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daisynik7 · 2 years ago

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A Bento for Kento

Chapter 4: The Truth Comes Out

Pairing: Nanami x f!reader

Word Count: ~3.8k

cw: it gets a tad suggestive at one point, but it’s still pretty tame :)

Summary: Ren reveals the truth. You make some questionable Google searches. Nanami finally gets his ham and cheese sandwich.

Notes: This chapter's bento is inspired by the tasty looking ham and cheese sandwich from Episode 13 of the anime. This is for you, bakery girl, we love you! Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in the next chapter(s). Thanks for all those that have read, reblogged, liked, and/or commented so far! I appreciate it so much.

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It’s Monday, the start of a new week. You’re already awake when your alarm rings, staring up at the ceiling of your bedroom, remembering last Friday night’s festivities.

After you and your brother stuffed your faces at the street food fair, Ren finally told you everything.

He told you about his birth parents and how they were involved with some shady people called “Curse Users”. He shared his thoughts about the unusual circumstances of their deaths and that he determines that they were killed because they were trying to leave all that behind once he was born. He explained how he could see “curses”, which he mentioned was “like seeing ghosts, except they are way uglier and mostly stupid.”

The truth about his lessons with Nanami was revealed; apparently he’s being taught how to exorcise curses. And that this mentor of his is actually a super strong “grade 1 sorcerer”, and not a regular high school teacher. He even described Jujutsu High and how it’s supposedly the best institution for people like him. “I want to become a powerful Jujutsu sorcerer so I can help people and make the world a better place,” he said.

All you could do was listen with intrigue and astonishment. Plus a dozen other emotions you couldn’t really process in that moment.

As you lie in bed this morning, you think back at your childhood. Were there any signs of this back then? You remember an incident when you were walking home together. You took a different route that day and passed by a creepy, abandoned house. Ren stopped dead in his tracks, peering into the windows, as if he could see something. That must have been a curse, right? How about all those other times he would stare at people on the street? Maybe he was focused on the curses, rather than the people. He mentioned how some can linger around humans without them even knowing. You remember this vividly because it creeped you out.

Then, there were those nights after Ren moved in. It was expected that he would still be traumatized by his parents’ deaths. But you specifically remember hearing him cry about “the shadows” and “monsters” while Mom and Dad comforted him. This went on for weeks until one day, he announced at the dinner table, “I’m not scared anymore” with so much determination on his face. You were confused, but your parents just looked at him lovingly and ruffled his hair. No questions asked. You make a mental reminder to have a long talk with your parents once they’re back from vacation. Clearly they know more about this situation than you do.

You’re aware that your brother has some odd quirks, but it’s never bothered you. It still doesn’t. It’s what you love about him. He’s always been your weirdo booger. Sure, he has this morbid side to him, but above all, he is sweet and thoughtful. He marches to his own beat proudly. He’s a good, genuine person. Despite not being blood related, the unconditional love has been there from the start. Ever since your parents brought him home all those years ago, you wanted to look out for him, as a big sister should. Mom and Dad love him as a son, and you love him as a brother. Nothing about his past, present, or future will change that.

The two of you spent the rest of the weekend together normally. You watched movies, baked cookies, and took a few walks to the park. Whenever Ren played videos games online with his friends, you searched the Internet for anything to help you better understand. Googling “what do I do if my brother sees ghosts” did not help. Neither did “how to kill a curse”. You made sure to delete your embarrassing browser history before Ren could see.

All in all, nothing has changed. You just know the truth now.

Does it shatter your perception of the world and reality as you know it? Yes. Is it unsettling knowing curses are out there, floating around and wreaking havoc, invisible to the ordinary human’s eye? Definitely. But at least you know that Ren isn’t getting roped into some pyramid scheme, like you originally thought. And that he’s not joining a cult.

Well, you’re still not entirely convinced that it’s not a cult.

Most importantly, he’s learning how to stop curses and curse users. You can’t blame him for wanting to learn any of this, considering what happened to his birth parents.

You toss to your side and finally shut off the alarm that’s been blaring for the past five minutes, too lost in thought to pay attention to it. Before you get up to start breakfast and prepare the bentos, Ren’s words replay in your mind:

I want to become a powerful Jujutsu sorcerer so I can help people and make the world a better place.

Even though most of what he admitted to you sounds like elements straight from a horror movie, knowing he wants to do good is something you can live with.

~~~

Nanami arrives to the office early on Monday. As he sits at his desk waiting for Ren’s arrival, he recalls Friday afternoon’s mission.

They were sent to a burned down apartment building nearby. Gojo reported that there was a small infestation of Fly Heads that could be easily dealt with, so it was safe for Ren to tag along. A stray appeared randomly as they explored the first floor. Nanami took this as a learning opportunity. He captured it in a small cage and had Ren observe it, all while explaining the different ways to eliminate it. This was also a way for Nanami to confirm that Ren can truly see curses, which he can.

Once they encountered the infestation on the top floor, Nanami had Ren hide in a safe position so that he could observe from a distance. He easily eliminated the curses using his blunt sword, all while explaining exactly what he was doing. Ren was staring at him in awe as he was feverishly taking notes.

They took the Fly Head back to the office as some kind of souvenir. Nanami could tell that Ren was reluctant to let it go, so he agreed that they could keep it, expression giddy as they locked it up in one of the desk drawers.

Nanami chuckles to himself as he opens the drawer to check on the curse, still safely secured.

“Morning, mentor! Is our friend still here?” Ren drops his backpack and stands beside Nanami, observing their new pet.

“Hey there little guy!” Ren coos, wiggling his finger towards the pest. It produces a buzzing noise in response.

Nanami returns to his desk, allowing Ren a moment with his new “friend”. He remembers their conversation before their mission. Ren planned on telling his sister about Jujutsu Sorcery. He’s curious if it happened and how it went.

“How was your weekend?” Nanami asks.

Ren closes the drawer and sits at this usual spot. “Well, I told my sister. About everything.”

“And how did that go?”

“It went well. I said what I needed to say. It felt good to tell her the truth.”

Ren smiles before continuing. “You were right, I should have given her more credit. She freaked out way less than I thought she would. Her facial expressions were hilarious though. But other than that, she didn’t really ask me any questions. She just listened. We spent the weekend like we usually do. It felt normal.”

Nanami recalls the note from last week: Can’t wait to spend this weekend watching movies and baking cookies with you! He wishes he could have tasted those cookies.

“Glad it went well. It’s always nice to be honest,” Nanami says. He thinks about all the tiny notes in his briefcase. He feels a tad bit guilty, harboring this little secret of his, but not enough to reveal his own truth.

They start their lesson on cursed tools and weapons. Once it’s lunch, Nanami brews his tea and buys a Pocari Sweat from the vending machine, the usual cycle. Like clockwork, Hello Kitty is waiting for him on his desk as Ren prepares to bite into…

Wait.

Is it really?

Nanami speed walks to his spot, tearing off the cover to the bento. Inside is a ham and cheese sandwich. It’s slightly smushed, but once he picks it up with his hands, it’s beautiful.

Already knowing the answer, Nanami asks, “What is this?”

Ren finishes chewing and replies, “Ham and cheese sandwich! It’s on some type of French bread. She’s always talking about the bread.” Ren shrugs. “She loves bread.”

Nanami gulps.

He loves bread.

She loves bread.

And she makes ham and cheese sandwiches.

There is hunger and butterflies fluttering in his stomach.

Before he can say or do anything embarrassing, he bites into it. This time, his eyes actually do roll to the back of his head. It’s amazing. The bread has the perfect texture: Chewy crust on the outside, soft crumb on the inside. There is a perfect proportion of ingredients, Nanami notices, as he inspects it thoroughly after his first taste. Creamy mayo and Dijon mustard skillfully spread on each slice. Fresh lettuce and tomatoes sliced thin. Generous layers of ham and cheese, which Nanami can tell are from a high-quality deli.

It's as good as the one he used to get from the bakery.

No. It’s better.

Nanami doesn’t speak, savoring each bite of this divine creation. He’s brought back to reality when he hears Ren’s voice. “It looks like you’re really enjoying it!”

He swallows before admitting, “I am enjoying this. I’m quite fond of ham and cheese sandwiches.” That’s an understatement, but he’s trying to remain calm in front of his student.

“My sister woke up early this morning to pick up all the ingredients. She went to the bakery, a deli, and this little farmer’s market nearby. How she managed to stuff this big sandwich in the bento, I’ll never understand. She’s some kind of cooking wizard or something.”

As Ren talks, Nanami continues to happily munch on his food. He agrees with Ren; she is a wizard for conjuring magic like this.

“Oh! Forgot to share today’s wisdom. ‘To my little superhero, let’s kick some Jujutsu ass today!’” Ren beams as he gazes at the note. “She really is the best.”

Nanami is too excited about the meal that he forgot about the note. He retrieves the cover and turns it over to inspect. When he reads it, his eyes widen with shock.

Nanami,

Thanks for looking after Ren these past few weeks. I hope you’ve been enjoying my bentos.

P.S. Sorry about Hello Kitty ;)

~~~

That morning

After assembling what might be the best sandwich you’ve ever assembled, you take a few seconds to admire your work. Ren comes into the kitchen and stands next to you. “Did you really make that? That’s not from a sandwich shop?”

You flash a bright smile at him and brag, “It was all me! I made it! I bought all the ingredients this morning. I wanted this week’s lunch to be a little different.”

He puts an arm around your shoulders. “You’re the best, sis.”

You rest your head on him. “Thanks for being honest with me, booger.”

“Well, since we’re being honest, there’s one more thing I have to tell you.”

You groan. “Oh no, I don’t know how much more of this I can handle right now!”

“It’s not anything serious, I promise!” He points at the bentos. “I’ve actually been giving a bento to my mentor, Nanami. He never has any lunch with him, so I felt bad and wanted to share. And I think he likes me better because of it!”

You’re surprised at this news. Nanami, Ren’s mentor slash the handsome ex-stockbroker, has been eating your food this whole time? Not only that, but he’s probably witnessed some of the embarrassing messages you’ve written.

“Wait, do you give him the blue bento box?”

Ren grins. “No, he eats in the Hello Kitty one, hehe.”

You slap your palm to your forehead. “So I’ve been serving this man food in a Hello Kitty bento box the entire time?!”

“Yup!” Ren replies, giddy.

If you knew this guy was eating your cooking, you would have prepared a more elevated dish, not egg salad sandwiches or meatballs. You look at the sandwiches that you were proud of moments ago and frown.

Ren, sensing your internal crisis, reassures you, “He really likes it. He even said your egg salad sandwich was tasty. And trust me, that is not a common word in that guy’s vocabulary.” He attempts to place the covers on, pressing down to smush the sandwich in.

“Wait! Let me do my notes.”

Ren steps aside. “Oh yeah! Can’t forget that. It��s my favorite part.” He gives you a big smile. Your brother really is a sweetheart.

It doesn’t take you long to complete Ren’s. However, it does take time to think about the other. The one that Nanami probably reads. Should you pretend that it’s still for your brother? Or say something generic? Maybe a silly joke?

You contemplate for a minute before you decide what you want to write.

~~~

Nanami re-reads it again and again, not knowing how to react. There are several things that stick out to him. First, the use of his name. She knows his name. How? They haven’t been formally introduced to each other yet.

Second, she’s giving him thanks. Thanks for what? He’s just doing his job. He doesn’t need to be thanked. Does it make him feel good? Sure. Does he like it? Yeah. Does it give him butterflies seeing it in writing like this? Absolutely.

Third, she’s aware about him eating her food. Worst of all, she knows that he eats from the Hello Kitty bento box. He should have never trusted that damn feline.

Last, and certainly not least, that winky face. A winky face?! A. Winky. Face.

Is she flirting with him?

He buries his head in his hands. Why is he thinking about this? Why is he flustered? Riled up over nothing? She doesn’t even know that he exists.

No. She does know he exists.

All those times, pretending that those kind words were for him. This time, it actually is. He can’t let this opportunity go to waste.

Nanami glances over at Ren, who is distracted by his phone. Now is his chance.

He gets a small piece of paper and quickly scribbles a message. He sticks it into the empty bento and closes it with the cover, observing it for another good minute before plotting his next move. As nonchalantly as he could, he walks over to Ren and hands it to him, thanking him for another great lunch.

He watches carefully as Hello Kitty disappears into the backpack, praying to the Sanrio gods that she fulfills this mission for him.

~~~

That night after dinner, Ren studies at the table as you get prepare to wash the dishes. “Hey Ren, can you hand me the bentos?”

“Sure.” He sets them on the counter beside you, then goes back to his seat.

Opening his first, you place it in the sink with the rest of the dirty plates. You start to do the same with the Hello Kitty container, but something catches your eye; a piece of paper with words written on it.

You almost call Ren to question him about it, but you stop as soon as you realize that your name is written at the top in unfamiliar handwriting. The rest of it reads:

I’ve licked every single one of your bentos clean. There’s no doubt that I’ve enjoyed your meals.

P.S. Hello Kitty has grown on me, so I don’t mind :)

You clutch the note against your chest, checking to make sure Ren is still distracted by his book, which he is. You study it again slowly, word for word, the gears in your brain spinning faster and faster. After processing what’s written, blood rushes into your cheeks, feeling flustered.

Especially at the word “licked”.

He licked them clean. Licked.

Every. Single. One.

Oh my.

You can’t help but picture it. Kento Nanami, handsome ex-stockbroker from whatever that company’s name is, licking every corner of that Hello Kitty bento box, licking his fingers clean, licking your –

“Hey sis, I’m going to my room!” Ren’s announcement startles you out of whatever ridiculous scenario you are imagining.

“Okay!” you respond, without turning around to face him. You can’t bear to even look at him right now. You listen as his footsteps fade into the background, then a door shuts in the distance. Sighing in relief, you glance at the note again, smiling. For someone who seems so serious, he sure is cheesy drawing a smiley at the end. You secure it in your pocket, shaking your head to remove any impure thoughts from your dirty mind.

Why are you getting so flustered by this? It means nothing. He’s responding to you to be polite, that’s all. There is no hidden meaning behind it. Stop letting whatever girlish fantasies you have run wild. You are better than this.

As you lie in bed that night, Nanami’s picture on your phone in one hand, his message in the other, you realize that maybe you’re not better than this after all.

~~~

Nanami went the rest of the day not thinking about the note.

They finished another successful lesson, said their goodbyes, and Nanami went home. The usual. He cooked himself a nice plate of carbonara with a side of garlic bread, all paired with glass of white wine, of course. He skimmed the paper while he digested his dinner. He showered, changed into a robe, watched the nightly news. Flossed, brushed, and changed into his pajamas. Same routine.

The only difference is that now, he’s lying in bed unable to sleep because that’s the only thing he can focus on. It’s not even her note he’s freaking out about. It’s his. The one he sent to her in a red Hello Kitty bento box. Where he wrote “licked” on it. And drew a smiley. He covers his face with his palms and groans aloud. His embarrassment is catching up to him ten hours later, ten hours too late. If he knew how ridiculous he sounded, he would have never written it.

He didn’t mean for it to sound so…suggestive. He was simply being honest. He actually does lick those bentos clean. He does it after each meal to collect every last morsel from that container. He has no shame in that. But he didn’t have to admit it to her, especially not to the woman who is giving him these feasts. She must think I’m some kind of pervert, he thinks. His cheeks feel hot as he grumbles again.

He’s reminded of the picture Ren showed him last week. Her holding those giant meatballs. That warm, inviting smile on her face. Those cute sushi pajamas. She’s probably a nice person. A good person. He hears it from Ren so often that he starts to believe it himself. He refuses to see her as anything other than wholesome and good.

What was her reaction to it? He imagines her finding it and smiling. Maybe she re-reads it a couple of times and giggles. She probably has a nice laugh. Someone with that smile must have a beautiful laugh.

You’re better than this, he tells himself. He shouldn’t let his imagination run wild. He is a grown man thinking about a woman in sushi pajamas. She is a normal woman who cooks amazing meals and has a gorgeous smile. It’s no big deal.

Yet here he is, in bed, getting excited. His entire body is heating up, he has to strip the blanket off to cool down.

Maybe he isn’t better than this.

~~~

Wednesday morning, after having two nights to think about it, you decide how you want to respond to Nanami.

You scribble your message, add a few hearts in there for good measure, and sign your name.

It’s all innocent fun. You’ll probably never meet each other in real life. What’s the harm in playing around?

~~~

Wednesday afternoon, Nanami sits at his desk, blushing profusely. He pays no attention to the delectable sandwich in front of him. His sole focus is on the note he is currently gawking at:

Nanami,

You had me flustered. I hope you enjoy today’s ham and cheese sandwich. I put extra love in there, just for you.

Three hearts drawn in a row. Then her name signed at the end.

As Ren inhales his lunch in the background, Nanami hunches over his desk, re-reading the words carefully. He even removes his glasses to get a closer look.

So, she doesn’t think I’m some sort of bento box licking pervert, he thinks. Good. That’s good.

She got flustered at his message. Flustered. And she put extra love in the sandwich, just for him. She was thinking of him when she made this sandwich. She thinks about him. This is for him. The note, the sandwich, her love.

Nanami blushes. This is getting ridiculous.

Kento Nanami does not blush. He does not exchange flirtatious comments with strangers, let alone his student’s older sister. He does not get butterflies in his stomach. He does not fall in love. This is all just a momentary lapse of judgment.

Kento Nanami is a grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer. Kento Nanami is a professional. Kento Nanami is a serious adult.

Kento Nanami is alone. That’s the way it is.

Ren’s summer lessons are almost over. And by the time he becomes a Jujutsu High student, he’ll move into the dorms on campus. There will be no reason to ever meet his sister in person. He’s sure of it.

What harm can a little playful flirtation be? This is a silly exchange they’re doing. Two adults having innocent fun. There’s nothing wrong with it. He’s allowed a moment of fun once in a while in this mundane life of his. Right?

He jots something down on a piece of paper and places it in the box. It’s certainly less embarrassing than the previous, he made sure of that.

He sighs as he finally picks up his sandwich to eat. From his peripheral, he notices Ren looking at him, concerned.

~~~

You didn’t expect him to respond back. You were thinking it was going to be a one-and-done type of deal. You didn’t know this man, but you assumed that he is the type to not entertain this frivolous idea.

But here you are, standing in front of your kitchen sink, reading his latest reply:

It was delicious, as usual. I wish you could make this for me every day.

No smiley faces this time, straight forward and to the point. For some odd reason, this tamer response still has you just as flustered as the infamous lick memo.

