#Consider this... an invitation to forget. All I ask is that the Little Fighter does not forget my wisdom that I gifted him

[fish-and-forbear]

Thinking of First Friends.

I don't entirely understand why the other one hurts himself so much for MY sake.

I don't understand why he cannot put this grief to rest. I am happy! I would rather focus on the good things. I am so glad that I met my first friends. I am so happy to see THEM happy! I made them laugh! We laughed and we cried and we healed and we bonded over beautiful things. And they helped me remember my family, and remind me of what I really need from life to be happy.

And it was fun and wild and strange and messy. Worse things have happened with much less happy memories made along the way. :)

It was beautiful and strange and sad, as most fighters' stories go. I just wish he would stop hurting himself for "letting" me make one or two mistakes. For spiraling and being confused and making a fool of myself.

If our friendship was as truthful as I thought it was, then we all handled it alright. He, my other one, is so terrified that my mere name brings pain to those I still care about... I dearly hope not. I was just beginning to like this name, ha ha. :)

I wish I could soothe this body's heart. I wish it would beat softer and not be so shaken by things that were not his fault. A new quest for me to undertake. It is so easy to help strangers when most of all I need to help the one that got me here.

We will get there!

For now, we rest. We say goodbye to our momentary families and we take a crossroads elsewhere. Our paths diverge and that is alright. Like... finding kindred souls in the darkness. We bond around the fire, we eat, we drink, we comfort and laugh and cry and hold hands, rough calloused hands in broken tired hands. And we leave with our burdens just a tiny bit lighter.

I was afraid of being forgotten, but what does it matter? I would rather be forgotten then only remembered for my mistakes.

I don't think it matters either way. I have my closure. It's been fun and that's enough for me. I just hope the other one realizes that soon. I hate to feel him reliving tragedy because of something I did... I don't understand everything but I do recognize spirals and being unable to let go. But it's all in the past. We are here, myself and my new companions in this body, together. We are not alone anymore. We're going to be okay. We just need to trust ourselves, and the friends we make, however brief. :)

- Grist

[diavolosthots]

YAYAY THERE OPEN!!! Okay so can I ask for Mammon angst with the brothers reactions to Mammon breaking from their comments

I looked through all 14 beadcanon masterlists because I couldve sworn I already did this. Turns out I only ever did this in fics.

Warning: angst? Maybe? Depends on your definition of angst. 

THE BROTHERS reacting to Mammon breaking from their comments

Lucifer:

Never would he have thought that Mammon would actually break. Sure, Mammon would give him the usual whine spiel of “I didn’t do it!” “Lucifer, please!” while screams echoed off of his walls, but never had Mammon actually… broken. Granted, Lucifer is more of a physical “I’ll show you!” type rather than a verbal fighter, and Mammon would usually take those like a champ. But him breaking from words? It’s unusual, to say the least. Of course he’d tell the rest of his brothers to stop immediately while he goes and takes care of Mammon. He is his favorite, after all. No direct verbal apology will come from him, but he will sit there and listen and then do a few of Mammon’s favorite things. That’s his way of apologizing. 

Mammon:

Usually he’d suck it up and just take it, maybe pout in his room later, but when he has someone to impress? Aka MC? How is he supposed to keep cool? The words always got to him and damn, he KNOWS he’s not the brightest star in the sky, okay?! Not everyone can be as smart as Satan, c’mon! But at the same time… it’s so, so exhausting and hurtful to constantly hear it. Yes, he knows there’s things he needs to fix, but habits are so hard to break. Having everyone around him yell instead of helping him isn’t doing any good, either. Of course he would break… At this point, it was just a matter of time.

Leviathan:

He doesn’t hate Mammon, far from it actually, but he wouldn’t consider him his favorite brother, either. Seeing Mammon break would, however, bring a lot of guilt to light and he suddenly finds himself sad along with the 2nd eldest. Yes, he knows that he doesn’t have a right to feel sad over this, but it’s hard because it just reinstates that he truly is nothing more than useless and stupid. Maybe even more stupid than Mammon. He wouldn’t outright go to Mammon to apologize, either, and only when he has had enough of his self-wallowing pitiness would he go and seek out his second oldest brother, mumbling an apology and inviting Mammon to hang with him. Maybe, just maybe, he would even let Mammon win at a few games. 

Satan:

His first reaction to Mammon breaking is… laughter. As a matter of fact, he and Belphie would most likely be the ones who add tears to the already streaming waterfall. It’s only hours later when he realizes that Mammon was truly, really breaking when he makes an effort to reconcile. Then the guilt hits him like a ton of bricks and honestly… if it weren’t for Mammon, he wouldn’t have half the thirst for knowledge he has today. Satan always told himself that being smart, being intelligent, was a necessity, but truthfully he just feared being played, especially being played by someone like Mammon. The second eldest does have issues that need to be fixed, no doubt about that, but they shouldn’t have taken it this far. He does go and apologize, even going as far as to planning a brotherly make-up dinner where Mammon gets to choose, but he knows Mammon would take advantage if he was shown too much kindness, so that’s where it stops. 

Asmodeus:

Truthfully, he tries to steer away from Mammon as much as possible, unless it benefits him in some way, shape, or form. Parties? Modeling? Mammon is the best one to go to for that, but actual, deep conversations that make one pour their heart out? Not really. Still, he does feel extremely bad that it has come to this point. They’re brothers, after all, and the last thing he wants is for Mammon to do something truly dumb. He does give a verbal apology and he even pampers Mammon for a die, offering an open ear and his shoulder, if he so wishes to use it. 

Beelzebub:

He’s one of the lesser culprits. Sure he has said his fair share of things, but more often than not, besides Lucifer, Mammon usually would come to him if anything was up. Crazy, right? To now be part of this endless batter, makes Beel quite sad. After all, he’s the one who would like for all of his brothers to get along and for them to be a real family. He wishes they were closer, although they’re already extremely close. Less of the fights… less of the accusations… more love. So he also verbally apologizes to Mammon and offers to listen. Hell, he even shares his favorite snacks with the guy, but he’s also the one giving Mammon a reality check. Some things he does deserve and as long as everyone’s on the same page and actively working toward a better future, Beel doesn’t see any problems

Belphegor: 

Like mentioned before, him and Satan are most likely to continue the mocking and teasing long after the guy breaks down. In all honesty, Belphie feels little to no remorse at first and, if anything, thinks Mammon has no damn spine to be reacting that way. He’s also most likely to be the one that says “if Mammon wasn’t so stupid to begin with….” and it’s not until Beel gives him a scolding that he realizes what he said is unacceptable. He doesn’t even hate Mammon. He hates Mammon’s constant lying and idiocy. Much like Lucifer, he can’t bring himself to verbalize this apology, though, and he instead just tries to forget it while also doing small acts of kindness for the demon. By small he means he transferred some money onto Goldie. You’re welcome. 

[verymuchimmortalcat]

Maribat March Day 30: Goodbye

ao3

@maribatmarch-2k21 

At the beginning Marinette's 12 and Damian's 9. And by the end she's 14 and he's 11.

Damian was arguing with his sister as she haphazardly threw things into a bag. She was leaving, not on a mission but for good.

“Not for good Damian. I’m just leaving the League you’re at liberty to join me. I’m not against it.”

“But Mother and Grandfather wouldn’t want you to leave,” trying to sound as convincing as possible even though he wasn’t sure if he believed it himself.

Marinette scoffed, “if it was up to Grandfather, I wouldn’t be alive. You and me both know that. I wouldn’t be shocked if half the League knows it. Mother probably wants me alive for whatever long twisted plan she has in mind. Though, I doubt she still does with my refusal to kill.”

“Mother said she might take me to meet Father soon-”

She inhaled sharply, “That's half the problem here. You know more about him then I do. You are actually told things about him. All I know is what Mother thinks of him. Mother’s opinion does not matter to me. Nor do I actually know if she is right.”

“But you’re a much better fighter than I am, they wouldn’t want you to go.”

“I’m also a girl. The League doesn’t want a female heir, otherwise Mother would have been named heir long ago and we wouldn’t be here.”

“But-”

“You’re grasping at straws here Dami. Like I said feel free to join me.”

“Mother-”

“I know Damian. You don’t have to come. But I am leaving.”

He holds back tears, Mother says al Ghuls don’t cry.

She continues, “If you ever do get out of here, I’m going to try to find Sabine Cheng, remember her?”

He nods mutely. He remembers the woman. He hadn’t seen a lot of her. But she had taken care of Marinette from birth. He remembers Marinette once telling him she was more of a mother to her than Talia would ever be. It makes sense that she would try to find her.

“It won’t be hard to find me with the Batman’s resources after all. And I promise you I’ll be there the second you call. This isn't goodbye.”

Damian doesn't believe her.

She hugs him tightly, murmuring an, “I love you little brother,” into his hair. He feels her grip loosen around him and before he can look up, she’s disappeared into the shadows.

.oOo.

Marinette makes it to Paris. Sabine had told her once that she had always dreamed of going there. When she walks into the Dupain-Cheng Bakery for food the last thing she expected to find was that the Cheng in the name was from Sabine’s. An understandable mistake really, anyone who had known Sabine during her time in the League wouldn’t have expected her to open up a Bakery.

Sabine sees her first. She freezes when she’s swept into a hug. Her assassin instincts telling her to injure the offending person. And then Marinette realizes it’s Sabine and melts into the hug. Her tiredness taking over as her months long search comes to an end. There are tears all around. Leaving her husband to take care of the bakery, Sabine takes her upstairs into their home and plies her with sweets.

Marinette is enrolled in the near-by school. She makes friends with the students there. Then she gets the Ladybug Miraculous and for the first time in her life is grateful her League training. She creates a plan for Cat Noir’s training and they both work on making sure they don’t accidently end up busy during those times, to the best of their capabilities. Sabine figures it out almost immediately and offers any help she can. And Marinette with the support of her friends and family, embraces the responsibility of the Ladybug mantle.

.oOo.

There was a coup in the League. Mother had left him with Father so he could continue his training. Damian had to find Marinette. This was all that ran through Damian’s mind when he first was thrust upon the Wayne Family.

He knew he needed the Batcomputer to conduct his search. But his Father was yet to accept his existence, let alone allowing him access to the batcomputer. Damian decides he has to prove his worth. So, he attempts to kill Drake, surely if he can defeat him Father would consider him acceptable and help him find his sister.

He is reprimanded. Told that this is not the League and that, “Bats don’t kill.” He remembers ukhti’s face then, frowning in disgust at the thought of killing. And his father looks him in the eye and asks him if he understands, Damian realises Marinette shares their father’s eyes.

He thinks about it a lot more after that, what ukhti would consider acceptable and what she would not. Grayson says it’s a massive improval and Damian can’t bring himself to say, “I’m only doing what my sister would do.”

Then Father dies, and while Damian now has access to the Batcomputer he can’t bring himself to introduce the topic to Richard. Knows Richard will see Father in Marinette more than he ever will in him, the same way Damian sees his sister in Father. So, he looks into Sabine Cheng. Finds that his sister is living with her and is using the name Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She seems fine, so Damian doesn’t call. He remembers her promise, knows that she’ll be there the second he needs her. He’ll give it time and then he can bring it up with Richard.

.oOo.

Lila appears a year after Ladybug. But Marinette was trained to be an assassin, and quite literally has lady luck by her side. And while her friends find Lila’s stories wonderful in the beginning, they slowly realise that’s all they are. Stories.

A few months after Lila’s appearance. Hawkmoth is taken down. But Marinette and Adrien keep their miraculous. Master Fu takes the rest of the Miracle Box with him to London, so he can spend his days with the love of his life.

Adrien and her become closer friends than before. Fighting for their city's safety everyday would do that. Tom and Sabine take him in and it’s like having a brother again. And Marinette wonders if Damian’s still in the League. Maybe she should bring it up with Sabine, if they could take him away from the League.

.oOo.

Before Damian can talk to Richard, Drake comes back with proof Father is alive. Damian’s first worry was that he’d have to start from the beginning yet again but when Father comes back, he acknowledges Damian’s presence and calls him his son.

Father’s busy. Damian keeps trying to bring up Marinette but he never seems to catch Father at the right time.

He notices Damian trying to talk to him more often, and invites him on a mission to Paris to check out some relatively new heroes.

Ladybug shows up almost as soon as Batman and Robin take to the roof tops of Paris. She looks annoyed and says to Father, “I don’t know what you think you’re doing here-“

Damian doesn’t register the rest. He knows that voice. It’s been years since he last heard it, but he’d never forget. The next thing he knows he’s darting forward from where he’s hidden behind his Father and has tackled ukhti in a hug. He hears their father’s confusion behind him but he couldn’t care less.

.oOo.

Marinette lands on the rooftop, annoyed. She has no idea what Batman’s doing in her city. Father or not, he doesn’t know that anyways, but it doesn’t give him an excuse to come to the city uninvited. Marinette has barely begun to speak when she’s tackled into a hug. Familiar arms wrap around her, and she can hear Damian sobbing as she brings him closer once she gets over her initial shock. She’s crying too. Well, all the plans for getting Damian out of the League won’t be necessary now.

Marinette leaves the League mainly because of

1) The way she was treated by Ra's and Talia as a pawn, she didn't want to play along with their schemes

2) She didn't want to kill

a continuation (it’s only on ao3)

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

TFC is Wels' dad and no one can convince me to headcanon otherwise

-🌺

I completely and totally agree! And I know this wasn’t technically a request but it inspired me so much that I wrote a lil oneshot about it! 

...

<Welsknight> Hi, can I come over to your house?

  TFC frowns at the unexpected message on his communicator. Setting aside the flowers he was planting, he types out a reply.

<TinFoilChef> Of course, Wels. When would you like to come over?

  Wels’s reply came in almost instantly. 

<Welsknight> Now, if possible.

<TinFoilChef> Yes, of course. I’ll leave the door unlocked. 

  However, he only just has time to go inside and put away his flowers before he hears a noise outside and glances out the window to see Wels landing neatly on the grass outside his house. 

  Chuckling, he opens the door. “Hello, Wels. You got here fast.”

  “I… may have been sitting in a tree nearby when I messaged you,” says Wels sheepishly. “Sorry.”

  “No problem. Come in.”

  He invites Wels into the house and the two sit down in opposite armchairs in the living room. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asks pleasantly, sensing that Wels is itching to talk.

  Wels fidgets. “Well… the Hermits were doing a bit of PVP earlier and I decided to join in and… I got beaten.”

  TFC nods patiently. “Okay…” 

  “Yeah, it probably doesn't sound like a big deal to you but I’ve always been amazing at PvP. I used to be able to beat everyone easily, but this time, I only just managed to beat Etho and I got my butt kicked by False and Xisuma of all people. Xisuma! He’s always talking about how terrible he is at PvP but he BEAT me! I don’t even really know what happened; one second I was doing well, then the next I was on the ground with a sword in my face.” 

  “Uh huh…” TFC continues to nod. 

  Wels sighs. “I just don’t get what happened to me. I used to be amazing at PvP but now I’m just… average. I must’ve gotten worse somehow but I don’t know how. What… um… What do you think?”

  TFC thinks for a moment. “What if the problem isn’t you?”

  “Huh?”

  “When’s the last time you trained for PvP?”

  Wels frowns. “Oh, I don’t remember. I haven’t needed to practise for so long that I…”

  He trails off and TFC nods approvingly as he sees that Wels has realised now what’s wrong. “Uh huh.”

  “Oh…” Wels’s eyes widen. “I didn’t get worse; the others got better.”

  “Uh huh,” says TFC again, raising an eyebrow. “Because you stopped practising. You’re a naturally talented fighter, Wels, but raw talent will only take you so far. You gotta hone your skills if you want to even keep up with the people who actually practise, let alone beat them.”

  “You’re right,” says Wels in wonder. “I was being cocky by thinking I never needed to practise. I’ve always been one of the best PvPers so I never considered that others would one day surpass me. If I don’t train, I’ll never get better.”

  He pauses, feeling a sudden urge to ask TFC for help. There’s no-one else Wels would trust more to help him train than TFC. But he has the feeling that this might be something he’ll have to deal with on his own. 

  TFC watches him steadily. They know each other well enough that TFC has a good idea of what his friend is thinking. “Would you like me to help you?”

  Wels’s head snaps up hopefully. “Really? You would?”

  “‘Course. You’ve got more potential than you know, Wels. It’d be an honour to help you realise it. Besides, I got loads of ideas and tips to help you improve.”

  “Wow… I-I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that, TFC. There’s nobody else I’d rather have train me.” 

  TFC stands up and beckons to Wels, a smile on his face. “C’mon, let’s go out now. You got time?”

  “Oh!” Wels blinks, before hurriedly hopping out of his chair. “Yeah, I got time!”

  “Good.” TFC takes an iron sword from a chest and hands it to Wels, before getting one for himself. “Come out here.” 

  They go outside onto the grass and take up positions opposite each other, about four blocks between them. 

  “I know you’re not a beginner,” starts TFC, “but we’re gonna start slow. Okay?”

  Wels nods determinedly. “Okay.”

  The two spend hours training together. TFC is very familiar with Wels’s fighting style and capabilities, so it’s very easy for him to keep up with the younger man in a training setting. He doesn’t baby Wels but he doesn’t make things too hard for him either. After a while, Wels even begins to loosen up, forgetting for a while that they’re training and not sparring for fun. It’s refreshing to battle someone who knows him as well as TFC does. 

  Wels doesn’t notice that sunset has arrived until he realises he’s starting to struggle to see in the dim lighting. He backs up a few steps, opening his mouth to tell TFC that he’s ready to stop. 

  “Wels, watch out for the creeper!” TFC shouts suddenly. “Behind you!”

  With lightning fast reflexes, Wels frantically scrambles backwards. TFC’s warning allows him to avoid being blown up immediately but the creeper’s explosion still sends him flying. He hits the ground on his back, painfully wrenching his neck. 

  Immediately, TFC appears at his side and helps him sit up. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

  Wels shakes his head, his heart still pounding. “I-I’m fine. Sorry, I…” 

  “No, no. Don’t apologise. Here, come back inside.”

  He guides Wels into the house and sits him down in his armchair, before quickly setting about making a hot drink. 

  Wels watches him, trying to ignore his shaking hands. “Are you okay?”

  “Me?” says TFC in surprise. “Sure. Why?”

  “You, uh… look a little shaken.”

  “Oh.” 

  TFC brings the mug of tea back to the living room and hands it to Wels. “Here, drink this.”

  Wels sips at the hot drink, secretly marvelling that TFC remembered his favourite flavour of tea from that one time he mentioned it several months ago. The sweetness of the raspberry tea helps calm him down.

  TFC sits down in the chair opposite Wels, trying not to stare at his friend. “I’m sorry.”

  “What for?” asks Wels. 

  “I should’ve seen the creeper sooner. You could’ve died and lost all your stuff.”

  “Don’t worry about it, TFC; it was just a creeper. And besides, if you hadn’t called out, it would’ve just exploded me right there and then.”

  “Yeah, but-.”

  TFC breaks off. He had been about to say “it’s my duty to protect you” but he doesn’t want Wels to ask the next obvious question. TFC is too awkward to explain that he sees Wels as a son. 

