#(this is obviously tongue in cheek i have no beef with the show please don’t attack me)

[useless-englandfacts]

maybe this is just because i went to a non-selective state school but. i’ve just finished series 2 of heartstopper and i need to know if anyone in the uk has attended a school as clean as the one on that show.

[martianbugsbunny]

Kay babes, I already posted a salty kinda tongue-in-cheek thing about Kalluzeb, in context of *MANDO SPOILERS* Zeb appearing sans Kallus in the Mandalorian. Because in honesty, he should be on Lira San with Kallus enjoying retirement, but I have no beef with him doing whatever it is he’s doing other than the part where he’s doing it without Kallus, because that is a huge red flag for me.

I thought I would have to worry about the following issues when it came to Ahsoka, but I guess they’re either setting him up for an appearance in that or they’ve decided to explore his post-Empire story in Mando, which is fine. If ye be free of indignation about Kalluzeb/Zeb just being gay, read on! If you’re an apple riddled with the worms of homophobia or if you’re very strongly anti-Kalluzeb, then this is not the post for you, and I would rather you just left now than got mad at me in the comments.

I’m going to specifically discuss this in terms of Ahsoka first, because I’ve had this in my drafts for months, so I wrote it before Zeb getting no-homo’d was a present and immediate danger. This may not be the best-written I’ve ever produced, but it is fairly logical, so please take it in context of the first section being written months ago, and the last section as being written today, and then you’ll be sitting pretty.

So it’s basically common knowledge at this point that Hera and Sabine will appear in some capacity in Ahsoka, and probably going to be in contact with our queen herself. I have doubts that Zeb will be a significant part of the show; maybe a cameo here or there, or they mention him but he stays off-screen. If Hera/Sabine gets off a comm in the back of their spaceship and Ahsoka’s like “hey, who was that?” and Hera/Sabine says, “just checking in with Zeb,” there is a choice. And because I have no faith in anyone to canonize Kalluzeb, this is what feels much more likely to happen: The writers will either throw in a single line after that (such as Ahsoka replying with “oh, cool, how’s his wife?”) or there will be no mention of a spouse. And believe you me, there is literally no reason that Zeb, who would be off-screen at that moment, and whose Rebels ending involved no female Lasat, should have a wife for that throwaway moment. It adds nothing to his story and it would be completely out of nowhere, probably never to be explored again. Mentioning a wife would literally just be the galaxy’s biggest, flashing-neon “no homo” (or, in Star Wars terms, you might say that he got Zorii Bliss-ed). There’s no reason to do it. Not saying he has a wife technically doesn’t even disprove the concept that he might have a wife *sarcastic snort*. So if something like that does end up in Ahsoka, we all know why. There is legitimately no other reason to add in a throwaway line like that other than to disprove the concept of Kalluzeb. Or maybe just to disprove the concept that Zeb is gay. I would honestly rather they never mentioned Zeb at all, even in passing, than throwing that kinda thing in our faces. There is no reason to disprove it. Leaving Zeb with a slightly ambiguous relationship poses no problem. No plot hole. No loose end in desperate need of tying up. There is no reason to officially, explicitly de-canonize Kalluzeb or gay Zeb, because there is no significant woman in his life he might possibly have a solid, built-up, understandable relationship with, and because his most significant person (I would argue) is a man. I can’t say it enough. This is the test. Either we get Zorii Bliss-ed again, or Zeb gets to continue enjoying the grey space. (Because I don’t have enough faith in Filoni, the man who still has not made Ahsoka a splesbian [lesbian in space] to canonize arguably one of the most dramatic potential romances in Star Wars history. Even though Kalluzeb makes sense. Even though Kallus’s entire reformation arc is started by Zeb. Even though in his little screen time as a Rebel, it is still obviously Zeb who means the most to him out of all the Specters. Even though Zeb, who is often portrayed as being kind of rough, is much kinder and more honorable towards Kallus than he deserves, before they’re on the same side.)

In context of Mando, the same rules apply. There is no need to mention him having a wife. There isn’t any urgent need to even explicitly canonize Kalluzeb, other than the fact that Star Wars needs to improve its queer representation by leaps and bounds to get up to standards, and also that Kalluzeb makes a whole lot of sense. I am terrified of him existing in post-Rebels media because thus far, he is without Kallus, and with the way their Rebels storyline ended, there’s really no reason he should be. Kallus should be by his side.

UNLESS Kallus is A) currently enjoying retirement on Lira San, and Zeb is off-world for short periods of time every now and then but goes home to Lira San and Kallus or B) they’re saving Kallus for a moment when Kallus shows up late to whatever business he and Zeb have and we get a quiet, “hey, husband of mine” and there’s no fanfare, no Zorii Bliss situation, just two gay dudes being married and living their lives together.

This is it. This is where I find out if it’s even crossed Filoni’s mind (or the minds of other miscellaneous writers, but he really sticks to his characters) to leave our plausible couple be. This is where I find out if his viewpoint of *paraphrased* “it wasn’t my intention, but I won’t de-canonize it” (https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-rebels-producer-dave-filoni-is-totally-fine-w-1823593680) holds up if he’s going to explore characters close to Zeb (which includes Kallus) post-Rebels.

[loveabledirtbag]

Sheridan 1.05

i feel like the show starting right off the back with sydney in bed tells us, the audience, “oh, this is gonna be different”.

the quick cuts! seeing meal inspo, flashbacks to syd’s failed business. done so well to show us how protrusive the thoughts are

i love the sort of storied, layered tension of syd’s bedroom. because it’s obvious it’s her childhood bedroom, but also…how much of it has she updated as an adult? some of it? none of it? it feels like a child’s room. i also remember the first time seeing syd’s bedspread and thinking, “OH, is syd queer!?!?!?” remains to be seen, but at this point it’s probably rainbow because it’s her childhood bed. not because she’s queer

SO MANY DRUGS IN HER BATHROOM CABINET

i love that the two posters we see really clearly are: speed (which came out in ‘94), and jumping jack flash (which came out in ‘86). who is sydney? when was she born? why are these two movies on her wall. it clearly means something, the creators chose these posters so it has to mean something…but what???

i remember hearing from someone that the train station where syd gets on is really close to where the Mr. Beef (the exterior used for The Beef, and inspiration for it) is located. couldn’t say if that’s true or not, but if it is that’s kinda disappointing. obviously tv and movies have to do what they can with time and shooting locations, so maybe they had to shoot there. but the shows tries so hard to submerge us all into a sense of reality in the show that knowing sydney is a two minute walk from work as she’s boarding a train is disappointing.

the quick little camera work of carmy’s hands up to his face. just to prove that jeremy allen white is actually cooking

“a play on ‘Tongue & Cheek’” “ox tongue?” “or braised beef, maybe short rib…risotto?”…but then how is it a play on tongue & cheek, and not just…a dinner menu/dish?

here’s the beginning of the risotto storyline. and all the misery it entails!

carmy tells marcus to use scissors to cut the tape….but the tape dispenser has a blade. why was marcus ripping it in the first place? why does carmy say to cut it with scissors? the BLADE IS RIGHT THERE

idk why, but the toilet exploding is SO relatable to working at a shitty restaurant. why do so many toilets explode? i’ve never experienced a toilet exploding anywhere else in my life

“what is up you fucking replicants” richie’s phillip k. dick references are strong

ebra telling carmy there are many components to the new dish he’s showing them is really fitting with ebra’s storyline in season two (but more on that later)

there’s something pleasing about carmy saying “monter” and then realizing that his classically trained chef lingo isn’t going to be understood so he says “whisk in”. because carmy is coming down to their level, but is also proving you don’t need a fancy french education or need to know fancy words to make good food. “whisk in” works just as well. the class dynamics in this show are so on point.

the calmness shown in the kitchen now that everyone is on board with the new system that carmy is so good. where we’ve seen chaos and overlapping anger, now we just see calm, peaceful, quiet cooking. the only holdout is richie

“yo, should we do a bakery?” god, i love chester. and i’m so serious; everyone needs a friend like chester, and every kitchen i’ve been in has a chester. just someone’s friend that pops in all the time for no reason and who everyone knows

the back and forth as chester asks if he should watch the bachelorette without marcus is so sweet. and again, it added to the “is marcus queer?” debate in my head. but also, having a bachelorette night with your bestie also sounds pretty dope, and two straight dudes can tear that up. i just want marcus to be happy.

tina went to mikey’s and mikey/carmy/nat’s moms for christmas. just further deepening that relationship of the family and tina. tina wasn’t phased by carmy’s mom going “full psycho”.

it’s so hard to see the undercurrents of carmy’s anxiety come out when talking about his mom (even more so since watching season two), especially with his emotional support spoon (which we all need)

“never fuck my vibe!” “i swear to god i will fuck anything that i want to fuck” “you are not being nice and you will not fuck me” as richie and fak got closer and closer to each other. once again……..kinda queer vibes? i mean, yes, richie is homophobic, but psychologists teach us that the biggest homophobes are projecting their own internalized homophobia. i swear, 20% of me thought they’d kiss. sure, they ended up fighting and “wrestling”. but isn’t wrestling also a way for “straight guys” to get oiled up and roll around with each other?……maybe i should write the bear through a queer lens after i write the bear through a class lens

matae: basically “uncle” from the movie bloodsport with van damme. because of course it is

carmy’s lack of surprise is truly so funny

ope, richie is selling coke!

if i know one thing about baking (and i know very little) is you don’t want to rush that shit like marcus is doing. especially when you are working in a space with some jank electrics and equipment

the shows one and only “covid” mention. which is perfectly placed and isn’t in bad taste or poorly done. plus, it’s also pretty fair with a lot of places on the edge during the worst of covid lockdown; you gotta make money somehow

the earned, relational aspect of richie being peoples cousin. pete calls him cousin and richie says “i’m not your cousin”. yet, we learn that beyond just the berzattos call him cousin later on. it’s kinda beautiful.

the fast turnaround of nat calling carmy a “soft shitty bitch” who only calls when he needs something from her to her melting and giving him a big hug when she learns he’s going to Al-Anon All Family three times a week is maybe the purest form of showing they are family i’ve ever seen on a screen in such a short amount of time

the transition of the early scene with syd telling carmy they should close when the dining room is flooded and carmy saying missing one service could kill them, to tina saying they can’t open because there’s no electricity, the walk-in is broken, and there’s no gas in the ovens, so syd improvises an outside grill is just fantastic use of character development and showcasing syd’s skills

marcus sitting in a spot where next season another memorable moment will happen with marcus and another line cook is kinda funny. probably not overtly planned by the writers or directors, but kinda fitting

marcus saying heard as carmy tells him that the job is insane and it can go from chill to unchill in a second and so that’s why he’s gotta stay up on his work. but we know (who’ve seen it) that marcus did not actually “hear” what carmy said.

carmy saying that he started a fire the night he won food & wine’s best new chef, and then says “you have a moment where you think ‘if i don’t do anything this place will burn down and all my anxiety with it’” is more indication of carmy’s twisted love of his own misery

“one last drug deal” to get them out of their money hole would have been a bigger storyline in lesser hands. but the nuanced, B storyline it has, allows it to just be a reality that happens in the background of a lot of shops around the US to stay afloat

the amount of chefs i know who at one point went into catering instead of staying in a kitchen is kinda wild. it seems like an alternative of a food truck. the “i don’t have enough money to open a brick and mortar spot, but i want to do my own thing” path. and the right caterer can be fire

god, syd waking up in the middle of the night with an idea for a dish so she writes it down because she has to is so….just so….true. i have so many notebooks filled with shit that has absolutely no value outside of a shop.

but it is the origin of the cola braised short ribs that will go alongside our risotto! the origins of the cursed dish is growing!

i love this episode so much! and i love how this later half of the season spreads itself around the members of the kitchen more than just carmy. he’s the anchor and the focal point, but there’s so much depth to explore the rest of the crew of the beef. i’m excited for next episode and the rest of the season!

Season One: Episode One | Episode Two | Episode Three | Episode Four | Episode Six | Episode Seven | Episode Eight

Season Two:

[rebelwrites]

Misunderstanding

Jax Teller x Reader

Requested by anon // Hi! Could you make one with 20/24/29 with Jax? Like pure angst but fluff ending. Thank you💚💚 Prompts: 20. “I’m begging you, please don’t go.” 24. “Please don’t do this to me.” 29. “I’m carrying your child.”

Staring at the photo he had been sent, Anger ran through Jax’s veins, you said you were going to see family this weekend but wanted to go alone and know he knew why as he stared at the photo of you in the arms of a Mayan, Angel Reyes to be precise.

Hearing the front door close, Jax turned his gaze to the hallway as you had a massive smile on your face.

“Good weekend” he spat, venom dripping off his tongue taking you by suprise.

“Yeah” you nodded “very good, it was good seeing everyone again”

“You mean good to cheat on your boyfriend” he hissed.

“The fuck you on about?” You asked raising your eyebrow.

Without saying another word he turned his phone to you showing the photos of you wrapped up in Angel’s arms followed by a few more and a couple with Ez.

Scoffing you looked up at him through your lashes wondering if he had been hit on his head.

“You didn’t want me to go with you for a reason” he glared pushing the chair back to stand up. “So I’m done, I thought I meant more to you but obviously not”

“Do I get chance to explain before you brand me as a fucking cheater?” You shouted as you watched him pick his back pack up.

“What’s the point Y/N the photos tell me all I need to fucking know” he spat running his hand through his hair.

You knew Jax wasn’t the smartest in the world but he was really missing the point right now, you would have thought after dating for a year he would have put the pieces together by now, granted you should have told him but with all the shit going on with the Mayans you decided to keep it quiet.

Taking a deep breath you placed his phone back on the table.

“So that’s it then you just gonna walk out on me without letting me explain because boy you got the wrong end of the fucking stick” you snapped

“You obviously don’t love me anymore” he shrugged “so yeah I’m leaving”

Tears were running down your cheeks now as he walked to the front door.

“I’m begging you please don’t go” you sobbed as he didn’t even turn back to look at you.

“You made your bed Y/N” he sighed.

“For fuck sake Jax, I thought you would have clicked by now just stop for a minute and think what my fucking last name is” you said trying to calm yourself down “please don’t do this to us”

He froze as he reached for the door handle as it hit him like a ton of bricks.

“Reyes” he mumbled running his hand over his face, he was so stupid, you wasn’t cheating Angel and Ez were family.

“Jax they are my older brothers” you said as he spun around “I didn’t say anything because I know there’s beef between both MCs at the moment, that’s why I didn’t want you to come. They know I’m dating you and they are fine but it was best to keep it quiet”

“I’m so stupid” he sighed “wait a minute you said don’t do this to us?”

You wondered how long it would be before he picked that up.

“Do you really think I’d cheat on you especially when carrying your child” you smiled wiping the tears from your cheeks.

“Wait, you're pregnant?” he whispered, taking the information in.

“Yes Jax I’m pregnant, your going to be a daddy” you grinned “I found out over the weekend and the photos you got sent was because they forced me to take a test because I was throwing up”

“I’m so stupid” he whispered pulling you into his arms “I’m so sorry babygirl, I should have let you explain”

“Jax” you whispered into his chest “please sort this beef out with the Mayans, I don’t want our child growing up not knowing their tío’s”

“Their what?” Jax laughed

“Their uncles” you chuckled “you so need to brush up on your Spanish or my brothers will kill you”

[marvelous-harry]

heyy ur doing blurb night and maybe my thingy got flooded or sun but i really want a blurb on h/flo/y/n joining flo in a live stream maybe cooking with flo?

+ Another Flossie x Harry x reader... r wants to help cooking and cuts herself with a knife? Little angst/fluff because r can't handle blood...

Cooking With Flo Harry/Florence/Reader Words: 2.5K Warnings: Mentions of blood, passing out. Summary: You join Florence for a 'Cooking with Flo' livestream... It ends in tears, blood, and lots of cuddles.

"I'm so excited! I haven't joined you on a Cooking with Flo in forever!" I grinned as I jumped up and took a seat on the counter.

Florence unpacked the groceries, putting away all the things we didn't need. "Should be fun. Been a while since I've done a live too," she smiled as she doubled checked she had everything. "Could you go remind Harry we will be going live in a bit so if he could keep the volume down that would be great,"

"Sure," I replied and jumped down off the counter. Walking up the stairs, I knocked on his office door and waited for his reply.

"Yeah?" he called out.

Opening the door, I skipped over to him. "We just wanted to remind you that we will be going live on Instagram in a few minutes so please don't shout anything inappropriate but if you wanted to take off your shirt and walk around in the background it would greatly improve our numbers of viewers," I grinned.

Harry chuckled and pulled me onto his lap, tickling my sides. "You're very cheeky you know that?" he said as he looked at me.

"I don't even know what that means," I replied innocently, grasping his hands tightly to stop him from tickling me more.

"Sure you don't. Alright, I'll be quiet but I will keep my shirt on, thank you very much," Harry smiled as he pressed a kiss to my cheek.

I sighed. "Shame," I told him before getting up. "You're free to join us if you want," I added, giving him a kiss on the lips.

"Thank you, baby," he smiled back. "You can leave the door open,"

Going back downstairs, I rolled up the sleeves on my hoodie and clapped my hands together as I stepped into the kitchen. "Let's cook some shit!"

Florence finished tying on her apron. "Please try and don't swear too much during this," she said as she gestured me over, grabbing another apron off the counter.

"I promise," I chuckled as I walked over and let her put the apron on me before spinning around so she could tie it up in the back.

"Okay, go wash your hands and we'll get started," Florence once again checked she had put everything out as I went to wash my hands.

Drying them on a kitchen towel, I let her know I was ready.

Florence started up the live stream and waved at her phone that was propped up against a bag of flour. "Hello everyone, hi!" she said excitedly as she watched everyone joining.

"So we thought we would do a little cooking with Flo today!" she smiled as she read all the comments. "I of course have my lovely assistant with me,"

I grinned as I leaned into the frame, standing close to her as I waved at the phone. "Hi!"

"Okay, we will be making a dish called creamy pasta primavera. We've had it many times and it's always a hit," Florence explained as she put her hand around my waist.

I nodded. "It's super good. It's healthy but it doesn't taste healthy, you know?" I told them.

"What do you mean doesn't taste healthy? What does healthy taste like?" Florence laughed as she looked at me.

"You know! Healthy taste like kale or a green smoothie or something. Disgusting," I replied with a grimace on my face.

"Oh shush!" she said and bumped me with her hip. "Should we start the actual cooking?" she asked, looking between me and the phone.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” I replied and put my hands on my hips as I took a step back.

“Since we love this dish so much I will be doubling the recipe so the first thing we’re going to do is get a big pot, fill it up with water, and put it on so it will start boiling,” Florence explained as she pointed to the pot she had already picked out.

Grabbing the pot, I walked over to the sink and started filling it with water.

“For the vegetables, we will be using up some we had lying around from previous meals this week so we have some different coloured bell peppers, a bit of broccoli, half a can of sweet corn, some zucchini, and a few carrots. I’ll probably throw some onion and some garlic in as well cause it’s just so tasty,” Florence said as she picked up the phone and filmed over the vegetables.

“The heavy cream and the parmesan cheese is still in the fridge for now,” she explained as she put the camera back against the flour bag.

“Is this enough water?” I asked as the pot was filled about ¾ of the way.

