#(one bit being me on the top of the bridge. doing the cheers taunt. getting on my board. and then skating off the bridge and killbinding)

[skeletalheartattack]

[mariaenchanted]

The Victim of His Love

Pairings: Aegon II Targaryen x Lowborn!Reader

Summary: You followed your heart and it destroyed you.

Note: Yes, i tried writing. This scenario keeps bugging me. I need to let it out. This does not really follow the HOTD storyline, i just put my spin on it. 🌷

Masterlist

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***

Your heart has been pounding ever since you got to the harbour. You were clutching a small bag with all the things that you just needed for this journey. This journey will change your life for the man you love and the child in your belly.

The life you both created with love and a promise that you and he is all that matters.

You were smiling as you rubbed your hand to the small bump that you had where your child was growing.

"He will come, my love. I know he will." Hopefulness is what you can hear from your voice.

You look up, And your eyes wander to the white-haired man you know and love.

"My Aegon, we are waiting."

***

People swarmed on the day Prince Aegon was crowned the king, and you are one of those people.

You don't need to torture yourself into doing this, but you have to.

You have to know why?

Why did he do this to you?

After all that, he said whenever he's with you, "He never wanted the crown." He never even cared about it for just one bit.

Is that all a ruse for you to get in bed with him? To give him your everything? I'm sure he can have any woman he wants but why?

Are you just enjoyment to him? That whenever you both are tangled in sheets. Does he think you're an idiot? That you gave him your love.

Did he really have to plant a yearning in your heart that the both of you can get away from all this if you all just disappear? Only for him not to show up and make you look foolish for waiting for nothing.

All you need is an answer.

Your steps are heavy as you go up the stairs of the palace. Deciding you must be near him even if you can only see his eyes. The eyes that you adore so much. Knowing you have suffered since he left, you can't deny your heart still loves him.

Pull down the hood of your cloak as you hear the proclaiming of his name, and that is the moment you see him.

You saw the man that left you. You cherish his white hair so much more than him because it reminds him of the duty of being a prince and son who must prove something to his mother and a father who clearly does not care about him.

As he walks while looking around at everybody, you try squeezing the people for a better look.

You saw him go up on the top, and then tiny words were exchanged, then a crown was placed onto his head as the screaming and clapping surrounded the place, but it seems that it does not even affect you not until you see his face.

It feels like a lifetime when he slowly turns and meets his people, who keep cheering for him as he raises his sword to the crowd.

That's when you immediately stop in your tracks and look at him. Then it hit you, and you already know the answers to your questions as his eyes say it all.

You don't even realize that you are crying, not when you feel a tear in your hands. In contrast to the people glorifying him, you have your heart pulled apart because you knew. You knew that he never really cared. That he never really wanted you. You are a girl he saw and decided to be his plaything while he waits for his crown.

The bridge you had when he was a prince just became even longer to cross now that he is a king.

But then you felt the searing heat of his look from across the podium to you.

At that moment, your eyes are locked as you try to wipe your tears to look not as miserable as you are, but your eyes do not seem to cooperate, and you hate it. You hated that you looked inadequate right in front of Aegon.

The shock was evident on his face. He must probably be thinking, why is this girl even here.

So before something happens to you. You shove yourself out to the crowd.

However, you saw a slight change in his demeanor, as if he wanted to say something. But instead, he immediately taunts you with a grin while looking at you up and down, and you feel even more disgusted with yourself for the first time.

You don't know how you got out but you got everything you needed.

You are just a little bit secure that he still does not know you had a child together because if he knew, you don't know what would happen to you and your child.

After what you saw today, you conclude that the Aegon you knew is not what he says he is.

He is a cold and awful person, and before it's too late, you and your child need to get out of the king's landing.

NOW!

***

I hope you enjoy this fic. 🌼

Reblogs are gold. 🌹

Feedbacks are always appreciated. 🌸

[snappleapple]

the bunny vs. the fox

dream x reader

hogwarts au

fluff and angst i suppose

warning - cursing, reader being a small b, simpy dream, underage drinking

word count - 6.8k

a/n: hi again! please enjoy this long boi while i go on another 8 month hiatus lol. also i legit had a heart attack cause i accidentally deleted this but i got it back so phew

the vibrant colors of your uniform stands out amongst the repelling amount of green present within the slytherin common room. you had been invited to the party on behalf of wilbur for their recent quidditch cup win against gryffindor, a game lost because of the carelessness and arrogance of your teammates. along with students from other houses, you stand next to the tall boy you had met when you got onto the train in your first year.

“wilbur, why am i here?” the question lingers in his ear as you point to your current attire of your uniform skirt, an oversized gryffindor sweater you borrowed from sapnap, your thick glasses and messy bed hair from taking a nap after the long game. “y/n? what are you doing here?” you turn your head to glance over at the younger boy, “that’s what i wanna know, tommy.” as you turn around to look at wilbur, another person bumps into you, “hey! watch where you’re going- y/n! what a surprise!” with the roll of your eyes, you dismiss him and reply sarcastically, “glad to see you’re not so shaken up from the recent failure of gryffindor, fundy.” he gives you a shit-eating grin before bouncing away to continue his search for pure alcohol.

as more students enter the already crowded room, a loud cheer begins to form as a boy is lifted into the air. “dream! dream! dream!” the crowd yells at the top of their lungs, which would probably attract a teacher soon, so you begin to sneak out of the room until a loud voice interrupts the cheers, “y/n! leaving the party so soon?” dream taunts with a smirk on his face, everyone’s attention turning towards you. “mind your own business, dream.” you spit out with venom, still bitter about your quidditch loss, as he scoffs and strides towards you, “i guess if you search up sore loser in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of y/n.” he mocks once again while you begin to get riled up from the obnoxious laughter erupting from the crowd. you turn around and begin heading for the door once more before hearing, “come on y/n. no one likes a sore loser.” turning around, you glare at the annoying boy, “come on dream. the only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner.” the both of you stare each other down while the whole room stays quiet. dream stands with an unsatisfied smirk on his face as he reaches into his pocket, possibly reaching for his wand. with the slight slip of your fingers and extra progression , you grasp your wand. but before you could fully pull out your wand, you get lifted into the air, over the shoulder of a ravenclaw. “we’ll be seeing you guys later.” he nonchalantly says while walking out of the room, giving you perfect view of dream, with a now satisfied shit-eating grin as he waves at you. you end your interaction with the slytherin with the show of your middle finger.

“techno! why? i could’ve totally won that battle.” the older boy shakes his head as he listens to your whines. “nope. i promised phil that i would keep you out of trouble.” you groan some more before stomping away back to the gryffindor common room, barely sparing a glance at the pink haired boy.

a week passes by and when you’re at breakfast, you lay your head against phil’s shoulder while he munches away on a buttered piece of toast, keeping conversation with fundy. dream hadn’t been bothering as bad as normal but he was still around you. you were a bit confused about his change in behavior but brushed it off, ignoring him and treating him as if he’s on his own menopause situation. twiddling your fingers, boredom begins to strike you in the great breakfast hall. well, once quiet hall, in which the silence is interrupted by the entrance of dream, sapnap and george. you would assume that since they are all from different houses, there would be a tolerance for peace, yet that never seemed like an option with dream. “hello y/n.” he smirks as you turn around to look at him with a stone cold expression. “what do you want?” you say with a scathing tone. ‘“nothing, just came to see how the most competitive person on gryffindor was doing after their recent loss.” with the use of your middle finger, you raise your glasses before giving dream an innocent grin, “i’m feeling good.” the hall goes quieter than it was before as dream sits next to you on the bench. as you leans closer to you, you put your hand under your head and turn your head towards him coyly. “and what do i owe the honor of being able to sit next to the dream? he rolls his eyes as sapnap and george laugh at your shenanigans. “i was just wondering if you would do me the honor of going out to hogsmeade with me?” shaking your head, you barely even glance over at the boy. “no.” dream’s expression remains stoic as he continues to look at you, “come on y/n.” you turn to stand up and leave. raising a stiff hand into the air, you wave to phil and fundy.

but before you could fully exit the great hall, a hand pulls you into the crevice of the walls. he puts his hand over your mouth to prevent you from saying a word. “y/n. please. please go out with me.” shaking your head once again, you give him a cheeky grin. “what will you do for me if i do?” dream pinches his nose bridge, “i’ll do your charms homework for a month.” he persuades with much hesitance. you fully extend your hand out to him and he wraps his large, warm hand around yours. the large grin on your face replicates the one on his face. “next week on saturday, meet me at the bridge to hogsmeade at nine am, sharp! but if you are even a minute late, i’m leaving and you’re still doing my charms homework.” dream closes his eyes and basks in the natural light from the bewitched sky, nodding his head.

the rest of the day, you go throughout your usual classes, occasionally listening to the gossip that spread like wildfire throughout the school. “oh my god, did you hear that l/n is going out with dream tomorrow?” or “i thought they hated each other?” in all honesty, you were beginning to get annoyed from all of the side conversations happening in all classes. luckily, you were in your last class of the day, unluckily, it was with slytherin, specifically dream’s class. a yawn erupts from your mouth as pull out a set of notes to get ready for your class. as the second yawn begins, a hand makes its way to your mouth. you glare at the boy who had already caused way too much mischief for your liking. he gives you a fake grin as he sits next to you. before you can retort to his stupid action, your professor struts into the room, quickly starting his lesson.

throughout most of the class, dream remains quiet, jotting down his notes or dragging his hand through his hair. but towards the end of the class, he leans his head on your shoulder. your body stiffens up as his hand makes its way to your thigh. “you better take your hand off my thigh if you want to keep it.” quiet chuckles erupt from his lips, “can i do this on our date?” you reciprocate soft chuckles, “do you want to die?” the grin on his face get replaced by a pout and puppy dog eyes. “why are you so mean to me?” you continue to scribble down notes, not sparing one glance at the boy, until he grabs your face with both of his hands, “look at me pout, y/n.” and when he turns you face towards him, your professor calls the both of you out. “miss l/n, please take your lovey dovey business outside of class.” your mouth hangs open but before you could protest, dream interrupts you, “will do professor.” his chuckles echo through the room as you slam your head into the table repeatedly until dream puts his hand on the desk, preventing you from bruising your forehead even more. “just let me bash my skull open and die.” dream pats your head, “i can’t have you die before our date.” cringing at his words, you frantically try to remove his hand so you could smash your head into the desk.

later that night at dinner, your face remains a disgusted pout as you imagine your date with dream. while you shudder in disgust, phil taps you out of your daze. “y/n, you really should snap out of it today.” he laughs jokingly along with fundy. your eyes roll as you turn back to your dinner plate full of random things phil stacked on so that you would actually eat dinner. after being forcefully fed one chicken leg and some mashed potatoes, you check the time which read eight twenty five, giving you five minutes to go to the black lake. “oh shit.” you exclaim as you grab all of your items while phil tries to stuff another chicken leg into your mouth. “phi-“ you shut up when the chicken successfully makes it into your mouth. as you sprint out of the hall carrying your school books, robe, wand and other unnecessary items fundy handed to you, your robe decides to slip out unbeknown to you.

when you arrive to the lake, you see him waiting for you already. you toss your items down next to him and sit down next to him. “you’re late. again.” heavy huffs of air erupt from your body as try to catch your breath, still holding the chicken leg phil stuffed into your mouth. “sorr-“ a cough leaves your lips, “sorry. phil was trying to get me to eat dinner.” the boy lets out deep chuckles as he ruffles your hair, “classic phil.” you lean back and balance your weight on the both of your hands as you stare out at the frozen lake. “techno, i don’t get why we have to meet outside in the freezing cold when there is a warm library open to us. i’m cold and i lost my robe on the way here. in a silent flash, a blue accented robe makes its way over into your sight, along with a bare arm. when you turn your head towards the boy, he says away and turns back to the lake, expressionlessly. a small smile erupts on your face as you turn back to the lake, wrapping the robe around your shoulders. before you could mutter a quick thank you, you get cut off, “don’t. lets not talk about this.”

after finishing whatever school work you needed to with techno, you walk back with him into the hallways, coincidentally just as dinner was ending. though you never found out where your robe was, you bump into a tall figure as you make your way through the hall with techno counting the tiles on the floor. a small oomf leaves your lips as the person puts his hands on your shoulders. “who’s robe is that? last time i checked you were in gryffindor, not ravenclaw.” you don’t need to look up to know who you were currently speaking with, “hello dream.” you could hear the smirk in his voice when he speaks again, “hello y/n. take this off.” dream retorts with a hint of teasing, “no. i’m cold and i lost my robe. so techno let me borrow his.” the other tall boy next to you nods in agreement. “uh no. i don’t like the sight of this.” dream complains with an unsatisfied look on his face before tugging the robe off of your body, throwing it at technoblade and then proceeding to wrap his robe around your body, slinging his arm over your shoulder. “that’s better.” he doesn’t even spare a glance at the older boy as he leads you away while you try to at least say goodbye to technoblade. “bye- dream i swear to god, bye techno!”

while the both of you continue to the gryffindor tower, he doesn’t let his arm on your shoulders falter. “what’s the deal with you and that guy.” you stop in place, turn to look at dream and mime yourself zipping your lips as if you were saying, ‘you get nothing out of me.’ dream rolls his eyes before throwing you over his shoulder and continuing his way over to the common room. “okay this is unnecessary. put me down, i’m wearing a skirt.” lightly hitting his back with your fist. “don’t worry about it, my robe is covering it up.”

at the door of the entrance, the fat lady stares at you in confusion. “can you put me down?” dream lets out a grunt of disagreement, “no. just tell her the password so i can come in and snuggle you.” you take a breath in of anger, “no. i need to finish homework, plus i’m going to see you again tomorrow.” another grunt comes out of the boy before he says the password to your common room, the fat lady begrudgingly letting the both of you in. “what?! you know the password?” he chuckles before setting you down, “of course, sapnap told me. and i come in here all the time to hook up with different gryffindor girls.” your face of disgust makes a wheeze leave his lips, “i’m joking. i finish homework with sapnap in his room, not hook up with girls. i’ll have you know, i haven’t even had my first kiss yet.” you scoff before turning towards your room, “goodnight dream.” but before you can progress any further, he grabs your wrist, “no.” your face scrunches up. staring the boy up and down, another scoff leaves your lips, “what do you mean ‘no’. i’m not giving you an option.” he pouts and opens his arms, “i jus wanna cuddle.” your face scrunches up in disgust once more before you take a step back, “wasn’t it last week when you were being a bitch about my quidditch team.” his arms fall down in realization but the pout remains visible. slightly annoyed but empathetic, you walk over to him, awkwardly wrapping your arms around his waist, patting him on his back gently. while he embraces you back, he leans down to whisper into your ear, “can we cuddle?” you let out groans before letting out a deep sigh, “fine. but you have to promise not to be too grabby, like right now. i did not tell you to grab my butt.” dream sheepishly shys away from you and grabs the hem of shirt while he follows you up the stairs while you try to maneuver him so he can actually make it up the enchanted stairs that only the girl’s dorm.

when you enter your dorm, you’re met by the friendly faces of your roommates. “h-hey guys.” with the motion of their hands, they tell you scoot over to see dream standing behind you with a smirk on his face. before he could walk into the room, you shut the door in his face, wanting to speak in private with your roommates. “don’t tell anyone about this. he was begging to cuddle and would not leave until i agreed. he’ll be gone by midnight tonight and i promise i’ll make sure he’s quiet.” your roommates stare at you before bursting out in laughter, “you’re going soft y/n!” a look of shock rushes over your face before hushing them, “i am not.” they shake their heads in disagreement, making you roll your eyes. when you open the door to let dream back into your room, your roommates pack their homework and walk towards the door. one roommate holds the door open while the other still collects her things, “we’ll be seeing you later y/n. so have fun with dream.” you hide your face in your pillow, embarrassed from their current attitudes about your situation. when they leave, dream sits on your bed while you stand up and walk over to your closet and grab a change of clothes. “just lay on the bed and i’ll be out soon.” dream nods, boredly flipping through a random book he found on your bed.

in the bathroom, you tie your hair in a messy bun, change into some sweatpants and a random oversized t-shirt, you think its either sapnap’s or wilbur’s, take your contacts out and put your glasses on, before proceeding to brush your teeth and exiting the bathroom.

sitting on the edge of your bed, you stare down at dream, hugging your pillow. “y/n, can you replace the pillow?” your expression quickly shifts from a neutral face to a cringing face. you ignore his words, “scoot over.” you say while grabbing the book dream was reading before you came out, opening it and tucking your legs underneath your comforter. another sigh leaves your lips as you tap the top of your thighs twice, letting dream know that he can lay his head onto your legs, in which he gladly does. about thirty minutes pass and your hand drags itself through his hair, occasionally leaving to flip the page of your book. you stay super into your book until dream speaks up, “y/n.” you let out a mhm of acknowledgement, letting him know you’re listening. “i don’t want to cuddle your legs, i want to cuddle you.” a small okay is heard from you as you put the book on your dresser, tucking yourself into your bed. your back faces away from dream. a shiver rolls down your spine as he wraps his arms around your waist, resulting in him breathing down your neck. goosebumps arise on your body. in the awkward silence of the room, the only things you can hear are the loud thumps of your heart and the even breaths from dream.

when you wake up the next morning, you move your arms to stretch them, but fail to do so in the embrace of dream. staring at his peaceful face, free of any frowns he had shown last night, you brush his bangs out of his eyes. with a glance at the seeping sunlight, you slowly slip out of his embrace, walking to the bathroom to get ready for the day. before you exit the room, you glance over at the sleeping boy on your bed. you roll your eyes before walking over to his side and sitting down on the edge of the bed, gently caressing his messy hair. he stirs in his sleep for a few seconds and as he opens his eyes. the first things he sees is you before pulling you towards his chest with you going down with a yelp. “dream!” he nuzzles his head into your neck, mumbling something incoherent. “say that again?” he mumbles some more, “i don’t know what you’re saying.” you chuckle in-between each word, he moves his head away from your neck, “i said you smell good.” dream stretches as you pull away from him, walking over to the door leading to the common room. “go clean yourself up and come to breakfast.” dream sluggishly drags himself out of your bed before grabbing his robe and your wrist, proceeding to drag you towards the door, the stairs turning into a slide underneath him while you wait for the stairs to turn back, laughing loudly at him. at the bottom of the stairs, you meet the friendly faces of phil, fundy and sapnap.

“y/n, why was dream in your room last night?” phil asks just a bit sarcastic but with a joyful smile on his face. sapnap’s face morphs into a smirk as his eyes move from your figure to dream’s and then back to yours. “you,” he says while staring at you before turning to dream on the floor, “and you.” sapnap then proceeds to make kissy faces earning a smack from you and a chuckle from dream, earning dream a smack from you as well. “dream is leaving anyways.” you say while pushing him out of your common room. phil, fundy, sapnap, you and dream make your way down the hall, “dream. go to your room and change.” he pouts once again before wrapping his hand around yours. once phil notices, he walks between the both of you, separating you and dream, making you stand on either side of him. when you glance up at phil, he just gives you his signature kind smile before turning back to his conversation with fundy. before you notice, dream had disappeared to god knows where, you get pulled behind a pillar, not being noticed from the three of your friends. “shh, y/n.” his hand covers your mouth until he lets go, “dream! what was the point of this, we were with each other like five minutes ago.” he ignores your words and drags you towards the slytherin common room, finishing what he started earlier by holding your hand.

while you wait for dream to finish getting ready in his room, you sit in the common room, greeted by the not so friendly faces of other slytherins, disregarding wilbur sitting at your side, telling you about the dragon he was raising in the dark forest. when dream comes back out, the color of your uniform stands out so brightly in the dark green room. wilbur sits next to you with his beanie on. “wilbur, aren’t you tired? you have black circles under your eyes.” he shakes his head with optimism, “it’s for the aesthetic. don’t worry about them. oh hello dream!” your eyes shift from wilbur to dream. dream leads you out of the common room as the both of you walk down the quiet and empty halls towards breakfast. dream wraps his robe around your shoulders, “i know you get cold easily.” you look up at him with a small smile engulfed by sadness, “thanks.”

as you walk down the long hallway, you finally feel the courage to speak up. “dream,” you pause waiting for a response from the tall boy. he lets out a hum to let you know he’s listening, “why are you doing this?” the question slips from your lips with doubt and concern. “doing what?” dream answers back with his own question. “well for one,” you pause once again with uncertainty, “pretending to like me. just a week ago, you were being a jerk to me and all of a sudden, you just begin to pursue me. and i want to know why.” dream stops in place while you continue by yourself, “what do you mean pretend to like you? i do like you.” now it was your turn to stop, “no you don’t. you can’t just begin to like someone all of a sudden. nothing works like that. so, i’m going to ask you something and i want you to answer sincerely, okay?” dream’s face falls into a guilty expression as he stares at the floor, “how much?” you maintain the soft expression on your face while continuing to gaze at the tall boy, “fifteen galleons.” a tiny huff of air leaves your lips as you a soft small appears on your face in slight disbelief, eyes slightly tearing up. you walk away for a while before speaking once again, “i hope it was worth it.” you take off his robe and drop it on the floor as you walk away from him.

as you enter the great hall for breakfast, you sit next to phil quietly. with a small eye smile, you tell phil that you’re not that hungry and just take a sip out of your tea. “so , y/n. you and dream huh?” sapnap teases, “there’s nothing between us.” your cold tone resonates throughout the gryffindor table, “woah, no need to get your panties in a bunch.” he teases as the other boys around you laugh. angered, you stand up and grab his collar, pulling him towards you over the table, “i said there’s nothing. so fuck off and mind your own business.” your empty hand crunches up, turning your fist white. phil abruptly stands up and gently puts his hand on your shoulder as a signal to tell you to calm down. you could feel all eyes on you but could honestly care less. releasing his collar, the boy looks at you after being scolded by phil for butting into a girl’s business. “i’m sorry y/n. i didn’t mean to that insensitive.” you snap out of your rage induced glare and decide to mutter a small apology as well before walking out of the hall.

“y/n!” another glare arises on your face at you look at the culprit that made you angry. “i’m sorry for the bet, but i was just using that as an excuse because i kept denying the fact that i like you.” dream attempts to grab your hand like he did earlier that day but you snatch your hand away. “don’t bother lying now because i didn’t even believe you earlier.” your reply marked with extreme sarcasm. you turn around to stomp towards your common room once again. “y/n, please. what will it take for you to realize that i actually like you.” with a glance over your shoulder, you look at dream one last time, “leave me the fuck alone.”

as the week passed, it was the day of your date with dream. you stayed in your dorm for most of the day, eventually going out to eat at meal times. dream waited for you at the bridge that leads to hogsmeade for hours until finally leaving when sapnap came to tell him that you weren’t coming.

on the day of your quidditch game with ravenclaw, you lay in bed, staring at the spot dream had once been in with you. you’ve seen dream around but never even glanced towards him, isolating yourself quietly with your small group of friends. dream, for the most part, left you alone besides the points where he hangs out with sapnap in the gryffindor common room. you rarely spoke and only did when it was necessary. before you realize, you’re in the shower room, getting dressed in your uniform. sapnap leads you towards the field and your team flies onto the field. technoblade flies up towards you in attempt to speak to you for the first time that week. “hey munchkin. how’s it going.” you drag your hands through your hair, messing it up after phil had worked so hard to keep it neat. “dream told me he liked me. but his antics started after i confronted him about his bet.” techno’s eyes soften as he ruffles your hair, “i don’t want to sour your mood even more, but he’s sitting in gryffindor stands right now. just for your own information.” you roll your eyes and fly over to your side, bat in hand. the huffs of your breaths could be seen in the snowy weather of winter.

for most of the game, you played extremely aggressive. you nearly hit sapnap once and actually hit fundy while ravenclaw scored over and over again. “y/n! get down here!” you hear the rough voice of your quidditch captain call, “what’s wrong with you l/n? you never play this recklessly. sit out this game, we can have someone else sub for you.” dream watches you from the stands. you stare at your captain in disbelief before nodding and walking off the field.

walking down the hallways, dream follows you with silent steps in order to not attract any unwanted attention. “what do you want dream?” you ask without turning around to look at the boy. “y/n,” before he can finishes, he pauses, allowing time for you to interrupt, “i asked for what you wanted, not my name.” you let out the sarcastic and sappy reply. “y/n, i’m sorry i put you in such a shitty situation and because of that, inevitably hurt our relationship. the stupid relationship that makes me smile every time i think about you or when someone mentions your name.” dream walks towards you with caution while also watching your reaction. once he realizes that you’re okay with his presence, he pulls you into his embrace. your face gets buried into his chest. “i hate you. i hate that you made me believe you loved me. i hate that i like you despite you being an ass. i hate that we have an unspoken rivalry. i hate how you make butterflies appear with any spoken word and how you’re a touchy person that needs to hold my hand wherever we go.” dream’s chuckles echo in the hall along with his body. “i didn’t know you hated me so much.” you push away from him with a small smirk on your face, “i do. you just have a punchable face.” dream lets out an exaggerated gasp as he holds his hand over his heart, “i’m offended.” he pouts once again, a smile expanding on his face.