After you wash and hand dry the containers, you retrieve a small sticky note to write your reply, tucking it in the box for Friday.

~~~

Friday afternoon, Nanami reads the words attached to his lunch:

That can be arranged ;) Happy Friday, Nanami.

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 1 year ago

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The OPM Baseline

It's really interesting to me to look through stories with OP protagonists and see how they handle assorted bits of their story.

The Gamer is about someone whose special power, in a world of gods and monsters, is that he interacts with all the magic systems as if they were a game. Where others have to physically craft things he can do crazy mass-production using a crafting window. Where others feel pain he just sees his hp bar go down. And where others have to go on vague feelings and assessments, he can look at people's status windows to get a really accurate guess of who'd win in a given fight. Between this and his ability to just plain Level Up, he's gotten very, very powerful. I do feel like there are problems with the conceit in terms of how narrowly one has to consider "games" to not have the ability give him infinite power immediately, because in truth games have all kinds of systems and ways the user can interact with them. But for the purposes of this discussion the important bit is he's an OP protagonist.

Thing is, like OPM this series has the camera bounce around to assorted characters - be they the schemers he'll have to fight later, his subordinates and allies, or new characters whose allegiances we don't know yet. One Punch Man spends a LOT of time on these other characters, because an OP protagonist with infinite force has to be presented with situations he can't solve with the application of more force. And it's useful to the comedy to remind us of what the status quo is so that we keep a firm grasp on how far outside the status quo Saitama is.

Jihan Han, The Gamer, is basically just...a whale in the ocean. They kind of blew past the "big fish in little pond" situation, and he's a big power player now, even on the world stage, and others are also huge and powerful, and...Some of the time when I'm reading it I'm unsure what it's for. In shounen battle manga fights represent a clash of ideals. I haven't seen an indication that the wars Jihan involves himself in have the same moral underpinnings. They're just wars, because supernatural forces are at war and he's defending his side. There's not the comical value of OPM, because the consequences are too high and the author's trying to make us feel like he's at risk some of the time.

I feel like the story has gotten wrapped up in its own systems, and unlike, say, Erfworld, those systems don't bear any inherent interest to gamers (who one would presume to be the intended audience of The Gamer) because they're just bog-standard - in fact the idea that all games are "bog-standard" is important to the shape of the narrative.

Bah, got off on a rant.

The point I was originally going for was that it's interesting to me how OPM (and Erfworld, now that I think about it) gets away with spending an enormous amount of time with its main character offscreen, and The Gamer really doesn't. They do it, but they don't get away with it. Even if you're not super into Jihan as a character, it's too much his story and I'm still okay with battles between his dearest friends and their foes, but then...imagine if the Naruto Chuunin Exam arc had included a Kiba vs Ino fight. At that point Kiba's had maybe two lines and Ino we only know as "the other girl crushing on Sasuke who he doesn't care about." The Gamer has this kind of battle all the time. Maybe if I were more up on Korean mythology I'd be getting a Battle of Ragnarok vibe from the fights? I dunno. It doesn't play them up that way, and doesn't do anything to bring people who don't know these characters into the fight. For all its flaws Battle of Ragnarok had an announcer, a narrator, and an in-world audience, any of whom could step in to bring the viewer up to speed on the powers people had, the secret abilities being unleashed, and (perhaps too bluntly sometimes) what ideologies were being pitted against one another.

And you might think Garou vs The B-Team in One Punch Man would have the same vibe as The Gamer or a Kiba vs Ino scenario - we haven't gotten to know them when the fight starts - but it doesn't, because you know Garou even if you don't know the B-Team yet, and you know what he's fighting for, and you get a real introduction to them during the fight itself.

#one punch man #the gamer #webtoon #review

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halothenthehorns · 1 year ago

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Chapter 4: WE PLAY TAG WITH SCORPIONS

"Relax Will," Nico finally said casually enough while Percy ungracefully balanced on one foot. "If what they said bothered me, I'd tell them." As much as it still surprised him Will did it at all, Percy would never stop seeing him as a kid if Will kept this up.

Percy cautiously put his foot down instead of pretending he was a flamingo and began his cautious walk to get the book from Alex.

Will wasn't so sure, Nico spent to much time bottling up everything, the guy was like a pincushion for everybody else to put their problems in.

Percy was wandering back over to his seat with the book like the instance had already left his mind, and he shared why as he read the new chapter title with a wince for getting five minute glimpses into the next thing he'd be dealing with. "Haven't I had enough of these things?" He groaned, waving his hand around so the old scar of his last interaction with a scorpion would have been on display if it was still there. "I really hope I'm not it!"

"I bet they're cheaters anyways," Alex sniffed.

"It does seem a little unfair to you, playing against someone with so many extra legs," Magnus agreed, trying his hardest to mind wave away the obvious deadly aspects of this game like a champ. He was almost succeeding. "Hopefully you don't try playing jax with ambidextrous people too."

"His brother played fetch with a hellhound earlier that week," Thalia needlessly reminded. "It's good to see him branching out, trying new games."

"How do you think ISpy with a cyclops would go?" Jason grinned. "Is his vision better than yours because his brain doesn't have to filter twice as much?"

Percy groaned loudly and started reading.

The next morning there was a lot of excitement at breakfast.

"I didn't realize your dreams were such high class news," Thalia snickered.

"Obviously we all got super excited hearing Nico's alive," Will said as dramatically as possible.

"It's probably because they all heard Quintus beat Percy's butt in sword practice and are all a flutter about it," Jason chuckled.

Percy kept reading loudly over them, knowing full well they wouldn't take the hint.

Apparently around three in the morning an Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. I was so exhausted I slept right through the noise.

"I will never get over dragon or drakon attacks being normal," Magnus sighed.

"And I will never get used to their eyes," Will agreed, those disturbing, yellow, soleless slits.

The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in our defenses, and it didn't seem anxious to go away until Lee Fletcher from Apollo's cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit. After a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon's armor, it got the message and withdrew.

"It's still out there," Lee warned us during announcements. "Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. It's eyes—" he shuddered.

"You did well, Lee," Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Exactly how many times have you guys been attacked by dragons?" Alex asked with intrigue.

"Hey, that's my line," Jason smirked.

"More than enough," Will assured them both. "We have one of those, It's Been Blank Days Since Our Last Attack, signs up on the side of the Big House. Last I saw it, I think it was 37, but Gavin forgets to erase those sometimes."

Magnus looked ready to go into a corner and pray for his sanity to stay intact.

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

The campers murmured among themselves.

Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of us expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that our attendance was down. We only had about eighty campers. Three years ago, when I'd started, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.

Will shifted around restlessly in place. Names didn't always have a face attached anymore, and visa versa. There had just been to many to keep track of, and most hadn't bothered to try. The jumble got confusing, sickening if he tried to think of them all to long.

"You okay?" Nico asked quietly beside him.

"Not really," he admitted restlessly. Percy wasn't a year around camper to know the half of it.

Nico considered for a moment, but absolutely nothing had freaked out Will yet, this probably wouldn't. "There's a list in my dad's realm, of all those who have passed through camp. Would you want to see it?"

"Yeah!" Will grinned. It was an expression Nico was getting used to seeing. He should probably stop that.

"This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"Which will involve scorpions, and tagging," Percy needlessly reminded, but they hadn't been there to see how the excitement from Quintus had made them all a bit uneasy.

"I'm imagining you with a can of spray paint and it's going to be disastrous and awesome," Thalia snickered.

"Yes..." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods."

We all raised our glasses and repeated the blessing.

Tyson and I took our plates to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of our food into the flames. I hoped the gods liked raisin toast and Froot Loops.

"I bet it's Mr. D's favorite," Nico smirked.

Percy sniffed, "He doesn't get a sacrifice, he's right there."

"Do his kids come up and just dump their portion of food onto his plate?" Magnus asked with interest.

"It's meant to be a general offering to all the gods, we try to avoid playing favorites," Will corrected. "Nobody wants Zeus showing up complaining Dionysus's punishment isn't going well if that happened."

Percy shivered at just the thought.

"Poseidon," I said.

"What?" Percy grinned at all the blank looks as he instantly disregarded what Will said. "It's my sacrifice, and my dad is usually the only god I regularly think about, let alone like."

Will still flinched like he expected to hear a clap of thunder in the distance for Percy's usual insolence.

Then I whispered, "Help me with Nico, and Luke, and Grover's problem..."

There was so much to worry about I could've stood there all morning, but I headed back to the table.

"The last time you were at that brazier, you got what you asked for," Jason reminded confidently. "You asked for help, and I'm not sure I believe in the coincidence you got a baby Cyclops for a brother that same school year."

"Yeah," Percy agreed just a little more hopefully than usual. It was true, his dad might be cryptic and long distance to the extreme, but he'd yet really let Percy down.

Once everyone was eating, Chiron and Grover came over to visit. Grover was bleary-eyed. His shirt was inside out. He slid his plate onto the table and slumped next to me.

"Grover needs a nap," Will said with absolute confidence.

"It doesn't sound like he even woke up first," Magnus said in concern.

"Fingers crossed Percy doesn't greet him by telling him how awful he looks," Jason muttered.

Tyson shifted uncomfortably. "I will go...um...polish my fish ponies."

He lumbered off, leaving his breakfast half-eaten.

Percy not-so-subtly readjusted the book and would later deny to anyone who asked the plate had been clean when it was whisked away.

Chiron tried for a smile. He probably wanted to look reassuring, but in centaur form he towered over me, casting a shadow across the table. "Well, Percy, how did you sleep?"

"Uh, fine." I wondered why he asked that. Was it possible he knew something about the weird Iris-message I'd gotten?

"Chiron doesn't know about every Iris Message in and out of camp does he?" Alex demanded. "That's a weird invasion of privacy."

"Can't blame him for keeping an eye on communications," Will uneasily reminded, though it hadn't stopped the spy by any means. It shut up Alex though, for now.

"I brought Grover over," Chiron said, "because I thought you two might want to, ah, discuss matters. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Irismessages to send. I'll see you later in the day." He gave Grover a meaningful look, then trotted out of the pavilion.

"Subtle as a kick to the face," Thalia snorted.

"What's he talking about?" I asked Grover.

Grover chewed his eggs. I could tell he was distracted, because he bit the tines of his fork and chewed those down, too.

"Mixing dessert and breakfast, that's a new one," Alex snorted.

"Nobody can ever accuse these guys of not getting enough of, anything in their system," Magnus agreed.

"He wants you to convince me," he mumbled.

Percy wasn't the only one who shifted his weight around uncomfortably. Why was this all suddenly so important and everybody was gung-ho to talk about the thing clearly terrifying Grover?!

Somebody else slid next to me on the bench: Annabeth.

Percy gazed blearily down at that sentence like he suddenly needed glasses.

"Sometimes I think Annabeth went out of her way to break the rules for you," Will laughed at his dumbstruck expression. "She couldn't have come to you before breakfast or right after, no, she had to do this now."

"Sounds like our girl, why sit on something that needs doing," Thalia agreed with pride.

"I'll tell you what it's about," she said. "The Labyrinth."

"A fancy maze?" Magnus asked.

"It's not a hedge maze is it?" Alex asked with equal parts concern and intrigue.

It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying, because everybody in the dining pavilion was stealing glances at us and whispering. And Annabeth was right next to me. I mean right next to me.

Thalia slammed their beanbags together, then threw her arm over his shoulder and pressed right into his side like they all needed a demonstration, though Annabeth had never had such a shit-eating grin on her face, and Percy certainly hadn't shoved her back away with a roll of his eyes.

"You're not supposed to be here," I said.

"And a good morning to you too," Will sniffed.

"We need to talk," she insisted.

"But the rules..."

She knew as well as I did that campers weren't allowed to switch tables.

Satyrs were different. They weren't really demigods. But the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. I wasn't even sure what the punishment was for switching tables. I'd never seen it happen. If Mr. D had been here, he probably would've strangled Annabeth with magical grapevines or something, but Mr. D wasn't here. Chiron had already left the pavilion.

"Now I'm just imagining Athena showing up and lecturing you and her on proper etiquette," Magnus shivered.

"Or Zeus finally having an excuse to throw a thunderbolt at you Poseidon couldn't get mad about," Jason said uneasily.

Quintus looked over and raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything.

"Nice, you got a cool teacher at least," Alex grinned.

"Look," Annabeth said, "Grover is in trouble. There's only one way we can figure to help him. It's the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been investigating."

"Cool!" Jason blurted like somebody was waving a new dictionary under his nose. "What is that!" They certainly said Labyrinth like it was 'a thing' in the same way they did Mount Olympus.

"Bet you Percy's going to have to have it explained to him," Thalia smirked.

Percy stuck his tongue out at the pair, even knowing he couldn't argue the point.

I shifted my weight, trying to think clearly.

Her hair had still been damp from a morning shower. It had smelled like lemons, a fresh, crisp scent not to pungent. The ocean breeze always came in heavily and had been wiping her blonde hair into his face, and he kept absently brushing at nothing in here now.

"You mean the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?"

"You say that like it's a casual thing people should know about," Magnus reminded.

"I'd offer you my old Latin notes from class, but I think Grover ate them on that bus ride," Percy shrugged. "Basically there was this king, and he pissed off my dad, something to do with a bull I think, and so he cursed his wife to fall in love with a bull, feel free to-"

"Ewww," Magnus was already happily telling him.

"Yeah, that." Percy nodded, "old Greek myths are full of that response. So, he now had a half-bull child as an heir, and he stuck him in the Labyrinth, which was supposed to be the greatest and most complicated maze ever or something and his whole kingdom feared him for it." He finished, feeling rather proud even knowing he'd forgotten plenty of details didn't stop him from giving a very superior look at Thalia and Jason for actually being the one to explain that for a change.

"It's moments like this I really get how you got that C on your test," Thalia shook her head affectionately. He got the highlights anyways.

"C+," he robustly insisted. "Best grade of my life!"

"Exactly," Annabeth said.

"So...it's not under the king's palace in Crete anymore," I guessed. "The Labyrinth is under some building in America."

See? It only took me a few years to figure things out. I knew that important places moved around with Western Civilization, like Mount Olympus being over the Empire State building, and the Underworld entrance being in Los Angeles. I was feeling pretty proud of myself.

"This is the part where Annabeth calls him an idiot?" Jason asked Thalia casually.

"This is the part where Annabeth calls him an idiot," Thalia nodded.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Under a building? Please, Percy. The Labyrinth is huge. It wouldn't fit under a single city, much less a single building."

"Close enough," they snickered together.

I thought about my dream of Nico at the River Styx. "So...is the Labyrinth part of the Underworld?"

"No." Annabeth frowned. "Well, there may be passages from the Labyrinth down into the Underworld. I'm not sure.

Nico's smile was answer enough, and they all had to repress a collective shiver just how many layers were usually under their feet ready to kill them.

But the Underworld is way, way down. The Labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world, kind of like a second skin.

"It's a sewer system?" Alex asked in disgust.

"You are not entirely wrong on that assessment, people tend to shit themselves frequently down there," Nico nodded.

It's been growing for thousands of years, lacing its way under Western cities, connecting everything together underground. You can get anywhere through the Labyrinth."

"Technically anybody can walk anywhere, they don't need a maze to do it, just plenty of time," Magnus said uneasily, clearly knowing he was missing something.

"It's a Mist thing," Will shook his head as he cautioned. "You could walk in at New York, take a right, and pop out at Albuquerque in five minutes, or you could wander in one side of North Texas and pop out on the Mexican border and be gone for a month. There is zero rhyme or reason to it unless you have a guide."

"I'm guessing breadcrumbs won't do you much good down there," Alex, as usual, sounded way to intrigued about something so obviously deadly. Thalia contemplated the Norse kids curiously, and then eyed Jason. They were, different. Did the Mist affect them the same way it did them? Would they need Rachel as a guide?

"If you don't get lost," Grover muttered. "And die a horrible death."

"Technically you can do that anywhere," Nico shrugged.

"What's the most boring place you've heard of someone dying in?" Alex asked as if this were a matter of life and death.

Nico hesitated to answer. He was the one who had said something, Alex maybe wasn't just asking this of him because he was the Death kid...hopefully. He had to think about it for a moment before he offered, "pillow factory? I thought the ghost was kidding about that one."

There was no interrogation, no screaming and shivering he spoke to ghosts. Alex threw his head back and laughed, and Nico couldn't help but smile along. It was still so weird he was treated, normally down here. If Percy hadn't kept reading when he subsided into giggles with his own surprised chuckle, Nico was pretty sure he could have just kept talking about all the strange things he'd said to ghosts over the years and nobody would have batted an eye.

"Grover, there has to be a way," Annabeth said. I got the feeling they'd had this conversation before.

Percy grumbled for a moment, trying not to feel left out this had all been going on without him. The alternative was having to give up time with his mom though while listening to an apparently circular argument, so nothing of this sounded like a win.

"Clarisse lived."

"Barely!" Grover said. "And the other guy—"

"He was driven insane. He didn't die."

"And we have Annabeth, for the technicality win," Magnus groaned as he rubbed his eyes. His cousin really needed to work on her encouragement skills.

"I think she's got the right spirit, all societies have their niche place for the crazies," Jason grinned.

Thalia and Percy exchanged equally concerned and curious looks what on Earth was in Jason's past none of them had a clue about.

"Oh, joy." Grover's lower lip quivered. "That makes me feel much better."

"Whoa," I said. "Back up. What's this about Clarisse and a crazy guy?"

"I assume any guy around Clarisse goes crazy in a not to short period of time," Percy said fairly.

Will made a noise of discomfort in the back of his throat only Nico heard. Something in Nico ticked, a dormant idea he hadn't acted on in...years. He watched Will in concern, he wanted to ask what about that had caused something unpleasant in his mind. Like a normal person might do if they noticed their friend was upset.

Annabeth glanced over toward the Ares table. Clarisse was watching us like she knew what we were talking about, but then she fixed her eyes on her breakfast plate.

"Last year," Annabeth said, lowering her voice, "Clarisse went on a mission for Chiron."

"I remember," I said. "It was secret."

"You only remember because it was secret," Jason rolled his eyes.

"If we tried to keep your homework a secret from you, you might ace it," Thalia smacked the side of her head.

"Don't hold your breath," he scoffed at her.

Annabeth nodded. Despite how serious she was acting, I was happy she wasn't mad at me anymore. And I kind of liked the fact that she'd broken the rules to come sit next to me.

"Magnus, I think Percy has a crush on your cousin," Alex informed him in a grand voice of announcing top news.

"I'm not the one you need to break that news to," Magnus snorted as Percy wavered back and forth in front of them of dreamy, smiling dope and a giant question mark for a face as his brain seemed at war with himself over this.

"It was secret," Annabeth agreed, "because she found Chris Rodriguez."

"That guy from Luke's ship?" Jason easily recalled. He wasn't even a camper, but the sting of betrayal and the gut-punching understanding of why there were other half-bloods on Luke's side was still vivid in his mind.

Will flinched like Jason had slapped him. Chris would loathe that's how he'd be remembered by these guys when all was said and done. Clarisse might decapitate Jason if he ever said that around them. None of which came close to how much that hurt him to think about. Had Luke known he was sending his own half-brother off to die and not even cared?

"The guy from the Hermes cabin?" I remembered him from two years ago.

We'd eavesdropped on Chris Rodriguez aboard Luke's ship, the Princess Andromeda. Chris was one of the half-bloods who'd abandoned camp and joined the Titan Army.

Percy wished his own brain would stop giving discount flashbacks. Having to live through it once had been enough, twice was going to cause his head to cave in. The third blips of looking back felt like salt in the wound, a feeling he wasn't sure he'd experienced outside of this.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near Clarisse's mom's house."

"I have, so many questions," Jason admitted. Clarisse was a year around Camper, how had her mom contacted her to tell her this? Why did it feel so on point the desert was her home? What the heck were the odds of that?

"You won't be getting many answers," Percy already said in exasperation. If he ever got one answer out of anybody he considered it a success.

"What do you mean he just appeared?"

"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string."

"None of that makes anybody inherently crazy," Alex sniffed. "People have their own hobbies."

"I think I'll stick to skateboarding," Percy said.

"String," I said.

"He'd been driven completely insane. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men have been exploring the Labyrinth."

The feeling of sandpaper being rubbed over their face would have hurt less. Wasn't Luke's whole argument the gods didn't care about their kids enough? And then here was this guy, who'd apparently been driven mad and abandoned by whatever Luke was up to.

Percy's anger was trying to shake loose inside him at it all. The last three times he'd faced Luke, he hadn't been able to do a thing to him. He owed Luke a good ass kicking just for the principle of his stupid, defective army all being hypocrites and monsters!

I shivered, though I wasn't exactly sure why.

"The idea of being out of your mind, alone, in a desert, is enough to make anyone shiver," Will assured.

"Let alone the string," Jason added dubiously.

Poor Chris...he hadn't been a bad guy. What could've driven him mad? I looked at Grover, who was chewing up the rest of his fork.

"I can see how that would make someone a little confused about the world," Magnus raised his hand in agreement. He'd never seen it in person and it made his brain hurt a little to imagine it, as well as his jaw.

Percy snickered at the doofus, breaking a bit of the tension.

"Okay," I asked. "Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"

"We weren't sure," Annabeth said. "That's why Clarisse went on a scouting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed up because he didn't want anyone panicking. He got me involved because...well, the Labyrinth has always been one of my favorite subjects. The architecture involved—" Her expression turned a little dreamy. "The builder, Daedalus, was a genius.

"I think I found Annabeth's role model," Magnus snorted.

The troubled look on Nico's face practically telegraphed the message that wasn't going to stay a great thing.

But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."

"Except it's a maze, right?"

"Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."

"What was that last one?" Thalia grinned.

"Illusions, very tricky, but some mortals can pull those off," Percy said innocently.

"Surely he meant the dead ends. I guess he's not a fan of cul-de-sacs." Jason smirked, before they burst out laughing.

"But not if you had Ariadne's string," Annabeth said. "In the old days, Ariadne's string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a navigation instrument of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris Rodriguez was mumbling about string."

"So Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," I said. "Why? What's he planning?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't know. I thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make any sense. The closest entrances Clarisse found were in Manhattan, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders.

"She just said there are entrances all over the place," Jason protested. "My first thought would be this camp having a backdoor."

Percy shivered, and Will tried his best to laugh off, "right, yeah, kids just fall off the face of Camp in one spot and we never noticed." Which did nothing to erase the dubious looks he got as that seemed exactly what was happening around there.

Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but...it was very dangerous. She had some close calls. I researched everything I could find about Daedalus. I'm afraid it didn't help much. I don't understand exactly what Luke's planning, but I do know this: the Labyrinth might be the key to Grover's problem."

It took a second for their brains to rewire back to what had started this conversation.

"How could a god be lost in a maze?" Magnus shook his head. "Let alone a nature god? Mazes are, um, natural. Kind of?"

"But this maze isn't," Alex reminded with interest. "Annabeth said Daedalus made it? Some powerful Greek architect that made his own living, deadly maze. If a nature god got sucked in that, it would explain why nobody ever found him."

"How did the Minotaur get out though?" Jason frowned.

"Monsters don't respawn where they're most popular," Nico shook his head. "He was killed by Theseus in the Labyrinth, when he came back out of Tartarus, he could have wound up anywhere."

Percy was getting a bull sized headache trying to follow along with them like his mind was trapped in its own maze of where one thought ended and another began that wouldn't make any sense.

I blinked. "You think Pan is underground?"

"It would explain why he's been impossible to find."

Grover shuddered. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!"

"That just sounds like a regular Tuesday at a the dentists office." Magnus shrugged. Everything there was plastic and fake. Even if he was right, the others still gave him a strange look for it.

"Proving my point," Alex said in exasperation. "Obviously nobody's found him in the place they haven't looked yet!"

"But," Annabeth said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, trick you and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work for you—"

"It could lead you to the wild god," I said.

"I can't do it." Grover hugged his stomach. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."

"I can't even blame him after his time as a betrothed," Percy said, but his mind was a blank on any other way for him.

"Whatever happened about Cloudcroft?" Jason wheedled. "Maybe there's an entrance there and Grover's just got to get a shovel to help Pan get out?"

"Or he was just passing under there lost and could be in Connecticut by the time that pig showed up," Percy said with only the vaguest of confidence that's how that place worked.

"Grover, it may be your last chance," Annabeth said. "The council is serious. One week or you learn to tap dance!"

"At least he wouldn't have to buy those expensive shoes," Magnus grinned weakly. "His hooves probably pass as those in the Mist more often than not."

"I really hope the Mist works on me just so I can experience that life," Alex chuckled.

Over at the head table, Quintus cleared his throat. I got the feeling he didn't want to make a scene, but Annabeth was really pushing it, sitting at my table so long.

Thalia shook her head affectionately at her little sister. She'd always been doing her own thing no matter what anybody wanted of her, and if she hadn't said her peace, Quintus would have had to use Mrs. O'Leary to drag her away.

"We'll talk later," Annabeth squeezed my arm a little too hard. "Convince him, will you?"

She returned to the Athena table, ignoring all the people who were staring at her.

"The girls a bit of an icon for that," Alex grinned.

Magnus had a troubling moment realizing how well Alex and Annabeth might get along and what chaos that would bring.

Grover buried his head in his hands. "I can't do it, Percy. My searcher's license. Pan. I'm going to lose it all. I'll have to start a puppet theater."

"A tap dancing puppet theater," Will looked pretty interested. "Think he'd still consider that nowadays?"

"I feel like that falls into plan L no matter how this worked out for him," Percy shrugged.

"Don't say that! We'll figure something out."

He looked at me teary-eyed. "Percy, you're my best friend. You've seen me underground. In that Cyclops's cave. Do you really think I could..."

His voice faltered. I remembered the Sea of Monsters, when he'd been stuck in a Cyclops's cave. He'd never liked underground places to begin with, but now Grover really hated them. Cyclopes gave him the creeps, too. Even Tyson...Grover tried to hide it, but Grover and I could sort of read each other's emotions because of this empathy link between us. I knew how he felt. Grover was terrified of the big guy.

"I have to leave," Grover said miserably. "Juniper's waiting for me. It's a good thing she finds cowards attractive."

"See, now was that so hard," Percy at least finally felt a sense of relief even as miserable as he'd been watching Grover abjectly go off. "Finally, an explanation!"

"All it took was Annabeth breaking the rules and Grover nearly throwing up silverware," Will shrugged, "it's no wonder they were putting it off.

After he was gone, I looked over at Quintus. He nodded gravely, like we were sharing some dark secret. Then he went back to cutting his sausage with a dagger.

"I seriously need this guy's backstory," Jason muttered. That really wasn't even in the top one hundred weirdest things they'd yet heard someone doing in these books, but the guy still struck him as odd the more he was mentioned around camp.

In the afternoon, I went down to the Pegasus stables to visit my friend Blackjack.

Yo, boss! He capered around in his stall, his black wings buffeting the air.

Ya bring me some sugar cubes?

"You know those aren't good for you, Blackjack."