Florence came over and looked. “Yes, that’s perfect. Thank you, darling,” she smiled.

Grinning back, I picked the heavy pot up and put it on the stove, turning the plate on to the highest setting before grabbing the salt grinder and putting some into the water.

“Wonderful, while that starts heating up we have some chopping to do! I’m just going to get the frying pan out and start heating up some olive oil in it real quick,” Florence said as she turned around.

Walking over to the phone, I smiled as I read some of the comments coming in. “Oh! Deb! Hi Deb!” I waved excitedly at the phone. “Flossie! Your mum is watching!” I told her, glancing back at her before looking back at the phone. “I can’t wait for our lunch! I’m so excited,” I said and waited to see if she would write anything more. “Call me or text me later so we can chat,” I told her as the comments started going by really quickly.

Florence came back over and looked at the comments as well. “Hi mum!” she said and did a little wave. “You can also text or call me but I know she’s your favorite. Can’t blame you, look at her cute face!” she gushed as she pinched my cheek.

“Flossie!” I whined and pulled away.

She just chuckled and turned her attention back to the phone. “Right! Chopping!” Florence said and clapped her hands together. “I’ve got you your own chopping board and knife right next to me,”

Standing in front of it, I grabbed the onion and put it on her board. “I don’t want to chop that. I’ll chop zucchinis,” I said and pulled them into the middle of my chopping board.

“That’s fine,” Florence smiled. “We’re just going to be cutting them into smallish pieces. Not too small cause we want that crunch and flavour to remain quite a bit as we cook it and mix it in with the pasta. Obviously, you can cut them into the size you prefer,”

Cutting the zucchinis into halves, I poked my tongue out as I started cutting them into long lines.

“As with most of my recipes, it’s a dish I learned from my dad. He would usually have some sort of beef meat or sausage with it but I really do like this with just the veggies in it,” Florence told as she made quick work of chopping up the onion and putting it into the frying pan to start sweating them.

As I started cutting the zucchinis into small bites, I glanced up at the phone before taking a sharp breath as I felt a flash of pain. Dropping the knife, I grasped my hurt hand tightly. “Flossie,” I whimpered and stared at the blood that was showing.

Florence whipped her head around and looked at me. “Did you cut yourself?” she asked as she rushed over and looked at my hands.

“Yes,” I whimpered and felt slightly light-headed.

“Okay, look up, take deep breaths. I’m going to put a kitchen towel around your hand,” Florence said calmly as she kept an eye on me while grabbing a clean kitchen towel off the counter and putting it around my hand.

I looked towards the hallway as I heard Harry running down the stairs. “I cut myself,” I said quietly as I looked at him scared.

“Yeah, I saw that. You okay?” he asked as he came over. “Come on, let’s go sit down in the living room,” he looked at the camera and did a quick little smile before keeping me steady as we walked into the living room.

“Is it bad?” I asked squeezed my eyes shut and sniffled. “I’m sorry for ruining the live stream, Flossie,” I whimpered and felt a tear running down my cheek.

“Oh, darling. You didn’t ruin anything, don’t worry about that,” Florence said as she wiped away the tear and stroked my cheek gently. “I’m going to go turn it off and then I’ll come right back okay?”

“You don’t have to stop for me,” I cried, feeling super guilty.

“I want to, darling,” she smiled and pressed a kiss to my cheek before walking quickly back into the kitchen.

Letting out a sob, I leaned against Harry as he pulled me into his lap.

“Shhh, it’s okay. I’m going to lift away the kitchen towel and have a look,” Harry murmured as he rocked me back and forth just slightly. “Look away or close your eyes, yeah?”

I nodded and kept my eyes firmly shut as I turned my head against his chest.

“Good girl, that’s it,” Harry praised me as he started lifting away the kitchen towel, putting it under my hand. “Can you take your other hand away, please? I need to have a look at the cut, baby,” he said as he stroked my hand.

I shook my head as I gripped my hurt thumb tighter. “No!” I whimpered and let out another sob. “I’m scared,” I cried, leaning on him.

“I know, it’s okay. We’re going to fix you up, baby,” Harry comforted me. “Could you get the first aid kit?” he asked as Florence came back.

“Can you look up at me?” he asked as he cupped my cheek and tilted my head a bit.

Whimpering, I opened my eyes and looked at him.

He gave me a little smile as he stroked my cheek. “Florence is getting the first aid kit. Then we’re going to have a look, we’re going to clean it and bandage it up. Three nice little steps. We’ll be so gentle and go as quick as we can,” he explained.

I couldn’t help but let out another sob. “Is there a lot of blood?” I asked as I heaved for my breath.

“No, there’s not a lot of blood. Just a little. The normal amount,” he said as Florence pulled the coffee table close to the couch and took a seat on it.

“How about you and me stay just like this and Florence has a look at your hand, baby? Is it your thumb that’s hurt?” he asked as he glanced over at Florence.

“I think so,” I replied with a sniffle.

“I need you to let it go now,” Harry nodded as he kept stroking my cheek and keeping eye contact with me. “If you want to hold something you can hold on to my shirt or the kitchen towel,” he added.

Slowly letting go of my thumb, I whimpered as I could feel the blood pumping in it, pain spreading. “No, it’s not good!” I cried and went to grab it again.

Harry shifted me around slightly so he could hold me close and grab my good hand, keeping it away from my thumb. “Keep looking at me, I promise everything is fine,” he said as I whined.

Florence grabbed my wrist firmly to keep it still. “Darling, I’m going to gently hold the tip of your thumb and turn your hand a bit,” she told me.

“Is there a lot of blood? Is it deep?” I asked as I tried to take a deep breath. “I bet there’s a lot of blood,” I mumbled as I started feeling faint again. Whimpering, as I blinked quickly as black dots appeared, I gripped Harry’s hand tightly.

“Baby? Take deep breaths, yeah?” Harry said and shook me slightly.

“She’s out,” Harry said and held you close.

Florence glanced up at your face and quickly grabbed the wound cleanser from the box and opened it. “Right, I’ll try and clean this up real quick then,” she said as she poured some over the cut, using the kitchen towel to get the blood off around the fingers and sanitizing the wound.

She had almost cleaned away all the blood and had checked the cut and decided that bandaging it would be enough, no need for strips or stitches when you started coming to.

Groaning, I took a deep breath as I opened my eyes and looked at Harry.

“Hi, baby,” he smiled as he let go of my hand so he could stroke a hand over my hair before stroking his thumb back and forth over my cheek again. “How you feeling?” he asked.

“Did I pass out?” I asked, trying to not think about what Florence was doing.

Harry nodded. “Just for a bit. Maybe for a minute or so,” he smiled.

“Your thumb looks good, darling. Just going to clean it a bit more than we can put a little bandage on,” Florence said as she kept cleaning the blood off.

“No hospital?” I asked as I sucked in my bottom lip and bit down on it.

“No hospital,” Florence replied as she gave my hand a squeeze before getting the bandage. She quickly put some gauze over the cut before wrapping a little bandage around it and securing it with some tape. “There you go! All done. Just going to clean up your other hand now,” she smiled as she picked up the kitchen towel that was quite damp with the wound cleanser and just cleaned away most of the blood with that.

“Let’s get this apron off, you’ll be more comfortable without it on,” Harry said as Florence put the bloody kitchen towel behind her.

“Okay,” I replied and slowly sat up a bit as Harry reached behind me and undid the knot and with the help of Florence took it off. Florence quickly looked at my hoodie to see if there was any blood on it but couldn’t see anything.

“How about we order some pizza for dinner? Does that sound nice? We can have the pasta tomorrow,” Florence said as she packed up the first aid kit.

I nodded. “Sorry I ruined dinner,” I whispered as I moved around a bit so I could cuddle Harry more.

“You have nothing to apologize for, darling,” Florence smiled as she gave me a little kiss. “Now you cuddle Harry as much as you can cause once I’ve put this away and ordered the pizza it’s my turn,” she said as she grinned.

“Okay,” I replied and wrapped my hands around him tightly as I listened to Harry and Florence jokingly fighting over who should get to cuddle me. Smiling, I closed my eyes and enjoyed Harry’s cuddles for now, full well knowing Florence would win their little ‘fight’.

[ac3id]

pairings: shigaraki tomura x female reader

warnings: nsfw, dubcon, captivity, yandere shiggs, mention of death, shiggs is a meanie, dumbification if ya squit.

a/n: im so glad someone requested this!! i will litereally never shut up about man also!! shigaraki is beefed up in this cus that man finna get permanent residency in my head

word count. 1557

Imagine: Shigaraki taking the small, cute little pathetic nurse of the hospital he hijacked as his darling. 

It takes some time for him to find you tolerable. At first, he absolutely loathes you; you’re always crying over the littlest things, always painting him to be the bad guy and you even refuse to give treatment to his men. And honestly, that pisses him off the most. You’re completely brainwashed by society. What do you mean you won’t help men like ‘him’? Are you that superior? You get to decide what’s right and what’s wrong? Are his men not humans? He hates you. If it weren’t for the situation he had faced himself in, he would have decayed you in the blink of an eye. But now after a failed mission and a lot of casualties on his side, he needed your quirk.  

When he kidnaps you, finally, it’s not because he loves you and wants to take care of you. No. It’s because he wants to torture you- literally. He’s so sick of your hot-headedness, so sick of your ideals- how you still think heroes will come to save you from those nefarious villains. Shigaraki wants to break you, show you how pathetic you really are. And so he does. 

One day he just gets so tired of your antics, you’re ignoring him- something you find yourself doing very often these days. You isolate yourself from him and everyone. You run to a storage room and hide, your knees pressed to your chest and head held down. You sniffle into your knees, you never wanted this happen. What did I do to this deserve this? When would the heroes come? You chanted to yourself. Deep down, you knew Shigaraki was right but you didn’t want to believe it. You didn’t want to believe that the world was so hollow and even if it was, you’d choose to ignore it. You’d live your life the way you want to and believe in that devil’s words. You’d- 

The door slams open, a big angry looking Shigaraki stands in the there, his eyes fuming with murderous intent. He rushes towards and wastes no time in clasping his big, sturdy hands around your petite neck and you pulling you up. He squeezes around it and choking noises fills the room, your hands automatically wrap around his trying to push him off but it’s all in vain. He’s too strong and you’re too dumb. You let out choked pleads, begging him to let you go and that you’ll help him. You knew he wouldn’t hurt you cause he needed you, you believed that he’d-

“If you’re thinking that I won’t kill you right this instant. You are wrong. I will take away your quirk for myself and leave you here to bite the dust. Don’t test me.”

He drops you to the floor, you rub your neck and try to collect yourself. He looks down at you, the way your tremble reminds him of a puppy who’s been kicked. He smiles to himself, he crouches down and grabs the collar of your shirt, pulling you closer to him. “I don’t like being mean to a pretty little thing like you,” he confesses and your eyebrows knit together. Why is he talking to you like this? 

“Use your dumb little head, okay? Listen to me.” His hold from your collar disappears and he stands back to his full height hovering over, you looked like an ant under and he looked like monster. You look up at him with tears pricking at the corners of your eyes- he’s the predator and you’re the prey. There’s no denying it. You were stupid for choosing not to submit to him before but now, you know he’s not the one to show mercy. He’s going to give you one chance you better not disappoint him. 

You started to obey him after he had threatened you, knowing full well he’d take your quirk and kill you the very next second. You did not want to challenge or anger him. It’s for my own survival, you tell yourself. You help his men, you sit, biting back your urge to hit Dabi as you tend to his wounds while he throws obscene remarks of what he’d do to a girl like you or how you have to stop your self from throwing up as you listen to Toga explain in detail about what she wants to this boy she’s crushing on. It’s hard work. Spinner and Mr. Compress were a little better but considering the fact that they come back to you after murdering innocents. It surely manages to you up at night.

It doesn’t take long for Shigaraki to develop a soft spot for you, he likes this new you. You are submissive, you listen to him. He finally managed to put you in your place. 

You did not think about those heroes anymore, did you? 

Ridiculously, he finds a friend in you, both of you start talking. You talk about your day with him he tells you about his, you drink together and as much as you shouldn’t; you find yourself enjoying your time with the league. 

You come to understand them and you forget that you’re being held, hostage. Call it Stockholm syndrome but you didn’t care. The newfound joy lasts but all things must end.

The calm before the storm: Shigaraki suddenly finds himself falling for you, your shy habits- how you’d twirl your hair when you got nervous or chewed on your lip while concentrating. How your cheeks stained pink in your intoxicated state. He noticed everything, he didn’t want to believe he was falling for but the way butterflies that danced around in his stomach when your finger grazed over his, how his mood turned better when you entered the room. The signs were obvious. He was in love 

He thought he’d tell you about his feelings for you before they left the hospital, all his men had recovered wonderfully courtesy to you. You’d flee with him and the both of you would be happy together forever a perfect ending for a new beginning. He confesses his love to you two days before his departure, he tells you how he wants to spend his life with you, how he thinks you’re the one but to his dismay. You don’t feel the same.

It breaks his heart into pieces, he can’t believe what he just heard. You’re kidding, right? You love him the way he loves you. Right? 

No? No. 

He’s pissed. Needless to say, even though you rejected his proposal, he still takes you along. He locks you in one of the many rooms of the PLF mansion. The only person you can see is him, he spends hours trying to make you understand why you needed him but you don’t budge. It’s like starting all over again. He is kind at the beginning but as days go by and his frustrations increase he just ends up using you like his fuckhole, bending you over whenever he wants and fucking your brains out. Shoving his cock down your throat, leaving you a quivering mess.

If you refuse or hesitate, he’d threaten you. He’ll take away your quirk and chop your legs and arms clean and leave you to rot. He’s done it before (you recall the incident with Overhaul). It leaves you no choice but to listen to him.  He wins all the time.

“Faster,” Shigaraki grunts. He has your wrists tied behind your back, his fingers tugging on your nipples, hard grinning at how your face confronts in pain. “Come on, whore. I know you can do better than this” he says staring at how your tiny cunt takes his huge cock. He was mesmerized, the way your walls wrapped around his girth. It was obviously too much for you, you could barely keep. The way your tongue lolled out of your mouth and eyes crosses, it was given. 

Unable to form responses you only whined in protest, hoping Shigaraki would take it easy on you but he just laughed. “What are you saying, my dumb little baby?” he asked in a condescending voice. It made you feel pathetic, he treated you like a pet who couldn’t for look after herself. It drove you mad that you couldn’t do anything about it, his hand snakes around your neck holding it firmly you stop moving on his dick. Keeping it settled warmly in your hole he pulls you down, his lips level with your ear. “Do it properly, my love,” you cringe internally at the nickname- a second ago he was calling you a whore. “If you don’t, I’ll take quirk,” your face pales, you couldn’t lose your quirk. It was all you had. “Please...Don’t do that. It’s all I have.” your voice cracks and tears roll to your cheeks, “It’s okay, baby. Just do it again. Be better this time,” he coos his hand patting your back as he restrains himself from thrusting into you, he lets you go and you start rocking your hips again trying to satisfy him, he grips your waist tightly; it would leave marks later. 

Shigaraki stares at you sleeping next to him, after a tiring session you were finally getting well deserved rest. You had obeyed him beautifully today, he wondered how long would it take before you realized that; it wasn’t your quirk which was all you had left. It was him.  

feedback is greatly appreciated!! 

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[capt-spooki3]

It's Just A Little Party

Pairing: college au!Technoblade x reader

Warnings: All fluff, bois

Technoblade wants to see what college parties are really like and drags Y/n along, but neither of them expected an appearance from the one person Y/n didn't like...

3.3k words

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The stereotype of college kids throwing parties seemed to be awfully spot on, at least for your college. Infamously, you were given an anonymous invitation. Well, more of a sticky note put on your door with the address and time, but an invitation nonetheless. It was always what the people there did, it was kind of fun though.

You weren’t usually one to go to these parties and being that you were friends with a certain very introverted, pink-haired man you were prone to just staying in for the night. Tonight seemed to be just a little bit different though.

“Heeeyyyy Y/n, what are you goin’ to be up to tonight?” Techno asked, he leaned against your doorway, holding the door open and peeking in at you. You were sitting at your desk which was visible from the doorway and swiveled around in your chair to face him, arms crossed,

“Well unlike most of the student body, I didn’t have any plans. Why, did you want to go burn down an orphanage or something?” You teased and he rolled his eyes and chuckled, walking in and closing the door.

“I was just wonderin’,” He strode over to where you sat, you watching him and looking up when he was behind you to keep an eye on him, and he grabbed the back of your chair then looked down to meet your eyes. He looked excited. “Do you wanna mix things up tonight? Like maybeee…” He moved your chair back and forth a bit to mess with you before continuing. “Goin’ to see what those nerds do at their little parties?”

You looked at him in surprise while he cocked his head in wait for a reply.

“You want to go?”

“Yeah, I do. I mean as long as you come with me. Don’t want to be totally alone, that’d be embarrassing.” Techno chuckled a little and you snickered and wanted to give him a snide comment, but held back.

“Okay, okay. I’ll go but under one condition. You drive.” 

He spun your chair around to face him, moving back a little to give you room and offered you his hand to seal the deal to which you shook it.

“Alright, see you at 8, loser. And shower, you look gross.” He joked to which you reached out and hit his arm.

“Yeah at least I don’t look like a sewer rat, you sure I’m the one that needs the shower?” You both laughed and he flipped you off before leaving your room to let you have the rest of the day to prepare.

~~

After an early shower and changing into a shirt and jeans with a dark jean jacket that was decorated with little pins, you were set and waiting for Techno. You sat at the entrance to the dorms, sitting on the steps and people watching as you waited for him to meet you there.

“Hey, you nerd.”

You look up to see Techno leaning over you and with a laugh you got up, going down the stairs then turning to look at him. He never really dressed up and a college party was no excuse to get him to, but his outfit was a little different than the usual tired boy look that he wore. A band shirt and black jeans with a red colored flannel over it. It wasn’t much, but it was certainly new to see. His pink hair, short and fluffy, still had a bedhead look to it. The black square glasses he wore, being too lazy to put contacts in, really seemed to set the whole look together.

“You look really good, I am liking the style.” You complimented, walking backward when he started walking toward you as you obviously admired him. His cheeks flushed a little bit as he was prone to get flustered by compliments.

“Ah well, you still look like trash as always.” He huffed and stuck his tongue out, he tried to hide his smile that followed by shoving you a little as he passed you, but you definitely caught it.

After a car ride of jokes and teasing, along with a short pit stop to get gas station food as you both guessed the only thing at the party would be booze, you pulled up the house that was already very lively.

It was located in a rather nice neighborhood with big houses, the quietness was all too noticeably interrupted by blasting music and dozens of college students partying away.

“Welp… no time like the present.” Techno said to you before he got out of the car and you were soon to follow. The two of you walked side by side up to the house. There were a few greetings from drunken people you were acquainted with, one guy that you were on good terms with actually tried getting you alone but let’s just say Techno really didn’t want any chance of you being away from him tonight.

You both found the kitchen and grabbed a soda, not looking to get wasted, and found a quieter part of the house to still be near the crowd but far enough to not get hit and bumped into constantly. You stood up against the wall and he stood in front of you, talking and enjoying the show of people being fools in their intoxicated states.

