#As well as the brain disease he had as a baby possibly giving him brain damage

[echoesofadream]

okay one way i am autistic tho is the way i have super strong emotional empathy but really hard for cognitive empathy . And like when people make fun of empaths by all means but i know that when i feel other peoples feelings its not necessarily accurate because im projecting myself into their situation

[efverse]

grandparents part 3 outta 3, baby!!!!

Long text under the cut,

espeon evolved at a young age. when he had begun to develop a mysterious illness in his brain that couldve been fatal if his body didnt evolve into an espeon to combat the potentially terminal disease early on. it didnt really impact him past that point in his life and recovered very well but...

his own unconventional evolution piqued his interest in how far an eevees adaptive abilities could be pushed. But from what he could tell no one else had been able Really look into that.

but espeon had always been fascinated by evolution in general helping his parents with their work. espeon was born around the time they started the research facility in kanto after they had moved there together. he had made impressive advancements in the field of evolution studies himself. wrote books, publicly spoke on the topic and just. generally became a respected authority on it all, over the course of his life.

over the years he had also found the time to start a family. not very present in their lives since he was extremely busy with his work. his oldest and youngest did not have much interest in their family's line of research at all but his middleborn always had a respect for the work his father did.

However, as successful as he was in his field...he still wasn't satisfied with his personal knowledge of his own species's natural abilities...

---

one day espeon had gotten an offer from team rocket to be a lead scientist on some project. something about cloning mew. they said that they would assist him with anything he wanted. give him any amount of money he wanted for him to be on the project. he made a big show of kicking them out of the facility, however...he secretly contacted them telepathically before they got very far away telling them he would work with them.

the project progressed and espeon became fascinated with not only the science and technology involved in what they were doing but the ethics as well. And how they could just...do it. But then again he'd never personally cared about whether an experiment could be considered cruel to its participants. Always being ruled by his own curiosity and his want of knowledge in that regard...

As he felt like the progress was going smoothly on the project...something went wrong and Mewtwo broke out. He was prepared for his offer to be rescinded but...team rocket kept up their part of the deal they agreed on and gave him as much protection and money for whatever he had in mind as they could...

he wanted to see how far an eevees natural adaptation could be pushed. Even though he knew the route he was going possibly wouldn't offer reliable research he didn't particularly care as long as he could sate his own curiosity in the topic...he only had three test subjects after all.

Espeon couldn't let his kids evolve for the sake of his pet project to work. Not only did he do experiments that physically harmed them on occasion but since eevees also evolved w emotional stimuli he messed around a lot with that aspect of it too... his eldest evolved on her own one day the first chance she got. after an argument w him she left home on her own. Soon after his youngest followed her lead. Left with only his middleborn he still did what he could...

Begrudgingly the experiments came to an end. leaving him still unsatisfied but he understood that there was little point in continuing on.

---

as the years went on he actually did try to have a *decent(by his standards at least) relationship with his grandkids despite his son being "overly cautious" and not really wanting them to have to interact with him in any way if they didnt have to...

when one of his grandchildren evolved into an espeon he immediately took them on as an assistant of sorts in hopes that they would be able to take over the family business. However his expectations were not met and he was disappointed more than anything.

When he eventually passed around his late 70s(?) he kind of had no other choice but to put his son in charge of the family labs seeing as everyone else he thought of as a possible option was either no longer in contact with him or dead.

He died about 2 years before EVs egg was laid.

[creepy-friday]

Ok ok

Hear me out

👀

Imagine if the Proxies were in any type of relationship with Y/N, and Y/N isn't a proxy or maid or anything.

And Y/N got pregnant 💀

Brownie points if the baby is a girl-.

Notes: the reader is in an established relationship with them,and kept the pregnancy a secret until the only option was for the baby to be born

Warnings: pregnancy mentions,yandere tendencies in Brian's part,mental illness in Toby's and misogyny in Tim's

Special thanks to @spookyravioli for the inspiration♡

"Oh.Oh." Toby's first reaction is shock and slowly the feeling of dread would start to overcome him

He never imagined himself as a lover,let alone the tought of becoming a parent.Toughts of his own father started to beat him up,and insecurity spread trough him like a disease

He needs A LOT of reassurance in order for him to not break down.During the pregnancy he would be very supportive partner and would try to keep you as happy as possible

He bought a shit ton of books,from parenthood guide books to kids ones that he would often read to calm down

When the daughter was born,multiple thoughts entered his brain."I'm a father now." sounds both bittersweet and scary to him

This was the time when he started to take medicine for his outbursts,not only for him,but for both yourself and the baby's sake

As much as he wanted to not traumatize his daughter,he couldn't help but make her be constantly on edge

She wasn't afraid of him,but rather wary,slowly understanding that her father wasn't always in the right place

Despite his early efforts,I can see as the daughter grows up she would start to resent him from all the things that he hides away from her to the way he seems off putting

Because Toby's workplace is a demanding one,I can see him completely giving up on meds and having angry withdrawals because of it

That's why it will be up to the daughter to either sugarcoat the way her father is or to step up and overgrow him

Surprisingly,Masky's first tought isn't to go buy milk.Instead,he takes his time to reason with you and to list all the complication the baby will come with

He tries to be a good lover to you,he really doesn't want the of risk losing you because of his shitty moods,that's why he genuinely tries to not stress you out during the pregnancy

Tim will take care of anything you need,even if he would mutter something under his breath,all he does is for you.In his mind,if he loses you he will lose himself as well,that's why he's so eager to please you

After getting into a verbal fight with half of the hospital personnel,he almost lost his mind when he heard that he was having a daughter

He grew up distant for a while,and was passive aggressive while taking care of the baby,as if her whole existence's worth is based off her gender

After he became warmer to you he became colder to the daughter as time flew by and she grew older

"It's because you're a girl" ; "This isn't a girl's job" ; "Are you really going to wear that?Unfit for a girl"

I can see the daughter growing up to break down her father's stereotypes,but at the same time battling with his inner demons

She might have addiction problems and become obsessive over subjects she can have control over

If the mother doesn't do anything about it,I can see the daughter having a history with battling the same type of mental illness her father had

Brian knew all along about your pregnancy,and secretly enjoyed the tought of something or someone to keep both of you forever together

After all,the baby is the living proof of your love,that's what he believes

He made sure you're kept safe and get the best health care from other women doctors/nurses,he doesn't trust male personnel

Brian was an implicated parent,altough he heavily wanted as little communication as possible from you and the outside world

From the time the daughter became a toddler,he started to grow those sick ideas into her little head about how ugly society is

As time flew by,he already convinced her that all men are beasts,and that the only safe resort she has are her parents

He not only made both yourself and your daughter paranoid,but made sure that the others would avoid interacting with both of you by saying things like "oh,my wife became mentally ill because of pregnancy complications..please do not stress her out"

If the daughter grows suspicious about her father's occupation,she would keep it a secret from her panicked mother and would try to figure it out herself,all while trying not to give Brian any clue about it

Brian genuinely thinks he made a safe space for his family,and without the reader's reasoning I can see both the reader and her daughter having a limited life inside the cabin and the forest

[honestly-mad-person]

I'll NEVER LET YOU GO

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! Genre: Angst Pairing: Xavier x fem!reader

Annotation: What does a person feel when they realize that they have been forgotten? When they look into the eyes they love madly and they do not shine as they did when they first met. When the person who has forgotten inadvertently does or says something that they had said before, in a past life, before dying in a warm hug. How does a person live when they realize that they have been forgotten?

While I was writing this, I could hardly hold back my tears. I really feel desperate when the realization of all this is spinning in my head. I didn't expect this game to be so cruel, not a cute otome game with sweet boys.

Even though this story ended so suddenly, I don't want to write about Xavier's inner suffering. I want to think about the fact that now he has time to be with MC, to fall in love with her again like the first time. And he will do everything he can to make sure that the time they spend together is as beneficial to MC as possible. Even knowing that it is limited. Even knowing that the disease will take her love away from him again. He will fight for MC's life even at the cost of his own. (Sorry for the mistakes, I haven't slept in a while and I'm still upset about this story. And yes, I'm writing this with wet eyes, yeah.)

— No... – you mumbled, lying restlessly in bed.

Your head rolled from side to side, your brows furrowed, and your hands clutched the blanket until your bones turned white.

You had a dream. More precisely, a nightmare that left behind a storm of emotions and feelings, when you woke up with a scream, suddenly sitting up.

— Baby, what is it? – asked Xavier in a frightened voice hoarse from sleep.

Sitting in the dark, you clenched your fists, giving free rein to the tears that poured from your eyes in hot streams.

— Princess, – Xavier's voice sounded and his arms wrapped around you, pressing you to his chest.

— Xav… – you couldn't speak because of the lump in your throat and continued to cry, feeling tension in every cell of your body.

— Hush, I'm here, – he whispered quietly and, touching your head, stroked it soothingly.

You couldn't stop your sobs. Fear, pain, sadness, loneliness and emptiness covered you. Your eyelids were swollen from tears, and with trembling hands you held tightly to Xavier's sweater.

— God, what happened… – he said, feeling how your shoulders trembled and how desperately you held on to him.

Gradually, you calmed down, only occasionally sobbing. Your eyes burned and you couldn't open them, you clung to Xavier, feeling him soothingly caress your shoulder and head. Snorting your nose, you felt a headache that squeezed your brain every time you moved your head.

— Xavier… – you whispered, wiping your tear-soaked cheeks with your hands, pulling away from him.

His hands slowly slid off of you, giving you space.

— What did you dream about? – he asked, sitting next to you.

—I… I don't know for sure, but… – you strained your brain, trying to remember what you saw. – I remember the lights in the sky, they appeared and then went out, as if...

— A meteorite shower? – prompted Xavier in a quiet voice.

— Yes,— you nodded, turning your head in his direction.

You couldn't see him well because of the darkness and swollen eyes, but you knew how he looked now. Asleep, with disheveled hair, he looks at you with his clear, light blue eyes. You couldn't make out his mood in his voice, but it wasn't hard to guess. Excitement and confusion.

You never woke up in the middle of the night from nightmares. It was a first for the two of you and it was no wonder you felt it together.

— A meteorite shower… and the smell of salt… I can still smell it, – you muttered. 

Xavier was silent, listening to your every word.

— I watched the meteor shower with someone who was important to me, but I can't remember his face, it's like in a fog.

— Take your time, – Xavier said softly, touching your shoulder.

— I don't know who this person is, but I think I loved her, – you said uncertainly, feeling a rush of emotions again.

You took a deep breath trying to control yourself and exhaled and continued.

— It was the happiest moment in my life, but then... then the picture changed and I...

There was silence in the room and only your quiet breathing interrupted it.

— I died – you said, feeling how tears poured down your cheeks again.

It seemed to you that it was real. It's like you really died. As if in one moment just poof and you are gone.

Your shoulders shook and you covered your face with your hands, sobbing softly.

Xavier hugged you again, brushing his lips against your forehead. He didn't say a word until you mastered another sob on his chest. Patiently waiting for you to continue, his arms wrapped around you tightly, preventing you from moving away from his embrace.

— I died like that, – you whispered, looking nowhere. – Sitting in the arms of the person whom I loved infinitely. My life ended in his hands.

Suddenly you realized that Xavier, who had not spoken for a long time, was sitting tensely, hugging you. His hugs, as if he was afraid to let you go, his quickened heartbeat, which you only now heard when you stopped crying, and the faint shaking of his hands.

Lifting your head, you could barely see his face.

— Xavier? – you asked, feeling how your own heart beat faster and how the pulsation of pain grew in your head.

— I'm listening, – he cleared his throat in a low voice.

After a few seconds of silence, you hesitated.

— If you don't like hearing about this nightmare, then I –

— No, go on, I want to hear, – he interrupted, shaking his head.

— Okay, – barely nodding, you pressed your cheek to his chest. – The last thing I remember is that I saw a star... so close.. or something that looked like a star. She shone so magically in front of my eyes, as if she had come down for me personally from the night sky...

Your lips curled into a bitter smile as you tried to recall more details.

— The life was leaving my body, the heartbeat slowed down and the eyes, as if filled with lead, closed by themselves – your voice sounded quieter and quieter. – And I plunged into cold, merciless, empty darkness.

Xavier's arms tightened around you. Leaning into your ear, he whispered in a low voice.

— I won't let this happen, I won't let the darkness take you… – he cut off his words abruptly, as if he wanted to say something else and replace it, his lips touched your shoulder, lingering on it for a few seconds. – No matter how much time passes, no matter where you are... I'll find you. I'll definitely find it.

As soon as the last phrase reached your ears, your body shuddered in excruciating pain. It was as if your brain was being torn to pieces and you grabbed your head with your hands, trying to stop it.

Sensing the sudden change in your body and your moan of pain and agony, Xavier became confused. His hands quickly picked you up and he was about to leave the bedroom to take you to the hospital, until suddenly your quiet words came to his mind, agitated by excitement and fear for your health.

— It was you… – you whispered, clinging to the last shreds of consciousness. – I dreamed of you...

Your body went limp in his arms, your head fell on his chest and you fell into the darkness.

A distant, so familiar and familiar voice came to you, telling you:

— You promised we'd watch the meteor shower again.

It echoed, gradually dissolving in the darkness.

[donkeys-waffles]

(This is so long, but it almost wraps up my thoughts on the most recent chapter. You've been warned. This is also in no way trying to justify AFO's current actions, I'm just over-analyzing the demon baby's childhood and how that turned into the adult demon we see today :>)

Something else I found interesting about the leaks. Baby AFO is killing people, I'm assuming for reasons of survival, either from those people being threats or they have something he needs.

But something that's really been on my mind lately is a child's perspective on death.

Children learn to love and fear different concepts by parental figures in their life, or adults in general really. It's like a pack complex, they see others react a certain way to their environment and learn how to react as a result. Children really learn how to human from other adults, which deeply shapes their view of themselves and the world around them.

But another concept that is taught to children is the concept of death... Children learn that mortality exists, and that it is something to be afraid of... By adults...

But two orphans that raised themselves in an apocalyptical society, from what we can tell from birth, they didn't have adults around to teach them anything, let alone that people do die and that it's a bad thing. At least they didn't have that during some of their most pivotal developmental years.

We see AFO as a monster, a child born evil, but for 1. We see this from a what could be considered the most unreliable narrator. 2. We don't see how he started killing, what made him start? The scenes we've seen thus far could be the first murders, but do we have evidence that it really was.

Baby Afo is so young at this point that his idea of death is a very limited one. Normally, we really start to process death and what it truly means at around 10, maybe. But he's very young here. It's possible he was attacked and so he attacked until the threat stopped moving. He was so young he may not have ever truly understood the gravity of what he had done until he grew older and was desensitized to it. Or maybe he was a hungry child with his feeble brother, who didn't know how to get any food. He wasn't given any help from the adults, possibly even paralleling Tenko. But he saw adults attacking other adults and getting food as a result. So, he followed their lead, like a child would mimic a parent, and he got a reward for him and his brother, food. Children have a large pleasure/pain complex, if their needs aren't met, they are often impatient until they receive what they want or need and can't emotionally regulate like adults can (another thing taught to them by adults). He doesn't understand that he is killing these people, he just knows he needs to stop them as a threat (either to protect him and his brother or feed him and his brother,) make sure they stop moving so they can't hurt him. It's also possible he wants to steal their quirks, something flashy, another part of the reward complex in his brain and his barely contained kleptomania.) And mind you, much of this is talking about normal human children... Not children with meta-abilities which are looking more like parasitic diseases with each new update. (Diseases that control the host and deeply influences their actions, mannerisms, and behavior. Also, something I will probably go on another rant about, let's be honest.)

Another interesting thing is this is from AFO's point of view. And all I've been seeing is that "AFO was born evil," or commenting on how horrifying AFO looked like as a child.

If this is how All for One sees himself... Well, that makes sense why he's such a damn bastard today. Not even as an infant did, he give himself the grace of looking like a normal child. We, the viewer is meant to see him as evil from birth, because that is how AFO sees himself. It's so interesting because one could even argue that AFO isn't happy, doesn't view himself as someone who has a heart or compassion. It's like because the villain in the comic book reminded him of himself, he's modeled himself to be like the villain, someone without care, someone who doesn't love. With Yoichi's death, we get a panel of the original shock, the remorse, and that progresses to the blank, empty, look in his eyes with tears falling down his face. He's always seen himself as the villain and refuses to recognize that he is indeed human. Which obviously from a DFO perspective makes sense in a truly heartbreaking way.

But I just can't get over how he views himself, it's creepy, unsettling, almost like he's afraid of himself. Like he views himself in the way his own victims view him. But someone who I always imagined views himself like a god, who's always in the right (he does believe he's always right,) I was expecting more emphasis on everything he did for his brother, the nicer clothes, he didn't look malnourished while AFO did, things like that. Or maybe a normal looking child (or hell even an unrealistically majestic child, or something.) the parts of himself that showed power, without the unexplained murder we got. I was expecting an attempt to prove how he was in the right, how he was trying to protect his brother. Emphasize the anger he still feels at losing him. But no, from what I can tell it's mainly the evil things he's done, with a small glimpse of them reading together. It lacks the depth, like he wants to appear flat instead of completely multidimensional. And honestly, that's IF he's being honest, which in and of itself is unlikely. But with how he's illustrated himself, you can look at it two ways, it's even more likely that he'd start a family, or it's less likely, because he was born evil and all he's cares about is possessing OFA/his bother. His backstory just gives me the vibe that he WANTS you to believe the second. Like he WANTS you to believe he's not human, and could never have a son, or at the least never care for any child he'd have.

He's trying too hard to prove how evil he is, how almost incapable of care or remorse he is. I'm skeptical.

But honestly, I think if this little story of his is true then... I think he should be locked in a museum. Looking at who he is, how he views himself and the world, illustrates the Dawn of Quirks in a way no Hero History book could. He was raised by a society that hated him for his quirk, honestly like most villains in BNHA.

[asimpforthe80s]

"Darling Look At Me.."

Starring: Eddie Munson, Y/N, nurses.

Warnings: intense angst. Electroshock mentions / damage. Y/N being mentally damaged by electroshocks. Fluff. Always a lil smut. Tell me if I missed anything!

A/N: this was kinda heartwarming and heartbreaking to me at the same time..

I don't do summaries. Word count, I dunno? Thousand?

you had been sent to a mental institution after you witnessed and told about Chrissy's death. Eddie was visiting you today, but he saw things he didn't really expect.

"Sweetheart, why are you in a straitjacket....? Your not insane.." The nurse next to you looked qt you, then at Eddie. "Sorry, Mr. Munson, she's gotten a few electroshocks and might not act like herself or speak.." she said. Eddie was furious with the staff. "What reason did you have to give my baby electroshock treatment..!?" He shouted, pushing the nurse aside. "She was complaining about anxiety, that's how we treat it.. electroshock her back to a childlike state.."

Eddie was now even more furious. The staff were trying their best to restrain him, but he wasn't letting it happen.

"Do you people even KNOW what Electroshock therapy does to the brain!?" He shouted at the top of his lungs. "Of course we know!" She said with a smile. You just sat there with a childlike emptiness in your stare. Eddie was horrified to see the emptiness in your eyes, as the staff were still trying to restrain him he yelled "Do you know anything about permanent brain damage!? You've completely erased her memories, including most of her speech patterns!"

The nurse smiled once more. "We know," she said. Eddie pushed past the nurses trying to hold him back and stormed up to you "darling look at me... Look at me!!" You looked up at him, and nothing in your eyes changed. Eddie was devastated by hearing nothing from you and you only looked at him with blank eyes.

"Say my name" he said in the most broken voice possible. ".. Stranger."

Eddie got even more heartbroken by hearing nothing but the word stranger from you

"Say my name!" He yelled, holding back his tear

"Say... Please" You sat in your chair quietly, not giving him an answer. As if you didn't understand him. Eddie was still trying to hold back his tears.

"Say my name.... I'm begging you. This is killing me" One of the nurses went up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Mr. Munson, that's enough.." Eddie couldn't hold back anymore and broke into tears.

"How could you erase the memories of the love of my life!?" He said while crying to the nurse while looking at you. "We had to.." the nurse said. "Why!? She was the sweetest person in the world and she didn't deserve this" Eddie said while still crying.

"She was everything to me, and you just made her a blank sheet of paper..!"

"Yes..." she agreed. "But even shredded paper can be whole again.." Eddie was confused by what she just said.

"What do you mean, shredded paper can be whole again?"

"You said we made her into a blank paper.. paper can be restored, Mr. Munson" Eddie realized what she meant.

"You mean you could eventually restore all her memories... And return her to the sweet girl she used to be?" He asked. "We aren't allowed to.. but you can fix her once she gets out.." The nurse smiled at him. Eddie's heart skipped a beat when he heard her say he could fix her.

"I can? Really?" He asked.

"How can I fix my sweetheart..?"

"It's like a person with alzheimer's disease.. just gotta remind her..." Eddie smiled as he heard the words that he could fix his sweetheart

"So once I take her home I can remind about all our amazing moments we had together.. and who I am to her..?"

"It's.. It's possible.. but you need patience.. she won't remember at first.. might take years to make her completely herself again.." Eddie was willing to do whatever he could and wait for as long as it takes.

"I don't care how long I have to wait. As long as it means I can get my sweetheart back" Eddie said, while still smiling. "Well.. in her file, it says she gets out in about a week.."

"A week..? Only a week more of waiting and I'll be able to take my sweetheart back home?" Eddie asked with a smile. "That's right.." Eddie was overjoyed to hear he could finally take you back home

"I can't wait to take you back home and be with you forever more.." Eddie said while he smiled at you. As he wiped away the last few tears from his eyes while still looking at you.

After a week passed, Eddie was finally able to take you home

"There she is!" He told the staff, as he saw you

"My sweetheart," he said, as he quickly walked up to you and hugged you. You didn't hug him back. "Stranger.." You said like you did just a week earlier. Your voice was so pure but empty. Sweet but no meaning behind it. "My beautiful darling, don't you know who I am?" He asked.

"I'm your Eddie.. your Eddie, darling..." he said desperately. "Mh.. okay" Eddie was still very confused by your response.

"Sweetheart, do you know what your name is?" He asked. You looked confused and pointed to yourself as if you didn't understand. Eddie was even more confused when you did that

"My... Darling... You do know your name, right...?" You pointed to yourself again as if you were asking if it was you he was talking about. "Me?" Eddie sighed when he heard you.

"Yes darling. That's you. You.. are my love.. my life. My everything.."

"But... Do you know your name?" He asked again. "Y/N..?" Eddie was shocked when he heard you speak. "Yes! That's it. Your name is Y/N!"

"But.. tell me your full name. What is your middle name?" You thought about his question for a few minutes. "Y/N L/N..?" Eddie was getting excited knowing that this is progress.

"Yes darling. That's your full name.. your name is Y/N L/N.." You pointed to him. "Eddie.." you said and pointed to yourself. "Y/N.." Eddie was even more excited to hear that you remember his name

"Yes. I'm your Eddie" he said, smiling. You did it again, pointing to him and saying "Eddie," then pointing to yourself and saying, "Y/N." You smiled, knowing you got it right. Eddie was so happy that he started to cry from joy.

"Darling.. my beautiful, sweet darling... Your getting your memories back" he said to you, while hugging and kissing your cheek. "Eddie.. Eddie M.. Munson!" The joy from Eddie was like he just discovered the meaning to life.

"Yes darling! That's me! Eddie Munson" You smiled. But your smile faded after just a few seconds as you looked around. You mumbled something. Eddie was really worried he's seen something that you think is wrong.

"Darling... Is something wrong? You look worried," Eddie asked you. "Hawkins Mental Hospital.." You said and looked around again. Eddie's face quickly turned from smiling to worried.

"Yes. That's where we are right now, darling."

"Why.. am I here..?" You asked quietly. Eddie's eyes widened when he heard your question.

"You're here because you.. well.... Saw what happened... With Chrissy" Something obviously triggered when he said 'Chrissy' because you started hyperventilating. "Darling... Calm down..." Eddie said in a concerned tone.

"It's alright, darling. We are safe here. I had to put you here for your safety" You couldn't calm down, and after a few seconds, you started having a panic attack. Eddie saw that you really started panicking and he quickly held you in his arms.

"Shhh.. its alright.. its alright... Darling.. I'm here. I'm right beside you" You started crying like a child and hugged him tightly. Eddie slowly started to calm you down.

"Its alright... It's just a scary memory... We all have them. And I'm here for you. You never need to worry about anything while I'm here.." The nurse walked up to Eddie. "Could I talk to you for a bit? Without her.." she asked. Eddie nodded and gently let you go, so you could take a moment to catch your breath.

"Yes. What is it?" Eddie asked the nurse. "Follow me, Mr. Munson.." Eddie turned around and followed the nurse, looking worried.

"Is my sweetheart going to be alright..?" He asked the nurse. "Yes.. I just think you need to know what we really did to her.." Eddie was confused by this, not understanding what the nurse could mean.

"What do you mean..?" He asked worriedly. "Well.. you got to hear that she got electroshocks, right?"

"Yes... I was told that was the reason her memories was gone... I never thought there was more to it... What else did you do to my sweetheart..?" She took a deep breath. "Just know that this wasn't my decision.." Eddie was looking worried, not understanding what the nurse meant by that comment.

"Just.. tell me what you did to my darling.."

"Well.. she got 15 times the max watz.. and 20 electroshocks.. then she was drugged and put behind a big screen that kept telling her things.. we uhm.. we tried to see if we could put another personality into her, I think.." Eddie stopped for a moment after hearing what the nurse said.

"Another... personality.....? Like... Mind control?" He asked her. ".. yes, like mind control.." Eddie was horrified of this.

"You tried to change my sweetheart.... You tried to control my sweetheart.... To change who she is...." He said, while he sounded extremely worried. "That's.. unfortunately correct, Mr. Munson.. and as I said, this was not my decision.." Eddie was angry and worried at the same time.

"What were you expecting for this to do to my sweetheart... How has this effected her in any good way?" He asked the nurse with a mad tone. "I don't know.. we aren't allowed to question the ways our boss tells us to do things.."

"So all you did was try and change my sweethearts personality.... Without even knowing HOW it would effect her..? This can potentially harm her... Or make her worse... And you just went through with that without question!?" Eddie asked, getting more mad by the seconds. "But hey.. she's remembering who you are, isn't she?" Eddie sighed when he heard this. "Yes.. she is. But still. She was my everything... And you tried to take that away from me..!" She sighed. "I know.. but you'll get her back.. just.. very slowly.. like raising a child.." Eddie nodded when he heard this.

"Thank you... Just tell me. How slow is this process... And how do I make it faster.."

"It depends on the person.. but I think she'll be back in about.. half a year? Maybe a full year.. and you can't make it any faster, I'm sorry.." she apologized. Eddie closed his eyes and let a tear fall from his eyes.

"Then I'll wait as long as it takes... I would wait years if I would have to... To get my sweet heart back" he said, while still letting a tear fall from his eyes. She put a hand in his shoulder. "It'll be okay.. she's dismissed, you can leave.." Eddie nodded, as he wiped away the last of his tears

"Of course.. thank you" he said to the nurse, while he quickly walked out of the room.

And when he found you again, he held your hand and started to lead you to the front entrance of the hospital.

"Come on, darling. Lets go home.. we have alot of time to catch up... And we will spend every minute together.." he said, looking at you with a smile. You stood up and smiled back at him. "Okay.."

"But before we leave... I want you to say my name for me once more?" He asked you.

"Can you tell me my name, darling?"

"Mph... Eddie Munson.." Eddie's smile got even bigger when he heard you say his name.

"That's right... You even said my last name. I'm so proud of you my sweet heart" he said, while he took you by the hand and walked out of the hospital with you. You held his hand as he walked you out of the hospital. As you both got outside, Eddie stopped walking for a moment.

"Darling, I want you to promise me something," he said to you. "Okay.." Eddie knelt down to your height, and he looked you dead in the eyes.

"Promise that you will let me take care of you for the rest of our lives? Promise that when you're fully yourself again... That I'll be the first one you think about? Promise that you'll always love me?" You thought about it. "I dunno.. but maybe.." Eddie's smile quickly disappeared when you answered.

