#I'm proud of windy's hair :)

[bellatheinkdemon]

You're starting to look really weird, oh, yeah

Your face is out of place and I can't make you out...

[shogunish]

𝗼𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿.

pairing. student! gojo satoru x reader

genre. fluff, slice of life, idiots in love

warnings. tooth-rotting fluff

summary. and when you laugh at his stupid comment, leaves of all colors and sizes in your hair, cheeks red from the low temperatures, he finally knows why you love autumn so much.

words. 901

note. don't imagine falling in love with toru in autumn, sharing hot chocolate, cozy movie dates and him giving you his sweater bc yours don't keep you warm enough

comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated! <3

satoru doesn't know why you love autumn so much when it's not only the busiest time for sorcerers, but also annoyingly windy with sudden downpours out of nowhere. days are cut short since the sun would set earlier than usual and dark skies would envelop tokyo at five pm instead of at nine in the late evening. autumn is the season in which everything starts dying or hiding away; may it be trees drying out and shedding their once lush leaves or that small hedgehog across the street searching for a cozy, safe place to hibernate.

a scowl rested on satoru's handsome face. the tip of his nose and the apples of his cheeks are bitten red by the chilly temperatures lingering in the streets. snot runs from his nostril and he sniffles. even the coat paired with the scarf wrapped around his neck can't stop his runny nose. satoru isn't sick, oh no. if anything, he's sick of the weather.

chilly temperatures always equal a runny nose for satoru.

he sighs, cerulean eyes rolling behind pitch black shades. "next time, you go on that walk by yourself. my doctor will hear about you if i get sick."

a light bounce is in your step. turning to face satoru, you smile at him. "stop exaggerating. i just wanted to see you and spend some time with you." satoru is right next to you, eyeing you from his peripheral. "you've been away so much ever since autumn came."

he just scoffs. luckily, satoru's cheeks are already red or else you would've called him out on the blush blooming across his cheeks. he likes to pretend to be tough and immune to your words when in reality, each of your honeyed words cut through his defenses like butter.

"must miss me real bad, huh? how cute." satoru puffs his chest out, proud of the comment he's just come up with.

a little pout rests upon your lips and all of a sudden, you feel a little shy, because yes, you do miss satoru real bad and feel almost..lonely without him. but with an ego as massive as satoru is tall, you can't give him that sort of satisfaction. so all you do is huff in response. "all i heard is that i'm cute."

selective hearing, hm?

despite the several layers of clothes hiding your skin and keeping you toasty warm, satoru knows how to worm his way through every single layer until he is underneath your skin, flustering you and making you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

popping into your personal bubble, he wears a smug smirk on his chapsticked lips. "ohhh, you do miss me!" satoru chirps, tosses his arm around your shoulder and pulls you into his side.

occasionally, satoru forgets how strong he is compared to you and is a bit rougher with you than he should be. the pull is sudden, makes you squeak as you slip on a damp leaf and lose your balance. instead of finding yourself in satoru's arm, your butt lands in a pile of dried leaves.

dumbfounded you stare at satoru, owlishly blinking at him while a few leaves get stuck on the top of your head. he thinks he fucked up, will get a real good scolding from you, telling him to be more careful, but your nagging never comes.

instead, you laugh heartily with round cheeks and your teeth showing off. a melodious sound that fills the park and drips right into the cracks of satoru's heart, turning the snow into sweet, saccharine honey.

his heart does this funny thing again. the thing where it skips a beat and pumps just a tad bit harder, making him feel warm from the core up.

before satoru can even think about teasing you, a handful of leaves is flung right at his face and he finds himself laughing along with you. "what was that for?"

"for letting me fall and getting my ass wet!" you're still laughing, then your face scrunches up as satoru flings his own fistful of leaves at your face.

you begin chasing him with two fistfuls of leaves. suddenly, red, yellow and orange is stuck in his hair and you realize..it makes his eyes look even more mesmerizing than they already are. how unfair.

"not my fault you're getting your ass wet over me!"

oh, he's having the time of his life chasing you around the park, flinging dried leaves at each other and laughing so carelessly without a worry in the world. your laughter mixes with his, creating a symphony that only something akin to love could compose.