“but will you officially do me the honor of going out on a date with me on tomorrow? no bets, no money, nothing. just a boy in love.” you cringe at first then pretend to think about it for a while before finally making eye contact with him, “no.” his smile doesn’t falter, “okay then, i’ll see you at the bridge at nine thirty.” you raise your eyebrows in confusion as the boy walks three steps ahead of you, “come on y/n.” he taunts as if you are a dog. with the roll of your eyes, you skip up towards him and he wraps one of his arms around your shoulder. “you’re not busy right now, are you?” a small laugh leaves your lips as you stare at the tall boy, “well, i just kicked out of my quidditch game, so no? but then again, i’m sort of sweaty so i might need to take a shower.” he ignores you once again and continues walking towards your dorm. as he begins to sound out the password, you cut him off. “look dream, i like you okay?” dream nods with a sly smirk, “but not enough for you to come in.” patting him on his back, you tell the lady the password and walk into the common room. his smirk falters as you leave him standing outside the common room door. dream’s eyes stay on you until he fat lady closes the portrait door. “rejected!” she sings before dream walks away with the roll of his eyes.

the next day at around nine twenty, you walk up from your bed. “oh my god!” you yell checking the time. running to your bathroom, you turn the your sink on quickly, brushing your teeth and your hair before running out to go change. at nine twenty five, you run down the busy halls, occasionally bumping shoulders with some random people. “y/n? where are you going?” fundy asks while watching you run. you stop briefly, “date. dream. waiting. late.” breathing out each word slowly due to your lack of breath. as you begin to start running again, phil and fundy watch you receding figure. by nine thirty two, you make it to the entrance of the bridge, seeing dream standing there with a small smile on his face. “you’re late.” you let out coughs and heave out heavy breaths before speaking again. “sorry. i woke up later than expected.” while you try to catch your breath, dream stares at you lovingly before getting a mischievous glint in his eyes, “am i that breathtaking y/n?” a frown appears on your face before you begin to walk back towards the castle, “no, y/n. i was kidding.”he chuckles as he grabs your hand, the warmth from his hand immediately seeping into your cold hand.

after walking around for a while hearing the crisp crunch of the snow, dream’s hand remains in yours. to be honest, he hasn’t even let your hand go since the beginning of your date. while you were at honeydukes, he held your hand, at dervish and banges, he held your hand, scrivencraft’s, dream. hand. your. hand. he would constantly whine whenever you tried to let go and if you did, he would opt to putting an arm over your shoulder. you walk around with dream until finally reaching the three broomsticks.

you tell dream to get the two of you a table while you go to order drinks. while you wait to pick up the drinks at the counter, you turn around to see dream with a posse full of girls around the tiny table. with the role of your eyes, you dismiss his cocky attitude and turn back towards the lady making your drinks. “is that the boy you came in with?” you life your head off of your palm and look up at the older lady, “yes ma’am.” loud giggles could be heard from behind you as you continue to ignore them, your clenched fist turning slightly whiter by the minute. the older lady looks down at you with sympathy, “you’re jealous.” taken aback from her absurd comment, you look at her with disbelief and large eyes. “jealous? jealous of that?” you say while turning around to point at dream and the girls basically hanging off of his body. “there’s a certain amount of pride a lady can hold herself to and there is no way i’m stooping down that low. sure, call me jealous if you want, but don’t compare me to that mess over there.” you slam down one galleon and walk away from the counter and out the door. dream watches your whole interaction happen and abrubtly stands up after watching you exit the pub. “sorry ladies, but my girl needs some tending to.” he walks out, ignoring the symphony of pleads.

“stupid. stupid. how could i have gotten so mad. she was just making an observation.” you murmur to yourself, feeling apologetic to the older lady who was just as surprised as you after you went off on your tangent. you sit on a bench, which overlooking the mountains near the school. you hit your head with the palm of your hand continuously until a warm hand stop you. “why’d you run away bunny?” you slip your wrist out of his grasp, “not run. walked. and it was because of something that happened to me and the waitress. she may or may not have said something i disagreed with and i may or may not have gone off about it at her.” dream sits down next to you, leaving no space in-between the both of you despite the bench being able to seat four people. “oh bunny-“ once again annoyed, you interrupt him, “why are you calling me bunny?” he chuckles as he watches you stand up to walk off, “because,” dream reciprocates your action and stands up as well, wrapping his arms around your neck and pulling you into his chest. “despite you being in gryffindor, you’re like a cute bunny to me. you’re the smartest person i know and love being around people. despite those traits, you are also bratty, willful and vengeful. it takes a certain person to deal with me and you work with me. we’re like the modern life lady and the tramp.” hesitantly, you wrap your arms around his waist.

“now bunny, what did the lady say to you?” you let out a small murmur of no before pulling away from him. “you don’t need to know.” a mischievous smile erupts on his face, “but i want to know.” you shake your head in response, “but you don’t need to.” with a slight side step, you stare up at the boy. “bunny.” he replies sternly, “if you don’t reply in five seconds, something bad is going to happen to you.” he uses his fingers count down to zero, “five, four, three,” in the meantime, you begin to run away from the boy, “get away from me!” you yell as you try to the reach the sanctuary of the presence of other students. before you could, you get tackled to the ground, “i asked you nicely y/n.” a second before you could repent, he begins to tickle you. “no. i’m sorry. i’ll tell you.” you wheeze out, “its too late bunny.” he continues to tickle you for what feels like hours, on the cold snow on the ground, until he gets tackled off of you, “get off of her!” you sit up to see fundy on top of dream, pinning his hands down while sapnap grabs dreams legs. their interrogation of dream gets interrupted by your laughs. their attention gets turned towards you, “you dunces. he wasn’t attacking me, he was tickling me.” fundy and sapnap’s faces turns into a surprised look as they turn to look at each other before looking back at you and getting off of dream. “my bad bro. we didn’t know.” sapnap replies as he and fundy scurry off to the safety of philza.

you stare at dream with an amused smirk as he continues to lay on the ground, pouting at the sudden interaction. you reach your hand down to help him up, “why couldn’t you make friends with hot girls that would tackle me.” before he could grab your hand, you pull it back and walk away, teasing him. “wait y/n, are you actually offended from what i said?” dream stands up and jogs over towards you, “cause i love that you have friends in general.” your face scrunches up as you stare him, “okay, fox.” now it was time for his face to scrunch up, “what did you just call me.” he says, not stating it as a question but rather a statement. “i called you fox.” his eyesbrows raise in confusion, “i’m bunny and you’re fox.” dream stares at you before grabbing your hand and walking towards the castle, “okay, i’ll be fox if you’re bunny.” smiles erupt on both of your faces as you continue to joke around on your trip towards the castle.

the first time you say i love you back to dream is from the day he pouted the entire night and while also hiding from you in the safety of his room. “beau, what’s wrong with you today?” when he finally looks up at you, he tries to keep a stern expression, but it falls into a smile as he pulls you close to him. “why don’t you ever say i love you back?” small chuckles erupt from your body as you play with his dirty blonde hair, “because i thought you knew how much i loved you. but if you need confirmation, you could’ve just told me.” he groans in slight embarrassment, “i love you so much to the point that i would do anything you ask me to. i would even kill sapnap for you.” now it was dream’s turn to chuckle, “thank you y/n. i love you too.” for the rest of the night, he didn’t let you go, meaning, you had to sneak back into your common room at four in the morning, hiding from the watchful gaze of philza.

about five months pass, and your relationship with dream prospers. at any quidditch game, you or him would be spotted in the crowd, or actually versing each other. in that case, he would stay so close to you, occasionally throwing around flirty comments at you or basically handing you the bludger. other times, when you study in the library with techno or phil, he always sits in the corner of the library with george, never being secretive. “what george? say that again.” leaving you to ignore him. whenever parties occur, you always try to walk around and mingle while he attaches himself to your side, greeting everyone you talk to. when he gets deadbeat drunk, he becomes clingy times one million, “y/n, don’t leave me.” and you reply, ‘this is my room.” cries and loves to snuggles into your neck when you come back a minute later. you’re not gonna lie but man is in lsg, little spoon gang. he loves being little spoon when he’s drunk but sober dream is another story. always has to be big spoon to keep his reputation up and has absolutely no recollection of being little spoon, so its your little secret with drunk dream. when you do your homework, he lays on your bed, usually taking a nap despite his eight page essay being due the next day. weekly hogsmeade dates, will literally buy you anything you set your eyes on, not even caring about the price. sometimes you wonder where that money even comes from. in total, will chase you down nonstop while you run away from his antics.

your relationship is well known around the school as the complex bunny and the sly fox.

philza still doesn’t approve though.

[clefairymuke]

regrets | chapter three

prev. chapter | next chapter

pairings: levi ackerman x reader / eren jaeger x reader

themes: enemies to lovers, slowburn, angst, fluff, smut

tw: violence / explicit sexual content

word count: 1760

Levi's words had undeniably left you a bit shaken; this contributed to the pit in your stomach when you approached his door for the second time that day. Something about the way he glared at you -- so angry yet calm, terrifying yet serene -- had been the frontmost thing in your mind all day. His eyes cut straight through you in a way that you had never experienced. You nearly shivered as you raised your hand to knock on the door. You knocked twice and stood back, waiting for him to say, "Come in."

He didn't, though. He opened the door within moments, like he had been waiting. He looked different now. He was not wearing his typical uniform and cravat combo, which you thought made him look like a dunce anyways. He was dressed in a simple grey long-sleeve shirt and brown pants. On his feet were a pair of white socks. When your eyes came to his face, you noticed that his hair was a bit messy. If he wasn't such a pain in your ass, he might have been somewhat attractive.

"Are you going to keep staring, or are you going to say something?" he asked, breaking you from your unknowing trance of studying him. And with that, all of your musing about him disappeared and he was back to being the bane of your existence.

"I was just trying to figure out how you managed to pull that stupid tie from around your neck without having a conniption. I thought you probably showered in it," you told him as he stood back to let you in. The room was as you left it last, completely tidy.

"How did you make it this far being this disrespectful?"

"A lot of determination. So what exactly am I to clean?" You looked around searching for even a speck of dust. None was to be found.

He scoffed at you. "Do you honestly think I sleep, cook, and shower at this very desk? Believe it or not, I function pretty similarly to the average human being. I did say you would be cleaning the entire suite."

"Okay, asshole. You don't have to make me feel like an idiot." You felt the blood rushing to your cheeks and tried desperately to fight it off, if such a thing was possible.

"It's easier because you truly are one."

"An idiot?"

"That is what I said. Do you have hearing problems, brat?" He combed a piece of hair out of his face as you huffed. "Can you just get to cleaning and get the fuck out of my hair? If you would just be obedient and stop doing stupid shit, we'd never have to be in this situation again."

"If you would've minded your own business and let us have a little extra food, we wouldn't have to be anywhere near each other, either!" You threw your hands up in an overly exaggerated shrug. Messing with Levi was no longer fun. It was utterly infuriating. "What do you care if I'm a little disobedient? How does it affect you, Levi?"

"For the last time, you will refer to me as your Captain. And that is exactly why it matters to me. You will not ignore my authority. I will have your respect, feigned or otherwise." He was glaring at you again, the same look in his eyes from earlier. You tried to match his intensity as you scraped the bottom of your soul for as much courage as you could muster.

"What have you done to make me respect you, Levi? It isn't like you respect me. Or anybody. You don't watch your words for anyone, what makes you think you deserve for me to watch mine because of a stupid title?" You were absolutely fuming with rage towards the man in front of you. His muscles were tense and his jaw was clenched tightly. You wondered if you had seen Levi angry now. Would he be able to make the same threatening comment after this interaction?

Within a second, he had you frozen. He said your name roughly, almost as a growl, and was now so close the ends of his hair brushed your cheeks. "You will not speak to me this way. Continue to treat your superiors as peers. You won't make it past the first mission. Do not become a casualty over a stupid fucking complex." You were sure he was angry now. Your blood was running cold against your will. "Stop looking for attention. If you keep going down this path, the most you will get is at your funeral in the very near future."

For the first time, you had no snark reply to his rage-inducing words. All you truly wanted to do was hit him. It was nearly impossible not to. Your fists were so harshly clenched you could feel the crescent-shaped wounds forming on your palms. All you could form a coherent thought to say was, "Fuck you, Levi."

He backed up, likely for your safety. His hand rose to grip his hair as he exhaled slowly. "Get the hell out. I can't stand to look at you. Forget your punishment. You cannot fix blatant stupidity."

You accepted his invitation and stormed towards the door, Levi following closely behind. he reached in front of you and practically tore the door off of the wall, slamming it as soon as your feet planted in the hallway.

You wanted to scream.

---

You sat in a pile of hay at the stables, still filled with anger. You had no way to release it except pressing your fingernails deeper into your palms as you replayed the fight over and over in your brain. You wanted to storm back up to his room and punch him in the face. You despised the smug look on his face as he taunted you. He could dish out any disrespect he wanted, but as soon as you returned the favor, you may as well be dead.

You heard hay rustling a few yards away. You stood quietly, one hand on the hilt of one of your swords and the other on the trigger for your ODM gear. You began to walk slowly towards the noise, saying, "Hello?" when you drew near. You could see a figure, but it was too dark to know who it was for sure.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you were on stables tonight."

It was Eren. He was brushing the mane of a horse as he spoke. You let your guard down.

"What the hell are you doing?" you asked rather harshly. You hadn't meant to say it so angrily.

"Woah, what's wrong with you?" he questioned, placing the brush on the rack to his left and stepping away from the horse. You leaned against the wall next to him.

"I really, really hate Captain Levi," you told him honestly, pinching the bridge of your nose between two fingers.

"Hey, me too. But what's your reasoning?" He kind of laughed with his words, cheering you up a bit.

You told him the story. By the end, you were sitting together in the hay. When you finished, you placed your hands behind your head and leaned back until you were laying down, facing the stars. Eren followed suit.

"Trust me, I get it," he told you, a smile hinting in his voice. "He publicly beat the shit out of me. He's not exactly in my top ten favorite people." You laughed, your first time smiling since breakfast. "I don't even think you have a top ten, Eren. Maybe a top two."

"Nah, you're up there somewhere. Probably Reiner and Bertholdt, too. Make it a top five." He looked over at you, pulling his eyes away from the night sky. You did the same. You noticed his eyes were a really pretty green. Jean would puke if he knew you had really just thought that. You chuckled at the thought.

"What have I done to get into Eren Jeager's top five?" you asked him, interested. The two of you hadn't really talked previously.

"Well," he stretched a bit, his shirt lifting to expose a bit of his stomach, "your awful taste in friends aside, you seem like a good person. Fun. Smart. Interesting. Typical top five traits. Your looks definitely aren't a detriment."

You hoped he couldn't see you blush in the dark surrounding you. "Jean would kill me if he knew we were hanging out right now." It was true, but you mostly wanted to redirect the conversation. Eren basically telling you that you were pretty made you happy and made you want to crawl into a deep, dark hole at the same time. Emotions and compliments were not your strong suit.

"Jean doesn't have to know everything, you know. Mikasa wouldn't be a big fan, either." You thought about that for a moment.

"Mikasa is in love with you. Jean hates your guts. There's a bit of a difference in their reasoning, I would say," you told him, grinning.

He ignored your comment about Mikasa and focused on you, instead. "Sure, Jean hates me. But do you?" He looked at you expectantly, his green eyes growing larger.

You looked away for a moment, embarrassed. Then you looked back and met his gaze. "No, I don't suppose I do. Should I?"

"I'd prefer if you didn't, honestly. You're pretty fun to talk to." His lips pulled into a smile as he looked at you meekly. You would typically describe Eren as anything but meek. It suited him.

You looked at each other for a few moments. You noticed how his hair fell messily over his forehead, almost touching his eyebrows. It looked nice shaggier like that. You, for whatever reason, found yourself hoping he didn't cut it anytime soon. He had a slender nose that came to a nice point above his cupid's bow. His lips were slightly parted. They looked inviting.

After a comfortable silence, you finally said, "Jean doesn't make my decisions for me, you know. Nobody does."

You saw his eyes moving slowly, studying your face. You didn't try to prevent yourself from blushing this time. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"Why is that?" you asked as his face drew closer to yours. Suddenly, Eren was kissing you. Your face grew hot as he pulled away, but you put your hands behind his head and pulled him back towards you. As his hand traveled under your shirt, your worries about explaining this to Jean faded away completely.

[ethereallchan]

A game we play - Han Jisung

Genre: Angst, fluff, College!au;enemy (or rivals) to lovers. not really a slow burn, but not that fast either. 

Pairing: Han Jisung x fem!reader feat best friend!Minho and Cousin/roommate!Changbin 

Word count: 16.4k 

Warning: Vivid depiction of one’s fear towards rain, language. 

Han Jisung hates you and the feeling is mutual. So when Minho offers both of his best friends to play a game, neither of them knows what exactly lies beneath his actual intention because love and hate is simply both sides of a coin that he easily flips.

The train abruptly stopped in its track, prompting out a curse from your mouth. Your footing almost lost its balance but a quick reflect of your hand to the seat protected you from planting your face to the train’s floor and saved your dignity. The action earned you a couple of stares from the old couple that was seated on where your hand has held the grab. There wasn’t even any ounce of yourself that cared as your focus was entirely on the watch encircling your wrist, showing that you might’ve been late for your daily run to the coffee shop.

You were indeed, late. Your frowned lips turn into a scowl as you opened up the latest text  that Jisung has sent you. A picture of his hand holding a coffee cup with the background of your uni, the text read out, ‘guess who’s gonna give Minho his morning drink, alone?’

When you furiously texted him as how he was being so unfair because he lived in a walking distance to the uni while you had to take the train to even get to the nearest station of it, a speaker inside the train beeped. Your finger was just finished at pressing send when the notification came out.

“Good morning passengers, we regret to inform that there will be a slight delay to our arrival as–”

You didn’t even bother listening. Another text is typed out from your phone, informing your other friend that you would be late to your first class. There was a slight pause before you suspected that your other friend was probably already seated on the your class near Jisung and your suspicion was proven true as another text was sent to you from the man himself.

Fingers hovering on the notification, you heaved a breath before mentally preparing yourself to open it.

‘boohoo who’s late and not getting a stamp today????’ was the text with a picture of a stamped paper.

’Shut up you prick’

'A prick who’s one stamp richer than you so who’s the real winner here ;)’ the image of him smirking while typing the text was projected in your mind and there was nothing that you wanted in this world than to wipe that look in his face as soon as you could meet him.

But for now, your plotted revenge needs to be refrained as you stuck inside the stagnant train.

[]

When your professor has told you to make any kind of dance project in pairs, your mind has already decided on one person and one person only. Lee Minho was the prodigy when it comes to dancing, the said person was notoriously famous over getting inside the campus with nothing but his awards from dancing alone. Snatching a chance of having a duet with him meant that snatching an absolute 'A’ along with a guarantee of passing the class. Only fools could turned down the opportunity and you weren’t dumb. Minho was also one of your close friends so it would be an advantage for you to ask him to be your partner. Based on your latest meetings with him, you were positive that he was going to ask you the same thing.

Or so you thought.

By the time the bell rang, the conference hall has erupted into balls of words. Conversations were exchanged and cheers were easily thrown into the air. However, you stayed still on your chair and tidied up your belongings, not moving until most of the class has already exited the hall.

Slowly you made your way to Minho’s chair, his was five chairs on your right and you found that a small crowd has already gathered. There was no choice that he would be a top candidate to be picked, but you could hear his polite refusal to some people and it lit up a small fire of pride within yourself.

The crowd dissipated once one of them caught on seeing you, your presence alone emitting all the unsaid reasons of why Minho is refusing to be someone else’s duet partner. The man cracked a smile upon your arrival, a small nod of acknowledgement was also given.

“So, do you have anyone in mind as your duet partner?” You smirked, knowing damn well about what was his answer going to be.

“Well,–”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

Both Minho’s head and yours snapped out to the source of the voice, the owner tilting his head ever so slightly to stare at Minho. Even his voice itself irritated you to the bone and you couldn’t help but scoffed lightly while rolling your eyes. He ignored your act altogether, before adding “We talked about this last night, right?”

Han Jisung was one of Minho’s closest friend as both of them shared schools from elementary to university. There was no point in arguing that he definitely has more memories of Minho in his life compared to you, but your memories with Minho was, albeit fewer, were equally as indelible, like that time where he suggested that both of you should try auditioning for a stripper job since your monetary problem weren’t getting better (and how you both actually got the job, but that’s a story for another time). The problem with your relationship with Jisung was it somehow become a competition between both of you as you two fight each other for Minho’s favouritism.

Since Jisung was a music major instead of dance, he despised the time where you both would share stories about dance and all your adventures together in college. While you found it extremely revolting when the men would start reminiscing the old days and mentioned the names you had no idea who they were.

In short, both of the parties refused to share someone as their best friend. Also, neither parties refused to give up because they were extremely mulish as a character.

“You’re not even part of the dance major, Han.” Also the fact that the kid didn’t allow you to refer to him with nothing but his family name had kept you on edge from the very first time. It was like he didn’t even try to fake being a nice guy in your relationship. It seemed like he clearly stated, implicitly that he wouldn’t even try and get to know you even better. “In case you have no idea, we need to use both our legs and hands in dancing, gracefully and powerfully. I fail to see anything about grace and power from yourself. Except probably your power to ruin someone’s eardrums everytime you sing.”

Minho snickered a bit at that and earned a hard glare from the other man. Of course Minho wasn’t stupid, he knew about the rivalry bond between his two best friends and he somehow found it quite amusing. The constant bickering was something he always looked forward to when the two of you met.

“Excuse me? You call flailing your arms everywhere without details dancing? What’s next? Moving one beat too fast on your first showcase a talent, now?” Jisung gibed you about that one accident that almost cause you your scholarship, knowing damn well that it was your weakness. “Holy shit, at least the Dean won’t have to call my name with a speaker for the whole uni to know.”

Your eyes narrowed at him, fingernails digging at your own flesh out of rage. “That’s fucking dirty, Han.”

The other boy gave you a shrug and a smirk, “I’ve never said anything about playing it fair and square, babe.”

Before you could respond, Minho stood up. His arms outstretched between both of you, trying to calm his friends down. “Okay, let’s end it right here.” Whatever the things that going to come from either of your mouth won’t be all playful and enjoyable. “Let’s all go and grab some coffee, how about that?” He didn’t need to wait for the answer as he knew just how much the three of you liked the drink. After all, it was something he learn to love as a kid with Jisung and something that caused the bond between both of you were possible in the first place.

Minho walked ahead, leaving both of you to follow him but not before giving each other stinky faces consisted of crossed eyes and tongue stuck out.

[]

There was no conversation exchanged between the two of you as Minho forced you to sit on the table facing each other while he went to the counter and ordered for the three of you. Jisung lazily scrolled at his phone, nothing caught his attention as he simply wanted to avoid talking to you. It was proven to be in vain as you started to speak as he could feel his body heaved a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Han, for god sake what the fuck were you doing?” You leaned forward to hiss at the boy, eyes darting to Minho to make sure that he couldn’t listen. “It’s a dance project!”

Jisung rolled his eyes at you, his body leaning backward to rest at the back of the chair. “I’m not stupid, I know. The thing is I also have a project that I need to work on from Professor Jung. We were told to make a song based on a collab from the other art faculty students. And it’s just fair that I asked Minho to be my partner.”

Your finger moved to pinch at the bridge of your nose, eyes closing. “So you’re going to make a song that the both of you are going to dance with?”

He shrugged at that, “See, you’re not that stupid at all.”

Eyes snapped open to glare at him, you paused for a while before asking him about whether he already asked Minho to be his partner. What you got as a response was simply a scoff and a raise of one of his eyebrows, like he was taunting you. “What do you think?” he said, and in that moment you knew that there was a huge chance of Minho not being your partner.

The man himself returned with your ordered drinks to the table and both of your attention diverted into helping him so that he won’t drop the drinks. Minho mumbled a quick thanks before sitting beside you, earning another scoff from Jisung. “So, I’m sure you guys are confused.” He started, carefully looking at the both of you.

“She maybe is, but I’m not. I know exactly who my partner is.” The boy in front of you sipped at his drink, and it took everything of you to not throw the drink on your hand to his face.

It’s not worth it, you thought to yourself, making mental notes of happy thoughts like the way they told you to do in those yoga dvds your mom always blasted on the speaker. get it together.

Beside you, Minho gave a slight chuckle. It might be a mistake on your hearing, but you noticed a hint of nervousness in it. “Yeah, about that, I might have made some mistake?” even he was unsure of his own sentence.

“What?” It was Jisung’s, the shock evident on his voice somehow made you feel happy inside. He was caught off guard, just like you but the difference was the way it caught both of you. There was a hope in you becoming Minho’s partner.

“Well, you see. I knew that I said yes to Jisung’s offer and we-” he gestured to you, “-had some kind of unsaid agreement when it comes to project. Since it’s unfair to both of you because you two are my best friends, I feel like we should start over again.”

You voiced out your confusion, and by the look of Jisung’s face, you voiced out his mind as well. “Start over? What do you mean?”

Minho took a sip of his drink before leaning back to his chair, “I don’t know, I feel like I need to make the decision of who’s going to be my partner a little more objective. Unbiased and all, you know? To make it fair. I just don’t want both of you to actually hate each other.”

Jisung snickered at that, but he didn’t say anything.

“My point is, a little friendly competition between the two of you wouldn’t hurt, right?“ He paused a bit to look at the reactions, and when he realized the only thing he got from both of his best friend’s was confusion, he continued, “The person who could be someone that is extremely helpful to me will win.”

“So,” you trailed off, nose scrunching as you processed what Minho just said, “You want us to be your servant?”

The boy laughed, “Not to that extent, you’re making me look bad. You know, a person that would be willing to be woken up in the middle of the night to watch a video of my cat, sort of stuff.”

Everyone was met by the complete silence after that before Jisung asked, “For how long? I mean the project is due in 2 month. At least mine is, I don’t know about yours.”

“Yeah, us is also the same and as much as I hate saying this,” you heaved a breath, head cocking towards the boy in front of you, “He’s right, we’re kinda tight on schedule.”

It was Minho’s turn to scoff at your words, “Jisung could make a dope song and you could make a choreography in less than a week. Don’t expect too low from yourself, I know you two could do well.”

Was it supposed to give you some kind of encouragement? You weren’t the most confident one when it comes to dancing thanks to the fear of messing up, the trauma of the first showcase still haunting you. There was always a sliver of doubt within your heart, a voice whispering that you would never be good enough, and for now the voice happily sang the tune of mockery, that it would be better for Minho to partnered up with Jisung as both were known as prodigies in their own talent. You were ready to voice out your intention of pulling out from this 'competition’ when you felt Jisung’s look bore into yours. His brown gaze held yours for a beat longer and sharper than it usually were, making you slightly nervous and immediately drank your drink to free yourself from the captive that was his eyes.

“Well we’re certainly in, right?” Jisung looked at you and at that time you wondered if he knew that you were avoiding his gaze, too occupied with your own thoughts that you stayed quiet. “Right, babe?” He pressed on, a smirk on his face.

You snapped at the nickname, a frown formed on your lips as you despised hearing the nickname rolled from his mouth. “Of fucking course.” You said, your insecurities flied off the window for a short while. Right now you only wanted him to lose. “When will we start?”

