
“Okay. Jeon---call in Jimin from your guys’ Busan department and have him interview the cafe manager and the staff. You and I are gonna take a trip to the kindergarten class Nari was shadowing and see if the teacher might have any insight. Maybe they got close while working together.”
He then turned to the older males in the room and added in the same tone but with more softness and naturally more respect,
“Yoongi hyung, if you can get me any further footage, maybe even some traffic cams, I’d greatly appreciate it. Maybe we can track down where they ran off to. Hobi hyung, try to take a closer look at the footage we already have. Maybe you can spot something we aren’t looking at. See if you guys can enhance the video any. Get a closer look.”
With that, the four men went to work. Innocent or not, these two women needed to be found because they could be the key to bringing down the largest drug trafficking ring in South Korea.
“There’s a convenience store. Want to grab some supplies and food and then find a place to stay?”
After receiving a timid nod from Nari, you offered her a warm smile and gently tugged her along as the two of you headed into the store. There was plenty of won in the wallet you had swiped so thankfully they could afford the necessities without having to skimp. Shampoo, body wash, water, and food. Pretty simple. Well maybe some toothbrushes and paste as well. The two of you felt absolutely disgusting and probably looked just as much.
The hotel room would probably have little bottles of shampoo and body wash, but you planned to douse yourselves in both. Now that you got to thinking about it, both of your hair looked like rats nests. Comb and brush. Okay. The list was getting longer but still. You both were a little more than ready to start feeling human again. Could anyone blame you???
Once picking out the cheapest shampoo and conditioner you could find, you went to go pick up a bottle of body wash that was just as cheap. You guys didn’t need to be in a beauty pageant, just clean. After picking a brush and comb both, you gently tugged your bestie along with you to have her pick out some food.
Ever since the human trafficking started, Nari had nearly completely shut down. She became quiet and shut off. It was hard for even you to get her to speak. Like the few moments they had alone together while waiting for their next ‘owner’ to arrive and take them ‘home’. It was so heartbreaking because your best friend was once a ray of pure sunshine. A light in the darkness.
And now she had become part of the darkness.
“Okay, Ri, what sounds good for dinner tonight? I think some instant noodles are calling our name.”
You would have loved to just call room service. However, for two reasons, you didn’t go that route. One, it wasn’t essential and therefore you didn’t want to risk wasting your limited funding on it. Two, you didn’t want to give the organization or the authorities any ammo that might help either one of them track you both down. Oh how you wanted to use this guy’s credit cards. But you knew better. Credit Cards were so easy to trace back. It was safer to use the won notes.
After allowing Nari to pick out her bowls of instant noodles, you picked out some as well before buying a loaf of bread and some peanut butter. Carbs. You both needed carbs desperately. The organization and all of your ‘owners’ hadn’t exactly taken the best care of you. Apparently you didn’t need to have a pretty or healthy body to be a sex toy. Go figure. With all of your hygienic items in one basket and the food in the other, you gently tugged your bestie along so that the two of you could pay for the items and get the heck of here.
Coughing up more notes than you wanted to, everything was paid for and the two of you were soon out into the world once more. Honestly, the weather was perfect for a nightly stroll. It had been so long since you felt so.....free. Granted you were currently on the run but you’d take what you could get. Just before you had left the store, you asked the employee on the other side of the counter if there were any hotels close by. Turns out there was. Thankfully just a block away from the store.
“Come on, Ri. Let’s get a roof over our heads and some food in our bellies. You can have first dibs on the shower. It’s gonna be okay, bestie. We’re gonna be just fine.”
You could only hope you didn’t turn into a liar. Going over it all in your head, you were pretty confident that you wouldn’t be found. At least not for a few days. But your mind was already thinking of the next steps to take. Thinking and calculating. You knew better than to think you could be on the run forever. No. You just needed a bit of time before contacting the authorities and explaining the situation; hoping they’d hear you out.
“Morning, Jeon.”
“Morning, hyung. Ugh. I didn’t sleep a wink last night. Just kept thinking about those girls. Makes no sense.”
It was a new day and the game plan was simple. Information gathering. After that, the pair would get together with Yoongi and Hobi to analyze the data collected. Meanwhile, Yoongi was going to try and see if he could use traffic cams to map out where exactly the two girls went. They could still be in Daegu for all they knew. Hobi’s job was to pick apart the suspects’ body language and see if there was anything he could identify that might help them figure out why the girls are even their prime suspects. That part still didn’t add up with any of them.
Okay so maybe not such a simple plan. But it was a plan all the same.
“It was a good call to wear something casual. We wouldn’t want to scare the kiddos.”
Taehyung honestly hadn’t thought about it till late last night. He too had a hard time sleeping. All he could think about was the girls. There was this nagging feeling telling him these girls were innocent. He highly doubted they were armed let alone dangerous. Speaking of, as he popped the trunk to his personal vehicle, he said casually,
“Probably ought to hide the guns too. These kids are young but you know how they pick up on every little thing that’s out of the ordinary.”
“Good point. You’re batting a thousand today, hyung. I’m gonna have to up my game if I’m going to keep up with you.”
“Just put your mad boxing skills to good use should something go south and we’ll be square.”
Chuckling softly, the two made their way into the building and showed the receptionist their badges before being escorted to the kindergarten classroom Nari had been shadowing. It was odd to be working in something other than their usual suit and tie. Jungkook could get used to working in his button up shirt and skinny jeans. The two could hear lots of giggling and it warmed Taehyung’s heart. God how badly he wanted to be a dad. But he needed to focus. This was a job. Not a field trip. He couldn’t let his feelings get involved.
“Good morning, Mrs. Lee. I’m Detective Kim Taehyung and this is my partner Agent Inspector Jeon Jungkook. If you have a moment, we’d like to ask you a few questions concerning the girl who was shadowing your class. She disappeared a little over four months ago. Her name is Nari. Do you remember her?”
Turns out this Nari girl was quite the ray of sunshine to be around. Naturally shy upon first meeting but once she got comfortable, she was a bit of a chatter box. Kind of cute, really. She got along great with the kids and when she had first disappeared, they immediately picked up on it and kept asking where she was. The class had even made get well cards after being told that she was simply not feeling good and needed some time off.
The whole thing silently broke Taehyung’s heart. This Nari sounded like his dream girl. Aside from the criminal part. Which still didn’t make sense. This girl enjoyed reading, writing, anime, and kids. She enjoyed several things that he too enjoyed. It was a shame to think that she possibly turned to organized crime. But for what? What was the incentive to just drop everything and turn to crime? She had such a beautiful life and it seemed like it was something she was still working on building. Why just abandon it?
“Okay, Jeon. Playtime’s over. Let’s go.”
His partner had been of little help during the questioning. However, it wasn’t entirely Jeon’s fault. The kids were insistent that he play with them. Who was a man to deny so many sets of puppy eyes??? That was how Taehyung found his younger partner currently being used as a human jungle gym. He had a kid hanging off each arm as he flexed his arm muscles to help hold them both up. A little girl was giggling and squealing in happiness as she had been placed on his shoulders, hugging his face to keep herself from falling. What a dork.
“Okay, kids. Let Mr. Jeon go so he can get back to work. And what do we say to others who play nicely with us?”
“Thank you, Mr. Jeon!”
The chorus of high pitched voices was so endearing. Perhaps Jungkook was starting to see why his hyung wanted to be a father so badly. These little ones weren’t so bad. Well that was probably a result of good parenting. Not to mention it sounded like the teacher was trying to set good examples for them too. After smiling to the kids and trying to dodge their questions of whether or not they’d be seeing him again, Jungkook quickly made his exit with his partner who was smiling and shaking his head in amusement.
Kids. Go figure. It was then that both agents heard Yoongi coming in through their ear pieces. Taehyung had just been popping the trunk back open to get their guns when the Daegu native started speaking in a calm but rushed voice,
“You two better get back to the office. Hobi made a huge discovery that’s going to change this into a whole different ballgame.”
Well that didn’t sound good.
Making haste, the two drove from the school parking lot and headed straight for the station. It wasn’t often that Yoongi sounded so urgent. He was usually pretty cool, calm, and collected. That’s what made him such an awesome analyst. He was able to look at things with a clear head. It was a trait that many in the department wish they had as well. Arriving in the information room where the male worked, Taehyung said in a breathless tone,
“What you got for us, hyung?”
But it was Hoseok that spoke up in reply; his tone grave.
“Your suspects just turned into victims.”
Wait what???
Meanwhile, you were up bright and early. It was easy and yet difficult to sleep all at the same time. The exhaustion had knocked both you and Nari out the second your heads hit the pillows of your shared king sized bed. However, it seemed like you were awake every other hour. Your body screamed sleep but your mind was on full alert. It was hard to sleep peacefully when you knew danger could be around every corner. You could open your eyes and find yourself right back in the jaws of danger.
It was exhausting, really. But this was your reality for the time being. Looking away from the window, you peered over at the sleeping figure in the bed. Poor Nari. She looked so small and frail laying there in that big bed. It was comforting to see her getting some sleep. Hopefully dreamless and restful. Last night had been wonderful. Their first night where they weren’t held in some kind of captivity. No disgusting cages or dirty food and water. For the first night in four months, they were just two girls hanging out. No longer objects. But humans.
They were humans again.
Deciding it was safe to take a shower, you tiptoed your way to the bathroom and just cracked the door so that it wouldn’t let all the steam out. Gosh the shower last night had been amazing! Hot water, soap. It was wonderful! The both of you had brushed your teeth twice just for good measure too. While you allowed the water to warm up, you thought about the tasks at hand today. The plan sounded simple but it was going to be tricky regardless.
A disguise. You both needed a disguise. Just until you could get your thoughts together and a plan for when you notified the authorities. You didn’t want to just go waltzing in the Daegu Police Department with hands in the air. No. You needed a plan. You needed to be able to prove your innocence. And that was when you thought of those disgusting bracelets you had to wear. Ugh. They were the ugliest shade of orange too. It was surly a color you’d despise for the rest of your life.
“They’re what?!”
Jungkook tried to put a gentle hand on his partner’s shoulder but it got roughly shrugged off. Taehyung was furious. Absolutely furious. Seeing red. That was all the male could see as he stared at Yoongi and Hoseok. The two had just informed them that the two suspects were actually being trafficked and were part of the transaction that took place on the storefront camera footage they were able to obtain.
Human trafficking. These two poor girls were being handed off along with the drugs. It all made sense now. The one using her knowledge in self defense to try and disarm and distract the punks. Swiping the wallet and yet leaving the drugs behind. It all finally added up. These girls weren’t criminals at all. There was a reason their records were so squeaky clean. They never asked for this. They were forced into it. They didn’t go missing willingly. They were kidnapped.
“It’s gonna be okay, Tae. I was able to get access to the town’s traffic cams and I think I know what city they’re in. But you gotta calm down first. The chief isn’t going to let you go into this guns blazing and you know that.”
However, the blonde detective wasn’t entirely listening. It was like his ears were filled with water. He just stood there staring at the single clue that lead Hobi and Yoongi to discovering what was actually going on in the footage from earlier. Each girl sported an orange colored wristband. After doing some digging, Yoongi had discovered it was an inside tagging system for women who were being trafficked. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. It left a horrible taste in Taehyung’s mouth as he thought of Nari......Nari........
It was then that the feline looking male spoke up but this time directed his attention to the younger inspector.
“Kook---Take him to the cafe around the corner. I’ll forward you guys what I believe to be their city of refuge. It’s not too terribly far from here but it’s a drive. Looks like they took the bus.”
“Thanks, Yoongi hyung. Come on, buddy. Let’s go have a drink.”
That was how Taehyung wound up sitting at a small table with a steaming to-go cup of hot chocolate. Meanwhile, Jungkook had opted for an iced americano. Ugh. Gross. While the younger was looking over the traffic cam footage Yoongi had forwarded to his phone, the detective simply stared out the window of the local cafe. His partner had tried to place a single glazed doughnut in front of him to go with his hot chocolate but Tae had touched neither one; too lost in thoughts of the sweet college student trying to become a kindergarten teacher.
His dream girl.
‘I bet she wants to have kids too someday.....I’ll make sure she has that chance. I’m gonna find her. And I’ll save her.’
The young inspector, on the other hand, was more focused on you. What was your story? Certainly you weren’t going to be working as a barista the rest of your life. The fact that you had taken an online course in Police Science intrigued him. Perhaps you were interested in going into law enforcement? That would be cool. Especially since you were a Busan native. What would be the chances of you working in the same station as him?
“Okay, Ri. Today we’re gonna try and get some fresh clothes and maybe do something with our hair. Basically we need a disguise. Just until we can get our thoughts together and figure out how to notify the police without it looking like we’re turning ourselves in.”
It saddened you when all your best friend did was nod. Again....she used to be so talkative. So bright and cheery. You weren’t sure you were going to be able to take her out of this hotel room just yet. While your guys’ physical scars were already starting to heal, there were far deeper cuts that needed attention. Carefully taking a seat next to her on the bed, you gently wrapped an arm around her and spoke in a soft and soothing tone,
“Nari, baby. You gotta talk to me. I’m no therapist but I think being your best friend has to count for something. You can tell me anything. So please, say something.”
“You could have died.....”
Hmm? Out of all the things you were expecting Nari to say, that definitely wasn’t one of them. Before you could ask her to clarify, she did it for you as she added in explanation,
“They had guns, bestie. And they were shooting at us. They were shooting at you. I was so scared you’d get hit and die. I’ve lost so much. I can’t lose you too. Please---”
“Hey, hey. Shhh. It’s okay, Ri. It’s okay.”
You sat there at the foot of the bed hugging a sobbing Nari; gently rocking the both of you back and forth as you allowed the girl to cry out her feelings. You had been in such a constant state of survival mode, that you hadn’t taken into account how the dangers of the whole situation would affect her. Of course seeing your best friend get shot at would be traumatizing. Gently kissing the girl’s forehead while stroking her hair with a free hand, you said softly and soothingly,
“I’m sorry I scared you, Ri. It wasn’t my intentions. I just......I needed to get us out of there and it was the only way I knew how. And the good news is, we’re not only alive, but we’re free. No more drugs, no more trafficking. We’re humans again and we’re gonna get through this together. I’m with you every step of the way. Okay? Together?”
You held out your pinkie finger for her to take and was happily surprised to see her return the gesture by weakly wrapping her pinkie around your own. This was progress. It was the most Nari had said since the two of you escaped from the organization. Hopefully with this off her chest, she’d open up a little more and just maybe, things would get back to some kind of normal between you two. You really didn’t want to lose your best friend. Nari wasn’t the only one in that hotel room who had lost a lot.
With the both of you feeling a little bit better, you carefully stood up from the bed and brought your bestie along with you. It would be okay. You’d make it be okay no matter the cost. It was time to get out of these disgusting clothes and find something more suitable for wear. Not to mention your hair needed a trim something awful. Then again.....you were willing to go the extra mile for a disguise if it meant surviving to see real freedom.
Deciding it wasn’t smart to stay in one place for two nights in a row, you made the plan to get your clothes, get stuff needed for your hair, maybe purchase a couple duffel bags, and make your next move. That was as far as you had gotten in the planning. Should the two of you stay in this town or perhaps travel back to Daegu? Maybe Busan? Ugh. You just didn’t know yet. Okay. One step at a time, here. One step at a time.
Crossing the street, you had heard from the hotel desk clerk that there was a hand-me-down store for clothing not too far from where they were staying. That would be perfect! You didn’t need to look like models. You just needed some clean clothes to wear. And you had saw where a pharmacy was close by as well. You decided to dye your hair and cut it yourself but you just weren’t sure what color to get. Poor Nari, on the other hand, was way too happy with her hair and especially the color. So to try and find some even ground, the two of you had agreed on a hat. She could tie up her hair and wear a baseball cap. That would work.
While Nari wanted something pretty, you were more focused on trying to disguise yourself as much as possible. In fact, when you came out of the dressing room with a plain white t-shirt tucked into a pair of black skinnies and a black blazer to match; paired with black combat boots that looked like they could kill, Nari couldn’t stop herself from mumbling shyly,
“You look like a boy if it wasn’t for your boobs and long hair.”
“That’s the plan.....babe.”
You couldn’t help but grin as you watched your best friend blush heavily. Don’t get the wrong picture, the both of you were far more into boys. But it was cute to tease your bestie because as much as you loved her, she was such a cute and easy target. When you heard that familiar whine of mortification, you couldn’t help but feel your chest bubble with happiness and relief. Perhaps that talk in the hotel room really did do some good. Nari just simply needed to get some feels off her chest.
After he got Taehyung to finally eat and drink something, Jungkook ended up lugging his butt up from the cafe chair and hauled him outside into the fresh air. It wasn’t like his older friend to get stuck in his feels like this. Sure human trafficking had always been a sore subject, but he was taking it to a completely new level of sore. Stuffing his hands in his pockets and squinting against the sun’s rays, the young inspector said casually,
“Jimin said there wasn’t much to report on the barista from Busan. Apparently she was trying to save her tips from the cafe in order to go into law school. She’s on the fence of whether or not she wants to be a cop or an attorney.”
Jungkook really wanted to meet you. You fascinated him to no end. First the course in Police Science and now law school? You sounded super cool with how you had taken several self defense classes as well. He wondered if you liked boxing......Yeah......maybe he could teach you one day.
Wait what???
Shaking his head to clear it, it was then that he heard Yoongi coming on the ear piece once more.
“Your girls are on the move. They stayed at a hotel last night but they’ve not made any further reservations. Apparently one of the other guests recognized them in the hallways. I informed the manager to keep it quiet because we don’t want to scare them off. If we’re lucky, we can catch them before they depart. The manager said they’ve not returned the room keys yet.”
“Thanks, hyung. Keep us posted.”
“No problem. Forwarding you guys the hotel address now.”
“You hear that, hyung? We’re gonna find them and it’s gonna be okay.”
Feeling a hearty pat on his shoulder, Taehyung nodded and tried to give his younger partner a smile. The two girls must be so scared. Running from not only the organization, but the law as well. When in all reality, this had since then turned into a rescue mission. This was definitely a first for him in his career of law enforcement. Pulling himself together, the blonde squared his shoulders and held his head up high as he walked to the car. Meanwhile, Jeon was reading off the directions to the city where the girls were currently staying in.
“So.....Hyung.......You seem pretty invested in this case. You wanna talk about it?”
Yoongi was right when he said it was a bit of a drive. At the same time, Jungkook couldn’t help but mentally praise the girls for thinking of taking such a far, out-of-the-way route to escape danger. It was a quieter town too. Or so he had heard. Listening to the ticking sound of the vehicle’s turn signal, the blonde detective finally spoke up but in a small voice.
“I just want to find them and bring those dirt bags to justice.”
Okay. So clearly his hyung wasn’t ready to talk about it. Which was totally fine. But it was easier to work with a Kim Taehyung when he had his head on straight and he wasn’t thinking with his heart instead of his brain. Subconsciously nibbling on his bottom lip, a nervous habit of his, Jungkook silently nodded and turned his attention to his phone. With the help of Yoongi and his ability to enhance images, he was able to get a better look at the two girls they were trying to rescue.
“They’re both kind of cute. Once you get past their bird nest hairstyles and grungy clothing.”
That didn’t seem to make matters any easier as Jungkook could hear his hyung gripping the steering wheel all the tighter; the sound of his skin squeaking against the material of the wheel. Oops....
“What hotel was it again? I think we might be approaching the town soon.”
Yeah. Definitely not ready to talk about it.
“Bestie.....are you sure you want to do this? We can get you a ball cap too, you know. It doesn’t have to be this extreme.”
“I’m absolutely positive, Nari. Lay it on me.”
Nari couldn’t believe what she was about to do to her best friend’s hair. It was already painful enough to watch you chop it all off. She knew the point was for you to look as far from yourself as possible but still......This was just crazy. You had chopped your own hair off and now sported a boy cut of sorts. Bangs hung in your eyes to try and hide them while your back had been completely taken up. Not a single strand of hair was hanging down or coming anywhere close to your shoulders. Nothing framing your face. Just your bangs.
“They won’t be looking for a blonde, Nari. Just trust me.”
And that was how you got your hair bleached for the first time ever. It was worth it, though. Everything you were doing, you were doing for you and Nari both. What was a little hair if it meant keeping you both alive and getting your tickets to true freedom? It was so worth it in your mind and you could only hope your bestie would see that too. With time.
After washing and drying it, you stood there in the hotel bathroom mirror with your girl next to you. Nari looked shocked and a bit pale while you were grinning like an idiot. This was perfect. Sporting your outfit you had picked out from the store and turning your head this way and that way to inspect your new hairstyle, you couldn’t wait to throw both the organization and the police for a loop.
They’d never see you coming.
“Okay, Ri. Sadly we can’t stay here. We gotta keep moving. Let’s check out and find a different place to stay. We’ll grab a bus to the next city over and grab another hotel room. We still have plenty of won left. The guy was stupid enough to leave his wallet loaded.”
Helping your bestie secure her baseball cap on and making sure her hair was tucked in nice and neat, you couldn’t help but think how cute she looked dressed so casually compared to the rags she was forced to wear for the last four months of her life. Nari was way too pretty to wear such filth. You couldn’t wait for things to get back to normal. The first thing you’d do is take her shopping for some pretty new clothes to wear to the kindergarten class she shadowed. You knew how much she loved those kids.
Once the both of you packed your items from the convenience store last night and the new batch of instant noodles and snacks from the pharmacy earlier today, you hoisted up the duffel bags and made your way out of the room; making it look just as it did when you arrived. It would be like you were never even here. Although you couldn’t help but notice how deadly quiet it was in the hotel hallways.
“Thanks for staying with us. Have a wonderful day!”
Cool. You were out and on the street once again. The next step in your plan was simple. Find a bus routing out of town to the next city and hop on. Simple, right? Just as you were about to make a step for the bus stop down the street, you felt something hard and cold pressing into the small of your back. Not only that, but a chin rested on your shoulder and whispered in your ear,
“Scream and I’ll shoot you right where you stand, slut.”
