#HAPPENED. just now. what are you cooking? food. yes but what kind? [attack dog expression]

[istherewifiinhell]

Obviously the cooking in dumesh is very fancy and nice but i really like the way its like. Okay heres what we have as ingredients. Okay now cook a thing [and mostly eliding seasonings rip]. Which is what i do. With the difference that when you ask me what im cooking in stead of like a pretty title card and meal name with rankings i just act like im being hunted.

[tar-thelien]

Chapter five; Looking For Light In The Darkness

Summary:

Elrond and Elros gets picked up by Maglor who´s on the bridge of falling into complete insanity, Maedhros is tired of everything but let Maglor do as he wants and Erestor watched from as safe of a distance as he can.

Chapter notes:

Erestor shows Elrond and Elros around off camera, Maglor is rude, Maedhors tries, implied drunk character, hinted eating disorder.

words: 1410

AO3

“I don´t think Maglor eats. Normal food I mean,” Elros mumbled to Elrond who was busy fumbling around in the dresser Maglor had fitted with clothes for them after their breakfasts.

He had walked out of the room with lots of other clothes falling from his arms, forcing him to go multiple times to get all, both what was left in the dresser and on the floor. His sobbing had turned to the ugly wheezes of a drowning dog when they had left the dining room and hadn´t stopped for what both twins knew.

Elros had said something about them probably not being the first kids he had kidnapped since they now had a good portion of children's clothes in their own size or a bit bigger when he had left, closing the door behind him.

“His hands are really skinny… like some of the monsters from Ada´s stories. Hands like spiders. Vampire…” he said not really knowing what it was just that they drank blood and were evil. Maglor was evil too.

“Elrond…” Elros tried to roll the new name on his tongue, “Elrond what do you want to do? Do you want to go explore?? Maglor didn´t say we couldn´t, and if we get caught, we can just say Maglor forgot us or something-”

“Yes, about that,” Erestors voice cut in as Elros twisted with as much haste he could and a frightened expression on his face, Elrond had gone still, hands on an orange tunic.

“Timo told me what happened and that Kano probably wouldn´t be able to show you around, as he wanted to… so you wouldn´t get lost that is, so I said that I could do it for him.”

Elros stared at him before turning his bright eyes narrow with a snarl, “how many children did Kano steal before us, and how many did Timo, kill!?”

Both nicknames were spitted with so much hate that Erestor himself barely believed it to be two elflings in front of him and rather two wolves. One quiet waiting to attack and another lashing in its cage.

“Come little Narmo, and I´ll show you and your brother around,” he smiled as he held both hands out.

“We will escape soon, and then we will find the high king and tell him where you are so he can kill you all.” Elros spat, his fear only betrayed in the way his body trembled and his feets shuffled as if wanting to step back.

“Then I must show you around before you do, so it will be easier for you to escape, no?”

“Here is the kitchen and the door over there leads out to the bigger courtyard, now if we go out I can show you the stables and kennels, and maybe even the aviaries!”

Elrond nodded as he looked up at the smiling elf, he didn´t know what an aviary was, but he did know what stables and kennels were and he wouldn´t mind petting a dog or saying hallo to Thuretal, as long as the horse didn´t try to trip him down as he had seen it do with some of the soldiers, or again, anyone stupid enough to come close enough for it to happen that wasn´t Maglor or Maedhros.

“Then we can take some apples and seeds with us? And maybe there are a few bones the cooks won't need,” Erestor said happily as Elros frowned up at him.

“Why do we need seeds!?”

“Well… to feed the birds, that live in the aviaries, or maybe some of the other ones too if you want?”

“You have birds?” Elros exclaimed loudly and Elrond began tugging at Erestors sleeve with wide excited eyes, “I always wanted a bird! What kinds of birds do you have?”

Erestor chuckled at the twins' excitement as he slides himself between the working elvers in the big kitchen to find the food for the various animals.

“Well, we have falcons for hunting, the old two lords, Maedhros and Maglors youngest brothers, breed them, then we also have magpies, for sending messages and such, and a few chickens but they walk freely, except for the night where they´re let into the main stables.”

“We also have some goats and sheeps. They´re walking on the fields outside the fortress usually, and at night they´re leed into another stable closer to the gates than the one with the horses and chickens, that one also has a small garden with geese!”

“Do you have cats too!” Elros said as he helped his brother drag the other elf, for one blissful moment forgetting his rightful fear.

“Yes, they tend to be close to the kitchen, larder, and barns, as that´s where the mouses tend to be.”

Reaching the stable Elrond hurriedly ran forward to reach Thuretal but was stopped by an unfamiliar hand grasping his shoulder as he froze up in fear.

“Don´t trip little lord, wouldn´t do well to soil your fine clothes with all the dirt here,” a rough voice mumbled cheerfully as the unfamiliar elf in front of him kneeled down to reach the peredhels eye level, yet Elrond did all to avoid it, being reminded of the danger he and his brother was in.

“I´m afraid we had a bad start to the morning,” Erestor explained to the elf in front of him while quitting Elros´ angry screams with a hand in front of his mouth.

“I see,” the elf said as he stood up nodding, “another time then, my prince,” he said in goodbye bowing to a now slightly displeased frowning Erestor.

Elrond sat quietly at the dining table staring at Maglor from the corner of his eyes, they had eaten lunch with Erestor after an awkward few minutes in the stables with Elrond and Elros glued to each other's sides.

This time Erestor was eating with them.

The sound of forks and knives on plates and a crackling fire, chewing, drinking, and Maedhros sometimes slipping hand leaving an unpleasant screech that made Elrond wince occupied the room, the only soundlessness was coming from Maglor who mindlessly pushed his mashed potatoes back and forth on his plate, occasional sipping on his wine.

Elros was right, Elrond decided after a moment of debate with himself, Maglor had long and strong looking hands, but each joint poked out painfully, especially when they grabbed around his glass goblet. And he did only seem to drink, and the, maybe, wine was very red.

Looking up slowly at the bard´s round face he saw that the usually crooked smile he tended to wear was now vanished leaving empty eyes staring longingly, the same kind of longingly Naneth would stare at the sea when Ada was gone before she was enthralled by the shinning stone, at the wine bottle beside Maedhros.

The stone that shone like Maglor and Maedhros and some of their soldiers shone.

Maedhros growled slightly and all eyes on the table turned to look at him surprised, two with fright another with curiosity. Maglor just kept examining the bottle.

“Is there nothing you want to say Kano,” Maedhors said as softly as his fierce voice could, “how you were bored or what songs you played in your room? Maybe you even wrote something? Or another thing like that,” a note of desperation was added to the last bit but Maglor just kept on starring.

“... something to… your children maybe? Or maybe you should ask them what they did today?” Maedhros said, his voice now bleeding with desperation as he got a pleading look in his eyes, even as he saw both said children get tends with fear and Elros staring him down as discreetly as possible, so as not to anger him.

“They´re not my children, Timo, just as you said,” Maglor´s usually flowing voice was slurred as if his tung were too heavy, “give me the bottle.”

“Is there nothing you want to say?” Maedhros replied ignoring the words just spoken.

“Give me the bottle.”

Maedhros looked at his pitiful brother before grunting, “if you and the children are done eating, maybe you should put them to bed, as you want to be their Atto and that´s what fathers do, after that, I won´t mind sharing a glass with you.”

Huffing Maglor turned his dulled gaze to the twins looking at their mostly empty plates, “do you need more,” he hissed and both children hurried to shake their heads.

“Kano-” Maedhros warned.

[foodieforthoughts]

Journey through time - Part 3

Summary: Your relationship with Syverson over the years.

Warning: a little bit of angst and a lot of fluff. If you blink you might also see some smut.

A/N: Continuation to Part 2 of the photo series. Here's a link to Part 1 too. Thank you all for reading. I love you guys 😘♥️

Staying alone in Sy's house gave you an opportunity to find out more about your man. You were cleaning his study when you found a box shoved at the very back of a drawer with pictures inside. The first picture was a black and white photo of young Sy, probably in his early twenties. It looked like a candid picture, clicked by someone who must have attentively watched him while he read through some papers. As you rummaged through the box, you found a couple more candid pictures and a hand written letter addressed to Sy.

The box also contained polaroid pictures of a much older Sy. You picked up the one which looked fairly recent, maybe from only a couple of years ago. He had his signature beard, dressed in his suit with his smoldering eyes staring back at you. Behind were the words, "I count myself as extremely fortunate to have accompanied you on your big night, my love." Signed only as "M". You got the sinking gut feeling that it was from an ex-girlfriend, but what affected you more was that Sy had kept her things still.

Opening the letter and finding another picture inside, you took a moment to look at your man. You had no clue who were those people with him in the picture which only made you realise how little you knew about Sy. The letter mentioned how the person felt like they weren't a part of Sy's life anymore. "I invested too many years to be with you and yet I am here, all alone. I can't take it anymore." It read, continuing to jot down ways in which the person felt lonely while Sy was away and that is why she was deciding to break off their relationship. Your hear sank as you read it over and over again, noting how the edges of the paper was crumbled from being opened too many times. Keeping the box back in its place, you couldn't help but think back on everything that was mentioned as the silence in the big house seemed to envelope you.

You stared at your computer screen showing that you were online, waiting for the green dot to appear on Sy's image signifying that he was online on Skype too. It was your birthday tonight and before leaving, Sy had promised he would have long distance birthday dinner with you over video call. You had cooked his favorite recipe of Sloppy Joe's and got his favorite beer brand, even if you hated the taste of it. Your wait for a few minutes turned to hours with your food gone cold and beer turned warm. You looked at the screen, noting that it was past midnight now and your birthday was over. You couldn't help but cry when you shut down your computer, leaving your food on the table untouched and crawling into bed while thinking back on the letter and imagining if this is exactly how the other girl might have felt.

You sucked in a deep breath before receiving the video call from Sy. It was unexpected and unplanned, but it made your heart swell when his face appeared on the screen. Sy did not smile, he looked lost and deep in thought. Even with the awful quality of the call, you noticed the new scars on his face and how he looked like he had aged over a decade. Your talks were formal, mostly asking about how the other had been, general talk about health and wellbeing. But then you couldn't help but blurt out, "You missed my birthday." Sy sighed, rubbing his hands over his face, "I'm sorry but I had a rough week." You wanted to be understanding but the letter kept repeating its words in your mind and when you looked around, you only saw the emptiness. "But you had promised about dinner on my birthday." In an instant, Sy's voice came out like rumbling thunder. "If you want someone to be at your beck and call, maybe you should think what the hell are you doing with me. I can't be there all the time, I have a job to do here." His roaring voice came out loud from your speakers, bringing tears in your eyes. Anger and sadness mixed together and with a trembling voice, you said, "Maybe I really should think what I'm doing with you. Goodbye, Sy." You disconnected the call with painful heaviness in your heart.

Over the next weeks, you got several calls from Sy but you only spoke to him asking him about his health. The moment he would try to talk about what happened over the video call, you would change the subject. Then one day you got a video message sent to you by Sy. It was being filmed by someone else while Sy stood with a spray painted green German Shepherd. You watched as Sy instructed the dog called "Aika" to fetch a writing pad with papers stuck to it from the steps of the building and turn it around to face the camera. Sy crouched down next to Aika and the first paper read, "I'm very sorry about missing your birthday." He turned the sheet of paper over and the next one had "I'm sorry about acting like a dick the other night." When he turned the paper again, it read in bold letters, "I love you and I don't want to lose you." You felt the stinging feel of tears in your eyes as Sy came forward and spoke directly into the camera, "Dinner with me tonight? I'll make up for everything, I promise." Before the video cut, you heard men laughing in the background with someone shouting, "Captain's so whipped!" and imitating the sound of a whip slashing through the air.

That night, dinner was less about eating and more about sharing your feelings. Sy listened to how you felt about him missing your birthday, apologising profusely about it and telling you he'll make up for it when he gets back. But you felt like a bitch when he told you about his week and how he had lost two of his men during an attack on them. It was now your turn to apologize with tears in your eyes as you imagined losing Sy. You didn't want to ruin the mood but you had to ask about the box. "Who's M, Sy?" You watched as his expression had turned solemn and he had sighed heavily. "I take that you found the box? She was my girlfriend before you. We had been together since college and I won't lie, I really wanted to marry her. But, I couldn't give her the kind of life she wanted." You could hear the sadness in his voice while he spoke. "Do you still love her?" he answered in an instant, "Of course not! I love you, babe. I want no one but you. You can even throw away the box if you want, I just never got back to it and throw it away myself." He then proceeded to tell you he wanted to make you feel his love and explained what he had planned, which made you blush but reluctantly you obliged. Even with the distance of many, many miles between the two of you, you pleasured one another over the call while repeatedly professing how much you loved each other.

You had bounced on your feet nervously while watching the arriving flights displayed on the screen. Sy was coming home and your excitement knew no bounds. His tour had been extended by four more weeks which meant you hadn't seen him in person for almost half a year. But family came first so when he had asked if he could go directly to Austin to meet his folks, you hadn't objected. "What's one more week until I meet you?" You had joked although deep down you craved to be in his arms again. When newly arrived passengers started filing out through the doors, your heart drummed in your chest with anticipation. You nearly skipped a beat when Sy walked out the door with his bags, thinking about the time when many months ago you had bumped into him at this very airport, searching through the crowd for you. His bearded face broke out into a huge smile when he spotted you and you almost made a run for him, launching yourself into his arms while planting kisses all over his face. "God, I missed you so much." He said, hugging you tightly to his chest and not letting go of you for a long time.

The very next day, Sy had taken you out for dinner at the most fancy restaurant in town. You noticed how he was fidgety and nervous, looking at his watch several times. It worried you even more when for the third time that night, he excused himself and left the table. You wondered if he was sick but then were left confused when all of a sudden the speakers started playing the familiar tune of your favorite romantic song. You looked around puzzled but was taken by surprise when Sy walked to you and dropped down on one knee. With a tender smile on his lips he said, "I never knew what I really wanted from my life until I met you. Countless times I have prayed to the heavens for making you bump into me on that day. I was at the right place at the right time, for I met the most amazing and beautiful woman on this planet." You felt you heart pick up a pace knowing exactly what Sy was going to do. Fishing out a blue velvet box from his pocket and opening it to reveal a magnificent diamond ring, Sy continued, "Darlin' will you marry me and make me the luckiest man alive?" There was no hesitation in your voice when you nodded fervently and repeated "yes" several times, hugging and kissing Sy before he placed the ring on your finger while everyone around clapped for the two of you.

Continued to Part 4

[governmentintelligence]

happy birthday motherfucker <3

Here is a birthday fic!!