Yeah, so you brought me some, huh?

I smiled and fed him a handful.

"Percy, the other pegasus are going to think you have a favorite," Thalia tried and failed at a scold.

"I love all of them equally," Percy said at once, before he blushed and even glanced at his hand like he was hoping their names were written down there before he gave it up and loudly kept reading.

Blackjack and I went back a long way. I sort of helped rescue him from Luke's demon cruise ship a few years ago,

"Your memory sure likes to exaggerate just how little you were involved in that," Nico smirked. "Last time you swore you had practically nothing to do with it, now you're saying you sort of helped."

"I don't know what you're talking about, you said the same thing twice," Percy insisted with a straight face.

Will fought hard to hide a laugh behind his hand and he failed miserably as he said, "he's probably going to go back to camp and tell everybody how he only mildly tried to kill us accidentally a few times."

"You say that like it's a lie," Percy insisted around a guilty wince.

and ever since, he insisted on repaying me with favors.

So we got any quests coming up? Blackjack asked. I'm ready to fly, boss!

I patted his nose. "Not sure, man. Everybody keeps talking about underground mazes."

Blackjack whinnied nervously. Nuh-uh. Not for this horse! You aint gonna be crazy enough to go in no maze, boss. Are ya? You'll end up in the glue factory!

"You may be right, Blackjack. We'll see."

"Such concern for your own life and that of glue factories," Jason shook his head. "Tell me again how you've lived this long?"

"If you want to go back and reread them, more power to you," Percy said in exasperation, only sort of proving Jason's point Percy's own mortality seemed like a blip to him.

Blackjack crunched down his sugar cubes. He shook his mane like he was having a sugar seizure. Whoa! Good stuff! Well, boss, you come to your senses and want to fly somewhere, just give a whistle. Ole Blackjack and his buddies, we'll stampede anybody for ya!

Alex sighed with envy like he was over there imagining what he'd do with a group of pegasi who would stampede anybody on a whistle.

...Actually, they all knew that's exactly what he was doing. The real question was who the first victim would be.

I told him I'd keep it in mind. Then a group of younger campers came into the stables to start their riding lessons, and I decided it was time to leave. I had a bad feeling I wasn't going to see Blackjack for a long time.

"I hate your bad feelings," Jason decided. "They're usually right."

"And they don't even come in handy since they can't be more specific," Percy agreed.

That night after dinner, Quintus had us suit up in combat armor like we were getting ready for capture the flag, but the mood among the campers was a lot more serious. Sometime during the day the crates in the arena had disappeared, and I had a feeling whatever was in them had been emptied into the woods.

"And we missed the glorious details of how that happened," Alex sighed. "Did somebody get a forklift? Did somebody get Mrs. O'Leary into a harness and drag them off? What's a scorpion's natural predator?"

"Um, owls," Magnus said, barely missing a beat.

"Did somebody dress up as a giant owl and chase the scorpions into the forest?" Alex concluded with the ASL gesture for thank you at him.

"I guess we were all distracted in arts and crafts to ask," Percy chuckled.

"The chapter title kind of ruined the big surprise they were scorpions," Will looked a little pouty about spoilers.

"Better than dreading they were something worse, like dragons," Magnus shook his head.

"That's because you haven't seen the scorpions yet," Thalia muttered.

"Right," Quintus said, standing on the head dining table. "Gather 'round."

He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost.

Nico couldn't help a small laugh of surprise at Percy casually mentioning that, and he didn't even make it sound like a bad thing.

Percy gave him a hesitant grin that still screamed of awkwardness.

Mrs. O'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

"How all ghosts should be depicted, with their loving, lifelong companions," Will grinned.

"You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced. When everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, he yelled: "Which have already been chosen!"

"And here I thought he was fun," Alex huffed.

"Please tell me he isn't going to be one of those guys to pair up people who hate each other just to work on teamwork," Magnus agreed with distaste.

Jason was bouncing up and down in his seat like he'd partner with a scorpion to kill other scorpions to get the game going.

"AWWWWW!" everybody complained.

"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course...you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

"You know what would be a better way to stay alive," Magnus said pragmatically. "Not going into a forest with giant scorpions!"

"But then you'd have even less chance of survival if you faced one outside of camp," Will reminded patiently.

Magnus looked stumped, and then very displeased about it.

The crowd started murmuring excitedly. The task sounded pretty straightforward. Hey, we'd all slain monsters before. That's what we trained for.

"I will now announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."

"Aroooof!" Mrs. O'Leary buried her face in a plate of pizza.

"I wish I was attacked by her when I complained," Alex snickered.

"With pizza breath," Nico nodded.

Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. Beckendorf would be with Silena Beauregard, which Beckendorf looked pretty happy about.

"I'm now wondering if this whole Quintus choosing the partner's thing was done just to stop a war from breaking out over that," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"I think he just did it for that weirdly fascinating, brain-melting team up," Percy offered, the oddity that children of Hephaestus and Aphrodite were working together after all the awkwardness of their parent's mere existence easily trumped the ants crawling around in his brain for anything else he should have been thinking of this moment.

The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, would be together. No surprise. They did everything together.

"So they should be split up," Magnus raised a brow like Will had done this himself. "Better real-world practice in case they're not joined at the hip."

"You are not wrong," Will nodded, deciding against mentioning he would have volunteered in a heartbeat. He'd been with Katie though, and that had been a very fun, romantic, deadly trip while it lasted. He'd only been able to delude himself it was intentional on her part until she started regaling him with questions of what Connor might think of this or that and he'd wanted to feed her to a scorpion himself by the end of the night. He'd healed her broken ankle without to much of a fuss though.

Clarisse was with Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin—melee and ranged combat combined, they would be a tough combo to beat.

"If they work together and don't kill each other," Nico pointed out with only mild concern.

"Don't underestimate Clarisse's willingness to win partnered with anyone," Will chuckled, he'd had seven teams in the infirmary that night from this pair alone.

Quintus kept rattling off the names until he said, "Percy Jackson with Annabeth Chase."

"Nice." I grinned at Annabeth.

"Your armor is crooked" was her only comment, and she redid my straps for me.

The burst of laughter around the room turned Percy's sigh into a reluctant chuckle of his own. She'd practically sat on his lap at breakfast and was right back to this by nightfall. He touched his face again where her hair had been whipping around and wondered if she'd given him whiplash.

"Grover Underwood," Quintus said, "with Tyson."

"Why are they playing at all?" Magnus asked in surprise. "The satyrs haven't been mentioned doing so before, and Tyson is kind of a guest, right?"

"Camp spirit?" Thalia shrugged, "same reason the Hunters play when we visit."

"Shhh," Jason shushed them and leaned forward eagerly in his seat, his mind full of every detail he'd collected on who had the best chances of winning this.

Grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "What? B-but—"

"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy—"

"No complaining!" Quintus ordered.

Alex mimicked a hellhound bark to emphasize the point. He did a weirdly good impression of one too. All he was missing was the pizza face.

"Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!"

Tyson and Grover both looked at me pleadingly. I tried to give them an encouraging nod, and gestured that they should move together. Tyson sneezed. Grover started chewing nervously on his wooden club.

"They'll be fine," Annabeth said. "Come on. Let's worry about how we're going to stay alive."

"Are you sure she didn't say win?" Alex mock-cleaned out his ears.

"She could have said how to stay astrive, it was pretty windy," Percy shrugged.

It was still light when we got into the woods, but the shadows from the trees made it feel like midnight. It was cold, too, even in summer. Annabeth and I found tracks almost immediately—scuttling marks made by something with a lot of legs. We began to follow the trail.

Magnus sighed and repressed the urge to wonder if he was the only sane one who thought that was still a bad idea.

We jumped a creek and heard some twigs snapping nearby. We crouched behind a boulder, but it was only the Stoll brothers tripping through the woods and cursing. Their dad was the god of thieves, but they were about as stealthy as buffaloes.

"We all have our strengths," Will said cheerfully. "They have the best sleight of hand and can pick any lock you give them, plus the best traps you can think of."

"They'll just break anything coming in and out of the store they're stealing from," Percy rolled her eyes, "I always thought that was on purpose."

Once the Stolls had passed, we forged deeper into the west woods where the monsters were wilder. We were standing on a ledge overlooking a marshy pond when Annabeth tensed. "This is where we stopped looking."

It took me a second to realize what she meant. Last winter, when we'd given up hope of finding him, Grover, Annabeth, and I had stood on this rock, and I'd convinced them not to tell Chiron the truth: that Nico was a son of Hades. At the time it seemed the right thing to do. I wanted to protect his identity. I wanted to be the one to find him and make things right for what had happened to his sister. Now, six months later, I hadn't even come close to finding him. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Nico started tapping his foot uneasily on the ground, like he still expected it to give way beneath him anywhere he stayed to long. The fact that he'd ever crossed Percy's mind had been more than he'd ever thought to ask for at this point.

"I saw him last night," I said.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

I told her about the Iris-message. When I was done, she stared into the shadows of the woods. "He's summoning the dead? That's not good."

"What did you expect him to do with his sudden abundance of free time, go to Vegas?" Alex snorted. "He's coming into his own powers just like Percy now rescues sea life."

"He shouldn't have been doing it alone," Percy insisted. "He should have been at camp figuring it all out."

"You kept his secret for a reason Percy, he wouldn't be able to practice all of his strengths there like you can freely do," Alex challenged.

Nico was pressed fully back into his seat and wishing the conversation about him would stop now! He gave Will a pleading look and even a nudge, waving his hand for him to do his thing this time, and he happily obliged. "You guys are trying to distract from who won and I won't let you!"

They broke off while still giving each other grumpy side eyes. Nico gave him a relieved smile and mouthed thanks, while personally thinking it was kind of cool he could activate Will's ability to do that without a word.

"The ghost was giving him bad advice," I said. "Telling him to take revenge."

"Yeah...spirits are never good advisers they've got their own agendas. Old grudges. And they resent the living."

"And she's an expert on this?" Jason asked more for clarification than trying to disagree.

"She's done her research," but there wasn't a lot of confidence in Thalia's answer. The Hunters interacted with spirits sparsely, the dead had a concerning tendency to pop up on ancient ground where the oldest monsters liked to roam. As far as she knew Annabeth had even less hands-on experience.

"He's going to come after me," I said. "The spirit mentioned a maze."

She nodded. "That settles it. We have to figure out the Labyrinth."

"Oh, so that's what settled it?" Will asked with his arm casually over the back of the couch again. "Not the thought of finding Grover's lifelong ambition, the Great God Pan, not the threat of how Luke might use the Labyrinth to get into camp. No, it was figuring out what Nico was doing with spirits in the Labyrinth. I always wondered what the tipping point was."

"We have got to work on your sarcasm Will, it needs more," Nico waved his fingers around for emphasis while trying his hardest not to blush.

Will was just smiling casually as he said, "who said I was being sarcastic?"

Nico seemed struck dumb, and Percy once again felt like a miserable failure as he looked at this guy who always seemed in awe anybody even bothered to talk to him.

"Maybe," I said uncomfortably. "But who sent the Iris-message? If Nico didn't know I was there—"

A branch snapped in the woods.

"Stupid, convenient, branches," Jason huffed. He'd have liked a chance to theorize on that!

Dry leaves rustled. Something large was moving in the trees, just beyond the ridge.

"That's not the Stoll brothers," Annabeth whispered.

Together we drew our swords.

We got to Zeus's Fist, a huge pile of boulders in the middle of the west woods. It was a natural landmark where campers often rendezvoused on hunting expeditions, but now there was nobody around.

"Over there," Annabeth whispered.

"No, wait," I said. "Behind us."

It was weird. Scuttling noises seemed to be coming from several different directions.

"A pack of wolves can change the tones of their howls to give the impression that there are more around than there really are," Jason grinned. "I don't suppose scorpions can do something similar," he finished with a snicker.

"You sound way to excited over there about random facts more than us almost dying," but Percy was shaking his head with a smile all the same for him and his not really useful 'advice.'

We were circling the boulders, our swords drawn, when someone right behind us said, "Hi."

Alex mock startled in his seat, hand waves and all, and then rubbed his chest. "Geez, might as well have shouted boo at us."

"I wouldn't discount a monster being there just because it starts with hello," Percy said, but he was studying the book with slightly less trepidation than before.

We whirled around, and the tree nymph Juniper yelped.

"That's such a pretty name," Magnus grinned. "What's a juniper?"

"A tree," Percy shrugged.

Thalia smacked him and said, "a coniferous tree, the female plants produce berry-like cones-"

"Okay Lieutenant of Greenpeace," Percy groaned.

"Put those down!" she protested. "Dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?"

"Then she should stay away from her own needle leaves," Will shook his head, he'd had one to many instances of kids trying to pluck the berries and realizing to late why that was a bad idea even before the nymph popped out.

"Juniper," Annabeth exhaled. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here."

I lowered my sword. "In the boulders?"

Percy could feel the strange looks he was getting, and looked around to ask, "what? Wouldn't it be weirder if I knew where her tree was?"

"Fair," Thalia snorted, "but you're still an idiot."

She pointed toward the edge of the clearing. "In the juniper. Duh."

It made sense, and I felt kind of stupid. I'd been hanging around dryads for years, but I never really talked to them much. I knew they couldn't go very far away from their tree, which was the source of life. But I didn't know much else.

"Are you guys busy?" Juniper asked.

"Well," I said, "we're in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die."

"We're not busy," Annabeth said.

"Sums it all up, yeah," Magnus rolled his eyes. He felt like it would take an act of setting Grover on fire for any of these guys to admit what an emergency was.

"What's wrong, Juniper?"

Junper sniffled. She wiped her silky sleeve under her eyes. "It's Grover. He seems so distraught. All year he's been out looking for Pan. And every time he comes back, it's worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree."

"Took this boy how long to get with a lovely girl?" Alex shook his head. "Nah, I'm sure his grandaddy goat had plenty of good advice on how to treat um right."

"No," Annabeth said as Juniper started crying. "I'm sure that's not it."

"He had a crush on a blueberry bush once," Juniper said miserably.

"We've all had that crush," Will said saintly. "It fades when we meet the real apple of our eye."

Nico mock-gagged over the sofa. "Please tell me you came up with that on the spot, because I might really throw up if you've been saving that line for Katie."

"I did just come up with that, yes," he smoothly lied.

"Juniper," Annabeth said, "Grover would never even look at another tree. He's just stressed out about his searcher's license."

"He can't go underground!" she protested. "You can't let him."

Annabeth looked uncomfortable. "It might be the only way to help him; if we just knew where to start."

"Ah." Juniper wiped a green tear off her cheek. "About that..."

Another rustle in the woods, and Juniper yelled, "Hide!"

Jason was tapping his temple like he hoped it was glitching. "Really? Now we're being teased by a tree? Is it really so impossible for anybody to actually say what they showed up to say?"

"I'm kind of on Juniper's side, she clearly had some stress to get out about Grover first, it was just bad timing," Magnus sympathized.

Before I could ask why, she went poof into green mist.

Annabeth and I turned. Coming out of the woods was a glistening amber insect, ten feet long, with jagged pincers, an armored tail, and a stinger as long as my sword. A scorpion.

"Remember Percy, the scorpions are It, and you do not want to get tagged," Alex grinned.

"I'll keep that in mind man," he promised.

Tied to its back was a red silk package.

"Don't you just love it when the monsters come to you," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Speak for yourself," Will shivered, that stupid scorpion had given him a heart attack and Katie had broken her ankle pushing him out of the way. They would have been toast if Beckendorf and Silena hadn't shown up.

"One of us gets behind it," Annabeth said, as the thing clattered toward us. "Cuts off its tail while the other distracts it in front."

"I'll take point," I said. "You've got the invisibility hat."

She nodded. We'd fought together so many times we knew each other's moves. We could do this, easy.

"Jinxed."

Percy sighed and didn't bother to glare at any of them, but man did he wish his gut would, for once, stop telling him they were right.

But it all went wrong when the other two scorpions appeared from the woods.

"I think we should start splashing holy water at you or something," Magnus was looking him up and down in concern. "How can anyone's luck be this bad?"

"Not until the Pope can turn the whole ocean," Percy rolled his eyes, but he was considering wearing a horseshoe on his head or something for the time being. This really was a new low, even for him.

"Three?" Annabeth said. "That's not possible!

"Not probable," Jason shook his head. "You guys define what's possible."

"Look Jason, it's your favorite number," Percy huffed, resisting the urge to smack him over the head with the book. Why did everybody need to keep reminding him he was lucky to be alive and Annabeth might not be?!

The whole woods, and half the monsters come at us?"

I swallowed. One, we could take. Two, with a little luck. Three? Doubtful.

The scorpions scurried toward us, whipping their barbed tails like they'd come here just to kill us.

"That, or this was their secret meeting place to swap the winning laurels and you rudely interrupted," Alex offered.

"Either way doesn't help," Percy sighed.

Annabeth and I put our backs against the nearest boulder.

"Climb?" I said.

"No time," she said.

She was right. The scorpions were already surrounding us. They were so close I could see their hideous mouths foaming, anticipating a nice juicy meal of demigods.

Nico scratched at his nose, feigning disinterest on Percy and Annabeth saving the day again with another amazing plan to kill the monsters, as he instead wondered if he could find a monster to ask what they'd taste like.

"Look out!" Annabeth parried away a stinger with the flat of her blade. I stabbed with Riptide, but the scorpion backed out of range. We clambered sideways along the boulders, but the scorpions followed us. I slashed at another one, but going on the offensive was too dangerous. If I went for the body, the tail stabbed downward. If I went for the tail, the thing's pincers came from either side and tried to grab me. All we could do was defend, and we wouldn't be able to keep that up for very long.

"Tactical retreat time," Thalia was tapping an arrow on her knee. She knew everything worked out fine, and yet she'd still never like the idea of these two being pinned down against the odds.

"Tactical retreat time," Jason repeated, flipping his coin between his fingers and highly frustrated the win was right in their grasp if they could just have a moment to breathe and plan.

I took another step sideways, and suddenly there was nothing behind me.

It was a crack between two of the largest boulders, something I'd passed by a million times, but...

"In here," I said.

Annabeth sliced at a scorpion then looked at me like I was crazy. "In there? It's too narrow."

"I'll cover you. Go!"

She ducked behind me and started squeezing between the two boulders.

Then she yelped and grabbed my armor straps,

"It's a good thing she straightened those out for me," Percy muttered, adjusting his shoulder like some part of him still expected to feel her weight taking her with him.

and suddenly I was tumbling into a pit that hadn't been there a moment before. I could see the scorpions above us, the purple evening sky and the trees, and then the hole shut like the lens of a camera, and we were in complete darkness.

Nico studied Percy like he was looking for the lie, even knowing he'd never done such a thing through his memories, or probably ever. He'd never realized this is how Percy found the Labyrinth, the same way he had.

He'd been running back to this stupid moment where he'd first let everyone down and Zoe had come in and taken the flag away, the one landmark he'd known that he should have realized Percy would come looking for him at.

He'd just never thought Percy had bothered until now. He'd sat on cold stone for who knew how long, thinking the rock was hollow somehow and screaming for help with no answer until the whispers had started in his ear.

Percy had gotten out though, of course he had, with the help of Annabeth most likely and they'd come right back to camp as conquering heroes. While he'd fallen right into the ploy of others.

"Nico, you okay?" Will sadly now recognized that look on Nico's face of unfavorable memories cropping up.

He just grunted in answer, because the truth was no, not really. He was already sick of hearing about this place, and Percy had only been in there for a sentence.

Our breathing echoed against stone. It was wet and cold. I was sitting on a bumpy floor that seemed to be made of bricks.

"Bricks, underground?" Magnus repeated. "I don't know what's worse, somebody went and made a fort down there, or this maze is even freakier than I first thought it was."

"I'm sorry if you were just imagining dirt tunnels," Thalia shook her head, and yet wished he could keep that ignorance.

I lifted Riptide. The faint glow of the blade was just enough to illuminate Annabeth's frightened face and the mossy stone walls on either side of us.

"Wh-where are we?" Annabeth said.

"Safe from the scorpions, anyway," I tried to sound calm, but I was freaking out. The crack between the boulders couldn't have led into a cave. I would've known if there was a cave here; I was sure of it.

"Why are you so confident of that?" Will chuckled nervously. "I've lived at camp for years and I don't claim to know every secret there."

"You just need more confidence Will, it'll come to you," Percy shrugged.

"Hopefully it doesn't come with scorpions," Nico muttered, his usual fascination with all things Percy didn't seem to find this moment as intriguing for some reason.

It was like the ground had opened up and swallowed us. All I could think of was the fissure in the dining room pavilion, where those skeletons had been consumed last summer winter. I wondered if the same thing had happened to us.

"No, no, then you would have fallen much, much farther," Nico politely informed. He wasn't sure where he sent them, considering he'd had no control over what he was doing, but he was confident it was Tartarus or oblivion in general.

"Well that's one relief out of the way," Percy grinned, and actually seemed to mean it to Nico's surprise.

I lifted my sword again for light.

"It's a long room," I muttered.

Annabeth gripped my arm. "It's not a room. It's a corridor."

She was right. The darkness felt...emptier in front of us. There was a warm breeze, like in subway tunnels, only it felt older, more dangerous somehow.

Alex breathed in deeply like he was trying to get just a hint of that now. "Cool."

"Speak for yourself," Percy was squirming in his seat again and made the warding off evil gesture even if he knew it would do no good here or down there.

I started forward, but Annabeth stopped me.

"As she should!" Thalia groaned into her hands. "Why would your first response to be go exploring when nobody has any idea where you are!"

She knew the answer to her own question though, she was just as impulsive as him and would have been right beside him. Annabeth would have had to dig her heels in and tell them both to stop. She just didn't want to admit that while Percy grinned sheepishly and without surprise for his own idiocy.

"Don't take another step," she warned. "We need to find the exit."

She sounded really scared now.

"It's okay," I promised. "It's right—"

I looked up and realized I couldn't see where we'd fallen in. The ceiling was solid stone. The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions.

Magnus's mouth was open in a silent scream now.

"It seals you in? It's a tomb?" Alex confirmed.

"It certainly doesn't seem keen on letting you back out unless you know what you're doing," Jason frowned at this turn of events. "I don't suppose it'll accept shoestrings in the meantime for the unprepared?"

Percy fidgeted with the pages and resisted the urge to tie everybody's shoes together instead of continuing. Annabeth was at the end of this, he had to keep reminding himself. She was trapped in there now, and he sure wanted to find out how at least she got out of this even if his stupid help attracted something worse!

Annabeth's hand slipped into mine.

Percy exhaled in relief, his hand drifted to his side, only to still close over nothing. He glanced over like he still expected her to be there, just like always, it was a reflex he didn't think he'd ever drop as he clasped his hand stubbornly back around the book to finish.

Under different circumstances I would've been embarrassed, but here in the dark I was glad to know where she was. It was about the only thing I was sure of.

"Is this a specific thing with you two?" Jason asked with nothing but affection in his tone. "First Charon's boat, now this, do you two mutually decide to be underground to hold hands?"

"I mean, I wouldn't be that picky, but I can't blame her if that's when she needs it," Percy grinned with only a faint hint of a blush.

"Two steps back," she advised.

We stepped backward together like we were in a minefield.

"Close enough," Thalia muttered. For all they knew, they could be.

"Okay," she said. "Help me examine the walls."

"What for?"

"The mark of Daedalus," she said, as if that was supposed to make sense.

"Uh, okay. What kind of—"

"Got it!" she said with relief. She set her hand on the wall and pressed against a tiny fissure, which began to glow blue. A Greek symbol appeared:

"Um," Percy paused to tell the others, "it looks like a triangle."

Magnus finally figured out how to close his mouth, and he sounded really short of breath like he had been screaming that whole time. "Great, something else I probably need to learn, the Greek alphabet."

"Hopefully it comes with a catchy song too," Alex grinned.

Jason still insisted he wanted to see the symbol in person before Percy could continue like he didn't know what a triangle looked like.

∆,

the Ancient Greek Delta.

The roof slid open and we saw night sky, stars blazing. It was a lot darker than it should've been. Metal ladder rungs appeared in the side of the wall, leading up, and I could hear people yelling our names.

"Percy! Annabeth!" Tyson's voice bellowed the loudest, but others were calling out too.

"Why would they be looking for you guys already, it hasn't been a whole five minutes," Magnus cocked his head to the side.

"Labyrinth logic, better get used to it now," Thalia reminded.

I looked nervously at Annabeth. Then we began to climb.

We made our way around the rocks and ran into Clarisse and a bunch of other campers carrying torches.

"Did they start an angry mob without you?" Alex asked with the usual twitching lips. "Are they on their way to get revenge on some neighbor camp because they TP'd you?"

"I've always been great at inviting myself along on the important things if so," Percy easily grinned at that, though the haunting memory of that place still lingered. He'd been grateful to be out after a whole breath, and he was asking Grover to go in there for untold time? This was going to be one hell of a quest.

"Where have you two been?" Clarisse demanded. "We've been looking forever."

"But we were gone only a few minutes," I said.

Chiron trotted up, followed by Tyson and Grover.

"Percy!" Tyson said. "You are okay?"

"We're fine," I said. "We fell in a hole."

The others looked at me skeptically, then at Annabeth.

"Hey!" Percy yelped.

"I mean, I'd need some context too, and she's the obvious choice," Will chuckled. Those two had no idea how freaked out everybody had been when the conch shell blew for the winner, and Annabeth and Percy didn't show up.

The laughter had died, the camp went deadly silent like they were all waiting for a blood-curdling scream to signal that imminent attack. Clarisse hadn't even taken her laurels off her head before she snatched a tiki-torch out of a brazier and stomped back in. Quintus had gone off promising to find Mrs. O'Leary to help.

Chiron had immediately launched up search parties, and the deja vu of it all when Percy had gone missing a week ago left him feeling ill. Poor Annabeth, still with no clue they'd found him again.

"Honest!" I said. "There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. But we were only gone a minute."

"You've been missing for almost an hour," Chiron said. "The game is over."

"Yeah," Grover muttered. "We would've won, but a Cyclops sat on me."

"Was an accident!" Tyson protested, and then he sneezed.

"I need details of that," Alex launched an accusing finger at Will like he was intentionally holding out on them.

"Wasn't around for it," he said regretfully, "from what I understand though, Grover could smell the laurels and knew which scorpion to attack, but then he got caught in one of the Stoll's traps, hoisted into a net. So all his fur started raining down on Tyson, and bless him he still tried to cut him down while sneezing his eye out, and even though he did the scorpion came scampering over with a javelin where its leg used to be and instead of going for the package Tyson fell on Grover and Lee and Clarisse swooped in for the win. It made for a great story." He finished with wistful old regret a story he'd never want to stop telling. It had been Lee's last game at camp, a victory he and Clarisse had only gotten a week to brag about.

There was a communal laugh for a moment at that array of badass misfortune at least.

Jason's eyes were gleaming with interest like he really did want to get a pen and write all of this down. "Hope they team up again, sounds like they'd make a great pair if we can get Tyson some allergy medicine, and maybe a funny hat. Hopefully, it'll lower Grover's fear of him just a bit."

"One of those rainbow hats with the fan on the top, yeah," Percy chuckled in agreement.

Clarisse was wearing the gold laurels, but she didn't even brag about winning them, which wasn't like her. "A hole?" she said suspiciously.

"Looking for something new to shove your head into?" But Nico was purely joking, he knew she took the safety of their camp seriously.

Annabeth took a deep breath. She looked around at the other campers.

"Chiron...maybe we should talk about this at the Big House."

"There were some kids around," Will needlessly answered the unasked, like he wasn't a kid himself. Most of them had been kept up for the search, but he knew at least the youngest shouldn't be around to hear whatever horrors these two had found.