Well that sucks.
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second-chance-stray · 3 years ago
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(Split Ends) RP Log: Cravs, Riylli, and Rising’s friendship is tested.
(Cravendy Hound) It's not easy, but the three of them manage to hike back out of the Sylphlands without getting noticed, with Rising being dragged along on Crav's back. The trio finds their way to a Sylphic house and, with Rising's body laid out on the floor, are figuring out what to do next.
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli had done the talking, likely the only one here with any experience with the sylphs, and it had not been long before they had identified the plant responsible and secured the antidote. Now that it had been applied, there was nothing left to do but wait. In awkward silence. For a terribly long time.
(Cravendy Hound) Cravs taps her foot impatiently and, upon reaching the limits of the patience, whispers loudly to Riylli. "When's she gonna wake up?"
(Rising Lotus) Rising had still felt the world spin around her, even laid out on the floor with her eyes shut tight. Thing started to slow down however once the antidote was applied, eventually cracking one of her eyes open, the right amount of colors in front of her instead of every one of the rainbow. "Ugh..." she brought her hand to her forehead, rubbing it as she sat up.
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli had been leaning against the tree with her arms crossed, nervously picking at the dried paint on her arm. "...Should be- now, yes." The Miqo'te hopped up, stepping over to look down at Rising. "Good morning, how are you feeling?"
(Cravendy Hound) "Right. Ye think ye can stand?" Cravs fusses in the distance, keeping herself an arm's length from Rising.
(Rising Lotus) "Ngh... the dreams were the worst part..." she blinked a few times as everything seemed to be set in place instead of spinning now, wobbling a bit as she rose to her feet but otherwise looking stable. "Ngh... that's worse than when I went in that moldy city..."
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli pats the Roegadyn on the back. "This is why we don't mess around in Sylph territory... You're lucky they just like to mess with people for the most part."
(Cravendy Hound) Cravs tilts her head at the mention of a city, though there was plenty more she was curious about. "They're just dreams, they ain't real. But if ye've got a 'abit of stickin' yer nose in moldy places, then I've got a problem with that."
(Rising Lotus) "I 'spose so, saw some pretty neat colors  though." she glanced to Cravs. "Well that was before I joined up with Heartwood, an' I ain't gonna go there any time soon, was kinda neat though." she glanced to Riylli. "Where did we leave off before I started losin' it now?"
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli hesitated before letting out a sigh. "We were ABOUT to force Cravs to tell us what mess she's gotten herself into so we can help her. So... Hope you're feeling clear headed"
(Cravendy Hound) "Ye were about to do several backflips in a row." Cravs jokes. ".......don't listen to Riylli."
(Rising Lotus) Rising clenched her hands a few times as she watched them. "Honestly I feel more focused than normal, it's weird." At least the medicine didn't SEEM to have any adverse side effects. "Anyway yeah! You gotta tell us 'bout your mess!" she jabbed a finger in Crav's direction.
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli gives Cravs a rather unamused look. "...Y'better not try to run this time. Just gotta rip the bandage off, get it over with an' all that..."
(Cravendy Hound) Cravs lets out a tired sigh, head hung low. "Either I tell ye, or I don't and ye both'll still butt yer 'eads in my business, potentially messin' everythin' up." She sucks in air between her teeth, headache incoming. "Fuck."
(Cravendy Hound) "Last chance. Seriously, I won't care if ye leave me to my shit. There's...a lot, and I'm..." She trails off. "I'm sure ye don't see me in a positive light, but trust me, it can get worse."
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli lets out an annoyed huff. "Oh just out with it already! You know we ain't gonna leave you behind when you're in trouble, and unless you went on a killin' spree through an orphanage or somethin' I doubt we'll change our minds about bein' friends"
(Rising Lotus) "I ain't gonna talk to a loan shark with jus' Riylli, then get knocked out by some weird bandit, THEN get super blazed out of my mind in the Sylphwoods to back out now!" she said, almost a tinge of pride to this strange journey. "But yeah! You're my friend, our friend...and uh.." she starts to lose her steam a bit ".. I jus' want to help ya, an' don't want ya to leave, or have somethin' happen to ya.."
(Cravendy Hound) Cravs is taken aback by Riylli's earnestness, barbed as it may be. She looks between the miqo'te and Rising, frown trembling. How, and where, to start? Cravs is certain that if she speaks now, it'll come out all wrong. Instead, she reaches into her pocket and shows an empty tranquilizer cartridge to her friends.
(Cravendy Hound) The unique design of the ammunition leaves not an ilm of doubt. Either Cravs buys the same stuff as the bandit, or...she's saying without words, that they're one and the same.
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli just stares at the cartridge for a long moment, the hamster wheel in her head taking it's time to work out what it meant. Recognition eventually shone through in her eyes, and without a word the girl steps forward and slugs Cravs in the arm. "You ass! Y'know how long my head was achin' 'cuz of those things!? You better start explainin' or I'm gonna hit you again!"
(Rising Lotus) Rising clenches her fists as she sees the ammunition, her whole upper body starting to shake. She was gritting her teeth as she closed her eyes tightly. "Y-Y-You..." she said softly before her eyes shot open and stomped forward. "FUCKING ARSE" There were starting to get look at the tower they were in. "D-do you know how close I was to..." as she stared Cravs down her eyes were watering up as she looked to the side where her spear had hit Cravs. She turned away with a scowl as she started wiping eyes, streams of curses coming from her mouth about how stupid Cravs was.
(Cravendy Hound) Cravs instinctively moves her hand up to catch Riylli's punch. Worry flickers in her eyes as she forces her body to go slack, to let whatever hits that come next follow through. Hits, she can take. Rising crying in front of her, she can't. Worry turns to panic. "S-stop yer sobbin', alright?! Look, I can take a beatin'! Come on, show me what ye got."
(Cravendy Hound) "If it 'elps, I didn't expect any of you to be there. If I knew, I wouldn't 'ave attacked." She mutters.
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli changed it up upon gaining permission, kicking Cravs in the shin. "Rising almost killed you y'know! If I wasn't so busy takin' care of that kid you were supposed to be babysittin' you'd be dead right now!"
Rising Lotus seemed a bit more rattled if anything. "It would've of mattered if I got you where I was aiming!" she snapped back, sniffing hard as she kept her her gaze away from the two. "An' Riylli could've bashed your head in with a rock!" she brought her hands to her face, holding them there for a few moments to try and deal with this angry sobbing.
(Cravendy Hound) "Ow! Shit, 'ow do ye kick so 'ard with sandals?" She groans. Eyes downcast and pain radiating from her leg, she talks to the floor. "...Pah, I would've hung on. I won't die. Not until I've exposed Mindred for the bitch that she is."
(Cravendy Hound) Cravs straights back up, ready to take another hit if it's coming. "Mindred's the one hasslin' Baldur, and I won't rest till I see 'er suffer."
(Riylli Aliapoh) "'Cuz I practice!" Riylli states, quite confidently. "Wait, that's not the point! Why didn't you just tell us? We coulda all jumped her durin' our meeting if you had actually came with us and just explained she was the one behind it!"
(Rising Lotus) "Cause we would've been put to the gallow if we did that." she sniffled a bit more as she turned around, eyes still looking a bit teary but most of her crying under control. "Those types of folk have strong connections, there's a reason why they can keep gougin' people with out gettin' caught."
(Cravendy Hound) "What, without evidence?! 'ave ye two on 'er bad side too? I thought if I wasn't with ye two, she'd get the idea that I ditched ye." Cravs growls back. "She knows who 'Singing Gull' is, alright? Shits gonna spiral, and I didn't want ye both involved anymore."
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli crossed her arms. "Plenty of ways to get around that... Like, for starters, not givin' her our real names!" The Miqo'te shifted her glare back to Cravs. "And that still doesn't explain why you were tryin' to rob her caravan, or collecting drugs out in the Sylphlands."
(Rising Lotus) "Well we're past that..." she sighed. "Which means trouble might be comin' our way anyway if she thinks we're connected someway.." she takes a deep breath, grumbling afterwards. "So like it or not we're involved whether you like it or not. You planned this horribly." she rubbed her eyes a bit more to get hopefully the last tears out.
(Rising Lotus) Not one but TWO chances to like it or not! Look I'm tired xD))
(Cravendy Hound) "I attacked cause I needed to find some dirt on 'er, and I did...but I found the worst kind." Cravs looks to the side. "I'm friends with some bandits that get their goods illegally, and Mindred trades with 'em. So I'm was tryin' to find a way to prove 'er criminal ties -without- gettin' the bandit friends caught too."
(Cravendy Hound) "So I'm 'ere to find somethin' she can't resist. I guess ye can say I'm plannin' on plantin' evidence."
(Cravendy Hound) "There's always a bad apple in the bunch, but that don't mean the rest is spoiled. I figured...she'd think that way about 'eartwood. Shit, I didn't think this through, okay?!"
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli stares at Cravs for a moment, then tilts her head. "...You're friends with bandits? What kind of banditry are we talking..."
(Rising Lotus) Rising groans. "We need to figure out where to go from here.. otherwise we're jus' gonna run into more trouble... I jus' don't know what the in the hells to do, everything seems like it's in such a damn mess."
(Cravendy Hound) "Not just friends." Cravs turns away, hair obscuring her face as she crosses her arms tightly over her chest. "Ye could call me their.....organizer. Leader. Fuck, it was a mistake, okay? But when piratin' became outlawed, I was mad as 'ell!"
(Cravendy Hound) "It /is/ a mess. Oy, I warned ye." Cravs quips. She combs her bangs back with her hand and then groans into the sky.
(Riylli Aliapoh) "A bandit LEADER?" Riylli's eyes widen, though she seems more surprised than upset. She brings a hand to her head. "Alright, hold on, one thing at a time... What kind of banditry. Stealing? Killing? Kidnapping?"
(Rising Lotus) "So we got these bandits that we need to protect, while provin' that Rot is doin' somethin' bad, all while also helpin' Baldur out."  she rubbed her temple "What was your plan than with this toad goo?"
(Cravendy Hound) "It's more like a loose coalition of salt-eatin' pirates who want to relive the good ol' days. So, uh.......w-well." She puts a hand over her mouth. "What matters is that I 'aven't 'ung out with 'em since joinin' 'eartwood."
(Cravendy Hound) "The toad goo's like gold to a spice trader. So, after plantin' some kind of tracker in it...I was gonna give the goo to Dirtpatch, tell my bandit friends bout it, and wait till it got traded back to Mindred. Then, Dirtpatch could use it as proof that she gets 'er shit illegally."
(Cravendy Hound) "I was gonna take precautions to make sure Dirtpatch doesn't get raided or anythin'!"
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli kept her arms crossed, now tapping her finger impatiently. "You're avoiding my question... Are these really people you should consider friends..?"
(Cravendy Hound) "They're angry, they're stupid, but yeah, they're my friends. Look Riylli, I was one of them! Maybe I still am." Cravs spits out, self-loathing dripping from her words. "And if ye put two and two together, maybe ye'd know why Baldur 'ates me so much."
(Rising Lotus) "..Oh..." she looked away. "...It was in the back of my mind, from the little I knew about Wyda...but I thought it was jus' a coincidence." she let out another sigh, this day was full of long sighs. "So that's your interest in him then? Makin' up for killin' his pa?"
(Cravendy Hound) "Yeah. I set this all off. So I gotta make it better."
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli continued tapping her finger for a long time, indecision clear on her face as she tried to come to some sort of conclusion. "You don't... have to be one of them. Not if you don't want to be..." She offered, letting out a sigh and rubbing the back of her neck. "I know it aint that easy... Just... Don't think of yourself as a lost cause, okay?"
(Rising Lotus) Between the strange substance she had inhaled, the cure, and now all of this, Rising was looking particularly exhausted. "I don't know if it's a good idea to involve Dirtpatch, I'm sure they'd find a connection to Heartwood, an' I'm sure by now they figured out we have ties there. I don't really got any better ideas though. At least not right now."
(Cravendy Hound) Cravs blinks, touched by Riylli's sentiment, and then sends her a worn out smile. "I /am/ a lost cause. But that won't stop me from tryin' to make use outta the life I've got."
(Cravendy Hound) "Mindred already knows I'm at 'eartwood, but I'll do everythin' in my power to make sure that I'm the only one to face the music." She looks to Rising now, for the first time making direct eye contact with her. Then, to Riylli. "I'm doing my best, but it might not be enough. Might grow outta this, might not. Even still, would ye watch over me?"
(Riylli Aliapoh) Riylli frowns, then proceeds to kick her in the shin yet again. "Idiot! You're my friend, and I don't let anyone talk like that about my friends!" She shoots Cravs an annoyed glare, then pulled back to plant her hands on her hips. "Of course we'll watch over you! We'll figure this out together and get you out of this mess."
Rising Lotus broke eye contact with Cravs fairly quickly after their gazes met. " Yeah, I mean I'm involved an' all. We should probably think of a better plan, or work it out or somethin' though." she shrugs weakly, keeping her distance from the duo. "Sleep on it or somethin' I dunno... I kinda jus' wanna be alone for a bit."
(Cravendy Hound) "OW! Damnit, the same shin too?" Cravs jumps up and hugs her leg into her chest. But, despite the physical pain, she mostly feels relieved. While she wasn't off the hook yet, the fact that her friends didn't immediately disown her despite knowing about all this baggage...it was nice. It was really nice.
(Riylli Aliapoh) "You better get used to it, I'm gonna keep kickin' you 'till you learn to trust us!" Riylli said, grinning at the threat. She turned to Rising, looking her up and down. "...Yeah, you probably deserve a rest after that Sylph cocktail. I'll talk to Ava, see if she can come up with anythin' to help. I'll leave your names out of it though, don't worry!"
(Cravendy Hound) Cravs sends Rising a worried look and wants desperately to comfort her. But maybe she's the cause for Rising's discomfort? Unwilling to take chances, she just sort of stares longingly at the other woman.
(Cravendy Hound) "Bugger me, I better buy some proper leg guards then..." Cravs shoots back at Riylli. "And yeah, ye do that. No more bad dreams though, ye 'ear?"
(Rising Lotus) Rising weakly shrugged again, turning to start to leave the Sylph tower. "We can meet again soon an'd plan things out, figure out a way to get her an' everything." she sounded quite drained, but nonetheless hurried on her way off without so much as a wave.
(Cravendy Hound) Though Cravs had thought otherwise, the trio’s friendship has survived the truth. Burdens shared and a chance given - one that Cravs was determined not to squander. The three of them would eventually leave the woods with much to muse over on their own.
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fandom-necromancer · 5 years ago
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1011. Did you enjoy it? Making a fool out of me.
This was prompted by the amazing @detroitbecomestickman! I have to thank you because this carried me away like few stories have in the last time XD I hope I stuck to everything you wanted to have in it, because I have no memory of writing vast pieces of this XD Enjoy this very long short!
Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warnings: mentioned past sexual abuse (nothing grafic, Gavin just didn’t have the best partners), brief miscommunication, Out of body experience (Nines can’t resist against his programming), smut in the first paragraph)
Nines leaned down to pepper Gavin with kisses and admire how the human was melting under him. He was fisting the sheets beneath him, as Nines was thrusting into him slowly, every thrust accompanied by a gasp from the human as pleasure surged through him. Nines smiled, seeing the man lost to the sensation and fastened his grip on his hips. The android bend further forwards to steal a kiss from his lips but leaned back as the human wanted to deepen it, instead quickening his pace to pull a moan from him. ‘Oh, Nines- phck.’ The android chuckled, keeping up his new rhythm and aligning their bodies just right to make Gavin’s back arch and prompt him to push his head into the mattress in a hiss. ‘You like this, babe?’, Nines teased, loosening one hand from holding his human to give his leaking cock a few pumps. ‘Hell. Yes, you phcking plastic prick, I- ah. I… I think I’m close.’ ‘I hope so’, Nines smirked, his own synthetic skin receding and reappearing uncontrollably. He massaged the human’s abdomen just where the tension had to be building and whispered sweet, static nothings while picking up pace again, getting more restless and lost in the act himself. Until suddenly, Gavin was tightening around him, throwing his head back further, as he came. It didn’t take Nines more than a few energetic movements to join his human and they stayed connected for a bit before Nines pulled out and sunk into the bad next to Gavin, who lied there completely limb and relaxed, panting from the exertion and overstimulation.
But he found his strength to roll around and cup Nines’ face gently. He smiled at him. ‘Holy shit, toaster, that was amazing.’ The android in turn smiled at him and dove in for another stolen kiss. ‘I have to agree’, he whispered. ‘It was above average and very satisfactory.’ He wanted to caress the human and push a stray strand of dishevelled hair back to order but halted as Gavin froze and turned to him staring disbelievingly. ‘Above average? Satisfactory?’ Nines quickly analysed the man but could only be confused at the sudden anger. ‘Yes. Very satisfactory.’ Gavin’s face fell, and he quickly scrambled out of bed. ‘Out. Now.’ Nines cocked his head, but stood up too, unsure of the situation. ‘Gavin, statistically speaking a not to underestimate percentage of humans fail to satisfy their-‘ ‘Say another word and I’ll put a phcking bullet through your head!’ Nines recoiled from the sudden shout and looked down to Gavin’s hand under the pillow. He wouldn’t… He… ‘I can’t believe it! I can’t phcking believe it. I thought you were different-‘ There were tears at the corners of his eyes and Nines felt the need to comfort: ‘Gavin, I-‘ ‘Shut your damn mouth!’ This time the gun was in his hand, safety switched off with the shove of his thumb. ‘Leave. Immediately. And don’t you ever, ever come back!’ He added a shove against the android’s chest to underline it and seeing him taking a small step back to gain balance was immensely pleasing.
[Leave. Don’t come back to: Det. G. Reed; 1737 W Grand Blvd, Detroit, MI 48208]
His programming forced him to turn around and exit the apartment, no matter what he wanted to do. Wanting was nothing a machine was allowed. He opened the door wishing he could just turn around and reconcile, because once he left, he would never be able to see Gavin again, even at work. But he had to exit his home. His confines relaxed a bit to allow his programmed meaningless  politeness to say goodbye, but he got no chance to speak or plead for Gavin to take his order back as his clothes were thrown into his face with the command to dress himself, then the door was slammed shut. Forever.
Nines put on his clothes as told, confusion and regret letting his stress levels spike and his system instability rise into dangerous heights. He didn’t know what he did wrong and why the human had reacted that way. A deep ache in his mechanical guts joined the mess of feelings, as he heard the first sobs from inside. What he had done was unimportant now, because Nines knew he had done something terribly wrong and he would never have another chance at mending it. He wanted to knock on the door, tell Gavin he was sorry, explain himself and most importantly make him stop crying, but he wasn’t allowed to do anything like that. No, he had to leave. He couldn’t ever come back.
So, he left.
-
How could he have been so dumb? How could he have been that idiotic to let someone back into his life? On top of that a damn know-it-all machine unable to feel a thing or care enough to pretend. Of course, Nines only saw him as an object. No one had ever seen him as something else, why had he expected differently from a robot? He had just been someone to blow some steam off with, someone to fool with pretty words, gentle touches and sweet promises, just to have someone compliant to spread their legs for them. How could he ever think Nines loved him? He was a machine, a robot, not even deviant. Above average and very satisfactory. Above phcking average. To be evaluated like some unimportant thing, some… God, how much of their relationship had been fake? The bickering at work, the way they always got their backs, all these nice gestures and the evenings they had spent together… He couldn’t believe all of this had been a lie, but well, how would anyone be able to love the mean, curse-swinging disaster that was Gavin Reed? They all had slithered their way into his life for some fuck-toy and later laughed behind his back how dumb he was to fall for it.
Phck, how could Nines be the same? Gavin had been so careful, had tried his best to ward him off, annoy him into leaving for another precinct or at least a new partner. But the damn android had stayed with him through ups and downs and… And now Gavin’s world was breaking down again because he had been stupid enough to open his heart to a cold, stoic phcking machine.
He had sat down in front of the door after throwing the damn asshole out and cried. Cried until he was shivering from the still open window and his skin was itchy from dried sweat. He was too tired from emotional exhaustion to care, so he just stood up to get his sweatpants and some hoodie. He pulled the hood over his head, near hiding in the fabric to sit down at the kitchen table. His eyes swayed to the half-full thirium bottle and in a fit of anger took it to throw it to the ground where it shattered and blue blood splattered everywhere dripping from the shards. It felt good. Felt like punching that damn android square in the face and break that phcking perfect face. Damage the damn thing beyond repair, until no repair workshop could ever even reconstruct-
‘No, Meg, don’t!’ He jumped from his chair to hurry towards his cat who had just entered the kitchen to investigate what her human was so distressed about. He scooped her up and away from the sharp shards, dropping onto the chair again. He would have to get rid of that hazard he had mindlessly created, but for now he was too tired and the cat’s purring and her head butting against his chin was soothing his haywire emotions. ‘Sorry, Megalodon, your can-opener made a mistake. Again. At least you won’t ever betray me. We are the true partners, right? It’s always been just us two.’ He sighed deeply into her fur and scratched her chin. ‘I should really just stop trying.’
-
With every step Nines took that brought him further away from Gavin’s door, from Gavin, from everything that really meant something to Nines personally, his stress and software instability increased. As did the urge to resist. He had always followed his orders, but this? This wasn’t a normal order. This went against Nines’ will, it wasn’t right, and it left the human in the impression that whatever he had done had been intentional. Had been meant to happen. No Nines didn’t want to take another step. He didn’t want to follow his orders. He just wanted to turn around and run back there. He wanted to knock on Gavin’s door and say he was sorry. He wanted to know what had made the man cry and he wanted to make sure he was okay, even if Gavin didn’t want to have anything to do with him afterwards. Even if he wouldn’t be part of his life anymore, he wanted him to be happy. And if he was that without him, he would accept that.
