#BUT! it is starting to snow here so hopefully we can get some nice sceneries soon :]]

[youling-the-ghost]

for sfth fans who don't know: shoot from the hip is also a photography technique where the photographer doesn't raise the camera to their eye and instead just holds the camera in their hand at waist level (hence "shooting from the hip"), which is usually used by street photographers to create more natural sceneries without drawing too much attention to themselves

so if you see a random photography post in this tag, that's why :]

[delicatewerewolfsoul]

Lean on me - Seo Changbin

–pairing: seo changbin x reader, bestfriend!chan with appearence of all the members

–genre: fluff, friends to lovers au

–word count: 3.1k

–synopsis: christmas day brought one extra, more special gift that what you wished for.

–for the with love christmas! christmas collab by @hanflix (thanks rue for letting me participate in this) 

You wake up today kind of late, one thought existing in your mind "one day till Christmas". Most people would be super hyper at that time of the year, yet you were kind of bitter this particular year. "Time to spend these two last weeks of this shitty year alone" You say as you stand up from your bed to start your day by making some coffee. You pour your coffee into a cup and you sigh at the warmth your hands feel.

It wasn't that you hated Christmas, actually, you really liked the warmth of the season and how happy and hopeful it made everything seem. This year thought, was a different year. You had finally moved out finally from your parents’ house, but making it difficult to get back this time of the year. "Let's hope these days won't suck as much as I think they will" you say, your coffee now already finished, as you now put it in the sink, ready to start any other activity you could think of to get your mind away from these thoughts. As you leave the kitchen, your phone starts ringing in your pocket. You take it out and smile as you see your bestie's name on it.

"Hey Chan, how are yo-" you say and before you can finish, he cuts you off saying "Get ready loser, me and Felix are on our way to get you". You furrow your eyebrows confused as to why they would even be coming to get you. “Wait, why are you coming to get me? Chan? Hello?” you take your phone away to look at it only to see that he hung up on you. “That loser, he didn’t even say where we’re going”.

You put on some warm clothes since you had no idea where you were actually going to go and what they even had on their mind and waited for them. After no more than 5 minutes you hear some knocking on your door. You open your door and come face to face with the two dorks you called your best friends standing in your doorstep with big grins on their faces that clearly indicated that they were plotting something.

“Felix, please help them get their clothes ready” says Chan and Felix quickly goes into your room, as they both actually knew where you were going, leaving you confused as to why these sudden things were happening.

“Well, I might have rented a cabin in the woods for the Christmas… And I’m getting you there even if you’ll say no”.

He knew that you didn’t want to be a bother to them, but he also knew how much you hated the fact that you had to spent the holidays alone, so with a little help of Minho, he found the perfect solution.

“Oh no, you didn’t have to” you say pouting feeling guilty, knowing that he must have lost loads of time searching to find the perfect place to go. He didn’t even have time for himself and he did this for you? You started thinking about it. There must be something you can do right?

“Is there anything I can do? Anything I can do at least? Let me help with something okay?” getting your bag out of Felix’s hands and Chan looks at him and then laughs at that, and he just pats he side of your arm and say smiling “You idiot, just being there with us is enough… The only favor I want is that you spend time with Changbin okay? He’s been whining that you avoid him”.  

Your mouth turns into a line after that comment as you think about it. Did you actually avoid him? Well, your feelings about him might were kind of complicated this time. You don’t remember avoiding though. Yes, your answers were delayed… and kind of cold, but you were sure it wasn’t on purpose.  You turn your head to side as you try to find what to say to Chan, with a guilty look on your face and he lets out a laugh at your expression and added like it was the simplest thing in the world while opening your front door “You have feelings for him don’t you?” and you clutch your hands around the straps of your backpack tightly out of nervousness since well, he wasn’t wrong.

Felix joins you both as you both after he closes the door to your apartment and places his arm around your shoulders adding “Just talk to him, you already know each other well, there’s no way you will embarrass yourself and who knows… Maybe something will happen” and turns to look at Chan with a weird smirk on his face that you choose to not pay much attention to it.

You get into the back of the car and put your things in, you notice the many grocery bags, and as the always curious bug you were, you turn to ask Chan about it. “Why are there so many grocery bags in here? It’s past lunch time” you say after looking at your watch, knowing very well that Minho wouldn’t let anything be late or have Jisung whining about the food being late.

Chan smiles as he starts the car and Felix says “There are actually are additions for tomorrow, because Minho was in a good mood and cooked more that we actually needed today… And of course, we had everything for today ready before coming to get you cause Jisung is unbearable without his food being ready in the right time” and you all laugh at that cause you both know how he gets and how funny it is to see that happen.

“Now you, curious baby, look outside, because the scenery is very nice and it’ll take us a while to get there” Chan says and turns on some Christmas music as you get into a forest, to get you all in the Christmas mood, and you’re in awe by the scenery: beautiful tall cypress trees, covered with snow, the deep green in contrast with the bright with the bright snow.

And just like that, while your attention was on the beautiful scenery you arrive at the little cabin. As Chan abruptly stops the car, you suddenly come back to reality.  “Wait are we here?” you say “Yes, isn’t it adorable?” Felix adds, super excited about their little discovery, super happy that they actually have time to get away from their stressful everyday life.

You take a look at the cabin and you gasp, astonished the little house in front of you. A little cabin made with dark wood, the tall trees around it making it look even smaller. You have to thank Chan about this. Your love for warm looking houses and the need to get away from your ordinary life, in search of solitude was very well known to everyone that you well enough, it felt like a fresh little wind blew into your life and you couldn’t get enough from it. You let your eyes take everything in, until your eyes land on the window and the reason why it landed there, makes you laugh.

Three pairs of eyes on you behind the glass of the window with smiles on their faces, their smiles getting even bigger as they notice you looking at them, making a motion to you to come in the cabin. You open the front door and you smile in content, the interior of the cabin being exactly as the way you though it would be: wooden walls, the warm light in the center of the room making everything golden and warmer and more festive that it already was. “Whoever decorated in here, did a really good job” you say without even realizing you said and Seungmin comes your way. “That would be me and thank you” he says as he pulls you in for quick hug “no one helped if you’re curious” you giggle at that because of course no one helped, since Seungmin probably had a specific plan on his head about how everything would be. As you pull away from him, you feel a pair of arms around you and you instantly hug that person back.

“Hi Jisung, long time no see” you smile as you pull away and greet the other members noticing that the boy you’ve been looking forward seeing the most, was missing. “Wait, where’s Changbin?” you ask looking around in the room.

“He’s in the kitchen with Minho, probably stressing out about the cookies we left them bake” says Felix and you make your way towards the kitchen, curious about what they made. As you enter the kitchen you start at the way Changbin looks, forgetting every bit of nervousness you had before. He was standing there in a santa apron, taking of cookies from the pan, while Mihno was behind him with an elf apron on, putting some cookies in the oven.

“It looks like you’re having fun here” you point out, and Changbin’s eyes shoot up to look at you his whole face lighting up, taking off his apron on and opens up his arms as he comes closer, giving you a big hug. “I’m happy you’re here” he says next to your ear, and you panic, feeling your heartbeat getting faster and try to collect yourself so you can answer to him. “I’m happy to see you too, it’s been so long right?” you say and then pull away, starting to walk towards the living room where the other guys were located.

“Right, I haven’t see you since last month, but I’m happy that you’re spending Christmas with us today… About today, Felix planned a Christmas movie for all of us to watch and then we’re probably get some sleep hopefully to get ready for the party tomorrow” she says and plops down on the couch. You sit next to him, and continue talking until all the guys join you on the couch, and you feel yourself getting squeezed between Changbin and Jeongin, your whole side touching Changbin, and only that was making you forget how to breathe. He was so close to you, you could feel his warmth, his smell, making you dizzy,

After some minutes, probably sensing how uncomfortable you felt, he tries to smoothly put his around your arms, making you snuggle into him and your eyes turn wide open at the action and you glance towards Chan in panic, to find him already looking at you both, smirking at you both, and at that you remember what Felix said before you left the house and that gives you a pinch of confidence, so you push yourself closer to his side, and you look up at him, and you think you can see a tint of pink on his cheeks as he shyly smiles back at you but you turn to continue watching the movie.

As the movie ends you, Felix closes the TV in front of you and the boys begin to stretch out their limps and you stand up to clean up the bowls from the popcorn you’ve been eating, not being able to stay still, thinking the fact that you stayed in the arms of Seo Changbin for 3 hours.

“Are we gonna do anything else or are you too tired?” says Chan, tiredness evident on his voice and the boys faces. “To be honest, I really want to sleep” says and Jeongin and stands up, the other maknae line following him as well.

“What about you y/n?” says Minho, looking at you. “I think I might stay up a little, I had a really good nap before” you say and the boys agree. “Umm... I think I’ll stay up a little bit longer” says Changbin while rubbing the back of his neck looking at Chan.

“Oh really, why Changbin?” Jisung says with his usual teasing voice. Changbin tenses up, and looks at Jisung with wide, terrified eyes stuttering out a really awkward “because I’m not sleepy of course, haha, why else?” he says and glances your way, to see if you understand anything. You on the other hand were in your own world, thinking still thinking about the fact that in a few minutes, you would be alone with Changbin in the living room, not even noticing a bit of the little crisis that was happening in the other room.

You wash the left-over dishes and walk towards the living room, to see him sitting with his back towards you, on the fluffy white carpet in front of the lit fireplace. As he hears your steps, he turns around and pats the space next to him, asking you silently to join him on the floor. As you plop down, he puts the blanket he had on him, around you as well “Chan gave it to me, said it mind be better if we have it, so yeah” he says and then you both fall in a kind of awkward silence, smiling foolishly at yourselves to the fact that you’re sitting next to each other, feeling like you are teenagers all over again.

“I had a good with all of you today” you start slowly, playing with your fingers trying to follow Felix’s advice, to see if something will actually happen. “It was nice having you here as well, it’s been so long since we last had you around, it was kind of lonely without you” he says hesitantly not wanting to make you feel uncomfortable. You smile as you continue to share your thoughts “I thought I would be super alone this Christmas without my parents and now it’s turning into a such a beautiful new adventure, I really like it” you say and Changbin smiles and answers “I’m really glad you like it” and then instantly tenses as he feels your head on his shoulder.

A lot of thoughts cross his mind as he’s waiting for any sign that you’re awake. Did they fall asleep and that quick? Can a person actually fall asleep that quickly? After a few minutes, he sighs, being sure that had in fact had fallen asleep, and starts talking to himself.

“Ughh y/n, I feel so stupid right now. I thought this would b the perfect moment to tell you my feelings, to finally show you my heart, to actually tell you how much I wish you were mine, ho much I want to wake up to your face every morning, make you breakfast even if I suck at it”. Meanwhile you were frozen in place as you heard him, not knowing what to do, cause all of this happened because the back of your neck was hurting and decided to rest it for a bit on his shoulder, and felt content with that position that you didn’t want to move. Now you felt bad for the boy that was pouring out his heart at you, believing that you were asleep where in fact you were awake.

“I really wish I could find sooner the courage to tell you how beautiful you looked that day Chan introduced you to us. You smiled at me and I swear it felt like the sun smiled at me” he says and you snort at the last part, not being able to control yourself, as you never waited him to say something so cheesy.

As he hears the snort, he turns to look at you confused and he freaks out as he sees that you’re awake “I’m sorry, but that was super cheesy, I didn’t think you had in you” you say and in his panic state, he tries to say sorry for everything  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were okay – you probably don’t feel the same way as I do and that’s totally fine, we can keep being friends, you totally don’t have to feel b-“ he says and stops as he feels something soft on his lips.

“You fool, I feel exactly the same as you, I thought you would notice, I was painfully obvious, Seungmin kept teasing me for being awkward around you, same as Chan did” you say and smile at his astonished face, as he looked into your eyes, still not sure if what he’s hearing is right.

“Do you mean it? Do you really mean it?” he asks, wanting to make sure he’s hearing right. “Of course I do, I would never lie about my feelings” you say and he looks at yours eyes, the warm light from fireplace illuminating your face, and the fairy lights from the Christmas tree next to you making everything ten times more romantic and before he can stop himself, his lips are on yours, kissing you slowly, emotions all over the place, happiness evident on both you, with his hand securely holding your jaw.

You pull away, and he keeps looking at your face, taking in your features, while caressing your cheek affectionally, as if he afraid that you’ll fade away. “I didn’t think I’ll be able to do it, I felt such a coward but I’m really glad it turned out this way” he says, a small face on his face, and you smile at him.

“We’re such morons, we could be together since a long time ago, but we just kept focusing in our own feelings to even notice what the other felt” you and say and you both laugh at that. “I’m really glad that from now own you’ll be my partner, it feels like a dream” he smiles and takes you in his arms.

“Btw, did you really think I was asleep before?” you laugh and he pouts, “you know, you seemed asleep, I don’t know”. Well, to his defense Chan had mentioned before that if you feel comfortable enough, you might fall asleep in seconds, so how could you ask that?

“I want to thank you for something though” you say and he looks at you “What for?” he says, not really paying attention. “Well, for being my Christmas gift this year” you smile at him and he laughs, covering his face. “And you call me cheesy” he says pulls you to the ground.

Bonus: In the morning Minho and Chan walk down the stairs calmly, while holding a conversation about the schedule for that day. They both smile at the sight on the living room floor, you two sleeping peacefully in each other’s arms, the white blanket around your bodies, the fire in the fireplace long gone. Chan turns to Minho and says “Told you it would work”

a/n: big thanks to @curanonemu for helping me with the idea of the fic, and giving me inspiration, thanks bud. Also big thanks to @n8dlesoupguk & @cotccotc​ for keeping me sane while I was writing this, lol. Love you all 💖

[fundielicious-simblr]

(Valentina’s POV)

Happy Harvestfest! I volunteered to host this year, meaning we had 21 people descend on our quiet little cottage out here in Brindleton Bay. I loved having my parents, all my siblings, and all my nieces and nephews around and filling up the house, it definitely brought be back to growing up at home with all 10 of us before we all got married and moved away. My mum said it was nice to have a change of scenery and be out in the countryside for Harvestfest, whilst Newcrest where we live is itself already outside of the commotion of the city since my grandparents wanted to raise their family away from worldly influences, out here where we live it’s truly the countryside where you can appreciate nature.

The family is under the cut! 

Ryan (56) and Clare (52) Paulson

My wonderful parents are still so in love with one another with this year marking 32 years of marriage for them, 10 children and 9 grandchildren later and you’d think they were still newlyweds! Dad is still working in tech programming and at this point has helped create many Bible and devotionals apps that help other Christians get closer to the Lord, his current plan is to work until he’s 65 then he can retire and support the family with the pension that he’s earned as well as the money he gets from the apps. When she’s not homeschooling my youngest brothers (the only two left being homeschooled), my mother is either writing or teaching music. She helps coordinate the music at church, with the Winterfest nativity play music being her current project, and whenever the band/orchestra play she’s usually the one that has arranged the music, as well as guiding the players through the song. In the new year Newcrest Baptist is running a music camp, so she’s been preparing for that mainly; my cousin Zoe and I will also be teaching at camp so we’re all looking forward to the new year. 

The Paulson Family - Carter (30), Madelynn (27), Lester (6), Fitzwilliam (1)

Carter and Madelynn have their 2 boys and right now are enjoying the different experiences that come with having a child and a toddler. Madelynn is homeschooling Lester as well as having him to go a christian homeschool co-op in their area twice a week, to further enhance his learning. Fitz is a year old and so just tags along with whatever Lester does, Madelynn goes through the toddler basics with him, but mostly focuses on Lester right now. This winter they’re going skiing with Madelynn’s family, her father is supporting their local conservative candidate in the election and the fundraiser is being held at a wonderful ski resort in the mountainous region.

The Townsend Family - Eric (32), Valentina (29), Aria (8), Ansel (6), Asher & Abbott (2)

We’re all good over here! I’ve started the school year with Aria and Ansel and both are progressing wonderfully, it’s amazing how much these kids love learning and I’m encouraged by their enthusiasm! I’m starting a rudimentary course with the twins to get them hopping on the learning train, they’re so interested in what their older siblings are doing that I thought it best to jump right into school with them. Eric and I have been thinking about getting some farm animals, we took the kids to the farmer’s market the other day and they were enraptured by the chickens, goats, cows, and sheep. It would be great to have the animals, we’d get fresh animal produce that’s homegrown to add to our fruit and vegetable garden produce, as well as a learning opportunity for the children to learn about animals and to learn the responsibility that comes with taking care of animals. This winter, other than learning about plants that flourish in the winter, we’ll also be focusing on learning all about animals and how we care for them. We want to be ready to welcome any animals that we might get onto our little homestead in the coming spring. I’m also working on what I’ll be teaching at music camp hosted by Newcrest Baptist in the new year, when I think of opportunities like this I can’t help but thank the Lord for my parents, had my mother not poured into us and taught us how to play instruments then I’d never be blessed with this opportunity to teach others.

The Paulson Family - Alan (28), Tessa (21), Charity (1), Edgar (6 weeks old)

Alan and Tessa have had the most recent addition to the family, 6 weeks ago Tessa had their second child, a boy they named Edgar! Tessa truly inspires me, she barely had the time to recover after having a baby before loading up to travel down here with everyone! She’s such a blessing, I was talking to her on how she handled travelling with a 2 children under 1 and she made it sound so easy! If they keep going at their current rate then they’ll have another baby by next Harvestfest - how wonderful! This winter they’re travelling to Sulani with Tessa’s family, they’re excited to have the sun and the ocean instead of frigid air and snow as they celebrate the birth of our Lord! 

The Crocker Family - Gregory (28), Kristyn (25), Kayla (1)

Kristyn and Gregory are enjoying life with little Kayla, they’ve had a wonderful time adjusting to her joining and family and love it. She’s the first granddaughter on their side of the family as Gregory’s sisters have had all boys, so she’s definitely being spoilt at home! Kristyn has always had a great love of children, and she’s been open with us sisters about praying for another child soon. They’re staying in Oasis Springs this winter and celebrating Winterfest with Gregory’s family.

The Crawford Family - Tucker (26) and Sabrina (25)

The newlyweds have been loving this new season of life together! Sabrina called me and told me that she’s been loving married life way more than she thought she would. She and Tucker honeymooned in a little cabin tucked away in the woods up by Granite Falls; after a couple gets married and goes from limited physical intimacy to being married and being allowed to do everything, it is quite an adjustment to get used to. It’s good for them that they got that time together because they’ve got a packed schedule soon after this. They’re travelling with the Crawfords to sing at churches in the area for the winter, and after that they’re back on the farm for the springtime harvesting and to prep for the summer harvest and their summer tour. It’s been great to have my sister living in the same area, during times when they are home we try and coordinate when we can see each other.

Jarrod (21) and Madison Jenkins (19)

We’ve also got a newly engaged couple on the block! Jarrod proposed to Madison when he was on a visit to see her in Evergreen Harbour, they had just finished church when he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him! They’re planning for a winter wedding, meaning that they’re also planning around our cousin Charles and his wedding; hopefully they can nail down dates so that we can all make it to both weddings. With a family as large as ours, it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how the rest of the singles do it when it comes time to plan their weddings, since Celeste is the last girl left my parents only have one last time to be the wedding hosts.

Celeste (27), Zachary (19), Conner & Jarrett (16)

Celeste is truly thriving in her singleness, when she’s not at home serving others she’s travelling around visiting those of us who moved away and investing in the lives of her nieces and nephews. She also spends time investing in the lives of those around her, she travels with our cousin Macie to different young ladies’ retreats and they both counsel and guide young ladies on how to better their walk with the Lord. This winter she’s joining Macie and a few other youths from our Newcrest Baptist on a missions trip to Selvadorada, so that’s another thing to add into our families already hectic winter.

Zachary is also enjoying his new status as an adult, he’s started working part time for a lawn services company run by a member of the church and a friend of the family. He’s also joining Celeste on the missions trip to Selvadorada this year, it’ll be his first time out of the country so he is very excited!

Conner and Jarrett are enjoying their time as the youngest kids in the family, they’re quite self sufficient at school meaning that they’re working through it quite quickly and are on track to graduate early! It’s always great when we get to see the boys, Ansel is old enough for them to bring him along when they go on outings, so it was great to have them here together.

[bloodiedpixie]

Thank you @mostlymaudlin for tagging me!!! I really love this idea, basically, you find five bits of yourself that you gave to your writing, also called: writerly ephemera.

It's super interesting reading everybody else's, hopefully, mine is also interesting!!

Of All The Wildflowers, Chapter 2

“Yes…are you?” I ask, lowering my voice so no one can hear.

It’s like I’m trying to hide from the non-existent people I feel listening to me. The hidden eyes. The hypervigilant ears. The ones I’ve spent avoiding since I was 11. Since I saw a picture of Mick Jagger and my eyes went wide. Those non-existent people. Those ears and eyes. The ones that are all too real some days."

OH BOY HOWDY! Okay so I don't live in a very safe place, my house and family are fine but the second I step outside it's this feeling. The non-existent eyes.

I really project a lot into that line because I feel that's what most if not all queer kids have felt, hiding from "someone" even though they aren't there.

WIP (I'm not revealing the title though cause secrecy)

"I’m silent for a moment. “I didn’t think I’d like you at first.”

“Lovely sentiment.”

“Let me finish...I didn’t think I’d like you at first, but I was pleasantly surprised. You made jokes that have made me lose my breath and asked questions that made me confused about life. Even though you’re as dramatic as an actor and annoying to bits sometimes, I wouldn’t trade you for all the spells in the world. I wouldn’t trade those nights for all the magic the world of mages possesses.” I’m starting to get teary-eyed when I move Baz’s face to look at me.

I smile the tears and say, “Thank you Basil. For being my brother, for being my best friend, and for letting me be a part of your life. I’m sorry it’s ending right as the fun began. Just know I love you, and you’ll always be in mind until the day I drop.”

I have a couple close friends who I adore with my whole heart and this is my best way of expressing love for them.

I've written my fair share of sad scenes but my greatest fear is losing them so having a scene where you have to say goodbye to your found family is a part of me I just shoved in there.

Begin your twenties with a...nevermind

"Then it gets deafeningly silent, it’s so quiet. My tail isn’t moving, my wings don’t flutter, and all I can hear in my head is, “Fuck up” over and over and over again.

My chest feels like there’s an elephant on it and my lungs only have the smallest bit of air. My throat feels tight, and everything is incredibly loud.

Suddenly, a sob breaks through my throat and it burns through me like fire. I cough and sob and feel like a baby as my wings on their own wrap around me and my tail curls up my leg.

I shouldn’t need my boyfriend and best friend to fucking babysit me. I should be able to take care of myself and not rely on other people.

I mean fuck, I’m nineteen-

Twenty. I’m twenty now. Merlin, I’m twenty.

I cough out another sob and I keep sobbing until I can’t anymore. Until I’m just coughing and borderline laughing at how pathetic I am now."

~☆Panic Attacks☆~

I have super bad anxiety so panic attacks are my specialty lol

I really put myself into this scene and tried to explain what a panic attack feels like to me and the main part is "deafeningly silent." That's the best I can describe how a panic attack feels, everything gets real loud but there is no noise.

finally, my anxiety came in handy lol

WIP, This Is What It's Like To Be Lovers

Though even though he’s being adorable and a twat, he’s really just a bit lost. He’s never shopped somewhere that has used clothes (unless it’s one of those fancy vintage shops).

I definitely understand that he’s learning when Baz is running his fingers over a maroon jumper with a thick gray stripe going across the front of it and he looks confused by it.

“That’s nice,” I state while scouring the random assortment of tops in front of me.

“It’s five pounds,” he states, sounding a bit sad.

“That’s not much—”

“It’s Ralph Lauren and they’re selling it for five pounds,” he sounds a bit offended.

“Yeah, put it in the trolley we’ll get it.”

“Why would someone buy something so expensive then give it away for five pounds?”

I walk over and grab the jumper off the rack, “Because, the person didn’t wear it anymore and a lot of people don’t have a lot of money, so when they find something like a Ralph Lauren shirt that will last them years for five pounds it’s a good thing.”

Baz’s offended/confused face falls immediately, and he grabs the jumper and puts it back.

I shop almost exclusively at thrift stores and have done that since i was a baby so I know them inside and out. this scene is really close to home because Baz was raised in a wealthy household and Simon was on his own. I've never had a lot of money and have had to explain to people I shop with that the prices are that low for a reason and so I had Baz put it back because he would rather someone who actually needs it finds it.

The Watford Mages, Chapter 2

“I turn my head and look at Baz who is sitting next to me. He fell asleep a few minutes after we got on the bus. His hair dried all fluffy and wavy. I kind of want to touch it, just to see what it feels like. I barely ever see it without product in it.

He looks so calm, with no grimace or sneers on his face. He always looks so bloody perfect. It’s unfair really, the only imperfections are things I caused. His nose is a bit crooked, (I did that) his lip has a gash on it, (did that) and his cheek has a bit of a bruise (did that too).