Clarisse gasped. "You found it, didn't you?"

Annabeth bit her lip. "I—Yeah. Yeah, we did."

A bunch of campers started asking questions, looking about as confused as I was,

Percy felt the eye rolls in the room and grumbled he'd still been distracted about Clarisse not doing a victory dance.

but Chiron raised his hand for silence. "Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at boulders as if he'd just noticed how dangerous they were. "All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!"

There was a lot of mumbling and complaints, but the campers drifted off, talking among themselves and giving me suspicious looks.

"This explains a lot," Clarisse said. "It explains what Luke is after."

"Wait a second," I said. "What do you mean? What did we find?"

Annabeth turned toward me, her eyes dark with worry. "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."

"Did you really need her to spell that out for you?" Jason asked. At least he sounded like a concerned teacher asking why he hadn't studied the material rather than Gabe asking why he was a moron.

Thalia reached for the book to cut off whatever snide remark Percy had for that. "He was still getting used to the Labyrinth existing, cut him some slack."

"Thanks," Percy muttered to her.

She gave him a wink as she flipped to the next chapter. It was nice, even if he didn't have his girlfriend in here to call him an idiot in person, to at least have a friend around to make sure he never felt too much like an idiot no matter how many times she filled in the roll.

#pjo #Percy Jackson #percabeth #nico di angelo #will solace #solangelo #Thalia Grace #Jason Grace #Magnus Chase #alex fierro #fierrochase #mcga #BotL #HDYSG

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chuya-chuya-blog · 5 months ago

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I read Empyreal Cabinet today. I like to try the new shonen series so that if it becomes a big deal, I can say I was there first🤣🤣🤣 The first time I tried a newly debuted manga with this clear intent was with Rugby Rumble, and I'm really really enjoying it.

And if I'm curious about a series I don't wanna have to spend a thousand chapters playing catch up. This was a big hurdle for me with MHA, but I overcame and really enjoyed it. It was also fun to experience the ending at the same time as the rest of the fanbase. Gushing about the big moments together in an online discourse is so fun!😊

I'm currently struggling with this hurdle with Dandadan and Black Butler, and I LOVE those manga. But it can be a lot to digest at once, even if I'm in a binging mood. I was a bit late to the party for Dandadan, even though I WAS reading it long before the anime was announced, so yay, I was one of the first!😌

I've been reading Kuroshitsuji on and off for over a decade and finally decided to buckle down and catch up on it this year, so I don't know what to make of that.😅

But Empyreal Cabinet was not for me. Before anything, I will say that the artwork was beautiful and a pleasure to look at. I'm an art lover, a visual person who needs clear art in a comic I'm reading, and when it's also beautiful and practical like it was in Empyreal Cabinet, that's usually enough to get me at least somewhat excited. But while the story was focused, it was incredibly boring. Too many technical terms and formation jargon for me to slog through for a story I'm still trying to see if I even care about. I was able to manage and get a clear understanding of the story, mainly because I wanted to give it a fair chance. (And I also kept saying to myself, come on, you can't get through ONE chapter of a new story? Is your attention span that low?)

I have made it through the first chapter, but was more than halfway finished before I felt even a speck of intrigue. That was on page 46 when they were talking about the high school boys playing a prank. I'm convinced an enemy in disguise dared those boys to commit a prank to let a monster loose. Based on the discussion at the end, I can already see that these monster attacks are probably intentional, and being covered up by the superiors in the organization (yeah, I don't remember the names of anything, I'm already bad with names, but in this manga, I just didn't care😮‍💨). I'm interested to know if I'm right but not interested enough to remember to keep coming back for it every week (like I do with Rugby Rumble, which I why I was even on the app today).

None of the characters interest me. I don't care about anyone's ambitions or motivations, I have no desire to learn anything about them or to see them in action. The main character had this (what I can assume was supposed to be) somewhat badass moment towards the end, but I felt no excitement about it, and didn't find myself rooting for him or any of the others. We learn that he doesn't just roll over and take things, and has a righteous streak and is willing to take accountability, but I just do not CARE. It's not like I DISLIKE any of the characters, they were all just too flat, monotone, and one dimensional for me to care. I'm not saying I need to know anything about their back stories or motivations, I can see they care about their job and want to protect the people, and that's honestly a fine and valid drive for me. I just don't care about them enough to see them do it.

The world building was good, no problems there. It really just felt like Jujutsu Kaisen and Kaiju no. 8 had a baby and the protagonist of Kagurabachi is walking around. But it's like all the necessary story elements are solid individually, but weren't able to create an engaging story together.

Shonen Jump seems to be doing this thing where they're going for more stoic and stone cold protagonists, probably since those characters tend to be popular as side characters. But when they do that, the whole series tends to drag. They're coming out with a lot of manga like this lately, and I can't get into any of them. I think Shueisha should put out a Shonen Jump Dark magazine for all their series like this, since they insist on putting them out.🤣 Anime as a whole used to be more serious and adult like in nature back in the 80s and 90s, anyway, what with things like Golgo 13 and City Hunter. Ninja Scroll is a certified hood classic and Akira is legendary. I feel like Shueisha may be trying to usher back in an era of cool mature works like this in Japan, especially since their birth rate crisis is leaving them with a much smaller fanbase of youth. Less kids mean fewer kids to buy Shonen Jump. At the end of the day, they have a magazine to sell.

It's not just the fantasy series either, Shiba Inu Rooms has a reserved protagonist, and I like her enough. Her dynamic with the dog is cute and sweet. Unfortunately, the story is a bit boring, and I find myself behind a few chapters currently. Sure enough, though, the artwork keeps me coming back for more. The story and characters do their part pleasantly, and the artwork pulled it over the hump enough for me to add it to my favorites.

The dude with the cat was honestly just stupid, and the cat seems out of place with the art style. It actually got on my nerves with how desperately it tried to make its flimsy premise interesting. A house cat also can't actually ease tense muscles with their kneading. They don't do it hard enough for that to even make sense. Just go to a massage therapist, and no, I don't care if he actually has a reason as to why he doesn't, because the whole series was just stupid. Him getting the girl to pet the cat was stupid, too, no self preserving woman would have gone into a guys house to pet a cat. That one was just utter nonsense. I usually don't critique so harshly, but for an author that thinks so little of women, I find no problem.

It's not like I only go for lighthearted series, Drunk Bullet has some fun characters and great art, but I still don't know if I wanna bother keeping up with that. I feel like it might be a banger later on, so I may try to catch up with the chapters while there are still so few of them. I watched Ron Kamonohashi before I started the manga, and while I enjoyed the show, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to catch up on 100+ chapters of detective work, although it may be because I've only read the chapters that were animated so far, so I already knew what was going to happen. The artwork is really nice, and I find myself using it for reference when I need help with natural backgrounds.

I know Shonen Jump wants to fill the hole left by MHA (and soon to be JJK, I've heard), so hopefully more people like Empyreal Cabinet than I did. It may have the potential to start a new big three. It certainly has a similar vibe to Kagurabachi, and that seems to be doing well.

As for me, I'm probably going to drop it. As a fellow mangaka, I like to give series their fair chance, so I'll probably try a few more chapters, but I can tell this one is really not for me. I do look forward to what comes along soon in the future, though. And I hope to be one of the first on the bandwagon if it takes off, too!

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the-firebird69 · 7 months ago

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You know what's funny as heck is his ideas. Scary monster movie where he's like this little guy going I cannot believe how big I'm gonna be and puts his hand in his head I mean these things are funny to us OK he should be a comedian and he thinks about it and he might get a car and might try it to make some money. And I'd like to sponsor him this has to make it stage fright but he might be able to use it. Say I can't move and I can't remember anything not to mention jokes at all. And you know what he probably just sit there and try and talk it out he would probably sit up there try to talk it out and he would say I'm talking it out it's getting better i'm loosening up ohh no I'm freezing again. So there's a way to do it you write the joke down you have to read it a couple times sometimes ohh teleprompter that's the answer. We're talking about the Corvette and they have some assembled and they have chassis and they have bodies so this is a different breed of animal we have dealerships and we want to accept them and we don't hear any complaints from the other guys. And he says he has to talk to Mac Daddy and he says are you a dealership and can you order them and we can order them but not in the numbers that we're talking about. And we can order several hundred thousand a month. Total so he wants to hear the numbers and he's gonna say what they are and he says to Mac Daddy I only think they're gonna get in trouble out there and Mac Daddy says probably so he's gonna shoot it over for approval and he'll get it down to the plant if he approves it and you might have to moisten the deal rich in it or something and this is great. And that was our Hulk Hogan Mack Daggy Daddy and our son and daughter at the end of it and we're monitoring. It's a great deal. Have other things like this and we're talking to people as they come on to the subjects. Or approach with the subject in this pretty decent. We do have breweries and he's thinking about it but he has capacity out there and he's gotta tap into it because he's getting a lot of orders tons of orders. So we're proceeding with it it's it's really not bad OK it is getting to a point where we have to regulate some things on our side but we do that. There's some other talk going around but really we might be able to send the regular Corvette and then we'll make them and he wants to redesign it a little bit and safety is not high enough mac daddy knows it too it's higher than a lot of cars but really it's kind of not good. In the middle of hollow would be one thing in a small frame roll cage so I'm gonna wait until orders come in and suggested for new car. And they just make another model Corvette and it's more powerful or something and that's a good idea and so we gotta mark that down somewhere people who are doing the Corvette and this all the other stuff with it. We have other ideas I'm gonna go forwards with them we have a huge project starting today we're going to announce momentarily

we have a huge project starting today we're going to announce momentarily

Thor Freya They're all at the fourth ring 50 miles away people are breathing a little but they said the ammo is better and need 15 more miles so they're actually pushing the rings out. People are trying to get here because they're pushing the rings out there's a small influx but it disappears the Pseudo Empire is arming up and they're talking about changing up no they're talking about bringing more in and they would eliminate these and try and come in and they're just gonna hammer themselves flat they could come in and the clones wouldn't resist but they just don't wanna so they do it this way and the clones are gonna put up a fight and eventually they'll both be out of here their numbers are depleting in Florida and all over the world the thing with the pseudo empire is when they deplete their third the size of the Morlock right now they're down to 6% they don't go as fast they're used to being intermingled but they know about how big they are and I'll tell you what we'll we're gonna be in trouble with them pretty soon they're gonna get hot and stinky when they're at 3%. We've gotta get ready. More shortly.

Olympus

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neocrush · 4 years ago

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— the girl groups enhypen’s gfs are in !

genre: fluff (angst on jungwon’s part) + established relationship (eventually lol)

pairings: idol!enhypen x fem!idol!reader

note: idk how to title this pls i thought of it while showering

tagging: @jeminiepabo @strwberrydinosaur

you just finished performing and your members were in need of water bottles

but fucking mnet didn’t provide any inside of your dressing room??

so yves told you to ask for some from the artist in the dressing room next to yours

you knocked on the door without looking at the sign that showed who was in there

you asked for some water bottles and heeseung went “i’ll go get it!” and ran off to go get get them

jungwon just chuckled and went “hyung’s a really huge fan of your group, he kept on singing star on the way here”

you nodded at the younger one, impressed at the fact that you were popular among idols

the tall boy came back with a whole box full of water bottles

��there’s 12 of you here right now so i figured why not get a whole box” he chuckled nervously

you giggled and smiled at the nervous boy

“thank you heeseung-ssi, i’ll take this to my members” you took the box in your hands but was taken aback on how heavy it was

“don’t worry i’ll carry it for you”

long after that you started hanging out and boom you became his gf

you couldn’t resist the charms of lee heeseung

once it was revealed that you were a couple, orbits and engenes went INSANE (in a good way ofc)

“wait so y/n DOESNT hate men????”

★ jay - aespa

OMG OMG LEMME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS BBY

you both met at school after you both debuted

everyone was gossiping around about how you were in the same class with the enhas

so like... monster rookies class

usually idols aren’t seated together but the teacher seated you and jay next to each other

causing a bunch of “oooohhhs” from your classmates

there were times were you and the enhas would leave school early due to practice or schedules

and on the way to the school gate, jay would always spark up a conversation with you

you assumed he was just very friendly

long story short he had a massive crush on you

so a few months into your friendship (which the both of you were very open about with your fans), he confesses

you were like “WAIT SO IT WASNT ONE SIDED THE WHOLE TIME”

y’all were just really blind lol pls read between the lines

anyways on to ur lovely bf !!

he’s so bold and brave around you but so shy around your members and seniors

we all know how he really respects nct (along with other sm artists) bc he covered the 7th sense with sunghoon on iland

so one day you were like “oh btw i showed taeyong sunbae you and hoon’s t7s cover”

he was like 😟 to 😧 to 😯

got all shy and was like “oh what did he say..”

you don’t know why he was acting as if he didn’t body that whole performance ????

anyway you told him that taeyong said that he and hoon did really well and that he liked how jay did his part

hid his face on the crook of your neck

“baby we should come say hi to them next time you go to sm”

“NO i will make a fool out of myself”

speaks english and japanese with giselle a lot when he isn’t occupied with you

sometimes you’d even have to ask nct’s shotaro to translate

your seniors (especially exo’s kai) adore him so so much pls protect the boy at all costs

★ jake - everglow

he was an active viewer of produce 48 and (like me) was really attached to the yuehua trainees

especially you

so when you got eliminated just before the last episode, he was devastated to say the least

he awaited your debut and when the time came he supported everglow !!!!

LOVED BON BON CHOCOLAT SO MUCH

does the killing part choreo in his room when no one’s watching lol

dies everytime you do the little “everglow” in songs

right so when he debuted in enha, he looked forward to meeting you as an idol and not a fan

when you shared a dressing room at kcontact, he couldn’t help but introduce himself to you

he mentioned he was a big fan and your heart warmed

cute boy is a fan of you? omg heart go brr brr

your members tease you and you just shake it off

that day when you got back to the dorms, you watched a bunch of enhypen videos bc you were interested in jake

you weren’t aware of how popular you were among people - let alone idols so you were surprised

you fell in love with his personality and started saying hi to him whenever you meet backstage at music shows

not long after, you develop feelings for him

you thought it was just a puppy crush but as you saw him even more, it got serious

you never actually confessed but aisha accidentally spilled the beans when he was passing by

“cmon y/n just tell him you like him because he clearly feels the same !!”

“you like me?”

“AISHA”

“that’s my queue to leave”

so she leaves you two to pour your hearts out to each other

you two become a couple and forevergenes (such a cute name omg) LOVE you two

you’re both the puppies of your group so that makes your relationship 103892x cuter

you met his parents and they adore you and even asked for your autograph

“jake used to talk about how great you are after every produce 48 episode”

“okayyyy i think that’s enough embarassing me mom”

his parents love you like their own daughter but does layla love you?

you were so nervous to meet her and was actually scared she might not like you - knowing how important layla is to jake

at first layla ignored you and jake was like “she’ll come around”

you were convinced she just doesn’t like you, until this one time you were cuddling with jake on the couch and layla comes in

you expected her to snuggle up with jake but she came to you :D

now layla is super fond of you and mrs sim would even send you pictures and videos of layla getting excited whenever you were on tv 🥺

★ sunghoon - itzy

you and the girls were at isac

the six of you were just waving at your fans and making heart signs with your hearts

on your left you saw yeji making hearts with ryujin so you wanted to do that with another member too

you felt a presence next to you and assumed it was someone from your group

spoiler alert: it wasn’t

sunghoon and sunoo were waving at engenes who just happened to be seated next to midzys

so you turned to who you thought was an itzy member, making half a heart with your hand

until you realized it wasn’t 💀

you bowed and apologized when you both looked at each other, you were scared you crossed a boundary

you bowed and apologized to the engenes who were there too

sunghoon and sunoo reassured you it was all good

after that, sunghoon couldn’t help but keep his eyes on you the entire event

when the day was coming to an end, he pulled some strings and ended up having some alone time with you ...in stray kids’ dressing room

don’t ask

ofc skz already left so it was just you two there

fast forward, you both hit it off and he became your bf <3

midzys and engenes love you both sm and love bragging about you two to other fandoms

you two were even named the king and queen of 4th gen kpop

oh also

you already know where this is going

“SUNGHOON HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW NOT SHY’S PROPER TITLE IT’S YOUR GIRLFRIEND’S SONG” - jay

brags about how he can do the shoulder dance in wannabe

ofc it’s bc you personally taught him

sends you pics of jyp as reaction pics

so you send pics of bang pdnim to him

every once in a while he reminds you of that video of jay why pee trying to hit a high note

“lmao that’s your boss”

PLS you always get super embarrassed so ofc you bring up that vid of hitman bang

“rAp dAncE-“

★ sunoo - stayc

you were his seatmate at school predebut

you came from the same town, same school, same neighborhood, etc

the two of you were extremely close and both shared the same dream

when highup entertainment accepted you, the both of you were over the moon

he was so happy for you

but sad too bc that meant you had to move to seoul :(

you promised him to do your best and that you hoped to see him again but as an idol

and hopefully when he’s an idol too

well what you hoped for came true !!

although you couldn’t see him much as a trainee - which made you quite sad - you got to follow his journey on i-land

you even asked your fellow trainees to vote for him

anyways now that you both debuted, you became close again and became really open with your fans on how close you were

you recommended his songs to swiths and he did the same to engenes

he even memorized the choreo to so bad and asap and lemme tell you this

he BEGGED you to teach him those choreos

“sunoo you can watch the practice on youtube”

“but i want to learn it from you”

he never really realized his feelings until he saw you getting shipped with his other members

you were both on weekly idol and the hosts really seemed to like how you and jake looked next to each other and they just teased you both the whole episode

that made sunoo feel uneasy and he thought it was only bc he was an overprotective best friend

turns out he had feelings for you (wow shocker)

so one day he asks you to come to hybe

after slightly getting lost, you meet up with him in a practice room

he confesses bc he felt like not telling you about his feelings would put a wall between you two

you appreciate his honesty and tell him you’ve felt the same way every since you were classmates

he scolds himself for not seeing it all those years but you just laugh it off bc you were pretty good at hiding your crush

you both agree to secretly date, until you both announce it on your five month anniversary

fans were really shocked at first... but they support you !!!!

engenes will not hesitate to come at anyone who talks bad about you and swiths feels the same way about jungwon

he gushes about you every single time you’re brought up

and you can’t help but love your adorable boyfriend

★ jungwon - iz*one

okay so

he was just an average high schooler when you were introduced on produce 48

his deskmate was watching your audition video and it was the part where you were doing this freestyle

he was SO amazed and he secretly followed your journey on produce 48

always made sure to vote on time and watch the episodes live

once the debut evaluation came around, he asked everyone he knew to vote for you and even bought tickets to see the show live

almost cried when he saw that you were center

ACTUALLY CRIED when you got into the top 13 😭

fast forward to him debuting in enha

he wasn’t able to catch up on you since he was busy with trainee life, then i-land, then debut preparations

but somehow in the middle of promotions he ran into you and BOOM love at first sight

fast forward to you finally dating, he couldn’t believe he was dating the y/n of iz*one

wizones make those “ladies and gentlemen, y/n’s man” edits and engenes make those “ladies and gentlemen, jungwon’s woman” edits

both fandoms love you two so dearly that the only hate you two got were from the delusional ones (who clearly aren’t actual fans)

when your last concert came around, he couldn’t bare seeing you cry when you said “this has been iz*one’s y/n, thank you everyone!”

he got flashbacks from when you cried during the final episode of produce 48 and he’s just.. sobbing bc he couldn’t be there to hold you

so the next day he rushed to your dorms with snacks and emotional support bc you were emotionally exhausted from accepting the fact that your journey with iz*one is finally ending

you felt extremely lucky to be in his arms and he felt extremely lucky too that he’s able to make you feel a little better

★ riki - weeekly

you were both on weekly weeekly idol together

and both you and riki being main dancers, you were asked to do random dance together

a few popular songs played and the both of you did the choreos

until after school started playing and the boy did the chorus’ choreo and you were like “woah???”

bc he was so INTO ITTTT

the song was basically made for him to cover it

and the mcs saw your reaction so they asked him to do it once again but this time with the whole group

after filming, he came up to you and was like “i’m a huge fan of yours” and you’re just like ):&/£]>\**_£]

“woah really???? i rooted for you on i-land”

and his face just lights up bc his huge crush on you developed even more

you became besties since then but he didn’t ask you out until your birthday

he took you out to a puppy café, knowing you were obsessed with dogs

you’d ask him to show you pictures and videos of bisco

“i better meet bisco once we go to japan together”

melted at the thought of traveling to his hometown with you

anyways

once you left the café, he kissed you in front of your dorms

and somehow he became your boyfriend <3

riki as a bf isn’t really a very public person

he’s the “this is our relationship, not the public’s” type of person

he doesn’t wanna risk companies wanting to exploit your relationship

although he doesn’t talk about you two much, he loves to brag about you when given the chance

whenever variety show hosts would fawn over you he’d just look them in the eyes dead and go “she’s mine”

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brywrites · 4 years ago

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Gifted

Spencer Reid x Reader. Summary: All his life Spencer Reid has been told he’s gifted. And all his life he’s wondered what the point was of those gifts that felt like curses. Until her.

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Though he holds so many memories in his mind, Spencer Reid isn’t quite sure who the first person to call him “gifted” was. It was probably his mother, he thinks. Certainly not his father, who thought he was strange. Perhaps a teacher, or maybe even his Aunt Ethel. All he’s certain of is that he’s lost track of the number of times people have praised the so-called gifts he possesses. His eidetic memory, his autodidactism, his absurdly high IQ. His mind, they say, is a gift. But it’s felt more like a curse for most of his life.

Those same things that helped him skip grades and earn the praise of adults brought him years of bullying taunts and miserable adolescent trauma. They isolated him from his peers. His companions were library books and stories and mathematic proofs – nothing with a beating heart. They plagued his nightmares, for his mother had been brilliant too and what had that done for her? And those gifts came with a tremendous burden of pressure, they demanded use in a powerful way. Reid was always terrified he’d fail to live up to that impossible potential, proving himself unworthy of such great and terrible gifts.

By the time he’s thirty-six, he wonders why he was ever given such gifts in the first place. Clearly he’s squandered them, spent them on chasing monsters he thought might be human. They turned out to be hydras – for each one they catch, two more take its place. He’s let his mind waste away on drugs, on grief. In shacks and in prison and in grudges he just can’t let go of. He’s saved lives, he knows, but his team do that same thing without the gifts he’s been cursed with. What’s the point of him? Of any of the talents or tricks he possesses?

And it’s that question on his mind as he walks into a Virginia library to interview a witness to the latest in a string of serial arsons. Her name tag says Y/N. She’s clearly nervous, a little shaken, but she manages a smile when a child runs up to interrupt and ask her how to find The Magic Tree House books. And when she turns back to look at Reid, that smile still lingers – her eyes so bright it catches him off guard. She takes him back to the area of the library that was burned to talk about the crime scene, and she off-handedly asks if he has a favorite.

And when he says, “Oh I could never choose just one favorite. I love books too much for that,” that smile returns, unexpectedly bright.

“A man after my own heart,” she says. “Tell me a few then.”

So he rattles off a handful, hoping at least one of them will keep that light in her eyes. They do. “Bradbury is one of my favorites, too. I just love Dandelion Wine. Sorry, I probably should focus on the fire. I try to distract myself when I feel stressed, and well, remembering what happened that night doesn’t exactly help with my anxiety.”

“It’s okay,” he tells her. “I tend to ramble when I’m nervous. Or excited. Really, I think I just talk a lot.” Another smile, one that crinkles the corners of her eyes. Over the course of the investigation, the BAU has to ask her to come to the station twice. By chance, Reid finds himself interviewing her both times, and both times he finds himself rambling a little more than he means to – because he finds himself inexplicably a little nervous and a little excited in her presence. It’s that smile, the one that lingers long in his mind after she leaves each time.

There’s something about her, about the light she seems to carry, that draws him in. That compels him to say yes when he shows up at the library to inform her they’ve caught the unsub and she asks, “Could I buy you a cup of coffee to show my appreciation? If that’s not too much, of course.”

“I think that would be perfect,” he says. And as they sit at the café across the street with lattes in oversized mugs, he’s never been so grateful for his vast knowledge of literature. Each title is a start into a new conversation with her, and they swap stories about stories – the ones they have lived and the ones they have loved. When she disappointedly announces her break is over, she adds, “But maybe we could do this again sometime?”

“Yes,” he says. “Please.”

“How should I get in touch with you if you’re not showing up at the library to interrogate me, Dr. Reid?” she teases.

He hastily withdraws his cell phone from his pocket and offers it to her. She begins to type in her number. “You, um, you can call me Spencer,” he tells her.

She grins at him and something in his chest shifts at the sight. “I’ll definitely call you soon, Spencer.” He’s never liked the sound of his own name more. And he thanks that eidetic memory of his for allowing him to replay it again and again in his mind until he can see her next.

They get coffee again the first chance he gets. And then again. When she asks how he has time to read so much and he tells her about how his mind works – about his memory and speed-reading and quantified intelligence, all the things that have been called gifts – she thinks for a moment before saying, “That must be lonely.”

The relief he feels at her understanding is immense. “It is sometimes,” he admits. “But it’s felt less so lately.” They go to a park together. Then out to dinner. By the time he realizes he’s falling, he’s forgotten what it feels like to be on solid ground. Fortunately, he isn’t the only one at the mercy of gravity. She feels it too. And when she laughs at his joke as he walks her home from dinner, he just can’t help himself. He leans in and cups her cheek to pull her to him, pressing his lips to her still-smiling lips. The taste of wine still on her tongue. And though he doesn’t drink anymore, the sensation of her is enough to make him feel utterly intoxicated.

Slowly, his life fills up with her. His sabbatical arrives with the perfect timing to allow him evenings and weekends with her. He picks her up after work. She meets him for breakfast. He takes her to the planetarium. She falls asleep on his couch. He tells her it won’t always be this way and she assures him that’s okay. But it gives him the chance to build the foundation their relationship needs. It’s in that time that he begins to catalogue her smiles in his memory. The dazzling ones she sends his way when she spots him at a coffee shop. The soft, shaky ones she wears after a long kiss. The coy ones that twist the corner of her mouth when she’s teasing him. The nervous one that slowly grows when she meets his team for the first time – not as a witness, but as his girlfriend. A title she declares like a badge of honor. He holds each smile in his mind, picture perfect thanks to that eidetic memory. When a case has been particularly tough or he’s away for longer than he’d like, he flips through them in his mind, trying to remember the cause of each one, trying to hold on to that light until he can hold her in his arms again.

He surprises her with flowers on her birthday. “You remembered?” she gasps, her eyes wide. “And these – these are my favorite. How did you know?”

