#I’ve got a lot of link doodles all over my notes too

[adrift-in-thyme]

Behold a smol Edward doodle featuring a disembodied hand

[dearlyjun]

— CHERRY BLOSSOMS & 7/11 ☆ CSB

summary: soobin is on a break from tour, so you both escape to japan for a few days.

pairing: idol!soobin x gn!reader

genre: fluff

word count: 1.6k

warnings: ehhh none. they are just tooth numbingly sweet.

authors note: can you tell that I’m reeeeeally pushing the soobin sweetheart boyfriend agenda lol. this was kind of inspired by his japan vlog, and I added my own twist with some of my own knowledge of Japan. this reminded me that my Japanese isn’t going to study itself, and soobin if you see this and think you’re slacking, I’m probably slacking harder.

quick links: masterlist | taglist | send a request

–

“I think I’m going to do some things on my iPad. Maybe draw.” You spoke, reaching for your bag that you set onto the floor.

“I might read.” Soobin answered. “I bought a new book a few days ago to read on this flight.”

Soobin was on a break from tour right now, and you both decided it was a perfect time to take a trip to Japan for a few days for some alone time.

The flight wasn’t very long; only two and a half hours. It was roughly an hour in, both you and Soobin keeping yourselves occupied. you were listening to music and doodling on your iPad while soobin was reading his book.

You drew a cute little doodle of Soobin’s hedgehog, Odi as well as a bunny with a carrot. Smiling to yourself at how cute it was, you turned to show Soobin, but realized that he was fast asleep.

His arms were crossed in his lap and his head tilted to the side. You always thought it was cute how his nose sometimes whistled when he was asleep.

“Soob.” You quietly spoke, picking up his book and bookmarking the spot he left off on.

He hummed without opening his eyes, and shifted in the seat.

“You almost lost your spot in your book.” That made him open his eyes, and pick it up.

“I got so tired all of a sudden.” Soobin laughed at himself. “I didn’t sleep good last night. I was too excited.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever slept on a plane.” You answered. “It’s hard for me to get comfortable.”

Soobin tousled his blonde hair, fixing his glasses on the bridge of his nose. He leaned over to look at your iPad. “What are you drawing?”

“Just random things. Look I was going to show you this, but you were asleep.” You pointed to the doodles of Odi and the little bunny.

Soobin’s smile was so big. “Aw, you drew my Odi! I miss him.”

He swiped through your other drawings. One of a plant, two cats, but then he stopped on one that was a cartoonish drawing of a boy with blonde hair.

“Is that supposed to be me?” Soobin questioned.

“Yes.” You responded, smirking. “You weren’t supposed to see that one.”

Soobin was smiling. “No no no it’s cute. You’re cute.” He kissed your temple, making you giggle.

It wasn’t long after that, the plane arrived, and you both got off, and found your bags.

“Should we get a taxi or take the train?” Soobin asked you as you walked away from baggage claim.

“A taxi will be too expensive from the airport. we can just buy train tickets.” You answered, making him nod; his blonde hair bouncing as he did so.

“Plus, it will give you a chance to practice your Japanese.”

A blush formed on Soobin’s cheeks. “Hey, don’t do that to me. That makes me so nervous.”

“Soobin, you are a lot better at Japanese than you claim you are. I’ve seen your notebook.” You we’re right, Soobin was pretty good at learning Japanese. He always carried his flash cards with him, and you helped him study any chance you got.

You both bought your train tickets, and within an hour or so, you finally arrived at your hotel room.

The second you both walked into the room, you immediately took off your shoes and coats, and relaxed onto the bed.

You moved closer to Soobin, nuzzling into him; making him giggle. “Are you tired?”

You nodded, and Soobins hands smoothed over your hair. “We can take a nap if you want. We’ll just have a chill night tonight while we plan the next couple of days.”

“Okay.” You answered, your eyes already closed as Soobin pulled you closer to him. At this point he was becoming your human body pillow. Soobin always smelled so good; like a mix of vanilla and fresh laundry. Pretty soon you were both fast asleep.

Within about two hours later, you both woke back up. You took a shower while Soobin watched an anime on the television, and then once you were finished; Soobin took a shower. Soobin took longer showers, so by the time he was out, your hair was already blowdried and you were in your hotel robe sitting on the bed doing your make up.

“You don’t need makeup.” Soobin spoke cutely to you. You looked up at him, he was wearing nothing but a pair of grey sweatpants while drying off his damp hair with a crisp white towel. “You always look nice.”

“Soob, you don’t have to say that. I just like to wear some of it.” He sat near you on the bed, picking up some of your products and examining them.

“This is cute.” He had a peachy toned eyeshadow palette in his hand.

“I’ll wear it.” You smiled at him watching you. “I’m almost done, then I just have to get dressed.”

Soobin was still looking at your makeup products, then looked at his phone for the time. “It’s like 7pm. If you want we could just walk around and go to the convenience store.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” You answered, putting your makeup away.

“There’s a 7-11 like ten minutes away that we can walk to.”

You stood up from the bed to get dressed. “I’m gonna change. What are you wearing?”

Soobin looked up from his phone at you. “Im just going to wear these.” He rubbed his sweat-pant clad thighs. “And like a hoodie or something. Don’t forget about a coat, it’s cold outside.”

You smiled at him before going through your suitcase to find clothes. “Soobin, I know.”

You threw on a simple outfit of some jeans and a sweatshirt.

You both were standing in front of the mirror, and you spritzed some perfume on.

“We look cute.” Soobin spoke, looking at you through the mirror.

You smiled. “I know, I want to kiss you all over.”You turned to face him, standing on your toes to kiss him. “You ready to go?”

Soobin nodded, his fluffy hair bouncing. “Let me get my scarf and my bag.”

Soobin grabbed his bag before wrapping his scarf around his neck, then both of you headed out of the hotel and onto the street.

“The 7-11 is this way.” Soobin spoke, grabbing your hand and starting to walk in that direction. You had to admit that Soobin looked so cute all bundled up in the cold.

“The streets look so cool.” You spoke out loud to yourself, looking around.

“I know. It has a Japan vibe.” Soobin answered.

“Soobin, that’s where we are!” You laughed, making him smile.

“Oh, you know what I mean.” He couldn’t help but laugh at himself too.

You eventually came to an intersection, and stopped for the okay to cross the street.

You were standing next to Soobin, still holding his hand, and felt a chill.

“I’m kind of cold.” You said quietly.

Soobin looked down at you. “Your coats not even zipped all of the way!” He let go of your hand, zipping your coat up. “No wonder you’re cold.”

You eventually crossed the street, and entered the 7-11 shortly after. Soobin opened the door for you and let you walk in ahead of him.

“Do you want ramen?” Soobin asked you.

“Ooh yes please.” You answered, making him smile. “I want natto too.”

You found the ramen section, picking out flavors that you think you’d enjoy.

Both of you strayed off on your own for a little bit, but eventually Soobin found you with some things in your hands.

“Did you find anything good?” He held out his hand basket to you to put your things in.

“Yes!” The excitement was prevalent in your voice. “cheddar aerial chips, natto, and some hand rolls.” You placed each item in the basket as you named it.

“Those chips sound good.” Soobin added.

“Oh my gosh I could eat the whole bag. Which I’ve definitely done before. I can’t ever find them at home.” You noticed he had picked out a few things. “What do you have?”

“I know you like the pocari sweat in the can.” He pointed to it in his basket. “and I found apple hi chews.” He had about eight sticks of them.

You laughed. “Soob, I know that’s your favorite flavor but I hope you left some for somebody else.”

He laughed, smiling. “Hey, I did.”

You guys soon checked out your items, and went to sit down in front of the window to enjoy your snacks.

“I kind of panicked when she asked if I wanted a bag or not” Soobin said as he sat down next to you.

“But you did great.” You opened up your hand roll, wrapping the nori seaweed around it. “Want a bite?”

Soobin nodded, leaning in to take a bite.

“It’s good.” He grabbed the two bowls of ramen. “I’ll go put hot water in these.”

He came back, setting both bowls down for the noodles to soften. You opened your can of pocari sweat, taking a sip.

“It’s just superior in the can.” You commented, making Soobin laugh.

“So what do you want to do tomorrow?” You asked Soobin, opening up your styrofoam container of natto.

“I want to find a bookstore hopefully, and maybe we can go to the countryside. like maybe shirakawa.” Soobin answered.

“Yeah we can do that. I wanted to see the cherry blossoms. I think they should have bloomed in some places. I know it’s kind of touristy and it will probably be so busy, but we can take some cute pictures.”

Soobin peeled the lid off of his ramen. “Yeah, probably, but we can figure it out.”

“Yeah, I’m so excited for these next few days.”

–

tags: @dearlyjoonie @mhasimp666

[asterlizard]

2022

This year kinda breezed by, but I'm glad to say that this December was better than last December (looking back at previous years, autumn seems to be a rough period for me for some reason) I ended the year feeling excited and full of art ideas that I can't wait to share with y'all in the new year!

Anyway, accomplishments and updates:

KalChi: The next chapter is coming along, and after dealing with writer's block in autumn, I just finished my latest draft, and will hopefully have it published early in the new year (and hopefully I can finish more chapters sooner instead of releasing one a year)

Job hunt: No luck this year, and some people I know also find it odd that I don't have a job by now despite my efforts, so hopefully I can get that sorted in the new year. If a lot of time has passed, I may return to school to get a Masters degree, but that's kinda my last resort at this point. In the meantime, I'm managing through zine work and dogsitting.

Speaking of zine work, I contributed to 4 of them this year! (simultaneously too, which is my limit!) -Serenity: A BNHA Self-Care Zine -Together In Unity: A Hetalia North American Bros Zine -IidaTenBros zine -First Steps Haikyuu zine

I also think I’m getting a better handle on drawing dynamic and fluid poses, so my next goal will be improving backgrounds

I’ve had quite a few art posts that got pretty popular, but my silly crow doodles was definitely the most popular at 4K+ notes (also I’m enjoying reading people’s replies to my art posts)

I started keeping a health journal

And I’m trying to fight boredom in the meantime

And the resolutions:

Language learning: I was getting tired of not being fluent in a second language despite my enthusiasm for foreign languages my entire life, and I think I finally found a routine that works. So far I’m using it to improve my Japanese, but I want to try and apply it to the other languages I’m learning too

Now that I’m fully vaccinated, I’m starting to feel more lenient in going outside and visiting places more (still avoiding crowded spots though)

More image descriptions: the year kinda ran away from me and honestly I forgot to do this, but I did get one finished! (I will just continue to bug myself about it until it's done) Although now that alt text exists, I think I’ll be using that from now on.

More cleanup: I’ve saved a lot of links and resources over the years due to my curiosity and I never really looked at them until recently. So I gotta be more ruthless this year to not add to the pile of things to do or look at later

Relaxed schedule: Try to not give myself too much to work on at once if I can help it. I suffered a bit of burnout earlier in the year, likely as a result of wanting to do too much in a small amount of time.

And of course keeping up socializing, which I feel I've been slacking on this year (I need to talk to people!)

I've also been slacking on watching anime/reading manga until autumn, and I want to continue with it in the new year (send me your recommendations)

Also I haven't done this in a while, but I wanted to see what good things have happened this year, since my positive outlook had taken a bit of a beating this year: [Link 1] [Link 2]

I’m excited for 2023, hopefully it will be a good year for you all too! 💕

[swampymelonpatch]

PART 3! sorry for the wait! It’s sill hella cloudy out, so I take all these pictures at work. :”)

here they are though! Right from where we left off. We’re bout to get into a lot of my favorite pages! As well as some lore that may be censored! (Mostly for my own peace of mind, as I’m writing a comic/story I’ve yet to post.)

^on the left a page of random crap! I love stickering pages to fill empty space. It makes me anxious when a page looks empty! The right page is lore for Sweet melon. My main oc and the reason for my tumblr name!

^Left page is more Ground Stone drawings! Him with his cousin as well! (Who is Sand Lance btw!) in the corner, of course, is Shiney! The right page is some ponysona (the blue Pegasus) drawings. I did them without a pencil sketch, just went straight into colored pencils. They’re okay drawings.

^A collage spread of sorts! On the blue sticky note is a sketch of Ground Stone! The big grid of colors was me swatching and mixing my prisma colored pencils before I got new ones. (This is great when ur limited on individual colors and want to know what colors you can make.) I’m a little mad the lights in the break room are blowing out the stickers. :/

^ayo more Sweet Melon! On the right are random doodles from when I got some kind of injury that made it hard to use my right hand! I don’t remember what off the top of my head. :P I think my wrist was hurting.

^left page! I been experiencing a lot of tooth problems. :/ I can’t really afford a dentist trip right now. Not the best decision, but there ain’t much else I can do. So I’ve been baking a lot to pass time. Gotta have good snacks too. On the right is Celestia! A sketch I don’t like.

^the sticky notes on the left page were made by my sibling! On the right is Sweet melon. I was trying out a different coloring style. Never finished that piece but I do like it.

^orange and pink collage! I hate the lighting on this one. Otherwise though it’s very cool! Adore the color matching! <3

^Apple jack and Rainbow dash next to a little collage.

^Rainbow page full of stickers! On the left a page of Gray Shape casually yearning for Junkie. To the tune of one of my favorite CRYWANK songs! GB eating GB whilst listening to GB, a great song btw!

^A full two page spread of Ground Stone! My boy ugh

^Ground Stone’s parents don’t have the best relationship. The right page is a character whose name I forget rn. I love how big their tail is.

^More of Smooth Stone and Candied Melon’s not great marriage. As well as another Ground Stone appearance! Yay

Two pages of oc stuff. The left page is one of my most favorited post on Da. (No idea why lol)

Full cast of that story I’ve been working on. On the top left page though is Ground Stone and Silver cloud. They are talking through his cuff link thing. (Kinda like a phone)

^Its more of Junkie and Gray! These are together cause the middle page that separates them is one I added. This and other pages are parts of a role play we’d been doing. They saw all this before I started posting it!

^Tiny Kyuse drawing in the top left! The comic is a rough idea I had for Ground Stone. He goes to homes and businesses to maintain private androids.

^Shiney glimmer doodles! :D and on the right a manger for an actor oc. :P

^These two on the left are characters from Ground Stone’s story, and of course more Shiney and Sweet melon on the right.

we are getting close to the end of this batch.

^Sand Lances parents! I love them! They are a family of fishers. (I’m pretty sure but they do other things too.)

On the right is sketches of Vinyl scratch!

^The left if just pencil sketches of different ocs of mine that happen to be bad mothers.

Sharron! On the right there was a redraw of my very first post on Da! As a celebration for posting 1000 times over there. She’s a ‘zombie’ pony. :D I’m still really proud of that art.

Both these pages are characters my sister made and I drew. I’m mad I never finished coloring them. They are so silly.

Random pages. :p

^Second to last spread is more Gray and Junkie. :D

^last one for this part! On the left some comics I thought were funny. On the right redesigns of my very old ocs, Wind Charm and Red. They have lots of lore connected to others, but I won’t get into that rn.

That’s it for part three!

I’ll work on getting photos for part 4 asap!

Finally, the sketchbook tour!

A reminder of what the cover looks like! We will walk through it like I’m flipping through the pages with you.

I wish I had a picture of what it looked like before it was faded. It’s cool to see how things age. Open to start part 1! (its cloudy out rn. My favorite weather, but that means no sun. So not great for taking pictures. I’ll take more asap!)

First few pages are collages! Got some cool comics that I think are funny.

Art fight sketches on the left! On the right are sketches I did while panicking because I ate moldy banana bread. I had eaten a whole slice, and was going for a second before noticing. I’m fine though. It was months ago.

Some doodles, and a finished peice for art fight! I really liked doing that drawing. (When i get he chance I’ll link all the art fight oc owners. Theres a lot of sketches i made but never used for artfight. Lol)

Some unfinished stuff! There is a lot of unfinished stuff. . .

Random swatching before we get into what I wrote while at Gencon in 2023. here’s a video of the writing. I know my nails are a bit messy. I was prepping to repaint them.