"What do you mean by 'maybe'? Darling. It was the one thing I asked you," he said, with a bit of anger in his voice. "I don't know.." The fear in Eddie's eyes grew as he heard your answer.

"What do you mean..? You don't know if you love me.. after all I've done for you? After everything you've been through... You don't know if you love... ME!?" He says with more anger in his voice. You flinched a little as you noticed the anger in his voice. "I-im sorry.."

"After I've rescued you... After I've been the one to support you and love you... After you were taken away from yourself, you can't even tell me if you love me or not!?" Eddie shouted at the top of his voice while his eyes were as wide as they could be, full of anger and fear. You started crying as he seemed to scare you. You looked like a scared child where you stood in the parking lot of the hospital. He quickly realized your reaction to his shouting.

"Darling... I'm sorry! Please just... Tell me you love me. I need to hear it from you. I need to know you'll always love me." He said, with more fear then anger this time.

"Please darling. Tell me you'll love me forever. Please" You just cried more and turned away from him. You looked so scared. The nurse did say you'd most likely act like a child, but of course, Eddie didn't think about the toddler state. He took your hand again, and turned you back to face him

"Darling... I'm sorry... But please. I can't bear the thought of you not loving me. It's something I can't lose. My sweet heart... I need you to tell me if you love me or not. Will you do that for me? Please"

Eddie was begging at this point. He couldn't bear the thought of his love not loving him back. "Y-youre scaring m-me.." Eddie quickly became quiet after hearing your comment.

"Sweetheart... I'm sorry. That's not what I meant. I'm just desperate to understand if you still love me or not.. I just need to know, if you'll love me.."

Eddie's eyes were wide as he still looked at you, waiting for your answer. "I-I can't remember.."

"Darling.. try to remember. Did you love me... Before you lost all your memories?" Your crying calmed down a little. "M-mhm.. i-i think so.." Eddie's face started showing more happiness and relief when he heard your answer.

"You think so? You think you loved me? Or.. you still do love me?" You nodded and dried your tears. Eddie was even more relieved that you still loved him.

"Good. You still love me. Thank goodness" he said with a smile.

"I think we should go home now. Do you remember where you live.. or should we just go to my place? I'll take you to your home later, so that you can fully remember everything"

"Your place.."

"My place it is then. Come on. It's time i show you around where you will be staying, " Eddie said, as he took your hand and led you to his van. You held his hand back and followed him to his van. When both of you finally got into the van, Eddie started to drive.

"I want to show you something while we drive" he said to you. "Okay.." you nodded and put your seat belt on. As you both drove off, Eddie noticed you put on your seat belt

"You put your seat belt on, that's very clever. I'm proud of you, my sweet heart" he said to you.

He then looked in the rear mirror.

"Now... I have something important to show you" He sounded excited as he looked back at you, waiting for you follow his movement and look in the rear mirror. "Mhm.." When you looked in the rear mirror, the first thing that you noticed was Eddie smiling at you.

"Do you still recognize yourself, darling?" He asked you. "That's.. me..?"

"Yes, my sweetheart. That's what you look like. Isn't it amazing?" Eddie asked you, still smiling at you.

"You're so beautiful... Even more beautiful than I remember you being" You turned your head in different directions to look at yourself. "It's me.." Eddie laughed again at your reaction.

"Yes. That's you my sweet heart. I'm happy you recognize yourself now. And once more memories will slowly come back to you and I can remind you of everything we have been through... And how much I have loved you through it all" You started smiling as you kept seeing yourself in the mirror. "See how beautiful you are? Beautiful inside and outside. You will forever and always be my sweet heart. Nothing can change that" he said, looking at you with a bright smile.

One year had now passed. And Eddie had been by your side every step of the way. It took a while, but eventually you remembered everything that happened to you over the past year. And now you both live together, having a very strong relationship.

You sat with Eddie in the living room, watching his favourite TV show together. It was a wholesome moment, and it was clear to see how much it meant to Eddie's heart.

"Hey, sweetheart" Eddie asked you after awhile.

"Can I ask you something?" You looked over at him. "Yeah, sure," you smiled. He took a deep breath before asking the question

"Will you... Marry me..?" Eddie asked you, while looking at you with a big smile

He was very nervous to ask, as he feared the worst. But he asked you anyway, as he knew he has to know if you could be the one he spend the rest of his life with.

"I hope you understand the amount of love I have for you... All that I've done for you. All that I ever will do for you. I can't let that be for nothing" This was a question you'd wanted to hear for so long. You immediately started crying like you did when he accidentally scared you after getting you out of the mental hospital. He quickly noticed that you cried when he asked you this.

"Darling... What's wrong? Did I say the wrong thing....?" He quickly wiped away your tears, as he looked worried if he might have scared you. But he was also worried that you didn't want to answer the question, as it was something he needed to know. "Are you okay... My sweet heart?" He asked you. "Y-yeah.. I just.." you were sobbing. "Y-yes.." Eddie smiled widely as you answered him.

"You... Yes? You will marry me?!" He said, while he got more excited the more you cried, as that meant you said yes. "Oh my god! Oh my god!!" Eddie yelled out of excitement. "Yes! My sweet heart wants to marry me!" You were crying so much and smiled, nodding. He quickly got up and hugged you, hugging you so hard it felt like he would never let you go again. "Oh my god! Oh my god!! I can't wait to marry you, my sweet heart! You're so amazing and perfect. I'm the luckiest man alive... You are the love of my life... You are my forever and I'll never love someone else then you! I just can't believe it! You want to marry me!? It's all I've ever wanted in my life!! You are so amazing... I love you!" You smiled and hugged him back. "I love you too!" You exclaimed with the biggest smile you've ever had. "Oh my god!! I'm marrying my sweet heart! When are we doing it..?! When are we getting married..?! We HAVE to start planning the wedding!" Eddie asked you, sounding insanely excited. He then sat down next to you. "You call Steve, I'll call the girls!" You got up and went to get your phone. Eddie nodded and laughed.

"Oh, yeah. We have to call everyone.. we have to have the biggest wedding ever.. everyone is coming! The whole world will know that my sweet heart is the new Mrs Munson!" You smiled, wiped your tears, and got your phone. You laughed a little at how much he wanted everyone to know you'd be Mrs. Munson soon, but it was the sweetest thing ever.

You called the girls, and Eddie called the guys, including the entire HellFire club, because why not. Soon, the entire plan was set up. All your friends and everyone you know, would be present at the wedding. Steve would be the priest and everything was in place. All that was left, was to choose the place and date for the wedding.

"So... What day is the big day? When are we getting married?" Eddie asked you, sounding as if he would rush through the days like lightning, just to be able to call you his wife sooner. "God, I'd marry you tomorrow if it was possible, but we gotta plan this whole thing" Eddie chuckled at your answer.

"Okay... Then let's set this whole wedding up. We are gonna throw the best wedding ever!" He said, sounding extremely excited. "What theme? White? Black?... Metallica...?" You knew Metallica was his favorite band, and it was yours too, if you were honest. Eddie immediately smiled when you suggested Metallica as the theme.

"YES!! All black clothing.. music by Metallica, and Metallica music playing when we both walk down the aisle.. you get to have a black wedding dress.. and the cake is gonna have the 'Master Of Puppets' album on it! and look like the devil. Oh my.. this is gonna be the best wedding ever! You're right. Its gotta be Metallica.."

"We have to have a piano cover of 'Master Of Puppets' as the song I'll walk down the aisle to, I swear to freaking god!" Eddie nodded, while having the biggest smile a human being could be given.

"Yes!! I agree! We'll have the whole package. Just like you said. A piano cover of 'Master Of Puppets' as you walk down the aisle.. a black dress, a Metallica themed wedding, a big devil cake.. and just awesome music. Oh yeah.. this wedding is gonna be awesome" You got an idea. "Or fade to black-" Eddie smiled even more when you suggested the final idea.

"That's it! That's the final touch. We'll have a piano cover of 'Master Of Puppets' and then after a while, it fades to black to keep the transition consistent. And then we'll have 'Fade To Black' during our first dance, once we are finally married. Oh my god... I'm getting tingles from it. It's perfect..." You thought a little more. "What about the honeymoon?"

"Hm... Well, what about a honeymoon to Hawaii? It's a place where we can relax and just enjoy the life we have together, you know. I've heard its a place full of love and relaxation. It would be perfect for our honeymoon. That way, we have a week or two to just be with one another.. and we could really just enjoy life together"

Eddie said, as he looked at you with a big smile, as if he wanted to let you know how serious he was about all this.. and how amazing it would be to spend the honeymoon in Hawaii. "And I've got a question.. it's.. serious" Eddie got a bit worried about the question you were about to ask.

"What is it, my sweet heart? You know you can always ask me anything.. especially when the question is serious" He said, while still smiling.

"What's on your mind, darling?"

"Opinion on kids and if yes, when?" Eddie took a breath before he spoke.

"I'm definitely down to have children one day. But I want to be patient. I want us to get settled and ready for having children properly. I want our life to be perfect before bringing children into it. So I'm thinking that once we're a couple years into our marriage, and then we can have children. How does that sound to you?" Eddie asked you, looking at you once again to see your facial reaction. "Fucking perfect! And no, you're not teaching them to neither swear or how to fight" you warned. He laughed at your answer.

"Sweetheart.. my life consists of swearing and fighting. I'm very tempted to teach them both. But if that's your wish, that's what will happen. We can raise calm, non swearing children... One day" Eddie said, while he sighed after the last word as he sounded a bit disappointed at that last part.

He then asked you another question.

"What about the names. Do you have any idea what to name our children when we get to have them? I have a feeling... No hope... That you will be in charge of that"

"You're not good at names, are ya?.. and fineee.. you'll get to teach them swearing and fighting one day.."

"Okay. It's official then. You are in charge of the names. I don't believe I have the same 'name finding skills' as you. But I want some crazy and cool name. I want a very badass name" Eddie joked around, yet he sounded dead serious.

"We will probably have to compromise on the names, but I just hope you agree to giving our children a normal name" he said with a grin in his face, while looking at you. "If we have a girl.. I wanna name her after a song.. a very classic song.."

"And what song is that?" Eddie asked, as his grin quickly turned into a smile of curiosity.

"You know I love Metallica. So maybe it's from a good ol' Metallica song?"

"Actually not.. it's 'Ruby' by Kaiser Chiefs" Eddie had to think, as he tried to remember the song.

"Isn't that the one song that's like 'Ruby, Ruby Ruby'..?" He looked at you, trying to figure out if he was correct. "... If I remember it correctly, then that's a beautiful song to name our daughter after"

"Yeah! Gimme your guitar for a moment, I'll remind you of the song" Eddie looked at you for a moment, while doing a confused face. "My guitar? Now?" But he quickly understood that there was no better time then now to hear it. He went over to the corner of the living room to pick up his guitar. Then he returned and handed it to you. "Here you go. Remind me of the song." He said, while sitting down again and looking at you patiently. You took the guitar and put your hand out. "Your pic necklace, please?" Eddie smiled, and quickly unclipped the necklace

"Here you go, my sweet heart." He said, while handing you the necklace.

He watched with excitement, as you held the guitar, with him expecting to be amazed by the song you would play. You took the guitar pic off the necklace string so you could play, then started the song.

"Da-da-da, da-da-da

Da-da-da, da-da-da

Let it never be said that romance is dead

'Cause there's so little else occupying my head

There is nothing I need, 'cept the function to breathe

But I'm not really fussed, doesn't matter to me

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Do ya, do ya, do ya, do ya

Know what your doing, doing to me?

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Due to lack of interest

Tomorrow is canceled

Let the clocks be reset and the pendulums held

'Cause there's nothing at all, 'cept the space in between

Finding out what you're called, and repeating your name

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Do ya, do ya, do ya, do ya

Know what your doing, doing to me?

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Could it be, could it be that you're joking with me

And you don't really see you with me?

Could it be, could it be that you're joking with me

And you don't really see you with me?

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Do ya, do ya, do ya, do ya

Know what your doing, doing to me?

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Do ya, do ya, do ya, do ya

Know what your doing, doing to me?" Eddie nodded as you played the song. He was smiling as he listened to you playing. As you finished up, he clapped his hands together.

"Wow!! Amazing. Now I remember!" He said, while sounding excited. He looked at you with a big smile. "So yeah... We are definitely naming our future daughter Ruby.. I don't care what anyone else thinks.. The name is perfect" Eddie said in a more serious tone. You could still tell he was very excited about the idea. Especially as he said: 'We are definitely naming our future daughter Ruby' "Yessss!" Eddie laughed.

"Yeah! Now we've just gotta do the next step. We've named our future daughter, but we need to actually get a future daughter. You know.. so we can actually name her Ruby." Eddie teased you a bit as he spoke, yet he still had a big smile on his face. "But first things first, we gotta pick how we are gonna make her. Any idea what we'll do to make our future daughter?" Your face went bright red immediately. Eddie laughed as he saw your face get red.

"Wait... Are you getting all blushing?! I feel like I am in high school again! Are you nervous about me having this conversation with you? Or are you getting all hot and bothered by me? Or are you nervous because.. You know.." Eddie said while looking at you, while having a big smirk on your face. He was really playing around and teasing you, but he also wanted to be sure if you were ready to answer. "S-second option.. h-hot 'n bothered.." Eddie was now dying of laughter.

"I love you.. You're so cute when you're all flustered and nervous. It's adorable!" He went over to you, and gave you a big kiss on the cheek. Then he got a big and evil grin on his face. "Well in that case.. maybe I should... 'Keep you all hot and bothered', so you can't stop thinking about all the ways we will be making that Ruby baby.." As he said that last sentence, he kissed you, and walked back over to the sofa and sat down. You followed him quickly and sat down on his lap, burying your face in his chest. Eddie could tell that you were flustered and excited. So he looked down at you, in order to see your face.

"Oh my sweet heart... What got you so red?" He asked, while he had a smile on his face as he kept hugging you. "Y-you did.." Eddie chuckled. "You know what? This is the cutest thing ever. You're turning from a confident and badass girl, to a blushing cutie.. and I love it!" He said, as he looked at you. "If you're getting so hot and bothered this easy, what are we gonna do on our wedding night? I think you won't survive that one" You got even more flustered and buried your head in the crook of his neck. "Shutup.." you mumbled. "Oh my sweet heart.. I will never shut up about how hot and bothered you got so fast. You're so adorable. Why are you getting so red?" Eddie asked you, while he started to kiss your neck, which made you blush even harder. "Because you're talking about how we're gonna make Ruby.." you mumbled. Face still tinted a deep red. Eddie began to laugh.

"Sweetheart.. You're adorable! It turns you on to just discuss the topic, huh? Then wait until we actually do it!" He said with a big grin, while continuing to kiss your neck.

"Then you'll be blushing 24/7 .. or 365/366 days a year, if you catch my drift" You look confused. "There's only 365 days in a year, baby.." Eddie laughed even louder.

"Sweetheart.. I had completely forgotten about Leap year. I was just saying that we would be busy making our babies for 365 days of the year. But of course, you can't forget Leap year!" He said, while he turned you around, so that your face was right next to his.

He smiled at you and said: "You are really, really cute when you're all red and confused like that. What do you say? Do you want to give making babies a try? We both know how much it'll turn you on" Your eyes had never rolled back into your skull as much as it did when he told you those things. You knew you had some kinks hidden from him, but now you wondered if they were really hidden. Eddie took a look at your eyes, which were still rolled back in your head. He smiled, knowing that he did something right.

"Sweetheart... You're acting as if I just surprised you with something I knew nothing about. But the truth is... I definitely knew about those 'kinks' of yours, so this is nothing new to me" He said, while he slowly moved your head back, so that you had to look at his eyes.

He put one hand on your cheek, and the other on your thigh, while he was still smiling. "Y-you know I have a pregnancy kink..?" Eddie nodded. "Yes, and I am aware that I am taking a risk when I am playing with those kinks so much. But I love doing it. It's very fun, and I love how excited you get when I do anything related to it. I do have another question though.." You looked at him. "Uh-huh?"

"I have a confession. You wanna hear it? It's related to what we have been discussing this whole time" You nodded. Eddie took a deep breath.

"Well, the confession is that.. Well, you might be able to tell.. I kind of also have a pregnancy kink" He said, as he laughed a bit. He smiled at you, while he continued to laugh. "The thought of you being pregnant.. Or just pregnant in general.. It, well.. It's hot.. To say the least" You laughed a little. "That's a breeding kink, baby.. because you have a kink for me being pregnant, and not that you are pregnant.. cause that isn't even physically possible" Eddie laughed.

"Well, you're right. Thank goodness I don't have a pregnancy kink for myself haha. Sorry, you're right. It's a breeding.. not a pregnancy kink. Thank you for pointing that out.." He looked at your face. "Now, I don't really care about the terminology or name we use for the kink I have. As long as I get to see you pregnant sometime soon" He said, as he started to kiss both your cheeks and your neck. "I really want pregnant wife.. and I want a pregnant wife soon.."

"And if you get your ass to the bedroom, that's just what you're gonna have.." Eddie chuckled at your naughty way to ask for it.

"Oh, really? You want that? So you really want it? You want a pregnant wife that bad? Now you need to prove that you really want it" He said, while he got up from the sofa.

"You wanna go to the bedroom then? I think we should go to the bedroom then" You nodded frantically. Eddie got up and went over to you quickly, while looking at you. He picked you up, and carried you into the bedroom.

"I'm gonna get my pregnant wife now!!" He said, as he layed you down in the bed.

He then went over to the table, and picked up the necklace he had given you earlier. He then came over to the bed. "Are you ready for this?" He asked. You nodded even more, begging a little, even. Eddie grinned.

"Oh, you want it bad, huh? Well.. That's good. I love that. I love when my future wife is so determined to make me happy. Now.. Say it for me.." Eddie said, while he kneeled down on the ground in front of you. You knew what he wanted you to say, but he wanted to hear it from you first. "Yes, 'm ready.." Eddie sighed.

"That's not what I want you to say. I hope you already understood that. But I guess you're just nervous right now. So I'll be nicer and say it in a softer tone" Eddie smiled at you, while still holding the necklace in his hand "Please, say that you want... The necklace.. And what will happen, after you take it"

"I don't quite understand, baby.." Eddie laughed. "Oh, you poor, nervous thing. Don't worry. I will make it simple.. I want you to ask me for the necklace. And after you take the necklace from me, you will get pregnant"

He still had that goofy smile on his face, and he had his arms open. This was your chance to get that necklace back, which means you'll get pregnant by him. "Then I'm taking that damn necklace, no second thought." You smiled and took the necklace in your hands. Eddie looked really excited as you took the necklace in your hand. He had a big smile on his face, while he said: "That's my girl. I love it. You are so damn excited to get this pregnancy going. That's my sweet heart!"

you were looking really excited, as you saw the pregnancy test in your hand. Your hands were shaking slightly as Eddie was standing close by.

"Baby!!! Look!" You shouted through the house. Eddie came running over and took a look at the test. He looked at it in shock and excitement. "Is that a positive test?! We are gonna have a baby?!" Eddie yelled out. He had tears of joy in his eyes since he's been wanting to have children with you for so long. "It's positive!" When Eddie heard you yell 'it's positive' he grabbed you in his arms and lifted you up in the air.

"I AM GONNA BE A DAD!! I can't wait to have a little Eddie Jr. or Ruby! Oh, I will be the best dad in the whole world! Sweetheart, I love you so much! You look great pregnant too! I think you're even more beautiful now" Eddie said, while he was still lifting you up in the air. You laughed a bit at his comment. "I don't even have a baby bump yet, baby" Eddie smiled.

"Doesn't matter to me. I am excited for all the stages of your pregnancy. I think you look amazing at every angle and in every form. But we will just have to wait and see how sexy you'll look with an actual baby bump" He said as he was still holding you up. "It's crazy to think that our baby is already growing inside you. And I only have to wait a few months before I see Ruby and Eddie Jr. for the first time"

"You are aware that it takes 9 months, right? I don't count that as a few" Eddie laughed.

"I know, you smart ass. You are always trying to be right. But my sweet heart... I get to see you for 9 months, while our baby is inside you and growing. It's like I'm getting 9 months off preview that no one else will ever get to see, besides us. It's gonna be amazing, 9 months of me and you having the time of our lives, while my little future Eddie Jr. or Ruby, is growing in your beautiful body" You smiled as tears slowly fillies your sweet eyes. Eddie noticed those tears, as he started to kiss them away.

"Why are you crying, my sweet heart? You're crying about us becoming a family? Why would you cry about that? Don't you think it's as beautiful as I do? Our family and our life together is what I've always wanted"

"I-i just love you.." you mumbled. Eddie smiled at you.

"Oh.. I love you too, you know that. I could never in a million years imagine being with anyone else than you. I love everything about you. Your cute, beautiful face.. Your amazing smile.. Your fun, awesome personality.. I love every part of you. Now dry those tears, my cute little mama. I want to see you happy, not sad. Now give me your beautiful smile"

"But I am happy.."

"My sweet heart.. I know you are. But you were crying.. It was tears of happiness, wasn't it? You were crying because you're finally going to get the baby you've always wanted, and because the man you love finally gets that baby too. Is that right?" You smiled. "Yeah, that's why" Eddie smiled back.

"Well, that's amazing. It's a good thing I love you so much that I'm willing to give you that baby you always wanted. And in 9 months, we'll see our baby boy or girl for the first time" Eddie smiled at you. "Do you think you're gonna like being a mom? I think you'll be the cutest and most awesome mom ever.. And you're gonna love every second of it"

You were sitting on the hospital bed, which meant the moment you had waited nine months for finally has come.

Doctors and nurses were walking in and out of your room. They were doing all sorts of things, like checking up on you and your baby. But your eyes were only on the doctor, who came up to you with a smile.

"Congratulations! You're gonna be a mom!" The doctor said, as he handed you your new little baby. You were so happy that you nearly lost words. You just stared at the little being in your hands... Your child. You started crying. You were so happy. But then the doctor came with another child, you had twins. A girl and a boy. Eddie came over to you, once you started to cry. You were still holding your babies, and he had a smile on his face as he sat down next to you.

"Sweetheart, why the tears? We now have twins! I know that's a bit unexpected, but I don't mind having two kids instead of only one. In fact, I love that we will have a baby boy and a baby girl now" Eddie said, while he looked down at the twins that you were holding. "You wanna name him? It's both a girl and a boy.. and I've already chosen Ruby's name" Eddie grinned as he looked at the two of you.

"You're letting me name the boy? Sweetheart, you have no idea yet what a gift that is. Alright, I am definitely gonna give the boy a name that matches Ruby's name. Give me a second, let me think of something good. It needs to be a name that is strong, just like me, but sweet and caring... Hmmm" You laughed a little as he referred to his name as 'strong'. Eddie smiled.

"Okay, okay.. I have thought of two names. This is either going to make you happy or slightly disappointed." Eddie said as he smiled down at you. "The two names I have in mind are.. Eddie Jr. of course.. And Lucifer. Now, what do you think of those two names, sweetie? Do you like either one of them?" You nodded, "Yeah, I like them.. what about 'Lucifer Eddie Jr Munson'? Both the names" Eddie laughed.

"I love it! Lucifer Eddie Jr. Munson will be the name of our little boy from this day forward. Lucifer Eddie Jr. it is!" Eddie said, as he kissed your lips, and then turned towards your belly.

"Lucifer Eddie Jr.. You're gonna be a big and strong little boy, just like your daddy" Eddie said, as he still smiled at you and your babies. "Yeah, just like daddy" you teased him. Eddie got all red as he heard you teasing him.

"Oh, shut up. You know you like it when I do those things to your sweet little body" Eddie laughed as he kissed you. "But now we will have two wonderful babies to love and spoil. You know, I was scared when the doctor first told us that we would have twins. Two babies at once? That's a lot on our hands, but I think we'll manage. What do you say? Do you think we will be able to raise them well?"

"We'll manage, I know we will, 'daddy'" you tease again, trying to make him take the hint. Eddie blushed and laughed.

"Alright, alright. You win this one, my sweet heart. You can tease and call me whatever you want. That's just another thing I love about you.. that you are just so playful and naughty. But like I said, we have two beautiful babies to raise now" Eddie then smiled. "Do you want to hold him? Or would you rather that I take him?" You yawned. "I'm exhausted.. mind taking both? Need a nap.. a long nap.." Eddie hugged you.

"Oh, of course I will take them. Sweetheart, you should rest. You just had a huge task and you need your sleep. I'll take care of our little bundles of joy, don't worry. Just go and sleep honey. When you wake up, we'll be waiting for you. Now, go and rest, mama" Eddie gave you a kiss "I love you" You handed him Ruby and Lucifer before falling asleep. Eddie took Ruby and Lucifer in his arms. "Sleep well, sweetest of hearts" Eddie then looked at his two little babies. He loved them already.

"Lucifer Eddie Jr. and Ruby. It would be hard to say that you two are not my favorite people in the world right now" Eddie said, as he gently kissed them both on their head. "Mnh.. what 'bout me, baby?" You mumbled, half asleep. Eddie's eyes lit up, when you mumbled those words

"What about you? Baby, you are my second favorite person in the world. I love you so much. You are so sexy and beautiful. You're my sweet lady. My wife. You're the person I would rather share my time with than anyone else in the world" Eddie said, as he smiled at you.

He then looked at the little babies once again, and kissed them twice. "And these two little souls right here are so unbelievably lucky that they have my sweet, amazing, beautiful mom as their mother" You smiled and finally passed out, not able to stay awake anymore. Eddie gently set the babies down in their crib, while he looked at his beautiful wife.

"How cute. She's sleeping" Eddie sat down on the chair next to the bed, and he kept an eye on the babies, while his wife was getting her sleep. A few hours later, Eddie decided to sleep as well. But of course, he laid down next to you. He wanted to be close to you as he was falling asleep. He was still holding your hand, and he was slightly smiling.

The End..?

This is the longest damn fic I've ever written 🫠😵‍💫 its 1.28 am rn, I dunno how long I've even been writing this! Anyway, thanks to whoever may read this, love y'all!

- Maja <3

Tag list: @reidsbtch

[exsaltedd]

I’m sure this doesn’t even matter in the grand scheme of Plot and whatnot but my zoomie little brain keeps thinking about. The SeaWing queen before Lizzie, who I believe is her and Jimmy’s mom from a previous ask

and in terms of lore with empires, their parent withered away and died after getting the eggs it asked for. so unless Lizzie hatched about a few months after Jimmy’s egg existed, I would imagine Lizzie was already a lil baby roaming around when Jimmy showed up. if following Empires Lore, their mom probably just died from something else sometime in their life, possibly old age, maybe corruption, or other causes, and Lizzie was either the only heir or the strongest heir who snatched up the throne.

on the other hand. I can’t help but wonder if Lizzie battled their mother for the throne. If her reasons were in any way related to those around her rather than simply desiring the title. the freedom to keep her kingdom and still marry the love of her life, the ensured safety no one higher ranking than her would try to misuse his animus abilities, some sort of resentment built up over her and Joel being the only ones who tried to keep Jimmy safe, anger at injustice that went unchecked towards her brother, etc. and if it was a fight for all to see, or something quieter, where no one could pin it directly on her. It wouldn’t matter if she Was blamed, that was how the rules worked, but maybe it would’ve upset her brother if he knew. or maybe she just wanted to make sure it was over with quickly, where no one would catch wind of it and she was sure to win. maybe she got a bit of help from an animus she knew.

am I insane? perhaps a little

YAY ESSAY 2 READ

i do believe for this au she'll have fought her mother for the throne. as canon accurate as it would be to beam her mom with a Disease, it's way more interesting to have her fight the previous queen both from a storytelling and character development standpoint. she challenged her openly after she made a snide comment towards jimmy (im going on the basis that the seawing king was the one who cheated on the queen to get with a mudwing and just snuck the egg into the royal hatchery i've decided.)

the seawing queen feels resentment but she can't get rid of the dragonet because she wasn't That cruel yk, but lizzie had enough of the comments and remarks. it was handled publicly for everyone to see as a show of her determination to defending her brother.

"It will be held tomorrow, I'll be seeing you then, mother." She turned up her snout, beyond agitated by the constant berating of her brother.

