#(basically “ah yes my future wife is back. yeah still that one. i still want this girl” 😄😄😄😄😄😄😄)

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

BBC Ze Documentary - Episode 1: Olena about what kind of a man Ze is; Volena about falling in love; Ze about one of the best moments in his life

[kaleidoscope77]

Amazing (NaLu One-shot)

Summary: Natsu and Lucy's monthly routine is interrupted by a seemingly harmless question.

Rated: T

Words: 1998

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"Lucy?" Natsu scanned the room for his blonde teammate, a little hint of worry on his face. 

Mira had told him about how she came into the guildhall incredibly grumpy that morning, and she's been cooped up in her apartment for the rest of the day. 

The girls advised him to give her space for a bit, and while Happy decided to heed their warnings and lay low, Natsu knew good and well what was going on. 

"I'm in the kitchen!" The sound of Lucy's voice was enough to prove that his suspicions were correct, she sounded so out of it right now. 

Natsu poked his head into the kitchen, and gave a sad smile at the sight of Lucy hunched over on the counter. "You okay?"

"Do I look okay?" Lucy grumbled, "Where have you been?"

"We just got back from a job yesterday," Natsu rolled his eyes, "I was sleepin'."

"...Well, I need you. Now."

"Hm… It's early."

"I know it's early. Just be glad it's not while we were on the job. Now c'mon," Lucy held her arms up, Natsu quickly getting the hint and scooping her up to carry her.

"Bed or couch?" 

"Bed, please."

Just as she requested, Natsu brought her to the comfort of her bed and gave her a moment to get situated amongst the pillows before he joined her in laying down. 

The two wrestled with the comforter for a bit before ultimately deciding to go without it, and as patience began to run thin, Lucy pulled Natsu closer by his scarf, bringing his body flush against hers. 

"You know what to do," She mumbled, earning a quiet growl in response. 

"Yeah, I know," Natsu didn't like being rushed, but he knew she had good reason to be impatient. He wrapped his arms around her abdomen and warmed up his hands, Lucy immediately sighing in pure bliss from the feeling. 

"Ah, yes…" She snuggled back into him, leaving no space between their bodies, "I've been waiting… all day for this."

Natsu frowned, had he known she was in pain, he would've came over sooner. "Sorry."

"Don't be. Like you said, it came early this month. Hit me like a ton of bricks, though."

"Then you should get something to warm your belly up when I'm not around…"

"I actually do have a heating pad," Lucy turned around to face him, making sure his hands didn't lose their place over the source of her pain, "But your hands are so much better."

Natsu couldn't deny that he really liked hearing her prefer his magic over something else, but a part of him still felt bad. He didn't mind doing this every month, it was the only time Lucy allowed him to not only be in her bed, but to also be this close to her while doing so. 

It's nice to feel like she depends on him, and to be able to do something for her that no one else can. And their alone time during these days are always nice, sometimes she'll fall asleep in his arms, and other times they'll pass the time by just talking about any and everything. 

But, he still hated that she had to be in pain for them to get this… close.

"Thanks for always doing this for me, Natsu," Lucy smiled. He couldn't help but smile back at her.

"'S not like I got something better to do."

"Mhm," She wrapped her arms around his middle, now each of them holding the other tightly, "You're the best. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Me too."

"Really?"

"Yeah…"

"Aw, that's sweet," Lucy laid her head against Natsu's chest, closed her eyes and took in the peaceful moment. It was amazing to think about how she'd been in so much agony this morning, only for him to show up and relieve so much of the pain in seconds. She considers herself quite fortunate to be close with a fire mage like this. "...Do you think you could do this for me forever?"

"Of course," Natsu couldn't see how that could even be a question. He'll always be here for her when she needs him.

"You sure? Forever is a long time…"

"Yeah, it's not like it's hard to lay here with my hand on your stomach."

Lucy let out a quiet giggle, "That's not just it, though. Like, would you do it even in the distant future? When we're older?"

"...I don't see why not."

"Okay, and even when we go off and get married?"

"Uh, obviously… C'mon, I thought you were smarter than this, Luce."

"What? Don't start with that," She rolled her eyes, "Do you actually think our future spouses would be okay with us cuddling once month?"

Natsu stared at her, and when she didn't get a response, Lucy pulled away from his embrace to look into his eyes. He seemed genuinely confused, like there was something he was silently trying to wrap his head around. 

"...Lucy."

"Yeah? You're thinking pretty hard there-"

"Why wouldn't it be okay for us to cuddle once a month?"

"Oh, c'mon. You know why," Lucy's face began to flush. It was obvious that these moments were pretty intimate, she'd only been ignoring it because her cramps are too ruthless for her to be worrying about that sort of thing. 

But for him to be so confused, it was like he hadn't even noticed how close they are, and how close they've been since he started being her personal heating pad not too long after they met. Lucy assumed being able to lay with him like this was great progress in the direction she wished to go with him, but perhaps it's not reciprocated.

"Actually, nevermind. Just forget I asked-"

"Wait, I don't get why you think I'll stop doing this for you when we're married…"

"When we're-" Lucy shook her head, choosing to ignore his choice of words and the way they sounded, "Look, my future husband may not like you in my bed, holding me like this."

"...Yes I would, though? And you just asked me to do this for you forever, why would that change when you're my wife?"

It took a full minute for Lucy to process what he just said, and then another minute for her to replay it over and over in her head to make sure he really just said that. 

Her face was bright red, burning nearly as hot as his hands on her stomach. "N-Natsu…" She willed herself not to stutter, but it was impossible with the way he looked at her. 

"Yeah?"

"I didn't mean we'd be married to each other..!"

"What? Why?" Natsu's face broke out into a pout, and it was just the cutest thing. 

Now, Lucy's heart felt like it'd just explode. "Oh my gosh! You seriously- I- I don't even-" She was at a lost, she'd been harboring these feelings for so long, just for him to blatantly admit something like that. "You… you'd wanna marry me?"

"Uh, duh?" This whole conversation had Natsu so confused, "We're basically already married anyway."

"W-what!? No we are not..!"

"We're not..?"

"No!"

"Oh…" Now the sadness on his face doubled, causing Lucy's heart to get tight.

"But…" She took in a deep breath. If he could say it so casually, she need to be upfront with him too, "I mean… I'm not opposed to being l-like… that with you…"

"Oh, so you're cool with it?"

"...Yeah, I'm c-cool with it."

"Cool. Now let's get married so you won't have to ask stupid questions like that!"

"Huh!?" Lucy squeaked when he began to sit up, stopping him before he could start carrying her, "Wait, lay back down!"

"Oh, right," He almost forgot about her current predicament, laying right back down and warming up his hands to offer her comfort. "We'll do it once you're done."

"Oh my gosh…" Lucy still wasn't convinced that this was real life right now, and that he was actually serious about this, "...We can't just go off and get married, Natsu."

"Huh? Says who?" Now he seemed to assume there was something coming in between them, the angry look on his face nearly making Lucy laugh.

"We aren't even dating yet…"

"...So?"

"So, we can't just get married when you haven't even… asked me on a date yet…" Lucy played with the loose ends of her hair, now refusing to look him in his eyes. It was easier to say these things knowing that he wants something like this, but it's still incredibly embarrassing. 

"Oh."

"Y-yeah…"

The room fell back into silence, and Lucy let out an awkward cough when she realized he wasn't going to say anything more on the subject. "Uh, Natsu?"

"Hm?"

"...We can't get married before we start dating…"

"Yeah, I heard ya."

"...So, ask me on a date, silly!"

"Oh," Natsu had just assumed that was a rejection, he didn't know he could just ask like that, "Okay, uh, wanna go on a date?"

"I do!" As Lucy engulfed him in a big hug, Natsu's own heart began to flutter. She could be pretty confusing at times, but he was glad to have her right here. 

"We can get married now, right?"

"Ugh," Lucy tightened the hug so she could hide her flushed face, "I don't know if you're doing this on purpose…"

He wasn't, but if it got her to react like this, he'd be sure to keep it up. "You're so weird."

"Me? You literally just assumed we'd get married! Imagine if I didn't feel the same…"

Natsu growled, he did not like imagining that. Besides, it was pretty obvious to him at this point, it's not like Lucy just let's anyone cuddle with her. 

"And to answer your question- we can't get married now, that commitment takes time to think about."

"Eh? But I've had plenty of time…"

"...You've been thinking about it for that long?" Lucy's eyes sparkled, but she quickly brought herself back to reality, "I mean, no. That's something we'd need to discuss together in due time."

Still, Natsu couldn't understand why she'd want to wait so long, but if all she wants is time, he was willing to be patient. "Alright."

"Mhm. Leave it to you to wanna get married before we've even…"

"Hm? 'Before we've even' what?"

"...N-no, nevermind."

"C'mon, Lucy, I wanna know what else I gotta do."

"We, uh, we haven't had our first kiss…" 

At the same time, they leaned back to gouge the other's expression, their eyes darting to each other's lips. 

Lucy stifled an awkward laugh as she saw the look on Natsu's face, "Oh my gosh, are you blushing?"

He huffed, she was acting like her face isn't bright red right now. Before Lucy could convince herself that she shouldn't have said that, Natsu cupped her cheek and inched closer, her face heating up with each second. 

Lucy knew he'd go for it as soon as she said that, and she fought the urge to cowar away when his lips came down to meet hers. 

The kiss was quick and clumsy, but it had Natsu grinning against her lips and puffing out his chest in pride. 

Lucy let herself giggle once they separated, she was overcome with giddiness and excitement. In her head, things would've been more romantic than an awkward confession in her bed while she's battling period cramps, but that doesn't matter right now. 

"Can we kiss again?" Natsu mumbled, already leaning towards her lips.

Lucy answered by closing in the space between them, crashing her lips onto his and deepening the kiss. 

Her hands ran along his body, feeling him up and down and enjoying every second before they had to separate for air. 

"...Amazing," Lucy mumbled, though it wasn't like she had anything to base the kiss on. 

Natsu was in the same boat, and he was actually more concerned about kissing her some more. "Yeah… Amazing."

[blessednereid]

Pity the Living

Daniel Sharman x Reader Series

A/N: The Much Requested, and By Requested, I mean @rogershoe wanted me to write this, MY DANIEL SHARMAN FANFICTION!!!!!! The character that Y/N plays is based on my OC for FTWD and is not an actual character in FTWD. Basic Premise of the setting for this chapter is that they're in high-school/ secondary school. But for the majority of the story(minus flashbacks) it's set in 2016/17 when s3 of FTWD was filmed.

Story Summary: When (Y/N) (L/N) reunites with a high-school friend on the set of the job she's been working on for the past 2-3 years, not only is she excited to work with the guy who inspired her to go into acting, but to hear about what he's done since she's seen him. But the more they talk, the more she realizes, this reunion is not going the way she had planned.

CW: Cursing? brief mention of alcohol, anxiety, mentions of food, fake dagger, fake blood, bets,

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Career Day

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Most of the students around you were chorusing to the tune of your school anthem, but not you. You had heard the melody and sung it almost a million times. Whether you were exaggerating or not, not even you knew. Instead, you were whispering and laughing with one of your best friends, Daniel Sharman.

You met Daniel when you first came to the school. You didn't know many people. You didn't even know yourself in this place. It was a completely foreign experience, but he stuck by your side and showed you around.

Since then, you had made friends, joined the swim team, learned your way around the school without ending up in the boys' restrooms instead of the girls' ones. Despite not needing Daniel to show you around anymore, he still provided plenty of comedic support and pick-me-ups and was a great mate all around.

Your teacher had just finished introducing all the parents who were presenting at career day. The assignment being after the presentations were finished, you were supposed to think about what you wanted to be in the future. You had no idea what you wanted to be. But of course… Daniel did.

"An actor."

"An actor?" he nodded. "Like Macbeth?"

"No, Macbeth is a character. An actor is a person who plays the character."

"Why an actor?"

"Dunno. Just seems right."

You frowned. "Huh, that's nice. Knowing what you want to be."

"You could always try acting. It's worth a shot."

"Hah, if I ever tried acting, it would probably be when I'm old, senile, and look like Betty White."

"Oh, come on. You're a great actress!"

"What's that supposed to mean, Sharman?" you gasped.

"Just that you tell fibs and stories as if they were the truth. That's all acting is."

"I DO NOT!"

"How did you convince your mum that your dog jumped onto the table and ate the cake without making any noise last weekend, then?" You opened your mouth to speak before closing it.

"Cat got your tongue?" he teased.

"Shut up, Sharman."

☆◦ 。＼｜／。◦☆

L/N Residence

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You and Daniel were both swimming in the pool in your backyard when Daniel asked you the question.

"Did you think about it?"

Still floating, you asked, "About what?"

"Acting."

You laughed incredulously. "You were serious?"

"Of course I was." He swam closer to you and pulled your leg down, making you flop around and splash water.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

"Was just trying to get your attention," he remarked innocently.

You coughed. "You had it."

"Picture this," he waved you off. "Us, on the red carpet-"

"Who's red carpet?"

"Does it matter? We'll be each other's dates anyways."

"Why is that?" you asked.

"Because we're best friends."

"What if one of us has a boyfriend or girlfriend?"

He shrugged. "Ok, whatever. We're on the red carpet separately. It's both of ours red carpet-"

"So, does that mean we're in a movie together?"

"Yes, Y/N," he muttered exasperatedly.

"But that's impossible?"

"Why do you say that?"

You leaned closer to his ear. "BECAUSE I'M NOT BECOMING AN ACTOR."

He jumped away from you, proceeding to splash you with water.

"Mark my words. I know talent when I see it."

You sighed. "Could this just be you not wanting to be lonely in the acting world?"

He jutted his lip and spoke in a whiny voice. "Maybe…"

You laughed before splashing a giant wave of water at him. While he still had water in his eyes, you dove under and pulled him down.

He flailed around before his head popped up, and he calmed down.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

"PAYBACK, SHARMAN!"

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Announcement

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The intercom gave a heavy buzz, and static-y noises ran amok over the building before a voice actually came through the speakers.

"Hello, Teachers, Students, and Faculty. Welcome back to school. We hope that you all enjoyed your holidays and got the rest you needed to pay attention in class today," the last part was passive. Your principal gave more announcements for clubs and sports around the school, such as upcoming games or reminders for students to buy the school yearbook.

You were nodding along interested, or looking for interest really when something caught your best friend's attention.

"The school will also be hosting its first-ever play, Romeo and Juliet. Interested people should report to the music room before the end of the week to receive information."

You saw Daniel's eyes widen only moments before he spoke up. "Hey," he waved at you. "You should audition!"

"Daniel, are you insane?"

He chuckled, "No, but I think you'd like it."

You tried arguing, but he wasn't taking no for an answer. "You're the one who said you didn't know what you wanted to do after you graduated. Doing this cannot hurt."

"Yeah, it can't hurt until I trip on my costumes and break my neck!"

"That rarely ever happens," he said exasperatedly. "Ok, how about this? You audition, and if you end up getting a role and actually doing the play, I'll give you fifty pounds."

You squinted. "Do you even have fifty pounds to give me?"

"Do you even have to ask," he feigned shock in the accusation? You gave a sour face before he truthfully answered. "Fine, I don't have it now. But I will by the time the play comes around."

"What do I get just for auditioning?"

"I'll convince my mum to make that cake you like."

"Fine."

"BUT!" he exclaimed. "You have to audition for Juliet."

"You're kidding?"

He laughed. "No, I'm not. You have to audition for Juliet."

"I hate you," you mumbled before sighing a whispered 'fine.'

He gave a toothy smile. "Then we have a deal."

☆◦ 。＼｜／。◦☆

Auditions

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You reluctantly walked onto the stage, Daniel's widening grin so visible in the audience. He said that he only put his name on the audition sheet so he could watch the auditions. He would've already been gone by the time it was his turn.

"Hello, My name is Y/n L/n, and I am auditioning for Juliet," your lips pressing into a straight line after saying the sentence.

You stammered through your first few lines. "Sh-Shall I speak ill of him— that is my husband?" You said with a laugh.

"Ah," you paused and clicked your tongue. "Poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name… When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?"

You said your following line in an accusatory manner. "But wherefore, villain... didst thou kill my cousin?" you said, though your voice squealed trying to pronounce 'didst.' "That villain cousin would have killed my husband."

"Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring!" Your voice rose and fell several octaves. "Your tributary drops belong to woe, Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy." Fake tears spring to your eyes, your voice cracked, and you began slowly falling against an invisible wall.

You looked down at your paper for what to say next. "My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain; And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband. All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?" You wiped your cheeks dramatically.

"Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death, That murd'red me. I would forget it fain;" your lips quivered, and you sucked in deep, heaving breaths before speaking your line.

"But O, it presses to my memory. Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners' minds! 'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo--banishèd!" You shouted.

You stood back up in a startling jump, and with a proud smile, you said triumphantly, "And Scene!"

The directors and some students in the audience, especially Daniel, gave a round of applause before the director dismissed you.

You took the steps to the stage and sat next to Daniel as the director called the next student to audition.

"You were amazing! The director might as well have given you the role right then and there."

You laughed, "Hang on, charmer. There were a bunch of Juliet's who literally said that entire thing so… fluently. I stammered through the whole thing."

"But you showed more emotion than anyone else. You only had a week to prepare. The actual show will be like child's play."

"They want people who can memorize and recite. The emotion can be added later, but it's worth nothing if they forget their lines."

"There is such a thing called improvising for a reason," he reassured.

"Who in their right, bloody minds wants to improvise Shakespeare?"

He turned his head and chuckled before waving a five-pound note in front of your face. "Here, I got to go before they call me, but you earned this at least."

"Five pounds for being forced to audition for a stupid play so you can prove a point? Wow, you must really fancy me, huh, Sharman?" you said sarcastically.

"Goodbye, L/n," he whispered before sneaking out the back door of the auditorium.

"Alright, next up. Daniel Sharman!" The director shouted your friend's name a few more times before giving up.

☆◦ 。＼｜／。◦☆

Headmasters Office

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A week after your audition, you were called to the headmasters' office. Thus is the cause of the curious looks from your classmates. Oohs and Aahs flooded your ears as you grabbed your bag and headed out the door to the front of the school.

When you got to the front of the building and went into the headmasters' office, you saw the Theatre director, Ms Parker, standing behind the desk. "Headmaster Leo allowed me to use his office to do this. Isn't that cool?"

Ms Parker was one of the younger teachers in school. She was twenty-four, and this was her first year teaching after receiving her bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in music production. A fact she could astoundingly ramble about for fifteen minutes. As proven at the auditions.

"I didn't want to call you to the theatre room. That would be too predictable, correct?" You'd come to realize she was a very eccentric woman. "I have called you in here to inform you that you have been selected to perform in this year's play of Romeo and Juliet."

A wave of shock coursed through your body, and you were sure it reflected on your face. "Are you sure?"

"Darling, I'm positive!- your audition was totally spectacular! So brilliant-in fact- that I am completely sure in my choice to make you our female lead- Juliet!"

"What!" Your eyes widened into a blank stare. Your thoughts were running rampant in your mind. You thought that performing on the stage would be a breeze when you weren't the lead.

"Ms Parker, I didn't actually want the part of Juliet! It's just that my friend dared me to audition for Juliet! Is there no way I can get a smaller part? I'm no Juliet. The show would be ruined," you rambled.

The directors' facial expressions softened, "Darling, you are the only choice. None of the other people who auditioned can even compare to the amount of passion you produced in that audition. I am determined to have you as our Juliet."

You whimpered out an "Ok." Professors had a strange way of convincing you to do extra credit assignments or things that aren't necessary.

"We have a chemistry read for you and a few of our other choices for Romeo after school today. Do you need to contact a parent to let them know where you'll be?"

"Uh, yes, please."

After you made your call, you walked back to your classroom with shaky hands. The class period was almost over, but you had to tell Daniel that you had gotten a part in the show. Not just any part- THE PART!

You shuffled into the classroom reluctantly. All eyes were on you as every student had assumed you'd been in trouble. Either suspended, expelled, or told your parents were going to have a sit-down with the headmaster.

You took your seat next to Daniel before taking out a piece of paper and writing out a note, encompassing the words, "I got the part!"

You slid the sheet discreetly onto his desk. When he read it, his eyes widened, and he quietly moved his hands toward yours, beckoning for a high five.

☆◦ 。＼｜／。◦☆

First Rehearsal

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After the chemistry read, the role of Romeo was given to a kid named James Mercer-Allen got the part. Though it was more because the directors were starting to become tired.

The next day was the first rehearsal. Swimming season was last semester, so there was no clash in schedules with the play.

"Alright, this rehearsal is to get acquainted with the stage, your fellow actors, and directors," she insisted. "Now, let's introduce ourselves. Can our Romeo please stand up?"

James stood up and gave a brief introduction. You were called on next. You stated your name, "I was on the swim team last semester, and I'm in my thirteenth year. I hope I can do this role justice."

More students stood up to introduce themselves. The entire process took more than thirty minutes.

The next thing to happen was that the rest of the students were called to recite lines for various roles. The only parts that had been cast preliminarily were Romeo and Juliet.

You and James had sat on the wooden stools unless there was a scene going on that needed Romeo and/or Juliet.

By the end of the first rehearsal, the majority of the speaking roles were cast. You went home exhausted but not expecting the conversation that waited for you.

☆◦ 。＼｜／。◦☆

The Talk

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"We're moving?" you shouted at your parents from your seat across from them in the sitting room. "What do you mean we're moving."

"Honey, your dad got a job in the states, so we have to move," your mother argued.

"But what about school? No school will take me in the middle of the year, and it's my last year of secondary school. I don't want to spend the rest of my last year knowing nobody."

Your dad, the man of the hour, spoke up. "Dear, we're moving at the end of the year. After school ends."

"But- What about Uni?"

"You said you were taking a sabbatical year!"

"Yes, so I could intern in London!"

"Can't you intern in California?" Your mother whined.

"We're going to California? It's the furthest state?"

Your dad attempted to reassure you but failed. "Darling, it won't be that bad. Maybe you'll like it there more than you like it here!"

"I could never like anywhere more than I like it here!"

You agreed to go to your room and spent the rest of the day there. Later on, after you finished moping, you ringed up your closest friends to tell them you were moving. You did that until you were so tired you fell asleep on the phone with Sarah before you even called Daniel.

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Confrontation

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"Why am I hearing from everyone besides you that you're moving?" Daniel appeared out of thin air behind you, and the accusation was an assault on your conscience.

You could lie and tell him that you wanted to reveal that to him in person, or you could just tell him the truth- say you fell asleep. Mix-and-Match? You ended up just telling the truth. "I fell asleep when I was making some of my other calls. I was going to tell you, I swear!"

"Why didn't you call me first. I'm your best friend?"

"That's why! It was too hard. I kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off because I didn't want to tell you, I don't want it to be true, and telling you of all people would make it feel real."

"Why can't you stay for Uni?"

"I already told my parents I was taking a gap year. I didn't apply to any colleges."

"Crap!" he sighed. "Ok, well, we're going to have to make the most of it. And! You're getting a going away party!"

"Daniel, I don't need-"

"No debate! You are getting a going away party!"

☆◦ 。＼｜／。◦☆

Opening Night

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Four months later, after all the rehearsals and memorizations of lines. After much running around the entire film department, it was finally opening night, and your nerves were shot.

You were scrambling all morning to find everything you needed. All your costumes were at the school, but you still needed to bring your black leotard, skin-coloured tights, and wear your hair in an up-do style.

You decided to do your skincare routine, but your panic got the best of you, and you forgot what every single product was used for.

Daniel came over and helped you get ready but found you practically hyperventilating.

Your parents drove you both to the theatre, and when Ms Parker told you that Daniel couldn't be backstage, you promptly told her that he was your emotional support. After much arguing, she finally let him backstage.

Around an hour before showtime, the director told Daniel that he had to go wait in the audience if he already bought his ticket or that he had to go do it now.

Before he left, he gave you a pep-talk. "Hey, so one time, I was in this play, and the idea was that I was expelled, and there was a piece of paper I had to give my 'mother,' but I lost it. So we had to improvise, but I couldn't find the paper, and I felt horrible. So just know, even if you forget your lines, you must improvise, and remember, it still probably won't compare to the embarrassment I felt that day. So you can laugh at my humiliation. "

You chuckled, "I will. Ok, go before you get in trouble."

"Ok, me, our parents and all your friends will be in the front row. I've already reserved the entire row. I brought a whole bag of jackets just for that reason!"

"You can't do that," you said in between cackles.

"For you, I'll do anything," he grinned.

A few hours later and the show was almost done. "What's here? A cup, closed in my true love's hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end," you wept.

"O, churl! Drunk all and left no friendly drop to help me after? I will kiss thy lips; Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, to die with thine restorative." You leaned over James and let your hair fall to the side of your head to cover your face. You pulled back without actually kissing James.

"Thy lips are warm."

A whispery voice came from offstage, "Which way?" The cue for you to take the poison, which was actually cranberry juice.

"Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!" You grabbed the dagger and brought it near your chest. "This is thy sheath;" you drew the fake knife back three inches from your chest and stabbed it to where the bag of more cranberry juice was and punctured the bag. 'Blood' soaked through your dress. "There rust, and let me die." You fell dramatically onto the altar and waited for the scene to end as the crowd cheered.

After the show, you dashed into the crowd where your friends and family waited for you. Ovations and Applauses were passed, lauded boxes of chocolates and gorgeous roses were given.

When you got to Daniel, he practically tackled you with a hug. "I actually thought you died for a split second. The blood looked so real."

"Daniel, most people don't bleed that fast, do they?"

"I don't know but fear kicked in, and I couldn't make sense of anything."

You grinned and almost went to your parents before Daniel grabbed your arm. "You don't have a date to the Leavers ball, do you?"

"No, I don't. Why?"

He sighed. "Well, I was thinking that you could go with me. I don't have a date either."

You squinted, thinking there was some ulterior motive behind his actions. "Ok, I'll go with you if you give me the money you owe me before then."

"It's right here," he smiled.

Your face scrunched up, but you reluctantly agreed. You only had a month of school left, and you might as well spend it having fun with your friends.

☆◦ 。＼｜／。◦☆

The Leavers Ball and the Getaway Party

☆◦ 。／｜＼。◦☆

You were dressed in a light blue, pleated, Mikado prom dress that cut off at mid-thigh. You had black wedges on your feet and a black pearl-beaded bracelet on your arm.

You were wearing a half-up, half-down style that framed your face and a silver necklace with a circle-shaped diamond.

You were sitting in the parlour when Daniel rang the doorbell. He was ten minutes late.

"Sorry," he said when your dad answered it. "I know I'm late. I was picking up Kat and James."

Kat and James were your and Daniel's respective friends who'd started last year after you and Daniel introduced them.

"Hi," you popped out of the shadows. "Alright, Mom, Dad, we're late, so we're just going to get goi-"

"Wait! I have to take pictures! Go get Kat and James."

"No, Mom. No pictures!"

"It's only right. I just want a few. We can take it outside."

You sighed but reluctantly caved into your mother's will.

The four of you took pictures outside of Daniel's Jeep Wrangler. You took ones with silly faces, just girls, just boys, and ones with all four of you before your parents allowed you to leave.

You were forty minutes late, and the ball was already in full swing by the time you got there.

You got on the dance floor immediately because one of your favourite songs was playing, but the DJ switched the song as soon as you found a decent spot. It was a slow song. You chuckled, and Daniel put his hands on your waist.

"Well, this is awkward."

A few minutes later, Daniel posed an interesting question.

"Did you know that I had a crush on you when you first came to school?"

"Uh, you stammered. "No, I didn't know that."

"Yeah, I did. It was short, though. Surface-level."

"Oh," you said. "Should I take offence to that?"

"What?" His eyes widened in realization with what he said. "No, that's not what I meant. You have an amazing personality. I just meant that… I just meant I like you more as a friend than to ruin that with any of those feelings."

"Oh, ok. You wouldn't have, though."

"I wouldn't?"

"No, everyone needs an ego boost every once in a while."

"Haha!"

"And besides, I've had feelings for you at one point too. But it was very cliche, so I tried to shake it as hard as I could."

"Oh?" He raised his eyebrows. "And did you?"

"Like I said, as hard as I could. If it's still there somewhere, it's buried very deep, so much so that I was embarrassed."

"Embarrassed to like me?"

"I mean embarrassed to try and make my life seem like some movie."

"Oh, well, if you did, it would've just made you that much better as an actress. Speaking of that, would you consider acting in the least?"

"Maybe, now that I'm leaving, it's basically the last thing I have to connect me to you."

"No," he said, pointing to your bracelet. "You have that."

You had forgotten that it was Daniel who gave it to you, but the realization brought a smile to your face. "Oh yeah, I'll never take it off."

Later on, long before the ball ended, you saw many of your friends leaving.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" Daniel approached you.

"Where is everyone going?"

He wriggled his eyebrows. "Afterparty!"

"But it's not over?"

"Quit being a party popper and just come with us, L/N!"

You gave in, something you did a lot, and you all started driving. When you got there, you realized you were at Daniel's house.

"The afterparty is at your house?" you asked.

"Well…" James answered.

Kat joined in. "It's really an afterparty!"

"This is your going away party!" Daniel finished.

"But I'm not going away for another month."

"Well, now you have an entire month for people to give you gifts and stuff, and you don't have to worry about the party!" He reasoned.

"But why did it have to be after the Leavers ball?"

"Because you're already in a dress, and it has to be a surprise! Surprise!" Kat exclaimed.

"Alright, fine!"

The entire night you partied and danced, and though you didn't drink alcohol, plentiful amounts of pop and mocktails were passed around. The music was a delight to your ears with all your favourite songs. There were chips and pizza with all your favourite toppings.

"This party is awesome!"

Daniel grinned. "Well, I am an amazing party planner if I do say so myself."

☆◦ 。＼｜／。◦☆

Airport

☆◦ 。／｜＼。◦☆

Daniel's parents drove your family to the airport. Your parents had sold the car. Your dad would return in a week to close a deal on the house. Everything was official, and now you were leaving.

You got out of the car, and the tears forcefully began to fall.

"I'm really gonna miss you, jerk," you said disdainfully to Daniel.

He chuckled. "I'm going to miss you more."

"Impossible!"

He wiped the fallen tear from your eye, and for a moment, you could see every single multi-coloured speck in his eyes and noticed how sometimes they looked blue, and at others, they looked grey or green.

You noticed the curvature of his smile and the chisel of his jawline.You saw the hurt in his eyes that said, 'why do you have to go? You're killing me,' and wanted to never move from that position.