It wad mostly about my experience playing the my little pony ttrpg and some panels.

I really liked this drawing but i somehow smudged magenta on his cheek. :( I gave up on it. It was going to be another art fight entry.

On the right page are drawings of my oc Shiney Glimmer. On the left is an oc belonging to a mutual of mine on Deviantart. Their name is Pandemonium! I love them. <3

These guys will apear a lot! The brown unicorn is my oc Gray Shape, and the blue guy is Junkie my friends oc.

Ack they kill me.

Old oc lore! For my character Kyuse and Scale!

Last but not least the beginning of Ground Stone! I love this guy. Zooie!

That’s it for part one! I’ll answer any questions y’all have!

[purrincess-chat]

Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s Spite Playlist: Remix CH25

This chapter might look familiar to those of you who read the original ;) But there’s a twist!

Previous      First       Next        AO3

Chapter 25: Attack of Panic

“Remember, class, pick a painting that inspires you. Your reports are due tomorrow, so be sure to take good notes while on your tours today.” Mme. Pierre instructed. “We’ll meet for lunch in the courtyard. Try to learn something today.”

Marinette took a deep breath as Mme. Pierre dismissed them. Eliott and Lisette grouped up, walking arm-in-arm a few paces ahead. After overcoming their shyness from Saturday’s date, they were practically inseparable. Marinette was happy for them, but it made her miss Adrien. Having a boyfriend at a different school was lonely. How did anyone manage long-distance relationships?

Macy linked their arms together, snapping Marinette out of her trance.

“Let’s walk around in a group,” she said, tugging Martin on her other side.

“Sure.” Marinette smiled.

At least she still had friends to walk with, so she wasn’t completely alone. Though she’d have to think of a way to branch off to give Martin time alone with Macy, but then who would she walk with?

Long red curls bounced up the hall ahead of them, and a smirk curled on Marinette’s lips.

“Let’s go this way first.” She suggested, tugging Macy in the direction Gabrielle had gone.

“Shouldn’t we invite Eliott and Lisette?” Martin asked.

“No way. They’re spending quality time together as a couple. They’ll meet up with us at lunch,” Macy said. “Speaking of couples, did you see Thomas’s new girlfriend? I heard he ditched little miss bankrupt as soon as he found out.” Macy pointed to Gabrielle who was jotting down notes in front of a painting.

“Macy, that’s mean.” Martin chided.

“So was she.” Macy huffed. “She used to torment you, shouldn’t you be laughing too?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think she deserves to be miserable,” he said. “She’s been a lot different lately, and I’ve forgiven her. You should too.”

“Aww, Martin.” Macy hugged his shoulders, turning the tips of his ears red. “You’re an angel, you know that?”

Marinette bit back a smile as he faltered, tuning into the museum guide’s explanation. A boy with bright red hair stood in front of her, jotting down notes around a doodle in his notebook. His drawing was pretty good, though the style reminded her of someone.

Wait. Marinette knew that tomato top. She blinked a few times to ensure she wasn’t imagining it.

Nathaniel?

Marinette spun around, frantically searching the exhibit. Kim was mimicking the pose of a statue for Max and Alix across the room. Myléne and Ivan were reading a placard, hands twined while Juleka and Rose studied a map.

“Looks like we took the same field trip.” She jumped at Adrien’s voice in her ear, and he placed a hand on the small of her back to steady her. “You okay?”

“I-”

“Marinette?” Her spine stiffened as Kim called out to her. “Guys, it’s Marinette!”

“Marinette!”

“Yo, what up?”

“I love your new hair.”

“We missed you.”

Marinette’s heart sank at Rose’s declaration, and her old classmates surrounded her with eager smiles. Her old friends. Some of them, anyway. Nathaniel hung back, refusing to meet her gaze—a reminder of how far Lila’s influence still stretched. Marinette’s stomach twisted in knots.

“I-” She bit her lip to hold back tears. “I missed you guys too.”

“Aww.” Everyone crowded in for a hug, complimenting her hair and filling her in on exciting developments since she’d left.

“Well, well, look who it is. Long time no see, Marinette.”

Marinette’s blood ran cold.

The atmosphere changed in an instant, the crowd around her parting at Lila’s voice. She wore the same smirk she always did, silently goading Marinette. To add insult, Alya stared right through her like she were any other patron in the museum. A stranger.

Marinette swallowed hard.

Nathaniel and Myléne moved to stand beside Lila and Sabrina. Nino draped an arm over Alya’s shoulders, giving a curt nod to Adrien. Lila’s green eyes glinted as their classmates claimed their sides. She didn’t seem bothered at all by those still standing beside Marinette—quite the opposite. Lila lived for the challenge, but Marinette felt like she was going to throw up. What was she plotting?

“How is your new school? Why did you transfer anyway? And without telling any of us! We were so heartbroken,” Lila cooed.

Marinette’s jaw clenched, biting back a string of insults. Now wasn’t the time to start a fight—it would make Lila look more sympathetic. Marinette needed to keep a cool head, even if Lila was a snake.

Adrien bristled, fingers curling on Marinette’s back. “Lila-”

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Marinette said. “I know I should have told all of you, but it was a sudden decision I made because I wanted to focus on my future. I hope you’re all not mad at me.”

“How could we be mad at you? You’re like, the best,” Kim said.

“Indeed. We were confused, but this development makes sense. We know how important your future as a designer is to you, and with your level of talent, moving to a new school will increase your chances of succeeding in your field by 68.9%.” Max nodded.

“I mean, you could have said goodbye,” Nathaniel said, and Alix elbowed him.

“We’re just glad to see you again. We haven’t heard from you, so we were afraid to come see you.” Rose buried her face in Marinette’s blazer. “We’re sorry for being bad friends!”

“Rose…” Marinette patted her back.

“But you’ve had some crazy cool adventures at your new school. Tell us about that Jagged Stone concert!” Alix requested, several classmates echoing their agreement.

“Hey, Marinette, we’re gonna move to the next exhibit,” Macy said, parting the crowd to reach her. “We need to take notes for our report.”

“You’re right. Sorry, I have to go.” Marinette winced, though her former classmates only smiled.

“No sweat, Marinette.”

“Hey, we’re all having lunch in the courtyard later, you should sit with us!” Rose offered.

“Uh, sure,” Marinette said. As her old classmates dispersed, she shot a glare at Lila who only smiled in return.

“Adrien, our teacher wanted us to stay together. You don’t want to get in trouble, do you?” Lila said, not bothering to mask the gloat in her tone, but she wasn’t going to get a rise out of Marinette today.

“I’ll see you later.” Adrien planted a quick kiss to Marinette’s cheek, side-eyeing Lila as he did.  

Macy tugged Marinette away from them swiftly, not slowing down until they’d rounded the corner to another hall.

“Martin told me about your run-in with that girl last week, so I wanted to get you out of there,” Macy said once they were safely in another room. “You were being so brave.”

“Do you want us to be your buffer today?” Martin asked.

Marinette smiled. Her friends were always looking out for her. What would she do without them?

“Thank you, both of you, but I’m fine. Seeing everyone again has actually put my mind at ease. At least now I know they don’t hate me. Well, most of them anyway.” She hugged her arms to her chest. “My biggest challenge today will be avoiding confrontation with Lila.”

“Well, you know we’ve got your back.” Macy linked an arm through Marinette’s with a smile.

“I’m really good at avoiding people, so I can steer us away from them.” Martin added.

“You guys are the best.” Marinette pulled them in for a side-hug.

“You’ve protected us in the past, so now it’s our turn,” Martin said. “Let us be your shield today.”

Marinette tightened her grip, leaning her head against Macy’s shoulder. Her old friends might still be under Lila’s control, but Marinette was grateful for the people she’d found after leaving. They’d been there for her when her whole world was falling apart. She really was lucky to have them.

Martin’s stealth proved effective as the morning wore on. Marinette barely saw any of her old classmates. As much relief as it brought her to know they still thought of her as a friend, she wasn’t ready to dive all the way back in. After all, they were still enamored by Lila, so she needed to tread carefully.

While Macy and Martin were engrossed in a Regnault, Marinette slipped over to the painting Gabrielle was studying across the room. Her dark green eyes didn’t look up when Marinette flanked her on the left, but she’d expected as much.

“You know, most people don’t avoid popularity.” When Marinette turned, Gabrielle’s face fell into a scowl. “Don’t turn around! I don’t want people to know we’re talking.”

Marinette turned back to the painting and pretended to study it. She was used to this game by now. Just because they were friends didn’t mean Gabrielle wanted everyone to know. She said it was for Marinette’s own good since people still rubbed the whole bankrupt thing in her face, but Marinette was starting to think she was just shy.

“You said you ran away from your old friends because they ditched you, but they all seemed more than happy to see you,” she said.

“It’s complicated.” Marinette jotted down information from the placard. “They’re being manipulated.”

“By the girl from the café?”

“Yeah.” Marinette pressed her lips into a firm line.

“She is quite the show pony,” Gabrielle said. “I can see why you two butt heads.”

“Lila is very charismatic. She tells people what they want to hear, so they don’t question it. It’s how she keeps control over them,” Marinette replied.

“She’d make a great politician.” Gabrielle laughed, but when Marinette remained quiet, she added, “It would be easy to take her down, you know. Someone with your connections could prove she’s lying with two phone calls.”

Marinette paused her writing and lowered her notebook with a frown.

“I’m not getting involved. It’s not my job to save everyone,” she said with more bite than she intended.

“Oh, don’t give me that.” Gabrielle rolled her eyes. “You like playing the hero, not for any glory or self-elevation, but just because you like helping people. It’s your most annoying quality.”

“I do not…” Marinette said lamely.

“Is that why even though I was mean to you and your friends, you still come by my café every Tuesday, so I don’t have to walk home alone? Why you talk to me at all when everyone else abandoned me,” she shot back. “Martin was a spineless twig before he met you. Macy and Eliott were complacent cowards. Now the twig has grown a trunk, and Thing 1 and 2 won’t stop running their mouths. You can’t help yourself, Marinette. You’re a good person.”

“Do you really think exposing her is what I should do? She’ll end up hurt and alone.” Marinette lowered her gaze.

“So what? She did it to herself when she told all of those lies. Sometimes you need to lose everything in order to change. If you leave her like this, she’ll never stop.” Gabrielle let out a short laugh. “Take it from someone who knows.”

Marinette weighed those words, pressing her lips together. Did she want to help? Of course. But did she want to get involved again at the expense of her own well-being? She wasn’t sure.

Lila was slippery. Marinette wasn’t even sure she could take her down, and if she did, she’d only cement her as an enemy. She needed a different way, an indirect way to make everyone see without calling her out to her face. A way to make Lila’s lies crumble from underneath, so that she had no choice but to face the truth.

There is one person who would know what to do.

But did Marinette want to stoop that low? Chloe requested her help once before, but did she even still want it? Chloe and Adrien had tried and failed to out Lila multiple times. Not to mention, Marinette and Adrien promised each other to let it go. Things were finally working out between them, and Marinette didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.

Marinette left her old life behind for a reason. Looking back was too painful. It had been a month since she left, and Marinette thought she was finally over everything until today. Seeing her old classmates rattled her more than she thought it would, a cool draft from the door she couldn’t quite close pricking her skin. But what did she expect when she ran away from her problems instead of facing them? A broken door couldn’t keep out the cold if it was never fixed. How much longer could Marinette run before the past caught up to her? How much longer until she had to turn around and face it? She didn’t want to think about it.

“Guess who?” She jumped as a playful lilt sounded in her ear, and a hand clamped over her eyes.

“Adrien?”

He lowered his hands with a cheery smile. Gabrielle was gone, and none of her old classmates were anywhere in sight. Her shoulders relaxed as Adrien pulled her close, touching his forehead to hers.

“You doing okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m…fine.” She pushed her frantic thoughts away.

Adrien turned her around gently, hugging her from behind. “I know you’re avoiding everyone, but let’s walk around together for a bit. Just me and you.” His lips brushed her cheek, warm breath teasing her skin.

Adrien was her boyfriend now. Adrien, the boy of her dreams, was her boyfriend. Marinette still hadn’t told him her feelings, nor had he, but Adrien referred to himself as her boyfriend on Saturday. Their date hadn’t exactly gone as planned, but they were still able to spend time together. She’d tell him the next time they were alone together. No more hiding and running away.

“Okay.”

They walked hand-in-hand through several exhibits. Adrien mimicked a few poses from the paintings they passed. Marinette smiled and laughed. She leaned on his shoulder and snuggled into the crook of his neck, pushing the worries from that morning out of her mind. Lila wasn’t her problem anymore. Her old classmates still liked her—most of them anyway. Adrien was her boyfriend. Her new friends were amazing. Everything was fine.

So why didn’t she feel fine?

“Are you sure you’re gonna be okay with everyone at lunch?” Adrien asked. “I know you’re putting on a brave face, but we don’t have to eat with them if you don’t want to.”

He’d gotten good at sensing her mood. Could he be any more perfect?

“I’ll be fine,” she insisted, though her grip tightened on his hand.

“I’ll be right there with you if you need me, okay? I’ve got your back.” He lifted her hand to his lips, placing a gentle kiss to her knuckles.

Adrien continued to keep her mind off of everything, discussing various paintings and relaying stories from recent photoshoots and fencing tournaments. He told her jokes to make her laugh, kept her smiling when she started to look sad. But lunch eventually came, and he held her hand the whole walk to the courtyard.

“Marinette!” Macy waved them over to their group, and as soon as she sat down, her old classmates flocked to her.

“So, who are your new friends?” Rose asked, settling in with Juleka.

“Uh…”

“My name’s Macy, and this is Martin, Eliott, and Lisette.” Macy cast Marinette a reassuring smile as her old classmates introduced themselves one-by-one, but it did little to calm her nerves, especially when Lila approached with her group.

Marinette’s stomach flipped as they sat down, the tension in the group escalating rapidly. Her old classmates flicked their gazes between Lila and Marinette, waiting to see who would strike first.

“Hi, I’m Macy!” She stuck her hand out to Lila with a cheery smile that didn’t touch her eyes. “What’s your name?”

“This is Lila. She has an amazing life,” Sabrina said.

“Same.” Macy smiled sweetly as if that announcement were no big deal.

Marinette’s heartbeat accelerated.

“Last summer, she saved an African village leader from choking,” Nathaniel said, beaming up at her.

“It was the least I could do after he agreed to sign my petition to teach the children how to read.” Lila waved it away.

“Oh, Eliott and I love charity trips. Our parents have an organization that ships out clean water and recycled clothing to third-world countries. We visited a few in Africa last summer to help build huts and dig wells for them.” Macy shot back.

“Those kids played a mean game of football.” Eliott nodded with a reminiscent smile.

“She also spent Christmas in Achu with Prince Ali and his family. They’re close personal friends!” Rose gushed.

“Oh, Achu is lovely at Christmas, but we usually spend it in London at the royal family’s Christmas party. It’s a blast! My dad played water polo with Prince William in college, and they’re still good friends.” Eliott chimed in. “That reminds me, Marinette, you have got to come this year.”

“You know Prince William?” Rose gasped, cupping her cheeks.

“I have his number. Sometimes I babysit when we go to visit.” Eliott shrugged as if it were no big deal.

“Ugh, don’t get him started. He’ll brag all day.” Macy rolled her eyes, but Marinette’s old classmates turned their attention over immediately.

Marinette took a bite of her sandwich, but it turned to sand in her mouth as Alya glared at her. Her expression crossed between disappointment and anger as if she couldn’t believe Marinette would stoop so low. Alya used to give those looks to Chloe when she pulled her usual stunts, but Marinette wasn’t used to being on the receiving end.

As much as she should have been happy that Lila wasn’t getting the attention she wanted, Marinette didn’t have it in her. This was only giving Lila fuel to come up with better lies and new ways to use her friends. The divide between her old classmates was obvious—a deep chasm stretching wider by the minute.