He looks so soft like this.

Baz takes a big breath in and stretches his arms above his head, arching his back in the process.

I can’t take my eyes off him, he looks so…comfortable?

“Snow?” Baz asks sleepily. His voice is deep and a bit groggy.

That snaps me from my thoughts, I turn my head to look out the window instead, but I can see Baz’s reflection. He looks confused for a second before leaning his head back and closing his eyes again.

I try to focus on the song and the scenery, but my eyes keep tracking back to Baz.”

I’ve been on my fair share of busses and remember always watching the people behind me in the windows. It’s really interesting to see people in reflections because everyone looks backward and I wanted to get that across here. Simon doesn’t ever view Baz as “comfortable” or “calm” so seeing him tuckered out in a reflection is backward to him.

Alrighty!! Imma no pressure tag, @caitybug @foolofabookwyrm @palimpsessed @wetheformidables @trenchcoat-moth @ninemagicks @snowybank @annabellelux @xivz

No pressure though!! 💙

[spencers-renaissance]

Even More Beautiful

Summary: the BAU is stuck in Michigan with no case and no way home, so naturally, Spencer and Derek confess their love for one another. Based on the prompt ‘You look even more beautiful covered in snow.’

Tags: Fluff, Love Confessions, Snowball Fights, Insecurity, a little Hurt/Comfort

Pairing: Morgan x Reid 

Word Count: 3.5k

Read on AO3

It never fails to amaze Spencer just how cold the United States can be sometimes. Intellectually, of course, he’s aware that a typical Michigan winter drops down to single digits in the Upper Peninsula, but experiencing such a fact is always shockingly different to reading it. He can’t help but be bitter they weren’t called to Arizona or New Mexico so late in November; growing up in Nevada did not prepare him well for the city of Marquette.

Their proximity to Lake Superior doesn’t help either, as he explains to Emily as she loudly laments the snowfall. “It shouldn’t be so damn hard to walk 300 metres, is all I’m saying, Reid,” she groans, dragging her legs. He doesn’t exactly think his explanation for the snow helped all that much, but at least their hotel is finally in sight. “I can run a six minute mile, okay, I should not be finding walking this hard.”

“You should’ve worn your snow boots,” he says lightly and politely doesn’t mention that he’s slowing his pace to match hers -- he doesn’t have a death wish. 

His comment still makes Emily pause and look down at his feet. “Wait, you keep those in your go bag?” she asks incredulously. 

“Of course,” he says, a little obliviously. Doesn’t everyone? “It’s winter, I don’t want to be caught out. Like you.” 

Emily finally regains her composure and keeps walking, chuckling lightly to herself. “I swear, Reid, your preparedness is mildly grating sometimes.” 

“I’ve been told,” he smiles, pushing open the door to the lobby, much to Emily’s relief. 

They’d been on their way back from the Police Department; Hotch had asked them to tie up the loose ends and pick up the reports since they were the last ones there and he had a call to answer that didn’t look pleasing to him in the slightest, and unfortunately the trek back had been a foul one. As soon as they step into the hotel lobby though, they’re met with a miserable sight. The whole team is either sat on the uncomfortable lobby furniture looking dejected or restlessly pacing while Hotch remains on the phone, talking agitatedly with the person on the other end of the line. 

“What’s going on?” Emily asks as they approach the group, ripping off their hats and gloves as the heated lobby begins to warm them up nicely. 

“All flights out of Michigan are grounded,” Derek answers, walking over to meet them as he looks both of them over carefully, eyes concerned. “You two alright? You look frozen to the bone.” 

“Department was working with bare bones staff so there was no-one free to drive us back and not a cab in sight. We walked through 9 inches of snow while it was still coming down heavy,” Emily answered for both of them, Spencer content to tuck his hands in his pockets and observe as always. “But the flights are grounded? How are we getting home, then?”

“That’s precisely the problem, I think,” Derek answers grimly. “Technically we could still fly home as a government agency, but the jet pilot doesn’t think it’s safe and the brass are advising us to wait a bit. The snow’s predicted to lessen a little over the next few days, apparently, but we’re waiting to hear if Hotch has any more news.”

Everyone else looks thoroughly miserable at the news, but then Spencer supposes that most people have plans and family to get home for. To him, this is a few days with a virtual guarantee of no case surrounded by beautiful scenery. Plus, he gets to be around his favourite people for a little while longer. 

“Right,” Emily says, looking a little disappointed at the idea of waiting longer than necessary to get home. “I’m gonna go and check on JJ.” She smiles at Reid, clapping him gently on the shoulder before wandering over to the sofa JJ’s sat on. 

“You alright, pretty boy?” Derek asks. “You’re still looking a little on the chilly side.”

“Well, we did trek down the entire street in almost a foot of snow so I’m not sure you can blame me,” he smiles wryly, fiddling his fingers inside his pockets, nervous in the way he so often gets around Derek. 

“No, I don’t suppose I can.” He casts a glance Hotch’s way, who doesn’t look any closer to a resolution. “How about we head back up to the room? Garcia rebooked them for tonight anyway and I don’t see much point in waiting around for nothing. Let’s go get you a hot chocolate and warm you back up.”

“I can’t have coffee?” Spencer smiles hopefully, knowing Derek hates how restless he gets after a nighttime espresso.

“Not when you’re sharing a room with me, kid, you know that,” Derek grins, as they make their way to the elevators. 

★

They all go out for brunch the next morning, squeezing into the largest booth at the local diner and enjoying some rare, stress-free time together, and by the time they all pour out onto the street it's early afternoon.

“Right, shall we head back to the hotel for a bit, then?” Rossi asks as they pause on the pavement. 

“Emily and I were going to head to the highstreet for a bit, actually,” JJ replies, shooting a smile Emily’s way. Spencer only feels sorry for JJ, knowing how much complaining she’s going to hear. He loves Emily to pieces but the woman has a lot to say about a lot of things.

“I’ll head back with you, Dave,” Hotch says unsurprisingly. Spencer expects he’s making a beeline for the phone to ring home and speak to Jack. 

“What about you, kid?” Derek asks, turning to look at him with a questioning gaze as the others begin to peel off in the direction of their destinations. 

“I don’t know, I’m feeling kind of restless, I’m not sure I want to go back and sit uselessly in the hotel room for hours on end,” he replies, cocking his head and looking back at his friend as his eyes squint against the wintry sun. “I only bought eight books with me.”

“Well Presque Isle Park is a ten minute from here, how about we take a midday walk up there?” Derek suggests, chuckling a little at Spencer’s comment.

“Really?” Spencer asks, a little shocked. “You want to go on an hours long walk through the snow in a random city’s park with me?”

“Course I do, pretty boy,” Derek reassures him. “Plus, the snow’s melted a little and the paths in the park will probably be cleared anyway. Let me call a taxi while you text the others so they know where we’re headed.” 

Driving through the beautiful streets of Marquette, Spencer can see the tangible relief the city is experiencing now that the case is wrapped up and there’s no longer a freaky woman hater stalking the citizens. It’s nice hanging around a little after the case and getting to see with his own eyes the effects of their hard work, the good that they can instill in the world as they counterbalance the bad. 

“What’s going on in that big head of yours, Spencer?” Derek asks, cutting through his dreamy thoughts.

“Nothing, it’s just,” he paused for a moment trying to explain. “It’s a beautiful town and it’s nice to see that we could preserve it that way, that we didn’t let evil corrupt it.” He lifts his gaze to Derek’s just in time to see his eyes soften, fondness and something else he couldn’t quite discern filling his expression. 

Instead of saying anything though, he just shoots him a wistful smile and looks back out the window. 

They arrive at the park fairly quickly and Derek pays the driver while Spencer hops out and is immediately captivated by the beauty surrounding him. He nearly jumps when Derek follows closely behind and places a large hand on his shoulder, steering him towards the path. “It’s breathtaking out here, isn’t it?” he asks him, but Spencer’s eyes catch on the vapour that the words produce and, consequently, Derek’s lips. Shaking himself out of it, he nods and quickly agrees before his eyes catch a wooden sign and he rushes over to it. 

“It says that there’s a walk that goes around the perimeter of the peninsula the park rests on, we could start walking it and turn around if we need to?” Spencer suggests, calling behind him to where Derek still stood in the middle of the path, fiddling with his gloves.

“Sounds good, pretty boy,” he calls back, finally getting them settled and jogging forward to catch up with him. 

They walk in silence for a little while, both taking in the breathtaking sights of the trees and the lake, snow and ice making everything appear even more beautiful. The first people they pass are a young family with two little children who cheerily greet them as they rush past them in a heated game of tag. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be raised somewhere as idyllic as this,” Spencer comments a little nostalgically, breaking the silence in a quiet voice 18 minutes and 45 seconds into their leisurely stroll. 

“Vegas didn’t give you quite the same views?” Derek smiles sarcastically.

“Somehow, no,” Spencer chuckles back. “But I can’t imagine the South Side of Chicago was much better.”

“It wasn’t too bad,” Derek muses. “Granted we lived on a rundown street in a rundown neighbourhood, but the local park was surprisingly unscathed by any of the nasty business that might have plagued the area, at least to our naive eyes. We weren’t too far from the River, either, which was beautiful through all the seasons.”

“That’s nice,” Spencer says, shooting Derek a genuine smile. “I’m glad you had something like that growing up, you deserved it.”

“So did you, though,” Derek says, a little sadly. “I wish more than anything I could have been there when you were younger.”

Spencer smiles at the ground, trying to hide his blush, not knowing how to say, ‘I wish the same about you’ without feeling awkward. “You’re here now, though,” he settles on, and looks up into Derek’s wide, welcome eyes and tries to convey his gratitude. 

“That I am.” 

“You know, you guys are the first people who I’ve ever been able to fully be myself around,” Spencer confesses, feeling safe in the cool, clean air with only his best friend close by. “I was thinking about it yesterday; everyone else was excited to get home to their families, and I was just glad I had an extra day or two with mine.”

“Hey, Spencer,” Derek says, tugging gently at his arm to get him to slow to a stop and levelling him with a gaze that sort of punched a whole through his stomach with its power. “You can always be yourself around me, I hope you know that. You’re just as much my family as I am yours, alright?”

Spencer’s certain he’s beet red, but he tries his hardest not to look away. “Thanks Derek,” he says earnestly, finally ducking his head in embarrassment. They start walking again and Spencer can’t resist the urge to dissipate some of the intensity in the air, so he feigns a heavy sigh in jest. “Don’t worry, though. I’m fully aware I’m stuck with you for good.”

Derek fakes a gasp. “Alright, pretty boy, I’d watch your mouth if I was you.” He shoves him sideways gently, and Spencer stumbles a little. Derek barely budges, though, when Spencer shoves him back. 

“You’re a great big oaf, you know that right?” Spencer giggles, trying his hardest to get to Derek to stumble the way he did, finally giving up. “Why won’t you move?” he whines. 

“Well, pretty boy, it goes a little like this…” Derek catches him off guard and with another push, sends Spencer tumbling into the soft snow bank at the side of the path, freezing in shock as he realises what he just did. 

“You are going to regret that, Derek Morgan,” Spencer laughs loudly as he picks himself up, trying to dust a little of the snow off his coat. He watches the relief melt into his best friend’s eyes as he realises he didn’t hurt him but, naturally, he knows he has to take advantage of his momentary weakness so he crouches down and gathers a hastily rolled snowball and chucks it directly at Derek’s chest. 

“Oh, I see how it is,” Derek laughs, inching forwards slowly.

“You see how it is?” Spencer teases in retaliation.

“I do, I do see how it is.” Derek grins wickedly. “I see that Spencer Reid is unleashing his inner child and is rather desperate to have a snowball fight.”

“Is that so?” Spencer giggles, amused by Derek’s antics. 

Before he can register what’s happening, Derek’s throwing his own hastily thrown snowball his way, hitting him square on his shoulder. He shrieks with glee, running away through the snow, trying to dodge Derek’s snowball assault, eventually managing to take shelter behind a tree. He starts compiling his own fortress of snowballs, but before he can make his third, Derek’s suddenly in front of him, armed with another. Catching him off guard, he stumbles backwards again, this time grabbing onto the sleeve of Derek’s coat for purchase and tugging him down with him into the snow. 

Giggling like school children, they lay in the snow for a little while, ignoring the cold seeping through their jackets and into their bones. Eventually, though, Spencer sits up, trying to brush some of the snow away. He’s grumbling quietly about how drenched he is when he’s interrupted by eight words that make every muscle in his body still completely. 

“You look even more beautiful covered in snow.”

He is completely frozen. Derek calls him pretty all the time, so surely this shouldn’t be any different, right? He’s definitely overreacting. But there’s a difference between teasing nicknames and directly calling him beautiful, he knows there is. It’s just sort of breaking his heart that it’s everything he’s wanted to hear from Derek for years and he can’t even enjoy it; he can’t trust it. 

He knows he’s blushing deeply, and Derek also looks frozen, in shock at the words that just let his mouth, and it’s awkward. It hasn’t ever been awkward between them, tension was a mystery in their relationship -- they’d clicked immediately, getting along like a house on fire -- so why could they no longer meet one another’s eyes?

Quietly, they both get up and come to a silent consensus to turn back the other way. Slowly, the awkwardness eases between them and the silence becomes a little more bearable. The static in Spencer’s mind fades with it and he no longer feels as though his brain is short-circuiting, but that he can think about it clearly. Derek said it for a reason, he’s sure it meant something and he can’t go on without hearing it for certain.

“Did you mean it?” Spencer asks earnestly, voice still a little muted. He’s too shy and uncertain to make eye contact, but he’s proud of himself for being brave enough to ask the question; he deserves to know and he owes himself that. 

He manages to hold back the surprised flinch that ripples through his body as he feels Derek’s fingers clasp his upper arm gently, pulling him to a stop. He gently nudges his fingers under Spencer’s chin, lifting his face to look at his own, making sure he registers his deep, genuine gaze. “I did.”

Immediately, Spencer pulls away and looks down at the snowy path beneath his boots. Truthfully he’s struggling to process what’s going on at the moment: surely the man he’s been in love with for the last three years isn’t telling him what he thinks he is?

Derek lifts his chin again, concerned eyes meeting his own. “Hey, you okay, beautiful boy?”

Spencer has never been more confident of the difference between pretty boy and beautiful boy, so he leans in and presses a quick, shy kiss against Derek’s lips before he can stop himself. Suddenly unsure of himself again, though, he moves to pull away but Derek reaches a large palm to his cheek and leans back in, sliding his lips over Spencer’s softly, and Spencer can’t help but part his lips slightly, completely drawn into and consumed by Derek’s kiss. 

Eventually, reluctantly, they part with another, soft kiss, leaning their foreheads together. “I’m not sure I can think of a more beautiful place to share a first kiss,” Spencer grins, unable to help himself. 

Derek laughs heartily, leaning away from his face and grabbing his hand gently instead. “I think you’re right about that, pretty boy.” 

“Hey, I thought I was beautiful boy, now,” Spencer pouts, and Derek leans in, unable to resist kissing away his faux grumpy expression. 

“That you are,” he says gently.  “My beautiful boy.”

���

When they finally make it back to the hotel, Spencer’s freezing cold and soaked to the skin. 

“I don’t think I’m ever going to be warm again,” he grumbles, forcing Derek to wrestle him into a warm bath and bury him under the covers, swathed in one of Derek’s own sweaters. “God, I could get used to seeing you in my clothes,” he groaned as soon as Spencer was warm and tucked in. To be fair, the jumper was big on Derek so it definitely hung off and accentuated Spencer’s smaller frame, which was exactly what he needed at that moment.

“You’re such a typical alpha male,” Spencer giggles. “So possessive. Go and have a shower, silly, then you can come and join me.” He waggles his eyebrows jokingly, and Derek smiles fondly before obeying his orders and warming himself up. 

Not long after they’ve climbed into bed, relaxing into each other’s arms in a non-platonic way for the first time ever, Emily knocks on their door inviting them out for a group dinner. Derek kindly turns down the invitation though, explaining how exhausted they are from their earlier trek, and she leaves them be, the rest of the team traipsing back into town. Spencer definitely thinks they have the winning idea when instead they sneakily order from the local Chinese and climb back into bed, spreading the cartons across the sheets in an inviting feast. 

Derek props up his tablet up on top of a cushion on his lap and Spencer shows him how to download episodes of the original Doctor Who, and they eat quietly in a haven of domestic bliss, a momentary escape from the stress of their jobs, the pressure of their friends, the responsibilities of life. Derek, in turn, tries to teach Spencer how to properly use chopsticks, an endeavour that he’s failed in far too many times to keep trying. 

“I know how to use them in theory,” Spencer protests.

“Well that eidetic memory doesn’t come much in handy here, does it?” Derek teases. “Even your 187 IQ doesn’t stand a chance at teaching you coordination.”

“You’re being mean,” he pouts.

“Aww, I’m sorry, baby,” he smiles, pressing a quick kiss to his lips before finally letting him have the plastic fork he’d been hiding, purposefully ignoring the indicting glare being shot his way.

When their cartons are empty, they lean back even further into the well-cushioned bed. “I’ve been in love with you for three years, you know,” Spencer confesses softly, drawing lines on Derek’s chest which is currently acting as his pillow, despite the abundance behind him. 

“Really?” Derek asks, clearly surprised.

“You didn’t know?”

“Of course not,” he replies incredulously. “If I’d known I’d have made a move years ago.”

“We are certifiable idiots.”

“Yes we are.”

“I never said anything because…” Spencer gives himself a moment, trying to find the right words and not humiliate himself. “I never thought you could love anyone like me. I mean despite the obvious, being very much male, I’m a lanky nerd, not like the pretty girls you pick up in bars when we go out.”

“Oh, baby,” Derek sighs, carding a hand through Spencer’s hair before pressing a soft kiss to the top of his head. “There’s a reason I’ve called you pretty boy all these years. You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met and I’ve been infatuated pretty much since I met you. You are far prettier than any of those girls I’ve met in bars. Far more special. Far more precious. You’re seriously important to me, okay?”

“Okay,” Spencer says, and he can’t hide the pleased note in his voice. He’s blushing, of course he is, but it’s out of pleasure this time, not embarrassment. He feels honoured to be of such importance to Derek, and he can’t help but feel like the luckiest person in the world right now, wrapped up in his strong, gentle arms. A sudden drowsiness seeps into his veins and he feels his limbs getting heavy. 

Derek clearly recognises it, and presses another gentle kiss to the top of his head. “Sleep, baby. I’ll be here when you wake up,” he promises. “We have so much to look forward to.”

Spencer finally falls asleep, believing that’s true for the first time in a long time.

[yootaesowlwrites]

Serendipity - [4]

Serendipity Mainpost.

Chapter 4: Day 3.

Word Count: 2 641

Italics indicate they’re speaking in another language, it also indicates that I don’t trust a translator enough to translate these things for me anymore.

Taglist:

@taeandpuppies​ // @taichoushadow​ // @jakiki94​

Rolling around in her bed, she pulls the blankets closer to her before pushing the covers away from her face, letting out a yawn before sitting up, she rubs the sleep from her eyes as she looks towards the window, thick curtains covered it and blocked out any sign of outside life, but she could still hear some birds chirping as daylight slowly started to take over, she moves to the edge of the bed and picks up her phone, tapping on the screen to check the time.

“Mh, maybe I can still catch the sunrise,” Sofia mumbles to herself as she climbs out of bed, she makes her way to the bathroom connected to her room, she ties her hair before picking up her toothbrush, she rinses her mouth after brushing and closes the tap before drying her hands, she removes the elastic in her hair before brushing her hair as well, she exits the bathroom and made her way to the closet where she had unpacked all her things, she quickly scans through her clothing before picking out some clothes for the day, it didn’t take long before she was outside the cabin with her hands pushed deep into her pockets and walking towards the lake.

The sun was fighting to get out from behind the thick clouds when Taehyung had woken up unexpectedly and struggled to fall back asleep, he lets out a sigh as he climbs out of bed before making his way t the bathroom to freshen up, after brushing his teeth and hair he left the bathroom and found some warmer clothes before heading out, deciding to go for a walk and get some fresh air, hoping that it would help clear his mind, he mindlessly begins walking towards the lake when he saw the sun barely shining through the clouds, his mind wandering as he stared at the sunrise.

Neither one of them paying much attention to where they were walking, Taehyung’s mind clouded with thoughts while Sofia was amazed at the breathtaking view from the sunrise, two different worlds suddenly collided with one another, both thoughts suddenly interrupted by the collision, Taehyung instinctively reached out to grab the person from falling backwards, his hands gently holding onto her upper arms.

“Oh my go— I’m so sorry!” Sofia immediately apologizes in her language, for a moment forgetting that she wasn’t back home.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t look where I was going.” Taehyung apologizes at the same time, also in his language, forgetting that he wasn’t in Korea anymore, they slowly look up at each other, not understanding what the other one had just said to them, their eyes meeting as they do. “I uh, English?” Hoping that the beautiful woman in front of him understood and spoke English, he almost felt like he was in a trance, her eyes looked beautiful and he was quickly becoming lost in them, she nods her head ‘yes’. “I’m so sorry that I bumped into you, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“No, no, you have nothing to be sorry about, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings,” Sofia says. “I was too distracted by the sunrise.” Taehyung glanced towards the sun as it disappeared behind the clouds, he looks back at Sofia as a soft smile appears on his lips.

“It was quite beautiful, wasn’t it?” Taehyung asks, a gentle smile tug at the corner of her lips.

“It was.” Sofia softly says, her eyes fall to his arms and slowly follows them before realizing that his hands were holding her, heat rushed to her cheeks. “I uh, you can, um, let go now.”

“Oh, oh, right, um sorry,” Taehyung says as he carefully releases her, his arms dropped back to his side. “Sorry, but you’re okay, right? You’re not hurt anywhere, right?” His smile falling as he became worried.

“No uh, no, I’m okay, nothing’s hurt or sore,” Sofia says. “I’m okay.” He nods his head as the smile returns to his lips.

“That’s good to hear, I’m glad,” Taehyung says, for a second his mind started to drift as he wondered if she perhaps knew who he was or not, but there was one thing that he was certain about, he wanted to know who she was, what her likes and dislikes were. “Are you staying at the resort?”

“Yeah, yes,” Sofia says. “I’m uh, here with my friends.” The clouds above them slowly started getting darker and darker. “What about you? Are you staying here?”

“Yeah., I'm also here with my friends,” Taehyung says. “Would it be all right if I asked what your name is?”

“Oh, right, I’m sorry,” Sofia says as it dawns on her that he didn’t know her name and she didn’t know his. “I’m Sofia.”

“Sofia,” Taehyung says as he tests out the name, he looks at her, almost silently asking her confirmation that he had said it correctly, she nods her head as her smiles widen. “Well, Sofia, I’m…” He stops for a second, debating if he should tell her or not. “Taehyung, but you can call me Tae or V.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Tae,” Sofia says.

“It’s nice to meet you also, Sofia,” Tae says. “I uh should probably get back to my friends before they start to wonder where I am.” Sofia nods her head. “I hope we run into each other again.”

“Hopefully not like this again,” Sofia says. “Maybe we’ll see each other next time before we bump into each other.” Taehyung softly giggles as he nods his head.

“Hopefully not like this,” Taehyung says. “I will see you around, Sofia.” He steps around her and begins making his way back to the cabin, she turns around to watch him walk away from her, he looks over his shoulder and softly smiles as he saw her looking at him, he waves at her before turning his focus back in front of him, she smiles to herself before turning her attention back to the sun that was now completely hidden behind the dark clouds, but something bothered her as she stared at the clouds, he looked so familiar to her, but something was blocking her mind and she couldn’t remember from where she had seen him before.

“NO!” Laura screams as she jumps up from the couch. “No, no, no, no!” She walks towards the door and picks up her jacket before slipping it on. “Over my dead body will I watch a horror movie with the two of you!” Sofia and Bianca watched as their friend fixed her jacket. “I’m going for a walk, don’t expect me back any time soon!” Laura absolutely hated horror films while Sofia and Bianca liked watching them, and they had found one that seemed interesting enough to watch.

“It’s going to be dark soon, don’t go,” Sofia says. “We can protect you, right, Bianca?” Bianca nods her head, agreeing with Sofia.

“No, no, no, I don’t trust either of you!” Laura says as she slipped her shoes on. “I’d rather take my chances out in the snow than in here with… with whatever it is that you’re about to watch!” Laura pulls the door open, light snow had started falling, but she didn’t care, she hated horror movies and washing willing to stay in the house when they would start watching it. “I’ll be back when it’s over!” With that she was out the door leaving Sofia and Bianca on the sofa to watch the movie, she pushes her hands into her jacket as she makes her way to the playground she had found the day before, her eyes cast down on the snow-covered ground as she walks.

