#Affordable eye exam Phoenix | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

heartcereql · 11 months ago

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shades of cool

୨୧ young!coriolanus snow x f!reader ୨୧ IN WICH Coriolanus is the person you've grown to hate and compete against. But when you and him have to work together to achieve what you want, the tables start to turn. (6.2k+ words) ୨୧ cw: cursing, a LOT of tension (yall r going to hate me for the cockblocking), probably ooc snow (acting like he's a sweetheart and not a psycho lollll), like one mention of blood?

a/n: snow lands on top (of me pls)

There were only two things that you completely and utterly despised: breaking your favorite nail and the voice of Coriolanus Snow.

"Y/n!"

You made no sign whatsoever to acknowledge the man following your across the crowd of burgundy uniforms. You just clutched your books tighter and quickened your pace.

"Hey, Y/n- wait up!" he called again.

Sighing, you stopped in your tracks and turned around to see a platinum blond running in your direction. The usual shit-eating grin plastered on his face. You put on your best effort to suppress the eye roll that was begging to be released.

"Yes?" you asked, unamused.

"I was just wondering- you seemed kind of distracted in class today." His words were sugary, almost enough to trick anyone into thinking he was truly concerned. But not you though. You had learn to identify the glint in his eyes from a mile away. "Well, just in cas you missed this-"

Before you knew it, you had an A+ graded exam shoved in your face. Making a face of disgust, you scrambled away to look at his face, expression filled with pride.

"That's great, Coriolanus, real great. Would be even greater if I had asked", you scowled, turning away while Coriolanus scoffed behind you, quickly catching up with you again as you resumed your way out.

"Oh, c'mon, Y/n! You're not the only one who's allowed to brag", he said, nudging your side.

"Clearly not. You do it all the time", you deadpanned.

"Don't be mad 'cause you weren't able to beat me. Again."

The smell of roses was too stuck in your nostrils for your liking. Sweet and inviting, but remembering who it came from made the flowers lose all their charm.

"Also, exercise three's answer was option D," he pointed out, that annoying smirk on his face again.

"What?"

"It was option D, not A."

"How did you even- Nevermind. Option A is the literal definition, care to explain how it is option D?" you argued, rolling your eyes.

"I- A's not the definition!" Coriolanus tried to rebute.

"It is. Try paying attention for once."

"It's not!" He stopped fully, leaning against a wall and opening his bag.

"What are you doing?" you raised a brow at his franctic search. Sometimes you forgot how infuriating he was.

"I'm looking for the textbook," he replied, face almost buried in his bag.

"Unbelievable," you scoffed, turning around. "You really are unfixable, Snow."

Walking away from the mess of papers he had made around him, you could hear him protest.

"Hey, don't go! I'm finding the page!"

You shook your head. The exasperation in his voice was like music to your ears.

You knew who you wanted to be from a very young age. You knew exactly what you wanted and what you had to do to achieve it. You wanted everything.

Top of your class since you were five. Student of the month every month. Class president. Winning every single award that could be won by a child under twelve years old.

You wanted to take everything from a life that had given you nothing. Like a phoenix, your mother used to say, risen from the ashes to burn in the most blazing fire. With little to no resources, your family had incredibly made it work so that they could afford a small apartment in the Capitol (if you dared call the cubicle that your family shared a house). But your family had made it. And so had you, child prodigy, wanting to rescue your poor parents and sister. Specially when your mom's frequent coughing developed into something far more serious.

You were unstoppable. Nothing in your way. Praise. Applause. Recognition. It was all in the back of your hand.

Until Coriolanus Snow appeared.

He and you were basically the same. Same drive for power, same desire to rescue your family, same overachiever character, same flawless grades. One would think you would get along, being so impossibly similar.

And perhaps you could have. You could've befriended him and helped each other. If he had not equalled you with such aptitude. Before you knew it, Y/n Y/l/n was never mentioned without Coriolanus Snow. You were no longer the only student to pass with distinction. You weren't the only clear winner, or the only candidate for class president, or weren't so easily distincted class president, for Coriolanus was your vicepresident (something that had never been a thing, that appeared as suddenly as him).

But he was fighting you for your spot. Naturally, you didn't even consider him as a potential friend. He was an obstacle in your way, as you were in his. Soon, you two were always engaged in bantering, cruel comments, trying to bring the other down by showing off your accomplishments and grades and awards and titles.

It was more than safe to say that you and Corolanius held special hatred for each other.

And then came the Plintz Prize. Both of you wanted it with equal burning ache, and gave your very best since the first day. Obviously, you weren't the only students who were interested in winning the prize, but you were the ones ready to sacrifice everything, the ones to always make the most of an opportunity, even if it was minimal.

You were so deeply convinced that you were nothing like the other.

But neither of you was willing to let anything come in your way.

"A new financial aid is going to be gifted."

The words echoed in the room as students hushedly commented, whispered to one another.

"Students will submit a proposal, individually or in pairs. A suggestion with your own design of the Hunger Games. You'll go into detail about every little thing, so that in the end, Dr Gaul will select the project she fancies more to be the winner and receive the financial aid."

You and Coriolanus shared a look from opposite sides of the room.

The prize is mine.

As per usual, you were determined to go for everything. You needed to nail this. That very same afternoon you were sat in front of your desk, scribbling down what was supposed to be the first draft to your proposal project. You'd noted some ideas, but they didn't seem to make sense altogether.

Groaning for the umpteenth time, you got up from the spot you'd been occuppying for the last two hours. Your home was no inspiration, which was why you gathered all your scattered pages and notes and made your way to the Academy's library.

There was a spot you liked there. Your spot, though only you referred to it as that, of course. A comfy chair with a green cushion on the end of a large oak table, between the shelves of Geometry books and medicine articles. Golden rays of sunlight filtered through the large window on spring afternoons, and even in the bleak winter it felt nice to look through it.

Making your way over to your spot, you could almost feel the comfort of the chair, how your thoughts would clear and start to make sense. Eyes half closed anticipating the delight. But you opened them only to find a familiar (and annoying) blond sitting in your corner.

"Move" you said as you finished your way over to him.

"What? No. I'm working. Thinking", Coriolanus answered, unbothered, without looking up from his notes and papers, some scrambled, some with big ink stains.

"I don't care. It's my spot. Move.”

He raised his head to look up at you and stopped writing.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise this chair had your name engraved on it,” he pettily remarked.

“Whatever,” you exhaled, plopping down on the seat next to him. “You are such a pain in the ass, you know.”

“Back at you,” he replied, eyes focused on his papers again.

You huffed and reached inside your bag to grab your notes.

Your messily written ideas were mocking you, at this point. If you thought they didn’t make much sense at home, they definitely weren’t making any now. You had so much in mind. And they were great ideas, really. But you couldn’t find a way to connect them, for them to make sense altogether. And you were missing something. Something so essential, something that you couldn’t quite place.

How will the games be watched if they’re held in the middle of a desert? Where will the cameras be?

You scrunched your paper, groaning again and dropping your head to the table.

"Something wrong?"

You lifter your head to find Coriolanus looking at you, carding a hand through his hair.

"None of your business."

"Jesus, chill out Y/n. I was just asking if you were okay.." he spoke, not in his usual bratty tone; he sounded just worried.

Your eyes widened a bit with a mix between embarrassment and shyness.

"I'm just... stressed. I'm stuck on the whole proposal thing, it just won't make any sense. I feel like it's missing something, but I just can't know what," you told him, rubbing your temples.

Coriolanus let out a breathy chuckle, to which you looked at him disbelief.

"I knew you were cruel, but laughing at my miserable state is just-"

"I'm not laughing. I'm relieved," he explained. You looked for any signs of mockery, but his eyes were truthful and soft.

"Relieved?" you frowned.

"Yeah. I-I thought I was the only one having a kind of block," he looked down to his notes and that was when you noticed the messy paragraphs the crossed ideas, the lines and arrows that tried to connect everything.

You gave Coriolanus a tight-lipped smile. He was right. It was somewhat relieving to know that your only real threat was having a hard time like you were.

"Hey, I've got an idea."

His voice pulled you out of your thoughts. Oh hell no. No idea Coriolanus could want to share with you would turn out great.

"Shoot"

"I think we should partner up for the project," he bluntly said.

"Pardon?" you asked raising your brows. You really thought that you hadn't heard him correctly.

"Yeah, I mean, think about it. We both have a lot of ideas but feel something missing. We-we could help each other out!" Coriolanus clarified, somewhat flustered. "We'd win the prize and split it. Highbottom said the proposal could be submitted by pairs. If we do this together, we'll be unstoppable."

You blinked twice, digesting his words like you couldn't believe they were real.

"I think that's the worst idea I've ever heard."

Coriolanus scoffed. "Right, because you're so well known for your good ideas."

True. Though being a straight A's, perfect student, you had a certain fire inside you that had given you a reckless and flaming reputation.

"I'm in."

You were back in the library the next day, only this time you were sitting in your spot, and Coriolanus was besides you. You had been sitting in silence for the past fifteen minutes, reading the other's anotations and doodles.

When you finished, you leaned back into you seat, stretching your neck and pushing loose strands of hair behind your ears.

"So?" Coriolanus inquired when he noticed you were done. "What do you think?"

"I'm... surprised," you told him, chin resting on your hand as you looked at him. "It's almost identical to mine."

He chuckled. "Yeah, that's what I was noticing. I guess great minds think alike, right?"

"Could be, or you just copied me," you said. Coriolanus sneered and you saw the complains forming behind his lips, so you were quick to clarify. "I was joking, Snow. It seems we're not so different."

"Or you just copied me" he mocked, using your words from earlier.

"You wish," you smile, scoffing in a playful manner.

"Hey, what was it that you were unhappy with about your ideas? Because I think they're pretty great," Coriolanus asked, handing your notes back to you.

"They don't make sense to me. I couldn't come up with a way to connect it all," you shrugged. "Maybe we shouldn't use all of this, I don't know."

The entire day was spent between countless bickering and snacks, you and Coriolanus discussing the project and how insufferable the other was, shielded by the brimful shelves and the hushed conversations between students.

Over the next few days, your begrudging meetings with Coriolanus continued, each session marked by a mixture of tension and reluctant cooperation. The library became your unofficial battleground, the hallowed halls witnessing the clash of two strong-willed minds.

As you both settled into your usual spot once again, there was a palpable air of wariness. However, you couldn't help but notice a subtle change in Coriolanus. He seemed more open to discussion, his usually stoic facade occasionally cracking to reveal a hint of vulnerability. The topics ranged from the project at hand to personal interests, and amidst the disagreements, you discovered shared preferences and surprisingly similar perspectives.

By the first week, a sort of unspoken truce had settled between you. The bickering had mellowed into a more civilized exchange of ideas. Coriolanus, despite his initial resistance, began to respect your opinions and even admitted to finding some merit in your perspectives. You, in turn, acknowledged the sharp intellect beneath his icy exterior. Shared laughter became more frequent, often catching both of you off guard.

Throughout these encounters, the library transformed from a battlefield to a space of reluctant collaboration. Despite the lingering differences, a strange sense of partnership emerged. The once insufferable project discussions turned into an exploration of each other's intellect, and with each passing day, the library witnessed the evolution of an unexpected connection between two seemingly incompatible souls.

Your bag hit the leg of the table as you slipped in your chair, the blond taking the seat next to you. A soft thud was heard, along with something rolling. You were going to duck down to reach it, but Coriolanus was already grabbing it.

"Hey, are these yours?" Coriolanus asked, holding a bottle of pills.

Your eyes widened. Your mom's medicines. You reached inside your bag to check if the bottle you had picked up from the chemist's before school was still there. It wasn't.

"Yeah. Well- my mom's."

He handed the bottle to you, whcih you were quick to put back in your bag.

"Is she okay? Not like it's any of my business, but those pills are like one of the strongest shits ever," he frowned.

Taking a deep breath, you explained, "She's not. She hasn't been for quite a while. And the doctors don't say much, but it isn't looking good."

"I- um, I'm sorry," he stammered, looking down. "If you or her ever need anything, you know you can talk to me, right?"

You nodded, leg bouncing up and down.

"Here," he said, scribbling down something on a ripped piece of paper. "My address. If you ever need it."

"Thank you," you looked into his eyes, words barely a whisper. "I really appreciate it."

His knee bumped yours, like soothing it down, keeping it steady. "Anytime," he smiled.

You gave him an awkward smile, looking away.

The green folder, clutched tightly in your arms, contained the first draft of yours and Coriolanus' design for the Hunger Games. You both were going to introduce it to Dean Highbottom, since you needed to inform him of who formed your team and some other information. Then, he would grant the two of you an interview with Dr. Gaul.

Once, Coriolanus had referred to the folder as 'your baby'. You had given him a blank stare for a second before the two of you broke down in laughter.

Mindlessly turning around a corner, you bumped into someone's shoulder. A pair of arms caught your own, steadying you, keeping you from falling.

"Whoa, sorry-"

The folder. You quickly stepped back, freeing the folder from being crushed any further. Compulsively checking if the folder was okay, you failed to identify the pair of arms that had held you seconds before.

It was okay. Your baby was okay.

"So sorry, I- Coriolanus?" you asked as you finally lifted your gaze. "I thought you were coming by later?"

"Couldn't wait. I was actually looking for you. I just saw Dean Highbottom enter his office. Campus is pretty deserted, so I'd say we could be the first ones."

A soft smile graced his face.

"Shall we then?" you posed the courtsy question playfully.

"We shall"

The two of you made your way to the Dean's office, gushing about the project like two schoolgirls. Grades and rivalry were not brought up once. Perhaps just because you wanted the day to be perfect.

After knocking on Dean Highbottom's door and hearing a 'come in', Coriolanus opened the door and both of you came in.

"Look who it is! Snow and Y/l/n. Aren't you a sight for sore eyes", the Dean greeted you.

Coriolanus and you shared a glance before giving the Dean a polite smile.

"Are you here about the project?"

"We are," you answered, gesturing to the green folder in your hands.

"As in the two of you are submitting the proposal together?" the bearded man asked, raising his eyebrows. When Coriolanus nodded, he let out a chuckle. "I thought I wouldn't live to see the day."

You offered an awkward smile as you and the blond sat in the seats before the Dean's desk. You silently handed him your folder. After opening it and browsing through the various concepts and sketches, Dean Highbottom closed the folder, tapping his figertips against it.

Nervousness gnawed your insides, your leg bouncing up and down in anxiety. You hadn't even noticed this, too caught up into thinking the absolute worst of the situation; until you felt a knee- his knee- press into yours. Suddenly very aware of what was happening outside your mind, you blinked once, as to come back into reality, and then again, swifting your eyes to Coriolanus besides you.

For a moment, just a moment, you saw only a pair of eyes that guaranteed comfort peering into yours, crowned by the softests of golden curls. And then you saw the snarky comments, the whole usurping-your-place scheme, the perfect grades and the annoyingly pitched voice. The smile froze on your lips. Fuck.

"So," the Dean's voice broke the silence. "Are you two dating yet? Because it would really benefit you"

Both your head and his snapped into the Dean's direction.

"Pardon?!"

"What?"

Two pairs of eyes now looked wide and with a mix of disbelief and annoyance at the Dean.

"I take it you're not." No shit.

You were still too astounded to speak. What did he mean yet? He was your proffesor. He should, must, know that everything between the two of you is rivalry. Right?

"What, um, what did you mean it would benefit us?" Coriolanus asked, his voice as thin as thread.

"Well I eyed your proposal. And it's good. More than good. It has a lot of potential. But Volumnia Gaul loves one thing more than her creations. Gossip. Drama. If she hears the two of you are dating, she'll make you the Capitol's power couple. She'll give you a story. You will become her favourites. If you want to win at all costs, I'm just giving you a shortcut." He stared at the pair in front of him."But, overall, you've done a great work. I'll leave you to ponder it and I'll alert you when Dr Gaul is ready to see you."

You nodded, as Coriolanus and you mumbled 'thank you's and 'goodbye's and 'have a nice day's before leaving the office.

Campus wasn't very crowded yet; only a couple of students could be seen lurking around. The morning still preserved its coldness, dew remained on the grass.

Biting the inside of your cheek, you started walking, the blond boy quick to catch up.

You hated how you got caught up in this mess. All because you and him needed help. And because he and you were the only answer to the other's problem.

"Y/n?" Coriolanus spoke softly. "How do you feel... about what the Dean said?"

Sighing, you replied, "I just don't know. I mean, this was all crazy before but now? I'm confused, I guess."

"Don't you think it can help us even more?" he frowned.

"But we don't need any more help. We joined forces, no one can beat us, there's no need for us to-"

"I know we can do it without Gaul's help. But it’s one thing to win this aid, and another thing to become Gaul’s favourites. Do you realise how many doors she could open for us?” Coriolanus had stopped both of you now, his body blocking your way, hands in your shoulders, eyes fixed on yours.

“C’mon, Y/n, it’s just pretending,” he pleaded. “Plus, we’re in this to help each other out, right?”

A warm smile spread over his lips, one that only encouraged you and painted a smile of your own on your mouth.

“Fine. We’ll do this lunatic shit. Since you’re not able to reach my level without my help,” you teased, moving past him and resuming your way.

“Sure, Y/n. Whatever makes you sleep at night!” you heard Snow shout behind you.

You just gave him the finger, biting back a smile as you walked away.

The news spread like wildfire through the campus. The dean's offhand comment had ignited a storm of speculation and gossip. As you navigated through the university halls, it was impossible to ignore the curious glances and hushed conversations that followed you.

The library, once your sanctuary of academic warfare, now became the epicenter of buzzing rumors. Students stole glances at you and Coriolanus, whispering behind cupped hands as you pretended not to notice. The atmosphere had shifted, and your every move seemed to be scrutinized under an invisible magnifying glass.

Your next meeting at the library felt different. The air was thick with unspoken words, and the weight of the rumors hung in the room. As you both delved into your project, the tension was palpable. Every accidental touch or shared smile now carried an added layer of significance.

By the third week, the rumors had taken a life of their own. The once reluctant collaboration now felt like an uncomfortable alliance, forged not just for academic success but to navigate the newfound attention. Your life, once a sheltering and private, now felt like a fishbowl.

The doors that led to Gaul's lab appeared impossibly big. You let out a shaky breath, one you didn't know you were holding. Bouncing your leg usually was how you showed your nerves, but, since you were standing, you settled with just a trembling pinky finger.

Cold fingers were wrapping around your hand before you knew it.

"What are you doing?" you turned to Coriolanus.

"Gaul's no fool. We have to put on our best efforts to make her believe we are together. You have to help, too. And your hands were shaking," he shrugged.

Taking a deep breath, you swallowed his words and leaned further into his arm, clinging to him like a good girlfriend would.

As if on cue, the door swung open, revealing brown and blue eyes shooting a daring look. The woman’s face was instantly lit up with a smirk.

“Coriolanus Snow and Y/n Y/l/n. The sweethearts Dean Highbottom has told me so much about,” Volumnia Gaul greeted the both of you. “Please, come inside.”

She stepped aside to let you in. The ceiling seemed to be miles away from the floor. White, ivory columns welcomed you, glass cabinets displaying all sorts of weird creatures and experiments.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" Gaul commented behind you.

There was just something so... unsettling about her, something you couldn't quite place but that was ticking you off

It's for the better.

That had been your mantra for the past few days. The end justifies the means. You kept telling yourself that you didn't want this, that you were only doing this for convinience. But lately you hadn't really been feeling that way. Not when you were sitting right next to him, laughing mere seconds ago, his eyes staring into yours, not trying to intimidate you but more in an attentive way.

He thought you looked so delicate and alluring. You did often, as of late. There were a few stray strands of hair that hid your dashing smile from Coriolanus. A smile he had so recently grown so fond of.

He just couldn't resist the urge to tuck them behind your ear; his fingers a soft caress against your skin. And so he did.

