#And every day I think about how he told Whis the only reason he was still training was because Freeza was alive again

[shannonsketches]

I don’t care if it’s boring I’m 10000% in love with the idea of Vegeta having a quiet happy domestic home life throughout the 7 year gap and as his end game.

He was raised in an intergalactic mafia and by an absolute miracle got out and was granted his life back. Twice. One of the two last men standing when an entire population gets wiped out. Twice (counting the Freeza Force, by the end of ResF).

His father stopped fighting on the front lines once he became king, to watch over his domain. Frieza didn’t personally get involved in battle (not wipeouts, but actual battle) until Namek. Vegeta was always (told he was) intended to take both their places.

Letting him grow into a protector has been such a great arc and imho it would be so beautifully wrapped by letting him finally get to go home and inherit his crown as the guardian of his new planet.

[whatisthatmae]

Neteyam x Vitiligo Metkayina! Reader

Part 3 (last part)

I’m going to try and not make this too long 👌🏾

Pronouns : she/her

Y/n’s pov

You cant be serious. How could he just confessed to me so openly like that? I look at him in shock before I look away. This was new to me, this whole experience was. I was lost for words. So much that my mouth was completely dry from having it open for too long. I could tell his expression was awaiting on me to answer, so I did. “You..like me?” I paused for a moment before I continued. “I could say I’m very..glad,to hear that from you. As I do like you too but I have just one question. Why? The other boys from my clan don’t see me in the way that you do. So why do you like me this much?” I asked desperately, I hope he’s not just playing with my feelings right now.

Neteyam’s pov

Did she really just ask me that? What I liked about her? I look at her kind of offended. “Are you saying my taste in women is bad? I think your a very pretty girl ____, but that’s not just the only reason why I like you.” I said hoping she doesn’t cut me off as I continue.

“You have this sort of..mysterious thing about you that has me wondering. Wanting to know more things about you. I love the way you smile at me even if it’s not a big one,it still counts. We relate to so many different topics, I love the time that we spend together ____. Every moment I try to spend it with you during that day. That’s why I like you.” I say all of this very confidently. I’ve never shared my feelings this openly to anyone about this sort of topic. It’s new. It’s special at the same time too. “ I hope that you can accept my confession to you ____” I hope she does, back at my original home I never had the time to..have a crush you could say. Now I have a little more time on my hands to do so.

Y/n’s pov

“Neteyam. Do you mean all of this?” If so, please tell me now.” It almost sounds like I was begging at this point. I needed to know the truth before I say my true answer to him. He nods at me, I look in his eyes to see if she’s telling the truth. Being the Tsahik in training had its perks. I read him spiritually, to see if he was lying to me. But I saw now lies, therefore he was telling the truth. I sighed and told him my answer.

“Neteyam. I like you too. I realized it a few days ago, but I really do. I do accept your confession.” I say with almost tears in my eyes. I can’t believe this was happening. He ran up to me and hugged me while lifting me on the air. He started laughing and so did I. For a moment he stopped and I looked down at him to see him already looking at me. I looked deep into his eyes and leaned down..that is how we had our first kiss.

—————————————————————

It’s been at least 3 days since that whole confession happened and me and Neteyam are taking it slow. You could say we are a couple,I don’t really count things as dating unless two Na’vi bond. But we’re too young for that at the moment. Neteyam has been thinking about telling our parents about our relationship. I’ve been against it every time he brought it up.

I’ve only been against it because I don’t know how my mother will react. I’m not too worried about my father, he’s always been an open man. Hopefully he can accept us too,even though me and him don’t get on good terms he’s still my father either way.

I sighed as Neteyam asked for what it feels like the 10th time today. I stop in my tracks and groaned annoyingly. “ Ugh! Fine, we can tell them. As long as you stop annoying me.” I said glaring back at him while he looks as happy as day.

——————————————————-

We told his parents first. They are a lot more open to new things, rather than mine. I would say the most shocked one had to be Jake, his father. Neteyam has mentioned that a while ago he had told his mother that he liked me,so it wasn’t a surprise to her. None the less, they were happy for the both of us that we were finally together.

Now on to the hard part..my parents. They had been in the Marui for a while now. I sighed as I couldn’t be any more nervous. Neteyam saw this and said “ Hey, it’s going to be okay. If anything happens I’ll be right by your side.” He says as I nod and headed my way in.

“Mom, dad, I have something I would like to tell you.” I said trying to be as confident as I could. “Me and Neteyam are together, as a couple.” I said with a stern face trying to his my nervousness if it ever came through. They look at each other amused before laughing.

Me and Neteyam look at each in question when I ask “What? Why are you laughing?” They stopped laughing and said “Daughter, me and you father already knew. Your nosy brother told us that same night. He was eavesdropping.” My mother said as she rolled her eyes at the thought of my brother. “Even though you don’t need our approval, we accept you and your relationship with the boy.” My father said witha proud look on his face. I looked relieved and thanked them for their consent as Neteyam & I walked out of the Marui.

We looked at each other with a knowing look. Knowing that this relationship with definitely go far. Very far.

THE END!!

[tisthekarmyn]

Hedcanons!

I'm pretty sure all angels and Priest in general have absolutely 0 social skills other than socializing with their god (angels and their hakaiishin live on a literally isolated planet and socialize regarding their training, and sometimes judgment of other gods). They are probably learning to socialize in society and amongst each other.

And I'm sure Daishinkan's flirting is an accumulated and observed experience over the years. Because he has no idea what he's doing or how he should be doing it anyway.

Among the Hakaishin, Heles is the only female (humanoid? human?) who definitely has an understanding of what's called love, since she's constantly screaming about beauty and love. She's not shy about showing it off, but how the Priest is “elegant”, “beautiful” and “mysterious” is only told by Sour.

The rest of the hakaishin are animals, what can you learn from them? But I do headcanon that angels are curious in their own way, learning the animal behaviors of their gods, inadvertently taking something from them for themselves. This - after learning - is an expression of familial affection for each other, in the form of the usual verbal/non-verbal communication, brushing feathers on their wings. Whis and Vados have cat gods, and because of them, the siblings have learned to purr, gently headbutt as a sign of affection, slow blinking. And since angels can change their body parts, no one appreciated when these two tried to lick someone else's hair.

That leaves only Heles. Grand Priest won't ask her directly. He doesn't want to listen to her more than necessary, or she'll become overly chatty. He'll learn about this shit from Sour, who listens to the narcissistic praise of the goddess every day, but has picked up some details. Poor guy.

And so far, what Daishinkan understands is that if a chosen creature is “interesting” to you, (where the concept of interest is when your attention is strongly attracted to something and it's held for a long time), you need to be around it and show your interest. The priest gets the meaning of the word right, doesn't he?

I think Priest has been studying various behavioral and emotional traits for many millions of years, at least sometimes he had Sour for clues

And angels also have trouble understanding other personal space, and they don't understand the problem. Lol

OHHH MY GOD I LOVE THESE HEADCANONS????????? DUDE YEAH, Angels looking at mortals to study these emotions, and soonly start feeling them as well. Making this the reason why the Grand Priest started to actually have feelings for Jiren And yeah, the Grand Priest is pretty fucking smart, so he will figure these things out almost immediately as soon as all the information are put together

[jazzystudios82]

His Lovely Rose - Chapter 4: Son Goku

Previous. . . . Next Chapter. . . .

——————————————————————————

Location: Beerus' Planet. . . .

Brier and Beerus waited outside of their home, looking up at the sky together. "Do you think that they're almost done yet?" Beerus asked, placing a hand around Brier's waist. Brier smiled at this and said, "Be patient. You know how much of a perfectionist those two can be when it comes to cooking." 

"Yeah yeah." 

"Lord Beerus, Lady Brier, the lunch boxes are ready!" Whis and Kero announced. The two deities looked behind themselves to see the angel and the familiar carrying said lunch boxes in their arms, Whis' was wrapped with a dark purple cloth while Kero's was wrapped with a black silk cloth. It was obvious which of the boxes was meant for. 

"Finally!" Beerus said as he and Brier walked towards the two. 

"Oh my, it smells lovely! What's today's meal, Whis? Kero?" Brier asked with a smile. "The main dishes for Lord Beerus and I consists of roasted salmon from the Planet Uotorin, and a crispy chicken, a delicacy of Galaxy 65." Whis said. 

"And for you, Lady Brier, I've prepared a grilled Hydra pasta dish with fresh ingredients from your home planet." Kero told her as he handed the lunch box to Whis. "And in case you get a little thirsty, I've prepared you a chilled 'juice' of sorts made from the fruit of your personal garden." "Aw! How wonderful!" Brier said happily. "Thank you, dear." Kero smiled in return. He enjoyed getting some praise every now and then. 

"Wait, that dish has Hydra meat in it? Isn't the blood of those monsters poisonous?" Beerus asked. If he remembered correctly, just a tiny drop of that stuff and you'll be in the afterlife talking with King Yemma. "To a mere mortal it is. It's perfectly safe for immortals like us." Brier answered for Kero, who nodded in agreement. "Oh. So how does it taste?" Beerus questioned, now intrigued. "Oh, it's absolutely divine!" Brier said. "I'll let you have a taste later." "Oh, how wonderful." Before she, Beerus, and Whis began to leave, Brier looked back at Kero and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" 

"I'm fine, Lady Brier. After all, who else is going to guard the palace if I'm gone? The Oracle Fish?" Kero said, semi-joking. He then transformed into his wolf form and ran back inside the palace.

"Alright then. Is everyone ready?" Brier asked her fellow deities. Whis and Beerus nodded their heads slightly. "We're ready." they both said. 

"Great, then let's go!" Brier said as she created a big portal that lead directly to King Kai's Planet. 

.

.

.

.

Location: The Sacred World of the Kais. . . . 

Elder Kai and Kibito Kai looked at the sky, with concern on their faces. “I was right to worry. It’s only been half a day and we lost eight worlds to his senseless destruction.” Elder Kai said. “Are you sure that he’s responsible for them all?” Kibito Kai questioned.

“Yes. His speed is what makes Lord Beerus so devastating. This is hardly the first time that he’s caught me off guard with his quickness, after all, he’s the one who trapped me inside the Z Sword.” Elder Kai told him with a grim expression.

Kibito Kai’s eyes widened at what he said. "What?! He's the one who. . .?!" “It surprised me, it all happened in the blink of an eye.” Elder Kai said.

“I didn’t know about that, sir. Clearly I underestimated him.” Kibito Kai said. "So tell me young one, can you sense his energy now?" Kibito Kai nodded. "Yes, I can! But for some reason, he seems to be standing still. Wonder why." he mumbled, using his superior sight to check on the God of Destruction. 

“Frankly, I'm not sure. But let’s just hope that Lady Brier is going with Beerus keep him from doing anything rash.” Kibito Kai looked at his predecessor in confusion. “Elder, I've been meaning to ask you this: who’s this Lady Brier?” he asked. "You and the North Kai mentioned her earlier." 

“Huh? Oh, that’s right, you’ve never met her before. She’s Lord Beerus’ wife.” Elder Kai revealed, greatly shocking Kibito Kai.

“What?! He’s married?! B-But what woman would ever want to-” “It was arranged because she’s a goddess of magic. She can boost his powers for when he needs it or wants her to. Although apparently, it's quite draining, so I guess he doesn't ask her to do it often. ”

This surprised the younger Kai. He’s heard of those kinds of deities before, but he’s never thought one would marry a destroyer. “But still, how could she stop him?” 

“She’s one of the few people he actually listens to besides his guide angel. Thankfully, she has a good head on her shoulders, and that’s thanks to her two fathers, Lord Arum and Lord Typhon II.” Elder Kai said. “. . .I’m sorry, but who are Lords Arum and Typhon II? Are they important as well?” Kibito Kai asked, curious.

“Oh boy. . .” Elder Kai mumbled. Did he not keep up with who's important and who's not? 

"What? Oh no!" he heard Kibito Kai yell. "What is it?!" "I-It's B-Beerus! The woman with him is making a portal! And He's heading straight to the North Kai's world!" 

.

.

.

. 

Location: King Kai's World. . . .

Goku was forced by King Kai to do odd training exercises to keep him busy. He didn't know what was going on with the deceased Kai, but hey, it's not gonna stop him from getting stronger. He'd do anything, even if it was a little unorthodox. Suddenly, a little thought popped into his head, an important reminder. It caused him to drop the massive weights he was using, which made the ground beneath him to shake violently. 'Wait a minute. . .is today. . .?!' 

"Goku, is everything ok?" King Kai asked, having noticed that the Saiyan had stopped training. He was worried that he had remembered what he tried to ask him earlier. "OH NO! TODAY'S BULMA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!!" Goku shouted. "Aw shoot! I totally forgot! She must be mad, really mad!" King Kai released a sigh of relief when it turned out to be unrelated to Beerus. 

'What am I gonna do? Bulma's really scary when she's mad.' Goku thought to himself, shuddering in the process. 'Maybe I can come up with an excuse? Yeah, that should work! But what? Maybe I can ask King Kai for help.' Just as Goku was about to do so, the Saiyan noticed something in the air. A bright rose red light that formed a circle, and it seemed to be slowly expanding towards the ground for it to get bigger.

"Yo King Kai! What's that light?" Goku questioned, pointing at the circle of light. "Huh? What light-" King Kai turned around to see what Goku was talking about, and nearly fainted when he saw it. 

As soon as Goku got towards North Kai, he asked, “Hey what’s wrong? King Kai, are you ok?”

“Get out of here, quick!" he shouted, beads of sweat dripping down his light blue face. "Huh?" "I, uh. . .E-Earlier, you said something about a friend’s birthday party, so you should use Instant Transmission and go there right now!! And don’t worry about a gift, you can send something in the mail!” King Kai said with a slight stutter. 

“Really? I don't know, I’m not good with parties. I always get kind of bored and stuff.” Goku said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "Besides, I want to know about the-" “You have to go! I’m worried about your social life, Goku. I can’t let you lose your friends!” King Kai exclaimed. Not buying it, Goku walked in front of him and said, “I think I should be the one worried about you, King Kai. You’re acting really strange today. Is everything ok? Is there some kind of tax collector coming today or something?” Did Kais even need to pay taxes? “N-No no, nothing’s happening! I’m just a weird guy!” King Kai shouted at him. 

'I mean, yeah, he’s a bit weird, but nothing like this.’ Goku thought to himself. Suddenly, Goku heard something behind him. Almost like there were people talking.

Curious, he turned to see a portal in the process of being opened. King Kai noticed as well, and grabbed Goku’s arm and hurriedly dragged him to his house. “Huh? King Kai, what are you-" ''Look Goku, I need you to stay here! Ok?!” he shouted. “What? Why?”

“Because if you meet him then you’ll-” King Kai stopped himself from speaking any further. “Him? Wait a minute, is there someone coming over that you don’t want me to meet?” Goku questioned. “A-Alright fine, just promise me that you’ll listen like a grown up.” King Kai said.

“Ok, I’ll try.” Goku said. “The one coming is Lord Beerus. He’s a deity, on the same level of the Supreme Kai.” “Oh cool! So he’s a good guy right, so why are you worried?” Goku asked. “Because Lord Beerus is a different sort of deity. He’s moody, unpredictable, and very scary, which makes a completely different kind of deity.” “What does he do that’s so scary?” Goku questioned, genuinely curious. 

“He’s a Destroyer god, his role is to get rid of planets by, well, destroying them. And he does it on the slightest of whims. So if you do anything that he doesn’t like, he’ll blow up your planet without a second thought.” he warned. “Look, the point is that we have to be careful around him.”

“So he’s a bad guy, huh?” Goku asked, now looking serious. "Look, Goku, it's not as simple as that. The rules that make up this universe are made with shades of gray, and our universe must always be balanced. Every deity has a role to help with that, no matter how big or small. For example, the Kais create life and encourage order." "Ok. And so that means that Lord Beerus does the opposite? Destroy life and create chaos?" Goku asked. "Well yeah, and-" King Kai was going to go into further detail, but he then noticed out of the corner of his eye that the portal was almost open. They were practically already here and Goku was still out in the open. 

"King Kai-" “L-Look, just stay inside and don’t come out!!” he shouted. The light blue skinned Kai quickly exited out of his house and had Bubbles and Gregory stay with Goku to keep an eye on him. As he was trying to catch his breath, a voice asked, “Is something the matter, Kai?” Slightly spooked, King Kai looked up to see that the portal finished opening, and there in front of him were the ones he feared seeing. “L-Lord Beerus!! Wh. . .What a pleasant surprise! W-What brings you and your wife here?"

Goku watched from the inside of the house to see what this 'Lord Beerus' looked like. The one who he assumed to be the God of Destruction appeared to be a tall and skinny pale blue skinned man with elaborate white hair, light violet eyes, and he had very pretty androgynous features: which would make one question if he was a man or a woman, or maybe somewhere in between. He wore a robe that was a reddish purple color, a chest piece that was colored black with white and orange patterns, a big cyan halo around his neck, and black and white shoes with a slight heel. In his right hand was a golden staff with a black orb.

“Wow, so that’s what a destroyer god looks like.” Goku muttered to himself. His dark eyes drifted away from him to see the woman next to him

She seemed to be around the same height as Bulma, maybe a little taller, but her overall appearance was completely different from Earth women (obviously). She had a voluptuous body and a beautiful face, chin length shiny blue-gray hair, snow-white skin, rose red colored lips, and pointed ears like the Kais. Her eyes kind of reminded him of Kid Buu in terms of coloring, but Goku could tell that there was a difference with her irises.

The sclera was black, and her irises were a rich glittering ruby red color with white diamond-shaped pupils, and long dark lashes. Her outfit consisted of a silver collar-like necklace, silver earrings with rubies, an elegant black waistcoat-corset like top that had silver accents (that also left her shoulders bare), had shoulder-length arm sleeves made of silver, a black ankle-length skirt, and dark gray trousers with built in high heeled boots.

‘Woah, she’s really pretty. Is she his wife or something?’ Goku wondered. She had to be. Then he noticed another alien being that appeared behind the white haired man.

He was a tall skinny purple skinned humanoid cat-like being with no fur (like those Sphynx cats back on Earth), and he wore Egyptian themed attire, which consisted of light blue baggy pants, a chest piece with light blue and black stripes with white and orange diamond patterns, tan colored ankle boots, and golden accessories such as anklets, arm bands, a collar, and bracelets, and even a golden earring on his left ear. 

'Who was he? A servant? Or maybe he's some kind of an exotic pet?' Goku shook these thoughts away, and decided to listen in on the conversation. He even tried to sense Beerus’ energy to see how strong he is, but failed. “That’s weird, how come I can’t sense it?” he muttered quietly. But his confusion quickly turned into excitement. “Aw man, this is so cool! I can’t wait to try and fight him!” he said.

“So, uh, Lord Beerus, what a pleasant surprise. I appreciate you coming all this way to see me. You look well.” North Kai nervously said. “It’s been quite a long time. Hasn’t it, North Kai?” the cat-like being said. “Wait, that’s Lord Beerus?” Goku wondered out loud. Gregory the Cricket immediately walked close to him and quietly exclaimed, “Keep your voice down, he’s not supposed to hear you!” Goku did his best to listen as he continued to watch them talk.

"How many years has it been, exactly?" Beerus asked. "Oh, uh, let's see here." King Kai said, and proceeded to count with his fingers. "One, two, three, four-" "Three hundred twenty-seven universal standard years." Whis interrupted, causing Brier to give him a look that made her seemed annoyed. 'Please don't interrupt, Whis.' Brier told him through telepathy. 'It's not my fault that he was going to take so long, Lady Brier. . .'', was Whis's response. 

As Brier and Whis continued their silent conversation, Goku watched from afar. “King Kai looks so nervous, he’s shaking like a leaf. Is Beerus really all that strong?” he asked, but neither Gregory or Bubbles answered verbally. They simply shook their heads 'yes'. 

Beerus looked around King Kai’s planet. Brier, now finished speaking telepathically with Whis, noticed and asked, “What is it, love?” “Nothing, I’ve forgotten just how small this planet is now. That’s all.” he answered. “W-Well, I prefer to think of it as cozy and easier to clean, but I guess you're right. And I definitely want to make you guys comfy. So can I offer you anything? Something to eat or drink?” King Kai offered. 

“Perhaps. Is it something good?” Beerus asked. “Oh, absolutely! It’s something that is most delicious for us deities.” King Kai said. “Intriguing, but you better hope that you’re not over-selling it, North Kai. Or this time I’ll make your world even smaller.” Beerus warned, and looked behind King Kai. “It’ll probably be the size of that shed.” 

"!"

"Beerus! Leave the poor man alone!" Brier scolded. "Also in case you've forgotten, Whis and Kero made all of us a lovely lunch! We wouldn't want it to go to waste, do we?" ". . .Right. Sorry." Beerus apologized in a small whisper. "I-It's alright, Lady Brier! In fact, I'll get you both something right away!" King Kai said. "W-What are you waiting for?! Bring him and his wife the good stuff!! It's on the top shelf next to the brownies I made!” he shouted at Bubbles and Gregory. “Oh, that’s ok, North Kai, you don’t need to do this. I don’t want to trouble you.” Brier said politely. "It's fine! Think of it as an appetizer before the main course!" King Kai said as Bubbles and Gregory began to look for snacks.  Goku watched as the two scrambled around the house, desperately looking for something that could satisfy Beerus. 'Wow, this Lord Beerus guy must be a big deal if they're acting like this.' Goku thought silently.

“So, uh, what is the reason for your visit?” King Kai asked. “Well, it has to do with that Saiyan that you’re harboring.” Beerus revealed casually, pointing towards King Kai’s house.

"!" Goku froze. He knew that he was hiding? But how?

“Aah!! I-I’m sorry, where are my manners? Goku, were you raised in a mountain hut!? Stop being rude and come say hello to Lord Beerus and Lady Brier!” King Kai shouted at the Saiyan. "And Whis." Brier added.

"And their servant Whis!"

Goku, knowing that he was caught, exited King Kai’s house. He ran towards the group and stopped when he was a few feet away from them. He figured that it was best to not be too close. He proceeded to introduce himself. “Hey! My name is Goku.” King Kai jumped upwards and slammed Goku’s head with his fist. “OW!! What was that for?!" Goku asked, rubbing the area where King Kai hit him. 

“I HAD A FEELING YOU WERE GONNA SAY THAT!! YOU’RE OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW A PROPER GREETING, SO SHOW SOME RESPECT AND START OVER!” King Kai boomed. “Right, sorry.” Goku apologized.

He then stood up straight and said, “Hello and good morning. I’m Go-uh, I mean, My name is Goku, good sirs and madame, and it is an honor for you to meet me. Sirs!. . .and madame.”

Brier did her best to hold back a smile and laugh. That was one way for one to introduce themselves.

“. . .Ok. If you say so.” Beerus replied, slightly amused. “Now that that’s out of the way, I was hoping that I could ask you about. . .you about. . .what was it again?” Brier and Whis sighed. Sometimes he was hopeless. Brier leaned into his left ear and whispered, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it Super Saiyan God?” “Honestly, my lord you should have written it down.” Whis mumbled. 

“Right. I wanted to ask you about the existence of this “Super Saiyan God '',” Beerus said. “Super Saiyan God, let’s see. . .'' Goku thought it over, trying to remember if recently he had heard about this from someone, like Vegeta. So far, nothing came to him. “I mean, I know all about regular Super Saiyan, but that's no one the God stuff, buddy.” King Kai glared right at Goku, reminding him to be polite. “I-I mean no, not of it, sir,” he said.

“I can’t say I’ve heard of it either, but it sounds like a problem that you shouldn’t worry about anymore.” King Kai told Beerus, hoping that he would go and leave already. “Well that’s too bad.” Beerus said. “My servant Whis here said that you defeated that bastard Frieza in battle.”

“Huh? Oh yeah, I kicked his butt a long time ago! I mean, yes, lord?” Goku said as he watched Beerus looking him over. What was he doing? Was he inspecting his body? "Beerus, remember your manners." Brier told him. “Right, sorry darling. Well anyway, it doesn’t seem possible that you were able to defeat him as you are now, but I understand that you are capable of transformation.” Beerus said. “Becoming a “Super Saiyan”, as you call it?” Goku nodded, confirming that he was right.

“But not a Super Saiyan God. That’s unfortunate.” Beerus muttered to himself. 

“You see, my lord, it's as I suspected. It wasn’t a premonition, it was just a random dream. That makes more sense than a mysterious warrior who no one has ever heard of appearing out of nowhere and being able to match your power.” Whis told him. “Hmm. . .possibly. But I’m not the only one who dreamed it. The Oracle Fish saw it as well.” Beerus mentioned.

“How about we ask Prince Vegeta? Isn't he on Planet Earth as well?” Brier suggested. “If he is, then perhaps he knows something.” 

"PLANET EARTH?!" King Kai exclaimed, but everyone ignored him. 

