#I just… open storage request table. can do all my crafting from there. even has JEI integration

[theminecraftbee]

listen vault hunters is tricksy. it is modded minecraft but because you unlock mods overtime it introduces the mods slowly. so you have time to get used to each one, right, as well as your skills. and I was sitting here doing some inventory management and then I realized.

oh god can I ever play vanilla minecraft again oh god I’ll have a CHEST MONSTER again,

[mandoinevarro]

NO REFUNDS

Words: 5.1k :))

Rating: E, baby

Warnings: Smut (surprise surprise), bad words :0, masturbation, a biiiit of praise kink, face fucking, cumplay? let me know on the comments, etc. etc. 

a/n: Happy Star Wars day!! The first few lines of this are an attempt at dumb comedy, but humor me a little and you’ll get a reward (smut) along the yellow-brick road

Finally, the lanky kid behind the counter stops air drumming with two chicken bones gnawed dry and trails his dopey eyes from the gloved fist on the table, up a bracer, and along a flexed arm, until they settle on the Mandalorian helmet staring him down and waiting for an answer. The employee removes the music bandeau from around his ears and settles it down, its noise so loud Mando can hear it from where it lays. The kid scratches the whiskers of facial hair growing patchy on his cheeks and thoughtfully nibbles on one of the bones, trying to figure out what one does when a client shows up.

“Uh, what?”

“I need to speak to the owner,” the Mandalorian repeats slowly.

“Oh, uh.” Mouth gaping like a fish too stupid to know it should fear hooks, the kid calmly turns his attention to the four walls of the hardware store, searching for guidance in the fluorescent signs hanging around the room and dictating the store’s rules like they’re ancient scriptures:

NO CHILDREN

WILL BUY STOLEN GOODS FOR LOWER PRICE

NO IMPS

NO REPUBLIC OFFICIALS

NO REFUNDS

NO APPOINTMENT, NO MEETING

“You, uh,” the kid continues, lingering on that last stanza and flicking open a dusty agenda that probably hasn’t been touched since the war ended, “you got an appointment, uh, sir?” He drags a greasy finger down the planner, squinting at nothing and pretending to read the page that Mando can clearly see is empty.

The bounty hunter sighs, holding on to the last reserves of patience that hang precariously on the cliff of his self-restraint, threatening to let go and leave him to his own anger. “No. But she’ll see me.” You better. You better fucking see him. “I was sold equipment here a few days ago, some of it faulty. I need to speak to her.”

The navigator. The fucking navigator. Of all the bunch of overpriced, black market scraps you’d somehow convinced the Mandalorian to buy from you last time, it just had to be the navigator. He still has his old blasters. Pumps are cheap. Even the deflector shields he could’ve done without for a couple of months. But the fucking navigator. The lack of droids on the Crest means that Mando relies solely on the navigator to set coordinates. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to find his way out of a system, let alone make hyperjumps. Even worse, the model is so old, its glitching isn’t recognized by the control panel, so he had to hover around the atmosphere of this damned planet for three days before figuring out what it was, throwing off his schedule and losing track of two bounties in the process. All because you sold him a damaged version of the one part he can’t do without.

But your gaping-mouthed kid worker seems too unused to visitors to really care about Mando’s request, too entertained nibbling on a bare bone and eyeing the costumer in front of him as a knowing smirk cracks his lips and he says, “I dig it.”

“You…you ‘dig it’? I don’t…”

“The whole, y’know.” He draws circles in the air with the bone, signaling the beskar armor while he wipes the sauce around his mouth with a sleeve. “The, uh, Mondolarian vibe you’ve got going on. Very retro, dude. I dig it.”  

Mondo…? Bewilderment overshadows irritation for a second, and Mando focuses all his energy into searching the kid’s vacant eyes for a sign of intelligent life. “I…I am a Mandalorian.”

Fucking stars above, it’s never easy with you. If not your endless teasing, it’s the exorbitant prices, your unwillingness to compromise, or your scurrying around so he’s forced to play cat and mouse with you. Your latest impossible challenge for him to tackle is, apparently, getting a straight answer from the obtuse employee you must have handpicked from a catalogue of idiots to torture Mando. Maker, he’s surprised your store hasn’t gone bankrupt yet. He can’t imagine anyone else in the galaxy putting up with your whims. And he only does it because…well, because…

After dedicating a couple of seconds to crafting the perfect response for what appears to be his very first client, the kid muses, “Well, shit, what do I know.” He flashes a toothy smile as he rereads the dogmas on the walls. “Says nothing about Mondolarians here, but, uh—”  

“—Look,” Mando bargains with your gatekeeper, trying to level the exasperation escaping the vocoder, “I only have one faulty part. Let me talk to the owner, and—”

“—Shit. I bet it was the microvalves.” Your staff of one hangs his tuff of hair in shame, swaying it limply from side to side, before staring straight at the visor apologetically. “My bad, dude, I’ve been trying to get them right, but I always fuck them up. It’s hard, y’know? Red with red, white with white. Why not red with white? Or—”

“—No. What? No. Listen to me. You sold me a busted—”

“—I sold you?” the kid scoffs, his eyes suddenly snapping wide and offended, ignoring Mando’s clenching fists, which usually make normal people cower. “Excuse me, mister Mondolarian sir, but I don’t, uh, don’t recall selling you shit, in fact—”

“—Not—not you personally, the store, look, just—”

“—in fact, I’ve never even met a Mondolarian before and you’ve, uh, no right—no right— to judge my microvalves that I worked hard on—”

“Let him in.” Your voice carries its usual amusement as it cuts between the Mandalorian and the kid, breaking off the bickering from both ends and drawing their attention to the melody’s source. You lean on the doorframe leading to your workshop, holding a pair of pliers in one hand and a wrench in the other. Grease is smeared on your face, where teeth bite down on a playful smirk and the twinkle in your eyes speaks of terrible intentions—like always. You tilt your head back to the room behind you. “C’mon, Mando. Let my receptionist work.”

With a sigh, the hunter moves towards the separate room, not before glancing back at the receptionist, who throws him one last disapproving look and wraps the bandeau that never stopped blasting music around his ears.

“Why do you keep him here?” the Mandalorian grunts as you push yourself off the doorframe to move inside your studio.

You shrug. “It’s him or droids.”  

Mando trails after you inside the cramped workshop, filled to the brim with piles and piles of sensors and motors and all the other scraps from dubious origins you collect, fix, and resell. He closes the door behind him and pushes a large tube hanging from the roof to the side to walk closer to you.

Facing him, you plummet on your wheeled chair with a sigh, your arms dangling off the armrests, still holding the wrench and the pliers, like you’re the monarch of your little kingdom of junk granting him an audience.

There, Mando finally gets a good look at you, and—much to his annoyance—you’re as lovely as always. Glistening and greasy, you’re still beautiful with oil stains on your skin and fat droplets of sweat trailing your temple. You beam at him from your squeaky throne with that faint grin that attracts nothing but trouble. Maker, no wonder you always manage to talk circles around him. But not this time. This time he won’t fall for your little games. He won’t, he won’t, he won’t. Tonight he’s walking out of here with all of his money, no matter how much you bat your pretty eyelashes at him.

The Mandalorian squares his stance and straightens his back in a futile attempt to intimidate you, strutting ahead firmly and pointing an accusing finger at your face.

“You sold me a—”

“—a busted navigator.”  You roll your eyes and push yourself to your legs abruptly before the hunter can get any closer. He stops dead on his tracks. You wave the wrench and the pliers in the air like the conductor of an orchestra. “I sold you a busted navigator.” The vowels are dragged out with an exaggerated tune to make fun of him. “Yeah, I heard you the first four thousand times, Mando.”

Without looking, you drop the pliers to the side. They land dead center on an open storage box. Perfectly. Almost rehearsed. Something clicks. The Mandalorian suddenly finds the missing piece of a puzzle he didn’t know needed solving, and he feels his shoulders deflate and release some of the anger that drove him to your store in the first place.

You peacock closer to him, one foot in front of the other and swaying your hips as you look down to the wrench in your hand. “But, you should know by now,” you murmur once you find yourself only inches away from the beskar, your voice morphing its earlier mock exasperation into the tone you only use whenever you two aren’t talking business. You look up at him, failing miserably at masking the mischief in your eyes. “I don’t do refunds.” You lift the wrench and grin as it taps the beskar breastplate lightly with a tink.

And before you can blink, Mando’s hand flies to your wrist to clutch it roughly, squeezing without hurting you, but with enough strength to force your fist open. Just like he knows you like it. The wrench falls to the floor with a bang that makes you jump. It’s Mando’s turn to smile when he pulls you by the wrist to press you closer against him. The cocky glint in your eyes dulls into confusion.

“I never said it was the navigator,” he informs you lowly.

You tense under his grasp and shift your jaw. “You knew I’d come back,” he continues, encouraged by your grimace. Staring at your feet, you half-heartedly try to wriggle away from his grasp, but he grabs your other wrist instead and holds you flush against the cold beskar. “Okay. I’m back. Now give me my money.”

But his satisfaction is short-lived, because if there’s anyone in the universe who knows no shame, that’s you. So you simply bite your lower lip and move your head from side to side to shake hair and embarrassment off your face. When you look up at the visor again it’s with that brazen insolence that secretly gets the Mandalorian going like nothing else in the galaxy.

“A girl gets lonely in here,” you purr. Your wrists relax, and make no attempt to pull away. “Can you blame me for wanting you back a little earlier?” Your plush lips curl into the perverse smile of someone who’s holding all the cards, making heat rush involuntarily to his crotch. And it drives him fucking insane. He could have you tied, shackled, or bent over, and you would still sneer at him like you had him wrapped around your finger.

At his silence, you wedge a leg tightly between his thighs and massage it against the bulge between. Your gasp in fake surprise when his length hardens at the first hint of a brush, too unused to any sort of physical contact to remain neutral to your bold caresses. He bites down hard on his lip to suppress a moan. He won’t give you the satisfaction.

Mando’s learnt, though, that his restraint only feeds your audacity. Only makes you taunt him more. His lack of response spurs you on, and you crane your neck forward to lick a slow line along the beskar of the chest. You blink at him playfully as you go, stuffing your tongue back into your mouth once you reach the top edge of the breastplate.

You must find it funny. How his ribs expand and contract in anticipation. How he tends to roll and unroll his fists in an attempt to suppress the instinct to throw you on top of the table so crowded by clutter that he can barely see the surface beneath and fuck the smirks off your face. How he always gives in. How he stiffens both scandalized and impossibly aroused every time you introduce him to some newer, filthier act. You must think it’s so fucking funny.

And as much as the bounty hunter wants to shove you back against your crumbling wheeled chair, he knows you’ll only enjoy it more. So he simply lets go of your wrists and steps back.

“I’m only here for my money,” he lies.

The vicious grin grows wider. “Oh, so you’re making me work for it tonight.” You step back and lean against a table with your arms crossed over your chest, purposefully pushing your tits against the cleavage. Mando shifts in his place. Licking your lips until they glisten, you give him a once-over. You study him inch by inch, and an uncomfortable rope knots in his stomach when he realizes that this is how his bounties must feel when he watches them wordlessly.

Your eyes settle on his visor, and a decision seems to cross them as you walk over to sit on your creaking chair. “Or maybe you just want to hear me beg.” You part your legs wide and clutch the armrest with one hand while the other disappears under the waist of your pants. The contour of your hand shifts up and down slowly inside the crotch of your trousers, and your lips crook into a full O as they release a deep, foul moan. “Is that it?” Your eyes are glossy and malignant, trained on his visor. “You want me to beg for your cock?”

His leather gloves ball into fists, trying to coax blood into his head and away from his…well, his other head.

Yet you hold him in place with that sinful stare and the lewd whimpers that you know get him off, and yes, fuck yes, he wants to hear you beg and sob for him all night as much as he wants to clog your throat with his shaft and make you swallow your teasing.

But he can’t let you win. You can’t scam five thousand credits out of him and expect him to throw himself into your arms no questions asked. He wants to put an end to your little tyrannical rule on his cock. And he wants his fucking money back.

So the powerful Mandalorian watches helplessly as your hand quickens under your clothing and you throw your head back in ecstasy. That fucking smirk doesn’t leave you, though. Even less so when your palm picks up some speed and you hear his breath hitch involuntarily at the visual, loud enough to override the vocoder.

“C-come on, Mando, don’t—” Your hand sinks deeper into your pants and you hum at the adjustment. “Don’t you wanna teach me what—what proper cos-costumer service looks like? Huh?”

His cock jumps in his pants when you say his name in a wanton gasp, and Mando can see you’re sweating and moving your hips faster against your palm. He’s so hard it hurts.

Your smile falters and you frown impatiently as the pent-up tension threatens to snap in your body.

“Don’t cum,” Mando blurts before he can stop himself.

“Or what?”

“Or I won’t give you what you want.”

Your movements halt on command, and the hunter almost envies the control you have over your own body to be able to backtrack on the very edge of your release. You hold your hands up in triumphant surrender as you watch the Mandalorian approach and stop just a breath away from your body. He stands tall before you, crowding you with his size and turning down the volume on the nagging voice that reminds him that he’s letting you win.

Eyes on the prize ahead of you, you lick your lips and snake a hand beneath your sit. You pull a lever and the chair plummets a few inches until your mouth is directly in front of the rigid tent growing in his pants. Expert fingers undo his belt and lower his fly, but, stars, nothing is fast enough when Mando already feels the veins of his cock growing thicker and thicker. Skipping all formalities, your hand sneaks inside, cups his balls, and pulls all of him outside. He groans when you grab his shaft and squeeze hard from base to tip, your bare palm catching awkwardly on his equally dry skin. Mando melts into the sensation all the same, but you seem displeased with your palm’s lack of fluidity.

“Fuck. Hold on.” A pair of fingers disappear into your mouth and down your throat as far as they’ll go. You choke on them dramatically and your eyes water slightly, but they shine when the two small intruders drag outside your mouth, pulling a thick string of elastic spit with them and dropping it on his shaft, pulsing with anticipation. You lean forward and look up through your lashes as you unroll your tongue slowly and more gooey saliva dangles from it. It’s too dense to spill onto its target, so you pluck the heavy ropes from your mouth and smear it manually on his cock, while a thread of it hangs on your chin.

“Fuck.” Your tiny clenched fist wakes up every nerve in his body as it drags up and down his shaft, obscene and perfectly lubricated. Mando’s hips buck into its grasp involuntarily, so suddenly that you flinch at the unexpected jolt. It’s a small comfort for him, to see that he can also surprise you. But then you’re giggling again, locking him in place by grabbing the buck of his belt with your free hand.

“Eager,” you remark. You lean forward and place a chaste kiss on the tip that digs into his spine. Maker, it was barely anything, but he’s so hard and your mouth is so close. “Aren’t Mandalorians,” you tease, “supposed to have self-restraint?”

Mando’s only answer is a low groan and a gloved hand that tangles on your hair and pushes you forward. You resist, though, instead wrapping a fist around his base and dragging your hot tongue up his underside, stopping just before the tip. A tortured whimper echoes around the helmet, and the Mandalorian is not sure if you could hear it because his muscles pull tighter, drawing his attention to his cock and your mouth and the fact that the latter is not wrapped around him for some reason. As if you could read his mind, you suddenly engulf him whole. Spit gathers on the edge of your lips as you suck on his length, swallowing around the tip and swirling your tongue around his girth.

“Fuck, you’re so—so fucking g-good at this.” You hum in response, sending vibrations through his shaft that make his knees buckle. He always forgets how good it feels with you. He forgets that you take him perfectly like all your holes were made for him to fuck. That you make his blood run hot with every swing of your tongue and every spasm of your cunt and every insolent remark that escapes your lovely mouth, now busy pleasuring him.

You settle on his head and suck on the bulb, hollowing your cheeks to let him feel the delicious inside of your mouth. Mando grabs handfuls of your hair with both hands, still trying to extinguish little whimpers before they leave his throat. And you can tell. He knows you can tell because determination clouds your eyes as you yank him closer by the belt. You drag your tongue in a circle around the ridge of the head, before dipping into the slit on the tip and finally earning a punched out groan and some beads of precum as a reward. Somehow, you moan and chuckle at the same time, opening your mouth as strings of spit fall to the floor.

“You’re hard, Mando,” you coo, pumping his length while you rub it on the side of your face, “throbbing and so, so hard. You should’ve come to me sooner, baby. You’re desperate.” You suck on the head again, and the Mandalorian’s grip on your hair turns to steel, pulling you into him and no longer asking. Moaning, you let him, taking him as far as you can and wrapping a fist where you can’t reach. Your other hand releases his belt and snakes down to your lap, fumbling with the waistband of your pants.

Somewhere in the swamp of sensations drowning his thoughts, an idea flashes in Mando’s head, and he holds on to it before you can suck it out of his tip. One glove lets go of your hair and quickly grans the hand lowering into your heat to resume touching yourself. His cock still in your mouth, you look up at him with furrowed eyebrows and a silent question.

“You can’t c-cum,” he explains, forcing words out of a throat that right now only wants to moan, “un-until you give me my—my refund.”

You groan and roll your eyes, taking your mouth off him with a pop. “Fuck no,” you breathe as you pump him faster and harder, almost making Mando lose his resolve. Almost. His hold on your wrist tightens. “It’s store policy.”

“Y-yeah?” You continue sliding your fist along his shaft, as you lean forward and lower your face to start lightly licking his balls. The room spins around Mando, and his grip on your hair pushes you into him until you suck on one ball gently. “Is—is it store p-policy to—ngh—to f-fuck your clients?”

You chuckle against his taint. Your head straightens to set your attention back on his tip, where he’s leaking an almost embarrassing amount of precum. A thumb brushes over his slit, gathering the pearls and bringing them into your mouth to taste him. The way you rub your core slightly against the chair is sneaky enough, but the Mandalorian catches the movements and tugs your hand and hair tighter as a warning. Your shoulders slump.  “I’ll give you half,” you offer.

Mando guides your hand lower and curls it around his swollen cock, silently begging for your attention. His hand wraps over yours as he squeezes your fist and drags it along his shaft at a pace of his liking that sets his insides ablaze. “Eighty.” The helmet falls back as he revels in the wet sounds of your hand sliding back and forth his cock and giving him a nice enough memory for when he inevitably goes back to the Crest and is forced to take care of his needs himself.

You let him guide you, cupping his balls with your other hand and swirling your tongue around his darkening tip. Mando’s chest trembles with a long moan at the toe-curling feeling of your warm spit and your clenched fist working so hard for him, until you drop him from your mouth and answer, “Seventy.”

“N-no, I—”

“—Seventy,” you repeat and twist your hand away from his grasp, leaving his seeping cock throbbing and abandoned, “or you don’t cum.”

Fuck, he was close. He was so fucking close, before you turned the tables. Like fucking always. A part of him cradles his already bruised pride, shaming him for—yet again—not being able to hold it together around you. But his cock tugs harder. More insistently. It pulls every fiber in his body and screams at him to give you whatever the fuck you want.

“Fine.” He nods his head once, before his better sense can convince him otherwise. “Seventy.”

A full, beautiful smile that almost makes Mando forget he’s getting scammed graces your plump lips. You waste no time shoving your hand inside your underwear again and moving your arm frantically as you give him a couple of throaty whines. You open your mouth as wide as it’ll go and blink up at him, inviting him to take you however he so pleases. He tangles his fingers on your hair and shoves you against him as you wrap your lips around his cock and muffle your mewls on it.

The Mandalorian starts fucking your face, getting his money’s worth as he moves you back and forth. Your eyes water and you gag with every shove, but you work earnestly for him, hollowing your cheeks and moving your tongue and pulling just about every trick on your toolbox to make Mando’s eyes roll to the back of his head.

And stars, even through your pants and his helmet, he can still smell your arousal. He hears the wet squelching of your fingers working your pussy fast and if he could only get a look. One look is all he needs to cum, he’s sure, one fucking look at your clenching cunt and he’s done.

“F-fuck, l-let me see,” he pants, “let—let me s-see you—see your p-pussy cum, just—fuck—just a mo-moment, please, j-just…”

Tears from all the gagging fall out of your pretty eyes as you open your mouth and stand up, taking your trembling hand outside to fumble with your trousers. Your thumbs are hooked under their waistband and push down slightly before you suddenly stop and stare at the Mandalorian gulping all the oxygen he can get and waiting for you. “Sixty,” you say carefully.

Too intoxicated with you and too focused on the blood beating hard on his cock, Mando couldn’t care less. He doesn’t give a shit about percentages or money or parts or whatever half-forgotten excuse he had to come here tonight. All that matters and all that’s real is whatever he needs to climax, and if it means letting you win, so be it. “S-sixty. Yes. Whatever. Just—just take your fucking pants off.”

One swift movement and your pants and underwear pool around your ankles. Yanking hard on the hem, you manage to pull the right leg off your boot. You don’t bother with the other one, letting it hang on your left leg as you climb back on the chair, spreading your legs and hooking one thigh over the armrest to offer him the best view possible.

Mando’s cock threatens to spill at the sight. You’re fucking soaked. Your folds are blushed and slick and swollen with all the blood accumulated on your cunt. Three fingers rub your aching clit and everything around it with messy strokes, as you stare at the bounty hunter with raw lust and moan for him loud and clear, and this. This is worth the fucking navigator.

As soon as his shaft ghost over your face you lean into it and reach for him with your mouth. Mando takes your head between his hands and resumes his previous brutal pace, his eyesight now directed at the way your cunt spasms and seeps more juices with every circle you press against your lips. And, fuck, you’re taking him like you’re hungry for his cock. Pushing harder and further and faster despite the gagging, you’re making Mando see blotches cloud his vision and feel how his muscles turn into hot, thick magma. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he can’t hold it in anymore. His balls start pulling up as a warning and you’re sucking harder and mewling around him.

