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yyxgin · 4 years

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my only hate, my only love (kim seungmin)

pairing: kim seungmin x fem! reader genre: enemies to lovers au, highschool au angst, fluff word count: 11 k requested by: @joons-asscrack warnings: swearing, mentions of broken home

synopsis: A high school Shakespeare club angrily splits into two groups when they can’t agree on the correct interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. One group thinks it’s a cautionary tale about the stupidity of youth and shallow lust; the other group of youth thinks it’s a beautiful tragedy about poisonous hatred conquered by love. Reconciliation seems impossible-- then a person from one group falls in love with a person from the other.

(this dea is not mine !! I found it on pinterest under the tumblr user @/sarah531, however, i looked for the account and couldn’t find it. if you have any idea what the current @ of the owner of this prompt is, please let me know !!)

I actually used a lot of passages from this essay of Romeo and Juliet since I didn’t actually read it, all passages of the characters that talk about the play and are in italics belong to the rightful owner of this essay.

“A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned, and some punished. For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” your voice resonates in the quiet classroom, your words followed by more silence as you drop to your seat and close the book, placing it onto your table. The reality sinks in as the entirety of your English literature class doesn’t dare to say a word, the moment you finish reading the oh so famous Shakespearen drama making everyone lose themselves in their thoughts.

Your professor looks you in the eye, smiling a little. “So? What did you think about it?” she asks, moving her glasses further up her nose with her pointer finger, gazing onto the few people that actually chose this class as their subject of choice just to get more credit. You liked reading, to be honest. Everything about this class seemed inviting-- there were only a few people there and those that did actually care about the literature itself enough were thoughtful enough to hold a proper conversation with. You actually made friends with a lot of your classmates, your brains working at the same frequency as your shared ex gifted child burnout syndrome draped over your brains way too often after arriving to high school, making you connect on another level as you tried to soothe each other’s nerves and be there for each other. It was no secret that only the biggest of nerds went to the English literature classes, but you were okay with that idea.

You snort out a laugh, raising up your eyebrows in amusement. Your classes were always open for discussions, so you didn’t even have to raise your hand to speak-- one of the perks of being the professor’s favorite. You open your mouth to begin talking, when a voice cuts you off, beginning the discussion instead.

“Well, I think it was pretty,” mumbles a boy from the corner of the room, the only one you didn’t even particularly like in this whole class, making you roll your eyes. It was hard, being in the class of your favorite professor when you had to fight over being her favorite student with Kim Seungmin himself-- the devoted dandy boy, the member of the book club, the student council president. You despised everything about him only from one sole reason-- he was the top of the class. That was enough for you to hate him.

You’re asking why? Well, you were supposed to be the top of the class, of course. And you were, for the main part. You didn’t share any other classes with him, making it easy for you to ignore his existence, but it just so happened that your favorite class also had to be the one where you had to see his face so often.

He was your moral enemy.

“Care to tell us more, Seungmin?” professor Jung asks, motioning for your classmate to continue speaking, to tell her all of his thoughts. You knew Romeo and Juliet must have been her favorite play by the smile on her face, eager to hear all of your reviews and thought processes while reading the piece.

“Well, I think it was quite poetic. Tragic, even. I like the way Shakespeare portrayed the prejudice and ending of a long conflict just with the power of love.” he nods, licking his lips after his bold statement, making you laugh out loud this time.

All the eyes of your classmates turn to you, even your seatmate-- ever so laid-back and chilled out Han Jisung furrows his brows at your sudden outburst. You were never the one to turn attention your way in classes, the sight of you not reddening under the gazes of the people in the room nowhere to be seen surprising even you.

“Is there something funny, Y/N?” asks the professor, calling you by your first name. You liked the way it sounded, cringing at every teacher that called you by your last name as if you were a legal adult with your life figured out. This seemed more friendly-- it seemed kinder, even. You liked the way it made it feel like your professor actually cared about your opinion.

“I think there is, yes,” you nod, giggling to yourself again.

“And what is that?” she seems intrigued, taking a few steps to your desk, listening to what you have to say.

“Well, I think what he said is ridiculous.” you point out, a shock spreading on your professor’s features, making you continue. “The only thing tragic about this whole play is how Shakespere portrayed the fake image of love. I mean, Juliet was only 13, don’t you think it was a bit early to get married to a man? After a day, that is?” you explain, intriguing your classmates even more.

“It was the 16th century. It was normal to get married young back then,” mumbled your enemy, Kim Seungmin from his seat, locking his eyes with you through the classroom.

“Of course I know that,” you ironically smile at him, rolling your eyes in the process and looking back at your professor with a genuine smile this time, explaining more of your point of view, “I think it portrays girls as boy-crazy. Like love is everything they are made of and that they are worthless without a partner-- and that’s why Juliet chose to kill herself. If anything, I think it portrays the stupidity of the youth the most.”

“So you think she was stupid just because she killed herself upon seeing her loved one dead?” Seungmin’s brows are raised now, looking at you as if he was mocking you.

“Well, Romeo did the same thing, so yes. I think it was stupid of them. They were reckless, the whole situation was. How could they know they were in love when this all happened in one day? Nobody can fall in love that quickly.” you mutter, shaking your head in disbelief.

“I think the play portrayed love at first sight beautifully,” grins Seungmin, the teasing smirk on his face bothering you so much you want to wipe it off his face. Is he really that ridiculous?

“There’s no such thing. And what were the families doing, after all? Arguing without even knowing why? For all we know, their ancestors may have hated themselves because they accidentally took their cow and they decided to kill each other for that?” you scoffed, your voice raising increasingly.

“Now that’s ridiculous.” rolls his eyes Seungmin, taking you over the edge, your voice raising with every spoken word.

“Your view of love is ridiculous. If I knew the boy I was eyeing was my family’s enemy, I wouldn’t bat an eye before dropping him, but no, she chose to marry the guy. Did she really have such twisted morals?” you scoff, a part of your class laughing at your outburst.

You hear a few quiet, amused ‘yeah’s and ‘she’s actually right’s from everywhere around you, only flooding your ego more as you recognise that your point of view is shared by more people and you aren’t actually crazy.

“I think love is more important than rivalry.” speaks Seungmin, cocking his head to a side, teasing you just by the look on his face, your eyes scanning his features as you hear a few other comments from your classmates around you. Some girls even go as far as cooing at his romantic statement, making you laugh and roll your eyes at them. Were they all this ridiculous?

“She was thirteen!” you argue, screaming. That is all that takes professor Jung to interfere your heated discussion, clapping her hands in authority, making everyone’s heads snap to her figure standing in front of the classroom with an amused look on her face.

“Looks like we have quite the discussion here,” she points out, seeing your angered face.

“Yeah, because Seungmin’s point of view is stupid!” you grunt, making her point a scolding look into your skull that almost makes you shrink in your seat in embarrassment.

“Y/N, no one’s point of view is stupid. Literature is all about the impertretation,” she states, earning a few nods and hums from your interested classmates, “now, who agrees with Y/N’s interpretation of the play?”

A few hands shoot out into the air, Jisung’s following as you angrily nudge him into his side, making you grin. No way your friend is going to support your moral enemy’s idea-- he was your friend, after all. Something inside of you is telling you that this whole feud wasn’t only about the play anymore,. You were fighting with Kim Seungmin, and that was enough to keep you standing by your point.

“And who agrees with Seungmin’s interpretation?” she asks again, searching through the classroom. It seems like the amount of people that agree with your classmate is about the same as the amount of people that agree with you, making you annoyingly roll your eyes at the realisation that you once again didn’t manage to outpower your moral enemy.

“I see the classroom has split into two teams,” she grins, nodding her head, “well, I did think you were going to have different opinions on this, but I didn’t think it was going to get so heated over here.” she points out, switching her gaze from you to Seungmin and back, as if to scold you and support you with your antics all at once.

“Yeah, well, it’s not my fault Y/N can’t appreciate one of the most important pieces of English literature-”

“I’m all about supporting, if it was actually good and meaningful-”

“Stop it, you two!” she scolds you, making both of you shut up and finally provide some silence in the room. “Well, since you all look like you have different opinions on the topic, let’s try a fun experiment. I was going to make you all write an essay on the play by yourselves, just like we usually do, but I think this is going to be much more fun for all of us.” she states, smiling to herself like a happy child on Christmas. You wonder what’s racing through her head as she searches through the classroom, locking eyes with you, then continuing.

“I want you all to write an essay and do a presentation on Romeo and Juliet-- you can write about anything, whether it is your ideas, what you took from the play, what is your view-point on it. But you have to write it with the person who has the exact opposite opinion on this play. So this way, we can get the story from two points of view. Let’s see what you agree on, what you don’t, make it a discussion, I don’t care, just make it make sense. Do you understand me?” she smiles and you swear you can already feel what is going on before she says it, making your head hurt and breath hitch in your throat.

“And since Seungmin and Y/N seem to have the most different opinions on this, I am picking them as a pair-- no, there’s no way for the two of you to change.” she says before you can even open your mouth to argue back, leaving you to stand up from your seat just at the time when the bell rings.

“But miss Jung-”

“I want it done until the end of this month.” she smiles, taking her things and leaving the classroom, letting the thought sink in. You lunge yourself back to your seat, defeated and left to process the fact that you now had two weeks to work on a project with Kim Seungmin-- your biggest enemy.

A sigh escapes your seatmate’s mouth upon the scene, running his hand through his hair in frustration. “That’s what you get for always picking fights with him.”

That’s how you end up in a coffee shop two blocks away from your house. You didn’t exactly ask for Kim Seungmin’s number-- you weren’t in the 2000s anymore-- you swiftly added him on Facebook in order to get this over with so you wouldn’t have to meet with him anymore. Yes, you were mad at Mrs Jung for pairing you up with him, but you still adored her and wanted to do well, so that’s why you chose to do what you had to and arranged a meeting with him.

Kim Seungmin appears in the coffee shop in his usual cozy demeanour-- oversized sweater and everything, with a backpack hanging off his shoulder and a serious look plastered on his face. He places his copy of Romeo and Juliet onto the table and sits his figure into the chair right in front of you, sighing heavily as he stares at you from under his eyelashes, voice low and defeated.

“Hi.” he greets, resting his back against the head of the chair, waiting for you to take initiative. You were the one who arranged this whole thing in the first place, so it was kind of your responsibility now in his books.

“Hello,” you cleared your throat. You felt like you were sitting there with the devil himself, just begging yourself in your head not to explode like a raging volcano with every movement he made that always somehow ended up irritating you. It was like his aura was everything you despised-- his collected way of discussing and his calm way of thinking getting on your nerves with every sigh he sent your way.

“So… how do you wanna go around this?” he asks, raising his eyebrows at you in question.

You sigh back at him just to show him how annoyed you are by your professor’s choice of your partner, bringing your hands to rest them on the table and cracking your knuckles in nerves. You didn’t meet his eyes, you felt too intimidated to do so in the moment, before you spoke up and managed to get your point across.

“Well, since we have to gather both of our viewpoints in the essay, I think we could just start of by telling the other one what topics we want to talk about so the other one can debunk them.” you mumble, suddenly feeling nervous by the possibility of your idea being rejected. If you could disappear on the spot, believe me, you would.

Seungmin hums from his seat, nodding. “Seems reasonable.”

You try your hardest not to let out a relieved sigh, nodding back at him. “I brought some notes.”

You did some preparation for this. Well, a lot of preparation. There was no way Kim Seungmin could catch you unprepared at your study meeting. You wanted to prove to him that you were worth so much more than sharing your grade with him and if he had any snarky or teasing remark, you best believe you mastered up a response just as spiteful, if not more than what could possibly leave his lips in the moment. You weren’t here to embarrass yourself. You were here to look smart. Smarter than Kim Seungmin.

“Perfect.” he just mutters, taking the sheet of paper you were offering to him from your hand, placing it on the table in front of him and skimming his eyes through the lines of text you scribbled down yesterday evening.

The silence makes your palms sweat. It makes you nervously bite down on your lower lip. You felt embarrassing-- you were never the conservative type. All this time, you used to hate your classmate from afar. You never actually spoke to each other, all you did to express your hatred for the boy was in the way you always rolled your eyes when he spoke up in class, or you sighed when Mrs Jung was complimenting him in front of everyone, making sure he heard you. You don’t know what broke in you that day-- you were quite the shy type, to be honest. You didn’t like to be the centre of attention. What were you even thinking by all of this?

“I don’t think we should mention their age as an argument,” he says, finally meeting eyes with you.

“Why?” you ask, dumbfounded.

“Because as I already said, it was long ago. People used to marry young.” he shrugs, offering the sheet of paper back to you with a judging look on his face.

“Okay and? My point still stands. They were too young and reckless.”

“I also don’t think we should talk about the sex part.” he concludes, landing his hands into his lap.

“Why? Because it’s controversial?” you teasingly grin at him, waiting for his response.

