#I might go back n remake this but I thought why not this is my main blog I can put whatever unpolished random crap I wanna on here

[obessedwithfictionalmen]

Co-Stars pt.2

Callum Turner X Actress! Reader

Summary: All the time Callum and Y/n were together in a movie.

Warning: Allusion to sex/ swearing/ kissing/ mention of being naked

Word count: 1.1k

A/n: The movies I selected are not starring Callum (except the only boy living in New York), and the other movies do not have the same actress, so use ✨️imagination✨️

The first time they were in a movie together was in The Only Boy Living in New York, she was playing Tomas’s best friend, and they needed to kiss multiple times. They had chemistry. That was one of the first things the directors told them. It was said in multiple interviews. After the movie came out, they stayed friends, talking to the other, telling each other what they were in. When they got cast in another movie together, as love interest, they were over the moon. Y/n had got the first role, and Callum got the sexy bartender role. The movie was called Burlesque, Y/n had to sing, and Callum thought she was amazing. The interviews that followed the movie were filled with teasing and flirting.

-

‘’Now, you guys already played love interest in the only boy living in New York, what was your reaction when you learned that you got to do that again?’’ the reporter asked. ‘’For me, I laughed. I was happy that it was him. This movie took me out of my comfort zone and to know that my co-star is one of my best friends was really soothing and yeah, and he’s good looking, so I couldn’t complain’’ she joked. Callum laughed. ‘’It was really fun, she was amazing, her singing was amazing. But yeah, we come as a package now, you want me, you get Y/n’’ he said, laughing. ‘’2 for the price of 1’’ she added to the joke.

-

The first time she was cast in something that Callum wasn’t in was in the remake of Footloose, she played Ariel. She was confident for this role, but without Callum, it was going to be weird. But the director had a surprise for her.

-

‘’Uh, sorry why does it say Callum beside the name of Bobby?’’ she asked. Bobby was supposed to be Ariel’s dead brother, but it had flash back scenes. As she said that, Callum entered the room. ‘’Holy shit!’’ she screamed in joy as she got off her chair to run in his arms. ‘’You two come as a package, I couldn’t separate you guys’’ the director said, laughing. ‘’It’s not a lot of scenes, but I thought this might be fun’’ he added. ‘’Thank you so much’’ Y/n chuckled.

-

Then, Callum and Y/n were cast as voice actors for a movie. The movie was Inside out, Y/n played Disgust and Callum played Fear. They had fun doing their voices, it was something new for the both of them. But the real surprise was when they both got cast in Master of the Air.

-

‘’Now, guys, ready to meet Callum’s love interest?’’ Tom Hanks asked the actors. They nodded and Y/n entered the room. At first, she was confused, but when she saw Callum, she started to laugh. ‘’No fucking way!’’ she laughed. ‘’The pair strikes again!’’ Austin Butler says, laughing. ‘’Who’s the pair?’’ Anthony Boyle asks. ‘’Them, they’re like the new Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter’’ Bary says. Y/n walked up to Callum to hug him, they were both giggling and blushing. ‘’We’re happy to say, that the cast is now complete! Welcome to the madness, Y/n’’ Steven Spielberg said. When they were shooting their scene, it was always amazing. They almost never had to do more than five takes. The only time they had to do more than five takes was their love scene.

-

‘’Action!’’ yelled the director. She was in a white dress, so when she would step underwater, it would become transparent. ‘’Rose, what are you doing here?’’ Callum said, in an American accent. Her turned around to look at her, he was in the shower. She entered the shower, still maintaining eye contact. ‘’John, I can’t keep acting like ahhhh’’ she yelled as she slipped in the shower, almost falling, but Callum catches her before she fell on the ground. They both started to laugh as the director yelled cut. ‘’Y/n are you okay?’’ She nodded as they continued laughing. ‘’Yeah, I’m okay, I’m sorry!’’ she said, calming down. They calmed down and put themselves in their characters again. It was their fifth take, they had to get it right. ‘’Action’’ They redid the scene they did before Y/n almost fell. Now, she was in the shower, soaking wet. In a now completely transparent dress. ‘’Are you going to kiss me, Major?’’ she said, with a flirting voice. ‘’I’m going to do more than kiss you’’ Callum said, with the American accent. Y/n slightly opened her mouth, but it was enough for a drop of water to go straight in her throat, making her chock on it. She started to cough really hard. ‘’I’m (cough) so sorry (cough)’’ she apologized. She felt bad for ruining the scene, but she was literally choking on water. ‘’Do we need a medic?’’ Tom Hanks asked. Callum started to gently tap her back, to help her cough. ‘’She’s still breathing, she might need a minute’’ he said. ‘’I’m (cough) choking on water (cough) it’s ridiculous. (cough)’’ she said. ‘’Stop talking, try to get the water out’’ Callum laughed.

-

The bloopers of Master of the Air got out and the moment where Y/n chocked made people laugh. So, when the were interviewed, people wanted to know more about it and what happened.

-

‘’Julie wanted to know, what was the hardest scene to shoot?’’ Josh asked. The cast started to laugh. ‘’For me, it was the shower sex scene. I mean, people have seen the bloopers. And the take before that I almost fell because it was slippery. And before Callum kissed me, I started to choke on water. So, I was like’’ she got up her chair, putted her hands on her knees, like she was out of breath. ‘’I’m okay (fake cough). I’m sorry (fake cough) I’m okay (fake cough). And Callum was tapping my back like: No she’s not!’’ she said with a fake British accent at the end. Callum started laughing even more, and so did Anthony Boyle. ‘’I was watching them, and Tom Hanks said to me: Do you really think she’ll survive this?’’ he laughed. Y/n came back in her seat and laughed more. ‘’We never had a boring day on set with those two. It was always fun’’ Austin said. ‘’At first, when she started choking, I thought, is it my fault? But when she said she was choking on water, I started to laugh, but I didn’t want to because she was coughing and it was serious, but she was so funny’’ Callum said. ‘’And I was almost naked! Cause I was wearing a white blouse that was supposed to become transparent, so I was coughing and trying to hide my tits. It was a really funny day on set’’ she added. The crowd was laughing and screaming. ‘’And you specify the place of the sex scene, is it that you guys have multiple sex scenes?’’ Josh asked. Callum and Y/n looked at each other, and they laughed. ‘’Well, maybe we don’t want to spoil the fans!’’ Callum exclaimed. Y/n hid her head in her hands and laughed again. Then she brought the mic next to her mouth. ‘’We saw in the trailer that we had, I think we have in total like 5 sex scenes’’ she admitted. The fans yelled and expressed their happiness. ‘’Next’’ Y/n said, red as a tomato.

[glassartpeasants]

I was doing a writing warm-up and made this piece. I kinda like it and might make a fic series about it if anyone is interested. Also, I call Kid 'Eustass' in this because it felt right for some reason?

Eustass Kid/ Trafalgar Law x F!Reader

warnings: Angst, small amount of blood, cheating, slut shaming maybe? Modern Au

~~~

“Does he think I’m a fucking idiot?! Does he think I can’t see the way his eyes follow girls’ asses as they walk by?” Gripping the edge of the bathroom sink, you struggle to hold back tears as you talk to your best friend on the other line.

“What am I doing wrong (....)? I’ve done everything right! I gave him all of me, and he’s out here eyeing other women!”

“That’s just the way he is (Y/N). I tried to warn you about him. You can’t change someone who doesn’t want to change.” You bite your lip as your body shakes. Emotion overwhelmed you to the point you could no longer hold back tears.

“I don’t understand. He told me he loved me and that he couldn’t imagine a life without me. He made me a matching ring to his. He promised me that his playboy days were over…”

“Well, if he’s staring at other girls, then obviously he broke his promise.”

~~~

You're feeling a lot more numb than you thought you would. At first, you thought you’d be yelling, crying, and screaming. Asking him why? But now that you're actually hearing his moans along with an unknown woman's echoing in your shared bedroom, no tears fall from your eyes. 

Maybe your heart and mind were mentally and emotionally ready for this. There were many signs he was starting to stray. Staring at other women, no longer being affectionate in public, you even saw him take off his ring once. He hasn’t done it again, but that was the last straw your heart could take when you tried to ignore the signs.

You should've known it’d end like this. He’s been a fuck boy all throughout high school and college. Slithering his way into vulnerable hearts and crushing them without a care about the people he’s heart. How you’ve been friends with him for so long and knowing what he was doing was something you criticized yourself for. 

While you weren’t best friends during high school and college, you both always had a class together. The two of you just ended up talking during each of them. Well, him hitting on you and you always telling him that you rather swim in hell’s flames than get with him. All throughout high school and college, he’d do this. In a way, you said no to avenge all the hearts he’s broken. But once college started, you accidentally started growing feelings for the idiot. Yet, you still said no until graduation day. He came up to you with a bouquet of roses made of metal that he made in shop class. Every rose was made individually, letting you pluck one out and hold it in your hands. Everyone in said class said he’d been working on it forever. Throwing away and remaking it more times than anyone could count. All to make sure it was perfect. It was then that you finally said yes. No one had done anything so thoughtful for you before. 

But when you told your best friend the news, she wasn’t happy.

“What?!”

“Listen, I know it sounds stupid-”

“That’s because it is stupid (Y/N)! We both know his past and how he still was before you agreed to go out with him! How are you sure he isn’t gonna do the same shit to you?!”

“He’s been asking me for years and actually made me this metal bouquet of flowers. Aren’t they beautiful, though?” Showing her the flowers, you watch her sigh. 

“What happens when he breaks your heart? What will you do then?” You were silent as you looked away from her. Her hands go to your shoulders, and it makes you look at her. 

“I just don’t want you crying over someone like him. I’m just worried about you, okay?”

“I know. Thank you for watching out for me. I’m going to give him a chance. Maybe he’s ready to grow up? But if I get my heart broken. Then you’ll get to say, ‘I told you so’.” Laughing at the last part, you pull (.....) into a hug and enjoy how you could always rely on her to be by your side.

Your eyes caught the metal bouquet on the kitchen table. The sun hit it just right to where it shined in your eyes. Furrowing your brows, an immediate disgust came over you as you looked at them. The one thing that had you thinking he’d changed was laughing at you and calling you a fool for falling for it.

Turning away from the bedroom door, you carefully and quietly walked to the metal sculpture. You pull one of the roses out from the vase they resided in and look at it. You twirled it with your fingers before gripping it tightly. Using your other hand, you encase the metal rosebud with the palm of your hand before twisting it harshly. 

The sharp metal cut into your hand as you ripped off the rose head. A small hiss escaped you, yet you continued. Putting down the first destroyed rose, you move on to the second one. Then the third, fourth, fifth, until every single rose had been ripped apart. By the time you were finished, the stems of the flowers were scattered across the kitchen table, as well as the blood-covered roses. A good representation of a broken heart if you say so.

You could still hear the moans coming from the bedroom, and the more you listened and paid attention, the more you swore you recognized the tone of voice. Tip-toeing to the door, you place your ear against the wood. Taking a few seconds, you listen carefully to try to pinpoint who it could be.

“Eustass~”

As soon as the words were heard, you felt your world shatter. That was (.....)’s voice. That was (.....) in there fucking your boyfriend. And your boyfriend was cheating on you with your best friend. The two people you cared about the most stabbing you in the back. It’s even worse knowing that (.....) was cheating on her own boyfriend, Trafalgar Law. The smartest person you’ve ever met. He was valedictorian in high school and had the highest grades in college. He's now a world known respected doctor who’s saved so many lives. Everything he’s done, and this is what happens to him? How could Eustass and (.....) pull this on you and Law?

A rage washed over you as soon as you heard her moan his name again. Grabbing your phone from your pocket, you unlock it and call Law. You thankfully had his number after a project you guys did together a month before college ended, and you just never remembered to delete it. 

“Come on, Law. Pick up.” Whispering, you cross your fingers.

“(Y/N)-ya? Why are you-”

“I really need you to stay on the line, okay? I’m going to facetime you now, alright?”

“What? Why? (Y/N)-ya, I have to go back to work-”

“(.....)’s cheating on you with my boyfriend right now as we speak. Don’t believe me? Listen!” You put your phone against the door, and all you heard was silence on Law’s side of the phone. A groan of (.....)’s name leaving Eustass’s mouth finally made you snap.

“That’s it!” Busting open the door, your met with a half-naked Eustass and a very naked (.....).

“Shit (Y/N)!”

“(Y/N)! It’s not what it looks like!” Clutching your phone tightly in your hand, you finally feel your anger bubble over.

“Don’t pull that shit with me! If your gonna be a backstabbing whore at least admit it! Fucking my boyfriend?! The boyfriend you hated?! Did you just want to fuck him the whole time?! How long has this been going on?!” You watched as (.....) scrambled to get her clothes on, and Eustass pushed his dick back in his pants.

“This is the only time it’s happened, I swear!”

“This is all an accident (Y/N), okay? I promise-”

“Oh, so your dick accidentally found its way into her? I don’t believe that for a second! And don’t tell me about your bullshit promises!” You can feel the cut on your hand finally start to sting as blood starts to puddle against the floor. The cut must have been much deeper than you originally thought.

“You're bleeding! (Y/N) are you okay?!-”

“Oh, don’t act like you care (.....)! If you actually cared, you wouldn’t be fucking my boyfriend in my bed! If you actually had a fucking heart, you wouldn’t have cheated on Law either!” The mention of Law's name has a look of horror appear on (.....)'s face.

“Please don’t tell him (Y/N)! I love him, and I don’t want him to leave me!”

“I’m breaking up with you.” (.....)’s face dropped when she realized Law heard everything. Tears start pouring down her face.

“That makes two of us.” You take off the ring Eustass gave you before walking over to (.....) Plopping it into her hand, you look at her with hatred and a disgusted smile.

“Obviously, this was meant for you since he loves you so much he can’t stop saying your name.” You grab the bag you left by the bedroom door before turning around and start to collect things around the apartment that you need.

“I’ll make sure to tell the landlord that my name’s off the lease and that I’ll gather my things tomorrow morning.” Holding everything you could gather at the moment, you make your way to the front door.

“Where do you think you're going?!” You feel Eustass grab your wrist and bring you closer to him. Looking into his eyes, you see panic, fear, and anger swirling around in them. 

“Leaving, obviously! I’m not gonna stay and shatter my heart more after seeing a man I loved, wanted to marry even, fucking my now ex-best friend.” The panic grew more evident as he pulled you to his chest. Both arms wrapped around you so you couldn’t leave.

“You can’t leave, alright! I know I fucked up, but please, let’s talk about this. She means nothing to me! She’s just some slut-”

“A slut you fucked knowing you were taken.” Tears started spilling from your eyes as you felt him hold you closer. 

“Why? Why would you do this to me? Why’d you say you loved me when you out fucking my best friend? How dare you hold me close and act like the stench of sex and her perfume isn’t surrounding you?”

“I’m outside in the car (Y/N).” Hearing Law’s voice shocked you as you remember you never hung up on him. He was so quiet, and you heard nothing on the other side of the line. Having him even show up was surprising, but you weren’t gonna throw away this opportunity to get away from Eustass and (.....). 

“Alright, be right there-”

“No, she won’t! Fuck off, Trafalgar, and take your bitch with you!” Eustass grabbed your phone and hung up before throwing your phone on the couch.

“Eustass! Are you-” You feel one of his hands push your head to his. His lips met yours, and you could feel the urgency in his kisses.

“Please don’t…leave me…” Kissing your between words only had your heart shattering more. How could he kiss you like he loves you after pulling a stunt like this?

It took almost everything inside you not to dig your fingers into his hair and kiss him back. You wanted it all to be a dream and that when you woke up, you’d be sleeping against his chest. 

Putting your hand against his bare chest, you feel his bare skin against your open wound. It made him pull away from his panicked kisses when he felt your bloody hand on his chest.

“Jesus (Y/N)! What happened?!”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Stay here, I’m grabbing bandages!” Letting you go, you see him rush to the bathroom. Taking this chance, you grab your phone and start running out the door. Anything you can carry in tow, you run down the stairs as you hear (.....) scream your name and Eustass yelling at you to stop. 

But who was he to tell you what to do?

Bursting out the apartment complex’s door, you see Law’s car parked waiting for you. Using all your strength, you run as fast as you can. Grabbing the car door, You swung it open before slamming it shut. Everything you brought with you on your lap.