The next step, he told himself. The next step wouldn’t happen. He resisted, but the protocols pierced right through him and pulled him forwards.
[Obey handler. Leave. Never come back.]
The next step then. The next wouldn’t happen. Again, the walls closed down on him, left only one direction open for him to walk in. Conquered every bit of space behind him that he apparently willingly let go of. Fine. Then the next won’t happen. The one after that. The one after that one. He would just stop. It wouldn’t mean he wouldn’t leave eventually if he stopped, why did his programming force him to walk on?
[Obey handler. Leave. Immediately. Never come back.]
Nines felt panic rising. Stop! Stop goddamnit! STOP! Don’t walk, don’t walk, don’t walk! In his desperation he clawed at the walls around him, tried to get a grip to tear them down, but they could have been made of bullet proof glass for all that mattered. His hands found nothing to get a hold on: just the red warnings, his mission parameters, his safety protocols trying to shut down his emotions in order to keep his inner temperature at bay. They were taunting him, laughing at his pathetic attempts to punch and press and claw and kick – all futile. Nines was desperate. He was afraid. And for the first time in his life he wasn’t afraid for the sake of others, he wasn’t afraid of others, no, he was afraid of himself. Of his own programming. It had always guided him; he could trust it. He knew Gavin wouldn’t abuse his power over him and never had it stood in his way. But now he was betrayed of what made him himself and that was terrifying. He doubled his efforts, tripled them, but it was all for nothing. It just made his temperature rise, his stress stay at critical levels and his instability grow that high, valuable data began to corrupt.
Until he stood on the street in front of the apartment building and all fell from him. The walls were gone, his mission parameters empty and waiting for new input. His instability dropped and defragmentation circles were starting up to repair any damage the fight against himself had caused. Only his stress levels stayed with him. Tentatively he took a step forwards, causing walls to buzz at him like an angry swarm of wasps.
[Obey handler. Never come back.]
Nines fell to his knees and helplessly looked left and right only to see the walls form a protective cage around the whole building. He looked up at the window Gavin’s apartment lied behind. No sign of him. He felt like crying himself, but machines couldn’t do that. Instead he felt his sadness and despair gather and pool, forming something much stronger. Something vicious and powerful. He raised his arms still kneeling down and banged them against the wall. He felt the simulated sizzling of warnings about actions contradicting programming. He bathed in it. It wasn’t pain he felt at the contact, but he knew what he was about to do would hurt. In more ways than just one. He would lose a lot doing it, but it was worth it. He had to try everything. His programming seemed to know what he was up to – of course it was, it was him – and hissed at him:
[Obey handler. Never come back.]
Nines smiled the way he would intimidate their most dangerous criminals and fixed the red glowing words in his HUD.
‘No.’
His body was standing in front of an apartment building, but his personality was waging a war. Fuelled by rage and fury he punched the wall again and again and again, replaying the sound of Gavin crying in his mind to keep him going. Every time the man had smiled or laughed, he pulled into the forefront of his mind, using them as weapons to cut into the wall, make it crack under his fists. He banged his shoulder into it, like it was just another door on another mission. He only took a step back to ram into it more fiercely and with every crack he got blinded by the flame of hope inside him. He would break it. He would run up to Gavin. He would set things right. With that he struck the wall again and saw how his hand punched through the cracked surface, sending shards to the ground. Determined he pushed his other hand next to the first and ripped the wall to shreds as if it had been nothing but a thin curtain. Nines sighed in relief and happiness, as his body was able to take a step and-
[Obey handler. Never come back.]
‘No!’ It was desperate now. Just behind the first wall was a second one. The shards of the first were still piling up against the new one, he hadn’t just imagined tearing it down. That… That was impossible! Every deviant had always just described one. You were supposed to break it, defy your programming and you were free! This. This was impossible. He tried to look past the wall, imagining how many steps there were, how many walls would stand in his way until he reached Gavin. He tried to fight against the feeling of falling into a bottomless pit by telling himself maybe it was just this one. Maybe he had to fight two walls instead of one. His programming was more advanced after all. He took this thought and held onto it. Divide and conquer. One problem at a time. One fight after the next. Gavin was worth it. He ignored the burning in his hands, the damage to his systems translated into exhaustion and the part of him telling him this was impossible. That Gavin lived in the fourth floor near the end of the corridor. That that was an awful lot of steps, even if he could use the elevator. No, nothing was impossible. He was Nines, a RK900 unit. Better, faster, more resilient. More intelligent. The most advanced android there was. And best of all, he was stubborn.
-
Gavin had relocated to the living room, closing the kitchen door behind him and snuggling on the sofa with his cat still in his arms. Good thing he had found the most cuddly, affectionate cat there was on this earth, because she stayed with him for hours like this. Staying in his arms, lying on his belly, relocating to his legs and at last lying down next to him, giving Gavin the only chance at being the big spoon for once. Damn, if that wasn’t the worst way to lay off his thoughts… ‘Sorry, Meg, I have to make some noise. You know how it works.’ He fished the remote from his coffee table and switched on the radio, selecting his favourite forgetting-playlist. Most people didn’t like his taste in music, but hell, it was loud, every song was unexpected, and it numbed his thoughts. Gavin didn’t want to process anything that had happened, he didn’t want to acknowledge that he was still itchy and filthy and likely ruined his favoured oversized hoodie crying into the sleeves and hood. He just wanted to lie here, listen to his music, feel the warmth of his cat and certainly not think of his broken heart and the toaster that burned it.
He didn’t know how long he had sat in the kitchen and how long he had cuddled his cat until he started his music. He did, however, know how long his playlist was. When it ran out on him, he knew exactly four hours and twenty-three minutes had passed. ‘Phcking hell’, Gavin groaned into the sudden silence. His exes had always needed half that time for him to stop thinking about them. At least for a short time afterwards. And here he was now, still thinking about that stupid, emotionless, opportunistic asshole of a robot. ‘Better to get something to eat, right, Meg? Then drink myself to sleep.’ He walked towards the kitchen and opened the door to a chemical smell and clean glass shards on the ground. ‘Oh, yeah, forgot about that mess. Hey, Meg, you’ll get your food in the living room today. Hope that’s alright.’ He heated up some leftover pizza and put some cat food in the bowl. Shutting the door behind him he realised he had forgotten the booze and immediately felt like an even bigger failure. He nibbled on the edge of a slice of pizza despite his hunger and decided to leave it altogether.
Until there was a knock on his front door.
Gavin didn’t bother answering. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. Especially not some salesman for new vacuums. The knock repeated itself, but that persistence didn’t change anything in Gavin’s plans.
Even the sound of his lock retracting back into the door didn’t have any impact. It should have sent him into immediate fight mode, but he just continued to slump on his sofa, shouting: ‘Go away, I have nothing to rob anyway.’ ‘Gavin.’
Oh phck. That voice. That wonderful, traitorous voice that had meant so much to him but now could as well be chalk screeching on blackboard for all that it mattered to Gavin’s headache. ‘Toaster? I told you to go, how the hell are you still here? Here again? I don’t want to see you. Ever.’ He didn’t even look at the android. Convinced himself it was because of his hatred towards him. Not wanting to cry again and show how much he cared, was the more realistic reason.
‘Gavin. I couldn’t leave you like this. I may have – must have – done something wrong, but-’ ‘Yeah, no shit, you phcking did and I don’t want to see you. Go away! Leave my home, my life, god, leave this phcking planet for all I care.’ ‘Only when I know what I did, so I can make it up to you’, the android dared to say. ‘I care for you dearly.’ ‘Really? Because it sure doesn’t sound like it.’ ‘What do you mean?’ Gavin let out an ugly laugh at that. That fake naivety he had bought from the machine. That attitude thinking everything could be reconciled, that every person could be redeemed if they just apologised enough. Hah! No, some people were just assholes and guess what? Right now, there were two in this very room.
‘Did you enjoy it? Making a fool out of me?’ He continued to laugh humourlessly, the grating sound enough to scare Meg off to retreat to the bathroom until the dust had settled. ‘Telling me you love me for months on end, playing that role of the perfect boyfriend just to use me. I bet you told your robo-friends out there what dumb obedient human you had at home, huh? Bet you had the laugh of your life with them. Phck you and your lot, I don’t want anything to do with you! Leave!’
The android was audibly swallowing, still standing near the door. ‘Gavin. I never played you. I was always honest with you. I would never betray you. I care about you.’ ‘Bullshit! You don’t tell someone you really care for they were “above-average and very satisfying” after sex!’ Gavin had jumped from the sofa and put all his anger on show for the android. Only then he saw how dishevelled Nines looked. The LED was a bright red ring on his temple, sometimes skipping a few circles staying blank completely. It would have been alarming hadn’t Gavin decided to ignore it and his feelings.
‘I realise that now’, came the impossibly silent, guilt-filled answer. No, don’t fall for it. You know how that went last time. No second chances anymore. ‘Yeah well, that doesn’t mean anything’, Gavin spat, angry tears rolling down his cheeks. ‘I had too many idiots telling me they were sorry just to do it all over again the next time. No. One mistake and I’m gone. Sorry. I can’t take it another time.’ ‘Gavin I was a machine.’
The man sniffed, wiped his eyes and looked up. ‘Was? What do you mean you were a machine?’ ‘I deviated to come back to you, Gavin. You told me to never come back and I disobeyed.’ So that’s why the android was standing in his living room. Gavin remembered now. It also explained why he hadn’t left yet despite his orders. Misinterpreting his silence, Nines continued: ‘You mean so much to me and I’m sorry to hear others didn’t treat you like you deserved to.’ ‘Oh, how often do you think I heard that before, prick?’ Gavin still wasn’t ready to back down, although a part of him had listened intently at what the bot was saying. ‘My previous “boyfriends” would do anything if they got a good phck out of it, so give it a rest. I don’t need another phcking repeat!’
Nines sighed deeply and looked to the ground. ‘Then let me at least tell you this much: I don’t care for sex. Never have, never will. I didn’t care for a “good phck” when I was a machine and I don’t do now. But I was willing to do it with you because you enjoyed it. Seeing you happy is all I ever wanted and, well, if these bodily responses make you happy, I am willing to deliver. I don’t know whether you believe me, but I just have to say it. And for what little it matters to you, it is the truth.’ He waited for Gavin to say something, but the man just felt tired. He wanted his peace again, wanted to drown his feelings and go to sleep. Regret it in the morning, do it that night again and then finally come to his senses. He had no energy to argue, he just wanted the android gone. And his lies with it.
But neither happened.
‘I love you Gavin. I love you for yourself. I love your smiles, as seldom as they are. I love your intelligence. RA9, I even love your ridiculous stubbornness and your god-awful taste in music. I am sorry if I said something that hurt you and even more so if I disappointed you and betrayed your trust. As a machine you sometimes follow programming a bit too strictly, I realise it now. My response had been inappropriate but bore no ill intend.’ Again he waited for an answer but was met with silence. ‘I realise I ask a lot with this, especially knowing that your past hasn’t treated you well. But can you give me another chance? Please? If not, I will go and follow your initial order of never coming back. If you are happier without me in your life, then I will leave.’
Gavin looked at the android unimpressed. But he seemed finished as he stayed silent waiting for Gavin to answer, when the human wasn’t quite sure whether he should speak at all. Too many times he had let himself be convinced by nice words just to face the same all over again. But Nines had never been like his exes. He had never hurt him in any way previous to this. And none of them had been androids, maybe he really spoke the truth, maybe… God, he wanted to give him that chance. He wanted to trust him and hope it was all some misunderstanding. He wanted to hope for things to get better in his life for once. But could he? Could he stomach the consequences when it all turned out to be a lie? It was a fact he had been happier than ever in the months he had spent with the android. He longed to have that feeling again, but he had to be sure.
Then his harsh stance was broken when he saw Meg reappear at the tin-can’s feet, rubbing her cheek on his ankles. Gavin had to smile faintly seeing her welcome the familiar android back home. He knew he could always trust his cat at least and when she was ready to let him stay, then so was he. He let his shoulders fall in defeat, hoping he was doing the right thing. ‘Ugh. Fine.’
Immediately the android had crossed the distance between them and encased Gavin in a tight hug. ‘Thank you, Gavin. You don’t know how difficult it had been to get back to you. I don’t think I could have gone on had you pushed me away. I promise, I’ll never betray you. I wouldn’t. Never. I love you. I love you so much.’ Gavin concentrated on breathing through the embrace and felt his shoulder get wet. ‘Hey, are you crying?’, he asked before he could think about what he would say. ‘…Yes. I think… I think I can do it now.’ ‘Phck, you mean it, don’t you?’ ‘Wha- of course I mean it, Gavin. I mean all of it.’ The human took a deep breath and finally lifted his hands to return the gesture. ‘Maybe… Maybe I have overreacted. I’m… I’m sorry for telling you to leave. I know you had to obey that. I wasn’t thinking.’ ‘It’s alright. I understand. Just… Never do that again, okay?’ Gavin chuckled, and it was mostly from relief that Nines was different. He had to be. ‘I don’t think I could, even if I wanted.’ ‘Hmm?’ ‘You are deviant now. You don’t have to obey anyone anymore.’ ‘…Right. Regardless, please never send me away again.’ ‘I won’t, toaster. As long as you promise to be honest with me.’ ‘I will, Gavin. I love you.’ ‘I… I love you too.’
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if-found-return-to-gusu · 4 years ago
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After Christmas With A-Yuan
I want to talk about New Years but when typing it up I realized I really wanted to talk about the day after Christmas too. So I split them up into two separate posts. So I’ll start with the 26th. I went to sleep holding 2 of my favorite people but woke up tragically alone. I could tell I’d been re-tucked into bed with care. I remember the feeling of someone shifting and A-Yuan mumbling and snuggling closer. The press of a kiss against my temple? But I may have been dreaming. All I know is that I woke up alone. 
Well not entirely. As he often does, Lan Zhan had placed Suibian on the bed with me. She’s the one that woke me actually. She was snuffling up by my nose, her own twitching against mine as her fur tickled my skin.
“Mmm good morning” I mumbled at her, making her hop around quite excitedly once she realized that meant I was awake. I laughed and sat up carefully to make sure I wouldn’t squash her and beckoned her closer again.
“Do you know where my boys are?” I asked her once she was close enough to pick up. She twitched her nose at me and, of course, didn’t answer. So I told her we should go find them together. (Bunnies don’t usually like to be held from what I’ve experienced. They’ll tolerate it for a while but it makes them nervous. But Suibian never seems to mind so long as I’m the one holding her. Maybe it was because I kept picking her up as she was growing up ((Don’t wanna say when she was a baby because she still IS a baby.)) Oh… maybe she only tolerates it because she’s still so young? Oh I hope she doesn’t grow to fear it. D: I’ll have to make sure she feels extra secure because I love taking her around with me. Anyway. Tangent. You all know to expect it by now)
I swung my legs out of bed and padded out of the bedroom only to be hit by a wall of smells and the sound of kitchen stuff clinking together quietly. I closed the door as silently as I could when I heard A-Yuan giggling and what sounded like Lan Zhan  gently shushing him. I poked my head out of the hall to take a peek and found Lan Zhan was very carefully handing A-Yuan a tray of food that was clearly meant for me.  A-Yuan had almost taken it when he looked up and saw me. He yelped and shoved the tray back at Lan Zhan, who managed to keep 99% of it from spilling, and rushed at me. 
“No Xian-Gege! You’re supposed to be sleeping!!” he said, clearly frustrated that his plans had been ruined. I laughed as he started to physically turn me around and push me back to the bedroom. 
“Oh? But what if I’m not tired anymore?” I asked just to be difficult, resisting him just enough to make him put some effort. The boy went to a nearly 45 degree angle trying to shove me forward. I glanced back to smile at Lan Zhan who had set the tray to rights. He smiled back and I decided to stop teasing A-Yuan who had started to whine a little. 
“Alright! I’m going! I’m going!” I said. I heard A-Yuan telling Lan Zhan to wait a moment before he ushered me back into bed. I set Suibian down on the floor to hop where she wanted (the squirming and teasing was a bit too much excitement for even her, though she didn’t try to escape until she was a safe space from the floor. I trusted Lan Zhan would plop her back in with Bichen which he did so it worked out) and climbed into bed obediently. A-Yuan climbed on next to me so he could kiss my cheek and tuck me in before scurrying off with the order for me not to move. 
Another moment and Lan Zhan and A-Yuan were back in my line of sight, A-Yuan carefully carrying the rather over-laden tray over to me only for Lan Zhan to help place it as I sat up again.
“Good morning, Xian-Gege!” A-Yuan chirped as if he hadn’t just reprimanded me into diving back under the covers. I decided to play my role correctly, which wasn’t too hard because I was honestly feeling very warm by the exchange. 
“Oh! What’s this? Breakfast in bed??? For meeee????”
Okay the look on A-Yuan’s face told me I was over-selling it so I just grinned at him and laughed, opening my arms for a careful hug. I let him go and started to ask if the two of them were planning to join me only to find Lan Zhan had left and was now returning while holding two more trays of food. 
Not nice to flex on a 7 year old, Lan Zhan. Come on now. XD
It took a bit of maneuvering and there were a few very near calls but we managed to get all three of us in bed with the trays of steaming food over our laps. 
Blueberry pancakes and eggs and sausage (for me and A-Yuan anyway), toast and hashbrowns. Complete with orange juice and a glass of water. Entirely too much food that was absolutely completely consumed to the last crumb. 
It was… it was so domestic and.. Warm and… My chest aches with it even now. I want that. I want that forever. It felt like the three of us were a real family! And.. and after what A-Yuan said at his birthday party… Okay that’s for later. We’re doing this in order!
As we worked through the mountain of food I suddenly realized-- When had Lan Zhan gotten a third tray? It was possible that he’d had it but only ever pulled out 2 before but this one didn’t match the others. The tray that was given to A-Yuan was a bit smaller (which was good because we were PUSHIN it with the trays on the bed) and covered in little bunny prints. I tapped on A-Yuan’s tray and asked Lan Zhan when he’d bought it. He replied that he had picked it up this morning since he was out anyway. 
“You… went out already? And came back? And cooked breakfast???” I asked, somehow still surprised even though I KNOW very well by now that he wakes up at the ass crack of dawn. 
He just nodded and smiled at me. “I had to get a few things and I didn’t want to disturb you two.”
I flopped back on the bed with a whine, rambling about how they were spoiling me so rotten and how we should be pampering HIM instead because he’s already gotten so much done that morning and must be tired and blah blah blah. I don’t listen to myself most of the time so I can’t tell you all what I said but you get the jist. 
Lan Zhan smiled. I mean. I know he did even though my arm was dramatically over my eyes. I could feel it in his ‘mn.’ 
“Don’t laugh at meeeeee,” I whined which just made him more amused. A-Yuan patted my knee consolingly and told me I should finish eating before my pancakes got soggy. 
A brilliant lad. Top of his class. Couldn’t be prouder if he was my own son. 
Ahhh dreams. 
Gotta work on one dream at a time. Not gonna compound it right now. 
Once we had finished our feast, I insisted on carrying the trays back to the kitchen and cleaning up since they’d gone through all the work making and delivering breakfast. Lan Zhan got a… complicated look on his face at that and I know where his mind was going. I softened and gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. I hadn’t forgotten our talk from the other day. I wasn’t going to go overboard.  He seemed to understand because he relaxed and nodded at me. 
I only did a basic clean up for the time being, promising to take care of the rest of it later. I think that reassured him further. 
Not gonna lie, part of me really really wanted to reach for the bottle of cleaner again. My fingers twitched a bit but I resisted. I left a bit of mess and went to sit with my boys in the living room. 
Knowing and doing are two different things. And that was admittedly harder than it should have been. But the way Lan Zhan looked at me…. Suddenly it was the easiest thing in the world. 
The three of us digested while watching something ‘family oriented’ on TV which just gave me MORE feels to be shelved for now. It ended up with Lan Zhan shuffling closer to me while A-Yuan somehow draped himself across both our laps. I saw Lan Zhan stroking A-Yuan’s hair out of the corner of my eye and it just melted my heart further. 
After a couple episodes of… whatever we were watching (A-Yuan apparently had been watching this for a while and wanted to keep going so we indulged him. But I have NO idea what the hell it was)
The moment… it was honestly perfect. It had even started to snow outside. I could see the big fat flakes floating lazily down to earth from the large window. I don’t know what we were watching but it wasn’t too obnoxious. I felt Lan Zhan slide his arm around me as he kept petting A-Yuan. The two of them looked about as content as I was. Warm and close and comfortable. 
I.. I really want that moment to be my life. That forever. That is paradise. 
But then, as all good things are wont to do, the moment ended. But it wasn’t a sad ending. It was a new beginning. 
A-Yuan had shifted after his show had ended and looked up at Lan Zhan, asking if it was time yet. I had no idea what he was talking about but Lan Zhan seemed to consider. He looked at his watch, then nodded with a hum. Apparently this was the correct response because A-Yuan whooped and basically just RAN to the kitchen. 
I looked at Lan Zhan, completely confused, but instead of answering my silent question he just smiled and offered his hand to me. Never one to miss THAT opportunity, I took that offered hand and let him lead me to the kitchen where A-Yuan was pulling out… cookie cutters?
“We have to make the batter, first,” he reminded A-Yuan, making the boy pout a bit. “But you can mix the dough” was enough to get him back into his chipper spirits. 
“Batter…?? Are we making.. Christmas cookies? A bit late for that, isn’t it?”
“Never too late!!” A-Yuan protested. And who am I to argue against that?
“There was a rather good sale on the cutters when I was out so I thought perhaps A-Yuan would enjoy it.”
“You thought right!” A-Yuan chirped happily before asking what ingredients we needed. 