As she approached the swings she lets out a huff, what would she do for the next couple of hours? Swing? Go see the lake? Why did they have to choose to watch a horror film? She sits down on one of the swings and placed her hands on her lips, not taking notice of the person taking pictures of the scenery just a few feet away from her, Hoseok lifts the camera to his face and snaps a picture, he was in his own world when he suddenly heard a creaking noise coming from the swings, he lowers his camera and turns his head towards the swings, immediately spotting the light brown-haired woman sitting alone, almost looking miserable, he steps towards her, letting his eyes move over her features, taking in each beautiful feature of her.

“Excuse me?” Hoseok says as he stops a few feet away from her, she looks up from her hands, meeting his eyes. “English?” She slowly nods as she gets lost in his beautiful eyes, it felt like she was placed under a spell. “Are you okay?�� She opens her mouth to say something, but nothing seemed to come out, no words formed in her mind.

“I uh…” Laura begins, her voice slightly faltering. “I’m uh okay.” She manages to whisper out, Hoseok softly smiles at her and moves to the empty swing next to hers, he takes a seat while looking at her, he releases his camera letting it hang around his neck., he could tell that she was shy and nervous, her hands fiddled with her jacket.

“Are you sure?” Hoseok asks. “You look kind of sad and miserable.” A faint smile forms on her lips.

“I uh, my uh friends are watching a horror movie.” Laura softly says, he nods his head as he slowly pieces everything together.

“Not that big of a fan of horror films?” Hoseok asks, she nods her head. “So, are you planning on sitting here for the entire movie?” The wind softly blew, causing a piece of her hair to move into her face.

“If I must, then yes,” Laura says as she lifts her hand, moving the piece of hair out of her face.

“Then will you let me keep you company at least?” Hoseok asks. “I can’t leave knowing that you will be here all alone.” Laura looks away from him, breaking eye contact with him for the first time since he had approached her.

“You don’t have to,” Laura says. “Besides, you don’t even know my name and I don’t know yours.”

“Right, well, I’m Hoseok,” Hoseok says. “But you can call me H-Hope.” He extends his arm out to her, wanting to shake her hand, she lifts her gaze to look at his hand before lifting her eyes to look at his face, a wide smile settled on his lips as he waited for her to accept his hand.

“I’m Laura,” Laura says before carefully placing her hand into his, his hand wraps around hers, warmth enveloping her hand as he carefully shakes it. “Nice to uh meet you, J-Hope.” He releases her hand and pulls his arm back to him, placing his hand on his lap.

“Nice to meet you too, Laura,” Hoseok says. “So, are you and your friends here for holiday?” She nods her head.

“Yeah, we’re uh, here for six weeks,” Laura says.

“Six weeks?” Hoseok asks.

“Yeah.” Laura softly says.

“I’m here for six weeks with my friends also,” Hoseok says, her eyes slightly widen in surprise.

“Really?” Laura says, not yet realizing who he was, but when she did, it would hit her, hard, but for now, they sat on the swings, a light cold wind blowing around them as he begins making conversation with her, trying to get her to come out her shelf around him.

“Ugh, this is so boring,” Bianca says as she stood from the sofa. “I gave it a chance, 30 minutes long, I can’t anymore, it’s too boring.” She walks towards the door. “Laura could’ve stayed, it isn’t even that scary.”

“Why do the trailers always so misleading?” Sofia asks as she pauses the movie. “Where are you going?” Sofia noticed Bianca pulling on her penguin slippers. “Aren’t we going to find another one to watch?” Bianca glanced at the window.

“I noticed that it started snowing and I want to go outside and watch,” Bianca says as she picks up her jacket. “But you can watch one, I’ll be right back and then you can tell me what movie we’re watching.”

“Oh, right, this is your first time experiencing snow,” Sofia says. “Go, go and enjoy it!” Bianca gently smiles at Sofia.

“I’m sorry, we’re leaving you all alone in the cabin,” Bianca says while zipping her jacket.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind,” Sofia says. “Go, have fun!” Bianca opens the door and steps outside, the bitterly cold wind nipping at her face as she closed the door behind her, she looks up at the sky as she moves away from the cabin, amazed at the small snowflakes falling from the sky, Seokjin stood near the window inside their cabin, reading something when he saw something move out of the corner of his eyes, he looks away from the page and saw a girl with forest green hair walking around outside while staring up at the sky, he closes the book in his hand as his attention was now fully on her, he wasn’t expecting to see somebody with green hair on this trip, his eyes move down to her feet and noticed the penguin slippers.

“What? Slippers?” Seokjin mutters to himself before placing the book down and making his way downstairs and out the cabin, he approaches her, curious about her slippers. “Excuse me?” Bianca stops in her tracks as she heard a voice from behind her, she lowers her gaze away from the sky as she turns around to face the person. “Do you uh speak English?”

“Uh, yes,” Bianca says, unsure why he was talking to her.

“Why are you wearing slippers in the snow?” Seokjin asks. “They’re going to get soaked.” Bianca looks down at her slippers. “They’re too cute to get wet.”

“I uh, um don’t have any other shoes,” Bianca says as she looks up from her slippers. “I only brought this pair of slippers along with another pair.” He tilts his head in confusion.

“Didn’t you know that they were going to get wet?” Seokjin asks, confusion clear in his voice.

“I’ve uh, never seen snow,” Bianca confesses. “This is my first time experiencing it.” Seokjin’s eyes widen at the small piece of information.

“You’ve never seen snow?!” Seokjin asks as his voice slightly raises. “Never?!” She shyly smiles at him.

“Uh never,” Bianca confirms, he stared at her with wide eyes, shocked that somebody had never seen snow before.

“Then you’ve probably never built a snowman before, you have to build a snowman!” Seokjin says. “I’ll help you make one!” He could feel the excitement bubbling up inside him. “And snow angels!” He was already starting to plan everything that he would teach and show her in the snow. “Wait, before that can happen, can I know the name the first green-haired girl wearing penguin slippers out in the snow?”

“I um, you really don’t have to make a snowman with me,” Bianca says, she was surprised as his excitement, almost taken back a little.

“I want to,” Seokjin says, she slowly nods her head.

“Uh, Bianca,” Bianca says causing him to tilt his head once again. “My name.” His mouth forms an ‘O’ before nodding his head.

“I’m Seokjin, or Jin, worldwide handsome,” Seokjin says as he extends his arm out for her, her eyes widen at his sentence, she had heard it before.

“Worldwide handsome?” Bianca questions as she carefully takes his hand, he nods his head, a proud smile on his lips. “As in… Kim Seokjin?”

“You know BTS?” Seokjin asks, She releases his hand and lets her arm fall back to her side.

“Gosh, my friends are going to freak the fuck out,” Bianca mumbles to herself.

[literary-masochism]

Midnight Sun: Chapter 2 - Bella is an Eldritch Abomination

So... I managed to finish the first chapter with only a day break in the middle of it instead of the year or so break I had to take with Twilight. I was hoping that, since this chapter starts off in a completely original place that it'll be... I don't know... less painful? Easier?

That was a lot to hope for, wasn't it?

Instead, it took a bit over two weeks to get through this chapter. It'd take me an hour to get through a page because of all the bad.

But hey! I got it done and now I can enjoy a nice slice of red velvet cake.

Chapter Two: Open Book

Edward, unable to control his 'monster', has fled to Alaska where he can mope while blending into the snowy scenery like the lump of ice he is. He's slumped down in a snow bank, describing it as 'velvet under his skin'. Not sure how because he's definitely heavy enough to crush snow into slush but I guess Meyerpires are Tolkien Elves as well.

Also, Meyerpires see stars as if they were pained by Van Gogh

The sky above me was clear, brilliant with stars, glowing blue in some places, yellow in others. The stars created majestic, swirling shapes against the black backdrop of the empty universe—an awesome sight. Exquisitely beautiful. Or rather, it should have been exquisite. Would have been, if I’d been able to really see it.

But, of course, Edward has to ruin it by doing this:

When I stared up at the jeweled sky, it was as if there were an obstruction between my eyes and its beauty. The obstruction was a face, just an unremarkable human face, but I couldn’t quite seem to banish it from my mind.

Another vampire by the name of Tanya (further proof that Meyer subconsciously hates someone (me) that she's never met – Tanya's my given name) is sneaking/not sneaking up on Edward's mope party and... there's a line I'm a bit confused by...

I think Edward's calling Tanya 'exquisite'. I guess Edward just learned that word from his word-a-day calendar because he's used it 3 times already and it's been a bit more than half a page.

She mentally calls out 'Cannonball' and does a flying jump into the snowbank and, in an astounding turn of events, she doesn't land lightly on top of the loose snow, leaving no trace of her dive but instead actually sends up a spray of snow over Edward because fuck that guy.

Sorry, not snow but 'feathery ice crystals'.

Edward sighs and accepts his fate of being mildly snowed upon as the face of the Void haunts his every thought. Or something.

Tanya, concerned that Edward was becoming one with winter and would soon be lost to them all, digs him out of the snow and apologizes, saying 'it was a joke'.

He assures her it was funny (it wasn't) then continues to cry into his metaphorical pint of ice cream.

They have a short conversation about how Tanya thinks she's annoying Edward by coming onto him nonstop and Edward admits to being uncomfortable by it. Tanya isn't used to rejection and mentally gives Edward a slideshow of all the sex she's had over the years.

Gross. And also sexual harassment.

Edward mopes about how much of a coward he is and how, no matter where he goes, he'll just be running away from Forks. Tanya tells him to grow a pair and just go back to Folks (not those exact words) and tries to steal a liplocky kiss which Edward dodges.

With her plan to deflower Edward thoroughly ruined, she pouts with a 'you're welcome, I guess' and leaves – hopefully to never bother us again.

She was on her feet in one nimble move, and then she was running away, ghosting across the snow so quickly that her feet had no time to sink in. She left no prints behind her.

Fucking Elves...

Anyway, Edward curls up in a fetal position to stare in the general direction of the stars that he can't see because the Void takes up all his vision.

He finally gets off his ass and Legolases his way back to the car and every Tolkien fan weeps.

I just want to point out that Tolkien elves leave no footprint because they are considered otherworldly and are three quarters literal spirits.

Meyer considers her vampires to be 'of science' (and I'm assuming Meyer means the kind of science that says the earth is flat and vaccines make you autistic). Now, I admit I'm not the best at math or science but...

Bull. Shit.

The implication here is that the vampires are going so fast over the snow that their feet don't have time to sink into the snow and leave a mark. But the thing is: it's not an issue of speed, it's an issue of weight. Running is basically pushing your weight forward and to do that your feet push down. The more you weigh, the deeper your feet sink in.

This is powdery snow. A too harsh sneeze is going to leave a mark.

This is not the first time Meyer has a problem with her overpowered vampires and them breaking the very basics of physics.

No, Meyer, Edward can't run into the bathroom, fill up a glass with water, and run back to Bella's room in a blink of an eye. Yes, Edward can be that fast... the sink isn't.

Sure, Edward can hear any other human on the road and adjust his driving that way... can he hear the deer that might be crossing in front? And even if his reflexes are the fastest in the west... a car has momentum and inertia that has nothing to do with vampire speed/reflexes/whatever other excuse.

If I was doing segments or counters or something, this would be the first in “Meyer doesn't understand basic science'.

Please, let me know if I'm wrong about this. I'd love a science lesson on things like this...

With that out of the way, I checked the leaked PDF for this part and... some of the trash was taken out. That's something at least.

Anyway, back in Forks...

The Cullens walk into the school cafeteria (calling it 'run-down' which is the only time I can recall it being called such) like a bomb is about to explode at any moment. Alice is so focused on watching the future that Jasper has to lead her around by the arm. Emmett is walking around like a bodyguard and Rose is already done with this bullshit.

Way to not draw attention to yourselves.

We also get told that they actually had a very fun morning, having a snowball fight (aka pelting Edward with snow until that got boring) and how it's such a drastic change from how tense everything is now.

Meyer, you know what would have really set off that difference? IF YOU ACTUALLY WROTE THAT INSTEAD OF TELLING US IT HAPPENED.

I can even tell you how to do you could have done that while adding to the tension. You could have had Edward waiting by the car since five in the morning after having Esme and Carlisle give him a pep talk all night and hearing Emmett and Jasper plotting ways to break the tension. You can have him getting annoyed by having to avoid the snowballs before finally getting into the car to put a stop to it. You can have Esme thinking positive thoughts at him and giving him a thumbs-up while they drive away.

You could have had character, relationship, and world building but... no. No, instead we get straight to the whining, no more aware of just what is at stake than we were before.

This writing fucking sucks.

Edward listens to all the thoughts around him. He's absolutely certain Bella told everyone how he traumatized her with his mean looks so surely everyone would be gossiping about them!

Have you see how mean he looked at Bella a week ago?! Surely they're not human if one of them can give a random girl such a mean look!

You see how stupid that is, Meyer?

A normal girl would have asked around, compared her experience to others’, looked for common ground that would explain my behavior so she didn’t feel singled out. Humans were constantly desperate to feel normal, to fit in. To blend in with everyone else around them, like a featureless flock of sheep. The need was particularly strong during the insecure adolescent years. This girl would be no exception to that rule.

bEcAuSe BeLlA iSn'T lIkE oThEr GiRlS.

Also, fuck you.

Edward is amazed by how shy Bella must be to not have told anyone that he gave her a nasty look! He wonders if she told her father but decides she must be closer to her mother but he'll have to read Charlie's thoughts just to be sure.

Edward, of course, doesn't know Bella holds her father in contempt and seems to utterly loath him until the plot requires otherwise.

As he's listening to the entire student body, he informs us that, a week ago when he went to Carlisle to get his car, they had a talk about how vampire powers always got stronger and never went away which was what Edward was worried about.

WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO SEE THAT TOO!

They're all amazed that Bella didn't spill the beans about how mean they can look at people. As Bella's coming in, they all try to act normal.

So Emmett throws a snowball he had hidden in his ice-cold hand and threw it at Alice who, seeing it coming, flicked it away so that it flew across the very large room and hit a brick wall... cracking said wall.

You maybe be wondering why the snowball didn't break as soon as it hit her fingers... Shut up, that's how!

“Very human, Emmett,” Rosalie said scathingly. “Why don’t you punch through the wall while you’re at it?”

“It would look more impressive if you did it, gorgeous.”

Okay, I can forgive it for this line.

Edward checks to see if their 'acting' worked. Bella is standing in the lunchline – not moving at all to the point where people have to check to make sure she didn't have a stroke or something. Bella claims she feels sick and Edward gets a rage boner over Mike getting worried for her.

Also: Translucent skin.

Edward realizes he was showing human emotion by worrying about Bella so much that he calls himself an idiot for acting like the 'dimwitted' Mike Newton and vows to stop worrying about stupid things aka Bella.

We know how that goes.

And, in case you forgot/didn't know that Emmett killed a little old lady...

“Ease up, Edward,” Emmett said. “Honestly. So you kill one human. That’s hardly the end of the world.”

“You would know,” I murmured.

Emmett laughed. “You’ve got to learn to get over things. Like I do. Eternity is a long time to wallow in guilt.”

Also, does Emmett not know that Edward went on a murder spree? Emmett, we know, killed two people, maybe a few more... Edward killed, at least, a several dozen.

Edward don't feel guilty about shit.

To help make them look normal, Alice throws ice in Emmett's face so he shakes his head, releasing a 'deluge' of melted snow everywhere. Apparently, Emmett's head can hold a lake's worth of water or Meyer doesn't understand what 'deluge' actually means.

Also, the Cullens are notorious for being closed off, strange, and weird. From the first chapter, they sit in silence, not talking to each other, not even looking at each other. Wouldn't this sudden play fight be so out of character for them that it would draw the entire of... everyone in the room? This would be like if your stern, religious grandmother decided to throw a rave.

Somehow, no one else seems to notice the extremely out of characterness of the Cullens but Edward does catch Bella looking at them again. Edward tries to listen to her thoughts because maybe this time it'll work.

Guess what? She's still a void.

What follows is Meyer trying really hard to make Jessica unlikable to retroactively make Bella's assholery towards her in the previous books seem justified.

Edward catches on to Bella trying to ignore him. When lunch is over, the Cullen's stay at their table, waiting on him to decide what he's going to do and...

Would I go to class, sit beside the girl, where I could smell the absurdly potent scent of her blood and feel the warmth of her pulse in the air on my skin?

'feel the warmth of her pulse in the air on my skin'

I know what Meyer is trying to say but... there are a LOT better ways of saying it.

The whole Cullen family discussed what Edward's choices were and the consequences would mean... also pointing out that they are all, more or less, monsters who don't give a flying fuck about humans in any meaningful way. If ants could give a fuck, the Cullens would give less of a fuck than an ant's fuck. That's how little fucks they give in regards to humans.

Carlisle disapproves but isn't going to stop Edward if decides to get to chomping.

Jasper disapprove too but more in a 'Why does Edward get to kill people but not me?' kind of way.

Rosalie wonders how Edward fucking up is going to ruin her day.

Alice is useless (as always)

Esme thinks Edward 'can do no wrong' so I guess she'll probably be very proud and impressed by how good of a murder he is. I mean, he did murder her abusive ex-husband...

And Emmett was just remembering all the murdering he did and how fun that was and decided to poke the bear that is Jasper into remembering how tasty humans are.

So, yeah, fuck all these guys.

I don't think I touched on this previously but I know pointing out the monstrous things the Cullens do seems counter-productive and hypocritical. Vampires are monsters and I'm angry they act like monsters? No. I'm angry because they claim they're not monsters and then wave off whatever evil they do as inconsequential because of their lifestyle.

A vampire wants to be good? Great, I want to see that conflict in their nature. I want to see them fight against their nature and see the guilt from their past. I want to see the pain and struggle so that we they fail or succeed it has a real, emotional payoff. I love those stories.

The Cullens... don't have that. There's lip service towards it but it's only skin-deep. None of them really seem to care about human lives (Bella being the exception) and it shows. They may act nice enough (and barely even that) but that doesn't make them good.

Their search for redemption/a normal life/whatever else they claim to want is like a smug billionaire talking about how they had to settle for the solid gold napkin rings because a diamond encrusted one clashed too much with their aesthetic but that's the price one has to pay I guess. Life truly is suffering.

Their sincerity rings false and it shows.

Back to this shit show and, in a genuinely surprising turn of events, Jasper 'Murder-boner' Hale tells Edward to take it slow, maybe even go home. Yes, Jasper is a bit smug that Perfect Edward was struggling but it's still better advice than any of these other murderers have suggested.

But, of course, Edward's pride is more important than these insignificant humans so he stays.

Edward decides to go, of course he does, but he also remembers how he promised himself that he wouldn't get 'unduly interested' in Bella because she's the void. He seems to have forgotten that, in the same breath, he vowed to figure out what she was thinking no matter what.

(But we already know everyone in this book has a selective memory when it comes to moving the plot along.)

He wonders if staring into the void will somehow help him figure out what she's thinking.

He hurries his butt to class, making sure we know what each individual 'sibling' feels about this. He gets to class before it starts and sees Bella doodling on her folder. He thinks that this will be a peek into Bella's thoughts...

… and he's disappointed that it's just circles within circles (though now I wonder if a picture of the drawings from The Ring might not have been better). He does the thing I hate where Meyer sucker punches us with a hint concerning Bella's actions from the first book: he concludes that she must to be thinking of something other than what she's actually doodling.

As he sits down, he notices her 'deer in headlights, if I don't move the car can't see me' approach to being near him and, in a moment of true human emotion, he promises himself he'll try and leave a better impression this time so she's not so scare of him.

Just kidding, he's going to leave a good impression to gaslight the fuck out of her into thinking she just imagined him giving her a mean look.

He gives her his most polite smile, careful not to show his teeth. I don't know why because Meyerpires don't have fangs.

Bella stares at him in wide-eyed confusion which is, apparently, the exact expression he's been daydreaming about for the last week.

...okay? Weirdo.

He stares into her eyes, telling us all the shades of brown they are (milk chocolate but clearer like tea because I guess Meyer didn't realize tea can be pretty dark) and about the flecks of color in them that isn't brown (basically bright green and yellow only described with more purple prose) and never realizing that means her eyes are hazel which I find hilarious after the big deal they made about losing Bella's dark brown eyes due to the food meter vampire eyes they have.

To Edweirdo's surprise, he finds he can't hate her anymore.

I approve because at least we get to see this tiny bit of actual falling in love here that was, as far as I'm concerned, completely and utterly absent in the rest of the series. Seriously, it was getting awkward with them getting married and her pushing out a kid and I'm still waiting for any hint that they're actually in love.

It's a nice change of pace.

Edward stares her into submission and claims he didn't have a chance to introduce himself and, being the gentleman he is, he reminds her of her own name, in case she forgot.

Bella, having forgotten that new students usually get introduced to the class and that, after a week of being at school, most people would know her preferred calling... asks how the person sitting next to her knows her nickname.

I must have truly terrified her, and this made me feel guilty. I laughed gently—it was a sound that I knew made humans more at ease.

“Oh, I think everyone knows your name.” Surely, she must have realized that she’d become the center of attention in this monotonous place. “The whole town’s been waiting for you to arrive.”

The thing is: she does know she's the center of attention because she bitched about it nonstop in the first book! Which makes the 'Isabella/Bella' thing even more stupid.

She frowned as if this information was unpleasant. I supposed, being shy as she appeared to be, attention would seem like a bad thing to her. Most humans felt the opposite. Though they didn’t want to stand out from the herd, at the same time they craved a spotlight for their individual uniformity.

Fuck off! Just fuck off!

I had to take a break after that stupid just so I could deal with the stupidity of the rest of the page.

I know it's a stupid thing to get hung up on but Meyer plays Edward knowing Bella's name as the first hint that he can read minds and... it's really not a good example. Especially with how Edward reacts to it:

I’d just realized what her questions meant: I had slipped up—made an error. If I hadn’t been eavesdropping on all the others that first day, then I would have addressed her initially by her full name. She’d noticed the difference.

I felt a pang of unease. It was very quick of her to pick up on my slip. Quite astute, especially for someone who was supposed to be terrified by my proximity.

Yes, you heard it all the time that first day and probably the first day back since that's her preferred name. Everyone calls her that, especially by now. It's not a hard thing to pick up on. Edward acts as though she's going to call him out on his vampirism any moment now. It's not only stupid but it's a bad plot device to try and convince us how astute Bella is when, really, it's just Edward being paranoid because despite being a vampire around humans since 1920, he has no idea how to act around them and has never made the effort.

To make matters worse, his coping mechanism around Bella is to not breath... and he needs to do that now if he wants to keep talking to her. Because not talking to her would be 'incomprehensible rude'. Because that's what matters here: politeness.

Edward needs a cheekily little breath and...

Ahh!

It was intensely painful, like swallowing burning coals.

Meyer... when people go 'Ahh!' after taking a breath, or having a drink, or anything refreshing really, it's because they're expressing relief... not because they're in sudden pain.

We get the same awkward (in a good way because teenagers are supposed to be awkward) 'Ladies first' exchange concerning the microscope.

Bella just stares at him blankly...

… and having seen the darkness that surrounds and inhabits every living thing in the universe, he says he can start if she likes and to please not consume his consciousness to feed her insatiable appetite.

I added the last part but I feel it was implied.

She insists she goes first and, fearing for his soul/consciousness/whatever, he agrees. She says it's prophase. He asks to check it and:

Instinctively—stupidly, as if I were one of her kind—

Gotta make sure we know he thinks humans are stupid. You know, in case you forgot.

Their hands briefly touch and they're zapped with the Static Shock of Twu Wuv though Meyer plays it off as Bella's skin feeling so hot against Edward's cold, disgusting, yucky, cootie-ridden hand. He wonders what she must think after touching his horrible, icy skin and concludes she must be repulsed by him.

Or, you know, think you were having a snowball fight with your siblings during lunch. Or that you have poor circulation. Or that it's fucking Forks and everything is cold.

Also, Meyerpires's relation to temperature doesn't make sense unless they are a literal heatsink. Their temperature don't settle into that of the area around them, like other dead things/rock, but just absorbs heat nonstop. But that's a complaint we'll see again later.

Terrified that if he glanced into the void once again his mind would become consumed with madness, he does the next slide in their assignment. She asks to check his answer since turnabout is fairplay. Except Edward has, apparently, never heard of this and is shocked that this lowly hooman/eldritch being might think he's wrong!

But he sees the hopeful look on her skinless face and can't help but smile because Mood Whiplash is something else Meyer doesn't get. Bella is disappointed to find Edward is right but decides to spare his sanity in order to fuck with mine:

I dropped the next slide into her palm, keeping my skin far from hers this time. Sitting beside her was like sitting next to a heat lamp. I could feel myself warming slightly to the higher temperature.

THAT IS NOT HOW... HE CAN'T JUST GET HEAT FROM... AMBIENT TEMPERATURE...

They finish the assignment first because of fucking course they did and then we get this:

Wish he’d stayed wherever he went, Mike thought, eyeing me sulfurously.

