#I half assed her armour real bad | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

keibea · 3 years ago

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alright here we go the moment you've all aimee's been waiting for, my final thoughts for dragon age 2 LETS GOOOOO

CONTAINS SPOILERS!! this ones a long one guys theres a lot to cover and beware probably many spelling mistakes and opinions you may not like you have been warned. but tbh i love all characters so let that be known. even anders. sometimes...

this is for you @amuhav 💗💗

so like wow, just wow. like i knew kinda what was going to happen but like WOW to see it just made like everything more real, now for my chaotic commentary

lets start from the beginning of act three. firstly didnt i bloody have like half ownership of the bone pit??? yeah well that went down the drain didnt it stupid dragon. that could've been very profitable to! also dragons are big, can confirm, previous suspicious were indeed wrong.

the qunari are gone which is bloody depressing. i mean not all of them, those damn tal-vashoth are still hell bent on stopping me from minding my damn business THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MOTHER TRUCKERS BTW and attempting to kill me, which like varric says, is suicide.

i freaking hate those stupid gangs. like why. also 'followers of the she'?? seriously? they are so annoying. like leave me alone. im not trying to kill you, im just suspiciously walking around the docks at night in heavy armour with weapons leave me ALONE. so many of them too UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH piss off

also went to visit orsino after one of the main quests and he gave me robes. im a warrior. what the f am i going to do with those????? does my hawke LOOK like she wears robes? NO she's always wearing armour i give the frick frack up.m

i hawke has a cousin which is coooool her name is charade for some reason. also gamlens still an ungreatful prick what a shocker. i was so nice to him too and he like "stay out of my business" HELLLOOOO i just reunited you with your daughter you bastard suck a toe

aveline was starting to piss me off. LIKE GOSH GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS BITCH. idk if i mentioned this last time, but i gave her a shield and she got all mad at me. LIKE SORRY FOR BEING CONSIDERATE AND WANTING YOU TO HAVE A GIFT. she didnt even take it in the end! i was like fine you salty bitch im going to keep it hmph. also she got all mad at me when i questioned her about the rumours cullen told me to look into. SORRY BITCH FOR WANTING TO DOUBLE CHECK. she's so touchy. like do i need to remind her I WAS THE ONE THAT GOT THE BITCH MARRIED??? i give up on her shes so mean

merrill is still a bitch, but less of one. but still a pain none the less. the mother trucker was still going ON about that stupid mirror. okay fine so it's not a stupid mirror i have played the dalish elf opening but STILL. so when the option was given for her to maybe get possessed for a demon, therefore leaving me HAVING to kill her, i took it instantly. cause bitch. unfortunately the selfish bitch instead had the keeper die. and then she was crying so i just said I TOLD YOU SO. yeah she still doesnt like me much. and by that i mean she hates me, but quite honestly suck it up i dont care. so i couldn't kill her :( not that my hawke would want to anyway. and i accidently ended up killing her whole clan. I DIDNT MEAN TOO, i accidently said "stand down" because i thought that was what my hawke would do i didnt realise id have too kill anyone FRICK but tbh if i was in her clan i would want to kill her too couldnt even blame them, felt kinda bad for stopping them ngl i said what i said

the mages really werent helping me help them. i supported them none the less but the least they could do was not resort to blood magic so i could make them look a little bit better. but i understood why, it was just really inconvenient LOL

get.rid.of.the.spiders.

sebastian, good old sebastian. yes i did buy all dlcs before the sales came on, yes it did cost me 30 bucks, yes i kinda regret not waiting a month to buy it but in my defence i wanted to play the WHOLE game straight away so. i like him sometimes. sometimes he's a bit pretentious. ALSO LELIANA??? HELL YES!! i saw her in the mark of the assassin dlc but we actually got like a really meeting that counted in this. if you didnt know, my warden originally romanced her before moving to zevran so i have a soft spot. she still looked like a baked potato, like come on do them some justice bloody hell.

follow up on this, poor bloody cullen, he looked like dry spaghetti.

meredith was getting increasingly crazy which i loved. LOVED her hair btw, always like perfectly stunning. honestly she had the best vanilla hair of everyone else in my opinion.

varric is the best thing ever. like what an absolutely babe. the whole haunted house thing was funny lol. like a bloody chair was stuck to the roof at one point and all i could do was laugh LOL. i let him have that shard, my come back to kick me in the ass idk.

isabela was good this act, and didnt stab me in the back, which was very nice.

fenris OH FENRIS gosh i love him. still needs to learn when to shut the f up in some situations but gosh hes so cute. and whenever he says "im yours" (and yes i did keep clicking on him to hear him say that leave me alone) i just melted and said "yes you are bitch!" gave him a sword, he seemed to like it. it glowed, pretty cool ngl. still grumpy as frick but the end scene before they went to war like HAD ME OH MY GOSH when he said and then hawke said and then they AWWWWWWWWWWWW okay im a sucker for romance leave me alone.

bitch im dead

also bethany stopped being a massive BITCH so thats nice.

anders (lovers of anders dont come at me im fragile) is a bitch. like WOW. like what a dick. firstly when i was helping HIS ASS with HIS QUEST which i didnt even need to do because he was just going to explode the chantry anyway, he had the NERVE to come at my relationship with fenris. when you start a mother freaking sentence with "i know it's not my place" STOP, because bitch it is not your place leave me and my bae alone you unhinged mother trucker. WOW sorry lots of aggression towards him whoops. probably because i did everything i could to be his friend and he still stabbed me in the back the dick. so i stabbed him back in the back. yes i killed him, kinda regret it, because im pretty sure my hawke wouldve spared him but my own feelings got in the way whoops. seriously though, i bloody swear that blowing up the chantry did nothing but start a war what the frick was he thinking come on bro.

also this game only took me 46 hours?? which is weird because origins took me AGES to get through, and although ive started and stopped inquisition many times, i still have like 200 hours on it. and let it be known, that because of my ocd i did finish every single bloody side quest (well except for the awiergan scrolls and all the swords and one other one where it wouldnt show in the map which probably meant i would have to search every single damn cave again and kill spiders and i just could NOT be bothered. other than that, every signle thing was completed. is it a shorter game or did i somehow manage to get through it quickly? then again i did get a mod that made combat easier (LEAVE ME ALONE OKAY, IM A LOVER NOT A FIGHTER. im also a lore and history nerd so the main reason im playing these games is for the storyline leave me alone) so that probably made everything a lot quicker but idk.

in the end i sided with the mages because

A. meredith has lost her marbles

B. i wasnt going to let her kill all of the just because anders is a crackhead.

C. i felt like it idk

so yeah battle won, meredith turned to stone or whatever, all is right with the world and i am on to inquisition. TO WHICH i actually bought the whole game + bonus content + DLCs for 5 bucks. im so ready to romance cullen lets go. still debating whether to be a human or an elf. i think i might go mage for once but idk let me know what you did aimee and anyone else who read this whole essay

all in all INCREDIBLE GAME and im so glad i went back and played it. yeah the places got a bit repetitive sometimes but it also felt nice not being lost in the hinterlands for 8 hours so idk. the characters were amazing, and looked much better, although the nobles look like they have no dick with those weird pants but whatever. definitely recommend so much fun, and really funny at times too.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEE

#da2 #dragon age #dragon age 2 #hawke #nonsims #saviourhide

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lankieghost · 2 years ago

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Lankie's Bloodborne Boss Ranking Bonanza! (Part 1/3)

I played Bloodborne for the first time a couple of weeks a go! Hot dang! Only took 7 years to get round to it!

For context I did watch a bunch of streams and lets plays way back in 2015, so unfortunately I was not going into this blind. I was curious to see if the game still held up even if I had the whole thing spoilt for me.

Also I played through the whole game offline and beat every boss* solo.

Spoilers for Bloodborne, by the way, if that wasn't clear.

ANYWAYS here's my rankings for all 22 bosses, in order of when I fought them!

It's the first boss of the game! And the first of many, many, big ol' beasts. CB is the most vanilla of all the beasts, they're kinda just a big guy that takes very telegraphed swings at you. As you can see I beat them on my first try. I was worried that my time with Elden Ring had made TOO POWERFUL and that I would find no challenge in Bloodborne.

Spoiler alert: This does not happen.

It's pronounced Gas-Coin. Not Gas-qwan or Gas-coy-geh-ni.

It's the first hunter in the game! He's a pretty fun fight albeit very forgiving. The arena is huge and full of graves that you can kite him around, he's super easy to parry, I didn't even need to use the music box to stun him. He's got a second form which is a little tougher, but again, after being in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber that is Elden Ring, he posed little threat

I appreciate that Gascoigne is not just some random guy, they build a little story around him and it's a good intro to the themes and tone of Bloodborne, which is everything is bad and you may at any time succumb to bloodlust and turn into a werewolf. I elected not to go back to the daughter and tell her both her parents are dead.

This gangly bastard was the first boss to pose a challenge for me. They hit hard and they're poison is real annoying, it doesn't help that it takes approximately one hundred years to take an antidote. You're telling me my hunter will gladly slam a blood vile into his thigh in half a second but when it comes to taking an aspirin he has to take a full 5 seconds to make sure he doesn't gag?

Every time you die to BsB you gotta run aaaalllllll the way through Old Yharnam to get back to the fight. It's very annoying and I'm glad that, for the most part, they got rid of these run backs in Elden Ring.

I swear to god they're not all going to be B's okay, just bare with me alright?

You've fought Cleric Beast, now it's time to fight BIG CLERIC BEAST!

Ok that's needlessly reductive, Amelia's got some stuff going on. I like that she backs up to heal herself, encouraging you play aggressive. I like that you see her transform in the cutscene and that she's cradling her pendant the entire fight.

I tend to dislike bigger Soulsborne bosses because you gotta wrangle the camera controls more. Nothing stings more than dying because the camera was stuck in the bosses model and all I see is bunch of Amela's Sephiroth-ass hair. People rag on From Software for having a lot of bosses which is just 'a big man in armour with a sword' but at least in those fights the camera isn't flying out of control constantly!

Side note: when google image searching Vicar Amelia for my little animation I found an alarming amount of horny art for this character. None of the other bosses have this problem. So congratulations Vicar Amelia for being the most fuckable Bloodborne boss I guess!

So hey, remember when I said that I watched a bunch of streams and lets plays of Bloodborne way back in 2015? This is where that nugget of information becomes relevant!

So the Witch of Hemwick is a gimmick fight. The real witches (there's two of them!) are invisible and wandering around the arena and you gotta find them to do any damage to the health bar. I feel that a lot of the appeal of this boss fight is the 'a-ha!' moment you get when you discover the gimmick. Unfortunately, I just knew right out the gate what to do.

I completely ignored the tall scythe witches just to hunt down the real witches and, bizarrely they pretty much ignored me too? I don't think they ever tried to attack me in the entire fight. The real witches have a couple of attacks but they barely do anything.

This is definitely a fight that would of benefited me going in completely blind. But even then, this fight is not a great one. Another first try medal for me though! Hurray!

*Okay, so, here's the thing.

I fought and died to Paarl a couple of times, then I decided 'hey, I haven't tried out the AI summons yet! Lets see how good they are!'

TURNS OUT: VERY. THEY ARE VERY GOOD.

Me and my AI buddy proceeded to completely stun lock this poor electro boy into oblivion, making the fight absolutely trivial. I'd love to tell you more about Paarl! They seemed pretty tough! But alas, I didn't realise I was summoning in the god damn Terminator to lend me a helping hand.

As such, I don't feel comfortable giving Paarl I ranking because I didn't beat them, the game beat them.

I should say, I don't want to undermine anyone's experience. If you got through Bloodborne summoning for every boss then that's totally fine, you beat the game fair and square. Personally I prefer to fight the bosses solo.

But alas curiosity killed the cat. Or in the case: Big lightning dog.

A classic From Software move: Having an early boss be just some regular late game enemies.

I was dreading this fight because generally I do not like bosses with multiple enemies in them. I find that Soulsborne are at their best with one-on-one fights. But actually the Shadows are not too bad! One is dedicated ranged attacker, one is a combo, and one is a dedicated melee fighter, so I was rarely swarmed by multiple attackers.

It's kind of a weird boss fight because it actually gets easier the further you get into the fight. They do become all snakey when one of them gets low enough on HP, but all they get is one new attack. honestly the regular snake head enemies leading up to this fight were more challenging than these guys.

This is definitely my favourite animation I did for these rankings though. Look at those little Ring Wraith Snake Boys! So Delightful!

Rom, The Vacuous Spider is another gimmick fight in the sense that she barely fights back. She's constantly backing up from you while her little spiders guard her. She'll occasional shoot meteors at you but so long as you keep an eye on her you can dodge them pretty easy.

This is one of the few bosses which I do feel bad for killing, the first time you encounter her you can walk straight up to her and she'll do nothing. Killing Rom is when the game goes from 'Gothic horror with some hints of cosmic horror' to full on 'Eldritch Terror' so it really cements that you're not necessarily the good guy in this scenario.

I don't have much else to say about this boss fight so I'm going to end this section with wishing the Byrgenwerth was a bigger area. Feels like it was really hyped up and then it's basically just a courtyard and one building. What a rinky dink school! I'm sending my kids Raya Lucaria!

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That's all for Part 1

In the next part, things get considerably more eldritchy!

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

#bloodborne #bloodborne spoilers #ranking #animation #boss

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stygeanbluebasilsprout · 2 years ago

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Tags via @koro-is-caffeinated

Well, since you're asking!

Okay starting with Gloria: she is one of my latest OCs, even if she quickly gained a place of honour among them. Which is ironic, because I created her with the explicit purpose of clashing with me. So. In order.

As I already mentioned, Gloria Hirsch (no relation to the cartoonist, maybe some relation to the clockmaker that built my grandma's barometer) is an amateur cryptid-hunter, trying to get Tiktok famous but spectacularly failing at it. Not because of lack of cryptids, nay. There is a lot of weird stuff going on. Weird stuff that would love to not end up on Tiktok, thank you very much.

(I've also already said that I would love to introduce her properly with a Tiktok version of that meme that goes "About to catch Bigfoot I'll post the video later" "Bruh I've had my ass handed to me I ain’t posting that shit")

She is, for lack of a better word, a bastard. Completely insufferable. Arrogant, cocky and stubborn, and not good kind of stubborness. Has gremlin energy. Cusses like a sailor. Brutally honest. 50% sass 50% bisexuality. A temper shorter than the fur of a sphinx cat, and explosive tendencies. (Metaphorically, thank goodness). The most likely to start a bar fight, so to speak.

But all of this is has its bright sides too. Does not back down, especially if she has to fight for her friends. Loyal. Caring. Does not forget a thing if it has to do with the people she cares about. The kind of friend that would slap away the bad thoughts. Or slap you if you try to think them.

I would have the best kind of frenemies who would fight in a Denny's parking lot relationship with her. Even if 99% of our time together would be spent cursing each other's bloodline.

Gloria is a petite jewish girl, around 5'4'' tall, with pale skin and dark green curly hair that reaches the jawline. Has heterochromia (the right eye is grey, the left one is half brown half grey) and a few freckles on her cheeks. Fights using a spiked baseball bat, later e enchanted to sprout thorny vines and ice spikes on command, for ✨extra damage✨. Has a thing for denim clothing, and always wear a denim jacket covered by hand-made patches, featuring a bisexuality one, various cryptid-themed ones and a Plupple one.

Because, I forgot to add, she is a BIG Buzzfeed Unsolved fan, the show being what gave her the push to start cryptid-hunting. Boogara, starts all mighty and though and ends up panicking. (I also have a shaniac character btw, William. I created a world where the supernatural is proven and I still have a shaniac character. Like a boss)

She is quite new to town, her older brother and his joyfriend (is that the neutral for boyfriend/girlfriend? I read it once and I liked it but I never found it again) are university students renting a student apartament amd they took her in after she fought with her parents and ran away from home. But she is quick to clash with other people.

A few fun facts about Gloria: her favourite cryptid is the Jersey Devil, her pizza order is the same as my brother (wurstel and french fries with no tomato), when she listens to "When he died" by Lemon Demon she can't help but singing along and has an annoying allergy to bunny fur.

Then, Plum! His real name is actually Maurice. Idk why he goes by Plum. I am the author, and I don't know. Oh well. His name is Plum. I think that only his grandma would call him Maurice. Let's go on.