Words: 4910

MASTERPOST OF THE OTHER BIRTHDAY STUFF

KNOX INSPIRED ART <3 <3 <3 <3 GO LOOK AT KNOX ART

~~~~~~~~ no fun sexy linebreak sorry <//3 ~~~~~

It’s a slow mid-afternoon at Pigsy’s Noodles, home of the longest noodles.

Spirit is wiping down the outside tables, humming to themselves as they do. MK is basically laying on one of the tables, legs bent over the side as he scrolls idly through the restaurant’s email. Yes, email—the main network that nearly every business uses has gone down, citing a massive server outage.

“Ugh, no one even uses email anymore, and especially not for food orders,” MK groans.

“That’s not true!” Pigsy and MK had been going back and forth on this for about the past hour, since walk-in orders slowed. It had been almost thirty minutes before someone came in, and while this was an alarmingly slow state, it was unusual for MK to be waiting for orders to deliver rather than the other way around. “People use email for catering events! And if anyone really wants some good noodles, they know they can call in!”

Mei, leaning with her back on the counter, and Tang, sitting at his usual counter spot, share a look. These two had been ping-ponging their argument on and off since the server shut off earlier in the day. It had been demon related in one way or another, another one of Yin and Jin’s hairbrained schemes that MK interrupted before much irreversible damage was done. They’d been hoping to gain control over the city’s main set of servers, used by most mobile apps.

While they’d been swiftly defeated, it still left a remarkable amount of damage on the servers themselves, leaving most of the city’s biggest commercial apps down, including the delivery app.

“Okay, and how many call-ins have we gotten?” MK looks up, only to be met with a glare.

Tang shrugs at MK’s assertion. The argument’s been going in circles thus far; it feels only fair to try and interrupt it. “He’s not wrong. A lot of delivery’s based out of the apps. This is really why having a delivery app trust is helping to wear down independently owned businesses.”

None of us came here for a lesson in market monopolization and trusts, though, readers included. Mei groans, and MK’s arms flop over the sides of the table.

“I’m too bored for a lesson in macroeconomics,” Mei grumbles.

MK, from where his head is leaning over the table’s edge, makes a sound of agreement. Pigsy and Tang share a look, Spirit can see them through the window, before Tang leans back towards MK’s prone body.

“Hey, never too bored to become even more bored!” Tang sounded too chipper when he said it.

That got MK to look up from where he was tangling over the table, giving Tang a glare that mirrored the one Mei was sending him. Even Pigsy stopped stirring his noodle broth, turning to stare at Tang with his eyes squinted.

The silence is moreso what gets Spirit to look up, and once they see everyone staring at Tang, they stare, too. Mostly out of curiosity and partly out of confusion.

They can sense the tension, however light, from a mile away. It makes them hesitant to come back inside, but they have the dirty rags to throw into the laundry bin from cleaning the table. Then, they have to throw the laundry into the machine and change out the cycles, maybe fold the other load of dishrags and washcloths.

Having Spirit’s three extra eyes on him does get a nervous chuckle out of Tang, though. Pigsy spares him the plight of having to redirect the conversation. “I’m still goin’, til closing. It’s slow for deliveries but we’ve been getting some walk-ins and some call-ins. What if a catering order comes in, you know?”

“Aren’t catering orders supposed to come in, like, days before they want you there?” Mei hops over to the counter now, leaning over the side.

That revelation has MK leaping off of the table, landing light on his feet on its surface. Having his various Monkie Kid abilities has helped with some of the acrobatics he does, including his balance. “HANG ON, YEAH!”

He spins around, pointing at the clock on his phone while he flashed it towards Tang, Mei, and Pigsy. “Indoor seating closes soon! And Spirit just finished wiping down tables!”

Mei picks up what MK is suggesting first, throwing her arms up in excitement right back. “CAN WE GO TO THE ARCADE EARLY?”

Her voice is much too close to a shout for Spirit’s liking as they come back in and toss the towel they’re holding. It echoes around the restaurant, likely too sharp of a sound for anyone else here to hear. Mei means well, though, and Spirit knows the conversation doesn’t involve them.

Until MK says, “YES! Hey—Spirit!”

Hearing their name shouted, however friendly, gets their shoulders to hike. They turn around, expression just a tinge wary, and face MK’s excited grin head-on. “Would you want to come with us?”

Leave the restaurant? Well...it was slow. And Spirit wasn’t a cook, they were a waiter and a busser. If people were eating in the restaurant, it would make sense to have an extra hand on deck, just in case.

But right now, the only person eating in-house was Tang, and he’d gotten to the point where he was washing his own dishes when no one else was around. If Pisgy was okay with them going out….but they wouldn’t want to go to the arcade. It was loud and crowded. Many lights and many people and many machines making loud victory sounds. If they could avoid it, they would want to.

They pull at the sleeves of their shirt. It’s a plain white one, the kind that they prefer wearing to work so they don’t get any of their recognizable clothing dirtied. They only have so many sets in purple, after all, and they don’t want to get any dirty here. Plus the black and the white kind of helps to blend in.

“I don’t know. I, um….” They press their fingers together in thought, holding their hands together in front of themselves as they think.

A grunt from behind the counter drew everyone’s attention once more. Pigsy was still stirring the broth with one hand, watching the conversation over his own shoulder. “Maybe not the arcade with Spirit, you know how packed it gets at this time. All the kids getting out of school.”

There was something tender about Pigsy’s concern. Spirit smiles a little, lips pursed tight in the growing tension, and shrugs.

Mei wasn’t about to take a hard “no,” though. She nods to Pigsy’s suggestion that the arcade wasn’t the right place and then adds on, “How about the thrift mall?”

The thrift mall was a new installation of the city. A collection of thrift stores, auction houses, and antique stores all shoulder to shoulder in a multi-story shopping complex. It had just opened about a month ago and reviews were all positive. Plus, the idea of thrifting was returning to popular culture as something akin to recycling, so it would solve some of the fast designer fashion problems.

On a more personal note, too, Mei had been hankering to get a look at the place. She liked adding her own flourishes to the jacket she’d gotten MK years back, so much so that it was a thing she did to her own (to match with her best friend, duh?!) and to almost anything else she could get her hands on. Vintage patches, from the mid 2800’s, even some from as early as the 2500’s, could be found in the backs of antique stories. If she could get her hands on something from even the 2700’s, Mei would lose her marbles.

She’d been dying to go, of course, but every time she and MK were on their way, something would happen. Usually a demon would attack in some way, shape, or form, something small. Once, they made plans, and MK had completely forgotten he was on shift for delivery that day.

Things just kept misaligning, and MK very much knew how desperate Mei was to go to the thrift mall. Sure, there was the repeated asking, and now there were the current puppy dog eyes.

MK, also very much desiring to go, immediately follows suit. “Can you come to the mall with us?” he asks Spirit, bottom lip jutting out ever so slightly.

And now they were faced with two young adults giving them the saddest looks they’ve ever seen.

The thrift mall was new, yes. It was nearby the demon market, actually, and there were even some stores in the mall that were fronts to people whose names were in their book. It would likely be much quieter, no loud blaring music, no smoke machines or flashing lights.

More...agreeable, in a way.

They’re also pretty hesitant to say no to these kids looking at them like that. Not to say that that’s the only reason they’re going! They haven’t gotten a fresh new outfit, rather than clothes they wear to the noodle place or the variants of their own outfit, literally since Macaque took them to the tailor’s way back when. Clothes were just a societal necessity, not something that they cared much about anymore. Though, if they’re going to a store, it could be nice.

But, at the end of the day, how can Spirit say no to the expressions MK and Mei are giving them.

“If you would want,” Spirit answers.

They have no idea how they get themselves into it, honestly. MK and Mei both hiss a soft “YES,” slap palms, and from there, things go quite fast. They’re still in their human disguise, wary of any other humans seeing them in their monkey form, but they find that that’s for the best. Maybe when looking at clothes, though, they’ll change back. They wouldn’t consider themselves vain, but they’d like to see what looks good on both ends…?

Arriving at the thrift mall is interesting, because it isn’t the world’s most distinguishable location. Spirit lets themselves be pulled in behind the two chattering adults, Mei almost bouncing off the walls in excitement as she recognizes some of the stores.

Very immediately, too, she pulls them into a warehouse-looking location right inside the building. It’s lined with racks and racks of pants, and apparently the upper layer is meant for tops. There are many colors, many styles of clothing that Spirit hasn’t seen in fashion for years. They’re not caught up on pop culture in the slightest, but they catch sight of a band shirt that was definitely from the early 2900’s.

Another surprise is that the store is relatively empty. For a newly opened mall, you would expect crowds of people to be trying to pack into the stores, but this one’s labyrinthic nature seems to be separating the groups of people out a lot better than a regular store’s open flooring would be. Less people to run into when there is simply less road and so much more clothing to look at.

Spirit does their best to follow behind Mei and MK as they go up the stairs, into the similarly packed tops section. They weren’t really planning on buying anything, moreso just look and wistfully desire. But then Mei whips around with a purple varsity jacket, a dusty pink-purple in the middle, and whistles.

“Hey, Spirit, it’s a you jacket!” she laughs.

It does fit uncannily well with Spirit’s own color scheme. They look it over and nod slowly. “It is,” they say.

The peer pressure is on now, though, as MK leans over Mei’s shoulder. “Try it on! Let’s see if it fits!” he says.

Well, now….Spirit puts on the jacket carefully, knowing that it’s at least many decades old. It’s surprisingly sturdy and comfortable, likely from being worn by someone ages ago. It’s a little short but, in terms of width, it fits perfectly. They find that they can zip it up with room to move.

“It’s kind of soft,” they say. “I like it. I don’t know where I’d wear it, though.”

“Hey, you never know where you’d wear something until you’re going there,” Mei responds with a wave of her hand. “I don’t think through my outfits every day.”

“You don’t?” Mei looks pretty put together consistently, so that comes at a surprise.

Spirit remembers Macaque telling them that they need a serious outfit to be taken seriously, that their appearance is their first impression. They try to put a lot of thought into the things they wear whenever it’s not

Mei, however, just shrugs. “Nope! I usually just throw on a shirt and then my jacket over it.”

Interesting. And she still managed to look very cool.

Spirit follows Mei and MK through the aisles, watches as MK climbs on top of Mei’s shoulders to grab another shirt, this one with only one strap on the shoulder and a cute tie off. It looked like a very summery shirt. But it was purple, which Spirit didn’t consider MK or Mei’s colors, really.

Until he, still on Mei’s shoulders, leans towards them. “Hold up that one!” he says as he shoves the shirt into their arms.

They catch it and look over the fabric, soft and sturdy. They hold it up for MK and Mei to inspect, both humming in approval.

That was how the mall visit turned into a Spirit-centric fashion show, hosted by MK and Mei. Spirit was just along for the ride honestly, catching the articles of clothing that were just being dropped into their arms. MK and Mei were like a whirlwind, ripping out anything that looked remotely purple and showing it to the other for opinions. They murmured and schemed together, Spirit catching bits of “too rough” and “too loud” to describe some of the discarded articles.

It takes some time, but after about an hour, they’re walking around with a modest pile of clothes. Spirit thinks there’s a dress in there, even which is going to be a very interesting try. They haven’t worn many dresses.

MK and Mei were being intensely serious about this, too. They were inspecting each article before pushing it into Spirit’s hands, showing them to each other for confirmation. Most were actually hung back up, unfitting in some way or other that they weren’t privy to.

That was fine, though, because they don’t think they could have tried on everything that was purple in this warehouse. It was hour two, halfway through the bottoms section, before the tiredness began to kick in. Socializing was kind of hard, after all.

At least they weren’t having to talk for a lot of it. Mei stopped a few times to ask if they were doing okay, MK asked if they were hungry or if they all wanted to take a break, but Spirit wasn’t tired enough to want to leave just yet. And if these two were having a good time, then who were they to stop them mid-shopping.

At least the tops section went a little faster. Most pants weren’t built to handle fur, squeezing a little too tight, with the added limiting factor that MK and Mei were mostly looking for bottoms to match the tops they found.

The accessories section wasn’t as big as the tops or bottoms sections, of course, but there were still a series of wonders. The socks were in here, surprisingly. After one look at Spirit’s bare feet, though, MK and Mei only decided on one pair. They didn’t even glance the shoes section before grabbing what looked like a straw-woven fedora and pulling Spirit towards the changing rooms.

“It’s time to try on all the clothes!” MK proclaims, and Spirit kind of saw this coming, but they’re still confused.

“Why were you handing me the clothes?” they ask.

MK and Mei stop, both turning to Spirit with blank expressions. It must just now be registering that they never actually asked them if they wanted to wear the clothes, because they share a small glance before Mei goes, “Um….for a fashion show?”

Now, that’s interesting. Spirit’s not going to say no, of course not, but…. “Why?”

“Because you would look so cute in these,” Mei says. “I mean, vintage leather is all the rage now, everyone’s got one.”

She points out the purple leather jacket at the top of the pile and points to the fitting rooms. “It might be cool to have multiple sets of clothes that’re kinda, you know. Styling.”

“You’d be a fashionista,” MK adds on, pretending to swoon.

“What an icon,” Mei catches MK as he pretends to fall. “Stellar.”

They both hold pose, too, as they watch Spirit watch them.

And, come on. How can they say no to that.

Spirit gulps, then nods, almost worried. They don’t know what they’ll look good in. According to Macaque, it’s hard to find clothes that look at least acceptable, so they don’t enter the changing room with high hopes.

The outfits are all fairly modern, and Spirit wants to get the socks over and done with first. They pull on the socks, a deep purple with lilac dots, and notice that it’s a stretchy kind of fuzzy. They’re thick enough but hole-y enough to let their feet breathe in. Then, they pull on the cargo shorts, button up the purple shirt, and head on out for Mei and MK’s look.

They’re both sitting on a bench chatting outside of the fitting room, something about something on Mei’s phone. Probably another funny cat video, if we’re being honest. When Spirit walks out, though, Mei shuts off her phone at record speed.

They both “ooo” at the outfit. “Do a turn!” MK says, and Spirit obliges.

It feels comfortable. Almost summer-y in how the outfit was loose, yet contained itself in enough of a way for them to be mobile. The pants are a lot less tight than they seemed, and the whole outfit makes Spirit kind of want to climb something. Maybe a tree.

“You look so CUTE!” the exclamation catches their attention again as they notice MK clapping excitedly, Mei shaking her fists up and down, both unable to contain their excitement.

It was strange to see them so excited over Spirit’s outfit. They weren’t really expecting that kind of compliment over their appearance, especially after how quickly Macaque reminded them that they were hard to dress for.

“Really?” they ask.

MK and Mei nod their heads so fast it’s a wonder they don’t fly off.

“Hell yeah!” Mei jumps up, hopping to Spirit’s side. “I love the button down on you! The white one you wear at the noodle shop is pretty, too, but the color is,” she does a chef’s kiss motion as she hurries around Spirit for another 180 look.

“No one else is around, you could transform! We should see how it looks with all the fur,” MK suggests.

And he’s not wrong, per se. There aren’t any cameras in the changing rooms and there isn’t anyone else back here, not yet. Plus them being a monkey isn’t too big of an issue when they’re out of the restaurant. Some customers can get rude over the potential of fur in their soup and if they don’t have to change, they don’t always want to.

Spirit changes back, fur poofing out, and it surprisingly slots nicely into the spaces between the threads of sock. Their tail swishes right above their pants and their hands shake, almost in excitement, before they quell the movement.

“And it still looks awesome,” MK does a fist pump.

“Did you really have any doubt?” Mei says with a laugh, and MK shrugs.

The confidence almost washes off onto Spirit. Maybe it does, a bit, as they turn back to the changing room they’d exited.

The next outfit is one of the dresses. They’re feeling spicy, what can they say. It has a cute pink collar, a whole second layer of fuschia beneath a dress with semi-shimmering fireworks.

“You look gorgeous! Oh my god!” Mei says when she sees Spirit.

The next outfit is the one with the hat, along with a pair of jeans and the shirt with the tied off shoulder.

“I love that! The shirt looks so good on you!” is MK’s appraisal to that one.

An outfit with the purple leather biker jacket over a pair of black jeans and a pink shirt.

“You’re such a badass, so stunning!”

A dusty purple dress with white scalloped trims.

“That’s adorable, oh my—that neckline, though!”

Spiked cuffs, a choker, and a collared shirt with a smiley face design.

“You look so cool as a punk!”

Spirit was buzzing by the end of it. They hadn’t tried on this many outfits in this quick succession in a while, but every time they changed clothes, they would exit the room and do a spin for MK and Mei.

And every time, without fail, MK and Mei would applaud and compliment, which was the most surreal part. They weren’t used to that, not in the slightest, not when they were so hard to shop for. The last time, with Macaque, that must be….what, centuries by now? Absolute ages.

They’d assumed shopping would be hard, after that. But with MK and Mei’s cheering, they found it hard to be worried.

That didn’t mean they weren’t tired. They excited the changing rooms and began putting the outfits onto the rack to be taken back, when Mei hopped off the bench.

“Aw, did you not like them?” she asks.

Spirit blinks, surprised. “Um, no! They were really nice. I just, um. Don’t know where I would wear them.”

Mei blinks, as if she doesn’t really understand that sentiment. Spirit scratches the back of their neck, watching her and waiting for a response. It must be weird for her to think of that. She and MK hang out every night, once the noodle shop is closed. Mei must not understand that Spirit simply doesn’t have a place to wear them.

“Oh,” Mei hums.

It’s a fight that she doesn’t pick, it seems, and Spirit’s fine with that. MK sighs along with Mei. “Fair enough, if you don’t want them. I think Pigsy’d be okay with you wearing something flashy around, though!”

“That’s good to know,” they say, and they leave it at that.

Neither of the other two butt in, either, which is nice. Truth be told, Spirit’s not sure where they would wear the clothes, other than to the noodle shop. Plus, they don’t really know where they’d store it. Probably at Pigsy’s place. But would they want to take up even more space than they usually do? They wouldn’t want to just have stacks of it sitting by their hammock. That feels unnecessary.

They still leave the thrift mall with an air of relief and contentment. All of those outfits were really pretty. Very different, sure, but very pretty! Spirit could see themselves in them. Gosh, if Red were here, he would have been ecstatic over it. He has an eye for designs, they know.

While they’re happy to move on to the next store not having gotten anything, both MK and Mei keep glancing at them, as if worried. And they don’t really know what else to say, other than what they already have. The looks make them a little nervous, though.

At the very, very least, they spent a good four hours in that one giant store. It seems to be one of the mall’s super stores. Mei and MK bring Spirit around for a small walk at the others, coo’ing in interest at a vintage electronics store they found—Mei finds a perfect duplicate of the phone Spirit used to have, which they chuckle about. They enjoy being able to see the many emojis that everyone uses! Red’s fire emojis pack more of a punch now, as do Mei’s green hearts. They aren’t shocked at all to find that their phone’s dupe is labeled as “ultra rare,” and that it’s priced in the upper hundred thousands.

There’s also a vintage patch and accessory shop that Mei basically drags MK and Spirit into, though that’s not to say they need much convincing. She does buy a few there, too. Spirit just looks at some of the cuter ones, finding a blue skull that looks almost purple. Periwinkle, the store’s representative calls it. They think it’s cute, though they put that back, too. What need do they have for these things?

Sure, they’re pretty, and Spirit thinks it would be nice to own them. But….well. Where are they going to put it? Where are they going to wear it all? Would they have to do laundry more often? They just don’t really know, you know, and it’s not something they want to commit to.

On the ride back to the noodle shop, MK and Mei make jokes about how they should give Spirit’s old phone away to that antique store. The owner would probably lose it to see another one still functioning. Spirit just laughs along, social battery drained after many hours of working at the store and the four hours they spent at the mall. It feels nice, though. They don’t often go out for so long in such an agreeable space.

It’s a nice moment they think back on, and in their sleep, right before it overtakes them, they think of the varsity jacket. It looked a little like Mei and MK’s.

And that’s the last Spirit thinks of it.

Until a few weeks later.

It’s by closing of the shop that Mei approaches Spirit, holding something behind her back excitedly. She hadn’t been in earlier, since noon, and while MK hadn’t said anything about it, Spirit suspected something was happening. Pigsy had asked a few times, surprised to see Mei out doing something else during a time they’d’ve expected her to be taking up the seat next to Tang, and he’d been almost cagey over it. Spirit had just hoped that nothing was wrong.

But then, when Mei got to the shop, she bounded in with a whirlwind of energy right before stopping in front of Spirit. MK, too, hopped off of the chair he’d been sitting in as he listened to one of Tang’s tales.

Spirit, to their credit, was just washing dishes. And now they were, again, being bombarded with puppydog eyes from the duo.

They didn’t even say anything! They just stared at Spirit, who looked to the side at Pigsy, then at Tang, then back at the duo.

“Um, yes?” they were almost nervous now, despite the expressions, so they dried off their hands and stepped around the corner.

A package is shoved into their arms. They jump, taken aback by the sudden movement, but then look at the package. It’s just wrapped in clear plastic, so they can see exactly what it is. It’s the exact varsity jacket from the thrift shop, the purple one. But it has a special patch on the front, the blue skull they’d seen at the store.

Carefully, Spirit unwraps it. As the sleeves unfurl, Spirit notes that there are elongated white cuffs and a white trim along the bottom. Likely to make up for the space it lacks to fit Spirit’s body. Maybe other alterations were done, too, because it does seem generally bigger.

They flip it around and emblazoned on the back is a giant patch sewn on and hand-embroidered of Spirit’s face. There are two circles beneath their hair, too, in the same blue as the skull. They realize it might represent earrings, to the others. To Spirit, it represents something much different.

Spirit isn’t used to. Receiving things. They just stare at the jacket for a second, as if their brain can’t compute that this is a thing for them, with nothing attached. It was like Mei giving them an upgraded phone. But this doesn’t even have any value. This is just something that they saw that Spirit enjoyed, and then got.

“We know you didn’t know anywhere to wear the clothes, and we were throwing like, full outfits at you. But we did want to get you something, you know? No strings attached, I just wanted to get you something to fit with ours, and this one was just too perfect to leave! I loved making it,” Mei explains, hands pressing together as she watches Spirit’s face with her own wide grin.

“So, like, if you don’t want to wear it around, you don’t have to. There’s no pressure, at all! But we thought it’d be cool if you, uh. If you had the option to match,” MK jumps around, showing his own jacket. “Like you’re part of the team now!”

Part of the team.

Spirit couldn’t remember being a part of anything, not for the longest of whiles. Yet MK, the Monkey King’s whole successor, who they really shouldn’t even be talking to if you think about it, is proclaiming to be on the same team as them?

They don’t know what words there are to describe the feeling, but Spirit’s hands ball on the jacket, holding it tight against their chest. They don’t know when they started smiling but now they notice it only because it’s beginning to hurt their cheeks.

“I love it,” their voice is a whisper, almost afraid to raise it. “Thank you.”

[hannibals-hoe]

Hannibal Commentary

This is a episode by episode rating and discussion of the best show I’ve ever seen.

⚠️Spoilers Ahead⚠️

Season 1

Episode 1, “Apéritif”

Alrighty let’s get into this.

Opening scene- we are confronted with a typical true crime tv series type of landscape- police sirens, officers, dead bodies. The show starts off with a weird sense of familiarity. Then, we are focused on Will. He is immediately thrust in as the main character, despite the show’s title. If you look closely at his expression, you notice how uncomfortable and disturbed he is to be at that crime scene. And as his eyes close, the color gradient shifts as he does- from a casual investigator, into the mind of a killer. As he traces his steps backwards and finally stops outside the home, you can see the look in eyes change. This is vital to the rest of the show so I’m going to call this the “Will Graham Murder Eyes.” He closes his eyes for a moment- but when he opens them again- you can see the lifelessness of a killer’s eyes. The very first words we hear of the show are Will describing the crime itself- a relatively non violent and casual one considering the rest of series. This is why when I recommend Hannibal to someone I always say to get past the first episode because it’s way to basic for the show as a whole.

Anyways, once Will concludes his findings, we cut to his classroom. When Will converses with Jack, we notice his tendency to not make eye contact, as described later on. This is such masterful acting on Hugh Dancy’s part. When Jack asks Will for help, we can see Will’s reluctance. It’s clear he’s uncomfortable with his inner and outer thoughts even so early in the show.

The second time we see Will go into his “this is my design” phase, he is clearly more violent as we see him strangle Elise Nichols. The viewer is almost left with a feeling that Will is actually the one responsible, which is what will happen with those around Will later in the season. At least, that’s what I first interpreted during my first watch. You’re like, “wait, Will didn’t actually kill these people right?” But as the show goes on everything makes more sense about Will’s little mind trick.

