#....i literally came to your house with 3 big slashes on my arm when do i get a fucking break from the picking????

[sensitivegoblin]

Vent

Tw: sewerslide and SH

[whaleofatjme1920]

In the Tent, Under His Arms (Eyeless Jack X F!Reader)

[Eyeless Jack X F!Reader]

[Warnings: literally just smut, knotted dick, breeding kink kinda?, possessive, I feel like EJ is his own warning, dubcon, rough, degrading(?), slight praise, if you are a minor DNI]

[AN: this thing is 8K words so have fun. Ngl, I had a lot of inspiration from the Wolf Man from Darkwood, so like,,,,,, that's gonna show up here as influence srry. ily <3]

To say you are nervous as you traverse the woods was an understatement. You could hardly breathe as you quietly stepped through the darkness that curtained the forest around you. Small little mushrooms and pieces of paper dotted your way as you continued to shine your flashlight at the deer path before you. Branches seemed to spring out from tree trunks in the blink of an eye scratched at your clothes as you pushed yourself forward. Every little sound that didn’t emit from you set you on edge.

How the hell did you even get here? You woke up on the floor of a rundown house. Cold tile had been your mattress as you slowly found your bearings. A quick glance around the darkened room showed a barren room, its walls littered with papers worried about a tall man in the woods. The only warnings were to watch out for him, fear him and not get caught by him lest you be taken. But you were still confused, scared and unsure.

Instead, you found yourself doing the only thing you could really think of. Securing your safety. This went on for a week without a hitch (save for the odd faces that peered into the windows every now and then) until one fateful morning where you were greeted by the only sentient living being that wished to talk to you since… Well… Since before you ended up here.

You had taken up refuge in a closet for the night and after stretching, headed to the kitchen to make something when you were rudely greeted to a… man?

Leaning against your counter drinking some coffee he’s already brewed.

You were about to rush back to your closet and pick up your blade when the man lowly chuckled.

A deep silence fell between the two of you as your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. From the silence came low, rumbling, almost animalistic breathing.

It was then that you finally got a clear view of who was leaning in your kitchen. You grounded yourself in the doorway, not budging as the man slowly sipped from the coffee mug. You took notice of what he was wearing as he did so - a big, dark blue hoodie, and on top of that, a big, brown jacket. He had worn blue jeans. Steel toe boots.

The most unsettling parts of it all?

He had ashy, grey skin. From his profile, you could see shark-like teeth, grinning at you like a wolf.

“It’s really rude to stare, sweetheart,” the grey skinned man interrupted before taking another languid sip. “Have some coffee. I went outta my way to get it for you,” he finished before you could even begin to register what he was saying.

You awkwardly looked off to the side as words failed to build in your mouth. However, your mind continued to race with thoughts.

The grey skinned man verbally rolled his eyes with a huff before placing his mug down. Then, he quickly turned himself around and opened up one of the cabinets, fished for a mug, settled on a slightly chipped white one, inspected it, then placed it on the counter beside his. His clawed hand reached for the pot of coffee and grasped it before pouring the pleasantly warm and aromatic liquid into the slight chipped mug.

“Here,” he hummed as he held out the mug to the still frozen in place you. “Before it gets cold.”

You felt immediate disgust but hit it from your face as you cautiously stepped forward.

Sighing deeply, he closed the space between the two of you by taking confident steps forward.

On instinct, you held your hands out and took the mug.

He smiled in approval before leaning back on the counter to drink from his mug. “Sorry about the lack of sugar and creamer,” he said in passing as he watched you take a slow, shy sip. “You’ve seen the state of things out there, haven’t you? Can’t find shit even if I tried.”

Upon deeming the drink not poisonous and not harmful to your wellbeing, you felt more at ease and took more confident sips. “Who are you?” You asked, effectively breaking the semi-comfortable silence.

“A medic in some circles, a trader in others,” he began, flashing his rows of pearly white sharp teeth. “Call me Jack.” His gaze then lowered, eyes still obscured by his hood. “And what about you, sweetheart? How did you find yourself in this wicked place?”

You shifted uncomfortably before leaning in the doorway and taking another sip from the mug. “I don’t know,” you muttered. “I woke up here,” you gestured to the cold, checkered tile the two of you were currently standing on, “and got to work,” you finished. Your eyes remained trained on the floor. You remembered the first few days you were here - how awkward and strange they were. The feelings of confusion and anger. Stumbling around in the dark.

Jack nodded thoughtfully at your words before he finished his mug in one big gulp. He then smirked at you, the corners of his lip tilting upwards before he began stalking towards you.

Instinctively, you backed up, ready to defend yourself.

Jack chuckled under his breath. He smelled of wet soil and pine. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said as he stopped just an arm’s distance in front of you. He looked down at you, his eyes still observed by the darkness as you struggled to see what he looked like. His clawed hand suddenly reached out, and you flinched. He grinned, and took his lifted hand to hold your chin before slowly tilting your gaze upwards to meet his in full. “Let me get a good look at those pretty eyes,” he murmured.

And that when you saw his, or rather, the lack of. Just empty caverns. Dark, soulless, but they looked at you with such hunger.

Jack watched your pretty eyes flutter, mostly in nervousness before he leaned down. His sockets bore into you. His other hand left his coat pocket to your face, clawed came closer and closer to your eyes making you scrunch your nose. “Find me in the burnt clearing. I’ll be waiting for you.” His index finger came up to the bridge of your nose and slid down it. He chuckled at your confused expression before he tapped your nose.

When you reopened your eyes, he was gone.

You spent a few days wondering if you should go or if it was a trap. There was really no one to ask and the faces that peered into your window didn’t seem to give an answer one way or another. Your gut, however, kept telling you it was a bad idea.

That was what you were sticking with: it’s a bad idea, you shouldn’t go.

So, why were you stumbling through the woods near sundown looking for him? It was stupid, you thought, that you could be walking into your death. You quickly slashed through the brambles until you made your way to a small clearing. A light shined in the short distance when it wasn’t obscured by rapidly growing branches. A quick glance down at your map showed that this was the eyeless man’s camp.

Your fingers tightened around your blade as you left the heavy foliage to inspect the camp. There was a sizable tent followed by various crates strewn about. In the center was a fire pit and across from it was a worn down green couch. How did that even get in here?

You carefully came closer to the roaring fire with timid steps while trying to calm down your breathing. A quick glance around and there was nothing but silence to accompany you as the sun sunk further and further down the horizon. You let your guard drop for just a moment before prickling back to attention. A presence behind you made you swivel, lurch and raise your blade faster than what you were capable of.

“Took you long enough. You do know that it’s rude to keep people waiting, don’t you?” Jack states with a small frown before bursting into a fit of laughter at the sound of your still drumming heart. “What has you so nervous?” He questions, eyeing you like you are nothing but a piece of meat.

“This is your camp?” You say, more out of observation than waiting for affirmation.

“It is,” Jack hums. “Good to see you made it. I’ve seen some proxies barely make it here by the skin of their teeth,” he continues as he sits down by the fire.

“What?” You ask as you quirk up an eyebrow.

Jack picks up his back to rest between his knees and rummage through it before beckoning you over to sit next to him.

You cautiously sit next to him on another crate. You avert your attention from him back to the fire.

“Proxies are servants of this tall guy,” Jack explains after ensuring you took your seat. “They run these woods essentially, but they never come to my neck in fear of the things that exist past what is safe,” he grins slightly, still rummaging in the bag. “Out here, it’s just me and the things who lurk.”

“The things that lurk?” You whisper in a questioning tone.

Jack nods again and pulls out a little journal. He begins to thumb through it as he continues to explain to you. “Things known as the Rake, the notdeer, the proxies that succumb to their sickness early, y’know, the things that kill.” He finally finds what he’s looking for.

You turn your attention to the journal and see he’s amassed a collection of polaroid photographs of the things that lurk.

“See? These are some proxies,” he hands the book to you and points at the pictures. “And here is one of the things that lurk.” His clawed finger shows you what used to be a proxy, their body torn to shreds, organs hanging everywhere, and in the center, what you can describe as a monster hungrily devouring their flesh. “I have a lot of good shit out here, and most of them never make it past this guy.”

You shiver slightly and Jack furrows his brows for just a moment.

“Sorry,” he apologizes for a moment before briefly taking the book from you. “Anyways, very few people make it out of the woods unless you’re a proxy or me. We used to make it out a lot easier but there was this one guy, ugly fucker,” he hisses. “That left the woods after burning down the trees to the main road - one of our crossing points. The trees grew back so fast after the tall guy’s wrath and now we’re all stuck here as a result. That ugly fucker? He disa-fucking-peared.” Jack growls deeply as he says it, clearly not happy with the memory.

“I’m… Sorry,” you apologize awkwardly.

Jack shakes his head. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, yeah?” He hums. “Anyways, flip a few pages and you’ll see the ugly fucker’s hovel before he left.” He pointed to the picture of a house similar to the one you were staying in.

Small world?

You studied the man who stood in the picture. He wasn’t that ugly in your opinion.

Jack then shows you other photos, places, effigies, proxies and one of a brilliant mansion. Apparently, you need to stay away from that place at all costs. There’s also pictures of him and other people, some of them you recognize from your time on earth? Is that right? Are you still on earth?

Jack explains a bit more to you. Mostly about this place. It’s like a pocket. Somehow, you were taken and brought here for a reason. Jack suspects it’s because the tall man, also known as the Slender Man, wants to make you a proxy.

“You’ll lose your humanity that way,” he tsks. “And that’s why I called you here. Not for pictures and conversation,” the warmth that was in his tone over reminiscing over things and learning about others is gone.

You notice it almost instantly. You watch as his posture changes and so too do his facial features. You know he means business now.

“I know you’re looking for a way out,” he begins. “I can help you with that.” Jack notices your eyes light up for the first time in well… It’s the first time he’d seen you look so hopeful.

“What’s the catch?” You ask as you slowly lean away from him.

Before Jack could say anything, a shriek was heard off in the distance. Jack’s face twinkled with excitement for a second before he nodded his head over to his tent.

It caught you off guard and sent your heart racing before yet another shriek emitted from the dark forest around the two of you.

“It’s dark,” Jack says as his gaze goes back over to his tent again. “Stay here for the night. Those things out there don’t really fuck with me,” he muses. When you don't answer, he stands up. “Unless you wanna try your luck out there, sweetheart. By all means…” He trails off as he slowly begins walking over to his tent.

You swallow your pride and stand up much too fast and catch pace with him.

Jack lets out an amused chuckle as he opens the flaps to the tend and allows you entrance.

You were immediately shrouded in the scent of petrichor and wild flowers. Surprisingly, it didn’t smell near as rough as you had originally expected. You felt a tad awkward standing in his tent as he zipped it up.

“You can sit down,” he says as he ensures the flaps were shut properly.

You nod more to yourself than anyone else and take a few more steps inside. It was tall enough that you could stand without brushing your head on the roof. On the floor interspersed with grass were carpets. It looked like a nest was in the near middle? Tons of blankets and two twin sized mattresses laid side by side were on the ground.

You glance around and see a small little desk, some writing supplies, just normal home stuff. Why was Jack living out here? There were tons of vacant houses.

Instead, you brush the thought off and settle on sitting timidly at the end of one of the blanket covered mattresses.

“Good choice,” Jack says as he procures from his pocket a box of matches. Then, he reaches over on the little desk for a kerosene lamp. After lighting it, the dimness of the tent became something actually visible. He checks his watch as he slowly makes his way to the other mattress.

“What time is it?” You ask as you struggle to get comfortable on the mattress.

“Surprisingly? Nearing midnight,” he answers. Jack stretches slightly before plopping down entirely. “Get some sleep, yeah? Tomorrow morning, we’ll set out to do what I ask,” Jack subtly demands. He props his elbows up on his knees and watches from the corner of his gaze as you shift awkwardly.

You felt strange laying down on the mattress, but did so anyway. It doesn’t seem Jack cared very much that your shoes were still on. You move your body slightly to find comfort on the mattress while Jack continues to eye you from the corner of his vision.

He takes note of your form, how delicious you look. How he can take you right now.

But he saw your eyelids grow heavy. Within moments, you were on the verge of passing out.

Jack relents softly. He knows she wants your full attention while he ruts into you making you cry out to gods that don’t want to hear you. He sees you begin to fade in and out of consciousness. Luckily for him, he does have some business to attend to, and those creatures didn’t ever get too close to his camp.

They wouldn’t touch you, not with his scent bathed all over you.

One of the last things you heard before Jack left to attend to other matters was a compliment. You barely heard it, and it would have shocked you right awake if your body wasn’t on the verge of shutting down.

“You look so pretty right now, Sweetheart. Beautiful, even.”

It wasn’t until 3am that Jack finally returned. You were fast asleep when he finally resented the tent, but he could smell you all the way from where his important matters laid. His nose guided him back to you. And funnily enough, it brought him back to you about a week ago as well.

Jack hadn’t smelled a fertile woman in a very long time. Well, since this whole mess came upon the Slender Man’s woods, really. He spied on you the first few days you were here. You weren’t as ready for him then, must’ve just been leading up to it. When he popped into your kitchen, it was because you were getting so close to your peak. The smell was overwhelming, sweet, and tender. Intoxicating. Like fresh peaches and the tangiest of strawberry pie. Lucky for him? You came to him at your peak.

Jack ressecure the flaps of the tend before his vision that saw all too well in the darkness his beauty that rests on the mattress he knew you’d choose. Your face and other gestures were gently lit up by the almost extinguished kerosene lamp’s flame. It drove him wild to see you breathe so peacefully.

Your chest rose every so slightly and he could have sworn he caught the outline of your nipples if it wasn’t for that stupiud bra you had on instead.

Jack licked his lips as he quietly drew himself closer to you. He couldn’t stop himself from crawling on top, quietly and slowly, so as to not wake you. One of his knees gently pried apart your legs, and then he took in your scent. You smelled of something not from the woods. You smelled of fresh vanilla and dark roast coffee. Of strawberry pound cake. Of good things.

Jack leans down and takes in your scent near the base of your neck, inhales deeply, then buries his nose in your hair. You smell divine, possibly even better than… Well, it’s best not to say. His hand picks itself up off the mattress to gently and gingerly brush near your hairline. Sily. Pretty. He then places it on your stomach and lightly presses, trailing his claws along your abdomen to your side. You are so soft. So delicate.

The moment his clawed fingertips touch your side and begin trailing down, you wake up.

Your eyes fly open and you almost let out a scream at seeing how this strange man is looming over you. Your mouth opens, but his hand quickly leaves your side to smother you. You breathe heavily against his palm, your eyes wide and with fear. You struggle against him.

“Shhh, he hushes as his hand presses a little firmer on your mouth. “Calm down.” His voice was low as his knee dug further into the mattress, just below the place he wanted most.

You continue to struggle against him, fighting against his planted hand while his other hand presses down on your hips.

“You promise not to scream?” Jack deadpans in a low tone with an edge that cuts you to your core. He sees tears welling in your eyes, and he knows you’re telling the truth. Slowly, he peels his hand back, watching as you keep true to your word.

You take in deep breaths to help self regulate. “What the fuck?” You seethe. Your arms, which have been pawing wildly at his chest, relax only slightly when his clawed hands catch your wrist in a vice grip.

“Easy,” he murmurs, only loosening his grip when he’s sure you won’t fight him any further. His head dips so his empty caverns can peer right through yours in the dim light.

One look and you know what he wants. Horor and something else - something wanton - pass across your face, making Jack laugh.

“I said I wasn’t gonna hurt you,” he hums, his clawed index finger trailing your cheek.

Before you can say anything else, Jack’s hand leaves your hips and grabs your face. With a wicked grin, he licks his teeth, then leans down and licks your face.

You contort to digits as he does so. He smells of iron.

“Why are you doing this?” You growl as his tongue leaves your cheek to your chin, slowly making his way to your neck. “I can leave if that’s-”

“No,” Jack growls. “You won’t leave,” he states before gently nipping at the soft flesh on your neck. “You smell so good,” he murmurs before taking another languid lick at your neck.”I’m going to make you mine,” With that, he entirely retracted his form from yours to look down at you.

Of course, you fight him. Your thighs grip around his upper leg that still rests between your knees and you almost maange to flip the two of you over. But he was much bigger and much stronger than you could manage. With a deep laugh, he grips your wrists tighter above your head and squeezes to let you know who is in charge. With his free hand, he reaches into his back pocket and gets the zip ties.

How the fuck did he get zip ties?

“Jesus fucking Christ,” you hiss as he dangles them in front of your eyes.

“I just can’t trust you right now,” Jack tsks in the tone of a pouting child. The black zip ties feel awful against your wrists (they also feel good) - and he’d secured them so tightly. He playfully watches you attempt to break free from them, and when it proves futile, he laughs. Jack then allows his hands to take free roam of your body while you begin to protest him less and less. “I know you don’t have any spare clothes,” he hums thoughtfully before his fingers waltz down to the hem of your shirt. “Luckily, I have some left over. You won’t be needing any of this,” he cackles as his sharp claws make waste of the fabric.

You feel yourself growing weaker and weaker under his grasp but still curse at him more than what you deem possible. Jack seemed to eat up your insults. “You’re fucking sick,” you spit as he eyes your bra hungrily. “A sick fucking pervert.”

“You stayed the night, Sweetheart,” Jack grins wickedly. “I’m only taking claim of what’s now mine,” he says before delicately tracing the cups of your bra. He likes the design. Dark blue with light colored polka dots. An interesting choice. Without wasting any more time, his claws cut through the fabric too - no use in unclasping while your hands are bound. “How beautiful,” he giggles. “How lovely. I could hardly tell when you were using those bags you call clothes,” he teases, making your knees clamp around his knee once more, making Jack break again and laugh.

You bite your tongue and try to avert your gaze from him, not wanting him to see that you’re flushed due to the intimacy and that your body and you yourself are growing keen to the situation you have found yourself in. “This is…”

“C’mon,” Jack breathes out as his fingers trail up your smooth flesh to your breasts. “You must’ve known something was up. A man doesn’t just ask a woman to stay the night. He’s got one thing on his mind if she isn’t family or a friend: he wants to fuck her.”

The harshness and pure lust that dripped from his tongue made your face heat up in response. Your gaze darts and bounces around before you finally settle on his hands that are now fondling your chest.

Jack’s hands travel to your pants. He takes in your scent again. You are intoxicating, so intoxicating.

“You’re gonna have to work for it,” you manage to hiss out, legs still clamped around his knee.

Jack’s expression falls. “You’re not in charge, I am.” And with that, he rips through your pants, leaving you naked before him.

You shiver slightly in response to the cool air, and of course, Jack has to see that and make note of it as well.

“Awh,” he coos as his nose gets closer and closer to your heat. “Are you cold? Do you want me to warm you up?” He murmurs in a sickening lust filled tone.

“You bastard-” you’re barely able to breathe out before you’re cut off by Jack dragging the flat of his long, black tongue from the bottom to the top, taking great joy in the arousal that was already present.

“What a naughty, naughty girl,” he teases before dragging his tongue again. “Already soaking,” he compliments. His thumb, careful of the sharpened claw, travels to your clit and begins to slowly massage it. He feels your legs shift. Jack hums as he does to, hsi tongue only playing with your lips. He was going to make you suffer before he stuffs you completely.

His teeth nip you every now and then, just to remind you who was really in charge as his tongue and lips press kisses to your lower lips. He doesn’t dare dip into your heat despite wanting to taste you in full.

You write in his grasp, trying to hold back any and all sounds of pleasure. You don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing what he’s doing to you.

It’s a shame really, he could make you see stars if only you’d let him.

He must have gone near half an hour with his head between your legs, still fully dressed. He was a man of great patience, and he’d been edging you for much longer and harder than he should have. He could see frustration dotting your face when he finally came back up to look at you.

You look a little more flushed than he remembers. It’s probably all the heat rushing to your face. He notices your hands are quite restless too, that and being tied up couldn’t be the most comfortable thing in the world.

“You look upset, why?” He asks before sucking on your clit. When you struggle to say anything, his teeth graze you ever so slightly. “Use your words, please,” he hums much like an authority figure would.

“Tongue fuck me,” you mumble in embarrassment, eyes darting anywhere but at Jack who is still nestled securely between your legs. You watch as Jack’s ears perk up.

“Say that again,” he prompts, his fingers taking over his tongue on your clit.

“Please,” you say softly “Tongue fuck me and please untie me.”

A sly grin crosses onto Jack’s face alongside yet another chuckle. He momentarily leaves your legs and crawls back up to be face to face with you. His index finger reaches up and his claw slashes through the zip ties.

You freely move your wrists, getting used to your newfound freedom.

“It’s only because you asked nicely,” Jack coos as his sockets bore into your eyes. He presses a gentle kiss to your lips, pleasantly surprised that you don’t fight him like before. He then crawls back down your body to rest in between your legs, his clawed fingers parting your lower lips slightly before he dives his tongue in. He takes great joy in how you write beneath him as your thighs press harder against the side of his head.

He buries his tongue inside of you and curls it in places no human could ever reach. He has you seeing stars.

You buck your hips quite a few times and Jack’s hand reluctantly leaves your thighs to push your hips back down. As he tongue fucks you closer and closer to release, you become a little harder to control. He enjoys it though.

Jack hums absentmindedly as he does so, relishing in your taste. You are soaking wet and so, so close. All he has to do is push you off the edge.

He slithers his tongue out of you before rubbing your clit with his thumb, allowing you to take your mind off your pussy and to the assault your clit before your mind goes white hot in pleasure. Jack’s tongue darts so fast into your pussy that you almost yelp in response as he thrusts it back in and out, still humming like it was no big deal.

Your back arches and that’s all Jack needs to know to see you’re just about to cum. A few more rough flicks of his tongue and you’re creaming onto his face. Your hands grip the nest’s bedsheets and various blankets as he continues to carefully tongue fuck you through your orgasm. He grins as he laps up your sweetness, teasing you under his breath about the effect he has on you.

But he’s not done with you, not by a long shot.

You look up hazily while panting deeply as Jack’s tongue slowly leaves your pussy. The flat of his tongue slowly swipes up from bottom to top which makes you giggle, and he smiles against your skin. From there, he begins working on undoing his belt.

“Here,” you murmur softly, his ears once again perking up to catch your words.

“Hm? He hums in response as he cocks his head to the side, watching as you slowly sit up and stretch before your hands gently press onto his chest. You push off his dark brown coat and then trail down to his belt.

Your hands are soft and gentle as you work on freeing him, and within moments, you are tossing his belt to the side and unzipping him. You can see the tent in Jack’s pants, and you can already feel how delicious he’s going to feel inside of you.

Jack nods for you to lay back down when you shake your head ‘no.’ Interesting. Instead, your hands unzip him and you reach for his cock. Your eyes pop as you touch it - he was hot, much hotter than any man you’d previously been with.

“Come on, don’t keep me waiting,” Jack teases.

You roll your eyes playfully before finally fishing him from his pants, guiding him out with anticipation. You look up at him the entire time you do so, lust clouding your vision and burning through your soul as you do so, almost unaware of the monster you hold in your hands. When you finally look down, you feel heat rise to your face once more.

Jack smirks in response and tangles his fingers near your scalp, brushing you ever so slightly. He guides your lips down to meet the giant. He was big. No denying it. Had to be near nine inches, thich, veiny, with a girthy know he couldn’t wait to stuff inside of you.

You didn’t fight against him. Instead, you eagerly awaited him for your mouth.

Your lips are soft as they press the lightest of kisses to his tip. And just like that, you’re dragging the length of your tongue up and down his cock and listening to him growl in anticipation. When you know you’ve got him where you want him, you take him in your mouth.

Jack’s claws keep steady in your hair as you bob your head. Your lips couldn’t reach his know, and to be completely fair, he wasn’t expecting you to be able to take all of him orally, but he loves what you can do. Your tongue swirls around his tip and shaft every time you come back up, and when Jack was acting up? You graze your teeth against him.

Before he knows it, you are looking up at him with the sweetest gaze, giving him your permission for him to use you. Jack passes you a look of affection before his other hand reaches up to caress your cheek, moaning out deeply as your tongue swirls on his tip, trying to coax his cum out.

Without any particular warning, he pushes your head down and brings you back up before working into face fucking you.

Your face goes dark as he uses you, making breathing damn near impossible. He begins muttering in some language you don’t know - they sound like praises - but he’s coming closer and closer to his edge.

In a mix of English and whatever language he was mumbling in, you can feel his praises get filthier and filthier. Though, Jack doesn’t want to finish in your mouth. Not this time.

“Back down, I’m going to fuck you,” he murmurs deeply while looking at you with lust and… something you can’t quite name. It wasn’t animalistic, that’s for sure.

Jack expects for you to lay back and spread your legs for him but instead, he watches as you maneuver on all fours. Your face is burying into the blankets and your ass is just shy of his waist level despite you pushing up towards him.

You glance back at him and roll your eyes playfully before swaying your hips, attempting to entice him further.

Jack sees the slickness of your cunt and without any hesitation, takes your waist into his clawed hands and begins rubbing his cock with your slick. “Gods, you’re so fucking wet,” he murmurs as he continues to rub his cock with your juices. “I’m going to destroy you.” And then he slips into that language you just can’t understand. “I’m going to knot you and you won’t be able to look at another man without begging for me to fill you up,” he says as his fingers lightly part your lips that were so tightly pressed together as he lines up with you.

Before he does so, he begins to shrug off his hoodie.

“Stop teasing me,” you say in a teasing tone, making Jack pause from taking off the rest of his clothes.

Jack verbally rolls his eyes before taking his hand out from under his hoodie before gripping your waist again. Without any warning, Jack shoves himself into your roughly, hilting himself to his knot before resting there and taking off the hoodie.

Your eyes roll up slightly as he thrust inside of you. The thickness he had wasn’t anything you were used to, and he stretched you open with absolutely no lead up and it made you see stars again.

“I can feel your wet cunt,” he says in passing as he throws his hoodie up and over his head. “Squeeze around me while you wait for me to fuck you,” he chuckles with a devilish grin. He feels your body’s eagerness for him to fuck you, and like such a good girl, you squeeze his cock making him breathe out with a smile. He feels you pulsing, he feels you growing hundred with the need the longer he stays dormant inside of you.

He sighs in ecstasy as he begins to slowly move himself out of you. When it was just the tip, he roughly slid back in, still refusing to knot. His ears twitch at the sound of you gasping for air as he really begins to fuck you. “And here you were calling me a pervert,” he muses as he begins to thrust into you with deep, long strokes, adoring the sounds that pour from your mouth. “But you like fucking me huh? You like it, you goddamn slut. You like being fucked by something that is no longer human,” he continues in that same dead language, nails digging into your soft flesh. “You’re gonna milk my cock and then you’re gonna do it again in the morning.”

Your eyebrows furrow, mouth slightly open, hair bouncing slightly with every thrust. Your face is so heated in response. This is something you know you shouldn’t be doing, but fuck was it good at keeping you around and interested.

As one of his clawed hands undug itself from your flesh to slide down your hip and caress your abdomen, his claws trace your skin and press into your clit once more. He thumbs you and leans over you as he does so, his other hand propping next to your head as he engulfs you with his size. He’s pounding into you now, still refusing to know. His tongue lazily swipes at your shoulder as his hips thrust into you at a damn near inhuman speed and strength, making you mumble incoherencies.

Your moans are music to his ears.

“I’m gonna fuck you until you feel like you can’t anymore, and I’m gonna fuck you until I’m the only man you’ll ever fucking think about,” he roughly sneers into your ears as he continues to pound his hips against you. “I’m going to fuck you until you tell me to stop, and even then? I might not stop.” He breathes deeply into your ear, his tongue tracing the shell as you pathetically move in tandem with him, his fingers digging into your clit and swirling.

He’s trying to get you to cum again.

You are trembling beneath him as his hips shatter you. You can feel his knot greet your lips, but still refuse to enter as Jack growls deeply into your ear. Your legs clamp together as his hand roughly fingers your pearl.

He’s so intoxicating, and you feel like you can’t breathe.

“Cum on my cock,” he hisses harshly, still fucking you to orgasm.

And just like that, he got his wish.

You squeeze shut your beautiful eyes before tightening your thighs together. An immediate waterfall gushes from between your legs, filling the air with something sweet and slightly bitter.

Jack laughs as he pulls out from your pussy, watching as the liquids continue to gush out. “What a cutie,” he teases as he lovingly licks your cheek. “Turn over. I wanna see your face when I knot you,” he grins, nodding for you to lay back on the side of the twin mattresses that was not turned into an ocean.