She wouldn't stand for it, not anymore. Lizzie was old enough to inherit the throne, and she was done with these slimy, snide seawings. With her head held high, she opened a wing to place over the back of Jimmy, "Come on, let's get you out of here," she whispered, "they don't understand how wonderful you are."

Jimmy followed, bobbing along with his head hung down and eyes slightly distant. He gave a halfhearted reply, "Haha, yeah, it's fine, Liz, it really is, I'm used to it-"

The princess whacked the seawing with the wing she held tented over him. "Nonsense! I'll show them! I just need to talk to someone first. Come with me."

The two of them had reached the tunnel leading from the Summer Palace, and slid quietly into the water. Lizzie lit up the scales on her tail to give her brother something to follow since he couldn't see as well in the water, and guided him out of the tunnel and into the open ocean. She lifted a wing and felt for a current leading south. Once she found it, she motioned for Jimmy to follow her, and slipped into the stream.

It was a quiet, short ride, the only sounds around her being the water flowing past and the occasional groan of the ocean. This was home to her, a clear, deep blue she could get lost in for hours and hours. She loved it here, and she wish Jimmy could love it like she does.

Lizzie looked behind her, checking for her brother, and after spotting him fighting to stay in the current, she rolled her eyes and swam back to help him. She pushed his wings close to his body and flattened the arch in his neck to be more streamlined. The princess returned to the current directly next to Jimmy in case he was having any more troubles, but thankfully, the rest of the journey went smoothly.

Lizzie stuck her head out of the water and paddled slowly towards the marshy land in front of her, Jimmy following closely behind. She tapped a ring around one of her talons twice, "Joel?"

After a few seconds have passed, the earth in front of her split and from it rose a short, burly mudwing with bright green wings and purple accents decorating his body. He grumbled something about being busy sculpting before the princess spoke again, "I'm going to need your magic."

[thesugarhole]

so i think it was saturday i had a free two hours or so and since i was done with 2kki updates then (i know i saw dont mention it im waiting it out till the end of the week) i thought hey lets finally go finish dd2, i left the campaign right outside the 5th mountain

so i go in there and have a much easier time because i remember the gimmicks, and i reach the hateful god. and i painstakingly whittle down the hp from 999 to about 100 without once getting face your failures. and im like hey! what gives! did not dawn on me once that maybe i had to kill those two babies at the same time first.... and im still not sure if that was what didnt trigger it because when i finally got a ghost it only took up one slot since hateful god is strictly in the middle. but well, its nice to know for the future runs. so i defeated them! (me?)

the ending cinematic is alright but i think the one from the first game impacted me more. i think, might be rose tinted glasses, havent gone back and compared. ~85 hours total, first game i think was ~92 hours before i went into dlc and achievement hunting

so here comes the real meat of dd2, which is completionism and achievos. i highly doubt ill be able to unlock every single item thats not bought at the altar of hope, but theres nothing really quantifying them anyway so im not that bothered by it.

first achievo i want to get after completing the game is defeat death, since ive only ever seen her in the flashback. so i go at it in denial since its one of the shortest chapters, and as im reaching the brain, having gone to every single fight possible, im thinking mhm. what are the actual chances of getting her? 6%. bad idea to have started with this one, and i only got to 1 shrine too for the characters i havent finished the stories yet, so this run might have been a waste.

the very last battle, before the inn before the mountain, she shows up so yay! i got good luck. and of course, promptly got her ass kicked, so i unlocked the chievo. teehee

forgot to party wipe to denial so im gonna have to do it one more time with that in mind. also, i think this was the first run i was able to complete with a hard difficulty flame on (the very first on the list, i think infernal?, im currently in the process of unlocking stuff by 1 cheapest / 2 useful) and i wasnt trying very hard, so maybe ive finally gotten decent at the current mechanics.

i decided to look at what i hadnt gotten yet and make a list from easiest to hardest so i dont risk like, going for the worst thing first while disregarding easy wins. after that, my next run my goals were:

master 5 skills in one hero: fairly easy in a fuck-it run. surprised i never did it before i finished the game, even. i guess i distributed mastery points as evenly as possible.

heal disease, remove negative quirk, lock positive quirk: it was at the top for easiest, but a lack of money and lack of disease getting could make the going tough. at the first inn, i got a slime mold: it has 5% chance of giving a disease. i thought hmm... i never got a disease from this thing though. oh well theres no more food so eat up occultist. (he gets a disease) :)! and i had an hospital scouted right away, so this one was easy peasy

defeat a lair boss (killing blow) with the bounty hunter: his poster also showed up right away, so i replaced him with the jester and went.... to the tangle. yeahp. was actually very easy because i took zero chances: everyone either buff up teammates, attack the roots or move around. bh is the only one damaging the general (save a starting move or two from highwayman/occultist). surprised very few people have this one, but id bet its hard to unlock naturally.

defeat 3 lair bosses in one run: i was aiming for this one too but then i realized the first confession only gives me two regions. oops.

hero shrines: wip. currently trying to finish alhazreds. otherwise my team is *my* usual suspects (V, J, HWM, FreeSpace).

party wipe to all confession bosses: wip. im with the lungs denial again atm but still at the start of the run because i wasnt able to touch the game since.

i guess im sharing because being able to do all this in rapid fire succession was good rng and luck and made me feel happy. made me feel like the guy smiling with its hands on its knees. AND it has the jester outfit on. imperative. hold on let me get it

^ i named this image silly.png

here's my list, easiest to hardest (to MEEEE):

i have (x?) next to some inn names because im not sure if ive already been there or not, since the images/names sounded familiar when looking them up. but this one is not something i can control (and am also surprised i havent unlocked it during mainline gameplay, guessing i got many repeats- they might have rarity variables that i currently have no idea if they can be influenced or not) so its play until it unlocks. i like to keep 'missing' lists just because

i dont have a shamblino (shambler + bambino, hope you like it) equipped in my current run because i didnt want to make things unnecessarily harder when going for the other ones, so that one will have to wait until all my heroes get breathed on too hard by resentment. pass their turns to death. its actually a bigger effort to die to denial than it is killing it jesus

thats all i guess. have a good week everyone

[acrossthewavesoftime]

On this anniversary of the passing of "Infant Graves," I thought I might pose a question to you that (by some chance) you might know the answer: what was the cause of Simcoe's death?

I've read the usual biographical publications about his life, but I have yet to come across any discussion on what killed Simcoe. I know he had a combination of health issues throughout his life (e.g., asthma; migraines; battle wounds; etc.); however, during the journey to Portugal, something affected him so seriously that it was deemed necessary to rush him back to England. What could have possibly caused him to decline so rapidly?

(If there are any primary and/or secondary sources discussing this, I'd be interested in reading them!)

Thanks for letting me pick your brain. :)

Hello there, my fellow friend of the Man with the Urns!

[edit: dear @copper-haired-cuddlebug, can we also talk about how "Infant Graves" bespeaks just how infamously tone deaf Samuel Graves actually was? Calling his baby godson Infant Graves...]

It's an interesting question, and I can only give as precise an answer as speculations based on what little material we have allow. However, there are some clues from Simcoe's letters that his biographer Mary Beacock-Fryer cites in her work.

It seems like generally speaking, his health was taking a turn for the worse in 1805-1806. I would guess that the main complaint he was struggling with was his asthma or rather, the lasting effect this at the time largely untreatable disease had had on his respiratory system and general health.

Both Simcoe and his wife knew he was not well when he received the offer of the Portuguese mission, but he went anyway. What makes his decision even more tragic is that he initially toyed with the thought of refusing and staying home:

I cannot hesitate a moment in saying that the command therein pointed out is not suited to my inclination nor to that experience nor sort of ability that I believe myself to possess.

John Graves Simcoe to Thomas Grenville, 27 July 1806, in: Beacock Fryer, Mary: John Graves Simcoe 1752-1806: A Biography, Toronto 1998, p. 241.

In the end, I assume what caused him to go was his desire for public recognition of his services to the country- he had before had entertained high hopes of receiving a title just before embarking on the journey to Upper Canada, and his stint in Haiti fighting for a cause he as a private citizen detested was (also due to his ill health, which almost landed him in hot water for supposed desertion) very brief. Quite likely, he saw a chance to finally earn the public laurels he, who had devoted his career to the higher cause he deemed was serving his country, had so long covetted.

Interestingly, Beacock Fryer mentioned that his family (i.e. his wife and the oldest daughters) thought he was in a solid enough state of health to go to India, but not to travel to Portugal on short notice.

And so he went. On 2 September, he wrote several letters home, one of them to his eldest daughter, Eliza, claiming he was feeling better after having had to be brought ashore at Coimbra to convalesce. To Elizabeth, he wrote:

[...] & well I did so, for I was seized with the asthmatic paroxysm on my return, which lasted seven hours, during which period I exhausted the whole artillery of medicine for my recovery, but being skilfully attended by the faculty, & most affectionately nursed by my friends & servants, I thank God that I am perfectly convalescent.

John Graves Simcoe to Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe, 2 September 1806, in: Beacock Fryer, Mary: John Graves Simcoe 1752-1806: A Biography, Toronto 1998, p. 243.

Clearly, Simcoe was only telling half the truth, in order not to alarm his wife and children. Despite receiving treatment from a naval surgeon, the voyage had badly affected his health. Again writing to Elizabeth, he identified the causes of his illness as the "Hurry of the voyage", having been made to share a single cabin with 8 men and most interestingly, mentions the HMS Illustrious, the ship in which he was travelling, was being painted with "white lead on the outside & verdigris [a green colour produced by oxydated copper] within" while on voyage to Portugal.

Paint fumes were known to be health hazards, so I am quite surprised that Simcoe, whose ill health was not a secret, was put aboard HMS Illustrious of all ships.

Interestingly, we have a letter from his quasi-mother-in-law, Margaret Graves, talking about the dangers of paint fumes in relation to her house rennovations half a year after Simcoe's death:

I have been sleeping on two Sophas in the great Drawing Room for this month past and when I shall have the comfort to repose on a Bed again I cannot exactly say. I do sit in my Library again but at the hazard of my health for it stinks of pain[t] like poison.

Margaret Graves to Eliza Simcoe, April 1807, in: Bath History Volume VII - 1998; Arnold, Hillary: Genteel Widows of Bath - I - Mrs Margaret Graves and her Letters froms Bath, 1793-1807, p. 90.

Exposed to poisonous substances and being made to share closely confined quarters with eight people, likely causing the cabin to be stuffy and overheated (which is a common asthma trigger) would certainly have had an ill effect on a person whose health can be described as frail at best.

While perhaps not quite as impactful as these factors, I wonder whether the voyage itself played a part, too. To me, it seems rather interesting that Simcoe did not join the Navy to follow in the footsteps of his father and godfather, the latter of whom without question would have helped him establish a successful career as he had also done for his nephews. His decision to join the Army might be indicative of his mother and godfather, and maybe Simcoe himself, having been anxious that life aboard ship might be too strenouous for him.

On 25 September, the Earl of St. Vincent, commander of the mission, was aware of Simcoe's health now failing irreparably, and sent him home in the same vessel he had come in. Simcoe thus spent another four weeks among the paint fumes of HMS Illustrious before at last arriving in Tor Bay almost a month later.

From there, he was transported upriver to Exeter, where he was taken to the house of Archdeacon Moore. At the time, Elizabeth and their two oldest daughters Eliza and Charlotte had been in London, making purchases for the family's future move to India. They hastened to Exeter and arrived just in time to be able to say goodbye to him. Their other children, some of whom were staying with friends, could only be notified of their father's death afterwards.

I often wonder what might have been, had Simcoe decided not to go to Portugal; we know that he was quite happy and healthy when at home in Devon, and perhaps, if he had remained there, he may have lived a little longer, and not died in circumstances that came with such a tragic abrubtness that came to haunt the entire family for the next generation.

[queers-gambit]

hi there, cherry!

i read tears in the rain (again! no one is surprised) and it got me thinking - will a person who underwent surgery have any marks left on their chest, like scars or stitches? or as a part of the lore, do they magically disappear? i've never read hanahaki disease fics before yours so i am unaware of this just yet..

i just can't stop thinking about how the reader would see it all the time and try their best to remember why they had it but to no avail, while everybody around them probably avoids having to answer their questions truthfully. it hurts, but in a good way (god i love angst so much)

hope you're having a good day, and thank you

i love your stories as much as i love you!

hi, poppet!

solid question - and here's the thing. folklore has a plethora of explanations, so from my research, it's more common that the person who had the surgery doesn't remember the reason they had surgery, and their scars heal crazy fast so they're no longer there.

however, there's a thousand ways to write Hanahaki so there's a possibility that there's scars. and the very idea that baby girl has to look at them everyday but she can't remember? pure pain.

but that's such an interesting idea. like, she sees the scars and gives herself stress headaches trying to remember but she can't. her parents won't answer her, and when she asks her friends, they're swift to change the subjects.

and they're also really supportive of her scars; they might be borderline prouder of them than she. THEY remember why she needed the surgery and the bravery that was required to go through with it - so, they do their best to avoid her questions out of sheer want to protect her.

wanna be hurt more? what if it's Eddie that tells her she had surgery?

hear me out - he avoids her, gives her space, doesn't want to hurt her anymore. and he finds himself at Lover's Lake, in the spot they always hung out in; just smoking and watching the creepily-still lake surface.

he hears someone approaching but doesn't react because he just wants to be alone and prays whoever it is moves on.

but then you're sitting next to him after spotting him and figuring it was okay to approach because you thought you wanted to be alone too, but something in your stomach twists and you'll shyly introducing yourself to the boy you shared History class with, missing the single tear that falls from his eye out of pain. he'll play along and choke back his rest of his tears before you're asking him for a hit of the joint he's smoking.

he'll pin you with a confused look, "you can't smoke."

"why not?"

"you just had surgery, like, 3 months ago."

your head cocks, "you know?"

"course i do."

"well, do you know where the surgery was?"

he'll, again, pin you with a confused look. "what do you mean?"

"well, i can see the scars but i can't remember why i needed surgery."

he nods slowly, so fucking slow it's almost missed. he'll take a long pull of his joint and his eyes will fall to the dark dirt beneath you both; moon casting the only light.

"you had surgery on your lungs."

he takes a long hit to halt the emotion on his tongue.

"what was wrong with them? i can't remember that either, and nobody wants to tell me..."

he'll feel this overwhelming empathy because he figures you deserve to know what happened to you. "you were dying," he'll admit quietly, drawing his knees in and hooking his arms around them. "and you made a really brave decision to have the surgery. it... it saved your life, so, maybe that's why they don't wanna talk about it. it scared them that they'd lose you, so, they don't want you to remember that pain."

"what pain?" your voice is in a whisper.

and he'll finally look at you and the moon's glow will make his eyes shine brightly; you'll clock his tears as they fall, but you're distracted by his words, "the pain i caused you."

i'm hurt again. but i love you, too, poppet!! thank you for sending this in!! 🖤

edit: i'm supposed to be resting but wonky brain now can't let this idea go so guess who's outlining and fleshing out fics!! lowkey might have to incorporate this into a fic 🤔

[cinnaminsvga]

#31 with hobi please 💕

premise: "I know it's a bad idea, but I want it so much!" genre: streamer!au, humor, slight angst? || wc: 1.3K a/n: most of my free time is spent watching twitch and yt streamers so i've got 99% sykkuno brainrot so please excuse me as i apply my current hyperfixation into this little drabble. do i think hobertson would be an epic gamer? no. but would he be funny as hell while he tried? hell fucking yeah we love a boy with zero game sense <3

If being a streamer was a disease, then Jung Hoseok would be viral—both in the figurative and literal sense. You liked to joke that he had incurable content brain, wherein every action and decision he has ever made stems from the question: How can I turn this into a Youtube video and monetize the hell out of it?

You admired his insanity, in a way. "Being on the grind" was never a lifestyle you would ever find yourself enjoying, but watching the sheer dedication that your best friend had to his craft was both awe-inspiring and tiring at the same time. You always wondered if that boy only dreamt about video algorithms and viewer retention instead of normal things, like bobberts and coochichies.

[Note: B00bs and pu$$y were censored in order to keep this story from getting fictionally demonetized.]

So when Hoseok barges into your shared kitchen at 7 AM on a Monday with an "epic stream idea," you knew that you were about to hear about his first stupid (and most likely expensive) activity of the week.

“Hobi,” you say, trying to sound as stern as you possibly can. Judging by the way Hoseok immediately smiles wider in response, you have a feeling it’s not working all too well.

“But dudeeeee,” he whines, stretching his words for dramatic effect. He sidles up next to you, rubbing shoulders with you just as you’re about to shove a spoonful of cereal into your mouth. Milk drips onto your shirt, but that’s hardly a concern when Hoseok has apparently made it his mission to side hump your right arm.

“Get the fuck off of me!” you snap, pushing him away. Hoseok laughs in response, ignoring the palpable annoyance pulsing off of you in waves.

“You have to admit though, right? It would be pretty funny to do it,” Hoseok continues as if you hadn’t said anything. He has that special look on his face, where his pupils dilate and his cheeks puff up like a chipmunk—telltale signs pointing to another disastrous visit to the emergency room. 

“Are you seriously asking me if letting your live chat control a muscle stimulator attached to your thighs is a good idea?” 

“Yes!” Hoseok claps his hands gleefully. He runs over to the living room, where his laptop had toppled onto the carpeted floor in his haste to scream his idea at you. He scrolls frantically as he runs back to you, slamming his hip against the kitchen counter in the process. 

“You literally have the pain tolerance of a toddler, and you say you wanna walk on burning coals for entertainment?” You try to speak over the avalanche of expletives rushing out of Hoseok’s mouth, his body hunched over in pain. 

“W-wait...” he moans pathetically, crawling back to you and nudging his laptop onto your lap. “Look...”

Giving him one last disdainful glare, you grab the laptop from him only to find that he’d left it on a website displaying the aforementioned muscle stimulator for sale. The item boasts an impressive 2.5 stars, with reviews ranging from “this son of a bitch numbed my legs and now I can’t walk” to “this little baby is a miracle in the bedroom ❤️” which are two reviews you never want for the same product. 

At your silence, Hoseok looks up at you from the floor with hopeful eyes. “It looks good, right? Plus, it’s on sale for 10% off! This baby is going to get me so many views!”

You stare at him drily. “Hoseok.”

“Okay, I admit that $200 for a weird-looking pain machine is kinda pricey, but since this is going to be a business expense, plus my chat will have to donate a certain amount in order to zap me anyway, so it’ll pay for itself eventually and I can—”

“Hoseok! Are you even fucking hearing yourself?” you spit, swatting him away like a fly. The back of your hand accidentally makes contact with his cheek, and your unintended bitch slap was already enough to make the grown ass man whine in pain. 

“See! You’re going to fucking die on camera and I don’t want to have to deal with it,” you growl, turning back to your sad and soggy bowl of cereal. 

Hoseok props himself on his knees and clasps his hands as if in prayer, except there is no god present in this two bedroom apartment. There is only one other person here, but you might as well be godly with the amount of patience you possess within you.

“Listen, I know it's a bad idea, but I want to do it so much!” Hoseok pleads. He grips your arm, nearly making you knock your entire bowl of cereal off the table. 

“My cereal!” you screech.

“My ad revenue!” Hoseok hollers back, grabbing you by the chin to force your attention on him. “Can you imagine the VOD? It’s for sure getting #1 trending! I can make enough money that I won’t ever have to sellout to weird ballshaving sponsorships ever again!” 

“Hoseok, do you even understand what sort of pain you’ll be in? Some crazy person will donate like $1000 and the thing will permanently damage your nerve endings or some shit. You could seriously hurt yourself!” You huff tiredly, rubbing your temples in a futile to prevent an incoming migraine. 

“A thousand dollars is still a thousand dollars,” Hoseok says, shrugging. “Besides, I’m an entertainer! I was just a step away from selling my body when we were almost homeless, so what’s the difference with selling my body virtually?” He laughs, tilting his head with his familiar

He’s acting like what he said was just another joke, another edgy comment that would have gotten a few laughs from his audience. All it does to you, however, was remember the less than favorable circumstances you both were in a few years ago. You wince—the phantom ache in your spine from sleeping in your car returning with a vengeance.

“Hoseok, the difference is that you don’t have to do it,” you respond plainly. “You’re so talented! You’re funny and entertaining! You make millions of people laugh daily! Isn’t that enough? Do you have to put your body through more pain than is necessary?”

Hoseok laughs awkwardly, threading a hand through his hair. He’s always been bad when it comes to compliments. “Y/N, chill out—”

You sigh tiredly, mustering as much authenticity as you could in your worn eyes. “It’s true though. You could literally do anything and people would still watch you. Hell, I would watch you. I always do, and I love seeing you every day. Isn’t that enough?”

Hoseok sits crosslegged on the floor, twiddling his thumbs. “Uh, well, that was... something,” he squeaks, cheeks blazing. “T..Thank you? I didn’t know you watched me. I thought you would’ve been tired of me since we, well, live together.”

“I just really don’t want anything bad to happen to you,” you confess softly, your words trailing off into silence. You turn to face away from him, unwilling to let him see the flush seeping across your skin. 

There’s a beat of silence, and for a second you think your little outburst might have gotten through his thick skull. When you turn back to look at him, he’s staring at you quizzically as if you’d just grown another head in the past minute. 

“Umm, it wasn’t that serious, Y/N... It probably wouldn’t hurt even that much. The idea isn’t even 100% original... I’ve seen people use it in videos before and I’m sure it won’t be bad. Trust me,” Hoseok finishes with an awkward smile. 

“That’s the thing though... I really don’t trust you,” you sigh, clanking your spoon down into your bowl. Milk splashes on your shirt, but you don’t even care anymore. You scoot your chair back, standing up and walking around Hoseok to head to your bedroom.

Just as you’re about to close the door, Hoseok calls out from the kitchen. “So you’ll let me do it, right?”

Without missing a beat, you yell back, “Not if you still want me to care about you tomorrow!” before slamming the door. 

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Out Of Time ~ 108

MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 1,800ish (I know this is sorter, sorry... it’s just the way things were working out.)

Summary: Start of Captain America: Civil War

The months went by fast and before anyone knew it, it was May 2016. Y/N was at the Tower, nervously watching the news. The new team had gone on a mission to Lagos, where Rumlow, now going as Crossbones, assaulted the Institute for Infectious Disease. He detonated a suicide bomb, in which Wanda tried to contain. Unfortunately, the explosion damages a building, killing civilians. 

Meanwhile, Tony was at MIT, giving a speech, introducing his new invention BARF, and introducing the September Foundation Grant. Y/N hadn’t heard from him, which made her nervous as well. She jumped in surprise when her phone began ringing, she quickly answered it.

“Nat?” She said. “How is everyone? Are you all okay?”

“He needs you,” Natasha responded.

“Where are you?” 

“I’m outside the training room in the facility.”

Y/N quickly hung up and appeared next to Natasha through a portal.

“I saw the news. It’s bad. They’re putting all the blame on Wanda. Is that why he’s in there?”

“No,” Nat shook her head. “Rumlow mentioned Bucky.”

“What? W-wh-what did he say?”

“That Bucky knew you, knew the both of you. That, after we discovered the truth in DC, he remembered the two of you.” Tears filled Y/N’s eyes. “Rumlow teased that his brain was put back in the blender.”

“No.” Y/N looked up, trying to stop the tears. “I can’t go in there like this… it’s no help to him.”

“Take your time.” Natasha rubbed Y/N’s arm. “I just felt you were the only one who could understand.”

“No, thanks, Nat. Seriously.” Y/N turned towards the door, taking a deep breath. “I can do this.”

She quietly entered the training room. Steve was in the middle, taking his feelings out on a punching bag. Looking around, Y/N could see three new ones laying behind him and, what she guessed to be, about five bags torn to shreds around him. She carefully walked over.

“Steve,” she called calmly, only to be ignored. “Steve… Stevie.” She sighed. “Nat told me what happened.”

“I let him get to me,” Steve grunted. “That shouldn’t have happened.”

“Rumlow was playing you, Steve. It’s not your fault. He just knew right where it hurt… it would have gotten me too…” 

“I don’t know whether or not to believe him… did he really remember us?”

“It’s not your fault, Steve. There’s nothing you could have done then to save Bucky.”

“I could have fought harder for him to remember.”

“And then what? He probably would have ran anyway, Stevie. We don’t know how that was going to play out… can you stop that for one second and look at me?” With a huff, Steve did as he was told. Y/N walked up and rested her hands on his face. “None of this is your fault. What happened with Bucky or Lagos.”

“But I’m the Captain. It’s my responsibility to—“

“Yes, you are the Captain but you are also on a team, Stevie. And teams take the hits together… it was cruel for Rumlow to mention Bucky. So very, very cruel… Please don’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. I already have one man in my life that insists on doing that. I really don’t know if I can have two.”

“I’m sorry, Y/N.” Steve wrapped Y/N in his arms and pulled her into him. “Thank you for coming.”

“You should be thanking Nat for calling me.” 

“Will do.”

~~~

Y/N spent the rest of the day with the team. Wanda seemed to be taking it the hardest but was allowing anyone to help. Y/N frequently called Tony, only to be immediately sent to voicemail every time. This only made her grow more and more worried until she eventually left the facility, going back to the Tower. It was just after midnight. 

“Tony?” She called, searching the bedroom. “Babe?” When Tony was nowhere to be find in there, she sighed. “FRIDAY?”

“Boss is in the lab.”

“I should have looked there first.” She shook her head as she started walking to the lab. “How is he FRI?”

“Not very well. I have been making sure he doesn’t do anything drastic.”

“Thanks.”

Outside the lab, it was quiet and Y/N could tell that the only light on was the light above Tony’s table. She took a deep breath before entering the lab. Tony was hunched over his table, working on a watch.

“Hey, Tony,” Y/N greeted. “How was the speech?”

“Fine,” he replied, monotone.”

“Just fine. I’m sure you killed it.” 

She went to wrap her arms around him from behind. Tony quickly shrugged her off.

“I just want to be left alone right now.”

“Tony—“

“Please.”

“How about I sit next to you and—“

Tony slammed what he was working on down on the table. “Damn it, Y/N! I said I want to be left alone!”

When he turned to look at her, his anger quickly turned to guilt at the sight before him. Y/N had taken a step back, a few tears were escaping her eyes, and she was shaking slightly. He felt his heart sink to his feet.

“Y/N, I—“ He tried to reach out to her but she stepped back and through a portal. “Damn it!” He slammed his fist against the table. “Damn it…”

~~~

“Honey,” Tony gently knocked on their bedroom door. “Can I come in?” 

No response. He groaned and rested his head against the door when he tried the knob and realized it was locked. 

“Honey?” He called again. “I’m sorry."

“Miss Rogers as requested to be alone right now,” FRIDAY stated.

“Shit… I’ve really done it this time.”

“Yes, you have Boss.”

“Can you at least tell me what she’s doing in there?”

“When she first arrived, she was sobbing into her pillow. Now, she’s grabbed yours and is curled up in the middle of the bed.”

“Honey, please,” he tried again. “I won’t try anything. I just want to apologize.” 

The door suddenly clicked, allowing Tony to open it. He quickly slipped inside and shut the door behind him before she could change her mind. Stepping closer to the bed, he saw Y/N curled up, as FRIDAY had said, facing away from him.

“Honey, I am so sorry… I should have never snapped at you the way I did. I… I’m so sorry.”

“I was only trying to help,” she whispered, voice cracking. “That’s all I’ve been doing all day… it’s exhausting…” Tony sat down on the edge of the bed. “The mission didn’t go well, so they called me in the talk down, Steve. And Wanda’s struggling with it and then I called and called and you never answered. When I come home to help, you snap at me…”

“You didn’t deserve that, Y/N.” Tony shook his head, resting them in his hands as he leaned forward. “The speech went good, the kids were all excited. It was after… once I had walked off stage…” Tony sighed and Y/N turned to face him. “People die… we try to save everybody, but we never can…”

“That’s not our fault, Tony. It’s not your fault.”

“But it is. We need to try harder. Do better. We can’t continue on like this. Something needs to change.”