“Drive!” Wasting no time, Law stomps on the gas, and as you see Eustass run out of the apartment, watching you and Law drive away.

~~~

If you guys do want this to be an actual fic series, let me know cause this concept is quite interesting to me.

[thelargefrye]

FIRST MEETING MONTAGE … head canons

pairing : ateez x f!reader (separately)

genre : idol au, headcanons, each member has their own mini genres and tropes, future dad!ateez au

warnings : language, a nose bleed (jongho), some members are longer than others! sorry! also i’ve never been to a fansign so i’m only going by what i think happens 🥲

note : a remake and return of the mr. housedad series! been thinking about this for a while, so yep! here it is, enjoy… feedback is appreciated

how you and ateez met, setting your future in stone.

KIM HONGJOONG x ARTIST!F!READER ( fake dating, strangers to friends to lovers )

you felt stupid for some reason. like you should have never agreed to doing the blind date your friend insisted on setting up for you.

mainly because right now you are getting stood up, it’s been twenty minutes past the time you were suppose to meet your date and now you just feel silly. maybe you should just go home.

“um, excuse me, are you y/n?” a voice asks behind you and you turn to see probably one of the most handsomest men you have ever seen.

everything about him was just so put together. his split hair being eye catching and his outfit just being so stylish makes you feel underdressed if you’re being honest.

“yes! I’m y/n, are you hongjoong?”

“haha, yes i am, sorry i was late. i got caught up with work,” he says before he’s walking you towards the restaurant doors. “shall we go in and talk?”

you nod and can’t help the heat going to your cheeks as he opens the door for you before following close behind you into the restaurant.

“to be honest, i only agreed to this date because my friend has been pressuring me to try and date,” he says and you feel an odd twist in your stomach. he didn’t even want to be on this date.

so that’s why he was late, you think to yourself as you nod at his words. granted at first you weren’t that excited to be going on a blind date, but you really did want to get out there and start dating.

“my friend insisted i go on this date as well. she tells me that maybe going on a few dates here and there would help with my creative block that i’ve been in for the past few months,” you tell him with a laugh and he nods at your words.

“i hate creative blocks,” he says as he runs a hand through his split colored hair. “what do you do for a living?”

“i’m an artist. i do a lot of commission paintings and illustrations for children books. i also do paintings for myself and a few galleries here and there when they want me.”

“you’re an artist? that sounds amazing,” he says and you notice the immediate stars appearing in his eyes and you feel a sudden boost in your ego. “i think if i wasn’t so in love with music, i would definitely have become a painter.”

“hey, i suddenly just had an idea,” hongjoong says which quickly earns your attention as you look up from your food. “this might seem crazy, but what do you think about pretending to date?”

“pretending to date? what do you mean?”

“well it’s obvious that i’m not interested in actually dating and you’re in a creative block, so what if we help each other out. we pretend to date so i can get my friend off my back and when we do hangout, i help you try to get out of your creative block. a win-win if you ask me.”

god, what kind of fanfic are you living in right now. fake date an idol? that sounds like a recipe for disaster, but you can’t ignore how tempting it sounds. you really do need to get out of your creative block soon in time for the next exhibit and maybe doing painting based on love could be a good thing to try.

“okay, let’s do it.”

hongjoong smiles at your words before saying, “can’t wait to fake date you!”

PARK SEONGHWA x IDOL!F!READER ( strangers to lovers, nct added member )

you looked so pretty, sitting there along with the other hosts is what seonghwa thought as he watched you from where he was sitting with his members. he licked his lips, stars in his eyes as he still couldn’t wrap his head around seeing you.

his members would tease him later but he didn’t care. you’ve been his celebrity crush for a while now, even back when he was a trainee, he’s adored you.

and recently he found out that he was your ideal type. he felt like it was a huge ego boost. he wanted to talk to you, but at the same time he was nervous.

some of his members — i.e wooyoung and san — told him he should give you his number while they were in the show. he tried arguing with them, telling them no and that he honestly couldn’t because what if you rejected him. he couldn’t handle such a rejection from you.

“you should just try it, hyung, i’m sure she’ll say yes,” san said and once they all took a break in filming it was san who pushed seonghwa over towards you.

“hi, um, i’m ateez’s seonghwa,” he says and cringes at how he chose to introduce himself.

“oh, hi, it’s nice to you meet finally you seonghwa! i’m nct’s y/n,” you say as the two of you bow to each other.

“i just wanted to say that i’ve been a big fan of yours for a while and wanted to know if you would want to hangout sometime?”

you look surprised by his sudden question and seonghwa wonders if maybe he crossed a line, but your words are quick to make him think otherwise.

“o-of course! i would love to hangout sometime!” you say and seonghwa can’t help but find you extremely adorable in this moment.

“do you… maybe want to exchange numbers?”

“yes, sure, of course!” you say and seonghwa laughs at your response as he pulls his phone out while you do the same. you two are quick to exchange numbers before the producers are calling for everyone to return to the spots. “i guess we’ll talk later, right?”

“definitely.”

“great, good luck on your group’s performance!” the two of you wave before you walk off and seonghwa can’t help the lovestruck feeling that over takes him.

“soooo… how did it go?” san asks coming up to the eldest member with a sly smirk.

“shut up,” seonghwa says before shoving san slightly and walking back to join the rest of the members.

JEONG YUNHO x GAME DEVELOPER!F!READER ( strangers to lovers, dad!yunho )

you were use to being alone. especially since you started living abroad in korea away from your friends and family you had grown up with and cherished. you often relied on memories to keep you company, but recently one of your coworkers told you a solution to your loneliness.

“a dog?” you had only thought about getting a pet a few times, but concluded that maybe getting one while being abroad wasn’t the best idea. your job wasn’t always the most stable as any game you and your team were working on could get cancelled last minute. plus you were still slowly trying to figure out how to take care of yourself, let alone a dog.

“you should think about it! there’s an adoption center nearby, so maybe check it out sometime,” they told you and only agreed to think about it.

and think about it you did because the next thing you knew, you were making your way to the adoption center.

you were going to adopt a dog.

you decided that maybe it was for the best to adopt a dog, maybe having someone else to take care of would make you less lonely. and of course it would get you out of the house more…

and that’s exactly what is happening three weeks after you adopted a cute labrador retriever named lily who you just immediately connected with. she has a lot of energy, that’s for sure but you don’t mind.

that’s actually how you found yourself at the park, playing fetch with her. throwing the bright yellow ball and watching lily as she goes and retrieves it.

you watch as she runs back to you, ball in her mouth as she drops it in front of you. picking it up, you toss it and your surprised by how far it goes. watching the ball land in the ground and roll to a complete stranger, a black cap on his head and mask pulled up over his face. the stranger picks the ball up right as lily comes barreling towards him.

“wait, lily!” you shout as you watch her pounce the man and you immediately take off towards the two. “oh my gosh, i am so sorry!”

the man laughs as he shakes his head and gives lily the ball. lily turns to run back to you, but seems surprised and happy to see you right there next to her.

“no worries, i probably shouldn’t have picked the ball up,” he says and even if he’s wearing a mask, you can tell he’s smiling from how his eyes crinkle.

“still i am so sorry, i just adopted her and we’re still learning,” you say, feeling an embarrassed heat take over your face.

“really, don’t worry about, but if you still feel guilty how about you take me to get some coffee? i know a good dog friendly café that’s nearby,” he says as he bends down to pet lily.

wow, he’s smooth. “o-oh, uh, sure! um, i’m y/n and this is lily!” you say and cringe at how a little too excited you seemed.

“i’m yunho.”

KANG YEOSANG x FASHION STUDENT!F!READER ( idol and fan to friends to lovers )

you actually managed to get into a fansign. and one for your ult group nonetheless. you were so excited that you almost threw up, twice. but you didn’t! then as the day drew closer, you got more nervous. you were worried about what would happen if you accidentally made a fool of yourself in front of your favorite group.

oh god what if you tripped! no, don’t think like that because then you will definitely trip.

when the day finally came, you made sure to dress cutely. despite knowing that none of the members would probably remember you, you still wanted to look cute so that you could look back fondly on this memory.

however, what was suppose to be a good day with meeting your favorite group soon turned into probably the worst day you’ve had in a while.

first you had to chase after your cat after she managed to escape your apartment. then you miss your bus by a second — you literally watched it take off as you were running down the crowded street to make it. so in a hurry you grab a cab in order to take you to the fansign. thankfully you managed to grab a cab fairly easy and arriving there was also just as easy.

however, it started going down once again when you tried to enter the fansign and the guard stops you.

“sorry this is a fake ticket,” he says before handing you your paper back. you’re completely shocked as you look at him.

“w-what?” you are easily pushed aside by the other fans behind you and you let them as you are still in shock. you were scammed into believing you had actually won a fansign with ateez.

what kind of cruel world is this you think as you walk outside the building and onto the steps. you know you probably shouldn’t be sitting here, but your legs don’t allow you to go any further. even after the fansign started, you find yourself still sitting on the steps. you can only faintly hear ateez from inside along with all the lucky atiny who didn’t get scammed.

when the fansign is over and all the fans had seemingly left, you find yourself on a nearby bench. you can’t help but look at your ateez album and wondering how this day that was suppose to be a great one turned out to be so… disheartening.

“excuse me,” a deep voice startles you from your thought and you turn to see… yeosang standing next to you. “did you go to the fansign?” he asks, gesturing to your album.

“o-oh, no, i didn’t. i had a fake ticket,” you say before you quickly wonder why you are explaining it to him.

“oh, i’m sorry…” he says trailing off before you watch something click in his head as his whole face lights up, “do you mind if i take it for a moment?” he asks, again gesturing to your album and you willingly hand it over. “what’s your name?”

“y/n.”

once he has your album, he motions for you to say before he dashes off back into the building. it’s several minutes later when he returns and hands you back your… now signed album.

“thank you for supporting ateez,” he says with a small bow before a man — who you assume is his manager — calls for him and yeosang is soon disappearing back into the building with a small smile and wave as a quick goodbye.

what… just happened? you look at your album, quickly opening it and flipping through the pages to notice how each member had signed it. however you notice something different when you get to yeosang’s pages.

“sorry you got scammed, but hopefully this makes it better! btw you looked cute, so smile okay? xx-xxx-xxx”

did you just get kang yeosang’s number?

CHOI SAN x COLLEGE STUDENT!F!READER ( idol and fan to friends to lovers )

no way. no fucking way. this was not happening. there was no way THE choi san was standing right in front of you while you dressed like an elderly woman. not that there was anything wrong with dressing like an elderly woman, but meeting your bias while dressed as such was not ideal.

“oh? are you the exchange student my grandma was talking about?” oh shit, his grandmother talked about you to him.

“u-um, y-yeah, i’m y/n,” wow, smooth y/n, real smooth.

“ah, well if you need help with anything while i’m here let me know,” he says with a smile before turning and walking away leaving you a little dumbfounded.

you watch him walk back into the room that is only just down the hall from yours and felt your heart jump down to your stomach. holy crap, choi san is staying only a few rooms from you. what kind of fanfic trope is this?!

this had to be a dream, this had to be anything but real. you refuse to believe it. you slowly closed your bedroom door, walked over to your bed, and grabbed your pillow before screaming into it.

these next two weeks were going to be interesting, that’s for sure.

SONG MINGI x WEBTOON ARTIST!F!READER ( strangers to friends to lovers )

mingi felt weird. not weird in a bad way, but just felt… weird. actually he wasn’t really sure how to explain it. his mom had asked him to go greet their new neighbor who was his age.

was this her way of trying to get him to start dating? to have him meet her new neighbor and have them just… fall in love?

but even if it was weird, mingi didn’t argue or question his mom and so that’s how he found himself standing in front of your door ready to knock and introduce himself.

when he did knock, it took a few minutes before someone eventually came to the door. and mingi won’t lie, you looked like you hadn’t seen another human for a few days with how disheveled you looked.

he wasn’t trying to judge you or anything, but it was quite obvious.

“can i help you?” you ask after you both stood there in silence for a few moments.

“o-oh, um, i’m mingi. my mom lives next door and wanted me to give you this as a welcome present,” he says presenting the kimchi he almost forgot he had in his hands.

you glanced down at his hands and noticed the container of kimchi. he seen you hesitate for a moment before you took it with gentle hands and that was probably the softest thing he’d witnessed from you since meeting you less than five minutes ago.

“thank you,” you said before going back into your apartment and closing the door behind you.

“so how did it go?” his mom asked once he returned. mingi still felt like the interaction happened a little too fast for his liking.

“it was… okay. she’s seems… interesting.”

“good! maybe this could be the start of a new friendship!”

“yeah, a new friendship.”

JUNG WOOYOUNG x IDOL!F!READER ( strangers to friends )

“just talk to him, y/n, what could go wrong?” your group member insisted as you both stood near the vending machines at music show.

“a lot could go wrong and then i would just end up looking stupid in front of him and never be able to show my face in front of him again,” you told her and she gave you a pointed look as if to say really? but yes, really!

“come on, y/n, why don’t we go visit him and his group under the guise of giving them our album? maybe then you can get the chance to talk to him,” she suggests and you are about to deny it when she stops you and drags you back to your group’s dressing room.

which is how you all end up knocking on ateez’s dressing room door, your group’s album clutched tightly in your grip. when ateez’s manager opens the door, your leader bows and introduces you all and tells him how you wish to gift ateez a copy of your album.

“hello, we are visage,” you all say in unison before ateez is quick to also introduce themselves.

“we were just wanting to gift you all a copy of our album,” your leader says before gesturing to you who was still tightly holding onto the album.

your other group member gives you a light push which makes you step forward. your eyes flicker between wooyoung and the album before you’re quickly holding the album out for the dancer to take. could you have been any more obvious about your feelings? probably, but you didn’t want to think about it.

you really wish a giant hole would open up on the ground and swallow you up right now. wooyoung only smiles as he takes the album from you and you step back in your spot between your members.

your leader and hongjoong speak a little bit more before your group leaves and once back in the safety of your dressing room, you collapse onto the leather couch. again, can a giant hole just please swallow you up. you lay there for several minutes, just accepting that you probably made a fool of yourself in front of your crush.

ding! you look up and at your phone to see you got a text from an unknown number

‘hey this is wooyoung! love your dance covers let’s hangout sometime and film one together!!!’

CHOI JONGHO x PRODUCER!F!READER ( co-workers to lovers )

jongho felt his jaw dropped when he was told that you would be working for kq and especially with ateez. how the company managed that is beyond him, but he’s not complaining.

of course his first time meeting you could have gone better than him causing you a nose bleed, but alas not everything goes as plan.

jongho doesn’t even remember all of what happened. one minute he was waiting to record his lines when he had to use the bathroom. so when he opens the door, he opens it smacking you in the face and watching you fall to the floor. your bag falling and papers scattering around you and jongho feels like his soul should have left his body.

“oh fuck, i am so sorry, are you okay?” he asks quickly bending down to help you pick your stuff up when he looks over to notice some blood dripping down your nose. jongho feels even worse as he immediately tries to help you even quicker. “oh god, your nose is bleeding! again, i’m so sorry!”

“i-it’s okay! i wasn’t paying any attention. i should be the one apologizing,” you say as you take a tissue out and attempt to stop your nose bleed.

“i can’t believe i gave my favorite producer a nose bleed,” jongho mumbles as you can’t help but laugh at how cute he is acting. the pout on his face doing wonders to make him fit into the role of the maknae, that you are well aware that he doesn’t always fit into.

“i’m your favorite producer?” you ask, eyes shining and jongho realizes that you heard him.

“y-yes, i love a lot of your songs even your solo stuff. your first album has always been a personal favorite of mine,” he says as he helps you stand, your bag now in his hands as he gently opens the door for you.

“well i’m a fan of your voice,” you say as you take your bag from him, “and i can’t wait to work with you jongho,” you say before walking into the studio and leaving jongho by himself in the hallway.

“she likes my voice.”

tag list : @invuwrld @frankenstein852 @watamotee33 @kawennote09 @mixling-blog @marahleiwhen @kpopnightingale @harry-the-pottypus @rdiamond2727 @sanniesbum @marvelahsobx @khjcoo @mysticfire0435 @exfolitae @kryybebe @dementedaly @simonswhore @cvpitvno @kangskims @moonm1st

[panic-in-the-multiverse]

Late Night Talking

Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi x gn!jedi!reader (romantic)

Imagine: you and Obi-Wan confess your feelings for each other

Warnings: nearly kissing, talk about the Jedi code, fluff?, not proofread, none else I think

A/N so I don’t really like this one but decided to post it anyway… this is actually part of a story I’m working on with one of my ocs but thought why not remake this part into a x reader fic… so enjoy! <3 (at least I hope you will)

Obi-Wan looked out at the view before him, staring at the life that seemed to fill Coruscant even late into the night. His beige robes, and large dark brown coat moved slightly from the light breeze. He fingered his lightsaber as a habit from the warzones he usually found himself in. Obi-Wan sighed as he felt your calming force signature fill the room.

As you approached Obi-Wan, you couldn’t help but to let a smile grace your features. Obi-Wan remained staring at the life in front of him as he spoke in a sorrowful voice.

“Hello”

“You okay my dear friend?” You asked just moments later as you felt the sadness through the force and watched the solemn look that graced Obi-Wan’s face.

He turned to face you, expression remaining the same as he let out a slight sigh. You walked to stand beside Obi-Wan and looked out at the landscape as you leaned against the railing. “What's bothering you?”

Obi-Wan exhaled with a slight frown as he spoke. "Just thinking about.... the past."

You didn’t speak for a moment as you focused on your hands as they started to fiddle with the hem of the cloak you’d stolen from Obi-Wan not that long ago. “Obi-Wan you know as well as me that we can’t linger on the past”

A slight nod came from the older man, his voice still holding the same sorrow "I know, I know. It's just... hard to forget."

“Obi-Wan I’m not asking you to forget, I simply just ask you to remember our code, don’t let the past control your emotions”

The man nodded once more as he glanced at you, he still wondered how someone so young could hold so much understanding of people. "I know, I know the Jedi Code, I know its rules, I will be mindful of it. I'm sorry, it's just hard not to get emotional when thinking about one’s past..."

“I get it” You placed a comforting hand on Obi-Wan. You couldn’t help but to think back to your early days before becoming a jedi knight, the emotions that always followed with each memory, the sorrow. You understood Obi-Wan and it might have been hypocritical of you to tell him to not let the emotions control him when it was exactly what happened to you sometimes. However you only wanted what was best for your friend.

Obi-Wan couldn’t help but to smile as he took a quick glance at the hand placed on his shoulder, he could feel one of your many rings press down onto the material covering his shoulder. He dared a quick glance at you and saw your eyes twinkle back at him in understanding. He couldn’t do anything other than nod and let out a small sigh once more.

"Thank you”

“You don’t have to thank me” there was a comfortable silence for just a few moments before Obi-Wan spoke once more as he looked out towards the beautiful city again.

"This view... “ he glanced at you before he quickly looked back “ it just helps calm me down ?" his tone was filled with a sense of peace this time around, a nice change from the sadness before.

“It does” a smile graced your face once more as you let go of Obi-Wan’s shoulder and leaned against the railing once more, shivering slightly from the cold. Obi-Wan couldn’t help but to miss the feeling of your hand on his shoulder, and he desperately just wanted to tell you to keep close to him so that he could feel your warmth.

"And having you here... it helps as well." His voice took a slightly shyer tone as he spoke, and you tried not to react to the uncommon shyness of Obi-Wan. Instead you turned towards your friend with a warm smile. However, not knowing entirely how to answer, you turned back to watching the speeders pass by and the flickering lights of the many billboards in Coruscant.

The two of you stayed like that for several more minutes before Obi-Wan finally got over his shyness and spoke again "Do you ever wonder what it would be like… not to be a Jedi?" His voice carried a feeling of curiosity as he turned to face you once more

You couldn’t help but to let out a breathy laugh and yet another smile. “I think we all do” you knew for certain that you would most likely end up as a farmer somewhere, that or you’d probably have followed your older brother in joining death watch as a way to make your family proud of you for once.

Obi-Wan smiled slightly in return, and nodded for probably the tenth time that day. "Yes, indeed…” he paused, unsure if he wanted to ask his next question or not. “Do you ever wonder why we can't have attachments?"

“I think it’s not so much attachment itself but the fact that if you focus on one single emotion or person to the point where it gets unhealthy-“ you paused not knowing entirely how to explain it but hoped Obi-Wan would understand what you meant anyways like usual “Yes I do wonder why we can’t have attachments”

As always Obi-Wan understood what you meant. He had always loved how your force and minds worked in such a simple harmony together. They’d probably always understand what the other meant and neither of them would ever be seen complaining. "I have thought about it too” Obi-Wan paused as if afraid to admit it “the fact that we cannot have attachments, or fall in love..."

You shook your head slightly in acknowledgement “it isn’t against the code to fall in love, but if that love becomes your obsession if you get attached to the love you have for another being… if you get attached to the person to the point where you can’t let them go then you have strayed from the code”

"Yes, I suppose that is true, but have you ever wondered how easy it would be for one to attach themselves to the love they have for” Obi-Wan looked down slightly at you “someone?" his eyebrows raised slightly in thoughts, his eyes and focus remained on you curious for a reply.

“Obi-Wan I-“ you stopped yourself before you would say something you might regret. Obi-Wan looked down at you intently with anticipation, a slight smirk and playful expression formed itself onto his face

You sighed “do you”

His eyes remained locked on you as he spoke "Do I have attachment to someone, is that what you’re asking?”

You looked up at Obi-Wan as you heard his teasing voice “yes”

"Yes... I believe I may have attachment to someone." Obi-Wan's voice once again got filled with that shyness which was so unlike him.

You looked curiously at Obi-Wan as you turned your entire body to face him “may I ask who?”

Obi-Wan tensed up and turned his head away, thankful that his beard covered his face as embarrassment seeped through him. His voice was nervous, slightly quivering. “you know who”

You couldn't help but to chuckle as you came closer to the slightly older man. “I want to hear you say it”

"You.... you are the one I have attachment to... I know you might not feel the same but-” he got cut of by you who carefully placed your hands on both his cheeks and turned his head to face you again as you looked deep into his eyes “I do”

Obi-Wan's eyes remained locked on the person he’d wished he’d called his since you first met, and the small blush on his cheeks deepened. His focus remained completely on you, as he lifted both his hands toward your face. Moving you head to look up at him in a better angle he moved forward closer to your face. He stopped right before your lips touched and his beautiful blue eyes shined in the light from the city as he asked you for permission.

[js-a-writer]

Gilbert Blythe X fem!reader? Fluff and if its possible maybe you could write the reader more extroverted..?

Thank you so much for my first request. This is going to be a friends to lovers, I hope your okay with that. I still tried to make it where reader was extroverted, if it's not to your liking just message me and I will fix it or remake it for you. 😊🙂

Y/n has had the biggest crush on Gilbert for what feels like FOREVER!! But Gilbert just can't get the hint. She has tried everything from flirting to even hand holding!

Y/n has never been afraid to speak her mind and go for what she wants, she has always been a bit more extroverted but no one ever seemed to mind.

Gilbert had always loved that about Y/n, her never fearing to stick up for herself (and others) . You see Gilbert had had a crush on Y/n for a while to but he never acted on it in fear that it would ruin their friendship, and he couldn't bare to have that happen. So he convinced himself that all of her flirting was just playful banter shared between friends and that her holding his hand was also completely platonic. His friends had noticed that he was crushing hard, and they tried to convince him to simply just ask her out. But his excuse was always the same, having you as a friend was better than not having you in his life at all.

One day Y/n had just gotten sick of his foolishness and decided that she was going to make the first move. Well the first real move.

She walked to school that day with her head held high, ready to tell Gilbert how she felt. As she was waiting at the path they always meet at to walk to school together, she wondered, what if Gilbert didn't like her back, what if this ended horribly and Gilbert never wanted to be her friend again. But she pushed those thoughts deep down and decided that this was better than keeping those feelings to herself, even though she had been hinting for months.

When Gilbert had finally showed up Y/n took a deep breath ready to face this feeling head-on. "Well goodmorning Y/n are you ready to go." Gilbert asked with a sort of pep in his step. She hesitated before responding, "Uh.. Yeah, let's go." Gilbert was shocked, she had never seemed so shy before and certainly never seemed this nervous. But nonetheless he ignored it and they started making their way towards school.

A few minutes go by without a word said from Y/n. She was deep in thought battling her thoughts telling her that she needs to do this, and she has to be confident about it. "Hey, Y/n are you al-" "Gilbert I like you. I really really like you, and I was wondering if you would want to go on a date with me?" She said abruptly stopping Gilbert's sentence. Gilbert stood there shocked, he would have never imagined that Y/n had feelings for him. But he brought himself back to reality just in time for Y/n to start walking away.

"Y/n, wait! I like you too, I think I might even love you." Gilbert said hoping she would turn around. "Then why didn't you tell me?!" She asked curious to find out why Gilbert had been hiding his shared pining for so long. "I was afraid you wouldn't like me back." "Are gou serious?! I've been hinting at you for months, Gilbert months! I was flirting with you and holding your hand. I did everything in the book to try and get you to make the first move, but you never did. How did you not notice?" Gilbert was shocked. So all those compliments and all the teasing, the hand holding, the cheek kisses, they weren't just friendly gestures, they were real. He hesitated for a moment thinking of what to say next until he acted on the first thought that crossed his clouded mind. He stepped forward grabbed her by the waist and kissed her!

He had finally kissed her! Of course she kissed back and she was so happy, Gilbert had liked her back and now he was kissing her! When they had to break the kiss, because unfortunately they need oxygen, Gilbert picked her up from the waist and spun her around, her dress flowing underneath her. When he finally set her down they stared into eachother's eyes for a moment. Pure joy and admiration pooled their pupils and they could both tell. "I love you too." She says breaking the blissful silence. Gilbert was overjoyed with this news. He picks her up again a spins her around shouting "You love me! I love you! We love eachother!" As she giggled at her lover. "Put me down!"

When he finally put her down he looked into her eyes for a moment before asking the inevitable. "Y/n, would you do me the honor of becoming my girlfriend?" She looked at him for a moment. "Was that not already established when we kissed, or said 'I love you'... Yes! Gilbert Blythe, I will be your girlfriend." And they sealed the statement with a sweet and loving kiss as they walked hand in hand to school.

I loved writing this imagine. I hope you like it and Gilbert was very oblivious! 😉

[wintervalewritersecond]

retrocognition - xavier thorpe

masterlist

requested: yes! requests: open! I love your writing so much! If you have the time could you please do a xavier x reader where him and the reader don’t really get along at all, kinda enemies! And the reader is a witch and she is having difficulty doing a spell but then Xavier comes in and bothers her and somehow she accidentally casts a spell that makes them go into the future. in the future her and xavier are like married with kids and they both are kinda freaking out over seeing their future selves and when they get back to the past Xavier is trying to deny what they just saw but they eventually end up together?

A/N: this idea is so super cute <33 i hope you like it :) they dont quite end up together just yet, especially because they were enemies before and this is only one small fic, but i do hope you enjoy reading! <3

wordcount: 2,772 warnings: she/her reader, incorrect information about witchcraft, xavier annoys reader

Xavier Thorpe and you do not get along. Then why is it that he is in your future?

"Here you are!"

You thank Thornhill before stepping into the empty classroom. The bag on your shoulders is heavy as it is filled with countless jars of ingredients, incense, candles and different types of water. To top it all off, it had a thick book filled with all the spells and sigils you know.

There was a history test coming up, and you thought of the perfect way to learn from it; seeing the past.

Sure, it might be a bit extreme, but if you have the power to do it, you might as well use that to your advantage. From what you know, you have everything to perform the spell.

No one else was going to enter the classroom any time soon, so you could use all the tables to put your stuff down. Jar after jar, candle after candle came out of your bag before it neatly got placed in its own spot. For a spell this hard, you needed all the space and organization you could get.

You had performed this spell once before, but it had been a while. The last time, you only went backward a week. You only wanted to know at what time you were going to meet your friend later that day.

Now you were going to try to go back to the 1600s to learn about Joseph Crackstone. Sure, the entire city knew of the history, but none of them have truly lived it. Pilgrim World is just a poor excuse for trying to remake it while selling fudge. You are not a Crackstone fan considering he would have killed you back in those days, but he wouldn't be able to see you in the past anyway.

With the spells that you performed, you turned invisible when being in a place where you shouldn't be. It is like watching a movie. You see them, yet they don't see you. You open your journal, flipping through the pages before seeing the one you need. It had a sigil on it already, one connected to the Retrocognition spell.

Just as you light your first candle, the door swings open. You look up, slightly annoyed. Did Thornhill rent the room out to another student?

"You're here?"

Out of all students, it had to be Xavier.

For some reason, the two of you never got along. Not because you didn't want to befriend him - no. He just decided to be a complete ass to you since the beginning. The two of you were in the same friend group, yet he never spoke a positive word to you. It would always be something snarky or negative.

"Yeah?" You raise an eyebrow. "Thornhill told me that I could use it. It was going to be empty the entire day anyway."

"I was allowed to use it for my Botany homework."

"Xavier," you groan. "Just use the other half of the classroom. Just... Stay out of my way. I have a History test that I need to learn for."

He circles your table as you only keep setting things up. You can't have him messing up your spell. More candles get lit as you crush up some flowers and herbs.

"Is this your homework?" He lets out a laugh. "I wish my homework consisted of scribbles and some seasoning."

You roll your eyes as you place each ingredient in its designated spot. If he messes up your spell, you will kill him.

"It's not just some scribbles. They're called sigils, dumbass," a sigh leaves your lips. "And they are for history class. There is a test coming up."

Another laugh leaves Xavier as he flips through your journal.

"How are some pen marks and rose leaves going to teach you History?"

"Xavier, we both know you're too dumb to understand this. Just go to the other side of the classroom and don't bother me."

The last thing you needed was the journal. You had to place it in the circle of candles, drawing the sigil while saying the incantation. But, considering the tall boy had your book, you couldn't get the spell started. He is flipping through the pages with a big grin on his face.

"Oh, look at me!"

He takes hold of some rose petals, sprinkling them around on the table and the floor.

"I am Y/N," he lets out a laugh before grabbing more ingredients, spilling them on the table.

"Xavier, stop it! You're messing with my spells!"

"That's not true," he takes hold of your hand before pushing a pen into it. "I am merely helping with your 'oh so important' History homework!"

He takes your hand to write on the paper, making random shapes and lines.

"Look! I could be a witch, this is easy."

"Xavier! Stop being so annoying!"

You take the pen off of the paper as Xavier's hand still holds yours, but to your surprise, the paper actually starts glowing. No way that he had activated a spell.

"Retrocognition?"

A bright light exploded in the room, making you shield your eyes with your hand. Xavier also lets out a yelp, what the fuck happened?

When the light dims, you finally open your eyes again.

"Where the fuck are we?"

In front of you is a house. A beautiful one, but certainly not one from the 1600s. Music can be heard from inside, together with some talking and you even hear a meow.

Someone walks past you, carrying a bag on their shoulders. He is tall and his hair flows to his shoulders. The man is not that old, though older than you and Xavier now. A smile is on his face as he walks up to the house.

"Wait a second," you let out a giggle. "Is that you?"

Xavier walks up to the guy as you follow him. It certainly was. His face looks almost the same, yet a bit more mature. It is like he is looking in a mirror, one that shows him his future.

"You look old," you laugh, elbowing the artist.

"Shut up," he rolls his eyes. "What happened with that stupid spell that you were trying to cast?"

"Someone happened to fuck it up," you narrow your eyes at him before nodding to the door. "I'm going to see what your old ass is up to."

Future Xavier unlocks the door, allowing you and Present Xavier to slip inside. Not that they would see you anyway. The music gets a bit louder as you hear some movement from what seems to be the kitchen.

"Love? I'm home!"

"Aw," you look at Present Xavier, trying to hold in your laughter. "Someone is dumb enough to be stuck with you. That's sweet."

"You jealous?" Xavier raises an eyebrow as he looks down at you. "At least I know that I won't be alone in the future."

You roll your eyes, slowly following Future Xavier around.

"Look! He is even wearing a wedding ring!"

The house truly is beautiful. It is filled with plants in different corners, a cozy couch, a big kitchen, and huge windows. If you didn't know any better, then you would surely have said that this is your dream house.

"I'm in here!"

Your eyebrows furrow when you hear the new voice. It is strangely similar, but... it can't be, right? Xavier catches up to you, not fully sure what to do. He has never been in a spell like this before. Hell, he didn't even know any spells. Sure, he would say 'open sesame' when trying to unlock his door if his hands were full, but the door never swung open.

You stop in your tracks when your eyes fall on the new figure.