  Luckily, Wels seems to understand, even without his friend putting his thoughts into words. “Really, it’s okay. Thanks for your concern, though. And thanks for helping me train. It’s late now but we can pick it up again tomorrow?”

  TFC nods happily. “Yeah, definitely. If you need to get going now, you can take the mug with you. I don’t mind.”

  “Really?” Wels smiles and rises to his feet. “Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

  TFC nods, letting himself pat Wels on the back. “See you tomorrow.”

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #803: Bus Tour (Super Smash Bros Ultimate x Persona 5)

11:56 a.m. at Isle Defino's Tour Bus......

Purple Female Pianta: (Points at the Giant Pianta Statue Behind Her) And here, ladies and gentlemen, is where we see the statue of the greatest hero our town has to offer. His brave, peaceful heroism has been an inspiration to us over the years and we will never forget the sacrifice he made for our home. (Sees a Hand Raising Up) Yes, Girl with the curly hair?

Haru: (Lowers Her Hand) Pardon the sudden interruption....(Pulls Out a Mini Book From her Purse) But I just finished reading a chapter about that man from the History Books you've given us yesterday. Is it really true that he was ambused and killed inside a cave?

Purple Female Pianta: I'm afraid so, my dear. He was given an letter from an unknown source to come by that very cave. (Turns Away in a Overly Dramatic Like Fashion) And much to everyone's surprise and shock, it was all a merciless trap. Those vile, heartless, monsters ambushed that poor, beautiful man and left him there alone in his last, dying breath! Once the rest of the tribe venture their way to the cave two days later, it was all too late.

Morgana: So.....He didn't bother bringing any weapons with him? Or have bodyguards and reinforcement come along the cave with him at the time?

Purple Female Pianta: I can't say that he have. He thought he was invited into a peace talk. He was more of a lover than he was a fighter.

Morgana: But that was still a stupid move on his part! How could someone just walked into a deep, dark cave with no weapons for protection and defense, no reinforcements, and all without noticing something was up from getgo?

Futuba: Yeah. And what kind of sane person would host a peace talking inside a literal cave to begin with. If that's not an immediate red flag of something's up, then I don't know what is.

Morgana: Right!?

Purple Purple Pianta: That's right. That wonderful man gave those criminals a benefit of a doubt. Only to walked into a trap that cost him his life..... It's quite ironic once you thing think about it.

Lavenza: No it isn't.

Purple Female Pianta: (Turns to Lavenza Who is Seating Next to Morgana) Hm?

Lavenza: (Smiles Softly at the Pianta) That is not at all what an irony is. I believe that the turn events, you described, would be classified as painfully expected.

Purple Female Pianta: (Couldn't Believe What She is Hearing) B-B-But.... what exactly are talking about, little girl!?

Lavenza: The word Irony is a noun that is also known to be a state of affairs or an event that seems too liberally contrary to what one expects and it's mostly amusing as a result. For example, your former hero was known as brave and resourceful. Yet his careless and naive belief in peace has ultimately gotten the better of him in the end.

Purple Female Pianta: (Eyes Widened in Complete Shock) ('GASPS')

Futuba: (Giggles Softly) Holy crap, Lavvy-chan! That was amazing! We should totally get you a tiny microphone to drop for Christmas this year.

Haru: (Gasps While Blushing) Oh my goodness. That would be adorable!~

Lavenza: A microphone would be nice gift for the occasion. (Turns to Morgana) We should share it together, Mona-Chan.

Morgana: (Smiles Brightly) Not really that much of a singer, but yeah. I'm wouldn't mind sharing it with you.

Lavenza: (Smiles Brightly) Splendid!~

Purple Female Pianta: (Immediately Glares at the Girl in Blue) How DARE you insult the name of our lord and savior!? He was GREATEST, most BRAVEST man that this island has EVER KNOWN!!

Lavenza: Statistically speaking, that says more about you than it does about him.

Morgana: ('Scoffs') Yeah. Considering the fact that you guys still blame Mario for something he didn't do to be begin with. And even after he risked his life to save this Island from any threats afterwards.

Purple Female Pianta: (Stomps her Feet at the Ground) You wanna take this outside of this bus, you little twerps!? I can throwdown with a child and her dumb alley cat! DOESN'T HURT MY FEELINGS IN THE SLIGHTEST!?

Haru: Lay a finger on my babies, and I will tear that fucking statue down to ground myself. Along with you and everyone else on this bus.

Futuba: I'd listen to her if I were you. Saw her kill an evil monster once with an axe. ('Clicking Tongue') Not a pretty sight if you ask me....

Purple Female Pianta: (Immediately Gets Scared Shitless by Haru's Threat Fair Warning) ............D-Duly noted? L-Let's move on to our next destination, shall we?

Pichu: (Shivers in Fear While Sitting on Sephiroth's Lap) P-Pia-Pi......

Sephiroth: (Rubbing the Top of Pichu's Head While Watching Everything That's Been Going On in the Back) I agree, Pichu. That girl seems more intimidating than I originally thought. I suppose her title as "Noir" has more meaning after all. ('Sigh') Regardless, It's best that we stay clear of her fore the foreseeable future.

Pichu: (Nodded in Agreement) Pichu.

@keyenuta

@princekirijo

@cyber-wildcat

@caleb13frede

@26shann

@ma-lemons

@albion-93

[mccnyoongi]

strawberry kisses ⇢ jjk

⇢ word count: 1k+

⇢ warnings: best friend!jk, roommate!jk, lots of kissing, PINING, u both are in love with each other, not smut!!!!! fluff only, suitable for all ages!!!!, jungkookie good boy :(, this is not proof read in the slightest lol

⇢ request: think about THIS. jungkook is her bff and he buys her a chapstick that tastes like strawberries and after she points it out all he wants to do is to taste it. smut and end it however u want 🥺

⇢ a/n: genuinely started writing this in like... november lol and have tried to finish it roughly a thousand times since but its just NOT happening so take these crumbs ig!!! theres no smut tho even tho there was supposed to be ): 

The potent strawberry flavour is only the second thing Jungkook notices on your lips, right behind just how soft they are- which he guesses he only has himself to thank for being the best roommate ever and putting in the bar minimum and grabbing the first tube of chapstick he can find by the cash register. Later he’ll make a joke about how he’d buy you all the lip balm in the world if it means he gets to taste it the same way, but your lips on his are making his brain short circuit and reboot.

All he can manage to think about in his you addled brain is how happy he is that you sent that last minute text requesting something to help your chapped lips right when he was about to check out, that you commented on how good the flavour of it was after you swiped it across your lips in the most unintentionally teasing way possible, that when he asked to try it, you giggled and shook your head, and how it all lead to shared kisses between two roommates who had been sneaking glances at each other since they had moved in together over five months ago. A classic love story, or something.

He’s almost in mourning when your lips finally part, lungs desperate for air, but he refuses to go far, his nose brushing against yours. He gives a fleeting thought to how you have his heart on a collar and leash with a single kiss- after months of pining and longing, yes, but still. Later, when you’re sleeping in his arms, he might consider it a blow to his supposed manliness, and promptly shrug, considering it a worthy sacrifice if it means he gets to cuddle you to sleep like that every night.

But for now you’re all he can think about, manliness be damned. “How’s it taste?” The words take a while to get through to Jungkook, like they’re walking through quicksand as they try to get from his ears- the ones he covers with his hands whenever you compliment him- to whichever part of the brain is in charge of comprehension. 

He blinks at you once, twice, three times and shakes his head once he realizes you’ve asked him a question, which, by design, requires an answer. “Hm-” He tilts his head from side to side, as if in deep thought, his eyes twinkling with a familiar, playful glint. “Fruity? I guess? Need another taste to be positive though.”

He smirks, all coy and confident, as if he wasn’t red eared and stammering through his syllabells just minutes ago, when you had first offered him a taste of the tangential lip chap- Jungkook has no idea who Burt is, and why he has all these bee’s but he’s very grateful for this strange bearded man and his collection of insects. 

“Fruity, huh? All I can taste on you is cheese-” You wrinkle your nose at his corny ploy, refusing to admit that you find it (him) mind-numbingly endearing, so instead you chastise him. He takes it in stride though, and giggles good-naturedly, his distracting fingers tightening around your waist and he lets his forehead come to rest on your shoulder.

“Don’ be mean,” He whines, and like every other time he breaks out that child-like drawl, you want to crumble into a pile of dust on the warped hardwood of the aged apartment- but you don’t have to coo and awe in silence anymore. No, that kiss broke a dam, an extremely thin dam holding back a rumbling wall of sexual tension and pathetic pining, and you’ll be, well, damned, if you waste anymore time with Jungkook containing and hiding the way he makes your heart melt, all syrupy and sappy. Jungkook has turned your life into strawberry milk… You’ll come up with a better analogy later.

For now everything is strawberry sweet, and that’s enough. It’s always been sweet though, living with Jungkook, but now what was once an aftertaste is overwhelming, all consuming, and all the other words that mean “changes your entire fucking world in a half a second.” Yeah, he was able to do all that with a kiss, he’s truly the golden boy, good at anything he tries. Bastard.

He ‘hmphs’ in mock frustration, the air from his nose and mouth tickling the sensitive skin on your neck- he notices the sensitivity there, how goosebumps raise from one simple action, because of fucking course he noticed, nothing escapes this boys’ watchful eye, does it? He takes advantage of this new piece of knowledge, one that he will treasure for years to come, almost immediately, playful smiles disappearing from both of your faces as he presses soft kisses to your neck, and nuzzling into it equally as softly. “Kookie-”

“Hm?”

“We have things to do you know, places to be,” You wouldn’t be interrupting him if you didn’t have to; every nerve and instinct in your body was screaming at you to drag this boy into your bedroom, the one that’s been adjacent to his own for the past year and a half and make him yours in the most primal of ways. But Jimin and Taehyung, the devilish twosome, who had, unbeknownst to either you or Jungkook, been rooting for the exact thing they were putting to a stop, invited everyone to a night at a video game bar in town. And you hated bailing on people, disappointing them in any way.

“Mm.”

“So we should probably uhm-” You clear your throat in a desperate attempt to gain some self control. From what you can tell, it has little to no effect, your restless heart still playing jump rope in your chest. Double dutch, two times speed. “Get going, like, soon.”

He finally pulls back from your neck, relenting, at least for now. Instead he leans his head back, as if physically pained by the reminder of the plans he had agreed to not even twenty-four hours earlier. What a moron that Jungkook was, he thinks, as if the poor kid had any idea of the dilemma he’d be facing the next day. The sucker had no idea what was coming…

But Jungkook had to deal with reality now, how he didn’t want to stop kissing you, but rather, wanted to kiss and explore every single inch of you until it was burned into his memory. Yeah, he’d make a meal out of that. Amongst other things… “I know, I know,” His nose wrinkles in frustration. “I know. It’s just- just that I finally- finally get to, you know-”

“I know.”

“So, I can’t just go play fucking Street Fighter and drink beers with Jin and just forget all- all of this? Not wanna I don’t know, kiss you and just-”

“Well why wouldn’t you be able to kiss me?” Jungkook’s eyes almost double in size.

“Well they’re all, uhm, there, and there’d be questions, and- I mean not that I care what they think if I were to, ah kiss you…” He takes a breath, cocks his head the way he does whenever he’s thinking way too hard and bites at his lip. “Then I guess- I guess-”

“What do you guess?” You probe, hearing him about to trail off.

“I guess I could kiss you whenever I want to, Kim Seokjin be damned,” He only seems to realize what he’s said after it’s left his mouth. “I mean-like- as long as you want that too, to kiss me, I mean, because I wouldn’t. If you didn’t. If you didn’t want it, I mean.”

“I do. Want it, I mean.” You confirm rather than tease, because your poor boy looks like he’s already three quarters of the way to a heart attack. He breathes a sigh of relief and rolls his eyes at his own ridiculous nature.

“Good,” He nods, a small smile inching it’s way back onto his mouth.

And suddenly you’re excited at the prospect of Jeon Jungkook kissing you between rounds of Street Fighter, high off of kicking Seokjin’s ass and the taste of cheap beer still lingering on his tongue- and despite the bitterness of the alcohol, everything will still be sugary sweet.

[lilfriezatyrant]

The Gilded Appearance

A few minutes have passed since he disappeared from this terrestrial hell...or rather he was recruited for a very special tournament.

This lousy monkey had actually managed to convince him. But he can't blame him. Anything is better than to have to be exposed to this cocoon and listen to horrible parades with disgusting fairy songs. He is in a gate that connects this world with the beyond...some human with magical powers had brought him here. A circumstance he does not consider important. His body seems stiff. This repulsive shell hanging from a cherry tree tightened him up very much and he had no freedom of movement at all. What an annoyance! And audacity!

He lets his tense neck circle, whereupon a cracking sound can be heard immediately, his pure ivory-coloured skin appears slightly turquoise due to the blue flames flickering in the portal. One eye looks slowly upwards and he immediately notices a glow over his crystalline skull. Immediately an annoyed sigh sets in. "How degrading for me...of course I have to keep this grotesque halo," he closes his eye again, had briefly determined where Goku is and puts his hands on his hips while he slowly struts to him. His tail flickers elegantly with every step behind him. "Hey, Frieza! I am Glad you're he--!" But he interrupts the mouthy voice with a glorious stroke in the pit of this stomach. "Oops, pardon me...my hand slipped...", he opens one eye again, it is almost like a cheeky wink and he rejoices in the pain of this simian barbarian. His white fist bores into his stomach one last time, but before he could react, his face distorts itself into a painful expression. This monkey had started a counterattack! Also a punch in HIS very stomach. He gritted his perfect teeth and heard the cheeky words of the Saiyan. "Oh, I am also sorry. Mine too." Inside he is loaded with wrath, but he keeps the control he has acquired over the last years. A real anger vein pulsates at his temple, but he smiles slightly, his vermilion eyes glowing at his counterpart.

"Okay Frieza, no more hand slipping. We have to hurry. We only have a few minutes left." The emperor stands upright again and immediately recovers from this little unexpected punch. He seems only slightly confused, his eyes widening as Goku gives him a hand. "Take my hand. I will take us away from here immediately", he himself, in his slight amazement, only brings a quiet "Oh?" as an answer. He chuckles slightly amused, "Then what shall slip next?"

But he doesn't take the hand of this monkey, because a ghostly creature floats panickedly towards them...probably it belongs to this other being. "Baba! We are in trouble! There are several creatures outside! We're surrounded!"

The Emperor puts his hands behind his back and cackles slightly. "A welcome party? You did not tell me that, Goku." He jokes with a smirk. But he does not get an answer, and the other goes out of the building.

His tail flickers enthusiastically behind him for a moment before he slowly follows him.

Oh? Fighters from another universe? This should be interesting. Unknown assassins who probably want to destroy fighters from other universes so that they can no longer participate in the tournament. A...perfidious manner, yet effective.

He watches the action, stands at the entrance of the building, his view directly to Goku and the... locusts in the sky. The unsuspecting monkey asks him questions, but his voice only meets with deaf ears. Clever assassins. Loyal people who understand their work...or they will be subjected to even worse torture if they fail?

Although the Saiyan's contact person gets on his nerves...the same answer follows constantly, namely none.

"I won't tell."

But in the next moment the chest of this dog-like alien is pierced and he falls into the water, rises again, his face screamed in pain. It was a deathbeam, straight from the deadly index finger of the Ruler of the Universe. But he had deliberately missed the vital organ so as not to cause an initial death here on Earth...at least not yet. But his shot was so precise and so close to Goku that he had poked his cheek. "Oh...I am sorry again...I guess my hand slipped after all." his smug grin remains and he can see a certain seriousness in Goku's eyes. Of course he has perfectly memorized his previous words in his head. He never forgets. I guess they will have some minutes left for a little warm-up exercise. "You know, my body has become quite soft in hell...", his smug manner can be heard on the outside and his body slowly covers itself in a golden aura. "And I thought I could loosen it up.", his changed ki continues to grow, it jst like a golden flame in which he is blazing and that's exactly how his inside feels: His body is exposed to so much heat that even the strongest material could melt...but he has got used to it, his body and his organs know this procedure...besides he is a cold-blooded being, literally and heat is very pleasant for his organism. Everyone here isn't moving... nobody is talking. Everyone watches this divine transformation, everyone seems to be spellbound. Just the kind of attention he was hoping for. Very good. A promising audience and it will be his greatest pleasure to eviscerate them. Every single being here.

At the moment, however, he is completely focused on this new power, which he has mastered after another stay in his own hell. Glaring light is emitted as his body takes on a new form in this shell. He has spread out his arms, his back is leaning backwards, almost forming a hollow back, his piercing eyes are closed and he still wears his perfect smug grin. It is the coming anticipation of the bloodbath with which he will inaugurate his golden skin.

Although his posture is inviting, every single limb is under tension. He has to bundle this incredible energy before he can release it and each of his metamorphoses is painful, an irrevocable fact. But it is never visible to an outsider.

Every single cell of his slowly changing body takes on an even more resistant form, micro scales merge together to become more robust as well. The purple spheres on his shoulders disappear completely under a stable golden layer. More muscle mass is formed on his membrane. His perfect transformation is almost complete...the colour gold to humiliate every still living Saiyan and to be superior to this monkey race.

And the hot feeling inside does something very curious: slight signs of goose bumps are visible...but only Frieza himself knows this, no one else would noticed. This unbelievable increase in power causes this. He is excited about what is imminent...he  is bloodthirsty and will show no mercy with his finally mastered power.

His strong toes briefly brace themselves, his nails claw into the stone floor before they glow golden for a moment and relax again. The same tension can be seen on his upper body and arms, which have increased considerably in muscle tone. His facial features are also briefly tense for a millisecond before it turns purple and his smirk is still clearly visible with his black lips.

The glistening light had spread over several kilometers during the night and is now slowly fading as his body completes the transformation.

His upper body makes a forward movement. It is like a bow, an invitation for the honour that all attendees were allowed to experience and it is also an augury for the coming disaster. Executed by the Golden Deity who is reborn.

His scarlet eyes open again in a sharp gaze, his golden and massive tail wagging briefly and swiftly once behind him, before he in his sublime form announces his arrival: "Behold the true power of the Golden Frieza!"

@dragonblobz I promised you I will give you a golden terror, didn't I? uwu

[freshbloodandgothicism]

‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’ - Ben Solo x Reader

Title: Paradise by the Dashboard Light Ship: Ben Solo x Reader  Word Count: 9.4k words Rating: SFW leads into NSFW (there is a marked stopping point for SFW) AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23185204 Summary: There is a small celebration on base and Reader tries to get Ben to attend the party for fun and dancing but he doesn't feel welcome. When he does get convinced to go, things start to get a little intimate when dancing with one another at the bonfire before it starts to get heated aboard the Falcon. First Kiss. First Time.