Next, we see the sweetest part of Will’s character- his love for strays. One cannot help but smile watching Will care for Winston and his other dogs. It is such a stark contrast to what we have seen so far of Will’s character. And then, we watch him struggle to sleep with his nightmares. When he uses a towel as a blanket, we know that this is not new for him- that he has nightmares regularly. The first episode expertly characterizes Will in a way no other show I’ve seen has done before.

Then, in the bathroom scene with Jack, Will is describing the way this killer (Garret Jacob Hobbs) kills- he says, “he kills these girls quickly and-“ he pauses. This pause, I believe, is him stopping himself from straight up saying “with mercy” instead, he adds, “to his thinking, with mercy.” Will, once again, is fearful of his own dark thoughts and how those thoughts will be viewed by others, specifically Jack.

Then, we see Will at the autopsy table, and a beautiful yet disturbing image of Elise being impaled on antlers is seen. The antlers will become a running symbol in the show, later an elk, then the Wendigo. At this point, I do believe the symbol was not planned, but, I could give the creators the credit of intending for them the sign for evil- in this case, the evil of Garret Jacob Hobbs. When Will concludes that this killer is eating his victims, we cut to our first shot of Hannibal.

We don’t need to see explicit human organs being cooked yet- we know it’s cannibalism. The shot of Hannibal himself is quite stunning- barely any light surrounding his features, he appears almost like a skull in the darkness. We visually know he is supposed to be the villain. But as the episode goes on, it’s quite easy to forget that Hannibal really is a serial killer and cannibal.

Next, we are put in Hannibal’s office with Franklyn. When he places his dirty tissue on Hannibal’s table, we can see Hannibal’s visible resentment. He is once again characterized as the villain. Jack then enters the equation, asking about Hannibal’s secretary, who we never see, though I believe it is quite likely Hannibal killed her, as he only describes her having “romantic whims” and “followed her heart to the United Kingdom.” As Jack walks around Hannibal’s office, he looks through some of his drawings. If you look closely, beneath the art Jack is viewing, there is a distinctly visible drawing of “the wound man” I only noticed this after my fourth or fifth rewatch. It made me so angry because if Jack had seen that, we know Hannibal would have killed him right then and there. While Jack is looking, Hannibal does seem to wonder if Jack will notice the sketch. Hannibal picks up the scalpel, ready to defend himself, but when he is confident Jack is not investigating him, he places it on his desk, arranging it “just so.” Mads doing that was such great acting because we immediately know the Hannibal is a perfectionist, which works out to his advantage during his many murders, as he leaves no usable evidence.

And now, we go to Hannibal and Will’s first meeting. Instantly, Hannibal is able to notice Will’s lack of eye contact. As Will describes why he does this, Hannibal’s expression changes, he looks Will up and down, and gives a small smile. Right here- I believe with all of my being that Hannibal started to fall for Will right there. Will’s kind of sad, dark humor instantly is able to draw Hannibal in. However Will is not able to reciprocate these feelings just yet- he feels attacked by Hannibal’s accurate analysis.

Our next crime scene is more graphic than the first two by a good margin. This is the first of Hannibal’s murder scenes. As we cut between the crime scene and Hannibal’s cooking, we are confronted with the very obvious disgust of Hannibal being a cannibal.

One of my favorite shots is the next, with Will in the shower, (hehehe duh) then the stag. This symbol could be interpreted as either Will’s evil growing within him, or Hannibal- lurking in the shadows. In this case, I lean towards the latter, as the next shot is of Hannibal himself, bringing breakfast for Will. (As the show goes on this symbol will vary in meanings but don’t worry I’ll explain it as best I can.) Already, Hannibal has a want to help Will, by making sure he has a good meal. He could have very easily just traveled with Will to the construction site without food, but in a way, he could have wanted to self-congratulate himself by obviously providing Will with the evidence that could convict him. To me- Hannibal’s motive for bringing Will breakfast is a mix of him showing his nature of self-congratulation (described by Bedelia later in season 2) and wanted to provide for Will’s well-being in the only way he knows how. The next few lines are some fabulous foreshadowing. Will’s initial wish is for their relationship to be strictly professional- however we very well know this is going to change. Already, Hannibal objects to this statement, he is hoping they will become at the very least “friendly.” Next, Hannibal establishes the symbolism of the teacup, saying that is how Jack sees him. Will laughs out loud at that, and that is one of the only times we see Will have a strong expression of happiness. Yes, later on Hannibal becomes an object of resentment for Will, but I think this interaction is a strong indication of what life would be like for Will and Hannibal post-fall.

Now we head to the construction site and the discovery of Garret Jacob Hobbs. Hannibal is visibly impressed by Will’s ability to find Hobbs, and his admiration grows.

Hannibal then calls the Hobbs’ residence, warning that “they know.” It’s such a subtle yet powerful move in Hannibal’s part. I think the real reason Hannibal makes that call is to test Will. Hannibal knew Hobbs would react violently, and he wondered if Will would use violence back. He wanted to test Will’s potential and what he perceived Will to be- a troubled FBI teacher who has dark impulses he is deathly afraid of. Arguably, everything Hannibal does for Will from this point forward is to take away his fears. Will fears his own darkness and Hannibal wants him to finally find peace and beauty in that darkness.

Anyways, back to the show. There is a brief shot of Will, covered in blood, with the pendulum of his mind swinging back and forth. This tiny time jump serves the purpose of both suspense shock. We are left to wonder what Will has done- we can assume it was brutal, but was it evil? I’ll get into that later. So, Hannibal and Will arrive at the Hobbs’ home, and Will is confronted with a nightmare. Contradictory is Hannibal’s reaction to the scene. Even when Hobbs’ wife is bleeding out on the front porch, Hannibal is shown with a non caring and relaxed demeanor. Will makes his way inside and begins his journey to a troubling self-discovery. He shoots Hobbs 10 times, his fear for Abigail evident but more powerful is his hatred for Hobbs. When Hobbs’ falls, he utters that famous line, “see?” I think the completion of that sentence would be, “see, it feels good to kill.” Will is going to struggle with this the entire series and only with Hannibal’s help Will he be able to agree with it.

Will struggles to save Abigail, and Hannibal appears, less focused on Abigail and more on Will. Nonetheless, he uses his big, strong hands (sorry) to save Abigail’s life. As he does so he looks up at Will, perhaps thinking, “Ok, he does have that darkness inside him.” Once the scene clears, Will is back outside covered in blood. I will again bring attention to his expression. His “Murder Eyes” are back. He is reveling in the power that killing Hobbs made him feel. I would not say this is dissimilar to how he feels after killing Randal Tier in season 2 and Dolarhyde in season 3. He’s like an addict from then on- he would deny it, but killing Hobbs was a high he would chase for the length of the series.

The last scene of the episode is in Abigail’s hospital room. Will goes in to see Hannibal, sitting next to her bed and gently holding her hand, sleeping. It’s easily the most humanizing shot of Hannibal. Will takes a seat himself, watching Hannibal with what could almost be described as a loving gaze. In that moment, he completely trusts Hannibal with her well being, as Hannibal’s hands saved her life. In a very subtle movement, Will looks down at his own hands, sitting half open in his lap. It’s quite possible he is thinking that his hands had done something quite opposite to what Hannibal’s have- they have killed.

Wow that was a ride if you read all of that thank you so much. I’ll check for typos one of these days. Stay tuned for next episode ok I’m outttt.

[bnhablessings]

Would you possibly do another Aizawa requests ☺️ R is a student of class 1-A and when they asking parents about letting students come to the dorms he and all might go to her house and they realise she actually lives alone with her dog and younger brother or sister and Aizawa decides to take them both under his wing and one day R just suddenly turns around and calls him bad accidentally

This sounded too cute to pass up! Apologies for me taking forever to get to it! :’) When it comes to Dadzawa content I like to go all out (that means it’s probably messy) so hopefully, you enjoy it, anon!

I named the reader’s brother Haru because I adore that name

(Dadzawa) Aizawa Shouta x Female!Student!Reader

Warnings: Just a smidge of angst (Fluff that will giveyour heart a dose of love)

Words: 1,914

 “Aizawa-Sensei and All Might-Sensei? What are you doinghere?” You question softly a bit too surprised by their current appearance atyour house.

All Might is the one to speak, “We have been speaking to allof our students’ families about an important issue. May we come in to speakwith your guardian?”

Oh no. This is not happening to you. You are desperate intrying to come up with an excuse that you don’t notice their concerned gazesfrom your unusual quietness. You are after all one of their most enthusiasticstudents so it worries them that you are quite the opposite right now than youwould be in school.

“(Name)! I finished! Can you look it over?” A childish boy’svoice calls for you snapping you from your thoughts.

The nerves are eating at you as you ask in vain, “Is there achance that you can call or stop by some other time?”

“Negative. This needs to be taken care of,” Aizawa statescalmly.

With a defeated sigh you let your teachers enter your house.They take their shoes off the door per your request and they follow you to yourkitchen where your little brother, of the age five, waits. They’re surprised tosee that it’s just him and an old Shiba Inu, whose tag reads Fluffy, in thehouse so far.

They are quiet as they observe you look over your brother’shomework. You give your brother the biggest smile and say, “Nice job! You didit perfectly! As promised you can go ahead and watch TV. But first, would youlike to meet All Might and Eraserhead?”

At the question, the poor boy freezes before he shakes withexcitement for finally noticing the older males in the room. You laugh lightlywith joy from seeing your brother happy.

“Aizawa, All Might, this is my little brother Haru. He’s abig fan of both of you. He’s kind of like Midoriya in that sense,” You murmur.

You hold in your giggles as Haru bows repeatedly beforemaking a dash straight to the living room.

“Seems like a sweet kid,” All Might says with a smile.

You just nod absentmindedly as you place Haru’s homework inhis backpack on the counter. The two teachers stare at you surprised at yourcalm demeanor. You seem so much more mature compared to when you are in class.

However, you also look… fatigued. It just raises furtherquestions between the two.

“(Last Name), where are your parents?” Aizawa says thequestion you’ve been dreading.

You let out a heavy sigh as you pick up a few postcards thatlay on the counter and simply hand them to the man. Its multiple postcards froma few states in America. Aizawa and All Might look through them and notice thesimple note on the back that just says ‘Love you’.

“How long have they been gone?” Aizawa questions as AllMight looks saddened.

You shrug your shoulders as you reply, “A few months now.We’re fine if that’s what you’re wondering. They send us money and they stillpay the bills and have our neighbors check-in on us.”

This isn’t fine and you know it. Aizawa lets out a heavysigh as he shares a look with his colleague. They understand why you seem somature now. You have to be for Haru.

“I can give you their number but they may not pick up. Theneighbor would probably be able to get a hold of them,” You murmur.

All Might is completely baffled as he asks, “You don’t getin touch with them, like at all?”

“Nope, they’re out seeing the world instead of being with us.All we’ve gotten are postcards and words from them through the neighbor. I needto get dinner started soon… Would you guys like to stay for dinner?” You ask asyou easily evade their stares by grabbing ingredients from the kitchen.

They do, but not before they speak to each other and callNezu outside your house.

The dinner felt light-hearted with a hint of seriousness inthe air as All Might carries the conversation mostly with Haru. Aizawa staresholes into you while you try to eat in peace. When all is done and the twoadults had finished their food they merely observed you and a now sleepy Haru.

Haru who’s been sweet for you since your parents left, doesthe thing toddlers do when they want to be held. He lifts up his arms outtowards you and you easily lift him up and hold him, his face resting on yourshoulder. He’s out within the minute.

“Sorry about him. He usually passes out after dinner likethis,” You explain feeling a bit embarrassed that your teachers have seen somuch of your vulnerability.

All Might hesitates to ask, “Does… does he usually fallasleep like that?”

“Sort of? He’s been needing to be held by me or cuddled byFluffy before he sleeps. He’s afraid I’m going to leave him as they left us,”The disgust for your parents is evident in your voice.

Aizawa and Yagi are just surprised by it. However, they canunderstand why you feel that way. You’re practically raising your littlebrother, despite being a kid yourself, for them. It disgusts them as well ashow easy your parents could leave you guys like that. This is too much forsomeone as young as yourself.

“Young (Last Name), since you are a unique circumstance,Principal Nezu has requested that you-“

Aizawa cuts him off, “Stay with me. Both of you can’t beliving by yourself.”

All Might gives his colleague yet another look but this onehas a hint of confusion on his face.

~*~

“Is… Is this really okay?” You ask softly as you hold yourdog Fluffy in one arm and a bag of essentials in the other.

Aizawa doesn’t say anything as he sets down your littlebrother on the couch gently. He takes off the little kid backpack and sets thaton the floor. When he doesn’t say anything you frown.

All Might who helped escort you guys to Eraserhead’s home afterthe conversation is the one to speak. “It’s perfectly fine, Young (Last Name)!Thanks to Aizawa’s thinking this turned out to be much better than the originalplan.”

Ah, yes. The original plan thanks to Nezu being informed ofyour situation was that you and your brother would’ve been separated. You would’vegone to the U.A Dorms as originally planned but your brother would’ve beenplaced into a distant relative’s home or with a foster family do to yourparents’ negligence.

As of now, they are deemed unfit parents and you’ll bestaying with Aizawa. Feeling tired from the whole prospect of moving, you laybeside your brother, while Fluffy claims a corner of the room for himself. Theteachers notice how tired you are and bid you goodnight before stepping into anotherroom to speak.

In truth, Aizawa couldn’t even think of splitting the two ofyou up as a possibility. He saw the way you looked at your brother as if youwere his parent. The pride in your eyes as he did his homework correctly. Yourbrother looked at you as if you were his protector, it was obvious he adoredyou. It would’ve shattered the both of you if you were to be forced to split upand that’s not what he was going to let happen.

All Might knew this the moment Nezu said to bring it up(Nezu totally knew Aizawa is a softie and that this would happen). All Mightfelt the same way but since Aizawa is your homeroom teacher the feelings aredeeper with him. The grump of a teacher needed to take responsibility for you.

“Aizawa… what about your cats?” Yagi whispers to the grumpyman.

Aizawa shrugs and states in monotone, “They haven’t made abig deal so they’re fine. Besides, my cats can totally take down that dog ifthey need to.”

Yagi freaking has a heart attack and a nose bleed at thesewords. “THAT DOG IS OLD. Your cats don’t need to be murdering Young (Last Name)’sdog!” Yagi whisper yells.

~*~

You sigh as you text the parental figure that has beenwatching over you these past couple of weeks. He’ll be home a bit late but thatworks perfectly for you.

Surprisingly, it’s been a smooth transition and Haru loveshim. You live in the dorms with the rest but you get to go home with him on theweekends while Haru and Fluffy (who actually gets along great with the cats muchto Aizawa’s surprise) live with him indefinitely. With the unique circumstance,the other teachers help Aizawa take care of Haru while you are living in thedorms.

Overall, you are grateful for him, especially when youoverheard from All Might that he took both of you in when he didn’t have to.

It’s been feeling like home. To thank the man for all he hasdone, you and Haru decided to go all out on this weekend night and make hisfavorite dishes. Towards the end of your cooking adventure, you check on Haruwho had opted to make cat-shaped cookies.

“Looking good, little man,” You state admiring his work.

Haru looks up with happiness before a frown lands on hisface. You immediately ask him what’s wrong.

“Is Aizawa our new daddy?” His voice is meek upon askingthis and seeing your confused expression the poor boy continues, “It’s justthat… I don’t want to see our old mommy and daddy. They don’t love us. I wantShouta as my new daddy!”

WHAT IS THIS FEELING IN YOUR CHEST? Your little brother literallyjust killed your soul with this cute yet sad declaration. Even so, you completelyagreed with him.

“Hey, watch the food brat.”

A harsh sizzling sound, the scent of smoke, and Aizawa’ssudden appearance override your senses and you quickly apologize, “Sorry, Dad!”

Your face feels like it is on fire with embarrassment as yourealize you just called him dad. You hurry to set the food aside to cool downand clear out the slight burning smell before you turn to the male who appearsto be in shock.

“Aizawa?” You call out.

His normal grim expression is back on his face as he says, “Goahead and set the table.”

You go to turn to do what he said but caught the male unableto hold back a smile anymore. All tension in your body leaves as you realize he’shappy that you accidentally called him dad. When the table is set and you areall sitting, Haru curiously looks at the laid-back tired adult.

Aizawa gives the boy a glance and finally indulges him, “What?”

“Does that mean we can call you dad?” Haru for the love oflife doesn’t have a filter but you are grateful for it.

Aizawa is elated but it doesn’t show on his face, “Go forit.”

“If you’re our new daddy who can we call mommy?” Haruquestions.

Without missing a beat you answer, “All Might or PresentMic.”

Aizawa glares at you but says nothing else. The feeling oflove and happiness fills the air as it had been doing since both of you movedin with him. You can bet he’s doing everything he can do to adopt you.

[ms-rampage]

Eden’s Gate: Left Behind Chapter 11 - Demons? Of Course!

Warnings: Language, virgin sex, demons. 

Word count: 2.9k

Summary: Kate moves on to the next stage of her confession, and atonement which takes a surprising turn. The demons Merihem and Saleos plan their attack on Kate’s friends. 

Note: Sorry for the gap between chapters I’m in school. Final exams are coming up. 4 more weeks!!! then I’m on winter break.

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

“You are cleansed. You will now move on” John says, kissing her forehead.

Disoriented, and still seeing two John’s.

“Move-Move on?!” she asks, her head spinning. 

“Yes my love. You will move on to confession. Confessing your sins” he says, guiding her out of the water.

“S-Sins?” she questions, her mind going at the pace of a snail. 

A cold breeze goes by, and it snaps her out of her delusion, bliss state. 

Her body begins to vibrate, shaking uncontrollably. Shivering violently. 

Crossing her arms to keep herself warm. “Fuck!!!” she mutters, her voice trembling. 

John guides her inside the house. “Come on” he says. 

He sits her down on a chair, and goes to get her a towel. 

She sits there shivering, and probably gonna catch ammonia later. 

He comes back, and puts a warm towel around her.

He sits in front of her, “So darlin’ are you ready?!?” he asks. 

“R-ready for w-what?!” she asks.

“For your confession” he says, placing his hands on her knees. 

She furrows her eyebrows at him “Confession?!”.

“Yes. Your confession. Confessing your sins!” he says, his eyes locked onto hers.

Unable to break eye contact from him, “Now?!” she asks.

“It can be now. It can be tomorrow. It can be this weekend. But the sooner we do it the sooner it’ll be over with” he says, “So what do you say? Hm?”. 

She takes a moment to think about it.

“What do you say” he says, softly almost in a whisper.

“Wh-What is the confession? What h-happens?” she asks hesitantly.

He holds her hand in his, and says in the softest voice ever,

“You will confess your sins of course. You will confess every little bad thing you have ever done. No matter how big, small. No matter how petty”.

She stares at him, trying to keep her jaw from dropping open. She looks down at their hands entwined with each other, and closes her eyes for a moment. 

“Castiel please hear me. Any angels up there in cloud city please hear my voice. Help me!!!” she prays in her head. 

“Darlin’ what do you say?” he asks, caressing her hands. 

“I’m okay with this weekend” she says, looking him in the eyes.

He smiles at her, “Excellent” he stands up and goes over to his mantle. 

Grabbing a book off of it. A white book with gold around its edges. 

He hands it to her, “Here, take this”. 

She takes it from him, “Is this a bible?!”, looking up at him. 

“It’s my brother's book. Joseph. You met him at the church” he tells her as she flips through the pages.

She nods her head, “Oh right, right. Yeah”.

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

A few days later, getting out of class, and driving home.

Kate walks through the front door. 

“Hello honey” she greets Morgan.

“Hello sweetie” she says back. 

Their way of greeting each other as if they were a married couple.

“Any demons follow you home?!” Morgan asks.

Shaking her head, “Nope, I have my hex bag, so I was off of demon radar”. 

She sits down on the couch next to her.

“So how was work?!” she asks Morgan.

She groans, “Suuuper slow!!!, and Holly came by as well”.

Kate groans in annoyance, “What did she have to say?!”.

“She was with a couple of her friends, I think they’re in the Cult. Anyway Alissa said that she heard Holly say a few bad things about you”.

Kate rolls her eyes, “What did she say?!”.

“Uhhh, she said that you were a “Snake in the grass”, a “boring Wyominian girl” and that “you should’ve stayed in Wyoming, or Arizona, or wherever that little freak is from”, and that you stole John from her. Shit like that, and I was gonna confront her about but she was long gone before I could even get into her face”. 

Kate scoffs, “She’s a little bitch, I can probably take her ass in a fight.”

Morgan laughs, “I believe you, and she also said that your dog is an ugly bitch”.

Haley lifts her head up as she says this, tilting her head, and barks loudly.

“Holly said that, don't shoot the messenger!!!” Morgan says to the 70Ibs dog. 

“I’ll fucking kill her, and also I didn’t steal John from her cunt ass!!” Kate says.

“Speaking of John, how was your date the other night?!?.I forgot to ask you about it” Morgan asks.

“It went really good, sorta. Am I planning on breaking up with him?” she groans in an unsure kind of way. “Yes, I am”.

Morgan’s eyes widened, “Oh shit what happened?!?!”.

“Well he wanted me to be “cleansed”.” she says with air quotes.

“What the fuck does that mean?!?” she asks, confused.

“Like a baptism” Kate answers.

“What the fuck?!?. What did you do?!?” she asks.

“I said yes, and I was cleansed” she replies.

“You said yes?!?” Morgan exclaims.

Kate flinches at her outburst, “Yeah?”. 

Morgan sighs, “That is how he gets his followers!!!!!. You have to confess and atone!!”

They say in unison.

“I know the confession part, I just have to tell him my sins” she says.

“Yeah then you atone. He tattoos your sins onto your skin!!!” Morgan says, loudly.

Kate stands up from the couch, her palms start to sweat. Anxiety through the roof.

“Oh fuck!!!. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!!!!!” she yells from the top of her lungs, “And I’m seeing him later!!”.

“Shit” Morgan mutters under her breath.”Okay we can pretend we’re not home, or we can go out somewhere!!”.

“That’s a good idea. But where?!?” Kate asks. 

“We’ll figure it out” she says. 

“I even prayed to the angels, Castiel, Gabe, Raphael, it was an open invite. Nothing!!!” she says.

“Yeah same. Hell I even prayed to Lucifer. Nothing” Morgan replies. 

“Well that’s normal for Luci not to reply to prayers, because no one prays to him!!” Kate says. 

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

Somewhere in the Whitetail Mountains.

Alissa, Sarah, Becky, Layla, Dylan, Kevin and Ryan are setting up their campsite. 

“So is it just us?!” Sarah asks.

“Yep just the seven of us” Dylan answers.

“So are Kate, Morgan, Ashley, Ivan, Isaiah, and Wheaty gonna come?!” Layla asks.

“Kate, Morgan I haven’t seen, and plus they don’t respond to messages for some reason. Ashley is working at the jail since she’s still a full on rookie. Wheaty is working with the Militia, and the twins are going to Missoula to visit their family” Becky says. 

As they're talking, standing 50 feet away from them, hiding behind the trees. 

The demon Kate and Morgan had encountered a few days earlier. Saleos is watching them.

“So Kate Winchester has non hunter friends?!” he says to himself, a grin on his face. 

“How interesting” another male demon says. 

Appearing next to him with a huge grin on his face. 

“So should we make a bonfire?!” Becky asks.

Ryan looks up at the sky, “Not yet. It’s still too early to make it”.

“Well some of us gotta eat, and we have to cook our food!!” Dylan says, sarcastically. 

They all turn to Ryan, “He’s got a point ya know” Layla says, shrugging. 

Becky, Sarah and Kevin stay back, continuing to set up the tents, while Dylan, Layla, Alissa and Ryan go look for stuff to burn for the bonfire. 

“So, we hurt, not kill, the non hunters, and we go after Kate’s little boy toy. On behalf of our king Crowley” Saleos says, “So Merihem do you accept?!”.

Merihem turns to Saleos, “I accept” he says. 

“Good, we wait until nightfall. Then Winchester will feel pain. She will learn that you can never leave this life behind”.

“What about John Seed?” Merihem asks.

“I’ll take care of him” he responds, “For now we go after the non hunter humans”.

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

Back in Holland Valley

“So what are we gonna do?!?” Kate asks, pacing back and forth.

“We’re gonna leave. Go out somewhere. What time is he gonna pick you up?!?” Morgan asks.

“That’s the problem!!!. He didn’t say!!” she exclaims.

“Fuck!!’ she mutters. 

“Can’t we just hide out inside, and not leave. Just close all the windows and curtains. Pretend we’re not home” Kate says.

“We can, we can!! How about we” Morgan trails off, and Kate gets a message on her phone from I wonder who.

“Fuck!!!!!!!!” she yells.

“What, what is it?!?!” Morgan asks.

“John is coming over in a few minutes to pick me up” she says.

“Text him saying that you’re not home!!” she advises her. 

As she’s able to text him back, she gets a message from him saying. 

“I know you’re home. My men saw you pull into your driveway” - John

“Shit!!!. Fucking shit” she says, “He knows I’m home because some of his men saw me pull in!!”. 

“Stalker!!!!!” Morgan yells out.

A few minutes go by, a black SUV pulls up in front of the house, and John walks up the driveway.  

Kate shushes Morgan, and the dog.

-knock knock knock-

They stay in silence for a few minutes.

-knock knock knock-

Kate slowly tip-toes to the window, opening the curtain less than an inch.

Sees John, and a few of his men standing a few feet behind him.

She mouths to Morgan, who is sitting on the couch.

“He brought backup”. 

Another knock at the door, but this time a lot more aggressive. 

-bang bang bang-

“Katie!?! Darlin’ I know you’re home!!” he says, in a singy tone. 

“What do we do?!” Kate mouths to Morgan.

Morgan shrugs, “Let's go out the back” she says pointing to the back door.

They grab their stuff, Haley and quietly go out the back gate.

They try their best to be stealthy, but fail to see one of the peggies standing on the far end of her property.

He sees them, whistles loudly, getting John to look back.

Seeing Kate and Morgan trying to sneak off. 

“Katella!!” he says, in a teasing voice. 

Their backs to him, can’t see their annoyed and angry facial expressions.