“Great! We could start tomorrow then.” The mastermind of the plan snickered before finishing up his drink, “Also I’ve been wanting to do this, so I hope you guys have your notebook or paper prepared because I want to give stamps to the person that I deem helpful for every task.”

You wanted to say something along the line of “what do you think we are? Kindergarten children?” But then decided on how both Jisung and your banter usually consisted of something very childish and small, maybe that was the reason why Minho was doing this.

[]

The only class that the three of you shared together despite Jisung’s different major was English, in which all students need to take. In the beginning of the school year, everyone could pick the schedule they wanted, however it was far too late to ask for a slightly late class as every class was already taken so the three of you took the first class in Tuesday. A morning class in which Minho would have to sit between the two of his best friends that would argue about everything.

For now, it’s a Tuesday’s morning class in which both of you raced to be the first person that would give Minho his daily dose of caffeine. The fact that your apartment’s location was a hindrance to the task never seemed to faze you as you would try your best to set an alarm earlier so that you would still stood the chance of buying the coffee. It was mostly you that was able to do so except for the fated day that the train betrayed your prevision of time.

You came late to the point where you only had five minutes of class remaining, with all eyes turned at you when the door to the lecture hall was opened. Trying hard to show that it didn’t bother you in any way (It did, extremely), you made your way to the professor with your eyes trained at her, your breath heaving from the result of running. The professor shot her look at you menacingly but it softened when you handed her the paper from the train to notify that you were late because of things that were outside of your control. She sighed before motioning you to sit, the only place left was the seat in the very front that would need you to strain your neck in order to look up to the presentation.

Silently thanking about the remaining time of the class, you complied. You didn’t even got the chance to properly laid out your stationery (which consisted only of a notebook and a pen) when the bell rang, signaling the end of the class. The situation was so comical that you couldn’t help but laugh, your hands covering your face to suppress the sound. Your mind wandered at how you ran so hard from the station only to arrive when the class ended not to mention how you failed at getting your stamp from Minho.

You could hear him approaching your seat along with Jisung, the former immediately sat on the vacant seat next to you. “All that running for nothing, huh?” He snickered, patting you on the head.

“Not to mention the failure of acquiring any stamps.” Jisung’s hand replaced Minho’s and there was a slight moment where you thought that maybe he was being nice before your the pats on your head turned into small jabs. Groaning, you caught his hand before glaring up, finding the smirk on the boy’s face. There was a small silence in which you tried to shot a witty comment before he beat you to it, “If you really want to hold my hand then you could’ve just said so.”

“In your fucking dreams, Han.” You let go on his hand in an instant, your eyes rolling before turning to face your best friend. “And why are you looking at us with those dreamy look? Cut it off, it’s creepy.”

Minho chuckled, shaking his head while running his hand through his hair. “Do you ever think of dating each–”

“No.” was a stern answer delivered by the both of you simultaneously and in that moment, you felt grateful that Jisung shared the same opinion. Minho’s hands shot up, feigning defeat as he shrugged.

“Okay, so I’ll take it you don’t want any chance on doubling your amount of stamps?”

Your ears perked up at the word ‘stamps’. For the last three weeks that was all you strive to acquire, whether it was from the video call from Minho late at night when his cats decided to play with him and he forced you to ‘appreciate’ them (you actually did, they were actually very cute) to bringing junk food to his apartment in the time when he least expected it. Those acts wasn’t new to you since you’ve done that long before the who stamps is involved, but now it felt satisfying to do it knowing that you would be rewarded in the end.

No matter how childish it was for the reward to be just stamps, you were content with it.

“Say what again?” You said, immediately interested.

There was a slight smirk on Minho’s face, “So I have an eye for this girl that I met on the studio, right? I asked her out on a date yesterday and she said yes!”

“Wasn’t she the one that slapped you on the first encounter?” Jisung snickered and you bite your lip to stop yourself from laughing alongside him. He was telling the truth, there was some sort of misunderstanding that happened between the both of them and you couldn’t help but wonder what kind of charm that he used to be able to melt her heart.

Staring at how Minho glared at Jisung before mumbling a quick, “It’s an accident, I’ve told you guys that already.”, you came to a realization that well, Minho sure had the charm and the genes that supported him to put people on their knees. You were glad that you were on his side and not those who he planned to 'charm’ who knows what he might do to these poor people?

“Anyway,” he continued, his ears slightly turning red at Jisung’s words. “I asked her out and I’d figured that it’ll be fun for you two to join us.”

Your jaw dropped upon hearing his idea, a chuckle leaving your lips before you could stop it. “You’re joking.” You said, hoping to find any trace of humour in Minho’s expression only to find none. “Wait, you’re serious? Like a double date kind of stuff?”

“Dead serious. You guys don’t need to have real feeling or anything, just pretend.”

You couldn’t believe at how he could suggest it without any difficulty at all. Did he not realize how your relationship with Jisung was plummeting down after the whole competition that he made? Your tongue was getting sharper around him and he could effortlessly annoy you in any way possible. There was no way that you were going to go outside, pretending that you could tolerate him moreover pretending to have an interest on making him your boyfriend when the first thing that you wanted to do every time you saw his face was to pour any drink you held to his shirt.

However the thought of getting the stamps when you succeeded, along with the idea of making fun of him if he refused to do this fake-date. To top that, maybe you would be able to find his weak spot, using it to your favor.

The determination was clear on your voice when you said, “Sure. Why not?” Resulting in a widened-eyes Minho, a small smirk was formed moments later. Jisung could do nothing but stare at you wordlessly, his eyes seemed like it would pop out in any moment. “What is it, Han? You’re scared of a small date?” Taunting him felt so satisfying, getting him to a speechless figure was a rare occasion and you weren’t going to let this small moment of victory slip away ever so easily.

His Adam apple bobbed as he stammered over his words, “Wh-what are you saying? You’re crazy.”

“Oh I get it!” You blink as if an idea just popped off from your mind, smirking as you grab the collar of his hoodie and yanked it down towards you with both of your faces inches apart. From this angle you could clearly felt how his breath ragged and his eyes focused on anywhere but yours upon the close proximity. Biting your lip, you taunted him even more “Are you scared of falling in love with me for real, Han?”

Silence followed your words before the corner of Jisung’s lip lifted up, his entire body shook as he attempted to hide his laughter. You were a little confused but there was no way you were backing down from this tough persona of yours so you continue to stare at him, waiting for his response. As if hearing your thought, he stopped to suppress his laugh as his brown eyes immediately stared at yours. His lips were formed to a smile, before his hand moved towards your nape and slowly decreasing the distance of you two.

It was your turn to have your breath hitched on your throat as your grip on his hoodie tightened. You fought the urge to close your eyes, wanting to hold on to a small trace of control you had left even though the situation belonged to Jisung’s control now. He angled your head so that he could place his mouth right beside your ear, his huff of breath sent shiver down your spine along with his next words.

“Be careful for what you wish for, babe. It could turn against you someday..”

You failed to realize his smirk as you weren’t even able to hide your sharp intake of breath when his following words were spoken, “Because once you do, there’s no turning back.”

[]

You blamed your punctuality on your habit to arrive the fastest to the university or at least, faster than Jisung.

When you arrived at the theme park at 10 am in the Saturday morning, you soon realized that the amount of people that came would prevent you to experience the whole attraction without the pain of queuing. Mentally you thanked yourself for not wearing any high heels today, courtesy of your roommate slash cousin’s advice as Changbin was experienced on taking girls to dates in the theme park and he knew exactly what their first mistake was when he saw their appearance.

“At least you would be able to feel both of your legs when the day’s over.” He said, and that was all you need to wear your favourite sneaker today.

It was a lie if you said that you randomly picked your clothes on today’s occasion. You’ve spent a good amount of time contemplating the entire content of your wardrobe before settling on a pair of jeans shorts and a crop top, completely different from your usual attire of jeans and shirt that you usually wear for college. Partially because you thought that the outfit was cute, partially because you wanted to see how Jisung reacts towards it.

You’d like to think that it was because you wished to see Jisung’s facade crumbled down upon seeing you in it, resulting you to easily lead him into his eventual demise of not getting the rest of the stamps thus lending Minho to you (and your passing of the class). But God forbid you from admitting that the small part of you wanted him to think that you looked cute.

After that words that he whispered on your ear, it felt like a challenge to either one of you to see which one that would succumb first. It seemed that both of you realized that successfully making the other to fall in love would be an express ticket into being partners with Minho. After all, it’s not a secret that love or crush is indeed a person’s greatest weakness.

The logic was pretty simple, on your mind. Make the other party to fall in love, dump them and have Minho as your partner and best friend for yourself. See, it was pretty easy if you stick onto the plan.

Your plan started to quiver, however with your sight catching Jisung on his attire. An all black attire of skinny jeans, t-shirt and shirt that he didn’t even bother to button had you gulping and your resolve crumbling. Despite having his sunglasses on with a black mask, you were still able to recognize him, a realization that caught you off guard.

It must’ve been illegal for Jisung to thread his hair because he once he did it, your heartbeat increased as you fished for your phone, front camera opened to check how red your cheek was. You knew that you wouldn’t be able to admit it verbally but you realized now that he was indeed, a very good looking guy if you stripped away the whole attitude he had towards you.

You stole a glance at him once again, texting the boy as you informed that you already arrived with an attached picture of him to expose your location. The message was seen almost immediately, him throwing a glance at your position afterwards. Both of your gaze met as he took off his glasses and walked towards you.

Pretending to ignore the effect he had on you, you busied yourself with your phone, scrolling whatever Instagram profile that you had previously seen all in favour of calming your erratic heart. Jisung arrived in front of you, coughing to catch your attention and frowned after you decided to ignore him. Swiftly he took away your phone from your grasp, eliciting a whine that the both of you didn’t expect to make.

His laugh afterwards made your cheek reddened as your embarrassment grew.

“Oh my god, why did you whine like a child? Are you going to throw a tantrum as well, now?” Jisung dangled your phone in front of your face as you glared at him.

“Cut it off, Han!” You swatted him on his chest, “Give it back!”

He giggled as if he just delivered the best joke in the world as he handed your phone back with a wink. “Come on, don’t be mad at me. We have a date today, remember?”

Your eyes rolled at his statement, snatching your phone as you put it back to your bag. “Thank you for reminding me the nauseate situation we are going to experience! Oh how I can’t wait to be disappointed at you becoming my date just like how my previous ones have failed me.”

“Damn, you really underestimate me in this whole date stuff, huh?” He scoffed in disbelief. “Look, you might have bad experience on dating before but don’t go ahead and generalize everyone, especially me. Why do you think I was so reluctant on doing this before?”

You frowned at his question, how would you know that? “I don’t know, smartass. Because you’re a coward?”

“No, baby.” Jisung smirked, his hand moving to your chin softly before tilting it upwards to stare at your eyes. “I don’t want you to be too comfortable and ends up falling for me.”

“Really?” You cocked your eyebrow. It felt like Dejavu, this whole situation both of you were in. You learned that you should never let him has the last word so you smiled at him, your words rolling smoothly from your lips but not before shortening the distance between the two of you. “Then make me.”

You relished on the sight of his eyes widening, clearly caught off guard by the boldness of your words. A giggle escaped from your lips as you turned away from him, catching a sight of Minho and his date in an ocean of people (how you could recognize him immediately was also one of your concern, you played it as because you guys see each other everyday) before waving them over to you. The both of them approached you after waving back and that was when you felt Jisung’s cold hand on the exposed skin of your waist, pulling you flush to his side.

“Babe?” Jisung’s voice was low as he whispered on your ear. You controlled your body’s tendency to shiver under his touch as you didn’t want him to see the effect he had on you after his action. In the moment you couldn’t even care less about the nickname that you usually despise from him. Something told you that he was going to use it a lot in today’s occasion.

Two could play in this game, you thought. “Yes, Han?”

“You will experience the best date of your life, that once you have another chance to go in a real date with someone else, you would think that nothing could top this fake date with me.”

You held back a smile. At least you would feel what you’ve never had on your previous ones? “Really, now?” Your voice trailed off before turning to face him as you encircled your hands on his neck. “You sure we could go a day without insulting each other? A day in which we won’t try to wipe each other’s existence?”

He smirked, both of his hands found their place on your hip as he rubbed small circles on the flesh. “The date is going to be so great that you’re going to forget that we’re supposed to hate each other in the end of the day.”

You smiled at that, “I’m looking forward to it, then.”

–

Minho was lying when he said that the day was going to be a double date as he was gone from both of your range of view after the four of you went to the accessory shop, getting the four of you head accessories to wear later onto the day because Jisung deemed that it was necessary for every single theme park date. You didn’t miss the way he would pat your head everytime you gushed over the cute characters, or how he took out his polaroid camera once you’ve settled on the accessory and wore it in front of the mirror.

Jisung snapped a picture of your side profile and despite your protests of him taking a picture when you weren’t ready, he opted to keep the Polaroid to himself.

“Han please I look ugly in that.” You frowned, hands on your hips like you were scolding a child. “If you promised that you’re going to be a good date then you’re not going to let anyone see this ugly side of me.”

He scoffed, “Please, a good date is when they find you cute despite you think that you’re ugly.”

“That’s not a good date that’s just being blind.”

Your date looked at you dead in the eye before signing dramatically, his hands in his right chest while clutching his shirt. “Love is blind sometimes.”

Your face contorted into a mix of disgust and shock but you couldn’t lie that it got your heart beating slightly faster, “Ugh what’s wrong with you and your cheesy remarks today.” Faking a shudder, you went on, “Where’s my usual Han went?”

Except that he didn’t focus on your question at all, his lips formed a smirk as he repeated a particular line, “Your Han?”

“Shut up!” Your hand moved up to swat his shoulder, cheeks flaring up before realizing that it was only both of you in this part of the shop. You looked around for a bit before concluding the fact that Minho and his date was no longer there in the shop. “You idiot, we lost Minho!”

Jisung’s dumb look was the last thing you saw before you took his hand in instinct and dragged him out from the shop after putting the accessory back.

–

You were queuing for Viking’s ride with Jisung behind you when Minho’s text popped from your notification. He explained that he lost both of you as well and it would be best to just meet up after the day’s over. Your furious typing of scolding him for leaving you with Jisung all alone was refrained when you felt a head resting on your shoulder.

“Han, get off my shoulder.” You shook your shoulder in attempt to get him off it but he didn’t budge. “You’re heavy, please.”

“Just let them be.” He mumbled and you needed to ask him to say it again because you didn’t quite know what he was saying and implying.

“I said let them be, you know? It’s their date after all. The first one, even. I’m sure they want to be alone in their date.” Jisung continued, his head didn’t move from its place at all. He mumbled again but you catch his words, even though you didn’t really understand the means behind it. “I know I do.”

The angry text stayed on your screen as you contemplated about the situation. He did have a point and you didn’t want to risk the chance of not obtaining the stamps in the end. After all, it was his idea, there was also a probability that he planned this beforehand. Your finger hovered over the delete button before touching it, quickly typing out another response and putting it back to your bag.

You missed the way Jisung smiled a little  upon the text that you had typed out, staying still at his position on your shoulder despite your attempt, only getting off when the both of you needed to move forward. When you two stopped walking however, he was back on his previous position and soon you gave up after your efforts were proven to be vain, opting to rest your head on his as you waited in the line.

'yeah okay have fun I guess.’

'hes not that bad anw’

–

Jisung had a habit that you were starting to realize, and that habit was him absentmindedly just taking your hand into his, enveloping it every time you two were walking. The way his touch lingered there even after he, despite momentarily released his hold got you missing on his warmth. To think that it was summer, missing someone else’s warmth was a bold thought but that was exactly what you were feeling.

He let go of your hand to read the pocket map that he carried, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he flicked his gaze from one attraction to another, hoping to find an interesting one. You used this opportunity to feast on his visual from the side without the fear of his snarky comments ruining the mood, although you should’ve known better than that.

“A picture will last longer, you know?” His look didn’t waver from the map, opting to just bite his lips in attempt to hide a chuckle threatening to spill.

You rolled your eyes, lips curving into a smile. “Well what could I say? My date is indeed quite handsome for today.” It was your turn to stifle a laugh as his ears reddened, getting embarrassed from your sudden compliment. “Only for today though.”

He shook his head in disbelief before folding down the map on his hand and taking yours. “Well my date has always been beautiful, and today’s no exception. So you can’t blame me for previously taking picture of her, right?” His smile mirrored yours before not giving you any time to answer, his hand already tugging for you to follow him.

You were glad for that, though. It was your turn to have your face flushed just like his ear a few moments ago.

–

If your plan for that day was to find something about Jisung that you could use to your own advantage, you were definitely failing as the only thing that you discover from him was how he was being such an amazing date.

In the night when both of you ordered a junk food from the restaurant as you sat on a bench beside each other, shoulders brushing, you couldn’t help but think about everything that had happened for today.

His hand was never absent from his agenda of holding yours, even as you complained at how sweaty both of your palms had become. Not to mention that one time when he left you alone because he was going to the bathroom and a group of boys immediately came to your spot as you calmly waited for him. You knew that you could stand your ground, but the number of boys overwhelmed you as you stuttered to answer their rapid questions. Before you could even collect yourself together and told them to back off, you could feel an arm snaking to your waist.

The exposed skin shivered under Jisung’s touch and as you turned your head to look at him, it shivered again for a completely different reason. You’ve never seen Jisung that angry before with his jaw clenched and eyes glared to them. It was a delightful feeling, knowing that you weren’t the end of the gaze that he was holding. He pulled you flush beside him, “Babe, you okay?” It was menacingly sweet, his tone. “These boys aren’t giving you a hard time, right?”

The boys shrugged before backing off, saying stuffs that you couldn’t even bother listening because now the only sound that you could hear was your heart thrumming inside of its cage and the only sensation that you could feel was his hand that was still in your waist.

You could feel his touch lingered there as he used both of his hands to check on you, making sure that you were fine. His hands stopped at your jaw, tilting your face to look at him as his eyes were glistening with worry and all trace of the previous anger nonexistent. “Are you really okay?” Jisung whispered, more to himself because he immediately pulled you into a hug. “God I can’t let anything happens to you. I’ve swore it on Minho.”

There was a way at how his scent intoxicated you as you buried yourself on the crook of his neck. His cologne weren’t supposed to stay with him this long after the walk under the sun but it did. Jisung smelled like vanilla with cinnamon, and in that moment you realized that it might be your favourite scent.

It was quiet, you were waiting for Minho and his date to finish. The artificial lake that you were facing and the soft neon light from the restaurant’s wall coaxed you into a pleasant atmosphere. “Apparently without your insults you’re a pretty decent guy, huh?” You said to him as you stared at the lake, your food long gone. “Your real date would’ve been lucky”

“I know.” He smirked proudly, his head turning to face you. “A handsome face with a lot of boyfriend characteristics fulfilled, my real date is going to be spoiled.”

Somehow at that moment you couldn’t even bring yourself to respond on his self inflating ego comment because deep within your heart you knew what he said was true. The fact that his real date was probably never going to be you somehow put you on a solemn mood, you were actually enjoying today’s date, as fake as it was supposed to be. Your rivalry was temporarily forgotten as you found yourself staring up at him. “Han?” You called, voice above a whisper.

Jisung blinked, his smirk melting off his face. “(Y/N)? What’s wrong?” His tone was laced with worry, and you were hoping that at the very least this part of his feeling was real. “Did I do something wrong?”

Your lips etched into a smile at the absence of the nickname he has been calling you all day, and before you could process how your body moved on its own, you gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. “I had a good time today, thank you.” There was no way that your cheek could be even redder than now, but it was already nighttime so you were glad that Jisung wouldn’t be able to see it. You rested your head on his shoulder afterwards, eyelids closing to enjoy the small time that you had left before Minho came and your so called date to be over.

You didn’t expect any response from Jisung except the snarky ones that you thought he’s going to give, a sentence full of ego as he would say something along the line of “I told you before, didn’t I?” since you were only doing that because you were grateful of the promise that he kept, so when you felt his hands taking yours, you definitely didn’t see that coming.

Even more when he brought your hand to his lips, kissing each of your knuckles softly before intertwining it together.

“I enjoyed it too. Very much.” You could feel him smiling from his gentle tone of his voice. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this is probably the best date I’ve ever been, despite its fakeness.”

You frowned at that, your voice coming out before you realising it. “Don’t mention the fake thing, you’re ruining it.”

“So you wished that this was real then?” He was definitely smirking now.

“In your dreams, Han.”

But then maybe his claim on his reluctance of doing this fake date was true. Because looking down to your linked hands, you weren’t surprised to find that you wouldn’t mind this day to happen again. At that time, you decided that your plan has crumbled into pieces, that Jisung might have snatched your chance on doing the project with Minho.

The beat of your heart quickly accelerated as your mind took you to a scary possibility of why it was happening in the first place. That maybe, Han Jisung has placed himself within your heart, realization seeping into your veins distracted you to a level that had you barely listening to Jisung’s response to your statement.

“If that so, then I’m not waking up.”

[]

Something changed after that date, you quickly realized. Both of you were still in a rivalry state that the both of you were in before, but the insults decreased or if it was really said, it wasn’t to the point where either of you would be offended. Both the quantity and quality of it weakened, at least on your part it was almost non existent anymore.

You couldn’t brought yourself upon replying on his insults verbally, mostly you would opt to roll your eyes or scoff as you realized that you couldn’t reply to any of it. You had hoped that Jisung and Minho would both see it as your new strategy of winning the competition, the whole 'talk less do more’ mindset but then again the latter was your best friend, he could see right through that.

So when Minho came to your dorm uninvited with a box of pizza and bottles of cola, you knew that he was going to talk about something serious. Him and Changbin did a small talk as your roommate was preparing to go out and work on his music project. By the time the boys were done you had already slumped on your sofa, a slice of pizza on your hand as your feet dangled from the sofa’s arm. Minho watched as you turned on the TV and started to search for any good channel for quite some time before he gently grabbed the remote from your hand.

“I’m not here to watch tv.” He said, muting the current channel. “I came here to talk.”

Rolling your eyes, you bit back a laugh. “No shit, Sherlock. We all know that you have something in your mind everytime you visit me.”

Minho smiled at that, “Well you’re laughing now so I guess I shouldn’t be too worried.”

“Spit it out, Minho.” You refused to make eye contact with him, eyes trained upon an episode of MasterChef. Your first slice of pizza were finished and you learned forward to grab another one, “Address the elephant of the room, whatever.”

It was more of a joke, on your part, really. You clearly didn’t expect him to say it ever so bluntly when you bite onto the junk food, “You have a crush on Jisung.”

You choked.

The cough that you let out was plenty as you had troubles in breathing. Minho was quick to hand you the nearest bottle of soda before bolting to the kitchen and took a water bottle in case you needed it. Immediately you gulped down the soda, the carbon burned on the back of your throat but it gave a way for the piece of pizza stuck there to be gone into your stomach.

Your breath heaved for a few moment as Minho rubbed your back, constantly asking if you’re okay and you gave him a thumbs up. All was quiet safe for your breathing before you said in a small voice, “I lost, am I?”

Your best friend’s gaze softened at your words, still rubbing your back this time for your emotional reassurance. “No, well not yet at least. You still got three more days.”

A groan escaped your lips as you buried your face on your hand. “I’m an idiot, am I? I told myself to make him fall for me and then it was actually the other way around.” You huffed, heads shaking as you finally confessed it to someone else rather than your mirror. “I used to hate him with all my heart and then one damned date changed everything.”

“You do realize that you said to me that he–” Minho air quoted it “was pretty cute without his mouth running around ruining his visual when I first introduced both of you? I’d say that you actually had a small crush already, the whole date just further strengthens it.”

“I do.” You mumbled, face still buried. “I just can’t believe that I’m falling for someone that couldn’t even stand me. The whole date was close to something like a skit. He was just playing his part as a charming enemy and I fell for that.”

Minho scoffed, “How do you know that it’s not his real character?”

“Because I know Han, and his attitude towards me in daily life is a hundred and eighty degrees of difference!”

“You don’t know him.” There was softness in Minho’s tone that got you peeked a bit to see his expression. “Both of you just started off in a wrong direction.”

You opted to stay quiet as you felt like there was no answer needed for that statement. Maybe Minho was right, if only he wasn’t being such an asshole in your first encounter you would’ve find yourself being friends with him already or perhaps more. There was a seed of hope in your heart that you let it died down upon experiencing his behaviour towards you, one that hoped that you would at least be in a good relationship with him.

The whole date just watered down the seed and now it was growing rapidly, its root finding their way to your heart and planted themselves there. You knew that it was stupid of you, to fall in love with someone that could use your feelings to their advantage. The one that could laugh on your face and humiliate you after you confessed at him, saying how he has managed to fool you into thinking that he will reciprocate whatever it is that you’re feeling.

Maybe it was one of his acts, a genius plan on his side that he carefully thought of. Incorporating your emotions into his final piece of the puzzle because let’s face it, Han Jisung would play dirty if he deemed it necessary. He said it himself.

But the hope that rooted itself in your heart has given you faith on him. If believing on Han Jisung that he wouldn’t make fun of you and your feelings were too crazy for your logic, at least you were putting your beliefs at Minho. He wouldn’t let his best friend getting hurt moreover letting his other best friend be a reason behind your pain. Minho wouldn’t befriended him if he was such a douche, too.

You sighed, taking another piece of pizza as you felt Minho’s gaze on your actions. “You know what?” you began, voice a little shaken and muffled after you ate it. “I may be saying the stupidest thing I’ve ever said now–”

Minho snickered at that, cutting you off. “That’s a hard title to beat, remember the summer when we went to our first party? You were crying as you brought the fish from the aquarium to the pool because you were scared that they wouldn’t breathe in the fresh water.”

He could feel your glare all over him but it didn’t stop his words, “Come on, it won’t be that bad, will it?”

“I was drunk, dumbass.” You bit a laugh when you watch him squirmed after you repeatedly poke his ribs. “Now are you going to let me say it or what?”

“Yeah only if you stop doing it!” He sounded so annoyed that you couldn’t hold the urge to tease him more so you poke him again. Soon it ended up with poke fights and continued down to tickle fights as you both fought on the couch. Both of you were breathless after a few minutes, limbs tangled with one another as you struggled to catch your breath and laugh in the same time. You were on top of Minho, your ear rested comfortably on his chest. It was probably very hard on Minho since you were basically crushing his lungs but he made no move on removing you, and for a while that was the only position you were both in.