‘Ben! Ben, come on! It’ll be fun, I promise.’ you called, walking around the corridors of the Millennium Falcon. He was clearly hiding from you. It’s not that you weren’t good friends, if anything you were incredibly fond of him, but he was without a doubt avoiding you this time. There was supposed to be a small party at the Resistance base that night, a celebration of sorts since the last recon mission had been beyond a success and the generals thought it would be a good way for everyone to blow off some steam. It felt as though everyone had made a conscious effort to make more happy memories with each other after Leia’s passing. You were excited, it wasn’t often that you got to just relax and have a good time with the people you cared about, especially nowadays since there was almost always more work to be done. However, there was still one person who was adamant about not wanting to enjoy himself and you’d be damned if he was going to sit in the cockpit and sulk for another evening like he did during the last party.           Your footsteps echoed slightly as you went, tracing your fingers along the ageing grey walls. Ben lived in the Falcon on the base, since it was unanimously, but somewhat begrudgingly, decided that it should belong to him after he joined the Resistance just over a year ago. Of course, his joining caused absolute chaos. The majority of the fighters didn’t want him there, which he knew was more than understandable considering, well, Everything. Some of them spat in his direction because they knew he wouldn’t retaliate, or moved away from him so quickly he expected them to stumble over their own legs, or what was even worse was when they spoke about the things he had done loud enough for him to hear. He knew he couldn’t escape that. But that was what made him feel the worst. Still, there were a few people that fought for him to stay; those who believed in him and those who didn’t want to lose the last thing Leia had left in this world. This wasn’t enough to stop Ben from feeling unwanted in the cause, so even though he stayed in the Resistance, he mostly kept himself to himself and rarely left the Falcon unless he had to for missions and briefings. He either spent most of his time alone, talking to the small handful of people that wanted to associate with him or practising in the woods. You pitied him, even though everyone said you weren’t supposed to. You just couldn’t help it. You wanted to make him smile, he always made your heart flutter and you longed to see him happy. A small shuffle could be heard in the distance, followed by a metallic clang and an ‘ow.’ Found him, you thought.           ‘Ben?’ you asked again, moving closer to where the sound came from. The fact he was hiding from you told you that he already knew why you were there. You heard a sigh and Ben stepped out from behind one of the doors. You smiled at him and he returned what looked like the ghost of what could have been a smile back in response. It would have been a lie to say you didn’t find him handsome, but there was something about the black t-shirt, dark cargo pants and high boots that would have almost made you stutter if you didn’t compose yourself at the last minute.             ‘So that’s where you were. I knew you were hiding from me!’ You joked, gesturing vaguely to behind the door. He nodded but furrowed his brows slightly before beginning to speak himself. ‘I just don’t think I should go. No one is going to want me there.’ Ben turned to lock the door he had come through and cocked his head, inviting you to walk with him. You had no idea where you were going but you’d quite happily go anywhere he invited you to.              ‘That’s not true. I want you there.’ You pleaded. ‘No one else does. I think I’ll just be in the way of other people trying to forget about people like me.’ He sounded a bit defeated, the tone of his voice tugging at your chest.                ‘Once again, not true. You have to give them a chance to warm to you first-’ You started but had to pause for a break in the middle of your sentence to catch your breath. Ben walked very fast since his legs were so long and he could sometimes be rather difficult to keep up with. ‘This could be a good opportunity to socialise!’ ‘They’ll feel on edge. It doesn’t matter anyway, I have reading to do. I’ve also been sent out to a planet in the Viodet system, I won’t be back until late even if I’m in Hyperspeed. It’s too far.’ The tall man led you both to the main living space of the Falcon where he started to set up his work things on the table alongside the frozen game of Dejarik. One side was very clearly on its way to losing.            ‘Were you playing with Chewie?’ You asked, investigating the gently glitching figures. ‘Ah, yeah. He cheats.’ Ben replied, glancing up slightly to look between you and the board.            ‘Oh definitely. Big time.’ The words chimed out of your mouth, trying to not make it sound like a big deal that he had begun to reconnect properly with Chewbacca. You knew it meant a lot to Ben and didn’t want to embarrass him by bringing it up. It made you feel warm that the two were able to enjoy each other’s company again, even if neither one can truly ever move on from what happened in the past. You stayed and talked with Ben for the next hour or so, lightly sprinkling in the suggestion that he should make an appearance at the party every now and then, until he finished his paperwork and needed to get ready to leave for the Viodet system. You said goodbye and waved Ben off from outside the Millennium Falcon, smiling as you watched him return it with a small, slightly awkward looking wave. You imagined he looked far more comfortable in the cockpit of the Falcon then he ever did in his Tie Silencer. - In order to have the celebrations later, all of the day’s work had to be completed early. This meant that the entire base was running on twice the normal speed and it was flooded with a half stressful half excitable atmosphere as everyone was frantic to get their work finished. Your role was with telecommunications so even though it wasn’t typically the most interesting of roles, it suited you well. On occasion, your subconscious wandered to Ben and what he must be doing, how he was feeling, or if he was thinking about you too. In a friend way, of course. You did like him, you had already had to, at the very least, reason that fact with yourself. But, you didn’t think he was ready to move into that kind of relationship with someone yet. He had too much to forgive himself for first. Ben needed time and patience more than anything. You had always told yourself that whatever happened between the two of you, you would let Ben make the first move if he wanted to so that it would be on his terms. It meant that you had been suppressing your feelings for him for a while but you told yourself it was better to just be his friend and someone that he could trust, that was enough for you right now.           Since you didn’t have as much work to do today as other people you started prepping different decorations and food for the evening. The Resistance did not exactly have the budget to spare for such frivolities, so it was rather a homemade and make-do party with members providing what they can and everyone being grateful for it. Several people pooled their saved credits to buy alcohols and liquors to be shared, which itself was a rarity at that point. For your own share, you went to the base kitchens with an armful of ingredients you had gotten in advance to make a dish named Oantcrab soup that you had enjoyed on your own planet in your youth. It wasn’t exactly a complicated dish but it was hearty and could feed a lot of people, so it seemed ideal since you weren’t a brilliant cook by any means. You took your time cutting the seafoods you had gathered and listening to the snaps and various crunches of the vegetables, it probably seemed a bit weird to an outsider, but it wasn’t often that you got to have such fresh food on the base so it was a small joy to have. By the time the food was ready and stored away for the cooks to look after, it was time to get ready.            Of course, this wasn’t going to be an extravagant affair by anyone’s standard but it still felt special enough that you wanted to look nice for it. Appearances don’t exactly hold out for much in the Resistance, so the ‘nice’ was essentially a warm shower, brushed hair and a couple of little luxuries you had gathered such a small bottle of perfume, your mother’s old hair grip and a small handful of flowers that you had planned to tuck behind your ear. Whilst getting ready, you thought of Ben. It not only made you sad that he wasn’t going to the party, but mainly that he felt he really wasn’t wanted there in the first place despite all the efforts he had made to be a part of the Resistance. He couldn’t change his past but the weight of it was drowning the chance of a present and, most importantly, a future. I’ll definitely get him to go to the next one, you thought to yourself as you yanked through the tangles in your hair.            The bustle of the barracks got even more excitable as people started to hear music playing outside as Generals Poe and Finn were yelling for people to start enjoying themselves and to ‘take a load off’ for a bit. As if at once, everyone swarmed out into the open spaces to celebrate under the illuminating stars, billions upon billions of them. It was beautiful. There were warm orange lanterns hanging off various parts of X-wings and the cooks had brought out long tables and lined them up with all the food that had been prepared. Many people made a beeline for the tables which had several interesting looking alcohols sat upon them. When your curiosity got the better of you, you went to investigate them yourself and was handed a bright blue drink with tiny orange fireworks coming out of it. It wasn’t your first time having alcohol, but definitely your first time having one so pretty. They were being handed out in very small glasses that looked undersized even in your hand and you couldn’t help but think of how ridiculously tiny it would look in Ben’s huge hands, especially in comparison to his generally large stature. It was a sweet thought. If only he was here.             As the evening progressed, you watched as people happily ate, talked and danced some of their many, many worries away. It felt so good to see people enjoying themselves when they rarely had good things to celebrate in their day to day lives. It was hopeful. You met up with your friends and shared the food, joked and drank a few more of the odd looking drinks; not enough to be drunk, just enough to feel a little more relaxed than what Resistance base life would typically allow.             Eventually, you decided you had to run back to your barracks to change your shoes into more comfortable boots. Initially, you had tried to wear a newer, cleaner pair but they were rubbing on your ankles and would have made it too uncomfortable to dance in. You practically ran through the thin trees because you couldn’t bare to be away from the life of the party for too long and if you hadn’t happened to glance at the exact right moment you would have missed it. The Millennium Falcon. But Ben said he wouldn’t be back, so what was the Falcon doing at the base? And hidden, for that matter. The party would have to wait as you changed direction, inching towards the ship. After squinting through the trees, you realised you could see Ben sitting in the cockpit watching the party, looking mournful. You had to stop, it hurt your heart to see him with such an expression. It took him until you were practically underneath the window to notice you were there, at which point you watched him stand up and leave. For a second, you were afraid he was just going to go back to his room and not let you talk to him but instead he opened the lower hatch of the Falcon and came out.             ‘What are you doing here, Ben?’ You blurted out, half in surprise. ‘I, uhm, came back early.’ He replied, trailing his eyes over you; the same ghost of a smile that you saw earlier returning. ‘You look…nice.’ He reached a hand up to the flowers behind your ear.              ‘Oh, thank you-’ you stumbled, he had caught you completely off guard and caused the blood to rush unceremoniously to your cheeks. ‘So do you.’ Ben had changed his clothes. They were still of a similar fashion to what he wore that same morning but they were definitely cleaner. He had showered too; you could tell since his hair looked particularly soft and a little bit bouncy. It was most definitely a good look for him. Was he….?  You looked him up and down. ‘Ben. Were you planning to come to the party?’ You asked. It wasn’t as though you were planning to put him on the spot like that but you spoke before you had considered a more delicate phrasing. He looked down at the floor with his hands behind his back, swaying slightly.              ‘I was giving it some thought, since you insisted, but people seemed to be having a good time. I didn’t want to interrupt.'  ‘You wouldn’t be interrupting anything! You’re more than invited, come back with me. There are so many different foods and drinks to try, everyone’s dancing and having fun!’ You pleaded again, holding out an arm to gesture for him to walk alongside you. He hesitated. ‘Please, Ben. It’ll be good for you…’ you eventually trailed off, dropping your arm. Your gaze dropped too, it was a little bit disappointing being rejected again but you understood why he didn’t want to go and you couldn’t force him anyway. Still, you weren’t able to stop the sadness washing over your face. It hurt. Suddenly, you felt a warm, coarse hand envelop your own as you were tugged back in the direction from which you had came. Your eyes traced along his shoulder, down his arm and settled on your hands clasped in one another.            ‘I’ll go. If it will keep you as happy as you were when you were dancing by the fire, I’ll go.’ Ben looked straight ahead but even in the darkness you could see a slight tinge of red dusting his cheeks. As your yourself, you were almost scared that he was going to feel the speed of your pulse through your wrist. It was racing. The thumping echoed around in your head, ricocheting off your skull as you couldn’t believe what was happening. He was holding your hand. Ben was holding your hand. Did it mean anything? Or was he just trying to make an effort to be social? You hadn’t even considered what he had said alongside it. Dancing by the fire, you thought, was he…was he watching me? A small part of you wanted to ask him exactly that but you stopped yourself out of embarrassment for both you and him, you didn’t want to spoil this moment. It felt…special.           He stopped walking just a few metres behind the line of trees, which caused you to almost trip into him from the sudden halt. The celebrations illuminated his profile and you couldn’t help but think how beautiful he was in that second. He always looked nice but there was something particularly princely about him then. You could tell he was nervous about actually entering the party, so you took the initiative and helped him cross the final hurdle by in turn pulling him forward instead.                                                                                                                                                                                       -

The first ten or so minutes of Ben being at the party went over rather quietly. There were a couple of  people who snuck unkind glances at him or moved away from the two of you but you tried to reassure him that he was still welcome and wanted there. You took him over to the food first, jokingly hinting that he should try to Oantcrab soup you had made, which he did, and then you took him over to the drinks table. There were definitely fewer drinks than there had been previously but Ben didn’t seem to mind too much as he drank two practically straight away to ‘settle his nerves’ a little, since he had never been good around people. You understood what he meant as you had been very much the same. Much to your relief, Ben did seem a bit more relaxed after his drinks and you each helped yourselves to another before leaving the table and making your way over to a bench to listen to the music.             ‘It’s nice.’ he began. ‘I’ve never really been to anything like this.’ The usually solemn man continued, looking between you and the bonfire. ‘Are you enjoying it, though?’ You asked, the night was already better than you could have hoped for but seeing Ben enjoy himself too would have made it almost unreal.             ‘I am.’ Ben placed his hand down on the bench between you, maybe even slightly over halfway. He was leaning back on the bench with his drink in the other hand resting on top of his leg. Now you had come to think of it, this was probably the most relaxed you’d ever seen him and you couldn’t tell if your heart was calming down or speeding up, but there was most definitely a fluttering beat thumping against your chest. He looked so beautiful in the firelight, it warmed his dark eyes and hair, making them appear almost chocolate in the glowing heat. It felt as though your body moved on its own; tempting fate. You put your hand down next to where Ben’s was, only a few millimetres away and turned your gaze towards the fire. Out of the corner of your eye you saw the man’s head turn ever so slightly to look at the hands between the two of you before he turned back towards the fire. The sickening feeling of anxiety started to creep in around the edges that perhaps you had misread the situation, or that you were making Ben uncomfortable or that you had ruined the friendsh- Oh. His hand moved, taking yours in his own once again. After the few seconds it took to process what had happened, you turned your hand to hold the larger one properly. Neither of you said anything, but you heard Ben sigh when he realised you had returned his touch and he dropped the tension in his shoulders. After another moment, Ben drank the rest of his drink and you did the same. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence and you were happy enough to watch your many friends dancing. Besides, it gave Ben a little bit of time to process things because if this was a lot for you, it must have been so much more for him. No one seemed to be paying any attention to either of you, too wrapped up in their own fun and drunkenness to care. Ben gave your hand a little squeeze.            ‘Are you okay?’ He seemed tentative to speak so you reassured him that you were perfectly fine and that you hoped he was too. For as long as you had known Ben so far, he had never had a way with words but you understood that he was feeling a lot more than he expressed when he said he was also ‘good’. ‘Do you want to come and dance?’ you asked him and he paused, ‘I don’t want to dance on my own and it’s not often we all get together in the open air for fun.’            ‘I don’t really think I’m one for dancing.’ Ben answered, looking very firmly rooted to the spot.                 ‘It’ll be fine if we dance together, no one is watching and I’m sure that you’re not any worse than me!’ you joked, pulling Ben to his feet in the process. He definitely seemed hesitant, but he gripped your hand in a way that felt as though he was terrified of letting go now that he finally had it so close.                                                                                                                                                                                 You pulled him through the crowd interweaving throughout the different people dancing, trying to find a space comfortable enough for the both of you to fit since he wasn’t exactly a man of small build. After a short while you found an opening pretty close to the fire, not enough to be uncomfortably warm, just enough to keep off the night’s chilly air. Ben looked incredibly awkward, most likely wishing he could either escape back to the Falcon or had had the chance to have a few more drinks before he had been dragged out to the makeshift dance floor. However, now that you had him, you weren’t going to let him run away so easily. Telling him to relax would be pointless so you figured it would be best to just help him by making him feel less embarrassed. The band were playing a pretty up beat song so you started swaying and moving your connected arms to the tune of the music. You looked up and grinned at him, and was so pleasantly surprised to find that he was already smiling down at you. A soft, warm smile. Your heart skipped a sudden beat and you wondered if this is how he looked when he had been watching you dance from the Falcon’s cockpit. You grabbed his other hand and started moving that in beat with the other, effectively making him sway too. Of course, Ben still looked massively awkward and a little out of place but you could tell he was trying so what did it matter if you embarrassed yourself a little if it meant he could relax.          ‘No one is looking at us, don’t worry.’ You said as you started to move a little faster, kicking up your legs a little in the dusty soil and moving your body more freely. Ever so slowly, Ben started to move his body a little more too. It may have been just because you were physically so close to him but you couldn’t help to trace your eyes over his body: its size, the way it moved, how good he looked in that black t-shirt. You had to stop yourself from staring and to just live in the moment, reminding yourself that if anything was going to happen; it was going to happen at Ben’s discretion. Oh, but his hands feel so safe, you thought to yourself before remembering, again, to behave. Ben was still smiling at you dancing, he definitely wasn’t dancing with the same level of enthusiasm as you were attempting to, but he was trying in his own way and he did seem to be loosening up a little as the song progressed into another. You two of you were that way for a while, just getting comfortable with one another’s bodies and with being in the same space like that. You both danced that way for such a time that you could feel the sweat between your palms start to grow warm but you were too absorbed in Ben’s gaze to care, his dark eyes trailed your every move.          Over the course of next twenty minutes or so, other people started to drift back to the food, drinks and benches. You were starting to get a little tired of dancing and was about to suggest to Ben that you each go and get something else to drink but he let go of your hands before you had the chance. They moved to your waist.          ‘Ben?’ You must have looked confused because a glint of panic flickered across Ben’s face. ‘Oh, I’m sorry- do you not-’ He started sheepishly but you cut him off.          ‘I do! I do, I just don’t want you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with, that’s all.’ You stumbled out, afraid he was going to take his hands away. ‘Ah. Okay. I’m not uncomfortable around you.’ Ben replied, moving his gaze away for a second, most likely out of nervousness for admitting something that was, to him, so intimate.           ‘That’s good to hear.’ You laughed trying to return to the fun atmosphere, and after a moment you pushed your hands up against his chest and onto his shoulders as you both continued to dance under a much closer proximity. You were relieved that you never got the chance to suggest moving. Although, this meant that you found yourself at a bit of a loss on how to physically act. You had wanted to be closer to Ben, and now you were; but you had always built walls to stop yourself from getting too close to him but Ben, himself, had broken them down within the course of just a night and you just couldn’t stop the racing of your heartbeat. Maybe his was racing too. The music was still upbeat but your bodies were a little more in-tune with each other from to the closeness of your chests. He still didn’t entirely dance, but he moved in a similar way to you and kept his hands tightly on your waist, not wanting to let you go. You moved one way and Ben moved the other, both of your legs kicking up the dry soil beneath you. You didn’t want to allow yourself to read into the moment too much, but you wanted to remember this exact second for as long as you lived. Dancing with Ben below the starry sky next to a warm, glowing fire. It was a dream. Maybe you could let yourself openly fall in love with him, because in this moment you most definitely were. Yes, you definitely loved Ben Solo.            You looked up into his eyes, slowing your movements. He did the same. You knew what you wanted to do, and Ben seemed to know it as well. As you moved onto your tip toes, Ben pulled you up to him by the waist and kissed you gently. It was soft, warm, and safe. The two of you remained like that for a few more seconds before you dropped yourself back down to normal height. You were smiling. When Ben opened his eyes again, he seemed to want to read your face before he let himself react to it, to make sure that you were happy with what had happened before he let himself be happy about it too. He smiled, properly smiled. You absolutely and entirely melted. You couldn’t believe that this night had happened. Ben had such a kind smile; you hadn’t realised he had sweet little dimples before now. You reached a hand up from his shoulder and cupped his face, stroking his cheek softly with your thumb. You could lightly feel the tips of his dark curls, they were so much softer than you were expecting.            ‘I’ve been hoping that would happen for a while.’ You had the sudden confidence to admit. ‘If I knew that, I would have done it earlier.’ He breathed out, chuckling towards the end of what he had said.                                                  After the kiss, the two of you went back to dancing for a few more songs since the music was slower now as the party was winding down for the evening. The dancing was a lot closer, softer than it had been beforehand; mainly consisting of swaying and hand holding but Ben just seemed so much more happier, you could almost feeling it radiating off him. He deserved this happiness, he had been through so much. Every time you remembered the kiss, happy tears threatened to spill over your cheeks. Ben had been feeling the same way as you and had been to scared to lose you if he had acted wrongly about it.            Eventually you both got too tired of the party to continue and began to feel a bit drained, Ben especially. It was a huge thing for him to come and be so social and you were sure he had used up all the emotions he could manage to process for the evening. He gingerly took your hand, offering to walk you back to the barracks for the night before he returned to the Falcon.            ‘Are you glad you came, Ben?’ You asked as you walked together. You couldn’t stop smiling, there was practically a spring in your step as you went along. Ben felt the same, his grin had settled into a smile at that point. ‘Of course, I had a good time. It was very-’ he tried to find the right word, ‘eye-opening.’ He almost let out a small laugh, giving your hand a squeeze. The walk to the barracks seemed much shorter than you had thought, and you found yourself not wanting to leave Ben’s company so soon. Even with this newfound intimacy, however innocent, Ben was still a friend you loved spending time. He sensed you were hesitant to say goodnight and offered an alternative.          ‘You can come back and sit up with me for a bit, if you’d like. I don’t think I’m going to sleep just yet.’ He smiled, raising his eyebrows in a cocky manner. You loved this happier, slightly more confident, Ben and wished he could be this way forever. ‘Are you sure I wouldn’t be intruding? I thought you wanted to do some reading tonight.’ You jokingly retorted, emphasising that he was going back on himself by inviting you over.            ‘I’m sure the book can wait.’