It was a surprise and a relief to you that you haven't seen any sign of the one person that was a big reason you didn’t attend these types of things. Dream. Now, he was a cool guy, everyone liked him, but you could say that the two of you just had a little beef. At all costs you avoided him, the man was intimidating and you had no idea what he was like outside of school. What kind of person he really could be. You didn’t want to take your chances.

As all things go though, you jinxed yourself. It didn’t take long for you to spot those green eyes out of the crowd, he wasn’t looking at you yet but you knew it was him. And just as your luck goes, he was moving through the crowd toward you and Techno. Techno hadn’t seemed to notice a thing yet, the man was nodding his head to the music playing while seeming transfixed on what was distantly paying on the t.v. in the living room.

“Techno… Techno!” You hissed, getting his attention as he just looked at you confused while you watched Dream. “Hide me, I need you to hide me.”

“Wha-” He started to retort before following your eyes and looking back at you, unsure and hesitant.

You looked at him, giving another glance at Dream.

“Techno, please.”

He seemed to hold his breath, glancing at Dream, then you. He stepped closer, raising up one hand. For a second, he cringed at himself and pulled back his hand before looking at you seriously. His forearm hit the wall beside your head and he trapped you with his other hand against the wall by your arm on the other side. You should have expected this, it is what you needed from him right now, but something about this felt different. Not just like him doing you a favor, him holding you there against the wall sparked some feeling toward him you never seemed to realize was there.

Techno held your gaze fiercely at first, a blush creeping up fast before he averted his eyes and acting like he was checking for Dream. He glanced back to you for a moment before he moved even closer to you as someone passed behind him and he turned his head away. Your hands were lightly pressed to his chest, instinct to keep a little separation, and you could feel his heart. It was pounding, beating unbelievably fast, but he wasn’t alone as yours was too. Out of anxiety or nervousness though, you couldn’t really tell.

He took a deep, slightly shaky breath and leaned forward to rest his head right beside yours on the wall seemingly so he could whisper in your ear.

“J..Just let me know when we’re uh… good to go.” He mumbled, the nervousness in his voice was so easy to hear.

You nodded and peeked over his shoulder. It took a moment to regain focus on what you were doing, him being there was very distracting, but eventually, you found Dream. He was busy in the corner with two of his buddies, he wasn’t worried about you at all. Truthfully you considered not telling Techno as you were quickly beginning to enjoy this. 

Just watching Dream, you moved your arms and snaked them around his neck to hug him to you. He was tensed up before, but eased and seemed to melt into your arms. Maybe it wasn’t just you liking this closeness.

Suddenly, green eyes met yours and they formed into a mean stare. Immediate panic filled you and fight or flight took over. You let go of Techno, pushing him from you just to immediately grab his hand and pull him through the crowds of people till you found the front door and you didn’t stop till you got to the car where you slowed down, breathing heavy and looking back to the house. No one followed you.

‘Y-Y/n? Are you.. Are you good?” You looked to Techno, his face still visibly flushed as he looked at you with soft eyes, a look you aren’t quite used to from him. You felt your cheeks warm more and you looked away from him.

“Yeah, yeah I’m.. I’m okay.” You trailed off, words not wanting to work for you now, “ I’m sorry for that I didn’t mean to like-”

Before you could continue, he interrupted you with a chuckle.

“Don’t even start that. Please..” He stepped forward and pulled you into him, hugging you close. It felt safe and warm, like home if home could be a person. You wrapped your arms around him, listening to his rapidly thumping heart and at this point it made you laugh a little. Techno hardly ever got visibly nervous over something so it being you he was so flustered by? Oh, it was very cute.

You nudged him with your head a little and he gave a disgruntled hum.

“Techno… can we go back to our dorms, please? Cause like- I am not going back in there. I will gladly just wait in the car for you if you want to stay though.” You laughed and he responded rather quickly to your surprise.

“No, no let’s head back. It was getting a bit stuffy in there anyway. Plus, I had enough people come by and touch my butt that I am more than happy to go.” He grumbled out the last bit, making you giggle to which he smiled before letting his arms fall away from you and walk over to the diver’s side of the car, stealing a glance at you again as he went.

You both got back into the car, shutting the doors and making the blaring music become muffled but it was enough to grace you both with much-needed quietness.

Techno sighed and reached up to grab the back of the headrest, sinking into the seat and sitting there with his head leaned back and his eyes closed. You watched him coming back down to reality slowly from the buzz of the party and all the excitement that slipped under his skin, though gazing at him seemed to be the only thing that you needed to help bring you back. 

Watching his chest steadily rise and fall with his evening breaths, his hands that grasped the cushion of the seat that held a few random scars, his hair that was disheveled and longer than he would like it to be, his lips that opened a tad as he took in a breath and was pulled in as he lightly bit it and let go. Then his eyes that were… staring right back at you.

You looked away from him right away as the bustling home that housed the party seemed much more interesting than him at this moment.

“You can look Y/n.. I don’t mind.” He chuckled a little, the sudden confidence he held in his voice was new for you. Especially in this context.

“No no, I wasn’t-”

“You were.”

“I… might have been. But I-”

“I didn’t know you found me so fun to look at. You should have told me sooner, that does a lot for the confidence you know.” He said, his voice harboring a little pout underneath his teasing.

“Okay first, no I-” And this time you cut yourself off. Looking back at him, he was looking down at you with a smile. His look, his eyes, held some sort of predatory look that made you catch your breath. The look faded as he giggled a little bit. He let go of the seat to lean over, closer to you, he ran his hand lightly along your cheek to move some of your hair behind your ear and also fix some that was messed up.

“Well you don’t need to look all helpless like that, geez” He spoke oh so fondly, keeping his eyes steadily trained on yours. You could feel, nearly see something there. Patiently lying underneath, waiting. For how long had it been here you wonder. How long will it stay there or maybe could you get it to the surface, to show itself to you.

Techno shook his head a little as he looked away from you as if shaking away some bad idea that ran through his thoughts. He leaned away from you and retracted his hand and busied himself with fishing his keys out of his pocket and started up the car once had obtained them. It wasn’t until the warm air started to flow out of the vents a few long moments later that you realized how chilly that night had been. It wasn’t anything much, but it was cool enough for you to appreciate the warmth. It was comforting, reminding you of being previously held in a comforting embrace.

Not much time passed before Techno finally started driving back to the dorms, you connected to the Bluetooth and in no time, the playlist you made that was filled with music you both knew was playing through the speakers. You were the first to start singing, softly and to yourself at first but once Techno joined in and you both looked to each other for an unspoken confirmation, it was all uphill from there.

Being goofy and taking turns at songs that had multiple singers. Laughing at mistakes the others made and just enjoying the company there had to offer. 

Usually, Techno would get pretty annoyed with himself when he would take a wrong turn, but this time he just turned to you with a smile.

“Wanna just keep going?”

Was it even a question? With him looking at you like that, there was no way you could say no even if you wanted to.

An hour or so passed of you two just driving aimlessly and singing the most ridiculous songs. Not a single thought interrupted the mood you too had built up. 

Till one sappy little love song came on.

You started out the song, your voice being heard just above the voice singing with you through the speakers. It was your unspoken verses to sing.

I stay up late and I talk to the moon

And I can’t stop telling him all about you

Wonder if you do the same thing I do

The lyrics falling from your lips held so much more meaning and emotion than you had ever expected them to give off. 

You try to ignore it.

It’s just a song.

It doesn’t mean anything.

These four white walls they know more than my friends

They watch me type messages I’ll never send

This is the place that I just can’t pretend to be alright

Right, just a song. 

It doesn’t fit your issue. 

It isn’t the same.

This was only something that hit you tonight. But it hit like something you should have realized along time ago

Is your bedroom ceiling bored like mine?

Of you staring at it all the time

His voice softly intermingled with yours, a whisper as you sang the course. A soft reminder he was still there.

‘Cause it’s seen so many nights where I cry

And I yell at the sky for not telling you how I feel

A glance at one another was shared between you two, somehow neither one caught the other.

Is your bedroom ceiling bored like mine?

This time, it was his turn to sing. To unknowingly spill unshared feelings to one another. An unanswered question hanging in the air, wanting to know if it was just a sappy song lyric or if it was something more.

I get up early and talk to the sun

And ask her for guidance

But she ain’t got none

How am I supposed to know you’re not the one

Those words hung onto his tongue. The last line meant something, you could feel it in his voice. You looked at him to see the focus in his eyes as he watches the road, there is so much going on behind those eyes.

I’m begging to the mirror ‘cause I can’t find an answer

His brows furrow as he continues, his grip on the steering wheel tightens.

Too busy falling apart

And I wonder if you’re moving on

If you are, what’s your secret?

‘Cause I can’t work out where to start

This time, the whispered voice to join him was yours. His voice felt so thick with feelings it was impossible to think it held anything other than a confession.

Is your bedroom ceiling bored like mine?

Of you staring at it all the time

‘Cause it’s seen so many nights where I cry

And I yell at the sky for not telling you how I feel

Is your bedroom ceiling bored like mine?

He looks at you briefly and you hold his gaze, taking a deep breath.

I stay up late and talk to the moon

And I can’t stop telling him all about you

Wonder if you do the same thing I do

He seemed to have a hard time keeping any focus on the road knowing he could look over and find your eyes right there, waiting to meet his own again.

I get up early and talk to the sun

Ask her for guidance, but she ain’t got none

Wonder if you do the same thing I do

Your voice slowly joined his now, a little early with the song but no one seemed to notice. 

I hope you do

Is your bedroom ceiling bored like mine?

Both of you sang loudly along to the music from the speakers, though it wasn’t even a question that the words you both said were meant for each other.

Of you staring at it all the time

‘Cause it’s seen so many nights where I cry

And I yell at the sky for not telling you how I feel

Is your bedroom ceiling bored?

Is your bedroom ceiling bored like mine?

The song faded out and as the few seconds of silence followed it, they felt tense. Filled with words that still needed to be said but were so clearly expressed. Another song started up, but being so wrapped up in your head brought you to laugh. Techno turned down the music.

“What is it? He asked in a quiet tone.

“Sappy songs really do influence sappy feelings huh.” You looked at him and he just smiled before laughing too.

“God I hate you so much.”

“I love you too Techno.” 

You could hear his breath catch as you said it. He knew you meant it now in the way he hoped. 

“I love you Y/n.”

-------------------------------------------------------

The song in the fic is called:

"is your bedroom ceiling bored?" By Sody & Cavetown

[vannahfanfics]

The Sacred Art of Hamburger-Making

Category: General Fluff

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Characters: Momo Yaoyorozu, Denki Kaminari, & Hanta Sero

Hey, hey, everybody! This is the second story I wrote for @cuizineco​’s Heroes in the Baking zine, which is free to download!

Momo hummed under her breath as she filed her nails, sitting between Hanta and Denki on the common room sofa. The air was filled with clacking and clicking as the two boys feverishly jabbed the buttons and spun the joysticks on their controllers; both of their eyes were fixed on the martial arts video game they were embroiled in. Momo enjoyed the rare instances where they came down to the common room to play; she found something about their competitive energy so invigorating, especially after a hard day’s training. 

Just as she had finished buffing her shiny, neatly-trimmed nails, a deep voice boomed from the television to announce with dramatic fervor, “Fatality!” while thick red blood splattered the word across the screen. Hanta jumped up from the couch with a triumphant crow, nearly flinging the controller as he flung his hands into the air, while the defeated Denki melted into the couch cushions with a groan. 

“Don’t worry, Denki. You’ll beat him next time,” Momo encouraged with a sweet smile. 

“No, he won’t, because he’s a loserrrrr!” Hanta teased while making an L-shape on his forehead with his fingers. Denki stuck out his tongue angrily to his friend before humming thoughtfully. 

“Man, we’ve been playing for hours. I’m starving… You know what I could go for right now? A big, greasy, cheesy, American-style hamburger,” he sighed dreamily, salivating at the words alone. Momo perked up, her interest piqued. 

“Oh, I’ve never had a hamburger before.” 

If they were on a comedy show, one would have heard a record scratch. Denki’s head whipped around to stare at her with owlish eyes for a second before he chuckled magnanimously and slipped his arm around her slim shoulders, his expression melting into one a mixture of pity and mischievousness. 

“Momo. Dear. Honey. You’ve never had a hamburger?” the blond asked in a polite but disbelieving voice. Unsure what all the fuss was about, Momo slowly shook her head. 

“Now that’s what I call a got-damn tragedy,” Hanta observed before shoving a handful of potato chips into his mouth. As he munched on the barbecue-flavored crisps, crumbs and powder raining from his lips down onto his tee-shirt, he looked at Denki pointedly. “We have to amend that, don’t we, Denks?” 

“We most certainly do,” the blond nodded sagely, pinching his chin and closing his eyes like the picture of a pensive philosopher. “We cannot allow Momo here, our dear friend, our beloved classmate and light of our bleak lives, to remain in such a sorry state. So… To the kitchen!” he announced and jumped up, pointing a finger into the air. “By our hand, we will allow Momo to suffer no longer!” 

Are hamburgers really that good? Momo wondered as she followed the two boys to the adjoining kitchen. They probably weren’t, but watching the two tear through the cabinets and refrigerator to gather all the necessary tools and ingredients was so energizing that Momo found herself growing excited. She’d never seen Denki so animated about cooking before; he was all smiles as he pranced around wearing a “Kiss the Cook” apron of All Might in a chef’s hat, so she couldn’t refuse him even if she wanted to. 

“All right, Chef Denki,” Momo chuckled as she tied an apple-patterned apron around her waist, “I’m under your tutelage tonight.” 

“It’s the only thing he’ll ever tutor you in,” Hanta joked, earning a sharp jab in the ribs from his cohort. 

“Anyway,” Denki said and cleared his throat, “pay close attention, Momo. I am going to teach you the sacred art of making hamburgers. First, we have to make the patties.” He took a few packs of ground meat and sliced open the plastic, dumping the stringy pink-red meat into a large aluminum bowl. 

“Everyone says they’re down with hamburgers tonight,” Hanta reported, sitting on the counter typing away at his phone. 

“Let’s see— with twenty people plus Mr. Aizawa, with an average of two burgers a person, that would be… forty patties,” he rattled off, using his fingers to count as he multiplied in his head. “We should be able to manage that between the three of us. Hanta, would you go ahead and plug in the mini-grill so it’ll be heated up?” 

“Sure thing, boss.” 

Denki returned his attention to the patiently-waiting Momo. 

“Now then. First, you want to make sure your patties are the right consistency, so you mix it with bread crumbs.” Momo watched with raised eyebrows as he took a box of them and dumped some into the bowl. “You want your patties to stick together, obviously, so you add eggs—” he continued as he cracked some open, spilling the golden yolks into the bowl— “and then milk to soften up the meat a little. Finally— and this is the most important part, Momo— you season it to perfection!” 

Momo watched in wonder as he added several spices and a dark brown sauce to the mix, saturating the meat in flavor, without even taking measurements. As he was telling her how to mix it up, scrunching the meat and other ingredients together with his hands, she smiled endearingly. 

“Wow, you’ve cooked this a lot, huh?” 

“Yup! Me and my folks took an overseas trip once to America when I was young, and we loved the hamburgers so much that we got a recipe from one of the locals! It became a staple in my household! Fast food burgers are nice n’ all, but nothing really compares to a good ol’ beefy homemade burger!” Denki grinned widely. 

“I think that’s great! Would you like me to get started on another bowl of ground beef, then?” 

“Yes, please!” 

Under Denki’s careful guidance, Momo added the ingredients one at a time to the bowl. When it came time to combine them, she squealed at the odd sensation of the sticky, gooey meat, fluid sauce and egg, and gritty powder squishing between her fingers. Denki laughed heartily at the disgusted faces she made while mixing up the ground beef, squeaking and shuddering all the while, until it was uniform. In the background, Hanta had been doing other small tasks like chopping lettuce and onions, slicing tomatoes and cheese, and setting out condiments. He finally joined them at the counter, wiping tomato juice off his hands with a dishtowel. 

“It’s a messy job,” Denki said as he grabbed a fistful of the meat, “but we’re not done yet! Now it’s time to make the patties.” 

“Ooh! My favorite part!” Hanta grinned, grabbing hamburger meat from Momo’s bowl with both hands. “Ya just roll it into a ball, then flatten it into a nice, round patty,” he said while demonstrating the motions. He then walked over to the simmering grill to plop it on the ridged surface. “Then ya grill it until it’s just right, and boom! Nice, tasty, juicy hamburger.” 

“Hanta, have you been to America, too?” Momo inquired as she slowly replicated the motion, still cringing at the sliminess of the raw meat. 

“Nah. I spent a lot of summer break at Denki’s house, though, and his old man taught me how to make ‘em!” Hanta said as he slapped another patty onto the small grill and closed the lid, filling the air with sizzling and popping. While he waited for the meat to brown, he leaned against the counter and flashed Momo a wink. “I felt kinda honored being included in the Kaminari family tradition of summer cook-outs!” 

“You’re my best friend! Of course you would be!” Denki grinned, sauntering over to bump elbows with Hanta. “And, since Momo is our best girl,” he continued while turning around to wink saucily at Momo, “it’s natural that she be included, too!” 

“Ah! Stop it; you’re going to make me blush!” Momo cried and, in her momentary embarrassment, slapped her palms to her cheeks. All the blood drained from her face as she realized she was smooshing raw meat and seasoning on her face. She screamed shrilly and ripped her hands away from her face, horrified by the bits of pulverized meat falling from her cheeks. As she raced to the sink, Hanta and Denki fell to the floor howling with laughter. “Stop it! It’s not funny!” she cried as she scraped at her face with a soapy sponge, tossing a glare over her shoulder. 

“Actually, it really is, Yaomomo,” Denki snorted as he climbed back up to resume making hamburger patties. Momo just sniffed dourly, thoroughly embarrassed. Then, an evil idea hatched in her mind; stealthily, she filled her cupped hands with ice-cold water and crept up behind Denki. Just as he took notice of her presence, she dumped it down the neck of his shirt. He yelped and his back arched backward as the cold liquid hit his skin. 

“Aye, aye, what the hell was that for?!” 

“Serves you right!” Hanta laughed, pointing at him and completely unaware that he was the next in Momo’s cross-hairs. “Wha—?” he blinked owlishly as Momo flung a glob of the raw meat at him; it collided with his cheek with a wet slap, slowly sliding down before landing on his tennis shoe. “I guess I deserved that.” 

“Hey, you morons! Don’t tell me you’re messing around in the kitchen!” boomed a grouchy voice. Momo turned to see Katsuki stomping in, his hands buried in his cargo pants pockets and his lips stretched in a scowl. His vermillion eyes slowly slid down to the chunk of meat dripping on Hanta’s shoe. “What the hell?! You can’t just waste food like that! Who taught you losers to cook?!” 

“Oi! This is my show! Go yell at someone else, Baku-bro!” Denki whined and poked at Katsuki with his foot as he continued to quickly pile up patties on aluminum foil next to Hanta, who returned from cleaning off his face to take the broiled hamburgers off the grill and put them on some buns. Katsuki slapped Denki’s foot away but obediently shambled out of the kitchen to join the rest of their peers, who had been attracted by the savory aroma now clouding the air. 