“Well, Planet Earth should be relatively close to here.” Beerus muttered. Doesn’t seem like it’d hurt to try. “Are you sure that you’re up for more traveling, my lord? If I do this, it’ll only take three minutes to get there.” Whis said. “And if Lady Brier does this, it might take a while longer. Unlike with North Kai’s world, she hasn’t been to Earth in a while, so she’ll have trouble painting a clear image in her mind when she tries to make a portal. And who knows where we’ll end up instead.”

“In that case, you do it.” Beerus said. "That way, Brier and I can eat our meals before they get too cold." 

“W-Wait, you’re not planning on destroying the Earth, are you?” King Kai questioned. 

“Not as long as there’s something that annoys me.” Beerus told him with a devious smile on his feline face. “C'mon Whis, Brier, let’s go.” Beerus said to them. Both nodded and walked towards him, getting ready to depart. “Hey, wait a minute. Lord Beerus, sir, I’ve heard that your lordship is very strong. Do you mind if you show a teensy bit of your strength so I can know if that’s true?” Goku asked.

“GOKU!!” King Kai yelled.

“You want me to demonstrate my power? In what way?” Beerus questioned. “Nothing too big, we can go toe to toe in a sparring match! I promise that it’ll only take a minute.” Goku replied. ‘Only a minute? He’s certainly something.’ Brier thought as she watched King Kai trying to defuse the situation, ultimately failing. The poor thing.

“I’ve lived hundreds of millions of years, but never in my existence have I ever been issued a challenge such as this.” Beerus said. “You must be strong to have that degree of confidence. Either that, or you’re just an arrogant fool.” “Y-Yes, he’s a fool! He’s a big dumb, arrogant fool!” King Kai shouted. “Very well, go ahead and hit me with everything you’ve got.” Beerus told him.

"What. . . .?" 

“Aw sweet! I mean, thank you very much, your lordness.” Goku was then taken away by King Kai, who tried to talk him out of it. But Goku ignored him and changed out of his light blue tracksuit and into his orange and blue training gi.

"So are you ready yet, Saiyan?" Beerus asked. "I don't like to be kept waiting." "Yeah, yeah. We're doing it!" Goku answered. "Very well." was Beerus's response. 

"Although, I could try fighting you in my normal form, but I'd feel like that might be an insult to your power, Your Destroyer-ness." Goku said. The Saiyan then transformed into his famous first Super Saiyan form.

“Very interesting. So this is what you relied on to combat Frieza? Well, you do seem to have powered up a little bit.” Beerus said, mildly impressed. “Like I said earlier, attack when you like.”

While watching the two's interaction, Brier heard King Kai mutter, "Ugh. . .I can't believe that this is happening." "Oh it's alright, King Kai." she told him, startling the deceased Kai a little. "You did your best and there's nothing you can do about it now." "I. . .ok. . ." "Would you like to share some of this lunch that I made while we wait, North Kai?" Whis asked from afar. He got a solemn nod in response and Brier and King Kai walked to where the angel was, which happened to be near the shed that was next to King Kai's house. 

“Let’s get one thing clear, I don’t want you holding anything back in this battle, because I’m giving you all I got.” Goku told the destroyer. “Yes, please do.” The Saiyan then lept towards Beerus and attempted to land a punch, which he was able to dodge. Not once, but multiple times. This led to Goku using several other transformations, such as Super Saiyan Two and Three. 

Whis, Brier, and King Kai watched from the sidelines, far enough so they wouldn’t get hurt, but close enough to see everything clearly. “Would you like eat your meal now, my lady?” Whis asked Brier. “Thank you Whis, but I’m fine.” She told him. Besides, she was more interested to see how this “Goku” will manage against Beerus, even though she already had an idea on what the outcome would be.

Out of the corner of her eye, Brier noticed Whis putting his lunch away. "Whis?" "It's nothing to worry about. For some reason, I'm under the impression that there won't be a proper time to eat right now." 

". . .So no food then?"

"I'm afraid not. Apologies, North Kai."

.

.

.

.

The battle ended with Goku laying on the ground of King Kai’s planet, specifically in a crater that was created when Beerus slammed him there.

Realizing there was nothing else keeping him there, Beerus, Whis, and Brier decided to leave. But before that could happen, Brier looked back at the damage that was caused during Goku and her husband’s fight. She then used her magic to fix up the place, making it look like it did before the fight. 

‘There. That’s better.’ Brier thought to herself. She looked at King Kai and said, “I deeply apologize for the damages that my husband caused to your world, King Kai. I know that this won’t make up for it, but will it be alright if I send you an apology gift?"

“O-Oh! Uh, yeah sure.” King Kai replied, nodding his head.

“I’ll send it to you after the others and I are finished with our search on Earth. Farewell, King Kai.” Brier told him, and walked back to her husband and Whis. The angel used his staff to transport them off of King Kai’s planet. King Kai looked at the fallen Saiyan and sighed, “You’re lucky that Beerus was holding back and didn’t actually use his full power. But we’ve got a much bigger problem.” 

And much to King Kai's surprise, instead of panicking, Goku instead let out a small laugh. "?" "It's amazing that someone that strong exists. . ." 

"Yeah, that's why we kept warning you!" Gregory the cricket said, annoyed. "Look, just be grateful that he didn't kill you, you dummy!" King Kai added. "I know!" Goku said as he slowly got out of the crater he was in. "Dammit, the only way to get stronger is through fusion with Vegeta. But even then, I wouldn't stand a chance!" Goku muttered to himself. 

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! AFTER ALL OF THAT, YOU STILL WANT TO FIGHT HIM?!" King Kai bellowed, but Goku paid him no mind. 'He said he was looking for a Super Saiyan God. I wonder if I can become one through training?' Goku thought silently. 'Or. . .maybe there's a Saiyan out there named 'God'? Even then, I-' "That's it, I'm fed up with you." King Kai said, leaving with his assistants Gregory and Bubbles. "I'm going to bed. You exhaust me." 

"W-Wait, King Kai! We need to warn everyone on Earth!" Goku exclaimed. 

Because if he didn't, Planet Earth will be at the mercy of a destroyer god.

——————————————————————————

AN: These should be coming a lot faster since I finished Book One on AO3 sometime last year, I think. It's still undergoing a little editing to make it more polished.

[dreamescapeswriting]

Stray Kids Reaction | Cuddle Buddies But He Wants More [Request]

Stray Kids x GN!Reader

CHAN:

"Chan, please...You know I'm always awake at the same time as you but this ridiculous," You laughed as you sat on the sofa in his studio, he'd invited you to work with him during the night since you would normally curl up on the sofa together to get him to sleep, normally you were the only reason he could even settle down for the night. 

"It's almost 6 am...You need at least one hour of sleep," You told him as you dragged him down onto the sofa, pushing him to lay down behind you before snuggling against him in the usual spooning position as he rested his head in your neck. 

"Good night Channie," You whispered as you got comfortable with his arm around your waist, 

"Good night Y/n, I love you." The room froze and your eyes shot open to stare at the wall in front of you as Chan wondered if you'd heard him. 

"You love me?" You sat up and turned to look at him as he stared up at you, swallowing the large lump that was in his throat. 

"I do...I have for a while," He admitted as he looked from you to your hands that were nervously playing with one another, 

"We can't...I mean you're always busy...We agreed that cuddle buddies would be better...You don't have to worry about being busy all of the time." He placed his hands over yours to stop you from fidgeting too much and he smiled at you,

"I'll make time for you as I do now...I can't keep being your cuddle buddy when I feel this way for you." You thought it over as you realised lately, he had been spending more and more time with you than usual and taking a lot more breaks than he used to. 

"W-We can try," You admitted as you snuggled back down beside him, he placed a small kiss on your cheek as you relaxed against his arms.

MINHO:

No one would have expected him to be your cuddle buddy never mind admitting that he had strong feelings for you, you figured he liked you as nothing more than a friend. The two of you just sort of clicked with one another and cuddled since you both hated anyone else touching you besides one another, 

"So...If I asked you out, would you say yes?" He asked randomly one night when you were cuddled up together on the sofa in the dorms, you turned your head to look up at him, he wasn't looking at you. Instead, he was staring at the TV as it played a film the two of you were supposed to be watching, though now you were distracted by what he had just asked you. 

"Is that your way of asking me out? If so...Then yes," You said casually before snuggling against his chest, his grip on you tightened and he left a small kiss on your shoulder. 

"Good. Then we're dating." You smiled at the small exchange, although it wasn't anything huge and overly romantic it was the best feeling in the world to you, finally getting to date the guy you'd had a crush on for the longest time.

CHANGBIN:

"Oh look at him," Jisung teased as he walked into the hotel room he was sharing with Changbin to see him cuddling up to a pillow that was wearing one of your shirts that he'd stolen from you since they were going on tour. 

"He misses them, what's wrong with that?" Chan laughed as he stood watching Changbin, he was on his phone barely noticing the boys in the room as he scrolled through your photos together. 

"He's in love with them...He needs to tell Y/n before he can't control his feelings anymore," Jisung folded his arms over his chest and Chan raised his eyebrows at the boy, 

"What makes you such an expert on this? How do you know he loves Y/n?" Jisung pointed over at Changbin as he took in a deep inhale of your scent before rolling over and jumping when he noticed the boys. 

"Tell them. Message them right now," Jisung grumbled not wanting to listen to Changbin complain about how much he was in love with you and missed you the whole tour. 

"I can't just drop something like this over a message, I have to wait until I'm back so we can talk it through," He mumbled at Jisung who rolled his eyes, falling down onto his bed as he ignored Changbi while coming up with a plan to tell you himself that Changbin wanted more than being cuddle buddies with you. 

HYUNJIN:

Felix stared at you and Hyunjin from the door of the bedroom,

"What are you- Oh," Chan stopped as he saw you cuddled up beside Hyunjin, your head in his neck as you slept together. It had been a while since the boys had caught you together like this, Hyunjin must have asked you to go around in the middle of the night. 

"Has he asked them out yet? I know he's been wanting to." The boys left the room while talking to one another, not realising that you and Hyunjin were awake the whole time and pretending to sleep so they would leave you alone. 

"Hyunjin?" You sat up as you stared at him, he was turning redder by the second as he looked away from you. 

"Is what they said true? You've been wanting to ask me out?" He nodded shyly still not looking at you, he knew that when you guys started to cuddle together it was just as friends. Nothing more and nothing less, you would cuddle up to one another, finding comfort in being able to hold someone and someone holding you.

"Hyunjin...Don't ignore me," You whined, poking his sides until he started laughing and fidgeting around on the bed not being able to stand getting tickled.

"Yes! Yes it's true," He groaned, rolling over onto his side to face you properly he knew this conversation was going to come out eventually he just wanted a little more time to prepare himself for it. 

"So ask me then," You nudged him a little as you stared at him, giving no indication as to how you felt about the news of him wanting to ask you out. 

"Will you go on a date with me? A real date, not just cuddling in the dorms?" You could see how nervous he was about asking you but you decided to pretend to think about it as if it hadn't been on your mind since the moment you and Hyunjin grew close as friends. 

"Sure." You laughed softly, snuggling back down beside him and wanting to go back to sleep again.

JISUNG:

Jisung had been acting skittish since you got to the dorms earlier that night, it was almost four in the morning when meant you would have to leave soon enough and he knew that but neither of you had cuddled since you got there. The two of you had been best friends for years and lately, you'd grown to cuddle almost every minute of the day, your form of affection was touch and so was Jisung's. He would cuddle with you whenever he could, never wanting his feelings to get in the way but lately, he couldn't stop them. All he could think about was asking you to be his, every minute of every day and he was finally going to do it.

"I should go before Chan comes back from the studio..." You knew you weren't supposed to be there and if the leader of the group found you Jisung would be in trouble and you never wanted that. 

"Wait-" Jisung reached out his hand and you took it, running your thumb along his knuckles as he nervously looked at your hands together and he knew it was now or never. 

"Go out with me...I want more than this...More than just cuddling or hugging whenever we need it," You were shocked at the sudden hit that he wanted you to be more to him than a friend and you couldn't speak, racking your brain for the words to say to him. 

"Forget I said it, you clearly don't feel the same." He rushed out shaking his head and without thinking about it you grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips. 

"I'd love to go out with you." You whispered before getting up from the sofa, 

"I'll come back tomorrow, promise." You whispered before sneaking out of the door to go home before Chan caught you together.

FELIX:

It was no secret to the boys that you and Felix were cuddle buddies, you were always around the dorms whenever Felix needed you or when you needed him. Neither of you could fall asleep without the other so they'd all gotten used to coming home from work to find you waiting for Felix. 

"You guys still aren't dating? How long has it been now?" Minho laughed as he walked into the dorms to find you and Felix cuddling one another on the sofa as you faced one another. The colour drained from Felix's face as the question left Minho's lips, you stared at him waiting for him to confirm what Minho was talking about. 

"You know they'll never date, Felix is too scared to say anything," Jisung laughed from the dorm room as you sat up on the sofa still holding eye contact with Felix as Minho narrowly escaped the room as Felix began stumbling over his words, the boys had been teasing him about telling you how he felt but he never would have imagined them doing it. 

"You like me?" You questioned as you took his hand in yours, linking your fingers together as you waited for him to say something, 

"I do," He whispered and you smiled, leaning forward to kiss his cheek softly. 

"Good, I like you too," You admitted before going back to cuddling him on the sofa and watching a movie.

SEUNGMIN:

There was no denying that Seungmin had one of the largest crushes on you but he was never going to do anything about it, he didn't want something to spoil the good thing that was happening between you. You had been best friends since you were kids and cuddle buddies for a year now, you were always able to make his bad days good within a matter of seconds, he didn't want that to go away because he had a crush. 

"It's not just a crush, Seungmin you're clearly in love with Y/n," Jeongin said as you walked into the dorms, you stood back not wanting to interrupt them, 

"It doesn't matter if I'm in love with them, they'll never feel the same way for me." He mumbled as you felt your heart sink, without another thought about it you walked over to him and hugged him from behind. Kissing him on the shoulder as you snuggled your head into his back, 

"Who said I wouldn't?" You whispered as Jeongin smirked, he knew you'd be coming to the dorms soon and decided that it was down to him to get Seungmin's feelings out in the open so you would finally do something about it.

JEONGIN: 

Jeongin had known for a while that he wanted to be more than your cuddle buddy but he never knew how to tell you that so he let it continue on, 

"I bought everything we're going to need for the next three nights," He said as he walked into your apartment, your bed was in the living room as you looked up at him. You'd just had major surgery on your knee so using the stairs to go to your bedroom wasn't an option, you weren't allowed to do much for yourself and as your best friend Jeongin put it upon himself to be your caretaker for the time you healed. 

"Jeongin, you didn't-" He shushed you by handing you your favourite ice cream and going to put on your favourite movie, snuggling up beside you on the sofa as he made sure you were cuddled up enough and warm. 

Within an hour you were asleep in his arms and he was watching you sleep peacefully, 

"I love you Y/n...You don't have to know this...I just needed to tell you even if you're asleep right now," He pulled the blanket over you to make sure you were warm enough before he smiled, 

"I love you too baby bread," You whispered as you opened one eye to look up at him, he was blushing deeply as he realised you weren't asleep. 

"Get some sleep," You whispered as you reached up to kiss his jawline and snuggling down beside him.

Tagline: @taestannie​ @kneel-begyourpardon​ @minholuvs​ @sw33tnight​ @acciocriativity​ @that-anxious-bisexual​ @mwitsmejk​

[vilapollo]

Scaramouche x reader

reader is Diluc and Kaeya's younger sibling, forbidden love, drabble, fluff

Most would think that it must be fun being the two most wanted bachelors' youngest sibling. After all, it would be easy having friends and no one would want to be on your bad side since you've got two strong older siblings to back you up. That is mostly true, but their protectiveness could sometimes rival your stubbornness. You've always wanted to travel all around Teyvat but the two men were stopping you from doing so. It was good that you were persistent. Otherwise, you would have never met the so called Balladeer.

You don't know when or how you two fell for each other. You rejected several suitors that you've had back in Mondstadt, not really wanting to get into a relationship. It's not that you were afraid to get hurt. Rather, you were afraid to hurt. No matter how hard you try, you just can't seem to fall in love with anyone. But then Scaramouche proved that you were capable of loving someone after all.

You admit that loving Scaramouche was hard, but you never gave up. Sarcasm was the love language in your relationship and communication was a bit hard. After all, Scaramouche has built a very thick wall around himself which you are still trying to break down. You two fought but it never lasted too long since Scaramouche has his own cute way of sulking whenever you're angry at him. Yes, you're the one who always end up apologizing despite the fact that he was always the reason why those fights start in the first place. As for Scaramouche, instead of saying anything, he just treats you with lavish gifts which you just accept in order to let him know that you forgive him. Sometimes, he also lets his guard down after every fight and lets you do all those things normal couples do that he finds absolutely disgusting which was adorable.

During all those months, you forgot that he was part of the Fatui. And you were only hit with reality when Diluc and Kaeya each sent you a letter to celebrate the Windblume festival.

Going back to Mondstadt, you couldn't help but feel guilty. The Fatui was an enemy. They were the reason why there's this huge crack in the only two other people left in your family. But surely, Diluc would forgive you for something you cannot control, right?

Celebrating the festival made it even worse. Seeing all these couples giving each other flowers and other gifts made you miss your lover and wished that you could also do the same to him. You wished you could also freely love him without thinking of hurting other people or feel guilty for ever loving someone like him.

"Something on your mind?" You were interrupted from your thought when Kaeya approached you with an arm around your neck.

You sighed. Despite having one eye, he really does know how to read you every time. You knew lying was useless since he could always see through your lies so you decided to tell him parts of the truth. "Well, I just hope I could get to spend the festival with this friend I met during one of my travels."

"A friend, huh?" Kaeya teased.

You blushed and avoided his gaze. "Yes, a friend! Just that and nothing more."

"Well, if you say so. You know Venti is giving away free lessons on how to create a love poem. Perhaps you could try and approach him for some help with this friend of yours."

"I-I told you he's just a friend! Why would I need to create a love poem for him?"

"Oh so it's a boy friend, huh?"

You grumbled and crossed your arms, glaring at his eye. The man just laughed and told you he was just teasing. Thankfully, he didn't push through it, but you kind of felt guilty for lying to him. Still, they cannot know about your relationship with a Fatui harbinger. Not now, at least.

You continued to celebrate the festival all throughout the day and you were completely exhausted by the time the moon rose. Diluc invited you to settle in for the night in his mansion and you happily obliged. It seemed that Diluc was busy during the festival which was the reason why you didn't see him all day. You two exchanged presents and you couldn't help but feel at home once again. As if all your troubles from earlier had disappeared. Soon, you went to your room and decided to go to bed. That was until a certain someone decided to climb into the window.

Scaramouche was there standing in the middle of the room with a dark expression on his face. However, the first thing you noticed was the dandelion flower in his hand and a small box.

"Just came by to leave my friend a gift," was the first thing he said. And it took you a while to register his words. He just shoved the items in his hands into your arms and turned away.

"W-Wait!" You grabbed his hand. "You're here?"

"No, I'm obviously a ghost," he replied.

You couldn't help but smile from ear to ear. "You're here," you repeated before throwing your arms around him. You felt him tense under your touch, but then slowly relax. Still, he didn't move an inch until you pulled away and looked down at the flower he gave you. "Thank you for this. I didn't know you were coming."

"Yeah, well, I just came here to do what I was supposed to. I'm leaving now."

"You're angry, aren't you? Don't tell me you missed me already?"

He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I would never go through such lengths to see a friend. Don't think so highly of yourself."

You raised your eyebrow. "Where is this coming from?" you asked before realizing how you told Kaeya about him. However, that just made you even more confused. "How did you...?"

"Don't you have something for me?"

You blinked before realizing what he meant. "Oh." At times like this, you couldn't help but thank Kaeya because you did eventually took up some love poem lessons from Venti and created one for his class. "Actually, I kind of do, but..."

"Well, give it to me then."

You were hesitant since you don't think the poem was any good for Scaramouche at all. It's not that you made it for the sake of creating a poem for Venti's class. You actually did that poem while thinking of Scaramouche. And knowing he wasn't even going to read it, you managed to conjure lines that would probably make Scaramouche vomit.

Still, you ended up giving him the poem.

"I'm keeping this," was all he said before heading towards the window.

"You're going to burn it, aren't you?"

"Who says I will?"

"You're keeping it?"

He frowned and stared at you as if your were the stupidest person in all of Teyvat. You grinned at his confirmation.

"I'm leaving now before your older brother finds us," he said.

"Oh, okay." You bit your lower lip, reminded of that again.

There was a silence for a while before you heard Scaramouche's footsteps once again. Before you knew it, he has you wrapped in his arms with his lips on yours. You sighed as you melted into his touch and kissed him back. As he pulled away, he gently stroked your face and gazed down at you without the usual hardness in his stare.

You smiled up at him. "I love you," you murmured.

"I know," he replied. "That's why I'm never letting you go. No matter what happens, you're mine."

And with that, he gave you one last kiss before leaving you with a flower and a bracelet with his words of love engraved onto it.

[beauvibaby]

all I could ever want – t.seguin

a/n: part 2 of there won’t be anyone else!! I definitely prefer the first part of this story, but I also love this one because it’s just straight fluff 😌

Word count: 2.9k

“Mommy!” Willow squealed in delight, running into the kitchen to see you, Tyler had picked her up from preschool on his way home from practice. “Willow!” You mimicked, laughing as she hugged your legs, “did you have a good day?” You asked with a grin, Tyler chuckled, “Miss Laura is having a baby.” Tyler spoke for her. Willow nodded excitedly, “aw, that’s great.” You smiled, hoisting Willow up to sit on the counter. “I want you to have a baby, mommy.” She spoke honestly, giving her dad a weird look when he choked on his water, you snickered at him. “Maybe.” You shrugged her comment off, thankful for her short attention span, she was asking to go play with the dogs as she wiggled her way into your arms to be put down on the ground. “Go ahead.” Tyler nodded her off and she went barreling towards the living room where the dogs were innocently napping, poor boys.

“What was that reaction for?” You asked once it was just the two of you, he mumbled something under his breath, “talk like an adult, Tyler.” You teased him, resting a hand on your hip as you gave him a stern look. “I just didn’t think she was going to want a sibling, she loves having all the attention.” He sighed, “plus my baby is too little to want another baby in the house.” He pouted dramatically. Ah, the real reasoning coming out. “Yeah, but you always said you wanted more kids, and you know I would be happy with a full house, so.” You trailed off, kind of disappointed by his lackluster reaction. “You still want to have more kids right?” You asked when he didn’t speak, finally locking your eyes on his. “Yes, of course.” He rushed, “after the wedding?” He offered, seeing your smile turn up, “really?” You gasped like a child. You wrapped your arms around his neck, “I don’t want you to think I don’t want more babies with you.” He smirked, kissing your pouted lips, “I was just so caught off guard.” He admitted honestly, his normal attitude coming back through.

You had to cut him some slack, thinking of how hard it was for him when Willow’s mom was pregnant, she didn’t want him involved in anything he wasn’t able to be apart of it up until the last second, it was like a switch flipped and suddenly she decided she wasn’t fit to raise a baby. As selfish as it sounds, you were so grateful for how it turned out, because at the end of the day you knew she was getting the best life possible with you and Tyler.

“Me too, honestly, I’m surprised she hasn’t asked how the baby gets in a woman’s stomach.” You quipped, Tyler groaned, “I can’t even think about that.” He muttered in defeat, kissing the side of your head. When he pulled away, you had a giddy smile on your face, “what?” He asked you suspiciously. “I can’t wait to have a baby with you.” You admitted, watching his nerves melt away. You knew Tyler, and you knew he was a worrier, even if he didn’t voice it, right now he was probably running over every horror story he’s heard about complicated pregnancies. “God you’re gonna look so beautiful.” He muttered, a glint in his eyes, you knew then, that it was all going to be ok, even if he was a nervous wreck. Which part of you thought he would be.

***

You stood by the window of your bridal suite, dressed in your gown and veil, one of the photographers getting photos of you looking out, coincidentally, in the open garden below you, Tyler was doing his first look with Willow, something the photographer had brought up to you, and you jumped on it. Those pictures would be cherished forever, Tyler really didn’t know what Willow was going to be dressed in, but you watched as he turned around and saw his little girl, who didn’t look so little, in a dusty rose colored dress, long lace sleeves and a nice puffy skirt, per her request. Her curls tamed beautifully for once as she actually let the hair stylist apply some products to them. Your grin was wide as he gasped, looking at her and she bounced over to him, you could see her mouth moving and you could only imagine how she was rambling on and on about her dress. A habit he swears she picked up from you.

“Y/N? You ready to head down?” Your maid of honor, your best friend Y/F/N asked, giving you a once over. You smoothed out your dress once more, looking down at the trumpet style gown. “Yeah.” You sniffled, fanning at your face. You and Tyler opted not to do a first look, you wanted to see his genuine reaction as you walked down the aisle. “You look stunning.” She assured you, lightly dabbing under your eyes with a tissue, the sound of the camera going off in the background.