In the kitchen is a shorter girl, one looking exactly like you. Her height, her body language, her voice, and her face. What are you doing here with Xavier? A high-pitched laughter can be heard as Future Xavier hurries to the table, dropping his bag before picking up a small girl.

"There's my favorite girls!"

Future you also has a ring on her finger, one that fits together with Future Xavier. Present Xavier stops walking as he takes in the three figures.

There he is. Holding a young girl with one arm while the other is resting on your shoulders, pulling you into him as Future you lets out a giggle.

"What the fuck?" Xavier whispers.

It was weird enough to see himself in the future, even if he didn't change too much. But it is even weirder to see himself together with you, and with a child. You are also frozen in place, your eyes fixated on the three figures in front of you. What type of spell is this? Is this actually real? Or is this only your imagination playing tricks on you? Surely not. If Xavier can see it, then it must actually be happening, right?

"I'm getting out of this," Xavier groans, turning around to walk back out of the front door before his eyes fall on an item.

On the wall hangs a big canvas with a very specific scene on it. Future him in a neat, black suit. Next to him stands Future you, dressed in a long gown. Both have big smiles on their faces. His fingers twitch, did he paint that? The picture almost seems to move in front of him as the figures get closer and closer, sharing a soft and loving kiss before returning to their original positions.

"Y/N, get us out of here!"

Xavier is confused and even slightly scared. You break your stare as you look over to the tall artist. With only a nod, you take his hands in yours, whispering an incantation to break whatever spell you were in right now.

Another bright light makes you close your eyes as you return to the Nevermore classroom. Xavier pulls his hands out of yours harshly.

"What was that!?"

"I don't know!" You let out a deep sigh.

Your journal had stopped glowing, only pen stripes from whatever sigil Xavier had come up with are left on the page. You run your fingers over it, confused as you try to read off of the pages.

"It's precognition," you let out a whisper. "We were supposed to see the past, but instead... it was the future."

Xavier lets out a short laugh before shaking his head.

"Whatever that was is not my future."

He slings his bag back on his shoulders, glaring at you as he backs up.

"We will never talk about this. Ever."

You weren't in the mood anymore to try any other spell. Instead, you just cleaned up the mess of flower petals and herbs before retreating to your dorm.

-

The spell had really messed you up.

After that dreaded day, you had tried multiple times to find out what happened. To find out if it was true. But no matter which color of candle you used, or what type of incantation, they all gave you the same answer.

This was your future.

Xavier Thorpe.

You tried to talk to him, maybe if you did, you could avoid the future that he seems to hate so much. Sure, Xavier wasn't your best friend either, but at least you don't despise him as much as he despises you. He is pretty and mesmerizing, but the way he treated you was just the worst.

He would sit on the opposite side of the table during lunch breaks, and would completely ignore you before, during, or after classes.

"Xavier looks even angrier than usual," Ajax snickers. "What did you do this time?"

You roll your eyes as you read through your journal. Is there really not any other Truth or Future spell out there?

"Absolutely nothing," you shrug. "Maybe he is in one of his moods."

"I don't know," the Gorgon chews on the end of his pencil. "He's been really moody this past week."

You don't really respond. What are you supposed to say? 'Oh, he found out that he and I are married in the future and he absolutely hates it.' That sounds incredibly stupid. Even if it is true.

-

Later that night you sat in your dorm yet again. Around you is a circle of candles in all sorts of colors, their flames the only source of light. It feels like you have read every single page of all your Witchcraft books at least five times, yet you still haven't found any spells to help you out. There has to be something that can show you a different future, right?

A knock on your door pulls you out of your focused state. Who would be at your door right now? You don't have a dorm mate, and from what you knew, most of your friends were out to Jericho. You stand up from your seat, walking up to the door to open it. Behind it stands Xavier with a tired look in his eyes and his sketchbook in his hands.

"Can I come in?" He mumbles softly, looking down at you with the softest look he has ever given you.

You step to the side, allowing the artist to enter your room. He stays silent. No snarky comment, nothing mean. Just silence.

"Have you found anything else?"

The only answer you give him is a shake of your head. You had really tried. Xavier his reaction during the spell was enough - he didn't want this future. At least, not with you.

"Can we try again?"

His question shocks you. He wants to enter the spell again? Go through more scenarios of the two of you together?

"Are you sure?"

He nods, placing his sketchbook onto your bed before stepping into the circle. You just quickly follow him, opening the page of scribbles that Xavier had drawn before. His hands are already reaching for yours when you speak the incantation.

Another bright light.

This time, you aren't in front of the house. Instead, you appeared in it, already. There is no furniture around you. No curtains, no couch, no table, not even a wooden floor.

"I can't believe this!"

Future you squeals as she runs around the house, inspecting every room once more.

"Look! This one can be your art studio, and then the room next to it can be for my spells and potions!"

The woman pulls Future Xavier with her, holding his hand tightly as she spits out different ideas for the space.

Present Xavier swallows thickly, his hands balled up into fists.

"Are you okay?" You whisper, looking up at his taller figure.

"I have seen this before."

How would he have seen this before? He knows nothing of witchcraft - the spell he performed before was just a simple accident. The spell ends quite quickly, returning to just you and Xavier in the middle of your bedroom. It stays quiet. The only movement comes from the lit candles whose flames are moving in the non-existing wind.

"Why did you want to see it again?" You softly speak up. "You hate the outcome. It didn't change one bit."

The boy shakes his head, reaching for his sketchbook before flipping through the pages, stopping at one specific drawing which seems familiar.

"I haven't been able to sleep this entire week," he admits. "I had these dreams. Dreams that felt like the one spell. I drew all of them."

He holds his hand up on the page, the figure of you pulling Xavier with you before disappearing behind one of the pencil lines. You can almost hear your excited chattering and Xavier's laughter. But that is not the only thing he drew.

Different dates, your wedding, even sketches from the little girl.

Everything was exactly as the spell had told you.

"I convinced myself for so long," he mumbles. "I tried to tell myself that I didn't like you. That, if I ignored you, you would stay out of my way. But I don't want to do that anymore."

You let out a giggle, looking up at him.

"Alright," you whisper. "We can start over?"

Xavier looks at you, a relieved look on his face as he nods. Though the future scared him, he now does truly want it. He felt like he didn't deserve a future with you after how he treated you. But, he might change his mind. He might be able to change himself and make up for all the times he wished he could hold you, kiss you, be with you.

"Yeah," he nods with a smile before he holds out his hand. "Xavier Thorpe. Nice to meet you."

[marvelsage]

Namor

Namor x Pacific Islander Reader

Reader is a mutant/bender

Reader is written as Pacific Islander but it’s mainly POC friendly (I don know if I’m saying this right:)

You and Nakia had just arrived in the cave that held Shuri and Riri Williams. Nakia had asked you to join to help ‘balance’ out the playing field. You had the ability to bend the elements earth and water. Anyways, Nakia had injured one of the people who were also trying to defend themselves.

“I can help!”

“Shuri, we need to go!” Kneeling beside Shuri, you need water over the wound, applying pressure.

“Give me your beads!”Using one hand to gently hold the girls face so she’s maintaining eye contact.

“Paakat in Yaan in wáantikech” You spoke to her in her native tongue and by the way her eyes widened just the slightest it surprised.

“Look at me. I’m going to help you.”

“Shuri, you need to go.”

“What but Y/n I-”

“I got this, go. Go!” She reluctantly rushes to Nakia who shoots you a look.

“I’ll be right behind you.” Turning away from them and back to the girl, you focused on the wound. A small glow illuminated form your hands before disappearing. Her eyes shine in wonder and awe as you caress her face, letting the water coax her to relax.

“Shh, ma‘alo‘ob Yaan a yaantal ma‘alob”

“Shh, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay.”

“Nííb óolal”

“Thank you”

You nod before standing, turning to leave you meet a toned chest. Meeting his eyes a warmth cloaked your being as your breathe hitched.

“Ts‘áik, Táan wáaja herido?” A slightly raspy voice calls to the girl you just helped over your shoulder.

“Interesting, are you hurt?”

‘shiiit’ You thought as she responds that you had healed her . Focusing back on you he analyzes you entirely and when he meet your eyes again it almost felt internally as well.

“T’aan a t‘aan in t‘aano‘ ”

“You speak my language.”

“Wa” You reply calmly as if you weren’t in a strained situation right now. For a moment you both just stood there and tried to figure out why this was.

“Yes”

“K’uk’ulkan Ts’o’ok u púuts’ul” The reminder that you had been apart of the escape popped the bubble you were in. You felt the water in the air shift before ducking to avoid his spear.

“K’uk’ulkan, they have gotten away!”

Bending a water whip to send him back, stomping the ground to send two semi boulders to the other two with him. You rush to the pool and dive in, another force following behind. With your mutation your could swim fast but he was still right behind you when you looked. You blasted a current his way using the momentum to reach the surface faster.

“Y/n!” Clambering out quickly, rushing to the quinjet that had just turned back, only to be tackled.

“Not so face.” Rolling over to face him was a struggle, but once you did you grabbed his head and slammed yours against his. He only groaned at the itch but that was all you needed and successfully switched places with you straddling him.

“Ka wu‘uyik, ma‘ in wu‘uyi”

“Sorry not sorry”

“Y/n!” Punching the grouch beside his head to boost you up while also yanking your hand back to place a hold over his hands. Giving you just enough time to get on the quinjet and fly away. Breathing heavily you look out the window just in time to see him fly up but didn’t come after us.

Sorry if the language is wrong this is the one that showed up. Pls let me know if it’s wrong! I’m not really feeling this one , might just make another one shot from it. It feels too similar to others and I might make a remake later.

[obihiro-division]

Hisoka’s Thoughts on Ginza Division

Masa Judice

“A priest… Maybe I should try looking into religion. N-Not necessarily Catholicism, I'm just saying any religion. Rikiya-san was nudging me towards Buddhism, but truth be told, I’m unsure about it. The dedication to a belief is daunting, especially when all I want to get from it now, is some… Guidance. Some clarity, to my life. I might see this ‘Masa Judice’ if I get dragged to the main island. If he gives me a good vibe, I'll give his community a chance.”

Noguchi Eiji

“Holy shit, the PROFILE CEO? Why is he joining a rap battle? He doesn’t… Well? Actually, I guess he probably got his interest piqued by the hypnosis microphones. Being a tech guy, maybe he wants to learn about how they work. That’s at least my best guess… Honestly, I was envious of him back then. Lots of seething as a young adult, wishing I could have gone in a similar direction as him after college. I can’t say the feelings are the same now. I was happy with my new life. Emphasis on was… Getting into this rap battle stuff has been a nightmare. But hey, no point in hiding as much, maybe I can remake a new PROFILE since we’re going to be celebrities now.”

Teagan Oki

“Teagan Oki… Oh, you mean ATLAS? I only heard of him from Haruto. Mostly him trying to tell me that rap groups like CHARON would make for the perfect audience to market my awful copy of the hypnosis microphones. He often said it would be best to try and sell to Teagan, since he was infamous for his temperament. Thankfully, I don’t think Haruto got the chance to bother him since Teagan vanished before… Everything fell apart.”

Last Judgment

“A priest, a tech CEO, and an infamous rapper… Sounds like the start of some awful joke. This is one of the wildest trios I’ve had to review though. Nothing else I can really say about them… They’re thankfully pretty normal.”

[chloeillustrates16]

Why Did it Have To be Him? (remake)

This is a remake of an old fanfic, based off my comfort book/movie The Outsiders. Yes, I know, I'm messed up.

Summary: Being Ponyboy's twin isn't all fun and games. Sure, having three older brothers is fun, but when you're crushing on one of your brothers' best friend, things change.

Warnings: Swearing, Violence, 2-year age gap, Self-deprecating thoughts, Reader is 15, Steve is 17, confession

Pairing: Steve Randle X Fem. Reader

Y/n describes her crush on Steve Randle is why did it have to be him? It was a question that she consistently asked herself since she was 13.

When she was 13, she was jumped by a couple of Socs walking home from school. She remembers it like it was yesterday, it's why she can't walk by herself anymore without having a panic attack when any car drives by her.

She remembers the words that they said to her, what they were going to do with her, it scared her. Then she remembered when Steve came barreling towards them--he was 15 at the time--he still hit like a tank. He held her as she cried against his chest--before that she got used to the idea of not showing much emotion around the gang--that was the first time Steve seen her cry. The second time was at her parents' funeral.

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

Y/n was now 15 years old, the crush she had on Steve was very much present in her life. She thought it would be better not to say anything to him, given that he was Sodapop's best friend.

She was by herself, walking to the DX Station to grab a coke and head to find Two-Bit, Dally, or Ponyboy. A car drove by her very slowly, the hairs on her arms lifted as she glanced over at it. Socs, damn it!

Swallowing hard, she picked up her speed, hoping that she would make it to the DX station before they came around the block again. "Please, please, please," she repeated.

The car came back around and came to a stop not too far from her. The Socs got out and surrounded her, "What's a girl like you doing on this side of town?"

"Please, leave me alone," her voice was quiet.

"She doesn't look like no greaser."

"Watch it, it's a Curtis kid," one warned.

Ever since Ponyboy and Johnny came back from being on the run, everyone at school was cautious of the two, even if they seemed harmless.

"Maybe we should rough her up and give them a message."

"No, she might have a blade," one of the Socs argued again. The Soc, who seemed like the ringleader turned towards Y/n with a warning look.

"You try anything, we'll skin you alive," she could only nod as her legs were trembling. Something loud clicked behind the Socs, a voice originated where the click was.

"Fucking touch, her and you'll be the one skinned, pal."

"Steve," Y/n warned as she caught a glimpse of his brown shaggy hair.

"Back the fuck off" he sneered. The Socs moved as Steve continued to hold the blade out to them with a glare, they rushed back to the car as Steve sighed and snapped the switch back into the handle and shoved it into his pocket. "Y/n, are you--"

She slammed her body into his, her arms tightly wrapped around his midsection. Tears started to roll down her cheeks, "Shh, I've got you."

"Please, don't let me go."

"I'm not, I'm not," he repeated.

"I thought you were at work," she pointed out after she composed herself.

"Got off early," he explained as Sodapop came up.

"What the hell happened?"

"Socs," Steve answered, Soda glared behind him, he saw the car but didn't think of anything of it.

"Y/n, are you okay?" He asked, seeing how hard her grip on Steve was.

"I'm fine," her voice trembled.

"Let's get you home," he suggested. She only nodded in agreement, she didn't let go of Steve, not like he minded much. He held his arm around her as she kept a grip on his shirt.

They entered the Curtis home, it was strangely quiet, compared to the crazy early mornings. Steve led her over to her room, she was still trembling as she laid down against the mattress. "Hey," she glanced over at Steve. "Me and Soda are going to be in the living room if you need us, okay?"

"Okay," Steve closed the door behind him. Y/n turned over and stared out the window as tears began to come back.

Of course, you had to make yourself look weak in front of Steve.

Ever since she cried in front of him for the first time, she hadn't been able to stop, it was as if Steve just broke down all her walls that she spent years building up. It was embarrassing.

Y/n pulled her knees to her chest as she kept a stuffed bear that her parents gave her when she was a baby. She hugged it close to her chest as tears continued to soak the fake fur. Sleep soon over took her, when she woke up there was a loud crash in the living room, then yelling followed.

She pulled herself out of bed, taking a brush to her hair and adjusting her clothes as she peered out of the door of her room and slipped out. She saw Two-Bit and Dally, Dally had Two-Bit in a choke hold.

"Uncle!" Two-Bit screamed as Dally let go.

Steve turned towards Y/n, seeing that he was awake, a scowl spread across his features. He approached her,

"Did you hear them?"

"No," she lied.

"Are you okay?"

"I think so," she shrugged. Steve eyebrows crunched as he tried to think of something to cheer her up more. He glanced back at the group before turning towards her,

"Want to go outside?" she nodded before following him, slipping on her shoes. "Are you sure you're alright? You were really shaken when I found you," she nodded. "Y/n, don't lie to me," fuck. Why did Steve have to read her like a book?

Y/n grabbed Steve pulling him into a tight hug, he let her, resting his cheek against her hair. "I'm here if you need me," he promised.

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

Steve and Y/n didn't know how much time had passed; Y/n was just contempt in holding him in her arms. Glancing up, he shifted to look at her.

"Steve, I need to tell you something," she whispered. He waited; her face began to grow warm as she swallowed thickly. "I... I love you!" She said it so quickly, Steve didn't think he heard it right.

"I'm sorry?" She shoved away from him, trembling. Steve stood there, his arms falling to his sides,

"I shouldn't have said anything, I'm sorry."

"Wait!" he grabbed her wrist and stopped her from going down the steps. She turned towards him with a pleading look, "I was taken by surprise!"

"I know, I'm sorry, just pretend like I didn't say anything."

"No, I'm not going to do that, why would I?"

"Steve, out of everyone in this damn town, I'm the worse one."

"What? You're the best choice, I don't understand." Y/n paused, waiting for him to continue. "Y/n, I've been in love with you for so long."

"How?"

"How?" he repeated, "Y/n you have no idea how strong you are." she laughed, in a mocking tone.

"Strong, I can't even be in front of Socs without shaking."

"Bullshit, the rumble, you kicked the Soc's ass. The one that was on top of Pony, remember?"

"That doesn't count."

"Like hell it doesn't!" He sighed, reaching forward. His thumb rugged against her cheek, "Listen, you don't have to be like the gang. You feel, it's okay, we all do." Y/n bit the inside of her cheek before grabbing Steve's vest and pulling him down, he was a bit caught off guard as she slammed her lips against his. It was awkward and nervous, Steve shut his eyes and Y/n untensed.

Pulling away, Y/n let out a huff as air filled her lungs again. Steve smirked, the smug look on his face was soon crushed as they heard wolf whistles behind them. Turning, they saw Two-Bit, Dally, Soda, Pony, and Johnny sticking their heads out the doorway.

"Dal, you owe me," Two-bit pointed out which caused Dally to hit him on the side of the head. "OW!"

"You made bets?" Y/n asked, angerily.

"Duh, you know how long we've waited for this to happen?" Soda asked as if it was an obvious thing.

"Should I ask?"

"Three years," Pony yelled, which caused Soda to glare at him. Steve rolled his eyes, "What?"

Steve glanced at Y/n, she just had an awkward smile on her face. "Alright, shows over, go get!" he shoved the guys into the house.

"Man, I wished I had a camera!" Two-bit teased, causing Steve to shove him a bit harder. It wasn't long before he slammed the door closed, turning towards Y/n, once again.

"Darry will be home soon," she pointed out.

"I know, sorry about them," she shrugged.

"It's fine," he shook his head.

"You wouldn't mind go on a date with me, would you?"

"Not at all," he smiled before quickly closing him mouth. Y/n reached up,

"Don't, I like your smile."

"You sure? My teeth aren't the most faltering thing in the world," he pointed out. She nodded,

"Yeah, I'm sure."

[alltheselittlethingsxox]

So I've been spending my time making JJ and Pope collage image/backgrounds because they are a real thing, and it was not coerced into being what it is. Because it just WAS. From the start. Think otherwise? Please. Do me a favor, pull up season one's very first episode, and just watch the first five minutes. Afterwards, come back here and try explaining to me how that ain't G A Y? 'Cause...I see absolutely no reasoning of it. I thought I'd share one but also I wanted to reach out because I am genuinely struggling with the fact that Pate is giving the toxic divide of JJ and Kiara to those who have attacked, still attack, and will continue to attack Rudy, Madison, and their girls but because of the amount of backlash that's being given over this very real issue, and how Rudy and Madison are so clearly feeling that they need to take extra-extra precaution to the length that they aren't even comfortable to stand together for even a group photo? Be in the same interview, that he's not going to be able to just ignore that and, ultimately, will decide it's best to not explore the duo furthering out in season four and so forth. In which this be the case, he would have to undo the whole couple thing entirely (if they become official before the end of season three? which honestly realistically I couldn't see cause he said something about it being a slowburn, so? A slowburn to me is a couple seasons. Not eight episodes, and by the tenth, they're together-together....

So, it'd be an easy rewrite, overwrite, whatever-write to make if this is so. The question just is:

WILL HE OR WON'T HE?

Is there anyone out there with their own opinion on this? Do you think he'd continue to force it, or would he cut the idea entirely for the sake of the actors, and the actors REAL lives? Because as much as I want and keep thinking he might, I also know how freakin' selfish and greedy douchebags like him can be. Frankly, it's giving me high school throwback vibes, bad. Like triggering me bad. The fact that it's not being addressed, but is currently being condoned(the bullying will increase by the release of season three, so that's still condoning it should he overlook this)----just takes me back to the days I was bullied. And how those bullies never dealt with consequences. But instead repeatedly given a pass. Most of the time these kids were the highest grade student, football athlete, bitchy cheerleader leader, the one who played teacher's pet just to come across as a decent, wonderful human being. And that hurts. It hurts me, because I know what it's like to be attacked. To be told to kill yourself, your ugly, waste of space and knowing that Elaine and Moriah are getting these very words and way worse in the downfall disgusts the hell out of me. I will not be watching season three solely because of this. I can't. Because I know it's just going to add fuel to gasoline and it's nauseating to simply know what's to come. Let alone what's already coming after it's out there.

THIS IS NOT BECAUSE I SHIP JJ AND POPE.

I swear to god, if someone comes on here claiming I'm just being a petty fan...don't, okay? Just don't.

Because that's not what it is! I can handle it if JJ and Pope aren't going to be the show's "official" endgame. That's the point of fiction, y'all. Don't like the ending? Remake it into your own.

This is BECAUSE people are being bullied in the process of all of this, and more or less rewarded by the show giving them exactly what they were bullying for. This is because it sends the WRONG message. To people. How people should treat other people. How to act and expect to get what you ask even though they don't deserve it. And that's not okay, okay? I would LOVE for there to be actual representation in the show (what is this? a series from the sixties?) if there actually isn't...so be it. Put JJ with another girl, if you must. Why must he be with a n y o n e, though? HE'S A DAMN KID AND NOT EVERY STORY IS GOING TO END IN A LOVER'S TALE. Why is it that every character has to be involved with somebody, if just one main is? Uhm, I'm sorry but that's just not how the world works? How many friend groups are out there where one starts dating, and then a year later the second finds a possible interest, and the third one gets in a relationship three months after that first year, only for that second to also be head over heels for his now definite love interest? LIKE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME. Is this an actual friend group experience, or? Why not, maybe just...focus on the platonic friendships you started with? Instead of this whole circle of friends dating friends, friends dating eachother, friends falling in love and living happily ever after as one whole unit? This is a big reason why I don't get into shows much, anymore. The writers always, ALWAYS, gravitate more towards the whole lovers aspect, and like...maybe it's just me but I would kind of love for a series to be centered on a group of friends who are only ever just friends----feelings for none of eachother----and that relationship aside from the rest of the storyline and then gradually add that shit in. Space it out. Don't push it all at once. THAT'S NOT HOW LIFE WORKS. If it was, why would there be so many single, lonely people out there!? It'd be nice to see something like that (sitcoms dont particularly count here) or just a show where the main characters end up with characters OUTSIDE of the original group of characters and all they ever are is friends. Family.

I won't be bitter, nor will I attack anyone to make a point, and feel justified when I get exactly what they shouldn't of. Trust me, in an alternate universe, where JJPope shippers are the cruel ones, I would be just as against the idea as I am JJ and Kiara.

Maybe because I'm human, I guess? Personally I would be too disgusted to know that even if I wasn't part of it, those who were are getting what you hoped for just as much as they did, but in such opposite extremes? It would of ruined my love for them entirely.

This is entirely coming from the bullying issue. Everybody says it's not tolerated. Yet. Do you see a damn one doing a damn thing about it!? A damn thing that tells these people that it's not right?

I needed to vent. Sorry y'all.

Anyone else out there who is also hopeful but just as doubtful, too?

[flowerprincesscherryblossom]

remake

pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Female Reader word count: 959 warnings: fluff, ffvii remake talk, self-indulgent AO3 A/N: Hope you like it and that you have a wonderful day wherever you are💜

"Admit it!"

"Never!" you said, crossing your arms over your chest and turning your face to the side to avoid looking at your boyfriend, a pout on your lips and a frown on your face.

Were you acting childish? Most likely but only because Jungkook kept insisting on this dumb idea that you hated the ending of the game you had finished playing thirty minutes - Honestly if he's going to act like a brat than so were you.

You loved Final Fantasy VII with all of your heart. It was your favorite game of all time, you loved everything about it: the characters, the story, the soundtrack, just everything about it. Hell, you were such a die-hard fan of this game that you had even watched Advent Children and played Crisis Core just because you couldn't get enough of the characters, especially your all-time favorite Aerith (sorry Tifa).

So to say that you were excited about the remake would be an understatement.

The entire month leading up to the release date had you in such a state that the only time you would shut up about it was when Jungkook, not being able to take another second of you saying how cool Cloud was, bought and installed the PC version that was available on Steam for you to play until your copy of the remake arrived.

Of course, like the true fangirl that you were, the moment you had it in your hands you squealed like a fifties housewife after seeing a mouse in the kitchen and immediately started playing it - you would never admit to yourself but you had to fight back tears multiple times.

And you enjoyed the hell out of it, sure there were a few changes here and there but overall you were having so much fun that it felt like nothing could ever ruin your happiness.

At least, that what you felt like until the last two chapters of the game hit you.

You were both surprised and baffled at what was happening before your eyes, you swore you were so shocked that your jaw wasn't dislocated from how low it dropped.

After the rolling credits finished you got up from your seat and went about your day as if nothing had happen, at least on the outside - and maybe that's why your boyfriend thought you had hated it because normally you wouldn't shut up about everything you had see until you went to bed, like you usually did with everything else, good and bad - but on the inside, you were having a complete breakdown about trying to figure out what that ending was.

You actually went online to see if anyone else was feeling the same way you were, and lo and behold they were - some even hating it.

"Just admit that you hated the game," he smirked. "There's no shame in admitting that your all-time favorite sucks." God, he wanted to be right so bad.

"I don't hate the game!" you said emphasizing every word and quickly moved to the kitchen to get dinner started and leave this annoying conversation.

But of course, Jungkook couldn't let you win, could he?

"Then why aren't you fangirling like you do all the time?" he said leaning on the counter next to you.

"You seriously want to annoy someone who has a knife in their hands?" you picked up the knife closest to you and pointed it in his direction.

"You love me too much to hurt me." you just stared at him with a deadpanned expression, both knowing he was right. You sighed, put the object back in its place and staring off to the side.

"I'm starting to think that's the problem." you muttered under your breath but you knew he had heard it.

"Baby, seriously, just say that you hate it." he said pulling you closer to him by the waist.

"I don't hate the game! I might hate that Nomura is Kingdom Heartsing my Final Fantasy," you started at him with a frown and a pout that Jungkook thought was the most adorable thing ever. "I already have Disney ruining my childhood with the Princess remakes and the Star Wars sequels, I don't want the good things of my childhood to keep being ruined."

You sighed and hugged your boyfriend by the waist, laying your head on his shoulder. "I just don't understand what's going through that man's head."

"No one does baby." he kissed your forehead while brushing his fingers through your hair, knowing it would calm you down and maybe get you to open up.

"But like seriously, Sephiroth literally absorbs the whispers and then you fight him, which was pretty cool by the way, and they show us him destroying Midgar but apparently everything is okay," you nuzzled his neck with your nose. "Then Zack is still alive when he was supposed to die, then there's this explosion, and then Cloud and Aerith cross paths with Zack holding a younger Cloud and then the 'Unknown Journey Will Continue' text and my brain freaking hurts trying to understand what's going on."

"Hey, it's okay." he said in a soothing voice, taking your face in his hands. "You had fun playing the game and Aerith is still alive, that has to be good."

"I guess…" you were staring at the floor while he kissed every inch of your face which always made you smile when a sudden idea popped into your mind. "You know what would make me feel better?"

"What is it baby?" he pecked your lips thrice. "Whatever you want."

"If you admitted that you're jealous that I said that Cloud was my ultimate waifu and that I would leave you for him if given a chance."

"Never!"

[theeeveetamer]

Ooh I’ve been absent in the fandom for a while (so my everything is rusty), I didn’t realise that ppl would criticise the game cause we don’t know the continent name? In terms of lore I don’t think its that important to develop, instead I want to focus on the lands of Nohr and Hoshido.

For me whenever I read leokumi there’s a focus on strengthening relationships between the two nations, and whilst I love love love that the main focus is Leo and Takumi, I’ve read so many that I want a plot that includes their relationship whilst not glossing over trying to establish the peace between the two nations, especially because they seem to have a history of war (I think). Normally I would just write it but then I realised that there’s so many missing details and so that’s where my idea came from to flesh it out.

I absolutely agree on what you’re saying since establishing random facts like ancestry etc is not what interests me, UNLESS that ancestor idk was responsible for establishing like a mage school which has a knock on effect in the present game (because like the Nohrians are known for their dark mages. I swear I heard there was a school there, and its curious that dark mages aren’t as feared compared to their counterparts in other games and genres. Perhaps another point towards the desperation of Nohr? Or perhaps they are less fearful of the unknown? Or maybe willing to experiment, one could say innovative? [Stuff like this I wanna build on]). Oh plus also the relations with the smaller nations/towns (?) like Nestra, Mokushu etc (I’ve still to research on this part so maybe I’m wrong)

Funny you should mention the concubine wars. I was going through the Fates Drama and like I would love if the concubine wars were mentioned more. Fans seem to know that some of their siblings died during disputes between the concubines but also some were executed, died in battle, taken by Hoshido and I feel like that offers already so many questions to expand on. But also begs the question on really how many children were there in total. A fanfic set where Corrin or Azura has to navigate the court or even Takumi navigating the court would be super interesting.

But yes, deffo that point. One that I struggle on is the establishing of peace between Nohr and Hoshido. I want to know why its difficult. Like ofc we have the villages and ppl affected, but how far does it go back? Realistically there would be resistance groups, perhaps from both sides? Why wasn’t trade the first thought? Or did it start with trade and escalate? How much of it was Garon or was Hoshido being difficult etc.

I didn’t think about the farming techniques but that’s something I want to explore as well. I think during peace times it would make sense for Leo to use Brynhildr to try and heal the land. I want the legendary weapons to be used more if that makes sense. Like the two swords on both sides make sense for defending the country but a magical tome has so much more potential, especially on the agriculture and perhaps terraforming with gravity. Fujin Yumi wise, I’d have to do more research but it would be poetic if the second sons of both nations were in charge of making sure the nations thrived from within whilst the elder brothers defend it.

Omg I’m so sorry I didn’t mean for it to be so long. It’s just really nice to ramble to someone who knows what I’m talking about and that cares ^^’ If AO3 allows such a thing then I might start planning, I’ve already got 2 sheets of notes from the audio Drama :D

Thank you for listening again!

-N

Oh also I just read my ask you answered and by no means did I mean to trash fates. I love the game but I just have issues with the plot. It makes me sad at all the potential lost since I love the game and it's cast. But yeah its not to say that the history and world building we got was bad, I just as a lore nerd crave more. I really hope we can get a remake, maybe on switch but at this rate I think it's copium. I read the wikipedia and apparently one of the writers wrote enough for 2 books worth in terms of plot and just aaa I wonder how they must feel about the game

-N

Oh, let me be clear I didn't think you were trashing Fates with your first ask! Don't worry about that anon. Also, I would DIE if they gave us a switch release of Fates, especially if they re-localized it to make it more accurate. Like honestly I'd be so over the moon. But I'd also accept just a port, I mean it's kind of necessary since I believe Rev is now no longer available on the eshop as of this month and the rest of the eshop is shutting down soon?

Anyway I'm glad we're similarly minded with regard to establishing background facts that don't have much effect on the present, lol. As for the history of conflict, it's been a while since I've played, but IIRC there was always the implication that Anankos's influence was part of what's been driving conflict between the nations? I suppose if you were writing an AU that ignores Valla though (or wanted reasons beyond that) you could really go with anything. I think the game also implies that Hoshido is kind of isolationist and that combined with their bountiful lands kind of leads to Nohrians resenting them? Resources and lack thereof have always been a major driver of conflict historically.

All of the stuff you brought up does sound interesting! I'd especially like to see your take on the Nohr dark mages because you're right, it doesn't really seem all that strange there like it does in other places in the series.

Anyway no problem! Feel free to ramble or ask for opinions any time! I double checked AO3's ToS for you and yeah, I believe something like this would qualify as fannish meta so you should be good to post it there!

[rachelandfinn]

🧜‍♀️ one yes 🧜‍♀️

a gLee fanfic about love at first sound

Maria in West Side Story was one of the three roles she needed to play before she died, and she never really had any stipulations as to how she ended up playing those roles, did she? ghost singer!rachel AU.

fandom: gLee characters: rachel berry, finn hudson, tina kurt mercedes sam blaine frida ryder in supporting roles ship: finchel, finn/frida (temporary), klaine (background) genre: romance themes: may possibly be funny?, fluff, slice of life-ish, canon-typical finn falling in love with rachel’s voice first and the rest of her second, rachel-centric, alternating povs, mistaken identities, first meetings, pre-relationship, getting together word count: 14.4k rating: T+

read it on ffnet, ao3, wattpad, or below!