You found your voice, albeit gravelly. “I’m forfeiting myself from this game. Go ahead, be his partner then.”

“And why are you giving up so easily? You have three more days before it’s over.”

Your laugh came out breathier than you expected, your head shaking. “In your game, yeah. In mine, it was already over the moment I saw him in that theme park.”

Minho chuckled at that. “I don’t want to say anything, but you two have more similarities than you know.” A smile followed suit, his hand came down to ruffle your hair. “FIne, but you still need to come for the last meeting when I declare the winner.”

It was a lie on your part if you said that you weren’t an inch curious about the meaning in the first part of Minho’s sentence was about. But you gulped it down, only hoping that it wasn’t anything bad. “Yeah, sure. You’re paying?”

“Yup. Now are we gonna finish this pizza or what?”

[]

It was raining hard and Changbin weren’t home.

Ever since you were little, storm and big rains were something that you despised. You couldn’t bear hearing the loud rattle of thunder and the sounds of water violently hitting the ground. Lighting gave you anxieties as you were scared that after that flash of light was gone, you would find something else staring at you. Everything was suffocating, in your opinion. The sounds of rain seemed like it slowly cornered you and you felt as if it was trying to drown you. In short, you hated them.

Changbin, figured your fear of rain ever since you were still a pre-pubescent teenager when you spent a night on his house. He was working on some school’s project so he didn’t really need sleep in that time of the night, hence the reason why he let you into his room when he found you crying while clutching onto your pillow. He let you slept on his bed that night and he opted to sleep on the desk instead. Your fear was also part of the reason why your parents wanted him as your roommate so that you could always have someone that knew about your fear and were willing to accompany you during the time it got bad.

It became a habit every time a huge storm happened. It was either you sleeping on his room or vice versa, with an air mattress getting dragged into either rooms so thet the other could sleep on it. You were forever grateful that he was willing to sacrifice a small part of his precious sleep time (or his producing time) to your comfort.

This time, however was different as Changbin were absent from your shared apartment.

He had told you that he was going to his aunt’s house from his mother’s family for dinner but he would be back before 9 because his aunt would told him to clean around the house as well. The first rumble caught you off guard when you were reading as its sound was deafening, causing you to reflectively closed your eardrums and froze as you stare at the floor. You swore that you could feel the floor of your apartment shook lightly under the massive power before you hurriedly messaged him, informing that a storm might’ve come on his way and for him to be careful to not get caught in the rain.

Changbin didn’t reply after roughly half an hour, when the rain started to pour.

‘Sorry I didn’t see your message lol too busy with the dishes’

‘It’s raining quite hard here but I think it’ll be over soon’

‘My friend is going to come to the apartment and we’re supposed to have a brainstorming session together so I hope you don’t mind’

It wasn’t a surprise that your roommate would have others come to your shared apartment for lots of stuffs. Sometimes it was a productive session, sometimes it would be just them playing games in his room. He always invited them when you were not around, so it was the first time for you to actually meet Changbin’s friend. After all, the both of you didn’t really interact outside of the apartment ever since you both went to college except for family occasions courtesy to the different major that you both took since Changbin was a music major.

Which reminded you to a fellow music major student that couldn’t escape from your mind lately. You sighed, your earbuds shoved in your ear to drown out the noise of the rain. It was getting better for you to deal with the sounds of rain especially the small ones like now, but certainly not the lighting and its friends. Still a long way to go for you, but it was an improvement.

‘Ok, I hope your friend ate already though bc I finished the whole chicken we had’

You stared at the ceiling after you texted him that, a melody of a song that you were planning to use in your project flowed freely inside of your ear, shadows of choreography formed in the darkness when you closed your eyes. It wasn’t long before the song ends and you were awakened from your trance upon the rapid sound of your doorbells. Groaning, you rolled on your stomach on the couch before rolling your eyes and starts dashing towards the door.

The sounds of the bell didn’t stop even when you screamed out, “Coming!” Fumbling with the keys, you grit your teeth as you struggled to open the door with the noise. “Hi, you must be Changbin’s—” words died down on your throat as your eyes fell upon your guest’s. “H-han?”

Jisung’s eyes were blown wide and his jaw dropped. It took a few moments for him to shook his head and stammered a “No shit, (Y/N)? What are you doing on Changbin’s apartment?” as he eyed you up and down before realization dawned on him, “W-wait, you guys are dating, or something?”

“Ew, No!” You were quick to object, disgust was written all over your face. “We’re literally cousins! Our parents wanted us to become roommates for.. reasons.” It was when you noticed his wet appearance and droplets of water that fell down from his hair. “Jeez why are you so wet? Come in.”

You opened the door wider for him to walk inside, your heart hammering behind your ribs. “I-I’ll get you some towel, or something. Just sit wherever.” Jisung nodded silently, opting on sitting on your kitchen’s stool as he watched you disappear to the bathroom before coming back with a fresh towel. “Here, use this.” handing him the towel, you prayed that your hand didn’t shake from the adrenaline.

It did, but either Jisung didn’t notice it or he pretended not to because he didn’t address it. He mumbled a thank you before wiping his wet hair with you awkwardly sitting on the couch, busying yourself with the book you left almost half an hour ago. “So,” Jisung began, slightly coughing. “You live with Changbin, huh? Can’t believe that you exist to snatch my friends away all the time.”

And the annoying Jisung was back again. So much for the guy that you fell for.  “Is this about you and your jealousy again? Because I’ve had enough of it with Minho.” You rolled your eyes, leaning back to the couch. “Anyway, isn’t it the other way around since the fact that I knew him ever since he was so little? I knew him first, Han. The difference is, I’m not going to be a baby and wail about how you’re ‘stealing’ my cousin from me.”

He didn’t really pay attention to the second part of your statement once he heard you mentioning Minho, his feet tapping the floor repeatedly as if he was considering something. “Did he…” Jisung was nervous, you could tell from his voice that lacked the confidence and playful tone but from what, you didn’t know. “I mean did he say anything about the game?”

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “What do you mean? Like the one who win and all? I thought that he’s going to announce it in the day after tomorrow? ” You left out the part that you forfeited from the game as you didn’t want him to clown you right now. He might as well did that when he was crowned as the winner, anyway.

At the sight of your puzzled face, he sighed. “I see. Well, nevermind.” Jisung plugged his earphones in and you figured out that that was your cue to stop conversing with him.

You two ended up not saying anything for the rest of the night, him busying himself with his phone and you with your book. Well, at least he was being very serious about it while you were totally losing your focus on reading because you were too busy stealing glances to the boy. From your place, you could see the way his eyebrows furrowed in concentration, his lips pursued as he stared at his phone. Not to mention his half-wet hair that has gotten messier from his hands that ran through it. Your heartbeat increased as he did it again.

He was indeed handsome, you’ve admitted to that fact long ago but there was something about being together alone with the boy that got you to think that he has gotten more handsome and cooler, for some reason. Whatever that was, you hoped that he didn’t notice your staring or else you knew that there won’t be any end to his teasing.

The intensity of the rain increased as the night went on, and you were planning to check on Changbin when Jisung read out the text he got, “Uh, Changbin said that he couldn’t make it back. The storm was very big so he decided to stay on his aunt’s house.”

Realization dawned upon you in the mention of Changbin not being able to be your companion on this stormy night. You could feel your eyes watered and your lips trembled in fear of getting through the night all by yourself. Your vision blurred, and it wasn’t until you could see a dot of tear that fell on your book that you realized that you were crying.  Biting your lips to stop it from trembling, you wiped the tears on your eyes. You looked at Jisung only to found him already staring, his expression laced with confusion and worry but before he could ask you what’s wrong, you immediately shut him out.

“I’m going to sleep,” you blurted out, voice small and barely cracking. “It’s raining now so I guess you could sleep in Changbin’s room, whatever. You’ll get sick if you go home in this weather.” Hurriedly you close your books, standing up before bolting out to your room.

“(Y/N)?” He stood up from his seat, slowly approaching you before stopping after seeing your glossy eyes. There was hesitance in his actions, like he didn’t know what he has to do but he knew that he has to calm you, somehow.

“I’m–” you trailed off, stopping before the door to your room. Fidgeting with your toes, you tried to control your breathing before calling out in a small voice, “I’m fine–it’s not your fault.”

You entered the room, leaving Jisung and hopefully your fear on the living room.

–

You were wide awake in the middle of the night under the sound of the intense pouring of the rain. Agonized over the worry that when you close your eyes, you’d wake up with your room filled with water from the rain as it slowly increased in height, eventually drowning you. From the lighting and the loud rattle from thunder, you avoided them all as you buried yourself under the safety of your blanket. Suffocation was worth it when you finally gathered enough courage to close your eyes. At least that was what you were thinking until you found yourself gasping for air once a nightmare consisted of you drowning attacked your subconscious mind.

Sitting up on your bed, your eyes darted to the clock right above your desk. It was barely 2 am which meant that you were able to sleep for no less than an hour, a number too little compared to the time you spent actually trying to sleep in the first place. The rain’s intensity didn’t waver for one bit and you actually believed that it was getting even crazier. A flash of light couldn’t prepare you from the loudest rattle that you’ve heard for as long as you could remember, its sound made it seemed like the sky was tearing itself apart continuously with a loud rumble that sounded like a chuckle from Zeus himself.

You could make out a faint siren of a car’s alarm beneath a loud ringing from your ears as you tasted blood on your lips. Before your mind even processed on what you were trying to do, you swung your legs outside your bed, slightly running to open the door without even closing it to your roommate’s room. You knew that it wasn’t Changbin that slept there but you were so desperate for a company or something to distract yourself from your paranoia that you found yourself knocking the door repeatedly, hot tears streaming down your face as you called, downright pleading for his name.

The said boy opened the door with an intention to be angry as every other human being was when their sleep was disturbed, but all anger dissipated as his eyes were blown wide upon seeing your vulnerable form in front of him. He almost didn’t have the time to properly analyze your face as your hands immediately clutched to his sides, anchoring themselves there while you buried your face on his chest, your wails muffled by the fabric of his sweatshirt. Jisung could feel fear radiating off from your body and the thought of you having to deal with this on your own a few hours ago shattered his heart. He tried to soothe your trembling form by wrapping his arms on your body, gently rubbing it on your sides as he left small kisses on the crown of your head.

“Hey, I’m here now. It’s okay.” He would mumble every so often. “You’re safe with me.” And the boy meant it with every inch of his being.

The both of you stayed in that position until your wails decreased into sobs and the tremor of your body wavered. The sound of cloudburst outside were still very much audible but you forced yourself to focus on Jisung’s mumble of sweet nothings on your ear. It was comforting and you realized that you wouldn’t mind it to happen again. After calming down, you dared yourself to look up from his chest only to find his face inches away from you.

Your breath hitched on your throat as you were suddenly insecure about how much of a mess your state was. Your nose were running, you bet that both of your eyes were red because of your crying and how your lips must’ve swell from all the previous lip biting to suppress your fear. Insecurity came a moment too late but before you could bury your face again on his chest his hands already found its way to your cheek, gently wiping away some of your tears. There was a soft smile on his lips, but you were able to see the worry reflected on his eyes. “Hi there.” Jisung whispered.

You had no idea why your brain couldn’t form any sentence at all, but fortunately Jisung didn’t wait for any reply. “Feeling better, now?” He asked.

“A bit.” It was a soft whisper, but the proximity allowed him to hear what you were saying.

“Do you need anything? Drink, perhaps?” You shook your head at that, “Well, what do you want, then?”

Before you could stop yourself you blurted out, “Sleep with me, please.”

It was a second later that you realized that your words could meant something else entirely. Your cheeks warmed out at that, ready to explain yourself but you didn’t need to worry about his teasing because he nodded. “Okay. Your room or Changbin’s?”

“Mine?”

“Alright.”

You missed his warmth as soon as you released your hold at him, but the hand that linked the both of you could suffice for that. For a second, your mind went back to that theme park date. He closed your door once the both of you were already inside your room and you tugged on his hand, motioning him to follow you as you sat on the edge of the bed.

“I’m…sorry for your sweatshirt.” There was a wet patch formed out of your tears (and snot, probably) on his clothes, you noticed. “I’ll clean it up later.”

Jisung chuckled at your thought, he didn’t even realize it as he was too busy on making sure that you were okay. “No need to do it, it’s fine.”

“I insist.” You pouted, looking up at him and then he realized that there was no way that he could win against that. Instead he sighed, signaling you to move aside to give him a space on your bed before taking off his sweatshirt.

You didn’t press onto the matter, but you swore that you were going to clean it later. Your legs slipped beneath the blanket as you made yourself comfortable, waiting for Jisung to do the same when the deafening thunder came again. The immediate reaction from your body caused you to flinch before covering both of your ear as you closed your eyes, teeth gnawed onto your bottom lip fiercely. Not too long however, you found Jisung’s arms wrapped on you just like it did a few moments ago. You welcomed the warmth he offered gratefully.

“Let’s just sleep, okay? I’ll always be here.” He said afterwards, slowly laying the both of you down on the bed from your previous positions of sitting down. You let your hands down from your ear as you bring it in front of you to clutch on his shirt and his still wrapped on your body. Daring your eyes to look up, you found him already staring at you as heat spread across your face. However you couldn’t let your gaze stray away from his before he leaned in to give your forehead a kiss. “Always.”

The rain was loud but your heartbeat was louder.

[]

The first thing that you noticed was how the sun was shining very brightly that morning.

The second thing you noticed was how the rain has stopped on pouring now.

Third and final thing you noticed? How someone’s breath was tickling the back of your neck and this supposed person had their arm draped on your waist. It felt nice, you thought. The comfort of everything caused you to close your eyes again, ready to steal some sleep back.

Wait, you thought again, eyes snapped open. Changbin never cuddled with you.

You fought the urge to scream, thinking how you got yourself a stranger that had the audacity to cuddle with you on your sleep. After mentally preparing yourself to face the said stranger, you turned around with an annoyed look on your face. What you saw, however, got your expression softened right in an instant. A familiar scent of vanilla and cinnamon intoxicated your nose.

Right, he’s here.

Jisung has both of his eyes closed as he was breathing steadily, his lips ajar. The sun gave an impression that he was glowing beneath it, like he was some sort of angel that came from the heaven above. But then again considering the action he did last night, maybe he was. You couldn’t help but brush away the hair from his eyes, fingers twirling on the soft brown locks. He looked so peaceful this way, so beautiful in a way that you were beginning to question what did you do in your past life to deserve such sight presented right on your face.

“I could get used to this.” He smirked despite having his eyes closed still. This punk was pretending to be asleep this whole time? That’s very Han Jisung of him.

You scoffed, pulling your hand back from his hair. “Don’t. it’s a one time thing.” Obviously you lied, but you wanted him to know that. You hoped that your tone was playful enough that he knew you were lying.

“Sure you don’t.” Jisung opened his eyes to see if you were serious and immediately relieved when he was faced with your smiling face. He reciprocated it. “Since the next time we’re staying in the same bed, cuddling wouldn’t be the only thing we’re doing.”

Heat rapidly crept on your cheek before you swat his chest lightly on repeat. “you pervert! It’s not even 8 am!”

Jisung let you hit him freely as he was still too sleepy. “Why?? I was planning for a movie night!” you stopped hitting him at that, your eyes widened and your cheeks got even more red, if possible. The boy caught your speechless expression and a smirk sneaked its way back to his lips. “Unless our (y/n) has something else on her mind?”

“Shut up.” You mumbled, turning away from him so he couldn’t see your embarrassed face. He laughed at that, the hand on your waist pulled you a bit closer to him and then you could feel his breath on your nape again. “We’re supposed to hate each other.” you were glad your voice didn’t waver from the proximity.

Jisung lightly hummed at your words, like he was contemplating about something. “You really hated me that much?”

“Excuse me? I was actually looking forward to know my best friend’s childhood friend and then when you first met me you didn’t even let me shook your hand! You barely paid any attention to me and only focused on Minho while repeatedly interrupting my conversation with him!” You turned around again so you could face him, “After that, it was an endless banter between the both of us because hey, I actually don’t want you to feel like you’re the only one with the power!”

The boy in front of you went quiet after your outburst. “You were the one that hated on me first.” you added quietly, “I still don’t know the reason why you’d do that.”

The atmosphere was suddenly tense, all trace of previous playfulness dissipated to thin air. You waited for his response with bated breath, because despite having a crush on him (or falling for him, whatever you prefer to call your emotion) you still needed to know the reason behind his treatment on you.

Jisung laid on his back, sighing. His gaze was fixed to your ceiling as he tried to place the sentences he’s about to say together without sounding like he was stupid. “If I tell you, it still won’t justify my actions.” he finally said, “What I did to you was horrible and stupid, it’s just downright childish.”

“I don’t need your actions to be justified.” You said, “But I need to know why.”

“You’re going to hate me even more.”

“Try me.”

Jisung sighed again, the top of his ears turned slightly red. “You know how middle school students act in front of their crushes, right?” He didn’t dare to look at your expression but the lack of a response probably meant that it was one of a confusion. “Well, they kinda didn’t know how to act. And eventually embarrassed themselves, or making their crushes misunderstand their intention.”

“Okay? And the connection is?” You trailed off as you were genuinely confused.

The top of his ears turned even redder but he forced himself to stare at your eyes. “I’ve always liked you. And I was such an idiot because you thought the opposite.”

You were quiet, your mind was working its gears to understand his words. After a while, you found that you couldn’t say anything but a “You’re being ridiculous!” while shaking your head. “H-how? I mean What? Why? Huh?”

He needed to stop himself from laughing over how your expression was a morph of confusion and shock. So he took it upon himself to explain, “I think I’ve been liking you from the first showcase performance that you did–”

“The one where I almost lost my scholarship? You made fun of me because of it!”

“Yes, and I regret that everyday!” He bit his lip when the memory of your expression after he did it came to his mind. “I just came to cheer on Minho and then I saw you. Not going to lie, I couldn’t even pay any attention to Minho after that, which got him kinda annoyed before I said that I was looking at you the whole time. He then casually said that you were his first friend in campus and I was very jealous because of it.”

A chuckle slipped from your lips before you could even stop it, “Why were you even jealous?”

Jisung frowned, “I figured probably I wouldn’t have any chance since well, Minho is Minho. You know how charming that guy could be. I’m not even close to his level per se.” He shook his head, “And yeah I continued to stay quiet about this feeling since well, I decided that I wouldn’t stand a chance and we probably won’t have our path crossed at all.”

“Let me guess, Minho knew about it?”

The boy sighed again for the nth time in the morning, “He did. That punk teased me about it all the time about how I was being a coward and won’t ‘man up’ to get to know you so I, in my embarrassed and unwise state of being, said that he should introduce me to you. Minho said yes and that was the backstory of our first meeting.”

You hummed at his words, cheeks reddening out of his confession that he actually liked you even when you didn’t even know he existed yet. He was right about how it couldn’t justify his action towards you but you were glad that it wasn’t anything major nonetheless. You thought that he wouldn’t say anything else until he mumbled about something you didn’t quite catch.

“What?”

“I said,” He turned so he could face you, the gap between your faces were small. There was a hint of worry on the glint of his eyes, “Say something. You’re killing me here.”

You giggled at the idea of the Han Jisung worrying about the words that you’re going to say. “Still don’t understand the reason why you don’t want to shake your crush’s hand in the first meeting though.”

He covered his face with his hands, groaning. “I was an idiot, I told you.”

“Well, elaborate.”

��Let’s just say that you were so cute that day and I couldn’t believe I was seeing you so close so I lost a couple of my brain cells.”

“A couple? You kept on interrupting me, too! What about the whole thing of making fun of me and being rude? ”

“Okay, maybe most of them. Also my mind–mind you, it was dumb–thought that I should make a good first impression, but then I didn’t even shake your hand so I figured that I should at least have something you’d remember me as. So yeah, I pissed you off but at least you remember my name, right?“

You furrowed your eyebrows, "So instead of apologizing you just went on with the character of you hating me? Han Jisung you really are stupid.”

“That bit is true.” He peeked through the crack of his fingers, “Want to know what’s even stupider?”

You simply nodded.

“I was actually the one that suggested Minho to left both of us alone at the theme park. So it would feel like a real date for the both of us, you know? I mean at least if I lose the bet, i would still have a memory of you. Or us.” He paused to let out a breath, “No matter how fake it was.”

There was a smile on your lips without you even knowing it upon hearing that. “I actually have something to say too.” You heaved a breath, trying to hide how amused you were from watching how his eyes has gotten wider to your statement.

“Two days ago I told Minho that I quit this game.” You bit your lip, debating on whether you’re going to tell him the reason or not and decided to keep it for later. “You want to know what he said?”

Jisung was more curious on your first statement rather than your question but he held it back, opting to nod instead. “Well,” You began, “He said that we have more similarities than what we actually thought. I didn’t know what he meant by that back then but maybe I know it now.” a chuckle slipped from your lips to mask your preparation of saying the next words.

You could feel your heartbeat increased and how the blood rushed to the apple of your cheeks when you wanted to say it. But then again all words died on your tongue as you felt yourself getting suffocated from Jisung’s intense gaze at your eyes. Your mind went back to the day when Minho offered the game to the both of you. When he stared at you with the same intensity that got you feeling so fragile, out in the open for everyone to read. 

Back then you could easily ran from it with a sip of coffee, staring away into the distance that was anything except his eyes but today, you couldn’t do anything about it and you were forced to return the stare albeit with a weaker intensity before you tried to cower from his, only to met his lips before it flicked up to his eyes again.

He did the same.

“Stop me if you don’t want it.” Jisung whispered, slowly leaning in. His hand shot up to hold your cheek but he didn’t do anything just yet as he simply stared at you. That was when you realized that the tension was way too thick for you, the boy was way too ethereal and you wanted nothing but his lips on yours as soon as possible. So you close your eyes and closed the gap.

Kissing Jisung was something that you never thought would be able to do. It was just a flash of thought in daylights (or sometimes, at night) that you immediately shoved back to the back of your mind with an erratic heart and red cheeks because it was crazy. He didn’t like you. Jisung was nice to you at the theme park because he wanted to see you break beneath him. He would use your feelings against you and you swore to never let him see the faintest part of that.

But then again it was his lips that was kissing you right now. It was his hand on your cheek that tried to pull you closer to him even when it was physically impossible and it was your hand that clutched into his shirt because of the serotonin on your neurotic system because holy fuck you were kissing the Han Jisung, your sworn rival slash crush and holy fuck was he good at it.

He got confident for a second after he realized that it was you that kissed him first, his lips moving against yours in a way that got your toes curled out of excitement. There was a smile on Jisung’s lips once he pulled back and saw your lips chasing his. “Sorry, you were saying?” there was cockiness at his tone, but it was delivered ever so playfully that got you swatting lightly to his shirt.

And then it hit you. The stare that Jisung gave you was the one that he did when he tried to read you, attempting to dive into that complex mind of yours but also a stare he gave when he wanted to try something that he hoped won’t cross the boundary to help. Once when he noticed your insecurity over your own talent that you started to doubt whether you deserve to be Minho’s partner or not, and now when he knew that it was hard for you to express your feelings so he decided to help you out through the act of kissing.

Oddly enough, it worked. You didn’t mind at all.

“I think I like you, Han Jisung.” You whispered, watching how his face lit up and reddened even more after the kiss. “You win. You could be Minho’s partner now.”

“No.” He said, moving from his position so that now he hovered above you with a smile on his face, both of his hands supporting his weight on either side of your head. “You’re crazy if you think that I’ve won because I forfeited first from the game, hence the reason he said the both of us were actually more similar than we thought we were.”

Your eyes widened but before you could voiced out your shock, he gave you a lingering kiss on your forehead. “You won, (y/n). You’ve won the game, but more importantly, you’ve won my heart and probably my soul but hey, you already did it on that first showcase.”

“But now that I think about it,” Jisung trailed off, his gaze flickered on your lips again before staring back at yours with such ardor you felt your heart could burst. “I have my crush confessed that my feeling is reciprocated and I just kissed her so I think I win, too.”

You giggled, biting your lip as you cup his cheeks. “I think your crush wanted you to kiss her again.”

“Well with this lips of mine, that’s not a surprise.” He smirked and you rolled your eyes, groaning.

“On second thought,” You pushed him back lightly and he fell back to the mattress with furrowed brows, “I think I’ll brush my teeth instead because let’s face it. We’re both happy and all but that doesn’t stop our breath from being stinks.”

Jisung laughed at that, and you were looking forward to hear it more often. “Okay, princess. Let’s go.”

You liked that nickname better than his previous ones, but you didn’t want him to know it just yet so you hurriedly make your way to your bathroom with him following you close behind. After brushing both of your teeth you found yourself sitting on the bathroom counter and a confused Jisung staring at you.

“Kiss your girlfriend, you dumb.” You said, cheeks flaring.

He smirked, positioning himself between your legs with his hands on your hips. “Ooh, eager aren’t we? Are we really a thing now?”

“You should really kiss me before I change my mind.”

And kiss you he did. His lips captured yours sweetly, almost innocently and you enjoyed the way his hands rubbed soothing circles on your hips before you accidentally pulled on his hair a little harder that brought out a groan from him. Jisung pulled back before staring at your eyes, catching his breath. “Princess, if you do that again, I’m not going to be able to control myself.”

“Then don’t.” Was all you whispered before pulling him back to you. He smiled onto the kiss before pulling your body closer to him that prompted out a gasp from your lips, allowing him to slip his tongue in. You couldn’t help but tug on his roots and curled your toes from his kiss that lit up a fire on the pit inside your belly, making you feel light-headed and dizzy in all the best way.

You wanted to kiss him forever but the both of you were just mortals that needed air to breathe so you pulled back reluctantly, both of your breaths mingled into thin air as your foreheads touched. “I like you, Han.” You confessed again, enjoying the way he bit his lip shyly before giving you another peck. And another.

There was nothing but pure adoration and affection on his eyes. You believed that yours mirrored his, too. “You do realize you can call me Jisung, right?”