- NSFW WARNING Soon after, you found yourself in the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit. Obviously, there were many other places to sit inside of the Falcon, but you figured that Ben enjoyed being able to look out the window and sit in the pilot’s seat. He had told you on one occasion that he had always wanted to pilot the ship but had to wait many, many years before he was able to actually do so. He kept it relatively clean aside from the occasional mud he tracked through or coffee he spilled, so you could tell he cared greatly for the Falcon. You’d already been here many times so you were comfortable enough to just sit around and wait for Ben to do what he needed to do before he came to sit down. He had brought you a drink from the kitchen and then excused himself for a couple of minutes and had not returned yet. If anything, it gave you a quick breather to think about everything that happened. The night had gone better than you could have ever possibly imagined it could have. In the brief chance you had gotten to know Han, his father, before he died; you could see Ben had most definitely inherited the Solo genetics in being a bit of a flirt when the mood struck him. With Ben, it appeared much more subtle and a little anxious, but he was still undeniably his father’s son. You had recognised it in Ben’s cocky eyebrow raise and found yourself touching your lips at the memory.             ‘What are you thinking about there?’ The deep voice interrupted; he had clearly seen what you had been doing. ‘Nothing! Nothing for you to concern yourself with, Ben!’ To say you were blushing would have been a slight understatement.             ‘Is that right? Well, anyway. I just came to ask if you wanted to spend the night here because I imagine the barracks are going to pretty erh- noisy, tonight.’ He laughed softly before rushing to add ‘I can set up a bed in one of the spare rooms. I wasn’t suggesting any-’            ‘It’s okay, I get it! Don’t worry, but yeah, I’d appreciate that actually. I know you don’t stay in the barracks but trust me, I’ve seen some horror stories. The chance to sleep somewhere quite sounds great.’ You quickly added to try and save him the embarrassment. You noticed Ben turned very, very red and left not long after, leaving you to put your head in your hands at the very thought of what he had accidentally implied. You weren’t entirely sure how much Ben could do with the Force, since you didn’t understand too much about it, but God, you hoped he couldn’t read your mind in that moment. You started fanning at your face in a feeble attempt to cool yourself before he came back. It’s not that you hadn’t thought about stuff like that before but you had spent so long pushing off those thoughts in regards to Ben specifically; so when he was the one who mentioned it, the thoughts caught you off guard. They were not, by any means, unpleasant but you were a touch worried about getting ahead of yourself.           He returned a couple of minutes later, saying that he’d set up a room and you were welcome to use it if you wanted, to which you were very grateful. The tall man seemed to hover for a few seconds before sitting down on the seat next to you, he looked a little tense so you tried to talk the awkwardness out of the situation. You asked him about his trip to the Viodet system and what he had gotten up to, about his training and anything else you could think of off the top of your head. He took your hand mid-sentence and held it clasped within is own on top of his thigh. This movement almost caused you to stutter your words but you managed to remain composed for a moment whilst the two of you continued talking. You weren’t sure at what point he started rubbing your hand with his thumb but you couldn’t help but melt when you realised it was happening. The two of you sat that way for some time, lost in conversation for another hour or so until you couldn’t help but stifle a yawn.         ‘Oh, I didn’t mean to keep you up. I can show you to the room I set up if you want. There’s already toiletries in there, it’s only a ration one but it’s better than nothing.’ He said as he stood up, you couldn’t help but admire the height difference at this angle. ‘Thank you for putting me up for the night, I don’t imagine I would have gotten any sleep in the barracks since other people won’t be doing much sleeping either.’ You laughed, rising to your feet with your hand still enveloped in Ben’s.          You walked back through the corridors of the Falcon, trailing slightly behind Ben. He knew these corridors like the back of his own hand, it was obvious how he cared for them. The two of you walked in a comfortable silence as he led you towards your room. He stopped outside and turned, leaning up the wall opposite the door.           ‘Everything should be in there…’ He seemed as though he had more to say but was struggling to find the words, ‘Can I…’ ‘Of course.’ You whispered back, so he pulled you closer. Ben looked a little nervous and you swore you could see his hand shaking slightly as he tilted your head upwards. As soon as he placed his lips on yours, you realised how deprived you felt of that soft warmness since your last kiss just hours earlier. Without realising you were doing so, you slid your arms around his neck and buried your fingertips in his dark curls as your lips moved against his. Tentatively, he slid his tongue against your parted lips, asking for permission which you immediately granted. You lost yourself in the kiss, in Ben. He was so gentle, understanding as you moved with each other. He pulled you closer with his free hand so that your body was pressed up against his as he lent back on the wall. A small moan escaped your lips when you felt Ben’s breath hitch in his throat. Clearly, he was having as good a time as you were. It was all new territory, but it was evident that he was getting a little more confident as he began to deepen the kiss. He spun the both of you around so instead you were the one with your back pressed upon the corridor wall, his one arm grabbing you at the waist and the other with his forearm on the wall above you. The flowers that had been tucked behind your ear now lay forgotten on the floor, not that you minded at that point. You couldn’t lie, Ben having you pinned against a wall was really turning you on.          The kiss became more desperate as you tightened your grip on his hair and one of his legs went between yours. You pulled away for a second to gasp for air before going almost straight back into it. Now you had felt Ben this way, you didn’t want to stop; and neither did he. Lightly, you bit at his lower lip and in return he touched the bare strip of skin that had become exposed at your waist, sending shivers up your spine. Ben seemed to enjoy this reaction and moved away from your lips for a second to kiss feverishly down the side of your next neck, wanting to see what other reactions he could invoke. He got cocky, choosing a point between your neck and shoulder and putting his mouth, and eventually teeth, on it: producing a dark purple mark by the time he was through. You couldn’t help but moan audibly into his ear. After a few more minutes of the beautiful torture, you felt something hard against the side of your leg. You broke off the kiss for a few seconds, leaving you both panting. Ben leaned to rest his forehead on your shoulder, not wanting to make eye contact.           ‘Ben… you’re...’ You whispered breathlessly. ‘I know, don’t worry about it… I’m not expecting you to do anything .’ He breathed back, sounding a little embarrassed. You swallowed, deciding what to do. You were so turned on that your thighs had started to ache and you weren’t sure you would be able to sleep now even if you had wanted to, you wanted to keep touching Ben;           ‘I know it’s a bit fast, but I’m okay with it if you are.’ ‘I don’t… want to take advantage of you.’ Ben sighed, preparing to move himself away.            ‘You’re not, I want to do it.’ You said, with enough conviction that he couldn’t doubt your commitment despite your own embarrassment of never being in this situation before. Ben sighed into your neck, ‘I do too.'            ‘Shall we move somewhere else then?’ You asked and as soon as the last word left your mouth, Ben already had his strong arms underneath your legs to pick you up bridal style. He went right back into passionately kissing you as he carried you through the corridor, missing the door to the room you were supposed to be spending the night in. In between the kisses you asked, ‘Where are we going?’. Ben barely stopped kissing you long enough to mumble back a response of ‘my room’ and it made your heart skip another beat and your thighs tense, you couldn’t believe what was happening but you absolutely did not, under any circumstances, want it to stop. - Ben’s room was too dark to really see anything as he carried you in, not that it mattered at that point anyway. He placed you down into the middle of the large bed, pulled off his t-shirt and climbed on top of you. While you were also thankful for the darkness since you were a bit self-conscious of your own body, you wished you had the chance to admire Ben’s. He must have sensed you were tentative to touch his bare skin because he whispered ‘it’s okay’ before starting to undo your shirt slightly to kiss around your collarbones, slowly leading onto your chest. As he did this, you took his lead and lightly traced the slopes and dips of his shoulders, arms and back while sighing under the touch of his lips.              After a few more moments Ben had your shirt undone but struggled to do the same with your bra, meaning that you got to laugh at him for a second before undoing it in his stead. He muttered a comment about it being too dark to see anything anyway and continued moving upwards to kiss you, using one hand to support himself and the other to caress your chest. It was noticeable, to you at least, that Ben was more confident in the dark and you figured it mostly down to the fact that he couldn’t be seen, so didn’t have to hide his emotions so much. You shuddered as his warm hand touched your skin so freely, you could have never even imagined that even that would feel as good as Ben was making it. Perhaps the darkness wasn’t so bad, you could always just feel your way around. Both of your hands returned back into gripping the man’s hair as he moved to kiss at your chest, abdomen and waist. One of his hands dropped to where your trousers began and he looked up, making sure you were happy for him to do this. You were. You were so, so happy for him to do this. It took another helping hand to get your trousers off since you also had to take your boots off too but soon everything was discarded on the floor, leaving you in just your underwear. Ben took everything except for his boxers off and even in the dark, the outline of his body was impeccable.             ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ He asked again in a hushed tone. ‘Definitely.’ You replied, pulling him down on top of you as if you prove your point. As the kissing resumed, you moved your free hand up his tensed thigh and across the material of his boxers, lightly touching the side of his erection. He was showing you so much attention and you were desperate to give some back. This was a first for you, since there wasn’t exactly time for romance in the Resistance. You had always assumed instinct would take over but you had never seen, let alone touched, a dick. It appeared that this was going to be something you just had to learn as you went along as you curled your fingers around the shaft through the fabric, moving slowly up and down; earning a heated grunt from Ben in response. You couldn’t judge by comparison, but you could tell that Ben was pretty big and somehow getting bigger. Is that going to…fit? You wondered briefly but had your thoughts interrupted by Ben moaning into your neck before he went back into biting and leaving lovebites where he had done so earlier.            You figured that if he enjoyed what you were doing, he might enjoy it even more if you were to do it underneath the fabric. Slipping your fingers beneath his waistline, you grabbed his bare dick in your hand and began moving in a similar fashion. You hadn’t expected Ben to enjoy it that much as he bit down on your shoulder, causing you both to moan. It felt so good to hold him like this that you were sad to see him move away after a few minutes like that, but he moved to pull your own underwear down so you knew there was much more to come. He moved to lay down on his stomach, grabbing and kissing at your thighs with hunger. Ben rested his head just on top of your navel, looking up at you. It felt a little weird being so naked with another person, but you trusted Ben, wholeheartedly. You trusted him when he was just a friend, and you trusted him even more now that you felt so vulnerable.           ‘You’ll have to show me how you like it, I haven’t done this before.’ He admitted, looking a little embarrassed. ‘That’s okay, it’s my first time too.’ You cupped under his face, whispering back. The innocence of it all melted your heart, you felt like a pair of sweethearts. He smiled into your hand, kissing your palm before returning to kiss your thighs. You couldn’t stop your legs shaking in anticipation even though he had barely touched you. He moved your legs a little further apart and began kissing up and down your entrance, the sensation caused you to screw your hands into balls on top of his bedsheets. He started to use his tongue more, alternating between different movements while still squeezing your thighs at times and you couldn’t help but throw your hands into his hair. You had never felt anything like it, it was so new and wonderful and you were so thankful to be experiencing it with Ben. It was such a relief to finally be able to express your feelings for him. He listened to your moans and adapted what he was doing in accordance to it, he truly wanted to make you feel good and was more than willing to give you the attention to make it happen. You were thankful that there was no one else aboard the Falcon because you weren’t sure you were able to muffle your whimpers brilliantly, his tongue just felt too good.           Not long after, you felt something begin to tighten in your abdomen. The constant movement of his tongue against you made the pressure build and build until you were practically crying for release. As you felt your finish nearing, you couldn’t help but squeeze his head between your thighs and grab at his dark curls. Ben was gentlemanly in giving you what you wanted and yet still so ruthless at the same time with how he pushed you closer and closer to the edge until he eventually hit the exact right spot and the tension realised, bursting you into an orgasm.            ‘A-ah! Ben…’ you moaned his name, you couldn’t stop your legs from shaking and Ben had to help you steady them for a moment. He was hopeful that he had done a good job, but seeing you look so content and blissful cemented that fact for him. He crawled up towards you and laid on your chest to give you a chance to recover. You sat letting out soft sighs as you curled your fingertips around his hair until you told him you were ready to continue, at which point he took his boxers off. Being polite and a bit worried, he asked you once again if you were sure you wanted to continue. Of course, you were.            Tentatively, he slid a singular finger partway inside of you. You were right, Ben was rather well-endowed and it was apparent that he wasn’t going to be able to ‘slide right in’ like you had heard was capable from gossip in the barracks. You were already sensitive, but even his finger felt good as he curled it before continuing to add a second. The addition of the second finger caused you to begin moaning again, which Ben took as a sign to pick up speed. Several kisses were shared and you whimpered when he moved away from kissing to get himself into position above.             ‘Are you certain you want this?’ Ben asked once again. He was still a little nervous that perhaps you had changed your mind, that you didn’t want this or even want him. How could you let Ben know how worthy of love and reciprocation he was? You knew he was scared that the two of you had moved too fast, and honestly you were a little scared of it too, but you trusted Ben and had already fought off the urges to love him for too long. You were entirely ready to fall. ‘I do.’ You whispered, leaning up to kiss his form as he hovered above you. He nodded slightly, using one of his hands to try and guide his member into place. Since it was both of your first times, you had to help him a little before Ben pushed slowly into you.           He had only put the tip in but the pain was still sharp and you took a quick intake of breath. Ben had done a good job in loosening you up beforehand and he couldn’t exactly help that he was blessed with a lot to work with down there but panic set in his features when he realised he was hurting you. Ben tried to pull away so you had to tell him to stay and just hold it there for a second so you could adjust. He was still worried and planted small, butterfly kisses along the exposed skin he could reach until you told him it was okay to keep moving. At first, it was a bit of a slow process because there was a lot to adjust to, but Ben was patient and as gentle as he could be with you until the whole of his length was in. When he was completely inside of you from tip to base, the man couldn’t help but groan quietly in your ear.           ‘Let me know when you’re ready for me to move.’ His deep voice was huskier than usual, the sensation of his hot breath on your neck giving you goosebumps. The size of him was a little bit uncomfortable at first but after about a minute or so, you were ready and gave him the go ahead. He started slowly pulling back out before going almost entirely back in, it was still a little sore but you were sure it would get easier. After a few of these slow thrusts, it started to feel good and some small moans escaped your lips. It appeared that Ben was waiting to make sure you were enjoying it before he allowed himself to experience his own pleasure.            You couldn’t help but cry out his name as he began to thrust deeper into you, getting slightly more confident with his hip movement. The soreness had practically subsided and you were able to lose yourself in the feeling of Ben hitting you again and again. When you arched your back, he kissed your chest. When you moaned his name, he groaned in response. When you squeezed your thighs around his waist, he shuddered and thrusted harder. It was so passionate, needy even. He was giving you his upmost attention. Sweat began to form and drip down from both of your bodies from the heat between you. You reached a shaking hand up to Ben’s face to push his damp hair aside before pulling him into a somewhat sloppy kiss. It was still difficult to believe that Ben was touching you this way, you never would have believed it if someone had told the you-of-just-two-hours-ago that this would be happening. He set himself in the rhythm which he found made you moan the loudest, gripping your thighs to steady them once they begun to shake. You wished you could see the image of Ben on top of you more clearly but the darkness allowed you to feel every touch, every graze and every thrust with unmatched intensity. He hit one spot inside of you that caused you to almost choke into the kiss, it was so unbelievably sensitive that you couldn’t process anything for a few seconds. When he continued to keep aiming for that spot, the pressure started to form in your abdomen once again; this time much more strongly than it had done previously. The build up was almost too much as you dragged you nails down Ben’s scarred back, not being able to help yourself. He didn’t seem to mind it, if anything, he was just pleased he was able to make you feel that good. The speed of his thrusts began to pick up and get a little more erratic as you guessed he was starting to get close too.           ‘God…Ben!’ you groaned, your mouth started to dry from the panting. The pounding was driving you insane as you called his name on loop until suddenly the pressure was too much and you let out a broken scream as you came again, shaking somewhat violently underneath him. Ben’s thrusting slowed for a few seconds as he muttered a ‘fuck’ under his breath, trying not to finish just yet. However, the sensation of your orgasm was making that incredibly difficult for him.           Since he was still moving, it prolonged your orgasm until you all but collapsed beneath him with each thrust sending a new wave through your body. When Ben picked up his speed again, it was a rougher, desperate even. You could barely manage more than a small whimper at each new thrust since your mind had gone completely blank from the orgasm. After about another minute or so, Ben let out his loudest groan yet and quickly pulled out of you; finishing down your thigh instead. His breath hitched a couple of times in his throat as he came and you watched as the outline of his shoulders tensed and relaxed. Soon, he rolled off and collapsed in the bed beside you; each of you needing the chance to catch your breath. Ben turned his head to kiss your bare shoulder and in response you moved onto your side to wrap yourself around his one arm.           ‘Ben…’ You whispered. ‘Yeah?’ He panted. The words were on the very tip of your tongue but you were scared of saying them. They were heavy; you didn’t want to say anything that could ruin the moment and taint the evening that the two of you had shared. And yet, you couldn’t stop yourself:          ‘I think I’ve loved you for a while.’ He paused for a moment, ‘I think I already knew. I didn’t want to drag anyone into getting involved with me, but I couldn’t stop you from making your way into my head. Everywhere I turned, you were there with open arms. Even when I couldn’t accept myself, you accepted me.’          The two of you laid there for a while longer exchanging small kisses and pillow talk before you went to get cleaned up, giving Ben a chance to change his sheets since they had gotten too messy to sleep in. It was only when you had gotten to the bathroom that you remembered the dark purple marks Ben had left on your neck. You lightly traced them with your finger, thinking that they were pretty. Whilst you were certain to get some odd looks over them the next day, you were happy to have gotten them. When you returned, he handed you one of his t-shirts to sleep in since you didn’t bring any clothes with you after the party and you quickly slipped it on. Before he put one of his own t-shirts on again, you kissed the scratches you had left down his back, muttering a small apology for them but he kissed your forehead and said not to worry about it because he had gotten ‘much worse’ injuries before. He even let out a little chuckle before suggesting the two of you finally got some sleep. You ended up not spending the night in the spare room Ben had prepared for you at all, but instead in his bed, held safely against him.