He is a faun. A mythologic, classic faun. Goat hooves, goat horns, goat ears, all the jazz. Rarely uses pants and shoes, only does so when he has to pass or is doing something that requires armour. Has a quite dark tan skin, with hair the colour of Coca-Cola, black but turns warm brown when the sun hits it, and pink-reddish eyes. Likes to have Milo, his fiancé, and his friends braid his hair and beard with small flowers. He is a bit shorter than 6'0", but the horns make up for it. Ripped as a classical dancer (have you ever seen Roberto Bolle?). He is on the asexual spectrum, but prefers being unlabeled. Gay as hell for Milo, tho.

A quiet person, but not because he is shy. He just doesn't talk much and observes a lot. Incredibly skilled at finding details, quick-witted and with a tremendous memory. He would make for a great detective, but is too pacific for this. Instead, he and his fiancé opened a B&B and shelter for other travellers, supernatural and not. As long as they need help, everyone is welcome here. They also adopted a small dog called Mr. Pudding Puddle.

He likes to play his guitar (I posted a picture of what it looks like a while ago) that can turn in any kind of guitar-related instrument: electric guitar, ukulele, banjo etc. He is very, very good at it. Fights a bit like a DnD Bard.

Plum has a soft spot for ice-cream, especially cookie-flavoured ice-cream. Loves the smell of honeysuckle.

Bonus OC, because he and Plum are a package deal, DO NOT SEPARATE, Milo Seo. (@spaceconfusion, they're the OC I mentioned to you)

For starters, he is a trans nonbinary witch (he/they) of korean descent, specialized in herboristery, potion brewing, healing through concoctions and spirit summoning. If the latter seems out of place, it's because it is. They have a magpie familiar called Magpie, they were 3 when they named her, show a bit of mercy.

He is 5'10", with a fair skin, floaty black hair with light blue bangs, and black eyes with silver irises so light that they seem white. Has a lot of thin scars. Loves acting, is an actor and children drama teacher at the local theatre. Their powers as spirit witch comprehend summoning giant ghosts in the shape of koi fish, and controlling them. Can get overwhelmed easily though.

Light-hearted and sweet, he is often described as "someone with the breeze for the soul". They are not sure of what does this mean, but they try their best to refresh people around them. He is a tad shy tho.

When he was little, he was trained to be a potion maker. But soon it became clear that spirits often made their entrance in his life, so his training became even stricter. This gave them the scars, and PTSD from spirit intrusions outside their control. However, they kept on honing their herborist skills, wanting to preserve the family tradition.

Deeply in love with Plum, those two are by far my favourite pairing. Plum proposed, and now we'll see how it goes :). Full time herborist, part-time spirit expert, part-time B&B owner. He is the one who named Mr. Pudding Puddle. It's a name with a story. I'll let you guess what it is.

His hobbies are baking and retro videogames, they are quite good at both of them.

#thank you so much for letting me ramble about my silly little guys!#i think you can see why gloria reminds me of you; but plum... idk; vibes #thank you again; i hope you'll find them interesting #werifesteria #my little scrapbook collection

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anika-ann · 4 years ago

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A Cup of Truth (S.R)

Type: One-shot, a bit of coffee shop AU

Pairing: Steve Rogers x fem!reader Word Count: 3000

Summary: Your favourite pretty blond comes in every day to get a cup of good ol’ joe. You flirt on occasion; mostly you, because your suit of armour – which people boringly call an apron – and his smiles give you confidence.

When the band of dumb goons picks your damn workplace to attack, your confidence flies out of the window. Well. Good thing that the resident Avenger heroes save the day including the one in his all-American star-spangled glory.

Prompt: “You can’t mask that ass. I’d know it anywhere.” (Bold in the text)

Warnings: hostage situation, violence, non-consensual drug use/injected, hospitals, slightly crack-ish humour (?) and some fluff

A/N: For marvelcapsicle’s challenge. Thank you for letting me participate, darling, may you gain more and more sweet followers in the future ♥

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Here’s a thing: Steve Rogers had a lot of fight in him. Before or after injected with the serum, no matter his shirt size, no matter if he could swing his fists effectively or not, he would punch bullies in their face.

When it came to people close to his heart, that rule amplified tenfold. No one touched the people he cared for. And while he would not necessarily call all of them friends, he would go rabid should any harm come their way.

To be fair, the list of ‘his people’ who were still alive wasn’t long; he could almost count them on the fingers of one hand. Tony. Natasha. Clint. Thor. Bruce. Probably Fury. Really, his circle was a bit monotonous, people who could protect themselves just fine at most times, but simultaneously with high-risk job of being the first defence line for the world’s greatest threats.

And then there was you.

You, with your inviting smile whenever he appeared at your counter at the café he had discovered during his endless walks.

You, handing him a drink different to his usual ‘boring’ cup of joe once a week, because that was the deal you had offered and Steve, caught in his curiosity about today’s world and your adorable challenging expression, agreed.

You, with your pretty eyes, irises twinkling at his attempts at flirting, no matter how awkward and out-of-time they sounded, graciously returning the favour… if he was reading the situation right.

You, always grinning wide when discovering a doodle he had left on his napkin, taking it with you back to the counter.

You, blissfully unaware of his double life, genuine in your demeanour, dealing with plain old Steve Rogers, and perfectly safe; at least as safe as one could be on Manhattan.

You in a headlock, as five rogue SHIELD agents decided to crash into the café you worked at of all the damn places, choosing it with deadly precision and nearly driving the poor Captain America into a cardiac arrest.

Not that you had any idea your life mattered to the proclaimed Star-Spangled Man more than anyone else’s. You were the exception to the rule; you were the precious outsider Steve caught feelings for, the one that was not supposed to learn about his other persona for at least a while longer and sure as hell was not supposed to get herself in a mess like this one.

Steve stood frozen as Natasha had two men at gunpoint, Clint fighting another, the last one having been already knocked down by Steve himself. The only injured people were the few customers, scarce at the hour, and the employees; some bruises and insignificant bleeding wounds between all of them.

The worst problem still remained; Perez had his arm around your neck, visibly squeezing your windpipe at least partly if the colour of your face – one stained in tears and Steve could kill at the moment, kill with no remorse – was anything to go by.

He gripped his shield tighter, staring the man down with his jaw clenched and his heart beating its way out of his chest, the syringe at your carotid scaring him more than the reduced airflow to your lungs.

“It’s over, Perez! Let her- let the woman go,” Steve howled, knees slightly bend in posture allowing him to spring forward at any second, to throw his weapon, to punch the living daylight of the bastard that not only betrayed SHIELD, but put his hands on you.

Big, big mistake. He really shouldn’t have done that.

“I like her exactly where she is, Cap,” Perez snarled, a wicked smile on his bloody lips, only his eyes giving away a fraction of his fear. “Move and she gets a ticket straight to hell.”

Perez was outnumbered and he knew it; even if he managed to escape, they would find him easily with Tony Stark’s system of surveillance. Yet, he tightened his grip and with you involuntarily acting like a human shield for him, he started backing away, gaze flickering between the three present Avengers.

Natasha’s right arm twitched as if she wanted to shoot him on spot – but she didn’t want to risk leaving the other two without the threat of immediate death for even a second.

And then several things happened at once; Clint knocked his opponent down with the construction of his bow; Perez who saw it lost his nerve and swiftly slammed the needle into your neck, piercing your skin easily, as easily as Steve’s panicked shout ripped from his throat.

The next second, an arrow was sticking from Perez’ shoulder as he jerked back with a cry of pain and Clint put another arrow through his hand, adding one to his thigh for a good measure. Two gunshots sounded in the background, Natasha’s aim as unmistakable as ever.

Perez fell to the ground with a scream, not even reaching for the gun in his holster before Steve was there to knock him out with a brutal hit straight to his face with his vibranium shield. The crack sounding at the impact was like music to Steve’s ears, the blood spurting from Perez’ nose a pleasant visual.

Yet, it didn’t feel half as satisfactory as Steve hoped as you had stumbled and toppled over your own feet. He barely managed to slow down your fall, gloved palm shooting up under the spot between your shoulder blades, his other hand holding your shoulder. He supported your enfeebled weight as you practically lied over the unconscious man.

Steve didn’t bother paying attention to his surroundings, knowing that the noise around him was Romanoff and Barton apprehending the remaining thugs. Instead, his gaze scanned you head to toe, focusing on your face and neck when he couldn’t find any other injury.

You were pale, eyes misted, unfocused, skin worryingly cold to his touch.

“Hey-- hey! Can you hear me?” Steve demanded urgently, lightly patting your cheek.

At that, your pupils zeroed on him, wide with disbelief, and to his immense shock, a lazy smile spread on your lips.

“Steve?” you breathed out his name and blood crystalized in his veins, his heart, already panicking, speeding up. How did you know his name? Perhaps the drug, the whatever liquid in the syringe was taking effect and you were turning delirious? Shit, they needed a doctor-- “You’re the pretty blond. Steve. My flirty Steve… my hero. Everyone’s hero.”

Steve’s horror escalated with each word. Good news: you were still breathing and apparently quite lucid, even if your speech was more of a mumble. Bad news: his secret identity just blew up.

Luckily, he considered the good news much more important; and lucid he would like to keep you, so he shot Natasha and Clint a meaningful glare, wordlessly asking them to call help. He wasn’t sure whether it registered because both of the spies were staring at him wide-eyed as the woman in his arms just outed him like the café’s regular… one that flirted with her, no less.

Steve cleared his throat, focusing on his mission – to keep you talking. There was no much point in denying it, was it?

“Eh... yeah, it’s me. How-how did you know? I wear a mask-“

“Muscly… real muscly… and that ass,” you muttered and Steve nearly choked on his spit, certain that he just turned red all over, including the area you pointed out.

Wait, did that mean that you had been checking him out?

So not important right now.

“Oh, uhm- how are you feeling? We have to-“

“You can’t mask that ass. I’d know it anywhere,” you continued babbling as if you hadn’t heard him and Steve gulped, feeling his teammates, who still hadn’t called a doctor, what the actual hell- watching you with interest. ”…could bounce a penny off it… no, that ain’t right, a quarter off of it, that’s it… Dream of it sometimes… biting-“

Clint coughed loudly to cover his laughter, finally springing into action after that uncomfortable remark that gave Steve quite a visual he wasn’t sure how he felt about just yet.

“Alright, as amusing as this is, we should get her some medical attention…”

Steve only took his eyes off of you for a moment, shooting Barton a look that screamed ‘You think?!’

“I want to touch it… please lemme touch it—just once,” you pleaded quietly, swaying even in your practically horizontal position, straining your neck to catch a glimpse of the object of your interest. “The best I’ve even seen-“

“I think it’s ethanol she got injected with…” Natasha announced, sniffing the syringe with disgust in her voice. “High concentration.”

And Steve felt like he just got hit by Thor’s hammer… in his head. Seriously?

“…alcohol?” he asked, dumbstruck and utterly relieved, the heavy weight in his stomach lifting a bit. “You think she’s merely… drunk?”

“Well, alcohol straight to the bloodstream is seriously nasty on its own, S-“

“Alcohol nasty, yesss. And this really hurts,” your voice interrupted Natasha and Steve’s heart clenched uncomfortably when the surprised grimace appeared on your face, your eyes indeed clouding in pain, looking up at him, doe-eyed, so vulnerable and trusting.

“Hey, no sad Steeb! Your eyes pretty too. Little pictures you draw… so suuuper cute. I like your hair. You came in the day, wind blew, so messy-- like bed hair, wanna try top that-- I betcha I can do better-“

“Sounds drunk enough to you?” Natasha hummed casually and Steve didn’t even have to look at her to know she was smirking, while he was both fretting over your state and blushing to the roots of his hair because of your blunt compliments and unfiltered fantasies.

You turned your head slowly to Nat as she spoke, a crooked grin curling up your lips. “Hey, you’re pretty too-“

Much to Steve’s annoyance, the Russian spy had the audacity to chuckle and wink at you.

“Why thank you-“

“But prefer blonds,” you babbled again, lowering your voice conspiratorially. “He’s real nice. His biceps are like… huge. Bigger than my head-- ow, my head… spi-spinning- I think-? Whoa— oh… “

Steve called out your name in panic as you went limp in his arms, your body pliant, folding like a house of cards.

“I like her,” Clint noted as he jogged to Steve’s side, kneeling to take your pulse on the unharmed carotid with a furrow to his brows. “The medics are on their way, she’ll hold on until then.”

Steve sighed in relief when Clint nodded in affirmation again, feeling your heart still beating.

Steve’s grip on your tightened, hand sliding behind your head to cradle it gently rather than letting it dangle in such unnatural angle. He manoeuvred it so your cheek rested against his chest, his newly free hand sneaking under your knees so he could lift you with ease as he stood up.

“Nice, Rogers. Keep going like this, squads with weights, and you’ll keep that exceptional ass of yours in shape,” Natasha teased him, but when he turned to glare at her, she gave him a soft smile and beckoned towards your nearly motionless body. “She’ll be okay. Let’s go get her some help.”

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Your head was pounding. The right side of your neck was itchy as hell and felt extremely stiff. The beeping sounding in your ears was a thing from nightmares, echoing in your aching skull.

You felt like shit and honestly, you could cry when you tried to open your eyes and the sharp light hit them, making you swiftly close them again.

A realization slowly crept at you that there was a presence of an intrusive smell too, making you want to puke— or was that just the brutal hangover? Because you felt unbelievably hungover on top of everything. The world seemed to be spinning even behind your closed eyelids and you couldn’t but groan, deciding to only curse the universe mentally since your throat resembled a Sahara Desert.

“Oh, hey gorgeous,” a female voice greeted you from your left and you snapped your eyes open with a startle, staring with shock at the beautiful redhead sitting by your bedside.

For few long seconds, you wondered if you died and went to heaven, because there was a non-descript angelic-like creature watching over you. You quickly brushed that thought aside, because there was no way Heaven looked like a hospital room and provided you with such shitty sensations attacking your poor body.

So you asked the only logical question, ignoring the dryness of your mouth which soon cause you to cough.

“…who are you?”

A plastic cup with a heavenly cold liquid landed in front of you, the straw sticking from it directed to your lips as the stunning woman frowned discontentedly.

“Oh, you don’t remember?” she asked, seemingly hurt. “My heart is breaking! You told me I was pretty.”

You blinked slowly, finally adjusting to the light, finally able to talk without pain (that much pain, that was) and your head started pounding some more, embarrassment filling every fibre of your being.

What the- oh god, you had really got drunk, hadn’t you, and now you had a total blackout on what you had been up to in your questionable state.

“Eeeer… I did? I mean, you are… but-“

“But you prefer blonds, yeah, I know,” the mysterious woman finished your sentence to her liking and your eyes went wide. How did she- and who was she again, sitting in your hospital room like that? Had you really got so smashed that you didn’t remember her when you should have? When had you met? Shit, your mind was so foggy… “And you think Steve’s a bit prettier. And his ass is the best you’ve ever seen, so I get it…”

“The hell?!” you squealed in utter horror, sitting up straight as the words registered, a flash of blue, red and white flickering in the back of your mind, followed by a sharp stung in your temples. A nauseatingly strong pain resembling an intense cramp – only like ten times worse – shot up your neck as you moved so quickly, ripping a startled yelp from your throat.

A hazy image of the café you worked at blended into a picture Steve’s beautiful eyes – did this woman know your regular, your handsome flirty blond regular? –, sensation of gentle hands cradling your jaw, a sting in your neck—

“You need to be careful with how much you move. Your neck took quite a hit, they had to perform a surgery on you, you got a transfusion. They worried about your brain too. They’ve been monitoring you for four days now and this is the first time you’re awake,” your stranger explained patiently, voice full of compassion.

Your hand involuntarily rose to massage the incriminated place, still unsure of what the woman was talking about, the images in your brain confusing the hell out of you. You still had no idea who she was, but her face was starting to feel a bit familiar – you assumed that whatever had happened, she had been there too, possibly helping you.

And there was something in her green eyes, cautious yet somewhat calming, making it easy to trust her for some inexplicable reason.

“Steve’s gonna be pissed at me for missing it,” she added and grinned. “I made him leave to take care of himself before he could actually start taking roots in here. He’s been worried too. A lot.”