Mike thought, eyeing me sulfurously.

eyeing me sulfurously.

sulfurously.

THAT IS NOT A PROPER WORD. EVEN IF IT WAS, THAT MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE.

WAS MIKE EYEING YOU SO HARD YELLOWISH VAPOR THAT SMELLS OF ROTTING EGGS WAS COMING OUT? DID HIS EYES TURN YELLOW INSTEAD OF YOURS?!

BECAUSE THAT IS EVERY MEANING FOR SULFUROUS, MEYER JUST ADDED 'LY' TO THE END BECAUSE SHE HATES ME AND EVERYONE ELSE.

Okay, I'm calm now.

Edward is surprised about how much Mike seems to hate him. Way to go on that whole 'Keep track of everyone's thoughts in case the townsfolk have a sudden interest in pitchforks and torches' thing.

He's also surprised to find the feeling is mutual. I'm surprised because Edward already hates everyone and everything so why is this new information?

Edward admits he understands Mike's attraction, that Bella is actually kinda pretty for a human...

Fuck you.

...but in an 'unusual' way.

Better than being beautiful, her face was… unexpected. Not quite symmetrical—her narrow chin out of balance with her wide cheekbones

Aka: a heart shaped face which is actually a very common face shape and classically attractive.

extreme in the coloring—the contrast of her light skin and dark hair

Also a very feature that we see over and over again in conventionally attractive actors/models/what have you.

and then there were the eyes, too big for her face, brimming over with silent secrets.…

Eyes that were suddenly boring into mine.

Bella decides to spare his consciousness but only so she could send it out of his body, trapping him in the nothingness between atoms to witness the everlasting and all encompassing void and know nothing else for all eternity.

Nah, she was just wondering why his eyes are all sulfurously yellow and weird looking.

Edward:

We get a long paragraph of Edward explaining that yes, his eyes are different because he ate all the Bambis and Bambis's Moms in the forest though he used more words than that.

He then calls himself an idiot for not realizing why Bella was asking about contacts.

He tells us that in the two years of being in that school that no one every looked at them close enough to notice their eye colors – despite them being extremely beautiful and attractive – because once they get a glimpse of their beauty, they're disgusted by them and have to look away because humans are just so stupid, you know?

Why did it have to be this girl who would see too much?

In reality, she ain't seen shit. Though, with Meyer goggles firmly in place...

The teacher comes to investigate why these two monsters aren't working, being the creep who, according to Meyer, fantasized about Bella, his underaged student, when she first moved to Forks, decides wemins can't science and assumes Edward did all the work.

Upon learning that Bella answered most of them, the teacher reevaluates his life and how, maybe, the female population aren't as dumb as he thought and thus deserve to be more than masturbation fodder for him.

Or Bella can just admit she already did this assignment in her much better, city-based school she went to before, thus helping to undermine her contribution as well as her intelligence.

Neither make Meyer look particularly good because, even if she didn't write the teacher lusting after his students into the text, she did reveal it elsewhere and thus can be argued to be canon.

Also: Banner calls Bella 'Isabella' but he doesn't have the excuse of fleeing the country for a week. Does he never do roll call? Has she never corrected him in that week? Has he completely missed her signing her work with 'Bella'?

Truly, the most mysterious thing that has happened so far.

Anyway, Banner is shocked that Bella's already did the assignment because he pulled it from a senior class...

So... did he not actually tell them what to look for? No chapter to read, no diagrams drawn/projected on the board? He just... pulled out some slides, told them words they might not have even covered, then set them to it?

What a fucking asshole.

Also, googling it I can find lessons on mitosis going back to Middle School.

At this rate the art teacher will be shocked that Bella can draw a triangle.

Also:

She was advanced, then, intelligent for a human. This did not surprise me.

Fuck you.

Banner walks off, muttering to himself about kids these days, not instinctively knowing science because he sure as fuck isn't going to teach it to them.

Edward is ashamed of his 'slips' in the past thirty minutes and is still completely sure that Bella is not only terrified of him but suspects something. He's determined to leave a good impression on her because... gaslighting.

Edward tries some small talk he heard the hoomans around them doing (because after 17 years of BEING human and several decades of pretending to be human, he still has no idea how to human).

He brings up the snow melting and how that sucks, huh?

She stares into his mind and rips every memory, thought, hope, and dream he's ever had and sends the shreds into the void where they belong.

Her reaction of 'Not really' sends him for a loop. Thankfully, he's a vampire which makes him so much smarter than everyone else in existence and he puts together that she's probably from a much warmer place (because her albino skin still seems somehow tanned to him) and thus must hate all this cold weather!

He announces his revelation: “You don't like the cold.”

She agrees and tacks on that she doesn't like the wet either.

Edward's reaction is fucking hilarious:

“Forks must be a difficult place for you to live.” Perhaps you should not have come here, I wanted to add. Perhaps you should go back where you belong.

That was nice, wasn't it? But now we get this:

I wasn’t sure I wanted that, though. I would always remember the scent of her blood—was there any guarantee that I wouldn’t eventually follow her? Besides, if she left, her mind would forever remain a mystery, a constant, nagging puzzle.

But, remember, he's not going to obsess over her just because he can't read her mind.

What I think Meyer is trying to do is create tension via internal conflict but this... isn't how you do that. Not well anyway. All she's done is have Edward mentally contradict himself over and over again. To do this properly, I feel, he should mentally say he's not going to do thing but actually, physically, catching himself doing it.

He can claim he doesn't want to know about Bella's thoughts then try and sneak a peek at her notebook to see what she's written just in case it's not notes.

That's a little bit better than this flip-flopping we got going on now. Not much, but better.

Back to this slop:

Bella shows Edward how Not Like Other Girls she is because she never answers how Edward expects! Because, as we've seen, Edward is just a master of human behavior.

He 'demands' to know why Bella moved here if she hates Forks so much but realizes he probably sounded very rude and impolite.

Fuck off Meyer. I know what you're trying to do but all the 'Oh, that was so rude!' doesn't make this asshole a gentleman.

Bella gives him the 'It's complicated' not answer and Edward 'implodes out of curiosity'. Surely it'd be implodes with curiosity? Or was Meyer trying to be clever and switch around implode/explode without thinking about the meaning?

WORDS MEAN THINGS

But Edward's 'curiosity' overpowers his thirst for a moment and all I can think of is:

Edward assures her he can keep up, mentally rejoicing that she's answering his questions and that, despite it being 'rude', if he keeps asking she just may keep answering!

Edward has just figured out how conversation works. It only took him a century to do it.

She doesn't answer him immediately, instead staring down at her hands. He wants to see into her void-eyes, longing to be reduced to nothingness, to feel freedom from this existence and the prison that is sanity, but he can't risk reaching out to touch her.

She suddenly looks up to meet his eyes. Why suddenly? I think she just remembered she existed and someone asked her a question.

She tells him, sorrowfully, that her mother got remarried.

“That doesn’t sound so complex,” I said, my voice gentle without my working to make it that way. Her dejection left me oddly helpless, wishing there was something I could do to make her feel better. A strange impulse.

Does anyone even use dejected anymore? Or at least not at the intensity that it used to be? Because when I hear dejected, I just think of the 'aw man, I didn't get the lead role in the school play!' kind of sad.

Also, kinda pointless because we know the reason for Bella's 'dejection', is because she just really hates the rain and mocking her father's lack of a love life or relationship with his only child gets old quick.

He asks if Bella doesn't like her new stepdad but Bella corrects him because she actually does like him. Which completely ruins whatever fantasy Edward was concocting in his head that we don't get to read in this first person narrative, it probably was going along the lines of this little tidbit of information:

Originally, Phil the Stepdad was the principal of her high school and there may or may not have been sexual abuse between him and Bella... thankfully, Meyer's editor told her to cut that shit out. I get the feeling Meyer read/heard of Lolita and thought it was a romance.

They talk about Phil some more, Bella smiling every time he's mentioned which is really making me uncomfortable considering the aforementioned information.

Edward is desperately trying to figure out who Phil is by mentally going over not only the professional ballplayer's rosters but the minor leagues as well. Because, as we know, Edward is a huge baseball fan. I mean, all the times he went on and on about his love of baseball in Twilight. That little story about he's the one who was enough of a nerd to get the family baseball jerseys? So endearing.

Too bad it never happened.

Characterization? In Twilight?

He makes the assumption, which he admits is an assumption, that Bella was sent off so her mother could go travel. Bella objects, saying she sent herself. Edward, master human impersonator, doesn't understand why she's upset by his assumption that she's treated as a piece of property to be sent off at the first sign of inconvenience. That's how women are still treated, right?

“No, she did not send me here,” she said, and her voice had a new, hard edge to it. My assumption had upset her, though I couldn’t quite see how. “I sent myself.” I could not guess at her meaning, or the source behind her pique. I was entirely lost.

Oh, fuck no...

There was just no making sense of the girl. She wasn’t like other humans. Maybe the silence of her thoughts and the perfume of her scent were not the only unusual things about her.

It's going to get worse from here. I've been dreading this part.

There's still so many pages in this chapter i'm gonna die

Edward admits he doesn't get it because he's a dumbass so Bella stares deep into his eyes and decides his consciousness isn't worth the dignity of being torn asunder and tells it to him like he's a damn child.

“She stayed with me at first, but she missed him,” Bella explained slowly, her tone growing more forlorn with each word. “It made her unhappy… so I decided it was time to spend some quality time with Charlie.”

“And he has like, pictures of me as a child on the fireplace mantel. Like, how fucking sad is that?”

Edward tells us he keeps saying his theories out loud... like we haven't noticed. Because Meyer has to pad this bitch out somehow and we already know this scene because she's written the same book three times.

Okay, everybody! Who's ready to get pissed off?!

“But now you’re unhappy,” I murmured. I kept speaking my hypotheses aloud, hoping to learn from her refutations. This one, however, did not seem as far off the mark. “And?” she said, as if this was not even an aspect to be considered. I continued to stare into her eyes, feeling that I’d finally gotten my first real glimpse into her soul. I saw in that one word where she ranked herself among her own priorities. Unlike most humans, her own needs were far down the list. She was selfless.

Bella is to selfless as wet is to fire.

I could go on and on with examples but I'm assuming you guys have read Twilight or at least snarks of it. You know everything I could say and more.

Let's just... let's just move on...

Edward says that doesn't sound fair and Bella informs him life isn't fair... Though we know Bella just doesn't like Forks and would throw tantrum after tantrum, ruining the few visits she had with her father growing up until he had to take time off work and spend money he probably didn't have to rent them a place in California for their visits. But sure, she's selfless.

To be honest, I'm not even sure why she said she'd come to Forks. She doesn't like her father so it definitely wasn't to spend time with him. Her mother's a teacher so maybe she didn't want Bella missing school by coming with them even though home school is a thing.

Let's face it, Meyer just needed an excuse to get Bella to Forks.

I was not ready to let this conversation end. The little v between her eyes, a remnant of her sorrow, bothered me. “You put on a good show.” I spoke slowly, still considering this next hypothesis. “But I’d be willing to bet that you’re suffering more than you let anyone see.” She made a face, her eyes narrowing and her mouth twisting into a lopsided frown, and she looked back toward the front of the class. She didn’t like it when I guessed right. She wasn’t the average martyr—she didn’t want an audience for her pain.

What fucking pain? Being slightly damp? Did Charlie forget to get her a pony to go along with the free truck?

Also: what the fuck is a lopsided frown?

Also Also: Fuck off

Edward gloats that he's right and Bella asks why he cares. He completely loses the ability of internal monologue and whispers dramatically: “That's a very good question...”

He wonders, once again, why Bella's thoughts matter so much to him when every other human's thoughts are so completely and utterly insignificant because Humans suck the biggest balls ever.

Also:

I was not used to being the less intuitive of any pairing. I relied on my extra hearing too much—I clearly was not as perceptive as I gave myself credit for.

He thinks he's intuitive... because he can hear thoughts. That's the equivalent of someone just outright telling him what they're thinking. That's not what intuitive means, Meyer!

WORDS FUCKING MEAN THINGS

Is it wrong of me to hope she has Spooky Mormon Hell Dreams?

One musical break later:

Edward is inexplicably amused by the whole situation because Bella's frustrated that he didn't answer her one question that... people usually don't answer... at least not with a real answer. He's finds it funny that she's annoyed when he could easily kill her if he loses focus for even a second and she doesn't even realize it.

He's probably thinking of that Whoopi Goldberg gif and cackling to himself.

Hilarious.

To be even more of a dick, Edward asks if he's annoying her. She confesses that she's annoyed at herself for being so easy to read which amazes him. You get it? Because he can't literally read her thoughts! Because that is literally the only way someone can understand another person. Body language, inflection, and a general understanding of actual human behavior is all fake news.

Edward takes a breather to remind us he isn't alive so using the word 'life' is misleading only he does it in a way that sounds like a whiny emo teen who thinks dressing all in black makes them deep.

Also, this conversation makes no sense.

“Not exactly,” she told me. “I’m more annoyed at myself. My face is so easy to read—my mother always calls me her open book.”

“On the contrary,” I disagreed, feeling strangely… wary, as if there were some hidden danger here that I was failing to see. Beyond the very obvious danger, something more… I was suddenly on edge, the premonition making me anxious. “I find you very difficult to read.”

“You must be a good reader, then,” she guessed, making her own assumption, which was, again, right on target. “Usually,” I agreed.

I'm sorry, what?

“I'm so easy to read!” “I can't read you.” “You must be a good reader then!”

“I'm an okay painter.” “I can't paint at all.” “Your paints must be amazing then!”

“I can sing the alphabet!” “I'm illiterate.” “You must be an amazing writer then!”

“I'm American.” “I'm from London.” “You must be the Queen of England then!”

Okay, I'm going to stop because that is a rabbit hole if I ever saw one.

But don't worry! The stupid isn't over yet!

Her body was closer to me than before, having shifted unconsciously in the course of our conversation. All the little markers and signs that were sufficient to scare off the rest of humanity did not seem to be working on her. Why did she not cringe away from me in terror? Surely she had seen enough of my darker side to realize the danger.

Also, since I had to use a HP gif: Fuck JK Rowling and the transphobic wagon she rode in on.

Edward goes on for almost an entire page about how he shouldn't get obsessed with Bella while obsessing over Bella. He knows he should stay away from her but he wants to know everything about her but also he wants to eat her but no, he can't! But he finds her so fascinating but he can't allow himself to find her fascinating because then he'll surely kill her!

We get it, Edward, you find her fascinating (because of the void) but being close is dangerous for her. You don't have to use a whole page to repeat yourself over and over again.

Much like the first meeting between them, he runs from the room first chance he gets.

I'm hoping that these last few pages will be easier now that Meyer doesn't have to force the narrative to fit with the dumpster fire that was Twilight. I don't think I can take much more of the 'Bella is amazing!' forced-feeding that was going on.

He takes a deep breath and:

Again, I gasped at the clean, wet air outside as though it was a healing attar.

Someone bitchslap the thesaurus out of her hands.

Emmett is waiting for Edward outside their next class. He tells him that Alice ditched the last half of her class, heading toward the science department. Edward hadn't realized how close he was to killing Bella... evidently.

Emmett reassures him that it turned out fine and he succeeded in not killing anyone...

Or maybe you kill her. He shrugged. You wouldn’t be the first one to mess up. No one would judge you too harshly. Sometimes a person just smells too good. I’m impressed you’ve lasted this long.

Enjoy this helping of victim blaming. It's not Emmett's fault he murdered that grandmother! She shouldn't have smelled so good!

Edward claims he's disgusted by Emmett's acceptance of Bella's 'inevitable' death and, because Emmett is also an asshole, vividly starts remembering the time he killed that one lady.

Also:

Emmett remembered the smell of apples hanging heavy in the air—the harvest was over and the rejected fruits were scattered on the ground, the bruises in their skin leaking their fragrance out in thick clouds.

In Emmett's defense:

I know. I didn’t last half a second. I didn’t even think about resisting.

Oh, wait, that's not a defense.

But remember guys! The Cullens are just so good and love humans and don't want to participate in that life of violence and blah blah blah...

The memory causes Edward to run out of Spanish... where the teacher seems to only speak Spanish which... I don't see how that helps someone else to learn Spanish but then again, Forks High School seems to have a 'throw them in the lake and let them figure out how to swim' approach to learning.

Emmett follows after and apologizes for bringing up the memory but also starts to say Edward should just get his murder on because Bella should know better than to smell so good. She's totally asking for it, amirite?

He sends Emmett away and goes to mope in his car. Again. At least he's more productive this time! He gets a head start on stalking Bella, reading the thoughts of everyone in the school to keep tabs on her.

He listens into Mike's thoughts but since Mike is reassuring himself that Bella doesn't seem to like Edward, Edward pouts and turns on some My Chemical Romance or something until school lets out.

Apparently some outside force compels him to get out of his car and lean against it in that particularly douchey way while waiting for Bella to come out of the school. She randomly appears with no lead up, walking to her truck with a frown on her face.

He watches her get in the truck and hold her hands out toward the heating vents and concludes she must not like the cold. You see, the only reason someone who just told you they don't like the cold would use the heater to warm up after being in the cold is because they don't like being cold!

Bella throws the truck in reverse, almost killing a girl by almost ramming into her car. Bella, fully aware of what she almost did, carefully checks her blind spots twice before cautiously leaving.

Edward laughs because Bella thinks she's dangerous after most causing a serious traffic accident. Oh, how adorable.

In case you forgot: Edward is an asshole.

And that's the end of the chapter!

And I was right, the last few pages was much easier to get through. I think, going forward, I'm going to have to cut some of these chapters into sections, especially the Twilight Recap heavy ones. It's just too hard for me to get through those quickly.

Anyway, I'm going to take a much needed break and continue my Friday the 13th marathon.

Save me, Tommy Jarvis, you're my only ho.

((EDIT: All future book reviews/snarks will be posted to my tumblr.))

[the-gedonelune-times]

Miracle

It’s been a little while since I’ve uploaded a story and yes, I’m back at it again with some more OC intro content. This will be the first of a couple stories I’ll be trying to post today. This story in particular will be featuring a different kind of intro, starring MC as the one to come into contact and unlock a very special secret about the new OC Lily!

Ugh, where am I? Why does my head hurt and my body feel so heavy? I’ve been sleeping for so long, are my dreams finally over? Will I be awake soon?

A pair of eyes fluttered open, taking in the scenery around them. Lying in a small bed of flowers was a figure who had just woke up after years of being in a dream-like stasis. They were still unable to move, but a smile formed on their lips as they looked at the sky.

“How beautiful…” They murmured. “Oh, how I wish I could touch it with my own two hands.”

The figure smiled before closing their eyes; a gentle breeze passing by as they found themselves staring off into the sky above them, their exhaustion slowly diminishing as the minutes passed by.

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

“Luca, I told you once and I’ll tell you again. If you’re not going to help us, then get out!”

“Oh come on, it was nothing that bad!”

“You literally just pulled an invisible ink prank on Zeus and now he’s stomping around in the halls like some crazed lunatic because he thinks his face is still the shade of a blueberry.” Joel commented.

“Oh yeah/” Luca laughed. “His reaction was priceless.”

“This is going to spell trouble for the Night Class.” Liz sighed while setting her planner aside.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Gray and Clive have told me that when Zeus gets upset, then the classes he teaches ends up being a total nightmare for them.”

“Nice job Luca.” Elias scoffed.

“Why thank you, Prince Elias. Your compliment has made my heart flutter.”

“That wasn’t a compliment, you idiot!”

“That’s enough!”

With a shout and a slam of her planner against the desk that she was working at, Liz glared at the two of them, silencing them both almost immediately.

“Good. Now aside from that, have there been any more reports on the recent incidents?”

“You mean regarding the new magical creature? No, not a thing.”

“I overheard Schuyler mention something interesting yesterday while I was taking Seth on a walk around the Academy.” Yukiya spoke up.

“Huh? You didn’t think to tell us sooner? Do tell!” Luca sat down and smiled coyly.

“I’m not sure who he was talking to, but he said there’s been an influx of magical energy from the Northern Forest where the Winged Rabbits are. He’s not sure if this poses a threat to us yet but that he’d been keeping an eye on it.”

“I hope it doesn’t turn out to be anything serious.” 

“Nor do I. I’d like to have one normal day of class, thank you very much.” Elias huffed.

“When has anything been normal around here though?” Liz smiled.

“She’s right, you know.” 

Elias just sighed and took a sip of his tea from the teacup near his seat. “Honestly though, I wonder if this influx of magic that Yukiya just brought up, has anything to do with the magical creature everyone is talking about.”

Joel closed the book he had been reading and spoke up. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

“That actually might be possible. We still don’t know what kind of powers it has. That being said, we at least know that the creature itself doesn’t pose a threat to us.” Liz added.

“That’s true.”

A silence had crept in and took over the conversation, leaving them to all sit there in silence. Only the sound of the door opening after a few minutes, brought the room back to life.

“Wow, did we miss something?” 

“Alfonse?”

“The whole atmosphere seems off.”

Another voice entered and there in the doorway stood Alfonse and Caesar, each of them carrying a rather large box which they sat down in one of the corners of the room.

“I wouldn’t call it tense.” Elias replied. “Rather, we’re just doing some thinking.”

“Well, usually when things get quiet, it means that something might have happened, so I thought I’d ask.” Alfonse smiled while taking a seat. “So what is it that you’re all thinking about?”

“I’d like to know that as well.” Caesar spoke up while leaning against the wall.

“Yukiya overheard Schuyler talking and I guess there’s a pretty big influx of magic coming from the Northern Forest.”

“Seriously? Isn’t that where the Winged Rabbits reside?”

“Are they okay?”

“Yes, it seems like the magic isn’t giving off negative effects.”

“Strange. Do you know why it’s happening?” Alfonse asked curiously.

“Elias brought up the possibility of it being linked to the magical creature that everyone has been wanting to catch.” Liz answered.

Caesar nodded his head as he listened. “I can see that.”

“Well, as long as it’s not causing harm to the forest or the Academy, then I really don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

A few seconds after Alfonse spoke, a magic note came floating down in Liz’s hands. With a surprised look she opened it up and began reading the contents.

“Oh dear…”

“What is it?” Elias asked while walking over to peer at the note in her hands.

“It’s from Schuyler and it looks like he’s requesting that we go and investigate the Northern Forest and the surrounding area.”

“Talk about bad timing.” Luca chuckled.

Alfonse laughed. “Seriously!”

“Well, I guess this means we’re all going to have to go and investigate.”

“Hopefully it’ll just be us. I’d like to avoid having a headache if Zeus were to join. He’d most likely complain the whole time.”

“Why do I have to work with a bunch of dumb Day Classers?”

Luca mimicked Zeus and the room erupted in laughter. Once everyone had caught their breaths, they disbanded and started the investigation. Yukiya and Liz were put on a team that was decided at random before they left the room. However, Yukiya had to leave and go help calm Elias down from getting into a ‘fight’ with Luca.

Now it was just Liz as she treaded deeper into the forest. A small breeze blew past and rustled the leaves on the branches while the smell of sweet blooming flowers filled the air. All while small particles of light seemed to rain down from the tree-tops. The Northern Forest truly seemed like something out of a fairytale. As Liz continued her stroll, she saw something up ahead that caught her eye, and right away she knew something was up. A strong magical aura was surrounding whatever, or whoever, it was that was sitting on the ground.

Timidly, she inched closer until she could make out the figure more clearly, soon realizing that the figure was actually a...human? No...it couldn’t be. There, sitting in a small patch of flowers was a pale-skinned girl. She had flowy platinum-blonde hair the danced in the breeze and atop her head were a pair of small white almost glass looking horns. Behind her, a small white tail swished back and forth gently against the grass while a pair of wings, that glittered like fresh snow in the sunlight moved ever so slightly in the wind.

“No way..”

Realizing that the words had fallen out before she could even process it, Liz quickly covered her mouth with her hands and ducked behind the tree closest to her. She desperately hoped the being hadn’t seen her, but she knew that just couldn’t be the case.

“You can come out...I won’t hurt you.” 

A small timid almost sing-song voice called out and although Liz couldn’t see the expression on the person’s face, she thought they were smiling. With a deep breath, Liz moved away from her hiding spot and looked at the figure in front of her.

“You can come closer you know.” The young woman tilted her head to the side and smiled. “I promise I won’t bite.”

As Liz inched closer she noticed that woman had a small sleeping Winged Rabbit in her arms, stroking it’s fur ever so gently in an effort to not wake it.

“Who...are you? What are you doing here?” Liz asked.

“Hehe, I’m sorry, but unfortunately I can answer only one of those questions.” The woman smiled. “My name is Lily, it’s a pleasure to meet your acquaintance. I’m afraid I don’t know why I’m here. My memory is a little fuzzy and I can only remember vague pieces of the time before this. Ah, may I ask your name?”

“Oh, yes, my name is Liz Hart.”