“I could never forget,” he laughs, but she stares down at the bouquet and clutches them to her chest.

“I don’t make a big deal about my birthday, so people don’t usually remember,” she says quietly. “And nobody’s ever gotten me flowers before. Thank you, Spencer.” A pause, and then, “I love you.”

He grins from ear to ear. Forget the sound of his name, those three words are the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard. “I love you, too.” It’s a first for both of them. And one week later comes another first – witnessing her panic attacks for the first time. She’s shaking too hard to tell him what she needs, so he tries to do what would help him. He sits down next to her on his living room rug and wraps her in his arms. He rests his head on her shoulder and murmurs the words to her favorite poem. She seems to breathe a little easier and so he recites another one she loves, and another until her breathing finally steadies and she unclenches her fists to wrap her arms around his neck, burying her face in his sweater.

Suddenly it doesn’t feel like such a curse to remember everything he reads when it means he can give her the words she loves when she needs them most.

The first time they sleep together is only the second time he’s been intimate with someone and he feels more awkward than he wishes he was. But he commits himself to studying, to remembering what she likes and what she doesn’t, and the next time he proves to be the quickest of learners when he succeeds at making her come within a matter of minutes. He discovers a new smile of hers, one of dreamy bliss and kiss-swollen lips. He loves it. He loves her, adores every single part of her she’s shared with him and every piece yet to be found. And to his continued surprise and delight, she loves him just as much.

He tries every day to be worthy of that love. He makes time for her. He goes to meet her friends and he shakes their hands even though he hates touching people, even though she insists, “You don’t have to. They won’t mind.” He does it because she’s the only person in the world whose touch he actually craves.

When she swoons over a dress Penelope has shown her on Instagram, he makes a note of it. She’s utterly enamored by it by her smile falls upon checking the price tag. It’s far out of her budget. So the next week when he’s out on a case in Atlantic City, he swings by one of the few casinos that doesn’t have his picture framed on the wall of their security office. He wins more than the cost of the dress in an hour and leaves before anyone can get suspicious. The dress arrives at his apartment the same day he gets home, and he invites her over to surprise her with it. When she opens the box, her eyes go wide.

“Spencer, this is… this can’t be. It’s… do you know how expensive this is?” Y/N asks.

Bashfully, he replies, “Now might be a good time to mention I’m banned from casinos in almost every state for my card counting abilities.” It’s well worth the little effort he expended to see the way her face lights up at the sight of it. And though he’s never been a gambling man, when he sees her wearing it for the first time he considers trying his luck a little more often.

At times he worries he’s doing too much, but how could it ever be when the way she loves him has been so much more than enough? For the first time in his life, he feels like maybe he’s enough. When she says, “I love you,” he believes it. When she says, “I’ll be back,” he trusts her. He’s given another person more of his heart than he ever has before, and for once he’s not afraid of it breaking. She doesn’t mind the strange hours he works or heaviness he sometimes carries with him. When he wakes up from a nightmare, she holds him close and keeps him grounded. He sends postcards from each city he visits and she makes his favorite food when he comes home and home is suddenly a place they share. She moves into his apartment and it feels like it was never complete without her there.

Not long after, there is a case in Boston. Their terrifyingly intelligent unsub taunts Reid as he leaves the interrogation room. “Judge me all you want, Dr. Reid. But I’ve used my mind to change the world. You’ve done nothing with yours.” The words haunt him on the flight home. He sits on the back of the plane lost in thought. What has he done? Sure he’s saved lives, but could he have done more? Could someone else have used those gifts he’s been burdened with in a way that was better? Why does he have any of these talents? Why has he acquired any of these skills?

His phone chimes. A text from her. Brought home a new book from the library I think you’ll love! Can’t wait to see you, dearest. And it hits him.

It’s her. All along it’s been her.

The answer echoes in his head as he races home to her. Everything in his life has led him to her, has let him be the person she needs. He can memorize all her favorite songs and poems to recite for her when her anxiety gets the best of her. He can remember every date that matters to her and everything she adores. He can read her favorite books overnight to talk about them with her in the morning. He can profile from her body language and her microexpressions when she’s having a bad day and needs him to be there for her, even when she’s too afraid to ask for what she needs. When she asks absurd questions out of the blue, he can give her actual answers with the useless encyclopedia of knowledge he’s obtained over the years. When she needs a distraction his rambling finally proves useful. It’s all for her.

She’s the reason his mind doesn’t feel like a curse anymore. How could he ever think of it with disdain when it’s the reason he can picture every smile she’s ever let him see? When he can catalogue every wonderful word from her lips, every inch of her skin, every action that drives her wild.

Reid can’t seem to open the door to their apartment fast enough. When he finally steps inside, she’s sitting on the couch. She turns away from the book in her lap to smile at him. “Welcome back,” she says. Then, tilting her head, “Is everything okay?”

An unshakeable grin spreads across his face and he knows he must look like a madman right now as he crosses the living to sit beside her. “Everything’s perfect. I just… I had this epiphany. All the things I hate about myself, you love. And all the things I can do let me love you better. It just feels like everything – everything has led me to you. Even the bad things, I mean, being in prison forced me to take sabbaticals and if I hadn’t we wouldn’t have had that time together early on and maybe we wouldn’t have worked and I don’t believe in fate,” he says, taking a breath. “But I can’t help but feel like for the first time, I’m right where I’m supposed to be. With you. Like that’s where I was meant to be all along. And I… I just thought you should know.”

His long-winded rambling is rewarded with one of his favorite smiles from her – one that makes her eyes soft and puts sunsets to shame. The kind she wears when she is incandescently happy. Her fingers lace through his and they are a perfect fit in his big hands. “There is nowhere else I’d rather be,” she says, leaning in to kiss him.

All his life, Spencer Reid has been told he is gifted. But this time, he thinks it might actually be true. He holds the greatest gift the universe has ever granted him in his arms and knows that no part of him is a curse if he is loved by her.

#spencer reid x reader #criminal minds fanfiction #spencer reid #fanfiction #gifted #brywrites #spencer reid fanfiction #reid x reader

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clarissalance · 4 years ago

Text

A sneak peck on the corner of your lips

Pairing: Xingqiu x G/N!reader, Chongyun, mention of Xiangling and Liyue trio

Warning: a peck, hugging, reader and Xingqiu are the same age

Word count: 3943

Summary: You are going on a ghost-hunting trip with Chongyun and Xingqiu to Mingyun village.

A/N: Last time I said I’m going to write shorter fic, well, my fingers accidentally slip and tada, here it is. I feel like this Xingqiu is a little bit too shy compare to the game but I want to make him blush (or any character in general). This one takes me quite a long time to write but I hope you all enjoy it. Maybe I should write Venti next, I totally forgot his birthday until my feed was flooded with his fanart. I’m sorry Bartobas ;-; Anyhow, please shower Xingqiu with a lot of love!! He’s the reason why I can pass abyss floor 11.

Picture credit: Pinterest. ( I really don’t know the author of this picture. If you find the source, please comment so I can add. Thank you (❁´◡`❁) )

Hanging out with the Liyuen trio has always been an adventure full of thrill and excitement. Usually, there would be someone who ends up with all troubles and mischiefs the other two sets up. Chongyun is our center, holding a strike 10 times in a row, while Xiangling sometimes gets bombed by them, but it’s nothing compared to our popsicle boy. Xingqiu, you have never heard of him getting into any troubles, but he has been the famous one in the town for plotting pranks and tricks. The victim is Chongyun, and he’s somehow still very oblivious, despite many times falling into the holes.

Maybe the boy is just too naïve and trusting for his own good.

“ Xiangling is not coming today. ” Xingqiu announces, successful getting your attention and Chongyun’s. “She’s busy with the restaurant, so today, there will be only three of us.” Letting out a commital sound, you return your focus back onto the unfinished charm on your hand, fingers skillfully waving through the strings.

“ Guess we’re off to Mingyun then.” Chongyun stands up abruptly from his seat, the sound of clothes rustling together. “I got a reliable intel this time about a ghost there.”

Glance up from the unfinished charm, you shoot a questioning look to Xingqiu, to which he sends you a wink and a charming smile. The source of ‘reliable intel’ Chongyun is telling you here definitely comes from Xingqiu. Somehow, the boy has managed to stay away from the Chongyun’s suspicion list, even after those obvious unrealistic intel disguise as pranks. You wonder how has he manage to deceive the poor exorcist this time.

“Chongyun, there are only hilichurls in Mingyun village. No one is there.” You state the obvious. How can he fall for this so many times? The light blue hair boy turns at you and tilts his head in confusion, waiting for you to anticipate more details. He is really dense, isn’t he?

“ So, how did you get intel about a spirit at the place if there is no one lives there?” Letting out a huff, you fold your arm, feet tapping impatiently.

“ Someone sends me the request this morning.” He pulls out a white envelope in his pocket and hands it to you, smiling a bit enthusiastically. The envelope has no trace that indicates sender, yet the exorcist assures you it’s a reliable source. You have no idea what his standard of ‘reliable' is anymore.

Inside the envelope is an expensive-looking card, the curving and neat writing dances on the piece. Bringing the paper closer, you can faintly make out the scent of floral perfume mingles with the fresh wooden smell of crisp paper. “By the look, this looks more like a love letter than a request of exorcism to me. You’re sure it’s not from one of the maidens?” A little further away, you can hear the sound of someone choking on breath and a muffled laugh. Chongyun then mutters something about no one would send him a love letter anyway. Oh, so he doesn’t know then. Did this boy live under a rock or something?

This is too well-crafted for a mere prank. Did Xingqiu handwriting improve this much over the past month? Eyeing the blue boy suspiciously, you carefully watch his interaction with the young exorcist while reading the content.

This letter is pretty legit, but you’re still very suspicious of a certain someone over there who meticulously crafts this. If you ask, will he answer truthfully or skit around the subject again?

Putting the card back into the envelop and return them to Chongyun, you finally raise your hand in defeat. Coming with them might be a better solution, in case the exorcist condition gets out of control, you can help Xingqiu carry him back.

“Fine, let’s see the spirit ourselves then.” You stand up, hand dusting your clothes. “ If we’re lucky enough, we might be able to see the adepti on the mountain before catching the ghost.” Shrugging, you beam brightly at the shoulder-shaking Xingqiu and the scratching-head Chongyun. You can already guess what will happen in the village after so many times witnessing Xingqiu’s prank. Is this what we called… experiences?

---

Mingyun village is located on a mountain and surrounded by many dried up ores mines, which result in people leaving their homes and moves to the Chasm and Harbor. As your group slowly trek to the written address, you notice an unusually high activity of hilichurls. It’s common for them to move to an abandoned village but isn’t this a little too much? From broken bridge connect the Guili Plain, there are many groups clustering, wandering among themselves. Even Chongyun tries to avoid them, not jumping on their head as usual.

Imagine fighting this many hilichurls, you don’t think your group can make it back to the harbour in one piece. Padding quietly, you walk faster toward Xingqiu, hoping to stick close to him. At least if fighting is bounded to happen, he can protect you. The young master still keeps his unfazed face, following Chongyun while eyes glued on his book. You remember he already finished reading this book?

“ Psstt.” You whisper. “ Are you sure we’re heading the right way? That direction is crowded with monsters.” From here, they can barely see the beast but you can sense an abundant amount over there.

“ It’s this way. It’s marked on the map.” Chongyun answers, eyestrain on a piece of paper, which results in his misstep and tripping. Behind, Xingqiu looks up and worriedly calls out to be careful. You trust Chongyun map-reading skill, but right now, you’re very concerned about his navigation. How can he navigating if he does not even look at the road?

As the scorching sun blazing down the heat, big droplets of sweat dripping down your forehead, and your shirt starts to stick on your skin. Ah, you forgot summer has arrived. The path is sun-drenched, not a single shade can be found. The sweltering heat in this village is almost unbearable, despite the area is borderline with Dragonspine. How can not a single breeze from Dragonspine drift to this area?

As you lazily following the group, your mind starts going into vacation mode. You imagine staying under the shade, enjoy the cool breeze and munching ice cream. The village is quite close to Yaoguang Shoal, maybe you can convince the guys to head down there after they finish their task. In this weather, dipping your feet in the cold water while enjoying popsicles are the best. Stealing some from Chongyun might not be that bad.

Next to you, the Chongyun and Xingqiu are not affected as much as you, maybe because they carry visions? You wonder how their visions help them to cool down?

“ Xingqiu.” You call, hand fanning your face. The boy looks up from his book, humming, unfazed by the boiling weather. Is he not feeling hot at all? Under all of those long sleeve shirt?

“Can we hold hand?”

As soon as the question leaves your mouth, some things don’t feel right. Did you phrase it, a little bit weird?

The cerulean-haired boy chokes on his saliva, eyes widen in surprise, almost drop his precious rare novel. You think you definitely phrase it wrong.

“ Are you okay?” Chongyun turns back abruptly after noticing the coughing sound, his blue eyes filled with worries.

Xingqiu shakes his head and waves his hand, motioning the exorcist to turns back to his map. After a few second of heaving, he finally returns back to normal, shooting you stinky eyes and put his book away. It’s not your fault that he chokes on his own saliva. He chokes it by himself.

“Why would you want… to hold my hand?” Xingqiu questions, cringing at his cracking voice.

“Don’t you feel hot under this weather?” You point your finger at the sky, bright rays hitting your face. Xingqiu nods in confusion, still not understand how your request related to this question.

“If we hold hand, maybe you can share with me some of your coolness.”

Xingqiu stares owlishly at you, and you elaborate more on how the pyro transfers heat through physical touch, and maybe, hydro has a similar mechanism.

As you explain, you notice how his shoulders shaking, while his face remains perfectly calm, except for the betraying light curve on his mouth. Is he trying to contain his smile?

Finally, Xingqiu folds in half and blurts out in laughter, tears forming at the corner of his eyes. In between his howling, the boy breathlessly explains how you misunderstand the elements and visions aren't used for this situation.

Potato, potato, you don’t believe the mischievous vision-holder over there has never tried using his vision for different purposes other than fighting.

Your face burns up, you’re not sure if it’s because of the burning sun, or the embarrassment caused by the hydro user over there. Pouting, you turn away from him, stomping toward Chongyun direction instead.

Hmph, if Xingqiu isn’t going to help you to cool down, then you’d have to ask the exorcist. Somehow, you already know the man is going to hesitate because it might disturb his congenital condition. Well, you’re just going to bribe him with two or three popsicles when you are coming back to the harbour. Nothing a little money can’t fix. And maybe a lot of persuasions too.

As soon as you make your mind, you rush toward Chongyun, calling out for the cryo user. The exorcist is a distance away from you both, and he doesn’t turn back even when you call out for him. Does this mean he didn’t hear the conversation between you and Xingqiu?

Casually skipping toward Chongyun, you call for him again-

“Chongyun, can I... ” before, suddenly hands from behind wrap around your neck, pull you into a wall of meat. You wince at the hard collision with the chest, sensation of callous fingers on your shoulder bring your longing desired: Coolness. Surprised by the sudden touch, you shoot your eyes wide open and crane your neck behind, immediately meet with a sly amber orb.

What is he doing?

Followed by your call, Chongyun curiously turns back and his gentle light blue eyes unwavering. He doesn’t seem to be surprised at this scene.

Does Xingqiu always this touchy?

The young exorcist raises his brows at you but behind, Xingqiu waves his hand dismissive, successfully driving the young boy away, even before you can form your word.

You see the exorcist shrugs and turns his attention back on the piece of paper, heading deeper into the abandoned village, distance between the cryo users and you two starts to grow.

You gawk shockingly into his small figure starts to get smaller, mouth gapes open slightly.

Did Chongyun just leave you behind? What kind of cold-heart friend is he? He definitely saw you are being held back by Xingqiu, right?

Behind, you hear Xingqiu mumbles something about Chongyun being ‘unbelievable’, ‘workaholic’ and ‘careless friend’. Shouldn’t you be the one who says that?

All of a sudden, you realize your back touching his chest, his hands wrap around you from behind. From here, you can smell the faint vanilla and a mix of woody, musk scent.

He reminds you of old books, the feeling of immersing yourself in a dusty library.

Blood rushing to your face, and the first thing that comes to your mind is to escape from his hold. The hydro user somehow able to read your mind, his grip tightens, holding you close.

In an intimate position, with you both fall in silence, your senses suddenly heighten. Even separated by layers of clothes, you can still feel the heat from Xingqiu. The rapid beat of your heart thumping in your rib cage, the coolness from his palm seeping slowly into your skin.

Somehow his touch doesn’t cool you but heating you up more, your body slowly burns up like a furnace. “ C-can you let me go ?” You stutter, squirming helplessly inside the young hydro user, avoiding his teasing gaze.

“ You asked me to touch you, so I comply with my liege's request.”

“ I didn't ask you to touch me.” You quip back at the shameless hydro user, body twisting weakly inside his hold, the sound of clothes rustling. How come you both learn martial arts, yet your strength is nothing compared to him?

“ This is not holding a hand.” You point out at his long arms wrap just under your neck, sulky. “ And stop hugging me. It’s burning in here.”

Xingqiu gives you a grin, amber orbs shoot you a questioning gaze. Well, it’s not true. His long-sleeved are rolled up, exposing the long slender arms, now is pressing on the thin layer of fabric, resonating with coolness. It feels like hydro is running under the vein of his arm. His fingers wrap on your shoulder, constantly transferring the calming sensation of flowing water.

“Isn’t this position more efficient than holding hand?” The hydro lazily rests his face on your shoulder, smirking devilishly. You have to admit this is much cooler than holding a hand, but this is too intimate. Flustered by his alluring gaze, you turn your head away, feet start moving toward the exorcist direction.

“W-we sh-ould catching up with Chongyun, he’s quite far away.” Stammering like a mess, you point your finger at the general direction where the exorcist was heading, the image of a light blue boy is getting smaller, slowly mending into the heat under the scorching furnace resting on your head. A chuckle is followed, but Xingqiu doesn’t say anything else, hands still wrap loosely around you, trailing steps after you.

You are too naïve to think that walking fast will break his hold. The young master of Feiyun Commerce Guild has proved your effort is futile. He effortlessly adjusts to your pace even when you purposefully try to quicken your step or stop abruptly. He doesn’t faze by your antic, instead, leaning close to your ear and blow hot air into your ears teasingly, knowing well how flustered you are.

From here, you can see Chongyun still having his eyes glued on the piece of paper, still not noticing his companions drift far behind him. Indeed he is careless, maybe you two should keep a close distance to protect him.

“ Are you getting cooler?” Xingqiu suddenly leans close, his face just a few inches away from yours.

You hold your breath in silence, heart almost drops at his close proximation. Can he not scare you like that? “ It's getting cooler.” As much as you tempted to elbow the hydro user away, you know how hot it will be without having his arms wrap around you, so you easily give in.

The two of you keep a decent pace while the boy wraps his hand around you, clinging like a koala. Look around, you realize this place is mostly dry trees somehow manage to root in the barren soil, broken wagons and holed baskets lying around in this place. Luckily, this area has much fewer hilichurls compares to the entrance of the village. Look like they’re also trying to find a shade in this weather. This place is closed to Dragonspine, and you still have no idea how the land doesn’t receive a single cool breeze from the frosted city.

“Why did you pull me back earlier?” Hesitantly, you ask him.

Xingqiu let out a confusing sound, not registering your question. Should you elaborate some more?

“When I was calling out to Chongyun.” You quickly add, trying to keep your voice steady and casual.

“ Oh, that.” He hums, his arms tighten around you. Why did he even hold you closer than before? You didn’t try to pry off his hug, why all of a sudden?

“ Because… you were… about to ask Chongyun to h-hold your hand right?” Freeze at his words, you twist your neck, curious at the face he is making right now. It’s rare for him to sound this uncertain about something. As a second son of the Guild Manager of one of the biggest trading guild in Liyue, the young man has been trained to speak with perfection. Every word coming from this young man is carefully formulated and spoken with utmost confidence.

As you face him, the young man furrows his brows, amber eyes fill with hesitant and worried. Why is he acting like this? A sudden wave of guilt washing your stomach, uneasiness slowly sinks deep into your skin.

You… are not supposed to call out for Chongyun?

“ B-but you laugh at me when I explain about the coolness exchange?” Tilting your head in confusion, you can’t help to not follow the hydro user thoughts. He refused you first, wasn't he? It should be normal for you to find Chongyun instead. The exorcist will probably agree to anything as long as he can help. “Wouldn’t it make more sense if I go to find Chongyun instead?”

“And holding hand with Chongyun? Archon, no!” Your skin jumps as Xingqiu raises his voice, and you have no idea what tickles him. Why fuzzing over something so trivial like this?

“ We always hold hands. There’s nothing wrong with it.” You can’t help to shoot back. “ You also hold his hand too.”

“N-no, our holding hand is different.” He can weakly defend, trying to rack his brain out to think of a time when they hold hands. He gives up soon afterwards. “Besides, you shouldn’t be holding hands with anyone.”

“ For your information, this is much more scandalous than holding hand.” You meekly point out, finger poking on his arm bares smooth skin. Twist back, you lean in closer, eyes crinkle into the shape of crescent moons. “And what’s wrong with us kids holding hand?”

Xingqiu can’t help but let out a defeated sigh, face drops down your shoulder and sulky buries his face in the crook of your neck. His hot breaths tickle the sensitive skin, cerulean locks brushing your cheek. Under his breath, you can barely make out his muffle word, saying something about don’t understand.

You slowly trek toward Chongyun’s direction, humming along with familiar tunes. Sudden changes from Chongyun and Xingqiu have no longer made you felt lonely or sadden. Boys at this age are unusual. They aren’t being closed with you as before, no longer inching close to you or hugging you from behind. They are more cautious when being close with you, more mindful when your fingers accidentally graze their.

If you ask them directly, will they answer you why they're acting like a married woman, always jumping every time you innate skinship?

You have a feeling they probably won't answer that.

“ /N… Y/N! ”

Abruptly, you raise your head, forehead almost hitting with Xingqiu’s. Your face is a breath away from his, so close that you can see his long lashes fluttering like a butterfly, shying away from the captivating eyes. His porcelain skin is smooth and flawless, a sudden urge tells you to caress it. A blush slowly creeping up his cheek, and finally, the hydro user shies away, staring at the road.

Xingqiu clears his throat. “ I was talking to you. You were spacing out again?” You can only offer him a sheepish smile.

“ S-sorry, I was thinking about something.”

Xingqiu looks up and stares at your face intently like he is trying to make his way into your maze-like mind. You shift away from his fierce gaze, but the hydro user is faster. His fingers easily catch your face, your cheeks fit perfectly into his cool smooth palm. Xingqiu lets out an amusing chuckle, fingers squishing your cheek playfully like a stress-reliever.

You feel like he has you wrapped around his little finger, literally.

“I don’t know what you were thinking, but whatever it is, it’s incorrect.” Despite the mean fingers toying your cheek, his voice is awfully soft and reassuring. Is he trying to comfort you? Carefully, you gloss your eyes over to his direction, observing the mischievous feature on his face slowly melts into a soft and mellow.

Before you can enjoy the rare gentle side of his, the amber eyes slowly gleam with playfulness, and he leans closer, only stops when your face is just a breath away. His hot breath fanning on your cheek, tickling. He is so close to you, so close that if you tilt your head, our lips will meet.

“ A moment ago, I said that you shouldn’t let any male hold your hand right?” His voice drops low, golden orb flickers like a torch. What is he planning again? You carefully nod.

He isn’t going to… bite you right?

“ You see, holding hand...” The young man chuckles slyly, the arm was wrapped around your neck makes the way down and nudges into your hand, fingers interlocking. " can easily drifting to this." You turn back fully to face him, the other hand still glazes your cheek.

“ They can easily slip their arm around you into a hug…” Slowly, the coolness in your palm slips away and snakes around your shoulder. “Then, they can…” Xingqiu’s grip on your cheek slowly relaxes, fingers slowly inch down on your neck.

Take a big gulp of saliva, you can only widen your eyes, nervously follow at the tracing fingers of his. His long digits don’t stop after wandering around your neck, they slowly creep up, follow your jaw, and then cup on your cheek. The cooling sensation you craved a moment ago now feels like frost nipping on your skin. Heart thumping loudly in the rib cage, you unconsciously hold your breath, waiting for his next move.

In the comfortable silence, his thump delicately brushes your cheek, caressing the sensitive skin. You notice his touch is loving and delicate, it makes you want to snuggle your face into his palm, enjoying this lasting moment.

“…then what?” You open your mouth impatiently, voice light and mushy.

A light pinkish blush quickly dusts on his cheek, you feel the man in front of you tenses up, but he remains his eye contact with you, refuses to avoid your gaze. His lips quiver but nothing coming out. Is he… hesitating? Finally, you hear him mumbles something quietly.

…you

“ What ?” You cock your brows and inch closer, eyes training on his plump lip. They remain still.

Feeling an intense gaze on your head, you feel a light squeeze on your cheek so you curiously tilt your chin up, just to see Xingqiu leans down and presses a light peck at the corner of your mouth.

His plump lips brush yours like a feather, almost non-touching. It’s soft and plush, but the moment only lasts for a few second. Abruptly, the coolness on your cheek leaves hastily, follows by his sleeveless arm around your shoulder.

As soon as you realize what just happened, the young master of Feiyun Commerce Guild has already dashed away, leaving a burning tomato behind. You shyly lower your head, face heats up profusely. Fingers slowly draw up to your lip, you recall the feeling of his lip touching yours.

You feel like you can combust right here and right now.

Unknownst to you, if you look in his direction, you might have spotted a pair of red ears and his inelegant falling on his butt.

#xingqiu #genshin xingqiu #genshin impact #xingqiu x reader #chongyun #xiangling #kiss #clarissalance #a peck #fluff #friend to lovers #best friend to lovers #genshin impact x reader

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lifewithdavefarts · 3 years ago

Photo

DaveFarts - Episode 7 “The Noisy Roommate” [Episode List] Tim spends the night at Dave’s house and they have to share the latter’s full-sized bed. As they go to sleep, Dave soon makes sure that it’s gonna be a noisy night.

The episode is inspired by TheFartingWolf’s video/premise of the same name. I had a similar idea sometime ago but I figured I could just combine my story and the video for, I don’t know, a real 4D experience? With that said, I’m ready to delete this story should TheFartingWolf want me to do so.

Also keep in mind that this is not a story about the IRL person who made the video linked above, but rather two fictional characters.

The Noisy Roommate

“Thanks for having me over, bro.” I thanked Dave, while rummaging through my backpack.

This was not the first time I slept at Dave’s house of course, not even the first during our 20s, but this time it truly was a last-second solution. This is not like the shower emergency from sometime ago, though water is involved again somehow.

“No problem dude. I needed someone to help me finish this case of beer anyway.” he said, cracking one open and throwing the can at me, which I managed to catch.

“Always up for it.” and I took a long sip of that cold nectar.

“I’m sorry you almost drowned.” he joked.

“Yeah it was terrible.” I played along.

Truth is that some pipe in my house literally exploded and water flooded the entire apartment. It’s not as bad as it sounds: the leak was already fixed but I still needed a place to stay for the night. I didn’t even have time to call anyone as Dave simply showed up at my place and drove me here.

We sat on the couch to watch some bad movie as we kept chatting about some random stuff and having beer. We were both dressed casually, Dave sporting a pair of grey shorts and a black t-shirt, outfits that doubled as our pajamas, even though Dave was probably gonna sleep shirtless as he usually does.

And again, as usual, I felt some familiar vibrations going through the couch. I rolled my eyes and chuckled.

“Straight to the point, I see.” I commented.

He laughed and slightly leaned, ripping the rest of the 7-seconds rip towards me, without the couch muffling the sound now. I always appreciate how my bud is so casual about my kink and that fart, needless to say, was impressive, despite being “small” for my bro’s incredibly high standards. Also, he basically almost always farted like this even before he knew about my fetish which, again, led me to appreciate more how his attitude towards me didn’t change at all -and he knows very well the “side effects” his blasts give me.

I pitched a tent in my own shorts but I managed to hide it by adjusting my position, crossing my legs. Whether Dave noticed that or not was irrelevant, as he kept ripping a couple of more loud toots.