As you reached your spot just behind the double doors, any nerves you had melted away, Tyler, the love of your life, was right on the other side of this wall, prepared to say I do to a lifetime with you.

Tyler’s father was walking you down the aisle, neither of your parents here to do it. As he approached, you smiled, hoping Tyler’s reaction would be similar to his dad’s. You’d grown close with his family over the years, they truly loved you, and it showed as his dad grabbed your hand, kissing the top of it as he smiled tearfully. “I’ll never really know how Tyler managed to snag you up, but he could have never made a better choice.” He explained, voice shaking before he cleared his throat. “Let’s get this show on the road.” He broke the silence, chuckling at himself as you looped your arm with his, holding your bouquet with the other.

The wedding March began to play, and the doors were pushed open, revealing you and Paul standing there. Instantly Tyler looked to the ceiling, his eyes watering already, the smile on his face was undeniable as you walked towards him slowly, your own eyes glazed over at the way he was looking at you. “Gorgeous.” He mouthed, your lips parting in a smile, he loved when he got those smiles out of you, the ones where the corners of your eyes would crinkle, and sometimes you would even scrunch your nose a bit. This was definitely one of those moments.

***

The wedding had come and gone, your honeymoon too, a simple trip with just the two of you before the hockey season started again. “Daddy.” Willow whispered, standing on his side of the bed, he stirred, blinking his eyes a couple of times to adjust to the darkness of the room. He turned his lamp on, “what’s wrong baby?” He asked softly, careful not to wake you as he caressed Willow’s face, frowning at the tears coating it. “I had a bad dream.” She whimpered, “come here.” He huffed as he pulled her up onto the bed. “Wanna tell me what happened?” He asked her, turning the lamp off as he let her cuddle with him. “No, just cuddles.” She mumbled sleepily, his heart swelled in his chest at that, “always, princess.” He sighed, kissing the top of her head as she easily laid on top of him, her teddy bear snuggled between them. You flipped over carefully, having woken up during their little conversation. Tyler gave you a tired smile as you placed a kiss on his shoulder before resting back on your pillow, a smile on your face as you listened to her light breathing.

As morning came you groaned in annoyance, morning sickness coming right along with it.

That’s right, you two had no trouble getting pregnant apparently, today was actually the day you were going to tell Willow about the baby. “Is mommy sick?” Willow asked Tyler as they woke up to you bolting out of bed, he held back a chuckle, “no, she’s ok.” He assured her, “stay here.” He demanded gently before coming to check on you as you brushed your teeth. “Hi babe.” He placed a kiss on your cheek, “doing ok?” He asked softly, locking eyes with you in the mirror. “Yeah,” you sighed, leaning into his hold after you rinsed your mouth out. “Are you ready to tell her?” You asked eagerly, “god, yes.” He groaned, giving you a quick kiss.

Willow was sitting in the middle of the bed, adjusting the bow on her teddy bear's head. “Good morning, baby.” You chuckled, sitting beside her, she shot you a smile, just like Tyler’s as she crawled into your lap. “Don’t forget miss bows.” She mumbled with a pout, Tyler snickered as you took the bear and placed a kiss on its head, “good morning, miss bows.” You spoke dramatically, Willow snuggling happily into you. “Hey, Willow.” Tyler spoke softly, sitting beside you, “guess what?” He smiled at her, she sat up a little straighter, “what?” She asked cutely, you shared a look with Tyler. “We’re gonna have a baby.” You told her, relief hitting you as she jumped up screaming in excitement. “A baby?!” She squealed. You quickly pulled out your phone to record her, sending it to Tyler’s parents. “When?” She asked giggling, sitting crossed legged in front of you both. “Oh, it’s still going to be a few months honey.” You explained sweetly, “but you’re going to be a big sister, that means you can help me and mommy get stuff ready for the baby.” Tyler assured her, wanting her to feel involved and not like the baby was going to completely take over.

The months started flying by, you were having a little boy, Tyler thought he wanted another daughter, which of course he would have been just as excited for, but when he heard it was a boy, you could see the way his eyes lit up. Willow had been a little upset at first, wanting a little sister that she could do all her fun girly things with as she got older, but after some long conversations and some explanations, you convinced her of all the reasons it would be fun for her to have a brother.

Tyler was more than nervous as your water broke in the middle of the night, of course you’d thought ahead and had spoken to Tyler’s mom, who had been staying with you guys for about a week, to be here and help with Willow once you had the baby. He swears that your labor went on forever, but really, you’d gotten lucky and progressed quickly. Nearly missing the window to get the epidural, which terrified you, but you got it, and now you had a very healthy, chunky little eight pound baby boy. Much to everyone’s surprise, everyone expected him to be smaller, but you weren’t complaining.

“Oh my god.” You cried out as they put him on your chest, his screams filling the room, it felt like an eternity until he began to cry, but he was sure to make up for it.

“I can’t believe we made him.” Tyler mumbled, unlike Willow, Hunter was born with next to no hair. “I know.” You whispered, running your finger across his chubby cheek, he was peacefully sleeping in your arms, already a hungry baby, having drunk himself right to sleep. “I hope he looks like you.” Tyler muttered, lightly kissing the side of your head, a smile graced your lips, “I hope he looks like you.” You giggled, “but I kind of don’t, because then all the girls will be after him when he’s a teenager.” You added, your husband chuckling beside you. “Let’s worry about his first night home, yeah?” He laughed softly. “Willow is going to be so excited.” You sighed, lacing your fingers with Tyler’s.

***

“Mommy, daddy!” Willow rushed over when you walked in, Tyler having the car seat around his arm. “Hi, sweet girl.” You welcomed her hug, kneeling to her height. “Were you good for grandma?” You asked gently, she nodded eagerly before moving over to hug Tyler once he placed the car seat down. “Hi princess.” He grinned, hugging her tightly, “I missed you.” He kissed the top of her head, laughing as she completely disregarded his comment and looked at Hunter in awe. “He’s so pretty.” She gasped, making you and Jackie both laugh. “He really is a beautiful baby, honey.” Jackie spoke to you, giving you a gentle hug. Tyler moved the car seat up to the table, shushing Willow as he assured her she would get to hold him. “Go wash your hands.” Jackie instructed her, walking over to Tyler as he easily held the newborn in his hands. She kissed her son's cheek before grabbing Hunter’s hand, “hello beautiful boy.” She cooed, running her thumb over his arm. “You did good.” She commented to Tyler, lightly nudging his side, he shot her a smile, “yeah.” He agreed, glancing at you.

“Can I hold him, please, please?” Willow begged, running out with freshly washed hands, you nodded, “go sit on the couch, I’ll bring him to you.” You instructed her softly, she giggled and ran off to the couch, you gently took Hunter from Tyler, “oh, Jackie did you want to hold him fi–“ “No, no, let Willow do it first, she’s just so excited.” Jackie cut you off mid ramble. You smiled in relief, slowly walking over to the couch, Tyler came and sat next to her, he put a pillow on her lap, and had her put arms out on it. “You have to be really gentle, ok?” He told her as he put his arms around her, his hands offering extra support for the baby’s neck. You laid Hunter down, smiling as Willow cooed down to him, “hi baby brother.” She giggled, looking over at you and then to Tyler. “Mommy,” she mumbled as you sat next to them, Tyler picking the baby up as he began to fuss, “I love him.” Willow concluded in the most serious voice. “I love him too.”

***

Hunter gurgled up at you as you dressed him in sweatpants, now two months old, and all of you were missing Tyler as he just had his first away game of the season. You left him shirtless, a pun at how Tyler always walked around the house in his pajamas, “mommy, I wanna match.” Willow pouted, you looked at her in thought for a moment, knowing you couldn’t let her run around in only pants, even if it was only in the house. “Oh, I have an idea.” You grinned, scooping the baby up and going into the back of the closet, where most of Tyler’s old shirts were. “Come here baby!” You called, Willow came bouncing in, one of your fondest memories as a child was wearing your dad's old shirts as pajamas, so why not pass it on to her. “Pick one to wear.” You told her, smiling as she got all excited, flipping through them, she pulled two down off the hangers, “where this one mommy, please.” She gave you her puppy eyes, not that she had to. You nodded, taking the shirt from her and going into the bathroom to change into it, leaving your shorts in underneath.

A loud laugh fell from your lips as you walked out and saw her drowning in his shirt, but there was nothing more adorable. “Come here, let me get a picture.” You made Willow lay on the bed, and put Hunter next to her, you wanted to send the picture to him, but you’d rather him be surprised by your outfit choices for the night. “Hello!” Tyler called from downstairs, Willow giggled carefully moving away from Hunter, “careful, hold the shirt up so you don’t fall!” You called as she took off out of the room, her response faded out as she bounced down the steps, you following with Hunter curled up in your arms. “Hey baby!” You heard Tyler gasp, “what do you think you’re wearing?” He questioned her, lifting her up into his arms. “We missed you so much, we figured why not dress up as you.” You explained, making him look up and see you in one of his shirts and Hunter in little grey sweatpants, Tyler threw his head back in laughter, “are you surprised?” Willow asked him, arms clasped around his neck, he hummed in agreement as he kissed her cheek before coming over to you. “Hi.” He whispered before pecking your lips.

“Hi.” You repeated, smiling as he pulled away, Willow wiggled her way down to the ground, allowing him to take Hunter from you. “Hey bud, looking good.” He mumbled kissing across his chubby cheeks. “And mama, as beautiful as ever.” He winked over at you. He smirked when you rolled your eyes with a smile, “movie night!” He declared, bolting up the stairs with Hunter to go change. You chuckled as you ordered pizza, deciding to make it a fun simple night. You knew that it wouldn’t always be like this, but you knew that whatever life through at you, you two could make it work.

“You know, I’ve got all I could ever want right here.” Tyler mumbled as you sat curled up on the couch with two sleeping kids on your laps. “Me too, Ty.”

taglist: @boqvistsbabe @tortito @2manytabsopen @heybarzy @barzysreputation @yzas-stuff @iwantahockeyhimbo @calgarycanuck @myhockeyworld87 @shortstacks-blog @mymanshawn @calgarycanuck @pagirl6866 @chronosarcheron

[softvniverse]

I didn’t really ship jonsa while watching the show, mostly because I watched it in a little amount of time and because, truth be told, I never liked the way Jon treated Sansa. He was sarcastic, dismissed her concerns, didn’t listened to her and was ready to jump to conclusions that didn’t make any sense (that scene with the “you almost sound like you admire her”? What was that, Jon?). I still enjoyed their interactions because they were entertaining and I realized that their relationship was kind of important, but I didn’t understand why given the way he acted around her.

And then, one day, a fanvid of them popped up in my youtube recommendations, and I felt like everything finally made sense. I realized that they were shot with romantic undertones and that they had a lot of parallels with other romantic couples. I also read the books, read metas, came to the conclusion that the way they were framed season after season had to be intentional (there’s no other explanation) and so I became a jonsa truther. Anyway, that doesn’t change my opinion that he was really dismissive and unfair with her, so while I enjoy their potential, if he is like that with her in the books too, then I’m done with jonsa.

But there is something I’ve been thinking for a while now and came to my mind again after reading hellsbellschime’s meta on Sansa’s arc in the show. It is known that D&D never respected what Sansa represented as a character. They thought that for her to become powerful she needed to be punished first, for the sin of having dreams and liking to do what was considered traditionally feminine. They said it too. In their minds, Sansa needed to see the ugly of the world and only then she could become a smart and deserving girl, not like Arya, for example, who in their eyes was clever and cool since the very beginning, because she was so not like the other girls. Once they gave Sansa that awful plot with Ramsay, she became colder, more suspicious of the people around her and hermetic, someone they could finally respect. Except I don’t think they did even then. If they respected her, then they wouldn’t have played so much with the idea of her betraying her family, put her against fan favourites, etc.

So, for all that, I think, if they never valued her as a character, how could they have written a character like Jon Snow, one of the most beloved characters in the fandom, the "hero" of the story, respecting her? I don't think they could have made Jon respect her, listen to her, value her advice, if they themselves didn't consider her to have any valuable qualities. For the same reason, I suspect GRRM told them about jonsa and its importance to the whole narrative. I simply don't think they would have bothered to make Sansa a possible romantic interest for Jon if the writer himself hadn't told them. That's the only explanation I have for them making one of the least liked characters they didn't even care about have some weird subtextual romantic tension with one of the most popular ones. So they used every romantic trope that exists with them, framed the whole Dany-Jon-Sansa situation as a love triangle, had people mention Sansa in front of Jon constantly, had him be overly protective of her, and even presented his decision to kill Dany as a way to protect Sansa and not the realm.

That’s also why, from a purely narrative and superficial point of view, Jon did respect Sansa, and demonstrated it with some actions, but his behaviour with her, their dialogue and interactions contradicted it. Jon didn't listen to what she had to say before the Battle of the Bastards, he didn't consider her advice to be valuable, they had many fights about it, and yet when he confronted her about the Knights of the Vale he said she was the one who saved the day and didn't condemn her actions. Then again he didn't listen to her, felt she was undermining him, said she admired Cersei and made decisions without consulting her, and yet he left her in charge of the North while he went South. Finally, he didn't listen to her concerns about Daenerys, told her that the North's independence and who was in charge of what wasn't important, etc., and yet in the end, he claimed that the North was free thanks to her and that she was the best choice to lead it. If that's not a direct contradiction between what Jon and Sansa's relationship was supposed to be in the biggest picture of this story and what the writers thought was true to their characters, then I don't know what it is.

Now, of course, this is just speculation. Maybe Jon was always supposed to disrespect Sansa, maybe it was just that they had diametrically opposed views on things, but what makes me feel otherwise is that, in the end, if one looks objectively at the story, it was Sansa who was in the right and Jon who was in the wrong, and that's something D&D refused to acknowledge. Despite the fact that Jon's actions could be seen as a treason to his family and the North, they kept saying he was the most honourable man in Westeros, they didn't let him suffer the consequences of his actions (no one but Lyanna and Sansa in S8E01 ever mentioned that he bent the knee to Dany), they made it seem like it was Sansa who betrayed him and made her apologise to him and he didn't even accept that apology. So I think the whole dynamic between Jon and Sansa with her believing in him even after everything he did, and him not being able to respect her opinions or listen to her concerns had little to do with an organic representation of what the characters would logically do given their fundamental cores, and everything to do with what was D&D's personal interpretation of the characters and who they thought was right or wrong. 

I believe that, even if Jonsa were only in our minds, Jon would still have acted better towards her. I think Jon in the books, while also having the problem of not listening to others, would actually find quite a few of Sansa's qualities endearing and useful... 

The problem with translating that to the series successfully is that those same qualities are the ones that D&D find useless, boring and stupid.

[soulmate-game]

Continuation of the story from Day 1, because you guys requested it enough that I started Thinking, lol.

Bio Dad Bruce Wayne Month 2020

Day 3: Siblings

—*—*—*—*—*

Dinner. One day after meeting her father for the first time. She had managed to postpone any sort of… socialization and emotional bonding, during their meeting earlier for everyone to choose from Marinette’s initial sketches for them and generally consult some more, by once again steamrolling everyone with Professionalism and Business Marinette.

But no longer. She couldn’t escape. Staring at a giant wooden, elaborate door like it was her pathway to Prison—

“Stop dramatizing everything in your head, Mari,” Adrien fondly scolded, gently rapping the side of her skull with one knuckle. “I got things to do, for your company I might add, so I can’t stay. But, you’ll be fine,” he leaned in, smirking at her and winking as he lowered his voice. “Besides, you’ve been through way worse than a little family reunion, Bugaboo. You’ve faced down way scarier people than the Waynes. You got this,” he encouraged before giving her a solid clap on the shoulder and a chaste kiss on the cheek, walking back towards their sleek but understated dark red car. Rented, of course, for the business trip, but nonetheless very nice.

Adrien had driver’s licenses for just about every major country. Marinette stopped questioning it a while ago.

She waited until he was gone before throwing her hands up. “Scarier people, he says. Like the Bat clan isn’t known for being some of the most intimidating heroes and vigilantes in the spotlight,” she grumbled. When she turned around, it was to the door already being open, and she jumped a bit in surprise. She hadn’t heard anyone answer the door, but sure enough Alfred Pennyworth stood there holding the door with a small smile, with Bruce Wayne and all of Marinette’s siblings gathered behind him. At least this time, nobody had their spouses or children. Every one of them was smirking, some more sharply than others (Damian).

“Would you like to come in, Miss Dupain-Cheng?” Alfred asked, waving his hand to gesture to the fact that there was plenty of room for her to enter. Blushing, she did just that, taking a breath and forcing herself to actually look at the family she had just met instead of down at her glossy navy blue pumps. Jason, the man with the white fringe in his hair. Second Robin, current Red Hood, her mind supplied, spoke up with a grin and his arms crossed over his chest.

“You don’t look so suave anymore, little Queenie,” he teased. Marinette instantly made a face, screwing up her nose.

“No. That nickname is vetoed. One of my friend’s nicknames is Queenie, and not only will she never let me live it down if she finds out someone called me that, but, just no,” Marinette dramatically shivered. “Most of my friends call me Princess nowadays anyway,” she shrugged. “Adrien started it, and it somehow caught on. It’s too much work to protest at this point.”

“You’re not good with crowds,” the soft spoken woman, Cassandra, decided to add. Marinette winced, shifting on her feet even as she followed the group to the dining room.

“Ehhh. I’ve gotten used to dealing with press and stuff, to a certain degree anyway considering my alias. And wearing my Business persona always helps in consultations. But, I’m not…” Marinette bit the inside of her cheek, clearly a little uncomfortable as she looked around. “The best at… actually talking to people outside of my small group of friends.”

Bruce sighed as most of his kids chuckled or snorted at that. Dick, the oldest but second-shortest of the men besides Tim, came over and draped an arm familiarly over Marinette’s shoulders. He still towered over her though, so he had to slouch a bit to do so.

“Ah, that would be the genetics. Let’s hope you stay where you are at instead of getting as bad at communication as B,” he told her cheerfully. She raised an eyebrow at him.

“What about Damian?”

“He’s even worse!”

“Tt,” said teenager tutted, rolling his eyes as they entered the dining room and he was able to come up to Marinette’s other side. “That was mostly how I was raised before I met Father. I have gotten a lot better than I used to be, Grayson.”

Dick gave him a smile, graciously relieving Marinette of the close contact in favor of rustling Damian’s hair despite the fact that the younger Wayne was taller than him already. “Yes, you sure have! But you still need improvement, baby bird.”

Soon enough, everyone managed to get seated around the large dining table. Bruce insisted that Marinette take one of the seats next to him at the head of the table, across from Damian, since this was her first family dinner. Dick sat next to her, Jason across from him, followed by Tim and Duke on Damian’s side of the table. On the other side of Dick sat Cassandra, and then Stephanie. Alfred served everyone before also taking a seat at the table, on the opposite end from Bruce.

And, true to BatFam tradition, everything was a little awkward for the first minute or two. Marinette didn’t know what to say, and nobody quite knew where to begin. Dick would normally start a conversation, but he was trying to glare into Bruce’s head a silent message of “talk to her, damn it.”

Finally seeming to get it, Bruce cleared his throat and turned to Marinette. “So, I wanted to ask. When do you find out about being my daughter?”

Several people around the table closed their eyes in mourning for Bruce’s social skills. Marinette though, just smiled in slight relief at the decision of how to start talking being taken from her.

“Oh. It was in stages, really. When I was ten, we started our unit in school on genetics. I don’t usually care enough about science to do much more than the school requires, but genetics captivated me for some reason. I researched it almost obsessively at home for a while, almost instantly realizing that there had to be a reason that I had blue eyes when none of the rest of my family did. After a week or two, I found my Maman and Papan’s adoption papers in their room,” she blushed, tugging on one end of her bangs, which she had framing her face since she was wearing her hair down that day. “I uh… I’ve always been a little nosy. I never told them that I found the papers, to me it was just the answer I needed. I didn’t think about it at all after that, and my obsession over genetics went away. It wasn’t until I was thirteen that I decided to look into my birth parents,” Marinette sighed, shoving a bite of food in her mouth to buy her time before continuing. Everyone was focused on her, and it was a little unsettling. Every one of them had a sharper gaze than a normal person, and it made her feel like she was made of glass and everyone else could see right through her. “I was going through a lot, back then. I wanted someone to be mad at, I wanted to be able to blame my DNA for the things that had happened.”

“Things?” Bruce interrupted, back straight and eyebrows drawn down. “What things?” Marinette giggled, tilting her head instead of answering and just letting her eyes study him. Bruce Wayne, Batman, the Dark Knight. Original vigilante of Gotham city, one of the founding members of the Justice League. Famous for his secrecy, intimidating presence, and intelligence. Then she switched her gaze, one by one, to everyone else at the table before leaning back and taking a sip of her soda.

“Do you guys know anything about the situation Paris experienced for four years?” She asked, instead of directly answering. It was Tim who frowned, leaning forward to look at her and reply.

“I heard very vague rumors of weird things, but nothing concrete enough to investigate. What happened?”

Marinette hummed, deciding to sum it up for them. “The short version? When I was thirteen, a classmate of mine spontaneously turned into a giant rock monster and destroyed a good portion of the city. Turns out, that was the first of many attacks by our city’s very own supervillain, Hawkmoth. He had a magical artifact that allowed him to take advantage of anyone’s negative emotions to give them powers and brainwash them into being, essentially, temporary villains that he used for his own means. Two heroes showed up out of nowhere, powered by similar magical artifacts, to combat him and free the people he corrupted. Ladybug and Chat Noir, the original Parisian heroes and the leaders of the team that later had to form.”

Jason frowned, along with everyone else at the table. Finally, it was Duke who asked:

“How did we not know about villains in Paris?” To which Marinette just gave him a dangerously wicked smirk that was far too similar to Damian’s for anyone’s comfort.

“Because I do my job,” she told him flatly, sipping from her cup as everyone stared at her in various amounts of shock. “That’s why finding out that my biological father was Batman made so much sense. That’s why I wanted to find out who my birth parents were. I wanted to blame the heroism on genetics. And, it doesn’t look like I was exactly wrong.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Yeah, that was how her first family dinner and subsequent identity reveal went.

Luckily, considering that Bruce had hired MDC for a pretty long job, Marinette was able to finish school online instead of going back to Paris for it. There was no real need anyway, they had defeated Hawkmoth and gotten Adrien emancipated so for now it was calm in Paris. They didn’t need their heroes anymore, for the time being. This meant that Marinette and Adrien, along with a few employees that helped measure and cut fabric and do secretarial duties they needed help with, got to stay in Gotham while Marinette went back and forth to Wayne manor, Wayne Tower, and back to their temporary home.

After about a month, Marinette was comfortable enough with the Waynes that she found herself lounging in the bat cave as she sketched, though she kept raising her eyes to the glass tubes that held old uniforms. Damian was sat across from her, essentially laying out over two chairs while he played some game upside down on his phone. He might usually be a cold brat, even for a sixteen year old, but even he liked to abuse the way furniture should be used and ignore the world via technology.

But he still caught her constantly wandering gaze.

“You don’t like them.”

“They suck!” Marinette immediately agreed, slamming her sketchbook on the metal briefing table. “Your Robin outfit is the only passable one there is! The colors aren’t even the issue, even high fashion designers can appreciate a good color clash moment. But what was Father thinking?! Putting Grayson in that glorified onesie— why are there no pants?! Jason’s at least as a cape that can cocoon his body and prevent anyone from seeing the disaster beneath. I should thank Tim for at least upgrading the suit to having pants, but he still kept the outside-underwear look that I cannot forgive. The attempt at fashion, though, is appreciated. Disappointing, but appreciated.”

“That pretty much sums them all up,” Damian quipped, getting a snort of amusement out of his sister. Maybe that was one thing he had grown to like about her. She didn’t reprimand him for his sense of humor, and usually she even laughed along. The more morbid humor would get a playful shove and a glare, but no real animosity. And she understood him on a different level, too. One he appreciated even more.

“You said, yesterday, that the Cure brings back everyone who dies during a Miraculous-related incident,” Damian spoke up again after a moment, pointedly not looking at her. “Did you ever count?”

Marinette, this being one of the reasons he was quickly growing fond of her, immediately understood. She sighed, closing her notebook. She might have only been two years his elder, but she had had what felt like a lifetime of more experiences than he did, usually in the friendship and social department though. They were roughly equal in their heroism experience, which was weird to think about, but Damian still valued her input. It was different from the rest of the family.