“Hello, Liz. What a lovely name. Hm?” Lily’s eyes, which looked like someone had poured the Northern Lights into, were locked on the Academy emblem that rested neatly on her uniform. “What is that emblem for?”

“Huh?” Liz looked down at her emblem. “Oh, this means I’m an official student at Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy.”

“Gedone...lune?”

“Yes. Have you never heard of it?”

“No. I don’t believe I have.”

“I see.”

It didn’t seem like she posed any threat, but even so, Liz knew barely anything about her and it seemed like Lily herself didn’t either. This was becoming a predicament. 

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yes, you may.”

“Are you…” Liz paused, trying to figure out the words she wanted to say.

“Am I what?” Lily smiled.

“Are you a Dragonkin by any chance?”

“Hmmm..” Lily nodded softly. “That I am. I remember that much and yet…”

Her eyes seemed to hold sadness as she looked to the side.

“Is everything alright?” Liz walked over and knelt near the flowers.

“Oh, yes.” Lily shook the sadness away and smiled sweetly. “I just find it hard to find the memories I really want.It’s sort of like looking through thick fog to find a small object.”

“I see. Lily?”

“Yes?”

“Would it be alright if you came back to--”

“Liz?”

The sound Alfonse’s voice was accompanied by the sound of footsteps from multiple people as they headed in her direction.

“Over here Alfonse!”

Liz called out, smiling as the others came over to her side.

“Did you find anything?”

“Well I-” Liz looked over at the small flower patch, only to find that Lily was no longer there. In fact, there were no traces to prove that she had actually been there in the first place.

“Liz?”

“Sorry. No, I didn’t find anything out. Maybe we should try looking again tomorrow? It’ll be getting late soon.”

She wished she didn’t have to lie, but considering the information she had gathered, this seemed like something she couldn’t tell the others, at least not yet. Despite that, she revealed the truth to a certain other Dragonkin a few days later.

“Willem, what do you make of this?”

“Well…” Willem placed his teacup on the coffee table. “It seems hard to believe. Are you sure you saw another Dragonkin?”

“There’s no mistaking it, she had horns, tail and even a set of wings. Plus she even admitted to it. Though...I do wonder..”

“What is it?”

“Why would she disclose such information to me?”

“You said she suffered from memory loss, correct?” Willem sighed and looked down, almost sadly. “Perhaps she has forgotten of our past.”

A small gasp left Liz’s lips as she too placed her teacup down. 

“You mean...she might not remember the war? Or anything?!”

“Yes. Or her death.”

“Death? W-Wait, you mean she might not have been sealed away like Felix or Lacan was?”

“No, those two were the only ones sealed away. I was held as a prisoner and the others were slaughtered.”

“But then how…”

“Do you remember what I told you? When a Dragonkin dies, they become flowers. Our death is symbolized by flowers, but, it can also mean our rebirth. If this girl, Lily, truly is a Dragonkin, then she is the first of our kind to be reborn from a flower.”

Liz looked over at Willem, the two of them knowing full well on what they had to do.

[cooltrainererika]

Alt-talia Compilation: December Fun

Well, it’s already New Years for me. Fortunately this is the last story I want to get out since I’m delaying Key to Zorn part 2 again. Hooray. All I need to do is that alternate ending and I’m done! Goodbye 2019! 

This compilation is three super short fics: December 22, 2019: Snowball fight/Skiing/Christmas without snow. The first two are for Skiing, the last one is Christmas Without Snow, though it could also be filed against “Decorations”. While admittedly the first two aren’t Christmas related, the last one is so hopefully it still counts. 

Btw this is a semi-AU. I don’t have time to explain, so those unfamiliar with it, please reference my other works. 

And the awful titles are especially bad this time around. And the writing quality is super rough. Still, I don’t really have much time here. 

Name key: Denmark: Simon, Norway: Lukas

So without further ado, happy new year! 

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This is a message from the event holder:

I would like to ask one thing (but this isn’t part of the rules, so don’t worry) , if it is not too demanding… please, if you like someone’s work say it (comment), I personally think that put only a “heart” on it doesn’t make enough justice for the artist. I mean… as an active fan that contributes for the Hetalia’s fandom… a “heart” means nothing to me, at least reblog it. “Creators” get demotivated and sincerely it doesn’t hurt be nice to others. Of course, this is my opinion and a selfish request, so I won’t expect too much.

Please listen to them, I would really appreciate it. 

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Skiing Lessons

“Orv... You make it look so easy!”

Lukas seemed to glide across the snow, the boy weaving between thin trees agilely as if it took him no effort. 

Simon could only admire his Union-Brother’s skills; he had to observe closely, after all. 

That morning, Simon had finally decided to ask him about it; Lukas’ skiing had helped him in so many wars over the years. While Simon was considered to be part of Scandinavia, his land being as flat and close to the ocean as it was, the art of skiing was never something he had to learn; Lukas was different. On the snow, where horse hooves sunk impotently, he commanded the ski as his steed. Ever since he was very young, he had used them not only to run circles around his enemies, but as one of his companions in daily life. 

“Teach you?”

“Yeah! You’re so good at it, and it’s helped us in so many wars, so… could you? Please?”

Lukas had nodded. 

“Mmm. No problem. I have a few boards as spares. Though it’s not easy. I’ll warn you.”

So now, here they were, up north. 

And indeed, it was much harder than it looked. 

For the fifth time that day, Simon fell facefirst into the snow. 

Lukas shook his head like a monk chastising a child. 

“Get up!”

“I’m trying!”

“Danmark, you’re not supposed to put that much weight on your feet. You’re supposed to glide atop the snow. Don’t dig in too much. Let the snow carry you.”

“Right…”

He pushed himself along. 

“Glide... Glide atop the snow...Wait... I think I’m getting the hang of it!”

Mmmm. That’s it... follow me.”

“I can do it! Look Norge, I’m doing it-“

And then he fell into the snow again. 

“It’s not that easy.”

Lukas pulled him out of the snow, his Union-Brother’s face having gone pink from the coldness but still determined 

“We’re doing it again.”

“Yessir!”

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Alpine Rivals

Austria and Switzerland cascaded down the mountain, dodging everyone on the slope as they went with masterful skill. 

The two raced neck-and neck, the freezing air whistling past, nipping their cheeks, through the hair that wasn’t tucked inside their helmets. 

Italy had been close behind, but in a moment of distraction had reverted to his klutzy self; a split second which had proved disastrous, and sent him falling into the snow with his feet sticking out like a cartoon, and now he was way behind, desperately trying to catch up. Poland was a close third, wrestling his place with Bavaria, and France and Germany were a few meters behind those two. However, especially as the Nordics were taking a different course on the other side of the mountain, the undoubted champions here were Austria and Switzerland, as they long had always been.

But even if the Nordics were racing with them, it was entirely possible they would still be left in the dust. For they were the Alpine duo; the only ones who even rivaled, even surpassed, Norway himself in the ancient sport of downhill skiing.  

But as usual, Switzerland seemed to be winning this time. There was a reason he had the most Alpine skiing medals in the Olympics. 

Austria wasn’t giving up so easily though; when it came to skiing, his suppressed competitiveness had a rare opportunity to shine. And best friend or no, or especially because of that, it wasn’t over until the end of the slope. 

He was certain that Bavaria was going to complain about it after all of this as he usually did though. His father wasn’t exactly known for being humble.  

“See you at the bottom!”

“Gah! Get back here!”

Soon, the foot of the mountain came into view, flattening to soften the landing. 

Almost there…

Wait, was that…

Snow flew in waves as Switzerland skidded to a halt. 

“Eek!”

An extremely familiar voice squeaked. 

When the snow cleared, standing there, brushing herself off, in her skis, was Liechtenstein. 

“Look, look! I won! Finally! I told you I practiced!”

Switzerland raised his goggles, his jaw ajar. 

“...Since when were you here?”

“About a minute ago?”

They heard the loud muffled sounds of snow crunching as Austria skidded to a stop above them.

“Österreich... It’s Liechtenstein. She won.”

“...Mein Gott. Goodness. I did know you were quite good, but…”

Her cheeky grin widened. 

“I’m Alpine too, you know!”

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Starry Streets of Tropical Bethlehem 

Now, think of Christmas. What do you think of? 

Not just the trees, the music, or even the religious elements. What is expected of the scenery outside? 

Snow, of course. Without snow, Christmas just seems so incomplete. 

Most of us aren’t fortunate enough to experience a white Christmas, however, there is something inseparable about these two things in our minds.  

Or so it seems. For one nation, while knowing little of snow, may be one of the biggest lovers of Christmas of all. 

“YEHEY! YEHEY! IT’S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!”

Others looked on in confusion as the personification of the Philippines barreled through the halls as soon as the meeting got out. 

It wasn’t too long until she had crashed into America, sending papers flying everywhere. 

“GAH! Whoa! Whoa! Hey, slow down!”

“I can’t wait! It’s almost Pasko!”

“Wha?”

“Christmas!”

America stared at her in confusion. South Korea was standing above, his face blank as he processed what just happened. 

“...Wha? But it’s September! I swear, Christmas gets earlier every year, but I didn’t think it was this bad!”

“What do you mean, Kuya America? Of course it’s long! All my people come home on Christmas! ...Ay! There’s something I want to show everyone.”

She reached into her purse and pulled out a flyer; a clearly handmade one, with just a date, location, and absolutely nothing else. 

“Come to San Fernando on the Saturday two weeks before Christmas! I’m inviting the rest of ASEAN too!”

“Wha?! What are we being invited to?!”

“It’s a surprise!”

“She always is so excited, this time of year…”

Then, she grabbed South Korea as well, thrusting the “flyer” into his hand, her dark brown eyes sparkling. 

“You come too, Kuya! Please?!”

“I… I presume so…”

“Yehey! See you!”

With that, she ran off. 

———————--------------------------------------------

For Philippines, Christmas started at the beginning of September in the truest sense of the word; the carols started, everyone broke out the trees, and talk of presents was fresh on everyone’s mind. 

For some, this may have seemed absurd. However, even without the snow, even without many Christmas trappings, she never tired of this festive, yet sacred atmosphere which enveloped her islands for half a year. 

———————--------------------------------------------

Even in the middle of December, it was warm in the Philippines. 

Though everyone expected it, actually experiencing it was a bit strange for America, though Australia seemed to not notice any difference. And poor Japan looked like he was going to melt. 

For some ASEAN members, those who could afford to come anyway, the festive Christmas cheer emanating from everywhere was an unusual sight in it of itself. 

So many other people had already gathered around them under the San Fernando sky, mostly locals. 

“So… what are you goin’ to show us, hermana?”

Philippines grinned a wide grin. 

“You’ll see, Kuya Mehiko! Oh, it’s starting!”

Just as the music started, she threw open her arms. 

“...NARITO! MALIGAYANG PASKO!”

And immediately, like that, as her voice boomed into the air, everything lit up. 

Star-shaped, intricate fractals of light, red, orange, blue, green, yellow, white, silver, gold, big and small, arranged in beautiful designs. 

They moved, spinning and dancing as they lit up the night. 

A collective gasp took over them as stars lit everything in their field of vision. 

“...It’s… it’s awesome!”

“See? I told you! I told you!”

And so, under a tropical urban December sky, a starry night shined brightly not above, but right on Earth. 

[uglypastels]

Helloooo!!! Can I ask for a Ceo!Tom smoking a cigar at home, peacefully with his best friend (I've read the anon's request about the oc Filippo, can you add him here too?), when his little son comes downstairs crying because of a bad dream??? And so he just cuddles him and his friend says "you're way too cute mate"

 are we making this into a blurb series??? cause I think we are haha 

________________________________

It was late. The large grandfather clock in the corner of the room behind them was about to strike midnight. The snow falling down around the two men. 

Tom was leaning against the balcony railing. One arm on the rest as the other kept coming back up to his mouth, putting the cigar up to his lips and taking a long drag. The smoke filled his entire body. It was his only way to escape the emptiness he had felt the last months. 

Sleep was a hard thing to come by for Tom in recent days. The nights seemed endless and the darkness wicked. The few nights where he did manage to sleep only ended in him waking up, covered in cold sweat, his bedsheets stuck to his skin. Hands shaking and breathing irregular. It was at those nights that he would go to his office and work, on anything. It didn’t matter. He had to keep busy. He had to forget. 

That is why he was so glad for these nights. 

He held in the smoke for a second or two before exhaling deeply. It was calming to see the smoke go up into the air. The soothing shapes move around him. 

“How are you, Tommo?” Filippo looked at him, eyebrows slightly furrowed. Tom could only sigh, letting out some excess smoke in the process. 

“You know how it is, mate.” Filippo sure did know. The dark circles around Tom’s empty eyes told enough. His skin, paler than ever before gave away the entire story. Tom looked down at his hands and played with the ring on his finger. It was cold, still not as cold as his hands but far from the warmth he had felt before when touching the metal band. 

“When was the last time you slept properly?” 

“I would tell you if I could remember,” Tom laughed. It was an empty and sad smile. A tired smile. So, so tired. 

Filippo was about to open his mouth when the clock stroke midnight. At that exact same time, the door to the balcony opened. Both men turned around quickly. In front of them stood the little boy, wearing only his onesie. A fluffy bunny under his arm. He rubbed his eyes with the unoccupied hand. 

Tom put down his cigar and walked up to his son. “Muffin, I told you not to come out here without a jacket. It’s too co- hey, what’s wrong, buddy?” When he picked him up, he could hear little sniffles escape Chris. The boy immediately hid his face in his father’s shoulder and started to cry. 

Tom’s heart broke every time his son cried. No matter the reason, it made him feel like he was failing. 

“Hey, sshh. What’s wrong?” He held him tightly, petting his dark curls. Chris didn’t stop crying so Tom let him. Still holding him in his arms, Tom sat down in one of the chairs.  

“Psst,” after a moment, he got Filippo’s attention, who had been looking out at the winter scenery that was the garden. Tom mouthed “milk” to him. Having spent enough time around the little boy, Filippo knew what his friend meant. He nodded and left the balcony, just to come back several minutes later with a cup filled with warm milk. 

By then, Chris had calmed down a little. Filippo handed the boy his drink and he started to almost chug it down. 

“Hey, eeeasy there, buddy. Don’t want you to get the hiccy’s, do we?” Tom smiled at his son, wiping away the tears from his rosy cheeks. The boy was starting to shake from the cold, so Tom quickly opened his jacket and pulled his son closer to cover him up. 

“I miss mama, daddy?” Chris whispered against him. Something struck Tom right in the heart. The pain shot through his whole body. He clenched his jaw as he held his little boy tighter, kissing the top of his head. 

“I miss her too, buddy.” 

“I ha a drrream about her.” He was sniffling again. 

“Yeah? was it a nice dream?” Tom closed his eyes to not start crying too. He couldn’t do it, not in front of his son. One of them had to keep strong. At least try to. 

“Mhm.” Tom could feel Chris nod his head. “When can I see mama, daddy?” He pulled away from his father’s chest to look into his eyes. They were brown, but not the same as his. It was clearly her eyes. 

“Probably not in a while, buddy.” He wanted to say “hopefully” but that would break his little muffin even more. “But know that mama is always with you, yeah? riiight here.” He lightly poked his son in the chest, right over his little heart. 

“Weally?” 

“Mhm.” He nodded just how Chris did moments ago. 

“But how can she be?” 

“Because she loved you very much. Every minute of every day. It’s unfair how much she did because now I will have to live with the weight on me to do it more, which is almost impossible.” He hoisted Chris a bit and kissed his cheek. “But I will try my darn best, that’s for sure.” He kissed his other cheek. 

“You stink dadda,” Chris laughed a little.

“I know. I’m sorry, muffin. How about I go brush my teeth and then I’ll meet you in your room and read you a story?” 

“Oka, dadda.” Tom put his son down and watched the boy run off to his room. A faint smile was on his lips, not going unnoticed by Filippo. 

The End 

[nais-nook]

Oroben - Pt 2

(Hey there! You may be liking/reblogging something without links to new pieces I may have written for this character, just letting you know in case you’re interested in reading more!)

I was gonna do another Naga part, or another monster all together (making moodboards that look good is hard). Imagine my surprise when I see that people enjoyed Oroben. So, here you go, I had fun writing this! I’m supposed to be figuring out coding right now but don’t tell anyone shhhh

~***~

Part 1, Part 3, Part 4,  Part 5

Summary: The mysterious fae follows up on your debt to him, although you didn’t think it would involve taking him home.

Pairing: Male Fae x Gender Neutral Reader.

Words: 3561.

“Not going to lie, I'm beginning to feel like this was a bad idea.” You curled your fingers in your gloves, hoping they wouldn’t lose feeling anytime soon.

 “You and me both, babe.” Nia’s face was barely visible under her yellow woolly hat and chunky matching scarf.

 “You wanna just turn back around?”

 “Honestly, yes, but we are almost there, and the trek back is gonna take longer than getting to the place you got stuck in a fairy circle.”

 “Well, at least it isn't snowing anymore.” You could see in front of you this time, and the only sound that could be heard was the crunch of the snow beneath your feet. 

 “Okay, I trust you.”

 Nia pulled down her scarf so you could see her face properly and smiled, “I appreciate it.”

 It was only minutes despite it feeling like hours, but you finally made it to the place Nia had found you laying in the snow, yet the fae man was nowhere to be seen. 

 You looked to Nia who shrugged. “I won't be able to see him. I didn't step into the circle.”

 “Is that really how it works?”

 “I kind of made it up. Your guess is as good as mine at this point.”

 Pressing your lips together you turned slowly. The scenery may have been coated in snow, but his trousers were dark enough to be seen from a good way away. 

 “I can't see him.”

 “Okay, you know what, seeing as he isn't here yet, let's set down some ground rules. First -”

 “What do you mean by ‘yet’?” You asked, more than a little confused. 

 “We went out of our way to look for him, he's more than likely to show up.”

 “But what if he doesn't?”

 “Then we go home and hope he never shows up. Anyway, the rules. Don't say my name, at all. Don't give him your thanks ever again, even though you have to be polite, do not do that again.” She didn't look very convinced at the idea that you would accomplish that. “And whatever you do, do not agree to go back with him to the fairy world. Let's hope that's not his favour.”

 “You know it's extremely rude to talk about someone behind their back.”

 You made an undignified squeak, spinning around whilst frantically searching the treeline for the sight of him. 

 “Oh God, is he here?” Nia began to worriedly scour the trees with you. A few moments later he emerged from the trees, with that stupidly handsome smile on his face. 

 “I see him. There in front of us. I’d point but that’s rude.”

 “I can't see him…”

 “Oh, trust me, he's there.” The fae stepped forward a few steps before he stood still, standing far enough that you would have to raise your voice above normal speaking levels. 

 “Okay, whatever, he's probably doing it on purpose. Be polite and tell me whatever he says.”

 “Are you two quite done?”

 “Yeah, sorry,” You gave Nia’s hand a squeeze and took a deep breath before you faced him, “hello.”

 “Hello again, (Y/n). May I ask you a question?”

 “Of course, you can ask me a question.” You thought narrating what was going on would be best for Nia. 

 “Were you missing me so much that you came out looking for me?” If you were close enough, you were sure you'd be able to see a mischievous sparkle in his eye. 

 “I did come looking for you, yes, but it was so you could answer some questions I had. If you please.” You tacked the ‘please’ onto the end and prayed your smile looked sincere. 

 “What a pity. Well then, what are your questions?” 

 “Oh,” You didn't think you would make it this far, “one moment please!”

 He scoffed, then inclined his head and swept a hand in front of him in permission. You tugged Nia, who hadn't stopped staring at the place you indicated earlier, back a few steps. 

 “He said he's going to answer the questions we have.”

 “Apparently,” she kept her voice hushed, “fae can't lie. So, hopefully, he will give us straight answers. Ask him for his name. And what he wants to do with you. And anything else that comes to mind.” 

 “Hey,” You stared him straight in the face, “you can't lie, can you?”

 “I would have hoped you already knew that. You shouldn't ask someone if they're a liar.”

 “So, you can lie…?”

 “I can't lie.”

 “You can't lie. Alright then. Why can't my friend see you?”

 “Because she hasn't stepped into a fairy circle. Which is what I would say if I was a liar. But I can't, because I'm fae. She can't see me because I don't want her to see me.”

 “He doesn't want you to see him, that's why you can't see him.”  You resisted the urge to scrunch up your nose at that. “What's your name?”

 “Oroben. But I'm not sure why you asked. A human can't have power over a fae by knowing their name, silly.”

 “Your name is Oroben. Okay then.” You glanced at Nia, who just gave you a vague ‘I don't know’ gesture. You jumped when he growled. 

 “This is getting very annoying very quickly.”

 “Oh shit!” She cursed, tripping over herself in her attempt to step backwards. 

 “Are you okay -”

 “Don't say it!” She pointed at you accusingly before grasping your outheld hand. You pulled her up as you heard Oroben scoff. 

 “What a shame. I would have loved to hear her name too.”

 “You're right, he does look like snow incarnate.” She looked equal parts terrified and in awe.

 “Wait, you can see him?”

 “Yes,” he said, his voice stern, “hearing you repeat yourself was getting rather dull.”

 “So, Oroben. What was the favour you wanted?”

 “Favour?” He cocked a brow.

 Oh no. Did he not want anything? Did you just give him the idea to ask for something? That familiar feeling of panic was starting to creep into your system, yet again.

 “Ah, yes. The thanks you gave me. Take me to where you are staying and then I will tell you.”

 “No,” Nia looked at you and tried to whisper-yell, “that is mental, we can’t bring him back with us!”

 “Weren’t you the one who said I owed him a favour?!”

 “I did, but I didn’t think it would involve you bringing him back to our place.”

 “Do we have a choice?”

 “Are you refusing my request, (Y/n)?” Oroben called, his voice dripping with smugness.

 “No, no, no, we are going now, aren’t we?” You pinned Nia with a pointed stare and nudged her for good measure.

 “Fine.” She snapped at you before, turning on her heel and stalking away.

 The entire way back was silent - a silence that was filled with tension and threatened to choke the air out of your lungs. You were constantly checking behind you to see if Oroben was following you along the snowy path. Sometimes when you glanced back he wasn’t there, and then the next time you did he was following with a smirk on his pale lips. When you had arrived at the cottage, Nia cleared a space for herself on the front step and sat down, ignoring both Oroben and yourself.

 “So,” you awkwardly scratched your arm, “Oroben. Are you going to tell us what your favour is now?”

 Oroben was leaning against a tree on the edge of the stone path, glaring daggers at the humble little house. “I want to be able to enter that again.”

 “Wait, you can’t enter the house?” Nia asked, getting up and slowly surveying the cottage. She was doing so almost meticulously; her eyes were scanning the windowsills and the door.

 She knew something, and she wasn’t telling you - which was fair considering Oroben was standing right there. Still, it would have been nice to know.

 “No, I cannot, and I would like to be able to do so again. So,” he waved a hand dismissively, “fix it.”

 “Fix it?” You looked at the house incredulously, “Oroben, I don’t even know what’s stopping you in the first place!” 

 He sent a glare your way, arms crossed as he pushed himself away from the tree and stood directly in front of you. “You don’t. But she does.”

 Nia froze for a moment before she sighed and faced you both. “Yeah, I do. Sorry, (Y/n).”

 “You knew? How come I didn’t?”

 “When I found you standing inside the fairy circle, I blamed your idiocy on you being confused.” Oroben rolled his eyes, “Now I’m beginning to believe you actually are that stupid.”

 Nia’s jaw dropped while Oroben smiled wryly at your expense.

 “Okay, next time it’s bully-(Y/n)-week please let me know so I can mark it in my calendar and prepare in advance.”

 Nia placed a hand on your shoulder and gave it a squeeze before replying, “Sorry, honey.”

 “Yeah, yeah,” you shrugged her hand off and awkwardly looked between the two of them, “So, uh, what are the things that stop you from going into the house?”

 “The flowers in the window,” he turned up his nose and then pointed to a horseshoe that you didn’t even realise was hanging in the doorway, “and iron, get rid of it.”

 Nia looked like she wanted to punch him in the face but managed to refrain. “You want us to pull the flowers out?”

 “Yes,” Oroben said it with such resolve you were shocked still for a couple of seconds, unlike Nia, who looked like she was going to follow up on her urge to deck his lights out. However, before she could do anything you dragged her around the corner of the house and gave a half-hearted apology to Oroben.

 “Don’t do it.”

 “(Y/n), every time I come here I care for these flowers as if they were my children, and now some hoity-toity fae dude is telling me to rip them out?”

 “I know, I’m sorry.”

 “Ugh.” She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. “It’s not your fault. Well, it is, but I’m not holding you accountable for it or anything, don’t worry.”

 “You’re the best.”

 “You know,” she pulled off her hat, making her hair spring up in multiple directions, “one of these days that isn’t gonna work on me anymore. And then what are you gonna do?”

 “Honestly? I don’t know. Cry, maybe grovel a little bit?”

 “You better,” she joked. She patted you on the head, then looked at her flowers sadly.