He continued to rub the tears that fell onto your cheek, and the sad moment was as sheltered as it could be. You felt safe with him, in his arms, just looking at his face and being reminded of how he comforted you in a place that felt as familiar as Oz felt to Dorothy.

"What am I gonna do without you?" you whispered.

"Get at least one acting job, get an assistant and an agent, I'll do the same thing, and then either one of us has our assistants reach out to our agents, so we get back in touch in case we ever lose touch."

He sounded so grave that you couldn't help but laugh. "That's assuming I do become an actress, Daniel."

"You're right," he whined. "But don't forget me."

"I promise."

And you tried to keep that promise. Throughout your first year, you interned at UCLA, working in the lab. You then applied to go to school there, and you still tried to keep Daniel in your mind. Maintaining a social life on campus combined with schoolwork already wasn't easy. However, you still wouldn't let yourself forget your best friend.

It wasn't until you entered your senior year and you were about to graduate that he started to wane in your memories. The things you did together became obsolete as new friends and memories replaced the old. The things he taught you were thrown out to make space for the new lessons you learned each day.

Even when you did become an actress, you never really remembered why you decided to. You remembered that your friend pushed you to do that play, but it was almost ten years ago, and for the life of you, you couldn't remember his name.

But you did do it, first as an extra, then a body double, and then you started getting l roles on smaller shows. But your big break was getting a quasi-lead role on the spin-off of a big television show, The Walking Dead. For two years, you enjoyed going to conventions and playing the complex character, Valeria Bishop, and you thought you had it all figured out.

But life has a funny way of coming full circle and throwing you a curveball that knows you off course and changes your life.

[tonystarksfavoritedaughter]

Crazy Rich Avengers: Chapter 2

Peter Parker x Reader

Chapter Summary: Tony is oblivious, Shuri is a queen as always, Peter is breakfast man and Y/N’s a grandma

Warnings: swearing and one mention of sex

Word count: 2589

*Flashback to Wednesday*

“Alright troops, let’s get this party started.” Tony walked into the debriefing room that was used for only meetings, but this week it had a new purpose: discussing Wanda and Vision’s wedding plans. Everyone was gathered around a circular table with plans and maps strewn out across the table.

“What made you guys want to get married in Maui?” Nat turned to Wanda and Vision. Wanda simply shrugged, “We just wanted to see what the island has to offer.”

“Plus Mr. Stark has that lovely beach house in Spreckelsville,” Vision added.

“Are y’all inviting Peter and Y/N to the wedding?” Sam asked

“Of course! Why wouldn’t we?” Wanda seemed kind of offended that Sam would ask that. She was very close with Peter and the way he talked about you always made her warm inside knowing that he found someone he really loved. She was kind of like a second aunt to him in a way, though no one could top Aunt May.

“Oh, I love Y/N so much. Did you guys tell her happy birthday two weeks ago?” Nat asked.

A couple of ‘I forgot’’ and ‘Oh shit’ replies made their way into the group and Nat just shook her head.

“Wait wait wait. Who’s Y/N?” Tony was so confused. He had never heard of a Y/N Y/L/N before. Was she an employee close with Wanda? And why was she with Peter?

“What do mean who’s Y/N?” Steve asked.

“She’s Peter’s girlfriend, Stark.” Bucky stated it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And it kind of was. Peter would come into the Compound on the weekends sometimes for training and just gush about you to everyone and even Bucky seemed to know who you were. And he never pays attention to Peter. Tony just sat there, not knowing what to say to hearing his intern having a girlfriend.

“Pete has girlfriend?” How come you all knew and I didn’t?”

Thor took a swig of his drink. “Because you do not listen to the Man of Spiders.”

At this moment Shuri, T’Challa, and Okoye walk in, with papers and blueprints in only T’Challa and Okoye’s hands, while Shuri sips her iced coffee, like the bad bitch she is.

“Hey what’s up losers?” She walked in and took the papers from their hands and spread them out on the table. She turned to Wanda and Vision. “Okay so I developed a knew sound system for the reception that does not require a DJ, and you can choose which one you want!” They all look at the plans and sure enough, there were about four different designs that they could choose from. Wanda and Vision had put Shuri in charge of all the technological elements of the wedding because she was clearly the smartest out of all of them.

T’Challa stepped up to the table. “Sorry we are late; my sister had to bring all of her designs and took about three hours to pack.”

“What? I have to look my best for the wedding. We all know you just throw clothes into a suitcase and call it a day.” She turned towards everyone else. “The only shoes he brought were his flip flops.”

“What you don’t like my royal sandals?” He puts up his foot to show off his shoes and turned to Okoye for support. She just shook her head. “I’m not getting in the middle of this, but if I were to choose a side, I agree with Shuri.”

Shuri laughed in T’Challa’s face and fist bumped Okoye and he looked at them and shook his head.

“What do you two know what fashion?” He asked.

“More than you,” they both said at the same time. This got everyone laughing around the table and Steve did his classic belly laugh where he grabbed the side of his chest and basically fell over.

Shuri turned to Wanda, “So, whose all invited to your big day?”

“Well, we invited Peter and Y/N –“

“Yes! Sorry I just can’t wait to meet her for the first time. Go on.”

Wanda laughed, “Aren’t we all? Also, Peter’s friend Ned is invited because he helps us all out on missions. What is it he calls himself?”

“The Guy in the Chair,” Vision replied.

“Ah yes, and of course all of you people. We wanted to keep it small,” Wanda finished.

“You know,” Sam started, turning to the royal bunch. “Stark over here didn’t know that Pete had a girlfriend.”

“What?” They all three gasped.

Okoye spoke this time, “We live all the way in Wakanda, and knew about this. You live twenty minutes away.”

“We know. It’s ridiculous,” Rhodey spoke.

“Okay and is there a specific song that you are walking down to?” Shuri asked.

“We chose the song ‘To My Future Wife’ by Mr. Jon Bellion,” Vision replied

“Oh, I love his songs!”

“We figured it represented our love for each other,” Wanda looked at Vision and gave him a peck on the lips, with hearts in both of their eyes. A bunch of aw’s filled the room as a response to the couple.

*Flashback ends*

You wake up at around three thirty in the morning to your alarm. You were essentially trapped in Peter’s arms and had to pry yourself out to get up and get ready. You threw a pillow at him to wake him up.

“What was that for?” He groaned.

“Come on. We got to get up or we’ll miss the flight.”

He got up with a sigh and got ready. He just dressed in jeans and that tight black t-shirt that you loved. Why would he pick that for a flight? You bit your lip and just turned away getting ready yourself. You picked out your black leggings and a white shirt because you wanted to be comfy for the 12+ hour flight ahead of you.

You packed your purse as your carry on which had your phone chargers, headphones, perfume, you know, the essentials for flying.

“What are we going to do for breakfast?” He asked. Peter was a breakfast man and so deciding what to eat in the morning was very important for him.

“There’s a coffee place at the airport; don’t worry, Pete.”

You left your apartment at around four in the morning and made sure that everything was turned off and nothing was out of the ordinary. You two take an Uber to JFK and almost fell asleep again. One thing was for sure, you were taking a nap as soon as you got on the plane. When you got there, you checked in with the front desk and saw that your flight would take off at 5:30am. So, you took Peter to the little coffee stand in the airport to get him some energy and food. He got a mocha iced coffee with a blueberry scone and you got a caramel macchiato and a breakfast bagel. You sat down near where your flight would be boarding and ate your food. You were so excited to eat because your favorite breakfast item was just a good bacon, egg, and cheese bagel. You bit into it and sighed out in a state of peace.

You had downloaded a few episodes of your favorite shows on your laptop so you and Peter could watch them together. You had downloaded some from The Office, Brooklyn 99, Parks and Rec, and The Good Place. You pulled out your laptop and headphones and gave one earbud to Peter so he could watch too. You decided to watch the episode of The Office where Michael hosts the Fun Run for Rabies.

About an hour later they started to board for your flight and packed everything up and walked over to the flight attendant.

“Right this way,” she said. She led you past the economy class and into first class and you started to get suspicious. There was no way you could afford this. Sure, you had some money put into savings, but it wasn’t much. She led you into one of cabins and you put your purse down.

“Uh ma’am?” You called out.

“Yes?”

“Um there must be some mistake, I mean… we’re economy people. Like, we’re broke, there’s no way that we’re in first class.”

“Are you sure? You two are Y/N Y/L/N and Peter Parker, right?” She asked confused.

“Tony, I swear,” Peter sighed.

“What?”

“I told Mr. Stark to not upgrade us because we were fine, but I guess he didn’t listen.”

“Oh.”

The flight attendant walked away and you fell on the bed. The cabin had a little TV on the opposite wall and the bed facing it. Night tables were on both sides of the bed with little lamps that made it kind of cozy. You walked around the small room looking at the different little pictures of beaches from different countries. There were a set of silk pajamas on your nightstand and you held them up to Peter.

“These are nicer than my actual clothes!” Peter just laughed at how excited you were and pulled you down on the bed. He rubbed your thighs and started to kiss your neck and sucked lightly and slowly worked his way up to your ear and nibbled on it.

“As much as I would love to continue this, I am not having sex on a plane,” you laughed.

He laid down on the bed with you, “Well what do you wanna do then?”

“Tell me about everyone that’s going to be there. I want to be prepared to meet them when we get there.”

“Okay for starters, there’s Wanda and Vision, Wanda has like these mind-reading powers, so be careful about what you’re thinking around her. There have been plenty of times where I’ve thought about you in an adult way that’s caused her to not to be near me sometimes. But she’s awesome. She’s kind of like my second aunt when May’s not around; we’re really close.”

“Good to know. It’s also a good thing she’s not here right now because all I can think about is you in that shirt,” you wink at him.

He laughs and kisses your nose, “Vision is also pretty cool. You’ve seen Vision in like pictures and everything so you know he can shift between robot and human form, so that’s cool. Um, he’s just really chill and laid back. There’s also Sam and Bucky.”

“Oh yeah you’ve told me about them. Do they still tease you a lot?”

“Not much anymore, but I’m sure they will when they see us together,” he sighed. Yesterday when he went to the Compound for his camera, they had mentioned that Peter wouldn’t be getting much packing done if he knew what they meant. Peter did know what they meant and just rolled his eyes at them.

“Sam’s pretty cool when he’s not teasing me, and then he’s kind of a jerk, but overall he’s cool; you’ll probably get along more with him than anyone. He’s got a good sense of humor so,” he trailed off.

“Oh okay. Now what about Bucky?”

“Bucky still doesn’t really like me, all because of what happened in Berlin.”

“Sounds like he’s petty.”

“Yeah he kind of is,” he laughed.

He goes through telling you about all the Avengers and what they’re like. They all sounded pretty chill and fun to hang around.

“By the way, Ned is going to be there.”

“What? Really?” You neatly shouted because you haven’t seen him since about a month before college classes started. He had gone all the way to MIT for college, and the last time you saw him, was when you and Peter had helped him move into his dorm.

“Why is he going?”

“He’s like our ‘Guy in the Chair’ for the team. Tells us where to go on missions, and helps out with the team, so I guess Wanda and Vision wanted him there.”

“At least there will be someone I know and close with,” you laugh at Peter’s fake hurt expression.

“You’ll have me, baby.”

“Yeah, but you’ll probably be talking to everyone and doing wedding stuff and I’ll be just hanging out. But now I have Ned! Now, tell me about Mr. Tony Stark. I know he’s kind of like your father-figure as you put it sometimes. Do you think he’ll like me, or will he go all Papa Bear on me and tell me that I’m not good enough?” You joked.

“He should be cool with you. Mr. Stark’s a pretty easy-going guy so I don’t think there will be a problem. Unless you try to crash the wedding,” he smiled.

“Yeah I’m totally gonna crash it and just get shit-faced at the wedding.” It was now close to seven o’clock in the morning and you and Peter were wide awake and couldn’t go back to sleep and still had another thirteen hours to go, so you just pulled your laptop back out and put on one of your shows and cuddled with Peter.

He held your waist against his and laid his head on top of yours. Your arms were wrapped around his torso and head on his chest, watching TV. You stayed like this for a couple of hours. You eventually got bored and started playing a game on your phone.

“Whatcha playing?” He asked.

“Candy Crush.”

He laughed at your game choice. “You’re such a grandma.”

“What? Just because I like candy crush that makes me grandma?’

“Yep.”

You lightly slap his chest as a response and watched his smile turn wide into a laugh. God those eye crinkles, I swear, you thought. It was kind of true though, everyone in your family and in high school called you the grandma friend of the group because you picked crocheting and baking of all hobbies, just like a grandma. And apparently Candy Crush was now considered a grandma game.

“Okay, I’d like to see you beat an ultra-hard level where you only have twenty moves to save 10 gummy bears,” you challenged him.

“Is that seriously a level on there?”

“Yes, and I beat it on the first try. Why, you scared?”

“No, had me your phone.”

You gladly give it to him and throughout the level you have to hold in your laughs because seeing his face scrunch up in frustration may have been the best thing ever.

“Shit!” He exclaimed

“What, did you lose?”

“No,” he lied. You held out your hand for your phone and saw that he lost on the level.

“Ha! Loser,” you poked his chest as you teased him. “It’s a shame you lost though, because losers don’t get prizes.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s my prize?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at you.

You shrugged. “Guess you got to win if you want to find out.”

This time he held out his hand for your phone. “Just know, you got four more chances to win before you run out of lives.” Peter tried so hard at the game and gently slammed your phone in frustration and you giggled. Let’s just say that Peter didn’t get his prize. The rest of the flight consisted of watching TV and eating the surprisingly amazing airline snacks. When the nighttime came, the flight attendants turned all the lights off, kind of like a silent go to sleep call for all the passengers. You and Peter snuggled up against each other and waited for the rest of the flight to be over.  

Tag-List: @randomstufflol29 @spideyspeaches @binnotjin @lolooo22 @multi-universe21​ @ladykxxx08​ 

A/N: We got an Avengers flashback! Yay! I really wanted to incorporate the Wakandan bunch because a) Black Panther is my favorite movie, and b) They are all just amazing and I love the way that Shuri and Okoye tease T’Challa all the time and wanted to put that in this. The whole Candy Crush scene had actually happened to me before and I thought it would be nice to add a piece of me in the story, and Candy Crush is honestly underrated if you ask me lol. I hope you all really like this chapter, because the next one is going to be awesome! Thank you all for reading!

[nightshade-minho]

-Embers- (2)

warnings: heavy-ish suggestiveness, future smut, themes of heartbreak and pain, mentioned parent death, jealousy, angry fathers.

wc: 5.7k

Heartbreak.

It's something you've thought about, in theory. You've wondered how it feels to be heartbroken, especially when you were younger, when almost everything was of interest to your curious brain. Could a heart break? What exactly did that mean? 

Mr Yang's novels were your first introduction to characters who'd gone through that pain. His books had described it as a perpetual feeling of hurt, one which a person would never get over. You wondered if it was even possible to experience pain like that. Pain so bad you felt your heart shattering.

You still remembered that day you thought about it properly for the first time.

***

You shut your book and looked over at Minho, who had been cloudgazing as he waited for you to finish it. Days like this were common. Minho would get you a new book every week, and the two of you would go to the lake and laze around in the sun. You often worried that Minho would find it boring to sit next to you while you read, having nothing to do. On the contrary, he was quite content with the way things were. He liked how warm the grass felt against his skin, and how calming the sounds of rippling water were as he rested his head against Aeracus’s side.

"Wow. That definitely didn't end on a good note." You shook your head, letting out a sigh and laying back.

Minho glanced up at you, sitting up slightly. "You finished it? So soon?"

"Mhm. I got a little too invested in the story."

"Ah. If I'd known you would read it this fast, I would have borrowed more than one from him."

"It's okay, I can wait a few days.' You say, your tone reassuring as you placed Mr Yang's precious book next to you on the grass, carefully. The man put great care into binding and writing his books, all by hand with no one to assist him. You didn’t want to be the one to soil his hard work.

"Good, cause I'm not going back there so soon. There's three girls who have basically set up camp outside Mr Yang's to catch a glimpse of me."

You rolled your eyes, playfully shoving him. "You act like you're a celebrity or something. We get it, you have a lot of fangirls."

"And fanboys. Some of them are quite cute actually. Just last week a dude proposed to me."

"No way. He proposed?"

"Yeah." He let out a low chuckle. "I think I recognized him from the docks. Seen him once or twice, but I've never said a word to him. I felt bad though, he was actually pretty."

"You should have said yes." You pouted, holding back a giggle. "I've always wanted to be maid of honor at a wedding."

Minho shook his head, sitting up and scooting over. Grabbing your waist, he pulled you into him, so that the both of you were curled up against his sleeping dragon.

"Maid of honor?"

"Yeah! I mean, what's the point of having a best friend if you don't get to play that crucial role in their wedding?"

Minho sighed, looking over at you with a fond smile as he bit his cheek. "Oh Y/n, what am I going to do with you? Maid of honor." He chuckled again at the exaggerated pout you flashed him, poking his side. “What’s so funny?”

There was silence for a few minutes as he looked up at the sky, eyes running over a cloud that looked a little like a five-pointed star. Humming, he leaned in a little.

A short inhale before he whispered into your ear, lips brushing against the shell of it and making your hairs stand on end.

"I hate to break it to you Y/n, but you'll never be maid of honor at my wedding." He mumbled softly, tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear.

"Cause you'll be the bride."

For a minute, a stunned look passed over your face as you comprehended his words. It took a whole 60 seconds for you to process, but soon you swatted at his hand, descending into a fit of hopeless giggles at his cheesy line. "Shut up!"

"Hey! I was being serious." he had an offended look on his face as he held your chin, making you face him again.

You looked at his expression and stopped, your cheeks flushing as you realized he meant it. Your heart was racing, your eyes blinking rapidly as your mushy mess of a brain tried to figure out what an appropriate, mature response would be.

Quickly you pushed him off you, stumbling to your feet and beginning to run. So much for being mature.

"Race you home!"

Minho watched you run, shaking his head and sighing to himself as he slowly picked himself up. If only you knew how sincere he was.

If only he knew your heart hadn't stopped pounding for the rest of the night.

Mr Yang's books had been the main contribution to your adolescent fantasies, to be honest. As the local librarian, he supplied you with a regular supply of books, but none were as satisfying as the ones he wrote himself. His writing was descriptive on another level, and pulled you in like no other author could. He was your greatest inspiration, which was why his description of heartbreak had been the one to stick with you the most, all the way to adulthood.

It was described as a lingering emotion in the back of your head, staying with you your whole life to remind you of what could have been. It was nauseating, painful and everlasting. He'd written about the emotion so intensively, that at the time you almost felt like you did truly know how it felt.

You were wrong.

Heartbreak, real heartbreak, was a lot less pain and a lot more emptiness. Yes, it did feel like all those things mentioned before- but there was more to it than that. Your heart, which had been brimming with excitement and happiness not too long ago, felt void. Dark, lifeless. It had been so sudden, so out of the blue that your emotions were a confused jumble.

Of course, there was pain too- agony, more like. Ripping through your entire being as you watched him kiss her cheek yet again. It was so all consuming, so terrifyingly excruciating.

You were across the dinner table by your father's side, the spoon in your hand held in a tight grip as you tried your best to avert your eyes from the sight. After all, you were currently sat at the table with three other chiefs and their families, as well as a few advisors and high ranking guards. You had to look refined and elegant, a person befitting the title of Ember’s heir- not a gawking, bitter girl staring at your once lover canoodling with his fiancée.

Finally managing to tear your eyes away, you let your eyes run over the guests that would be staying with you for the next few weeks. You reminded yourself that you were in no position to be a dejected, woeful and pathetic individual in front of all these important people. Appearances had to be kept up, or you would face dire consequences. Your father’s pride was hurt enough as it is, what with his daughter being the only one who couldn’t participate in the championships. You didn’t want to give him any more reasons to hate you.

Next to your father was the Aqua chief, his wife and their daughter- Minho’s fiancée. They were dressed in blue silks, dripping with sapphires and lapides lazuli. The royal blue draped around them was deep, the fabric clearly expensive and not too unlike the dress you were wearing currently. 

The Aqua heiress was the spitting image of her mother, both their faces round and their features pretty. She was dressed similarly to her parents, with a tiny diadem upon her brown locks, her gown objectively fancier than yours. She continued talking to Minho, the plate of food in front of her untouched.

Minho.

You hated how beautiful he looked, dressed in white and grey. His uniform was simple, all clean lines and crisp edges. It suited him perfectly, like it was made for him. Which it probably was. 

The two of them seemed to be in their own little world as Minho whispered something into her ear, making her giggle yet again. Your throat felt clogged. Blinking, you quickly looked away from them, your eyes landing on Minho’s father. He looked the same as he always did, except now slightly frailer. He was wearing the same uniform as his son, although he didn’t quite fill it out the same way. You chewed on your lip, glancing at him one last time before turning to the Terra family. 

The Terra chief was a rotund, pot-bellied man who had his attention completely focused on his plate, not contributing much to the conversation the three other chiefs were having. You couldn’t blame him, really- the maids had cooked up a delightful feast. You were sure you’d have devoured your entire plate by now if circumstances had been different. The empty feeling in your stomach was making it hard to savour the roast beef, which you reluctantly ate. 

He and his wife were both dressed in earthly, neutral tones combined with deep greens- and positively covered in every kind of jewel found under the Earth. The rubies on your dress looked like chili flakes in comparison to the twinkling emeralds and gems on the Terra family.

Their son, the Terra heir, looked just as miffed as you, to be honest. He wasn’t as bejewelled as his parents, wearing a shade of green that provided you comfort as you looked at him. It reminded you of the grass near the lake you and Minho once frequented.

He caught your gaze suddenly. Smiling, his heart-shaped lips curving upwards. He shot a glance towards Minho and his girl, and then back at you, raising an eyebrow.

You tried your best to smile back, or give him a knowing wink, or something. But all you could do was stare blankly, your emotions having been sucked out of you. You still failed to comprehend what had happened, your brain seemingly giving up on you and leaving you alone with nothing but your broken heart for company.

Soon enough, the smile melted away from the man's face, and he looked back down at his plate, a little dejected. You felt a flash of regret, fleeting however as you suddenly felt a sharp voice whispering in your ear.

You looked up in confusion at your father, who had previously been immersed in a conversation with Minho’s father and the Aqua chief. Now his face was right by your ear.

"Number one, stop staring. You’re lucky I’m the only one who noticed. Number two, stop by my office before you go to sleep tonight, okay? It’s important." He said, voice stern.

Gulping and nodding, you watched as he turned away, diving right back into the conversation he was having. What did he possibly want to talk about? You rarely talked to your father these days, unless arguments could be counted.

You spent the rest of the meal in contemplation, staring down at your plate. Your hand moved methodically, shoving food into your mouth without actually tasting anything; All you could taste was regret.

It hurt. It hurt so fucking bad. Despite not looking up, her giggle still pierced your ears from time to time, stabbing you deep in the heart. You'd seen it...the way Minho had been looking at her. He'd once reserved such looks for you and you only. Turns out, every meaningful word he'd said back then were lies. Every promise of forever had been empty.

A small part of you reminded yourself that it wasn't his fault he was kicked out from your village. He’d thought you didn’t oppose your father, and simply watched as he and his father was humiliated. Were you being irrational in expecting him to have stayed single until he came back to you? Hell, was it stupid to think he could even bear to glance at you after what your father had did?

Life was unpredictable, nothing was written in stone. How could he even have known he'd ever be in the same room as you again?

No. Y/n, don't do this. Don't force yourself to make up excuses for him. The man had barely cast a glance at you since he arrived. His eyes had been cold and stony the only time you'd made eye contact. 

Besides, if he really knew you, he would have known you wouldn’t betray him like that. And if he really loved you, he would have waited. He wouldn’t have moved on so easily. 

It was still fresh in your mind, despite having happened a few hours ago, now. The way you’d felt your hopes and dreams shattering to the ground in a million pieces, all in a span of a few seconds. Your heart, vibrating so fast it was almost going to implode.

As you continued drowning in your emotions, reliving the pain you'd felt, you suddenly felt a pair of eyes burning into you, sharply. Confused, you looked up, expecting the Terra heir to be the one looking back at you.

It wasn't him.

Minho quickly looked away before you could react, going back to talking to the heiress. It had only been for a second, but you’d caught him.

He’d been staring. At you. For a second, the tiniest flash of hope lit up your heart. But it was gone quickly, as the Aqua chief started laughing boisterously at a question the Terra chief's wife had asked.

"Yes, Jisu and Minho are deeply in love, Calandra. Honestly. Why would they be getting married otherwise?" He smiled, looking over at the two who had stopped talking to listen.

"This one-" He ruffled his daughter's head, chuckling. "She was so smitten. Kept sneaking out past the border to meet him. Of course when I found out, I was more than happy to let them join hands. I couldn’t imagine a son better than Minho to marry my little girl."

"That's sweet." You glanced up at your father as he said the words. He seemed to be gritting his teeth in slight vexation, the annoyance on his face clear. At least, to you it was.

"The wedding will take place a month after the championships." Minho's father said suddenly, smiling proudly as he grabbed a glass of wine. "You're all invited, of course. It will take place at my village. Now, raise a glass for the happy couple!"

A few claps sounded as everyone at the table raised their glasses. You carefully avoided Jisu's shy smile and Minho's confident smirk, his arm wrapped around her shoulder firmly. As if she would break into a million pieces if he let go.

You hated that you knew exactly how he behaved when he was in love. And now you weren’t on the receiving end of his adoration. 

You weren’t used to this. 

Yes, you’d lived your life as normally as you could without him for the past few years...but this was different. He was right there, and yet he wasn’t yours. So close, but you couldn’t touch him. Couldn’t feel him. Couldn’t kiss his lips and tell him how much he meant to you.

Your eyes darted about as they tried to find an appropriate thing to focus your gaze on. You raised your glass like everyone else, downed the amber liquid a little faster than the rest. You refused to let yourself look at the two.

Your eyes landed on the Terra heir after a few seconds. You weren't completely sure what his name was, but you have a vague recollection of your father telling you everyone’s names. Of course, at the time you’d been too overcome with excitement to digest the information.

Felix? Yes, that was it.

He seemed sweet. Friendly, even. His smile was a little sympathetic as he looked back at you, and that threw you off. You decided to put a smile on your face immediately, trying to conceal the pain that you’d hoped wasn’t evident.

Your mind flitted back and forth as everyone’s plates gradually cleared up. What were you going to do after this? 

Originally, you'd been planning to go to Minho's room tonight. Fuck, you’d dreamed of how tonight would go for months now, ever since your father had told you the news. But how could you now? 

Everything was fucking disintegrating.

***

You walked down the hallway to your father's office, your heels clicking against the stone slabs. Your dress was starting to feel itchy, and you couldn’t wait to take it off. You resentfully recalled how excited you’d felt when your maids had helped you into it. How all you could think about was Minho seeing you in it. You’d never expected him to barely acknowledge you.

Sighing, you passed through the hallway, stopping when you heard a high-pitched giggle come out of nowhere.

Furrowing your eyebrows, you glanced around you in confusion. 

Another laugh, this one deeper, followed by what seemed like a...moan?

The pain came back full force, hurtling through you and overtaking you completely. As you walked, the sounds started to feel closer. You wished you could cover your ears to block them out, but at the same time you were consumed with curiosity. Was it what you think it was?

Suddenly, you heard another sound. Now, it was clear where they were coming from.

The sounds were from beyond the door that led to your father's old bedroom, the one he used to share with your mother before she died. You frowned, puzzled as you walked closer to the door.

Had he really given away that room to Minho and his fiancée? It hadn't been used in years, and had always been covered up and inaccessible. Even the maids weren’t allowed to clean in there. It was the biggest bedroom in the house, and the thought of it occupied by them was causing fresh tears to prick at your eyes. 

You felt the lump in your throat make itself more prominent, blinking rapidly as your heart pounded. Suddenly, your legs started moving of their own accord.

Before you knew it, you were stood in front of the large door, your hand raised and knocking firmly on the gilded wood as you swallowed.

There was complete silence for a second or two, but then there were scrambling noises, along with the sound of rustling bedsheets. You tried to calm the beating of your heart, as you waited for the door to open.

When it finally did, you felt like your heart was almost about to burst out of your chest.

She was the one who opened it. She was clearly half naked, having pulled on a blue robe hastily. Running a hand through her hair, she greeted you, her voice a little shaky.

"Oh- um, hello…” She pressed her lips together, glancing behind her for a second. You followed her gaze, to Minho on the bed.

He was shirtless, his hair messed up and his eyes carefully trained on the wall beside him, away from you. You swallowed again, tears threatening to spill past your eyes as you quickly tried to turn your attention back to the woman in front of you.

Too late. She'd noticed. She frowned at you, subtly moving to the side a little to cover Minho from your view.

"I know we haven't formally met yet. I'm Choi Jisu, the Aqua heiress. I’m sure you know." She smiled, albeit a little forced. "And I did want to thank you for letting us stay-"

There was an impatient grunt from behind her, and she looked behind back briefly before turning to you once more.

"Um, I don’t know if you noticed, but I was kind of in the middle of something. Sorry." She tried her best to hide her smile, her voice heavily insincere. “Let’s talk later, Y/n. And maybe next time you won’t be interrupting anything.” She smiled, beginning to close the door.

"Later." 

You just stood there dumbfounded, not knowing how to reply. Your face was passive but your brain was overrun with thoughts. The tears would spill any minute now. 

She frowned at your reaction, tilting her head before gently shutting the door in your face.

You just stood there for a moment. You could hear Minho's voice, muffled as he said something to her.

A part of you wanted to press your ear to the door and listen, but you already looked pathetic enough to the guards standing in the hallway, one of them already having flashed you a sympathetic look. You were really having enough of all this fucking sympathy.

Sighing, you dragged your feet away, trying to push everything down, but to no avail. There were too many enotions, and they were too heavy to even let you think. 

You thought back to her behaviour. You'd definitely picked up on her attitude, which had soured after she’d caught you looking at her fiancé. Jisu wasn’t a fan of you, that much was clear. And neither was the person who’d once declared himself your biggest fan. Ironic, really.

***

“Who was at the door?” Minho asked carefully, although he’d already seen you. Standing there, looking at him. 

You’d looked smaller, vulnerable. So, so different. Almost alarmingly so.

He tried to best to keep his tone even, eyes trained on Jisu as she slunk back to the bed, having shut the door.