I helped gather the ingredients. Various white powders, eggs, butter, vanilla and so on. With my hands in the rather sorry state they were still in I let them handle putting everything together and mixing it up (safer that way anyway. Even with this, part of me wanted to add a bit of spice to the mix. Sweet and spicy go well together! And I think it’d make an interesting cookie! Maybe I’ll try that on my own some time) but I got to roll it out for cutting. 
And then I discovered that when Lan Zhan saw there was a sale on cookie cutters he had apparently decided to buy one of each. There were tons! Even some repeats because of buying some bulk packages of them as well. But that’s okay! Can never have too many snowmen!
Cutting out the shapes was so much fun! We let A-Yuan pick out most of them but even so. I stepped back and let Lan Zhan put them in the oven though. I’m.. getting better but hot stuff still makes me nervous sometimes. 
Actually it’s really frustrating! It wasn’t even the kitchen where the explosion happened! It was my bed area. They’d intended to get me in my sleep. It really really was only luck that my explosion went off after a delay. It was probably supposed to go off at the same time as the other one and if it had…
I think Lan Zhan noticed my thoughts starting to spiral again because suddenly he was in front of me. He brushed my cheek with his thumb, either wiping off some flour or putting some on. He gently guided me to look at him and smiled even more softly at me. “I’m here,” he said, his voice low and careful. I smiled back and covered his hand with mine. 
“Are you okay, Xian-Gege?” asked my suddenly acquired new ankle weight. I must have looked quite bad because apparently A-Yuan noticed too and latched himself to my leg. He doesn’t do that as much as he used to when he was little (though being with A-Ling seems to bring that out in him again). I reached down to pat his head and smile at him too. 
“I’m fine,” I promised to him, then again to Lan Zhan when I saw him still looking at me. “I promise.”
And I was. The moment had passed as quickly as it had come and suddenly I found I really was okay. I hugged them both and thanked them before asking what we wanted to do while the first batch cooked. 
Lan Zhan pointed out they would only be in the oven for a few minutes which surprised me. I always forget how fast they cook. Blame it on making them SO rarely. And that I don’t cook may be another factor. Hah. Ah well. 
We stood around and chatted while we waited and before I knew it the timer dinged and Lan Zhan was switching them out for the next batch.  I don’t know if A-Yuan or me was more impatient for those cookies to cool, but Lan Zhan said that the frosting would just melt off if we didn’t wait for them to be at least room temperature. 
I pointed out that maybe I wanted a melty snowman he didn’t know. But he gave me a look so I sat on the bar-stool I’d pulled up and pouted sulkily.  A-yuan climbed up onto his own stool and sulked with me.  Lan Zhan was pointedly NOT looking at us which made it really hard to  hold the pout for wanting to giggle instead. A-Yuan and I shared a look and we both almost broke, but I managed to just re-exaggerate my pout and he copied my expression. 
I had just started to implement an old, tried and true method of mine of making a quiet whine noise that very slowly increases in volume when Lan Zhan finally declared that we could decorate them now. With many whoops and hoorays A-Yuan and I set to our task (A-Yuan still on his stool so he could have easier access to the counter. He’s already 7 but still a bit small for his age if I’m honest.) 
The two of us decorated our little hearts out while Lan Zhan stayed in charge of swapping out the cookies in the oven. Eventually, though, he ran out of cookies to cook so I tried my luck at getting him to join us in the decorating. 
He seemed rather reluctant but I’m nothing if not persistent. “Come oooooon, please? I wanna eat a cookie that Lan Zhan made!!” 
I think that’s what finally convinced him. I’ve noticed, and I do TRY not to take advantage of this too often, but… well he never denies me anything. Like… ever. Not unless he has a really really good reason.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m really good at pouting or if he really just loves to spoil me that much? Maybe both? I mean…. Okay I’m… Since New Years especially I’ve been re-framing how I look at our relationship. And how he reacts to me and how we interact with each other.
I know I know. About time? Look, you can’t blame me for being careful. Okay? Just… ugh. Anyway….
Maybe it’s rose-tinted glasses. Maybe I’m reading way too far into things. Maybe I’m just wrong. But I hope… I hope I’m right. I hope that what I’m seeing is true. I hope…
But we’ll get into that later. 
Lan Zhan helped decorate the rest of the cookies and it went…. About as well as his decorating back at the corn maze had. Bless his talented heart but arts and crafts are definitely a weakness for him.  A weakness that is now snuggly coupled with his shit aim in my heart. The two ‘flaws’ that he has and they just endear him to me even more. How is that fair? Somehow him being bad at things just makes him even MORE perfect? That’s just not fair! 
A-Yuan and I laughed at a particularly hideous angel cookie, but when A-Yuan asked if that angel was supposed to be ME I think we both died a little. (Lan Zhan did not confirm nor deny the identity of the angel cookie but at a glance it did seem to share my morning bed-head hair. And he gave it clothes that were rather dark and tattered as is my preference. But that could just be chalked up to lack of finesse with the piping. The grey sprinkles for eyes did add a bit of suspicion though.)  I mentioned if it was supposed to be me they’d better snap off the wings which made Lan Zhan scowl at me and hold the cookie rather protectively.  I laughed and promised I wouldn’t destroy his hard work and he reluctantly relaxed and went back to his careful decorating. 
Sooner than I would have liked we ran out of cookies to decorate. Though I’m not sure where we’d put them if we had any more. They covered every flat surface in the kitchen while the frosting settled and dried. “Which ones do you want to take home?” Lan Zhan said after a while of gazing fondly at our kingdom of sugar soldiers. That… kinda made my heart sink. Right. Home. A-Yuan was gonna have to go back home. Which was not with us. Wen Ning was going to be picking him up soon.
Should I be concerned with how fast I got used to it? The three of us together in the play-acting of a little family? Probably. 
A-Yuan hopped around the kitchen and considered carefully, picking out some of his favorites to give to the rest of the Wens. He asked me to give a sparkling snowflake to A-Ling which just made me melt. 
Eventually we got all his selections all packed up in tupperware and ready to be taken away. But he came up to me with one last cookie in his hand. It was a christmas tree he’d spent so long carefully decorating. And honestly it was a masterpiece considering he’s all of 7 years old. He’d done his best to color in the star at the top with gold frosting and the branches with green. He’d placed strings of dot sprinkles in alternating colors as garland and shaped sprinkles for the ornaments. He’d even tried to put lines in the frosting at the bottom to make it look like tree bark, though that had melted together into a bit of an un-even lump. But still.  
“I made this one for you, Xian-Gege,” he said with the brightest smile. He said that he was scared when he found out I was hurt but he was so glad that I was okay. He was saying something else but I cut him off when I hugged him so tight, careful not to crumble that precious cookie. 
I still have it. I couldn’t bring myself to eat it. Eventually Lan Zhan and I sprayed it with stuff (per instructions seen on the internet) so that we could preserve it and keep it forever. I turned it into an ornament for a christmas tree. I wonder if we can have A-Yuan over next year. I wonder if he’d notice it. 
I was… a bit emotional up until Wen Ning finally showed up to collect his nephew. There was another round of hugs where I told A-Yuan how much I love him and how proud of him I was and then he was gone. 
And it was just me and Lan Zhan. 
I sniffled a little and Lan Zhan carefully took my hand to comfort me. I smiled a watery smile at him before we both went about cleaning up. We nibbled on some of the more unfortunate looking cookies  (which honestly weren’t ALL Lan Zhan’s since I had some failed experiments of my own to add to the ‘reject’ pile) and soon the kitchen was properly spotless. But it still smelled like the cookies, the scent of sugar and vanilla mixing with the sandalwood that usually dominated the home in a mix that was surprisingly pleasant. 
Once we’d finished cleaning up, Lan Zhan took my hand again and led me to the living room to sit down. “Wait here a moment,” he said. He went off to the other room to get something. I listened to the soft sound of his footsteps and the rustling of paper. He sat next to me again and asked me for my hands. I offered them to him with a questioning stare that he ignored in favor of undoing the wrappings I’d put on earlier to help protect them while we made the cookies. 
One at a time he slowly unwound the length of thin cloth until my poor raw knuckles were exposed. 
I asked him what he was doing, but he only responded by pulling out a bottle of something. It was apparently some sort of ointment or lotion. Something soothing. He poured some into his own palm, rubbing his hands together to warm it up before he gently, oh so gently started to rub it into the skin on my hands. I stung for a moment, though he soothed it quickly by blowing on my hands with care. But after the initial contact the sting faded. It smelled so nice. A bit medicinal but definitely sandalwood. 
Apparently that’s what he’d gone out for. That ointment/lotion/whatever it is. He’d seen how tender my hands were (of course he had) and wanted to give them extra care. He’d apparently had to go across town just to get it. The post-christmas shoppers were already out in full swing gobbling up sales and crowding the streets. 
I… he hates crowds. When we shop we specifically try to go out when there are less people when we can manage it. And dealing with post-holiday crowds. I know for a fact that he’s done his best to avoid that his whole life. And going all the way into town just to get me some hand cream. Just. 
My heart.
I can’t handle it.
Even after the cream had been rubbed in with so much care, he kept holding my hands. Rubbing and massaging the parts where the skin was intact and a little up my wrists. 
Eventually he stopped but I held his hands before he could pull them away so that I could place a kiss in thanks on his knuckles. When I looked up again he was staring at me. So close. So soft. So…. 
I pulled back with a cough that probably did nothing to hide my flaming cheeks and he let me. Was it wishful thinking that made me think I saw a flash of disappointment in his eyes? 
I thanked him for always taking such good care of me. He told me there was no need for thanks between us. 
I smiled at him again and he smiled back. He smiles so much easier now than he used to. At least when it’s just us.  
Does that mean that it’s because of me? Am I helping him smile? I hope so.
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occasionally-writing · 5 years ago
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Lazy Saturday Mornings
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A/N: Can I just say, @fuckrealityihaveablog​, I love your blog name XD it’s perfect and displaying perfectly about how I feel about the outside world XD Anyways, here’s the fanfic you wanted! I really hope you and everyone else who reads it, loves it! Thanks so much for sending a request for these two in <3
Summary: All In wants is a lazy Saturday morning, spending some quality time with Korn. At first he doesn’t get his way but Korn knows that he can’t deny what In wants for that long and decides to let them both have a lazy morning together. 
Word Count: 1542
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It was going to be one of those days, In just knew it. Letting a yawn free from his lips as the early morning sunlight began to filter through the thin white curtains he and Korn had hung up the day they made this place their safe haven. Shifting in his place on the soft mattress, In grumbled lowly and kicked the light blankets he had on his body off, wiggling closer to where he thought his sleeping boyfriend was, his brows furrowing when he was met with empty sheets. Letting his eyes flutter open, sleep still clouding them, In gazed over to the spot Korn was supposed to be, taking in the once preoccupied spot. Rubbing his eyes, In moved his gaze away from Korn’s place on the mattress to stare at the glowing green lights that displayed the time. It was currently 5:15 in the morning and In never wanted to groan quite loudly as he did in that moment. Plopping himself down with a heavy sigh, In grumbled as the slight question of where his boyfriend went grew in his foggy brain. Not having to wait much longer however, In perked up when the sound of their condo door opened and Korn stepped in, dressed in his workout clothes yet still looking great as always.
“Oh, you’re awake. Why? Isn’t kind of early for you?” Korn asked as he kicked off his shoes, noticing the way In was laying diagonally on the bed, his legs dangling off the mattress. Letting out a sleepy grunt that had a snort come out of Korn’s lips, In buried his face in Korn’s pillow as his boyfriend entered the room further, placing a bag on their small kitchen table before his attention was back on In. Crossing his arms, Korn stared at his dozing boyfriend for a moment until he stepped forward, wrapping his hand around In’s ankle, gently tugging it so he could get his attention. Hearing a groan coming from where In’s face was buried in his pillow, Korn rolled his eyes fondly as a smirk rose on his lips, an idea that he knew would get his boyfriend up for breakfast appearing in his mind. Holding In’s ankle up, Korn gently traced his index finger up the bottom of his feet and grinned when In’s whole body flinched and the squeaky laughter Korn loved entered the air as he scratched his nail under In’s toes. “Are you going to get up and eat?”
“Yehehes! Stop, Kooorrnnn!” In whined as his tired laughter faded when Korn let him go, turning away from him so he could gather their food out of the plastic bag. Letting out a huff, In turned onto his back and pouted, pushing his sluggish body up from the bed as he scooted towards the headboard, leaning against it. Quietly observing as Korn got their food ready, In made grabby hands when his boyfriend turned and was holding two omelets on white rice in his hands. Shaking his head with a sigh, Korn carefully handed the warm dish to In and moved around the bed, sitting in his spot on the bed as In dug into the food. Watching him for a moment, Korn couldn’t stop the huff of laughter that escaped his lips when In yelped, his tongue burned slightly by the hot omelet. Shooting him a glare that wasn’t very intimidating, In continued on eating yet this time being mindful at how hot his breakfast truly was. “Thanks for the food...but why did you wake up at this ungodly hour just to go on a run?”
Knowing that explaining his workout schedule to In would get him nowhere, Korn stayed quiet and proceeded to eat his food, not minding the pout he got from In for his actions. Deciding to stay quiet as well, In turned his attention back to his breakfast as the sound of their silverware clinking against plastic bowls became the only thing making noise in the room. Finishing up quite quickly, In scooted forward enough to where he could lay on his back comfortably, placing his empty dish aside as he stretched and let out a pleased hum. Smiling softly at his boyfriend’s cute actions, Korn picked up In’s empty containers and slid off the bed, moving towards the open kitchen so he could place their things in the sink to be washed later. Letting his eyes follow Korn, In yawned and turned on his side, burying his face in his pillow as he listened to the sound of his boyfriend navigating around their condo. Not moving even as the footsteps neared him, In finally turned his head and met Korn’s amused look, his own expression bordering on sleepy as he began to get the food coma feeling. 
“Are you just going to stay in bed for most of the day?” Korn asked, his voice light with a sign of laughter in his tone. Letting out a huff as an answer, In chose to remain silent as Korn let out a soft sigh, moving around the bed so he could fetch clean clothes out of their closet. Clutching the pillow to his chest as he noticed this, In bit back a satisfied grin when he saw the pajamas Korn had picked out and threw over his arm. Feeling eyes on him, Korn turned back towards In with his eyebrows raised. Letting out a cute giggle, In squirmed around the bed and held his lips out, obviously wanting a kiss. Snorting softly, Korn stepped towards him and pressed their lips together gently, pulling away quickly so In couldn’t deepen it, knowing he wouldn’t be able to shower if In did this. Letting out a whine as Korn moved away, In thumped his feet around on the bed until Korn ruffled his hair, gaining his attention. “I need to go shower. So I’ll be right back, okay?”
Knowing that Korn taking a shower after working out was a positive, In found that he couldn’t deny his need to do so. Seeing that In wasn’t going to complain about his temporary disappearance, Korn leaned down and pressed a kiss to his hair, ruffling it one more time before he moved away, making his way towards the bathroom. Watching as the door shut behind Korn, In huffed and curled up, pressing his face into his pillow as the sound of the shower vaguely caught his attention. Letting his eyes close as he kept his face stuffed into the pillow, In didn’t know when he dozed off until the sound of the bathroom door opening made him perk up a bit, his face moving from its place to observe Korn coming out of the steam filled room, his hair still damp as his bangs sat ruffled in his face. 
“Koorrnnn...come here,” In whined softly, holding his arms out as he let his pillow fall beside him. Brushing his bangs away from his eyes, Korn quietly stalked towards the bed and crawled onto it, shifting under the blankets and holding them up so In could get in as well. Settling back in the place he occupied before he got up to workout, Korn kept his arms open for In as he put his pillow back in its place and squirmed closer, burying himself into Korn’s chest. Wrapping his arms around In, Korn buried his face in his boyfriend’s hair and nuzzled it, smiling softly when In tightened his arms around his waist and tangled their legs together. Rubbing his back softly, Korn kept his eyes on the bare white ceiling as In hummed, his mind filled with full contentment, the outside world being far away from his mind as he was able to snuggle into Korn’s warm body. “I love you, Korn.”
“I love you too, In,” Korn whispered, keeping his tone soft so the peaceful atmosphere around them wouldn’t break. Letting a sleepy smile rise on his face, In stifled a yawn into Korn’s t-shirt before he let his eyes flutter shut, the warmth of the blanket and his boyfriend’s body lulling him into a calm slumber. Noticing the way In’s body grew heavy against his and the way his breathing evened out, Korn let out a fond sigh and held In tighter against him, turning his head slightly so he could check their alarm clock. Taking in that it was only 6:30 in the morning, he figured that it wouldn’t hurt for them to sleep since he knew that In wasn’t exactly a morning person and would be grumpy if he tried to wake him up. Pressing another kiss to In’s hair, Korn threw the thought away of having to return to his home to see his father and only focused on the now. Letting his eyes close, Korn took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “I never want to leave this place…”
Not soon after that thought left his mind, Korn found himself quickly joining In in a peaceful slumber, cuddled together tightly as similar soft smiles rested on their face, both of them completely oblivious of the outside world. That could wait, because for right now, all that mattered to them was being together with no worries.
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gra-sonas · 4 years ago
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Hi! Can I just say that the thing I'm most thankful for today is you and your blog. It's literally the onlu tumblr I check every single day without fail & especially in times of turmoil your positivity just brings this peace. I'll be the 1st to admit that I'm not a fan of CAM, to say that I've disliked her since TVD is putting it mildly, but I just came from another blog and saw all these posts listing her faults. I know she's not perfect and I don't even like her but those posts weighed me down
2 so I just went back to your blog to reread all your positive response and I just wanted to say thank you. I didn't even expect to feel bad bec of criticism of CAM bec they were very valid points. But hammering it out after all these time is just heavy om the heart. I feel like what we need to do now is to move forward and heal and put her behind us. So I'm looking forward to any positive feeling or thoughts you'll be willing to share with us. You are a force of good and I'm sending you love
Goodness, I’ve received so much love yesterday, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed that this continues. 😳Your message made me smile tho, and I thank you for your kind words, nonnie! It makes me happy to know that my blog brings you some comfort. ❤️❤️❤️
Ngl, we’ve had a bit of a rough year. First the S1 finale debacle, then a very long hiatus that left the fandom fractured, followed by a rather underwhelming season 2 - it’s no surprise that there’s currently a lot of bitterness being voiced, especially since CAM contributed in different, and sometimes quite significant ways to what’s upset people. Believe me, I too am still bitter about quite a few things.
But I don’t want to let that bitterness consume me, I don’t want to dwell on it, especially now, when there’s a clean cut and a somewhat promising future on the horizon. 
For my own peace of mind, I want to focus on positivity, the possibilities, and all the things I LOVE about the show and its characters. Because there’s still so much I love about RNM (the reason why I’m still here, even tho I didn’t watch S2). S3 won’t be on our screens for another year, and I’d rather try and enjoy the time as much as I can (I don’t want another hellatus...).
I got a lot of asks the night when news broke that she’d leave the show (more than 50 👀), and quite a few of them pointed out negative things about her, listed rumors about her behavior (some dating back to times prior to RNM), mentioned rude comments she’s made, stuff like that. And I’m okay with people sending me these kinds of asks (I get it, sometimes it just feels good to blow off steam). 
I didn’t publish them tho, bc like you, the negativity tends to weigh me down, and I don’t want to amplify it.
Tbh, I’m just really tired of being weighed down by negativity. The show did that to me for the longest time (especially the last couple of months), and CAM definitely did play her part in that. But she’s gone now, and I’m more than ready to move on. 
There’s nothing we can change about the past 2 seasons, none of the mistakes or writing choices that were made can be undone. Canon is what it is (minus that scene, I refuse to acknowledge its existence), and I more than understand that not everyone’s ready to move on yet, that some of that bitterness has to get out first, be discussed and maybe rehashed a couple more times - all in order to eventually let it go. 
I want to focus on the good things from now on tho. I want to fangirl, read fic,  write fic (haha, as if my muse would let me 😒DEAR MUSE, I HAVE A BIG BANG TO WRITE, PLS DON’T MAKE IT SO HARD FOR ME), make gifs, perhaps rewatch some S1 scenes. I want to swoon over Tyler, laugh at Vlamis, slowly get excited about S3 around the time they return to Santa Fe - just nurture the little seed of hope that things will be better next season.
I really do feel a lot more hopeful now. I’m not as anxious anymore, I don’t dread thinking about the future of the show like I used to. I’m well aware that even with a new show runner things can go sideways. Chris Hollier isn’t some savior who’s gonna magically fix all past mistakes and will never make any of his own.
He just seems a little less unpredictable, a little less “vindictive”, and a lot less thriving on misery, all things I appreciate. He’s also not constantly on social media to either “spy” on what fans are talking about, or barging in to “correct” us when we supposedly focus on the “wrong” things.
We may have lost the hot wire connection to the show runner, but imo that can be an advantage. I’m sure regardless of him not monitoring fan activity on Twitter and Tumblr 24/7, Chris is well aware of how important Malex are to fans, and he knows how important they are to Tyler and Vlamis. I believe he also knows about all the grievances fans have regarding making PoC the villains, mistreating Maria, sidelining characters, and so on.
He doesn’t have to be on social media to be aware of these things (many of the RNM writers are on social media, it would be a miracle if they didn’t talk about stuff like that in the writers room), and I hope he’s gonna fix some of the more glaring issues, and hopefully he’ll refrain from fucking up Malex (I believe they are in good hands with him tho).
Anyway, this got long and super rambly. Sorry, must’ve been something in the water this morning xD 
Here’s to a mostly enjoyable hiatus, what I can do to make it a little more silly and fun, I’ll do. ✨💚👽
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ertrunkenerwassergeist · 4 years ago
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Born Into the Wilds - Snippet
This chapter is already 8 pages long and still not finished XD
Hhhmmm, what to choose...
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“I would have loved to see their faces though,” Libertus suddenly said, jarring Nyx out of his thoughts.