The amount of question marks in your head just doubled, but at the same time, your heart fluttered. Steve had visited you? Often, apparently? That was really, really sweet of him. The thought of him guarding you – and didn’t he have a physique of a bodyguard, once mentioning he was in private security when asked –, brought a dreamy smile to your face.

Perhaps it wasn’t only about flirting for him either…?

“Keep looking so lovestruck and I might forgive him that he hasn’t mention you before. Though I guess I can’t blame him, wanting to keep— anyway. I’m Natasha. Nice to meet you,” she extended her hand towards you at last and you automatically accepted it, telling her your name in return.

Even though that was probably beside the point seeing as she had been found at your bedside in a hospital.

“Hi, Natasha. Nice to meet you too… I think.”

The redhead burst out into a quiet laughter at your hesitance. “Fair enough. After Steve comes back and explains what exactly happened – because it’s not quite my place to tell you –, call me back for the good details. It’s fun to make him blush.”

Despite just only having met this woman, you decided that you kinda liked her and nodded in acceptance of her offer. Steve might be sweet – perhaps even sweet on you it seemed – but some harmless teasing could never hurt. Not when it apparently had something to do with his glorious ass.

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Here’s a thing: Steve Rogers had a lot of fight in him. Before injected with the serum or after, no matter his shirt size, no matter if he could swing his fists effectively or not, he would fight for what mattered.

His teammates and friends certainly fell into the category. The somewhat relationship he had been trying to build with you was right there with them, definitely worth fighting for.

So, after revealing his identity – an action which become inevitable at that point, really – he had a delicate confession to make and a bold question to ask in an almost shy voice. He still asked it, because he would be damned if he gave up on you.

You said yes, your confession about certain harboured feelings matching his.

You said yes, you would like to go out with him very much, because you liked him too.

And no, it wasn’t just because he owned the best backside you had ever seen. Steve Rogers was, according to you, quite memorable and worth fighting for in general too.

(Steve, over time, might have developed a bit of a love-hate relationship with the fact you were getting along with Natasha so well. It was good news and bad news at the same time, seeing as it often resulted in the two of you teaming up against him. Once again, the good news won him over… because he simply loved how easily you fit into his world and how surprisingly well he fit into yours.)

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

S.R. masterlist

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Thank you for reading :-*

It’s once a again a bit different from my usual writing; it’s short (like wtf me? short?) and it’s with a quote that is hard to do justice to... so I hope you liked it at leats a bit. Feedback always appreciated :-*

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jaskierswolf · 4 years ago

Text

Trash Panda

Part... 5? Of my Shifter!verse. The one-shot I didn’t know I was going to write.

Prompted by my wifey @fontegagrilledcheese and the ever amazing @bounce-a-coin-off-your-witcher, both wanted Raccoonskier. So... here we go! The wonderful @hobbart-art just happens to have some raccoonskier art that served as inspiration... so check that out too.

Geraskier, 2.3k - Shapeshifter!Jaskier.

Warnings: Some minor mentions of previous abuse and starvation, but mostly this is good ole fluff.

______________________

Jaskier sighed loudly as he marked the papers in front of him. He enjoyed the teaching part of teaching but all the extra work was a slog. Still, after the generosity of the University following his thankfully brief visit to Lettenhove, he figured it was the best way to repay them. He agreed to two semesters teaching at Oxenfurt and then he would return with Geralt to Kaer Morhen for the winter months. Geralt had reluctantly returned to the path once Jaskier had physically recovered, but Jaskier had remained at the university. It was the first time they’d willingly parted since they’d met just over a year ago, but his heart ached and he longed to fly from the window until he found his love again.

But he really did owe the University a debt.

They’d supplied him with lodgings and food without question, but he really missed Geralt. He chuckled and ran his hands through his hair. He supposed it was probably a good thing to spend some time apart. They’d become far too reliant on each other over the last year. Still, he’d been stuck one place for so long and he’d been too tired after class to let loose. He hadn’t even shifted since Geralt had left a few weeks ago. He hadn’t felt safe enough, not without Geralt by his side, which was ridiculous seeing as he could turn into a plethora of carnivorous beasts. That hadn’t stopped his mother managing to capture him though… He shuddered at the thought.

The itch under his skin was getting worse and he’d started to wake up in a cold sweat. The sensation was bringing back all sorts of memories that he’d rather avoid so he knew he couldn’t put it off any longer. Luckily he didn’t have another lecture planned for a few days now. It was the perfect moment to slip out into the city and run free.

And maybe, he if was lucky, he’d run into Geralt.

He pushed his papers aside and stripped off, neatly folding his clothes on his bed, opening his bedroom window so he could make his escape. He hummed happily as he let his magic loose, his skin rippling into dark ebony feathers. He cawed as he shook out his wings and flew from the window. The dreaded itch fading away as he took to the skies. He flapped his wings and did a lap of the university before landing on the cobbled streets. He tilted his head, hopping around to make sure there was no one watching before shifting again. The black feathers thickened to a dark grey fur, his tail grew black and white ringlets as he wiggled his bum. He was still carrying a little more weight than he was used to and his belly grazed the floor as he landed on four paws.

He squeaked and rubbed his face with his paws before sitting down and scratching his belly. It was all Geralt’s fault. Jaskier hadn’t quite been human enough to watch the amount he was eating, after weeks of starvation he’d gone a little over the top. He scratched behind his ears and sniffed, at least he was cuddly. The scent of roast chicken caught his attention and he followed it to a nearby tavern. Behind the door was a pile of old food and empty wine bottles. He squeaked happily and hopped up onto the pile only to be faced with a masked opponent, a rival raccoon.

Jaskier tilted his head, assessing the animal. Their eyes were dark brown like all other raccoons so it was very unlikely that it was another shifter. He knew he could just let the raccoon have the meal, he’d already eaten back at the university, but his instincts wouldn’t let him leave the free meal behind. He chattered at the raccoon in front of him, pawing at the old chicken bones. He managed to split the bird carcass roughly in half before handing one half to the other raccoon. The raccoon clawed at the scraps of meat with its paws, shoving a handful of chicken into its mouth. Jaskier happily chewed on his own meal, sitting on his bottom with his tail between his legs.

Once he was finished he ran through the streets to the outskirts of the city. If he could get through into the forest he could run free for a few hours. It was only once he’d reached the walls that he noticed the other raccoon was still following him. He tilted his head and watched them, not getting any warning before they pounced onto his back, biting playfully at his ears. Jaskier’s raccoon instincts kicked in and soon enough the two raccoons were tumbling around on the cobbled streets of Oxenfurt, chasing each other and biting at each other’s tails until Jaskier stopped and sniffed.

He could smell a litter of kits.

He scampered off down the street, the other raccoon hot on his tail until he found an old crate. He dug through the linen sheets, grabbing the dirty fabric in his paws. Three tiny heads popped up from the crate. His new raccoon friend screeched at him and Jaskier fell backwards back onto the ground, away from the kits, shifting into mouse. The raccoon stared at him, perplexed, and only once Jaskier was certain the raccoon wouldn’t attack him, he shifted back. Cautiously he approached the kits, they were so small and helpless, hidden away from the world. The raccoon he’d met must be their mother, judging by her reaction to his discovering the kits.

He almost felt bad for stealing her dinner now, almost.

He could bring them some food from the university. He squeaked and nuzzled the other raccoon’s cheek, before shifting into a raven and taking off into the sky. Once he was back in his rooms, he got dressed and went down to the kitchens to collect a bowlful of old gruel for his new little friends. The baby raccoons had been hungry, he knew that much, and he’d stolen precious food from their mother. He wrapped his arms round his stomach, pinching at the fat that now clung to his waist, he chuckled. He really hadn’t needed the second dinner but it was too late now. He was just extra cuddly, that was what Geralt kept telling him, and he was inclined to agree.

He returned to the small family of raccoons every night, bringing them food and fresh water. It was probably an odd sight to see a blue-eyed raccoon carrying a bowl of gruel through the streets of Oxenfurt each night, but he tried to keep to the shadows wherever possible. After a couple of days the mother stopped trying to attack him whenever he got too close to her kits. It wasn’t his pack at Kaer Morhen but the little raccoon family took the edge of the loneliness that plagued his heart. Raccoons were mischievous little creatures and Jaskier had had the best time, well as good as he could have without his real pack. He wondered what Lambert would say if he saw Jaskier cuddling up with a family of raccoons, the ass would probably be jealous. He’d been reluctant enough to share Jaskier’s wolfy cuddles with Aiden, and, from Jaskier had seen of the pair, Lambert was pretty fond of the cat witcher.

He’d been visiting the raccoons for just over a week when a new smell caught his attention. He squeaked and scarpered from the shitty crate where the raccoon family made their home. He couldn’t run fast enough through the streets and he launched himself at Geralt as soon as he was within reach. Luckily Geralt’s witcher refllexes meant that he caught Jaskier mid-air.

“Jask?”

Jaskier chattered and pawed at Geralt’s face, nuzzling into his neck. Geralt pulled him away from his face and Jaskier snapped his teeth, holding out his paws, clawing at Geralt’s armour.

Geralt scowled and looked into Jaskier’s eyes. “You stink, Jask.”

Jaskier snarled and hissed at his partner. He’d been bathing regularly in his rooms, partly because he’d been rolling around in rotten food most evenings, but he was a clean raccoon thank you very much!

“Come on, Jask. Let’s get you back to the university,” Geralt said, chuckling as he cradled Jaskier in his arms, but Jaskier clawed at his armour, he couldn’t just leave his raccoon friend and her kits, not without showing Geralt.

He scrambled free from Geralt’s arms and tilted his head, gesturing for Geralt to follow him. Geralt scowled and adjusted the straps going across his chest. “You want me to follow?”

Jaskier nodded and tugged at the cuffs of Geralt’s trousers.

“Alright, lead the way, but after you’re having a bath.”

Jaskier snarled quietly but ran off through the streets, looking behind him to check Geralt was still nearby, until they reached the old crate. The kits squeaked away as Jaskier pawed at the linen that kept them hidden from the world. Jaskier jumped into the crate and let the kits crawl over him.

Geralt knelt down and scratched Jaskier on the head. “Please tell me that these are not…”

Jaskier let out his best raccoon-y laugh at the look on Geralt’s face. He looked absolutely horrified. He opened his mouth a few times with no words coming out, stammering as he let the baby raccoons sniff his hand. Geralt was lucky their mother was busy foraging around the town. There was no way she would have let Geralt get so close to her babies. Jaskier eventually took pity on his witcher and held his paws out so that Geralt would pick him up. Geralt scooped him up in his arms and Jaskier shifted into a cat, nuzzling Geralt’s chest and letting out a low rumble in his chest.

“You have some explaining to do, Jask,” Geralt hummed as he stroked his fingers through Jaskier’s fur.

Jaskier meowed and rubbed his head under Geralt’s chin, just happy to be back in his darling’s arms again. When they reached Jaskier’s rooms at the university, having told the staff that Geralt was bringing Mister Fuzzball in to see Mr Pankratz, Jaskier shifted in Geralt arms. Geralt grunted under the sudden weight of a human in his arms, Jaskier chuckled and snuggled up against his lover’s chest.

“I missed you,” he murmured into Geralt’s armour.

Geralt carried him over to the bed and gently lowered Jaskier down. Jaskier whined, reluctant to let Geralt go. Geralt huffed a laugh and clambered onto the bed next to him. Jaskier grinned and reached up to kiss Geralt, it really had been so long, but the bastard covered his mouth with his hand.

“Hmmph!” Jaskier scowled, licking Geralt’s palm to try and wriggle free from the witcher’s grip.

“You still need a bath, I’m not kissing you until you do,” Geralt smirked at Jaskier, the bastard. “You stink.”

Jaskier finally managed to pull Geralt’s hand from him mouth, he narrowed his eyes. “Says the witcher, who only bathes when he covered in monster guts.”

“I’ve not been rolling round in rotting food.”

Jaskier snorted. “You’re just jealous that I found a surrogate pack whilst you were away.”

“Surrogate?”

“Yes! I’ve not been fathering baby raccoons whilst you’re out on monster hunts, Geralt.”

“Hmm.”

Jaskier wrinkled his nose. “I can’t believe you even thought that! I’m still human-ish. No, Geralt.”

“But…”

“No,” Jaskier stated emphatically. “Now call a bath. If you’re going to be fussy about it. You can help wash my hair, and then I am snogging you senseless and we are cuddling.”

Geralt laughed, stroking a thumb along Jaskier’s cheek. “Needy bastard.”

Jaskier grinned. “Obviously,” then his grin fell from his face as a thought hit him. “You did miss me?”

Geralt sighed, lying down and pulling Jaskier onto his chest. “Yeah, felt strange being alone on the path again. I didn’t realise how quiet it was before I met you. I never thought I needed anyone, and then you came along.”

Jaskier hummed and laced their fingers together. “I am very lovable.”

Geralt chuckled. “Wouldn’t go that far.”

“Oi!”

“Love you,” Geralt hummed, squeezing Jaskier’s hand.

Jaskier grinned, his free hand toying at Geralt’s armour. “I love you too, darling. Now, I think it is terribly unfair that I’m completely naked—”

“You’re always naked.”

“— And you are fully clothed,” he finished, ignoring Geralt’s rude interruption “so how about that bath?”

“Together?”

“Tub’s big enough for two,” Jaskier grinned and before Geralt could stop him captured his lips in a kiss. Geralt groaned but allowed Jaskier to kiss him, grimacing as he pulled away. “What?”

“What the fuck have you been eating?”

“Bit rich from Mr I’ll-Eat-Chicken-Sandwiches-From-A-Corpse,” he swatted Geralt’s arm. “Go, call for a bath, I’ll be waiting for you.”

Geralt hummed, shuffling off the bed. Jaskier watched him go with a fond smile, happily taking in the sight of Geralt’s arse in those delightfully tight trousers. It had been healthy to spend some time apart. He really had loved teaching, it had given him something to do instead of moping and feeling sorry for himself after his ordeal, especially with Geralt’s return to the path. Jaskier hadn’t been selfish enough to force Geralt to stay with him in Oxenfurt whilst he worked off his debt with the university but Gods he had really missed Geralt, and his criminally perfect bottom.

He sighed happily as he stretched out on the bed, burying under the sheets, sleep threatening to pull him under. He’d not slept much since he’s started his night time adventures around the city but with Geralt back by his side, he felt safe again, and he was ever so tired. A quick nap wouldn’t harm anyone whilst the staff got their bath ready. He hummed happily and shifted back into a raccoon, a habit from the last few days. He hid under the covers and wrapped his tail around him.

It was good to be home.

_____

Next Story!

#the witcher #geraskier #shapeshifter!jaskier #shifter!jaskier #raccoon!jaskier #wolfie's witcher writing

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mollymauk-teafleak · 4 years ago

Text

falling feels like flying

Guess whose back into writing! This is a gift for @minky-for-short who has just been an invaluable friend while I’ve been having a bad mental health time lately and this is her AU- a betrothal AU!

Please reblog and comment over on Ao3!

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The papers are signed, the agreement has been made, the ball has been thrown. Prince Zagreus and Prince Thanatos are officially engaged after a long betrothal and now everyone in their kingdoms can breathe a sigh of relief.

Everyone but the princes themselves.

-------

There had been a pause. There had definitely been a pause.

Zagreus leaned back against the door he’d just closed and worried his lip as he thought, a very unprincely habit he’d had since he was a child and would never have done if he wasn’t alone. But he was alone, his chambers empty and silent apart from the humming, flickering candle beside the bed that some servant had helpfully lit for him and the whistling night air beyond the window. He couldn’t really still hear the dregs of the ball going on downstairs, his apartments were too far away, but the music and laughter and pouring wine still echoed in Zag’s head enough that it felt as though he could, lingering like the taste of alcohol on his tongue.

Though none of that concerned Zagreus. He was fixated on the pause, the slight, two second hesitation he’d definitely heard in Thanatos’ voice before he’d bid him goodnight, the way his golden eyes had flickered slightly and a different set of words had seemed to build on his tongue. It had only been for a moment but Zagreus was certain he wasn’t imagining things or thinking wishfully. Not this time.