“No. Because it clearly brings nothing to the table about our arguments. It doesn’t even really play a big role in the whole thing, so I think it’s useless to mention,” he shrugs, looking at your face. It felt like his eyes were studying you, judging you. It was hard to keep eye contact with him-- so you didn’t. You averted your gaze out of the window, opting to watch the passer-bys instead.

You sigh, waiting for him to say something against your notes again. Of course you could expect this-- there was no way Kim Seungmin would agree with anything you’re trying to say in the matter at all.

“And the point about Rosaline is a little over the line as well…”

“What do you want me to put in the essay if you’re just going to tell me it’s unreasonable and over the line, huh?” you voice out, pinning your eyes onto his shocked figure, “it’s supposed to be an essay on everything I didn’t like about it, so that’s what I’m going to put in it and your job is to comment on my arguments. Just like my job is to comment on what you loved about this piece of shit of a play, and that’s what I’m going to do, so fuck off.” you growled, standing up and taking your things with you, too frustrated and hot-headed to continue the discussion.

Only Kim Seungmin could make you this mad and you hated him for it even more.

You hear your door open, revealing your mum standing in the doorway with a mug of hot tea and a soft smile playing with her features. You sigh, playing with your pen in your hand, waiting for her to say what she needs to say and leave so you could have some silence to finally work.

“Sweetie, you should really relax for a while. You’ve been studying for the whole day…” she mumbles, taking the tea to your desk and running a hand through your hair. You fight off the urge to pull away from her, knowing damn well it would hurt her feelings, so you just opt to nod at her face and faking a smile.

“Yeah, sure, mum.” you respond, but make no effort in getting up from your chair and moving to your bed. It was already late in the night and your mum was wearing her pyjamas, signaling that she was going to sleep. She always went to sleep early, because she needed to wake up in the early hours of the day to go to work, but you usually didn’t go to sleep earlier than midnight anyway-- homework was taking you too much time sometimes.

“I mean it. You’re doing great job in school, sweetie, but you have to lay off for a while or else you’ll overwork yourself.” she says affectionately, making you grunt on the inside.

“Okay, okay, go to sleep now, good night mum…” you mumble, waiting for her to finally leave you alone.

“Are you telling me to go away?” she asks with a hint of laugh in her voice that you know for a fact is fake, because the expression on her face looks hurt. You hate to see that face, because it makes you feel guilty, but you really can’t help yourself sometimes.

“No.” you mutter, shaking your head.

She just stares at you for a while, biting down on her lower lip, before she hangs her head low and sighs out. She turns around, taking a few steps to your door, turning around only for a moment when she stands in the doorway and whispers a quiet ‘good night’ at you, closing the door behind her and disappearing into her bedroom.

You feel a sense of relief coming over you. Of course you weren’t going to sleep yet, but she didn’t have to know that. She didn’t have to know a lot of things.

The small, old copy of Romeo and Juliet falls into your eyes in the corner of your desk. You had to borrow your book from the library and you hated how some pages were torn and the ink was so old it was hard to read sometimes, but you couldn’t afford to buy yourself one, because you were saving up for college and every cent counts in your household.

You take it into your hands, reading over the passages you bookmarked when you were first reading the book, wanting to refresh your memory with the lines that stood up to you and made you snort at how ridiculous the book truly was again before typing them down into the document you had opened in front of you.

“Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- it’s everything except what it is!” it says. You run your fingers along the words, the curves of the ink cutting you like a knife. Love is all of these things-- it’s terrifying and it’s unpredictable. It sounds scary in your ears and you’ve seen it right in front of your eyes- love is everything except what it is.

Love isn’t heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold. Love isn’t sick and healthy. Love is pain. It takes everything you have, it ties you down, it makes you do things you would never do if you weren’t in love. It intoxicates you and makes you make bad decisions. When you love, you’re irresponsible. You’re like a storm.

Your mum and your dad were in love. Or, your mum always told you they were.

So if your mum and your dad were in love, they were supposed to be together through the heavy and the light. Through the bright and through the dark. Through sick and healthy. They were supposed to be there for each other.

They were both really young when they fell in love. You understand-- they were reckless and they were stupid.

But did your father really have to leave you?

Love is nothing from the above. Love is sick and love is just a play. It would be stupid to be hung up on that idea that Kim Seungmin so desperately wanted to believe in.

“So, how far did you get with the essay?” asks Jisung on your lunch break, looking at you with expectation. You told him about your planned meeting with Seungmin, but you didn’t get around to telling him just how it went yet.

“Oh, that…” you mumble, letting out a dry chuckle, “well, he told me my ideas are stupid, so I’m just going to write it by myself and send it to him so he can add his points into it.” you shrugged, taking a bite from your sandwich, stuffing your cheeks with the food so you didn’t have to explain any further.

Jisung sighs in front of you, rolling his eyes like every time you gush about Seungmin and how he gets on your nerves. “Can you lay off that Anne and Gilbert attitude already?”

“Stop saying that, that’s disgusting,” you scrunch up your nose, shaking your head in disbelief.

“Well, it looks like you two are doing a whole 21st century remake right in front of our eyes, though,” chuckles Jisung, teasing you further, “with that whole top of the class students that hate each other and act like children just because they don’t agree on something. It’s only a matter of time before you fall in love.”

“Ew,” you fake a gag, rolling your eyes at him, “that is so not happening.”

“Yeah, sure, tell me about it at your wedding in a few years.” he mutters.

“I am not getting married in my whole life, marriage is wack,” you roll your eyes at him for the millionth time, the gesture so familiar to you over the past few days. Everything seems to annoy you recently. Maybe you were just going through a bad patch, who knows?

“Oh would you look at that, Y/N’s acting like a Grinch again,” giggles Jisung, ruffling your hair in the process just to annoy you even more, making you pull away abruptly from his touch.

“That doesn’t even make any sense! Grinch hates Christmas, not fake images of love.” you argue back, finishing your sandwich and rolling the plastic that was covering it into a little ball, throwing it into his face to shut him up.

“Yeah, sure.” he snorts, throwing the ball back at you. You catch it in your hands with a promise to yourself to throw it out when exiting the cafeteria later, when you feel a light tap on your shoulder that makes you turn around.

The sight in front of you makes you shoot your eyebrows up in shock, leaving you flustered and surprised. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to ask when we can hang out again to work on that essay, since it’s, you know, like half of our final grade…” mutters Seungmin, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly and pointing his eyes at you, casually waiting for your answer.

“Oh, we’re not meeting again. I’m just going to email you the file when I’m done.” you shrug.

“But that’s unfair to me?” he offers, eyebrows shooting up and his hand falling to his side.

“Why would it be?”

“That gives me less time to work on it, you know. And you have to add your comments to my work anyways, so it would mean you’ll have to write those at the last-minute.” Seungmin explains, his tone of voice calm and collected, just as always, after all, making you roll your eyes and fume up again.

“I don’t really care,” you shrug, smiling ironically at his face.

“Why- what?” he asks, looking genuinely concerned and confused, eyebrows scrunching up and his voice raising a little by an octave.

You don’t answer him, though. You’ve had enough of his snarky comments and remarks in the coffee shop-- you weren’t going to meet up with Kim Seungmin again, even if it meant the possibility of getting a bad grade from your most favorite and treasured subject.

After the boy is met with silence, all he does is scoff at you, shooting his arms up into the air and shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re such a fucking child, oh my god.”

And with that, he strides off, your eyes following his every move to make sure he doesn’t come near you again. His steps are quick and angry, and this is actually the first time you’ve seen him get so frustrated with something. You take pride in getting him over the edge. You were finally even. He doesn’t look back once and you think you finally made it.

“Stop staring, Anne.” you hear from your friend sitting right in front of you, making you break away from your bubble and taking a look at him, seeing him amused and with a teasing grin plastered on his face.

“Fuck off.”

“Peace? I hate the word as I hate hell and all Montagues.” Mrs Jung reads out, when you start dozing off in the class. You’ve read the play a lot of times already, making you feel bored even by the repetitiveness of your class. You understand that she is just waiting for all of you to turn in your papers, not wanting to move on from Romeo and Juliet just yet, but you find yourself slowly falling asleep under the spell of her voice and the fact that you spent the whole night studying again. The sentence startles you awake, making you chuckle to yourself.

‘Peace? I hate the word as I hate hell and Kim Seungmin himself,’ you think. If Han Jisung could read minds, he would be surely teasing you with another smart remark of how much energy you’re spending by hating the poor boy and how it’s not possible for you to not fall in love with him soon after how much time he spends in your mind, but Han Jiung can’t read minds. And even if he could, you’d just tell him to fuck off. Because he is wrong.

“Am I boring you, Y/N?” asks Mrs Jung, fully startling you awake as you straighten your back and properly sit on your uncomfortable chair again.

“Of course not!” you call out, blinking rapidly to keep your eyes from closing on themselves again.

“Oh, I thought I was, by how tired you seem by listening to me.” she just smiles at you, then continues talking and looks at the other students in your class, leaving you to blush to yourself without giving you more attention.

You chew on the inside of your cheek, looking around the classroom. You feel embarrassed. You really didn’t mean to give your favorite professor the wrong idea-- you just got to bed really, really late yesterday. It happened often, but you guess that it just took a bigger stroll on you today.

Your eyes meet the orbs of your moral enemy, that just gazes into you with intensity. You quickly look away. Why is he doing that? His eyes look worried. He’s not supposed to look at you in such a way-- he’s supposed to laugh at how you’ve just been scolded. He just won a few points to himself by paying more attention than you, he just got on the better side with your favorite professor, yet he doesn’t look like he’s enjoying it at all.

A small piece of paper catches your interest from the corner of your eye. You read through it, recognising the loopy handwriting of your seat-mate.

did you stay up late studying again?

You sigh, taking a pen out of your pencil case and neatly writing under it, trying not to get caught by Mrs Jung. You really don’t want to get scolded for the second time today.

yeah

you should probably relax a little, your grades are already good to begin with

You roll your eyes at the note. Of course he’d say something like that. In elementary school, your grades were good without even trying. All you had to do was pay attention in class and write what you could remember, but now, in high school, everything is a little harder for you and you suddenly weren't good enough anymore. And yeah, you could say that grades don’t even matter that much, but for you, they meant everything.

yeah that’s bc i study jisung

now you’re falling asleep tho how is that helping

You don’t answer him. It’s not that he’s wrong. It’s just that… you’re not going to tell him that he is. Yes, you falling asleep wasn’t helping you in the tiniest, because the less you pay attention in class, the more you have to study at home, and the more you study, the less you sleep, which means you’re going to fall asleep in class the next day and it’s just an endless cycle.

sorry :( but just remember that grades aren’t everything Anne you can get an F once in a while

thanks

You write. But you don’t really mean it.

Because if you get an F, you’re not going to be the top of the class anymore.

And how will you get a scholarship if you’re not?

You arrive to the library, sighing to yourself as you quickly take your coat off and smile to Mrs Kim, the older librarian that let you work here part-time for the time being. You didn’t get paid much, but you loved the job. For the most part, it was easy-- there weren’t many people coming to libraries these days anymore and you could just stay behind the counter, occasionally letting people borrow books and writing them into the evidence. You had a lot of time to study there as well, it was silent and calm. Sometimes, you felt like your heart could rest a little in the small place.

“I’m sorry for coming late Mrs Kim, but the bus was late so I couldn’t get here sooner-” you rush out out of breath, dropping your backpack under the counter, ready to change seats with your employer that was done with her shift for the day.

“It’s totally okay, sweetheart, you know there’s no rush.” she smiles at you, reassuring your nerves with the gesture. You were glad you had such caring people around you. You met with Mrs Kim more than you did with your own mother-- it was strange, but comforting to know that at least someone close to a parental figure was still in your life.

Maybe you just hung yourself into older, reliable people because you lost the security you had in your own mother. Or because you didn’t even have a father to begin with. You don’t know if you’re doing the right thing, but in your heart, it surely feels like you are.

You nod at her, seeing her leave and wave at you as she takes her things with her before you’re left alone with your thoughts. You sit yourself on the chair, looking around for a moment, before you take out your notes and start working on your homework. The library felt like a safe space-- not that you didn’t have the silence and comfort at your own home, since you were home alone all the time anyway-- but here, at least you felt like there was a reason behind your loneliness. You were at work, after all.

You wonder if things would have been different for your mum if she didn’t have you so young. Maybe she would still be happy with your dad-- maybe she wouldn’t have to work a lot just to get you through life. It’s not easy, raising a child on your own when you are a child still, you realise that. And your mother does a good job-- at least you think she is-- but sometimes, you wish your life would be different.

You curse at your mother for being so reckless when she was young. If you’d be born later, she’d finish school. Give you a better life. Maybe, you would even have a father. You would be a little happy family, going on vacations and enjoying your lives.

Now, you’re stuck with trying your hardest to be the best at everything. To have your life figured out, because at your age, your mum surely didn’t. You know you shouldn’t blame her-- you need two people to create a child, but there was no other person for you to blame.