“The Ember heiress.” She said, a slight sting to her tone. “Why do you think she came?” She asked, raising an eyebrow as she sat on the edge of the bed.

“I...don’t know.” Minho muttered, staring at the bedsheets. His heart was clenching, hands starting to shake a little. 

No. Not in front of Jisu.

“Weren’t you two ‘best friends’ once?” She asked carefully, having picked up on his icy behavior. Jisu knew, of course. Despite Minho and you trying to keep it a secret, at one point the entire village came to know the two of you were in love. The information had even spread across the village, to others. 

Of course, the chiefs were the only ones who’d been clueless, only finding out after they’d been separated.

Minho scoffed, shaking his head. He gestured to her, hooking his fingers under his boxers to pull them down. “Forget that. Come back here, baby.”

Jisu raised an eyebrow, looking like she wanted to say more. However, Minho’s almost naked body was difficult to resist.

Shrugging, she slid her robe off, letting the silk fall to the floor as she straddled him. His hands ran up her hips, watching her, feeling her. 

His brain, however, felt like it was a million miles away.

***

The tears ran down your face. You were no longer able to hold them back. Realizing you were probably about to break down in the middle of the hallway, you walked faster towards the office- 

Until you bumped into someone on the way, almost knocking them over.

“Woah, woah, slow down.” Felix chuckled, holding onto your arms to keep you on your feet.

You looked up at him, blinking as you registered what you’d just done. “Fuck- I’m so sorry-”

“No, it’s okay.” He smiled, realizing his hands were still on you. He quickly took them away, tucking them into his pockets. His cheeks were dusted a light pink as he cleared his throat, looking at you in concern.

You quickly wiped away your tears, but Felix had unfortunately already noticed.

“Hey, are you okay? I noticed... I noticed you didn’t seem so happy at the dinner.” He said softly, looking down at you. 

You remained silent, staring at the floor as you wondered how to reply. You didn’t want to seem any more pitiable than you already were.

“Uh, it’s okay if you don’t want to say anything. I’m sorry if I overstepped.” He shook his head, stepping back slightly. His voice was almost more nervous than yours. “Um, I’ll leave you be now. Sorry-”

You looked up, sighing. “Wait…” 

Felix looked back, an expectant, almost hopeful look on his face. You didn’t want to let him down, you really didn’t...but it was difficult to pretend like you were okay. You were shivering, biting on your lip. You already felt humiliated enough.

“Sorry. I...I need to go, I’m sorry.” You mumbled, quickly walking away from a bewildered Felix. As soon as you turned the corner, you breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against the wall as your body shuddered. 

You’d never cried like this, not even when Caeli had died. Not even when Minho had left, because back then you’d still possessed some kind of hope. Hope that just wasn’t there anymore.

Rubbing your cheeks, you managed to get rid of the tear stains. You hoped your eyes weren’t too red- you weren’t ready for any comments from your father today. Breathing in, you continued walking, still massaging your eyes in a desperate bid to get them dry.

You groaned as you noticed you’d reached your father’s office quicker than you thought you would. Inhaling deeply, you tried to pull yourself together. You really didn’t like showing weakness in front of him, but lately that was all you did.

You knocked on the door carefully, waiting for him to open the door.

“Door’s open, come in.”

You pushed open the heavy oak door, stepping in.

"Y/n. Finally. Where have you been?"

"Nowhere important." You said quickly, clearing your throat. "Um... you said you wanted to see me, dad?"

He cleared his throat. "Yes." He rearranged the files on his desk quickly, standing and coming over to lean on the front of his desk. He sighed, screwing his face up in thought as he wondered where to start.

"I can’t believe Lee really scored a marriage for his son. Do you know what this means? A heir marrying an heiress? They'll possess power we can’t even begin to imagine." He paced back and forth, clenching his fists in barely concealed anger. You rolled your eyes slightly. Of course your father thought it was a ploy to gain power. He’d never believed in love, and most probably never will.

“So?” 

"So? So?!” He shook his head. “See, this is exactly why the villagers think you’re too incompetent.” He glared, making you cower. Your heart pounded quicker, your lips pressing together. No more tears, you had to control them.

“Look, Y/n...I’ll put it plain and simple. Ember has been the most powerful for centuries. We’ve always had the strongest dragons, and the sturdiest men. Our village is the largest in the country, and all eyes are on us.”

He pinched his forehead. “Do you know how embarrassing it is that Ember’s heiress, the one who should be the most powerful of all, is nothing but a lovesick, pathetic little girl who doesn’t even have a fucking dragon to compete with?!”

You blinked, sniffing as you stared at the floor. You could always count on your father to reinforce negative emotions. His eyes burning into you, chest heaving in anger. 

He sighed, watching as your shoulders shook slightly. Softening a little, he inhaled. It always went that way. He’d blow up at you, and subsequently regret it. He couldn’t take back anything he said, though.

“Sorry, child.” You remained silent, looking up a little. His face seemed sincere enough.

“Hm. I have an idea..." He mumbled, placing a finger on his chin. You could almost see the cogs and gears turning in his brain.

"What did you think of Felix? Nice boy, isn't he?"

You frowned at your father's words, his expression seeming innocent...but his intentions clearly weren't.

"The Terra heir?" You asked, sighing. "He seems nice. Why are you asking?"

"No reason." He shrugged, fiddling with the Ember figurine on his desk.

You groaned, rubbing your forehead. "Dad...don't tell me you want to marry me off to him."

"What?? No!" Your father shook his head vehemently, still playing with the figurine and avoiding your eyes. "I was just thinking. Uh-"

He looked back at you and sighed. "Okay, I'm sorry. But...just consider it, okay? An arranged marriage...an alliance between Ember and Terra could be phenomenal."

You pursed your lips, flashes of Minho and Jisu running through your head as you thought it over. Fuck it, why not? It wasn’t like you had any reason to oppose him. "Fine, dad. I’ll think about it, but I’m not promising anything. Besides, I don’t even know if he’s interested in me."

"I saw the way he was looking at you from across the table, child. He definitely has some curiosity, at the very least.” He hummed. “Anyway, that's actually not why I called you here."

You raised an eyebrow, confused as he went back to his seat, sitting down and pulling up a large, dusty book.

"Look...I'm worried. There's something ominous about this. Their marriage...it poses too many conveniences and benefits for both the chiefs to be a mere coincidence.”

You frowned, confused. "What do you mean?"

He looked to be deep in thought. When he heard you speak, he snapped back to attention, shaking his head. "I’m not sure yet. Now, even if I managed to convince Farran to get his child married to you, it still doesn’t provide us power directly. Without a dragon, it’s likely they’ll make you reside in the Terra village once this is all over.” He hummed, looking like he was talking to himself rather than addressing you. “No...we need a reason to make you stay here. You’re an Ember heiress, the future chief of this legendary village. However, you definitely need to look the part. You need to prove to everyone that you’re powerful, Y/n. Shatter their expectations...and mine.” He smiled, gesturing for you to come closer.

 “I was wondering...do you want to participate in the championships?"

Your eyes widened impossibly, your words stuttering as you moved forward. You couldn’t believe your ears, not one bit. It sounded too good to be true.

“Wait- really?”

“Yes.”

“But...but I don’t have a drag-”

“You can participate with Aeracus.”

No. No way. For the first time since the welcoming, you felt true happiness overtake you. Jumping, you squealed in delight, barely able to hide your glee. “Oh my god, thank you, dad! Thank you so so much.”

He chuckled as he watched you, flipping a page. “This has never been done before, so expect some backlash. I’m sure once they see the bond you have with Aeracus though, they’ll change their minds.”

You couldn’t believe it. Your father, the most skeptical dragon purist the world had ever seen, was acknowledging your bond.

“But...what about Minho?”

“Aeracus is no longer his dragon, Y/n. He has a new one.” Of course, you’d noticed. The huge black dragons he and his father had been riding. You felt a sensation of unease drift through you as you thought about the creatures, the likes of which you’d never seen before. 

New lover, new dragon. He’d really left this place behind.

“Something’s off about those dragons.” He voiced the exact same concern you had. “They’re up to something. I just don’t know what.” He turned back to his book, taking his quill back up. “I’ll find out, though. Somehow. Now, go to sleep, kid. You have a big day tomorrow, now that you’re actually participating.”

You nodded, excitement coursing through your veins. “Sure, dad. Have a good night.” You bowed and turned around, your steps a lot lighter as you headed to your room, which was close by.

Reaching your room, you pushed open the door, smiling as you noticed Sylvia fast asleep at your dressing table. Moving slightly closer, you gently nudged her awake.

“Wha- I-” She shot up, mouth open as she bowed to you. “I’m so sorry, ma’am, I was just arranging and-I’ll help you out of your dress, now-”

“Sh, it’s okay. Tonight’s been tiring. You deserve the rest.” You said sadly, patting her shoulder as a yawn left your mouth. “Go to sleep, and don’t come by tomorrow. I’m perfectly capable of dressing myself. I want you to relax, okay? Head to the docks, or buy yourself some bread in the square.” You opened a tiny drawer and handed a few coins to her, enough to get some sweetbread from the bakery.

She nodded thankfully. “You’re the best, ma’am.” She giggled, accepting the coins from you. 

“What have I told you about calling me ma’am? We’re the same age, Sylvia, it makes me uncomfortable. It’s Y/n to you.”

“Fine. Y/n.” She smiles, heading to the door. “Good night, Y/n.”

You grinned widely at that. You loved how easygoing she was, unlike Ann, your head maid. You weren’t royalty, and hated being treated as such. A friend was all you needed, to be honest. And Sylvia managed to fill the best friend sized hole Minho had left behind, somewhat. 

She closed the door behind her, and you sighed, flopping down onto your soft bed and beginning to slip off your heels and the heavy dress, carefully placing it on a rack. The moon shone extra bright today, and you noticed the streets outside were still lit up with lanterns. Soon, they’d be turned off, and the streets would be quiet once more, except for a few drunken stragglers that didn’t want to stop celebrating.

And you would be left alone with your thoughts.

You slid yourself underneath your covers, sighing as you stared at the moon. In the distance, you could see a few dragons and their riders, flying through the air. They were quite far away, possibly near the outskirts. 

Tomorrow, you’d be able to ride Aeracus like that, after so many years. Every time Minho had let you climb atop his dragon, it had just felt like it was meant to be. Deep down, you felt bad, though...for Caeli, for Minho. However, it was just the plain truth.

You smiled as you decided to buy Aeracus a bunch of treats tomorrow. Ostrich eggs, phoenix meat- you were planning to go all out. He deserved it, after all.

In a way, tonight had possibly been the worst night of your life, and simultaneously the best. Your heart felt pulled in two, as you closed your eyes and willed yourself to sleep.

You had a big day tomorrow.

[breitzbachbea]

📒💖

Emi, I'm kissing you on the mouth right now, you're so sexy. In general but also for taking the bait.

Put “📓” or some other version of a book emoji into my inbox and I’ll explain the plot of a fanfiction that I haven’t written but daydream about.

The Constantinople AU

This AU is from 2017 and came about because I watched a TED-ED video about Constantinople's walls, relistened to the Aladdin soundtrack and because I had earlier talked with a friend about how I had not really seen people make a genie a woman. I came back years later to explain it to my friend Jonah and add new stuff and this year I showed it to @amber-isnt-a-precious-stone to add even more things. It's one of my favourite AUs for sure.

Dramatis Personae:

- Herakles Karpuzi (APH Greece) as Son of the Roman emperor and heir to the throne - Sadık Adnan (APH Turkey) as Soldier in the Ottoman army and Imposter Prince - Dilan Taş (Human OC) as Jinn and Sadık's unsuccessful wingwoman - Athanasios Karpuzi (Human OC) as the Roman emperor and serial skirtchaser - Salvatore Vento (Human OC) as Advisor to the emperor and Fuckface McBadDad - Michele Vento (APH Sicily) as Herakles' childhood friend

The Happenings™:

- It's set in Constantinople in an alternate Universe, close to ours. It’s the late High Middle Age/Early Late Middle Age (depending on how you want to periodize. I am working with how the German Middle Ages are divided, which is arguably a very bad method for classifying Byzantine. But this is my silly Hetalia AU, not my term paper). Around 1300, I’d say.

- Athansios Karpuzi is the current Roman Emperor, which makes Herakles the heir to the throne. Athanasios is desperately trying to wed his son off to any available suitors to form new alliances, but two things keep getting into the way: 1. Herakles is thoroughly uninterested in playing along with Athanasios’ plans. He’s not a chess piece on his father’s board if he's got anything to say about it. 2. Salvatore Vento is Athanasios’ closest consultant and protests any marriage for whatever reason he can find. For the sole reason that he has been eyeing the throne for himself the entire time and wants to marry his own son, Michele, to Herakles.

- Like in my Hetalia AU "Like Father Like Son", Salvatore and Athanasios trust each other as far as they can throw one another. There is no genuine trust here at all, no sympathy, really, they just stick together because they know the other is useful. Have some assorted banter as result of this:

Salvatore: "Immortal what a name! What a title to bear! Although immoral would have fit you much better." [Athanasios’ etymology is “immortal”]

S: "Maybe you wouldn't have to struggle to find a suitable bride for your son if you stopped dragging every young woman within and from outside Constantinople to bed." Athanasios: "He's into guys too, problem solved." S: "Oh, yeah, me dumbass thought you needed stop whoring around, how silly of me."

A: "If he is into anything at all. But if I have another child, they might keep this empire going." S: "No legitimation to the lineage's claim to power like a gay loner and a bastard child." A: "Ah yes, I hired the man whose wife ran away with his son so he could berate me about family life. How I value your opinion, Salvatore." S: "She didn't run away." A: "No, she just hides and sends you people until she can get her divorce. I'm very inclined to give it to her."

S: "They're childhood friends! They'd make a great couple!" A: "All I can hear is what a great emperor you'd make, ruling on my corpse."

- So. Herakles is staunchly resisting any marriage to anyone and minding his business one day, walking along the great walls of Constantinople. He stops to look out into the surrounding area and suddenly, hears a noise. Confused, he looks down and sees someone scaling the wall. Sadık looks up and sees the most beautiful man he has ever seen … spotting him trying to get into the city.

- Sadık is part of the Ottoman Turks, who’re conquering the area around Constantinople these days. He’s some nobody in the army and thought he’d give it a shot and get into the city by himself to earn some fame (and money).

- Herakles is seriously impressed Sadık managed to actually almost scale the famously impenetrable walls of the city. Not impressed enough to actually let him in. So these two banter a bit, Sadık now distracted by this hunk in front of his nose. Herakles correctly assesses that he’s a Turk and says of himself that he’s the emperor’s son. Sadık: “Hey, hot stuff, if that’s true and it’s so impressive, why don’t you let me in as a reward?” Herakles: “Yes, of course. And then I’ll open the gates for the rest of your people, so that you can just walk in and take the city. What impossible thing do you want to happen next, a kiss on the mouth?” Sadık: “What’s so impossible about that?”

- Either way, Herakles threatens to sick the guards on him, which leads to a “Oh no you wouldn’t” - Herakles grins and definitely would, so Sadık has to retreat. (#Don’tSickTheGuardsOnMyAssYou’reSoSexyAhaha).

- He goes back to camp, having gained nothing but a crush. He gets in real trouble for rummaging around the booty, where he finds an oil lamp and WOULDN’T YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. Dilan, a Jinn, pops out and Sadık uses his first wish to get out of trouble. Once that is done and the two have a moment of peace, he's thinking about what to do next and his mind circles back to Herakles.

- Dilan: "Ah yes, they always want something with love ... so who struck you and what's the problem?" Sadık: "Well ... I don't really know if it's true but he said he was the son of the emperor. He certainly looked the part! And I didn't really want to wait for him to call the guards to confirm it." Dilan: "Wait ... so you want to get with the son of the Roman emperor?" Sadık: "If that handsome little shit didn't lie to me, then yes." Dilan: "Isn't that a little out of your ballpark?" Sadık: "What, is it out of yours? Can't help me in that case, magic lady?" Dilan: "Psht, don't make me laugh! I can make the impossible happen, just tell me what you need." Sadık: "I dunno ... I guess getting inside the city?" Dilan: "That's it? That's all you need? That's less than a no-brainer -" Sadık: "Oh yeah, if it's so easy then, save that second wish for later. I got past one of the walls already once, I'll figure that out without your magic." Dilan: "Alright, alright ... and what about the wooing of your sweetheart?" Sadık: "That we'll see to once we're there ..."

- Dilan and Sadık chitchat while they make it to Constantinople. Dilan spends some time in the lamp, because walking is boring, but she does tell him that she's pretty sick of being in there. So that's where Sadık learns about her wishing to be free. Dilan in turn learns that Sadık doesn't have such a rosy life either (especially because now he can't return to the army, after he basically deserted).

- So they get to Constantinople and decide to actually factcheck if they got the right guy - and if yes, some general information about the emperor's son. Luckily enough, a friendly trader/tradesman tells them a bit about the city and the imperial family. Dilan: "So, did you by any chance ever see the emperor's son?" Trader: "Oh, well, that's an odd question, isn't it? But since you don't seem to be from here, I can understand the curiosity. Well, let me think ... You often see him only from afar ... during a triumph where he had accompanied his father during the campaign I got to see him up close. What a regal figure there at the head of the troops!" Sadık is too lost in the vision of his crush all decked out in military gear on a horse. And then taking all that gear off and being a regal figure while he fucks Sadık into the sheets … Dilan: "Yeah, yeah, yadda yadda, we need something more concrete. Height, hairstyle, haircolour, what does the dude look like?" The trader/tradesman is a little baffled but does provide a description that lines up with who Sadık saw. So with that information, they start to wonder how to woo a future emperor.

- Luckily, now that the trader/tradesman thinks they're here for imperial gossip, he actually mentions the fact that Emperor Athanasios hopes for his son to follow his footsteps and is currently looking for a suitable match, so that Herakles can be of political use even while he's still in charge. So Dilan and Sadık get an idea how to get into the city and Herakles heart. Or his pants. Milestones are still up for negotiation.

- After the grand entrance happened, where Herakles definitely took offense at either "Heard your prince was a sight lovely to see" or "Heard your prince was hot, where is he?" because either question was accompanied by Sadık's flirty looks, Athanasios actually lets Sadık and Dilan into the palace. There he and Salvatore discuss the entire thing, aka if whoever Sadık pretends to be is a good match.

- While they talk political stuff and snark, because of course Salvatore is against it, Sadık continues to feel very smug in his new princely identity and makes flirty eyes at Herakles. Herakles is just like "ugh" and much more happily plays with his cats. Which tbh sounds like they're 16 or something, but they're not that much younger than in canon (I think they'd be 22 and 24 here).

- Hijinks ensue. Herakles tells his dad that he’s a Turkish soldier that tried to sneak into the city and Athanasios doesn’t believe him, thinking Herakles is now lying badly to not get married. Dilan and Sadık are developing a friendship that is best described as hoes being bros.

- Dilan: "Look, you like cats. Cats are furry. Hairy, if you will. You know who else is hairy? Sadık. He's juuust as hairy as a cat - shhhht, I'm wingmanning for you and it's working great, you can thank me later."

- At first, Dilan mostly employs her magic for some silly little things with Sadık to woo Herakles. It doesn't work very well. Herakles: "I know it's magic, that's not impressing me - Okay, it is kinda cool, but you're still a dick." Dilan: "But a dick with a cool sidekick, come ON! What else do you want me to do to make the nerd viable?!" Sadık: "You call that wingmanning?!"

- Once Dilan realizes dickbags Athanasios and Salvatore are, she also uses little magic tricks to continously make their lives worse. Ironically, this may be what finally endears her and Sadık to Herakles. (If you haven't noticed, he doesn't like his father very much and Athanasios doesn't care for him aside from being a political pawn).

- At one point, Michele shows up at court! Herakles is overjoyed to see his childhood friend, which he hadn’t seen in years! Sadık is absolutely not, because it looks like just when he and Herakles almost had something, this twat shows up and steals the show!

- Dilan: "Well, I can't make him not love this dude, but I could beat the dude up." Sadık: " ... keep that in mind."

- However, when Dilan goes to investigate what Michele is doing here (and wingwomanning again), this ensues: Dilan: "Hey brah, what's up, why so blue looking? Is it because your boo just told you you ain't his number one anymore?" Michele: "I, eh ... no ... May I ask who you are?" Dilan: "Just one of the servants of the insanely charming and powerful - and hairy - Prince who's here to marry the Prince. Yep, he's sooo gonna marry that guy." Dilan: "There was a whole musical number about it, you should have seen it, I was on top of my game." Michele: "Sure heard about it, you stirred up trouble here. Hope it helps ... I'm not saying that Herakles should marry someone his dad set in front of him, but it'd be nice if he found someone at last. He told me he was very lonely the last years ... I don't want to leave him behind just as lonely again." Dilan: "Yeah, it'd be - Leave him behind?"

- Dilan: "Good news! His loverboy is not here to stay! He wants to go to the west, he's just here because of his terrible dad!" Sadık: "Oh, that's good! Wait ... isn't his father that asshole of an advisor?" Dilan: "Yeah. Why." Sadık: "The guy who wanted to marry his son to Herakles since apparently forever?" Dilan: "Yeah, but his son is not going to marry him." Sadık: "I smell a trap 10 miles against the wind."

- There is no trap however. Herakles realizes that the crush on Michele is nothing but a childhood crush and has to be left in the past … and that he wants to move forward with Sadık. When he wants a conversation one-on-one, Dilan wants to make it a one-on-two, but Herakles asks her if she doesn’t want to keep Michele company in the gardens, it’s not gonna take long, an hour or two at most. Then she can also fetch Michele when they’re done, so that Herakles can say goodbye before he leaves for Sicily.

- Dilan thinks about it, finds it’s not a trap (and if it was, nothing she and her fists couldn’t solve) and goes in the garden. There she talks with Michele and makes the mistake to either show off her magic powers, tell Michele of TurGre’s meetugly (#Don’tSickTheGuardsOnMyAssYou’reSoSexyAhaha) or to be like: “Hey, do you wanna know a cool secret? Sadık isn’t a Prince, all of this is my doing. Pretty cool, eh?”

- Unfortunately, they’re not alone. Salvatore was searching for Michele in the gardens, to get his “fucking rotten brat of a son” to play along after all instead of disappearing once again. So he overhears this. Salvatore: "Oh, so Prince Sadık is not a Prince? That's a funny joke indeed and I'll laugh my ass off the hardest in the end."

- So just when Herakles and Sadık had time to talk about their feelings and confess and, also, you know, make out and fumble for good measure, they get interrupted. Literally when Herakles was finally stripped down to his tunic and Sadık slid his hand underneath it.

- Athanasios: "This is gonna be the last wall you breached, you little rat." Herakles: "Dad! Stop it!" Athanasios: "This man nearly ruined our dynasty. Arrest him." Salvatore: "Arrest the man indeed. Go and get the ex-emperor." Athanasios: "Ex-Prince. It's not the right time for your snark." Salvatore: "I'm not talking about that small fish. Guards - arrest this careless idiot who nearly ruined our city by letting a scammer into its walls! Clearly the emperor's been in on this and can't be trusted!" Athanasios: "You've lost your mind." Salvatore: "You've lost yours and it's actually the thing you'll miss the least when syphilis is going to eat away the last of your rotten brain in the dungeons. So get him! And that ottoman faker, too, just get the trash out of here."

- The scene ends rather dramatically, because I love the thought of Michele and Dilan rushing to their help, but they get held back. Dilan maybe gets restrained by some anti-magic stuff. And Dilan begs Sadık to use his last wish to help him. To solve this problem. But Sadık refuses, because he promised to use it to set her free. So Dilan is just livid and upset, distraught, yelling at him to let her do something while he gets taken to the dungeons.

- So now Salvatore’s in charge and setting his plans into motion. PR is of course the first thing that needs to be done, so there’s a speech to Constantinople’s masses: "But, as you know, I respect and regard the royal family, the entire dynasty, more than any of you! So I am not going to assume power, it'd be a crime against God himself who granted us this emperor, if I had removed him for anything but his unstable condition and his tragic mistake of almost letting his lineage being tainted! Not to mention that this would have been the end of our beloved empire, our city, suddenly overrun and ruled by those barbarians! No, of course I'll give my power to the true heir who was merely a victim to his father's incompetence. To prove I really mean it, I'm even going to give up my son to the Prince, to forever bind my loyality to the throne!"

- Michele: "I hold no more respect for you as father as I did when we left. I'm not going to play along your perverted plan." Salvatore: "Well Michele, if you don't respect me as father, then maybe you'll respect me as the Roman Emperor!"

- Meanwhile, in the dungeons, Athanasios and Sadık have some great chitchat. Sadık: "Guess that's some quality father and son in law bonding time, eh?” S:“Though I'm pretty sure your son would rather call me daddy than you." A: "Once this entire drama is over, I'll have you decapitated. Or just kick you back to your people and let them handle this." S: "Ah, but when I came here as a fake prince, your arms and gates were wide open. Should've listened to your son when he told you so."

- Here’s also some Salvatore content: Athanasios: "And now you strut around in my clothes. I'm surprised they even fit you fatass!" Salvatore: "Oh, the entire imprisonment is really getting to you, ain't it, emperor tightlips? Ah, I meant - ex-emperor tight lips. Now you've sunk low enough to insult me with such details. Is it because you have nothing else left now that you're off your high horse?" Salvatore: "I thought so. At least you're enough of a sound mind to not threaten me with 'once I get out of here' hot air. Because we both know you're not getting out of here in a lifetime anymore. And yes, I’m wearing your rags, since I’ve got no time to waste.” Salvatore to Sadık: "Actually, it's sad that you aren't going to be there to watch it. Although, I think a public execution would just spice the entire wedding festivities up, if I think about it."

- Ah yes. The wedding. Herakles: "You look great today, my love. Like a polished jewel." Michele: "Thanks. I'd never seen a man more handsome than you though. Truly, a prince with all his qualities seen right away." Both: -sigh- Ft. Dilan, who’s just watching the kids sadly and is trying to reassure them she got this, she’s gonna find a way, it’ll be fine!!!

- Herakles and Michele wonder why Sadık didn't use that wish. To which Dilan replies he said he'd free her with it, but she didn't believe he'd actually uphold that promise. And he shouldn't have because now she's useless and he's in trouble. (And Hera only falls more in love with Sadık, because being a good person is HELLA swoony.)

- Dilan also tries to cheer them up and I believe she can still do small magic tricks, she just can't get out of whatever shackles/confinement she is in. So when she isn't despairing or raging, she tries to cheer Herakles and Michele up with some silly little tricks. She shapeshifts into their fathers to make fun of them. Which leads them to an idea ...

- I have no idea what it is though. I only know that the grand final and resolution involves shapeshifting. If anyone who's better at plots wants to give me ideas, please do.

- However they manage to stop Salvatore's machinations, this is what follows: Salvatore gets thrown into the dungeons. Herakles decides to not let his father out and instead take the crown himself. He becomes emperor and marries Sadık. Sadık uses his last wish to set Dilan free. Michele goes to travel to Sicily, promising he’ll write letters to them and come visit some day (Dilan promises the same).

- The end of Salvatore and Athanasios rotting in jail together is SO satisfying to me, bc now that they are useless to each other, there is nothing left to do but be a pain in each other’s ass. They hate each other and they DESERVE EACH OTHER.

Sequel Bait:

- Before we get to the sequel bait, let me give you some prequel bait for a change. Here's a little "what if one of the many suitable matches for Herakles had been one of the Beilschmidt brothers" scenario. Plus free medieval history lesson:

- Now for the actual sequel: Three years come and go. Herakles and Sadık settle in their new rules as emperor and ... emperor's husband. (I don't know if Byzantine empresses were "put into office" in the same way the Emperor was. If someone is more knowledgeable about this than me, correct me).

- Their marriage is going swell, however both struggle in their new official roles. Herakles faces all the administrative problems and tough decisionmaking that comes with being a ruler, while Sadık struggles to be accepted by the people of Constantinople. Where Herakles tends to take care of the court, Sadık tries his hand at being a military leader.

- One morning, Sadık wakes up with Herakles in the room. Which should not be surprising, if it wasn't for the fact that Herakles had left the city yesterday. He's oddly nonchalant about it when Sadık asks him and also ... weirdly chipper? Eager? Kitschy in his flirting? He's at first flattered, but soon very confused by everything and wonders if either he hit his head real hard in his sleep or if Herakles fell off his horse when he tried to make it out of the city.

- Turns out none of it, because after some more eyelash fluttering, his "husband" goes POOF! and turns out to be Dilan, who's on the floor laughing. "You should have seen your stupid face! Really! Wait, I'll show you!"

- After Dilan is done shapeshifting into Sadık, absolutely overacting his reaction and argueing with him about it, they finally get to catch up. Turns out that Dilan was bored by travelling around the world and wanted to check in on her old buddy.

- She couldn't have chosen a more opportune time to do so. Once Herakles returns, he ... at first has a weird reunion with his husband. Sadık is kind of wary around him and starts to list his attitude and general personality traits/ticks as proof for ... something. Takes a while for Herakles to get the news that Dilan is back, too.

- Herakles is very relieved to hear that! He wanted to confide something in Sadık, because after he had returned to the city, someone had taken him aside. Natasa Simonides, an old and trusted courtly advisor, needed help. Recently, her husband Ibrahim disappeared and she's worried.

- Natasa also told Herakles a secret: Ibrahim is a Jinn, which is why his disappearance worries her even more. Herakles informs Sadık and asks Dilan if she knows anything, but she sadly hasn't heard anything either. - Before she can zip off and see if she can find Ibrahim, Herakles asks another favour of her - to educate Natasa's twins, Timothea Farah and Omar Veniam instead. Natasa thinks they may be able to find their father, but they don't know they're half-Jinn, so they'd need some guidance. Dilan happily agrees to be their teacher!

- My only more in-depth infos on Jinn and their children with humans comes from this Monstrum video by PBS Storied. I don't think Thea & Omar would need to be taught by anyone to be seers and how to be in communication with non-human spheres, but it makes for a better story.

- So Dilan is off to teach the kids while Sadık volunteers to go and search for Ibrahim. Herakles resumes his imperial role in the city.

- It's not really fun and as the people become more and more agitated with the status quo, more and more people "remember" that the old emperor is still around. Enough people are going "What's that kid knowing anyways?! All those highfangled ideas and useless reforms, for what?" that a select few decide to stage a coup by releasing Athanasios from the dungeons.