You hummed, pretending to contemplate his offer before shaking your head sheepishly. “No. I get used to it already and besides, isn’t it kinda special that I’m the only one that calls you that?”

“Well, you and dozens of other people that doesn’t really know me, I guess. But yeah–”

He didn’t get the chance of finishing his words when you learnt forward and kissed him.

Jisung liked the idea of him getting silenced with that. He’d make sure to speak a lot more often now.

[]

Safe to say that Minho wasn’t a bit surprised when he called both of you to the cafe and saw how you arrived together, hands entwined. He had a smug grin on his face, his eyebrow raised as if he’s asking you a question he knew the answer already.

“I called it.” Was all he said, leaning back to his chair while sipping the coffee he had ordered before. “You guys really need to thank me.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever.” You mumbled, rolling your eyes but silently agreeing to that. He deserve to be treated with food and everything be wanted for being the patient wingman for the both of you. “Anyway, who’s the winner?”

“Isn’t it clear?” Minho laughed, “it’s clearly the both of you. Go on and make your own group!”

You were confused with his answer, but Jisung beat you to ask him about it. “Wait, what do you mean?”

Minho’s smug grin made its way back to his face, “I mean clearly you two have the chemistry needed to do the group project, right? It’ll be fun to see what will the new couple come up with.”

You tried to not let the word 'new couple’ affected you despite the fluttery feeling it gave to your chest. It still hasn’t fully registered to you yet, the idea of Jisung as your boyfriend but here he was sitting beside you with a hand that you could always hold onto anytime you wanted. The days when the both of you would have your quarrels and petty conversation seemed so far away like a static white noise in the background.

But of course, you tried to focus on Minho’s words instead. “Wait, what about you? Who’s your partner’s going to be?”

“I mean, I kinda already know who’s going to be my partner from the start?” He giggled sheepishly, a little nervousness was evident there. “It’s never about my partner from the start, it’s mainly for the both of you.”

“Let me guess,” Jisung snorted, “It’s that girl that you got your eyes on?”

“Yeah, the one that slapped you in the face?” You butted in, a little annoyed but most importantly amused with his reddening cheeks. He was easy to read. “And have you finished the project already?”

“Kinda?”

Your eyes narrowed. “So you almost finish your project while the both of us hasn’t even started it yet?? And we only have like, how many month?”

“Short to 3 weeks.” Jisung added.

“3 weeks!!” You flailed your hands everywhere to signal your frustration. “What is this, a sabotage?”

Minho cringed, he clearly didn’t think that your reaction would be this big.  "I mean, I told you two that you guys could do it in a span of a week, right?“ His hands shot up, feigning defeat.

You nearly spat out swear words at him before Jisung held your hand to stop you. You stared at him confusedly but he went on, "Look, wanna bet at that? I mean, the one that would get the highest score in their project will win.”

In the mention of a bet, Minho had his eyebrow quirked up. “Are you sure about that? You guys aren’t even started yet.”

“Yeah? Are we even ready for that?” It was your turn that doubted Jisung’s words but the way he rubbed circles to your palm assured you.

“Yup. I’m sure that we’re more than ready for it.” Your–now–boyfriend smiled at you, a twinkle evident on his eyes. “After all, I’d say that the winner could get a free theme park ticket for two.”

The best friend of the both of you chuckled, catching onto what Jisung was offering. “The losers will pay for it, right?” He stared at you, waiting for your response.

“Okay then. In one condition.” You finally said, and it got both boys furrowing their eyebrows.

You grinned, “The date is real. Not a fake one.”

Jisung mirrored that, his hold on your hand tightened. “No need to worry about it, princess.”

Minho made a disgusted noise with a fake gag when he heard the nickname flew from Jisung’s lips but you didn’t found an ounce of care for his reaction. The only thing that got into your mind was how you were going to work hard for a theme park date with your boyfriend.  You couldn’t stop yourself from grinning upon imagining the things you’re going to do without worrying about some stupid stamps and a game.

Well, it was when the game ended for the both of you and this time, you hoped that it would be a start of something.

What exactly that something was, you didn’t know. But as long as Jisung was there beside you, you’d think that you’ll be fine, after all, he promised you that he was going to be there with you. Always.

And you believed it wholeheartedly.

***

waaah it’s finally here!! after 3 months filled with mental breakdowns and procrastination I finally finished this monster fic. The longest one shot i’ve ever written omg.

I wanted to post it in celebration for his birthday but i’m few days late so here’s a late birthday gift, i guess? Happy birthday, Jisung and Felix!!

Look forward to my future works and don’t hesitate to send me messages/asks !! 

-mine (mee-nay)

[always5hineee]

Hell and Back- Chapter 15: Canyon Birds (Trial 21)

Word count: 1894

Chapter warnings: Dangerous actions

[Please do not replicate any of the behaviors read in this book.]

-----

       "Alright, the limited power is Suho this time." Y/N said, finally having calmed down from their not-so-joyride.

       "Luhan was originally going to go, so why not have him do it now?" Sehun pointed out.

       "Uh-" Luhan started to sau, before Kyungsoo agreed.

       "Yes, that would make the most sense."

       "I don't know if I-"

       "Alright, Y/N, hit the button," Kris said, trying to get a move-on as quickly as possible. Noting his nervousness, Y/N leaned over, muttering a small bit of reassurance.

       "Luhan, the sooner you do the challenge, the sooner it will be out of the way. They get harder, so the longer you wait, the worse it's going to get. It's your second challenge, you're almost there." He breathed in.

       "Yeah, I guess, but still... I have a bad feeling about this."

       "We'll keep you safe, don't worry."

       "I... If you say so." Making brief eye contact with her, she realized that he was even just slightly shaking. Was he actually that scared? She put a hand on his shoulder, nodding, then clicked on his name. Watching it load up, she called everyone back to attention.

       "Alright, the next trial is... Parkour?"

       "That sounds like fun." Baekhyun shrugged.

       She looked over at Luhan, who was now completely white.

       "Are you okay?" She whispered.

       "I- I can't- that's not-" His hands were tangled together, knuckles pale with the pressure he was putting on his own skin. He was obviously trying to get the words out, but he was just stuttering over and over, practically zoned out.

       "He'll be fine," Kris waved a hand. "What's the rest of the challenge say?"

       "Uh," she looked down. "The price of dropping out is still... 'failure', whatever that means. The italics..." she squinted to see them. "Apparently there are a few bridges nearby. We need to pick one, and he can cross it by jumping between the beams on one of the outer edges."

       "That explains why Suho is out." Kyungsoo mentioned, always analyzing the reasoning behind each challenge. "If it's a bridge, there's water underneath, so he'd be at an advantage." Kris continued driving, pulling onto a left turn. He evidently knew where the nearest bridge was. As it was becoming late afternoon, there were periodic cars, but it didn't seem like anyone would bother them.

       Everyone started to get out of the car, although Luhan remained in place. She looked to him, then out the window at the bridge. Just as the app had said the sides were lined with support beams, although they weren't very deep. Or sturdy. It wouldn't be impossible to make it across, just very, very difficult. He'd have to focus.

       "What's so bad, Luhan?" she asked in a low voice, trying to make it not seem like a big deal. "Even if Suho can't use his powers, we still have Sehun with wind, Kris with flight, and Kai with teleportation. Even past that, Tao can reverse time if something bad happens, or you could even use your powers on yourself." It was ironic how just moments before she had been complaining about the reliance on their powers, but now she was trying to use it to calm Luhan down.

       "I... I don't... I just don't really prefer being high up." She tilted her head slightly, not having expected it. Although Luhan was clearly one of the shyer members of their friend group, he had never seemed so shaken by something.

       "It'll be alright, come on." She grabbed his hand, half helping, half pulling him out of the car. Putting her arm behind his, she placed a hand on his lower back, trying to steady his shaking. As they walked to the edge of the bridge, she looked down, head spinning at the distance. Even aside from his self-proclaimed discomfort, the height would worry anyone. Still, the rest of the boys seemed nonchalant about it.

       "Let's get a move on!" Baekhyin cheered, jumping around dangerously close to the unguarded edge. She looked over to the man she was supporting, his eyes dilating in and out, proving to her that his vision was falling between focused and blurry.

       "Listen," she muttered. Step on the first beam, and I'll follow you on the bridge side. You'll be on the outside edge, I'll be on the inside. The requirements never said I couldn't help you, yeah?" He looked at her, acknowledging her words, but was unable to nod or say anything. "It'll be okay, I promise."

       She helped him over to the bridge, trying her best to cover up how terrified the man was. She knew that at least some of the boys must have known that this wasn't quite his thing, but she still didn't want him to suffer the embarrassment of everyone watching it. His ankles tremors with weakness as he stepped out onto the first bar- the only one still supported by the Earth. Removing her hand from his body, she carefully crossed around the wall to come face-to face with him on the other side.

       As she was on the bridge and he was on the beams, he was a bit shorter than usual, gripping the edge with white knuckles. She placed her hands on top of his, palm to the overtops of his hands, allowing her to firmly grab onto his wrists as best she could without hurting him. He looked up to her, eyes on the brink of watering as they darted back and forth, occasionally glancing to his feet.

       "Don't look at the ground. You're fine. I've got you, okay?" He breathed in, the noise shaky, trying to nod. "Alright, now you just have to step to your left. Can you do that for me?"

       "B-but-" He started trying to say, the first words he'd spoken since he'd gotten out of the car. "But I can't see t-the floor unless-"

       "Just keep reaching your foot out until I tell you you'll make it, okay?" He had no choice but to do as she instructed, feeling around for the wooden beam as his hands slid excruciatingly slowly, guided by hers, along the edge. "Good." She reassured him as he just lightly touched the beam with his foot.

       Once he was on the second beam, she looked to his feet. The distance from them to the water had increased a sizable amount, even in just that one large step. She glanced back to the group of boys, who was watching eerily silently. Normally they would be joking around, or just not paying attention at all, but for some reason, this intrigued them.

       "Let's go on to the next one."

       "I- I don't want to, I can't-"

       "You'll be fine." She kept repeating. "Everything's going to be fine. Just keep going." They made it onto the third, then to the fourth. By the fifth beam, they were nearly to the center of the beam. The rushing water below was roaring in her ears, making it impossible to concentrate, but she still tried to keep Luhan's eyes on her. "Good, now just step."

       As he reached for the fifth beam, testing it with his foot, it was about the same as the previous times. His leg was still shaking uncontrollably, but he hadn't slipped. Once he mounted the beam, shifting his wait and drawing the other foot over, though, she heard a sickening crack. Looking down, she saw that the beam was writing at its ties with the bridge, clearly already failing under Luhan's weight.

       "Alright, next one-" She prompted, trying not to sound panicked."

       "J-just give me a s-"

       "No!" She said, laughing awkwardly. "No, you need to move now Luhan. Right now."

       "I-" Instinctively, she looked back down to the beam, which was already leaning. Feeling it under his feet and seeing her look, he, out of habit, looked down. Not only was he faced with the near-breaking-point board supporting his entire body, but he also leered into the seemingly endless abyss, rushing water taunting him at the bottom. Yelling in surprise and terror, he half-shook, half-jumped, causing it to snap completely beneath him.

       "Luhan!" She screamed as he fell instantly, wrists torn from her grip as the angle wrenched his hands away from her. Leaning over the bridge, she was reaching out, as if able to stop him with her sheer willpower. His face was nearly blank, as if his brain had shut down the idea of his fall altogether. Quickly, Kris appeared underneath him, grabbing him by the waist like a firefighter catching a trapped kitten. He swiftly brought the man back up past the edge of the gorge, sitting him down on the grass. Running over, Y/N knelt next to him, winding her arms around his shoulders as he rocked back and forth slightly.

       "I am so, so sorry, you're okay, everything's okay." She was shushing him as if he were a little kid, trying to get his crying to subside. It wasn't a soft, dignified crying, either. He was completely racked by sobs, holding his head between his knees in terror. "It's all right, everything's all right."

       "We still have to finish the challenge, though." Chanyeol said under his breath. Chen tried to shush him, but Luhan overheard, sending him into even more of a panic.

       "Just give him a second." Suho said with a sigh. "He can try again when he's ready."

       "No!" He shouted, startling everyone. She tried to keep him from freaking out, running her hand over his shoulder blades, but he continued to yell. "No! I'm not trying again! I'm not! I'm not! No!"

       "Luhan, we-"

       "I'm quitting! I'm dropping out!" He said, tears still streaming down his face as his body heaved. He was going to cry himself to the point of throwing up.

       "Honey, you can't do that-" she started to warn him, running a hand through the back of his hair as he continued crying. "We don't know what the catch really means, and if you stop now you can't play anymore.

       "I don't care!" He yelled. "I don't care..." Wiping his eyes, he tried to stand, nearly falling if not for Y/N catching him. He pushed her off rather rudely, walking past the car.

       "Luhan, come on-" Suho ran after him, trying to grab him by the arm. Shaking him off, he moved from being terrified and shaken to just angry.

       "I didn't even want to be a part of this to begin with. It was a fun idea, okay? But this is ridiculous. This is only the twenty-first challenge, by the end, what will we be doing? You all can keep playing for as long as you want, but I refuse to put myself through this anymore."

       "But the failure, it's not-"

       "I don't give a shit. How is this-" He pulled out his phone, waving the app around. "This stupid little thing going to ruin my life? I'm not dumb, they just want to mess with us, and it's gonna get one of us killed. Well you know what?" He pressed a button, Y/N leaping forward to try and stop him, but it was too late. The screen had shifted to a maroon color, a white message reading that he had left the game.

       "I quit."

Go to Chapter 16

[animesshadow]

Natza Week - Day 2: Wisdom

“I am starting to regret splitting up our team right about now”

An irritated red-haired knight stated as she was hiding in a dungeon-like tomb while observing her surroundings. Next to her was a man with pink spiky hairs and a scarf around his neck. Contrary to his teammate, however, he didn’t seem to be the slightest bit concerned about the sheer mass of dark mages in their vicinity that were actively searching for them.

“Don’t say that Erza. It’s a rare time for us to spend some quality time clobbering bad guys. Just the two of us.”

Natsu commented seemingly excited about their situation. The desire to just go out there and smack his foes together with Erza was basically written on his forehead.

“You always surprise me with your overly optimistic way of thinking in situations like this.”

Erza sighed but she couldn’t hide a small smile on her face when she got reminded of Natsu’s simpleminded, yet adorable positivity and excitement even in situations like this once again. 

“But still, if you had not ignored our plan and just charged in like that, we wouldn’t be in this situation”

She was obviously troubled by the thought of having to yet again explain why they failed a mission for the most laughable reasons.

“You always worry too much Erza. All we have to do now is beat those dark mages and get the artifact that they stole. Easy peasy.”

Typical Natsu plan right there. If it wasn’t for the fact that they are trying to avoid getting their attention, Erza would have probably chopped his head by now.

Erza just pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed loudly.

“There are too many Natsu. They know this place better than we do. We couldn’t possibly avoid at least some of them running off, alert everyone and run away with the one artifact that we are trying to secure”

The situation seemed dire. Even the experienced S-rank knight could not come up with a quick plan that allowed them to bypass the dark mages without them getting alerted first. Natsu seemed to think for a few seconds and then just smiled over at Erza

“Most of the time you are the one to take action and usually your last minute plans make sure we win the fight. But this one time, just follow my lead okay?”

Natsu confidently suggested. Erza was still skeptical though. What could Natsu come up with that she hadn’t thought of? But they had to do something now, no matter what. They couldn’t hide here much longer. Those mages would find them eventually anyway. To be honest, Natsu wasn’t the most tactical fighters in the team. His general strategy was always to overpower his opponent and grow stronger on the battlefield itself. Perfecting that could, however, be considered a wisdom in itself.

“Alright, fine, but if we end up failing to get the artifact and fail this mission, you will have to explain everything to everyone.”

“Sure will!”

There was still no trace of a plan to be seen though.

“And I will personally punish you for your reckless actions.”

The emotionless, low-pitched voice and cold glare she threw upon Natsu made him instantly shiver in fear and crush his confidence for a second. He knew oh so well how Erza punishes him when he does something stupid. No matter how close the relationship grew in the past few years, that fear has never even faded the tiniest little bit. It was that attitude that kept him in check when he needed it most of the time though. But that also made Natsu trust Erza so much. She would always be honest and punish him when he was acting thoughtless but that also meant that she would openly compliment and reward him when he was doing good. She was wise enough to always see through his actions and judge them accordingly. Natsu could always trust Erza to be honest with him, no matter what. Even with her armor on, the cold iron wall that he felt between her and the rest of the world was nonexistent anymore. Just the pure Erza, no facade or anything like that. Around him at least. From outside it may look like an abusive relationship but it was the bond of true trust and companionship that allowed them to be so free around each other. Erza always showed Natsu how she truly felt about him, whether it be anger, pride, or love. A bond those two could not share with anyone else, even in Fairy Tail. Not to that extent. It had already grown beyond that. 

Natsu took a deep breath to calm his fears and put on a toothy smile again.

“Fine, as long as you kiss the pain away afterward. But don’t worry! This plan if fool-proof. Just follow my lead this time”

“Wha-... Okay fine. Just tell me what you have planned”

A small blush formed on Erza’s cheeks because of Natsu’s unusually bold first sentence. She just cast those thoughts aside for now and got ready to take action.

“This is a dungeon, right? In other words, we are underground”

“Yeah, so?”

Erza could still not understand what Natsu had in mind.

“You will see soon enough. Let’s just finish them quick. I don’t want the Ice-Princess to finish his part faster than we do”

The fact that he still thought about beating Gray should not be a surprise but Erza was truly fascinated by how Natsu just always wanted to beat him at everything. He sure had some silly ambitions. Seeing Natsu as his usual self even when they assumingly about to fail the mission was one of the traits of Natsu Erza loved about him. 

“Ok! Let’s do this!”

With that said, Natsu dashed out of their hiding spot with a tremendous battle cry that was amplified by the echoes in this dungeon. 

“Fire Dragon’s Roar!”

A massive fireball lit up the entire place. However, Natsu didn’t aim it towards the dark mages but shot it on the roof above them instead. Neither the dark mages nor Erza had any idea what was happening but Natsu continued to shoot fireballs at certain places on the ceiling.

Soon after, those places crumbled and began to crash as the damaged ceiling gave in to gravity. Massive rocks and boulders fell down and formed massive walls of rocks.

Now Erza got what Natsu had in mind. She immediately requiped into the Heaven’s Wheel armor and shot a large number of swords into the ceiling. Every place that got hit by swords or fire crashed down and formed a new wall.

“Now those punks can’t run away and take the precious artifact away!”

Natsu exclaimed loudly, followed by a confident laugh, certain of his victory.

Every pathway way now blocked by boulders. There was nowhere for the enemy to run. A confined battle arena with no escape.

“It was unwise of you to make us your enemies. We will kick your butts in now. I’m all fired up!”

Erza simply nodded in agreement. Both of them, standing back to back now, dashed in opposing directions. Natsu and Erza were far beyond the capability of these dark mages. Each of them getting brutally taken out by firefists or steel weapons. Pretty sure that’s the moment they all regretted their life decisions.

A short while later, all the rogue mages were laying on the floor unconscious. If it comes to magical power, those mages were no match for Erza-Natsu-Duo. Those two were far beyond their league.

“Ahaha see, it worked perfectly”

Natsu put his hands, puffed out his chest and celebrated loudly. With each laugh, small sparks mockingly flew out of his mouth.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect you to come up with a plan like this, Natsu”

“You may be experienced in the art of battle. However, young Scarlet, when it comes to the Wisdom of Recklessness, you have still a lot to learn. Keep this lesson in mind”

The great and wise Natsu placed his fist on his palm and made an exaggerated bow, imitating that of a true master.

“They tell me, oh wise Natsu-dono~”

“?”

There was something off about Erza’s strangely cheerful voice. It made Natsu feel chills down his spine. A knot formed in his throat that forced him to swallow in anxiety. 

“How do you suggest we leave and find the artifact now after you blocked every path?~”

“?!”

... He didn’t think about that.

A dangerous smile indeed. Combined with the shadow cast over Erza’s eyes, Natsu could feel all of his previous pride and wisdom fade in an instant. Right about now, Natsu missed the beautiful and heartwarming smile she usually had when they were together. Her stern but loving attitude or even the possessive yet protective hug she always gave him when other girls tried to approach him was a more preferable choice. 

“Ehh, you know... I didn’t think that far ahead...”

A nervous smile masked the fear of the storm that was headed his way. 

“A dragon once said ‘A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything’ “

A desperate try to avoid the unavoidable. He messed up.

“Shut up!”

She shouted angrily and chopped the top of his head with an armored hand. Natsu was on his knees, holding his head in pain.

Shortly after, however, Erza reached out her hand to Natsu. Her previous angry attitude seemed to have faded.

Erza sure did notice Natsu’s genuine try to come up with a good plan this time. He may not be the wisest, but he doesn’t need to be. Just being that adorable little dragon that would fight any opponent that threatened his family was enough for her. Still, Natsu giving his best not be completely simple-minded and trying to improve himself for her sake didn’t go unnoticed. She was eternally grateful to have such a precious partner by her side. A partner, she couldn’t imagine out of her life anymore. A dragon that she would keep close to herself forever. 

“It wasn’t the smartest plan you came up with, but I guess it did prevent them from getting away with the artifact. Now get up my dragon of wisdom”

A bit taunting but still mostly appreciating her cute little dragon.

“Once we clear this barricade of rubble and get what we came for, I will get a delicious cake. Your treat.”

Natsu’s eyes were sparkling again. His usual enthusiasm and excitement back to where it should be. He took her hand that she offered to help him back up on his feet. It may have been only a few seconds but Natsu did notice that she requipped the cold gauntlets away before she reached out to him. Even as a fire mage, the heat of holding her hand was not comparable to any fire he was able to create. He wanted to hold it forever and never let go. But for now, it was enough to be able to finish this simple mission with her. 

[alia-turin]

Title: Broken Bonds [Chapter IV] Previous chapters: Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III AO3

Characters:

OC, Libertus Ostium, Cor Leonis,  Luche Lazarus (mentioned), Titus Drautos | Glauca (mentioned), Nyx Ulric (mentioned), Gladiolus Amicitia, Crowe Altius (mentioned), Iris Amicitia, Prompto, Ignis

Warning:

SFW. probably minor Comrades spoilers

Notes

Too much angst in the previous 4 chapters so now is time for something slightly more relaxing. I needed to write that because the angst was getting too much even for me. Next couple of chapters would be a bit more cheerful. Special mention of @birdsandivory for allowing me to use her AMZING tinder edits for inspiration. Please go check them here and laugh your asses off: http://birdsandivory.tumblr.com/kingsglaive

Tagging: @birdsandivory  @yourcoolfriendwithallthecandy @jojopitcher @fromunseeliecourt @xanxusthot @lazarustrashpit (I promise Luche wasn’t always a dick) @littlestfangirl

This dream, as many of her dreams, was just an old memory.

She woke up from the sound of somebody entering her apartment. Ada got up, knife in hand and wrapped straight to the intruder.

“Easy now. It’s just me.” Luche was holding his hand in the air and she let go.

“Why…how did you get in.”

“I broke in.” he showed her his tools. “You didn’t s how up yesterday or today and you didn’t answer your phone or respond to any of my text messages.”

Her eyes fell on the phone lying lonely on the coffee table, the light for missed call blinking angrily.

“I didn’t hear it.” She didn’t even remember leaving her phone there. “I told the captain I will be away.”

“He is gone for some business. You should have told me as well.” He was getting to his bossy self but raised an eyebrow teasingly. “What’s with the dress?”

She had to look at herself to realize she was still wearing the black dress from yesterday.

“I was at a funeral.” She answered.

“Somebody I know?” his sounded concerned.

“My dad.”

“I’m sorry to hear that” he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You should have told me, I would have come with you, you shouldn’t be alone.”

She stared at him not sure what to say. It didn’t even cross her mind to ask anyone to come with her. She had told Drautos she needed leave and the reason, he told her to take a week off and that was it. Truth was that her father has been sick for such a long time that it was expected and she didn’t feel like there is a need to ask someone to come with her.

“Come on change in something more comfortable. I will make you breakfast.” He pushed her gently toward her bedroom.

“You don’t have to…” she started but he interrupted her.

“Yes, I do. Come on, I promise I won’t poison you.”

As she was changing her clothes she could hear him going through her pans, pots, plates and swearing as he dropped something on the ground.

“Do you need help?” she shouted from the bedroom.

“I will not be defeated by a pan, don’t worry.”

When she walked back in the kitchen he was frying eggs and bacon. Smelling the food made her realize how hungry she was.

“Thank you.” Ada said, but that was when the dream went out of hand. In her memories what he did then was turn around and ask her if she wanted him to stay for the day. Her dream had chosen different course of actions. Instead as Luche turned he was holding his gun and shot her in the chest.

Ada woke up sweating and shaking. These dreams never stopped. Ever since she left Insomnia she was having these dreams, memories turning into nightmares. Sometimes they weren’t memories, but close enough, small details were different, but essentially it was her previous life ending with everyone dying.

There was no chance she would be able to sleep more so she just got out of the bed. She went through her backpack in attempt to unpack and make this place a bit more ‘hers’ but there was nothing in that backpack that could help. The only item that was somehow related to her old life was her phone and it had died on her months ago. She made a mental note to find someone to fix it.

Since there was nothing better to do, Ada walked out. The town was sleeping excluding few guards on the wall and around the entrances. The demons roaming outside the barricades could be heard but by now she was so used to their sound that it didn’t bother her. Walking down the streets, she found her way to the hotel where she saw the Marshal. He was alone, just standing there like a statue. Ada wondered if interrupting him would be a good idea, but apparently, they both had issues sleeping so why not kill time till breakfast.

“Cannot sleep?” The Marshal offered her the bottle he was holding and Ada was going to question his senses for drinking alone in the middle of the night but as she touched the liquid with her lips she realized it was water.

“Nightmares. I used to have them now and then while I was in Insomnia but since the city fell it has been every night.”

“You want to share?” he sounded somehow different. Not like the Marshal but friendlier.

“Not much to share. I dream mostly memories. Things that happened and it all ends messed up. Hanging out with friends, having fun and then suddenly they all die or I die.” Her brain had managed to ruin every single good memory she had and turn them all into parade of broken or burned bodies.