“All right, the guest of honor gets to try first,” Hanta grinned as he presented Momo with a fully dressed hamburger complete with a side of potato chips. As she took the paper plate, she was amazed at the weight of the thing, nearly spilling it all as she hastily recovered from the plate dipping. She set it safely on the counter before looking at it, wondering how the heck to eat it. 

“I… With my hands…?” 

“Hell yeah, girl! Get in there!” Denki encouraged with an airy laugh. Momo blushed before timidly grabbing the hamburger, grimacing at the juice that leaked onto her fingers when she lightly squeezed it. She craned her neck over the plate as she leaned in for a bite, trying not to drip it all over her clothes. First came the soft bread, then crunchy lettuce and tomato, then melty cheese, and then finally the savory meat. Momo hummed as the robust flavor exploded on her tongue, complemented by all the toppings. 

“Well? Amazing or what?” Denki grinned as he sidled up to her, wiggling his golden eyebrows expectantly. Too busy savoring the symphony of flavors on her tongue, Momo only nodded with her eyes fluttering shut. “Woohoo! Atta girl! Look at our Momo, getting messy with a big ol’ hamburger!” Denki laughed as he did a celebratory jig. 

“Ehhh? Did I hear Momo eating hamburgers?” Mina said as she poked her head in. Momo was mid-bite, her mouth stretching wide to accommodate the thick patty, and she froze to blink owlishly at the pink girl. “Ahhhh! Look how far you’ve come! Finally embracing the ways of us commoners, eh?” 

Instead of replying, Momo just crunched down on the burger, smiling dreamily as the deliciousness once again graced her senses. 

She had the answer to her question. Hamburgers were really that good! While the others began to file into the kitchen to claim their meals from Denki and Hanta, Momo savored hers bite by bite until she was finished. When she sheepishly presented her plate to Denki for seconds, he laughed and began fixing it for her. The others had vacated the premises, leaving only the two of them. 

“Thanks for sharing this with me, Denki. I had a lot of fun, and it was really good!” she said as he plopped a piece of pale green lettuce atop her patty. 

“To be honest, I was a little scared you wouldn’t enjoy it,” he admitted shyly, giving her a side glance as she gasped in shock. “I know you come from a really wealthy family, Momo, and generally… Rich folks don’t think highly of us little guys, you know?” 

“I know.” Though Momo’s family was kind and tolerant, that still didn’t mean that she hadn’t seen the uglier side of the bourgeoisie. With a soft smile, she wrung her arms around Denki’s waist and laid her head on his shoulder to squeeze him in a tight hug. “But I consider myself lucky! You guys teach me all kinds of neat and wonderful things, and I get to share things about my life with you all, too. I would never, ever judge you.” 

“Yeah, I know,” Denki hummed and gently bonked his head with hers. “Here you go, Momo. I hope you enjoy your seconds.” 

“Thanks,” she said as she took the plate. She then grinned roguishly. “To be honest, I might be up for thirds.” 

Like the hearty scent of homemade hamburgers wafting around the small kitchen, her and Denki’s laughter filled the air. 

Nope. In Momo’s book, nothing really did compare to one of Denki’s hamburgers, and it soon became one of her favorite things to cook with her friends, even out of all the things she learned from them.

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

[wishingforatypewriter]

Before the Fall (Chapter 14)

Summary: In which Souma misses a golden opportunity. 

The noon hour Elite Ten meetings were always the worst ones because they coincided with the academy-wide lunch hour. This meant that after hustling from their classes to Totsuki’s Parliament — the Elite Ten’s administrative building — they’d then have to rush back to the academic buildings for afternoon classes.  

It was generally understood that no one got to eat lunch on these days unless they packed something ahead of time. And of course, just as his 10:30 practicum ended for the day, Souma received a one word text message from Nakiri. 

Hungry.

It was 11:46. If he took her up on this — and naturally he would — he’d have only fourteen minutes to cook her something and then haul ass to Parliament. She always did have a habit of asking for the near-impossible. He shook his head at the phone as he typed his reply. 

Don’t complain if I’m late. 

Her response came almost instantly, as though she were waiting for his text. But that would never happen with a girl like Nakiri.

Less complaining, more cooking. I’ll see you in 12 minutes. 

He sighed, taking his uniform jacket back off and glancing around the classroom’s ingredient shelf. Beef shank, noodles, cabbage—easy. 

Nine minutes later, he had two servings of beef yakiudon packed in a to-go container. He had just stepped out into the winter air, calculating how fast he’d have to sprint in order to make it by noon, when a black towncar pulled up in front of the academic building. 

The window rolled down slowly, and Nakiri shot him an impatient look. “Wipe the grin off your face and get in.” 

He slid into the seat next to her without a second thought, but was unable to manage a neutral facial expression. “I thought you were gonna leave me to the wolves.”

“I considered it,” she quipped, crossing her arms. “But if we couldn’t start on time, Alice would just find a way to get everyone off task. Plus it’s freezing out, and you never have the sense to dress properly.”

He smirked at her then. “It’s nice to know you care, Nakiri.” 

“It’s a professional courtesy, and nothing more,” she said. “Now what have you prepared for me today?”

His smirk broadened as he watched her eye the takeout box with interest. “Can’t wait to try it, can you?” 

“Don’t flatter yourself, Yukihira-kun,” she said, though her growling stomach gave her away. She regarded him with a murderous scowl even as her cheeks turned red. 

“Betrayed by her own stomach.” 

“S-shut up! It’s just that I’ve been busy all day and haven’t gotten a chance to eat yet. It has nothing to do with you or your cooking!” 

“Whatever you say, Nakiri,” he told her, leaning back on the leather seats.  

They reached the conference room at 12 on the dot and promptly received death stares from all their lunchless colleagues. 

Unperturbed, Nakiri took her seat at the head of the table, chopsticks in hand. “Let’s begin.” 

The meeting started with a review of the budget allotments for new seminars in the coming fiscal year. Arato and Hayama distributed the budget plans for the eight new seminars they’d approved, and the rest of the council voted in favor of their plan—mostly because no one could be bothered to read the whole document. 

Next they discussed the logistics of upcoming events, including the first year promotion exams in Hokkaido and the alumni banquet. Souma had almost forgotten how much work running the academy could be. 

Towards the end of the meeting, Alice — who was now chair of the campus life committee — made a proposal of her own. 

“So your plan is...a party?” Hayama asked in a skeptical tone after she described it. 

“I’m proposing a semi-formal dance for Valentine’s Day,” she explained. “The Elite Ten will commission the chocolate and candy research societies to produce candy grams that students will use to ask each other to the dance.”

“It seems frivolous,” Arato pointed out. “A cooking event I would understand, but what would be the point of a dance?”

“Excellent question, Hishoko,” Alice said. She turned to the next slide in her presentation. “The event will boost morale on campus before finals start up, and all the proceeds will go to Totsuki’s philanthropic branch. There’s no downside.” 

“This is Japan’s top culinary academy, Alice,” Nakiri said with a dismissive wave. “There’s no time for something like a school dance.” 

“And that’s exactly why the student body needs to cut loose,” the other Nakri heiress said. “No one’s gonna cook their best if they’re all uptight, Erina. It’s bad for creativity. So who’s in favor? Ryo-kun obviously supports me.”

“Sure,” said Kurokiba, who most-likely wasn’t even paying attention. 

“I’ll support it,” Takumi added. “I haven’t been to a semi-formal since I left Italy.” 

“Um...” Megumi began. “I really like the idea of all the proceeds going to charity, so I’m in favor as well.”

And once Tadokoro was on board no one really had the heart to oppose the event anymore. 

“So it’s settled,” Alice said with a broad smile once the vote was won. “Totsuki Academy is going to hold its first ever Valentine’s Day dance!” 

---

A week later, Souma walked into the copy room in Parliament, holding a flyer for the dance and a prototype of the candy gram. It was a small, heart shaped box of chocolates with a card attached to it. Sakaki and Yoshino had gone crazy over the design when he showed it to them earlier. 

“Hey Nakiri, can I ask you something?” he asked once he saw her scanning a document. 

“If you must.” She turned around with her usual pre-annoyed expression, and then flushed suddenly. “Wait, you mean here?” Nakiri cast a meaningful glance at Takumi, who had just come in to print something. 

“Yeah, why not? It’s not like it’s a secret.”

If it were possible, the flush on her cheeks deepened, and she started fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. “W-well, if that’s how you feel about it, Yukihira-kun, I suppose I can’t really object, so...” 

“Great!” Souma held out the candy gram to her and she took it tentatively, her fingers brushing against his as she did. She gave one of those fleeting Nakiri smiles and it unwound all of his thoughts the way they always did. Why was he even there again?

“Get on with it, will you?” she asked with a giggle. 

“Right.” Souma ran a hand through his hair, embarrassed to have been caught staring. “So what do you think of the design?” 

Her expression darkened then. “I’m sorry, what?” 

“You know, for the fundraiser and stuff. The president of the Chocolate RS wanted to run it by the Elite Ten before we start selling them. So do you like it?”

“Oh...it’s fine, I guess,” she said with a sigh. Then Nakiri sidestepped him and walked right out of the room. 

Souma watched her go, perplexed. What was that all about? 

“That was painful,” Takumi said to him after a moment. 

“What? You think she really didn’t like it?” 

“It’s not a matter of the design, Yukihira!” the blond shouted. Souma had almost forgotten how intense that guy could be. “That wasn’t the question she was expecting just now.” 

“But how would she know what I was going to ask?” 

With a beleaguered sigh, Takumi pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for a moment. “Repeat after me. Ask.”

“Ask.”

“Her.”

“Her.”

“To the dance.” 

Souma pondered this for a moment before responding. “What’s the point of asking one person if we’re all gonna end up hanging out, anyway? It makes more sense for everyone to go as one big group.” 

“Yes, but you should still ask her specifically to express that you’re interested.”

“Who said I was—”

“Oh please. You’re only slightly less obsessed with her and her god tongue than you are with cooking itself, and it’s about as subtle as a herd of elephants.” 

“You know elephants can actually be pretty—”

“Off topic! The point is, you need to ask her out and soon, or lose your honor as a chef and as a man!” 

After this grand proclamation, Souma looked at his friend curiously. “So who are you asking, Takumi?” 

And with that, he sent his second blond of the day storming out of the copy room. 

[caffeineivore]

Commission#4

For @vchanny-og

Prompt: Makoto teaches the girls to cook. To commission me please click here for information! To see what other people are offering up commissions please see here!

The recipe for peanut butter cookies is fool-proof, three-ingredients. Four, if you added chocolate chips. The first time that Makoto had made them, Usagi had eaten two dozen by herself, and when she’d found out how easy they were, she’d begged and whined and pouted until Makoto had agreed to teach her. 

“Mamo-chan would love these, don’t you think? Especially if we add chocolate! And peanut butter is healthy and has lots of protein so he wouldn’t even disapprove!”

Eggs. Crunchy peanut butter. Sugar. Chocolate chips. Parchment-lined baking sheet for 11 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius. 

Makoto lines up all the ingredients on the counter, helpfully preheats the oven to the correct temperature. She goes out to her balcony to check on her plants, and is halfway through dead-heading some leggy basil when the smell of smoke comes wafting through the open door. Thoroughly alarmed, she drops her clippings and runs in, yanks the oven open to find lumps of what look to be charcoal. Usagi’s wail could pass for a fire engine careening onto the scene complete with lights and sirens. 

“I don’t know what happened, Mako-chan! I didn’t do anything except what you asked, and now everything is ruined and there are NO COOKIES and you are probably going to be mad at me!”

With a long, windy sigh, Makoto checks the counter. Peanut butter, check. Sugar, check. Chocolate chips, check-- and if she’s not mistaken, Usagi dumped in about half a cup more than the recipe called for. A bowl of cracked open eggs, yolks almost mockingly bright orange, winked up at her. 

Makoto shakes her head, sends Usagi out to the bakery, and cuts up some peppers and tomatoes, retrieves her snipped basil. It seemed like she’d be having omelettes for dinner. 

**

“So we sear the steak at a high temperature in a cast-iron skillet to take advantage of the Maillard reaction for the sake of optimal flavour.” Ami scribbles some type of complex chemical molecule diagram on the margins of the recipe that she’d meticulously copied from Makoto’s cookbook, and does a few equations, and murmurs to herself. “I suppose that makes sense. The temperature of the cooking surface will exceed 140 degrees Celsius, which will cause the reactive carbonyl group of the sugar present in the molecule interact with the nucleophilic amino group of the amino acid.”

“Yeah. Something like that. And then you finish in a low and slow oven so you don’t overcook the meat. This is an expensive cut of steak-- you don’t want it to be cooked to death.”

Makoto did not care over-much about the complex chemical reactions and science behind the process-- it was enough, really, to know that as long as one controlled the temperature and time, and seasoned the pricey cut of beef simply but well (sea salt, coarse-ground pepper and a few sprigs of rosemary), one could have a fancy date night meal in the comfort of one’s own home. “Medium rare is the optimal doneness for steak, in my opinion. Use a food thermometer, cook it to 54 degrees Celsius, then rest for three minutes before slicing, and you’re good to go.”

“I understand the reasoning behind safe internal cooking temperatures,” Ami muses as she follows Makoto’s lead, carefully wiping down the cherry-red surface of her steak with a paper towel to dry it, then sprinkling on salt and pepper on both sides. “Obviously, you don’t want harmful disease-causing microorganisms to grow within your food product, and it either needs to be too hot or too cold for the bacteria and viruses and fungi to survive. But why are there exceptions to the rule? Your recipe says that a rare steak reaches the internal temperature of 51 degrees, a medium rare of 54, a medium of 58 and so on. Doesn’t that put the person who prefers to eat their steak rare at greater risk? How does a restaurant get around that liability? It’s not as though it can do a medical check of the customer to ensure that they have no history of immunological disorders or gastrointestinal problems. And what about nations which choose to ignore these limits altogether? We serve sushi and sashimi here in Japan, which is certainly not cooked to 62 or highter. The French have their Carpaccio and tartare. The Lebanese have their kibbee nayee, and so on.”

Makoto watches as Ami grinds exactly three shakes of pepper onto each side of her steak, then rolls her eyes. “How does your guy like his steak cooked? That’s all I need to know.”

Ami blushes almost as red as the meat she’s fiddling with. “Umm. Medium rare is fine. And he’s hardly ‘my’ guy. More of Mamoru’s, wouldn’t you say?”

“You’ve already split hairs over the science of cooking. I don’t think I have enough energy to argue over the exact nature of your relationship with the mouthy blond menace. Do you think you can put together a nice green salad to go with these steaks? That way we can get done quicker, and I can make myself scarce before he comes here.”

**

Makoto knows better than to attempt to teach Rei anything too outlandish in the kitchen. Rei is a traditionalist in every sense of the word, and probably would not be caught dead in some hipster gastro-pub serving deconstructed salad of micro-greens topped with lobster foam something-or-another no matter how many Michelin stars and James Beard awards the place might have won. Rei is also reasonably competent with her hands and not particularly accident-prone, so something like steamed gyoza seems right up her alley. Sure, making the filling and dough from scratch is an extra effort, but her friend had never been the type to settle for mediocre and ordinary.

Her first warning that things might not turn out quite so well is when Rei takes a full step back when she sets the food processor on the counter. “What is that?” 

Her tone could only have been snottier had the food processor been possibly coated in dung and mildew and maybe plastered with boy band stickers. “It’s a food processor. So we can easily chop up the chives, grind up the pork.”

“I have a perfectly serviceable set of knives here.” Rei turns up her aristocratic little nose and points to the knife-block, which, to be fair, holds a set of heirloom-quality blades. Trust the senshi of war to know her sharp objects, Makoto thinks drolly, but she acquiesces. “All right. You can mince the chives with that, I guess. But I’m using the food processor to grind the meat.”

They both get to work, and Rei glares at the machine as soon as it starts up as though the noise offended her on a personal level. She’s not bad-- indeed, her cuts are decent even by chef standards, but by the time Makoto has finished up her meat and mixed in soy sauce and ginger and garlic and a pinch of allspice and an egg, she’s only about a quarter of the way done with her chives. Slowly and stubbornly, she soldiers on as Makoto measures out flour and water and a pinch of salt. 

“What in the world is that?”

Now, the question is directed towards the stand mixer plugged into the wall outlet. Makoto doesn’t even dignify that with a response, and dumps in flour, salt and water, lets fly. Sure, she can knead the dough by hand if she wanted to. And stretch it, cut it, roll it out for the dumpling wrappers. And maybe, if he’s very, very lucky, Jun would have gyoza sometime within the next two years. She’s just about ready to start rolling the dough when Rei finally finishes cutting the chives by hand, and dumps them into the bowl of the ground meat mixture, scowling at the way the damp green mince clings to her fingertips. Makoto finishes mixing the filling, then shows Rei, quickly, how to pinch the edges of the dumpling shut. 

She waits until the knives are washed and put away and the pot is simmering before turning to her friend with a mischievous look, tongue firmly tucked in cheek. “Well. I’m sure Jun will appreciate your painstaking work on this meal, doing things the old-fashioned way by hand. He’ll know just how much you care from the sheer effort you went through.”

If looks could kill, Makoto would be buried six feet under complete with an ugly angel-shaped monument and an elaborate wreath of flowers on her grave. She manages to keep a straight face while she takes the dumplings out the pot, then excuses herself. She’s still laughing when she arrives at her own apartment a good half-hour later. 

**

Leave it to Minako, of course, to want to learn the most complicated, exotic dish of them all. 

“I think it would be perfect! He doesn’t eat pork or beef, and I love spicy food, and I know you’ll help me and it will turn out wonderfully!” 

Makoto eyes the recipe bookmarked on Minako’s phone-- very heavily starred on Pinterest, and apparently the handiwork of some world-renowned celebrity chef. “Indian lamb curry, though? That’s… quite ambitious of you, Minako.” Indeed, the list of ingredients is daunting in and of itself, even for a seasoned home cook, and Minako’s idea of gourmet home cooking generally involved cracking an egg over her boiling ramen noodles. 

“Oh don’t you worry. I’ve watched a TON of youtube videos. And cooking reality shows. That Gordon Ramsay is HILARIOUS. And it all goes into the slow cooker, so it hardly requires fancy techniques and knifework and the like. All I have to do is toss everything in there and push a button and spend the rest of my time making myself look gorgeous and sexy, right??”

Makoto eyes the recipe again. She’s pretty sure that Minako has never heard of the term ‘garam masala’ in her life. “Maybe you should at least let me taste it before you serve it. Just in case.”

Six hours later a mostly-decent-looking sample of the dish is placed in front of her. The curry is an appetizing orange-brown colour, and the kitchen smells invitingly of spices. Minako had even taken the time to toss some finely chopped parsley onto the meat for a pop of bright green. Makoto is pleasantly surprised, and gives Minako an approving smile which lasts all of three seconds-- the three seconds it takes to put a piece of the meat in her mouth. She gags, and spits it out. “Oh, GOD! What did you put in this?! It tastes like the Dead Sea… if the Dead Sea were on fire!”

Minako shoots her a wide-eyed look from those baby blues, thoroughly bewildered. “Welllllll… all these videos said to salt with every step of the cooking pricess. So I did. It was probably like close to half a cup of salt total, because I added some after every other ingredient. And then I didn’t have tomato paste so I substituted ketchup. Basically the same thing, you know? And I didn’t have the tablespoon of fresh ginger, so I used a tablespoon of ginger powder, and shelled pistachios look just like cardamom pods for like a tenth of the price, and I used Old Bay seasoning instead of Bay leaves… But the only thing I absolutely couldn’t figure out at all was this ‘garam masala’ stuff! So I left it out.”