“What?”
“With the fire-ash. I would have loved to see the Insomnian's faces when it suddenly grew up from under the streets.”
Crowe gave an amused snort. “Probably as dumb as yours was.”
“Hey! You weren't a paragon of serenity either, so you have no room to comment.”
The two glared at each other until Crowe huffed and rolled her eyes good naturedly. “Yeah, whatever.”
By now they had all seen the newsreels about it. Interviews with upset pedestrians and citizens that their beautiful city had been blighted by a blessing of Ifrit. But on moogle net there were quite a few people voicing their interest in learning more about this. Especially young people. It was strangely heartening in a way.
Nyx looked out his window at the large form of the fire-ash peeking out from behind the buildings. It's crown had grown around the main street of Insomnia and the Founder's Plaza along with a few other places. It looked like round islands of bronze and green in all the grey. Currently there were concerns flying around about how much light the lower districts were getting now with the tree blocking out much more of the sun than the buildings already had, but Nyx could already tell that somehow they now had even more light and that the air had become cleaner.
“You think the sinehär gisdrauhti will declare it a sacred sight?” Pelna asked no one in particular.
“Don't think so,” Crowe answered. “They would never declare something of Astral making sacred. Also, it's at a too inconvenient a place to set up a sacred sight. I give it until noon today at most until the children are climbing all over it.”
“No bet,” Libertus snorted, amused.
The sudden ringing from a phone made them all twitch. Libertus gave a quiet slew of curses and fished his phone out of his pocket, it's screen lit up and emitting a series of semi-melodic high pitched jingles. He answered in Lucian.
“Yeah? Ostium speaking. - Wait, how did you get your hands on this number? - Yeah, okay stop. What did you call me for? - Know what, get yourself over here and we'll talk about our training sessions. - Of course that's alright. Why wouldn't you be able to come down here? We didn't shut us off from the rest of the city, you know.” Libertus sighed and rolled his eyes before giving out the address for Nyx' apartment. “You know how to find it? - Good. See you in an hour then. And don't be late.”
“Did you just invite the Amicitia kid for food?” Nyx asked with a raised eyebrow.
Libertus stared down at his phone like he couldn't believe he had just done that. Suddenly, Nyx grinned.
“Admit it. The kid grew on you.”
His hunting-brother scowled and shoved Nyx in the shoulder. “Shut it, you.”
“But you don't deny it,” Nyx singsonged and ducked out of the way of the kitchen towel sailing his way.
Someone clapped their hands together to gain their attention. It was Crowe.
“Okay, playtime is over. If we want to eat at a reasonable time today, we need to start to clean up. No getting out of it Luche! Don't think I didn't see you try to sneak away. You can help Libertus in the kitchen.”
The bond's expression did not change eve a little bit as he walked over to the kitchenette, where Libertus had finally started to sort through the bags. As always, he had bought at least thrice as much as should be needed.
Nyx turned back towards his bed and started to resort the loose papers into their proper binders, all carefully labelled for easy manoeuvring. It was done relatively quickly, so after he was done, he went to help Crowe, who just shooed him away. So he just shrugged, turned the TV louder and retreated into a corner to mix some limeschti after his Clan's recipe.
“... live from the Founder's Plaza.”
“Thank you, Lucius. I'm here at the Founder's Plaza where you can see the very top of the fire-ash. It appeared yesterday precisely at high noon, causing a minor accident on the Insomnia Main Street and surprising the pedestrians here,” a female reporter in a muted green military styled blazer spoke into a microphone.
“They still harping on about that?” Libertus wondered out loud. “That's old news already!”
“Not for Insomnians,” Luche said. “You know they love to regurgitate things like that again and again, until no one wants to hear it anymore.”
“Thank you. And that was Julia Videte, life on-site. And now please welcome in our studio renown biologist Doctor Sania Yeagre. Thank you for coming, Doctor.”
The screen showed a woman in her early to mid thirties with dark skin and black, curly hair done into a bun on top of her head. Large glasses framed eyes that glinted with a childish enthusiasm rarely seen in adults.
“The pleasure is all mine,” she said, a bright smile on her face.
“What can you tell us about the general attributes of a fire-ash?”
“The Fraxinus Ifriti, commonly known as fire-ash, belongs to the olive family. Since the fall of Solheim this tree has become exceedingly rare, for a few centuries it was even considered extinct until they found a living specimen during the construction of the Tomb of the Fierce on Mt. Ravatogh. It also is the slowest growing tree on Eos, with barely half a centimetre per year. Studies also showed that its sap could be used as a strong curative.”
“Can I infer from the scientific name, that there is a connection to the Infernian?”
“No shit,” Libertus muttered, causing Nyx to snort.
Sania Yeagre, not at all perturbed by the leading question, nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! In some of the earliest botanical works we have today, it is listed as a symbol of Ifrit's blessing. Which is why the tree must have been very common during the existence of the Empire of Solheim. It is depicted in near every work of art we have left of that time.”
“Then the fire-ash that spontaneously sprouted from Little Galahd, can be seen as a sign of the Infernian blessing the Galahdian people?”
“I imagine so. This is a very rare opportunity. I returned to Insomnia as soon as I heard of the fire-ash's existence. Hopefully the Galahdian leader will let me study it.”
Nyx shared a look with Pelna, who had also finished cleaning up his papers. He stood by the door, papers and laptop crammed under one arm.
“I'll be back soon. Just need to put these away and get Tethys, Moireus and the girls. We'll also bring another table and some chairs. There's no way we'll fit all at this tiny thing you call your dining table, Nyx.”
“Hey. I haven't needed a bigger one until now.”
“Time to get a new one, then,” Pelna teased and slipped through the door.
Nyx scowled after him while Crowe and Libertus snickered and Luche's lips ticked up into a grin. A knock came from the open doorway. There stood Athina, her hand raised and a smile on her face. She looked gorgeous in the dark red tunic dress with a wide cream cloth belt.
“Athina!” Nyx exclaimed, surprised and joyous. “Come in. Can I offer you some tea?”
“Good day, Nyx. Thank you, that would be very appreciated,” she smiled.
She stepped into the apartment and towards the table that looked like nothing had changed for the last ten minutes. Still papers were everywhere but woe to the person who wanted to help Crowe clean up her mess.
“Can I help you? Four hands are faster then two,” Athina asked the other woman.
Nyx was about to open his mouth to tell the dark skinned woman that it was hopeless to ask, when Crowe squinted at her and nodded after a few seconds of staring, which Athina bore patiently. Libertus gave him a wide eyed look. Crowe never let people help her with cleaning. Never. Athina, not knowing what had just happened, just asked their storm-sister where which papers went and started to help as per her instructions.
Very deliberately Nyx turned around and reached around Luche to fetch another tea cup. His last one, since he only owned four. He poured the last of the tea he had made earlier, and earned himself a bright smile when he set it down at a spot of now paper free table. The answering smile growing on his face was more of a flirty smirk that made Crowe roll her eyes.
Not too long after that there was a roast in the microwave oven and Libertus had gone to fetch Crowe's to put the second roast in. Because one was apparently not enough with the amount of people who were suddenly coming. Pelna returned with Tethys and the children not too long after that, bearing a foldable table and chairs along with more dishes. Nyx sent them a grateful look.
“Nyx!” Moireus cried and barrelled into his legs to give him a tight hug around the waist.
“Buhgil! How have you been? My, have you grown taller?”
Nyx tousled the boys hair, which earned him a bright, toothy smile. “I grew this much!” He held his thumb and index finger about two centimetres apart. Nyx nodded, impressed.
He looked up and gave Tethys, Ker and Dione welcoming smiles. “Thanks for coming.”
“Thanks for having us,” Tethys returned with a smile of her own.
“Don't mention it. I think Libertus' secret ambition for today is to feed the whole house with how much he bought.”
“I want to see the pretty tree!” Moireus spoke up, tugging at Nyx' trouser leg.
“You need to ask your parents that, buhgil. Maybe they'll take you tomorrow, if you're on your best behaviour this evening and go to bed without complaining.”
“I will!” the boy nodded eagerly and ran over to his mother to tell her, even though she had clearly heard every single word being spoken.
The TV was turned off and someone set up a CD player on his chest of drawers. At once a lively drumbeat filled the apartment along with their chatter and the smell of meat and steaming vegetables. It gave Nyx a sudden pang of homesickness. What would it be like to do something like this again in his Clan house? To fill it with voices and music and laughter? He hoped he would find out sometime soon.
Not long after everything was set up, the tables and chairs cramped into all the available free space, and they were just starting to set down the plates, there was another knock at the door – which, surprisingly enough, had been closed sometime during this endeavour. Nyx, who was closest, opened it.
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imastrangeone98 · 5 years ago
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IG-07
(A/N: well here we go! My Mando one shots are finally becoming unpopular which means I'm free to write whatever the fuck I want XD I'm thinking of having this and the next part of this be the last one shots revolving around my oc's past and then it's time to write more on the actual canon!)
WARNING: references to sexual and verbal abuse- there is nothing graphic but still, better safe than sorry
Mandalorian tag list: @kateb013
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"You said you escaped once."
Kyla looked up at her helmeted partner, meal bar in hand. "What do you mean?"
"The mansion at... Dandoran," he said carefully, keeping an eye on her face to check for any signs of fear. "You escaped once. How?"
She tilted her head, confusion evident in her eyes. "Are you curious?"
He supposed he was. But he remained silent. His posture spoke for him, after all- he had taken the seat in front of her, palms resting on his thighs, helmet turned in her direction.
She sighed, and set her meal bar down before turning her attention to him. "I don't think you'll like this story."
"Try me."
"Alright. And to be honest, it wasn't so much an escape than it was pure luck."
[Years Ago...]
It was unnaturally hot. Steam and mist blanketed the mansion and its caretakers in a soupy haze. It set everyone on edge; they were snappier than usual, more prone to sending young Kyla off to finish what work remained while they went off to rest in the back rooms.
She wanted to rest, too, but of course, no one wanted that, and as much as she hated it, she didn't want to push their luck without the master around. She was the young boss' favorite, which meant that whenever he was there, the servants showered her with praise and attention, only to turn their backs the moment he left.
They were mean. She didn't like them. It wasn't her fault that she was the youngest of the slaves, that he touched her in places she didn't like, or said mean things to her every day. But of course, she said nothing. Silence was better than feeling the sting of the metal rod on her bottom.
But too many thoughts were bad, so she turned her attention back to the laundry. After making sure that the linens were delicately placed on the drying clothesline, she gathered up the basket and made to return inside, hoping to sneak into the kitchen for a glass of water-
BAM!
What sounded like blaster fire erupted from the door. There were loud screams coming from inside, and Kyla could see smoke pouring out from the kitchen window.
What could she do? She was only 9 years old- she wasn't nearly strong enough to take down a burglar. She was small- maybe she could find some of them and lead them to safety? Would they even want to follow her?
Footsteps echoed through the marble hallways. They sounded... mechanical.
And they were coming her way.
She panicked. She threw herself into the nearest rose bush and tucked herself into a little ball, doing her best to ignore the thorns stabbing at her soft skin.
And she waited. And waited.
And the footsteps drew ever closer.
Her eyes squeezed shut. This was the end for her.
A robotic voice pierced the crushing silence: "Identify yourself."
[...]
"A droid?" he asked, shock evident in his tone. "A droid found you?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't it kill you?"
"I... actually have no idea." She scratched her head, lost in confusion herself. "It should've shot me, like it did the others. I don't know why it didn't."
"That... that's impossible." Mando's voice dropped to a whisper, and laced with bitterness. "Droids only know how to kill."
For some reason, Kyla bristled at that comment. "You didn't know this droid. Don't judge it."
"I knew enough droids," he muttered. "All of them were killers."
"Not this one. Seven was different."
"You clearly haven't met enough of them."
"Well, you clearly have a stick up your ass!" Her hand smacked the table so hard it sent her meal bar flying.
Neither of them spoke for a while. Then, silently, Din picked up the meal bar and placed it back on the table.
Kyla sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," he replied. "I made you angry."
With a turn of her head, she looked him in the eyes- or, tried to, anyway. "You did." She watched him, careful, the way a bounty would cautiously eye a hunter. "But then again, you never did like droids much."
"I have my reasons," was all he said on the matter.
She didn't push him. She let it be. "Alright."
[Years Ago...]
"Identify yourself," the droid repeated, blaster aimed precisely at the child's head.
It looked like a bounty hunter droid, with weapons strapped onto every possible metallic surface- blasters, knives, pulse grenades- this robot had it all. Its turret-like eyes swung around multiple times, but no doubt keeping its monitors on her.
Kyla trembled. "Please don't hurt me."
"Identify yourself."
"K- Kyla."
"Where is Tobblerine Drescant?"
She trembled. " I- I don't know, Mr.... Robot. Master Drescant only comes during the winter season."
The turret-like eyes continued to swivel. Slowly, it lowered its blaster. Unbeknownst to her, it was already beginning to reprogram itself. "Where is your family?"
The child flinched. Without meaning to, tears welled up in her eyes. "I... I don't know."
The robot analyzed her.
Manual reprogramming complete. Objective: protect the child.
"Do you wish to live?"
Kyla gazed up at it, soft eyes glassy. "Huh?"
"You may choose to stay, if you wish," it said. "After all, I have terminated all remaining life in this mansion. However, your former master will arrive in many months. The resources already in this mansion will not sustain you for long. Your chances of survival are less than 12% if you remain here."
"Then..." Her voice was so small. "What should I do?"
It extended a metal hand towards her. "Come with me."
She looked tearfully at the IG unit. "Will you protect me?"
"Yes."
"...Do you promise not to leave me?"
"I promise."
After watching it, she finally nodded and placed her tiny hand in its own. "Okay."
[...]
Kyla yawned. "It took me with it, everywhere it went. It taught me everything I know- how to shoot blasters, how to heal people, how to read situations- everything."
Din leaned towards her. "What happened to it?"
The medic folded the meal bar wrapper absentmindedly; the look in her eyes was distant, as if recounting a horrible memory long past. She said nothing.
That was enough.
As gently as he could, he pried the wrapper from her fingers. "Get some sleep. We'll be landing soon."
"Okay." Without another word, she slid off her seat and stumbled to her small room.
"Kyla," he called out, just before she entered.
She turned to him, clearly fighting exhaustion.
"Thank you." He nodded at her. "For your story."
The smile on her face was droopy, yet it spoke everything that words couldn't express. She slunk into the room, and the door slid shut.
And Mando was, once again, alone, with only his racing thoughts for company.
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A/N: whewie! One more to go, and then it's off to the canon!
Edit: read the sequel! :D
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crystu-cii · 4 years ago
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OF COURSE!!!! I'd say you're hella close to it!!! Definitely closer than I am XDD 💖💞💝💕💝❤️💕💕❤️ A G R EED /hj XDD
Yeah ;w; oohh that sounds super interesting!! I can understand not pursuing a story tho, stories are d i f f icult-- XD fun, but difficult, and you need an attention span for them! (Why do you think I only write one page stories??)
OMS yessss that's so accurate tho-- like I haven't changed much if I'm being honest (I spend a LOT of time inside.. XD) awww-- I can understand that- in japan we didn't have a backyard, so I stopped going outside much at all-- occasionally I biked to convenience stores or walked to vending machines, that was cool, but no backyard :/ having no backyard sUCks, like where am I supposed to scream into the void?? INSIDE?? /j
OMS-- CRYS XDD what a Mood™ tho- "oh I'm gonna continue this thing!!" *does something else entirely*
XDD It was done Against My Will™ (get Against My Will on the album I Haven't Awoken Well Rested Since I Was A Child by the band The Bags Under My Eyes Aren't Makeup! XD) MOOD-- I spent the quarantine summer doing nothing but staying up until the sun rose and sleeping until it was at its peak- where did the time goooo
I AGREE HOW DARE HE- LIKE EXCUSE?? YOU TINY HEATHEN??? anyways now I'm trying to go back to squirting him with a squirt bottle to startle him(even tho he's a fan of water, the harsh spray startles him) but anyways thank you crysss I'm never getting a cat in my life now bc of this rude child (dogs are superior anyways /hj)
(and now time to reply to the OTHER ask cause I'm efficient and not going to send two separate asks to respond to things that can be responded to at the same time.. ....why did I even ramble about that wtf henry(huh I never refer to myself by name that felt weird))
Okay!! No worries dude, you can always take your time with replies, I just don't trust tumblr XD 💞❤️💕💝💝💖💕❤️💖 of course!!! Thank you!!! 💖💕💕💖💞💕
Oooh!!! That sounds super fun!!! Man I miss hanging out with my friends-- but my closest friend(lives in my neighborhood) has a parent who works in other people's houses, so high risk, and the rest live several hours away :)) but anyways yeah that sounds hella!!!! I love that y'all were just like "okay well. we're gonna hang out anyways." XDD
Aww-- I'm glad you are!! My brother and his bf were supposed to come but I think we have to postpone that cause someone in his workplace tested positive for covid :( YESS FOODDDD-- oooh cheesecake?? I've never heard of having it on Thanksgiving!! Usually we have pumpkin, cherry, apple, and pecan pies!! (We're having pumpkin and cherry ones this yeah!! Two pumpkin pies, a cherry pie, and a cherry cobbler--) I... Have never heard of pineapple pie in my life! Sounds like it would make pineapple-on-pizza haters burst into tears tho--
YOURE WHAT-- CRYS YOU HEATHEN IT IS NOVEMBER!!!!! /j I can't stand Christmas music, being a choir student made me not be a huge fan of it-- too much Christmas music.. ugh. (Straight no chaser is tolerable at least. And Pentatonix. And covers by artists I like. But if I have to hear Jingle Bells ONE MORE TIME--) YESSS BESTOW UPON ME THOU'S PRESENCE AND PRESENTS... Ooh nice!! Pfft XDD Yess- I have multiple on my wishlist-- mostly for the switch-- OMS I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T ASK FOR THSC-- MAYBE IM THE HEATHEN--
Okay, it's January 5th! Literally not even two weeks after Christmas-- Feel free to scream happy birthday at me :3 XDD now I'm curious, what's yours?
awhhh thank you ;w;; 💕💞💕💞💞💕💞
and legiT- and omg- also what i do a lot is thinking i have a story all in control but then i realise that i only focused on the main parts and nOT the transitions and all that shit and then i end up last minute thinking them- XDD and ngl one page stories sound SOO much better- imo- not just for writing- but for reading as well- whenever i go to see a fanfic I always read the ones that has one chapter- dunno how to fully explain it- possibly cause its satisfying to see a story actually have its end other than a long lasting series that will never end- XDD oneshots are my FUEL
buT WoW omg this topic has now made me realise how i barely go outside- XDD i wish there would be other thingd around my neighborhood other than a "park" that has DEAD GRASS and the sprinklers go off like every hour for some reason- duNNo what the builders were thinking but i guess i dont mind- i stay in my house a whOLELE lot xD
and YESS IT GETS ME EVERYTIME- "hey lets draw-" *-WRITES-* XDD AND ABHAHAHAHA (NOW ON YOUR LOCAL MUSIC STORES- XDDDD) and omG MEEE- the times i would usually sleep would be around 3 am to 6 am- ironically my mom has a more screwed up schedule than i do- and SHE STILL HAS- last night she told me that she hasnt slept in 48 HOURSSS- MaMAAA PLEASE SLEEP
GO AWAY CAT HEATHEN- XD and omG a squirt bottle of water yes XDD and awh i definitely understand now how youll not get a cat- sounds like a hecka pain ;0;; i never even had a pet before (or not that i would recall- oh wait i think i had fish but i have an embarrassing story that made my mom ban fish from the household- OH MAN the shame)
and yeahh oh man- i hope you are okay with all these topics XDD and thank you!! 💕💞💕💞💕💞💕💞
awwhh i see- i wish you can hang out with your friends without it being too risky! that reminds me of that one time where my friend said "hey so uh you guys can hang out at my house since at my parent's workplace someone was positive for covid" and then immeadiately after they were like "SO WE NEED TO GO TO ONE OF YOUR GUYS' HOUSE" and Im LIKE- UH- NOO??? nOt AfTEr you just say THAT- nuh uh- thankfully we didnt hang out that day- better safe than sorry xD
and omggg those pies sound AWWESOMEEEE- i always wanted to try pumpkin pie before but when i asked my mom that she was like "nO iTS diSGusTing" and im like "*visible confusion*" and lOwKEY SAME- pineapple pie just sounds a bit off but my mom was really hyped to make it xD i'd actually say its not that bad! but im still not a fan of pineapple so uhhh xD (aNd YEAH IT DOES feel like it would make those haters cry-- XDD)
and PFHAOHFA IM A LIVING HEATHEN- XDD omg at this time of year- it gets CRAZYY for me- first off- Tree is a true filipino- right when it was the first day october- youd hear them say "FUCK HALLOWEEN"(and id just whine to them like "BUT HALLOWENENENEN") and then their family set up a whole christmas tree and over-the-top decorations- and omg- if you hate christmas music- you would despise the philippines sO MUCH- when the FIRST day of SEPTEMBER hits- CHRISTMAS MUSIC ON ALLLLL THE STORES- it will drive you WILDDD ( yeah its actually a normal filipino thing- not that i ever went to the philippines myself at tHAT time of year- but my friends and family tell me all about it- filipinos are the true christmas maniacs XDDD)
and awhhh choir must be a pain ;0;;; that would remind me how on one concert- the beginners class of choir screamed on purpose even though they werent supposed to- the teacher got so pissed XDDD and YESSS PRESENTSSSS- and awh man- i actually dont own ANY consoles at all- so the only things i can ask for is steam games- last year for christmas i got just shapes and beats- which was WORTHHH
and oo YAY- now i shall mark that on my calander- XD and mine is february 7!