- Now, I still haven't decided if Salvatore also gets let out. The problem is that I really would begrudge him his freedom ... but I also begrudge Athanasios his freedom! It doesn't feel fair that one bastard gets to walk free and the other doesn't!

- Out in the field, Sadık isn't having much more luck. No Jinn in sight and the trouble he has with a few of the men that accompany him keeps him thinking about the acceptance problems again. He really wishes at one point that Herakles wasn't emperor at all. You can imagine how terrible he feels for these thoughts when news of the coup catches up to them. Be careful what you wish for and all that jazz. On top of that, he gets into trouble as well - betrayed by some of the men he had taken along. He gets stuck in some place like a cave or an abandoned house he was investigating ...

- Sadık finds a large sealed bottle and thinks 'Well, what's the worst that could happen?' He is greeted by a GIANT cloud of smoke instead of anything edible/drinkable. By the time the cloud is human-shaped, he already has a giant grin on his face. Sadık: "Hah! I have a sixth sense for this kind of stuff!" Jinn: "Greetings, mor-" Sadık: "Yeah, yeah, quick question, is your name Ibrahim? Or do you know one of your kind called Ibrahim who's been passing through recently?" Jinn: "My name is Ibrahim - " Sadık: "Great! You know a Greek lady called Natasa? I take that look as a yes. Okay, so first wish is to get us out of here, second wish we'll see, third is like freeing you from the whole servitude bit - You do the three wishes thing, right? Anyways, your wife and kids are wishing for dad to come home, so get us out of here, you'll get explanations on the way back."

- In the meantime, Dilan and her protégés, along with Natasa and Herakles, have been trying to figure out how to solve the problem at court. It doesn't help that the news of Sadık's troubles also reached them (I know the speed of spreading information may be historically hella inaccurate, but I need it for the drama). So Dilan is torn between helping her best bud and helping the rest at court. The Greeks cook up a plan and assure her that she should go and help Sadık, they've got this.

- The plan is to get Athanasios to do something incredibly stupid that would immediately turn the people against him. They exploit the fact that Athanasios likes to listen to words that fall from pretty lady's mouths. So Timothea flatters her eyelashes and promises to tell him something of a vision she had ... that the divine has something to tell him through her. (Don't worry for her, she may have to endure his fingers under her chin, which is infuriating and nauseous enough, but no more skin contact than this). Thea gets backed by her brother to lend it more credibility once Athanasios considers with his head and not his dick.

- And we can all appreciate that Dilan has been sent away, otherwise the scene would have been like this: Thea: "The spirits are talking to me about you ... " Dilan: "Mhm, mhm, indeed, I can hear them to. They're saying that you're a bitch!"

- Dilan in the meantime reaches Sadık, Ibrahim and those of his troop that haven't betrayed and abandoned him as soon as they heard of the coup. A little happy reunion before she immediately fills them in on what's happening.

- They come up with a plan themselves to finally get rid of Athanasios and the Simonides and Herakles have begun to sweat a little back home, because Athanasios mistake of listening to the twins' advice has bought them time, but not really solved the problem yet. Which is when Dilan and Ibrahim sweep in, concocting an illusion powerful enough to wrap up everyone in Constantinople and make Athanasios seem like the literal devil. Some mass-hallucination miracle bullshit, truly, to assert that he doesn't deserve the throne.

- Maybe for good measure, Athanasios disappears after the illusion is over. Dilan and Ibrahim have no idea where he went, they say with a smile.

- Another grand finale! The four lovers are reunited, Thea and Omar are overjoyed to have their dad back and he is overjoyed to have his kids back. When Dilan tells the Simonides twins that they did a great job, she's a good teacher after all haha!, Ibrahim and Natasa invite her to stay. Dilan says that they don't need her, surely, now that Ibrahim can teach them, but Ibrahim says he could use some help. Herakles also encourages her, saying that he'd love to have her at court - and Sadık also bullies her into staying. "What do you wanna do, see the world again? Didn't do much for your peanut brain the first time around, maybe hit the books together with Hera so that you'll be a passable teacher some day."

- Dilan and Omar also have evolved a crush on one another during this entire mess. That's what I'll leave you with - all well that ends well.

Also hey you! Thanks for reading all of this! Here's a little bonus content if you made it this far!

A wonderful fanart of Michele and Salvatore by my beloved friend C0FFINATED over on twitter!

Here's an amazing commission of the Greeks and Turks by @captkirkland ! I'm not sure if I'm allowed to repost the pictures myself on tumblr & you shoud reblog it from him anyways. Show him and his amazing art some love! From left to right it's Timothea, Herakles, Omar, then Dilan, Sadık and Havva (who's not featured in this AU, rip. Things would have worked to well with their brainpower).

Thanks for reading this! Hope you have a wonderful day!

[script-nef]

Interview Time | Oikawa Tooru

Category: fluff

2k words; an eventful interview with Oikawa and his girlfriend

Today we are joined by the phenomenal setter of Club Athletico San Juan, Oikawa Tooru, and the manager of the team, [Name] [Surname]. They are the iconic couple who have brought laughter and joy to many matches by their interactions. 

“Hello, [Name] here!”

“Hi, I’m Oikawa! And [Name]-chan, is that a reference to Zuko?”

“It most certainly is. It’s good to see you finally recognise some of my pop culture references now. I was wondering when you’d finally get a hobby outside of volleyball.”

“I have one!”

“Searching for alien conspiracy theories is not a hobby. Tooru, you’re weird as hell.”

“But you still love me.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Hey!”

You guys are so cute and lively together! Today’s interview will be focused on your relationship, but feel free to reject some of the questions if you’re uncomfortable. Is that okay?

“Sure!”

Q. How did you two meet?

“Oh, I was working for San Juan as one of the managers when he was brought in. Since I’m fluent in Japanese, the head coach asked me to help him around because his Spanish and English was atrocious.”

“Eck, [Name]-chan! I wasn’t that bad!”

“You were terrible, who are you trying to kid? Literally no one could understand half the things you were saying. I was basically your translator for the first year.”

“[Name]-chan!! You’re breaking my heart!”

“As long as your body works for volleyball I don— Okay, okay, I was kidding! Don’t pout, Tooru. You learnt it quick enough and now you don’t have any problems! Besides, it’s thanks to your previously horrible language skills that we got to spend more much time together, right?

“I guess that’s true… Was I really that bad though?”

“Absolutely horrible. Everyone can back me up on this.”

Q. What is one quality about each other that you admire and love the most?

“Tenacity, I guess. In volleyball and everything else. He stays behind all the damn time for hours, none of his teammates can keep up. I once had to conk him on the head and drag him out so he would rest.”

“It hurt! You’re stronger than Iwa-chan sometimes, I don’t even understand how that’s possible.”

“You think I’m stronger than the arm-wrestling champion Iwa-chan?”

“Yes. Anyway, what I love most about [Name] is her perceptivity. Did you know that I once had a small kink in my leg muscle which was uncomfortable and she caught it in a second? No one else noticed except her! And this was before we started dating!”

“Yeah, well. I did spend the most time with you and you constantly tell me things about yourself. Even when I didn’t ask.”

“[Name]-chan is so shy. It’s okay, I know you loved me since the moment you laid your eyes on me.”

“Eh…”

“Hey!”

“I didn’t fall in love with you at first sight, I don’t believe in that. You slowly grew on me because you incessantly hit on me.”

“That’s the best kind of hitting!”

“...hm. Do you, um, like any other sort of hitting—”

“[Name]-chan, we’re on camera! Stop that!”

I’m sorry, please keep this PG, there are young fans who might be watching. Moving on!

Q. What was your first date like?

“First date, huh? It was like, ages ago…”

“It was 6 years ago, in August. We went to the Tango festival in Buenos Aires. I had such a fun time with you then!”

“You had fun stepping all over my feet. It’s honestly appalling how much you sucked at dancing back then. You were bad at a lot of things, huh.”

“She complained about it all night, but even then she was so cute and brilliant. She led me for the second half, stating that she had enough of her feet getting trampled on.”

“Thankfully you picked it up fast. You’re pretty fast at learning new skills.”

“Aww, is the ever-so stoic [Name]-chan praising me? How rare!”

“Well, if you don’t want me to, then…”

“Wait, no don’t stop! I was kidding, praise me more!” 

“Ah, don’t latch onto me, this is on cam— Tooru!”

Now, now, please calm down. Straight onto the next question!

Q. Do you have any memorable dates or events?

“Oh, there was this one time.”

“I already said sorry for that!”

“That doesn’t mean it never happened! My jaw still hurts when I think about it!”

“I said sorry every single time!”

“Still! Okay, the story is that I wanted to surprise him when he came back home but it went horribly. The first part, at least. “He didn’t know I was coming over because I wanted it to be a surprise, which in hindsight was a bad idea. I made dinner and turned the lights off when I heard the door unlocking. In my head, it was like ‘pop and and surprise him’, but when I did, he got spooked and hit me in the jaw.”

“It was reflex! [Name]-chan, you popped out screaming ‘surprise’ right in front of me!”

“Yeah, but still. That’s how I now know he has a great right hook. Nearly knocked me out. But his crying and screaming stopped me from falling unconscious.”

“I thought I really did knock you out!”

“Yeah, but you kept on screaming even after I said it was okay. You’ve probably heard of it too, there were news articles about how he came into the emergency room crying his eyes out.”

“I really am sorry about it, [Name]-chan…”

“Hey now, no need to be sad. It’s just a funny memory to tell everyone now.” 

At least you can laugh about it now.

Q. 6 years is a long time. You must have a lot of anniversaries. What do you do for them?

“Nothing special, we just get presents for each other and spend the day together. I used to just tell him what I wanted but he can figure out what I want now.”

“That shows what an amazing and observant boyf—I mean fiancé I am! Have you ever been disappointed with anything I gave you?”

“Well, no, not yet.”

“See? And you get me all the things I want and need. We’re a perfect couple.”

“We sometimes go on trips to neighbouring countries, visit some tourist spots. I bought him a camera for the anniversary last year, and now he takes tons of photos everywhere we go. There’s a huge stack of polaroids in our bedroom.”

“[Name]-chan, don’t ignore me! Aren’t we a perfect couple?”

“I think we’re the best we can be. Perfection doesn’t exist, but we can strive to be the best we can be, right Tooru?”

“Yup! You’re so wise when it comes to things like this.”

Q. What do you do in your spare time?

“We recently started watching TV shows like Umbrella Academy and Doctor Who. Tooru likes them because of all the aliens and superpowers.”

“They’re all so creative! Like the Weeping Angel, that makes me freak out whenever I see a statue now. Some of them give me nightmares.”

“Weeping Angels are messed up. Wait, why do you watch it if it gives you nightmares? You need to take care of your mental state as well, national representative!”

“But you hug me when I sleep if I have night terrors! I would sit through a hundred horror movies if it means you would hug me.”

“…”

“Are you… blushing?”

“No.”

“Aw, [Name]-chan, you’re blushing! I love you so much!”

“Tooru, stop! I’m going to fa—”

*Technical difficulties please hold*

Q. You recently announced your engagement, congratulations! How was the proposal, if you don’t mind me asking?

“I took her to her favourite restaurant! It’s this fancy place in a building near the training centre and she loves the pizza there.”

“It is delicious. He can’t see how good it is, this uncultured child.”

“It’s not my type! I like other pizzas, just not that one. Her face absolutely glows with happiness when she takes a bite but I can’t understand it. They have those really salty fish—”

“Anchovy. And I usually don’t like it either, but they make it taste amazing!”

“No, it still tastes like clumps of salt. Thankfully I like other dishes on the menu. We go there so often that the owner has a special spot reserved for us. It’s by a window and since the restaurant is in a tall building, it looks over the lights of the city. It’s very beautiful.”

“He was looking skittish than usual, so I was worried for him. I actually thought he wanted to break up with me. But instead, he showed me the ring and asked me to marry him.”

“Why would I ever break up with you?”

“Couples split apart! It’s what happens to a lot of them, I have never heard of someone who lived forever with only one person.”

“Tobio-chan did!”

“Are we considering volleyball as a person now?”

“[Name]-chan, we went to their wedding!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just kidding! He was pretty cute, all twitchy and red. His wife was even cuter though, so shy and embarrassed. Very beautiful as well.”

“You’re going to be even more radiant at our wedding. I can see you in your dress already.”

“Wow, you must be able to see into the future, since I haven’t even looked at the catalogue.”

“It’s a figure of speech!”

Now, now, please calm down! Onto the next question.

Q. You guys had been dating for quite a while before getting engaged. When did you realise you wanted to spend the rest of your life with each other?

“Oh, you never actually told me this.”

“It was actually when I was away for a game! [Name]-chan couldn’t come because she had to work back in Argentina, so I was all alone in a foreign country.”

“Literally everyone else on the team came to the game, you weren’t alone.”

“But none of them were you! Let me be romantic and tell my love story!”

“Alright, alright, no more interruptions. Proceed.”

“Thank you. It was the first day there. I finished the practice for the day and did our daily night call, because we always talk before falling asleep. I dozed off to her talking, so I thought she would be there when I woke up. But when I opened my eyes in the morning, and she wasn’t there, this wave of panic came over me until I realised I was overseas. “That moment was probably it. I thought there, lying on the bed, that I would never be happy unless I wake up next to her every morning and see her sleeping face. Unless I could start off my day by kissing her and holding her in my arms.”

“…That— that’s what you thought when you woke up?”

“Yeah? And I thought that every morning since the— wait, are you blushing?”

“No, shut up and go away, Tooru.”

“AWWWW [NAME]-CHAN IS BLUSHING AND TRYING TO HIDE FROM ME!! YOU’RE SO CUTE AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I WANT TO SQUISH YOUR WIDDLE FACE AND CUDDLE YOU FOREVER MY AMAZING AND PRECIOUS WIFE!”

“Ack, Tooru, I’m going to fall agai—”

*Another technical difficulty, please hold*

Well, I think this has been a very cute and informative session. Quite eventful as well.

“If by eventful, you mean him trying to hug me so tight my ribs break and I get concussions from falling all the time, then yes, eventful.”

“Sorry, [Name]-chan, you were just too cute!”

“Not another word, volleyboy.”

Well, I’m sure your fans will be thrilled to see how cute the two of you are!

“His fans do seem to like knowing little stupid stories we have.”

“They’re our memories and I wouldn’t ever trade them for anything else.”

“…Me neither.”

“Aw, you’re so affectionate today, [Name]-chan. Maybe we should come again next time so I can see you blushing even more!”

We are completely on board with tha— 

“Okay, this is the end of our interview and I hope it was fun for the viewers! Bye-bye now!”

“Ah, she’s escaping! Wait for me, [Name]-chan! Thanks for watching! Bye!”

[dalamjisung]

childlike love ✾ kim yugyeom

word count: 6909

genre: hospital!au, fluff

pairing: Pediatrician!Yugyeom x Pre-School Teacher!Reader

description: he’s a big baby and you wouldn’t mind taking care of him too. 

“Everybody inside!” One of the teachers call. “Let’s go, kids! We have a fun day ahead!”

You smile, watching the parents drop their kids in their classrooms. As per usual, you are waiting by the front door for your kids, having a quick word with each of the parents to calm them down. It is always the same, even though you’ve been teaching their kids for almost a year now– will they be okay? or call me if they need me! As a pre-school teacher, you are used to these kind of requests, and you only smile and assure them that everything will be okay.

“Okay,” You mutter, looking around the classroom and counting the children. “We’re only missing–“

“She’s here!”

Your head snaps to the side to see little Choi Minjae grabbing tightly onto a man’s neck as he runs into the school. Knowing for a fact that that is not her father nor her mother, you slowly approach the stranger, eyes trained on the little girl in his arms, looking for any sign of discomfort, but you see none. She looks pretty comfortable with him, so you smile, feeling a little more at ease.

“Good morning, Minjae-ah!” You say softly once she’s on the ground and next to you. Her shy giggle makes your heart warm up and you pat her head as she hugs your legs.

“Goo’ morning, Ms. Y/L/N,” She smiles and then looks back at the man. “Bye-bye, Uncle Yugyeom!”

He waves back and high-fives her with the promise of coming back to pick her up in five hours. 

“I’m sorry for barging in like that,” He says looking at you with a light blush tainting his cheeks. “Youngjae called me thirty minutes ago and told me was caught up in the hospital and his wife has been away on a business trip and–“

“It’s completely okay,” You smile, trying to calm the ranting man down. “Next time, however, could you just ask that either Mr. Choi or Mrs. Choi call the principle and let him know that there will be another guardian coming?”

“Of course!” He smiles. “I’ll ask him as soon as I leave here. I’m Yugyeom, by the way. Kim Yugyeom.”

“I’m Y/N Y/L/N,” You shake his hand and look in the classroom, noticing that the kids are starting to get antsy. “I have to go, but it was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Kim!”

He makes a face and laughs. “Yugyeom, please. I’m too young to be Mr. Kim.”

“Yugyeom, then,” You wave. “See you in a few hours when you come to pick Minjae up.”

“See you, teacher.”

You chuckle at the nickname and go inside, clapping your hands excitedly to get the children’s attention. It’s time to start the day. As always, the kids are incredible; there are a few fights here and there but nothing that interrupted with the flow of the classroom. What you love the most about teaching pre-school kids is seeing their development with basic understanding, starting to make sense of storytelling and memories. You love each of them with your whole heart, even if you had a few favorites. The bell signals the end of the school day and you smile, feeling exhausted but content. 

“Good bye Ms. Y/N!” Some kids shout as they run to their waiting parents. You wave and watch as they get picked up by their guardians, always on the lookout for anyone that seems strange to one of the kids. You are leaning on the door, watching everyone go, when you feel a weak pull on your pants.

“Ms. Y/N?” 

You look down to see Minjae hugging her yellow backpack tightly, eyes wide and confused.

“Yes?” You smile, crouching down to match her height. 

“Where is daddy?” She asks, voice dying down in the end. You can hear the sadness of being left behind and you pet her head lightly. 

“Daddy is working, Minjae-ah,” You say slowly. “Remember? Daddy brings babies to the world to make people happy! But your Uncle should be here soon, he said he’d come pick you up today.”

“Uncle Yugyeom?” She asks and you nod. “But Uncle Yugyeom works with daddy… so isn’t he busy, too?”

“Yugyeom is also a doctor?” To say you are surprised is an understatement. You knew that Minjae was smart, but her train of thought it a bit advanced for someone that’s only four. 

“Yes,” She nods and sits down on the floor, pulling on your hand until you are seated too. “He takes care of the babies daddy brings into the world.”

Oh, so he’s a pediatrician?

“That’s nice, isn’t it?” You get up and bring her some paper and crayons. “What do you want to be when you grow up, Minjae-ah?”

“I want to be a doctor!” She says firmly and you assumed that would be her response. Her father is a doctor and everyone in her life seems to work in the medicine area. “But not like daddy, I don’t like babies. I want to be a doctor like Uncle Mark and Uncle Jaebeom.”

“And what do these uncles do?” 

“They save people who are dying.”

You choke on air. “W-what?”

“I don’t want people to die, Ms. Y/N,” Minjae says with an odd softness to her voice. “So I want to save them.”

“That is very brave of you, Minjae,” You say and you hope, you really, really hope that in the future, when she is grown and haven’t thought of you in years, she’ll remember these words. “I’m really proud of you. I’m sure your parents and uncles are, too.”

“We are.”

Minjae is on her feet instantly, running to the tall man at the door. He is still wearing his white coat and you chuckle a bit, getting up from the floor, as he leans down to hug his niece; the hight difference making you coo in adorableness. 

“I’m sorry for being late,” He sighs, and looks at you. “A patient ran late and–“

“It’s completely fine,” You nod at him. “She is a wonderful kid and we had a good time while waiting.”

“I see that,” He points at the drawings on the ground, where colors are mixed and matched. “Minjae always has a good time with you.”

“Oh, did she say that?” You ask, looking at the child resting on his lap. She giggles and nods.

“I did, I did!” Her little arms wave around and you laugh. “Can we go, now? I’m hungry…”

“Of course!” Yugyeom nods. “Thank you again, Y/N.”

“No problem,” You smile, waving. “She’s always welcome.”

“Oh! I already talked to the principal, by the way,” He says with a big smile. “I am not sure exactly when Youngjae will need me to come pick her up so they put me down as a permanent guardian.”

“That’s great, thank you for talking to him,” You smile.

“No problem! See you whenever Youngjae is busy!”

As they walk away, you can’t help but smile widely, thinking of this odd man and how you just know you’ll see him again. You also think about how much you want to see him again and you shake your head, laughing at your own foolishness. 

No way a man like that is not already taken, you think starting to clean the classroom. And even if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t choose me, that’s for sure.

                                                         ——————————————

The things about accidents is that you never see them coming, but somehow, it’s always your fault. It’s supposed to be a simple painting exercise; you tell the kids that they can draw whatever they want– family members, friends, animals, shapes. It’s all up to them, and later, you’d put them all on the wall to let everyone see each other’s work. 

Things go south when Jaemin, a very excited and energetic little boy, decides to grab the blue pain on the top shelf by himself. He’s usually like that and that’s why you always keep an eye on him, but today you are busy helping Mina with mixing blue and yellow to make the perfect green, and you don’t see Jaemin climbing on a chair and reaching for the heavy pot of paint. You make it fast enough to stop the whole thing from collapsing on top of the child, but he’s already crying from falling off the chair and hitting his head on the floor. In consequence, the cabinet falls on top of you, and you wince as pain shoots through your body, but you forget about it quick enough, pushing it back in its place and scooping Jaemin up in your arms. 

“Are you okay?” You ask, hands softly roaming around his head, looking for any sing of blood, and thankfully you find none. Still worried, you call for a substitute teacher for a while so that you can take Jaemin to the nurse. 

He’s still crying desperately once you get to the nurse’s office, but you don’t see the sweet old lady that is usually sitting by her desk; instead, there is a note of absence, and you can’t help but panic for a moment. 

“What the f–“ You stop yourself before you scare the little boy even further, and you almost run to the principal’s office. “Sir, I need the guardians list.”

“What happened?!” He asks, alarmed. Chanyeol is a very competent worker and he deeply cares for the children under the care of the employees in the school, but he’s never been good with emergencies. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh–“

“Chanyeol,” You breathe out softly, trying to calm both males in the room. “I need the guardians list. Now.”

“Yeah– okay!” He is moving as quick as possible and soon enough you find what you need. 

Kim Yugyeom.

The number is scribbled next to his name and you are quick to dial it, barely letting him speak before interrupting. 

“Hello, this is Kim Yugy–“

“Yugyeom!” You call in relief. “I am so sorry to call you during work hours, but we had an accident and the nurse is not here and–“

“What happened?” H asks, and you hear some ruffling on the other side of the line. 

“One of the kids fell on his head,” You mumble quickly, ashamed of yourself even though you know that it’s not your fault. “He won’t stop crying. I’m really sorry to be calling you, but Minjae mentioned you’re a pediatrician and the nurse is not here.”

“I’ll be there in ten.”

He got there in seven, along with Jaemin’s mother. 

“What happened?” She asks rudely, looking at her crying son and then at you. Sighing, you pull her aside, allowing Yugyeom to rush to the crying kid. 

“We were painting and Jaemin tried to reach for something on a high shelf,” You start to explain, knowing that nothing you say will change the way that this mother is looking at you– it’s all your fault, her eyes say. “He didn’t call for me and instead decided to climb on a chair. The cabinet fell and I was able to stop it from falling on him, but he fell off the chair and seems to have hit his head on the floor…”

“And where were you while all of that happened?!” She shouts, finger pointing directly to your face. You understand the anger, she’s a mother after all, but the disrespect starts to get to you and you have to take a deep breath. 

“Ma’am,” You start calmly. “There are about fifteen kids in the classroom, and I try my best to watch over all of them, but it’s only me in there. I’m sorry that Jaemin got hurt, but I was helping other kids and–“

“You should’ve paid more attention to him!” She screams and at this point Chanyeol and Yugyeom are watching you two carefully. “He got hurt because of you!”

“Ma’am–“

“Is this what I pay this school for?!”

“You’re scaring your son.”

Everyone stops and looks at Yugyeom.

“Excuse me?” The mother mumbles, looking at her child as he hides behind the doctor’s legs.

“You are scaring your son,” Yugyeom repeats, voice soft yet serious. “You are deliberately disrespecting the woman he sees as authority in the classroom, and that he cherishes so much, and you are scaring him. I’ll have to ask you to control yourself.”

“And who the hell are you?!”

“Dr. Kim Yugyeom,” He offers her his card. “I know Ms. Y/N and she called me over to do an assessment of his condition. Your son is perfectly fine, ma’am, just scared. If it wasn’t for Ms. Y/N, however, I am not sure what could’ve happened.”

“Yu–“

“Now let me take a look at you,” He says, pulling you to his side and sitting you next to Jaemin. “I saw you flinching… please turn around and raise your shirt.”

“This is not appropriate in–“ You try to push him away but he’s bigger and stronger than you. 

“I am here as a doctor and you are my patient,” He whispers so that no one besides you can hear him. “Now please, a cabinet fell on your back. It must’ve hurt.”

“Is my teacher hurt, Doctor?” Jaemin asks grabbing your hand as you allow Yugyeom to slightly raise your shirt.

“She is, a little bit,” He probes your skin and you recoil in pain. “But she is a strong woman and she protected you.”

“She really did!” Jaemin says excitingly. “Ms. Y/N ran really fast, mommy! She didn’t let the things fall on me.”

“You have cuts and bruises all over your back,” Yugyeom says after cleaning the injuries with rubbing alcohol. “What the hell was on that cabinet?”

“Books, paint, and other stuff,” You wince once again and only allow yourself to breath normally when he puts your shirt down. 

“You’ll be fine, but you need to clean this once a day,” He sighs, turning you around to look at him. “Do you have anyone to help you?”

You hesitate, but end up nodding.

“Just in case your lying,” Yugyeom offers you his card and you take it. “You can call me. I promise I don’t bite.”

“But I might…” You whisper to yourself as he leaves, putting the card in your back pocket. 

                                                        ——————————————

You don’t hear from or see Kim Yugyeom for the next week or so. Cleaning your back with the disinfectant is probably the hardest part of your day, but you manage. You keep working, if your back is constantly hurting when you pick kids up or when they accidentally hit you as they run by; you refused to stop because of a stupid injury. 

It’s Friday and you just got home, and only after a steaming shower that you realize two things: you are craving ramen and you don’t have any at home. You quickly put on some shoes and make your way to the market nearby your apartment, walking slowly as you enjoy the cold air and the beautiful snow. You’ve always loved the winter and how comfortable the nights turned once it is cold; people are out on the street, huddled together, laughing as they enjoy warm snacks by the river. You smile sadly, overwhelmed with a sense of loneliness above everything else, and you enter the market. 

“Ramen, ramen, ramen…” You mumble to yourself, trying to find the right isle to turn into. 

“It’s the next isle,” Someone says from behind you and you quickly turn around, finding yourself face to face with Yugyeom carrying Minjae on his shoulders. “Hi.”

“Hello,” You say, amused with the view. “Here for ramen too?”

“Yeah, Minjae has been wanting some all day so…” He shrugs and the little girl giggles as she bounces on his shoulder. 

“Hi Ms. Y/N!” She shouts and you wave. “Uncle Yugyeom, can I have some strawberry milk?”

“We can go get it after you chose your ramen,” Yugyeom says and smiles at you, nodding at the selection with his chin. “Which one for you?”

You laugh and chooses the jjajangmyeon flavor, already giddy with excitement to get home and eat this with some snacks. 

“Good choice, good choice,” Yugyeom muses, a smirk playing on his lips. “But predictable.”

“Oh really?” You ask, squinting at him. His playful demeanor makes you join his antics. “What would you recommend then, Doctor?”

“Ah,” He looks up at Minjae and they do a weird exchange of glances, and they both look at you. “We all know nuclear ramen is much better.”

“My insides will melt if I eat nuclear ramen,” You gasp. “I can barely eat spicy tteokbokki!”

“Weak,” Minjae says, nodding to herself. 

“Hey!” You say, laughing at the four-year-old. 

“Uncle Mark told me that all the other uncles are weak because they can’t handle spicy food,” She explains. “And Uncle Mark is never wrong. That’s why he’s my favorite.”

“I thought I was your favorite?” Yugyeom gasps, removing her from his shoulders and carrying her in his lap. 

Minjae shake her head. “It’s Uncle Mark.”

“That’s gotta hurt,” You mumble, eyes wide in surprise with how daring your student is. “Really.”

“But I love you, too,” She says, patting his head and wiggling to be put down. “I’ll go get the milk!”

“Yah!” Yugyeom shouts, still in shock. “I cannot believe this!”

“Honestly,” You sigh, patting his shoulder in an understanding manner. “Me neither. She talks about you so much that I definitely thought you were the favorite…”

He nods, and looks at the hand on his shoulder, bitting his lip. 

“She talks about you, too, you know?”

You take a step back, retrieving the hand. “She does?”

“Oh yeah,” He laughs, and you love his laugh– it’s loud and vivid. “We all know about the pretty teacher.”

“The pretty teacher?” You echo, laughing incredulously. “Is that my official title?”

“Of course,” The two of you walk through the isles, looking for Minjae, and you see the way he looks at you sideways, hiding a smile. “It fits you.”

“I see,” You blush, looking down. “You fit your title, too.”

“And what’s that?”

“The big baby,” You giggle and walk ahead as you hear him gasping. “Let’s go, we need to find the small baby.”

“Yah!”

You leave, giggling like a teenager. The rest of what was supposed to be a quick trip to the market is surprisingly fun. You learn that Minjae is staying with Uncle Yugyeom for the weekend because it’s her parent’s wedding anniversary; you also learn that Yugyeom is putty in her hands, doing everything and anything that the child wants. What surprised you, though, is finding out that he is the youngest in his friend group, barely a year older than you– you thought he was way older than you, being a stablished doctor and all. 

“I just focused,” He says when you asked him how he managed. “The rest just kind of fell in place…”

“Daddy says Uncle Yugyeom is really alone, and that is why he has so much time to take care of other people,” Minjae tries to whisper it to you, but he heard it. You know he did; his eyes are fixed on the ground, a sad smile forming on his lips. “He has the biggest heart, according to daddy. As big as him!”

You don’t know what to say to that, not really knowing how to make this situation less awkward for the man standing right next to you. He sighs and motions to the cashier.