His touch was feather-like, as if you were a porcelain doll that was about to break. At the sudden contact, you shifted your gaze from the papers on the table to look at him. And, god, you almost wish you hadn’t. Because he looked otherworldly just sitting there besides you, hand behind your ear, lips parted slightly, dangerously close to you.

“Your hair was getting in your eye,” he mumbled.

The proximity was going to kill you. He was invading all of your senses. And you hated it. You hated it because this wasn’t even real. It was just supposed to help you with Gaul, nothing more. You hated it because it didn’t feel that way. You hated it because this was not the Coriolanus you knew; not the Coriolanus you chose to know.

“Thanks,” you breathed.

You were scared. As pure and simple as that. This was uncharted territory for you; you had never seen this part of him. It frightened you because you were losing control over your emotions.

"Coryo..."

He was convinced you were goingo to give into his desires. You were convinced for a moment, too. But then it occurred to you that this wasn't supposed to be real. That whatever you had between you both was just a scheme. That he was just joking.

"What did you score on the last biology exam?"

You mentally cursed yourself as soon as the words left your mouth. You felt yourself involuntarily slipping away from his touch.

“100%,” he responded, frowning. “Why?”

“Guess all these time around me wasn’t enough. I got 102%,” you smiled, trying to sound (hoping to sound) less awkward than you sounded in your head.

“How’s that even possible? I thought there were no extra exercises.”

You swallowed the lump forming in your throat before continuing. “I detailed every answer more than it was needed, so.”

“Oh. Well, congrats.” His lips were pressed into a thin line that he tried to transform into a smile, but ended up just contorting his face.

You looked at the papers before you, laying in a mess on the table, surrounded by pencils, sticky notes and highlighters. Then your eyes peered at the window besides your spot. The sun was setting behind the Capitol’s skyline, painting golden and rosy hues over the library. It was getting late.

“I- I think I should go. I’d better go home before it darkens.”

Coriolanus nodded. "Cool. I'm gonna get going too."

You bit your lip as you stood up, gathering your work. Not another word was uttered until you noticed the librarian peering over at you from behind some shelves, and students at the end of the aisle were turning their heads to you.

Perks of being Gaul’s favourite couple, you supposed.

You leaned to Coriolanus’ level again, pulling him into a side hug as you whispered in his ear.

“They’re looking.”

And then, you pressed a kiss to his forehead and walked out.

Too overwhelmed thinking about that moment with Coriolanus, you missed the way his eyes stayed on you until you left the library, and the way his fingers lingered on the part of his forehead that had been in touch with your lips.

The thought of him plagued your mind as you made your way home. Not even the biting cold of the evening could take the warmth spreading over your cheeks. What was going on with you? He was the guy you hated, you used to hate, the one that was trying to take over your spot.

But your attempts to convince yourself were vain. Because you no longer felt raging hate when you thought of Coriolanus. You couldn't excatly pin what it was, but it was definitely not hatred.

Reaching inside you bag for the key of your family apartment, you sighed, as if that was going to clear and sort out your messy feelings. Yet you didn't even need to open the door, for it was opened swiftly in front of you.

"Y/n!" your father pulled you in. The frown between his brows, the worry reflected in his eyes, the way he held you. Something was not right.

"Dad, what's wrong? I-"

"It's your mom, she- she started to cough so much blood. She's unconscious now, I- I was just about to take her to the hospital."

"Oh my God." Tears stung in your eyes. You knew she was bad, worse than she'd ever been, but this was far from what the doctors had informed you about. "Shit, where's Deena?"

"Your sister's staying over at a friend's. Is there anyone who can take you for the night? Someone who knew about your mother, if it makes you more comfortable?" he asked, rubbing your arm.

Coriolanus. You hated that he was the first person to come to mind, but the truth was thas this project had swept you up from practically every other aspect of your life. You hadn't seen your best friends much, since they were also focused on their projects. Most of your time had been spent with Coriolanus. And you didn't know how to feel about that. Disgusted, you supposed. But that didn't quite match the tugging in your chest whenever you met him at the library, or the calmness that took over you when his knee pressed into your anxiously bouncing one.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so," you nodded, blinking the tears away, though they slid down your cheeks anyway.

"Good. I don't think it'd be good for you to be alone right now."

You hurriedly packed your essentIals and some extra clothes, making your way to the door. You held it open for your dad as he carried your mother.

"I'll see you soon. Be safe, Y/n," he whispered.

"You too, Dad."

You tried your hardest not to break down as you saw your father making his way to the doctor's with your mom in his arms.

But once he was out of sight, you rushed out of the filthy apartment building. As you ran through the Capitol's streets, you remembered the now wrinkled paper that he had written his address on.

"Here. My address. If you ever need it."

It sat scrunched in your coat's pocket. You kept running as your trembling hands unfolded it, and quickened your pace once you'd read the address.

You arrived at his door short of breath, cheeks reddened from the effort, tears dried from the wind. Your knuckles softly knocked at his door.

Mess. You felt like a mess. Everything you had known to this day seemed to have completely flipped around, changing everything all of a sudden. Your mind was a tangled, impossible knot of thoughts and feelings and emotions that were constantly contradicting each other.

A blonde girl opened the front door. To your blurry eyes, she looked like an angel.

"Can I help you?" she kindly prompted, a concerned frown appearing in between her brows.

"Yeah- I'm looking for Coriolanus?" you said, voice on the point of breaking.

"Come in, he'll be right here," the woman spoke, stepping aside so you could come in and closing the door right after. She sat you down on an armchair, her touch gentle and tender. "Coryo! Someone's here for you."

As soon as the words left her mouth, you heard footsteps tumbling down the hallway and into the entrance. The instant his eyes met yours, he put everything else aside. His sole focus was you. The red around your eyes, eyelashes glinting from the recent caress of tears, shaky hands, bottom lip between your teeth, and your leg bouncing up and down almost uncontrollably.

He wanted to hold you forever. Take you in his arms like you were a fragile flower, yet the most fierce of them all. Rivalry long forgotten and buried, mean comments and hurtful offenses forgiven without a second thought. He saw Y/n. Not perfect grades, not snarky remarks, not an opponent. Just Y/n. Sweet, sweet, Y/n.

And you didn't see Coriolanus Snow. The blond standing in front of you now was not the one you'd been fighting for the better part of your teenage years, even before. He was not the one competing against you. Who was him then, if not the Coriolanus Snow you had known all your life?

Coryo.

"Y/n, hey, hey, what's wrong?" he asked, voice surprisingly soft, even for his cousin. He crouched down, placing a cold, calming hand on your fidgety leg.

You could feel the tears welling up again, because he was there for you.

“I… I’m going to head out,” the woman said. “I’ll be back in a while.”

Coriolanus muttered a goodbye and then she was gone. And as soon as she was, you broke down.

Burying your head in your hands, tears burnt past your eyes, flowing now freely. All that could be heard were your heavy, shaky breaths. His hand on your back, tracing small circles, made you pull your head up.

Fuck, why were you even here?

"Y/n?"

"It's my mom." You tried to dry your cheeks, only for tears to fall down again. "She-she lost consciousness. The doctors didn't even say she was that bad. And I.. I just arrived there and there was nothing I could do-" your voice broke before you could finish the sentence.

He instantly pulled you into a hug, your head hidden in the crook of his neck, arms around it. One of his hands was wrapped around your torso, safely drawing you to him, while the other was tangled in your hair.

"I am so, so, sorry," he whispered, breath tickling your ear. You only clinged to him tighter; the only thing on your mind other than your mother right then was how warm and guarded you felt in his arms.

When you finally retracted to look at him, you found your body almost leaning into him again, yearning for his embrace. You inhaled sharply.

"I'm by your side no matter what, okay?" he assured you, eyes piercing yours, hands sliding up your figure to cup your face. "I'm here for you."

You did your best to gather yourself and nod at his words. But then you felt him pulling away in the slightest. No. You wanted him close. You wanted him.

You rose a hand to his neck, fingers dancing along his skin, messing with the blond curls they could reach.

"Hey, Y/n," Coriolanus called out. "She's going to make it. She'll be okay. And so will you."

A knot formed in your throat, the prequel to infinite tears, because who was him and what was he doing to your heart?

Whatever prejudice or thought you had against him was blurrying in your mind. The person he was supposed to represent in your head was further and further from the one barely inches away from you now. And then it hit you. Right then, right there. It didn't scare you. You wanted to know this person. You wanted to give the both of you a second consideration under different lightning.

And so, you closed the gap between Coriolanus and you, as he had tried and wanted so bad to do mere hours before. His lips were warm, contrary to every other part of his body you had ever been in contact with.

For a fraction of second, he hesitated, frozen in his spot, convincing himself that this was happening, that this was real, that you were real. But once he kissed back, he just couldn't let you go.

His hands were suddenly everywhere, exploring your body and drawing you to him as he kissed you, all the desire and passion (and even the resentment, too) poured into the kiss. Coriolanus wanted to make you feel okay. Not just now. But 'now' would have to do as of that moment. And if this was how you wanted the pain to go away, so be it. Fingers digging in your hips made you leave out a mixture of a gasp and a moan, which Coriolanus used to slip his tongue inside your mouth. Everthing he did got you addicted, craving more.

You had both been sitting on the floor, but now you were climbing into his lap, pulling away for the smallest of seconds, but either way Coriolanus was quick to reunite your lips again. Your mouths danced together. Your sking tingled pleasantly under his touch; a constant fire travelling beneath his fingers. But when his hand raised to your cheek, checking for the trace of any new tears. It was simply enough to melt you on the spot.

Tugging at his hair, you angled his face to leave a trace of open-mouthed kisses along his jaw. His groan reverberated through your skin.

The pain was buried somewhere in your mind, but your heart didn’t ache in that moment; he was all your senses were taking in. And you felt safe.

#heartcereql #coriolanus snow x you #coriolanus snow x reader #coriolanus x you #coriolanus x reader #tom blyth x reader #tom blyth x you

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talesofadragon · 2 months ago

Text

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞

Chapter V - Synopsis: Halfway through the semester, Y/N thought the only dire changes she’d face would be a hectic schedule and a few sleepless nights. But with the arrival of a mysterious woman with flaming red phoenix hair and a swarm of butterflies in her stomach at the mere thought of her professor, exam season is shaping up to be an even bigger rollercoaster than she imagined.

Pairing: Professor!Steve Rogers x Student!Reader/Mum!Reader

Warnings: Age Gap (14 years. Both are adults), teacher/student dynamic, abusive relationship, gaslighting, emotional manipulation, terrible partner, co-parenting.

Word Count: 4K Words

All Masterlists | Paint Me Midnight Blue Masterlist

𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆, Stark University buzzed with frenetic energy. Though the campus was always lively, these last few days felt like a pressure cooker—everyone was moving, but no one had time to breathe.

Y/N delivered her argument earlier that day in Professor Coulson's Trial Advocacy class. It went well—too well, in fact—since Coulson kept the session past its scheduled time, firing one question after another at her. Luckily, Y/N didn’t have another class immediately after; even if she did, this was the time of year when professors were more forgiving about tardiness. They called it "We were students once, too.” Y/N called it breakroom chatter about the looming doom of their upcoming exams.

But students weren’t shy about playing the game either. They knew how to take advantage of this “forgiveness” by squeezing in a little extra time for themselves—chatting with friends, smoking a cigarette, grabbing a quick bite from the diner across the street. Any excuse was good enough to show up fashionably late. Or to not show up at all.

While Y/N didn’t have a class to attend, she did need to finish some work for Steve. Call it diligence or desire, she chose not to take an extra five minutes to toe off her heels and tone down her outfit. The better part of her reasoned that she couldn’t afford to waste any more time. But the sensual part, the one she nestled in the deepest recesses of her being, wanted to savor the moment and revel in her outfit just a little longer.

Swapping her casual attire for something as crisp and sharp as her plaid light brown skirt, off-white turtleneck, and beige blazer with brown accents was her own version of a Cinderella moment.

Maybe it was nostalgia for her teenage years or the desire to feel like herself again—confident, empowered, even a little attractive. She couldn’t say for sure. But between her classes, work, and caring for Nyla, Y/N rarely had time for herself. She had almost forgotten the feeling of wearing heels, let alone walking in them—there was something undeniably alluring about a woman in a striking outfit and bold stilettos. Thankfully, her agility hadn’t faded with time, just like her ability to command attention in a well-cut skirt.

She met a handful of inquisitive looks on her way to Steve’s office. Students carefully assessed her, trying to guess which department she belonged to and whether they had seen her before. The university was immense, so even if she were a social butterfly—which she was not—there was no way for her to have known any of them.

Though curious, and some a little charming, the looks she received were mundane. The interest was there, but there was a glint of something missing. An intensity she had started, albeit reluctantly, yearning for. These gazes weren’t the kind that sent a thrill through her, the kind she secretly craved even if she’d never admit it. No, it was almost blasphemous to dare and compare them to those blue-green eyes she revered, a meeting point between serenity and escape—a bridge she should never, ever cross!

Steve’s office loomed ahead, commanding the distracting thoughts away. Y/N inhaled sharply, smoothing out the invisible creases of her skirt for reasons that were beyond her. Knocking on the door once, hand already on the handle, she paused, waiting for a reply that never came. She pushed the door open, eyes immediately drawn to Steve’s desk. A gasp escaped her, her heels digging into the tiles when she met an unfamiliar sight. There, sitting comfortably in Steve’s swiveling chair, was a woman.

“Excuse me,” Y/N called out authoritatively, gaining no visible response. “May I ask who you are and what you’re doing sitting at Professor Rogers’ desk?”

The woman was dressed in a pristine maroon pantsuit, exuding an air of professionalism and composure. Yet, her callous behavior contradicted the very image she tried to project. She wasn’t a professor—Y/N was sure of that. And since she had never seen her around campus, it was unlikely that she was staff. Whoever she was, whether the owner of the university or the president of the country, she had no right to be lounging in Steve’s office as if she owned the place.

With a slight arch of her dark brows, the woman’s gaze swept over Y/N’s smaller frame. “Professor Rogers is not present at the moment,” she answered as if that was the question Y/N had posed.

“I didn’t ask about Professor Rogers’ whereabouts.”

“These aren’t his office hours,” the woman commented casually, seemingly unfazed by the edge in Y/N’s voice.

Y/N’s fingers twitched at her side, irritation beginning to simmer in her gaze. She was speaking English, for heaven’s sake. What was so hard to understand? Unable to get through to the woman, she decided on a different approach.

“My name’s Y/N. I’m his assistant.”

Though Y/N meant to assert the authority her title afforded, the reaction she received was unlike what she expected. The woman’s aloof demeanor shifted to one of intrigue. Her catlike eyes softened, and a small crinkle appeared at the corner of her lips.

“So, you’re the famous Y/N,” she said, the amusement in her eyes evident. Y/N felt something flicker within her, a small jolt of surprise that coursed through her veins. The woman adjusted her phoenix-red hair over one shoulder and leaned forward slightly, giving Y/N a more deliberate once-over. “Bucky talks about you all the time.”

Bucky? Y/N’s heart sank at the mention of her former History professor. She’d been bracing herself for another name. Swallowing the confusion, she buried it deep, down by the embers of her hope that had briefly flickered to life. Bucky was the one talking about her?

“You know Professor Barnes?”

The red-haired woman smirked, the kind that hinted at knowing far more than she let on. Her lips, however, played a different tune. “We go way back. Bucky, Steve, and me.”

Y/N nodded slowly, her lips pressing into a thin, disappointed line. A sharp discomfort settled over her as she realized she'd been standing there for an awkward five minutes, talking to a stranger.

Determined not to show any sign of weakness, even though the woman's overconfidence and cryptic remarks gnawed at her, Y/N squared her shoulders and walked to the desk. The sound of her heels clicking against the floor fueled the confidence she desperately clung to.

“If you could please wait for Professor Rogers in one of the seats across from his desk,” Y/N said as politely as she could, though a hint of disdain threaded through her tone.

“I’m perfectly content where I’m sitting.”

The nerve of her! Y/N took a deep breath, plastering on a fake smile. “It’s not a matter of content but a matter of respect,” she enunciated sharply.

The woman’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Are you calling me disrespectful?” she asked bluntly.

“Did I say that aloud?” No, Y/N hadn’t, but she was glad the woman wasn’t clueless. “If you truly know Professor Rogers, then you know his stance on conformity. He likes things a certain way.”

“Meaning?”

“You’re in his seat,” Y/N pointed out, gesturing toward the chair in question. “He’s only permitted me to sit there. So, if you wouldn’t mind pulling up one of the chairs in front of the desk, I’m sure we’d all appreciate it.”

If the woman had been perplexing before, she was downright baffling now. She laughed, her cherry-red lips parting in genuine amusement. Y/N couldn’t fathom how someone like her could muster so much energy this early in the morning.

Gracefully, the woman pushed the chair back, the wheels gliding smoothly across the floor. She stood to her full height, her ankle boots giving her a few extra inches. She crossed the short distance between them with a mixture of assertiveness and finesse that bordered on predatory.

As she moved to take a seat, her features became clearer under the office light. Her green eyes, like a verdant forest bathed in sunlight, were striking. Her face, a masterful blend of sharp lines and elegance, held an enigmatic allure. She towered over Y/N, the age gap between them becoming more pronounced the longer they looked at one another. The woman was clearly in her thirties—like Steve.

“Natasha Romanoff,” she introduced herself as Y/N placed her books on the desk and turned on Steve’s computer. “Normally, I’d indulge in a mysterious exchange, but the scales are uneven today. I know far more about you than you know about me.”

“Nice to meet you,” Y/N hummed dismissedly.

Logging into Steve’s computer, she immediately pulled up the list of tasks for the day: updating attendance records, double-checking grades for Steve’s Intro to Artistic Visualization class, and reviewing the research papers that had passed through the plagiarism checker, among other things.

She reached across the desk to grab Steve’s binder, a languid smile tugging at her lips as she caught sight of one of the teddy bears they had won at the fair. Nyla had split the plush toys evenly between her and Steve, and according to him, one of the three had to find a place in his second home—his office.

If the gesture alone hadn’t warmed Y/N’s heart, the image of Steve holding the small toy in his much larger hands, waving it around with animated enthusiasm, surely did. She could still see him playfully swaying the bear before her eyes, its stitched mouth "kissing" the tip of her nose. The memory brought a fresh wave of goosebumps to her skin—thankfully, it was still cool enough for long sleeves to cover them.

“Drink?” Natasha’s voice snapped her out of the memory.

Y/N blinked, raising her head as her mind adjusted back to the present. Is she asking or commanding? was the first thought that crossed her still-dazed consciousness.

“Oh, sorry.” Y/N quickly stood, heading toward the refreshment area. “It didn’t even occur to me to ask if you wanted anything to drink.”

Almost as if Y/N’s genuine tone had thrown her off, it was Natasha’s turn to momentarily lose herself in a stupor. Her daze, however, was fleeting. She quickly recovered, replying, “I was actually asking if you wanted something to drink. I know my way around this office, hon.”

“Nonsense, you’re a guest,” Y/N insisted, her tone polite, though laced with subtle passive-aggression. If Natasha noticed, she didn’t comment. “Let me get you something. Coffee or tea?”

Natasha hesitated, her gaze lingering on the coffee drip beside Y/N. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, still eyeing the rich brown liquid. Y/N was just about to place a mug beneath the spout, fingers hovering over the pot’s handle, when Natasha cleared her throat. “Actually, I’ll have water, please.”

Y/N didn’t question her choice, even though Natasha looked like the kind of woman who could down two pots of coffee without breaking a sweat. Hell, she looked like liquor couldn’t hold her, not the other way around.

Without a second thought, Y/N poured her a glass of water and placed it on a coaster by her side of the desk. She poured herself some coffee, adding two sugars, and praised Steve for having a well-functioning machine, even though she’d never seen him sip a cup of coffee in his life.