“It was different in Paris than it would be for anyone else. I didn’t keep track of the number of people who died,” she finally answered, taking her hair out of its work bun and running her hands through the midnight black locks. “But I kept track of how often. Since nobody remembered their deaths, I guess I felt it was my responsibility to remember my failures for them. My former best friend, Alya. Over the course of those four years, she died seventeen times. Her boyfriend, Nino, died fourteen. The Mayor died three times. Chloe, my current friend and former bully, died twenty-two times,” she grimaced at Damian’s shocked expression, nodding grimly. “During those first two, maybe two and a half years, she was one of the primary Akuma targets. She was still either an active bully or in the beginning of trying to change for the better, so she caused a lot of negative emotions everywhere she went. Things got better once she matured a bit, though. Anyway, there’s this girl I used to babysit. Manon. She died five times before she was even ten years old,” Marinette shook her head, that look of age and exhaustion that Damian saw in every Wayne and every hero he had ever fought with seeping into her eyes. “My parents, they died thirty-seven times. They were constantly worried about me, and ran into danger on several occasions trying to find and keep me safe. But I could never tell them who I was. I physically could. I had the power to sit them down and say; Hey, I’m Ladybug. Stop running out and getting yourselves killed. But I never did. I valued my identity first. So I usually ended up seeing, in the middle of a fight, one or both of them squished under falling debris. Or drowned. Frozen solid. Burned alive,” she paused, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “So no. I don’t understand what it was like for you, to count bodies as you felled them. But hell, if it doesn’t feel like I should. Logic doesn’t mean much in the face of emotion, especially guilt. I know I didn’t kill the people I care about, but every single one of their deaths weighs on me like I was the one that caused it.”

Damian nodded, and they shared a few moments of peaceful, contemplative silence as they both ruminated on their less than pleasant memories without fear of being yelled at for what those memories contained.

“But, I do have a secret,” she admitted softly, attracting her brother’s emerald-eyed attention again. The normally cheerful woman was much more subdued even than before, sapphire irises self conscious and vulnerable, which was rare. She licked her lips, even more rare considering her love of her light pink lipstick, and moved off her chair so that she was, instead, sitting on the cold stone floor. Without hesitation, Damian joined her.

“Technically, it didn’t happen. It was a timeline that my friend, the one who I gave the snake Miraculous, essentially erased when he reversed time. But I remember it even though I shouldn’t. How could I forget?”

“You took a life,” Damian whispered, grimacing in empathy. “First time?”

“And the second, and the fifth,” she admitted. “Viperion had to try seven times before I stopped repeating it. But it was always the same person, back during our final battle. I killed Gabriel Agreste seven times. But nobody but me and Luca will ever remember.”

Damian and Marinette both knew it wasn’t the same as Damian’s childhood. They both knew that they would likely never fully understand one another’s trauma. Not the nuances of it. But they did understand the important parts, the broad strokes. Despite their vastly different lives, they understood the big parts that shaped one another.

That was why Damian took to her so quickly. If he had been younger and still bratty, naive, and angry at everything, then it would be a different story entirely. But he was matured, more willing to let himself feel sympathy. And that made the difference.

“You never forget the first person,” he remarked.

“No matter the age or timeline,” she agreed. “I saw how hard it was to stop. How sickeningly addictive it can be, but I hate what it makes me more than I like how it feels.”

“... me too,” Damian whispered. “Me too.”

—*—*—*—*—*

“Wooo!” Marinette cheered as she flew through the air, her hands latching onto Dick’s. There was no audience, but there didn’t need to be. Just the two of them, doing a routine that they’ve been working on during the few chances they had for the past several weeks. Marinette had never done trapeze before Dick helped her learn, but her time swinging through Paris streets helped tremendously alongside her general Gymnastics experience.

Marinette and Dick flipped through the air, swinging from bar to bar, Dick occasionally catching and tossing her again. They soared through the air, both curling through two flips before landing on their respective platforms with matching wide smiles. Marinette, chest heaving a bit since she was slightly out of shape (meaning that she wasn’t at all out of shape, only out of practice when it came to swinging through the air for any length of time. There’s a difference). She met Dick on the floor, who proceeded to ruffle her hair happily.

“That was awesome! Looks like you finally got the routine down,” he praised. She laughed, elbowing him.

“I bet I’m better on the balance beam,” she challenged, making Dick grin widely.

“Oh you are on!”

—*—*—*—*—*

“Ya ever died before?” Jason asked, making Marinette chuckle.

“Two-hundred and eighty-seven times.”

“You started as Ladybug at thirteen, right?”

“Yup. No training or mentor for the first year either.”

“Yeah, then that sounds about right. Wanna go break all the traffic laws?”

“Only if we take your bike.”

“Fuckin’ Duh. What else?”

—*—*—*—*—*

“You stalked Adrien?” Tim asked, smirking that insufferable smirk of his. Marinette groaned, flopping back onto the sofa.

“No! I didn’t mean it that way, anyway. I just took a lot of pictures and spied on him.”

“Yup. You’re Bruce’s kid,” he remarked, tapping away at his laptop. Marinette narrowed her eyes.

“You have noooo place to judge, Mister ‘Dick Grayson is the only person alive who can do four somersaults in the air!’ And ‘Yes, I‘ve known that you are batman since I was eight. Look at all these pictures I took when I— what was your terminology again?”

Tim rolled his eyes, but a grin was peeking through. “Yeah, yeah.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Four months later, and Marinette was staring down at all the garment bags she had painstakingly filled. Outfits for every single one of her new family members. It took a while, but they were ready for the Wayne Gala. Adrien slung am arm over her shoulder.

“You’ve outdone yourself again, Princess,” he praised, grinning at the array of coveted outfits they were about to transport. “But one teensy weeny, tiny little thing.”

“What is it, Chaton?”

Adrien grinned. “Do you have a dress for yourself? Bruce invited you, too, didn’t he?”

Marinette’s face drained of color, right as a knock sounded on the door. Adrien, seeing as Marinette was so far into Panic Mode that she could not be reached at the moment, went to open the door. A second later, plastic was all Marinette could see. Blinking, she raised her head.

It was Cass, holding out a pink garment bag with Marinette’s name on it.

“Thought you would forget,” was all the other woman offered as explanation. Marinette, after gaping for a moment, slowly took the bag from her. Cass smirked. “Present from WE.”

Marinette laughed.

“You guys are the best.”

—*—*—*—*—*

@momothefemur @ladybug-182 @starlightshield @trippingovermyfeet @greatcatblaze @sam-i-am-0222 @bluesimani @ruelukas22 @acoolspacegirl

[tinyboxxtink]

"Doppelganger" *Part 25* !!Finale!!

Okay I know this took two days but remember when I said I was NOT going to make another chapter? Well I had to just fit multiple chapters into this last one. Because dammit it will STOP HERE.

Except for the epilogue.

So here it is, I hope the anticipation and the hype doesn't ruin it for you, I did my best!

Also thank you so much for coming on this ride with me, it's been the longest one yet! I'm going to miss Pinguino and Raffi, but they'll be fine.

Part 24

Tag List

@madamsnape921

@lolliepopsicle

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@milkshqke

@wanniiieeee

@word-scribbless

@gibbs274

@sassyada

@aprildecker-blog

@bookishfanfic

@stars-in-the-skies-world

@stars-trash-18

@omgsuperstarg

@objection-argumentative

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

It was finally the night before your wedding day. The day you had been waiting for since you had first kissed Rafael, if you were being totally honest. You were staying at Chloe’s due to the whole traditional “not seeing each other” before the wedding; it was the first night you had spent away from Rafael since the whole “Nevada” debacle. You wanted to prove to him and yourself that you could spend one night without him cuddling you like a toddler afraid to sleep in their own bed. But the more you drank during your “last girl’s night” the more the demons came out for you. Before you knew it you were hiding in your old bathroom dialing Rafael’s number.

“Baby aren’t you--” He started to ask you but you cut him off.

“Do you still want to marry me?”

“Ay dios,” You heard him chuckle. “Si, mi amor,”

“¿Estás seguro?” You asked worriedly.

“Yes carino,” He said very seriously. “I am very very sure,”

“...Okay,” You said in a small voice.

“Now go have fun and tell Chloe not to let you drink anymore, comprende?”

“Si,” You rolled your eyes. As you came out of the bathroom, you were greeted by Maria who was now in your former living room...for some reason.

“Hey babe, so Maria came by for--”

“I came by to ask you a favor, mija,” Maria cut Chloe off.

“Oh um--” You tried to act more sober around the only mother figure you’d really been around since forever. “Yeah sure! What’s up?”

“Well, I know we haven’t known each other that long, but Raffi is basically my son, so I consider you like a daughter,” She smiled sweetly at you, and you were suddenly aware that she was carrying a box with her.

“Oh, well that’s very sweet of you Maria,” You tried your best not to look uncomfortable.

“My husband Felipe and I,” She explained as she opened the box. “We were never able to conceive children ourselves,” She pulled out a very ancient looking, very detailed veil from the box.

“This veil has been worn by many generations in my family, and if I can’t pass it onto my own daughter, it would be my honor to give it to you to wear tomorrow,”

“Oh, Maria,” You did your best to hide your disgust for the veil, looking at her teary eyed smile. You glanced over her head and caught Chloe’s gaze; she was making a face that mimicked how you felt. It was like one of those fruit hats women wore in movies or commercials, only white and frilly. But what could you do?

“I’d be honored to wear it,” You nodded sweetly. Maria threw her arms around you with a tearful cry of joy. Behind her Chloe waved her arms wildly like “what the hell are you doing?!”. You could just shrug like “what else am I supposed to do?!”

“Bless you, hermosa,” She kissed you on the cheek as she stood up to leave. “Now I’ll leave you ladies to your fun,” She smiled and waved as she walked out the door.

“...What the hell?” Chloe couldn’t help but erupt in giggles as she properly examined the monstrosity.

“Shut up,” You tossed a pillow at her. “What was I supposed to do?! She was asking me to carry on her family name, or something,” You looked at the door where she had left; although you were still pretty drunk so you half remembered the conversation.

“Well if Rafael marries you while you wear this, you know it’s true love,” She snickered as she put it on you and turned you towards a mirror above your key ring holder.

“Oh God…” You threw your hands over your face and fell onto the couch face forward.

“Hey hey hey, don’t wrinkle it!” Chloe continued to tease and giggle. “That thing probably came over in some old Cuban woman’s raft,”

“I hate you,” You muttered through the cushions.

“You’ll hate me more if I don’t get you in bed right now,” Chloe shook her head with a laugh and a bottle of water. “But first, drink this. We don’t want you hungover on your big day,”

“Thanks mom,” You took the water and headed to your room, leaving the veil on the couch.

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

The next day Chloe woke you up by jumping up and down on your bed yelling “IT’S YOUR WEDDING DAY!!!”

“...Jesus Christ Chloe,” You grumbled. “It’s too early for this,”

“Too early?” She scoffed, plopping right on your butt making you grunt. “Nonsense. It’s your wedding day!!”

“Which begs the question why you’re so happy about it,” You raised a suspicious eyebrow.

“What? I can't be happy for my best friend to get her happy ending?” She feigned offense.

“....Uh huh”, You continued to give her the look.

“And the fact that my bridesmaid’s dress makes me look like a classy pornstar?” She added.

“....An oxymoron, but go on,” You waited for it.

“....And the fact that every eligible lawyer and cop are gonna be at this wedding?!” She finally exclaimed.

“There it is,” You nodded your head with a roll of your eyes as you threw on some clothes to go downstairs.

------

There was a limo waiting outside Chloe’s apartment for you and her. You hesitated getting in, remembering the last time you were in one of them. Chloe decided she’d do a ‘sweep’ for you. She jumped in and slid down the seats, squealing in delight.

“All clear babe! Check out what the husband left you!”

You cautiously slid in the limo to see Chloe pointing to a mini bar/fridge full of sweet pastries and champagne.

“Good lord,” You shook your head with a smile. “Chloe maybe we--” You were starting to say maybe at least wait until 11 am to start drinking, but she had already popped the champagne.

“Here,” She grabbed orange juice from the mini fridge. “Mimosas, the breakfast drink,”

You just stared at the drink she was trying to hand you; orange liquid in a champagne flute. You closed your eyes and told yourself the mind elixir was bright orange like Fanta, not orange juice. You took a deep breath and slowly accepted the mimosa, sipping it. See? You were fine. Everything was fine.

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

As you pulled up to St. Michael’s you saw it was swarmed with cameras, reporters, and people in general. It looked like a circus. You saw the crowd and silently wished you had said screw tradition and had Rafael there with you. But you were a big girl, and you had Chloe.

“...Can we get out somewhere less...this?” You nervously asked your driver.

“Absolutely ma’am, I’ll find a private entrance. No problem,”

“Thank you,” You sighed in relief.

-----

After driving around the church a few times, the driver finally found a side street blocked off. He informed the copper he had you in the limo, and the cop waved your limo inside. Chloe jumped out of the limo while holding your hand, nearly breaking your arm.

“Oh! Wait! Hey Jeeves, can we get those pastries and mimosa’s in the lady’s bridal suite?”

“Chloe his name is not--”

“It’s fine, ma’am,” The driver chuckled. “I’ll make sure the refreshments are delivered to your dressing room,”

“You’re a doll,” She blew him a kiss before she continued pulling you through the huge building like she knew exactly where you were going.

“Excuse me, where do we go?” Chloe asked a random man in a suit.

“Oh, it’s you Ms. Y/N!” The man pulled out a camera and began snapping photos.

“Oh my god--- What is WRONG with you people?!” Chloe shoved him aside and took you down another corridor. Finally you reached a doorway that was guarded by two armed guards.

“Hi, do you know--”

“Right this way,” One of them took your hand. “Mr. Barba is already inside getting ready,” He nodded to the door as you walked away. You wanted so badly to swing open the door and jump into his arms, but you knew you had to stay calm.

“Great!” You did your best to smile at him as he led you and Chloe down the hall to another doorway. He opened it to reveal a huge room with a vanity, a changing wall, two long body mirrors and a lush couch. Two sinks lined the wall and a room with a toilet was behind it. Yours and Chloe’s dresses were hanging on the changing wall, and sitting on the vanity were your treats from the limo.

“Weee! Look at all of this!!!” Chloe clapped her hands and giggled wildly as she danced around the lavish room.

“I mean, it is nice--”

“Nice? God I wish I was getting married here!” Chloe sighed as she poured herself another mimosa.

“Well, if you ever find a man I’ll look into it,” You teased her.

“Uh I think you mean WHEN,” She pointed out. “And I think the ‘when’ will be by tonight!”

“My wedding reception isn’t a singles mixer, Chloe,” You rolled your eyes.

“Well of course not,” She shook her head. “It’s a BALL!”

“Oh good god,” You groaned with a small laugh as you poured yourself a mimosa and downed it.

“Whoa there killer, let’s slow it down there,” She gave you a look. “Wouldn’t want you stumbling down the aisle in front of a million people,”

“...Do you think you’re helping?” You asked her in an annoyed tone.

“Sorry, sorry,” She apologized as there was a knock at the door. Chloe answered it to see two women carrying makeup cases and hair tools.

“We’re here to get you ready, Ms. Y/L/N,” One of them smiled at you.

“And her maid of honor, right?” Chloe jumped in.

“Uh...if that’s what the bride wants,” The other one looked at you with a wary stare.

“Yeah that’s fine, actually please do her first by all means,” You waved them over to the long sink wall and vanity.

“You’re a good friend,” Chloe put her hands over your face with tears in her eyes as she smiled.

“...You’re ridiculous,” You patted her head sweetly before she sat in the vanity, ready to be made over.

While Chloe was being turned into a princess, you walked over and admired your dress that looked like it was made for one. It was a long, cream white colored sleeveless dress with intricate cubic zirconia diamonds sewn into the bust. It was the simplest dress Chloe had let you pick. Suddenly you remembered the cornucopia veil, it was sitting on the couch in the box Maria had brought it over in. You pulled it out and put it on; when one of the stylists saw it she gasped.

“Oh, ma’am, I don’t know--”

“My...mother, asked me to wear it,” You stopped her.

“Right,” She nodded uncomfortably while Chloe tried not to laugh at the disgusted faces they were clearly trying to hide.

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

After what seemed like hours, you and Chloe were finally done in full make up and up do's. One of the ladies picked up the ancient headwear and tried positioning on your hair as best she could. She took several tries, using hair pins and hairspray before she finally stepped back.

“Lovely,” She smiled as she stepped back to admire her work. You looked in the vanity mirror to see your finished look. The headdress felt like it weighed five pounds, but it was intricately woven into your hair, there was no getting it out now. You longed for the moment Rafael would rip it off your head as soon as you were alone in your honeymoon suite...or, y’know before then.

“Well we’ll see you out there ma’am,” One of them nodded as they gathered their stuff and scooted out the door, leaving you and Chloe alone once again.

“Well,” Chloe examined your head. “At least you won’t lose it…” She was cut off by a knock at the door. You started to open it when you recognized those eyes.

“Rafa!” You slammed the door and yelled through it. “What are you doing? We can’t see each other before the wedding, it’s bad luck,”

“Baby I think we’ve gotten all the bad luck already out of the way,” He called through the door. “And I really, really need to talk to you,”

Your eyes widened in panic as you looked at Chloe, who sprung into best friend mode. “Calm yourself, I’m sure it’s nothing…” She walked over and put her hands on your shoulders.

“Stop freaking her out counselor, are you planning to run? Tell me now so I can get out there and tie you to a chair,”

“What? No! I just-- Y/N please will you open the door, por favor?” He sounded seriously distressed, and he used his secret weapon: speaking in spanish.

You sighed and slowly opened the door, revealing Rafael in a gorgeous black and white tux, and the tallest top hat you’d ever seen.

“Well well well, Mr. Monopoly, don’t you look spiffy?” Chloe snickered, causing you to hit her while Rafael made an even more distressed face.

“I knew it, god it’s awful,” He sighed as he took it off his head and walked inside the room.

“So why are you--?” You started to ask.

“The mayor said it would ‘look better on tv’,” He scoffed in disgust.

“Oh Jesus--” You rolled your eyes. “Baby why didn’t you just tell him--?”

“Because that stupid fucking contract we signed said we would go along with everything he said for the rest of this whole shit show!” He growled at the mess he had gotten himself into. The mayor knew damn well how much more “favors” he would ask of him before he signed that contract, he just knew it.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better…” You pointed to your own head. Rafael’s worried expression turned into a relieved smile as he finally noticed the bird’s nest on your scalp.

“...Maria sprung this on me last night,” You pointed to it. “At least you can take yours off,”

“...Well, that does help a bit,” He half smiled as he examined your ceremonial headdress.

“Is that it mi amor, you’re freaking out over a hat?” You put your hand on his face.

“Well our children are going to see these photos! Videos! Our GRANDKIDS! They’re going to think their grandpa was a huge douche,” He cried overdramatically.

“...Is this what it’s like to be with me? Because I don’t love it,” You teased him.

“I’m serious, Y/N! This isn’t funny!” He gave you a pitiful pout.

“...What else?” You gave him an expectant look.

“What else?”

“All of this over a hat?”

“...Alright fine,” He sighed as he sat down on the lush couch. “I know what I said about all that mattered was me and you standing across from each other but--”

“But?” You gave Chloe a worried look.

“But I also wanted someone else,”

“....Who, Olivia?” You rolled your eyes.

“No!” He exclaimed. “No, my childhood priest, Father Hernandez,”

“Oh,” You said with a relieved sigh. “Well, baby why don’t you just--”

“Because they’re being super particular, stupid Catholics!” He got up and started pacing.

“Apparently THEIR priest Father O’Shannon is ‘assigned’ to this place. God forbid anyone dare replace him,” He grumbled as he continued to pace.

“So you--”

“And it’s just the last straw on top of all of this bullshit, all this bending. I can’t do it!!” He threw up his hands in frustration.

“....Baby, breathe,” You stopped his pacing and pressed your forehead against his, your own personal calming gesture.

“God I guess it is true what they say,” Chloe suddenly spoke up, causing you both to give her a perplexed stare.

“In a couple when one person starts to go off the rails the other one instantly becomes the calm rational one,” She gestured between the two of you.

“Hey, I am NOT--” He protested.

“Baby please,” You shook your head. “I almost forgot how high strung you were until this moment,”

“High strung?” He took offense. “What are you talking about?”

“You forget that I worked for you,” You giggled.

“I’m high strung at work?” He asked. The question caused you to erupt in laughter. “What?! Am I?”

“Oh no sweetie, you’re totally mellow,” You smiled sarcastically.

“How am I--?”

“Think about how much coffee you drink at work, Rafa,”

“I don’t see how that is relevant,” He huffed. He loved his coffee, so what?

“...Mmmkay,” You chuckled, kissing his cheek.

“Well whatever, kettle” He made a pouty face.

“Fair,” You chuckled. “But we’re talking about you right now, pot,”

“Hey, I think I have done more than my share of helping you through your little ‘episodes’, it’s your turn!!!” He crossed his arms like a kid.

“Oh really? ‘Episodes’?” You replied in a snarky tone. Chloe sensed the rising tension and sprung into action.

“Okay! I think that’s enough, Pot. Kettle.” Chloe stepped in between you. “You’re clearly both too high strung for this conversation,”

“He started it,” You stuck your tongue out at Rafael like a five year old.

“Okay now let's not turn on each other, then the terrorist headwear wins,” She pointed to the hat on the vanity and your head.

“....Well do you have a solution, Gandhi?” You raised an eyebrow.

“Actually,” She smiled proudly. “I think I do,” She grabbed her phone and began typing something into google maps.

“You wanna share with the class?” Rafael asked as he gave you a look, like you were supposed to understand her crazy.

“.....Have you seen The Office?” She asked them, then glanced at you with a knowing look. Your face turned into a huge grin as you realized what she was implying.

“Chloe, you’re a genius,” You grabbed her in a hug.

“I know,” She nodded with a cocky smile.

-----

Chloe popped her head out of the door, making sure the coast was clear. When she was sure, she motioned to the two of you out and down the hall towards the back door where you left the limo. You and Rafael got in, and Chloe began to shut the door when you stopped her.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Someone has to vamp!” She pointed out.

“You're a good friend, Chloe,” You gave her a kiss on her head.

“I know,” She said boastfully. “Just hurry, my bubbly personality can’t hold them off for long,” She slammed the door and you were off.

-----

“...Fucking New York traffic! Estúpido tráfico de mierda,,,” Rafael began muttering under his breath. His childhood church in the Bronx was at least thirty minutes away with the busy Manhattan traffic. You put a hand on his knee to try and soothe him, but he was extra wound up by now. It reminded you of when you were just his assistant; he’d get this way when a trial wasn’t going his way and he felt backed into a corner. The worst days you’d seen him have at the office, where he’d suddenly take off for hours in the middle of the day….

That gave you an idea.

“Baby,” You snapped him out of his internal ranting monologue. He turned to you with a dismayed look.

“I’m sorry, carino,” He apologized, taking your hand that was placed on his knee. “I know I’m--”

“Can priests marry people outside of their church?” You simply asked him.

“....Like a closer church?” He looked at you in confusion.

“.....Actually, I was thinking somewhere closer,” You bit your lip with a smile as you took his phone and typed in an address that linked to the driver’s phone map. He glanced down at it and gave you a huge smile.

“You’re the best,” He gave you a huge kiss as the limo made a U-Turn.

------

Luckily Father Gonzalez used a bike for his transportation, so he was able to make it through traffic pretty easily. He met the two of you outside Central Park pretty soon after you got there.

“I appreciate you doing this for us, Padre,” Rafael hugged the priest tightly. “I didn’t want anyone else marrying us,”

“Claro, Rafael,” He smiled. “Of course! I was hoping St. Michael’s would have a change of heart, pero--”

“You know Catholics,” Rafael rolled his eyes.

“Si,” He nodded. “They’re almost as stubborn as you!” The padre chuckled. Then he noticed you.

“Ay, Rafa,” He gestured at you. “es este su prometido?”

“Si,” You nodded. “Soy su prometida,”

“Ay bien! Ella habla español!” Father Gonzalez smiled brightly. “So are you two ready?”

“Si, Padre,” Rafael nodded. “But first, we need the right backdrop,” He grinned as he took your hand and walked into the park.

----

It was the middle of the day on a Saturday so the park was full of families playing, joggers, street artists and the like. Luckily for you however, nobody seemed to want to see the penguins today. The enclosure was almost empty except for one elderly couple.

“Witnesses!” You beamed at Rafael as you calmly walked up to the two and tapped the woman on the shoulder.

“Excuse me,” You smiled sweetly. “Would you-- my fiancé and I, we’re supposed to get married in this huge chapel down the street from here, but it was just all too much circus so we snuck away so that we could just get married in our favorite spot here and--”

“Baby, too much detail,” Rafael laughed. He loved it when you would ramble on about something when you got excited, but you were on a time crunch.

“...Right,” You blushed. “Anyway is there any way--”

“You’d like us to be witnesses, dear?” The old woman smiled brightly at you.

“Yes, if you wouldn’t mind,” You smiled gratefully.