You try your hardest to get a scholarship, because you can’t pay for college on your own. You work so your mother doesn’t have to stay at her job over-night so often just to pay the bills. You educate yourself to be smart and successful-- because that will surely change your life for the better, right?

Suddenly, you hear the bell above the door of the library ring, startling you away from your thoughts. You look that way with a polite smile on your face you’ve taught yourself while working at customer service, ready to greet the customer with fake enthusiasm, when your mouth hangs open without a word. Startled would be an understatement to the feeling you feel at the moment.

“Hello,” the person greets politely, looking at you momentarily before going up to the counter with a stack of books in his hands. He looks up after placing them on the surface and that’s the moment when you see he realises your presence fully-- after seeing his face fall into shock.

“Good afternoon,” you grunt ironically, taking the books closer to yourself so you can check them in, recognising his eyes following your every move from the corner of your eye, “your ID?” you raise up your eyebrows at him, annoyance apparent in your features.

“Oh, right,” he catches himself, quickly patting every pocket of his clothing, until he puts up his hand into his backpack and browses through his wallet, slender fingers offering you the little card so you can scan the code.

The computer freezes for a bit and you curse to yourself-- did it really have to happen now? With Kim Seungmin watching you like an alien? The computer at your local library wasn’t the newest, per say. It didn’t even have to be, your usual customers were just as old, if not even older than that piece of machinery, they didn’t mind waiting. But now wasn’t the time for the computer to freeze. You feel yourself losing your nerves, bouncing your leg up and down, angrily glaring at the screen.

A minute passes, than another-- could it even get worse than this?

“So,” clears his throat Seungmin, making you snap your head up to meet his gaze, “what’s up?” he asks, shocking you again.

“Why do you care?” you snap, glaring at him instead. How dare he act so casually after saying all those mean things to you? You couldn’t believe your ears.

“Because you’re my classmate…?” he furrows his brows, tone of voice cautious, sounding like a question instead.

“And?” you ask, watching the screen of the computer instead, cursing at the new electronic system Mrs Kim decided to install. It would have been so much easier if you could just scribble down your signature on a small piece of paper and take the books like you used to do before, but no, she was all about innovation.

“And I thought we were civil enough for a casual conversation,” he rambles, making you snort in disbelief.

“Oh, we are anything but civil.” you respond, losing your nerves, taking your hand and angrily hitting the top of the screen, as if it was supposed to make the computer work. You violently curse under your breath, hitting it a few times, each one more lightly, until the program starts to work, finally registering the books back into the library evidence.

“Why do you even hate me so much?” he asks after you stop, looking at you with annoyed eyes and a look worthy of an oscar-winning actor. He didn’t care, you knew that, but he sure looked like he did.

You just scoff at him, shaking your head.

“Goodbye,” is all you offer him, his library ID in your hand, before he takes it and rolls his eyes at you again, like many times before. With that, he leaves-- just like you wanted him to-- and you can finally relax.

You sigh out, taking a seat on your chair again, angirly shutting your textbooks close and grunting under your breath. You put your head into your hands, resting them on the table, breathing heavily. You won’t even be able to study now, and it’s all thanks to him.

Why do you even hate him so much?

Kim Seungmin is an interesting individual. As you continue to work in the library the next week, you meet him there every single day. You don’t even have the energy to bark at him anymore-- he slid into your life like a gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe. Always there, but you never get used to it and it’s still annoying when you walk around.

Kim Seungmin is your moral enemy, as we already established. He comes into the library every day and you’re convinced it’s just because he wants to piss you off, but you don’t give him the satisfaction of letting him rile you up anymore. You just silently glare at him and sigh when the timing feels right to show him how much you actually still hate his presence.

He comes back one day while you’re working on your essay, sitting at the table with furrowed eyebrows and the end of your pen trapped between your teeth. The copy of the play is sitting open right in front of you and his eyes fall into it, recognising the underlined replicas and words. You didn’t work on that essay together ever since your first meeting and the due date was nearing, all he wanted to do was review it with you to at least know what he was getting into.

“Can you even read all of these books in a day when you keep coming back for more every time?” you grumpily mumble as you check back the books you, as the librarian, let him borrow yesterday. They are quite thin, but still, you doubt he was so quick to read all of them in a single afternoon.

“Why do you care?” he asks, snickering to himself. Of course, here he is-- annoying every single cell and fiber of your body again.

“Oh, trust me, I don’t. It’s just getting a little annoying.” you ironically smile at him, sitting back to your chair as you finish lending him the new stash of books. You’re not even sure where he got all of these from, since they don’t even look that interesting, but you choose not to think about it any longer as you get back to your essay, scribbling onto the lined paper.

“I like what you’ve written so far,” he says, startling you. You thought he left already-- I mean, why would he even stay? But he didn’t and he was standing right in front of you, eyes skimming over your messy handwriting.

“No you don’t. You’re arguing against me.” you snap back, darting your eyes to him, seeing him sigh.

“Whatever,” he shakes his head, “I was just wondering when you’re going to finally stop being so childish so we can work on that project together, you know.”

“I’m not childish-”

“Stop arguing with me for once, for god’s sake!” he rushes out, throwing his arms in the air in nerves, huffing out in frustration. “Look, I’ll be here tomorrow. The same time. I’ll bring my things and if you still don’t let me work with you, I won’t write anything and we’ll get a bad grade together. Take it or leave it.”

And with that, he is gone.

Fuck Kim Seungmin.

Turns out your enemy is a man of his word.

He truly does show up the next day-- with his backpack slung on his shoulder, cute big glasses sitting on his nose and a stack of papers in his hands. He raises his brows at you upon arriving and you just let out a defeated sigh.

You put a lot of thought into this yesterday evening. Did you hate Kim Seungmin? Of course you did. Was he really annoying? Yes. But were you going to get a bad grade just because of that? Not a chance.

And so you choose to give up on the small war and let him sit in front of you, you let him casually ask you questions about the essay and surprisingly, you answer. It is kind of easy, working with a partner on the same exact level as you, because, and now, don’t get me wrong, you love your classmates, but it seemed like you did all the work all the time. It was nice to have somebody by your side that actually managed to do something and took his part responsibly.

“So, since we’re not just gonna go there and argue right from the start, I wrote a little something about William Shakespeare and his background as well in the introduction, I actually didn’t get around to writing the introduction to the play itself, but-”

“Oh that’s fine, I have it done. We can just stick that in there,” he smiles at you warmly, taking you by a surprise.

You’ve never seen Kim Seungmin smile at you. It was strange to act so friendly around him. Perhaps you were really losing your mind while studying so much.

“Perfect.” you nod, chewing on the inside of your cheek.

“I also have the general storyline written down so you don’t have to do that…” he mumbles, looking away for a while when your eyes meet. Is this supposed to be so awkward?

“Nice.” you opt to simply reply in your usual cold nature, nodding.

“Can you tell me which topics you wrote about? So I know if I need to write my part about more things…” he takes the initiative again and you’re actually kind of glad, because that means you don’t have to think of the schedule of your little meeting anymore.

“Oh, right,” you say, shuffling around in your papers, “um… I just wrote about the age aspect, how reckless their love was, the image of love itself in the play, I also wrote about how meaningless the rivalry was…” you mumble, averting your eyes to the blue ink on the paper.

“Awesome, so we have all of that done… except from the love thing. Okay, I’ll write it next time I come around, since I have tutoring in a few,” he smiles, standing up from the chair, taking all of his things with him.

“Next time?”

“Yeah, well, we still have to finish it. You’ll be here on Tuesday, right? Since the class is on Thursday, so we can have time for the finishing touches.” he proposes, leaving you staring at him, startled.

“O...kay,” you nod, watching him leave.

“Perfect! I’ll see you around, bye!” he cheers, escaping the library that now feels so much hotter than before, leaving you all alone. You notice his tall figure rushing the other way of the library, watching it until it disappears completely out of your sight.

You notice how hot your cheeks are, bringing a hand to rest against the burning surface, taking deep breaths to somehow calm down the racing heart you are only recognising now, that he’s gone.

You still have a lot of work to do before Tuesday-- one of your tasks, it seems, is to try to not fall for his friendly nature and welcoming smile. Because perhaps, he was right all along-- why do you even hate him so much?

Kim Seungmin has always been your moral enemy-- you despised everything about him, from the way he was always so calm and collected, so sweet and caring, so smart and thoughtful. You despised his composure. You despised the way he always somehow managed to make friends with everyone around him no matter who the person was.

He was everything you weren’t. You were just the quiet kid from a broken family that always had to look after herself. You were the kid that had to keep on trying to be the best one, because your mind didn’t let you accept the second place.

Yet now, that Kim Seungmin is sitting right in front of you with a sweet smile plastered onto his features and a stack of notes in his hands, making your heart race with his every move, you start to quietly doubt your silent hatred for the boy.

He makes it so easy to be likeable. You’re jealous of him.

“Okay, so, do you want to start reading? I think it might help us to have a run down before presenting this on Thursday,” he asks you, leaving you to take a deep breath in, nodding to yourself.

You skip the introduction bits-- both of you know a little too much about the play and its author already, you have no reason to be reading those parts out loud. Something inside of you starts shaking at the thought of presenting your work to him. You were never really good with presentations, your quiet nature leaving you getting hot in the cheeks and stammering every time you had to read in front of the class, but now, it feels even worse with the boy staring at you, listening to everything you have to say.

“They say Romeo and Juliet describe a love that surpasses all boundaries, but a close reading of the play suggests the lovers’ feelings are more complicated than pure love. If we look, we can find plenty of evidence that Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another is, at least initially, immature. Romeo begins the play claiming to be passionately in love with another woman, Rosaline. When he sees Juliet, he abandons Rosaline before he has even spoken to his new love, which suggests that his feelings for both women are superficial. Juliet, meanwhile, seems to be motivated by defying her parents. She is unenthusiastic about her parents’ choice of husband for her, and at the party where she is supposed to meet Paris, she instead kisses Romeo after exchanging just fourteen lines of dialogue with him. When Romeo returns to see Juliet, she is focused on marriage. For Juliet, part of the appeal of marriage is that it will free her from her parents: ‘I’ll no longer be a Capulet’,” you read out quietly. The room is silent, you can even hear the passing cars outside of the window, but Seungmin says nothing. You pay a daring look to him, finding him focused on your face, which makes you shakily drift your eyes back, reading some more so you can distract yourself.

“Marriage is, also, another great aspect of the story-- Juliet is only 13 in the play and even though we can argue and say that historically, she was of age to get married, I still think it is irresponsible to marry so young and so quickly. It brings a bad view of reckless love to young readers that are forced to read the play while growing up.” you continue, hearing Seungmin smirk from the other side of the table.

“‘With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out’, Romeo says, however, to Juliet, all of the freedom she gets from love sparks in the idea of leaving her parents so she can have sex.” you read out, hearing Seungmin finally burst out laughing.

You stop reading, looking up to him with questioning eyes.

“Why are you so dramatic about all of it anyway?” he asks you, making you furrow your brows in confusion.

“What do you mean dramatic? I was supposed to write about my own view of it, so I did just that. You don’t have to laugh at me for it,” you shake your head, kind of feeling pathetic for the way your heart is racing. The thing is, and you know it sounds ridiculous, you actually feel kind of hurt by the sound of his laughter.

“I understand that, but why do you keep bashing the author for writing it like that? It’s like you don’t even believe in love, all you did was criticise all of the ideas he had. And so what if they were young and reckless? They were still in love, you know?” he rambles, making your blood boil again.

“You can’t just ignore all of it because it was in history. I don’t think it’s normal to marry so young and to claim you are in love so quickly, because you know what? If they survived, they would make a child. And then, they would realise how they fucked up their own life and Romeo would run away from her with a snap of his finger, because that’s what young, immature boys do. And then-” you raise your voice, not even realising how heated you got with the argument as you continue to ramble. The vision of your own parents and your own story is slowly eating you all up from the inside, when suddenly, Seungmin cuts you off again with a laugh.

“But you don’t know that. It’s not even in the play and your conspiracies are just… pathetic, really,” he shrugs, taking in your distressed state.

Pathetic conspiracies. Is this what he called your life?

“Leave.” you say, breathing heavy.

“What? We didn’t even-”

“You criticize everything I write, not even recognising that maybe I do have a reason for feeling like this and maybe I really do not want to idolise young, immature love when I know just how much damage it can make, so please, for the love of god, Kim Seungmin, leave me alone!” you yell out, standing up from your chair and pointing to the door.

“Y/N-”

“I said get out!” you scream. His deep eyes stare at you for a few minutes, startled, before he hurriedly takes his things and leaves through the front door.

Once you’re finally alone again, you sigh heavily and put your head into your hands. You feel your eyes burning, trying to desperately blink away the stupid tears filling your saddened orbs, but it’s no use as you see a few teadrops fall onto the opened copy of Romeo and Juliet on the table.

‘It’s easy for someone to joke about scars if they’ve never been cut.’, it says.