“Fuck!!’ she murmurs to herself, and Morgan.

“Oh hey John!!” she says trying not to sound suspicious, “Didn’t hear you pull up”.

“It’s time for your confession” he says, approaching them. 

“Ooh right. That was today. Huh, I guess it slipped my mind” she says, totally not in a suspicious way. 

“Alright darlin’. Lets go” he says to her, his hand extended out. 

“Actually John. Kate and I have things to do. So she’ll have to do her confession another day” Morgan says, pushing Kate behind her. 

John chuckles, “You’re a terrible liar Megan”.

“It’s Morgan!!” she snaps.

“Whatever” he responds, “Katie lets go”.

“But I. I can’t g- Okay” Kate stutters in defeat.

She takes John’s hand, but is pulled back by Morgan.

“She’s not going with you John” she says, in her tough voice. 

He looks back at her, “Excuse me?!”. 

“Kate is not going with you. She’s not confessing or atoning for shit!!” she raises her voice.

His men hold up their weapons, but he immediately calms them down.

“Now, now. No need to get trigger happy” he says, “I can do whatever I want Costello, and if I want to take her. I will, unless you want a problem which you’ll get, if you don’t let her go!!” his voice, so sadistic, and so filled with rage in such a short span of time. 

“Morgan. It’s fine. I’ll make it through” she tells her friend.

She hesitates but lets go of her hand. 

“She better not having a fucking scratch on her when she comes home” Morgan threatens him.

John smirks, “No promises” and escorts Kate to the SUV parked on the side of the road. 

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

At the John’s Gate.

They pull into a giant warehouse on top of a mountain. 

“Where are we?!?!” Kate asks.

“Paradise” he says before kissing her hand. “Follow me”.

They get out of the SUV, and walk to the warehouse. 

His men open the giant doors which make a loud rumbling sound.

John takes Kate’s hand, and he walks her through the dark warehouse.

“It’s dark in here” she jokes.

“Just how I like it” he says, with a lustful undertone.

He walks her into some room, dimly lit and also dark.

It reminds her of the time when she was in Hell a few years back.

“A torture room?!” she questions him.

He chuckles, “This is where the magic happens”.

He grabs a metal tool box, placing it on a wooden table. 

She breaks the silence, “So. Are you gonna ask me what are my sins?!”.

“In a bit. No need to rush” he responds.

Kate nods, “Alrighty then”, and looks around the dark room.

When she turns to face John, he’s already looking back at her.

“Sin must be exposed so it may be absolved. We must wash away our past” he says, as he slowly approaches her. 

“I know your sin” he says, cupping her chin.

She tilts her head to the side, “Do you?!”. 

“Yes. Your sin is” he leans in closer to her right ear, and whispers “Lust”. 

She laughs softy, and looks down at the floor.

“No need to deny it. I know. Because I also suffer, and carry the burden of Lust. I can see it burning in your eyes” he holds her closer to him, their bodies pressing together.

“It burns into your blood. Almost like an itch” he says, “I can help you set that burden free”.

Kate looks into his eyes, can see the feral lust in them, and it’s begging to come out. 

His blue eyes black, dilated and filled with lust.   

“Are you- are you being serious?!” she asks, not believing this is real.

“Yes. I want to set you free, and I know you have other sins. I can see them you” he says.

“I can see. Pride. Greed, and Wrath” he sneers.

She looks at him in disbelief, her eyebrows furrowed at him. 

He clicks his tongue as a sign of tease. 

“I can set you free of them. One. Sin. At. A. Time” he whispers while tracing her lips with his thumb before pulling her in for a deep kiss. 

John lifts her up, grabbing her ass, and presses her against a wall.

Her legs wrapped around his waist, her arms around his neck. 

Kissing, and sucking at her neck. Marking her as his. 

He undoes her pants with one hand, and then his. 

“John! Wait. Wait John!!!” she exclaims, making him stop.

He looks at her concern. 

“I’ve never had-. I’m. A virgin” she mutters.

He chuckles softly, “Well that makes it even more exciting. Let me do all the work”. 

He moves her panties out of the way, and slowly shoves himself inside her tight wet walls.

Her scream turns into loud moaning as his hard cock brushes her tight walls.

“Relax” he whispers, “Let me do everything”. 

He thrusts in, and out of her. 

Her nails digging into his shoulders with every movement. 

He moves her away from the wall, and lays her down on a metal table.

Giving himself better access to pleasure her. 

Gripping her thighs as he continues to shove himself inside her tight cunt. 

His tongue wrestling with hers, biting, tugging on her lower lip. 

His moaning echoing throughout the building.

The sound of skin rubbing together echoing off the walls. 

John pins Kate’s hands above her head, pulling her closer to him, and continues to fuck the shit out of her tight pussy.

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

The group of friends have their tents all set up, and are all ready to eat dinner.

Laughing, enjoying the night. The stars gleaming, and the moon in its crescent form.  

Cooking fish, meat and making smores. 

“I wish the others were here” Alissa says, looking up at the night sky.

“Yeah same” Ryan replies.

“We can bring them next time. So all of us can be here” Kevin says.

Several feet away from them, hiding in the dark forest.

The demons wait for them to go to sleep to attack, getting the attention of Kate Winchester. 

“Let’s get them” Meriham says, taking a step forward.

“No” Saleos says, putting his arm out to stop him, “We wait until they go to sleep”.

“They’re all right there, we can hurt them now!” he sneers at him.

“No!. We wait until they go to sleep. It’ll be easier” Saleos says to him.

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

John’s head buried between Kate’s legs, licking and tasting her wetness.

He loves the sound of her whimpering and soft moans.

Knowing that he’s making her do that. 

Making her beg for him. Pinning her down. 

His head between her once virgin legs. Taking her purity, virginity and making it his. 

“John” she moans softly.

Gripping her thighs tightly, her fingers running through his hair. 

His right hand moves up her body, going under her shirt, cupping her breast.

Playing with her erect nipple

He hums between her legs, sending vibrations throughout her body.

“John” she moans again.

He crawls back up her body, crashing his lips with her.

Marking her neck, chest and collarbones. Marking her as his, and no one else's.

“You’re mine now” he says into the crook of her neck. 

[mikauzoran]

Marichat: Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses: Kiss Thirteen

On AO3: Serendipity: Fifty Marichat and Adrienette Kisses: ...discreetly.

Chat Noir landed on Marinette’s balcony at exactly one o’clock, just as Alya and Marinette finished setting up the recording equipment.

“Mademoiselle Césaire,” he greeted cordially, giving Alya a polite, if not somewhat over-the-top, bow.

Alya bowed back playfully. “Chat Noir! Thank you so much for coming. My followers are all really excited for this.”

“Not at all,” he assured, waving away her thanks. “It’s my pleasure. Really.”

Alya gestured toward Marinette. “You remember my friend, M—”

“—Marinette,” Chat trilled with delight (as if he hadn’t just seen her the previous evening…or the one before that and the one before that), sweeping into a low bow fit for nobility.

On his way back up, he snatched her hand and brought it to his lips. “It’s always such a treat to see you.”

“You too!” Marinette laughed nervously. “Not that we see each other often or anything!”

“Of course,” Chat corroborated without missing a beat, charming smile never faltering. “And that just makes each meeting more precious.”

“Not that there have been many meetings,” Marinette added for Alya’s benefit, turning to her friend to assure, “I mean, we hardly know each other. It’s not like we’re friends or anything.” She chuckled in an “isn’t the very idea of me being friends with a superhero ridiculous?” manner.

Alya’s brow furrowed, a suspicious eyebrow slowly starting to make its way up the journalist’s forehead. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

“What?!” Marinette choked, beginning to wave her arms wildly. “No! It’s not like that at all. I—”

Chat put out an arm and stepped between Marinette and Alya. “—If you’ll pardon me for interrupting, I can explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” Marinette squeaked, shooting her boyfriend a dirty look.

Alya grinned widely, ignoring her friend and focusing on the superhero. “You’re pardoned. Do go on.”

“Marinette is afraid that you’re going to discover that she and I are acquaintances and be mad that she didn’t tell you,” he fibbed fluently.

Alya looked at Marinette (who covered her face with her hands and groaned) and then back at Chat Noir, her eyebrow inching up to new heights. “Acquaintances?”

Chat shrugged nonchalantly, playing it off as no big deal. “I was out one night and spotted her on her balcony. I recognized her from some of the akuma attacks, so I went over to say hi, and she gave me some leftover pastries.”

Alya’s intrigued expression became a knowing smile. “And you kept coming back to see if you’d get free snacks again.”

“Guilty,” Chat sighed theatrically, tail and ears wilting before quickly bouncing back. “Marinette’s winning personality didn’t hurt matters either.”

“I’ll bet,” Alya snorted. “How about the fact that she’s not too hard on the eyes?”

Chat held up his hands in surrender. “No comment,” he replied, but his roguish smirk spoke volumes.

“The point is,” Marinette broke in, “I didn’t say anything, Alya, because we decided it was too dangerous for anyone to know I was sort of friends with a superhero, so you can’t tell anyone.”

“Yeah.” Chat nodded, backing her up. “I couldn’t live with myself if Papillon started targeting Marinette and her family to get at me, so I’d appreciate it if you kept our acquaintanceship under wraps, okay?”

Alya mimed zipping her lips. “No worries, guys. No one is going to hear about this from me,” she promised.

Chat gave her a grateful smile while Marinette heaved a gigantic sigh of relief.

“Okay.” Alya clapped her hands, getting them back on track. “Let me just run down to get my notes, and we’ll be all set to get started.”

They watched the aspiring reporter disappear through the skylight back down into Marinette’s room, and then Chat turned a concerned eye on his girlfriend.

“Hey, Princess,” he whispered, reaching out to run a knuckle down her arm. “You okay?”

Marinette shook her head, sinking back against the balcony railing with a sigh. “I’ve been dreading this interview all week. I wish you hadn’t agreed to it.”

“My Love, I’m a celebrity. This kind of thing comes with the territory,” he gently explained. “People’s safety sometimes depends on them knowing that they can trust me, so this kind of marketing thing is important. They’ve seen me destroy national monuments with a single touch, Marinette,” he stressed, running his knuckle back up and down her arm. “They need to be absolutely certain of who I am and what I would or would not do with that kind of power. Publicity events like this are opportunities for them to see who I am as a person and get to know me, see that I’m just a normal guy.”

“Oh,” Marinette breathed, all words feeling inadequate.

She had never stopped to think that her partner’s power of destruction could be something Parisians might worry about. Now that he mentioned it, it seemed rather obvious given that Papillon and Mayura used their Miraculouses for evil.

“I know you’re worried about Princess’s identity being exposed,” he acknowledged, “but that’s not going to happen, okay?” He ducked his head so that he was peering up at her, giving her his most reassuring smile. “I will always protect you.”

“My hero,” she chuckled softly, forcing herself to take a deep breath and calm down.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered with a wink. “I promise I’ll be discreet.”

Before she could protest, he surged forward for a quick kiss, pulling back just as Alya pushed the skylight open to rejoin them on the balcony.

“Okay. Let’s get this interview on the road,” Alya announced, not seeming to notice anything amiss as she pulled herself back up.

Marinette was certain her face was fuchsia, but that had been the shade of Marinette’s skin throughout the first year of Alya and Marinette’s friendship due to all the blushing about Adrien, so Marinette guessed that it wasn’t unusual that the florid state of her skin now hadn’t registered on Alya’s radar.

 The majority of the interview went fairly well. Alya asked normal, non-identity-revealing questions like Chat’s favourite colour, favourite school subject, favourite musician, and dream pet.

It turned out that Chat Noir was a dog person. He wanted three: a medium-size dog for normalcy’s sake, a gigantic dog so big that his future children could ride on its back, and a tiny dog so small that he had to worry about the giant dog eating it.

Alya got a kick out of that, but Marinette was too busy thinking about dog names and what her children with Chat Noir would look like. It turned out that they looked remarkably similar to the future children she had imagined having with Adrien.

Marinette’s favourite response was when Alya asked about Chat Noir’s favourite food.

“I actually have a friend whose mother is from Martinique,” he remarked, piquing Alya’s interest.

“My family originally came from Martinique!” she replied in delight.

“Oh, yeah?” he chuckled. “What a crazy coincidence! Well, my friend’s mom makes this amazing Colombo de Martinique, and I’m pretty sure it’s my favourite dish ever.”

Chat turned to the camera and explained for the viewers, “It’s a curry dish. Usually it’s made with lamb or chicken, but my friend’s mom makes a version with fish that I’m crazy about.”

Marinette made a mental note to brush up on her Colombo de Martinique cooking skills. Two years prior, after learning that Adrien loved Alya’s mom’s fish curry, Marinette had learned to make it, but ever since she’d given up on elaborate schemes to confess her love to Adrien, she hadn’t made the dish.

Perhaps she could trot out the recipe the next time Chat ate dinner with her family.

Marinette’s thoughts were quickly interrupted as Alya moved on to more personal questions.

“So, Chat Noir, all of Paris is dying to know about this mysterious ‘Princess’ you’ve been spotted with this past month. Can you shed any light on the situation for your fans?” Alya prompted, leaning in slightly, ready to pounce on the smallest clue.

Marinette tensed, a parade of nightmare scenarios zipping through her mind.

Chat didn’t seem phased at all as he agreed affably. “Sure.”

He turned to the camera and looked straight at the viewers. “First and foremost, I want to be clear with you guys: my girlfriend is a private citizen, and I expect you all to respect her privacy. Do not try to discover her identity. I’m not sure how far Papillon is willing to go, if he understands that love is sacred and some lines shouldn’t be crossed, but he may start targeting Princess and the people she cares about in order to get to me if her identity is discovered, so I’m asking you all to take this very seriously, okay? I love her, and I’m not going to be able to do my best to protect all of you if the woman I love is in danger. We need to work together on this, all right? For the safety of all of Paris.”

Chat looked back to Alya to find her subconsciously nodding. He smiled. “So. With the understanding that Princess’s identity and personal life are off the table, what specific questions do you have for me?”

Marinette relaxed a bit after that.

Chat Noir could be a bit of a rash goofball at times, but he had grown and matured over the past three years. She should have trusted that her boyfriend knew what he was doing. She should have trusted that he would never let anything happen to her.

Hadn’t he proven himself over and over again with every akuma he’d given his life to protect her from?

She should have known that her partner had her back.

Once secure in that knowledge, the anxiety faded, and Marinette was able to enjoy listening to Chat talk about how Princess had been the one to ask him out, even though they had kind of mutually affirmed their feelings for one another at that point. No, she did not know his identity. No, he was not afraid of her only dating him because he was a superhero because they had been friends for a while before they’d begun dating. Yes, Chat Noir did make friends with civilians he regularly ran into on his nights out.

Marinette was a little thrown when Chat Noir gave shoutouts to “Orpheus”, “Pretty Boy”, and “Kunoichi”. Apparently, he really did have more friends whom he visited regularly as Chat Noir besides Marinette. She was fairly certain that “Pretty Boy” was Adrien, but she couldn’t even begin to guess at the other two, and that bothered her somewhat.

There was so much she didn’t know—couldn’t know—about her own boyfriend.

Marinette zoned back in just as Chat Noir was finishing up his comments about how amazing Princess was, how kind and smart and fun and thoughtful, how in love with her he was.

She made a mental note to watch the footage again and maybe save a copy of that portion to listen to when she was feeling down about herself.

She wondered if he would still say those things if he knew about her affair with Adrien, but…at least it sounded like she was doing some things right. He felt loved and appreciated, and that was important. She just had to keep making up for her shortcomings by making him feel truly loved.

 “How was that?” Chat snickered as he helped to disassemble the lighting equipment, keeping an ear open for Alya’s return. “Not as bad as you’d feared, was it?”

Marinette shook her head as she wound up the extension cord. “No. You were right,” she admitted. “That…went really well. I’m sorry for not trusting in you, Minou. I should have known better.”

“No worries.” Chat easily shrugged it off. “Now you won’t be so nervous next time, so it’s all good. It turned out for the best.”

“How can you always be so optimistic?” she chuckled, shaking her head even as she smiled affectionately.

“I have good things in my life,” he informed with a broad smile. “It’s easy to be optimistic when you feel so blessed.”

“Oh, Minou,” she sighed, her own lips stretching even wider until he captured them in a kiss.

“Could one of you bring down the boom mic next?” Alya called up to them.

Chat Noir pulled away from Marinette just long enough to respond, “On it!” before diving in to steal yet another kiss.

[nekoannie-chan]

Fool

Pairing: Steve Rogers X Female Reader

Word count: 1212 words.

Summary: Steve is in love with a girl, and he’s super nervous but he’s trying not to show how nervous he is so he acts overly confident and just repeatedly makes a fool of himself.

Warnings: None.

A/N: The magazine I referred really existed, was very popular when I was a teenager.

This is a request by @what-just-happened-bro​, in this ask. Sorry for taking me so long, I hope you like it.

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistake please let me know and I will correct it.

I don’t give any kind of permission that my fics be posted in other platforms or languages (I translate myself my work) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don’t steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other’s people. The only exception is the ones I gifted ‘cuz now belong to someone else. If you find any of my works on a different platform and is not one of my accounts, please let me know. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own Marvel’s characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

My other media where I publish: Wattpad, Ao3, ffnet.

If you like it please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog. 

Steve got up from the bench, didn't understand anything, he'd been in the park for a while watching the couples, everything was very different from his time, he didn't know what to do.  

He liked you, he'd met you when Fury introduced him to the STRIKE team, immediately you caught his attention, you seemed beautiful.  

He had a hard time accepting his feelings when she woke up at this time he didn't think she might like someone different from Peggy until he met you.  

For him everything was very confusing, how were women courted now?  

He had analyzed Tony's behavior of women, but he didn't think it was very appropriate, he didn't even think he was capable of doing something like that.  

The advice Natasha had given his was too bold. It just looked like no one could help him.  

He also didn't feel like it was a good idea to just come in and say: ‘I'm Captain America, do you want to have a date with me?’

Along the way, he went through a newsstand, he stops when a cover of one of the teen magazines caught his eye.  

 "CONQUER THE GIRL OF YOUR DREAMS", that said one of the headlines on the cover, he has no hesitated in buying it.  

 He started reading the article, he could do what was indicated there, he had already decided, would start the next day, although he could not even sleep on his nerves.  

 ‘GIRLS LIKE STRONG AND CONFIDENT MEN.’  

 That meant he shouldn't be nervous in front of you, he had to act very safely and pretend he wasn't dying of nerves.

That day the training was on the outside, a slightly wooded area near the Triskelion.  

You and Natasha were warming up together, Steve thought it was a good time to put the plan in place.  

He started exaggeratedly doing the exercises in front of you.  

"What is he supposed to do?” You asked Natasha in a murmur.  

"I'm…not…sure…”

“He looks very confident, but ...”

“Maybe he wants to get our attention? Natasha remarked.  

"Well... he looks... ridiculous...”

“What the hell are you doing, Rogers?” Brock asked.  

"N-Nothing.”

Steve was more concerned with trying to impress you then paying attention to training, you were supposed to be teaching the recruits hand-to-hand combat, Brock launched an attack, which of course Steve didn't realize and ended up falling sharply into the mud as a result of the blow.  

You put your hand on your mouth to try not to laugh. You and Natasha took a look at each other.  

Unfortunately, the training ended in a fight between Steve and Brock. Although Steve thought the first step had been successful.

 ‘COOK A SPECIAL DISH FOR HER, PREFERENCE HER FAVORITE’, was the next tip.

 Steve was trying to remember if at some point you had commented on what your favorite food was, but you didn't make it, maybe you had never done it, he was walking down the aisles looking for you, it would be best to ask you while making your muscles noticeable again, he was convinced that would work.

Suddenly he heard your voice and Natasha's, he hid to hear you, although it was a little difficult to understand what you were saying.  

"I don't know if it's a good idea, it's that tomorrow," Natasha said.

“... Birthday...”

Steve opened his eyes, deduced that the next day it would be your birthday, he immediately went back to his office and started looking for recipes, coming out bought everything he needed, decided it would be strawberry because the woman in the video tutorial had said that strawberries liked girls.  

Never before in his life, Steve had cooked, the bread of the cake burned, but he thought it was ok, and the decoration seemed worse than if it had been made by a five-year-old, had he even tried to draw a unicorn with whipped cream even though he looked more like a run-down dog.  

The next day he convinced that his cake would enchant you even though he was nervous about the taste, he waited for you to stop by his office, as soon as he saw you, and he called you.  

“Happy birthday do... Y/N!” He congratulated you on coming in.

"Thank you? But Steve... today is not my birthday," you replied mistaking by mentally asking you where he had come up with that idea.  

"No? Isn’t it?”  

"No, it's Clint's, Natasha, and I, we are planning a party for him... “

“Are you and Clint something?” He interrupted you.  

"Friends, though I can't say the same about him and Natasha.”  

You knew about Clint's family, but you and Natasha loved to feed that rumor.

"Oh... Well, I did this for you," he said a little disappointed.

Steve cut a slice and gave it to you on the plate.

"Thank you, let’s gonna eat it... “

You zoomed in on the plate to see it better... the cake was burned and had something else.  

"What is this Steve?” You questioned pointing out what appeared to be a burnt fruit.  

"Strawberries, the woman in the video says girls like them... “

"Oh... Steve...”

“Is there a problem?”  

"I'm allergic to strawberries... “

Steve opened his eyes big and was stunned.  

"I-I'm sorry... I didn't know...”

At Clint's party, Steve couldn't help but feel bad about the cake, he even left early.  

He took the magazine, didn't understand why things didn't go well, decided to jump the third to the ninth council, and read the last one.  

 "WRITE HER NOTES EXPRESSING YOUR FEELINGS FOR HER."  

 That was going to take him a few days, he started looking on the internet and found many examples, in many sticky notes he wrote everything down, the day he had everything ready, he arrived early and started to hit them in what he believed was your office, once he finished, he saw the time on the clock, just in time, in less than fifteen minutes would come, he went to the parking lot to wait for you, breathed deeply several times so that his nerves would not be evident.

"Good morning, Steve,” you greeted him.

"Hello," he reciprocated with a smile.  

"Is something wrong?” You asked when you saw that he was still on your side.

"Go to your office," he asked.  

You walked to where he told you, he was next to you, and you stopped four doors before the office Steve had decorated and opened it, when you walked in, it was just like you left it the day before.  

“Steve... there's nothing here.”  

"Is this your office?” Steve asked dumbfounded.

So who belonged to the office where you put the notes?  

"Yes, why?”  

"I thought...”

“CLINT BARTON!” Natasha shouted as she opened her office and saw all the notes.

"Oh no...”

"Whatever you wanted to do, I think you were wrong," you said.  

Steve looked sorry, he didn't know what to do.

"Steve, have all the weird things you've done in the last few weeks been for me?” You questioned.  

"Yes, it's just that...”

"I like you too, you just had to come and tell me," you confessed.

"I... everything in this time is confusing...”

“Do you want to go to the movies on Saturday?”  

"I'd love to," Steve agreed.

[jackbabewang]

Chapter 1 — Intro: All about him

Word count ‧ 7,194

Chapter summary ‧ Just how did you got yourself into this with Jung Yoonoh?

Masterlist

At the age of twenty-four years, already a married woman, while your husband, who was your bitterest enemy since young—Jung Yoonoh. 

“Weren’t you two had always been going at each other like cats and dogs? Why are you married to him?”

Regarding this query, whoever knew you, or him, the question had been asked numerous times and for which your answer was always the same: “Harsh words or deeds can demonstrate one’s love. Couples who fight the most, love each other most. What you saw was our distinctive way of bonding.” 

However, coming face to face with your confidante and most intimate friend, Jennie, you could not help but burst open and spewed up all the pent-up misery you had kept inside. She was in a state of shock still with the news of your marriage, especially with the man, that she was yet to have a proper rest after being newly returned from New Zealand. 

“It’s a long story.” 

“Keep it short then.”

“It was a dark and dismal night, a whip of lightning streaked across the sky and then came the rain…”

Jennie’s face numb and all, “Forget about the scene and cut straight to the point!”

“Here’s where the point begins, be patient, you…”

“Stop. My bad. Keep going!”

That night, your parents had not returned home. Because you were starving so you simply cooked yourself a bowl of ramen. Right when you were about to dig in, the front door was suddenly flung open. It was unlocked. And quickly afterward, witnessed a completely drenched figure barged into your house uninvited. Dripping water on the living room floor and dirty footprints as he stalked towards you with his face darkened similar to that of the Grim Reaper. 

You stared at him, stunned and had not realized that the noodles slipped from your chopsticks and created a messy pile on the table. 

“____, let’s get married.” Yoonoh uttered no unnecessary words and directly confronted you on the subject of marriage. 

You staggered for a moment or two before going to the bathroom and fetched a large soft white bath towel and tossed it over his head. 

“The rain must have seeped into your brain. Talk to me again after you regain your consciousness.”

He did not reach for it, nor ward it off, letting the towel collided with his face and fell to the floor after. “My mom had a sudden heart attack, the doctor said she couldn’t sustain any longer.”

Although speaking of a matter so horrifying and yet no matter how terrifying, there was no expression or emotion on his face at all. But you could see the underlying dejection and fear in his eyes. 