Without a word, Makoto dumps the entire contents of the slow cooker into the trash, picks up her phone, and dials the local Indian restaurant, Within short order, two takeout containers are delivered-- an Indian lamb curry, and an accompanying container of cheese naan and rice. 

“Just… put it in your own plates,” Makoto tells the other girl, shaking her head between gulps of water. “The kitchen smells like you’ve been cooking all day. It’ll be our little secret and he will never, ever know.”

[delqy]

Treasure I Pirate au

The crisp night air brings a chill through her bones as she darts through the quite streets of a quaint little village. Her small form being hidden in the alleyway between the smith’s shop and the bakery. The thundering of boots ring in her ears as a group of men drunkenly move past her hiding spot. The girl sinks to the dusty floor covered in flour and an assortment of what she presumes is scraps from the bakery. A sigh leaving her bloodied lips, the realization of her injuries becoming apparent to her from the pounding in her head to the numbed pain in her ankle. She does a sweep over her body and deciding that since none of her injuries are life threatening, she’ll take a rest here for a minute. Before she knows it the soft lull of sleep crashes over her like a tsunami, all events from the previous three days are the least of her worries as she drifts off into dream land.

Though her dreams do not consist of puppies and rainbows, instead she’s forced to watch a mysterious man in all black plunge a hidden dagger into her father’s chest, as her mother holds her and her sister protectively to her body. The man instructs two of the other men in a hushed voice so quiet she could barely hear what they were saying, but she knew whatever he did say, it was with an attempt to harm. The nasty smirk plastered across the man’s face grew into a devilish grin as the other two men pull her out of her mother’s grasp. He held her up to his face, an iron clad grip on her forearm, and studies her. Disgust written on her face as the man spun her around as if showing off a prize.

“How much you think this one will sell for?” He throws her to the ground instructing one of his men to restrain her. Of course, she fought, but with exhaustion and hysteria fighting her it was easy for the other man to tie her hands behind her back.

“That one sure as hell will give you a pretty penny, have you ever seen a broad with hair like that?” The man who restrained her fisted a handful of her bright scarlet locks and pulled.

“I ain’t seen anyone around these parts look like her. They’ll snatch her up quick. Not to mention her legs look pretty muscular. If someone doesn’t want to keep her as a pet she sure as hell could do some hard labor.” The girl stiffened in his grasp, lashing wildly with her legs.

‘they’re gonna sell me to the stocks, no one comes back from the stocks in one piece’ she continued to fight with the last bit of will she had in her. The man that had a hold on her hair roughly pushed her face into the ground and put his knee on the middle of her back and pushed down. Hard.

“Well ain’t she feisty.” Another man walked in through the broke wooded door. he was tall but slim. She could see his muscles ripple through the thin fabric of his dirtied blouse. He walked over to her and inspected her for any defects. A small glint in his eyes when he found none.

“She’s perfect, we’ll definitely bring her along with us, looks like we’ll be eating good tonight boys.” The other men look around excitement evident on their features.

“Sit’er up, she needs to watch this, make sure she knows we ain’t messin’ around.” The man who was on top of her roughly dragged her up into a sitting position, his calloused hands lingering on her throat for a moment.

“Try anything and I’ll cut your pretty little fingers off, understand?” He pulls her head back, squeezing her throat lightly. A silent threat. She nodded her head vigorously an indication that she understood completely.

Her eyes stretched open as the man who seemed to be the group’s leader walks up to her mother and sister, whom are still cowering in the corner of the room. Her mother pulls her sister protectively behind her.

“Please.” She begged. “Do whatever you want to me just leave my children alone.” Her mother’s eyes started to water as the man reached behind her and snatched her other daughter from her grasp.

“How old?” The man asks eyeing the little girl who was trembling as tears rolled down her rosy cheeks. The man was met with silence. All that could be heard was the sound of quiet sobbing from the other two girls.

“I asked how old you damn whore, speak when you’ve been spoken to.” Both daughters whimper when a deafening smack echoes around the room. The force of the slap was so great that their mother went flying towards the floor, stopping herself before she landed on the hard concrete.

“t-ten, she’s ten. P-please, please don’t hurt my babies.” Their mother begged again.

“I do as I please.” The man’s smile grew as he tossed the little girl to one of his men and instructed him to do the same to her as they did to her sister. Her mother screamed out of fear and hatred as she lunged at the man. Her hands were extended ready to claw the man’s eyes out. She was too late. Both girls didn’t have a chance to look away as the man drove his dagger into their mother with reckless abandon. Their mothers blood staining the hard-concrete floor as she fell to the ground. Her lifeless eyes staring at her children with regret and sadness. The girls sob, scream, and thrash about in their captor’s grips. Having both of their parents being slaughtered like pigs in front of them.

“Alright men, take those two gems and get them ready to go, we’ve got an auction to get to.” The man smiled down at the two girls as they continue to cry. He grabs the eldest’s chin in his hands looking deep into her emerald green eyes. Red and puffy from all the crying.

“Don’t cry sweetheart, how we treat you will be worlds different than how those at the auction house will treat you.” He smiled at her with all his teeth. She felt bravery for a split second as she bashed her head against the man’s. The blood coming out of his nose was a small victory for her. The victory was short lived as the man threw her head against the concrete floor and everything went dark.

 The girl woke up when she heard shouts from above her head, she looked up to see the window of the bakery wide open. Scraps being thrown out the window as the baker yells at someone nearby. She stands on shaky feet, the pain in her ankle threatening to take her down again.

She limps out of her hiding spot into the busy street. She walked slowly down the side of the dirt road after she rolled her ankle out a bit. She thought the limp would make her look suspicious, so she walked, grinding her teeth as the pain became more apparent when she ran into an older woman. A stream of curses leaving her lips as she pulls her hood down over her eyes.

She quickly apologized to the women and eagerly skipped away. Once out of eye shot, she allowed her heartrate to slow and she wiped the sweat off her palms. She continued to stroll down the street until she found a small pub, checking her pockets she only had 2 silver pieces and decided it was worth spending a meal and some medical supplies on.

She walked into the pub; the smell of beef stew and beer instantly filled her nostrils. She pulled her hood further down to hide her curly red hair from those sitting enjoying their meals. She quietly found an isolated table towards the back of the room and sat down, minding the cuts on her thighs. A young man with wavy brown hair that’s almost black approached her. He grabbed a piece of paper from the apron tied neatly around his waist. He stopped right in front of her, a smile atoning his lively features. His brown eyes gleaming as he asked what he could get for her. She answered simply that she’ll take a bowl of beef stew and the most expensive beer they had. The man nodded at her and told her his name was San, and if she needed anything to give him a holler.

She sat there silently tapping her foot when the bell atop the door rang, signaling someone had entered the pub. The staff joyfully greeted the woman as she sat herself at a table a few feet away from hers. Curious she poked her head out of her hands and met eyes with a woman with soft facial features. She had to say she was very pretty. She had light brown hair and many freckles littered across her soft round face. The woman smiled at her then turned to the waitress that was serving her. At that same moment her waiter had approached her.

“Miss, here’s your food.” He set her food down gently on the table, startling the girl a bit.

She coughed, “ah thank you sir.”

She looked down at the food hungrily, it didn’t look like the best she’s had, nothing tops her father’s grilled swordfish. She dug in almost immediately, the savory flavor hitting her tongue, she almost melted from happiness. She picked up the glass of beer and almost chugged the entire thing. She must’ve looked like a mad woman, inhaling all this food, but for her this might be her last chance to eat. Just as she’s finishing up the last bit of stew the bell chimes again. This time when she looked up to investigate her hood fell off her head. She cursed as she noticed a familiar group of men enter the pub, obviously searching for something, or in this case someone.

She swiftly threw her hood back on top of her head, making sure to hide all her hair. She slowly stood up walking up to the counter to pay for her meal. She cautiously walked Infront of the group of men as they stood behind her as she paid.

“That’ll be 1 silver and 3 bronze pieces please.” The man behind the counter asked looking down at her receipt.

‘Shit’ She thought. She didn’t have time to receive change.

The group of men behind her started to talk in hushed whispers, she could feel their eyes burning holes in her back. Before the men could ask her anything, the woman from before stepped behind the girl in line. She grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

“Once you’re done paying come sit with me, they won’t approach you if you’re with someone else.” With that the woman walked away and sat back down at her table. The girl handed the cashier both of her silver pieces and told him to keep the change. She then walked over to sit with the woman. She sat down unsure whether she can trust this woman.

“Those men looked like they wanted to hurt you, is everything alright?” The woman leaned in closer so the group of men couldn’t hear her talking.

“Yeah, I’m fine I’m pretty sure they’re just drunk, thanks for the concern though. I should get going sorry if I caused you any trouble.” She stood up out of her chair but a hand on her wrist stopped her.

“Let me at least walk you out, just to make sure you leave here safe.” The woman looked at her, eyes desperately searching hers for any signs of discomfort.

Reluctantly the girl gave in, nodding her head. The woman cheerfully links arms with her as they leave the pub together. The men’s stares not leaving their frames as they walked out the door. The woman slid her arm from the girl’s as she spun to face her.

“I’m Yeri by the way, I work with the florist, he’s my grandfather.” The woman looked behind the girl with a look of fear and dragged her towards the flower shop.

“Those men are following us, are you sure you’ll be okay.” Yeri whispered to the girl in a hushed tone. She was about to respond when one of the men grabbed her by her hood and forced her to turn around, Yeri being taken with her from the sheer force. The fear in the girl’s eyes is apparent as they hold onto her tight. Yeri watched anxiously from beside her, her hand lied gently on the knife attached to her thigh.

“Thought you could get away from us huh princess, we’ll show you what happens when you don’t follow the rules.” He snickered at her but before he’s able to land a finger on the girl, Yeri plunged her hunting knife into the man’s forearm. She grabbed the girl’s wrist and made a run for it. They made a mad dash through the streets of the little village bumping shoulders with those who aren’t quick enough to get out of their way. Yeri made a sharp turn down the alleyway the girl had slept at the night before. She hid the girl behind some old storage crates as she knelt protectively Infront of her.

“So obviously you’re not alright, care to tell me your name and why those brutes are after ya.” Yeri turned to face her, sympathy crossing over her face as she saw the girl tremble in fear. She immediately latched herself to the girl, smoothing down her ruffled hair just as a mother would. Yeri held her for a while before the girl sniffled and pushed her away slightly.

“T-they killed my parents and intended to sell my sister and I to the stocks, I-I escaped but I haven’t been able to go back for my sister.” She sniffled again, balling her hands angrily in Yeri’s periwinkle colored skirt. Yeri out of nowhere placed her hand gently over the girl’s mouth, bringing her finger up to her lips signaling her to be quite. The girl nodded her head in understanding as she heard someone stomping nearby to where they hid. Yeri stood up, slowly going for her knife at her thigh, cursing when she realized she must’ve left it in the pub.

A man dressed in all black walked into the alleyway, lucky for Yeri he was facing away from where they hid. She stealthily snuck up behind the man and kicked his knees out from under him. Before he could get any sound of surprise out Yeri already had her boot in his mouth as she pressed all her weight on him, making sure he couldn’t get up. She got close to his face and basically spat profanities at him then hit his forehead against the earth until he stopped struggling beneath her. She walked back over to the girl mindful to not let her see the bloody state the man was in. She grabbed her hand and walked her towards the other way.

“You still haven’t told me your name yet.” She smiled warmly down at the girl. The girl formed a small ‘o’ with her lips as she thought for a minute. Still unsure whether she could trust this woman yet. Deciding she could she answered in a hushed voice.

“it’s Rosalind.” She said in a small voice, looking down at the ground shyly.

They slowly walked towards the florist shop when an alarm rang through the town. Rosalind looked at Yeri with confusion written all over her face, as Yeri’s was painted with worry. She hurriedly led them into the shop. Yeri sat Rosalind on the straw bench next to the sunflowers and paisleys. Yeri frantically paced the concrete floor.

“What did that alarm mean?” Rosalind asked unconsciously playing with her fingers. Yeri whipped her head around to look at her surprised.

“Pirates, Pirates are attacking the village.”

               Yeri ran into one of the back rooms, returning with a couple of daggers in her hands. Softly handing one to Rosalind, she led her into the cellar under her little flower shop. Before she was able to close the door, a foot wedged itself between the door frame.

“Well, well, well, who do we have here.” It was the men from the pub. Rosalind was shaking in fear and tears started to well up in her eyes. Yeri stood protectively in front of Rosalind shakily holding her dagger out in front of her.

“Don’t touch her.” She growls at the three men in front of her. She lunged for the one in the middle, plunging the knife into his side. He roared in pain and threw her off him right into the man to his left. The man grabbed onto Yeri bringing his knee up and connecting it with her rips. She took deep hacking coughs and backed away from the man. Giving her no time to rest the man struck her in her side, knocking the wind out of her lungs.

Struggling to breath she noticed the other two men approach Rosalind with sinister smiles plastered across their features. Getting up reluctantly she picked her dagger up off the floor and stabbed the hand that reached out to grab Rosalind who was cowering away from his touch. The man whipped around kicking the girl in the knee.

Yeri came crashing to the ground as the man repeatedly kicked her anywhere he could make contact. The last man deciding whether to join in on the “fun” or grab Rosalind. Deciding on the latter he grabbed Rosalind by the elbow, roughly pulling her up. Unbeknownst to him she slid the dagger she had hidden in her sleeve and struck him with the blunt end of it knocking him out immediately.

She was breathing heavily when she noticed the man on top of a bloodied Yeri, flash backs of her parents played in her mind as she screeched. She ran towards the man and stabbed him through the back. She pushed the man’s lifeless body off Yeri, staring down at her. Noticing the slight rise and fall of her chest, indicating she was still alive.

‘At least she’s still alive’ She thought as she slowly walked out of the cellar and into the village square, eyes widening at the state of the once peaceful village. There was shouting from passersby’s and screams from mothers and children. Most buildings were set on fire the blaze growing larger as smog cover the village. Her eyes immediately teared up from all the smoke.

Her eyes widened as a group of people run towards her pointing in her direction. She couldn’t see their faces from the tears in her eyes. They became blurred as she began running away from the group. Noticing the ship of the pirates who were attacking the village.

Thinking that being a stowaway on a pirate ship was better than being burned in the havoc happening behind her, she took her chances. Running onto the ship stopping a minute to make sure no one saw her board.

She spotted an open door that led to what seemed like a storage room. It was filled with crates of food and other necessities. She settled in between a few crates, draping a tarp over herself, to make sure no one would see her. She slid onto the floor of the ship after making sure the coast was clear. Once she hit the floor she sighed in relief, the meal she had only hours prior threatening to come back up. She closed her teary eyes, before she could think about opening them again, the darkness had consumed her.

Rosalind woke up with a start when her head made contact with the door of what seemed to be a carriage. She tried to sit up and push the hair out of her face when she noticed her hands still bound behind her back.

The bumpy road making her aware of her many injuries as she whimpers in pain. Her left thigh is throbbing as well as her ankle. She couldn’t stand even if she wanted to. The man next to her must have noticed her small movements because he turned his head towards her.

The man snickered and grabbed Rosalind by her chin, forcing her into a sitting position. From here she could see her sister still unconscious in the seat Infront of her. He body trembled with anger. ‘How could they treat her like that she’s only ten’ Her eyes widened when the man holding her chin roughly pulled her to look at him.

“Listen here doll.” He said with a smirk atoning his sharp facial features. She never got a good look at him during the commotion, but he wasn’t wearing his hood now. He was tall and lightly built, He had ashy blonde hair, which she presumed had he dyed because she could see his natural brown roots. His piercing blue eyes staring into her emerald green ones.

He snapped his fingers in her face. “You listening sweetheart, don’t wanna miss this important information.” Rosalind focused back on the man and nodded slowly, she figured it’d be better for her and her sister to obey the man for now.

“We’re about to stop at a merchant town, if you try anything, I’ll pull out your sisters’ teeth.” He smiled evilly at her as Rosalind shivers. She nodded in understanding. The carriage came to an abrupt stop sending Rosalind flying forward, she hit her nose on the seat opposite of where she sat. This action caused her sister to stir.

“Prim.” Rosalind whispered trying to get her sisters attention. Her sister’s eyes opened wide after realizing what had happened wasn’t a dream at all. Tears started to form in her eyes and Rosalind shushed her to make sure they don’t anger their captors.

The man pulled her back up into a sitting position next to him. He slid out of the carriage stopping Infront of the door to address the girls before closing it.

“Alright girls here’s the deal, we’re going to stop into town for a few minutes to gather some supplies for the rest of our journey. If either of you try anything, there will be consequences I’m sure neither one of you will enjoy.” He smiled warmly at the girls as if he didn’t just threaten them.

Rosalind nodded her head in understanding and Prim just cried. They walks away from the carriage, slamming the door closed and locking it from the outside. Once Rosalind heard his boots stomp away, she sprung into action. She had been working at the ropes around her wrist ever since she woke up. She pulled her hands apart aggressively and the rope snapped.

Prim looked at her in awe as her tears finally stopped flowing. Rosalind instructed prim to turn around and she started working at the rope tied around Prim’s wrists. Once free, both girls rubbed the nasty red and bloody marks for where the rope help them in place.

Rosalind swiftly walked up to the carriage door and wiggled the handle. To no avail, just as she thought it was locked. Rosalind instructed her sister to back up away from the door. As hard as she could she jabbed her elbow into the exposed glass, breaking it. Once the glass is broken, she stuck her arm out the window and unlocked the door. Swinging it open she faces Prim with a finger on her lips silencing her.

Prim nodded as Rosalind grabbed her hand gently as she led her out of the carriage. Once Rosalind’s feet hit the ground she swayed for a moment, trying to catch her footing. Once stable she looked around to notice the group of men returning from a nearby smiths’ shop.

She tightened her grip on Prim’s arm as she made a dash for the woods, she could hear the shouts behind her as the men are hot on their tails. Rosalind stopped for a moment to catch her breath once she thought she’s lost them. Her heart dropped into her stomach when she heard voices and the rustling of leaves.

There was nowhere for them to go except up. Rosalind instructed Prim to climb the biggest tree she could see in the clearing. Carefully climbing behind her to make sure she didn’t fall. They made it to the first couple of branches with ease. The third and final branch was out of Prim’s reach, so Rosalind picked her up to help her climb to the top.

Before Rosalind could climb up to the branch the men walked into the clearing. The girls froze in fear. If they looked up, they wouldn’t be able to see Prim, but Rosalind was right in their line of sight. Prim begged Rosalind to climb up with her but she wasn’t risking it.

“Please Rose I can’t lose you too.” This broke every bit of will she had as she swiftly and quietly pulled herself up onto the branch with her sister. She put her back against the trunk and pulled Prim to her chest. To comfort her but to mostly keep her quiet. This movement must have rustled the leaves as one of the men snapped their head up to look at the tree.

Rosalind slapped her hand over Prim’s mouth to keep her from making any noise. The man squinted his eyes suspiciously at the tree. Thinking it was nothing and turning away, that was until the branch started to shift under the girl’s weights. All three of the men snap their heads up and slowly walk towards the tree.