“Let’s go, Minjae,” He mumbles, and something about him is different– gone. “Say goodbye to Ms. Y/N, we have to go home.”

“Or,” You say quickly, before you have time to convince yourself that this is a really bad idea. “You could be less alone and make me less alone by coming over and having ramen with me.”

His brows shoot up, mouth agape. “W-what?”

“You and Minjae!” You clarify, blushing wildly. “Not just you– I’d never! I’m not… I just meant you and Minjae. Company. For dinner. Tonight.”

“Can we?” Minjae jumps around her uncle, excited. “Pretty please, Uncle Yugyeom, can we go?”

“Are you sure?” He mumbles, still red from the previous misunderstanding. “We don’t want to impose.”

“She said you are lonely,” You say pointing to the kid. “And to be honest, so am I… It’ll be fun, I promise I don’t bite.”

He smiles. “Alright then. Let’s go pay.”

It’s a fight trying to pay for your own food once Yugyeom sets his mind on paying for you. We’re already eating at your place, is his argument. The least I can do is pay for the food. You roll your eyes and let him, but you promise to pay next time.

“Next time?” He mumbles, avoiding Minjae hearing him. “I like the sound of that…”

“The sound of what?” Minjae asks from behind you two and you grab the groceries and walk ahead, trying to escape the responsibility of having to explain to the little girl what ‘flirting’ is.

“Of seeing the pretty teacher again,” Yugyeom winks at the kid. 

Minjae looks at you and then back at Yugyeom. 

“You like my uncle?” 

You choke on air. 

“You like my teacher?”

“Yes.”

“Stop egging her on!” You hiss, slapping his shoulder. 

“Then are you guys going to be like mommy and daddy?”

“Married?” You ask, still recovering from your shock. 

“No,” Minjae shakes her head. “In love.”

And sometimes, like right now, you really think you’ve been lied to and that Minjae is actually a genius. 

“I’m down,” Yugyeom says, picking her up. 

“Seriously?” You joke, guiding them to your apartment. “I’m down?”

He groans. “At least I told her something.”

You two bicker all the way back, joking and laughing together. The night is, overall, a success. Minjae had a great time and you and Yugyeom managed to get to know each other better; but everything has an end and soon you are saying goodbye. Laughing softly, you open the door for a tired Yugyeom and a sleeping Minjae, kissing him in the cheek before he leaves.

“Thanks for today,” You smile. “It was really fun.”

“Are you free next week?” The question is quick and airy and you laugh, knowing just how nervous he is.

“I am, why?” You tease. “I was wondering if you’d like to get some dinner?” He asks. “Just you and I. Not ramen. Real dinner.”

“I’d love to,” You nod. “I’ll text you, I have your number.”

“I have yours too,” He chuckles. “You called me, remember?”

It takes a while, you two not managing to stop talking, but he leaves and you drag yourself to bed, sleeping peacefully and dreaming about the family you’ve never had– one that eats ramen on a cold Friday night sitting on the kitchen floor and playing children’s games. 

                                                        ——————————————

One week is nothing. One week is nothing. One week is nothing. You repeat your mantra as many times as necessary to convince yourself that you are not anxious, not at all, nope. But the weekend feels like a week and the week feels like a month, and when Friday finally comes again, you even feel older. He doesn’t text you in the morning like he did on the other days, but it’s okay, you’ll see each other later. It’s with that mentality that you go through school hours, Minjae being delivered by her mom and picked up by her dad.

“Oh, good to see you again, Mr. Choi,” You smile at him, even though by now you are feeling dejected and confused. You’ve had no life signal from Yugyeom whatsoever, and you wonder if the date is still happening. 

“That sounds like a lie,” Youngjae points out. “Hoping someone else would pick her up?”

“I don’t know what–“

“Yugyeom told me,” He laughs, looking at you. “I think you two will work out pretty well, to be honest. He needs someone kind and caring in his life.”

“How do you know if I’m kind and caring?” You ask, looking at him suspiciously.

“A little birdie told me,” He points at his daughter as she packs her bag. “She adores you, and apparently, the night you guys had at your apartment was ‘the best night of her life.’ You raised the bar up for me and her mom, Y/N, I gotta say…”

You laugh. “I’m glad she enjoyed it.”

“Yeah, and so did Yugy,” Youngjae shrugs. “He’s been crazy busy today, so don’t feel bad if he has to reschedule. There was a really bad accident involving a middle school bus and they have him on call until everything is sorted out… He’s really sorry. He didn’t tell me anything, but I know my dongsaeng… he’s probably beating himself over the fact that he is too busy.”

“Ah, there’s no need for that,” You say, understanding the situation even though you feel a bit disappointed. “I understand how stressful it must be–“

“You know,” Youngjae looks at his watch and then at you again. “He’s probably going to work the night shift as well.”

“Oh,” You deflate. “That’s okay.”

“Which means he’ll probably skip dinner,” Youngjae continues, offering you a pointed look. 

“Oh.” You finally get it. “That’s not good.”

“It really isn’t,” Youngjae smiles and you laugh, impressed with the fakeness of his grin. “I’d go and bring him dinner, but I have to take care of Minjae tonight… oh, what will we do?”

“I guess I’ll just have to assume the responsibility,” You say, sighing in false defeat. 

“I guess you will.”

“Daddy!” Minjae runs to her father and jumps in his arms. “Bye-bye Ms. Y/N!”

“Bye Minjae!” You wave and then smile at her father. "Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

You have some time to kill before dinner time, so you walk back to your apartment, already thinking of all the things in your fridge and what could you try and make for the overworked doctor. In the end, you end up ordering from a nearby place, deciding it’s a better idea to give him something good that someone else cooked than the burnt food you tried to whip up. 

The hospital is nearby and the taxi take advantage over the fact that traffic is not horrible. You anxiously bounce your leg as the nurses tell you to wait since he’s in a surgery and will be back shortly. They smile warmly at you, noticing the food in your hands and the nervous look on your face.

“Dr. Kim will be really thankful,” One of them say. “It’s been a really bad day.”

“I’ve heard,” You nod, deep in thought. “I don’t want to intrude, though, so maybe it would be better to leave this here with you?”

“He’ll surely appreciate the company, ma’am,” She winks at you. “Dr. Kim tends to get really emotional with severe cases like this, and unlike his hyungs, there is never anyone waiting for him in his office after a hard surgery or a bad consultation.”

“Ah… he seems lonely,” You mutter to yourself.

“He is,” The nurse smiles. “And it’s really sad to see such a good person alone.”

“It really is,” You sigh. “Would it be possible for me to wait in his office?”

Looking at both ways in the hallway, the nurse motions for you to follow her.

“Don’t tell anyone I’m doing this,” She giggles. “But Yugyeom deserves to have someone waiting for him, too.”

“Are you two friends?” You smile, thankful for her.

“I’m his main nurse,” She nods. “We’ve been working together for a while… friendship is bound to happen.”

“I’m glad he has you looking after him,” And you really are; it makes you feel less worried knowing that his coworkers are supporting him. 

“I have to go,” She looks at her phone. “He’s out of surgery, so he’ll be here any time now. Enjoy your meal!”

You wait. And wait. And wait. And just when you feel like you might bolt and leave him a note, the door slams open, a frustrated Yugyeom entering the room with red, puffy eyes and disheveled hair. His blue scrubs is wet with sweat and he is sniffling, hand furiously rubbing his eyes. 

“Oh my god, are you alright?” You shoot out of your chair and run to him, hands grabbing his and pulling them down next to his body. “Are you crying?”

Yugyeom blinks a couple of times and then looks at the food, and then back at you.

“Y/N?” Even his voice is gruff and used. “What are you doing here?”

“I–I heard about the accident,” You gulp, suddenly in the spotlight. “And I thought you’d skip dinner… so I brought you some.”

“I’m so sorry,” He sighs and his shoulders drop in disappointment. “I completely forgot to text you; it’s just been hectic today and I–“

“It’s okay!” You say a little too loud and he flinched. “It’s completely okay, just… just tell me, are you okay? You look like you’ve been crying.”

“Me?” He goes around his table, sitting down and opening a drawer. He pulls his phone, looking at himself in the camera. “Oh. No. I mean, yes, I’m okay; no, I haven’t been crying. I just didn’t have time to take my allergy medication and it started acting up in the middle of a surgery, so this is why I look like this. Sorry.”

“Nothing to apologize for,” You smile relieved. “Hungry?”

His eyes are trained on you as you start pulling out the food, and before you can sit down he grabs your wrist, hands pulling you to him. One of his arms goes around your waist, holding you close, and the other holds your hand, and you only feel his tension once he rests his forehead on your stomach, your body frozen in between his open legs. Yugyeom sighs, and deposits your hand on his head, silently asking for scratches, like kids sometimes do. 

“Starving,” He mumbles. “But exhausted.”

“You need to eat,” You say softly, not wanting to ruin the intimate atmosphere in the room. “And then I’ll leave and you can nap.”

“Stay,” He yawns. “If you don’t mind, stay. I’ve been super excited for our date and now I just feel like shit that I couldn’t make it.”

“Says who?” You chuckle, pulling away and ignoring his whines. You sit in front of him. “This looks like a date to me.”

“You deserve better,” He’s so serious that you move a little, uncomfortable with the weight on your shoulders. “A lot better.”

“But I want this,” You giggle. “A take-out dinner with the big baby.”

“Must you refer to me that why?” He asks dramatically. 

“Yes,” You say and pushes some noodles in his direction. “Now eat.”

You don’t remember falling asleep in his tiny couch, but you will never forget waking up squished in his arms. 

                                                        ——————————————

I owe you a proper date. Let me take you out tomorrow.

Today is the tomorrow Yugyeom talked about and yet, nothing from him. You didn’t really expect much, but you expected something. You understand that his job is urgent and demanding, but so is Youngjae’s and he manages to balance social and work life. Because you don’t work during the weekends, it’s pretty much just you and Netflix today, and with the selfish anger that bubbles inside, you decide that Criminal Minds is just the right amount of violence for you. The torrential rain outside makes it so that you have the perfect mood for a chill Netflix night, even if that’s not what you wanted to begin with. 

Don’t be an idiot, Y/N, you think to yourself, walking to the kitchen to make some popcorn. You want something that no one can give you. 

As you make enough food for one, in your apartment big enough for one, you wonder just how much longer will you yearn for something that might not even exist. The Perfect Family is something that you’ve always wanted, ever since you were in middle school and your mom left; ever since you were in high school and your dad died; ever since you got to college and truly were completely alone. You had few friends, but you weren’t close enough to any of them to count on them when things got tough. But you always had the kids; you used to volunteer at a pre-school nearby and even when they’re small, kids are incredibly perceptive. They give love without expecting anything in return, and you love that. You love it so much you decided to become a pre-school teacher. 

The TV is playing but you can’t seem to process anything that’s happening, eyes focused on your phone in hopes of… what? A sign of life? A rejection? An excuse? Even you didn’t know. 

“Ah,” You sigh, pushing your hair back. “Forget it, Y/N, forget it.”

And then, right as you finally give up for good, your phone rings. 

Kim Yugyeom.

You scramble to pick up, not really caring about petty vengeance and making him wait. 

“Hello?” You sound airy and worried. 

“Y/N?” He calls, and you can hear the rain outside. “Thank god you picked up– can you open the door for me? I’m outside your building and there’s a code and it’s raining so hard.”

“You’re here?!” You shriek, running to the door, forgetting all about shoes, and running the three floors down the stairs, only to come face to face with a soaking wet Yugyeom. “Holy shit!”

He laughs, loudly, and waves through the glass door. You let him in, quickly pushing him to the stairs again, deciding it’s the fastest way, and into your apartment, where you shove him in the bathroom and gives him towels and your largest sweatpants and t-shirt. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” He chuckles, wet hands on your shoulder. “Calm down… I’m okay. It’s alright.”

“You’re going to get sick!” You frown. “Get out of those clothes, they are all– why are you wearing a suit?”

You finally notice everything you didn’t see before. His hands, pale white and shaking, but firmly holding onto what you assumed used to be a really beautiful flower bouquet, now only having a few flowers left; you notice his formal wear, his beautiful black suit and blue shirt; and you notice his smile, sad and embarrassed, eyes looking at you carefully.

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” He laughs humorlessly. “I even let everyone in the hospital know that I’d be busy and they are to call the other doctors in case of emergency… but I wasn’t counting on getting caught in the rain on my way over. These are all ruined, now, I’m sorry.”

He gives you the flowers and you cover your mouth, trying to hide your shock.  

“I’m sorry, Y/N,” Yugyeom sighs. “I seem to keep messing up when I’m with you. When I’m with you I feel like a child and I guess I just keep embarrassing myself further…”

“Well, you are the big baby,” You joke, looking at him whine and stomp his feet on the ground. “Thank you. For these. I doesn’t matter that they are all wet, or that you are all wet– what counts is the thought, and you had me in your mind all this time. Thank you.”

“That’s such a childlike response,” He mumbles, surely not for you to hear, but you do nonetheless. 

“Oh, really, Mr. I Feel Like A Child Next To You?” You squint. 

“That was supposed to be romantic!” 

“Stop whining and go take a shower,” You roll your eyes, sniffling a laugh. “I’ll go get something, but I’ll be right back.”

You run to and from the market, your umbrella barely holding on against the heavy rain. When you get back in your apartment, Yugyeom is sitting on the couch; the pants are too short and the t-shirt is too big, and you can’t help but giggle, thinking that he really does look like a kid. 

“Where did you go?” He follows you to the kitchen and you don’t answer, choosing to simply show him the packages of ramen, wiggling your brows. “Ah, you’re the best, Y/N!”

“Thank you, thank you.”

Cooking is fun; Yugyeom is right behind you, his front glued to your back and you are flustered– so flustered that you almost drop the boiling water all over yourself. After a worried lecture from Doctor Kim about being careful, he assumes the position of main chef and finishes making the simple ramen. As he is putting everything in the bowl, you decided to just fuck it and you allow yourself to circle his waist with your arms, hugging him to you. 

“Yah,” He says softly, putting both his hands over yours. “I need to finish here.”

“Just give me a minute,” You mumble, hiding your face in his back even though he can’t see you. “I’m happy.”

You feel him turn around. “Me too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” He smiles, grabbing your face and pulling it closer to his. “I like you.”

“I like you, too,” You giggle, blushing furiously. “Oh my god, we’re such children.”

“Makes sense,” He snorts. “We both spend all of our days with kids.”

“But we’re adults,” Your argue, getting on your tippy toes. 

“Thank god for that,” He smiles. “Now come here.”

He kisses you chastely, and you start to wonder just how innocent Yugyeom really is; but those thoughts soon vanish. He pulls you closer and that’s when he starts really kissing you; hie height overpowering you, body leaning over yours to get closer, as if that was possible. You are not sure how long you two make out for, but when you finally pull away, needing a pause to breath, the noodles are crumbling from how soggy they turned. 

“No!” You shout, pushing him away and moving to the food. “Our dinner…”

“We can order in,” He mumbles, pulling you back to him. “Now come back here.”

“Control yourself,” You look at him, avoiding his puckered lips. “You fooled me… you’re no child, you’re a horny teenager.”

“Are you serious?” He rests his head on top of yours, giving up and just hugging you. “You looked like you were enjoying it a lot, you know jus–”

You slap a hand over his mouth. “Stop it!”

“You’re so cute,” He pinches your cheeks. “Getting embarrassed with things like that!”

“You say as if you don’t get embarrassed,” You poke his nose and walk to the living room. “What should we order?”

“Sweet and sour pork?” He suggests, sitting next to you, and you nod excitingly. 

The rest of the night is a mix of kissing and talking. You learn all about Yugyeom hyungs and how close they all are, and in return, you tell him all about you; family, friends, past, present, and hopeful future. He nods and caresses your hand as you talk, and when you two fall asleep, once again in the couch, you feel happy and content. You feel safe.

                                                        ——————————————

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” You say, grabbing his hand and not letting him get out of the car.

“What do you mean?” He questions, smiling. “It’s the best idea.”

“Yugyeom, what if they hate me?” You whisper, looking at your boyfriend with wide eyes.

“… what?” He bursts out laughing. 

“I’m serious! What if they hate me? What if Minjae doesn’t like it? What if the other kids bully me?” You ramble on. 

“Y/N, these are just my friends,” He says, bringing your hand to his lips and giving it a kiss. “You don’t have to be nervous. They’ll love you. I mean, Youngjae and his wife already do.”

“Oh my god, oh my god, I’m so nervous,” You mumble to yourself, following him out of the car and inside the house.

“They’re here!”

You barely see her, but when Minjae jumps on you, you are ready to catch her instinctively. 

“Hi Ms. Y/N!” She shouts, arms around your neck.

“Hi, sweetie,” You smile, feeling yourself calm down. 

“I missed you!”

“We saw each other this morning,” You chuckle.

“Yeah, but now we can see each other more because you and Uncle Yugyeom are like mommy and daddy!” She says and you remember her previous words. “Can you sleep over? Can you babysit me? Can we play?”

She wiggles to be put down and grabs your hand, leading you through the house and introducing you to everyone. That’s Uncle Jaebeom and his wife, and that’s daddy and mommy, and that’s Uncle Bambam and his girlfriend, and that’s Uncle Jackson– his girlfriend couldn’t come because she is punching people.

“She’s a professional MMA fighter, Minjae-ah,” Jackson explains with a smile. “Not a gangster.”

“And this,” She tugs you to a tall man sitting next to a beautiful woman. “Is Uncle Mark! He’s my favorite, but I can share with you and he can be your favorite, too!”

“YAH!” 

You all look at Yugyeom, face red and frowning. 

“I’m her favorite!” He pouts. 

“Uncle Yugyeom,” Minjae sighs. “You’re such a big baby.”

They start to bicker and you smile, watching your boyfriend debating with a four-year-old, and thinking that you might have just found what you always wanted. 

This could be my family.

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

and this is the end of the general hospital series! I have to say, it’s a little bittersweet, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something even better for a next possible series ❤️ thank you to all of you who were with me on this journey >.< love you all and as always, let me know what you think! It means a lot!

[mcwriting]

The Marriage Project (1)

Omg I can’t believe it’s taken me THIS long to post this. I wrote this chapter probably in like April or May and it freaks me out to finally post but here it is!

My slow burn (American) High School AU with Tom Holland!

All the general info for this series is on the story masterlist, but I’ll list warnings and word counts on every chapter. Chapters will be much longer than my typical 2000 or less babies

Warnings: This will become a mature story in the future (no smut; more info on masterlist). Some profanity in this chapter

Word Count: 4140 (I told you!)

% approximately the 2nd week of August %

Ah, senior year. One last year of high school, one last year of seeing the people you’ve grown up with every day.

You’ve been told it’s easy. The best year ever. And yeah, maybe it will be. It’s not like you’re taking too many hard classes or overloading yourself with extracurriculars, aside from volleyball, soccer, the National Honors Society, and quiz bowl.

(Okay maybe it was a little much, but you loved it anyways)

The only real problem was the certified thorn in your side, Tom Holland. 

He’d essentially been your mortal enemy since the sixth grade when he beat your mile time by only a few seconds. 

Now, it’s not that he was a bully or anything, he was just so insufferable to be around. And yes, everyone always says boys pick on girls when they like them, but rest assured that wasn’t the case. You’d both always hated each other, nothing more. 

You were always competing, and because of that ended up in the same place a lot.

He was in all your honors classes, in NHS, played boys soccer, and did quiz bowl. The only thing you had to yourself was volleyball except, oh wait, his younger brother’s girlfriend was on the team and Tom was his ride home every day.

All these thoughts raced through your head as you walked in on the first day, sitting down in AP calculus as soon as you finished up at your locker. 

Everyone did the “how was your summer?” and “long time no see!” as students filed in. Eventually walked in Tom, and you shot each other a glare as he sat down right next to you.

“Holland.”

“Y/l/n.”

Everyone around you groaned. They all knew you two were forces to be reckoned with and probably dreaded spending another year listening to the two of you bicker everyday.

Though you were often in close proximity, you never really talked much, except to argue. Rarely did you agree unless it was on basic facts, and even then was it hard to admit sometimes.

Because of this, you typically resigned yourselves to only speaking when it came to grades so you could keep a mental tally of who was in the lead. You were both in the running for valedictorian at the end of the year, and you were not about to let Tom win.

%

The week was almost over and things had gone smoothly for the most part. 

Sure, you and Tom had had a couple of spats, but nothing that wasn’t handled quickly. 

He’d been to all of your volleyball games so far, even the summer ones, which meant he was forced to watch you dominate the court as both a setter and right side hitter.

It was a nice little satisfaction. 

Especially because you’d watched him throw some horrendous passes in the preseason football game last week that led to a loss by one touchdown. (Okay, he’d had some good passes too, but they were lucky shots).

You settled into your seat in senior home economics Friday before lunch. The class was your school’s attempt at teaching some life skills for rising adults. For the most part however, it was a glorified cooking and sewing class. You didn’t mind per say, since you could cook up a pre-snack lunch sometimes.

Most of your friends were in there, including your best friend Alexis, whom you hadn’t seen all morning.

You, Alexis, and two other girls stood around a mixing bowl with the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies since it was a Friday, which Mrs. Flynn called “dessert day.”

“Oh! Before I forget,” your teacher, Mrs. Flynn, started getting everyone’s attention. “This year we’re doing something new for this class! Next week I’ll have you all split into pairs for a semester long marriage project! I will be drawing names out of a hat, so don’t get too comfortable yet. Anyways, be thinking on what kinds of careers you might want and things of that nature! Okay, now get back to your desserts!”

The whole room broke out into chatter the last part of the hour-and-a-half class, people speculating who might end up with who and what jobs they’ll get.

“Oh my God, wouldn’t it be funny if y/n got Tom?” Alexis stated as you stirred chocolate chips into the dough. The other girls laughed as you just snorted.

“Yeah, I’d rather lick the inside of the microwave than be paired up with him for a semester,” you replied, earning more laughter from your friends.

You assumed Tom’s friends were saying the same however, because when you looked over to see how bad their dough looked, he was rolling his eyes as his group pointed in your direction.

%

The next week came and went, and it was once again Friday. Or, as Mrs. Flynn was calling it, Wedding Day.

Every time she’d pull a couple’s name, she was going to make you both come to the front of the class and exchange plastic wedding rings and sign a fake marriage license.

Yay.

Everyone chattered excitedly as she tore up the strips with your names and mixed them around. Finally the time came for her to start the drawing.

“Okay, friends. First up we have...” she drew the first name. “Katherine and... drumroll please?” 

The class drummed their hands over their thighs.

“Chris! Come on down folks, let’s get this marriage on!”

She “married” the first couple, and then continued to draw. You had to admit that you were a little nervous, but still eager to see who you’d get.

Two couples later, she pulled Tom’s name.

You shot him an eyebrow raise to which he returned a discreet middle finger. You rolled your eyes as you prepared a drumroll for Mrs. Flynn.

“And his lucky partner is... y/n!”

“What!” you both exclaimed simultaneously.

Almost the entire class burst into laughter.

“Mrs. Flynn, this has to be a mistake,” you said.

“Yeah, can’t we have a redraw?” Tom asked. 

You hated that he was agreeing with you.

“Nope! You get who you get and you don’t throw a fit! And if it doesn’t work out in a few weeks we can discuss divorce plans.”

“How about annulments,” you stated dryly, earning a chuckle from her.

“That… kinda depends on if you have kids,” she trailed awkwardly before perking back up. “Now come on down! They always say your first marriage is the most memorable!”

“Who has ever said that?” Tom asked.

“You know. They. Now just get up here and do the ring thing!” she commanded.

You both sulked up to the front of the room.

“Okay, now stand here facing each other and hold hands.”

“Do we have to?” Tom whined.

“Yes, now do it and it’ll be over with faster.”

He groaned, rolled his eyes, and grabbed your hands, holding them loosely.

“May I have the rings please!” Mrs. Flynn asked Caroline, the girl whose desk was closest that she’d asked to be designated ring bearer. She handed over the basket to let you both choose from the mix.

You took a silver colored ring with a faux white diamond in the shape of a star. Tom chose one with an oval “ruby.” You couldn’t help but notice how every single person was on edge watching the two of you.

“Okay now Tom, repeat after me. I, Tom Holland, take thee, y/n y/l/n, to be my wedded wife to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.”

He mumbled through the vow, avoiding eye contact, and slipped your star ring onto your finger. You were surprised at how gentle he was, carefully caressing your hand and making sure the ring faced straight up once it was on your finger.

You, too, said the lines and placed the ring onto his left hand.

“Alright. It is with the power vested in me by this very school that I am proud to now pronounce you husband and wife! You may now air kiss!”

You took a deep sigh and pretended to kiss each other's cheeks. 

“Class, I’d like to introduce you all to Mr. and Mrs. Holland!”

They began to cheer and clap and laugh when you interjected.

“Uh, no. It’s Mr. and Mrs. y/l/n.”

Tom began to argue with you when Mrs. Flynn stopped you both.

“Alright fine, we’ll do a combined name. How’s the y/l/n-Holland family sound?” she asked, writing your names on the fake marriage certificate.

With reluctance, Tom agreed to having your name first and you both signed the paper.

Finally you were able to sit back down where your friends were waiting.

“So what was that about licking the microwave?” Alexis asked.

“Oh shut up.”

%

After your volleyball game (another win!), you and Alexis conversed over cheese fries at your favorite diner.

“Still not ready to talk about today?” she asked. You shook your head.

Alexis had been paired up with Caroline. They were both straight, but you had both been friends with her since freshman year and they got along well.

Today had just been the marriages, and next week you’d be learning more about your family dynamics.

“I’m just so pissed at him. This afternoon in senior art he told all the guys in there that he was going to make it as hard as possible for me. I mean jokes on him, he’s going to want to get an A too, but he was just so smug about it. He also strung his stupid ring on that necklace he’s always wearing. What’s that all about?”

“I mean you’re still wearing your ring. But yeah, that is a little weird.”

“I’m wearing mine because compared to some of the others, the star is actually cute.”

“True. I got unlucky with the selection,” Alexis admitted, digging hers out of her purse to show you a big square blue gem.

“I just wish there was a way to get back at him after all these years. I mean, we’ve been at each other’s throats for almost six years but nothing has ever seemed to really hit hard. This is the last year I’ve got to really make it count.”

Alexis gave you a look, one you knew to be quite mischievous. 

“You know what’s the best way to get revenge on a guy?” Alexis asked.

“Uh, no, but by the look you’re giving me it seems to fall under Carrie Underwood ’before he cheats’ directive.”

“No, dumbass. You make his family fall in love with you.”

It took a second to process what she said before you could give a decent reply.

“You’re kidding right? His family already knows who I am because of all the stuff we’re in together. They probably also know about our rivalry. I mean, he’s told his brothers to never become friends with me.”

“And you know that, how?”

“The libero is Sam’s girlfriend. She’s been spilling tea for me for the past year.”

There was a break in the conversation as the waiter brought your meals out. Once he was gone, you spoke up again.

“Look, do you really think that would work? I mean sure I’d get under his skin, but it doesn’t really constitute revenge, does it?”

“Look at it this way,” Alexis put down her burger so she could splay her hands out in front of her. “If you can get on everyone else's good side, they’ll all talk about how much they love you and he’ll be forced to listen. If he really hates you, it’ll drive him crazy.”

You thought on it for a minute as you chomped on a chicken tender. 

“Alright, I’m in. If it doesn’t end up working, I still have all of next semester to mess with him anyways. Now if I can just figure out how to really get to know his family…”

%

By the time Monday rolled around, you and Alexis had done some more scheming, but your plan wouldn’t even begin to be put in action until your volleyball games Wednesday and Friday, when you’d try to talk to Sam.

You sat down in home ec, where today you’d be picking careers. The catch, however, was that your family unit would have a set income, so each couple had to decide how it would be split up.

“Y/l/n-Holland family, you’ll be making $200k a year,” Mrs. Flynn announced, handing you the slip of paper. “Get together and decide who’s getting what jobs.”

“At least we’ll be rich,” you thought as Tom plopped into the seat next to you unhappily.

“So I’ll be the doctor and you’ll be the trophy wife, right?” he asked immediately.

“Hah, good one. I think we all know that I’m the smarter one here and wayyyy more likely to get into med school than you. And don’t call me trophy wife. I mean, what, you think I’m hot now? Can’t wait to tell everyone that little number.”

His ears turned beet red and he balled a fist.

“I don’t think you’re hot, except maybe hot shit. It’s a figure of speech.” he spat.

“Oh get over yourself. I know I’m hot anyways. Let’s just both pick jobs that earn $100k so we can be equal. How’s that sound?” 

“Fine.”

He played with the plastic ring on his necklace as you looked up jobs on the computer. After a half hour of searching, Tom and you decided that to be fully equal, you’d both take the same job as physician’s assistants.

“Just so you know, I’ll never actually be anyone’s assistant,” he said.

“Oh yeah? Ten years time if you’re lucky I’ll hire you as mine.”

He rolled his eyes. 

“Hey everyone, since class is almost over, we’re gonna wait to draw how many kids you’ll have and other financial things Wednesday. See you then!” Mrs. Flynn called out as students packed their things.

“We have to have kids, too?” Tom asked incredulously.

“Good thing it’s fake. I’d hate to see you as a parent,” you shot smugly, earning another middle finger from him that left you laughing.

%

Wednesday came kids, and thankfully all you got were twin girls, age 9. The project didn’t make you carry around flour babies or anything like that, you just had to account for them in your weekly budgets. 

There goes the annulment plan, though.

Each week, Mrs. Flynn would be drawing something new for you all that would either be good or bad for your budgets, and it was up to you to figure out what to with the funding, or lack thereof. You also had to come up with a story each week that explained why money was put somewhere or what your “family” did that week. 

 She would also be doing progress checks, so you couldn’t wait until the end of the semester to do all the work. By the end, each couple would have to give a presentation over what they did and learned.

“Okay, so we each get to name one. That’s pretty equal,” you stated, thinking up baby names.

“Well I like Elizabeth,” he almost immediately replied, writing it down on one of the “birth certificates” you’d been handed by Mrs. Flynn.

“That’s… surprisingly good. I’ll go with Francesca. What about middle names? I like Rose.”

“Hm. How about Opal? Then they’ll have the same number of letters in their names.”

You were surprised at how much though he put into this, but let it go as you wrote your child’s name down.

“By the way, we need to plan time to get together and write a budget and find a house this weekend. I have a volleyball game Friday so how about Saturday?”