Y/N sat up and scooted closer to Tony, still holding onto his pillow.

“It was a mother,” Tony continued quietly. “She came up to me after the speech…. Her son, Charlie Spencer, died in Sokovia…. We murdered him… a building was dropped on him…”

“We had no control over that.” She moved closer. “Do you understand? You had no control over it.” She slowly reached out and entangled her fingers with his. “It’s our job to save the day and, sadly, somedays that doesn’t mean everyone.”

Tony brought her hand up and held a kiss to the back of it. “I’m so sorry,” he mumbled against it, placing other kiss. “I should have just talked instead of act out.”

“Nobody’s perfect, Tony. We all make mistakes. The thing about mistakes though, is we need to keep trying harder after.”

“I don’t deserve you.”

Y/N leaned in and gave him a kiss. “I’m sorry, Tony. But I don’t believe that.” She kissed him again, harder, pouring more of her love into it. “I’m exactly what you need.”

~~~

Five Weeks Later…

Y/N kept going from pacing to sitting on the edge of her bed, knee bouncing. Her thumb was almost permanently placed at the edge of her mouth as she nervously bit at her nail. She was running every possibility of how this could happen, but every one led to the same conclusion. Which only made her more nervous.

For the past week, she had woken up nauseous. She spent most of the mornings sitting near the toilet. This morning, while sitting on the bathroom floor, she realized that she was late. Y/N was shaking when she took the test. Thankfully, and not so thankfully, Tony had bought a few, just in case.

When the timer went off, she froze. Her heart rate picked up as she willed her feet to move towards the bathroom counter, where the test was taunting her. Clenching her eyes shut, Y/N moved her head to hover right over the test.

“Okay, okay…” she whispered to herself. “You can do this Y/N… just open your eyes… you and Tony will deal with, or not deal with, whatever the results are… okay…” Y/N took a deep breath. “Okay…”

She opened her eyes, breath catching as she read the stick.

Positive.

“Okay… Okay… That’s… different…. Yeah, definitely different.” She suddenly started laughing, tears forming. “I’m pregnant. I’m pregnant.”

“Miss,” FRIDAY called. “I’ve been asked to inform you that Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross, is here. The others have already assembled in the conference room, waiting for you.”

“Tell them I’m on my way.”

“Of course.”

Y/N quickly hid the evidence, so that Tony didn’t have a chance of finding it before she had a chance to tell him. She didn’t really know how to feel or if she even wanted this baby. But she knew that whatever she decided, Tony would support her. There wasn’t anytime for worrying about it now, or celebrating, she was needed in the meeting. So, she stuffed the evidence in the furthest corner of the drawer she knew Tony never looked in and rushed down the conference room, wondering what the Secretary of State could possibly want.

next chapter >

NOTES: from now on the taglist when be added by a reblog. I will reblog it using my second account, @just-dreaming-marvel-2​. Just so that my main page doesn’t get too cluttered.

If you want to be added to the tag list, please dm me or send in an ask.

[kiri-ah]

Something To Sink My Teeth Into || he/him pronouns version

Themes: Supernatural AU, Vampire AU, strangers to lovers, angst and fluff (so much fluff), something similar to those symbiotes from Venom and Hanahaki disease combined, interplanar travel, Jaemin and the reader are oblivious and Chenle gets mad about it, long conversations about vampires, vampires can't cry

Pairing: Vampire!Jaemin x Male Human!reader

Warnings: mentions of blood (minor), mentions of eating (human food and vampire food), character death, Chenle is kind of a butthole, in depth conversations about humans and vampires which include biting and blood drinking, Yuta's house gets set on fire

Word Count: 26.4k

Summary: A trip to Poland goes terribly wrong - or maybe terribly right - when you're bitten and kidnapped by a vampire. Between passing out, almost dying multiple times, and falling in love, you have a lot on your plate. Oh, and the magic. Right. Teaser here.

A/N: Okay so uh... this wasn't meant to be this long. I hate my brain sometimes. *sigh*

This has only been edited by myself and a friend of mine, please excuse any errors. I worked hard to make the best experience possible. For that reason, please note that this is the !he/him pronouns version! They/them pronouns may be found here, she/her pronouns here. Please enjoy!

You were on holiday in Krakow, Poland. For your twenty first birthday, your parents had gifted you a weeklong trip over Spring Break, and you had been having the time of your life. You had found Krakow rich in historical influence - it had been the capital of Poland until 1596 and still had remnants of the past, like a Renaissance-era trading post and sections of the medieval walls that surrounded the city. Plus, the section of the city that you were staying in was very close to the city center, where you discovered aforementioned trading post, called the Cloth Hall, and an old cathedral named St. Mary’s Basilica.

The first night of your stay, Sunday night, you had struggled to sleep, because of the time difference and the excitement of arriving. You stayed in Monday morning, trying to at least rest a bit, and then ventured out to the nearest coffee shop when that didn’t alleviate your sleepiness. The barista had whipped up your favorite pick-me-up morning drink, and you went to sit outside in the fresh air, surveying the plaza over the rim of your cup. It was just the right time of year, you thought, because it was nice and warm without being too hot, just how you liked it. The sun had started to rise about the buildings around you, illuminating certain structures and giving them an unearthly glow.

When you finished your drink, you put the cup into the collection bin and walked back out onto the main square, just enjoying the sun on your face (over the sunglasses you had bought in the airport after forgetting to pack yours) and letting the warmth sink through your limbs after the tired night. One of the unfortunate things about the time of year you had travelled was the tourists. There were families and older couples and people your age taking trips with their friends, and most everyone stayed right where you were staying as well: right in the heart of the city. To avoid as many crowds as possible, you had booked a tour of St. Mary’s Basilica for Thursday morning, and reserved entry to the underground museum for this afternoon.

Tomorrow you planned to go and see Grodzka Street, where you were going to try and find a souvenir. In the same neighborhood was an ancient church called St. Andrew’s Church, which dated back to around 1079. On Wednesday, you were going to brave the crowds of people in the Cloth Hall for the same purpose, and also because it was a historical landmark that you just needed to explore. Wednesday afternoon was blocked out to be a rest period, as was Thursday morning. Then on Friday you were planning to go and see the Wawel Castle and Cathedral. From there you would explore the various attractions on the property, and then return to the plaza later to eat. That afternoon, you planned to go to the Jewish cemetery. Saturday was blocked out for a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was a Nazi concentration camp and a Holocaust memorial out of the main town. When you returned to the hotel late that afternoon you would pack and get ready for your flight Sunday morning. It was going to be a very full and very fun week. Or at least you hoped it would be fun.

You explored the main square a little bit that first day and unpacked your things, making sure you had everything you needed for your trip and you didn’t need to walk to one of the convenience stores nearby.

The days passed quickly, and you finished each one completely satisfied. Everything and everyone here was so wonderful and you started to wonder how you had never heard of this place before this trip. It was absolutely one of the best places your parents could have picked.

On Friday morning you got up bright and early (well, actually, it was dark and early) to go to the Wawel Castle. You had heard from a travelling site that tickets sold out fast and it was important to get there early in the day, and you tried to heed that warning. At 7am when you arrived it was already busy, but thankfully not so much that the lines were too long. You wandered through the small exhibits and around the grounds. It was a bit more chilly today and you wrapped a scarf around your neck as you shivered, trying to find a less windy spot to hide out for a second. You found a little spot where you could take a moment and recharge your inner heater and were doing just that, burrowing into your small scarf mountain, when you realized that a person stood next to you. You looked up through your lashes at them and caught your breath - holy cow he had good genes. He had a sharp, sloping jawline that stopped at a chin less pointy than you had expected. His lips were plush and round, although he needed some chapstick. His hair was pushed around by the wind but despite that he looked, well, amazing. Sections were bleached, giving his hair an almost halo-esque look. His nostrils contracted as he inhaled and then his eyes cut down to yours, dark and deep and was that eyeliner?

He smiled then, a smirk that seemed far too self-assured for the situation, and leaned over towards your exposed ear. “I can feel you staring, baby,” he murmured. The top of your ear, which had been feeling rather numb, flamed hot at his words. It almost hurt, the sudden jump into heat. You turned towards him fully, only eyes exposed by the scarf mountain. Your hair whipped around as the wind shifted again, but he didn’t seem cold, although he was in only a pair of black skinny jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black jacket. The jacket caught your attention for a second - it was studded with thousands of little rhinestones, like a varsity jacket gone shiny. Then he shifted closer into your space and you were forced to look back at his eyes, glittering in a way that seemed almost predatory. You sucked in a breath through your mouth and started to back away.

“S-sorry,” your breath came out in a whisper. Nobody seemed to notice your interaction. “I didn’t see you there, I’ll just leave.” You turned to go before his hand, surprisingly strong, clamped around your arm and pulled you back into his chest.

His voice came out in a growl as he blocked your scream with his other hand. “I am far, far too hungry for you to leave right now, precious.” The strength in your legs seemed to dissipate at his tone, you knew you needed to defend yourself, but ‘hungry’? What was that about? And precious? The hand wrapped around your arm let go and started unwrapping your scarf, exposing your face to both him and the frigid wind. He started to lean down, and you pressed your lips together tightly. At the very least, he wasn’t getting in your mouth. You may have lost the strength in your legs, but not in your will. Then he bypassed your mouth and leaned into your neck, inhaling and causing cold air to course along the column of your throat. He chuckled when you shivered, then bit into your neck.

The pain was overwhelming, you could feel each individual blood cell crying out, every organ protesting, your head started to pound with it. It hurt far more than even a dog bite should. It hurt like a shot at the doctor going on and on, echoing through your body and you were powerless to stop it. The pain flared in your neck and your brain seemed to slow down as the blood flowed away from it and into his mouth. You crumbled into him, and without detaching from your throat, he scooped you up into his arms, holding you there to be his personal bloodbag. You had long since stopped trying to scream, it was too difficult, too much effort.

Vampires, your thoughts whispered, before the pain covered you and you passed out, collapsing completely.

☽༓☾

You woke up in a... cozy cottage? There wasn’t any sign of your attacker and, in fact, no sign of anything vampire esque either. You looked around the single room at the soft fabric couch (covered in boho style throw pillows), the kitchenette (complete with pre packed food), and the window, through which you could see a combination flower and vegetable garden. There were two doors off of the room you were in, one that led towards the lush green outside, and one that must have concealed the bathroom.

The moment you realized this, you also realized that you really needed to use said bathroom, and struggled to plant your bare feet on the floor. Your legs didn't want to hold your weight, and you crumbled to the rug with a whine. Two seconds later, the door to the outside opened with a swish of fresh air and there, outlined by the sun, stood the most gorgeous person you had ever had the pleasure to lay eyes on. When he saw you on the floor, he groaned and ran a hand through his pink hair. "Shit, I'm so sorry, let me help you!" He ran over and you allowed him to half carry you into the bathroom. It wasn’t like you had any strength to protest, and he seemed nice. He smelled like sunshine on fresh earth.

Once you had finished using the toilet you tried to stand up again, now that you at least had some semblance of strength in your legs. After a few tries you were able to support yourself against the bathroom counter, with more than half of your weight against the frigid tiles. Your legs shook as you started standing more straight up, and you made a high pitched keening sound that you didn’t even know you could make; the man’s worried voice came through the door. His voice was higher and slightly panicked.

“Are you okay? Do you need help? Are you hurting too much?”

Your voice, which you hadn’t managed to make work properly, came out lower than usual and scratchy. A portion of your throat ached as you tried to make the sounds audibly. “Yeah,” you rasped out. “I can’t stand up properly.”

“Do you need me to come and help?” There was something about his voice that just made you want to trust him. It was soft but strong and even though he had toned down the panic, it still had soft tremors of worry running through it.

You thought about it for a second and considered yourself in the mirror. You looked, quite frankly, horrible. Your hair was a mess (more than usual), your eye bags were sagging unnaturally, and your eyes themselves were dull. You did look like you needed help. You sighed. “Sure.”

A moment later he opened the door slowly and stepped into the space with you, putting one arm around your waist to help support you. You relaxed some of your weight onto him and closed your eyes briefly. It would have been a wholly relaxing moment if not for your stomach. It grumbled up at you and you thought for a moment that it sounded like an angry octopus trapped inside of you. Then you blinked to clear the thought away as the man laughed. It was deeper than you expected from a man with pink cotton-candy colored hair, a low chuckle that rumbled through his body and, in turn, yours. You shook against him slightly with the movement and his other arm came to help you lean more against his body. He was stronger than you expected and you could feel the muscles in his arms shift as he reoriented himself.

“Let’s get you some food,” he said, smiling. “Unfortunately I’m not sure I’ll have much you’ll like.” You just nodded. Your throat was still throbbing uncomfortably where you were bitten and you weren’t sure you had the energy to even debate his statement. You were sure you would eat whatever he gave you. He led you into the main room again and helped you settle onto the couch. He walked over to the kitchenette and picked up a can of soup, then walked back to you to verify it was a kind that you liked. Once you had approved it, he went back and put it in a pot on the electric stove, starting to heat it up. As he stood over it, you had some time to think as you sat on the couch. The first thing you realized was that you still didn’t know what his name was, which was an issue. You couldn’t thank him properly without knowing his name. The second thing you realized was that you didn’t know where you were, exactly. The third was that you had probably missed your flight back home and your parents were going to murder you for it when you eventually got back. You shifted so you were more comfortable before trying to speak again. You started with the easiest vocal warmup you remembered and the man looked over at you with eyebrows raised.

“You good?” he asked. You nodded in response, hoping that your throat would relax and stop throbbing.

“Yeah, I think so,” you told him. “The side of my neck really aches where that man bit me.” His eyebrows furrowed at this and you thought maybe you just imagined it, that nobody actually bit you, but the pain was real enough in that moment and it was certainly real enough when he bit you. “Also,” you continued, “I still don’t know what your name is.” He seemed to think about this for a moment.

“I’m Jaemin Na,” he said eventually. “This is my house. And I think maybe we need to take a closer look at your bite, I didn’t realize it still hurt. Usually the throbbing goes away after a day or two.” You found yourself nodding along before his words sank in.

“Okay, uh, nice to actually know who you are now. I’m Y/N,” you said. There were suddenly many more questions floating around your brain. Usually he had said, which meant he had dealt with vampire bitten people before. How? Was he one? Why weren’t you a vampire? And how long had you been asleep for? They circled around your head like a dog chasing its tail until you realized that Jaemin was in front of you. It seemed like he was waiting for you to say something.

“Sorry,” you murmured. “What was that?”

“I said we have all the time in the world for you to ask me the questions I know you must have. Don’t psych yourself out. You’re safe.” Despite the fact that you knew next to nothing about him you found yourself once again trusting him without reason. He just seemed like a genuinely nice person, someone you could believe to tell you nothing but the truth.

“Okay,” you agreed, and it came out like a sigh. Your throat gave a particularly unpleasant throb and you unconsciously brought a hand up to rub at it. Jaemin’s hand fastened around your wrist and pulled it away, looking closely at your skin. He sighed.

“You’ve probably figured out by now that the man who bit you was a vampire. If you haven’t, have your moment of denial now.” You just looked back at him, surprised.

“Denial?”

“Yeah. Usually when humans find out about vampires for the first time they aren’t very accepting of it. I’ve had to replace my windows a few times from thrown objects.” You almost laughed before realizing that he was serious.

“Okay, well, I already got that, so go ahead,” you prompted.

“Great!” His eyes got just a little bit less heavy with your statement and he continued, “contrary to popular belief, vampires don’t actually turn humans all that often. If we had that little self control the whole population would be dead or turned already.” You noted his use of the word we and shuddered a little. He could attack you too? He seemed so gentle.

For the first time you noticed your soup in a bowl on the coffee table. Jaemin reclaimed your attention by speaking again. “We’re also pretty good at choosing who to bite, and when. We’re not heartless. We try to choose people with good metabolisms so that we can return them to Earth quickly.” At this you inhaled so sharply that he paused, looking over at you.

“We aren’t on Earth anymore?” you asked shakily. He shook his head with a quirk of his lips. That distracted you enough to calm down for a moment. He really was a gorgeous person. Was the word person still applicable to vampires? You didn’t know. He sucked you out of your thoughts again with a hand waved in front of you.

“No, we’re not on Earth. Where we are… it’s like a parallel plane of existence. Vampires can live here, do live here, in bigger bunches than we can on Earth. We call it ‘Vahmpyr.’ I always thought that was a really unoriginal name, but I was turned after it was discovered so I didn’t have much of a say. It would be like you trying to rename Earth.” He picked up your bowl of soup and stirred it around, handing it to you, before continuing.

“This is my vacation house of sorts, where I nurse humans who have been bitten back to their healthy selves. Generally we vampires try to keep one certified nurse or doctor in each coven just in case, more if the coven is large. It’s a handy skill to have. Especially if you happen to have parts of your coven who are as chaotic as ours.” He looked over at you and smiled wryly before adding, “I didn’t poison the soup, you know.” You looked down at your lap where the warm bowl sat and laughed under your breath before picking up the spoon and taking a bite. It was delicious. You flashed him a thumbs up with your mouth full and he smiled brightly again.

Once you had swallowed you asked, “how can you bite humans and not turn them? I didn’t know it was possible to not turn us.” He nodded like he was expecting this question.

“It’s kind of a strange feeling,” he told you. “Biting, I mean. It’s not like the human feeling of biting into a piece of meat. It’s just… it’s amazing. It’s like cold fruit on a summer’s day, hot chocolate while snow falls. It’s at once a feeling of absolute power and absolute devotion because tasting a human’s blood puts them above everything else, at least for a few moments. At the same time you’re aware that their body is falling apart and right into you. It’s intoxicating. Every once in a while you’ll bite someone that just tastes extraordinarily good, or meet someone with a unique and, pardon my language, delicious, smell. Then your body sort of automatically realizes you want them to stick around and releases the venom.”

“So,” you said, interested by his version of vampires, “if you bit me right now, I’d be fine?”

His eyes sparked with something new. Anger, you thought, or something close to it. “I just spent four days nursing you back to health and you want me to bite you just to see what happens?” he asked incredulously.

“No! I was just confirming. I’m sorry,” you murmured, and shoved another bite of the soup into your mouth for good measure. He sighed.

“I’m sorry too, it feels so easy to talk to you. I forget that you’re new to this.” You choked on your soup while he and he hurriedly patted your back as you regained your breath. “Are you alright?”

“Did you say you spent four days nursing me back to health?” you asked, head spinning. Four days. Four days. Four days. “I’ve been missing from Earth for four days?”

He deliberated for a moment. “Yes, and no. You’ve been off of Earth for four days, yes, but you aren’t missing.” You raised an eyebrow in response and he hurried to explain more. “I mean, obviously you’re here, and yes, you’ve been here for four days, asleep, recovering from Jisung’s bite. On the other hand, there’s still a you on Earth right now. That’s the interesting thing about Vahmpyr. We can bring humans back, with some effort, and while they’re here, a version of them is still on Earth. It’s still you. And if you go back, from what I understand, you get your other half’s memories back, like you never left. It’s quite the phenomenon.” He seemed completely serious and you were inclined to believe him, but this was insanity. Another you, a perfect copy, walking around on Earth while you hung out with the vampires in their parallel plane? You pinched yourself. It hurt, and you winced. Jaemin looked at you with this horrible understanding glimmer in his eyes like he was saying I know how this is. It’s weird and unimaginable but it’s here. Please don’t break any of my things.

Eventually you just kept sitting and looked back at him. “This really is good soup,” you said. He looked at you in surprise before bursting out laughing, face lighting up like the horizon at sunrise.

“You’re not going to attack me?” he asked between chuckles. “That’s the normal response. And thank you, that’s my favorite kind of soup too.” You shook your head, smiling back at him.

“I decided that there’s no changing it even if this is just a fever dream induced by an infected human,” you explained to him. “And wait, can you actually eat still? Like stuff besides blood?” In response he ran over to the small kitchen and grabbed a spoon of his own, dipping it into the bowl and moving it to his mouth. When he was done he smiled at you.

“I can still eat human foods. Nothing is as good as blood, of course, but I can still enjoy it. It’s just dulled by the transformation. And I’m glad that’s the stance you take on being transported to a different plane, I’ve known humans to react rather badly.” He took a moment to think. “For example, there was a woman who was convinced we had sexually assaulted her, which is a fair thought, but she wouldn’t let me explain anything to her. She ran outside as soon as her legs were strong enough and ran right into Lucas. He’s a really big guy, wide and tall and strong and such. She was so terrified she ran into my bathroom and I had to give her the spiel from through the door. Not the finest of interactions.” In spite of yourself you laughed. You could imagine the woman’s fear, especially if this Lucas was as infuriatingly gorgeous as Jaemin and the man who had bit you. You probably should’ve felt the same way, but something about Jaemin was just relaxing, and you felt safe with him.

“I get it,” you told Jaemin. “All of you guys; the guy who bit me - what did you say his name was? Jisung? Yeah, him. Jisung and you and probably Lucas, you all look like models which I guess goes with the vampire narrative, but it’s a little shocking since I’ve never seen someone so good looking. It’s nearly scary.” You looked back up to see Jaemin looking surprised.

“You think we’re good looking? Even after you got bitten by one, abducted by another, and have only heard of the third in a story about someone running away screaming?”

You shrugged. “All of that doesn’t change the facts. You’re still some pretty perfect looking human beings.” A moment later you realized what you had said and wrinkled your nose. “Sorry, uh, creatures. Is that offensive?” Jaemin laughed again and wow you could get addicted to that laugh. It was so carefree. You supposed that came with immortality.

“Technically ‘creatures’ is more accurate but isn’t very nice-sounding, even if we are unnatural monsters.” He said this as though he had come to terms with it. Even if we are unnatural monsters.

“I don’t think you’re unnatural,” you told him. “I mean, if there is a higher power out there then He or It or They created a whole plane for you and if not then nature did. I don’t think Vahmpyr would exist if you were unnatural.” He looked at you without speaking as you took another spoonful of soup.

“That’s… that’s a new way of looking at it.” He looked conflicted, like he was trying to reconcile your view of him with his view of himself. “I don’t think our plane was meant to exist though, by higher power or nature. Humans are beautiful because they age and there is room for change within your society. It’s hard to change an entire plane full of the unchanging.”

“Maybe so,” you argued, “but you’re obviously gorgeous on the outside, and on the inside it seems like you have a good system too. If I was a vampire I don’t think I’d take care of the humans I had bitten. It wouldn’t have occurred to me. They would all die. I would be dead, come to think of it.”

“That’s true,” he conceded. “You really do have a unique view of things.”

“Thank you?” It came out sounding more like a question than you intended. You finished your bowl of soup, licking the excess off of your upper lip. Setting the bowl back down seemed to break whatever spell had kept you in eager conversation with him. You supposed all of your questions had been answered, for now. Jaemin helped you get set up with Netflix on his TV and went back outside to his garden. He explained that you could call for him through the open window if you needed him, he would be right nearby. You nodded, already distracted by the opening scene of your show.

After a while you realized that there were low voices coming from outside. It sounded like Jaemin was talking to someone. You turned the volume down on the TV a little bit to listen. Maybe you could meet the infamous Lucas or someone else in Jaemin’s vampire family.

“... have to bring him to me?” Jaemin was saying. “You tasted him, you know his scent. This is painful. His scent is all over my things, my bed.” He let out a small groan and the other man with him chuckled breathily.

“Hyung, I didn’t mean for him to smell so good I swear, it was a spur of the moment decision. I was hunting in his area and his scent was so enticing. Plus, I was hungry!” You shuddered at the mention of hunting. This one, who must be Jisung, was far less civilized than Jaemin, it seemed.

Jaemin made an angry noise and his words hissed out when he spoke. “You think it was enticing out in the open air of Poland? On a windy day? I’ve been smelling him acutely on my things, in my house, for four days and it hurts. My venom has been going non-stop for the entire period and it’s not like I can just change him, he’s got a life ahead of him!” Part of your heart went out to Jaemin - he was trying so hard to take care of you and even caused himself pain for it. That explained why he had reacted so negatively when you asked what would happen if he bit you. You wouldn’t have been fine. You would’ve become like him. The thought didn’t cause the anger or disgust you thought it should have. It sounded nice, almost, to be like him. To stay in his safety for eternity.

“Jaemin,” said a new voice. It was strong and rough like tree bark lined his throat. “You can return him back to the real world in just a few more days and you’ll be free of him. It’s not like he’d want to stay here anyway, his friends and family are back on Earth. We can keep Jisung home and have him feed on Chenle until he learns his lesson.”

Someone, presumably Jisung, made a wounded noise. “I can control myself, I promise. Don’t make me feed on Chenle, Hyung, he doesn’t taste anywhere near as good.” Definitely Jisung.

“Jisung,” said Jaemin’s voice. “Don’t argue, you brought this on yourself. And me,” he adds as an afterthought.

Jisung’s sullen voice responded, “fine, Hyung, but Chenle isn’t going to be happy either, you know.” You thought maybe Jaemin must have nodded or something because nobody said anything for a while. You turned off the TV, suddenly bored with the program and head full of new questions. The top one on the list was why. Why did you affect them this way? Why did Jaemin treat you so nicely when you were hurting him? Why did Jisung sound like a puppy who had been reprimanded? Why did Jaemin and the other man have the power to ground him, essentially? Then there were the who questions. Who was the man with the voice like tree bark? Who was Chenle, and why wouldn’t he be happy? Lastly were the when questions. When would you be going home? When would you see them again? Would you see them ever again? When would Jisung be allowed to hunt again?

You were so deep in your head that you didn’t notice the door opening and Jaemin coming in, two men behind him, until he stopped and waved a hand in front of you.

“Y/N, you okay? I brought you some people to meet.” He stepped back and you forced your eyes to refocus on what was in front of you. When you looked up at him, he presented the two other guys like he was a car salesman and these were his favorite models. “This is Jisung, you’ve met him already although I don’t know if you remember him.” You nodded, looking over him. He had on a grey crewneck sweatshirt over a pair of black sweatpants today and looked far less terrifyingly beautiful flanked by his hyungs.

“I remember him,” you told them. “You’re the one who bit me.” You didn’t think it was possible for him to look more sheepish than he already did but he managed to, and shrank back so that he was standing half-behind the other man. The other guy had bleached hair falling messily over his forehead, and even though he was shorter than Jisung, he seemed to command your attention more. He had on a green sleeveless shirt that showed off arms rippling with muscles. You gulped, looking up at him, but then he smiled at you. His whole demeanor changed. He felt less like he was about to kill you and more like he might accidentally strangle you to death in a hug. His eyes scrunched up into little crescents and you found yourself smiling back.

“I’m Jeno,” he said, walking forward to shake your hand. “Sorry I didn’t come to visit earlier.” His voice still sounded like bark lined his throat, but less so now that he wasn’t bothering to limit his volume.

“That’s fine,” you replied. “I just woke up earlier today.” You glanced towards Jaemin; he looked like a proud mom watching you interact with his friend. “Jaemin fed me, and since then I’ve just been sitting here watching TV. I can’t find my phone, and even if I did I’m not sure I could walk over to it. My legs are out of practice.”

Jeno smiled again. “That’s pretty common for Jisung’s victims. We found out he has these little back teeth that make it more painful for the people he bites so they usually need more bed rest to recover from the strain on their bodies and the blood loss.”

You nodded, as though that made sense. They still let Jisung hunt with his unpredictability and extra teeth? That seemed a little irresponsible of them, but you supposed that Jeno and Jaemin weren’t that much older than him in the first place. You tried to bring up your next subject subtly.