“Hey girlies you up there?” the man that had addressed them in the carriage early spoke up into the leaves. Rosalind shook her head at Prim telling her to not answer.

“If you come on down your punishment won’t be half as bad.” The men all snicker, getting some kind of sick pleasure out of tormenting the two sisters.

Both yelped in surprise as the branch cracked under their weight. Prim fell first. The fear in her eyes evident as she plummeted to the ground. Rosalind didn’t initially fall but jumped to save her sister. The leaves and branches “cushioning” their fall.

Before Prim hit the ground, Rosalind wrapped herself around Prim to soften her landing. Once the girls hit the forest floor they groaned in pain. It shot up Rosalind’s back and into her shoulders and neck. Prim was already crying but Rosalind held it in, not wanting to seem weak.

The men chuckled at them, all three of them moving closer until one spoke up. “Jisung grab the younger one.”

The one named Jisung complied and grabbed Prim by her long blonde hair. Prim screamed in protest, no doubt the pain from the fall causing it. Jisung held her Infront of him as the man seeming to be their leader walked up to the girls.

“Sit the other one up, I told her what I’d do if they tried anything.” Rosalind screamed and thrashed where she laid when the other man tried holding her face to make her watch. Flashbacks of what this man did to her parents played in her mind. She started to cry, hysteria making her shake in the man’s grasp.

Jisung forced Prim onto her knees. The other man grabbed her chin with his hands. All the while Rosalind screamed at him to stop. The man pulled a carving knife from his back pocket and told Jisung to flip her over.

Now laying on her stomach Prim was sobbing as the man cut the ribbon of her corset leaving her open back exposed. Rosalind couldn’t make out what he was doing until his knife met with the flesh of                                                                                                                                                                         her sister’s skin. Both girls screamed, Prim from pain and Rosalind from anger.

They both were shaking by the time he was done, the word ‘maggot’ painted in red across Prim’s back. Prim had passed out in Jisung’s arms from the pain and hysteria. Rosalind was still shaking from anger, every bit of her wanted to plunge a knife straight in between his eyes.

The man walked up to Rosalind, bloody knife still in his hands. She squeezed her eyes shut thinking she was next when the man wiped her sisters’ blood on the fabric of her skirt. He pulled on her hair, so she was looking at him.

“I couldn’t harm you like that, that’d waste all the gold we’d get from you.” He smiled putting his knife back in his pocket. His breath fanning over her face. Rosalind spit in his eye anger taking over any feeling of fear she had at that moment. She knew she made a mistake when his eyes glassed over, and he pulled his knife out of his pocket. Striking her in the head with the blunt end of it. Before the darkness consumed her a single tear slipped out of her eye and rolled down her cheek.

                The soft roll of the waves woke Rosalind from her nightmare. Reluctantly she opened her eyes, adjusting to the small amount of sunlight peeking through the door of the storage room. She stretched out her legs Infront of her, a satisfying pop sounds from her joints.

               She stiffened when she heard heeled boots above her. Someone opened the latch to the door, all she heard was two men bickering like children. They must have come down here to check their stocks from the last raid.

               “Mingi, I told you, we got enough dry food and bread scraps to last us a century.” The man named Mingi looked at the other. “We just have to make sure Jongho doesn’t eat everything before then, I swear that man has an iron stomach.”

               Rosalind pulled her legs into her body from fear, she really did not want to be found right now. She didn’t think she could put up a fight if she tried. The men must have sensed her movement as they looked around the room suspiciously.

               “You hear that Wooyoung, sounds like a mouse of something.” Wooyoung nodded his head looking around the cabin.

               “Maybe it was just this tarp falling.” Wooyoung pointed at the tarp that was hiding Rosalind from them. She got ready to pounce as the boy pulled the tarp off her head revealing her blazing red hair. Before they had a chance to react, she jumped on the taller one, headbutting the guy who pulled the tarp down right on his nose.

               She then made a run for the door but was pulled back by the other guy and smashed into the wall of the ship. He held her arms behind her back and kept his leg between hers to stop her from kicking him.

               “Aye Mingi, you alright?” He looked away from Rosalind for a moment to look at the boy she headbutted holding his bleeding nose in his hand. A bit of pride washed over her at this sight.

               “I think she broke my damn nose!” Wooyoung chuckled at this.

               “Go tell Hongjoong that we found a stowaway on board, and make sure to have San look at your nose while you’re at it.” The name San sounded familiar to her, but she didn’t have much time to think as Wooyoung pulled her off the wall and roughly led her onto the deck by her elbow.

               Mingi followed closely behind, the crew looking from Wooyoung to Rosalind with curiosity, then spotting Mingi holding on to his bloody nose. If looks could kill Rosalind would be six feet under right now.

               The boys led her up to the deck where a man watched the ocean intently, steering the ship and barking orders at the other crewmen. He didn’t take his eyes off the ocean when Wooyoung pushed Rosalind to her knees.

               “who’s this?” the captain chuckled

               “We found her in the stocks hidden behind a few barrels, broke Mingi’s nose here when we found her.” He jabbed his finger in Mingi’s direction when mentioning his name.

               “I see, so she’s a stowaway.” The captain nodded in understanding.

               Rosalind hadn’t dare to speak to them as they talked, she knew where that got her and her sister before when they were captured. She didn’t notice the captain was talking to her until a musket was pointed at her temple. She shot her head up and stiffened.

               “You hear me young lady, I should shoot you where you stand for hurting one of my crew, but I’ll let it slide if you can tell me a really funny story.” The horror on Rosalind’s face when the captain got closer to hers made him chuckle.

               “I’m just kidding with you. I take it you boarded because you were running from somethin’, am I right.” She slowly nodded her head and the captain continued, pulling the musket away from her, tucking it back into is trousers.

               “Well in that case mind tellin’ us what you were running from?” Rosalind swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. She began explaining to the captain how her parents were murdered, and she and her sister were kidnapped and sold to the stocks.

               “You what?” The captain looked at her uneasily. “You’re tellin’ me you were sold for 328 gold pieces!” She shrunk back from him raising his voice.

               Mingi’s eyes widened, “Captain that much gold could feed the whole crew for three life times, four if Jongho doesn’t eat everything!”

               Rosalind started struggling again ‘Oh god, they’re gonna turn me back in for the reward’ Her eyes became wild and teary as she thrashed about trying to make contact with any skin she could to get away.

               The captain turned to Wooyoung and told him to hold her down. The captain looked at Rosalind noticing all her cuts and bruises.

               “They really did a number on her huh, I bet she sold for so much because of her hair.” The captain admired her red locks running his fingers through the tangled mess.

               Rosalind was crying now, she had been through so much, she had finally escaped if she’s caught now she won’t be able to help her sister.

               “P-please.” She begged the captain as he turned her face to the side to inspect her more.

               “Wooyoung, go ahead and tie her to the mainmast, I haven’t decided what to do with her yet. We’re going to make a stop soon so hopefully I’ll make up my mind by then. For the love of God Mingi go get your nose checked out.” Wooyoung nodded at his words and Mingi chuckled and walked down the stairs. Wooyoung started pulling Rosalind up off the ground where she lay.

               “Oh and make sure Seonghwa brings her some food and water everyday, she’s already quite small, don’t want her starving on us.” The captain shot her a wink and she thought she might vomit from disgust. Wooyoung dragged her down the steps and sat her down so her back was against the mainmast.

               He grabbed the rope he had draped along his neck and tied her small frame to the pole holding the flag with their emblem on it. It looked like a rose insignia covered in thorns. Once the ropes were tight enough around the girl Wooyoung gave her some words of advice.

               “I wouldn’t try anything but I’m guessing you know that by now. Half the crew wants to throw you overboard for hurting Mingi.” He smiled at her and walked off into on of the cabins. She laid her head on the pole and sighed. She had to think of a plan to get out of here. She’d rather die than get brought back to the stocks.

               She was lost in her thoughts when a tall lean man with neat black hair and a jaw line that could cut diamonds, walked up to her with a cup of water and some bread in his hands.

               “I know it’s not much, but I brought you some food, captains orders.” He laughed at her face; she was practically drooling. The last time she ate was in the pub days ago.

               The man kneeled down Infront of her and fed her the meal he had provided. She let out a long sigh and closed her eyes, not forgetting to thank the man as he left. He had placed a tarp over her body so she wouldn’t be cold during the nights.

               For her it served an even better purpose as it started to rain, the fat water droplets hitting her eyes as she looked up and cursed. The soft lull of the ship became frantic as the waves crashed onto the sides of the boat.

               She couldn’t keep her eyes open for long as the cold from the rain traveled through her body, all the pain from her bruises and cuts hitting her at once. Her head rolled in front of her as she succumbed to her injuries.

               The captain jumped down onto the main deck, most of the crew had retired to their cots as it was quite late at night. He was about to return to his captain’s quarters when his eyes land on the girls small shivering figure.

               She was asleep, maybe even dreaming. He smiled a bit as it was quite cute. He thought that maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have a girl on the ship. Feeling like the ship was in dire need of a woman’s touch as did he. He chuckled at the thought. He and his crew couldn’t wait to make it to land. So many stalls filled with food, jewels and clothing. oh, and he couldn’t forget the women.

               He reached down to pull the tarp back up onto the frail girl’s form but when his hand touched a part of her exposed skin he pulled back immediately. It was boiling hot. She body should be freezing from the rain and the chill of night on the ocean, but she was as hot as a kitchen stove.

               The captain cursed and untied the girl. She immediately slumped against him. He put his hand back to her neck, feeling once more to make sure it was real. It sure as hell was, she had a raging fever. It wasn’t until he stood her up and she moaned in pain that he realized her ankle was swollen.

               He picked her up and started carrying her to the medic cabin. San laid there still asleep, the soft rise and fall of his chest the only indication that he wasn’t dead. The captain pushed the door open with his foot. This action startled San awake, seeing the captain carrying the women in his arms, he jumped off his cot to help.

               “San she’s in bad shape, how did we not see this before?” The captain placed her down on the cot San was sleeping in gently. He moved her over a bit, this is when he noticed the blood seeping out of a wound on her thigh. He ripped off her red skirt to see a gnarly gash on her left thigh. Yellow pus and thin red lines forming around the wound. There was no doubt that it was infected.

               The captain ran a hand through his hair and sighed sitting down on the cold wooden floor. “Takes a lot of guts to hide an infection, sprained ankle, and a raging fever from a bunch of pirates huh?”

He asked not really intending an answer.

               “You think you could take care of her for the time being, and if she wakes up can you not tell her it was me who brought her here?” The captain looked at San, he merely hummed a response still working on the girl’s wounds.

               “San?” The captain asked making sure he heard him. San moved his head in the captain’s direction.

               “Hm?” He responded simply.

               “Make sure you get some sleep, if you need anything I’ll be in my quarters.”

               “Aye aye Captain.” San sheepishly replies and the Captain chuckles.

               “Goodnight San, we’ll make land soon and I’ll make sure to buy you a drink, I owe you one.” San and the captain bid their farewells.

               San looked down at the girls sleeping form, she was thrashing a bit in her sleep. A dream maybe? No, a nightmare the healer thought aloud to himself. He rummaged through his medical supplies realizing he was running low.

               He mixed some jasmine tea from the herbs he had. He brought the cup up to the girl’s lips tilting her head back to ensure she didn’t choke. After she drank the tea she started to relax. Once San had bandaged all her wounds and treated the infection he sat down on the floor. With his cot being taken by the girl sprawled eagle on his bed he grabbed a pillow and laid down returning to sleep.

                 Rosalind is startled awake with the sound of chains clanking against each other. Her eyes open only to be met with darkness. She immediately panicked. Where’s Prim? Where is she? Are they at the auction house? Her questions are answered when a bag was ripped from her head and in front of her sits Prim. Her arms and legs bound by chains and her head covered by a burlap sack. One just like the one she previously had on.

               “Good morning sunshine!” One of her captors exclaims cheerfully in front of her. Clapping his hands in front of her face. She can’t see as she squinted her eyes adjusting to the bright light of the room. He speaks again but can’t make any of it out as he wasn’t speaking to her but to a group of ladies behind him.

               One woman walks up to her eyeing her with disgust. “This little thing, she’s basically skin and bones how is she going to sell?” The man simply replied with a shrug.

               “That’s what you’re here for, we’ll give you some of the profit if you clean her up a bit, no special treatment or anything just hose her down and maybe bandage up her wounds. No one wants damaged goods.” The woman nodded in understanding.

               “Alright bring her to my place in about an hour, I’ve got to clean up.” With that the woman walked away. Stopping for a moment to look at the little girl still with the sack over her head.

               “What about this one?” She asked pointing at Prim. The action caused Rosalind to flare up ready to fight if she dares lay a hand on her little sister.

               “Oh, that one, we branded her, so she probably won’t sell for much. If I can’t get more than 50 gold pieces than we’ll keep her as our little pet.” The woman nods and continues to walk away.

               “Don’t you dare hurt my sister.” Rosalind growled in a low voice at the man. The man turned his head toward the girl still in his grasp.

               “Last time I checked I already did a number on her, and thinking about it now it was your fault wasn’t it?” The man but a hand on his chin like he was thinking. Rosalind stiffened.

               “It wasn’t- “She was cut off.

               “Did I not tell you that if you tried anything, I’d punish you for it, that’s what you get for not following the rules sweetheart.” The man growled pulling Rosalind next to him, walking in the direction the woman previously went in.

               “And if you do anything to embarrass me during the auction, I won’t hesitate to kill your sister.” Rosalind shuttered knowing he meant it. She followed the man obediently to the woman’s cottage where she was meant to be “treated” for her injuries. The man said she needed to be presentable.

               After arriving at the cottage, the man handed Rosalind off to the woman, telling her if she tried anything just to hit her. The woman nodded and pulled the girl into a cottage that smelled of spring flowers and freshly baked bread. The woman led her to a tub that was filled to the brim with water.

               “Take off your dress.” She demanded as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

               Rosalind’s hands shook as she undid her corset and slipped out of her full red skirt. Dipping into the lukewarm water. The soap making her injuries burn but it also felt soothing. The woman began to scrub her roughly getting all the dirt and grime off her freckled skin. Then she dunked her head under the water and put soap in her hair as well. Thoroughly molding her fingers in her scalp.

               After getting out of the tub the woman provided her with a nice silky baby blue slip dress to wear. she brushed out the tangles in her hair and patched up the cuts on her skin. She obviously was no doctor as she paid no mind to the sprained ankle and simply stitched up the wound on her thigh with a sewing needle.

               The woman lightly painted Rosalind’s face with makeup. A subtle red lip to match her hair and she added some color to her face. Rosalind’s face dropped when the woman brought the chains she was previously wearing before her bath. She shivered when the woman chained her arms and legs together.

               All the pampering made her forget she was about to be sold. The woman walked Rosalind over to a big mirror sitting on the floor. Rosalind’s jaw dropped when she saw herself, she knew she wasn’t unattractive but if it wasn’t for the bandages covering her skin and the chains. She could compete with the crown princesses of the country.

               All her daydreaming was ended when the door was thrown open as the man from before walked through, obviously drunk. He stared at Rosalind for a moment before he grabbed her by her chains and dragged her out of the cottage, throwing thanks to the woman before leaving. The only thing Rosalind heard as they walked through her door was that her name was Irene. Such a pretty name she thought as she was dragged back to the carriage.

               When she entered the carriage, she noticed something was missing, or rather someone.

               “Where’s my sister?” The girl demanded in a hoarse voice, she hadn’t spoken for days and almost forgot how to.

               “Oh? She speaks.” The man looked at her teasingly.

               “She won’t be joining us for this stage in our journey, but I assure you she is safe.” He answered with slurred words.

               The carriage began with a start and as they approached a rusted steel building guarded by a couple of men. Her captor leaned over into her ear.

               “Remember what I said about embarrassing me dear.” He made a gesture with his thumb slashing his throat making a ‘shhk’ noise while doing so. Rosalind just nodded. She kept her head down as she was marched to the front door where the two other men stood.

               The man stopped right in front of the two others saying something to them both, but Rosalind was too damaged to care. Her focus being brought back to the three brutes when one snatches her face to get a closer look.

               “Damn she is a beauty, you’re sure as hell going to get a lot from her.” The man tilts her head so he can continue inspecting her.

               “I take it you’re selling her today Cane?” The man asked her captor, whose name is Cane she’s now learned. Cane chuckled. “Of course, she’ll give me and the crew a pretty penny for sure, could even get the ship repaired.”

               “I’ll let you boys deal with her for now, I’ll be in the crowd.” Before Cane walked off, he grabbed Rosalind by her hair. He smiled with all his foul teeth.

               “See ya in there sugar.” He walked off whistling happily.

               The other two men grabbed Rosalind by her chains making sure not to damage the goods as she’s brought over to a cell where a few other girls and women stand chained together.

               The man smiled at her, chaining her to a woman who’s lost all the color from her eyes, her pale skin covered in scars. She looks as though she’s seen past her years. Her focus is brought back to the man when he spoke to her.

               “We’re saving the best for last.” He winked at her before walking away. She could hear the commotion outside just behind the curtain. The facility got increasingly louder as time went by. Then silence pans itself across the crowd as someone addresses everyone. Reminding them of the rules and what not.

               The doors to the cell were opened as the women were led out onto the stage one by one. Rosalind started to panic when she heard numbers being yelled out from the crowd. Before she knew it, she was being led to the middle of the stage. The baby blue slip flowing as she walked. Her blazing red hair prominent as she stood.

               At first no one said anything, she was worried that she did something wrong. That was until someone cleared their throat and yelled out a number.

               “50 gold pieces!” A man in a velvet suit yelled. Her jaw dropped, that kind of money could feed her family for three years. Numbers continued to roll in, her situation not becoming apparent to her until she heard one fateful word.

               “Sold!” The man who stood next to her yelled excited from the large sum of money she’s just brought in. This word brought tears to her eyes. She’d just been sold. She had to find a way to get out of here.

               A man on the stage started walking towards her which caused her to step back. Cane must have known what she would try as he found her eyes almost immediately. She heard his voice in her head clearly.

               ‘embarrass me and I’ll kill your sister.’

               A tear slipped from her eye as she’s led off the stage and lined up with the other women who were just gold pieces to those at the auction. The woman from before with the pale skin held her hand reassuringly. She whispered to her.

               “Don’t worry I’ll get us out of here.” Rosalind looked at her confused but when she pulls a key out of her sleeve and unlocks all the girls chains it became apparent. She’s saving them.

               Most of the girls stood there dumbfounded while others took their chances and sprinted towards an exit. The woman looked at Rosalind and handed her a small red pouch. In the pouch held five silver coins and a small knife.

               The woman held her hand one more time before she too made a run for it, before she got far Rosalind pulled her back and embraced her in a warm hug. Her tears wetting the blush pink blouse she was wearing.

               “Thank you.” She sobbed into the woman. The woman patted her head reassuringly and separated from Rosalind telling her that they both need to go, or they’ll be found out. Rosalind made a run for the door on the heels of the mysterious woman. They both blend in with the crowd’s bright outfits, but Rosalind’s hair stood out too much. The woman noticed this and took the cape she was wearing off her shoulders and placed it on hers. Pulling the hood up and over to cover her red hair.