 After you gave Nia a quick hug, you rounded the corner to find Oroben standing on the steps, his hands reaching for the flowers on the windowsill as if he was going to pull them out. Then he sighed and retracted his hands, looking at both you with impatience written all over his face. 

 “Well? Are you two quite done?”

 “I’m not ripping them from their roots.” Nia gave Oroben the hardest stare you had ever seen her give another living thing. Suddenly you were glad she was on your side. “But I’ll move the pots so they aren’t blocking the window.”

 “You are not in a position to be making demands,” His voice was dangerously low, and you positioned yourself in between the two of them. You may have been the reason that this situation came to pass, but you were not under any circumstances going to let Nia get hurt for something she didn’t do.

 “I’m not the one who owes you a favour, they are. So, if you'll excuse me please, I would like to remove those flowerpots for you.”

 She stormed right past him and you had to admire her resolve - you probably would have listened to his instructions and followed them exactly, not demanded he take an alternative. Then again, Nia wasn’t the one who was on a metaphorical leash.

 “Aren’t you going to remove the horseshoes, (Y/n)?”

 That strange fuzzy feeling overtook your brain, and you ended up telling him how you felt about it before you could bite down on the words, “Can you stop doing that?”

 Oroben raised his white brows, then laughed like you told him the funniest joke he had ever heard. Within a split second he had grabbed the front of your coat and jerked you towards him. You were nose to nose and you instantly felt the blood drain from your face.

 Oroben then murmured in your ear, “While what your friend over there said is true, you are definitely not in a position to be making demands. So, when I asked you to take those wretched horseshoes down, your answer should have been ‘Yes, of course, Oroben.’”

 He released his grip and you stumbled back, hand on your chest, heart beating fast. Without a word you went to ask Nia for a step ladder. 

 ***

He glided through the halls, the disdain that was plastered on his face hadn’t moved an inch as he inspected every surface.

 “My grandparents are probably turning in their graves!” Nia wailed.

 You tried your best to comfort her, although she was doing a lot less sobbing and a lot more complaining. If you were in the proximity of a bed and not currently on the Livingroom floor you were sure she would have flung herself across it. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

 “I know you didn’t, honey,” she leaned her head on your shoulders, “It just sucks that this happened to us.”

 “Yeah. It does.” you agreed, sitting up straight when Oroben drifted through the door.

 “Is she done? I’m growing tired of her wallowing.” 

 Nia clenched her fists and gave you a pitying look, “Yeah, you’re on your own for this. I’m gonna go and put the pile of flower pots outside in the shed for now and figure out what I’m gonna do with them later.”

 “Hey, where are you -”

 “Bye (Y/n), remember your manners,” she sang as she carefully stepped around Oroben and headed to the front garden.

 You groaned, then realised Oroben was still in the room and apologised as quickly as you could. Oroben just raised his hand, silencing you as he gazed off in the direction Nia had disappeared to. “I can’t tell whether I like your friend or whether I want to drown her.”

 He laughed at your horrified expression, then hummed quietly to himself, “Well, if she really means that much to you maybe I’ll think twice before I do it.”

 Your brows shot up and you were thankful he was looking back to the front of the house. Did he really just say he would consider your feelings? Everything he had done up until this point made you sceptical.

 “So, Oroben...”

 “Yes?” He stepped into the light that shone through the bay window, then tentatively sat down cross-legged on the hardwood floor and basked in the sunlight. The rays lit up his snowy hair, creating a halo of sorts. He looked relaxed and beautiful in all his glory.

 “You were allowed to come into the house before?”

 “Before your friend's grandparents took this property it belonged to a woman. She was lovely and always welcomed my visits.” His eyes snapped open to glare at you, “Then your friend's grandparents decided visits from my kind were no longer welcome and put up those horrid fae repellents so no one could enter.”

 You were unsure as to how you were supposed to react to his death stare, settling for avoiding his stare and shuffling in your position awkwardly. Oroben sighed dramatically and lay gracefully on the floor, still within the pooling light. “It wasn’t your fault. Besides, I’ve fixed the mess they created now. As long as you don’t put anything back up when I leave, I believe your debt to me will have been paid.”

 Those few words gave you buckets of hope, but you were still curious. What was so important about this house that he felt like he deserved to walk around inside freely?

 “Why do you want to be allowed in so badly? Was their privacy really so insignificant to you?”

 “Privacy is one thing, and complete denial of access is an entirely different thing, dear (Y/n). I made it very clear that no one was to bother them, I had no qualms with them staying here.”

 You whistled, low and smooth before indulging him with your thoughts, “You must have a lot of power to be able to tell everyone what to do and where to go.”

 “Were you not aware that this entire woodland belongs to my father?”

 “I didn’t know fae existed until literally yesterday.”

 “Really?” Oroben gazed at you, surprise written all over his face. You never knew he could make such an expression. It was almost endearing. “Are you humans really that uneducated?”

 And now it’s not endearing anymore, you thought as you sighed through your nose, hoping your face didn’t let him know how much you wanted to hit him. “Yes, we are. But we are getting off topic. If no one bothered them, then why did Ni - I mean, my friend's grandparents put up all the stuff to stop you guys from getting in?”

 “Oh, I cannot wait for the day you allow your friend's name to accidentally slip through your pretty lips.” His grin was wolfish. The day you gave him Nia’s name would be a very cold day in hell indeed. He chuckled before he continued, “They didn’t put them up as soon as they moved here. It was a year or two afterwards. I know why they did it. Those conniving pixies were playing nasty little tricks on the old couple.” 

 “You really don’t like pixies, do you Oroben?”

 “No, I do not.” The curl of his lips was enough to tell you that. “They are the reason why people fear us so much. They don’t listen to anyone who is below the King, and even then they are difficult to placate. At best they're a nuisance, at worst they are downright cruel. I can’t believe we have the same blood running through our veins.” 

 “Well,” your curiosity had gotten the best of you as you slid across the floor, joining him in the sun, “what did they do?”

 Oroben raised a brow at you before closing his eyes and sighing. You noticed he did a lot of sighing. “It started off with them moving their belongings around the house. Then they began to steal them. It wasn’t long before they started leaving dead things on their front step, in their garden. I had finally managed to get them to leave the couple alone before I went to apologise. They took one look at me and the next I remember was waking up in the forest. I’m just thankful I know the woodland like the back of my hand or I would have been in a lot of trouble.”

 “Why can’t you remember?” You realised it was a stupid question as soon as it reached your ears, but it was out there and you couldn’t do much to take it back now.

 “Does your friend know any magic?” He asked, sitting up in such a languid way you were sure it was something only posing models could achieve.

 “Are you suggesting her nan blasted you back to the forest with magic?”

 “Until yesterday you didn’t know my kind existed, is magic really so farfetched?”

 “Okay, you got me there.”

 He smiled and made his way over to the window. “Your friend is almost done out there.”

 “I’m gonna make her some hot chocolate. She’s probably freezing.” Dusting off your jeans you started to head for the kitchen until Oroben placed his hand on your shoulder and spun you around again. He pressed something cool into the palm of your hand and whispered a small thanks into your ear. You cocked a brow at him and grinned.

 “Oroben, you thanked me. I think you owe me a favour now.”

 “Hardly.” He scoffed and moved away just as Nia walked through the door. “Well, I will take my leave. I will see you two again very soon. (Y/n). (Y/n)’s friend.”

 And with that, he was gone.

 “What, we took away the things that stopped him from coming in and now he thinks it’s free real estate or something?” 

 “Probably. Want something to drink?”

 “Please,” she shrugged out of her coat, “I’m freezing my ass off.”

 Nia followed you into the kitchen. You placed Oroben’s gift on the kitchen counter, not giving it a second glance as you went to grab milk from the fridge.

 “(Y/n),” you turned to see Nia holding Oroben’s gift - it was a gorgeous little heart-shaped locket, “where did you get this from?”

 “Oroben gave it to me, why?”

 She slammed her head down on the kitchen counter so violently it made you jump.

 “Nia…?” You asked warily.

 “Am I going to have to write you a list of what you can and can’t do?”

 “Please don’t tell me this is a don’t.”

 “Yes. Yes, it is. Don’t take gifts from fairies. That’s probably what he meant by ‘I’ll see you again soon.’ You owe him another favour, dumbass.”

 “Oh, for the love of -” You slammed the fridge door shut.

[a-table-of-fics]

Cull Goes to Octo Canyon, Chapter 2, Draft 1

[[Yeah, Level 1 is running a bit long, innit? Have to break it into the next chapter even... I am not expecting to do this for every level.]]

           Marie hummed idly as she leaned against the supply shed. It was a small tune she had come up with when she was young, to make being alone feel far less lonely. From the fan letters she had read way back when, she was far from the only one comforted by the song.

           “You done in there?” she called out, looking back and knocking on the wall.

           Cull mumbled something vaguely affirmative, before opening the door. He came out, taking small steps with large snow boots, huddled down somewhat, as if to make himself less visible. He was now in a yellow reflective hoodie, draped over slimmer shorts than he had before. The only thing he was wearing that didn’t change was his beanie.

           “What about the headset?” Marie asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Can’t communicate to you without ‘em.”

           Cull’s ears drooped, and he started tugging down on his beanie with one hand.

           “…Are you sure there’s nothing else?”

           “Oh, come now,” Marie teased, “They’re fresher than you think. What’s the problem?”

           Cull only pulled his beanie further down, covering his eyes.

           Marie rolled her eyes and leaned over to snatch the beanie from him.

           “No one’s hat hair is that bad! Really, you think that look is more important than—”

           Cull gasped as the wool was lifted from his eyes, reflexively putting his hands over his forehead. His eyes were quick to readjust to the light, to find Marie looking wide-eyed at him. His shoulders sagged, and he knew the worst. He lowered his hands in defeat, fully revealing his hair. It could almost pass as a bowl cut, which was popular these days, but it was far too uneven, and there were scars of dried ink among the ends, betraying his cut tentacles.

           “…I don’t want to talk about it,” he finally said, his pink pupils trying to look anywhere but at her golden eyes.

           Marie blinked, then shook her head, quickly regaining her composure. “Aaaaanyway…”

           She handed him a custom yellow Splattershot, and walked him over through the main archway.

           “The entrances to the Octarian realm are camouflaged,” Marie explained, gesturing vaguely at the expanse around them. “So if you see something strange…well, inking before thinking, I always say.”

           Cull looked at his weapon, holding it more like a champagne bottle than an actual gun. He brought it up to look down the sights. His aim was beyond shaky, and his finger just couldn’t draw the strength to even try pulling the trigger. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he tried to aim towards a sticker someone slapped on a rock face.

           He yelped, firing a shot as he felt something give him a sharp poke in the shoulder. He could feel a small amount of ink quickly leave him to refill the tank on his back. After taking a few breaths, Cull turned around to see Marie bring the umbrella back over her shoulder.

           “Like I said,” she said, smiling a very practiced smile, “ink, don’t think.”

           Cull looked back, seeing that the shot made a spatter that just barely stuck on the outline of the sticker.

           “Right,” he nodded, still not quite making eye contact. He moved forward (gup, these boots were going to take some getting used to) and looked out towards the outpost.

           Other than a few puddles of pink ink and a rather large black kettle-like manhole, there was not much to see. It was just brick, concrete, and steel beams, all nearly as worn down as the ancient carved tentacles surrounding it. What Cull found far more interesting, however, was the view. He could see more stone carvings of tentacles in the distance, wrapping around mountains and doing absolutely nothing to hold up the many small floating islands that dotted the landscape.

           “...What is this place…?” he breathed, briefly forgetting his awkward situation.

           “Tentakeel Outpost,” Marie said. “Just on the border of Octo Canyon.”

           Cull stepped forward to get a better look at this scenery. His smile turned into one of shock when he tripped over something, landing with a clang and the coldness of metal. He grunted, lifting himself up just to see the same mix of cement and stone that floored the whole outpost. He gave it a kick and heard more clangs in return.

           “…Well,” Marie said, still looking out into the horizon, “That’s one way to find the kettles…”

           Cull blushed, face showing hints of the same shade of blue his hair currently had. Silently, he pushed himself back up, and held his Splattershot an inch from the floor. He shot the kettle that was beneath his feet perhaps more than was needed, but he no longer had any chance of tripping over the thing.

Peering into the grate on the kettle revealed as much as the manhole did, which is nothing at all. Cull took a deep breath, and gulped. With one last look at Marie, who simply nodded with a smile, he squeezed his eyes shut and squidshifted, letting himself fall into the unknown.

He fell for a while before finally landing on a respawner. He feared a hard, hurtful landing, but his ink-based form absorbed the impact nicely. Quickly reforming, he looked around. His jaw gaped.

The screens simulating sky. The giant mason jars bobbing lazily in the air. The city heavily packed with round buildings far below. It was really a shame that Marie insisted Cull keep his phone at the Outpost; this scenery was giving him some new ideas…

“Agent 4! Agent 4, do you hear me?”

Right. He could be inspired later, when he wasn’t on a mission. He pressed a button on his headset.

“Uh, y-yeah, I hear you.”

“Good. Now, there should be a launchpad dead ahead. Not much else to do on that rock but swim over there.”

Cull looked at the floating slab of concrete he was on. Marie was right – there was nothing here other than turquoise ink (the same color Cull’s ink had changed to when he hit the respawner), leading straight to a launchpad. Gosh, that was a long way down, wasn’t it? He swallowed, quickly squidforming and swimming to the launchpad. He may as well have jogged there at the rate he swam.

“Look,” Marie said, not unkindly, once Cull landed on the first structure, “I get it. You’re in a foreign place, don’t know your way. I’ve been there. But still, if you wanna get the Zapfish and get out, we should pick the pace up a little.”

Cull reflexively put a hand over his haircut. “…I-I was swimming as fast as I could…”

“Oh... Well, we should still be fine…”

Cull could hear her forced smile, and grimaced.

Stepping forward, he suddenly felt a strong stinging sensation climbing up his leg. He looked down to see that he was stepping in purple ink that was slowly creeping up his boots. Yelping, he struggled for a moment before finally pulling his feet back to dry land.

“I…take it you’ve never played Turf War,” Marie said with infuriating neutrality. “Gotta watch out for enemy ink. Better yet, cover it with your own.”

           Cull nodded, shooting the ground in front of him in quick bursts, inching forward on a slowly-growing green path. Well, less “path” and more “landslide”, given his shaky aim and the shallow slope.

At least this was smooth sailing. Even when he felt a little dry, he could dip into the ink and recover his supply almost immediately. Overall, it was shocking to Cull how easy this was going to be.

And then he saw a giant reddish tentacle with eyes.

Cull dove to hide behind a nearby wall, wincing through the pain of the purple he landed in. He waited, with bated breath, trying his best to ignore the splotches of enemy ink that were crawling over his skin.

He could hear the creature muttering to themselves in a tongue vaguely like Inklish, in the way divergent evolution may still bring two birds with similar beaks. Cull could only make out a couple of words, and even those he was assuming were cognates.

Thankfully, the creature didn’t seem to be coming any closer.  But their tone made it clear they were still dutifully on alert. Hopefully, they didn’t know Cull was there.

Cull’s breath was heavy, wavering as he was failing to ignore the pain and fear of this enemy. Oh Cod, what was he doing? What would he do? His hands trembled, and he stared towards the tentacle creature, although this meant he was staring at the wall.

“Hey, um,” his headpiece buzzed with Marie’s voice, causing him to yelp. He heard more gurgles behind him, and hastily slapped a hand over his mouth.

Marie continued, “You know you have a splattershot, right?”

As soon as Cull heard the creature quiet down again, he looked at the gun made for firing ink he had his hands on.

“A-are you sure about this?!” he hissed. “I mean, I know we can splat each other, but…”

           “…It’s an Octotrooper, Agent 4. Octarians are ink-based like us, so don’t worry.”

           Cull swallowed, and hesitantly climbed up to peek over the wall, facing his foe from behind cover. Having a few extra moments, he saw the Octotrooper for what they were.

           Their greenish eyes widened, but soon scowled alongside their large purple lips. The top of the tentacle reached down to the control panel to the tripod their oddly svelte legs were standing on. It pivoted, aiming a large nozzle straight at Cull.

           Cull screamed, turning his gaze and blindly firing. He fell over as his armor exploded, landing in…green ink. He groaned, seeing his undershirt and shorts spark as he climbed up to his feet. Carefully, he peeked over the wall, only to see a large spatter of green ink, and a small ghostly tentacle floating away.

           “Hey, you got him!” Marie said, with forced cheerfulness. “Now, um, you should hang out in the ink for a bit. Let your ink armor regenerate, y’know?”

           Cull didn’t need the explanation; he dove into the ink under his feet. The armor might regenerate, but in the meantime, it was feeling all kinds of weird and uncomfortable. He could even see the ink bubble around him as the armor seemed to draw from it. Finally, he sighed in relief when the strange buzz over his skin subsided, and he kidformed again to see his armor on again, good as new.

           “You okay, Agent 4?” Marie asked, unusually softly.

           “Y-yeah,” Cull replied. “Hey, you know my name is Cu—"

“Not in enemy territory,” Marie warned. “Here, I’m Agent 2, and you’re Agent 4.”

“Right…” Cull nodded slowly, deciding not to ask about Agents 1 or 3. “So, is he okay?”

           “Huh? The Octoslob? Oh, yeah, he’ll be fine, he just got splatted.”

           “Right…”

           Cull moved forward, keeping his Splattershot close and his eyes darting around for more Octo defenses. He could only hope there wasn’t much more between the Zapfish and himself.

There was nowhere he could go except down the open oad, with nothing but open air for cover. He looked down, seeing that the ground was coated in the same kind of green ink he was using. Cull wondered, briefly, where it came from; he hadn’t been over here yet.

“Uh…Mar—Agent 2…?” he asked, slowly. “Is…Is this safe…?”

“I mean, you’re in Octarian territory, kid. I can’t say this mission’ll be a skip in the flower—oh, the ink? Sure! Might be Octoslob ink but seems to be your color.”

There was a pregnant pause while Cull cautiously squidformed and sunk into the ink.

“Wait, you didn’t think the respawners here were meant for you, did you? The Octarians must not have switched the ink out yet…”

Agent 4 kept swimming as Marie wondered. With luck, the rest of this place would have ink he could swim in, and he could just sneak past everyone. He could quickly test his plan, as another Octotrooper was waiting for an intruder like him around the corner. This one had a metal shield, too.

“Good plan, kid,” Marie remarked. “Just take it slow, and that Octarian won’t notice you.”

Cull was glad he didn’t have to try to speed his way through; he didn’t want to embarrass himself further. But there was one problem: this was a dead end. Agent 4 looked around, but there wasn’t much to see except for some boxes and glass windows. He kept in the ink, trying to feel around for some passage without alerting the guard behind him.

“Agent 4,” Marie said, finally, “It looks like the Octotrooper is guarding the launchpad. You gotta take ‘im out to go forward.”

Cull gulped as he quietly kidformed. Thankfully, the Octarian was still diligently looking ahead, and didn’t seem to notice him.

Until, of course, Cull squeezed his eyes shut and pulled the trigger.

The moment the Octarian felt ink hit his back, he spun around to face a hapless Agent 4.

Cull stepped back, but slipped and landed on his back with a yelp. All he could see was those bulbous green eyes sneering at him from behind a large metal shield and ink nozzle.

He fired a few more shots, but they didn’t do much more than put green paint spatters on the shield. He whimpered, darting his eyes everywhere trying to find an escape.

“Agent 4!”

“?!” Cull managed in response.

“Try a Splat Bomb!”

“?!?”

“Oh, for… you should be able to pull one right from your ink tank!”

Not having much choice, Cull reached behind his back and felt for…well, anything at this point. A spare bag or Splat Bomb parts or something. Instead, he found a small…bottleneck? He pulled, and felt his ink tank get a lot lighter and something appear in his hand. It felt like a large tetrahedron.

Yes! This had to be a Splat Bomb!

“There ya go, now you can distract him and—”

Cull threw with a “yah!”

It bounced right off the shield with a clonk and landed right back in front of Cull. Two quick warning beeps and the bomb detonated, causing both combatants to reflexively back away. A shower of green ink covered Cull.

When he wiped it from his eyes, he saw the shield was still up, albeit almost totally soaked in green. The Octotrooper’s eyes blinked open, looking around and settling on Agent 4, moments before the Inkling dove into the ink. He fired a shot - a large, purple gob flying straight for Cull.

Cull struggled to speed away, but only barely managed to dodge the impact. He was still caught in the puddle of enemy ink. He instinctively surfaced, kidforming and wincing at the stinging in his feet. He squirmed, taking one heavy step after another. His eyes widened – he saw another shot coming right for him. He fell prone, letting the shot fly over him while he crawled to safety, or at least somewhere he could comfortably move in. The comfort was questionable, given the circumstances and the fact he just covered himself in more purple, but all the same.

Cull readied for the next shot the Octotrooper would fire, but noticed something. The Octotrooper was stuck in green ink, and was struggling to keep himself and his machine afloat, let alone take aim. The tentacle wriggled and writhed, still looking at Agent 4 angrily.

“Now’s your chance, Agent!” Marie called out. “Splat ‘im!”

Cull almost jumped as his command came in. He quickly ran to the side, firing wildly until his ink tank was empty. He didn’t even see that the Octarian was splatted many shots ago. His throat was hoarse from the yelling and he felt dry all over. He stopped to catch his breath, squidforming again for a minute. Slowly, he emerged again, to see the launchpad.

He took small steps to it, before taking a deep breath and heading to Cod-knows-where.

Thankfully, he wasn’t surrounded by Octarians like he feared. He was on a small rooftop, with a grated balcony in front of him. The balcony had a square gap in the floor, and Cull could hear Octarian conversation below. He crept up and peeked down to see three Octotroopers rapidly patrolling, making what he could only guess was idle conversation.

He sighed, seeing no way around this fight. He steeled himself, and—

Wait!

He pulled out another Splat Bomb, looking at it thoughtfully. He would just drop it down, and it would do the rest. Yeah…

“Now you’re thinkin’,” Marie said, and Agent 4 found himself smiling a little at the sincerity of that. He gave the bomb a little shake, priming it for detonation before dropping it down.

Beep.

Beep.

Bang!

Cull sighed in relief. If only the last two fights were this eas— Why did he still hear gurgling voices?

He cringed, peering over just in time to see three angry Octarians staring him down. Not one of them was splatted, but they were all half-covered in green ink. Cull ducked back, eyes locked on the shots that were sailing over his head. His hearts thumped against his chest. How could he be so stupid to think they wouldn’t just dodge that? And he thought he was doing things so well…

“Hey!” Marie exclaimed. “You had a good thing going there, why’d you stop? They should be easier to cook now…”

Cull inched ahead, looking at the three Octotroopers again. He took aim, hoping to be able to pick them off from here so he can proceed. But which one should be prioritized? Could he take them all out? Were they as weakened as Marie said?

These moments of hesitation did not go unnoticed by the Octos, who kept firing. Most missed, but one connected with one of Cull’s gloved hands, and he dropped his Splattershot. Before he knew it, he was reaching in vain for it when it had already disappeared with a splash in the blast puddle. The fact he could hear Marie suck air through her beak did not help at all.

           “Ooh, all right. Well, I’m sure you—AGENT 4 NO!”

           Too late. In his panic, he had made a dive for his weapon. It was only when he landed and reached a hand into the ink that Cull got a painful reminder out of his current source of panic. The Octarians were still firing at him.

           “C’mon, kid, use another Splat Bomb!”

           He looked around, desperately trying to figure where it could do the most damage. His purple-soaked armor shattered again, and he threw the bomb anywhere, hoping it could at least distract his assailants. All eyes followed the triangular explosive as it sailed over the railing and exploded harmlessly into the air.

           Cull prepared to try again, but nothing came out of the tank. It felt much lighter than normal, he realized, and a quick glance back confirmed his fears – insufficient ink.

           He proceeded to do the only thing he could think of – he ran. He ducked under the gobs of purple, making a mad dash around the corner… right into another Octotrooper. Thankfully there were some crates around Cull could dive behind before the enemy could process what just happened.

           “Erm…” Marie mused, and Cull could hear a forced smile. “Your ink’ll come back, but you really shouldn’t be in enemy territory without a Splattershot… Hopefully we’re near the Zapfish and you can come back. Doesn’t seem to be in our radar, but hey…”

           Cull groaned. He wasn’t sure he could take much more of this.

           Nonetheless, he had to do something. He was already in the fray, and a major part of his defenses was missing. Hopefully he could at least get a moment to think – it sounded like there was only the one Octarian on the other side of this crate. His armor came back, thankfully – he stopped feeling the nagging discomfort. He also felt some more ink drawn out of him, and his ink tank felt heavy on his back again.

           “I wouldn’t look behind you,” Marie remarked. “Just keep an eye on that Octoslob—”

           Too late. Cull was so preoccupied with his attackers, he didn’t even realize that he was between the crate hiding him and a sheer drop from the floating platform to the buildings miles below. Suddenly, an inanimate wooden box became Cull’s best friend in the whole world.