“Speaking of recovery, when do you think I’ll be going back to Earth?” The change in the room was immediate. Jeno’s smile faltered enough for you to see his eyes, Jaemin’s shoulders slumped, and Jisung’s foot started tapping against the rug. “It’s not that I don’t like it here,” you interjected, “I'm just worried that my, uh, double self will get up to trouble and stuff. What if someone notices it’s not me?”

Jisung looked at Jaemin. “You either did a really bad job of explaining this or he wasn't listening, Hyung.” Jaemin glared at him in response and chose not to dignify the statement with an answer. Jisung huffed at him and turned to you. “It’s you, y’know, back on Earth. Like… when a starfish gets cut in half, both halves grow into full starfish again. Something similar happened to you. Same organism, same guy, just two different places. Is that a weird comparison?”

“What he means,” interjected Jeno before you could reply, “is that the you down there has all of your experiences and memories and the same brain. It’s the exact same person as you, just two versions of you. When you go back you won't even have a bite scar.” At this you lifted your hand to rub at the mark on your throat. You saw Jisung’s eyes follow the action and he licked his lips. You put your arm back down into your lap and swallowed, the sound echoing in your head.

Finally Jaemin spoke. “And to answer your question, as soon as we get you strong enough to walk on your own you can go back. I mean technically there’s a body waiting for you down there, but we don’t know what would happen if we sent you back faulty, so we like to be careful.” You laughed at his use of the word faulty and nodded.

“Okay. Do you guys have a portal or something that’ll take me back?” At this all three men burst into laughter and a high pitched squeal joined the mix, coming from the doorway. Yet another man was standing there, thin orange-dyed hair flopping as he doubled over laughing.

“A- a portal,” he wheezed out between laughs. “No, we don’t have a portal.” You threw him a disgruntled look.

“I was just asking…”

Jaemin looked equally off-put and said, “Y/N, this is Chenle, Jisung’s best friend and our second child. Sorry about his lack of a filter.” His lips pursed unhappily and you rushed to reassure him.

“No, that’s okay, I don’t know if that was stupid question. No feelings hurt, he’s fine.” Jaemin looked unconvinced, so you sat up more towards Chenle and reached out a hand. “I’m Y/N.”

“Oh is that your name?” he replied breezily, shaking your hand quickly. “They were right, you do smell good.” Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Jaemin shift protectively.

“Chenle.” His voice came out a growl, raising hairs on the back of your neck. “Don’t you dare.” It was interesting, you thought, how this dynamic worked. From what you had heard with Jisung, Jaemin had always contained himself, like he was reprimanding his favorite child. With Chenle he seemed almost dangerous, like it was possible for him to hurt a fly, and things much bigger than a fly. You wondered if he was this way with all of his patients, or if Chenle just bothered him more with you than usual.

“I’m not going to, mom, chill out a moment.” Chenle, you decided, must be the bad egg of their group. Every family had at least one, and here was theirs. He seemed the most likely to hurt something for the fun of it, and it almost seemed like he should have been the one to attack you, not Jisung. You wondered, in the distant back of your head, whether he had extra teeth for biting like Jisung did. Maybe it was better not to find out.

“Please don’t call me mom,” Jaemin sighed in response, all of the fight leaving him a rush. His muscles were still tense, though, and he ran a hand through his cotton candy colored hair.

“Chenle,” said Jeno, “I think you and Jisung should go talk. He has news for you.” Jisung shuddered slightly, his nod small and tense. You remembered his reaction earlier, when he had been informed that he needed to feed from Chenle for the time being. Chenle looked between Jisung and Jeno and an expression appeared on his face that didn’t seem natural on him - uncomfortable confusion. What you had seen in this past tension filled minute was that he was self assured and rambunctious. Now you wondered if he respected Jeno, regardless of that. You supposed you didn’t really have time to find out, you would be going home as soon as you could walk on your own. Speaking of which-

“I need to use the bathroom again,” you said as Jisung walked out of the house with Chenle right behind him.

“You should try getting up on your own,” Jeno suggested. “The more you sit around the harder it’ll be for your legs to get strong again.” You nodded and used the arm of the couch to haul yourself to your feet. Your knees started shaking again and Jaemin hurried to support you a little, until you felt a little more steady on your feet. Once you did, you tentatively took a tiny step towards the bathroom. Your arms flew out to your sides to help with balance and Jaemin took the mother bird stance, worriedly standing within arm’s length to catch you if you started to collapse. Jeno watched from a few paces away and smiled at you.

“Let’s see if you can get to me, okay? Then we can help if you need support.” You nodded and gritted your teeth, shuffling forward on your weak legs slowly. The good news: you made it to him without falling or using Jaemin’s ever-there assistance. The not so good news: you practically fell into Jeno when you got to him, using his body for support. He helped you find your center of gravity again before acting as a crutch to get you to the bathroom.

“If you need anything,” Jaemin told you, “I’ll be right out here. Don’t over-exert yourself.”

“I’ll be fine, it’s just like one step to the toilet, and there’s a nice strong counter” you assured him, and closed the door behind you as you stepped away from Jeno’s warm strength. Immediately you felt weak again but you reached out to hold on to the edge of the counter while you walked and got safely to the toilet. Your legs screeched at you as you lowered yourself onto the seat and you relaxed a little bit once you were seated. Recovery was going to be hard.

☽༓☾

Two days passed in a blur of pain and people. You met quite a few new people, like the infamous Lucas (who was a giant baby and who adored you), a woman named Joy who had actual red eyes like the legends said, and a man that everyone called Ten. Actually, you weren’t sure if Ten counted as a man. He dropped by Jaemin’s house the third day, right after Jisung and Chenle had just left after getting some flowers from Jaemin’s garden. He walked in on tentacles, long and thick ones that wrapped around the door frame and curled and uncurled as he talked. He muttered something about wishing they would just admit they were gay and asked Jaemin if he happened to have clams. Jaemin, looking amused, supplied him with an entire bucket of the little creatures. Ten gave him a jar in response and flounced out the door without even looking at you.

“Jaemin,” you asked, “what, or who, was that?” Jaemin laughed happily and the sound was so perfect that you wished he would just keep laughing forever.

“Ten is kind of unique,” Jaemin said. “Obviously, he’s got tentacles, which is unusual, and then he’s also not a vampire so none of us can quite figure out how he can get here, to Vahmpyr. But he can see the future, sort of, which is pretty helpful sometimes. Warns us when we’re getting too active and need to be careful of humans. He’s also convinced that Chenle and Jisung are gay and that they just need some guidance.”

You couldn’t decide on a question to ask about these revelations, so you settled for a very intelligent sounding “huh,” and continued your walking around the house. You were doing a lot better now with your exercises and had been able to make it around the room without holding onto anything for support four times now. Jaemin laughed again and you felt yourself actually flinch from the force of his happiness. It was addicting, almost. He went back to his Gaelic scrolls, which he was translating for a man called Kun, who you had yet to meet.

You had a sudden thought and you found yourself needing to talk, to explain about the other day. “Jaemin,” you said, dropping into the seat across from him at the table with a low groan. “The other day when Jisung and Jeno came, you guys were talking outside, you know?” He looked up from the scrolls, giving you a raised eyebrow like ‘so?’

“So I may or may not have listened to your conversation,” you told him, watching as he gave you his full attention, clicking his pen closed and rolling up the scrolls gently. He didn’t look angry, exactly, more apprehensive than anything. Like he was back to worrying about you throwing things and breaking his windows.

“And?” he prompted, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them you saw something strange there, like fear. But certainly the immortal and beautiful Jaemin couldn’t be scared of you. You must’ve been interpreting it wrong.

“Well you guys were talking about my smell,” you started slowly. “And, uh, you said that you- that I was causing you pain. And I was just wondering, why keep me around? Why not take me to a human hospital, or just kill me? Or turn me? Why did you make yourself suffer?”

He inhaled deeply and then shivered a little bit. When he spoke, his voice was soft and a little scratchy. “For one, we’ve never had a case like this before. I mean obviously there have been people who have smelled good to me before, but usually I’m able to ignore it. With you… it’s like my vampire body can’t get enough of your scent. It wants to turn you, to keep you, in its selfishness. That part of me is weak, in its greed. And of course I couldn’t kill you, I could barely control myself when Chenle- when he-” Jaemin took a deep breath to steady himself. “He wanted to bite you. You smell good to our whole coven, to everyone who’s met you, at least, which is a first. Thankfully you don’t appeal to Jisung the same way you do to me though, because by now you’d be a full fledged member of the family. Jeno is really good at hiding it, but I could tell he wanted to drink from you too, when you used him to help you walk the other day. I think the only ones not affected by it are Lucas and Ten, although that could be because they’re both straight, I’m not sure.” As an afterthought, he added, “actually Lucas is demisexual, I think.”

Skipping over the bit about Lucas’ sexuality, you spoke, horrified. “I’ve been hurting all of you? Seriously, why not just make me go to a regular hospital on Earth?”

“Well it would be a little hard to just give you to a hospital on Earth and be like, ‘here, take this body which may or may not have a vampire bite in its neck,’” Jaemin told you. “And also because I haven’t given up on a patient yet, and I didn’t want the first to be because I can’t control myself. And as to why I didn’t turn you… I didn’t want to take your life away. I still don’t. I think your life is going to be a good one and I don’t want to steal that. That’s why you’re going back tomorrow.”

An empty feeling settled in your chest. “You’re sending me back tomorrow? I still haven’t met so many of your friends though!”

He leveled you with a stare. “The rest of my patients never got to meet any other members of the coven. This was a one and done. You don’t need to know the rest of them. Especially not Yuta or Hyuck, good gracious.”

Who are Yuta and Hyuck? you wanted to ask, but his tone implied the end of the conversation, so you refrained from forming the question. “Okay, uh, I’m going to go sit in the garden.”

Jaemin flashed you a barely-there smile, opening his scrolls again and clicking his pen open. “Mhm. Be careful.”

You went out to sit under a tree in his front yard. Actually there were a lot of trees in his front yard - his house was in a forest. He had neglected to mention that when he first told you about his home and you had found it fascinating how it worked. When you walked out, there wasn’t any path out of the small clearing that housed his cottage. When you imagined a person, though, a tree tunnel would open and you could go any which way you wanted. You had tried imagining your parents the first time Jaemin told you about it and it hadn’t worked. He had explained that it only worked for people on this plane of existence, which made sense. When you had imagined Joy, it had shown you a way to a small town. Jaemin had forbidden you to go anywhere without him in case someone got territorial or hungry and killed you by accident. You respected that, you didn’t want to be murdered, but you wanted to see Lucas, and talk to him. He had fun stories to tell of his best friends. Jaemin seemed a bit huffy. It would be fine to go and see him, right? You’d just go and be back quickly before Jaemin even realized you were gone.

You decided that you just needed to talk to a friend right now and focused your mind on Lucas, finding an apartment building in the largest vampire city you had seen so far. With a little more effort you could find his apartment, although you couldn’t see him. The trees opened and you glanced back at Jaemin’s cottage before setting off.

As you walked down the path you reveled in your ability to walk. After two days of walking in short bursts and trying to regain strength in your legs you were finally able to walk like a normal human being, no flailing arms or stops every few meters to take a break and rest your muscles. It was nice, after so little freedom within Jaemin’s one room cabin. You liked being out here better. You avoided tree limbs and roots as you went, always focused on getting to Lucas. At one point your focus switched from his apartment to a convenience store and you panicked, realizing that you couldn’t go there. There, you might actually get murdered like Jaemin had predicted. He hadn’t nursed you back to health and struggled through your scent just for you to go and get yourself killed. You waited, walking more slowly, until the view at the end of the tunnel switched back to Lucas’ apartment’s front door. You breathed out a sigh of relief and continued on your way.

It was fascinating to you how there was no life in the forest besides the plants. You didn’t hear or see any insects or birds and you wondered if that was because they were afraid of the vampires or if they just didn’t exist on this plane. You decided to ask Lucas when you got to his house. After a while you realized that the image at the end of the tree tunnel was no longer a moving image of where you wanted to go, but rather the actual thing, growing bigger as you progressed down the path. You found yourself increasing your pace in your hurry to see Lucas.

When you left the comfort and relative safety of the forest, you nearly ran across the street separating the apartment complex from the trees. You stumbled at one point and almost fell to the pavement but recovered and kept going. You entered the main door and started up the stairs, still hurrying a little faster than your body thought was necessary. You speed walked until you reached the third floor and started looking through the numbers, looking for a door marked with ‘311,’ the one you had seen in the forest while looking for Lucas. After a good few minutes searching, you located the hallway his apartment was in and walked down it, looking at the odd numbers on the right. They counted down from 39, so you had a ways to go. Part of you wondered if the vampires just didn’t care about your presence, because apparently your scent was pretty strong and you were sure that you were stinking up the whole hallway with your human-ness, but nobody had come to murder you yet.

When you finally got to the door labeled with a faded ‘311,’ you stopped to take a breath before knocking on the door. An uncomfortable pause (where you wondered if Lucas was out after all) later, the door opened and you breathed out a sigh of relief, only for the air to stick in your throat at the sight of a man shorter than Lucas, but much scarier.

He had dark brown hair, obviously lightened but only a bit. It fell over his forehead and stopped just short of his eyes. His lips set in a grim line as he looked over you before they pulled back into what should have been a heart stopping smile, but was instead a snarl, a grimace of distrust and anger. The feature that stuck out most to you were his eyes. You imagined that when he was happy, his eyes would glow with an inner light. Now they were dark and they promised violence.

No sooner had you come to this conclusion before he had you pinned against the opposite wall. “Give me one good reason,” he hissed, “why I shouldn’t just kill you.” His arm pressed into your throat, keeping you pinned against the wall, on your tiptoes to accommodate the height of his arm.

Lucas, I came to see Lucas, you tried to say, but it got stuck on the way out of your throat and instead what came out was a weak, “Lu…” followed by a wispy groan. The man furrowed his brow and moved to hold you against the wall by your arms so you could speak. “Lucas,” you gasped, air rushing back into your body and allowing you to speak once more. “Friend.” The man put you completely down now, on the floor, and you moved to massage your throat before his eyes, dark and threatening, halted your movement. Lucas certainly has a knack for choosing friends, you thought.

“Don’t move,” he growled, “Or I’ll throw you out our living room window. It may not kill you, but it will hurt.” Then he turned around slightly and called, “Xuxi! There’s someone here to see you!”

You heard shuffling inside before the figure of Lucas appeared, tall and thick and seeming like safety incarnate in the presence of someone as terrifying as the man who still had one hand next to your head.

“Yang?” he asked. “Is everything alright?”

The man, Yang, shifted so that Lucas could see your face. “This one just came knocking on our door and said he wanted to see you. Do you know him?”

Lucas gasped slightly and sped up, blurring a little, so that he reached you in less than a second. “Oh my gosh, Y/N, are you okay? Yangyang, this is the human that’s been staying with Jaemin for the past week, he’s my friend!”

“Hey Lucas,” you said weakly, finally reaching up to massage your throat now that you had someone to protect you from being thrown out the living room window. “I’m okay, I think. Just a little lightheaded.” Part of you wanted to add, Is his name Yang or Yangyang? but you figured now wasn’t the time to ask.

A strange look crossed Lucas’ face. “Well, I’m glad you’re alright, come inside and sit down, I’ll get you some water.” You followed him into the apartment, Yang (Yangyang?) behind you. He still slightly scared you and you stayed as close to Lucas as possible. Lucas spoke again as he grabbed a water bottle for you. You noted idly that it was Dasani. “But, uh, didn’t Jaemin tell you to, like, not come out here? So you didn’t get murdered? Cause that could’ve ended a lot worse.”

“Not you too!” you cried, exaggerating the syllables. “I know I could’ve died, but I wanted to see my friend! How hard is that to understand? Did it bother you so much that I wanted to see you?”

Lucas figited uncomfortably. “Well I appreciate that you came to see me, that’s really nice of you. It’s just that Jaemin was right. This really isn’t a safe place for you to be. I mean Yangyang could’ve killed you if he didn’t have such a heart of gold.” You threw a disbelieving glance towards the man in question and he shrugged, mouth tugging up in a mischievous grin.

“Okay, I mean, I can go back if you don’t want me here, I have to be back before Jaemin realizes I’m gone anyway,” you said, drinking more of your water. Yangyang and Lucas both froze.

“You didn’t get his permission?” Lucas asked in a tone that confused you. Was he scared of Jaemin? “Or tell him you were going for a walk? Or anything?”

“No, of course not. He would’ve said no!” you protested unhappily. This was not how you imagined this trip going.

“Okay,” Lucas said. “I’m taking you back right now. Jaemin will- well, he won’t kill me, but he’ll be scarily close if he finds out you came here.”

With a heavy sigh, you stood up. You knew that if he needed to, he could just throw you over his shoulder and carry you all the way back to Jaemin’s cottage. Darned vampire strength. “Fine.”

You got down the hallway and into the stairwell before Lucas tensed up again. “Shoot,” he muttered, looking down the stairs below. You couldn’t hear or see anything, and you were about to tell him so when he sighed and you heard a pitter patter like rain, growing louder by the second.

Moments later Jamin appeared in front of you, pink hair mussed and eyes wild with a mix of fear and anger. For a moment he didn’t even speak, just glared at you. The fear faded from his eyes. When he did speak, the words seemed like poison being spit off the tongue of a snake.

“I can’t believe you,” he seethed. “I kept you in my house, fed you, nursed you back to health. I let you use all of my things and was even going to send you home once you were perfectly healthy again. I gave you one rule. One! Just to keep you safe! And you go and break it. You could have died, Y/N, do you understand that? I did everything in my power to keep you in an environment where you weren’t in danger! I didn’t allow Hyuck to come over, I made sure that you were prepared to meet Lucas and Jeno and even Jisung! But all of my efforts faded to nothing when you opened that doorway to the city. I’m taking you home right now, I can’t bear to keep you here any longer, not when you obviously have no sense of self preservation!”

He picked you up before you could even blink and you felt a sharp wind on your face as he ran home. His steps sounded like raindrops falling on pavement, sharp but small, a pinprick of sound in an otherwise silent stairwell. Lucas had disappeared from view in less than a second and you shut your eyes against the vertigo of being carried at such a speed. Everything blurred, everything was indistinct and most things weren’t even worthy of notice. Jaemin smelled like ink, and you had space in the very back of your mind to wonder if he had spilled his, in his haste to find you. It didn’t seem like a very vampire-like thing to do.

A few moments later you entered the canopy of the forest and every once in a while you heard a stick break under his foot or a rock get catapulted out of the way. Then you felt the sun on your back again and you gasped as Jaemin dumped you onto the warm grass, standing tall before you. He said something in a language you didn’t know - it sounded vaguely like Latin - and the grass fell out from under you as the ground opened up and you fell into space.

☽༓☾

When you woke up the next morning to your alarm, you wondered briefly if your entire experience with Jaemin and the other vampires was a dream. The puncture wounds that had been on your neck were utterly nonexistent, and there was no evidence on you that you had even left the comfort of your bed. On the other hand, you had clear memories of your time in Vahmpyr, short as it was. You remembered how it smelled and how the trees had felt as you walked outside. You remembered the feeling of the cool granite of the bathroom countertop. Mostly you remembered being with Lucas, Jeno, Jisung, and Chenle. You remembered almost dying at the hands of Lucas’ roommate and you remembered the terrifying flight in Jaemin’s arms.

Jaemin.

You grimaced at yourself in the mirror and spit out your toothpaste. There was no way your mind could have made up someone as excruciatingly kind and beautiful as Jaemin was. At the same time you felt anger bubble up inside of you. He hadn’t even given you a chance to say goodbye - he had just put you through to your Earthly self without any words between the two of you. You hadn’t said goodbye to Lucas or Jeno either, nor had you seen the rest of your new acquaintances. The anger flared, hot against your insides, and you could swear you actually felt your chest twinge. You spat out the last of your toothpaste and replaced your toothbrush in its holder, going to get ready for your day.

The next few days were spent alternately missing the simplicity of life on Vahmpyr and being angry at Jaemin. Assignments piled onto your shoulders and in addition to that, you discovered some sort of disconnect between you and the part of you that had stayed on Earth while you were out. That part of you seemed to dismiss your time in Vahmpyr as something it had dreamed up all on its own. It didn’t acknowledge you and liked to take control of your body whenever you weren’t paying full attention to it. Every time it did that you felt the twinge in your chest again, except it got more and more painful. You started having headaches that the other part of you didn’t seem to feel but which pressed against your skull like tiny war hammers thudding into the bone by your temples and occasionally your eyes.

Your vision would go blurry and you started having lapses of consciousness, only to wake up and find yourself doing just fine with your other part in charge. During these lapses you would dream of being in Vahmpyr again, and you saw Lucas smiling with Yangyang, Chenle rolling his eyes at Jisung before hugging him tightly. Other men you didn’t know and other women you hadn’t met also flew across the screen of your eyes but they disappeared quickly. Ten even passed by once, haughtily scrolling past everyone until he sidled up to a tall man with long blond hair who smiled down at him and pressed a gentle kiss to one of Ten’s tentacles. A man with red hair and an eyebrow slit served coffee to a man who chewed like a rabbit. A group of three guys held up a sign that said “Go Taemin!” as a group played football. A woman in a suit jacket over jean shorts sat with a box of papers, crying. Joy played a game with other girls where they tried to push lockers over on each other. Everything (with the exception of the lockers) looked like fun. It was better than Earth, at any rate. Every night you went to bed wondering if you might just die by morning and leave the other half of yourself behind to control the body. You were just along for the ride at this point.

The evening of your fourth day back on Earth you went to sit outside the dorm building on a bench, just for some fresh air. For once you had control of the body and you let your head tip back, closing your eyes and just feeling. The bench pressed up against your back in a way that hurt slightly, but your body had been wracked with pain for two days straight and it didn’t ache so much as behind your eyes or inside your skull. The evening breeze blew across your eyelids and brought with it the scent of sun-warmed dirt.

It smelled like Jaemin, that first morning you woke up in his house. When he had helped you across the cottage towards the bathroom and been outlined by the sun, when he had made you soup and sat with you on the couch while he explained where you were and what he was.

Your body shook with a particularly painful pound on the inside of your ribs. You let yourself relax against the bench again and the sensations enveloped you once more. You felt yourself let go of your body on Earth and float away, less falling and more weightlessness, floating away on a wind that smelled of sun on dirt and felt like arms wrapping around you while rain fell on summer-warmed pavement. You floated away on this wind and it lifted you endlessly until you nodded off, finally free of the pains that had kept you company for the past few days. You wondered if perhaps you had died of it, if being back on Earth had perhaps been more detrimental to you than beneficial.

Then your back hit something hard and the breath was knocked from your lungs, waking you up again and telling you that something had gone very very wrong or very very well. You gasped air back into your body and rolled over weakly, now in a body you recognized as the one you inhabited on Vahmpyr. Grass poked your inner arms and you pushed yourself up to sitting with your legs crossed. You massaged your chest as you inhaled and found yourself miraculously free of pain, aside from the slight burn of breath inhaled too quickly after loss of oxygen. The war hammers in your head had vacated the premises and the aches of your ribs had subsided, making it easier to breath and just sit without drawing in pained gasps.

You registered a return of cold as a shadow fell over you and looked up to see none other than Chenle, with Jisung behind him. Did they never go anywhere without each other? Well, besides hunting.

“Y/N?” He gaped down at you, and you looked back up at him.

“The one and only,” you said, before you realized that didn’t apply to you anymore. “Well, one of only two in existence.”

He laughed that weird dolphin laugh he had again and reached out a hand to help you up. You took it, standing unsteadily on two feet that didn’t ache the moment you put weight on them. “What’re you doing back here? Jaemin-hyung said he sent you back to Earth.”

You feel the corners of your mouth tug down almost instinctively at the mention of Jaemin. “He did. I don’t think Earth agreed with me,” you told him. Jisung walked forward and looked you up and down.

“Maybe we should take you back to Jaeminnie hyung, he’ll know what to do.”

You groaned. “I really don’t want to deal with him at the moment.”

“We can take him to Kun-ge,” Chenle interjected smoothly. “He’ll know better than Jaemin-hyung anyway, he’s been a doctor and a vampire longer.” A side of Chenle appeared that you hadn’t seen yet, a side that took charge in a way that wasn’t just insulting anyone near him. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. He took your hand with one of his and grabbed Jisung’s arm with the other.

“Come on, let’s go see Kun-ge!”

☽༓☾

Kun, as it happened, lived in the same building as Lucas. Actually he lived one apartment over, behind the door labeled ‘313.’ When he opened the door he seemed strangely unsurprised to see you there, just breathed out a sigh and let you in. He had nice light brown hair that worked well with his skin tone and eyes that smiled even when he wasn’t. He had this aura of parenting around him, like he took care of everyone he knew. It was comfortable to be around him from the start. Once Chenle had explained where he found you, Kun sat you down and asked exactly what had happened.

“Listen,” he said seriously. “I’ve never seen a human react the way you did. Nobody has ever come back, from what I know. We have to figure out exactly what happened, why you came back, and how to get you back to Earth.”

You inhaled deeply, relishing in the painless breath. “Okay, uh, I’m not really sure where to start,” you told him.

“Tell me about how you got sent home.”

“Okay. So, I left Jaemin’s cottage to come and see Lucas and I guess Jaemin is a lot scarier when he gets mad, because he was not happy when he found out I had left. He did this, like, superfast running thing, very Twilight, and carried me to this random clearing, I guess, I didn’t look around much.” You paused to let Kun write that down on his very professional looking clipboard, but he waved you on. Right, he was a vampire. He could write stuff fast.

“So he sort of dumped me on the ground and said something in a language I didn’t know, it sounded like Latin but I’m not sure. Then the ground sort of opened up and I fell and fell and fell until I rejoined my, uh, Earthly body.” You paused to take a breath and think about how to convey what happened when you got back to Earth.

“When I got back there was this weird disconnect with my body. Like, uh, there was me, in my body, and there was also this other part of me, the part of me that stayed behind when I came here the first time. That other part sort of took the main control of the body we lived in, and it felt like I was along for the ride. It liked to pretend that I wasn’t there, that my time here in Vahmpyr wasn’t real. It was weird. Then a little into my stay, I started getting these super bad pains all over my body.”

Kun interrupted you by holding up a finger. “How long were you home before the pains started?”

You thought back, struggling to pinpoint when they had started. “I think maybe a little longer than twenty four hours? When I got back I woke up in that body, and about one sleep later I started getting the pains, which would be like twenty five hours. Twenty four and a half, maybe. At first it was just these weird twinges in my chest, like my ribs were popping every time I took a breath, then it progressed. I got these horrible headaches, and my chest hurt all the time, and walking felt like attacking my feet, and my neck was always super achy. The thing is, my other half didn’t feel any of that. It was just my half of our consciousness. Then about on my fourth day back I went outside and sat on the bench outside my dorm. I laid back and, uh, it felt like I died or something. I just felt my consciousness leave the body and I guess the other half is still there living down there and now I’m here.”

Kun, Chenle, and Jisung all sat on the couch together, Kun looking over his notes while the other two guys just sat in silence. After a minute Kun spoke. “I don’t really know what happened to you, but I’m almost certain that your connection to your human self is gone. Or at least, your Earthly self. I don’t think we can send you back anymore, I’m sorry.” He looked at you, eyes full of remorse. You expected to mirror that feeling, but you discovered that it didn’t bother you so much. The other half of yourself would keep all of your friends and family from having to mourn you, and you could stay here, painless.

“I’m actually kind of glad about that,” you told them, and Chenle’s head snapped from picking at his jeans to look at you.

“Glad?” he demanded, incredulous. “To stay here?”

“Well yeah, I mean I was in pain most of the time I was back on Earth so it’s not like I’m eager to go back there. Plus, since I didn’t actually die nobody has to mourn me. And part of the time I was like… seeing Vahmpyr. Like is Ten dating this super tall guy with blonde hair? And Joy was pushing lockers over on her friends? And you two!” You turned an accusatory finger at Jisung and Chenle. “You two are adorable together!”