On hellied legs, you slowly wobble and hum as his finger traces your slit before falling back to the side of the mattresses that isn’t soaked. Your eyes meet his gaze and you slowly spread your legs as he looms over you. You catalog everything about him. In your eyes, he looks so animalistic, and so human all at the same time.

Without his jacket or his hoodie, you’re able to see the scars that decorate his body. He’s so dark, and the cuts and jagged lines that dash across his form are so light in contrast. He’s still lacking eyes - so how is it that he looks at you with such love?

That stupid smirk is looking at you again and you’re tearing your gaze off it to see the head of his cock weeping with precum.

Jack whistles down at you, his hand resting on your knee. “You knew this was coming, Sweetheart,” he hums as he leans forward, hands placing themselves on both sides of you. His grin grew as he saw your face heat up once more.

Jack feels your legs shift followed by a slight weight on his lower waist, He makes a noise of approval as your ankles lock before he glances down to where your bodies are soon going to be connected again. “Let me know if I hurt you at any point,” he whispers softly in your ear as his slightly pointed tip prods at your entrance.

You find yourself almost taken aback by his sudden kindness - he was so domineering but so soft? Your trail of thought is almost entirely derailed as he pushes his cock in and past your puffy, swollen lips as you listen to him hiss at the new angle.

It’s intimate - neither of you can deny that.

Jack watches your expressions from the corner of his gaze as he slowly begins to pump in and out of you, working you to that breakneck pace once more. He watches as your eyebrows furrow as he picks up the pace, fucking you in your entirety. He feels your legs tighten around his waist and watches as your eyebrows furrow once more and knit together in pleasure.

You begin to pant as he does so, walls pulsing deliciously around him as his hips meet yours in thick, meaty thrusts. You feel his cock slide deeper and deeper with every thrust, pushing you to new limits.

Your moans are, once again, music to his ears as he fucks you senseless. Your hands wantonly claw at his back and brush against his sensitive flesh. Swears and curses escape your lips every now and then and that makes him blush.

“You are taking me so, so well,” he harshly compliments through pants as he lowers himself onto his forearms, his hips continuously snapping forward. “It’s almost as if your cunt was made for me. I wonder if you can take my knot as well?” He mumbles as his knot kisses your bruised lips once again. “I don’t care what you say, I’m gonna make you take it.”

“Fuck!” Jack swore under his breath as your walls vice gripped him. “You’re gonna take my knot and you’re gonna like it,” he mumbles into your neck as he kisses and nips at it. He hisses again when you rake your nails across and down his back. His ears fall back in pleasure and close to his scalp as you moan louder. The sound of your pussy gobbling him up has him weak at the knees.

“You’re getting close again, aren’t you?” He questions as he nips at your neck, threatening to bite in the longer you hesitate in answering.

You’re admittedly pretty tongue tied at the moment. “I-!” You’re cut off but his hips slapping forward making you choke and gasp for air. “I am-,” you breathe out through your moans.

“Perfect,” Jack chuckles as he slowly inches his way out. He watches your face carefully as he pulls out, his gaze trained on yours as his forearms push up so he can see you better.

Confusion etches itself on your face. “What?”

“I just wanna see your face,” he answers as his tip rubs against your entrance. He licks your cheek playfully once more before slowly, and deliciously dragging his cock back in, his knot just barely meeting your lips. “This might hurt,” he murmurs gently as he picks his hips back up once more before thrusting back in, much more forcefully, his thick, large knot finally breaching your pussy.

Your eyes widen as his girthy knot pushes inside of you, your legs instinctively tightening around his hips. Your hand leaves his back to grip onto his bicep. Luckily for you, Jack doesn’t mind. You wince as he wiggles in the rest of his knot into your pussy as it swallows him whole, the entirety of his knot being buried inside of you, making it hard for you to breathe. You feel so full and stuffed!

Jack is a little surprised by how strong your grip is! He’s almost completely smitten with it when he finally looks down to see tears welling in your eyes. He can tell it’s a mixture of both paini, from being stressed immensely, and pleasure in a way only pain could bring. It’s ecstasy. Jack leans down gently and begins to kiss your tears away, careful to not pull where the two of you are connected all the while restraining himself to what he doesn’t believe is bearable.

“You feel so divine,” he murmurs livingly before licking away another tear. “Just relax, let me do the work,” he continues. He feels your lips on his and he smiles, taking that as the green light to rock into you. Unfortunately, he would not be able to completely destroy you like he did prior to knotting you simply because of the knot.

Now, Jack takes the time to be intimate. He lovingly relishes in the feeling of kissing you as he slowly and tantalizingly grinds his hips against you and lightly thrusts after every roll. It was a little difficult due to the connection, but it felt sweet. His hand went back between your legs to work your pearl as he continued to sweetly roll and thrust into you, thoroughly enjoying how your hips are shyly coming up to meet him.

“Come on,” he whispers softly through his kiss as he begins to thrust a little rougher. “Just a little more, cum on my cock again,” he urges as he breaks the kiss, licking your cheek. He’s swiping and thumbing your clit in ways that have you writhing beneath him.

Your legs tighten around his waist, urging him to press deeper inside of you.

Not one to deny a lady from what she wants, Jack backs up as far as his hips will let him and pounds back into you. He repeats the motion, making sure to roll every time he does so.

Your hands grasp at his back once more as he fucks you with reckless abandon, his name being the only thing to spill from your lips as he does so. You can’t believe he’s overloading you again, and your heart picks up in response. You kiss him once more, feeling his chapped, rough lips against your soft ones before he leaves and nips down the side of your face and back to your neck. He lightly bites down, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough for you to know he’s got a claim on you.

You look up at him as he mumbles in that same dead language against your skin. He’s so lost in you that it’s almost adorable. Your hand gently asks for his attention, and he gives it to you. You give him a look of nothing but lust and possibly love, and Jack’s lips are on yours again, thickly, warmly, with something deeper and much more passionate than anything you would have expected he was capable of. When he breaks away, panting, against your face, he makes you cry out in pleasure.

“I’m going to fill you,” Jack sneers through his panting, hips still thickly pounding into you. “I’m going to fill you for as long as I’m inside of you,” he mutters as his thrusts frow sloppy. Jack covers you entirely with his body as he roughly pants into your ear, so, so close to spilling.

Your walls begin to flutter around him, urging him to spill as he growls into you. You feel like you’re creaming rings around his dick, urging, no, begging him to bottom out inside of you. Your nails are leaving dark, jagged marks into the flesh of his back as he does so.

With a few more powerful thrusts, Jack finds himself going over the edge, his hips back as far as his knot will allow him before he buries himself deep, the tip pressing against your cervix as he releases himself inside of you. Hot, thick, sticky ropes of cum begin to flood into your needy cunt as lightly rocks himself inside of you, gritting his teeth as you tremble beneath him. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” He continually growls out like a prayer as your fluttering walls coax more cum from him.

Your eyes roll upwards as the heat floods your cunt, making you squeeze your eyes shut and burying your face into his chest. You’re squeezing tightly around him, vice gripping him as he continues to relish in the feeling of your body holding him so tightly. You can barely think straight as his cock weeps more cum, threatening, and succeeding in filling you to your brim.

“Gods, you’re milking me,” he murmurs as he finally stops pumping you full of cum. “This… This is gonna take a while,” he says darkly in your ear.

“What?”

Jack nods down to where the two of you are still connected. “Gonna be a while.” He sighs, secures your legs to his waist, and then flips you over so you are resting on top of his chest. “Get comfortable.”

“How long..?”

“A while,” Jack awkwardly coughs. “It’s just uh, a knot thing, I guess?” He attempts to explain as you shift your hips deliciously, making him huff and his cock spurt more ropes of cum. He looks away in slight embarrassment. “You can sleep, if you want? Like I said, this is gonna be a while,” he finishes as his hand fishes around for a blanket as his other hand travels down your lower waist to finally cup your ass. He squeezes gently once he finally throws the blanket over the two of you.

“Or,” you say as you plant your hands firmly on his chest, gradually bringing yourself back up. “We can go again.”

Jack laughs. “And you called me a pervert.”

You lightly slap him and grind your hips slowly against him. “Shut up.”

[dat-town]

wish you were here

Characters: Mark Lee & you

Setting: wish dragon au (and a bit of aladdin because mark even has a tiger in their garden like jasmine did. don’t ask why, just blame the regular mv), childhood best friends to lovers (at least there’s potential?)

Genre: fluff and humour

Warnings: mentions of a sick animal and a wild animal kept as a pet in a huge garden (just like jasmine’s tiger, it’s very tamed)

Summary: A magical teapot, a dragon that wants everyone to be happy and an old friendship being revived. Oh yeah, have I told you that you have 3 wishes?

Words: 6.4k

For @restlessmaknae​ 💕

When your mother told you you got delivery to your childhood home, you certainly did not expect this: a brown box as big as a small watermelon with your old Canadian address and MARK LEE scrabbled next to your name as another recipient but no sender. Not to mention, the first stamp on the thing was dating back to the early 2010s. Where the hell was this package for 10 years? And what would you and your old neighbour slash best friend have gotten together?

Okay, first things first:

You and this clumsy, kind of cute kid, Mark had been quite tight while growing up. You were born in the same year, only a month apart, and his family lived in the house next to yours in the suburbs of Vancouver, so it was kind of natural. You two might have been against the world kind of comrades, playing hide and seek when you were six and wondering about whether time travelling was possible through black holes at twelve. But no matter how close you used to be, you fell out of touch when Mark's family moved to the other end of the world, back to Korea, their roots when you were fourteen. You slowly forgot about him, and started university in the city, moving away from home, so nothing really reminded you of him ⎼ and your stupid, big fat crush on him that you had no courage to tell him about in middle school ⎼, nothing until this box.

You put the delivered package on your kitchen table while you make some dinner for yourself out of what you have gotten during grocery shopping earlier just before you picked up the mysterious stuff at the post office. You eye it suspiciously over your pasta, really not wrapping your mind about what it could be but instead of annoying yourself with this pointless curiosity, you put your fork down and stand up to open it. It’s a struggle at first, the box being secured with multiple adhesive tapes over the years but when you finally get rid of all that and can look inside of it, an intense feeling rushes through you… immerse disappointment.

“A teapot? For real? What were we thinking?” you furrow your brows taking the small, green and pretty old teapot into your hands. It looks like a piece of a traditional Asian set with its jade colour and dragon pattern. It couldn’t have been in a much better shape 10 years ago either seeing how wayworn it is but still, you expected something more… exciting? Something funny that might or might not give you an excuse to look up Mark Lee on the internet and message him for the sake of old times. But how lame it would be to befriend him on Facebook only to tell him that you got delivered a teapot under both your names. Hah, you would rather not embarrass yourself like that.

You shoot one last glance at the teapot before leaving it on your counter and going back to your food, you successfully forget about the whole ordeal. You carry your life on with only one small difference: Mark Lee back on your mind after long, long years.

It was just a small crush, you tell yourself, sighing as you look into the mirror, absentmindedly wondering how he’s doing. Does he think of you sometimes as well? Did he go to music college like he has always wanted? Is he happy? You wish he was even if he’s half a world away and with that thought you think it’s time to go to sleep despite the upcoming weekend days. You don’t want to mess up your sleep schedule over some boy but as soon as you pull the blanket over your chest and close your eyes, something explodes in your kitchen.

You jump out of bed faster than lightning, in slight panic over the fact that your neighbours will hate you for bothering them late at night and your landlord would kill you if you managed to blow up your microwave. But the sight that welcomes you is like no other that you imagined. The whole room is covered in thick pink glittery smoke. Like your worst Barbie nightmare.

“What the⎼” you cough, waving your hands to clear the air and once it dissolves into nothingness with its weirdly cotton candy smell, there’s a boy in the middle of it all, sitting cross legged on your kitchen counter so casually as if he owned the place. His pink-ish purple hair hangs into his eyes and he seems to find your coffee machine strangely interesting. You grab the first thing you can ⎼ a blender ⎼ and hold it up in defensive before yelling at the boy: “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my apartment?”

The stranger’s mouth pulls up in a charming smile, his eyes sparkle as he turns his attention to you, hopping off the counter. He’s all thin and long limbs, so you hate how you hate to look up at him as he walks towards you before bowing ceremoniously.

“Hello, sorry for the sudden appearance, I just couldn’t wait any longer! I’ve been stuck in that teapot waaay too long. I didn’t mean to be rude or anything. My name is Taeyong, I’m a wish dragon and you’re my new owner,” he smiles and what he says makes absolutely no sense.

“A wish dragon?” you mumble in shock, looking around to see if this is just another prank of Johnny. You wouldn’t be surprised to see him jump out from under one of the cupboards. Or maybe you just fell asleep and you’re dreaming. Yeah, that seems like a realistic scenario.

“Ah, yes! I know I don’t look like it but modern times require modern solutions. Most people freak out because of my dragon form, so human it is,” the boy who seems only a few years older than you grins as he’s chatting and you have to give it to him, he takes this role pretty seriously. “You have three wishes as my owner. You can ask for anything as long as it’s not about death or love.”

So you got yourself someone who thinks he’s basically a genie? Oh gosh, is he that drunk?

“Aha, very funny. I’m too tired for this prank, so I would appreciate it if you left the same way you came...” you point towards your window because there’s no way he came through the door. Putting down your blender because the guy looks pretty harmless despite his crazy blabbering, you move to go back to your bedroom.

“No, no, no, I can’t do that,” the boy, Taeyong as he introduced himself, appears in front of you within a second and grabs your shoulder as if he could shake some sense into you. He looks pretty desperate. “I can only get a new owner if I fulfill all wishes of yours. It was super stuffy in that box the last decade, you know.”

At that excuse you let out a laugh.

“You don’t even fit it the⎼”

“You were saying?” Taeyong is suddenly nowhere near ahead of you but instead a small creature, supposedly a dragon, in the size of your palm flies in front of your eye level. “It’s magic!”

Okay, now that sight makes you feel like it’s you who is drunk. Or worse.

“Am I dead?” you have to ask in a small, uncertain voice, trying to think back what could have happened. Maybe that explosion literally blew your apartment up? But it hurts when you pinch your arm and turning back into his human form, Taeyong wants to prove the very same thing. Not the hurting but the not dead part, obviously.

“No, you’re very much alive and a happy owner of a wish dragon. Not permanently, of course, but still,” he tells you as he drags you onto your couch in the living room. As if sitting down could help processing all this.

So you have a wish dragon in your home, a magical creature that can casually switch between its dragon and human form and he says you should wish for three things, so he could leave and you could go back to your old, boring life without magic and things that scare you to death at 11PM.

“Can I ask… why? Why me? I’m not really owner-material,” you whisper because heck yeah, you even managed to kill your cactus before. Taeyong purses his lips as he sits down, a hand at his chin.

“Well, it’s unusual indeed to have a peasant girl, no offence, as my owner but as far as I know, you and your friend asked for a sign that magic was real.”

Oh, you remember that, being so obsessed with shooting stars and other stuff like that, you two used Mark’s brother’s computer to browse the internet, trying to find evidence about all that. You were kids wanting to believe in a world beyond the one you knew. But...

“That was like 10 years ago,” you furrow your eyebrows, not getting the timing.

“Well, sorry, you weren’t put on the top of the Heaven wish list and the shipping from Shanghai to Vancouver isn’t the fastest either,” Taeyong shrugs as if it was supposed to be natural. As if that was the most unbelievable thing. Well, delivery services are sometimes a pain in the ass, that’s true but getting a wish delivered by Heaven was something you would have never thought of and it all drains down on you. Strangest realisation of your life.

“So… it’s all real,” you whisper ahead of yourself: magic, dragons and all that. You could basically see your old best friend’s I told you so smile and let out a soft chuckle. “I wish Mark could meet with you, too.”

At that the guy ahead of you claps his hands and rubs them together, creating the same purple smoke from before. You look at him alarmed.

“Your wish, my command,” Taeyong grins and lifts his hands and before you could make a sound of protest because gosh, you didn’t mean it literally, you feel the ground move under your feet and you’re falling, into the darkness but despite shutting your eyes automatically, fearing the impact of the crash, nothing comes. Only the smell of soy sauce in the air and warm sunshine on your skin… Wait, what?

Your eyelids fly open and you notice in shock that you’re not in your flat anymore, ready to sleep. Instead, you stand in the middle of a goddamn street somewhere in Korea based on the signs still in your PJ shorts and tee. Oh my gosh! You hide in an alley right away and yank the seemingly proud Taeyong with you.

“I didn’t tell you that I meant right now! I can’t meet Mark in my PJs and I need my phone and wallet to function anyways. Not to mention, I don’t speak Korean at all...” you ramble panicking, the realisation that you’re indeed on the other side of the Earth due to some magic is yet to register. But the awkwardness from the stares you have just gotten has already turned you bashful.

Listening to you, the wish dragon seems sheepish and slightly embarrassed as he scratched his nape, his colourful hair falling into his cast down eyes.

“Oh… sorry. I got so excited over the wish that I didn’t think about it! It’s been a while since I did teleport magic but hey, I still have it in me. Anyways, sorry. Phone and wallet, you said? Here you go,” he pulls out something from his pants which magically seems to be indeed your belongings. That definitely makes things earlier.

“Uhm, thanks. Where are we exactly?”

“Ah, well you mentioned your friend Mark Lee, so we’re here. Well, one bell away because I did remember that it’s rude to intrude other’s houses without permission first,” oh now, you know, you snicker internally and gulp because hell, even if you wanted to see Mark, you wouldn’t have thought that the meeting would come so soon. You didn’t have enough time to prepare yourself mentally.

“So… you’re telling me that this… is where Mark lives?” you point at the impressive apartment complex on the corner of the street but Taeyong shakes his head.

“Nope, This is where your Mark lives,” he says and before you could object about the ‘your’ part, the dragon points at the other side of the road at a luxurious house with a huge garden, basically a palace. Seeing the beautiful fountain, the modern and yet traditional Korean style building beyond the fences makes your jaw drop.

“Hahaha, alright for a magic dragon you must have made a mistake. There’s no way the Mark Lee I know lives here,” you look back at Taeyong finding it funny that the kid who used to wore his favourite tees until his mother basically threw them out would live at such a place.

“Mark Lee, korean name Minhyung, supposed to be 22 years old internationally soon. Bad eyesight, contagious laugh, clumsy but has surprisingly good reflexes, gets embarrassed easily. Sound familiar?” Taeyong crooks a brow at you as he reads the information off from a parchment he just took out of his pants. Everything he listed is just so Mark that you’re left in disbelief.

“Uuh… that sounds about right.”

“His father hit it big in 2016 with a tech company, their net worth has too many zeros to count,” Taeyong explains, seeing how surprised you were over the fact that he lived a lavish life like this. Not that he doesn’t deserve it! Mark is such a sweetheart, so of course, you would only want the best for him but as if half the world wasn’t enough, now you have another huge gap between you.

“Gosh, I really can’t believe this. How am I supposed to just ring the bell and say hello after so much time?” you sighed with your head in your hands. “Argh, I need to buy some clothes and change.”

Taeyong approves the idea based on how enthusiastically he hollers, you wonder why nobody on the street seems to pay no attention to him. Maybe only you see him, just more reason for you to be crazy.

“Good idea because we’re having dinner with Mark!”

“What?” you look up in shock, not following through. Taeyong grins down at you, flashing a giddy smile and with a twirl he’s changed from his baggy, casual clothes to something more chic but still laidback.

“Your wish was him meeting me, so I arranged everything. I can't meet him without you and the teapot there, you know,” he explains as if it was supposed to be obvious. You aren't ready yet though.

“You just want to eat all the fancy delicious food he has,” you squint at him suspiciously and the dragon stays silent, so you must be right. He laughs nervously.

“Maybe, but can you blame me? I haven’t had a feast since a literal decade!” he hollers and somehow you really cannot find it in yourself to be angry at him. You are in Seoul for god's sake after all and magic is real, you can put up with the inconvenience of buying clothes and making yourself look decent before dumping all this surprise on Mark.

An hour later you stand in front of the gates of the Lee mansion and nervously you wipe your sweating hands into your dress. You can totally do this, you just say hi to an old friend, it's not like you're afraid he wouldn't remember you, hah, of course not–

"Y/N!" 

You whip your head at the call of your name to the source of that all too familiar voice. Sure it's deeper than you remember but there's no mistake in whose it is. Plus, who else would call your name in South Korea of all places.

"Mark, hey!" you wave the boy who just got out of one of the fanciest cars you've ever seen in your life. And yet, despite the Prada suit and expensive shoes, styled hair and Swiss watch on wrist, Mark Lee still has that goofy little smile and the doe eyes that used to make you weak in the knees. Hah, who are you kidding? They still do.

"Oh my god, dude, you… you got pretty," Mark jogs up to you and having no filter like always he blabbers immediately only to stutter as his ears turn red. It was so him talking before thinking, so you didn’t really mean to dwell on his words. Although you felt your cheeks dusted with pink soon enough. "I mean, it's really good to see you! I was so surprised to see your name in my calendar for today's dinner! You should have told me you were coming to Korea, I would have picked you up at the airport."

His calendar? Ah, of course, he must have been busy and all that. You wouldn’t have been surprised to see an assistant run after him at this point, so you wonder how your wish dragon magically put you onto his list of important people to meet. Gosh, it was so weird.

"Ah, I have a funny story about that…" you chuckled to yourself but before you could have get out anything, even a please, can we go to a more private place? Mark’s eyes zero on the guy next to you and his eyes grow comically wide.

"And uhm, who is your friend?" he points at Taeyong who waves him in exchange with a kilowatt smile. He looks back at you with his mouth agapé. "Oh my god, you came to invite me to your wedding?"

He says oh my god way too many times for an eloquent rich kid, he really is the Mark Lee you knew.

"No, never! I mean, of course, I would invite you but Taeyong and I– I literally met him on my way here," you explain hastily cursing yourself for the silly lie. You came to tell him the news not to try to make it believable. 

“I heard there’s food,” the wish dragon pipes in very helpful and you shoot him a disapproving glance he doesn’t notice. Luckily, Mark doesn’t seem to mind.

“Oh, yeah, of course, dinner! Come on in, let’s get you two settled,” he grins albeit a bit awkwardly as he leads you through the gate after opening it with his card.

On the way through the very, very, very big garden, he’s chattering about how he misses the Vancouver weather, especially on humid, hot days like this and talks about how he thinks the fountain in their yard is a bit too much but his mom loved it and then before you know it, you sit by a huge dining table with fine food in front of you. Suddenly you can’t decide whether you're grateful for Taeyong’s shameless presence – he digs into the jjigae right away – because at least the situation isn’t awkward because of your silence or you’re annoyed by it because you must seem like a weirdo because of him. That’s why you decide to rip off the bandage and tell Mark as soon as the last maid has disappeared too.

“Okay, so actually I came here because I have a surprise,” you speak up, probably too serious because the boy almost chokes on his food due to how fast he turns his head towards you.

“More surprise?” he coughs out and you offer him a glass of water which he takes with a smile.

“You literally won’t believe this one!” you assure him and wait until he gulps down the drink. Only then you point to Taeyong and tell him that your childhood wish has come true. 

Mark almost falls off his chair this time.

Not after you tell him that though. He laughs at that with that wheezing laugh of his as if you told the joke of the century then pats you on the shoulder murmuring That was a good one, bro and turning back to his food. But then you look at the magic dragon pointedly and Taeyong puts down his chopsticks with an exaggerated sign. Then he flexes his magic: turning into his dragon form among additional sparkles and Mark suddenly looks like he’s about to faint. He reaches out to tap on your shoulder while not taking his eyes off the wish dragon.

“Am I dreaming?” he whispers and honestly, you totally get his reaction while Taeyong mumbles something about ‘people these days not believing in dragons’ as he shows off all the things he could do: gift riches, make one stronger than they are, giving skills of whatever one wants. He starts rambling about how this one Chinese emperor became wealthy thanks to this, how that one actor in martial arts and all this before changing back to his human form and he continues eating his pasta like nothing ever happened.

“I can do this all day,” he shrugs as if he didn’t just perform the coolest magic tricks.

“This… this is the best thing ever!” Mark exclaims with those sparkles in his eyes you missed so much. He was always so excited about new things and it automatically makes you smile how he bombards Taeyong with million questions like: ‘So you are the wish dragon that grants wishes?’ or asking him about his scales, his unique color, how it feels to live in such a small teapot, how old he is and the dragon glows under all the attention. Can’t blame him but Mark has always been so curious about the world, it’s endearing.

“So your first wish was to meet me?” he turns to you after long minutes of interrogating Taeyong and suddenly, under the spotlight you don’t know what to do with yourself. You can feel yourself blushing because you didn’t necessarily mean to wish for that but it’s not like you’re regretting it, it’s just… you don’t want him to misunderstand.

“I thought you should meet him, too, after all the package was delivered for the two of us,” you look down, trying to sound nonchalant while picking your food, avoiding Mark’s gaze. No matter how open armed he welcomed you, you still aren’t convinced that it’s okay to be here because the more time you spend with him, the more you would like to stay a part of his life. “It’s just… I wasn’t really sure we could ever meet again. We didn’t keep contact after you left.”

With dropped shoulders, you try not to sound too downhearted because of what happened because you know all too well, it wasn’t his fault, it was a family decision and look at him, it did good for him! He seems happy, they live in a practically mansion but most importantly, he didn’t seem to change with the wealth. He might wear expensive clothes but under it all he’s still the boy with the most loveable smile.

“I… I was thinking about you a lot, I just thought you forgot about me,” Mark admits with a sheepish smile, tucking his hair behind his ear shyly. He really still is the same and it’s playing silly little games with your heart. If this was a cheesy Disney movie, a slow bgm would start to play as you look into each other but your moment is broken when Taeyong accidentally kicks into his chair as he stands up. At first he looks alarmed but then giggles.

“I will just… go. Don’t mind me,” he disappears like smoke with a wink, leaving you two alone at which Mark lets out a woah. You chuckle at his cute reaction, heart doing somersaults in your chest.

You thought it would be awkward, just the two of you alone after long years but Mark has this thing that he makes people feel comfortable around him, so it’s actually quite nice. You catch up on everything and anything that comes to your mind: old neighbours, studies, friends, what are you doing now and what would you like to do, too.

After finishing the delicious dinner, Mark offers a home tour which you would never refuse and you jaw drops at the huge crystal chandelier in their living room as well as their swimming pool but your favourite place in the whole mansion is Mark’s room because it’s just so him. You can’t describe it well but the moment you step inside, it feels like home. It’s cozy to the point it makes you want to cuddle a pillow. It has colours of pastels, a synthesizer here, a guitar there, posters of singers framed on his wall and vinyl records hanging down. His window has a view of sunset and Namsan above their green garden and although you haven’t been in Seoul before, you’re pretty sure it’s your favourite place in the whole damn city, too.

“Wait, there’s someone I would like you to meet,” Mark suddenly exclaims while you’re looking through his pictures and he pulls you out of his room, out of the house, into the garden: You giggle all the way as he’s being so secretive about it but then your steps halt unexpectedly and the hand you have in Mark’s yanks him back.

“Mark… why is there a tiger in your garden in the middle of Seoul?” you ask as quietly and as immobile as you can. You don’t want to attract the sleeping animal’s attention to yourself. But to your biggest surprise, the boy just laughs, his thumb caressing your skin soothingly.

“She’s Jasmine and she won’t hurt you,” he reassures you but needless to say, you’re not too calm and you’re pulled close to the wild animal that lifts its huge head towards you lazily. “She was abandoned by her mother as a cub and she was outcast in the zoo because she’s a bit sick, so she has always been weaker than her siblings. Dad made a donation and we have raised her since she was young.”

You hiss when Mark reaches out without fear but the tiger basically purrs as he strokes down his fur at the neck. You watch in awe as this big wild animal becomes a soft cat under the hands of Mark Lee. When the boy encourages you to pat her too, you hesitate but he promises you that it’s gonna be alright and you take a leap of faith. 

“What’s her sickness?” you wonder aloud as your fingers get lost in the soft fur of the tiger. You hope she’s not in a lot of pain.

“It’s an immune system thing, not sure what exactly but she wouldn’t have survived this long in the wild,” the boy tells you and his mouth curls up in a smile when Jasmine licks your hand. It seems like you’re tiger-approved. You look into its warm brown eyes and your heart churns at the thought of her condition.