“I—I…I’m gonna—I—”

Mando can’t find enough words to put together for the life of him, but you nod and manage a chocked “Mhmm” and bob your head to the pace of your quickening fingers and stars oh fuck—

The wave of his climax hits him hard on his back and makes him curl around you. He braces himself against the top of your chair and the change in position makes his cock slip outside of your mouth, but his vision goes completely black and all he can feel is the rush of pleasure crushing his bones into dust. Maybe your name is falling from his lips, but he can’t be sure. The never-ending spurts of cum falling somewhere hoard most of his attention, and he focuses on that thick and heavy release, so rare for him that he puts his mind into savoring every second.

It’s not until the echoes around his ears dissipate that the Mandalorian hears you’re still whimpering. Hunched over you, he opens his eyes just in time to see you gather some of the seed that he spilled on your neck and bring it down to smear it over your bundle of nerves, rubbing it one, two, three, four times, before you’re sobbing long and loud. Your hole tightens around nothing, your forehead resting on his cuisse, and Mando thinks he could get hard again just from the image.

You both stay like that for a while, curled into each other and panting in turns, until Mando gathers all the energy left in his system to pull himself upright and shove his softening shaft back into his pants. It’s only then that he sees just how much of a mess he made: Cum landed everywhere. It hangs thick all over your face, on your neck, on your hair, on your clothes. He blushes darkly and he’s about to open his mouth to apologize, but you sense it. Somehow. You wink and brush off his shame with a smile and a wave of your hand, standing up to get dressed. But Mando’s quicker. He kneels in front of you and gently raises your underwear until it hugs your hips, wishing for a fleeting second he could press a kiss on the supple flesh there. You grab his pauldron for balance to sneak your foot into the pantleg that Mando holds open for you.

For once, it’s he who breaks the silence. “I…I do want my sixty percent, you know.”

“Of course.” You smile sweetly at him, reaching back to your work table to grab a clean rag, rubbing it against your face and neck. “I’ll even throw in some free microvalves for good measure.”

—

Taglist of two so you can keep each other company :) : @rosetophighlander​ @hellomothermoon

[snowdice]

Little Kestrel (Part 6)[Birds of Different Feathers Series]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Logan & Patton & Virgil (future Virgil/Patton but not in this story)

Characters:

Main: Logan, Patton, Virgil

Appear: Thomas

Mentioned: Janus

Summary:

It was supposed to be a quick job either way. Either Virgil would assassinate King Thomas of Prijaznia or he’d be caught and get executed. Yet, when Virgil gets the wrong bedroom and gets caught by Prince Logan and his future royal advisor, Patton, the job ends up getting way more complicated for the 14-year-old. He also ends up sleeping in a (actually pretty comfortable) closet for a few weeks…

Notes: Implied/referenced child abuse, assassination attempt, knives, torture mentioned, captivity, teenagers being really dumb

This is a prequel to Kill Dear. I wrote it 100 words at a time on my blog, but this is the edited version. If you want to see how it was crafted, look at the tag proofread stories.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Virgil had started to feign sleep about an hour after Logan had left to his potions lab. Patton could tell he was faking because his arms never relaxed. Despite the boy no longer responding, he kept talking to him in soft tones. He seemed exhausted, but he was also clearly not planning to truly sleep any time soon. Patton wondered what had led up to him being here both recently, which had caused the dark circles under his eyes and long term that had caused the sunkenness of his cheeks.

Patton’s stomach growled, reminding him of the passage of time. He had no idea how long whatever Logan was doing was going to take, but someone was going to have to go to the kitchen and get some breakfast soon. The snacks truly had not been enough to hold them through the night.

He felt secure enough even knowing Virgil wasn’t actually sleeping to push himself to his feet and walk over to the potions lab door. “Hey Lo,” Patton called. Virgil still hadn’t moved to indicate he was still awake.

“Yes?” he asked.

“How long are you going to take? I need to get food soon and maybe come up with an excuse for at least one of us to stay here all day.”

“It’ll be a little while longer,” Logan said.

Patton glanced back at Virgil. He caught the boy with his eyes open this time and saw him wince at being caught. “Maybe Virgil can stay in there with you while I go get things?”

“That would be fine,” Logan said, turning back to what he was working on. “Bring him in here if you’d like.”

“Okie dokie,” Patton chirped. He turned to Virgil who was looking up at him. “I’m going to take your arms and lead you to the other room, okay?”

He nodded and Patton leaned down and grabbed his wrists. He got even tenser somehow when Patton moved his arms to his front and Patton frowned, but didn’t comment. He helped him get to his feet and led him into the other room.

“You can seat him over there,” Logan said pointing.

Virgil was looking around the room with wide eyes and Patton had to stop and think about what this room might look like to someone who hadn’t been enthusiastically introduced to every new potion ingredient and piece of equipment as they arrived. There were shelves of ingredients, all organized and labeled. Logan kept all powders in uniform glass vials and liquids in bulbous containers. Whole dried herbs hung from strings in one area and there were containers of fresh ones glowing a soft green; the preservation spells that Logan came up with himself kept them fresh for months longer than they would usually last.

Logan had three separate areas for potion making. There was one space for potions that required more dangerous ingredients which currently had something simmering at it, but the enchanted protective curtain wasn’t drawn around it, so Patton imagined it must not be doing anything that could be too harmful at the moment. The table he used for experiments was empty and thoroughly cleaned, so he was clearly making something with an already well-established recipe. Currently, he was standing at his table reserved only for non-harmful substances. He was chopping up what appeared to be mint as two smaller pots boiled in front of him.

Patton led Virgil over to the indicated chair which was out of the way of even the non-dangerous ingredient zone. He still seemed to be trying to take in the room as Patton settled his wrists on the chair’s armrests.

“Any requests?” he asked Logan.

“Not really,” Logan replied. He glanced up at Patton. “Though if you can sneak me some of the leftover macaroni salad from dinner, that would be appreciated.”

“That’s not breakfast!” Patton chided.

“Which is why I requested that you to sneak it.”

Patton shook his head and turned back to Virgil. “What about you?” he asked.

He looked up at Patton and shook his head. Virgil looked a bit scared and out-of-sorts. He wanted to reach forward and pat him on the head or kiss his cheek to comfort him, but he imagined that would go over worse than badly. Instead, he flashed the boy a quick smile and then turned to leave the room.

He left Logan’s private chambers and closed the door behind him before walking down the hall.

“Good morning Patton,” one of the stationed guards greeted.

He smiled at her and the other guard. “Good morning Kalani. Hi Owen.”

“I see you and the prince had a sleepover,” Kalani said. “Should we be planning on him not making it to his royal duties until later today?”

“Actually,” said Patton. “Maybe all day. He was feeling a little sick. Had a headache.” It was… probably true. They hadn’t slept a wink last night.

“Hmm,” Kalani said. “Maybe there’s something going around. Clover said she had a bit of a dizzy spell last night.”

“Oh,” Patton answered. Clover had been one of the two guards set to watch the door to the royal wing. At least Virgil had been telling the truth about not hurting anyone.

“I hope she feels better. I’m going to go get Logan something to eat for breakfast since he can’t come himself, so I’ll see you again in a few minutes.”

The guards nodded to him and he turned to walk down the hall. The areas around the kitchens would be pretty busy at this point in the morning so instead of taking any of the busier paths to it, he walked past the dining hall towards the guest wing and took the staircase that led straight outside. It was a longer path because he had to go around and through the garden, but it was worth not getting in anyone’s way.

Patton always did like the garden. It was pretty at every time of year. Even now as the flowers started to get sparser in the fall, it was still wonderful, and it smelt great. He took just the briefest moment to himself to splash a hand through one of the fountains with a giggle. He turned away to continue on his path to the kitchen, which is when he saw her.

“Oh,” he said softly. “Hi kitty.”

Ghost Kitty was there and stared at him briefly before taking off into one of the bushes.

“Bye kitty,” he said just as soft. He smiled even though she’d ran away because that was the closest, he’d ever gotten to her.

He continued his trek to the kitchen and snuck inside on quiet feet, hoping to be unnoticed as he went for the chilled storage box. Luck was on his side, because Mama was busy talking in hushed tones to the gardener, Mr. Deknis, as she peeled potatoes.

“Well certainly no one has joined the kitchen staff who has a child,” Mama said. “I’d know.”

“Perhaps a maid or even a guard,” Mr. Deknis suggested.

Mama was frowning. “We don’t usually hire many people towards winter for those positions. Maybe someone in the stables?”

“But he needed to get back to the castle, not to the stable hand’s lodging.”

“Well then,” Mama said. “I don’t know Jeff. I’ll ask around.”

Mr. Deknis sighed. “I should have asked him more questions, but the poor thing seemed ready to startle out of his boots, and I didn’t want to push.”

“Well if he’s new to the castle, he’s probably just a little out of sorts and nervous,” Mama reasoned.

“It didn’t seem like normal nervousness. He was…” Mr. Deknis shook his head. “Anyway, tell me if you figure anything out.”

“Of course,” Mama said.

“Also, your kid’s steeling macaroni salad for breakfast.”

“Patton!” Mama said, rounding on him. “That’s not breakfast!”

Patton shot a pout at Mr. Deknis, but he seemed unrepentant. Patton pulled his hand away from the macaroni salad. “The prince wanted it,” Patton said.

“That’s not breakfast for ‘the prince’ either.”

“But,” Patton argued, “he’s not feeling well.”

She placed her hands on her hips. “Is he not feeling well or is he tired?” she asked.

“…Both?”

“Mmhmm.”

“No! Seriously mom!” Patton said. “Kalani said that Clover wasn’t feeling well this morning and she sees Logan all the time. I even convinced Logan not to do any unnecessary royal duties today.”

“Well he must really be sick if that’s the case,” Mama admitted, “unless of course he found an interesting book to read or had an idea for a new potion.”

“It’s not about a book or a potion,” Patton promised.

Mama considered him. “Fine,” she said, turning back towards the countertop. “Then give me a few minutes to make him and you a nutritious breakfast that doesn’t consist of 80% mayonnaise.”

“Pancakes?” Patton asked hopefully.

Mama shot him a look over her shoulder. “I said nutritious,” she said, wagging a finger at him. “Besides, I thought you said he was sick.”

“He’s not nauseous, mama,” Patton said. “And if you put blueberries in it, it’ll be healthy!”

“Mmhmm.”

“It will!”

“Now I know my own son doesn’t think I was born yesterday,” she said.

“Please mama,” he begged. “I promise we’ll both eat some other stuff too.”

“I don’t believe you.” Patton gave her a wobbly lip. “No,” she repeated.

“But Mama.”

“You and Logan are going to have a healthy breakfast or so help me…”

“… but Mama.”

Want to read more? Click below!

Part 7

[minstrophywife]

DeMasqued

⇢Pairing: Art thief!Taehyung x Museum curator!Reader ⇢Genre: Thief!AU ↳[PWP] [Smuuuuut] ⇢Word Count: 5,383 ⇢Warnings: PWP - fingering, bondage, Oral, male receiving: face fucking, deep-throating, cum play, cum marking, videotaping, objectification kink, sensory deprivation (blindfold), breathplay, hair pulling  !!! Seriously if those warnings trigger anything, please don’t continue. This is just a smutty fic and is not worth your anxiety. !!!   ⇢Part Two of the Masqued Universe. [Part One] ⇢Masterlist

⇢Summary: It seems as if the memory of you isn’t enough, and so Vante decides he needs something more concrete to remember you by.

⇢A/N: I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming support that I received with Masque, and so I made sure that I got this done as soon as I could. I hope this lives up to everyone’s expectations! It’s a bit shorter than the other one, but it’s full of smut. 

Okay but for real, don’t treat national art like this Vante. It was preserved in a temperature and humidity controlled room for a reason. 

DEMASQUED.

- Live with Action 7 News - 

It’s time to have an open discussion about the missing jade set which was reported stolen by the Seoul National Museum of Fine Art and Craft.

Min Yoongi: As we all know by now, the famous jade from the ‘Rare Treasures of the Dynasty Royalty’ has been reported stolen, as of this morning.

Kim Seokjin: While the museum hasn’t officially declared the set was stolen by the world infamous art thief Vante…

Min Yoongi: There is no other person who could have stolen it.

Kim Seokjin: Especially when he left his calling card of intent behind the day before.

Min Yoongi: Action 7 News has tried to come in contact with Park Se Hoon for another interview- however the museum staff and owner have declined any further media requests until further notice. 

Kim Seokjin: It must be damage control- I suppose the response is more tense this time because the government was involved with this exhibit this time around.

Min Yoongi: It could be seen as an embarrassment for the government officials, as I believe they were the ones to provide ample security to the museum.

Kim Seokjin: What I am more interested in is the fact that- even after managing to evade security, and not leave any evidence behind to indicate who Vante is, the master thief only decided to take one item.

Min Yoongi: *eyebrows knit together in thought* Yes, it seems like when he leaves his calling card, he only has one piece in mind to steal. This correlates with the other, previous instances of theft.

Kim Seokjin: Either way, notorious art thief Vante has been successful yet again- and I believe that he is gaining more confidence every time he sets his target. 

Min Yoongi: *nodding his head* It seems like it, He only let the hair pin set be viewed by the public for one day, before stealing the whole set. He must have especially wanted this specific piece.

Kim Seokjin: I wonder why? I mean, I went to the exhibit on opening day, with Action 7 News, and yes, the piece is visually striking and beautiful, but it seems like an interesting thing to choose to steal.

Min Yoongi: What do you mean exactly?

Kim Seokjin: I guess what I am trying to say is that, in terms of displaying purposes, don’t you think one of the many beautiful celadon pieces would be apt to steal? 

Min Yoongi: I think you are assuming exactly -how- Vante chooses to display his victories. 

Kim Seokjin: We all know that Vante doesn’t resell the items that are stolen- which means he must display them or keep them somewhere, probably in his own home. Maybe like trophies?

Min Yoongi: I’m re-emphasizing my point here… how do we know how Vante wants to display his collection?

Kim Seokjin: … I suppose you are right. We won’t know either. Because I have a feeling Vante is going to continue to be successful in stealing his next target. 

Min Yoongi: I agree. We are running out of time, so we’ll discuss this further after we are able to have an interview with Park Se Hoon once again.

Kim Seokjin: To commercials.

What were you going to do with your day off?

You decided to turn off your phone, throwing it on your bedside table, face down. You decided to avoid your TV as well- with the TV came the possibilities of seeing the news.

Anything to avoid the inevitable chaos that you knew was occurring this very minute. Was it a bit irresponsible? Perhaps. 

So you pace around your apartment, grabbing whatever random food in your fridge, and that book that you’ve been meaning to read since your birthday- a gift from your mother. You curl up on your couch, cocooning yourself in blankets as your own shelter. 

When you are reading you try not to pay any attention to the band of mottled purple and blue hues that lay across your wrists, hiding under the oversized sleeves of your hoodie. When your thumb brushes against it, you shudder. 

My perfect masterpiece.

Your book drops to the floor with a thud.

After that you fumble to put on some music- anything really- just to prevent the haunting of lips by your ear, and the low baritone of a chuckle the settles deep under your skin.

You are mine to ruin.

But nothing can quiet the amount of anxiety and guilt that slowly builds throughout the day, and soon enough your phone ends up in your lap- your face staring back at you blankly at the dark screen.

Your thumb hesitates over the power button of your phone.

You are mine to create.

Your thumb presses down harshly on the power button.

99+ Missed calls

25 Voice mails

120+ Text messages 

Voicemail 1 of 25: Y/N - this is Se Hoon. This is an emergency. I know that it is your day off however this is urgent.

Voicemail 5 of 25: You probably are sleeping in huh? Well when you wake up, you need to come straight to work.

Voicemail 19 of 25: *frantic* He stole the Jade set!

Voicemail 25 of 25: Hey, so Se Hoon flew me immediately from my consulting job in Japan. Text me before you head in.

Your eyes warily travel up to the clock on the wall of your office, and you groan outwardly when you see the time. It looks like another late night tonight. The first night you braved the museum and the shouts of Se Hoon, you accidentally fell asleep on the couch in your office to rest your eyes, and the resulting cold and aching muscles prompted you to bring a blanket and a pillow the next day, and honestly, you do not regret your decision one bit. It has been a trend the last couple of days, and the hour or two of rest in between more work helps immensely.

The chaos that ensued at the museum over the preceding few days was surreal. The exhibit seems to have drawn in a far more larger crowd that even on opening day- you suspect everyone wants to see for themselves if, in fact, Vante did take the jade set.

Art displayed upon art.

In fact- a nap sounds really good.

But, if you can push through, tonight should be the last night you need to stay late at the museum- after numerous (long, drawn out and almost unnecessary) meetings with the board of trustees, the conclusion that was reached  that some sort of replacement for the exhibit needed to be selected. It would be the quickest way to divert the public’s attention from the missing jade set (no it won’t), the officials concluded.

Which, of course, that responsibility landed on you. So after more meetings, and more discussions and countless hours of pouring through the museum and the government’s own personal collection, a decision was finally reached- one of the beautiful hanbok’s worn by Joseon dynasty elite.  Tonight you needed to select which one, before handing it off to be displayed properly the tomorrow.

Which means you have to search the large warehouse basement of the museum. 

You really don’t want to get up from your desk, but the promise of sleep in your own bed rather than the office sofa is what finally motivates you to rise, and you grab the catalogue before you head downstairs to the basement.

As you are in the elevator, you shiver- perhaps its the pull of sleep or your body weary from long nights- either way you wish you wore something a bit warmer to work today, instead of your silken dress shirt. It was the comfiest thing you had while still looking formal. 

Curse the meetings with the officials. You should have brought pajamas to change into you think bitterly.

The elevator door opens with a soft -ding- and you walk out in a daze. It’s eerily quiet in the basement- you hear the slight hum from the fluorescents above your head, your shoes clack almost too loudly down the hallway.

You arrive at the door soon enough.

Waving your ID card in front of the door, as well as using the consistently rotating key code that Se Hoon provided to you for this evening, you walk into the room. The basement storage is cool and dark when you step into it- you blink your eyes as you attempt to adjust to the darkness. The museum storage room is temperature and humidity controlled- as invaluable pieces of art need to be handled with the most care. 

Where is that light switch? You fumble along the wall, and another shiver passes through you- this time starting at the base of your spine, but it doesn’t fade- it lingers, almost like a sneeze that wants to escape but fails to in agitation- and this feeling is putting you on edge- your shoulders tense.

Just as you touch the edge of the switch casing, a trace of fingers encage your eyes, and a long arm encages you around your waist. You feel the heat of his palm through your blouse, against your ribcage. Your surprised gasp is caught in your throat. 

It can only be him.

Your heart quickens, body blooming in heat with anticipation.

“Hello my dear, did you miss me?” His low whispers are teasing the shell of your ear, his lips hovering but not touching just yet. Your eyelashes tickle his fingers as you close your eyes, your breath quickens as you struggle to respond- his deep baritone effecting you much more than the haunting of it. 

He must think you are shy.

“Because I most certainly missed you.” 

A soft cry leaves your lips. “Vante.” It’s all the confidence you can gather at the moment, your body too overwhelmed by the memory of his hands, lips, tongue and the very real presence of him behind you- and your trembles in anticipation.

Your reply stirs him, and you feel his hand leaving your eyes. There is a quiet ruffle of clothes, coat brushing against your arms. 

The way he presses you against the wall, along with his arm that still encircles your waist does not suggest escape, and you vaguely wonder what it means that you don’t want to move from him at all. Instead you lean further back into his space. 

You think smell a subtle floral scent- lavender maybe? Tease your nose, but you don’t get a chance to ponder the scent- silken fabric brushes over your eyes- and soon enough you feel the ends being tied together behind your head, the warmth of Vante’s arm leaving your stomach. 

You suddenly are hyper-aware of the heat from his fingers as they grasp lightly around the base of your neck. And then- 

Then, he’s pushing you softly from behind, but honestly you feel as if you are floating in space, Vante as your tether, your lifeline. 

You then vaguely realize he’s removing the clipboard of the catalogue from your fingers, and he’s twisting away slightly and your fingers clumsily try to grasp his hands- afraid that he’s going to leave you alone. But the presence amongst your throat never leaves, and he returns to settle behind you once again and you realize how foolish you are. 

Your cheeks burn in embarrassment. He must feel your flush on his fingertips, see the red blossom- because you feel the hand that had removed the clipboard return to your collarbone, dipping lower and lower to tease the edge of your bra. He lazily traces the lace trimming there, in no rush, his cheek rests against your hair.

“My beautiful masterpiece…” His voice sounds strained, a whisper as if he’s afraid you are an apparition. He slowly begins to unbutton your blouse, each syllable that rolls off his tongue is punctuated by each button freed. The blouse flutters down to the floor. 

He them teases the hemline of your skirt, fingernails scratch lightly on your thighs as your skirt begins to bunch around your waist as he brings the fabric upwards. And upwards still, along the curve of your ass, until he finds your zipper, and the skirt falls, the loud sound of your zipper a jarring sound against your heavy breaths. And then the skirt slips down your legs to join the blouse.

“The fleeting memory of my beautiful creation behind my eyelids whenever I closed my eyes was not nearly enough…” And upwards again, a finger runs itself against your spine, and you find yourself arching forward, your head resting back against his chest. You bring your lower lip between your teeth, not trusting yourself to let a moan escape your lips just yet.