“Oh those.” He agreed as if he was an expert on nightmares. “It ruins everything, doesn’t it? Every single memory you have, good or bad ends up being just a graveyard.”

Ada didn’t answer at first. She didn’t know what to say exactly. He was right of course, everything and everyone she ever loved had turned into zombie trying to kill her.

“You need to let go.” Cor continued since she didn’t answer. “If you don’t let go, it just kills you.” Another pause then he continued again. “If you couldn’t help the people you love, you can help them.” He made a gesture with his hand toward the dark buildings in Lestallum.  

Ada opened her mouth to argue with him, but what Libertus told her last night also hit her at the same time. It wasn’t hear fault, and regardless how much guilt she felt about everything, rationally there was nothing she could have done.

“How do you let go?” she asked after they both stood in silence.

“You cannot let go because you had a purpose. Protect the king, win the war, protect your home, protect your friends, make sure they all come home alive. Now the king is dead, the kingdom is gone and there is nothing left. You are wrong. The kingdom is here and needs people with skills, people who can stop them.” He pointed with his head toward the demons roaring outside. “Trust me, I am an expert on the topic of letting go and not letting go.” He gave her a friendly smile and for some reason Ada felt like a massive weight had fallen off her chest. What he was saying wasn’t solving any of her problems of course. Her brain wasn’t going to completely forget everything just because Cor the Immortal said so, although he did manage to hit a spot.

“Thank you, Marshal.” Ada smiled back at him and for first time in months it was an honest smile. Not a sad one or forced one, she was truly feeling better.

“Now you need to do something for me. I promised someone I will train with them before breakfast, but something came up and I will be leaving Lestallum probably until tomorrow or the day after. If you go to the power station, just next to the bridge he should be there around sunrise. His name is Gladio, hard to miss him, bug guy, scars across his face…”

“I met him yesterday.” Ada interrupted the description.

She spent the time before sunrise going around town and chatting with some of the hunters. Ada wondered if she shouldn’t talk with Libertus but common sense won and she decided he won’t like her more for waking him up so early. Instead she just walked up to the power station and waited for Gladio to appear. The man was exactly on time which honestly surprised her. The people around town have complained about the prince’s retainers and she expected him to be fashionably late. He was just on time, probably a bit early.

“You are way too good looking to be Cor.” He was carrying a massive sword with himself, the weapon was probably larger and heavier than Ada.

“He is busy. Told me to keep you company.” Ada pulled one of her knives and tossed it in her hand.

“If I win, you are having breakfast with me.” Gladio chuckled and walked toward the bridge that was between the city and the power station.

Ada laughed, she was sure she would lose, but on the other hand breakfast sounded amazing.

They started slow. Gladio made one attack which Ada hoped is not his best because it honestly was too easy to see. She wrapped once aiming for his throat but he threw her flying away towards the wall.

“If that’s what the glaive is made of, I’m honestly disappointed.” Gladio taunted her, but she ignored him. Taunting each other was what the Glaives did in their free time, that wasn’t going to ruin her concentration.

They fought for probably fifteen minutes, neither of them getting an upper hand. Gladio wasn’t very fast but he was hellishly strong and was good at avoiding her magic attacks. She was trying to find an opening, but it was hard when her opponent was twice her size and every attack was counter attacked with strength she could barely stop. Eventually Ada decided to play dirty. She stopped attacking him and was focusing only on building a spell and avoiding his attacks. Once she was done with the spell she unleashed it on him. The weather around Gladio suddenly changed, snow and wind wrapped around him blocking his visibility.

She could hear him cursing and wrapped towards the storm. She hated this spell because it affected everyone, friend or foe, herself included. For her surprise he still had pretty good instinct where to find her, but this time she was faster. She tripped him making him lose his balance, wrapped again, on top of him as he was falling, her thighs squeezing hard his neck.

As the storm cleared Gladio just stared at her, his head between her legs.

“I’m not sure if I’m aroused right now or scared.” He tapped on the ground. “I will give you that one.”

“Whoaaa that was so good!” they had managed to collect small audience which made Ada feel a bit uncomfortable. She let go of Gladio and gave him a hand to stand up.

“It’s not every day that Gladio falls on his ass.” A bubbly blond boy with camera in his hand came towards them. “Can’t wait to show you the pictures.”

“Prompto, shut up or you are next.” Gladio roared at the younger man.

“Gladi, you are such a bad loser. She won fair and square.” Iris had joined them as well, she seemed in very good spirits for someone who just saw their brother falling flat on his ass.

“Crownsguard zero, Kingsglaive one.” Ada looked confused at Libertus as he said that. She was sure he was too upset with her, but nothing like that was visible on his face. “Even the Marshal was impressed.” He continued.

“I thought he left town?” Ada asked.

“He did but he watched for a bit.” Libertus answered and gave her friendly punch on her shoulder.

“Come on big guy, Iggy made breakfast.” Prompro didn’t seemed concerned with the larger man’s threats. “You guys should join us.”

Ada followed Libertus and the rest in silence. Iris was walking next to her telling her how much she loved to see her fighting and she wanted to learn to fight like that which earned her a disapproving look from Gladio but Ada just winked at the girl.

They didn’t go back to the canteen, but one of the calmer places in town. She hasn’t been there, but for her surprise she saw there were some tables and chairs left. Probably there used to be a restaurant around here or something.

“You are finally here.” A very well-dressed man was standing next to one of the tables, with few baskets which Ada hoped were filled with food.

“Iggy you should have been there to see Gladio getting his as kicked.” Prompto seemed way to happy by the fact his friend lost the fight.

“Even if I was there I can’t exactly see it, Prom.” Just now Ada noticed his eyes. He was wearing glasses but that wasn’t unusual so it didn’t raise her suspicion, but under the glasses she could see heavily scared tissue. “Help me with the food.”

The blond man seemed a bit ashamed of what he said and without protesting helped setting the table. Iris proceeded to introduce the two guys Ada didn’t know. Ignis and Prompto turned out to be two of the prince’s retainers. They had just arrived in Lestallum and were helping with the rebuilding efforts.

“You should open a restaurant.” Ada said as soon as she tried the food. “Honestly that is the best thing I have eaten in my life.”

“I second that.” Prompto added. “There is so much free space around Lestallum now, people will love to try your food!”

“And will be good for moral.” Libertus added.

“It would be hard to find the ingredients.” Ignis objected but nobody else was buying it.

“Make it exclusive! Ignis’ special for the day.” Gladio suggested. “Only the best meats and spices brought to you by the hunters and cooked by chef Ignis. That should be your tag line.”

“It’s too long for a tag line.” Ignis corrected him.

Gladio proceeded to offer even more ridiculous tag lines which the other man just denied.

“Libertus.” Ada turned towards her fellow glaive. “Do you know where I can fix my phone?” she pulled the device from her pocket and showed it to the man.

“I can fix it!” Promto said and pulled the phone from her hand. Ada just stared at the blond as he started dissembling the phone and looking at various parts inside. Couple of minutes later he put it back together and turned it on.

“How did you…” Ada had tried everything she could in order to get it up and running, but she never could. The phone vibrated as all the missed calls and text messages started arriving.

“Hey who are these guys?” Prompto smiled showing her the home screen of her phone. It was an old picture of Ada with Luche, Nyx and Crowe. She opened her mouth to say something but couldn’t.

“Hey didn’t I take this one, when Crowe almost killed me?” Libertus managed to come to her rescue and Ada was once again surprised how much he had changed. He had grown up, he was dealing with things.

“Yeah it was after you and Nyx made that dating site profile for her.” They both laughed.

“Wish I knew she had dating site profile.” Gladio was looking at the picture since everyone was occupied with that now. Libertus gave him a slightly angry look and Ada had to hold her laughter. Crowe would have smacked both of them.

“It was a game we used to play.” Libertus explained. “We would steal each other’s phone and make absolutely ridiculous dating profiles. Crowe almost killed me when we did one for her. In my defense I just had lunch and I couldn’t wrap very fast.”

Ada laughed almost with tears, remembering Libertus and Nyx screaming and wrapping and Crowe shouting after them. Those were good memories. Bitter sweet right now, but she preferred to remember her friends laughing rather than dying.

“Nyx,” Ada pointed at him on the picture since technically only she and Libertus knew who Nyx was, “He stole the captain’s phone and created a profile. It had few hits, but then that guy” she pointed at Luche “Changed it to something of the sort the captain can do anything in under 2 minutes. The messages he started receiving were…terrible.”

“Nyx ended up cleaning shoes for a month and I was made to clean the locker rooms. Somehow Crowe didn’t get a punishment and Luche managed to get your ass out if it.” Libertus explained while laughing very hard. “Somehow Nyx and myself were the only people punished.”

“No that is not true. The captain created a profile for Tredd and honestly I think Tredd would have gladly cleaned shoes.” She wished she had screenshot of what the captain wrote because Tredd had been grumpy for a week after that. It was so hard to believe the Captain was General Glauca given how he treated them.

It was strange feeling, one that she had forgotten completely. Yes, Crowe, Nyx and Luche were gone, one of them probably deserving, but she didn’t feel sad for first time in months. There was nostalgia and she missed them all more than anything, but maybe she had started to move on. She had to find the Marshal to thank him one for the advice and two for setting her up to train with Gladio since none of that would have happened if it wasn’t for Cor the Immortal.

[imagine-loki]

Hail to the King

TITLE: Hail to the King CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Ch. 1- Children Will Be Children AUTHOR: artemisnightingale216 ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Thor and Loki have a younger sister, Astrid, who was not much younger than Loki. Growing up, she was always very close to both her brothers, acting as a catalyst that kept them together even through tough times, though she typically stayed close to Loki’s side. Though it went against Frigga’s wishes, she even trained alongside them and raised as a warrior as well as a lady… RATING: M for Mature and Adult Themes NOTES/WARNINGS: Super duper happy with the feedback in such a short amount of time once again! Thank you to all of you that read it! Much appreciated! If you did not have the chance to read the Prologue to Hail to the King, I will be putting that link down below. Now, once again, as it is based off a Marvel movie, there will be violence; I don’t intend to put in much in this chapter as I plan to gradually build us up from the children’s childhoods all the way up to the first Thor and then on because I find it a bit unfair that we see very little about their lives before then aside from a few short scenes. Plus, we do need a bit of background on my OC. So, let us begin!

EDIT: Sorry this took so long! I got started on it and then busy with everything else that could go wrong in my life. Anyway, please enjoy and let me know what you think!

Link to Prologue

Song for the Chapter- Under One Sky by The Tenors

“Buona. Ora preparatevi. Il rituale è pronto per iniziare.”

The three of them circled around Unna and raised their hands palms up so they were facing the sky. She did not know what they had planned, but she knew it would not end well for her or her child.

“I think it best if we end our story there, my lieges,” a man said, his body clad in a great suite of gold and dark red armor with a sword nearly as big as he was clasped between his hands, the blade of said sword inserted deep in a raised dais, his dark skin a contrast to his golden armor and eyes; a helm sat atop his head, looking very much like a giant bird caught in mid-flight. The dais sat in the center of a high ceilinged dome, its interior and exterior matching his attire, an ever spinning spire circling around its top and appearing every few minutes in front of and behind him in the openings, one leading out to a dead drop and the other leading to the bridge outside. His voice, deep and soothing, sounded strange now that he was not speaking in a foreign tongue.

“What? No! It was just getting good! Do not leave it there!” a young boy, round in the face and a bit chubby, pleaded from where he sat on the steps leading down into the dome. He was small in comparison to the might of the man on the dais, but he still had time to grow. Instead of armor, he donned a simple light blue tunic, dark blue and red up the front vest with a red belt around his thin waist, and dark blue pants with the legs tucked into his brown boots. Brown cuff like bracelets were tied to his wrists and red fabric had been added to his boots to look like lacing.

“Forgive my impertinence, but I do not think it wise to tell the remainder to children so young. Perhaps when you are all older, we can revisit this story again,” the man clad in gold and dark red smiled slightly, the action partially hidden by his neatly trimmed beard.

“Then what was the point in starting it, Heimdall?” the young boy asked, his bright blue eyes conveying disappointment as he placed his chin in his palm and his elbow on his knee.

“You asked for a story, my prince, and I did not think you would appreciate one about happy forest elves. Besides, there are no real endings. There are only the places where you stop the story,” Heimdall chuckled lightly. “On top of that, your sister does not seem as fond of the story as you do.”

The young blue eyed boy looked behind him to the small child in a short sleeved white dress, the hem trailing to the floor, that was simple but fit for royalty, her long platinum blonde almost white hair pulled back from her face to half divide the shoulder length strands in a braid. She clung to the sleeve of his tunic and only one of her ice blue eyes, slightly wide with fear, were visible from behind his body where she hid. “She can handle it. Go on, Astrid. Tell him you can handle it.” He tried to coax her out from behind him on the steps, but she only tried to hide herself further.

“Let her be, Thor,” the dark haired boy sitting next to the blue eyed lad said in aggravation at his brothers insistent coaxing. His attire was very similar to that of Thor’s, but where his older wore blue and red, he wore grey and green. “If she does not want to hear the rest of the story, do not make her.”

“What troubles you, Loki? Too frightened to hear the rest yourself so you use a little girl as a shield?” Thor taunted, turning away from Astrid to shove at Loki’s shoulder. Loki nearly fell from the steps due to the force of the playful shove but righted himself before he could; his dark green eyes shown in low the low light of the dome, anger blazing in his irises as he was about to retort when Thor’s neatly trimmed and once formally styled blonde hair was suddenly pulled with such force that it drew his head back. “Ow! Astrid, you traitor!”

Astrid giggled happily as she leapt from her seat on the steps and darted away from Thor as he turned to grab her. She was past Loki, down the stairs, and around the perimeter of the dome by the time Thor stood to give chase. She was tiny compared to her brothers, especially to Loki who had a good inch or two over Thor, but she found she could be quick if she tried hard enough. She giggled again as Thor ran after her and she ran as well, trying to look for a place to hide as she went but quickly finding that there were very limited options. There was Heimdall, his great height and build sure to hide her tiny body, but surely her brother would see her. Then there was Loki, tall enough to hide her height but too slender even with her small frame. It seemed her only hope was to make it across the Rainbow Bridge before he could catch her, but that was a long shot even with speed on her side, the bridge much too extensive for a child. Even some of the warriors had to ride on horseback just to make it quickly across the great distance.

Astrid was nearing the steps to the entrance and decided to throw caution to the wind. She gracefully leaped over the steps, her dress flowing behind her as she did, and easily landed on the flat surface of the polished marble. Loki was clearly in awe of her display and cheered her on as she passed him while Heimdall smirked and remained standing on the dais with his hands ever on the hilt of his great golden sword.

“Come back and face me, you coward!” Thor called after her as he shook his fist and bounded up the stairs. Loki pulled a mischievous smile as he stuck his foot out and tripped him. Thor fell face first onto the polished floor, leaving a large spot of saliva where his lips made contact. Loki laughed and jumped up to follow after Astrid as their brother wiped the spittle from his face. “You will come to regret that, brother! Just wait until I get my hands on you both!” He jumped back up and rushed after both his younger siblings.

“And that is why I am forever grateful to my mother for not having more than one child,” Heimdall laughed to himself, glad the rambunctious young ones had found a distraction and forgotten the dark tale he had weaved for them.

“Face your fates, milksops! Prepare to feel the wrath of the future king of Asgard!” Thor yelled after them as they raced down the Rainbow Bridge, the bridge lighting up beneath where their feet connected with it.

The Rainbow Bridge, named for the bright colors embedded in the very material it was made from, was designed after a suspension bridge and was as old as Asgard itself. The bridge was hung high above an ever flowing sea so clear one could look down and see nearly see the bottom, the water eventually dropping off into the remaining other realms in the form of a magnificent waterfall; sometimes the sea was calm, but other times it was a tempest that most dared not venture into. At one end were the gates to Asgard, the realm eternal, a prosperous glittering city of gold surrounded by the sea and lush greenery. On the other was the dome, more commonly known as the entrance to the Bifrost, in which Heimdall stood on his dais; the Bifrost acted as a link from Asgard to the other realms and Heimdall its keeper, no one as of late getting in or out without his knowledge. Heimdall had watched over Asgard and the other realms for as long as anyone could remember, a puzzle no one had yet thought to solve.

Loki laughed humorously as he leapt onto one of pillars connected to the support beams that held up the bridge and used his momentum to swing himself around so he was facing Thor, his hand wrapped around the thin pillar and his foot braced against it to keep himself from slipping, Astrid having to stop and turn back when she realized he was no longer at her side. “In your wildest dreams, brother! I will be king of Asgard!”

Thor laughed boisterously in return and leapt onto the pillar as well, standing so he was on the opposite side as Loki. “I do not need to dream of reality! One day I shall sit where Father does and command the Nine Realms as I see fit!”

The two always seemed to argue when the throne of Asgard was concerned, but it was all just friendly banter. They were too young to truly understand the weight of what it meant to be king, but even so both Thor and Loki found themselves in competition for it. Being the two sons in the family, that meant one day one of them would be chosen and given the crown. The only question that remained on their minds, however, was which one it would be as their father had repeatedly told them both they were destined to be kings but only one of them could rule. It seemed unfair to Astrid, but she would likely either be married off to the prince of another realm and become a queen herself or wed to a high standing member of the court, as were traditions in their realm.

Loki smirked at Thor. “We shall see.”

“Astrid, do tell our ill-minded brother who will be king when the time comes. Me,” Thor pointed to himself, “or him,” he gestured toward Loki.

“Oh, yes, dear sister. Please do,” Loki nodded. “Tell our feeble-minded sibling whom will be king.”

Astrid looked back and forth between her two brothers with heavy thoughts burdening her expression. As far as her developing mind could discern, they might has well have asked her to decide then and there who was getting the crown rather than their father. On the one hand, there was Thor, the eldest son and already gifted in the arts of combat. On the other was Loki, though smaller in size but not height, he instead excelled when it came to the academics but was still a worthy foe when it came to battle. Both had much to learn for either of them to become king, however.

“Why did we bother asking her? She is not even old enough to sit at the table with us when we eat. How can she even know which of us to pick?” Thor rolled his eyes when it took too long for her to answer. Astrid looked down in guilt; she really had tried, but she knew no matter who she chose it would only hurt the other one’s feelings.

“Would you at least give her time? Not everything needs to happen when you say it does,” Loki glared at Thor. Astrid smiled, feeling a bit better knowing that at least one of her brothers did not find her inadequate.

“It will when I am king,” Thor smirked. Astrid and Loki rolled their eyes; it was like talking to a brick wall when he was around. Astrid looked out over the unconfined sea and onto the horizon where the sun shone brightly high in the sky, sending its warm rays down before it began its slow descent. She easily judged the time and rushed over to Thor. She tugged on his pant leg as he and Loki continued their little spat from where they still stood on the pillar.

“Honestly, Thor, must you be so thickheaded? How can you ever hope to rule when you fail to see reason,” Loki was saying as he turned around on the pillar so he was facing back toward the dome.

“One hardly needs reason to rule. Ruling means having an iron fist so the other realms will learn to fear you and a strong will to avoid temptation,” Thor scoffed in reply as he shoved at Loki and tried to swat Astrid off of him as she started patting at his leg hurriedly.

Loki righted himself before he could fall from the pillar and possibly the bridge. “If that were the case, then surely you would fail.”

“Say what you will, but it only makes sense for me to be king because-.” Thor looked down at Astrid in question as her tugs became more desperate. “What?” She pointed toward the sky and he followed her direction, squinting at the giant ball of fire and seeing spots before his vision when he looked back. “What? It is just the sun.” She jumped up and down, waving her arm in urgent motions. “Out with it, girl! What are you on about?” She grunted in annoyance and stomped her feet. “It appears our sister has gone mad.”

Loki raised his own brow in question at his younger sisters display before looking up at the sky to see what the commotion was about. He gasped. “It is already mid-day! We will be late for the family portrait if we do not hurry!”

“And Mother is still sore with us for missing the last one! Who knows what she will do this time?” Thor said worriedly as he rubbed his knuckles at the memory of their previous punishment. “Hurry! Back to the castle!” He jumped down from the pillar and resumed running across the bridge, Astrid and Loki following close behind. “Good thing I remembered the portrait, right?”

Astrid growled in agitation while Loki shook his head. It was a habit of Thors to take other people’s ideas and act like they were his own. It was a habit they hoped he would one day break and some day soon. Their father claimed it was a worthy trait of a ruler, the ability to take an idea for oneself, but their mother called it the mark of narcissist. The poor children were horribly confused and not sure what to call it at that point, but of course Thor was quick to agree with their father.

“Worry not, sister. We will get him back,” Loki said quietly to Astrid. She tilted her head at him. “Just leave it to me.” He winked and smiled playfully at her, making her giggle.

“If you two are done acting like infant girls, I am going to beat you both to our horses!” Thor called out behind over his shoulder. “I will even beat you with one arm behind my back!”

“Running does not even require both arms!” Loki called ahead just before he and Astrid passed him.

“Hey, no fair! Come back!” Thor pouted.

Astrid laughed in delight as she kept pace with Loki, her long braided hair thumping against her back while his once sleek style coming out of place. Her long dress should have gotten in the way, but she had mastered moving quickly in the flowing garbs. He had a slight advantage over her in pants and boots, but even that did not give him the upper hand. He found himself evenly matched with her speed if not slightly behind.

“Come on, Astrid! You need to do better than that! I am going to win!” Loki smiled, his long but thin legs pumping with ferocity. Astrid humphed in reply before working her tiny little legs and feet faster as she pumped her arms in time, her back straightening so it was horizontal with the ground; she had seen the great warriors do the same during tournaments and had been practicing ever since. “Huh?” He was surprised to see her leave his peripheral vision and instead shoot forward with great momentum. “How did you even do that?” She expected him to pout like Thor had, but instead she heard him call out, “Go, Astrid! Go!” She looked back and realized why.

Thor was coming up fast beside Loki, huffing and puffing and pumping his limbs faster than either of them thought possible. His face was turning red from the exertion and his eye were wide in their sockets from the strain he was putting on himself. Any hope he once had of keeping his hair neat for the portrait was long gone by now as it whipped about his face and behind him. “I… am… going… to… catch… you!” Even his voice sounded hoarse and strained.

“Come on, Astrid! You can do it!” Loki called as Thor passed him. “Run, Astrid! Run harder than you ever have before!” Astrid smiled back at him and nodded before facing forward again.

“Do not… root for… the girl!” Thor nearly wheezed. Astrid could hear him just behind her now, his boots heavy against the glass like material that made up the floor of the bridge, the lights sparking beneath their feet barely able to keep up with their quick strides. “Here I come! You are going to… lose! Prepare to taste defeat!” She could hear his laughter despite his strained breathing and decided she had had enough. “Victory is mine!”

Astrid smirked as she saw Thor step into sight just before she leaned forward and was no long by his side. Thor looked around in shock, thinking for just a second that he had actually passed her, until he looked forward and saw her standing by the horses, her hand gripping the saddle as she tried to catch her breath. “What!?” he shouted in exasperation as he too reached the specially bred animals.

“Ha! You were beaten! And by our little sister, too!” Loki laughed as he joined them.

Thor’s face turned even redder than before. “Yeah… well… So were you!”

“This fact does not hurt my ego,” Loki continued to laugh, having to hold his side. “Good job, Astrid. You made Thor eat your dust!” Astrid smiled at the praise and hummed in happiness.

Thor clicked his tongue. “She just got lucky, is all. Plus, the sun was in my eyes!”

“Uh-huh. Sure it was,” Loki rolled his eyes with a smile. “Oh no! The sun! We really will be late now if we do not hurry!” Astrid and Thor looked worried now. “Hurry! We have to get back to the castle before Mother finds out!” They rushed up to their designated horse and mounted it with haste.

Each child rode a horse that fairly matched their own physical appearances with harnesses and saddles that went with their attire. Thor, of course, rode a golden stallion with a stark white mane and tail; the only problem was that the horse was as chubby as its rider and the combined weight of the two slowed them down fairly often. Loki’s own horse was a cross breed between a friesian and a hackney, the end result being a colt that looked rather skinny and frail, with a coat, mane, and tail that was just as black as the child on its back. The foal for Astrid, however, was a hard one to find as she was so small; rather than a horse that matched her, she had to settle with the foal of a welsh pony or be forced to ride with her mother on outings because it was the only type the queen would agree to. It had upset Astrid, of course, to be given such a smaller riding companion, but a pony was better than nothing and she kept her tongue.

Thor shouted, “Yah!” to his his stallion and off it went running. Loki gave his two gentle kicks to the side and he followed after. Astrid simply clicked her tongue and the pony trotted along; unlike her rider, the small animal wasn’t very fast, though it did try to keep up with the two larger foals. Thor and Loki had to keep stopping there horse when they saw how far behind the two were and wait for them only to have to do so again not too long after.

“Can you not make that pipsqueak go any faster? Mother is going to wring our necks as it is,” Thor groaned after the fifth time his sister caught up. Astrid looked down in guilt and he felt a stab of remorse. “Well, we at least need to find a way back home faster. One that will at least not get us into as much trouble.”

The three children thought long and hard, but it was Loki who quickly came up with a quick and easy plan. “I know a way.” Thor and Astrid looked happy, but after having followed him to this quick route, they realized their mistake. His way had them galloping straight through the city square, which was bustling with people walking to and fro around the market to do their shopping for their masters and families. There was little harm a pony could do; the little filly simply avoided the carts and stands or ducked under them. The colts had no idea what to do around so many foreign objects and various amounts of people, so they stumbled about like newborns and would run off again when they knocked something over.

“This was a terrible idea!” Thor called over the shrieking commoners and his horse neighing in protest.

“I think it was a perfect idea!” Loki said in merriment as his colt somehow managed to jump over some crates of vegetables and keep running.

“Why did we ever listen to you?” Thor wondered. He nearly fell from his foal when it had to side step around a woman carrying a large basket, but he was able to right himself by wrapping his arms around its neck and holding on tightly.

“Because my ideas do not end in disaster like yours do,” Loki laughed as Thor came up beside him. Astrid tried to get their attention, but they were unable to see her in time before they went crashing into a stall.