Macy and Eliott might be upstaging her now, but it was only a matter of time before Lila got her revenge. Gabrielle was right. She’d never stop.

“You okay?” Adrien leaned into her ear.

Marinette blinked down at the sandwich she was crushing.

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” She set her lunch on top of her bag and scurried off as Eliott performed a scene from the Miraculous show he was in.

The faces she passed were all a blur. Her heart raced, blood roaring in her ears as she raced down the steps, past other patrons who paid no mind to the girl in a private school uniform wandering the halls. She didn’t know where she was going—away. Just away.

Her feet carried her deeper into the museum, lengthening the chasm between her and her old life. She wasn’t ready to turn and face it. The draft had grown stronger now, the cold wind beating against the door. It threatened to give out at any moment, biting Marinette’s toes with its frosty breath. She couldn’t run from it forever, but she could run today.

She collapsed on a bench, face falling into her hands. Her shoulders heaved with ragged breaths, tears wetting her palms. Gentle hands rubbed her back, weight sinking onto the bench beside her.

“Hey, I’m here, just breathe,” Adrien said.

She buried her face into his chest, shoulders shaking. Of course he’d come. Adrien was always by her side. It was one promise he kept, and Marinette needed him desperately.

Adrien held her close and whispered gentle reassurances in her ear until she calmed enough to sit up.

“Talk to me.” He tucked a loose strand of her hair back in place.

“Just… They’re all so taken with her, and she does nothing but use them and rub it in my face,” she whimpered. “And I know that I could expose her in an instant. I have Jagged Stone’s phone number. Clara Nightingale texts me! I could end her reign with a single phone call.”

“But that’s not you,” Adrien said.

She pressed the back of her hand to her quivering lip and shook her head.

“I want to stop it. I do, but I don’t want to play her game anymore. I want to get out, but I just can’t let go.” She found his gaze, hot tears clouding her vision. “I want to save everyone, but I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m tired of being everyone’s hero.”

“It’s okay.” He soothed with increasing alarm, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You’re gonna get through this. You’re the strongest person I know.”

She clenched her hands into fists. “I’m tired of always having to be strong. For once, I want to stop carrying everyone’s burdens because they’re too heavy for me.”

Adrien flicked his gaze over her shoulder briefly and met her gaze once more.

“Listen to me. Macy, Eliott, and Martin are all here for you.” He cupped her face. “I’m here for you. Don’t lose hope.”

“I can’t anymore. I can’t. I can’t-” She stopped short as dark energy washed over her, a cold feeling running through her core.

“Princess Verity, I am Hawkmoth-”

“Marinette, don’t listen to him, listen to me!” Adrien pleaded. “No one expects you to solve all of their problems.”

“Your friends are all trapped by that liar.”

“You’re stronger than him, Marinette.”

“Wouldn’t you like to set them free?”

“Fight it! Don’t give up!”

“I can give you the power to expose the truth.”

“Marinette, you’re not alone.” Marinette blinked, finding Adrien’s worried green eyes baring into hers.

The bracelet Macy gave her had gone dark, glowing with sinister energy. Marinette pressed her lips together. She was too tired to fight. Hadn’t she struggled enough? Maybe it was what Lila deserved—what they all deserved.

“Run, Adrien,” she said.

“No.” Her head snapped up, meeting his determined green eyes. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Adrien, please.”

“No.” He shook his head. “Don’t give up. You can beat him.”

“Adrien.” Fresh tears welled in her eyes, panic swelling. “Please, run. I love you, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t. Don’t you know why I call you mon ange?” He held her face in his hands, touching his nose to hers. “Because you’re my angel, and I love you with all of my heart. I’m never going to leave you. Not ever.”

“Adrien…”

She just wanted everything to go back to the way it was—the way things were before Lila. The broken door had been pried open by the storm, dragging Marinette out into its dark flood. Her head hurt, body numb and cold, and even on her tiptoes, she could barely stay above the surface. She was drowning in a sea of her own anguish and guilt, too exhausted to fight the waves.

“Make it stop,” she whispered, a single tear slicing down her cheek.

They didn’t hesitate this time. His lips found hers, warm and safe—a buoy among the waves. Marinette wrapped herself in his warm embrace, driving out the cold ache in her bones. He trailed his fingers up her jaw and into her hair, pulling her closer. Ever since she left, Adrien had always been her lifeline, no matter how rough the waves got. His arms provided stable footing when the current was spinning too fast. He hadn’t abandoned her back then, and he wasn’t abandoning her now. Even her friends were outside fighting for her.

Lila could take a lot of things from her, but not them. These were the people who would always pull her out of the water, no matter how far down she sank. Marinette just needed to hang on while they pulled her to shore.

Taking a deep breath, she undid the clasp on her bracelet with shaking hands and set it on the bench. Macy, Elliot, Martin, Lisette, Adrien, Gabrielle. She had so many people who loved her—people who had been looking out for her all day. People who were still looking out for her. She was not alone.

“Not this time, Hawkmoth. I won’t help you. This isn’t the answer to my problem,” she said calmly.

The butterfly reemerged and fluttered off, returning the bracelet to normal. Marinette watched it go, legs too heavy to give chase.

Adrien crushed her against his chest, kissing her hair. “You’re okay. I’ve got you. You’re safe.” He rubbed her back, clutching fistfuls of her shirt in shaking hands. “I’m here. It’s gonna be okay.”

“Adrien, the akuma. We have to stop it,” she said, but he didn’t budge.

“One minute, Marinette,” he murmured. “Can you think of yourself for just one minute and stay here with me?”

Marinette relented, finding his lips again. He kissed her hard, his fear and relief washing over her, the severity of the situation hitting her in the gut.

She’d almost been akumatized. Again.

If Adrien hadn’t been there, Paris would have been doomed. He was her guardian angel, and the best boyfriend in the world. The selfish part of her wanted to stay and kiss his pillowy lips forever. Maybe someone would paint a picture of them and hang it in the museum, then everyone could bask in their undying love. But Marinette couldn’t afford such luxurious daydreams. Not everyone had the support system Marinette did, and she needed to find the akuma before someone else fell victim to Hawkmoth.

“Thank you,” she said when they pulled away. “You’ve been looking out for me all day.”

“You’re not alone, mon ange. I will always be here for you.” He vowed, kissing her forehead.

She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “We should go after that akuma before it gets someone else.”

“We can cover more ground if we split up.” He fastened her bracelet around her wrist, giving her hand a squeeze. “Be careful, and stay safe.”

“You too.” They leaned in for one final kiss, swift and hard, before turning their backs and taking off.

“I’m very proud of you, Marinette,” Tikki said as she took cover in a closed exhibit. “And you and Adrien finally confessed your true feelings!”

“We can talk about it later. We have an akuma to catch. Transform me!”

[onedoodleaday]

Review of 6 creative prompt books

Can't get enough prompts? I sure can't! I have a horrible urge to buy any and all books I see that have any sort of theme related to creative prompts, and I've amassed quite the collection over the years. 

Today, I'm going to review some of them!

All of the following books are meant to be drawn in directly, which (at least ideally) makes them very satisfying to leaf through once you've worked in them for a while.

I will be making a separate post showcasing how I've personally used each book and link to it here, in case any if them pique your interest and you'd like to know more (coming soon!)

Books I am reviewing:

365 days of art by Lorna Scobie (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▪️ Four out of five stars)

642 things to draw by chronicle books (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ five out of five stars)

642 fashion things to draw by Chronicle Books (⭐️⭐️⭐️▪️▪️ Three out of five stars)

Doodle a day by Chris Riddell (⭐️⭐️⭐️▪️▪️ three out of five stars)

Hirameki: Draw what you see by Peng and Hu (⭐️⭐️▪️▪️▪️ two out of five stars)

Illistration by Jaime Zollars (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▪️ four out of five stars)

Warning: this is a very long post

365 days of art

By Lorna Scobie

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▪️ Four out of five stars

What I like about it:

There's a great variety of prompts in this one. The prompts are mostly simple and straightforward, with space for doing your own thing. Most of the exercises also happen to appeal to me personally. 

The prompts are designed for being able to be completed quite quickly, which makes them very accessible for me, and of course, you can get more elaborate with them if you have the time and energy (I've spent the last five days adding details to fish, just because I wanted to).

The author uses the foreword to encourage you to use the book in whatever way you personally find the most fun, which I appreciate.

Most of the prompts feel like they're focusing on practice rather than results, which means it's open for all skill levels to enjoy.

Criticism:

While I do hold that this book can work for artists of all skill levels, it does have prompts that are meant to teach you something, and while I like some of them, there are some that feel targeted towards either less experienced artists, or artists who has, or strives towards, a similar art style to that of the author. A couple of times, I have felt that my art style did not match the exercise set up, and while I still managed to have fun with them, I did wish there were more space for (in my case) a more realistic art style.

On a similar note, there are sections geared towards calligraphy, and they start at the very basics. While I personally am a beginner, I can imagine that someone with experience would find these bits both boring and redundant. 

I will also mention that the book does encourage the use of different kinds of media, so you either have to be ready to break out some different tools or bend the prompts a bit if all you have is a pencil.

Recommended for beginner and intermediate artists, people who really like prompt books. Good for a little bit of daily practice with many different styles of art. Good for people who like patterns and colours in their art.

Recommended tools: brush pen, water-based paint, coloured pencils

642 things to draw

By chronicle books

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ five out of five stars

Of all the prompt books I have, this is my favorite. Hands down.

What I like about it:

This book is just prompts. No hand-holding, no presets for what to do with it, they just give you something to draw and you go from there. All you need is a pencil and your imagination. There are both straightforward prompts (a bottle opener, a spool of thread) and more abstract ones (girlish laughter, head in the clouds) and the variety means I usually find at least one prompt I want to do on each spread. 

The differing sizes dedicated to each prompt make for a really fun and pleasing result.

I also appreciate that this book is completely open to all skill levels, as long as you're willing to give a go at drawing a lot of different things.

Criticism:

While I personally adore the to-the-point, straightforward prompts, I do acknowledge that, unless you enjoy just drawing random objects, you're going to need to add some creativity on your own, in how you incorporate the prompts. I personally like adding either character interaction or to use the object as part of a scene, especially for the things I don't find super visually interesting on their own. I personally enjoy the level of thinking, but I'm sure there are people who don't. 

I also don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much when I was just starting out. I’ve always been quite result-based with my art, and while I think using reference to draw all the different things in the book would be an amazing skill-building exercise, it also sounds like a lot of work.

There are also a handful of pop culture references and prompts for famous people, which I personally prefer to avoid, because those are often based on social knowledge and interest, of which I personally have neither.

Recommended for artists of all skill levels, people who either have a big visual library or would like to build one. Recommended for people who like to draw a lot of different things.

Recommended materials: anything! Can be used with just a pencil

642 fashion things to draw

By Chronicle Books

⭐️⭐️⭐️▪️▪️ Three out of five stars

This one was actually my first prompt book ever! The start of a hoard, one might say.

What I like about it: 

This one is another one by Chronicle Books, in the same series. This one is really fun if you like drawing clothes, and/or your art is character oriented. Of all my prompt books, this one has the best potential for fanart, in my opinion. If you like drawing people and characters, this book is really fun

Criticism:

This one is, quite understandably, more specific. If you like drawing clothes, this one is ideal. If you don't ... don't pick this one. 

I was close to giving this one four stars, but I will withdraw a star for being very specifically tailored to one subject -- this could be a five star book for some people and a one-star for others.

Another thing I want to mention is that this book gets specific. I have to look up what about a third of the prompts mean. I'm okay with that, but if you don't want to do research and don't already know what a jaquard blouse or peplum waist skirt or houndstooth is, this is not the book for you.

Lastly, it has a good handful of both pop culture references and references to different brands, which is kind of alienating to me personally. It also assumes that you yourself care about your own clothes to some extent. And that you have at least one father and one mother. Who got married at some point. And your mom wore a wedding dress. Things like that.

Also my copy is from 2013 and let's just say some of the references have aged very poorly. ("D*nald Tr*mp power suit" being a very notable example. I drew him impaled on a stick. Which was satisfying. But it was very much an act of rebellion so keep it in mind)

Recommended for anyone who likes drawing clothes and the people wearing them, who are also willing to put up with a certain amount of heteronormativity in their prompt books. Some skill level will probably make the book more enjoyable. Clothes are hard.

Recommended materials: Anything! You can use this one with just a pencil

Doodle a day

By Chris Riddell

⭐️⭐️⭐️▪️▪️ three out of five stars

(Note: I own a translated version of the book; this is the danish cover)

Before we start, I would like to note that this book's target demographic is children. I’m not a children, I just thought it looked fun. And I was right! But do keep it in mind.

What I like about it:

This one doesn't take itself too seriously. Which means that in places, it gets wacky. And I appreciate that. It expects a child's untamed creativity and wish to go along with whatever. 

A lot of the prompts are really fun and inspiring for me as an adult. There are a lot of "complete this drawing" sort of things that get me to draw things I don't usually draw. 

It's nice to see a book geared towards children that dares to have a very detailed and complex art style. Whether you personally like Chris Riddell's art style is very subjective, but he's good at what he does.

Criticism:

You have to enjoy drawing along with what the author enjoys. We're talking robots and fairy tales and dancing bears. This book has less room for letting you steer the prompts in a direction that you personally like, which is good if you like to be told exactly what to draw. It is less good if, like me, you prefer your prompt-based art to have space for a lot of your own creativity and preferences. 

I've personally marked down the prompts I want to do with tape, and I'm planning to just plain skip the rest. This means about two thirds of the book that I'm just not planning on using. I'm okay with this! But I want to mention it.

The book also contains quite a lot of 'free days', which I always find disappointing. I came here specifically because I didn't want to make up my own stuff. Please. Tell me what to do, I beg of you.

I will also note that this book assumes that you have some sort of family that are present in your life to the point that you want to include them in your drawings, and that you have at least one friend who wants to partake in certain of the prompts. 

It also assumes cultural Christianity, having prompts for easter and christmas and halloween and so forth, with no other holidays mentioned. It's a little uncomfortable.

Recommended for people who like silly prompts and are very adaptable in their art. Probably really good for younger kids? I was a weird child, so my point of view might be skewed. Decide for yourself if this book is worth getting for you or someone you know!

Recommended materials: something to draw with, and something to colour with.

Hirameki: Draw what you see

By Peng and Hu

⭐️⭐️▪️▪️▪️ two out of five stars

The classic exercise of using vague blobs and turning them into drawings

What's I like about it:

The concept is really good. The idea of having a whole book of printed blobs to turn into drawings is so fun and appealing to me, as someone who loves having things in books. 

I really like that they have certain categories and themes, to make things a little different. I love the idea of having a theme for a whole page of blobs (turning everything on one page into birds, for example), and what made me get the book was specifically that they have pages with just the same blob ten times over, and the challenge is then to make them all into different things.

Criticism:

This book is the marketable brand flavor of prompt books, trying to be what mindful colouring books did, but with another concept, preferably in a way they can copyright. 

They're clearly trying to make pattern-making into a marketable invention rather than something that has been around since, like, literal prehistoric times. This would be little more than annoying and could probably be ignored, if it wasn't for the fact that the blobs aren't even ... random. 

The creativity is killed, because these blobs are clearly made to look like certain things. Which is the opposite of the point, of the shapes-in-randomness exercise. They don't do this with every page, but it is, like. More than half. The page dedicated to faces have defined noses and necks. There’s a beach themed spread and the crabs have defined pincers. 

I had the most fun on the intro pages, where there were no prompts, because that was the place where the blobs were truly random. These were not meant to be drawn on! They were decorations! I just did it anyway!

This is branded to be something that will allow you to be creative, but in reality, it is actually just a different way of playing connect-the-dots. And there's nothing wrong with connect-the-dots, but I was advertised something else and I'm disappointed.

Also, this is personal pettiness, but if you're going to make a gimmick out of every prompt rhyming, you have to actually know how to rhyme. "Gadget" and "uplug it" do not rhyme! Not even by a stretch!