Your bra quickly joins your discarded clothes, and you can already feel your nipples swell- from the cold, from seeking attention- you aren’t sure. He continues even further to the final article of clothing, your panties a cover that masks the most beautiful part of you in all. He hooks his fingers at the waist band, and drags the fabric down, ever so slowly. You feel a string of your anticipation follow, your panties already sopping wet, it breaks when it dangles uselessly by your knees until you assist- you shimmy it down, stepping out when you feel it by your ankles. Vante traces the inside of your thighs, too far away and yet close enough to drag a finger through the mess you’ve made. 

 “…not when I had finally created perfection and I just let it slip away.” There is bitterness in his voice, and his arms encircle you once again, pulling you closer still. 

You feel enveloped by him, ensnared by his long arms that keep you flush against his body. And then his lips are on your shoulder, you can feel new daubs of purple and red being added to the canvas of your skin. 

“Purple suits you the most.” 

You feel your body go limp, his mouth your weakness- you feel your weight held up by his arms. But then he’s lowering you, letting you fall to your knees your hands rest in your lap, a sudden act of modesty. The floor feels cold and you immediately feel the loss of heat from behind you. Another rustle of fabric, this time it brushes between your shoulder blades. But his hands never leave you, reassuring fingers thread through your hair to softly massage your scalp. Soon enough he’s spreading your legs outwards, and he grabs one of your wrists from your lap, long fingers enclose around it fully to slowly guide your wrist backwards, so that it meets the corresponding ankle. He guides your fingers to wrap around your ankle. You hold your breath when you realize what he is doing.

The sculptor is placing you where he wants. 

And you are his pliable clay, molded to whatever he wants you to become. 

Because you are his masterpiece. 

A shaky exhale.

And then he is binding the two together, slipping the fabric between the natural space that he has created, deftly tying them to keep you in the perfect position, And when he deems one wrist complete, he follows with the other. 

The ties- you imagine they are black, perhaps maybe the same silk ribbon from the first night. You grip your ankles experimentally, and the ties feel perfect and right and you feel complete-  you want to paint over the fading stripe of purple that has turned into yellow over the past couple of days. You don’t want the memory of Vante to fade away.

“I thought I would be satisfied with creating art, but it was not enough. I want more.” He’s standing above you now, in front of you. 

“Something is missing though,” he sounds contemplative, looking at you to try and determine what would look best, “this arrangement would look far more if we just had… I’ll be right back my dear.” 

And he steps away, this time no hand to remind you of his presence. Your breath quickens the longer he is gone- time stretches until you feel uncomfortable- what if he leaves you here? You begin to shake, your confidence wavers.

You jump when you feel fabric hit your shoulders. You hadn’t notice him return.

“Waiting so patiently for me.” He coos, soothing your tension. You aren’t sure what he has draped over your shoulder, but it seems to be jacket of some sorts, but it doesn’t matter because he caressing your cheek, and then a hand at your chin pointing it upward. 

And then you feel something nudge against the seam of your lips. He’s waiting for you its hot, and when you peek your tongue out to swipe at the wetness of your lip you taste bitterness. 

“Its time to paint you in the most beautiful luster.”

You realize its the head of his cock that playfully prods your lips. His hand grips the sides of your jaw, tempting it open. Your lips open wider to receive. Your tongue stretches outward, and you feel the underside of his cock land on your tongue. It’s warm, all too warm. You feel the thick vein that runs underneath, and saliva begins to pool in your mouth. He’s pushing forward now, and his other hand tangles back into your hair. Before it was soft and comforting, but now he grips at the strands harshly- easing you forward. He’s sliding in just a bit too quickly, your mouth has little time to adjust. You try to push back a little bit, but the grip in your hair tightens, your scalp begins to sting. 

You knew he was large, you remember when he pounded into you relentlessly. But now, as your face is pulled closer to the bed of his pubic hair, your throat protests at the invasion, and your gag reflex begins to flare. He must feel the constriction of your throat, because he pauses, and he’s wiping away the tears that have fallen down your cheeks. 

“Breathe.” 

You want to shake your head, but instead all that is said is a muffled and strained groan from your lips. You take a few deep breaths through your nose, the tension of your throat easing around his cock, and one final push. He’s buried to the hilt in you- and you feel his hands full of tension. He’s still holding back to the best of his ability. When he pulls back, his speed is slow but steady, and when just the head of his cock is caught between the cushion of your lips, you feel the saliva flow over, dribbling down your chin, down your neck. You barely have a second to grip you ankles in preparation. Even though you have a blindfold on, you screw your eyes shut.

He’s pushing forward again, his hands in your hair keep you at the pace he wants, as if you had control to begin with. The slip of his cock into the wet cavern of your mouth is easier this time, and when he’s fully in once again, you moan, deep from the pit of your belly that aches with want. It seems to spur him on- because his controlled pace becomes faster each time he pulls back and pushes forward again.

And then he’s fucking into your face, and you are trying to take breaths through your nose every time he pulls back. But he’s brutal, the lewd slick sounds of his cock that slides in and out of your mouth not slowing, and the amount of spit that has spilled out of your mouth is surely a mess. But you are encouraging him still, with moans as he’s using you, prepping you, molding you into the perfect masterpiece. Because you cannot see him, you realize you want to hear Vante coming undone. 

Behind your blindfold, you want to imagine his face, twisted in desire from your undoing. You feel frustrated- You want to see Vante’s skin, shiny with sweat, you want to see him fall apart. 

He’s becoming loader, his groans fall towards you, panting with need and want.

 Your jaw is on fire, an ache that blooms.

After a particularly rough pull, like an answer to your frustrations- you feel something loosen, something slip off your nose. Blinking away the tears that have settled on your eyelashes, you realize your blindfold has fallen off.  His hands grip tighter on your hair, the sting of your scalp makes you realize he’s close. You wonder if he notices that your blindfold fell off, it’s still bunched in his hands, tangled amongst the tresses of your hair. 

The strangled moan that tumbles forth, down, down, down from his lips to your ears makes you feel brave. 

As you look up, blinking as your eyesight adjusts to the light- and you see your own masterpiece. 

Because he blindfolded you, you do not see a mask this time. Instead you see a sculpture- perfection chiseled from marble to create a face crafted from Bernini himself. High cheekbones and a sharp jawline frame the handsome high nose, and perfectly shaped eyebrows, knit together in ecstasy. While you saw his lips from your previous encounter, you were not privileged to see his face in full. You are still not sure if you should be privy to his mistake- and yet you stare at him- awestruck.

You are shocked. Your hands slip from around your ankles, you barely register the bindings tighten when your hands press against he floor.  

You let him continue his brutal pace as he fucks into your face- momentarily distracted from his cock in your mouth because you are attempting to commit every detail of him into memory.

His head is thrown back, his mouth open. You see his jaw clenched, his neck bulging with tension. You moan once more around his cock, and he fucks into your throat harder, shallow but deep. And then-

His eyes are opened once again, and he stares back down at you- eyes widen slightly in acknowledgement that the silken blindfold is off your tear-ridden eyes, your own eyes not leaving his. 

So suddenly, you get whiplash-

He yanks away, and you find your lips almost searching for his cock in a trained fashion with how fast he pulls out-

The first string of warmth hits the bridge of your nose and arcs upwards towards your eyebrow, preceding spurts hits your cheek, and you then taste the bitter saltiness of him when it lands on your lips, and in your mouth. 

He does not let anything be spoiled- the cum that was not strong enough to reach your face he wipes on your collarbone, pooling in the small divot. 

You realize he’s placing his cum exactly where he wants it. Painting you with a sheen of milky white. 

His cum begins to drip down your face, joining your saliva in a mess and you feel like you want to brush it out of the way, especially when some threatens to fall into your eyes. And then you remember the other silken ties that bind your wrists and your ankles together. You whine softly in inconvenience. 

You see Vante grip the silk that had been your blindfold in his hand, a small contemplation of what he should do next. 

Instead he tilts head to the side, and while still looking down at you from his seated position, he grins. 

“Well it seems like the masterpiece can finally see its creator.” He has a slight hesitance in his voice, hesitant and unsure. It’s the first time you’ve heard his voice sound like that, and you take a moment to understand. He uses his hand to trail down your neck, fingers pressing until he finds your pulse. He rests it there, as if your steady heartbeat is an answer in on of its self. 

“A masterpiece huh?” You croak, your throat dry and itchy from his relentless pounding. “Art can only be so great when it reflects its artist.” 

His lips begin to quirk upwards.

“You’re handsome, Art thief Vante.” You continue to mumble, words now tumbling out in a garbled mess- you are beginning to feel unsure if he understood. 

His chuckle is raspy, and you feel accomplishment. Your feel yourself clamp around nothing. Your needs feel heavy inside your stomach. You suddenly acknowledge the sticky mess of your own juices, coating your thighs and the floor.

“You should be a model, not a thief.” You still do not dare remove your eyes from his, even if you can begin to feel an ache in your abused knees. It’s almost like you are afraid he’s going to leave- now that you know his face.

“Always for sharing- aren’t you, my dear.” And you shiver, as he conjures up memories of your first encounter. His hand leaves your cheek to trail down your neck, dragging through his cum that is beginning to fall down your chin. 

“Don’t you want to be selfish - just this once? You’re one of the select few who has been privileged enough to see my face.” 

His fingers press lightly on your forehead and he’s kneeling down to your eye level, and you feel lost in his eyes because he’s still not looking away, and so are you. You have to twist your arms around a bit, the bindings on your ankles and wrist bite into your skin further. But you are soon on your back, legs spread wide for him to see the mess you’ve made. 

Because of him, only for him.

You vaguely feel the fabric that he had put on your shoulders underneath your back, as there is no shock of the fold floor on your skin. He’s leaning over you now, resting between your thighs, his knees drag through the slick on the floor. A hand lays by your ear, another grips your thigh.  

“Now that you’ve seen my face my dear, I’m afraid I really can’t let you go.”

His voice is everywhere, deep and low, teasing your ear, reverberating against your body. It almost sounds sad, twinged with longing. His fingers take no time tease, your cunt swallows three fingers greedily. There is no protest, and he pumps with fervor. The loud squelching sounds that your pussy makes echos in the room.  You cry out, but its strained against your abused throat.

“Vante!” 

And then three fingers are replaced by his cock, already hard and throbbing with desire for you once again. The squelching noise is replaced by the wet sound of his skin against yours, his balls slap against you each time he pistons into you.

You both are a mess, a flurry of broken words between guttural moans. But you repeat Vante, inside your head and out loud, you aren’t sure anymore- a broken chant because that’s all you are thinking about, that’s what you are filled by. Him.

Vante

As he chases his second orgasm of the night, he kisses you, he tastes himself on his tongue as he sucks on your lip- and all you hear is the sound of your bodies connecting in a brutal pace. And the coil in the pit of your stomach is starting to unfurl, ready to snap. He detaches from you quickly, a hand grabbing your throat.

At the restriction of your throat, your world turns blank, your senses too overwhelmed too acknowledge anything else but the intensity of your orgasm.

 A needy moan keens from you, distantly you imagine belonging to him forever. 

And its not much longer then, because you feel him pull away to paint you once more.

The last thing you remember is the deep growl of-

Mine.

This time when you reawaken, you are surprised to see yourself curled up on the couch of your office, your coat turned into a makeshift pillow, and the blanket from your many overtime nights from this week tucked all around you. 

You curse when you see the time. It’s already 8 am in the morning, and you jolt out of the couch. You attempt to stand, but your knees buckle under you, and you blindly have to grab at the couch to break your fall. 

You see the rumpled state of your blouse, your skirt in no better shape. You wearily scramble to the bathroom, wondering what sorry state you are in.

When you reach the bathroom and turn to the mirror, you are greeted by tear stained cheeks and red eyes. Your throat is saturated with purple and blue swatches, deep bite marks littered here and there. 

But what causes you to cry out in alarm Is his dried cum still on your face, which he had clearly left for you to find when you came to. 

Mine.

You spent a good thirty minutes washing away the evidence of your late night tryst to the best of your abilities, but nothing can hide the sorry state of your neck, your wrists, your ankles. 

You sit in your office, until you hear a light knock.

“Y/N. Pulled another all nighter? You look a mess.” Its Se Hoon, and honestly his voice is grating to your ears. 

“I saw the Hanbok you decided to choose- thank you for placing it safely in my office. Interesting choice- you chose the rare purple silk.” 

“What?” You blanch, eyes blinking back in confusion to Se Hoon. 

That’s right. That’s why you needed to go to the museum basement to begin with last night. To choose a Hanbok for the exhibit. You never remembered choosing one last night unless… 

“Follow me to my office- we’ll need to receive approval from the committee and then you can go home.” You follow him mindlessly to his office, barely registering what he’s saying.

“You need to take a couple days off- we all do.” You nod woodenly.

And then you see the purple Hanbok, surrounded by white tissue, presented gently. 

Purple suits you the most.

The silk of the jeogori is slightly rumpled.

He wouldn’t dare.

But he would.

There is a brief knock on the door, two clear raps that echo into the office. In comes your fellow curator, Namjoon. 

He nods towards you, flashing a quick smile, dimples appearing and disappearing quickly, with an eyebrow raised. He’s probably deciphering your current state. You hide your wrists behind your back. The pink that dusts his cheeks means Namjoon has an inkling of what happened to you last night.

 “All pieces in storage are accounted for.” He says, addressing Se Hoon. “The audit took a couple of days. However nothing has been stolen.”

You raise an eyebrow at him, and now it’s Se Hoon’s turn to Blanche in response. 

He doesn’t have much time to react further, his mouth opens to speak, but before he a syllable can escape, he is interrupted by another knock at the door, this time the knock is a lot more frantic and loud against the wood. 

Se Hoon grumbles in response, annoyed at the interruption. 

The knocking continues, impatient. You can feel the worry through the door. 

“Yes?” Se Hoon huffs, a mumbled “this better be important” does not escape your ears. 

In pops in head of security. Eyes wide and feeling unsure. He has another museum guard cowering behind him. 

“Show him.” He says, stepping aside and nudging the guard forward. 

Your eyes zero in on the black card between his fingers immediately. 

In your peripheral view, you register Se Hoon’s eyes bulging out of his sockets. He’s really had a shitty two weeks, you think. 

“T-this was on my desk sir, when I went to relieve the night Officer from duty this morning.” 

Se Hoon is quiet. 

The head of security then begins to speak. “I reviewed the last night’s video footage, as per policy and routine.” 

Namjoon speaks up in place of Se Hoon. 

“I’m guessing the footage was missing?”

The head of security startles a bit, not so much that is obvious, but obvious to you. 

“That is correct.” He nods in the direction of Namjoon. His eyebrows are knitted together in confusion, an eyebrow raised in a silent question. 

Namjoon just smiles softly. 

“Now why would he want to steal security footage I wonder?”

© minstrophywife.

[thatmultifandomhoe]

Daydreaming About Dandelions

Word Count: 3,343

Pairing: Hoseok and Reader

Genre/Rating: Daycare AU - Fluff - PG13

A/N: Also, this was heavily influenced by D.O’s song, That’s Okay and is the song being played at the end.

Warning: Fluff that is the level of tooth rotting and makes you want to squeal into a pillow.

Requested

Master List

Drabble Challenge Prompt #40: “The kids, they ambushed me.”

©thatmultifandomhoe 2019. Do not repost, translate, or use my stories without permission.

Working at a daycare meant that your days were never less than interesting. Specifically, with the little kids. The daycare you worked at had a range of kids from a year old all the way up to twelve, but you primarily worked to help care for the kids ranging from ages five to eight.

Most of your nights were spent coming up with activities that the children would enjoy, preferably for long periods of time until their guardians picked them up, but that wasn’t always the case. Over the years, you learned that if paint and food were involved, it was a guaranteed good time.

You smiled and waved as the last child was picked up, promising to see her again tomorrow after she got out of school. When the door was shut, you groaned, stretching your arms over your head for some relief. As much as you loved your job, you also loved the end of the day when it was quiet, allowing you to relax, play your favorite music, and clean the classroom you were provided with for the next day.

Walking over to your desk, you perched yourself on the edge as you scrolled through your phone, swiping away notifications that didn’t interest you and seeing what you missed in the world.

“Excuse me, Miss?”

You quickly looked up to see a man standing at your door, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion but his brown eyes light with happiness.

“Hi,” you greeted, making your way over to him. Maybe he was a parent? He looked about your age, so maybe he was an older sibling and was lost. “How can I help you?”

“Hi, I’m Hoseok, the new hire. Mrs. Cora said that we’d be working together until I was able to get my own classroom.”

You blinked in confusion; head slightly tilted to the side as he explained. Mentally, you tried to rack your brain for any mention of a new hire, or even that you’d be sharing your kids and classroom with him, but nothing came to mind.

Hoseok raised an eyebrow, his lips curling into a smile. “She said that an email had been sent this morning,” he added, hoping that it would be of some help.

“Um, let me check.” You quickly said, providing him with your name as embarrassment flooded you, quickly pulling up the emails on your phone. “I’m so sorry, with the kids it’s easy to forget things unless I write them down.”

He chuckled, but nodded in understanding. As you searched, he took the chance to look around the classroom you had. There were two rectangle tables in the room with small chairs, multiple bookcases that were painted soft yellows, greens and blues were against the walls with not only books, but serving as storage areas with wicker baskets as containers for toys and crafts that were at the moment, not so neatly organized. Not that he judged, seeing how he had passed by a little girl and her mother who had come from your classroom, he figured your day had only recently ended.

Near to the door were locker style cubbies, kids’ names were carefully written out with doodles on different colored laminated construction paper were stuck on each individual locker. From that he gathered you had a total of ten kids under your care and supervision.

“Ah ha,” you softly spoke, capturing his attention as you tapped the screen of your phone. “Mrs. Cora was right, there was an email sent out.”

It had been sent during the afternoon and remained unopened, which was why you didn’t remember it. Earlier you had taken the kids out to the playground and showed them how paint with chalk, so your emails had gone unread.

Briefly scanning it, you gathered that Hoseok would be working with you until the fall enrollment, that way he would not only have his own classroom, but because parents would be able to have the choice of meeting with and possibly choosing him to watch over the children.

“It says that you’d be working with the older kids?” You asked, exiting out of the app.

He nodded, running a hand through his black hair revealing his forehead. “Yeah, I used to teach dance and through that, had an easy time connecting with that age group.”

You smiled, leading him further into your classroom. “Ah, well you’re going to have an interesting time. Most of my kids are five through seven. I have one eight-year-old this year, so she’s a little more independent than the others, but it can still get wild in here.” Grabbing a basket with label glue sticks neatly written on it, you began to pick up the classroom. “There’s not much to do right now besides cleaning up, so you can head out if you want to.”

But Hoseok shook his head, joining in as he gathered up the scrap paper from this morning. “Two makes cleaning go by faster,” he joked.

You raised an eyebrow at him, but shrugged. If he wanted to stay and clean, then fine by that. “Alright. The baskets are on the bookcases. Just put everything back in their places and then we can wash down the tables.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

For the next hour, it was comfortable as the two of you worked on cleaning up the classroom, sharing small talk in an attempt to get to know each other. On your desk sat you phone, softly playing music to keep the atmosphere from being awkward when the conversation stopped.

It had been a while since you last shared your classroom with another adult, and while you enjoyed the independence, it was nice to know that there was someone else to pass the time with. You loved your kids, truly you did, but there was something about being able to have a conversation with another adult that did wonders to your sanity.

“Alright,” you finally spoke. The room was cleaned and organized with nothing out of place, just the way you liked it. “I really appreciate the help Hoseok.”

“It’s no problem. We’re going to be working together from now on, it only makes sense to stay and help.”

You nodded in agreement, taking a moment to pull your hair up. His attitude had been upbeat and you found yourself relaxing around him. Walking to your desk, you crouched down to open the bottom drawer, taking out the bucket of smooth rocks that you had gone searching for last weekend. They fit comfortable in your palm, plenty big enough for the kids.

Setting the bucket on the middle of the table, you chewed your bottom lip as you thought, trying to decide on how you wanted to set this up. There was way more rocks then there were kids, so they could paint several if they wanted to do so.

Hoseok, who had been drying his hands with paper towel, raised an eyebrow at the bucket. “What are you gonna have them do with the rocks?” Stepping closer, he reached down and plucked on from the pile. It was smooth and grey, a solid weight in his palm that reminded him of the rocks he used to skip at the river when he was younger.

“Paint them.” You answered, getting out the mason jars you used to hold your paint brushes. “My kids are more on the quiet and artsy side, so I figured it’ll be fun for them to do.”

He watched as you moved around the classroom with ease, the skirt you were wearing flowing softly as it skimmed your ankles. It wasn’t for the first time since he entered your classroom that he noticed you kept calling them, your kids. With the other staff, they either said, the kids, students or their names, but you affectionately called them yours.

“How much did the stores sock you for them?” He asked, joining your side.

You handed him the paper plates and giant roll of paper towel as you held onto the basket of bottled paints. “Nothing. There’s a river near my house, so I went there and picked out a bunch.”

Hoseok hummed in surprise, placing a plate in front of every chair and setting the paper towel down at the end. When he glanced up, his eyes widened for a moment. The blinds on the windows were up, allowing the sunlight to enter and warm up the room. But as the sun began to set, the light softened and filtered around you, making you appear as if weren’t from this world.

“Well, that’s it for now,” you murmured, stepping back and out of the light to look around. “I can fill up the water jars for them in the morning. Besides that, we are free to go.” Turning to Hoseok, you smiled at him as you headed back towards your desk, gathering up your purse and shutting down the computer as well.