“Of course not!” The man with her chimed in. “Y’know, back in our day, we had to get married in secret too,”

You suddenly noticed that they were an interracial couple; a white woman and a black man. Your smile faded a bit as you thought of the hardships they must have been through, just to be together, similar to you and Rafael.

“Okay, we’ll do the fast version of this, mijos,” The Padre opened his Bible and began to speak, but looked at the two of you.

“Actually, you know you’re going to do this whole spiel in a little while anyway, why don’t you say your vows in your own words while you can?”

“Oh God,” You muttered, then gasped. “I’m so sorry! I--”

“It’s fine, senorita,” He nodded.

“I just...I’m not great, with the speeches and the speaking in public thing,” You twirled the one piece of hair hanging from your updo in your hand nervously.

“I mean, we’re not exactly in public, amor,” Rafael smirked.

“You know what I mean!” You hit him playfully. “I just...I want it to be perfect,”

“If you speak from your heart dear, it will be perfect,” The old woman assured you. “Just look into his eyes and say whatever it is you’re thinking,”

“....Well, maybe not ‘everything’,” The old man added with a laugh, giving you two a raunchy look. Good lord.

“Okay,” You took a deep breath and took Rafael’s hands, looking into his gorgeous green eyes.

“I...um….” You looked down nervously.

“Hey,” Rafael cupped your chin to look at him. “It’s okay, mi amor. It’s just me, it’s just us. Just like I said,”

“Just us,” You smiled, then began to start again.

“Rafael,” You took a deep breath. “It’s...it’s hard for me to make some big speech because the truth is, when I look into your eyes I forget everything. Every wrong decision, every hurdle we’ve been through, it all just...fades away, when you look at me,” You squeezed his hands tighter.

“You have done so much for me in so little time. People probably think that we’re insane because we’re committing our lives to each other after only really knowing each other for a few months, but the truth is it feels like a lifetime. I feel like I was born loving you, I just didn’t know it until I saw you,” His eyes were starting to water as your voice cracked with your own tears.

“I know that I have put you through so much grief, so much pain and...doubt,” You paused, wiping a few stray tears. “But you have never, not once, abandoned me. You’ve stuck through all of my crazy, all of our shenanigans--”

You glanced over at the old couple who were grinning ear to ear. You didn’t want to get into all the psycho drama you and Rafael had been through in front of total strangers, but he gave you a knowing look when you said ‘shenanigans’. He knew what you meant; because of course he did. You were connected.

“I’m actually really glad that you had your ‘freak out’ because for one it made me look like the sane one for once,” All of you chuckled. “But also, because it got us our chance to get married our way, in our spot,” You gestured to the cave around you.

“I remember the very first time you brought me here, I thought that it was done. We were done. I thought that our one perfect day was going to be just that-- one perfect day,” You began to choke on your words again as you thought back to that very first day, the day you “magicked” him.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought that--'' You glanced at the Padre and the couple again. “That we’d….start, again here,” You exchanged another knowing look.

“And I certainly never thought you’d propose to me in this place-- with a flash mob, no less!” The Padre and couple laughed in surprise, Rafael began to blush profusely, but you put a hand to his red cheek.

“Literally every single beginning we’ve had-- it started right here,” You wiped more stray tears, already knowing the woman back at the church was going to have to re-do all of it.

“And now it’s starting again-- for the rest of our lives,” You sniffled while Rafael wiped more tears from your face and then his own.

“...Okay I’m done,” You took a deep breath in and out as you smiled at Father Hernandez.

“Alright well then Rafa--”

“Oh wait!!!” You suddenly interjected. “Also, I love you,” You make an “eek” face. “I can’t believe I left that out,”

“...I’m pretty sure that whole speech was an ‘I love you,’ dearie,” The old woman patted your back with a reassuring smile.

“I agree,” Rafael nodded. “And to be honest-- I don’t think I can follow that,”

“Oh come on,” You rolled your eyes. “It wasn’t that great,”

“No it wasn’t great,” He shook his head. “It was perfecto,” He took both of your hands in his once more. “...All I can say is, ditto,”

“Ditto?” You laughed. “Real romantic, Rafa,”

“Well I can’t think of anything more than what you’ve already said!” Rafael shrugged with a laugh.

“Well, except this: You say that I’ve put up with you, and never abandoned you, but neither did you,” He pulled you closer towards him.

“You’ve put up with me plenty, and you could have walked away plenty of times. But you stayed with me. You fought for me. And I will spend the rest of our lives trying to be good enough for you, not the other way around,”

“You’re already good enough for me, Rafael,” You bit your lip as you tried your hardest not to kiss him before Padre said you could.

“Can I kiss her yet Padre?” Rafael read your mind.

“Calma, Rafa,” Padre chuckled. “Do you have rings?”

“Shit, the rings!” Rafael groaned. “Sorry, Padre,” He quickly apologized.

“Wait...baby,” You turned around and looked down at all the decorative stones that lined the bottom of the tank. You picked two up and handed one to Rafael.

“Pebbles,” He smiled at you. “Like penguins,”

“Ah, well then…” The Padre shrugged, having no idea what was happening but went along with it anyway. “I guess, exchange the pebbles now?”

You giggled as you placed your pebble in Rafael’s hand, then he placed his in yours.

“Well then, I guess by the power vested in me by God and the state of New York, I now pronounce you man and wife,” He shrugged with a smile. “Now you may kiss her, Rafa,”

“Gracias, Padre,” He grinned before pulling you into a passionate kiss, a kiss rivaling many of the kisses you had exchanged in this cave before now.

“Now, if you three would like to attend a circus, we’d be glad to have you,” You glanced at your three witnesses.

They looked at each other with confused glances, then shrugged and followed you and Rafael back towards the limo.

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

As soon as you pulled back behind the church, the Padre and the couple were shown to seats by one of the security guards while you and Rafael walked back to the bridal suite. Chloe ran up to the both of you before you could make it here, Rafael’s top hat in her hand.

“What the hell, you guys?!” She hissed, then realized you were in a church so she made a sign of the cross and kissed her fist.

“They’re about to start rioting!” She added.

“Sorry, sorry, Chloe,” You kissed her cheek. “You’re a good friend,”

"I want you to realize you've said that three times now,” She smiled proudly. “Be sure to tell all of your sexy eligible lawyer friends that, Rafael,”

“I’ll be sure to slip it in every conversation later, Chloe,” He smirked as he gave her a kiss on the cheek as well.

“Alright now take this magic hat and get down that aisle before the mayor actually kills you,” She shoved the top hat in Rafael’s hands and shooed him through the hall and towards the doors of the sanctuary.

“Alright,” She focused on you. “You ready to do this?”

“I mean…” You gestured to your messed up make up and the veil falling out of your hair.

“Aw crap,” Chloe grimaced. “Ok, well looks like you’re getting the Chloe special,” She went and grabbed her purse from the bridal room and pulled you into the ladies room.

After a few minutes you reemerged with perfect make up and the veil reattached to your hair like a nest. Hey, you just had your perfect ceremony. You could last a few more minutes with this thing.

“Alright, now you’re ready,” She brushed you off and opened the sanctuary doors to signal the piano to start playing the Bridal Suite.

The doors opened and Chloe took your hand as you both walked down the aisle together. The flashing lights and bright red dots from film cameras were starting to overwhelm you as you walked, but you focused on Rafael.

He was at the end of all this erratic tunnel of people gawking at you like a zoo animal. You just breathed in and out and kept your gaze locked into his; his smile was like a bright beacon in the darkness. Finally you reached the altar and he took your hands in his. You felt safe again; you’d always feel safe in his grasp.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…” The priest began to speak, but the only thing the two of you heard were each other, speaking volumes to each other with just your looks. It was just like Rafael had promised: Just you and him.

And it would just be you and him, forever.

[franniebanana]

CQL Rewatch - Episode 7

Their first vow together. So nice! I actually do like the parallels here between Lan Yi and Wei Wuxian, and Baoshan Sanren and Lan Wangji: you have one set being reckless and untamed (I said it) and the other set trying to restore order. It’s kind of funny that the ancestors are switched, though. So here we have Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji vowing to bring all the Yin Iron pieces back to the cold spring pond to neutralize them, and of course Lan Wangji’s first reaction is, “None of your business.” It’s cute how Lan Yi takes Wei Wuxian’s side and has a sense of pride for her close friend’s disciple. I think he’s an honorary Lan in her eyes.

And then Lan Yi gives them a warning to not make the same mistakes she made. Wei Wuxian’s like, “Yep, got it, I promise.” But we all know from the beginning that this obviously doesn’t go well for him, since he dies in the first five minutes of the series. He will go on to make some questionable decisions, most of which are driven by his emotions, which are often not in check. Side note: I love this series, but I don’t like how they took a great grey character like Wei Wuxian and turned him into a character where many of the things that went wrong were caused by other people.

Another side note. That fucking Yin Iron fell on the guqin so many times, and it didn’t dent it at all. Is the guqin made out of iron too? I thought it was wood. If I did that to my violin, I guarantee you the violin would not fare very well.

Forever a favorite moment. It was great enough that they were tied together by Lan Wangji’s headband, but even better that Wei Wuxian fell on him. So great—such a tease to the audience. And this is as close as we get to the scene in the book when Lan Wangji uses the body binding spell to keep Wei Wuxian on top of him all night (ooh, my heart skipped a beat when I read that).

Also, taking the screenshot, I noticed you can see the impression of the little metal piece from Lan Wangji’s headband. Little things like that interest me for some reason. I wonder if it bothered Wang Yibo—did it press too hard on his forehead? I remember him saying he’d get tan lines from the headband.

I love this little smirk he does. A moment when Wei Wuxian’s gift to gab really pays off. Instead of letting Lan Wangji talk and explain the situation, Wei Wuxian keeps speaking, lying about what they were doing. I’d like to think he does it in part to protect Lan Wangji and to stop him from breaking any of his clan rules, but likely it’s another chance for him to prove himself as someone Lan Wangji can trust. And I take Lan Wangji’s little acknowledgement of him there as his silent “thank you.” It says a lot, I think, that Wei Wuxian is willing to lie to Jiang Cheng in order to protect the Lan Clan’s secrets.

I’m sorry, but every time I hear Nie Huaisang say, “You were gone a whole day and night,” my mind immediately goes to the gutter—like the implication is that they were doing something inappropriate during that time. I keep expecting a sex joke, only to remind myself that this was on Chinese television and that would, of course, not happen. Jiang Cheng says a similar thing (and my mind goes the same way that time too), but in that case, canon book Jiang Cheng does later accuse them of having a more-than-friendly relationship, and he does not say it in a nice way.

Also, throughout the scene that precedes this, where Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are discussing what to do next with Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen, it really feels like wangxian just want to go on a buddy road trip together, and they are so disappointed when they are turned down. Oh, I didn’t screencap it, but Lan Wangji has the saddest sad face at the end.

I think Lan Wangji is a little impressed here but he doesn’t want to admit it. Wei Wuxian has a great gift to come up with ridiculous stories and lies at the drop of a hat. I love that Wei Wuxian doesn’t have to come up with a scary snake story when he could have just told Nie Huaisang what he’d already told Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing, but he does anyway. Mad respect.

This also kind of amuses me because Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji can never really have a moment alone. They keep getting interrupted by other people when I think they just want to talk about what they experienced. Instead we just have all these shared glances. Nothing like a big fat secret to get close to each other, right?

Omfg Jiang Cheng is so jealous! I thought maybe I was imagining it or just projecting my own ideas onto him, but NO—he is jealous! He’s all like, “If you like Lan Wangji so much, why don’t you marry him?” I mean, that basically happened. I’ve gone on about this before, but I love the tension between Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji, and the fact that it continues even after Wei Wuxian dies makes it even better. Jiang Cheng is so stubborn and continues to hold a grudge against Lan Wangji, and it bothers the fuck out of him that there’s someone out there devoted to Wei Wuxian, by whom Jiang Cheng feels so betrayed.

And, I mean, by this point, it’s already started. As soon as they get to the Cloud Recesses, Wei Wuxian starts paying more attention to Lan Wangji than he does to either Jiang Cheng or Jiang Yanli. And Jiang Cheng likes to say, “You’re worrying my sister, you’re hurting my sister” when he really means, “You’re worrying me.” His stupid pride gets in the way of having a good relationship with Wei Wuxian. And I don’t think Wei Wuxian would ever put Lan Wangji above Jiang Cheng, who he considers his family—at least not at this point. It’s not until the second half that things switch, and really, even then, in the CQL-verse, the two are probably equal in Wei Wuxian’s mind. He backs off from Jiang Cheng due to Jiang Cheng’s attitude toward him.

Okay, Jiang Cheng’s jealousy aside, I love how steadfast and supportive Wei Wuxian is of him. As soon as he catches on that Jiang Cheng is jealous, he immediately starts trash-talking the Cloud Recesses and talking up Lotus Pier. It’s very cute, very sweet. He’s a good brother to him, really.

Now who’s jealous? Just kidding. I love his wistful expression here, as he watches them go off. Anyone who’s read the book knows that Lan Wangji does get jealous at times and certainly frustrated with Wei Wuxian’s coquettish behavior. I would say he is more longing at this moment, maybe even wanting to get closer to Wei Wuxian, without really understanding why himself. There’s such an isolation to his world: even though he’s surrounded by other disciples, he doesn’t have any friends. He’s maybe regretting how quickly he refused to the invitation to Lotus Pier. I think, on the one hand, Lan Wangji has found one person in this world who not only shares a secret with him, but who has similar goals—on the other hand, his code of ethics are all over the place. His heart and mind are conflicted: he wants to get closer, but he doesn’t want to make the wrong decision. To his Gusu Lan Clan mind, Wei Wuxian is all wrong, but his heart says otherwise. And I’m not saying he loves him already—but he is already seeing a kindred spirit in Wei Wuxian, someone who he can rely on, someone he can trust, someone who has his back, even if it means bending a few rules. And in a relationship, you have nothing if you don’t have trust.

I never noticed that they were communicating telepathically here. Or something. I dunno. I guess it’s not that clear.

Also if it feels like I’m ignoring all these parts with the Wen Clan, it’s because I am. I mean, not really, but this is all the Yin Iron stuff that I don’t really care about. And I’m not in the Xue Yang fan club either, so I’m not going to spend time on him until he’s actually in it in Yueyang (possibly) and Yi City. Actually, confession: I’ve never watched the Yi City flashback episodes. I read it, so I know it, but I never watched it hahaha. I will this time around. I made that pact with myself.

AWWW, HE SMILED!!!

Ahem, excuse me. This is too fucking cute, though. The rabbit lantern that Wei Wuxian drew just for him, his cute baby smile, and the Wei Wuxian pointing it out with a grin. Cuteness overload—my heart can’t take it.

But I also had a sad thought that if Wei Wuxian hadn’t come over, Lan Wangji would be sitting here alone. He’d make his lantern all on his own, send it off into the sky, say his own prayer to himself, and never hear Wei Wuxian’s, which likely sends Lan Wangji over the edge with his feelings. Everything he thought about Wei Wuxian was true, and maybe it’s okay to like him, maybe it’s okay to consider him a friend, maybe it’s okay to trust him that way.

Just a shot that I liked. Enjoy.

I feel so bad for Jiang Yanli here. I also feel bad for Jin Zixuan, even though he’s a complete dick. I understand how they both feel here—to be tied to someone you don’t know, from the time you were small children is incredibly unfair in my eyes. That being said, I know this still happens in other parts of the world, and it’s implied that it’s common in our CQL/MDZS world (which would make sense, of course). I like the feeling of siding with Wei Wuxian, wanting to come to Jiang Yanli’s defense and protect her honor, while also still having an understanding of how Jin Zixuan must feel about the whole thing. His choice has been completely taken away. And he’s, what, 17 here? What 17-year-old boy wants to be reminded constantly about how he’s already engaged? It’s not typically a young man’s dream to settle down and get married—not that it can’t be! But the implication here, with all the girls tittering about it, is that they’re all excited about marriage, and he wants nothing to do with it. Of course, Jiang Yanli isn’t either. I think she really just wants to get to know him and spend time with him, before even thinking about marrying him.

Ah, a momentous occasion: the first time Lan Wangji tries to stop Wei Wuxian from getting himself into trouble (not counting the first time they met, when he was literally trying to police him while breaking Cloud Recesses rules). I like this shot, because you have Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji on either side of Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Yanli in the front, literally putting her body between him and Jin Zixuan (actually this parallels her final scene). It kind of shows the depths of their relationships (or at least what the director wants to show us). You have Lan Wangji, who grabs onto Wei Wuxian to try to stop him from further brawling; Jiang Cheng, who stands beside him, but isn’t really involved otherwise—standoffish, in a way; and then Jiang Yanli, who physically gets in the way. She’s the quintessential big sister. And I’m not saying Jiang Cheng doesn’t care—he does, but I think his first thought always has to do with the honor of the Jiang Clan and, while he’s standing beside Wei Wuxian, it’s almost as if he doesn’t want to show any involvement with this brawl, because that would look bad.

Ah, the old dudes meeting, while Jiang Cheng stands off to the side awkwardly, wondering if he should be there or not. At the outset, this meeting to decide their children’s future seemed kind of bad, but it actually turned out nice, with them agreeing to call off the engagement. Very progressive, I thought.

Two things I learned in this scene: Wei Wuxian doesn’t want to marry a woman and he doesn’t want to leave the Cloud Recesses yet (TL: he doesn’t want to leave Lan Wangji). He seriously looks so disappointed when she says they’re going home soon.

This feels like a mixture of “I’m worried about you” and “I don’t want to be left out.” We already know at this point that Wei Wuxian doesn’t want to leave the Cloud Recesses (more that he doesn’t want to leave Lan Wangji, because he doesn’t like all of the rules, obviously). He also is very interested in what’s happening with the Yin Iron, as he has also vowed to protect it with Lan Wangji. He is very perceptive—he knows something is happening, that Lan Wangji is going to go off on his own, and he wants to go with. It’s kind of hard to say if this is more out of duty or his adventurous spirit, but either way, he wants to help Lan Wangji.

“After his leave, things will be as quiet here as before.”

Look at how sad he is! The only person he considers a friend has just left, and at this point, he doesn’t know if he’ll ever see him again. It’s possible, sure, but then only at clan gatherings, and that’s if Wei Wuxian and Lang Wangji even happen to attend the same one. I believe we know from the book that Lan Wangji doesn’t typically attend gatherings (when he’s older), he often skips them. And Wei Wuxian isn’t necessarily important enough to even be invited, so he would have to be a guest of Jiang Cheng. Obviously we all know that they do go to gatherings and see each other again, but this is what I’d be thinking if I were Lan Wangji, okay? Like, when am I going to see him again? Will I ever see him again?

I leave you with a wholesome picture of Wei Wuxian and a rabbit. Also adorable that he contemplates bringing the bunnies back to Lotus Pier, but doesn’t because Lan Wangji might get lonely. MY HEART!

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

[mattzerella-sticks]

metamorphosis

Chapter 3 (ao3)

Prologue (ao3) (tumblr)

What if, when Jack was born, he stayed a baby?

A retelling of season 13, with a few key differences.

No planned schedule, will update when I finish chapters lol

               Chapter 3 - the Sacrament of Confession

“Forgive me Father, for I have sinned…”

           Mia sat at her kitchen island, rivulets of wine drip and form legs like tiny, burgundy tear tracks each time she swirled her drink. Hours passed since Buddy died, since the hunters and their magical baby left with the shadow that hung over her life for the past few years, rolled up in her antique rug, and she didn’t feel like doing anything else but this. It was funny, though. With Buddy gone, Mia was free to do anything, go anywhere, and all she did with her newfound freedom was climb the few feet from her lobby to her private floor. She camped in her kitchen for hours, drinking; the empty, nearby bottle of wine was full when Mia first retrieved it, an older vintage the cashier advised her to pop open during celebrations.

           She guessed this counted.

           Finishing her drink, Mia pushed both empty glass and bottle to the side. She laid her hands flat against the dark, marble counter and pushed, steadying herself as she stood. The room hardly spun. It wasn’t that strong a wine, especially given her inherited tolerance. Mia chose not to waste another.

           Rather, she felt like taking a lengthy soak in her bathtub. With fancy bubbles and salts mixed in the water, and scented candles perched upon pure porcelain and wooden shelves and whatever space she could find.

           She needed a relaxing bath. She needed to relax. Buddy dying meant she finally could relax.

           Why is it so difficult for Mia, then?

           On her way towards her bathroom, the intercom buzz annoyingly sprang to life.

           Mia jumped, hitting the wall at her back and rocking the few picture frames hanging there. Her chest expanded with frantic breath, mind immediately conjuring an image of Buddy, angry, leaning his whole weight on the buzzer. Soon, she calmed, reminded how that was impossible, now and forever.

           She approached the intercom with more confidence, slapping the receiver in response, cutting off another round of buzzing. “Yes?”

           “Hey, Doc,” a familiar voice drawled, low and raspy, “can I come in?”

           Dean Winchester lapsed into a weighty silence after. He said nothing else that might clue Mia in on why he stood on her porch for the second time this evening. And as Mia learned early on, there’s a lot that can hide beneath such silence.

           A troublesome thought surfaced from the depths of fear simmering in the back of her mind, cloaked in the voice of her mother, sounding like advice she passed onto Mia from her mother who learned from her mother’s mother and so on in a long line of ancestors. “Hunters only come by for one thing,” they warned, “the best thing you can do is run.”

           What if Dean, despite killing Buddy, wasn’t satisfied? What if he returned for her, to make good on his earlier threats? If she let him inside, will he prove her mother and mother’s mother and so on true? Fire a bullet between her eyes in the half a second it took to open the door? Or, if she refused, would he barrel inside regardless and steal this newly returned peace from her?

           Would he stand outside all night, if Mia stayed quiet like she was, and think she abandoned her practice and skipped town halfway through his question?

           Already she drew out her answer too long, and either she spoke in the next few seconds or fled to her bedroom where she’d stay awake until morning, hoping he left. The latter didn’t appeal to Mia. She promised herself that she finished running. That it wasn’t what Mia wanted to do, not anymore. Mia cleared her throat and pressed her finger on the button again. “Sure. I’ll be down in a moment.”

           Mia detoured, grabbing a steak knife from a drawer and hiding it within the folds of her skirt. The knife wouldn’t overpower a gun, if it came to that, but Mia might take him with her.

           Hopefully Mia’s fears stayed exactly that.

           Mia opened the front door slightly, peeking onto the porch through a sliver. Dean stood, his shoulders stooped from exhaustion and a haggard expression across his face that exaggerated every wrinkle on his pretty face. Quickly scanning him, she saw no sign of a weapon. She couldn’t decide if it were better or worse. Mia unfastened the final lock, fully welcoming Dean back into her home. “Dean,” she started, “what can I help you with?” Her grip tightened on the knife, sharp line of its blade shifting against her skirt’s fabric.

           He shuffled towards her, Mia flinching as he did. The knife perked at her side. “Sorry,” he said, both hands rising to greet her. His open, empty palms soothed her somewhat, and weakened her hold on the knife, it wilting into her skirt. “I didn’t come here for a fight.”

           “Then why are you here?”

           “I…” A shudder ran through him like a summer storm, righting his posture instantly. He glanced behind him, into the waiting shadows, as if a ghost might step out of that inky blackness. “Can we talk inside?”

           She owed him nothing. Still, Mia swore an oath when she accepted her diploma. As she noted during his first visit, this was a man who needed help.

           Who would she be if she turned him away, hunter or not?

           “Follow me,” she instructed, turning on her heel without waiting for his answer. His clacking heels let Mia know he trailed after her, from the entryway and up the stairs until she was in her kitchen again. Mia set her knife down on the island, facing Dean as she did. He snorted, raising a brow at the weapon. “What?” she huffed, “a girl can be cautious, can’t she?”

           “You’d be stupid not to be.”

           She rolled her eyes, “Yet here we are.”

           Mia waited for Dean to respond. Instead of snagging the obvious bait, he hunkered down on one of her brass stools, shoulders hunched and fists mangling each other in a facsimile of prayer. She busied herself, setting the empty bottle nearer the sink while she washed clean her glass. Then, Mia asked Dean if he wanted anything. His non-answer meant she needlessly flipped cabinets open and shut, trying to fill a void with something other than words. Mia hadn’t much she wanted to say to Dean.

           But about when Mia checked her refrigerator a third time, her mouth spat loose a question that dripped like drool past her lips and splattered everywhere by the time she realized she asked. “What you do with Buddy?”

           Dean awoke, his eyes darting away from the swirling, enchanting pattern of her countertop. “Do you really care?”

           A deflated no sat on her tongue, unwilling to rise from a lack of something Mia cared too little to analyze at the moment. It wouldn’t do Mia any good doing so, either. She sensed an answer that, in her current state, she might not like. Mia also recognized what Dean tried doing. Therapists smelled avoidance like vamps did blood. She glossed over his question with attempted ease, shrugging, breaking their locked gaze. “Call it being sentimental,” she said, “or curious. Whatever you feel like.”