I cannot recommend this book. The idea is good, and some of the pages I did enjoy filling out, but I would have gotten more out of just grabbing a blank sketchbook and adding some ink blots to every page, then started from one end.

Recommended materials: They specifically say that you have to use a pen that’s either blue or black. I used a bright red one just to be a contrarian.

Illistration

By Jaime Zollars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▪️ four out of five stars

This one is a little different -- it is essentially a make-your-own-prompts book!

What I like about it:

This book appeals right to my need to be part of the process, even when drawing for prompts. Basically, this book is all about producing creative lists of things to draw, and then illustrating your favorites.

I love how the author talks you through their process of creating each individual list to suit their own preferences, and encourages you to do the same, to create prompts that appeal directly to you.

I also really appreciate that this book fully assumes that the reader is just as capable as the author. It wants to teach you something, sure, but it doesn't outright assume that you've got more or less experience than the author. They're teaching you one specific way of generating ideas and that's what matters. The author is confident, but humble. I like that.

Criticism:

Honestly, this is a wonderful book. I wouldn't change anything about it. The only reason I subtracted a star is because it falls a little bit outside the category of a prompt book. It's a five-star book for what it is, but if you're just here to be told what to draw without having to make stuff up on your own, this one is not for you. 

I can't just pull this one out, open it up and start drawing -- using this book is a project. I have to do at least half of the work myself, if not more. And I personally have fun with that, but it has to be noted.

Recommended for artists of any skill level, who like to generate their own unique ideas. This is the one I would be most likely to recommend to a dedicated artist, or a professional.

Recommended materials: whatever you prefer to draw with, and something to write with.

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

Thank you for reading! 

If you found this review helpful and want to fund me and my constant purchasing of prompt books, you can tip me on TheNearsightedMicroraptor on Ko-fi!

[didimentionthatimawriter]

Heads up, this is a long post, but it's important. Please read it. Some people may have been able to guess this based on the last couple of posts I've shared, but I figured I should make an official post about it here. 

In January I got officially diagnosed with Moderate ADHD, Predominately Inattentive (for anyone who doesn't know, this is what used to be known as ADD, but it recently was grouped with ADHD because of the similar symptoms). What this means is I have a hard time focusing and paying attention, have problems with forgetfulness, but I'm not as hyperactive as other people with ADHD might be.

This isn't something that I've caught or developed, this is something that I've had all my life and it went unnoticed. I still remember getting in trouble when I was in elementary school because I was really slow at doing assignments and could never finish anything on time because I spent the whole time daydreaming instead. To this day I have a really hard time paying attention in lectures without daydreaming, doing something else like doodling or writing notes for a story, or getting very restless and fidgety. 

How did I not get diagnosed until now? It's actually very common for women with ADHD, especially the inattentive kind, not to get diagnosed until they are adults. Girls with ADHD in particular go under the radar because of this stigma that ADHD makes a kid (usually a boy) super hyperactive and you can't get them to sit down and be quiet unless you give them a pill. Kids with inattentive ADHD are mostly just brushed off as ditsy daydreamers who need to get their heads out of the clouds, but it's not that easy. Sometimes, sitting down to listen to a lecture or get a task done is physically difficult. 

I didn't get diagnosed until recently because I had been able to cope with my symptoms for the most part. I made decent grades, I had strategies to force myself to pay attention, I had study groups to go to where I had to make myself do work. The biggest problems I faced were that tasks took me so much longer than everyone else to do and I still daydreamed a lot, but even that was used to my advantage since I pursued writing fiction.

Everything that happened with Covid-19 and quarantine took away all the structure and routine I was used to, and my symptoms got worse. Then I moved out, got an apartment in a whole new city with whole new people, a job, entered a Master's program, all without an established routine to get my feet on the ground. Suddenly doing a reading for class or writing a 200 word discussion post was impossible, or would take me three times longer than everyone else did. It could take me three hours to read and annotate a 20 page article. I had major imposter syndrome, my anxiety got worse, I started having very bad depressive episodes, and I couldn't cope with anything anymore. This led to a decline in my physical health, too. I remember it got so bad I once went a week without showering because I either didn't have the energy to or I just forgot to. 

I only ever considered ADHD after one of my friends who had been diagnosed with it recognized some of the symptoms in me and suggested I get tested. I did, despite people (including myself) trying to convince me there was no way I had it, and it came back positive. I also got diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. 

I'm not sharing this for people to pity me or worry about me. I'm fine. I'm getting help and learning how to cope with this, (and I've made a lot of improvements), and I'm hoping that when the pandemic is officially over and I can get a routine back in place it will be easier to manage. I'm sharing all of this to stress how important this is and I want to help raise awareness for it. People who weren't diagnosed and given treatment as kids often develop anxiety and depression because they have such a hard time keeping up with the pressures of everyday life. Statistically, the links between mood disorders and ADHD make adults with ADHD 14% more likely to attempt suicide than people without it, and it's especially bad for women.  (Source here: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-12-29/adhd-raises-adult-suicide-risk-especially-for-women )

The best thing we can do to make those numbers go down is to recognize it and treat people for it before they develop those other disorders, and the first step is to get rid of the stigma that goes along with it. ADHD isn't always a kid unable to stay in their seat or blurting out in a discussion, (in fact, some of those kids may not even have it and are just disregarded and given pills to make them manageable, but that's a whole other issue).

ADHD is having 500 different thoughts running through your head at once that you can't drown out. It's spending days obsessing over whatever your hyper fixation is on and forgetting about your immediate responsibilities and relationships. It's having a decent vocabulary but forgetting most of it or mis-speaking  when you're trying to write or talk to someone. It's experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety about tests or projects with time limits. It's forgetting people's birthdays or not talking to an old friend for a long time even though you miss them because they aren't there with you and your mind is on other things. It's procrastinating working on big projects because there are so many things to do now that something due not now doesn't feel as important, (then promptly getting extremely stressed out when that big project is due soon and you haven't even started on it). It's getting so overwhelmed with the things you need to do that you disassociate and can't get out of bed. It's becoming paralyzed with indecision. It's spending more time preparing for a task than actually doing the task. It's wanting to do your best but not having the capabilities to do it. 

ADHD is hard to deal with, but it does not make someone any less of a person. I'm not ashamed of it, but I want people to understand it and learn how to work with people with it. People with ADHD aren't lazy or uncaring, they just don't think the same way as normal people.

[whyiask]

Just a Stupid Dare (Ch.10)

Masterpost Ao3 Link tw/cw: mm not any that I can think of? lmk if i need to add any. Note: Hi. Remember when I abandoned this fic for literal months? I panicked bc I didn't know how it was going to end and that stressed me out but it's all good now bc I finally have a completed plotted out story. This also means that when I say 'regular updates', I'm not lying, because I write much better with an outline and so :D (i have BIG things planned ;) )

---

Virgil was busy during lunch on Monday, and Roman didn’t know whether Logan would want to see him, so he brought his lunch to the garden behind the school to eat. It was surprisingly nice weather outside, peaceful, if not a bit isolating. It gave him plenty of time to hear the footsteps approaching before he turned around.

Patton stood by the entrance, hands waving by his sides like an idle video game character. He was, as usual, decked out in stylish pastels and way-too-large square glasses perched on his nose. His blondish brown curls spilled out around his face.

“Hi Ro,” he said softly, and Roman patted the bench next to him, a silent invitation to come in. Patton accepted the olive branch enthusiastically, situating himself on the bench and crossing his legs underneath him.

“Logan wanted to say sorry,” he said. Roman nearly spit out his bite of food. He swallowed hastily.

“What?” he asked, because Logan didn’t often apologize.

“He knows he overreacted and he’s super sorry, but to be fair, you know his history with Virgil and he probably felt betrayed that you would willingly spend time around him, even if he has,” Patton hesitated, “...changed for the better.”

Roman perked up. “You believe me?”

Patton hesitated again, fingers absently tracing the pen doodles on his arms. “...I still don’t trust him, but I trust you and if you say he’s trying, then I’ll believe you. I don’t think Logan can, not now, maybe not ever, but I do trust your judgement on this one.”

Patton offered a small smile and patted Roman’s shoulder. “Want to come sit with us instead of being alone out here? Or I could stay with you if you want.”

“You can stay,” Roman said, giving a slight smile in return.

---

Virgil caught up with Roman in between classes. He raced up, out of breath, and held up a hand. Roman paused and smiled.

"Hey!" he chirped. Virgil smirked and gave a small nod of his head.

"Hi," Virgil breathed. "Sorry about yesterday, I had no idea they were coming over. I've given them a fake explanation and they seem to buy it for now."

"That's good," Roman agreed. "Remus was being a dick about it so I popped one of his tires."

Virgil let out a shocked laugh. So that's why Remus was in such an irritable mood today.

"Ohoho, looks like someone's got a bit of a rebellious streak. Didn't expect it from the nerdy theater kid, not gonna lie."

Roman rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Glad I could surprise you, the emo nightmare himself, with my heroic feats. I suppose sometimes miracles do come true."

Virgil paused for a moment, thinking. "Since you're clearly not afraid of being a bit criminal," he began.

"I don't know if I like where this is going-"

"How do you feel about going vandalizing later tonight?"

Roman's protest came to a halt, and his eyes opened wider. "...I'm listening."

"Me. You. 10:00 at the skatepark. It'll be a date," Virgil joked.

"You're on," Roman grinned. "See you tonight. Now, if you don't mind, I have a class to attend."

---

Virgil had been waiting at the park for about 15 minutes, clad in his black hoodie, before Roman arrived.

“You’re late,” Virgil noted absently, taking in the two skateboards tucked under Roman’s arm. He too was dressed with a hoodie, fraying and dark red, a golden crown stitched onto the front. It suited him.

“Time is a social construct,” Roman said, throwing down one of the skateboard and hopping on, gliding the last few feet over to Virgil before stopping himself with his foot.

Virgil watched him, wide eyed. “...I didn’t know you know how to skateboard.”

Roman snorted. “You don’t?” He paused at the look on Virgil’s face. “Oh, uh- I can teach you if you want?” he offered. “I mean, I did bring two.”

“That would be pretty chill, I think,” Virgil said. He hefted up his bag of spray paints and supplies for Roman to see. “I’ve brought my paints.” He pulled out a pair of disposable gloves and tossed them to Roman. He snapped on his own pair and shook out his arms.

“Come, take whichever ones you want. Feel free to paint wherever, but try not to go over the top of any big and detailed designs.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Roman said, shuffling around in the bag. He eventually picked out a gold and a red and puttered off to a blank area. Virgil lifted the whole bag over his shoulder and found a spot near to Roman’s.

He got to work making a storm cloud design, quickly mapping it out and pulling out a few purples and grays. Roman finished his pretty soon and came to sit behind Virgil, watching him work in silence.

When he finally finished and stepped away, Roman spoke.

“That’s so cool, wow.”

Virgil turned around and smirked at Roman’s slightly awed expression, and nudged him up. “Come on, show me what you did.”

Roman laughed, a bright sound in the shadows of the night.

“It’s not nearly as good as yours,” Roman said, leading Virgil to his small design. It was a crown, similar to the one on his hoodie.

“Fancy yourself a prince, hmm?” Virgil teased. “Honestly though, this is really good for your first time ever. I can come back later and touch it up, make it a little more dynamic if you want?”

Roman beamed. Once again, Virgil marveled at how he could emit such a brightness in the gloom of the lonely park.

“Well, come on Princey, I do believe I am owed a lesson in skateboarding.”

Roman might’ve flushed at the nickname, but it was hard to tell in the bleary lighting.

“Still can’t believe that you regularly come to this park to graffiti and yet never learned how to skateboard,” Roman laughed. Virgil half-grimaced, half-grinned, because really, what do you say to that?

“I’m just special that way.”

“Keep telling yourself that, maybe one day it’ll be true.”

“Oh, just you wait, Princey,” Virgil said. “Just you wait,” he repeated, a little sadder than before. “There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

[wildbootsappeared]

Continental Divides Chapter Discussion #9: Notebook Tour

I’ve kept a writer’s notebook since I was in high school: pieces of poems, observations, drafts of scenes, title ideas, occasional doodles, quotes, words and definitions ... And I still have all of them, a shelf of time-capsules. 

I prefer pocket-sized notebooks these days, preferably unlined and with a little pocket in the back for hoarding shit. The year before Covid, I had an hour-long train commute every weekend for my art-teaching gig, which was when I did a lot of my Continental Divides planning (especially Chapter 4 and parts of what would become Chapter 10). 

Since the start of Covid, my notebook has gotten a little less love. My phone, laptop, and desktop all have Scrivener and I barely leave the house anyway. But! Sometimes I just need to lay my ideas out so I can see them visually or to declutter my thoughts, and there’s something about a notebook page that’s more forgiving than a blank word processor page. Something about moving the hand and switching pen colors helps, too. The fight scene in Chapter 9: Fault Lines was especially cluttered in my head, so I thought I’d talk a little about how I sorted my shit out.

In Chapter 9, the gloves are off, and Mark and Natalie are both out to hurt each other. I had a real problem a) keeping my protagonists from actually killing each other, lol and b) managing two humans plus a combined nine pokemon between them (seven that appear in the scene) for a total of nine named characters all smashing together at the same time. Yikes, yikes, yikes.

I’m a visual person, so I went for a visual solution: I made little tokens I could arrange on a page.

(F for Gibs, who I printed and promptly set aside.)

They’re very simple: two pieces of printer paper (so they’re double-sided) held together and protected with packing tape. Boom, boom.

I literally played out the scene with these little chips (like a kid playing with dolls) and then took notes on each beat: action, response. Laying them out physically made it easier for me to see the scene the way Mark and Natalie (well, mostly Mark, since he’s planning and she’s just reacting, lol) might see it. Aha, Luna is too far away to block a psychic attack. Where is Samson and why can’t he and Luna gang up on Rand? Aha, Ore tosses him over here. From there, it was much, much easier to turn my seven pages of bullet points and questions into actual prose. 

I reminded myself a lot of Magic the Gathering while planning this fight. For the uninitiated, MTG is essentially an army-building game in cards. Most of the time, the game ends when one player deals enough direct damage to reduce the other player’s life total to zero. You protect your life total by having your army of monsters and minions intercede on your behalf. But there are rules about which creatures can be blocked, in what way, and under how much force before they’re essentially dead. So it’s sort of a game of upping the ante, playing creatures and matching your opponent’s creatures, sneaking hits in on the sly--until one person manages to utterly overpower the other. 

Aaaaand that’s about what Mark does to Natalie here. He’s got a better rebuttal than she does for each play she makes a better deck, too. She’s a casual player very unprepared for the way he plays for keeps.

(BTW, because of course I’ve thought about this: Mark is absolutely a blue control deck in MTG, while Natalie is all red: throwing out instants to shave off life points but leaving herself totally exposed.)

Aside from using my notebook for planning scenes, this one is also sort of a rain dish for things that inspire me. In the fall, I made a few mood/board collages, little spaces where my eyes can land to help me get into the right headspace:

I got a lot of my lore sorted out while I was assembling these, listening to my Divides playlists on repeat. :D

Speaking of ...

Some Chapter 9 music (links to Spotify):

- Fake by RedHook

- Pleasant by SebastiAn, Charlotte Gainsbourg

- I Disagree by Poppy

- The Runaway by UNKLE, Elle J

- Breathe the Fire by The Soft Moon

- Burning Lakes by Sadistik

[artificialqueens]

Favorite Place, Chapter 3 (Crygi) - Lily Bee

AO3 LINK

Chapter Summary: Coffee and headache pills can cure any heartbreak, right?

A/N: i’m not even sure what to put in these notes anymore ahh but thank you for the love on this story its so fun to write! this chapter is mostly just a filler i promise we will get back to the actual book store part of this book store au soon !! in the meantime check out my tumblr & thank you so much jazz for editing as always ily

Gigi woke up the next morning with a throbbing headache.