Mark tells you stories of Jasmine, about that one time she crashed his birthday cake or how much she likes to swim with him in their pool during summer and gosh, you could listen to him go on and on forever. You’re only reminded of the reality, that all this is just a possible one-time thing, a weekend getaway with magic when Taeyong shows up in swimwear, ready to crash in said pool.

“I guess he might have been bored in that teapot,” Mark laughs, not minding at all. He even offers you to join but you have a better idea.

“Taeyong, I have my second wish!” you call out for the wish dragon who’s suddenly much more excited about that than the water. He’s beside you in a moment, beaming and curious. You glance at Mark with a soft smile before looking at your personal genie confidently.

“I wish Jasmine would be healthy,” you whisper, playing with the tiger’s furry ears which she seems to enjoy. You were a little bit afraid the dragon would say it’s not possible, that he can’t cure sickness but to your relief, he just grins.

“Your wish, my command,” he nods and puts a hand over the animal. Nothing but a smoke of purple signals the magic being done but you believe in it and so does Mark by the looks of it. He reaches out for your hand and squeezes it gently. 

“Thank you,” he smiles and you smile back. He used to be your best friend after all, it’s the least you can do for him.

Mark convinces you to stay the weekend and there’s no way you could tell no to him, not when he clears his schedule just for you. He never complains about how busy he must be working for his father’s business while being a music major at a local university. All he ever talks about is the places he wishes to show you and he takes you around Seoul as if he was your certificated tour guide. It’s lovely how enthusiastic he is about it while what really matters to you is the time you spend together. He makes sure you two take a million photos to remember by, Taeyong posing on half of them since he joins you on your little trips and sometimes it’s just the two of you watching the wish dragon being genuinely in awe by modern technology, 10 years is a long time after all.

On the last day before you have to go back to Vancouver (thanks to Taeyong’s kind offer to take you the same way you came back since he misunderstood you, you don’t have to sit through a 10+ hours flight and you have more time), Mark not only tries to make you breakfast despite having an in-house chef (his eggs are ugly as heck but you appreciate his efforts and can’t help but coo at his dreamy smile under that grey hoodie when you tell him it tastes yummy) but he also introduces you to his friends in Korea. Of course, they tease you (mostly Mark) about where he has been hiding you but it’s all chill and fun you’re not quite ready to say goodbye. But you should go because the more you stay, the more you don’t want to leave. You’re lucky enough for this chance to reunite with Mark but all good things end eventually.

“Let’s not disappear from each other’s life again, okay?” the boy grins at you as you’re ready to go, Taeyong already working on his magic.

“Yeah, let’s not,” you agree easily, looking forward to your video chatting and constant texting even if it’s from the two opposite ends of the Earth with a terrible time zone difference.

You glance at the wish dragon who’s drumming with his fingers while pursing his lips as if he was waiting for something and you let out a huff before working up the courage to actually do something about these feelings inside of you. You might have regretted not confessing in middle school, you have spent years wondering about the what ifs, so you don’t want to make the same mistake twice but still, you want to give Mark a chance to ignore it all if he wants to. So you step forward and wrap your hands around him as you hug him close. It’s obvious that your action takes him aback, he suddenly doesn’t know what to do with his hands and his body tenses under you but it all melts as you say those words that have been threatening to fall from your lips all this time:

“I have missed you.” you confess, honest and based on the hitch in his breathing, Mark must be surprised. You can’t blame him though, you just wanted him to know. You step back with a weary smile, his big Bambi eyes on you but before he could say anything you nod at Taeyong and you feel yourself falling, purple fog pulling you in. A few moments later you’re back in Vancouver, in your apartment, without him.

The first few days pass in a blurr, you can still barely believe what just happened. Your weekend with Mark feels like a too good dream but Mark kept his side of promise and texted you almost immediately as you left. He sends you selfies, songs that remind him of you and you talk about your days like you never did before. Still, it feels like you’re dancing around certain topics which are basically the elephant in the room and maybe that’s why Taeyong tries to cheer you up in his own way. Though, he soon realizes that you not being happy isn’t the problem, you are happy, you just… miss Mark more than you ever did.

“Enough of moping, you still have a wish left!” Taeyong exclaims, throwing himself onto your bed. “Come on, close your eyes, imagine what you want the most in the world and make a wish!" he singsongs. However, before you could even just indulge him, your phone pings with a new notification.

fullsun00 tagged you in their post!

You click on it right away, wondering what Mark’s friend Donghyuck is doing online at 1AM. The uploaded post turns out to be a photo of you and Mark when you all hang out near Han river. You were too busy at the time laughing at how the boy almost lost his whole scoop of ice cream before he could have had a single bite to notice his smile while looking at you. Based on his caption Donghyuck apparently wasn’t.

fullsun00: just old friends, they say. friends my ass @buttercupyn @onyourm__ark

You click your tongue wondering what Mark thinks of the callout but you press like on the post anyways. You put your phone aside before you could see how his other friends join the teasing in the comment section.

“Actually, I do have my third wish,” you speak up as you turn to Taeyong before he could make a remark on your tinted cheeks.

You’ve been thinking a lot about it during the past days. You could wish for anything but you’re at a point of your life where no riches or fame would make you happier because you’re happy enough just the way it is. It might not be perfect but you don’t want to be selfish and you want to make decisions you won’t regret: like catching up with Mark, curing his tiger and bringing happiness into the life of somebody who only ever served other people in his life.

“Ooh, what is it?” Taeyong claps, giddy as if he was waiting for this to happen. He probably did.

“I wish you would go on a vacation and enjoy life,” you tell him but unlike his usual reaction, this time the dragon’s smile fades and he blinks at you, confused.

“You could ask for anything in the world and that’s what you want? Are you sure?” he furrows his brows, not quite believing your words but you just smile, knowingly.

“Yes, Taeyong, I’m sure.”

“Your wish, my command,” he bows with his hands put together and with a twirl suddenly he’s in a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses, looking as ready for a holiday as one can be. You chuckle and tell him to just go, you’ll be fine.

You’re fine, you really are. Life goes on, you study and work, you laugh with your friends, you video call with Mark regularly and his friends are regulars on your social media, too. It’s just sometimes the feeling of missing something hits you harder than other days. Especially when you’re looking through the pictures you have from your Seoul weekend.

“I wish you were here,” you whisper ahead of you at one particularly good photo of Mark and the sunset, smiling at you behind the camera. You miss his smile, the cute wrinkles around his eyes when he crunches his nose, the sound of his laughter, his hand on your wrist… you miss him.

Ding-dong.

You stand up startled at the sound of your flat’s bell, running to the door to open it even though you have no idea who it could be so early on a Saturday morning. Not having a better idea, you expect it to be either a neighbour of your landlord but on the other side of your doorstep stands a boy who you thought was a continent away. He’s dressed semi-casually this time, his shirt tucked in his jeans, hair lightly falling onto his forehead and a nervous smile on his thin lips.

“Mark! But I⎼ I don’t even have more wishes,” you blink, taken aback, looking around to look for Taeyong in case he came back. But your behaviour just manages to confuse Mark instead.

“What?”

“I just wished you were here,” you blurt out without thinking, your words only processing later in your brain and it’s then when heat creeps onto your cheeks. Mark tries to but can’t really hide his growing smile at that.

“Really? I’m glad then. I just took my new private plane on a test drive,” he says bashfully, a silly excuse for real.

“All the way to Vancouver?” you tease, watching Mark fumble with the hem of his shirt. Your heart beats overtime just because of the fact that he’s there. 

“Well, what can I say? I did miss the weather here,” he plays along with a shrug but he’s more serious when he looks deep into your eye and adds: “And you left without letting me answer.”

Oh yes, you did. You were kind of afraid of his reaction but seeing how he was ready to travel across the world just to see you, maybe there’s no reason for you to be so afraid. It feels like deja vu but a reversed one in a way as Mark gently pulls you into a hug, his lips grazing your hair with a whisper that makes your heart skip a beat: “I have missed you too.”

You really wouldn’t wish for anything more.

[paradox-psyc-hoe-sis]

Remus Lupin dating a hufflepuff would include...

Remus lupin x hufflepuff!reader, the marauders x platonic reader

Word count: 2.2k

Warnings: no smut but talk of sexy times (sfw)

A/N: I'm back, babey! Recently took a smol hiatus but I'm back and better than ever. Here are some headcanons of what life would be like dating young Remus Lupin as a hufflepuff; I might do something similar with the different houses and the other marauders, but idk yet. As per usual, if you want a request then by all means shoot me a message! I write for the umbrella academy, marvel and Harry Potter so feel free to request anything :)) - Aphrodite

(Also I'm sorry I didn't spell check this, please forgive me)

• Every moment between you two was adorable!

• Being the semi-traditionalists that you were, it was a mutual agreement to take things slow and steady. But Remus was so infatuated with you - and you with him - that neither could deny the ever growing spark you shared.

• He'd always invite you on study dates in the library every Saturday, but most of the time it was just an excuse to see more of you.

• You'd always bring along a snack from the kitchens to the library, a different pastry or bake every week.

• "Guess who brought muffins!!!"

• When you aren't looking, he likes to leave cute messages on post it notes and hide them in your bag or throughout your books.

• "The only thing sweeter than those muffins is you, my love"

• You totally know when he does it, you've caught him a few times.

• However, you like to return the favour.

• "Maybe next time we 'study', you can let me Slytherin to your arms for cuddles"

• He loves the puns you make. Despite always being followed by an eye roll, he really does love them.

• He keeps all his notes from you in his bedside table and will read them after a particularly rough full moon 🥺

• Obviously, Remus was terrified to tell you his secret, but it went less dramatically than he thought it would.

• When you acted so truly selfless and reassured him that you'd be there for him no matter what, it really made him tear up. You promised to always be there after every full moon.

• You two can always be found cuddling in the gryffindor dormitories, 24/7.

• When you have a free period or a day free from studying, Remus will sneak you past the common room and into the dorms, where you'll just lay in his bed. All day.

• He's definitely the big spoon, he loves to hold you as tight as he can. But sometimes you'll lay your head on his chest, facing the ceiling, and he'll run his fingers through your hair.

• The boy is a human radiator, so you could practically hug him and his warmth all day long.

• One time you slept over with the rest of the marauders, and upon waking up, realised you had started your period. On Remus's sheets.

• "Hey, it's alright. I know this stuff happens, let's get you cleaned up."

• He was so mature about it all that you probably fell in love there and then.

• While you had a shower and changed the sheets, he went to Hogsmeade with James to get you some pads and snacks.

• Not needing a heating pad because he's just so damn warm gosh darn it

• While you and Remus were growing closer, you had an unexpected friendship with Sirius.

• I say unexpected, as when you first met you were positive he'd be trouble.

• "Moony, you never told me you were dating a hufflepuff! What a cute little cupcake she is." (Delivered with a wink)

• Let's just say, you may or may not have threatened to "shave off your pretty little locks if you call me a cupcake again."

• Although, this rivalry soon turned into friendship when you realised your senses of humour were identical.

• When Remus is busy and can't hang out with you, Sirius will take you to hogsmeade or play a game of chess to pass the time.

• Funnily enough, Sirius became oddly protective of you, letting Remus know that if he ever hurt you he'd be dead.

• Remus was always calling you a cute name, despite the circumstance.

• His favourite things to call you were babe, sweetheart, love, and snickerdoodle.

• You just stuck with calling him Remy, Moony, or honey (he'd never admit it, but he loves when you call him 'honeybuns')

• Remus is smart, and so are you. But when you're together, you share half a braincell.

• He's literally such a dumbass.

• "Babe, do you think toads can sense fear?"

• Cue you looking into the camera like Jim in the office.

• Whenever somebody tries to make any comments about Remus being a werewolf you are the first person to defend him.

• Nobody was afraid of you lashing out because you're "just a harmless hufflepuff". Their opinions changed when you punched a Slytherin prefect in the face for calling Remus a monster.

• At night, you'll both sneak out of the common rooms and meet in the kitchens for midnight snacks.

• You making some tea, and him eating some chocolate while talking to the house elves.

• You were always the best in your year at herbology, Remus however didn't stand a chance. He wasn't terrible at it, but certainly needed your help during lessons.

• "Y/n...what in God's name is that!?"

"...babe that's a celery."

• The summer between fourth and fifth year, he had the worlds biggest growth spurt.

• He was a little bit taller than you before, but when you returned to school for fifth year, he towered over you like a half-giant.

• This means that you could steal his fuzzy jumpers with them falling down to your knees.

• Sleepovers at the gryffindor dorms were a common occasion, but sometimes Remus would come to your common room late at night to have a dance party.

• Quietly playing the mixtape he made for you while you both danced around the area.

• You both had your first kiss towards the middle of fifth year, almost a year and a half after you first started dating.

• Remus came top of the class on an important DADA test. When he told you, you instinctively kissed him.

• You pulled away almost straight after, apologising for not asking for consent. Before you could say another word, he pulled you closer to him and placed another kiss on your lips, running a hand through the back of you hair.

• When you broke apart, you rested your forehead in the crook of his neck as he whispered in your ear.

• "I love you, y/n."

"I love you more, Remus."

• He wasn't really a big fan of PDA, but would happily do whatever you wanted.

• When the marauders were planning a prank, Remus made sure you were as far away from the action as possible.

• "What if we get y/n to be the bait? She could get-"

"James, there is no way y/n is going to jump into the great lake with weights ties to her ankles."

• You both did it for the first time near Christmas of sixth year.

• Peter was long gone home. James and Sirius had both left that morning to go back to the Potter's, offering you both a place to stay for the holidays. However, you were both happy to get some alone time.

• In the evening, he lit candles in the dorm and did cute stuff like that.

• He was so so nervous, but was still a gentlemen through and through, always asking if you're comfortable and making sure what he's doing is okay.

• It was really sweet, and both of you were really happy afterwards.

• Sometimes you'd share a bath with him in the prefects bathroom. The rest of the marauders always joked about how there'd be a bit more than bathing involved, but they were wrong.

• When you would share a bath, Remus would bring a book and read to you, doing silly voices for each of the characters just to see you smile. Neither of you ever did the Devil's Tango in the prefects bath, as it was always just for a nice relax.

• Speaking of books, Remus was always reading one. Sometimes you'd cuddle up next to him while he read, and he'd quietly read each line.

• Sometimes you'd do the same, reciting small poems from muggle books.

• He never told you, but after you had your first kiss his boggart changed. It changed from the moon to himself as a werewolf, holding your dead body.

• Gruesome, he knew, but it was significant to him.

• Along with his boggart changing, your patronus changed. In your third year you learned how to conjure a patronus, and yours was a porcupine. Yet in your sixth year, you discovered it to be a werewolf.

• Remus full on cried happy tears when he found out.

• After the worst full moon yet, Remus ended up in the hospital wing for 5 days. He was found unconscious, and woke up 2 days later to see you and Madam Pomfrey by his side.

• You took notes for him in class, brought him a few new books and bars of chocolate, and spent every free moment in the hospital wing with him.

• He had three long slashes across his face when you found him in the shrieking shack, yet he looked so calmly asleep.

• "When you told me you wanted to start having lie-ins, I didn't think you'd sleep for two days straight."

• You were the first person he wanted to see after such a terrible night, and despite your jokes, he was so grateful to have you next to him.

• "I hope you're not going to break up with me now that I'm ugly."

"You? Ugly? How could you ever think such a thing?"

• On valentines day, he enlisted the help of the marauders to make things perfect.

��� After a date at Madam Puddifoots, you returned to Remus's dorm to a beautiful view.

• Fairy lights were strung along the bed frames, rose petals in a trail along the floor, your favourite scented candles burning on the bedside tables, and a teddy bear bigger than your entire body sat on Remus's bed.

• Turning around to face your boyfriend, you saw that he held 3 boxes wrapped in red paper.

• "Happy valentines day, m'love"

• Placing the gifts on the bed closest to him, he picked you up and wrapped you in a bear hug.

• You crocheted him a jumper in his house colours and got him a leather bound copy of his favourite book.

• He made you a bar of chocolate with your favourite flavours, bought you a chunky cardigan that he knew you wanted, and placed a painted, small wooden box in your hands.

• "Open the box, love." He stated with a smile. He seemed a little nervous, but eased up as he saw you smile.

• Inside the box was two aeroplane tickets to Paris.

• "It's not much, but I was wondering if you'd come with me this summer?"

• This was followed by a lot of happy screams, to say the least.

• When quidditch season came around, you both loved to support the other's house.

• You'd sport Remus's red and yellow jumpers when gryffindor was playing, and he would go all out with yellow and black spirit when it was a hufflepuff match.

• However, when it was hufflepuff against gryffindor things got way too competitive.

• You didn't speak to Remus for a week after gryffindor won.

• "Come on babe, just talk to me! I didn't mean it when I said that hufflepuffs are as good at quidditch as they are at their owls!"

• Professor Mcgonagall didn't really know much about you, being from a different house and all, but she saw how much Remus changed being with you.

• He seemed really well taken care of, and for once he was unconditionally happy.

• After dinner one night, Mcgonagall asked to see you in her office.

• "I just wanted to say thank you for taking such good care of Mr Lupin. It may be unprofessional for me to see him as a son, but I do, and I'm grateful that he has someone like you to support him."

• From that moment forward, she saw you as a daughter, and invited you to have tea with her every week.

• You didn't know it, but every full moon she'd add 50 points to hufflepuff, she could never thank you enough for looking after Remus.

• After you both graduated, you almost immediately moved in with each other.

• With the help of James and Lily, you bought a small cottage a few hours away from hogwarts.

• Every other wednesday, Sirius and Lily come around for a girls night while Remus and James catch up.

• A few months after you moved in together, Remus realised what he wanted, and for once he wasn't afraid to ask for it.

• It was a beautiful Saturday evening, the sky was purple from the sunset. Both of you were sat on the porch swing in your back garden, surrounded by magical plants and flowers, when he got down on one knee.

• "Y/n y/l/n, I've loved you since the day we met. I couldn't wish for anyone better than you, and it would be my dream to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

[halo-jpeg]

Bearable | A Reddie Fanfiction

Read it from the beginning

Chapter 3

Eddie stood looking at himself in the mirror. The sky outside of his window was darkening, on the brink of sunset right near 6:30 pm. He was dressed in what he considered his 'party clothes', or at least the closest thing he could find- he wore a brown plaid button-up tee with a darker brown v-neck sweater, finally finished off with a pair of khaki pants. It was nothing special, really, but it was probably the most, as Bill had put it, 'chillax' thing he currently owned. Living with his mother, Eddie had grown used to wearing what she bought him and only what she bought him, which only consisted of simple tees, polo shirts and, of course, his occasional button-up. The sweater he currently wore had been a gift from Stan for his 18th birthday- he has gotten a similar one for his 19th as wel.

"St-Stan? Eddie? Ruh-ready to go?" Bill's voice echoed through the house, snapping Eddie from the odd trance he'd fallen into, staring right into his own reflection. Right, of course- he had a party to go to.

"Coming!" He called, and was just about to turn and leave the room when his eye was caught by an object on the surface of his dresser- It was his inhaler. For a moment, Eddie stared, and felt as if it were calling to him. He hadn't used it for months until the fight with his mother, and already he had vowed not to use it again. He'd been trying to shake the habit of using it just as he had started faking swallowing his old placebos; sadly, however, the effects of his false-asthma still kicked in so hard he had to take a puff or two. Eddie's lungs felt tight with anxiety at the idea of this stupid party, and he only debated for one more moment before grabbing the inhaler and jamming it into his pocket, just in case. He was quick to join his two friends, and they both set off- umbrellas in tow- into the now-starting rain.

***

It had been approximately 10 seconds and Eddie was fighting back over stimulation. Shit, he hasn't even knocked on the apartment door yet, and the booming, thumping music with it's impossibly heavy base was already putting him on edge. Stan was close to his side, Bill just a few paces ahead, and though he was more than grateful for their comforting, familiar presence he was terrified. Eddie didn't know these people. He was walking into a strangers home. He'd seen horror movies, he knows what happens in big, crowded parties with alcohol and hormonal teens and what happens is they get slashed by a serial killer. Maybe it was just paranoia, but Eddie was already wishing he could turn tail and flee. Bill, Stan and he stopped in front of the door belonging to the source of the noise, and that anxiety in the pit of his stomach tripled, if that was even something that could happen at this point. Eddie tried his very best to suck in deep breaths, but they came in with a slight whistle and made his chest ache.

"Ready?" Stan said, quickly straightening out the collar of his navy dress shirt, passing a quick glance and a warm smile in Eddie's direction, "It'll be okay, Eddie, you can stick by our side the whole time." Eddie nodded his head, clasping his hands nervously together in front of him. Bill gripped the door handle, giving it a twist and pushing it wide open. Ah, yes- Eddie hates this, indeed.

"Oh, no..." The words were spoken mostly to himself, drowned out almost entirely by the speakers throbbing throughout the house. It was dark, the only illumination coming from colorful fairy lights strung high above everyone's heads. The place was packed with moving, dancing bodies, red solo cups held in the hands of nearly everyone. Eddie could see glow sticks wrapped around wrists and hanging from necks, and even spotted a woman in a too-short dress clashing lips with a man in a Letterman jacket. Before he really could give in a flee, a hand was set gently on his shoulder, and he turned his head to see Bill grinning down at him, his eyes alight with a mixture of excitement and concern. The question didn't need to be spoken for Eddie to know that Bill was nervous for him. With a simple shake of his head, Eddie dismissed his worries and motioned with one hand for the redhead to lead the way.

"Hey!" Before any of the three could move an all-too familiar voice rang through, slicing through the sounds of the party and calling all attention in that direction, "My dear friends, you made it!" Richie pushed past a few people on his route to the trio, his cheek-splitting grin even wider than usual and clearly under the slight influence of alcohol.

"Hey, Ruh-Richie! Thanks for inviting u-us, this is... a bigger puh-party then I've ever been to in my li-life!" Bill extended a hand for Richie to shake, and the host was quick to accept it with the one hand that wasn't harboring another one of those red cups. Eddie caught a glimpse of a dark liquid, along with the smell of booze and citrus.

"It sure is something," Stan agreed with a nod, and Richie gleamed with pride.

"Can I get you three some drinks? They may or may not be spiked. We also have, uh... grass, if that's any of your styles." Before Richie could be judged (Eddie was just about to scold him for drug use) he tacked on, "It's not my type of thing but I wouldn't mind if it was yours!" He started to laugh along with Bill, even Stan letting out a small chuckle, but Eddie was still hugely unimpressed with this all. Much to his demise, Stan the Polite had to go and agree to the drinks. Before he could protest, Richie was leading the way directly into the throng of people towards a kitchen. It was miserable. Dancers blocked the way to their desired destination, meaning the group had to push right through them. Not only was it impolite, but these teenagers were also drunk and disgusting. Eddie was trying so hard not to be so uptight, at least for one night, but he just couldn't do it. He pulled his arms into himself and braved the traverse, wincing as he began to attempt to weave through. He was pushed from all sides, sworn at by one rowdy man who he had accidentally bumped into and winked at by a drunken girl dancing with her friends. Though it was only momentary, it felt like centuries past where he was drowning among these bodies, afraid and struggling to breathe. Then, just like that, he was free on the other side, still right beside his two friends and the host who was bringing this treachery into his life.

"Quite the crowd," Eddie grumbled to Stan, both Richie and Bill failing to overhear. Stanley smiled and bumped Eddie gently with his elbow, yet again delivering a small form of reassurance. The kitchen was emptier than the rest of the house, but there were still a fair amount of party goers within it. Among them, Eddie recognized Mike leaned on the counter at the far end with two other kind-enough looking people- he also recognized these two from the coffee shop where they'd met Richie. A tall, sturdy man leaned against one wall, watching with obvious heart eyes as a redheaded girl seated on the counter chattered away about one thing or another. Right at their side sat a massive punch bowl, half empty but with plenty of other bottles of soda and alcohol around it to refill later if need be.

"Heya, you three," Richie greeted them with a smile and a wave, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Stan, Bill and Eddie, "I'm sure you all remember these guys." Richie spun on his heel, leaning his back against the counter and beginning introductions, "This is Bill, Stan and Eddie; and this is Beverly, Ben a Mike. Shake hands, maybe share a kiss, and give me another damn cup of punch." Eddie did none of the above, even when Bill moved forwards to do the first option. He shook hands with each new person in turn, and said his courteous 'nice to meet you'. Even Stan spoke up with a greeting and a small wave. Sure, Eddie felt like an antisocial asshole but he was having enough trouble keeping his asthma in check without touching a bunch of strangers. Speaking of his asthma, yeah, sure, it wasn't real or whatever but right now it sure felt like it was.

"Care for a drink?" Beverly hopped down from the counter, motioning towards the stack of unused cups there for the taking.

"Y-Yeah, hell yeah," Bill responded with a smile, "What... whu-what is it?"

"It smells rank," Stan grabs a cup, leaning over and staring down into the bubbling liquid, "I'd love some."

"This, my good friends, is what I call my 'Tozier Juice'- Orange juice, ginger ale, and lots and lots of alcohol, courtesy of Haystack over here," Richie patted Ben on the shoulder, sending him a friendly grin that much resembled the ones that Eddie and his two best friends shared- it was that of a close bond built on top of years and years of memories.

"Th-that actually doesn't suh-sound too bad," Both Stan and Bill helped themselves to the drink, and then they turned to Eddie. Both seemed to know that he wouldn't be interested, but a cup was offered by Bill either way. "Sh-sure you don't want any? Not even just a glass?"

"Fuck no, I don't want to ruin my liver- or my heart, or brain or-" A sharp intake of breath, it hurts,"-pancreas, for that matter. Did you know drinking too much can increase your blood pressure? Have you ever heard of a stroke?" Eddie crossed his arms, the muscles in his shoulders tensing just at the thought of what this alcohol could do to him. He could drink too much, just a little too much, and then that would be it for him. He'd collapse to the floor and he'd die right here and now. "Plus, if my mom ever found out she would kill me, like literally-"

"Hey, calm yourself, Eduardo," Suddenly, Richie's arm is sliding over his shoulders, pulling him close, too close, to that mass of tangled dark hair that could possibly be housing every louse on the planet, "This is a party, you don't have to follow mamma's rules!" Eddie shoved himself away with a grimace, his lungs closing tighter in on themselves. The contact was too close, Richie was too strange, and now Eddie was only growing more and more frightened and uncomfortable.

"Don't touch me, Richie! Jesus, that's-" Eddie shudders, his breath catching in his throat. He can feel anxiety building in his throat, climbing upwards and begging to be let out in a scream or something of the sort. Eddie hugged himself tightly, scrambling away from Richie and closer to Stan and Bill.

"Wow, Jesus, I-" Richie laughed nervously, and Eddie watched him exchange a curious glance with Stan, who only waved a hand dismissively. "Sorry, I, uh... I guess. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything." Without returning an answer, Eddie glued his gaze to the floor, feeling heat rise up his neck and into his cheeks. Now, tension hung in the air like a shroud and it was because of him. Shit. He didn't mean to ruin everything. For a minute, and then two then three then a whole fourth, no one spoke, simply sipping at their drinks and listening to the deafening music. With each second that ticked by Eddie's throat closed tighter.

"So," Beverly broke the absence of speaking first, her voice raised to overpower that music that was still so loud, so fucking loud, throat tight, head pounding, "Tell me about yourselves. Rich tells me you're going to the same Uni as us? What classes do you have?" Bill took a sip from his 'Tozier Juice', and then responded in a voice just as loud as hers- he was too loud, now, too. His words begin to blend together into a collective hum, nothing but an indecipherable murmur as Eddie held himself tighter- he could hardly breathe, oh it hurt- The weight in his pocket was tempting, so tempting, and he wanted nothing more than to pull it out and take a puff, even if it was just sugar and water. The only thing stopping him was Stan and Bill on his either side, because they were against the placebo, they were trying to wean him off of it. Overpowering that murmur now was a sharp ringing, only pierced by the sound of collective laughter, too loud, suffocating. Eddie's face drained of it's colour, and no one seemed to notice. Can't breathe. He felt frozen, all of a sudden, rooted in place as if left in the cold for too long. He couldn't move his arms, his legs, and now his throat was growing tighter. He snapped his mouth open, fighting to suck in a breath- all at once, the sound came rushing back and it was all just too overwhelming. Eddie was gasping, fighting, snapping from his trance as all air fails to rush into his lungs. All eyes turn to him, Bill, Stan, Richie, Ben, Beverly, Mike- everyone is staring at him, looking at him, as he stumbles to the counter, his legs threatening to give out, Ben hurrying out of the way as Eddie almost falls right into him. The asthma attack was so sudden, so powerful- he had reached that tipping point, and gone tumbling right over the edge. Now, his throat was swollen shut, his head was pounding, that ringing was loud and the music was louder.