We resumed watching the TV for like one hour until we both decided it was time to turn into corpses for the rest of the night, so we went upstairs, the beers making us a bit dizzy but nothing serious.

I was familiar with Dave’s house so I headed directly to the guest room, my bud right behind me.

I stepped into the dark room, turned the light on, and I saw it, staring at me from the bed.

Brave Dave was the first one to run away, pulling me outside of the guest room as I hastily shut the door. Team work!

“Okay, Tim. Were you cursed or something?” he asked.

On the bed we both just saw a huge spider, the biggest we’ve ever seen in real life. While we’re not properly arachnophobic, it’s not like *we like* sleeping with spiders hanging around.

We were both manly adult men and so we were both very afraid of the eight-legged monster sneaking out to murder us in our sleep, or simply existing, so the two of us rushed to the kitchen and came back with tons of duct tape to block up every nook and cranny of the guest room door.

“Alright.” I said. “I’ll just use the couch downstairs.”

“Nah bro.” Dave commented. “My bed’s full-sized. You can join me.” and he walked towards his room.

I needed some time to process what he just said. Me and Dave shared a bed many times but that was always before I came out to him. I wonder how-

“Look, I hate to interrupt your inner monologue about self-pity and all” he said, kind of annoyed. “But can we just for once skip your awkward bullshit and head to bed? Thanks.” and then disappeared into his room.

I chuckled a bit as I realized how “formulaic” I was being lately when he more than once proved to me that he had no issues with me, so I followed him.

The bedroom was dimly lit and he was already lying on his side of the bed, shirtless, showing off some mild pecs and an overall nice-looking figure.

“I gotta warn you: I’m a screamer in bed.” I jokingly said, lying down on my side of the bed, just by the window.

“Oh yesss, scream harder, daddy.” he played along, laughing.

We were both lying down, mindlessly scrolling stuff on our smartphones and reading articles. That only lasted a couple of minutes.

“Well, time for your goodnight kiss” Dave announced, quickly wrapping his legs around me and planting his butt in grey shorts in my face.

I was still lying down as the fart erupted, almost making me deaf for how loud it was, so up close and personal. I couldn’t see the ceiling very well as Dave’s hairy legs mostly obstructed the view. The blast didn’t even smell that much, which made me assume it was on command rather than fully natural; not that it didn’t stink at all of course.

The beer-powered fart lasted about 10 seconds. He wiggled his ass on my face a bit and then let me go/breathe. “I thought you were a screamer.” he teased and went back on his side of the bed, which almost looked queen-sized.

I didn’t say anything and I simply turned my back to him, trying to be annoyed and failing miserably, feeling a faint scent in my nostrils every time I breathed.

“Looks like there’s a leak in my house as well.” he said, right before ripping another thunderous blast, this time far from me. I tried to ignore that, but I still pitched a tent anyway. I didn’t even turn around: I’m not going to let the teaser win!

After a couple of minutes, Dave turned the lights off and the room fell into darkness, the only source of light being a digital alarm clock inches from my face. 1:34 AM, not as late as I thought, but my body didn’t care and I fell asleep almost immediately.

2:44 AM I hear a loud noise and I woke up, only opening my eyes, the alarm clock greeting my sight in a room of pure darkness. Took me a couple of moments to realize that, of course, it was Dave farting, this time in his sleep. I turned around, noticing Dave’s grey pants as my eyes adjusted to the dark.

3:01 AM I was almost asleep as another fart snapped me back to reality, this time even louder. Again I instinctively turned around and stared at my bud’s butt as the blast erupted. Those felt very airy and pretty much odourless I think. I thought whether I should wake him up but I didn’t want him to think that I was listening to his sleep-farting, which is literally what I was doing sadly.

At this point I was playing the jump-rope between being asleep and awake, every time fully waking up because of Dave farting like crazy. After many farts, the blast at 3:59 AM felt particularly powerful and “meaty”, which made me look again at my friend’s butt, somehow noticing his pants moving because of the air being blasted out. A powerful rip that lasted around 11 seconds I believe. Was I dreaming? Similar farts then followed.

4:59 AM This one almost scared me as when I thought it was over it instead became louder and louder, as if it was a train passing nearby. It had a great sound and flow, one of the best I ever heard from my bro.

5:32 AM Another peak in farting activity. Falling asleep at this point was impossible. Each moment of silence was just the quiet before the storm and I completely gave up on the idea of resting that night.

6:21 AM This one was so loud and powerful that even Dave woke up for a moment. He simply sighed in relief though, but when even the farter wakes up, you know the fart was incredible.

6:36 AM A similar blast greeted the first lights of the dawn.

Even more powerful rips were heard at 7:16 AM and 7:33 AM. At around 8:01 AM, Dave finally woke up by himself, one of his loudest farts acting as natural alarm clock.

That was a long night and as I heard Dave going downstairs to do his morning routine, I figured it was finally time to catch up some sleep, but ironically enough the silence made it more difficult as I was now so used to his blasts that they felt like white noise, fetish or not.

That teasing bastard won and wasn’t even done.

After merely 30 minutes, I heard him jump on the bed. I was facing the window, pretending to be asleep, but I knew he was standing on the bed, towering over me.

“Rise and shine, roommate!”

He squatted over my head, still sporting those grey shorts, and ripped a huge, loud and proud natural morning fart all over my face. I’m kind of glad I was already awake, ‘cause I would have been scared to death by that gas thunder. Where was all of this gas coming from? How was he not done?

I screamed, annoyed, and pushed him on his side of the bed, my hands touching his still-farting ass, the stench being this time unbearable. I heard him laugh like an idiot as he lied next to me, keeping one of his legs up as he finished ripping that loud, long fart.

“So you are a screamer!” he joked.

“And you fart in your sleep.” I replied.

“As if you’d mind me doing that.”

Whether he was aware or not of what happened during the night, Dave was as usual so comfortable around me that he just didn’t care and it was all just a big gassy prank for him. So I just lied there, awake, chatting with my bud about my house looking like Venice, so tired and so exhausted that I didn’t even bother about the spider staring back at us from the ceiling.

End of Episode 7

#fart story #eproctophilia #fartkink #davefarts2 #gayfart #malefarts

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thewritetofreespeech · 4 years ago

Text

Words: 3800+

Rating: M

Pairing: Benimaru (TSSK) x Reader

Summary: Rimuru-sama had told Benimaru about a tradition from his world called a 'honeymoon'. He thought it was a great idea.

AO3

It had been several months since the night you and Benimaru had become true husband & wife.

After the envoy left, you talked more about things. As expected, there were still a bit of growing pains in forming your relationship from what it once was into what it was now. However, you were making it work.

Benimaru was patient and kind as ever, but unexpectedly different when you were alone together. You hadn’t thought he would be like this. You had only seen him in a ‘formal’ capacity most times, the job of the Commander in Chief of the Jura forces was one that never really rested, or appropriately close when with the rest of your friends. Now though, you got to see another side of him.

He was funny. Playful. Once he let his guard down, he wasn’t nearly as intimidating as you’d originally thought. Actually, he could be quite goofy. His devotion was not only to Rimuru-sama and your people, but also devoted to you. He was always asking how your day was and if things were alright. Making sure you were provided for. Passionate.

You blush as you put away the linens you had folded up from outside. Benimaru had apparently not been kidding when he declared he’d claim your body everyday if he had to to prove it was his. Not that he needed to prove it. You had openly and willingly accepted yourself as his, and he yours. Still, almost every night, he came to you when you laid in bed together to physically profess his love. The man seemed insatiable. Though you weren’t exactly complaining.

You look up from your chores as the devil himself appeared. Coming through the door as if your thoughts had conjured him.

“Benimaru-kun! You’re back early. Did the meeting go well?” The kijin nodded as he removed his sword and sat it in it’s usually place next to the door. “I’m glad to hear it. I didn’t expect you home so soon, so I haven’t started dinner. I’ll get started now, but it will be a little bit.”

“In a moment [Y/N]. I need to talk to you.”

You pause on your way out the door and back track back over to the table to sit across from your husband. “Rimuru-sama has asked me to go on an ambassador mission in the mountains. To seek an alliance with the Yuki-Oni there.” You blink a little in surprise at the news. Though you were sure Benimaru could handle this, and seemed very pleased at being selected by your lord, you have to wonder about the forethought he put into it. Sending a fire oni to speak with a village of snow oni seemed uncharacteristically irresponsible of your lord.

“Well, I’m happy for you dear. I’m sure your trip will be successful.” Benimaru seemed to beam brighter at being complimented by you. “So I’ll see you in, what, a few days?”

“Actually, I was hoping you would come with me.” You were taken by surprise again. Had Rimuru-sama asked you to come? “I asked Rimuru-sama about it, and he said he could spare you for the few days.” Benimaru added, as if reading your mind. “It would be a nice chance for you to see places outside of Rimuru City. And Rimuru-sama told me about a tradition in his former world called a ‘honeymoon’. It’s when two newly wedded people go on a trip together shortly after their married to spend time together.”

“But, Benimaru, we’ve been married for more than a short while now?” True, your real married life had only begun a few months ago, but you had been married for over a year now.

“I know. But we didn’t go on one or do anything when we got married. I thought it would be nice.” The usually proud warrior looked down at the hardwood of your table, blushing and rubbing the back of his head in a shy manner. “Plus, I don’t want to go if I have to leave you here. I was serious when I said I never want to be without you by my side.” A declaration he had also made more than once since that night. “I’ll…be lonely without you.”

You put your hand against your mouth, pretending to be in thought. In reality you were trying to hide the goofy grin spreading across your face. How could someone so fierce and intimidating also be so adorable?

“Ok, I’ll go with you.” You finally announce, as if you had thought it over and come to a decision. “It would be nice to see the world a little. And, if Rimuru-sama can spare both of us, I see no reason not to go.”

The red head beamed ecstatically at your reply, then leaned over the table to give you a peck on the cheek. “Excellent! I’ll let Rimuru-sama know and tell Shuna to finish making your cold weather wardrobe!”

“Shuna? Hey wait.” Benimaru stopped in the doorway. “You asked Shuna to make me a cold weather wardrobe before you even asked me? What if I had said no?”

The oni looked at you like the thought had never crossed his mind. Then he grinned again and said ‘well, it all worked out’ in a rush before he left again. Alone, you shook your head. Honestly. What was your husband thinking sometimes?

*****

It took some time to get the preparations set, but soon enough you were ready to travel to the mountains to visit the Yuki-Oni.

“Safe travels, onee-san!” Shuna told you in parting with her usual bright smile.

She had called you that before, but in recent months it sounded more like she meant it. Thinking of you more now as a true ‘big sister’, married to her brother, than an older woman she could depend and rely on. The former was still true, but it was clear in her tone she thought of you more as family.

You depart Rimuru City with everyone’s blessing. Coming to see you off until you were out in the country side and off on your journey.

It took a few days to make it to the Yuki-Oni village. Between the distance and intentionally treacherous path up the mountain, it had taken a bit of time. It hadn’t been all bad. While still down in the valley you had stopped for a picnic once or twice, and laid in a field of flowers you had come upon for a bit to soak up the sun and sweet smell. Benimaru said that this was one of the things that Rimuru-sama told him people did on their ‘honeymoon’. You weren’t sure about that, but it was a much-needed respite from your travels.

Arriving at the village, you were greeted warmly by the ice monsters. They all seemed very demure and polite. A cool sort of air about them that really fit with the cold aesthetic of their homeland. The men were all tall and hard looking, while the women were all beautiful and waif like. Pale alabaster skin, long white hair, piercing blue eyes. You were glad you came with Benimaru now. Not that you thought for a moment he would be unfaithful to you, but you still didn’t like the idea of those beautiful creatures lingering around him.

You were shown to your quarters in the elder’s home before you were to meet with the council of elders. The idea of having to convince a council concerned you. It was harder to persuade a group than one. And the Yuki-jiji all looked like they were a group of men not to be easily swayed. “Maybe I should stay here?” You question as you unpacked your things.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t think the Yuki-jiji appreciate women in their council meeting.” They didn’t even let their own women in. Let alone a human one. The last thing you wanted to do was insult these people, and their traditions, by forcing yourself in to the situation. “It might be best if you just go.”

“Ridiculous.” Benimaru said with a sneer. “We didn’t come all this way for you to sit in a room and be cast out.”

“I thought we came for our ‘honeymoon’?” You said as a joke. Trying to break this awkward tension.

“We came for two things.” He quipped back at you. “I want you to come with me. I want us to go together. I’m…not good at this sort of thing on my own. Rimuru-sama put his faith in me, and I’m grateful for this opportunity, but I think it’s misplaced. I’m much better at forcing an agreement at sword point, not conversation.” The kijin looked away, clearly irritated at himself for not being better at it no matter how hard he tried, before looking back at you. “If you’re there though, you’ll keep me grounded. I find your presence calming. So I’ll be less likely to make a fool of myself.”

“You won’t make a fool of yourself, whether I’m there or not.” You assure him while placing your hand against his cheek. It hurt your heart to hear him berate himself like this. Rimuru-sama picked him because he was more than just a strong arm at the end of a sword. Why couldn’t he see that? “Alright. I’ll go. I don’t know if it will really help but I’ll try to be supportive. To you and our cause.”

Benimaru smiled. Then tilted his hand to kiss your palm before squeezing it in his hand. “Let’s go then.”

*********

The meeting lasted most of the day, and well into the evening. By the time you both return to your provided quarters, you were both exhausted.

“Rimuru-sama will be happy to hear of our success.”

“I’m sure he will be. Jura seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.” Who would have thought?

“It’s all thanks to you.” Benimaru said as he came up to sit on your right.

“Me?” You remark in surprise. “I didn’t do much of anything?”

“That’s not true.” The oni said with a soft smile, shaking his head. “The way you talk to people. The way you talk about our home, and the virtue it brings. Not just it’s strength. How it’s a place for all. They could see that’s something they want to be apart of. Rimuru-sama was very wise to have you come along. As he always is.”

Your cheeks tint at Benimaru’s words. Such high praise something you never seemed to get used to. No matter how much he or the others lavished you with it, you always felt so awkward to be complimented by people.

“So, the evening is ours now. What shall we do?”

“Well, I was going to take a bath, buuut….” You look over at the provided tub. Not looking warm & inviting like a bath should, but cold & dark like a vat of despair. “I guess the Yuki-Oni aren’t a fan of hot baths.”

“I can heat it up for you.” Benimaru declared. Already activating his powers to do so. “A thing like this is not so hard. I’ll have it warmed up for you in a moment.”

“That’s amazing Benimaru!” You gush at your husband’s resourcefulness. Who knew he could be so handy?

The oni grinned wide. Briming with pride at the praise. He went over to the tub and slipped his hand into it. The water almost instantly steaming at the contact. “There! That should do it.”

“Ahhh…warm bath…” You sigh happily. Moved nearly to the point of tears at the idea of being warm for the first time since you got here.

You move to discretely remove your clothes and get in the bath, when you notice movement out of the corner of your eye from Benimaru. The man not moving to leave as you’d anticipated, but undress as well. “What are you doing?”

The red head stopped in removing his undercoat and looked at your curiously. “Taking a bath?” The expression on his face saying ‘didn’t we just have this conversation’.

“Wait a minute! This is my bath! Did you really heat this up to steal my bath from me??”

“What? No! Of course not! I thought we could share.” He looked back to the tub, completely missing the blush and sudden halt in all function from you, as he examined it. “It’s big enough.”

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to do that here.” You reply nervously. Cheeks still pink as you had a pretty good idea where this would lead.

“Come on. It’s just a bath.” Bemimaru insisted. “Besides, my powers for this work best when I’m in close proximity. If I’m not touching it, the water will just grow cold again.”

You have the sinking suspicion that he was lying to you. But it was a very convincing lie, and one you couldn’t really argue with. “Alright. But behave! We’re here as Rimuru-sama’s ambassadors. We shouldn’t be fooling around while guests in another person’s home.” A person whom you were trying to sway to your cause.

The red head nodded and assured you he meant no funny business. Again, you had the sinking suspicion he was lying to you, but couldn’t actually prove it, so you went along. You both stripped down and get in the tub. The only way you would both fit was if you practically sat in Benimaru’s lap. His back resting against the side of the tub while your back rested against his chest.

“Aaaahhh…” Your ‘chair’ sighed loudly. Feeling his sigh vibrate through your back as he relaxed. “This is great. We should have done this sooner.”

“Agreed.” You reply as you relax too against him. The warm water soaking out all the tired muscles from your journey and tension you had felt before the meeting. Making you complacent.

You both stay like that for a little while. Relaxing in the warm water in complete silence. Until you feel Benimaru’s hand brush against your arm. “What are you doing?” You asked in a drowsy, but mildly suspicious, tone.

“I was going to wash your back for you.” He replied against your ear. Making you shiver. “Can you lean forward for me?”

That nagging suspicion of his intent still clung to the back of your mind, but it was getting pushed further and further back by the warm water and his soft words. Having your back washed did sound nice.

The water slouched around a little as you moved to sit up and lean over the other side of the tub. “Is this ok?” You ask. Looking back over your shoulder from where you had cradled your head in your arms on the rim.

“Yeah….” Benimaru replied in a low voice. Looking at you. “That’s perfect.”

Your husband shifted around carefully, both to not hit you or splash the water out of the tub, as he came up on his knees behind you. The soft, wet sponge touched your back tentatively at first. But once you relaxed and even let out a soft sigh it became more diligent. His hands pressing a little harder with the sponge to give you a dual back wash & massage. It was extremely pleasant. The warm water and his warm hands on your body. So much so that you might moan a little when he came to your lower back.

“Ah…don’t do that to me…” Benimaru said. His voice sounding odd. Pained. It sounded so strange that you opened your eyes a little. You hadn’t realized you closed them. “I’m trying to be good and honorable. But if you moan like that, it gets very hard.” You’re not sure if he meant ‘it’ by the situation in question or the erection you were now feeling brush against your leg. When had that gotten there? You gasp at the feel of him against your thigh, but also the sponge and his hand shifting to your front; just at the top of your breast. “Please [Y/N]. Let me be with you. I can’t stand being without you anymore. It’s been so long.” You want to tell him that it’s only been a few days. But apparently, in ogre time, that was an eternity. He genuinely sounded like he was in agony right now. Not to mention that his hands wouldn’t stop touching you.

You’ll blame the warm water, and being so relaxed, and his damned skillful hands later, but your resolve broke quite easily. “Yes. Yes, I want you too Benimaru.”

You think you hear a happy rush of air level his lips before he moved forward and enveloped you. His broad chest encasing your back as he laid against it. His hands dropping the sponge to make direct, intentional touches with your body. His cock slipping between your legs to brush against your apex in pseudo-love making. You both moan.

He rutted against you like that for a moment. Thrusting against the outside of your opening. The hard lines of his cock brushing against the bundle of nerves at the top, making your insides quake and spasm greedily around nothing. “B-Benimaru….” You whine as you pressed back against him. His torturous touch driving you mad. “Please.”

Your husband groaned a little, low in his throat, before he kissed his mark behind your ear, where he had bitten you that first time, before lifting off to enter you. Being relaxed and the warm water made it easy, but he was as gentle as ever with putting it inside you. There was still a slight stretch with his size, but it’s a feeling you grown not only accustom to but relish. Just having him inside you made you moan wantonly.

“Ah…I keep telling you. Don’t do that to me.” Benimaru replied to your moan. You couldn’t see it with him behind you, but you could hear the hint of a smile in his voice. He pulled back and began to thrust, low and slow, into you. “I can’t control myself when you moan like that for me. How am I supposed to keep calm, and quiet, when you make my blood boil like that?”

“I’m…sorry…” You stutter out. Your voice staggered from his deep thrusts and your own labored breath of pleasure. “It just….feels…so good…..!” You moan again when his thrust went deeper this time. Hitting that place inside you that made you see stars.

He couldn’t control himself? What did he expect you to do when he was making love to you like this?

If anything, this was his fault

“Hmmm…this is no good…” You let out a surprised noise as Benimaru pulled out. You look over your shoulder. A little wounded at the comment. Not good? But before you could ask, or get more upset about the comment, Benimaru turned you around so you were facing him. Thrusting back into you in one swift move of your back hitting the tub and knocking all words out of your mouth. “I wanna see your face. It’s no good if I can’t see you and kiss you any time I want.” Then he did just that.

His tongue thrust into your mouth like his cock into your lower half. Swallowing your moans now that were flowing out unabashed. Doing it the other way had been nice, but you have to agree. This way was much better. Being able to kiss him. See his amazing body. Look into his beautiful eyes burning with such passion & love for you was bringing you closer to the edge than ever before.

“B-Beniamru! I…I’m close!”

“Me too.” The oni grunted out. Kissing your ear when you wrap your arms around his neck. “Cum for me my love. Let’s go together.” He always seemed to have a way with words with you, because you did as you were told and came around his cock.

His thrusts continue for a few moments longer, pounding through your orgasm, before they stop and Benimaru shuttered in your arms. A sign that he had finished too. You stay there for a moment. Holding each other loosely in the tub, before the kijin pulled back and looked around you like he just remembered where you were.

“I think we fucked all the water out of the tub.”

Your mouth scrunched up and you pinched Benimaru’s shoulder. “Don’t be vulgar.” He was right though. Now that your brain had resumed function again, you could see that half the water in the tub was gone. The floor soaking wet to the point you had to groan. No way you were going to be able to clean this up or explain this away without attracting attention.

The oni yipped at your pinch before he chuckled, then kissed you softly. He then stood from the tub, wet and naked and proud, before lifting you up out of it as well like a princess and carrying you over to the bed.

“We’ll clean it up later.” He stated, seeming to read your mind once again, as he laid you on the soft futon. “It’ll be alright.

“I still can’t believe you talked me into it.” You grumble. Pretending that you had been seduced, rather than whole heartedly accepting your husband in all aspects, as you dried yourself off. “What will the Yuki-Oni think.”

“That we are too people in love.” He replied quickly and with a smile. “The elders are all men. I’m sure they remember what it’s like to be young and in love, and unable to keep your hands off their young, beautiful wife.”

You blush a little at his words, but don’t really want to think about those old men being happy with their wives. “I suppose it’s a natural thing, but it’s still very rude to have sex in someone else’s house.”

“Maybe for humans. But we oni don’t see it that way.” Benimaru replied. Tossing his towel away. “Besides, Rimuru-sama said that this is something that most newlyweds do on their honeymoon.”

You shook your head as he pulled back the covers to let you both get under them. The room growing cold again now that you weren’t in the warm water, or doing other warm, pleasurable activities.

You snuggle together under the blankets. Watching the fresh snow flutter down outside the window. “Did you really need to be touching the water for your powers to work?” You finally ask.

You don’t know what his answer was going to be. But judging by the way your husband stiffened and balked at the question, you know now that he had been lying to you. “Well….it does work best that way. In theory. But….no….”

He turned away to not look at you. Or the steely stare you leveled at him. “Benimaru. I can’t believe you lied to me.” Sweat drops seemed to start pooling at his forehead as in flinched at your harsh words. Then he let out a startled sound as you flipped over on top of him, forcing him to look up at you with a confused expression. “You’ll have to be punished.”

#;pen & paper (fanfiction)#benimaru #benimaru x reader #benimaru tssk #benimaru (Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken)#tensei shitara suraimu datta ken #tensei shitara slime datta ken #tensei shitara suraimu datta ken imagine #tensei shitara suraimu x reader #tensei shitara slime datta ken x reader #that time i got reincarnated as a slime #random fandom

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thomaslightwood · 4 years ago

Text

The Sanctuary || Thomastair (from Alastair's POV)

From chapter 19 & 21 from COI!

This was weird to do and even tho I had the dialogue it wasn't as easy to write as I expected. I tried to make this how I imagine Alastair's thought process and it hit a little too close to home so tried my best to do this scene justice. I hope you like it!

•

Alastair barely moved since the door had closed and locked behind the Consul for the last time.

It has been hours. Alastair was rereading pages of The Prince over and over again, without actually understanding most of them. He randomly turned on pages from time to time, at least to look like he was reading.

Even without looking at Thomas, he was aware where he was in the Sanctuary. Alastair wondered what Thomas thought of him now. After founding out Alastair literally had been stalking him for weeks. Or maybe he was worrying about the fact he was accused for murder.

At some point, Thomas walked to the door and shook it, like he was hoping even for the slightest chance that the lock and wards had failed.

“A little menacing that the Sanctuary bolts shut from the outside, isn’t it? I never thought about it much before,” Alastair said, his voice was the first loud thing in hours.

Thomas turned around to look at him. There was something desperate in his face.

“I, er, suppose one might have to keep an unexpectedly dangerous Downworlder out, or something,” Thomas said awkwardly. Alastair looked away.

“Maybe,” he shrugged. “On the other hand, it does give the Institute a makeshift prison.”

It was a little creepy when he thought about it. A Sanctuary was supposed to be a sacred place. A place that provides safety and protection. Alastair had never thought he would be held as a prisoner here. And definitely not with Thomas Lightwood.

Thomas wandered a little closer to him. Alastair didn't look away from his book. With the corner of his eye he could see Thomas' messy hair, clothes stained with blood and dirt. His tattoo was bright on his arm.

“Why have you been following me around?” Thomas demanded.

Alastair’s breath hitched. He didn't expect Thomas to speak to him. “Someone had to,” he said, still staring at his book.

“What on earth does that mean?” Thomas said.

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to, Lightwood,” Alastair said sharply. He didn't want to have a fight with him, not now. Not ever.

Thomas sat down with a thump on Alastair’s mattress. Alastair blinked at him in surprise.

“I do want the answer,” Thomas said. “And I will not get up until you tell it to me.”

Alastair slowly set his book aside. He could see Thomas' neck, the edge of his white shirt and if he moved his gaze further below there was the promise of his chest, hidden underneath the cloth. Alastair thought about their time in Paris, in the cafe. Thomas' warm skin under his fingers. And many months later, in London, his skin was warm as he remembered it, but marked with the rose compass tattoo.

“I knew you were taking extra patrols,” Alastair said, still thinking about Thomas' tattoo. “And more than that - going out by yourself with a murderer on the loose. You were going to get yourself killed. You’re meant to take someone with you.”

It sounded logical, didn't it? Alastair hoped so because if not Thomas would reveal that Alastair followed him because he wasn't just worried Tom would get himself killed - he wanted to be close to him, to take care of him, to do something for him, even if Thomas wasn't aware of it.

“No, thank you,” Thomas said. “All these people going out in pairs, announcing themselves every time they speak, unable to make a move without consulting each other - they might as well ring a bell to let the killer know they’re coming. And meanwhile, if you’re not on the schedule, you’re supposed to just sit around on your arse doing nothing. We’ll never catch the murderer if we avoid being out on the streets. That’s where the murderer is.”

Well, this sounded logical too, Alastair thought. Stubborn and reckless but logical.

Alastair was a little amused. “Never before have I heard such a concise statement of the ludicrous philosophy with which you and your school friends go through the world, running toward danger,” he said, stretching. “But that’s not why you were doing what you were doing,” Alastair added. “There’s a little truth to what you just said, but not the heart of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You couldn’t save your sister. So you want to save other people. You want revenge, even if this isn’t the same evil that took Barbara - it’s still evil, isn’t it?” Alastair knew what he said may sound rude and was definitely not his business. But he was also determined to speak the truth. No matter how ugly, no matter how painful. The truth must be faced. “You want to behave recklessly, and you don’t want your reckless behavior to compromise a patrol partner’s safety. So you went alone.”

Thomas' face told him he was right.

“Well, I don’t believe you really think that we’re stupid,” Thomas said, “or that we willingly court danger for danger’s sake. If you believed that, you would do more to stop Cordelia spending time with us.”

Alastair scoffed. Like he could stop Cordelia from anything.