               She and the woman ran for days it seemed like when they came across a little village. This is where the two had parted ways. The woman had explained she had a daughter and a sick husband to return to. Rosalind nodded her head and bid the woman goodbye.

               Thinking her baby blue slip dress seemed a bit too risqué for this little village, she stopped in a tailor’s shop and looked around to find a perfect red dress tucked in the back of the little shop. It resembled the one she wore previously. The dress that her mom had made her for her seventeenth birthday. A tear slipped down her cheek at the memory.

               She picked the dress off the racks and pays the woman at the counter. The woman struck up some small talk telling her she thinks the dress is very beautiful and that she would suit it very well. The dress cost her three silver pieces but for her it was worth it. She stepped into the dressing room to change into the dress. She had noticed her wound on her thigh had re-opened.

               Not having much of a choice she tore a strip from the blue slip dress and tied it tight around the gash to at least stop the bleeding. While putting the hood back on her head a badge fell out of the pocket. Curious she picked it up and it read.

               ‘Park Jimin, Royal Navy Officer’

               Rosalind gasped; she had never met anyone from the royal navy. She wondered if it belonged to that woman. Deciding not to worry about it any longer she left the tailor’s with newfound confidence and purpose. She had escaped but for how long? What about her sister?

               She continued to ask questions in her mind as she walked into a bar, planning on getting a drink to calm her nerves when she bumped into a chest as soon as she walked into the place. The man was explaining that they were looking for a woman who had gone missing and that she had bright red hair and if anyone happens to see her to let them know.

               Rosalind gasps when she immediately recognizes Cane, of course she had to bump into him of all people and of course the impact caused her hood to fall off her head. She stiffened when he stared at her in shock. Before he had time to register who was standing Infront of him, she made a mad dash for the streets. Running as fast as this dress would allow. Cursing herself for buying one with such a full skirt.

               She dived into an alleyway between a smith’s shop and a bakery. Finally settling down as she hears the men drunkenly stumble past her hiding spot. Assuming all was good she slid down onto the ground. Exhaustion taking over her features as she closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep.

                 Rosalind’s eyes shot open at the feeling of someone touching her forehead. The touch wasn’t completely unwanted as she almost found herself falling back into whoever’s hand it was. Before she could do that, her eyes went feral as she pressed her back against the wall of the ship, shying away from the man in front of her. Her eyes turn into slits as she watches the man’s movements like a cat.

                After a minute or so of silence he spoke. “You know you’re pretty tough, hiding a sprained ankle, infection and a raging fever from a bunch of scary pirates.” Putting emphasis on the word scary.

               She didn’t answer as she was afraid her voice wouldn’t come out at all. The man must have noticed her discomfort as he offered her a cup. Its contents being a strange green liquid.

               She looked at him with suspicion. Finally, he spoke up after setting the cup down on the table next to her.

               “It’s not poisoned you know. Why would I poison you after just nursing you back to health?” He swished the liquid in front of her face, the contents spilling over the side a bit.

               He frowned when she turned her nose away. “Come on, it’s just jasmine tea. It’ll calm you down and help soothe your throat.” At this she turned her head back. Gently placing the cup in her hands, the man turned around to look through his collection of herbs, mumbling to himself.

               Rosalind put the cup up to her lips and scrunched her nose as she drank the whole thing. Her throat already starting to feel relieved. She finally got the guts to speak to the man.

               “So, are you guys going to sell me too?” Tilting her head as she asked the question. The man turned around to look at her.

               “Now that’s not up to me, but if it was, I’d keep you on the ship. Our crew could really use a lady around.” He smirked at her and winked. Before she was able to respond there was a knock on the door.

               “San, are you about done with her? Hongjoong wants her to get something in her stomach before we reach Nyla.” A man whose name she surprisingly remembers being Seonghwa asks the younger.

               “Yeah she’s free to go.” San answered simply, turning back to his assortment of jars.

               “Tell Hongjoong that when we stop, I’m going to need more marigold, I used the rest on her wounds.” He said motioning to the girl on the bed.

               Seonghwa nodded and motioned for Rosalind to follow him out onto the main deck. She noticed all the bustling as men ran around the ship. Some even yelling profanities at each other. Seonghwa must have noticed because he explained simply that it was like this every time they docked into a new port.

               Seonghwa opened the door to what she assumed was the kitchen and motioned her to sit down at the long table laid in the middle of the room. He was rummaging through some cabinets when he walked back over to her and placed a piece of bread and an apple in front of her.

               “Sorry it’s not a lot, we plan on restocking at the town.” She hums acknowledging him as she stuffs the bread into her mouth. Once she was done eating Seonghwa led her back out onto the deck. Most of the crew was huddled around each other as the captain spoke to them.

               “We don’t plan on being in Nyla for long. We’re staying just long enough to stock up on some food and pawn some stuff.” The captain addresses the crew and they all cheered in understanding.

               Rosalind realized no one was watching her at this moment so she snuck off to maybe find something of use. She planned on leaving the ship once they reached land, but the problem was, she had no money and no way of knowing where she was.

               She put her hand on the handle of the captain’s quarters, hoping something inside would be useful. Sucking in a breath she quickly pulled it open and closed it softly behind her. She stood in awe for a moment, the room was huge. The walls were covered in maps and other kinds of tapestry.

               She spotted a map of the country out of the corner of her eye; it had a bit of writing on it, but it should be fine. She rolled it up and stuffed it under her skirt. She was about to leave when her eyes spotted a box of gold jewelry. She grabbed a handful of the jewels and shoved them in her corset.

               Slipping out of the room she joined the rest of the group. They seemed to not notice that she disappeared for a moment. After the captain finished addressing the crowd he jumped down and made his way towards her.

               “Here’s the plan, I’m allowing you to stop into town, accompanied by Wooyoung of course, to help us get supplies.” She nodded her head eyes lighting up at the thought of being able to escape.

               He called Wooyoung over and explained it to him as well. Wooyoung looked excited whipping his head around to look at the girl. Shamelessly raking his eyes down her body. She shivered in disgust as the two walked off the port together.

               Rosalind had never been outside her little village before and her eyes were glued open in amazement. There were so many merchant stalls that sold such pretty jewelry and hair pieces. Wooyoung must have noticed her gawking at a golden hairpin. On the end laid a beautiful ruby flower adorned with pretty red jewels.

               He snickered and walked up to the stand as Rosalind wasn’t paying attention, her fascination probably glued to something on the other side of the street. He purchased the hairpin and shoved it into the pocket of his jacket. Intending to give it to her.

               Rosalind jumped as someone wrapped their arms around her waist and laid their head atop hers. She froze in fear until she heard Wooyoungs familiar sultry voice in her ear.

               “You should learn to loosen up a bit doll.” Wooyoung chuckles lowly as he strokes her hips. Rosalind pushes the boy off her, hands flying to her face as a mad blush rose from her neck to her cheeks. She couldn’t deny the fact that Wooyoung was attractive. From his silky black hair to his pretty lips. He was basically perfect, and it made her drop her guard around him.

               He smiled sweetly at her as he reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out the hairpin. Placing it into Rosalind’s hands gently. She just looked at it in disbelief. Had he bought this for her?

               “You didn’t have to get me this.” She said softly.

               Wooyoung smirked. “Don’t think that I won’t expect anything in return.” He winked at her and started to walk away.

               “W-Wooyoung where are you going.” She stuttered as he waved her off before he stopped. He was standing at the entrance to a brothel.

               “You’re a big girl, do me a favor and grab the stuff Hongjoong wanted us to get.” He paused for a moment.

               “I’ll be here if you need anything, but you’re also welcome to join of course.” With that Wooyoung walked into the brothel, the women already all over him. Rosalind huffed in annoyance until she realized this is her chance.

               She walked down the street, unaware of the hushed whispers and the people staring at her as she walked by. She was looking for some mode of transportation as she wouldn’t be able to make it far on foot with the injuries she’s sustaining.

               Deciding that she’ll need some supplies and a better garment for her journey she walked into a tailor’s shop. Looking for a pair of pants and a simple blouse. She spotted some simple black pants with a few pockets along the legs and a white blouse with ruffles on the chest. On her way to the desk to pay she noticed a large leather satchel that she thought would be useful.

               She quickly paid and stepped into the dressing room. Changing from her dress into her new garments. Stuffing her dress and the slip she had been wearing under it into her new satchel. She tied her cloak around her body, throwing the hood atop her head.

               Exiting the shop, she noticed a crowd of a few people crowded around a man with fliers. The man handed one to her and she internally cursed. A portrait of herself stares back at her. The flier read.

“Wanted for crimes of piracy and murder. Reward 2,500 gold pieces”

               She cursed again this time out loud, she slowly started to walk away from the crowd, her pace quickening as she now realized why all those people were whispering and pointing when she walked by. She decided on a whim that she needs to change her appearance. Grabbing the dagger, she still had hidden in her boot she quickly sliced her long red hair into a short bob that ended just above her shoulder.

               The cut being so aggressive she accidently cut her cheek. She didn’t mind as the scar would hide her even more. She walked out of the alley she stood in, to the commotion in front of her. It was Wooyoung and a couple other crew members she didn’t recognize.

               Before they could realize that it was her, she dashed for the end of the town, spotting a horse tethered outside of a pub. Once she reached the horse her hands made quick work of the rope. Struggling to jump onto the horses back she began to sweat as she could hear the voices getting closer.

               Wooyoung reached out to grab her ankle but he was too late. She jumped on the horse and kicked it to get it moving. Once she knew they weren’t chasing her she turned around and stuck her tongue out at them.

               ‘Freedom at last’ She thought as she kicked the horse harder signaling it to move faster. She disappeared into the forest, the only thing on her mind was saving her sister. She was going to return to where this all started.

                 Wooyoung stomped his feet angrily as Rosalind disappeared into the forest. He sulked back to the ship, dreading to tell Hongjoong what happened. He knew he was going to get punished. Maybe he should run away too. He chuckled at the thought, he’d never be able to leave those guys behind, they were like family.

               He made his way up onto the deck to Hongjoong pacing nervously around the ship. Wooyoung was startled because he hadn’t said anything to the captain yet about Rosalind.

               “Ah Woo-, where’s the girl?” Hongjoong marched over to wooyoung. He tried not to shy away as the captain got right in his face. The anger grew as he explained what had happened. The captain looked like he wanted to punch Wooyoung and he wouldn’t be surprised if he did.

               The captain clenched his fists angrily and walked away from Wooyoung and instructed him to call the rest of the crew for an emergency meeting. Wooyoung bounded off the tell everyone. Once everyone was rounded up, Hongjoong spoke to the crowd.

               “In the recent absence of our guest I believe she stole some things from me before she left this ship. A map and some of my jewels.” The crowd gasped in disbelief. No one had the guts to talk back to the captain let alone steal from him. Hushed whispers fell among the crowd. Until San burst into the crowd and next to where the captain stood.

               He whispered in his ear, and the captain nodded to him.

               San turned to address the crowd. “I believe I know where the girl was heading. She left this picture behind of her family and on the back, it reads the date and the town she grew up in. Turns out this town isn’t far from Nyla and on horse it would take her maybe two days to get there.” He paused to catch his breath.

               As the area is landlocked, we’re going to have to trek on foot, but we’d reach there shortly after she does. Assuming she stops to rest for the night.” The captain nods to San as he steps down.

               “We set sail tomorrow. If you find the girl, you are not to harm her. Just bring her back to the ship where we will hold a trial to decide her fate. We’re pirates not barbarians after all.” The crowd cheered at his last statement.

               The captain retired to his quarters.

               ‘No one steals from the pirate king and lives to tell the tale’

________________________________________________________________

Author Note- This fic is only staying up for a little while. I’m adding to it and editing it as of right now.

but here’s a gif of Hongjoong and Mingi to make your day better

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam Austin episode 3 reaction

My favorite comment this week on the Skam Austin Facebook page:

Why do you use the font that SPAM uses and say you are in Austin where SPAM is located when you are actually in Austin TX and have no affiliation with #HormelFoods

Hormel Foods, the manufacturer of Spam is located in Austin, Minnesota, for the record.

Episode 3

Clip 1 - Lying in the back of the truck

This scene was actually new. I think it’s supposed to stand it for the Eva/Jonas lying in bed when she kicks him out and her mom comes in, but most of the ideas and dialogue within the scene were original, not borrowed. They didn’t have Meg mention that Zoya said she should break up with Marlon, nothing about Marlon saying she couldn’t live without him though he was similarly dismissive. She does it in a text later, though, and he tells her she wouldn’t last a second without him.

This camerawork does feel like Julie a lot. Especially the overheard of both Meg and Marlon lying down, that’s some total Skam couple vibes. Except early on Meg and Marlon are not touching and aren’t even on the same level, because as a couple … they’re not on the same level, lol.

Well, I considered the dance team to be sports but Meg disagrees with me, I guess. If you’re funded by the athletics department, then I’d say you’re a sports team. (It might vary from school to school but my high school definitely counted the cheerleading and dance teams as part of athletics.)

Meg: Dancing is about art. Marlon: Nah I don’t think so. GODDAMN MARLON FUCK OFFFFFF

I know a high school dance team has a different purpose in mind than like, New York City Ballet, but dance is absolutely an art form. This isn’t controversial, dumbass.

Can you please just be supportive of your girlfriend, Marlon? She found something that might make her happy and she’s socializing with other girls.

Someone in the FB comments said Meg and Marlon are cute together in a way that Eva and Jonas weren’t and like, everyone has a right to their opinion but I’m going to make a PowerPoint detailing my opposing view, which is 100 slides of NOPE.

Clip 2 - Sloooooooow mooooooooo whiiiiiiiiite guyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Meg is actively lying to her mom about being on the dance team. At least she runs into some new friends when her mom says to tell Abby hi.

KELSEY’S EYEBROWS I’M YODELING

There are some parts where Kelsey seems a little too like a sitcom character. It has more to do with the writing/directing than the actress, who’s been doing a decent job and having fun with the role. The bit where she’s like “SOME people in the group” works perfectly fine as a joke on its own - we all recognize the absurdity of her trying to obscure the person’s identity when there are five girls in the group and everyone knows who Kelsey’s got beef with. You don’t need to add on “you know … Zoya” which is just overkill.

Zoya just got them 100 pounds of free cookie dough to raise money for the team. Or… y’all could eat it … not that this is what I would do or anything.

But good job Zoya! And now Kelsey has to reconsider her position on Zoya. Free cookie dough?

He’s called Penetrator Jo??????????????

“Why is he called Penetrator Jo?” “No one knows.” OK …. I actually find that kind of funny but also … really, Julie? That’s far more obvious inside the narrative than calling a character Marlon.

Now we have what is obviously the most important scene of the season according to certain parties: William/Daniel’s introduction.

I have a confession to make. Uhhhh … taken on its own, I sort of like this version of the slow motion montage over the original.

I was never wowed by William’s intro, and this one at least has some tongue-in-cheek choreography with the football players and has Childish Gambino over it (in my version).

But at the same time I’m like really?

I think if I just watched both scenes side by side with no further context, I would prefer this one, because it’s so OTT ridiculous I would assume the director was making a joke. However, knowing the full situation, with S2’s Noorhelm and William depiction, and Julie’s intense love of the character, it does spoil the effect, because Julie really does believe that stuff about William/Daniel being painted as a villain. Like there’s definitely a humorous component to the scene but it doesn’t work as well when the director buys into the character’s hype. Same with Grace’s unimpressed eye roll and her comment about him being a cliche: on its own it’s a welcome voice for the audience, and I’m sure it’s an entertaining comment for the shippers, but knowing that it’s going to be ironic later spoils the effect.

Thinking about it, I also feel the same about the Penetrator Jo comment, maybe. On its own with no context, I’d find it funny - there’s something ridiculous not just about that nickname but by the fact that “no one knows” how he got something that should seemingly be obvious, yeah? Knowing that show ends up being on #TeamPenetrator is not as fun.

And not gonna lie, part of me will just never get Julie’s love of the William character when she has created so many more well-rounded, interesting, unique characters, and William is a well-worn trope played straight.

On that note, I see the complaints that this is like a very typical American teen drama, and on the one hand I can’t argue with that, popular football player all the girls thirst over is a pretty common trope. But also, lol … the original was just like this, the William character and the Noora/William relationship were the most CW-ish parts of the show. No matter whether you liked them or not! 

Neither William nor Daniel are really my type so I’m not hung up on stuff like whether the actor is hot enough. He’s kind of just like … a generically attractive white boy. I saw four of those at Steak ’n Shake the other night. Not trying to be mean, I get why girls would like him, and I really don’t care about anyone’s appearance on this show. His bone structure does seem above average.

Girl Jo is so cute. “He has a lot of shirtless pics.” “She has places to be, that’s like, adult stuff.”

She is getting a little passive-aggressive with using Kelsey as her cosmetic guinea pig. Kelsey is kind of a pushover, isn’t she? There’s a dynamic to explore there, where the two of them are obviously BFFs but Kelsey is letting Jo commit atrocities on her face. I wonder if that will build to anything or it’ll be a running gag. Maybe Daniel, instead of telling Kelsey she’s not pretty or good enough, will just be like your brows are NOT on fleek.

Clip 3 - Marlon and his crew are the worst

Shay: “I don’t know why we’re arguing about this, you’re freaking rich...ly, killing it in that sweater.” Marlon is selling his Adderall, I’m calling it now. Shay doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact that Marlon has some spare change accumulating from somewhere. I guess Abby could be buying from him and that’s why she was all CALL ME?

That’s not a bad change at all from the source material. Because while smoking weed can get you in trouble, selling drugs can get you into even more trouble. It would also be thematically relevant to the theme of pressure, do everything to succeed, be a winner not a loser, etc.

The way they’re sitting is so (intentionally) awkward with Megan clearly on the outside of their little group dynamic and on a lower level.

They are eating the pizza and someone presumably paid for it already, so this is a strange conversation to have, but then again I have ordered takeout plenty of times with friends where one of us paid upfront and then the rest of us paid them back or covered them. I guess Marlon could have paid for it at the door? Still kind of a weird conversation when you consider they could have been like … looking at the menu and talking about what to order and arguing about who’s gonna pay.

Marlon is SUCH an asshole. DUMP HIM. He started to make fun of her about her dance team in front of his friends. Meg gives Marlon’s crappy music her attention, he can’t support her in her dance team?

This scene made it really clear that it’s not a situation similar to Eva, where yeah, Jonas and Isak did gang up on her and could be mean to her, but she was still a part of the trio. We saw them eat together, go to movies together, have little jokes together. Eva was friends with Isak. Megan is only here for Marlon. Tyler and Shay aren’t her friends.

Some of the joking here - like Tyler saying, “Wait, Megan, you actually became a stripper? You took my advice, bro” - in another context I could see that being fine, like if Tyler was saying that to Shay, it’s just friends taking the piss out of each other, but he and Megan aren’t good enough friends for that not to have any tension or awkwardness.

Marlon being like “I’ve tried to convince her that team sports brainwash people … guess they already got to her though” is so so insensitive. Jackass! This was something that made her happy and she had to give it up FOR YOU.

I am so so glad that she called him out though, and she’s right. He’s got a limited set of talking points.