“Guess I’ll see you in the morning,” he stammered, shoving his hands in his pockets. He wasn’t sure what he saw – it had to be a coincidence that the sun happened to highlight your figure like that – because it would not be in good taste for him to fall for you on his first day on the job.

He didn’t stick around much longer, and you waved as he walked out of the classroom. When you were sure that he was gone, you shook your head, softly chuckling as you finished packing up your own belongings. He seemed like a good fit, and there was a youthful vibe that radiated from him. Not because he most likely was your age, but in a way that he knew how to have fun and hadn’t let adulthood ruin his dreams.

As you turned off the lights, you had a pretty good feeling that there wasn’t going to be a single dull moment tomorrow.

“Good afternoon Lori,” you greeted, leaning over to hug the small girl as she entered the classroom.

“Afternoon Miss,” she shyly spoke, her arms tightening around your leg before going back to her mother.

You heart cooed at her. Even though she had been coming to you for the last year, she was still a sweet shy little girl. There was already a handful of kids sitting at the table with Hoseok, who had opted for sitting cross legged on the floor at the corner of the table and was painting his own rock.

He graciously declined your offer of a chair – you didn’t realize that he was much taller than you until this morning – and sat with the kids. Every time a small hand tapped on his arm or called out his name, he stopped what he was doing to give the child his undivided attention, oohing and awing whenever they showed him their masterpieces, even if they had showed him five times already.

“Lori, would you like to meet Mr. Hoseok? He’s going to be staying with us until the fall.” You asked, crouching down to her height after she hung up her belongings in her cubbie, still holding onto her mother’s hand. She was only six, but it still took some effort to get her to let go.

Her mother, dressed in red scrubs had to get leaving, so you held your own hand out for Lori to take, smiling when she slowly switched hands with yours and nodded. With a grateful smile, her mom smiled at you and waved bye to her daughter, slipping back out the classroom as you led Lori over to Hoseok.

Having been keeping one ear to the kids and the other to you, Hoseok set his paintbrush down as you came over with the little girl. He cooed as she tried to hide behind your leg, but with your gentle touch you were able to coax her out.

“Hi there,” Hoseok greeted, finger waving so as to not scare her. “I’m Mr. Hoseok. What’s your name hun?”

She glanced around the table before focusing back on him. “Lori.”

His own smile widened, and it was then that you noticed that his lips naturally curled into the shape of a heart. “Well Miss. Lori, it’s very nice to meet you. Would you like to paint a rock?”

With a little more reassurance coming from you, Lori was quickly under the same spell as the other kids, listening to his every word as he explained what they were doing and pointing to the colors the she wanted to use.

You watched for a few moments until there was a tug on your arm, thinking to yourself how much of a natural he was with them, and quickly withdrew from the daydream as you focused on Christopher as he asked for help. It was then that Hoseok looked at you, his heart racing a little faster as he watched you interact with the kids.

It wasn’t a strange feeling, he knew what was happening, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to act on it. You were his coworker and if anything were to happen, he’d hate to lose someone like you. In this world, you were the dandelion determined to grow in a cracked sidewalk.

By the time you glanced in his direction, Hoseok was already helping Lori and Jessi, the eight-year-old that was on the other side of him, unaware of the soft smile you were wearing.

Hearing a knock on the classroom door, you stood up from where you were crouched over by Johnny and opened the door, smiling when you saw multiple parents waiting outside. “Hey guys, come on in and I’ll get the kids ready.”

One by one they came in, and like all curious kids, they couldn’t help but look up to see who had entered the room. Several excited mom’s, dad’s, and even a grandma, had them up out of their seats as they hurried to hug their loved ones.

It was after the happy greeting that you gathered their attention once more. “Before you guys go, just remember that your projects won’t be ready to go home tonight. They’re still wet so they’re gonna stay here and finish drying, but you can bring them home tomorrow. Why don’t you guys go show them what you made.”

Excitement filled the room as the group led the adults over to the counter by the window where their rocks were drying, their names written out in their own handwriting on the paper plates they had used.

Like you and Hoseok had been doing all afternoon, the adults all oohed over the child’s hard work while you waited by the door. You had made it a custom to give every one of your kids a hug goodbye as well as the promise to see them tomorrow.

What you hadn’t expected however, was for the small group of them to rush to Hoseok first, who had been taking the moment to stand and stretch his legs, surprising him when several hands wound their way around his limbs.

You stifled your laughter by covering your mouth, finding his shocked face adorable. He quickly recovered and hugged each child one by one, and after they received their hug they hurried over to where you were waiting for them.

“See you tomorrow Mr. Hoseok,” you heard Lori call out as she made her way over to the door, her hand in her grandmother’s this time.

“See you tomorrow Lori,” Hoseok promised.

His eyes were lit up with a happiness that couldn’t be contained as it slipped through with his giggles and smiles. It was like the children were feeding off the emotion that he radiated, unable to contain themselves as they spoke fast and giggled even faster.

When the last child had hugged the two of you and left with their guardian, both you and Hoseok sighed in relief, taking the moment to crash on to the floor with your backs against the cubbies.

Closing your eyes, you took a deep breath, letting your limbs relax before you needed to get back up and clean the classroom. Tomorrow was Friday which meant they were going to be extra hyper for the start of the weekend. You were too in a way, except your weekend was going to be spent catching up on chores, paying some bills, and curled in your bed with Netflix on you TV.

“The kids,” you heard Hoseok say, and opened your eyes to face him. “They ambushed me.”

You giggled with a nod. “They really like you. Are you sure you don’t want to work with the younger kids in the fall?” You teased, gently bumping his shoulder with yours.

He laughed, ruffling his hair as he sat up, drawing his right leg up to rest his elbow on his knee. “I don’t know how you do it every day.”

“Eh, it’s not so bad once you get used to it.”

“That’s because they love you. You treat them like their yours.” He raised an eyebrow, letting his gaze take you in before focusing on your eyes. This time you were wearing light colored capris and a sky-blue blouse with sandals, and he somehow managed to almost match you in his own tan colored pants and white dress shirt. It was a miracle that the shirt had been spared of getting paint on it.

Shrugging, you brushed your hair back behind your ear. “Well in way, they are for a few hours. You don’t realize it at first but sometimes, these few hours are the only time they get to be kids and have fun. They’re all precious and I love them, and they know that. Kids need love to grow, and they know that this is a safe place for them to be exactly what they are…kids.”

He hadn’t expected such a response from you, it stunned him speechless. But he shouldn’t be so surprised. With all the care and attentiveness, you put into the classroom and gave to them, it should have been obvious. Maybe there was something otherworldly about you after all.

“Well,” you sighed, focusing on the table. “I think it’s time that we cleaned up. The paintbrushes will dry up if we don’t wash the paint out.”

Standing, you held your hand out for Hoseok to take, smiling down at him. “Work isn’t over just yet.” You teased.

Hoseok slipped his hand in yours, allowing you to pull him up. “Yeah, but soon it’ll be the weekend,” he weakly added, hoping you hadn’t noticed the way his hand lingered in yours before pulling away.

As you pulled up a playlist on your phone, just like you had done last night, Hoseok checked his own for any messages and was relieved to see one from his friend Yoongi, asking if he wanted to come over for a drink. Glancing at you, he softly smiled as the room filled with the soft chords of an acoustic guitar and the soothing lullaby in a foreign language.

He thought back to when you said that you had gathered the rocks at the river near your place, suddenly picturing you stopping to take a break, enjoying the sounds of the river gurgling down stream and the singing of the birds. He wondered if there had been any dandelions nearby and if you saw them, would you leave it grow and thrive in the sun, or would you pluck it and hold it near your lips, gently blowing it as you made a wish, the soft breeze flying the seeds into the air with the a childlike hope that maybe it might come true.

A part of him wanted to stay up  tonight and make his own wish at 11:11 pm.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, he looked back down at his phone and responded with a yes, tucking his phone away. If he was going to try and just be friends with you, he was going to need that drink with Yoongi tonight to keep his daydreams exactly that, simply daydreams.

[smitten-miqitten]

A Fine Gift

AO3 Link

“Your nameday’s coming up soon, isn’t it Chief?” Biggs inquired, wiping down their latest prototype model of manacutter. Mk.6, or some such.

“Oh yes, the day people get to tell me how ancient I am. Don’t remind me.” Cid pouted, clearly not looking forward to the prospect.

Era looked up from her book, confused. “But you’re not old, and you certainly don’t look it”. He cheered a little at this, flashing her a grateful smile.

“Chief’d  look even  less old if he’d just shave every once in a while”. Wedge chimed in.

Jessie looked up from her ledger in agreement, “Exactly! We’ve been telling him for ages. The Chief has the absolute worst case of baby face I’ve ever seen. You wouldn’t think it, with how brawny he is. Looks years younger. A trim is long overdue.”

“I’m not shaving it!!” Cid bellowed. It was plainly a subject that had been brought up many a time before, and certainly would be again.

“You know, I actually can’t really recall what you look like without it. I only ever saw the once, with the echo, and the echo is always so blurry”. Era mused, struggling to imagine Cid’s beard bereft visage.

“Should I shave it, then?” Cid asked genuinely, not an onze of his previous vitriol present. He gave his beard an absent minded stroke, trying to decide how long he could bear to part with it.

“N..no! You don’t have to go that far…” Era stuttered, only to be shouted over by an irate Jessie.

“Oh, so you’ll shave for her, but not for us? Time and time again we’ve asked…”

“There are several things I’d do for her I wouldn’t do for you lot”, Cid shot back, a slight smirk growing on his face.

“Cid!” Squeaked the bright red Miqo'te, having caught his meaning.

Cid just grinned, loving how embarrassed she got at the smallest things. “Beard or no, someone will find a way to call me old. The fewer people that remember my nameday, the better I say.”

“Still”, Era argued, recovering somewhat from her mortification, “We should celebrate just a little bit, at the very least. It’s not your nameday every day. Is there anything you want?”

“Peace and quiet?” He suggested hopefully.

Era grinned, “Come now, let’s be realistic”.

“How about a day off?” Biggs offered, tightening bolts here and there on the manacutter.

Jessie snorted, “With the backlog of orders we’ve got going thanks to his wandering about at random? You wish!” She slammed the ledger shut for emphasis. It was true Cid had been out and about a rather lot of late, volunteering to assist the Scions largely for a chance to leave the workshop once in a while.

“A party then? After work, with the Scions and friends?!” Wedge added helpfully as he passed Biggs another wrench.

Cid groaned. “That’s the exact opposite of peace and quiet. If you want an excuse to see Tataru, I’m sure there’s something that needs repairing at the Rising Stones”, he said, having used much the same excuse to see Era on occasion, “I just want everyone to forget it. No nameday, no jokes about going grey the day I was born, just an ordinary day”. He returned his attention to his work, growing deaf to any further debate on the matter.

Nobody was quite satisfied with this, but Cid didn’t seem liable to budge on the issue, stubborn as he was. They all silently resolved to convene in secret, to come up with some way to celebrate.

…………………

Gathered around a small dusty table within  a storage room in the Rising Stones, lit almost ominously by handful of dim lanterns, Era, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie began to brainstorm.

They had a consensus on the small details: a quiet, low energy gathering. A nice dinner, cooked by Bismarck-trained-chef Era, cake again prepared by Era, and gifts. The gift, they decided, had to be good enough to make up for the blandness of the rest of the event. They contemplated each inventing something for him, though the idea was deemed a flop on the basis that it would be nigh impossible to keep them a secret.

Era also wanted to provide him something other than her cooking, as she cooked often anyway. It wouldn’t be special. She wanted to give him something permanent, something he could use. But what could she get him that he could not make better himself? She only knew of a few craftsmen more skilled, and even they were specialists… Oh.

“Looks like little miss has an idea”, Biggs noted, breaking the long silence that had permeated the room in the wake of their combined deliberations.

“Perhaps…I was thinking that Cid might appreciate new tools. Lazy though he can be at times, he truly loves his work. Higher quality tools surely would make him happy. And it could be a group gift, as I know nothing about tools. I’ll need your expertise”.

“It’s  a good idea, for sure”, Jessie began, though the ‘but’ was evident. “Tools better than the ones he has would be a small fortune, though. He made a lot of them himself, after all”. She sounded rather disappointed; new tools would be just the thing to get him inspired to work consistently again.

Era nodded; she knew that in any other situation her suggestion would be entirely unrealistic. But she had an ace up her sleeve, or so she hoped. “I may actually be able to get such things free of charge, or for relatively little. I happen to know a master goldsmith who may be willing to make them as a favor to me, as I’ve helped his son out of a number of tight spots in the past. I can’t guarantee he’ll do it, of course, but if you all can provide me with specs for the tools, I know he’ll have the skill to make them if he does agree”.

“Who would that be?” Wedge asked, feet kicking back and forth as they dangled from his too-high chair.

“Godbert Manderville”, she said, shying away from their surprised gasps and shouts, shushing them lest their secret meeting be discovered.

…………………

As the Ironworks Crew gathered up all the details needed to make the tools, Era set to work getting in contact with Godbert. She hadn’t seen Hildy in some time (thank the Twelve), and so had not met Godbert in quite a while. Knowing he often did business with the Fortemps family, she reached out to her adoptive father Edmont, who happily arranged tea for the three of them. Godbert agreed nearly immediately, citing her dedication to his son’s well being (she neglected to point out she often had no choice in her interactions with Hildy), and so the rest of tea was spent regaling both Hildy’s father and her own with tales of her adventures, at their combined request.

With the specs from Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, as well as the high quality materials Era gathered and provided, it took Godbert next to no time at all to craft a full set of of the finest instruments imaginable. Truly, his craftsmanship was a  wondrous thing to behold. Era couldn’t thank him enough, expressing her gratitude profusely until Julyan demanded she hush up already and be on her way. Packed away in a custom case, everything was now ready for the big day.

…………………

Cid’s nameday started, as he had requested so vehemently, as any other. He did, however, take a bit more time that morning to sleep in, indulging in early morning snuggles with his darling Warrior of Light. After stretching with a loud series of pops emanating from his joints, Era teasingly asked after the state of his ‘aged bones’, earning her a furious tickling until she relented and apologized, laughing away.  A light breakfast was followed by a surprisingly easy day of work, during which Cid was curiously allowed to work on whatever he pleased with no pressuring about impending deadlines. He couldn’t possibly miss the air of excitement emanating from his employees and sweetheart, and began to brace himself for whatever surprises they had in store for him despite his prior protests. But that’s part of what he loved about all of them; they never truly listened to everything his damnfool ass said, ever insistent whenever they thought themselves in the right, all just as bullheaded as he.

Era prepared a truly marvelous meal and equally marvelous cake, just as he suspected she might. Regardless of the quality of her training, her culinary talent was astounding. It struck him as rather a missed opportunity, that she could not live indulging in her love of botany and cooking. A greenhouse and cafe would be perfect for her, surely to rival the finest establishments in Eorzea. It saddened him a little, but he had little time to mull over the misfortune, as everyone became increasingly antsy, whispering amongst themselves as if he couldn’t hear. Biggs reached into one of the taller cabinets, one Cid often had trouble reaching and thus avoided out of frustration, and pulled out what appeared to be a rather ornate toolbox. It had several bows looped around the handle, cheesily colored in the Ironworks blue.

“Open it!”, they all said in unison, their excitement uncontainable. Chuckling and doing as bade, he opened the box to reveal the finest set of hammers, wrenches,screwdrivers, and myriad other oft used tools he had ever lain eyes on. Surely, a set of this quality must be worth all of Mor Dhona. “How in the seven hells…” Cid started, baffled eyes searching the four staring back at him with baited breath.

“I called in a favor”, Era offered in a hardly sufficient explanation, beaming away.

“Go on then”, Wedge prompted, bouncing up and down in his seat, “give the hammer a try!”

Cid did, finding the grip perfect for his hands, the weight of the implement ideal. Words were lost to him, though by the looks of his companions’ faces, his reaction was more than sufficient. He was positively itching to use the set now, countless inventions springing to mind unbidden. Standing upright, he began to gather up the box, already sketching out plans in his head. The Excelsior would appreciate a tune up, right?  Giving Era a loving kiss and the others a mighty hug, he near bolted from the room, followed by their fond laughter. They knew him only too well.

[sunevial]

A Mermaid’s Deal

Why do I like writing hypothetical scenarios involving my dnd characters? Idk, it’s just fun, I guess.

This hypothetical scene features Megariel Rapidfin, my merfolk rogue, perhaps two or three years into the future from the current campaign.

--- “Hey, is it rude of me to ask where we’re going?” Megariel asked with a slight lift to her voice, straining her ears to hear much of anything through the cloth bag over her head. There was no response, just the continued pounding of boots on stone and the occasional rattling of chains. She sighed internally but kept pace. Not that she had much choice in the matter; the rope secured tightly around her wrists kept her from doing much of anything, and rough hands on both arms made sure she kept moving forward. 

No sight, no real hearing, and restricted movement. 

Not ideal.

But they wanted her alive. That was a start.

A door rattled open, creaking on hinges that even muffled sounded desperately in need of oil. Something cold pressed up against her wrist, snapping the bonds as the bag was unceremoniously yanked over her head. Now blinded by the sudden influx of light, two hands took advantage of her temporary weakness and shoved her into the room. Stumbling over her weary feet, she turned around in time to see a solid oaken door slam shut behind her. A sharp click confirmed she was locked in. 

Megariel pinched her eyebrows together and let out a long sigh. Perfect. Jumped by no less than seven guardsmen when she just wanted something to drink, grabbed with barely even an attempt at a fight, and dragged off to a place where she was pretty sure even The Heart Tree didn’t know. Wonderful start to the evening. Grumbling a little under her breath, she glanced down at her wrists and gingerly started working blood back into her hands.

“My...apologies for the interruption, my dear,” a voice said, low and sweet to the ears. Ever so slowly, Megariel turned to her left, spotting a simple table with two chairs set across from each other. One of the chairs was already occupied by a man, relatively short but well dressed, jacket adorned with golden metals and colorful stripes. He sat proper, shoulders back and head held high, offering a gloved hand to the empty seat. “I do hope my men weren’t too rough with you.”

“Oh no, definitely not, the pins and needles in my hands must be from something else,” she replied, meeting his gaze but remaining where she stood, kneading the sore tendons and muscles at her wrist.

“Please, have a seat. I must insist,” the man said with a charming smile and cold eyes that indicated that this was not a request. 

With cautious but still lively steps, she strode over to the table and plopped down, dusting off her royal blue coat and straightening her hat once she had settled in. Her toes just barely graced the floor, but she sat up as tall as she could in the surprisingly well crafted chair. 

“Ah, that’s better, don’t you think?” the man asked, cocking his head to the side ever so slightly. Despite his proper posture, his movements were with a slowness that comes with the absence of fear. Either a general or the head of intelligence. Probably both. “So, this is the infamous First Mate Meg. I have to say, I’d thought you’d be taller.”

“Everyone says that,” she replied, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair until she was balancing on just two of the legs. 

“An accomplished gem thief turned right hand woman to the most powerful pirate in the seas,” he continued, giving a flippant hand gesture. “Cunning, bold, and slippery as a fish, appropriate given you’re one few merfolk to openly walk on land. Quite the resume you’ve got there.”

She held his gaze, refusing to blink or so much as give a smile to the supposed compliments. “Cut to the chase, what do you want with me?”

“Just as to the point as the rumors say,” the man said with a chuckle, folding his fingers together and planting his elbows on the table. “To business then. Tell me, Miss Meg, have you ever considered using your…rather unique set of skills for more legal endeavors?” 

“I was under the impression that you government types didn’t hire, what was it you guys called me, oh right, ‘low life scum’.”

The man let out a low chuckle. “Well, my dear, things have changed quite a bit since that motley crew of yours has been terrorizing Aeros. Information on anything regarding the S.S Nutmeg is…highly prized, you know. Sure, civilian reports can get us the occasional lead here and there, and magical detection does have its merits…but what better way to know a ship’s secrets than through her crew?”

“So at what point does the floor drop under me and the torture begin?” she replied in deadpan.

Almost amusedly, the man leaned over to rest his chin on his hands. “This is not an interrogation, my dear. This is a job offer,” he said, unfolding his hands and holding one out. “I am General Omaren, the King’s current Head of Intelligence.”

At this, Megariel raised one of her eyebrows. Ever so slowly, she uncrossed her arms and shook the outstretched hand. “You want to hire me as a spy?”

“A double agent, precisely,” he continued, breaking the handshake. With the same deliberate movements, he laced his fingers together and set them on the table. “While your capture would certainly prove…beneficial to our cause, having you amongst the crew would help us more in the long run. 

“A force from the outside unites a people. A force from the inside destroys it beyond repair,” she said in response.

The man nodded in agreement. “So you understand. Your captain has been notorious for sniffing out our agents, so I thought it was time for a…different approach.”

Megariel leaned back a touch further in her chair, mulling her thoughts for a short spell. “What’s in it for me? Cause right now, all I’m hearing is that I wouldn’t be stuck here.”

“You would be compensated, of course, handsomely,” Omaren said, gesturing with a hand. “A full pardon from the king for your service, potentially even a noble title and some land to accompany it.”

She leaned back even further, a slight smirk on her face. “And if I refuse?”

Omaren returned with a smirk of his own, slimey and calculating like that of a venomous water snake. “Unlike other members of your crew, Miss Meg, you have a much longer history of being on the wrong side of the law. There are warrants for your arrest on every island in the archipelago, and coupled with your recent endeavors into piracy…the other option for you is a spot on the gallows,” he replied, his eyes glimmering with an uncaring logic. 