[fly-sky-high-bug-games]

Hi! I saw you answer an ask about your OC Alyssum and I was instantly pulled in. I went to your list of muses to go read some stuff on her but the link isn't working for some reason. Care to share? 😁 also what other hcs do you have about her (optional w/mugo) 👀

I THINK THAT’S MY FAULT, I keep tagging her as available muse but she’s technically listed as “npc” on the muse post because I didn’t want to introduce her yet (so far story wise, she only appears through dialog and hasn’t popped out yet, hard since she’s at Highgrove and setting is in Hallownest). However, her muse has been... oddly strong lately, I keep drawing and doing tiny rp scenes with her with few friends just to test the waters with her and BOY IT’S KIND OF... INTERESTING.

She might be “oopsie haha murder” kind of character but she’s also playing the nobility part quite well. She’s “polite”, invites bugs for a tea, a little chatter (maybe even a friendly one, she’s capable of it), possibly propositions, no refusal, nice job offers~ or death. One always gets to choose, acting like they have an option but forcefully narrows it to few and plays on mental and emotional state at such circumstances. Tricky~

I have yet to develop the details of her faction and who’s in it but very few people will be. Wasps I already covered, I just have to work around clan leader that’s in contact with Alyssum. Others would be black market dealers (lead merchant), underground snail-mail (postal snail), one of the weavers who’s good with seals and couple of others~ I need to brainstorm on this still. :0

Damn, I already rambled about this and didn’t talk about her much, hold on *throws Alyss tidbits under read more if tumblr allows it to work...*

She was looked after by Magnolia and basically raised by her, some time after she turned to be a queen. Fun tidbits about Magnolia family as a whole, they are not related to one another (mostly) but consider themselves a big family because they took down the previous queen and king of Highgrove while raising from poverty. However, Magnolia and her followers were never kind and forgiving, but with promises that there will be change in balance of the hierarchy, they got a lot of followers and supporters from commoners to usurp the royalty and did so successfully.

Alyssum was young when this happened so while she was somewhat birthed under poverty, she was fully raised as a noble. I don’t have much of her childhood worked out but there isn’t much to say aside from that she was raised and thought under the cruel but rich conditions of the kingdom.

The binding seal on her wings she earned not long before she met Mugo, almost like a sign for maturity and set under higher position in the family and not just as a student. The seals are powerful magic that uses soul, sewed in with magic by the weaver and afterwards trained to use it. It manifests through the shape of petals: swirling, cutting, chipping, slashing or severing, depending on the number of petals created, used, how fast, how they’re choreographed... It’s all soul but she can use regular flower petals that make less damage but not much soul required. Alyss can also use the wings as a shield since the binding is right on them and actually getting through them with anything is worse than trying to cut the metal open. (like, I imagined in game moves, if you know how THK blocks twice then slashes, she does similar things with wings, where she blocks two times but then bursts open the wings to blow the opponent back to the other side of the screen)

But you know, she’s a lady~ Of course she won’t get her hands dirty. :3c She has others to do that for her~

As for her and Mugo... (OH BOY HERE WE GOOOO~!)

I have to say, their relationship and love was rather genuine, it kind of makes me sad it ended up the way it did... With Magnolia, Alyss (and even Zeeke and his family) still visiting Hallownest some time before Pure Vessel was sealed and before infection went crazy (I canonize, by human years, that that was 20ish years before current events, since Hornet seems 15-18ish years old but who knows with bugs~ I just needed approximate idea for the setting). They were at City of tears but Mugo met her somewhere close to it, as she was hiding away from the nobles to explore the outside on her own and spotted Mugo.

Sure, Mugo crushed on her first but when she tested him by giving away her symbol necklace and pedant of White Magnolia for him to sell at black market and get good money, he refused because it was a memento from someone dear to him. It still is... he didn’t take it off because this is when their love was true and pure... Alyss never forget that either. It was very touching to her.

Their relationship was fine, both shared nothing in common but that was such a fun time for both because of it. They were clicking because they were like two different puzzles pieces that do fit together... but sadly, the pieces didn’t give the right picture when one by the other. (don’t you hate when this happens when you’re trying to puzzle grass or sky together?? *shot*) 

Alyssum explained to Mugo how Magnolia works. He didn’t like it one bit, as he ran away from Highgrove partially because they usurped the old rulers and rendered his family’s status almost homeless. Meanwhile, Alyss didn’t like that Mugo kept throwing himself in danger for his job, even if it’s a hobby that means a lot to him, all for sake of survival and geo.

They dated for some time, had fun, but slowly things started kind of... falling apart. The closer Alyss was to heading back to Highgrove the more she pressured Mugo to come with, become part of the family and live with her under riches the Magnolia offers. His counter proposal was, if they’re really in love and she is aware of Magnolia’s wrongdoings, that she would leave them instead and live with him while making the adventures she loved hearing about from him, together. Basically, Mugo put his love for her over riches or anything but Alyss wanted him for herself under the comfort and safety of Magnolia. She couldn’t throw that away, not after building the status and becoming a favorite to Magnolia herself. She thought this was selfish of Mugo but Mugo tried to explain it was for her changing a new leaf and starting over as something good, not ruled by fear and power.

So they started to disagree... argue... and finally physically fight. Of course, Alyss won. Mugo isn’t a fighter. At that moment, it was either she has him or no one does. For Mugo, he could only bark threats. So he did, angered, throwing words he couldn’t even imagine himself doing. When she lighted up her wings, he threatened he will cut them off. So in retribution, she cut him, scaring his face. He saw something or someone completely different then. Mugo ran for his life, leaving Alyss alone.

That was the last time they saw each other, 20ish years ago. Mugo hid away at the lake of Unn and suffered depression and withdrawal for a very long time. As for Alyss... she pulled off something she shouldn’t and Mugo didn’t know about...

He only got one last letter from her, to met her one more time at the Crossroads before she leaves for Highgrove, saying she wants to try one more time and... that she had a surprise for him. He didn’t respond. She waited for him there then left when he never showed...

That was that. :U Until now, at least~ :3 She got to hear about her ex thanks to Zeeke’s shenanigans at the Colosseum~ Oh, what are the odds of the noble meeting and having issues specifically with a certain, scruffy moth~

20 years is quite a bit of time for someone with a heartbreak and power to grow... kind of crazy. Of course she never let go of it. And now she knows he’s still alive too~ Wonder what Alyss will do. :3c

[strangedreamings]

Gingerrose prompt: Modern AU, it's Christmas and Hux is "bah humbugging" the season while Rose is full of holiday spirit, and he doesn't get into the spirit of the season until someone else brings out the mistletoe and Hux and Rose get caught under it.

Mistletoe Is All It Took (AO3)

“One more,” Rose said, grinning, just before she placed another shopping bag in Armitage’s hand. He already had his arms wrapped around the bulkiest bag while two more dangled from each hand.

“It’s becoming all too clear why you dragged me out here,” he muttered. Still, he dutifully followed her out of the latest store and over to her SUV.

She unlocked the trunk then grinned at him as she opened it. “I needed someone with long arms and enough stamina to survive an all-day shopping trip.”

Armitage raised an eyebrow as she took the first bags from him. “And what do you know of my stamina?”

Rose blushed and prayed he’d only think it was from the cold. “You work out all the time, I assume it takes a lot to tire you out.” She busied herself with properly stowing the various bags to avoid meeting his eyes.

The two of them had been best friends for years and had even started an engineering company together but lately, Rose found herself wanting more from him. It’s like I turned around one day and there he was, hot as hell and I had only just noticed. Not to mention he’s marshmallow sweet under that brittle exterior. And he’s one of the few people I can truly depend on no matter what.

“My stamina may hold out, but my patience is another matter,” he muttered darkly.

“I heard that,” Rose said, grinning at him as she finally closed the trunk and locked it again. “Okay, next store.”

Armitage groaned quietly but still followed her back into the shopping mall.

*

She treated him to a late lunch once her shopping was done. Armitage was never fond of chain restaurants, especially ones full of kitschy décor, but his growling stomach won out over his taste. Seated across from Rose in a booth as far from the front doors and the cold outside as they could get, he was struck once again by how truly gorgeous his best friend was.

I’d ask her out in a heartbeat if I thought there was even a chance she’d say yes. But no, I’m her friend, nothing more. I should be thanking my lucky stars that she even considers me a friend. No one else does. Her friends tolerate me at most.

After they gave the waitress their orders and she gave them their drinks, Rose smiled at him. “Did you get an invite to Finn and Poe’s wedding?”

Armitage rolled his eyes. “Yes, but I have to wonder at the wisdom of a destination wedding in Orlando.”

“They want everyone to have fun at Universal Studios, not to mention they’re still boycotting Disney. I think it’ll be a blast.”

“Are you going to bring a date?” he blurted, the words sneaking past his filter like some resistance fighter getting past a guard.

It was Rose’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “The wedding’s not for three months, but I seriously doubt it. I’ve had no luck with guys lately. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t know if the problem is them or me.”

“It’s them,” he insisted, earning him a grateful smile, then more unfiltered words came out. “You’re perfect.”

She let out an unladylike snort. “Hardly.”

“You are.”

“If I’m so perfect, then how come I haven’t had a serious relationship in over a year?”

“Men are idiots.”

Rose burst into giggles at his perfectly straight face. “Present company excepted?”

No, I’m the biggest idiot of them all. Thankfully, he didn’t blurt that out. “I suppose.”

She grinned. “Well, women are idiots too – you haven’t had a serious relationship for longer than I have.” Their food arrived and Rose started on her fries when the waitress left again. “You’re a definite catch, Armie – intelligent, sophisticated, driven, not to mention really hot, especially since you grew the beard.”

He self-consciously reached up to touch his short beard. “You think so, do you?”

“Yep. Rey said that if she hadn’t met Ben, she definitely would’ve tried her luck with you.”

That was certainly news to him, but nothing could surprise him more than Rose thinking he was hot. “Yes, well, she would have been disappointed.”

“Not your type?” Rose guessed, grinning.

Of course not – she’s not you. “Something like that,” he muttered.

“Right. Eat, Armie – cold French fries are nasty.”

He rolled his eyes then dutifully started on his food.

They were headed back to their part of town when Rose said carefully, her eyes on the road, “I may have told Rey and Ben we’d stop by their Christmas party.”

Armitage groaned quietly. “That’s tonight, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”

The last thing he wanted was to be at a party where he only knew a handful of people. “I’m not in the Christmas spirit.”

“Are you ever?” she asked, relaxing. “You’re the Grinch and Ebenezer Scrooge rolled into one. Your secretary tried to decorate for Christmas and you wouldn’t even let her hang mistletoe.”

“I’m trying to save the company from a sexual harassment suit.”

She smiled a bit. “It’s only harassment if the other person is offended.”

“You’re saying I should be like you – strings of lights on the walls and a tree in the corner?”

Rose giggled. “I think our customers would think you’d been replaced by a pod person.” She stopped at a red light then gave him her most charming grin. “Please, Armie? It’ll only be a couple of hours then I’ll take you home.”

I never could resist her. He sighed heavily. “Very well.”

“Yay!”

*

Rose led the way up the steps to the Solos’ house, a newly-purchased bottle of wine in one hand. Armitage was right behind her, and she prayed he wasn’t going to be the specter at this feast. I gotta get him into a good mood somehow.

A beaming Rey let them in. She and Ben had only been married a month but Rose had to admit that marriage looked good on her best friend.

They were just passing through the kitchen when Rey said, “Stop!”

Rose stopped dead, Armitage so close behind her that she could feel his warmth seeping into her and she had to suppress a shiver. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Rey said, grinning delightedly. “Look up.”

She dutifully looked up and couldn’t help the groan that escaped her when she saw they were standing beneath the mistletoe. Oh God, anything but that…

Armitage scowled. “Do you really expect me to kiss Rose just because you hung a plastic facsimile of a tree parasite from the ceiling?”

“It’s a year of bad luck if you don’t,” Rey said, grinning.

“I don’t give a damn about bad luck,” he muttered.

“Not for you – for Rose.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I beg your pardon?”

“The superstition only says girls who refuse to kiss under the mistletoe will have a year of bad luck, it doesn’t say anything will happen to the boys.” Rey smirked. “But I think not getting a kiss from Rose is bad enough, don’t you?”

Rose threw up her hands in annoyance. “Just forget it, both of you. Armie obviously doesn’t want to kiss me-”

Her next words were cut off by Armitage pulling her to him and kissing her like they were alone instead of surrounded by her friends. Someone, probably Poe, started whistling and she swore she heard Finn mutter, “Finally!” but all of that faded to background noise as Armitage kissed her. It was full of passion and promise and Rose did her level best to catch up.

I don’t know what’s gotten into him, but damn, I approve.

When breathing became a necessity, he ended the kiss but then moved his very talented mouth to her ear, murmuring, “I’ve wanted to do that for far too long. What do you say to us leaving now?”

Rose grinned, almost giddy with happiness. “We just got here,” she murmured back.

“Don’t care.” He raised his head to look at the others, who were all grinning like idiots at the little show they’d put on. “If you’ll excuse us, my partner and I have some negotiations to attend to.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Poe said, smirking.

“Have fun,” Rey said, grinning.

Not waiting for any other responses, Armitage took her hand and led her out of the house and back to the car. Rose couldn’t help thinking that Christmas had come early.

And nothing can beat this gift.

[polar-stars]

👹🍅💥🏀 ⭐🍏 🐉 💧🐟🍇 🔮🌸🌷 ❤️ 🧡💚💗 for chieko Mika yasu shigeo kazuo please ;)

I’ve decided to answer these in multiple parts....I hope thats alright with you ;v;

This one will feature Chieko and next on will be Mika and so on...

But thanks for the ask ^^ The questions are really fun to answer

Chieko

👹 How does you OC act around different people and how does their personality change to match the environment they’re in? How do they act with: friends, family, strangers, children or their lover(s)?

Chieko’s behaviour mainly depends on whether she’s talking to someone her age or an adult. Though the closeness to whoever she’s talking is also a large factor. 

She’s very polite and well-behaved when talking to adults. If it’s authority-figures or people she admires, she’s very cautious with her words and tends to be a bit shyer. If she’s a bit more closer to them (Satoshi, Daigo, Shoji), she’s a bit more open and more comfortable to vent and rant though. 

With people her age, she’s usually more or less polite with strangers, but if you rub her off the wrong way she might become more snarky quickly. Around her friends, she’s definitely more than comfortable to rant and whine about how frustrating everything is. She’s definitely grouchier and quicker to nag, but at the same time she’s also more cheery (if she does end up in a good mood) and less stiff. She’s the same around her family and also the Ibusakis. 

🍅 How easily is your OC embarassed? What subjects make them flush and why? What event has made your OC the most embarassed they’ve ever been?

It’s rather easy to make Chieko fluster. She’s not much used to praise and compliments, so that alone can make her blush. It only gets worse if it comes from anyone she holds admiration for.  Given that she’s also pretty innocent in that regard, anything sexual will certainly turn her into a tomato as well. 

Then there’s also the feeling of being out of place. Chieko does have some insecurities about her looks and thinks of herself as insanely plain. When she’s put into a pretty dress and sent to a fancy party, at times (not always but sometimes) she tends to feel small and stupid being surrounded by girls that she thinks are just so much interesting than her. 

💥 Are there any emotions your OC doesn’t know how to deal with, doesn’t understand or hates having to feel? Any reason behind this?

Chieko is certainly conflicted about the attraction she harbors for Shigeo Eizan. She’s pretty confused about how she’s perfectly aware about how excellently he lies and how cruel he is, yet still she can’t help but to feel drawn to him despite the NUMEROUS warning-sings. She’s greatly inexperienced with love and lust to begin with honestly. She never had much of a Love 101 course so to speak, meaning she never really had any innocent teenage-flirting with a nice, uncomplicated kind-off guy but rather gets thrown right into the advanced course. 

Another thing she’s honestly rather unfamiliar with is true, deep grief but most of the kids honestly are. 

🏀 Does your OC have any skills that people wouldn’t expect them to have? Do they have a hobby or pass time that others would consider strange or weird? How did they learn this particular skill or pick up this hobby?

She actually knows archery. It was taught to her by Yuki’s father who’s just simply very enthusiastic about bows and arrows and wanted to show it to his grandchildren very badly. Chieko’s not perfect at it and she has less and less time to practice it when she grows up, but its still something not many would expect. 

She also knows how to play violin, which is also something not all too many know. She just wanted to learn it as child to impress kids at her school and because she liked the instrument honestly. 

⭐ Does your OC like to sleep alone or do they enjoy sharing their bed? Have they been to any sleepovers? Have they ever been camping? What did they think of the experiences if so?

When they were very young, Yasu and Chieko at times did sleep in the same bed. It was always rather fun for both of them, as they could tell each other stories till deep in the night and such. She also, to this day, at times has to share a bed with her little brother. Sleeping with Takahiro can be a bit more annoying, because Takahiro certainly loves to poke and tease his big sister a lot and falls asleep very hardly. However, once he is actually asleep, Chieko can’t really deny that another presence in bed is in one or the other way comforting. She won’t think of it as a great necessity though, until she actually shares the bed with a romantically loved one. Because then she’ll grow very fond of it. 

🍏 When your OC says “I had a bad day” what does that tend to mean? Is it really as bad as they’re saying or are they being a bit dramatic?

Chieko has a little knack for overacting a bit and she can certainly be a bit overdramatic here and there. Her saying „I had a bad day“ can very easily just be a string of just plainly annoying events that frustrated her enough to be grouchy for the entire day afterwards. 

🐉 How religious is your OC? Do they pray to any god(s) or do they not believe in that kind of stuff? What is their view of religion in general? Where do they believe people go when they die? If your OC is not religious why not and what do they believe in otherwise?

Chieko likes to say she’s an agnostic atheist. Personally she does not believe in any deity. However, she’s also one to pronounce that there’s no way of her safely knowing that there’s no deity or such. She just thinks that the proving of wether god/an afterlife exists or not is outside of mankind’s capabilities. 

Despite not being religious herself, she does think of religion as immensely interesting. Chieko’s a history-nerd in the end and the impact religion had on humanity all around the world is massive. And that’s just something she finds intriguing to analyze. 

💧 What is something from your OC’s past they’re the most ashamed of and why? What is something they’re really proud of? And lastly what is something in their past that could make them shake with dread?

There was a time in which Chieko, desperate to make female friends, would try to make herself out to be more exciting. She’d occasionally make untrue additions to stories she’d tell in an attempt to make them more thrilling or funnier. It’s something she has resigned off from long ago and she’s cringing whenever she thinks back to it. 