Memories of the following night came flooding in: seeing her boyfriend with that other woman, running out, driving, the book store, Crystal. Fuck, Crystal. She was in Crystal’s apartment, on her couch. Her head began to ache more. She pushed herself up resting on her arms as she glanced around the room. No sight of Crystal.

Gigi fumbled around the couch trying to find her phone. She hadn’t looked at it since before she got to her boyfriend’s house, turning it off immediately after running off. There were thousands of missed messages from her friends.

“Where are you?!?!!” she read from Jan.

From Jackie: “We’re worried about you!!”

Heidi followed suit, sending a brief “^^” when Gigi didn’t respond.

They were all worried. It was unlike Gigi to not be on her phone, messaging them every detail of her life. Her head started to ache more just looking at the bright phone screen. She typed a bullshit response saying she would explain more later. Right now all she needed was some Tylenol and a coffee.

Gigi forced herself off the couch and towards the kitchen. Crystal’s kitchen was a mess—well, at least in Gigi’s standards. The counter top was covered in books, stationary supplies, and an assortment of papers filled with doodles and mindless writing. The fridge was dotted in magnets from places she had traveled and magnetic letters spelled out to say her name in the bright font. The cabinets had notes from what she assumed to be her friends spilled across them.

Luckily for Gigi, there was a coffee machine too. Gigi sludged over to the counter and peered at a note posted on the coffee machine.

Gigi,

I’m sorry to have run out, I’ll be back shortly. Please make yourself at home.

Crystal <3

Crystal seemed to have a lot of trust leaving Gigi alone in her apartment. But, there was coffee here for her so what was the worst she could do?

She had just started brewing herself a pot when the door swung open, letting air into the apartment.

“Good morning!” Crystal beamed. She bounced into the kitchen holding a small bag. She placed it on the kitchen counter and revealed two blueberry scones.

“I was nervous you would be hungry and I didn’t have much food here,” Crystal spoke as she took a seat.

“Thank you,” Gigi responded. “Do you happen to have any headache pills by chance?”

“Yes!” She got up and rushed around the corner, disappearing farther into the apartment. She reappeared with pills in hand, grabbing a glass from the cabinet and filling it up in the sink.

“Here,” she said, extending the items to Gigi.

Gigi took the glass and swallowed the pills gratefully. She didn’t really know what to even say to Crystal now—considering she’d only met her yesterday, cried in her bookstore, blabbed about her entire life, then slept in her house. Theoretically, that would be a good place to start. Instead, she asked something simpler: “So, do you work today?”

“I don’t, actually. I work most days, but I’m able to make my own schedule, and decided that I needed a day off.”

Gigi hoped that she didn’t take off just because of her. She would hate to be the reason Crystal wasn’t getting hours. “I feel like it would be fun to work at a bookstore,” Gigi confessed.

“It’s fun most of the time. I’ve worked at a bookstore most of my life and I’ve met some amazing people, but it has its disadvantages too.”

“Like what?” Gigi questioned.

“Well, I come home, exhausted and drained from a day of hearing customers tell me why independent bookstores are going extinct, how they’re just going to go home and order that book I couldn’t find for them off Amazon, and that no one reads books anymore anyway,” Crystal complained.

“Oh, I didn’t realize,” Gigi uttered. “That must get annoying to hear all the time.”

“It is, but I love my job. I just get to read all the time and express my love for literature to anyone willing to listen. I also drink a lot of coffee.” Crystal smiled. “I can’t help it! The whole place smells like warm chocolate coffee goodness and I get 50% off in the cafe! I rub the spines of books like I’m in a movie and not on the clock and I read the backs of books when I should be shelving.”

Gigi listened to her every word, admiring the way she was so passionate about her job. She spoke with so much confidence and joy. Gigi only wished this was the way she came across to others.

“Okay, now that’s why it sounds like fun. I need to read more,” she admitted.

“You should! I can always recommend you books,” Crystal grinned.

“Thank you,” Gigi replied.

She took a seat at the counter next to Crystal as she began to drink her coffee and eat her scone. The pair started exchanging words, neither of them bringing up the events of the previous night. They just spoke as if they had been close friends for ages. Gigi talked about her friends and filled Crystal in on her own job.

Gigi worked as a fashion illustrator, she told Crystal. She worked with designers to create conceptual sketches and illustrations of their fashion products, including clothing, shoes and accessories. In addition, she produced advertising copy and images for promotional material for print. She always wanted to work in fashion and was fortunate enough to get a job that she loved, and that paid well, too.

“It’s insane,” Gigi explained about her job. “I work with some of the most amazing designers in New York, yet some of their designs are hideous!” She laughed at herself. “I swear I could do better than half of them.”

“I bet you could.” Crystal beamed. “Do you have designs? I would love to see them!”

“I do! Next time I’ll definitely have to show you.” Gigi blushed.

Next time, Crystal thought. There was going to be a next time; she was going to get to see Gigi again.

Crystal gladly listened to Gigi go on about her life. It was nice to see her so happy compared to yesterday. The pair managed to lose all track of time, their conversation lasting into the early afternoon. They sipped their coffee, and eventually raided Crystal’s pantry for more snacks.

“As much as I’m enjoying this, I really need to get my stuff from his house,” Gigi conceded. She was not in the mood to see him. She wished to never have to see him again, if she were being honest. She just hoped she could get in and get out easily.

“We could teepee his house,” Crystal suggested with a devilish smile. Gigi couldn’t help but laugh. It wasn’t such a bad idea.

“I couldn’t,” she managed to get out between laughs. “Lovely suggestion, though.”

“Of course,” Crystal beamed. “I’ll let you go, I got to finish my book anyway.”

“We should hang out again sometime.” Gigi admitted. “I’ve been happier today than I have been in a while.”

Crystal could only imagine how mentally drained Gigi must have been from her relationship.

“Yes, we definitely should!” Crystal affirmed. Neither of them moved from their spot in the kitchen, just sat in comfortable silence.

After a few minutes, Gigi finally stated, “Okay, I’m going.” She stood up and headed towards the front door. With a hand on the knob, she turned around to face Crystal and said, “Thank you for everything again… I’m not quite sure what I would have done without this.”

“Anytime! Don’t hesitate to reach if anything is wrong when you get there,” Crystal said. “Here, give me your phone. I’ll give you my number.” She extended her arm.

Gigi placed her phone in Crystal’s hand. “The password is 1111,” she admitted.

“Wow, how secure,” Crystal laughed. She went to the contacts app and put in her name in Gigi’s phone with about seven hearts after.

“Here,” she said, throwing the phone back. Gigi let out a little yelp as she tried to catch it mid-air.

“Thank you,” she breathed. With a small smile, she added, “You’ll definitely be hearing from me."  

[mimi-cee-hq]

Yahaba’s Type - Yahaba x Reader (Part 1 of 2)

[Masterlist]

[Part 1] [Part 2]

Summary:

Although Y/n was known as the clown friend, she wasn’t very comfortable around Yahaba. But that started to change when she saw him awkwardly practising his tosses by himself.

AO3 link if you want to read there instead.

Match-up Request:

Hi I’m here for a match up request~ I’m tall (about 1.80) with blonde middle length hair & light brown eyes I’m a bit plump (usually thin but lately I’ve put on some weight) & sometimes I get self conscious about it 😬 been playing volleyball for 10 years as a middle blocker & my team’s ace ☺️ I also enjoy drawing a lot whenever I have free time Im THAT clown friend who gets really happy whenever people laugh with my jokes & I try to cheer people up that way whenever I see someone being down -🦋

So I’m planning on copying and pasting the match-up requests instead of “answering” them because I think it looks better and I can actually save them as a draft. I hope that’s okay. Also, I did not expect this character for my first match up, but this is the one with the plot idea that actually stuck. I hope you’ll like my choice by the end of the story.

Yahaba’s Type - Yahaba x Reader

Words: 1,425

“Can I have your number?”

Y/n unintentionally let a smirk out as she heard Yahaba ask that of her best friend. She knew that the result wasn’t going to be pretty but she figured that he’d be getting what he deserved.

“Oh. Okay,” Chiaki replied with an innocent smile.

As Yahaba handed his phone to her to enter her number, Y/n noticed that he felt a shiver run up his spine. She glanced at the boy who sat at the back of their classroom, waiting for him to make his move. “Let me guess,” said Y/n with a smirk. “She’s your type?” Chiaki was a slim and tiny girl with short black hair. In contrast, Y/n was tall and slightly plump with medium length blond hair.

“Oh, Kyo-chan!” Chiaki smiled at the boy who approached them from behind. “Why aren’t you sitting at your desk?”

Yahaba stared at Chiaki like she was crazy, but Y/n wasn’t surprised. With Kyotani Kentaro’s reputation, nobody would dare to call him Kyo-chan - except for his girlfriend of course.

After Kyotani glared at Yahaba, Yahaba surrendered his phone to him as if asking for mercy. Kyotani had the urge to smash his phone right there but Chiaki smiled at him and told him not to do anything rash. “He’s your friend, right?” she asked. “It’s fine if he has my number.” With that answer, Kyotani reluctantly gave the phone back.

“I thought I was going to die,” Yahaba mumbled to himself after he released his breath. Y/n just snickered at his reaction. After Yahaba recovered, he asked Kyotani, “Do you still go to the community center?”

“Why would I still go there?” asked Kyotani.

“Just wondering,” Yahaba simply replied.

Y/n didn’t think much of Yahaba’s question until the following week. Her dad had gotten a cold and asked her to manage the volleyball group for him. He knew that he could rely on her for that since she was the captain of her school’s team and had been playing for years.

When their volleyball association wrapped up for the night, Y/n packed up her belongings and left. But she realized that she had forgotten her knee pads on the gym floor, so she walked back to the community center to retrieve them. She didn’t expect to see Yahaba in the gym when she got there.

She watched as his practised his tosses. She still had the urge to play, even though everyone else from her dad’s volleyball association had already left. But she hesitated since she didn’t know Yahaba very well and had always felt uncomfortable around him. She did know that he was the captain and main setter for the boys’ volleyball team though.

“Ack!” Yahaba said as he froze when he saw Y/n at the entrance of the gym. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Enough to see that you were practising your tosses,” laughed Y/n. She had watched him throw the ball to himself and volley to his imaginary hitters. It looked kind of awkward for him to practise like that, so she decided to help him out a bit. “I can throw the ball to you and spike your tosses if you’d like me to,” she said with a grin.

“Do you even know how to play volleyball?”

“I’m the ace on the team, you idiot!” she told him. Although, she wasn’t really surprised he had forgotten that she was on the team. Even though she had to present a speech before the whole school on clubs day as captain, she knew he had only paid attention to the girls that caught his interest.

“Oh, sorry,” he replied. “What are you doing here though?”

“I was going to ask you that,” said Y/n. “Why don’t you just practise at the school gym?”

Yahaba looked away, not really wanting to answer her question. Y/n figured that he didn’t want his team to know how hard he was working for some reason. So with a mischievous grin, she picked up a volleyball and threw it at him.

“Hey! What was that?” Yahaba complained. He blocked the ball with his arms so that it wouldn’t hit his face.

“I was expecting you to be able to set the ball to me,” laughed Y/n. “You’re supposed to be a great setter, right?” But the words she said to tease him and make him laugh looked like it had hit his sore spot. Just when she started to regret it, Yahaba volleyed the ball toward her face.

“You were supposed to spike that one, Ace,” he said with a smirk. Y/n laughed at his comeback and properly tossed a ball to him this time.

The two of them practised together at the community center over the next few days. Y/n would run up to the net at different locations: left, middle, right, and other locations in between. Yahaba also practised setting from various spots on the court in cases where he wouldn’t get a good pass. This was all to help him practise the precision in his sets so that he wouldn’t give a toss that was too long or short during a game.

Since Y/n was a middle blocker, they also practised quick sets since she had experience with them. This was good practice for her as well since she had to learn to adjust to his sets. She had gotten too used to her setter.

“I think your sets have been getting better, but shouldn’t you do this with one of your teammates?” asked Y/n.

Yahaba just ignored her question and instead said, “Here, give me your number,” as he handed his phone to her.

Y/n looked at him in disbelief, “Are you seriously trying that again?” she asked with a laugh. “Didn’t you learn anything from last time?”

“Why do you have a boyfriend?” he asked with a smirk.

“No,” Y/n replied with a pout.

“I’m not hitting on you,” he clarified. “It’s just handy to be able to practise with you.”

Y/n didn’t really like how he worded that, but gave him her number anyway. “Fine. It’s good practice for me too anyway.”

Y/n later learned more about the boys’ team. She never really watched their games since she was too focused on the girls’ team and improving her own skills. From Watari, she had heard about Oikawa and how Yahaba had to fill in his shoes. Oikawa had the ability to draw out his team’s potential as a setter and it seemed like Yahaba struggled to be like that.

Yahaba and Y/n continued to text each other to see when they were free to practise some more. Y/n started to gradually get more comfortable around him and started being the goof ball she usually was.

“Can I have your notes?” Y/n asked Yahaba one day in class.

“What? Why do you need them?” he questioned. “You probably have better notes than I do.”

“Just give me your notebook.” When Y/n got his notebook, she ran out of the classroom with a goofy smile. Later when she returned his notebook, Yahaba raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was trying to hold back a grin. He decided not to care about it - until he accidentally let out a loud laugh in the middle of a lesson.

“Sorry, sir,” he apologized to the teacher. He tried to keep his mouth from letting out another laugh. Y/n looked away from the scene, trying to keep her own laughter as quiet as possible. In his notebook, she had doodled an ugly version of Yahaba with Oikawa’s hair, saying, “I believe in all of you.” Further down the page was a drawing of Yahaba trying to call each member of the team by their nickname with each of them giving him a look of disgust.

The teacher continued the lesson but Y/n glanced at Yahaba to see him with his head down and still shaking from holding his laughter. Y/n was glad that he found it funny. She was a bit worried because she was poking fun at him and his senpai. Seeing that it cheered him up made her feel giddy.

“You don’t need to be like Oikawa :),” she had written on the bottom of the page. Yahaba looked at her with a smile of appreciation. She smiled back. But then she remembered something that Yahaba said in their second year of high school.

“I only like short, skinny girl,” said Yahaba.

“You really are a shallow guy,” commented Kyotani.

“Well, I never denied it.”

*****

I hope you’re interested in part two. :)

[Part 1] [Part 2]

[Masterlist]

[classicrosie]

My Top 10 Posts Ever

I’m @gemshine​​ and I’ve been posting art on Tumblr for five years. Over those five years, I’ve had ten posts gain over 100 notes. Here I will talk about each one of them, their story, and how I think they got popular. If you like any of them you can click the link to take you to the original post, I really appreciate likes and reblogs. If you want to see more of my art please follow @gemshine​​.

1). How to Make a Comic Infographic - 237 notes - Mar 27 2020

This is my most popular post. It is a how-to infographic I did for class and I am really proud of it. Comics are really hard to complete, there are so many steps that without organization it is easy to get lost and give up. So, I thought letting others into my thought process would help. 

I haven't made that many comics, but I do love making them. I love storytelling and character development so much, so as a visual artist comics are an amazingly creative medium for me to play around with and tell my story. Here is my short story about an elf lawyer named Cherry Elliott I made in 2018 for another class, that made me fall in love with comic making. I dream of writing and illustrating a graphic novel one day.

This was my first time doing the equivalent of a colour palette challenge, I think it turned out pretty well, I love the colour combo of pink, purple, and yellow/orange. The comic I used as the example was a comic made specifically for this infographic, featuring my original character, Mystic. I’m the person in the bottom right, illustrating a comic about “Some Elf Thing”, aka my original story passion project @mysticsrealm​​​. My Mystic’s Realm stuff has not gained much traction yet, so it’s pretty wild that a post with an illustration of myself and my oc has gotten 237 notes and been reblogged 68 times.

Most people finding this post are going through some sort of “comic reference” related tag and I’m glad my experience is actually helping people start making comics. The majority of people tag it with “comic tutorial” or “reference”.