Maybe you were fooling yourself when you thought Kim Seungmin will no longer be your enemy after all of this.

10.

You raise up to your feet when Mrs Jung calls on you on Friday. You already know what’s going to happen-- you’d been preparing yourself for this moment for the past two long, miserable days. You hadn’t spoken to Seungmin since that day in the library and frankly, you feel like after all of this, you have nothing to say to him. You feel like all energy has been sucked out of you, like you are just a walking cage without a soul just ready for this whole project to be over.

You scan the faces of your classmates, most of them looking interested by your essay. They must be expecting drama, an outburst of emotions as you listen to Seungmin’s words, but you won’t give them the satisfaction today. You’re just going to do your part-- you’re going to read out what you have to say and that’s where it ends. You’re not wasting your energy on Kim Seungmin anymore. It’s not worth your time at all.

So you start, just like that time in the library. You make all your points, you mention all of the topics you wanted to discuss. You throw it right in front of their faces, silently confessing to them all of your deepest secrets and insecurities, because the truth is, you wouldn’t feel so strongly about the play if it didn’t affect you as much.

And when you’re done, you let your rival speak. You listen to him with curiosity, it doesn’t matter how much you’re trying to convince yourself you don’t actually care. His words flow into your ears and fill your mind with thoughts, every single one of them dedicated to his neat handwriting and his brain full of mysteries he is currently uncovering right in front of you.

“To be honest, Y/N’s words made me think. They made me think too hard. They made me question if my point of view was actually as correct as I thought it was. You see, Y/N is a smart girl. No one can deny that. Perhaps that is what made me doubt my own words so much in the first place,” he starts, looking you directly in the eye, but quickly averting his eyes to the small group of people in the classroom instead, “but still, even though there are some points of her essay that I agree with-- like the age aspect, even though historically, it could be meaningless, as well as the way their marriage comes too fast, there are still things I strongly disagree on.”

He takes a deep breath, shuffling the papers in his hands until he finds the right one, and starts speaking again. “Y/N says their love isn’t as pure as it seems to be. With Romeo abandoning Rosaline and with Juliet desperately wanting to break away from her parents, it may seem that way. However, I think that yet, while the two characters may have initially fell for each other due to a mixture of convenience and lust, Romeo and Juliet’s language shows their passion maturing into real love,” he says, taking a short look at you that makes your insides burn in flames, “In their first meeting, they compose a sonnet together using the religious language of pilgrimage. They both start using astrological language to describe their love. As their relationship develops, they use less rhyme, which has the effect of making their language feel less artificial. These changes in the lovers’ language show that they are growing together. They are growing to care more deeply for each other, they are growing into a feeling of love they have for each other.”

“Another thing I disagree with Y/N on is her image of love. ‘Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn,’ she quotes. Romeo asks his friend, Mercutio, this question when he feels hurt by his love. Yet, as I already mentioned, in my opinion, love is growing. And growing is a journey-- in every journey, there is going to be some pain,” he looks at you again, as if to tell you that his words aren’t meant for the class, but for you and your ears only. It doesn’t look like he’s arguing with you anymore--he is simply telling you what’s on his mind. What he believes in.

“In theory, I think love is beautiful. I understand the pain and I understand the journey. And with me saying I disagree, I’m not saying Y/N’s opinion is wrong. It’s simply what she believes in,” he nods his head, locking his eyes with Mrs Jung, “but perhaps, it’s the romantic in me that believes that the image of love portrayed in this book was, in fact, beautiful.”

He clears his throat, looking at you again, but this time, his eyes don’t drift to the papers in his hand, rather speaking from his memory instead of reading out the things he had written down. “‘The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars as daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing, and think it were not night.’ Isn’t that beautiful?” he averts his eyes to the class, smiling to himself and looking to the ground.

Somehow, his words feel heavy on you. Like they hold the weight of the world, like what he said wasn’t just to prove a point to you. Perhaps Kim Seungmin saw through the hurt you feel-- perhaps he tried to understand. Maybe, he even tried to make you feel better.

Somehow, his words feel like a confession. His ending ment of saying ‘thank you for your time’ goes unnoticed in your brain, everything turning blurry as the bell rings just as your presentation ends, your brain, eyes-- your whole being focused on Kim Seungmin and the way his voice recitated the words with such passion in his heart.

“‘And where two raging fires meet together, they do consume the thing that feeds their fury,’” the voice of your English literature teacher cuts through your senses like a knife, the smile on her face bringing you back to reality, “Good job, you two.”

11.

A kick in a face wouldn’t hit you harder than seeing Kim Seungmin appear in the library the next day. You aren’t prepared to see him, not when all you’ve been thinking of the last night without being able to fall asleep were his words, his mind and his face. You saw him every time you closed your eyes-- it was like he suddenly imprinted himself into your brain. It was crazy. You felt crazy.

Romeo and Juliet fell in love at first sight. Romeo and Juliet got married the next day.

How much time did it take you to fall in love with Kim Seungmin?

Suddenly, you have no idea. And what makes it all worse is the fact that somehow, it all makes sense in your eyes. Maybe Jisung was right when he told you that giving so much energy into hating the boy would somehow make you end up like the 21st century replica of Anne of the Green Gables and Gilbert Blythe.

“Hello,” he breathes out, the corners of his mouth slightly curving up before he bites the nervous smile down, chewing on his bottom lip.

“Hi,” you shyly greet him, noticing the book in his hands alongside with the library card, taking it from his reached-out hand. You recognise the book way too well, the hard covers a little dusty and the spine damaged from the amount of people that had borrowed this book from the library before.

You take the copy of Romeo and Juliet and place it on the table, registering it back into the database. It feels like a chapter of your life is ending. It seems like forever since you’ve been assigned the project, but in a way, you know that nothing will ever be the same.

You kept thinking of his words in the night. How in his romantic mind, love is beautiful. And it’s a journey that requires pain, in a way.

You kept thinking of how your parents were in love. And then, they were in pain. It was their journey that somehow ended up with you being born, ended up with your father leaving you because he couldn’t bear the responsibility. You kept thinking about how you used to blame your mother, even though all she ever did was raise you and love you. And in a way, you knew Seungmin was right and love was beautiful-- it brought your mum pain, but she was happy while it lasted. And you were the proof of that.

You give him back his library ID, fully expecting him to leave without another word, but he doesn’t. He takes it back from your hold, slipping the card into his back pocket, giving you a meaningful look as he sighs.

“I-”

“Look-”

You both start at the same time, nervously laughing before prompting the other one to speak first. You avert your eyes away from his face, letting him know you won’t be the first one to speak this time, patiently waiting for him to start talking.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry if I ever made it seem like I hate you or anything, because, well, it’s quite the opposite, really,” he chuckles, wiping his hands against his pants, “I never had the guts to hold a proper conversation with you before, because honestly, I was too shy to do that, since you’re like… so smart and everything, but yeah,” he sighs again, shortly looking you in the eyes before finishing his little speech, “I’m just… sorry, I guess?”

You feel your lips tugging into a smile, shaking your head in disbelief before speaking up again. “No, I should be the one saying sorry, because I was the one acting like a bitch… I guess that were just my own insecurities getting in the way.”

His smile mirrors yours in no time, taking your breath away as you curse in your own head. You feel crazy. So, so damn crazy for liking it so much.

“It’s okay. I guess we both had some things that came in the way. If I wasn’t acting so cold, maybe you wouldn’t hate me as much-”

“No, it’s not your fault!” you stop him, reaching out a hand to gesture him that he is talking nonsense.

He nervously shifts his weight from one leg to another, taking a short look at his shoes, gaining all of his courage before speaking up again. “I know this may sound ridiculous, but would you maybe want to… hang out sometime?”

“Hang out?” you repeat, voice a few octaves higher than usual.

“Y-yeah,” he nods, eyes big, “I was actually thinking of asking you out on a date but since you used to hate me until now, I didn’t want to go too fast-”

“It can be a date,” you jump in. The voice in your head is screaming at you now, hell, it is running around your head and hitting the walls in anger and panic. How the hell did you end up in this position? Asking Kim Seungmin out on a date? You really must be ridiculous.

“Okay,” he smiles, urgently nodding.

“Okay.” you grin. You exchange a daring stare into each other’s eyes before he deeply inhales and scratches the back of his neck, turning on his heel and quickly pacing to the door. You almost think he’s going to leave, but he quickly looks back and stops in his tracks, shooting you one last, bright smile.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow!” he cheers, not even letting you respond before he runs out of the door.

As the library falls into dead silence, you take a seat on the chair, sighing deeply and bringing your head into your palms resting on the table, just like many times before when Seungmin left the comfort of the library, but this time, there’s a goofy smile playing with your lips as you think of the last few minutes, chuckling to yourself. This was an outcome you did not expect from the project-- but it’s an outcome you don’t mind at all.

Romeo and Juliet fell in love at first sight. How long did it take you?

It’s fair to say at least two weeks.

Maybe you were foolish and maybe it will hurt, but there’s something tempting at the warm feeling in your chest and the excitement Seungmin’s presence makes you feel, and that feeling alone doesn’t let you give up on this just yet.

Your eyes fall to the opened book of Romeo and Juliet you’d left on your table just before he arrived, meaning to return the copy of the play to the library. You’re met with a sentence that makes you chuckle at the irony, the foolishness washing over you mixed with a feeling of joy you can’t quite comprehend yet, but welcome it with your arms wide open and expecting heart.

‘My only love sprung from my only hate.’

704 notes · View notes

freyalorelei · 2 years

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You know what I appreciate about this show? Shoes.

So many period pieces--particularly Regency romances, but it's common in most media set between the 16th and 19th centuries-- put male characters in knee-high boots for every scene, for every circumstance. Going to court? Boots! Visiting the neighbors? Boots! Country picnic? Boots! Lounging at home? Boots! Retiring to bed? Boots! And. My dude. Boots were specifically OUTDOOR WEAR. They were worn while riding horses or fishing or shooting Yanks or some other dirty, physical activity. The rest of the time, men wore shoes.

Now I know that in the 18th century, men's shoes had little heels, so costume designers are probably trying to avoid making their romantic heroes look effeminate to modern viewers, but OFMD ain't got time for that. The only characters shown wearing boots are a) naval officers in military dress uniform and b) Ed and Izzy, who feel pressured to conform to masculine stereotypes. And Ed ditches the boots for shoes when he enlists in the Royal Reform School for Wayward Ex-Pirates. Everyone else, sensibly, wears shoes.

#let the lads wear their lil kitten heels #as god intended #ofmd

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dweetwise · 4 years

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yes hello i am back on my bullshit again, presenting you yet another felix x ace! (also i’m taking the creative liberty to call the ship riconti because it sounds like a cheese or something and i found it funny) anyways, this one is just me thirsting over the oktoberfest skin through ace, ft. some suggestive language but no nsfw!

word count: 2781

Felix X Ace: Clothes make the man

The whole thing starts as an offhand comment.

"—I mean, it's clearly tailored. He pulls it off,” Ace is telling Meg, who has been complaining about Felix's stuffy suit and even stuffier attitude for five minutes straight. “But it's so impractical!” the girl argues. “Wasn't he on some kind of field trip when he was taken? What kind of guy wears a suit to that?” “I don't know, but I'm not going to complain about free eye candy,” Ace smirks, and Meg rolls her eyes. “Oh yeah, I forgot rich snobs are your thing. Sucks you can't scam him for his money in here,” Meg snarks. “Excuse me for having taste,” Ace shoots back. “I wish I had a suit like that. Do you think it's Gucci?” “Burberry,” an increasingly familiar voice answers from behind him and Meg whips her head around to look at its owner, eyes wide in shock at having been caught gossiping. Meanwhile Ace, liking to think he has more self-control, schools his face into a pleasant smile and slowly turns around to face Felix. “Would have been my next guess,” Ace says, trying not to let it show that he's mentally slapping himself for essentially thirsting over Felix when the other was within earshot. “I like the cut. You've got good taste.”

He’s feebly trying to save some of his wounded ego, but probably ends up laying it on too thick. Felix fidgets a little, maybe not used to getting compliments, before he seems to catch himself. He meets Ace's eyes and the hint of a smirk tugs on his lip.

“Wish I could say the same,” Felix says, pointedly looking at Ace's flamingo sweater, before turning around and walking away and leaving Ace to gape at the unexpected sass from the normally serious man. “I take it back, I like him!” Meg snickers beside him.

The Entity seems to share Ace's enthusiasm for Felix's fashion sense, and only a few trials in Felix is already in a different suit, this one a grey plaid.

“Hmm…” Ace pretends to mull over when they're working on a generator together. “Did you see something?” Felix asks, hurriedly glancing over the top of the machine to try, in vain, to spot the killer. “I think the navy blue suits you better,” Ace smirks at his own pun. “Though the plaid certainly makes a statement. Shame that statement is ‘I'm a grandpa at thirty years old’.” “You know, in my job, gold is really only used for trims. Any more than that is just tacky," Felix deadpans, not even sparing a glance at Ace's obnoxiously golden silk outfit. “And it's thirty-eight.”