“My point,” Thomas went on, an edge to his voice, “is that I don’t think you believe the rude things you say. And I don’t understand why you say them. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s as if you want to drive everyone away.” He paused. “Why were you so awful to us in school? We never did anything to you.”

Alastair winced. For a long moment he was silent. What he could tell? What he could tell to make Thomas believe he's not terrible? Maybe he couldn't. Maybe this wasn't possible. He could only tell Thomas the truth and let him decide.

“I was awful to you …,” he said at last, “because I could be.”

“Anyone can be a bastard if they want to be,” said Thomas. “You had no reason to do it. Your family are friends with the Herondales. You could at least have been kinder to James.”

This wasn't untrue, mostly. But there was so much more than this.

“When I got to school,” said Alastair slowly, the effort costing him, “loose talk about my father had preceded me. Everyone knew he was a failure, and some of the older students decided I was an easy target. They … let’s just say that by the end of the first week, I had been made to understand my place in the hierarchy, and I had the bruises to remind me should I ever forget.”

Those were painful memories. The jokes, the vicious words and the other kids' fists. Back then he thought he would never allow someone to treat him like that again, even if this meant he would become a monster himself.

“After about a year of being knocked around,” Alastair went on, “I realized I could either become one of the bullies, or suffer for the rest of my school days. I felt no loyalty to my father, no need to defend him, so that was never a problem. I wasn’t very big - well, you know what that’s like.”

He eyed Thomas for a moment. Looking self-conscious, Thomas shrank back a bit. Physically he had grown so much, his muscles were visible through the shirt.

“What I did have,” said Alastair, “was a savage tongue and a quick wit. Augustus Pounceby and the others would collapse laughing when I cut some poor younger student down to size. I never got my hands bloody, never hit anyone, but it didn’t matter, did it? Soon enough the bully boys forgot they’d ever hated me. I was one of them.”

“And how did that turn out for you?” Thomas said in a hard voice.

Alastair looked at him matter-of-factly. “Well, one of us has a close-knit group of friends, and the other one has no friends at all. So you tell me.”

“You have friends,” Thomas said. Alastair snorted at this. He didn't. Not really.

“Then you arrived, a bunch of boys from famous families, too well brought up to understand at first what went on far from home. Expecting the world would embrace you. That you would be treated well. As I never had been.” Alastair pushed back a lock of hair. His hands were shaking. He was so bitter then, so full of anger at the injustice of the world. He took a breath, hoping Thomas didn't notice. “I suppose I hated you because you were happy. Because you had each other - friends you could like and admire - and I had nothing like that. You had parents who loved each other. But none of that excuses the way I behaved. And I do not expect to be forgiven.”

It hurted Alastair to say it, to think about it. But he really didn't think the Merry Thieves would forgive him - he wasn't surprised. If he was at their place he probably wouldn't forgive himself too.

“I’ve been trying to hate you,” Thomas said quietly, “for what you did to Matthew. You richly deserve to be hated for what you have done.”

Alastair looked Thomas in the face. “It wasn’t just his mother I slandered. It was your parents, too. You know it. So you don’t have to—to act all high-minded about this. Stop pretending you are only upset on behalf of Matthew. Hate me on your own behalf, Thomas.”

Part of him wanted this. One small, self-destructive part wanted Thomas to hate him. To tell him so. To lash out his anger at Alastair, so he could feel his pain in his bones, to remember it and to carry it with himself like he carried his own.

“No,” Thomas said firmly. He looked so sure, like this wasn't even an option. Like it was the law of nature, something that cannot.

Alastair didn't know how to react. Tension was freezing his body and mind and he could just blink at him.

“The reason I cannot hate you is because—because of those days we spent in Paris together,” he said. Alastair stomach flipped. “You were kind to me when I was very alone, and I am grateful. It was the first time I realized you could be kind.”

Alastair stared at him. The little light they had was doing strange things to Thomas' appearance. His hair looked lighter but his face was in shadow, making his eyes seem darker and deeper than usual. “It is my favorite memory of Paris as well.” Was Alastair saying this? Was this really his voice?

“You don’t have to say that. I know you were there with Charles.”

Alastair stiffened. He looked away. “Charles Fairchild? What about him?”

“Wouldn’t that be your best memory of Paris?” Thomas raised an eyebrow.

Alastair’s jaw was rigid. “Exactly what are you suggesting?”

He didn't want to do anything with Charles anymore. He wanted to move on. But it wasn't his business to reveal Charles' secrets. Alastair wouldn't do this to him.

“I’m not suggesting anything. I’ve seen the way you look at Charles, the way he looks at you. I’m not an idiot, Alastair, and I’m asking …” Thomas shook his head, sighing. His face was different than the past few months. The way he looked at Alastair… like he was searching for something. There was a deep ache in his eyes. “I suppose I’m asking if you’re like me.”

•

“Thomas Lightwood,” said Alastair. “I am nothing like you.”

If there was something in the whole world he was sure about, it was this.

He saw how Thomas' eyes widened. A pained expression on his face. Terror and humiliation were creeping in his eyes.

“I am nothing like you, Thomas,” Alastair continued, “because you are one of the better people I have ever known. You have a kind nature and a heart like some knight out of legend. Brave and proud and true and strong. All of it.” He smiled bitterly. He meant every word. “And all the time you have known me, I have been a terrible person. So, you see. We are nothing at all alike.”

Thomas’s gaze snapped up.

“I’m not—” Thomas breathed. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant.” The words hung between them, neither daring to move a muscle. After a moment Alastair added in a gentler voice, “How did you know about Charles?”

“You wouldn’t tell me what you were doing in Paris,” said Thomas. “But you mentioned Charles, over and over again, like you got pleasure out of just saying his name. And when you came to London this summer, I saw the way you looked at him. I know what it is to have to hide the—the signs of affection.”

“Then I imagine you may have noticed I don’t look at Charles that way anymore,” Alastair said and couldn't not think what a lovesick fool he was.

“I suppose I did,” Thomas said, “though for the past four months, I’ve been trying not to look at you. I told myself I hated you. But I could never really make myself. When Elias died, all I could think about was you. What you must be feeling.”

Alastair winced. “I insulted your father and blackened his name. You were under no obligation to care about mine.”

Elias was something Alastair carefully avoided to think about. The unsaid words, the anger and all the disgust, resentment and undescribable loss of his father in so many ways was too much to bear.

“I know, but sometimes I think that it is much harder to lose someone who we are on bad terms with than it is to lose someone with whom all is well,” Thomas said kindly.

Tears filled Alastair's eyes.

“Bloody hell, Thomas. You should hate me, not be thinking about what I must be feeling—” Alastair swiped at his eyes. Raziel, his kindness. It was good he didn't deserve, a blessing so precious it made him want to cry. Why couldn't Thomas just hate him? Why couldn't he be like Matthew Fairchild and hate him? It would be deserved. It would be easier. “And the worst of it is, you’re right, of course. You always understood other people so well. I think I partly hated you for it, for being so kind. I thought, ‘He must have so much, to be able to be so generous.’ And I thought that I had nothing. It never occurred to me that you had secrets too.”

“You were always my secret,” said Thomas softly, and Alastair turned a surprised gaze at him. His face was so open, so vulnerable. It was so different, they both were, since the first time they met but… at the same time so soft, so kind like it was at the Academy, at Paris and now, at the Sanctuary again.

“Does no one know?” said Alastair. “That you—like men? How long have you known?”

“Since after I came to school, I think,” Thomas said in a low voice. “I knew what caught my eye, quickened my pulse, and it was never a girl.”

“And you never told anyone?”

Thomas hesitated. “I could have told my friends that I liked men. They would have understood. But I couldn’t have told them how I felt about you.”

“So you did feel something for me. I thought-” Alastair looked away, shaking his head. “I didn’t see you—you were this boy, following me around at school, and then I met you in Paris and you’d grown up and turned into Michelangelo’s David. I thought you were beautiful. But I was still caught up with Charles—” He broke off. “Just another thing I’ve wasted. Your regard for me. I wasted my time and my affection on Charles. I wasted my chance with you.”

It would definitely be easier if Thomas hated him, Alastair thought with bitterness. But now, knowing he wasted his time with a man who would choose his career over Alastair every time when he could be with Thomas—it was too much. Another tragedy in his life, another wasted opportunity….

“Maybe not,” Thomas said. He sounded dizzy. “About me, I mean.”

Alastair blinked. “Speak sense, Lightwood,” he said testily. His words couldn't reach Alastair's brain. “What do you mean?”

“I mean this,” said Thomas, and leaned towards Alastair.

It was a quick kiss. Unsure and shocking and so, so sweet.

Thomas drew back hesitantly. It was obvious he didn't know if this was alright, if he wasn't crossing a line. Alastair caught hold of Thomas’s shirtfront in a firm grip. He slid onto his knees so that they faced each other; with Thomas sitting back on his heels, their heads were at the same level.

“Thomas—” Alastair began. His voice was rough, unsteady. He had a hard time getting a grip on himself. Abruptly, Alastair let go of Thomas’s shirt, started to turn his face away.

“Just imagine,” Thomas said. “What if we’d never gone to the Academy together? What if none of those things had happened, and Paris was the first time we’d met? And this was the second?”

Alastair said nothing. It was an impossible scenario. Just a comfort fantasy for the cold, sad nights that ended up hurting you more than healing you.

He smiled weakly. “Damn you, Thomas,” he said, and there was resignation, yes. Because he was so done pretending, so done hiding what he was feeling towards this amazing man. He wanted to feel every dark, forbidden and sweet thing there was with Thomas.

A moment later he was pulling Thomas toward him. Their bodies collided, awkward and thrilling. Alastair knew he was probably the more experienced of the two but he was barely aware what he was doing.

He had never imagined he would be able to do all this. To touch Thomas' chest, his shoulders and back, his tattoo and Adam's apple. He had never imagined Thomas would tenderly kiss the arch of his throat and smile against Alastair's skin. He had never imagined he would be so happy while waiting to be proved innocent for a crime. But while he was kissing Thomas Lightwood, he thought it was worth it.

#thomastair #alastair carstiars #thomas lighwood #tlh #tsc #coi #the last hours #the shadowhunter chronicles #chain of iron #coi spoilers #chain of iron spoilers #cassandra clare #tsc fanfiction #tsccreatenet #sav's writing #my post

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papers4me · 4 years ago

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Fruits Basket Reboot: Analytical Overview of the Anime

Fruits Basket’s reboot is one of most successful anime reboots since it has:

Amazing story that celebrates human weakness, digs into the depths of human identity & doesn’t shy away from depicting child trauma & abuse. Teaches the values of letting go & walking forward.

The author’s blessing, nostalgia factor from loyal fanbase.

Fixed scheduled 3 season comeback with 63 eps in total planned from the very beginning.

Finished source material with its ending approved by manga fans.

Anime follows the official manga ending.

The “slice of life/shojo” genre doesn’t need budget for fight scenes or big scale realistic animation for its lore.

All these factors contributed to its success, however, this doesn't mean the anime was a masterpiece. It is very good but had issues aren’t in the writing, but rather in the format, overall vision & its effect on characters’ depths.

1. Format:

a. ( Is Fruits Basket an episodic anime or a plot-driving story?)

-The anime couldn’t decide how to adapt the manga content, should it follow it literally & combine two chapters together each time, or take the core plot & drive it by character, or focus on its vision or what? they KNOW that can’t adapt everything. They have 63 eps in total so they have good number of eps to do any choice. However, since the anime is advertised as “ a faithful adaptation” they wanted to cement this announcement in se01 & chose “character of the day” format. Once, the manga fans are assured & hooked, they can drive the rest wherever.

-Se02 was slightly less episodic (minus the beach arc which had perfect pacing). Afterwards, the yuki content was approached similarly to se1 but centered around “ episodic themes”. Lots of characters arcs are pushed to se3 to keep the “mother” theme of se2. that’s why all eps ended happily minus few eps such as tohru’s nightmare ending in isuzu’s ep.

-Se03 is where the anime really had the biggest issues & couldn’t decided between keeping themes or rolling like a true well-written drama-infused story. Thus we see them trying to keep the episodic themes as long as possible in 5 eps & once ep 6 starts & they can no longer label a flowing plot into themes, they rolled into the climax. The entirety of tohru’s neglected issues outside of her role as a mother was condensed in one ep via audio narration, since ep 7 should drive akito into the climax spot, ep 8 is kyo’s & ep 9 is female antagonist vs female protagonist clash. The rest of the eps focus around wrapping the growth arcs of kyo, akito, yuki & tohru.

I wish they kept the episodic forma for se01 only. Se01 is episodic by design since you can’t maneuver around character introduction, but they should’ve let season 2 & 3 flow smoothly without imposing episodic themes that a junior high schooler could detect, simply because the theme will choose which character fits this ep & which must be cut. Hardly a smart decision for a drama-focused story. Example: Se02 post-beach arc, being “mother tohru” themed meant the cut content of any “teenage girl tohru content”, focusing only on her role as a mother & shoving the rest of “tohru” into the unbelievably packed se03.

b. ( How the seasons are divided & which one is best?)

Lots of fans believed that: se1 (kyo focus), se2 (yuki focus), se3 (tohru focus), I don’t think this is the correct official anime format at all, but rather the fans wishful thinking, here’s why:

se01 isn’t kyo’s focus at all. Kyo has ONE focused ep each season: se01:ep24, se3: ep9, & se03: ep8. He gets more screen time in se03 to deal with the aftermath of ep8 & to mark his growth & close his arc. But, yuki had more focused eps in se01 than kyo. Example, se01, ep 12, yuki tells the audience abt his dream of new friends, home & new self, sth he achieved gradually ever since that ep ended, thus, Kisa’s ep is a yuki centered ep as well as it marked the beginning of (a) “mother tohru” issues, (b) him deciding to join student council & get out of his comfort zone which is the beginning of “ new yuki”.

se2 is indeed a yuki centered season.

se03 is not a tohru’s focus at all, we still had (akito, shigure, kyo, kureno, momiji, isuzi, haru, machi, motoko, & more yuki) to start or finish their arcs & it is 13 eps only. tho, Tohru had a self-focused role at last which is good.

-I believe the following format better describes the anime’s seasons’ division since it is driven by themes:

se01: Life teachings for the youngsters, due to the direct format of advise given by mother kyoko thro her daughter to the characters/ audience.

se02: Life teachings thro a coming of age story. The trio are struggling to choose a future, afraid & burdened by their trauma’s. Yuki with the help of “mother tohru” , leaves the nest “youngster stage” & sets his foot into the future & struggles to: have fiends, express himself, face his parents, be honest with himself, form an identity & understand himself.

se03: Life teachings of mature issues to those who have already chosen wrong once or twice. bigger issues are presented such as: guilt, death, trauma, extreme self-loath, self-destructive tendencies (kyo), grief, lack of self-esteem, refusing to let go of the past, abandonment issues, constructed polite girl identity with false happy mask (tohru), superiority complex, false forced identity, sins & misdeeds (akito), other themes such as adultery, manipulation, passiveness & enabling can fit the other characters.

So, naturally, season 3 is the richest in content, extremely entertaining story-focused, plot-driven, multi characters depth, plethora of themes, issues & variety of fascinating character writing to distinguish between various arcs & wrap ups. Honestly, se03 carries the whole success since it IS the story of Fruits Basket ( a basket of different fruits & we get to hear/see them all, including the rice-cake!). Still, se03 suffered from the issues of pacing & format I mentioned above, plus condensed content due to short number of eps dedicated to 12 characters.

2. Overall Vision:

Tohru being the main protagonist carries the story’s vision, however, I think Taklaya-san wanted the vision to expand to all her characters. I duno abt the author’s true vision since I haven’t read the manga, but if I were to guess based on the overall story: it is “the acceptance of human weakness”. Yuki isn't the perfect prince, tohru isn't the angelic mom, kyo isn't the horrible monster. These assumptions are the OTHER characters’ perspective of them. Not their true identity or reality. We later even learn that the abusive akito herself, chose a healthier identity, the atoned family head. However, in the anime, characters’ weakness isn’t the center of the anime’s vision, rather its vision is abt the “nurturing effects of the mother figure”, which is supported by the writing as well, but shouldn't be the core driving plot. The anime is more centered around mothers & more narrowly guided. The characters’ weaknesses takes a second seat until the focus on the mother role is over. This does not affect tohru only, but all characters including yuki himself.

-Tohru being the female protagonist shouldn’t be angelic as this contradicts the core theme, thus tohru is given her own set of (human aspects): trauma, frustrating character traits, faulty coping mechanism: the fake happy mask. Her role as yuki’s mother is only ONE part of her, as big as it is his life & as huge as it is from his perspective. It should NOT be what the audience can only see & feel from tohru. If it is, then Tohru is forever the 16 year-old mother of her peers, sth a normal teenager shouldn't, contradicting the basic existence of the human aspects mentioned above.

a. How does the overall vision being focused on “tohru’s motherly role” affect characters’ depths?

-For Tohru: In the anime, tohru being yuki’s mother lasted for 2 seasons, during that time, we are ONLY allowed to see HER from HIS perspective. Everything abt her human weakness is either vaguely hinted “ few scenes here & there” or pushed to se03. In se01 & 2, tohru is only allowed to act as a “teenage girl” in front of two male characters: (kyo & momiji):

How is tohru depicted in front of kyo & momiji? If you re-watch the anime, once tohru is around these two, her character is very different & she stops giving advice & instead “listen” to them. She is shown more lively & drawn younger & girly, asking more than talking, receiving advice, they both look at her as a normal girl with burdens on her shoulder rather than “savior/care taker”. Kyo complains to her few times abt that & calls her out on her self-denying antics, momoji takes a different approach & subtly provides chances for her to be a “teenage girl”: going to a hot spring & vacation. She opens up to kyo slowly in all her scenes with him, but while she doesn't open up to momiji, she allows herself to show vulnerability & throw her mask a bit in front of him (se01, ep12: she listened to his talk abt his mom, related to him, cried & hugged him with NO advice even tho she didnt tell him abt her mom), se02, she listened to his talk abt his sister, related to him, cried & gave NO advice even tho she didnt tell him she thought abt her mom).

The anime’s heavy focus on her “motherly”side, contradicts showing her as vulnerable & traumatized, hence her backstory lasted for 4 minutes in her own ep, se03, ep6. Later when she faces akito, tohru’s growth kicks in & she starts relating to her issues of abandonment but all this growth came from those 4 minutes of backstory in ep6. In ep9, in front of akito, tohru was depicted just like how she is depicted in all yuki centered eps, ( giving an advice, smiling, a hallow of light around her, the sun rises, the rain stops & she shines her kindness to heal the wounds).

-For Yuki: In the anime, Yuki is shown seeking a mother & all the right monologues & issues are perfectly presented. However, his weakness isn’t only wanting a mother!! yuki is depicted as a prince by others, so a huge part of his growth is to leave the princely persona behind, which is sth that was not focused on in the anime. Outside of his issues on viewing tohru as a mother & wanting friends, yuki continued to be depicted as prince & wasn't much allowed the freedom of being “a normal teenage boy”. Machi narrated that part of his growth, motoko too, but it wasnt depicted much on screen & yuki continued to have dashing bubbles, sparkles, hair flowing on wind & extreme focus on beautiful face. Him becoming a dynamic character outside of his “finishing my tohru-mother confession to my friend” is very short lived. This would’ve easily been fixed if less attention was given to his “mom tohru” phase. He is more than “I used to look at tohru as my mom”.

-For kyo: In the anime, kyo never looked at tohru as a mom, hence from the beginning kyo didn’t fit the overall vision. Hence, all his issues are pushed into se03 when tohru’s “mom role” is finished. There is a reason we have ONE kyo centered ep in se1 & 2. it IS contradicting the current tohru-image of being a mom. Also, kyo’s thoughts are blocked completely for dramatic purposes but he didnt need to be absent from tons of eps which he was, even his growth ever since se01 finale is very subtle in order to not derive from tohru’s image as a mom. We have some scenes of kyo & tohru interacting, but they should be sparse se01, ep 23 (soup ep) or se02, ep2, or short scenes such kyoto scene or tohru’s worried abt her grandpa scene in se2, ep14. Most of kyo’s & tohru’s scenes aren’t solely romantic in their nature but they provide in depth peek into their true personality & identity as humans. With her kyo isn’t angry or annoyed & with him tohru isn’t bubbly with the “I’m okay” mask.

Side Notes:

There is no doubt that the anime was made with respect & love to the source material & the author. I can see this clearly & I don’t deny it at all. This isn’t meant to ridicule them at all. I respect them all plenty.

There is no doubt that the anime team were trying their best & if you like everything, then good for you, if you like some parts & don’t agree with others, then that’s fine. Criticizing is a form of loving, too. Just be respectful.

Preferences, tastes, visions, & outlooks, all differ from one human to another. This is normal & healthy.

The director or decision maker in the anime having different vision from the author is fine, too. After all, he’s a different person. His perspective & understanding of her characters is different. Disagreeing with him is fine. All medium of art are exposed to the audience perspective. I disagree with him on lots of creative decisions such as reliance on monologues, wide shots on intense moments, lack of zoom on facial expressions, most parallel scenes are very in the nose, need for exaggerated drama & over dramatic drawing of tohru & akito at times.

You can even differ with the writer herself on some parts of her writing, that’s fine, too.

I enjoyed this anime lots, it helped me make new friends, discuss lots of fascinating content, & practiced writing short critical reviews, which is sth I’ve missed from my college days!

I love the writing for the main male characters: Yuki & Kyo. I love their arcs so much! Yuki got the best focus on his core issues. Kyo, in particular surprised me as I used to think, due to the minimum content on him, that he’s only the secondary rival of the main male protagonist. But kyo’s story turned out fascinating & very psychological informed.

Still, the anime is lacking to me for its depiction & presentation of women. The main female characters (Tohru & akito) are lacking realistic depiction of their core issues & time dedicated to that. The focus on tohru’s mom role steals from realistic existence as a character on her own right. Akito is a villain for so long & her atonement is quick & her love story is quicker. Both females didn’t get to tell us their traumatic backstory in detail like the boys & they didn’t have enough focus on their human side.

Altho kyo had (1) way less screen time than yuki or even tohru, (2) his true backstory was only revealed in the climax, (3) his inner thoughts were blocked for suspense, he was written wearing his emotions on his sleeve from ep1, so, we grew to feel for him & dreaded what could’ve broken such endearing boy, hence, once it was shown we understood the psychological trauma that destroyed him. One third of the puzzle of his story was revealed each season gradually. (1) se01 (true form), (2) se02 (his bet with akito, knowing kyoko & loving tohru), (3) se03 (His whole backstory including the abusive father).

I wouldn’t say, I wish tohru was given the (yuki treatment) cuz then we’ll need more than 13 eps for se03, I just wished her story & emotions to at least be given the (kyo treatment): Divided into clear thirds (parts).

The anime is a lovely treat that I can recommend to lots of ppl with ease. You dont have to be into shojo to get into it, but it’ll undoubtedly trick you into its subtle main love story that subvert most shojo tropes. The other love stories are good as well, there’s a type of love for every fan!

There’s a number of platonic friendships which is very refreshing!

My Final Verdict of the anime: Very Endearing as it tugs at my heart!

#Fruits Basket #Anime Only #overall impression #analytical overview #tried paper #Recommended anime for sure!#Will read the manga!#se03 sells the manga good!

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boldlyvoid · 4 years ago

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Amoreena | Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

main summary: Heaven is a real place and it's located exactly 14.6 miles away from the FBI, Quantico Headquarters. Off behind a small park, under a fantastical willow tree surrounded by wildflowers, in every colour young minds can imagine.

Don't forget, heaven also comes with angels.

Chapter Warnings: fluffiest fluff ever, jealous amoreena, jealous spencer, the LaMontagne family is in this too !!

word count: 3.8K

from the beginning <3

He went to work with Y/N on Tuesday to fill out all the paperwork and officially become an employee at the D.C Public Library. He signed a contract, he was switched over to a different government healthcare, answering a million calls and emails all morning, he was officially not an FBI agent.

They had lunch together in the park, buying some sandwiches and walking across the street to a picnic table to talk about their days while they ate. He liked her co-workers, they all were shocked to find out she was “married” to him after being single the whole time she’s worked there.

They had plans to go get Amoreena from school a few minutes early, before heading to meet his mother, not telling her about the plans unless Diana had a bad day last minute and couldn’t see them. So far, according to the nurses, she was lucid and having a great day waiting for them.

“So about yesterday morning,” Y/N changed the subject, biting her lip like she was avoiding this.

“What about it?”

“Amoreena really wants us to have a wedding, I was thinking we could go up to New York for fathers day and have another fake wedding?” Y/N hypothesized her plan, hoping for Spencer’s approval.

He couldn’t help but smile, about to answer when he got an email on his phone. “I’d love to do that, it would be nice to go on a vacation with just as the three of us.”

“You can check that,” she said, noticing he looked at his phone as it buzzed.

It was an email. Not from anyone he knew, it wasn’t about work or healthcare, it wasn’t his mom or Penelope sending him funny things from the internet…

No, it was from Taylor Swift. He tried his best to calm his facial reactions and micro-expressions so she’d think it was just something work-related. An emailed contract, updated health forms, nothing too serious.

To: Spencer Reid From: Taylor Swift Subject: Amoreena

Hey Spencer!

Portia reached out and said that your wife and daughter are huge fans and you were interested in some summer tickets in Virginia… I was thinking if you guys ever found yourself in Rhode Island you’d all want to come to my place, my doors always open for friends 💛 Love Taylor xx

“What?” Y/n asked, trying to read over his shoulder as he turned the phone away.

“It’s a surprise,” he said, locking his phone and putting it in his pocket to reply to her later. “Have you ever thought about a beach wedding? Rhode Island is pretty nice in June.”

She tilted her head as she bit back a smile, wondering what he was planning, “Amoreena will have us reenact the little mermaid 2 instead of Enchanted then, just fyi, but yeah that sounds fun, we should get a beach house on Airbnb for the weekend.”

“Okay, let me handle it all, you don’t need to plan a single thing, just show up with a dress?” Spencer offered, knowing how scared weddings made her now.

She kissed his cheek softly, resting her chin on his shoulder as she leaned over on him, “nothing fancy or crazy okay?”

“Define crazy?” He teased her… she really had no idea what was coming.

To: Taylor Swift From: Spencer Reid Subject: RE: Amoreena

Thank you so much for the quick response and generous offer, we were thinking of having a small elopement in Rhode Island with just the three of us over Father’s Day weekend if that works for you? Seven is the song we danced to at our intimate personal wedding, however, Amoreena’s pretty sad she didn’t get to witness it, that’s why we’re having another one with her. (And hopefully you!) Thank you for making my girls so happy over all the years that I didn’t know them yet, you’re probably their favourite person in the world, even more so than me! It would mean everything to them to meet you or see you in any way, you’re incredibly kind for this.

Thanks again, Spencer Reid x

He tried his best to be as calm and nice as possible in his response, still managing to rant a little even in text format. It was just how he communicated, either not at all or all at once. He was so excited for Y/N and Amoreena.

“So you said your mom has a scrapbook,” Y/N changed the subject after Spencer spent 5 minutes in silence, turned away from her as he answered an email.

“She does, she’s going to show you a lot of photos of me today,” he smiled at the fact she remembered.

“I know you want to tell her about Amoreena alone before we come in, so I made her something for her scrapbook, it’s back on my desk drying,” Y/N was so precious as she got excited, that same giddiness he see’s in Amoreena bursting through her.

“Okay, let’s go see it,” he put his phone in his pocket and followed her back across the street towards the library.

On some beautiful floral scrapbook paper, Y/N glued an array of photos of Amoreena from the beginning all the way to the museum trip last week.

A photo of her first round of IVF, dated February 19th, 2013. Exactly 1 month after he donated, she must have chosen his sample as soon as it entered the system, even a photo of the sample jar reading “sample 2319”, A photo of her crying in the garden with her grandma when she found it she was pregnant, wrapped in a big coat and surrounded by snow. Her pregnancy announcement being a baby sock on a stuffed toy Sully from Monsters Inc, "new door opening November 2013!" Amoreena has been surrounded by references to books and movies since the beginning.

There was a photo from the moment Amoreena was born, crying and brand-new, resting on Y/N’s chest as she sobbed, more beautiful than he’s ever seen her before, completely in love with the child she made.

Amoreena Margery Y/L/N - November 13th, 2013, 9:53 pm 7lbs 12oz, 21 inches of perfection

“Her middle name is Margery?”