~~~

A/N: This fic was inspired by my research into West Side Story. I never much liked the movie, but there’s no denying its iconic status; with such status comes intrigue. Natalie Wood may have played Maria on screen, but she certainly didn’t sing for her. Wouldn’t Rachel know that?

I came up with this idea in 2018, wrote a little bit of it in 2019, and didn’t pick it up again until April this year. (Why am I publishing it so late? Because I am a sucky beta, even to myself.) I’m happy to finally finish and share it! It was originally almost entirely in Finn’s pov, but Rachel is such an attention hog. I think the story is stronger for it in any case; and hey, now I’ve developed a voice for Rachel! I love the idea that she constantly has song lyrics in her head or that she supplies background music to her own life events.

~~~

Rachel saw how her best friend/agent’s face fell as she walked towards the outdoor seating of the trendy Amsterdam Ave cafe where Tina was waiting for her. She was planning on hiding the fact her latest audition failed for as long as possible, but if Tina could tell just from one look at her… No wonder she couldn’t book a role.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Rachel said in lieu of a greeting.

The thing she liked about Tina was that she was effortlessly supportive. It did not occur to a person like Tina Cohen-Chang to press a topic immediately after the other person said ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

The thing she didn’t like about Tina was that she did not let something go either. It’s what made her a fantastic agent and an even better best friend, but Rachel won’t let herself think that until after her customary three-day-long post-failure funk.

“I know you have your heart set on the stage, but how about the screen instead? Word on the street is that they’re trying to cast a modern remake of West Side Story. That could be perfect for you, Rachel!” Tina encouraged in that sweet voice of hers, mindful enough of Rachel’s mood to at least wait until after the check had been paid to bring up the idea.

Rachel took a breath, ready to wholeheartedly refute, but on second thought: Maria in West Side Story was one of the three roles she needed to play before she died. It might not have been under the bright lights of Broadway, but she never really had any stipulations as to how she ended up playing those roles, did she?

“Why do I have the feeling you’ve already signed me up for an audition time?” she asked with put-upon acrimony.

Tina smiled as she handed over a business card with a DTL written on the back in her neat, curlicue handwriting.

That was how Rachel found herself with swallowed pride and dry tongue, watching with anxious eyes as her competition got called in to audition while waiting for her turn in the dingy hallway of some random office building just off of Columbus Circle.

(All my life is just despair…)

“Rachel Berry?” someone called out at last.

“That's me!” Rachel gave herself a second to breathe before going up to the audition room. She offered a grin to the overworked assistant before stepping in.

A panel of people talked amongst themselves at the far end of the room, and they looked unimpressed with her as soon as she walked in. Unfortunately, that was something to which she was accustomed.

“Hello,” she began bravely anyway as she stepped onto the marked spot in front of their table. “My name is Rachel Berry, and I will be auditioning for the role of Maria.” They nodded politely and asked her to begin.

Rachel’s strategy was to always begin with her song, and she never auditioned with a song her character actually sang. Instead, she chose songs that could reasonably have been in her character’s playlist. It gave her more flexibility to show off her range while demonstrating she understood the character’s heart. That latter point was important because for all of the singing and dancing and breath control lessons her fathers paid for her in her youth, not one of those ever included an acting class. (She was working on it!)

The former was important because Rachel was playing a long con. Regardless of how an audition ended, they might think of her again for future works if she impressed them enough. She had to believe they’d remember her voice if she sang a song where she sounded best.

For once, it seemed to work. After her sixteen bars of My Man were up, one of them asked “Do you know Tonight?”

What kind of aspiring Maria would she be if she didn’t? She turned to the pianist. “A flat, please.”

They even asked her to read for them afterward—a huge deal. In most auditions, she didn’t even get that far; and even if she did, they settled for hearing her monologue instead of the character’s own words. The fact that she got a chance to actually act as Maria in front of them? Something like optimism dared to bloom in her chest.

She was bid adieu with an ‘Expect to hear from us in two weeks.’

Still, she refused to get her hopes up. All she told Tina at brunch the next morning was that she actually managed to finish the audition. (That didn’t always happen.) Even when she did end up hearing from them two weeks later (that didn’t always happen either), she reminded herself of all the times she wished the director would tell just her ‘no’ in person.

“We like your sound,” the director said on the phone, “but not your look.”

“Pardon me?” It always came down to her looks, to her immense chagrin.

“Here's what we propose,” he said as though she didn’t speak at all. “How about you come in and dub over the singing voice of the actress we cast? She’s actually Hispanic—you know how being PC is important for PR these days—but she just doesn’t have the voice you do.”

Well of course she didn’t, but the compliment didn’t hold any weight compared to everything else he said. “Dub over the singing voice? What, like a ghost singer?”

“Don’t sound so shocked, kid. Natalie Wood didn’t do her own singing in the 1961 film either. So, what do you say?” he asked as though he hadn’t revealed the steadfast foundations of Rachel’s entire personality were actually built on sand.

Her first instinct told her to reject the offer on principle. Rachel Berry did not ghost sing. It was all of her or none at all.

(What’s the difference if I say…)

… But this was the closest she’s ever been to a successful audition, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Tina's said in her head. The gradually cheaper and less-vegan food items in her fridge were a testament to that, and she found herself asking for some time to think about it.

“We don’t normally do this, but we really like your sound… How’s about you let us know by the end of the week? If we don’t hear from you then, we’ll move on to our second choice.”

Rachel agreed, and Tina did not appreciate it. “Rachel!” the agent exclaimed when Rachel told her the news the next morning. “This is the closest you’ve ever been to a successful audition!”

“That’s exactly what I thought you’d say,” Rachel muttered to herself.

(I’ll go away…)

“Rachel,” Tina admonished. “You’re always complaining about how you can’t get a break. Here it is! In fact, I'd call it your big break. It doesn’t matter how many no’s you hear…”

“... All I need is one yes,” Rachel finished despondently, very familiar with Tina's pep talk. She received them often.

Tina smiled as though she already successfully convinced Rachel. The only thing Rachel was convinced about was that Tina must be delusional if she thought Rachel was going to take this job.

That night, she called the director back, thinking she was the truly delusional one. “I’ll do it.”

(When I know I’ll come back on my knees one day…)

~~~

Once the movie’s production team emailed Rachel the contract, she and Tina made a wine night out of signing and faxing it back. Her studio apartment in Washington Heights was barely big enough for her; but having two extra people inside it, happily celebrating her milestone success, made the space feel filled with love instead of overly cramped. Their mutual friend Mercedes may have shown up just for the wine, but she actually ended up being the most lucid and helpful.