People always say, those who understand you the most, in fact is not your loved ones but your enemy. You and Yoonoh were indeed destined to be natural enemies, therefore you could pronounce that you grasped him mentally. 

So…

You agreed to him, because you knew, the last thing his mother wished for was to see him getting married, and hoping for her only son to be blessed with consummate happiness.

On the day of your wedding, his mother was seated in a wheelchair. She was both pale and thin, but on her white sick face there was no pain or torment instead of a blissful smile. 

The next morning, his mother was then left the earth. Unlike a newly wedded couple, your first night was not spent in the bridal chamber. Rather guarded through the night by her sick-bed, yet still unable to reclaim her lost life. 

Upon the day of his mother’s burial, relatives and friends had long dissipated though Yoonoh stood before her tomb, unmoving for a long time. In the faint drizzle, his lone figure appeared intensely glum and dispirited. 

As you moved to hold the umbrella above him, astoundingly, stream on stream of tears rolled down his face. It was ever since you were little to witness the cold, arrogant and wicked man crumbling in distress for the first time. In this lifetime, perhaps even only once, you did not have the courage to look, not wanting to look, nor bear to see. 

From now on, he no longer had a family in this world. What kind of sorrow could it be?

Albeit unintentionally, the reminiscences had been going on for an indefinitely long period of time. If it was not for Jennie who snapped you out of your trance, you were afraid that the events for the past three months would be recalled vividly to your recollection.

Jennie’s return from New Zealand was unbeknownst to her parents, in case they would show up early in the morning at the airport waiting for her. By the time she gone back home, the Kim’s were genuinely surprised, overly excited, and ended up preparing a feast. You were, undoubtedly, coaxed to stay over and had a sumptuous dinner with them.

With your belly filled, you left the Kim’s and returned home as well. Inside this large house spread over two levels, it was quiet as always and almost deserted. Besides you, there was no other. 

Yoonoh was always busy with work that it was close to inhumane, he returned home late at night when you were asleep, and when you woke up in the morning, he was ready to leave for work. You could only catch a glimpse of him and neither of you exchanged a word. 

After taking a warm bath and tossing and turning restlessly in your bed, you went down to the kitchen and made yourself some supper, deciding to treat Yoonoh as well. 

When you finished eating, you retired to the living room and sat back to watch TV while resignedly cushioning your small body into the soft pillows of the couch. Not realizing the time, you fell asleep just like that. 

Awakened the next morning however, every joint in your body hurt and your nape felt stiff as if bruised or sprained, your legs were numb and you did not dare to move a muscle. Your body felt as though it was not yours anymore.

*Click* 

It was at that very moment, there was the sound of the door being unlocked and opened. You bore the ache and twisted your neck to the direction of the entrance. Yoonoh was finally back.

Seeing as he approached, you immediately looked up at him through tear-filled eyes and sent out SOS. He did not spare you a glance instead his eyes swept over the table of a plateful and an empty dishes, coldy he said, “Why didn’t you clean it up?”

“……” Whatever.

“My legs are numb, lend me a hand and carry me to my bed.”

Hazel eyes slanted ever so slightly beneath ebony dark brows, narrowed and judging. “Can you be more decent? Do you not have a bed to sleep?”

Last of all, he was not willing to provide help anyway. He went to get a document in the study and headed out once again. 

You had to endure the discomfort and led yourself hobbling back to your room. Then you felt your head spinning and began sweating profusely although the weather gave you no reason to. 

The next thing you knew was you woke up in a hospital bed, sitting beside you was Yoonoh flipping through document or magazine of some sort. 

You pushed yourself up into a sitting position and immediately felt the trickle of something wet from your nose. You jolted, thinking that it was blood and when you tilted your head down to expect redness on the white sheets, it only left a damp spot. You felt the dripping once more so you lifted your head in panic. A hand that was not yours, happened to be one step ahead and tossed a box of tissues to your side.

Pulling out sheets of them you wiped off the snot and then turning to him pitifully, pitiably. “How did I even catch a cold?”

His brows scrunched together and warned, “If you ever sleep on the couch again then don’t sleep on the bed anymore. I’ll move the couch into your room.”

“……”

The dramas, the novels; when a woman made supper for her man and fell asleep on the couch while waiting, even catching a cold because of it, in that case would not the man feel touched and guilty, and even showed pity and care for her?

But why was it when it came to you and Yoonoh, resulted in a plot twist? Sigh. It was the reality after all.

“I’m hungry.” You gave up any attempt to explain further and changed the topic instead.

He tossed his phone over, “Order it yourself.”

Then, utterly indifferent, you took his phone, brushing off any fat hopes you had for him. At least you were kind enough to order his portion as well.

Of course, he paid for the food. 

Catching of common cold was not such a big deal other than infusing drips of IV into your vein, but it did consume quite some time therefore when you were discharged from the hospital and returned home with Yoonoh, it was about 10pm at night.

Two plates that was once left on the table were already gone. Yoonoh chucked the package of prescription cold medicine over the couch and went upstairs to run a bath, while you were sitting on the couch watching TV. You were kicked back to your room the moment he came out after he had had a shower. 

Yes, you and him slept in separate rooms. The two of you had never been under the same blanket ever since your wedding day because your marriage meant nothing more than a show. 

You both had clearly understood that this marriage existed in name only. Even though his mother had passed away, you still had to keep up the pretense before others and could not get a divorce just yet. 

That was because your family and relatives did not know about the truth. When Yoonoh said he wanted to marry you, your parents agreed unhesitantly. 

As for the reason that you readily accepted him, besides being voluntary, it was also for the reason that…

Yoonoh had always been the pride of the neighbourhood, came through with flying colours in his studies and had received numerous awards. Looking all handsome and picturesque, he was an exceptionally well-behaved child in every way.

After graduating from university, he started a business and became the CEO of his own company. Whoever’s parents from a decent family background would not want to marry off their daughter to an outstanding son-in-law as him?

After taking two tablets of your medication and putting away your mug in the kitchen, it started raining heavily outside. Immediately you made your way upstairs to shut the windows. But, as you walked down the stairs, you remembered that Yoonoh had no umbrella when he left in the morning so you ran upstairs again, changed your clothes and picked up an umbrella as you headed out.

Once you reached his building, you called but he had not picked up so you waited outside instead. As autumn weather set in it commenced the approach of cool weather, even though it was just drizzle, it was cold. That was probably because you had not fully recovered, you sneezed only at the touch of a little breeze.

At a few minutes past five o’clock, most of the employees had left for the day however there was yet a sign of him.

You called his cell phone. Again, nothing.

Around five-thirty, you were contemplating whether or not you should go inside when he finally showed up. However tagged along next to him was a woman dragging her wheeled suitcase behind her. 

Certainly you knew the woman, and needless to say, she was Yoonoh’s sweetheart—Park Sooyoung.

When did she come back from overseas? Judging her stance, she must have darted to his company as soon as she got off the plane. 

No, perchance, Yoonoh could have picked her up from the airport and brought her to his company straightaway. 

He saw you, and his brows scrunched slightly in what you could not comprehend the perplexed expression in his eyes. You considered for a moment the gaze that would give you an inkling. 

You walked towards him, arm outstretched, “Mr. Jung, here’s the umbrella you’ve ordered, thank you for supporting Gmarket. It’s our pleasure serving you and we certainly look forward to doing that in the future.”

The furrow cleaving his brows deepen, the gloominess in his eyes suggested the forecast of his outburst. 

You kept the customary smile fixed on your face, indisputably shoving the umbrella into his hand. “Please give us a five stars rating if you’re satisfied with our service. Your support is our motivation. I’ve orders to be delivered so I’ll leave you two alone then.”

With that being said, you scampered off. Yet merely a few steps away, your nose tickled and worked up a loud sneeze. 

You were of a weak physique which had to do with your menstrual periods. It was winter when you first had it. You did not know any better and forewent appropriate preventive and protective measures which resulted in having a cold womb, consequently a poor body condition. You were more tended to commitment than anyone else in the aspect of taking medicines or injections. 

You changed your clothes on the return and laid in bed for a few minutes then, Yoonoh was back as well.

You listened for any stray noises downstairs and wondered why did he even come home so early? Shouldn’t he be catching up with his old flame? Suddenly the door pushed open and Yoonoh stepped inside with a glass of water which he sat on the nightstand next to your bed. 

“Take your medicine,” he said in a commanding tone. 

“I did.”

“Really?”

You fumbled with the aluminium strip and explained as you pointed the hollows, “It’s taken three times a day, two pills at the same time. I took once last night before I went to bed, once this morning, and once this afternoon. It’s evening now so I took another. Look, there are eight little holes, just about the four times I took them.” 

He went silent for some time, “Drink the water then.” 

“I’m not taking any pills, why should I?”

His face went a shade darker than it already was, registering annoyance and impatience, “Drink more warm water to recover quickly.”

He couldn’t possibly cared about me, could he? But his face said otherwise. 

You lifted the glass and blew across it before taking a sip. As a token of appreciation.

For a few minutes, there was silence. No one spoke a word. 

The warmth of the glass radiated through your hands as you clutched it. You hesitated to say anything. But then, you asked a question that you should not have asked. “She probably didn’t know about our marriage, did she?”

Whether he may be feigning ignorance or not, he questioned back, “Who?”

“Sooyoung!” As soon as it left your mouth you regretted them. 

Beyond doubt, his facial expression changed to that you could not tell if he was shocked or grew alarmed. 

“You know her?”

You mentally rolled your eyes, how could you not? You and him were both from the same high school and it was not all that rare you saw him sending her back home, ate together in the canteen and also tutored her in the library.

“Oh, she was our high school’s beauty queen, how could I not know her?” You were faking it.

It was as if he had a flash of remembrance of the fact that you were, indeed, from the same high school as him. He nodded and hummed. 

Tch, tch! Sooyoung was not even our high school’s beauty queen, it was Jieun!

It had been a year since Jennie left Korea, afterall she was born and raised as a legit Korean, eventually her lifestyle still bore traces of her origin. At those times she was in New Zealand, she was skinnier than she once was and spent less money on clothes than she once did. Which pretty much gave her the reason to go all crazy shopping and challenging the possibilities in an unlimited credit card. 

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just take it as a wedding gift.” And she did not miss the chance to pamper you as well. It was not like you could object her intention anyway, but it would be better if she stuffed your pockets with cash than buying you that overpriced piece of denim skirt. Just saying.

At some point in time, you underestimated her energy after all the walking and shopping, she was livelier than you were, who was already flopping on her king-sized bed like a dead fish. She pulled at your arm, practically dragging you up to a standing position and forced you into slipping on the newly bought skirt. Then she began dolling yourselves up for her #mirrorselfie and uploading it to KakaoStory with the caption: Couple look with Wifey! It’s been awhile! ♡

You could not help but giggled lightly. It was like you were back to college years once again, where in the dormitory reenacting roles in historical dramas and addressing each other by Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness and My Lady. So you left a comment: Thanks Hubby for the gift!

No longer after the post was reacted by your old classmates and friends. You scrolled through the chains of comments until you reached the bottom, where you surprisingly saw a comment from the one and only Jung Yoonoh. 

What? That lad even comments on social media now? Is he out of his mind?

That replied though, he was definitely out of his mind. It was only a single word, and the word that women hated the most: Ugly.

You contemplated for a moment, had you wanted to fire back at him. However just when it was about to send through, a surge of brilliance stopped you and reminded that all your basic needs were benefited from the saint, you had to mind your words and not to offend the lad. 

Another day of scrounging dinner at the Kim’s, it was only eight when you returned home. The first thing that greeted you was the sight of Jung Yoonoh sitting on the couch with a towel wrapped around his waist and a laptop perched on his lap. 

“Oh? You’re early today!” You said to him while switching into your pair of fluffy room shoes.

His long, lean fingers walked and leaped across the keyboard and he did not lift his head to look at you. “This is my house, do I have to report it to you when I come back anytime?”

You rolled your eyes but wisely held your tongue. You were about to make your way upstairs to freshen up when he called after you, in which you turn to him as you tried to keep the annoyance off your face, “What?”

“Make dinner.”

“No, I already ate.”

“I haven’t.”

“Go make it yourself then!”

Finally, he lifted his head and the look of impatience painted over his face. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“What does that have to do with me?”

He barked, “That’s what women supposed to do!”

You roared back, “Ask Sooyoung to make it for you then!”

After you spoke the hasty words, you regretted them. 

You both instantly went silent. A fraction of a minute later, Yoonoh closed his laptop with a loud *smack* and turned to go upstairs. 

You stayed rooted to the spot, feeling a strange, distressing internal conflict. In saying so, didn’t you just indirectly tell him that you knew there was something going on between him and Sooyoung?

You took a shower and sat in your room, towel drying your hair while listening for any sound of movement from downstairs. Assumably he would make dinner for himself since you refused to, however, there was no sound at all.

Your hair was half-dried, and in the end you were not able to continue being hard-hearted so you pretended to go downstairs to fetch a glass of water and, in coincidence, walked past the kitchen. But there was no silhouette of Yoonoh.

Your mind immediately relived the time where his mother held onto your hands so dearly and exhorted you to take good care of Yoonoh, words about handing over her only son to you and some sort as he could not take care of himself well. For the sake of his mother, you made him a hearty meal. 

It was nothing fancy, just basic home cooking of the most you could do. Then you went upstairs and knocked on his door. There was no answer. You knocked again. No answer. With your patience wearing thin, you scolded behind wooden door, but even so there was no response. 

Is he seriously being ridiculous right now? How old is he? Five?

You took the spare key to his room, opened the door and switched on the lights, but there was no one inside. So you went to his bathroom. Saw none. Rounded his study, still nobody in sight. 

This jerk, he couldn’t possibly went out when I was in the shower?

A sudden unanticipated disappointment filled you, then it slowly grew into grievance. Without a second thought you dashed downstairs and dumped platefuls of hot food into the bin. 

While washing the dishes, a slippery plate slid from your hands from harsh scrubbing and dropped to the floor where it shattered into pieces. 

You felt worse than before and your intelligence plummeted as your mood did that you picked up the wreckage of the plate with your bare hands and in the process you accidentally cut yourself.

You had no idea if it was because of the excruciating pain or the oppression you had gone through, tears streamed down your face at such an intensity that you thought you were walking in the storm. 

Next day when you woke up, inside the kitchen sink there still remained unwashed dishes, glass shards still littered the floor, there were still blood stains, and Yoonoh still had not come home. 

He probably had a feast last night, right? A man like him that wouldn’t have to trouble himself, how would he be left to starve, right? Moreover, he would’ve spent on Sooyoung as well, a fancy candlelight dinner even! Pft. 

Whether Yoonoh was throwing a tantrum, or had he already became fed up with wherever you were, ever since that night of bickering, he had not been back for three days. And there was not even a call from him. Though he got on your nerves all the time and you disliked every bit of him, you worried about him. It was inevitable.

In the end, you could not hide your concern and went to his company in search of him. Found out that he had went on a business trip and would be back by a week. 

Right when you reached home, you were informed that your parents flew over from Ulsan. When you went to pick them up at the airport, the two oldies kept glancing over behind your back, you knew what they were up to but much to their regret you had to tell them, “Stop looking. Your dearest son-in-law went on a business trip. He couldn’t make it.”

It was only then they held back their bulging eyes which almost popped out of their sockets. 

Wheeling their suitcases and walking a few steps behind your parents, you breathed a silent sigh…

You and Yoonoh had grown up in the same neighbourhood where your doors faced each other, and eventually developed a strong bond between both households. You were always at each other’s houses when little, Yoonoh was an only child and his mother had always wanted a daughter, but his father had passed on at an early age and his mother refused to remarry as well. And because you had always scrounge for free meals at the Jung’s, his mother then claimed you as her own child. 

Even if Yoonoh was discontented with your regular visits, he could not utter a single word of complaint before his mother. However behind that, he called you shameless for doing so. 

But you, avoided all costs of verbal dispute and resumed chomping down the cookie that his mother gave you where he had none, was enough to drown him in suffocating anger. 

It was as if he was putting on a revenge on you that he showed up at your house as well for good food. Though he had a better understanding than you in pleasing the adults. He would wash his dishes and put it back in the cabinet, while the kids in your family would just throw everything aside and skipped away for cartoons. Which explained why your mother adored him more than her own seedlings. 

He needed not to munch on cookies, merely the way your mother compared you all to him was enough to trigger your bunch of siblings. 

Yoonoh had already been a bad-tempered boy when he was born. Besides his mother, practically no one was in his line of sight. He frequently bruised the kids in your neighbourhood and even though those adults told their children to stay away from him yet you were not afraid of him at all. 

Though he did not like you any better, he would never hit you. Because you were not dumb like others to always get to his bottom line. Contrastingly, in a corner, you would throw pebbles to whoever he was fighting with. However every single time those wicked losers would come over his house with their parents seeking for justice, and it was unavoidable for Yoonoh to be punished by his mother. It be kneeling in repent and some spankings.

You had always wanted to tell his mother that it was never his fault, instead it was the others who had thrown awful insults at him. But often when you were about to speak up, his death glare immediately shut you up, as if he would pounce on you once a word left your mouth. 

Over time when one another grown a little, the kids in your regional neighbourhood were humorously defeated not only in terms of stature, but his personality, modesty, gentility, excellence in education, as well as his outstanding looks. Whereby the kids no longer had the guts to provoke him to anger, and would not want to pick a fight on him. He did not bother about those disgustingly dirty kids who played marbles on the ground either way. 

It was truly despondent that you were still unpleasant in his eyes. No matter what, as long as you were involved in even the tiny littlest thing that, unfortunately, he caught on to, he would mock and ridicule you about it. 

And of course, unlike the others in your neighbourhood, you would not change your perception towards him just because of his transformation, regardless his exceptional qualities, he was still the Jung Yoonoh who seeks revenge for the smallest grievance, the Jung Yoonoh who was short-tempered. 

The past was of such flash-like episodes, yet in your childhood was all about Yoonoh’s, his forbearance, his incisive wit, his irreconciliation, his courageousness, his senselessness, and many many more, even of the simplest recollection of the past, it was limitless. 

Apparently your parents were not here with the prime intent to see you, it was your nephew who recently got admitted to the hospital so they were here to pay a visit. And it was only then they remembered that you and Yoonoh were in Seoul as well so they decided to drop by along the way.

Even if they dropped round your house for awhile, it made you wary of the current situation where you and Yoonoh were seemingly in a cold war. Yet your parents chose the wrong timing. 

You tiptoed into the bathroom and made a call to Yoonoh while your parents were not looking, but you were left wondering what was the point of him getting a phone if he never answered. 

Just in case, you sent him a text, and to be honest you had no expectation of a reply. But as soon as it was transmitted, the lad called you back. The tone of his voice did not sound so good as he began. 

“What do you mean pretend?”

“Well… I…”

“I was on a business trip in the first place, don’t make it sound like I’m you.” He was making an oblique reference to your parasitic lifestyle. 

The contents of your message were:

So here, the current situation was that you had a request to make to him, so you passively accepted his humiliation and refrained from biting back. While he was still on the line, hurriedly you stepped out into the living room. 

“Hello? Jung… Yoonoh, you must be tired, aren’t you? Did you eat well and get enough sleep?” In order to have your parents believed that you both were truly and madly in love, you spoke in a voice so soft, so gentle. 

However the jerk he was saw it as a chance to poke fun of you, “You think that I’ll have the appetite with your voice sounding like that?” 

You had really wanted to scold him for it but your mother came to you and reached for the phone. As you handed it over, you did not miss the chance and indicatively cleared your throat and said, “Mom wants to talk to you.”

Then, you heard your mother murmured abstractly. Unsure of what Yoonoh said to her, just that she was glowing brighter than a rainbow trout if you had not noticed.

You dug in the refrigerator and pulled out ingredients for dinner when your mother barged in and snatched away the kitchen knife and shoved the phone back into your hands. “There’s nothing for you to do in here. Get out and have a nice talk with your husband.”

With the phone clutched in your hand as you stomped into the living room, your father was seated comfortably on the couch reading newspaper, while for that someone over the line, you were lost for words. 

To be frank, there was nothing you could talk about with him!

You did not say a word, he did not sound like he was going to, you both were quiet for a little more and lastly you were the one to break the silence. 

“Oh? You’re having a meeting? Alright, I’ll hang up now. Yes, yes. I’ll take care of mom and dad, don’t worry.” Without hesitation you ended the call. 

Ever since you got married to Yoonoh, it had been awhile since you had eaten your mother’s cooking, it was what you missed the most. As soon as you hung up the phone, you skipped into the kitchen to snatch a mouthful or two but once again your mother kicked you out.

There was some time before dinner was ready so you went upstairs to take a shower. However it was never to your expectation that, during the interval of having a complete shower, another being showed up downstairs in the living room. 

With surprise at what you saw, you stood atop the steps for a moment. Rubbing your eyes as to confirm the reality of his presence, you stumbled over and questioned him in disbelief, “How did— back— here?”

In normal times he would definitely be lifting his chin in an arrogant sneer, “This is my house, why do you even care?”

But thankfully he was humane as he spoke before your parents, “Mom and dad came to visit us once in a while, how could I not be back?”

Your father was undeniably moved and said, “Work is important, we’re here for a short while only. Don’t let it interfere with your job.”

A gentle, harmless smile was still on his face as he spoke, that for a second you almost forgotten his true nature. “Don’t worry, dad. I’ve arranged everything before I came back.” 

“That’s good.”

He sure was a great actor. 

Your mother used to be the head chef of a restaurant and therefore it had become a practice to prepare a table of food of a vast variety. 

Yoonoh courteously pulled out a chair for your mother and seated her at the table, then it was as if he was out of his mind, he went round to pull out a chair for you as well, acting like a complete gentleman. 

During dinner, your mother occasionally picked up a morsel of food and filled his bowl but never once for you. Right when you were stuffing rice in your mouth in nothing but insane jealousy and doubting if Yoonoh was her biological son instead, the man with the surname Jung picked up a piece of meat and put it in your bowl, then added, 

“Honey, eat a lot. You’re getting thinner!”

*Intense choking*

You were not expecting that and surely were taken aback by the intimate form of address. The grains were on their way down your throat as you started choking and coughing and sputtered on like a useless engine. With your tear-filled eyes, you went to fetch a glass of water. After a few sips and a bit more coughing you calmed down again. 

All the while you glared at him but he pretended as if nothing ever happened and continued his ministrations of apple-polishing your mother. 

It was kind of late when dinner was over. Your parents had been visiting at your aunt’s for the day before hopping to another stop at your house. You understood that it was beyond tiring for the elders of nearing fifty years of age so you made them stay for the night. 

You did not forget to evaluate any changes of expression on Yoonoh’s face, after all he was the homeowner. It was to your consideration that if he did show a slither of unwillingness, you would take it as an excuse that the guest room was yet to be organized and cleaned up and tagged along your parents to stay at the hotel. 

Though you never thought that he was sensible, there was no sign of disapproval, yet with greater fervour than you when he insisted your parents to stay for the night. Which he even said how the house was desolate and quiet with just the two of you and it was then finally the household was liven up. 