           Dean kept his judgment close to his chest but offered up what she asked for. “I dropped Sam off at the motel with… with the kid, then I took your ex past city limits. Dug a shallow grave, struck a match – that paint enough of a picture?” She nodded. “Thought so. Sorry ‘bout your rug, by the way. It was nice.”

           “It was Home Goods. I’ll find another just like it.”

           “Of course…”

           Mia stood across from him, separated by the island. Her fingers lightly brushed the knife’s handle. “And you decided the next best place to come was back to the scene of the crime?”

           “I stopped for gas in between,” he told her, “Bummed around at the Gas’n’Sip, bought some gum… not like I was dying to bother you again, or whatever.”

           “But you’re here,” she pestered him, a sly smile crawling across her face as she noticed him squirming, like a worm wriggling for traction in mud. “Why?” Dean remained tight lipped. Mia pushed further. “Therapy didn’t seem like your thing earlier.”

           “Therapy’s for people who have time to whine about their problems.”

           “I think you’re afforded a little time,” Mia said, “especially after losing your mother.”

           Dean grinned, his features stretching like saran wrap to barely conceal his frustration. “Can’t believe you bought all that crap, doc,” he laughed, “Sam and I were stringing you along. None of what he said was true.”

           “So then she didn’t die a few days ago?” she asked, “And this little diversion, this hunt, wasn’t some sort of distraction from that big blowout?” Mia slid the knife towards her, studying her reflection in the blade. “It’s late, Dean. I’m tired. I’m betting you are, too. Sam sure was, only reason I could think of for why he’d spill all that to me while we were alone.”

           She angled the knife Dean’s way, staring at it still. He looked furious in the silver mirror. “Did he mention anything else?”

           Mia returned her gaze, arching her brow. “Was there anything else to mention?”

           This contest ended with Mia the victor, Dean bowing his head in surrender. “…No. I guess there isn’t.”

           A little, natty voice at her ear warned what he said was a lie. She didn’t call him on it, showing some mercy. Mia returned the knife to its drawer, her back facing Dean. “Is there anything you feel like mentioning?” Mia asked him, “About your mom… about what happened… about, hell, why you’re here?”

           Her hand stayed on the knife’s handle as she kept turned away from Dean, her spine rigid and ready to snap at the first scrape of the stool. All she heard was a low exhale of a man with a lax grip on his sanity and some rustling.

           “I was thinking about what you said during our… session,” he mumbled, “about how you practice. How you shift…”

           Mia smiled, closing the drawer with a soft tap. She rounded the island, laying a soothing hand on Dean’s shoulder. “Is there something you want to say, that you didn’t get to?”

           Dean nodded. He pulled his hand out his pocket – she hadn’t noticed it disappeared – and revealed a photograph. It was old. It was bent every which way. It was given to her with trembling hands. “If you don’t mind?”

           She studied the profile, committing details to memory as the beginning pinpricks of the shift startled like morning waves lapping at her feet.

           “Give me a few,” she told Dean, “I won’t be long.”

           Mia retreated for her downstairs bathroom. That room was more accustomed to handling the ooze produced from her shedding. Plus, a bubble bath wasn’t out of tonight’s equation entirely. If she used the one upstairs, that wouldn’t be the case.

           She slipped the photograph between the cabinet mirror and its frame, thumb tracing the profile captured there. Her body roiled with change. Her cracking bones echoed within this small space, bouncing off tiles as she changed to better fit what she saw. In the process, Mia stripped free of her clothes. Then, she peeled away her dark skin for something lighter and, by her guess, calloused.

           Tiny hands doubled in size and calloused. Her jaw became squarer, stubble shadow obvious once her eyes adjusted to their new color. Mia’s hair sat flatter atop her head, lifeless.

           When she dropped the last piece of dead skin into the tub, and her body fell silent as the hum inside quieted, Mia examined her appearance in the mirror. She compared what she saw with the picture. “Not bad…” she coughed, voice and octave deeper, and with a similar twang she heard Dean and Sam speak with earlier. Mia approximated this detail, like she had the height.

           He looked tall, in the photo.

           Mia left the bathroom, diverging briefly for the armoire in her office. She kept a few outfits inside, at least one article of clothing for each size. Her eyes caught a simple, grey button-down and a pair of jeans, not caring to put on much else.

           It’s not like she’ll wear them long.

           Dressed, she shuffled back towards Dean. He moved from the kitchen since Mia left, sitting on one of her sofas in the living room. Dean didn’t flinch when she stepped on a loose floorboard, though its creaking startled her enough to make a tiny gasp. Dean’s focus lingered on his lap, held there with grit and determination if his trembling shoulders were any indication.

           Mia approached him with care. “Dean,” she started, voice gruff but also soft, “I’m right behind you.” She laid her hand on his shoulder, overtly aware how he tensed from his words and then again, somehow worse, once she touched him.

           Dean’s head whipped around so fast she felt the breeze against her now-hairy forearms. “Wow,” he chuckled, a grim sound that didn’t rest easy, “you really look like him.” Mia moved to sit beside Dean, her hands off and in her lap. “So,” he continued, “do I call you Mia, or…”

           “It’s best you speak to me as if I were the man in the photo.”

           Nodding, Dean slid away from Mia, widening the distance between them. He tried meeting her gaze. She noted how his eyes stayed fixed on a point behind her. “Okay,” he said, “uh… this is… this is so weird…” It’s not an unusual reaction to this method. Mia was well accustomed to this routine, waiting, watching him cycle through his discomfort still and silent as an ice sculpture. Every patient, no matter their differing problems, responded the same. “Hey… hi,” Dean squeaked out, deflating, “dad.”

           Mia’s lips thinned in response, the only cue she gave for Dean to keep talking.

           Dean cleared his throat. “It’s… it’s been a while, I guess. That is – that we’re here like this. I know it’s not – you’re not… if you were you, it’d sure be a shock. What am I? Nearing forty… neither of us probably predicted that happening, did we…” He sighed, rubbing away some glistening wetness crowding his eyes. “Fuck, I don’t – I don’t know what I’m doing. Dad… Mia… I don’t – I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing here?”

           He begged for an answer with pouted lips and hollow cheeks. Mia, resilient, ignored his pleas. She dipped her chin and raised her brow in practiced ease.

           The combination provoked something terrifying from Dean. A wildfire tore across his face, razing the sadness and confusion. Those softer emotions flew on windswept smoke while the only thing left to see was an ugly fury.

           “You want me to yell?” he asked, voice climbing higher, more frantic, “Is that it? Yell at you? Scream and rant and rave at you until I’m hoarse – because I can do that! I want to… I… I’ve wanted to, for so long.” He leaned closer to Mia, snarling, scaring her. She kept playing statue, not to comfort wounded prey but to protect herself from a rabid predator. “Swallowed so much shit, since good little soldiers didn’t talk back to their drill sergeants. Because that’s what you were. You weren’t a dad, I was. Hell, I was mom, too. I had to be both of these things while you spent every day playing hunter, chasing down the demon that killed mom. To what end? Revenge, for mom? The last thing she wanted was for any of us to get involved in this life, becoming hunters like she was… not like you’d know, since she kept that from you.” He sunk into the sofa, chest heaving, ripping breaths out of the air with deadly intent. Dean spoke, again, in a much calmer tone. His words were sharp and precise, aimed to kill. “You didn’t know who she was. You didn’t know Sam… and you sure as hell didn’t know me. All you ever were concerned about was yourself. You lied to everyone, pretending what you did was for something much more noble than it was. Justified being a shitty dad with excuses, like how hunters can’t be good parents or have childhoods, or that, when mom died, a part of you died, too…”

           Dean paused for far longer than a beat, giving Mia a moment to digest what he said. Recovering from her stupor, she reached across the divide and laid a hand on Dean’s knee. “Dean…”

           He jumped. “I get it,” Dean whispered, “I really do, how you must have felt after mom died. When Cas… I didn’t know I could get more broken than I already was. Seeing him there shattered what little of me there was left. And what sucks is that I can feel myself… feel myself turning into you, but also being aware of who I used to be. It’s like I’m going crazy…” Dean shook with the force of an earthquake, except nothing else in the room moved an inch. “I want to blame someone for making me like this. I want it to be you, I want this to be your fault so bad because it feels like it should… because you didn’t step up when mom was taken from us. You didn’t try to be the adult and forced that job onto a kid who wasn’t ready. You made me become a nurturer, then into a killer – now I’ve got a kid and every few seconds I’m flipping between comforting him or destroying him.” Dean sucked in a deep breath, eyes flooded and red-rimmed. “I hate Jack and I hate that I hate him, but I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to fix it. And I can’t stop thinking about you, because you sure didn’t ask for Yellow Eyes to kill mom. She made that deal… same way Cas did what he did, to protect those they loved. We were the suckers who got stuck picking up the pieces, is all.”

           Dean’s trauma reminded Mia of her first shift, of skin strips peeled slowly one by one, left in a pile of blood and pus. She wiped her own teary gaze, clearing her throat. “Dean –“

           “I don’t,” he talked over her, “I don’t need to hear that you’re sorry. I understand you… but I doubt I’ll ever forgive you. I just… I want to stop feeling like this, so… so full of anger and hate and venom… but empty, at the same time.” Dean sagged, shoulders drooping as he shunted the heavy baggage he carried for, what Mia guessed, decades. “This was stupid,” he said, “I shouldn’t have come here –“

           “Dean,” Mia started, rising, “Wait –“

           “Thanks for trying anyhow, doc,” he mumbled, scurrying towards the stairs, “I’ll see myself out.”

           She stood there, letting Dean run from her home. He clambered down the steps, and when he slammed the door open Mia heard the hinges scream as they rocked from the force.

           Mia sighed. Those hinges called for her. They warned that someone might take advantage of her open front door to come do harm.

           Except no one could hurt her tonight. Nor would they any other night.

           She stripped off the borrowed clothes she wore, marching to her bathroom naked. Mia twisted the knobs beside her faucet, hot water cascading from the spout and filling her tub. Then, she opened her mirrored cabinet for supplies: perfumes, bubble baths, a box of matches and a green cylinder of pre-rolled joints. As she closed the cabinet, her stare lingered on the features of the face she borrowed. Mia traced the edges of Dean’s father’s face, frown deepening with each passing second. “You must have been a real rat bastard when you were alive,” she said.

           Mia struck a match, lighting a joint and all of the candles littered about her bathroom. She dumped a capful of bubble bath into the half-filled tub and added a few drops of perfume. Once the tub reached the inner rim, it looked like a field of bubble-shaped flowers that smelled of lavender with a waterfall she slowly eased to a trickle and then a drought.

           It was the perfect environment for relaxation. Unfortunately, that was the furthest thought from her mind.

           Mia, however, accepted that.

           She slipped into the tub, taking a drag from her joint and huffing smoke past her lips. It clouded the past events, of Buddy’s attack and his death, of Dean Winchester’s breakdown, but didn’t fully remove them. Tonight carved itself a firm place within her mind as a turning point in her life.

           And though her heart ached for Dean, wishing him luck in finding his own version of peace, Mia learned from their session.

           Freedom came slowly, bit by bit, one piece of skin at a time.

           Mia wasn’t sure who she’ll be on the other side of this transformation. She smiled, content with who she was now and reveling in the uncomfortableness of freedom.

[dreamescapeswriting]

The Last Promise ~ JJK [Request]

↬↬↬Word Count: 3.9K

↬↬↬Genre: ANGST, Sad ending, mentions of death, blood, car accident, heart conditions

↬↬↬Pairing: Jungkook x Fem Reader

↬↬↬ A/N: The original request was for Y/N to have an illness I can’t and will never write about and they said this would be okay to change so I hope this is okay for you.

The sun was shining through the curtains in the kitchen so brightly that Jungkook could barely read the report he was supposed to be working on for work that morning. 

"You've got a letter, I think it's from Y/n," Jisoo's voice didn't sound best pleased with the fact that you had written him a letter Jungkook was just as confused about it as she was. He hadn't heard from you in months but now all of a sudden you were writing him and handwritten letter? 

"I wonder what it is?" He questioned but Jisoo had no time to sit and talk about what the letter from you could and couldn't be about, she was late to work so she gave him and a quick kiss before leaving the apartment that they were sharing together now. He groaned flicking open the envelope. He was met with your usual handwriting and he smiled as he saw the way you wrote his name was still the same in the cute handwriting you had. It made his heart lurch as he remembered all the notes you used to put on his lunch for work.

Jungkook, 

Before you throw this letter down and discard it along with everything else I thought you held close to you, you need to read all of this and read it properly. There's something you need to know about why I didn't give you the blood that day in the hospital...The day my whole life came falling apart ...

The machine you were laid inside was doing the routine beeping that it always did, you'd been in and out of the machine so much that it no longer scared you when you had to go for a screening. The beeps always used to scare you, made you feel like there was something else wrong with you.

"Everything looks okay Y/n," The doctor called out over the beeping, the machine began to wind down and you could hear everything inside of it shutting off before you were pulled out by a nurse who handed you a glass of water before leaving the room. Your doctor came out from behind his glass screen holding a clipboard and pen at the ready, 

"Are you still taking the medications?" The doctor was doing his job you knew that but the questions were always boring, asking the same routine questions that he had to do once a month while you gave him all of the same answers that you'd been doing for the last four years. 

"Yes," You whispered showing him the box of pills that you kept in your handbag, you took so many different pills in the day it was no wonder that you didn't rattle whenever you took a step anywhere.

"Are they effecting you any differently?" You shook your head even though it wasn't an answer he wanted, he wanted words to come from your lips not just a simple nodding of the head.

"No side effects. I'm fine like I have been for the last four years." You mumbled putting on your shoes as you jumped down from the bed you'd been sitting on. You put it down to it being his job to be this protective over his patients but you hadn't had a problem in the last four years yet you still had to take pills every day and would have to for the rest of your life thanks to the Dilated Cardiomyopathy that made your heart weaker than most peoples. It made your life a little harder than most but you weren't going to sit back and let it get you down you weren't going to let it hold you back from anything either, 

"Are you still doing your regular exercises?" He meant the swimming he'd suggested to you, promising you that it was the only sport that would be good for your ''condition'' without damaging you or your body or making your heart any worse.

"I go swimming once a week with my boyfriend, speaking of which I'm late." He rolled his eyes playfully at you and told you to go writing down the answers he knew to his questions, you'd been seeing him for so long he was more like a friend than a doctor but he was close to you. Private care wasn't cheap but it was the only way to get the treatment you needed for your weakened heart with someone who would take all of this seriously with you.

"Hey Kookie, I know I'm late and you're driving but call me when you get this." You said into his answer phone as you made your way out of the hospital and towards the exit doors, he was supposed to be meeting you at a local park before you went out on a date. He didn't know about your heart condition, you and he had only been together for a year and you didn't want to tell him. Though your family had all told you it was something he needed to know you didn't want to risk him treating you like you were made of glass all of a sudden. That was how everyone else treated you. Like you were something that was bound to break at any second when it couldn't have been any further from the truth. As long as you were taking your medications, eating right and behaving like someone who wanted to live you would be fine. No one had to know. Especially not Jungkook.

"Y/n?!" Your best friends voice came through the phone panicked after you finally picked up her call, you'd had 15 missed calls from her along with some voicemails but you'd assumed they weren't anything important until you heard her sobs,

"What's wrong? I was just in an appointment." She didn't know either, no one knew except family and even then it had only been your parents along with your siblings since they had been the ones to find you when you got sick.

"Do you not check the news?! Or your Phone?!" She screamed at you from down the other end of the phone and you knew it was urgent, she'd never spoken to you like this unless something was really bothering her. 

"What's wrong?" You froze outside the hospital doors when you saw an ambulance parked up outside, your best friend standing in a cream dress as she was covered in blood. 

"W-What are you doing here?! What happened?!" Your phone dropped to the floor smashing against the pavement as she turned around to see you standing there, her face was covered in blood as if she'd been the one to get hurt but the way she was standing it couldn't have been her. 

"It's not me, it's Jungkook." As soon as his name left her lips panic washed over your body, the amount of blood she was covered in meant it wasn't good. The ambulance and rushing workers were adding up to something terrible happening. Your body went into shock, freezing you from working as she wasted no time in asking why you were already in the hospital you'd told them before that you did volunteer work there from time to time, she began rushing you through the building ignoring your constant questioning about what was wrong with Jungkook and why she was covered in presumably his blood.

"Jisoo!" You screamed slamming your foot down against the tiled floor in the hallway you demand answers from her instead of the whimpers she was letting out. All you'd managed to get from her were the few words, 

"Car, accident, blood, surprise, and dying." So your mind wasn't putting the best case scenario right in front of you right now.

"Jisoo please," You begged her looking into her eyes with your giant pleading ones waiting for some kind of answer that would make sense and didn't make your heart thud against your chest and make it hurt. Stress wasn't good for you but right now stress was all you were getting from her, 

"Jungkook. We were driving to the park, we were going to surprise you when...When this car it...It came out of nowhere Y/n." The worst thing your brain could come up with was that it was him involved in the accident but if he was so badly injured why hadn't your friend been? 

"Why aren't you hurt?" She shook her head, 

"He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, he smashed his...Oh my god, his head." She broke down into tears and a doctor came out of the room from behind you, 

"We've managed to keep him stable, are any of you a match for his blood type?" Jisoo looked at you knowing that you were an identical match and so was she, 

"I-I am but I can't-" She scoffed at you, 

"She's scared of a little needle but we're both a match we can donate." A doctor lead you into another small room that was on the same hallway, a nurse then began getting you and your friend ready to take some blood from you, 

"I can't do this, please I have to talk to someone first-" Your best friend began grumbling something under her breath at you but you ignored her pulling a nurse to the side to tell her about the medications you were on. Some of the prevented you from donating your blood and you knew that if Jungkook got your blood it could fuck him up even more than he already was from the accident.

When Jungkook woke up the next day his eyes met yours and you smiled sweetly in his direction rubbing your fingers over his knuckles in a soothing way, you'd come to a decision while he was under that you were going to tell him the real reason why you hadn't been able to donate your blood to him. It was going to have to be told sooner or later and you would rather have him know now rather than never knowing. 

"Kookie," You breathed seeing his eyes staring at you but he didn't respond to the nickname as he usually would. Normally the nickname you had for him was met with a giant smile back or at least an acknowledgement this time it was as if hearing the nickname you had for him caused him pain, you were going to put it down to the accident until the door opened.

"I brought us some cookies, water for your stomach and then I- Oh. Y/n." You frowned hearing the confused tone coming from your best friend, Jungkook had been out for a day and you'd gone home to get him some clothes. 

"What?" You whispered standing up from the chair, you saw the look that she was giving Jungkook and it filled you with dread. 

"I was just- wondering what you were doing here." She placed the food and drink down onto a table in the room, Jungkook tried to speak but it was as if his voice was going. Which was happening due to the amount of sleep he'd been getting since the accident. 

"You haven't done it yet?"

"Done what yet?" You questioned as she directed the question at your boyfriend, you already knew what was coming. You could feel it in the pit of your stomach that something bad was about to happen, his eyes locked onto yours again and this time you were met with sadness behind them,

"Jungkook?" 

"Jisoo can you give us some space please?" He grumbled at her and she left the room, not giving you a second glance as she threw her hair over her shoulder. 

"You wouldn't give me your blood-"

"Yeah, and I have a very good reason-"

"Why? Were you just going to let me bleed out and die on the hospital floor!?" You knew he was angry but you wanted him to know why you hadn't donated before he began yelling at you, your chest was already starting to hurt from the yelling and the look he was giving you.

"Jisoo! She risked herself giving me more blood than she was supposed to!" Jisoo had given him a lot of blood you knew that but that wasn't your fault, you couldn't give him your blood unless he wanted to die that way. 

"Jungkook please let me explain-"

"Explain what?! Jisoo already did it for you! You wanted me to die, didn't you? It would save you having to break up with me, but look" I'm doing it for you. We're over." What he was saying didn't make any sense, why would you break up with him when you adored him? You loved everything about him and he thought you'd let him just die.

"Jungkook are you even listening to yourself!? Why would I break up with you-" The door opened and Jisoo was standing there looking pretty proud of herself, so much for friendship. 

"You're not supposed to cause him stress, it can make him worse. She walked over to his side of the bed and ran her hand over his forehead as if she'd done it a million times before, it only made the stabbing pain in your chest worse to watch the way they acted together.

Days had passed by in the blink of an eye, you'd spent a week trying to get everything out of your shared apartment with Jungkook before he got home from the hospital - they'd kept him over to make sure he was recovering well from the blood transfusion. You wanted to get out of there before he and Jisoo came back from the hospital but you were unlucky in that, they'd come home right as you were putting the final boxes into the boot of your car. Seeing them together broke your heart and not just in the descriptive way of the word but in the physical sense too. Once they saw you there they kissed in front of you as if trying to add salt into the wound Jisoo knew what she was doing and she was going to make sure you knew damn well that you'd missed out on Jungkook, you cried the whole drive back to your parent's house where you were greeted with open arms. You'd half expected them to tell you they told you so but it never came mostly because they were too afraid to make this worse for you.

"You can talk to me about this sweetie, I understand what you're going through." Your mother whispered one night as you laid awake on the sofa, you were watching some random reality show that was on the TV. Your family was worried about you, all of the stress could have lead to something seriously wrong with your heart.

"I'm fine, mum." You lied sitting up from the sofa and turning to face the stairs debating going up them to sleep or just to pass out on the sofa like you had done the night before and the night before that, 

"I'm just tired." Another lie. The whole time you'd been back in the family home you'd done nothing but sleep, hoping that somehow you would wake up and all of this would be some kind of highly realistic dream and was one of the side effects from your medication but that never came. 

"I know something is wrong and that's fine, your best friend just stole your boyfriend." You knew your mother was only trying to make things better but in turn, was somehow making everything feel so much worse. 

"I'm fine, I'm going to go to bed." Her hand on your wrist stopped you from moving away from her and your eyes landed on the floor, 

"You forgot your meds," You took the box she was holding out for you and headed towards the staircase, everything was hitting you hard. The thought of never taking your meds again was crawling back into your brain, convincing you that there was no need for them but there was every need. Your father sat down beside you mum holding her in his arms as she sobbed against his chest, your heart wouldn't be able to handle this if you kept this act up and they were concerned for you.

A few months had passed by and things weren't getting any easier, it was getting harder for you to get up every day when you were faced with Jisoo and Jungkook everywhere, your brother had begun talking about them a lot whenever he thought you weren't around. You'd gone for a walk to the shop to clear your head and to pick up a refill on your medication, you were sick of the constant questioning from your mother and father along with your brother's comments about Jungkook, you didn't hold it against him for breaking up with you but you wished he would at least listen to your reasoning behind not giving him any of your blood.

"That's what I said? She's nothing but a selfish money grabber." You frowned hearing Jisoo's voice in the shop you were in, you were around the corner picking out some fruit for the night to munch on since junk food wasn't good for you. 

"Babe she wasn't that bad-" Jungkook was there too and their voices sounded like they were coming closer, you were going to be cornered in the middle of a supermarket full of people. Coming face to face with your ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend wasn't something you'd put on the top of your to-do list that day.

"There she is now, why don't we ask her," You wanted the ground to swallow you whole as soon as you heard Jisoo acknowledge your presence within the store. Jungkook looked at you and once he locked eyes you knew he was like a whole new person now, you were met with a cold stare from him as he raised his eyebrows as if challenging you to try and defend yourself. As you tried to come up with something to say you began to stumble over your words and dropped the basket onto the floor you were carrying, everything spilt onto the floor including the medication which you grabbed before making a quick exit. 

"Runaway! Just like you always did you, coward!" Jisoo screamed but Jungkook had seen the medication bottle you grabbed and wondered what you were doing with it, he remembered you being the healthiest person in the world when you were together. Your mother watched in horror as you came in that night and threw your meds onto the floor, running away exclaiming that you no longer wanted them anymore, it only made her and your father worried for you more.

They had every right to be worried less than a month later you were laid up in a hospital bed with your family gathered around you, some were crying while others acted as though they weren't bothered. Your body was hooked up to so many different machines that you'd made a joke to your younger brother that you were turning into a robot - it was an attempt at cheering him up though it hadn't worked very well he ended up crying and never wanting to go back to your room again. The worst part of all of this was that you knew you were going and you knew you were going to die sometime this week, 

"Mum, can you get me some of the stationary from my bag? Please," You whispered looking at her as she glanced up from her book. She had been the only one not to leave your side throughout the process she felt like it was her fault since she'd been the one to find you on the bathroom floor. 

"What for?" The pad of paper was placed down in front of you as you sat up in the bed, you took the pen she was giving you and wrote his name in big bold writing along the front of the envelope. 