Of course they’d left the ball together, it was only right, seeing as it was thrown to celebrate their official engagement, their step from betrothal into full, willing commitment of this marriage contract their parents had devised. They’d been sitting together all night, side by side, sharing their usual, comfortable conversation, even taking the first dance. More than once Zag had marvelled to himself at how far they’d come from gazing distrustfully at each other from opposite ends of a long table while Nyx and Hades dickered over dowries, from trying and failing to find a future in each other's faces. Now they laughed easily, now Zag teased Than for the stiff way he danced, made him chuckle and fire back with a dry comment about how his footwork wasn’t too stiff to knock him on his ass in the training yard. Now Zag rested easily against Than as they chatted amongst their friends when the ball wound down into a loose, easy knot of godlings happy to go long into the evening. Now everything felt so easy.

But as soon as they’d walked into the hall, heard the now slightly listing music and lilting laughter muffled, a kind of tension had settled between them. Like a held breath. Like Than was worrying something between his teeth, not one of his usual puzzles he did as a hobby or thought experiments to improve the running of his mother’s kingdom. He’d had a little too much wine and dancing to be really thinking about any of that, he’d been relaxed and smiling through the whole party, armour discarded and guard down. The way he only got sometimes but Zag looked forward to immensely.

It was a different kind of tension, a strange kind of waiting. Zag had let it lie, certain his new fiance would confide in him when he was ready, simply humming the last song Orpheus had been playing coherently before the wine really got to him, as they walked through the palace’s grand corridors up to the royal apartments. But it had never happened, his fellow prince had stayed closed mouthed and brooding up until the hallway split, Zag needing to go one way towards the crown prince’s suite and Than the other, to the rooms he and the rest of his entourage had been occupying for months.

Zag had turned. He’d waited. He’d fidgeted, hiking the shoulder of his robe up higher where it was starting to slip. He’d scuffed his heel into the thick red carpet.

And then Thanatos had simply inclined his head, wished him goodnight and turned away.

And that would have been it if not for that goddamn pause.

Zagreus sighed in frustration and began pulling away his finery, throwing aside the skull clasps and the gold bangles and cuffs, slipping off the silks, letting it all rattle into bowls and fall to the floor without thought. This was just like Thanatos, throwing goddamned spanners into the works when everything was going great. After they’d finally managed to become friends, grow closer, after he’d actually started to look forward to marrying him and maybe thinking it wouldn’t be so bad to see that face when he woke up every day, to maybe wondering about their wedding night...now he had to bloody pause.

Perhaps he’d had a little too much wine, though he only remembered a few cups. His heart was beating hard in his chest as if he’d just come from the practise yard, his face hot and his mouth dry. Zagreus knew what the sensible decision was, what his mother would gently counsel and his father would command. He knew he should slide between his silken sheets and go to sleep, forget all of this and make sure he didn’t look too hungover for their official engagement portraits in the morning. He should write it off as his own imagination, his brain making space for something it wanted to see.

Perhaps he’d wanted to see it for longer than he’d like to admit.

Zagreus dropped that thought like it was a metal sword that had been sitting in the sun too long. Frustration was easier. Annoyance even, a desire to take those surprisingly broad shoulders that could swing a scythe well enough to knock him on his ass in the training yard, glare into those eyes that had once seemed like cold, hard gold but had softened into honey over time, and demand to know what the fuck his problem was. Why in his father’s name, after everything they’d been through and how hard they’d worked to build something, whatever that something was, why he was pausing now.

Mouth now firmly set in the stubborn scowl he was practically famous for, Zag abandoned his passing acquaintance with good sense and crossed his chambers to yank on a red silk robe. He deserved an explanation and he was bloody well going to get one.

He had plans to storm out of the door with all the princely righteousness he could muster, march down the hallway and hammer on his betrothed’s door to wring some answers out of that statue of a man he would be calling husband in half a year.

Plans that fell apart completely when he threw back his chamber door to see Thanatos standing there, hand raised midway to knock, eyes wide and alarmed. Zag froze, all his frustration evaporating to be replaced by simple bewilderment. Than was still in his ball attire, all flowing black robes and gold jewellery, though rather more rumpled and flustered than he usually was. He had the look he got in his eyes when they’d be sparring together and Zag would surprise him with some move you only got to know from training with the great Achilles, in the split second before he went sprawling back in the dust.

But this time Zag was equally caught off guard.

“Good evening Zagreus,” Than eventually cleared his throat, his courtly politeness a little thin.

“Morning,” Zag corrected, rankling at the formality, Thanatos hadn’t talked to him like that in months, “It’s past midnight.”

A light blush dusted Than’s cheekbones, “Of course. A ridiculous time to come calling, I know but...I wanted to speak with you, if you didn’t mind. Or...were you going somewhere?”

Zag bit his lip then quickly stopped himself, stepping aside, “Nothing important. You can come in.”

Thanatos inclined his head and moved into the dark chambers and its flickering shadows, the candlelight catching on his finery. He moved with uncertainty, like he didn’t know where to put himself or how to exist inside of the one place in the castle that belonged to Zagreus alone. It made Zag’s stomach knot, hadn’t they spent hours here talking together? Hadn’t Thanatos fallen asleep on his bed just last week as they’d sat and read in companionable silence?

Why did Thanatos feel like a stranger to him all over again?

“You can sit,” he grunted, just to stop his betrothed’s awkward rocking on his heels.

Than seemed abashed at least, sinking down onto the expansive bed, making the ropes creak. He left room but Zag made no move to follow, standing and leaning against the black stone wall instead, folding his arms.

“Zagreus…”

Zag. You call me Zag. “What is it, Thanatos? Just say whatever it is you’re here to say.”

The perfectly carved face turned crestfallen, “I’ve upset you.” It wasn’t a question.

Zag just shrugged, wishing he could summon back his anger but it would be impossible. Not with Than sitting right here, looking at him like that.

“I need to apologise, Zagreus,” he sighed, pushing a hand through his white hair, ruining it’s usual perfect sweep, “I...I’ve never been good at talking about sensitive topics.”

“You’re the personification of death?” Zag couldn’t help the corners of his mouth twitching in amusement.

Than seemed relieved at the smile, relaxing a little, “Well, not that particular sensitive topic. But all the rest leave me feeling quite helpless and...and if I’ve seemed distant or closed off to you tonight, I’m very sorry.”

“Look, just tell me what sensitive topic you want to talk about,” Zag tilted his head, “Help me understand it. I mean, we’re officially about to be married now, we should probably start getting more comfortable with each other.”

Something in Than’s eyes flickered, “Well...that’s just it, Zag.”

Real fear settled with a heavy thunk in his stomach. Please don’t break the betrothal, please don’t go. Only later would he wonder why that had been his first thought and not ‘please don’t break the betrothal, my father will kill me’.

Than saw his expression and scrambled, panicked, “Not that I regret it. Not one bit, Zagreus, I promise. Oh gods, I’m making such a mess of this…”

Zag sighed and found himself twisting the ring Than had given him around on his finger, “Than, look it’s okay…”

“It’s not,” his betrothed shook his head, lips tight, “It’s not, I’m sorry. It’s just it made everything seem so real and it made me...it made me realise how big this all is.”

Now he was just surprised. The idea that anything, even marriage, could scare the unflappable Prince Thanatos really was a revelation. Feeling something of a fool, Zag quickly moved to sit beside him, taking one of the hands that was clutching miserably at his hair, holding it in his own.

“It is alright, Than,” he kept his voice steady, even if reversing their positions like this was disconcerting. Usually he was the one raving or panicking and Than would be calmly talking sense into him, “I understand exactly how you feel.”

Than have a long, ragged exhale, clutching his friend’s fingers tightly, “It was just them all looking at us tonight and it just made me realise that...that this is it. This is my home now and you’re my husband and...and it's all real. It's not just words on some agreement from years ago anymore and as happy as I am to spend the rest of my life with you, it's just...it's not how I would have wanted to do it.”

“Me neither,” Zag admitted, smiling a little sadly, “It feels all out of order, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” the relief on Than’s face was plain, “And I mean, gods Zagreus, I’ve not even kissed you, we won’t be having sex until we’re already bound for life…”

He snapped his jaw shut, hard enough that it must have hurt his perfect teeth. A dark blush stained his skin like spilled wine and he looked as though he was fighting every urge to vanish himself to the next room over. Possibly the next country over.

Zag managed to keep it to a mild smile, though his heart was hammering, “You’ve...thought about that?”

“I...I don’t want to give the impression it’s been my only concern…” Than’s voice became very clipped and polished in his embarrassment, “But...it’s crossed my mind, yes.”

“Well then…” Zag shrugged, voice casual and easy, “If you were amenable to it, why don’t we get that out of the way?”

There was a long pause as what he’d said sank in for Thanatos. If he wasn’t waiting with so much tension roiling in his stomach, Zag would have found it comical, how his eyes widened and his jaw went slack in slow motion.

“It’s...it’s not exactly proper…” he said slowly, though there was clear interest in his expression, in the way he was leaning closer to Zag.

“No,” Zag admitted, “And if you’d rather wait, I’d respect that entirely. Gods, if you don’t even want to do it on our wedding night, I’d respect that too. Betrothed or married, Thanatos, I will never make any demands of you in that regard.”

“I never believed you would,” Than murmured gently but he did look reassured.

Zag smiled, “But if you were open to it, maybe this could be a way to make this very big thing a little smaller? Give ourselves one less thing to worry about when that day comes? And you’d certainly know the man you’re marrying a little better.”

Than laughed, the sound not as nervous as it might have been, “True...I rather think this could work, Zag. No pressure, no expectations, no matter if it was good or bad because...well, because we’d have time to try again?”

“As much time as you wanted,” Zag nodded, his smile growing, “On our own terms.”

“Our own terms,” Than repeated, looking like those words were the last anathema his anxiety needed.

Zag couldn’t blame him, the last few months had been a flurry of decisions about their lives, all ones other people had made. It was good to seize one for their own.

“And you’d hardly be dishonouring me,” Zag chuckled lightly, “I’m to be your husband, after all. I have no intentions of being anyone else’s.”

“Neither do I,” Than gave a soft laugh, “Though you may change your mind when you see how, ah...inexperienced I am at this.”

“Oh come off it,” Zag elbowed him lightly, “Everyone is at the start, you know it doesn’t bother me, just like how I am pretty experienced doesn’t bother you.”

Than nodded his confirmation, though his eyes wandered back into nervousness after, “So...um, where do we start?”

“You want to go now?” Zag couldn’t help a bemused little laugh though his body answered with it’s own eagerness.

“I do,” Than nodded, now barely an inch from Zag’s face, when had he moved so close? And when had Zag moved to match it?

“Then, if I may have this dance, my prince?” he grinned rakishly, throwing the last of his reservations out of the window.

They had kissed before, chaste pecks on the cheek at balls and for the cheers of the crowd then the light, playful kisses to the forehead Zag gave all his close friends. But immediately, as their lips met, they knew this was different. This was shifting ground underneath their feet, a definition that wouldn’t form until they asked it to. And Zag let Thanatos ask first.

He did, after a moment, tilting his head so their mouths fit together better, opening his lips slightly, inviting Zag to lick into his mouth. When he obliged, the stoic, self assured emissary of death actually whimpered, a shudder running through his body as he pressed closer. Suddenly he was kissing him with such abandon that Zag was forced to break it, just so Thanatos would realise how much he needed air.

It was impossible to not laugh at the flush on his cheeks or the shine in his eyes, like a man who’d been starving tasting his first bite of food. Judging him ready and willing, Zag let his robe fall from his shoulders, untying it at the waist and letting it drop away entirely. He let Than’s eyes travel over all of him, let him have far more than any glances as they’d changed after sparring.

“Oh…” was all Than could seem to say but the look in his eyes filled in the gaps, “Zagreus…”

Zag grinned, reaching out and teasingly flicking one of Than’s dangling earrings, “Now you?”

His betrothed undressed a little more awkwardly, more clasps and buttons and layers to be dealt with, to be tossed over the side of the bed to tangle with Zag’s. But gods was it worth it, every last inch of smooth, dark skin, every angle of his lean, wiry muscles, the dusting of pale hair leading down to the silky thicket around a cock that was everything Zag had imagined it might be.

“So?” Than asked, voice edged with nerves again, eyes more vulnerable than Zag had ever seen them.

Zag spoke plainly so Than’s own mind couldn’t help but believe it, leaning forward and putting his hand gently against one cheek, “You are an incredibly beautiful man, Thanatos. I did really get very lucky.”

From the bright eyed way he smiled, his words had struck home.

This time, as they kissed, Zag rolled them gently, guiding Than onto his back with his legs apart. Already his cock was responding with endearing enthusiasm, Zag’s fingers helped it the last few steps of the way, only needing a few light strokes until he was hard. From the way Than moaned and arched under those gentle brushes of his fingers, Zag was already deliriously excited to show him what more he could do.

“Listen,” he murmured, tapping his aquiline nose lightly, “Just lie back and let me take care of you. The second something you don't like happens, just say the word and it stops.”

“Yes Zag,” Thanatos breathed, eyes fixed on him with a kind of trust he was rarely gifted.

To see it shining there in those golden eyes, dancing with the firelight in them, Zag almost faltered. Almost. Barely a pause.

He bracketed Thanatos’ hips with his knees, guiding his cock into him slowly. Than’s head tipped back with each inch, his jaw slackening and breath coming in short gasps.

“Zag...fuck, Zagreus…”

“You sound so cute when you swear,” Zag laughed breathlessly, bracing himself for the last few inches, shuddering as his hips pressed against Than’s narrower ones.

Seemingly with a mind of their own, Than’s hands skated over every part of Zagreus they could reach, determined to explore. His thumbs traced the thin scars under his nipples, his fingers traced the hollows of his collarbone, he grabbed generous handfuls of his ass as he started to rock slowly. Zag would never have thought his betrothed would be so tactile, his distant, reserved Thanatos would be so eager with his hands.

It seemed Than wasn’t the only one learning things tonight.

He focused on the task at hand, working his hips, leaning back to take as much of his betrothed as he could. Gods but it had been a long time and perhaps even longer since it had felt this good with anyone. Something instinctive seemed to be working between them, something that reminded him of when they fought side by side, how Thanatos would always know exactly how to match him and fill the gaps he left, how they felt unstoppable.

Something that made Zagreus think this was going to work.

“Zag,” Than’s voice, strained and thin, snapped him back to the here and now, “Zag, I’m gonna…”

“Good,” he leaned down to press their foreheads together, brushing Than’s lips lightly with his own, “That’s alright, just let go. I’m there with you.”

Permission granted to him, Thanatos gave a strangled cry, hips lifting up enough that Zag found himself having to hold on. There was the snap of released tension, a sensation of heat flooding into him, sharp contrast to the rest of the cool skin pressed against him. It was enough to send Zag tumbling over the edge with him with a sigh of release.

In the moments after it broke, after the rushing waters had settled and all that was left was the ragged, panting breaths, Zagreus waited. He waited to see the realisation dawn on Thanatos’ face, to see the shame flood in to replace the hollow left behind, to watch him decide they had made a terrible mistake. He hadn’t realised that fear had still been lurking in a quiet corner of his mind or perhaps he simply hadn’t cared, it had stood in the shadow of his own desire and the need to help Thanatos.

Zagreus waited for the pause.

But all that happened was a smile. A smile that spread over Thanatos’ face like a sunrise, tired and shy and satisfied.

“Oh yes. I could do that for the rest of my life.”

Zag burst out laughing, the sound raw from his strained voice, he’d been louder than he’d realised.

“Glad to hear it, Than,” he chuckled, gently extracting Than from himself so he could roll onto his back, “I...I’m glad we did this. This was a good idea.”

“It was,” Thanatos hummed, closing his eyes and tipping his head back in satisfaction, “Now this is always going to be ours, whatever else happens.”

“Ours…” Zag repeated, finding his mismatched eyes lingering on Than’s face, watching the shadows find all its angles and hollows. He rather liked the sound of that.

He wouldn’t ask Thanatos to return to his own room. If anyone saw him leave in the morning, they’d just say the princes had drunk too much wine and collapsed into bed still fully clothed. The fact that Than would be creeping along the corridor still in his finery would help the illusion, after all. They could have this night together, the night that was only theirs.

And all the nights after that, well, they’d find excuses for those too.

Zag smiled as he pulled Than close, let him rest against him as he drifted into the kind of peaceful sleep you could only have after a great weight of worry had been lifted from you. The kind of sleep where you felt completely safe.

There had most definitely been a pause. And Zagreus was so glad of it.