"oh, shut up, will you?!" playfully, you shove satoru into a pile of leaves, but if he's going down, he's taking you with him.

grabbing you by the collar, satoru falls into the pile of leaves with you and laughs alongside you. a tangled mess of limbs and puffs of white smoke fill the space around you. your head rests somewhere on satoru's chest while his arms and legs are sprawled out like a starfish.

"i'll only shut up if you make me, darling." satoru wiggles his eyebrows at you, all in good fun.

and when you laugh at his stupid comment, leaves of all colors and sizes in your hair, cheeks red from the low temperatures, he finally knows why you love autumn so much.

taglist; @torusmochi

[laralagata]

I have a special interest in winds. Admittedly, my special interest in winds might be considered a fetish, but I'm proud of it because of how it really shapes my self-identity. Without a doubt, I probably wouldn't have discovered that I'm trans without this fetish. Wearing a skirt and having Marilyn Monroe moments just gives me gender euphoria.

I feel validated that I'm not the only one who has a special interest like mine. Especially when it's queer people. It's interesting how I used to be so scared of storms, but now I have a full on special interest in it. I really can't help but love how the winds make me feel and how they helped me find myself, even if it's weird. I still love the freeing feeling it gives. Like, as if I escaped to another place with no worries.

Windy days (even strong ones) will keep giving me euphoria and escapism, for as long as I live as a carefree girl who loves to wear flowy clothes. I love struggling to stand, I love having my hair blown, I love my clothes fluttering, and I love this feeling that it'll always give me. I love windy days and I love being trans. I wonder if anyone else here on Tumblr has this special interest or has gotten the same euphoric feeling with it.

[moonspirit]

Hi, Moon!

Who would have the other’s picture as their phone background? Armin, Annie or both?

And what do you think the photo would look like?

Hello!

Oohh. I'm inclined to say both tho! But in different ways:

Armin would have Annie's photo set as his phone wallpaper, both on the lockscreen and homescreen. And it would be a candid photo he probably took of her somewhere, when she didn't know about it. But it would be a beautiful photo, with Annie caught mid-laugh in a windy field of flowers, or looking contented as she stuffs her face with cake in a corner cafe on a rainy evening. He'd be very proud to show off her cuteness, whether that's her appearing serene and beautiful, or scowling cutely at the disobedient sugary sweet that's given her an icing-nose or an icing-moustache.

As for Annie... her lockscreen would be a photo of their cat-baby, or a blue sky with white puffy clouds. Your run-of-the-mill average wallpaper, nothing much to see there. But once her phone is unlocked, and the homescreen pops up, that's when you see Armin's face, fast asleep. Her favourite thing ever is to collect photos of him sleeping, because he's so honest and cute and handsome like that. Messy hair, reddish nose, glued-together eyelashes, slightly open mouth. What's not to love? But nobody gets to see that except her, which is why it's only her homescreen wallpaper and nobody ever, EVER, sees her homescreen wallpaper.

[dailyunstableeve]

Grave visit au

Miguel O'Hara x Fem!reader

w: Angst, soft and in pain Miguel, just the all possible sad stuff, idk what else to put, just a very sad one(I guess)

a/n: imagine I die and he visit my grave (jkjk) I'm also working on different version, and also every possible characters of Astv as I can, just to like have the story to be write out, the context are in the masterlist ❤️

Grave visit au Masterlist

Masterlist

°:. *₊ ° . ° .•°:. *₊ ° . ° .•°:. *₊ ° . ° .•°:. *₊ ° . ° .•°:. *₊ ° . ° .

Lover version

Miguel would be the one that takes all the chances and second he has to just visit your grave.

Miguel would never move on, he would always keep you in his mind just so he would never forget what a happy man you had made him.

Miguel would sit at your grave for hours, looking at your name carved on the gravestone, with the memory of you taking your last breath in his arms, just like he lost Gabriella.

Miguel would silently cry after five minutes of staring at your gravestone.

Miguel would bring your favorite flower to visit you every time, he even has a vase in his office just to place your favorite flower in it, so he will forever remember you.

Miguel would say stuff that when you're alive, the stuff you wished Miguel to do that you would be proud of him, "I ate my meal well today, carino." "I manage to keep the ceiling clean like you asked." "I managed to not get mad at that kid Miles today."