Back at her desk, Y/N set down her drink of choice, drifting back to her work. Beneath her lashes, she spotted Natasha leaning back, her spine practically glued to the chair. She was gulping down her water, pressing her nose to the rim of the glass. Confused, Y/N subtly chanced a glance, sensing the evident queasiness that shook the woman’s otherwise imperturbable demeanor.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Natasha replied swiftly. Although she intended to douse Y/N’s concern, the tremor in her voice only deepened it.

“You don’t look okay,” Y/N pressed, studying the way Natasha scrunched her nose. “Let me get you another glass of water.”

“Lemon,” Natasha coughed. “Can you…do you have something infused with lemon?”

“Uh, sure. Hold on a second.”

Darting back to the refreshments area, Y/N opened the mini-fridge. She scoured the shelves of iced tea, sparkling water, and juices. While she didn’t find anything with lemon, she did find a few fresh ones on the lower shelf where Steve stored his fruits. He had a penchant for yogurt and granola bowls.

Y/N made quick work of cutting the lemon and boiling some water in the kettle. Carefully mixing both in a new glass, she ventured a guess that Natasha’s discomfort was a result of nausea—one hand stifled her discordant groans while the other rubbed her stomach giving Y/N a clue.

“Here.”

Y/N replaced the old glass with the new one, which Natasha eagerly took from her hand.

“Thank you,” Natasha whispered, her voice void of that effortless confidence. Instead, it was laced with exhaustion, despite her best attempts to mask it.

“You’re welcome. Do you need anything else?”

Natasha nodded, languidly drinking the lemon-infused water. “Can you please move your coffee away?”

Perplexed, Y/N slid her cup to the far right of the desk. As soon as the mug was no longer close to the redhead, Natasha’s shoulders visibly relaxed, the tension evaporating like the steam coming from her glass. She sighed—almost moaned—in relief, her grip tight on the glass of hot lemon water. She hadn’t yet removed her hand from her stomach, tracing gentle, delicate circles around her belly.

A gasp escaped Y/N for two distinct reasons. The first was the conspicuous diamond ring that sat elegantly on Natasha’s ring finger—a regal emerald cut that reflected power and elegance in an iridescent interplay of blinding light. The second was where her fingers had been splayed, tracing the contours of her belly.

“You’re pregnant.”

The words left Y/N’s mouth before she even had a chance to evaluate them. Whether correct or not, Natasha’s enlarged pupils and the flare of her nostrils told her this wasn’t the right thing to say. Of course, it wasn’t! What kind of person jumps to the conclusion that a woman is pregnant based on signs that could easily indicate a different ailment or less serious condition?

Maybe it was because Y/N had been pregnant once, and the sensory sensitivity had steered her clear of even the smell of morning dew. She could pinpoint the signs easily—the slight discomfort, the twitches, even the hesitancy and over-calculation for the simplest of things, like a cup of coffee.

She was about to apologize, insisting that she didn’t mean any of it, but something in Natasha’s expression changed. Instead of the guardedness that had hugged her so tightly since Y/N first set eyes on her, a shadow of vulnerability crossed over her features.

“Is it that obvious?”

Y/N shook her head, sitting down in her seat and wringing her fingers together. So, she is pregnant.

“No. I just took a wild guess.”

“You wagered right. I better never bet around you.”

Y/N chortled at Natasha’s remark, the tension in the air gradually receding. “How far along are you?” she asked in a quiet tone.

Natasha rubbed her barely-there bump, smiling. “Two months.”

“First pregnancy?”

Natasha nodded. She stayed silent for a moment, the gears in her head practically spinning until she confessed, “I never thought I would get pregnant. It never happened in all the years we’ve been together.”

Y/N didn’t want to think of him if “him” was the person she could never stop thinking about in the first place. Instead, her mind unfortunately drifted to Paul and the first night they spent together—the night that led to conceiving Nyla. Ironic how some women wait years to get pregnant, while others are surprised by tiny versions of themselves on the first try.

“Are you scared?” Y/N ventured, watching for Natasha’s reaction.

But Natasha was unfazed. If anything, delight seeped through the cracks of her initial weariness, swiftly altering her feelings to something better, gentler. “A little bit. But I’m mostly excited. I can’t wait to grow our family. It’s been a long time coming.��

“Yeah. Congratulations.”

“Thank you, hon. If that’s something you want someday, I hope you find it too when the time is right.”

There was so much sincerity in her words, a mother’s delicate warmth harmonizing her sentences. But all Y/N could hear were the echoes of Natasha’s last words: when the time is right. Didn’t she know? Had neither Bucky nor Steve told her that Y/N, at only twenty-two, already had a daughter? A rambunctious, affectionate, social, and bubbly little girl whose eyes may have been a feature inherited from her father, but their glow resembled an infinite sky of possibilities and miracles.

The timing wasn’t right, and she would always be reminded of that when she looked at her classmates, Natasha, hell, even Steve. But she could never say that aloud, could she?

“Thank you,” she replied solemnly, busying herself with her work. She was far enough behind, and she needed to get a move on.

Natasha didn’t give her a moment of respite, though. “Is Steve available tonight?” she asked, her attention darting to the computer.

Y/N inhaled deeply, hyper-aware of the crescent moons her fingers dug into her skin for no apparent reason. “I monitor Professor Rogers’ academic schedule, but I don’t have the slightest clue what goes on in his personal life.” Hence why I don’t have a clue as to who you might even be, Y/N internally added.

“Well, does his academic schedule tell you anything about whether or not he’s taking work home tonight?” Natasha fired back, unfazed by the subtle hostility in Y/N’s reply.

Home. She said home.

“If I manage to complete today’s tasks on time, then Professor Rogers should be free for the evening.”

“Perfect! I plan to tell him tonight. I know he’s going to be excited to hear it,” Natasha stated. Y/N didn’t care to provide commentary, attempting to enter the attendance records digitally. She only hoped Natasha wouldn’t notice her slip-ups; she had already entered three records incorrectly. Fortunately—or maybe unfortunately for Y/N—Natasha continued, “He’s going to think it’s a boy. He’s the type to.”

“A girl. St—Professor Rogers strikes me as a girl dad. I think he’d want the baby to be a girl,” Y/N mumbled under her breath, hoping her lower tone was enough to mask her emotions.

Natasha regarded Y/N skeptically, the tilt of her head almost personal. Y/N refused to let her scrutiny bother her anymore. Her mind kept drifting to thoughts of Steve and Nyla, replaying their interactions in her head. She knew it was wrong to think of them together, but the more Steve came to mind, the harder it was to shake Nyla’s presence alongside him. She blamed it all on Paul. If he had been a better father to their daughter, maybe she wouldn’t be sitting here thinking these sacrilegious thoughts about her professor.

She didn’t need that fickle little toad to love her, nor did she care for him to treat her any better than he ever had. She just wanted him to be better toward their daughter, like Steve was.

Steve had a tenderness, a protectiveness in the way he moved, in the way he looked at Nyla. Y/N wasn’t blind; she could see it. Steve longed for what she had. Now, in his late thirties, it was clear he was ready to settle down, to have a family. And he looked the part too—like every girl’s Christmas wish and every mother’s prayer. The way he treated Nyla, like a little princess—hell, that was even his nickname for her—showed that he was meant to be a father. A girl’s father more than anything.

“You seem so sure about that,” Natasha noted. Though her words were framed as a statement, the unspoken “why” hung in the air.

Before Y/N could respond, a knock sounded at the door, giving her a momentary reprieve. She suppressed her relief and casually invited the person outside to enter. Unfortunately, luck was not entirely on her side. It was Steve who entered the office, and his eyes didn’t find her first.

“Nat, there you are!”

Steve’s smile lit up his face, his blue-green eyes sparkling at the sight of Natasha. She mirrored his enthusiasm, and though she had shown a colorful palette of emotions during her conversation with Y/N, her expression was now purely candid—similar to when she had talked about her baby.

Y/N watched as Natasha stood and threw herself into Steve’s waiting arms. It was as if they hadn’t seen each other in years, though Y/N knew that couldn’t be the case. If her suspicions were correct, then…she didn’t even want to continue that thought.

“I let myself in,” Natasha said, her voice muffled against Steve’s shoulder. Their arms were tightly wrapped around one another. “Didn’t want to bother you in case you were busy.”

“You could never bother me,” Steve assured her. He stepped back slightly but kept his hands on her forearms, his eyes sweeping over her. “Is that a new outfit? It looks incredible. Gives you a certain glow.”

Natasha laughed, her curtain bangs shaking alongside her shoulders. “That glow has nothing to do with my outfit.”

Y/N wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe, truly believe, that she implied her secret pregnancy. But her glances felt more suggestive. And if even Steve picked up the innuendo, judging by his bright cheeks, then Y/N wasn’t wrong.

Steve cleared his throat, letting his hands fall back to his sides, though his fingers traced along Natasha’s arms as they dropped.

“Since you’re here, did you have breakfast yet? We could head to the cafeteria, or maybe a café nearby,” Steve suggested.

“Anywhere’s fine as long as we can sit outside. It’s nice out,” Natasha replied.

“I think you’d like the café by the east side of campus. They have great bagels. I could text Bucky to join us after his class.”

“Don’t worry about Bucky. He can third-wheel another time,” Natasha joked. At least, it seemed like a joke—Steve laughed heartily. Y/N, on the other hand, stood quietly on the sidelines, feeling like the real third wheel. Did they even notice her anymore?

In classic Steve Rogers fashion, he offered Natasha his arm. “Shall we?” he asked gallantly, and she didn’t hesitate to link their arms together. It looked like Steve didn’t forget about Y/N after all. Torn between relief and frustration, she caught his gaze. He smiled softly at her, offering a small wave. “Don’t overwork yourself, Y/N. I’ll see you later.”

“See you, Professor. Enjoy,” Y/N managed to say. But as the doors closed behind them, she couldn’t ignore the fondness in his gaze when he looked down at Natasha or Natasha’s gentle glances toward her stomach. The sharp sting that followed cut through Y/N’s heart, leaving her reeling.

What was she even thinking? Of course, he wouldn’t acknowledge her in the presence of another woman—a better woman. Y/N was just his student, practically a child in his eyes, a mess of imperfections. A pretty skirt and blazer wouldn’t change that fact, not that Steve had ever noticed her new outfit. Not that she really wanted him to… right?

God, what was she getting herself into? And how could she possibly get out before it was too late?

Series taglist: @crazyunsexycool @imaginexred

Originally, this chapter was supposed to include two more scenes, but since we're already at 4K words, I didn't want to drag it further. So, Natasha has officially entered the chat, and with her comes jealousy! What do you think Twilight (reader) will do with these troubling doubts and feelings?

#steve rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #steve rogers x y/n #captain america #captain america x reader #captain america x female reader #marvel fanfiction #avengers fanfiction #marvel mcu #avengers #the avengers #professor!steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x single mom!reader #age gap steve rogers #girl dad!steve rogers #professor steve rogers x student reader

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lailuhhh · 23 days ago

Note

Do this one “i love you. i love you so much, whatever happens, just remember that, okay?” With mac and jack pls?? 👉🏻👈🏻😅😂

✨✨✨Bestie bestie bestie have I got a thing for you ✨✨ ✨

Jack failed.

It wasn’t that it was a new concept; he failed tests in school, his driving exam, even doing laundry the first few times by himself. There were missions that went bad when he was DELTA and CIA, and not everyone at the Phoenix had turned out perfect.

Jack knew failure. It was just another thing in his life that happened every now and again.

But not that time.

Jack couldn’t afford to fail that time.

And yet—

Jack had failed Mac so many times before. In the sandbox, in Como, all the times he got kidnapped— every scar Mac had was a reminder of each time Jack failed him.

That time though, Jack couldn’t even beg forgiveness.

Because Mac was gone.

Jack had to watch as Mac and Riley were put into hyperbaric chambers, watch as they spasmed with the nanobots in their bodies. His head had been going back and forth between them, trying to gage their reactions and if the whole thing was working.

Riley had come out first, breathing heavily and face still wincing as the last of the nanobots shut down, but a smile was attached to it. Jack had pulled her into his arms, thanking whatever greater power there was that she was alright.

But then there was a sound, one that Jack had heard many times before, and never wanted to hear from Mac.

A continuous beep, a flatline from a heart monitor.

From Mac’s heart monitor.

Seeing Mac still— seeing him not breathing would be something that haunted him for the rest of his life.

“Hey.” Jack stopped him, letting the others go first. “I love you man.”

“Jack—”

“I love you, so much, and I need you to know it. Whatever happens, I need you to remember that. I’m always, always, going to be in your corner.”

Mac wasn’t breathing.

Mac’s heart wasn’t beating.

Jack had failed him yet again.

“You— you don’t need to tell me that.”

“Yeah I do. I know you’re scared about what might happen, and I know you think that if something does happen, you won’t be the same. But you will. You’ll be the same nerd I met in the sandbox; same guy that I trust my life with. No matter what happens, promise me you’ll remember that.”

Jack didn’t even know what he was doing, trying to open the chamber or smash it. He just knew he needed to get Mac out. His attempts were clumsy and uncoordinated, and there were hands grabbing at him, pulling him back and shouting something he couldn’t care to hear, because the only thing in his ears was the continuous ring of the flatline.

“Mac.” He didn’t even know if he was speaking out loud or not. “This isn’t funny.”

He was so still. Everything about it was wrong.

“We had a deal. You go kaboom, I go kaboom. It’s not fair for you to break that.”

The yelling around him was mere background noise.

“Remember what I told you, bud. Please. Remember that I’m here waiting for you. Remember that I’m waiting for you to come back to me. We still got alotta stuff to do.”

The ringing was going to be the only thing he would be now to hear for a long time.

“Please. Come back to me.”

Then it stopped.

It turned into one, and then another a few seconds later. The yelling also seemed to quiet down.

Jack focused his gaze on Mac’s face, seeing the twitches of movement under his eyelids.

He scooted forward, pushing the others out of the way, wanting— needing to get closer.

“That’s it Mac. Come on back to me.”

Mac’s whole body started to twitch before settling once again. His chest was moving with quick breaths, trying to regain the oxygen it was deprived of. Then his eyes opened.

Just the smallest of cracks, a sliver of blue poking through.

“Come on Mac. Lemme see those baby blues.”

It seemed like years before Mac’s eyes finally opened all the way, even longer before the chamber was opened, and Jack actually got to feel Mac’s steadying pulse beneath his fingers.

Jack just knelt there on the cold floor, taking in the fact that Mac was alive and breathing, ignoring everyone else around him.

“Jack?”

Jack let out a sob of a laugh at Mac’s voice. “Hey, Mac.”

Nothing else mattered. In that moment, it was just him and Mac.

“I love you too.”

#man #this is definitely going in the wip right now #more will be going into it #but goddamn this is a good thing for it #anyways #lailuh speaks #macgyver #macgyver 2016 #lailuh writes #ask #answer #hello thank you i love you #ask game #bold and nosy #bold-and-nosy

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qvid-pro-qvo · 2 years ago

Note

also let’s show some love to coyote. maybe with his buddy hangman? but like. we love javy machado in this house

jake seresin & javy machado (platonic or not, up to you.)

javy’s hands are gripping his pants as his leg bounces in the exam room, eyes squeezing shut as the bright lights stare at him from above — just like the light off the mountains he’d almost crashed into, just like the shine of phoenix’s helmet as she’d ejected and her and bob plummeted down…

the door opens and he jumps, jaw twitching because of how hard he’s gritting his teeth, because there’s no way he’s getting picked for this mission, so why is jake even here?

“hey, partner,” jake says to him, pulling up a chair and spinning it so he can straddle it, eyes narrowed as he looks javy up and down, “you scared the shit out of me, y’know that?”

and javy does know — knows that jake’s callsign only means so much when it’s the two of them, that his attitude only shows when he’s just as nervous as the rest of them but can’t afford to show it. so when jake asks him if he’s okay with a little look, reaches out a hand to squeeze his knee, javy nods because, well, he is okay when he’s with him.

“i’m okay, jake,” javy murmurs, and can’t help but smile at the raised brow he gets in response, “and i’m not going anywhere.”

#javy machado #javy coyote machado #coyote #jake hangman seresin #jake seresin #hangman #javy machado x jake seresin #javy machado & jake seresin #top gun: maverick #top gun maverick #qvo ships tgm #qvo’s prompts #prompt fill #five sentence fic #charlie :)

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garden-of-succulents · 5 years ago

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@bardofspades suggested we #wipitgood, which is to say, since Check Please is ending soon, clean out our WIP folders with all the OMGCP fic we never got around to finishing.

This is my first WIP to post. Trigger warning: Child sexual abuse

A bit of backstory: Curtis O’Brien, my OC, fills the same space, more or less, as real-life hockey player Sheldon Kennedy, who revealed as an NHL player that he was sexually abused by his hockey coach when he was a teenager. He traded off the ability to sue the pants off the Canadian Hockey League for the ability to force them to implement training and policies aimed at preventing and reporting child abuse. After he got his PTSD somewhat under control, he became a full-time advocate against child abuse.

My headcanon is that Kent likewise suffered abuse from his Bantam coach, and has spent a long time determinedly not talking about it. I wanted to write a fic where, before he did start talking about it, someone (in this case, Andy) got him to talk to the one man who’s an expert on what it’s like to be an NHL player out as a survivor. This piece really stops before any of that actual stuff takes place. You just get, you know, Kent being awkward, and everyone being giant nerds about public health. Oh, and the claim that Cummerbund was Andy's dog before she moved to LV, when I later determined that Kent and Andy adopted him together.

---

Andy met Curtis O'Brien when he came out of Customs, smiling her customer-service smile with a card on his name on it but feeling a bit silly. He was easy to pick out of the crowd: an ex-hockey player in a suit, a tall man with a slightly jerky walk who scanned the crowd for her. When he approached she tried to upgrade to the relaxed cheer she tried to copy off rich people who had never been afraid of getting fired, transcending Director of the Aces Foundation to the offhanded, casually powerful just Andy. She couldn't think of him as a prominent expert in his field or the board member of national-level organizations in two countries or a consultant on an important initiative key to her job's success; she just had to smile and welcome a guest to her home. He clutched his checked baggage when she offered to take it from him at the carousel, so she just led him out to short-term parking.

Kent was back from morning workout when they arrived at the house, so he faked calm like Andy and shook Curtis's hand with the hockey-player head dip and mumbled greeting, which Curtis returned. Andy wrestled his suitcase to their guest room, having pounced on it when she parked the car, and invited him to make himself comfortable.

"Nice house," he said, but apparently there wasn't any kind of hidden message behind it. It was a nice house, for a strictly median definition of "nice"; Kent's teammates claimed mansions outside city limits and he'd left a penthouse taking up half a floor to come here, but nothing differentiated their house on the street from any other three-bedroom split level on the block. Its yard was neatly xeriscaped, its carpets clean, appliances undamaged, and she could afford the rent, which had long been the height of Andy's domestic ambitions, but a lot of people didn't think it befitted Kent's dignity or whatever.

"Nice dog," Curtis added, bending over to let Cummerbund wash his hand enthusiastically. Speaking of things that didn't fit Kent's dignity—but the dachshund had been Andy's first.

"Yeah, he's a big suck-up," Andy said. "Smell a fresh mark, hey boy? I bet he'll even scratch your belly for you."

"Don't be hard on him," Curtis said, scratching behind Cummerbund's ears. "He's a good boy."

Cummerbund sat under Curtis's chair and looked beseeching during lunch, while the humans ate cobb salad and made smalltalk. Andy was friends with some of the CWHL players Curtis did an annual fundraiser with. Kent thought one of the kids on Curtis's local WHL team was a good pick for Team USA for World Juniors. Curtis's officemate was doing Crossfit and using the supplements one of Kent's sponsors made; he was training for a marathon. Easy stuff.