#hades #thanzag #betrothal au #smut #hades fic #zagreus #trans zag #thanatos #please reblog and comment!

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vaguely-concerned · 4 years ago

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The Mandalorian Chapter 13 rewatch thoughts; the reduced salt edition

or at least I’m trying to be more constructive with the salt in this one let’s goooo

- god I miss the armourer so much. look at how fucking cool she looks, this is the mando design I hunger for so deeply, WHY would you give me boob plates back instead haha

- I will say with the way it’s presented this place feels way too small to be called a city lol (and I think that limited scale hurts how much I’m willing to accept the magistrate as a credible opponent to go toe to toe with ahsoka freaking tano. maybe if we’d seen directly the extent of the magistrate’s power and influence and not just the burned out wasteland that power leaves behind I’d be more on board with it. canonically she’s clearly been extremely rich and influential on a galactic scale, while the aesthetic filoni takes from samurai movies in this has a lot more to do with local warlords and smaller stakes. this is not the only time the adherence to that aesthetic without adapting it for the emotional story at hand or giving it a spin for novelty hurts the episode #hot take. it’s empty homage without quite understanding why the moments you’re emulating work so well in the context of the story they serve.)

this might be because how it’s filmed makes it seem like there’s just one big main street towards the magistrate’s palace, it’s implied to be quite a bit bigger from the establishing shot as the crest comes flying in?

- LOVE the implication that din lets baby play with the silver ball pretty freely while they’re on the ship but sets the (completely sensible tbh) boundary that he can’t bring it with him somewhere outside where he might lose it for good. that seems like reasonable dad-ing, din, well done.

anyway my heart is hurting because that silver ball is like a comfort item for the kid and it’s pretty clear from the very start that he has some kind of understanding of what might happen on this planet and so does NOT want to go out there, but also... that thing is narratively introduced as the baby’s way of saying ‘dad, don’t forget me, don’t go’. it’s what made din go back for him the first time, and that’s a connotation it still has both in the audience’s mind and for the characters. and I need to go cry in a corner for a while be right back

- not for nothing but in this scene of the baby being faced with din and a jedi standing side by side as if to present a choice, din literally has the sun right behind his head like some kind of fucking halo

gee I wonder what the baby’s choice is going to be fsadfjkhasdkjfhs. (he! loves! his dad! so much!!!!!!!)

- I wish they’d done more with the bored punch clock villain, hey-I’m-just-here-for-the-paycheck-man vibe of the guard captain guy and maybe given his nonchalance a bit of a darkly comedic tint, I think it would’ve made a better moment when he’s facing off with din towards the end if he had more... character. make him a bit more of a dark mirror of the soulless gun for hire people have seen din as in the past (and as the magistrate seems to now), do something interesting here. maybe even make it more of a mexican standoff with him holding a gun on an innocent or something so there’s something here for din to lose, it still does the western thing and lets you have that ramping tension you need for when you cut between the sword duel and this. hell, have him actually give up and walk away to show that he doesn’t fucking care about any of this, he did evil for money without any driving passion or conviction behind it, and let din decide if he’ll let him walk away scot free or not after what he’s been part of, that’s a neat subversion of the trope as well! as it stands it’s just so... empty

- baby says ‘mada! mada!’ again when they try to approach the vendor who appears to be serving foodstuffs! so maybe a word he has for food or maybe something like ‘lady person!’? (he says it when frog lady is gone on the ice planet and also as she’s walking into the razor crest for the first time. he did seem more interested in the eggs at that point, sooo lol)

din reacts to him speaking too, he glances down at him <3<3<3

- the baby seems to sense ‘ooof this is scary, time to hide’ on his own before they go into the magistrate’s place, din doesn’t appear to signal anything to him

- there’s a lot of deliberate silence in this episode, but the sound design that gets space away from the music somehow isn’t as immersive to me as it usually is on this show? I have no idea why, though

- ‘a jedi plagues me’ is somehow so fucking funny to me. the tl;dr for a lot of star wars villains through the ages

it also still cracks me up that din is immediately like ‘ma’am you can’t afford me’ fsdhfaskf

- I’m so happy din talks to and reassures the baby when he puts him down in these situations now, I remember being SO SAD when he didn’t back in chapter 7. he’s learning all the time!

- I think we should all be very happy this fight is cut off almost as soon as it begins, because I’m pretty sure ahsoka could kick din’s ass real bad and that would be terrible because I love him (listen din definitely has his moments, but up against a force user for the first time and said force user being one of the most powerful and battle-experienced jedi alive? probably not huh, if he survives that it’s on pure fatherly love and desperation and nothing else)

- this seems to be the baby asking ahsoka to carry him back to be with din (mando certainly seems to be what they’re ‘talking’ about right before) and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen

din’s fingers are also doing the nervous curl-uncurl thing as she puts the baby down, and it remains the sweetest goddamn character tic, he’s adorable

in the long pause after he tells her “he needs your help” he’s sitting SO TENSELY, it’s only when she at least promises to test the kid that he relaxes a bit

baby (well, grogu, but he’s also baby) recognizes yoda’s name and seems to almost ask ahsoka ‘yoda is here???’, and her blink in response is like ‘no, I’m sorry’

- I still deeply dislike how it’s actually done in the episode, it’s so clunky and it annoys me on a craft level, but I do like the overarching thematic narrative of both mando and the baby being on this journey towards specificity and remembering themselves, of reclaiming the particular nuances of an identity that make up a self after a series of traumas have stripped it away from them. at the start of the show neither of them has a name (and din doesn’t even have a face) and they’re basically presented as broad archetypes, The Mandalorian and The Child. and now we’re slowly unearthing things that make them this specific child, grogu, this specific mandalorian, din djarin. it’s rediscovering parts of yourself you might have thought lost as you heal from trauma and I do like that very much, it’s touching and the emotional throughline this show should never lose sight of

- oooooh no baby glances over at din when she asks him to push the stone back ;______________; it’s so awful because you can just tell... he understands that if he does this thing din might leave, but also people have clearly tricked him into using the Force before and given him this traumatized kneejerk association that if he uses it where people can see him Bad things might happen

oh okay so I think din just subtly misunderstands the baby’s appeal to him here, he thinks that look towards him means ‘dad help I don’t understand what’s being asked of me’. I guess he doesn’t have any way of knowing how complicated the baby’s past is with this yet, it’s a good try

- I’ve seen people take ‘he understands’ as baby understanding everything that’s said to him all the time, which is patently not true haha. he understands quite a lot, in the way toddlers actually understand quite a lot of what’s going on around them, even a bit of words spoken to them before they’re especially verbal themselves, but he clearly mixes up his colours still sooo

I also suspect he’s played this game before -- surely that must be one of the most obvious activities the jedi would do with the smallest children, playing Force catch basically? but he still doesn’t trust it, or her. (on the other hand he does trust that din would never hurt or trick him. help me I’m drowning in my own tears)

- personally and from anything else in this show I don’t think din would be this impatient with the baby after hearing, less than half a minute before, that he’s terrified

but hey I’m not the man in the cowboy hat what do I know (yes I’m bitter characterization matters okay lol)

- it’s both funny and so sweet that the same music plays during this father and son playing catch scene as when baby lifted that mudhorn fkdfha

- for my money din reacts exactly perfectly to grogu finally Force pulling the ball -- he’s excited and happy, signalling that this thing doesn’t have to be scary and dangerous and that when shared with the right people it can be a good joyous thing, he moves over to the baby so they can share in this victory and attune, and crucially he doesn’t demand more afterwards, which the baby must have gotten before from some of the assholes who’ve been experimenting on him. it’s just the celebration and satisfaction of having done the thing without demands or threats or any ulterior motives. HIM!!! DAD!!!!

tattoo this straight onto my heart... the way baby cheerfully offers it back to din... sdkjafhksdfhsakdjf

- din breaths out roughly and unevenly through his nose almost like it’s been punched out of him and starts fiddling with the silver ball (which is still his primary tell for anxiety/stress!) when ahsoka says “he’s formed a strong attachment to you” :) listen if I have to know that all of you fuckers are going down with me

- see the thing is... if you don’t know who ahsoka is in pretty deep detail, you might take her at face value here instead of understanding that she’s actually projecting her own feelings and traumas onto this. if you absolutely have to use this character for this part of the show you have to set her up better specifically so someone who’s never seen a single episode of clone wars can grasp the basics of where she is emotionally and what her motives are, so that her role in this story makes sense. as it is it’s sort of a compromise between pleasing old fans (who can do quite a bit of inferring to figure it out) and approaching audiences who don’t know anything, and it falls flat

(for the purposes of this show I aggressively do not care where thrawn is, and so I’m just annoyed when we find out what this was actually all for haha)

- still feel reluctant to discuss too much about ahsoka because of the whole... situation with dawson, but I do like that she lets one of the guards leave after disarming him because he’s cowering and giving up, and that she still has her padawan braid wound into her belt. also I think the effects on her and her outfit are completely fine, my problems with her this episode are all writing craft and real life stuff

- when you get first the jet pack sound, then din coming down kicking that dude in the face, then the mando flute kicking in as he lands properly... the only time the action in this episode made me go ‘fuck YEEEAAAAH’ it’s awesome

- again, just like with the idea of having a samurai/ronin movie standoff and a western standoff at the same time: having the scene be mostly silent except for the almost musical sounds of the light sabers hitting the beskar spear is such a cool concept, and it does not work in action. I don’t know enough about filmmaking to tell you why it doesn’t, but it doesn’t.

there’s also something about... the ahsoka vs. morgan scene apes the deliberately staged, ritualized, exaggerated almost like how you’d perform it in live theatre aspect of the duels in the genre, but in an empty way? why are they acting like this, what’s their relationship to each other, what’s their individual code of honour that makes them let the other person slowly theatrically disrobe before going for them? just plucking the aesthetics out of a tradition and plopping them down in your own thing without thinking about the whys or original context of it leaves it without meaning

(also let morgan express something of her own character other than I Am Evil rather than having ahsoka drop the entire exposition on her. maybe you could have her snarl some illuminating lines while they’re fighting so you get the feeling of the bitterness and brokenness that has fuelled her and burned the woods of this whole planet. in some ways she’s not that unlike din and ahsoka, she lost everything in the clone wars too and was motivated very differently by it than they were, play that up so the situation’s relevant to our protagonists! I’m sorry for all this nitpicking but I HAVE to figure out how this could have been done better for my own sake haha)

- ooooooh the way din says “I can’t accept” when offered the spear is in fact almost an exact echo of when the armourer offers him the signet in chapter 3! I thought it sounded familiar, it’s delivered in such a similar way. huh. din has some Feelings about earning things and when he hasn’t earned something, doesn’t he

- din also cares A LOT about not breaking his word, to the point of being willing to stoop to some quite dishonest methods to avoid giving his word in the first place, and I find it utterly delightful

- baby closing his eyes again after din wakes him like he’s thinking ‘maybe if I don’t wake up dad won’t go’ or even ‘at least this way I won’t know it happened until later, when it’s over’... pure emotional torture :) thank god din’s entire soul is clearly howling in protest and he took the slightest chance ahsoka gave him to not actually go through with it

- so this is the second time we get someone telling din he’s like grogu’s father. well, the armourer gives it more like a command/almost a religious obligation, ‘until it is of age or reunited with its kind you are as its father’, ahsoka is stating what’s obvious at this point but says ‘you are like a father to him’... maybe they’re doing a rule of threes thing and the last time it’s ‘you are his father’ and it sticks?

- anyway din cradling the baby so close to his chest with both arms all the time instead of the more practical way he carries him around in the crook of his arm sometimes... my suffering is deep and endless

#star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian meta

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what-the--curtains · 4 years ago

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Alliance

Chapter 9 – The Hunt

(Mando x f!reader)

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Summary: After recovering you set off to find the man who tried to kill you. Killing him proves to be more difficult than expected when the ones you love are threatened, and on the other side of the choice, your own future.

Authors note: One more chapter to go!! Some angst at the end here! Hope y’all enjoy ❤️❤️❤️! (I also did some very average fan art if y’all haven’t seen it yet!)

Tw: sex is alluded to (not depicted), decapitation, force choke

Word count: 4.9k

Tagged list: @crazycookiecrumbles, @seninjakitey

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The planet proved harder to find than expected, despite Anya's best efforts, something was fogging up her tracking causing your coordinates to be constantly in flux. She’d easily lead you past the outer rim, but since then it had been akin to a wild goose chase.

“Any idea who tried to kill you.” Din asks, he'd been exceptionally patient throughout the journey thus far. Never questioning your methods just typing in the new location coordinates calmly and re aligning the ship on its new course.

“Did kill me” you correct, as your hand moves absentmindedly over the healed wound. “but no, I dont. They had a lightsaber though”

“Was it a Jedi?” he asks earnestly.

“Well based on the context clues, I'd definitely say at least Jedi adjacent” you laugh, for a savvy strategist who knew multiple languages you sometimes found yourself questioning if his brain was in fact functioning.

“Why would a Jedi try and kill you?”

“Your guess is as good as mine”

“How do they decide on colors?” He asks after a somewhat awkward silence

“Hmmm” you hum out in confusion, only half paying attention to what he had said.

“The light swords? Ashoka's are blue, yours is purple and the figures, well there's was red” your heart stops.

“It was red?” you ask, sitting up in your seat giving him your undivided attention.

“Ya does that mean something?” He watches your eyes slowly piecing together what he'd just told you.

“That’s impossible, the Sith were defeated. They died with the emperor.” you affirm, your sure red was a common colour used by Jedi nowadays, sure no one had ever seen one before, but there was a first time for everything right?

“So were the Jedi.” he points out.

“Do you always have to be right?” you ask slightly irritated for a reason you couldn’t quite explain. He doesn't respond; he knows a rhetorical question when he hears one but unsure what he had done to upset you. An uncomfortable silence lingers in the air, a sensation you'd never experienced with the Mandalorian before. Not wanting to stew in the quiet you head down to the lower levels and try and calm your frazzled mind. Sitting down you cross your legs, one over the other, as you close your eyes.

On the best of days meditating was a chore, but under the current situation it had become an impossible task. It wasn’t the threat of being ambushed that had you distracted, no something else was playing heavily on your mind. It was what was causing the punctuated silences, forced conversation and overall awkwardness in the atmosphere. It was your own doing. Seriously, who kisses a man whose face they've never seen! Idiots that's who and now it was stuck on your mind. In your defense you thought you wouldn't have to deal with the fallout so quickly. You should have known he’d have insisted on going with you, but you hadn't thought that far ahead, or at all and now you had to sit with the fact that you’d possibly ruined your comfortable friendship by planting one on him. Technically it wasn’t a real kiss,or maybe it was, how did Mandalorians kiss anyways? There you were down the rabbit hole again, this is why you couldn't focus, you curse yourself. Shaking your head you remind yourself it was only done in an attempt to get around him, a strategic move to protect the group, nothing more, nothing less. Keeping that in mind you manage to focus and you feel the galaxy's pulse emitting throughout the ship, inhaling and exhaling with the undulations around you.

Din, bored and missing the usually witty banter you offered him, decided it was time for him to clear the air in regards to the kiss. He hopes by telling you that he knew it was only done to get around him, you’d become more relaxed. The last thing he wanted was for you to be uncomfortable around him. He knew you'd never want to be with someone like him, at least in that way. As he turns around he sees you cross legged floating in the air, not wanting to interrupt he heads back up. Anya lifts her head as he re-enters, looking at him as if she knew what he was thinking. He’ll clear the air with you later, the two of you had plenty of time to talk.

You curse as your journey gets rerouted for what had to be the twelfth time in the past two days. Whoever was hunting you did not want to be found and no amount of swearing or whacking the console would change that. The closer you got to your destination the more you felt the malevolent presence grow. You found yourself wondering if it had always been with you, finding it hard to remember a time when it wasn't gnawing at your conscience. Each time you feel it scratching at your doors you remember Ashoka's words “be careful who you let into your head.” You'd made that mistake once with devastating consequences. You would not be making it again. Your energy was now primarily being spent keeping the presence at bay, not allowing it to penetrate any deeper than it already had. Sleeping only acted as an open invitation for the figure to torture you so you opted to forgo it altogether. Perhaps not the wisest decision, but what other choice did you have.

“The planet’s still a few days away.” Din says, noting the unraveled look in your eyes as you take your place next to him.