“Am I drunk, or does this say Rachel won’t get credit for her work?”

“WHAT?!” “Where???”

Mercedes pointed out a clause in the contract that Rachel and Tina stopped poring over ages ago in favour of painting each other’s toenails. They awkwardly crawled over to where Mercedes was sitting on the floor even as she read aloud, “By signing this contract, bla bla bla, the TALENT agrees to waive their right to nominal album accreditation. ‘Talent’ is in all caps. Why do contracts do that?”

“Tina!” Rachel despaired, looking over to her friend demanding some sort of explanation and ignoring Mercedes’ drunken ramblings. The theme song to Jaws was ringing in her ears.

Tina took the copy from Mercedes’ grasp and looked over it for a moment. “You’d also be paid 75 dollars an hour on top of the industry standard 0.3% of album royalties. Rachel, most session musicians only make 30.”

Being treated like a session musician was such a far cry from the top billing status she dreamed of, even when she agreed to this lip-sync farce in the first place.

“Tina, we can’t let this happen. I need the credit, on both the album and the movie! How can I put this on my resume if they don’t credit me?! I’d be laughed out of every audition room I ever enter if I have a stupid ‘(uncredited)’ qualifier next to West Side Story, and then I’ll never be able to become a Broadway actress, and then—”

“—I’ll call them tomorrow,” Tina assured, if only to stop her friend and client from devolving into a full-blown Rachel Berry Meltdown™, which wouldn’t have been helped by four glasses of wine.

In the end, she and the management team agreed to movie credits in exchange for giving up album royalties, contrary to Tina’s advice. Rachel was perfectly fine with this trade-off. Nowadays, being anonymous was worse than being poor.

~~~

A few weeks later, Rachel had the opportunity to go to the filming site, which she took because she clearly loved to torture herself. (She wasn’t just talking about the ghost singing business either. Why else would she willingly suffer through the MTA’s weekend schedule and make two transfers just to end up in Long Island City?)

The Broadway stage may have been her ultimate dream, but a sound stage was nothing to scoff at either. After security at Silvercup Studios let her through, she easily wandered through the single-floor until she found the sets for Anita’s apartment and the bridal shop. They were back-to-back on a big, raised platform that spanned the width of the studio, connected by a single door in the shared wall. Through the magic of editing, no one would ever be able to glimpse into the yonder set if a character had to make an exit through that door. Rachel made her way around the setup, letting herself imagine what it would have been like to work here and mourn the lost opportunity.

Just when it began to hurt just a bit too much and she thought should continue nursing her wounds back home, she heard someone rehearsing lines she’s known by heart since she was 7 years old.

“‘One month have I been in this country.’ No… ‘One month have I been in this country!’ Yeah, let’s do that. ‘One month have I been in this country! Do I ever even touch excitement?’”

Following the voice led Rachel to a corner of the studio the farthest from the entrance. She found a round-faced girl seated on heavy-duty storage boxes, a sheaf of papers in hand and outfitted in a springy, floral dress. She looked to be a few years younger than Rachel and so obviously slimmer, the kind of genetic thin that no amount of healthy eating and cardio can achieve.

Having a big mouth must be a more forgivable sin than a big nose.

Rachel continued to listen to her rehearse her lines. Her voice was deeper with a slight urban accent, and Rachel could guess why the production team was going through the lengths they were. Maria needed to sound like lightness and innocence, and this girl must not be able to affect those qualities when she sang. 

Rachel had been standing still for so long, sizing up the wench that stole her chance for fame, and got caught.

“Oh, is it my turn at hair and makeup?” the girl asked, hopping off of the crate once she noticed Rachel and scrambling to grab the things she left scattered at her feet.

“No! No,” Rachel hurried to stop her, stalling to give herself time to figure out what to say. “Hi, my name is Rachel Berry. I’m just… touring the set for the day,” she fibbed.

Just as her brain was conjuring up her backstory—she’s an apprentice to a woman named Ida who worked in risk management—the girl’s eyes lit up in recognition. Her friendly smile froze a little, but she still shook Rachel’s hand. “Rachel! Hi, yeah, the music director mentioned you. I didn’t think we’d get to meet, much more so soon! I’m Frida, Frida Romero.”

She didn’t expect that Frida had even heard of her, but her surprise was quickly overtaken by the sadistic pleasure that came from ascertaining that this Frida Romero girl wasn’t pleased to meet the person who’ll be dubbing over her singing voice. Her lips curled into a satisfied smirk; but before she could challenge Frida into an impromptu singing showdown to the tune of Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better), a rude and impatient voice called out to them.

“Pinoy Pacman, Kelley wanted you in the hair and make-up trailer, like, ten minutes ago—wait a minute, did you bring a friend onto set?! The director told me yesterday I couldn’t bring my girlfriend onto set yet, but you’re allowed to have Manhands here visit from wherever your hobbit hole hometown is? This is homophobic!”

Rachel instinctively and self-consciously looked down at her hands as Frida sighed with barely concealed annoyance. “Santana, this isn’t a friend. Rachel works on the movie,” she corrects the newcomer.

Santana’s ire seemed to evaporate on the spot, but her generally disagreeable disposition did not follow. “Oh, good. I’m pretty sure my rider said I needed freshly baked breadsticks in my trailer at all times, and I haven’t even seen dollar-store animal crackers in there since filming started. Go do something about that, will you?”

Rachel opened her mouth, ready to vehemently dispel the offensive notion that she was hired help, but Santana was already sauntering somewhere else.

“That was Anita.”

Rachel whirled on Frida. “That was Anita?!” If Rachel were cast in the film, that was the person she was supposed to consider her best friend, her greatest source of comfort, the closest thing she had to family in this brand new country?! For a split second, Rachel felt vindicated that Frida was the one who had to work with such a disagreeable person. It was almost enough to make her feel grateful she didn’t get the part.

Almost.

Frida only sighed in response as she gathered her things so she could continue to get ready for shooting. “Well, I better go. It was nice to meet you, Rachel. Hope you have fun on set today,” she said, giving a small wave before departing, not stopping to hear whether Rachel would respond.

Once Frida was out of sight, Rachel looked around at the sound stage one last time and took active note of the fact that as exciting as it would have been to work here, there simply was nothing in her chest stirring the way there was when she imagined standing on a stage before a crowd.

It was definitely time to go home.

~~~

Rachel didn’t hear about the movie in an official capacity again until principal photography was close to wrapping up a few months later. Now that Frida was done filming her singing scenes, Rachel was called in for soundtrack recording.

She resolved not to let her frustration with her circumstances prevent her from learning as much as she could from the experience. Recording for the soundtrack would put her in an actual, professional recording studio. Broadway casts recorded in those all of the time!

The pep in her step as she commuted to Hell’s Kitchen lasted into the building, up the elevator, and through the studio space where the music director met her. They talked shop for the first hour, asking if Rachel had ever sung in a studio before and working with her to set up a recording schedule for the next week. Apparently the producers elected to dub over Tony’s voice as well, so the MD wanted to record them together to help with the mixing process.

“He’s coming in today; you’ll get a chance to meet him. The name’s Blaine Anderson, and he makes for a really good Tony,” the music director commented.

Strangely, hearing about another ghost singer made Rachel feel relieved. She didn’t realise it before then, but she felt rather stranded the past few weeks, like no one could understand just how hard it was for her to take this job. But this Blaine person? He might get it.

Before going into the recording booth, the MD explained how they wanted to spend the rest of the day. “I’m not the kind of person that knows what I want without hearing it first, so all I’m gonna ask you to do today is sing and try your best to match Frida’s videography. I’ll give you more direction after I hear what I’m working with.”

Rachel would love to leave the studio today without giving the MD any reason to correct her singing, but she reminded herself of her intention to learn. Even if she disagreed with anything, she would take it with grace and perform as requested.

Easier said than done.

Rachel has had the West Side Story soundtrack memorised since she was 7. As she grew up, she had a very specific idea of how she would perform Maria’s duets once she was able to realise her childhood dream. It would perfectly blend the intentions of the original score and the movie version most people would be familiar with while showing off her own technical prowess. It would be epic, powerful, EGOT-worthy.

Frida clearly had no such designs.

The music director asked Rachel to sing along to Frida’s video once through without stopping just so that they both could see how much is different between the two performances—and Frida had sung it all wrong.

She took her breaths at the worst moments. Her face portrayed longing when she should have sounded hopeful. Why was she trying to belt there!?

Rachel hadn’t been so frustrated at participating in a performance since her high school show choir director tried to win Regionals with a performance of Sing! from A Chorus Line led by the tone-deaf dancer kid and his girlfriend.

(It’s a terrifying thing…)

If all of Frida’s takes were like this, Rachel would be in the studio a lot longer than the producers probably anticipated. A quick glance out of the soundbooth showed her the MD was having similar thoughts.

After an hour, they took a break so that Rachel could drink water and sit down for a bit. She went out to the main receiving area of the studio to sit on the couches there instead of the ones behind the mixing station of her recording booth, thinking it would do her some good to minimise the amount of time spent in the room that would be her personal torture chamber for the foreseeable future. She made a mental note to wear her sneakers next time she came in so that all the standing around would be easier on her back.

Then, a neatly-dressed man on the shorter side exited the elevators by the reception desk. He took a seat a few cushions away from Rachel on the couch, and Rachel’s sixth sense was tingling.

She shifted closer and asked, “Excuse me, are you Blaine Anderson?”

Blaine snapped his head up in shock from where he was perusing his phone, confirming Rachel’s suspicion before he offered an eager hand in greeting and a, “Yes! Hi… Have we met?”

“I’m Rachel Berry. I’m singing for Maria.”

She meant to sound confident and excited, but the way the politeness on Blaine’s face instantaneously smoothed into sympathy left Rachel feeling like she needed to cry.

“It’s a little unfair, isn’t it?” he asked. No clarification needed.

He understood it too.

“It’s more than a little unfair,” she admitted, throat closing up in reflex as she tried to blink away the pressure behind her eyes.

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave a wan smile, which she returned with appreciation.

It helped, to have someone to commiserate with.

~~~

Rachel attended the premiere. Of course she did. Even though it was not her name on all of the promotional materials, even though she didn’t get to walk the red carpet, even though no one would care to know who she was, she intended to revel in the fact that this night was hers as much as it was everyone else’s. More importantly, whatever success this movie saw would be hers as much as everyone else’s, too.

Who knew how long it would be until the night she first performed on a Broadway stage or got invited to the Tony’s? (Not long, she hoped.) Until then, this was the biggest night of her life, and she intended to treat it as such. She invited Tina as her plus-one; and together they agonised for weeks over what to wear and how to do their hair, they practised their smiles in the mirror, they role-played how they would react if they got to meet any of their celebrity crushes or Broadway idols.

Closer to the date, the nightmares began.

Some were of her being turned away at the door because her name wasn’t on the list, and she’d scream her voice hoarse as she demanded to be let in and be recognised, and her voice never recovered so she was forced to live out the rest of her life mute and miserable. Other ones featured attendants booing as soon as her voice pumped through the speakers instead of Frida’s, and somehow all of them knew a) that it was her and b) where she sat in the theatre, and they all threw their drinks and food and playbills at her with basketball-star-level accuracy. One time, Rachel even dreamed she was a teenaged mermaid that traded her voice for legs so that she could attempt to romance a handsome land-dweller, and the sea witch that brokered the deal had stolen her voice and tried to move in on her guy and also looked a lot like Frida.

The actual night, of course, was not as eventful.

She wasn’t shuffled in through a back door like she thought she might have been as a low-ranked member of the crew. Instead, she and Tina got to walk right through the main doors; they just had to circumvent the glitz and excitement of the red carpet, which started at Columbus Avenue, half-circled the fountain in Josie Robertson Plaza, and led to the Metropolitan Opera House.

They arrived a cool thirty minutes before the movie was set to begin, giving them enough time to take selfies within the Opera House’s iconic atrium and order drinks and snacks to enjoy while they watched.

As the movie progressed, Rachel scooted further and further to the edge of her seat. There was still a chance for the second-most common of her nightmares to come true.

On screen, Tony snuck onto Maria’s fireplace in that adorably rogue way of his, and they flirted as they reaffirmed their star-crossed love for each other, and then…

Only you. You’re the only thing I see, forever…

The cheering shocked her with its immediacy. The crowd quieted down just as quickly, and Tina held her hand tight, and she was crying. She kept crying for the entire duration of the song, and she was brave enough to let out a little hiccup when the applause and whistles and shouts of encouragement filled the theatre during the final note.

They loved her.

The stress melted out of her along with her tears, and only a giddy happiness was left to fill her body. She looked over at Tina and couldn’t help the relieved laughter at the sight of twin streaks of wet flowing down her friend’s own cheeks. She squeezed Tina’s hand, grateful for her best friend’s presence and her agent’s guidance. From the way she squeezed back, Rachel could tell Tina could tell.

When the movie ended, there was more raucous applause, but there was just as much activity as well. Many of the people around them began leaving for home or for the reception party in the opera house’s atrium, the hall buzzing with conversation and praise.

The two of them eagerly waited in their seats for the credits to roll through. Her name may not have been on any of the promotion materials, her name may not have been the one called out on the red carpet, but her name would be forever immortalised in the credits. It was the only public validation she’d get, and she couldn’t wait.

Ravhel took her phone out of her purse, excited to take a picture of the screen, and she could see Tina do the same by her side. They both figured that her name would appear in the musicians’ section, but then those names came and went without comment. A quick glance to her left showed that Tina was just as confused as she was, but she couldn’t afford to get distracted. Her name should appear any second now.

And finally, it did. Alphabetised by first name in the fucking Special Thanks To section.

…

Patty Simcox

Rachel Berry

Tyrone Griffiths

…

She stood up from her seat, chest and eyes burning with indignation.

“Rachel!” Tina called out after her as she stormed out of her row. “Rachel, where are you going?” Tina hurried after her, getting close enough to reach out for Rachel’s arm, but Rachel shrugged her off immediately.

“Home!” Her voice broke on the shouted syllable. “I’m going home, Tina. No one cares that I’m here or about what I did. They made that very, very clear.” Rachel gestured pathetically to the screen while sniffling and trying to stymie her tears. She was crying so much tonight. “My name is all the way at the end with the miscellaneous help. Like, who the hell is Patty Simcox?!”

Rachel’s cries were getting the attention of the venue staff and the handful of others that remained for the credits, so Tina rushed them out the closest exit and into the hallway where she remembered the bathroom being.

“It was a mistake to come here,” Rachel wailed as she let Tina drag her along.

Once safely sequestered away in the bathroom, Tina shook her friend by the shoulders. “Rachel Barbra Berry, were we in the same movie theatre just now? Didn’t you hear that applause when Tonight started? They loved you.”

Of course she did, as fleeting as the applause was, but did that matter? Rachel only shrugged in response.

“No, seriously, listen to me. They loved you. The applause at the beginning and end of the film? That was for everyone else: Frida, the guy who played Tony, the movie people who agreed to fund a remake. But the cheering for Tonight? That was for you and you alone, Rachel. Couldn’t you tell? They started freaking out as soon as the song started! The entire audience was just waiting to hear Maria sing, and it was your voice that played through the speakers. That applause was for you. They care, Rachel; they just don’t know it yet.”

She was still in Tina’s hold, but her mind went back to just an hour ago. She remembered the joy that came with being celebrated, but she remembered relief, too. Whatever fears Rachel had about not being enough dissipated with the first clap of hands. She struggled to hold onto that feeling while the disappointment threatened to crush her spirit.

“When?” she murmured.

Tina’s grasp on her shoulders softened. “Huh?”

Rachel pulled her attention from middle distance and looked into Tina’s eyes. “When will they know that they care?”

Tina smiled at her, equal parts confident and comforting. “You’ll get a chance to tell them. You’ll say it at every audition; you’ll tell your future coworkers during a break in rehearsals; and when you finally get nominated for leading a Broadway show, you’ll tell everyone at Radio City Music Hall, too. I’m sure of it.”

Rachel huffed out air in something approximating a laugh. “That sounded good. How long have you been practising that?” she asked with a congested accent.

Tina reached behind her to get a paper towel for Rachel to blow her nose into. “A few days, admittedly. I had some variations prepared, just in case.”

Rachel nodded distractedly, embarrassment starting to flood in now that she was coming back into awareness of herself. “Can you help me clean myself up? It’ll be hard enough going back out there having just made a spectacle of myself without also looking like an extra from Rocky Horror.”

Tina beamed at her. “So, we’re staying?” she asked as she spilled the contents of her clutch onto the bathroom counter to get the emergency make-up stashed away there. Beside her, Rachel did the same.

“It would be a waste of perfectly free champagne if we didn’t,” she said with a grateful smile.

~~~

“What do you mean you’re not going to the premiere?!” Kurt screeched into his ear.

Finn annoyedly shifted the phone to his other shoulder, scrubbing the remnants of oil off his hands as he made his way out of the autogarage where he worked. He signaled to his roommate and coworker that he was taking five, and Sam waved him off.

“Exactly what you just said: I’m not going. What’s the point?”

“I go through all that effort to get you work on this movie, and this is how you thank me? By abandoning me on the biggest night of my career thus far?!”

“Kurt, you did costuming on the movie! That’s a big deal, and I would never try to pretend it’s not… But all I did was play the drums for a little extra cash because their orchestra guy picked the wrong week to go on vacation. It was nice of them to invite me just because I helped out, but this was just another job to me. If you really don’t want to go alone… it can’t be that hard to find a date.”

“This is not an I-need-an-emergency-plus-one-to-my-ex’s-wedding situation, Finn! I will not rely on Grindr to find me a date for West Side Story’s world premiere!!!”

“I’m pretty sure I’m working that night anyway.”

“I can’t believe you would think that I wouldn’t have already checked your work schedule with Sam before I called you.” Dammit, Sam.

“We don’t even get to walk the red carpet! I don’t understand why I have to go just because you’re going.”

“Finn Hudson, if you don’t go with me, I’m telling Carole that you’ve been dating someone and that that’s why you haven’t gone back home to visit yet this year.”

Finn reactively broke out into a sweat. His mother was not a demanding woman, which made it all the harder to deny her the two things she’s ever asked for: a steady girlfriend and a visit home, neither of which have interested him lately. “That’s not even remotely true! You wouldn’t.”

“Do not try me.”

“Fine. Fine! I’ll go to the stupid premiere, god.”

Kurt cheered on the other end, and Finn wished they were still living together so that he could sneak a red sock into the washing machine next time Kurt tried to wash his white clothes.

“If you check your email, you will see that I’ve already sent you a list of links so that you can buy an appropriate outfit for the evening. Do not order anything in a colour that was not linked to you, or I will make you regret it. Have a good day at work, big brother!” Kurt ended the call in that cheeky way he’d been doing since high school even though his birthday was three months before Finn’s.

And that was how Finn found himself in one of the plush, leather-upholstered seats of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center watching the remake of a movie of a Broadway show he didn’t even like. Why would anyone base a musical on Shakespeare’s worst play?

He didn’t even bother fighting sleep once the overture stopped playing and the movie began in earnest. He’d seen the 1961 movie; he knew how it went. Sometime later, in his hazy consciousness, he recognised that Tony managed to stalk Maria home, and they were fighting against their ill-advised lust for each other, and then…

Only you. You’re the only thing I see, forever…

Finn’s eyes shot awake, and it wasn’t because of the sudden cheers from the audience.

In my eyes, in my world, and in everything I do... Nothing else but you, ever.

Whoever played Maria knows how to sing. This movie just got a lot more interesting.

If there was yet another thing he could begrudge West Side Story, it was that Maria didn’t get her own solo. Everytime she sang, her voice would inevitably be cut off by someone else’s. If these production people were thinking with their brains at all, they would have created a whole new song for Maria as soon as they heard the actress’ voice. That’s what he would have done.

Finally, the film ended in its tragic way, but Finn didn’t join everyone else in their tears or their excitement for the after-party. His butt remained seated, and his eyes tracked on the screen, desperately waiting for the credits to roll.

The first two names that appeared in the stylised credit sequence were Ryder Lynn and Frida Romero, and he had a good feeling that Ryder wasn’t the one who played Maria.

Frida Romero.

He sank back in his seat and turned the name over in his head, tuning out Kurt’s blubbering about how fantastic the movie was and how pretty the costumes looked on screen and how proud he is of everyone.

As far as celebrity crushes went, it could honestly be worse. At least she wasn’t playing in an animated movie when he heard her sing. A sudden obsession with West Side Story’s soundtrack would be much easier to explain.

It wasn’t until a girl and her friend started making a ruckus a few rows ahead of him that Kurt and Finn decided it was time to join everyone else at the afterparty, exchanging weirded out looks as they left the theatre.

The lobby wasn’t as decked out as Finn expected it to be, but perhaps one of the benefits of holding a film premiere at such a historic and famous venue was that the event organisers didn’t have to try too hard to decorate the space. The location was the decoration.

Waitstaff kept hors d'oeuvres and drinks in a constant flow, but Finn couldn’t wait to get out of there and get a real meal. Forget balsamic-drizzled caprese on a stick and flutes of too-bitter champagne; he wanted a medium rare burger and a light beer.

His dinner would have to wait, unfortunately. He was Kurt’s ride back to Queens, but Kurt had wandered off fifteen minutes ago when he saw some coworkers from costuming. With no chance that Kurt would pick up if Finn called, he resigned himself to biding his time in an out-of-the-way alcove on the less-crowded third floor until Kurt decided they could go home.

It would be a lot worse if he didn’t have something to look forward to.

The grand staircase in the atrium that allowed patrons who weren’t rich enough to afford first-floor seating was made up of two curved staircases that met at a platform midway between the ground floor and the second floor. From that platform, a single, shorter staircase connected to the above level.

Though the view from the midway platform was limited, anyone anywhere in the multi-leveled lobby had an unobstructed view of the platform itself, which made it the perfect location for speeches, toasts, and planned performances of duet medleys from a film everyone in attendance had just finished watching.

He could definitely stand to wait a bit if it meant getting to hear Frida’s voice live.

He bided his time with some rounds of Angry Birds until feedback echoed through the antechamber. It was time.

Frida Romero and Ryder Lynn walked up to the midway platform on opposite staircases, a move that was obviously staged but nevertheless dramatically and visually impactful. Once in front of the microphones on the landing, the two bowed before the gathered crowd and began singing.