Your parents were easily persuaded in that case, there was a moment’s hesitation before agreeing. However you suddenly regret with the idea of their stay, because your mother broke into a wide grin as she eyed your belly, “You two should work hard while you’re still young. Very soon you’ll have a jolly time.”

Simultaneously you and Yoonoh were drowned into awkwardness and your eyes drifted towards one another for a second. 

That night, it was like your parents were truly heading for the goal of giving life to this dullsville, they strongly disagreed to your ‘aabb’ rooming system and insisted upon ‘abab’. There was no room for discussion even though they were supposedly the guests and then you and Yoonoh were forced into the same room. 

You looked back to the door that was slammed shut behind you in total despair, something within you was stirring. The heck, why does this feel so awkward?

To conceal your agitation, you ignored his presence and glanced around his room, scanning everywhere. Honestly, though you were three months married, on the fingers of one hand you could count the number of times you had entered his room. And those times were no longer than a minute. 

You did not expect his room to be this simple and… bare. Not in a way that the finishings were improperly done, his room was basically decoration-free. 

A desk was set directly before a large floor-to-ceiling windows, a nightstand by the bed, a book sitting on top of it, two wardrobes occupied the other end of the room. Other than that, there was not even a small-sized pot of air purification plant. 

It was monochromatic and painfully neat like a hotel suite. Was it to him that just a place to sleep?

On the east was the ensuite bathroom. Yoonoh was already disrobing himself as soon as he got in. You knew that he wanted to take a shower, which he clearly was not implying anything else, however…

“Can you— Can you go inside to change…” You could feel your face burning crimson. Even though you were cool with anything and brazen all along, it did not mean that you would not be shaken up when a man openly put up a strip show before your very eyes. 

Yoonoh cast a careless glance in your direction, his hands that were unbuttoning his dress shirt paused with the job half done, his face demonstrating the slightest bit of hesitation as if he too, realized that it was inappropriate to take off his clothes in front of a woman. 

Nonetheless, Jung Yoonoh who was haughty and high-minded in the extreme as ever would never yield to you either way. His moving hands that stopped for no more than ten seconds began undoing the buttons once again. 

“This is my room. I can take off my shirt wherever I want.” As soon as he finished pronouncing the last word, the garment slid off completely and showcased his milky skin, physical strength evident in the muscles of his forearms, lines that ran in to his waist and then down over the cut of his hips, thick ridges sculpted his abdomen. 

It was unbelievable he had such great physique. He must have gone to the gym often. 

Your body, your face burned still more when you heard the unmistakable metallic clinking of a belt being unbuckled. Immediately you whipped your head away from him. 

After all the scuffling of Yoonoh removing every article of clothing in existence, he stepped into the bathroom. Only when the door swung shut with a loud swoosh and clicked closed you dared to turn around. Subconsciously taking a peek over the pile of clothes on the floor, it was purely accidental you saw a pair of navy Calvins.

This pervert, how dare he stripped naked and not even be cautious that you might turn around without warning?

When Yoonoh was finished he emerged with a towel wrapped around his hips. Not even once he spared a glance in your direction as he headed to the nightstand while drying his hair with a smaller towel. He picked up the only book and took a seat on the chair by the large windows and began reading in leisure. 

You were still stood in the same spot, still contemplating whereto your feet should set upon. Truthfully you were already feeling drowsy. Yet, in spite of that, you had not had the nerve to climb onto his bed. There was only one bed in his room, other than that you could sleep on, you had no choice in the matter. 

He kept no extra blankets in his room and could not even make up a bed on the floor. You felt unsettled and perturbed inside, you riddled with anxiety over him fixing you up for the night. Well, you were definitely overthinking it. Thought the kind of person Yoonoh was would be aware of your existence? Dream on. Until his hair was dried, he climbed into the bed, giving absolutely no thought at all to where you were going to sleep. 

The weather had been very cold for several days, had on your thin clothes, your skin broke out in goosebumps for being exposed to the chill air. There was no way you were going to stand there forever waiting for a miracle. On what basis you were to bear the freeze while he was sleeping so comfortably on the warm bed? Being therefore thick-skinned from the thought of injustice, you proceeded to climb into the other side of the bed, pulling the blanket over your shoulders until you were cocooned in its warmth. 

You were pretty sure that Yoonoh would pick on you and you had a ready comeback for that. With every second that passed, however, his eyes were fixed on the book as he flipped through the pages before he switched off the bedside lamp, slid under the covers and went to sleep with his back turned to you. 

You were faced with the floor-to-ceiling windows, the curtains were opened and the bright city lights of Seoul looked like fairy lights in a distance. You attempted to distract yourself with the view and trying to actively suppress the feelings of nervousness. The more you suppress, the more they erupted with volcanic force and your heartbeat increased threefold. 

For it was the first time in your entire life, to share a bed with a man. The man was Jung Yoonoh and most importantly… he was completely naked. 

Your face flared for the umpteenth time that night. You squeezed your eyes shut with all effort to keep your mind from wandering far and wide, across topics best ignored. The world fell to a blank, dead silence but it was strange, unusual. As if there was a significant heat radiating from his body had seeped through that you felt yourself heating up even more in response. You wiggled your way upward, getting ready to lift the thick covers—

“Move again, you’re getting off.” Yoonoh growled suddenly and you were too scared to stir around by then.

After a brief internal struggle, sleep finally claimed you without knowing yourself when or how, but it was not the peaceful sleep. You began tossing, turning and shuffling the covers trying to get in a comfortable position. Abruptly, you felt something warm and soft which gave you an illusion of your fluffy white throw pillow. You reached over and hugged it tight, nuzzling into the puff of cloud and blissful contentment permeated every cell of your body. 

However, it seemed like it was getting warmer and warmer, like an electric blanket on a cold December night. Your skin burned and stung. You wanted to lift off the covers, but strangely, you found yourself unable to move. 

At that moment, you were sure you were sleep paralyzed, which you had experienced a couple of times during your life so it was not new, but even so it felt unusual. You had only felt numbness throughout your entire body, you could not open your eyes. Or speak. The weight crushed on you this time radiated the heat of boiling mercury, and there was something unknown that tunneled beneath your shirt. 

[lovely-sanie]

𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚌𝚢𝚘𝚗 𝚙𝚝. 𝟸

⎬𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: NCT Hybrid!AU

⎬𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐: ??? x OC

⎬𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝: 3,570

⎬𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜: panic attack

⎬𝚊/𝚗: Just a note: I deal with anxiety and I have frequent minor anxiety attacks. I have never been through a panic attack, but my best friend deals with them. This portrayal is what I remember from talking her through panic attacks.

➤ 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝟷

➤ 𝚖𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝

Eunmi wakes up the next morning to banging, immediately setting her on edge. The unfamiliar surroundings add to her anxiety and confusion. The unfamiliar scents, the unfamiliar clothes, the unfamiliar noises, all of it smashes together in her head and whips around so fast that she can’t think straight.

Her breaths come fast and hard and her heart feels like it’s beating out of her chest. Her vision begins to blur and darken. Strangled whines begin to leave her throat at an increasing volume. 

Distantly, she can hear someone shouting away, but it sounded far away and distorted.

Suddenly, Ten is in front of her. His mouth is moving like he’s talking to her but she can understand. He’s gone and then back again a moment later. He taps her gently on the wrist then exaggerates breathing in deeply and then back out.

Eunmi watches him a few times before slowly matching her own breathing to his. It takes a few tries, but soon, she’s breathing deeply and normally. She’s still trembling, but she can hear and see perfectly. 

Ten continues to breathe with her and eventually, she’s able to stop trembling. 

“You back with us?” Ten asks, voice almost a whisper.

Eunmi nods, wiping at her cheeks where tears had trickled down. “I’m sorry.”

He shakes his head. “No. Don’t be sorry. Panic attacks are a natural response in your situation. A room with no familiar scents and banging is enough to set most hybrids on edge, let alone hybrids with our type of history.”

Nodding, Eunmi hugs her knees to her chest.

“About the banging. Taeyong and I tend to get a bit carried away when we cook breakfast together.” Ten looks sheepish. “We might of forgot that you were in the apartment. So I apologize. I feel like your panic was our fault.”

Eunmi shakes her head. “It would have happened no matter what. I don’t do well on my own. I usually have to sleep with my face buried in my pack leader’s fur. If I can’t smell myself or someone I trust, I freak out.”

“Oh. Well. Still. I’m sorry.”

There’s a soft knock on the door before Taeyong peeks in, his pink hair clumped and ruffled as if he’d been running his fingers through it and clutching it. Eunmi felt bad that he was that worried about her, especially since he did nothing wrong.

“Hey. Just wanted to come see if Eunmi was okay.”

Eunmi gives him a wan smile. “I’m as okay as I can be.”

“Okay. That’s okay. You’ve been through a lot.” Taeyong’s smile towards her is a lot brighter than her own. “I just finished breakfast so if you’re hungry, you can come get some or I can bring you a plate.”

Eunmi glances at Ten and says, “I’ll come out and eat. Thank you.”

Nodding, Taeyong closes the door. 

Ten stands, holding out a hand. “Let’s go eat.”

And so was the start of a new life for Eunmi. Days turned into a week. With each day that passed, Eunmi got more used to her new surroundings.

Things weren’t easy, though. Eunmi was constantly waiting for Taeyong to stop pretending and finally act like the humans she was used to. Ten didn’t seem to have a bit of fear in him towards the human, but that meant nothing. He could easily be suffering from Stockhold syndrome or whatever it was called. 

Dr. Qian had visited a few times to check up on her and to make sure her wounds were healing well. She still didn’t trust the doctor, but he seemed nice enough. Plus, the smell of content hybrids on him put her at ease.

Eunmi is knocked out of her reverie by a plate of sashimi being placed in front of her on the dining table. Her mouth begins watering immediately. Besides fried chicken, sashimi had quickly become one of her favorite foods. The raw fish appealed to her base cat instincts.

Looking up, she smiles brightly at Ten. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” he says, sitting across from her with his own plate. “Oh. Heads up. A friend of ours is coming over with his hybrids. The hybrids can be a bit bratty, but they’re well-behaved. Most days.”

Eunmi freezes at his words. “Well-behaved?”

Ten looks up from his food. “Oh. Not like beaten type or anything. I just mean that they’re not going to pee on the carpet. It was a joke. I’m sorry.”

Shaking her head, Eunmi plops a piece of sashimi into her mouth. After chewing and swallowing it, she says, “Not your fault. I’m just being too sensitive.”

“No, you’re not, Mi. It’s okay to be concerned.”

“Still. I can’t seem to see past my experiences.”

“It’s been a week, Eunmi. Things like what you went through don’t just up and disappear just because you’ve been removed from the situation.”

“But-”

“No. You are allowed to not be okay.”

“If you’re sure.”

“Yes. I am.” He gets up and comes around the table, kneeling next to her chair. “It took me years to come to that conclusion. I wasn’t immediately okay when Taeyong took me in off the street. I hated him at first. Felt exactly as you do right now. It took him so long to earn my trust and even longer for me to stop hating humans.”

“I just feel like I’m overreacting. That my experiences as a kitten shouldn’t matter because they were so long ago.”

“Those aren’t the only bad experiences that you’ve had with humans though, are they?”

Eunmi shakes her head. “The entire time I was a stray, humans would look upon me disdainfully before dialing the number for the catchers. You and Taeyong and Dr. Qian are the only ones that ever lifted a finger to help me.”

“Humanity can be so cruel. In the same breath that they preach to help those that need help, they scorn the people that truly need help.”

A chiming sound echoes through the apartment before a voice yells into the camera doorbell thing that Ten had briefly shown her the other day. 

“Taeyong-hyung! Open the door!”

Ten rolls his eyes and stands. “That would be our guests. You can go to your room if you don’t want to meet them right now.”

“Um.” She glances at the front door. “I think I’ll be okay.”

“If Donghyuk is a brat, just tell him to shut up. We all do.”

“Okay.”

He walks over to the door and takes a deep breath before opening it up. Immediately, two people slam into him. The three of them tumble to the floor and Eunmi hears a groan from Ten.

As Ten pushes the two hybrids off of him, Eunmi hears a chuckle from the doorway.

“You two are gonna break him if you’re not careful,” a voice from the doorway says.

“But we haven’t seen him in a week and a half!” The orange and brown-haired cat hybrid whines. “He deserves to be broken.”

“If you break him, you won’t ever be able to see him.”

There’s a huff from the orange and brown-haired cat hybrid before both he and the blonde-haired dog hybrid are climbing off of Ten.

“Thank you, you little-”

“Ten.” The warning comes from Taeyong, who had just entered the room from somewhere upstairs. He had helped Ten fix the sashimi then disappeared, presumably to change out of his pajamas.

“No cursing. Yeah, yeah, I know.”

The three guests take their shoes off then walk out of the entryway and greet Taeyong. 

Ten comes over and stands beside Eunmi who nervously stands and pats down the pajamas she’s wearing that were borrowed from Ten.

The dog hybrid notices her first, scrunching his nose a bit before waving. It’s then that the cat hybrid notices her and stares her down. His expression is blank, so she can’t tell what the stare means but she hopes it’s nothing bad. She didn’t want to piss off this hybrid before she even met him.

“Who are you?” He questions.

“Donghyuk, behave,” the tall, extremely tall, human guest says. “She’s Taeyong and Ten’s guest.”

“Why wasn’t I made aware of this guest?”

Ten rolls his eyes. “We told you yesterday on the phone, Hyuk. Not our fault you didn’t listen.”

“I listened. I was also high on catnip.”

Johnny groans. “You’re still in trouble for that.”

“I’m just saying, you shouldn’t have left it out if you didn’t want me to get into it.”

“You are more than old enough to not touch something just because it’s on the counter.”

“I’m a cat. You left catnip out, a substance to which I am drawn. That was your stupidity.”

“You say that about the glasses you break, too.”

“Duh.”

“If you don’t stop, you’re not getting any treats for the next week.”

Donghyuk’s eyes widen. “But chicken!”

The human shrugs. “Behave and we’ll see. Now greet Taeyong and Ten’s guest.”

Donghyuk turns to Eunmi, pouting. “Hi, Taeyong-hyung and Ten-hyung’s guest. I’m Donghyuk.”

“I’m Jisung,” the dog hybrid says. “I’m the youngest of all of our friends.”

Eunmi smiles. “You’re both adorable. I’m Eunmi.”

Donghyuk looks offended. “Who are you calling adorable, tiny? I bet I’m older than you. What year are you?”

“199...8? I think so. I’m not exactly sure.”

He begins pouting again. “You’re so tiny but you’re older than me. That’s not fair.”

“Most people are older than you, Hyuk,” Ten says. “You’re a baby.”

“I am not!”

“You are.”

“Are not.”

“Are.”

“Are not.”

“Children!”

Eunmi flinches at the human’s loud voice.

“Sorry, Eunmi,” he says immediately after, smiling. “Sometimes I have to be loud to get them to listen. I’m Johnny. I’m, unfortunately, Jisung and Donghyuk’s owner.”

“Unfor-” Donghyuk scoffs. “Excuse you, I am a blessing to your dull life.”

Johnny rolls his eyes. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Eunmi tiptoes so she’s closer to Ten’s ear. Whispering, she asks, “He’s okay to this right? Like he’s not going to get hurt after they leave?”

Ten shakes his head. “Hyuk does this all the time. It’s kind of his gig to be a brat.”

Frowning, Eunmi grabs onto the sleeve of Ten’s long sleeve shirt. “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t get punished for it.”

“I promise you that Johnny doesn’t lay a hand on Hyuk. Johnny is too soft for that. Plus, he’s from America. The laws over there regarding hybrids are completely different.”

Nodding, Eunmi still watches warily as Donghyuk attacks Johnny with punches that look like they’re barely even touching the older human.

“Hi.”

Eunmi jumps at the voice beside her and looks over. “Hi, Jisung.”

“Can I call you noona?”

“Um. Sure?”

“Yay!” He thrusts his fists high in the air. “I have a noona!”

“I talked to her first!” Donghyuk whines from his spot upside down in Johnny’s arms. 

Eunmi’s brows furrow. “How?”

Johnny chuckles. “He was being a brat, I threatened to turn him upside down if he didn’t stop, he didn’t stop, I turned him upside down.”

“Can you let me go, please?” Donghyuk asks. “I’m getting light-headed.”

In a fluidity that didn’t seem human, Johnny flips Donghyuk right-side-up and sets him softly on his feet.

“You okay?” He asks, checking the cat over.

Donghyuk huffs. “I’m fine.”

Eunmi walks over and sits on the couch and is immediately joined by Donghyuk.

“So, what’s your opinion on water?”

Chuckling, Eunmi says, “I like water because it keeps me clean.”

“But your ears get wet and your tail gets wet and that takes forever to dry.”

“If you do it the right way, then it won’t be wet for too long. Ten used a hairdryer to help dry my tail and it was super soft and fluffy afterward.”

Donghyuk’s face scrunches up. “But hairdryers are loud and hurt my ears.”

“You can get your tail pretty dry with a towel, too.”

“We do that,” Johnny says as he leans on the back of the couch. “We even got microfiber towels because he didn’t like how much static there was with regular towels.”

Ten sits on the arm of the couch. “Yup. Don’t let him sell you a sob story. He’s as pampered as they come.”

Donghyuk huffs. “Like you aren’t.”

“I am and I fully admit that I am.”

As Ten and Donghyuk begin bickering over… something, Eunmi’s lap is occupied by a half-grown Jindo dog. It yips at her before settling in a ball in her lap.

“Jisung-ah!” Johnny scolds. “Did you even ask if she was okay with that?”

Eunmi shrugs. “I’m fine. My pack and I did this sort of stuff all the time. Well, not our leader. He was too big to fit in any of our laps. His head alone took up our entire lap.”

Donghyuk gasps. “What type of hybrid was he?”

Eunmi hesitates for a moment, deciding if that information was something she was ready to divulge. Deciding that it’s fine, she says, “He’s a wolf hybrid. Eurasian, I believe is what he said. He came over here from Australia. Well, his owners brought him over and then abandoned him.”

Ten winces. “To become stray that way is hard. At least when a hybrid runs away, it’s their choice. To just be dropped is not a hybrid’s choice and it’s much more difficult to adjust to.”

Eunmi nods. “He was lost for the longest time. He kept trying to talk to humans to find his owners but that didn’t go so well.” 

“I would apologize for humans not being nice but I’m not going to apologize for others' actions when I know they aren’t sorry,” Johnny says.

The rest of the group’s visit consisted of Donghyuk in cat form chasing Jisung who was still in his dog form. Ten and Eunmi ended up cuddled together on the end of the couch giggling at the two’s behavior while the two humans sat at the dining table and talked.

It must have been hours later when Johnny comes to stand beside the couch.

“Hyuk-ah, Sungie, time to go.”

The two young hybrids, who had finally settled for a moment, shift back to human form and immediately begin protesting.

Jisung pouts. “Hyung! Do we have to? Can’t we stay longer? Please?”

“I didn’t even get to play with Eunmi-noona!” Donghyuk whines.

Taeyong chuckles, leaning against the back of the couch. “She’ll be here for a while. You can come back to another time.”

Donghyuk looks at Eunmi. “Promise? I wanna play hide and attack.”

Eunmi’s brows scrunch together as she sits up. “Hide and attack?”

Donghyuk’s face brightens. “It’s a game that a lot of us kittens and cats play! It’s where one cat stays out in the open and the rest hide and like the cat who’s not hiding walks around and the cats that are hiding try to attack them without being attacked. It usually dissolves into a giant play fight but it’s so much fun!”

“Then next time you come over, we’ll play,” Eunmi promises.

Donghyuk smiles. “Okay.”

After that, he’s much more agreeable, putting his shoes on without a fight. 

Johnny turns to her, smiling. “We might have to put you in charge of him more often. It’s usually a ten-minute argument to get him to leave.”

Eunmi giggles. “Glad I could be of service.”

Jisung whines as Johnny drags him towards the door, but doesn’t actually fight the dragging all that much.

“It was nice meeting you Eunmi,” Johnny says as he opens the apartment door.

“It was nice meeting you too.”

“I hope that Taeyong, Kun and I have at least given you a glimpse of what the good part of humanity looks like.”

The smile that appears on Eunmi’s face is a sad one. “You have. It’ll take more than a glimpse to make me stay, though.”

He nods. “I hope you do decide to stay. Hyuk-ah and Sungie really like you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

With a nod, he waves to the three in the apartment and herds his hybrids out the door.

Another week passes by without Eunmi realizing it. Out on the streets, she was aware of every day that passed because she usually spent it searching for some scrap of food that would allow her to live on for just one more day or for a place to rest that was protected from the elements and other hybrids.

In the apartment, though, she was well-fed, had access to a shower, had a comfortable place to sleep, and had no worries. It felt nice to just relax and not worry about how she was going to live until the next day. The only thing she had to worry about was herself and what she wanted to eat next or how long she wanted to sleep or what she wanted to do with her free time.

She spent a lot of her free time watching Ten and Taeyong. The relationship between the two amazed her. They were close, as close as best friends, and Taeyong treated Ten like a human, like a person that had every right he did. It was different from everything Eunmi had ever seen. The affection exchanged daily left a weird feeling in Eunmi. The only affection she had ever received from a human was the soft touches of Dr. Qian and the kind words from Taeyong. 

Sometimes, as she watched them, she would think about what it felt like to be truly loved, to be truly cared for by an owner. 

Sometimes, she would think about what her life would be like if Taeyong adopted her. 

Sometimes, she would think of fantasies that would never exist.

Thinking about the affection between the hybrid and his owner brings a question to mind that she’s had for a while. 

One day, she thinks it’s Saturday or maybe Sunday, she plops down on the couch beside Ten who is writing, or drawing, to get an answer.

“Ten?” 

“Yeah?”

“What do head scratches from a human feel like?”

Ten looks at her and shrugs. “No different from normal head scratches. Why?”

“My friend was telling me that human head scratches don’t feel as good. He said that they don’t know the right spots.”

“That’s true. But they can be taught. I had to teach Taeyong, but he knows now.”

“But don’t they scratch too hard or soft?”

“Sometimes. Some people just don’t give good head scratches but it’s not because they’re human. They just suck at it.”

Eunmi nods. “Okay.”

Ten sets his notebook down and looks at her. “Do you want head scratches?”

Humming, Eunmi moves over to him easily. “Please.”

He chuckles. “I know all the best spots.”

“Good.”

The next day finds Eunmi laying on the couch with her head on Taeyong’s thigh while he does work on his tablet. He mentioned that it was a script he needed to look over or a schedule or something. She wasn’t really paying attention to his words when she came to lay on him.

“Oppa?”

Taeyong looks down at her in surprise. “Uh. Yeah?”

Eunmi smiles. “Can you give me head scratches?”

There’s a moment of stillness before Taeyong’s face breaks into a smile. “Sure.”

The moment his hand touches her head, Eunmi is in heaven. He immediately finds the right spots and scratches with just the right amount of pressure. A purr rumbles through her and her eyes drift closed, basking in the amazing feeling.

“I’m gonna expect you to call me oppa from now on,” he says eventually.

“I’m okay with that,” Eunmi responds without opening her eyes.

“Hey! No fair!”

Ten’s voice prompts Eunmi to open her eyes, but only a bit. Just enough to see the hybrid in the entryway, pouting.

“I want head scratches, too.”

Taeyong chuckles. “I only have one hand available.”

Ten walks over and grabs the tablet Taeyong was working on and sets it on the coffee table before plopping in his lap. His knee hits the top of Eunmi’s head and she whines.

“Ten! Careful,” Taeyong scolds, running his hand over Eunmi’s head, soothing the bump.

“Sorry, MiMi. I just want cuddles.”

Eunmi whines again and Ten chuckles. His hand finds the right spot just behind her left cat ear. Her whines dissolve back into purrs immediately.

“I think Eunmi is just as spoiled as I am,” Ten comments.

Looking up, Eunmi huffs. “If anything, it’s your fault. I learned everything about being an owned hybrid from you.”

“And I am a great teacher.”

Taeyong laughs. “You taught her to be spoiled. I would say that’s bad teaching.”

“Depends on who you ask. I say being spoiled is great.”

“For you. Me? Not so much.”

“Oh, come on. You can’t tell me that you don’t enjoy spoiling us.”

Taeyong rolls his eyes. “In cuddles and love? Yes. In material items? Debatable.”

“Cuddles and love are enough for me,” Eunmi says with a smile. “If they’re not enough for Ten, I’ll take all his.”

Taeyong chuckles while Ten huffs.

“I will gladly accept cuddles and love. Things like clothes and jewelry are just a plus.”

Taeyong hums. “Good to know.”

Eunmi settles against Taeyong’s thigh once more, letting her eyes slipped closed. 

As she listens to Taeyong and Ten talk, she begins to think that maybe, just maybe, that fantasy of hers could become real.

A/N: Just a few things!

One - Below is what I imagine Taeyong and Ten’s apartment to look like. I realize that it’s big for an apartment, but it’s supposed to be sort of a luxury type apartment. 

Two - Here are some visuals for the different breeds of the hybrids we’ve met so far in order of appearance:

Eunmi, Blue Point Ragdoll

Chan, Eurasian wolf

Minho, Bombay cat

Felix, Australian Mist

Jeongin, Fennec fox

Ten, Seal Point Thai (aka Siamese)

Donghyuk, Ticked Orange Long Hair Tabby

Jisung, Jindo dog

[mobius-prime]

204. Sonic the Hedgehog #136

The Tommy Trilogy (Part Two): The Infiltrator

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Jason Jensen

It's been at least a few days since Sonic rescued Tommy, and in that time, he's invited Tommy to live with him, his parents, and Tails in their house. One morning, the house awakens without Sonic, as he was out overnight on a mission for the king. As Bernie serves everyone some food, Sonic walks in, completely exhausted from his mission. He scarfs down a plate of chili dogs and eggs (his favorite breakfast, apparently) and heads back to his room, with his parents disappointed in his rudeness by not saying thank you. Tails heads out to classes, as he's still attending school, and Tommy refuses any food, instead seeming much more interested in Sonic.