It's been a year since the incident of your death, Miguel showed up every single day, no matter if it's windy, sunny, rainy, chilly, or cold, he will always show up. Miguel brushes his hand on your gravestone, brushing off the dust, or leaves, or the snow. For the first five minutes, the smile on his face remained, hoping that his smile could tell you that he's okay even if he's not. Miguel missed you every damn day that he hardly got sleep, only time he would sleep was him looking through your files, playing videos that had your voice in it, he would play it in the background to at least smooth his pain a little as he can sleep a little better.

"You promised, you promised to stay with me, why did you leave first?"

"Promise to stay together?" You asked Miguel.

"Forever."

"And ever."

"I miss you so much, carino, you have no idea how depressing it is to wake up without you next to me."

"Good morning handsome, are you ready for today?" You softly chuckled, giving Miguel kisses all over the face.

"Five more minutes, carino." Miguel shoved his face to your chest.

"Anything my Miggy wants." You caressingly his hair and cuddling with him a bit longer.

"I remembered you telling me about the pastry down the street, I went to it yesterday when I was walking back, they are tasty just like you said, but it sure will be more tasty if I was eating it with you."

"Miguel! Have you heard about that new pastry down the street?" You rushed into his office with a flier in my hand.

"Pastry?" Miguel frowned.

"I know you don't really enjoy sweets but I really want to try it out, will you go with me?" You begged.

"Sure Mi Amor." Miguel smiled and gave you a kiss.

"I miss your cooking, your [best dish], I tried to cook it but it seems like I'm missing something, maybe it's missing the taste of eating it with you."

"My favorite dish!" Miguel acted like a small kid that he finally got treats after many rounds of asking for it.

"Just for you." You smiled, took a spoonful of the food, feeding Miguel.

"I can eat this forever," he looked at you, a smile on his face that really shows that he really loves it.

"What if you get sick?"

"I will still eat it," Miguel gave a kiss on your cheek and fed you as well.

Miguel stood in front of your gravestone, the only thing that he can think of is you, about everything you do, how adorable you are.

You and Miguel have a universe traveling plan but you weren't able to go with him, so he would still carry on the planning, going to every universe you wished to visit.

"Don't you dare to forget me, and wait for me."

[shattered-reflections-au]

Shattered Reflections Fanfic Masterpost!!

--- --- --- My Fics --- --- ---

When the Caring need Caring (Red sickfic) Releasing the Smoking Embers of our Past Selves (Red Backstory)

--- --- --- Sleepy's Ask Extravaganza --- --- --- @sleepy-the-loz-enthusiast

to be added

--- --- --- Shattered Shorts --- --- ---

to be added

--- --- --- Fluffvember collection --- --- --- AO3 Link Prompt list (because I'm tired of trying to find it on my own every morning)

Snow / "I'm stealing your blanket."

Blanket Fort / "Come back to bed"

Nature Walk / "I'm sorry, when did we step into paradise?"

Hot Springs / "this hits the spot"

Apple Picking / "oh my gosh you do not know how to cook"

Windy Day / "Come closer, i can't hear- ahhhh- too close, too close!!!"

Massage / "i didn't know you could sing,"

Bird watching / "why are you looking at me like that?"

Homecoming / "I've missed you,"

Accommodating / "I've got you,"

Teaching/Learning / "it's tradition,"

Dog/cat/pet // “I can die happy now”

Friendly competition / “You’re going to love this”

In the rain // “Let me help you”

In the firelight/candlelight / “I love you”

Hug / “This isn’t a negotiation, friend”

Favorite book/story / “I wanted to share this with you”

Music / “I learned this from my parents”

Family time / “We’re very blessed”

Coming of age // “I’m so proud of you”

The Reluctant Softie / “UGH FINE I’LL DO IT”

Teddy bear/animal plushie / “Give [insert] a kiss for me”

Self care / “Thank you for believing in me”

Cuddle pile / “You’re not gonna let go, are you?”

Washing someone’s hair / “I can stay with you”

Infodumping // “I love hearing you talk about this”

Gift giving // “This made me think of you”

Inside joke // “I definitely missed something, didn’t I?”

Accidental acquisition // “Uh… whose kid is this?”

Cooking as a love language // “Do you like it?”

[chershire23]

Night Fury Makto.

A Fated Meeting.