“Yeah,” she smiled back at his ever glowing face, wondering why it was so important to him. “Like Margery Kempe, my grandma’s favourite.”

“She’s my mom’s favourite too,” Spencer couldn’t help but laugh, it was such a strange turn of events. He saw so much of his mother in Amoreena just for her to have a middle name related to her.

Y/N couldn’t believe it, “I’m so excited to meet her!”

“I just hope she’s okay today, truly,” Spencer worried. “She is my best friend and a great mother, don’t get me wrong. But some of the things she did to me on her bad days were scary, and I never want Amoreena to experience that.”

Y/N pulled him into a hug, “it’s hereditary isn’t it?” He nodded against her shoulder as she tried to soothe all the impending anxiety out of his body. “I’m not going anywhere, she won't have to raise herself and care for you, that’ll never happen to her.”

She guessed, and she was right. Reading his mind like she’s already been in there and watched all his trauma, she knew all the right words and how exactly to push his feelings away. She was sunshine clearing his grey skies once more, about to cause a drought so he’d no longer rain on his own parade. Marching beside him, hand in hand into the future.

—

They waited at the gate of Amoreena’s school, none of the other parents were waiting yet, giving Y/N a chance to show Spencer around the yard and tell him about her school. “She’s in senior kindergarten, she has a November birthday so I opted to send her in when she was 6 instead of 5, giving me an extra year of home pre-school.”

“That’s why she’s so smart, not my genes,” Spencer smiled, walking around the edge of the gate with her hand still in his.

“They want her to jump right into grade 5 next year, I said no, she deserves a childhood with children she doesn’t have to compete with or see her as a threat,” Y/N voice was stern even in the recounting like she knew from experience. “Because she’ll be 8 in November she’s going into grade 2 instead, then she’ll be in the same age range and mental level, but all her friends she knows in grade 1 will be in the same recess yard as her.”

“I went from kindergarten to grade 4, then I jumped to grade 6 when I was 9 and I graduated high school at 13, it was terrible,” Spencer agreed, not knowing if he had a place in the decision but wanting her to know he agreed with it.

“Let’s go inside and get her,” Y/N smiled at him, understanding his meaning perfectly and dragging him into the school.

“Hello miss Ludlough,” Y/N beamed as she entered the main office with her arm tucked under Spencers, showing him off slightly.

“Y/N, good afternoon! Do you need me to call that little angel down early?” The secretary was a lovely older woman, wrinkled and happy as she smiled back.

“No, I just need to get some paperwork to put her dad in the files?” Y/N surprised Spencer with that and he almost stopped breathing.

“Really?” He whispered, capturing her attention as her eyes twinkled up at him.

“I’d like you on her emergency contacts, if they can’t get ahold of me I’d like you to be with her,” Y/N confirmed, patting his shoulder softly as Miss Ludlough handed her a few forms.

Spencer signed everywhere he needed to, handing them his licence to be photocopied into her file for proof when he picked her up in the future. He was glad to see there was a system, that they cared for his little girl and she wasn’t going to be going home with anyone who wasn’t in that file. And if she did he had no problem hunting them down and getting her back in whatever way he had to…

He shook the thought out of his head as it arises, reminding himself that that isn’t who he is now and she would be fine. They lived in a happy world where bad things didn’t happen.

Y/N’s hand rubbing his lower back helped, he stood straight again and pushed the papers over the desk, smiling as he officially became her father on 3 different sheets of paper. That was as real as it could get.

“Spence?” He heard an all to familiar voice from behind him.

Turning to see JJ and Will smiling with wide arms, waiting for his embrace. “What are you doing here?” She asked him, voice high as she was clearly shocked.

He walked into her arms and held her quickly, “I’m here with my wife,” breaking the news to her in the most casual way possible. “Picking up our kid.”

“Y/N?” Will noticed her then, “holy shit, you’re the wife?”

She nodded with a smile, hugging will quickly like she has known him for years, “how are you, cowboy?”

Spencer and JJ looked at each other incredibly confused, JJ clearly didn’t know her so how did Will?

“Will and I have been on what, 6 school trips together? Michael and Amoreena are buddies,” Y/N explained with a soft smile, “I knew Henry and Michaels's names sounded familiar…”

“Nini thinks I’m a cowboy,” Will laughed lightly, smiling at Y/N the way he did at JJ and something in Spencer almost snapped thinking about Will being the one person between him and the girl he liked, once again.

Only this time she was his wife and not the cute media liaison who had no interest in him until he came out of prison.

“She was very upset when she found out that Will was already married, she wanted us to be Woody and Jessie from toy story,” Y/N had no problem ranting about how their kids got along and how good of friends they had become over the last 2 years of school trips.

Y/N noticed the anxiety in Spencer’s eyes as he pulled away from JJ and made sure no one was touching him, “luckily, our little girl’s got the best daddy in the whole world now and all her dreams came true.”

“She sure does,” JJ agreed, “Hey, I gave your mom all those books you gave me for the boys, when you were away, so she had something to keep remembering you with, you should give them to Amoreena.”

“I will, we’re going to see her tonight,” he was able to push past the feelings and enjoy the moment of his friends meeting his wife, even if the title was just pretend.

“I’m so excited,” Y/N shook her hands the same way Amoreena did, stepping into Spencer's space and wrapping her arm around him. “Can we pick her up from the room Miss Ludlough?”

“Sure thing, do you want me to call down and say Mikey’s parents are here too?”

“Yes, please,” JJ smiled over the counter.

With the four of them walking down the hall together to get their kids, Spencer felt like he was sleepwalking. Too many emotions were running through his veins to feel real, but then Y/N took his hand in hers and rested her cheek against his arm as they walked and he was fine.

She tugged on his arm and waited in the hallway while JJ and Will entered the classroom first, “what’s wrong, she’ll know you’re upset?”

He sighs, shaking the stupidity out of his mind. “I had a huge crush on JJ before they got pregnant with Henry, and when I came back from prison she told me she had always loved me and it got weird for a bit and I’m still kinda mad when I see Will bond with the people I love.”

“I was wondering when you’d get possessive,” she teased him, “I’m yours and I wouldn’t have your ring on if I wasn’t, no matter how another man looks at me, I only love you.”

“I’m sorry, I know.”

“It’s okay, you’re not used to this are you?” She saw right through it. “Am I your first real girlfriend?”

“Kinda, Maeve and I never even really met until she was kidnapped,” he admits and it sounds so childish in his mind.

“Okay we’ll talk about this later cause that sounds like a good story I should know,” she tried to smile, standing on her tiptoes to peck his lips softly before smiling more. “Let’s go get your kid?”

“Let's,” his smile returned.

They turned the corner into the vibrant room, Amoreena was talking to Will when she noticed Spencer at the door, running towards him and almost pushing Will over to do so, “Dad!”

He picked her up and snuggled right into the crook of her little neck, giving her the biggest hug he’s ever given and not realizing just how much he missed her until she was back in his arms again. His baby, the littlest life he’s ever held this close to his heart.

When he put her down he noticed all the women’s eyes were on him, hands over their hearts at the pure display of affection between father and daughter. They all saw him as her dad, they had no reason not to, giving him all the attention he’s never received before.

“What are you doing here?” Her tiny voice asked as she beamed at him with wonder.

He kneeled in front of her to get on her eye level when Michael came running over, “Hi uncle Spencer!” He tackled him into a hug.

“Uncle Spencer?” Amoreena’s brow furrowed as she scowled at the boy taking her dad’s attention, she pulled Michael back by his shirt. “That’s my dad!”

“Amoreena, honey,” Spencer tried not to laugh, she was definitely his kid, “Michels mom, JJ, is my best friend from work and I’m his older brother Henry’s godfather, they’re your cousins.”

She looked at him like he was insane, “what’s a godfather?”

“If anything bad happens to his mommy or daddy and they can’t take care of them, they’ll come live with us,” it was the simplest answer, “I’m not their father, I’m yours.”

She nodded and hugged him again, sticking her tongue out at Michael in the process, “why are you here?” She repeated the question.

Y/N was standing over him with a hand on his shoulder then, “we’re taking you to meet your other grandma.”

Amoreena started to shake with excitement, moving her hands and grinding her teeth as she smiles, shrieking with excitement, “I have another grandma!?”

JJ was watching from the corner of the room, secretly filming it on her phone for the rest of the team to see Spencer with his baby. A sight many of them never thought they’d ever see as he slowly lost hope, losing himself somewhere along the way and no longer wanting to accept their help. This was a big moment for the team too, their little brother was finally happy.

—

In the car, Spencer sat with Amoreena in the back seat so he could tell her everything about her new grandma. Or as Amoreena wanted to call her, Princess Diana, “I can’t believe you’re actually royalty!”

They all laugh at how her fantastic little brain works, “you can’t tell anyone that Princess Diana is in DC okay? It’s a government secret!” Y/N teased from the driver's seat.

“I’m like Princess Mia!” She screamed at the top of her lungs and Spencer was astounded she could be that loud.

“Okay, okay, not that loud! we can't scare any of the people who live here. They like it to be calm and quiet so the patients can be happy,” Y/N settled her down, “Dad is going to go in and tell grandma all about us for a little while and then we’ll go meet her okay? He wants to make sure she’s happy today before we go in.”

With that, they were pulling into his mother's care facility and he felt like he was going to be sick with excitement. He used to visit his mother with the fear of rage and disappointment in her eyes, he was too proud to let his anxiety take that from him today.

He kissed her forehead before getting out, Y/N handed him the scrapbook pages through the window and he leaned inside to give her a kiss too. Receiving a disgusted groan from Amoreena, he pulled away and walked into the building while they found a place to park.

She was waiting for him in the garden, sitting at a picnic table with her scrapbook and gifts for Amoreena. “Spencer!”

“Hey mom,” he smiled as he hugged her, “how are you feeling?”

“Fantastic, where is this family you made?” She was so ready to meet them, truly there inside her mind and willing to learn more about this life he was making.

“Sit down first,” he said softly, taking a seat beside her at the table and placing the scrapbook page on the table. “This is my Amoreena.”

Her fingers glided over the words, “Margery,” she repeated her middle name with a smile. “She has a sperm donor for a father?”

“I’m a sperm donor, mom,” he smiled softly as he broke the news.

She turned to him with shock, “she’s yours?”

“We think so, so that’s what we’re telling people, she’s mine regardless.”

Diana wrapped him up in another hug, “I’m so happy for you Spencer. You always deserved a perfect family, I’m sorry I couldn’t do that for you. I hope your dreams come true with her.”

Just like that Amoreena and Y/N were rounding the corner and walking over towards their table. She had a huge smile on her face and a card in her hand, walking right up to Diana and handing it to her.

“Hi, grandma, I’m Amoreena,” she introduced herself politely before stretching her arms out for a hug.

Diana wrapped her up in the softest little hug, trying not to cry in front of her brand new granddaughter, which was fine because Spencer was the one crying. Turning away from them so Amoreena wouldn’t see as Y/N patted his arm with a smile.

They were fast friends, Y/N and Diana bonding over Margery Kempe and while Amoreena opened the two gifts Diana got for her, a simple colouring book and Spencer's original copy of Matilda from when he was a child. She sat down in the grass and read it while they all caught up, lost in her own little world.

It was the most perfect afternoon, just him and his family, happier than he’s ever dreamed he could be.

—

He checked his phone one last time before bed, Y/N was sitting against the headboard reading a book and so deep in the story, he knew she wouldn’t be able to read over his shoulder.

Scrolling through everything from the day to see that yes, there was a response from Taylor Swift. It felt insane, but he opened it and started to read her plans.

Spencer!! You’re so sweet, I’m sure you make them incredibly happy! I’d love to have you stay in the guest house here, and I’m ordained if you need someone to make it real and official ♥︎ let me know what I can do, I’d love to help in any way to make some fairytale dreams come true! Taylor xx

Smiling like an idiot, he closed his phone. He’d reply tomorrow, till then he was going to snuggle into his wife and appreciate their time together.

She lifted an arm to let him lay against her chest, “today she woke up and decided to be an explorer, the little girl with the wildest imagination stormed out of her home and towards the unknown part of her land. It was her destiny to travel across the bridge and unite the people beyond the field, towards the pond that was swallowed by willow trees,” Y/N read the grandmother's thoughts from the page.

“With her wooden sword, she sliced and diced on the ivy that surrounded the gate. Freeing the hinges and allowing the entrance to swing open, unlocking a new area of the world for her mind to wander.

“For what the regular human eye saw, Amoreena saw it times a million. Every colour and then some, new colours appearing in the morning glow as she stared at the dew on the leaves she just chopped through. She saw the world in a way that made everything exciting, there was never a bad thing, only good things with interesting quirks.

“She passed every mushroom and toadstool, every strange-looking tree and human-shaped moss ball, greeting them with a good morning as she strolled through the once-forbidden forest. Her adventure only beginning, the objective not yet known.”

“Your grandma could see the future,” Spencer whispered as she turned the page, “that’s our wonderful little girl’s mind in words.”

Y/N kissed the top of his head, “our wonderful little girl.” She repeated the words, loving the way they sounded on his tongue as much as he loved how she said it.

Taglist: @shemarmooresfedora @spookyspence @spencers-dria @reidsfish @manuosorioh @mochionly @samuel-de-champagne-problems @jswessie187

#spencer reid #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #spencer reid self insert #spencer reid request #criminal minds smut #criminal minds imagine #amoreena

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starkeristheendgame · 4 years ago

Text

Hunter!Tony x Demon!Peter AU

Hunter!Tony binds Demon!Peter to himself in order to find the monster that murdered his late fiancée. Lead down roads he’d never imagined himself taking, Tony discovers that maybe revenge isn’t the only thing he’s hungry for.

“Is being a pervert part of the hiring process or are you just getting your money’s worth?”

Tony couldn’t see it, but he knew regardless that those plush lips would be pushed into a pout and those arched brows would be furrowed into a petulant scowl.

“If you’ve got me running around like your little errand boy, the least you could do is be nice to me,” a high, sweet voice simpered back. The face that belonged to it was just as youthful when it appeared in the mirror over his shoulder, watching him button his shirt with vested interest.

Tony didn’t deign to dignify it with a reply, staring down the pretty little monster until it let out a sigh.

“Fine. I have your lead. Arkansas, a seedy little dive known as the Dog Den.”

Something hot and rabid twisted in his gut and he had to pause his motions, hands trembling almost imperceptibly. It felt a lot like rage and a little bit like hope.

“Are you sure?”

Eyes the colour of fresh honey rolled so hard he could almost hear the muscles stretching. “No. I asked a magic eight-ball.”

He twisted with a snarl, reaching out. The ring on his finger pulsed with a molten orange glow and between slender wrists a chain that shimmered transparently flared to life, forming a delicate set of shackles no wider than if he’d wound a necklace there.

He curled a finger in the glowing links, dragging the Demon close enough that he could see the flecks of gold in those dark eyes.

“I’m sure,” it repeated, softer, quieter, holding his gaze with wariness, but not fear.

He let the chain drop after a moment, grunting as he turned around and finished buttoning up his shirt. When he twisted to reach for the jacket the lithe figure was sprawled out on his bed, artfully arranged as the Demon flipped through a magazine Tony knew hadn’t been in his own bags.

“You know,” the Demon piped up again as he tucked in his shirt, “maybe if you smiled a little more, the ugly things in the dark wouldn’t try to kill you as much.”

“Shut up.”

“Not possible.”

“I’ll make it possible.”

“Oh, you always promise me a good time and never deliver.”

Despite himself, Tony found he had to wrestle fiercely with a smile. “Peter.”

That heady, dangerous gaze pinned itself to him again. He met it evenly, ignoring the thrum of his pulse. The Demon really couldn’t have picked a prettier vessel to take over, a smudge of parasitic darkness inside the prettiest packaging.

That pink little mouth opened like it was considering another witty retort, then closed. Instead the Demon - Peter, merely hummed and went back to flicking through his magazine, disinterestedly glossing over half-naked women and gossip scandals.

It was almost disconcerting. To look at the pretty little slip of a thing sprawled out on his bed like some rented whore and to know that behind that pretty face was a being of Hell’s creation. Something twisted and dark, a corrupted soul festering behind a distracting smokescreen.

Peter Parker was the sort of face Tony would’ve fallen for like a rock, if he hadn’t been the one to summon the Demon to the surface.

Perhaps that’s why the Demon had chosen such a nice outfit. A desperate bid not to get ganked the moment he crawled out of Hell.

“You’re thinking too loudly,” Peter sighed, turning a page idly. He’d rolled over onto his stomach now, jaw propped in his palm.

“You can’t read minds. Don’t get comfortable, we’re leaving soon,” he grunted in reply, shrugging on a jacket.

“Can’t I just meet you there?” the Demon whined, looking up with (literally) sinful puppy eyes.

“No.”

He left it at that, flat and unforgiving, as he had to be. In another life he’d have fallen for that soft whine and that pleading look. Might’ve taken his shirt right off and crawled onto the bed, put that open mouth to good use.

But this was not that life, and that pretty face was stolen.

He checked all his things then reached out, plucking the gossip rag from Peter’s hands and throwing it in the trash. “Meet me at the car.”

“I was reading that,” Peter huffed indignantly, glowering up at him before he disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a dip in the bedspread and the scent of copper.

He was sprawled in the backseat when Tony made his out to the 1970 Challenger he called his own, a set of stylish shades covering his eyes, fluffy hair unkempt and arms folded behind his head.

“Feet off the upholstery,” he huffed as he turned the key, swinging the car out of the parking lot and onto the road with a loud rumble of the engine.

“I know for a fact you sleep in this car and my shoes are clean,” Peter answered primly, angling his head towards the open window and the warmth of the morning sun.

Arkansas was a three day drive. They spent the first in almost complete silence, although the Demon did sulk when they stopped for gas and Tony declined to buy him anything. Rather than waste money on another motel he pulled onto a quiet patch of land behind a thicket of trees, settling across the bench seat with a sigh.

“Fuck off and come back in the morning.”

“Eloquent as ever,” Peter griped, leaning over the seat, arms folded and chin atop them. He looked laughably angelic in the darkness, all soft edges, voice quiet enough that a mouse wouldn’t flee it.

“Sweet dreams,” he whispered, and when Tony cracked open an eye to repeat his command, he was gone.

Gone, until he thumped his fist on the window at the ass-crack of dawn, looking chipper and cheerful, Starbucks cup in hand. “Up and at ‘em, sunshine! The monsters aren’t gonna hunt themselves!”

Tony considered stabbing him there and then, but Peter was unfortunately an asset he couldn’t afford to lose. Invaluable, as much as it stroked the Demon’s ego. He settled for glaring, baring past the Demon as he stomped off to relieve himself.

The next two nights went much the same, although Peter got chattier the more bored he became. Fiddled with the radio, disappeared for moments only to return holding an ‘interesting’ leaf or rock, scooped up from the side of the road Tony had just driven past.

Arkansas was crisp and bright and dewy in the mid-weeks of spring. It was so different from the New York of his youth, with it’s towering glass jungle and concrete pillars. It was a visceral reaction to think of the scent of flowers and clean air in Sicily, of pink lipstick smudged on his jaw, a laugh fading slowly, overtaken by the rumble of the engine.

Countryside became a smattering of industrialisation, bars and houses, garages and stores. He wanted to keep on going, chase that tail until he caught it and tore it off, but he knew better than to rush in half-blind.

He had to eat something proper. Had to rest. Had to learn everything he could from the paltry little stack of papers that Peter had given him, printed out at a library miles and miles back in the time it had taken Tony to piss and buy a bottle of water at a gas station.

Food, first.

The diner was like every other. Gaudy and cheap with food that was more grease than nutrition. Peter’s nose scrunched the moment they entered and he looked nonplussed when they were guided to a booth.

The Demon made a big show of pulling out a pack of wipes from the pocket of his fitted jacket, scrubbing the table as the waitress listed off the day’s specials. Tony rolled his eyes before ordering coffee and a slap-up breakfast, about to dismiss the waitress when Peter cut in with a saccharine smile.

“Bacon too, please. Crispy. And a milkshake. Thanks a bunch, darling.”

She arched her brows but made no comment, glancing at Tony before leaving. Then it was Tony’s turn to stare and quirk his brow, watching the Demon shrug lightly.

“What? I get cravings.”

Peter fiddled with a napkin as they waited, as Tony read through the sheets of paper. Folding it over and over into a little crane that he perched atop the salt shaker.

“Where did you even learn origami?” Tony grunted, watching it sway before it stabilised. Peter’s gaze flicked up to him and there was something unexpected there. A hollowness, heavily guarded but flickering in the gold of his irises even so.

“Even the worst of the worst need hobbies, hunter,” he uttered softly, and then their food arrived and they were lost to the silence that overcame those sating their hunger. Peter ate with an almost childlike manner, easily distracted, toying with his straw before each sip. He even swung his legs a little and drummed his fingertips on the table top.

The perfect performance.

He looked away.

Peter was unusually quiet after that, subdued as they made their way to a motel relatively close to the Dog Den. He didn’t even pester the receptionist or try to embarrass Tony by pretending to be some sort of rent boy as he purchased a key, eyeing the Demon consideringly.

When Tony slipped beneath the sheets Peter disappeared without argument, offering only a mock salute before he flickered and was gone, leaving nothing but a wisp of dark smoke.

He wondered where the Demon went. Back to Hell? Some run-down library to read through the night? An empty motel room to pilfer their cable connection?

The disconcertion over Peter’s silence left him the next day, when he commanded Peter to steer clear as he got dressed to hit their lead.

“You can’t go alone,” Peter announced, frowning.

“I can and I am. You’ll just attract attention,” Tony pointed out, shrugging on another flannel and tucking the flask of holy water against his belt.

“And if you die?” Peter shot back. It surprised his brows into lifting as he met the Demon’s gaze, tipping his head.

“Then you’ll be free of your bindings and there’ll be one less hunter ganking your friends. What’s the problem?”

Peter’s mouth opened, then closed, as if he was only suddenly remembering that he wasn’t in this little dynamic duo willingly.

“I get the Challenger if you die,” the Demon said instead, turning away from.

And maybe Tony should’ve thought more about that demand, because the only thing he could think of as he lay bleeding in the middle of the woods several long hours later was that Peter would most definitely get the car all scratched up and dirty.

Demons had no respect for vehicle maintenance.

He coughed wetly and grunted, pressing a hand to his bleeding chest. They wouldn’t, he supposed. Demons could just fly everywhere.

Peter had adamantly argued it was not teleportation.

He breathed out a sigh and shifted fumbling for his wallet. His fingers smeared blood against the white edges of the crumpled photograph in there and he stared at his wife’s smile, frozen in time and taken just days before a Demon on a murder kick had burnt her soul up from within her, along with their unborn daughter.

“I’d say see you soon, but. W’both know m’goin’ to Hell, not where you are,” he told her image softly, giving it a weary, slow smile.

“Hell would ask for a refund,” came a familiar voice, and moments later there were warm hands on his jaw, tilting his head up. “You stupid bastard. I told you not to go alone. I could feel there was someone stronger in this town!”

Peter’s eyes were wide and round, plump lower lip between his teeth as he dropped his gaze, eyeing where Tony was slowly leaking his insides all over his outsides. “Shit,” the Demon breathed softly.

Tony made an agreeable sound. Shit was about right. He’d run head first into the messy, gruesome end that almost every hunter found themselves at. The end of the road; the final curtain; bleeding out somewhere at the hands of something twisted and ugly and evil.

“Guess you get th’car,” he rasped, aiming for humorous. It fell short when he blanched and more hot fluid slid down his throat and his chest, pooling at his navel.

“Shut up,” Peter growled at him, letting go of his head to pull up his shirt. His fingertips were light, but it still felt like fire. Hot and licking over everything he touched. “God, you’re so fucking stupid. I told you to take me. I told you I should go.”

“C’n you save th’gloatin’ ‘till I’m dead?” he asked, frowning. Most hunters probably didn’t get this much conversation on their deathbeds.

Peter shot him a positively scathing look, pressing down hard on the wound. It made agony flare up his torso, smothering his pathetic yell of pain into a weak, thready rasp.

“This is gonna hurt us both,” the Demon muttered, looking inexplicably angry as he settled his palms flat atop the worst of the wound. A muted sound was all Tony could manage, watching the Demon with hazy confusion.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Or at least, Tony didn’t notice it happening.

But then a strange, new type of pain began to lance through him, battling against the numbing burn of his torn organs. It crept through his veins and branched out, a tingling, almost electric sensation that had him tensing as best as his broken body would let him.

He opened his mouth and if he’d had the energy left for it he’d have reeled in surprise when Peter leaned forwards, slotting their mouths together firmly.

The Demon’s lips were soft and plush, with the faintest trace of soda. His lips were warm, too, just a breath above what would be normal for a person.

Tony almost didn’t know what he should be recoiling at the most; kissing a Demon, or kissing what was for all intents and purposes a sixteen year old.

Peter didn’t try to do anything else and Tony realised in the timeframe that he’d been internally broiling over the situation, breathing had become easier.

The fire was dulling to a simmer; a slow ember that still ached but no longer made him feel like he had one foot in the gates of Hell. His breath hitched and Peter pulled back slowly, keeling to one side slightly and almost falling over as he drew away.

His eyes were pools of inkblack, shiny and void as the Demon sucked in his own rattled breath, pulling shaking hands away from Tony’s torso.

He let his gaze fall slowly to his chest. He was still covered in blood, but the flesh there looked smooth and unmarred. Where he was once carved open like a pot hole there was once again closed off muscle and flesh.

He looked up in surprise. Peter was on his knees, hands braced on his thighs as he rode out the strain of wrangling his leashed powers. His eyes were slowly returning to the human hue, red-rimmed as if he’d been crying, plump lips downturned.

Tony licked his own, jerked straight back into the sensation of Peter’s mouth on his.

“Why?” he demanded roughly, bringing a hand to subconsciously touch his chest.

Peter shot him a sidelong look, the effect slightly dampened by the way he looked vaguely sick.

“A thank you might be nice,” the Demon sneered at him, huffing a twisted curl from his eyes as Tony pushed himself to his feet, ungainly and uncoordinated. Bracing himself on a tree, Tony stared down at the Demon.

At Peter, who’d saved his life. Against all he stood to benefit from Tony’s death, against all that he’d done his best to kill him when he first discovered he’d been shackled to Tony.

Coughing, Tony did his best to pull his shredded shirt closed before he made a rough gesture. “Get up. You’ll have to take us back to the motel. My car’s still at the bar.” Smashed up or stolen, he realised with a pang of sadness and anger.

“Oh no, lover-boy. You’ve been keeping me at half-mast all year. One night of fun has done me in for the night. I’m limp - get your own ride into town.”

Tony glowered, but all his frowning and snapping proved fruitless. Peter’s powers had been bound tight for almost a year and he really was burnt out, looking every inch as young as his vessel as he wobbled to his feet. The most he managed them was a few meters down the road when he tried.

It took them until sunrise to come close enough to the town that Tony could hotwire a car from the side of the road, ditching it a reasonable way from the motel and wiping it down with a clean patch of his shirt to get rid of his fingerprints.

He wasn’t bothered about Peter’s. Peter had mentioned having this particular vessel for over fifty years - his prints would be written off as a glitch on the system.

He went straight for the shower, scrubbing his skin pink as he tried to sleuth off the memory of being cut open, of dying alone in the dark and the cold, certain that this was his one-way ticket downstairs.

Brushed his teeth; trying to rid himself of the guilt that came with realising that the kiss had been pleasant, to a degree. Soft, pink skin, the sweetness of a soda consumed while Tony had been-

He shut off the water.

When he stepped out, Peter was actually curled up in the bed, looking almost infantile with the covers pulled up to his jaw. He seemed only half-awake, barely stirring when Tony entered the room. He was pulling on a new shirt when Peter spoke, voice sleepy and quiet.

“My Uncle taught me.”

Tony paused, glancing over his shoulder.

“Origami,” Peter clarified softly. “You asked me. At the diner. Where I’d learned origami. My Uncle taught me when I was thirteen.”

Pulling on a pair of sweatpants, Tony took a light seat on the edge of the bed, each of them facing a separate wall. He was quiet for a little while, digesting the information.

“Thank you for saving me,” he grunted after a moment, uncomfortable with the intimacy of the words. It wasn’t anything he’d ever thought he’d say to a Demon. Peter had gotten him out of scrapes and healed up wounds before, but always under command and never anything so serious.

Desperate to rein back some control, he slid under the sheets and stared up at the ceiling. “If you ever kiss me again, I’ll use thread soaked in holy water and sew your mouth shut.”

Irritatingly, Peter snorted. “That was hardly a kiss.”

“You’re in a snot-nosed brat’s body, what would you know about kissing?” Tony shot back, brows pinching into a frown.

“This,” Peter huffed at him, rolling over and on top of him.

Tony blamed the fact that he didn’t pull away on simply being too tired to.

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