"Sh-shit, Eddie!" Bill was the first one to arrive at his side, and then everyone else. Every fucking person was surrounding him. He clutched onto the counter, still gasping, face paler than a sheet as he desperately fought against his reflexes. One powerful half of his mind screamed GRAB YOUR FUCKING INHALER EDDIE GRAB IT OR YOU'LL DIE YOU'LL SUFFOCATE RIGHT HERE AND- while the other half was shouting not to because then he was failing and when you fail you disappoint and he doesn't want to be any more of a disappointment than he already is. He gasps, sputters, grits his teeth and fights to reopen his throat but it won't cooperate. Strangers gazes bear into his back. He's the center of attention. His throat his shut like a vice.

"Eddie, hey, you okay?" Stan was there, a hand on his shoulder but that was too much, this was all too much and he didn't know what to do to stop it to stop the pain and the fear and the suffocation and he can't breathe.

"Hey hey hey hey, what's happening Eds? What's wrong, what can I do?" Richie was here now too, stupid annoying Richie with his caring tone and the hand he sets on Eddie's. Just like the too-loud laughter had been what sent him over the metaphorical cliff edge towards an asthma attack, this overload of contact had been him hitting the icy waters below. Without a second thought he burst upright, both Stan and Richie falling away, and ripped his inhaler from his pocket. He pulled off the cap and stuck it between his lips, pressing the button on the top and sucking in the breath with a sudden jolt. Air passed, a minute amount, and he needed another puff, and then, finally, a third. Each one rocked through his body, trailing with it relief, euphoria, burning through his veins, his throat, down into his lungs until- he let out a gasp as the inhaler left his mouth and felt the guilt rapidly push the good feelings away. The entire group had gone silent again, until Bill stepped forwards to place a hand on Eddie's arm.

"A-Are you okay now, Eddie? Did it help?" His tone probably wasn't meant to be condescending, but that was the only emotion Eddie could get from it. No, Bill, I'm not okay and I'll never be okay because my mom fucked me up big time, Bill, is what he wanted to say but he didn't get the chance because now Stan was on his other side with that sickly sweet concern that Eddie doesn't really deserve and they probably don't really mean.

"Can I get you water? Anything?" Eddie was quick to shake his head. Stan sucked in a slow breath, and let it out in a shudder. From his peripherals, Eddie caught the sight of him and Bill sharing a glance. He didn't miss the way Stan's lips quirked down into a frown, or the feeling of Bill just slightly shrugging one shoulder. He hadn't even been here for twenty minutes and Eddie was done. They were disappointed in him. He could sense it. Jamming his inhaler back into his pocket, he shook off both hands and set off to who knows where. He didn't know this apartment and he didn't give a shit. He needed to find a bathroom, a bedroom, a balcony, a something to get him as far away from the noise as possible. He hears them calling after him, Bill and Stan and maybe Richie too but the music swallows him whole as he pushes into the crowd towards what he thinks is a door to outside. He pushes, uncaring in it's entirety, needing to get out, away, to suck in the fresh air. His lungs feel tight again, but not as tight as before and he refuses to use his inhaler. He breaks free from the crowd and lets out a wheeze of a huff, falling into the door and shoving it open and closed as quick as possible.

Just like that, it is calm. With one shoulder against the glass he can feel the reverberation, the bass shaking the building in it's place. It's quieter now, faint enough that he can feel thoughts swimming around like panicked fish. Eddie pushes off of the door and staggers towards the railing, letting himself lean on it despite what his mother would say. You're so high up, Eddie-bear, don't lean like that or you'll fall! You'll tumble right down all six floors and then you'll be done for! The mother in his mind continued on about something else, about him not loving her enough to take care of himself, about why does he hate her? What did she do for him to treat her like this? But he pushes those thoughts away and locks them in a tight little box so he doesn't burst into tears. For the first time he realizes that the rain is heavier now, pouring down in steady, thrumming sheets, blotting out the streetlights below and further muffling that music. The smell of petrichor and lightning fell around him, probing in through his open mouth and cleansing his lungs of the placebo. It was soothing, so much so that his eyes fell shut and his head tipped back. He let the utter pleasure of the weather soak into his skin, the chill biting at the tips of his nose and ears. He could catch a cold, his mother warns from inside his head, but he locks those thoughts up even tighter and tells himself he doesn't give a shit. With each deep, rain-tasting breath his lungs give way a little more until it's clear again. A few minutes pass of deep breathing, exercises he's learned through the years. Calm washes over him and now he doesn't mind the distant heartbeat of the bass. Time seeps by slowly and he doesn't mind it.

Behind him, the door opens, and the tension sets in again.

"What do you want?" Eddie's voice is cold. He doesn't know who it is, assuming it's Bill or Stan and hating that he's not right. The music grows louder and then fades again as the door opens and shuts.

"Hey, Eds," Richie shatters his peace with a tentative tone, and then he's there at his side leaning against the railing.

"Don't call me that."

"I, uh... I wanted to say sorry." The rain thrums on. Richie stands at his side. Eddie hates this party. "I... I didn't know..." Richie struggles to find the right words. The rain sounds like static, buzzing, hissing, calming. Richie should leave Eddie to enjoy this peace but he doesn't. "I didn't mean for this to happen." A heartbeat passes in time with the bass. Eddie finally answers, his words quiet, clipped, cold.

"Get lost, Richie." Richie doesn't. Instead, his movements slow, careful, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out two things- a packet of cigarettes, and a lighter. He doesn't waste his time offering one to Eddie, simply lights one for himself and takes a deep, sluggish inhale. All is quiet except for the static and the heartbeat of the bass. With an unwanted wave of vulnerability, Eddie feels his eyes begin to sting. The ocean inside of his stomach, tossing and turning and churning is made of liquid guilt. He feels horrible for failing Stan, for failing Bill, for ruining the party they'd both been so excited for. Richie takes another drag, letting out a cloud of smoke that's ripped away, sent spiraling, by the beating rain. As the party rages on just feet away, Richie stays with Eddie instead of leaving him to join back in on the fun. Eddie hates that he feels gratitude. Minutes pass, and the rain washes away the last traces of warmth. Before he knows it, Eddie is shivering, a gentle tremble that might have less to do with the cold and more to do with how exhausting it is to withhold his stinging tears.

"Here," Richie slides one arm out of his black button-up, passes his cigarette to his now free hand, and then liberates the other. Without asking, he moves towards Eddie, placing the thin fabric around his shoulders to provide as much warmth as possible. Richie returns to his place from before. A few more moments pass when Eddie finally finds the stability to answer.

"Thank you." His cheeks glow pink in the pale, black light, but Richie smiles anyways and simply nods his head. With his lungs clear and that warm gratitude calming the tidal waves of regret, he speaks in a low, quiet, shaking tone. "It seems you can keep your mouth shut, hmm?" This time, Richie laughs, a light chuckle that blends with the bass and the static in a perfect way.

"I'm making a special exception, Eddie. Don't take it for granted." Richie bites on his cigarette. He lets out another cloud of smoke. The rain slices it apart. "But, hey," Leaning on one elbow and glancing Eddie's way through his thick-framed glasses, Richie looks almost nice, "I really am sorry. If I'd known you would been stressed or over stimulated or whatever, I would have warned you." Sucking in a slow breath and letting it out in a sigh, Eddie shrugs his shoulders, pulling the black button-down tighter around him.

"It's fine. I should have handled it better.- I'm the one who should be saying sorry" At that, Richie quirked a brow.

"It's asthma, you can't really control it- unless that's some sort of super power." As an after thought, Richie added, "Pretty lame one if you ask me." Eddie held a hand out into the rain, soaking in the biting cold of each drop. It streamed down his hands, off of his fingertips.

"No, it's... it's all bullshit. Nevermind." A heartbeat passes, "You shouldn't smoke. It risks lung cancer." Silence yet again. Richie didn't ask to leave, and didn't make any move to. Once he finished his cigarette he dropped it to the ground beside him and crushed it under his heel. The two simply stood, side by side with a few feet between, looking out into the rain and soaking in the peace. The party continued on behind him, but Eddie couldn't care less. While Stan and Bill were enjoying themselves, so was he, to a degree. Richie's normally overbearing aura had calmed, dulled, softening around the edges so now it wasn't as much a bright yellow as it was a soft red.

"Eds?" Richie asked in a questioning tone, not shattering the fragile silence but rather parting it like hanging vines, "Can I make you a deal?" Eddie nodded his head. "Come by and buy coffee every once and a while and this whole ordeal is forgotten, no hard feelings. I'll make you my signature drinks on the house to apologize to you, and you come by and chat with me every few days to apologize to me." Letting out another sigh, Eddie said,

"Yeah, fine."

"And don't call me Eds."

[sides-of-demigods]

The Forest Incident Pt. 2

Word count: 2,197

Warnings: Cursing, blood mention, fighting, injuries, scorpions. If you see anything else you think may trigger people PLEASE let me know.

Author's note: Originally I thought I was going to do this in two parts but it ended up being way longer than I thought it would, so it'll have to be three, maybe four parts.

Part 1, Part 3, Part 4

Virgil shared one last look with Patton before leaving the room in a huff.

Damn it, why did he have to work with Roman Prince of all people? He would have preferred Dennis and he was like 12.

Okay maybe not really, because something about that kid really unnerved Virgil and made him really uncomfortable.

But still!

And worse, what Thomas said actually made sense.

Plus, as annoying as it was when Roman rubbed it in his face, out of the four of them Virgil had been there the shortest amount of time while Roman had been there the longest.

Roman would know the woods way better than Virgil did, and without him, Virgil would probably get lost.

And getting lost in the woods is a BAD idea.

Virgil begrudgingly got together everything he assumed he'd need: A baggie of ambrosia, water, a couple of protein bars because who knew how long they'd be out there.

He didn't have a full medkit and certainly wasn't a healer but all campers, especially older ones, had basic First Aid training, so he had bandages and rubbing alcohol, cleaning gauze, tweezers, and medical tape inside a small First Aid kit.

His sword and shield of course.

He debated on bringing his headphones, but eventually decided against it. As nice as it would be to muffle Princey's voice, he needed to be aware of his surroundings.

He still hesitated because the comforting weight of them could help with his anxiety, but overall his anxiety would help him be aware and observant, plus he was pretty sure it made his reflexes faster.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Virgil sat with Skylar and Heather at Dinner, sacrificed some of his meal to Phobos, sat with Logan and Patton at the bonfire and didn't participate in the sing-along. The usual.

But he kept shooting glances at Roman Prince. He wasn't sure why, but he told himself it was to see how Roman was reacting to the arrangement.

But as far as he could tell, the auburn-haired boy didn't really seem fazed. He was singing, laughing, and talking with his siblings as usual.

Virgil wasn't sure what to make of that.

Then, it was the next morning.

Virgil got dressed as quietly as he could as to not wake his siblings. He left a note saying he was running an errand for Thomas with Patton, Logan, and Roman so they wouldn't worry but didn't say what the mission was.

He shouldered his backpack and made sure his sword was in its sheath.

He grabbed his shield but didn't secure it on his arm yet, as dealing with the shield would be a hassle, and left the cabin.

As he emerged he caught a glimpse of the slightly rosy sky over the trees before he turned away and was on his way to meet the others.

Everyone else was already waiting for him on the porch of the Big House, which Virgil was expecting since their cabins were so much closer than his.

Well everyone except Logan, who was probably double and triple-checking he had everything.

His first step onto the deck and he could feel nerves coming from all around him.

Thomas was fidgeting while staring at the woods, although Virgil suspected he wasn't really seeing them.

Patton kept taking stock of his pretty large medkit over and over and picking stuff up and messing with it before putting it back.

Roman seemed relaxed, leaning back in a deck chair with his eyes closed and his double sword across his lap, but Virgil knew better.

Roman was just as afraid as the rest of them, Virgil could literally sense it. In fact, he might have been more anxious.

As tempting as it was to call him out, Virgil sat next to Patton and bumped their shoulders.

“Pat it's all going to be okay,” Virgil promised, blocking the kit next time Patton tried to reach into it. “You have everything you need, and if anything happens it's nothing you can't handle, alright?”

Patton's breathing was still a little shaky but he took a deep breath and finally closed his medkit.

“Yeah, yeah you're right,” Patton agreed. “We've got this. I've got this.”

They were interrupted by Logan's arrival, and everyone seemed to switch to battle mode.

Roman stood and strapped his sword to his back, Patton and Virgil stood up and Thomas seemed to snap out of his daze.

Thomas turned to face them, eyes hard and prepared.

“Alright, look,” Thomas said. “I know you're all probably worried, but I wouldn't have picked you four if I didn't think you could do it. But, you put yourselves and each other first, you hear me? The mission comes second. If you get overwhelmed, get out of there, don't get yourselves killed trying to kill the things. And don't try to stay out all night searching. If you don't find them, we can try again tomorrow. Meet back here at sunset at the latest, alright?”

The boys nodded, no one saying anything. But really, what else was there to say?

They said their goodbyes to Thomas and walked as a group towards the woods, knowing that once they reached the woods they'd be splitting up.

It was finally fully sinking in for Virgil that he might not be leaving these woods. At least not alive.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he barely had time to register that they'd reached the woods when he suddenly had Patton wrapped around him, hugging him tightly.

((As soon as I started writing this part House of Memories came on my Pandora so…))

Virgil hugged him back almost instinctively. He was very used to Patton's spontaneous hugs.

This time though, Patton clung to him a little longer than usual and a bit tighter. More desperately.

“Stay safe out there kiddo, alright?” Patton begged him. Virgil squeezed him tighter in response. He couldn't bring himself to speak because, well he couldn't promise anything. Patton seemed to understand because he sighed before seizing Roman in a hug.

Virgil stood next to Logan and crossed his arms.

“Take care of each other in there, Professor.”

Logan, who had been watching Patton talk to Roman turned to face the son of Phobos.

“Don't we always?” Logan pointed out, a small smile on his face. “The same to you and Roman. I know he isn't your favorite person, but give him a shot. Roman Prince is full of surprises.”

And with that, Patton came back over and Virgil walked over to Roman. Then, they entered the woods.

They had been in the woods for a few hours and Virgil was really missing his headphones.

They had been in the woods for a couple hours before they found a bunch of broken and scratched up trees near some giant tracks with a large scrape in the middle, like something a tail would leave behind.

The tracks were their best bet so they followed them, and had been for a while.

It hadn't been too bad at first, but now Roman just would not shut up.

Virgil did his best to just keep walking but Roman kept trying to tempt him into a conversation.

“And then-” Roman was telling some story his counselor told him this son of Poseidon or something who apparently saved the world a few times or whatever, but Virgil had stopped paying attention a while ago.

“For the love of Zeus will you SHUT UP?” Virgil finally snapped, interrupting Roman. “Look, Your Majesty, I don't know about you but I'm trying to actually find these things. But I wouldn't have any idea if we were close since I can't hear anything except your stupid voice! Not to mention that the serkets aren't the only things in these damn woods. Anything could come up behind us and kills us before we even knew it was there!”

“Alright, geez Hot Topic,” Roman rolled his eyes, which if anything only infuriated him more. It took everything Virgil had to keep walking. “Just trying to lighten the mood a little. Not everything has to be as dark and gloomy as you all the time.”

“Oh so suddenly this is about me?” Virgil retorted.

“Well duh,” Roman said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You're the one who snapped at me. Although I really shouldn't be surprised, considering.”

“What the HELL is-” Virgil started before Roman slammed his hand over Virgil's mouth, using his other hand to grab Virgil's shirt and stop him from walking.

Virgil was about to go OFF before Roman spoke.

“Virgil,” Roman was suddenly deadly serious, his voice barely above a whisper, and the fact that he used Virgil's actual name instead of some nickname threw him for a second. “Shut up, just shut up, and look.”

Roman let go of Virgil's shirt to point, and Virgil shoved his hand away from his face. He looked where Roman was pointing, expecting something stupid or to see nothing and for Roman to just be trying to distract him.

He saw nothing, and that's what caused a chill down his spine.

“The tracks stopped,” Virgil breathed out, his hand going to grip the hilt of his sword. “Wait, hold up. Listen.”

Everything was absolutely silent. It was one of those things you don't really notice, but the forest was always making noise, whether it be the nymphs, birds, or various animals. But it was completely silent now.

Virgil saw it too late.

He turned towards Roman, mouth open to ask if he heard anything when he saw the serket, claws poised to attack.

He was too slow in reacting, and the serket was already moving by the time he shouted Roman's name in alarm.

The other boy turned around and managed to jump back but he didn't have time to get far and the serket managed to slash his chest.

He staggered backward into Virgil, who managed to catch him and throw them both to the ground in time for the scorpion's stinger to strike the ground where they had both just been standing.

He helped Roman to his feet, who shook his head for a second as if dazed but managed to pull his sword off his back.

Virgil did the same and barely had time to get into a defensive stance before the serket had prepped its tail again.

The boys both dived in opposite directions, the stinger missing them once again. After a split second the serket apparently made a decision and charged at Virgil.

Virgil had a split-second where he realized that he had never properly secured his shield and that it was currently laying on the ground out of his reach before the scorpion hit him, sending him flying backward.

He hit the ground and the scorpion was on top of him, ready to sting him. He raised his arms instinctively before he heard someone shout “VIRGIL!”

He looked over to see Roman throw Virgil's shield to him. He caught it as the serket thrust its tail down towards him and managed to hold it above him just in time for the point to bounce off it harmlessly.

He slammed the shield into its face, causing it to screech in rage and stagger back, allowing Virgil to scramble out from under it.

The serket switched gears and ran at Roman who despite the large gash in his chest was actually upright and moving, a feat Virgil suspected was the result of adrenaline.

It reared up to stab him with its pincers but Roman let out a loud grunt and kicked the scorpion towards Virgil.

Virgil in turn sliced off the scorpion's stinger before shoving back at Roman with his shield.

Roman used the serket's momentum to his advantage, letting it impale itself on his sword.

The creature made an ear-splitting screech and turned to golden dust.

The boys allowed themselves the chance to look around and, when spotting no more signs of a serket, stumbled towards each other and collapsed onto the ground next to each other.

Both were breathing heavily and clutching various parts of their body.

“You...look like shit,” Roman admitted helpfully between shallow breaths, and Virgil huffed a laugh.

To be fair, he was probably right. Virgil felt plenty of scratches and bruises all over his body from when the serket rammed him, and he was pretty he had at the very least fractured a few ribs.

The force from the stinger had shocked him, and his arm was SORE. It was a miracle it wasn't broken.

But he got his first real look at Roman when he heard his body fall to the ground next to him.

His shirt was absolutely soaked in blood, the dark red a jarring contrast to the usual bright orange.

He was so pale and his breathing was short and shallow. Virgil had to do a double-take.

But then he moved to the son of Apollo's side, waving his hand in front of the other boy's face, smacking him lightly, shaking him. His eyes wouldn't open.

“ROMAN!”

[thinkaboutdobrik]

The Dolan Triplets → G. D / E.D

Requested by Anon: could u do one where the reader is the twins' sister. like she's their triplet??? and kinda just fluff when they do videos with u and u live with them in LA so ur always with them and stuff and theyre protective and just kind of fluffy?

a/n: this is the first, and last, sibling type of stuff I will ever make tbh ajsjskdkjd

-

Being a part of the 'Dolan Triplets' let you in on a lot. Even though you weren't a youtuber like your brothers were, or a social media influencer even, you still managed to get tons of followers and fans everywhere. The fans loved you. You were iconic.

Ethan being 20 minutes older than you and Grayson always gave him an excuse to boss you around. He was your 'older brother'. But for some reason, Ethan could easily be the laziest one out of all of you, leaving you and Grayson to do the most chores and what not. It had always been like that. Even back in New Jersey, you and Grayson had always done the most together. That being said, being around Grayson more than anyone else allowed for many, many arguments and discussions to be made. But, of course, you loved your brothers nonetheless.

"Shut up, you're so annoying!" you yelled at Grayson where the two of you sat on the couch.

"You shut up! You're just jealous." he replied harshly, being as cocky as ever.

"No I'm not. I just don't get the whole Gucci/Balenciaga thing." you shrugged, furrowing your eyebrows and pulling a weird face at him.

Grayson got up from the couch and threw his hands in the air. "How can you not like that?! Where's your fasion sense?" he replied in confusion.

You sat upright and looked him dead in the eyes. "You look ridiculous, Gray. Nobody thinks you're cool."

Your other brother came storming into the livingroom."Alright, enough! We seriously need to start filming." Ethan announced, trying to play his role as the older brother shutting your little argument up.

As you stood up from the couch Grayson lightly shoved you and pulled a face, causing you to crash right back down to the couch. "Gray! Stop!" you yelled, frustrated over his physique.

He ran off to the hallway, but you quickly fought your way past Ethan and caught up with Grayson. You kicked your foot out in front of him causing him to stumble over your feet before bumping into the wall. "Ow!" he groaned as he hit the wall, face first.

You stuck out your tongue and pulled a funny face. "Suck on that, loser!" you mocked, picking up your pace as you raced to the recording room.

Ethan set everything up for your filming session. The bright ringlight surrounded their big camera that was placed on top of the tripod.

Ethan sat down on the purple couch while Grayson stood by the camera, focusing it and preparing the mic.

"Y/N, are you ready yet?" Ethan shouted at you standing in another room.

"Coming! Just gotta fix my makeup!" you replied before finishing up your makeup and checking yourself out in the mirror.

"Let's just start without her." Grayson shrugged.

"Yeah, she's probably gonna take for ever." Ethan laughed in return.

"1..2..3.." Grayson said softly. "We're back! And today we have a special guest..." the boys said in unison before stretching out an arm to introduce you to the camera after you finally finished fixing yourself up.

Aiming for the little space between Ethan and Grayson, you crashed your butt down between them, causing them to let out a synchronized groan at your weight.

"Y/N!" you cheered, looking at the camera.

Grayson pushed your leg off his knee before continuing with the video. "Yes. And today we're doing the sibling tag slash challenge."

"We know how much you've missed Y/N so we finally brought her back to our channel, just to please you guys." Ethan continued from where Grayson left off.

The video included tons of questions their viewers had sent in on twitter, as well as some dares and challenges you had to do as triplets.

After the video finished you all headed for the kitchen to get some food. "Why can't we just order something? Ever heard of Post Mates?" Ethan groaned while Grayson looked through the cupboard, looking for something to make for dinner.

"Bro, why would we order food when I literally went grocery shopping yesterday?" Grayson scoffed.

"Yo, what do you want?" Ethan cocked his head as he poked you, trying to turn your attention away from your phone and towards them.

"Uhm... I don't know. I don't really care." you shrugged as you glued your eyes back at your phone.

"Come on. You have to eat something before you leave." Grayson chimed in.

He was making a good point. Airplane food was never delicious, and besides, you weren't in the mood to pay for overprized food anyways.

"Make us some pasta or something." Ethan demanded.

Grayson looked at him in annoyance, eyebrows furrowed as he narrowed his eyes. "Why do I always have to cook?" he questioned as he threw his hands in the air.

"Cuz you're my bitch." Ethan joked.

"No, I'm not." Grayson shook his head, kissing his teeth.

"Yeah, you are." you and Ethan said in unison before you turned to eachother and laughed.

You finished eating whatever pasta dish Grayson made for everybody and crashed down on the couch in the livingroom.

"What are you doing? You can't lounge aroune like that. You're gonna miss your flight. Go pack." Grayson said as he shooed you off down the hall way. "Go." he demanded.

You finally finished packing all your stuff. It took longer than expected since all of your stuff were spread out everywhere as you had totally made yourself at home when they told you to.

Your muscular brothers carried you luggage to the car while you strutted behind them, not caring to help. Why would you? They had way bigger muscles than you had. It only seemed fair.

Grayson started the car and drove off towards the airport. It was going to be good finally getting back home. Back to your house, back to your own bed. Of course, staying with Ethan and Grayson, meeting all their friends, was very fun. You loved L.A., but let's be honest here - living with your brothers for over a month easily got exhausting with all the arguments and masculinity that followed with.

[writing-in-the-impala]

You Always Hurt The Ones You Love (Part 9)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

AU: Professor!Bucky Barnes/ Teacher!Bucky Barnes

Series Summary: You fall for your smoking hot literature professor Bucky Barnes (quite literally) what follows you never predicted would happen.

Warnings: Swearing, Drinking, teacher-student relationship (but like it’s all legal chill) and mentions of PTSD because it’s Bucky, SLOWburn we’re in for a long ride

Word Count: 2793

A/N:  Please leave me love and reblog this so i get inspired to write more, okay thanks 

MASTERLIST | SERIES MASTERLIST | Part 1,  Part 2,  Part 3,  Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

The whole weekend you spent all your free time with Bucky, you spent most of your time lounging about and relaxing by watching movies cuddled up together, reading books on his balcony cuddled up, and cooking together. The two of you barely left each others sides and when you did it wasn't for long. "I'm going to have to leave a bit earlier today." You started and Bucky pouted his lips making himself look like a sad puppy. "I'm sorry I'd love to stay but I actually need to do some work Steve set me and I promised Peter I'll come round to plan a family vacation." You explained and Bucky's expression didn't change.

"I don't want you to leave." He said pecking your forehead.

"I don't want to leave especially because the next time I'll see you will be at school." You said pouting and Bucky sighed.

"How am I meant to teach a class with you right there and how am I meant to act professional." He said and you gave him a sad smile.

"That's something we'll need to figure out if we want us to work without loosing our job slash education." You said and Bucky nodded you could see he was thinking.

"What are you doing tomorrow after school?" He asked.

"Probably whatever work you set me." You replied.

"Do you want to come over? I'll make dinner, you can study here I'll try not to be a distraction." He said winking at the last part.

"I don't know..." You began knowing that you wouldn't do any studying around him.

"Come on, who can help you with your work more than me?" Bucky asked.

"Steve." You said in a sassy tone to annoy Bucky. His mouth fell open to resemble a massive O and he just sat there shaking his head. You sat up so you weren't leaning on him pushed his jaw back up so his mouth was closed and kissed him.

"You know what maybe date Steve instead." Bucky said playfully and you rolled your eyes.

"Okay I'll see you on Monday then I'm going over to Steve's." You said standing up and Bucky stood up and hugged you from behind kissing your neck all the way up to your ear before whispering. "You're not going anywhere." And spinning you round to kiss you properly.

"Mmm, Bucky I'd love to stay but I genuinely have to leave." You said breaking the kiss apart.

"I'll miss you." He said.

"I'll miss you too see you tomorrow." You said giving him a hug and kissing him before you left. You went straight to visit Peter and May and spend some time with them, you learnt that Tony was down in Washington for business for a week, Peter told you all about school and he also questioned you about the man in your Snapchats and what house you've been at all weekend, you told him nothing avoiding his questions. When you got home you got even more questions from your roommates but you simply replied. "I'm too tired it's a long story." And went to your room to finish the work Steve set you.

Monday felt like it was taking forever, for all of Bucky's lesson you were just waiting for it to end, it seemed like Bucky was doing the same because he even ended the lesson early. You didn't speak to him after the lesson but received a text from him saying "7 at mine for food + study? Sound good?" And you replied with a simple. "Yes."

Bucky didn't lie when he said he won't distract you. You came over set up on his kitchen island while he was in the kitchen cooking that let the two of you talk but also focus individually. "So basically I'm meant to analyse how Fitzgerald uses the light as a character?" You said referring to the book Bucky set to analyse.

"Yeah so write about how it's used as a metaphor for Gatsby's love, how it disappears when Gatsby is with Daisy and stuff like that." Bucky explained without even turning around.

"Oh right okay thanks." You said before continuing to write but then your phone began to ring. You looked at the caller ID and it was a number you didn't recognise. "Hello?" You answered and Bucky turned around giving you a puzzled look as if asking who was calling and you shrugged. "This is New York General Hospital I'm calling because you're listed as Mr Parker's emergency contact."  The lady over the phone said and your face dropped.

"Is he okay?" You said your voice shaking Bucky turned off the cooker and walked around the counter wrapping his arms around you while the caller explained to you what happened to Peter, Bucky didn't know what's going on but he could hear the fear in your voice and pain in your face so he did his best to comfort you.  "Okay thank you I'll be there as soon as possible." You said ending the call.

"What's wrong?" Bucky asked you as your tried not to cry.