           He had to find a safe way out of here.

           Keeping a tight grip on the edge of the box, he reached to the top of his tank again. Finally, another Splat Bomb. This time, he placed it on top of the crate. Being careful not to lose his balance, he shoved it forward and ducked back down. The bomb tumbled off the other side.

Beep. Beep. Boom!

           And the crate shattered, almost knocking Cull off the platform. He was left in the open, teetering on one foot over a sheer drop. He flailed for a moment, but quickly made his stance on the rail stable again.

           “Ooh, nice balance!” Marie remarked. “And look – you got the Octoslob, too!”

           Cull looked – on top of clearing the area of crates, he cleared it of enemies, too. He breathed a sigh of relief, before carefully getting his oversized snow boots down onto more solid green-stained ground.

           He looked back – the three Octarians he had fled from had cleaned themselves up, and the area was coated with purple again, almost as if Agent 4 was never there. Two of them were patrolling as normal, but one was standing by his dropped weapon, which had surfaced in the enemy ink. They were holding an oversized, rectangular… it almost looked like a phone…

           Oh no.

           “Quit shaking,” Marie admonished. “You’ll need that Splattershot back! You should be able to corner ‘em from here!”

           “…” Cull countered, squidforming and hiding in the ink.

           “C’mon, kid,” Marie prodded. “Think of how cool you’ll look when you take ‘em all out without a primary!”

           There was no visible movement in the ink.

           “Okay, well, if you don’t take ‘em all out, there’s no shame in retreating and trying again.”

           No response.

           “…Look, you have a decent arm. Maybe you can get them from here? You don’t have to approach them at all!”

           Slowly, he peeked out. Yeah, maybe he could do that, at least. He just had to kidform again, and maybe try rolling the Splat Bomb instead of hurling it. Yeah. He… he might be able to potentially have a chance of pulling this off.

           He crept forward, one eye closed as a shaky hand tried to aim an underhand toss. Trying to calculate the proper arc, he wondered: would the Splat Bomb slide far? How high could it bounce? Can it even roll with the triangular shape it has? What’s the blast radi—

           “Hey! What did I say about inking and thinking?”

            Cull flinched, but Marie was right. He didn’t have time to consider all this; one of the Octarians spotted him. He closed his eyes and tossed the bomb. After the explosion of ink, he heard an Octotrooper holler out. He opened his eyes, to find that only one enemy remained. Unfortunately, it was the one with the phone, and they were screaming into it.

           “Make a break for it now, Agent!”

           Cull grimaced, but sprinted ahead. Luckily, the bomb he tossed meant most of the ink was safe to run across. Even better, the Octarian that was presumably calling for backup was struggling against the green, and would have a hard time aiming at the Inkling intruder. Cull ran past the panicked Octo, only stopping when he felt the pain of purple in his feet again. His gun was just to his right, bobbing up and down in the purple ink.

           Well, at least he was getting somewhere.

           He felt empty as he splatted the remaining Octarian. Not because of any emotional issues, but because his ink was running low and needed time to replenish. He took this as an opportunity to lean up against the wall and catch his breath.

           “See? That wasn’t too bad…”

           “…I-I’m sure you’ve seen better,” Cull admitted.

           “This is no time for modesty, Agent 4! There’s a Zapfish to save!”

           “…”

           She was right, of course. But he didn’t have to like it, or where he was, or anything about what was going on.

[malevolentnightshade]

Aftermath (Manarion & Elenwen)

@aurielswaywardson

Elenwen could not concentrate. She had been reading the same report for over an hour. None of it was going in. Finally, she admitted defeat, slumping back in her chair with a sigh. A slight wave of nausea hit her. With another sigh she reached for her glass of water and sipped it slowly.

The past couple of days since Tinuviel had informed her that she was pregnant had blurred into one very long and surreal dream. And a bad dream at that. Elenwen had hoped that as time passed the idea of it would begin to sink in, but instead, the more time passed the further away she felt from it ever being able to register properly in her mind. It did not help matters that whenever she saw Manarion, she felt guiltier and guiltier for not telling him. He must have suspected that something was wrong by now, but he did not try to question her. Perhaps he ought to force it out of her. At this point it might be the only way she would be able to get the words out.

Elenwen sat staring at the contents on her cup with glassy eyes for a long while. Her mind was a tangled mess of fear. What was she going to do? How could she possibly be a mother? No child deserved her as a mother.

Only when she managed to pull herself from her agonising did she realise tears were rolling down her cheeks.

Hastily she wiped the tears away with one hand and placed the glass down on her desk. She needed some air. Both away from here and away from the Embassy.

With Skyrim’s current political climate, standard protocol was that the Emissaries – especially the Ambassador – must be accompanied by at least one soldier, though usually more, when leaving the confines of the Embassy. But on that particular day, Elenwen could barely stand the thought of being followed whilst attempting to get some much need space.

Leaving her office and locking the door, she made for her chambers where she intended to change into something more inconspicuous. She picked out her informal pale blue travelling robes and changed as quickly as she could. Manarion would be busy in his office at this time of day, but she was still paranoid about the possibility of him walking in at any moment. Her chambers were as much his nowadays.

On her way out, the Ambassador donned a black cloak with hood. If she were to be alone, the hood felt necessary to avoid notice. The prospect of her being recognised was slim, however. Her name was known to many in Skyrim, but her face, less so. Especially when it was not coupled with her distinctive Thalmor uniform.

Now, leaving the Embassy would be a little trickier. Elenwen was not about to go scale one of the walls that encircled them, but the front entrance was typically well guarded. She stood by her bedroom door for a good five minutes before an idea hit her.

It was approximately two o’clock and a Middas. Every Middas at around half two to three o’clock the Embassy received a delivery of fruits and vegetables from a nearby farm. If she were lucky, perhaps she could get a ride out of the Embassy on the delivery wagon. The guards would be less likely to stop the wagon from leaving than if she tried to leave by herself.

Time was of the essence. She did not want to miss the delivery wagon. Quickly, Elenwen proceeded to the front courtyard. Once there she lingered in a shady corner, hood up, trying her best not to be noticed. The delivery wagon was not here yet. Taking deep breaths to calm herself, she waited impatiently in the cold as snow started to flutter down from the sky to form yet another layer on the already thick white blanket on the ground below. She shivered. Skyrim truly was a detestable land.

After what felt like a lifetime, the delivery wagon arrived with a surly-looking Nord at the helm. He likely hated the elves as much as the next Nord, but also couldn’t afford to turn down the coin, Elenwen guessed. A nervous knot began building in her stomach whilst she waited for his produce to be slowly unloaded. Finally, his cart was empty. Without a moment to spare, she strode over to the man as he was readjusting the straps around his horse.

“Excuse me?”

The Nord turned around and gave her a suspicious look. “…What?”

Elenwen’s heart was pounding against her chest. “I assume you will be passing by Solitude, yes? Would you be willing to give me a ride?”

He gave her a dismissive look. “Can you elves not walk now, or something?”

Closing her eyes momentarily, she took a deep breath. “I realise it is not far, but please? I will pay for your trouble.”

“Fifty septims.”

A look of offence graced the Ambassador’s face. “Twenty-five.”

“Fine, fine. But I want it up front.” He growled.

Elenwen took out the amount of gold from a coin purse strapped to her waist and handed it to the man, who seemed quite pleased with himself.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” He nodded to the back of the wagon. “Climb up there and we’ll be off, milady.” His voice dripped with sarcasm as he called her milady, but Elenwen didn’t care. Hurriedly she moved to the back of the wagon and climbed up. The cart was far from the cleanest mode of transport she had ever used, with soil and muck staining most of the wood and the odd leaf lying limply on the floor, but she was hardly in a position to complain. As she gingerly took a seat, the Nord did likewise and in very little time at all they were moving.

Now came the real test.

Elenwen pulled the hood of her cloak down as far as it would go and looked very deliberately down at her lap. If her mer noticed her, she would have a lot of awkward explaining to do. The wagon abruptly pulled to a stop at the gates and her heart stopped.

“Come on! I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.” The Nord sneered with clear disdain in his voice as he waited impatiently for the gates to be opened.

Elenwen could not see the faces of her guards, but she could easily imagine their irritation.

There was a clatter and a low screeching sound as the metal gates were opened for them and then a voice from nearby said with hostility to match the wagon driver’s, “Have a nice day, sir”.

And with a snort from the driver, they were off again. Elenwen dared not look up until they were far enough down the road that she could be sure she was no longer identifiable.  