For the first time since she had entered the room, Megariel broke her gaze from the general and let it wander to the dull gray ceiling and walls. Silence stretched between them, only interrupted by the occasional creak of wood or deep breath as the rogue gave thought to the matter at hand. After a rather uncomfortable amount of time, she simply shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”

Omaren simply smiled and rose from his seat, walking around the table with pointed movements before stopping at the door. “You’re a smart one. I’m sure you’ll make the right decision,” he said, swinging the door open and locking it behind him with an audible click. 

As soon as she was alone, Megariel kicked her feet up onto the table, closing her eyes and humming a tune under her breath. She rocked back and forth to the rhythm, listening to the creaks and cracks of the wood under her.

Decisions, decisions… 

---

Shots and alarms rang through the guard tower as Megariel ran, soft shoed feet pounding on the stone below her. It had been comically easy to pick the lock and almost as easy to locate her confiscated weapons. Now bearing her signature rapier in hand, she took stairs two, three at a time as she fled ever further down. Blindly, she raced down hallways and stairwells, only to turn back at the slightest indication of guard movement. She ran in circles, weaving between decorative suits of armor and storage rooms to no real avail. It wasn’t long before she was forced outside and into a large courtyard, surrounded on all sides by men and women holding much larger weapons at the ready.

“I must say, Miss Meg, that was a quite impressive display,” Omaren said, giving a slow clap to her as he approached from one of the wings of the building. “But what about our little deal?”

“Thought it over, and my answer is go fuck yourself,” Megariel replied, eyeing up the various guards to her left and right and front and back. Ten to one, with crossbows pointing down from the rails above. 

Not great odds.

Omaren laughed, the sound scraping against her ears like a bad nightmare. “And what exactly do you plan on doing now? You, the rogue who refuses to kill?”

Megariel thought for a second, glancing up to the darkening sky. She smiled, taking the rapier in hand and placing it back into its scabbard.

“You’re right, I don’t,” she said with a slight nod upwards. “She does.”

With an enraged roar and a blast of frigid winter air, ice rained down from the sky. Screams erupted from the guards who weren’t frozen on the spot, crossbow bolts firing widely against a target they could see but would be lucky to hit. The clash of claws on steel rang through the courtyard as something large and powerful slammed into the ground, knocking those not paying attention off their feet. A massive tail whipped around, slamming into the remaining men and women left standing until it was just the large silver dragon looming above them all.

“GET. AWAY. FROM MY FIRST MATE,” the dragon growled, her voice bellowing around what little remained of the courtyard. Any guards who could still walk scrambled away from the still standing rogue, staring up in abject terror at the massive winged creature before them.

With a large smile on her face, Megariel strode over to the dragon and swiftly climbed onto her back, hands and feet finding long since remembered holds. The second she was settled in between the dragon’s spines, they were airborne. “Thanks for the lift, Captain.”

“Stop on Aeros Major, they said. Restock supplies, they said. It’ll be a short trip with NO ONE CAPTURED, they said,” Nutmeg seethed under her breath, raining down another swath of ice onto the ruined guards station for good measure before flapping her wings and flying off at breakneck speed into the night sky. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“I’m fine, Captain. They were more interested in getting me to turn coat than stick me full of holes,” Megariel replied, giving the cold silver scales a reassuring pat.

“That’s, what, the fourth time this year?” the dragon snorted, turning her wings into the wind and towards the north. “What’d they offer you?

“Full pardon, whole heck of a lot of money, a ladyship, and maybe some land,” Megariel said with a shrug, settling back against one of the captain’s spines.

Nutmeg let out a low whistle, an impressive feat for a dragon. “Enough to have you set for life and then some.”

Megariel snorted, giving the dragon another pat. “Oh please, they’d sooner pardon you than honor a promise like that. Not to mention you wouldn’t let me betray you like that.”

“No I wouldn’t,” Nutmeg curtly agreed, slowing her wing flaps as a large ship came into view. There was a long pause as they circled over head and shouts came from the crows nest. The large dragon swung her head around, one large eye looking her over. “Meg…you wouldn’t actually take a deal like that, right?”

Megariel smirked. “Nah. Got everything I could ever want right here, Nutmeg.”

A smile crept across her face. “That’s what I thought.” 

With a quick tuck of her wings, the two of them swooped around the mast until both dragon and rider were level with the ship. Cheers rung out as the other crew members caught eye of them both. As soon as the two of them were close enough to the deck, Megariel jumped from the dragon’s back, landing on the wood with only just the slightest of wobbles. Not long after, she was joined by a woman just a touch taller than her, sporting a spotless white blouse and long brown coat. 

“Seems the imperial court thinks the crew of the S.S Nutmeg Three is up for grabs,” Nutmeg barked, stomping up the steps and to the wheel, coat and hair billowing in the late night wind. “They’re about to learn how wrong they really are. Set course for Aeros Major!”

Megariel smiled and gave a quick salute. “Aye, Captain.”

[anonthenullifier]

Alone for the Holidays

Summary: Vision discovers the holidays are very different when half the team is on the run.

Word count: 4k

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17069387

Wishing everyone a peaceful holiday season. 

Vision always finds hovering above the stairs is preferable to physically stepping, a preference that is amplified in this moment as it allows him to focus on balancing the stack of boxes in his arms. If he were to step down it is possible that the weight distribution would shift ever so slightly as to unbalance his carefully arranged load leading to an unpleasant outcome. Hovering efficiently removes such nuisances.

“You know you can take more than two trips, right?”

Sage advice that Vision typically follows, but each descent into the storage room tonight has led to an increased weight in his chest, one he desired to stymie by reducing the number of trips. Which is why he is unable to see his companion from behind the wall of boxes in his arms. “I did not wish to unnecessarily draw out the process.”

Though he cannot see him, the tone of Rhodes’ “Fair enough,” conveys an image of the man’s characteristic nod and shrug he utilizes whenever readily accepting someone’s reasoning. “Come on over and learn the system.”

“Of course.” Vision slowly squats as he places the last of the boxes on the ground next to Rhodes’ wheelchair and then stands to attention as he awaits further instructions.

“Alright, so this one,” Rhodes points towards a pile on the coffee table of opened and partially sorted boxes, several stray pieces of tinsel clinging to the tape residue on the flaps, “is for the tree. This one,” a new pile that looks almost identical to the other one minus the tinsel is on the chair Vision uses when playing chess, “is for the halls and common area.”

There is a third stack, located on the couch, where all of the tape has been cut and the flaps delicately folded shut again. “And these?”

“Those need to go back in storage.”

Vision feels foolish after asking as the answer would have been apparent had he simply stopped and applied logic before speaking. “Oh yes, I recall now.” Given their former teammates are still internationally wanted fugitives, it was determined that any object or decoration traced to the rogue Avengers should be kept in storage. Invoking the old adage of out of sight, out of mind. Yet Vision is not certain hiding it will truly remove all thoughts of their friends. Or at least, it has not done so for him, the compound’s silent rooms an ever present reminder of the schism.

“We should probably just get this over with.” He suspects Rhodes feels similarly, though they have not spoken about it. It is a hunch predicated on the knowledge that both of them have put off decorating the compound until it was unavoidable. “Want to take the tree or the boxes?”

Neither is particularly enticing or meaningful since this is only his second holiday season and he still lacks the traditions so deeply embedded in his teammates, so Vision chooses what he believes Rhodes would prefer. “I can sort the rest of the boxes and then aid you.”

“Sounds good.” A pang of guilt stabs Vision’s chest as he watches Rhodes’ onerous ascent from his wheelchair, the exoskeleton Stark crafted for him still in beta testing and prone to giving out unexpectedly. It is amazing to Vision how unperturbed Rhodes is most of the time and how, besides their first conversation post Leipzig, he has never lashed out at Vision for what happened (unlike Tony, who has done so on a handful of occasions). It doesn’t mean Vision allows himself leeway in accepting responsibility for what occurred, but it does help him breathe easier knowing there is no ill will between himself and Rhodes. “I’ll need your help towards the top, I’m not climbing that ladder.”

“Understood.” The year before, when everyone was present, including Tony in an askew Santa hat and a drink in his hand as he directed everyone’s decorating, there was music streaming from the surround sound and a fake fire crackling on the television. Wanda stayed with Vision in the kitchen, stirring the hot chocolate and spiked cider, commiserating with him about how odd all of the traditions were to outsiders such as themselves. Now it is silent minus the clink of ornaments and rustle of tinsel as Rhodes works on the tree.

Vision isn’t sure if this paradoxically weighty hollowness overtaking his limbs is normal, a topic he will need to investigate more tonight once Rhodes has retired, the past several nights introducing him to the possibility of seasonal affective disorder, though he has yet to have Helen test his melatonin levels. Vision tries to shrug the feeling away, or at least ignore it for the time being. So he begins his task, slowly forming a rhythm of running the box cutter through the tape, opening the box, and then sorting it to the appropriate pile. The process is fairly quick, his impeccable memory about where all the decorations went the year before means he doesn’t need to investigate beyond the top item in the box. That is until he glances at the contents of the second to last box. The glittery and cheerful golds, reds, and greens of the other decorations have been replaced by shiny whites and blues. Something in his chest seizes and he can’t stop his fingers tracing the dreidels printed on the crinkly paper of the string lights. The year before, long after all the holiday parties were thrown and gifts given, Wanda had confided in him that she didn’t actually celebrate Christmas. Vision, for a reason he had not been able to fully understand back then, felt a deep desire to honor her heritage and had gone to a local store to buy an assortment of, what he hoped, were acceptable decorations for Wanda. She had hugged him tightly and made him promise he’d help her hang them the next year. Only now it is a year later and he is folding the box shut and stacking it with the other off-limit decorations, somewhat concerned at the faint tremor of his hands as does so .

“Can you help me out?”

The request draws his mind back to the present, hands smoothing out his sweater as he turns towards Rhodes, “Gladly.” Vision studies the pattern and placement of the string lights on the bottom of the tree as he takes the dangling, sparkling bulbs from Rhodes and flies carefully around the tree to finish. Rhodes passes the rest of the decorations, occasionally directing Vision (in a much more subdued fashion than Stark did the year before) on the placement of the garland and ornaments.

Vision lands next to Rhodes once the star is affixed to the top of the tree. “It’s um,” the man next to him studies the large evergreen, one that could easily be placed on the cover of a magazine and will soon be on the covers of all newspapers and news sites, “a bit impersonal.”

“It is.”

Amongst the boxes in the pile going back to the basement is the vast array of personalized, garish ornaments the team traditionally gifts each other. Tony had insisted they put up the ones for the three of them, but Rhodes and Vision agreed it would only draw more attention to the missing members. What is left is a gorgeous albeit meaningless tree. “You doing okay, with all of this?”

The question is quiet, almost remorseful - whether because it is out of obligation or because he is worried about stepping on Vision’s toes is difficult to discern. “I believe so,” which is not entirely true, but is what Vision believes is socially the most acceptable answer.

“You’re still welcome to come to my sister’s, she won’t mind.”

It’s an offer Vision truly appreciates despite having no interest in accepting. “I believe it is mandated in the Accords that at least one Avenger must always be on the premises.”

This line of reasoning has not stopped Rhodes from pestering him, and it likely still won’t, but Vision can’t muster a better acceptable explanation for his refusal. “I doubt anyone would know if it was empty for a few days.” The truth is that no one realizes when the compound is empty because Vision is the only one who is consistently there to notice. “I just,” Rhodes sighs, hands waving in an attempt to convince Vision to change his mind, “I hate to think of you alone for the holidays.”

“I appreciate your concern,” Vision offers a brief, friendly smile that hopefully conveys his genuineness, “but I will be fine.”

Rhodes inhales deeply, seemingly contemplating if he continues to push on the matter, but then his chest deflates soundlessly as he accepts Vision’s decision. “Okay.” A shrug sends away the last of the concern from his voice, replacing it expertly with a more lighthearted topic, “Please tell me you remembered to order the backup sweaters for tomorrow.”

The sweaters Tony ordered for the annual Avenger Christmas card are...questionable at best, caricatures of their faces with Santa hats on with The Accordions embroidered underneath. “Yes, I have them in my quarters.”

“Thank God.” There are still half a dozen boxes of decorations left for the hallways and windows, yet Rhodes rubs his hands together the way he usually does when a task is complete. “I think we can finish the rest tomorrow, I’m kind of tired.”

Vision wonders if it is the same tiredness he has been feeling since the fallout of the Avengers. “I believe we only need the tree for the picture.”

Rhodes nods, eyes glistening from the glow of the trees, “Alright.” This is how each evening ends between them, at least when Rhodes is at the compound, very little interaction, awkward silence, and then one of them (typically Rhodes) extricates himself from the situation. “Goodnight, Vision.”

“Goodnight, Rhodes.”

Alone, standing in front of the tree, Vision searches for anything similar to his first Christmas: the awe that filled him each night when he would hover in front of the tree while the others slept, the confusion he experienced at each new tradition he was introduced to, and the warmth that bloomed from the sheer joy of the people around him. Unfortunately, he comes up empty handed.

Deciding that brooding is not the most productive use of his time, Vision glides to the couch, rearranging the closed boxes based on size and weight into a well-balanced, easily movable stack. Once it meets his specifications, Vision transfers the boxes back into the storage room, strategically placing each one on the shelves to take up the least amount of space, a real-life game of Tetris minus the disappearing lines. He would have lost the game, however, as the last box should have been placed third, its size and shape more parsimonious for the position than the one he put in its place, yet he failed to do so. Instead he slowly re-opens the box, sifting through the decorations as a gloom seeps deep into his vibranium cells. Had so many things been done differently, words been exchanged, or perhaps words been kept silent; some emotions kept in check while other, more useful, emotions were followed; actions withheld or even actions completed (he still cannot bear to think of the multitudinous options he failed to consider at Leipzig to stop the fight earlier), then this box might not be shoved into the darkness of the basement.

Vision closes the box, careful not to tear any of the delicate papers inside, and slides it onto the shelf. At this point he should retire to his quarters, or at least move to a more suitable location in the compound. He doesn’t move, however, eyes remaining on the brown wall of the boxes as his mind works.

 There is a knock at the door. Wanda ignores it, certain it’s the guy from two doors down coming back drunk, yet again. Another knock and she rolls over, tugging the sheet up higher, body strongly disliking the stark temperature difference between day and night in the desert. A third knock and a painfully polite “Wanda?” jolts her out of bed, her powers flickering in the darkness as she pulls her sweatshirt towards her with one hand and closes the curtains over the window with the other. She steps in front of the door, hand poised over the knob as she sends a tendril of scarlet to confirm she wasn’t dreaming. She wasn’t. Wanda yanks the door open with a, “Vizh, what the hell are you doing here?”

“I-” this is not her normal response to seeing him, but this is also not a planned rendezvous, something they both agreed should be avoided in case other factors, like their teammates being around, would create a perilous situation. Vision seems shocked at her ire, his human disguise faltering around the eyes as she watches his irises spin. “I um wanted to bring you this,” he holds out a box to her, as if that should be answer enough.

The hallway is empty, thankfully, but there is no guarantee it will remain that way. “Just, come in.” Wanda steps aside to allow him to enter the tiny space, which is about half the size of her room at the compound, if she wants to be generous in her estimation. With the door shut and the lights on, she is torn between her desire to hug him, always elated to see his face, or scold him for misusing her coordinates given his demeanor doesn’t suggest there is any real emergency. “Vision, what’s going on?”

A quick assessment of potential sight-lines to the outside precedes the disguise dissolving into his crimson and silver visage, a sight she misses daily. Vision turns towards her, lips pursed and eyes incapable of settling on any one object. “Rhodes and I were decorating the tree for the Christmas photo tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

She is waiting for him to tell her the compound burned down or the tree somehow crushed Tony (she can hope). “It was,” a long, timid pause breaks up his sentence, a realization dawning on his face that is soon followed by a frown and flick of his eyes to her, “I feel quite foolish now.” Which confirms there is no emergency.

“Vizh,” a squeeze of his forearm draws his eyes to her, his embarrassment bursting in the air around them, “I won’t judge you, you know that.”

He sends her a sheepish, appreciative smile, “I know.” Another long pause and three breaths is what he needs to continue. “It was very disheartening to partake of such an activity without you and the rest of the team.”

A hairline fracture forms in her heart at the sorrow swirling in his eyes. “It’s always hard to celebrate without everyone you care about.” The hollowness and confusion she senses in Vision’s mind is one she knows intimately. The holiday season has long been something she tries to avoid, as best she can, wrought with reminders of all that’s been lost, of times when she didn’t have to stare at the empty seats at the table or feel the absence of the pressure of arms wrapped around her or hands gripping her own as they prayed. After their parents died, she and Pietro found one way to cope was to adopt their own traditions, taking only small pieces of their parents with them. It worked, for a time, until they just stopped celebrating other than occasionally eating Hanukkah gelt and lighting a candle in remembrance on particularly difficult nights. Last year, her first without her brother, almost destroyed her, even with her vain attempts at sidestepping it by simply not acknowledging her roots, because if the holiday doesn’t exist then it can’t haunt her. Unfortunately that’s not how it works, all the parties and the shows, the cheesy movies on television and the songs on the radio, the cards plastered to the fridge of happy, smiling families, all serve as reminders of how very much alone she is. It all leaves a bitter taste in her mouth - one she hopes doesn’t develop for Vision, his own experiences still so new to be sullied already.

“It’s not foolish Vizh,” she grips his arms and waits until his gaze meets her own, her voice developing a firmness that he won't dare to counter with any of his logic, “at all.” She wants to reassure him more, explain how she can’t make it through the season without at least three breakdowns in the privacy of her room, but the tears are already building in her eyes and she knows she won’t make it through the explanation, especially with the way he is looking at her, head cocked in empathetic concern. Wanda directs the conversation down another avenue. “So what’s that?”

“Oh, right,” they both stare at the box in his hands, “I did not want to renege on my promise.”

Wanda’s eyebrows lift as she grabs the box, inviting him to sit on the bed with her as she pries open the container, the sight of the overly commercialized, slightly tacky decorations he bought the year before shattering the dam of her tears which fall in time with her shallow, disbelieving laughter, “Vizh, you’re ridiculous-”

“I apologize for-”

“No, no no,” she puts the box on the ground and grabs his hands, hoping to convince him she’s not upset, “I mean it in the best way possible.” More laughter comes unbidden from her mouth, her reaction confusing to herself but she imagines it is even more confounding to the man next to her, how she can be crying and laughing all at once. “You flew all the way to Marrakech to give me this at three in the morning.”

Vision’s mouth quirks up into an uneasy smile as his eyes search for more information from her face, “I admit it was not the most well-thought out plan but it felt enormously important to do so.”

“What are you hoping to do with this stuff?”

He contemplates her question, his flimsy plan falling apart at the seams the longer he studies it, and she knows if he could blush that his cheeks would be turning beet red right now. His explanation comes out in a quiet, stuttery mess. “I, um, thought we could possibly, if you are amenable and interested, um, decorate your room.”

“Natasha is going to be here in four hours.”

This seems to confuse him even more, his brow knitting around the Mindstone as if her comment is in a foreign language that he is unable to translate using the internet. “Yes and I have to be back to the compound in the morning for pictures. I do not think it will take more than that.”

One the the main rules of being a fugitive is to travel light and keep only the smallest of personal mementos to reduce the risk of someone inadvertently learning too much about you. It means that Wanda knows she can’t keep the decorations, if they were to be discovered, there’d likely be questions which could lead down a dangerous road. There is no reason to tempt fate and risk losing her contact with Vision. At the same time, however, she’s unexpectedly excited at the prospect of decorating. “I suppose we could put it up and enjoy it for just a little bit.” The smile on his face is mesmerizing, his cerulean irises twisting joyously at her decision. “But you have to take it all back with you, understood?”

“Understood.”

Eagerly Wanda stands from the bed, holding her hand out to help Vision up, knowing full well he doesn’t need the aid, but he obliges, gripping her hand as he stands. “Okay, let’s see what we have.” It’s a small box and it takes them longer to decide where to put the Star of David garland and dreidel lanterns than it does to actually hang them. As Wanda fixes the angle of the lights, Vision places a cardboard cut-out menorah on the coffee table before stepping back to admire their work.

“It is not as much as I remember buying.”

Wanda rolls her eyes at the regret lacing his words, curling her fingers around his wrist and pulling him backwards until he sits with her on the bed. “Good thing this place is so small then.” They’ve grown closer in the months of clandestine contact, but not close enough to still the flutter in her stomach as she lifts his arm so she can snuggle into his side, a rush of victory to her chest when he hugs her to him. “Thank you for this.”

“You are most welcome.”

A snap of her wrist turns the overhead lights off, allowing her to more thoroughly enjoy the soft and pleasant glow emitted from the lanterns and the way it reflects off the vibranium on Vision’s face. “Are you feeling better?”

He nods, “I am, though it is always lonely whenever I leave you.”

An irrefutable statement. “I miss you too.” 

Wanda smiles as he draws her closer, nuzzling into the crook of his neck, an action that encourages him to lay his cheek on her head. Several minutes pass in companionable silence, only the synchronization of their easy breathing disturbing the quiet. She contemplates staying like this, cozy in his embrace, but she also, given his motivation for breaking protocol, feels a need to probe just a bit more. “Vizh?” His hmm? buzzes happily against her head. “Is anyone going to be around the compound for Christmas?”

“No,” which is what she suspected. “Rhodes has invited me to join him at his sister’s house.”