From the tension in his shoulders Andy thought Kent would leave it there and move on for the afternoon, claim he was letting their guest settle in. Instead he grimaced in a friendly way and said, "You know, tomorrow will be the first time I've actually sat through one of your guys' trainings."

Curtis reached down to scratch Cummerbund's head. His movements were quiet, but still betrayed a lot of energy, like he was used to slowly leaking stress around the edges while keeping his eye on the puck. "It's getting rarer that anyone lasts very long in hockey without taking one of our classes," he said. "Almost everybody who works with kids does."

"Yeah," Kent said, his hands twitching where he kept them held down on the table, like he wanted to gesture. "I had to, I read the material and took the certificate exam online? I couldn't—I went, like, the morning of it, but I had to leave, so I caught up after." He paused, lifted a hand to scratch the back of his neck, and admitted, "You came to my team in Juniors to give a talk, and I pretended I was sick. Hid at home, got one of my friends to tell Coach I couldn't make it. They scratched me for a game." He was red by the time he'd finished saying it, reaching for his water bottle and fiddling with his lid, didn't look up; instead he picked a cube of cheese off his salad and offered it down to Cummerbund.

"Hard stuff to deal with," Curtis said oddhandedly, though high spots of colour were appearing in his cheeks. He was trying his best to downplay it, though. "Some people gotta take their own time."

"Yeah," Kent said, and blinked, like he'd expected a scolding that hadn't come. He shook his shoulders out a little. "Yeah. It's... yeah. I can't deal with... I couldn't, for a long time."

Curtis stayed quiet, looking at him, as Kent suffered through silence, until it seemed at Kent had no more words to summon up; then he turned to Andy and asked, without fuss, "You're organizing all the people coming in tomorrow, correct?"

"Yeah," she said, curling a hand around Kent's under the table and trying to pick up the conversational ball. "I, uh... yeah. We've got the researchers and the Children's Services people, and some state athletic associations, about ten different sports, and uh, we're expecting about twenty coaches and other people from the Four Corners area."

Curtis raised his eyebrows. "I thought you couldn't get steady numbers from them?"

"Well actually," Andy said, "I have a friend? She's indigenous Mexican and she's got some friends at the Hualapai reservation, and they invited us down to this inter-tribal baseball tournament in Phoenix last month, so I ended up meeting a lot of people there, some of them people I'd been emailing the last six months. But it was making the in-person contact that really got them to commit."

#omgcp #wipitgood #stuff i wrote #kent parson #andy scarlatti #csa tw #child abuse tw

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painted-cherries · 6 years ago

Text

philophobia

pairing: Jackson Wang x reader

genre: the slightest bit of angst, fluff/ non-idol!

words: +3k

prompt: All Jackson wants is to be yours, and you can’t help but run out on him every time he’s tried to tell you how he feels.. until the one time that you don’t.

a/n: is it really one of my writings if there isn’t some kind of angsty scene? this is for @nctdaisies, the jackson to my jinyioung <3

The first time Jackson Wang tried to tell her he loved her was the first day of finals that week. The air was thick with humidity and anticipation for the summer. The whole campus was full of liveliness, and every corner turned would expose students in every nook, cramming for their exams. Some of them were confident in their studying, while other students could be found making last minute prayers before heading to their respective testing sites. She and Jackson could be found studying together outside under one of the less populated trees in the campus courtyard. It was one of those sleepy days, when the light breeze would blow just right and the sun shone, radiating warmth after the dreary days of winter.

“Okay so in Pavlov’s work with classical conditioning, what animal did he use in his research?” she asked, taking a drink of her smoothie.

Jackson groaned and thought about his answer carefully. “That’s such an unfair question, so many psychologists have used different animals! How am I supposed to remember every single one of them?” Jackson reached over and grabbed the smoothie from her hand to take a a sip.

“Hey! Back off my drink and answer the question,” she said laughing. She snatched the drink from his hand, and Jackson made one of his hurt puppy faces. She rolled her eyes and continued to laugh at him. As Jackson tried to process and think of the question’s answer, she leaned against his side, resting her head on his shoulder, and closed her eyes. Jackson felt his blush creep up the back of his neck to turn his cheeks and rosy pink. He noticed the way the wind blew her soft hair ever so slightly, the air was fresh full of her perfume and summer. The sun was shining down on the whole campus, but the shade of the tree highlighted the natural contours of her face and he thought about how beautiful she looked right now.

Two years. Jackson Wang has been in love with his best friend now for over two years. At first, just like anything, he was in denial about it. The realization had hit him and left him winded for days. He wasn’t opposed to dating y/n, he had always believed she was phenomenal, but to be in love with your best friend? That was risky. What would their friendship become? And as her best friend he knew just how cynical she was about relationships, let alone love. It hasn’t been kind to her in the past, and she rejected nearly every other boy who had confessed to her. What would make him the exception? But Jackson knew that he was not the type of man to keep how he felt a secret. He believed in speaking what he felt and since then, he had planned on telling y/n how he felt, and if she didn’t return the feelings, he would continue to love and support her the way a true best friend would. Now two years have passed.... without a confession. He didn’t mean for it to go on for so long but with her carrying the weight of his world on her shoulders, how could he not be afraid to shatter it?

“Y/N...” he spoke.

She turned her head slightly and looked up at him. “Yeah, Jacks?”

His cheeks burned even brighter hearing his nickname roll off her tongue so naturally; he prayed that they were meant to be in love. He had been planning to tell her for so long now, but he was always waiting for that one shining moment. Jackson had finally decided that he had too much faith his feelings to keep waiting, and that if he went on for too long then maybe destiny might never bring him his chance. Sometimes we have to make our own perfect moments. This moment felt right, with her looking up at him with eyes that could reduce him to a stuttering mess, and the wind practically pushing them together itself as if it wanted them to be in love just as much as Jackson himself.

“y/n... I’ve wanted to say this to you, and I realize there’s never truly a perfect time for anything, but I--”

Jackson wasn’t allowed to finish that sentence because suddenly Y/N knew what was about to fall from his lips and her mind started to race. She couldn’t face this now with the semester nearly over and their junior year approaching so quickly. If things between them didn’t work out then she would be out of a best friend and she couldn’t afford a loss like that at such a prime time in their college careers.

“Oh look there’s Mark and Jae!” she blurted out suddenly. She lifted her head off of his shoulder and pointed to the pair of boys across the courtyard. “I think they just got out of their philosophy lecture, we should go ask them if they want to study with us, yeah?”

She got up to wave down the two boys, while Jackson let out a defeated sigh and let his back hit the soft grass underneath him.

The second time Jackson tried to tell her he loved her was one late night when their whole friend group was at a party-- well not just any party, but specifically their friends Bambam and Yugyeom’s party. Those two always threw the biggest blowouts when the semester would end. Most people even waited to leave for their home city just to attend the biggest party on campus every year. It’ll be a shame when Bam and Yugyeom graduate-- if they ever do. Their complex was a large two story house that Bambam had initially bought. He’s never actually told anyone where his money comes from, and there were rumors all over campus about it. They varied from simple things like his parents supposedly being one of the more reclusive fortunes among Thailand’s wealthy families to him being the heir of the fastest growing chain restaurants in Asia to his family making their fortune underground within the mafia. No one knows, not even Yugyeom supposedly, but no one was pressed about it enough to look more into Bambam’s history and he preferred it that way. The house was filled with exquisite modern furnishings, and priceless art that he kept locked away during parties like these. Guests weren’t allowed to do two things at these parties: wreck the house or smoke inside. Everything needed to stay pristine despite the parties always being packed with up to hundreds of people at a time; it always felt like the whole university was packed into the house.

That night y/n could be found at the top of the stairs of the large two story home, where she often enjoyed people watching. She found it interesting to see the masses from above; she had done it so much that she could easily pick out the regular attendees, new faces, and those who were obviously the designated drivers. Jackson approached her from behind, bringing her usual drink. Boys approached her day in and day out offering her drinks or dances, but the only man she would trust with such a responsibility was Jackson.

He handed her the red solo cup and flashed her a big smile.

“Cheers, y/n,” he said tapping her drink with his own.

“Wait aren’t you driving us home?” she asked over the music.

He swirled his cup before taking a drink of the liquid. “It’s just ginger ale, gotta get you back safe don’t I?”

Y/n rolled her eyes and took a sip of her own drink, letting the alcohol warm her body. She looked out among the people who were slowly starting starting to blend together. The alcohol was barely in her system yet her mind could barely focus on her surroundings, and yet in this weird hypnotic state she couldn’t help but let herself focus on the obnoxious amount of couples that were among the crowd. She had always wondered what it was like to be vulnerable on such a level with someone, to be that blindly faithful in another person; trusting them to not break your heart. She snuck a glace a Jackson, who was enjoying a conversation with one of Bambam’s frat brothers. He let out one of his famous boisterous laughs and she couldn’t keep the smile that crept on her face from making its way on her lips.Her own blush caused her to scoff, wishing that feelings as strong as her own were optional. It happened underneath her nose; it had crept into her heart and setting free a fiery phoenix within her chest. Jackson wasn’t supposed to become so dear to her heart; being in love with your best friend is too risky, riskier than love itself already is. The pull between the two was evident and stronger than before, she knew he felt it too, especially after the events of the other day. Y/n downed the rest of her drink, and abandoned the cup on the staircase railing, desperate for something to distract her from the warm feeling in her chest.

Jackson watched her from the corner of his eye, seeing her push through the sweaty patrons who surrounded them. Even in such a deafening room, the only thing that he could hear was her silence. Her heart meant everything to him, and he wanted to make sure she was alright. Being the gentleman that Jackson was he decided to check on her. He turned to pardon himself from the conversation, but Chan had already wandered away to the forming game of seven minutes in heaven. Jackson caught her familiar eyes and walked towards her. Her face had a smile plastered on the front but he sensed something deeper radiating off of her. he stepped next to her.

“Okay, okay everyone let’s play! If you’re in the circle you’re automatically a player,” Yugyeom was shouting.

“Y/n-” Jackson started, but was soon cut off.

“So,” Yugyeom began.”Instead of drawing names or doing some lame shit with spinning a bottle, I’m going to count to three, and when I reach three everyone in the circle has to throw up a random number with their hands on the forehead. Any two people with the matching numbers will be sent behind the iron curtain for seven minutes-”

“I BETTER NOT FIND ANYTHING ON MY FURNITURE BACK THERE,” Bam cut in from a few people away.

Jackson’s chest tightened at the thought of her kissing a stranger, or even more. He wasn’t possessive no, how could he be when she wasn’t even his?

“Hey lets go steal a pizza yeah?” he whispered to her. “or sneak off to get ice cream at the store-”

All of a sudden Yugyeom started counting down from the top of his lungs.

“ONE, TWO, THREE.”

It all happened in a blink of an eye, and suddenly everyone was glancing between the circle to see who would match. Tragically the scene played out before y/n as if she was in a cheesy drama as she noticed the only two people with matching numbers were herself and the shocked man himself, Jackson. The two of them were ushered behind what their friend group called “the iron curtain”. It was an obscure piece in the interior of the house, dividing the bedroom quarters from the rest of the main rooms- yeah Bambam was that luxurious.

As soon as the door came to a shut, Y/n let out a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding in.

“OKAY YOU HAVE SEVEN MINUTES, YOU ARE PERMITTED TO DO ANYTHING I WOULD DO,” Yugyeom shouted through the door, and with a click of the lock, the two best friends were locked away from society. For seven minutes.

Y/n was beyond herself, how could fate let this happen? She understood that fate would work in mysterious ways, she wasn’t too prideful to say that she didn’t believe in such a thing. But She knew that Jackson was not meant to be in love with her, love had been nothing but unkind in her past experiences and Jackson wasn’t capable of expressing that kind of sorrow towards her. Jackson noticed heard her quietness. He reached out a hand and intertwined their fingers. He broke the silence first.

“Y/n...” he started. “While we’re here, together, I think I need to tell you something.”

Jackson never imagined that this would be when and how he would confess to her how much he loved her. He didn’t need something perfect, something cliche like a candlelit dinner, or a romantic walk in by the Han river. But he silently complained to the god of love, Cupid himself, for placing he and y/n in the situation that was before them. His love for her was too deep to confess while trapped behind the iron curtain of his crude friend’s over furnished home, where everyone was expecting them to engage in some kind of intimate act. While Jackson did believe that Bam’s house was unbelievably lavish, this is not where he wanted to share something so intimate with her, but perhaps fate was sticking them together like this for a reason. He prayed that they were meant to be in love, once more for good luck.

“Y/n, I-,” he reached out to touch her arm gently.

Before he could even begin, she cut him off. She felt his nervous aura that was radiating from his touch. A ringing in her ears started to go off, but there was still another 4 minutes left behind the dumb iron door.

“RIGHT! You need to tell me about the psych final study guide!!! Did you know the answers for numbers twelve and thirteen? I asked Jaebum but he had no idea, and Mark was totally clueless-- don’t ever rely on those two for study help. I feel like Jinyoung might know, but he took the class so long ago and he probably doesn’t remember now-” she continued on in her own impromptu filibuster. Jackson’s mouth was agape, he couldn’t believe she was trying to void the time with meaningless ramble about psychology class and their ridiculous friends.

“y/n, y/n,” he said rushed. “stop talking and take a breath!”

She paused for a moment, only because she knew her small speech helped take up a proportion of the few minutes that seemed to last days.

“That’s not what I wanted to tell you. I’ll ask Jinyoung about the study guide for you,” he took a step closer to her. “Y/n, I’ve been meaning to tell you how I feel-”

Her eyes widened, and almost as is the stars heard her plea, the door suddenly slid open with a loud bang and Yugyeom instantly started screaming once more.

“OKAY OKAY BREAK IT UP- wait nothing’s happening here?”

Y/n pushed past him and mumbled a sarcastic “thanks for nothing, Yugy” under her breath as she merged with the mass of people, drenched in the scent of vodka. She was gone from his sight, along with Jackson’s second attempt to confess.

The time Jackson Wang finally told her he loved her was when they were together well into the early morning. The night was lively despite the pressures of exams all week; every residential building on campus could be found almost completely lit up from all of the dorm lights that were still on in each room-- full of students trying to memorize everything they could to pass their tests.

Jackson and Y/N could have been found that very night, having one of their typical cram sessions, something that became a finals week tradition back when they were still in high school together. They were cooped up in Y/N’s little studio apartment, lecture notes and open textbooks littered the surface of her small coffee table. The pizza ordered hours ago was long forgotten and the box was tossed carelessly somewhere on the kitchen counter.Everything within the apartment was still aside from the pair, sitting tiredly side by side.

She broke her focus from the text in front of her to glance at the clock on her side table. The face glowed a bright 3:00 AM and she let out a frustrated sigh.

“I’m tired of all these equations and texts. Who cares if I know how to figure chemical bonds? Or that Emily Dickinson was a recluse?” she said as she threw her book onto the bed and rested her head on his shoulder, her favorite pillow.

Jackson let out a chuckle, and couldn’t help but smile down at her. The fair lights above her bed dimly lit the room, but all he could see was the beautiful light that her presence emitted. He thought about the other day when he tried to tell her how he felt. And if he was honest with himself, he was a little hurt. He knew that she was scared to be so vulnerable, but didn’t she trust him? Didn’t she know him? The two of them had been treading lightly around the subject of dating for at least a year now, never actually confronting each other about the unspoken pact between them. Jackson wanted it; he wanted her. He knew that she was scared but the only way to defeat your fear was to face it, and he was prepared to help her every step of the way. He prayed silently that at the end of the day, when it was all said and done, that they were meant to be in love.

“Do you believe that we have predetermined destinies?” he asked her.

With her eyes still closed, she hummed. “I think that we all have fates, and that it’s your choice to break away from that path.”

“I hope that you’re apart of my fate,” Jackson said breathlessly.

“Of course I am.”

Something about Jackson’s words makes her chest tighten, and she suddenly becomes desperate for air that is not intoxicated with his familiar scent. Y/n sat up and stepped off of the bed. She walked over to the sliding glass door of her bedroom and looked out into the night sky. She wished she could see the stars from her sad apartment. The city’s night life was too bright for any star to reach through. She snuck a glance back at Jackson, who was focused on his own notes. She thought about their fate together, and prayed to herself that he would be a constant in her life. He was the closest she had even gotten to loving without being afraid. She knew it was selfish to keep him so close but far away and it made her own heart ache for him. Y/n opened the glass door and stepped outside.

Jackson heard the door open and looked up from his notes at her. He admired her beauty from the bed. He loved her during these nights. She was always the most open and vulnerable; she was everything except guarded. He couldn’t imagine loving anyone else. His best friend with her hair thrown up into a lazy ponytail, and not worried about what anyone else thought about her. His best friend who claimed she hated pizza, but would always make him share his slice in the commons during lunch. His best friend who would fall asleep sitting up on her couch during their movie marathons, until he would shift to get up and she would wrap her self around his arm, pulling him closer to her. She was gorgeous to him. She was everything and more.

He slid off the side of the bed and the only sound that could be heard was the pads of his feet on the wood vinyl. Jackson pushed the sliding glass door and wandered outside to where she stood. Her hair had fallen from her tied up ponytail, and was now framing her face. Her eyes were closed, embracing the warm breeze that was filing the city’s streets. Everything about the night felt so sincere and no time had ever felt more right than the present, right now. Jackson doesn’t even have time to second guess himself before his heart takes control of his tongue, letting the words fall from his lips and fill the air between them.

“You are my fate.”

Y/N turns to look at him, she knew this was it. There was no running away this time, not excuse. Jackson was determined to say what he felt, and who was she to deny him something so simple? When she doesn’t slip an excuse to leave, he takes the moment as his shining chance granted by the sweet moon herself, who hung above the two exuding her serene light.

“Being in college means that we are working towards the rest of our life,” he inhales sharply. “but I can’t see that without you. I know that I have you, even now, in our trips to your favorite cafe or our sleepless nights of cramming, but I’m selfish, Y/N. I want to love you without fear.” Jackson takes a step closer to her, delicately placing a hand on her cheek. She can feel his eyes peering into her soul, offering his own to her forever, and she can’t help but feel her skin burn under his gaze.

“You hold my heart in your hands, and I want to you how beautiful love can be.”

She adverts her eyes from his and lets out an exasperated breath. The tears brimming her eyes don’t go unnoticed by Jackson and his chest aches just a little, anticipating the rejection he’s about to face from his best friend, his one and only.

“Jackson” she sighs. She bites her lip as she attempts to gain the courage to say what she needs to, and by instinct she leaned into his touch because he settles her emotions, even when chaos was running across her mind.

“I want you to be my fate too...” she blinks and the tears fall. “But what will we do when the inevitable occurs? when the tides stop crashing, and the stars no longer shines down in our favor?”

“I will continue to love you then too.”

His simple response is enough for her to find solace in, she lets the tears fall freely, knowing that he will be there to wipe them away; Jackson has never spoken a lie to her, and she has enough faith to believe in him when he says that he will always be a constant in her life; he is the exception. She lets herself fall into the comfort that is Jackson. His embrace is warm and she can hear his heartbeat in the hollow of his chest. She hopes that he can hear how loudly her own seeks him out, and him alone. Jackson guides her back in through the glass door and begins to carefully remove their copious piles of notes and study materials from the bed. She climbs back into the bed, this time pulling the thick duvet up to her nose. Jackson finally joins her under the sheets, and pulls her closer to him. Y/n lets out a small laugh as their noses are practically touching and hums. Sleep is on the verge of taking them both, but before they slip into it’s grasp, Jackson places a gentle kiss upon her lips. It’s smooth and quick, the first of many. The smile on her face doesn’t dissipate, even when a soft snore erupts from his body, and she falls asleep herself, thinking that maybe Jackson will be the one to show her what it’s like not to be afraid of love.