Jisung sighed. “Not you too…”

Kun shushed him. “You could see what was going on here in Vahmpyr?”

“Well, sort of,” you told him. “I saw that Lucas and Yangyang were having, like, a picnic?”

Kun’s eyebrows furrowed and he muttered, “I knew they had one without me.”

“I also saw this guy with red hair giving coffee to a man who sort of chewed like a bunny. And there was this group of three guys holding up a sign that said “Go Taemin!” I think, and I guess Taemin must have been playing football with the others I could see, although I couldn’t recognize any of the people playing. Oh, and there was this lady with really pretty hair who had a box of papers and she was just, like, sitting there and crying. She had the part of her hair near her neck bleached and the outer layers were still black, and she was wearing a suit jacket with jean shorts, which is kind of a weird combination.”

Kun looked over his notes. “That’s really interesting. All of those things have happened since you left, definitely. Joy and her friends like to play games where they try to kill each other, because they’re all immortal. The red haired man was probably Taeyong, and the bunny man would be Doyoung. Ten is dating Johnny, and yes, he is pretty tall and has blonde hair. I haven’t seen Taemin-hyung in a while so I don’t know if he’s playing football again or not. I don’t know about the woman with the cool hair either.”

“Definitely Taeyeon-noona,” Jisung interjected. “She broke up with her boyfriend a few days ago, and she does have hair dyed like that right now.”

Kun raised his eyebrows in curiosity. “Huh, I hope she’s doing okay. Actually I think maybe we should worry more about whoever she broke up with, she’s not exactly good with breakups.”

As though it’s a secret, Jisung’s next words came out in a whisper, and he leaned closer to Chenle and Kun. You had to strain a little to hear. “I heard it was a human. He, like, got super insecure about the fact that she wasn’t aging with him and broke up with her. It’s killing her. She really liked that guy.”

“Why did she get with him in the first place?” Chenle sounded absolutely confused. “She knew it would end like this. That’s how the last two ended.”

“I don’t know, but now I’m really worried for the guy,” said Kun. “We might have to cover up for her.” The implications of his words sank in and you made a small sound. All three men snapped their heads up and it looked as though they forgot you were there.

“Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry Y/N! Do you have anywhere to stay where you’ll be safe for at least a few days? Jaemin’s cottage should be pretty easy to stay hidden in.”

“He doesn’t want to go and see him after what happened,” Chenle supplied helpfully. “I’m taking him back to my place once we’re done here.” Kun appeared to consider that, and then nodded his approval.

“That sounds alright. Tomorrow we can go out and get him some things to make his stay more comfortable. Maybe we can find one of the Outer Plots to put him on.”

“Outer Plots?” you asked, because the way he said it demanded capitalization in your head.

“They’re sort of exactly what they sound like,” Kun explained. “There are these pieces of land around the edges of the towns that nobody really lives on but they’re solid places to live, if we can get a good one. It’s a little bit like Jaemin’s land out there, lot’s of forest, so we can set up tree tunnels for you to get here fast, if you need to.”

You nodded. “That does sound pretty good. I don’t know what I’m going to do though, it’s not like I have all that many hobbies. I was midway through getting my bachelor’s when I left.”

“That’s fine,” Chenle said. “I have plenty of things to keep you entertained, and we can get some of the other guys to keep you company if we’re busy. There are a lot of us with a lot of open time. I also have a ton of extra textbooks from learning languages, so if you want you can spend your life becoming fluent in Japanese, Latin, French, German, Scottish Gaelic, Hawaiian, or one of the others I have. Or multiple, if you learn fast.”

“Thanks Chenle.” He wasn’t actually so bad, you thought. He had brought you to Kun and he was offering to let you use his house and his things. “I might just take you up on that.”

“You guys should probably leave now, actually,” Kun said. “At human speeds you’ll get home right on time.”

Chenle checked his watch and nodded. “He’s right. We should get going.”

You thanked Kun again and Chenle led you out the door, Jisung following behind you. You separated ways with him once you left the apartment building, his figure disappearing swiftly into the trees. Once you blinked there was no finding him again.

You walked behind Chenle quietly, choosing to observe your surroundings. You didn’t see much in the way of low quality or old houses here. It seemed as though a lower class had been eradicated entirely and the vampires could choose where they wanted to live. When you asked him how that was possible, Chenle laughed that peculiar screech of his and said, “when you’re reborn into a family of beings that has been around for millenia, you accumulate some shared wealth. Especially when some of the coven members have doctorate degrees and work on Earth full time, and some of us had familial connections as well, like money left in wills and such.”

You nodded. “So you guys are basically like the elite class of the universe.”

“Pretty much. My house is probably the biggest you’ll ever be in, because I like to splurge a little bit. Unfortunately you might get lost, though, and if you do, just call for me. I’ll make sure to be listening all night in case you need me.”

“It’s that big?” you asked in disbelief. “Do you live in Buckingham Palace?”

He grinned, showing off his incisors. “Bigger.”

“And you live alone?”

“Well, I haven’t always. Jisung and I will probably have sleepovers for all of eternity, and whenever a new coven starts they stay with me for a few days while they get their own living quarters set up, but for the most part , yes. I don’t actually spend a ton of time in the house, it’s more just for the sensation of owning a building that large.”

You shook your head. “As a broke college student, I find that completely unfair. I was working two jobs just to keep my head above water and you’re on this alternate plane just chilling in your house that’s bigger than Buckingham Palace.”

He smiled again. “Nobody said life was fair, Y/N. Nobody.”

☽༓☾

Three days and a shocking amount of Gaelic verbs later (you only got lost in Chenle’s palace four times), a house was ready for you to move in. Johnny and Ten had furnished it for you, and Chenle had explained that the two of them were the stylists of the coven, for the most part. The mysterious Yuta had also taken part in finding high quality fabrics to fit their vision. You had thanked the whole group of vampires who helped with the house profusely for not only building said house, but also for getting you a bunch of comfortable furniture. They had smiled and said it was their pleasure and all of the typical things, but what really stood out was Ten’s reaction. He had barely paid attention to you - he barely paid attention to anyone besides Johnny and Yangyang, who he called their baby - this whole time. When you had thanked him, however, he wrapped all but four of his tentacles around you in a surprisingly dry hug.

“It’s refreshing to have you around,” he had told you. “I’m glad we could help you get settled.”

Later as you reflected on it, you figured that it probably got pretty boring to know what was going to happen all of the time, and maybe you had disrupted the usual happenings of his visions and the vampires in Vahmpyr. Maybe you made other people happy too, to have a new person around.

One person who didn’t seem thrilled to have you back was Jaemin. Every time you made eye contact with him (twice, over the three days), he grimaced and turned away like the sight of you hurt him. Maybe he was mad that you were back within scenting range. He wouldn’t get near you, so it wasn’t like you could ask.

While settling into your new normal, you discovered that Chenle was actually a good friend. His love language was insults and pointed jabs, but he actually did care for his friends quite a lot. He had watched Jaemin from across your front yard as they were laying down grass seed and sighed.

“I wish he would just talk to you,” he told you sadly. “I’ve never, in all our years together, seen him like this. I’m not sure anyone has, even Taeil-hyung.” He didn’t elaborate on who Taeil was, and you didn’t press him. Was Jaemin really so mad that he couldn’t even look at you?

“Well,” you had said, “I don’t want to talk to him. He dumped me through an interplanar tunnel without warning me and yelled at me like the world was ending when I took a walk. I don’t think there’s much to be talked about. He must hate me.” Over Chenle’s shoulder, you had seen Jaemin flinch slightly. How strange. Part of you hoped that he felt the same pain that you did, a sort of ache that told you that you were unwanted. Another part of you murmured quietly in the back of your mind that you were being petty. You had chosen to ignore it for the time being. You were being petty, but so was he. He had thousands of years on you, so he should be the mature one, right?

“I don’t think he hates you. I think you both need to grow up and talk like adults,” Chenle had said flatly, orange hair seeming to flash in the sun. Jaemin sort of curled in on himself.

“Tell that to Mister Millenia before you lecture me on growing up,” you had replied. Then you reopened your Gaelic textbook and pretended to bury yourself in it, blatantly ignoring Chenle’s judgemental gaze.

“Fine,” he had muttered angrily. “You can both suffer for all I care.” Then he had stalked off and started pounding fence posts into the dirt so hard that Jeno had to tell him to take a break before he broke them.

You found yourself thinking about that moment as you walked through the trees, ironically on your way to see Jaemin. Since you had close to nothing to do , you had offered yourself up as an errand person to anyone that would hire and found yourself working for Kun running scrolls across Vahmpyr while he translated and examined them. It kept you busy and in shape, and Kun seemed happy with your service. This morning he had sent you to get the Scottish scroll back from Jaemin, along with a few other documents to pick up and drop off. You had saved this one for last, procrastinating on having to see him again. As his cottage came into full view, you sighed, preparing yourself for a cold shoulder and a very quick visit.

“Jaemin?” you called, knocking on the front door. It was closed for once, usually he kept it open for better air circulation. A moment later the door opened and there he stood, in all his cotton candy colored glory.

“Y/N? What’re you doing here?”

“Kun sent me, he wants that Scottish scroll back. He said he hopes you’re done translating it since you’re had it for a few weeks now,” you replied, willing your voice to stay professional. You were here for the scroll. When Jaemin didn’t reply, you looked up at him. “So? Where is it?”

“I don’t know why he sent you out like this, but I sent that scroll back three days ago, on our agreed upon date. I know he got it, because he sent me back a thank you with those little stickers he likes to use.”

“Oh. Um, I’ll just go then,” you muttered, turning around as you spoke. “Sorry I bothered you.”

Suddenly a hand was wrapped around your own, keeping you in place. Your breath caught in your throat, remembering the last time that had happened with a vampire. All that came out of Jaemin’s mouth, however, was, “Can I talk to you? Please?”

“Jaemin, please let me go,” you said, trying to keep your tone even. His hand released you immediately and you stepped a pace away from him and turned around so that you could see his face. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Well, uh, do you want some tea? I have some inside…” It was clear he hadn’t expected you to actually agree and he needed to collect his thoughts, so you nodded and he led you inside, sitting you on the familiar couch while he busied himself in the kitchen.

“I actually wanted to apologize,” Jaemin said after a minute. “I worried so much about protecting you that I forgot to let you enjoy your time here. It scared me how good you were at adjusting to this world, how much you liked being with Lucas and my other friends… I’m not used to humans reacting positively.” The kettle whistled and he took a moment to pour water into the mugs, steam rising gently from them in silvery whisps.

Once he poured the water, he continued speaking. “I wanted to make sure you knew that it wasn’t all fun and games here. I didn't want you to go looking for a place in our community because I was worried that you’d get killed. Vampires are pretty possessive of their property on Vahmpyr, for the most part, and you went right into one of the biggest apartment complexes within a day’s travelling distance - and that’s vampire distance, not human distance. Lucas told me about what happened with Yangyang, and I almost tore Yang’s arm off, I was so mad. He could have actually murdered you, and I couldn’t stomach the thought. What if Lucas hadn’t been home? What if Yangyang hadn’t given you that one moment to explain yourself? What if you had met another one of us on the stairs, without any protection? It terrified me to consider.” He walked over, a mug carried in each hand, and sat on the couch, leaving a large space in between you. It was strangely reminiscent of that first day, when he had explained Vahmpyr to you over soup.

“Of course,” Jaemin started, and you refocused. “That was only after I had sent you home, that he told me about that. When I dumped you in that tunnel, it was just fear of you being unsafe that made me so mad. The fact that you would willingly put yourself in danger, when I valued you so highly? Inconceivable. And yet, it happened. So I made another big mistake: I sent you home. I thought you would be better off there, regardless of what was happening. I knew you were healthy enough to walk to the city, so I thought you were fine. Apparently not. I heard from Chenle and Kun what happened to you back on Earth and it broke another part of me apart. I hurt you, in sending you back, not just in temporary emotional pain, but in physical pain that persisted through your entire stay. We still don’t know why you reacted the way you did, but it scared me to hear of it. I had made yet another mistake that could have killed you.” He paused to take a sip of his tea, and you did too. It was pleasant, not too hot and not too cold, just warming up your insides.

“Then the last straw came when you said I must hate you…” Jaemin’s voice broke slightly. “If anything, it’s the exact opposite, I realized I missed you more than I should, given you should be just a patient. I wanted to hug you the second I saw you, but you looked so mad to see me that I couldn’t do it. I was literally building a house for you and still couldn’t look you in the eyes for more than a moment. So I went home in shame, knowing that you were right, with thousands of years under my belt, I should be the more mature one. I decided that the next time I saw you, I would talk to you, no matter the circumstances. I couldn’t have you keep living thinking that I hated you. I didn’t actually expect you to come in when I asked. I thought I’d have to follow you through the woods, honestly.”

He fell silent, took another sip of his tea, and for the first time, you spoke. “I really didn’t want to talk to you. I wanted you to realize how much I hurt from your actions, but I think maybe I took that a little too far. I knew you were protecting me, but I really wanted to see somebody, and I knew you wouldn’t let me out, so I ran away. I didn’t really know what I was getting into. I probably should have asked you to accompany me, at least. Not my finest moment.”

Jaemin laughed weakly, taking another sip of tea. “Not mine either. I should have trusted you more.”

“And I shouldn’t have run off without even asking for your help..”

He smiled at you, that gorgeous little smile that made your heart smile back.

“Friends?” you asked.

He hesitated for only a moment, a strange sort of disappointment flashing across his face, before he was extending his hand to meet yours. “Friends.”

You grinned at him, finishing your tea. “Great. Now I need to go yell at Kun for sending me out to see you when I didn’t need to.”

“Isn’t it good that he did?” Jaemin asked with a confused frown on his face.

“Well yes, but it was a very Cupid-like thing to do, wasn’t it? I don’t tolerate my friends trying to play Cupid with myself and my other friends.” You stood up and walked your empty tea cup to the kitchen. “Do you want to come?”

He laughed. “No, you can just tell me all about it tomorrow, okay?”

You nodded. “Alright.”

You walked out into the cool twilight and started going towards Kun’s house. He had a big storm coming.

☽༓☾

A few days later, you were sitting in Jaemin’s cottage again, Gaelic textbook open on your lap. Since he was close to fluent in the language, he was helping you learn it. It wasn’t an extraordinarily difficult language, but some of the words were hard to pronounce and he had been eager to help you.

“Look here,” he said, pointing at some words on the page. “Say this for me.”

“Tha gaol agam ort,” you replied. He grinned.

“That’s how it’s written, but not how it’s said. Okay, now listen to me pronounce it. ‘Ha geul akeum orsht’. Repeat that for me.”

“‘Ha geul akeum orsht’? That’s how you say that?” you demanded. “This is like French! They don’t spell things anywhere close to how they’re said!”

“Unfortunately, most languages don’t. The same goes for Korean verb conjugations and English words and, yes, French everything, but it’s just learning new rules. After a while you understand it. I promise that you’ll get it eventually. You have the rest of your life.”

You looked over at him suddenly, questions rising to the forefront over Gaelic words. “Am I really going to stay here forever? Am I never going to see Earth again, just sit here as a useless human surrounded by powerful and immortal vampires, until I die?”

He seemed surprised by the questions. “I’m not sure any of us had really thought about it,” he said carefully.

“You all had just accepted the fact that I was stuck on your plane of existence with nothing worth doing to do? When am I going to use Scottish Gaelic, Jaemin? When will this actually come in handy, except to distract me? I’m here to do nothing, and the moment I go back to Earth, I start suffering. What am I meant to do here, Jaem?”

Jaemin gently lifted the textbook from your lap and put in on his coffee table, then pulled you into his side for a hug. You snuggled into him, inhaling the scent of sunshine and warm earth. Comfort.

“I don’t know exactly how to make you feel better,” Jaemin murmured from somewhere above your head. “But we all like having you around, you know that. It’s nice to have someone young around. We haven’t turned a human in about thirty years, so the novelty has worn off, and here we have this beautiful creature who is new in so many ways. You’re refreshing, and you’re human, so you’ll continue to be refreshing.”

“Well, thank you,” you said, muffled in his side. “But still, I don’t feel like I have anything worth doing here. You can all do anything I can do, just ten times faster. I have no unique skills or brains or anything. So what am I meant to do? I can’t even go spy on the other humans or anything because I can’t go back to Earth!”

Jaemin shifted you a little bit in his arms and started rubbing your shoulder softly. “Is there anything you particularly enjoy doing? Maybe you could do art, or gardening? Or I have this book of old forms of witchcraft?”

You turned to face him. “You have a book of witchcraft sitting around?”

He released you and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I found a papyrus scroll in this ruined Egyptian city, and I kept it just ‘cause it was cool. Then I learned hieroglyphics so that I could translate it and made a copy. Unfortunately, witchcraft is… not my strong suit, and I’m somewhat afraid of giving it away in case I never see it again. I spent a lot of time and energy on that translation.”

“And you want me to use it?” you asked, confused. Why on earth would he give it to you if he didn’t trust the perfectly composed vampires around him? “I mean it sounds super cool, but aren’t you worried about it being in my hands? I am a human, after all.”

“Well-”

Jaemin was cut off at that moment by a sharp knock on the door. At least, you assumed it was a knock, it sounded a little bit more like a wet thwap than a knock. Jaemin blurred slightly as he ran over to the door and opened it, revealing cloudy skies dropping rain onto a harried-looking Ten.

“Ten-hyung?” he asked, sounding as confused as you felt. “I’d say this is a nice surprise, but why are you here? I thought today was your Earth day? Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” Ten said, gasping slightly as he spoke. “I ran straight here from the Pacific.” You took a second to think about the fact that Ten was swimming in the Pacific Ocean before refocusing on him. “-future just completely shifted, a few minutes ago. Y/N-” He turned to face you completely. “Whatever you two just did, it caused you to become a vampire in the future.”

“But we were just talking?” you told him, confused. “It wasn’t like Jaem was about to bite me.” You turned to Jaemin. “Right?”

He looked at you solemnly. “If you were going to have been bitten by me, it would have already happened. Ten-hyung, are you sure that he’s a vampire in your future? Can you see more details?”

Ten closed his eyes briefly like he was trying to focus, and in the meantime a tentacle wrung the salt and rain water out of his hair. Jaemin wrinkled his nose at the growing puddle. Ten spoke, eyes fluttering open slowly. “In the parts I can see, he’s covered in this, like, tree? It’s a little bit fuzzy. It’s green, and looks like it has brown splotches like branches. Maybe a tree falls on him or something. Anyway, you take one look at him and bite ‘im. He goes limp... After that? Fuzzy scenes of him waking up and you taking him running. Like, really running. Vampire running.”

Jaemin took a shaky breath. “Okay, I don’t know why our conversation would have caused a tree to fall on him in the future. We were talking about, like, Earth and art and stuff. Oh, and my witchcraft book.”

Ten’s eyes refocused on him, narrowing slightly. “You’re going to give him your witchcraft book after not letting me touch it? That’s a little underhanded.” His eyes narrow briefly before looking at you. “But maybe that’s it. You’ll just have to make sure that he doesn’t practice any witchcraft under the cover of trees. Otherwise I think you’ll be fine. I’ll keep you updated.”

“Thanks Ten,” you murmured. “For warning us and stuff.”

“Of course. Now I need to go back to the Pacific. Ta ta!” Ten waved to you and walked out the door.

“Well,” Jaemin said, “that’s some news, huh?”

“Yeah,” you exhaled. “Do you think that it’s okay for me to practice witchcraft with this in my future?”

“I do. I think you’ll be fine. We’ll keep you as safe as we possibly can, and if you become a vampire… at least it won’t be because I gave in. I’ll still be strong.”

“Jaem, I don’t think that was ever in question.”

“It was for me.” His voice went dark momentarily, then he brightened up again. “At any rate, I think we can safely teach you some things that’ll keep life interesting.”

You grinned. “Then let’s get started.”

☽༓☾

You were surprised at how easily witchcraft came to you, in the beginning. Jaemin insisted that you had some sort of gift with it, and as much as you told him that was silly, it seemed possible. You could easily understand instructions on Jaemin’s careful translations that even he couldn’t decipher. You gave up on Gaelic after a while, focused more on learning the original Egyptian Hieroglyphs of the spells and potions. You trusted Jaemin’s precise translation, but there was something unique about seeing an instruction in a new language and being able to understand it.

Days turned to weeks as you experimented with the materials growing in and around Vahmpyr. Taeil, who you eventually met, turned out to be a valuable resource. He was an avid collector of ancient written works, including but not limited to an original Greek copy of The Odyssey, Chinese bamboo books saved from the book burnings of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, and an exact replica of the Rosetta Stone. Taeil must have been ancient himself to have all of these valuables, but he still had the energy of the far younger members of their coven, which amazed you. He showed you different specialties of different cultures within witchcraft, ideas born from scrolls and tablets, bamboo strips and wax blocks. It was far more information than you could ever decipher or use during your short human life, but every day you got better, starting out small with poultices that you had to injure yourself to try and ward spells that exhausted you but could make your home more secure than any in Vahmpyr (or on Earth).

At one point Chenle gifted you a book covered in old stains and strangely familiar drawings that you started to use before abruptly realizing that it was an old chemistry textbook. You invited him over that afternoon and whacked him over the head with the thick pages. He told you with a disgruntled look that he put a lot of effort into that, thank you very much. And besides, chemistry was a magic in itself. (His words, not yours.) After that you made sure to thoroughly inspect any gifts you received from the more mischievous family members.

Lucas came over and helped you set up more complicated equipment that you couldn’t lift, like a big cauldron, which you actually did use on the regular after you learned how to use it, and after some consideration you set up a chemistry station for the odd experiment. At this point your house was more magical items than actual living space, something that Kun was quick to point out when he came over.

“You know, you should really be more careful about having all of these powders and dusts and-” He cut himself off with a distasteful wrinkle of his nose. “Things.” He pursed his lips, looking at you. “We don’t really know what these things will do to you in the long run. You have to be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you responded distractedly, making his coffee and a drink for yourself. “Maybe I’ll clean it all up sometime, but you know I’m awfully busy these days.” You used a spoon to stir in the milk and sugar, tapping the metal against the china in a soft clink.

He sighed tiredly. “Your health is less important than staying busy?”

You gave him a look that you hoped conveyed your need to stay busy, to continuously learn and improve. “Keeping my schedule full keeps me healthy, Kun. At least mentally.”

Kun didn’t look impressed by your reasoning. “I think your mental health will go down pretty quickly if you get sick and can’t do anything because you’re stuck in bed twenty-four-seven.”

You gave a sigh of your own at that. “And as always,” you announced to the room at large, “Doctor Kun gives amazing advice that I shouldn’t ignore but probably will.”

Y/n,” he said in a warning tone. “Seriously. You need to be careful! No human has ever lived here for so long, and I worry about you catching some mysterious illness that nobody has ever heard of!”

“Kun, I will do my best to keep myself healthy. I’ve put every kind of ward that I can around my house to protect me, I have magically circulated and cleaned air, I have literal superhumans to protect me from anything else, and I’m happy here! I finally have something to contribute. Maybe someday I’ll find some concoction or enchantment that will let me visit Earth, even. I just don’t know. But I’m going to keep trying.”

He took his coffee out of your grasp and walked back into the living room, which housed your indoor plants, magical and earthly. “That’s all I can ask,” he said, voice betraying his disappointment in that fact. “I’ll still give you monthly checkups for a while though, just to make sure.

“Can’t Jaemin take care of me?” you asked, thinking of Jaemin with his warm smile and caring words and the smell of sun on dirt and- well. Jaemin felt like safety in a person. Kun was wonderful, but Jaemin was just that little bit better, that little bit more comfortable to be around.

“He could,” Kun replied after taking a sip of coffee. “But I know he’s been busy lately though, he’s been on Earth for a few days checking on all of his businesses and stocks and his human personas. On the other hand, I hardly go back to Earth for more than a twelve hour shift here and there.”

“I understand.”

“Plus, I’m about two thousand years older than Jaemin, I have a lot of experience.”

“How old are you?” Two thousand years older than Jaemin would make Kun… pretty darn old.

Kun grinned. “I was around before and after Jesus came to Earth. I was around before the Terracotta Army was built. I was born in China circa when the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are said to have been built. Taeil-hyung turned me into a vampire when I was twenty five, and I’ve been twenty five ever since. None of us know when he was born. When you’re as old as he is, even with a vampire’s memory, history starts to blend together. He says he remembers the Pyramids at Giza going up, though, and that was after he had been a vampire for what he thinks was a few hundred years. He’s literally prehistoric.”

“Wow,” was all you could think to say. No wonder Taeil had so many artifacts. He was one. Kun was too, for that matter. And Jaemin… Jaemin would have been born AD, but how far into it? You asked Kun this question and he chuckled.

“Jaemin was born in fourteen forty two. He was twenty when Jeno turned him, and he’s still twenty, five hundred years later.”

“Who turned Taeil, then? I can hardly imagine a vampire older than him, even.”

“We’re not sure. Whoever it was is so unimaginably old now that even I can’t comprehend it. But whoever the original vampire was must have turned a whole lot of people. There are dozens more vampires just within our small community, and an entire plane full of them. From what I can tell, Taeil isn’t even the oldest. There’s this man who lives in the mountains by himself, and from what I hear, he hasn’t been seen by another vampire in nearly three thousand years. He’s almost a myth around here anymore. Taeil knew him back when Vahmpyr was sparsely populated, and he told us that the man - his name is Jinyoung Park - is older than him by so many years that he is to Taeil as Taeil is to me. He probably lived before Mesopotamia existed, even, or was right at the beginning of it. Before him, we have no idea who the first vampire was. If that vampire is still alive, he she or they hasn't been seen since, well, before living memory. If they still exist that would mean that vampires have been around since before modern humanity. I really wish we knew.”

“I wish you knew too,” you breathed. You had never really considered that immortality meant that the same vampires who existed before the Pyramids at Giza still lived among humanity today. It was mind boggling. The history in just their brains alone could fill thousands of textbooks and solve history’s greatest mysteries. But they couldn’t show themselves to the humans without risk. Even the people that they bit and sent back to Earth wouldn’t dare talk about their experiences, for fear of sounding crazy. Their gift to the world would never be wrapped up in gold tissue paper and presented with the proper awe, but here you were, in this modern metropolis of history. It truly hurt your brain to consider everything that came with that sort of age.

Just then a yell came from outside. “Kun-ge! Are you with Y/N?!” It sounded suspiciously like a panicked Yangyang. He never got panicked.

Kun stood up and hurried over to the front door, blurring in his hurry. “What happened?” he demanded.

“Well, uh, we may or may not have set Yuta’s house on fire…” Yangyang’s voice trailed off as Kun’s face reacted. First his eyebrows raised, then his mouth dropped open, and finally his eyes squeezed shut before reopening after a moment.

“You did what?”

Yangyang’s voice was small. “We set Yuta’s house on fire?” His voice was so high and squeaky that it sounded more like a question than a statement.

“Who is ‘we’?”

“Me, and Hyuck, and Taemin-hyung.”

“Oh my,” Kun said, running a hand over his face and through his hair. “I am going to murder Taemin-hyung.” He turned to Yangyang. “I might murder you and Donghyuck too.”

“We didn’t mean to,” Yangyang said. “It just happened.”

“You didn’t mean to set Yuta’s house on fire? How do you accidentally set someone’s house on fire?”

“You put on an impromptu fire show right next to the house, mess up a trick, and accidentally throw a flaming baton on their house. It was surprisingly easy. Anyway, I know that you would know what to do. You and Y/N both.”

Kun ran his hand through his hair again. You watched as a few light brown strands flew to the carpet with the force of it. “Y/N, do you have anything for flaming houses?”

You looked around your living room as though that would help you remember whether you did or not. “I think so, let me check my storage room,” you muttered, already dashing away. You did, in fact, have something that you loosely translated from the Egyptian spell scroll as “Fire Away Goop,” or something similar. It was a green, nearly transparent goop that sloshed in its bottle but it was too thick to really flow. It oozed more than anything. When it hit heat, it tended to solidify into a more solid green that would be easily removable from Yuta’s house, if said house was still there by the time you got to wherever it was. You grabbed the bottle and rushed back to the living room, panting. Kun turned to you.