Aloka’s POV

“Animal speaking”

“Na’vi speaking”

“Human speaking”

6 years have passed since I took Spider from the human nest and claimed him as my own. I raised him among my small pack as one of us, as a Fury teaching him the laws of Eywa and the Jungle. I have since that day dubbed today as not only his Birthday but also his adoption anniversary. Today he wished to go out flying and then gather some of his favorite fruits for lunch as well as some delicious fish. I walk on the ground as he scurries in the trees above me, looking for some of the fruits he wants. I strived to teach Spider all that I have learned in my life including different languages. Believe it or not us Furies can speak any language so we wish it most of the time we choose not to. “Spider remind me again the laws the great mother has set in place for us.” I tell him as I watch him swing on a vine. “You shall not set stone upon stone. Neither shall you use the turning wheel, nor use the metals of the ground.” he recites perfectly and the sensation of proudness washes over me. 

“And what of the law of the jungle my smart little cub.” I test him once more. "NOW this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, And the Night Fury that shall keep it may prosper, but the Night Fury that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back. For the strength of the pack is the Night Fury, and the strength of the Night Fury is the pack.” he recites perfectly. A smile takes over my muzzle and I look at him fondly. Jumping up into the trees with him. Walking over I nuzzle the top of his head. A purr exits my throat. “You make me so proud.” I tell him as I pull away to look into his honey brown eyes. I huff a breath through my nose watching as it makes his wild and slightly tangled hair move as if it was windy. He is still so small compared to me, barely coming up to the top of my foreleg, that I fear even the smallest of leaves will knock him over. “There is a river a ways up ahead why don’t you go and run ahead of me and i'll meet you there? Momma needs to think for a minute.” I tell him and his little smile widens as he takes off towards the river letting out yips in hollers scaring some of the Fan lizards in his path.

3rd pov.

Spider runs sound like a little mad man having fun as he scares some of the smaller local animals. He soon makes it to a small hill just above the river. Smiling, he looks around and finds a smooth area that is just perfect for rolling down. He goes over, curls into a ball and launches himself down the small hill hoping to make a big splash in the water below. What he didn’t expect was to accidentally bump into a small Na’vi girl just a year younger than himself. She had settled herself at the bottom of the hill and Spider had been too excited to even notice. This little girl's name is Kiri and Spider ends up slamming into her, sending them both painfully tumbling into the shallow end of the river. “Dang it Lo’ak! Why did you do… that?” She trails off seeing it was not her little brother Lo’ak who slammed into her but little Spider. They stare at each other and a weird sense of familiarity washes over them despite having never met. But the connection between them is real, one given to them by Eywa. Platonic soulmates if you would like to call them that. Kiri knows he is human but he doesn’t wear a breathing mask. 

She doesn't question it for as a child you have this innocence that makes even the strangest of things seem right. “I'm Kiri.” she introduces herself holding out her hand for him to shake. Spider stares at her hands before grabbing it yet not shaking it as he introduces himself to her. “My name is Spider.” He says his Na'vi is slightly rough as he doesn’t use the other languages his mother taught him much. They smile at one another and Kiri goes to talk more before she is splashed in the face with a small wave of water. Spider ever the little trouble maker runs onto the bank and hisses at the younger but taller girl playfully. Kiri takes the challenge and runs after Spider, the two children chase each other in and out of the river splashing and trying to tackle one another. Spider gets up onto a huge rock taunting Kiri and just as she is about to climb up to get him a huge male Na’vi, Jake Sully kiri’s father bursts out of the brush scaring both of them. Causing Spider to fall off the rock, Kiri rushes to help him up and Jake starts speaking worry lacing his voice. 

“Kiri, baby girl you can’t go running off like that, do you have any idea.” He ends up cutting himself off face, going pale as he spots Spider as Kiri helps him get up, brushing the dirt off that he got from the fall. There in front of him is a little boy thought to have been lost long ago, but here he is standing in front of him wearing a loincloth made of black scales and adoring a messy mane of dirty blond hair. “Spider?” Jake calls out hesitantly, unsure of whether or not he is dreaming. The little boy’s head jerks up so fast you would have thought he broke his neck. He looks to Jake confused for he has never seen this strange male till now. So how does he know his name? Kiri too looks at her dad confused. “How did you know his name daddy?” she asks him confused because while she likes Spider and he is already her best friend she could have been sure her dad would have introduced them sooner if he knew the small human boy. 