The eager smile on Finn’s face froze a bit, but he recovered quickly. Frida sounded pretty different from what she sounded like on the film, but he reasoned it was because she was singing live and because the atrium was still buzzing with conversation. It wasn’t as completely quiet as it should have been out of respect for what he confidently would say was the greatest voice of their generation.

The duet ended to earnest applause, and Finn tried not to be too disappointed. He decided to look for Kurt instead. Surely, he was done gushing about sequins or gossipping about red carpet looks or whatever it was people who worked in fashion talked about when they were together.

The third floor was a bust, so he descended to the second floor to continue this search. As he walked through the crowd, Finn reached out for a champagne flute from a passing waiter, but someone else’s hand touched the stem at the same time.

“Shit!” “Oh my god!” the two parties cried out as both hands abruptly let go of the glass, letting it break and spill sticky, fizzy drink on the marble flooring.

“I’m so sorry! Can I help you clean it up?” the other person asked, and holy shit that was Frida Romero.

The waiter had on their best customer service smile, but the annoyance was clear in their voice when they asked the two of them to step back and allow someone to clean up the spill. Finn didn’t need to be told twice, so he gently took Frida’s arm by the elbow and encouraged her to back up and away from the scene of the crime along with him.

“We’d better do as they ask,” he recommended gently as he tried to shield her from the attention of nosy passers-by. He brought them to the quieter hallway where the elevator banks were before he remembered himself and let the poor girl go. He whirled to face her, apology at the ready, but then he noticed she barely reached his shoulders even in heels. He was so doomed.

“Ah, sorry,” he said while nervously rubbing at his neck. “I didn’t mean to manhandle you there. I was just focused on getting us away from the waiter who looked ready to stab us in the eye with shards of champagne glass.”

Frida chuckled a little, and Finn couldn’t help but smile at the sound. “No, it’s okay,” she assured. “Honestly, I was having a bit of an out-of-body experience all night. The last few minutes were really helping me come back to myself.”

Finn furrowed his eyebrows. “Did something go wrong?”

“No! Nothing’s wrong!” Frida denied vehemently. “This is a dream come true, honestly! … It’s just all happening so fast. In the span of two minutes, I met Vanessa Hudgens, Annaleigh Ashford, and Rita Moreno. I didn’t get to even process one famous person before meeting the next. I only get this night once, and I wanted to savour it, but… Ugh. Oh my god, sorry. I should not be telling you this stuff. Not only do I sound totally out-of-touch, but this is so not your problem.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Finn hurried to assure her. “You definitely sound like you need a breather. Do you want me to get you some water or something? I promise not to drop the glass this time.”

Frida huffed out a laugh. “That’s nice of you, but no thanks. I should really be getting back out there…”

“Oh, yeah, of course. I totally get it. You’re the main attraction.”

To his surprise, Frida snorted. “Am I, really?”

“Uh, yeah. I heard you sing tonight… Not Tonight the song, I meant this evening… But obviously you performed Tonight tonight, you’re in the show… What I’m trying to say here is I think you’re really talented.”

Back in high school, Finn’s relationships wouldn’t last long because he had serious foot-in-mouth syndrome. He thought he got over that in the years since then, but apparently all it took was one pretty girl to reinfect him.

Said pretty girl faced him with an appraising gaze, but her fingers were nervously playing with the straps of her purse. “You really think so?”

Finn nodded emphatically, hoping she could tell he was being earnest. “And I’m not the only one. They chose you to headline the movie, didn’t they?”

Frida didn’t look wholly convinced, but the air around her changed. She twisted her mouth into a sarcastic smile, and the serious tone of the conversation shifted. “That they did. Not doing too bad for a Hoosier, huh?”

Finn brightened. “You’re from Indiana? I’m from Ohio!”

“No way? And we met here, in New York City?”

“I know, right?” Finn was going to launch into how much he missed the county fair back home, which just happened this past weekend and was fresh on his mind still, but he was interrupted.

“Frida, there you are! We’ve been looking all over for you. I know they told us we wouldn’t have to do interviews at the party, but the director owed somebody a favour, I guess? I don’t know, but we’re needed down on the main level.”

“Gotcha. Thanks, Ryder. Give me a second? I’ll be right there.”

Before he left, Ryder Lynn gave Finn a judgemental look that he couldn’t help but return. To his satisfaction, Finn had a few good inches and maybe twenty pounds on the guy. (Not that he actually planned on fighting him for Frida's affections, but he was just pointing out that he could if he needed to.)

“So, uh, I gotta go.” Frida gestured needlessly to where Ryder had just been standing. Finn smiled as he stamped down his disappointment. He was lucky enough to have monopolised so much of her time, and he knew it. “Totally. It was nice meeting you, Frida.”

She tilted her head at him. “I never caught your name.”

“Ah, right. Finn Hudson. I actually played percussion in the orchestra for the soundtrack; that’s how I got invited.”

“‘Finn Hudson,’” she repeated. “Ugh, I’m never gonna remember that. Write it down for me?”

She fished in her purse for her phone and handed it over. He didn’t think much of her request, but then he looked down to see an open contact form on her phone. He snapped his focus back up and was greeted with a decidedly flirtatious gaze. He smirked at her, a look he knew made him particularly attractive, and input his information.

“See you later,” he said as he handed her phone back.

Frida left with a wave and a wink. “Sooner than you think.”

~~~

As much as she had hoped for the opposite, Rachel’s life didn’t get a whole lot better after the movie came out.

It was, as expected, a smashing success. Everyone thought it was high-time for a West Side Story remake, and the numbers showed. $67 million on opening weekend alone; #1 movie in America for three weeks in a row; 8.7 on Metacritic and 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Overheard conversations on the subway featured plans to watch the movie that weekend; the high school down the block began advertising West Side Story as their spring musical; Frida and whoever played Tony got invited to be presenters at the Tonys. The Tonys!

And there Rachel was, sitting in her shoebox Washington Heights apartment with the radio unplugged and blinds drawn, watching only pre-recorded TV shows or movies on DVD. It was the only way to avoid hearing a peep of the commercials or avoid catching a glimpse of the billboard on the apartment complex a few blocks down from hers.

It was all so unfair.

Tina told her that this movie could be the cause of her big break. As it currently stood, it looked more like the cause of her big breakdown.

She had been ignoring any and all attempts of contact from her friends. Mercedes’ offers to go to brunch were ignored; Tina’s emails containing her recommendations to Rachel for potential casting calls were unopened. Her precious iPod mini was stored in her safe along with her birth certificate and passport so that she wouldn’t accidentally hear the 1961 soundtrack on shuffle.

It was an exhausting and depressive lifestyle that she maintained steadfastly for weeks… then she got her first paycheck.

“Rachel?” Tina answered the phone in bewilderment.

“Tina, call Mercedes right now. We’re going out.”

“What!?”

“Yep, and I’m buying us a round!”

“Hold on. I don’t hear from you in almost a month, and you just invite me out on a weeknight out of the blue? I feel like I deserve more of an explanation.”

“I got my first paycheck from West Side Story, Tina, and there is a comma in the number.”

“... We’ll meet you at Ellie’s in an hour.”

As melodramatic as the musical theatre community was known to be, they also knew how to take a joke. Ellie’s Starlite Dinner was one such joke. A flagrant rip-off of the famous diner with the singing waiters just off of Time Square, Ellie’s was a karaoke bar that stripped the original concept of everything except the main draw: singing on furniture.

They had a limited menu but a fully-stocked bar. Guests sat in diner booths to enjoy that evening’s entertainment, and performers only had to stand up on their own tables or chairs when it was their turn to sing. It was a genius idea that allowed them to fit more seating into the space. Singers had to sign a waiver absolving the establishment of responsibility if they drunkenly fell and had to pay a whopping $15 per song, but any given night was still a lively and fully-booked affair.

Rachel desperately wanted to sing, a feeling that had abandoned her for a while. The first thing she, Tina, and Mercedes did once they met up was join the line for the request DJ. Unfortunately, they were informed of the 100 minute wait time and decided to simply sit back and vibe for the evening.

It was a good time nevertheless. She was in such a good mood that when she stood up to fetch another round, she didn’t even mind when a tall, slim man around her age knocked into her and spilled his  cocktail on her dress.

“I’m sorry for bumping into you, but I’m not sorry for your outfit. Please tell me you’re dressed like that because you lost a bet,” he said in lieu of an introduction.

“I like it! It has pockets!” Rachel defended over the noise of someone trying to sing both parts of My Boo.

The man tutted as he shook his head. “The things women will suffer through for pockets.”

“Rachel?” someone’s surprised voice cut in.

“Blaine!” Rachel squealed when she recognized him, pulling him in for a sloppy hug and forgetting to care about her dress.

“You two know each other?” Slim Jim questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Remember how I told you I’m the voice of Tony? You’re looking at the voice of Maria.”

“Small world,” Blaine’s companion commented with a considering frown. There was something weird in his voice, but Rachel was not sober enough to figure out what or even remember such a minute detail come morning.

By the time Rachel came back from the bathroom, bladder empty and dress halfway-salvaged, Tina and Mercedes had invited the two men to share their booth for the evening. They learned the new party was Blaine’s boyfriend, Kurt. They were casually-yet-enthusiastically talking on a dating app and decided to take it seriously when they learned they both worked on the same movie. (“Almost like fate!” Blaine commented, prompting collective aw’s from the girls.)

The five became fast friends that night, and Rachel considered it a good omen. First the paycheck, then new friends? What was gonna happen next, another successful audition?

The next morning, Tina emailed her with a new casting opportunity happening that day, another movie-musical adaptation, and Rachel felt like the universe was trying to tell her something.

She drank her tea, did her scales, and corralled her headshot and resume from where they were hidden underneath take-out menus and weeks-old coupon flyers addressed to ‘Current Resident’ before heading out the door.

Rachel’s good mood lasted until she walked into the audition room, where she was hit with the familiar and unwelcome feeling that it would end before it began.

“Hello,” she began bravely anyway as she stepped onto the marked spot in front of the panel of directors. “My name is Rachel Berry, and I will be auditioning for the role of Anastasia.”

Someone moved their wrist in a gesture she understood to mean ‘You can begin now,’ so she started with It’s All Coming Back to Me Now for her first—and likely last—song, based on the fact that the panel of directors barely glanced at her even while she sang.

Her final note echoed a bit when she concluded, then one director raised his head to look at her. She reminded herself of all the times she wished the director would tell just her ‘no’ in person.

“Were you really the voice of Maria in the West Side Story movie?”

“Pardon me?” she asked, surprised to hear more than one syllable coming out of his mouth.

He gestured to her resume in front of him, and his peers furrowed their brows and began reviewing their own copies in earnest. At least someone here bothered to read her resume. “It says here you provided the singing voice for Maria in the West Side Story remake. Is that true?”

Finally understanding the question, she smirked. “Tonight, A flat please,” she directed to the pianist in lieu of a response.

She still got rejected at the end of the audition, but it felt different this time. She could see in their faces that they’d take note of her, that they’d remember her voice. It wasn’t the answer she wanted, but it would be a lie to say this audition wasn’t a success either.

Like Tina said, all it took was one yes.

~~~

“Hey, Huddy, going out for lunch?” Sam asked as Finn exited the locker room, having changed out of his work overalls and into not-smelly, not-oily attire.

“Yeah, I have plans with Frida. Tell the boss I’m taking a long lunch for me?” Finn said as he walked into the customer bathroom. He left the door open so his voice could carry while he checked his reflection in the mirror.

Finn could hear Sam pull himself out from under the 2017 Ford Focus that a customer was scheduled to pick up later today. “So things are getting better then?”

Finn sighed.

He and Frida started dating less than a week after the West Side Story premiere. In those first few weeks, it felt really good to have someone else around who understood why he loved living in New York City but would always miss home just a little bit. Frida still had all of the small-town charm with none of the small-mindedness, and she loved to poke fun at the fact that she did end up dating the high school quarterback, albeit not the one from her own high school. “If only the cheer team could see me now,” she would say.

It was nice, really… for the times they were able to be together.

The movie just got more and more famous as their relationship went on. Frida ended up being so busy that if he wanted to see her lately, he’d have to watch an interview where she’d flirt with the Ryder guy for the course of the video.

Not to say that he’d actively ruin her momentum just to get to spend some time with her—he’s not selfish enough to ask that of her—but he’s an actions guy, man. The fact that there’s not really anything he can do to achieve his desired goal, more time with Frida, left him undeniably frustrated. The emotion unfortunately coloured more of what little time he did get with her than he’d like, so they’ve been a little strained lately.

On top of that, there’s the thing he kept holding himself back from bringing up: she didn’t sound anything like her singing voice. He sorta figured it was like when British people lost their accents when they sang; but even when she sings live, why didn’t she sound the way she did in the movie? He could tell the audio wasn’t touched-up at all, so what was the disconnect?

He wasn’t going to ask her any of that, of course. They’ve only hit the three month mark just last week. It was still kinda early for confrontations like that according to the unwritten dating playbook he’s been following since college.

“They are,” he lied with a small smile, meeting Sam’s eyes through the mirror before grabbing his stuff from his locker.

He plugged his earphones in, left the autogarage, and took the subway from Pelham Parkway to Central Park North. When he got to the non-chain, fast-food restaurant (his request since he’d already spend most of his lunch break commuting) and noticed she hadn’t arrived yet, he sent off a quick text and waited outside.

Before long, Frida was waving a hand in his face to catch his attention without startling him too much. “Hey, whatcha listening to?” she greeted with a smile.

He pulled his iPod out of his pocket and turned the screen towards her. “I’ll be honest: One Hand, One Heart isn’t my favourite, but you sound too good not to have it in my library.” He swooped down to peck her on the cheek, a plausibly deniable expression of endearment in case there were any paparazzi around. They walked into the restaurant and waited in line.

“How long have you been practising that?”

“Practising what?” he asked distractedly as he perused the snacks shelf behind the cashier. He wondered if they had Sour Patch Kids.

“You know, the whole ‘pulling up my girlfriend’s movie’s soundtrack on my iPod so that when she asks me what I’m listening to, I look supportive’ trick.”

He tore his attention back towards Frida in alarm. “Oh my god, no! It’s not a trick. I legitimately listen to the West Side Story soundtrack all the time. Ask Sam!”

She froze in what he thought was embarrassment. “You do?”

He chewed on his bottom lip for a second. He had to make her believe him, so now was as good of a time as any to admit, “I never told you this before, but when I attended the premiere, when I first heard you sing, that’s the moment I… well, I started falling for you.”

Frida didn’t blush or even smile. Actually, she looked pretty stricken, so he backpedaled. “Ah, that might seem like a lot, and it might have been too soon to say that. It’s not any less true, but don’t worry there’s no pressure here. And not in the way guys usually mean you-have-like-a-week-to-say-it-back-or-else-I’m-dumping-you when they say ‘no pressure,’ haha,” he babbled.

The smile she tried to give him was as strained as her impassive face, and he wished more than anything that he could redo the last five minutes of his life.

Blessedly their turn to order came next, which gave them a chance to break the awkward atmosphere. After they collected their drinks and picked a place to sit and wait for their food, Frida finally looked at him.

Her face looked serious, determined, resigned. For a split second, he even thought she might break up with him, and he knew the first emotion he felt wouldn’t have been heartbreak.

“Finn, that isn’t me singing on the soundtrack.”

His heart may not have broken, but his world sure did shatter.

~~~

Sam smacked him upside the head as they walked home from work. “So you broke up with Hollywood's sweetheart because she can’t sing? Are you actually the dumbest person alive?”

Sam raised his hand intending to hit him again, and Finn tried to fend him off. “No. I never thought that; it wasn’t like that! Besides, she broke up with me! Stop hitting me, oh my god.”

When he was sure Sam would keep his hands to himself, he continued, “I wasn’t gonna let that ruin what we had, honestly, but… like, what did we have? I approached her under a misunderstanding, she liked me because I was the first person who ‘understood’ that about her… Too much about our first impressions was wrong.”

“You were three months into the relationship. First impressions shouldn’t even matter at this point!” Sam argued.

“Come on, man. You knew we were already on the rocks. It’s not really a surprise we didn’t last after that came to light.”

Sam didn’t have a way to respond to that, so Finn let them lapse into silence. A choice snippet of the conversation from earlier in the day played in his mind.

(“When you said I sounded great that night, you weren’t talking about mine and Ryder’s duet, huh?” It didn’t sound like a question, but he answered it anyway.

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. There was no point in lying.

“I thought you were talking about the duet.” Frida sniffed, and he could see the rims of her eyes were getting pink, but there were no tears yet. He’d only ever seen her cry on screen. “Right up until we performed, there were so. many. people telling me how great I sounded in the movie. No one had—” She swallowed. “—No one said it again, not afterwards, not until you did… I should have known. I think… I think I did know, but I wanted to believe.”

He had kept quiet while she vented, not knowing what to say so choosing to say nothing at all, but here his words came easily. “I meant what I said that night. You’re really talented. I still think so.”

“More talented than the girl who was actually singing?”

There was no point in lying, but there was no point in being mean either. “They chose you to headline the movie, didn’t they?” he said instead.

Frida shut her eyes and breathed deep. When she looked up at him again, he knew it was goodbye. “That they did. Not doing too bad for a Hoosier, huh?”)

Sam’s sudden question startled him out of the memory. “So, what? You stay celibate until you find your Ariel?”

“... What?” Was Sam talking all this time, and Finn just happened to tune in at the most out-of-context part?

“You know, like in The Little Mermaid? Frida was Vanessa a.k.a. Ursula who stole Ariel’s voice to—don’t give me that look, you know I have a little sister!”

He couldn’t be sure Sam did this on purpose, but it felt good to laugh right now. “Did you just compare my ex to a sea witch from a Disney movie?”

Sam slugged him in the shoulder good-naturedly. “Whatever. So, what are you gonna do now?”

Finn just shrugged. “There’s nothing to do. I go back to how it was before. Meeting Frida was a fun and unexpected surprise, but it’s not like I was actively looking for a girlfriend or anything. I wasn’t lonely or anything, and I don’t feel lonely now either.”

When they made it back to their East Tremont apartment, the conversation naturally dropped. Finn grabbed them some beers, Sam turned the tv on, and they settled in to watch the Braves play the Nationals even though neither of them were big on baseball.

At the next commercial break, Sam said, “If it were me, I'd be begging for Frida back.”

Finn took a sip from his beer. “Hey, she’s single now, and you’re both from Indiana. Worth a shot.”

~~~

As soon as Rachel walked out of the building, the call was already going through. She impatiently paced to the closest Starbucks as she waited for the other end of the line to pick up.

Finally, “Rachel?”

She didn’t waste a second. “Tina, I got it!”

A gasp. “No way?!”

“Yes, way!” Even after walking two long city blocks, she still had the energy to dance a celebratory shimmy on the street. There was no need for embarrassment in New York; Rachel hardly counted as the most memorable sight any of the passers-by would see that day.

“Oh my god!? Rachel?!?! I am so happy for you! I told you! All you needed was one yes!”

Rachel couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out of her.

(Hearts leap in a giddy whirl…)

“As always, you were right,” Rachel teased, but she abandoned that quickly. “Oh my god, I’m so happy, too; I’m so excited! I don’t even know what to say right now!!”

“When do you start?”

Rachel struggled to sort her emotions out enough to access her recent memories. “I’m gonna get an email today with the words and the information, then I’m meeting the director tomorrow. Oh my god, should you be coming with me to that?”

“I can if you want me to!” Tina probably meant to sound supportive; but even as preoccupied as Rachel right now, she could tell Tina was excited to do more as an agent than direct Rachel to auditions that turned out to be duds. “That’s kinda fast; that’s so exciting!”

Rachel was gonna give her the biggest hug ever the next time she saw Tina. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you. Not just for coming with me tomorrow, but for everything. I really needed someone like you in my corner.”

“Of course, Rachel! I absolutely live for the moment one of my clients gets some good professional news. Wanna go out tonight to celebrate? You get Mercedes; I’ll ask Kurt and Blaine?”

As if she needed the reminder Tina was the best friend on top of being the best agent. “Oh my god, yes! Ellie’s at 8?”

“Sounds good to me!”

“Yes! Yay!” Rachel just needed to scream, so she did. “Ahhh!! I still can’t believe I got it!”

“It was a matter of time, Rachel.” Tina said it so matter-of-factly; Rachel loved this girl. But then, “… Uh, by the way. What is it that you got?”

~~~

“Thanks, but no thanks.” Finn held back a sigh. He wondered why he let Kurt talk him into weekly phone calls even though they live in the same city and see each other a totally respectable amount of times.

“Finn! Come on, it’ll be fun,” Kurt nagged in his ear.

“Sure, maybe, but who goes to karaoke on a weeknight? I have a session tomorrow.” Not a lie this time. The studio that normally booked him for session drumming was recording a demo for someone who won a sponsored singing contest from one of the radio stations. He’d be listening to this singer cover songs for hours tomorrow; he didn’t need to pay to go to karaoke tonight for the same experience.

“Sure, at ten. Honestly, I'm surprised to hear excuses like that from McKinley High’s biggest advocate of the boot and rally methodology.”

Finn allowed himself to smile at the memories of the Friday football game tailgates that turned into weekend-long house parties. “Listen, I'm really just not interested,” he maintained.

Kurt got quiet on the other end, and Finn wondered if maybe this was his chance to hang up. Then, “Is this about Frida?”

Finn groaned.

“Finn, it’s been two weeks already… Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it? Maybe if you finally tell me what happened—you know, if you lean on me, your brother—I can help you get over her!”

Finn wasn’t avoiding talking about it necessarily, but he never brought it up either because he really didn’t think it was a big deal. The relationship was relatively short, Finn held no lingering resentment, and it was a clean break. Besides, Frida was famous. If anyone were winning the post-break up game, it was her.

He sighed. “Kurt, I am only telling you the story so that you believe me when I say: there is nothing to get over.”

He gave Kurt the same spiel he told Sam. If Kurt became as indignant over the break-up as his roommate had been… well, it wasn’t like he could reach through the phone and smack Finn. When he wrapped up, he was expecting some platitudes, maybe an admonishment. Instead, Kurt said, “Finn. I promise you, you want to go to karaoke tonight.”

Finn was poised to reject again, but something about the serious way Kurt said it, like he knew something Finn didn’t, made Finn agree against his better judgement.