#jackson wang #jackson wang imagine #got7 imagine #got7 imagines #kpop imagine #got7 jackson #bambam #yugyeom #for maddy xx

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artificialqueens · 6 years ago

Text

Everything I Know, Chapter Two (Rajila, Hunger Games AU)

AN: not confident about my English writing skills, sorry :-(

“Breathe in,” said Phoenix, one of Manila’s prep team. “More. More. Really suck it in.”

“I’m trying,” Manila gasped, as the corset was drawn tighter and tighter around her waist. “Do we have to do this?”

“This shape is fashionable nowadays,” said Carmen, her stylist. “Very feminine. Beauty is pain, my love.”

The dress was white and padded in all the right places, making Manila look far older than she felt. A dark crimson stripe was splashed starkly across the front. She brushed her fingers over the material, repulsed by the colour, which they had also streaked into her hair. It was a look fitting for a ‘blood-stained queen’, as another member of her prep team, Mariah, had cheerfully called her. Apparently, she had a whole group of supporters now, a subsect in the Capitol who called themselves ‘Fanilas’. They would be waiting with bated breath for her post-victory interview, Manila was sure of it. She had watched the Hunger Games every year for as long as she could remember, and every year, the Capitol threw a bigger celebration of the winner’s bloodthirstiness.

“I’m glad District One won,” said Phoenix blithely, tying off the ends of the corset ribbons and tucking them under. “We were all rooting for you, Manila.”

“Imagine all of the diamonds you’ll get to wear, coming from such a wealthy district,” said Mariah. “Oooh, I’m quite jealous!”

“Hurry up!” exclaimed Yara, pinning back a stray lock of my hair. “We need her on stage soon, ladies!”

Manila barely noticed as she was led out of the dressing room to yet another off-white corridor in the bowels of the training centre. It was almost time for them to be onstage, but she did not care. She did not even complain as she was chivvied into the elevator by Carmen, whose task it was to ensure that the traditional order was followed. First went the prep team, followed by the stylist, the mentor, and finally the victor. Manila noticed none of this. She felt as if she was floating roughly five feet above her own head, watching herself from above. Even when Raja, dressed in a sparkling crimson ballgown, squeezed her hand, she could not quite figure out how to respond in kind.

“You okay?” asked Raja.

It sounded like she was speaking from several metres underwater. Manila didn’t know how to reply, so she just shrugged listlessly. She could hear the heavy rumble of the crowd above as if it was a storm a couple of miles off, the moment before the wind and the rain hit. It was eerie, and a cold sweat broke out on Manila’s skin as the elevator began to rise. The anthem rang loud in her ears as she heard Michelle Visage greeting the audience. Nothing could prepare you for this. She couldn’t even muster up a smile as they reached the stage.

The crowd broke into applause as the prep team was presented. Phoenix, Mariah and Yara stepped out with huge smiles, taking ridiculous, bobbing bows. Carmen came next, sedately smiling and waving at the shrieking crowd. Of course they would love her, Manila thought. It had been Carmen’s idea for her to wear nothing but diamond dust and a corset at the opening ceremony, an image which had been burned into the public’s memory ever since. Raja’s appearance prompted several wolf whistles as she took her seat at the side of the stage. She had always been a fan favourite. Strangely, it was the one thing that brought Manila crashing back to herself, fully aware for the first time in over an hour.

Blinding light was the first thing that she registered. Manila blinked desperately, and Michelle cracked a few jokes about a ‘rabbit in the headlights’ before it was time for the show to begin in earnest. Manila stumbled blindly to the Victor’s Throne, unused to the extra height her heels afforded her. There would be no post-games showreel this year, thank goodness, the short duration of the games had saved her this humiliation. No one wanted to rewatch children dying of thirst, it just wasn’t exciting enough. Instead, Michelle plunged on with the questions. She was wonderful, teasing, joking, a true show-woman who had the entire programme under her thumb.

“Well, Manila, what a ride for you…”

“I know,” Manila cut in with a fake laugh. “I’ve come on quite a journey.”

Raja gave an approving nod from her chair across the stage, so slight that only Manila could see it. District One victors had to be strong and resilient, as hard as diamonds. Manila was not going to break this stereotype. She just wanted the whole damned pretence to be over but she was not going to break character.

“You’re eighteen years old,” said Michelle cheerfully, “how does it feel to have won on your last chance of being in the Hunger Games?”

Most Careers would have felt jubilant, but Manila just felt numb.

“Brilliant,” she replied, giving a wide, empty smile. “I never dreamed I would get this far. It’s an honour, I am so proud to be serving my district in this manner and hope I can be an inspiration to any kids at home who dream of winning the games. If I can do it, then so can you!”

“You are already such an inspiration,” purred Michelle, obviously pleased with the direction the interview had taken. “What a story! I think that the thing that some people won’t remember is that Raja, your mentor, actually volunteered in your stead just four years ago. How does it feel to be working with the person who took that chance away from you at such a young age?”

Michelle thought she would be angry with Raja? Angry, that Raja hadn’t let her enter an arena of death at the age of fourteen? Manila’s hands began to shake but she maintained her icy smile.

“I was so annoyed when she volunteered for me all those years ago!” It was a lie, but the crowd ate it up. “However, it inspired me to do better, to be better, just to improve, you know?”

“I can imagine,” said Michelle, “and Manila, we were all impressed by your consistent performance in the games. That said, there’s one death with a whole heap of controversy surrounding it…”

“Yeah?” Manila’s mouth was dry.

“What did you think of fellow tribute, Latrice Royal?”

“Please, Manila, make it quick.”

Manila stiffened, eyes unfocusing. She could barely hear the audience begin to chatter amongst themselves as images of Latrice flashed across the screens around the room. She wasn’t ready for this. It was all too soon. She could still feel the cloying blood on her hands, though a quick glance at them showed them to be as polished and smooth as they had been since that morning. Where was the blood? She could feel its dirty corruption bleeding into her very pores. Still, somehow, she managed not to say a word, merely rubbing her hands together in an attempt to feel something that wasn’t crushing guilt.

“Maybe, if we were in a different situation, we might have been friends.”

Is that the type of friend Manila would be? The type of traitor who would stab someone in the back? She shuddered, bile rising in her throat. Short clips of Latrice’s performance in the games were playing now, her trident soaring through the air whilst her dark skin shone in the punishing sun. Manila couldn’t look at it. She couldn’t breathe. Why couldn’t she breathe? The world seemed to spin around her, the faces of the waiting crowd blurring into a smudged mess of colour as she gasped for air.

“Stop!” she cried. “Stop it!”

Michelle raised a hand and the room grew deathly silent. “Manila, what’s wrong?”

“Stop!” Manila pressed her palms into her eyes, willing the image of Latrice’s bleeding corpse out of her mind. It didn’t work, and she felt bitter tears stinging her cheeks. “STOP IT!”

“Nothing is happening, Manila,” said Michelle calmly, a slight edge to her voice. This was not part of her plan. “Why don’t we move on with the interview?”

Manila could live with the stress of Career Training, she could deal with the fear of the arena, but she couldn’t live with this awful, painful guilt. It felt like her heart was being ripped in two. She kicked off her heels and got unsteadily to her feet, looking for any available exit. Naturally, there wasn’t one. No—no—she had to get out! Her gaze alighted on Raja, who was half-out of her chair with a worried expression on her face. Career Tributes simply didn’t lose it like this. Was Manila going mad? She staggered desperately towards her mentor. Raja was safe, Raja would help her…

“Raja… I—” she sobbed, before she stumbled, and her view faded to black.

* * *

District One were all crowded in the town square, divided into sleek units of boys and girls for Reaping Day. Manila was wearing the required white uniform, but she kept fiddling with a loose button on the cuff that she had meant to sew on last night. She had been too busy, she guessed, not really worrying about it. She had three ballots in that bowl, nowhere near as many as some of the older kids, who were now dying to be picked for the games.

She laughed a bit to herself at the irony of that. Dying. Hah.

The Career districts knew how to do a good reaping, though. This would not be the miserable hodge-podge of terror and desperation that the lower districts suffered through each year. No, this was an honour. Manila had only been trained for four years but she knew she would be able to kill, if the situation called for it. She’d done it four times before, after all.

“The male tribute for District One is…” The announcer paused, and the boys all drew a collective breath, hoping against hope to be picked. “Robbie Turner!”

Robbie Turner, a tall eighteen-year-old, smirked and lifted his arm in victory – much to the jealousy of several of his peers, who threw their pristine white hats to the ground. Their chance was gone. Robbie almost danced up onto the stage, shaking the announcer’s hand and grinning cockily into the camera. Manila shuddered, remembering how highly he had scored in the summer exam last year. That poor boy he had been up against… no one had expected Robbie to use a machete to do… that.

“And the female tribute for District One is…” Another long pause. Manila played absently with her cuff button, thinking of the celebratory dinner back at school that evening. She hoped it was spaghetti and meatballs, a treat they sometimes got on Reaping Day. “Manila Luzon!”

Manila’s name cut into her consciousness like a hot knife through, well, anything really. They’d learnt that in class last term. Manila knew she wasn’t ready. She was fourteen, five foot nothing, and had passed her last summer exam by a whisker. She wasn’t cut out for the games, let alone against Robbie Turner. Still, she fixed a shaky smile onto her face and walked through her classmates, heading for the stage. This was a death sentence, but that didn’t mean she had to crumble.

“Stop.” As Manila reached the older tributes, a calm hand pulled her back. “I volunteer as tribute.”

The volunteer did not even raise her voice, but the whole square heard her. Manila looked at her saviour, mouth slightly open. She wouldn’t have to compete? Raja smiled back at her reassuringly, her soft demeanour a far cry from what Manila had seen at Career Training. Everyone knew Raja was ruthless, a set of solid tens across the board. She was just waiting until she was eighteen to compete, as some were wont to do. Why had she volunteered now?

Raja did not answer this. She patted Manila gently on the shoulder and made her way to the stage, her gait smooth and fluid, oozing pure sensuality. Manila just stared at her, captivated. Raja was already playing a part, but it was one that she suited well. The older girl took the microphone from the announcer and gave the cameras a cheeky wink, eyes sparkling.

“My name is Raja Gemini, volunteering in stead of Manila Luzon, and I am seventeen years old. Happy Hunger Games.”

Manila fell for her then and there.

* * *

She woke in the hospital, again. This was a bad habit, Manila thought dully, trailing her hand over the duvet. At least they had dressed her this time, swapping the blood-dress for a soft cotton nightie the same colour as the sky on a summer’s day. Did this mean that she was not going to be punished for having a nervous breakdown on national television.

No, that would never happen. Divergence must be punished.

A single tear rolled down Manila’s cheek and splashed onto the white sheets. She looked away from the damp mark and, once again, met the eyes of her mentor as she sat by her bed. Another tear fell and Raja leant forward to brush it away with her thumb, a relieved expression plastered over her features. Manila looked away. She could not bear to have Raja angry with her, not now of all times.

“That was eventful,” Raja eventually said, though her tone was not angry. “You gave them quite the show.”

“I’m sorry,” Manila replied, chastened.

“You’re sorry?”

“It was weak,” she explained. Surely Raja could see that? “I made a mockery of myself on television. Moreover, I made District One look weak. I should be shot, or imprisoned, or something.”

“What?” Raja’s voice was hesitant. “What on Earth do you mean?”

“District One tributes are as hard as diamond,” said Manila, slowly and clearly. “I… wasn’t.”

“So?”

“I should be punished!” she exclaimed, frustrated. “You know this, Raja! Divergence must be punished.”

Raja looked at her for a long minute without saying anything at all. Manila bowed under her judgement, looking steadily at her blanket. Death, imprisonment, public flogging, she knew some punishment was in wait for her. No one shamed District One and got away with it, not even a victor. However, Raja did not pass judgement. Worst of all, she did not even seem to be judging Manila’s basic inability to control her emotions. She just sat there, quiet and sad.

“What can I do to convince you that you did nothing wrong?” she asked softly, clearly trying to get Manila to look at her.

“Nothing.” Although she hated it, Manila’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at her lap. “I know that I’m a fucking failure, alright? I would never have survived the games had I not been a career. All the other tributes died of thirst, but I was sent bottles and bottles of water from the very start. They never stood a chance against me.”

“Manila. Don’t say that.”

Manila looked up as Raja laid a warm hand on her shoulder. Raja’s dark eyes were softer and kinder than she had ever seen them. She remembered how frightened she had been of the older woman back in Career Training, not that it wasn’t deserved. Raja’s games had been the bloodiest in modern memory, culminating in the final four being forced to tear each other apart barehanded in a barren mountain setting. But that wasn’t her Raja. Manila’s Raja wasn’t the type of person who could do such a thing. Her Raja was sitting cross-legged on the edge of her hospital bed, all dark hair and bright eyes and glowing copper skin. Her Raja didn’t make her heart thud loud and scared in her chest. Her Raja made it feel like her heart… no, like the world… had stopped.

“But it’s true,” Manila whispered.

Raja’s eyes grew brighter, welling with tears. “God, Manila, it breaks my heart that you think like that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Raja shook her head. “You don’t have to apologise to me, ever.”

“Ever ever?” Manila tried, and failed, to keep her voice steady.

“Ever ever,” repeated Raja, pulling Manila into a fierce hug.

A few things happened then, in such short succession that Manila would not for the life of her be able to remember in what order they happened. Firstly, she leant into Raja’s comforting warmth, her mentor’s slender arms somehow feeling more protective than any boyfriend she had entertained back in District One. Second, their eyes locked for one long second, somehow conveying something that both knew but neither had the courage to say. Finally, in one swift motion of ylang-ylang perfume and flowing silk, Raja’s soft lips met Manila’s.

#everything i know #rajila #angst #hunger games au #raja gemini #violence #death #manila luzon #rpdr fanfiction #submission #not a writer #lesbian au

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arda-marred · 7 years ago

Text

‘And he died with the Dawn in his eyes’

On the eve of war, Tolkien encounters ‘Earendel’

Exeter College, Oxford, 1914.

Note: By the end of 1914, most of Tolkien’s Oxford friends and fellow TCBS members had enlisted. But as an orphan who had always struggled to stay out of poverty, and being by then engaged to his beloved Edith, Tolkien could not afford to abandon his studies, which were crucial to his future chances of an academic career. And so, despite immense pressure from his extended relations and intense societal scorn, he deferred his enlistment until after finishing his final exams the following summer.

“ Back before war broke out, at the end of the university term, Tolkien had borrowed from the college library Grein and Wülcker’s Bibliotek der angelsächsischen Poesie. This massive work was one of those monuments of German scholarship that had shaped the study of Old English, and it meant Tolkien had the core poetic corpus at hand throughout the long summer vacation. He waded through Crist, by the eighth-century Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf, but found it ‘a lamentable bore’, as he wrote later: ‘lamentable, because it is a matter for tears that a man (or men) with talent in word-spinning, who must have heard (or read) so much that is now lost, should spend their time composing such uninspired stuff.’ Boredom could have a paradoxical effect on Tolkien: it set his imagination roaming. Furthermore, the thought of stories lost beyond recall always tantalized him. In the midst of Cynewulf’s pious homily, he encountered the words ‘Eala Earendel! engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended, ‘Hail Earendel, brightest of angels, above the middle-earth, sent unto men!’ The name Earendel (or Éarendel) struck him in an extraordinary way. Tolkien later expressed his own reaction […]: ‘ I felt a curious thrill, as if something had stirred in me, half wakened from sleep. There was something very remote and strange and beautiful behind those words, if I could grasp it, far beyond ancient English….I don’t think it any irreverence to say that it might derive its curiously moving quality from some older world.’ But whose name was Éarendel? The question sparked a lifelong answer.

Cynewulf’s lines were about an angelic messenger or herald of Christ. The dictionary suggested it meant ray of light, or the illumination of dawn. Tolkien felt that it must be a survival from before Anglo-Saxon, even from before Christianity. (Cognate names such as Aurvandil and Orendil in other ancient records bear this out. According to the rules of comparative philology, they probably descended from a single name before Germanic split into its offspring languages. But the literal and metaphorical meanings of this name are obscure.) Drawing on the dictionary definitions and Cynwulf’s reference to Éarendel as being above our world, Tolkien was inspired with the idea that Éarendel could be none other than the steersman of Venus, the planet that presages the dawn. At Phoenix Farm [his widowed aunt’s residence in Nottinghamshire], on 24 September 1914, he began, with startling éclat:

Éarendel sprang up from the Ocean’s cup In the gloom of the mid-world’s rim; From the door of Night as a ray of light Leapt over the twilight brim, And launching his bark like a silver spark From the golden-fading sand; Down the sunlit breath of Day’s fiery Death He sped from Westerland.

Tolkien embellished ‘The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star’ with a favourite phrase from Beowulf, Ofer ýpa ful, ‘over the cup of the ocean’, ‘over the ocean’s goblet’. A further characteristic of Éarendel may have been suggested to Tolkien by the similarity of his name to the Old English ēar ‘sea’: though his element is the sky, he is a mariner. But these were mere beginnings. He sketched out a character and a cosmology in forty-eight lines of verse that are by turn sublime, vivacious, and sombre. All the heavenly bodies are ships that sail daily through the gates at the East and the West. The action is simple: Éarendel launches his vessel from the sunset Westerland at the world’s rim, skitters past the stars sailing their fixed courses, and escapes the hunting Moon, but dies in the light of the rising Sun.

And Éarendel fled from that Shipman dread Beyond the dark earth’s pale. Back under the rim of the Ocean dim, And behind the world set sail; And he heard the mirth of the folk of earth And hearkened to their tears, As the world dropped back in a cloudy wrack On its journey down the years.

Then he glimmering passed to the starless vast As an isléd lamp at sea, And beyond the ken of mortal men Set his lonely errantry, Tracking the Sun in his galleon And voyaging the skies Till his splendor was shorn by the birth of Morn And he died with the Dawn in his eyes.

It is the kind of myth an ancient people might make to explain celestial phenomena. Tolkien gave the title in Old English too (Scipfæreld Earendeles Æfensteorran), as if the whole poem were a translation. He was imagining the story Cynewulf might have heard, as if a rival Anglo-Saxon poet had troubled to record it.

As he wrote, French and German armies clashed fiercely in the town of Albert, in the region named for the River Somme, which flows through it. But Éarendel’s is a solitary species of daring, driven by an unexplained desire. He is not (as in Cynewulf) monnum sended, ‘sent unto men’ as a messenger or herald; nor is he a warrior. If [this early version of] Éarendel embodies heroism at all, it is the maverick, elemental heroism of individuals such as Sir Ernest Shackleton, who that summer had sailed off on his voyage to traverse the Antarctic continent.

If the shadow of war touches Tolkien’s poem at all, it is in a very oblique way. Though he flies from the mundane world, he listens to its weeping, and while his ship speeds off on its own wayward course, the fixed stars take their appointed places on ‘the gathering tide of darkness’. It is impossible to say whether Tolkien meant this to equate in any way with his own situation at the time of writing; but it is interesting that, while he was under intense pressure to fight for King and Country, and while others were burnishing their martial couplets, he eulogized a ‘wandering spirit’ at odds with the majority course, a fugitive in a lonely pursuit of some elusive ideal.

What is this ideal? Disregarding the later development of his story, we know little more about the Éarendel of this poem than we do the stick figure stepping into space in Tolkien’s drawing The End of the World. Still less do we know what Éarendel is thinking, despite his evident daring, eccentricity, and uncontainable curiosity. We might almost conclude that this is truly ‘an endless quest’ not just without conclusion, but without purpose. If Tolkien had wanted to analyze the heart and mind of his mariner, he might have instead turned to the great Old English meditations on exile, The Wanderer and The Seafarer. Instead he turned to Romance, the quest’s native mode, in which motivation is either self-evident (love, ambition, greed) or supernatural. Éarendel’s motivation is both: after all, he is both a man and a celestial object. Supernaturally, this is an astronomy myth explaining planetary motions, but on a human scale it is also a paean to imagination. ‘His heart afire with bright desire’, Éarendel is like Francis Thompson (in Tolkien’s Stapeldon Society paper), filled with ‘a burning enthusiasm for the ethereally fair’. It is tempting to see analogies with Tolkien the writer bursting into creativity. The mariner’s quest is that of the Romantic individual who has ‘too much imagination’, who is not content with the Enlightenment project of examining the known world in ever greater detail. Éarendel overleaps all conventional barriers in a search for self-realization in the face of the natural sublime. In an unspoken religious sense, he seeks to see the face of God. ”

— John Garth, Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth

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letsimportanttreecollection-blog · 6 years ago

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Need the names of insurance companies for commercial trucks...NOT brokers...thanks?