Frigga stood before her three children with a look of irritation on her face, her foot tapping against the floor as she stared them down. She had hardly asked much of them; it was simple enough for children to keep themselves clean for one afternoon and show up in time to meet with the painter so they could have a new family portrait taken. It seemed, however, that her children were against keeping out of trouble.

She had been pacing in the small room they had designated for the portrait, trying her best to wait patiently, but it was past time the children were due to arrive and the servants were having no luck finding them in the palace. She knew they had snuck off even after she asked them not to, but she understood the curiosity of a child and had decided to allow them a bit of time to be late. The more time passed, however, the more her patience ran thin. Her husband had already had to excuse himself to attend his duties and would likely not return even if she asked for him, so there was no hope of him being with them for it. There was only so long she could keep the painter there; it was for the royal family, so they were top priority, but even he had other things to do than wait around and do nothing.

Worry had just started to set in when there was a knock at the door and a guard walked in. She immediately feared the worst until he stepped aside and she saw them standing in the doorway. Her relief was quickly replaced with shock when she saw the state they were and then switched to her current emotion when the guard explained what they had been doing before being dismissed.

After crashing into a stall, Thor and Loki had fallen into a chicken coop and landed in a puddle of mud. They were now covered in the brown filth and feathers were stuck all over their bodies, like someone had tried to turn them into birds. Perhaps it was best Odin had left the room, otherwise he would already be yelling at them, but only be halfway through. Astrid had somehow managed to make it out of the ordeal without a speck of dirt on her; the only blemish she had was windblown hair, but she wasn’t helping the situation by picking feathers off her brothers and blowing them into the air to see how far she could make them fly.

Frigga sighed and asked, “Well, do we have anything to say for ourselves?”

Loki and Thor glanced at each other before the later of the two shrugged and said with a trying smile, “You look lovely today, Mother?”

It was certainly not a lie. Their mother did look lovely, but then again, she always did.

Frigga was a tall, statuesque woman with an hourglass figure, her hips wider than her chest. She had once been thin, but raising three children could make anyone gain a bit of weight; she had still managed to keep most of her figure, though. Her hair, a dark golden color, was long enough that it fell well past her ribs and took her handmaidens a great deal of time to style it. For that occasion, they had given her a thick ring of curls, parted to the left, that thickened as it came around to meet at the back of her head while the rest had been left straight and placed over her right shoulder. She wore a long sleeved slightly off the shoulder dress that touched the floor, the color a beautiful light silver, with the front half split down the middle to reveal the layer underneath and flow behind her like a cap. Four strands of jewels had been sown onto the bands around her shoulders and her earrings were a shimmering topaz that matched her hair. Her eyes were a stunning hazel that shown stern but gentle in the light.

Frigga hardly seemed impressed by the complement. “Anything else?”

Loki and Thor sighed. “We are sorry, Mother.”

Frigga looked at them a moment before their guilt ridden expressions got to her and made her sigh as well. “I suppose I cannot really blame you for trying to make it here on time, even if you did break the rules about taking your horses into the city.” She dismissed the painter and told him she would be in contact to reschedule once again. “Just promise me it will not happen again and we can forget this happened for now.”

All three of them nodded before Loki asked, “Are you going to tell Father?”

“Well, that would hardly be forgetting about it, would it not?” Frigga raised a brow, smiling as they had a quiet celebration. “Now, you two go and get that mud off you. You have your training exercises starting shortly.”

“Thank you, Mother!” Thor and Loki smiled as they turned and ran out the door.

Astrid tried to follow after them, but Frigga quickly picked her up and held her in her arms. “Not you, young lady. There is a different set of exercises you will be doing.”

“Why?” Astrid asked as she was carried out of the room.

“Because ladies of the court do not engage in activities involving weapons, dear,” Frigga explained.

“Why?” Astrid asked again.

“Because weapons are not a tool a lady should use,” Frigga went on.

“Why?”

“Astrid, darling,” Frigga sighed as they entered one of the smaller libraries in the castle and she set her daughter down in a chair at the table, kneeling so she could face her better, “I know you love to spend time with your brothers, but there are things men do and things that women do. Men protect the homes and go off to war. Women study, learn, and take care of the children.” She made a sour face. “I know it may not seem fair now, but one day you will understand. Women are simply not meant to fight.”

“Then maybe I do not want to be a woman,” Astrid crossed her arms stubbornly.

“Alright. Well, until the day you are fully grown, you are still considered a child, so you still have to do as I say,” Frigga said just as stubbornly before standing and walking over to a bookshelf. “One day you will thank me for this.”

“I will take your word for it,” Astrid grumbled under her breath as her mother came back and placed a stack of books in front of her.

“Now, you are not to leave this table until each book has been read. I will be back to check on you later,” Frigga said sternly as she turned to leave. She looked back to see her daughter regarding the books with a look of boredom. “Study, Astrid.”

Doing as she was told, Astrid sighed and took the first book from the stack. The books were hardly thick; they were were no bigger than the width of two of her fingers, but to a child, it was like her mother expected her to read the entire library. It was rather boring, at first, reading a book on the history of the realms, but the more she read the more she wanted to know. It was interesting to learn how reacted to a situation compared to another, how they held court, or how some had no court at all. In some realms, they were ruled not by monarchs, but on justice and diplomacy alone. There were even realms that had no armies, believing that some matters were best handled with peace and understanding.

It felt as if barely any time had passed before she was done and on to the next book. Its pages were filled with texts on proper etiquette, dining, and dance. She was sure she would be bored of that quickly, but found it interesting that it was considered rude to refuse mead, yet one should drink it in moderation, and at a formal dance, the host and his children have the first choice of dance partners. The pictures of the dance moves and the words describing how they were executed had her performing the steps with a smile on her face.

Then came a book about the creatures that roamed the lands of Asgard. Trolls, wargs, and arvaks were things she was familiar with, but there were some that sent chills down her spine. Draugr were beings said to have come back from the dead while still in their grave; they mostly just protected any treasure that was buried with their corpses and could die once again after decaying, being burned, or otherwise destroyed, but she had no intention of crossing paths with one anytime soon. The Nökken was a being who could change his shape and would use his ability to lure people into the water and drown them; he also had a nasty habit of peering his eyes out of the water and watching people as they passed by. It was creature that typically lived in freshwater, and she made sure to make a mental note to keep a sharp eye out for peering eyes the next time they visited the lake. The Mara appeared as a skinny young woman, dressed in a nightgown, with pale skin and long black hair and nails. As sand they could slip through the slightest crack in the wood of a wall and terrorize the sleeping by “riding” on their chest, thus giving them nightmares; they would sometimes ride cattle that, when touched by the Mara, would have their hair or fur tangled and energy drained, while trees would curl up and wilt. She tried not to dwell on that book for too long.

Astrid began to realize that her mother had been right. Before long, she had finished the stack and was already moving on to new ones. She scanned shelf after shelf, trying to find any book she might enjoy that she could get her hands on.

When Frigga returned some hours later with one of her handmaidens trailing behind her, they found the table piled with books but her daughter gone. “Astrid?” she called in worry when she looked around the room and still could not see her.

“I am over here, Mother,” Astrid called back.

Frigga felt immediate relief as she walked behind one of the shelves to find Astrid wedges between it and another, even more books surrounding her as her eyes scanned quickly but deftly over the pages. “And what do we have here?”

“I found a book on stars, Mother. Did you know that there was once one so big, that it imploded on itself after only a few hundred years after its creation and took three other stars with it?” Astrid asked as she spoke but kept her eyes on the words.

“I did not,” Frigga shook her head with a slight smile. “I see someone found a new passion today.”

“Perhaps,” Astrid shrugged, not wanting to outright admit that her mother was right.

“Enough reading for today, darling. It is time for supper,” Frigga gestured toward the door with her hand.

Astrid looked up sadly. “But I have not finished yet.”

“You can come back tomorrow, if you like,” Frigga suggested. “You will be able to read as much as you want then.” Astrid smiled and nodded as she closed her book and placed it on the floor before running up to her mother’s waiting hand. She instructed her handmaiden to replace the scattered reading material in its proper place and led the young child toward the mess hall, grateful she had found something to distract her from the idea of learning how to fight, unaware that there were in fact book on martial arts in the library.

[frxggi]

[NCT] Doppelganger?

Hello hello hello! It’s me, Froggi, back at it again with the requests I should have gotten to a million years ago. This is like the best thing I’ve written since I made my blog though so hopefully that’ll make up for me being late. 

Genre: idk fluff i guess  Word count: 1,000+  Feedback is always appreciated, thank u and goodnight  Cozy, inviting, and seemingly set in past decades, there’s something indiscernible that draws you to the cafe that lies on the busiest street corner in Chicago. It’s a place you’ve visited countless times; the employees now know you by name and vice versa. On a particularly rainy day, you find yourself padding into the building, the warmth inside soothing your chilled skin. It’s rather empty, which is out of the ordinary given its reputation, but it’s not at all surprising to see the lack of patrons. It is only Tuesday, and with the downpour outside, it’s no wonder you can count the number of guests on one hand. The chime that sounds throughout the cafe alerts one of the waiters, and he bounds out from the kitchen to offer you a greeting. He’s tall, with chocolatey brown eyes and lips that curve up at the corners naturally, perpetuating an enticingly cat like expression. A few strands of soft dark hair fall into his eyes, and he lazily blows them aside with a harsh puff of air before throwing a welcoming smile in your direction. “Hey, sexy,” says the waiter, poking fun at your perhaps overly casual attire. “Do you not have an umbrella? You’re soaked.” You breathe out a sigh, climbing onto one of the large and rustic mahogany barstools that line the counter. “No, I lent mine to a friend.” Is your response. Johnny looks you up and down, pursing his lips in thought, before scurrying away. Out of sight, you can hear the whirring of machines and the clinking of glass and it’s not long before he returns, a drink in hand. It’s a tradition, so to speak, for you to leave your order up to Johnny every time you visit. He’s good at what he does, and he’s always thinking of new combinations of ingredients to put together just the right beverage to suit your mood. On days like this, your drinks are usually served hot, varying between overly sweet flavors with heaps of cream or something more simple, usually a hot tea with only a dash of sugar. Today, you guess the drink is going to be on the sugary side, judging by the mountain of whipped cream and chocolate shavings that dust the top. When you take a sip, though, you’re pleasantly surprised. It’s sweet, but not overbearing and there’s a faint hint of citrus. Your eyes widen, and you throw an excited thumbs up to Johnny as you gulp it down, the liquid heating your throat and warming you down to your toes. “It’s my newest concoction.” Johnny muses, bowing as if he’s in front of a relentlessly cheering audience. “I’m impressed. I’d say this is your best work to date.” You say, “What’s in it?” “That, my friend, is top secret information. I’m afraid I can’t tell you, though you know I hate to turn down a pretty face.” You haul your bag into your lap, pull out your laptop and boot it up. “That’s fine; I’ll just ask Nathan.” You counter, and Johnny’s eyes narrow. “You wouldn’t dare.” “Try me.” You taunt, taking another sip of the drink. Johnny, one of your 3 roommates, works and makes a living as a waiter and residential pretty face. There’s a handful of people that attribute the cafe’s popularity to Johnny’s devilishly good looks, and you can’t say you blame them; the days Johnny works are usually the cafe’s busiest. Girls practically line up to see him, no matter where he goes. Of course, it’s an unspoken rule that absolutely no one, under any circumstance, is allowed to flirt with him, unless they enjoy being gently but brutally rejected.To most, it’s painfully obvious that he already has eyes for only one girl. ‘Most’ meaning everyone except for you, the girl in question. It’s routine for Johnny to constantly be flirtatiously throwing quips in your general direction, which you reflect back at him with ease. Everything about him, from the way he dresses to the way he acts, screams “ladies man”, so you suppose you’ve sort of embedded that idea into your brain, projecting his flirty behavior onto everyone he interacts with. “Just ask her out already.” Is a phrase that’s commonplace among Johnny and your two other roommates. Among the four of you, it seems that the only one out of the loop is you. Of course, Johnny isn’t one to push. While it kills him to be so close to you without actually being able to call you his, he’ll take what he can get. He’s a man who’s all about subtlety; he’d rather drop hints for decades before he finally grabs you by the shoulders and scream to the heavens that he wants to go out with you. Which, unfortunately for him, is something he probably needs to do. You don’t consider yourself ditzy and clueless by any means; in fact, you’re at the top of your class in the university’s art program, but that’s another story. Point being, you can’t exactly take a hint, no matter how obvious Johnny might make it. Presently, Johnny’s leaning against the bar, asking you, “What brings you here, by the way? The weather outside is total shits; I didn’t expect to see you walking through it.” You’re in the middle of gulping down more of your drink when he continues. “Don’t tell me it’s because you wanted to come see me? I’m flattered, Y/N, I really am.” You click your tongue. “Wow, you’ve got me figured out,” you deadpan, “I actually just came to study, since it’s so loud back at the apartment.” “You couldn’t study at the library?” He asks. “Nope. Power went out, so the school’s got it closed off.” Is your response. Taking one last sip of your drink, you beckon him over, “Come help me.” He shoots you a, “I’m going to get in trouble for slacking off.” though he doesn’t make any move to decline your request. “No, you won’t. Everyone here loves you.” You say as he climbs into the seat beside you. He scoots closer, brazenly leaning against you with his chin propped on your shoulder. You don’t question the action, but rather the sensation is sends shooting down your spine. It’s not uncommon for him to have his hands on you; often times he’d have you in his lap or an arm slung securely around your shoulder, and it was never considered more than a mindless action between friends. After all, that’s the dynamic your friendship is built on. So why, you ask yourself, does it send your heart into overdrive? Of course. It’s because you’ve got a hopeless crush on the boy. It’s an idea you’ve only nurtured a small number of times, afraid that the blossoming adoration you have for the waiter would cause you to do something stupid, like telling him how you feel, should you entertain the notion that yes, you do like Johnny.His eyes are trained on the brightness of your laptop, and he’s silent as you pull up a number of windows, ranging from PDF files to a random playlist you found on Youtube. Johnny does wonders in helping you study. Physics, your weakest and his strongest subject, is the monster that you try to tackle as you sit tucked away into your own little world inside the cafe. Occasionally, he’ll reach a hand up and point to something you might have missed in your equations, and he’ll murmur answers to your questions. It’s when a sudden change in your playlist has you switching over to Youtube that Johnny lifts his head from your shoulder, prompted by a man seemingly in his 40s entering the cafe. The music that plays through your headphones isn’t something you could see yourself listening to, but when paired with the bright colors of the accompanying music video on screen, it serves to almost hypnotize you. Nine men dance with powerful movements on screen, and the song fluidly moves from hook to bridge to chorus, and it’s during the second verse of the song that something catches your eye. One of the boys, dressed in a candy red jacket with gold chains and auburn colored hair, moves to the front of the group, and your jaw drops. That guy looks just like Johnny! When he moves back to your side, you point to the screen in astonishment. “Check this out. That dude looks exactly like you!” Johnny’s eyes widen a slight bit, and he furrows his brows in confusion before his features relax and he cocks a goofy smirk. “Dude, maybe he’s your long lost twin. You know like that movie The Parent Trap!” You joke. A breathless laugh pulls its way from Johnny’s lips, and he slaps a hand to your back, between your shoulder blades. “Pretty sure I’d know if I had a twin, Y/N. That dude in the video? That’s me.” He casually throws out. “Eat it, Johnny. I don’t believe you.” You say, but upon giving it more though you realize that the idea is entirely plausible. Plus, it doesn’t take much convincing on Johnny’s part to have your jaw dropping in disbelief. “Wait, so you’re telling me that you, Johnny, the Johnny that works making just above minimum wage as a barista, the Johnny that does a shitty impersonation of parrots 24/7, are the same Johnny who’s a famous Korean pop star?” Johnny nods, as if it’s something as simple as 1,2,3. You blink a few times, and it only takes you a few moments to fully come to terms with the knowledge. After all, it doesn’t seem far fetched for Johnny to do something so... Extra. “Is that why you have so many girls up your ass?” You question, jokingly. Johnny leans back in his chair. “Maybe. It didn’t work on the girl I want, though, so what’s it really matter?” As he speaks, he fixes you with a gaze that’s perhaps a bit too serious given the lighthearted nature of the situation, but it nonetheless has your throat going dry. “Bummer.” Is all you manage to mumble out. “Yeah. I guess she didn’t really know about it until just now. I bet if she knew I was so famous, she’d already be falling at my feet.” Muses Johnny, casually despite the rapid beating of his heart. “Maybe now that she knows I can use that as leverage to get her to go on a date with me.” “Why don’t you ask her, then?” You counter. At this, Johnny leans forward, face entirely way too close to yours as he searches your expression for anything that could hint at deception, to give away the idea that you’re playing him like a fiddle, serving as a warning for him to back away because he doesn’t want to deal with the embarrassment of being rejected by the one girl he’s head over heels for. Finding nothing, he takes the opportunity to speak, tongue darting out to wet his lips before he asks, tentatively, “Will you go out with me?” Your lips quirk up in a little grin, and you can see the tension leaving Johnny’s frame when you nonchalantly reply with, “I’d love to.” The waiter has a smile stretching from ear to ear throughout the rest of his work day. On Saturday, when he texts you, telling you that he’ll be picking you up once he gets off of work, you find yourself smiling stupidly at your phone. You shoot a quick ok text, worrying your bottom lip between your teeth before typing out another message. “Oh and by the way, you don’t have to be famous to take me on a date.” Followed by another text, “I’d have said yes any day.” 

[linaliveshere]

Hold up, Harry Styles?!

There is no bigger name in the world right now than Harry Styles. The singer has just released his much-anticipated solo album, a self-titled, 10 track masterpiece which shot to the top of the charts in 84 countries.

From the smoothness of opening track ‘Meet Me in The Hallway’, the rocky vibes of ‘Kiwi’ and ‘Carolina’ to the Bowie and Prince inspired debut ‘Sign of the Times’, this album is something so extraordinary and breathtaking in a time where brit-pop and brit-rock are more valued now more than ever.

It’s no lie that since the start, Harry has always been pinned as the ‘one’ out of One Direction. His charisma, personality, talent and of course his looks, made him irresistible to almost everyone who crossed his path. When the group kept on growing and gaining popularity, Harry’s performance ability quite literally outshone the rest of the boys, to the point during the stadium tours that One Direction were doing, Harry was the main reason a lot of people went to watch. The aura around Harry has always been so positive and uplifting, and it draws anyone in, no matter if you listened to One Direction or not.

There was always speculation that Harry would be the first and the most successful of the 5 boys when it comes to going solo. However, he kept going with One Direction and his song writing ability was continually highlighted. People of all ages, gender and credentials realised his absolute potential.

When One Direction inevitably went on their hiatus, a lot of people, including myself, thought Harry would be the first of the remaining members to branch out into a solo career. Imagine my shock when he uploaded to Instagram for the first time in over a few months with his infamous long locks adorn in his hand. And the even bigger shock when the rumours surrounding his acting debut came true with pictures of him on set of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming war epic, Dunkirk.

Even throughout all this, Harry’s personality, values and morals have not wavered. He remains down to earth and will do anything to make his fans happy. If you look up ‘Harry Styles Fan Experiences’ on any social media platform, dozens upon dozens of articles, videos and blog posts will come up. I have been lucky enough to be a part of that special group of people who have met him, and honestly it was one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

His intelligence and forethought about everything gives the effect that people know everything about him, but we hardly know anything at all. He still manages to captivate an entire audience without the absolute sole reliance on social media. Many stars these days rely on that to keep their relevance, but not Harry. That’s what is special about him.

I am not going to lie when I say that when the hiatus was announced, my first thought was immediately to Harry and the fact that he could now possibly go solo, which is all I’ve wanted.

Another thing about Harry which puts him head and shoulders above the rest is his out their personality and how he does express himself to the public. One of the things that is publicly known about Harry, especially at the start of One Direction’s fame, was how he felt about how the general population saw him. In One Direction’s first documentary, A Year in The Making, Harry was greatly affected about what people said about him. As time went on, he became more confident in his ability and in himself, which made him stand out from the rest. From becoming a front runner for the skinny jean and boots craze, to the dad tops and the crazy suits, which he is synonymous for now. Moreover, the way he handles rumours and if anyone does talk bad about him or the ones that he loves, he still treats everyone with the same kindness. With continuous taunts about his sexuality, especially from people who are meant to be ‘fans’, he stays respectable and tells ‘it’s never been a question to me’.

Seeing him grow and become more confident gave me so much confidence in me and my ability to live my life. I know they say that having a role model is an easy way out or a lame thing to do, but I can proudly say since the time I was 15 that Harry Styles was someone who helped me make decisions, brought the best people I know into my life and gave me some of the happiest and best memories ever, some that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

Break-down of the album:

Meet Me in the Hallway: An incredible opening to the album. Smooth guitar and Harry’s vocal ability is significantly highlighted in this song. This song just makes you feel like you’re floating around on something to be honest. Angst lyrics from his point-of-view about wanting someone a lot more than they want you.

Sign of the Times: The debut single, and the longest track on the whole album, pays homage to two of Harry’s greatest inspirations- David Bowie and Prince. It represents a lot of what Harry stands for as a person, and again his vocal ability is realised in a song with this much power and vigour. An unbelievable introduction to the rest of the album. The music video just makes this song that much more epic, with Harry being flung over 1000 feet in the air from a helicopter.

Carolina: The first official dance bop of the album, this song was written about a girl Harry knew for less than a day, and she left such an impression on him that he wrote a bloody song about her?! And yes, her name is mentioned in the song, it’s just up to you to figure out where. The la la la la in the chorus will without a doubt will be stuck in your head for days on end. The lyrics ‘there’s not a drink that I think could sink her’ resonates with me on a very personal level, so I can’t wait to send a cheers Harry’s way when he sings this song at one of the concerts I am going to.

Two Ghosts: This is the song that every media outlet has been claiming is homage to Harry’s 4-month relationship with Taylor Swift 5 years ago. Despite that, this song is beautiful. The lyrics are about love lost then the hope that something may happen again. It is probably the one song that is closest to Harry’s One Direction days (even though it’s still quite far from it). It has been said that Harry has been holding onto this song for quite a while, and it shows.

Sweet Creature: If a song could make you fall in love over and over again, this song is it. The delectable ohh ahh’s, with cherished lyrics such as ‘Two hearts and one home’, along with the infinite strum of an acoustic in the background makes this song so undeniably happy and makes you want to hug everyone you love.

Only Angel: If this song is not considered the follow up single to Sign of the Times, Harry and his team are idiots. The start of this song starts out very melodic, almost identical to the grafting of Sign of the Times. Slowly you start to hear a ‘woohoo’ in the background, and that gets louder until the beat completely changes to an absolute rock out. This is a massive homage to one of Harry’s favourites, The Rolling Stones. The lyrics by now take a bit of a sexy turn, talking about someone who is naughty and nice at the best of times. The heavy use of guitar and drums in this song will make is a fun one live.

Kiwi: This is my favourite song off the album. When I first saw the track list to the album, my eyes immediately were drawn to Kiwi, because every other song I know that is centred around this word tend to be about one thing and one thing only. Much like Only Angel, there is a heavy influence on guitar and drums. The lyrics insinuate alcohol and drug use, which include ‘It’s New York baby always jacked up, Holland Tunnel for a nose, it’s always backed up’ which has sent many people into an absolute frenzy. And if that didn’t suffice enough, the lyrics of the outro bridge ‘she sits beside me like a silhouette… hard candy dripping on me till my feet are wet…. and now she’s all over me, it’s like I paid for it’ sent Twitter on the night of the album release into a manic.

Ever Since New York: Harry debuted this on his Saturday Night Live residency, and it was quite a soft-spoken song with a lot of ad-libs and key changes, again like much of the album, referencing to his outstanding vocal talent. The studio version was different, which I did not mind at all. The sounds of a piano come through and take central dominance in some parts of the song, making it very melodic.

Woman: ‘Should we just look up romantic comedies on Netflix and see what we find?’ The talking opening gives way to a kazoo/duck sound which dominates much of the song (which we now know is Harry’s voice extremely edited). The sultry lyrics underlie a lonely Harry and how he wishes she was doing all these things to him as she was doing to her significant other at that point in time. The bass in this song is incredible, and the music breaks between verses and chorus’ hold some epic guitar action.

From the Dining Table: An undeniable of loneliness and how tough tour life and fame can be in terms of relationships. To add another shock to the system for everyone listening to album, the first lines talking about masturbation. The lyrics ‘even my phone, still misses your calls by the way’ is a yearning to those who have love and left him, despite the fact if they used him or not. A great counterbalance to the opening song of ‘Meet Me in the Hallway’, and a perfect ending to an incredible album.

Buy Harry Styles now or stream:

•Apple Music: https://itun.es/au/GY8ejb

•Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/harrystyles_official/playlist/5fwwLMCP6Pz3qYsLIdPa83

Watch the Behind the Album movie here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/music-video/harry-styles-behind-the-album/id1234039985

To see if Harry is touring near you this year, head on over here: http://hstyles.co.uk/tour

[dailybestiary]

Knight & Megapon Ants

Knight ants are a special caste of ants dedicated to defending their colony’s home.  They grow particularly wide heads to protect their colonymates, who also benefit from the greater coordination signaled by the knight ants’ pheromones.  

Megapon ants, meanwhile, have the rare distinction of being (in the editions I own, anyway) the only Bestiary species I’ve seen to not merit a description. (Heck, I can’t even Google a good definition for megapon.)  But at CR 6, they’re nothing to sneeze at; they can carry prodigious amounts of weight; and their Strength-sapping poison suggests the sting of a fire ant or some aggressive, prehistoric lineage.

A clan of dwarves uses alchemical scents to tame and coax behaviors out of their ant livestock.  A local war calls most of the clan elders away from the hold, and when they return they discover that the artificial scents have spoiled.  Their knight ant guards now bar the way to the lower levels, no longer recognizing the dwarves as friends.

A martial arts master with some training as a druid believes in basing his forms and stances off of those in nature.  In order to learn his specialized skills (in game terms, teamwork feats), adventurers must study knight ants in the tunnels of their hill—without killing a single one.