"Peter he was in an accident something happened at school he was in a trip he tried to help his friends and he got them out but he got injured and now he's in hospital, I'm sorry Bucky I need to go." You said standing up and gathering your things.

"Leave your stuff, just take your jacket come on I'll get you there quickly." Bucky said going to grab his keys.

"You have a car? Why is this the first time I hear of this?" You said distracted.

"Better." He said holding up a bike helmet. "Catch." He said throwing it to you.

"You know if I wasn't stressed I'd be so impressed right now, I love bikes." You said following him out the apartment.  You ride to the hospital in Bucky's bike and got there quite quickly definitely faster than if you took the subway, Bucky looked amazing in his leather jacket driving the most amazing bike.  When you got to the hospital you went inside and Bucky said he'd follow you in after he locks the bike up. You walked up to the desk, your heart beating out of your chest the nerves building. "How may I help you?" The receptionist asked.

"Um, my brother, I'm his emergency contact, I-" You began to explain before a phone rang.

"Please hold." The woman said and you just stood there not knowing what to do as she picked up the phone. "Sorry okay your brother yes?" She asked and just when you were about to speak someone pushed in front of you.

"My son needs to see a doctor right now." The woman who pushed in front of you said. "I'm sorry I'm currently serving this lady. The receptionist said pointing to your. "But you don't understand me son-" the other woman argued. "He has to wait-" "he can't wait-"

"Enough!" A loud voice broke through. Bucky was standing there behind the woman who was trying to cut in and went to wrap his arms around you after he broke up the argument. "Ma'am with all due respect your son isn't in critical condition while my girlfriend's brother is. Plus she was in line before you so may you let her talk to the receptionist. Thank you." Bucky said he sounded angry but also he wasn't raising his voice, he was also at the same time comforting you. "May I see you ID miss, and may I get the name of the patient you're looking for." The receptionist said.

"Yes of course it's Peter Parker." You said and the receptionist looked at your ID.

"You have a different surname to Mr Parker." The receptionist stated.

"Yes we have different fathers." You said panicking slightly that they won't let you see him.

"Well you are listed as one of his emergency contacts so there's no problems he's in room E13 it's on the second floor you can take the elevator at the end of that hall." She said pointing you in the right direction. You and Bucky basically ran to the elevator. In the elevator Bucky put his arms around you to comfort you he could sense how scared you are, honestly you were terrified of the state Peter is in you were terrified how bad his injuries were. "He's okay." Bucky whispered into you ear.

"I hope so." You replied as the elevator doors opened and Bucky let go off you taking your hand in his as you walked through the corridor to find Peter's room.

"Do you want me to go in with you or wait outside?" Bucky asked carefully not knowing where you are at in the relationship are you anywhere near ready to tell Peter about him?

"I need all the support I can get." You replied and Bucky squeezed your hand re-assuringly as you knocked on the door. "Come in." You heard Peter say and you sighed from relief at the sound of his voice, you opened the door to reveal Peter lying on the bed with a bandage around his head some plasters on his face and and  IV drip connected while he ate a chocolate pudding cup. "Peter you son of a bitch." You said walking in your reaction shocked both Peter and Bucky.

"No how are you? No are you okay? Really feeling the love sis." Peter said rolling his eyes.

"I was scared you were in a coma or something but your just sitting here eating pudding." You said laughing at your prior panic.

"I mean it's the better of the two." Peter said shrugging.

"Most definitely." You said hugging him. "Hey." You said as you pulled away. "Peter this is Bucky, my-" you began.

"Boy toy." Peter interupted.

"Hey!" You said annoyed while at the same time Bucky laughed and replied. "I prefer knight in shining armour but boy toy will do." He replied and Peter laughed.

"I like him, can we keep him." Peter replied and you laughed going over to Bucky and looking up at him.

"Hm I don't know Peter." You said before scruffing his hair and giving him a peck on the cheek. "He is cute and I have a soft spot for him I guess we can keep him." You said and Bucky smilled a great big adorable smile.

"Does this mean I get the approval of the protective little brother?" Bucky questioned taking a seat next to Peter's bed as did you.

"Hm yeah but you hurt her well I may not look it but I can kick your ass." Peter said protectively.

"Meaning he'll ask dad to do it." You said and Peter rolled his eyes making Bucky laugh once again. "Speaking of is he still out of town?"

"Yep."

"Is May coming to see you?"

"Yeah they called her like they called you, but apparently you were faster."

"We took the bike tis why." Bucky added.

"You have a motor bike!" Peters face lit up like he won a thousand bucks, the money not a thousand Bucky's although he seemed pretty happyto have one in his life. The three of you carried on casually talking, it was nice seeing Bucky and Peter interact they seemed to get along well and actually like each other which warmed your heart. "Peter Parker! Never scare me like that ever again." A voice came from the doorway, the three of you turned to look in that direction and saw May standing there looking flustered like she ran to the hospital, which she probably did.

"Hey why is everyone angry at me?" Peter said defensively.

"because we love you. Anyway, hi May, May this is Bucky, Bucky, May." You said introducing them.

"Lovely to finally meet you ma'am." Bucky said acting all grown up reminding you of him at work.

"likewise but I must ask who you are Y/N didn't mention a-" May began but Peter cut in with "Boy toy." Making Bucky laugh while you and May scolded him by saying "Peter!" In unison. May seemed to like Bucky, the four of you talked for a while, May had to leave for a bit to call Tony meanwhile Bucky and Peter made a bet about some stupid program that was on TV, Bucky lost to his disappointment and owed Peter a bag of gummy bears. "Okay I think we're gonna go soon." You said looking at the time.

"Okay, I'm just gonna have to go down to the vending machine real quick." Bucky replied.

"Wait? You're taking that seriously?" You said in disbelief.

"A bets a bet." Bucky shrugged.

"Yeah Y/N a bets a bet." Peter said in a cocky voice making everyone in the room laugh. "Oh Bucky?" Peter added as Bucky was about to leave.

"You're coming on the trip right?" Peter questioned.

"The trip?"

"The trip to Malaysia, Y/N and I have to bring plus ones and I thought..." Peter said instantly regretting starting this conversation when he saw the panic on your face.

"I forgot to ask you I'm sorry, I completely forgot. You don't have to come it's a stupid family thing." You said trying to discourage him.

"If your there I want to be there, we can talk more about this later, right now I've got some gummy bears to get." Bucky said kissing your forehead and leaving the room.

"Peter listen here no mention of Bucky to Tony, understand? Don't say the name around Tony." You said in all seriousness as May walked back into the room.

"Everything okay I saw Bucky leaving?" May asked.

"Yeah he's getting gummy bears for Peter, I was just telling Peter, don't say anything about Bucky to Tony. Please. Don't even mention his name." You said pleading.

"Okay, I understand he can be protective but he's not going to kill him." May said.

"I know, I, it's complicated, just I don't want him knowing I have a boyfriend."

"I promise I won't say anything." Peter said gently.

"Me too, but Tony is going to be here in a few minutes." May explained.

"What I thought he was out of town?" You panicked.

"He flew back because of Peter." May explained.

"Okay I need to find Bucky, if you ever need to mention Bucky call him Grant, because that's like his real name Bucky is a ncik name, so if you do mention Bucky to Tony call him Grant." You said trying to somehow save this situation. "I'm gonna go find Bucky and hide him- I mean Grant." You said before leaving the room. It didn't take long to find Bucky. "Bucky. Tony is here you need to hide."

"Wait why's Tony here?"

"I'll explain later now you need to hide or we're both dead."

"But Peter's gummy bears." Bucky said looking like a lost puppy.

"Are you kidding me? You're gonna lose your job over a stupid bet and gummy bears." You said and Bucky just looked at the pack of gummy bears.  "Give me those and follow me." You said taking the gummy bears off of him and pulling him into a room. "Okay put this on." You said giving him a lab coat and a doctors mask that you found in the room.

"How do I look?" Bucky said giving you a spin.

"Hot. But too much like you." You said thinking. "It's your hair." You said, then you proceeded to mess it up and restyle it to make it look very un-Bucky like. "Better." You said.

"I look like an idiot." He said looking in a mirror.

"But you don't look like professors Bucky Barnes."

"Mmm say that again." He said with a sly look.

"We don't have time for this Buck, you need to walk out this building without running into Tony, I'll go give Peter his stupid gummy bears and meet you outside." You explained and Bucky nodded. You walked towards Peter's hospital room, getting there in time to see Tony already sitting there talking to Peter. "Hi." You said walking in. "Peter, here's the gummy bears I owe you." You said throwing the gummy bears at Peter and hearing him say "ouch." In response. "Hey Tony, nice to see you back, I'd stay and talk but I really need to go."

"Are you sure she isn't actually my daughter?" Tony questioned picking up on how that sentence sounded very Tony Stark™️. Everyone laughed at Tony's comment and you quickly said your goodbyes before leaving to find Bucky who was sitting in his bike back in his normal outfit.

"Where's the doctors costume?" You questioned getting on the bike.

"Ditched it in a plant pot." Bucky said casually before speeding off.

Part 10 | More stuff I wrote

Tags (send me an ask or message and I’ll add you):@iconictaurus@whosmarisaaarw@grayxswan@sideeffectsofyou @alt-er-love-er-alt

[koalas-koalas-everywhere]

Live blogging the Hobbit pt.7

Flies And Spiders

I’ve been looking forward to this one.

“There were black squirrels in the wood. As Bilbo’s sharp inquisitive eyes got used to seeing things he could catch glimpses of them whisking off the path and scuttling behinf tree-trunks.” I should write a fic about this myself, but I think it would be a funny scene to have Bilbo, with his sharper eyesight, mention the squirrels and the dwarves just. Have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about? What squirrels?? Bilbo: … the squirrels. Dwarves: wut. B:The squirrels that run around every once in a while. And him trying to point them out but being unable to because of their speed and their black colour. Eventually, after they’ve been in the woods a while, becoming irritable and kinda muddled and just really freaked out, Bilbo snaps and out of nowhere throws a rock at one of them, only stunning it, but effectively bringing it down. The dwarves are all like, Bilbo wtf, both because it was very sudden and because they didn’t know he had that good of an aim, but he just goes “you see it? you see it? oh thank heavens I was starting to think I was going crazy and just imagining it.” That’s when they decide to try to shoot them and eat them and when they realise… well, I’ll keep it for that bulletpoint.

“Even the dwarves felt it, who were used to tunneling, and lived at times for long whiles without the light of the sun; but the hobbit, who liked holes to make a house in but not to spend summer days in, felt that he was being slowly suffocated.”

Lmao why does he always get the worst of it? Tolkien, I’ll see you in hell.

“They tried shooting the squirrels, and they wasted many arrows before they managed to bring one down on the path. But when they roasted it, it proved horrible to taste, and they shot no more squirrels.”

Here it is, back to the story, they hunt the squirrels, realise they’re gross, and are like, “Bilbo, you’re the most weirdly skillful yet useless person we’ve ever met.”

‘Dori is the strongest, but Fili is the youngest and still has the best sight.” Fili is the what

“All the time he was wondering whether there were spiders in the tree, and how he was going to get down again (except by falling).”

why not

“They did not care tuppence about the butterflies, and ere only made more angry when he told them of the beautiful breeze, which they were too heavy to climb up and feel.” It is kind of tacky, Bilbo

Double fuck, my bookmark fell off and the spine got cracked. This has literally never happened to me before D:<

In theory, leaving a mark that something’s been used and loved is a concept I like. In practice? This is bothering me.

“That night they ate the last scraps and crumbs of food; and next morning when they woke the first thing they noticed was that they were still gnawingly hungry, and the nest thing was that it was raining and that here and there the drip of it was dropping heavily on the forest floor.” I mean, they’ve eaten the last of the food and they’re still hungry — chances are that even if they’d known they were almost out of the woods, they wouldn’t have made it anyway. (So certain authors can stow it.)

“There were many people there, elvish-looking folk, all dressed in green and brown and sitting on sawn rings of the felled trees in a great circle.” Why elvish-looking and not just elves?

“They were lost in a completely lightless dark and they could not even find one another, not for a long time at any rate. After blundering frantically in the gloom, falling over logs, bumping crash into trees, and shouting and calling till they must have waked everything in the forest for miles, at last they managed to gather themselves in a bundle and count themselves by touch.” First off, I want to serve this as an example of and proof that Tolkien, while not going quite so low as to make scatological and fart jokes, used plenty of slapstick comedy. Second, oh my god you guys, that is not the way to find each other in the dark!

“Thorin said: ‘No rushing forward this time! No one is to stir from hiding till I say. I shall send Mr. Baggins alone first to talk to them. They won’t be frightened of him--(‘What about me of them?’ thought Bilbo)-- and any way I hope they won’t do anything nasty to him.’” All praise the fearless and generous leader! 

It reminds me of a fanfic I really like, still in progress, where the fanon dynamic for Bagginshield (and indeed, most common tropes of romance) gets subverted by having Thorin trust and rely on Bilbo to protect him instead of being overprotective. It was started after the first movie but before the others, and I can really see it in the book. (Of course, that probably has something to do with the fact that Tolkien didn’t write it to be romantic.)

“‘They are the best I am likely to get in this beastly place,’ he mutteres, ad he lay down beside the dwarves and tried to go back to sleep and find his dream again.” Dwarf(and hobbit)pile!

“He was deep in thoughts of bacon and eggs and toast and butter when he felt something touch him. Something like a strong sticky string was against his left hand, and when he tried to move he found that his legs were already wrapped in the same stuff, so that when he got up he fell over. 

Then the great spider, who had been busy tying him up while he dozed, came from behind him and came at him.” Almost executed for daydreaming about breakfast in the middle of Mirkwood at night crimes.

“He beat the creature off with his hands--it was trying to poison him to keep him quiet, as small spiders do to flies--until he remembered his sword and drew it out.”

Bilbo: *balls up fists and swings them like cartoon boxer* Let’s do this Shire style!

But also, I want to point out that it says he beat it off not tried to beat it off. That implies success.

Also, I’m kind of freaked out at the implication that that’s a small spider.

“Then it went mad and leaped and danced and flung out its legs in horrible jerks, until he killed it with another stroke; and then he fell down and remembered nothing more for a long while.

There was the usual dim grey light of the forest-day about him when he came to his senses.” Fair.

“Bilbo was a pretty fair shot with a stone, and it did not take him long to find a nice smooth egg-shaped one that fitted his hand cosily. As a boy he used to practise throwing stones at things, until rabbits and squirrels, and even birds, got out of his was as quick as lightning if they saw him stoop; and even grow--up he had still spent a deal of his time at quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wand, bowls, ninepins and other quiet games of the aiming and throwing sort--indeed he could do lots of things, besides blowing smoke-rings, asking riddles and cooking, that I haven’t had time to tell you about. There is no time now.” There are so many levels of hilarity here, like

1- Bilbo used to be a fucking menace. And he didn’t quite get over it either!

2- They only ran away when he stooped? This just makes me think that he might have done nice things to make them at least tolerate him otherwise, instead of outright avoiding him or attacking him. Like, “ah, it’s that little boy, who’ll either feed us, he’s so nice and- uh oh he stooped, time to go boys.” Alternatively, it’s genetic memory warning them away from Bilbo. I was thinking maybe it was about all hobbits, but it does say “until they got out of his way”, meaning there was a time when they didn’t.

3- That’s such a hilariously late time in the story to introduce us to the fact that the main character has not only good aim but a strong enough arm to throw a stone right through a giant spider’s web, which would be thicker and probably more durable than the normal variety, already stronger than steel. And then kill the spider on the other side.

4- “Other quiet games of the aiming and throwing sort.” Idk man, other games of the sort, figure it out yourself.

5- I want to know about the other stuff Bilbo can do.

“This is what he sang:

Old fat spider spinning in a tree!

Old fat spider can’t see me!

Attercop! Attercop!

Won’t you stop,

Stop your spinning and look for me?

Old Tomnoddy, all big body.

Old Tomnoddy can’t spy me!

Attercop! Attercop!

Down you drop!

You’ll never catch me up your tree!

Not very good perhaps, but then you must remember that he had to make it up himself, on the spur of a very awkward moment.” Tolkien, shut up, it’s beautiful.

Also, lol, about to be eaten by spiders, how awks.

“Standing now in the middle of the hunting and spinning insects Bilbo plucked up his courage and began a new song.” Bilbo: If I’m gonna die, it’s gonna be as annoyingly as possible.

Honestly, though, this is my favourite song in the book.

“Bilbo’s next job was to loose a dwarf.” Very different from losing a dwarf, which he’s already done x14 (Thorin counts twice, especially considering he hasn’t even realized he’s lost him yet).

“Suddenly Bilbo noticed that some of the spiders had gathered round old Bombur on the floor, and had tied him up again and were dragging him away. He gave a shout and slashed at the spiders in front of him. They quickly gave way, and he scrambled and fell down the tree right into the middle of those on the ground. His little sword was something new in the way of stings for them. How it darted to and fro! It shone with delight as he stabbed at them. Half a dozen were killed before the rest drew off and left Bombur to Bilbo.” Bilbo’s gone berserk.

Also, Sting shone with delight? What a bloodthirsty blade.

“Away behind them now the shouting and singing suddenly stopped.” DUN DUN DUUUUUN

“Things were looking pretty bad again, when suddenly Bilbo reappeared, and charged into the astonished spiders unexpectedly from the side.

‘Go on! Go on!” he shouted. “I will do the stinging!”

And he did. He darted backwards and forwards, slashing at spider-threads, hacking at their legs, and stabbing at their fat bodies if they came too near. The spiders swelled with rage, and spluttered and frothed, and hissed out horrible curses; but they had become mortally afraid of Sting, and dared not come very near, now that it had come back. So curse as they would, their prey moved slowly but steadily away. It was a most terrible business, and seemed to take hours.” Love this part. All very heroic.

“They knew only too well that they would soon all have been dead if it had not been for the hobbit; and they thanked him many times. Some of them even got up and bowed right to the ground before him, though they fell over with the effort, and could not get on their legs again for some time.” I can imagine Bilbo all flustered, going “good. Hope you’ve learned your lesson and won’t be doing that again. Limit yourself to fawning.”

“All of a sudden Dwalin opened an eye, and looked round at them. ‘Where is Thorin?’ he asked.”Lmao, finally!

“They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise.” Feral.

“All this was well known to every dwarf, though Thorin’s family had had nothing to do with the old quarrel I have spoken of. Consequently Thorin was angry at their treatment of him, when they took their spell off and he came to his senses.” Another change done for the movie: Thorin’s family wasn’t involved in the feud.

Also lmao this weapon, a prisoner and all “how dare you”.

I’m not going to talk about the conversation between Thorin and Thranduil bc it’s probably been done to death.

Definitely my favourite chapter this far. Main character’s skills and learned courage begins to show? Check. He uses them in a fight that gives him extra confidence? Check. Heroics mixed with witty commentary and one-liners? Check. Team begins to see them in a new, more positive light? Check. Elves being made fun of and painted as kinda ridiculous? Check. (This one’s very subjective ig.) 

[marythegizka]

Bodyswap AU - Part 8 (here are the links to: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7)

The Ark Angel took off and dashed over the valley, piercing through clouds of ash as it made its way up. Aphra punched the coordinates into the computer. In a matter of hours, she would be home. A mental scoff followed. 'Home'. It wasn't home, really. Never had been. Just a bed and a roof. And if there was one thing she hadn't planned on doing with Vader, it was bringing him along to pay her father a visit. But there was little choice in the matter. Aphra sighed, a slightly louder wheeze, casting Vader a brief glance. Maybe she should give him a heads up, just in case. Or maybe not. It had been such a long time since she'd last seen her father, he would hardly notice the change. She'd blame suspicious behavior on 'the booze'. At least that he would believe, with all the credit he gave her. All they had to do was show up and mention the Ordu Aspectu, and he'd just roll with it. Things would be fine. Probably.

She turned towards Vader, then towards Ahsoka, and towards Vader again. None of them had spoken since they had taken off. The hyperdrive whirred and hummed, filling the gaps between her breaths, and a sense of discomfort hung around like stale air, making her throat clench a bit. Subtle wafts of emotions flowed her way, spikes of anger and dips of guilt, surges of hope followed by dread. Although she knew they came from them, she couldn't pinpoint which was whose. It was like bathing in feeling-soup. She didn't like it.

Ahsoka made an attempt to break the silence.

"So... do you intend to spend the whole trip pouting?"

Vader didn't bat an eye.

"Why not."

Oh, Aphra fully believed that. Vader had never struck her as the most cheerful person to be around, and she'd gotten used to his 'moods', as Triple-Zero called them. Even so, the atmosphere was a little tense for her taste.

"Hey, not that this is any of my business," she said, "but why all the drama? I'm... picking up bad vibes. Literally. I think."

"I do not routinely engage in conversation with traitors." Vader snapped. "Forgive my lack of practice in the matter."

"Traitors?!" the girl blurted out. "You tried to murder me but go off I guess."

"That makes two of us."

Ahsoka fell silent, and the air grew heavier. Her eyes were glistening, Aphra noticed. She shifted in her seat, unsure of what to say.

"Oookay... How about music then? I have Jatz, Quenk Jazz, some old Rodian Rock... any preference? "

Her hand hovered over the dashboard, waiting for an answer she half-suspected wouldn't come. It didn't. She sighed, and pressed "on". An engaging Zeltron dancer began jiggling over the holo-player, casting the camera sultry looks. Vader gave her a side look.

"Stop judging," she said, opening the food-safe.

"I'm not judging."

"Right," she said, handing him a can of cheap blue mappa. He eyed it with suspicion.

"You won't get drunk on that," she reassured. "Trust me, you've got training."

He grabbed the can, took a sip and coughed. Oh dear. And after all those years on vitapaste he wouldn't call himself picky.

"I will pass."

"Snob."

"What?" He knew what she had said - the vocoder was more suited to barking orders than mumbling - but the word took him by surprise. He wasn't snobbish, really. Just... direct.

"Nothing," she said, turning towards Ahsoka. "Ahsoka, would you like a drink? You look beat."

The girl snapped out of her stupor and looked at them numbly, her eyes moist with silent tears.

"I'm fine," she said feebly. "Thank you."

There was a time he would have attempted to comfort her. Now she was a traitor. She could have joined him, become an inquisitor, a Sith apprentice maybe. She chose the Rebellion. Perhaps it was a good thing then, that this time was long gone. His throat clenched. Perhaps.

Aphra shrugged.

"Hm. Well if you change your mind... you know where the hooch is. There's food too."

Ahsoka tried to smile.

"How about you?"

"I uh... I just drank weird stuff from a straw. I'm good. Sort of good."

Vader snorted. Weird stuff from a straw. That was one way to put it.

The music switched to dissonant Leap-jump.

"They used to play this at Dexe's", Ahsoka said.

"Dex. It's called Dex."

Ahsoka sat upright, pointing her chin up.

"Dex. It's called Dex," she parroted.

"Quit it, Snips."

This time, Ahsoka actually smiled.

"You just called me Snips."

"I thought you hated it, Snips."

"Not anymore, Skyguy."

"Don't. Call me. Skyguy."

"Or what?"

"Permission to intervene, Masters?" Triple-Zero chimed in.

"Denied," came their joint reply.

The droid left the cockpit.

"No Beetee, this doesn't look promising. Humans these days."

Aphra looked at the navicomputer. Two hours left. And the ambient tension lingered.

"By the way Ahsoka, why don't you grab some sleep? You look exhausted. My bunk is..." she paused, remembering the girl's confusion upon finding them there. "You know where it is. Make yourself at home."

"You're right. I am exhausted."

Ahsoka stood up.

"Thank you," she said, bowing her head slightly before leaving the room.

The tension eased a little. Now Aphra had two whole hours to ruminate about her boss meeting her dad. And the longer she dwelt on it, the more the thought worried her.

Ahsoka jerked awake as he ship hit the ground, bouncing like a spring on its landing gear. She had feared the nightmares, but her sleep turned out dreamless. Yet she remained exhausted. But she had been prepared. Her last encounter with Anakin had left scars on both of them, and as much as she hoped, as desperate as she was for another glimpse of that faint flicker of light, she knew nothing would ever be the same. And it hurt. Malachor had hurt them. And it had changed her. With nothing but Sith artifacts to engineer her escape, she had delved into their secrets, tapped into their power... and made it hers. She had found it, in the end, her one and only way out: one last portal through the Force. She had found it, used it, destroyed it. But for that to happen... A sob escaped her. She had to. It wasn't really falling if you didn't lose it, right? Not if you could claw your back to the Light. It couldn't be. It mustn't be. And now that she was free, she would help Anakin break out. She had to. For the Rebellion. And for her friend.

Aphra leaned back in her seat, not quite succeeding to stretch in the cramped space, and switched the engines off. A red light remained on at the bottom of the dashboard, signalling a leak in the secondary fuel tank. Aphra stood up.

"See? This ship is a keeper. Told you the leak wasn't that big. We still have quite a bit," she said pointing at the fuel gauge. "I'll check it up in a minute."

Vader shook his head. Her faith in that piece of junk would be the death of her. She stood there and stared at him, hands firmly planted on her hips. She must have picked up on his exasperation.

"Say it."

"Say what?"

"What you've just been thinking," she said.

Vader gave her a wry look.

"Doctor, what makes you think you're allowed in my head?"

In truth, it was unlikely she had sensed a clear, fully-formed thought. The occurrence was rare, even for him. A general feeling of aggravation? Definitely. But thoughts were another matter. A delicate matter, one that required control.

"I didn't..." She paused. "You can read thoughts?" she asked, which such incredulity Vader could almost hear her popping round eyes at him.

"It's not that easy."

And it was lucky, really. He remembered one time, walking through a busy street, when the minds of passers-by had suddenly become as clear as pure water. It had felt like an assault. "If I don't pay Black Sun..." - "Senator Mothma said..." - "So if that's ten credits..." - "Who's that?" - "Monster" - "Freak" - "Don't come near"... The incident had barely lasted a minute, and had left him exhausted, his blood pulsing in his hears, physically struggling not to slash through the crowd. He'd stood there paralyzed, feeling like a proton torpedo ready to explode. "Are you alright, sir?" "Get away from me!" He hadn't told his master. There was no point.

"Is that a challenge?" Aphra asked.

"No," he snapped, pointing a finger at her. "Do not try it."

Vader heard steps behind him.

"Hi!" came Ahsoka's voice.

Aphra greeted her with her usual enthusiasm.

"Good morning," he said reluctantly. "Why don't you join Doctor Aphra? She's got a leak to fix."

"It's no big deal, really, I can do that on my own."

Vader shot her an icy look.

"On second thought, maybe I could use a hand. After that we'll go meet my... contact."

"Sure."

Ahsoka followed her into the engine room.

"You don't really need a hand do you?"

"Nope. I've got two," she said, wiggling both arms. "Kidding. Really."

Ahsoka shook her head.

"Would I be wrong to assume he's always like that?"

Aphra chuckled, lifting a panel behind the tank. There was a thin drip on the side on the container, but that was nothing she couldn't manage.

"What did you expect?"

"Honestly? I don't know. A lightsaber in the heart was always a possibility."

Aphra nodded.

"I know the feeling."

Ahsoka gave her a wan smile.

"Yet you're staying."

"Yes." Aphra bit her tongue. Things were getting awkward. "Right. There's a plasma welder right under your left foot."

Ahsoka handed it to her.

"Thanks. Aaaand there we go," she said, sealing the breach. "Easy. Now if you could keep an eye on the kids?"

"Kids?"

"Droids. Just in case. We'll be back in a bit."

"Okay but..."

Aphra waved a hand.

"You'll do great!"

She could still feel Ahsoka's stupefied look as she left the engine room, heading straight for the cockpit.

"There, patched it", she said.

"Then let us not delay."

Vader followed her outside.

They had landed at the foot of a grassy, stony hillock, the top of which was crowned by a small, hive-shaped mud house.

"Is this where your contact lives?"

"Yes, but he..."

Before she could finish, Vader was leaping up the dirt stairs. There was no point in delaying. The door had been left ajar. He knocked and pushed it.

"Hello?"

The place was, to put it simply, an absolute junkyard. Stone tablets lay scattered all over the clay floor, amidst heaps of old books and worn-out artifacts - there was even a kyber on top of the fireplace. The stew that simmered over the hearth gave off a musty smell, like the underside of a sun-beaten evaporator. At the center of the room, half-hidden by a pile of books, an oldish man was bending over a manuscript, mumbling in... was that Proto-Basic?

The man hardly noticed him. Vader stepped inside.