What she‘s, so far, most proudest over is getting invited to the inauguration party of Totsuki‘s new library wing. She got said invitation thanks to various teacher‘s recommendations as they named her as an excellent example of intellect on Totsuki.

🐟 What was your OC like as a baby? What were they like as a child? A teenager? An adult? How do you think they’ll develop ten years into their future? Twenty years? Will they live to old age?

Baby!Chieko cried quite a lot and mind you, she was fairly loud. Her parents always had a pacifier somewhere near because of it. Baby!Chieko was also fairly clingy to her father and would sometimes start to cry whenever he set her down. 

She remained a crybaby throughout childhood and would begin crying at any sort of slight misfortune. As a young child, Chieko was immensely shy and soft-spoken and she was practically famous for hiding behind her father’s legs at all times. At the same time, she showed a lot of intelligence early on and began reading and such at an early age while also always having a lot of enthusiasm when her father taught her something new. 

As a teenager, Chieko ultimately toughened up a lot more, mainly thanks to Totsuki’s rough environment and the fact that she had to fight repeated battles over the rights to her room. She’s not as easily brought to tears as she was a child anymore and she also became more snarky throughout the years. At the same time, she of course kept on expanding her knowledge in a wide array of fields and grew into a little genius. She’s capable of more than people give her credit for, but sadly barely any of the people close to her have noticed that she grew out of her former crybaby-self. 

Once she’s an adult, Chieko will have become a lot more confident. Both in her talents and also her looks actually. She’ll grow into someone very assertive. Career-Wise, she won’t become a chef that opens restaurants and stuff. She’ll probably keep on operating in the landscape of culinary, yes but in a different field than restaurant-owner. By the way, but once she’ll be a mother she’ll actually be much of a worrywart as her father was. 

🍇 Does your OC have any bad habits? Does your OC have any addictions like smoking or drinking? How did they fall into these habits and why? 

Chieko tends to overwork herself. Sometimes she just forgets to take breaks and then her mother finds her having fallen asleep on her books while studying for exams. 

She only drinks on Polar Star Parties. She’s a lightweight though and does not really know her limit all too well. In Polar Star she has Yasu there to watch over her and also generally trustable people, but her drinking around strangers could possibly be more problematic. 

🔮What does your OC think is their best trait. What is actually their best trait? What about their flaws? Are they one to admit these flaws or do they like to pretend they’re perfect?

Chieko herself would definitely name her intelligence as her best trait, but I’d say her best trait would be a combination of her hidden fighting spirit and a sense for justice. 

I think a flaw of her’s is that she does barely every allow herself to just let intuition take over out of worry to escalate a situation more than it already has. She makes her moves much more slowly due to overthinking and its also what mainly keeps her inner fighter and bravery hidden from most of the world. 

🌸 What’s a sentence that would make your OC’s day better? One that would make them laugh? One that would make their day worse? Why? What words would you have to say to them to completely ruin their day?

A sentence that would make her day better would be „I brought you green tea.“ She just greatly cherishes small gestures of kindness. It might not be much for the person who made her the tea, but it really makes her feel warm and fuzzy and like she matters to someone. 

Chieko is super easily peeved, so there’s honestly many things one could say to get her into a bad mood. One drowner is definitely when her dormmates confess they broke one of her things again. 

🌷 How much effort does your OC put into their looks? Do they care much about how they’re dressed or what their hair looks like or are they not bothered? Could they be considered a snob or a slob?

Chieko mainly puts effort in styling her hair and making sure her bun looks the way she wants it to look. She also takes pretty good care of her skin actually. 

On a normal day however, she wouldn’t be bothered to wear make-up or such at this point in her life. She thinks no one would notice anyway. Her casual wear is also mainly about being decent and proper in her eyes; wether or not it’s fashionable or not is second priority honestly. 

For some formal event, she’d put effort in dressing neatly and finding a nice (but still proper) dress to put on. However often her efforts just backfire, as she ends up thinking how silly she is spending so much time on make-up and dress when she’s really just a shadow on such a formal event. 

❤️ What inspired you to make this OC? How long have you had them? How have they changed in the time you’ve been developing them?

Chieko was the first fanchild ever created and I’ve had her since April or so 2016…I was just really excited about MarYu and wanted to try creating a fanchild for them. Because my OTP needed a kid ahshd. 

Chieko honestly hasn’t changed all too much personality-wise, although some of her more minor quirks and such changed from what I initially had in mind. What mainly changed about her is her story within SnKimiko. 

🧡 What traits of your own do you see in this OC? Are they a little bit self-inserty? Don’t be shy, we all put parts of ourselves into the creations we love!

Chieko comes closest to a self-insert of my Fanchilds. Thing is, that I also relate greatly to Zenji Marui to begin with, so what can you do? 

Chieko and I do have quite some things in common and also share a great deal of likes and dislikes. 

But in the end there’s still things about her that differ from me. Mainly the fact that Chieko does have an actual spine, while I’m a complete doormat. Her story about wanting to prove herself to a world that greatly underestimates her because of her looks and former crybaby persona is also something that I do not highly relate to. I’ve been underestimate here and there yes, but it’s not really a major theme in my life so to speak. 

💚 Are you writing anything with this OC or planning on writing anything for them? Do you rp with them or are they just for fun to mess around with?

I have….quite a few ideas for ShigeChi lately. Honestly I always have ideas for ShigeChi. I love them.

💗 Ramble a bit about this character!

Funfact, but the reason why I associate Chieko mainly with the color Blue is because Yuki & Zenji mainly wear blue in the colored version of the manga. Zenji’s polo shirt, which is colored orange in the anime-version, is actually blue in the manga while Yuki is rather often spotted wearing blue as well. 

So blue became not only Chieko’s favorite color but also the color I mainly associate her with. (It’s also my favorite color, yah) 

Another fun fact, but choosing a ship for Chieko was so chaotic. At first, I couldn’t really see her with anyone. Chieko is my precious baby and I needed everything to be perfect for her and out of the existing cast back then I just couldn’t really picture a very exciting romantic relationship for her with any of them. Later on I did eventually consider a few options…options that piled up more and more. There was a time where she had the most end-game-options to pick from. However, none of the options really did the ultimate „click“ on me. Finally I ended up developing Shigeo further and well…..

[bucky-iss-bae]

Little Miss CEO - (Billy Russo x Reader)

Heyy, so another multiple part fic here. This time its Billy Russo as the main man, and I just love writing with him, for real one of my favourites to write with. I know that there's so much I need to improve on while writing still. But I know this, and each fic is giving me more confidence. 

Fandom: Marvels The Punisher 

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader 

Word Count: 2500 ish 

Warnings: Swearing, hella lot of swearing some anger. 

Summary: Billy and Y/N get set up by their friends, but they clash heads more than they get on. He thinks she’s a gold digger bitch and she thinks he’s Mr Obnoxious, are either of them, everyone else thinks that they’re too stubborn for their own good and probably get on. 

A/N: Hope you all enjoy, any feedback is welcome x 

Masterlist  Fandom list 

Little Miss CEO - Part One 

“Karen, why are you doing this again? I really, really, really don’t need to be set up”

“I’m not setting you up. We’re just going out to a bar, with a few friends”

“Your friends not mine” I whined whilst sitting on the couch and flicking through the channels.

My dear best friend and roommate is trying to get me to go out to the bar with her. She knows everyone that’ll be there, all I know is her partner Frank. I mean considering he’s a killer vigilante, he’s quite nice.

And apparently, the other two are both friends of his. One is Curtis, I know he works with those who suffer PTSD. And I have no idea who the final guy is. Let’s hope he’s as nice as Frank and Curtis are because if not then we’ll have problems. I Don’t know who else this someone else is. Mainly because she won’t tell me.

“Y/N!” She yelled, “Get your ass up, go get a cute jumpsuit on and let’s get going”

“It takes more than a jumpsuit to make me cute” I grumbled,

“I didn’t say you were cute. I just said get a cute jumpsuit” She said.

I glared at her, “Listen, if you want me to join you, you should consider being nicer to me. And let's not forget that I’ve got so much work to do. I don’t have time to go out. I see all my friends either at work, at home or scheduled in appointments”

“You’ve not got any work to do tonight babes. I know this, you have a day off and you mean it as a day off”

“Well, I need to go to the gym. Haven’t been since yesterday”

“You really don’t need to go gym either. Come on, let’s go get you ready”

I let out a whine, “I hate you”

“No, you don’t. Now come on”

I got up and she went to grab my clothes whilst I started on my makeup.

I didn’t do too much, mainly because I wasn’t feeling it tonight. Once I got changed and finished my makeup, I went out to join Karen.

“You look amazing. Now come on, we’re half an hour late already”

“You would’ve been on time if you didn’t drag me with you” I grumbled but we still left and took my car.

I honestly have a nice car, I have a good job, I work as a personal trainer and have got my own team of trainers. I also own a gym, where my team and I work. It’s successful enough, we all have our own high-end clients, we all train in different areas so there’s some of my team who are fighters, either ex-navy or ex-marines. Others are ex-fighters, used to specialise in MMA and then their own fighting style. Then there are others that went to college doing sports science, and enjoy sports and know how to train the body to lose weight or get in shape depending on the client. There are 20 that work for me altogether. But in the last few years, the team has really grown. And I’m proud of the company that we’re growing together, the brand I’ve created. But of course, I can’t do any work tonight because I’m being dragged out by my dear best friend.

“You haven’t got work tomorrow have you?” She asked when we were in the car.

“I’ve just got paperwork to do, a few collaborations with businesses, and need to get back to some potential clients, need to prepare a few things, I don’t even know”

“You overwork yourself you know. You need to find yourself a man, calm down a little”

“Ehh, I wanna work on growing my company first. I can find a man another day”

“Uh huh. You know you can multitask right?”

“Yeah, but I want to give it my complete attention to let it grow, a man will just be a distraction”

“Ok, well considering you’re working tomorrow are you drinking tonight?”

I smiled and shook my head, “Nah, I’ll be the designated driver for you and whoever else as long as they treat my car with respect”

“Uh huh. Then don’t give that open invite to anyone else”

I chuckled and we got there within 15 minutes. When we met everyone, well Frank looked at his watch and started laughing, “This has got to be the longest I’ve ever waited for you, you know” Frank said to Karen once they had both kissed in greeting. She sat beside him and I joined them in the circular booth and sat beside Curtis.

“Well she,” Karen said looking across at me, “Decided she didn’t want to join us, but I didn’t really give her a choice so getting her ready took forever itself”

“See, Bill decided he would meet us here and still hasn’t turned up”

“That’s if he turns up” Curtis added

“Wish I had that option,” I said smirking at Karen but sat down with them all, “But hey, how you both doing?”

“We’re good Y/N. How about you?” Curtis asked with a kind smile,

“Busy with work is how I am. But good other than that”

“And how’s business going?”

I nodded, “Good. Really good actually. Couldn’t ask for much more at this point”

“Yeah because all she literally does is work.” Karen said to them a small smile on her face, 

“Sounds like someone else we know. Here he is, thought you weren’t going to show Billy Boy” Frank said to his friend, Billy apparently.

Billy is a tall, handsome bearded guy. He was wearing a very nice and expensive looking suit. He had scars running down the left side of his face but nevertheless was still incredibly attractive.

“Well, I knew that if I didn’t turn up you would be on my ass about never going out,” He said sitting down beside Karen as she and Frank moved across, and looking at us all,

“Who’s she?” He asked bluntly looking at me,

“Y/N, she’s Karens best friend and roommate, Y/N this is sadly my brother Billy,” Frank said introducing us both

I nodded, “Hi”

He grunted in response, “See if you told me someone else was here, I definitely wouldn’t have turned up” He grumbled.

I rose my eyebrows in amusement, isn’t he an obnoxious one.

“Karen, what drinks do you want?” I asked her ignoring him,

“I’ll start with a margarita” She smiled,

I nodded, and got up, “Get me a whisky” I heard Billy say I rolled my eyes but grabbed my clutch and went to order from the bar.

I ordered myself a virgin mojito, Karen’s margarita and Billy’s whisky,

“Can I have this come a few minutes after the other two please?” I asked while paying, I mean sure I’ll get his whisky, but he doesn’t need to know this right away.

“One Margarita and one Virgin Mojito?” The waiter asked with two drinks a few minutes after I had sat back down.

“Didn’t you get my whisky?” Billy asked.

“Oh, shit. You thought that you could be rude to me then ask for drinks?” I asked him, “Sorry sweetie it doesn’t work like that,” I told shrugged, 

He glared at me and huffed out a sigh, “Karen you didn’t tell me that your friend was such a sensitive bitch”

“Oh did she not. Then I’ll quickly mention it. Karen's friend is a bitch so don’t treat her like shit”  I smiled at him.

Franks jaw hung slightly open as he looked at Billy who was glaring at me, a few seconds after a waitress came with his whisky.

She placed it in front of him but he still had a glare on his face, “Ok wow. This has been fun and we’re only two minutes in” Curtis murmured while sipping on his own drink.

Billy took this whisky and necked it back, all while maintaining eye contact.

“Yeah, it’s going to be a long night,” Karen said adding on to what Curtis said.

Despite what the two were saying the night wasn’t that bad. I mean Billy, prick of the year let me tell you that. He’s lovely to his friends, have a few banterous jokes with them, nice to anyone in passing the people serving our food, but then so rude to me. 

Not that I mind, I mean I know how to handle a dickhead or two. It didn’t stop me from having fun. But for real, he was nice to look at, if I’m honest. His beard trimmed to perfection, his hair slicked back nicely, and the suit he wore. Damn this man gave a different meaning to a man in a suit, shame that his personality turns him into something no one would want. 

You could tell he was well off, the way he held himself, the things he was wearing, right down to his shoes. You could also tell that he served alongside Frank. But I’m sure that he didn’t get his scars from the war.

I don’t know how the conversation got to couples and partners, but it did. Well, it started off by Frank and Karen talking about how they ended up together.

“You got any guys lined up then Y/N?” Frank asked with a smirk on his face.

I grimaced at that, “Don’t have time for that” I shrugged.

“Oh come on, you need to make time, I mean I’m pretty sure we all know your type, what's stopping you from finding that” Karen had a shit-eating grin plastered on her face, both her and Frank waiting on answer almost from me. Curtis just laughed with a shake of his head and I rolled my eyes,  

“For real, I don’t have the time or patience. I just about have time for myself, I mean like what is my type, for my type to be specific”

“Well...” Karen started,

“She likes a well-dressed man. Whenever she’s third wheeling and checking guys out. They’re always well dressed” Frank said pointing at me. 

I snorted, “A good fashion sense is key, and excuse me. You’re the one who crashes my coffee dates with Karen. And then you guys make me leave, this is after I’ve paid” 

“Shh, we live together it's ok. But the next point is a beard. She likes a well-groomed beard, you see anyone on anywhere that has a good beard and that’s it for you”

I rested my head back and let out a small laughed, “That’s true though. So true. It makes all the difference for me”

“What else is there?” Frank asked.

I lifted my head up and look at them, “How about no. That’s enough, there’s like no one in this bar that fits that criteria. And I honestly don’t have time for that type of shit”

“Listen, you work too hard and need to rest sometimes”

Considering she first-hand sees how hard I work. She’s always on my case about relaxing a bit. But I know as soon as I’m confident that my business and work life are where they need to be. I will relax. Until then I’ll prioritise my work life.

“Billy boy is the same aren’t you Bill,” Frank said, “No time to play just work, work and work”

“Well, when you’re running a successful business like I do. Then its justifiable”

“What do you do?” I asked him.

He rolled his eyes at me but still answered, “I run a business called Anvil. A security firm”

I nodded, I’d heard of it. Him saying that and I know I’ve heard of him before as well. Think his name is Russo. A dangerous man, who’s done a lot of bad things but redeemed himself.

I nodded at his answer, “That’s nice”

He had a glare set on his face once again, “You got something you wanna say?” he asked.

I shrugged, “Nah. Was just curious is all”

“I really didn’t think the two of these would clash like this” Frank muttered to Karen who laughed a little at this as did Curtis.

“What did you think would happen?” Billy asked them, he stared at them, and I just realised this was a potential set up, “Fucking hell. You’ve been trying to set us up, haven’t you? That’s why you were so adamant on me joining, and why you’ve been interrogating her”

The three of them were sat there with innocent smiles on their faces.

“I don’t need someone who’s probably a gold digger hanging around. And who says I’m ready for this shit after last time huh?”

“You walked into the last one yourself buddy,” Frank said to him whereas I just clocked on to what he said,

“Who are you calling a gold digger when I’m the one who’s been buying your drinks?”

“Well, clearly you are. I’ve watched how you’ve been drooling all over me, what I’m wearing. Probably trying to figure out how many figures I make, asking what type of business I run”

I snorted at that, “Oh sweetie. You really are an arrogant, obnoxious prick aren’t you?” I questioned leaning forward slightly. 

“And you’re a condescending bitch. You don’t see me calling you out”

“You literally just did. And let’s not forget the comments you’ve been making towards me”

“All I’ve been saying is the truth princess”

“Right, a gold digger, a sensitive bitch? You got a little butt hurt because I let you wait for your drink rather than you being a demanding ass just because you didn’t get it right away”

“Yeah a sensitive bitch. I mean whenever someone starts talking about something you don’t wanna be talking about you completely swerve the conversation”

“Am I now? At least I’m talking you're sat there acting all moody because you didn’t get told that a stranger would be sat here with you guys”

“Well, considering the way you acted when I said I’m CEO of Anvil”

My jaw dropped, “How did I act huh? Tell me because I know for a fact you're imagining things now”

He had a grimace on his face and shook his head, “Nah, see you may have hidden it well. I’ll give you that, but not well enough”

“You’re actually the sensitive one now. Wow. And you’re overreacting. What is there for me to say anyway?”

He didn’t say anything instead if looks could kill, I would be dead right now. He didn’t like what I was saying, everyone else was shocked at what was being said and I know for a fact that this wouldn’t be diffused anytime soon.

“Listen I’m going to go pay what I need to pay. Did you want me to pick you up later Karen?” I asked her.

“It’s alright. I’ll probably stay with Frank tonight alright”

I smiled and nodded at her, I sad bye to Frank and Curtis, apologised to them both and went to pay for my tab before leaving.

I cannot believe I had to endure sitting there with such an obnoxious prick.

** 

Little Miss CEO Part 2

[7deadlycinderellas]

The Second of Spring

Ao3 Link

 Sansa

Sansa expects anger the next morning, she expects disbelief. She expects someone (Father most likely, or maybe Robb) to have to be talked down from racing after them.

Sansa does not expect this.

The day is clear, and warmer than it has been in ages. The snow on the stable roofs has begun to turn to slush, horses being led out taking time to try and lick at it before being pulled away.

Everyone is energized by the sudden warmth, and this leads them all apart. Sansa doesn’t even see her parents while breaking her fast, and Bran leaves after only a few minutes to chase after Maester Luwin.

It’s not even until the evening meal, when, during Robb and Father discussing road clearing, when Father suddenly stops and changes topics,

“Has anyone seen Arya?”

Suddenly Sansa her face redden and her mouth force itself shut, while everyone else chatters

“One of the servants said she wasn’t in her bed this morning, but she does get up early sometimes.”

“Bran were you two causing mischief again?”