But it sucks that Shay and Tyler got in on it and called her out. Her attitude about the Kittens was clearly motivated by hurt and resentment over what she’s lost and a person who has since made her feel like shit, not her overall attitude toward sports teams. I would think they would know that much since they have to be somewhat familiar with the Megan-Abby drama. Tyler especially takes it too far when this is not a comfortable situation for Megto be in, she’s not included in anything, she’s just the girlfriend who’s there. Like I do not blame Megan at all for having some interest in Jo, because even if he’s sleazy, he’s the one who’s paying her compliments.

Clip 4 - Party invite

Julie continues with her tradition of “shooting the protagonist from behind as they walk somewhere.”

Kelsey’s eyebrows aksdfalsjnd

“I’m only waxing my mom’s chin so” Jooooooo.

Zoya telling Kelsey to chill and Kelsey immediately trying to chill … I feel like she wants to impress and go along with Zoya more than Vilde did with Sana. Kelsey seems like more of a people pleaser.

See, I heard people complaining that Zoya is too mean (and IDK, there might be some stuff to unpack there) but I felt in this scene she made her intentions pretty clear, that she was trying to help Kelsey calm down and not embarrass herself in front of the football guys, whereas Sana’s motives were probably the same but weren’t laid out like that and Vilde got pissed off at her.

I was kinda hoping that Zoya would be like “You are a hot girl” to Kelsey specifically but it’s nice she referred to the whole group as the hot girls. The only part I found excessively mean was the bit about Kelsey’s eyebrows (and I mean … she’s not wrong, but tact).

Jo is in love with Zoya.

It was sort of random that we pulled back a little and just watched Jo and Kelsey talk about her eyebrows, I mean that kind of casual conversation is fine, it was just the physical distance that was odd when so much of this series relies on closeups. We didn’t even see Meg’s reaction, not even to show Megan and Grace being like well, we’re done with this conversation and walking away.

There was an IG pic of the girls with Kelsey covering her eyebrows, which is adorable, but I’m not sure when the pic was taken because Meg is shown walking up at the start of the clip and Meg and Grace walk away at the end, and it looks like they’re in the same location. I guess Meg ran back to take a group selfie.

Clip 5 - American teen party with red Solo cups

I was wondering how they’d do the slow motion walk since I mean… they’d probably have to drive to the party, lol. And they did have them in the car! With the girls having a good time and Grace in the backseat looking awkward.

Actually I’m really glad Julie didn’t full on recreate one of the most iconic scenes of the original show, I prefer that she gave it a different spin. I don’t think this version of the scene will stick in my mind as much as the OG, but this does feel, well, American and relevant to the culture.

All the girls look great. I’m really digging Zoya’s hoops.

If anyone cares to know what I hissed at Daniel when he was checking out Kelsey.

I like how Abby seemed like she’s holding court among the Kittens.

I hate Marlon/Meg so much that even Meg/”Don’t be a cocktease” Jo is preferable. Though neither is the best option.

Part of me is like SIIIIIIIIGH at them not going to address Kelsey’s religion at all. It’s not that every Christian has to be abstinent or anything, I know Christian girls who were big on partying and had premarital sex. It’s that this is a big opportunity to shake up the story and add another dimension to the situation, and I feel like it won’t be addressed. I’d love if they at least talked about it in the next episode, if Kelsey’s trying to lose her virginity to Daniel and acquire birth control.

“I touch my friend’s boobs all the time” LISTEN UP JULIE ANDEM. Please let Jo be not straight. Please let Jo and Shay interact and possibly date. Both of those characters have some of the most personality on the show, it’d be a hit. Skam France set the precedent and made the equivalent character bi, YOU CAN DO IT.

I am overjoyed that so many people seemed to share my opinion of the world peace guy, which is Daniel who? Penetrator what? Give us more of THIS rando.

Honestly in his limited screen time, he has some decent comedic timing? He might be funny as the Magnus character.

That whole conversation was the highlight of the clip, the episode, and the series so far.

This is super random but I’m glad Meg and Grace went to the bathroom together because like … yes, that is what you do when you’re girls who are awkwardly standing around at parties. Bathroom solidarity.  And actually that’s a good setup for Grace leaving Meg alone and Jo getting to her rather than Noora ditching Eva to take a phone call. 

Marlon’s last name is Frazier for anyone curious.

“There’s another bathroom upstairs I can show you.” Smooth.

Zoya adding some food coloring into her Abby attack was an upgrade, particularly when the target’s in a white shirt. 

Jo taking off her earrings once the fight starts - she is the beeeest.

The shot of the girls climbing into the car is really cute to me, IDK.

I thought this was a fun clip but admittedly that’s 90% because Jo is a gem.

General Comments:

Some of me wonders … what if Tyler has it bad for Marlon and Shay has it for Meg? Tyler being “clingy” in the gc according to Marlon (which is just Marlon’s opinion and may not be that serious, to be sure) and Shay is noticeably nicer to Meg than Tyler is. I think.

Actually that text about Meg being added to their group chat made me cringe. They really aren’t welcoming to her. Meg has been dating Marlon since at least February - I’m pretty sure it was more like Christmas - and he’s only now adding her to the chat. Okay.

When Isak contacted Eva on Skype in episode 1, it seemed like he just wanted to chat with her. I guess maybe he wanted to sniff out if Jonas was there but he didn’t ask about it first, and he and Eva laughed about the Pepsi Max girls, and when he saw Eva was sad, he tried to give her some advice about talking to Ingrid. It was definitely a friendly conversation. When Shay did the same call, she asked where Marlon was, and after Meg said she didn’t know, Shay quickly said she had to go. It wasn’t a friendly, just-to-talk conversation. Meg tried to extend the conversation a little longer by talking about the Kittens - this makes me sad because it felt like she really needed to talk to someone, and Shay’s response isn’t that supportive or like she knows the magnitude of the situation with Megan and Abby. It makes me wonder because Eva was close enough to Isak to confide in him, and Meg will probably do that with Shay, but I don’t feel their relationship is as tight on its own terms to merit that.

I do find all the viewer comments on Meg and Marlon’s IG pics that are like “He’s cheating on you!” and “Why are you lying to her?” to be very funny and endearing.

Some of the FB comments about Zoya’s character … have some implications, like I haven’t seen anything outright Islamophobic, but there is a sense of “she’s too aggressive/too mean” and some of it is hard to judge whether it’s a fair assessment of her character thus far and how much of it is code for “she’s a mouthy black Muslim.”

It also got me thinking because all of the Noora/William combos have been white across the remakes, and IDK, I think it’d be great if the big man on campus that all the girls found attractive was a MOC, but also - can you imagine if a William was black and how differently he would be judged on his behavior, provided it was the same as in the original? The black guy heartlessly using and throwing aside the sweet virginal white girl? Or the black guy relentlessly pursuing the white girl who said she wasn’t interested? Or the black guy smashing a bottle over a guy’s head? I feel like a black William would reveal some ... enlightening viewer reaction. To put it mildly.

Jo is the most popular character by a landslide according to a poll on the FB group and that does not surprise me in the slightest. I’d be a little interested to know who was the most popular character so far in the original Skam. My guess is that opinions would be more widely spread.

Her IG posts/stories with Kelsey’s makeover and eating with the girls are really cute, btw.

I don’t really know how to judge the ratings because Facebook Watch is largely untested as a streaming platform, but there seem to be at least 1,000-2,000 new users following the show per day, maybe more (though stuff like fake/spam accounts need to be taken into consideration) and the full episodes are getting far more hits than the individual clips.

[shazyloren]

The Dragon Club: Chapter 23 - Discuss and Dissect

Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12018519/chapters/27774168

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She tasted divine, the faint smell of coconuts once again filled his nose as his mouth pressed against her. He held her face gently as her lips fit perfectly to his, as is they were meant to be kissing. They were both soaked through, but they did not care. His mouth was on hers and nothing else mattered. The kissed deepened, his tongue begging to enter her mouth. She parted her lips and so their tongues collided. They couldn't breathe but they didn't need too, their tongues in each other's mouth, their scents in each others nose was enough. Jon didn't want the kiss to end, he wanted to feel her plump lips on his own forever. But it was raining, and while she was into the kiss, she was shivering to the bone.

Their tongues stopped as they pulled from the kiss. He planted another small on on her lips afterwards. She smiled brightly, and he smiled back. It was peaceful, everything they wanted. There was so much he wanted to say, so much he needed to express. "I'm sorry"

"Me too" She whispered as their foreheads were pressed against each others.

"Come inside, you'll catch a cold" He laughed, even though his hands wouldn't leave her face. She nodded and holding her, he guided her in his door. She was shaking, water dripping off of her as she shaked in her clothes. He grabbed a blanket from near the front door and wrapped it around her, not worried of his own wet body. Ghost barked when he saw her causing Daenerys to jump, but he laid his head back down when he saw Jon behind her. "Ghost, I need you to sit on the other chair"

Ghost just grumbled. He had no intention of moving. Daenerys found it sweet. "It's okay, I'll just sit here" Jon got to putting the fire on, throwing a few logs onto the fire and setting it alight so daenerys could warm through. Daenerys stared at the white husky, his fur covering his face. "You're a sweet thing"

"Thank you" Jon grinned. Daenerys rolled her eyes. The fire roared to life. "There, you should warm up. I'll go get you a spare change of clothes. My sister still has some things here"

Jon left her to warm herself by the fire. Holy fuck, he thought crudely, he'd kissed her, and she'd kissed him back. And it was everything he'd ever imagined it to be, sensual and peaceful and warm. He entered the spare bedroom and thought about what this meant for them, he did not know. But there was no doubt in their mind. They had fallen for each other and it was magical. Jon knew he was a crazy man now, he'd been a lovesick fool but it was time he did something about this.

Grabbing a spare pair of jogging bottoms and a t-shirt that was going to be big for Daenerys, he made his way back to the living room where she was looking at her phone. "Damn phone has got a lot of water damage, wasn't expecting the sudden downpour"

"You can use mine if you need to contact anyone" It was turning dark outside, it was nearly dinner time. She nodded.

"Thank you" He gave her the clothes and she got changed in front of him (he covered his eyes obviously, wanting to give her some privacy. When she'd changed he got the fire guard out and put her soaking clothes on there to dry over the evening.

"So, we need to have a bit of a chat" She again nodded in agreeance as she tried to inch closer to the fire, her bones obviously cold. "But first, lets order takeaway. Chinese?"

"Ooh, yes please" She said sparking up. Jon found the menu in a draw in the hallway, and dialled away. He ordered a bit of everything, prawn toast, sweet and sour pork, chicken chow mein, beef and black bean sauce and egg fried rice along with some chinese style chips. As he entered the living room, Daenerys had a small smile on her face. "I can still taste you on my mouth" Jon's eyes had gone wide. "Musky"

"Coconuts" He said in reference to herself. She nodded.

"My shampoo" She laughed. "So... that was something"

"Aye, it was" He found himself looking at the ground again. "I need to apologise for jumping the gun; you shouldn't have had to come here. I should've gone to you, not moped around doing nothing. I should've apologised for the sudden change in my behaviour"

"And yet you didn't, instead I came here and proved to you how I felt. Am I happy about that? When I look back, no I am not. I should not have to be the one to apologise when you're the one who jumped to conclusions" Daenerys was being honest. It was the slap in the face Jon needed. "But I also know you didn't mean any upset by it, I understand your low self esteem and even if I did cry myself to sleep because of your words. Which is why this once, I'll forgive you"

"Thank you, Dany" Jon was humbled by her power as she held the conversation. "But maybe I don't deserve it"

"Jon, I need to say this again, but in terms that you understand" She said taking control of the conversation, just as she liked. "I fancy you, I have feelings for you. I'm scared of these feelings but I'm also excited by this. And I know how you feel for me. Let's just, wipe the confusion clean and start again" He nodded in agreeance. "However, there is a few things I'm apprehensive about, thus my lack of.. words at the photoshoot" He didn't say anything, he just wanted to hear her out this time. "Ygritte"

She didn't need to say anything else, he knew what she meant. "I know"

"I know better than anyone, that there are things that happen in our pasts that make us who we are, that we think of on a day to day basis" Jon wondered if she was referring to the high school abuse she'd briefly mentioned. "But you cannot let it control you. Drogo raped me, not just physically but in every sense he defiled me, but if I dwell on that I will never move forward with my life. I don't remind myself of it, if I look back I am lost, remember?"

He did remember, their conversation at her dinner evening, as they looked out onto the King's Landing skyline.

I remember it everyday, no matter how much I suppress it. Since then; I wrote off love, I wrote off ever being weak again. It was all I could do to keep me going forward, if I look back, If I bring up the past if I remember it; I am lost.

"Why name your car after him?" It was a valid point.

"I told you, his hatred and abuse drives me forward; I never want to be that weak again, and so I'm not" She said definitively.

"I don't agree with that, the man abused you! He defiled you, why would you do anything for him?" She thought about this.

"I suppose you're right, it is a bit... suspect. Okay, no more naming my cars, even though you were the one that said everyone names their car"

"I stopped calling my Lyanna" He shrugged. "Causes confusion with the baby"

"You're right, I need to let go of Drogo and what happened with me in the way you need to let Ygritte go" She was assertive as she spoke. This was why she'd been renowned for being cold-hearted, that and the Doreah situation. But Jon had peeled back the layers, he'd gotten to the core of Daenerys Targaryen, a place where not many people had been since she closed herself off. And he was happy that she'd chosen to let him try, that she was okay with him getting to her. "I think she would want you to be happy, even if this meant you repressed your thoughts of her like I do, Drogo"

"I think she would too" Jon agreed. "No more hiding anything, I know that when I talk about he, it makes you feel like second best. And I don't want you to feel like that" From her lack of response to that statement, he knew she did feel that way. "I don't mean to be a burden"

"Missing someone you loved is not a burden Jon Snow, it makes you human. I'm here to help you heal, I just don't want to live in her shadow, do you understand?" Daenerys crossed over to where he was sat. Ghost grumbled as he hopped off to let her sit down, placing himself next to the fire for warmth. H did understand. "She lives inside you, and that's okay, but be honest with yourself, love your family as you did her, care for them as you did her... care for me, if that's what you want"

"I think I do" Jon watched her face, the flames from the fire reflected in her eyes, this time they were dancing, but with real flames. Her porcelain skin was smooth and glowed almost in the fire light. His hand reached to cup her jaw. "The person you've made me become, more open, more out-there, out of my comfort zone, is who I want to be. It was who I once was"

"You can be that person again" She placed her left hand on top of this and almost rubbed her own cheek into his hand. She closed her eyes as she did. When she opened them again, her eyes burned with desire, Jon could see it. "Kiss me"

"I thought we were having a serious discussion" Jon laughed as he pulled her closer to himself. Her eyes beamed. He sighed in defeat. Their lips joined, soft at first but as their kissing went on it became more eager and almost filled with an animalistic passion. It was a good ten minutes before they even broke apart, breathing heavily as thei gasp for air. "No more games"

"No more running into each other by accident, no more jumping the gun and feeling sorry for yourself" She nodded. "Do you want to give this a shot?"

"Aye, I do" He kissed her again, this time filled with adoration and love. He wanted to carry on into the night, but the doorbell rang signalling their takeaway. As Jon got up from his seat, Ghost jumped in it quickly making Daenerys laugh. Jon came back from the door with the bag of boxes and found himself cursing his dog. "Ghost, come on, let's get you fed"

After he'd sorted Ghost out, he left him in the kitchen while he and Daenerys ate their chinese food. They spoke about how well the article had come out, and the photos. She has decided to take his offer up on the use of the laughing photo as the front cover and everything was handed in to the printer's ready for release in 6 weeks time. They had talked about their families and Jon had showed her some photos of baby Lyanna which almost brought Dany to tears, especially one with a rabbit hat on that Arya had gotten her. They laughed as they spoke of their friends, Sam and Gilly were finally moving in together and Hotpie had started a business with his father's backing. Missandei and Greyworm had finally made things serious too.

It was one of the best evenings Jon had engaged in, in a long while. Her company was everything he had hoped for, she was intelligent, witty if not a little dry sometimes and devoted. She told him about the special edition of her magazine she's doing with the WWF to help engaged species. She spoke of the trip she's going to be taking to see the Elephants at the Udawalawe National Park.

"Sri Lanka?" Jon said surprised.

"You know it?" She asked.

"I've been there, it's a beautiful country" Jon said as they drank some wine. "I didn't go to Udawalawe National Park, I went to The Elephant Freedom Project, but they all do similar things. They really look after the elephants in Sri Lanka, it's such a beautiful community of animal lovers. I've done some stuff on animal welfare on my blog before and The Elephant Project was one of the places I've covered. Elephants need to be protected at all costs"

"WWF are sending me with a videographer and a photographer. A mini documentary is going to be made to go with the magazine when it's released in August" She said excitedly as she drank the last part of her wine. "I was going to ask you to be the photographer but you were already doing me one favour I didn't want to ask you again"

Jon appreciated the thought. "That's fine, I'm going to have to stay pretty local in August, it'll be Father and Catelyn's 30th Wedding Anniversary. I think they'll kill me then resurrect me just to kill me again if I missed the family holiday we'll be having"

"Family holiday? like somewhere hot or skiing?" She asked.

"Depends, we've been all places. They usually book two weeks for us all, but the last few years Robb and I have taken everyone else home after the first week so Father and Catelyn have a week to themselves after"

"I don't think I could manage a family holiday, with Rhaegar and Elia perhaps, but definitely not with my parents" Daenerys cringed slightly. It's bad enough she's so protective over me when I see her for just one hour. Such a judgey mother!"

"All parents can be, you should've heard Catelyn when I said I wanted to be a journalist" He laughed. It was then he realised how late it was, 11pm. "Jesus how does the time go by so quickly?"

"It's been a bit eventful today, I've got to drive home yet" Daenerys sighed not wanting to get off of the sofa. Jon didn't want her to leave. He wanted her to stay with him, forever. He'd had a wonderful evening and he couldn't believe that just six hours ago he was brooding over unrequited feelings. "Help me up"

"Do you have to go?" Jon moaned.

"Yes, I have work tomorrow" She said annoyed at the reality of it.

"Boo" Jon was grumpy. "Let me kiss you and I might let you go"

"Only might?" Daenerys cackled.

"Well you've been drinking, I don't really want you driving" Jon said honestly. Daenerys gasped.

"Oh crap I have, haven't I?" Daenerys grumbled. "Can I borrow your phone? I'll get Jorah to pick me up and then I can pick my rolls up late tomorrow"

"Or..." Jon said unsure if he should say anything. Fuck it, he thought, and said what he wanted to say. "Stay over, and drive home in the morning, you can have the spare bedroom" Jon didn't want to risk her driving home over the limit. "I'll leave the key by the front door so you can unlock it if you're up before me"

"Are... are you sure?" She said thankful

"Of course, I would like it if you stayed in my bed, but it's not gentlemanly of me so, you can have the spare bedroom" Daenerys laughed at his pleasantries. "I am on a day off tomorrow, after your article I need some time with my family. I'm gonna see Robb, but maybe tomorrow evening, we can go for that date we were going to have?"

"I'd like that"

And so Jon showed her to the spare room once she'd helped him clear up the chinese food and tub off leftovers. He made the bed with fresh sheets from his airing cupboard and left her to sleep, one last kiss on the cheek.

"Goodnight, Jon"

"Goodnight, Dany" He closed the door behind him, a huge smile spreading on his face.