“I have football practice Saturday.”

“Well yeah but only until like 10 right? We could just meet at like 1. We’re doing construction at my house right now so could we do it at yours?” 

You spoke sweetly in an attempt to receive a yes and put your plan into motion. Tom sighed and thought about it.

“I mean I guess. But you’re only going to be there to work on the project and then leave right?”

“Uh, duh. The less time with you the better.”

“Likewise.”

%

Tom and Sam weren’t at the volleyball game Wednesday, so you had to wait until Friday’s.

Friday was muffin day in home ec, so you thankfully didn’t have to talk to Tom. Instead, you and Alexis discussed the plan of getting Tom’s family on your side as you mixed up batter.

Later that afternoon, you watched from afar as Sam and his girlfriend, Julia, sat on the bleachers speaking. It was still an hour until game time and coach had asked you to round up the girls for stretching.

“Hey, Jules!” you called, jogging over to where she was. “Oh, hey Sam!” He looked at you like you were crazy before responding.

“Uh, hey y/n.” He gave a slight head nod.

“Anyways, coach wants us to start warming up. Wanna be my partner today?” 

“Um yeah. Sure. See ya later babe,” she said, giving Sam a quick peck on the cheek before standing up to follow you.

After another win, you were helping take down the net and noticed Julia once again talking to Sam while Tom stood a few feet away looking bored. 

“Hey, could you wrap up the net? I need to do something real quick,” you said to another teammate as you headed over.

“Hey, Jules! Solid digs today! You were making my job way too easy,” you joked.

You could see from the corner of your eye Tom look up at you in annoyance.

“Ahaha thanks girl. But I can’t take all the credit. You were on fire tonight. What was that like 15 aces? And your hits? Incredible,” she replied.

“Yeah, you were amazing tonight,” Sam added. 

“Ohhhkay we can stop the compliment parade on y/n now. We need to go anyways, Sam, mom wants us home,” Tom interjected, putting an arm out in front of his brother, who was rolling his eyes.

“Alright fine. We still on for dinner tomorrow?” Sam asked his girlfriend. She nodded and they exchanged a quick hug and kiss.

“I’ll see you tomorrow too, Tom,” you said. “I’ll bring my laptop.” 

Sam looked at him in confusion.

“Yeah whatever,” was all Tom could say to you as you strutted off to the locker room.

%

You stood nervously on the front porch of Tom’s suburban home. You had texted him when you parked but now dreaded actually going inside. 

After shifting back and forth for a minute, you finally rang the doorbell. 

It was only a few seconds later that the door opened, revealing Sam’s twin Harry. He looked confused.

“Y/n? What are you doing here?” 

“Hey Harry. Tom and I are supposed to be working on a school project today and he said to come over at this time so...” You awkwardly shifted your backpack straps and looked down.

“Tom! Someone’s here to see you!” he yelled out, making you snort.

He appeared shirtless in the doorway and looked at you blankly.

“Oh. It’s just you.”

“Just me? What did you just forget that we have to work on our project today,” you replied, holding up your left hand to point to the plastic ring on it.

“You’re still wearing that? Why?”

“Firstly, the little star is cute. And secondly, you don’t have a lot of room to speak, Tom. Yours is still on your necklace,” you pointed to the chain around his neck, to which he instinctively reached up and grabbed the ring, twisting it between his fingers. 

“Touche. Now come on, let’s just get this over with.” He opened the door wider and let you in, locking it behind you. 

As he led you down a hall covered in photos towards the stairs, his mom stepped out, almost running into her son.

“Oh, sorry.” she looked at you, “Y/n? What are you doing here? It’s nice to see you.”

“Nice to see you too, Mrs. Holland. Tom and I have to work on our home ec project and we couldn’t do it at my house.”

“Oh dear just call me Nikki. And I do remember him mentioning something about a project. Are you the one he’s married to? I never thought I’d see the day.”

Tom tensed up and clenched his jaw while you gave a light chuckle, holding up your left hand again.

“I hate to say it, but yeah. You’ll probably be seeing a lot more of me throughout the semester.”

“Well you kids have fun. And Tom, honey, would it kill you to put on a shirt?”

He went red again and you had to stifle your laughter.

“I was just on my way to do that, mom. Come on y/n,” he mumbled, grabbing your wrist and dragging you up the stairs.

You turned and waved at Nikki one last time as she called up behind him,

“And make sure to keep the door open!”

He was totally embarrassed by that, and made it a point to shut the door behind him once you made it to his room. Finally you could let out a hearty laugh at his expense as he dug through his drawers and pulled out a simple black t-shirt.

“Finally. I was getting tired of looking at your man boobs,” you quipped, looking around the room.

“Ha ha. Good one,” he shot back dryly. 

You were surprised at what his room looked like, though you didn’t know what you’d expected. It was very neat with sleek grey walls. His blue and grey bedding was made up with decorative pillows laid out. On his desk were a few random school papers and a computer, and one shelf held some Spider-Man paraphernalia while another contained medals and ribbons and trophies. 

You dropped your backpack to the ground and pointed up at one figurine.

“Hey, that’s pretty cool,” you said sincerely.

“Yeah, I’m sure you think so,” he replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

“Uh, no. I’m serious. It’s actually really dope.” 

He looked taken aback at your compliment, and even to you it felt weird to be saying that out loud about Tom of all people.

“Oh. Well uh. Thanks. Spider-Man was my favorite growing up. But let’s just get to work.”

After an hour of sitting on his carpet searching for a house and arguing over general money allocations,

“Yes Tom, tampons actually cost like $7 for 30 of them and most girls need at least one box a month. And that’s just one factor of personal hygiene. Do you even condition your hair?”

“I’ll have you know my hair is well moisturized. I just don’t ever have to pay for it.”

You finally came to an agreement on the week’s budget. 

Packing up your things, you looked up at Tom who was now sitting on the side of his bed scrolling through social media.

“So next week. Your first game of the season, yeah?” you said, remembering that September was already almost here. 

“Oh yeah. You coming? I’d hate for you to see just how incredible I am.”

“Psh whatever. I saw your throws at preseason. But yeah, I’ll probably just rinse off after my volleyball game and head to the field. Gotta see what cuties they’ve got on the other team.”

“Ugh gross. You know you’ll regret saying that when half the school is swooning over me in the stands.”

“The only thing you’d ever see me swoon from is dehydration. And that’s a pretty weak excuse already.”

You stood and Tom got up to lead you back out.

“Oh, I think I know the way. You don’t have to take me.”

“Yeah I do. Gotta keep my eyes on those grubby little fingers of yours. Who knows what you’d do unsupervised.”

Before you reached the door, Nikki spotted you from the living room.

“Done so soon? Wow, good job guys. Come back any time y/n!”

“Thanks, Nikki,” you called back to her, then turned to Tom. “So same time next week? We can do it at my place if you want.”

“Nah let’s just do it here. I’m always exhausted the day after a game and I don’t really want to get up.”

Okay then

“Well, see ya Monday then. Bye.”

You were halfway down the sidewalk when Tom called out, “Be safe,” before shutting the door. You stopped in your tracks in shock, but eventually got into your car.

What really mattered, though, was that you were already on Nikki’s good side.

1 down, 4 to go.

%

Yay! It’s finished! I really hope you guys enjoy this new series because I’m so excited to share it with you all! Once again, future chapters will have some mature content (s*xual harassment and mentions of assault; underaged alcohol consumption) but those chapters will be explicitly labeled with warnings.

Anyways, thanks for reading and please send an ask or message if you’d like to join my story or permanent tag list!

Tag List: @jackiehollanderr, @one-big-fangirl,

[sweetchup]

Thanks for the last question! c: 💞 I Also love those two little spiders, they are just cinamon rolls; could you do some Hcs about that scenario? (Sorry, I don't know if I made the request in the right way, I'm a little stupid 😅💔)

“Family” Scenario General Headcanons

Oh you’re not stupid! Trust me I get confused all the time, you should see me during class. Here’s an example for future reference. Ex: Hello! Can I have a Headcanon about what the two sons from your Chrollo fanfic Family think of the troupe? Or Hi Do the boys from Family know that the reader isn’t their real mother?

Yay.... Perfect Family. Two Head spiders, Two itsy bitsy spiders and 12 Aunty and Uncle Leg Spiders that creates an amazing 16 person huge crazy family.

This will all seem super crazy to you. You had expected to be fighting for the boys from Chrollo grasps or, at the very least, forced to come up with some visiting plans to allow him to visit. But, this? The fact that you and your sons are now on the road with the troupe, the other members are now aunts and uncle spiders, Chrollo, your sister’s ex, is now your Husband and Chrollo is trying to get you pregnant.

It also didn’t help that you soon come to find out that Chrollo has been watching you all for 2 years before showing up. He even has pictures of moments of you and the boys such as them opening presents on Christmas and you all going trick or treating. Major creepy vibes. So, you basically wanna just get away with your sons from these psychos as quick as possible.

But, escape plans aren’t going to work out for you since Chrollo has full intentions on having you stay and making you fall in love with him.

So he comes up with a plan that has Kao and August each choose 6 uncles/aunty spiders to go train with and learn Nen off in the world. The boy’s first adventure! Yay... but that allows you two to be left all alone.

So, you’ll be forced to be locked in a room with only your basic needs. The fact you were chained to the bed made it easier for Chrollo to make love to you and isolate you until you experience harsh signs stolkhome syndrome.

Well....., that’s what you imagined he would do.

Chrollo actually wants your real affection, he knows stolkhome syndrome will likely take a small toll in making you fall in love with him but he wants to still try to make it as natural as possible. After all, he has spent the past 2 years watching you all from afar you all being a happy family. It makes his heart clench and his stomach turn every time he has to leave. But, he knew he had to wait. He had to wait until the troupe knew they could trust the new number 4 and 8.

So, while the boys are gone, Chrollo actually ends up taking you out on real dates, to intresting places and attempts to talk to you like an equal. The public would actually end up seeing you two as a michevious and bickering young married couple instead of the actual dark true side of the situation.

Chrollo isn’t in any rush on making you fall in love with him either. He has plenty of time. After all, learning Nen can take a long time, about 6 months to a year for the basics.

Though, even with all this nice things, this doesn’t mean Chrollo is still not a manipulative asshole. He still in charge of this relationship and has no intentions on stopping “making love to you”. He fully intends on getting you pregnant with his third child even if you aren’t in love with him at that moment. Such a doting husband...

Also don’t worry about Kao and August. He’ll take you monthly for a week to see the boys and Machi is doing regular check ups on them. He can’t have his family getting hurt or falling apart can he.

Truly, even if you didn’t like the fact of the boys hanging out with the troupe. You couldn’t deny it was cute watching them interact with the boys. Especially when it came to August trying to play fight Uncle Uvogin or watch Kao sit and play video games on Uncle Shalnark’s lap.

Soon, no matter how much you didn’t want to, you eventually warm up to these psychopaths in about 6 months. You even realize you have felled hard for Mr. Edgelord himself, Chrollo. But, being so stubborn, you fully intended on not wanting to show it. You wouldn’t give up so easily.

Well... not exactly.

It was an early Sunday morning and you were sitting against the old cobblestone wall of the current hideout. The reason you were currently sitting against the cold ground was because you were carefully and slowly attempting to fix Kao’s favorite scarf. It had gotten ripped during his training with Feitan and Phinks so you were trying to get it fixed so he would no longer pout or glare at the two. It was honestly scary seeing Kao so unusually upset.

“Mommy! Mommy! Can me and Kao have Pizza for dinner tonight?” August yells as he and his brother come running over from their play spot. Stopping and looking up at the boys, you sigh. Pizza, again?

“Well, let’s check with your father, okay?”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure the boss finds it okay, (y/n)” Nobunaga chimes in from afar, yawning and stretching from his spot on a tilted pillar. Of course nobu chimes in on this, Pizza is one of his favorite too.

“Well, this is the third time this week the boys have had pizza, Nobunaga. Too much isn’t good.” Franklin says, weighing the options. Thank goodness you have members like Franklin and Pakunoda who think of the logical side of things instead of giving the boys whatever they want. You were honestly worried they were getting too spoil from their aunts and uncles.

“Aww but Uncle Franklin! it’s so gooooood~~” August exaggerates, stretching his arms as far as he could to show that its super good.

Small chuckling and giggles echo around the room from the troupe at the boy’s silliness. You really wished you could give it to them but you really knew it wouldn’t be good for them.

“No buts August. And Kao, don’t huff. I’m sure you remember all the stomach aches you’ve had from not eating the right foods.”

Kao blinks rapidly and looks worried at his stomach. Kao has always had a very sensitive stomach that causes him a lot of pain. At first you thought maybe he had something like a gluten or dairy allergy but, after taking him to the doctors, it was just he had a weird stomach. Kao was actually really good on staying away from the things that upset his stomach but, he hasn’t exactly learn that he shouldn’t be eating too much or too often of greasy food like pizza.

You pat your son’s head, giving him reassurance. “Don’t worry Kao. I’ll find something else you’ll eat if you are worried.”

Kao seemed happy by that answer as he huffs and wormed his way into your lap. You giggle at him, you have such a silly boy for a son. As soon as determined Kao is comfy, you go back to sewing his blanket.

“Mommmm can I please have pizza? Pretty please with a shiny on top?!”

You just shake your head and let out a small laugh. Stubborn August wants what he wants and he’ll contunie to try until he somehow gets it. Though thankfully he isn’t too greedy and you can usually pick out what he’ll want next.

Not looking up from your stitching, you yell for the twin’s father. He’s been sitting on his perch and not doing anything all day so let’s have him deal with this. “Chrollo!”

“Yes? What do you need, my loving wife?”

You snort and shake your head. He’s still at it with that ridiculous nickname. The twins always gag and groan at Chrollo’s yucky nicknames for you. Though, you can’t help but feel your face heat up at them.

“August wants Pizza for dinner.”

You hear Chrollo close his book “Only him? Isn’t this the third time this week too?”

“Well, I really don’t want Kao to eat pizza again this week due to his sensitive stomach. August is fine but, you know, it...”

Chrollo finishes for you. “...it doesn’t mean it’s healthy.”

“Exactly.”

“Well I agree with you on that. I think August should eat something else for dinner tonight.”

“Aww but dad!”

“August.” You warned, playfully glaring up at him. “There’s many different things for you to eat. I’m sure there’s something else you’ve really wanted to try?”

It’s silent for a moment in the abandon building as August thinks. He pokes his chin, a habit he does when he can’t remember or pronounce the name of something.

“Buuu... Bugoli? Bowlgoog....”

You allow him to try it out for a couple of times to see if he can get it. It’s better for him to try and figure it out by himself since it helps him learn and grow. Though, sometimes you do have to help him. No one gets it right all the time.

“Bulgolgi?”

“Yeah! Bulgogi! Bulgogi.... Bulgogi” August says it a couple of times to taste the new word. Probably trying to remember it for next time.

“Well then. I’m sure Feitan knows some really nice places and recipes around here for it.” You look over to Feitan for confirmation and he nods. You smile and give a small thank you before looking down at your other son. “Does Bulgogi sound good for you too, Kao?”

Kao blinks twice telling you a “yes”.

“Well that settles it then. Bulgogi it is.”

“Yay! Bulgogi!”

August runs off outside chanting Bulgogi. Kao wanting to go follow him, slips out of your lap and claps to his chant. The air in the room gets a lot more happier at the boys’ extra silliness and the other troupe members laugh and follow them outside as well. Wanting to see and play with the crazy itsy bitsy spiders.

You sigh at the boys’ antics but still go to stand up to join the others. Though, you notice something unusual. Chrollo wasn’t joining? This isn’t like him. He usually wants to see everything his itsy bitsy spiders are up to and will even sometimes join in on the fun.

“Chrollo?” You softly call out to the man up above and facing away from you. He turns his head at your call and looks down at you, waiting for you to continue. “You coming?”

“Ah yes I am. Were you—“

Chrollo cuts himself off with a hiss as he attempts to stand up. He’s able to move his body to a standing position but, unable to keep it any longer, he soon falls back down in pain.

You stood there in shock. Chrollo was injured? That’s never happened before. Well, atleast not anything major. What happened? Was he okay? Of course he’s not okay, he—

You cut your own thoughts off as you realize Chrollo was attempting to get up again. Quickly, you climb up the broken rumble to get to the higher area to stop him.

Finally, you reach him and grab onto his shoulders to get him to stop. “Hey. Shhh it’s okay. Here, just lean against me.”

Your coos and soft voice seem to work as you are able to make Chrollo lean against you. His back pressed against your chest and both of your pairs of legs tangled, as he heaves.

Slowly, you put a hand up to his forehead. It wasn’t that hot nor cold so he wasn’t running any sort of fever or chills.

“Hey. What’s wrong? What happened.”

“N-nothing. I’m fine.”

“You don’t look or sound fine, Chrollo. Did you get injured yesterday? I heard that was a pretty bad mission.”

It’s quiet as Chrollo doesn’t bother to answer you. For such a logical and bright leader man, he’s unusually very stubborn. You wonder if that’s where August gets it from. But, you need to find out what happened. If he can hardly stand that could possible mean he has something really wrong with his back or, worse, Spine.

“Chrollo. Can you please tell me what’s wrong?”

It’s silent again as you finish. Chrollo doesn’t bother to answer again. Letting out a soft sigh, you lay your chin on top of his head.

“Pleassssseeeee Chrooooooolllloooo.” You whine, making sure to specially exaggerate his name.

Chrollo doesn’t answer again. But, you wonder if he atleast has a small smile on his face. Actually, maybe trying to get him to ease up will be the best way to get him to talk to you.

“Chrrrrrrollllloooo Luuuuuuccilllllfferrrrr!” You whine causing your weird tone of voice to echo off the walls.

Nothing again. You guess you have to step it up a notch.

Bring up your hand you lightly knock on the side of Chrollo’s nogin. “Youuu whooo? Anybody home?”

No response but you, at the very least, get a small chuckle from him. Man, he’s so stubborn. Stubborn. Stubborn!! He’s glad you’re in a silly mood today or you would have just chose to smack him already.

“Hmmmmmmmm.”

You knit your brows in consentration. You were trying to think of a way to step it up from here to make him crack. But, how... what would get him to talk no matter what.

Oh! You could always...

Your face heats up at your train of thought. Was it really the best idea to finally admit your feelings for him? You honestly didn’t think so. Though, there were no reprocrusions for doing so.

“Awwww. Chrollo ain’t home. I really wanted to tell him something!”

Chrollo doesn’t do anything but you know, from experience, that he was definetly curious and was thinking intently on what you possibly wanted to say.

“Welp, I guess I’ll leave a message then. Dear, Chrollo Lucilfer.” You change to bubble voice as if you were writing a letter. “I wanna let you know that...”

You take a gulp due to you being nervous about what you were about to say next.

“... I love you. I really do and I’m not saying that to get you to talk. Or to get you to—“

You cut yourself off as Chrollo moves his head and presses a kiss to your neck. It wasn’t sexual. You could tell he kissed your neck, of all places, because he couldn’t reach to kiss your lips or cheek.

Slowly and Carefully, You move so you two were now face to face. You breath hitches as Chrollo puts his forehead against yours.

“Say it again. Tell me that my darling wife loves me.”

“I love you, Chrollo. I love you with all my heart.”

Finally, Chrollo impatiently leans in to capture your lips with his. You could tell based on the pure passion and need of the kiss that he had been waiting so long for this moment. The moment you would finally tell him you were actually his.

You two slowly pull away, not wanting to stop, but having to due to a stupid thing known as air. Your heart flutters at his next words and the small smile on his face.

“I love you too, (y/n).”

Flustered and face beat red, you attempt to hide your face in the fur of his jacket. You couldn’t help but finally get flustered at all this lovey dovey and fluffy stuff.

“Don’t tell me your embarrassed by just 5 words. I’m sure you remember the worse things we’ve done together?”

Never mind. Moment officially ruined. Damn it...., why did you have to fall for him again?

“Well, you still have to answer my question Chrollo. What happened?”

“You are doing the same as me. You avoided answering mine.”

“No, That isn’t even a question.”

“Sure it is. Not everything has to be answered in what, who, where, ho—“

“Please don’t go off on another rant.”

“Just admit that I’m in the right, my wife, and I won’t try to continue.”

“Right about what? The fact you don’t have to tell me you are in pain?”

“Not exactly. But, you have to follow what I, your husband, says. It’s in your best interests after all.”

“Yeah right. Exactly when has that actually happened?”

“Well, My suggestion of using a plug to keep my semen in has proven very effective so far. We are going to the doctors tomorrow after all to check if you are pregnant. It also was very helpful —“

“Chrolloooooo! Stop rambling!”

[razorblade180]

interdimensional Dads 4

Jaune:Who’s Next?

Jaune:Pick a number from one to a thousand.

Jaune:Since you married Yang it’s either 69

Jaune:Or 420, but because it you I’m gonna with 7

Jaune:Purple gets to go.

Jaune:....Oh did you- oh I see. That’s stupid. I like how he got the answer but it’s stupid.

Jaune:Hate to break it to you all but I can already tell that I’m probably the least interesting here. My Remnant doesn’t have anything crazy going on.

Jaune: Lucky you. We just wanna relax.

Jaune:Hehe, anyways I started dating Blake when we were at Beacon. Well I guess technically we didn’t date but we went on a lot of dates because we liked similar things. Music, tea, some books.

Jaune:Filth!

Jaune:*red* It’s been called that, yes. It’s something nice to bond over.

Jaune:Bond over, or bind over?

Jaune:I’m surprised you didn’t say bondage over.

Jaune:So scandalous. How grown of you.

Jaune:What would your dear parents think? Oh the shock!

Jaune:Why am I the one getting picked on!? You guys would literally find a similar interest in it!

Jaune:We know, it’s just funny seeing you red. Please continue.

Jaune:I can’t imagine the trip around the world was dramatically different. Reuniting with Blake was super comforting. We finally started officially dating after she scared me half to death at Argus. After beating Salem I decided to go with her back home after visiting my folks. Her parents were stunned to see yet another blonde-

Jaune:Sun or Yang?

Jaune:Both...you see, they new Sun for obvious reasons. Yang was a little more....how to put it?

Jaune:....She was in love with her too, wasn’t she?

A strange feeling of guilt and sadness filled the air.

Jaune:Yang and Blake were always pretty close, more so than with me in certain aspects. They were partners so of course it would be like amd with all the stuff that happened between them since Beacon, Yang falling in love with her was so easy to see. It wasn’t like it was one sided either, but those aspects, the knitty gritty hardships they shared? Sometimes sharing all that history makes it hard to have a normal relationship. So Yang took it pretty rough when we officially got together.

Jaune:That must’ve been a rough pill to swallow.

Jaune:It definitely was awkward at first l and a little bit of animosity. But eventually overtime it got better, until it didn’t... Blake and I had a kid. Our quiet little Lucas. Yang never out right said anything but having him and seeing us, me have a life with Blake brought sadness along with whatever happiness she did have for us. So she barely visits; she’s still kind when does though but it’s hard not to see that she would rather be somewhere else.

Jaune:Damn that’s....that’s rough. I couldn’t imagine my life without Yang. She’s practically my best friend at this point; always there to pick me up.

Jaune:Yeah she’s been a real life saver for me too.

Jaune:She’s my wife so it goes without saying that a world where she doesn’t want to be around me or Blake for that matter is pretty crazy. Do you at least have Ruby, Weiss, Ren and Nora?

Jaune:Yeah they’re around doing their own thing and we take turns visiting. Ruby tried to act like a bridge between us and Yang and it works for the most part. It’s rough but not as rough as it sounds. But any who, I guess I should talk about Lucas now.

Jaune:Before that, I couldn’t help but notice that you sound a little more...proper than the rest of us.

Jaune:*red* I’m always running into some important faunus that meets with Blake about equal rights stuff. It’s very weird being the only human around sometimes so I try extra hard not to say anything dumb. Don’t you have to meet with wealthy people a bunch?

Jaune:Yeah. They no better than to give me a hard time, or Weiss will kill them. They are very aware of the name ice queen.

Jaune:Ah.....Weiss. *smiles*

Jaune:So joe is your kid? I bet he’s as driven as his mother!

Jaune:*puts head on table* That boy has zero motivation! If you don’t bother him then he’ll lay around all day and sleep like a....well like a cat!

Jaune:Yikes...

Jaune:To be fair, I understand why. His semblance shows him various glimpses of the future that he’s never been able to complete control. Sometimes it activates without warning so it’s not uncommon for him to know something coming up. Poor guy can’t even finish a book sometimes without seeing his future self reading the ending.

Jaune:No wonder he has not motivation. The spice of life is being spoiled for him!

Jaune:Lucas is such a bright kid, a little bit awkward at times but he’s kind too. It’s a real bummer to see him in this constant slump. It’s not small things that get spot either. There are times he’s seen accidents happen and could do nothing to stop it, or the vision was so vague he didn’t know what was going on until it was too late. The world becomes pretty anxiety inducing if all you see is potential accidents.

Jaune:Potential?

Jaune:Yeah, it’s possible to avoid his visions. They aren’t set in stone by any means. He’s seen me beat him up in sparring and then didn’t show up. He’s walked out into the ocean before out of nowhere and speared a barracuda that he says “would’ve been bothersome later.” A family went swimming later on in that area. Still wish he went outside just to smell the roses though.

Jaune:Sounds frustrating, I feel for him. I don’t think my mind could function.

Jaune: I don’t think his is if he’s becoming a shut in. Maybe therapy or something? What does Blake think about all of this?

Jaune:Blake can convince him more than I can to move around more consistently. She’s always checking in out of nowhere and making sure both of us are doing well. This girl video chatted one time just to see if anything done anything fun, then forced us to find something fun to do if we haven’t. She knows if we’re left alone then we start stewing in our own thoughts way too much.

Jaune:That’s actually really sweet.

Jaune:I know! I can’t believe that’s my wife! We call her to make sure she takes a break from work or else she’ll work through lunch. We are basically tripping and picking each other up, it’s such a weird mess hehehe. That’s family though. It gets a little tense but nothing we can’t handle. Especially Lucas, I got a feeling his slump is about to turn into a rollercoaster.

Jaune:What makes you say that?

Jaune:Well....

xxxx

On a sunny day in menagerie a beautiful young girl looks up at the sky with complete serenity and wonder. It’s so blue, so simple, yet so fulfilling.

“You ever look at the sky and just wish you could touch it?” Her gaze drops to in front of her to see a very unamused Lucas.

“No, no I don’t.”

“That’s too bad. Are you more of a deep blue see guy or...”

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to know my bodyguard.”

“Still not your bodyguard.” He groaned. “Can you focus on not moving. I have three shots at this.”

“I bet you’ll get it right first try, no pressure.”

Lucas’s eye twitched as the girl gave him a big smile in her frayed harness, fifty feet from the ground. The boy angled his feet on the unsecured steel beam just enough to distribute his weight evenly.

“You and I have very different viewpoints on tense situations...” He slowly leaned forward with his hands stretched out. “Grab my hands at the same time.”

“Is it bad I wanna know what happens if I don’t?”

Her question was meant with stressful silence and anxious looks that only made her smile. “Just kidding, I can’t grab your hands at the same time when they’re trembling. Lighten up a little.”

“You do know this is your life right now?”

“Yeah I know. Hey, you single?”

That came out of nowhere. He folded his ears, flustered and confused. “What does that have to do with-”

The girl suddenly grabbed his hands. “Boom, you stopped trembling. That’s what I call team-” the harness snapped. The feeling of complete weightlessness took her for a moment before gravity came to pull her down. It was in that second Lucas yanked her close, her body in his arms.

He slowly slid backwards onto sturdy ground and then felt a strong breeze that was more than enough to sever the beam from the rest. The girl gasped.

“The workers!”

“Don’t worry.” He looked over the edge to see all of them far away and the beam falling right into their massive pile of dirt he told them to put down. Lucas let out a long sigh before looking at the girl.

She raised her eyebrow. “You haven’t answered my question yet.”

He groaned again. Go for a walk they said. It would do you some good they said. Now I’m dealing with this.

“I’m single.”

“Cool, I’m not.” She giggled.

“.....” He slowly nodded. “I should drop you.”

“But you won’t.”

“Sadly....”

Part 3

[btsmakesmehappy]

Broken vase | 2

Genre: Enemies to Lovers, Angst, Fluff, possible light smut in the future

Pairing: Agent!Namjoon x Agent!reader

Rating: 18+ (Mature Content)

Word Count: 5,7k

Warning: Public display of affection, murder threat, traumatic experience

Summary: You are one of the best agents in the Company, and so do Namjoon. After your last mission with him, you hate him and so do Namjoon. Suddenly, you assigned again with him as a married couple. How can you handle the mission, Kim Namjoon, and your emotional wound?

Chapter: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4  completed

Series Masterlist: The Company

a/n: Basically I had zero idea about how agents work. So I apologize for missing any crucial thing. I wanted them to focus to the mission, but I want them to kiss and jump on each other more. So If you thought, “Why don’t they spying the Lee couple better? Why they’re always distracted?”. Well to my excuse, let’s just think that Tae and Yoongi as their Hawaii sidekicks do the spying job and Jung couple just literally be on cover, laughing and talking with no other specific jobs to do. To this, I apologize. Thank you for reading this!

Taglist: @kb-bangtanenthusiast​, @w0lfqu33n​

       You fell asleep after you told Namjoon what happened to you. Maybe Namjoon hates you, but you’re his partner and he knows you needed that rest. He called Jin and Yoongi and filled in the situation that arose. He also told Jin about college friends of Minister Lee which you mentioned before you fell asleep. At first, he’s mad because you didn’t tell him a crucial clue sooner, but he will let it go, there should be no more fighting between you two. You both should realize that now you are working together, that you should tell each other everything regarding this case.

He has been listening to the headphone for several hours now. The couple’s room was silent, meaning they both have already fallen asleep. He put the headphone on the desk, and stretched his body. He walked to the bed and sat beside your sleeping body. He watched as you breathed slowly. He never watched you this close before, usually, you sensed it so fast and you walked away or even chewed him out. But now, he could see your long lashes, your pinkish lips, the shades of your cheeks, and even a scar on your forehead. Where did you get that?

He remembers how soft is your lips when you kissed him on the plane. The kiss was sudden and light, but he couldn’t help but notice how the kiss made his heart thumping inside his chest. How you affected him. He shook his head softly, maybe it because he hasn’t done fieldwork for a long time, yet been in cover. These last 5 years, mostly he has worked from the office, trained recruits, and lead operations.