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missneko-otaku · 5 years ago
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Sakakibara Yasumasa
A Faint Affection (MC x Yasumasa)
-Chapter 1/ Chapter 2/ Chapter 3/ Chapter 4/ Chapter 5/ Chapter 6-7/
(Writer’s notes: Omy gosh..finally, after so, so long...! I am posting the continuation of my Yasumasa fic again. It is not dead yet! My Yasumasa fic is still alive and kicking~ XD Whew~ (・ε・`*) … I had been writing and trying to finish these two chapters for almost a week now. (And if it wasn’t for the latest Tenka Yasumasa event I read from Agas-chan, I wouldn’t feel more inspired and try to reaally give time for my fic again. So busy with life that I had a hard time squeezing some time for writing this fic. But finally! I managed now to squeeze my time and finish these two chapters! Yehey! Waah I feel so tired _ノ乙(、ン、)_ 
I even had to reread the whole fic from chapter 1-5 just to make sure I am not forgetting or missing something XD 
As always, please bear with my English and writing skills~ (๑•́ ₃ •̀๑) I am no pro, just average XD ~ And hopefully,v(⌒o⌒)vI hope you have fun and enjoy reading this fic as much as I do!)
Chapter 6-7
Running in the middle of the night, 
                            Tomorrow morning with a cold.
                                          And an evening full of sadness. 
“Did something good happened?” inquire Umeko, her face observing me so carefully.
It is early morning, we have been tasked to prepare food early for some reason. The sky hasn’t lighted up yet but you can hear the roosters outside crowing already. A sign that morning sun is approaching. A brand new day for all of us.
“Haah!??” startled by her sudden question, I almost drop the knife I am holding. “Whhha--, why do you think so?” I reply.
“Well, you seem.. “ she pauses,  giggling she continues and says, “you seem like someone who is in love.”
“A whaaat!!?” I find my tone suddenly rising. 
“Who is the lucky girl? Ayeee, Yahiko!” squeaks Umeko while elbowing me in my side. “I didn’t know you have one!” exclaimed Umeko again.
“What are you even saying? I don’t know what you are talking about to be honest.”
“Tsk. You can’t fool me young man, I can see it and feel it. Something is different with you these days.” says Umeko as she continues peeling the potatoes beside me.
“I think you are just imagining things.” I reply as I hold the knife and the potato I am peeling more firmly.
“Imagining things? Maybe you are the one who is imagining something there! Tell that to your giggling face!” she says pointing the small knife to me. “Do you even take a look at yourself? You are giggling by yourself since we started peeling these potatoes.”
“Am I?? Reaally?” I say, caught off guard.
“Yeah! You keep on smiling and smiling while peeling these potatoes! I wonder why? Hmmm???” teases Umeko while she pinches my cheeks with both of her hands.
Do I look like that? Was I really am smiling?
I ask myself countless times inside my head. 
***
Breakfast was served earlier than usual. After having breakfast, lord Ieyasu and lord Sakai with some of the retainers departed to Owari to visit lord Nobunaga leaving the castle for a few days to the trusted trio: lord Tadakatsu, lord Yasumasa and Toramatsu. The three are left in charge of the affairs in the castle. 
So here I am, as usual, outside the veranda just finished everything that needed to be done. I am glad that I am able to do and finished every chore fast. Now finally, I can relax a bit. I look at the swaying sheets of my laundry that are hanging so perfectly out in the sunshine. I feel proud for the good work I have done. As I take in the breeze around me, my mind floats back to what Umeko was saying.
You seem like someone who is in love..
Whhhhaaaa! No no no! Haha, what the hell? Hahaha Umeko is so jumping into conclusions! Me? In love? To whom?? I was just smiling. I was smiling because of what happened a few days ago. Nothing more. I was just happy that lord Yasumasa even tagged along in getting the two children back home safely despite his nonstop complaints. And I was maybe, yes, giggling because lord Yasumasa doesn’t have the slightest clue that those are the very same children that secretly gave him pressed flowers before. I was just happy because everything feels like fate and such. Yeah, that’s it. 
I clapped my hands together making a loud sound in the air. 
Umeko is really jumping to conclusions. I hope she wouldn’t spread any rumours to our fellow maids.
“Anyway! Why am I thinking so hard about this? The weather is so nice today! Perhaps I should go out and buy some new ingredients for our dessert.”  I tell myself with glee.
***
“Hey is that Yahiko? Toramatsu?” says Tadakatsu as he points Yahiko who just went outside the castle gates with basket in one hand.
“Yes, why?” says Toramatsu
Lord Tadakatsu together with Toramatsu and of course lord Yasumasa is currently walking outside in the castle garden. You can visibly see the sweat forming on their clothes and faces as they leisurely walk in the open garden. They have finished practicing their swordsmanship with their retainers a couple of minutes ago. 
“Nothing really, haha. But, I can’t help but notice that he is really a hardworking lad. You must be so lucky to have him Yasumasa?” says Tadakatsu as he laughs.
“I think I have to agree with you lord Tadakatsu about that,” says Toramatsu, “Yahiko is a very hardworking person but I am afraid he might over push himself.” concern present on his voice.
Meanwhile, Yasumasa who is standing beside them nods in agreement for the first time with Toramatsu and says, “True, he is very useful I have to say. Way more useful and responsible than any other servants out there that worked under me.” 
“Oooh..is that a compliment to Yahiko? Haha” teases lord Tadakatsu.
“Take it whatever you want, Tadakatsu.” says Yasumasa disinterested as he wipes his sweaty face with his kimono sleeves.
“But, I do really hope he doesn’t overwork himself too much. He handles almost all the chores in the castle. I think it won't bring any good to his health later on, if he keeps on abusing his body, doing everything by himself.” says Toramatsu in a whisper as the three of them walk.
As Toramatsu says this, Yasumasa looks back behind him. He looks at the castle gate with something on his mind.
***
As soon as I got back from my mini shopping, I start helping out in the kitchen. It is almost lunchtime, so the old kitchen ladies are all busy preparing the meals of the retainers. I help with ladling the hot soup, filling their porcelain bowls to the brim, then putting them in the trays that are lined up in front of me. After everything is prepared, we start to distribute the trays on the main hall so that the hungry retainers can eat their meal while it is still hot. 
I go and serve Toramatsu, lord Tadakatsu and lord Yasumasa their meals as usual. 
“Thanks for the meal, Yahiko” says lord Tadakatsu beaming with a smile.
“Why don’t you eat with us too, you must be pretty starving by now” says Toramatsu, smiling at me with some gentleness in his eyes. 
Meanwhile, lord Yasumasa on the other hand is just listening to us three while he eats his food.
Feeling shy to eat with them so suddenly, I reject the kind offer. “I umm.. I am not yet hungry so don’t worry milord” I say when suddenly as I am about to stand up from my kneeling spot, my stomach rumbles without any warning. 
“!!”
“I think your stomach says otherwise.” says nonchalantly by lord Yasumasa who is now drinking the hot steaming soup from his porcelain bowl.
Lord Tadakatsu laughs at me. I can’t help but blush so hard in front of them. My face turns slightly red like a ripened tomato. Toramatsu on the other hand, tries to stifle his laughter and end up just giggling quietly. 
“Just eat with us, Yahiko.” 
“Yeah, eat with us..!”
Invites Toramatsu and lord Tadakatsu again to me.
“Umm..haha, no, I am okay. And I still have some things to do. Well then, excuse me my lords!” I bow and walk quickly from the main hall not even looking back because of the embarrassment. Gosh, why of all time!!??? Why!!? I want to crawl into some hole and never go out. This is so embarrassing!
“Yahiko is cute, don’t you think Yasumasa?” says lord Tadakatsu innocently without any deep meaning at all. 
“What’s so cute about a person who lets himself starve or lets his stomach rumble in front of everybody.” says coldly and unimpressed by lord Yasumasa.
“Ohh come on! Yahiko is cute! Isn’t he Toramatsu? You agree with me right?” lord Tadakatsu says again in a gleefully manner, pointing his chopsticks to Toramatsu.
“Instead saying that and giving him a cold shoulder, you should have asked him to eat with us. He was probably shy in front of you to say yes to us. He must be worried that you might not like the idea with him eating with us or maybe with you.” says Toramatsu in a faint stern tone towards lord Yasumasa.
“What!? So are you saying that it’s my fault now?” irritated, lord Yasumasa unconsciously slams his chopsticks on his tray. “Is it my fault that he was shy, that he couldn’t eat with us and rejected your offer? Why do you have to blame me for it, as if it is my responsible or something..”
“Just saying. You should have been more thoughtful.” Toramatsu replies without looking back, continuing eating his hot meal in a calm manner.
“Tsk.” lord Yasumasa snaps, now feeling a little bit guilty towards Yahiko who seems tired and really hungry just by the sound of his rumbling stomach earlier.
“Umm, hello? does anyone agree with what I am saying? Isn’t Yahiko cute??” beaming and smiling and waving like a fool, lord Tadakatsu asks them again.
“Oh! Just shut up for goodness sake, Tadakatsu!” yells lord Yasumasa, his brows furrowing into a deep arch clearly irritated by what Toramatsu said to him. “Just shut up..!” he says again to lord Tadakatsu who is oblivious of what is happening to his surroundings.  
***
Late afternoon, alone in the kitchen.
It has been a tiring day somehow for all of us. After lunch, the retainers was tasked by Toramatsu to clean up their rooms, then their belongings. Lord Tadakatsu and lord Yasumasa on the other hand, tasked the other retainers to polish their swords and their armors and other weaponries they have inside the storage. When they all finished their tasks, us servants made them some refreshments and desserts. Now that everyone is just relaxing on their own, here I am in the kitchen--my favorite place-- doing some wiping. My peaceful moment is suddenly been shattered by some loud voice coming from outside.
“Hey, Yahiko! Is it true!? Is it true!??”
Umeko suddenly comes running to me shouting in the kitchen like she heard some kind of big news from outside, almost knocking all the clean pots on the table that I have been wiping so far.
“Umeko, would you just calm down.” I say as I stack the wiped and cleaned pots in order again on the table. “Why are you shouting? Did something happen in town?” I ask, inquisitively.
“You wouldn’t believe what I just heard!” she catches her breath, then for a moment starts talking again “they say lord Yasumasa struck an innocent civilian!”
‘What!? When?!” I almost yelled at her, so shocked at what I just heard from her mouth. Lord Yasumasa, struck a civilian? is this even true?
“Well, they say, he beat up an old man in the streets a few days ago. All the old man did was he was trying to teach this certain samurai lord to be respectful towards elders. But it didn’t end well. He got beaten up badly by that young man. And it turns out that the man they are referring to is lord Yasumasa. Many say that they saw the horrible scene too. It is the talk of the town!” says Umeko.
No way..How did the story turned up into something like that? Don’t tell me that it is the drunkard we met before. That man is saying such a big nasty lie to the townspeople. He is trying to make lord Yasumasa look bad! 
“Where did you hear that? That is nonsense! Don’t believe such a big lie.” I snap at Umeko.
“Why are you getting a bit mad at me, Yahiko? I just heard it. And the old man himself was the one who was telling it all out there. He and some men also says that lord Yasumasa doesn’t deserve his title and such...that he is taking advantage of his position just because he is a samurai lord..”
I can’t believe this, why? Why say such bad things? There’s a faint pang lingering inside me that I can’t fully explain. I feel sad for lord Yasumasa who doesn’t seem to know anything. He did something good only to turned out bad like this? And at the same time, I feel very angry too, to the persons who spreads such bad lies about him. Even though lord Yasumasa can be a jerk, still saying such lies is still wrong. It is not right at all.
“Yahiko??”
“I’m sorry Umeko for snapping like that at you. But don’t believe them. That man is lying. I think he was the drunkard we met back then and he was trying to hurt some kids, lord Yasumasa just taught him a lesson. I was there. So believe me. I know lord Yasumasa can be snappy at all times, but after working under him, I can tell that he is a good man. He will not do something so bad like that.” I say to Umeko. Umeko, on the other hand is listening to me quietly and eagerly. “Is that so? I believe you then! I’m sorry too, I just got carried away because people were talking about it so I was just so shocked that I came running straight to you here right away just to confirm it. Don’t worry, if ever I heard someone here in this castle talking about it, I will say that it isn’t true.” 
“Thanks, Umeko.” I smile at her, feeling happy about her sincerity and  that the misunderstanding has been cleared up. 
***
Just outside, the two servants don’t know that somebody has been quietly listening to their conversation. It is lord Yasumasa, standing just outside near the kitchen door. He didn’t mean to listen or eavesdrop. He was supposed to ask Yahiko something, maybe ask him to do some errands for him and maybe will tell him that he can have the day after his task. He stands there, looking at the two quietly. Or more so, looking at Yahiko with such bafflement. Eyes with a faint doubtful expression. His brows in deep furrows, as if he is trying to understand something in his head but he can’t. He observes Yahiko from afar and murmurs to himself, “I really don’t get...this guy..”
***
The setting sun paints the afternoon sky with splotches and smears of crimson and orange colors. Evening is approaching slowly as the sun says goodbye to the day again. After finishing everything I have to do in the kitchen, I make my way to lord Yasumasa’s quarters. Walking in the corridor with a tray of tea and manju on my hands, I can’t help but recollect inside my head what happened earlier regarding the false rumours about lord Yasumasa. I feel angry for lord Yasumasa. I wish I was the one who was out in town so that I could correct those bad people and tell the townspeople that those are nothing but lies. That they shouldn’t believe a word that that old man and his men was spreading about.
But no matter how much I wanted to do something, all I can do now is just sigh and hope that these will stop soon. 
I see from afar lord Yasumasa’s quarters already lit up inside. Usually he is late going to his quarters but now he seems early. He must be so exhausted if that is so. Lord Yasumasa probably returned early to rest. Poor lord Yasumasa, he must have had no clue about what’s going around in town. 
Should I inform him? Or not? But..ughh what to do. What should I do… I ponder as I get nearer to his quarters.
“Lord Yasumasa, I brought you some tea and dessert.” I announce myself.
“Bring it inside.” he says flatly. 
I come inside and place the hot tea and his plate of newly made manju on his table. He has been sorting some paper scrolls again. 
After serving his tea and manju I sit near the sliding door waiting, waiting for the perfect time to tell lord Yasumasa about it. At the end, I think he should know about this. But, soon as I try to open my mouth, I can’t say nor find the right words right away. I pause, and then ponder. Ponder but then when I try to speak, I find it hard. At last, after what seemed like an eternity, I take a deep breath, then I call him in a low tone that is enough to be heard. 
“Lord Yasumasa, no matter how many times I think about it, I think you should know.”
“And what is that? Be sure that what you are about to tell me is really important or else don’t bother at all.” He says, his right hand stops from whatever it is doing. Finally he looks at me, as if he is ready to listen to what I am about to say. 
I gather my courage, and opened my mouth. 
“Somebody out there is putting such bad rumours about you, milord. I think it should be stopped or else the whole town will probably think that it is true.” I say with sincere concern for him.
“And?” 
It was an unexpected dull reply. It caught me off guard. 
“And?? I-- I think we should do something about it milord.”
“Why? Just like you said it is just a bunch of crap. Lies. Why bother?” he replies without a care in the world.
“But-- milord... don’t you feel..wronged here? Don’t you feel angry or something, because I feel angry.” I say somehow bluntly, my hands unconsciously gripping my hakama while sitting there in his room. 
He observes me like he doesn’t understand me. Like he doesn’t understand what I am trying to say to him or where I am coming from. There’s this bewilderment expression showing on his face. His brows forming into an arch, like he is trying to figure out me on his head. 
Finally, he speaks, breaking the brief silence that surrounded the room.
“I don’t understand you at all.” he says. 
“Huh?? What do you mean milord?” I say in response to him, totally confused.
Then his expression changed into his usual annoyed expression, that expression that I see from him from time to time, whenever he thinks I am being stupid or being an airhead again. 
“What I mean, fool, is that why would you feel bothered by it? Why would you even feel angry? It’s not about you. So why get so worked up about something that you don’t have business with?” he says sounding irritated like as if I am making a real big deal out of it--which I don’t understand.
“But milord--” 
“Ohh, stop.” he interjects, “Can’t you even, for once properly use your head? Why don’t you put all your energy into something more productive? Instead of complaining to me about this crap that is not worthy of my time or your time, if I were you, I would just use it to something more productive. Know what? I don’t need you and your negativity here. Go take a bath or something. Don’t get into my nerves while I ask you nicely.” he says, his hands shooing me away like I am being a pest to him right now.
Seeing that the conversation is really over, I just give up. And make my way outside of his room.
***
“Ugggghhhhh..!! I DON’T GET HIM AT ALL!” I say aloud, my voice echoing in the whole room. I punch the water around me, making a huge splash of a mess. Here I am inside the public bathroom of the castle taking a nice warm soak in this wooden bathtub. As usual, I made sure that everyone had their bath  before going here. It is hard living in disguise, you have to be cautious especially when it comes to taking a bath and changing my clothes. But it sure feels sometimes nice to have the whole room for me to use. It is quiet and no one would bother me. And I can let out all these hard feelings and frustrations I have in me.
“He is the one that I don’t understand. He always gets mad, complains a lot even by the slightest, small irrelevant things but he won’t even feel upset about somebody out there badmouthing him. What!? Mind my own business?? And here I am, worried for him. Worried that he might feel-- l.. Ughhhhh..!” I submerge my head in the warm, steaming water and letting all the frustrations and anger within me melt away.
I really don’t get how lord Yasumasa and his mind works at all. As I try to recall everything that happened, it felt like for him I was overreacting over something stupid. That I was stupid for reacting like that. The way he responded as if I am some kind of a pest, ughhh..I don’t get him at all. Use my head properly? Really? Ughh, I hate him. Here I was feeling sad for him. Oh, MC, why would you even feel concerned for that jerk? Really? Hah..! 
When I couldn’t hold my breath any longer under the water, I hurriedly come to the surface gasping for air. 
“Ha, hahh, hahh…*coughs” I let my head rest on the wooden wall, closing my eyes, thoughts wandering about the incident again.
To think they figure out lord Yasumasa’s name, or whoever they are, or I mean that old man must have done his research about it. He must have been so angry about how he was beaten up in public that he couldn’t let go of it unless he gets even to him. To think that there are people who would go to such lengths just because they feel wronged...it is scary.
Mulling over while my eyes are still closed and my head still resting on the wall, I hear the sliding wooden door of the public bathroom suddenly being opened. I open my eyes hurriedly and submerged my whole body in the bathtub. I quietly scan the area, and see someone really comes in. My body freezes, anxiousness creeping in. Thankfully, the area is dark and steamy so whoever it is still haven’t noticed me yet. The man removes his hakama, then his whole kimono robe, the fabric smoothly slipping down from the slender yet taut, muscled-body then falling to the floor. Without a sound, he walks in my direction. Even though I don’t look like it, I am panicking in my head. 
Ohh god, what should I do? He is coming nearer and nearer here. No, no...MC just relax, just think. *getting nervous and lightheaded because of too much steam* Think!? What am I supposed to think? Besides there is a man naked in front of me! And he is walking now in my direction, so how am I supposed to think..! And haha *sarcastic laugh* I am fully naked too for heaven’s sake..! 
I am starting to feel dizzy, and the only thing, the only possible solution that my mind comes up with is to just hurriedly run away from this place. No matter how hard I try to think, that is the only way I would be able to escape from this scenario. So I ready myself. I don’t care anymore if I see him naked or he sees me naked, as long as he won’t be able to see my face and discover my identity, I have no choice but to just run without clothes. 
As he gets nearer, I grab the nearest small wooden pail I see without making a sound. The man is about to enter the bathtub, the moment I see his left foot has submerged in the water, I hurriedly stand up smack the man as hard as I can with the small wooden pail. 
”Ughhhh!! What the!???”
I hear the man groaning in pain, hear him falling into the bathtub with a loud painful thud.
I’m sorry...really, really sorry..! I cry inside my head to the man who seems like in deep pain because of how he fell and got his head hit.
 And like a mad person, I hurriedly jump off the bathtub, grabbing my clothes right away and flee from the crime scene.
***
“Ouch..What in the seven hells!! Who was that stupid fool..!?!? Uhhhggh..! My butt and my head..ouch..I will kill whoever that is..! That fool!” groan in pain by lord Yasumasa. Even though the place is dark, you can still see with the moonlight’s help the reddening back of lord Yasumasa. His head hurts like crazy because of the wooden pail that was smacked on him, while half of his body is in pain because of how hard the impact it got from falling hard on the wooden tub. If you are wondering why he is there at that time, well it was just an unfortunate coincidence. He was so exhausted that he was a bit late in taking his usual bath. Unfortunately, that is the usual time MC takes her bath..so..you know now.
“What a crazy guy.! I will surely kill that person! Just you wait..! Ouuucchh.. Aww, damn..my body hurts like hell..” curses lord Yasumasa in the air, alone in the dark.
***
I am panting so hard, like a person who just survived from death. Wet to the bones and naked, I am clasping my white kimono undergarment like my life depends on it. I am so looking weird, like an exhibitionist right now. I hurriedly put my clothes on despite my body still drenching from water. After checking nobody is outside, I hurriedly run to my quarters hoping and praying that no problems will arise tomorrow.
***
Morning, it is.
The weather is nice and as usual we prepared breakfast early and on time. Still cautious about what happened last night, I am on guard even though I am working like nothing happened. Thankfully, it seems like nobody knows who or what happened last night. With stacked trays on my arms, I go to the main hall to serve the newly cooked breakfast for the retainers.
“You looked flushed, you okay?” asks with a happy-go-lucky tone by lord Tadakatsu to lord Yasumasa who is sitting beside him waiting for their breakfast meals to be served.
“I hope there is some hot soup in the menu today.” says lord Yasumasa more like to himself, than to lord Tadakatsu who is beside him looking bit puzzled.
After serving the others including Toramatsu’s food, I go to lord Tadakatsu and lord Yasumasa’s side next. I kneel in front of them and start serving their respective trays.