The way he says it brings to mind a shrug, the intonation of the words dismissing the concept before it is even fully formed. “Why don’t you want to go?” Wanda knows the answer, has turned down multiple offers in her lifetime to join random (or not so random sometimes) families in their celebrations. 

Vision inhales deeply, her own body rising and falling with his steadied breath. “I worry that I would merely be intruding. Given their ages and closeness, I imagine there are numerous deeply ingrained, unspoken traditions and normative expectations." 

”You don’t want to feel like a stranger or risk unintentionally ruining anything.”

”Precisely.”

What social etiquette dictates is she argue against this reasoning, because she knows Rhodes and his sister would likely understand, have already accepted this possibility with the invitation. But Wanda has been that stranger, has seen Vision be that stranger for a large part of his existence. “Then don’t go. Or,” she does have one good memory of crashing someone’s holiday, last year the Bartons invited her out a couple days earlier than the rest of the team. It had the same strangeness, but it faded quickly due to how welcoming and understanding they all were of her situation, “maybe just go for a couple hours and see if you enjoy it?”

Vision’s nod shakes her head, his fingers cinching into the fabric of her sweatshirt as he considers the amended proposition. When he speaks it is quiet, a bit nervous, but filled with a renewed hopefulness. “That is a fair suggestion but I was actually wondering, even though we have a planned excursion in early February, if you might possibly be available to meet before the New Year -," the more flustered he gets the higher her smile climbs, "I, um, given that Rhodes and Tony will be gone from Christmas until the New Years Eve party, no one will notice my absence.”

The plan for Wanda is to travel with Natasha to Belarus where they are being joined by Steve and Sam for a rare week together. Technically it should be deemed too risky to even consider his offer, but technicalities are never her main concern. Wanda wraps her arm around his waist and squeezes him closer, an eager smile gracing her lips, one she isn’t sure he can see in the dim lights. “I’m sure I can sneak away for a day or two.”

“Fantastic.”

Life has taken a lot from Wanda, sometimes through her own decisions, sometimes due to outside forces she can’t control. After Pietro she had accepted that, even surrounded by teammates, she would always feel alone for the holidays. Somehow, however, the thought of spending time with Vision partially fills the hollowness of that fate, and maybe, if they can manage to keep going in this direction for years to come, neither of them will have to be alone again. “It is.”

[stressful-and-deathy]

anyone ask for a jimmy jab 2.0 hc? not really, but here it is anyway 

(also this is crazy long i’m so sorry i was out of control)

 okay so, the squad hasn’t really had the opportunity to play the jimmy jab games since that time jake let amy win and that was years ago. they were still a bit wary after the whole fiasco with holt finding out, but it’s been so long that when holt and terry announce they have an all-day meeting at one police plaza, everyone was EXCITED bc they were all stuck at the precinct digitalizing files. 

the captain left amy in charge of the precinct bc you know, she’s a sergeant (already eyeing a lieutenant position, mind you) and also she’s Amy Santiago, c'mon.

amy vetos anything to do with jimmy jab the second the two of them walk out the door, giving a whole speech about how she’s their boss now and needs to be responsible.  

rosa immediately starts throwing some shade saying that “amy was too lame to play with them anyway” and that “she had just become more stuck-up, but “it’s not like she could win anyway so it didn’t even matter”.

amy looks at rosa dead in the eye for 15 seconds and then finally says   “okay, so this is how it’s going down.” everyone cheers and starts chanting “JIMMY JAB! JIMMY JAB!”

under amy’s command, everyone gets jobs assigned to them and the whole thing is set up in less than an hour.

for the traditional opening ceremony, everything is ready, the donuts arrived, the trashcan is in place and scully’s got his costume on. that’s when they realize they are missing something. something kind of important. the person who always sets the donut on fire and declares that the games have begun is not there. it’s jake’s day off.

everyone is a little bit embarrassed that they forgot about jake, i mean, he’s the life and soul of the game (or of anything fun that happens in the precinct, really). but charles….charles is absolutely devastated.

he immediately calls jake, saying how he is not worthy of being his best friend and that he is the single most horrible person to walk on earth. he’s crying so much, jake doesn’t understand what’s going on. rosa grabs the phone from charles, explains what’s up and tells him to get to the precinct asap.

he yells WHAAAAAAAAT for 3 straight minutes.

jake arrives in a hurry, still out of breath from running up the stairs. he stares at all of them in disbelief and goes “how could you? this is treason. TREASON. i’m so disappointed in all of you, and you amy, what the hell? how could you forget your own husband?”

she’s about to apologize but jake keeps talking “doesn’t matter anyway, YOU’RE ALL GOING DOWN, especially you, wife”. he literally makes air quotes while saying “wife”.  

now amy is pissed and she’s got a threatening look on her face as she says “well, husband (she also uses air quotes), it was pointless to call you anyway, you being here is not going to make any difference since you’re about to lose. AGAIN.” jake yells back “YOU ARE SO ON”.

after the opening ceremony, they are on position for the first game. gina explains that, since the fridge was mysteriously cleaned the day before and all the disgusting food was thrown away, “The Mouthaton” will be replaced by “The Catfish”. rules are simple. the competitors must create a fake profile on a dating website and start talking to people. first person to get an unsolicited dick picture wins, the last is eliminated. you can’t flirt, you can’t ask for the picture and you can’t reveal your real identity.

hitchcock gets it first. everyone looks at him questioningly and he’s just like “what? i know exactly what those guys are looking for, if you know what i mean.” they are all disgusted. then he just gets up and goes…somewhere else. no one questions that.

scully is the second one to get it. no one buys it at first and asks him to prove it, so scully says “it’s serious, guys. look, hitchcock  went to the bathroom and sent me a picture of his…” he didn’t get to finish his sentence bc everyone is yelling “EWWWWWWW” and “NOOOOOOOOO” and running in the opposite direction of the phone he’s holding.  

amy’s next, immediately followed by jake and charles. everyone looks at rosa, who is still typing away on her phone. turns out she started talking to a girl and is actually getting into it. 

she’s the first one out.

game number two starts, it’s the traditional “Bulky Bulky Run Run” better known as the bomb suit foot race.

amy and jake keep pushing and grabbing on each other’s suit to get the other out of the away so charles manages to take the lead.

just like every single year, hitchcock falls down the stairs. scully tries to grab him by his legs but hitchcock’s weight manages to pull scully down with him. they’re both out and in need of medical attention.

(it was briefly discussed whether or not to eliminate scully after the first game, but no one volunteered to check the picture he got so they just let him keep playing)

 third game is the infamous “Keep Your Cover”. as usual, the contestants have to craft an undercover persona and talk to as many police officers as they can without being found out.

amy goes first. she’s dressed like an old lady and she rocks it. her strategy is to start talking to people about how millennials are the worst and how kids these days are ruining the world because they are glued to their phones. people try to get away from her as fast as they can’t without making eye contact. she manages to get through nine people

(she blows it when she starts talking about her love for latin and how it should be a requirement at public schools  – everyone and their mothers know that could only be amy).

jake’s up next. he is dressed like an italian mob boss who’s a complete douchebag. when he’s talking to his third officer about “hot chicks”, the guy tells him about a sexy latina sergeant who’s super bossy, claiming that “it could be kinda hot in bed”.

jake dramatically takes off his sunglasses (which he was wearing indoors, to add to the character), and yells “THAT’S MY WIFE”. (yes, you’re absolutely supposed to read that in john mulaney’s voice).

he realizes he blew his cover and storms off, whispering to himself that it’s not “kind of hot”, it’s super hot.  he’s almost sure he lost, but charles comes to save the day.  

charles dresses as buddy valastro. yes. the cake boss. he literally doesn’t make it past one person.

and once again, it’s jake versus amy in the final game which consists of the obstacle course.  

first they gotta make it past the barricade hurdles in the corridor and, as usual, amy gets a head start, but jake is not too far behind.

next up they have to get a snack from the vending machine using a bean bag gun.

amy gets a snack first, but unfortunately it’s a bag of doritos. she takes forever to eat them and jake’s lucky because he got a granola bar and even though he makes a gagging sound the whole time, he manages to swallow the whole thing. 

jake runs to the stairs to go the floor below and get a pamphlet about cyberbullying and amy finally catches up.

they go back upstairs together, trying to bump on the other the whole time.

LASTLY, they’ve got to print a selfie captain holt accidentally took and also accidentally sent to everyone in his contact list using the worst notebooks of the precinct.

amy’s request goes through first, but when she goes to the printer, there’s nothing there. that’s when gina yells: “SURPRISE TWIST: THE COMPUTERS ARE CONNECTED TO THAT OLD ASS PRINTER IN THE STORAGE ROOM DOWNSTAIRS”

jake immediately gets up from his chair, knocking down both the chair and the table, and sprints to the elevator. amy gets in two seconds after him.

while they are waiting, amy starts teasing: “so, are you ready to lose like last time?” jake laughs. “amy, darling, i had to let you win last time. that’s not happening today.” that throws amy off and she takes one second too long to notice the doors opened and jake is already running.

jake gets to the storage room first, locates the printer and runs to grab the freshly printed picture laying on the tray.  

when amy comes in, jake is grinning, waving around the paper in his hands and imitating amy’s victory dance. “who’s the loser now, wifey? huh? no come backs?”

amy’s panting a bit and she’s got her hands on her knees but she manages to answer: “yeah, babe. did you get a good look at that picture you’re holding?”

jake freezes and his face falls. he slowly moves his eyes to the paper and his first thought when captain holt’s face is not what he’s seeing is “oh, fuck”. he’s about to rip it into pieces and throw it away when something catches his eye. no, it was definitely not holt’s face on that piece of paper. it was his wife’s. for a second, he thinks it’s just amy’s way of making fun of him while she gets the right photo but then he notices something else. she’s holding a sign. a sign that says: “Congrats, Daddy. You win” in perfect calligraphy.

it takes a couple of minutes until jake tears his eyes away from the picture and looks up at amy. his hands are shaking so badly and he opens and closes his mouth several times, but nothing comes out.

amy’s just looking at him smiling and her eyes are already watering. she can read on his face that he’s begging her for something to confirm what he’s thinking, to tell him that yes, it’s happening and it’s real. she nods slightly. and he starts crying.

she goes to him and hugs him and he holds onto her so tightly, amy can feel him all around her. after a few minutes, when jake’s breath has calmed down a bit, he pulls back and grabs her face with both of his hands while hers rest on his chest. “you’re pregnant?”, she can see he’s still in disbelief so amy just presses her forehead against his and whispers “yes, jake. you’re going to be a father”.  

he opens the widest smile she’s ever seen and says “oh, my god. i love you so so so much” before pulling amy close again, about to kiss the hell out of her, but amy stops him.

“wait a second. that thing you said in the elevator, about letting me win last time. that’s not true, right?” 

jake just rolls his eyes and goes for the kiss again.

[pisati]

I don’t remember too much about my birthday last year, besides having to work and mom taking me out to the cat cafe and the brewery. but despite having a pandemic birthday it was actually pretty nice.

I finally got 3 days off in a row. I did tell my friend Cassidy that I’d help them take their stuff to the UPS store to ship it back to CA, but I honestly thought it would only take part of the day. I didn’t mind grabbing lunch and also staying for dinner, but I didn’t really want to have to be driving all over that part of the DC area all day. which was what happened. I didn’t end up getting home til 1am, and while I DID tell them I could help, it kind of felt like a wasted day. wasn’t really an off-day. BUT Cassidy did cover all my food, got me a lovely birthday cake, and gave me some coloring book-style postcards and a little stuffed brain cell. plus a literal fuckton of crafting supplies they didn’t feel like hauling back to CA. I asked how much they’d want for it; they did say I could just have it but seriously that haul has got to be worth at least $150. there were 6 bottles of resin/hardener and those ALONE have got to be worth $80 at a minimum. they said they’d just ask $40 and like... shit, sure. that’s a goddamn steal.

they also sold me their 4x4 ikea kallax shelf; I remember helping them put it together when they first moved to MD. we took it apart and I had my brother come over sunday to help me carry the pieces upstairs. then put it together entirely by myself, which... I probably shouldn’t have done? I made it work, but that shit is Heavy and also very difficult to put together on your own. even the manual says you should have two people. every muscle in my upper body is incredibly sore now, and I managed to bruise both arms in multiple places (not even doing anything seriously injurious, I’m just an overripe banana). but in making room for it in my living room I rearranged the couches, relocated all my yarn to the new shelf from my old craft shelves (and it took up 12/16 of the cubes 🙃), re-sorted and organized the remaining craft shelves, took the two 1x3 shelves up to the rats’ room (and now they’re being used as towel storage), and actually cleaned up my living room area. my dining room table is sewing-machine-free for the first time since march. I just moved it to the craft shelves, and now I actually have the room there for the machine to just sit. the accessories have their own shelf bin. 

mom wanted to do dinner sunday night instead of today, and I guess that was okay. but it didn’t leave me much down time since I spent all day cleaning and organizing. but it was nice anyway. I got home and mom had blown up some balloons, and she had RHCP playing all evening. I’d requested homemade mac & cheese rather than noodles & co this year, and she found a pretty good recipe. she also made a cinnamon sugar doughnut bundt cake, which was good, though maybe a little dry. but served with ice cream it was better. mom told me she had another piece today and it was more moist today somehow.

mom and my brother had ordered me a bunch of things off my crafting wishlist on amazon, and those had come in during the week. my brother ordered the animal keychain molds, a mica powder dye set, black/white alcohol inks, and a silicone mold kit. mom got me a coaster mold set, another resin/hardener set, and a bunch of the sandpaper with the different grits that I really needed. I was kind of surprised she’d ordered me more things, since she already got me the huge rat cage. and she even told me today I should be getting another coaster set tomorrow, this one with 4 of the same size; the other one she ordered had 4 or 5 round molds but they were all different sizes. I can still make coasters with them, but the biggest one is small-tray sized and the smallest one is like... coin-sized, honestly. it’s tiny. and I can only make one at a time, so a set of 4 of the same size would take 4 days at a bare minimum; longer than that possibly if I were doing layers that needed to cure first. so with a set of 4 I can whip up a whole set at once. 

mom’s boyfriend got me things too, which was super nice of him. they saved it for the dinner night, so I got to open it there. he got me a geode coaster mold, the set of animal butt shaker molds I put on my wishlist kind of as a joke, but also I thought they were silly and adorable. I’m so excited to make those little shakers. also got a set of 3 trinket box molds with molds for the lids, and a little bag of snake charms I’d added so I could use the charms for mold-making; I could make my own little snake charm earrings!

so yesterday was a long day. and then I slept like garbage and woke up early this morning, but I at least got a few things done before Charlotte came over. we planned on a lazy day but since I’d wanted to make yesterday my craft day and never got around to it, I wanted to do that today. Charlotte I guess didn’t have the same idea, but she’d brought her laptop so she could play this video game she and her brother and husband and so on had played together. we ordered five guys for lunch, which is always nice. she brought me homemade cinnamon sugar cupcakes, and gave me a hand mixer, a few bath bombs, and some face masks as a birthday gift. she was right, I really do need my own hand mixer, ha. 

I finally got to work on my silicone molds, and it was super messy. I didn’t realize how much worse it would be than resin. but I tried my best to mix it well. I’d accidentally bought a $25 kit at michael’s a few weeks ago, because I’d picked it up from a clearance section and wanted to price check but forgot and forgot it was in my basket when I checked out; didn’t even realize I’d bought it until I was already back in my car looking into the bag. oops. but I ended up using the whole thing. and I had planned to make a crochet hook mold, so I was excited to try it. mom gave me an old tennis ball can that I cut up, and I used hot glue to seal it and position the hooks. I felt SO bad that it used up almost all of the silicone kit my brother got me; that shit is NOT cheap. and I was terrified I didn’t stir it well enough or mix the parts well enough because that would’ve been such a waste. but I demolded it after the few hours’ cure time and it came out beautifully. I cut slits in it with an xacto knife, so that way I can at least coax the hooks out more easily when I go to demold. it did seem like kind of a waste of a lot of the silicone, since I didn’t use up all the space, but hopefully I can sell enough crochet hook sets that I can maybe buy myself more. I’m nervous about those pours, because they’re not going to be easy, but I’m also excited bc I have a gorgeous, usable mold, and I got a ton of resin for [almost] free that I can experiment with. 

after that I finally got around to some of the resin I’ve been meaning to do. my friend in PA requested some resin earrings; she’s bought so many masks off my etsy for herself and family that after this last order I offered her a resin or crochet thing at no charge. so I’ve got to do some moon earrings; too bad I don’t have more than one moon mold. also my brother babysat some kids the last few weeks of summer and he’d taken them out to gather wildflowers for me to put into resin, so I offered to make them little resin keychains. I got little transparent letter stickers, and I’m super glad they worked as well as they did; the transparent stickers don’t show their borders in the resin so it almost looks like the letters are printed in it. I decided to make letter keychains with each of their initials, and I spelled their names with stickers in the letters. for the girl’s keychain, I added some of the flowers. I’m not sure what to put in the boys’ keychains quite yet. I’m told they’re harry potter fans, so maybe I’ll do some kind of transparent blue with gold glitter or maybe star glitter or something. I also had leftover colored resin from the moon mold so I added them to the J for my mom. nothing like the scramble for appropriately-sized molds when you’ve got extra resin. I also made another set of cat earrings, and I’ll see how those end up. I tried a drop of gold alcohol ink, and hopefully the white helped it sink. otherwise I’ve just got some weird looking cat earrings. 

(update, they turned out weird. gold doesn’t sink :/)

---

I wasn’t quite ready to go back to work today. I had a pretty good weekend, all said. don’t get me wrong, I enjoy what I do. but I feel like I need another gap year. I just want to stop existing for a while. stop having to go out and be around other people. having to talk to other people, all day almost every day. I’m tired. my brain is tired. my last gap year didn’t help with that, so I’m not sure how much good another one would do me. but I just... I need a damn break. 

I have another therapy appointment tomorrow. it may end up being my last one for a while. I already can’t really afford the copay, and I’m switching insurance to one she doesn’t take. my credit card bill this month is incredibly painful. not going to be too upset at not having to spend almost $100 a week to just ramble to someone I barely know. she’s pointed out a few things to me that I didn’t really notice I do, which is nice. but is it worth $400 a month? not right now. not when I’m about to lose my insurance and have to pay for my own. my rent is already half my pay, and now I’m going take a pay cut of somewhere around $100 a month for fucking health insurance. I hate this. I fucking hate the concept of health insurance. insurance in and of itself isn’t bad; property insurance is helpful. but having to pay money for other people to pay money for your healthcare? and you still have to hit a deductible somewhere in the thousands before insurance will even start covering your shit. and even then they can decline coverage or only cover parts of your expenses. literally what is the point

 back to worrying I guess. 

I’ve started a kind of ridiculous undertaking at work as a side project, now that I’m done scanning all the files that were up front. I printed out the list of all the clients in our system that had physical folders, and I’m going through the scanned records and making sure the active ones have new client paperwork and the hours disclosure attached. the head receptionist asked me to start with the ones my former coworker had scanned in, and there are a lot of disclosures missing. some are missing both. I don’t know if he just didn’t scan them or if they didn’t have them at all or what. but I’ve been putting alerts in charts so people know that they need to give the forms to the clients when they come in. we had one client get kind of mad that he’s been coming to us for 10-some years and didn’t want to fill out the paperwork again, even after we clarified it was for our records and for legal reasons. but whatever. 

I don’t know how many physical folders there were, but the list is very long. the folders go from 0 to somewhere in the 8000s I believe, but thankfully a lot are missing. missing as in possibly inactive, so there might only actually be 1000-2000 or so. but I’m going through every single one of them. I made myself a little system with highlighter colors: yellow means the client is active and they need something filled out (and I mark on the sheet what they need), purple means they’ve been seen within 3 years but more than 1 year ago, and they need to fill out something, pink mens inactive, and orange is kind of a catch-all for things like active clients who have recently moved (not sure whether to mark those as inactive). so far, since starting this a week or so ago, I’ve managed to get through 4 pages and a little bit on a 5th. many, many more to go.

the head vet wants to turn the back room into a little employee lounge area of some sort, but we want to get rid of those shelves first too. which means I have 2 big shelves of folders left before I’m officially done. thankfully the files in the back should *mostly* be clients that are inactive, but I still have to go through all of them to make sure. I know I’ve gone back there a number of times to find a folder for an active client because I wasn’t sure whose phone number was whose and I knew it would be in the record. 

---

I’ve been writing this post over the last two nights but I keep falling asleep while I’m writing. I did a lot more resin stuff last night, so I ended up going to bed pretty late. I wanted to finish up those keychains but I’m bad at gauging how much resin I’ll need for things so I ended up with a lot of random extra pours. I’m excited about a few of them; I poured a few into the new molds I made so I’m looking forward to seeing how those turn out. 

not really sure where I was going with this. not really sure where I’m going in general. I’m just going. trying to keep up with work, trying to remember doctor appointments. trying to keep the rats happy and as healthy as I can get them, trying not to let the cat get on my nerves too much. trying to do crafts. trying to remember to talk to people, but I don’t know. I feel lonely sometimes but since I’ve been working so much I kind of just want to be alone. I don’t have the energy for conversations a lot of the time. 

---

hm. maybe another post for therapy thoughts. I was asked to think about a few things.

[stonsthro]

When we last saw our heroine, she had just paid off her first home expansion to immediately request the first room addition to incur another 300 something thousands bells worth of debt.