TLDR; this post is helpful for people looking to start making comics and it’s very aesthetic

2). Dad Hank Comic From Detroit Become Human - 205 notes - Aug 21 2018

At the time this post felt like it was blowing up by my standards. It is still my number two post. It gained traction because I posted it in a big fandom at the right time (#connorarmy). If I posted it now it would have maybe 20 notes. A lot of getting notes is posting at the right time of a fandom, but I don’t really know the science.

This post is nice and simple, I like the purple wash. I like Hank’s expression. These two and their dog are a really sweet little family and I cashed in on that angst, like I am one to do. At least it was kinda wholesome angst, I guess. We love found family. 

3). Ladynoir!Opal Comic From Miraculous Ladybug and Steven Universe - 188 notes - Feb 26 2019

I was and still am really proud of this one. I was inspired to try lineless by @sneakysscribs​​‘ lineless art. Lineless art is a pain, but so pretty. This piece was made by having lines, but then colouring them in. I love how I was pushing the comic format, making the two gems flying in the beginning and Ladynoir!opal really pop out of the page. I also love that I actually made backgrounds for once in my life, they’re SU inspired and very aesthetic.

I call this AU Miraculous Universe, and it has been in my head a long time, starring Ladybug!Pearl and Chat Noir!Amethyst. It is not very fleshed out, but it is very fun. It also makes no sense. This concept is so oddly specific it’s hilarious. But I’m also rewarded in my uniqueness in that there’s nothing else like it and I got to work both the SU and ML tags. 

4). Adrinino Dancing Comic From Miraculous Ladybug - 177 notes - Aug 15 2019

I just noticed my top 4 all had to do with comics. Hopefully, that’s a good omen for my future in graphic novel. 

This piece was for the first and only (so far) zine I’ve been in, @theninozine​​. That is where the majority of people found this post. It was nice to create something knowing that people were going to see it. It was also nice to have my work displayed among so many talented and passionate artists. Drawing ships for ml is funny because to have to tag the same exact ship four times to account for their love square. Anyways this piece is very sweet and gay. 

5). Viperinoire From Miraculous Ladybug - 166 notes - May 7 2020

This is my most recent post above 100 notes. And it was posted during the ML offseason. I’m not that big of a fan of the show, but I love the fan content a lot. We lot just kinda take elements from canon and do whatever we want with them. This Viperinoire post is a great example steering far from canon.

This post succeeded despite the last episode of Miraculous aired having been in Dec 2019 because of the active Lukanette fanbase. I have a theory that the reason ML is still so popular on the internet, despite a large crowd being disappointed with the show, is because the fan content gets a ton of interaction, encouraging creators to keep making more, keeping the fandom alive.

6). Christine Canigula From Be More Chill - 141 notes - Feb 4 2018

This was my second post to gain over 100 notes. I posted when the Be More Chill fandom was very popular. People were really nice in the notes, they really love ChristiiIIIIIIiine. In this post I was practicing posing and using a glowy tutorial I found for the stage lights. This is the scene during More Than Survive where she is lifted up and signs the sign-up sheet for the after school play. When I look at this piece I can see the progress I made to get that point, and how I’ve grown since. 

7). Heather Chandler From Heathers The Musical - 120 notes - Feb 19 2017

This was my first post ever to get over 100 notes. I still think it’s pretty good actually, I really like the hair. This post was copied directly from a photo, which I think is pretty good practice for shading. During this time, I didn’t have a drawing tablet so I was posting traditional drawings. This post blew up over all the ones before it because it was at a good time in the Heather fandom and it looks pretty great tbh.

8). Green Diamond From Steven Universe - 108 notes - Aug 15 2018

Someone asked me to imagine two diamonds fused so I did. I think I did a pretty good job combining the aesthetics of Blue and Yellow to create a new gem with their own identity. This post got popular because of Bellow shippers. One thing I would change is that underneath her left arm you can see a little looseness of her top, I would have changed that to be form fitting to match with the SU style of drawing gems. 

9). The Zen Garden From Detroit Become Human - 103 notes - Aug 27 2018

This is one of the only times I’ve ever practiced drawing a background. Came out pretty picturesque if I do say so myself. The Zen Garden from DBH has always been very pretty. This was really just an exercise for me to come out of my comfort zone and draw a place instead of a person. Actually, at first, it started as a background for [this post], but the background came out nicer than the subject, so I posted it on its own too.

10). Pearls From Steven Universe - 100 notes - Aug 14 2019

This post just got 100 notes, which lead me to making this post. I think I captured the SU art style for Pearl quite well. When I was younger I found a tutorial for how to draw Pearl and she became my go-to doodle. This post was made years later, but I definitely used the muscle memory I had for drawing Pearl. Though the Pearl I drew was in her bow outfit, this was my first time drawing Pearl in either of these outfits. This post was made before the SU movie a pretty good prediction might I say. I love Pearl a lot.

Thank you, everyone, so much for supporting my work, and may there be lots more in the future.

[amberskywrites]

A Perfect Match

Requested by @tina0555! This was incredibly fun to do, and I hope you enjoy!

AO3 Link || Masterpost

Pairing: Abigail/Farmer (No gender specified for farmer)

Fandom / Genre: Stardew Valley / Fluff

Summary: You return your gaze to the hills flashing by, fiddling with your half of a soul charm idly as you let your mind wander. Things already looked much more peaceful here, and when you spotted a sign saying it was only half a mile to Stardew Valley, well, you couldn't help the excitement that started to bubble in your heart.

Who knows, maybe you'd find that other half here.

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

You stare at the charm resting comfortably on your chest as the hours drag by. You weren't sure what you were getting yourself into, going to Stardew Valley, but you dearly hoped it'd be a much better experience than working at Joja. It had never occurred to you that Grandpa had a farm this far from the city- yoba, you never expected him to have a farm at all.

But you were glad that it was now yours. A remote place and a fresh start seemed to be something you desperately needed.

You return your gaze to the hills flashing by, fiddling with your half of a soul charm idly as you let your mind wander. Things already looked much more peaceful here, and when you spotted a sign saying it was only half a mile to Stardew Valley, well, you couldn't help the excitement that started to bubble in your heart.

Who knows, maybe you'd find that other half here.

-

Your first year in the valley was… an experience. Grandpa's farm had been closer to the mountains than you had been expecting, and you focused mostly on clearing the farm and growing crops. You had met everyone, got into some arguments with the local drunk because of his attitude, and hung around Linus or Willy in your off times when you were tired but it was still too early to sleep. You'd explore the mines on rainy days, and the further you went the more interesting things you found.

Abigail really liked the gems you would find. She was almost as excited as you when you had found a particularly sparkly amethyst! You saved it for her birthday, and she loved it. She was surprised you had even remembered her birthday.

You also got to know Marnie and Robin really well, constantly stopping by to buy a new farm building or supplies for a few of your new animals. Sam and Sebastian also became close friends, especially after you took interest in the band they were starting up.

Around winter, you didn't feel like much of an outsider anymore. Though you spent a lot of time in the mines during the frigid weather, you made sure on Fridays to stop by the Stardrop Saloon. After buying Sam a pizza and handing Sebastian another frozen tear you found, you'd give Abigail quartz, which she'd eat despite you telling her it wasn't good for her.

She'd laugh at your concern as you settle on the small couch beside her, watching the boys play pool and Sam once again having his butt kicked by Sebastian. Abigail talked mostly, complained about all the work she had to do over the weekend. But also some of her plans to go hang out in the forest near Marnie's.

Winter was also the season that you remembered your soul charm, often hidden under your shirt. You had been quite busy, and the only reminder you had a soulmate at all was whenever Alex made a comment about not knowing if he wanted to meet his, or Marnie mentioning how disappointing it was that Lewis wasn't hers despite them feeling like soulmates. Marnie only really talked about soulmates when she was really, really drunk though.

Jodi had her soulmate, a soldier named Kent. You were told he should be coming home soon… you couldn't wait to meet him, after hearing Vincent sounding so excited whenever his father was brought up. And… Jodi and Caroline seemed to be the only two with their soulmates, though Caroline talked less about Pierre unless it was to complain about how he worked too much. Willy claimed he had tossed his charm into the sea, Linus didn't have one for some reason either. Marlon refused to tell you about his when you asked one day, buying a new glow ring since your last one had gone missing. You hadn't asked anyone else about their soulmates. It seemed a bit too personal when you weren't great friends with too many people yet.

-

Time flew by in your second year, too. You were even busier tending to more crops, going deeper in the mines, and caring for your animals. You also grew much closer to Abigail, Sam, and Sebastian, occasionally joining them to watch them practice when you weren't working or playing the harp with Abigail during the warmer seasons in the mountain.

An autumn one night as you were leaving the beach, you caught Abigail in the graveyard. After chatting for a few moments and showing her the one you always kept with you, in case of monsters, Pierre appeared to tell Abigail Caroline wanted her to help with dinner. You ran after her when she fled the scene and continued to talk about the mines and all the creatures you've encountered. You leave out the fact that you actually kill them.

And the year ends, almost as quickly as the first.

-

Spring in your third year shook you a bit when Grandpa appeared, evaluating your work and achievements over the last two years. He didn't seem too impressed, which put a damper on your mood at the start of the season. 

What did improve your mood though was when one morning you woke up and found a letter from Abigail in your mailbox. Your heart skipped a beat as you read and saw she signed it as 'Abby', something you thought adorable, and you made a mental note to visit her later.

Over the last two years, you had gotten particularly close to Abigail. You loved listening to her talk, enjoyed seeing her eyes dance in excitement as you presented a jewel to her, or told her about one of your adventures… you ended up making it a habit to stop by and say hello when she was in her room, but it'd been a while since you visited her. There was an extra bounce in your step as you got to work.

After a long day of tending to the farm and sparing a trip to the beach to fish, you had almost forgotten to visit Abigail until you saw the letter on your table. You made your way to Pierre's store and walked in just before it was gonna close, and grinned as Abigail pulled you into her room.

She shows off the spirit board she has, and you listen to her explain the multitude of things on it. It isn't until you ask about a certain message - one with some things you can't really read from your place but you do see a drawing of a circle cracked down the middle, lines swirling together from both sides, half of it you think you recognize - and her face flushes a deep red and her words start to fumble until she just rushes you out, bidding you goodnight. You blink as the door to her room slams closed and glance around. Neither of her parents seemed to be around, and you notice it's gotten late, so you make your way home, still confused about what all that was about.

You were about to start on your chores when you were startled by Abigail on your doorstep. She apologized for the night before, and you're still very confused and reassure her it's alright but you don't know if she heard you since she left the farm as soon as she apologized. 

It isn't until you're done with feeding your animals and watering your crops do you realize what the drawing on the spirit board was. And why you pointed out that message in particular.

Trying to remember the drawing to the best of your ability, you look down at the charm around your neck. You curse under your breath as you quickly put away your tools and run down the path to Pierre's store. You're pretty sure Abigail will be there, but first you think you should buy something, so you hope Abigail is at least in her room.

Even if your charms didn't match, didn't fit together perfectly… you don't really care. You hoped you weren't jumping to conclusions as you caught your breath, walking into Pierre's store and walking right up to the business man. You smiled as usual, but kept your voice down.

"Is Abigail here?" You ask, and Pierre shakes his head.

"Up by Robin's, I believe. Why, if I may ask?"

You shake your head. "No reason, just... wanted her input on something." You grab some money from your pocket, and lay it on the counter. "But I also wanted to buy something."

After buying what you wanted from Pierre, you force yourself not to rush to the mountain lake where you were told Abigail would be. Looking at your watch, you guessed she was playing her flute, or maybe just sitting under one of the trees.

And once you get there, your mouth runs dry as you approach the purple-haired girl, lost in her own world as she plays her instrument. You take a deep breath, and smile as you tap her shoulder, one hand kept behind your back.

She seems startled, but relaxes as soon as her thoughts catch up and she smiles gently. "Sorry, I didn't expect to see you today. You don't usually come up here on Wednesdays…"

You shrug. "I wanted to talk to you, about what I saw yesterday. And I wanted to ask you something." You watch as her face dusts crimson again, and she doesn't meet your eyes. "I'll leave if you don't want to talk about it, though. And I won't bring it up again if you're uncomfortable with me doing so."

She fiddles with the flute in her hands, playing a silent song with it, maybe to calm any nerves. Abigail had been hoping you wouldn't pursue the topic. But she should've guessed you'd want to talk about it.

"... Alright."

You smile reassuringly, even though you know she isn't watching you. "You doodled our soul charms together, that's what that message was about." Abigail nods.

"I forgot I had it up there, until you pointed it out." She exhales slowly, finally meets your eyes and she relaxes when she finds no disgust in them. "I've done it before, a few times only though, with small crushes on the kids in school… they never ended up being my soulmate, though. So I stopped checking, but still doodled soul charms with mine anyway."

"So, you have a crush on me?" You ask, smile never faltering, your grip on the object behind you tightening just a bit more.

Her face turns a slightly deeper shade of red, and she nods.

"Then, do you want to try dating?"

Abigail's brows furrow, and she's about to ask what you mean until there's a bouquet in front of her. She recognizes it instantly, having helped her father put the bouquet together, and she stumbles over her words for a moment.

"But- but what about our- the charms? You don't want to see if they match?"

You shrug. "If you want, we can definitely see. But even if we weren't soulmates, I would wanna try dating."

Abigail stares at you in silence for a moment, mouth agape as she tries to think of what she wants to say. "But what about our actual soulmates, then?" She asks finally.

"People don't always get together with their soulmate. I mean, just look at Sebastian's parents."

She seems like she's about to say something against that, but changes her mind, and finally, Abigail nods. "Alright."

You brighten a bit. "You'd like to go out?"

Abigail nods again, smile widening as you pass her the flowers and she holds them to her chest. "You picked out one of my favorites."

"Yeah, it was hard getting your dad to stop talking about which ones were the best to try and see if you had told him which ones you liked most." She laughs at that, nodding in understanding. When her laughter dies down, you tilt your head and tap where your soul charm is. "Do you want to see if they match?"

Abigail stares at the charm resting on your chest for a moment before she reaches towards her own, tugging it out from under her shirt and she nods, holding it up. You step close and bring yours up to meet hers.

They fit together perfectly.

[littlestarofthewest]

Title: Meeting Miss Morgan | Word Count: 3289 | Rating (for entire fic): 18+!!!

Pairing: Arthur Morgan x female OC | Chapter: 04 of 08 |  Link to Masterlist

Arthur knows what he's doing is stupid. In fact, he is stupid. He got up even earlier than usual, taking care of the firewood. Julie prepares it most of the time, but when she briefly mentioned in conversation that she doesn't particularly like doing it, Arthur immediately had the urge to do it for her.

He likes to think that he's just trying to help out around the farm, but after the pencils and the whole trouble Arthur went through with Jasper, he can't pretend that what he's doing has nothing to do with Julie. Somehow he always ends up helping her in particular.

Ever since she kissed him on the cheek, she wanders around in his mind when he's not busy thinking about something else. Having the chance to hold her in his arms didn't make it any easier. In fact, he feels like he's years younger, even more of an idiot, and stupid enough to think that she might like him as more than a friend, if at all. 

Julie's a nice person. Doing sweet things comes naturally to her, and has nothing to do with Arthur, but he still can't stop hoping. He's chopping wood and buys a new shirt like a changed man, as if he wasn't a killer, wanted outlaw, and complete failure.

Arthur finishes the last logs with a sigh, knowing full well that his day won't get any better. With some tools, he heads out to one end of Mr. Henderson's property, beginning the work that will probably take him the whole week, building a new fence.

On the one hand, it's a good thing that he can stay away from the stables for a while. That way, he at least can't embarrass himself in front of Julie. On the other hand, he has a lot of time to think. 

For the last two days, he's been remembering his ride with Julie. They didn't talk much, but Julie kept smiling at Arthur, so abundantly happy that she was finally able to ride Jasper. It was a joy to watch her race over open fields, her blonde hair flying in the wind. She seemed to glow in a golden shine under the warm summer sun, so free and unburdened that watching her made Arthur's heart ache. 