"Y/n...Is that wise?" She only wanted what was best for you, 

"Mum...We both know I don't have much time left." Was all you said to her before you began writing the letter, everything you'd been thought of feeling since the breakup and that day in the hospital.

Jungkook was crying as he stared at the last couple sentences of the paper in his hands, the letter had read like some kind of book to him. As if he'd been there when everything you'd said had happened. 

If you're reading this and my mum didn't mess up the timing today is the day of my funeral, I didn't want you there but not out of spite. Despite everything you and Jisoo put me through for the last couple months of my life I know it wasn't your fault. Neither of you knew about my heart condition and that was on me. I'd originally planned to tell you before Jisoo walked in on us when you were in the hospital but after you ended things I didn't - excuse the pun I guess - have the heart to do that. 

Jungkook made his way towards your house a couple of hours later, your mother was waiting on the doorstep for him since he'd called ahead of time. 

"I didn't-"

"I know." She whispered not letting him finish his sentence, she knew he had no idea you were sick. She opened her arms for him to be able to hug her before you'd died you'd begged her not to hold it against him for what happened that none of it had been his fault. Anything could have caused your heart to act up the way it did, even your doctor said that it could have been the medications that stopped taking effect, it didn't have to be Jungkook and Jisoo that just happened to coincide with the timing.

"I didn't know if I'd have known-"

"Jungkook before she went she made me promise not to let you blame yourself, she made me promise to look after you." He could imagine it clearly in his head. You sitting on the edge of the bed and making sure everyone else was taken cared of before you even thought of yourself it was what you did, something that you always did because you never wanted to put your needs before anyone else. You put everyone else's needs before your own because you were that type of person, the good kind. Guilt and regret ran through his body as he thought about you being alone on your last couple of days. Images of the way he'd talked about you to people ran through his head, he didn't want to be cruel to you but to him, but the way he'd seen it you'd left him to die instead of giving him the blood he needed to survive looking back on it now he could see why you'd done that.

"You should come inside, get you some hot chocolate." She mumbled standing up from the floor it hadn't been her intention to keep her promise at first but she knew you meant it. You'd loved Jungkook with everything within your body so she wasn't going to disrespect your last wish, she helped him up from the ground and turned him around to face the front door. He knew there was nothing that was ever going to make him feel better after what he'd done to you but he was going to try and make things up by helping your family whenever he could. 

Tagline:

@writingdreamsnottragedies​ @snowy-meowl​ @jooniesdarlingdimples​ @lyoongx​ @lynnthevirgo​ @fan-ati--c​ @mitzwinchester​ @rjsmochii​ @callingmyangel​ @kneel-begyourpardon​ @taestannie​ @innersooya​

[fairfaxleasee]

DADW Killer Gnomes (Part II)

@rangeredacted gave me the amazing/terrible suggestion to write something about killer garden gnomes for @dadrunkwriting. I wrote Part I last week (you can check it out here but couldn't finish because I had my second COVID shot.

But here's the end, in all it's bloody, camp horror glory:

Cullen pushed Solas out of his way and strode out of his office. He looked around for any sign of the blighted gnome the Inquisitor had brought back to Skyhold (he didn't care what Solas said, Ayala Trevelyan had brought the thing into the castle, she was responsible for everything that happened because she did - besides, if she hadn't put it in the garden, he wouldn't have taken it out of the garden and awoken it).

"Commander, as distasteful as we both find the idea, might I suggest things would proceed more smoothly if we were to work together to attempt to contain the gnomes you've released?"

"For the last time, Solas! This was not my fault!"

"Debatable, Commander. And while I am perfectly willing to engage you in such a debate, I do not believe that this is the time for such a discussion. If you would listen, I believe even you would not miss that we have bigger concerns than laying blame." Solas paused and inclined his head slightly. Now that the man wasn't lecturing him, Cullen could hear the screaming coming from several directions around Skyhold.

Cullen pursed his lips and glared.

"It is pleasing to see that you are occasionally capable of being rational. Perhaps you will realize that the entire situation was your fault after all."

As tempting as it was to push the man off the parapet they were on and into the carnage below, Cullen decided against it. Solas might be still be useful, and he could always push him later.

"Alright, Solas. You want to work together? Fine. What do you suggest we do first?"

"Well, that depends, Commander. Just how many scouts that seem to have on concept or concern whatsoever for their surroundings wander around here?"

"Too many." Cullen crossed his arms.

"Then I believe we should assume that the screaming is not coming from them and that they have already been... repurposed by the present adversary. We should therefore also assume that there are too many of the gnomes wandering around to attempt to capture them. As such, I believe the first thing we should do is find Ayala."

"So help me Solas, if you just want to check and make sure your girlfriend is okay -" Cullen didn't have an end to the threat, but judging by Solas' face he wouldn't have heard it anyway.

After a few seconds of silence, the man opened his mouth and drawled. "Not that I have any expectations at all that you will listen to me about this, but I am in no way concerned about Ayala's safety. I have every confidence she is perfectly fine, which is the reason I believe we should seek her out. Neither my magic nor your shields are any sort of match for her barriers."

The fact that Solas had a point about why finding Ayala was their best move only made the entire situation worse somehow. He exhaled through his nose and spoke through gritted teeth, "...fine. Where'd you leave her?"

Solas looked up and shook his head in a gesture Cullen hated. "I did not 'leave' her anywhere, Commander. Last I saw, she was on her way to the kitchens."

"Alright, we'll go to the kitchens then," Cullen took a step away from the apostate, but the man obviously had other plans because he tugged Cullen back towards him by his jerkin.

"I believe we should go around the long way. Unless, of course, you wish to meet a similar fate to your scouts."

Cullen looked down at the carnage in the coutryard below. "I... fine. You have a point."

Taking the long way around to the kitchens took a bit more work than Cullen would have liked (particularly when Solas lept effortlessly across the gap in the roof to get from the parapet to the main castle and had to keep Cullen from falling off - he'd never live that one down). Of course, Cullen liked what they found in the kitchen even less than he'd liked getting to the kitchen.

Ayala was kneeling on the floor next to the table and was handing out kernels of popcorn to individual gnomes while engaging them in what she seemed to think was perfectly normal conversation despite the fact that they were covered in blood and viscera.

"No, I already told you you can't have another one before everyone gets one."

"Bar-ra-rrr!"

"I'm not sure we have any more I can make."

"Ra-rargh-arr."

"Uhhh... I think they keep it in the larder? If you bring up more from there, I can make more and then you can have some."

"Rargh-arg-rarr."

"Well then you're not getting any more until everyone else gets one. Now scoot." She picked up the protesting gnome and put it aside from the line that had formed in front of her, then tapped it slightly to encourage it to move.

"Grrr-rar-rr..." The gnome saw Cullen and apparently decided to work out is frustration on being denied popcorn on him as it clawed its fingers and began running directly towards him. Cullen lashed out with a quick kick that launched the thing toward the nearest wall where it shattered and released a large cloud of dust.

"Is that dust something we have to be worried about?" Cullen glared as he directed the question at Solas.

"Not unless you are allergic. However, it does mean that was not the original gnome. The original gnome will not be destroyed so easily."

"Lovely." Cullen started striding towards Ayala, who had resumed handing out popcorn.

The gnomes waiting in the line took offence to Cullen's movements, but unlike the one he had just kicked, their protests weren't aggressive. One of them rapped his boot with its fist and gesticulated angrily between Cullen, the popcorn, and the back of the line. Cullen glared down at the thing. He was in no mood to be lectured on manners by a blood-covered, killer garden gnome.

He reached the table and grabbed the bowl of popcorn away from Ayala. She looked up at him in alarm. "Hey! That's mine!"

He was denied the opportunity to respond to her protest by the entire line of gnomes turning on him. He tried throwing the popcorn on the ground, but the gnomes were far more interested in trying to tear him apart than whatever they wanted the popcorn for. "Solas? A little help?"

"Perhaps you should think of this as a lesson in taking things that aren't yours, Commander. Besides, if you can't handle a few statues, perhaps the Inquisition should be seeking someone else for your position regardless."

Cullen threw whatever gnomes he could get his hands on at Solas (and annoyingly kept missing, the man was just as slippery in his movements as his words). Between that, his kicks, and the fact that he was in armor, he managed to get rid of the blighted things without being injured that badly in the process.

He shook out his jerkin just to make sure none of the creatures were hiding in it. Once he was convinced that the kitchen was currently free of them, he turned back towards Ayala. She and Solas were whispering to each other, but more concerning than that was one of the damn gnomes that was perched on her shoulder. The thing spotted Cullen and stuck its fingers in its mouth and protruded a stone tongue in his direction. Cullen snarled and stalked over to the pair (three?) of them. As soon as he was close enough, he reached out for the gnome, only to be thrown back against a far wall by one of Ayala's barriers.

"...Inquisitor, we've talked about you looking before you lash out with a barrier!"

"You surprised me!"

I surprised her. She was feeding an entire line of blood-covered garden gnomes popcorn and I surprised her!

Cullen thought he saw a grin flash across Solas' face before he turned back to Ayala.

"Vhenan, do you recall finding the ring your friend here was describing?"

"Yeah, Cullen took it." She pointed towards him. "But I can find it. He puts all the stuff in his office."

Cullen growled as he stood and dusted himself off. He decided to ignore the unfounded accusation and instead try and figure out just what was being discussed while he was busy trying not to die. "What ring?"

Ayala and the gnome walked out the door leading to the castle proper, leaving Cullen alone with Solas. All things considered, Cullen would rather have been left along with the gnome.

"There is a ring that will allow an individual some modicum of control over the gnomes. They appear willing to work for Ayala, so long as she can supply them with popcorn."

"Why," Cullen wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, "Do they want popcorn?"

"In all honestly, Commander, I have no idea. I admit, I was under the impression that the creatures did not eat, however it does not appear that giving them access to popcorn causes any harm. I suggest you try not to dwell on it."

Cullen barely resisted the urge to scream.

A few days later and the mess caused by the blighted garden gnomes still wasn't cleaned up (and while Cullen would never admit it, the peace brought on by the distinct lack of oblivious scouts was a relief). Cullen had shut the doors of his office to the scene (and the smell) and was trying to re-create some of his files (there were tiny foot and hand prints all over his originals). He looked up when the door swung open and Ayala walked in.

"...Inquisitor. Welcome back. Did you remember the rule this time?"

The one good thing that had come out of the mess was Cassandra insisted that she accompany Ayala again to make sure the mage didn't sneak (or, as was her story, "accidentally forget") anything into Skyhold again.

"Yes, they're bringing everything I found."

"...they?" Cullen wasn't sure why, but he did not like the sound of that.

"Yeah. They. I'm going back to my room now." She turned and strode out of the office.

In her wake, a line of oversized piles of junk, suspended in the air by little stone legs, began to strut into Cullen's office. The first gnome deposited its pile on Cullen's desk and grinned at him before trotting off after Ayala.

"...Cullen?" someone whispered.

"Vhenan, it does not count as informing the Commander if you speak too softly for him to hear you."

Cullen started at the condescending drawl. The next thing he realized, his forehead collided with his desk as his chair slid out from under him. He shook his head a few times to clear the last vestiges of the worst nightmare he could recall having (and check to make sure the piles of useless trinkets he had just watched the gnomes deposit in his office were figments of his imagination).

"Look what I found!" Ayala triumphantly placed something grey on Cullen's desk and grinned at him. "I want to go put him in the garden, he says he'll like it there."

Cullen could feel the throbbing in his forehead, but whether it was from hitting it against the desk or the sight of the thing Ayala wanted to put in the garden, he didn't know. The thing that was currently on his desk looked far too much like Cullen's least-favorite apostate (right down to the superior frown and downcast eyes) with a comically large head. He glared across his office at the man whose image the thing appeared to be carved in.

Once their eyes met, Solas' narrowed and he mouthed, "Get rid of it, Commander!"

Cullen pursed his lips and shook his head. He slammed his hands down on the desk. "OUT!"

Ayala leaned away with a slight frown on her face. "So... I can put him in the garden?"

"NO!" Cullen snatched the thing off his desk.

Ayala jumped back. Her frown was more pronounced and Cullen thought he might have just made her cry. Again.

"Come, vhenan, it appears the Commander is in yet another of his moods."

Solas swung his arm towards the door to Cullen's office to invite Ayala out. She nodded and shuffled off, still looking upset. Solas waited until she had passed him before turning to Cullen with a glare and a hiss of, "Get rid of that, Commander!"

Cullen decided against calling after the man to remind him of which of them was in charge. Instead he grabbed the gnome and rushed to the tallest part of Skyhold he could find.

"You were never here." He shook his finger at the thing, pulled his arm back, and sent it flying as far as he could throw it.

He never heard it hit the ground. Hopefully, the ground was just too far away for him to be able to.

[tomhollandisabae]

Request: Hi. Can I request an imagine with Timothee Chalamet in which I broke up with him because he kissed other girl. And after some time I get a role in the movie with Timmy as your character's love interest. And in the kissing scene he starts sobbing and has some kind of panic attack. With happy ending please 🖤

Thank u for your request!!!❤️❤️

Summary: When fate wants you and your ex, Timothée, back together.

warnings: angst, fluff, mention of panick attack

Masterlist | Requests

•

Want You Back - Timothée Chalamet x Reader

You and Timothée had gone out clubbing. It was 3am and you were sure that you drunk way too much. You started dancing while Timmy told you that he wanted to use the restroom.

The thing was that a few minutes had passed and yet he didn't come back. You started looking around to find him, but you couldn't belive in your eyes with what you saw.

Timothée Chalamet, your boyfriend for almost two years, kissing another girl. You felt you blood boiling and you marched towards him with anger.

"So, that was the reason why you wanted to go to the bathroom?" You asked sarcastically.

He immediately pulled away and turned around to face you.

"Y/N, baby, it's not what it looks like." He tried to convince you, but you were already walking away from him.

"Y/N, please listen to me, I'm telling you the truth. She kissed me and I was too drunk to realise what was happening. Please, just listen to me for one moment." He said panicked while he was following you. Then you suddenly turned around and pointed your finger towards him.

"We're done Timothée and if you ever dare to talk to me, believe me, you'd wish you wouldn't." You left, leaving him there on the parking lot with tears in his eyes.