“Is it okay if I carry you, to make sure we get there in time?”

“Won’t I be too heavy?”

He gave you an unimpressed look. “We’re literally the strongest things known to man. I’ll be fine.”

“Then sure. Let’s go save Yuta’s house!”

Kun carried you piggyback as fast as he could, your face tucked into his shoulder to avert most of the vertigo induced by such high speeds. Trees flashed by in browns and greens, and then you were going through the city, past the city, through more trees, in a rush that you couldn’t quite comprehend but which caused a sinking feeling to settle in your gut. Yuta’s house was far away. By the time you got there, the house was fully consumed by the flames, the fire burning merrily without knowledge that it was ruining a man’s home.

A man, presumably Yuta, stood out front, another man on his knees next to him. Once you were next to them, you realized that the standing man had the kneeling man’s ear in a tight grip. You figured that the man on his knees must have been the infamous Donghyuck.

“Yuta-hyung, Hyuck,” Kun greeted them as he set you on the ground.

“Yangyang,” said Yuta, turning around, “You’re a bit late.” He nodded at you and Kun in acknowledgement, as Donghyuck yelped at the tug on his ear. Yuta had black hair streaked through with neon green, and it framed a narrow face and startlingly pink lips. You wondered, in the back of your head, if he used lip tint. You also briefly entertained the idea that he contoured his face, because there was no way that he looked that good without makeup. He’s a vampire, your consciousness provided. All of them look that good.

“Sorry hyung,” Yangyang murmured. “We came as fast as we could!”

Kun stepped forward. “We brought Y/N, as you can see, and he has something to put the fire out.” Something like hope sparked in Yuta’s eyes as he looked over you again, taking in details of your appearance.

“Do you really? Well, go ahead.” He gestured to the house and the flames danced in your face, leaving you to hope that this gloop worked for fires this big. You took a deep breath and poured the goop onto the grass, where it oozed between the blades of grass like a big blob of snot on the lawn.

“Atlaq alnaar,” you murmured to it, and it rose into the air, following your mental directions toward the fire. The moment they made contact, the goop started to solidify and expand, covering the fire rapidly. Green overtook bright reds and oranges as you focused on the fire and made the goop cover it.

“Y/N!” Someone was calling to you, their voice out of focus as though you heard them from underwater. “You’ll get covered!” You were vaguely aware of a hand trying to lead you away, but the spell kept you rooted in place, your feet seemingly super glued to the lawn. You kept focus on the fire as the last flames were overtaken and put out. Yuta’s house was now a giant green blob. From what you could see through the jello-like goop, it had sustained a minimal amount of damage considering the amount of flames you had seen. You were so engrossed in the green substance that you missed the warning signs before it swallowed you up too, ever expanding.

It took your outstretched hands first, pulling you forward into it. Through your panic you had just enough brain power left to be amazed at how thick it was before your feet and legs were covered too, nearly encased in the goop. You leaned your head back as far as you could, trying to keep yourself in the open air, but the goop kept expanding. You felt more than saw the vampires try to dig you out, but while the spell still fueled it, the goop was surprisingly strong. A hand grasped your elbow as the goop grasped your neck and chin, keeping you completely still as it covered more of you. The hand let go. It couldn’t do anything now.

You took a deep breath just before the goop covered your mouth, nose, and eyes. You thought you felt something on the back of your neck but didn’t think much of it until it started burning. Any strength you had left crumbled as your eyes started stinging and your oxygen ran out. You couldn't see, but it felt as though the world was spinning around you, as though you had been disconnected from everything but the pain. Even through your lightheadedness the pain persisted. It had spread now, from your neck over your shoulders like the creeping vines on the back wall of Jaemin’s cottage.

Jaemin.

You realized through your hazy thoughts that you would never see him again. Your eyes and nose burned now, from tears you couldn’t cry and the pain slowly enveloping you.

You couldn’t hold on any longer.

Black.

☽༓☾

Across a forest and a small town, Jaemin was working on his Hindi pronunciation when Ten burst into his home for the second time in what seemed like a very short period. He wasn’t dripping this time, just looked thoroughly terrified of something.

“Jaemin! He needs help!”

“What? Who?” Jaemin stood up and walked over to his friend. Ten’s tentacles curled and uncurled repeatedly as he spoke.

“Y/N! The vision got sharper, which usually means it’s happening. The green blob wasn’t a tree, it was some sort of spell! He’s going to die if we don’t get there fast.”

“Where are we going?” Jaemin demanded as they ran through the trees around his cabin.

“Yuta’s house. Or, at least, where it used to be.”

“What happened to Yuta’s house?”

“Yangyang and Hyuck burned it down.”

“Ah.”

Ten was panting as he continued speaking. “I think that must be what the spell was for. Some sort of fire putter-outer.”

Jaemin tried to think back to all of the books he had given you, recalling a spell that sounded suspiciously like what Ten described. “If the one I think you’re talking about is the spell he used,” he told Ten, “we might not be able to save him by the time we get there.” A pang echoed through his chest. An empty feeling, as though your small human life had affected his own so strongly as to make him miss you without knowing that you were gone. Jaemin ran on, leaving Ten behind when he paused to rest, sprinting at his highest speed towards where you were.

When he arrived on Yuta’s plot, most of his vision turned green, not because things were actually green, but from the sheer size of the lime coloured stuff all over Yuta’s house. He had been correct when he guessed at which spell you had used. His gaze fell on Kun, Yangyang, Yuta, and Donghyuck, who stood at the still-expanding base of the blob, seemingly trying to get something out. He gasped. You were in the thing. He ran up and tried to help the others dig you out, to no avail. They couldn't do anything against the spell so long as you were alive, and he wasn’t about to kill the person he had worked so hard to protect. He tried to hold onto your elbow as it was swallowed, but was afraid of hurting you. They all watched as you took a deep breath and the gloop covered your face.

Jaemin slumped, out of ideas. There was no way to save you that he knew of. Then he thought back to Ten’s vision. He had to change you. It was the only way. You wouldn’t need to breathe, wouldn’t need to do anything. You could still be here with him. It was with that in mind that he lunged forward at the last moment and latched onto your neck, stretching his jar as wide as it would go. His fangs, already dripping uncomfortably with venom in your presence, sank into your veins, and he felt it as you stiffened slightly. You couldn’t move much in your current situation, but your muscles seized all the same. He stayed next to you as long as he could, until he was in danger of being swallowed into the goop as well. He licked the wounds closed as efficiently as possible and stepped back with the others to see what happened.

It was obvious that you had gone unconscious. The goop stopped moving so rapidly and seemed to pause in its conquest of the front yard. It started oozing slowly around again, creating something of a reverse muffin top as the top shell hardened and the bottom bits leaked out. They backed up to the edge of the yard and Jaemin used his (admittedly small) knowledge of spellcraft to create wards that would protect the house down the street and hopefully contain the goo. They watched in silence as the green kept expanding. Then Yangyang spoke.

“Will Y/N die?”

“I don’t think so,” said Jaemin slowly. “He shouldn’t, at any rate. I bit him.”

A collective tremor went around the group, as though none of them wanted to appear surprised but they all were.

“It was the only thing I could think of that gave Y/N a chance, so I had to try it,” Jaemin continued. “But Kun-hyung knows more than me on that subject.”

Kun looked pensive as he considered what Jaemin had said. “It should work, in theory. But between the wards always up around Y/N’s house, this spell, and the venom in his system, his body might now be able to take it. It’s just a game of chance, unless we can find some way to take some stress off of his body.”

They all looked to Jaemin again.

“Is there some way to break the wards that he has up?” Yuta asked.

“I don’t think so,” Jaemin said, frowning. “Not without taxing him further. We definitely can’t affect this spell without killing him, and as far as the transformation goes, we’d need to be able to get to his body in there. That’s obviously not happening either.”

“So what can we do?” Donghyuck’s voice was small and he sounded almost repentant, as though he thought this whole thing was his fault. It sort of was, but it was odd to hear that tone from him.

“We ask Ten what he can see of the future and go from there,” Jaemin said. “There’s not much else that we can do, unless anyone knows someone better with spells than Y/N.”

The whole group shook their heads. Spells could be cast by any human variant creature that they knew of, but spellcraft was a human specialty. You in particular were gifted beyond what they had seen in a very long while.

While they thought about it, Ten burst forth from the trees down the street and ran towards their group. He slowed down as he took in the blob, now pressing against the wards that contained it. Jaemin could feel a subtle sort of pressure in his head as his spells kept the goop within Yuta’s plot.

“So?” Ten asked Jaemin as he walked up. “Did it work?”

“We’re not sure. He’s not dead, or the Fire Away spell would have gone small and liquidy again. On the other hand, none of us know any way to get him out, and Kun-hyung’s worried about the toll that all of this” - he waved his hands at the blob - “will kill him while he turns. We wanted to ask what you were seeing as of now.”

Ten closed his eyes, most of his tentacles going still as he focused. There was one that whacked anxiously against the dirt beneath him, beating a steady rhythm against the earth. After a few minutes, his eyes opened and he refocused his eyes on the group around him.

“Well?” Yangyang prompted when he didn’t speak. Ten sighed.

“Good news is that he’s probably not going to die.”

“And the bad news?”

“He might die.”

“What do you mean, Ten-hyung?”

“I can’t… I can’t tell which future is the one that will come true. It’s like there are two possible ways for the future to go, and neither of them is solid. Either he makes it through, or he dies. The worst part is that I can’t tell what causes his death. It could happen two seconds from now, or two hours, or two days. I just don’t know.”

“I don’t remember your visions ever having two outcomes,” Kun said, brows furrowed.

“I haven’t ever had one like this.”

“Well,” Jaemin said, “I’ll just stay here until he wakes up.”

“And where should I go?” asked Yuta. “Maybe nobody told you, but this is my house that just got burned down.” He threw a glare at Hyuck and Yangyang.

“Go stay with Mark-hyung or something. You sleep over with him all the time anyway,” Donghyuck suggested, and Yuta grinned, a complete change from two seconds before.

“He’ll hate that. See you guys later!” He skipped a few steps before running full tilt, phone in his hands and fingers tapping. The glow of the screen disappeared quickly from Jaemin’s view, and he turned back to their now-smaller group.

“Are you sure that you want to stay here until Y/N wakes up?” Kun asked Jaemin. “I know that you don’t need sleep or anything, but that seems like a waste of time.”

“I have eternity,” Jaemin told him. “I just need to be here to watch it deflate, whether it’s because he’s turned or because…” His voice went weak. He couldn't see you die. He just couldn’t. Kun patted him on the shoulder.

“Okay. We’ll come check on you tomorrow.” As he walked away with Yangyang and Donghyuck, Jaemin heard Kun’s ‘mom voice’ come out as he lectured on the dangers of playing with fire. It made Jaemin smile a little.

His head was starting to feel uncomfortable with the pressure of his wards, so he carefully widened them, centimeter by centimeter, until there was less gloop on them. He couldn’t keep this up until you completed the transformation, he knew, but it would work for now. Maybe he could call Kibum-hyung tomorrow for help.

Until then all he had to do was sit and wait, and look at your form encased in neo pearl champagne colored jello.

☽༓☾

It was exactly twenty five hours, forty minutes, and nine seconds since Jaemin had first settled in when the goop started deflating. The hard casing that had developed collapsed in on itself when the slightly softer insides began to shrink, reminding Jaemin slightly of Honey Lemon and her chemical reactions in Big Hero 6. He sprang to his feet, rushing forward to where he could see the outline of your body inside the collapsing bubble, grabbing the empty decanter that the goop had once been held in. He scooped up the small oozing goop that remained from the spell and plugged the decanter, turning around slowly to look at your body once more.

As your still-limp body collapsed to the ground, Jaemin felt his unbeating heart sink. You didn’t move, there was no rise and fall to your chest. There was no sound of your breath in the air. Your eyes didn’t roll around under your eyelids. You seemed… corpselike. Dead. But it couldn’t be. Ten had said that you would probably survive! Jaemin opened his phone and pressed Ten’s contact to call it. He answered on the third ring.

“Jaemin? What’s up?”

“Ten-hyung,” Jaemin said, and his voice cracked. He cleared his throat before continuing. “Y/N… I think, is dead?”

Ten sucked in a breath, audible even through the phone. “Jaemin I’m so sorry-”

Jaemin cut him off. “Hyung, you said he would make it!”

“There was always that chance that he wouldn’t-”

“But you said-” Jaemin’s voice cracked again and he fell into silence. He couldn’t cry, and he had never wished he could until now. Tears might convey the hole in his chest, the emptiness of his existence without your life to partner him.

“Jaemin,” came Ten’s voice, and it was soft, delicate. “I’m so so sorry. I thought that he would make it, but there was always that second path. I can’t-” He took a deep breath. “I can’t see him anymore. I think… I think he might be gone.”

“No!” Jaemin exclaimed hotly. “He can’t be!”

“Jaemin-”

He hung up. Whatever Ten-hyung had to say wouldn’t help. It wouldn’t bring you back. He was along now, with your body and this stupid Flame Away Goop that had managed to take your life despite Ten’s prophecies and Jaemin’s best efforts. The person that you were was gone. Now you were just a still corpse, a painful reminder of what could have been and what should have been and what couldn’t be.

“I’ll give you a proper funeral,” Jaemin told your body as he lifted it into his arms gently. “I promise.”

☽༓☾

For the next three days, Jaemin worked non-stop. He prepared a funeral for you, ignored everyone except to invite them to the event. He could still picture your smile, the way he had to support you those first few steps. He remembered how you had called him gorgeous, how you had said I love you in Gaelic to him without knowing what it meant. He recalled the trust you had for him despite his own occasional self-loathing, the way you had reminded him of his worth every time you were around him.

He missed you. He missed you a lot.

People had called him, came knocking once an hour. He eventually just shut off his phone so he didn’t have to hear their pleas for him to let them in. All of his hyungs and all of his noonas came to make sure he was okay, but would he ever be? There was a Y/N shaped hole in him that he didn’t think could ever be filled up again. Jeno came around three times a day with hug offerings, but Jaemin shut him out. He knew it hurt his friends, knew they only wanted to help, but you were gone and nobody understood. Nobody had loved you the way he had. Nobody had your blood quite literally on their hands, flowing through their veins.

It hurt to think about that. He “lived” while you were dead; he had gained life through your death and that was the most ironic thing. In his attempt to save you, he may have killed you.

He hurt.

On the fourth day since your death, Jaemin gently dressed your body in the best clothes he could find, brushed your hair, and put you in a casket, standing you in an open clearing, the one where he had tried to send you back to Earth. It was the largest clearing nearby, and all of the vampires that had met you plus Ten came to pay their respects. They spoke about the short time they had known you, and the strong impact you had made despite that. They told of how you had gone back to Earth and suffered until you had returned. They told of your feats practicing witchcraft and most of all they spoke of your kindness, the lack of repulsion towards them. They spoke of your kind smile and the way you had fit in so nicely with their community.

Jaemin started not-crying, as vampires did, and he thought he would be alone, but Jeno joined him. Lucas joined him. Jisung and Chenle joined him. Ten and Johnny joined him. He was not the only one who had loved you. Donghyuck joined him. Yangyang and Yuta and Kun joined him. He was not the only one who felt that your death was his fault.

Jaemin was not the only person who choked out their words in an imitation of crying. Jaemin was not the only person who missed you. Jaemin was not the only one who wanted you back. Jaemin was not the only one.

He hadn’t realized how much he missed his friends until they surrounded him in a huge hug. It wasn’t a warm hug, necessarily, but it was a hug nonetheless and made him feel better. He was not the only one.

He was still dealing with the hole in his chest, but he had others to patch himself up with now. Like each person who had known you could bring a part of you back through their memories of you. It was nice, almost.

☽༓☾

The first thing you realized was that you could hear again. Your ears were uncovered, and you vaguely registered words being choked out somewhere near you. It sounded like a large number of people were very sad about something. You wondered what it could be. The second thing you realized was that you were laying down on some sort of padded… thing. It felt like too much work to open your eyes, so you felt around and realized that you were in a padded box. A padded box? That was new.

You tried to sniff the air and were met with the smell of cologne, not too strong but apparently on enough people that it permeated the air. You got hints of perfume too, but it was far less strong. Something in the box shifted and you felt breaths on your face. Were people looking at you in your sleep? Come to think of it, why were these many people around you while you slept at all? That seemed sort of rude. You tried to remember getting here but came up blank. Your last memories were of the pain before you passed out. You shivered at the memory.

“He’s awake!” someone shouted. The noise hurt your ears after the deafening silence of your previous state, and you itched to get away from them. A murmur of sound rolled through the room and then a familiar scent invaded your senses, that of sun-warmed earth.

“Y- Y/N?” Jaemin asked hesitantly. “Can you hear me? Are you in there?”

He sounded absolutely wrecked, like his voice had been stripped of his usual honey and sunshine. You tried to open your eyes, but it was too bright and you just couldn’t, so you nodded slightly.

“Oh my- Y/N,” he continued. “Can’t you open your eyes for me, please?”

You shook your head no.

“Okay, that’s fine, sweetheart. Let me get you out of there.” There was the sound of something wooden being bonked against a wall, but that faded in comparison to the name. Sweetheart. Sweetheart.

You were lifted gently from your padded box and carried somewhere shady and cold. It felt nice against your skin. He felt nice against your skin. He carried you gently, like you were made of glass, but you felt surprisingly strong, just out of sorts. As though while your mind struggled to catch up, your body had strengthened. It was a very different sensation to that of your first time waking up in Jaemin’s house. He walked you through what you thought must be the forest for a bit before he sat down and nestled you into his side. You felt as though some muscles should be unhappy about the position, but you felt completely comfortable.

“Y/N.” Jaemin’s voice came to you, soft and warm and familiar. It was shaking slightly. “Can you open your eyes for me now?”

You focused on your eyelids, raising them slowly until you could see Jaemin. He had on a suit; black jacket over a white shirt, accented by a thin black ribbon tied loosely around his neck. His pink hair fell neatly in waves over his forehead and you reached up to brush away a piece that had fallen over his eyes, smiling.

“Hey Jaem. What happened?” Your voice wasn’t weak, like you supposed it should have been. It came out like a melody into the air, and you marvelled internally at the sound of it, how smooth it was. It felt nice.

“You-” Jaemin broke off for a second, rearranging your limbs next to him. “You were trying to save Yuta’s house. We had to rebuild part, but it’s fine. He stayed with Mark for a few days. For the most part, your spell worked. But then, it- it swallowed you. I got there in time to watch as you were absorbed by this green goop and I thought I was too late. I bit you, back here.” He brushed his fingers gently over the sides of your neck and you shivered. “But you didn’t wake up… I thought I was too late. You weren’t breathing, and you weren’t awake… I have no idea how you managed to cancel the spell without waking up or dying. So I-” He made a choked up sound and tightened his arm around your shoulders. “We’re at your funeral. Ten couldn’t see your future anymore, so we thought you were dead…” He trailed off.

“Wow,” you said. “I died? Then how am I here now? I feel alive?”

“It worked. It must have. You don’t have a heartbeat, but you’re awake. I don’t know what happened exactly, but you must be a vampire now.”

“Huh. I thought I’d feel more… hungry.”

He laughed. It glittered over your ears and you smiled, an involuntary reaction to him. “It’ll kick in, don’t worry.”

“What about the others? I mean, Lucas and Kun and everyone? Are they just at my funeral right now? Without me?”

“Oh.” Jaemin looked as though he had forgotten about them. “I guess they are. Let’s go see them?”

“Let’s.”

☽༓☾

After that day, it didn’t take you long to realize that the other vampires were purposefully putting you with Jaemin for just about everything. On days where you went to hang out with Lucas, he would ask you how Jaemin was doing. If you didn’t know, he would suggest that you go and visit him. Kun asked you to make sure that Jaemin was feeling okay. Yuta, who you were finally allowed to meet and hang out with, constantly suggested that you should spend more time with him. It was strange. Nobody had seemed to mind that you had your own hobbies before your transformation, but now that you were a vampire, it was as though you were meant to be with Jaemin all of the time. You asked Lucas about it once you got sick of the mysterious treatment and he looked at you heavily.

“When you got trapped in that goopy stuff, Jaemin went all weird. He didn’t move for, like, more than 24 hours, and once he thought you were dead… he didn’t talk to any of us until the funeral. We worry about him, and you seem to make him really happy, so we’re trying to keep you two around each other.”

You didn’t really know what to say to that, so you chose the very eloquent “oh,” as your response. Lucas chuckled.

“I know. It was really weird, I’ve never seen him like that. I think we’ve seen a lot of new sides of Jaemin since you came along.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“It’s… well, I don’t think it’s bad or good. It just is. You affect him differently than anyone else we know.”

“Why is that, do you think?”

“Y/N, you idiot, he’s in love with you.”

“He’s what?”

Lucas sighed. “He’s in love with you.”

“Why do you think that? This is Jaemin we’re talking about here. Jaemin. He’s, like, beauty incarnate and he’s smart and kind and wonderful in every aspect of everything. He just can’t be in love with me.”

“He’s in love with you.”

“He’s not.”

“He is.”

“He can't be.”

“Why not?”

“I just told you why.”

Lucas sighed again, more deeply. “But you’re in love with him.”

“I-” You consider that. “I guess?”

“That wasn’t a question.” He rolled his eyes.

“Do you think it’s possible that he actually does like me back?”

“Yes.”

Somehow, after that, Lucas managed to steer the conversation onto other subjects and you refocused on those things, but it echoed in your head. He’s in love with you.

☽༓☾

Even with this new information bouncing around the forefront of your brain, you still had to go and spend time with Jaemin. Maybe it was a little strange for your thoughts to short circuit when you saw him, the little whisper of what if in your head. Maybe it was a little peculiar for a vampire such as yourself to stutter through sentences because you were busy thinking about what life would be like if he really did like you back. Maybe you spent less time talking on your walks together because you wanted to lay next to him in a clearing and watch the clouds instead. Just maybe.

If Jaemin noticed any of your strange behaviour, he didn’t call you out on it. He either really wasn’t paying all that much attention, or he knew enough about you to know that you wouldn’t want him to pry. It was strange, really, how well you knew each other in such a short time. You supposed that since you spent so much time together it wasn’t improbable, but he knew you nearly as well as your old human friends back home.

Thinking about your old memories was a strange experience. You could remember everything as clearly as your human self could, but you noticed more the lack of detail within the images, the way your human eyes couldn’t move as fast as your vampire ones, and your reflexes weren’t as fast, and the way you fixated on one part of the picture without taking in the details of the rest of your vision. You had entirely blocked out memories of driving, they were too harrowing. You recalled more easily now all of the times you had nearly hit something or someone, and while you couldn't die now, at least not that easily, you could have easily fallen prey to the fatal blind spot more times than you’d care to admit.

When you told Jaemin about that, he laughed that laugh you loved so much. “I was born in fourteen forty-two, Y/N. We didn’t have cars back then. The only thing on the street that would run me over was a horse-drawn carriage.”

“Well,” you retorted, “you should consider yourself lucky then. Carriages and horses don’t sound half so bad as giant hunks of metal flying at each other at eighty miles per hour.”

“Maybe you’re right,” he mused, stroking an imaginary beard. “Maybe I was lucky to be born in Korea during the 1400s. You may have heard of the emperor Sejong the Great? I was born during his rule. He was one of the best emperors Korea ever had, he introduced hangul and united the country under Confucian principles so that there was more love for the country and the people living in it. Peaceful few years we had there, from what little I remember. After that, though? Lots of killing, children on the throne, et cetera et cetera. Not so fun. And I was actually able to die through all of that, so that wasn’t pleasant. But then King Sejo, the one who did the killing, actually did a pretty okay job of ruling the country and we had a few more years of prosperity. He died six years after my transformation. I missed that event because I was here in Vahmpyr getting to know Jeno, who turned me.”

“How much of the group was around, at that point?”

“Well…” Jaemin closed his eyes briefly in thought. “Here, let me draw you a family tree.” He grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote ‘Moon Taeil’ at the top. “Okay so as you know, Taeil is here as the first of us. He turned Yuta-hyung, Kun-hyung, Johnny-hyung, and Taeyong-hyung.” He wrote in their names under Taeil’s, spacing them out across the paper.

“Yuta-hyung turned Sicheng-hyung and Shotaro; Kun-hyung turned Dejun-hyung and Lucas-hyung; Johnny-hyung turned Jungwoo-hyung and Mark, and Taeyongie-hyung turned Hyuck, Doyoung-hyung, and Jaehyun hyung.” He labeled all of these names, then drew more stems leading from Jaehyun, Lucas, and Dejun.

“Jaehyun-hyung turned Sungchan, Lucas-hyung turned Hendery-hyung and Yangyang, and Dejun-hyung turned Renjun.” He drew all of these connections and stemmed Renjun’s name down even farther.

“Renjun turned Jeno and Chenle, then Jeno turned me, and I turned Jisung and now you.” He finished the tree with a flourish, black ink stark against the creamy paper. They were all connected, in some way, to Taeil’s venom. And there was you, at the very bottom, your name small next to Jisung’s.

“You guys are all so… connected.”

“Yep! We’re all one big family.”

“Do you guys have, like, family reunions? And who changed Joy and her friends? Or what’s-his-face? Taemin?”

“We don’t really all get together a lot, just because most of us have jobs on Earth or spend our days doing stuff on our own. Some of them like having flings all the time. Obviously none of us can get STDs or get pregnant, so they can do that, no strings attached. We sort of hang out in our individual groups for the most part, and then hang out every once in a while. As far as the others, we think that they must have come from the same person as Taeil-hyung, a very very old vampire. There are other stories like ours across Vahmpyr, where one vampire created one member of each coven and let us grow from there. The difference is that some of them actually have good relationships with those older vampires, whereas I’ve never met ours. I’ve heard that there’s a man called Park Jae-sang who actually comes around to spend time with the vampires he’s changed. The closest we have to an old vampire is Leeteuk-hyung, and he isn’t really around much, plus he’s not that much older than Taeil-hyung.

“Anyway, to answer your question, when I was turned, nearly everyone was around already. Only Yangyang, Sungchan, Shotaro, Chenle, and Jisung are younger than me. And now you.”

“Wow, so you had to meet everyone right after your transformation? I bet that was chaotic.”

“It was, but it was also fun. I got to be the baby for a while. Then the others came around and I somehow became a mother figure.”

You laughed. Jaemin was a mother figure, for sure. He liked to take care of the people around him, including humans that his brothers had brought home for him to patch up. “That doesn’t surprise me one bit.”

He giggled along with you, that laugh you adored so much, and grinned. “I guess it sort of fits me, doesn’t it? Mother Jaem.” He rolled the name over his tongue and you collapsed into laughter again. “I think that works well, yep.”

The next few days, you called him Mother Jaem, and everyone gave you weird looks, but it made Jaemin laugh hard enough that it was worth it.

☽༓☾

One day after this, Chenle pulled Jaemin aside to ask him what on Earth was going on with this whole “Mother Jaem” thing. Jaemin explained happily how it had come about. Chenle rolled his eyes dramatically.

“When are you two getting married?”

Jaemin just gave him a blank stare. “What?”

“It’s so disgusting how much you guys love each other! When can we shove you two together in a house and call it a day?”

“Um, okay, first of all, that is not how you get rid of somebody. Second, he doesn't love me? And third, there is definitely not enough space in his house for me, even if he did.”

Chenle pinched the bridge of his nose. “Lucas was right, you guys are blind fools. Of course he loves you! He goes to see you all the time! And enjoys it! You’re both in love with each other and both of you are cowards.” He ran his hand through his hair, knocking a piece into his eye. He squinted unhappily but didn’t try to move it.

Jaemin sighed as he got the chunk of hair away from Chenle’s eye. “This is Y/N we’re talking about though! He might hate me for everything I put him through and only stick around because I turned him or something. Plus, he spends as much time with Lucas as with me.”

“My God, your logic is terrible. You love him, he loves you, you need to get together. Watch some dramas and kiss him in the rain or something. Lucas even told me that he loves you!”

“That’s astonishingly specific for someone who doesn’t have a romance under their belt.”

“That’s besides the point!” Chenle grabbed the sides of Jaemin’s face and held him still while he spoke. “You need to confess sometime or another before the rest of us go crazy watching you run in circles around each other.”

With that he stalked away, leaving Jaemin rubbing his face where Chenle’s fingertips had pressed into the skin. It didn’t hurt, but the echoes of his voice and his fingers held Jaemin still for a long time afterwards.

☽༓☾