Fuelled with those memories, Arthur keeps working on the fence, trying to neither think back to his old life nor imagine the future. All that matters is hitching up posts, one after the other until the day is gone.

He makes good progress until he hears a rider approach. Arthur's heart drops when Julie rides up to him on Jasper. "Hello, Arthur."

Arthur tips his hat, pulling it deeper into his face. "Jules."

She hops off the horse and strides over to him with a bundle in her hand, her eyes wandering over the already finished fence. "Let me guess, you didn't take any breaks."

Arthur opens his mouth, but Julie shakes her head and takes his hammer away before throwing it into the grass. Then she grabs his hand and pulls him to the nearby woods, making him sit down on a fallen tree in the shadow of a few branches.

"I had time to make something to eat for you since the firewood was already done," Julie says, raising a single brow at Arthur while unpacking the bundle in her hand.

"Was it?" Arthur says, looking out over the farmland in front of them. 

Julie pushes a bowl with stew into his hand and tops it off with a thick slice of bread. "It's cold but better than nothing."

"Thank you," Arthur says, although he's not sure how he's supposed to eat with butterflies in his stomach. 

Julie is sitting way too close, her leg brushing against his. Arthur would move, but then he'd fall off the tree. Instead, he shovels a spoonful of stew into his mouth. That should keep Julie from asking him any questions. 

"You know that you don't have to do everything, right?" she asks.

Arthur chews, but Julie keeps looking at him, waiting for an answer. He clears his throat, trying to come up with an excuse. "I don't mind the firewood. It's quiet work, relaxing. Just like building a fence."

"You must have had quite the excitement before when you actually like doing these boring things."

"Enough for a lifetime," Arthur says, knowing that he's avoiding her unspoken question. It's not fair to keep it a secret from Julie who he truly is, but the thought of her thinking less of him twists Arthur's stomach into knots.

He forces down more stew, and maybe Julie takes the hint or just wants for him to eat, but she stays quiet, looking up into the trees. They sit there until Arthur is done eating, and Julie fetches a bottle of water for him as well, scolding him for not bringing one along in the first place. 

Arthur thanks her again, trying to put the bottle into his bag to bring it along. He curses when one side of the bag tears, and his journal drops to the ground. It falls open, and Arthur hurries to pick it up, but Julie is quicker than him. Her eyes grow big as she looks at the page, and Arthur's heart stops, thinking about the things he recently wrote about her.

"I thought you only wrote in this," Julie says, "I didn't know you were drawing, too."

"It's just silly little doodles," Arthur says, hoping that Julie won't turn the page.

"That's the whole farm from the viewpoint up on that ridge," Julie says with wonder in her voice. She moves a few steps before turning around, holding the journal up against the horizon. "Arthur, that's incredible. Where did you learn to draw like this?"

"My pa," Arthur begins, realizing too late that he was thinking about Hosea and horrible guilt consumes him. 

"Your father was an artist?"

"No, what I meant was that he gave me my first journal when I was 15," Arthur says, the memory weighing heavy on him. "I've been trying to draw whatever I saw since then."

"Well, then he's a good father. You're really talented," Julie says. She closes the journal with such care as if it was a precious relic before handing it over. "I've meant to draw a few places around here, but somehow I never get around to it."

"How come?" Arthur asks, wishing he could see some of Julie's drawings.

"Mrs. Henderson would say I work too much," Julie sighs, "and Mr. Henderson is always concerned about me. A young woman alone on the road? Better not. There's a beautiful pond up in those woods, but there's a road going past with many travelers and stagecoaches, so there are sometimes bandits in the woods as well. Mr. Henderson would kill me if I went there on my own."

"He's not wrong," Arthur says. He met enough outlaws in his time who went far beyond thieving and killing. Some of them were so bad, you wished they would have killed their victims. "There are some bad people out there."

Julie studies Arthur for a moment as if to ask if he's one of them, but then she walks over to Jasper. "I better let you work now, or Mr. Henderson will have my head for distracting you."

"Thank you for the food," Arthur says again. After all, he can't tell Julie that she's already distracting him anyway.

"Somebody has to take care of you," Julie says with a smile before riding off, leaving Arthur with a warm feeling in his chest.

------

The next morning, Arthur walks out of his cabin, finding a fresh water bottle and a tightly wrapped package in front of his door. He doesn't have to look inside to know what it is. Julie must have gotten up even earlier than usual to prepare some food for him. Arthur picks it up, finding a little note tucked into one of the folds. It says, "Take some breaks."

Smiling, Arthur puts the package in his saddlebag and rides out to continue his work on the fence. This time, he doesn't mind those thoughts of Julie dance around in his head. He can't change her as much as he can't change himself, so he might as well enjoy her kindness, no matter how undeserved it might be.

When noon comes around, Arthur takes Julie's advice to have a break. He unpacks the food package, finding cold roast, bread, and berries. Sitting in the shadow of a huge tree, Arthur savors his meal. Somehow, it tastes so much better than anything he's ever eaten before. He's about to pack up when he finds a piece of paper sticking out from under his plate.

Arthur pulls it out, his eyes growing wide. It's a drawing of him on the Mustang riding up to the stables. Despite sketching other people all the time, Arthur has never seen a picture of himself. It's like looking into the mirror, and he's impressed how well Julie can draw. 

Wondering why Julie picked this specific scene, Arthur's stomach does a little summersault when he remembers what happened right afterward. Closing his eyes, Arthur can imagine how Julie's touch felt on his skin, but then he quickly gets up. He can't risk to drift off into these kinds of phantasies. 

Instead, Arthur carefully folds up the drawing and puts it in his breast pocket before riding out to town. Mr. Henderson asked him to run some errands, and he might be able to find a little thank you gift for Julie. At least that's what Arthur thought.

He's done with Mr. Henderson's business in no time, but even after an hour, Arthur can't find anything to give to Julie. He can't exactly gift her a sack of rice, but at the same time, anything more personal could give her the wrong - or worse - the right idea about Arthur's growing feelings for her. In the end, he decides that a heartfelt thank you has to do.

On his way back, Arthur has another idea, though. He's on the road Julie talked about the day before, so Arthur steers his horse into the trees to find the pond. It takes him a little going back and forth, but he knows what Julie has been talking about once he sees it.

It's a beautiful place with high trees and lots of flowers that surround the small body of water. Birds are singing, and when Arthur comes closer, a few deer quickly jump away and disappear. Letting his horse roam free, Arthur walks around the pond two times to find the right spot before settling down with his journal.

Usually, Arthur's quick with his drawings. He always had other things to do or was with someone who didn't appreciate him taking forever to sketch an abandoned church or oddly shaped tree. Today, Arthur takes his time. He tries to capture how the sun sparkles on the water, and painstakingly draws all the single petals on most of the flowers. He only rushes to finish the picture when the sun begins to set.

Looking at his finished work in the dim light, Arthur remembers Julie's words about him being talented, and for the first time in a long while, he feels proud about something that he did. Folding the paper as carefully as possible, he puts it to Julie's drawing in his pocket and hurries back to the farm so he won't miss dinner.

At the house, Julie greets him with a lovely smile, and Arthur's heart skips a beat once again. Thinking about giving her the drawing later makes him so nervous he can barely follow the conversation. When they're done eating, Julie heads outside to play her guitar, and Mr. Henderson holds Arthur back to talk about work.

Arthur nods along until Mr. Henderson finally gives him free. Outside, Arthur finds Julie sitting on the steps that lead up to the door. Her guitar is lying next to her, but she's not playing.

"No music tonight?" Arthur asks.

"I felt like watching the stars," Julie says before turning to Arthur and patting the floor next to her. "Come sit with me."

Arthur swallows a lump in his throat, feeling like he might pass out. He can't remember the last time he's been so nervous. For a moment, he thinks about making up an excuse to go, but his feet act on their own, carrying him all too willingly over to Julie. He sits down next to her, leaving generous space between them, but Julie scoots closer, pointing into the sky.

"I love that one," she says, and Arthur follows the line of her outstretched arm to a big star that shines particularly bright.

"It's pretty," Arthur says, looking at Julie. She turns her head, and he tries desperately to come up with something else to say. "Thank you for the food. And the drawing. You're way more talented than I am."

Julie's cheeks gain a little color, and she waves her hand. "Like you said, just silly little drabbles."

Arthur thinks about the picture in his breast pocket, and it takes all his courage to take it out and hand it to Julie. "I thought about what you said when I was heading back from town. You probably could have done a better job, though."

Julie unfolds the paper and gasps before staring at Arthur. "You drew the pond?"

"I gave it a shot," Arthur says, rubbing his neck. Now that Julie is looking at it, he begins to see mistakes he didn't notice before, and he feels he should have taken more time to get the picture right.

"It's beautiful," Julie says, her eyes wandering over the page. "The details in the flowers. The water. This must have taken you forever."

Arthur shrugs. "Maybe when I'm done with the fence, we can ride up there together, and you can draw it yourself. Or any of the other places you wanted to draw."

Julie looks back up at Arthur, a shine in her eyes that makes his skin tickle. "You would do that?"

Arthur's not quite sure how they ended up so close to each other, and he knows he should just say yes, or maybe nod, but he's always been an idiot. "For you," he says, his voice almost giving out on him.

He moves even closer to Julie, knowing full well that he shouldn't. She opens her mouth as if to say something, but then she leans in, and Arthur closes the distance between them, his lips brushing against Julie's. Arthur's heart feels like it might jump out of his chest any second, and he wants nothing more than to hold Julie close, but then the door screeches behind them.

They move apart as if hit by lightning, and only seconds later, Mrs. Henderson comes out of the house. "Aren't you going to play, Julie? I really feel like-"

She stops herself when her eyes fall on the paper in Julie's hand. "Oh, my dear, that's lovely. When did you draw that?"

Julie throws a quick glance over to Arthur before handing the drawing to Mrs. Henderson. "I didn't. Arthur drew it today."

Mrs. Henderson's mouth falls open, and she looks back and forth between Arthur and the drawing. "Well, look at you, Mr. Morgan. Aren't you full of surprises? Who knows what else we might find the longer you stay with us."

She can't know it, but her words cut deep, and Arthur gets to his feet. "I think I better go to sleep. I want to get an early start on that fence."

"You two make quite the couple," Mrs. Henderson sighs, running a hand over Julie's hair. "The name, the drawing, and nothing but work in your heads. The two of you really need to have some fun for a change."

Julie lets out a muffled noise, and Arthur wishes he could just melt into the ground. Instead, he taps his hat. "Goodnight."

He turns around, walking away so quickly that he doesn't know if the two women respond. Arthur's whole body seems to fill up with rage, and he wishes he could give himself a good beating. 

When he left the gang, Arthur swore that he's done with making stupid mistakes, yet here he is, well on his way to hurt a nice, young woman, and maybe ruining more lives. The surprises he's filled with are danger, sorrow, and regret. Neither Julie nor the Henderson's deserve any of that. If he wants to stay, he has to get himself under control.

--------

Pretending to be busy with the fence, Arthur manages to stay away from Julie for two days, and then he jumps at the chance when Mr. Henderson asks him to bring one of the horses he sold to its buyer. That way, he gets to stay away for three more days, trying to sort out his feelings. 

At first, he goes with booze but concludes that that's just one more mistake, considering how he behaves when drunk. The trouble is that Arthur can't sleep when he's sober. He's tossing and turning, only drifting off for a few minutes before waking up in a cold sweat, guilt consuming him over and over again.

By the time Arthur gets back to the farm, he's so tired he can barely walk straight and doesn't remember the last time he ate. Still, he brings his horse into the stable, doing his best to take care of it. It's already dark, and Arthur hoped he could sneak into his cabin without anybody noticing. Of course, he has no such luck.

"Arthur?" Julie asks behind him, and Arthur does his best to stand up straight when he turns around to her.

"Yes, it's me. I just got back."

Julie takes a step closer, worry in her eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Just a little tired," Arthur says with a forced smile. "It's been a long ride."

He's not sure if he actually sways at those words, but it sure feels that way. Julie comes even closer, studying his face. "A little tired? You're dead on your feet. What's wrong?"

Arthur knows that he won't get out of this so quickly, so he shrugs. "Haven't slept well for the last few days. I'll be fine."

He waits for Julie to scold him, but she just takes his hand and leads him into the next empty stall. It's filled with fresh hay, and Julie forces him to sit down. "I'll be right back," she says, her voice low.

Arthur wishes he could go, but he's not sure he could get up on his feet before Julie's back. Instead, he shrugs out of his jacket and puts it behind his head like a makeshift pillow. He's staring at the wall on the other side when Julie appears in front of him. She puts a blanket over him and then sits down with her guitar on her legs.

"What are you doing?" Arthur asks, but Julie only shakes her head.

"Just close your eyes."

She starts playing, and Arthur does as she says. He's nervous with her closeby, and he wants to apologize, but he's not sure how to even get the words out. "I'm sorry, Jules," he finally manages to say.

"Sleep, Arthur," Julie says, her voice warm and comfortable like the blanket over him. "You'll be fine."

It takes a while until Arthur can focus on the music, but then a nice heavy feeling settles in his stomach, the notes carrying him over into a better world, a world where he doesn't have to apologize for liking someone.

[emptymasks]

Can you do something like is the first Third Sunday and Yancy is like "nah they forgot about me" and then reader really goes to see him and what's his reaction, sorry I just need more him 😪

first visitation // yancy x reader

So How About That Date? ( A Heist With Markiplier x Reader Collection [SFW])

Pairing: Yancy / Gender-Neutral Reader

Words: 1808

Rating: General Audiences

Read on Ao3

Tags: gender neutral reader |  Hurt/Comfort | Emotional Hurt/Comfort | Comfort | Fluff and Hurt/Comfort | Hugs | Everyone Needs A Hug | Fluff | POV Second Person | Alternating POV

Notes: got my first request done! got another 14 more to get through, it’s a little overwhelming but it gives me more material and inspiration for hitting that 50k for nanowrimoand you can keep those requests coming in, i’m also taking ones for yancy x illinois because that’s a thing i ship now

November 17th.

The datestood out on the fairly plain calendar that hung on your bedroom wall, you’dcircled the square containing the date vigorously in blue highlighter that wasprobably seeping through the shiny paper, but that didn’t matter. In fact you’dcircled every third Sunday starting from the thirtieth of October onward,perhaps with the occasional hearts and stars doodled there as well.

Threeweeks, three whole weeks since Yancy had single-handedly gotten you out ofHappy Trails Penitentiary and if someone had asked you if you’d ever be happyto go back there you would have laughed. That someone would have probably beenMark. But he was off god knows where now. When the guards had gone through thewall to recover his injured or possibly dead body, he was nowhere to be found.You decided not to dwell on your old partner, and focused on your new friend…who maybe you wanted to be more than just a friend.

You wouldhave never thought you’d be so happy and excited to step back in that prison,but the thought of seeing Yancy again crushed any dread you felt about theplace. That last exchange you’d had through that steel gate… He’d been sogleeful as he’d led you out and then had looked to dejected when you’d asked ifhe was coming with you, clearly not thinking he was worth anything out in therest of the world. But then he’d told you about visitation, he’d mentionedparole. You’d heard from the other inmates that whenever parole came aroundYancy would get himself in some trouble or mess around to avoid being grantedparole. He’d even said to you (or sang to you) he was praying he wouldn’t getparole. It broke your heart to think he wanted to be stuck in there forever. Itbroke your heart more that you couldn’t be with him. He was right, you didn’tfit in there, but you’d been missing him terribly over these last few weeks.They’d passed so slowly but now the third Sunday was finally here!

You’dalready gotten everything ready and laid out the night before, you didn’t wantto spend the morning fussing over what to wear or what to bring and end upbeing late. It felt like time whip-panned around as you got dressed, grabbedyour bag and made your way to the bus stop, and in no time at all you werefidgeting and intertwining your hands in a waiting room scattered with otherpeople visiting their friends and family and loved ones. You kept your head lowunder your hat but no one seemed to recognise you the slightest… you’d questionit if it wasn’t far from the strangest thing that’s happened to you.