"Sir, we have need of you."

The man looked up from his work, his eyes popping round.

"Sir?"

"What else should I address you as?"

The man flinched as Aphra entered the room as well. His mouth fell open, but no sound came out.

Aphra sighed, pinching the nose of her mask.

"Oh kriff... try 'Dad'."

>Part 9

[jayykesley]

8-10, 16-22 for ALL OF YOUR OCS FROM "THE APPRENTICES" (really the main ones: Carson, Lorelei, Derick, Rosalyn, Roswell, and a bonus OC of your choice)

8. What clothing style?

Lorelei: Very girly, so she wearsprimarily dresses and skirts and high heels. Kind of a sparkly-girly-librariantype of look? Pockets added to everything obviously, as well as tulle or lacetrim, just to make any outfit have that little extra SomethingTM.

Carson: His style is likecombination lumberjack-slash-fifties(?) look, like he’s got the rugged jeansand the white t-shirt with the short sleeves rolled up just below the shouldersand the red plaid overshirt. He prefers casual, loose-fitting clothes. Allabout comfort and mobility and wearing things until they fall apart.

Derick: Because of his childhood andthe culture he grew up in, Derick’s style consists mainly of dress pants andfitted button-ups w/ vests/suspenders/ties/etc. Not always particularlycomfortable, but he feels sorely underdressed and out-of-place in anythingless.

Rosalyn: If a piece of clothing fitsher larger frame, and can hide stains for at least a little while, Rosalyn willwear it. Mostly wears sleeveless shirts, or cuts the sleeves off, because shehas broad shoulders and large arms that don’t always fit comfortably in theshirts she finds. Has like one (1) pair of loose cargo pants that she’s beenwearing for literal years and refuses to get rid of. Neutral colors mostly soshe doesn’t have to think about matching stuff.

Roswell: I imagine him wearingregular old jeans, but with either comfy sweaters or fun graphic tees that hegets his hands on. He’s not picky about clothing, but he does like to have funso his shirts are always brightly colored with reds or yellows or purples.

Valentina/Violet (I can’t land on aname for her for some reason): Similar to Lorelei, in that she’s very girly,but definitely not “librarian chic”. Vibrant pinks, glitter, maybe some furoccasionally if she’s going out? Crop tops are a definite staple in her closet.

9. What is their favourite foodafter a break-up?

Lorelei: Her favorite comfort food,especially after getting her heart broken, would probably be frozen yogurt or agiant cinnamon bun glazed in icing. Something sweet and filling that you mightnot have on a daily basis.

Carson: Soft pretzels nachos, pasta,just something that is absolutely soggy in melted cheese.

Derick: Not so much food, but wineor some other alcoholic drink that would make him forget how bad he feels abouthimself

Rosalyn: Red meat, which is what sheeats a lot of to begin with, but just way way more stuff those badfeelings away

Roswell: Candy. He’d just shoveldown handfuls of jolly ranchers and licorice, ignoring how gross he feels veryquickly after doing this

V: Chocolate covered strawberriesand caramel apples and every sweet thing she shared with the boy because shedoesn’t need him to enjoy things she doesn’t miss him she never evencared that much about him to begin with--

10. Their favourite thing to doafter a break-up?

 Lorelei/V: Watch bad movies togetherand have a girls night: popcorn, ice cream, probably watch Legally Blonde. Oneis always right there ready to comfort the other when it seems like thingsmight go sorrow.

 Carson: He throws himself into a newproject, whether that’s working on Bonnie, his car, or crafting something outof wood. Carson gets attached and wears his heart on his sleeve, so no matterhow short the relationship was, he’s probably hurting quite a lot. When hefeels like he’s got a handle on the situation, then he can talk to Lorelei andwork on moving on.

 Derick: Just gets real depressed andsleeps/watches TV a lot. Leaves the house/showers/cleans even less than usual.Eventually he’ll get out of his funk, but it might take him a while.

Rosalyn: Probably trains to workthrough her emotions; first she’s angry because she feels like that personwasted her time, then she feels embarrassed for letting herself be hopeful likethat, then angry again... it’s a vicious cycle, and one she’s working on.

Roswell: Cry and talk to literallyanyone who will listen. Obviously everybody is more than happy to be hisshoulder to cry on, but Roswell bounces back about as quickly as he fell forthe girl in the first place.

 16. Their favourite comfort food?

Same as the break-up food, comfort food is really what I was thinking ofwhen I answered that question

17. What’s a food they hate?

Lorelei: Probably something likemeat loaf? It’s cheap, somewhat filling, and easy to make so it’s often whather mother used to make when she was a child. It wasn’t bad necessarily, buthaving multiple times a week for years has made her nauseous at the thought ofit

Carson: There really isn’t a lotCarson won’t eat. Originally Victor wasn’t a very good chef, so Carson wasresigned to eating either burnt/undercooked meals or microwave dinners for hischildhood. Maybe something like liver he might refuse.

Derick: He’ll eat meat, but he won’teat meat that still resembles the animal when it was alive -- fish that isn’tfried or in some way no longer resembles fish, he won’t eat. Doesn’t eatchicken legs or anything like that either.

Rosalyn: Bread. Specifically, whitebread. No one can figure out why, but Rosalyn absolutely positively will notconsume plain white bread. Everyone thinks its some big thing, but she swearsup and down it’s just that it grosses her out.

Roswell: Again, eats nearlyeverything. Maybe won’t eat oatmeal, because that’s just sloppy slime andRoswell can’t do that

V: Microwave meals that taste likemicrowave meals (which obvi is 99% of them). She swears she can taste theplastic film in the food.

18. Their music taste?

Lorelei/V: Love radio-pop. Ifeel like they’d both be huge fans of people like Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeranand people like that

Carson: He’s a sucker for 80′s and90′s rock and pop; Survivor, Billy Joel, Britney Spears, all that good stuff

Derick: Not really picky aboutmusic? Usually just listens to whatevers on. Probably a secret Emo Kid

Rosalyn: Really prefers classicalinstrumental music. She doesn’t zone out often, but instrumental music helpsher relax the few times she feels she’s allowed to.

Roswell: Would probably be reallyinto disco and/or Disney soundtracks?? Also a huge musical nerd, so Broadwaysoundtracks are his JAM

19.Is there a story behind their name/meaning?

Lorelei: I thought that “Lorelei”was a very pretty name and that it was a shame more characters weren’t calledthat. “Bullock” was a placeholder until I settled on her “real” last name, butBullock stuck so

Carson: Intended to remind me thathe would resemble Carswell Thorne in personality/serve as a place holder aswell (he’s changed a bit from his original design). “Davies” is the last nameof one of the original inspirations for the character Peter Pan, and was toserve as a reminder that Carson is a more relaxed, care-free person

Derick: No special meaning, justcame to me moments after I decided he was birthed from my mind-hole and thename has stuck ever since.

Rosalyn: Saw that picture that Ialways use as my face-claim for her, instantly decided she was either a“Rosalyn” or a “Rosalind”. I went with Rosalyn because, i dunno i just thoughtit fit her better.

Roswell: Originally he was going tobe called “Brandon” or something similar, but I came across the name “Roswell”and thought “oh yeah thatd be funny, Rosalyn and Roswell” and, well, as withevery character, the name just stuck

Violet/Valentina: Originally“Violet”, but I’ve since done some work on her character and feel that“Valentina” fits her better, but my mind is still latched onto “Violet”, soI’ve been calling her V for the time being.

20.Something they do that seems childish to others?

Lorelei/V: Not childish per se, butpeople might think them immature since they really like fashion and makeup andpretty things

Carson: Sings to himself constantly.

Derick: It might seem childish tosomeone who’s never owned a pet, but oh my gosh the flip-flopping betweenbaby-talking to Ragsy, and having a full-on real conversation with her

Rosalyn: Pinky promises. Not onlydoes she hold promises as Law, but pinky promises are the Highest Law

Roswell: His long run-on sentencesand tendency to speak rapidly in giant chunks. He can come off like an excitedlittle kid, but really he just hasn’t lost his sense of wonder for the world.

21.What is their all-time favourite TV show?

Lorelei: Great British Bake Off.I’ve never personally seen it, but it sounds like something she’d love XD

Carson: How It’s Made

Derick: Painting with Bob Ross

Rosalyn: Ancient Aliens

Roswell: I sat here for ten minutesand i genuinely cannot think of what his favorite show would be, so thanksHobbs XD

V: Catfish

22. What is their all-time favoritemovie?

Lorelei: 2005 Pride and Prejudice

Carson: HSM 2

Derick: All Dogs Go To Heaven/Aristocats

Rosalyn: National Treasure

Roswell: Jungle Book

V: Black Panther (because she’s real into Michael B. Jordan)

Sorry this is late, but I wanted to give real good answers. Thanks!

[jayankles]

Big Bag of Dicks

Pairing: Jensen x Twin Sister!Reader

Word Count: 2137

A/N – This is my submission for three challenges. 1St – for @roxyspearing who graciously gave me an extension with this #roxy’s spn quote challenge with the quote ‘You’re my brother, and I love you, but you are a great big bag of dicks.’ 2nd is for @queen-of-deans-booty #Jordan’s 2K Fluff Challenge with the prompt wrapping gifts. 3rd is for @imaginesforthose-wholovefandoms  #karissa’sgiffollowerchallenge which is the gif below the cut

You knew this was a bad idea! You should have known what he was going to do but you still let him come on this shopping trip with you!

All your life you had known that he was a little shit.

Even when you shared your mother's womb, he would kick the living daylights out of you.

And of course he had to kick you so he could get out first, something he'd brag about still.

Spinning on your heel, you caught him doing the exact same thing you told him not to do a few moments ago.

He was a fucking pain in the ass.

‘Would you fucking stop!’ Exasperated, you punched him as hard as you could in the shoulder.

‘I don't know what your talking about.’ Jensen said, a smug grin on his face. He knew exactly what you were talking about.

Groaning, you threw your head back and looked to the ceiling of the supermarket.

‘Jensen, you’re my brother, and I love you, but you are a great big bag of dicks.’ Pointing a finger at him, you told him that this was not the day to get on your nerves even more. You were already stress that it was December now and you still hadn't bought a present for your mom and dad.

‘Oh lighten up, Y/N/N. I'm just having some fun.’ He tried to reason but it still wasn't working with you. You were pissed and he wasn't making things better.

‘It's all fun and games for you but this is serious for me. This is the only time where I don't have to go into work and spending the day with you guys because my boss is an add. I don't need to add you to that list too.’

You just needed him to stop throwing unnecessary items into your shopping cart. God he was an ass.

You loved him but he was an ass and pushed you to the absolute limit, it didn't help that you were already behind schedule on buying and wrapping gifts.

You knew exactly what to get. Your father had been moaning and groaning about his watch being ‘a stupid, non working piece of metal.’ Your mother, on the other hand, was one that you could make. She usually complains about all of her children, and grandchildren, not being with her all the time. The scrapbook you hoped to make her would help her see that she was an amazing woman and that although her children weren't in the same room at the same time, they would always love her and be there with her, be there for her. You had all the images cut out and ready for her scrapbook, you just needed to find the perfect one for her. Your brother definitely wasn't making it easier, throwing every other food item and artsy stuff into the cart you were pushing.

You were stressed and pissed. Not a good combination when you want Christmas to be perfect.

Was it to much to ask?

Finally, Jensen got the hint; a nose flare and scowl later.

He took the items, that weren't on your list, out of the cart and apologised profusely, seeing that you were close to a breakdown enough to bring you to tears.

At first it was funny, you had to hand it to him but continuously doing it drove you insane.

‘What's next on the list, Sis.’

You scoured the list, all consisting in your scribbles and crossed out items that you had thrown in there already.

‘Um, we still gotta get the veggies, the turkey, the um- the five bird roast that me, you, Pops and Birdie love.’ You pointed a finger to the ceiling before pointing it at your twin brother. ‘Oh that reminds me what do I get for Dani - do you guys need more baby clothes or can I just offer my assistance as the cool aunt slash babysitter.’

Smiling, you hoped that it was enough but were willing to do anything to make your sister in law happy.

He waggled his own finger at you, a lopsided grin, ‘uh uh uh, you’re not getting out of it that easily. You’ll babysit whether you like it or not, Y/N/N. She has been eyeing a dress for quite some time. I would have got it but I’m planning on gifting her another thing. This way you have a present to give her and she’ll think you’re a mind reader but you’ll know that I’m a great husband and listener.’

‘Didn’t I have to tell you three times to stop being a pain in the ass? You’re not that great of a listener.’ You laughed at him as he looked as if he had been punched in the gut.

One week later

A knock at your bedroom door sounded and you rushed up from the floor, watching your step, to make it to the door.

‘Wait!’ The door handle began to open. ‘You’re not allowed to come in. There is a sign on the door!’

‘You don’t even know who it is.’ The voice sounded and you rolled your eyes.

‘You idiot, I do now and I’m wrapping presents, yours included, Jay.’

You knew you should have locked the door the moment he wiggled it again.

‘Jay, I swear to god would you please just stop. I’m trying to do something nice for you and if you ruin it, I will kick you where it hurts most, I will hack your twitter, I will reveal secrets not even mom knows. Do not test me!’

‘You promised me you wouldn’t, we twin shook on it.’ He whined through the door, you could literally see the pout on his face now.

‘Yes I did. But if you try to open this door, mom will know what happened when we were seven and you won’t get any of the gifts I have got for you.’

He was silent and you were sure that Jensen was thinking about what you had said, he was only a few seconds away from giving you an answer.

You knew him well enough, you hoped.

‘Can you at least give me a clue? Then I’ll go.’

‘Nope but you’ll love it.’

‘Fine.’

You quickly opened the door and pressed a kiss to his cheek. ‘Thank you,’ you squealed before shutting the door again, effectively shutting him and the rest of your family out of your room.

Terrible, you were terrible at wrapping gifts, no matter how many times you had tried, it never worked out well for you. The triple rolled and poorly taped gifts would have to do for now. You just hoped that your family would appreciated your hard work.

Christmas Morning

Grunting awake, you lurched upwards, a heavy weight on your stomach.

‘Aunt Y/N/N. Aunt Y/N/N. Wake up! It’s CHRISTMAS!’ Your enthusiastic niece, JJ, squealed in your face.

‘Justice,’ you whined with an exaggerated pout, tucking her dirty blonde hair behind her little pixie ears, ‘please, my sweet girl, five more minutes.’

She huffed, her big brown eyes, which she inherited from her mother, growing even wider. Dammit, why did she have to be so cute? ‘But Y/N, when you say five minutes you don’t mean it. You want longer and daddy said I could have candy if I woke you up.’

‘Jay, did daddy put you up to this?’

Her eyes quickly averted and buried her face in your neck, ‘no.’

‘Uh huh. Tell you what...’

‘What?’ She slightly lifted her head so that you knew she was listening.

Shaking your head at her, you reached over your bedside table and grabbed your phone. ‘How about I lay with my best girl for another ten minutes, huh? We hardly ever get to do this anymore, please Justice.’

‘’kay.’ Thank god it was that simple. ‘Just ten more minutes.’

Setting the timer – to twenty minutes but she shall never know – you put it back on your nightstand and fell back onto the bed, your arm now thrown over the little girl as you snuggled against each other and got just a little more sleep.

A mere five seconds after you closed your eyes, the alarm on your phone went off, you had no excuse for the little Jaybird now.

After silencing the phone, you turned your head to see brown eyes and a smile already wide and greeting you. ‘That took forever.’

You deflated a little. ‘Did you not wanna spend time with Aunt Y/N/N?’

‘I did! But Santa came last night.’ She was bouncing now, on her knees and tapping your palms against your stomach. ‘Can we please go wake the others and open them? Please?’

‘I don’t know,’ your voice a little high as you sung. ‘Do you love me?’

She giggled, gripping your pajama top in her little fists and nodding excitingly. ‘Yeah!’

You tapped your cheek, ‘gotta give me some lovin’, Jay.’

As quickly as you had said it, she wrapped her arms around your neck and kissed your cheek then moved to the other side to repeat the action. ‘Love you.’

Finally, you both got out of bed but she refused to let you go so you carried her to the family room where the rest of your large family were.

‘Hey, look who’s finally up!’ Your twin teased, munching on his cookie, a traditional christmas morning cookie and by the looks of the almost empty plate and the crumbs that coated the corners of his mouth, something was telling you that it wasn’t his first one.

‘Shut up.’ You said to him before you took two cookies. Bouncing JJ on your hip, you handed her a cookie and tapped them together in a ‘cheers’ action. ‘You wanna see what Santa got for you?’

‘Duh!’ She giggled and you immediately looked at her father.

‘Oh yeah, totally your kid.’

JJ wiggled out of your hold, sitting cross legged next to the tree, offering various poses – a range of cute smiles and smirks just like her daddy – at the phone Danneel pointed at her. You went to go sit on the fossil grey armchair, tucking your legs under yourself, resting the cerulean blue cushion in your lap.

‘Dani, gimme the phone and you and Jay can get in the picture too.’

You had the perfect angle from where you were sat, from top to tip the decorated tree fit in the frame, the family of three – soon to be four – picture perfect smiles on their faces.

Jared, Gen, Tom and Shep came over to the house not to long after. Finally, all the children were able to open their presents along with the rest of the adults. You just hoped that everyone liked what you got or made for them.

Even you were excited to open your gifts. Your mom knitted you a thick, warm scarf. Your dad brought you two leather bound journals, The Princess Bride DVD and tickets behind the dugouts to see the Dallas Cowboys. You thanked them both, kissing your mom on the cheek and high fiving your dad.

Danneel loved the dress you got for her, you told her in the card you wrote that it was Jensen’s idea. I wasn’t her only present though, you picked up three of the same sized packages handing them to Jensen, Danneel and JJ, telling them to open them all at the same time.

You smiled in anticipation as they opened their gifts, the colour of the decoration the same sky blue with speckles of gold splattered on them.

‘What is it?’

‘They’re sound waves. Forever ago, I asked all three of you if I could record your voices. I told you all to say I love you. Jensen’s necklace has Dani’s and Jaybird’s, Dani’s has Jay’s and Jaybird’s and JJ’s has her mommy and daddy’s.’ You scratched at the back of your neck. ‘It’s not much but I just hoped that it would-’

Jensen interrupted you, smothering you with a big ole bear hug, one of your favourite hugs.

‘They are perfect, thank you.’

The mug he got you customised with his face on it could never compare to the thought you had put into the gift that you had got for his little family.

He thought your reaction was priceless enough to throw his head back, his action a whole body laugh that turned into a giggle.

It was a good job Jensen and the rest of Jared’s family had pitched in to getting you a fancy camera and those fairy lights so that you could hang it in your bedroom back at home. The piece of thread you had hanging from your walls a little bare. Jensen would just have to make sure that there was enough memories made to fill the strings.

Lemme know what you think... feedback is life

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[ramennoodlesandnarusasu]

A kiss never forgotten

*Chap 1: A drunken night*

*Chap 2: A blurred night*

*Chap 3: The bath house*

*Chap 4: A Thousand pieces*

*Chap 5: Heart beat*

*Chap 6: Surprise*

*Chap 7: Sunsets, trees and you*

*Chap 8: What now?*

*Chap 9: Healing the unfixable*

*Chap 10: So, this is it?*

*Chap 11: What now?*

*Chap 12: Kids and kisses*

*Chap 13: Its time*

*Chap 14: Tears*

*Chap 15: Somethings different?*

*Chap 16: Its time*

*Chap 17: At peace*

*Chap 18: Pancakes, kids and headaches*

*Chap 19: Will you stay or will you go?*

Chap 20: The end of the Aisle- FINAL CHAPTER

Naruto stared at the white tiles, shaking, almost hyperventilating. The tiles were a shinny white colour and Naruto meet his own eyes on the shiny reflection. He looked at himself also dressed in white and started re-stressing about today so he got up and started to look around for any form of distraction.

“Oh, look what pretty white curtains…”

Naruto started to concentrating on his breathing, he couldn’t tell why was he so nervous? He known this day was coming for 12 months. Then why was he freaking out so much right now?

He started circling the room, admiring the beautiful features of the of the room. There was ancient Japanese scripture around the walls and photos of the shrine when it was constructed many years ago. Golden flower embellishments almost vined around the room, soft golden flowers dripping into the white soft features of the room.

He smiled thinking too himself; he never thought he would be here again, this time with someone he was hundred times more excited about. He vaguely remembered the day he was here with Hinata, on that day he didn’t felt stressed, he didn’t really feel anything. He was extremely relaxed, he chuckled under his breath looking back now the signs were so obvious from the beginning.

Naruto heard the soft clink of a Japanese bamboo shot, water flowing softly and birds chirping in unison. He was so excited but at the same time so nervous, it had been a bumpy road leading to this day, but it was finally here.

Naruto’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a soft knock at the door.

“Naruto are you ready?” Kakashi asked as he closed the door behind him.

Naruto turned around with small tears forming in the corners in his eyes,  a wide smile that just wouldn't disappear from his face

“More than I will ever be Kakashi.”

Kakashi came forward,  he himself was feeling a bit  emotional since  he had considered himself  Naruto’s  father.

“My god Naruto, I must say you look amazing.”

Naruto spun around to face the mirror, looking at himself in all white. He wore a modern white tuxedo with a crème top underneath. He accompanied the entire look with the Hokage cloak hanging off both his shoulders, he was truly a sight.

“If only your parents could see you.”

Naruto started to tear up even more, “oh no! No crying on your big day  Naruto.”

“Well stop saying emotional shit that’s going to make me cry.”

Kakashi came forward to embrace Naruto, he didn’t care how mushy he was acting, today he was basically filling in for Minato, he had seen this boy grow up from a tiny little kid, abandoned, alone, craving attention, to this man. A man who had conquered so much in his lifetime, a man worthy of the title  Hokage.

“I am so proud of you Naruto, I know it wasn’t easy for you and Sasuke to get married, but it was all worth it in the end.”

“Hmph” Naruto mumbled quietly under his breath as he let his tears start fall down his cheeks and onto Kakashi’s shoulder.

“Okay before we  both start bawling our eyes out, let’s get you down this alter.”

Naruto nodded, wiping his tears away in the process. He looked around for his bouquet, he found it next to the seat he was using before. He picked up the beautiful bouquet which held white roses and lilies. He started following Kakashi to the door, as Kakashi went to open it, Naruto lingered for just two more seconds.

“You coming Naruto?”

Naruto looked back into the white washed room, as though waiting for answers. And it was in that second that the almost clear white curtains brushed upwards from the wind that he saw his mum and dad standing behind it,  clear as day.

They smiled as they stared at their son, and as quick as the curtain went up the curtain would soon fall down. It was as the curtain started floating down, that Naruto heard the soft voice of Kushina in the air, telling him she loved him. And then they were gone, the room looked the same, and Naruto knew it was time. He turned around to face Kakashi and smiled, the most confident smile he had ever produced in his lifetime.

“Yep! Let’s do this.”

-

Naruto and Sasuke had agreed on a modern slash traditional wedding, so the venue was still held in one of the most spiritually old shrines in Konoha;but Naruto wanted to add a modern influences to the wedding, which Sasuke didn’t go extremely against. This meant that there was a band to coordinate the music for the evening, which had been playing typical wedding songs all day long.

Naruto had heard them from his room, but as he walked closer and closer to where everyone was sitting, he started to hear the music getting louder and louder. The soft tunes of a piano and harp started coursing into Naruto’s body, he was starting to get more flustered the louder the music.

As if the music was exciting every cell in his body, the soft tunes pulled him forward to his new life.

Naruto slowly followed Kakashi who lead him to the main event, soon they both reached a golden door. Naruto was fully aware that behind this golden door was an exquisite garden. A garden which currently had over one hundred people sitting down in chairs waiting for Naruto to appear, and a man, so special, so beautiful, waiting for him at the end of the aisle.

Naruto started to hyperventilate properly this time, feeling like his heart was just short of collapsing. His face was going all red and the sound of the band intruding Naruto was literally pulsating in his skin.

“Naruto, breathe, you will be fine.” Kakashi said whilst taking Naruto’s arm to assume the father position.

Naruto nodded, feeling one million emotions at that very second.

But as the  doors started opening, allowing the bright light from the sun to enter Naruto’s eyes something in Naruto’s body changed, he started to calm, his lungs relaxed and he un-clenched his nervous fist. His heart stopped in pure awe. He didn’t see the gardens which had been so beautifully decorated with white silk ribbons, he didn’t see the guest all standing up for him and smiling. He only saw one thing that shined  brighter than the ten  suns combined.

Sasuke.

There he was smiling at Naruto, a genuinely large smile, which he couldn’t wipe off his face. Dressed in a gorgeous deep black. He was looking at Naruto like he was the only one in the entire garden and Naruto looked at him in the exact same way.

As the band starting playing Bridal March from the opera Lohengrin, Naruto started to slowly walk forwards, one foot after another, slowly walking over white petals that were scattered all over the floor. He started to think to himself as he stepped forwards towards his future, how much he had  struggle to get here and how  it was all worth it in then end. If he knew back then what his future held, he would hug everyone around him and say thank you, because for every argument, for every single late night, for every emotional grieve, he is able to stand where he is today.

Naruto started to remines of that day, that horrible yet beautiful day he got proposed too.

-

*1 year before*

“So, Naruto will you marry me?” Sasuke looked at him, whilst starting to get a worried expression  on his face.

Naruto looked down in shock, not knowing what to do. His anger and worry had completely slipped away, Sasuke was right here, safe from harm and asking for his hand in marriage. What was he meant to do?

Naruto heard Kurama's voice in his head., “say yes you fool!”

“YES!” Naruto said whilst still in a state of shook.

Sasuke let out a breath and relaxed his whole body, “oh thank god.” He got up and placed a silver ring on Naruto’s left hand, he threw the box over his shoulder not caring where it landed. He took Naruto into a deep long and passionate kiss, a kiss attempting to make up for  being away for nearly 2 months.

Naruto started to cry whilst aggressively kissing him back, he missed him so much, he couldn’t believe that Sasuke was in his arms. He had been so worried for so long, not knowing if he would return had been killing him, but finally all that stress and worry could finally float away.

It was as though somehow Naruto found peace in that kiss, like the stress and anger which had piled up had been burnt away slowly by the soft touch of Sasuke’s kiss.

Naruto pulled away, looking into Sasuke’s eyes longingly. He saw that he had a few cuts on his face, which had left their damage on Sasuke’s porcelain perfect skin. Naruto started to trace them with his fingers, as though attempting his best to clear them away from his skin.

“I’ve missed you Sasuke… I thought you were leaving me. You don’t understand what I went through these past two  months, I was going crazy.”

Sasuke looked down to the ground as though he was guilty, he back away slowly from Naruto, as though preparing for something.

“What are you doing?”

Sasuke bit his lip and looked at Naruto with the purest puppy dog eyes he could summon, “well, would you kill me if I said I planned it to be like that?”

Naruto’s eyebrow started twitching,   his fist starting to clench so hard that his knuckles all simultaneously cracked.

“What do you mean Sasuke?” Naruto said in an increasingly aggressive voice.

Sasuke started running for the door, “it wasn’t my idea it was Kakashi’s.”

Naruto started chasing him outside, ready to attack Sasuke with everything he got, but then he stopped right in his tracks. As he stepped outside his house, he was struck with another round of shock.

“CONGRATULATIONS!”

Naruto could see everyone he knew, Ino, Sai, Kiba, Kakashi and Iruka, Lady Tsunade, and    basically the entire village.

Naruto’s mouth was on the ground. “What the hell? I LITERALLY JUST WALKED PAST HERE? AND NONE-OF THIS WAS HERE.”

“What do you expect from Konoha’s best trained Ninjas?” Konohamaru said in a confident tone.

“Oh my gosh Naruto! You're engaged!” Everyone started running towards him to see the ring and Naruto just stood there as still as a statue in shock.

Everyone started surrounding him to have a view of the new shiny silver ring on his left hand which bonded him to Sasuke.

Naruto smiled at everyone who came to look at his ring ;thanking them as they congratulated him on his new engagement. Until sooner or later it was Sakura’s and Hinata’s turn to come and congratulate him

He looked at them with worry but gratitude that they even came, “guys, you didn’t have to come, I would have understood.” Hinata looked at him with tears nearly falling from her eyes.Sakura gave him a warm smile to ease his concerned. .

“Naruto, I am happy for you, if you are happy, so am I. I just I really want you to live the life you have always wanted and I hope Sasuke helps you fulfil that.” Hinata came in and hugged Naruto so aggressively as though trying to find some security in Naruto’s arms.