She’d done it. She had made it passed the guards and was fast on her way to Solitude. The biggest sigh of relief escaped her, and a small smile graced her lips. It would hopefully be a couple of hours until her absence was noticed. A couple of hours of complete and utter freedom. Part of her had forgotten what that felt like. Relaxing tense muscles, Elenwen sat back and attempted to savour every moment she had. For she knew it would all soon be over.

~~~

Solitude was dreadfully cold. It had escaped the snow of the nearby mountain top where the Thalmor Embassy sat, but the capital city still felt like it was trapped in a block of ice. The freezing weather did not halt daily life within the city, however. The streets were still bustling, children were still out playing, and the market stalls were still manned by shivering residents.

Elenwen stood by the front gates for a long while, unsure where to go or what to do. Eventually she started walking, casually heading in the direction of the Blue Palace. Few paid her any attention. Under her cloak and hood she did not stand out so much. From afar she likely appeared to simply be a rather tall Nord woman. This was perhaps the one and only time in her life that she was glad to be mistaken as human.

About a third of the way towards the Palace, there was a low wall to one side and Elenwen stopped to take a seat. The fresh air and change of scenery felt… nice. And not having hundreds of papers to read was an added bonus. Her mind was the clearest it had been in a long time.

From a side street, there was a distinct sound of a door being opened and shut and keys jangling. A small voice whined at his mother.

“But I don’t want to go out!”

“Hadran, please don’t make this any harder than it has to be. We need to go shopping.”

“But whhhhy?!”

A short elven womer emerged on to the main street with a little boy holding her hand and another small infant strapped to her chest with a length of white cloth. None of them paid any attention to the nearby womer, save for the baby. The baby stared at Elenwen as if transfixed with a curious half-smile and its tiny ears wiggling at her. Elenwen looked back.

Until that exact moment, she had managed to push her troubles from her mind. Now they were all flooding back to her.

She was pregnant and she had no idea what to do. Tears started welling up in her eyes again as well as an almighty need to hide. She must have looked stupid. Crying, alone in the middle of the city.

Temples were usually quiet places and the Temple of the Divines was not far away. With a great effort, Elenwen got up and started walking in the opposite direction, keeping her head down.

Fortunately for her, the temple was deserted when she got there. Lacking her usual elegance, she flopped into the nearest pew before near instantly bursting into ugly sobs.

It was hard to say how long she was there crying. She only stopped when a priestess walked in from a side chamber. She noticed Elenwen immediately, but visibly hesitated after realising she was an Altmer – a not uncommon reaction – before walking over with a concerned look.

“…You appear troubled.” The priestess gave her best encouraging smile, but it did little to make the womer feel any better. “I offer counsel and guidance to those in need. Would you-“

Elenwen shook her head quickly. The last thing she wanted was to talk her problems through with some Nordic priest.

“I understand. If you change your mind, I will be here tending the shrines. Please feel free to stay as long as you need.”

Elenwen watched her leave and walk back to the front of the temple where the shrines were housed. Drying her eyes on the back of her sleeves, she looked around the hall properly for the first time. It was large and dimly lit. She had never been in a temple outside of Alinor before. The temples there were much brighter, much more inviting. She remembered how her mother used to take her along to services when she was a child. Little Elenwen hated them, but her mother still insisted that she come. Felrian had always been a strong believer in Mara and brought her offerings every year.

Mara, the goddess of fertility. How fitting, Elenwen thought bitterly.

There must be thousands upon thousands who prayed to Mara to be blessed with a child, and yet here she was, pregnant without even wanting to be. Why? Why her and not some other poor womer who had been desperately praying for years? She would swap places with someone like that in a heartbeat.

Had she done something to offend Mara? Was this some cruel joke?

She had to admit she had prayed less and less to the gods as the years and decades passed. She was not as devout as she could be. But surely none of that warranted the hell she faced now. Surely?

Aicendor gave the old oak of the Ambassador’s office door a sharp knock. She was not expecting him, but he did have papers that need her attention fairly urgently. He glanced at them in his arms once more as he waited. And waited. 

Never had he waited so long for the Ambassador to answer the door. Frowning he rapped his knuckles against the door again. And ended up waiting again.

There was no way she had not heard him. He had knocked twice. The creases in his forehead becoming ever deeper, he tried again.

“Lady Elenwen? ...Are you there?”

No response.

Curious. Usually when the Ambassador had to be away from her office, she left a note on her door. Today there was no such note. 

Aicendor pondered the possible meanings of this. Could she be hurt or unconscious? A chill travelled down his spine at the thought.

Taking a deep breath, he reached for the handle and attempted to enter whilst silently apologising for the intrusion. However, the door was locked. 

Doubly curious. Elenwen did not lock her door when she was inside her office. 

Bewildered, Aicendor wondered what he should do. Quickly he came to the conclusion that he should speak to the General immediately. If Elenwen had to leave and go somewhere in a hurry, he would almost certainly know. And if not... The General would want to be the first to know in the case of an unexplained absence.

Without a second to lose, he hurried to the General’s office and knocked on the door.

[fatathlon]

IRONMAN 70.3 Indian Wells – La Quinta – Race Recap

* A video version of this race recap can be found on my YouTube channel here.

A triathlon is a game of contradiction.

You spend hours, weeks, months training for something that lasts moments of your life. Improve at one sport by mastering three. Train slower to race faster. Race slower to race faster. Do it alone, surrounded by people. Never see a finish line as the end.

One of the most challenging contradictions is the trap of identity. To do well, you have to immerse yourself in training for long periods of time. It can become you; consume you. And then what is objectively a meaningless act of physical exertion assumes a station in your life that it never deserved. And you are left with nothing but finish times and medals, to gather dust because nobody cares.

I thought about these contradictions a lot during my training for my first Ironman 70.3 race in Indian Wells – La Quinta California. It seemed fitting in this vein of contradiction that I would train in the cold and snow in order to race in the warm desert. I hoped that by recognizing the contradictions inherent in what I was doing, I could avoid that most challenging trap, and come away with an experience, rather than just another race.

After Musselman in July, I took a break for a few weeks, and then started training again. I had a few minor injuries, which were challenging, but for the most part my training was consistent. I did some bike fitting and got a set of aerobars on my bike. Winter arrived early in Vermont; we had snow on the ground before Thanksgiving. So most of my riding was indoors. I ran outside as much as I could. And weather doesn’t matter in the pool, of course.

Swimming was a major area of focus for me this fall. I got a second swim analysis and really worked on my technique. I was able to take another ten seconds off my 100-yard time, and by December I was swimming faster on average than I ever had.

I had also been trying to eat smarter, both to be healthier and to drop extra weight. With the help of a friend, I definitely had some success here, though it added some stress to our family routine. Kids like what they like.

I was a little concerned about flying my bike to California, because I had only done it once before and I didn’t have to assemble it myself when I arrived that time. So I broke it down and packed it up at the bike shop so I could get guidance with questions that I had and hands-on help from Darren, my friend who owns Vermont Bicycle Shop. I felt a lot more confident once it was all ready to go.

The flights were pretty uneventful, and we made it to San Diego in one piece — including my bike. One of the first things I did was put it back together; I wanted to make sure I would have enough time to solve any problems that came up. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any and the assembly went pretty smoothly.

The Catamount, my custom Orbea Terra, ready to ride

We spent a few days with my brother’s family in San Diego, hiking at Torrey Pines and playing on the beach. It was a nice way to get acclimated to the environment. It wasn’t as warm as I thought it would be, but it definitely was a lot warmer than Vermont. Locals on the beach were dressed in winter coats and hats, but our girls thought it was the perfect weather for swimming in the Pacific.

Before long it was time to drive to Indian Wells. The amazing scenery on that drive took us all by surprise. We stopped for a moment but the day before the race was very busy so there wasn’t a lot of time for sight-seeing.

After getting the family settled at the hotel, I had my first Ironman athlete check-in experience and got to see the pro panel, which included the eventual race winners Lionel Sanders and Paula Findlay. I checked my run gear in to T2, a little overwhelmed by the enormity of the transition area. Then it was time for a half-hour drive to the swim start and T1, to see the swim course, check in my bike and decontaminate my wetsuit before hanging it on the racks where it would stay until race morning. I made sure to mark it well so I wouldn’t have any trouble finding it.

My day would have gone quite differently if it hadn’t been for my teammate Lacy. She and her husband gave me a lift to the shuttle buses, which was already a great help by itself, but when she mentioned her water bottles I realized I had forgotten something at the hotel. Specifically, all of my hydration. It was still sitting in my refrigerator. They drove me back so I could retrieve them and I was so grateful. Luckily we were up early enough that it didn’t affect our day — we got on a bus with no waiting and were off to the start area.

I knew the water would be cold. The reported temperature that morning was just under 59 degrees. There was no warm-up swim. We stood in line at the rolling start for a long time before finally getting into the water. And then, finally, after everything, I was racing.

The first one or two hundred meters were tough. I was hyperventilating from the shock of the water temperature and struggling to relax and find my rhythm. I expected that, but it didn’t make it any easier. Finally I settled in, though, and found my zone. It was clear pretty quickly that I should have seeded myself further forward; nobody around me was actually swimming at the pace they lined up for. I was crawling over people all the way. My goggles half-filled with water but I ignored it since I could still see. When I finally crawled out of the lake, I had a personal best time of 34 minutes. By my watch, I had swum ten seconds per 100 yards faster than my first 70.3 in July.

As I mounted my bike, I readied myself mentally to face the biggest contradiction of the day. I had programmed the wattage target my coach and I agreed on into my bike computer, and I was going to stick to that number like superglue. The paradox of my plan was that the number was low. It was lower than I had expected. It was lower than it was at my first 70.3, and it was low relative to my power profile. It was so low that it meant I’d be doing what amounted to a zone 2 ride for the entirety of the bike leg.

The plan was predicated on the knowledge that the course was pancake flat, and that triathlons succeed or fail on the run. We would conserve energy on the bike, allowing my inertia to do most of the work, and hopefully get off the bike with enough in the tank to really drop the hammer.

So what the bike ended up being was a test of patience, rather than fitness. My heart rate stayed low, peaking only at the very start during the excitement of transition and climbing a tiny hill out of transition. I spent a lot of the time focused on avoiding drafting as much as I could, but it was pretty difficult considering that the roads were absolutely packed with riders. That forced me to surge occasionally, but it was okay because the course was so flat.

The first 20 miles flew by so fast that I was actually surprised when I saw the mile marker sign. At 30 miles I felt no worse; very comfortable and just cruising along. It was a strong contrast to my last race, where the 30 mile marker saw me doing pretty solid work. I began to get excited about the paradoxical plan as evidence in its favor continued to build. That naturally inclined me to want to push harder, but I redoubled my efforts to stay focused and in my target zone.

The highlight of the bike course by far was the Thermal Raceway, which is a private racetrack for cars that we got to ride around on. My watts went up on that section for sure, but it was a match that was worth burning. It’s a unique experience to ride your bike around a banked track with perfect pavement, designed for million dollar super cars. I had a lot of fun there.

The rest of the course was technically uphill but the gradient was so gradual, I barely noticed. I rode into T2 just 2 watts over my target. My family was cheering at the dismount line, which was a nice boost going into the start of my run.

After racking my bike and strapping on my running shoes, I started out on the final leg, to see if the contradictions would be resolved. Here I was, running in the heat and sun after training for months in the cold and snow. Here I was, having biked slowly on purpose to see if I could do a faster race. And here I was, after weeks of training at a jog, pushing my legs to go fast, and stay fast.

I have always run fast out of transition, because it takes a mile or two before my legs really feel normal and I can tell how my body is actually doing. At my first 70.3, I slowed that pace after the first aid station, feeling that I would have to conserve energy to make it through the run without shutting down. This day, though, I felt strong. I felt no such impending decline. I felt like I could hold the pace. So I didn’t slow down.

The run followed asphalt roads for a couple of miles before turning off onto a golf course, where it tracked around the greens on a winding, undulating path that was a mix of concrete, dirt and grass. There were no long straightaways, no places to hide from the course. It was highly dynamic and constantly changing.

A conclusion I had drawn from my first 70.3 was that I had been underfueled. This time, I ate and drank everything I could get my hands on during the run. I think I probably ate two or three whole bananas, a half at a time, plus several gels and all the coke, gatorade and red bull I could grab. I didn’t slow down during the aid stations; I didn’t want to lose my inertia. At one point I took a cup of ice, dumped it in my hat and packed it onto my head. The contrasts had never been more stark — at home I had been wearing winter hats to keep the snow off my head; today, I was deliberately packing ice onto my scalp.

It was a two-lap course which meant that I had to run agonizingly close to the finish line at around mile seven, only to have to turn around and do the entire thing one more time. Now I knew what to expect, though, and I knew where to push and where I could relax. Now all I had to do was hold my pace.

When the second lap of the course started to beat me, I focused on my family, waiting for me at the finish, and steeled myself in the resolve to make this all worth it. What was the point of asking so much of them, to support my training, to spend an entire day of our vacation standing around, if I didn’t make it worth it? I wasn’t going to slow down for anything.

The last couple of miles were hard and my pace started to slip a little bit, but I was still moving faster than I had ever really expected. I found my family just before the finish line, gave everybody high-fives, and then took it over the line. It was a personal best by a long margin, with personal records in every part of the race. I almost couldn’t believe it, but there it was.

If there’s one thing I learned from this race experience, it’s that you can’t always see contradictions as obstacles. Sometimes, they are puzzle pieces in a larger pattern that you can’t fully recognize until you’ve put it all together. You can’t always resist the things that don’t make sense; sometimes, you have to lean into them, make them part of your plan and see them through to the end. And that’s when you can find clarity.

We closed out our trip with a drive through Joshua Tree National Park, marveling at the natural beauty of the desert before boarding our plane to fly back into winter. With California behind us, it was time to look forward to a new year, and new contradictions.

Watch the video version of this race recap:

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[liliisms]

say you won’t let go.

TAGGING: Lili, Cole. @hqcolem

LOCATION: Whistler, CA.

TIMEFRAME: February 9th, 2019. Early sunrise.

NOTES: Lili will only wake up at the crack of dawn for one little thing.

Cole: The shrill ringing of the alarm from his phone on the bedside table was what woke Cole up. It was still dark outside but wanting to watch the sun rise called for an early start so that he and Lili could watch it from the top of Sprout Mountain. He rolled over in bed, his eyes flicking to Lili. It almost seemed sinful to wake her up but he had pre warned her of his plans and he was hoping by the end of the morning that Lili would be more than happy that he had done so. The possibility that they'd be in engaged in just a few short hours was the only thought that was keeping Cole from turning over and falling right back to sleep. He pushed some hair from Lili's face, kissing her forehead softly in a gentle attempt to wake her "Lils..hey, time to wake up" He told her, yawning after he spoke and pushing the covers back on his side of the bed before making his way to the bathroom. He changed, splashing his face with water in an effort to seem more awake and patted his inside coat pocket to make sure the ring was in there.

Lili could hear the alarm going off in the distance but she tried desperately to stay in her dream world. But she was waking up, the details of her dream drifting away as she entered consciousness. Letting out a soft groan, Lili buried her head in the pillow but smiled as she felt Cole's lips brush across her forehead. It was hard to stay cranky when he woke her up so sweetly like that, and in the place they were. "No," she let out a small whine but her eyes opened up anyways and sitting up, Lili ran a hand through her tousled hair and brought her knees up under the covers to sleepily watch Cole disappear into the bathroom. Giving a dramatic groan and flop back on the bed, Lili eventually got up and was pulling some comfortable clothes out of her suitcase when Cole came back out. "I'll be out in a minute," she mumbled and kissed Cole's cheek before shutting the door behind and beginning to get ready.

Cole: Cole smiled at Lili when she entered the bathroom and went over to grab his backpack and make sure it was packed with everything he'd need in it. Cole just wanted everything to go smoothly and perfectly this morning. He slipped his boots on, triple checking that he had everything in the bag before slipping it on his back and taking the room key off the table while he waited for Lili. "Ready to go?" He asked her when she came back out of the bathroom and when they seemed okay to leave, held the door open for her to walk through before shutting it behind himself and following her to the elevator.

Lili didn't put much effort into her appearance, knowing Cole liked her au natural anyways and nobody would be around to see them. After making sure she covered up her tired eye bags, and brushing her hair and teeth, Lili dressed in her warm outfit of jacket, sweatpants with leg warmers underneath and a beanie over her head, Lili came back out to see Cole waiting for her. "Mhm," she nodded, grabbing her lip balm and rubbing them over her lips as she stared at him. He seemed excited or at least - he had /some/ type of energy about him but Lili chalked it up to Cole being more of a morning person than her. She headed out with him and pressed the button to go downstairs. Leaning up against him, Lili let her eyes close. "This better be a very pretty sunrise," she mumbled but the smile on her lips was to show Cole she was teasing.

Cole: coudln't keep the smile off his face. He loved Lili no matter what but half asleep Lili was always a mood he found adorable and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder in the elevator "Like I said, it's not prettier than you but it's meant to really nice" He spoke, stepping out when the doors opened and walking over to the front desk and taking a small bag from them before putting it inside his backpack. Thanking the receptionist, he turned to leave with Lili. The cold wind hitting almost immediately when he stepped out of the hotel. Normally it would just make him want to go back inside, but today Cole didn't mind it. They had both rugged up and the cool temperature was a small price to pay for an amazing view and for what would hopefully be a significant moment in their lives. He held his hand out for Lili to take and began walking, it apparently wasn't too far.

Lili rolled her eyes but smiled at Cole's cheesiness once more. She kept herself leaned against him as they rode down and when they reached the lobby floor, she watched with curiosity as he took something from the front desk. Knowing Cole, he had a romantic morning in store for them and that just made her smile widen. He was always keeping her on her toes and making her feel like a princess. She was a lucky girl. Twining her fingers with his, Lili looked out at where they were supposed to be heading. "So we're walking all the way there? Wow. Good thing I wore the right shoes!" Lili looked down at her boots and then squeezed Cole's hand. "How long do we have until it rises?"

Cole: watched the small village as they walked through it. There were a few small cafe's open but apart from that the streetlights were the only thing lighting up the cobblestone streets and the small laneways. He leaned a little bit closer to Lili to hear her when she spoke and smiled again "We should have about fourty minutes it's only about twenty minutes to half an hours walk from here to the top so it shouldn't take too long" He reassured her. The snow was covering the ground and as they started up the mountain, Cole couldn't help but look around, the town seemed so far away even though it wasn't and slowly the view was getting prettier and prettier the higher up they got.

Lili noticed the cafes too, making a mental note to ask Cole for some coffee once they were coming back down. They were too far up now to go back and she didn't want to miss the sunrise, as grumpy as she was about being awake this early. "Sounds good," she smiled at him and nuzzled her nose into his shoulder before straightening up and continuing the trek upwards. At least they saw pretty scenery as they walked and the burn in her legs wasn't too hard when she knew what was waiting for her at the top. She kept silent, just content to listen to Cole's breathing and the sounds of nature waking up around her. When they reached the spot, she glanced around. "Did you bring a blanket or anything? I'm ready to sit and enjoy."

Cole: took in the sights from the top of the mountain for a moment before nodding at Lili's words and pulling a waterproof picnic blanket from the backpack he had brought, sitting down on it and patting the side next to him for Lili to sit down. He pulled another warmer blanket from the bag, wrapping around the both of them and moving a little closer to her. "I came prepared" He chuckled a little, pulling a thermos from the bag too, taking two mugs and pouring hot chocolate into the both of them and handing one to Lili, his hands closing around his mug to warm them up a little bit. As he looked at Lili again, Cole knew this was his moment. The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon and Lili looked radiant in the reflection from it. "Can I ask you something?" He started with, waiting for Lili to affirm before continuing. “I’ve wanted to ask you this since the day I met you and no, that’s really not a joke. I guess a part of me always knew you were going to be a significant part of my life. Maybe I didn’t know what would happen or how exactly our relationship would evolve. But I just had this feeling wash over me, it was like coming home and immediately I knew that you were the one I was going to spend the rest of my life with. It’s sounds really cliché but I guess it’s true what they say ‘when you know you know’ and I know. Without a shadow of a doubt that you’re it. The love of my life" As he spoke, Cole had kept his eyes on Lili but had set his mug down, digging inside his coat and pulling out the ring. "So.. I guess what I’m really trying to ask is. Will you marry me?”

Lili sat down on the blanket and laid her head on Cole's shoulder. Now that they were sitting, she felt like she could breathe easier. Lili loved hiking, but she /especially/ loved resting. "Oh good, hot chocolate!" She smiled. "I was going to ask for coffee on the way back down but this is perfect." She took a sip and dramatically shuddered, feeling the literal warmth wash her insides. This was perfect and now she was really glad Cole had thought of this. Waiting until he was looking at her, Lili leaned over to peck his lips and then took her previous stance on his shoulder as she watched the sun slowly rise. It was breath taking. The clouds were out and the sky was painted in shades of yellow, dark blue and dark pink. It filled Lili with a feeling that was overwhelming. She bit down on her lip, closing her eyes and just thanked God up above that she had gotten to this moment in her life. When she opened them, Cole was staring at her again and she nodded. "Sure." It wasn't until he started speaking that Lili's heart started beating really hard. This wasn't an ordinary speech - Cole waxed on about how much he loved her normally, but there was a shake in his voice that normally wasn't there. Something was about to happen. "Cole," she started to whisper and her mouth dropped open, a stuttered gasp as she took in the ring he presented to her. "Oh my God. Oh my God." Tears sprang to her eyes and Lili's hand shakily rose to cover her mouth as her lips pulled into the most genuine, most happy grin she thought she had ever had. "Oh my God. Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes, oh my God!"

Cole: felt a wave of immense relief wash over him when Lili said yes, his face breaking out into a grin. It wasn't as if he'd particularly thought she would say no. He wouldn't have asked if he didn't think they were ready, and everyone he had talked to had reassured him that she would but all the same hearing her actually say the words was like music to his ears. He couldn't believe it. That Lili had actually said yes. That they were now /engaged/. It wasn't traditional, he hadn't gotten down on one knee and proclaimed his love for her in front of the world but nothing ever was with them and the moment was perfect nonetheless. "I love you" He professed, taking her hand and gently sliding the ring on to the correct finger before leaning down to capture her lips in a kiss. He pulled away only when he needed to breathe, keeping his forehead against hers. "Do you like it?" He asked her, referring to the ring. It was a plain band with an extremely clear tear drop shaped diamond inside. Cole had thought ring shopping would be hard but as soon as he'd seen that ring, he'd known instantly it was the one. Stunning yet simple and not too flashy, just right.

Lili couldn't stop smiling. In fact, she was looking at Cole through blurry eyes thanks to her happy tears and she reached her fingers up to wipe them away shakily. "I love you too," she half laughed, half sobbed and watched as he slid the ring onto her finger. It moved over her knuckle like it was meant to be there and Lili could almost hear the 'click' of that last puzzle piece fitting perfectly together. She clutched his face with her hands as she returned the kiss, her lips clashing clumsily with his because she couldn't contain the glee on her face. Her heart was beating like a hummingbird - and she never wanted this feeling to go away. When he pulled back, she put her hand in the middle of them and stared down at the ring. It was perfect. It looked perfect. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and she closed her eyes. "I love it almost as much as I love you," she told him and pulled him into another kiss. "I get to marry you!"

Cole: was sure that no amount of money could wipe the smile off his face. Lili had said yes. They were getting /married/. The smile that was etched on Lili's face made his heart flutter a little bit and his own smile only widen. He knew he'd had nothing to be worried about. There hadn't been anyone else for him since the day they'd first met all those years ago but still, there was something so special about knowing that it was now official. "I get to marry you too!" He couldn't help the excited tone his voice had taken. Everything had gone exactly to plan. "I asked your dad at Thanksgiving and he gave his blessing"

Lili laughed at the matching excitement in Cole's voice. There was no sarcasm, no attempt to be funny, he genuinely was elated at the thought of marrying her and had planned such a romantic proposal. She nuzzled her nose against his and looked at the sky to see that the sun was now fully up and shining down on them. Later, Lili would write a poem about this moment and compare it to what felt like something high above smiling down on them. For now though, she just wanted to soak in this moment with her /fiance/. "Oh my God," she spoke softly, touched that he had even gone that far. She was sure her dad appreciated it too. "Cole. Thank you." She pulled him in for another kiss and then pulled out her phone. "I need to capture this."

Cole: was more than happy that the moment had gone exactly as he'd planned for it to. "I know how much your family means to you and I really wanted to know that he'd be okay with it" He explained to her. The fact that her father had said yes had only reassured Cole even more that asking Lili to marry him was something that was okay. He'd never doubted his feelings towards her and he knew it was time so his blessing had only further proved it. He kissed her back gently, pulling away and chuckling a little when she pulled out her phone. "I thought about taking pictures but I thought that was too suspicious"

Lili really appreciated that Cole had considered her family in his planning too. He was right, family was everything to her and him just knowing that further reassured her she had chosen the right man to be with. "God, my mom must've been going nuts not being able to tell me all this time," she laughed and wiped at her face again. Ever since November and Amy had have to have been silent? Her poor mom. She was going to laugh about this later tonight with her for sure. "Just a tad," Lili teased and then handed Cole her phone. "Can you take it?" She asked. She put her hand in his, raised her hand to her mouth to pose (it was warranted, okay?) and grinned as Cole snapped the photo from his POV. "We're gonna break the Internet, babe."

Cole: laughed a little at Lili's response "I'm not sure if she knows to be honest. I only talked to your dad. so i'm sure she does, but I didn't tell her" Cole wasn't really worried about her Mom's response, he knew Lili's dad wouldn't have agreed if he didn't think Amy would have said no. "Sure" He responded, using the phone to take the picture for Lili. "I bet, we seem good at that" He smiled. It seemed everyone usually went up in arms whenever they posted something and Cole knew this would be no different. He handed her phone back before he pulled his own phone out to send a text "I just have to text Mads. She came ring shopping with me and I promised her" He texted the red head quickly before putting it away and grabbing his camera out. "Stay right there" He instructed, moving further back and kneeling down in the snow, his knees were definitely getting soaked but Cole didn't mind. He positioned the camera, messing with the settings for a moment before taking the picture. It was perfect with Lili in it and the sunrise in the background.

Lili saved the photo for now, not wanting to post it just yet. She wanted this moment to be her and Cole's exclusively for just a little while longer. When she did post it, she knew her phone was going to /blow up/ and she wanted zero distractions. Not even rolling her eyes playfully like she did every time Cole suggested taking a photo of her, Lili happily posed with her ring in prominent view and then looked over Cole's shoulder at it before giving it a soft smile of approval. He always had the most perfect way of capturing her. "One more," she promised and holding her phone up high, pressed her lips against Cole's and closed her eyes as she heard the shutter click. When she looked at it, she knew it was going to be her new screensaver. She looked exactly as she felt - on top of the world and blissfully in love.

Cole: looked down at the camera, approving of the photo he'd taken. He truly was his own worst ciritic when it came to his photography, but he always found it hard to fault the picture in front of him. It hadn't been taken with the thought of the right angles or lighting or anything technical. All he'd wanted to capture was the feeling of the moment and the view that they had so they'd have a memory to cherish forever. He wasn't usually one for cheesy photographs but he didn't mind posing for the next one. The whole thing had just felt perfect and they deserved to have one ultra cheesy picture for it. "So.. I think our hot chocolate has frozen solid, up for some coffee when we're done here?" He suggested, not really ready to leave the moment.

Lili decided that the selfie of them would be for them only. She didn't need to show the world, all she needed was a photographic memory of it forever for the both of them. Sliding her phone into the pocket of her jeans, Lili glanced down at the blanket and hot chocolates they had abandoned in the heat of the moment. Laughing, Lili ducked her head down and then shook it. "Coffee for you, hot chocolate for me?" She suggested, never really enjoying the taste of coffee anyways and she held out her hand to Cole. "C'mon, fiance. My treat. Think of it as..an engagement present," she winked at him.

Cole: gave a playful roll of his eyes when Lili spoke again "Obviously. I couldn't force you to drink coffee" He spoke, slipping the last of their things back into the backpack he'd brought as well as his camera. He put it over a shoulder, taking the hand Lili had offered out to him as they began to make their way back down. "I'll never get used to hearing you say that" It sounded so official and Cole loved it. "We should eat at some point too" Cole was content to just stay in their little bubble for a while before they went around telling anyone because he knew once they did, it would be everywhere.

Lili squeezed Cole's hand as they began to descend - which, thankfully, was a lot easier than making the way upwards. "I'm probably going to use it ad nauseum for the next few months so you will," she chuckled. Anytime she got a chance to remind Cole he was marrying her, she was taking. She'd probably also be that annoying girl who flashed her ring a good amount of times before somebody tactfully told her to cool it. "Eating's great. But..do you think we could order in the room? Looking at this ring and at you..kinda makes me want to /only/ be wearing this ring, you know?" Her voice was sweet but Lili gave Cole a smirk, nudging her hip playfully against his. Engagement sex had to be done, it was just how it worked.

Cole: raised a playful eyebrow when Lili spoke again, "We've been dating for how long? And you neglected to tell me that you read minds? Babe, that is some important information for your future spouse to know" He joked as they made it to the bottom of the hill and back down the trail leading to the town. Cole wasn't about to object to anything she had just said. She was right, eating could definitely wait for the time being. They needed to celebrate.

[angelkurenai]

Holidays with the Skarsgards - Bill Skarsgard x Reader

Title: Holidays with the Skarsgards

Pairing: Bill Skarsgard x Reader

Warnings: None

Requests: Could you write something about Bill Skarsgård taking the reader to Sweden with him for a vacation with his family, but the reader and his family have met before so she's gets on well with his dad and brothers? thank you xx Can you do a Bill fic where his brother Gustaf introduced you to Bill (and you worked with Gustaf on the show Vikings)? Can i request a bill imagine where they're a couple, she's also a famous actress and his family loves her, the two go to sweden to celebrate a holiday with the skarsgards and fluff ensues

AN: This was waiting in my pc for so long I only now found the chance to upload it!

“I can't believe that Christmas is almost around the corner.” you breathed out, a wide childlike smile on your face as you stared outside the window. You looked at the passing scenery in awe, loving the decorations that have been set all around town perfectly combined with the snow adorning the streets and rooftops.

“Excited much?” Bill asked with a chuckle, taking a moment to glance at you from the driver's seat.

“Very” you breathed out, looking back at your boyfriend “It's not every year we get to spend it with your family. I mean sure, we do visit them and Sweden very often but when it comes to Christmas-” youlet a soft sigh, easing back in your seat while gazing at him “I'd rather not be anywhere else.”

“I don't know if I should be flattered or not.” he chuckled and you raised an eyebrow.

“Come again mister?”

“I thought your happy place was in bed with me, cuddling and gazing at each other.” he gave you a small pout and you giggled, leaning in to kiss his cheek.

“Bill, come on you know what I mean!” you rested your head on his shoulder “Of curse my happy place will forever be you having me in your arms but I'm just saying, with our line of working and all this filming we've both been doing over the past year, it's nice to have some family time... and my family is certainly out of the question!”

“I still think we should have given them a chance this year, though.” he mumbled, kissing the top of your head.

“My family is crazy Bill. I love them, but there is only so much time I can spend with them! Besides, when I'm around your family is a little more normal than usual.” you added with a shrug and he scoffed rolling his eyes.

“My family? Normal? Yeah right.” he chuckled “Do you know why Keeping up with the Skarsgards even exists?”

“Honey I get to experience it myself.” you giggled, pecking his lips “I know better than anyone else! But I mean, last time we were here it was for your premiere of 'IT' and we didn't get to spend much time with them. We could go see mine sometimes later, your parents surely miss you even more.”

“Said the academy-awards one.” he chuckled and you scoffed, rolling your eyes.

“Out of the two of us lemme know better who is worth all the awards! Besides, my parents are closer and we can visit them anytime. Yours are so far away and most of their kids are scattered all around the globe being kickass actors and what not. I am sure they really miss seeing you all gathered, even if it's just once a year.” you gave his hand a squeeze as he nodded his head “Plus-” you gave him a sly smile “Is there a particular reason you want to spend time with my family?”

“What?! What are you implying?” he laughed nervously and you shrugged innocently.

“I'm not implying anything, I am just asking you that's all.” you chuckled “Is there some specific reason you want to see my parents this much and me to be there too?”

“What? Oh no, no of course not!” he said a little too fast, laughing nervously soon afterwards “No, I just-” he cleared his throat, shifting nervously in his seat “I thought you'd miss them, that's all. Last time we were at their place I just had a good time, that's all.”

“Alright” you dragged the word, still looking at him suspiciously “I'll let it slip this time, but you can't avoid answering this forever. I know there's something on your mind.”

“No, (Y/n).” he laughed nervously “No, I told you. It's nothing, don't mind me.” he whispered, glancing at you to see you shrug.

He let a soft sigh, chewing on his lower lip because truth was he had a lot in mind but he was still planing on how it would be the best way to ask that four-words question yet.

~*~

“(Y/n/n)!” you heard the all-too-familiar voice of your friend and your boyfriend's brother, Alexander, as the door swungopened “Where's my little pumpkin!”

“Oh Alex!” you giggled as you gave him a squeeze and he picked you up and spook your around “It's Christmas, not Halloween. You're never gonna stop coming up with those stupid nicknames?”

“Heck no, smalls!” he chuckled, kissing your cheek “It's my favorite thing in the world, for my favorite person in the world! I'll come up with a new one this time.”

“Wow Alexander, yes it's great to see you after all this time too, brother!” Bill said sarcastically and you giggled.

“He's just jealous I am getting all the attention!” you teased and Alexander gave you a small squeeze.

“Oh don't be, Billy! It's not your fault your girlfriend has won all of our hearts.” he kissed your temple.

“But you'll always know I am her favorite Skarsgard of you all boys!” you heard the female voice and a smile instantlyspread on your lips as you turned to face Bill's sister, Eija.

“Oh dear, Ei!” you exclaimed, a squeal leaving your lips as you let go of Alexander to hug her “Look at you! How the hell do you even do that?! Keep looking more and more beautiful every time I see you!”

“Look who's talking! Gosh, you are even more beautiful yourself and I didn't even think it was possible! Does my brother have anything to do with this perhaps?” she asked with a smirk and wink and you giggled.

“He does, I cannot deny that.” you turned to glance at Bill, winking at him as he chuckled.

“Oh really now?” she asked, sounded pretty interested.

You missed the look she gave her brother who only shook his head and she sighed in disappointment.

“Well, it's great to see you two are doing great! As it is to spend the holidays with you. Your room is all set up for the two of you, just careful to not be very loud cause the walls are pretty thin.” she nudged your side and you chuckled.

“Who knows, it's all up to your brother. He can really make me do anything he wants in the end.” you giggled and she laughed, hugging you more.

“Whoa ladies, getting way into detail aren't you?” Alexander made a face and you laughed.

“You're just jealous it's not about you!” you teased “Besides, you don't really know how it is for us to go into detail about stuff.” you said, making Bill's eyes widen.

“Of course we leave stuff out cause you're my brother and it's gross as hell but still-” she grin mischievously, shrugging and you laughed.

“What” she asked “She's like a sister to me, hopefully one day sister in law-” did she give Bill a look or was it your idea? “So there are no secrets!”

“That I second, you are already a Skarsgard!” you heard another voice and let go of Eija to turn and face Bill's father, Stellan.

“Coming from you, I think I'm gonna have to accept it Stellan!” you chuckled and he grinned as he came to give you a warm hug as well.

“You look amazing, (Y/n), not so different from last time I saw you sadly.” he said and you gave him a perplexed look.

“That should be a good thing, right?” you asked with a chuckle and he shrugged.

“Depending on how you see it, it could always be twins and that for a woman is-”

“Whoa, dad!” Bill exclaimed, effectively cutting off his father who merely shrugged as if it was nothing.

“Honesty is the key, son, you know it.” he mumbled as you only stared dumbfounded between the two Skarsgards.

“Am I missing out on something here?” you whispered and Bill shook his head furiously, elbowing his now laughing brother “Focus on carrying the luggage Alex.” he muttered to him before letting out a soft sigh “No, it's nothing (Y/n). Nevermind, my dad's just too old that's all. And Alex is... Alex, we don't pay attention to him.”

“Alright” you dragged the word, unable to hide a smile though “Maybe I'm really starting to see where it's all going and all I have to say is: It's amazing to see you all guys!” you ended with a giggle and Stellan chuckled.

“It's wonderful to have you here, (Y/n), as always! If it wasn't for you I don't think I'd have the chance to see all of my kids together to be honest.” he wrapped and arm around your shoulders as all three of you headed towards the living room.

“Don't mention it, Stellan. You know I love you all like a family, and spending Christmas with you all here in Sweden has become my favorite thing in the world!” you grinned, glancing at Bill talking with Alexander almost secretively as if they were sharing secrets “You've done an amazing job at decorating the entire house, too, and the smell of all the food is already making my mouth water!”

“Oh that's one thing you'll find more than enough of in here, food!”

“And testosterone apparently.” you giggled as you saw Alexander and Bill grab as many luggage at once as they could and ran upstairs.

“Bill, careful please!” you yelled after at your boyfriend, shaking your head while laughing. He could be such a dork sometimes and when you added Alexander to the mix then he just turned into a five-year-old in a minute.

“Gosh, your boys will never be mature, you know that right?”

“I do, yes.” he laughed “And sorry for that previously, but I need to give him a mental kick to get a grip of himself, you know?” he whispered to you and you grinned, nodding your head.

“I understand, Stellan, I know if it wasn't for you and your sons I don't even think Bill would have gotten the courage to ask me out to begin with.”

“Well, you had him pretty smitten that's for sure!” Stellan chuckled and you grinned.

“He wasn't the only one, I think Gustaf really helped me out a lot with accepting the fact that Bill could really have a thing for me.” you laughed “Speaking of which, where is my swedish Viking?”

“Right here!” you heard your old co-star's voice and before you could realize it you were swept off your feet once more by another Skarsgard and spoon in the air.

“Gustaf! Oh my gosh, how long has it been!?” you squealed, hugging him as well as he laughed.

“Certainly far too long, my dear! Hope my brother is treating you well.” he kissed your cheek and you were unable to hold back a laugh when you took notice of the pair of christmas antlers on his head.

“Look at you, you're rocking these!” you pointed out with a giggle “Yeah, he really is. And we both owe it all to you.” you said with a soft smile, remembering that day as if it was yesterday.

“Alright...” Gustaf trailed off, (Y/n) this is Bill. Bill this is (Y/n).” Gustaf motioned to each of you as he introduced you two, making it even more awkward than it had been at first “Which you probably already know since you never shut up about her cause you are such a fanboy!” he mumbled and you noticed Bill glaring hard at his brother and kicking him subtly but no less hard.

“What?” he exclaimed “I swear-” he turned to face you “Just as I thought it wasn't possible for him to ramble more about you we became costars and I mention it to him and there it gets worse!”

“Gustaf” Bill said warningly.

“And then I tell him to come over on set to meet you and freaks out! He hasn't been such a nervous mess when he went to talk to his first crush back when he was a teen!”

A giggle left your lips mostly at the look on Bill's face that was a mix of terror, at what his brother would say, and embarrassment, at what had already been said.

“Long story short, here we are. Have fun kids, but not too much cause you're in public.” he grinned “I'm sure you're gonna thank me later for this and oh-” he turned to Bill “Don't worry, I'm not that much of a terrible brother, she has a crush on you too! She fangirls over you like there is no tomorrow when she thinks nobody's paying attention by the way!” he had winked and left the both of you alone and two blushing messes.

~*~

“I think Sam and Valter need help downstairs with finding a couple extra chairs or something?” you said, cutting the two Skarsgards' talk short.

“Oh yep, I'll be right onto that. Give you two lovebirds some time.” Alexander winked at you as he walked past you to make his way downstairs.

“So... who won?” you asked with a smirk as you approached your boyfriend.

“What?”

“The bet. I'm guessing you put a bet since you were running up the stares like a bunch of five-year-olds.”

Bill chuckled, running his fingers through his hair “He did.”

“Aw do you want a kiss to make it all better then?” you asked with a small pout and he grinned at you, nodding his head eagerly as he wrapped his arms around your waist and you wrapped your around his neck.

“Absolutely, I would love some affection now.” he breathed out against your lips before you kissed him softly.

“You know-” you whispered “If you want some extra comfort I can always give it to you.”

He chuckled, kissing your lips again “The guys would never guess how good we are at trying to keep it low.”

“Well, it is pretty hard for us anyway.” you giggled “So... what did you lose this time? Will I get to know another aspect of you I'm gonna love as much as I did last time?” you asked with a smirk and he laughed.

“No, no it's not that.” he shook his head “It's... mostly your Christmas gift. Uh I couldn't decide between two to be honest, I was mostly scared to give you the second and he is all but forcing me to, now.”

“Oh Bill, you know I'm gonna love anything you have for me baby, right? I don't care what it is, I love you and that's what only matters to me. As long as it's full of love then I know I will adore it.” you breathed out, hugging him as you rested your head on his chest.

Meanwhile Bill let his smile flutter as nervousness overcame him when he glanced in the suitcase that he had long ago hidden very thoroughly the small velvet box with the ring he had bought for you.