As you wereall ushered through into the visitation room the realisation of what wasactually happening and oh god what if he didn’t want to see you? I mean, it wasa pretty stupid though, you two had become friends and you hoped started tocare about each other. And he told you to come, hadn’t he? You sat down andthat little bit of anxiety bubbled through you but you just focused on keepingyour gaze fixed on the door.

—–

It wasvisitation day, huh… Not that Yancy had been keeping track or nothing, no ofcourse not… But he’d never really even had an inkling of when visitation daywas before you came along had he? And here he was probably getting his hopesall up over nothing. God, why’d he have to be so stupid to tell you whenvisitation was? You were out now, in the big outside world. You could be doingall sorts of things, hell you could have moved away and hopped on the first busaway from here. It’s not like you had any reason to stay… And even if you werearound, it’s not like you had any reason to remember him, you’d probablyforgotten all about him by now.

Shit, he’deven thought about trying harder for parole. He wondered if you’d even heardhim mumbling that he’d maybe try for parole, he’d said it so quietly with hishead bowed, as if afraid to admit to himself that he was fond of you,incredibly fond of you, fond enough that he was considering giving up thisprison life, this family he’d found, just to be out there with you. Not thatthe outside world was any more appealing… but the thought of getting to spendall his time with you, especially in a place where it was just the two of yous…

He wassnapped out of his thoughts be a clanging against the bars of his cell.

“Yancy, getup,” There was a guard at his door. Why was there a guard at his door?

“Hey,what’s this about? I ain’t done nothing, I’ve been behaving myself-”

“You’ve gota visitor.”

Yancy feltlike time stopped for a second. A visitor? It couldn’t be you… but whoelse was there? Perhaps this was just done mix-up and someone had dome to visittheir dear cousin Jancy and the guard has misheard… that was plausible right?Jancy was totally a name right? It felt more plausible than you actually comingback here.

He followedthe guard anyway, he didn’t really have a choice, and tried not to hold hisbreath and hope.

—–

You watchedas a steady stream of prisoners came through the door, some of which yourecognised and they looked at you with a surprised or confused look, apart fromSparkles McGee who gave you a wink and a grin and you wondered if he knewsomething you didn’t. Yancy hadn’t been talking about you had he? I mean…perhaps you hoped he had been. You were hoping he’d missed you as much as you’dmissed him. Hell, if he’d only missed you half the amount that you’d missed himthat would still be a hell of a lot.

Finally yousaw him, shuffling at the back of the line, eyes staring at the ground. Heseemed a mix between confused and like he just wanted to dart back to his cell.The guard poked him in the arm and then pointed at you. His eyes met yours andthey widened and he blinked as if checking he really was seeing you.

“Get onover there then,” The guard prodded Yancy again, starting to push him towardsyou to get Yancy’s legs moving.

He slowlywalked over to you in a daze and stopped at the bench opposite you across thesmall table. He didn’t sit down, he just kept staring at you.

“Yous…really came?” His voice sounded so small.

“Of courseI did, you said visitation was every third Sunday, remember?”

“Well yeah,but I didn’t… think yous would…” He trailed off, mumbling into his chest andyour heart broke.

“Yancy, whywouldn’t I come?” You tried to peer up and get a better look at his face. “Whywould you think I wouldn’t come?”

“I don’tknows… There’s just a lotta stuff out there, don’t know why yous would wannacome back in here, especially if you got caught after we bust you outta here… Iwouldn’t want yous getting in any trouble over me…and yous must have plenty ofbetter things to be doing out there and I’m not…”

Oh youcouldn’t bear this. He looked so forlorn and you hated that he thought youcould ever forget about him. You stood up and in a few steps you were pullinghim into you, wrapping your arms around his neck.

“I couldnever forget about you, Yancy. The best thing I can think of to do with mytime, the thing I want to do the most, is spend time with you. I missed you somuch.” You hoped that didn’t come off too strong but you just needed him toknow that you cared.

“Missed youtoo, doll.” He murmured into your neck and finally seemed to relax.

You couldhave stayed there forever like that, but you remembered you were not the onlytwo people in the room and you reluctantly pulled away.

“Oh,Yancy,” There was some wetness around his eyes and you brushed it away. “Comeon, sit down.”

You went towalk back around the table, but he held onto the sleeve of your jacket. Itseemed like he wanted to curl himself into you, the poor boy was probablytouch-starved. You twisted your hand in his grip so you could link yourfingers, before going to sit opposite him, pulling on his hand to get him tofinally sit down and earning a laugh out of him.

Youlistened to him as he relayed all of the latest antics that had been happening,Bambam stabbed the newest guard, someone heard the Warden finally say ‘fuck’(although no one knows who it was too as they all had their ears pressedagainst the door), and a pigeon got stuck in the mess hall for three days andthey named him Ritchie.

It was hardto hear that visitation was over and you had to part ways again. Determined notto let him leave without another hug you brought him back into your arms.

“Just threemore weeks, then you’ve got to deal with me again,” You smiled. “And hey, Ithink I’m allowed to bring you gifts, right? Anything you want? That you won’tget in trouble for having, of course.”

“Yousreally don’t gotta do anything like that for me.” He smiled and shook his head.

“But I wanttoo! I can smuggle you in sweets and books and uh…” You thought about how muchhe didn’t seem to want to let go of you. “How about I bring something for youto cuddle when I’m not around? If, uh, if that’s not weird…”

“S’notweird… Yous would really want to do something like that… for me?”

“Of course.I care about you, Yancy-”

“Yancy!Tell your sweetheart you’ve got to go, come on back to your cell.” The guardfrom the back of the room called out.

Both of youflushed at the word ‘sweetheart’ and the implication that you were his.

“Yousshould probably-”

“I shouldprobably get back-”

Both of youchuckled as you talked over each other. You were aware of your face feelingwarm and god you hoped you weren’t blushing too much.

“I’ll seeyou in three weeks, Yancy. I’ll miss you.”

“Yeah, I’llmiss you too.”

As you leftyou were already making a mental list of what you could bring him as gifts.That boy was about to get some sort of stuffed animal whether he wanted one ornot.

 @thehalfdemonwitchfromamestris @rats-this-username-is-taken 

let me know if you also want to be tagged in my heist x reader fics and/or yancy x reader fics

also if you could spare the time, to help me out and reblog my promo post for all the heist with markiplier pins, stickers and charms i’ve been making

https://emptymasks.tumblr.com/post/188796132169/shop-website-main-blog-art-blog-youtube

[luxexhomines]

married as...?

As I mentioned, I’ll be posting some of my Obey Me! fanfiction here from now on! Feel free to block the tags #obey me or #obey me shall we date if it bothers you. I’ve posted these on AO3, too, but thought that the audience might be slightly different, so I’m putting it on Tumblr, too. It’ll be under the cut so I don’t clog up your dash. If you’re interested in seeing my other works, click here, but be forewarned of NSFW and problematic content. I will post the non-problematic fics on Tumblr later if you’d like to just wait for them here. I also link my works on Twitter when I post them on AO3 if you’d like to hang around there instead @\luxexhomines ! I retweet a lot of art & Obey Me content, sometimes show sneak peeks of WIPs & crappy doodles. 

Click here for the AO3 link if you’d like to read there.

Summary: You're woken up in the middle of the night by Leviathan, who has something very important to ask you. What could it be? Note: this was inspired by this Twitter thread and dedicated to the person who made the meme~ ♡

There is a short excerpt at the start that shaped how I thought about, approached and hopefully can be felt from this work. 

Every day is full of choices. 

And every one of those days, I have chosen you.

From today onward, too, I will continue to choose you. 

You’re woken abruptly by someone shaking you. You can faintly hear someone speaking and calling your name. 

“...Hey…! Hey! Wake up. I need to ask you something!” 

It was Levi’s voice, and it sounded urgent. You rub the sleep from your eyes and rollover. Your husband was in bed beside you, but he was sitting up, looking at you seriously. You cover your yawn with a hand.

“Mmm...what? What is it? Did you realize you forgot to go get in line for the newest The Magical, Mysterious Jane: Peony Phantom figure?” 

You try to half sit up, propping yourself up on the pillow, and try to gauge his expression. He looked pretty worried. Even for him, this seemed a little more extreme than usual, although he did sometimes wake you up in the night to tell you he needed to go stand in line for new merchandise or a newly-released game. 

He purses his lips, clearly put off as his eyebrows knit together. 

“No, it’s not that! I wouldn’t be that worked up over that. I would just let you know and then go.” 

You reach out and brush a piece of hair from his face, tucking it behind his ears, watching as his face reddens slightly, and you can’t help but smile. Even after all these years together, he still gets shy. You supposed it was just one of the things you loved about Levi, one of the things that made him Levi. 

“Well, then, what is it?” You pause and your sleep-addled brain thinks back as you shift to sit cross-legged on the mattress. “Wait, you said you need to ask me something. What did you want to ask…” you glance at your D.D.D., “at 4:06 am?” 

He sulks, his mouth twisting into his characteristic frown. 

“This is important! I wouldn’t wake you up for nothing. Listen, I have to know…” he trails off, suddenly appearing timid. Levi’s orange eyes turn away from you now, lingering on some point on the covers of the bed. 

“You have to know…?” you prompt. 

His eyelashes flutter as he blinks rapidly. 

“Um…” Levi turns his heated gaze onto you again and grips your shoulders forcefully. The look in his eyes is serious, almost grave, and his lips are pressed together tightly. He’s still got bedhead from being asleep, and some of his hair is sticking up. You hold yourself back from smoothing it down, seeing as he’s so serious. 

“Levi…?” 

You’re also starting to feel anxious, seeing the state that he’s in. But you never would have expected the next words out of his mouth. 

“Do you like me?” 

For a moment, you just gawk at him as your jaw drops open. You keep waiting for him to say that it was just a joke, but he looks completely sober and still doesn’t give. His eyes are wide and he looks so pitiful that he’s starting to remind you more of a puppy you picked up off the streets than the handsome demon you’d married. His hands slide off your shoulders dolefully. 

You shut your mouth. 

“...You’re serious.” When he nods, you resist the urge to facepalm. “Levi, I married you.” 

Again, he’s frowning. You want to reach out and straighten that grumpy mouth into a smile, but you can’t help but think he’s still adorable, even when he’s not in the best of moods. He puts a hand to his mouth, the way he always does when he’s trying to hide how he feels, however unsuccessful those attempts may be. 

“Yeah, but did you marry me as a friend, or as a significant other?”

You stifle a chuckle at first but can’t help bursting into laughter. Meanwhile, he’s staring at you like you’ve gone crazy as you hold your stomach, aching from your mirth. 

“Pfft...Levi! I can’t believe you’re asking me this. And after we’ve been married for a few years already.” 

Levi only looks more unhappy as his eyebrows furrow inward, glaring at you sharply. 

“Well, it was unclear.” 

Seeing how disheartened he is, you sober up and offer a soft smile. 

“Levi, of course I married you as a significant other. I love you. I thought I already told you. Or at least, that you knew.” 

He freezes, and red creeps onto his face. He hunches over slightly, pouting as he pins his gaze to the mattress. 

“I, well… I thought maybe you’d meant it as friends. Since we’re true best friends.” 

“Look at me, Levi.” 

He does, raising his head, and you take the chance to cup his glowing cheeks and lean in, placing a sweet kiss on his lips, those lips that expressed so much, those lips that couldn’t lie. 

When you pull back, you see that the redness on his cheeks has grown deeper a shade. 

“Y-You should have warned me…! You know that I’m still not used to this…”

You laugh, thoroughly amused. 

“Well, it served its purpose. Do true best friends kiss?” You put a hand to his cheek again and brush your thumb over his lips, faintly pink, pliant. “On the lips?” 

You can feel the warmth of his body beneath your fingers as you caress his cheek, the softness of his skin, and your heart begins to race. Despite your teasing, you weren’t completely used to this either. And you felt like you might never be used to it- although, you were okay with that. You loved him. 

Levi puts a hand to his neck, rubbing it. He’s still red. Of course he is. 

“I mean, no, but… You and I are special, aren’t we? Even just as friends.” 

His gaze is sincere and direct, full of the warmth you loved in him, and a hint of coolness in the tint of purple within. You’re smiling before you know it. 

“Yeah, we are.” You lift his bangs and kiss him on the forehead firmly. “But you’re my true best friend and my significant other. There’s a difference. That’s why you asked, isn’t it?”

This time, he flushes a lovely fuschia, stammering his response. 

“I-I told you to warn me, didn’t I…?” He drops his gaze and the corners of his lips turn down, but you can sense fondness within. “But yeah, you’re right. That’s why I asked.” 

You give him a break from your touch and withdraw, although the sensation of his skin lingers on your fingers. One side of your mouth quirks upward as you raise your eyebrows. 

“Do you need further proof? Or shall we go back to bed?” 

Levi is still at first, but then he processes the implications of your words, and he flops back into the bed and under the covers rather quickly. He turns away from you, but you can still see the crimson hue on his ears. 

“N-No…! I’m good, let’s go back to sleep!” 

You settle back into the bed as well with a knowing smile. 

“If you say so. I love you, Levi.” You reach over to his broad back and trace a heart on that warm canvas, although he immediately stiffens upon feeling your touch. “I’ll say it every day to remind you from now on since you still seem like you don’t believe me. Can you feel what I drew on your back?” 

You trace the heart again, your finger running along the curves and muscles of his back. Levi relaxes slightly, letting go of his tension. 

“...You don’t have to do that,” he whisper-mumbles, bashful. “I-Is that a heart?” 

You rub his head, ruffling his hair. 

“Yeah, good work.” You trace another shape on his back. “I don’t have to do anything, Levi. I want to. Because I love you.” 

For a time, silence greets you, and you think he might have fallen asleep as you lazily trace the shape a few more times. 

“Is it a star?” 

You stop and rub his head again. 

“Yeah! You’re good at this, aren’t you? Maybe you’ve got a sensitive back.” 

His reply is barely audible. 

“No, I’m just sensitive to your touch…” 

You shift closer. Did you hear that right?

“What did you say?” 

Even facing away from you, he brings his hands to his face, covering it shyly. 

“Nothing! I didn’t say anything!” 

You chuckle. At this distance, you can hear his heartbeat, quick and hard. You press a kiss to his upper back, right along his spine, slow but sure. You let your lips linger a moment longer than usual, firm and flush against him before you allow yourself to draw back. 

“Do you know what I just did?” you murmur. 

His heartbeat is accelerating, and his body is tense. There’s a pause. Only the rhythm of your hearts and the coming and going of your breaths accompany it. 

“...I thought I told you to warn me,” is all he says, his voice unsteady. Then, uncertainly, “Did...was...is that a kiss?” His last few words are hesitant, quiet, wavering. 

Another rub to the head for Leviathan, you think to yourself. Or at least, that’s what you’d planned on, but instead, he turns and catches your wrist mid-air. Those riveting orange eyes have captured yours in a heartbeat. They’re mere inches away.

“It’s not fair,” he grouses. “It’s my turn.” 

Levi’s lips are on yours, and you barely even register the soft, loving warmth before it’s gone again, and you’re left in a daze as your eyes glaze over. He releases your wrist from his hold. Then, heat rushes to your own cheeks, and you put a hand to them to check- they were burning. Your eyes trail up to his again, and his candid gaze only makes your cheeks hotter. You tighten your lips and your eyebrows crease as you stare at him flusteredly. 

“...Why didn’t you warn me…?” 

He’s smug. A cocky smile stretches across his face.

“You didn’t warn me, so-mmph!” 

You sealed those self-satisfied lips with your own once again, a hand draped over Levi’s back to pull him in closer. You’re still burning up, but you don’t care anymore. As long as you’re with him.

When you part from him, both of you are ruddy-cheeked, glowing. 

“I love you, Leviathan.” 

His eyes are soft now, warm like the golden liquid kindness of the afternoon sun, tender like the petals of orange carnations. 

“I love you, too.”