“Anything to do on this ship.” You ask, fidgeting in your seat. “like games or something” he doesn't respond “Hey beskar head! You awake under that helmet?”. You ask partially joking, partially annoyed that he wasn't talking to you.

“Yes.”

“Yes to games or yes to being awake?”

“To games” you smile, you never knew if he was actually making jokes or if you were just reading into it. The finer details of his personality artfully hidden beneath the metal exterior.

“Got Dejarik, you know how to play?” he asks, glad that you were back to yourself for the time being.

“I'm alright” you say smiling, you were better than alright, at least you think. To be fair you'd only ever played against one person and she was family and probably inclined to letting you win.

“You're cheating!” he exclaims, his annoyance apparent even through the modulator. Your skills were better than you expected especially after all those years, well either that or the Mandalorian was just that bad.

“How?” you ask, laughing at how frustrated he was getting. It was funny when you beat him the second time, but by gods it was even funnier when you beat him the seventh time.

“The force!” He says clenching his hand as he stares down at the board.

“I don't think the force bothers itself with helping me beat you at Dejarik.” you point out, as he grumbles something indistinguishable.

“Maybe you're just not as good as you think you are.” You tease pointing your finger at him eyebrows raised and a smirk plastered on your face.

“That’s not what I’ve been told,” he responds.

“About Dejarik or?” he laughs it off, but you seriously wanted to know the answer. After Cara told you he was allowed to have sex it was a question that you’d thought about a lot, more than you probably should have, but hey you were curious. Realizing the Mandalorian was now turning the game board over to see if it was rigged, you decide to change games.

“You still got that indestructible spear. The beskar one?” you ask nonchalantly.

“Yes, not something i'm planning on losing” he nods

“Fancy a match?” you offer you needed to work on your fighting skills, practicing on the air only went so far.

“Only if you promise not to slice through my ship.” He says, standing up.

“Only if you promise not to cry when I beat you.” you return causing him to scoff

“Oh im not going to be the one crying” he assures.

You stand in the ship's far corner across from Din who haphazardly twirls the spear in his hand as you open up your saber, raising it waiting for him to make the first move. He stays his ground, you and him were both defensive fighters and you knew he was far too stubborn to change his routine. Leaping forward you land in front of him, your saber making contact with the spear. After a few seconds spent testing his strength you know there's no feasible way for you to out muscle him. You'd have to out maneuver him. He’d seen you fight stronger opponents before so you’d have to think outside the box on this one. You move out from under the spear the release of your counter force causing Din to stumble forward. You turn aiming for his shin, but his arm reaches back the spear stopping your hit from connecting with his armour. You circle round him so you're once again face to face giving him enough time to stand back up. He turns quickly, swinging the spear as he does, aiming for your waist. You jump over the swipe landing behind him, hitting him in the back.

“Point to me.” you say

“No using the force” he says, turning to look down at you, his presence suddenly looming.

“I wasn't, I can just jump really high!” You lie.

“Likely story” he says brushing past you as he moves back to his starting spot

“What was that I said about crying earlier?” you question.

He's got you talking too long and he sweeps your feet out from under you knocking you on your ass and gently tapping you on the head with the spear.

“Point me” he says, offering you his hand.

“That was dirty” you say as he hoists you up.

“Who says we're playing clean sweetheart?” The term catches both of you off guard, but he's flustered himself more than you, allowing you to land the next two points.

“Hope your ego isn't too hurt darling.” you mock back at him as metal and light collide once again.

“It’s not over yet” he says, using all his strength to march you back towards the wall pinning you against it with his spear.

“You need to work on your attack, you leave a lot open” he says, breathing heavily.

“You need to work on a codpiece, it leaves a lot open” you retort, kneeing him in the groin, hard enough for him to drop you, but not so hard that it kept him down for long.

“Not enough beskar” he murmurs, hoping to get the last word in.

“Oh big brag for a man who just lost several games of Dejarik in a row and” your sentence is cut short as the spear taps the small of your back giving him the winning point

“And what?”

“Oh real classy Din, can’t win a fair fight” you say hand on your hip.

“It was fair considering I wasn't going 100%”

‘Oh you weren't” you mock, the smile telling him you were amused and not upset by his antics, the gentle slap on his arm further verifying this. The moments like this were nice, but as you continue to gain on your target they became fleeting. The Mandalorian watches as your ability to focus waivers, your frustration becoming increasingly evident in your training. Miraculously, you hadn't sliced through anything important, but the ship’s interior was constantly needing to be patched up. At least it kept him occupied and out of your hair. You looked like you were fighting a hidden battle, one he would gladly fight with you, if you'd let him. He didn’t know the full extent of your struggle, but he knew the anger he felt simmering inside you wasn't being aided by your refusal to sleep.

Your irritability, although caused by exerting tremendous energy keeping the figure at bay, was no excuse for the times you had lashed out at the Mandalorian. The most recent outburst occurred when he'd stepped on your foot after you had explicitly told him to watch out. In hindsight, threatening to melt his beskar down and turn it into a hearing aid for him so he could stop being such a nerf herder was a touch harsh. Alright, incredibly harsh especially considering he'd attempted to apologize before you went off on him.

“Sorry I threatened the beskar” you murmur sitting down next to him

“Are you going to tell me what's going on?” he asks

“Going on where” you ask

“Well it can't just be air in your head” he jokes, causing you to laugh for the first time in a few days.

“Seriously though , I'm sorry Ive been out of line, and it's not fair on you, you’ve been so understanding.”

“You know what might help with the outbursts?”

“A lecture?” you remark, your tone harsher than intended

“No, sleep, you should try it sometime”

“I'm fine without it” you say, the yawn escaping your lips contradicting your words.

“You should sleep.”

“ You don’t.” you remark hoping to catch him off guard, but he's obviously rehearsed this conversation a few times.

“ I don’t need to.”

“Neither do I.” You lie, almost a year later and you still had no idea how he slept so little, though your current working theory was that he would just take naps under the helmet when he thought he could get away with it.

“No, you can't sleep, there's a distinct difference.”

Not wanting to lash out at him for the third time that day and knowing he was right, you make a swift exit. You push the button that opens up to the tight sleeping quarters where you'd spent many hours lying awake. You were hoping that you'd reached an exhaustion point where your body would just shut down. You lay back on the bed not bothering with the covers, you weren't expecting to get comfortable. Anya had stopped trying to sleep in the same bed as you, usually getting inadvertently kicked or shoved out the bed by your constant movements. Your eyes can’t have been closed for more than a minute when they snap open. Despite their alertness your body's gone limp. What fresh hell was this? As your eyes adjust to the darkness you can only just make out the hauntingly familiar shape sitting at the edge of your bed. You go to call out for the Mandalorian, but no sound is emitted, nothing comes out at all not even air. You watch helplessly as the figure's arm extends ensnaring you in a choke hold, the yellow iris shining out beneath the hood, confirming your worst fear. A Sith. You scream yourself awake, the force causing items to fly to the ground, no doubt alerting the Mandalorian. You bring your knees to your chest grabbing at your scalp telling yourself it wasn’t real, but it didn't matter what you said. The truth was you couldn’t tell anymore all lines had blurred together. You get up off the bed looking around the room already exhausted at having to clean up yet another mess you had made. You lean over picking up the weapons that had fallen off the armoury hanging them back up when you hear the Mandalorian drop down the sound startling you.

“I'm sorry” you mutter embarrassed, not looking up as you move to grab the few dishes currently lying on the floor.

“What did I say about breaking the ship?” he says, chuckling slightly in an attempt to lighten the mood. He bends down to help you but you grab his arm stopping him.

“I made the mess. I'll clean it up.” You say gathering up the utensil and placing them back on the table absentmindedly stroking your throat as you turn to pick up the rest. As you reach for the chess board he grabs your hands, intertwining his fingers with yours, leading you back over to the bed.

“Get some rest, I'll clean up,” he says softly, sitting you down on the bed.

“Stop telling me what to do Din, besides it's not working.”

“You need to sleep.”

“I can’t and unless you can think up a way to make me then were shit out of luck.”

“I can think of a few ways.” he mumbles hoping it was loud enough for you to hear.

“Like what? Knocking me out with a blaster?” you scoff

“ A less violent way,” The words leave his mouth before he can fully assess the pros and cons of what he was offering to do.

“Reciting the entire code of conduct of the mandalore race to me?” Gods, how were you still not getting this.

“A less boring way.” He prays that you either catch on or he passes away suddenly so as to save him from any further embarrassment.

“Oh” you punctuate, lips parted slightly suddenly realizing exactly what was being offered to you “you think you can tire me out?”

“Only if you want.” he says, more confident now you hadn't outright rejected him

“Well I have been dying to see what’s under that armour”

“ You’ve seen it before”, and you couldn't wait to see it again.

“Not all of it”

“The helmet stays on,” he asserts.

“Not what I was referring to.” He stands there for a moment unsure how to proceed, not wanting to have misread the situation. “Well are you just going to stand there or are you not a man of your word?” That’s all the encouragement he needs.

“You want me to stop at any time, you just say so cyar’ika”

Once again the Mandalorian was right ; he was able to tire you out. Neither of you say anything after both at a loss for words, and not wanting to ruin the moment by saying the wrong thing. You fall asleep with his arm wrapped securely around your waist, as the other runs up and down your back. His heartbeat lulling you into a deep sleep, his presence managing to stay off any nightmares, at least for now.

He stays with you long after you’ve dozed off watching your back rise and fall in time with your breathing, he thanks the gods you were finally resting. He intently studies the faint purple markings covering your body, wondering how long they'd been there. His hand then tracing over the scars on your back, he wants to know how you got them. He wanted to know everything. Once this was all a distant memory he’d ask, if you chose to stick around that is. Knowing you won't want to find him in your bed when you wake up, he slides his arm from your waist and quietly, so as not to wake you, he puts his clothes back on. Re-donning his armour he heads back upstairs to check on the ship.

Your body shivers inadvertently at the loss of heat and your eyes slowly open. The room’s still dark, but the Mandalorian had gone. He must have left sometime in the night presumably his way of telling you it was a one off. Knowing Din to be a man of few words you knew talking about what had just happened was fully off the table. You sit up and stretch out, allowing your elbows to pop and your shoulders to crack as you roll them out, feeling a way that you hadn't felt in months. Well rested. Making your way over to the fresher you allow the water to wash over you removing any remaining scent attributed to the Mandalorian. After dressing you head up to the cockpit, slightly bow legged from the night before. You’d had your fair share of lovers and for a human, he was very well endowed and very eager to please.

“How far” you ask brushing any thoughts about last night from your head as you shoo Anya off your seat.

“You’re up sooner than I thought.” He says looking at you. He’d noticed the slight stagger in your walk causing him to smirk under the helmet, but the smile fades when you don’t look down.

“How far are we?” you ask again, picking up Anya who’s refused to move of her own volition.

“Close. About last night” he starts, wanting to make sure everything was okay, and that you weren’t regretting what had happened.

“ Look, we don’t have to talk about it. I know it wasn’t a big deal.” You say.

“It may not be a big deal for you.” you don't know why, but you take that tone as being pointed, referring specifically to your time spent in the rings.

“Why? because I've slept with half the galaxy? Something I did in order to survive an environment let’s not forget you put me in?” you spit out

“ No, I-I didn’t mean,” he starts. It's the first time you've ever heard him stumble over his words.

“ You never do.” You say, shutting him up for the remainder of the trip.

“Dropping out now.’ He says, 5 days, that's how long it had taken to get to where you were going, whoever was on the planet was committed to not being found, or at least committed to having you as sleep deprived as possible.

You step out with the Mandalorian close behind you, the planet's surface reflecting the ship's underlights back into its metal exterior. The mirrored rock had sprouted out into various forms and sharp geometric shapes, resulting in a beautiful, but sinister skyline.

“You sure this is the place? Doesn't look like any living thing could survive here.”

“Yes, I can sense a disturbance. You stay here with Anya.” you say placing a hand on his chest plate.

“No way.” Din responds

“I have to do this alone. It's too dangerous for you.”

“For me?” he says in disbelief.

“Wait here if i'm not back within the hour, leave.” You state ignoring his last question.

“ I'll give you two for good measure” he offers, holding out a blaster for you to take.

“It won't help.” You say pushing it back towards him before pulling up your hood and setting off into the unknown. Once he's sure you're out of sight, he follows you.

You close your eyes, letting your senses lead you through the sharpened planet careful not to cut yourself on the dark obsidian refelcting blurred images of the stars. A rock snaps under your foot and your eyes open. A voice calls out to you, uttering your name.

“Who are you.” you ask aloud, turning to face the cloaked figure who stands before you.

“ That is not important” he answers, lips not moving. Telepathy. So that’s how he'd gotten into your head.

“You tried to kill me I think it's at least relevant.” You return in thought.

“You came alone.” he asks, yellow eyes darting from side to side, despite the power this figure held you send a nervousness harboured deep within him, perhaps you should have brought the Mandalorian along with you.

“ Yes” you lie, hoping your force was strong enough to shield the bounty hunter.

“Good.” he snarled.

“Why did you kill me.” you ask not wanting to beat around the bush

“To see if I could. I needed to see your abilities, you’re stronger than I thought if you brought yourself back to life. The empire is rebuilding”, he offers not clearing the situation up in the least

“The empire died with Palpatine, they’re nothing but warmongering desolates now” you say shaking your head, not believing you had flown halfway across the galaxy for this.

“That’s what they have told you. We have been growing an army, led by the spirit of the emperor. We are seeking those with your abilities to help us rebuild.”

“You’ve lost your mind. The Sith were defeated long ago, the Jedi with them.” You turn to leave, no longer fearing this man, he holds no power over you.

“No” he shrieks, the sound drawing your gaze back to him, the noise frightening you slightly “You cannot leave. You cannot go. You will join us and rebuild a stronger galaxy.”

“I have no interest in joing a cult of fear and genocide.” you state calmly.

“It is more than a cult I offer you, something much better, power.” he was getting desperate, a few more days without sleep and you may have fallen for it.

“Power to what? Give you all the blood in my body so you can commit futile experiments on innocent people. You cannot create force sensitivity nor can you push it on someone who it has not chosen. Join you? No, I'll have to pass. Death and destruction will not be my path.”

“Not yet, but it will be. I see it in you, the pain, the sadness, the loneliness, that will all disappear once you join us.”

“Over my dead body” You say drawing your sabre. A violent clash of red and purple ricochet off the mirrored rock, lighting up the shadowed planets.

“Your grandmother trained you well.” He exclaims.

“ If you knew her then you should know that i'd never turn” You continue the fight. Managing to back him into a rock wall. Holding saber at his throat the light purple hue gleaning in the yellow irises beneath his hood.

“I understand why you ambushed me, not much of a fighter are you.” you snarl, pushing the saber into the robe, the scent of burning fabric filling the air. Then you feel it, the pulse of the fibers interwoven throughout the galaxy, something’s amiss. Something else appears under the glow of you saber, yellowed teeth, smiling under the light. You release him pushing yourself back, he wants you to kill him.

“ Do not fear it, I have seen this moment. It is what begins your reign”

“No” you say aloud to yourself, “No” you repeat turning off the saber and turning to leave.

“If you let me live, I kill the man with you.”

The Mandalorian whose been watching from afar hasn’t heard a word spoken in a while, watching you move towards him he thinks it must be over, whoever this person was, Sith or not, you must have come to an agreement. He almost walks out from his hiding spot when you stop dead in your tracks. He sees you look up, your eyes meeting his but only for a moment, before you pivot back to face the man.

“There’s…” you start.

“Don’t play me for a fool child, I have been playing this game long before you were even a thought in your mothers pretty little head. I know he is here. I know what you feel for him. You kill me and in time you will betray him, but you’d rather that, than lose him altogether.”

There's no thought process, no decision to make. With a flick of your wrist you throw the saber. You watch as it slices through the Siths neck before returning to your hand. You close it as his head tumbles to the ground. If Ashoka's words were a warning this, this was an omen. You had made a choice and now a path of irredeemably evil was laid before you. A path you were not prepared to drag anyone else down.

“I know you're there” you say after composing yourself. “I told you not to follow me.” You say making your way to the Mandalorians hiding spot.

“Are you alright? What did he say to you?” he asks, reaching a hand out for your arm.