“No, I was with Maester Luwin all day.”

“I didn’t see her in town either,” Robb comments.

“Sansa was she with you when you were with the Septa?”

Sansa shakes her head, still squeezing her mouth shut.

They go back and forth for a few more minutes. It’s not even all that serious even. Everyone seems to assume there must be a reason.

Then Father makes a move to call over someone to start a search, when Sansa can’t hold herself anymore, and lets it out.

It’s not in words though. It’s a noise, like halfway between a sigh and a squeak.

It gets everyone’s eyes on her though. Sansa doesn’t like it, she’s never liked being put on the spot, even for something good. So once she realizes everyone is staring, she reaches into her pouch, pulls out the scrolls and hands them out without saying a word.

She’d sent off Jon’s earlier that morning. To her eye, it had felt the fattest, which made sense to her. Arya had always been close to Jon, she probably had a lot to say to him.

Robb’s isn’t too thick, and he’s always been good with his letters. Sansa can tell immediately when he’s finished reading, because he starts laughing.

Hard.

No one else reacts though.

Bran is the next. Somehow he doesn’t seem too moved. He ends by setting it aside and returning to his dinner with a soft, “That explains a few things”.

Mother and Father both take their time, and their expressions are solemn.

Then Mother puts down her paper and cracks a smile.

“Your sister could always be counted on to take things into her own hands.”

Father is the only one who looks pained as he finishes his letter, the longest one here. When he’s done, he sets it down on the table and rubs his eyes.

Then he meets Sansa’s gaze.

“She trusted you with this?”

Sansa can barely convince herself to nod. Inside she’s all warm though. Arya had trusted her with this, and that felt terribly important.

Father sighs.

“Be careful what you wish for they always say.”

“We did so wish the two of you would get along,” Mother adds.

Father stands, and gestures to Robb and Bran.

“The two of you, prep to leave tomorrow and follow them. I don’t want you to try and bring them back- not that I even think you could, you both know what your sister’s like when she’s made up her mind- but check on them. And once everyone gets to Storm’s End, try and get a feel for the going-ons there. See if you think Renly’s up to anything suspicious. There’s a few things I’d like to check into on the way as well, but I’ll bring you up to speed on those a bit later.”

Bran and Robb get up to attend to this. Robb looks dutiful, but Bran looks excited.

“And Bran, when the two of you return, I think it’s time we discuss you becoming a squire.”

Bran leaves to follow off his brother suddenly looking as if he’s on cloud nine.

“Are you really worried that Renly might have some sort of agenda?” Mother asks.

“Renly’s never feuded with his brothers; Robert and Stannis did enough for all three of them. But there are persistent rumours about him, specifically about his ability to produce heirs, so I feel it’s worthy to check up on.”

Sansa feels her heart sink. She had never thought this would be any bigger than just their family. She looks at Mother, who’s still smiling a bit, but also looks quite burdened.

“Are...are you really not angry at her?” Sansa asks carefully.

Mother takes a deep breath in. “Sometimes storms come out of nowhere. But sometimes you see them coming, dark clouds on the horizon and the smell of rain in the air.”

“We knew better than to promise your sister’s hand to anyone, especially without her consent. Her not being a firstborn made that easy enough.”

“You can prepare for a storm, take precautions. You can pray it will pass you by, but you cannot stop it.”

Well, that analogy seemed far too appropriate, considering where Arya was going. Sansa tries to pull up anything she knows about the Stormlands, and can’t recall anything other than them being known for being, well, stormy.

“Though now it feels as though I invited the storm into the front door.”

And with that, Father gets up to leave, but Mother remains at the table. Neither her or Sansa has touched their roast pork. Mother lifts her fork and takes a bite.

“I’m ashamed to say I never paid much attention to the boy.”

There’s a pause, and Mother looks at her long and deep.

“Did you? Did he seem good to her at least?”

Sansa nods sympathetically. “She told me she spent so much of her life thinking no one would love her without having to change herself, and that Gendry never once wished that of her.”

Mother breaks her gaze and returns to her food.

“Her naming day is in a fortnite. She will be seven and ten already. This game we play will take all of you from us at some point. I was so grateful for this winter, keeping us all together just a little while longer. But it seems winter too must end.”

Sansa and Mother finish their meal in silence, and Sansa leaves.

Dwelling on her mother’s words, she is suddenly grasped by a thought that fills her with glee.

Not only had Arya, wild, untamed Arya, gotten married, she’d been the first of her siblings to do so.

 Ned

“Have you decided if we should do anything to punish Sansa?”

Ned was still sitting up though him and Cat had retired some time ago. The day had been long and was still weighing heavily on his mind.

“I don’t see what good it would do. She’s never needed convincing to behave before, and I fear it might threaten her romantic heart.”

Cat was already stretched out in their bed.

“With spring coming, we should send out invitations to other families seeking matches for some of the others. “

Ned nods to himself, as mixed about the slow loss of his children to marriage as Cat had been earlier.

Cat laughs to herself softly again.

“I really was so certain Sansa would be first. If not her, Robb.”

“Arya befuddled all of us. At least we didn’t actually have to deal with Sansa marrying that Lannister brat.”

Ned pauses, suddenly deep in thought. Then he begins to laugh uproariously.

“I should write to Robert and tell him he got his wish. I’m not sure this is quite what he meant though.”

 Arya

Dear Sansa

I’m writing along the road so I don’t forget anything. I don’t want to risk sending Lyanna before we reach Storm’s End. Without her, I won’t have an easy way to reach you. So maybe this will be more diary than letter. I’ll send it all at once.

We’re just in the middle of the group, helping Mya keep her herd together. Edric is in front, and the rest of his guard behind us. I never realized mules could go so much longer than horses, you couldn’t tell by looking at them.

Gendry’s never ridden much, and you can tell. Thankfully, Mya’s herd is so sturdy, or I would fear him toppling out of the saddle. It would be awful for him to have to spend the rest of the journey stuffed into a supply cart.

I picked him a handful of snowdrops the other day. Where we are, they’re already showing their heads through the snow. We can sleep beside each other when we camp, but there are so many people we haven’t been able to lie together since the night in the Godswood. I guess we could, but it wouldn’t be worth the jeering, though part of me is so desperate for him to touch me I think I might have to.

Seven hells, I’m starting to sound like you.

*

The birds are awake again, Gods above how I’ve missed it. We woke to them singing this morning, despite the remaining snow on the ground.

Gendry keeps asking me what I’m writing to you. Despite Father having made sure him and all his siblings knew their letters, I think it’s still a bit of a mystery to him. I almost want to make him write something to you himself. Father’s right, the vast majority of smallfolk being illiterate can only lead to others taking advantage.

We’re getting close to Moat Cailin, it would be a good shelter but the snow is still so heavy upon its buildings. I hope Bran takes the time to look at it, he always loved the stories about first First Men.

I really hope they’re not trying to be stealthy, because one of the guards told us we were being tailed the second day, and soon after gave us a description.

*

Wasn’t able to write again until we got through the Neck. It rained the entire time that we were on the causeway. A couple of times we stopped hard when Mya’s mules wouldn’t go another step until it slowed a bit. Stubborn as a mule indeed.

It’s spring for sure here though. I don’t think most of these trees are the kind that ever lose their leaves, and their all as green as can be. Flowers in all colors too, peak up through the swamp waters, and along the sides of the causeway.

Gendry asked me about the people who live here. I told him what little I knew of House Reed and the crannogmen. How they hunted frogs and fished to survive, how they were still fierce fighters who were hard to conquer, and how a single graze with a poisoned arrow could fell a grown man. He just gazed out over the swamp and said it rather looked like one of the hells. I told him others had probably said the same of Winterfell. One of the other guards kept making japes about mudmen. If only I could make him regret that. Father always spoke well of Howland Reed. Gendry bristled at the jokes too. He’s a bit sensitive at people being made a joke of just for the fact of their births. He and Jon would have much in common.

The rain doesn’t let up at night, but someone in Edric’s caravan had the foresight to pack lots of oilcloth. There’s no real way to keep a fire going, so our camp is always dark. The storms combined with the cover they give, and the darkness of the trees has given us the first semblance of privacy since Winterfell.

This last morning before we passed through the end of the Neck, it was only raining lightly. The early morning sunlight was just barely making its way through the tree canopy, and the rain caught some of the light in its drops. It made for a strangely beautiful morning. Mornings like this I could understand being a mudman, rowing a boat through it’s waters, no matter what the world thought of me.

Then Gendey rolled over underneath my arm, muttered something about when we’re going to be getting out of here. Apparently he doesn’t appreciate being wet.

I wish I could tell Robb and Bran to be careful. If the rain keeps up the way it’s been, the causeway could wash out.

*

The inn at the Crossroads is a nice break from sleeping on the ground.

It wasn’t terribly full, so Edric treated us all to mead, and his singer sang a few rounds. Everyone was happy. I’ve never realized, but it’s really much easier to get to know people when you’re dry and warm and well-fed. Edric’s a bit dramatic to be sure, but he spins a good yarn. Honestly, you would probably find him intriguing, but we’re already sisters, so I don’t fancy you marrying my husband’s half-brother.

That seems to be the high point for Gendry. Father bringing him to Winterfell not only led to him finishing his apprenticeship somewhere nicer than Flea Bottom and getting something resembling a formal education, but also gave him an actual family.

There’s even more, Edric says. More than him, and Mya and Barra. As far as the sources he’s followed has been able to find, Robert fathered at least ten more bastards. Gendry officially has more siblings than I do.

It’s wonderful having an actual bed to ourselves too. More details to tell you, but you’ll have to visit for them, I’m not writing them down.

*

We’ve reached King’s Landing, and the skies are now mostly clear almost every day. I was hoping that we might be able to avoid having to pass through the city itself, but the roads around it are still flooded from the spring rains.

Gendry’s been a bit cross about it for a few days. Bad memories he says. King’s Landing, to him it seems, is just memories of crushing poverty and his dead mother. Maybe I’ll sneak off and get us a couple of apricot tarts to bring up his mood.

We did have a very interesting encounter with another group of travelers leaving the city while we were still camped outside the walls. Jamie and Tyrion Lannister, traveling in the very early morning, with both Tommen and Myrcella. Ser Pounce was even napping on Tommen’s shoulder, though he’s not as spry looking as he used to be. We didn’t exchange much more than casual greetings, but Myrcella did get to tell me that it was decided that her and her brother would be better off in Casterly Rock for the time being. Suddenly I remembered that rumor I told you about, and I hope nothing bad happens to them. Neither of them deserve it.

Also, Tommen’s taller than me now. If you’re fine with being surrounded by kittens, you might still get a chance to wed a prince.

The route through the city didn’t take us through Flea Bottom thankfully, Gendry was really quiet the whole day. He barely even nibbled at the tart I smuggled him.

At night when we were camped outside the gate, he whispered to me that the times I used to pester him in the streets while fleeing the Red Keep were often the sole bright moments in his days.

The guards say there’s no more sign of our tail. I hope Robb and Bran are well.

*

They’ve build a bridge over the Blackwater Rush. I wasn’t looking forward to the ferry, and neither was Mya’s herd.

Edric says we’re really close now, a few days away. And all of a sudden, I’m nervous. Neither Gendry nor I have ever met Renly before, we only know him by reputation. Edric tried to put my mind at ease, saying Renly was very far from serious about anything, much less scheming and trickery.

And then Gendry pointed out that as a blacksmith, he can work pretty much anywhere. He told me that if we had to flee, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

I swear Sansa, some days I really still can’t believe he actually loves me.

 Robb and Bran

The causeway had washed out. Badly. When the two of them had tried to ford through the riding water, Bran’s horse had become spooked and bolted. Robb has chased him into the marshes, and the two of them had become lost.

“What should we do?” Bran asks, seeming frightened and young again. His brother was nearly six and ten now, but once again sounded the role of the youngest child.

“We have to get back to the Kingsroad, it’s the only safe passage through the Neck”.

They do their best to follow the sun to find their way, but the canopy disguises it. And soon the rain begins to pour down even more heavily. Robb is beginning to despair.

Eventually they come to an area where the ground is fairly solid and covered by enough trees to be drier than what’s around it.

“We’ll stay here tonight. Try again in the morning.”

The ground is too soft to camp, so the two of them eat on horseback, and Bran volunteers to take first watch. Before Robb makes to try to sleep, as best as he could on the back of his horse, Bran comments.

“Going to be really mad if we go through all of this and Arya attacks us as soon as we get there.”

“Arya won’t attack us unless we try and take her home. Which we shouldn’t have to. You’ve spent time with Gendry, yes, he seemed like a good man to you right?”

Bran can agree to that.

“Still seems strange to me. I could never picture her in love, or as a wife.”

He also didn’t really understand what Gendry had seen in her.

“I could never picture it for any of you, you all seem so small to me still. “

“What about you?”

“Women are great, but I’ve never met one I wanted to spend all my life with.”

“That’s because you only meet girls with Theon.”

After that Robb finally manages to drift off, Bran stares off into the murky green-black darkness. It’s the strangest place Bran has ever spent the night, and he’s not sure he’ll be able to sleep when his turn comes. The swamp, rather unlike the forest, felt alive all around him, as if it had a blood and heartbeat all it’s own. There were chirps and squelching wet noises coming from things he could not see, and Bran feared something else would spook his horse.

After some time, he feels like his eyes have begun playing tricks on him. Spots of light seem to appear out in the darkness. In the shadows he thinks he might see a figure in one of the trees across the clearing.

Suitably ill at ease, Bran resists the urge to squeeze is eyes shut, and waits desperately for Robb to wake.

When he finally does, Bran thanks all the Gods, and tries to sleep. He barely makes it, when suddenly Robb is shaking him awake. It’s very early morning, only the tiniest hint of sunlight making it through.

And while there’s no figure crouching in the trees, there is a spot of lantern light across the horizon. It’s not coming closer though, it’s just hovering.

“Who are you?” Robb yells out into the semi-darkness. He doesn’t sound terribly lordly right now, but Bran doesn’t feel it either.

A figure emerges, holding the lantern in one hand, and a sharpened spear in the other. Bran can see that it’s a young woman, around Robb’s age, dressed in scale-leather, dark hair tied in a single braid.

She walks to them with confidence, and her spear clutched tight.

“I am Lady Meera, of House Reed. You are out of your place. State your reasons to be in our lands.”

Suddenly all the fear leaves Robb’s voice.

“Robb and Brandon, of House Stark. The section of the Kingsroad we were on is washed out, and we got lost. “

Meera looks them both over. She reminds Bran of Arya in a way, a similar wildness to her. He also notices that she’s rather beautiful, in a similarly wild way. She loosens her grip on her spear.

“My father, Howland Reed, spoke highly of your father.”

“And ours of yours”.

Meers nods to them.

“Follow me. You’re far from the Kingsroad, but we know other ways through the Neck. We’ll let you rest up and then get you on your way.

As Bran and Robb begin to follow Meera through the swamp, Bran notices several other people emerging from the darkness of the night. Several people in the dress of the Crannogmen, both on the ground and in the trees. Suddenly, last night seemed more normal.

And soon his gaze shifted back to Meera, leading them through the marsh.

Robb watches him warily.

“God’s above, Bran,” he thinks, “Not you too.”

[theomotaku]

Two Proposals and A Wetting

Today was the day! Goku was going to ask Vegeta to marry him. He made a reservation at the nicest all you can eat restaurant in West City for 6:00 PM, he bought the perfect ring, and he's even going to drive instead of flying tonight! He can't wait to see his (hopefully) soon-to-be husband!

Vegeta is so nervous. He is going to propose to Kakarot today. Kakarot made the reservation, so at least Vegeta doesn't have to worry about that. He does need to shower, get dressed, and he can not forget the ring! He goes into the kitchen. He needs a drink to calm his nerves. He picks up the first bottle of liquor he sees and takes a few gulps.

With the... He looks at the bottle... whiskey I his system, he's calmed down a bit and goes to take a shower. He considers using the restroom then, but he doesn't really have to go and he knows he'll need to use it again before he leaves. He goes into his room to get dressed.

After an hour if digging through clothes, he finds the maroon suit he wore when they met Arale. Thank Kami it was clean! He put the suit on and checks himself in the mirror. He looks perfect. He slips on a pair of white gloves. Then he takes them back off. Then he only puts on one. He feels himself starting to panic. He can't tell if he should wear his gloves or not! He needs another drink.

As he downs more whiskey, he hears the doorbell ring. Bulma answers it. (He still stays at Capsule Corp. He and Bulma love wash other, but more as siblings.) He hears her invite Kakarot in with a "Vegeta's still getting ready." He takes off his one glove, tosses it onto the table, and puts the whiskey back up. He all but flies back to his room to pull on his shoes and then greets Kakaorot in the living room.

Vegeta looks so adorable when he's flustered, Goku thinks. He realizes he should say something out loud.

"You look good, Vegeta."

"You do, too, Kakarot." He was wearing his beige suit that he's worn a few times.

Vegeta felt a twinge in his bladder reminding him that he forgot to use the restroom. Oh, well. Too late now. The two Sayains exit the house.

When they get to the car, Goku opens the passenger door for his boyfriend. Vegeta nods his thanks and gets in. Then Goku goes around and gets in the driver's seat. They take off.

Half an hour later, they're at the restaurant. Vegeta's bladder is uncomfortably full, but he doesn't want Kakarot to know about his delema, so he decides to hold it. The waiter shows them their seats and they order drinks. Vegeta realizes that he can slip away as they go out to the buffet area, and he does so.

When he reaches the restrooms, his bladder almost releases at the thought of release so close. He actually has to hold himself for a moment. He looks up and sees that the men's room is out of order. He looks to the women's room as a lady walks in. Looks like he'll have to hold it a while longer. He walks back to the buffet and piles his plate with everything that looks good.

Back at the table, Goku has just sat down when the waiter brings his water and Vegeta's wine. Goku tries to wait patiently for the Prince to come back, but it's hard to do. The food looks and smells so yummy!

Before long, though, Vegeta comes back with his food. They both dig in. Kakarot , unsurprisingly, doesn't bother to use any manners. Between that and all the alcohol in his system, Vegeta allows himself to relax and eat the way he wants to.

Before Vegeta notices, he's on his second glass of wine. He realizes he should slow down before he gets drunk. Just then, he felt a spurt of urine in his underwear. Shit! He forgot he'd been needing the restroom. He excuses himself under the pretense of getting more food, hoping there would be an open restroom now.

"Vegeta, wait!" Kakarot calls. He gets out of his seat and gets down on one knee. Vegeta freezes, watching the younger Sayain, though he has to concentrate on holding his bladder

"Vegeta, I know we've had our differences, but I wouldn't change that for the world. You're not only my boyfriend, but my best friend, my Prince, my insparation. Vegeta," he pulls out a little black box and opens it, "will you marry me?"

"Kakarot," Vegeta whispers breathlessly. "Yes!" Kakarot slips the ring on Vegeta's finger. Just then, the Prince feels a wet warmth spreading from his crotch.

"Woah, are you okay?" Goku asks his new fiancé as the older Sayain wets himself. Vegeta nods, but there are tears running down his cheeks. Goku hugs him and IT's to right outside a restroom at Capsule Corp. "Here, it's okay. Get cleaned up. I'll be back."