Ace doesn't bother suppressing his grin over the fact that Felix seems happy to go along with his silly banter.

It becomes sort of an inside joke between them, and when Felix shows up to the campfire in a porn stache and driving gloves, Ace chokes on a laugh.

“I’m sorry, is this an 80's theme party?” Ace jokes. “Careful you don't end up on a propaganda poster with a stache like that.” “Why are you wearing an eye patch?” Felix immediately shoots back. “Is this the 16th century? Should we break out the rum and set sail?”

Ace hears Quentin snort beside him.

“It's a pilot outfit,” Ace argues, pulling his jacket with the pin-up print tighter against himself defensively. “No, mine is a pilot outfit,” Felix deadpans, and Ace can't really argue, not when the other is wearing a bomber jacket and pilot glasses and leather gloves. “Yours is a blind truck driver.”

Bill coughs out something akin to a laugh on the other side of camp and Ace bites his lip to stop himself from doing the same.

“Can I borrow the shades some time?” Ace forfeits the argument, and Felix smiles just the tiniest bit. “Sure.”

And Felix actually follows through with the promise, switching sunglasses with him when Ace later complains his own don’t go with his outfit. It’s a pretty cute gesture, like they were close friends or even a couple, and when Felix snorts and tells him he looks ridiculous it just serves to make Ace smile brighter.

It’s not like the exchange or the ones before it mean anything, it’s just harmless joking with the occasional flirt. Ace still thinks Felix is attractive, but he doesn’t have any illusions that the man would be into him like that, with what having a girlfriend and unborn baby back home, not to mention Ace having a good ten years on him in age. Still, he appreciates that Felix goes along with his cheeky comments, at least not grossed out by or taking offense to Ace’s flirting.

He only gets to keep the shades for one trial, because the Entity has blessed Felix with another outfit for Ace to offer his unsolicited opinion on.

“Oh my god,” Ace comments when he spots the horrendous, grease-streaked mop in place of Felix’s normally expertly styled hair. “Are you a closet hipster? Is an avocado smoothie going to fall out of the hat?” he quips, eyeing the fedora that is, in Ace’s humble opinion, vastly inferior to all of his own hats. “I needed a disguise to lay low for a while, and what better way to hide in plain sight in a big city?” Felix defends his unkempt hair and dirty t-shirt. “What’s your excuse?” he shoots back.

Ace glances down at his generously open shirt—gold again, just to annoy Felix—and tacky sequin pants.

“Vegas, baby,” Ace grins. “If you’d ever been, you’d know.” “I’ve never been happier to say I haven’t,” Felix chuckles. “I don’t think I could handle more of… whatever this is,” he says, gesturing to Ace’s outfit. “When we get out of here, I’m definitely taking you,” Ace quips. “I just want to see you cry over all the flashy satin and fake gold.”

Felix doesn’t roll his eyes or make a sarcastic comment like Ace expects. Instead, he stares blankly in confusion for a few seconds, before his expression settles into a smile Ace can’t quite place.

“Alright,” Felix simply says, and combined with the soft smile it’s enough to make Ace nervously look around camp for a distraction. “Hey, Kate!” he hollers, spotting the songstress braiding Meg’s hair. “You got a hairband for our friend and his questionable hair style over there?”

He ends up regretting the question as soon as Kate insists on braiding Felix’s hair and the normally standoffish man, somehow, goes along with it. He can’t believe he’s jealous for someone getting to touch the grimy, unkempt strands, and it sure as hell doesn’t help that Felix seems to like it. Kate looks thrilled to get to spend some quality time with the man, chatting about this and that and taking way longer than necessary to make the hairstyle, and Ace ends up walking away and pestering Dwight to play some cards with him so he can at least win at something.

His win streak over the poor boy is interrupted when Felix later sits down with them, gesturing for Ace to deal him in, and Ace can’t quite hide his pleased grin that Felix would rather spend time with him than the beautiful girl who just played with his hair for half an hour.

“Better?” Felix asks him, turning his head to display the most pathetic French braid Ace has ever seen, ending in a ponytail that’s barely an inch in length. “Much better,” Ace says, definitely referring to the company and not the state of his hair, and even the normally diplomatic Dwight gives him a weird glance over his cards after taking in Kate’s handiwork.

Only a few trials after the incident, Ace has the pleasure of spawning together with Felix in one of the Yamaoka maps. When he sees a horrendous checkered pattern from the corner of his eye, he knows he’s in for a treat.

He quickly turns to face the man, nearly tripping over some shrubbery as the Entity decided to place him in some inconvenient bamboo. He meets Felix's eye, opening his mouth to start a snarky comment, when his thoughts come to a complete halt upon seeing the entirety of the outfit.

“Well? Get it over with,” Felix demands, crossing his arms self-consciously and—lord have mercy—blushing a little.

Ace's brain is reduced to white noise in the equivalent of ‘hhhHhhHHhh’ while he just stands there, feet still in the stupid bamboo, and stares.

Felix's hair is now an impeccable undercut, a few loose strands framing his features beautifully, and the perfectly trimmed stubble adds a rugged charm to his handsome face. The vest is stylish, a navy blue similar to the suit Ace likes, and the checkered shirt shouldn't work with it but it does, and there's even a matching handkerchief in his breast pocket. Ace's horny brain immediately goes to hanky code and shut up brain it's in the wrong pocket—

Ace mentally shakes his head and looks at Felix's pants instead. And that was a bad idea, because he’s wearing fucking. Leather. Pants.

Again, it should look ridiculous, but Ace feels himself start salivating at the idea of them hugging Felix's ass—ugh, focus!

The pants have small ribbons on the sides and the entire ensemble is so goddamn adorable and sexy that he can't even deal. And Ace has seen a lot of handsome men during his life, mostly in the mirror, but right now, Felix takes the cake.

Felix's attitude shifts from embarrassed to curious when Ace isn't immediately opening his big mouth like usual.

“If this is how all Germans dress, it’s a tragedy I’ve never been,” Ace flirts, his dick having taken over his brain and his mouth running on autopilot.

Instead of insulting Ace's panama hat and favorite pink shirt, Felix clears his throat and averts his eyes.

“You don't look too bad yourself,” Felix mutters, cheeks heating up again as he twiddles with the cuff of his shirt.

Ace idly wonders if the bamboo bush is big enough for them to make out in without being spotted—brain, focus! The guy is just being polite, no need to jump his bones!

They've got the usual back-and-forth out of the way, but Felix still isn't moving to start the trial, regarding Ace warily and fidgeting, and he's just so fucking hot—ugh, he needs to say something, doesn't he?

“God, the things I'd let you do to me," Ace thinks while he says ‘We should find a generator’ because he's not going to creep Felix out any further—

Felix chokes on nothing and his face flushes bright red, and Ace belatedly realizes his brain got its wires crossed and he definitely said the first bit out loud. Shit, that was definitely out of line, and if Felix hasn’t been offended before he sure as hell should be now.

There’s a screech from his left and Ace has never been so glad to take a bonesaw to the shoulder as when the Nurse teleports next to him and interrupts their awkward conversation, Ace finally running out of the goddamn shrubbery while clutching his injured shoulder. Strangely enough, the Nurse doesn’t follow him as he runs up to the temple, and soon after he hears Felix yelp instead, the killer chasing him around the shack.

Damn, now he somehow needs to make it up to Felix both to apologize for his foot-in-mouth syndrome and for him taking the Nurse off Ace’s back.

Unfortunately for them, the Nurse isn't playing around this match, and when she returns to tunnel Felix right off the hook, Ace barely even gets the chance to yell out a “Move!” and throw himself in the way of the attack, much less talk to him about what happened earlier.

Soon Ace is walking back into camp, the second to last to have been sacrificed, only Claudette remaining in the trial and trying to find the hatch. He's already prepared an apology, and hopefully he'll be able to joke it off and Felix won't be weirded out by him. Well, at least not more than usual.

But then he spots Felix talking to Dwight by the edge of the camp, and Dwight freezes mid-conversation upon seeing Ace, before his face twists into a—smirk? Since when has Dwight smirked?—and he says something to Felix before taking off, walking over to where Steve and Ash look to be engaged in a game of tic-tac-toe.

Ace doesn't even have time to ponder why Dwight suddenly seems like he knows way too much, because Felix is approaching him and he knows this is a make or break it situation.

“Dwight seemed awfully smug, huh?” Ace jokes to buy himself some time after his carefully crafted apology flies out the window when he sees Felix’s serious expression. “We need to talk,” Felix says, looking and sounding every bit the stern businessman Meg thinks he is. “Yeah, alright,” Ace agrees and tries not to deflate too much upon essentially being shut down before he can even try to make things right.

As he follows Felix out into the woods away from prying eyes, he considers whether it's even worth apologizing if their friendship is done with anyway. He just hopes this won't cause unnecessary drama within the group, the others sure as hell don’t need to get involved.

His train of thought is interrupted when he's suddenly pushed against a tree, letting out a startled yelp that he’ll later vehemently deny. Shit, is Felix going to beat him up?

An arm wrapping around his hip is finally enough to pull Ace out of his racing thoughts, and when he looks up at the man he finally realizes that Felix is definitely not upset with him, and his eyebrows shoot up into his hairline upon seeing the clear bedroom eyes thrown his way.

“Is this not okay?” Felix asks, his dark gaze faltering from insecurity. “Naw, baby, just took me by surprise,” Ace practically purrs, a lazy grin spreading over his face as the familiar confidence returns, his hands running over Felix's shoulders appreciatively. “I thought you were upset with me from before, not that you'd take me up on the offer.” “Well, I—” Felix starts, clearing his throat self-consciously. “I've wanted this for quite some time, and Dwight said you probably wouldn't be opposed, so…”

That's what they were talking about? And Dwight convinced Felix that Ace is down to fuck? Shit, he needs to get the kid a fruit basket or something to thank him.

“He's definitely not wrong,” Ace says, trying for a seductive look but probably ends up leering stupidly from the anticipation instead. But apparently it gets the job done, because Felix pulls him tighter against him and leans in for a kiss.

And okay, wow, apparently he wasn't lying about really wanting this, because there's an urgency in the way he practically devours Ace's mouth, letting out an appreciative groan when Ace parts his lips and encourages him to deepen the kiss.

So maybe he should be worried about Felix's girlfriend or his sudden interest in men or whether he's looking for more than a casual fuck. But Ace has never been good at thinking certain things through and he's not about to start now, not when he has a breathless and flushed Felix pulling away from the kiss and looking at him with lust-blown eyes.

“I've wanted to do that for a long time,” Felix breathes, the corner of his mouth quirking up into a half-smile. “You really should have just asked,” Ace smirks, a little amazed that he managed to miss all the signs, because there’s nothing subtle about the way Felix looks at him now. “I was working up to it,” Felix argues. “But then you started practically eye fucking me—” “I was looking respectfully,” Ace corrects, causing Felix to snort. “You stood in a bush and drooled, and then propositioned me,” Felix points out. “Yeah, and you liked it so much you blushed like a virgin and started flirting and took the killer off of me—which, thanks for that, by the way—” Ace starts. “You're welcome.” “—and… why did I think you were mad at me again?” Ace realizes. “No idea. I thought it was pretty obvious why I dragged you here to ‘talk’,” Felix emphasizes, gaze roaming appreciatively over his body. “Well, what are you waiting for?” Ace encourages, flashing his signature smirk in challenge.

And Ace learns that no matter how much he likes Felix's outfit, getting to help Felix out of it is even better.

#dbd fanfic #felix richter #ace visconti #felix x ace #riconti #dbd #dead by daylight #dweetwrites

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tcm · 4 years

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Classic Environmental Films for Earth Day By Raquel Stecher

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a global initiative to promote awareness about a variety of environmental issues. Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson. He was spurred to action after witnessing the devastating effects the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California had on the local wildlife. The first Earth Day was held on April 22nd, 1970 and has been celebrated yearly ever since. It began in the U.S. with teach-ins, public demonstrations and protests at schools and universities across the state. By 1990, it had become a global event.

Over the years, films have highlighted a variety of environmental concerns. Director Pare Lorentz made the ground-breaking government films THE PLOW THAT BROKE THE PLAINS (’36) and THE RIVER (’38), which used extensive documentary footage and dramatic music and narration to demonstrate key ecological crises happening in pre-WWII America. Other more contemporary documentaries, like Godfrey Reggio’s visual poem KOYAANISQATSI (’82) and Al Gore’s hard-hitting AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (’06), made a profound impact on viewers. By the mid-20th century, the conservation movement had come to a tipping point and environmental issues continued to pop up in feature films.

Let’s take a look at some feature films of that time with notable environmental themes.

WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES (’58) — After the success of ON THE WATERFRONT (’54), Budd Schulberg started a production company with his brother Stuart and their first project was the Warner Bros. film WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES. The film stars Burl Ives as Cottonmouth, a rare bird poacher who rules the Everglades with an iron fist. His nemesis is Walt Murdock (Christopher Plummer), an ornithologist who is determined to save the endangered birds. The film was shot on location in the Everglades of South Florida, the first production of its kind according to the proclamation in the film’s trailer. The story touches upon the challenges environmentalists face in doing their jobs, often putting their lives at risk to do so.

NO BLADE OF GRASS (’70) —When actor Cornel Wilde started working behind the camera as a director, he took on some interesting projects including THE NAKED PREY (’65) and the environmental disaster film NO BLADE OF GRASS. The year 1970 proved to be important in the environmental movement, and Wilde’s film explored the chaos that ensues during an ecological catastrophe. A viral pandemic sweeps the globe killing plant life, including grass, wheat and rice. The rapidly shrinking food supply causes widespread famine and political unrest in the form of bombings, rioting, looting and mass killings. Wilde’s film was based on John Christopher’s novel The Death of Grass published in 1956. In addition to directing, Wilde also produced and co-wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Jefferson Pascal.

SILENT RUNNING (’72) —If you take the impending ecological disaster in NO BLADE OF GRASS and take it one step further, you get the post-apocalyptic science fiction movie SILENT RUNNING. Directed by Douglas Trumbull, the film takes place in the distant future when all of Earth’s flora has gone extinct and humans are now living in space. It stars Bruce Dern as Freeman Lowell, a botanist working on a spaceship, a Noah’s Ark of sorts, where he tends to the last remaining specimens of plants. While Freeman’s shipmates are happy with their new lives, Freeman is determined that his work can bring back life on Earth. When asked why he wants to go back to the now-abandoned Earth, he responds with the timely response “because it’s not too late to change it.”

SOYLENT GREEN (’73) — Set in the year 2022, SOYLENT GREEN imagines a world where pollution and over population have destroyed the majority of food supply leaving little for consumption. The rich still get access to fresh food and clean water while the poor are rationed food in the form of Soylent (soy and lentil) wafers. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the film stars Charlton Heston as a police detective who, while investigating an assassination, uncovers more than he bargained for. While the famous line of the film spoils the ending, it’s still a fascinating and engaging film that delivers a stark warning about the dangers of over-consumption.

THE CHINA SYNDROME (’79) — Growing concerns for the impact nuclear power was having on the environment made THE CHINA SYNDROME incredibly timely. The film stars Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas as a news reporter and cameraman investigating a cover-up at a nuclear power plant. They work with whistleblower Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon), who is increasingly concerned about an impending disaster. THE CHINA SYNDROME debuted on March 16th, 1979 and on March 28th, just 12 days later, a nuclear meltdown occurred on Three Mile Island. Director James Bridges and star/producer Michael Douglas knew they had a timely subject on their hands but couldn’t imagine how timely it would actually be.

NEVER CRY WOLF (’83) — Myths about wolves have plagued the species for centuries. They were falsely accused of many things, including being a danger to humans and decimating populations of caribou. It was the latter that government biologist Farley Mowat researched, and his autobiography Never Cry Wolf, published in 1963, became a landmark publication that changed the public narrative about wolves. Twenty years later, Disney would bring Mowat’s story to the big screen with director Carroll Ballard’s film NEVER CRY WOLF, starring Charles Martin Smith as Mowat (AKA Tyler). The film features on-location shooting in Alaska and plentiful footage of wolves (albeit domesticated ones). It captures not only the struggle Mowat faced in researching this elusive species in an unforgiving landscape but also the delicate balance of nature and how harmful human activity disrupts that balance.

#Earth Day #enviornmentalism #conservation #TCM #Turner Classic Movies #Raquel Stecher

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mercurygray · 4 years

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Band of Brothers: Revolutionary War AU?

okay, nonnie, this was...hard. This was hard. Units in the 18th century are geographically centralized, you fight with guys you know and grew up with, your family might literally be following the army, and 'specialized units' are...in their infancy.

But you know what doesn’t change? Cold.

"They say the old man likes a play," Lewis said distastefully, his cup light in his hand. He's always drinking, Lewis is, cider or rum or this rotgut the farmers around here have the indecency (he says) to call whiskey. Where he gets the money for it no one's asked - but there's a rumor about that his father is in trade down in New Jersey and fat with profit for it. They also say his father's a good friend of William Franklin, and everyone knows what that means - though no one's asked Lewis if it's true. And even if his father is a Loyalist (and no one's saying that he is, mind you) he fights well enough.

Harry laughs, half-coughing in the fug from the fire, but Lewis is adamant. "It's true! While we're sat down here freezing, they're mocking up Cato for His Greatness. His favorite. I saw it once, in York City. 'What a pity it is that we can die but once to serve our country!'" Lewis showed what he thought of that with a hiss and another swig from his cup. "And Lady Washington's come up from Virginia with a fine gammon ham for Christmas supper."

Ham. Christmas. Supper. The words seems strange. These were things they all knew once, though that time seems incredibly remote. Supper tonight will be whatever can be scrounged, beans most likely, boiled until they've burst. Who could say the last time they've had meat - or a decent fire to cook it over? All the wood about is green and ill-seasoned.

Confound this winter camp. It's enough fighting when you have an enemy to shoot - but fighting cold when some of your men don't even have decent boots, or coats? Speaking of which, he has to find the surgeon and see if Toye’s leg can be saved. This frostbite will be the ruin of more men than bullets - if the pox doesn’t get them first.

It runs a man raw worrying. In his tent, there's a letter in Dick's writing case to the Executive Council which he has not had the heart to finish, asking, once more, for money and supplies. I assure you, Sirs, these requisitions of mine are not the result of Choice but of the most urgent Necessity, which will apologize for the trouble they may occasion you.

"You could be up there with 'em, Lew," Dick put in quietly. It's true - Lewis could be up at headquarters for Christmas. Lord knows he knows enough of them, college men that they are. Half of Washington's intelligencers are Yale men, heavy in their books and codes and Greek.

Lewis considered the distant windows of the Potts house, and the merriment therein, the promise of a warm fireside, a game of snapdragons and a cup of hot flip, and turned away, giving them a generous smile. "And what would the fun of that be, when all my friends are here?"

Aw, man, I haven’t spent time in the 18th century for a while, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say writing this was like trying on an old coat and figuring out IT STILL FITS. I’m sure someone talked about Valley Forge while they were in Bastogne, right?

William Franklin is, yes, related to *that* Franklin - he’s Ben’s son, and he’s the last royal governor of New Jersey.

Cato is Joseph Addison’s 1712 play, often cited as a source of inspiration around overthrowing unjust tyrants. It was reputed to be a favorite of several founding fathers.

The head of Washington's nascent intelligence gathering operation, Benjamin Tallmadge, was indeed a Yale man - as was Nathan Hale, with whom Tallmadge had all sorts of hijinks with at school. The line Nixon quotes is purportedly where Hale’s last words came from.

I took the business of McAuliffe's staff getting turkey for Christmas dinner while the front line guys had beans and flipped it a little here; Martha Washington didn't visit Valley Forge until February, though she did, in fact, bring Virginia hams with her.

Snapdragon is a parlor game dating from the 16th century, which involves floating raisins in a bowl of brandy, setting the brandy on fire, and trying to snatch the raisins out and extinguish them by eating them. (Totally an Easy Company game, in other words.)

Flip is an 18th century drink made by mixing beer, rum, and sugar, and warming it by plunging a hot iron into the beaker. Heating the drink causes it to froth, or 'flip', hence the name.

The extract from Dick's letter is actually from a letter George Washington wrote on the 8th of November, 1777, to George Read, the congressional delegate from Delaware.

And Lewis is going to be in a world of trouble at Valley Forge, given the general orders from the first of November, 1777:

The Commissaries are directed to take all the liquors in the hands of the sutlers, at a reasonable price if they can agree, and if they cannot, the sutlers are to carry them away: And no sutler shall be allowed to continue in the camp after the 5th instant.

#I have written a thing #bespoke period aus a specialty #band of brothers au #18th century au #1780s girl gang #all the alternate universes

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redofthewestcountry · 3 years

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MARCH: THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD AND THE WONDERFUL.

Well, folks we passed level 3 of Jumanji, with just...

March

1st Mar: Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to prison for corruption.

1st Mar: Arrests at Camp Nou for financial crimes

1st Mar: Meteor seen over UK

1st Mar: Japan asks China to stop conducting rectal covid tests on Japanese citizens

1st Mar: Perseverance Rover being controlled from flat above hairdressers in London, because Covid forced him to work from home

1st Mar: Zimbabwe Vice President resigns over voice cloning sex scandal

2nd Mar: Former Liverpool player Ian St John passes away aged 82

2nd Mar: Hundreds of kidnapped Nigerian girls released

3rd Mar: 6.2 magnitude Earthquake in Greece

3rd Mar: Thai Navy rescue four cats from burning ship

3rd Mar: Cat rescued from train roof

4th Mar: ICC opens war crimes investigation in Gaza and The West Bank

5th Mar: Illusion of ship floating in mid air photographed of Cornish Coast

5th Mar: Nun stands up against Myanmar military

6th Mar: Pope Francis meets Iraq's top Shia Cleric, in a private meeting in his home - the first between senior Christian and Muslim leaders

7th Mar: Bata, Equatorial Guinea explosions

7th Mar: Yemen migrant detention Centre fire

7th Mar: Myanmar political official dies in custody

7th Mar: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Oprah interview

8th Mar: German MP resigns over face mask sale, firm earned €250,000 euros from sales

8th Mar: Switzerland votes to ban religious face coverings in public

8th Mar: Syrian President and wife test positive for covid

8th March: South Africa student protests

9th Mar: Piers Morgan quits Good Morning Britain

9th Mar: UK to return £4.2 million stolen loot to Nigeria

9th Mar: Bangladesh's first transgender news reader makes debut

9th Mar: Trevor Peacock, Vicar of Dibley passes away

9th Mar: Met Police Officer arrested on suspicion of kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard

10th Mar: Tanzanian President in Kenyan hospital with Covid - asking for prayers and herbal infused steam therapy

10th Mar: Myanmar police defecting to India after orders from military to shoot protesters

10th Mar: Second ship floating in mid air illusion photographed off British coast

10th Mar: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021 - protest powers outlined

11th Mar: 13 killed in Nigerian school attack

11th Mar: Egyptian clothing factory fire

11th Mar: Ivorian Coast PM dies in German hospital

11th Mar: China approves plans to control Hong Kong elections

11th Mar: Lou Ottens, inventor of the cassette tape dies aged 94

11th Mar: EU declared LGBT Freedom Zone

12th Mar: George Floyd family given $27 million settlement prior to murder trial

13th Mar: Met Police officer charged with kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard

13th Mar: Spanish police seize home made submarine in drugs raid

13th Mar: Amazon announces refusal to sell books that frame sexual identity as mental illness

14th Mar: Spanish police arrest biggest cocaine gang in Madrid

14th Mar: Minibus carrying Argentine President attacked by anti open pit mining protests

14th Mar: Women detained at vigil for Sarah Everard

15th Mar: Australian sexual assault protests

15th Mar: Beijing sandstorm

15th Mar: Niger-Mali border attacks

16th Mar: Dinamo Zagreb manager given five year jail sentence for fraud

16th Mar: Bulgarian Police seize millions in counterfeit during operation with US

16th Mar: Rare ancient scroll, circa 2nd century a.d. found in Isreal Cave of Horror

16th Mar: Atalanta massage parlour shootings

17th Mar: Japan finds same sex marriage ban unconstitutional

17th Mar: Sabine Schmidtz passes away aged 51

17th Mar: Iceland records fifty thousand earthquakes in three weeks

17th Mar: Reddit investors adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

17th Mar: First Sound recording of a Mars rover driving released by Nasa

18th Mar: Man arrested outside Kamala Harris' residence with rifle and ammunition

19th Mar: Salia Suluhu Hassan becomes first female Tanzanian President

19th Mar: 2,500 year old bull figurine found at ancient site of Olympia

19th Mar: Drugs worth over a million euros seized by French police turned out to be ground up strawberry haribo

20th Mar: Turkey withdraws from Istanbul convention to combat violence against women

21st Mar: Australia sees worst flooding in sixty years

21st Mar: 'Kill the Bill' protests turn violent in Bristol

22nd Mar: BBC and Sky announce deal to broadcast live women's football

22nd Mar: Boulder, Colarado ten killed in mass shooting, seventh in seven days in US

22nd Mar: Canada, EU, UK, and US impose sanctions against Chinese officials over Uighur detention camps and human rights abuses

23rd Mar: Container ship runs aground in Suez Canal

24th Mar: Virginia becomes first Southern state to abolish death penalty

24th Mar: Norwegian football team wears human rights t-shirts in protests over Qatar World Cup human rights abuses of migrant workers

25th Mar: Protests outside West Midlands school over Prophet Mohammed cartoon

25th Mar: German team follow Norwegian team in wearing t-shirts to support migrant workers in Qatar

25th Mar: North Korea tests ballistic missiles

25th Mar: Japan begins Olympic torch relay

26th Mar: Egyptian train crash

26th Mar: Dominion voting sues Fox News for $1.6 billion over election fraud claims

26th Mar: Western brands boycott cotton produced in China's Xinziang provence

27th Mar: Walrus spotted in Tenby

27th Mar: World Anti-Doping Agency launches investigation over British cycling allegations

27th Mar: 114 killed by security forces in Myanmar

28th Mar: 6 year old boy finds 488 million year old fossil in garden

28th Mar: Militant attack in Palma, Mozambique

29th Mar: Stern of grounded ship in Suez Canal freed, and position corrected by 80%

29th Mar: Derek Chauvin trial begins for the death of George Floyd

29th Mar: Ever Given freed from Suez Canal and on the move, after six days

29th Mar: Indonesian oil refinery fire

29th Mar: Mafia fugitive captured after posting cooking video to you tube

30th Mar: Rebecca Welch becomes first female ref appointed to English Football League game

30th Mar: Teen who called himself 'Hitler' jailed for terror offences

30th Mar: Japan's cherry blossom earliest peak since 812 ad.