Jules glances around as he tries to make Bernie feel better, only to notice that Tommy has also excused himself without a word. Man, so much rudeness going around the Hedgehog residence today! Tommy quietly enters Sonic's room, where Sonic has passed out on his bed without even taking his shoes off, and his expression changes. The fingers on his hand peel back to reveal twin metal drills, and they whir to life, coming closer and closer to Sonic's unconscious head… and then Jules bursts in, having realized what was happening. Yeah, didn't think Tommy was actually alive and well, did you?

Oh, that's… that's bad. Sonic spins up and cuts through the Tommy robot's midsection, obliterating it before it can try to murder anybody else, and picks up his father's body in a panic. He and his mother rush Jules to Uncle Chuck, certain that he can repair him - after all, what might be a fatal wound on an organic being is just a matter of repair on a robot, right? Chuck examines Jules' body, but then to Sonic and Bernie's horror, sadly proclaims that even if he could fix Jules' body, the spark of life that made him a living person is gone - that Sonic's father is… dead.

…but ah, come on, we don't really believe that, do we? It was on the cover, for goodness' sake! No big emotional moment like this would just be spoiled on the cover if it was going to stick! Sonic, therefore, refuses to believe his uncle and rushes out, heading straight for the nearby Lake of Rings. Someone is there on guard duty - apparently, the royal family has someone watching the lake at all times to catch and collect the rings that emerge each day - but today he misses his catch, as Sonic flashes past in the blink of an eye to catch the ring, immediately turning back around to take it back to Chuck's lab.

Aaaaand it works! Seriously, apparently that's all it takes to bring a dead person back to life. If rings can heal someone so miraculously, then why aren't they being used for everything in this universe?! Even a straight-up Chaos Emerald can't do that! Ah, whatever, Jules isn't dead, so everything is fine. The next day, Chuck is dismantling the Tommy robot while he and Sonic chat, and finds a chip in his systems imprinted with the name of the factory that he was produced at - Robodyne Systems in New Megaopolis. This is enough to convince Sonic that Tommy must in fact still be alive after all, and that he has to go save him again but for real this time! Seriously, how many times is Tommy going to be dead but not actually before we finally pick one or the other? He's like Schrödinger's Turtle at this point.

Mobius 25 Years Later: Girl Talk

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

Yes, the title does in fact foreshadow how bad this story is gonna be. Right off the bat we find out that Julie-Su's household has a literal servant, a koala named Abby. Abby is perhaps one of the most uncomfortable characters ever introduced in the comic, as she's this like… vaguely racist caricature that somewhat resembles the "mammy" stereotype of black female slaves in America's history. Seriously, it's so bad, all she does is crankily putter around the house cooking and cleaning and serving food to others while complaining whenever anyone sets foot in "her kitchen," while everyone around her just kind of shakes their head and laughs at her attitude and lets her take care of things around the house. I mean… why does this house even need a maid in the first place? These two literally have one kid and apparently Julie-Su doesn't even have a job outside the home. What does she do all day if Abby is taking care of things?

Anyway, Sally calls Julie-Su to talk about their families' upcoming dinner date, by which I mean they basically just mid-40's mom at each other about how their kids are such picky eaters, and their husbands are so unreasonable and bad at getting along. The most interesting thing we even learn is the timeline of when and how Sonic became king.

Sally goes on about how her and Sonic's two kids aren't really interested in being royalty, when their conversation is interrupted by Lien-Da's call. There's literally an entire page where they kind of bumble around while Julie-Su tries to make sure everyone is okay with a three-way call, during which we learn that apparently Lien-Da is the freaking representative of the echidna government to the Kingdom of Acorn. What the actual hell? How did Lien-Da of all people end up with this job?! Everyone keeps going on and on about how untrustworthy she is, and yet she's trusted to be the liaison between two entire governments, including the one she openly opposed and attacked multiple times in the past?! Nothing in this world makes any sense at all!

We get some more riveting dialogue once Lara-Su enters the room, about how apparently Manik, who is ten years old, has a major crush on her. Lara-Su is mortified, the adults are amused, and we the readers have by now died of boredom. It takes us this long for everyone to finally manage to mention something about the actual plot - you know, that whole thing about how the world might be ending? Of course, they don't know what's going on, so all we get is more vague speculation about the weather, AKA stuff we've already covered more than once before now and so has no real bearing on the storyline.

So, given how much the last issue seemed to be building up towards Lien-Da having some dastardly plan involving Julie-Su and Knuckles based on the tiny snippet of info she got from Rutan, you'd think this is the moment where she invites herself along, right? It's a chance to get inside the Guardian's own house, poke around, and get herself involved in whatever suspicious thing they're trying to discuss in private, right? But naaaahhhh, she just says that she can't make it and signs right off! What then, pray tell, was the point of all this? This arc literally has more plot holes than the rest of the comic combined! Absolutely nothing was accomplished here! Any good writer will tell you that you should never include a scene in your writing that doesn't further the plot in some way. Even a simple scene of two characters hanging out at an amusement park, completely unconnected with whatever else is going on in their lives, can be spun in a way that gives us more insight into their personalities, their relationship with one another, their outlooks on life and the thoughts that they find themselves entertaining when not directly confronted with whatever the conflict of the story is. And yet, this story does none of those things. It's literally just a bunch of dull characters yakking at each other about grown-up stuff while reiterating things we've already heard from others. Literally the only thing in this issue that ever comes up again is Manik's crush on Lara-Su, but I can tell you right now that that also has no bearing on the larger plot of the story, meaning we didn't even need to hear it in the first place! Argh, this is the most frustrating and boring thing I've ever had the displeasure of reading in this comic! The characters are flat and uninteresting, the writing is bland, and the parts of the plot that actually do have the potential to be interesting are skipped over in favor of dull family drama! Why, Ken Penders? Why? WHY?!

Patience

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jensen

Oh, finally, something interesting! Though granted, anything would be more interesting than what we just read. Knuckles has found himself stationed in Downunda on orders from the king, but after realizing that he's a mere twenty miles away from where Angel Island will travel, he makes his way to a high peak at sunset, determined to finally climb his way back onto the island and retake it from Eggman's forces. Interestingly, his dialogue seems to imply that the island orbits the planet once a year, which is something that I mentioned before the other information we've been given about the island hadn't included. Nice to finally have an answer on that one! Knuckles is somewhat conflicted, as the king has asked him in the past to have patience and not be rash, that he'll muster the forces to retake Angel Island as soon as he can, but they can't risk anything until then. However, the temptation is still strong, as this may be Knuckles' only chance to get back aboard the island now that he can no longer glide without his Chaos powers.

Honestly, that's a good reason to want to get back aboard. Eggman tends to bring horrific devastation wherever he goes, and Angel Island was never prepared for an invasion on the scale he'd bring. Hell, at the beginning of the last era, we saw the Brotherhood actively reject Sally's request to help the Kingdom of Acorn in the war, and now the citizens of the island are paying the price for that hubris. The last time we saw Lara-Le, she was pregnant, and well, when we left the island it was also in a very unstable state politically as the government was under fire from both the Dark Legion and the dingoes. I'm not surprised that it got taken over, but it's a tragedy that it did all the same. Knuckles waits eagerly as the island gets closer, but the voice of the king echoes in his mind once again, warning him away. The island finally comes close enough to the peak, and Knuckles reaches out… and brushes his fingertips against it, letting it gently float away without grabbing hold. He acknowledges it's one of the hardest things he's ever done, but he decides to trust the king for now, and turns away, letting the island continue its journey uninterrupted. And a good thing, too - as we see that a whole legion of swatbots was waiting in camouflage in some bushes next to the island's edge, ready to blast Knuckles into oblivion the moment he came over the edge. Looks like patience did pay off after all, huh buddy? Honestly, given Knuckles' famously brash and impatient personality, I love this story just for the sense of character development it has, showing that over the past year Knuckles has grown a bit, become more mature. It's certainly better than the previous story portrayed him.

[frankieabii]

|| Dear No One || Ch. 2

Summary: Bay St.James was perfectly happy crushing on guys from afar and writing love letters that she never dreamed she’d send. So what happens when the letters she prayed no one ever saw, suddenly got sent out to their intended recipients? Especially when one of those happens to be Bay’s sister’s boyfriend!

Pairing:  Hoseok x OC, Namjoon x OC, Jin x OC

Genre: Fluff, Romance, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before!au, High School!au, Fake Dating!au, Friends To Lovers!au

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: none

Author’s Note: Chapter 2! I apologize for how long it’s taken me to get this up, but coursework has been eating my butt and it was also my birthday so Idk *shrugs* but I hope you all enjoy!!

Seokjin Kim is Ivy’s boyfriend, but to the rest of our family, he’s just Jin, the ridiculously good cook with an even more ridiculous windowscreen wiper laugh.  It’s hard to say who loves him the most, because every member of my family is a little bit in love with him, all in our own different ways. Before he was dating Ivy, he was just my friend Jin. He was just always there, I mean, not always because he moved into the house next door to ours about four years ago, but you get it. We did everything together; movies, diner dinners, even the odd basketball game at school. 

My dad loves Jin to death. Mainly because he’s a boy and my dad is surrounded by girls every day, my mom and three daughters; Ivy, the eldest, me, and then Poppy, the youngest St. James girl. He also likes Jin because Jin likes soccer and golf and will always go fishing with him. My dad tried to take us girls fishing once. It did not end well. 

Poppy loves Jin because he’ll drive her to derby practice and stop by her favorite ice cream place along the way. She also makes him watch TV with her and he never gets bored of it, or at least I think he doesn’t. Poppy will also whine at Jin until he gets her food. He fights it for a little while every time, saying that he doesn’t have money so it’s too bad. But he caves eventually and runs to the store for her. 

My mom loves Jin because he’s always doing the jobs my dad forgets to do. Mowing the lawn, moving heavy boxes from the garage to the basement, stuff like that. 

As for Ivy, I think she loves him because we all do.

Ivy, Poppy, Jin and myself are in our living room, as we usually are on a Tuesday night. Poppy is pressing flowers between the pages of her history book, leaving pink and purple stains over the snooze-worthy paragraphs. She’s surrounded by discarded petals and leaves on the floor, a mess sure to give my mom a heart attack. 

“You know daisies are just weeds, right?” Jin laughs, his eyes creasing at the corners, and turning into half-moon shapes as Poppy turns to face him. 

“Your arms are weeds, Seokjin.” She fires back, her lip turning up slightly into a smirk. 

Ivy and Jin are on the couch, spread amongst the soft and fluffy cushions, and I am sat on the floor, carefully avoiding daisy petals and peony stains. My back is against Ivy’s feet, my favorite mug in my hands filled with cocoa. We’re watching TV, Ivy insisted on something at least slightly educational. In the middle of an advert break a commercial comes on, it’s advertising some kind of car, winding its way through the busy streets of London. I gasp as I take a mouthful of cocoa, an idea forming quickly in my mind as I choked on the drink in my hand.

“Ivy! We should go to London for my spring break!” I can already imagine it, Ivy and I walking around the city, shopping on Oxford Street and standing at the top of The Shard, taking in the views.

Ivy’s eyes widen in excitement at the prospect. “Do you think Mom and Dad will let you?”

I nod furiously in response. “Of course. It’s a whole culture! They’ll have to let me. Besides, I’ll be with you, Ivy.” But I don’t sound so sure by the end of my sentence. I’ve never flown by myself before, or even been out of the country. Would Ivy meet me at the airport? Or would I have to find my way to a hotel? 

Jin must see the panic begin to set in my eyes because he suddenly says, “Don’t worry, your parents will definitely let you go if I’m with you.”

The worry begins to fade. “Yeah! We can stay at hostels and eat fish and chips for every meal!”

“We can go to Abbey Road!” Jin sits up, a bright smile on his face.

“We can go to a murder mystery lunch on an Orient Express!” I feel giddy with excitement until Jin’s window screen laugh makes an appearance. 

“I’m pretty damn sure a murder mystery lunch would be the cost of our entire trip budget.” He moves his arm around Ivy. “Your sister lives in fantasy land.”

“She is the most imaginative of the three of us.” Ivy laughs. 

“What about me?” Poppy interrupts, staring at us with her infamous puppy dog eyes. 

“You?” I nudge Poppy under the coffee table. “ You’re the least fanciest St. James girl. I have to beg you to brush your hair in the morning, let alone wash it three times a week.” 

Poppy huffs several times as her cheeks turn bright red. “I wasn’t talking about that, you blobfish. I was talking about London!

“I shake my head quickly, dismissing her idea. “You’re too little to stay at a hotel without Mom or Dad.”

She scrambles over to Ivy and into her lap, even though she’s fourteen years old and fourteen is definitely too big to be climbing into your sister’s lap, especially when you have legs as long as Poppy’s. “Ivy-y-y, I can come to London, can’t I?”

“Maybe we should make it into a family vacation?” Ivy muses, pulling Poppy closer and hugging her tightly. “You and Bay and Mom and Dad could all come to London.”

My face quickly scrunches into a frown. That’s not the London vacation I was already planning in my mind, the name for my Pinterest board all ready and waiting. Jin notices, and over the top of Poppy’s head, he mouths to me ‘we’ll text later’, and I give him a quick ‘ok’ hand motion before Poppy can see.

||

Later that night, Jin has already long gone home. Poppy and mom and dad are asleep, and Ivy and I are sat at the kitchen table. She’s on her computer and I’m next to her rolling cookie dough filled with sprinkles into balls and putting them onto a baking sheet. Funfetti cookies to make Poppy happy with me again. When I had gone in to say good night to her, she had turned away from me so quickly that I was sure I got whiplash. She’s still convinced I’m going to go to London without her. When the cookies are baked I’m going to put them on a plate and next to her on her bedside table sop that she’ll wake up to the smell of fresh-baked sugary goodness. 

Ivy’s being creepily quiet, until out of nowhere she looks up from her computer and sighs, “I broke up with Jin tonight. After he left when I walked him out.”

The cookie dough I’m rolling falls out of my hands almost as quickly as my jaw falls to the floor. I’m a gasping mess and can’t get any words out, so Ivy continues.

“I guess, I figured it was time, you know?” She muses. Her eyes aren’t red, watery or puffy, so she hasn’t cried. I don’t think, anyway. Anyone would think she’d just thrown out a broken pair of shoes. Because Ivy always looks fine, even when she’s far from it. 

I’m finally able to stop flapping my mouth about like a fish and speak. “I don’t even see why you had to break up with him at all, Ivy! Just because you’re off to college, doesn’t mean that that’s the end of things.”

“Bay, I’m going to Cambridge, not community college. Trinity College is almost five and a half thousand miles away.” She pushes her hair out of her face and her glasses up her nose. “It wouldn’t be worth it.”

I pull a face of surprise. I can’t believe she’d say something like that about Jin. “It would be worth it because it’s Jin! Jin who has loved you more than anyone has ever loved someone!”

Ivy rolls her eyes at me. She insists I'm being dramatic, but I know I’m not. It’s the truth, that’s how much Jin loves Ivy. To the ends of the earth and back. He would never even so much as glance at another girl. 

Suddenly she speaks again. “Do you know what Mom told me before I started my senior year?”

“What?” I ask curiously. For a moment, Jin is forgotten. Ivy and Mom have a relationship that I could only ever dream of. Mom tells her everything, every story, every memory, every tiny piece of wisdom she has ever learned, and Ivy could dangle that in front of my like a piece of cheese for a mouse and I’d give her my undivided attention, hook line, and sinker. We could be arguing, or I’m about to get hit by a truck, and Ivy could mention something Mom told her once, and I’d drop everything to listen. Sure, Mom loves me, but she and Ivy have a connection that goes deeper, probably because Ivy’s firstborn. 

“She told me to never go to college with a boyfriend. She told me that I should never be the girl crying on the phone to her boyfriend and saying no to all the adventures and opportunities instead of yes.”

Cambridge is Ivy’s yes, I suppose. I pick up a lump of cookie dough and throw it in my mouth absent-mindedly. 

“Don’t eat raw cookie dough, Bay, it’s bad for you.” she scolds. 

I glance at her sideways, ignoring her comment. “Jin would never hold you back from doing the things that you wanted to do. He’s not like that and you know it.”

Ivy’s mouth turns down at the corners at this, and I move around the table to wrap my arms around her shoulders. She leans back to look at me and smiles her toothy Ivy smile. “I’m ok.” she insists, but I know she isn’t.

“It’s never too late you know!” You can go round to his house right now and tell him you changed your mind!”

Ivy shakes her head and shakes herself out of my grasp. “It’s done, Bay.” I sulk back around to my side of the table. “When will the first batch of cookies be done already? I’m so hungry.” 

 I look at the penguin timer at the end of the table, away from the mess of flour and sprinkles. “Only a few minutes more.” I go back to rolling more balls of dough. “Anyways, I’m not listening to you Ivy, you and Jin aren’t over. You love him far too much.”

Ivy shakes her head at me in exasperation, locks of her brown hair falling from the messy bun on top of her head. “Bay...” She sighs at me, in her impatient Ivy voice, like she is my mother and I've been caught eating sweets before dinner. 

“Wait and see!” I quickly interrupt, wafting a ball of dough under her nose. “You and Jin will be back together in no time. Trust me on that.” But even as the words are coming out from my mouth, something in my stomach is telling me it’s not true, and it isn't the raw cookie dough. Ivy isn’t the kind of girl to make a quick decision without thinking it through. She won’t break up with someone and then get back together again. Once she’s decided on something, it’s done. There’s no changing her mind.

I wish as I have time and time again, that I was so much more like Ivy. Sometimes it just feels as if I’ll never be done, that I can never let go.

Later, after I’ve cleaned up all the mess from the cookie baking session, plates, bowls, and trays, and set a plate on Poppy’s bedside table, I go to my own room. I don’t turn on the light, but I carefully tread my way over to my large window. Jin’s light is still on.

[saccharii]

How to Win Back Your (Villain) Ex Boyfriend

A guide by Hawks

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Summary:  Arresting Dabi and putting him in prison has put quite a big of strain on his and Hawks’ relationship, but Hawks is determined to work through it.

AO3 Link

If you liked this fic, please consider buying me a coffee.

“Hey,” Hawks says and sits down at the table that Dabi — no, not Dabi; his real name is Touya, Todoroki Touya, and hadn’t that been a ride? — is handcuffed to. “It’s been a long time, huh?”

Dabi (Touya?) glares at him flatly, his head propped up on his hand. His orange prison jumpsuit clashes with his purple scars and now red hair. His hollow cheeks and pale skin serve to make him look more sickly than usual.

That’s fair. Hawks probably wouldn’t be very friendly towards the guy that arrested him either.

“So... what have you been up to?”

Dabi’s expression doesn’t change. Hawks winces. God, why is he so awkward? What has he been up to? Prison. Prison is what he’s been up to.

In front of a camera Hawks is as smooth as silk, but sit him down across from his (ex?) boyfriend that he’d arrested and all of a sudden everything that comes out of his mouth is pure idiocy.

“I’ve been good. Doing hero stuff,” he forges on, bravely or stupidly, he doesn’t know. “Arresting bad guys, posing for pictures, the usual.”

Dabi’s glare sharpens.

“I’ll cut to the chase. Are we still dating?”

“No.”

“Cool, cool. Totally understandable. Do you want to get back together?”

“No.”

Hawks clasps his hands in front of his face and braces his elbows on the table, giving his best puppy dog eyes.

“C’mon, please?”

“No.”

“How about friends with benefits? They have conjugal visits at this prison. I checked.”

He wants more than friends with benefits, but it’s a start. He can work from there. That’s how it happened the first time, after all.

Ex boyfriends to friends with benefits, back to boyfriends, then in a few years when Dabi’s out on parole: Boom. Marriage. Maybe they can buy a house with an actual, walled off yard. It’ll be expensive as hell in this area, but between Hawks’ salary and Dabi’s trust fund they can pull it off. Married with a dog, not a cat. Cats always try to attack Hawks’ wings.

His plan is foolproof. This sort of thing happens all the time; he’s seen it on those rom-coms that Rumi hates but agrees to watch with him anyway because he’s her only friend.

Dabi’s mouth drops open slightly, and he furrows his eyebrows. “Hawks, what the fuck.”

“That’s the idea. Us the fuck.”

Haha. Why did he say that? ‘Us the fuck’? That doesn’t even make sense.

“Do you proposition every villain you arrest?”

“Only the hot ones — both literally and figuratively.” Hawks winks and shoots finger guns.

Finger guns. Why. Why did he do that? Holy fuck, he has to get out of here before he humiliates himself further. Lesson learned. Next time he’ll practice what he’s going to say in front of the mirror.

Dabi says nothing, presumably stunned into silence by Hawks’ finger guns. (Why finger guns? Why is he like this?)

“Anyway,” Hawks says quickly. “I gotta get going. Want me to bring some of that strawberry shortcake you like so much next time?”

Dabi mouths the words ‘next time’ with an incredulous look on his face.

“What the fuck, Hawks? You fucking tricked me and arrested me. Now you’re here asking me out and offering me cake? Why do you think I even want you here?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Hawks raps his knuckles on the table and stands up. “I’ll bring some cards next time, too.”

He signals the guard who escorts him stiffly from the room. As they pass through the heavily armored door he gives Hawks some serious side-eye before he realizes Hawks saw him and looks away.

Oh yeah. He just witnessed the whole ‘begging his felon ex boyfriend to take him back’ debacle. Complete with finger guns. (That’s something that’s going to haunt him for the rest of his life, isn’t it? He’ll be eighty and lying in bed and it’ll pop into his head. He won’t be able to remember what day it is but he’ll remember the goddamn finger gun incident from when he was twenty three.)

“So, uh, I don’t suppose I could pay you not to ever tell anyone about that?”

“We are bound with a strict confidentiality clause,” the guard says, staring straight ahead, determinedly looking anywhere but at Hawks. “Nothing you do or say here will be released to the public.”

Hawks nods. “Gotcha.”

Confidentiality clauses don’t do much from Hawks’ experience. Sure, the guard won’t run to the presses or blab on his blog, but once he gets home there is no doubt that he’ll immediately tell his spouse or call up his best friend or someone, and who knows who’ll find out after that. Before you know it one of Hawks’ sidekicks will pull him aside and ask him if it’s true that he shot finger guns.

Hawks claps his hand on the guard’s shoulder. “Good to know.” He looks at the guard’s name tag. “Officer Naya. I’m trusting you.”

Lay the guilt on thick enough and maybe he won’t tell anyone.

“Right, right,” Hawks mutters. He grips the edge of the sink until his knuckles turn white. “I can do this.”

Dried toothpaste flakes under his hands. The sink hasn’t been cleaned since Dabi last scrubbed it months ago, before Hawks arrested him. Hawks’ lackadaisical attitude towards wiping down counters drove Dabi nuts. Who knew someone who looks so much like an unwashed hobo would be such a clean freak?

Yet every night Dabi would put on thick rubber gloves, wipe down the bathroom, wash the dishes, clean the kitchen, pick up the living room and bedroom, and vacuum the carpets, complaining the whole time.

Hawks was shocked by how domestic Dabi is, nothing like the twenty something disaster he expected him to be. (Well, he was a twenty something human disaster, just not when it came to chores.) Hell, Dabi had even packed Hawks’ (very delicious) lunch everyday. Damn, he misses that. KFC has nothing on Dabi’s homemade chicken karaage.

It probably has something to do with his scars. Dirty sheets and open wounds do not go well together. Every day Dabi disinfected the entire apartment, and every night he doused himself with antiseptic and bandaged along his seams with sterile gauze. Hawks hopes they’re taking good care of his scars in prison.

He takes a deep breath, holds it for four seconds, then breathes out to quell the anxiety twisting in his gut. It doesn’t work. He’s such a disaster without Dabi here. He was a disaster with Dabi here too, but he was a disaster with a clean apartment and home cooked food.

He slicks his hair back with water. He can do this. Hero monthly voted him the hottest single hero in the country; he can seduce his ex boyfriend back.

(Dabi had grinned and waved the magazine in his face, then proceeded to prove just how single Hawks wasn’t.)

He can do this. He runs his fingers through his hair one more time. “Hey,” he says to the mirror in his most seductive voice.

He can’t do this.

“Goddamnit, why am I so bad at this?”

He slaps his cheeks and stares at himself in the mirror.

“Let’s try this again.” He smiles his best TV smile. “Hey Dabi,” he says. “I just want to talk more about what we discussed last week. You know, things didn’t end well between us. Honestly they ended terribly, so, uh, I want to fix that. I think we had something good going on, before I arrested you and you set yourself on fire trying to get away.”

Shit. This isn’t Hawks. He isn’t the planning type. He’s more of the ‘winging it’ type. (Heh. Winging it. That’s a good one.) Alright. One more time.

“Hey! I’m back. I, um, brought you flowers.” Hawks grabs a toothbrush from the holder and mimes giving it to the mirror. “I don’t know if you like flowers, since I’ve never given you flowers. I’ve never given anyone flowers.

“I know that things ended badly between us, but I’ve never felt this way about anyone else before. So I was thinking, maybe, we could try again? God this is so stupid it’s never going to work.”

Hawks rubs his face, almost accidentally stabbing himself in the eye with the toothbrush. Okay, maybe he should start small. He said he was going to bring cake next time, so he’ll start with that.

“I brought that cake you like so much, just like I promised.”

Hawks groans. He has no idea what to say. Looks like he’ll be an awkward mess, but  he’ll be an awkward mess with flowers and cake.