Naruto let go off Hinata and wiped away a tear that escaped the corner of her eye. “Thank you, to the both of you…truly, thank you.”

Sakura and Hinata looked at each other and smiled and then looked back at Naruto with the same warm expression.

“But are you guys as shocked as I am? Because I did not see this coming.” Naruto said whilst looking at his new shiny band on his finger.

Sakura started laughing and Hinata followed, “not really, I am pretty sure everyone in the village knew besides you Naruto.” Naruto looked at them like he was desperate for answers, “If you want the mastermind behind this go ask our crazy sensei.” Sakura said as she pointed to Kakashi which had overheard and was already scurrying away in fear.

Naruto walked over to Kakashi with such a large pout on his face, “so... oh wise teacher, please tell me how making me think Sasuke was leaving me, leads to a good engagement story, huh?”

Kakashi chuckled like he was in trouble, “well... you see, I thought if we made you think he was leaving for good that the engagement would be more of a surprise and it was, was it not?”

Naruto gave Kakashi an angered look , but he was right, he didn’t see this coming in a million years.

“ Why is everything so complicated with you Kakashi?”

Kakashi just smiled innocently. “Hey, Sasuke was totally on board, I didn’t even have to convince him, he thought it was hilarious.”

Sasuke had overheard their conversation and also started to bolt away.

“Oh no you don’t mister come back here right now!” Naruto pointed Sasuke forward. And grudgingly like a kid in trouble Sasuke obeyed.

Naruto crossed his arms like he was a disappointed parent “so, care to tell me the whole story?”

“Fine… you know how we had that big fight before I left?”

Naruto nodded, pursing his lips like it still hurt to think about it.

“Well when we were over there in the Mist, I saw a lot of shit Naruto, families torn apart, people taken from their love ones forever and in the haze of blood shed I realized I couldn’t afford to lose you. I decided then and there that when I came back I wanted to marry you. It was only after the immediate threat had passed  and we started the evacuations and rebuilding  the city did I told Kakashi  about my plans about wanting to send you a message that I wanted to marry you. He told me no, instead to seem like I was still angry and make you believe I was leaving, so when I actually asked for your hand in marriage it would come as a giant surprise. . I thought it was kind of cruel at first but after a few drinks I thought it was hilarious and went along with Kakashi’s plans.”

Naruto looked at him with disbelief, “you two are basically children.  What am I going to do with you guys?”

Both Kakashi and Sasuke started to chuckle, “it was evil, but it did its job, you did not see it coming.”

Naruto smiled, “that’s true, but it doesn’t mean I still won’t  kill you both.”

Kakashi’s eyes widened, “well I didn’t account for that, so I will be running now, good luck Sasuke, you can’t run away you live here.” Kakashi quickly bolted to the trees and away from Naruto.

Sasuke looked at Naruto with a scared smile, “have sympathy oh lord Hokage.”

Naruto came forward seductively and pulled Sasuke in close by the waist, “there will be no sympathy, Naruto leaned in to capture Sasuke in a deep kiss, suddenly craving something much more, something he hadn't had in so long.

“Can you guys not.” Konohamaru said behind them, “gross”.

Naruto laughed as he let go off Sasuke, “your face is gross.”

“Well let’s fight this out then old man.”

Naruto proceeded to pretend he was throwing shuriken at Konohamaru, making weird ninja swishing noises as he did so. Konohamaru pretended to dodge and flip around the attacks, “you will never catch me, ass wipe.”

Naruto smiled at Konohamaru who still acted like a kid even though he was an adult now.

He saw Himawari and Boruto run up to him, “dad!” Himawari screamed as she tackled her dad to the ground. , “congratulations papa!”

Naruto smiled and  smothered Himawari in kisses, “thank you my angel.” He  looked at Boruto who had his arms crossed. Boruto looked at his father with a struggling expression on his face as though attempting to say something. Naruto reached t out his hand to request Boruto to bump  fist with him.

He waited for a second and Boruto grudgingly replied back by bumping his fist in return, “congrats dad.” Naruto felt like a huge wave of happiness past through him, “thank you son, it really means a lot.”

“Hmph.” Boruto turned around not wanting to act all mushy, but Naruto was able to catch a glimpse of the small smile he allowed to surface on his face.

 In  the midst of being attacked by a giant bear  hug by Himawari, Naruto  saw Sasuke walk away towards someone, he couldn’t see who. Himawari kept getting in the way.

“Sweety do you want to go play with Akamaru?”

“Yes, let’s go daddy, can I ride on your back?”

“Sure, hop on the train express.”

As Naruto chugged forward pretending to be a train, he tried to eye Sasuke from a far, seeing him speak to someone. He crept forwards towards Kiba and Akamaru  who thankfully were near Sasuke anyways.

As he got closer and closer, Sasuke started to get down in his knees..  It was there in that moment that Naruto’s heart completely paused. That solid few seconds would be engraved in his mind for the rest of his life.

It was there in the woods, under the moon and the stars that he saw Sasuke, softly crying as he hugged his daughter Sarada. He could see Sasuke mouth the words, thank you.

If Naruto could love this man even more, then today, this moment would make him fall completely head over heels for him.

Naruto started to tear up slightly, he smiling and stared at  the floor, hoping no one would see him.

“Daddy why are you crying?”

“No Himawari, these are happy tears.”

“Oh, do you want teddy to wipe them off?”

Naruto chuckled lightly, “yes please.” Naruto turned his head, so Himawari could reach over and wipe Naruto’s tears away with her teddy.

-

Naruto would remember that  night for the rest of his life, he would remember sharing drinks, laughter and joy with his friends and family over the unison of him and Sasuke. Everything would have been perfect from now on till the wedding he hoped.

But unfortunately, the year to follow would not be an easy one, for changing the system in Konoha to allow for Gay marriage was going to be tougher than Naruto had anticipated. .

-

*6 months before the wedding*

Naruto was pacing back and forth, going from one end of the room to the next.

He was beyond fuming and he could see Kakashi in the corner of his eye telling him to calm down, but simmering down at this point would be null, he was already on his breaking point.

“I don’t understand your backwards way of thinking. Can you for once give me a good  fucking reason why we cannot legalize it? Because all the reasons I’m hearing right now are absolute bullshit.”

One of the male elders aggressively stood up, “that is no way to speak to the panel of elders, Naruto. I would watch your language if I were  you.”

“What for? If you are going to consider me scum of the society, then I shall do the same for you.”

Naruto could see Kakashi palm his head in response to the way he  was acting.

“Naruto, I have already explained, we do not approve because it goes against tradition, and what  kind of advisors would we be if we did not protect ancient tradition?”

Naruto started steaming from his ears, his blood pumping at a rapid rate, “you mean the traditions that allowed young ninjas to be treated as test subjects? Do you mean the traditions that allowed the segregation of an entire clan? Is this the traditions you so wish to keep?”

The elders  looked baffled, as though they were stuck in his own mind trying to figure out how to respond.

“Tell me elders!”

“No.” The main elder said whilst sitting down in defeat.

“Exactly, the old traditions are outdated.  I was appointed Hokage because the people trust my judgement, can’t you see that this is for all of Konoha, not just me. Don’t you think it’s unfair to all those who can’t marry because of stupid tradition?”

“But it’s just not pure, it’s a sin and a monstrosity.”

Naruto started to look at the elder who said that with such hurt in his eyes, he wasn’t even angry but sorry for them all. How they could be so stuck in traditions that they didn’t look at human value. “Look elder Mai, if I were to tell you that your grandson was gay and he was in love with another boy, what would you do?”

She looked at Naruto and couldn’t say a word, she just had her mouth open, unable to produce any form of sound.

“Everyone in this room, think about your grandkids, your daughters, sons, neighbours and friends, someone is gay. Just imagine saying to someone you love that they are not allowed to marry someone they cherish because of some old tradition that should have been taken down a long time ago.”

Naruto took a long breath   to calm himself, “really think about it, imagine yourself saying the words, you are a monster to your grandchild, imagine the look of hurt, pain and sadness on their faces.”

The elders looked at each other with concerned faces, they looked like they were experiencing the pain themselves.

Naruto pushed his chest forward and walked confidently forward to the front of the conference room, “we have been debating this issue for nearly 3 months now and I say this as Hokage, I am not afraid of change and I will not stand here waiting patiently for you to finally realize you are wrong, so either you are willing to except the future or you can stay behind.”

Naruto cracked his neck for the next words, “but I will not tolerate those who decide to stay behind, so If you wish to get up and leave the panel of advisors, I would do so, if I were you. Because from today onwards, I will not tolerate for this nonsense, you are my advisors because I trust in your judgment, but if your judgement is clouded in hate and wrongfulness then you are no better than Danzo and I will not blink an eye to kick you off the panel. So, choose wisely, those in favour may stay, those who disagree may go.”

Everyone looked around in shock and disbelief as to what they just heard. Naruto was never one to use his position as Hokage, but today he was not going to tolerate it anymore. He was sick of hearing he was disgusting and that what he was doing was wrong for 3 months, today he stood proud. They could either follow him or not, but he wasn’t going to be pushed around anymore.  And if everyone went against him, then he didn’t want to be Hokage anymore, because he refused to be the head of such a rotten system and panel of advisors.

Kakashi was also looking at Naruto in disbelief in the corner of the room, but his eyes also shined with pride for his Hokage, it took guts to do what Naruto just did, because he could be ultimately kicked out of the job if all the elders went against him.

It was undecided, everyone was still murmuring to each other, contemplating what to do.  One of the gentlemen that was going against Naruto quickly got up and stormed out. Before he left the room, he turned to face Naruto, “I cannot support this system Naruto, old tradition will always be better. It’s what binds us to be humble, if we stray from the path we fall into hell.”

“As you wish, Elder Sun Yu.”

Naruto looked at everyone else who seemed to be confused.

“Will the rest of you leave as well or will you make the smart choice and follow me into a brighter future?”

Mai stood up again, “Naruto, I apologies, you are not a monster, I spoke out of anger… you are right, I could never say those words to my grandson, I will follow you.”

Naruto smiled, feeling his heart warm up slightly.

“I too will follow Naruto”

“Me too.”

“May you lead us into the future.”

Naruto’s smile was as wide a beam, he couldn’t believe after so many months of debating, it took one courage’s and job threatening speech to convince them. He was glad that it was Sun Yu who left, he was always against Naruto, never agreeing, stuck in his traditional and out-dated ways.

“May you all continue to guide me in the future.”

Kakashi started applauding in the back and then everyone followed, Naruto looked at the room and smiled. He knew that legalizing gay marriage was only the beginning t so much more needed to be fixed  in Konoha, and he realized he couldn’t be scared anymore, he needed to confront the elders about every issue that stained Konoha and changed the village for the better.

That day he would also remember, because if he didn’t put his job on the line he wouldn’t be standing in this white paradise today walking towards Sasuke.

-

*Wedding day- current time*

Naruto smiled, tears forming in the corners of his eyes as he looked into Sasuke’s black dreamy eyes.

Sasuke had never been one to show emotions, but that day, their wedding day, he had shed the extinct version of himself and just let go. On that day, there were no more walls, there was no reason to hide. The many feelings and emotions he had bottled inside since his early teens were finally are released. . His tears were falling quickly and freely. His smile was bright in the presence of his future. On this day Sasuke found  the peace he had longed for since he feel into darkness. It was in that white washed wedding that the sun and bright shine from Naruto had finally painted over everlast black stain that lingered in Sasuke’s soul. He wasn’t scared anymore, to cry, to laugh and smile, he was truly happy, and it was all due to this blonde headed man which smiled at him so lovingly, blue eyes sparkling with joy, looking at his love.

-FLASHBACK-

*5 months before the wedding*

“Naruto for Christ sake, its just flowers, will you just pick one already?”

Naruto fumbled over a pile of flowers, still unsure which ones he likes the most.

“Sasuke don’t pressure my process.”

Sasuke let out an irritating sigh, “Naruto, I love you. But right now, I also want to chidori your face into the ground, we have been here for over an hour, just pick the roses or something, we still have cakes to go decide, and then go over the decorations with the wedding planner, seriously Naruto.”

Naruto pouted, “fine… I'll have the…hmm, roses and lavender…on second thought no, the roses and the lilies.” Naruto smiled in triumph, “happy, grumpy ass?”

“Delighted. Okay, let’s go it's cake picking time.”

Naruto jumped on the spot, “this is going to be the best, I love cake.”

“I know you do, because you ate the entire sample cake last night.”

“I was stress eating okay! It’s because you are stressing the bride, I blame you.”

“Oh, my god. I am slightly regretting asking you to marry me, is it still too late to run out of the village?”

Naruto shot Sasuke an evil glare, “you are mean to me, I am the Hokage, I’ll just order everyone to go get you.”

Sasuke let out a huff, “just keep walking we are already late.”

“Race you there my dear fiance.” Naruto increased his chakra flow to his legs and feet and quickly bounced off the ground towards the roof tops, with each swift push forwards he could sense the warm and powerful energy of chakra flow in his legs. He thought he had Sasuke, but in a flash, he saw him whiz past with lighting streaks exuding out of his body.

“SHOW OFF!’

“Slow poke!”

-

*Wedding day- current time*

Naruto chuckled under his breath, whilst the Celebrant kept rambling on about loves true power, and how it binds us all.

“What are you laughing about?” Sasuke whispered as to not interrupt the Celebrant.

“Just remembering the day, I made you do two hours of cake sampling and one  hour of floral choices.”

Sasuke looked at Naruto with a very unimpressed face, “yes that was annoying.”

Naruto chuckled whilst smiling at Sasuke, looking at his hair flow slowly with the breeze that rushed by. His lips rose as he smirked back at Naruto, rosy cheeks that softly painted pink tones on such porcelain skin. His deep black eyes looked into blue ones with such love. Those eyes stared into Naruto’s soul, knowing that Naruto was feeling the exact same way.

“And now I will ask for the exchange of vows.”

Naruto nervously scrunched his hands, his throat felt like it was starting to clench in response to his nerves flexing in his entire body. He took a deep breath in and out and closed his eyes for just a moment to calm himself. He felt soft hands wrap around his.

He jolted his eyes up and looked at Sasuke’s hands securing  his, he smiled at Naruto, and in that moment Naruto knew he could do this.

“I Naruto Uzumaki, Lord 7th of Konoha, hereby vow to love and protect Sasuke Uchiha for the rest of my life. , I vow here and now that the Uchiha crest will forever be a symbol associated to Konoha and its strength and unity will shine bright alongside the Uzumaki crest.” Naruto struggled to get the next words out, he forcibly gulped down a ball of anxiety forming in his throat.

“I Naruto Uzumaki believe that Sasuke is worthy of this title because…”

Naruto started to choke on his own words, emotions finally starting to get the best of him, “he has not only been a pivotal point in helping the Hokage get better but he also has been the soul reason the Hokage is standing here today, alive and happy. I Naruto respect, love and find this man more than fit of the title, as Hokage I thank him for the outstanding work he has down for the people in this village, and as his soon to be husband, I want to thank him for bringing color back into my life and helping me stand proud as Hokage. Because behind me, the hokage will always be Sasuke Uchiha and for that I believe his name and his family crest should be as important as mine.” Naruto took a deep breath out and smiled at Sasuke ever so softly, only letting one or two tears fall down before trying to collect himself again.

Sasuke’s eyes widened in disbelief from what he was hearing. He had no idea Naruto was going to say these vows, what did he mean by his family crest being a symbol associated to Konoha?

*FLASH BACK*

*3 months before the wedding*

Naruto looked at the plane white piece of paper in front of him, he just stared at it, like he was at some war with this innocent piece of paper. His forehead was creased  with stress and his constant tapping of his pencil against his desk could be heard from out the street.

“Will you stop fucking tapping that pencil Naruto? You are going to drive me insane.”

“Kakashi, it helps me focus.”

“What the fuck are you working on?” Kakashi grumbled as he stood up to look at what Naruto had on his desk.

“I don’t get it, it’s a blank piece of paper?”

Naruto looked at him with anger in his eyes, “I know that , these are meant to be my vows, I just can’t think of the right thing to say.”

Kakashi looked at him with worrying eyes, “oh, well… uh, tell him you love him and that… uh… he is a good ninja?”

Naruto started to hit his head against the table, “a good ninja? Really? My god, you are one million times worse than me, and that’s saying something.”

Kakashi started to grumpily walk back to his desk which was in the corner of the Hokage’s office now. “Look, I’m not good with mushy stuff Naruto, just make sure it actually comes from your heart, don’t just say typical bullshit, actually write things you mean. When you make a vow, it’s a promise. So, make promises you will keep.”

“Wow, that was actually useful, thanks Kakashi.”

“Glad I could help, now stop with the fucking tapping.”

Naruto got out from behind his desk  and went out the door with an idea in his head.

“Where are you going? We still have this contract to finish.”

Naruto was racing down the corridor as he screamed back at Kakashi in the room, “You gave me an idea, I'll be back later. Finish the contract yourself.”

Kakashi mumbled angrily under his breath, “thinks he can boss me around, hmph, if I stayed Hokage I could boot the little shit out of here.”

“Did you say something?” Naruto said from the far away distance

“Nope.”

-

*Wedding day- Current time*

“Naruto what do you mean about the Uchiha crest what are you talking about?”

Naruto smiled cheekily, “well 3 months ago when I started writing your vows, someone made me realize I should only make promises I could keep.”

Naruto quickly glanced at Kakashi who was chuckling under his breath.

“And so, I basically joined our family trees, it took me a very long time. But I guess being the Hokage has its perks, so you are now officially one of the head leaders in Konoha.  This means the Uchiha crest along side the Uzumaki crest will be symbols of pride, strength, wealth and power within Konoha and thus the entire world.

Sasuke looked at Naruto like he was going crazy, “but Naruto, you’re only doing this because you're marrying me, you have no right to do that. I don’t deserve the title, I…”

“Sasuke calm yourself, just because I am the   Hokage doesn't mean I decided this on my own.   You do realize that becoming a top leader in Konoha means you must have the majority vote from everybody in the village right?”

Sasuke started to look around at all the guest, he couldn’t believe that the village voted him into this position.

Sakura looked at Sasuke with a warm smile and a small tear falling down her face. She stood up and started walking towards Sasuke.

“This was Naruto’s and the whole villages surprise to you. Come out everyone.”

The little kids from the ninja academy started coming out in their ninja uniform. Typical green jackets with the Uzumaki crest on the top right corner of their jackets. Sasuke had no idea what was happening, but his heart was not ready for what he would see next.

“Turn around kids.”

The kids started turning around, and there it was, proudly sitting directly in the centre of the jackets, an Uchiha crest. Burning bright red for the entire world to see.

“Starting  next week these vest will be worn by every shinobi and training ninja. So, when we represent Konoha outside these walls, the Uchiha crest will be as visible as the Uzumaki crest.”

Sasuke looked at Naruto in disbelief, his eyes started burning red, tears forming rapidly in the corner of his eyes.

“Thank you, Naruto.” Sasuke walked forward and took Naruto into a passionate kiss. He didn’t care that they were not up to that part of the ceremony, he needed Naruto to know how much he felt for him. He needed his lips to show Naruto how grateful he was, that he was forever in debt to this man from saving him from darkness, from saving his family name burning into a crisp alongside with Sasuke.

The audience started to applause, and cheers starting beckoning from the crowd.

“Ahem…” The Celebrant cough under his breath.

“Sorry, please continue.” Naruto said whilst laughing under his breath.

“We shall continue then…”-

After continuing with their vowes the Celebrant continued with the rest of the ceremony.

“Do you Naruto take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?”

“I do.” Naruto said whilst choking up from all the feelings which were swelling up in his throat.

“Do you Sasuke take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?”

Sasuke breathed out slowly and smiled softly and looked at Naruto like he was his entire world “I do.”

“With the power vested in me, I now pronounce you, Husband and Husband, you may kiss your groom.”

Naruto smiled so widely, and for the first time in his life, he kissed his Husband. Many kisses would follow after, but that first kiss as newly weds will be the one that both Naruto and Sasuke will remember on their deathbeds. It will be this moment, under the radiating sun, under fire trees and in a sea of applause and cheers that they will remember forever. How it felt to kiss his Husband, how it felt to kiss the man he would spend the rest of his living days with. And by god, was it not the most amazing kiss he had ever had. It was a kiss never forgotten.

Because that kiss would lead him to the next part of his life with Sasuke by his side. Together they will change Konoha for the better, but not only Konoha but  the world too. . Sasuke and Naruto would be considered some of the most influential and powerful ninjas in their world, with their teachings and guidance they would not only change Konoha but many other villages.

Till their dying days, the teachings of Naruto and Sasuke lived on throughout many others, their values of nurturing ninjas and creating a world without war, were peace is achieved by all villages and no child or person is expected to lay down their lives for the betterment of a village. Where people were not shunned or hidden for their differences and everyone was as equal as each other.

But even as bright as the sun may shine, darkness will follow. And with that darkness, light will shine a new.

A balance which is always occurring. But it is with Naruto’s and Sasuke’s teachings and guidance, that a hero will always rise against that darkness and will re-shine light onto the world once again.

-

Naruto and Sasuke spent the rest of their 50 years together, raising Boruto, Himawari and Sarada together, who all now act as main pillars in Konoha. Sasuke’s last words before his untimely death at 82 where proudly beautiful and where carried out perfectly by Naruto, who followed through with every single one of his dyeing wishes.

-

*10 minutes before Sasuke’s death*

“Naruto, my dear, .” Sasuke raised his frail hand to Naruto’s face. Opening his eyes as wide as he could to look into crystal blue eyes, “you look as beautiful as you did on our wedding day.”

Naruto smiled, “I’ve aged a bit since then I think. I could still take you in a match back then.”

Sasuke starting laughing, but his lungs couldn’t keep up, he starting coughing heavily, body slowly starting to shut down.

“Don’t push yourself, Sasuke. Your too ill to be laughing.”

“Listen Naruto, it will be my time to go soon.”

Naruto looked at him with utter pain in his eyes, “no Sasuke please. The doctor will be here soon, you will be fine, you will see.”

Sasuke softly smiled with the little energy he had left, “always optimistic my dear, but please my darling listen, I need you to know that you have made me the happiest man in this world and when I die, I want you to understand that you have given me a life I never knew I could have before. When we were younger, you saved me Naruto, it was you from the beginning, no one else. It was always you. Please continue our alliance and make sure our teachings of a better world are spread Naruto, make sure no child has to suffer the way we did as kids. Please promise me?”

Naruto started to tear up as he held onto Sasuke’s small and nearly lifeless hand. “I will I promise, but that’s no way to speak, you will live my dear, you will.”

Sasuke knew it was time, he could feel it, his lungs started slowing down and his heart beats started decreasing. “You will forever be my sun, thank you Naruto for showing me the light. I love you, I always have, since I was a little boy. I have always loved you.” Sasuke’s eyes started to close, until finally his hand went completely limp.

“Sasuke, no! No! No! No!” Naruto started to cry heavily as he embraced his departed husband. “Please, Sasuke, wake up… I’m not ready… Please.”

-

In the next couple of years after Sasuke’s death, Naruto would spend all his time and energy into making sure he fulfilled Sasuke’s wishes. And it wasn’t till he was 102 did Naruto finally die in his sleep peacefully, dreaming of his husband Sasuke.

The last thing Naruto remembered before blackness took over was when he and Sasuke were young and newly in love. He remembered the slow dance in the bar surrounded by his friends and family, he remembered the first time they kissed as a dare and he remembered the first time he told Sasuke he loved him. It all came back to him that night.

-

And it was Sasuke who was there waiting for him, when he opened his eyes to a white heaven. He was right there in a garden, flowers so colourful, sky shining so brightly,  . He was smiling as bright as the moon on a dark night.

“Naruto I’ve been waiting for you.”

Naruto started to smile, “come here!”

Naruto ran towards Sasuke, realizing he had his old strength back, his fit muscles strode him forward to his youthful partner, he jumped into Sasuke’s arms and leaned in for a deep kiss, a kiss he so longed for.   

“I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you even more.” Sasuke replied softly.

Naruto and Sasuke hugged for what felt like hours, not wanted to let go, hugging each other like it had been years, and for Naruto it had been years. They both cried into each-others strong embrace, letting tears float down softly onto the ground. The sun shined brightly on the scene, and the soft wind whistled past. Finally two men, more like two puzzle pieces re-joined, and everything seemed brighter, and the world once again felt balanced.

Naruto pulled away for only a moment to look at Sasuke as he knew him when he was 28, he couldn’t believe he had him in his arms. He quickly went forward wanted to kiss Sasuke one million times to make up for 20 years of missing half of his heart.

“I love you.” Naruto said.

“I love you more.” Sasuke said.

-

It seemed as though as they kissed the flowers grew and the more they smiled the brighter things got. And it was strange, that even though they were no longer alive, precisely the moment Sasuke and Naruto touched in the afterlife, people on earth could have sworn they saw the sun shine a little brighter, the flowers on earth shine colours so beautifully day and at night, the sky was lit with many more stars and the moon seemed like it was illuminating against the dark sky canvas.

-

The end

I want to thank you for reading and finishing A KISS NEVER FORGOTTEN. 

It was a long wait for this too finish, but i am so glad you stuck it out till the end. 

FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART THANK YOU FOR READING XX

LOTS OF LOVE FROM ME XXX 

I hope you continue to follow my other stories xx

[ineffablecolors]

NEW TALES FROM THE OLD FOREST [5/a few more]

New Tales from the Old Forest; ~ 3, o00 words; FF.NET || AO3 Lovely banner by the equally lovely @katie-dub !

Hey, thanks so much to everyone who so enthusiastically dived back into this story again - means a lot! Hope the joy of the season is already upon you! :)

She wraps her arms tighter around herself and jumps in place to get the blood flowing or whatever people hope for when they do that. Perhaps they hope to jump high enough that they never come back down and just orbit the cold earth from then on. Sounded plausible enough.

But, looking out at the Storybrooke harbor, Emma has to admit that she kinda gets what Killian sees in the place. When it’s not trying to turn you into an icicle that is.

This is ridiculous. She knows enough about Storybrooke to find some hot cocoa, warm food and well, just warmth in general. So with one last semi-mournful, semi-accusatory look at Killian’s house, she gets back in her bug and asks Henry how he feels about some grilled cheese.

///

Emma knows next to nothing about Storybrooke. Usually it’s her complaining to Killian about the hustle and bustle of New York City and he either doesn’t have a bad word to say about the sleepy town he spends most of his time in or he is way less of a whiner than Emma.

(It’s probably the latter but she likes to reassure herself with the former.)

She knows nothing until the day of “The Big Skype Hijacking” as her son had dubbed it. Why? He had a lengthy explanation about the importance of title-picking for a budding author. She… does not entirely get it. Then again, maybe she is a bit prejudiced ever since “The Horrific Waffle Fiasco”. The nerve on that kid, she swears.

It all starts with her getting home early and hearing Henry’s laugher. The pros of having an 11-year-old include the fact that you are still not completely banned from the perimeter of their room but at the same time you have been made aware of what a privilege that is. And how soon it will be taken from you.

As it stands Henry’s door is thrown wide open, probably thanks to the sneaker that is jammed half under it. A definite sign of the haste with which he threw himself on his bed. And the voice drifting from his laptop explains it all.

“Well, that is quite the fascinating story, lad. So now he is stuck with this little bird?”

“Yes, but he has no idea what to do with it. He says the thing is nocturnal and won’t let him sleep!” Henry’s merriment makes her mouth tick up in seconds.

Killian’s deep laughter doesn’t hurt either.

“And has your teacher actually been to see the poor creature? Or its poor besotted owner?”

“That’s the thing – I don’t knoooow! His “bird-induced insomnia” was the last we heard from David. You know, when he came by the school to drop off some textbooks we had left behind. I’ve never seen anyone look so happy about kids leaving their stuff all over.”

“Hmmm. Well, this just won’t do now, will it? We need more intel before we can proceed with any confidence.”

“Well, I was thinking…”

Uh-oh. She knows that tone. Last time he heard that tone, they spent 3 hours in The Belle of Bookstores and came out carring so much shit Emma didn’t have to workout for a week.

“Mhmmm…”

It seems like Killian has a sixth sense about “the tone” as well.

“Maybe you could convince mom that a pet is a good thing for a kid to have around. You know, a pre-teen thing. She is really into those recently.”

“Right. And me, with all my expertise on pre-teens...”

“You write children’s slash young adults slash anyone who has good taste books!”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, young man!”