~~~

Whoever this guy is, he must be cute, Rachel thought to herself while she watched Tina and Mercedes giggle and text.

She and Mercedes had arrived at Ellie’s before everyone else did and paid for several songs at once. Since they were buying in bulk, their slots would be spread out throughout the next 60 minutes, and they would just have to be surprised when it was their turn. Songs and drinks ordered, they claimed a booth and made small talk about Mercedes’ most recent personal styling client and the karaokers while they waited. It was the early crowd, so the energy was balanced by people going up to sing who were sober enough to actually think they’re good and people in the booths who were sober enough to recognise the singers were just okay.

In the middle of someone’s performance of Call Me Maybe, Tina texted Mercedes saying Kurt would be bringing his brother along, and then Mercedes became buried in her phone.

Luckily Tina arrived not long after. To their credit, they really tried their best to pay attention to her; but they were way more preoccupied with texting Kurt to find out more about his brother. It didn’t take a genius to figure out they were looking forward to meeting him, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't curious. She even considered asking to join the group chat they had going just so she could be in the loop too, but Kurt wasn’t really her type even if he weren’t gay. She didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up in case the family resemblance was strong.

"How much longer until they get here?" Rachel asked just to break up the routine.

Mercedes' phone lit up before Tina's did, and they giggled again. "They just got off the subway!”

“Since you’re going to see him soon anyway, how about you put your phones away and buy me a drink? We are here to celebrate my new gig tonight.”

“If you’re the one with the job, shouldn’t you be the one paying?” Mercedes teased.

“Tina gets a cut, too!”

“Way to throw me under the bus.”

“I’ll buy a drink for whoever wants to duet Dog Days Are Over with me,” Mercedes offered.

“Me!” Tina shouted before Rachel could, and she slapped her hand on the table in complaint. “But my dog days are the ones that are over!”

Tina laughed as she handed Mercedes her credit card. “Don’t worry, Florence. Mercedes will open a tab under my name, and I’ll get your drinks.”

“Not if I get them first! What are we having?” a new voice piped up from behind Rachel.

“Blaine!” Tina cheered, flying out of her seat to give him a hug.

Rachel turned in her seat to face with her Meeting New People Smile #2 at the ready…

… Which dropped as soon as she caught sight of the newcomer accompanying Kurt and Blaine. He was tall—taller than Kurt—with his hair gelled up in a way that showed he cared enough to style it but without trying too hard to be neat. His hands were in his vest pockets, and one corner of his lips was quirked up in a boyish smile.

(I took no time with the fall…)

“Ladies, meet my brother, Finn,” Kurt introduced, and Rachel knew she was doomed.

She should have asked the join the group chat when she had the chance.

~~~

Finn had the feeling that tonight was supposed to be a set-up, and he still wasn’t interested, but Kurt had sounded so serious earlier. As in, he seriously thought that one of the girls he’d meet tonight would be perfect for Finn.

On the subway ride over, he told himself he was just curious. Surely in the decade since they’ve become brothers, Kurt would know his type by now, right? But as he settled into the booth with the people he’d be spending the rest of his evening with, he really wondered what the hell Kurt was thinking.

Sure, the Asian girl had a sweet smile, and the Black girl ended up being hilarious, but the last one…

Whenever someone wasn’t talking to her, she was staring at him like she was auditioning for the lead role in Swimfan, and she had been ever since she first saw him. If he’s being honest with himself, her body was smokin’ (if you're not into boobs), but the intensity of her aura was enough to cancel that out. Besides, he’s very into boobs.

He spent the near-term doing his best to interact with the other two normal-seeming girls, but they kept finding ways to loop in the last girl—ugh, he wished he weren’t so weirded out that he missed Kurt’s introductions—into the conversation.

He knew he shouldn’t have come tonight.

“Next on the mic, give it up for Booth #5 with Take Me or Leave Me!”

“That’s us!” the Asian girl cheered while Swimfan accepted the microphones from the staff.

“Just like high school?” she offered to the Black girl, and they climbed onto the benches with matching smirks, obviously remembering some inside joke Finn didn’t care to get introduced to.

For a split second, he was genuinely confused at the song choice—if Finn was remembering Kurt’s movie-musical lessons correctly, wasn’t this originally sung between a lesbian couple in a fight?—but then he felt relief. He wouldn’t be expected to participate in conversation for the next three-ish minutes. He excused himself to get another beer, seeing that the bar was crowded enough that it could easily be prolonged to six or seven.

The song’s opening piano played, and then he stopped mid-step.

Every single day, I walk down the street…

Just like the first time, just like it did every time he pressed play on his iPod, a singer’s voice made his heart twinge. Sure, this girl was just dueting with her friend, exaggeratedly playing the role of Maureen, singing with a playful overtone to her voice… But there was an undeniable joy of performing underlining her stage presence. She sang the way playing the drums made him feel.

What were the odds that there were two people out there who had this effect on him? And one of them was barely 10 meters away.

The duo finished, but he was still in so much shock that he didn’t notice their other friend had joined him near the bar. "So what do you think?"

Finn didn’t know what part of his emotions he could verbalise first, so he blurted out the only coherent thought he had. "She sounds like Maria."

Tina smirked, not that Finn noticed because he was still staring at a certain happy occupant of Booth #5. "I would hope so. She is Maria.”

He snapped his head to look at her so hard his neck cracked. "What."

~~~

Finn hadn’t stopped looking at her since he came back from the bar, and she was glad for the constantly shifting, multicoloured lights at Ellie’s to help hide how flustered she was. Despite her status as an eligible bachelorette, she’d never had someone return her interest in him before. Not like this, and definitely not this quickly.

“If you're not going to talk to him, I'm going to make you talk to him.” So Tina had noticed, too.

She snuck a glance across the booth and saw that the ‘him’ in question was engrossed in conversation with Blaine, so she felt confident she could respond to Tina without getting caught. “I’m talking to him! Earlier I asked him to pass me my purse so I could get the next songs.”

“Rachel!” And yeah, she knew that wouldn’t count, too.

“What do I even say, Tina?”

“Better figure it out soon because I have a fashion emergency!!” She raised her voice during the second half of her statement so that she could be heard above the noise of the other patrons and the person on stage butchering Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

“Did somebody say ‘fashion emergency’? Mercedes, we need a girl’s room, stat,” Kurt announced melodramatically.

Mercedes grabbed Tina, who grinned at Rachel with something approximating evil in her eyes. “I got her! Let’s go,” Mercedes directed.

The threesome hurried off in the opposite direction of the bathroom. For his part, Blaine didn’t have a shtick, or maybe he didn’t think it was worth it. He just shook his head and said, “Sorry, Rachel,” with a shrug before making himself scarce.

Rachel turned around in her seat to gape at her quickly-retreating so-called friends. “I can’t believe they have the gall to abandon me when we’re supposed to be out tonight celebrating me!” she exclaimed aloud.

“What are we celebrating?” Finn asked from her side.

Rachel whirled in her seat to find that Finn moved to her side of the booth just to talk to her, and she didn’t fight the warmth that spread in her chest. He was direct but not in a demanding way, and she liked it a lot. “I landed a commercial today. I'll be singing a jingle for a second hand car chain up in Westchester.” Pride, understated but evident, coloured her voice.

“No way! That’s so awesome. Congrats… Rachel, right?”

“Yes! Rachel Berry, nice to meet you. And you’re Kurt's brother, Finn Hummel.”

Finn grinned. “Actually, Finn Hudson. We’ve been step brothers since high school, but we’re as good as blood-related by this point.”

Rachel perked up, her earlier annoyance completely forgotten in favour of a conversation with a cute boy and being semi-right. A blood-related sibling of Kurt would not have caught her attention, as she suspected. “That makes sense! I was wondering why you two didn’t look alike, but I wasn’t going to ask.”

“Nah, we’re used to it. Plus, we’ve definitely taken advantage of that before. The mall back home used to host a tonne of sweepstakes, but they always limited one entry per household. What we’d do is just use our actual address but add different apartment numbers to it so that we wouldn’t get caught. No one ever checks! Between our different last names and the fact we barely look alike, we doubled our chances at, like, at least a hundred sweepstakes.”

“Did you end up winning anything?” Rachel asked amusedly.

Finn puffed out his chest with pride. “We won a one-hundred dollar Visa gift card once, and I’ve been chasing that high ever since.”

“A hundred dollars can get you far when you’re in high school,” she agreed with a teasing grin.

“Hey, I wouldn’t say no to a hundred dollars right now either.”

Rachel snorted. “No kidding. I think I spent a hundred just booking our songs for tonight.”

“Passing the mic back to Booth #5, here’s You’re the One That I Want!” the MC conveniently announced.

Finn looked over at her with a smirk. “Ready to get your money’s worth?”

“You sing?” Rachel asked, bewildered and delighted, as she accepted the microphones from the staff. In response, Finn merely plucked one of the mics from her hand and stood up.

I got chills! They’re multiplying…

He didn’t miss a beat. He didn’t even glance at the tv screens positioned on the walls so that patrons could read the lyrics no matter which direction they turned. Instead, his focus was directed downwards, entirely on her. From her vantage point, he looked like a rock star who came to the edge of the stage to interact with the audience, and she was definitely a fan.

He raised his eyebrows at her as his verse drew to a close, and she rose to the challenge.

You better step up! she sang as she hopped up onto the bench. Even with the boost, she was only a few inches taller than him.

Rachel loved performing. She knew it was what she was meant to do ever since her dads took her to watch Annie on Broadway when she was four. When she sang in front of a crowd, it was exhilarating, like Elphaba finding out she might meet The Wizard one day.

Though never once did it feel like this: raw, unfiltered, connective, and yes, electrifying. His voice was untrained, but it suited him. He could clearly do so much more than carry a tune in a bucket, and his power and confidence went a long way in making up for the rest.

His smirk made her smile wider. Was she imagining things, or were they flirting? Sure, there was the teasing push and pull of the lyrics, and then there was the way she caught Finn’s gaze at her hips when she danced. It felt like the end of Act 1 to a show written exactly for her. Maybe it was the song, maybe it was the atmosphere, maybe it was just Finn.

You’re the one that I want!

The song ended to resounding cheers; but for once, the applause of the crowd meant nothing, not when Finn looked at her like he was doing. It seemed like it should be so familiar. She took a step, unsure what she was walking towards but bolstered by the fact Finn did the same…

And the moment was broken.

“Oh my god, we leave you alone for five minutes and come back to the two of you going at it like teenagers at Rydell High?”

The staff took back the microphones; the next song started up; and with one last glance to Finn, she let herself get swept up in their friends’ return.

Despite their obvious scheme to give the two of them some quality time, no one let them have a chance to talk alone again for the rest of the evening. It was almost frustrating, but she was still having the night of her life.

Besides, she had a commercial to sing for tomorrow! Anything else is really just a cherry on top.

It wasn’t until after eleven that they finally left Ellie’s in search of some food. They rowdily descended upon the closest Duane Reade for snacks and sandwiches before exiting back out to the mild Manhattan night, laughing and walking and chewing. The entire night kind of felt like something she could have done in high school (like, if she had more friends and if she actually allowed herself to drink before she graduated), but this was so much more fun anyway.

During a natural lull in conversation, Finn announced, “Ah, I should head back now. I have a long commute to the Bronx and a gig in the morning,” with a check to his phone’s clock.

“Noooo!” Blaine whined, drunkenly koala-ing onto Finn’s arm in protest.

“Stay out a little longer and take a cab!” Tina suggested from Finn’s other arm.

Rachel watched with amusement as Finn gently extricated himself from their grasps, and their eyes met. Her smile turned shy as she averted her gaze… just to catch Tina’s.

She smirked, and Rachel knew she was either going to hate or love whatever came out of that girl’s mouth next.

“Well, we can’t let you go home alone. Girl code, you understand,” Tina explained very seriously. “Rachel, you’re heading uptown, too, aren’t you? You can go together!”

Even as her gut reaction was to decline as politely as possible, Rachel reminded herself that a chance to talk alone with Finn was what she’d been wanting all night. Tina was literally pushing Finn and her together, and all she had to do was agree.

She peered up at Finn and basfully offered, “I can take the 1, 2, or 3.”

He smiled at her, a thin, genuine curve that softened his sharp face into something boyish, and that was it. She was officially in love with Finn Hudson. “I live on the 2.”

They bade the rest of their party goodbye and walked in mutual silence to the subway station, but her anxious heart wouldn’t let her stay quiet for long.

“So, you said you had a gig in the morning? What do you do?”

Finn’s movements took on a noticeable energy from the new topic, and she congratulated herself for choosing so well. “I play the drums! Well, actually, I work in an autogarage full time, but the hours are flexible enough to let me pick up some session work whenever a studio needs a drummer.”

He was musically inclined! She should have known. An image flashed through her mind of a sweaty Finn Hudson with his t-shirt sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, rhythmically beating on the drums in a soundproofed room. “That’s amazing! How long have you been playing?”

“Forever, really. My mom got me a kit when I was, like, seven just so that I’d have something to do at home while she was at work. It was cheaper than a babysitter: if the neighbours could hear me playing—and they could,” he interjected with a sardonic smile, “I obviously wasn’t in any harm.”

She wanted to ask more about his time growing up—based on the stories he told, she had an inkling he and Kurt were also Midwestern, and her sixth sense was never wrong about things like this—but Finn spoke up again. “Actually, uh, I worked on the West Side Story soundtrack.”

She almost tripped. “You did!?” What were the odds?

Finn nodded, and she finally noticed his excitement was more akin to anxiousness. “And, you know, because I worked on the movie, I was able to go to the premiere a few months back, at the Metropolitan Opera House. I wasn’t going to originally, but, of course, Kurt forced me. I, uh… I actually fell asleep,” he admitted.

She wanted to laugh, to be offended, to react at all; but there was something to his voice, like he was walking off a plank towards certain doom. It was only because they had stopped that she could recognise she was holding her breath.

He turned in his spot and faced her straight on, steeling himself to confess whatever it was this conversation was leading to. Rachel offhandedly noticed that she had yet to see Finn’s eyes clearly tonight, always tinted as they were by the party lights of Ellie’s or the penumbra of a nearby streetlamp. They should have spent more time in the clinical lighting of the Duane Reade.

“And then I heard you sing.”

She inhaled sharply.

“I don’t know how to say this, but you touched something in me. Right here.”

Perhaps because of the seriousness of the previous moment, it took Rachel all that she had not to laugh at the poor, earnest, embarrassed boy who put his hand on the left side of his chest. Without really thinking about it, she stepped forward and reached for his wrist. “Your heart’s on the other side of your chest,” she corrected, gentle and amused.

“Oh.” Is this her type? Boys who didn’t pass biology? “It’s beating really hard.”

The longer her hand stayed on his against his chest, the more his words sunk in. “How did you know it was me?” she asked, voice no louder than a distant radio and eyes trained on their hands.

“Tina told me,” he admitted, and she should have known that too. This whole saga from beginning to end had Tina written all over it.

He adjusted his hand to hold hers, and that’s when she raised her attention upwards. “But I heard it myself tonight, when you sang with Mercedes. I would know that voice anywhere, and now I know it’s you.”

He was looking at her again, the same way he did in the bar after their duet. She felt brave enough now, and less inebriated too, to recognise what it was. “Do you want to kiss me?”

Finn seemed to freeze, and she berated herself for being so stupid. She’d always been too much, too fast. Sure, he seemed interested in her tonight; and yeah, they had amazing musical chemistry; but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. What if he didn’t want it to mean anything? He’d try to let her down gently, which would of course just make her fall for him more, before offering to set her up with his friend who would probably be just as handsome but lacking that certain je ne sais quois that made Finn so attractive to her. But Rachel would be too embarrassed to say no, so she’d end up dating his friend, which meant spending more time with Finn but not with Finn, and that would hurt too much. No, she should not date Finn’s friend, even if he offered to set him up with her. There are other guys, Rachel Berry, she told herself, willing herself to cut this shame spiral short. She would find someone else to get over her crush on Finn; she promised herself. Just like Tina always said: It didn’t matter how many no's she heard, all she needed was one—