""Speeding ticket, will it raise my insurance in texas?""

hey, I got a speeding ticket a few days ago and would like to take the defensive driving class instead, if the judge will let me. i really dont want to let my dad know about it and i am willing to pay all of it, i just dont want to have to deal with my dad. Will my insurance go up even if i do the defensive driving class? Thanks!""

Can you get a Drivers License and not have car insurance?

I dont plan to drive, but i do intend to get my license. Is it possible to not have to get car insurance with your license? Idont own any cars as well""

Where can i find really good dental insurance?

I am a mom of two and expecting. I can't work and I am looking for dental insurance that pays alot(almost everything). I live in Texas.

Cheapest Car Insurance Companies For A 17 Year Old Boy?

I've done a lot of research and can't find anything less than around 2500 a year, any good companies that can can give me a better quote? I'm thinking about getiing a Renault Clio or a VW Fox if that helps. Any tips or suggestions for good insurance companies would be much appreciated!""

What is a cheap car to insure for an 18yr old

and who does cheap insurance?

Other Drivers On Car Insurance Liability Policy?

I want to add my little brother's car to my car insurance policy. If I add the car, under my name, but do not add the actual driver (my brother), what risks am I taking? If he is driving a car that is insured under my name and he gets in an accident where he is at fault, will the other person's damages still be covered by my insurance? I know that with liability insurance he would be SOL for his car, but I don't want to get stuck paying for someone else's car if he crashed and it was under my name. Please shine some light on this for me.""

My car insurance is $200 a month!?

I'm getting my license in less than a month, but my parents won't get me a car b/c they say I won't be driving alone anyway b/c the insurance is through the roof. We have Mamzy. Would it be cheaper if we switch our insurance? It'll go down once I've had my license for 6 months, but still, half a year is a long time to have to wait. :\ Thanksx.""

Does a junior instructor need insurance?

I have had a few people around my barn asking me to give lessons, just little beginner lessons, nothing major. The barn owner said if would be alright, but I had to look into what type of insurance I would need and so on. I am not exactley sure how much insurance would cost, and if I would even be making a huge profit. My question is, do you need insurance if you are under 18? Are you then considered a junior instructor and it is not needed? If it is, about how much is the average insurance?""

Do I automatically have to get car insurance right after I get my license?

I'm 18, I live with my parents...In order for me to get my license my mom wants me to pay for car insurance (since I'll be under her name) which is understandable, but I don't have a car yet, and I just want my license in case of an emergency...like I won't even be driving around her car rarely. She told me that even if I wanted to get my license and not get car insurance yet, I can't because I live in her house?? Does that sound right? Can't I just get my license without car insurance until I actually have my own car?""

Cheapest car insurance?

new drivers

How much on average does it cost to insure a 21 year old female driver with her G2?

I just bought a car and need to get insurance. I am 21 years old have my G2 currently but will be going for my full G in the next couple weeks. I have taken drivers ed in the past and I am a university student. Previously i was paying $50/month as a secondary driver under my dad and received a quote for $156/month as a primary driver is this a reasonable price?

Are home insurance rates more expensive on a townhouse than a single family home?

Car Insurance quotes - when you get an online quote and it asks you?

how much your car is worth, do you quote the price you paid for it or its present price..? I ask because if you think about it you could have bought your car last year for 12, 000, and one year later it's worth 9,000. If you car is written off it isn't as ther inusrance company will pay out on the amount you paid for the car.. this happened to my brother and they only paid the value it was worth on the day of his crash which was considerably less....""

Is there some type of dental insurance that is affordable??

I am 38 y/o male who needs to finally look into some dental insurance that is affordable/ I have some teeth that needs to be fix ASAP thanks for your Help Bri

Renault clio? first time insurance how to get it cheap?

looking at a clio 1999-2003 model any hints on how to get cheaper? got a quote for 4000 today!

Does New York require lenders of leased cars to include GAP insurance within the cost of the lease itself?

Was under the impression that this was the case, however, after recently leasing a vehicle in NY, the dealership told me otherwise.""

Volvo S40 insurance cost?

I'm going to lease a new car soon and I had my heart set on a 2008 Volkswagen Jetta SE ($21,040), but yesterday I found an really good deal on a 2007 Volvo S40 ($20,800). It's never been sold so it's technically new (it was a dealer demo). I'm just wondering if the insurance on this car would be similar to that of the Jetta. It's the base model 2.4i with no options except the automatic transmission. Do you know if if the Volvo would be more costly to insure?""

How long before insurance premiums start to drop?

My family health insurance premiums are about to go up to $800 per month. I don't think we can afford that kind of premium on a $65K household income. Will it get better once the insurance exchanges kick in? Talking to friends, they're also seeing their premiums double in some cases.""

I rang up Tesco Car Insurance today and they sent me away?

Hello, I rang up Tesco Car Insurance today, this women spoke on the phone and her first question was asking for the policy number, and then I asked her a question why they increase my insurance and she said everywhere is the same, they are the cheapest, and then she told me to ring somewhere else to get a quote and then phone us back. Thats a good customer service. What do you guys think about this situation?""

Car insurance in someone else's name?

i own a car that I dont drive often. My car insurance is sky high and I'm thinking of not even having an insurance policy anymore. I'm wondering if it's unheard of to put the car in just my husbands name and drive the car when i need it? I have a license. I realize that there could be an issue if there was a car accident.

My car insurance monthly rate is $92 how much is my down payment?

i need to figure this out through here if possible, i will pay $92 a month, state farm wants a down payment though they haven't gotten back to me with how much I'm going to need - I was wondering if anyone here might possibly know. Thank you.""

How about Universal Auto insurance?

Universal Dental, universal home insurance, universal life insurance, universal pet medical insurance, universal flood insurance, universal renters insurance. Wouldn't it be a good idea to have the government provide all insurance to everybody? There couldn't be problems with that right? ( please note heavy sarcasm )""

Is it possible to buy a car insurance without owning a car, and then use it for renting a car?

Car insurance advice needed for a 17 year old?

As I said in my previous question. I recently bought a Citroen AX 988cc for 500 and paid 2800 insurance for a year. I thought It was really good as all of my mates had paid well over 3000 for their Fiestas etc. I got alot of answers saying I had been ripped off. I would be so happy if you could tell me of a better deal. I called a total of 46 insurance companies, and used comparison websites on a variety of insurance group 1 cars. And this was the very cheapest I could find. Initially Iwanted a VW Golf. (Not the GTI Version) But I was quoted 9000 a year, not bad but I dont earn that much yet. I have 3 jobs but all are minumum wage. (6-10am, 10am-6pm, 7pm-11.20pm). Could you give me a better deal. Where to go, what other car would be cheaper, and general advice on getting it as cheap as olot of people in my previous question told me they got it. Thanks.""

Why can't health insurance companies in one state cover individuals from other states?

United States

Massachusetts proof of car insurance while out of state?

OK. In Massachusetts, some car insurance companies don't give you/ offer a separate little card that serves as your proof of insurance; the licence plate/ your registration serves as your proof in MA. Now I was wondering. most other states have a requirement that you carry proof of insurance at all times while driving. In theory, if I was driving in another state, some distance from MA and therefore where the police are not familiar with how MA does things, and get pulled over, would the officer know that I was insured, even if I was unable to produce the little card, or would he always assume that without it, the driver is uninsured? the insurance is listed on the registration, but...""

Who pays $200.00 for car insurance?

I just got a Nationwide quote for car insurance and it was over $200.00 for the monthly payments. Im just now getting my own car/car insurance(in my name), Im a female in my mid-twenties, had my first two speeding tickets last year. Plan on getting a 2007 Pontiac G6, and I will be driving it to work and school. is $200.00 a normal monthly amount to be paid for me?""

I was rear ended. Does my insurance go up if I contact them?

I have Mercury Insurance and someone hit me in the back at a stop light. I got all of there info, but I was wondering if we went through this with our insurance companies would my rates go up? thanks :D""

Running costs for first time driver?

Hey, on average how much do you think running costs (insurance, servicing, petrol etc.) will be for me to drive a car per month? I'm planning to start learning to drive soon (I'm 20 and live in the suburbs- Essex/close to London) the car I'm looking to get would be one from insurance group 1 and I'll probably be doing about 12,000 miles a year, just driving to and from work and socially every now and then. Thanks for any help :)""

The world of car insurance?

the idea that dropping the price of car insurance for men a small amount and increasing the female amount a huge hike has nothing to do with gender that's the con it's the absolute greed of government and big business hand in hand raking in a fortune as they did when changing the s p to the criminal decimal currency? the question is why do we Joe public put up with this crap

A renewal company for home insurance?

We've had three claims in 12 years with our insurance company and the company has put us in nonrenewal mode....is there an online company that will handle our insurance... home insurance....?

Should a person without children get life insurance?

Is life insurance important to a person without children? Could they just save enough in life to pay for the funeral costs and other expenses. I can see reasons like you have a disabled spouse, but in general do you think it is necessary or just a useless expense.""

Who has the best auto insurance?

from a price, service, quality perspective""

Cheaper on insurance 1980 lincoln or a 1995 blazer?

i have a 1980 lincoln mark VI it has a 351 (5.8 liter engine) and a 1995 chevy blazer im 16 and im trying to decide which one to drive they both get the same gas mialage about cause the blazer is an suv so im deciding which would be cheaper on insurance for a 16 year old i think the blazer but im sure hoping not cause the lincolns prettier lol

How's insurance for an old model Lexus SC300 or SC400 (1990-1995)?

I'm 17 and getting my first car. Im a good student. Ive picked out either a Lexus SC 300 or 400 around 1992ish. I like the car but I just want to know if insurance would be very costly for eiher of these, considering it is luxury. I know insurance for cars like the Nissan 300zx is really ridiculous. How would this insurance compare? And please, dont recommend other cars to me because I have already decided on one of these, just give me an idea of insurance costs. Thanks""

""Looking for a good car insurance agency but not too expensive, any advise ?""

Hi, i have been with allstate for over ten years for my car insurance but recently i just got a newer car and it sky-rocked and im looking for a better rate, if anyone would recommend some i would appreciate it so i can get some good rates to look at and compare, I don't know why it went up so high because i have had no tickets or accidents in fifteen years but they say they have not made any mistakes with it. Thanks for the advise Deb :)""

How much would insurance be?

my step dad is putting me on his insurance, he has a 2006 dodge caravan.. how much would it be for me ( a 17yr old girl) to get put on as an occasional driver?""

Whe will liberals admit the affordable health care act has made health care and health insurance?

More expensive already?

How much does minimum cover motorcycle insurance cost monthly in California if your 19 years of age?

Car insurance after customization?

If I put a body kit, new wheels, etc... onto my car will it affect insurance? Do I need to let them know? Before? What about the warranty, I have bumper to bumper warranty.""

Accidently put wrong date of birth by 3 months on my car insurance?

Iv just accepted a quote online for car insurance without realizing my date of birth is wrong by 3 months, if i tell them to change this should it change the price of my insurance?""

My car is registered in wisconsin how can I get insurance in california?

My mother bought me a car in wisconsin and i live in california, but the car is still registered in her name in WI. how do i get insurance coverage without having to register the car in my name? is it possible?""

Where is the best place to buy cheaper home insurance for the over 50s?

What is the cheapest car insurance if you have bad credit and low income?

What to do if you can't afford car insurance

Can I go under my mum's fiance's car insurance?

I currently live in Glasgow and have one year left of college (after this one) before my family moves to England, due to my my mums fiance/my little sisters dad working down there. Once we move down there I will be doing my driving tests. So my question is would it be possible for me to be put under his car insurance policy even though we are not directly related and my mum has not married him yet? I will be living with him, working for him and he will be putting me through my lessons and also helping to support me as I continue my education down there (if i need support).""

How much is one months car insurance on average?

Driving a slightly older car (87 Tbird), newer driver; no faults fines or tickets. Resident of BC.""

How much would the insurance on my car be?

I'm 18. I just got my car. and I just got my license. and I have a 2001 Hyndai. I live if Fort Myers FL... How much would it be on my own? and How much could it be under my brother in laws name that has had his license for 5 years?

Who understands health insurances? please help?

Okay so im 22 and have no health insurance, i just started working, and at this company they offer health insurance for full time positions only and well i am part time. I have had swollen tonsils since i was fourteen and been hospitalized twice because it was so bad that literally both tonsils were smashed together (i know gross) well i guess the question is, i want to try to get a health insurance that will minimize extremely the cost of getting these suckers removed. I dont understand all the deductible talk. So which insurance do you think is affordable and might be the one for me and my need? Please any advice and suggestions will be appreciated. Its a constant pain to go to the doctors and just come out with antibiotics which i guess take the pain but im not lying when i say that they are everyday permanently swollen. Please and Thank you.""

Is it possible to buy a car insurance without owning a car, and then use it for renting a car?

What are some cheap auto insurance companies in florida for teenage drivers?

I am 17 years old. I currently have liberty mutual insurance with my parents for $5,901 annualy (about $550 per month for three cars). Is there any cheap car insurance?""

How can I prevent this girl from completely taking advantage of my insurance company?

A few nights ago I accidentally brushed the side of my neighbor's car with my front bumper (cause she was parked like an idiot as usual). I'm taking full responsibility of it cause it's my fault and I have no problem with that. Initially I was going to pay for the scrape to be compounded out and whatever else was wrong as a result of me hitting it. However, when I spoke to her, she started pointing out a ridiculous amount of things: there's a scratch in addition to the scrape (ok, sure), she says I cracked her light (maybe I did, it's possible) but she's also saying that I caused her tire to pop out and that there's tread missing from it (which makes absolutely no sense because I didn't hit the tire or rim or wheel well at all). Basically, she expects a whole new paint job and a set of tires which is ridiculous for the small amount of damage that was done. I want to make sure she isn't trying to take advantage of my insurance company and cause my rates to skyrocket as a result. The car is a complete piece of sh*t and she doesn't take care of it at all - the paint's dull, the rims are rusted - and I think she's trying to fix these things by making it like they were a result of me hitting her. I have no problem at all taking responsibility for the damage I did, but I do have a problem with her making things up and trying to fix other issues through my insurance company. The last claims representative I spoke with told me that I would not be contacted by the adjuster at all since there is no damage to my car. Since she's going to be talking with the adjuster and I won't, I'm afraid she's going to exaggerate the amount of damage. Should I call my insurance company and tell them this? Will they care? What can I do?""

Insurance help???!?!?!?

right, im a 17 year old male who passed my test in may 2010, however i now have enough money for a cheap car and insurance, but why is it so expensive?? cheapest i have found is like 4k so please if anyone can help what is the best cars to get cheap insurance, i have tried putting myself as a second driver but is still really expensive, i need some help where is the best place, what is the price you have? i just need helpp!!!! pleeasssee""

Trying to repeal the Healthcare law which is good for the American people the only thing republicans hope?

Trying to repeal the Healthcare law which is good for the American people the only thing republicans hope will put them back into the White House?

Car insurance and car note?

OK, I'm nineteen. I've been saving up for my first car. But the thing is, I have to pay insurance, and a car note on my own. My mother became homeless, and my father I do not know. My godparents took me in, and they can't afford to add me on their insurance. So, being that I have a part time job at McDonald's, and go to college, It seems as if I have no way of affording a car and insurance. I haven't checked the rates of insurance, but I do understand that they are high for teenage males, and always vary on the type of car you have. I don't want anything fancy, a four door car that gets me from A to B. Is there anyway I can afford this? Please and thanks!""

What is the best health insurance in california?

sould i go with the one that has deductible, and what it turns out that i have a cancer , m'i gonna be covered. i've been having this buzzing ear ( left) for few months and now i get dizzy when i look up and i started to feel oressure in my head and light headache. my emplyer's insurance start in 2 months and i need to be checked now, and i don't qualifie for medi cal any suggestion , advice?? thanks""

Which is cheaper for a 16 year old Car insurance or Motorcycle insurance?

Im thinking about getting either a car or a motorcycle it all depends on the insurance cost.

Health insurance?

how much does health insurance cost?

How Much is insurance on a fox body mustang?

I really want a fox body mustang and i want to see how much it would cost. It will be my first car and i really want to know before i go car shopping.

What auto insurance companies DON'T use a credit score when deciding rates?

I'm against the practice of using credit scores (i.e. insurance scores) to decide auto insurance rates. Does anyone know of a company in the U.S. that doesn't use the practice?

No Insurance!?

No Insurance!? How much do you think a tooth will cost to be pulled?

""Can I get a refund of life insurance premiums I paid? I set up a $100,000.00 life insurance policy?

August 2009. Monthly premiums were deducted automatically from my checking account. recently I had to change my checking account number because someone got access to my banking info. and made unauthorized deductions. This in turn caused my monthly insurance premiums from getting paid. The insurance Co. requested a substantial fee to reinstate my policy I cannot afford this fee can I get a refund of premiums paid and cancell the policy?

How much does an ER vist cost w/ no insurance?

I went to the ER the other day. I was there for a few hours and only have an IV. I dont have insurance...how much do you think this will cost?

Will my speeding Ticket affect my insurance rates?

I live in Iowa, I am 17 years old, and I just got a speeding ticket from a state trooper for going 84mph in a 65 zone. I am insured with State Farm and have no history of any accedents or tickets. Right now I am recieving the good students discount and the safe driver discount and I was woundering if this would affect my insurance rates on a 1996 Mercedes-Benz black with aproximately 210,000 miles. Thanks""

How much do you pay for car insurance?

how old are you? what company you with? what car you drive? are you the only driver under this insurance?

What the best insurance company that affordable to get for a new car?

looking for car insurance?

Where can I find super cheap auto insurance?

I just want something to cover me legally. I don't need any advice on why I should not get crap insurance, I literally would just like to know where to get great rates. I found ...show more""

Which cheap car insurance companies send the documantetion by Email only?

NOT by post, by EMAIL only""

Car Insurance?

Is it normal for a car insurance company to send a questioner to it's clients who had an accident? They asked the same questions I told them on the phone and I had to get the form notarized to send in with my answers. They we're asking what time, where it happened, who was I with, did I ever file a claim before, and the last two pages had to do with fraud.""

Do out of state residents need California SR22 insurance if they dont go back to California?

I am a permanent resident of AZ and have an AZ drivers license. While visiting California I had a DUI. I settled out of court but an insurance broker wants to sell me a California policy. Do I need California SR22 insurance if I don't plan to return to California? Is there any benefit?

Question about my Geico Car Insurance?

I've just registered my car for Geico car insurance today. On my confirmation statement it said that my insurance will be activated on March 15th, 2012. About 45 minutes away from now. Will I be able to drive my car at midnight? I want to be sure I'm completely safe. Thanks.""

What happens if to my insurance if i get married?

My parents pay for my insurance and ill have it till I'm 19 if I get married would I no longer have insurance?

Car Accident and Insurance?