Goku IT's back to the restaurant. It looks like he managed to get Vegeta out of there before anyone else noticed or before he started making a mess. Goku finishes his food, pays the bill, picks up the car, and IT's back to Capsule Corp., this time to the driveway to put the car down. Then he searches for Vegeta's energy, but he couldn't find it. Poor guy. He's so embarrassed, he's hiding his energy, Goku thinks. He IT's to the restroom he left Vegeta in front of.

Meanwhile

When Kakarot left, Vegeta knocked on the door to the restroom.

"Someone's in here," Trunks calls. The shower is running.

Vegeta freezes in panic. He can't stop the urine from pouring out of him. He can't get to another restroom and he can't go in this one. He can't do anything, so he just let's himself cry and wet.

When he's finally done wetting himself, Vegeta flares his Ki to dry himself and the floor.

Trunks felt his dad's Ki flare up and assumed something was wrong. Every Z-Fighter uses something like that as a distress signal, right? He jumps out of the shower, wraps a towel around his waist, and bursts or if the restroom, just in time to watch the wet spot dry from his dad's pants. Trunks stares, mouth agape.

"Hurry up and get dressed, Trunks," Vegeta says, voice shaking.

"Dad...." Trunks feels bad for his father. "Um, are you okay?"

"Just get dressed, boy," Vegeta tries to command, but the words have no bite. Trunks obeys, however.

He gets dressed then comes back out. That's when Goku appears in front of him.

"Goku... do you know what happened to my dad?" the young demi-sayain asks. Goku isn't sure what the young prince meant.

"No, I'm looking for him, too."

"That's not what I mean..." Goku feels guilty all of a suddrn. He didn't realize he had been locking on to Trunks's energy until now.

"Yeah. And I think it's kind of my fault. I need to apologize." Trunks nods.

"Well, if I find him, I'll flare my energy to let you know. Once to tell you I found him, twice if something is really wrong. Can you do the same if you find him? I won't come unless something is wrong."

Goku sniles. Bulma' s kindness, Vegeta's strength, and both of their brains. Trunks is so smart! He agrees to the plan and they spilt up.

The first place Goku goes is the only place they actually had to look. Vegeta s room. Well, Vegeta is in the en suite restroom, but still. Goku flares his ki once to let Trunks know. Goku knocks on the door.

He hears Vegeta sobbing and the shower running, but the Prince doesn't answer him. He tried the door. Locked. He knocks again.

"Vegeta?" No answer. "Hey, I'm sorry that Trunks found out. I didn't realize I locked onto his energy. Please, just leery me in."

Goku hears a click. He waits for Vegeta to get back in the shower if he wants before he goes in.

"Kakarot," Vegeta's voice was rough, "why... how are you not disgusted? Why are you here?" Goku wrapped the smaller Sayain in a warm hug.

"It was an accident, and it's not that gross. It's just water." Vegeta didn't bother to correct this. "I love you. Even if it was gross, I would help you."

Vegeta closed his eyes and just enjoys the hug, trying to stop crying. Once he calms down, he invites Kakarot to join him in the shower, to which he says yes. Then they get dressed and go to find Trunks.

Trunks is okay with everything. He understood before they even had to explain. He, slightly awkwardly, tells his dad that its okay.

Just then, Vegeta remembers that he forgot the ring. He drags Kakarot to his room to give it to him. He gets down on one knee.

"Kakarot," Vegeta is very nervous again, "you annoy the hell out of me at times, but I can't imagine a better life. You... have already proposed to me, so I hope I can count on your answer, but. Will you marry me?" He opens the ring box and, when Kakarot says yes, places it on his finger.

[alitheamateur]

The Grind-Chapter 2

See what you’ve missed here …

We had been meeting at The Grind on Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s, & Saturday’s for the last two weeks. We discussed last names, home towns, the obvious sports, and the strange hatred we shared for cherry licorice. I took notes on the path that led him to becoming a fighter, & he filled me in on his basic training habits for a fight of this magnitude. He had been on the wrestling team throughout high school, & could’ve hand picked from the patch any college he wanted to attend, and a scholarship would’ve been offered on a silver platter. For a moment, I let myself envision Colton sporting a varsity letterman jacket marking the halls as captain of the wrestling team. The mental illustration may have produced an overdose of lust, which caused me to shift lustfully in my seat. He chose a rowdier way instead, consisting of drugs & some extra-curricular gambling debt, leaving him in need of some quick pocket cash before he quote, ‘got ran down by some greasy-haired bookie’. Enter, the dabbling inside the octagon. 

The first two matches he had managed to pin down had been easy defeats to his pleasant surprise, & a blue fired flame had been lit in his core. The adrenaline. The passion. The sheer ruthlessness was something he said he became dangerously addicted to. The rush of feeling alive, yet toying with combative death, replaced his desires of betting. As he climbed the latter of men’s’ competitive cage-fighting, his mom had fallen ill in the meantime. Leading him eagerly back home to her side, and promising to lay down his habitual drug use, and shady gambling. But the fighting, no. He explained how it had become his only way a life, and an outlet amid all the worrisome stress of his mother’s illness. And his speculations of my Pilot family beaming with excitement once I dropped the story onto their desks, had been correct. Ryan, my boss, had guaranteed me a full front-page for my “excellent snag.”

 This particular Saturday morning strayed away from the typical routine the two of us had settled into. Colton suggested I join him for his morning run through the city, and he’d show me around to some of the crevices of Pittsburgh I hadn’t seen. If I’m truthful, nothing about trouncing through the freezing streets of downtown Pittsburgh, in the dead of winter, at 4 a.m. appealed to my senses. However, the added minutes of Colton to my day, were ones I would gladly grasp on to. He offered to meet at my place, because it was “a real bad idea for a girl like me to be wondering alone in the streets at the break of daylight.”

Finishing my second layer of apparel, I took one last survey in the mirror dragging on the thermal elastic headpiece. My dirty blonde waves were tied in a tight ponytail, and I nixed the makeup, concluding this morning would involve ample sweating. I checked my watch spitting out the last remnants of toothpaste, assuring I wouldn’t have my running partner waiting. At that very second, I heard a heavy knock on my door. Spewing a nervous exhale, I made my way to the front of the apartment, loosening my tensed shoulders, and rolling my neck along the way. This was a simple run, not a date. He would probably have headphones stuffed in his ears the entire time, forgetting I was even tagging along at his side. So, why was my stomach twisting dopy somersaults?

I swung the dark green barrier open, and his freshly awoken, soft eyes trailed up my form. “Good-morning sunshine.” He checked his watch, “And I see you’re right on schedule.”

I slung the thick mane off my shoulder as a “take that” to his cheeky tone of surprise at my ability to flop out of bed this time of day. I squeezed the handle closing the door behind me assuring I had locked it, and we made our way down the silent stairs from my upper level abode.

“How far are we going again?” I kicked myself for only now deciding to request that particular information.  

“I tracked a course that’ll bring us right back to your place. It’s just 4 miles. You think ya’ can handle it, hot shot?” He smiled teasingly & began jogging backwards out of sight without any warning. What had I gotten myself into?

 Just as he’d promised, we completed his perfectly mapped out 4-mile route, ending at the very steps of my apartment complex. There wasn’t much talking along the way, but he’d shoot me a wink shaking his head, impressed that I was able to keep up. We decided to skip out on The Grind, & instead I extended an invite for coffee at my place.

“Make yourself at home, I’ll get the pot started.”

As I was pulling mugs & filling the Mr. Coffee, I watched him intently from afar. He began wandering around my living room looking at every picture I had framed on display. Senior prom with all the girls from the team, my best friend Sara & I on our unplanned trip to Mexico before I left home. He seemed genuinely interested in seeing more of me and his eyes smiled, meticulously observing a deeper look at my life in the snapshots. Who I really was, and where I came from. I could feel a warm snicker sneak onto my lips at the realization.

While the liquid brewed in the kitchen, I found my way back to the living room to join my guest. I dead-weighted myself onto the leather couch with a dramatic, exhausted sigh.

“And here I thought you were in shape after stayin’ on my ass this morning.” He laughed, making his way to the open seat next to me. I extended a light kick in his direction for the insult.

“Next time, my rules. Let’s see how the big bad cage fighter takes on 100 suicide sprints, huh?” Suicides were Coach Gibson’s chosen form of torture, and boy, did he torture us. I considered myself a master of the trade by sophomore year.

“Do you ever miss it? Basketball, I mean?” He propped his sculpted arm on the back of the couch and turned to face me, and his eyes held such sincere interest.

“Every day. It was my way of life. I think, maybe my injury was life’s way of telling me it was time to expand. Grow up, ya’ know? Time to make another name for myself.”

“You have no idea much I get that, Liv. Honestly. But, it looks like you done pretty well for yourself on ya’ own two feet out here.”

That was enough about me, and the basketball topic for today. Ball would lead to my parents, my parents would unveil the family drama, and it wasn’t the right time for such. I needed to shift his attention to something lighter, and quick. But the shift it took, was not one I expected.

“I still can’t seem to get warm! My whole face is numb,” I shuddered.

He reached his masculine hands over playfully to smoosh my cheeks in an attempt to warm my frozen skin, my lips forming into that of a duck face. I reached for his wrists, giving a weak effort to pry his scorching hands from my face with a chuckle. My doe eyes locked with his, and I watched them turn from lighthearted and tender, to darkly mischievous. Our bodies tensed in unison, and he lightened the grip he had on my now very flushed skin, but didn’t release. His dark shadow slowly carried itself into my personal space, and I knew what was coming next. I didn’t dare rush the intensity of this moment, nor do anything to stop the inevitable. The misty bluish orbs on his face danced from my eyes, to my lips. Eyes, to lips. Eyes, to lips. His left hand eased back a fly away strand of hair that was sticking to the apple balm on my mouth, then he coated his own lips before they finally reached their desired destination.

They were every bit as perfect, and downy as I knew they’d be. Instantly, my first reaction was to melt to doughy-like putty when his large arms slowly began to cloak my small form. I was nearly high from the sheer bliss, and my entire body appeared to lose feeling. Yet, it seemed feel everything in the air at the very same time. Limbs immobilized, along with my mouth, which was doing little to sustain its role in what was transpiring between us. I pinched my thigh between two fingers to awaken myself, & suddenly my body caught up with my mind. I reached my arm up to caress the back of his thick neck as he began to deepen the kiss, grazing my fingers through the baby hairs that laid sweat slicked there.

We just jogged 4 miles, how does he smell so good?

I could vaguely taste drops of salty sweat leftover from our morning adventure. His hands wandered over my hips to the small of my back, squeezing almost as if he didn’t realize his own strength. A glossy tongue tickled my lips gently requesting entrance. All too eagerly I obliged & opened my mouth to welcome him in with lazy a mewl of need. Our tongues danced to an unfamiliar rhythm in efforts to learn how the other moved. I could feel the build between my thighs becoming irrefutable, causing the stickler in me to pull away abruptly. I accepted this night would likely end with a forbidden visit from my battery-operated friend stored in my bedside table.

“Woah, Ritter. Let’s take a breather, yeah? Didn’t see that coming.”

His face still dangerous, minimal inches from mine he spoke. “Honest? I been plannin’ that one since the second I laid eyes on ya’, kid.” He winked & bit his pillowy bottom lip, nearly sending me choked over the edge of heated exile.

I dipped my head feeling the flush rise up my neck. Colton Ritter was pushing all the right buttons & he knew it. “How about that coffee now? Although, I’d say it’s plenty warm in here at this point...” I grinned.

I escorted him to the kitchen, seemingly walking with the legs of a clumsy fawn, and served him a dark cup of caffeine. He asked about some of the pictures he’d noticed throughout the house, & I told a few old basketball tales from my “glory days.”

“What would you say to gettin’ together again sometime, Liv? Someplace other than The Grind, & no damn sweats allowed. For either of us.”

I patiently held off on answering, giving my best effort to play it off calmly. “I think I could manage that just fine. I might even enjoy it, too.”

TAGS: @torialeysha @eap1935

[charleymountbatten]

The Journal of Charlemagne Mountbatten

Thoughts on my friends, an updated list: [since the last one might have been was a dick move on my part]

Astraea: Astraea is a hard shell on the outside. Her unwillingness to open up and to trust is understandable. The fact that she let me in at all is probably the greatest gift I could ever receive from her. Because yeah, she’s cunning, and opportunistic, and manipulative in her own uncharismatic way. But gods, she is trustworthy, once you’ve earned her trust in return. She’s so smart, and brave. She thinks things through and doesn’t just charge in blindly. The party has so many hot-heads (myself included) that we need her to balance us out, and I am so grateful we have her. And she is good. Unflinchingly good. She says she doesn’t understand love, but with her (secret) warmth, her protection, her endless patience with me, her utter delight at making me smile when I need it, and how much she tries to help others (no matter how begrudgingly she does it sometimes) - she doesn’t have to. I know she cares about me. That’s more than enough. I care about her more than I can say.

Poltak: I fucking love this guy. Never in my life have I met anyone who pisses me off more and who makes me instantly forget that fact. He’s hilarious, and knows how to party, and has been responsible for some of the happiest and funniest nights of my life. He’s a natural leader who cares deeply about those under his charge and those who he counts as his friends. I trust him with my life, knowing that I am genuinely safe in his hands. I appreciate his methods, even if I don’t always agree with them. I don’t know why he chose me to be his God Father, seeing as I don’t share his faith, but from what I can tell it’s a gift given to someone who is trusted enough to watch over, defend, and guide the one being baptized. I won’t let him down. He’s my best friend. No matter how much we butt heads (as a fighter and a diplomat are apt to do) I don’t think anything could ever change that. I’m so lucky to have him in my life.

Corellon: Corellon can be haughty and prickly, but I’ve come to know them too well to be put off by it. It’s all an act. They have little self-confidence and can’t understand why anyone would like them in the first place. It becomes a bit of a vicious cycle- self loathing leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy, but before they left things were starting to get better. They are a key part of this party, and a dear friend. They genuinely do care. Any time they acted like a dick, they corrected the behavior as soon as it was brought to their attention. They’re not a brawler like Poltak, but they are necessary to the success of a fight. And when we get out in the world, there is no one more skilled at forestry and nature than them. They are beautiful, still without a doubt the most gorgeous person I’ve ever met, but far more importantly they are a genuinely wonderful person. I could kill their father for how much he belittled them and made them think that they are worthless. Corellon has more value than the lot of their family put together, and though they still act tough, I think we have all wormed our way into their heart. When they return to us, I fear things will be as bad as ever for them. But I won’t ever give up on them, and I think at this point everyone else feels the same way.

Theren: Theren might just be the more adorable person in the world. I genuinely mean that. And he’s grown so much since we first met! His spells are getting increasingly powerful, his confidence in himself is blossoming, and despite every knock he’s had he’s somehow kept his vibrant personality. I do sometimes wonder what exactly his thoughts on his relationship are, and at this point I’m too scared to ask. I have also realized that I never actually get to spend time with Theren outside our light shows. This really saddens me. I’m loud and obnoxious and he’s quiet and studious, but we really do hit it off together. When we escape this city, I should take him to a bookshop. I think he’d really enjoy that.

Nels: I wish I was closer to Nels. We had such a lovely chat when we were first reunited and spent the whole afternoon together. She’s a lot of fun and has such a happy and positive personality. I think we take that for granted sometimes. She’s quiet, and I wish she’d come out of her shell a bit more. I’m happy that she seems to be doing so with Poltak and Theren. Maybe I can invite her out for drinks and bread, or something. I like her sense of humor, and how pretty her birdcalls are. She’s clutch in a fight (except against cats), and with how many disasters there are in this party, it’s nice to have someone calming to balance it out. We really, really need that.

Igor: Igor is a lot more fun than his stoic persona lets on. He’s driven by logic, which I don’t always understand (being the messy emotional bitch that I am), but I think we balance out pretty nicely. He’s got a goofy side, and he lets me bring it out. He’s a lot of fun to play chess with, and the fact that he actually seems to like wearing my gaudy costume is either a sign of a wonderful sense of humor or a complete lack of one- and I fucking love it either way. I am glad we’ve become such good friends. I don’t spend nearly enough time with him, and I know a lot of the time he has to come up to me. He definitely has some anger issues he’s working very hard to keep in check, and I think he feels like he has to prove himself no matter what. I don’t think the party helps with that, sometimes. I know I don’t. But I hope he knows how much I care about him. And I hope he knows that I appreciate his obsession with trying to plan out everything, even though nothing ever actually ends up going according to plan (and we rarely do what he suggests anyway). May that optimism never leave him.

Robin: The whole party hates Robin right now, and I understand the logic. If she had escaped with the pipes, they might have been trapped in that Apollo hell-scape for all eternity. Honestly, I doubt that would be the case. I’m sure Ashley would have helped eventually. Or they would have found another way out. But nothing is a guarantee, and I’d probably be more angry too had I been a victim myself. I still wonder, though, how willing a player she was in that disaster. I don’t know much about her patron, but the fae are not to be messed with lightly. For as much hell as she could have caused us, I do wonder how much more hell she endured for failing in her own mission. I hope she’s alright. She doesn’t strike me as evil, no matter what everyone says. To be fair, I don’t think she’s good, either. I don’t trust her. If it came down to her patron or us, she’d kill us in half a heartbeat. Like any of us wouldn’t do the same, though, in her circumstances. 

Ashley: I don’t understand him, and it’s certainly not for lack of trying. Ashley has been through hell. I don’t know much about the war (I was so young when it ended) but I did hear stories from fellow bards and travelers about its atrocities. I don’t know where he served or what he did, but I know it was bad enough that he drinks just to get through the day. I wouldn’t mind any of it, except that he gets so upset when I don’t know what’s going on in his head. It’s hardly my fault! He’s never actually confided in me. Gods, he can be such a dick. Never admits when he’s wrong, never apologizes when he hurts you, treats you like an idiot if you don’t see things his way or understand his logic. I could hate him, if I didn’t fucking adore him so much. He cares. When it counts, he really cares. He goes out of his way to help people. He’d die for each and every one of us. He’s charming, frustratingly charming. And honestly, he probably feels more than all of us put together, if he didn’t try to drown it all in liquor. I know, in the end, he’s a great man. I hope someday he’ll be a good one too.

Kyr’zhan: I honestly think Kyr’zhan is the first person in my life to ever see me for who I want to be. He became my friend not for the music, or the persona, or the title, or anything else, but for me. He broke down all my walls, and he is earnest enough that I’m not even scared that he did. He doesn’t judge me for my past, or even get mad when I fuck up now. He offers advice, corrects what can be improved upon, and never once made me feel bad about myself. He’s endlessly compassionate, and in the short time I’ve known him he’s given me a sense of self-worth and confidence I’ve never had before. Considering how people treat drow and how he constantly must hide his face out of fear for his life, his faith in the good of the universe is endlessly inspiring. He has a quiet sarcasm that I find hilarious, and he sees the beauty in everything. Nothing seems to bring him down. Even his nerdiness is cute, damn him. And despite not knowing Corellon, he’s gone above and beyond to help save them. He’s like a comet, shining light on everything around him as he goes on his way across the stars. I’m going to be devastated when he leaves. Even if this is just a fling, and not true love, I could live a hundred lifetimes and not meet anyone quite like him again.