The next week, Kun and Taeil invited the whole coven to a reunion at Kun’s country estate. Having never been, you looked forward to seeing the giant house as much as meeting the rest of the family. It didn’t disappoint, it was absolutely massive, at least four or five floors and extensive gardens in front. Kun gave you free run of the place, asking you to please not enter rooms marked with a “Do Not Enter” sign. Simple rule to follow. You entered the main hall first, feeling like royalty in such an elegant room. Twin staircases led from the upstairs, leading your eyes to an extravagant chandelier covered in hundreds of crystals, and a mint green ceiling. From either side of the large room extended hallways with lush pale blue rugs and endless vases on platforms. It felt as though you had entered the past, or maybe a very expensive movie set. You moved through hallways and rooms, gazing at velvet chairs and old paintings that screamed money. You wondered if someone in Vahmpyr painted them, or if they were from Earth. You found only two rooms marked “Do Not Enter,” one of which was in a long hallway of bedrooms, so you assumed it was Kun’s.

The other was in the back of a positively colossal library. The library caught your eye because of the sheer size of it. Rows upon rows of books lined the walls and seemingly endless freestanding shelves. It was as large as the main public library back home, taking up at least four average rooms worth of space per floor. Not to mention the height. You estimated that it was at least three floors high, perhaps four. An entire long wall was devoted to Kun’s studies in medicine, dating back to leeches and poultices on open wounds through Magnetic Resonance Imaging and the most advanced of current surgeries. He had records of patients stacked by century, and a desk that popped out of the wall to reveal his own notes on developing vaccines and other medicines. Had you still been human, you were certain that a room like this would have given you a headache, from the size and the amount of books to look at.

From the medicine section you moved to other sciences like forensics, geology (although that section was considerably smaller), and astronomy. You also discovered an entire section on aviation. In the astronomy section, you found cork boards with maps pinned to them, stars drawn in detail, space stations built for both humans and vampires, and more drawings you didn't know how to interpret. You pulled out a few books at random and flipped through them, smiling at the notes in the margins. Past those sections were books on every type of science you had ever heard of, and some you hadn’t.

Beyond those were histories, and Kun’s travel section. He had bins filled with brochures, maps, and travel magazines and accounts of, from what you could tell, every war known to have occurred past Kun’s turning. That blended into social studies, and you found books on language next to copies of the Bible in seemingly every version, translations of the Quran, and more religious texts. Stock market trends were recorded and stored next to books on how to hire smart and anthropology. Cultural studies were stored with ethics and political records. Newspapers appeared as well, although those were fewer than the books by far. They appeared to be from a singular area, a place called Taining County, in China. Kun must have some sort of tie to it. You made a mental note to ask him when you rejoined the others.

You climbed a staircase to the second floor, where you found a fireplace and sitting area within the books. It appeared that the entire second floor was books organized by language, starting each section with children’s books and working their way up to novels. You found all of the Romance Languages, German, Hindi, Greek, Tagalog, Russian, Dutch, Japanese, Cantonese, Thai, Korean, Arabic, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Latin and more that you didn’t know. In the back was a small compilation of different countries’ sign languages, as well.

You climbed the next flight of stairs to the third floor, finding the fiction section. These were organized by genre, with horror on one shelf, science fiction hogging four shelves on the opposite walls, romance taking up a large section next to that, et cetera. You spotted a section marked “Transcribed” and walked over to it, finding books handwritten by Kun, presumably taken from other forms and written over to fit in his library. You imagined the wax tablets and stone slabs of old books and shuddered. Even as a vampire, transporting those wouldn’t be easy. This floor was open in the middle, looking down at the second. Above you, the next floor was open as well and housed more shelves.

You walked up the last staircase and came upon a musical archive. There were phonographs on tables next to more recent record turntables, followed by cassette players and CD players. Each one was in impeccable condition, and behind them were shelves of every format that would work with those machines. These were shorter shelves, since the music was thinner than books, but there were still many many of them. You saw cassette boxes labeled with the albums contained within, records in yellowed sleeves, and CDs in thick storage cases. They were organized by decade, with the earliest dating back to the late nineteenth century. You guessed that was when recorded music had been invented. Perhaps Kun could still remember older pieces though; something else you would have to ask him about. You were looking through the most recent music to see what he liked and if you had heard of it when you heard someone calling your name.

“Y/N? Where are you?”

“In the library, fourth floor!” you yelled back.

“Will you come back to the kitchen and help me with this?”

“Sure!”

You weren’t sure who was calling you, but it sounded like Lucas, so you ran towards the kitchen. You weren’t sure entirely why there was a kitchen, since you all drank blood anyway, but you figured there was a good reason. You added that to your growing list of things to ask Kun. You understood why you had a kitchen in your house since you had lived in it while you were still human, but Kun hadn’t been to Vahmpyr before he was turned as far as you knew. Besides, he usually lived in his apartment next to the other guys. Maybe it was just necessary to have a kitchen in a house, you didn’t know. It would have felt weird, you guessed, to live in a house without one.

When you arrived, Lucas was outside as you had guessed.

“Will you run in and grab these things for me?” he asked, handing you a sticky note. “I’ve been tasked with rounding up everyone else.”

“Yeah, no problem,” you replied, walking through the doors into the room. It was industrial, like Kun cooked for dozens of people at a time, and there was a surprising amount of cooking utensils that wouldn’t work on raw bodies, like spatulas. You looked down at the sticky note for the first time. If you don’t confess, it read, I will smack you when you come back out. And you know how big my hands are, I will make it hurt.

“What?” you murmured to yourself as Jaemin walked into the room.

“Oh hey Y/N, did Chenle send you?”

“No, Lucas did. But did Chenle perhaps give you a sticky note with things to get for him on it?”

Jaemin glanced down at a hot pink slip of paper in his hand. “Yeah.” He looked back up at you before his brow furrowed and he looked more thoroughly at the writing on it. He groaned. “I am going to kill Chenle.” He ran a hand through his cotton candy pink hair. “I guess I should just get it over with then.”

He walked closer to you, setting the sticky note on the counter as he came. “I’m kind of in love with you? And I have been for a while? I mean I get if you hate me after everything I put you through, but according to Chenle you like me back? And… yeah?”

You were left speechless. Hate Jaemin? Never. And he… loved… you?

“Y/N? Are you okay?” Jaemin waved a hand in front of your face. “I’m sorry, I’ll go, Chenle must have set up a prank.” He started walking away and you grabbed his wrist.

“Jaem, hold on. I’m just in shock. I thought there was no way you could like me back…” Your voice got steadily smaller until it trailed off at the end of your sentence as a whisper.

His entire face lit up like a Christmas tree plugged in for the first time, glowing and cheerful. “It’s not a prank?”

You rubbed a hand over your face. “No, it’s not a prank. I thought Lucas was kidding when he said you liked me back. Or at least that he was wrong. You- you’re actually telling me that you’re in love with me?”

“I am.”

“Holy shit.”

He laughed, a ringing sound in the quiet of the kitchen. It echoed back at you as though the happiness of the laugh had been multiplied. “They’re going to be so smug,” he muttered.

“Oh yes they are. We’re going to have to get back at them someday.”

“Well, we have forever,” he reminded you. You grinned and held out your hand. He took it.

“Let’s go get the teasing over with then.”

You walked out of the kitchen and down the hall. “What did Chenle threaten you with if you didn’t confess?” you asked.

“Oh, he was going to tell the group about the fling I had with Jeno when we were younger.”

You looked at him in shock. “You had a fling with Jeno? Why would you choose me over him?”

“It was just sexual attraction. While that works for some people, both of us were happier just being friends, so we ended it. I actually am in love with you, which makes all the difference. Anyway, Chenle got that story out of me on a dare once and has held it over my head ever since.”

“I wonder if he’s told Jeno he knows?”

“Probably.”

You had reached the front room, and you took a deep breath as you walked forward, though it did nothing for your undead body. “Let’s throw ourselves to the wolves.”

As you walked out into the sunlight, a cheer rose up that would have sent birds flapping away, had there been any. You heard Chenle’s unique laugh paired with Lucas’ happy shouts of “yes!” and the voices of the other men you had gotten to know, paired with ones you didn’t. They stood in a group in the garden, whooping and throwing up hats if they had any. Lucas was the first to reach you.

“I can’t believe you actually did it! I thought I’d have to smack you!” He sounded far too happy at the prospect for your liking.

The rest of the boys ran over. There was a repeating round of “finally” until someone mentioned the food getting warm and there was a great rush to get back to the patio in the garden. You sat next to Jaemin in patio chairs as the sun slowly sank past the tree line and talked with friends old and new.

There was something new, something warm inside of you. A feeling of belonging more than ever when Jaemin fed you a little and the rest of the guys booed jokingly. Under the rising stars you kissed him for the first time, a quick peck at the behest of Yangyang. There were more cheers and hugs and someone had a polaroid camera out, the flash lighting up the scene as everyone laughed.

This was where you were meant to be.

End.

!!Reblogs and feedback are much appreciated!!

All rights reserved kiri-ah, 2021

[enigmaticxbee]

S8 Rewatch - Investigation

Autopsies: Scully only does autopsies in 6 episodes, similar to seasons 5-6 and down from 9 episodes last season. Memorable autopsy moments include Scully cutting the suspect out of the corpse and then losing him in 8x10 Badlaa; her voice breaking as she details the injuries to Gary’s body while thinking of Mulder in 8x14 This Is Not Happening; and Scully telling Skinner she “accidentally” found black oil in the third ventricle of the brain of the body she’s not supposed to be autopsying in 8x18 Vienen.

Rule-Breaking: Pretty solid rule-breaking from Scully this season: she lies to the FBI and goes off with Skinner to investigate Mulder’s disappearance, running around the desert on her own without informing the investigation leader in 8x01 Within and 8x02 Without; shoots what looks like a child in 8x10 Badlaa (it was actually the suspect, but that’s got to be against protocol); she possibly signed off on falsified reports in 8x11 The Gift; helps Mulder steal evidence and drives the get-away car when Mulder breaks into the census bureau in 8x16 Three Words; performs an unauthorized autopsy and orders the quarantine of an oil rig without permission in 8x18 Vienen; and performs an autopsy against doctor’s orders in 8x19 Alone.

Scully’s in Danger: She is attacked and beaten up by the Alien Bounty Hunter; is attacked by a bat man; is held hostage by a slug cult and is infected by a parasite that Doggett has to cut out of her back; suffers from unspecified pregnancy complications that put her in the ER in the middle of the night, alone; is threatened and has her baby threatened by conspiracy doctors and military; is threatened and has her baby threatened by Krycek; suffers a partial abruption; has her pills switched by a mysterious woman; is threatened and has her baby threatened by super soldiers; gives birth traumatically in the middle of nowhere, pursued and threatened by super soldiers. Poor Scully.

Mulder’s in Danger: He is tortured for months by aliens; (in the past he had a sTupId BrAin diSeasE); is left for dead in the woods; is buried and then dug up months later with an alien virus that would have turned him into a super soldier if Skinner and Scully hadn’t accidentally cured him by taking him off of life support; suffers from PTSD; narrowly escapes from an exploding oil rig infested with black oil zombies; is attacked by suspects in 3 episodes; and is attacked by Krycek. Poor Mulder.

Hospitals: Scully spends a lot of time in the hospital this season - in 8x02 Without after being attacked by ABH; in 8x04 Roadrunners after Doggett pulls a slug god out of her back; in 8x07 Via Negativa for unspecified pregnancy complications; in 8x13 Per Manum for an amniocentesis and a fake ultrasound; in 8x17 Empedocles for a partial abruption; and in 8x20 Essence for mysteriously replaced pregnancy pills. She should be in the hospital to give birth in the finale but instead she’s in a shack in Georgia! Mulder’s only there with her for the last couple hospital visits, with the lovely scene in Empedocles where her touches her stomach for the first time. Mulder’s in the hospital for uh, death, in 8x15 Deadalive - did anyone miss me? - and 8x16 Three Words. Scully visits Doggett in the hospital in 8x12 Medusa, feeling guilty for sending him into the subway tunnels alone to protect herself given her pregnancy.

Driving: Scully is the get-away driver with Mulder and Doggett as passengers in 8x16 Three Words; and Mulder tries to drive away with Scully as the passenger in 8x20 Essence but they end up in Krycek’s car. Not many memorable car scenes this season but there are a few car conversations between Scully and Doggett and of course Reyes driving Scully down to Georgia in the finale.

Line of Duty?: Scully kills the ABH in 8x02 Without and thinks she killed the fakir who was disguising himself as a child in 8x10 Badlaa. Mulder tries to kill soul eater to put him out of his misery in 8x11 The Gift.

Investigation: Sadly Mulder and Scully spend 15 episodes apart, and the other 6 episodes investigating both together and apart, with no episodes spent primarily together this season. The real question is why they spend 2 episodes - 8x18 Vienen and 8x21 Existence - primarily apart in the short run of episodes after Mulder’s returned. Why?!

Solve Rate: 62% overall solve rate at the end of the season and 62% solve rate for this season. Scully and Doggett actually do pretty well with the MOTW cases in the first half of the season, but the mytharc-heavy second half brings down their average.

[scullydubois]

baby, in your kingdom (for valentine’s <3)

read on ao3   tagging: @today-in-fic @iusedtoknowwhatawishwasfor @scullllaaaaayyyy

Mulder proposes to Scully during the Requiem bed scene.

So you may have seen the text post I wrote imagining a version of Requiem where Mulder proposed and didn’t go off to Oregon at the end...I couldn’t stop thinking about that, so it turned into this. This is my favorite prose that I’ve written for a fic, and it might turn into a series someday because this concept is just so rich and worth diving into. Happy Valentine’s Day, and enjoy a treat on me to numb the pain hehe. 

T, 1.7k, more angst than fluff (oops) but the tenderness is there too 

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

He needs to tell her one thing and ask her another. Should be simple enough, except it never is when it comes to words passing between them. It's in both their natures to leave the sweetest sentiments unsaid lest they lose their luster when voice meets air. And what he has in mind is not exactly the easiest of utterances, neither the former nor the latter. One is the kind of admittance we fear when the phone rings unexpectedly, the other a declaration the unluckiest people go to their graves without getting. Delivering both at the same time is a sin if he’s ever committed one. And for once, he cares what count God has against him. What if he isn’t able to see her again, even in the afterlife? 

He’s been weighing one decision for awhile, looking for the balance between his conviction and her virtue. He could have done it when she came back to him with her baby-faced blush, accepting the cross he clung to in lieu of her. Or when she showed him the x-rays, and they spelled out no hope. When he cried by her bedside and she didn’t stir--he could have done it then, she wouldn’t have known. But it means nothing unless it means everything to both of them, and she wouldn’t have--no, couldn’t have--given him the answer he wants back then. He holds this as the sacred truth that governed him then and will govern him now. He has no room for regrets.

The scuff of their shoes against the baseball diamond was the first time he realized that maybe, maybe this manic impulse of his had some basis in reality. Not a solid one, nothing they could cross a canyon with, but in time…

And then he was inside her brain, privy to her thoughts, and what was an unsound bridge had become a stairway to Heaven only they could climb. Fuck a safety net, he wouldn’t be needing that anymore.

Then he got the call from Billy Miles, and he thought of her ouroboros, and isn’t that what they’ve been doing this whole time? Circling some greater truth that they’ve always known? 

Every circle ends where it begins and begins where it ended. This is what he’s thinking when he spots Billy’s badge, and they glide over the X he painted when they didn’t yet trust each other (but so badly wanted to), and when he lays eyes on Teresa Nemmans and she is not Nemmans but Hoese, and there is a child in her arms. 

Seven years. And what do they have to show for it? What they mean to each other has changed, but it’s not like anyone can tell. He called Scully his partner then, and he calls her his partner now. Oh, the time they have wasted.

But it will be wasted no more. Seeing her with the Hoese baby, cooing a lullaby into its precious ear…seven years ago, he told her of the government’s conspiracy and how nothing else mattered to him. That is no longer the truth.

There is a truth they both know that is stronger than anything. When she appears at his door, flushed and shivering like a puppy left out in the cold, his head and his heart finally hit the same wavelength. He will shy away from fate no longer.

She doesn’t wait to be invited in, she knows his bed is hers for the taking. He lifts her shoes off her feet like he’s kneeling at an altar, wraps his arms around her as if it’s what he was put on this Earth to do. Contrary to popular belief, he has quite a reverence for domestic bliss. He’s been searching for it since his own reflection of it was shattered at twelve years old, and it has finally come to him.

He is scared to death that he’ll fuck it up, but not so scared that he’ll back away. In other words, his approach to everything in his life. It occurs to him then, with his lips on her temple, that he would set his own flame to the office and every X-File in it if she asked him to. If that’s what she wanted. He wouldn’t even have stepped foot back in that haunted place after its first burning if she’d given him an indication that it was not her desire.

“Scully,” he starts, nuzzling her neck, “I was thinking about when you asked me if I ever wanted to stop...if I ever wanted to get out of the car.”

“Uh-huh,” she breathes so faintly that he wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t felt it in her lungs. 

“Well, I do want that. I’ve always wanted that. Remember when we were in Home and I said I’d like to settle someplace like that?”

Scully chuckles against him.

“Obviously not in Home, but you know, some place with the small-town sentiment without the, uh, familial connection.”

“Mm-hm,” Scully murmurs, sensing a larger point that he has strayed from.

“I just never knew how to get to it--I never thought that I could get to it, because I grew up thinking my parents had that, and then I saw they never did at all.”

Scully tucks his open palm under her chin, listening contentedly. 

“So I spent my time chasing apparitions,” he continues, “things I couldn’t see, because I stopped believing in the things that I could. It’s like…the invisible things could surpass my expectations easily, but the visible ones could only disappoint.”

Scully feels cocooned, protected, and warm. She latches her attention to Mulder’s voice to keep from drifting off, kissing his knuckle to show that she’s listening.

“And I’ve realized, Scully,” he says, an edge in his voice, “that it’s a fucking waste of time to live like that. Like doing laps on a lazy susan and wondering why you’re never getting anywhere.” 

“I know,” Scully says, her voice quiet but certain. 

Mulder laughs lightly. “I know you do, that’s what you’ve been saying all this time...I just didn’t see it before.” He kisses her shoulder, lingering in the final moments before doing what cannot be undone. “And so I have something to ask you, but there’s something I have to tell you first.” Rawness permeates his voice. 

At the sound of this, Scully cranes her neck, her gaze falling upon his face for the first time since they laid down. She can barely see his hazel irises through the reflecting pool in his eyes. 

“What is it, Mulder?” she asks, concern pressing up against her urgent need to know.

He closes his eyes, the sight of her too much for him in this moment. What he wouldn’t give to feel like he could live with himself if he kept this a secret.

“I’ve seen a neurologist, I’ve had MRIs, it’s all conclusive. My brain is diseased from whatever Cigarette Smoking Man did to me. Fatal, my neurologist says.”

“Mulder…” Scully sits up, her whole being gravitating toward him. She runs her fingers along the space where she knows he bears his scar. 

“Who told you this? And when? Have you had symptoms…?”

Clearly, she does not want to believe him, and he understands.

“I’ve been going back and forth to appointments for a few weeks. It was just confirmed the other day, I didn’t want to worry you until I knew more.”

“And your symptoms?” 

He recognizes the darkness in her eyes and pucker in her forehead that forewarns tears. “Disorientation, dizziness, memory loss...sometimes I feel like I sleepwalked right through my day. “

‘Why didn’t you tell me?” her voice crackles.

He kisses her hand. “I thought you might go to some dark places if you tried to diagnose me.”

“Well, you’ve just turned the lights out on me with no warning!”

“Shit. I’m sorry, I’m sorry...I didn’t know how best to approach it, I just knew I wanted to cause you the least pain possible.”

“You wanted it to be nothing so you wouldn’t have to tell me,” she notes, not accusing, just speaking plainly.

“Well, yes. That would have been ideal.”

She swallows back tears, wrapping her arms around his neck with grave sincerity. “But now I’m here to fight right alongside you.”

This is what they do--have done, for years. Make his pain her pain and vice versa. Hurt hurts less when shared.

Mulder pulls away first, and it feels like peeling off a layer of his skin. Still, this is as necessary as anything he has ever known. 

“That’s why I was wondering--and listening to it now, I realize this is probably the most selfish thing I’ve ever done, but I don’t know, I thought you might understand...will you marry me, Scully?”

Her breath catches and before she can think of anything else, she is careening toward his t-shirt to cover her tears. She clutches at the material, pulling it from his midsection to her face.

As far as Mulder’s concerned, there’s an elephant stuck in his throat. “I really don’t know what that means,” he stammers.

Scully lets him see her, tear-stained skin and all. “Yes, Mulder, my god yes! Do you honestly think I’d say no to you?”

“I would, especially in this situation.” 

It’s a classic Mulder comment, but Scully’s not laughing. She pulls him in again, just wanting to feel his skin against hers. Their breaths slow in time with each other’s, their heartbeats matching pace. Scully’s lips brush his mole.

She speaks into his skin. “You saved me when it was impossible. I will do the same for you.”

Mulder thought he might hold it together until those words slipped from her lips. The elephant in his throat turns to stifled sobs. 

With silent tears still streaking down her cheeks, Scully runs her thumbs along his lips. Just as she did when they thought his brain was getting better. The love in her eyes is equal to then too.

“My constant, my touchstone, remember?” she professes. “Then, now, and always.” She presses her lips to his forehead, and he thinks she must be healing him.

[fefipranon]

List of my works

Saved By Deception

Description:

Mikasa is an independent, strong, and self-made successful woman. She is a force to be reckoned with in a field dominated by men.

What happens when she is held hostage by an arrogant, jerk who is the leader of one of the most dangerous and powerful gangs that exist?

Will she follow the orders of this chauvinist pig or will she make his life a living hell?

Comedy, drama, angst, smutty lemon, and a cat. This story is a wild crazy ride.

Author notes: 

You don’t need to read or watch anything prior this book to understand the story. It’s mostly comedy, but there is also action, angst and smut. Topics I addressed here are feminism, the struggles of the LGBTQ community, PTSD, rape, and abuse of power.

Some reader’s reviews:

“I totally loved it from beginning to end!!! It was such an amazing rollercoaster! I was so invested in this story that I ended the hole thing in one day!! If you write and post the sequel, well... count me in!!! I wish I could give more kudos!!” -  Avalon_Titania

“It took me a while for the story to settle down, to figure out what it means to me, and to finally comment here. But here we go. Reading this story was an amazing journey which gave me lots of joy, some tears and unaccountable amount of smiles. Now, thinking about it makes me feel warm and grateful that you shared this work with us. I love how freely you wrote about everything, how you broke various stereotypes, and spoke about the things that matter. All of this, while managing to make us laugh in every chapter! You are a truly amazing writer and I would gladly read the sequel if you decided to share it too.” -  Not_Orange

“I just found out this story. I can’t believe I missed this. This is amazing 💐💐. I haven’t finished the story yet, I felt that I need to leave a comment first of how amazing and funny the story is. I can’t wait to finish this and omg the sequel. Sign me up for the sequel, needs more stories of them. It’s just, we haven’t got enough stories of them 🤧🤧.” -  avaleen

“I LOVE your story! I adore the way you depicted the characters, how you mixed fun and dark themes, and most of all, I really enjoyed the way you included some schooling on the feminist cause, sexual abuse and the psychology behind it. It was very well done! I can’t wait to read the following story! I found a few grammatical mistakes here and there and sometimes, the way you build your sentences could need to be a little lighter but overall, nothing that really disturbs the story. Thank you for writing this, this is probably my favorite Rivamika story. Keep up with the good work!” -  Valkorian

You can find the story in the following links:

Archive of our own:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27557422/chapters/67401547

Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/story/247716329-saved-by-deception

____________________

The power of death

Description:

Mikasa is a woman suffering from clinical depression. There is one thing that she is sure of: she wants to die. But when she received some unexpected news that makes her death wish a reality, she starts to wonder if that was really what she wanted. She starts a journey to discover the truth about her biological parents that gave her up for adoption when she was a baby. This journey will guide her to cross paths with someone as broken as her, someone that hates her to death for what her biological family did to him. Will she have the courage to, for once, fight to live? or will she let him drag her to hell with him?

Author notes:

You don’t need to read or watch anything prior this book to understand the story. Topics I discuss here are depression, anxiety, anti-depressants, racism, genocide, LGBTQ, terminal disease, racial trauma, euthanasia, adoption. It has comedy and smut but is mostly angst oriented.

Some reader’s reviews:

“Why am I suddenly crying?!? I will always remember this story... I loved every single character of it, both with their funny and dark sides. Because that's life sometimes... 🎭 Thank you author for this beautifully written story!! I already miss it “ -  Levi_is_a_dilf

“Dude this book was great, not to mention all of your books are! Always so well thought out & planned. The fact that some chapters if not all were hours long really shows how great of a creator & genius you are as well! Anyways can't wait to read this again once my forgetful brain has erased my memory of the whole plot.😅” - lolzleigh

“The most beautiful conclusion to one of my fave stories!!! I'm honestly so moved and proud of the message you wanted to transmit there. The last phrase sums it up , to never give up easily because of a difficulty. A bad day doesn't indicate a bad life. Thank you author for your hard work, I'm looking forward to your next story!! 💪🏻🧡” -  Leyla

“ Loved it!!!! You have such a beautiful smart and unique way of writing, I love the way you express their personalities including their silly moments Please don’t stop writing I love your stories and I’ll be looking forward for your next work!!” -  Fiorylita

You can find the story in the following links:

Archive of our own:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30452145/chapters/75087657

Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/story/264598251-the-power-of-death

____________________

Twisted Fate

Description: 

Eren and Levi share a secret about Mikasa's past. Mikasa confesses her feelings to Eren, only to be rejected. After watching her almost die, Eren realizes he has feelings for her, but she has already moved on to Levilandia.

"I thought they hated each other"

Before losing hope he thinks that maybe... if he tells Mikasa who the captain really is... he might have a chance, or fuck it up?

Is the Ackerman bond stronger than a lifetime of memories together?

Jealousy, drama, a shared secret, and Titans, what could possibly go wrong?

Author notes:

Everything needed to understand the story from ‘Attack on Titan’ is added in the story already. Optional reading or watching of ‘Attack on Titan’ anime if more information about the general universe is desired. It’s a comedy but also has angst and smut. Topics I addressed here is the difference between a healthy and a toxic relationship.

Some reader’s reviews: 

“Omg this is by far one of the best stories I’ve read!! You’ve done such an amazing job at capturing the characters!! I’d love to see a continuation of this story or just more rivamika” -  mori87

“So I binge-read this fic and devoured it in half a day reading between breaks at work and on the way home till I'm done right now just before midnight -in my time zone anyway- and BOY THAT WAS SOME FIC!!! It had me laughing so hard at times and holding my breath waiting for what's to come at times. I loved the way you portrayed Levi here. This arrogant, annoying, funny, caring fighter and leader and the way you made Mikasa an even more bad-ass warrior. Looking forward to reading more of you.” -  Marwa_Aslaa3

“ Thank you so much for this amazing story! I read the whole story in one sitting and I can't remember when was the last time I was so happy about something. It made me smile and giggle the whole day, it made me feel warm. You are a true hero and have the ability to give magic to the sentences you write”-  Not_Orange

You can find the story in the following links:

Archive of our own:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26397433/chapters/64303924

Wattpad: 

https://www.wattpad.com/story/240534704-twisted-fate-rivamika-lemon

____________________

How to be happy

Description:

What would happen if Mikasa was pulled out of her universe into ours after Eren saved her? What would happen when Levi is pulled out of the rumbling straight into Mikasa's apartment in our world?

Author notes:

It is necessary to read or watch ‘Attack on Titan’ prior this book to be able to understand the story. This one can be said that is half canon verse half Alternate Universe since Levi jumps to our universe straight from the rumbling. This is one shot I did for Rivamika week. It’s mostly fluff and a little comedy.

Some reader’s reviews:

“ What can I say? It's perfect as always ((X You really are talented in writing so I hope you'll keep doing that in the future! I think we (rivamika peeps) all agree to say that you're a special someone in this community (as well as our Dildo Queen, this one may be my own thought though^^) (Saved by Deception story reference) I'm glad you participated in this event because this one-shot was wonderful, inventive and fun to read! Keep going Queen, you're nailing it!!!” -  Hayden_dsc

You can find the story in the following links:

Archive of our own:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28809051

Wattpad: 

https://www.wattpad.com/story/255240403-how-to-be-happy