On 7/24 I was at a Dairy Queen drive thru the person behind me hit the truck I was driving. I was looking at her in the rear view mirror the entire time. She had a cigarette hanging from her mouth that was unlit and she eventually backed up after hitting me. I got out of the truck and looked and I did not see any damage. She then said I didn't move you hit me I then told her No I did not hit you I am in front of you and this truck was never in reverse. Since there was no damage to the truck I did not bother getting any of her information since it was not my fault. On 7/27 I got a call from the police saying she told them I hit her. I gave them my side of the story and they said she had a witness who was a passenger in her car and they will be in touch. I also let them know I had a witness as well. The cop called me back yesterday and wanted to get my insurance information so her and I could exchange information. My question is do I have to give my insurance information to this cop? I did not hit this woman and I think she is trying to get one over on the insurance company. The cop said yesterday I'm surprised the truck does not have any damage because her car does have damage. This truck was a rental truck which was inspected at the time it was dropped back off at the rental company obviously there was no damage to it. This woman looked like she was on something to begin with and I'm guessing she was not paying attention probably looking for a lighter and let off the break and hit me. Which I still don't see how her car would be so damaged. I don't want this con artist having my information. So should I tell the cop I am not giving him my insurance information and tell her to take it to court? Should I get a lawyer? I'm not sure what to do I am 29 years old and I have never been in a accident so I am not sure how to go about this but I know this woman is trying to pull a fast one and I am not going to sit back and let it happen.

Does anyone know where I can find auto insurance to cover car parts?

I need new tires and brakes, and rather than paying for them I want to get insurance so all I'll have to pay is the deductible. Please help. Thanks.""

How much is car insurance on a new 911 gt2 Porsche?

I am a 25 year old who recently became very successful in the automotive industry and I decided I wanted to get a Porsche. Now i know about how much it is to keep a Porsche maintained because i have worked on them but i am not sure on the insurance. Please help anyway you can. And for the record i am not getting a quote from any website because i do not feel comfortable giving away personal information to an insurance company before i decide to use them.

Is it possible to buy a car insurance without owning a car, and then use it for renting a car?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-wrecked-my-car-wasnt-fault-want-totaled-insurance-company-chavez/"

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tatumeyecare · 1 year ago

Text

Best Optometrists: Your Guide to Eye Care in Phoenix

When it comes to your vision, you deserve nothing but the best. Whether you reside in the vibrant city of Phoenix or the scenic Scottsdale area, finding the best optometrist is crucial for maintaining optimal eye health. In this guide, we'll explore the world of optometry, helping you navigate your way to the best optometrist in Scottsdale, Phoenix, or anywhere nearby.

Best Optometrists: Who Are They?

Optometrists are healthcare professionals specializing in eye care. They play a pivotal role in preserving your vision and eye health. These experts are equipped to diagnose and treat a wide range of eye conditions, prescribe corrective lenses, and provide essential advice on eye health.

The Importance of Regular Eye Exams

Why Are Regular Eye Exams Essential?

Regular eye exams are your window to eye health. They allow optometrists to detect issues early, preventing more severe problems down the road. These exams encompass a variety of tests, such as visual acuity, eye pressure, and comprehensive eye health assessments.

When Should You Schedule an Eye Exam?

It's recommended to see an optometrist annually for routine check-ups. However, if you notice any changes in your vision, discomfort, or other concerning symptoms, don't hesitate to book an appointment promptly.

Navigating the Optometry Landscape in Scottsdale and Phoenix

Finding the Best Optometrist Near Phoenix

Phoenix, known for its warm climate and vibrant culture, offers numerous options for optometric care. Start your search for the best optometrist near Phoenix by asking for recommendations from friends and family or conducting online research.

Scottsdale's Top Optometrists: Your Eye Care Oasis

Scottsdale, with its picturesque surroundings, is home to some of the finest optometrists in the region. Consider visiting one of the renowned eye care centers in Scottsdale for comprehensive services and a serene environment.

How to Choose the Best Optometrist

Factors to Consider

Qualifications: Ensure your optometrist is licensed and accredited.

Experience: Look for a practitioner with a wealth of experience.

Services Offered: Check if the optometrist offers the specific services you require.

Reviews and Testimonials: Read reviews and testimonials from previous patients.

Location: Consider the convenience of the optometrist's office.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

What is the difference between an optometrist and an ophthalmologist?

Optometrists primarily focus on vision care, prescribing corrective lenses, and diagnosing eye conditions. Ophthalmologists, on the other hand, are medical doctors who can perform surgeries and provide a broader range of eye care services.

Can I get my prescription glasses on the same day as my eye exam?

In some cases, yes. Many optometry practices have on-site laboratories that can produce prescription glasses quickly. However, it depends on the complexity of your prescription and the availability of frames.

How often should I replace my contact lenses?

The frequency of contact lens replacement varies depending on the type of lenses you use. Daily disposables should be replaced daily, while monthly or extended-wear lenses should be changed as prescribed by your optometrist.

Is it necessary to dilate my eyes during an eye exam?

Dilation allows optometrists to get a better view of the inside of your eye, aiding in the early detection of eye conditions. While it may temporarily affect your vision, it's a crucial part of a comprehensive eye exam.

Can optometrists treat eye infections?

Yes, optometrists can diagnose and treat common eye infections. If you suspect an eye infection, it's essential to seek prompt care from an optometrist.

How can I protect my eyes from digital eye strain?

To prevent digital eye strain, follow the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break, and focus on something 20 feet away. Additionally, ensure proper lighting and use computer glasses if needed.

Your vision is priceless, and finding the best optometrist in Scottsdale, Phoenix, or nearby areas is a vital step in preserving it. Regular eye exams, choosing a qualified optometrist, and staying informed about eye health are essential aspects of your eye care journey. Trust the experts to safeguard your vision and enjoy a brighter, clearer world.

Tatum Eyecare is North Phoenix’s premier family eye care center. We’ve spared no expense to create the most pleasant, comfortable patient experience… including the finest furnishings, the best selection of prescription eyeglass frames, the most cutting-edge technology, and the most outstanding team of industry professionals. Come see why the choice for family eye care in the Valley has never been clearer.

#Top Phoenix Optometrists #Phoenix Eye Care Specialists #Experienced Optometrists Phx #Eye Doctors in Phoenix #Phoenix Vision Care Experts #Affordable Optometrists in Phoenix #Phoenix's Finest Eye Clinics #Vision Specialists Phoenix AZ #Family Eye Care Phoenix #Local Optometry Services Phoenix #Phoenix Optometry Clinics #Best Eye Exam in Phoenix #Comprehensive Eye Exams Phoenix #Affordable Eye Care Phoenix

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purrrplepjs · 7 years ago

Note

*screams* You're such a good writer!! So are you still taking requests for the prompt thingy? If so, do you think you can do #42? Thanks for writing and for your time~!

Better late than never, right anon?

42. I Don’t Know If I Should Kiss You Or Slap YouAU Fic - Maya is a lawyer, no one died. (HOORAY)Phoenix x MayaMildly Spicy

Rookie attorney Maya Fey’s stiletto heels clicked rhythmically across the marble floors of the courthouse lobby as she hurried towards meeting room C. Glancing at the delicate silver watch on her wrist that her sister had given her when she passed the bar exam, she swore under her breath. Tucking a stray tendril of hair that had escaped from her bun back behind her ear, she continued on.

“Shit. Only fifteen minutes left until court is back in session. Please let him have it!” she thought hopefully as she made her way through the busy foyer. Passing by the courthouse cafe, she cringed when she made eye contact with Klavier Gavin, who seemed to be eternally occupying the same spot, sipping macchiatos. She really didn’t have time for him today. “Fraulein, that mini skirt and those heels are doing funny things to my heart…” he exclaimed as she rushed past.Maya rolled her eyes and kept walking.“Heart? More like your pants,” she thought sarcastically. Klavier didn’t love anything that he couldn’t see his reflection in. They’d been on a date once, years ago. And it had been a disaster.“No time, Klavier!” she called out behind her with a wave of her hand. Normally she would find it in herself to at least be cordial, but she had less than fifteen minutes to make or break this case. And it all relied on one man.She turned the corner and headed down the hallway towards the meeting rooms, coming to a halt in front of the door marked with a large C. She could already sense the man waiting for her on the other side and her traitorous body had already decided to speed up her heart rate and make her palms sweat in response.“Get a grip, Maya,” she chided herself softly.She took a deep breath, fixed her hair and smoothed her skirt. Was it too short? Argh, stupid Klavier had her doubting herself already. No, it was fine. She was fine. Everything was fine. Squaring her shoulders, she opened the door.“Mr Wright,” she said politely, as her dark eyes locked with the piercing blue eyes of the other senior partner of her sister’s law firm. She’d deliberately chosen not to work for Mia after graduating in an effort to build her own reputation, but sometimes desperate times called for desperate measures. Like now, for instance.“I’ve told you,” he said smoothly. “You can call me Phoenix, or Nick even.”Maya took in the sight of him as he perched on the edge of the meeting room table reading a sheet of paper and felt the tips of her ears start to burn red. Everything about him was perfect. The way he was sitting clearly showed the musculature of his thighs, well defined through this blue slacks. Probably from all that bike riding he did. His white oxford was rolled up to his elbows and Maya found herself particularly intrigued by the sight of his forearms. His pale blue vest was absent today, along with his suit jacket, likely due to the warmer weather. His red tie hung loosely around his neck, the top button of his shirt undone, affording Maya the scarcest view of skin underneath. Her eyes flicked upwards to his face, taking in the sharp lines of his features, the perfect slope of his nose and full pink lips. His black spikes were growing longer and getting a little shaggy. A stray spike hung tantalizingly across his forehead and Maya wished she could smooth it back and run her hands though that soft, shiny mass of silky black hair.Phoenix glanced at her briefly, noticing that she was staring, a light blush staining her pale skin. The corner of his mouth turned up in a knowing smirk. He knew she’d had a crush on him for a while now, but he’d been in a relationship with someone else. That had since fizzled out, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t find his partner’s younger sister appealing. Mia was a knockout, for sure, but there was something different about Maya. Playful innocence with something fiery and determined underneath. Physically, Maya was definitely of slimmer stature compared to her sister’s outlandish curvaceousness but those legs (and he was definitely a leg man) with those killer heels. She was stunning and she didn’t even know it. She was exactly the kind of woman he was drawn to.“I’ll let you take a photo, you know. It’ll last longer,” he teased.“What? Oh! I’m sorry…” Maya stammered, blushing furiously and looking at her feet.“Anyway,” Phoenix began after a suitable enough pause to make her more embarrassed, “I’ve got the transcript of the phone conversation,”

He swiveled his direction to face her and tapped the sheet of paper he held across his hands.

Maya looked up, her eyes wide, embarrassment forgotten.“You do? Oh my god you’re a lifesaver!” she cried, relief flooding her body. This was the decisive evidence she needed to close the case. She reached out to take it from his hand, when he playfully snatched it back.“Wait just a moment,” Phoenix said, moving from the table to his feet. Maya shrunk back as he towered over her at his full height. Even in her heels he was a good foot taller than she was. She found herself subconsciously moving backwards as he closed the distance between them. There was something predatory about the look in his eyes and the way he moved and Maya felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest and go skipping off down the street.Suddenly, her back was against the door and he was still moving closer. She swallowed hard as he braced himself with one forearm (those magnificent forearms) next to her head and leaned in towards her ear. She shivered as she felt the heat of his breath against her neck.He spoke, his voice deep and low - a sensuous growl.“You can have the transcript,” he breathed. “If you agree to go on a date with me.”Maya’s breath caught in her throat as his lips grazed her ear when he spoke. She felt as if she were bubbling over and melting at the same time. But through the fog of desire she still managed to remember that she was not some plaything to be bartered with or bribed.“And what if I decline?” she breathed, her voice barely reaching his ears.Phoenix smiled, moving back slightly to look her in the eye. His nose grazed hers gently.“Then I, as a gentleman, hand over the transcript anyway and let you go about your day,” he answered, his lips mere inches from hers. He was rather impressed that she didn’t just crumble, but he hadn’t really expected her to either. He knew her better than that.“So you could have just given me the transcript and asked me on a date?” Maya asked, daring to place her hand on his chest between them. The fast rhythm of his heartbeat bolstered her fledgling confidence further. Could Phoenix really be interested in her as well?“That’s less exciting, isn’t it?” he said with a devastating grin that made her heart rate soar even further. “I don’t know if I should kiss you or slap you.” Maya replied, bringing her hand to the back of his neck, brushing her fingertips gently against the hair at his nape.“Well,” he growled softly, turning his attention back to her lips. “One of those options is more fun for both of us.”She laughed gently, her eyes locking with his. Realising after a few tense, agonizing moments that he was indeed the gentleman he claimed to be, Maya twisted her fingers into his hair and pulled him down to her, their lips meeting in a searing kiss that sent electric current rushing through her body. She felt his hands slide around her waist, pulling her body against his as his lips moved with hers. Soon, her back met the door again with a soft thud, the weight of his body holding her firmly in place.One hand still threaded through his dark locks, Maya dragged her her other hand down his back, her fingernails sliding over the smooth cotton of his shirt. She relished in the shiver in his breath as he broke their kiss briefly, before pressing his lips against hers again. He gently coaxed her mouth open with his own, their tongues colliding between gasps of air.“Phoenix…” she managed, his name taking far too much effort in her state.“Nick…” he mumbled in between kisses. “Call me Nick,”“Nick…” she breathed as they broke for air, before diving back towards each other again. “I need… the courthouse… recess…”Maya stammered as his lips moved over her neck. She clutched at his hair, breathing heavily as he nipped gently at the hollow of her throat.Registering what he she was trying to say, Phoenix swore and leaned his head into her shoulder. Moving away from her, he ran his fingers through his hair as he grabbed the transcript from the table.They stared at each other for a moment, processing the situation. Phoenix held out the paper. When Maya didn’t take it, he gestured towards her with the sheet.“Go on, take it. I’m not going to snatch it back this time.”He paused.“Although, if it will get me another kiss…” he teased, breaking the tension. Maya laughed and accepted the document.“Thank you,” she said earnestly. “This will really save my client.”Phoenix shrugged nonchalantly.“About that date though,” he said, raising an eyebrow.“I didn’t say yes, yet.” Maya smiled, raising an eyebrow in return.Phoenix leaned back against the table and crossed his arms.“Hmm, maybe not with words…” he smirked.Maya smiled, blushing and covering her face with her hand. This really was uncharacteristic behaviour for her. But that man was so damn attractive!“Okay, okay.” Maya relented. “I’ll have dinner with you.”“And breakfast?” Phoenix asked, still teasing.“Don’t push it.” Maya said sharply, pointing her finger at him, doing her best to hold back her smile. Was this really happening?Glancing down at her watch again, she saw that she had less than three minutes to be back at the bench.“Damn it. I have to go. Call me later, we’ll work something out,” she said as she turned and opened the meeting room door. Phoenix followed behind her, stopping in the doorway.“I’ll pick you up at 7:30 tonight.” he said as she left the room.“Okay, great,” Maya said, looking over her shoulder.Phoenix felt a pleasant warmth spread through him, watching the sway of her hips as she headed up the hallway to the lobby.“Maya!” he called out.She turned to look at him, her expression questioning.“Wear those heels.” he grinned.“Don’t be silly,” she replied, turning back to walk away. “I’ve got higher heels than these.”Phoenix grinned again, loosening the tie around his neck a little further.

#fic #purplepjs #narumayo #phoenix x maya

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drbor · 5 years ago

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Learn English through Story Subtitles

Learning English through Story Subtitles is one of the most efficient methods. You will also learn new things at the same time.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the fifth novel in the Harry Potter series. It follows Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the surreptitious return of the antagonist Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic. During the summer holidays with his aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon, 15-year-old Harry Potter and his cousin Dudley are attacked by Dementors. After openly using magic to save Dudley and himself, Harry is expelled from Hogwarts, but his expulsion is postponed pending a hearing at the Ministry of Magic. Harry is whisked off by a group of wizards including Mad-Eye Moody, Remus Lupin, and several new faces, including Nymphadora Tonks, a bubbly young Metamophagus (a witch or wizard who can change his or her appearance without a potion or spell), and Kingsley Shacklebolt, a senior Auror, to Number 12, Grimmauld Place, the childhood home of Sirius Black. The building also serves as the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, of which Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Sirius are also members. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger explain that the Order is a secret organisation led by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore dedicated to fighting Lord Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters. From the members of the Order, Harry and the others learn Voldemort is seeking an object he did not have prior to his first defeat and assume this object to be a weapon of some sort. Harry learns the Ministry of Magic, led by Cornelius Fudge, is refusing to acknowledge Voldemort's return because of the panic and chaos doing so would cause. Harry also learns the Daily Prophet has been running a smear campaign against him and Dumbledore. At the hearing, Harry is cleared when Dumbledore provides evidence that Harry was fully within his rights to use magic against the Dementors, but refuses to make direct eye contact with him. At Hogwarts, Dolores Umbridge, a senior employee in the Ministry of Magic, becomes the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Umbridge and Harry clash because she, like Fudge, refuses to believe Voldemort has returned. She punishes Harry for his rebellious outbursts by having him write "I must not tell lies" with a cursed quill that carves the phrase into the back of his hand. She also refuses to teach her students how to perform defensive spells, prompting Harry, Ron, and Hermione to form their own Defence Against the Dark Arts group with students from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. They call this group Dumbledore's Army. Many students sign up, including Neville Longbottom, Fred and George Weasley, Ginny Weasley, and Luna Lovegood. The next day, however, they see on the notice board that Umbridge has banned all clubs she has not approved. Struggling to find a place to practice, Dobby the house elf tells him about the Room of Requirement and its uses. The club meets there to learn and practice defensive spells under Harry's instruction. Meanwhile, Rubeus Hagrid has not yet returned from the secret mission Dumbledore gave him at the end of the previous book and is absent for the first part of the school year. Upon his return, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn his mission, which was mostly unsuccessful, was to find the last giants and prevent their joining Lord Voldemort. Professor Umbridge has been steadily amassing more and more power and influence at the school, and as she begins regularly inspecting Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures lessons, it is clear she intends to sack him. One night, Harry dreams through the eyes of Voldemort's snake Nagini, who is possessed by Voldemort. Nagini attacks and seriously injures Arthur Weasley. Harry tells Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore, and Mr. Weasley is rescued. Dumbledore arranges for Harry to take Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape to protect his mind against further invasions by Voldemort.Umbridge sacks Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher, but she is outraged when Professor Dumbledore undermines her power by allowing Trelawney to continue living at the school and hiring Firenze, a centaur, to take her place, in spite of Umbridge's prejudice against part-humans. Soon after, Umbridge is given a tip-off about Dumbledore's Army by Marietta Edgecombe, a friend of Harry's crush Cho Chang. Marietta's betrayal unwittingly activates a curse set by Hermione that disfigures her face. Despite Dobby's warning, the gang are caught and get into trouble with Fudge. When Dumbledore takes responsibility for the illegal organisation, he is forced into hiding. Dolores Umbridge becomes headmistress, and Fred and George cause pandemonium around the school in revenge. During one Occlumency lesson, Snape is called away. Harry, left alone, looks into Dumbledore's Pensieve, which Snape has borrowed, and sees a memory of Snape's time as a Hogwarts student. Harry is shocked to witness his father, James Potter, and Sirius bullying and humiliating Snape. Snape catches Harry and, enraged, refuses to continue his lessons. Distraught at this revelation of his father's character, Harry talks to Sirius and Lupin using Floo powder in the fireplace in Umbridge's office and learns more about his parents and their background. After helping Harry break into Umbridge's office, Fred and George leave Hogwarts to start a joke shop in Diagon Alley. Suspecting he will be the next teacher Umbridge sacks, Hagrid confesses to Harry, Ron, and Hermione that he has brought his giant half-brother, Grawp, to Hogwarts and hidden him in the Forbidden Forest with the intention of eventually introducing him to human society. Hagrid asks the three of them to look after Grawp if he must leave the school. Sure enough, Umbridge leads a party of Aurors to attack Hagrid in his house one night. Hagrid overpowers them and flees the school. McGonagall, trying to disrupt the violence, is badly injured and put in St. Mungo's Hospital. On the last day of O.W.L. exams, Harry has a vision of Sirius being tortured by Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries. Harry uses Umbridge's office fireplace to contact the Order of the Phoenix's headquarters and check whether the vision was genuine. Kreacher the house elf informs him Sirius is indeed at the Ministry just before Umbridge catches Harry and his friends. Umbridge summons Snape to provide Veritaserum to question Harry, but Snape claims to have no further stocks of the potion left. Remembering Snape is also a member of the Order, Harry gives him a cryptic warning about Sirius, but Snape claims to have not understood it. Umbridge decides to use the illegal Cruciatus Curse on Harry to interrogate him about Sirius's whereabouts. She also reveals that she ordered the Dementor attack on Harry, intending to have him either silenced or discredited. Hermione intervenes, and in order to create a distraction, she convinces Umbridge they are hiding a weapon of Dumbledore's in the Forbidden Forest. Harry and Hermione lead her into an area of the forest inhabited by centaurs, where Umbridge provokes them into taking her captive. The centaurs are furious upon learning that Hermione used them to do her bidding and turn on the pair, but Grawp arrives and clashes with the centaurs, allowing Harry and Hermione to escape. In his office, Dumbledore explains that Snape understood Harry's cryptic warning and contacted Sirius to confirm he was still at Grimmauld Place. After Harry did not return from the Forbidden Forest, Snape deduced where he had gone and alerted the Order, enabling them to save Harry and his friends. Dumbledore reveals that during the Christmas holidays, Kreacher interpreted a command of Sirius's as an order to leave the house and went to Narcissa Malfoy, the wife of Lucius, and told her about Harry and Sirius's close relationship. Voldemort used Kreacher's information to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries by planting the vision that Sirius was in danger there. Owing Harry a full explanation, Dumbledore reveals the full contents of the prophecy made by Sybil Trelawney herself: The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him... Born as the seventh month dies... And the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal... But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... And either must die at the hand of the other... For neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord... Will be born as the seventh month dies... Voldemort learned of the first part of the prophecy and subsequently tried to murder Harry, believing he could prevent the prophecy from coming true and unaware he would grant Harry great power and mark him as an equal by doing so. Dumbledore tells Harry he must stay with the Dursleys for one last summer because, by taking Harry into her home, Aunt Petunia, Lily's older sister, seals the protection Harry's mother afforded him when she died. As long as he is at Number Four, Privet Drive, he is safe from Voldemort and his followers. Harry comes to terms with the responsibility of the prophecy but mourns the loss of his godfather. Harry then finds an old handheld mirror in his dormitory that was a gift from Sirius. He realises Sirius would not want him to be depressed on the matter and resolves to keep fighting Voldemort. Want to hear more stories like this?