“Nothing.” You say dodging him. The less he knew the safer he'd be. You weighed your options in your head on the walk back, but you knew there was only one way to avoid harming anyone. You had to hide away, become anonymous. Fall back into legend, never to be seen again. It was the only way Grogu would be safe, it was the only way Cara would be safe, it was the only way Din would be safe. As the ship takes off you say three words that would change everything.

“Take me home.”

“We're on route to Hoth now,” he says reassuringly.

“No, take me to my home. Grogu is back and safe. Our deal is done. Our alliance is over” You say, eyes plastered to the windshield.

“What did he say to you?” Din stresses, but you don’t answer. Silence was the only way to stop him from convincing you to stay.

“Don’t shut me out” he says slamming his hand on the panel. You don’t flinch, you don’t even look up. “We can figure this out together.” He says softly, if you hadn’t known any better you would have thought he was pleading with you.

“You’ve done enough. Take me home. If you don’t the force will.” He resets the GPS coordinates before standing up and dropping downstairs. Anya muzzles into you as you let out a sigh blinking back the tears you felt forming.

#alliance #din djarin x reader #din djarin x y/n #mando x you #star wars #the mandalorian #the mandolorian x reader #mando x y/n #mando x reader #chapter 9

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marvelfansince08love · 5 years ago

Text

The Pleasure is all mine Chapter 2

Word count: 2616

Pairing: Lou Miller x Fem!Reader, Background Platonic friendship Debbie Ocean x Lou Miller.

Setting: Three weeks after their initial meeting, they finally meet again but does the reader assume things to quickly... (of course she does because I wrote it and I’m an over-thinker)

A/N: I am so sorry for the late update, I was going to do it yesterday but I just needed to add a couple of things to it before uploading. Also I skimmed through this... does that count as proof-reading?

Tags: @waitingfortheendtocome @natasha-danvers @5aftermidnight

P.S: Your comments puts fuel/gas in my car, much appreciated x

I do not own the gif below! ♥

Chapter 2

Erin is a sweet five year old girl with the cutest blonde curls and crystal blue eyes reminding me of a certain hot knight in shining armour.

"See you around Y/N from Y/H/T"

"Miss Nurse do you have any fish?"

I shake the thoughts of Lou out of my head before focusing on the important question asked by my patient.

"No, but I did have when I was younger. He was a clown fish"

"Just like Nemo!" She squeals excitedly.

I grin softly at the innocent statement.

"Just like Nemo"

"Do you think if I ask mummy real nicely, she will get me Nemo once I'm better" she asked sweetly with a hint of sadness. I frown slightly thinking about the treatment that she's currently going through before quickly masking it behind a sweet smile.

"Well there's no harm in asking hey, my little munchkin?" I stroke my thumb across her cheek softly offering some comfort.

"Miss Nurse do you think I'll get any better?"

I fumble slightly trying to gather my thoughts. This has always been the most difficult part of the job but somehow, I wouldn't change it for the world.

"I sure hope so kid! But just know that me and your parents are going to be right here, with you, all the way" I reassure her before standing up and letting her know that she's due her medication.

Leaving the room, I sigh gently before rubbing my tired eyes. After working three twelve-hour shifts in a row a girl could use a nap. I straighten myself up again and turn towards the nurse’s station, on my way over I see Erin's parents coming through the door and towards her room. They glance over and offer a polite smile and wave before entering. I turn back towards the nurse's station and see Rachel standing behind the desk going through medical files. She quickly glances my way before returning to her task with a mischievous grin.

"Someone looks like shit today; you want to borrow some of my concealer"

" Ha.Ha. very funny Rach, for that you can go on the next medication round"

She pokes her tongue out playfully before abandoning her task and turning her full attention to me. She places her face in the palms of her hands innocently before asking:

"Wanna come out tonight? Please, pretty please?" With a pout for good measure. I groan before rolling my eyes in displeasure.

"The last time I ended up out with you, I almost fractured my ankle" I complain. She scoffs and waves her hand in dismissal.

"Oh please! you were fine after a week besides you got rescued by some hot blonde, if anything you should be thanking me!" She teases. I roll my eyes in good nature before taking the medical file from her pile and walking away.

"I take that as a yes!" She states loudly, leaning over the desk. I turn my head to face her with a grin.

"Of course" with a quick playful wink before heading off to my next patient. I hear a loud "Yes!" from behind me before walking into the patients room.

................................................................................

The club is hot and dark with lightly dimmed blue lights. My tight black dress already clinging to my body like second skin from the heat. If I squint hard enough I can make out the sea of people dancing within the thick smoke on the dance floor.

"Okay before we hit the bar I need to dance the stress of work out of me" I state before being led by Rachel towards the dance floor in the middle of the room.

My hips sway in time with the beat of the song, warm bodies pressed close all around the busy dance floor. I can feel the floor vibrate beneath my feet. Rachel grabs my hand and twirls me around with Lucas our fellow paediatric nurse cheering us on. After half an hour of dancing I can feel my throat becoming drier indicating the need for a drink.

"You guys wanna get a round in" Rachel shouts to the both of us while gesturing to the packed bar in the middle of the room. We all cheer in agreement before grabbing onto each other and making our way through the crowd to the bar.

She waves over the bartender like greeting an old friend. She smiles charmingly at Rachel while leaning over the bar counter.

"There's my favourite girl! What can I get cha tonight Rach?" She says flirtatiously as she eyes Rachel's outfit. She's also opted for a tight-fitting dress in red. She giggles and places her hand on top of the flirty bartender's.

"Can we get a tray of vodka shots please?" She bats her eyelashes for extra measure. The bartender winks cheekily before turning around and preparing our tray

"You are such a flirt Rachel" Lucas says from beside me. I laugh in agreement as she pretends to be outraged by the accusation before grabbing the tray from the bartender and handing us both two each.

I bring the shot to my mouth and let the burning liquid travel down my throat. I splutter slightly from the first shot before downing my next one; this time going down a little easier - almost a little too easy. I grab another one from the tray that's still in Rachel's hand and down my third.

"Is it me or is the vodka a little weak?" I say loudly to the pair. They both chuckle and roll their eyes at me.

"Oh the big mighty Y/N thinks she can handle her drinks better than us Rach" Lucas mocks in good nature. I roll my eyes before giving him a playful shove on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry the vodka isn't to your likening"

That voice

Oh how I've dreamt of that voice.

I turn around with wide eyes my mouth opening in shock to see her stood with such confidence and beauty.

Lou

She's got the same signature smirk on her face just like that night in the food truck. I quickly close my gaping mouth and throw Lou a shy smile.

"Just point me in the direction of the club manager because there's no way that's just vodka" I awkwardly tease. I hear Rachel gasp next to me and with a quick glance her way she shakes her head as if indicating for me to stop talking, her eyes wide with slight fear and amusement.

"There's no need to take you to her when she's right here, love" she teases with her deep Australian accent. There's that damn smirk again.

Shit!

"Oh my god Lou, I am so sorry I didn't mean it in a bad way. I guess I can just handle stronger vodka" I ramble feeling embarrassed that I've managed to make a fool of myself TWICE in front of this woman.

She walks slowly up to me so we are in closer proximity and leans towards my ear, her breath smells of mint and is warm against my cheek. I close my eyes at the feeling of it – feeling intoxicated by it.

Maybe the vodka is a bit stronger than I thought.

"If you want something stronger all you gotta do is ask my darling" she pulls back and winks while chewing lazily on a piece of gum.

I shake the dirty thoughts out of my head before straightening up and quickly glancing at the two spectators in this flirtatious game. Their eyes moving back and forth between the two of us, Rach clashes her eyes with mine and winks before mouth "go for it". I quickly look back to Lou and notice that she's still staring at me waiting for a response her crystal blues look dark under the dimmed lights.

"Okay"

Her lips twitch in amusement before replying:

"Okay"

I smile wide at the similar exchange from our first meeting.

I turn back towards my friends to see them subtly giving me approval and making whipping noises.

I am so not whipped.

I feel her arm circle around my waist and her mouth close to my ear - barely touching.

"I hope you don't mind but I'd hate to lose you in the crowd after I've just found you again" she says loudly into my ear before escorting me through the crowds, her arm never loosening its hold around me.

As we come to a flight of stairs, I tense and turn towards her in confusion which effectively removes her arm.

"My office is up here and it's quiet, I'd like to talk to you. I know it sounds crazy, but I've not been able to get you out of my head" she looks deep into my eyes with slight insecurity. I smile gently before gently taking hold of her hand and heading for the steps. I look over my shoulder at her and see that her eyes are glued to one place only:

"I hope you weren't looking at my ass, Aussie" I say cheekily with a smirk. She quickly looks away and smirks; as if she's not ashamed of being caught. Just like that the insecurity is gone.

"I wouldn't dream of objectifying you like that darling"

The cheek of this woman!

You secretly love it though

I blush at the nickname as well as my thoughts before hiding it by turning back around and continuing up the stairs.

We finally reach her office space and gestures for me to seat down on a very expensive black plush sofa.

This is place is huge!

Lou moves over to a small bar in the corner of the room and pours two small glasses of vodka. She walks over with confidence and hands me a glass before taking a seat next to me - hip brushing against hip. She leans her forearms onto her thighs and turns to look at me with those crystal blue eyes.

"Thanks for coming up here it gets a bit much downstairs, how are you? How's that ankle of yours?" She asks softly with some concern.

I smile and feel my heart beating faster at our proximity.

"Uh yeah I'm doing okay. I've managed to see more of New York and made a few friends, plus my ankle is a hundred times better now thanks to you" I say with a teasing undertone. I gently bump my shoulder against hers and grin.

She laughs, mouth wide showing her perfect white teeth.

"So I see you run your own little kingdom around these parts huh. First the burger truck and now a nightclub you must be pretty busy" I state jokingly, she shifts uncomfortably before masking her discomfort with a smug smirk.

"I'm a woman of many talents Y/N" I raise an eyebrow in question to her diverting away from the statement. Her shoulders drop before taking a sip of her drink.

"Growing up... I didn't have a lot. My father worked two jobs trying to provide for us, we moved constantly, never staying in the same place longer than six months. I guess it made me more determined to not have that constant worry of where my next meal was coming from or if I had a roof over my head. So eventually I moved to New York starting working a few highly paying jobs and managed to afford this place.... 5 years later I'm running one of the busiest nightclubs in New York" She stares at me with a soft expression.

"Your amazing" I whisper my eyes taking her in, trying to piece this beautiful woman together. Maybe there's a softness to the mysterious confident Lou. She reaches over and takes my hand into hers, her thumb brushing softly against my skin.

"Listen Y/N...

"Hey Lou baby, we need talk about this plan because I've been up all night thinking about and honestly I need a listening ear... oh you have company"

Lou quickly let's go of my hand and stands briskly, her eyes widen as if being caught doing something she shouldn't be doing.

"Debs I uh, this is Y/N you know the woman I helped a few weeks ago" her voice tight and rushed; as if trying to justify my presence. I reel off all the possibilities as to why she's retreating in this woman's presence until a cold realisation dawn's on me as I stare at them both.

She has a girlfriend

A hot girlfriend

Fuck!

I stand quickly and both women turn and look towards me. Lou seems to realise my conclusion and steps forward, mouth opening as if to reel off an explanation. I sidestep out of her reach and look at her crestfallen face.

"I uh, I should go. My friends will be wondering where I am, it was nice meeting you" I stutter as I clumsily make my way to the door. The hot brunette seems to raise an eyebrow, silently questioning my sudden departure.

"Wait Y/N stay please" Lou asks desperately. My eyes widen at her tone of voice and I can see the brunette is also surprised by her desperation.

"I really can't do this. I'm sorry" I whisper before fleeing the room and down back to the club floor. I quickly find my friends through the sea of people. I grab onto Rachel's arm and lean my mouth to her ear:

"I gotta go I'm not feeling well"

She wiggles her eyebrows playfully.

"Oh yeah I bet you are, how was she?"

There's that sick feeling again; or is it the vodka.

"No seriously I'm gonna head home I'm tired and think I'm coming down with something"

She looks at me with a frown noticing the serious tone of my voice.

"Are you sure? Do you want me to come with you?"

"No its okay, I'll grab a cab from outside and text you in the morning"

I blow a kiss over to Lucas who seems to be too busy with a tall handsome god of a man and quickly leave. As I get to the door a look up towards the office and see Lou looking down scanning the crowd; for me.

It's like a magnet charging between us because in a second her eyes turn to me. She looks pissed and, on a mission, as she quickly takes to the stairs. I turn around and head out of the door and take a deep breath in the cold New York air before heading for a cab. I feel a hand wrap around my elbow desperately.

"Wait Y/N there's been a misunderstanding somewhere, I thought we were getting along"

"Look Lou, I think you're great but this, whatever it is, needs to stop"

She let's go of my arm and stands still, her eyes boring into mine before scanning every inch of my face.

"If that's what you want, I won't pursue anything but I want to at least be your friend Y/N. I know it sounds crazy even I can't believe it but there is something about you Y/N from Y/H/T and I can't get you out of my head. I shouldn't want this but fuck! I need you around... your presence grounds me" she sighs in defeat looking lost her crystal blue eyes pleading for me to understanding.

"Lou I... can't do this. I will not be that girl who gets involved with someone who's already taken, I'm sorry" I whisper before taking a step back - away from her and fleeing before she can explain further.

Once in the cab I look out of the window to see Lou running her hands through her blonde hair in frustration before storming back inside.

What have I gotten myself into.

#lou miller x reader #lou miller #cate blanchett #oceans 8 #debbie ocean #Sandra Bullock #female!reader #mystory #just gay things #writing #carol 2015

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ve1vetyoongi · 5 years ago

Text

Operation: Love Letters | 04

💌 CHAPTER INDEX 💌

♡ ⇢ pairing: ot7 x reader.

♡ ⇢ chapter word count: 7k

♡ ⇢ genre: mystery, college!au, romance, fluff, eventual smut.

♡ ⇢ warnings/rating: none, PG

♡ ⇢ summary: When every student on campus is going crazy about a survey that claims to make true love bloom, your best friend manages to convince you to join in on the fun — except you’re disappointed to find out that your results just seem to be lost causes. That is until a love letter from a mysterious secret admirer turns up and you find yourself on a mission to find the person behind the pen — but you quickly realise it’s going to be a lot harder than you initially thought when you have 7 possible bachelors to investigate, right? Operation: Love Letters a-go!

♡ ⇢ schedule: updated every day at 5pm GMT in the run up to Valentine’s Day 2020!

"I'm having second thoughts about this." You whine as Jimin fishes around in his leather waist bag for a pen so he can scribble your names down under KISSERS on the fundraiser sign up sheet. "What if my admirer doesn't even turn up? Or worse, what someone kisses me and I get sick and then I die before I can uncover their identity?"

Jimin just rolls his eyes, already finished dotting the I's in his name with tiny hearts before he slips his arm through yours and drops his head on to your shoulder as you walk across campus.

"Taehyung got totally suspicious when he found out you were signing up for the kissing booth. So, he knows you're gonna be here. What's stopping him from coming?"

"We don't know if he is my admirer yet." You point out. "Their name was ripped off, remember?"

"Well why else would he have had that letter in his backpack? It doesn't take much to read between the lines. Don't deep it too much. Besides, I've already started an intense lip treatment so I'm ready for the big day!" He smacks his lips with a wink and you can't help but scoff.

"Hey! You're supposed to be focused on finding my admirer not making out with every student on campus!"

"What? A guy can't even have some fun around here anymore?" Jimin tugs on his satchel with a dreamy look in his eyes. "Besides, who knows? Maybe I'll find an admirer of my own!"

"I just wish the note hadn't been ripped right where my admirer wrote his name." You sigh. "That would've made this whole thing a lot easier."

"Sure, but in a way it's a good sign. The fact that he signed his name at all suggests that he wants to be found, so I'll bet he's gonna turn up at the kissing booth for real."

You shake your head, already nervous. "You better be right."

Jimin just sends you a wink. "When am I ever wrong?"

"Okay, I was wrong." Jimin murmurs, nerves evident in his tone as you elbow your way to the front of the crowd that has formed outside the gym. "Maybe this was a bad idea."

The kissing booth is a small wooden shack set up in the middle of the gymnasium, surrounded by red foil balloons in the shape of hearts and jars of pink jellybeans and bouquets of chocolate covered strawberries. The air is fragrant with the red roses that are scattered by the dozen along the path leading up to none other than Kim Seokjin, who stands on a stepladder as he adds the finishing touches to a sign labelled with prices in chalk, from 5 cents for a kiss on the cheek to 5 dollars for a make-out.