Maybe I am nervous about this mission.

        He then covered your body with a blanket and then walked to the bathroom to wash his face, to wake himself up. He has already gulped cups of coffee but he still feels tired. He sat on the sofa. His mind wandering, why you’re attacked? Did they know that you are an agent? Did our cover blow? It has been less than 24 hours and you barely did anything. It’s impossible. Or did someone misidentify you as Minister Lee’s wife because you changed your room? Does that mean this threat is done by someone amateur? Or maybe it is just a random crime? He sighed in frustration. The threat itself has no clue whatsoever, now someone is targetting you? It’s getting more complicated.

           As morning came, Namjoon shook your feet slowly to wake you up. You stirred in your sleep and opened your eyes slowly. “Come on, y/n, we need to get breakfast and join the tour.” Namjoon has already ready to go, he wore a red t-shirt which accentuates his hard chests and denim shorts. He looks hot in casual attire and you almost wanted to jump on him while you’re this half asleep. Fortunately for you, you gained your senses to realize that the man before you is your job partner.

           You walked lazily to the bathroom, your neck’s still has a throbbing pain and your head still hurt. You brushed your teeth and picked your clothes for today. You’re not in the mood of something girly, you just wanted to stay as comfortable as possible. You searched your baggage to find anything like a t-shirt and hot pants, only to find dresses. You wanted to yell at Jimin for preparing unnecessary things. You finally decided to put on the simplest dress you found. You tried to zipper your dress up, but your neck’s killing you and you couldn’t reach your zipper properly. Hesitantly, you called for Namjoon. “Namjoon-ah, could you please help me?”

           He sat on the sofa. He was texting on his phone when you asked him. He grumbled silently and looked up to you. When he found you with your exposed back before him, he gulped silently. He was pulling your zipper you up as his eyes lingered to your neck, looking at your small bruise. “Luckily for you, it looks just like a hickey.”

           Your cheeks stained red shade as you touched your neck sheepishly. You laughed dryly. You then sling your bag around your shoulder and walked to the door.

            His hand grasped your wrist softly. “Are you really okay? Can you continue?” His eyebrows knitted in worry.

           You smiled and nodded. “I am okay. It is kinda hurt a little but I think I can hold it. Don’t worry, I will not let this ruin our job.”

           “That’s not what I me-.” He sighed and released your wrist. “If you said so.”

       You sat through the breakfast in silence. Sometimes glanced at the couple across you. You then texted Yoongi to let him now that you’re in the post.

“So how do you know Yoongi?” Namjoon asked while trying to chew his bread.

“Well, we worked in the same mission 2 years ago, also with Tae, here in Hawaii. They were a big help.” You laughed dryly, remembering the past.

“So they’re like Jin and Jimin in Hawaii then?

“Yes and no. They were before. But now, they aren’t. Yoongi lived here now but Taehyung is on his leave. They can do the fieldwork, but also handling agents, but they assigned to none. They’re like freelance agents. I think it’s a good job though. Sometimes it can be boring, stucked in the office like Jimin and Jin. Don’t you think?” you shrugged.

“I know what are you saying. But that boring work has stability you know? Don’t you think stability is important when you took a job?” He asked curiously.

You laughed loudly which made Namjoon stared to you to quieten. “Sorry, but you haven’t change for a bit, really! Yes, stability is important, but it is important to have a fun job too! And besides, if I want to have a stable job, I would never take this job in the first place.”

“I can’t understand you.”

You snorted. “Since when have you understood me at all? We’ve known each other for almost 10 years, yet you never understand me. Oh right, so what does Jin say about that friend?”

“Well, he found some names, but they’re not in Hawaii at the moment. And Jin also tracks Lee’s email, messages, and calls but they haven’t been in contact for a while.” He then put his hands across his chest. “We believed that they’re all clean. I personally think it’s nothing.”

“So we back to square one.”

“I’m afraid so. Oh right, Yoongi said that he will follow us later if we need backup.”

“Alright.” You fiddled your dress and sighed. “And Namjoon? About that friend thing, I am sorry not to tell you in the first place. I thought I can search it by myself first before I tell you.”

Namjoon smiled softly, “That’s okay. We haven’t worked together for a long time. Just promise me to tell me everything now. We shouldn’t keep work individually. And as harder as this mission already is, I don’t want to make it more difficult. So that’s why I also appreciate it if we try to be as friendly as possible by not fighting anymore.” He reached out his hand to you, waiting for you to take it.

You took his hand in yours. “Yeah I think you right.” You then pull him up and gestured him to walk with you. “Let’s go to the tour then.” He released your hand to put his hand behind your waist and pulled your closer to him as he walked beside you to the lobby.

You saw Dahee waving to you from the distance. “Nara-ssi! Good morning. It looks like you have a good night together.” She smiled playfully. “Are you joining the tour?” She then gestured to you to sat beside her.

           “Good Morning, Dahee-ssi. Yes, you too?” You and Namjoon joined them sitting in the lobby. “But, I thought you and your husband have been to Hawaii several times. Why do you join the tour then?”

           “Yeah we did! We go to Hawaii like every 2 years, but we keep joining this tour.” Her voice quietened, “I wanted to go alone, you know. We literally know every road here. But my husband there just so lazy to drive or take a bus.”She laughed.

           You shared a glance with Namjoon. It’s not that weird considering there also other people who joined the same tour more than once. Besides, you could see Myunsoo’s face lightened in excitement when he read the tour’s pamphlets.

           “Alrighty! Are you Mr. And Mrs. Jung? Aloha! I am James! I am going to be your guide on this tour.” A man in his early twenties with black hair and Hawaiian shirt reached out for your hand to shake yours. Both of you stood up to greet the man.

Namjoon interrupted your hand, and with his other hand he pulled you closer possessively. “Hi, I am Mr.Jung, and this is my wife. Please take care of us.”

He smiled as he handing you the pamphlet. “This is the pamphlet for this tour, any information you need is written there, and if you have any questions, just ask!” James then walked away to give the pamphlets to the other couple.

You were busy reading the pamphlet, unbeknownst to you, James’ eyes trained to you several times and Namjoon caught him red-handed. The way the other man looking at you, his wife, was making him uncomfortable. Namjoon might not be as instinctual as you, but James seems suspicious. Like why he looked at a man’s wife in the first place?

He then looked at you beside him, still has zero clues about the situation. That’s another weakness of you, you trust people so much. Like last night, when you helped the pregnant lady and now, this unknown man. He sighed. What are you doing to him? You are an agent, a skillful one, but you always make him worry. Why are you always on his mind?

Namjoon pulled you into his arms, snuggling his head into your neck. That action startled you for a bit. You then put your hand around his waist, pulling him closer. You could smell his cologne, he smelled earthy, warm, and sweet. It’s comfortable. You looked up to his face, “What are you thinking?” You smiled.

“Nothing. Just.. don’t ever leave me, okay?” he begged. 

You’re taken aback with his statement. The hug felt real, you’re not gonna lie. And how his deep voice begged you, it’s making your stomach fluttered. Your heart beat faster as he snuggled deeper and grazed his lips lightly in the crook of your neck. You could hear his beating heart in your ears. Your mind went blank and the only thing you want to do was hug him back tightly. You must be going crazy. 

You then took his face gently in your hands. “You are weird, you know that?” You giggled and then you pressed your lips to his. He returned your kiss slowly, molding your lips together. It is your second kiss, but somehow it felt different from the one you shared on the plane. It is more intimate. It is more desperate.

You released each other when you heard all of the tour guests stood up and walked to the bus in front of the lobby. Namjoon then interlocked his fingers with yours as you both walked to the bus. He dragged you to the seats in the back, just two seats behind Myunsoo and Dahee. There weren’t many people who joined this tour, only 4 more couples excluding yours and Dahee’s. Because this was an exclusive tour, those couples have already booked the tour for some time, and the company already checked their background, and they’re nothing to worry about. Except for the tour guide.

Namjoon remembered correctly, that the tour guide should be a woman named Tiffany whom he’s already checked before. Why does the tour guide change? He then pulled his phone to text Jin.

  09.38 am NJ: background check of the tour guide, pls. –NJ

09.38 am SJ: k.

  “Who are you texting?” you asked him warily.

He then showed the screen of his phone and you nodded. Then your phone vibrated and you slide it to unlock it.

  09.39 am JM: u k?

09.39 am You: im k.

  “Jimin?” Namjoon asked. You nodded as you felt your phone vibrate again.

  09.40 am JM: how is the kiss? Lmao

  Your face went redder. You impulsively hide your screen from Namjoon as you write to Jimin back. Damn, it had to be Yoongi who told him.

  09.41 am You: OOT! Fuck u. Gotta go!

         Suddenly there’s mic feedback followed by James’ voice. “Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii tour! We will be headed first to Queen’s Marketplace. The journey will take about 45 minutes.” James then walked through the small aisle to give bottled drinks to everyone. “And it is a complimentary drink for you.”

You took it with a smile. It’s just bottled juice with the tour company’s sticker stuck on it. When you wanted to open the bottle to drink it, Namjoon stopped you. “Please don’t drink from an unknown source.” He looked at you with knitted brows. “Did you forget what happened yesterday? We need to be more careful.”

You gulped at his remarks. Why were you so careless? You have worked for a long time, but why did you turn like a teenager on a field trip? Was it because you with Namjoon? Was it because of Hawaii?

You straightened your back as you looked at the scenery outside the window. Namjoon rested his head on your shoulder, sleeping soundly. He looks tired. You thought. Well, Namjoon did stay awake for a whole night while you’re sleeping. You pinched your cheek lightly. This is a mission, get a hold of yourself, Y/n! You can’t keep making trouble and making it hard for him. 

45 minutes later, the bus finally stopped at the parking lot. “Alright people, you get 2-hours of shopping here. We will meet on this bus at 01.30 pm. Please don’t be late because we are on a tight schedule!” James said. All of the couples stood from their seats and ready to go. You woke Namjoon up by shaking his thighs and you grabbed his hand to leave the bus. You should do your job by following Dahee and his husband.

You’ve been walking around for some time. Grabbed a cup of coffee, while looking for Dahee from the distance. They’ve been shopping since the time they step on the marketplace. The weather’s sunny and hot, and you didn’t know if you regretted that you didn’t wear sunblock, or felt grateful because your skin wouldn’t be sticky. Suddenly, Namjoon stopped. He looked confused as he searched his pocket. “I think I lost my phone.”

“What? Really? Do you remember where is the last time you use it?” you asked. He thought hard but shook his head. He’s one of the best agents in The Company, but yet sometimes, you forget how clumsy he was. So rather than getting mad at him for lost a thing, it’s just faster to just look for it. “Alright, you go to the cafe and I will check the bus okay? Let’s meet in 10 minutes in this place.” You both then ran in separate ways.

After a few minutes running, you arrived at the parking lot, wandering in front of identical buses. After you’re sure which one is your bus, you knocked on the door and talked to the driver. “Excuse me, I think I left my phone there, can I check it?”

“Oh sure miss. Do you need help?” The driver is still young, probably in the mid-thirties He was smiling as he opened the door.

You shook your head. “I believe I don’t, Thank you. I will just look for it in my seat.” You hopped on the bus and walked to your seats before.

“Okay then. If you need any help I will be just outside the bus to take a call.” The driver then stepped out from the bus, leaving you alone.

There you found in between your seats, a purple flip phone. You took it and put it inside your bag. As you walked, you looked to other couple’s seats and finally, James’s seat. Your eyes glanced at the door, seeing that the driver’s still outside the bus. You then opened his backpack quickly. You found only travel books, a camera, a notebook, and a water bottle in the main compartment. You patted the back of the bag and found something hard inside. You noticed there’s a small opening on the side seam. When you reached your finger inside and you felt something tubular. You pulled it out and your eyes widened. It is a syringe. And there’s liquid in it.

Does he use it for medication? If he does, why he hid it on his back? Or..  you gulped. Did he drug someone with this? Carefully you put the syringe to your bag, and placed the backpack like before. You then walked back to Minister Lee and Dahee’s seats. You carefully examined the bottled juice, smelling it, and opening every sticker attached to it. Luckily for you, they’re easily removed, meaning that they’re attached just now. But after removing every sticker, you found no opening or whatsoever in those bottles. Maybe it’s his medication. You sighed as you reached for the syringe in your bag to return it to James’s bag.

But there’s a weird feeling, instinct, that bothered you. You returned to your seats. You removed all of the labels on Namjoon’s bottle first. It’s sealed and there’s no opening. You then grabbed your own bottle, carefully remove all of the labels. The cap’s still sealed, but when you remove the sticker on the cap, you felt nauseous. There’s a little hole on the cap. You suddenly got a goosebump as you sat on your seat. You put your bottle in your bag with the syringe, you need to examine it carefully later.

“Are you okay miss? You found your phone?” the driver asked in front of the door.

You stood from your seat and walked down the aisle. “Yes, I found it. I’m afraid that I lost it somewhere I don’t know.” You laughed. “Well, I should get going. Thank you very much.”

As you stepped outside, the driver laughed sinisterly, making you look at him strangely. “It’s good that you can find what you seek, right, Miss Nara?” He smirked and glared at you eyes meaningfully.

You shuddered and walked away faster. Your heart’s pounding hard in your chest. you held your sling bag tightly, afraid that it will fall down. You never introduce you to him before yet he knew your name. Sure, maybe he had the guest lists, but to be that sure that you’re Jung Nara? It’s weird.

Your eyes searched for Namjoon, and when you found him, you sprinted to him. “Babe, I found your phone!” you almost yelled. You then handed him his phone.

He sighed in relief. “Thank God! So it’s on the bus?” He asked and reach for his phone, grazing your hands. “What the hell? Why are your hands so cold?” He held your hands tightly. He studied your face carefully, only to find a pale woman in front of him. He cupped your face gently. “What happened to you?”

Your mind went blank. You put your hands around his waist and just buried your head in his chest and whispered “I- We need to talk. With Yoongi too.” Your hands tightened. “I found something.. and I hope I am wrong.”

5 minutes later, you found yourself getting calmer after drink a herb tea. You sat in the small cafe in the marketplace, which Yoongi’s already checked to assume it’s a safe place. Namjoon sat beside you and Yoongi sat across you, while Taehyung listened in his earpiece, as he continued to follow Dahee. You then pulled out the syringe from your bag and put it on the table. Namjoon looked confused and before he asked, you pulled a bottled juice out too. “I found this syringe hidden in James’s backpack.” His eyes widened. “I don’t know what is in this syringe nor what he did with that. But before, I had a feeling. So I remove all the stickers on the bottled juices, and found this.” You said as you showed him a tiny hole on the cap. “I also don’t know whether the hole matched with this syringe or not, but I got a feeling that it will match.”

Namjoon nodded. “Alright, we need to investigate this syringe and the bottle. And contact the company. If it is a match, we can conclude that it is attempted murder. I think we should tell Minister Lee and Dahee about the threa-“

“We can’t!” You interrupted him. You grew anxious.

“Calm down Y/n. What do you mean we can’t?” Yoongi asked.

You hesitated for a moment. “Because it is my bottle.”

Namjoon shocked and grabbed both of your shoulders, forcing you to look at him. “What? What do you mean, y/n?” He asked cautiously.

You met your eyes with him, your eyes were glistening in frustration. “That bottle is my bottle. I’ve checked Minister Lee and Dahee’s bottles and also yours. But there are no holes. That is the only one with a hole,” you gulped, “it’s mine.” You wanted to cry. It’s not that you’ve never been threatened before but It’s just somehow made you nervous.

Namjoon looked at you in worries and confusion, “But why are you so afraid? You’ve been in plenty of fights and near-death-experiences, you know?”

“The driver..” you hesitated. “I think he noticed what I’ve been doing on the bus before. Furthermore he knew my fake name while I’ve never introduced myself to anyone except Dahee. And he felt weird.”

“What do you mean weird?” Yoongi asked impatiently.

You look into Yoongi eyes, “His eyes and his voice feel familiar.”

Yoongi noticed the meaning of your uneasiness, then slammed the table angrily. “That’s not possible! You and I knew that he is dead! You even watched it!”

You couldn’t hold back your tears anymore. “You and I both knew that we never found the body! And even I knew, that you don’t believe it in the first place.” you cried frustratingly. You hugged yourself tighter. This is definitely a nightmare.

Namjoon left in bewilderment. What the hell happened two years ago? He shook his head. “Alright, alright. We need to stop assuming things. Yoongi, can you examine those as fast as possible? And Y/n, we shouldn’t let James knew that he knew. We must pretend like we know nothing. And we should keep an eye on James and the driver. I’m going to request a background check for them and send a back up to investigate them further. We should continue our plan like before until there’s evidence. Do you both understand?”

Yoongi nodded as he grabbed the syringe and the bottle, “I will check these. I will prepare the back-up ASAP.” He walked out of the cafe.

“Can you do this?” Namjoon asked. You nodded slowly. You took a deep breath and again for the second time of this day, you pinched your cheek.

It is just a mission. It is a different mission. You can do this. You’re wrong about him.

When you finally walked back to the bus, you forced yourself not to mind James or the driver. Namjoon held your hand tightly to make you come to your senses. As you sat on your seats, he wondered, Why do they target you? Why we got no clues regarding Minister Lee, to begin with? Is this a trap? What if the threat actually addressed to you? He pulled his phone and wrote to Jin.

  01.43 pm RM: background check of the driver.

01.43 pm RM: also can you give me the file of Y/n’s mission in Hawaii 2 years ago? ASAP.

  By the time you came back to the hotel, your body drained. Yoongi and Taehyung finally decided to use the unoccupied room on your floor and moved the listening devices to their room. Namjoon called and told all the details to the company, begging that they will take you off this mission. You watched him from behind. You’ve never seen him so desperate before. He also almost cursed after he got an unsatisfying answer from higher-ups. There’s no way to send you back home or replaced you with another agent. You would have to continue the mission. Namjoon threw his phone angrily to the bed which made you flinched. The room grew silent.

“Do you really hate working with me that much?”

Namjoon stopped for a moment. “What are you talking about?” His phone vibrated. He grumbled as he picked the phone to read what you assume was a text from Jin. His eyes widened and frowned his brow confusedly. With the thought of you’re in danger was already filled his mind, he really didn’t need this fact to be added.

“Do you want to get rid of me from this mission, that much?” You snapped. You did realize that you shouldn’t be bothered by your emotions, but you’re that frustrated. You’re confused, mad, and afraid at the same time. Do you hate me that much?

He scowled at you. He, too was frustrated, with you. “My priority is the success of this mission. So, if you need to phrase it that way, yeah. I don’t want you here.” I only want you to be safe.

You felt a stab on your chest. You felt humiliated. Your eyes got teary. “We both know that we never want that happened in the first place. And besides, you said before that we shouldn’t assuming anything yet” You cried.

“What happened in Hawaii 2 years ago?” He snapped back.

Your eyes widened, “Why are you talking about it right now-“

“Why is there no data about your mission in Hawaii in the database?” His jaw clenched. You could sense Namjoon walked closer to you, cornering you. You stepped back until your back of your legs hit the side of the bed. Then you felt something cold on your stomach. You tried to move your hand to your thigh, grabbing your small gun which hidden underneath your dress. Click. “I won’t do that if I were you.” He warned.

You froze. Your throat felt dry. “Wha.. What are you doing?” you stuttered.

“I said, what happened in Hawaii 2 years ago?” he said coldly.

“I- I don’t want to say..” You groaned in pain as he pushed his gun harshly. You’re so sure it would leave a bruise. It’s maddening. Just a few hours ago, he’s the one who held you close, opening your heart. You were trying to trust him again. And now? You felt a soft pang in your heart as you realized. “You never trust me, do you?” you said weakly.

His eyes met yours. Your eyes brimmed with tears, feeling disappointed, and exposed. His gaze softened. “Just answer me.” Please.

“I can’t say..” You could feel, that your cheeks have already been wet from your tears. Again, he doesn’t trust you.

He felt betrayed. Why don’t you want to tell him? It messed up his mind really bad. “You do understand that what you’ve hidden will make you seen as a traitor, don’t you?” He warned you. “Not only you, but also Yoongi, Taehyung, and even Jimin.”

You bit your lips then you grabbed his gun and kicked his side until he fell to the carpeted floor. You seized his gun and aimed it to the back of his head. He froze. “I’m sorry..” You then knocked his neck with the gun. As Namjoon passed out, you threw the gun beside him and walked out of the room. “I’m really sorry.”

Ten years ago.

  Your forehead beaded with sweat. Your body’s hurt after all that kicking and punches. You then found a chance and pushed your body to the person before you. As the person stumbled and you locked his neck from behind.

“Alright, I give up!” Namjoon smacked your hand repetitively.

You snorted as you released him. “You know that if you couldn’t beat me at least once, you won’t be promoted, right?” You stood up, fixing your clothes. “Why do you even join the promotion test for field agent?”

Namjoon just laid down on the floor, controlling his breaths. “You really shouldn’t rub salt into my wound, you know.” He sat up and gestured his bag to you.

You walked to the side, picking your water bottle and drank it in one gulp. You then walked to Namjoon’s bag. After rummaging his bag, you picked his water bottle and threw it to him.

He caught that with his right hand nicely and drank like he’s in the desert. “Thanks.”

“I think you should focus more on the other field. I heard Seokjin’s department also setting the promotion test.” You walked closer to him and sat beside him.

“Yes, I heard too.” He sighed, “But, I don’t really want to be handler like Jin-hyung.”

“Why? I think it’s nice.” You shrugged.”And besides, you can be my handler.”

He laughed loudly, “What? Your handler? Are you fucking kidding me? You are such a pain in the ass. I feel sorry for whoever ended as your handler.”

You then hit his back hard. “Hey! If you ended in field-work, I also feel sorry for whoever ended as your handler. You clumsy dickhead!” You stood up. You gathered your things and tossed them into your bag. You hung your bag on your shoulder, as you walk to the door. “Just really think about it, okay? And also stop bothering me to spar with you. I need to study too.” He just waved as a reply.

  It has been 6 months since you joined The Company as a recruit. You still couldn’t believe that after your first loss in karate championship that year, you’ll be recruited. The thought of working by fighting never occurred to you. Well, maybe as a coach. But as an agent? Never for a bit. Maybe you’re that naive. When the Company told you what the work would be, you’re almost sure that your eyes were twinkling in excitement. You always love the adrenaline rush. Whenever you go to an amusement park, the only thing you ride is a roller coaster. You live for adrenaline. So, yes. You agreed to join in a heartbeat. Your parents? Well the only thing they knew was that you worked as a stuntwoman. So every time there’s an action movie, you just told them that you’re starred in there.

It’s not easy working as an agent. You did ace the fighting training considering your background. Even you’re good at firearm training. The one thing you sucked at was coding and hacking, basically anything with numbers. That’s when you meet Kim Namjoon for the first time. The Kim Namjoon who can solve any of the codes in just a second. He’s recruited when his college professor recommended him. He’s the top of his class and even in this country. Genius, that’s what people say about him.

You still wondered, why such a person like Namjoon ended in a place like this. He literally could work in every place in the whole world and yet he chose this. With every knowledge he had and used with his brain, yet he chose to fight. Sure, he’s good at firearm training, and for fighting? Well, He was not that bad considering he only trained for six months, but he was not good enough to work as a field agent. Oh, and not to forget how he almost blew the bomb-defusing-training, only because he clumsily cut the wrong wire. Thank God there’s Hoseok beside him who then defused it in no time.

He’s also the one who knew what’s he lack at. Thus, he contacted you to teach him to fight and as a thank you, he taught you coding and hacking. That’s why you become close to him in such a short time. You spent most of your time with him after work, to spar, go to the gym, or even just chatting. However, because you knew about how good he was (well, you are the one who taught him), you thought that Namjoon was not suitable for a field agent at that time. You always told him, trying to talk some sense to him. But every time, you brought that topic, he didn’t care for your advice for a bit. The promotion test was on the day after tomorrow, and you really hoped Namjoon will change his mind.

It’s the first time Namjoon didn’t listen to you. He applied for a field agent and barely passed the fighting exam. Furthermore, aside from being bad at fighting, he’s unlucky too. He paired with Minho, who was the only one who could fight the teacher and won. You couldn’t get mad at him. You could only hope that he won’t die or even hurt specifically. He didn’t win obviously, but he passed the exam with the addition of long and deep wound on his left cheek which would be scarred his face.

Miraculously passed the field agent exam made Namjoon become one of the favorite agents to work with. Who doesn’t want to work with a genius agent? He got more missions with more thinking which usually political, while you, who passed the fighting exam in an excellent grade worked in your usual environment, more fighting. Yes, of course after many missions and lots of training, Namjoon’s improving too, made him stronger, smarter, and a more high-demand agent than you. He soared to the top too soon, you barely caught him. He went up in an elevator, comfortable and fast, yet you earned your way up through the stairs, tiring and sweaty. You barely even talked to him, to busy with your own missions. And you could feel deep in your heart that you missed him.

so, what do you guys think? Let me know what you’re thinking or if you want to added in taglist!

[ketsuyuki-hibana-typed]

It may be strange request, but...Could you make headcanons about Kyoujuro and his "future wife" when they were children. When Ruka was still alive, when Shinjurou was a Pillar?

Rengoku Kyoujurou x FutureWife!Reader

When Shinjurou came back with other human that hide behind him, little 10 years old Rengoku Kyoujurou become curious.

He jumped around that tiny human, you, who gripped Shinjurou's haori, timidly peeked up from where you stood.

"Father, who is that?"

"Ah, I haven't introduce you yet. I saved her when I was in mission."

Kyoujurou became more excited, he suddenly grabbed your hand and said, "I'm Kyoujurou! And you?"

"Hey, it's not polite to ask her out of blue like that." His father sighed. "She has been live for a long time inside the forest. She has minimum wordings. Right, (y/n)?"

You nodded, but then open your mouth

"I'm (y/n)."

Kyoujurou's face brightened. The thought of he now has sister was flooding on his head.

Kyoujurou learned that you're once was originally planned to be a sacrifice of the demons. These demons were said that they will not devour the villagers unless they give children as sacrifices every month.

The place where you born was like a camp, basically human farm. You only given with name and birthdate, not knowing who your parents is.

Until you somehow, managed to escape into the forest when they accidentally loosened the door when they're about to deliver you and the other children to the demons.

You learned human language from a rich family that live near the forest, but you quietly heard them talking without showing yourself.

And the rest of the story is survival. Hunting, making traps, stealing swords, making house. All of them was made by yourself.

Until one day, the trap you set was failed to capture the demon. Shinjurou saved you, and brought you here.

Well, actually Shinjurou was amazed by your skill, considering you're the same age as Kyoujurou and thought that potential will be a waste if he left you there (Also, a reminder that a little girl was alone inside the forest all this long time)

Ruka accepted you here, so does Shinjurou. Kyoujurou and Senjurou didn't mind either.

That's where your real life started.

You learned how to speak and act properly from Ruka. Both you and Kyoujurou were practicing together on the swordsmanship.

You learned how to feel from this family

Kyoujurou loved to take evening stroll while holding your hand after practices. He said that your hands are so warm, he thinks he could hold onto them forever.

"You know, (y/n). I think you have this- uh- this-! I don't know how to tell it, but you have this kind of aura, but I cannot describe it."

"Charm?"

"Yes, that's what Mother told me, charm!"

"No, I don't have any."

"You have! And only me who could feel them!"

Lived in the middle of upper class family probably the real definition of real wealth. But apparently not you as an Rengoku outsider. The boys and girls that has same age as you often bully or tattling you.

Kyoujurou becomes furious when he found out, and fight them, even though you always ended up saving him.

"I told you that I'm fine, I didn't take their talks with my heart." You pressed compress onto Kyoujurou's temple. He groaned in pain. "What will Ruka-sama say if she saw you like this? I should be the one who protected you."

"I- I should be the one who protect you! I'm the big bro!"

"Yes." You finished with the treatment. "And I'm indebted because Rengoku family has taken care of me, and I shall pay them back to guard their descendants."

"Wha- That's nonsense! You're our part of family!!"

You didn't listen to him anymore and walked away.

After that incident, Kyoujurou still considered you as his sister, but he never talked about your obligations to protect Rengoku.

Shinjurou always brought you gifts after missions even though he's kind of sucks on it.

"You bought her... sculpture."

"Yeah, any human being in this world like sculpture." Ruka looked at Shinjurou in disbelief.

"(y/n), I will buy you hairpin tomorrow, ok? You could threw that into trash pile or burn it down along with the leaves at he yard."

"Okaa-sama, it- it's okay! Otou-sama was right, no one in this world didn't like sculpture."

"You don't need to cheer him up."

"Ruka, you're so cold."

When Ruka was sick, you took the lead of house chores.

"I'm sorry that I burdened the tasks to you."

You helped Ruka sat down on her futon. Senjurou was peacefully sleeping on her side while Kyoujurou sat with folded feet, listened to his mother.

"Okaa-sama." You bowed. "I've pledged to serve Rengoku family. I will not disappoint you."

"You are one of my children." She let the most tender smile you ever saw in your life. "I never considered you as our guard, so does Shinjurou. You are our daughter. Come here."

You came closer to her. She hugged you into her chest, caressed your hair slowly.

This is what mother's kindness felt like, dissipates into your every well-being. It's warm and soft.

You really wished that Ruka could have longer age.

But everything was changed with quick pace when Ruka finally left this world.

On that day, you felt what sadness is, how it felt like when you holding Ruka's board name in front of the house, seeing people saying 'I'm so sorry for your lost' for many times until you became a little qualm.

But none of nags were spat out from your mouth, not even tears sheds out. You just felt sad, that's it.

Senjurou never stopped crying and Kyoujurou tried to calm his little brother. You had to step out.

"Kyoujurou, let me handle this." You told someone to hold the board, replacing you. You brought Senjurou onto your embrace, cradling him into your arms.

"Senjurou, it's okay. I'm here, Ruka-sama always been here too. She goes to yomi but her heart will always be inside us." You closed your eyes, patted Senjurou's back, wiped his tears until he fell asleep because of exhaustion.

You noticed that Kyoujurou looked at his little brother with empty eyes. You smiled towards him, opening one of your arms.

"Come here, Kyoujurou."

He trembled, slowly moved towards you.

Until he breaks down and cries his heart content out on your shoulder. You don't know how many hours you've spent, sat down there while soothing both of them simultaneously.

On that day, you swore that you will fully protect this family with your soul and body.