Will she pay it off? Will she do it in a day? She honestly doesn’t remember so she’s gonna refer to a calendar and various strings of text messages, google hangout chats, and Instagram DMs to try to retrace the past 8 days of her ACNH life.

25 march 2020

It seems I failed to mention in my last post that my first new neighbor had arrived that day. His name is Boomer, and I met him on my first mystery island trip. We did not interact very much on that fateful first meeting, but I was on a mission (I believe to collect iron nuggets) and he is only an NPC with limited responses to limited interactions anyway.

Boomer is a funny little penguin. I also only found out yesterday that he’s a penguin. I thought he was just a non-descript bird. He likes bugs and snacks. He calls the bugs his friends, so I don’t think he eats them. He also really likes pear furniture and wooden simple beds. He has shared the wooden simple bed recipe with me twice already. If you need one, you know who to go to.

26 march 2020

Thursday. The second neighbor arrived that day. She is a pink panda named Pinky. She likes pink things. I don’t remember very much from this day. Neighbors aren’t worth much time the day that they first arrive to the island. They stay in their homes amidst stacked cardboard boxes sweeping away and never seeming to make any progress no matter how much time has passed from when you last checked in on them. Why is it important at all to greet them on their first day? These are questions I have asked myself. Do I have an answer now? Not really.

I’m pretty sure I mostly focused on paying off my debt this day. One of my friends shared a flower breeding efficiency guide, so this might have been the day that I started organizing my flower beds and got it in my head that I wanted to organize my fruit trees. I might be wrong about which day, but it definitely happened on some day.

AH. Whatsapp has reminded me that I actually didn’t do very much in this 24 hour period, because I spent most of my IRL night drinking. Oh to be human and feel alive.

27 march 2020

Friday. Friday Olive moved in. She is the last of the first 3 new island residents (where I suppose Stinky, Reneigh, and myself are all founding residents?). She’s a sweet little bear. She reminds me of either an older woman friend or an aunt or a best friend’s mom. A few days ago from today, she gave me a gift (I don’t remember now what it was, I probably sold it /: ) but she did say that she thought it was very kind and thoughtful of me to come and say hi to her on her first day on the island. So maybe that is worth something.. Although I’ve said hi to everyone on their first day and Olive was the only one to ever acknowledge it later…

I must have done quite a bit of island work, harvesting wood, crafting, selling fruit and furniture. And island hopping as well. This day I created a Google sheet pulling from multiple resources containing fish/bug information (seasons, times of day, and selling price), and a list of craftable recipes (how to obtain them, raw materials required, selling price). I was very tired of having all these tables that could not be easily sorted. I also made a calculator so you could quickly know how much the items in your pocket would return (not that you can’t trust Timmy and Tommy) or so you could quickly compare the value of say 10 non-native fruit versus a tadpole (spoiler alert, the tadpole isn’t it).

Quick note that might actually be helpful to some who aren’t as into this game as I am: A stack of non-native fruit will return 5000 bells. A stack of coconut, 2500 bells. A stack of your native fruit, only 1000 bells. Most bugs won’t return more than 1k, and fewer than half of the fish species will net you more than 2.5k. So know your valuable species and save your pocket slots for whatever’s gonna reap you the most return.

Spreadsheets are very helpful to me. I would one day like to make a craft recipe database that would let you know, based on what raw material you have on hand, which recipes would yield the highest return for material. I haven’t quite yet wrapped my mind around how I would do this (I think Notion would be the better tool for it, rather than Google Sheets), but I’m also hoping that maybe someone will do it before me. (And it’s exactly this attitude that keeps me from ever becoming an entrepreneur.)

I caught a koi this night! I only am able to remember which night is was because I took a little video! (Oh and I can actually share some images now because I set up a new twitter account exactly for this purpose.. I will be going back through previous posts to add a little imagery).

And I was hoping to find Celeste that night. I thought I saw a few shooting stars, but I didn’t know what to do about them. I had read an article a few days before this about Celeste giving a wand recipe and star fragments and wishing. But I didn’t commit the information to memory and also I hadn’t seen Celeste around anyway.

28 march 2020

Saturday Saturday.. I didn’t play as many hours as I was awake on Saturday.

IRL I had some errands to run that day. I got morning announcements and stayed busy while waiting for Nook’s Cranny to open.

Resident Services was closed this day for renovations. I was droppings bags of bells off in my house between trips to Nook’s Cranny. I didn’t do as much island exploring as I thought I might the day that RS wasn’t open for business. I had been wanting to try to land on tarantula island, but I just wasn’t up for flying.

29 march 2020

SUNDAY!

milestones: Resident Services opened in their brand spanking new building with actual walls. Isabelle is here, and from articles I’ve read online other players are very excited about that. I never played New Leaf (and definitely never got onto Pocket Camp), so I don’t know anything about her. But she is a welcome break from Tom Nook. Nothing against him, but you do get tired of certain character’s mannerisms, yes?

I had also read an article that misleadingly used a headline suggesting that Tom Nook is nicer in NH than in previous games. But the game creator said that Tom has always been a nice guy, and that the structure of this game perhaps just allows that to be more apparent now.

Daisy mae was at Stonsthro, and also at every other island that witch. I had not got around to selling my turnips from the week before so when I dug them up from my garden they were of course spoiled. I am not in desperate need to catching ants and flies, so I sneakily sold them to Timmy and Tommy (for probably zero bells, but still – they’re purported to not accept turnips, in any condition I would think, on Sundays).

The HHA gave me a rating of 30something thousand. And I think they also gave me kitchen furniture? In addition to my Nook Shopping packages I had a number of gifts in the mail. One was from Boomer, as a late island-warming gift or something like that. Even though he was the one to move here! (I’m so impressed with how much the game developers put into these characters.)

According to Whatsapp, this morning I still owed 54k to Nook for my 1st addition. I don’t know why I felt that was worthy of reporting to my group chat when 54k could easily be crafted and earned in mere minutes if the raw materials are already in storage.

AHH THIISS was the day that I actually organized my flower beds. I think on Thursday I just planted more flowers in a way that would be conducive to breeding, but I didn’t go full out and arrange the beds. Sunday I did exactly that and moved my outdoor workstation to make way for 3 flower beds – tulips, hyacinths, and windflowers. And I made moves with organizing my trees this day too. A little messy but still. Mostly I just carved a keep clear path to the entrance of Nook’s Cranny.

Sunday was an incredibly productive day on Stonsthro. All of this and with the RS open again, I scouted the area for our first incline (east side of the island, north of Boomer and Pinky’s houses) and paid it off.

I scouted the relocation of Reneigh’s house (FINALLY!) and paid that immediately (I think because I was required to…). She’s actually just north of the river from my house now. When I moved her house I did feel a little bit mean just uprooting her. But she was programmed to be on board with it. Even still, being aware that she likes to sleep in, I moved her to the west side of the island and because she seems to like her space she’s the only inhabitant in that area. Anyone who wants to come bother her will either have to cross a river or take a ladder down.

And the last milestone I covered this day was the placement for the campsite.

I think I did hop around this night hoping to land on tarantulas, but it didn’t happen. I hit a normal and the bell rock island. Normal island was a quick trip. I just knocked all the rocks mostly, fished each spot once, maybe twice, collected all the fruit and went back home. Bell rock island I spent a lot of time on actually. After knocking all the rocks I stayed and fished. The moat around the bell island spawns pond fish, probably because it doesn’t feed into the sea. I caught SO MUCH koi. And my boyfriend caught me on his IG stories absolutely geeking over my spreadsheet. (Koi banks 4000 bells a pop, so fuck all the dabs you might have caught on the beach.)

Oh but Sunday night! I did run into Celeste on Sunday night and I wished on SO MANY stars. More than 30, forsure. When talking to the neighbors that day, they were all going on about the meteor shower so I knew it was happening. Which makes me question why I thought I saw shooting stars on Saturday. Ohhhhhhh. I know. It’s because the game’s not so good with optical flow so when you’re running around the island, really bright stars dart around in the background instead of appearing still. That trips me up pretty often actually. I’ll be running and come to quick stop like a dog who’s just sighted a squirrel.

“I’m excited for tmrw! Bigger hours, reneigh will be in her new location instead of stupidly in front the of the museum, new ramp, and star fragments!” An actual text message I sent out to my group chat. Oh right. I paid off that 54k to Tom Nook and, of course, requested my 2nd addition.

30 march 2020

I have no idea what to do with my 2nd room. I don’t have enough items catalogued or recipes discovered to craft a proper bathroom or a proper kitchen. I don’t care to have a second bedroom. I don’t actually want to build a spa. I mean I do, but I kind of want an outdoor one (wah).

With the first infrastructure project done, the next was to build a bridge connecting the founder’s portion of the island to the most central part (which is also were I placed Nook’s Cranny). It’s the most frequently crossed portion of river for me, going back and forth between my house and the store to sell or buy (but mostly sell, amirite?).

Reneigh’s new place.. I love that it isn’t at the old place. The campsite.. is underwhelming. We didn’t have any visitors this day. But we did have Flick. Flick is very weirdly into bugs, but at least he knows that he’s weird about it? I didn’t catch a TON of bugs just because he was there, but also because bugs aren’t worth all that much to begin with so 1.5x on em is like eh. Pretty much I just caught bugs as I normally would and brought them to him instead of to the Cranny. I also gave him the tiger butterfly to create a … model? Statue? I wished it would have been the emperor butterfly instead but.. I just didn’t catch as many. I’d forget to save them and would sell them to him instead.

Well with the 2nd addition comes even more debt. It was 500somethingk this time around. I had absolutely no aspiration to pay this debt off quickly. Partially because I’d rather build more infrastructure on the island. Partially because I wouldn’t even know what to with whatever the next expansion is. Whether it’s more square feet or another room, it all needs more furniture to fill. So for now I’m just gonna buy new things every day so I can have the option to buy them again later. One thing that bums me out is that I wish that once you crafted something you have the option to just buy it for a marked up price later.

I did wood harvesting this day. Chopped and shook down all my trees. “Got stung 5 times, went through 4 axes, and shook 2 pieces of furniture out!” Around 8pm when that message went out. I crafted all that could be crafted and went to bed with my pockets full.

Oh! Worth mentioning: I collected something like 13 or 17 star fragments this day. I don’t even know what to do with all of that. I only have 2 wand recipes and both wands do the same thing -__- I ended up crafting just a bunch of bamboo wands. I wanted to give them away, to Reneigh and to Olive and maybe to Pinky. Reneigh was already asleep. Olive didn’t seem very impressed with the gift, but she did reciprocate and gave me a striped dress (that I really like, actually). But since she didn’t care much for it, I decided to sell the other wands instead of giving them to my neighbors. I think they go for a couple thousand bells, I can’t remember. I don’t regret it because at this point I don’t like Pinky all that much anyway.

31 march 2020

I fucked up this day. Straight up just fucked up.

IRL, I had a project deadline Tuesday morning that I honestly should have spent time working on Monday night to finish but if you’ve been reading you’ll know that I mostly was at Stonsthro catching some bees and chopping some trees, as Wilbur says.

So I didn’t have my usualmorning gameplay. Instead I was up at 6 and having a real work day straight through 3pm (which is honestly nice in these crazy times to have a feeling of things needing to get done). I also had some … let’s call it “exciting” IRL stuff go down, which on top of my work day left me just OVER IT.

I didn’t return to Stonsthro until 11pm. I didn’t realize how I fucked up until I came on and Isabelle started to read me the day’s announcements. THE ANNOUNCEMENTS AT 11PM. Nook’s Cranny, already closed! And my pockets still full from the night before. Not a single bell to be earned this day.

RS at least seems to be open 24 hours a day. I was able to give orders for the next infrastructure project, another incline just west of Olive’s house. I feel like naming the different areas of my island for easier reference.

And the campsite had a visitor. His name was Julian, he seems to be a little too woowoo, even for a unicorn. Maybe it’s ironic. At least I was able to talk to him and get him to stay at Stonsthro permanently, so the day wasn’t a total loss.

Because I’m not sure when this fits in, I’ll just drop this here: “My annoying neighbor horse is actually growing on me like she’s still a bitch but when’s all uhh I already talked to you today I’m like bye bitch and then she’s all :greetings: smize and I’m like okay grrl see you tmrw” And excuse my stupid texting, but it is true that I’m warming up to Reneigh. She doesn’t want me all up in her air, and she lets me know, and I respect that.

This one time I gave Reneigh this ugly ass pink Sherpa skirt because I didn’t want it and she has pink hair so idk. She said it isn’t really her thing, and gave me something in return. It was a basketball tank. Also not really my thing. I felt like we understood each other a little better after that.

1 april 2020

CHERRY BLOSSOMS!

This morning the island was undeniably PINK. What I love most about this is that I can now very very easily tell which trees are fruit bearing and which are not. Thank you, spring (:

Since I somewhat had organized my fruit trees already, the only ones that are unsorted are the native pears which just.. exist everywhere alongside the hardwood.

There are new bugs out too! Common bluebottle, peacock butterfly (am concurrently learning that this is not new to April, just new to the fact that I bred some blue hyacinths), locusts, water bugs. It was exciting to be in a new season because I was getting tired of the tiger butterflies and the paper kites. They’re still around but it’s nice to see something new.

I do have more to share about yesterday and about today. But it is 11:49pm right now and I think I’ve been at this since 8:30. Whyyyyyy?!??!?! Literally nobody is asking me to do this!

I don’t know I think it helps to feel like I have some kind of a grasp on where my days have been going.

[homedesignlog-blog]

20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos

In a time the place residential homes are already within the town and never within the suburbs, condos, flats, and apartments has been on the rise. Homes that tower the town sprouted from nowhere till most of the folks you recognize who work in the city live within those recent to trendy areas they name home. Believe what it might be like living in a condo. Admit it, as millennials residing in our oldsters’ homes, we always dreamed of shifting out and having our own place to stick and phone our personal. The Place we can simply be ourselves, bring our pals and have recreation nights! Believe all this and extra for you and maybe your sister, BFF or significant other! the choices are endless but in this listing, you’d see a pair of kitchen designs you'll opt for when you plan on living in a apartment, or in case you already are – possibly believe some of the designs for your area for a fresh glance! Photograph: https://plaidfox.com/portfolio/36/shaugnessy-st-adorning the mix of a modern and commercial glance of this kitchen is quite fascinating. the colour selection for the cabinets and the kitchen island is an ideal pair for the stools and the lights used right here. Photograph: http://coastalhomedesignstudio.com/portfolio-items/downtown-apartment Speaking of lighting fixtures fixture, the only in right here sure is lovely. i actually would not choose to put a gorgeous lamp like this one on here given that i need a useful lighting system for the kitchen, however nonetheless, i feel this is best for the total subject of this kitchen apartment. Photograph: https://blackandmilk.co.uk/area-saving-inner-layout This small kitchen house positive maximized its potential by way of having customized shelving and cabinet paintings performed to it. The materials, colour, design, and association in this kitchen positive appears to be like more enjoyable than what we see in malls or home depots. Photograph: https://plaidfox.com/portfolio/22/homer-st-adorning i used to be first taken aback with the portray or image mounted at the wall. It says so much approximately how latest this space is because in the event you might have spotted, it’s the only thing at the wall. This kitchen, alternatively small appears radiant, heavenly and purposeful. Photograph: coastalhomedesignstudio.com This kitchen house is greater than so much of the kitchen areas in this record but i would like to percentage this one with you men on account of they used the gap above the sink to have extra storage for this kitchen. we all understand that the kitchen is one house that needs hundreds garage as a result of all the provides and appliances we purchase to make use of in there. Photograph: https://www.mbbdesignstudio.com/up to date-condo this modern condo has so much storage and grace to offer. i will’t imagine residing in a house with this beautiful kitchen! i believe I’d cook dinner and bake for my family on a daily basis with minimum bother. Picture: www.mcyia.com L-shaped countertops are used whilst you have minimum area on your kitchens- that is even urged than a single lane counter and range association as it doesn't conform so much to layout and also it does not allow much visitors. This L-formed kitchen is neat and a smart use of house. Photograph: http://www.spaces-studio.com/willisamburg-apartment Well what do you realize, i used to be just speaking a couple of single lane counter and then it just took place to had been within the next photo. As a lot as this area looks large enough, you see that the counter was once designed for minor kitchen activities. it is imaginable that the landlord requested this or this was actually created because the gap is small and so they wanted the site visitors to already include the dining area. Photograph: http://www.mcyia.com/pacificbreeze This kitchen has an enchanting selection for decorative lighting fixtures; this is steered only for nooks considering there are less task than that within the kitchen counters or range. i love the colour palette utilized in here and i feel you’d adore it too! Picture: http://coastalhomedesignstudio.com/portfolio-items/downtown-prime-upward thrust Earth tones are designers’ favorites! It’s simple to compare with anything else and has lasting price. This Downtown High Upward Push condo certain exemplifies glamour and style and nonetheless keeping up function and class. Picture: http://www.marleneoliphant.com/up to date-condominium This kitchen certain looks as if it needs just a little extra gentle coloured walls or cupboards as a result of the minimum or ambient lighting fixtures it has and dark colored cupboards and floor, this kitchen seems in reality darkish. It has the most efficient appliances for sure, however occasionally, it’s all within the lighting fixtures. Picture: https://www.nedesignbuild.com/portfolio/jamaica-simple-kitchen-remodel We only see an excessively minimum portion of this kitchen but it surely positive displays us how lovely light coloured cupboards are in contrast to the brown ground paired with it. i personally love how they have hundreds books above the rest room. Photograph: http://aretekitchens.com/portfolios/potency-condo This cute little kitchen apartment positive is neat and inviting. It seems actually brand new and stylish and definitely prime purposeful. This kitchen area doesn't ring children or kids because of how tiny it is, however i think that is one shocking starter kitchen for a small family. Picture: http://kitchen.hermitagelighting.com Open plans for the kitchen is usual for small and even huge spaces, particularly the ones with children in them as it permits the parents to have a watchful eye for his or her kids whilst doing chores within the kitchen. the color aggregate used in this kitchen seems stunning and really homey. Photograph: www.mcyia.com Any Other favourite for me on this list! that is one small kitchen condominium that showcases up to date layout and planning supposed for unmarried or newly married couples who has a zest for interior layout and Architecture! Photo: http://marconkitchens.com/gallery-kitchen/kitchen looking at the choice of table and chairs adjacent to the counter – I remembered a certain e-book that describes what a homey kitchen is from that of a contemporary or modern one. Now, in this picture, i believe a little bit bit puzzled with its overall thought but it surely certain is a mix of a conventional and a modern house, all on the related time! Photo: http://www.studiom-designs.com/portfolio.html Uncovered ceiling and beton brute floor, i think is that is one rental-loft layout that is favourite by most Millennials and people younger at center. the colour used for the cabinet paintings is surprising and really eye catching – I utterly find it irresistible! Photograph: http://inside-layout-vancouver.com Beautiful and petite! That certain says so much approximately this space; it's in fact, small, and has the elemental necessities wanted in the kitchen and sure appears to be like inviting and ideal for exciting guests. that is one gem that H2 Design Studio certain did an excellent job on! Photograph: http://marconkitchens.com/gallery-kitchen/kitchen Wow! This Emilson condominium certain appears shocking! the colour palette is past phrases. I totally dig the crafty alternatives on the knobs of the cupboards and the faucet too! Photograph: emeraldhillinteriors.com This kitchen appears to be like in reality clean! i think I could be afraid to make any mess in right here as a result of cleansing will just be a trouble! However kidding aside, i think dwelling in a condo in the town has too many benefits and with the exception of eating out so much, you'll be able to all the time opt to cook dinner on account that grocery shops are far and wide! Whether you might be living in a condominium or not, this 20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos will in reality be of great assist while it involves redecorating or even in the conceptualizing phase to your personal apartment or house. If you might be interested, you can also check the 20 Shocking Kitchens with White Chandeliers and proportion them with your family and buddies! Read the full article

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 Want to be better organized? Eppley Handyman Services is the resource you can trust to install custom shelves and bookcases or prefabricated shelving in your home today. Give Eppley Handyman Services a call today for a free quote. Cost Of Custom Shelving and Bookcases? Free Estimates! Call Today Or Schedule Custom Shelving and Bookcases Online Fast!

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Running out of storage space in your home? Want to be better organized? Eppley Handyman Servicesis the resource you can trust to install custom carpentry or prefabricated shelving in your home. We’ll help you determine the Local shelving solutions for your needs anywhere in the house, from bathrooms to basements. Eppley Handyman Services work is performed by experienced craftsmen who walk you through the process every step of the way for a simple and seamless experience. Our goal is your complete satisfaction.

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Updating a Space with Repurposed Items from a Hardware Store

You don't need a big budget, to make a big impact

Not everyone has the money to run out and buy new items to update a space. What if you could buy a few non home decor items and turn them into fabulous decorations to update your home? Would you be more inclined to spruce up your space if you knew it wouldn’t cost much? It can be rather overwhelming to step into a home decor store to purchase items to decorate with. Would you be more interested in decorating if you could purchase these items at a local hardware store? I’m going to share some ideas on how to update any space with repurposed items from a hardware store.

Repurposing wooden crates

You can purchase wooden crates almost anywhere today. They are so versatile and can be used in so many different ways. You can create a coffee table like the one below.

Or you can simply set them around your house to store things like pillows and blankets. They give your space a “rustic” vibe.

How pretty would this look on a front porch? With just a few crates a some simple flowers or plants, you can transform your space!

Plumbing materials as hardware

I love creating home items with plumbing materials. Who would have thought you could transform plumbing materials into light fixtures, shelving brackets, even door hardware!