Jake, too stunned for words, can't exactly find the right answer for his daughter's question, as all he can do is stare at the boy. It was then that Jake's wife and mate Neytiri finds them and she too freezes once she spots the boy. “Ma Jake, how is this possible?” she questions, for she to recognizes the boy even though the last time she saw him he was just a baby no bigger than her hand. “I don’t know but we’ll have to take him with us, get some tests done, make sure it's actually him.” Jake says as he reaches to grab hold of Spider. As soon as his hand reached out though a giant black figure jumps in front of the adults and Kiri who refused to leave Spider’s side during the confrontation was with him behind the creature. Aloka who was watching the interaction from the shadows raises her head high and turns it to the side, eyeballing the adults who dared to try and take her cub. She is poised as a viper waiting to strike. 

“Night Fury.” Neytiri whispers fearfully as she grips onto her husband's bicep. The angry mother turns to them and shocks them both when words like venom fall from her mouth. “Just try and take my cub, I dare you.” She hisses at them, her tail swinging back and forth behind her. Jake, trying to be the reasonable one, tells Aloka that they didn’t know She was spider's mother and that Spider was supposed to be with them raised by the humans among the Omatikayan people. That was a very wrong thing to say as Aloka shoots a plasma blast into the river displaying her anger. “NO! He is MINE, mine to ME. You will not take him!” She roars at them emphasizing her words. Jake and Neytiri are at a loss for words and can’t seem to come up with a peaceful solution. 

[whispersafterdusk]

Heart of Stone - ch 12

His day had fully recovered from the deputy thing; he'd made three rock stacks (one of which was a new record - a whole twelve rocks tall - and while it wouldn't last through even a slightly windy day he was still rather proud of it) and had found a natural stack out in the wild -- it was made up of layers of different colored sandstone and had weathered in such a strange way that it looked like someone had purposely placed individual rocks even though it was one solid piece. He'd spent an hour or so sitting out there admiring it from various angles; despite having been out this way hundreds of times he'd never seen it before. It must have been buried after it was formed and all these recent sandstorms had finally uncovered it; he'd have to bring Dawn out here to see it sometime. ((Continued below cut))

Speaking of Dawn, each time he'd passed within view she'd seemed steadily busier as the pile of scrap near the furnaces grew; her fence had been taken down along the back and side of the yard as well and new corner posts had been driven into the ground further out to mark her new property. There was enough space now for a bedroom and then some -- she could probably add on three rooms of roughly the same size as the current house without encroaching too much on the area of the yard where all the machines were, though with how things were going in Sandrock lately some of that open ground might be needed for more machines instead... At least she'd definitely get the separate bedroom she wanted.

Anyway...dinnertime was here. Owen ought to have food for him to deliver. Unsuur brushed himself off before heading into the saloon; Grace was at the bar, taking orders and handing out drinks, which meant Owen was probably in the kitchen on cooking duty tonight (that was good). It took Grace several minutes to notice he was standing there but she quickly headed into the kitchen and came back out with a box for him.

"Here you go - tell Dawn I said hi," she said as she handed it over.

"I will. Thanks."

Whatever was in the box smelled...not spicy, but spiced. Nice and fragrant. The box was heavy too - definitely a hearty meal inside. Unsuur was careful not to tilt the box as he headed across the tracks and to Dawn's gate; the scrap piles had both multiplied and grown larger and every furnace was lit though Dawn herself wasn't in view. He diligently checked among the machines to make sure she wasn't actually out in the yard and just out of sight then went to her door to knock and wait.

She answered a few moments later and while she looked surprised and pleased to see him Unsuur had to quickly drop his gaze to the box in his hands after getting a look at her; gone were the overalls and work shirt and in their place were soft looking, loose-fitting pants and a sleeveless shirt that left a strip of bare skin visible at her midriff. Over the top edge of the box he could see she was barefoot too and his face and ears grew warm.

"Hello! Please tell me you're not here because something else broke or exploded or something," she said, adding a quick laugh at the end.

"Nope." Focus. "Uh. Owen sent me over with some dinner for you - he doesn't want you worrying about having to cook after working all day on the bridge. Grace says hi too."

He held the box out to her, gaze still riveted on it, but with moving it closer he could see her midriff again in his peripheral vision; her shirt shifted as she reached for the box, revealing a bit more skin. Wonder if she was ticklish...

Focus...

"Aw, that's really nice - I'll have to thank him the next time I'm at the saloon. I actually already ate dinner but I'll save this for tomorrow."