Adventurers are racing through the canopy of the great god’s-home trees, fleeing cannibals hot on their trail.  They come across a column of megapon ants using their bodies to create a bridge for themselves and their giant aphid thralls.  If the adventurers can find a way to sneak across the ant bridge, they will easily lose their pursuers.  Otherwise they might have to fight the enormous ants and the kuru-maddened cannibals at the same time.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 5 27

I recently relistened to the audiobook version of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, read by the outstanding Simon Prebble.  I first listened to it during a massive, speeding ticket-filled, two-day road trip from San Francisco to Portland via Crater Lake several years ago.  I’m happy to say I loved it then—so much so that in my hunger for more I discovered Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series and Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey–Maturin books—and I loved it now—so much so that I accrued $28 in overdue fines because I had other books checked out and didn’t want to give any of them back.  (If you throw in the speeding tickets, that’s compelling evidence that good books make me make bad choices, apparently.)

JS&MN truly is an extraordinary book—all the more so because it’s a first novel.  (Neil Gaiman’s quote about a fragment from one of Clarke’s early drafts—“It was like watching someone sit down to play the piano for the first time and she plays a sonata”—still holds up.)  The true-to-the-1800s language, the sense of place, and the treatment of academic arguments as being as important as a battle are nearly perfect.  I love the characters; I love the world; I love the faerie lore; I love almost everything.

Because I love it so much, certain things still drive me nuts.  Most of these little things are insufficiently answered (to my mind, at least) questions or breakdowns in verisimilitude: How can Mr Norrell justify obstructing the progress of all other magicians if he publicly claims to want to restore English magic…why does Childermass remain with Mr Norrell for so long even after the meanness of his master’s character is revealed…why do Lady Pole and Stephen Strange’s maladies go so long undiagnosed, even with a faerie glamour to blame…things like that.  In reality, the book may be better for not answering these questions, but they still leave me fidgety with agitation.

A second listen did also confirm a major beef I had the first time I listened to it, though: It is a figure eight of a work, its whole shape constantly circling around two black holes of noninformation.  

The first is that the actual working of magic is barely shown and never explained.  Clarke has said that she “really like[s] magicians,” but weirdly she seems willing to gloss over the magic they do almost entirely. (Early in the book this is amusing—even the characters are impatient to see magic done—but by 2/3s of the way in it’s infuriatingly coy.)  We almost never get a sense of how it feels for the magicians to do magic, or why these two men have succeeded where almost no one else has.  (That they were prophesied doesn’t cut it.)  It’s a staggeringly strange omission, especially to a fantasy fan audience used to reading about how it feels to come into one’s power, whatever that power may be.  Strange in particular stumbles into magic and then the narrative curtain closes; when it reopens he is already a thaumaturgical Mozart.  That is, as the South Park kids would say, some total BS right there.

The second problem is that this is a work of alternate history that refuses to share its alternate history.  True, the novel purports to be written by someone from Strange’s acquaintance only a generation or so later, so much of this knowledge is assumed to be held by the reader.  But despite all its many, many, many footnotes, the book barely gives us a coherent alternate timeline, and so much of how the novel’s history diverges from our own is unclear.  (For comparison, Philip K. Dick is a downright clumsy author compared to Clarke, but I can tell you more about the history of Man in the High Castle, and it’s a mere pamphlet next to the Bible-fat JS&MN.)  I don't need much more detail, but I do need more.

Worse yet, not only has Clarke created a fictional northern England with a fictional Raven King that we don't know enough about, but she also seems to have fallen a little in love with him. (Strong evidence of this is that the characters positively won’t shut up about him; he even gives his name to the novel’s third act.)  It is dangerous to fall in love with fictional people or settings, and doing so is a surefire way to undermine the story.  (Notice, for instance, how Tolkien burns the Shire, and how J. K. Rowling—whose writerly smarts are often underrated—is careful to get her characters out of Hogwarts after the love letter to it that is The Order of the Phoenix.  Now compare that to, say, The Name of the Wind, which struck me as loving its central character just a bit too much, or the insufferable anime Clamp School Detectives, whose love for its own impossible setting is a veritable fountain of onanism (see what I did there?) that eventually feels like a taunt to the viewer who will never attend there. You can’t love your fictional children too hard, and Clarke loves John Uskglass.

So as I said, a great novel, but a figure eight thanks to these two crucial holes.  Do not under *any* circumstances let these prevent you from reading it though!

Unfortunately, a new qualm came up as I was listening this time: the novel’s hagiography of Englishness. In a 2005 interview with Locus, Susanna Clarke practically quoted Tolkien word for word in her lament that England did not have a myth of its own. (Sidebar: English culture is odd in that its most famous legend, Beowulf, takes place in Denmark, a divorce of a people from its mythic geography that seems to really bother certain writers.  In fact, this lack is responsible for both The Silmarillion and JS&MN.  King Arthur doesn’t work for them for some reason; he’s either too British rather than English—a distinction too arcane for my American mind, but there it is—or too Welsh, and his legend has definitely become too French.  Robin Hood doesn’t work either, for some reason, despite his being safely nestled in the East Midlands.  The tl;dr of all this is that there is no understanding the English mythic imagination when you’re a fat Yank git.)  So Clarke fills JS&MN with her love for England—its people, its cities, and its countryside, especially the North, where she revels in its preindustrial wildness.  And Englishness as a laudatory attribute fills nearly every page.  (More on this can be found over on Wikipedia, but don’t go there until you’ve read/listened to the book, because it’s spoiler central.)

The thing is though, Clarke is smart enough to know that glorifying England, Englishness, Englishmen (emphasis on the “men” there), and king/queen and country has caused a lot of pain for other folks in the world.  So she works very hard to undercut this worship of Englishness, giving strong roles to women, nonwhite, and poor characters, and amplifying their voicelessness in the society of that time through the narrative.  It’s all a genius balancing act, and it all serves to intentionally undercut and deflate the project of England worship that the novel is busily engaged in…

…And yet, Englishness, in the end, wins out.  England remains the hero.  The English countryside itself is instrumental in turning the tide in the final encounter.  Lovely, lush, green, hilly, moor-covered England is still the hero.

Which should be all well and good, but…  Well, I’m just not on board with cheering for England right now. 

I’m a Top Gear fan.  And I watched Jeremy Clarkson’s no-one-is-better-than-us casual racism—as an American I’m spared the overt racism of his other appearances—wax stronger with every season, slowly curdling my affection.  And I watched Brexit throw my expatriate scientist friends’ careers into a tumult and imperil their research.  It was also, more to the point, a triumph of Englishness over the needs of Britishness.  

And here on this side of the pond, I’ve watched a similar dynamic play out, as many Americans have taken to celebrating America—or at least, their mean, small-minded, and resentful notion of it—to the point that pride of place and race have become more important than the principals that make America work.

So I still love JS&MN.  And I think you should read and even love JS&MN.  And zero of what I’ve said in the previous two paragraphs is Susanna Clarke’s fault.  But in JS&MN, a country is a character—the protagonist even. And right now, in 2017, loving a place more than people doesn’t feel that good.

So I’m going to return JS&MN back to the library for another 7 years or so, or maybe for longer.  And the next time I get it out, I hope I’ve fallen back in love with England and America.

Because that is the magic I most want to see.

[lune-hime]

Cravings (Chocobros x f!Reader)

You are going to get that burger no matter what it takes.

~~~~~~

Noctis

“Psst, Noct.” You whispered to the man sitting in the driver’s seat. Turning your body, you placed your arm on the back of the front seat to look at the three sleeping forms in the back of the regalia. Ignis looked quite relaxed; glasses neatly resting in his lap and chest rising and falling with steady movements. Meanwhile Gladiolus and Prompto looked like they were trying to become conjoined twins; heads resting against eachother, limbs sprawled everywhere, drool escaping their gaping mouths. You wouldn’t be surprised if a few killer wasps flew in them.

“Hmm?” Noctis responded, tilting his head slightly in your direction. Out of the corner of his eye he caught your devilish smirk. 

“They’re asleep.” You stated rather seductively. The raven haired boy flicked his gaze into the rear view mirror to confirm your statement smiling. You bit your lip and leaned in closer to Noct. The smooth tone of your voice caused him to gulp as you moved towards him. Remembering he was still driving, he made sure to keep his eyes on the road while catching a glance at your movements every few seconds. 

“That means we can do something we normally don’t get the chance to do…” you continued and ran a delicate hand over his upper thigh. Noctis’ breath hitched and he licked his lips in excitement. The two of you exchanged playful glances before both looking back to confirm the sleeping beauties in the backseat were in fact still in the land of dreams.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” You purred, almost crawling over the gear shift to nibble at the prince's ear.

“Oh yeah.” Noct replied throwing you a smirk of his own. 

“BURGERS!” The two of you cheered in unison as you ejected yourselves out of the regalia now parked at the nearest Crow’s Nest.

Your screams had startled the unconscious members of your party awake, Ignis automatically summoning a dagger and Prompto letting out a little screech that would put a chocobo to shame. Leaving them groggy and confused, Noctis all but shoved the two of you into the restaurant but not before holding the door for you(ever the gentleman).

Finally realizing where they were currently seated Prompto let out a cheer of his own.

“OH YEAH BURGERS BABY!” He exclaimed before swiftly hopping over Gladiolus who grunted as Prompto’s hand came in contact with the side of his jaw.

Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Gladiolus chuckled at the realization you and Noctis had kidnapped them in their sleep and brought them to a fast food joint. Gazing at Ignis only made him smile more. The man sat with furrowed eyebrows and two fingers to the bridge of his nose pinching it.

“Kinda feels like we’re the parents, huh Iggy?” He laughed patting the man on the shoulder before opening the door to the car. Iggy huffed sleepily before chuckling as well. Although he generally was opposed to eating fast food the last hunt had left him more exhausted than usual and he wasn't going to complain if he didn't have to prepare tonight's meal. 

“It appears so. Come, let’s join the kids.” He smiled, squinting as the rays of the setting sun pierced his newly awoken eyes. Gladiolus sighed contently before the two moved to join their children for a family dinner.

Prompto 

Prom look what I found you texted the blonde. From the back seat you saw him practically drool over his phone. 

Don’t tease me like that baby, you know we would never get away with that with Iggy around. 

The two of you had been craving fast food for a week now but due to Ignis’ insistence on healthy eating you almost never got to eat anything remotely greasy. Without a doubt you loved Ignis’ cooking, so much in fact that you almost dropkicked a child who had stolen your food at a royal event in Insomnia. But your affinity for the man’s cooking didn’t mean that you never got the inclining for other foods. Unable to shoo the longing thoughts, you had idly been using the GPS on your phone to look up fast food restaurants within the vicinity as an attempt to curb your culinary desires. To your dismay, and soon Prompto’s, it had only made your cravings worse. Scrolling through the names of suggested eateries, you had gasped when a famous chain that served the best milkshakes in all of Eos popped up in your vicinity. You couldn’t remember when the last time you had tasted one of them and man you were dying to now.

Not wanting to suffer alone you began screenshotting all the various flavors and sending them to your boyfriend. Each time he received a new picture he would let out a frustrated whine. The behemoth brownie landslide had you drooling and an angry Gladiolus wiping it off his arm onto your sleeve. You sighed as you scrolled through the restaurant’s menu. 

I’m about to tuck and roll out of this car, find a wild chocobo and ride it to this place. You texted 

Prompto looked around as if actually contemplating rolling out of the moving vehicle and let out a long sigh as his head fell back against the headrest of the seat.

If only it were that simple. 

Smiling sadly, you tried to forget the milkshakes in the blur of trees as Ignis sped down the road. You were pulled from your trance by a vibration within your palms. 

Looking down you saw a text from Prompto.

I have an idea. 

You furrowed your eyebrows and looked towards the front of the car awaiting the actions of your chocobo haired boy. 

“Hey Iggy, could we pull over somewhere for a sec? There is a really famous statue that I want to take a picture of! The artist is world renowned and it’s supposed to be a must-see work of art. I promise I won’t be long.” Prompto pleaded giving Ignis a cheesy smile. 

“Where is it?” Ignis inquired. Prompto immediately showed him the location on his phone and Ignis nodded approvingly. 

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to make a quick stop, we have been driving all day. It will be nice to get out and stretch our legs."

Prompto couldn’t contain his excited giggle and glanced back at you beaming. You sent him a confused look.

Just wait. 

You shrugged and resumed looking at the scenery, seeing milkshakes resting in branches of the trees as you drove past.

After twenty minutes you emerged from the thicket and the signs of civilization were starting to return to the landscape. As Ignis drove further buildings began to emerge on either side of the street, many of them stores and various restaurants. That’s when you saw it. The intense neon light of the sign made it impossible for your eyes to miss. You blinked a couple times making sure your cravings weren’t causing you to hallucinate. There was no mistaking it; it was the milkshake place. You unintentionally let out a surprised gasp to which got you confused stares from Gladio and Noct and a wide smile from Prompto. You looked at him in shock and he smirked. Your boyfriend was a genius.

“It’s this turn up here, Iggy.” Prompto said, smile so large it looked like it hurt his cheeks.

To the others you and Prompto probably looked deranged; fidgeting in your seats and letting out excited giggles.

Ignis pulled into the plaza, the sun beginning to set, casting a warm glow over the asphalt of the parking lot. Shifting the regalia into park he looked around for this said amazing work of art yet none did he see. You and Prompto exchanged a look of determination then both bolted out of the regalia; Prompto slamming the car door so hard it echoed off the concrete walls of the strip mall and you practically vaulting over Noctis. Hand in hand you two ran like daemons towards the entrance to the diner yelling apologies to Ignis over your shoulders.

“Oh my gods.” Noctis mumbled, sleepily stumbling out of the car and swiftly moving towards the restaurant to join his two friends already inside.

Ignis only sat there in shock and Gladiolus swore he could see his soul flutter out of the man’s body.

Hopping out of the car, Gladiolus stretched his arms and cracked his neck with a loud pop. 

“I found the statue.” He snickered, gesturing to the front of the building.

There was indeed a statue. It was even uglier than Kenny the crow and Ignis didn’t think that could ever be possible. It was a milkshake with srubby arms and legs that looked like it was made 70 years ago. Paint chips dusted its dirtied white exterior and it held a smaller milkshake within one palm. Its toothy smile and large, round eyes taunted Ignis.

Never in his life did he ever think he would have the desire to punch a milkshake. 

Ignis

“Hey Iggy when we get there wanna hit up the crows nest?” Prompto excitedly suggested. The leather seat shifted under his bouncing form, the back hitting Gladio in the knees which offered a groan from the large man in the back. 

“Absolutely not.” Ignis replied not even considering the young man’s request, eyes unwavering from the forested road ahead. Prompto gave a small pout and sunk back in his seat in defeat. You felt a frown begin to spread to your lips as well. You could sympathize with Prompto; all day you had been salivating over the idea of sinking your teeth into the Crow’s Nest’s famous double cheeseburger. Two layers of cheese blanketed over savory patties and topped with onions, lettuce, and pickles. The thought alone had you slack jawed and salivating. You swallowed and bit your lip as you became lost in your diner daydream, only to be awakened from your food coma by Ignis' velvety voice. 

“Lestallum has plenty of fresh produce I can use to make us a much more delicious and healthy meal.” Ignis countered. He wasn’t against the occasional fast food meal, but as he always eloquently put it; only go to the crow’s nest if you wish to put on weight.

From an outsider's perspective, he may look uptight but how much he cares about the group's health really shows through in his cooking. Every step of the process was done with purpose; from preparing each person's favorite meals, to insuring only the best ingredients were being used, to watching the group's diet by adding nutritious elements to each dish (which most of the time were vegetables to Noctis' dismay).

His meals and the love behind them was one of the many reasons why you were so smitten with the man. You understood where he was coming from, you really did, and no one enjoyed your Iggy's cooking more than you. But that burger was calling your name and by the six you were going to answer. 

“But Iggy.” You chimed in, pouting cutely. Immediately the man's eyes were on you through the rearview mirror and they narrowed in suspicion. 

“We’ve all worked so hard on these last few hunts." Your eyes locked as you sent him a flirtatious look.

"Don't you think we all deserve a treat?" You purred, biting your lip and looking at him through your lashes. 

His eyes seemed to glow emerald as they bore into yours through the mirror. Your gaze held more meaning to the word treat than just what was for dinner.

Ignis lost all resolve when you ran a gentle hand down his bicep and licked your lips, eyes still locked. He suddenly coughed and moved the arm your hand rested against up to adjust his glasses. 

“Perhaps I could entertain the idea.” 

Cheers where heard throughout the regalia as Ignis cleared his throat and straightened up returning his gaze to the road but not before stealing one final glance towards you. 

Gladiolus 

The growling of your stomach broke the peaceful silence that hung over the regalia. You winced, clutching your stomach and letting out an annoyed groan. 

Sandwiched between Noctis and Gladio in the backseat, you leaned your head back against the muscled arm wrapped around your shoulder. Gladio looked up from his book to your frustrated form. 

“Hungry, sweetheart?” He asked softly. You nodded closing your eyes and sighing. Prompto and Noctis hummed in agreement. 

You had been driving for hours and the sun was just beginning to set on the Vesperpool. Glancing at the scattered buildings within the rugged landscape, the worn down sign of your party’s favorite restaurant peeked out from behind a pine tree.

“Look! Perfect timing.” You beamed, your sluggish form perking up immediately. 

“All right, Crows Nest!” Prompto cheered only to be cut short by Ignis zipping past it.

He didn't even spare one glance at the restaurant as he continued to speed down the scenic highway. 

You sat slack jawed as you watched it disappear into the distance. An audible chorus of sighs echoed within the car as the three of you slunk back into your sulking positions. 

“Come on babe you'll survive, we'll be at the haven soon. And you live for Iggy’s cooking.” Gladiolus ressured you, adjusting his arm so you were snuggled further into his side. Leaning your head back against his bicep, you gazed up at him and sighed dramatically.

“But you love the Crow’s Nest too and we haven't eaten there this week.” You pouted. Gladio gave you a sideways look and raised his eyebrow.

“I won’t deny it, but-“ He leaned in close and whispered quietly. “Babe, we've eaten out four times this week. Noct has been practically snorting burgers sans vegetables and washing them down with shakes, if we go any more Iggy is gonna break.” He said, eyes falling to the man behind the wheel. Your eyes followed your boyfriend's, gaze resting on the tense man gripping the steering wheel just a little to hard. You nodded in understanding, but deep down you knew nothing was going to satisfy your cravings like Kenny the crow's special burgers and fries. Even if it was for the fifth time this week. 

"Plus if we keep eating fast food I'm gonna lose all my muscle." He said looking off into the field at a herd of anaks. You blinked a couple times then poked his cheek. 

"You'd still be hot without it. I'd still smash." Gladiolus laughed and squeezed your side. 

"Good to know, but still no." He chuckled, resting his gaze on the novel in his right hand. 

Now your situation was getting serious. With each passing second the further you were getting from your destination and the more food deprived Prompto and Noctis were becoming. You needed to save your fallen comrades, so it was time to break out your secret weapon. Usually that said weapon was Gladio, but he wasn't budging so you would have to get creative. 

Scooting up so your mouth was next to his ear you whispered so only he could hear.

"If you pull Iggy out of the front seat, I'll sit on him so he can't get away while Prompto takes the wheel and drives back to the diner." You proposed, cupping your hand around your mouth in the off chance Ignis could read your lips through the rearview mirror.

This made Gladiolus snort as he imagined the scenario. As entertaining as messing with Ignis would be, he didn't want to push the man further off his wheels than he already was. He shook his head as he chuckled, throwing you a loving smile before resuming his reading. 

Well, third time's the charm. You thought, a look of determination spreading over your features. 

Tapping him on the thigh to get his attention, Gladio raised his head once again and sighed, already prepared for more of your antics. You looked up at him with doe eyes and motioned with your hand for him to lean down. 

“You know…” You said in a low, silken voice. Your breath tickled the spot where his ear met his neck and he stiffened.

You slid even closer to the man, torso now flush against his and leaned in until your lips almost met his ear.

"The Crow's Nest has a special going on right now." You knew how much he loved meat and you were going to use this to your advantage. 

“A burger so thick.” You emphasized the last consonant. “that it almost can’t stand up on its own.” Gladiolus gulped as you continued to describe the decadent cuisine. 

“A tower of tender beef sitting between two golden buns and drizzled with Kenny Crow’s homemade sauce.” You realized your temptations were working when Gladiolus had that hungry look in his eye that he only reserved for two things: copious amounts of meat (that you honestly couldn't understand how he ate it all in one sitting) and you.

"And don't forget they have onion ri-"

“Iggy turn the car around.”

[omgwritersblock]

It’s A Twin Thing

Sentence Prompt: “So what if I broke my arm, I’m still doing it.”

Words: 1,180

Written by: @omgwritersblock

Edited  by: @just-netflixing

"I'm doing this."

 "No, you're not."

 "Yes, I am."

 "No, you are not."

 "What are you going to do to stop me?"

 Selene sighs in exasperation. She pinches the bridge of her nose and looks at her twin brother, Sam, who grabs his worn-down skateboard from the utility shelf in the garage.

 "Sam, you just broke your arm. Do you seriously think you're going to be able to pull off this-this 'obstacle course' you've created?" Selene interrogates. "Skateboarding is what landed you in a cast in the first place!"

 As she continues to lecture him, Sam clips on his helmet and straps on his knee and elbow pads, neglecting the elbow with the broken arm. He opens the garage door, watching as it rises up at a crawling pace. Realizing that Selene is still lecturing him, Sam groans, and interrupts her, saying, "Look, I get it. You're the responsible twin. All your lectures about common sense and what-not-to-do and blah, blah, blah," he mocks, gesturing with his hands.

 "But, I'm the stubborn twin. And because I have a reputation to keep, telling me to not do it will only make me want to do it more."

Sam looks down his nose at her and gives her a look that conveys the message 'no matter how hard you try you can't stop me'. Selene shakes her head at his stubborn mindset, emitting a quiet chuckle. How are they so different?

 Because they are twins, people often compare their looks, such as their dark complexion and bright, sapphire blue eyes. They couldn't have been more different, though. Selene, intelligent and shy, prefers to stay in background, reading a book or listening to music. She works hard in school, and always earns fantastic grades. A bit of a worry-wart, she tries to prepare for the future.

 Sam on the other hand, is a much more exuberant person. He enjoys sports and being front-and-center in every activity. He prefers to live in the moment, and take what comes to him as it happens. Sam is just as smart- in fact sometimes more so- as Selene, though he doesn't usually like to use it to his advantage.

 This is one of those times Sam decides not to use it. Recently, he broke his left arm while skateboarding downhill at a much faster pace than what is reasonable. Let's just say it involved a pebble, a tree, and a trip to the emergency room that made even the medic cringe. Now in a cast, Sam has decided to create an obstacle course to test his reflexes, and Selene is trying to talk him out of it.

 "Come on, it's just a little obstacle course. What could go wrong?" Sam asks with a nonchalant shrug.

 "Okay, first of all, this is not a quote-unquote 'little' obstacle course. It goes down the whole street! Second of all, whenever you say that something goes wrong. And finally, how will jumping off a ramp over two trash cans 'testing your reflexes?!"

 Sam replies with, "It tests my reflexes because it'll show if I can avoid the trash cans if I fail this." Selene glares at him, and Sam shoots her a cheeky grin.

 Selene continues to glare at him, and Sam groans again. "Whatever, I'm doing this anyway, so you can either join me or go get mom like the goody-two-shoes you are," Sam insults. Grabbing his board, he walks out of the garage out onto the street.

As Sam checks his equipment, Selene scrunches her nose, a habit she has when she thinks hard about something. On the one hand, she, too, loves to skateboard and the obstacle course Sam set up is awesome. Plus, she hasn't been skateboarding in while, what with her school schedule and such.

 On the other hand, if she joins him, and they get hurt, their mother may or may not demolish their will to live. But she thought about the first option again, and how long it has been since she and her brother have done something together. Especially something they both enjoy.

 Selene sighs, mumbling, "I'm going to regret this." Making a decision, she grabs her board, helmet, and necessary pads. She joins her brother, clipping her helmet on before putting her boards on the asphalt.

 Sam looks at her, eyes widened in surprise. Selene shrugs, commenting with, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Sam beams, and Selene beams right back.

 Looking back at the course, Sam goes on to explain, “Okay, see the cones? We have to swerve in and out of them, until we reach the half-pipe. On that, we have to touch the top on both sides twice." Selene nods. "Then from there, we jump over three cardboard boxes. And the grand finale," Sam exclaims with a flourish, "is riding onto a ramp in order to jump over two trash cans."

 Selene exhales, questioning her decision. Well, there's no turning back now, she tells herself. "Alright, let's do this. You get to go ahead, since you set it up," Selene taunts.

 Sam chuckles, and starts pushing with his foot to get the momentum he needs. Selene follows right after, gaining on her brother. They weave through the cones with ease, and get to the half pipe at the same time, touching the top with perfect synchronization. They laugh and cheer and high-five, enjoying each other's company.

Their whooping and cheering continues as they start to approach the ramp. Seeing what is ahead, Sam pushes harder, pulling ahead of Selene. His sister is close behind him. Her heart races with excitement and adrenaline pumps through her veins.

She sees him jump, catching more air than what is reasonable. She sees him crash, right into the trash cans. Her eyes widen, but she can't slow down. She clears the ramp, and for a moment she is flying; then, she's falling through the air.

 Sam looks up just in time to see his sister come crashing down, knocking into him and making an even bigger mess of the situation they are in.

 "Ow, ow, ow!" The cry at the same time. Sam grasps his leg in pain, and Selene holds her arm with a look of despair on her face. Then she does something unexpected considering their predicament: she smiles. She grins so wide, the corners of her eyes crinkle in their trademark way. And she laughs. She laughs at what they just did, how much fun it was, and what their mom will say when she comes home.

 And then Sam laughs too, with grimaces of pain here and there. They laugh with each other and at each other, and enjoy the other's presence.

 When their mother finally does get home, she finds them in the house with their broken limbs propped up, smelling like a landfill.

 After another trip to the emergency room, and a lecture that will last for years, Selene and Sam have matching casts on their arms, Sam has a new cast on his leg, and both have the biggest smiles that have ever been seen.