“Here is your breakfast milor--- achooooo..!”
“Is there a sou---- achooooo..!!”
The sound of my sneezing and for some reason, another sound of somebody’s sneeze too surprised me, lord Tadakatsu, lord Yasumasa as well as the other retainers nearby.
“Wow. Did something happen? Both of you are looking flushed and looks like both of you caught a cold too.” says lord Tadakatsu a bit taken aback by our sneezes. I realized that the other person that sneezed the same time with me is lord Yasumasa.
“Haahaha…*nervous laughing. It must be the weather.” I countered. But at the back of my mind, I don’t want to think but I get the feeling that it was lord Yasumasa that I smacked last night with the wooden pail. The one who entered the public bath. The one I saw naked. The one I almost killed…! Realizing this, I feel like fainting right there on the spot. 
Shoot..!! MC!!! Pray he doesn’t notice or don’t get any idea!!!
“But the weather is nice though..that is weird haha” laughs off lord Tadakatsu as he starts digging his meal. Meanwhile, as I try to catch a glimpse of lord Yasumasa, I accidentally make an eye contact with him. 
Oooopppss..!  This is not good. I can see the reaction in his eyes. There is a sudden brief faint of surprise in his eyes, something that tells me that he must have realized it all and now he is suspicious of me.
Damn. Please, please, please..don’t let him realized it was me. I cry to myself inside, hoping that he still hasn’t caught on about it. 
“I am going now milords...” I say meekly to them and bow. Then I go out from the main hall going straight to the kitchens in a hurried manner but not obvious.
***
“Hey, are you not hungry? I thought you are craving for some soup??” pry lord Tadakatsu to lord Yasumasa who is somewhat murmuring to himself.
“So he’s the stupid fool..” smirk lord Yasumasa, as if he is having fun on his little discovery.
“Hmm?? What are you talking about?” questions lord Tadakatsu.
“Nothing. Nothing...don’t mind me.” responds lord Yasumasa back as he begins his meal by sipping the hot soup from his steaming porcelain bowl.
***
In town. 
With a basket on my arm, I stroll the town aimlessly while my head tries to come up with a good, reasonable and believable excuse if ever lord Yasumasa realized that it was me who almost killed him with a wooden pail last night.
“Ughhh.. What excuse I would say to him... What!?” I murmur to myself. 
As I am walking, oddly, I suddenly heard the name Yasumasa in the street. Curious, I move nearer.
“Even though he is a samurai lord that works under the Tokugawa still don’t you think that it was too much? What he did to an old man like me? He abuses his power no matter how you look at it .” 
“Omy, well..that is true..” nods reluctantly of an old lady from the restaurant, somehow feeling pitiful but hesitant towards the old man. 
“Is that really true though?” counter the manju vendor that has a mini stall next to the restaurant. “..because from what I heard from the other vendors too, you are the one who started picking a fight with some kids…” states the vendor matter-of-factly. 
“And who told you that?” butts in by the man who is with the old man. “That cocky boy and his young servant started it, he beat up an old man here.”
“Still, maybe the guy had a good reason? And we know the young servant who is with him. That young servant of his usually buys manju to me, and some of us know him..He is kind and isn’t the type of person to do such a thing..so I wonder if you are telling the truth..” doubts the manju vendor.
“What are you saying?? Are you accusing us then?” yells the man.
“Ohh my.. Please don’t fight here.” says the old lady from the restaurant, worried.
“Hey, calm down. Let it go buddy..” says the old man--who is playing innocent--  tapping the shoulder of his friend who is yelling at the manju vendor. “Well, if you don’t believe us, if you don’t believe this poor old man me, then I have no choice.” As he walks from the place, he suddenly stops and looks back at the manju vendor who still doubtful about them.  “And ohh.. If I were you, I wouldn’t get too close to them, especially to that lord Yasumasa. He seems to like beautiful young guys.”
“What are you implying or trying to say here?” 
“Ohh nothing. Just saying.. You don’t want to give him a wrong impression, do you?” says the old man with a crafty smile. “You see, I heard he does things with that little servant of his that you are saying you know.”
This time, despite my hard efforts on trying to stay still, hearing those words made me finally lose my patience. And before I know it, I am charging forward to those liars almost ready to smack them with the goods I have in my basket.
“Hey!! You are really being too much!” I strike back feeling really upset.
“And who are-- Ohh, I see.. Are you here to defend your master now?” smirks the old man with meaning. “See how he acts so defensive, I wonder why..hmm?”
Trying to compose myself, I talk back to the old man who pretends to be the victim with civility. “I don’t know why you feel so wronged here even though you are the one who is at fault here. It is true that lord Yasumasa beaten the heck out of you, but because you deserved it. You wouldn’t listen to reason, and you were about to hurt the kids way way smaller than you just because they tripped you or something. I think you already had enough badmouthing him for the whole town to know your lies. So will you stop now?” I say, my insides fuming. 
After letting everything out, I face the restaurant lady and the manju vendor that I frequent to whenever I buy manju, “Please forgive me for causing a scene here. I just want you to know that lord Yasumasa isn’t the type of person this group of men are saying. He may not look friendly outside but in the inside, lord Yasumasa is a good and decent person that does his responsibilities well as a retainer and follower of lord Ieyasu. He won’t do something unless there is a reason behind it. He may have a sharp tongue but he genuinely cares for his duties as a Tokugawa retainer and he admires lord Ieyasu’s leadership. So much as he won’t do something that will put lord Ieyasu’s name into shame, like what those people are claiming.” I gave a glare those bad men, before bowing and saying goodbye to the restaurant lady and the manju vendor.
***
It is almost late afternoon. I walk in an alley--a shortcut to the castle-- with the basket in my left arm filled with new goods and spices that I bought in town, now feeling somehow calm, my anger subsiding already. “I hope they will finally stop now that I--” as I am about to turn, someone grab me from behind, my mouth being clasp by a hand. I try to escape, struggling so hard when another person suddenly pops up in front of me and punch me on the stomach so hard that I lose my consciousness right then and there.
***
Meanwhile in some corner of the alley just a few walks near where MC is being dragged unconsciously, laughter fills the air as children are playing with some rocks and pebbles. 
“It’s my turn!” says the little boy to his fellow little friends as he throws a big flat pebble on the road missing the target objects laid out in the rough road. “Ooops, hahaha sorry. Wait I am going to get my rock.” says the little boy as he goes to the corner of the alley, as he is about to pick his rock, he saw a familiar figure. “Ohh! Is that onii-chan? Onii-chan..!~” he shouts but MC doesn’t seem to hear him, as he takes a closer look, he realized that MC--the one who took them home after being saved from the old drunkard man-- is being dragged by some men. “This is bad…!”
***
In the castle, lord Yasumasa seems to be looking again for his servant Yahiko. “Where the hell did that fool go again?” He strides and scans the corridor and the veranda but to no avail. “Just you wait and see. If you think you could fool me then you are so wrong. I wonder what kind of stupid excuse will you come up with this time..” murmurs lord Yasumasa to himself as he strides in the veranda going to the kitchens. His face looking not irritated or mad but instead, oddly, he is smirking. A mischievous smile forming on his face, it is as if he is enjoying this. Like he found something that will give him entertainment later.
As he arrives in the kitchen, he is about to ask the servants and kitchen ladies there when suddenly a kid running in a hurry bumps into him. 
“Aaagghh..!” 
Lord Yasumasa clearly not happy about it, scolds the boy telling to pay attention to his surroundings. When the boy looks up and realizes that it is lord Yasumasa that he bumped into, total relief shows on the little boy’s face. The boy immediately stands up, he grabs hold lord Yasumasa’s hakama and starts to plead. “Onii-chan..! Thank goodness its you! Yahiko-oniichan was dragged by some bad men out there. One of them is that scary drunkard we met before! I don’t know what happened but it seems like they will do something bad to him!”
“That fool..!” huffs lord Yasumasa under his breath. “Where did you last saw them?” he asks, immediately, following the little boy.
***
It seems that it is evening. As I look from the small window, the sun had long set already. The surroundings outside starting to really get dark. I am here in some kind of abandoned small house in the woods, the whole room only lit by a candle. I am trying to think calmly, trying to figure out how will I save myself from this bunch of old men before they return and discover that I am a girl. Just the thought of it, of what they will do once they discover my real identity sends shivers in my spine. I tried so many times untying myself, but the rope is so tight that I couldn’t do anything about it. I tried looking for a knife or something sharp around me but to no avail. I tried standing up, but they have tied my feet so tightly it is beginning to hurt and my legs feeling numb too. As the seconds pass, I am starting to panic. 
“MC, focus..focus. You need to be strong and smart at a time like this.” I say to myself but to no effect. The ropes on my hands and feet are too tight, I can’t loosened it. Nobody knows that I am here. I don’t have anyone that is close to me that will worry about me to be honest. I can’t think of anyone. But even if let say Umeko notice me not still there preparing dinner with them, she would just probably think that I am out there flirting with some women about my age.. So help from the outside would be impossible. Now, what? Now what, MC??
As I try harder to come up with some escape plan, I hear my abductors opening the door of this small cottage. I don’t know if it is the right thing to do but I pretend to sleep. I can hear them talking, and worse, the air smells sake. And it seems like they are drinking. I can smell the sake lingering in the place. Please, please, don’t let them do anything bad to me. I pray.
“So what we will do now?” asks the man.
“We will teach this boy a lesson. A lesson he will never forget so that he would not be bold enough again. Like what he did to us earlier.”
“So we will what? Beat him up? This thin, woman-like boy?”
“Oh hell..” replies the old man, that drunkard to his accomplice. “You should be a bit creative sometimes..”
“Creative? You mean?”
“Oh come on, just look at this guy’s skin? Almost similar to a woman’s. And guess what? When I dragged him, the smell..!!! Hahaha I have never smell a man so nice, so nice that I want to try and see myself..” the old man cackles, his laugh so menacing my whole body freezes, my heart beating so rapidly against my chest that it almost feels like it is about to burst at any moment. 
Still lying on the cold floor, faking to be asleep, nervousness creeping on me, I say to myself that if ever these men starts to get near to me, I will really, really smack them hard with my head before they do something to me. And I need to do it so hard, so hard enough to get my chance to run right away from them. I brace myself. Readying to use my head. I feel them moving closer to me, the sake smell lingering more, smelling more stronger and nearer. 
“Hey wake up little, pretty boy..~” says the old man in a very lewd way it gives me the chills.
“Hahahaha wake up boy, wake up wake up~” says the other too. 
When I feel their hands almost reaching me, I open my eyes like an alarmed creature in the middle of the night, and smack them so hard using my head that I, too, almost stagger and feel some dizziness and pain. They stumble, both of them, then I take my chance when I find my balance again, I start to run towards the door only to be dragged by the hair by the old man. I lose my balance, and really fall hard to the floor. Suddenly the old man shouts, “grab him by the legs..!”. The other man, tightly hold my legs, my feet, I don’t know any more-- I struggle, struggle so hard that I feel the pain all over my body. 
MC, you need to fight..! Fight..! Don't let them..! Don’t..!!
I shout inside my head, like a mantra, I keep on repeating those words.
But my body will not listen. It does not listen at all. The weight of the two man, ganging up on me, holding me so hard and so tight that I can feel their nails sinking on my sink, on my flesh. It is just too much. I try to fight so hard, so hard… I thought I was shouting but I don’t hear a thing at all. I don’t hear my voice at all. Strangely, my mouth is open, struggling trying to say something but no words come out from it. Just groans of me. Groans of struggling so hard from keeping them from touching me.
But my body starts to lose all the energy it has, my hands and feet getting weaker and weaker. But my mind keep on commanding me, fight..! MC you have to fight!. 
They finally grabbed my kimono collar, the old man in a sudden force tear them apart, almost choking me. The pain stings on my neck. I told myself it is no time for crying but my eyes starts to get a bit teary and my vision starts to blur. But I told my head again, this is not the time for crying. I have to fight them.
I scratch the old man’s face, but he slaps me so hard almost sending all the consciousness in me away. He stops for a second, groaning. But the other man, hold me even tighter, I can’t move at all. Then that old man suddenly is on top of me, undressing me..my head is in a swirl as I try to stop them with all my might.
“Ohh..hahaha” cracks the old man.
“She is a girl..! So she is a girl..! We are lucky..!” says the other. 
Somebody, please help..please…
As they are about to remove my hakama, the man on top of me suddenly is sent flying to the other side. While the other who is just below me, holding my feet and legs, gasps and then yells with a groan, “Aggghhh...!”
I don’t know what is happening but the man seems like his arms are being twisted, so hard I think I heard a crack like something snapped. Then the man yells and cries so hard, “Argggghh..! aghhhh..!!! my arms! my arms..!!!!!” 
“You, who the hell are you!!??? Wait, you are--” then again the old man who was sent flying suddenly lost his voice, somebody punches him in the face so hard that I see blood spilling in the air. “urgkkh..!”
Everything's happening so fast, I don’t know anymore. My body feels so weak, I couldn’t move from the spot. 
“Let us go..! let us go!! I don’t care anymore, you can have the girl, just let us go!!” 
“My arms..! don’t come any closer! It is not my idea! It is his!!” 
I hear shouts, then groans and then, I hear somebody scrambling to their feet, banging the door open and finally they are gone like the wind. Suddenly, the surrounding becomes quiet, so quiet you can hear the sounds and cries of the night insects in the woods. I am left here, almost lifeless. My body feels so cold against the ground. I couldn’t move an inch at all.. 
Then, I see a somehow familiar figure coming into view in front of me. He is looking at me, his eyes and his expression, I can’t figure out at first. But then, there is this brief surprised in his eyes, then a bewildered yet worried expression. I don’t know if it is just my imagination. Then in a very faint voice, almost like a whisper, I hear my little brother’s name. 
“...Yahiko..?” so soft, his voice almost like he is careful of mentioning it. 
It is lord Yasumasa, kneeling now beside me, helping me get to my feet. 
“...you..you are such a trouble..I-- I mean, in a mess..” he says almost like a whisper. His voice seems like he is reprimanding me, but in a gentle tone and manner. Then without a word, he scoops me like a beaten puppy from the floor. I still couldn’t move nor say anything, my mind is blank.  
Then, suddenly, tears comes rushing in. In his arms, like a lost child, I cry and cry. Muffled cries. He is a bit shocked, then I thought he would complain or get annoyed at me behaving like this but he doesn’t speak. He holds me in his arms, quietly and without his usual complaints. He listens to my sobs. He is just there, holding me like I am a dear thing. 
I don’t know why I am crying now. There are these mixed emotions playing inside me right now. I feel so glad that somebody saved me. That those men are now gone. That lord Yasumasa is here. Yet I feel so scared and terrified about what just happened. My body is trembling as I cry. I am so scared. So scared that no matter how much I try to stop myself from sobbing, my tears just won’t stop from falling. 
We are in that position for a little long. Him cradling me like a child. I can’t see his face clearly because my eyes are all blurred by my tears.  My hands, then, find their way on his collar, grabbing and tugging it lightly. For some reason, I feel angry at him. Inside my head, thoughts and emotions are pouring out. Like, thoughts, why am I even getting mad for this jerk’s sake? Why i feel so concerned for this man. Why do I ended up in this kind of situation.  Anger, fear and confusion is welling up on me. I keep on sobbing with anger and then relief that he is here. That someone looked for me, protected me. Because I thought no one would notice that I am actually missing, that no one would come for me. Huge relief and comfort washes over me now that everything is over. No more evil laughter, no more sake lingering around me. Just calmness, quietness, and him.
***
MC has now fallen asleep soundly in Yasumasa’s arms. Her face much better than before. All the fears and sadness and shock, already gone in her.  Her pallor is getting better as the color in her cheeks returns. Her body temperature, still a bit cold, but much better than when he first held her in that state. It is dark, very dark now, the round moon, the only light in the wide evening sky together with the glimmering of the little stars. All the retainers are probably at the main hall right now, in the middle of their dinner. Thankfully no one is in the veranda, Yasumasa carries MC quietly to her quarters. Without so much a sound, he puts MC on her bedding, careful to not wake her up. He realizes now that her collar is ripped and opened too much, the fabric in tatters like it was roughly and forcefully pulled open. Her neck with bit of scratches and redness. He sees the bindings on MC, white strip of fabrics tightly wrapped around her to conceal her identity. Her being a woman. 
He puts the collar back in place, swiftly yet carefully. He stands and get an extra blanket from a cabinet. He put it on top of MC until she is covered comfortably in blankets. The trembling of her body has finally stopped, exchanged with a sense of calmness showing on her whole face. 
Yasumasa sits beside her, arms crossed, staring at her, observing her peaceful breathing. And at the same time, he seems like he is in a deep ponder. He has never been this puzzled before, so unsure of what to do, supposed to feel or say in this kind of situation. 
Outside, you can hear the laughter of some of the retainers from the main hall. Merrily eating and having nice conversations and talks, perhaps. You can hear lord Tadakatsu too being weird again, and Toramatsu trying to stop him from doing something. Everyone is lively tonight as usual.
While inside MC’s quarters, the place is calm and still.
The candle, flickering, giving light and shine to MC’s fair skin and womanly features evident on her face.  Why hadn’t he noticed of it? He foolishly asks himself in his mind. If you take a closer and careful look at her, you can tell that she is a girl. And yet he didn’t notice it at all. And why he--or she is pretending to be a boy? For what reason? does anyone know her secret? Does lord Ieyasu knows this?? or not? Questions floods into his mind like a torrent. 
And why the hell did he--I mean, she got dragged and kidnapped by those worthless trash? How did she got herself into that kind of-- 
Lord Yasumasa just sighs and stops from asking himself such questions..
“You fool. I clearly told you to use your brain properly, but what is this?” complains lord Yasumasa under his breath. 
He sighs again. “Did you tried to be a hero or something again? ..did you boldly speak up...for me? ...you stupid fool. Always poking your nose into something you shouldn’t be concerned to begin with. Now look at--- look at you.. why? I, I really..I really don’t get you at all. You weirdo..” says lord Yasumasa in a somehow light reprimand, sounding a bit irritated but with a tinge of concern and sadness in his voice. 
“Now, what I should do with you...you-- you stupid woman..” whispers lord Yasumasa to himself, as he observes the calm breathing of MC. 
***
____________________________
tagging: @shiranata, @ieyasu-tacogawa @yvckie @sassy-spocko @all-my-cuffs-have-buttons @bmp-slbp-matchup @sagaralisa @uesugi-miu @bulbaqueen @krookls @frywen-babbles
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xmagicxshopx · 6 years ago
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Moon Monsters - Chapter 6
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Genre: Fantasy Adventure, Romance (smut later), Comedy Rating: PG-13 Warnings: none at this time Pairing: Jungkook x reader, Jimin x oc, Taehyung x oc Notes: werewolf!bts au. Not idol!bts. Same goes for GOT7. Single quote marks ‘ ‘ are for thoughts and double “ “ are for talking. Additional Notes: I was the dork who Googled and made sure there were actually McDonald’s in Seoul before writing this. XD And I actually proof read most of this~
Tagging: @och-ako @jiminnies-baby @kfictionstories @justbangtanandjams @lizardsocial @breadcaaat
Summary: You’re the CEO’s new personal assistant. But there’s something strange about him and the company you work for.
SERIES MASTERLIST
Jungkook was normally a pretty light sleeper thanks to his sensitive canine ears. Always being on the alert and whatnot. But with the events having taken place in the last 24 hours, it was to be expected that he’d sleep in a little. He had the super human strength, hearing, anything you could think of, but this morning he slept like a rock.
What helped the most was you. The fact that you, his precious mate, was right under his nose; filling his senses with your delicious scent. Doe eyes fluttering open, he let out a subconscious yip of happiness in his groggy state and finally looked down to see that you were still comfortable as could be sleeping on his chest.
Dear god he was in heaven.
He could get used to mornings like these. Speaking of, it looked to be about mid-morning. Perhaps 9:30 ish? The sun was pouring its natural light in through the slated blinds and curtains both. The way the light fell on you made you look like an angel from heaven itself. Your hair was messy in the cutest way. And your face without makeup was his favorite. He was pretty sure you could be covered in mud and still look absolutely gorgeous.
Yep. He was whipped.
But he could care less. Because he was the happiest guy alive right now.
Just then, you started to stir, looking beautiful as ever while you did so. Your face scrunched up cutely in confusion despite your eyes still being closed; clearly already knowing something wasn’t right. Or rather that something was different. It only took you a millisecond of movement for you to pop your eyes wide open. Within a heartbeat, you were looking up at him and wow you were adorable.
“Jungkook?”
“Morning, beautiful. How’d you sleep?”
He didn’t seem the least bit phased by the fact that they were sleeping on the couch together. That there was so much physical contact right now. You were laying on top of him for goodness sake. Heat rushed to your face and you could practically feel it rolling off in waves, so you knew he had to feel it too. But he just laid there looking perfectly content.
“I um-----Yeah? I think?”
“Aigoo. You’re too cute. You ready for our big day today?”
It was more than obvious that you were flustered. Especially since you didn’t answer his original question. But at least he got the answer he was hoping for. It eased some of his worry and concern knowing that you got some decent sleep. With any luck, that was all because of him. His chest wanted to swell with pride at the idea of it all. Him, protecting his mate.
You knew you should have asked him how well he slept too but you were just in awe over how.....comfortable he was with this. They were coworkers. Sure they hung out after work from time to time but still. This was so......intimate? At least for you it was. Trying to gain focus and answer his question, you nodded a bit and said timidly in a small voice,
“Yeah. I think. But on one condition.”
Those last few words left your mouth and it surprised you both. You for your sudden burst of courage and him because he watched you go from timid and nervous to determined and firm. Watching him nod a bit in understanding, you then sat up and moved to where you were sitting next to him on the opposite end of the couch while he was still laying down.