30th Mar: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear agency account

30th Mar: Police bust World's biggest video game cheat operation, with a revenue of £55 million

31st Mar: Attempted coup foiled in Niger before inauguration

31st Mar: Italian Naval Officer caught selling secrets to Russia

31st Mar: North Macedonia beat Germany in 2022 World Cup qualifier

#2021 #news #march 2021

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newstfionline · 3 years

Text

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

WHO Announces Virus “Plateau” (Foreign Policy) Countries across Europe are beginning to reopen after months of restrictions. U.S. President Joe Biden has endorsed a proposal to waive patents on COVID-19 vaccines, paving the way for accelerated production. But rather than achieving herd immunity, the world appears to be entering a new phase of the coronavirus pandemic, with more contagious variants spreading rapidly in places without stringent regulations or sufficient vaccines. In a Monday briefing, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the world had reached a plateau in new cases and deaths from the coronavirus, with numbers declining overall in most regions. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that the plateau was “unacceptably high.” Nearly 90,000 COVID-19 deaths were recorded worldwide last week. Thousands of those deaths occurred in India, where new cases and deaths have remained near record daily highs for days—and are still likely undercounted. Meanwhile, Malaysia announced a new lockdown on Monday amid a third wave driven in part by more infectious variants. Cases are rising elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia, as well as in Latin America—with potential consequences for political leaders.

Election reform controversy (Reuters) Democrats in the U.S. Senate hope today to advance sweeping election reform legislation making it easier for Americans to cast ballots, despite intense opposition from Republicans, many of whom support new restrictive voting rules at the state level. The 886-page bill would expand mail-in voting that was used widely in last year’s presidential election because of the coronavirus pandemic and would lengthen the hours of in-person balloting.

California expands drought emergency to large swath of state (AP) California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday expanded a drought emergency to a large swath of the nation’s most populous state while seeking more than $6 billion in multiyear water spending as one of the warmest, driest springs on record threatens another severe wildfire season across the American West. His emergency declaration now includes 41 of 58 counties, covering 30% of California’s nearly 40 million people, and he said a further expansion is likely as conditions worsen. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows most of the state and the American West is in extensive drought just a few years after California emerged from the last punishing multiyear dry spell. “We’re staring down at what could be disastrous summer and fall, with the potential of communities running out water, and fires,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Costa.

DarkSide Admits Hack (1440) Officials from the FBI confirmed yesterday a cyberattack that shut down one of the nation’s biggest gas pipelines was carried out by a cybercriminal outfit known as DarkSide. The group, based in Eastern Europe, is believed to develop, use, and sell ransomware—malicious software capable of locking IT systems until payment is made. Colonial Pipeline, which supplies an estimated 45% of the East Coast’s gasoline, shut down its network as a proactive measure after being hit with the attack late last week. In a twist, DarkSide representatives said they didn’t mean to create problems, but rather to simply “make some money.” The group, which claims to have an ethical code, represents an emerging phenomenon of hackers operating as enterprises—DarkSide even reportedly has a call-in number and help desk for its victims. It’s unclear whether the company paid the ransom; service is expected to be restored by next week. (AP) Meanwhile, more than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts say is unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by a gang of hackers entered its fifth day Tuesday.

Central American leaders resisting Biden’s anti-corruption efforts (Washington Post) In a rebuff to the Biden administration, political leaders in El Salvador and Guatemala have forced out several senior judges known for their independence and anti-corruption zeal, underscoring the difficulties facing Washington’s new Central America policy. President Biden has put the fight against corruption at the heart of that policy. U.S. officials argue that graft is stunting Central American economies and driving citizens to attempt to migrate to the United States. The sidelining of the judges has raised concerns at the highest levels of the U.S. government. The administration is readying measures to increase pressure on El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, known as the Northern Triangle countries—including a name-and-shame list of corrupt politicians who would be denied U.S. visas. The efforts come as human rights groups warn of democratic backsliding in Central America, where the judiciary had emerged as a key check on presidential power.

Paris Teenager’s New Gig: Would-Be Queen of Italy. A Nation Shrugs. (NYT) Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia, the son of the last king of Italy, gave his granddaughter a big 16th birthday present. In a formal 2019 decree, the “Duke of Savoy, Prince of Naples and by the grace of God direct heir to Head of the Royal House of Savoy,” amended a medieval law that for centuries had restricted succession in his royal line to male heirs. He bumped “our beloved granddaughter” Vittoria Cristina Chiara Adelaide Maria up the royal food chain, making her the first woman in 1,000 years to be invested with the authority to eventually lead the family and stake a claim to the defunct monarchy. “It was the best gift he could give me,” Vittoria, now 17 and a burgeoning Instagram influencer, said from her Paris home. But the gift didn’t include a crown. Italy is a republic, having abolished the monarchy 75 years ago for its disastrous support of Mussolini, and Italians have approximately zero interest in a royal restoration. “Never say never,” said Vittoria’s father, Emanuele Filiberto, an Italian television personality who claims the title Prince of Venice, which is also the name of his Los Angeles restaurant and former food truck. (“We do a lot of film premieres. We did Jumanji,” he said.) Obviously, he said, the monarchy wasn’t returning “tomorrow,” but he had no sons and the family needed a head of the royal household to run its historic orders.

Russian governor: School shooting in Kazan kills 7 students (AP) A school shooting erupted Tuesday morning in the Russian city of Kazan, killing seven students and leaving 16 other people hospitalized with wounds, a Russian governor reported. Rustam Minnikhanov, governor of the Tatarstan republic which has Kazan as its capital, said Tuesday that four male and three female eighth-grade students have died in the shooting. Twelve more children and four adults were hospitalized in the attack, Minnikhanov said. The shooter was 19. Kazan is roughly 700 kilometers (430 miles) east of Moscow.

Deadly ‘black fungus’ cases add to India’s covid crisis (Washington Post) As coronavirus cases and deaths soared in India recently, doctors began to notice another disturbing trend. Some covid-19 patients who had been released from hospitals were coming back with different symptoms, including sinus pain, blurred vision, black and bloody nasal discharge and a dark discoloration around the nose. The culprit was a deadly fungal infection called mucormycosis that physicians say is increasingly preying on people with immune systems weakened by covid-19 and the steroids used to treat it. Though cases of the black fungus remain rare, its lethality and increasing prevalence have prompted government warnings, put doctors on high alert and added to the country’s health crisis. “The death rate from mucormycosis is 50 percent,” said Amarinder Singh Malhi from All India Institute Of Medical Science, a public hospital in New Delhi. “The death rate from covid is 2.5 percent. So we have to use these steroids very cautiously.”

100 days in power, Myanmar junta holds pretense of control (AP) After Myanmar’s military seized power by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, they couldn’t even make the trains run on time: State railway workers were among the earliest organized opponents of the February takeover, and they went on strike. Health workers who founded the civil disobedience movement against military rule stopped staffing government medical facilities. Many civil servants were no-shows at work, along with employees of government and private banks. Universities became hotbeds of resistance, and in recent weeks, education at the primary and secondary levels has begun to collapse as teachers, students and parents boycott state schools. One hundred days after their takeover, Myanmar’s ruling generals maintain just the pretense of control. The illusion is sustained mainly by its partially successful efforts to shut down independent media and to keep the streets clear of large demonstrations by employing lethal force. More than 750 protesters and bystanders have been killed by security forces, according to detailed independent tallies. Meanwhile, the junta also faces a growing military challenge in the always restive border regions where ethnic minority groups exercise political power and maintain guerrilla armies. Two of the more battle-hardened groups, the Kachin in the north and the Karen in the east, have declared their support for the protest movement and stepped up their fighting, despite the government military, known as the Tatmadaw, hitting back with greater firepower, including airstrikes.

China Targets Muslim Women in Push to Suppress Births in Xinjiang (NYT) When China’s government ordered women in her mostly Muslim community in the region of Xinjiang to be fitted with contraceptive devices, Qelbinur Sedik pleaded for an exemption. She was nearly 50 years old, she told officials. She had obeyed the government’s birth limits and had only one child. It was no use. The workers threatened to take her to the police if she continued resisting, she said. She gave in and went to a government clinic where a doctor, using metal forceps, inserted an intrauterine device to prevent pregnancy. She wept through the procedure. Across much of China, the authorities are encouraging women to have more children, as they try to stave off a demographic crisis from a declining birthrate. But in the Xinjiang region, China is forcing them to have fewer, tightening its grip on Muslim ethnic minorities and trying to orchestrate a demographic shift that will diminish their population growth. It is part of a vast and repressive social re-engineering campaign by a Communist Party determined to eliminate any perceived challenge to its rule, in this case, ethnic separatism.

35 killed in Gaza, 3 in Israel, as violence escalates (Reuters) Hostilities between Israel and Hamas escalated overnight, with 35 Palestinians killed in Gaza and three in Israel in the most intensive aerial exchanges for years. Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes in Gaza into the early hours of Wednesday, as the Islamist group and other Palestinian militant groups fired multiple rocket barrages at Tel Aviv and Beersheba. One multi-story residential building in Gaza collapsed and another was heavily damaged after they were repeatedly hit by Israeli air strikes. It was the heaviest offensive between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in Gaza, and prompted international concern that the situation could spiral out of control. U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland tweeted: “Stop the fire immediately. We’re escalating towards a full scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation. The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working w/ all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now,” he wrote.

Israelis, Palestinians and Their Neighbors Worry (NYT) Let’s see, what happens when TikTok meets Palestinian grievances about right-wing Israeli land grabs in Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem? And then you add the holiest Muslim night of prayer in Jerusalem into the mix? Then toss in the most emotional Israeli holiday in Jerusalem? And a power play by Hamas to assume leadership of the Palestinian cause? And, finally, a political vacuum in which the Palestinian Authority is incapable of holding new elections and Israel is so divided it can’t stop having elections? What happens is the explosion of violence around Jerusalem on Monday that quickly spread to the Gaza front, and has people asking: Is this the big one? Is this the start of the next Palestinian uprising? The Israeli government, the surrounding Arab nations and the Palestinian Authority all desperately want the answer to be “no”—Israel because it would find little support from a left-leaning White House, let alone the rest of the world, for a big crackdown on Palestinians; the Arab governments because most of them want to do business with Israeli tech-makers, not get mired defending Palestinian rock-throwers; and the Palestinian leadership because it would expose just how little it controls the Palestinian street anymore. But unlike the Intifadas that began in 1987 and 2000, when Israel had someone to call to try to turn it off, there is no Palestinian on the other end of the phone this time—or, if there is, he’s a 15-year-old on his smartphone, swiping orders and inspiration from TikTok, the video app often used by young Palestinians to challenge and encourage one another to confront Israelis.

At least 1m people facing starvation as Madagascar’s drought worsens (Guardian) Madagascar’s worst drought in 40 years has left more than a million people facing a year of desperate food shortages. The south saw 50% of its usual rains during the October planting season, in a fourth year of drought. According to the Famine Early Warning System Network, most poor families have to rely on foraging for wild foods and leaves that are difficult to eat and can be dangerous for children and pregnant women. Aid agencies have reported people eating termites and mixing clay with tamarind.