“But it might get me a puppy!”

“I’m glad to see you think your mother so easily bought, kid,” she finally joins in, leaning a hip on the doorjam and crossing her arms in her favourite ‘I’m a single mom who takes no bullshit’ pose.

“Oh. Hey, mom,” Henry, on the other hand, has his own favourite ‘I’m your little angel and you’ll forgive me anything’ face.

“Nonsense, Swan, the lad thinks your defenses so insurmountable that he felt the need to contract a professional tale spinner.”

The laptop is angled so that she can’t see Killian’s face but Emma finds herself perfectly capable of envisioning his ‘I’m so charming and suave, how can you resist me’ grin.

Because it’s 5pm and the universe is probably napping and so unable to conspire against her, Henry’s phone rings not 10 minutes later and Emma has no qualms about settling herself on the floor beside his bed and dragging his laptop into her lap.

Hijack #1: Emma Swan taking over for Henry Swan

“Fancy seeing your face, love.”

“Wish I could say the same but that light is really not doing you any favours.”

She teases him because she can. Because they’ve established that “they definitely did not break up” three weeks ago and have talked every day since. She teases him because they are good. If she wasn’t afraid that it might wake up the universe and jinx them all to hell, Emma would say that they are very good.

“Oy! No need to take me down quite so many notches, Swan. I believe this place was designed to flatter Ruby’s pale complexion and no one else’s.”

It is so obvious that he is in a public place, a diner of sorts, with a vibe that’s even familiar-ish. Which is why the slight note of irritation? warning? jealousy? in her tone is absolutely ridiculous and yet-

“Who’s Ruby?”

“Oh. Have I not told you this?”

“Mmm, don’t think so.”

Yup, definitely irritated now.

“Remember where I had my signing in your fair New York?”

“Yeah, I seem to recall that place and event. I believe Henry made me check it on Google maps 4 times. 4 times. A bookshop that we had been to before! I’m surprised he didn’t make me do a test drive before the signing to see how fast we get there.”

“Right,” he probably deserves some credit for swallowing his laughter but she sure isn’t going to give it to him. “And you know Granny? From the diner across the bookstore?”

“I’ve only been addicted to her grilled cheese for like 2 years. ‘Course I know Granny, Killian, would you get to the point already?”

“Bloody hell. Fine. Long story short – and trust me that’s no small sacrifice for a writer – Granny used to run a diner in Storybrooke with her granddaughter Ruby. They were doing real well but then Ruby went off to model in New York so they decided to open a… a branch there. But then, one Christmas-“

“Wait, wait. I’m sorry, hold up and take in some air, I didn’t mean get to the point that fast.”

Killian, bless him, actually does need to suck in some air and she shakes her head in fond exasperation.

“So, let me see, if I’m getting this right. Granny, the same Granny who has been feeding me and Henry almost every weekend for years now, used to live in Storybrooke? You used to know each other?”

“That is correct. Is why I chose the bookstore across her charming establishment. And why she was the one keeping everyone there hydrated and nourished.”

Emma snorts. She’s hard pressed to define Granny’s hot chocolate as hydrating. You can eat the thing with a spoon, it’s so thick and creamy… Some days Emma thinks she’d rather part with a kidney than Granny’s cocoa.

“Alright. Let’s ignore how absolutely bizzare that coincidence is-“

“As I told you, lass, no coincidence at all. I very purposefully chose-“

“Right, right. I got it. But still. You know Granny! Our Granny!”

“Well, to be fair, Swan, she was my Granny first.”

His grin is infuriating. And so is the way his hair falls across his forehead. And the light circling under his eyes. And the long eyelashes that swipe over it whenever he blinks at her. How can someone look so innocent and infuriating at the same time?

She knows Killian Jones is far far from innocent. And maybe it’s because she knows his story that sometimes she just wants to reach through her laptop (or Henry’s as the case may be) and brush his hair and wrap her arms around him and smother him with kisses. And that’s just plain ridiculous so-

“Whatever. Why is she here and her granddaughter is in Storybrooke, if she was the one working in New York?”

The granddaughter is still… a question mark. An ex-model question mark.

“As I was just saying, one Christmas Ruby came back and after one too many holiday run-ins with a certain deputy, she never left. But the place in New York was literally ready to open and, if you know Granny, you know that woman never turns down a challenge, so… Granny is there, making sure you don’t starve on your stakeouts and Ruby is here, bugging me closer and closer to an early grave. One mediocre cup of coffee at a time.”

“I heard that, Jones!”

And Emma heard that.

“Granny’s is a chain… Huh. I guess wonders do never cease…”

“Sorry, love, Regina seems to be calling me on here. I’ll just give her a call instead and be right back.”

And that’s how it happens.

Hijack #2: Ruby Lucas taking over for Killian Jones

“Freaking finally! I thought I’d never get my chance.”

Suddenly Emma’s screen is filled with a whole lot of what she will soon know is Ruby Lucas.

“Hey?”

“Hi! I’m Ruby. And you must be the magical Emma!”

Emma sputters. It’s not graceful and it’s not pretty but at least she’s not drinking anything.

The hell? What kind of things has Killian been saying about her?

“Excuse me?”

“Hmmm?”

“Magical Emma?”

“Oh. Sorry. That’s just what I’ve been calling you in my head. Not like to Killian’s face or anything.”

The Ruby girl gets a thoughtful, borderline fiendish look on her face.

“Maybe I should. Can someone die from blushing?”

“Umm… I don’t think so. Can we go back to how we’ve never met but you have like… a nickname for me?”

Eyes darting away just for a second, probably to check that Killian is still occupied with his manager, and Ruby fixes her with a serious look. It’s like watching all the bubble exit a champagne bottle until all that’s left is concentrated alcohol that can really do a number on your head.

“He’s been back in Storybrooke for a few years now. But he’s only been back for a couple of months.”

…

“Oh.”

…

“I don’t know what kinda magic,” Ruby scrunches up her unnecessary perfect nose and waves her hand in what Emma supposes illustrates magic. “you’ve been doing but just keep doing it, yeah?”

…

“I-“

…

“And that’s how Jones ended with a drawn mustache and a perm!”

“Bloody hell, woman!”

“She needs to be warned.”

“Get off. Off. Stay away from my computer and my- Off.”

“Looovely to finally meet you, Emma!”

Ruby leaves with a wink and a wave and a generous view of her retreating back. Killian reemerges with the most sheepish look on his face and she smiles.

She doesn’t call him her boyfriend either. The word feels so… foreign. She is not sure her mouth would know how to form the syllables.

But other parts of her anatomy are definitely beating out the rhythm.

“Bloody hell, why does Regina insist on skyping me?!”

Hijack #3: Roland Hood stealing the whole show

///

He can tell she is up to something. He knows his mom pretty well – has known her all his life, you might say.

She is great at fooling all her “targets” and depositing their asses in jail before they even realized what the hell is going on. She is not too bad at faking it with his teachers and the other parents at his school either. Expect her smile is always like… extra tight and fake-y around the other moms, especially the ones with such long nails that Henry is always a bit apprehensive about shaking hands with them – except they usually prefer to pat him on the head and squeeze him up with something like “poor sweetheart” which makes his mom look even more like an arrow drawn up and ready to fly off. Honestly, sometimes he doesn’t get adults at all.

But he gets his mom and he knows she is up to something. It’s just that… he is as well so he’ll let it slide this one time.

Henry figured (and Killian reluctantly agreed) that just because they are not getting a pet, doesn’t mean that Killian possibly can’t. There is, of course, the small matter of him being in another state but somehow David doesn’t think to ask after any whereabouts when Henry tells him he is picking a cat for his mom’s boyfriend.

Killian asked for more intel before he agrees to tackle the Teacher-Pet case. He also vehemently protested naming it that but, for the life of him, Henry doesn’t understand why – it is all about getting his teacher together with the pet shelter’s owner. It is perfect and Killian is being silly.

It is fun really. To find out that Killian can be silly as well and get cranky when his coffee is “bollocks” (whatever that is, he isn’t supposed to use it). He never really considered the fact that Killian Jones might be genius and talented and super awesome but also… silly. It’s nice.

And because he has seen Killian in action – his mom told him all about Roland hijacking Regina’s Skype and calling Killian non-stop for a full two hours before he was discovered – he knows that his matchmaking skills are the best money could buy – or, you know, puppy eyes since it’s not like he has any money. He feels like he might be getting a bit old for that trick but it seems to work just as well on Killian as it always does on his mom and desperate times…

///

The idea pops into her head about an hour after “meeting” Ruby for the first time. And once there it’s like that little piece of popcorn that’s stuck to the roof of your mouth and keeps annoying you and you just can’t get it off.

And then she goes to Granny’s a couple of days later and the woman looks at her over her glasses and says she heard her granddaughter made her acquaintance. Says she heard someone else has been making her acquaintance as well. Emma is pretty sure that’s not how you use that phrase but she is also too busy dumping half the cinnamon shaker in her cocoa and fleeing as if Granny had turned into a pack of wolves.

And then Ruby adds her on Facebook. And Emma eyes the request suspicious all Thursday and then she does the one thing Emma from like 4 months ago would probably gag at her doing. She asks Killian what he thinks. And frankly? Emma from like 4 months ago can suck it. Because she has someone whose opinion she values and respects and actually wants and she is OK with telling him that the brunette freaked her out a bit and eventually, after a couple of hours on the phone, she even tells him she was a bit “on the fence about this Ruby chic” when he first mentioned her and if his smirk is anything to go by, he knows exactly what that means but just shakes his head and says “Lucas is a pest. The big, fangy kind, not the kind you can swap away”. And really in the end, Killian just tells her to go with her gut – Ruby is cool in his books, her grandmother probably saved him from being homeless both times he rolled into Storybrooke with nothing but the clothes on his back, an unfinished manuscript and a spectacular hangover. In the end, it’s not about Killian telling her what to do at all, it’s about her having someone to talk it out with and make up her mind. It’s new. It’s kinda wonderful.

And then Henry asks if he can invite Killian to his birthday. His birthday. In August. 5 months away.

And then because being his girlfriend or whatever (she still cannot say the thing with adding “whatever” after, she has tried) doesn’t mean that she is not still a fan or whatever (that one is just a bit embarrassing – being a fan of your boyfriend… or whatever). So, yeah, she checks Killian Jones’ blog, which he updates only every month or so but, yeah, she follows him on Instagram and she follows his blog and whatever, he follows her as well and once said something ridiculous along the lines of him being a fan of her, like every part of her or whatever, so yeah. It’s fine.

But then she opens his blog, while on a ridiculously unproductive stakeout and she sees his last post from a couple of hours ago.

The wonder isn’t that love find us, as strange and magical and mystical and wonderful and unbelievable as that feels.

The wonder is that even when we never find it, even when love waits in the wings of dream for too long, even when it doesn’t knock on the door we’ve been staring as for years, or leave messages in bottles or on answering machines or on Facebook walls or in the bloody sand to be washed away by the waves of time, even when love doesn’t put flowers in our hands or tears of incomparable joy or unimaginable heartbreak in our eyes… even then… so many of us never stop believing in love.

Imagine how lucky we are. To have such hope, such faith. And then, occasionally, when we are so very very lucky… such love.

She is doing it.

[wineanddinosaur]

Advanced Cicerone Chris Leguizamon Is Using Beer Education to Make the World a Better Place

It was the two-hour bus ride to and from his previous job at Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, Calif., that gave Chris Leguizamon time to become one of only two Advanced Cicerones in San Diego. Armed with a collection of beer magazines and books like Randy Mosher’s “Tasting Beer: An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink,” Leguizamon honed his expertise as a craft beer expert, eventually becoming the education program manager at Pure Project, a 1% for the Planet Company and certified carbon and plastic-neutral organization known for ultra-complex and highly sought-after brews. He shares his knowledge with beer drinkers of all levels through an Instagram livestream series under his account @chris.thebeereducator, with a goal of helping San Diego become home to the most Cicerone-certified front-of-house staff anywhere else in the world.

Sharing knowledge comes naturally to Leguizamon. As a former brewery tour guide for six years, as well as a first generation Latino/Hispanic American with a degree in physics and passion for renewable energy, he’s as well versed in discussions about the diversity in beer styles as he is about diversity and social justice. After the #BlackoutTuesday initiative permeated Instagram last June, Leguizamon says he found himself avoiding discussions about beer in order to focus on conversations around equity (and the lack thereof) outside the beer industry.

“I could not fathom educating people about anything that pertains to this fizzy carbonated beverage without addressing real social issues, because that’s what the world is going through,” Leguizamon says. When responding to critics who say breweries should “stick to beer,” he says, “If you just think that life is about beer, you’re missing the point … Beer is made by someone with hands, that’s working, that also has three kids — there’s more to it [than beer].”

With Pure Project’s backing, Leguizamon shifted his educational efforts online. (He calls his employer “the best leadership company I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”) In the following interview, Leguizamon discusses his entry into beer, his upward trajectory, and his desire to empower others to make their own impacts.

Ed. note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

1. How, when, and why did you get into beer?

When I was 15, I was visiting my uncle in Bogota, Colombia. I’d never really had beer besides like, family gatherings when you’re like two years old (laughs). He brought in a mixed 6-pack, sits it right down in the living room, and says, ‘Chris, today we’re gonna drink the products of our country.’ He presented one — Club Colombia, which has won a bunch of awards — and told me to look at the color (yellow, fizzy, straw-like), smell it, and then I tasted it. It was nothing like soda, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, God, this sucks!’

The second beer was Poker, and it had this attractive amber hue to it. The two didn’t look the same at all, so I tried it and it had this recognizable toast that reminded me of breakfast with my mom, and a touch of caramel. Colombians are attracted to caramel because of our obsession with arequipe. We put that on everything, so right away I thought it was way better than the other one.

At that point, I went down a rabbit hole of: Why does beer taste different? There are cultures behind this. There are centuries of science and art. I began wanting to read, wanting to learn, and indirectly change the stigma of what a Latino or a guy that looks like me is in beer. I’m a brown-skinned kid from one of the poorest cities in the nation (Reading, Pa.) and I want people to have a ‘Oh, holy smokes, this kid knows his stuff!’ type of mentality.

2. So when did you formally enter the beer industry?

In 2014, I worked at a brewpub in Pennsylvania called Chatty Monks, and at that point I was the only non-family member that was on staff; it was just a staff of six, including the three owners. I was this bushy, big-eyed 21-year-old, excited to finally be in craft beer and I would sing praises about flavors, pairings, and there came a point where like the guests were looking at me and they’re like, ‘Dude, it’s just beer. Why do you have so much passion behind this?’ It got to a point where I became an outlier in my own industry-slash-town. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna move to the place I like to vacation, which is San Diego,’ and I did in 2014. I remember thinking, ‘Holy shit, these people get it.’ I worked at Mission Brewery as a tour guide until 2015, moved to Stone Brewing until 2016, and then AleSmith Brewing Company until early 2019.

3. You’ve worked at a few big name breweries in San Diego. But you’ve talked about getting burnt out on the industry after a couple of negative encounters. What kept you in beer?

In 2019, I wanted to leave the beer industry, defeated. I was like, ‘Maybe I could get into bourbon, maybe get into coffee’ … but Kira Bouchard [currently the regional manager at Pure Project], who is my saving grace, was having coffee with me and asked what ‘beer adventures’ I was having. When I told her I was considering leaving the industry altogether, she encouraged me to apply to Pure Project, despite there being no open positions at the time.

Things fell into place: Someone left, I applied. I went through the whole interview process and the rest is history. I went from not wanting to smell a beer or talk about it to signing up for the Advanced Cicerone exam three months later.

4. What was the [Advanced Cicerone] exam study process like?

I studied for five hours a day. I would wake up at 5:30 a.m., put a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich in the microwave, and then coffee. I’d just sit there every single morning and by 6 a.m. the books were open. I sacrificed a lot. I’ve missed out on a lot, but that determination kind of got me back into the rhythm.

5. Why is beer education so important to you?

I’m very team-oriented, and I hate when people talk down to beertenders or try to stump them, mainly because of gender. That ticks me off. A lot of people try to stump [female bartenders] and I can’t stand that, so I want to empower everyone to be able to hold their own.

6. After you achieved Advanced Cicerone, how did you start to share your knowledge?

We at Pure Project all push each other to be better, and the way that it evolved was I was homebrewing this BrewDog beer through their DIY Dog program [an annual compilation of open-source homebrew recipes], and I asked Mike Czech [Pure Project director of distribution], ‘What if we do something like this at Pure Project? We’re releasing two new beers every two weeks. What if you announce the title, the ABV, and three important keywords the beertenders can use?’ But Mike tailored it so well; he cut out the fluff. I’m very raw with my ideas and I need someone to edit, and Mike made it happen.

At the same time, Matt [Robar, Pure’s co-founder] saw potential in me because I was a tour guide for so long. He asked me to jump on an IG Live, since we were about to release Hazelsaurus Rex and a barrel-aged sour. It was one of the rawest IG Lives ever, I’d never had the two beers and Winslow [Sawyer, Pure’s head brewer], who is like a foot taller than me, pours the beers and my face lights up. I’m just geeking out. When we cut, they thought I did a pretty good job, so they asked me to do it again the next week. And it went from there!

7. How did that segment on Pure Project’s Instagram transform into what you’re personally doing, and how did it change during Covid-19?

I started a beer account called Chris the Beer Educator, and the first video you find is literally me in the back of my girlfriend’s backyard, laying out the intention of this whole virtual education thing. It was literally just to highlight everyone who got me to the point where I’m at now — never to focus on me; it’s to highlight other people and what they’re doing.

Then Covid hits and I’m sitting there antsy, wanting to keep teaching people about beer. So this spawned off that IG Live that Pure Project had me do for a couple months. I thought if I can convince people to read one of the most fundamental books, which is ‘Tasting Beer,’ then hopefully people will follow along. It made me want to read that book again, and it kind of grew into its own beast.

Weirdly, people have told me I built a brand. I didn’t mean to — I literally just wanted to empower people that were just at home during quarantine, not knowing what the world is gonna look like, to read ‘Tasting Beer’ and show how amazing San Diego beer professionals are. It’s San Diego craft beer in its rawest form.

8. What’s one episode that stands out to you?

When George [Thornton, owner of Home Brewing Company] and I were talking, things were flowing, and we were talking about Black is Beautiful — that was just the most human side of me, and George. There was a lot of frustration with what’s happening in the world, a lot of ‘How can people not just want to listen?’ George and I had that one moment where we both had pain, we both had frustration, and this was the least we could do being beer professionals, just being human, is telling people, ‘Listen, we know that you feel attacked, but just stop yelling back — just listen, learn, read a book about what’s happening. Try to understand people’s perspective that you don’t understand. They’re not part of the same walk as you. Celebrate that diversity as we like to celebrate diversity in beer styles.’

9. Ultimately, what’s your goal in the beer industry?

The main goal of Chris the Beer Educator is to have everyone pass their Certified Cicerone and to get that Level 2. I’ve always, always, always wanted to have people go from Level 1 to Level 2 and say, Chris was that person when everyone else says ‘Just do it yourself,’ he didn’t mind that I messaged him and said, ‘Hey could you clear up this section for me?’

I asked a lot of people for help during the Advanced Cicerone studying, and I got a good amount of ‘nos.’ Then there’s those people that mentored me, and I want to be that person for San Diego, so that we have the most Certified Cicerones, the most [Advanced] Cicerones, and ideally the most Master Cicerones in the nation. Imagine San Diego not just having the most amount of breweries — that’s nice — but the most educated staff anywhere, where everyone’s really on top of their game. Making it both female and male, Latino, person of color, Black, Asian, whatever it may be to diversify. That’s the dream, honestly.

The article Advanced Cicerone Chris Leguizamon Is Using Beer Education to Make the World a Better Place appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/chris-leguizamon-beer-education/

[johnboothus]

Advanced Cicerone Chris Leguizamon Is Using Beer Education to Make the World a Better Place

It was the two-hour bus ride to and from his previous job at Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, Calif., that gave Chris Leguizamon time to become one of only two Advanced Cicerones in San Diego. Armed with a collection of beer magazines and books like Randy Mosher’s “Tasting Beer: An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink,” Leguizamon honed his expertise as a craft beer expert, eventually becoming the education program manager at Pure Project, a 1% for the Planet Company and certified carbon and plastic-neutral organization known for ultra-complex and highly sought-after brews. He shares his knowledge with beer drinkers of all levels through an Instagram livestream series under his account @chris.thebeereducator, with a goal of helping San Diego become home to the most Cicerone-certified front-of-house staff anywhere else in the world.

Sharing knowledge comes naturally to Leguizamon. As a former brewery tour guide for six years, as well as a first generation Latino/Hispanic American with a degree in physics and passion for renewable energy, he’s as well versed in discussions about the diversity in beer styles as he is about diversity and social justice. After the #BlackoutTuesday initiative permeated Instagram last June, Leguizamon says he found himself avoiding discussions about beer in order to focus on conversations around equity (and the lack thereof) outside the beer industry.

“I could not fathom educating people about anything that pertains to this fizzy carbonated beverage without addressing real social issues, because that’s what the world is going through,” Leguizamon says. When responding to critics who say breweries should “stick to beer,” he says, “If you just think that life is about beer, you’re missing the point … Beer is made by someone with hands, that’s working, that also has three kids — there’s more to it [than beer].”

With Pure Project’s backing, Leguizamon shifted his educational efforts online. (He calls his employer “the best leadership company I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”) In the following interview, Leguizamon discusses his entry into beer, his upward trajectory, and his desire to empower others to make their own impacts.

Ed. note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

1. How, when, and why did you get into beer?

When I was 15, I was visiting my uncle in Bogota, Colombia. I’d never really had beer besides like, family gatherings when you’re like two years old (laughs). He brought in a mixed 6-pack, sits it right down in the living room, and says, ‘Chris, today we’re gonna drink the products of our country.’ He presented one — Club Colombia, which has won a bunch of awards — and told me to look at the color (yellow, fizzy, straw-like), smell it, and then I tasted it. It was nothing like soda, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, God, this sucks!’

The second beer was Poker, and it had this attractive amber hue to it. The two didn’t look the same at all, so I tried it and it had this recognizable toast that reminded me of breakfast with my mom, and a touch of caramel. Colombians are attracted to caramel because of our obsession with arequipe. We put that on everything, so right away I thought it was way better than the other one.

At that point, I went down a rabbit hole of: Why does beer taste different? There are cultures behind this. There are centuries of science and art. I began wanting to read, wanting to learn, and indirectly change the stigma of what a Latino or a guy that looks like me is in beer. I’m a brown-skinned kid from one of the poorest cities in the nation (Reading, Pa.) and I want people to have a ‘Oh, holy smokes, this kid knows his stuff!’ type of mentality.

2. So when did you formally enter the beer industry?

In 2014, I worked at a brewpub in Pennsylvania called Chatty Monks, and at that point I was the only non-family member that was on staff; it was just a staff of six, including the three owners. I was this bushy, big-eyed 21-year-old, excited to finally be in craft beer and I would sing praises about flavors, pairings, and there came a point where like the guests were looking at me and they’re like, ‘Dude, it’s just beer. Why do you have so much passion behind this?’ It got to a point where I became an outlier in my own industry-slash-town. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna move to the place I like to vacation, which is San Diego,’ and I did in 2014. I remember thinking, ‘Holy shit, these people get it.’ I worked at Mission Brewery as a tour guide until 2015, moved to Stone Brewing until 2016, and then AleSmith Brewing Company until early 2019.

3. You’ve worked at a few big name breweries in San Diego. But you’ve talked about getting burnt out on the industry after a couple of negative encounters. What kept you in beer?

In 2019, I wanted to leave the beer industry, defeated. I was like, ‘Maybe I could get into bourbon, maybe get into coffee’ … but Kira Bouchard [currently the regional manager at Pure Project], who is my saving grace, was having coffee with me and asked what ‘beer adventures’ I was having. When I told her I was considering leaving the industry altogether, she encouraged me to apply to Pure Project, despite there being no open positions at the time.

Things fell into place: Someone left, I applied. I went through the whole interview process and the rest is history. I went from not wanting to smell a beer or talk about it to signing up for the Advanced Cicerone exam three months later.

4. What was the [Advanced Cicerone] exam study process like?

I studied for five hours a day. I would wake up at 5:30 a.m., put a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich in the microwave, and then coffee. I’d just sit there every single morning and by 6 a.m. the books were open. I sacrificed a lot. I’ve missed out on a lot, but that determination kind of got me back into the rhythm.

5. Why is beer education so important to you?

I’m very team-oriented, and I hate when people talk down to beertenders or try to stump them, mainly because of gender. That ticks me off. A lot of people try to stump [female bartenders] and I can’t stand that, so I want to empower everyone to be able to hold their own.

6. After you achieved Advanced Cicerone, how did you start to share your knowledge?

We at Pure Project all push each other to be better, and the way that it evolved was I was homebrewing this BrewDog beer through their DIY Dog program [an annual compilation of open-source homebrew recipes], and I asked Mike Czech [Pure Project director of distribution], ‘What if we do something like this at Pure Project? We’re releasing two new beers every two weeks. What if you announce the title, the ABV, and three important keywords the beertenders can use?’ But Mike tailored it so well; he cut out the fluff. I’m very raw with my ideas and I need someone to edit, and Mike made it happen.

At the same time, Matt [Robar, Pure’s co-founder] saw potential in me because I was a tour guide for so long. He asked me to jump on an IG Live, since we were about to release Hazelsaurus Rex and a barrel-aged sour. It was one of the rawest IG Lives ever, I’d never had the two beers and Winslow [Sawyer, Pure’s head brewer], who is like a foot taller than me, pours the beers and my face lights up. I’m just geeking out. When we cut, they thought I did a pretty good job, so they asked me to do it again the next week. And it went from there!

7. How did that segment on Pure Project’s Instagram transform into what you’re personally doing, and how did it change during Covid-19?

I started a beer account called Chris the Beer Educator, and the first video you find is literally me in the back of my girlfriend’s backyard, laying out the intention of this whole virtual education thing. It was literally just to highlight everyone who got me to the point where I’m at now — never to focus on me; it’s to highlight other people and what they’re doing.

Then Covid hits and I’m sitting there antsy, wanting to keep teaching people about beer. So this spawned off that IG Live that Pure Project had me do for a couple months. I thought if I can convince people to read one of the most fundamental books, which is ‘Tasting Beer,’ then hopefully people will follow along. It made me want to read that book again, and it kind of grew into its own beast.

Weirdly, people have told me I built a brand. I didn’t mean to — I literally just wanted to empower people that were just at home during quarantine, not knowing what the world is gonna look like, to read ‘Tasting Beer’ and show how amazing San Diego beer professionals are. It’s San Diego craft beer in its rawest form.

8. What’s one episode that stands out to you?

When George [Thornton, owner of Home Brewing Company] and I were talking, things were flowing, and we were talking about Black is Beautiful — that was just the most human side of me, and George. There was a lot of frustration with what’s happening in the world, a lot of ‘How can people not just want to listen?’ George and I had that one moment where we both had pain, we both had frustration, and this was the least we could do being beer professionals, just being human, is telling people, ‘Listen, we know that you feel attacked, but just stop yelling back — just listen, learn, read a book about what’s happening. Try to understand people’s perspective that you don’t understand. They’re not part of the same walk as you. Celebrate that diversity as we like to celebrate diversity in beer styles.’

9. Ultimately, what’s your goal in the beer industry?

The main goal of Chris the Beer Educator is to have everyone pass their Certified Cicerone and to get that Level 2. I’ve always, always, always wanted to have people go from Level 1 to Level 2 and say, Chris was that person when everyone else says ‘Just do it yourself,’ he didn’t mind that I messaged him and said, ‘Hey could you clear up this section for me?’

I asked a lot of people for help during the Advanced Cicerone studying, and I got a good amount of ‘nos.’ Then there’s those people that mentored me, and I want to be that person for San Diego, so that we have the most Certified Cicerones, the most [Advanced] Cicerones, and ideally the most Master Cicerones in the nation. Imagine San Diego not just having the most amount of breweries — that’s nice — but the most educated staff anywhere, where everyone’s really on top of their game. Making it both female and male, Latino, person of color, Black, Asian, whatever it may be to diversify. That’s the dream, honestly.

The article Advanced Cicerone Chris Leguizamon Is Using Beer Education to Make the World a Better Place appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/chris-leguizamon-beer-education/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/advanced-cicerone-chris-leguizamon-is-using-beer-education-to-make-the-world-a-better-place