After that day, Shinjurou never let anyone, even his children stepped onto his room

Except you, because you managed to 'forced unconsciously" onto his guard. He only let you sat on his engawa room, talking light conversation while drinking tea and snacking.

Both you and Kyoujurou took Final Test together and become demon slayer. It didn't took him so long to be a Pillar while you're still a Kinoe.

You knew how Shinjurou reacted to Kyoujurou for being a Pillar. It really hurts you when you realized how much he changed towards this family.

But you're trying, you never give up to make this family whole again, even though it might not be the same as Ruka did.

So, that day, you asked if he could spare his time for evening stroll like you always did when you were still children.

He happily accepted your request.

Both of you stopped at grilled sweet potatoes booth, taking rest.

"Congratulations on being a Pillar." You gave him flame-motive cape. "This was Otou-sama cape, but it worn out. So i fixed it first."

He looked surprised and freeze.

"Um, it's okay of you don't like it. I know it looked-"

"NO! I WILL USE THIS!"

He wore it on his back, spinned like children testing their new clothes.

"Umu! This is great!"

"It's good to hear." You let out relieved sigh. "And-"

He sat down again, ready to hear your next words.

"Otou-sama.... Didn't mean it when he said he didn't care about you. I know that he's happy."

"It's okay! Father is always like that after all! I just had to-"

"I really mean it." You looked at him straight at his eyes with tender gaze. You reached your hand to his head, patting it. "Thank you for your hard work, Kyoujurou."

He stunned again.

It was like something snapping from inside his mind. His tears suddenly flows without warning.

You grabbed him onto your embrace, letting him cry.

You knew it's hard. It's hard for being cheerful 24/7 because he didn't want to make anyone worry.

After that, he became really close more than ever. He didn't like being called with Flame Pillar. Just call him with usual name.

Uzui realized your talent as trap maker and took you as his tsuguko, even though your breathing traits are Flame.

Kyoujurou wasn't so happy with this decision.

"I became a Pillar because I wanted to make her as my tsuguko."

"You've just BECOME a Pillar." Uzui snickered. "Don't be so cocky."

He didn't talk to Uzui until you scolded him for doing so.

Everyone was wondering why are you still not 'chasing' Kyoujurou. You made your own breath, and talented on almost everything but people just wondering why you couldn't caught up to Kyoujurou.

You never interested to become one, you only focused on rescuing orphaned children, took them into your care. The corps made orphanage for children who lost their family, and you're the one who trusted by Oyakata-sama to lead it because you could handle kids.

You're the one who brought him when he injured on demon train mission. You're the one who took care of him when he's still in comma.

When he woke up and found you holding his hand, that's when the feelings towards you changed, from a sister, to someone that should have Rengoku name as their family name.

"If you really love her, then when will you confess to her, headass. You've retired like me, but she hasn't. Who knows who she paired with while she's in mission?"

"..."

"She didn't want to be Flame Pillar even though Oyakata-sama asked her to be one after your retirement. And you know what she answered? 'I'm not a Rengoku, so I don't have obligation to take that role.' Damn, man, stubborn girl as always.

"Shut up for awhile, will you?"

"Or you wanted someone to propose to her first? Don't you know that she's popular amongst the Kinoes, even other demon slayers? She's caring, kind, good with children and strong too."

"I'll kill the-"

"Wow, keep that killing intention to yourself. The only reason why people who put their heart onto her weren't confessed yet because they knew you will rampage, knowing you as her closest related person."

Kyoujurou crosses his arms, his mind was a mess, thinking on how he could propose to you without being awkward and to avoid the dense inside your head, because you only believe that all you had to do until the rest of your life is serve and protect the Rengokus.

LIKE, LET ME LOVE YOU, LET ME FUCKING LOVE YOU WITHOUT THINKING BEING MY BODYGUARD 25/8

That's what he wanted to scream.

But he just played it cool.

Until he can't take it, or couldn't find better way to propose, so he just screamed from his top of the lung, "(y/n), PLEASE BE MY WIFE! I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE MY BODYGUARD OR CARETAKER, I WANT YOU TO BE MY WIFE! I LOVE YOU! I! LOVE! YOU!"

...he screams from outside the orphanage while you're still taking care the children.

They were giggling, teasing you when you flushed with red. His message was loud and clear this time.

And, that's how you got married.

"It's unfair because you almost knew all of me." Both of you sat down at engawa, looking at your 5 children playing around.

"We've been together for years, what are you expecting?" You let small giggle. His heart was thumped once before quickly averting his gaze to another direction. "Hm? What's wrong?"

He sighed, turning his head again and looking at your bloated stomach, ready for 6th child. He caressed it, hoping that everything going smoothly this time too. He flashed a quick smile, before kissed your temple

"It's been years and I still can't resist your charm."

[pansexualseaanimals]

Chapter 9 Sneak Peeks ‘Cause You Deserve It

Hey guess what? I’m still alive! I haven’t been writing for a while because these past few chapters have kind of been making me face things about my own life that I hadn’t given due time to address and manage (especially Pyxis and Rory’s thoughts on how parents can “love you but not want you”, and stuff said by multiple people in chapter 9, the one I’m still writing) so I kinda just dealt with those thoughts and came to conclusions and stuff in my own mind while I endlessly binged anime and video games. Not that I don’t normally do that, mind you, but I did it a lot more and not much else.

Luckily, I live in a wonderful gorgeous apartment in my favorite town I’ve ever lived in (the only town I’ve ever called home, in fact! At least, in this world!) and it’s super comfortable and I live with my best friend who is way too good of a roommate if I must be frank - I’d rather be Columbia, honestly - and life has been relatively super good, so like. Don’t worry! I’m so happy in my life the way it is! I’m back home in the Midwest, surrounded by beauty and friends who’ve helped me out more than I could ever ask (but I did, let’s not lie lol) and... I still have depression and I’m working on that and planning on getting a doctor soon, but... I’m starting new good habits, getting into things I’ve been wanting to try, and yeah... I’m rambling at this point so I’ll make the rest quick.

I wanted to give sneak peeks because it’s been SO LONG and I don’t know how many people really actually read this thing? Like, “I’m excited that there’s a new chapter” kind of peeps? But no matter how few there are, you guys all deserve something nice, and this was all I could think of. Instead of just posting one scene, I’ll post a few clips from a bunch of scenes. Everything is subject to change as I keep writing, so it might not match the finished product, but... That just means you guys are extra-special! Heehee! ^__^ 

Excerpts are below the read-more cut. Hope it’s enjoyable! 

\/\/\/\/\/

"Oh, I've got twenty-five coins for the sea show clanking in the backseat, whoa-oh. I've got thirty-two seashells lined up in a row..." Caurel happily sang as she covered the turquoise side in pink, pausing and hiding in a corner when she noticed Zebra rising out of the spawn pool. The younger Inkling, hesitant, flung her brush wildly to cover the pink ink and swam forward, repeating the process every few feet. When she dropped down to the valley, she triggered another Ink Mine, this time getting away just quickly enough.

  "Not falling for that again," they sighed... right before Caurel popped out of her corner and slashed her brush at her, sending her floating right back to the spawn point. Unable to keep from giggling, Caurel re-inked the entrance ramp and climbed up to the higher level, brushing quickly down the alley as Zebra respawned again.

  "And I'll swim, swim, swim, to my darling Martha... And let her lay me down in the bay where the warm winds blow~"

  "Are we singing the same song?" Penny shouted from the audience, loud enough to be heard over the stage music.

"'Martha's Bay' by the Seagulls?" Caurel shouted back for confirmation.

"I knew it! Ahhh, I love you!"

"I love you, too, Butterfly!"

"Boooo!" Rocky shouted as he took out Thresher. "Get a room!"

  "But their love for each other is like our love," Ankyr said with a wink.

"You really are a sea turtle."

  "Hey, only Pyxis can call me-" SPLASH! Ankyr fell prey to Bonnet's Heavy Splatling.

"FOR ANKYR!" Rocky jumped up and flung his roller down before rolling toward Bonnet - and getting caught in a freshly thrown Splash Wall.

  "I love it when he does that," Tiger squeaked.

\/\/\/\/\/

"What took you so long? Why did you trade Ankyr for these randos?"

"Rocky," Caurel sighed. "They're the friends we were supposed to meet today, remember?"

"Oh..."

"Guys, this is Rocky, our squad's leader," Pyxis laughed.

  "Nice to meet you," Carina said, stepping forward to shake Rocky's hand. "Don't worry, my 'boyfriend' will be back soon."

  "'BOYFRIEND'?" The entire crowd turned their attention to the charismatic newcomer.

  "It's just an inside joke," Pyxis hastily assured them. "You'd just have to be there."

"Yeah, he kind of saved me a lot of hassle," Carina shrugged.

  "My Sunshine has inside jokes with people I don't know," Moises thought out loud. "Not sure how I feel about this..."

"Well, you know us now," Hans piped up. "She's Carina, I'm Hans, this here is Shera, and the rude guy is Cygnus."

"I haven't said anything rude yet!"

"We all know you will," Shera said as she scooched over to Abbey. "So, what's your name?"

"I'm aromantic," Abbey said between sips of coffee. Their friends howled with laughter in the background.

"Aw, that's too bad... Are you... asexual, too?"

"They're not sex-repulsed, if that's what you mean," Pyxis jumped in. "That's not what asexual means, though."

"Sweet little Pyxis," Cygnus chuckled, patting his friend on the head. "Always here to educate her friends."

"...You mean their friends," Rocky corrected.

  "What? No. You too? Are all Squids okay with the whole fluid-gender thing?"

"You didn't even last five minutes," Hans sighed, covering his face with his palm.

  "Look, she was born with lady-parts, am I wrong or am I right?"

"Here's what I know," Rocky began slowly, stepping closer to the Octoling and staring him in the eye. "This particular group of friends respects what people choose to call themselves. When you're with us, you refer to Pyxis as they/them. If you can't handle that, you can swim back home."

"ROCKY!" Caurel grabbed her brother's arm and yanked him down to sit beside her. "They're our guests!"

"And Pyxis is family," he bit back. "Which is more important to you?"

"Wow, they really worship you around here," Cygnus laughed, turning to leave. "Do they even really know you? Your history? What have you been telling them?"

"Cygnus, get back here and act your age," Carina commanded.

"No thanks, Your Majesty."

  The crowd was hushed for some time, the noises of the audience around them and the battle down below, permeating their silent space.

  "Sorry about that," Carina finally spoke up. "I told him to behave himself. But he's... how do you say... stuck in his ways."

"He's only twenty-two," Shera rolled her eyes. "He's just a stubborn pufferfish."

"You okay, honey?" Hans asked Pyxis, who was too busy processing their own thoughts to realize they should answer.

"...I'm family?"

\/\/\/\/\/

And now, here’s Shera going goo-goo over more Inklings

---

“Vanilla? Is that a brand, or...?"

"Oh no, I just mean, the original one."

"So... Vanilla means original?"

"The basic form of something, yes. Regular. It's just slang."

"Who's the person with the gatling?"

"Ah, that's Pixie with the Zink Mini Splatling. Disruptor and Bubbler."

"Pixie..." Shera turned to where Pyxis was seated. "PIXIE!"

  "Yes?"

"I can never call you Pixie again! That's the name of my new future wife!" Ecto and Thresher couldn't help but laugh.

"...Glad to hear it?"

"She's actually dating Ty right now," Tandy pointed out. "Sorry, you'll have to look elsewhere."

"Darn."

"Great Overseer," Carina sighed. "Why are you so thirsty today?"

"I dunno, Queenie," Shera shrugged and shook her head. "Look. I had no idea Squidlings could be so attractive, okay?"

"I mean, she's not wrong," Hans laughed. "The first time I saw Ankyr..."

"YOU CAN DO IT, GUYS!" Pyxis suddenly stood up and cheered as loud as they could.

\/\/\/\/\/

And now for some good parents! Specifically, Ecto’s dads. Well, one of them. The other is busy playing Pokémon with Caurel and co. in the living room at this moment. They haven’t been mentioned much so far, but they’re great friends with the Waters (Waters’? Waterss?) ever since all the families met, and Rocky and Caurel hang out with them a lot.

---

"That's because you can look back on the past, apply your knowledge of the present, and cook up a better future for yourself. A new happiness. Again, one that won't last forever. And maybe it's not perfect. Maybe you burn your tongue. Maybe you let it go cold without realizing. But there'll always be more soup."

"You just have an answer for everything, don't you?" Rocky scoffed, throwing more tomatoes into the pot.

  "Not quite. There's one thing I've always wondered."

"The secret of life?"

"Nah, figured that out in college."

"What? No. Shut up." The two shared a laugh. Mister Plasma reduced the burner's heat and placed a lid on the pot, before turning to Rocky.

  "Back when you were in Coral Reef's boat... Why didn't you say anything?"

  "Well..." Rocky took a moment to continue. "Figured there wasn't any point, I guess. Can't help it if the person you have a crush on is gay. Like, if Pop was het, you wouldn't have the love of your life."

"Well I'm glad that's not the case," he said with a short laugh, before frowning and patting Rocky on the head. "Sorry, hon."

"It's fine. That's one of those 'just move on' parts in life. So I did."

"Ah..."

"Happened with Ankyr, too. But that was back when we were super tiny. Like.. That's a different kind of love. Baby love, I guess. But then again, we thought Ankyr was a girl back then. That was easier to move on from."

  "You just can't catch a break," Dad laughed. "Anyone on your mind these days?" Rocky thought a while before answering.

"I... Not really. I don't know, Oji. Guess I'm kind of giving up for now. I just wanna cook and take care of the ocean. Those are my loves. Well, I'll never get tired of Turf War either. I guess... that's it."

"And that's A-okay," the adult Inkling nodded, before yelling "COME AND GET IT!" There was a multitude of shuffling sounds from the living room as the young adults made their way to the kitchen. "Come see us any time," he said again. "We'll always be here for you."

\/\/\/\/\/

And that’s all I have for you here today, I wanna stop myself before I give away more than I might have given away... But yeah, working on that slowly but surely now. I was already about halfway-ish done with the chapter before I fell off, I think? Depends if I think of adding any more scenes than what’s already planned. So, look forward to that soon! Catch you on the flip side~

P.S.: As a reminder, this is the second-to-last chapter I’m writing; after 10 is over, we’ll be moving on to the second book in the series, which will hopefully have much better pacing and will definitely be a lot different, but still be about the lives of Pyxis, Ankyr, and their loved ones - that will never change. Some of your favorite characters might not be around as much in book 2, some might get a spotlight where they hadn’t before, and of course we’ll meet lots of new friends, and you’ll just have to decide what you think of each of them. :3 But I hope you have fun. Regardless of anything, thanks for reading. If you’ve read any of Look Alive, Sunshine, you have my Heart Containers, and my eternal gratitude. Please let me know what you think, if you’ve got the time. Love & hugs!

[thelittlesttimelord]

The Littlest Timelord: The Fall of the Eleventh Chapter 40

TITLE: The Littlest Timelord: The Fall of the Eleventh Chapter 40 PAIRING: No Pairing RATING: T CHAPTER: 40/? SUMMARY: Elise Smith is now a teenaged Timelord. In addition to losing the Ponds, the fields of Trenzalore are calling. But first they have to figure out exactly who Clara Oswald is.

[A/N - Wow. 40 chapters. And we still a little to go until the Christmas special! I really loved writing this chapter.]

The Doctor and Elise rang the doorbell of the Maitland home and Angie answered.

“Ah, hello Angie. Is Clara home?” the Doctor asked.

“She’s busy…but we can play a game while we wait.”

“A game? I love games.”

“How about Blind Man’s Buff?” Artie suggested.

Angie blindfolded the Doctor and shared a look with Elise. Elise smirked and nodded. Angie smiled and bumped her fist with Elise’s before they ran off.

Elise explored the Maitland home while the Doctor walked around calling out for the children.

“Angie? Artie? Am I getting warm? Am I getting warm? Look, I'm pretty sure you have to tell me if I'm getting warm. I'm…I'm…I'm pretty sure that's in the rules.”

Clara came running down the stairs. “Doctor?”

“Ha! Clara. How are you? Don't worry, everything is under control.”

“What are you doing?”

“Elise and I showed up and the kids said you were busy…”

“At which point they suggested Blind Man's Buff.”

“Yes. Where are they?”

“At the cinema.” Clara took off the blindfold.

“The little Daleks.” He looked at Clara. “What's wrong?” She was normally so excited to see him.

Clara led them into the kitchen where she made tea. “I saw her,” Clara told Elise.

“Who?”

“Your mum.” Clara watched Elise’s eyes light up.

“River? You saw River?”

“River asked Vastra for the exact words. What were they?” the Doctor asked.

“The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered,” Clara told him.

The Doctor’s eyes filled with tears and he started crying.

“Doctor?”

“Sorry. And it was Trenzalore? Definitely Trenzalore?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh dear.” He sniffled. “Sorry.” The Doctor stood up and ran out of the house, Elise following. “Please, leave me alone Elise.”

“No way.”

He made his way under the rotor and sat down.

Elise sat next to him.

“You know. I miss the days where you cried over everything.”

“Because I was scared. Everything scared me. But you taught me to be brave.” Deep down, Elise’s hearts were breaking. Never let him see the damage. She knew this day was coming; she just didn’t think it’d be this soon.

Clara entered the TARDIS and found the two Timelords. “Well?” she asked.

“Trenzalore. I've heard the name, of course. Dorium mentioned it. A few others.” He stood up and soniced the cables above his head. “Always suspected what it was, never wanted to find out myself. River would know, though. River always knew. Right, come here. Give me your hand.”

Clara held out her hand.

“Now, the coordinates you saw will still be in your memory. I'm linking you into the TARDIS telepathic circuit. Won't hurt a bit.” He jabbed the cable into her hand.

“Ow!”

“I lied.”

“Okay, what is Trenzalore? Is that your big secret?”

“No.”

“Okay, what then?”

“When you are a time traveler, there is one place you must never go. One place in all of space and time you must never, ever find yourself.”

“Where?”

“You didn't listen, did you? You lot never do. That's the problem. The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered. He wasn't talking about my secret. No, no, no, that's not what's been found. He was talking about my…grave. Trenzalore is where I'm buried.”

“How can you have a grave?”

“Because we all do, somewhere out there in the future, waiting for us.”

They went up to the console.

“The trouble with time travel, you can actually end up visiting.”

“But you're not going to. You just said it's the one place you must never go.”

“I have to save Vastra and Strax. Jenny too, if it's still possible. They, they cared for me during the dark times. Never questioned me, never judged me, they were just kind. I owe them. I have a duty. No point in telling you this is too dangerous.”

“None at all.”

The Doctor looked at Elise, who nodded.

“You and me, no matter what,” she told him.

“How can we save them?” Clara asked.

“Apparently, by breaking into my own tomb.” The Doctor put the TARDIS in flight and she started jerking.

“What's that?”

“She's just figured out where we're going. She's against it. I'm about to cross my own timeline in the biggest way possible.”

“To be fair, the last time you did that, the universe ended.”

“Do you have to bring that up now?”

Elise laughed loudly.

“The TARDIS doesn't like it. She's fighting it. Hang on! Hang on!”

The console started sparking as both Elise and the Doctor tried to get control of the TARDIS. They were thrown into the railings as the TARDIS shut down.

“Now what?” Clara croaked.

“She doesn't want to land. She's shut down,” the Doctor explained.

“So we're not there?”

“We must be close.” The Doctor walked over to the doors and opened them.

An angry burning planet was right outside the doors.

Elise imagine Gallifrey probably looked like that now.

“Okay, so that's where I end up. Always thought maybe I'd retire. Take up watercolors or bee-keeping, or something. Apparently not.”

“We both know you’d never be able to sit still,” Elise told him.

“So, how do we get down there? Jump?” Clara asked.

“Don't be silly. We fall,” the Doctor said. They closed the door and the Doctor walked back to the console.

“Please don’t tell me you’re thinking of doing what I think you’re doing,” Elise said.

“She's turned off practically everything, except the anti-gravs. Guess what I'm turning off.” He soniced the console and the TARDIS started falling.

Elise closed her eyes and she was transported to her childhood, when the TARDIS fell out of the sky and landed in Amelia’s backyard.

The TARDIS hit the ground with such force that one of the glass windows in the door shattered.

“Oops,” the Doctor said. It was then he noticed a shaking Elise, clinging onto the railing for dear life. He walked over to her and just barely touched her. He was transported into her mind and he could hear the First Elise screaming, her blue eyes wide with terror.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re safe.” He softly hummed her lullaby and Elise came back to herself.

She looked around the dark TARDIS.

He helped her up and they ventured outside.

The sky was dark and there was an occasional burst of lightning.

“You okay?” Clara asked, “You're visiting your own grave. Anyone would be scared.”

“It's more than that. I'm a time traveler. I've probably time-traveled more than anyone else.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning my grave is potentially the most dangerous place in the universe. Shall we?”

Elise took her father’s hand and they walked through the graveyard.

“Gravestones are a bit basic,” Clara commented.

“It's a battlefield graveyard. My final battle,” the Doctor explained.

“Why are some of them bigger?”

“They're soldiers. The bigger the gravestone, the higher the rank.”

At the end of the graveyard, sat a large TARDIS.

“It's a hell of a monument.”

“It's the TARDIS.”

“I can see that.”

“No. When a TARDIS is dying, sometimes the dimension dams start breaking down. They used to call it a size leak. All the bigger on the inside starts leaking to the outside. It grows. When I say that's the TARDIS, I don't mean it looks like the TARDIS, I mean it actually is the TARDIS. My TARDIS from the future. What else would they bury me in?”

The Doctor and Elise walked on ahead, towards the TARDIS.

“I always thought maybe you’d take the TARDIS. Keep traveling without me,” the Doctor told Elise.

“Traveling alone? That’s no fun.”

“You wouldn’t be alone. You’d have a companion or maybe a husband.”

Elise laughed quietly. “A husband? Who would want to marry me?”

“Well, you never know.” The Doctor realized their companion wasn’t following them. “Well, come on, then.”

They walked over to her.

“Who are you talking to? We need to get...” The Doctor realized what gravestone she was standing near. “River?”

Elise knelt down and ran her hand over the letters. This wasn’t right. Surely she’d wanna be buried with Amy and Rory.

“That can't be right,” Clara said.

“No, it can't,” the Doctor agreed.

“She's not dead.”

“Oh, she's dead, I'm afraid. She's been dead for a very long time.”

Elise wanted to ask, but they were probably so far into the future that River was most likely dead.

“But I met her.”

“Long story. But her grave can't be here.”

“Doctor!”

They turned and saw men dressed in black with white faces. Except the faces only had mouths.

“This man must fall as all men must. The fate of all is always dust.”

The Doctor tried sonicing them, but nothing happened.

“What do you think that gravestone really is?” Clara asked.

“The gravestone?” the Doctor asked, not sure why she was bringing it up now.

“Maybe it's a false grave.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb!”

“Yes, of course. Makes sense. They'd never bury my wife out here. Maybe Elise, but never River.”

“Your what?”

The Doctor soniced the headstone and for the second time that day, they were falling.

[unloved-cadillac]

Firstly to start off with, ummm a white kurtan, yes please, I know this bitch looks good whatever hes wearing, so it dont matter, BUT THE BLACK TANK TOP OOFFFF YOU BETTER STOP, ITS NOT GOOD FOR MY HEALTH. But moving on, I've finished reading the whole thing now, and I'm writing this in notes, so if you're getting thing like 40 minutes later it's because I'm drafting my ask. Basically I'm just gonna skim read it again and just give you my thoughts and any feedback, if that's okay with you, you can ignore this if you want to, I completely understand. I dont mind at all 😊😊

Ok to start off with, the exposition was really good, you've set the tone and introduced the Ackerman family really beautifully. When I read it initially the fact that Levi did not want a family or to get married was quite emphasised upon to me, and I'm really looking forward for the inevitable development and how his view changes as the chapters go on. I also love how you introduced Farlan and Isabel, and lightly touched upon how they met, you didnt go into too much detail and I really like that, it kept me focused on the actual story itself, which is about Levi and not Farlan. And Farlan wanting tto marry her 😢😢. I think it's really really sweet and I cant wait to see more of them. I love it so much.

The transition from setting the scene to their father being poisoned was not something I was expecting and made me go oh shit he dead. Part of me felt like it was moving too quick, but the other part of me loved the shock factor of it since it happened so suddenly. I didnt think of it as too big of an issue though, it was still enjoyable to read.

The whole encounter with the peasant guy made me wonder just how many more people there are like him, that dislike the Ackermans and would try to kill them. And whether y/n would be one of them. Also I got a bit confused as to who was speaking whether it was Farlan or Levi, but I read the sentence again and it was fine, I understood, so maybe I was just being a dumb bitch.

Oooh a quick point Levi sympathising with the criminal was really touching and made me feel warm and gooey. It shows that hes not a dick and does actually care about his people. But it also shows he has clear boundaries and is really firm. He will make a great leader in the future.

YESSS BODYGUARD ERWINNN!!!!! I WAS LITERALLY TELLING MY FRIEND THE OTHER DAY, ERWIN AND LEVI BODYGUARD AU IS THE BESTT. YES SWEETIE UGH ITS FANTASTIC. IVE SAID THIS BEFORE BUT IM SAYING IT AGAIN I LOVE IT.

Carrying on, I love the whole Erwin/Levi/Farlan interaction, of course Erwin knows everything, why wouldnt he, hes a boss ass bitch. Also again, reaffirming that Levi does not want a wife, nOicE. Really builds up his future development.

The difference in Levi's and Farlan's reaction is comical. Ones there waving and smiling and the other ones there like fuck off leave me alone. ALSO WHOEVER SAID THEY'LL GIVE UP THEIR VIRGINTY SAME GURLL SAMEEE, I WOULD TOO YOURE NOT ALONE. AND YES FARLAN IT IS FUNNY, IT MADE ME LAUGH.

Awww the people are so nice, offering things for free, that's how you know you're loved by your people, I rate it, rate Levi sm.

Okay my guy, imma need you stop for a second and relax. Taking your top of??? And your scarf??? Okay big man, I see you, I see you, looking fine af. Ahhh I love imagining this in my brain, so stimulating.

Anyways, Y/N'S HERE NOWWW YES BITCHHH IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE, TURN IT UPPPP.

Nanaba being my sister is absolutely exquisite *chefs kiss*. I really thought you'd maybe put Petra, and then Petra would like Levi as well, but no its Nanaba and I fucking love her so so much. Also not really relevant, but I dont have any older sisters, but I do have older cousin sisters and I call my favourite one didi mooni (I think that's how you spell it, or muni idk) and yeah it just reminded me of her. I haven't seen her in so so long because of the pandemic and I miss her :(

Ah. So. Y/N does hate the royals. I wanna know why?? Does she think they're overrated?? A bad experience maybe?? Everyone else seems to love them. I'll just have to wait and see I guess.

ALSO PLEASE TELL ME THE LITTLE KID WAS MIKASA!!! IM HOPING SO SO MUCH ITS MIKASA, IT PROBABLY ISNT BECAUSE SHES AN ACKERMAN HERSELF BUT I CAN STILL HOPE!!! SHES SO CUTEEE AND ADORABLE AWWWW WEVIIII 🥺🥺🥺

THEY SELL TEAAA AHHH ITS A LOVE STORY BOUND TO HAPPEN. AND HE HASNT TRIED THEM YETT!!!! YES OMGGG TEA DATES, THEY CAN BOTH SIT DOW AND SHE CAN INTRODUCE HIM TO NEW SHITT AHHHH MY HEARTTTT 🥰🥰🥰IM GETTING WAYYYY AHEAD OF MYSELF.I need to calm down.

The whole meeting with Levi and Y/N was so adorable. It felt really short and I want more, but its okayyy, hopefully there are more chapters. Them locking eyes, him following her to get the leaves, HIM HELPING HER PICK UP THE BLOODY LEAVES, THE HAIR PART REMINDS ME OF IN BOLLYWOOD MOVIES WHEN THE PROTAGS HAIR GETS STUCK IN THE GUYS WATCH OR THEIR DUPATTA OR SOMETHING. OMGG Y/N IS ONE LUCKY BITCH.

Also since you havent specified the race of y/n, just wanted to ask is she Indian?? Or it it unspecified?? You wrote that she blushed bright red and many dark skinned readers wont be able relate. So yeah I'm not too sure whether that was intentional or not, I'm sorry if I'm mistaken though. I mean no harm at all.

Farlan's relationship with Levi is just beautiful, like I know I'm using the word beautiful a lot, but their broship is immaculate. Something else that I love.

Both Levi and Y/N not wanting to get married is hilarious. I really like how you've characterised her, shes really fierce, independent and seems really kind and caring as well. I really like this Y/N, very family oriented.

If I was her dad I would've taken the money. 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️ Not complaining about it because my dad would've done the exact same thing, but if I was him I wouldve taken it. Sis is broke, sis needs all the money she can get.

Both parties questioning Levi and Y/N is hilarious, fucking Erwin, I love him so much I stg. I'd sacrifice my life for him. Hes best boy 😇😇

I feel like this is really really long already so I'll quickly sum everything up, if you got this far you deserve a clap on the back and a medal, because I've basically just waffled. I really really enjoyed this chapter, it was very good in terms of introductions and getting to know the characters, I loved the initial meeting between levi and y/n and it did make my heart flutter quite a bit so that's that. I dont have any complaints really, just small minor things I've mentioned before and that's it. I really look forward to the coming chapters!!! Thank you so so much for writing it. Please make sure you're taking regular breaks and keeping hydrated and healthy. Thanks sweetie xxx 🥰🥰🥰

I’ve read this WHOLE thing..twice. I can’t stop smiling omf you’re so sweet! But, yeah minor shit I didn’t mention and I left it up to reader. Like the skin tone, sheesh. I don’t want any problems with that, I just said red blush to signify embarrassment. Reader is reader no matter what.

Aren’t we all broke af? But I liked the idea of the father being humble about it. Lol. Idk.

I don’t want to get into too much detail because that will obviously ruin the story but I love your ideas. Tea dates?! How cute! Erwin is the best, of course. He knows ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) and he’s the kind of person who would follow his princes no matter what. Till the end, you know?

As I said, highly inspired by Bollywood movies lol.

You took your time and wrote all of this and I’m so fucking happy that you did. I can’t wait for all of you to see the upcoming chapters. I hope that you’re staying happy and hydrated as well. Also, happy Shivratri! (If you celebrate for it) and to everyone else celebrating.

-Caddy.