#harry potter series - learn english #dr bor #learn english #learning english #story subtitles #video subtitles #book brief #book summary #book reivew #harry potter #harry potter and the order of phoenix

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foundcarcosa · 7 years ago

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ccxxxviii.

1. When was the last time you played Chinese Checkers? >> I really can’t remember.

2. If you could afford designer brands like Chanel would you buy them? >> I’d buy designer suits. There’s no reason not to dress like Bayou Baron Hannibal (it’s a concept I had, okay) if I’ve got the money for it.

3. What was the last hypocritical thing you did/said? >> I don’t know.

4. What helps you fall asleep at night? >> Time, usually.

5. How many movies has your favorite actor/actress been in? >> Idris Elba’s been in at least 41 movies. That’s what Google said, “at least”.

6. What was the last deep conversation you had about? >> I don’t know.

7. What’s the worst trouble you’ve gotten into? >> I’m not sure how to define that.

8. Why do some girls become so dependent on their boyfriend/husband? >> I’m not knowledgeable enough about this to form an opinion.

9. Do you enjoy going to church? >> Sometimes.

10. How many people do you know with two different colored eyes? >> None.

11. In what situations would you NOT give someone a second chance? >> I’m not sure.

12. Have you ever had a specially decorated cake (like the kind they make on ace of cakes, but less extravagent)? >> No.

13. Who is your favorite character on Family Guy? >> I don’t like Family Guy enough to have favourites.

14. Did you lose your virginity to someone you were in love with? >> No.

15. Why did your last relationship fail? >> A relationship with Phoenix doesn’t work because we live in different states, he doesn’t use the internet nearly enough to justify an LDR, and even when we are in the same geographical area he doesn’t seem to understand that I would like to be treated with some priority.

16. What do you have tattoos of/what do you want tattoos of? >> I have a Roman numeral 19, a Mannaz rune, and “scully, it’s me”. I want tattoos of many things.

17. Are most of the adults you know married or divorced? >> I mean, a significant number of adults I know have never been married in the first place.

18. How many times have you seen your favorite movie? >> I’ve seen The Fountain maybe 8 times? Interstellar about the same.

19. When was the last time you took a shower with someone else? >> It’s been years.

20. What’s the scariest thing that’s happened to you? >> Cannot quantify.

21. Would you ever date someone shorter than you? >> Sure.

22. Two door car or four door car? >> I prefer four doors.

23. Do you turn your phone off when you go to sleep? >> No.

24. Have you ever been to a party like one of those on Super Sweet 16? >> No.

25. Do your parents ever complain about you staying up so late? >> ---

26. Do you read science fiction books? >> Sure.

27. Have you ever had surgery that involved staples? >> No.

28. What is your house number? >> 6140 is the building number.

29. Have any of your friends gone to jail? >> I don’t think so.

30. Remember that movie Tower of Terror? >> No.

31. Wasn’t Neil Patrick Harris funny on SNL this weekend? >> Hunh.

32. When was the last time you were mistaken for a mom? >> I don’t think that’s ever happened to me.

33. Do you prefer cold coffee or hot coffee? >> Hot, but sometimes iced is nice.

34. Where do you buy most of your clothes? >> Many of my t-shirts have come from Hot Topic. Everything else was gotten in various places both online and offline.

35. Do you have to go to school on days that you don’t have exams? >> ---

#surveysofsamedi

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sparkleeemarkleee · 5 years ago

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Take Me Home Prologue

Prologue: So Am I

Ok so I didn’t really intend for readers to listen to the playlist while reading the story, but you can definitely do it if you’d like to! I was simply using these songs as prompts. Enjoy lovelies!!!

P.S. Idk how to make page breaks so um I’m just gonna use lines for now lol

Also this story will be written under y/n’s POV :)

💙 Song prompt: So Am I by Ava Max ft. NCT 127 💙

Masterlist

Playlist

Introduction to Main Characters

Prologue

Dozens of little kindergartener boys and girls waddled down the hills shrieking and giggling. As per usual, I watched the entire scene unfold. By the time the sun’s intensity felt like the glowing eyes of a phoenix their parents would stroll into school grounds.

It seemed customary for the kids in your class, division 21, to have play dates right after school. I never really understood why they enjoyed it so much or why they would rather be away playing in dirt, sand, and rocks when they could’ve just stayed home with their parents. I watched closely as a pretty aunt with short black hair call her nephews: Jaemin and Jeno. Pretty Auntie had her arms out to embrace them and the boys moved towards her—without taking a breath, Jaemin ducks under her arms with Jeno and they skittishly move across the field back into the big blue slide that they fondly hid inside. Another girl named Lami, who always wore sparkly tiaras, was currently savouring a sundae with her dad. As if she was sparkling, her dad’s eyes seemed to dissolve under her loving gaze. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. I wondered what it would be like to twinkle like that.

I could only gawk from afar. It got hard sometimes because everything here was family oriented; the parents of all the kids in your class knew each other; before kindergarten even began, everyone made friends and clustered into their own group. Leaving you to sit on the sidelines, if it weren’t for your only two friends.

“Y/N, do you want us to drive you home today?” Dana, the second friend you’ve ever made, asked with mud all of her white dress. Her mom smiles at you as she hastily wipes the brown splatters off her daughter.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll just wait for my family,” I said sheepishly. You watched them as they exited through the green gates of your school. I watched them all one by one slowly making their way back home as you sat on the swings patiently letting time roll by.

It began to get cold and your bare legs from under your dress started to prickle under the coolness of the air.

“Y/N,” He huffed. I spun around quickly to see a black haired first grader in a grey hoodie giving you his hand.

I didn’t know it yet back then, but here was my hero—my first friend and first love.

“What took you so long, Mark?” My voice sounded screechy from holding back the tears.

“I’m sorry, but something confusing happened with Hyuck earlier so I had to deal with that and your sister—”

“I know. She had her dance recital today. How’d she do?” I said as I brushed off the tears and any trace of sadness in my voice.

“I dunno. I haven’t talked to her about it because of Hyuck.”

“What happened to Hyuck?” I wondered aloud.

***

“Mom! I didn’t mean to!” He screamed as Mama chased him with a broom in her hand. Instead of watching Tom and Jerry, Sara, Mark, and I comfortably sat on the leather couch and were genuinely amused at Hyuck’s fiasco.

“Answer me again,” she said sternly. “What were you doing hiding in Cecil’s garden?”

“I was admiring her petunias,” Hyuck said with a cheeky smile followed with more chasing until he gave in to Mama’s threats. Sara stifled a laugh, but you and Mark couldn’t help but explode at the hilarity of the entire situation.

“I’m sorry, mom! I was just waiting for his son Rio to come.”

“Why were you missing for 5 hours then? You could have at least called me if you wanted to meet with your friend,” Mama huffed out exasperated. Her busy hands and legs could finally sink into her comforting rocking chair.

Mama might have been sold on the story but you didn’t buy it—neither did Sara or Mark. Being Mama’s eyes and ears, the two acted like parents and were very aware of the many abilities and tricks Hyuck could have up his sleeve. You on the other hand grew up with your younger cousin’s devilish antics that you knew better than to trust his impish smile. One time in preschool, he tricked you into walking into the boy’s washroom and accidentally ran into Mark and his best friend (that you at the time thought was dreamy).

Mama abruptly stands up before her heavy eyes could shut and blurts, “Ms. Kim next door has been patiently waiting for me! I’ll be gone for about 10 minutes, but when I come back make sure to be ready,” she rambles while grabbing a thin jacket out the door.

Once Mama scurried away, you three swarmed around Hyuck practically bursting with excitement to prod at what real business he had to do at Cecil’s.

“So I was kinda dared to steal a petunia from her garden,” he starts off, already making Mark annoyed and Sara to roll her eyes. Sara had an important dance and couldn’t afford any additional stresses that specific day; Mark on the other hand carried most of the responsibility for Donghyuck and I because of Sara’s recital and nearly jumped Donghyuck at his explanation.

“I didn’t do it though!” he defensively continues, “because I know Mama would kill me, but I made a new friend...and she’s really pretty,” he then breaks off into fits of giggles. You share a look with Sara and burst out laughing. Meanwhile, Mark swats him for causing so much trouble.

After Mom forgave Hyuck, she brought us out to our favourite diner. Like always, Sara would get herself a grilled cheese sandwich with a milkshake, Mark and I got burgers and split a sundae, Hyuck got fried chicken and lemonade, and Mama would get herself a salad.

Life was simpler back then. Whenever we had a problem, a simple sorry would suffice, we would go out to celebrate, and the atmosphere was always blissful and filled with laughter. It always washed away any pain you felt from school or anything really.

“Y/N, stop taking all my chocolate ice cream,” Mark whines as he tries to scoop off the ice cream on my spoon.

“This is for leaving me alone at the school until 9:30!” You say sticking out your tongue.

“I’m sorry, Y/N,” he said while ruffling your hair and earning a dirty look from my five year old self. “How about...I treat you out to ice cream to make up for it?”

I could never really stay mad at Mark. I pouted a little to pretend that I was thinking about it and finally decided: “Only on one condition.”

*****************************************************************************************************

“The signature chocolate ice cream with green tea cheese cake, only for you, madame,” Mark jokes as he brings out my favourite ice cream.

“With oreo drizzle?” I perked up from the pages of my exam studying. The wave of anxiety from finals cramming just started to hit me now. “You know that I refuse to eat any ice cream without it.”

“Oh, c’mon, Y/N. You’ve been begging for this combination since you were five. Just because I’m older now doesn’t mean I lost my memory,” Mark laughed as he passed me a spoon and slid the bowl of ice cream on my desk. He sat himself down on a stool beside my chair and leaned forward into our conversation.

“Mark, I’m kind of stressing out because I need to do really well on these exams,” you ranted while digging into your ice cream. “Last term, Sara nearly got 98% as her academic average and I only had around 92%. My parents are going to kill me!”

Your parents worked abroad so the only way they really knew you and your sister were through report cards and occasionally video chats. You barely spoke to them, but the only thing they ever told you was to try harder. Even after spending countless hours applying for internships, working on your part-time jobs, and studying to build up your resume, work harder was always their feedback. It wasn’t easy; you were always being compared to the undefeated competition of all time: Sara.

Despite having similar aspirations and work habits it all seemed to come to her naturally. If you spent 6 hours self-studying, Sara could manage with just 2 hours. Every single time, she seemed to effortlessly have new talents appear like magic tricks and she always had one up her sleeve. How could you ever compare?

You hated crying, but you couldn’t help the tears that began to slip from your eyes.

“Hey, hey, don’t be like that,” Mark said softly. You try to turn your face away from the embarrassment of having him witness everything. He gently brushed his thumbs over your eyes to wipe your tears.

You never fully told Mark about how you felt about your own sister, but thank God he understood. You never had to tell him; he always knew. He wrapped an arm around your back and his other arm carefully bringing your head to rest on his shoulder. You shut your eyes and let your troubled mind just unwind.

#Marklee #markleefic #nctmark #nct #nct127 #nctdream #nctu #haechan #hyuck #leedonghyuck #donghyuck #markxreader

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renus-justine · 6 years ago

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Valedictory Address

[Salutation]

I am humbled and honored to speak before you today, representing the graduating batch of 2013-2017. Each of us here came from different courses and we therefore speak of different languages; ‘Binary language’ for the Information Systems and Computer Science students, ‘IATA codes and phonetics’ for the Tourism Students, ‘Food recipes’ for the Technical Teacher Education students, and ‘Time Signatures and Fundamental Dance Positions’ for the Physical Education students. And so I had to dig deeper and find what links us with one and the other. Most of us here, if not all, came from a history of lack.

I came from an indigent family. My father, who was our only provider, died of cancer in 2009. I was 12 then. My mother had to step up and find any job there is in order for us to survive. I was molded in such an age to not only dream big but to also work hard.

June 10, 2013 marked the beginning of our college journey. My heart was filled with trepidation because the stubborn high school student who was a frequent visitor of guidance counseling and math remedial sessions due to her habit of sleeping during classes finally reached college. Yes, I miraculously survived my way through high school after being ‘almost’ deliberated, or in simple terms, ‘kicked out’ from my school for not being able to meet the maintaining grade.

College, I believe, is a whole lot different. It is not a phase of rebellion and procrastination – it is but a society in a microcosm. It will set you on fire to see how adaptable you are. If you cannot afford to finance your education, seek for scholarship grants. If you have insufficient savings for transportation, walk earnestly until you reach home. If you don’t have internet access at home, wait for 30 minutes or an hour for the computers at the library to do your work. Or, if you’re lucky enough, you can always ask your friend to print the homework for you. I am very lucky to have the latter. Help will always be given at CCA in times of need.

It seems just like yesterday since we first entered this institution. Everything happened so fast that we haven’t noticed that it is now time to say goodbye; to siomai and fishball during break time moments, to totobits sessions after classes, to long walks going home and countless alay lakads with classmates, to 3 am reviews and stale coffee overdose during major exams, to #teamnosleep during thesis days. The thing about commencement exercises is that – when we leave, we take with us all the memories that once made our lives meaningful. These are the things that we can only see clearly in a retrospect. College changed our lives in the best way possible and we will never be the same person who walked in it the first time.

City College of Angeles is a place for cultivating intelligent minds to become effective transmitters of ideas and skills. It is an institution where the marginalized sector of the society finds hope and breeds knowledge through quality education. It is a place where your societal stratum is never an issue to be limitless – a place where dreams are alive and attainable as long as you have the courage to turn them into reality. I am grateful, in behalf of the graduating batch, to City College of Angeles for developing us holistically as individuals and as members of the society.

I speak before you today not as a ‘beauty queen’ you often see gracing pageant stages but as a student who pushed through her education with passion and perseverance despite of poverty. I am an academic scholar and so I had to epitomize what it means to be one. The local government pays for my tuition fee fully and so I told myself that I have to give my all in everything that I do in order to make every taxpayer’s centavo worthy of my education – an eye for an eye. Aside from being a full-time student, I also accepted part-time jobs in order to finance my daily expenses. I had done all these things not only to prove that I’m worth something but to also make my mama proud. To the woman who sacrificed herself so that she can be of service to her children –

Ma, graduate ta na pu. Peparagul mu kaming mayap a tawu keng kabila ning kasakitan a denasan tamu. Tirwanan mu kaming maging masikap, matiisin, at magka paninindigan. Ing tagumpe ku pung ayni, tagumpe mu naman.

This glorious achievement will never be possible without the help of our Almighty God. I am sincerely grateful to our creator for letting our paths cross and unite so that we can share to each other our love, compassion, observations, and hope. God is exceptionally great that He has entrusted me to deliver this valedictory address before you.

Our heartfelt gratitude goes to our parents – you are the bows from which your children, as living arrows, are sent forth to their destined paths. You sacrificed everything that you have in order for us to finish our college education. Maraming maraming salamat po sa pagsasakripisyo ng inyong pansariling kaligayahan para mapasaya ninyo kami. Ang diploma pong ito ay patunay ng inyong dedikasyon para makamit namin ang aming mga pangarap. Ito na po ang umpisa ng ating paglalakbay.

We would also like to thank our families, friends, and classmates for their willingness to stand with us and for never leaving us even during times of vulnerability and break downs.

To the CCA professors, thank you for your genuine engagement to change our lives for the better. You stepped out of the way to be our brothers/sisters or fathers/mothers. Thank you for imparting not only your wisdom but also your faith and lovingness. You have awakened the militant spirit residing within us by enabling us to be independent thinkers. We are indebted to you.

To the non teaching staffs most especially to the CDSO employees, it isyour dedication to work that made us all feel that CCA is indeed our second home.

To the City College of Angeles benefactors, may you continue to inspire more lives like you did with ours. It is because of your generosity and good heart for service that placed us where we are right now. We are utterly grateful to all of you for making this institution an institution of hope.

To the Institute of Business and Management and to my fellow tourism graduates, this is a testament that we tourism students can make something remarkable through hard work and devotedness. As we enfold a new chapter of our lives, I hope that we will become agitators of change for the advancement of our industry. We are the party of the future – we are the party of innovators.

Finally, to my fellow graduates, we just ended one chapter and we have so much more to write. I hope that CCA has prepared us enough for the life that we are yet to discover. Our survival in this new chapter depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to be constantly vigilant, and to face the challenges of change with courage.

May we carry with us the values and principles that this institution was able to sculpt in our hearts and in our minds. Let us be resilient just as the Phoenix rises above its ashes each time it falls. Let us be stewards by serving the community with passion and mindfulness. And let us be excellent in being men and women of this country by being willfull in achieving the common good of all the people.

This is the time to prove our worth as ‘Iskolars ng siyudad’ – a time to show what City College of Angeles has taught us all throughout our four years of college education. Let us not be satisfied of the stories on how things have gone for the others but let us find our passion and propagate it so that we can write our own. Start now. Start with skepticism. Start with fear. Start with voice shaking. Start with heart throbbing. Start and see it through no matter what. Do not stop here, this is just a start. And as we liberate ourselves from our own fears, our presence alone liberates the others.

We survived the maelstrom. To the future challenges we are yet to face, bring it on.

Congratulations, Batch 2017. To God be the Glory!

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