At least his makeup is on point. You can’t even tell he has bags under his eyes and a stress pimple coming in. His eyeliner is amazing. Wings sharp enough to kill a man. He looks good.

He checks his phone. He’s got an hour until he needs to be at the prison. That’s just enough time to run to the bakery and the florist. He takes a deep, fortifying breath.

He can do this.

He lied. He can’t do this

The flower shop is so small that every time Hawks turns around he nearly knocks everything off the shelf, and that’s with his wings tucked close. The overwhelming fragrance makes his head spin.

He doesn’t know anything about flowers. Apparently some have certain meanings and others have different meanings and if you choose the wrong ones you accidentally end up saying ‘I wish you were dead’ instead of ‘I like you.’

“Can I help you, sir?”

Hawks starts and spins, knocking vases off the shelves. Only two feathers and quick reflexes prevent disaster. How did some florist sneak up on him? He’s the number two hero, for god’s sake.

“Yes, thank you,” he says with practiced, disarming charm. “I don’t know anything about flowers. Maybe you could recommend something?”

“Of course.” The florist’s voice wobbles. Ah, she recognizes him. “What do you need them for?”

He scratches his chin.

“Hypothetically, if you were a spy,” he says slowly, “and you fell in love with your mark, then arrested him, what kind of flowers would you give him to apologize and ask him back out?”

“Oh,” the girl says, her eyes wide and her mouth open in a perfect ‘o’. “Um. I... I’ve never encountered that, uh, exact situation before. Maybe some sort of apology bouquet? Or something to indicate, that, uh, you’ll wait for him? To get out of jail?”

“I like that second one. I kinda had to arrest him, and I’m sorry, but not really sorry, You know?”

She nods, her eyes wide and glazed. “I understand completely.”

What a trooper. Hawks is pretty sure she doesn’t understand, but he appreciates her putting up with him anyway. It’s not everyday the number two strolls into your shop and makes such a bizarre request.

This is going to be all over the tabloids tomorrow, if not tonight, isn’t it? His PR team is going to kill him. Oh well, it’s bound to get out eventually. No way is he going to be able to marry a convicted felon without someone cottoning on.

After a half hour of back and forth over the pros and cons of what various flowers mean and how they would look together in a bouquet, they finally decide on a bouquet of forget-me-not (for true love), white anemones (for sincerity), and camellias (for waiting) tied together with a blue ribbon the color of Dabi’s eyes. It looks kinda like a bridal bouquet. Hopefully it isn’t coming on too strong. He doesn’t want to seem as desperate as he actually is.

“These flowers look nice,” Hawks says idly as the florist lady (Okumura, he found out. Her quirk is making no noise when she moves which is how she snuck up on him. Thank god he isn’t losing his edge.) rings him up. “Maybe I’ll get some of them next time.”

Okumura glances at the flowers in the vase next to the register. “Those are yellow tulips. They mean ‘unrequited love’ in hanakotoba.”

“Ah, I don’t want those flowers.”

“No, probably not.” She hands him the bouquet. “Three thousand yen, please.”

Hawks pays and bids Okumura goodbye. What a nice lady. She did a great job taking his ridiculous request seriously. If it was him, he would have laughed in his face.

He checks his phone and grimaces. He has less than thirty minutes to drop by the bakery and get to the prison in time for visitation. Hopefully there won’t be a line.

Shit, shit, shit. He’s late. How did this happen? He’s supposed to be the hero that moves too fast.

Hawks hops from foot to foot as the guard, a small woman with a spider web of glowing blue lines around the corner of her eyes, undoes the complicated locks on the heavy, metal prison door. He hates being late. It makes his skin itch.

He fidgets, trying not to drop the pastry box in one hand or the somewhat squashed bouquet in the other. He’s on friendly terms with the baker from his favorite bakery, and the man keeps special reinforced boxes made to withstand flight on hand, but Hawks hadn’t thought of how he would carry the flowers, so he had to stuff them down his jacket.

The prison guard yanks the thick door open with ease, and Hawks nods at her in thanks and enters. (How did she manage that? She’s so petite.)

Dabi is once more handcuffed to the table, reclining in his chair, head back and eyes closed.

“So,” he says, and opens his eyes, piercing Hawks with an intense stare. “You came back.”

Hawks shivers. That look never fails to get him. “I said I would, didn’t I?”

“Did you shave? You look like a twelve year old.”

Good to see that prison didn’t break Dabi’s lovely personality.

“I think it looks nice,” Hawks mumbles. “I brought you something.”

Hawks holds the flowers out to Dabi. He looks at them dispassionately and makes no move to take them. Hawks places the slightly squashed bouquet down carefully in front of him. Dabi looks him straight in the eyes and pushes them off the table with the back of his hand.

Yep. Same old Dabi.

“I have allergies,” he says.

“Noted. Good thing I have backup.” He puts the pastry box on the table in between them with a flourish. He picks at the thick tape, cursing. Goddamnit, why do these things have to be so difficult to open? There’s cake inside, not government secrets. Hawks sharpens one of his feathers and slices through the tape. Dabi huffs out a quiet, amused breath, and Hawks’ cheeks pinken.

He gingerly lifts the slice of cake out of the box. “Tada! I got strawberry shortcake for you and chocolate cannolis for me. And-” He pulls a thermos out of his coat. “-I remember how you feel about cake without milk.”

Dabi resists for all of two seconds before he takes the cake. Hawks tosses him a plastic fork before he can start shoveling it in his mouth with his hands like the heathen he is. Dabi doesn’t thank him, but he’s never thanked anyone for anything before, as far as Hawks is aware, so it’s not like he was expecting it.

“Here. Check this out.” Hawks unscrews the thermos and places the lid on the table. “The top doubles as a cup. Neat, huh?”

Dabi takes the thermos and drinks directly out of the container. Alongside the whole Dabi-is-a-Todoroki-holy-shit revelation was the realization that Dabi came from money and probably had a rich kid’s upbringing. Which means that Dabi knows how to use his manners, he just chooses not to. It’s such a Dabi thing that it makes Hawks smile.

Hawks snags one of the chocolate cannolis. He got two because he knows Dabi will steal one. He takes a bite and sighs with pleasure, his eyes fluttering closed. The crisp shell contrasts perfectly with the creamy filling. Watanuki’s pastries really are the best. (And the most expensive.)

He misses this. He misses eating in silence across from Dabi. He misses the comfortable stillness that comes with familiarity. He misses Dabi.

He slowly opens his eyes and his gaze meets Dabi’s. For a moment he sees his own emotions reflected in those eyes before the walls slam down again.

Dabi snorts and wipes his hands on his prison jumpsuit. “Nice try, birdy, but it’s not gonna work.”

“I brought cards, too.” Hawks slips the deck out of his pocket and takes the cards out of the box. “I thought you could use some entertainment.”

“The cake was a better bribe.”

Hawks shuffles the cards with a perfect riffle and bridge. Dabi can’t do it. Every time he tries he sends the cards flying. It drives him crazy. He pretends it doesn’t bother him, but Hawks knows.

“Do you know how to play bullshit?”

“No.”

“Damn. Neither do I. I saw some people on TV playing it and it looked fun. How about egyptian rat screw?”

“That’s a three player game.”

“Is it? Maybe guard lady can join us.” Hawks turns in his seat to face the guard. Huh. The glowing spiderwebs around her eyes are gone. “Hey guard lady, you wanna play egyptian rat screw?”

Guard lady regards him solemnly then shakes her head.

Dabi snorts. “You’re not going to get anything out of her. She’s got a giant stick up her ass. All about ‘professionalism’ and ‘protocol.’ At least the other guards will talk to you or crack a joke.”

“Fine, fine. Poker, then?”

They play the world’s most boring game of poker. With only two people and no stakes, there’s no risk or room for scheming. When Hawks suggests strip poker, guard lady finally says something for the first time — a sharp ‘no’.

The hour passes too quickly. Dabi’s parting “Fuck off and die” is less venomous than last time, but he’s still shut off. More so than before.

Hawks is going to need some outside advice.

[sarakuper]

San Rafael; Work Away

Stop #3, December 21-January 7

Our time in San Rafael was very relaxing, thrilling, and interesting. Some days we spent doing little to nothing, which was nice for a few days but too boring for me at some points. Other days Sean and I did some awesome activities pushing us both way out of our comfort zones. Lastly, we experienced authentic Colombian culture first hand. Being there for holidays and festivals meant we were there for some of the most quiet and exciting days of the year.

When we arrived on Saturday we had no idea what to expect. This stop being our first WorkAway, we wondered…what work would we be doing? How many hours were expected of us? Are any meals included? For that first day we hung out and enjoyed the beautiful location at the hostel, which is located on a steep hill, completely open and overlooking the city. It’s totally lush and absolutely beautiful. The view alone is a reason to spend all day in the hostel relaxing. 

There are 3 people who own the hostel, all Colombian, and all in their 20’s. Lili was there when we arrived, Manuel arrived the next day (Sunday), and Laura arrived after spending Christmas with her family in Medellin. Immediately after arriving Sean and I fell in love with their cat Canela, which is “cinnamon” in Spanish. We thought she was a kitten because she isn’t full sized, but it turns out she is an old lady! She lived on the property with the previous owner, who was thought to be not very kind to her. When Lili, Laura, and Manuel bought the place about a year ago, Canela was pregnant with a dead litter. They paid to have them surgically removed, and since then Canela has been their beloved pet. She is so cuddly and sweet. She jumps on your lap for pets or a nap, and she answer to your calls. She’s the kind of cat that acts like a dog. We immediately fell in love with her. It’s not like we are trying to fill a void or anything... :)

When Manuel arrived on Sunday we discussed the work we would be doing; we would redo the kitchen (and it really needed it) and lunch would be provided. We started making plans for this work Monday morning. I was going to repaint the kitchen and organize it differently while Sean would build some cabinet doors and shelves. Our work load was different each day. Sometimes we felt good with the work we were doing that we spent hours doing it. Other days we did little to nothing. Either way, Leidy and Karen came every morning to clean the hostel, and during our first week Leidy cooked us lunch too. And wow did she cook us the most delicious healthy food!!!

Leidy and Karen live in the same building as the hostel/language school in a separate apartment. Leidy is probably in her late 30’s or early 40’s, and Karen is her 10 year old daughter. Neither of them spoke a word of english, but they quickly became a big part of our trip in San Rafael. Since Karen was off from school she came to help her mom cook and clean every morning. One morning I was doing some henna on hands and legs when Karen told me “linda!” which means “cute” or “pretty” in Spanish. I asked her if she wanted one, and when she said yes I told her to ask her mom first. Next thing you know, I was giving henna tattoos to both Karen and Leidy; mandala type flowers on their legs and their names written on their wrists. I wish I took a photo of this, but I didn’t :(. I did however take a picture of my henna, and finally took a picture with Leidy and Karen on our last day.

From then on, Karen and I would hang out together almost every morning. She would help me study Spanish while also helping her mom work. I would pull up a new vocabulary word I wanted to learn from an app on my phone, and she and I would practice using that word in a sentence. She would then correct my awful grammar before moving on to the next new word. Some evenings after that I saw Karen and Leidy hanging out outside or walking into town. We always talked and all made efforts to communicate as much as possible. My broken Spanish was enough to connect with both of them, but what it really highlighted was that you don’t need to speak the same language to express love and kindness.

Over Christmas Eve we joined Lili’s boyfriend, Brandon, at his house where he was hosting a BBQ. And that’s exactly how Colombians celebrate Christmas; they BBQ on the street with beers and loud music. And they were kind enough to grill lots of veggies for me :)

During our time in San Rafael we experienced some epic thunder storms. It rained almost every night, and being in a hostel where the common area is wide open made the storms so fun. Normally when we went into town we did so in the evening and nights, only because the days were so hot, and so walking up and down the hills to the city center was a bit warm… but, every time we went out at night it was like a guessing game if we would get poured on. Every night was cloudy, so there was really no telling. It made it a little more fun :) I love rain in warm weather! 

Another day, after working and panting in the morning, we went to the nearest watering hole for a quick swim. Lili’s mom was in town, so we went together plus Bendzhi, a Chinese girl staying at our hostel long term. The watering hole was amazing for people watching. So many locals go there to cool off and swim. Kids ands dogs run around everywhere while vendors sell snacks from fresh fruit to churros. I wish I had photos, but it was better to bring little to nothing since we were ditching our stuff to go swimming.

Steve was another guy at our hostel, probably in his mid 40’s, and from Canada. We spent a good amount of time with him, especially after hiking to a waterfall with him, and Manuel. The hike was pretty short but beautiful. We walked right by horses and cows/bulls before approaching the waterfall.

Just before NYE Lili left to spend time in San Carlos, another town about an hour west, for the next month or so. Laura and Manuel both went to meet Manuel’s family, and so Sean and I had the hostel to ourselves. We went out in town and hung out at a bar until midnight, when everyone got up to hug and kiss each other. Soon after Sean and I went home to hit the hay. Neither of us were feeling great (my throat was sore and he had an allergy attack), plus we don’t particularly care much for this holiday.  

Something I loved about staying at this hostel was that on most days a group of small monkeys would come looking for food. Of course we bought bananas in preparation of this, and fed them quite often. They are so small and so cute!!! They would call at us until we fed them their beloved bananas.

The most exciting thing we did during our time in San Rafael was a canyoneering trip with Manuel, his sister Julianna, and her husband Freddy. We hiked to a spot along a river, got into wet suits and harnesses, and began our decent in the river. We slid down the rocks, jumped off cliffs, and repelled our way through the river. Sean’s fear of heights kicked in during the last part of the activity. But, there we were.. and there was no turning back! This trip was short, but seriously one of the coolest things we’ve done. We were so high on life from the awesome adventure it was!

Another day Manuel and Laura invited us on a fishing trip again with his sister and brother in law. We fished along a river, and although Sean and I both didn’t catch anything we still enjoyed the experience very much. Colorful birds where flying all around us, calling out to each other, and it was really beautiful to watch. Eventually we made our way to a waterfall where we “parked” our boats to go explore. We climbed to the top of the waterfall where we found a beautiful swimming hole to enjoy all to ourselves. We explored deeper, climbing up the next small waterfall. It was absolutely stunning, and easily the highlight of the fishing trip. We swam and jumped off the rocks (don’t worry- Manuel, a certified guide, checked to see that they were safe first) while enjoying all the beauty around us.

The next day we had the opportunity to visit a Panela farm, watching its production from start to finish. Panela is the natural sweetener widely used here in Colombia, and I think a lot of Latin America. It comes in thick blocks that are chipped at and use as sweeter for many of their drinks, specifically chocolate (the drink) and natural juice. We started by crushing the sugarcane using a machine, followed by a long cleaning process to purify the juice before it crystalizes into a sugar. The colombian family that owns the farm has been making Panela all their lives. The whole operation is run between 4 siblings; 3 brothers and 1 sister, all in their 70’s. The abuela welcomed us into her beautiful home and made us breakfast, and then lunch once it got late enough in the afternoon. I am so grateful to have been welcomed to this family’s farm and home with arms open wide. The love they put into this work, and the history behind it all makes it so special. For so many reasons this day was one I will never forget.

One of the last events that went on while we were gone (and yes, wow, a lot has really happened) was Festivo del Rio, festival of the river. We are not sure how the name is related to the celebrations, but what we do know is that this small town fills up with tons of Colombians from all over the country to come celebrate this festival at San Rafael. Restaurants were packed, the hostel we stayed at was fully booked, and the streets were crowded with happy people. On Friday night we watched part of the parade, where structures of mythical creatures ran the streets breathing fire and pure fun.

At the beginning of this post I wrote that times during this leg of the trip I was bored, yet I didn’t get to writing any of this post until the bus ride out of town. I didn’t realize how many special experiences we had until it was time to write about it. But thats exactly why I do this :)

And now that I am writing this while on the bus leaving San Rafael, it feels bitter sweet to leave. This town is so authentically Colombian. The only other English speakers we met were 3 others from our hostel, one Canadian, one American, and one Chinese who spoke English fluently. Saying goodbye was so sweet, as Laura told me that seeing my face is like getting a dose a diabetes. There’s a bit of a language barrier there.. but what she was saying is that I’m so sweet and she feels that every time she sees my face 😂. As for Leidy and Karen... well Leidy starting to cry. I told her “I miss you” in Spanish because I have no idea how to speak in future tense to say “I will miss you”. Karen, her 10 year old daughter who was my best friend on this leg of the trip, gave me hugs goodbye. I will miss practicing Spanish with her very much. She actually knows how to explain things to me better than the adults!

Anyway, I am so looking forward to Josh’s arrival! This is just the start of what I think will be a very fun month with friends (Sam and Victoria next week) and then my mom and cousin Maria in Cartagena! 

Thanks for reading fam, love you all.

[heroesmusings]

FULL NAME: Clinton Francis Barton 

MEANING: Settlement on a hill

NICKNAME: Clint

MEANING: It’s just a shorter version of his name 

AGE APPEARANCE: Appears 30, actually 33

BIRTHDAY: September 7th, 1987

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Virgo

SPECIES: Human

GENDER: Cis male

ALLERGIES: None

SEXUAL PREFERENCE: Bisexual

THEME SONG(S): Wine Red by The Hush Sound, Raising Hell by Kesha, Church by Fall Out Boy, Angel in Blue Jeans by Train

APPEARANCE

HAIR COLOR:  Dirty Blonde to Brown

HAIR STYLE AND LENGTH: Short 

EYES COLOR: Blue

EYESIGHT: 20/20, he’s a BIRD BOY

HEIGHT: 6″3′

WEIGHT: 200 lbs

OUTFIT/CLOTHING STYLE: For missions he wears his uniform but on days off its just jeans and a shirt

ABNORMALITIES: Deaf 

DISTINGUISHING MARKS(SCARS,MOLES): He’s got scars on both ears from the hole to neck, 6 gunshot wounds, knife scars

SELF CARE(MAKE UP): Clint washes his face once in a blue moon and at times has a beard

FIRST IMPRESSION ON PEOPLE: He’s pretty friendly, a bit on the joking and sarcastic side 

SKIN COLOR: White

BODY TYPE/BUILD: Broad shouldered, a big muscular build 

DEFAULT EXPRESSION: Always a bit of a cocky smirk on his face

POSTURE: He stands with a little bit of more weight on his left side

PIERCINGS: One hole in his left ear

DESCRIBE THEIR VOICE: Clint’s voice is a little on the higher end for a man of his stature, it’s a big rugged and can sometimes be a bit slow with a twang 

RELATIONS:

MOM: Edith Barton

HOW WELL DO THEY GET ALONG: Clint was a momma’s boy, very close to his mother the two had a close bond

DAD: Harold Barton

HOW WELL DO THEY GET ALONG: His father was abusive they did not get along at all, Clint was always the problem child

SIBLINGS: Barney Barton

HOW WELL DO THEY GET ALONG: Before the circus, Barney and Clint were two peas in a pod, they stuck together through it all but after the circus Clint cannot stand his brother

CHILDREN: N/A

HOW WELL DO THEY GET ALONG: N/A

OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS: N/A

PAST LOVER(S): Bobbi Morse (ex-wife), Laura (ex-girlfriend), Zelda DuBois [Princess Python] (ex-fling)

CURRENT LOVER: Natasha Romanoff 

REACTION TO MEETING SOMEONE NEW: Clint likes to find out what makes them tick, so he’s friendly, wants to get on their good side so he’ll know how to take them down if he has to 

ABILITY TO WORK WITH OTHERS: he’s…. Alright? He’ll work with people but complain about it in the process

HOW SOCIABLE(LONER,ETC): Clint likes his alone time but he’s pretty sociable 

FRIENDS: Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rogers, Wanda Maximoff, the rest of the avengers team

PETS: Lucky the yellow lab

LEAST FAVORITE TYPE OF PERSON: Anyone who mistakes her shyness for powerlessness 

PARENTAL TYPE(PROTECTIVE,ETC): Easy going and easily manipulated  

FAVORITE PEOPLE: Nat, Steve, Wanda

LEAST FAVORITE PEOPLE: Barney, anyone in the Circus of Crimes 

PERSONALITY:

..WHEN YOU FIRST MEET THEM: ? Talkative, Jokester, Obnoxious 

..AS YOU KNOW THEM BETTER(AND THEY LIKE YOU): Joyful, Teasing, Easy going

..AS YOU KNOW THEM BETTER(AND THEY DISLIKE YOU): Cold, Antagonistic, Rude 

FAVORITE COLOR: Purple 

FAVORITE FOOD: anything gross and greasy 

FAVORITE ANIMAL: shockingly not a hawk, he loves dogs

FAVORITE INSTRUMENT: Acoustic guitar 

FAVORITE ELEMENT: Air

LEAST FAVORITE COLOR: White

LEAST FAVORITE FOOD: Kale

LEAST FAVORITE ANIMAL: piranhas

LEAST FAVORITE INSTRUMENT: Trumpet

LEAST FAVORITE ELEMENT: Earth

HOBBIES: watching daytime television, sleeping, knitting, salsa dancing 

USUAL MOOD: Pretty jovial most of the time 

DRINK/SMOKE/DRUGS: Drinks socially 

DARK VERSION OF SELF: Ruthless, unforgiving, blinded by anger

LIGHT VERSION OF SELF: Carefree, the past doesn’t chase him anymore

HOW SERIOUS ARE THEY: Not very serious at all, unless it's a dire situation 

BELIEVE IN GHOSTS: No he doesn’t

(IN)DEPENDANT: Pretty independent unless its nat 

SOFT SPOT/VULNERABILITY: Messing with Nat, Talking about his father/home life

OPINION ON SWEARING: He’s got a filthy mouth

DAREDEVIL VS CAUTIOUS: DAREDEVIL 

MUSIC TYPE: Soft rock and anything acoustic 

MOVIE TYPE: Any sort of cheesy movie it doesn’t matter the genre 

BOOK TYPE: Clint doesn’t read all that much but maybe fantasy 

GAME TYPE: God ANY GAME, he’s a pro at them all

COMFORTABLE TEMPERATURE: Clint thrives in any temperature 

SLEEPING PATTERN: Clint sleeps where the fuck ever he can, anytime he can squeeze in a nap? He’s doing it

CLEANLINESS/NEATNESS: Clint gives no DAMNS about that stuff..

DESIRED PET: More puppies thanks 

HOW DO THEY PASS TIME: Sleeping or annoying Nat and Steve

BIGGEST SECRET: After SHIELD fell Clint doesn’t really have any secrets but he hasn’t told anyone his brother was there when the Swordsmen deafened him 

HERO/WHO THEY LOOK UP TO: Steve Rogers

WHAT ANIMAL WOULD THEY BE: a clingy puppy

FEARS: Something happening to Nat 

COMFORTS: Anytime Natasha is around, greasy food, training 

HOW DO THEY ACT WHEN THEY ARE:

SAD: Clint doesn’t like getting sad, so he often gets angry and frustrated when he’s sad. It’s from years of abuse because his father would mock him when he got sad so he doesn’t like getting sad… and at times he just disappears  

HAPPY: Clint is usually pretty happy, so that comes with smiles and jokes mostly. If he teases and jokes with you then he’s in a good mood

ANGRY: Angry clint is usually even more reckless, he doesn’t think he just attacks, he will take no prisoners at all 

AFRAID: Unless it’s Barney, Clint usually likes to face his fears head on -- tackle them right when he can so he can go into things unafraid.

LOVE SOMEONE: SOFT, clint is soft and doting, he loves to spoil and care for in any way he can. He’s protective and can be clingy 

HATE SOMEONE: Clint makes it clear, he doesn’t joke he doesn’t tease or anything. He’s barely even likes to talk to them much less

WANT SOMETHING: Clint goes for it, there has been so much in his life that he’s never been allowed to have -- so now he’s letting himself have what he wants 

CONFUSED: Clint is always confused okay 

HOW DO THEY REACT TO:

DANGER: Clint runs HEAD FIRST INTO DANGER BECAUSE HE’S AN IDIOT 

SOMEONE THEY HATE WHO HAS A CRUSH ON THEM: Clint would think its a joke honestly and when it isn’t a joke he’d avoid them 

PROPOSAL TO MARRY: Clint would be upset that Nat beat him to it because he’s been working on awhile to propose BUT he’d of course say yes and think of the memory fondly 

DEATH OF LOVED ONE: Clint would lose it, he wouldn’t be able to function any longer. He’d become cold and a hermit  

DIFFICULT GAME/MATH/ETC: He’d let Tony deal with it. 

INJURY: Clint would fucking laugh it off and act fine. But if it was Nat then he’d be obsessive until she gets help 

SOMETHING IRRESISTABLY CUTE: He’d take a photo and send it to Nat 

LOSS OF HOURS OF WORK: s l e e p

KNOWLEDGE:

LANGUAGES: English, ASL a bit of Russian

SCHOOLING LEVEL: Middle School

FAVORITE SUBJECT (S): Clint would rather dIE than tell anyone but he liked math 

INTERESTED CAREERS: N/A.

EXPERTISE: master archer/marksmen, expert tactician, acrobat and hand-to-hand combatant

PUZZLES: clint is SO GOOD AT PUZZLES, he can figure them out quick  

CHEMISTRY: clint likes both human and science. He likes the science part to design more arrows and the human part because he’s very in tune with people and their emotions 

MATH: Clint is WILDLY good at math, he has to be because he doesn’t miss a single shot. Everytime he shoots an arrow he has to include every variable possible 

ENGLISH: clint wasn’t all that interested in it 

GEOGRAPHY: he’s pretty good at it. 

POLITICS/LAW: Clint really isn’t all that into or interested in politics 

ECONOMY/ACCOUNTING: Again not into any of that 

COOKING: Clint can cook cereal and that’s about it 

SEWING: He’s good at basic medical and clothing sewing   

MECHANICS: Yes! He’s pretty good with cars and motorcycles  

BOTANY (FLOWERS): Not at all 

MYTHOLOGY: Looked into it when Thor showed up because Fury asked him too 

DRAMATICS(ACTING,SINGING): He used to be a spy so he’s a good actor  

READING LEVEL: Proficient 

HOW GOOD ARE THEY AT PLANNING AHEAD: ……...sorry Clint doesn’t know what that means 

ROMANCE:

DO THEY TAKE INITIATIVE: Yes all the time, anytime he can get his hands on Nat he will 

HOW DO THEY ACT(SHY,ETC): He thinks he’s smooth but boy’s an idiot and Nat makes his heart race 

GENTLEMAN/LADYLIKE VS KLUTZY: Oh Clint has plenty of gentelmany skills

GO SLOW VS JUMP INTO: WIth Nat? He wants to take things slow, he doesn’t wanna mess this up 

PROTECTIVE: HELL YEAH 

ACT LIKE FRIENDS OR LOVERS: Both 

WHAT KIND OF PRESENTS DO THEY BUY:ANYTHING THAT HE THINKS NAT WILL LIKE, he likes getting her pretty things to wear 

TYPE OF KISSER: Clint likes it soft and sweet or rough and biting there is not in between 

DO THEY WANT KIDS: not until recently  

DO THEY WANT TO MARRY: YES YES 

MAKE GOOD OR BAD DECISIONS: He’s a fucking fool so both, but he tries REALLY hard to make good choices 

ARE THEY ROMANTIC: yes he’s A SAP

HOW ARE THEY IN BED: Clint really lives to please Nat so he’s fucking great thanks

GET JEALOUS EASY: Nope, he knows that he and Nat are in it for good

WIFE/HUBBY BEATER: NEVER

MARRY FOR MONEY: LMAO NO 

FAVORITE POSITION: Clint loves being choked by her thighs or under her.. He really isn’t it picky as long as he’s with Nat

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN ON THEIR DREAM DATE: just a day in with Nat and they eat nasty foods together 

OPINION ON SEX: Sex didn’t always mean much to Clint, he used to sleep around often but with Nat it means a lot because there’s an actual connection there with her and he aims to make her feel good and have it be enjoyable