Maybe he was right, maybe you were right, who knows. What he did was a mistake no matter what and you will never forgive him about it... or you thought so.

~~~

It had been two months since you and Timothée beoke up and the truth is that it didn't go as planned. You were all day crying over him, you wouldn't eat and of course you couldnt sleep. You wanted him to be there for you, every single moment. There were many times when you were wondering how was he doing or if he was thinking about you.

Anyways, that belong to the past because you just got a role for a new romantic movie on Netflix and you couldn't be more happy. That was your chance to meet new people and to get over him.

Today was the first day of shooting your new film and you had just got to the set. The make up artists and the costume designers had done everything in their power for you to look like a goddes and you couldn't be more thankful about it.

It was the time finally to start filming.

The first scene of the movie takes part on a beach where there is a party happening and you het a little tipsy, meet a boy, who is obviously your love interest in the film, and you kinda male out.

To be honest, you hadn't met you co- star yet, so you didn't know how he looks like or who he is. You were so impatient to meet him.

"Okay so, Y/N, the scene starts and you are dancing while Timothée comes from behind you and starts dancing with you amd then he grabs your hand and leads you away from the crowd and you are drunk, so you immediately kissing each other, understood?" The director explained and you shook you head. Wait... did he say... T-Timothée? There's no way that's him! No, no no no, it cannot be. You thought while you where looking around you to spot him.

Yeap, it was him.

The boy you left two months ago in that parking lot with tears in his eyes.

The boy whi broke your heart two months ago.

The only man you've ever loved.

He was standing there looking at you with passion and love. He was about to cry, but he can't. He knows that what he did was wrong and that you every right to be mad about it. He had messed up so bad.

"And... action!" The director yelled.

Suddenly, the music start playing and as you were told, started damcing swaying your hips. Moments later you felt two strong, yet familiar, arms wrapped around your waist while he leant forwars with his head on the crook of your neck whispering:

"Let's get out of here beautiful." You felt him grinning and then he pulled away hrabbing your hand and turning you around. It was the first time you saw him after what happened. The forst time in two months that he touched you.

He led you away from the crazy people who were dancing like maniacs, and towards the sea. He spinned you around many times while you were laughing and finally he pulled you in his lap and hugged you tightly.

You could sence it that he was scared. He thought that even then you would leave and that was his worse nightmare. You knew that he was afraid of losing people that he loved, but you couldnt do anything about it. You didn't want to leave him, after all you loved him... and still do, but you had no other choice.

Then he leaned forward to capture your lips while you closed your eyes waiting for him. The thing was that he never kissed you.

When you opened you eyes he was crying, his eyes where already red and you could feel his heart beating like crazy while he was trying to breath.

"Tim?" You asked scared.

"Cut! What's happened?" The director asked you.

"I think he's having a panick attack." You replied not taking your eyes off him.

"What? How... how can we help him? What should we do? Should we call the medic?" He was firing you with questions.

"No, I- I can make him relax. Please just leave us alone for a few minutes." You said and he shook his head while everybody else left the set.

"Timothée plesse. Breathe. In and out, in and out." You instructed him but it didn't work, it only made things worse.

"Timmy please you have to breathe. Please Timmy breathe." You started tearing up.

"W-why d-did-d y-ou l-lef-t m-ee?" He asked while he fell down on his knees sobbing.

"Baby please, I'm so sorry for leaving you. That was never my intention you know that. After all I love you, but what you did wasn't good. You kissed another girl Timmy, why did you do it?" You said while you got on his level and hugged him while you started crying too.

"I'm s-so s-sorr-y my l-love. I love you t-to Y/N, I camnot l-leave w-ithout y-you. I know I me-ssed up, what can I-I do to g-get you back-k?" He said.

"First of all you must calm down please, calm down and I promise you that I will be yours forever." You said grabbing his cheeks.

"Y-you p-promise?" He said more calm right now.

"Yes Timmy I promise." You smiled.

He closed his eyes, started inhaling and exhaling. Moments later he had calmed down.

He looked in your eyes and hugged you and you as well. He kissed your forehead whispering you sweet nothings while he was rocking you.

"I love you Y/N." He told you when he pulled away.

"I love you too Timmy." You smiled.

Finally he leaned forward to kiss you and you did too. The kiss at first was slow and soft. Afterwards you wrapped your arms around his neck locking your fingertips in his hair while he wrapped his hands ariund your waist traveling them all over your bady exploring every inch of it. You deepes the kiss as it become more passionate and you could feel the lust. A few moments later you pulled away and he touched his forehead on yours smiling.

"I'm glad that I have you back." He said kissing your nose.

"I'm glad that you have me back." You smiled.

***

Thank you for reading everyone!!!❤️❤️ Send me your requests please!!!❤️ Love ya xx💞

[hieludoboi]

A List of Things I’d Like to do With You (Pt 4/9)

A/n- hahahahahah this got deleted but I had it saved on my grammarly and prowritingaid accounts so we’re gucci. Just gotta proofread now 

A/n- this is just me indulging my Bokuroo fantasies tbh 

Links- Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5

Summary- Cute little carnival/amusement park date

Pairing- Daichi/Fem!Reader

Word Count- 6,000+

Trigger Warnings- Sick reader, terminal illness, vomit, blood, pretty sad, crying

________________________________________________________________

Daichi’s mother sighed as she sat on the park bench, a watchful eye over her three-year-old son. Daichi was running as best as he could through the sand, finding joy in kicking it up as he ran. The park was empty, filled only by Daichi’s occasional giggles and the creaking of the swings gently swaying in the evening breeze. 

Daichi wasn’t always the most social of children, being too shy and scared to play with the other children, and his mother desperately hoped that bringing him to the park would help him open up. It was rare that Daichi would want to play with the other children, preferring to observe them instead. But then she had shown up to the park.

A younger woman with a chubby little girl who couldn’t stop laughing or smiling. From the moment she had wobbled into the park, it seemed to grow brighter. Daichi was instantly drawn to her, his eyes following her all over the park while she ran around with different groups of children. 

Though, Mrs. Sawamura had to admit that the little girl had quite the character. It seemed like an eternity before Daichi stopped staring and finally walked towards her. The little girl was running around with a group of kids, giggling and laughing while they played tag. Daichi’s mother watched her son, smiling as he slowly started walking towards her, a shy smile on his face. 

And then he stopped in his tracks, eyes wide as she ran blindly towards him, head turned to the side to look at her mother with a wide smile. In two seconds they had knocked into each other, falling into a heap of limbs onto the sand. The little girl cried, face scrunched up while one hand covered the bruise on her shin. Mrs. Sawamura ran towards the children, looking up in time to see an apologetic and sweet-faced woman rushing towards the children. 

Before either of them could get to the children, Daichi had leaned forward, his forehead bumping against the girls with a soft ‘knock’. Both women stood in shock behind their children, watching as they looked up and giggled, wide grins and closed-eyed smiles as they bumped heads again. In the amount of time it took them to realize what had happened, Daichi had stood, helping up the little girl before she pulled him off to her group of friends. 

“Oh. Well, that went better than I thought.” Mrs. Sawamura giggled at the stunned look on the woman’s face. 

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

“All together, we have...... around 580 yen.” Daichi sighed, leaning back on his palms. It was cool outside, the spring breeze wafting between the trees and grass while Daichi and Y/n sat on Y/n’s porch. The convenience store wasn’t too far away, and their parents wouldn’t be home for another hour or so. As two fourteen-year-olds, they didn’t have too many options. It was either wait and starve or walk to the convenience store down the street and bicker over what they would share. 

“That’s enough for some onigiri and drinks!” Y/n determined, placing her fist in her hand, a grin on her face. Daichi groaned, shaking his head. He was not in the mood for onigiri. 

“It’s enough for some meat buns and drinks.” Daichi corrected a satisfied smile on his face. Daichi could practically feel Y/n’s entire face scrunch from beside him. 

“Onigiri.” Y/n grumbled, glaring at the side of Daichi’s face. Daichi scowled, turning to look at Y/n, a dark look on his face. Y/n’s eyes widened, her body trembling. Daichi’s ‘serious’ face was scary, but she would not waver. 

“Why don’t we just do one meat bun and one onigiri, problem solved,” Daichi suggested. Y/n groaned, dragging her palms down her face.

“We discussed this already! Onigiri is like 100 yen each, which leaves 280 yen for drinks and maybe chips! Meat buns are 200 each, that leaves only 180 for drinks and snacks! Onigiri are cheaper and yummier!“ Y/n argued, huffing when Daichi rolled his eyes.  

“You two are ridiculous. Just get one meat bun, one onigiri, and you’ll have enough for drinks.” Y/n and Daichi looked up, momentarily breaking their staring contest to see Suga shaking his head above them. 

“Suga, one onigiri will not be enough to pull me through the day!” Y/n explained, an exasperated look on her face. Daichi nodded, agreeing with her for once that day. 

“Yeah, one meat bun will not be enough!” Daichi echoed, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I think you’ll survive. Besides, your guys’ parents will be home soon to make dinner.” Suga reasoned. Y/n hummed, deep in thought. Daichi narrowed his eyes, seeming to contemplate Suga’s words.

“You may have a point.” Y/n mumbled. Suga smiled, reaching down to help Daichi and Y/n up from the porch.

“Let’s go then, yeah? My friend’s grandma runs the convenience store down the street and said they’re having a special on onigiri, so let’s go!” Suga whined. Y/n giggled, standing up and sticking her tongue out at Daichi. 

“Told you Onigiri are more cost-efficient!”

“Those were not your exact words!” Daichi grumbled, standing up to trail behind Suga and Y/n. 

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

It was one of those rare Saturday afternoons that Ukai had given them off. With nationals inching closer and closer, their free time seemed to be growing thinner. Practices took up most, if not all of his time. Yet still, he made time to go visit her. With the winter fast approaching, and the snow threatening to fall, Daichi found himself bringing her fresh flowers as often as he could.

Walking into the cemetery no longer had the effect it once did. The smell of chrysanthemums still stung his nose, but his rage was becoming less and less. He had taken Suga’s and Asahi’s advice, keeping her alive through his memories. It was a nice sentiment, and maybe it wasn’t how he wanted to spend his life with her, but it was much better than acting as if nothing had happened. Yet still, he was running out of things to talk about with her, the only things left being her list and her death. And while Daichi was happy to laugh and talk about their air balloon ride and their night under the stars, he was still not ready to remember how she died in his arms, face scrunched in agony, eyes glassed over as she realized her death was inching nearer. He didn’t want to think about the way she screamed, squeezing his hand purple while she begged the doctors to make it stop. Daichi sighed, pinching his temples and shaking his head. Not yet. He still had good things to talk about. 

Daichi took in a deep breath, relishing in the way the crisp December air stung his nostrils and chilled his chest. Lately, there had been no one to greet him at her grave, only flowers left by the other boys who would come on their free time, even some things from Bokuto and Kuroo who had been friends with her when her family moved to Tokyo for a few years before coming back, their friendship being rekindled at the training camp. 

He had recently become friends with the owners of a small flower shop. They were quite the pair, the old lady being very brash and opinionated, keeping the old man laughing and on his toes. The old man was serious, her exact opposite. He seemed to keep her grounded, stable, and unwavering. In some ways, Daichi could see Y/n in the woman, and himself in the old man, and it made his heart ache. He wondered if they would have led a life like that. Old and wrinkled, yet still full of life, a little shop all their own crawling with grandchildren every Saturday, their children coming in every Monday to help carry heavy vases.

This time, Daichi held a bouquet of yellow tsubakis in his hand. He grunted, settling in the cold and stiff grass, placing the bouquet next to the purple bell flowers that he could only assume one of the boys had brought her. 

“Sometimes I feel stupid for coming to talk to you. You’re dead, donezo as you would say... Sometimes I come and see Suga sitting here just talking the day away, telling you about everything and I feel stupid. I just- I don’t know why everyone’s okay with it and I’m not. You’re not suffering or anything anymore, but-” Daichi could feel his jaw clench, his eyes snapping shut to prevent any tears, but they fell. They spilled as if fleeing from a broken damn, dripping down his face onto his pants and shirt. He felt stupid. 

It had been so long, and he thought he was getting over it. Just last week he had sat with Asahi and talked to him with a smile on his face. He attended practices and acted as a good captain should. He felt fine, so why was he crying? Why did things suddenly become hard? How come all his progress seemed to get washed away by tsunamis of sorrow?

“Kou, she doesn’t like bell flowers!”

“Tetsu- yes she does! Which one of us did she go to school with, hmm?”

“Ugh, you, but-”

“Exactly! I know her better than you do!”

Daichi looked up, his vision blurred by his tears, his body trembling and weak. Hurriedly, Daichi wiped at his eyes, hoping to wipe away any traces of his pain.

“Huh, Daichi? Are you okay?” Bokuto’s voice was soft, full of worry and sympathy. His eyes were rounded and soft, a small frown tugging at his lips. Daichi nodded, sniffing, and turning to look at the trees behind him. He was fine. It had been months, he had to be fine at this point.

Daichi could hear both captains huff before plopping down beside him, the bottom halves of their faces covered by scarves. Bokuto turned to look at him, his smile hidden behind his scarf but present in his warm eyes. Kuroo offered Daichi a smile, reaching over to place the purple bell flowers beside Daichi’s bouquet. 

They sat there in silence for a moment, Bokuto twiddling his thumbs while Kuroo stared off into the distance, eyes focused on nothing in particular. Daichi could hear Bokuto fiddling beside him, humming while he played with his scarf. Who knew encounters outside of the court could be so awkward.

“Hey, uhm, not to be rude, but are you feeling okay?” Bokuto asked, his bottom lip caught between his teeth in worry. Daichi looked up in surprise, his eyes locking with Bokuto’s. 

“Uh, yeah. I’m pretty okay, I guess. It’s just hard...” Daichi mumbled, his hand holding onto the back of his neck, cheeks dusted over with a soft blush. 

“Well, at least two of us are doing okay. Bokuto seems to bawl his eyes out every other day just by thinking about her. You’d think they were soul mates with the way he cries.” Kuroo scoffed, leaning back on his palms, gazing at the clouds in the cold and gray sky. 

“We weren’t! We were just good friends, and it hurts to lose someone you cared about! I may not have been as close to her as Daichi, but she was still my friend and I miss her. A lot, okay!? And at least I process my feelings instead of being a jerk like you!” Bokuto retorted, tears pooling in his eyes, his hand reaching up to pull down his scarf so he could yell at Kuroo. “Maybe if you had an Akaashi, you would know how to process your emotions in a healthy way!” Bokuto added, turning his entire body, his lips in a pout while he sniffled. Daichi’s eyes widened as he looked between both males. What happened? 

Kuroo’s eyes seemed to soften, a soft sigh escaping his lips. Daichi chuckled when Kuroo gave him an apologetic smile before crawling towards Bokuto to sit next to him, his arms wrapping around Bokuto. 

“Kou, I’m sorry, bro. I know it’s hard, and you’re doing a great job. I’m proud of you, bro, so forgive me?” Bokuto wrapped his arms around Kuroo, nodding his head before pulling away to wipe his tears away. 

Daichi couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face and the laugh that left his lips. Their bickering reminded him of the way Y/n used to pick fights with him when she was bored. It made his chest fizzle with warmth, his cheeks feeling warm and pink with joy. He understood why she adored those two as much as she did.

“What’s so funny?” Bokuto huffed, his mitten clad hands still wiping at his eyes. Daichi shook his head, the grin still on his face.

“It just reminds me of the way Y/n and I used to argue.” Daichi chuckled, staring at the silver bracelet on his wrist with fondness. 

“Tetsu! What if we’re soulmates!” Bokuto gasped, his hands gripping Kuroo’s shoulders, shaking him. Kuroo groaned, but couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face.

“You’re my world, bro!” Kuroo declared, laughing at Bokuto’s antics. Daichi felt his smile drop a bit. They thought Y/n was his soulmate? Was she? Daichi stared at the flowers, deep in thought. Perhaps they were soulmates. 

“Oh! That reminds me! Y/n promised to tell me about the carnival! But, you know...” Bokuto mumbled, his eyes focused on his crossed knees. Daichi looked up, his eyes seeming to twinkle a bit at the mention of the memory. 

“Oh! Yeah, for sure, She got a spike to the face that day...” Daichi admitted, a bashful smile on his face.

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

Garbage. That’s the only way she could describe the way she felt. Her face clung onto a sickly pale and yellow undertone. The meat that used to reside on her bones had become a snack for the reaper that loomed above her head. Her eyes were like grainy and murky pearls resting in the deep and hollow pits of clamshells, and her cheekbones spiked through her skin like mountain peaks. Okay, so maybe she didn’t look that horrendous. In reality, she had shed maybe ten pounds? But she felt disgusting, her body wasting away into nothing. At her doctor’s appointments, she was told that she was surprisingly healthy, told she was fine, and maybe it was because they weren’t living with death that they didn’t see what she saw. 

Yet, even with the constant threat of death, she found something to keep her happy. At the moment, it was her relationship with Daichi. As promised, they tried. It wasn’t all kissing and cuddles; it wasn’t just romantic, but Y/n liked it. She liked the warmth that spread across her body whenever Daichi held her hand. She lived for the way he gazed at her. She adored the massages to her scalp, the kisses to her knuckles as they laid in his bed. The study dates, each celebratory hug after each game that was won, the little bits of intimacy that suddenly were sprinkled all throughout their interactions. It was subtle, nothing to hoot and holler about, but it made her happy. 

As per Daichi’s request, the events on her list were now planned, having a time and date. Though she lived for the spontaneous moments in life, she also liked knowing when things were happening. Even a person as chaotic as she could enjoy stability from time to time.

Y/n hummed to herself as she rolled in the five-gallon cooler filled with water. Kiyoko trailed behind her, checking things off of her clipboard and occasionally shooting Y/n a question or two. 

“Y/n-San!” Y/n looked up in time to see Noya and Tanaka running at her, hands outstretched to try to catch the volleyball that Asahi had accidentally sent flying her way. She couldn’t move, her feet practically glued to the ground. Before she knew it she was stumbling and tripping over her feet, her body falling onto the hard gym floor. Y/n groaned, holding the side of her head, her vision out of focus and her temples throbbing. Everything was spinning, and the familiar burn at the base of her throat began to bubble. Before Daichi or anyone could react, Kiyoko quickly helped her up, rushing Y/n to the bathroom. 

Y/n cried as she hunched over the toilet, Kiyoko rubbing her back to comfort her. It hurt, it hurt so bad, and all Y/n could do was sob and heave as the sick and blood flew from her lips. She hated that Kiyoko had to see it, hated that someone knew. No one was supposed to know. 

“Y/n...” Y/n looked up at Kiyoko to see her hand covering her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. “W-we need to call an ambulance, or-or take you to the doctor-” Kiyoko stuttered, her hand shaking as she reached for her phone.

“No! N-” Y/n heaved, gagging and wincing as nothing came up. “Please, no. I’m okay. I-” Y/n shuttered as she wiped the blood from her lips, looking down at the back of her hand to stare at the blood. “Sit.” Y/n patted the floor next to her. The bathroom floor was filthy, but she couldn’t find the strength she needed to stand. She still felt so light-headed, her vision going in and out of focus. Kiyoko nodded, sitting down beside Y/n, her hand still gripping her cell phone. 

“Please. Don’t tell anyone, I- I don’t want anyone to get upset.” Y/n stuttered, wincing as she hiccuped, the taste of sick and metallic blood coating her mouth and tongue. Kiyoko stared at Y/n, her eyes soft and sad. Though her hand was still trembling, she reached out, gently taking Y/n’s hand into her own. 

“I have terminal stomach cancer.” Y/n whispered, her hand gripping onto Kiyoko’s with a vice-like grip. It was the first time she had admitted to anybody that she was sick. It was the first time she had acknowledged she was sick. Y/n looked away, covering her mouth with her free hand to muffle the soft sobs that spilled from her lips. She was sick. Dying, she was dying and there was nothing that could cure or save her. No amount of treatment in the world could kill the cancer that was already spreading through her body, tearing it apart like a rabid and hungry animal. She was dying.

Y/n shook her head, her body trembling violently, the sobs spilling from her lips growing in volume. Oh god, she was sick. Kiyoko sniffled, pulling her into a hug on the filthy bathroom floor, holding her tightly against her body as she sobbed into her shoulder. Y/n was heaving, crying and practically screaming into Kiyoko’s shoulder, the hurt reverberating through her chest, filling the bathroom with a solemn haze. Soon, there was nothing left of her voice, her mouth meekly hanging open in a silent scream, her erratic breathing rocking her body to the core. 

It’s not like Kiyoko hadn’t seen it. In fact, most of the other boys had probably seen it too. Her eyes, though still bright, were now dull. Her body seemed to be subtly wasting away, the fullness of her face subduing. She wasn’t gaunt; she wasn’t terrible, but anyone who knew her well enough could notice it. 

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

Daichi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose while Asahi, Noya, and Suga bickered in the background. Noya had been teasing Asahi for the past fifteen minutes about how his spike knocked Y/n to the ground. Suga had kept telling Noya to leave Asahi, but Noya was relentless in his attacks, leaving poor Asahi sulking and damn near close to tears.

“Short stack! Leave Man Bun alone or you’ll be running laps!” Ukai screamed, his eyebrows furrowed with anger. Daichi laughed, shaking his head as Noya instantly stopped, practically trudging back to the court to work on his receives. While they were poking fun at Asahi, Daichi couldn’t help but wonder how Y/n was doing. She had taken a spike to the face, and was struggling to get up, her face going pale while she stumbled over her feet. 

Speak of the devil, Daichi thought to himself, breathing a sigh of relief as Y/n walked back into the gym, Kiyoko right by her side. Daichi stared at her as she walked by, his eyes raking over every detail of her face. She seemed a bit dizzy, her eyes glassed over and her skin a little ashen, but nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. He hummed to himself, his eyes focusing on the redness of her eyes and the swelling of her cheeks. Had she been crying? Daichi turned around, eyes meeting Ukai's, silently asking for permission. Ukai gave him a curt nod and Daichi silently thanked him before jogging towards Y/n who was sat next to Kiyoko on the stage.

"You okay?" Daichi asked, taking her hands in his, his thumbs brushing lightly over her knuckles. Y/n sniffled, leaning forward and letting herself be caught against Daichi's chest. Daichi grunted, chuckling as she buried her face into his chest.

"Did it hurt that much?" Daichi teased, bringing a hand up to gently massage the back of her head. Y/n huffed, pulling back to butt her head against Daichi's. 

"Jerk. If you caught one of Asahi's spikes with your face you'd be crying too!" Y/n retorted, sharply turning her head so Daichi could only see her cheek. 

"Wow. So that's how it is!" Daichi huffed, leaning forward to nudge his nose against her cheek. He laughed as Y/n gasped, eyes going wide with embarrassment. He loved seeing her get all flustered. She obviously wasn't doing too bad, but Daichi still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

"It is! Now hurry so we can go on another escapade! You take way too much time in the shower to be idling by!" Y/n said, pushing Daichi away from in between her legs so he could join the others.

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

"Okay, can you tell me where we're going?" Daichi asked, leaning slightly to the left to lean his head against Y/n's shoulder as she drove. Y/n huffed, shrugging his head off of her shoulder before pulling into a relatively empty parking lot. "Is this- are we at an amusement park?" Daichi stared at Y/n with disbelief. An amusement park? 

"Yes, sir!" Y/n chirped happily, unbuckling her seatbelt to practically jump out of the car. Daichi sighed, dragging himself out of the car. It's not that didn't want to be there, but the smell of hotdogs and grease, fried foods, and the occasional pile of vomit were not the least bit appealing to him. But the smile on her face was all he needed to look at to go along with her plan. 

She called them escapades, little adventures they took based on her bucket list. She always seemed to be teeming with glee whenever they completed one. Her eyes regained their usual glint, her smile was no longer restrained, and the color even began to seep back into her skin. It was the only reason Daichi let himself be dragged along. 

"So... Games or rides?" Y/n questioned, taking his hand in hers as they walked into the park. Daichi hummed, looking around the park and contemplating his options. 

"Games first. I wanna be corny and win you a huge stuffed animal." Daichi said, nodding his head with determination and placing his fist on his palm. Y/n laughed, shaking her head in amusement. She was relaxed, leaning into Daichi's side and playing with his hand as they looked for their first game. 

"Bet you I can win you a stuffed animal before you can!" Y/n teased, pulling away from Daichi, a sly grin on her face. Daichi tutted, staring at her in surprise. Her competitive streak hadn't shown itself in a while.

"Oh? How much do you wanna bet?" Daichi questioned, leaning close to her face, a smirk on his face. 

"If you lose, which you will, we go get onigiri!" Y/n grinned, leaning forward, almost closing the gap between them.

"Fine. If I win, which I definitely will, we go get meat buns." Daichi declared, closing the gap between them to capture her lips in a playful kiss. Y/n pulled away, casting her gaze off to the side while her fingers played with the bottom of her shirt. As flustered as she was, she would not lose!

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

It took a while before they finally settled on ring tossing. It took a lot of bickering and convincing, but there they were, glaring at each other as they practically ripped the rings out of the poor worker's hands. 

"I'm gonna beat you, Sawamura." Y/n threatened, her gaze still locked onto Daichi's. 

"That's rich coming from you, L/n." Daichi's voice was cold with a playful lilt, the same smirk still plastered onto his face. Y/n tutted, breaking the staring contest to instead focus on the game. Not because Daichi's smirk made her flustered, totally not because of that, not at all...

Daichi laughed, practically throwing his head back at the scowl that adorned Y/n's face. Y/n could feel her face scrunch, but she paid no attention to Daichi or his antics. She took a breath before throwing her first ring, groaning as it clung to the rim of the bottle before slipping off.

"What'd you say, L/n?" She could hear the stupid smirk in his voice. God, she wanted to punch him in his stupidly handsome face sometimes. Daichi gave her a smug look, tossing one of his rings and waiting for it to land. Only it didn't, not even close. It flew short, falling before it could reach it. Y/n could feel the laughter burst from her chest like water flowing from a broken dam. 

"Dude! Oh my god! You should see the look on your face right now!" Y/n was cackling, doubling over and holding onto her sides, wheezing while tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. Daichi was hunched over, eyes locked on the fallen ring on the dirt floor. He? Missed? Daichi watched as Y/n stood back up, her cheeks glistening with tears of laughter. He had four rings left, he still had a good shot of getting all three bottles. 

"Doesn't count," Daichi grumbled, scowling when Y/n continued to tease him.

"Daichi! Watch this!" Y/n called, easily tossing a ring onto the rim of the bottle. Daichi stood straight, eyes locked onto the rims. He was going to win. He wasn't the most pride obsessed person on the planet, but he'd be damned if their dinner wasn't some tasty, big, and juicy meat buns. Y/n straightened after leaning over to throw her third ring, visibly deflating when it missed. She had two more rings, and only two bottles left. Daichi still had a chance.

Daichi cleared his throat, standing tall when Y/n turned to look at him with confused eyes. He made sure to make a grand display, picking up the ring with exaggerated gesture and leaning over with his butt sticking out before daintily throwing the ring, watching with a smile as it spun around the rim before falling in place around the neck. Y/n groaned, turning away instead to focus on her bottles. She was a prideful person, and losing a bet she made did not sit well with her at all. 

"And we have a winner!" Y/n looked up in surprise, mouth hanging open as Daichi smugly stood with his hands on his hips. 

"Take your pick, Y/n." Daichi's smile was wide, spreading across his face and leaking into his eyes and the red tips of his ears. Though her pride had been badly bruised by the loss, she couldn't help but feel giddy as she pointed to the massive frog that sat atop the rest of the plushies. Daichi thanked the man running the stall as he gave him the frog, turning to place the stuffed frog in Y/n's open and waiting arms. 

"Thank you." Y/n murmured, leaning forward to place a chaste kiss to Daichi's cheek. She could feel the warmth rush into his face the moment she pulled away, his mouth hanging slightly open.

"It was nothing,” Daichi admitted, rubbing the back of his neck while he looked around the rest of the park. 

"More games? Or do you wanna go on rides?" Y/n asked, her chin resting on the top of her frog plush. Daichi tapped his chin in thought. They had many options here. They could waste their money on more games and probably not win prizes because let's face it, these games are rigged. They could use their bracelets to their advantage and ride every ride they had to offer, which probably wasn't a good idea as both of them had really bad motion sickness. Or they could gorge on all the greasy and fried foods until they were stuffed sick.

Daichi loved food, adored it, but he knew he wouldn't be ab;e to enjoy the soggy grease smothered fried food on sticks without Ukai yelling at him. The games, though fun, would only cause an argument. For as much as he loved her, sometimes he just wanted to shove her into a pit. Daichi was a bit of a sore loser, and Y/n an even bigger one. Some rides weren't too bad, not all of them were roller coasters that would make them throw everything back up. 

"What if we ride the carousel?" Daichi suggested, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side. 

"We'd look like idiots." Y/n deadpanned, looking up at Daichi with a serious expression. Daichi rolled his eyes, sighing through his nose.

"Since when have you cared about looking like an idiot?" Daichi shot back. Y/n scoffed, turning her nose upwards. 

"Excuse you, but I am a very dignified person!" Y/n retorted. She watched as Daichi laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners, his head tilting back. Did he really think of her that way? She knew he was joking, but she couldn't help but bite the inside of her cheek with worry. Did he think she was an idiot?

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

Y/n laughed wholeheartedly as she hoisted herself onto the metal horse, watching as Daichi situated himself on the horse next to her, sitting straight and tall, mimicking some fake posh pose. 

"Madam," Daichi said seriously, pretending to tip his 'hat'. Y/n stifled her laughter, trying her best to curtsy on the horse.

"Good sir," Y/n replied, the grin creeping back up onto her face. 

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

Daichi hummed to himself happily as Y/n pulled him around the park, going from game to ride to food to game. She was buzzing with energy, pretty e/c eyes glimmering in the red, blue, green, and orange light of the park. At this point, they had gone on almost every ride, save for the rollercoasters. The only ride left was the Ferris wheel.

"C'mon!" Y/n tugged at Daichi's hand, pulling him closer to the giant and lit up wheel. They were some of the last people left at the park, and the lines for everything were now a lot shorter. In a matter of minutes, Daichi was sat next to Y/n, the giant frog on the ground next to the operator. Y/n looked up at Daichi, a grin on her face as she leaned into his side. 

She felt happy, warm, and safe. She felt it all the time, bubbling in her chest and fluttering in her stomach like butterflies. But she was tired, drained, and depleted. It took everything in her to not fall asleep on Daichi; it took all her energy to smile and giggle. She felt joy; she felt as if she were basking in a clear pool of nostalgia and warmth, but the irritation seemed to find a way into the pool to taint it. She felt nice, so why did she want to scream? Why did she want to cry and curse the world and everyone in it? 

You're so stupid, you're going to die, idiot, Y/n thought to herself, sinking further into Daichi's side, her gaze focused on the moon that began to rise. Was it really that late? The ride came to a halt, the carriage that Y/n and Daichi sat in stopping at the very top. Y/n looked over the side, gasping as she surveyed the park, eyes skimming over various stands and lights. 

Pretty. It was one of the few ways Daichi could describe the sight. The various colors of lights that bathed the park in shades on blue, green, red, and orange shone like a soft glow off of Y/n's s/c skin, reflecting on her cheeks like little ponds of light. Her eyes were open and round, mouth slightly agape. Pretty.

Y/n turned to look at Daichi, a wonder-filled grin on her face. Daichi smiled, his eyes tender. He leaned forward, one hand cupping her face, his thumb gently stroking the skin beneath it. Y/n relaxed under the touch, leaning into it. They stayed like that for a moment, Daichi stroking her cheek while she sat relaxed and still with closed eyes. And then Daichi was leaning in, pressing a warm and slow kiss to her lips. Y/n could feel the fire prickle underneath her skin, crawling to the tips of her toes and fingers. She could feel a buzz prance on her face, she could hear her blood rushing and heart beating. Daichi's hand dropped to her neck, giving it the lightest squeeze, his palms feeling like silk draped against her neck. 

Y/n pulled away, pupils blown and lips parted. She could feel Daichi's eyes studying her entire face, taking in every dip and angle, memorizing every beauty mark like they were constellations in the sky. Before she could steady her breathing, Daichi was dipping his head, pressing his lips to hers once again, gently nipping at her bottom lip before pulling away.

"Is this okay?" Daichi whispered, his eyes closed, lips closer to her jaw now than they were before. Y/n gulped, her gaze flitting down to Daichi before nodding. Daichi stayed still for a minute, relishing in the heat of her skin. Then before he could think, he was peppering kisses along her jaw, gently working his way down to her neck. Y/n gasped, body jolting when Daichi's lips brushed against her neck. Daichi chuckled, brushing the area with the tip of his nose, a smile sneaking onto his lips when he heard a giggle slip past Y/n's lips. 

Tenderly, he pressed a kiss to her neck. Nothing more, nothing less. He stayed still, the silent question hanging in the air. May I? He could feel the way her breaths became just the slightest bit sporadic, he could feel every jolt, hear every gasp and giggle. Could he? And then Y/n was holding his hand, giving it a soft squeeze. Daichi pressed one more kiss to the area before giving it a swift nip, quickly pressing his lips to it to soothe the soft nip of pain. Y/n giggled at the sensation, her laughter quickly being drowned by soft gasps as Daichi began to bruise the skin with his lips and teeth. Daichi pulled back, pressing one final kiss to the patch of skin before lifting his head to give Y/n a soft smile. 

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

Daichi had been scrolling through his phone, waiting for Y/n in the truck while she made a quick trip into the convenience store to pick up the meat buns they had bet on. She had insisted on going into the convenience store with her giant plushie, stating that it was because she was in love with it, and not because she wanted to show a friend of hers who just so worked there. It had been well over fifteen minutes before Y/n stepped into the car again, a sour look on her face and the bag with the meat buns in her hand. Daichi didn't even have to ask her what was wrong. As soon as she sat down she was going off about some lady in the store.

"She called me childish! Said I was probably irresponsible and then lectured me! Stupid lady, ruining my night." Y/n grumbled, giving Daichi his meat buns and leaving hers in the bag so she could drive. "You don't think I'm childish and irresponsible, right?" Y/n asked, her eyes focused on the road. Daichi stilled, his face shoved into the savory pork bun. He did not want to answer that. "Daichi?" As much as he loved her, even Daichi could admit she was a bit of a handful sometimes. She managed to get in trouble wherever she went, and there wasn't a day that went by where Daichi wasn't dragging her out of that mess. But Daichi adored it. Even if it meant getting in trouble with the neighbors and his parents. She was his constant reminder that life was meant to be lived. 

"I think you can be all those things and more, but it's charming," Daichi responded truthfully, chuckling when Y/n perked up in her seat. 

"Thanks, Dai," Y/n murmured, keeping her eyes on the road as to not make eye contact with Daichi.

"Meat bun?" Daichi offered, pulling one of the buns from the plastic bag, unwrapping it, and holding it to her lips.

"I prefer onigiri." Y/n teased, leaning forward to take a quick bite from the bun.

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

Bokuto leaned back on his palms, a soft smile on his face. Daichi sighed, his eyes focused on the hem of his coat. He wondered, what happened to her frog? 

"It's comforting to know she was happy those last few months," Kuroo admitted, his hands on his knees. Daichi looked up to see Bokuto and Kuroo gazing out at the sky, eyes focusing on the different clouds that billowed across the cold, grey skies. 

"It is, huh..." Daichi agreed, allowing himself to relax and smile. It was nice to think she had been happy. At least for a little bit.