#headlines #news

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valkyriesryde · 5 years

Text

Hella Feelings {4/?}

Chapter 4: Loving Someone ~ The 1975

Pairings: Bucky x OC; Sam x OC

A/N: Chapter four with @stuckonjbbarnes please enjoy and tell your friends

Warnings: language, awkward encounters, a little bit of flirting ;)

Word Count: 2496

Previous Chapter ~ Masterlist

~~~~~~~~

The next morning, the girls plan to leave the apartment together. Holly has some work to do at the library, finally having a morning off, so she walks with Vanessa. Hopping into the elevator, it stops only a few floors below theirs. They step to the back to make room, falling silent when Sam and Bucky walk in.

“You literally made us look like idiots Sam.” Bucky groans, not noticing the pair behind him and Sam.

“My guy...I couldn’t think, let alone speak. Not in front of–” A snicker from behind causes Sam to fall silent.

Both girls are snickering because the guys sound like an old married couple. Bucky looks over his shoulder, a little embarrassed to see both girls right behind them and his cheeks go red. That is, until he sees Vanessa smiling at him and a huge smile takes up his face, making his eyes crinkle and his shoulders relax. Sam turns slightly, noticing Holly and shoots her a wink making her cheeks turn a shade similar to Bucky’s.

“HIYA SAMonella.” Nessa greets, breaking the silence.

“God dammit..Nessie.” The whole elevator erupts into laughter.

Sam’s laughter dies down to a chuckle as he’s watching Holly laugh and he starts smiling like a goof at her, “Hi Angel.”

“Hi Cute Butt.”

It takes Bucky a minute to register what she said but then his eyes widen. He’s standing a tad behind Sam and he sort of just looks at Sam’s ass, then back to Holly and mouths “HE’S CUTE BUTT? EW!”

Vanessa watches them carefully, smile faltering. But after a beat she shakes the feeling and smiles bigger. “Hi Buckaroo.”

“OH NO... NOT ME PLEASE.” He groans but he’s still smiling and his eyes light up that Vanessa came up with a new nickname so fast. The elevator doors open and the four filter out.

The girls link arms and turn left, towards the university. The boys head outside and follow behind them, casually. It isn’t until they’re nearly at the school that Holly looks over her shoulder and yells at them, “Are you guys going to this university?!”

“NAH WE WERE JUST STALKING YOU.” Sam shouts back, causing the girls to pause and look at each other nervously, as the boys approach.

“HE’S JOKING...I swear. Yes, we’re heading to the school.” Bucky recovers smoothly.

The girls fall back into step with the guys, it’s a little awkward and no one really says anything but still, the company is nice. Then they go their separate ways, Sam and Vanessa one way and Bucky another, leaving Holly to walk alone to the library.

“Huh, you don’t take psych do you?” Sam asks, as he and Nessa walk into the lecture hall.

“Sam I swear to– You idiot, yes… and we have a class together.”

“Huh”

“We’ve literally sat next to each other in this class SO many times...you clown.”

”Look I’m not the smartest, okay?”

“Oh shit really?” Nessa asks, pulling out her laptop and earning a nudge.

“Right ANYWAYS, I need you to tell me everything about Holly right now.” Vanessa kind of laughs at Sam’s request but he’s deadly serious.

“Only if you tell me everything about Bucky in return.”

“Nessie, I would give you my first born if it meant you’d set me up with your friend.” Sam grins, giving Vanessa puppy-dog eyes.

“I DON’T WANT HOLLY’S BABY…” She shouts, gaining a look from several classmates.

“At least we can agree that she will indeed be my wife.”

“Or just your super hot baby mama...I don’t make the rules.” Nessa shrugs as the professor makes his way to the podium.

“Now tell me how to woo her.”

“Okay...first of all ‘woo’??...is this the 16th century? JFC you moron. Second of all, keep that sort of shit up and she’ll be putty in your hands..she herself can be a moron sometimes.”

“Ahh yes, a moron, I can work with that, for I too am a moron.” He crosses his arms and Vanessa rolls her eyes, thinking wow, they are perfect for each other.

“Now tell me about Bucky.”

“He’s a simple man.” Sam mutters.

“Is that it?”

“Yea pretty much, he’s also a chicken so keep that in mind.” The professor starts getting everyone’s attention and everyone starts to quieten down as Vanessa whispers to Sam

“You literally ran out the door when you saw Holly.”

“Pffft go away,” he sinks into his seat and cringes at himself.

“Make me, Yosemite Sam.” She sticks her tongue out at him.

“Gross.” Vanessa ignores his quip and focuses on the lecture, feeling very gypped on information about Bucky.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After class, Sam meets Bucky and Steve at the on-campus diner. Steve goes on about his recent idea of joining a Sugar Daddy app like it’s the greatest idea ever.

“Dude..you’re like 30.” Sam stares Steve down.

“And I have my own company, black cards, and too much money.” Steve responds.

“I’m hearing no reasons for joining a site full of gold diggers…” Sam turns to Bucky for help. But instead he berates Sam about being a dumb bitch.

“You can’t just tell strangers that we’re stalking them! Especially not cute ones.”

“It was a joke...and LochNess Monster is not a stranger.”

“Don’t call her that..” Bucky pouts.

“Someone’s jealous that he doesn’t have a nickname for his little girlfriend.”

“She is very smol… actually.” Bucky smiles and then notices Steve is staring at the table, “Steve you look like you’re thinking too hard...”

“What the fuck are you two on about?” He asks, finally looking up. Bucky realises they haven’t caught Steve up and he sits up a bit.

“OH, well man do I have a story for you…” Bucky starts in, with adjustments from Sam, both telling Steve about the girls and the back and forth conversations.

“You’re by far, the worst people at dealing with crushes that I’ve ever known” Steve sighs.

“But you do know us” Sam points out.

Holly and Vanessa walk into the diner with Peter and MJ hot on their toes and sit, unbeknownst to them, behind the boys. They have a perfect view of the guy’s backs, who are talking animatedly to the man across from them.

“So what’s your next move?” Bucky shuffles in his seat and scratches the back of his neck.

“I was thinking about asking Vanessa for her number but I’m not sure...” Holly kicks Vanessa’s leg under the table and she yelps loud enough for the boys to hear as they snap their heads round.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” Sam asks, having gained some self confidence from his chat with Vanessa.

“WE StALkeD YOU HERE!” The girls, mimic at the same time and Peter and MJ just start laughing.

Steve turns and looks the group over, silently judging the two girls to be the ones from the story. He’s not quite sure who goes with who because, let’s be real here, they both look like dumbasses to Steve after that outburst. That is, until Sam slides over beside the two girls. One disappears under the booth and crawls out from under the table to go sit at their booth, probably not trying to be squished.

Bucky watches Vanessa climb like the child she is and stifles a laugh when she climbs up from under their booth to sit down beside Steve, setting her books down with a thud.

“Thought I’d give them some space.” She smiles and Bucky kind of just nods, trying not to lose his shit. It’s Steve’s turn to kick him under the table.

“Hello, I’m Steve Rogers.”

“Hey there Stevie Wonder, I’m Vanessa.” She takes his hand shaking it firmly before he excuses himself and leaves.

Sam is determined to make up for being a dumbbitch in every other interaction he’s had with Holly and sits down at their table with a “We have to stop meeting like this.”

Bucky and Vanessa just start cracking up while Peter and Mj mumble out a “We think we’ll take our food to go” and quickly escape the awkward.

Bucky starts apologizing to Vanessa about Sam and she’s like “Its okay, she likes it.”

“What do you like?” He asks quietly.

“YOU.” Nessa realizes she just said that out loud and gets super flushed, staring down at the table.

Bucky has no idea what to say to that. Because like fuck..he also likes her. He pulls the top book from her stack, noticing it’s on serial killers from the 19th century. He’s smiles, looking up at her.

“Oh, are you doing criminal justice too? This book is great. I used it for a midterm paper, my first year.”

“Ooh, what case did you use?” Vanessa asks, not ready to admit that serial killers just fascinate her and that she’s not a CJ student.

“I looked at H.H. Holmes, you know, America’s first serial killer.”

“No way! He’s my favorite!” Her eyes light up and she seems to realize how that sounds but Bucky can’t help smiling at her passion.

“I mean..not that I love serial killers or anything but...he was the first. My god. Did you hear about the Holmes-Ripper theory?” Vanessa is grateful he ignored her outburst and goes into depth about her favorite killer theories.

It’s Bucky’s turn to blush because holy shit she’s talking to him and she looks so interested, even when he rambles about one of his favourite cases that he’s working on for a mock trial. Meanwhile Holly laughs at Sam over her drink.

“We do” and he giggles a little but stops himself because fuck did he just giggle???

He starts picking at the sugar packets and then turns his head to her, “do you know the history of sugar?” he asks while holding up a sugar packet.

Holly shakes her head and rests her chin in her hand and elbow on the table “please tell me, I’m a sucker for history.”

Sam beams at her, he shifts in his seat holds up the packets. “Well! You’ll never believe this but it was actually first produced from sugarcane plants in northern India just after the first century CE.”

“Please tell me more.” Sam stumbles a little, he’s never gotten this far but she seems so interested.

“It then made its way to the medieval Islamic world and was further improved and developed there...andddd that’s all I know.” He grimaces, “truth be told, no one has ever stayed around to listen this far.”

“That’s a shame, I’d love to know more. Maybe some other time?” Sam bites back a smile and nods.

“I’ll come with cited notes and everything” he winks.

“Oh a man who can research, I like that” Holly bites her lip as Sam throws an arm over the back of the booth behind her.

“There’s lots of things you’d like about me.”

“Is that right,” Holly raises her eyebrows and Sam drops the sugar packet he’d been fidgeting with and opens and closes his mouth several times.

“I mean...maybe...I hope so…” he fumbles, quickly losing the confidence he’d gained from before, he wasn’t prepared for her to flirt back.

“I hope so too.”

“Are students allowed to come to mock trials, if they’re not in the class?” Vanessa asks, dipping a fry into the shake they’d been sharing.

“I think so...why? I-is that something you’d want to do?”

“Excuse me, watching you defend a serial killer?...I’d be STUPID not to go.”

Bucky can’t even comprehend why she’d want to sit through a boring mock trial but more power to her. “But you know the outcome already...it’s Manson.”

“Okay but first, Manson wasn’t a serial killer... he was a cult leader. And also...isn’t the point to try and get them to change the sentence?” Bucky just watches her, not quite believing he could meet someone so cool.

“Here, give me your phone,” Vanessa orders and he slides it over, unlocking it.

“Annnd THERE. You have to text me when you go to mock-trial.” Bucky gingerly takes his phone back, almost positive his face is going to burn off.

“I SWEAR IF YOU HOLD OUT ON ME...I’m never gonna talk to you again.” She warns.

“I would never.” He smiles and Vanessa thinks she might swoon then and there.

Sam overhears Bucky getting Vanessa’s numbers and decides he’s not going to let Bucky beat him, not that it’s a competition but he won’t have Bucky bragging all night.

“Maybe I uh... maybe I could get your number? That way when I finish my extensive research on the history of sugar I can let you know?” Holly giggles like a schoolgirl and hands Sam her phone, he puts his number in, adds a smiley face after his name and gives it back.

“Hey, why did Bucky say you called me a sex doll?” Holly’s eyes go wide and she stands from her seat and starts quickly gathering up her bag

“OH THAT-THAT’S NOT-NOPE NOTHING NEVERMIND THAT! VANESSA WE’RE GOING!” Vanessa breaks her stare with Bucky, looking back at Holly like WTF.

“Oh uh okay. Bye Bucket...Don’t forget to text me.” Vanessa smiles, sliding out of the booth and throws some money down, linking arms with Holly who is all but dragging Vanessa out of the cafe.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“UM WHAT WAS THAT?? WE WERE HAVING A MOMENT!” Vanessa whines, as they walk away.

“Yes..staring into eachothers eyes over a melted shake...is a moment, V.” Holly giggles. “I can’t fucking believe Bucky told him about that”

“Told him what?”

“SO you gave Bucky your number?!”

“DON’T CHANGE THE SUBJECT. What’d Bucky tell him?” Holly kind of sways a little throws her hands about trying to think of the right words.

“You remember when I said he called you a cat? Yea well I may have...perhaps...then claimed that Sam was his sex doll…”

“HOLLY what the fuck...You can’t just call people sex dolls!” Vanessa yells, catching a few looks from passersby.

”It was a JOKE! But fine whatever.”

“You’re an idiot.” Vanessa’s laughter suddenly bubbles up. “WOW, so glad I’m not you right now.”

They end up back at the apartment and are waiting for the elevator, Holly leans her head against the wall and pouts a little, “He must think I’m an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot.” Sam’s voice comes from behind her.

“HOLY SHIT!” Vanessa yells, turning to the two guys. “You scared the hell out of me, Screech.”

Holly doesn’t look up and mumbles against the wall “It’s like I can still hear his voice.”

“Screech??” Bucky asks, extremely confused.

“...like Saved By the Bell.” Sam supplies, “Sorry...long legs. We travel fast.”

Holly looks up after hearing all three of them and can’t help but wish the world would open up and swallow her.

“Going up?” Vanessa jokes, as the elevator doors ding open.

~~~~~~~~

Taglist (open): @cant-decide-at-this-moment @rinthehufflepuff @buckysmischief @sebbbystaaan @supraveng @hopingforbarnes @dumbubblegum

#hella feelings #marvel fanfiction #bucky barnes x oc #sam wilson x oc #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes angst #sam wilson fluff #sam wilson angst #marvel

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