When he sees you emerging from the crowd his face breaks out into a beaming grin and he rushes over to pull you both into a bear hug. "I knew I could count on you two to come along! The other kisser's pulled out last minute, so you guys are gonna have to work extra hard today!"

"What?" Jimin exclaims. "The two of us have to kiss all of these people?"

Before Seokjin can open his mouth to let out a reassuring excuse, a familiar head of blonde hair stuffed messily beneath a baseball cap rounds the corner.

"Dude, Taehyung popped another one of the balloons, d'ya got any spares..." Yoongi calls, before stopping like a dead weight when he sees you standing there. He offers you a confused but friendly wave. "Oh hey, Y/N."

"Yoongi? What are you doing here?"

"Seokjin paid me twenty dollars to man the tip jar." He explains, opening a nearby pot and pouring a handful of pink bubblegum into his mouth despite the distasteful look Seokjin sends him. Yoongi just shrugs and slumps down onto the stool behind the booth, flashing Seokjin a look of his own. "He didn't mention that slave labour would be involved, though."

"Yoongi? Did you get more balloons—"

None other than Taehyung skips around the corner holding a bunch of pink balloons, stumbling gracelessly like a crazed, blue haired bowling ball into your form in his haste.

"Taehyung, too? What are you doing here?" Jimin narrows his eyes, and nudges you in the ribs with a knowing wink. Way to not be suspicious, you think. "Are you here to perhaps...kiss a special someone?"

"Me? No! Uh...just...helping!" Taehyung stammers, avoiding Jimin's gaze like the plague while jumping foot to foot nervously and managing to somehow pop one of the balloons in his grip which falls to the ground limply. He flashes you a sheepish smile. "See, helping..."

"He's definitely being sketchy." Jimin whispers in your ear as Yoongi rolls his eyes and ties the balloons to the booth where Taehyung can't accidentally destroy any more of them. "Look at how much he's sweating!"

"I think the real question is, why are you guys here?" Yoongi nods towards the coordinating pink jumpsuits Jimin has convinced you to wear because they were Valentine's appropriate. "Didn't think you did a lot of charity work."

"I like charity work!" You insist, though Yoongi just raises an eyebrow unconvinced, nodding his head when your true motive slips out. "But truth is I'm trying to find my secret admirer. It's just I didn't think there would be so many people..."

Yoongi follows your gaze out over the line of people waiting to get a kiss from the booth, face after indistinguishable face buzzing with excitement until they disappear around the corner, probably getting longer as the minutes ticked by.

"How do you even know if the guy is here or not?" Yoongi points out. "This could be a waste of time."

"I don't know." You shrug. "I guess I'll know when I see them?"

"How?" Taehyung suddenly interjects. All eyes fall on him and he turns sheepish, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "I mean how do you know if someone is in love with you just by looking at them? Can you tell?"

Jimin fishes for his phone, pulling up a website and holding it out to Taehyung and Yoongi who read through it curiously. "I looked online and apparently there's, like, a ton of body language cues to tell if someone's in love with you. Like if they touch you a lot, or their pupils get bigger when they look at you, or they save you from harms way—"

"So Y/N should just throw herself in front of a car and see if her knight in shining armour shows up to save her?" Yoongi scoffs, handing Jimin his phone back with an amused shake of his head.

"Uh, actually...about that." Seokjin pops up from behind the booth, two slips of pink silk dangling from his fingertips. He holds it up to his eyes, obscuring his vision in demonstration. "You two won't be seeing a single thing."

"What?!" You exclaim. "Seokjin, this was your idea! Why didn't you tell me we would be blindfolded before I signed up?"

"Because you know as well as me that you wouldn't have come if I told you and I needed someone actually hot to sign up for this thing if I wanted to raise our goal amount." You cross your arms and blow a piece of hair out of your face in frustration. Seokjin throws up his hands in defence. "Hey, don't look at me like that! You're our moneymaker, Y/N!"

"That's not the point! How am I supposed to find my secret admirer if I can't even see them?"

"It's okay," Jimin clamps a hand on your shoulder and turns you to face him. "If your secret admirer is here, you'll know it as soon as they kiss you." He looks off into the distance, eyes glassy as he leans in closer and drops his voice to a dreamy whisper. "It'll feel like fireworks!"

You punch him in the shoulder. "Dude, I know you're a hopeless romantic but I don't think that's how real life works."

"I think it's kinda sweet." Taehyung calls from the step ladder, stood on the top step on his tiptoes attempting to nail a sign to the wall, though his focus seems to be on Jimin as he muses over his words, seemingly to engaged to notice how he wobbled back and forth. "Hey, Yoongi are you sure you're holding the ladder steady—"

Before you know it, Taehyung is losing his footing and crashing to the ground, metal sign in tow. Your reaction time is slow and if it weren't for Yoongi who throws his body around yours and pulls you to safety, you'd be laying in a pile of crushed limbs beneath Taehyung who mumbles in pain and rubs his butt on the floor beside you.

"Woah!" Yoongi exclaims, eyes wide as they look you over to see if you're hurt. "You okay?"

"Uh...yeah." He lets out a sigh of relief, awkwardly letting you go and taking a couple steps backwards when you glance down at where his hand grips yours tightly, like he's still scared to let go. "Thanks. You really saved me, there."

That was weird, you think when Yoongi just grumbles something about it being nothing or whatever and bows his head to cover the way his cheeks burn, but Seokjin swoops in your save you before you have a chance to ask him what was up.

"Hey guys? The people are getting restless so we better get back to work and stat." Seokjin clamps one hand onto your shoulder, the other onto Jimin's, and starts to steer you towards a pile of unwrapped candies that need to be sorted by colour. "Oh, Yoongi? Could you hang that sign back up while these two get ready?"

Yoongi sends a half-assed eye roll at Seokjin as he drags himself over to the sign, and you just about get a glimpse of the scrawl on the front.

PUCKER UP FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN THE GRAND PRIZE!

You turn to Seokjin. "Grand prize? What's that?"

"Everyone who buys a ticket gets entered into a raffle for the grand prize. A kiss on the lips with the kisser of their choice! They say that if you kiss for at least 7 seconds you fall in love!" He sees your eyes widen, patting your back reassuringly and gesturing towards the crowd. "Why else do you think we had such a good turn out?"

"What's the point if they can't even see the person?" Yoongi grumbles, taking the pencil balanced behind his ear and scribbling a mark for the nail on the wall. "Seems kinda dumb."

"Isn't that the point of a secret admirer?" Seokjin huffs, producing a roll of pink tickets from his pocket and handing one to both Yoongi and Taehyung. "Tell you what, here. Both of you take one of these. On the house for all your hard work."

"Wow. I'm touched." Yoongi slides it into his pocket with a roll of his eyes but Taehyung looks down and the ticket and back up at you and Jimin again in wonder.

"Who knows? Maybe you'll win." Seokjin winks. "Now chop chop you two! Go get ready to pucker up!"

Hours pass and 78 kisses later (yes, you counted) and you still haven't felt the fireworks Jimin said you would when you and your secret admirer locked lips.

"I'm starting to think he's not coming, Jimin." You sigh, feeling around in your blindfolded state for your best friend who is busy applying hundreds of layers of lip balm to his puckered lips. "Maybe Yoongi's right and this whole thing was dumb."

"Don't give up just yet," Jimin responds, pouting his lips and crooning a finger towards the next customer. "We still have the grand prize winners to go!"

As if on cue, Seokjin jumps up onto the main stage and taps a megaphone, the sound quieting down the rumble of chit chat and budding love that lingers in the gym.

"Okay everybody, it's the moment you've all been waiting for! Time to announce the winners of the grand prize!"

The crowd let's out a unanimous cheer and you silently cross your fingers beneath the booth that the power of love was strong enough to make your secret admirer's number the winner.

Seokjin sticks his hand into a jar filled with tiny slips of paper, eyes squeezed shut as he closes his hand around the winning number. You can't see it but you can hear the triumphant grin on his lips at the ripple that runs through the crowd when he produces not one but two pieces of paper from the jar.

"Looks like the universe has spoken, and we're going to be awarding two kisses today! Could number nine and number thirty please make their way to the front of the gym and select their kisser of choice!"

The crowd erupts into applause and you hear a pair of shoes scuffle across the ground towards you, almost hesistant.

"Hey." You feel a person stop a short distance away from you, and you flash them a small smile. "Congrats!"

The person says nothing and you're about to open your mouth to ask them their name when Seokjin interjects.

"Hello? What are you waiting for? Kiss!"

The crowd starts to chant kiss! kiss! kiss! and you're suddenly overcome with nerves. What if this isn't your admirer? But then again, what will you do if it is?

A shiver runs down your spine when you feel a breath ghost across your face, and even though you're blindfolded you find your eyes falling shut in anticipation when a hesitant hand gently cups your chin. The touch is more careful than the others, a thumb rubbing soothing circles into the flushed flesh of the apple of your cheek as you stand on your tip toes to finally connect your lips to the one's hovering inches from your own.

This kiss is different. Slower, languid, careful. A plump bottom lip that slots just perfectly between your own, like it has always belonged there. A heat that sends tingles through your entire body and makes your heart race and your blood run hot as you wrap your arms around the neck of the person and then—

"7 seconds are up, dudes! Time to move along to the next person!"

Within seconds the lips are gone and you reach for them but a hand grabs your wrist and prises your hand open, placing something into your palm and then curling your fingers tightly around it. You're utterly frozen, lips tingling, as he leans in and places a single kiss to your cheek before you feel his warmth disappear all together.

Your hands shake, eyes shooting open as you rip the blindfold away.

Fireworks.

"Jimin!" You exclaim, grabbing him by the elbow and dragging him out from behind the booth much to the groaning disappointment of the growing line of customers. "I felt it. That was him! I'm sure of it!"

Jimin is touching his lips carefully, vision distant as he squeezes his eyes shut and let's out a hazy sigh of satisfaction. "Me too. I felt... fireworks!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find them before they get away!"

You scan the gym with greedy eyes, immediately zoning in on two figures who are pushing their way backwards through the crowd in opposing directions. The dude to your left glances over his shoulder briefly, and you just about catch a glimpse of blue hair poking above the crowd from beneath his hood when he does.

"I'll go left, you go right!" You call to Jimin, who nods and scurries after the other figure who has already been swallowed by the crowd, and you ignore Seokjin's shouts from behind you and break into a run to catch up with your suspect.

Sharp elbows prod your ribs as you bust through the crowd, weaving through bodies that seem to come at you like obstacles whenever you get slightly too close to the boy speed walking away, until you're spat out into an empty hallway and there's no sign of him to be found.

"What the heck? Where did he go?"

The door to the lobby swings shut to your left and you speed up, zeroing in on the sound of a pair of sneakers squeaking against the floor nearby. You gain speed, launching yourself into the lobby and that's when you see him; hunched over and panting for breath, a flash of a pink ticket glinting from between his fingertips as he grips his side desperately. He lets down his hood to reveal a head of seafoam hair and that's when you're sure. You've found him. Your potential admirer.

Before you can think better of it, you're launching yourself through the air and wrapping your arms around the shoulders of the blue-haired-runaway. He lets out a yell of surprise, briefly struggling before he drops to the ground and you manage to wrangle yourself onto his front, pinning his arms to the ground and smiling triumphantly when you find none other than Kim Taehyung looking up at you fearfully.

"I knew it! It's you!" You punch the air, missing how Taehyung's eyes narrow in confusion. "You're my secret admirer, right?"

"What? No! Your secret admirer is..." He swallows hard, eyes widening like he let something slip that he shouldn't have. "Uh wait! Forget I said that, um I gotta go—"

"Oh hell no," Jimin appears, out of breath, and grabs Taehyung by the collar. "You know something? You're coming with us."

"Uh, sorry again for, you know...tackling you to the ground or whatever." You say as you place a cup of coffee down in front of Taehyung. Jimin has dragged you both to the nearly empty cafeteria to talk so you figured it wouldn't hurt to offer a sorry gift. "I really thought it was you."

"It's fine." Taehyung offers an awkward smile as he rubs the back of his neck, shooting you a set of finger guns. "Better hope I don't sue you if it bruises, though."

There's an awkward silence as you and Jimin just stare at the table, unamused by Taehyung's attempt at lightening the mood, so he takes to sipping his coffee in silence instead. "

"Soooo..." You swirl the straw in your cup of soda meaninglessly, catching the way Taehyung's eyes flit across the cafeteria like he doesn't know where to look. "You said you knew who sent Y/N the love letter?"

Taehyung freezes, head jerking up to stare at you directly, tongue eventually snaking out to wipe away the coffee froth on his upper lip. "I do."

Your fingers tap against the table top impatiently. "So? Who is it?"

"I..." Taehyung bites his lip, sinking back into his seat with his hands curled in his lap in defeat. "I can't tell you."

"What? Why?!" You exclaim. "We're so close and you won't help us?"

"It's not that I don't want to!" Taehyung rushes, hands in the air in surrender. "But I've been sworn to secrecy by your admirer and...I think it's better if he tells you himself."

"And how can we be sure you aren't just lying to cover your own tracks?" Jimin interjects, chin in palm as he looks between the two of you he's been listening carefully this whole time. He narrows his eyes and points right at the blue haired boy opposite who flinches. "Explain how you had this letter that day after the frat party?"

Jimin looks left and right to check the coast is clear before he slides the ripped piece of paper you found in Taehyung's bag across the table.

Taehyung's brows furrow as he studies the note closely, confused, but then he flips the page and his eyes light up like he just put a puzzle piece together."Oh that?" He twists in his seat to rummage around in his backpack, emerging with the missing letter piece. "Here's the other half."

With a smug grin you rip the note from his hand, quickly lining it up with the letter you had read over and over again for clues, heart thumping as you read the words littering the lines and hope for answers. "A-ha! This is...a grocery list?"

Taehyung shrugs. "I was wondering where that got to. I guess your admirer used my notebook and I forgot to check the back of the page before I ripped it out. Sorry."

So all this time Taehyung was just using the back of the love letter your admirer wrote from his heart to remind him what to buy at the store? The disrespect!

Jimin slides his glasses down his nose, peering over the lenses as he slams his hands down right in front of Taehyung, unconvinced by his story.

"Then how come you were holding a pink ticket and we saw you walking away when we took off our blindfold."

Taehyung chokes on his drink, eyes trained to the table as he fiddles with the rings on his fingers nervously. "Well, I did kiss someone..."

"What?" You and Jimin exclaim in unison.

Taehyung nods. "But it wasn't you, Y/N."

"Then..." Realisation suddenly hits you like a ton of bricks and all eyes land on Jimin who is frozen like a statue, mouth opening and closing in disbelief as Taehyung's confession.

"You kissed...me?" He swallows. "Me?"

"Yeah." Taehyung stammers, finally blinking up through his long lashes at Jimin to gauge his reaction."Is that okay?"

"Y-yeah. Yeah it is." Taehyung's lips curve into an unabashed grin and you can't help but giggle at how red Jimin's cheeks have bloomed, your best friend's eyes filled with hearts as they stare at the blue haired boy opposite him with content disbelief.

So...this development is pretty much confirmation that Taehyung is definitely not your secret admirer. A weight settles in your stomach when it dawns on you that your last lead just came to a dead end, and you are still no closer to uncovering the identity of your secret admirer.

Maybe it's time to give up. All you had left was a pinboard filled with useless clues and now you could place another cross next to Taehyung's name.

But as you look between the two boys hitting it off in front of you, you can't help but smile, somehow glad that at least something good came out of this whole thing. It is the season of love, after all. Even if it wasn't for you.

"Oooookay." You announce, getting to your feet when you zone back in and notice how much closer Jimin has scooted towards Taehyung. "Well, I guess this is my cue to leave you guys to it."

"Wait!" Taehyung grabs your wrist, pinning you in place. "I really do hope you find your admirer. I know I couldn't help much, but have you tried talking to Jeon Jungkook? He programmed the Love Calculator so maybe he can."

"Jeon Jungkook..." Where have you heard that name before...wait!

"Jeon Jungkook!" Jimin exclaims. "That's the last name on your list!"

Huh. Maybe you haven't hit a dead end after all.

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