“Yes.”

~~~

A/N (10.22.2022): Sheeeeeesh, I haven’t written prose in past tense in a long time. It was a good challenge!

I know, I know. We Finchel fans love the “You can kiss me if you want to.” / “I want to.” exchange. A classic! I hope you can forgive me for giving it a facelift for the purposes of this fanfic though, haha. By the way, do we actually know where Sam transferred from aside from ‘some all-boys school’??? For the purposes of this fanfic (Part 2), he’s from Indiana lol.

Thanks for reading; hope you guys enjoyed!

[reel-fear]

NO, PLEASE KEEP TALKING ABOUT WASP,, I love reading people's thoughts on him and his probably wasted potential as a character

YESSSS TY FOR ENABLING ME, now, if Im being honest I dont Actually think Wasp had much potential to be a good character. Or at least a good Rival to Bee. Maybe Wasp could've been a good side protagonist or a one time rival to Bee but Im gonna go under the assumption of 1. Not changing his role in the show [aka being Bees rival] and 2. He's still a villain. And in that I think Wasp was doomed to be bad, From The Start And to explain why I'm gonna take this as an excuse to talk abt why the Other Villains in TFA [mostly] work as great rivals to our cast and why Wasp Doesnt. [And why Shockbee being canon would've been better for the show's writing and Im not entirely joking abt that]

FIRST OF ALL: What even makes a good rival? In my opinion a good rival has to do three things: 1. Make a meaningful impact on the protag

2. Help us learn both good and bad things abt the protag through some sort of connection or parallel

3. Challenge/put the heroes to the test based on their core values beliefs or even just their most prevalent traits.

How do the TFA Villains do this? Well I'll be brief LOCKDOWN VS RATCHET:

I think Lockdown in Thrill of the hunt has to be one of the Best Rivals to a character I've ever seen. This is because of the huge impact he leaves on Ratchet, scarring him forever both mentally and physically and the way he reveals both flaws and good traits Ratchet has. We learn of how Ratchet never lets go of the past and how it's broken him down through guilt and trauma, but we also see how when push comes to shove Ratchet is willing to face his trauma and his past by Facing Down Lockdown. The ultimate symbol of said past. Through this Ratchet grows as a character and becomes all the more complex and interesting. MEGATRON VS OPTIMUS:

This'll be the last example but these two are also fantastic. Megatron obviously leaves quite the impact on Optimus, he kickstarts the entire show and time and time again his evil actions are what call Optimus to act and realize he can be a hero. One of the best things about them tho is the way their arcs parallel each other, in the S1 finale, we see the worst of Optimus as he yells at his crew and acts coldly to them. We see Megatron do the same and it tells us that if Optimus doubled down on seeing his crew as nothing more than tools who when they break are worthless could become just like Megatron willing to break down whoever he feels isn't worth keeping around anymore. Obviously Megatron is the ultimate test for Optimus his schemes his evil plans force Optimus to learn to become a better leader, gain victory through teamwork and most of all avoid the spiral Megatron goes through that has him grow more and more disgusted with his crew. Until he loses his mind in trial of megatron and kills all of them. now let's contrast this with Wasp. WASP VS BEE

Wasp makes little to no impact on Bee's character as far as we see, Bee doesn't really change because of Wasp n thats already not a good start. Another thing is Wasp doesn't really reveal anything about Bee we didn't know. We knew he can be stubborn n oblivious yeah, we knew he can't really talk to people and isn't all that smart and we certainly dont learn anything Good abt Bee as he stupidly stumbles around dealing with Wasp. And the final nail in the coffin is to simply put, Wasp n Bee have little to no connection or parallels through out the show. Sure they're connected by that One mistake Bee was manipulated to make but what does that tell us? Bee was too quick to trust? Bee jumped to conclusions based on his bias towards Wasp not being nice to him? Maybe u can assume those things but the show certainly never even humors those possibilities.

wasp is nothing more than a Physical obstacle to Bee which is bad because a rival should be more than that. Maybe Soundwave can get away with it since hes a minor villain but Wasp is Bee's obvious rival! It's just not good enough to justify all the time we spend with him. And the worst thing is Wasp I dont think ever could have been anything more. The connection he has with Bee is minimal, he only had S3 to be developed and he just has very simple motivations of wanting to attack Bee so if he did anything other than that towards Bee it would be strange and not make sense. However the worst part in all of this is Shockwave standing right there as a character who objectively would've been a better rival and here's why: SHOCKWAVE VS BEE 1. Shockwave's impact on Bee could've been huge, a huge part of Bee's character is his undying loyalty to his friends. Multiple times throughout the show Bee takes hits for his friends/while trying to help his friends [Taking Meltdowns hit for Bulkhead, Taking Star's blaster for Sari and being stabbed trying to go help sari] Bee would take a million and one bullets for his friends so imagine how horribly shocking n baffling it could be for him to find out one of his friends was manipulating him this whole time... What does he do?

2. We could've learned how Bee would react when faced with this kind of situation, when him being loyal to his friends would put him in conflict with his other friends. We could see him struggle and falter grappling with it, but we could also see how great that undying loyalty of his is and see him overcome this.

3. Shockwave puts Bee's core values to the test just by existing. He's a friend of Bee's and Bee loves his friends more than anything but now he's betrayed him and may even be trying to keep manipulating him through all of this. Through parallels we could see the way Shockwave has broken bee and Contrast the disloyal nature of Longarm with the extreme loyalty Bee has.

Unlike wasp Shockwave just by being there could put Bee to the ultimate mental test, making bee question how loyal he should be if theres a chance that loyalty isnt shared, knocking Bee's already fragile confidence down and making Bee question himself n his values. [and he also got established in S2 so thats also way more in his favor] Before Bee could go through a wonderful character arc... what that character arc is? Well forgive me but I have a few ideas

1: If I had to pick the one I think the show would actually go with, I'd say Bee would go through a character arc abt learning that even if some bots out there will abuse n use his loyalty against him, his loyalty is a wonderful trait he has and also abt proving to his crew [and himself] that hes more clever n talented than they think by finding a way to take down Shockwave while being less than half his height. This is pretty straight forward-

2: This is the one I would prefer which would be one where Bee's arc is about how his kind heart and loyalty can change others for the better aka Shockwave redemption arc bby yeah we getting Shockbee in here u knew we would- Anyways, something interesting abt the autobots n how fucked up their culture really has to be, now I dont feel like gathering a ton of evidence rn so Im just gonna say trust me when I say I think Sentinel is the ultimate culmination of the autobot beliefs. He's harsh on the con prisoners borderline tortures them while saying it's just necessary and while he poses as the good guy deep down he's disloyal and far too military focused. So I think it's clear loyalty and kindness are probably not valued traits within autobot society which I think could really tie in with the way Bee has been outcasted from said autobot society his entire life. But bc Bee understands how that feels and is a kind person he always ends up falling in with fellow outcasts like Sari Bulkhead and most importantly Longarm.

And through that kindness n loyalty Bee actually manages to make Shockwave reconsider being a con and destroying the autobots. However Shockwave goes through with the reveal anyways n everyone is like 'see bee being kind n sympathetic isn't good actually' While Bee ponders on whether or not he could ever hurt Longarm after everything they had together and if that makes him even more of a failure than everyone thought. His self esteem at an all time low =[ BUT THEN, at some point in the show Shockwave reveals he can't hurt Bee either and when he considers the possibility that any Autobot he does hurt could be Bee's friends or family he finds he cannot hurt them either. Shockwave at some point confesses this to Bee who is surprised n tells him he's sorry for all he's done and if Bee doesn't want to be "Friends" anymore he understands But Bee tells Shockwave he still cares for him too and they hug it out as Bee's confidence lifts realizing that his strong loyalty n kind heart is all he needs to be considered valuable and the autobots were wrong.

Later down the road I think it would make sense for Shockwave to be massively important to the autobots winning against megatron as Shockwave being willing to help the autobots purely by being given kindness from Bee, would prove to the crew, the autobots [and Bee] he was always more vital to their success than they realized.

N then they kiss onscreen <3

[husbandohunter]

You know ur small predicament post?? you should make a reverse version where s/o is smaller!

A Smaller Predicament [Genshin Impact x Smol!Reader]

Characters: Scaramouche, Diluc, Kaeya, Childe, Xiao, Zhongli, Albedo

Synopsis: Not only did you shrink, you went pocket sized as well!

(A sequel to "A Small Predicament")

(A/n): Sorry for the long wait anon, and I kind of added a twist to the scenario for more diversity hahaha hope you don't mind >_<. And why is Childe the poster boy for this series lmao.

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

Childe

When Childe walks in, he doesn't see you....until he looked down. He almost crunched you beneath his feet if it weren't for your constant flailing of arms and screeching voice. He blanks out for a hot minute as you clung onto his toes, doesn't dare to move an inch because he's so petrified (even though there's nothing to be afraid of??). But honestly if Childe moved right now, he might accidentally flail you to the side and that's the last thing he wants.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU??" He screamed so loud it nearly blew you out of proportion. Seems like he's going to have alot of adjusting to do. Childe is a tall man (canonically the tallest) and he knows how impulsive he can get which is why he bought a handmade dollhouse from one of the Liyue merchants for you to stay in.

Though there's something about your tiny size that makes his heart flutter. With your face so small with a pair of eyes far too big, *clutches chest* "My oujo-chan is so cute" -Childe probably. He won't stop saying them over again and you were growing tired of his gushing reactions. He can't help it. He wants to spoil you rotten. You fit right onto the flat of his palms, the way you just snuggle up againts his finger and he just- swoons, might tear up (bruh).

Toys may be for kids but for Childe it was now his favourite pass time. While you navigate around the wooden dollhouse, he pitches in by moving around the furniture to make it easier for you. Offers to carry you through the rooms like a personal elevator. And please, please let him tuck you to bed. He has to pinch his fingers to grab the blanket. It's so adorable to him.

Loves it when you snuggle up against his collar. He thinks it would be the best area for you to be nearby him since the risk of you getting hit by anything (or him) by accident is very slim chance. Sometimes he pulls up his collar so that you're more comfortable and cradled within. He would have to avert his eyes down rather than turning his head if he wanted to look at you otherwise you'd be hit by his chin and that would hurt.

The poking sensation with you by his neck can bother him since he's veeeery tickilish there. Plus, Childe can get easily sweaty so have fun with that.

You have a feeling that he wasn't so pleased when you transformed back. You might be right. Actually, you are right. He secretly has an extra potion hidden somewhere...just in case.

Diluc

Mortified, his soul just left his body. To think things couldn't get any worse ever since he turned into a child to the point no one took him seriously, now you're literally the size of an apple. Oh god what if his bird suddenly swoops in and gobbles you right up? Or the wrath of the wind comes by, swirling you away towards a tornado. Needless to say, Diluc grew paranoid over your well-being ever since.

Due to your extremely small size, he will ensure that you are supervised by him (except at night where he has places to go). In otherwords, you're slipped into the inner pocket of his coat. It's super warm, you can fall asleep (and feel his heartbeat awww). Diluc doesn't like keeping you in places where people can see you, it would be too easy for outer things to access your tiny form (or maybe he secretly likes the feeling of you in his pocket.)

And he's such a gentleman about it. You noticed how careful he moves among his footsteps because he's worried that you might get dizzy. Diluc guards the pocket at close parameter, keeping an eye on things so he won't bump into them. As if he was treading on thin ice (you even suggested it was best to leave you home but he's too overprotective for his own good).

You're like his little assistant. Diluc does so much paperwork through out the day and although the act was small, he finds it endearing how you would help bring the papers back to it's rightful pile or pushing the ink bowl towards him. Or during his shifts at Angel's Share, crawling around the glass utensils and trying to find a specific wine beverage on his shelf. Of course that only happens when the shop is closed, how is he going to explain to his patrons that you shrank and now live in his pocket?

He dislikes the thought of you wandering too far. It's so easy for you to get lost especially when the mansion is so large.

At night you now sleep atop the fluff of the pillow. Diluc is a calm sleeper so he won't have to worry about hitting into you. However he radiates warmth so you just subconicously roll towards to his face. He usually wakes up with you sprawled over his nose. He can hardly breath (careful, he might just sneeze too).

This all happened because of the experiements you participated with Albedo. Diluc ensures that doesn't happen again. It will take some tencaious effort to convince him otherwise.

Scaramouche

Fuck this guy. He treats you like his new pet, a new toy (though you technically are one). He has this arrogant, smug and sadistic look as if he was a predator looking at his prey and grabs you by the collar before dangling you up in the air.

"Hmph, looks like the tables have turned," he says while toying with your state. You tell him he's just angry because he's short himself and mad that everyone else in the Fatui organization is taller than him. Scaramouche demon face activated. He's about to devour you. (Maybe you should keep your mouth shut this time. Honestly your relationship with him is pretty weird).

His hat is so fun to play with. You'd swing around like Tarzan using the strings that were hanging from it. His head was your playground now which annoys him to an enourmous extent because it makes him look ridiculous. Scaramouche will have a hard time catching you since you move around so much. Climb around him, especially the back of his neck. He'll start wheezing when you tickle him there.

The type to put you in a box but also the type to keep you on his shoulders. Being relied on makes him feel taller (lmfao). Scaramouche seemse to have developed a habit to poke your cheeks whenever he needed your attention and you bit him back once when he pushed too hard that you nearly fell off. Despite your size, your teeth still hurt. He threatens to put you back into the box if you don't behave and the outcome ends with a full out brawl as he tries to grab you again while you run around, pulling the strands of his hair to climb on top of his hat. (This is literally Tom and Jerry wtf.)

After transforming back, he outwardly admits his disappointmen. Scaramouche says it suits you better (when he actually meant that he highly prefers you small). You marked his words, keeping an extra vial for your own entertainment in the near future.

Xiao

Xiao was face-palming against his forehead real hard about this. For the love of Rex Lapis, what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into this time? First it was the child incident, now you're the size of his finger? Good grief, looks like he will have to keep an eye on you from now on but at the same time he's scared to get too close, you are nothing but a tiny mortal in which he would have to double his effort to look after.

He lets you sit at the crown of his head rather than anywhere else. You insisted since it was easier to see everything at a nice distance (plus he's short so you won't have to worry about him bumping into door frames). You noticed that Xiao also has a little strand sticking out from the center (ahoge) and you sometimes grab onto it for stability. Turns out he's quite sensitive there and winces when you pull too hard.

For the remaining week as the antedote was being prepared, Xiao became extremely aggressive over your well-being, he looks as if he's ready to massacre everything in his way...which he did. Clears out the monsters off the path before going on daily strolls with you, you wouldn't have to lift a finger from now on. No one except for him is allowed to hold you unless they're a trustworthy person. You could feel his sharp eyes glued on you like a hawk when walking into the grasp of Zhongli's hand.

You once accidentally tripped into his almond tofu when he wasn't looking and he almost ate you. Turns out being small made his job as your gaurdian ten times harder (especially when you're the clumsy type). If you were to fall off the table, he would have to catch you right? Xiao often bumps into furnitures in the process...ouch!

He's very soft. It's all over his forehead, his mouth, his eyes. When he looks at you, his tense eatures melted away and there's an invisible fondness over them as he cradles you in his palm. The way you snuggle in them is lke the most precious thing in the world.

When you turn back, there's a wave of relief. He was really stressed out you know?

Zhongli

His first thought is to get you as far as he can from the Funeral Parlour before Hu Tao finds you. Who knows what that child might have in mind. Zhongli takes one of his empty tea pots and urges you to go inside, or carries a tea cup with you in it, he likes placing you on objects while carrying you around.

Zhongli realizes that you can no longer use the household items like before so he has to remake them to your standards- especially when he realized he doesn't have the mora to buy you a dollhouse. He improvises. Takes a handkerchief to make your blanket, his cups for your bathtub, Zhongli had to cut the foot into byte-sized too. But in terms of clothes, well he had to make them as well. Living thousands of years would mean he would have lot of experience. Sewing was one of them luckily. But that would mean he has to take your measurements as well. In the end, most of the things he made were dresses since they were alot easier.

You like to sneak in between his shirt and his vest tucked behind the coat he wears. Unfortunately Zhongli doesn't seem to have visible pockets (most likely the reason why he doesn't carry mora either), though if you don't hold on tight you might just slip down his vest and right to his stomach. It makes him chuckle when that happens even if the amount of effort to get you out took more than he thought since his attire is quite complicated to put on. If you really want to climb on him, he'll find a seperate pouch (but realizes it won't be a good idea when there's alot of pick-pocketers in Liyue streets).

All of a sudden he reads you bedtime stories. It's some sort of inner instinct that tells him he's taking care of a child now (he's right though). You realized that his voice was equivalent to a thunder's roar due to size difference. He would have to whisper now.

It will always be part of his precious memories when you turned pocket-sized. Zhongli still keeps the clothing he made somewhere in his closets too.

Kaeya

Amused by this eventful situation. Absolutely thrilled! He's not evil like Scaramouche but this new version of his s/o is both adorable and fun at the same time. You're so easy to tickle, just one poke using his finger against your hips makes you yelp. Sometimes he twirls your hair or taps your forehead gently despite your protest, he's so handsy like always in an affectionate yet annoying way.

Kaeya picks you up and places you among the fluffy comfort of his feathery scarf. You sneezed, the last time he cleaned it was before he went on a mission with the knights. Though you have to admit, it's the best feeling in the world. It's so soft you might sink deeper into the fabric. He likes to put you in places where he can talk to you easily, sometimes on the table while he downs on his wine. Normally you have to take the bottle away before it gets too much, now you have to push it away which he finds very entertaining at your futile attempts.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" you tell him. Since you turned byte-sized, he can't seem to stop playing around. Takes his two fingers and pretends they're legs walking across the surface. You would turn around and he halts, Kaeya sends you his signature grin. When he promises that he wouldn't do anything funny, you would let him hold you. Since hugs are out of the equation, Kaeya gives you his finger instead to wrap your arms around. He can't get enough seeing you like this, things he couldn't do when you were normal-sized. he enjoys your reactions way too much.

His favourite pass time is helping you brush your hair because the hairbursh is too big for you to handle. Kaeya ensure he's handling things delicately but he would love to help style it for you as well. Pretty please? At this point one request turns to another because he's having way too much fun. But it couldn't be helped since you would need his assistance in almost everything so there's really no escaping.

You were so happy when things were normal again but Kaeya would bring this up again during your conversations (how next time he would like to put you in his drinks while you're wearing a swim suit).

Albedo

Legit blurted out if he could put you on a hamster wheel.

What about trying out the little maze he just made?

Or participating in a race against slimes of different elements?

No? Okay, then he'll just turn you back.

Albedo isn't going deal with this as along as he can help it (especially when he remembers what Klee did to him when he turned small.)

[kagakuoniryu]

HELLOOOO

Here i am, AGAIN.

(I'm the person that asked abot the sa thing✨) I REALLY LIKED THAT. I hope that it didn't take you too much time-

BUT NOW HEAR ME OUT-

So, the reader is starting to feel depressed and useless and their reaction to this is that they get dumb, like they stop talking and there's no way to let them vent or anything, and they're in a relationship with a character x (you can choose !!) and it's something that happens a lot. (like monthly depression or something like that) and so the character is used to it and knows how to behave

It would be so cool!! AND HELP I HAVE SOO MUVH HC IN MY MIND 7FCOVR88O

Synopsis :

Reader is depressed and started to feel nupb about everything

Character :

Venti

Xiao

Kokomi

Childe

Diluc

Kaeya

Ei

Scaramouche

Warning :

Mentions of depression and feeling nothing, otherwise comfort, let me know if I have to had something

A/N :

Hi! I'm glad you liked the request I made for you! Don't worry usually they don't take much time when I don't proofread them (and it happen a lot since I can't stay focused for more than 10 min) since you said I could choose I gave some love to my own genshin crush/mains and character I would like to write for I hope that's okay with you, I kinda assumed that you meant numb and not dumb in the way you described it, if that's not the case let me know and I'll remake the request correctly or change this one!

And since there is a lot more character the heacanon will be shorter sorry but I couldn't really choose between them, I even decided to not put some like xingqiu or it would be too much

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Venti :

Venti himself feel depressed, that's why he drink so much alcohol, to not think about it, but contrary to you he mask it with his playfulness, and things started to get better for him since he started dating you

The first time you got your monthly depression he freaked out, since you stopped talking to him he assumed you got tired of him and wanted to push him away

But to his surprise you still spent time with him, you just, didn't talked whilde doing so

He waited for you ti come to him, he may be a bit of a pushover but he know boundaries, and when after a week or two he saw you getting better and talking again he thought it was just a phase, something must have happened and it got better

But then next month it hapoened again, and you got better, and down again

At this point he realized it was just a monthly depression, when it would it you he would just let you know that if you wanted to vent to it he was totally there for you no matter what, but understood if you didn't wanted to, he got extra clingy during this time too, making sure you know you're cared for

He might even go as far as to not spend some evening annoying diluc at the tavern to be with you, and for venti, that say that you have a very special place in his heart

After a few times he becomes really good at it

If I had to rate genshin men on this one, I'd gave venti a 8,5/10 he might not figure it out immediately but get really good at comforting quickly

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xiao :

Xiao is busy most of the time due to the nature of his job, and when he isn't fighting he struggles with his karmic debt

This isn't exactly like a depression, but it's not far from it, and it's not pleasant either

During some of worst day he refuse to acknowledge anyone, even you his significant other and is unable to say anything

So the first time your depression hit you he thought his karmic debt might have tainted you too and he freaked out

He asked you if you were okay first, he didn't wanted to seek out zhongli to check on you if it wasn't something serious

And you wanted to tell him everything you felt, but the guilt of being a burden to him was too much, you ended with a small "I'm ok" and turned back being mute

He was genuinely concerned but decided to wait and see how things evolved

And a few week later you were back to normal, you talked with him as if nothing happened

He was relived but a part of him knew it wasn't over

And he was right because the next month you became your silent self again

He looked at you with sadness, he wasn't great with words, and you didn't talked anymore so he decided to rely on physical affection such as holding your hand or putting his head on your shoulder to let you know he was there

And each morning on your bedside you would find a quinxin (if I write it correctly) on your bedside

Overall a good companion who know how you feel, I give him a 9/10

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kokomi :

Kokomi's life is full of high expectations for her from others

And as everyone she is going to get stressed over it, the fear of not being enough, even more when she occupy a position as important as the divine priestess of watatsumi island

When her energy is at it's lowest she just seclude herself in her little hideout to read a book and sleep a little, just to relaxes

And when she notices you started to feel depressed she was ready for it

Not that she wanted this case to happen, but still, she has a plan for any situation, she had to be ready

So the second she saw you feeling bad she first asked you if you wanted to taok about it, and when you shook your head no she nodded and asked you to follow her

You did as you were told and soon found yourself in a little cave with a desk, a few chairs and a lot of books

Kokomi told you it was her safe space when she felt down, and if you ever feel down again you can come whenever you wanted, not many people knew about this place anyway you would be in peace

So each month, when the depression hit you, you would come there, to read a good book with your girlfriend and sleeping at her side, it was comforting in a sense

I'll give her a 9,5/10 because everyone need a caring fish-girl in their life

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Childe :

First I want to say this : he is the best big brother ever

And what the best big brother would be good at?

Comforting his siblings of course!

Whether it be tonia or teucer he'll do his best to cheer them up when they feel upset

So when he see you upset he try some of his own methods

But unlike his siblings a few jokes and tricks weren't enough to give you back your smile

That's when he make use of his backup plan

He took a week out of his harbingers duties to be with you, all your days during this period are about shopping, dates, quality time

When he see you getting better and got back on his job mbut made sure to check on you through the day

He thought it was over but the next month the pattern repeated, but this time he wasn't able to escapte his duties so instead he propose you to pass the day at his office, and the days would pass with you sitting on his laps ou hanging around with him

If teucer were to be in Liyue while you're in your depression episode childe would send him to spend the day with you

With his little brother as a ball of sunshine you wouldn't feel alone even if he can't be physically with you

Overall 7/10, he can't always make time with his responsibilities but he is trying his best and that's what matter!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Diluc :

With all his paperwork, his shift at angel's share and his daeknight hero duties, I highly doubt he will notice before a few episode over months

I mean yes there were times you didn't talked much, but he wasn't a fan of idle chit-chat anyways, and yes you might have looked more sad recently, but everyone have up and down

It had to be adelyne who avert diluc about your state for him to acknowledge it

But once he does

You aren't going to hear the end of it

Date, gifts, playing chess, you name it he is already preparing it

He can and will treat you as royalty, but he is still busy

But when he saw that what you need is not just being treated nicely but ALSO to have your boyfriend around

For once in a long while et don't go for his darknight hero duties, for your date he started to cancel his shifts at angel's share and now hero dutie's cancelled too

He pick up the hint of a mensual period of depression quickly and each time it hit you he put down everything down to be there

I'll give him a 7/10, as ironic as it his he's a knight in shining armor and he got the spirit!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaeya :

I like kaeya, I really do

But at first he will take it lightly

Too lightly

The first time you couldn't physically talk to him because of your numbness he just smiled slightly and said "oh~cat got your tongue?"

It'll take time but he'll get it

And once he do

Jean will have to forcefully take him back to his office so he can finish his job, he don't care about it anyway, you're more important to him

And if you don't feel well, he is going to help by any means possible

He throw out of the window his night at angel's share until you get better, instead opting for a dinner at good hunter, he don't care you don't feel like speaking, he can speak for hours about the gossip he heard through mondstadt and during his nights searching for information

After a week or so, when you started to feel better, he didn't let go of you immediately and he was right because the following month you felt bad again, he then started to understand it will go by phase and he'll have to deal with it for the time being

He will accompany you during every one's of your episode and never letting go, he love you and won't let you believe otherwise

Even if it mean getting both jean and lisa angry because he isn't as much there for his work than he should

But for him that's okay if it's for the love of his life

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ei :

You only meet her from time to time in her plane of euthymia because she rarely ever visit human world

And the rest of the time you're with the shogun puppet, who might obey to ei, but isn't as nice, or cuddly or who can't even understand human basic emotions

So ei noticed only when you were visiting her, during your episode until now you dealt with it alone, but it hit you when visiting ei

And the first thing the notoced about you is how lost and a shell of yourself you looked

Immediately directing yourself to her you let your head rest on her lap while she gently stroked your head and asked if you were okay

The only few responses she got was different types of grunts and a few nod

She knew right there something was wrong with you because usually, even when something bad happened you used to tell her everything

After going back to your world and your life you were surprised the next morning to find ei at your door

Not the shogun

But ei

She convinced you that since she's here for the day you might share a few dango and sweets together

And since she wasn't a good cook and you were unable to, but because of your sadness, the meals for the day were mostly candy and desserts

Ei promised to be back and until you got better the shogun was ordered to check on you and provide you the things you enjoy doing and eating

Over the month it became a ritual, when you started to feel bad you spent a day cuddling with ei in her plain of euthymia, and the second she came to pass the day with you to make you feel better

Ei even made yae miko promise to tell her if she saw you in distress

I'd say a 7,5/10 ; when she want she can truly be adorable

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Scaramouche :

He is going to be so rude about it

It's canon that he is searching for a heart, so he don't have one, and usually heart are associated with empathy

But he can be nice, with children or elder people

And with you, but right now not really

When he asked you to talk, and you just couldn't tell him what was wrong he started to ask again, louder and louder

And of course the guilt of not being anle to answer to your partner was accumulating and your eyes became glossy even if you didn't wanted to cry

When he saw that

He became silent for a moment

The next thing he did was to sit down at your side and grab your hand

He mumbled about being sorry for raising his voice, it was so low that if the room wasn't silent you wouldn't have heard it

But you did

Resting your head on his shoulder he tensed up before relaxing and patting your head awkwardly

You closed your eyes to be fully in the moment and while doing so scaramouche smiled before placing a kiss on your forehead

During your episode he made sure to not raise his voice in your presence and to make the paperwork part of his job with you either on his lap or in his company

He was definitely relived when you started to feel better, and all the more desperate when an other episode of depression started

But that's okay for him, he has all the time in the world to make you feel better, and he don't mind doing so

I give him a 5/10 because he is a gremlin, but an adorable one

~hope you'll like it!~

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