How cool are these light fixtures? With a minimal amount of work, you can create a fun new bedroom setting with plumbing materials.

I know I mentioned using plumbing material as a shelf bracket, and how easy do these shelves look to make?

My all time favorite repurposed plumbing material would be using it as door hardware!

She even used plumbing materials as a door pull! Now if that isn’t a home update with a repurposed hardware store item then I don’t know what is!

Doors as decoration

Speaking of doors, have you noticed the new trend in decorating with doors? Doors can create a great backdrop for a space. If you don’t know what I mean, check out the way this blogger styled her corner with a door and a wreath.

You don’t have to have an “old” door to create this same look. You can purchase a new door at a hardware store and paint it whatever color you like to match the rest of your home. With a simple wreath, this space looks complete now!

Here is another example of how I used a door as a backdrop for my entryway space.

Tiles as coasters

It’s always fun to find new items to update a space. Consider changing the smaller items in your home too when you update things like paint colors or new furniture.

Below is a picture of how one blogger transformed a simple white tile to make coasters.

Although there was some crafting involved in this project, you don’t necessarily have to create your own. It would look just as good to purchase the color and style tile of your choice and use the “tile coasters” without any modifications.

I hope this list has given you some inspiration on how to update your space with a few repurposed items from a hardware store! For those of you who might be overwhelmed by a home decor store, now you know that it doesn’t take much time or money to transform a space from drab to fab!

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[kadinim-ol]

20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos

https://michaelwoodband.com/4381/20-perfectly-crafted-small-kitchen-in-condos-3/

20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos

In a time where residential homes are already in the city and not in the suburbs, condos, apartments, and flats has been on the rise. Buildings that tower the city sprouted from nowhere until most of the people you know who work in the city live inside these contemporary to modern spaces they call home.

Imagine what it would be like living in a condo.

Admit it, as millennials living in our parents’ homes, we always dreamed of moving out and having our own place to stay and call our own. Where we can simply be ourselves, bring our friends and have game nights!

Imagine all this and more for you and maybe your sister, BFF or significant other! The choices are endless but in this list, you’d see a couple of kitchen designs you can opt for if you plan on living in a condo, or if you already are – maybe consider some of the designs for your space for a refreshing look!

1. Shaugnessy Street

Photo: https://plaidfox.com/portfolio/36/shaugnessy-st-decorating

The mix of a contemporary and industrial look of this kitchen is quite charming. The color choice for the cabinets and the kitchen island is a perfect pair for the stools and the lighting fixtures used here.

2. Downtown Condo

Photo: http://coastalhomedesignstudio.com/portfolio-items/downtown-condo

Speaking of lighting fixture, the one in here sure is pretty. I personally would not opt to put a pretty lamp like this one on here since I need a functional lighting system for the kitchen, but still, I think this is perfect for the overall theme of this kitchen condo.

3. London Studio Flat

Photo: https://blackandmilk.co.uk/space-saving-interior-design

This small kitchen space sure maximized its potential by having customized shelving and cabinet work done to it. The materials, color, design, and arrangement in this kitchen sure looks more exciting than what we see in malls or home depots.

4. Homer Street

Photo: https://plaidfox.com/portfolio/22/homer-st-decorating

I was first taken aback with the painting or picture mounted on the wall. It says a lot about how contemporary this space is because if you might have noticed, it’s the only thing on the wall. This kitchen, however small looks radiant, heavenly and functional.

5. City Front Terrace

Photo: coastalhomedesignstudio.com

This kitchen space is larger than most of the kitchen spaces in this list but I would like to share this one with you guys because of they used the space above the sink to have more storage for this kitchen. We all know that the kitchen is one space that needs tons of storage because of all the supplies and appliances we purchase to use in there.

6. Modern Bently Condo

Photo: https://www.mbbdesignstudio.com/modern-condo

This modern condo has so much storage and beauty to offer. I can’t imagine living in a house with this beautiful kitchen! I think I’d cook and bake for my family every day with minimal hassle.

7. Summer Reef

Photo: www.mcyia.com

L-shaped countertops are used when you have minimal space in your kitchens- this is even advised than a single lane counter and range arrangement because it does not conform much to design and also it does not allow much traffic. This L-shaped kitchen is neat and a smart use of space.

8. Williamsburg Condo

Photo: http://www.spaces-studio.com/willisamburg-condo

Well what do you know, I was just talking about a single lane counter and then it just happened to have been in the next photo. As much as this space looks large enough, you see that the counter was designed for minor kitchen activities. It is possible that the owner requested this or this was in fact created since the space is small and they needed the traffic to already include the dining area.

9. Pacific Breeze

Photo: http://www.mcyia.com/pacificbreeze

This kitchen has an interesting choice for decorative lighting; this is advised only for nooks since there are less activity than that in the kitchen counters or range. I love the color palette used in here and I think you’d love it too!

10. Downtown High Rise

Photo: http://coastalhomedesignstudio.com/portfolio-items/downtown-high-rise

Earth tones are designers’ favorites! It’s easy to match with anything and has lasting value. This Downtown High Rise condo sure exemplifies glamour and beauty and still maintaining function and class.

11. Pasadena CA Condo Remodel

Photo: http://www.marleneoliphant.com/contemporary-condo

This kitchen sure looks like it needs a little more light colored walls or cabinets because of the minimal or ambient lighting it has and dark colored cabinets and flooring, this kitchen looks really dark. It has the best appliances for sure, but sometimes, it’s all in the lighting.

12. Jamaica Plain Condo

Photo: https://www.nedesignbuild.com/portfolio/jamaica-plain-kitchen-remodel

We only see a very minimal portion of this kitchen but it sure shows us how pretty light colored cabinets are in contrast to the brown flooring paired with it. I personally love how they have tons of books above the lavatory.

13. Efficiency Condo

Photo: http://aretekitchens.com/portfolios/efficiency-condo

This cute little kitchen condo sure is neat and inviting. It looks really modern and classy and definitely high functional. This kitchen space does not ring kids or children because of how tiny it is, but I think this is one stunning starter kitchen for a small family.

14. Nashville Skyline

Photo: http://kitchen.hermitagelighting.com

Open plans for the kitchen is common for small or even large spaces, especially the ones with kids in them because it allows the parents to have a watchful eye for their kids while doing chores in the kitchen. The color combination used in this kitchen looks stunning and very homey.

15. Eclectic Chic

Photo: www.mcyia.com

Another favorite for me in this list! This is one small kitchen condo that showcases modern design and planning intended for single or newly married couples who has a zest for interior design and Architecture!

16. Bacon Condo Residence

Photo: http://marconkitchens.com/gallery-kitchen/kitchen

Looking at the choice of table and chairs adjacent to the counter – I remembered a certain book that describes what a homey kitchen is from that of a contemporary or modern one. Now, in this photo, I feel a little bit confused with its overall concept but it sure is a combination of a traditional and a contemporary space, all at the same time!

17. Austin Downtown Condo

Photo: http://www.studiom-designs.com/portfolio.html

Exposed ceiling and beton brute flooring, I think is this is one condo-loft design that is admired by most Millennials and those young at heart. The color used for the cabinet work is stunning and really eye catching – I totally love it!

18. Pretty & Petite

Photo: http://interior-design-vancouver.com

Pretty and petite! That sure says a lot about this space; it is in fact, small, and has the basic requirements needed in the kitchen and sure looks inviting and ideal for entertaining guests. This is one gem that H2 Design Studio sure did a great job on!

19. Emilson Condo

Photo: http://marconkitchens.com/gallery-kitchen/kitchen

Wow! This Emilson condo sure looks stunning! The color palette is beyond words. I totally dig the crafty choices on the knobs of the cabinets and the faucet too!

20. City Condo

Photo: emeraldhillinteriors.com

This kitchen looks really clean! I think I would be afraid to make any mess in here because cleaning will just be a hassle! But kidding aside, I think living in a condo in the city has too many advantages and aside from eating out a lot, you can always opt to cook since grocery stores are everywhere!

Whether you are living in a condo or not, this 20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos will actually be of great help when it comes to redecorating or even in the conceptualizing part for your own condo or home. If you are interested, you can also check the 20 Stunning Kitchens with White Chandeliers and share them with your family and friends!

[onemoorebook]

20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos

https://michaelwoodband.com/4381/20-perfectly-crafted-small-kitchen-in-condos-3/

20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos

In a time where residential homes are already in the city and not in the suburbs, condos, apartments, and flats has been on the rise. Buildings that tower the city sprouted from nowhere until most of the people you know who work in the city live inside these contemporary to modern spaces they call home.

Imagine what it would be like living in a condo.

Admit it, as millennials living in our parents’ homes, we always dreamed of moving out and having our own place to stay and call our own. Where we can simply be ourselves, bring our friends and have game nights!

Imagine all this and more for you and maybe your sister, BFF or significant other! The choices are endless but in this list, you’d see a couple of kitchen designs you can opt for if you plan on living in a condo, or if you already are – maybe consider some of the designs for your space for a refreshing look!

1. Shaugnessy Street

Photo: https://plaidfox.com/portfolio/36/shaugnessy-st-decorating

The mix of a contemporary and industrial look of this kitchen is quite charming. The color choice for the cabinets and the kitchen island is a perfect pair for the stools and the lighting fixtures used here.

2. Downtown Condo

Photo: http://coastalhomedesignstudio.com/portfolio-items/downtown-condo

Speaking of lighting fixture, the one in here sure is pretty. I personally would not opt to put a pretty lamp like this one on here since I need a functional lighting system for the kitchen, but still, I think this is perfect for the overall theme of this kitchen condo.

3. London Studio Flat

Photo: https://blackandmilk.co.uk/space-saving-interior-design

This small kitchen space sure maximized its potential by having customized shelving and cabinet work done to it. The materials, color, design, and arrangement in this kitchen sure looks more exciting than what we see in malls or home depots.

4. Homer Street

Photo: https://plaidfox.com/portfolio/22/homer-st-decorating

I was first taken aback with the painting or picture mounted on the wall. It says a lot about how contemporary this space is because if you might have noticed, it’s the only thing on the wall. This kitchen, however small looks radiant, heavenly and functional.

5. City Front Terrace

Photo: coastalhomedesignstudio.com

This kitchen space is larger than most of the kitchen spaces in this list but I would like to share this one with you guys because of they used the space above the sink to have more storage for this kitchen. We all know that the kitchen is one space that needs tons of storage because of all the supplies and appliances we purchase to use in there.

6. Modern Bently Condo

Photo: https://www.mbbdesignstudio.com/modern-condo

This modern condo has so much storage and beauty to offer. I can’t imagine living in a house with this beautiful kitchen! I think I’d cook and bake for my family every day with minimal hassle.

7. Summer Reef

Photo: www.mcyia.com

L-shaped countertops are used when you have minimal space in your kitchens- this is even advised than a single lane counter and range arrangement because it does not conform much to design and also it does not allow much traffic. This L-shaped kitchen is neat and a smart use of space.

8. Williamsburg Condo

Photo: http://www.spaces-studio.com/willisamburg-condo

Well what do you know, I was just talking about a single lane counter and then it just happened to have been in the next photo. As much as this space looks large enough, you see that the counter was designed for minor kitchen activities. It is possible that the owner requested this or this was in fact created since the space is small and they needed the traffic to already include the dining area.

9. Pacific Breeze

Photo: http://www.mcyia.com/pacificbreeze

This kitchen has an interesting choice for decorative lighting; this is advised only for nooks since there are less activity than that in the kitchen counters or range. I love the color palette used in here and I think you’d love it too!

10. Downtown High Rise

Photo: http://coastalhomedesignstudio.com/portfolio-items/downtown-high-rise

Earth tones are designers’ favorites! It’s easy to match with anything and has lasting value. This Downtown High Rise condo sure exemplifies glamour and beauty and still maintaining function and class.

11. Pasadena CA Condo Remodel

Photo: http://www.marleneoliphant.com/contemporary-condo

This kitchen sure looks like it needs a little more light colored walls or cabinets because of the minimal or ambient lighting it has and dark colored cabinets and flooring, this kitchen looks really dark. It has the best appliances for sure, but sometimes, it’s all in the lighting.

12. Jamaica Plain Condo

Photo: https://www.nedesignbuild.com/portfolio/jamaica-plain-kitchen-remodel

We only see a very minimal portion of this kitchen but it sure shows us how pretty light colored cabinets are in contrast to the brown flooring paired with it. I personally love how they have tons of books above the lavatory.

13. Efficiency Condo

Photo: http://aretekitchens.com/portfolios/efficiency-condo

This cute little kitchen condo sure is neat and inviting. It looks really modern and classy and definitely high functional. This kitchen space does not ring kids or children because of how tiny it is, but I think this is one stunning starter kitchen for a small family.

14. Nashville Skyline

Photo: http://kitchen.hermitagelighting.com

Open plans for the kitchen is common for small or even large spaces, especially the ones with kids in them because it allows the parents to have a watchful eye for their kids while doing chores in the kitchen. The color combination used in this kitchen looks stunning and very homey.

15. Eclectic Chic

Photo: www.mcyia.com

Another favorite for me in this list! This is one small kitchen condo that showcases modern design and planning intended for single or newly married couples who has a zest for interior design and Architecture!

16. Bacon Condo Residence

Photo: http://marconkitchens.com/gallery-kitchen/kitchen

Looking at the choice of table and chairs adjacent to the counter – I remembered a certain book that describes what a homey kitchen is from that of a contemporary or modern one. Now, in this photo, I feel a little bit confused with its overall concept but it sure is a combination of a traditional and a contemporary space, all at the same time!

17. Austin Downtown Condo

Photo: http://www.studiom-designs.com/portfolio.html

Exposed ceiling and beton brute flooring, I think is this is one condo-loft design that is admired by most Millennials and those young at heart. The color used for the cabinet work is stunning and really eye catching – I totally love it!

18. Pretty & Petite

Photo: http://interior-design-vancouver.com

Pretty and petite! That sure says a lot about this space; it is in fact, small, and has the basic requirements needed in the kitchen and sure looks inviting and ideal for entertaining guests. This is one gem that H2 Design Studio sure did a great job on!

19. Emilson Condo

Photo: http://marconkitchens.com/gallery-kitchen/kitchen

Wow! This Emilson condo sure looks stunning! The color palette is beyond words. I totally dig the crafty choices on the knobs of the cabinets and the faucet too!

20. City Condo

Photo: emeraldhillinteriors.com

This kitchen looks really clean! I think I would be afraid to make any mess in here because cleaning will just be a hassle! But kidding aside, I think living in a condo in the city has too many advantages and aside from eating out a lot, you can always opt to cook since grocery stores are everywhere!

Whether you are living in a condo or not, this 20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos will actually be of great help when it comes to redecorating or even in the conceptualizing part for your own condo or home. If you are interested, you can also check the 20 Stunning Kitchens with White Chandeliers and share them with your family and friends!

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20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos on Home Interior Designs

Home Interior Decorating Ideas published on https://www.interiorhd.com/20-perfectly-crafted-small-kitchen-in-condos/

20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos

In a time where residential homes are already in the city and not in the suburbs, condos, apartments, and flats has been on the rise. Buildings that tower the city sprouted from nowhere until most of the people you know who work in the city live inside these contemporary to modern spaces they call home.

Imagine what it would be like living in a condo.

Admit it, as millennials living in our parents’ homes, we always dreamed of moving out and having our own place to stay and call our own. Where we can simply be ourselves, bring our friends and have game nights!

Imagine all this and more for you and maybe your sister, BFF or significant other! The choices are endless but in this list, you’d see a couple of kitchen designs you can opt for if you plan on living in a condo, or if you already are – maybe consider some of the designs for your space for a refreshing look!

1. Shaugnessy Street

Photo: https://plaidfox.com/portfolio/36/shaugnessy-st-decorating

The mix of a contemporary and industrial look of this kitchen is quite charming. The color choice for the cabinets and the kitchen island is a perfect pair for the stools and the lighting fixtures used here.

2. Downtown Condo

Photo: http://coastalhomedesignstudio.com/portfolio-items/downtown-condo

Speaking of lighting fixture, the one in here sure is pretty. I personally would not opt to put a pretty lamp like this one on here since I need a functional lighting system for the kitchen, but still, I think this is perfect for the overall theme of this kitchen condo.

3. London Studio Flat

Photo: https://blackandmilk.co.uk/space-saving-interior-design

This small kitchen space sure maximized its potential by having customized shelving and cabinet work done to it. The materials, color, design, and arrangement in this kitchen sure looks more exciting than what we see in malls or home depots.

4. Homer Street

Photo: https://plaidfox.com/portfolio/22/homer-st-decorating

I was first taken aback with the painting or picture mounted on the wall. It says a lot about how contemporary this space is because if you might have noticed, it’s the only thing on the wall. This kitchen, however small looks radiant, heavenly and functional.

5. City Front Terrace

Photo: coastalhomedesignstudio.com

This kitchen space is larger than most of the kitchen spaces in this list but I would like to share this one with you guys because of they used the space above the sink to have more storage for this kitchen. We all know that the kitchen is one space that needs tons of storage because of all the supplies and appliances we purchase to use in there.

6. Modern Bently Condo

Photo: https://www.mbbdesignstudio.com/modern-condo

This modern condo has so much storage and beauty to offer. I can’t imagine living in a house with this beautiful kitchen! I think I’d cook and bake for my family every day with minimal hassle.

7. Summer Reef

Photo: www.mcyia.com

L-shaped countertops are used when you have minimal space in your kitchens- this is even advised than a single lane counter and range arrangement because it does not conform much to design and also it does not allow much traffic. This L-shaped kitchen is neat and a smart use of space.

8. Williamsburg Condo

Photo: http://www.spaces-studio.com/willisamburg-condo

Well what do you know, I was just talking about a single lane counter and then it just happened to have been in the next photo. As much as this space looks large enough, you see that the counter was designed for minor kitchen activities. It is possible that the owner requested this or this was in fact created since the space is small and they needed the traffic to already include the dining area.

9. Pacific Breeze

Photo: http://www.mcyia.com/pacificbreeze

This kitchen has an interesting choice for decorative lighting; this is advised only for nooks since there are less activity than that in the kitchen counters or range. I love the color palette used in here and I think you’d love it too!

10. Downtown High Rise

Photo: http://coastalhomedesignstudio.com/portfolio-items/downtown-high-rise

Earth tones are designers’ favorites! It’s easy to match with anything and has lasting value. This Downtown High Rise condo sure exemplifies glamour and beauty and still maintaining function and class.

11. Pasadena CA Condo Remodel

Photo: http://www.marleneoliphant.com/contemporary-condo

This kitchen sure looks like it needs a little more light colored walls or cabinets because of the minimal or ambient lighting it has and dark colored cabinets and flooring, this kitchen looks really dark. It has the best appliances for sure, but sometimes, it’s all in the lighting.

12. Jamaica Plain Condo

Photo: https://www.nedesignbuild.com/portfolio/jamaica-plain-kitchen-remodel

We only see a very minimal portion of this kitchen but it sure shows us how pretty light colored cabinets are in contrast to the brown flooring paired with it. I personally love how they have tons of books above the lavatory.

13. Efficiency Condo

Photo: http://aretekitchens.com/portfolios/efficiency-condo

This cute little kitchen condo sure is neat and inviting. It looks really modern and classy and definitely high functional. This kitchen space does not ring kids or children because of how tiny it is, but I think this is one stunning starter kitchen for a small family.

14. Nashville Skyline

Photo: http://kitchen.hermitagelighting.com

Open plans for the kitchen is common for small or even large spaces, especially the ones with kids in them because it allows the parents to have a watchful eye for their kids while doing chores in the kitchen. The color combination used in this kitchen looks stunning and very homey.

15. Eclectic Chic

Photo: www.mcyia.com

Another favorite for me in this list! This is one small kitchen condo that showcases modern design and planning intended for single or newly married couples who has a zest for interior design and Architecture!

16. Bacon Condo Residence

Photo: http://marconkitchens.com/gallery-kitchen/kitchen

Looking at the choice of table and chairs adjacent to the counter – I remembered a certain book that describes what a homey kitchen is from that of a contemporary or modern one. Now, in this photo, I feel a little bit confused with its overall concept but it sure is a combination of a traditional and a contemporary space, all at the same time!

17. Austin Downtown Condo

Photo: http://www.studiom-designs.com/portfolio.html

Exposed ceiling and beton brute flooring, I think is this is one condo-loft design that is admired by most Millennials and those young at heart. The color used for the cabinet work is stunning and really eye catching – I totally love it!

18. Pretty & Petite

Photo: http://interior-design-vancouver.com

Pretty and petite! That sure says a lot about this space; it is in fact, small, and has the basic requirements needed in the kitchen and sure looks inviting and ideal for entertaining guests. This is one gem that H2 Design Studio sure did a great job on!

19. Emilson Condo

Photo: http://marconkitchens.com/gallery-kitchen/kitchen

Wow! This Emilson condo sure looks stunning! The color palette is beyond words. I totally dig the crafty choices on the knobs of the cabinets and the faucet too!

20. City Condo

Photo: emeraldhillinteriors.com

This kitchen looks really clean! I think I would be afraid to make any mess in here because cleaning will just be a hassle! But kidding aside, I think living in a condo in the city has too many advantages and aside from eating out a lot, you can always opt to cook since grocery stores are everywhere!

Whether you are living in a condo or not, this 20 Perfectly Crafted Small Kitchen in Condos will actually be of great help when it comes to redecorating or even in the conceptualizing part for your own condo or home. If you are interested, you can also check the 20 Stunning Kitchens with White Chandeliers and share them with your family and friends!

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