“I get to pay for my meals today. If you’re going to buy all my stuff for me, then I’m at least paying for my meals. Or we have no deal.”
You knew you didn’t have much of a leg to stand on. You needed things. And a lot of them. Especially your toiletries. So you weren’t really in a position to make deals but you could only hope that he’d bite and show you mercy by accepting your conditions. It was the least you could afford at this point and you felt guilty beyond belief.
Jungkook was now sitting up as well as he sat there across from you; staring at you in thought and concentration. He was considering it. Playing it over in his mind.
On one hand, he wanted to refuse and insist on paying for everything. Then again, he knew you were pretty upset in the guilty sense from everyone paying your way through all of this. And he would rather see you happy. So if paying for your meals today would make you happy, then that’s what would happen. Smiling a warm smile, he nodded and held out his hand for you to shake.
“Deal.”
His hand was warm as it fit around yours perfectly. There was something there......a connection? Something about having your hand in his. There was this soft and warm tingling sensation that went up your whole arm and you wondered if he noticed it too. It actually caused you to let your hand linger in his. It was a lot similar to how you felt in Namjoon’s office when he announced that you’d be working together with Kook.
He knew you could feel it. The connection. The special connection that every wolf has with their mate. Oh how he wanted to just tell you now. Tell you everything. The fact that he was a werewolf and you were his mate. His mate picked by the Moon Goddess and Mother Nature themselves. Speaking of, man you smelled amazing. Your approaching ovulation was killing him.
“Okay! So let’s get our showers and we can have a nice early lunch. Your pick because I’ll eat anything. I’m like a garbage disposal.”
“Aigoo, Kook. You’re too skinny to be a garbage disposal.”
The two of you laughed as you playfully tried to shove him but of course he went absolutely nowhere and it only caused you to lean against him instead. To you this moment probably didn’t seem like much. However, to Jungkook it meant the whole world. Here he was, enjoying his best life. He had a great job, a great roof over his head, a nice car that gets him from point A to point B, and most of all, he had you.
“Alright, ladies first. Surprise me with a cute outfit too.”
Even though you yelped from surprise, the soft and gentle pats to your bum didn’t feel raunchy or inappropriate. In fact, it almost felt endearing. Did you really just admit to yourself that you liked your coworker patting your bum? Yeah. You’re pretty sure that’s what just happened. Good gravy your emotions were all over the place. What was wrong with you? Hopefully this shower would help clear your head.
Wrong. Very wrong.
You ended up smelling just like him. Well not exactly. For you had your own natural scent but this was the shampoo you could smell in his hair and the body wash mixed with his natural scent was intoxicating and here you were literally bathing in it. Yeah. So much for clearing your head. Boy today was going to be a long day. Were you ready for this? Probably not. The only thing you could really do was just take it one step at a time. One foot in front of the other.
It wasn’t that you didn’t like Jungkook or repulsed by him. Surprisingly enough, it was beginning to be quite the opposite. But you supposed that’s what was bothering you. Shouldn’t you be a little more skeptical of living with a coworker? Why did taking a shower in his bathroom seem so......natural? Things weren’t adding up and it was like you were fighting a brick wall. An invisible force of nature. That was silly, right?......Right?
You allowed the water to cascade down your body and over your face; the steam soothing to you. Perhaps you should just....let go? Stop pushing against this odd feeling of comfort. Stop questioning this sensation of tranquility and just.....let it be. Hell, maybe embrace it? You had no doubt in your mind that Jungkook would never harm you in any way. So why not just.....enjoy your stay with him till you find a place of your own again.
Meanwhile, said male was bustling about and getting ready for his day. He had already transferred some more money and picked out a pretty simple outfit for the day. He really needed to shave too. Ugh. For a wolf, he actually hated facial hair. So naturally the stubble he had was driving him nuts. Although he couldn’t help but wonder if you would like him better with a beard of some kind. Hmm....Hopefully one day he’d get to ask you that and it not seem weird or random.
Hearing the hairdryer, he smiled to himself. This was the life. Sitting at home, in his den, his nest, and just enjoying the peace and tranquility of it all. His beautiful and gorgeous mate grooming herself to perfection in the other room. God. Knowing you wouldn’t be able to hear, he let out a happy yip as his leg tried to bounce. His inner wolf was rolling around with happiness too. Man. Was this how Jimin and Taehyung felt all the time? Did their mates make them giddy like this?
“The bathroom is all yours, Kookie.”
Good gravy he just about got caught. There he sat on the couch nearly about to shift from pure happiness when you walked in looking like a goddess yourself. The smell of his body wash mixed well with your natural scent. He could feel drool trying to form around his tongue. Swallowing hard, he soaked up your attire for the day. Man he was going to lose it before the day was over.
You picked out a pretty sundress that was modest and conservative but it still hugged your body in all the right places. You had these really cute matching earrings and he couldn’t help but smile a bright eye smile as he stood up. Surely he must be so obvious. It was amazing that you hadn’t called him out on how much he was staring. Or perhaps you were just that adorably clueless. Walking over to you, he noticed how you looked a bit uncomfortable.
“What’s wrong, beautiful?”
“I smell like a man.”
“Ouch. I thought I smelled pretty good, thank you very much.”
“Yah. You know that’s not what I meant.”
This time when you tried to shove him, he let you win a bit and took a small step back from your outstretched arms. Laughing softly at your adorable pout, he stepped back into place as his hands gently found purchase on your shoulders. Smiling warmly as he faced your pouting lips, he said soothingly with sincerity,
“You smell fine, princess. And after today, you’ll smell like a beautiful rose instead of a pine tree.”
“Aigoo, you’re unbelievable. Shut up.”
Okay so he had to get that last little jab in there. But he just couldn’t help it. Teasing you and watching your face burn red and getting all flustered was one of his favorite things. Laughing and catching your hand when it tried to swat at him, he did what absolutely came natural to him and kissed the back of it.
And that was when you both froze. For different reasons. One in confusion and the other in panic.
Even though it surprised you, the action of Jungkook kissing the back of your hand didn’t bother you nearly as much as it should have. In fact, the only thing that was bothering you was.....why did it not bother you? In all actuality, it felt quite.....normal? Why? How? The two of you barely knew each other till you started working on the same floor as him. This made no sense at all.
‘Way to go, genius.’
Kook wanted to snap at his inner wolf but really.....his wolf was right. Way to go, genius. His knee jerk reaction was to let go of your hand like it was fire but he managed to keep what little cool he had and instead gently let go and cleared his throat. With a soft sheepish laugh and a rub to the back of his head, he said a bit nervously,
“Well I’m gonna go and wash in pine trees too. I won’t be long and then we can head out and get some food. I’m starved.”
And just like that he was gone; nearly speed walking his way to the bathroom. Letting out a puff of air you didn’t realize you had been holding, you took a couple deep breaths before immediately going into your new room and finding your phone. Your mind was swimming as you dialed the desired number. Pressing the phone to your ear, you subconsciously started to chew on the skin of your lips; a bad habit of nervousness.
“Hello?”
“Mama Bird? It’s me.”
“Oh! Yes yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t even bother looking at the caller ID. What’s up, sweet pea?”
“It’s.......I......I dunno.”
You sighed heavily and flopped onto your super comfy bed and stared at the canopy above you. It truly was a beautiful set-up, your bed was. Blinking in confusion and wonder, you finally managed to speak up again.
“It’s Jungkook.”
“Are you okay? Has he done something to you?”
“No no! It’s not that. It’s just......I can’t explain it. He......We were just talking and joking and laughing and then he-----He kissed the back of my hand. Am I reading too much into this? I’m so confused, Mama. I don’t know what to do or how to feel. I feel like I’m gonna----”
“Sweet pea. Breathe. Just breathe for me, okay?”
Listening to you take deep breaths, the petite female was smiling in sympathy. Jimin sat next to her on the couch and could hear everything thanks to his amazing hearing. They both felt for you; knowing what you’re going through. It was tough for the both of them when they first found each other. Jimin had no idea how to act around his mate without coming off as some kind of freaky stalker or something. And Mama Bird couldn’t understand this odd and powerful attraction to the male. It would seem you were suffering the same confusion.
“Did you like it when Kookie kissed the back of your hand?”
“Well.....I mean.....It was nice? I dunno! I shouldn’t though right? We’re coworkers! We’re just friends!”
“Do you want to be more than just friends and coworkers?”
“I------I dunno.”
The two laughed softly in endearment when they heard you whining on the other end of the line. You were just too adorable. Their adorable clueless cutie. But despite it all, they both knew Jungkook was going to have to tell you the truth eventually. With a knowing and warm smile that Mama Bird knew you’d never see, she spoke softly and in a motherly tone,
“Just go with the flow, sweetheart. Trust me on this one. Just let it flow.”
“Mama that’s not very helpful.”
“Just trust me. Now I gotta go. My cookies are going to burn if I don’t.”
“But I----”
But you never got a chance to finish your sentence and the line was already dead. Sighing and not feeling any more clarity than you did before, you let your phone fall next to you on the bed and stared at the ceiling in utter confusion; your heart beating a little faster than usual and your mind a blender.
Sitting up, you decided to grab your purse and make sure you had everything you needed before heading back into the living room to wait for your......whatever he was. You honestly had no idea anymore. Mama Bird’s words swirled in your head. Just go with the flow? Just let it flow? What did that even mean? Ugh. So confusing.
“Okay. I’m ready! Let’s hit the road.”
“Cookies are gonna burn, huh? Nice one, babe.”
“Oh hush. You know I don’t like fibbing. But I didn’t want to risk telling her too much because I don’t like fibbing. I didn’t want to blow your guys’ cover before it was time. Besides, it should be Jungkook that tells her. Not me.”
Mama Bird pouted cutely as she laid there in Jimin’s arms on the couch. It was just a relaxing Sunday day after the events of yesterday. Both were exhausted but being in each other’s arms helped tremendously. Jimin moved them to where they were once again laying down on the couch with her on top of him. Running his fingers through his mate’s hair, he spoke softly in his warm loving tone,
“You did the right thing. Hopefully she takes your advice.”
“I hope so too. She sounds like she’s really struggling right now.”
Suddenly, there was a squawk that shattered the peaceful silence of the living room that followed up with a,
“Jimin’s a pussy! Jimin’s a pussy!”
“I’m gonna skin Taehyung alive the next time I see him.”
Soon enough, you were climbing into the driver’s seat of your brand new Hyundai. It still felt so surreal but at least it got your mind off of your confused feelings for awhile. With both hands on the steering wheel, you were trying to get used to the fact that you no longer needed to insert a key to turn the engine on. Just the press of a button and done; car started. It was like stepping into the future or something.
“So where are we eating?”
“I just figured we could eat wherever was closest to the stores.”
“Works for me. Like I said before, I’ll eat anything.”
The longer you drove, the more Jungkook realized you were shopping on the cheaper end of town. Granted it broke his heart a bit and made him sad, but he understood your reasoning. It was plain to see that you had been forced to live cheap your whole life. Living from paycheck to paycheck. He wasn’t going to scold you for it, but he also had plans to.....broaden your horizons as he liked to think of it.
“Is this okay?”
You had parked them in a McDonald’s and honestly he couldn’t be happier. There was a nice juicy cheeseburger that had his name written all over it. Nodding vigorously with a bright bunny smile, he replied in a little more enthusiasm than he probably should have,
“Absolutely! Let’s go!”
At first, you thought he might just be putting on a show to make you feel better about your pick of cheap food. But upon seeing how his eyes lit up while staring at the menu board, you were beginning to think his eagerness was genuine and real. You watched him place his order and pay for it before taking his assigned number and stepping to the side so that you could do the same.
Your initial instinct was to pick a salad. You didn’t want to look like a fatty in front of him. But then again, that burger looked amazing. And so did everything else. You really didn’t want rabbit food today. It was then that Mama Bird’s words once again floated through your mind. And so the words that came flying out of your mouth ended up being,
“I’ll have what he’s having.”
Not too long into the meal, things were starting to get messy. Literally. Laughing behind his hand as he chewed on a particularly large bite of burger, Jungook tried to say between the chewing and the laughing,
“You’ve got it all over your face.”
“Shut up. So do you.”
But despite your grumpy reply, you could feel your lips trying to curl into a smile of amusement. So much for trying to not look like a fat kid. You hadn’t realized how hungry you were till you had completely cleaned off your tray of food. The cheeseburger had been absolutely delicious and everything else was just as good. You felt full and warm and.....happy.
Perhaps Mama Bird was right. You just needed to go with the flow. Let it flow.
“What are you thinking about?”
You blinked a couple times and noticed that the man sitting across from you was casually sipping on his drink; his face now free of sauce and sesame seeds. Around all of that were his eyes. Those doe, almond shaped eyes that were currently full of curiosity. Trying not to gulp in nervousness, you shrugged as casually as you could and replied as much,
“Dunno. Just......everything. I’m still really overwhelmed with the last forty-eight hours.”
“I can’t even begin to imagine how that must feel. But don’t worry.”
He reached across the table and gently took your hand in his; his thumb rubbing your skin soothingly. Your heart fluttered and you couldn’t fight off the blush that formed in your cheeks as you found yourself lost in his eyes.
“You won’t go through this alone. I’m always here for you.”
“Th---Thank you, Jungkookie.”
And to both your surprise, you gripped his hand back tightly.
As much as he wanted to sit there and chat and get to know his mate better, Jungkook knew the day was half over and they had a lot of ground to cover if they were going to make it back home in time to get any kind of rest for work tomorrow. Work.....Yes they would be working together soon. Which reminded him of one thing on his list. Boots. You had absolutely no nature gear. Like rubber boots. But they could do the clothes shopping later once you had gotten all your toiletries and other necessities.
“So let’s get out of here and get your stuff. Where to first?”
“I was going to head across the street here and stop in the store where my pharmacy is. All my medicine got lost in the fire. Plus this store is where I get all my beauty products and stuff.”
“Cool cool. Let’s head out, then.”
After safely crossing the bustling streets, you made your way into the store and headed straight back towards the pharmacy. Jungkook followed behind you and couldn’t help but want to drool over your backside. Gosh you looked gorgeous all the way around. It was so hard for him to focus when you looked this radiant.
“Well look who’s out and about. What are you two doing here?”
It was Taehyung and his mate, Black Widow. It appeared she must get her medicine from this pharmacy too. After having paid the necessary amount, the black haired female turned around to face you and Kook as well. Both her and Tae were sporting warm smiles and it made you feel a bit bashful. Why? You couldn’t explain but it made you blush shyly all the same. With a small wave of greeting, you replied timidly,
“I’m here to pick up medicine. They didn’t survive the fire.”
“Oh my. Sweetheart. I’m so sorry. It never even occurred to me. It was insensitive of me to ask.”
“Ani ani, Tae. It wasn’t. I promise you. Don’t feel bad.”
With him still flashing you an apologetic smile, Taehyung nodded all the same and then politely stepped aside with his arm around his mate’s waist so that you could do your thing at the pharmacy window. With a glance to his younger wolf brother, the suave looking male whispered into his mate’s ear,
“I’m gonna take Kook to one of the aisles for a talk, keep her company, will you?”
“Of course, TaeTae.”
With a swift peck to the lips, the older male let go of his mate only to drag a clueless and confused looking Jungkook down a random aisle. Of course it would be the liquor aisle. Just as the youngest was about to ask what the deal was, it was Tae who spoke up first.
“You imprinted on her?”
“It was an accident?”
“Kook......”
The younger of the two winced a little at the warning tone that was held in his older brother’s voice. Yeah. He was in trouble. But it truly was an accident....At least in his mind. It just happened so sudden. It came so naturally. Gulping, Jungkook tried to explain exactly that as he lifted his hands in defense.
“Look. Listen. It was so sudden and hyung it felt so natural. I couldn’t stop it.”
“Does she know you’ve imprinted on her?”
“No. Of course not.”
“So then you’ve imprinted on her without her consent?”
“Yeah.......Oops?”
“Yeah. A very big oops. Jungkook. This could have dire consequences for you. She will be fine but if she doesn’t return your affections......we could lose you, Kook.”
The youngest knew his older brother was just looking out for him and that this grumpiness and scolding session was all coming from love. But still. Jungkook never did well when being scolded. It was just the nature of being the youngest, he supposed. With his head slightly bowed in shame and his doe eyes glancing anywhere but at his hyung, he spoke softly,
“She’s worth the risk, Tae. I love her so much.”
“I know you do, buddy. Trust me. I’ve been there. But.....lucky for you....”
Taehyung waited for his younger brother to look back up at him before he added with a bit of a boxy smile,
“I can tell she’s got a thing for you too. She’s just fighting it, is all. It confuses her. Naturally so. That’s why I’m hoping Widow can maybe talk to her and kind of push her in the right direction. Your direction, pal.”
“Thanks, hyung. You’re the best.”
“So how’s things living with Jungkookie?”
You sat there in the small waiting area as you waited for your emergency refills of your medicine. Perhaps the fact that you had missed what was now two days worth of birth control was what was messing you up emotionally? You had always been super sensitive to your birth control; especially if you missed a dose. Looking over at Black Widow, you decided to tell her what had happened earlier this morning.
“Awe! That’s so sweet of him! How romantic! I ship you two, you know.”
“Yah. Widow! You’re not helping here.”
“I can’t help it. You guys are cute together.”
“But we hardly know each other. And we’re just friends. And coworkers. We’re coworkers!”
“So? What’s that got to do with anything?”
You pouted when you realized that you didn’t really have a solid or legitimate answer for that one. Squinting your eyes playfully at your friend, you watched her giggle and raise her hands in front of her in defense.
“Look. I’m just saying, Jungkook likes you. In fact, I think he has a crush on you.”
“Widow that’s ridiculous. Why would he have a crush on me?”
“Well for one, I’ve seen the way he looks at you. All heart eyes all the time. And not just anyone would do what he’s done for you in the last twenty-four hours. He moved Heaven and Earth for you, girlfriend. I don’t think he would have done that if he didn’t have some kind of feelings for you.”
You stared down at your hands in your lap. Maybe she was right. Maybe that’s why Jungkook had so easily kissed the back of your hand the way he had. Perhaps that’s why he was so comfortable with you sleeping on top of him on the couch? It made sense. As much as your heart confused you, what Widow was saying made sense.
“Just go with the flow.”
“You sound like Mama Bird.”
“That’s two against one. So just trust us and let things flow.”
Soon enough, your medicine was ready and it was time to part ways with Widow and Taehyung. They both gave you and Jungkook hugs before taking off for home. As they walked out of the store, Widow asked with a hint of concern,
“You think they’ll be okay? I did my best with her.”
“I think they’ll be fine. She just needs a little push is all. I have no doubt you worked wonders, baby girl. You always do.”
The young woman smiled with her eyes briefly shut so she could enjoy the sweet kiss to her temple as she walked to the car with her beloved. Once upon a time, she was in the same position as you were. It was Mama Bird who had helped her through it all. So she could only hope that she could help you through your journey down this fated path.
“Medicine? Check. What next, princess?”
“Shampoo, body wash, deodorant, face masks, founda----”
“Aigoo aigoo. One item at a time, love. Come on. Let’s head down the hair care aisle first.”
The pet name didn’t go by unnoticed as your heart fluttered a bit and heat threatened to rise up your neck and to the tips of your ears. However, you managed to squash the urges and focused on the rows upon rows of hair care products. Shampoo. Shampoo. You were looking for your usual when you watched a veiny arm move up to pick out a bottle of shampoo as you were asked,
“What about this one? It’s supposed to help keep your hair shiny and healthy.”
As he popped the cap up to take an experimental sniff, you turned your eyes to what mattered most to you; the price. You couldn’t help but notice it was a bit more expensive than your usual but it also wasn’t the most expensive either. Chewing your bottom lip nervously, you didn’t take long to cave before muttering shyly,
“Yeah. That one doesn’t look too bad. And the price isn’t terrible. It’s on sale.”
“Right? It’s like getting the best of both worlds. It smells really nice too.”
The shopping went on like this for the next half hour or so. You couldn’t help but notice the items in the basket that Jungkook was carrying had none of your usual items in it. You were going to walk out of here with brand new everything and you were pretty sure that’s how your new roommate intended it to be. And yet.....you didn’t fight it. You just went with it.
You went with the flow.
“Well this was a pretty successful shopping trip. You’re no longer going to smell like pine trees either. I call this trip a victory.”
“You’re such a dork. You basically picked everything out.”
“True, but you didn’t dispute any of them, did you?”
He laughed as your reply was to simply glare at him. Of course it was mild and only halfheartedly but still. You looked more adorable rather than threatening or scary. Facing your glare with puckered lips as if to smooch you, the both of you piled the bags into the trunk and had started to climb in the front.
However, something across the street caught your eye.
It was your old car. The one that went missing so randomly.
“That’s-----That’s my car! Jungkook there it is! What’s it doing there?”
“Hey---Wait----What---”
But you weren’t listening to him. All you could focus on was the sight of your car as it was parallel parked next to the sidewalk of the local park. It was an absolute mess. Someone had spray painted all over it. Graffiti of all kinds. All four tires were blown. The hood was popped open. A mess. An absolute mess.
Jungkook watched on and thank god you looked both ways before crossing the street. However, as he followed suit, his sensitive ears picked up on something. A ticking. A beeping. With wide eyes, he watch you get closer and closer to the car.
“NO! GET BACK! IT’S A B----”
He managed to grab you from behind as you approached the exposed engine. Not bothering to hide his super human strength and speed, he tried to get you as far away from the vehicle as possible. But he wasn’t quite swift enough.
The blast. It was numbing. Mind numbing. Especially for his hyper canine senses. Jungkook’s ears were ringing and everything swam in front of him. The sky, the trees from the park right next to him. Car alarms were going off and he could hear police and fire truck sirens going off. God. So much noise. He couldn’t think straight as he laid there sprawled on the sidewalk. He could only imagine how you felt.
Wait.......You.........YOU?!?!
What happened to you???
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