The box left his hands and she turned to carry it over to the kitchen area. Unsuur dared to look up once she'd stepped fully out of his sight; under the overhead light's glow he noticed a buttery golden dot of color gleaming just above where her hair was pulled into a slightly messy bun. Without really meaning to he let his gaze drift lower to her neck and shoulders, spotting a tan line and-

The rock heart seemed to triple in weight in his pocket, like it was reminding him again that it was there... He needed to think about literally anything else at the moment. "Looked like there's a lot of scrap out there now. I guess Rocky and his crew came through."

After sticking the box into her fridge she straightened and nodded at him. "They busted through to an old garage-looking place down there -- lots of broken vehicles, lifts, even abandoned tools. I think what we managed to bring up today is about a fifth of what I'll need overall, assuming all of it is usable." She walked back toward him, reaching up to pull a hairpin (topped with a very familiar-looking opal) free; Unsuur was transfixed by the sight of her hair tumbling loose. With a soft sigh Dawn rubbed a hand across her head, massaging fingers into where the hair had been twisted into the bun with a grimace. "It's a very long walk from there to here, even with the lift and a cart. Most of my days are going to be eaten up by travel time alone and then I actually have to get everything made."

"That doesn't sound fun," he mumbled, glancing around the room desperately for something else to fix his attention on. His eyes fell on the coffee table where he could see one of her notebooks laying open with a sketch visible on the page. "Designing stuff for when the Mysterious Man gets here?"

She glanced toward the couch and her eyes widened, then she was across the room in three steps and flipping the notebook face-down on the table. "Um, yep! He- when did you say he usually shows up?"

"Around the 20th each month - unless he gets held up somewhere, but that doesn't happen very often." From here Unsuur hadn't really seen much detail; he had the impression of a bracelet or maybe a choker, or perhaps an enlarged drawing of a ring? It had been a circular shape with something sort of triangular inverted and set into its middle.

"I'll have some things ready for him, not a problem," Dawn went on with a nervous-sounding giggle and a grin. "Um, well, I plan on getting up really early tomorrow so I should probably turn in!"

Oh, hmm. How early would that be? That might make delivering his letter...tricky, depending on the timing. Hopefully 'really early' for her wouldn't be around 3am, which is when he'd be waking up to sneak over (and why did she seem suddenly anxious?) "All right, I'll let you get to bed. Remember: no overworking yourself."

Right before his eyes the nervousness drained out of her and she had a much more natural smile for him as he turned to go. "I promise I'll at least try. But, we do need the bridge built and soon."

Unsuur waved goodbye then went straight home to putter around for the rest of the evening: he did a few exercises, made dinner, talked to Wilson a bit, and sketched out that natural rock stack he'd found and hung the drawing on the wall near his wardrobe. Every so often his mind would wander back to Dawn's hair tumbling down, and wasn't that the opal he'd given her? He swore it was...there hadn't been an opal of that coloration in her collection when she'd shown it to him. That she'd turned it into something she was openly wearing made him really happy, and that memory of her hair falling into place made him...also really happy. A little TOO happy, even. Luckily no one else was here (aside from Wilson but Unsuur wasn't too worried about him).

As usual he placed the heart stone on his nightstand as he climbed into bed, giving it a little pat for the night; so far he'd thought of watching the sunset again, or going for a leisurely ride on Boulder, or story night...what else could he plan? There were lots of scenic places around here and it didn't need to be at sunset to be a nice view, and there was also that natural stack he'd found that he felt she'd love to see. Ooh, or, maybe they could create a rock stack together? While at that naturally formed one? That would be the best thing EVER.

...actually, yeah. He couldn't think of anything that would be better than that. It felt right...felt perfect.

All right. Plan time.

The bridge had to be completed first, that was for certain, but when it was all done they could go see the natural stack, make one together while the sun set, then he'd give her the stone heart as the moon rose. In the meantime he would bide his time, maybe write some more letters if his head started feeling a little too full again, and avoid distracting her too much so the bridge would be done as soon as possible.

With his plan of action settled Unsuur actually fell asleep pretty quickly afterward; when he sneaked out later the night was clear and the moon was bright enough to navigate by, and he spotted a shooting star as he walked over to the workshop. A long time ago his mom had told him you were supposed to make a wish if you saw one; Unsuur had never learned why you were meant to wish nor had he ever noticed if a wish came true, but... At the very least he felt he should try, just in case, but rather than use it on himself (since he only wanted one thing and was pretty sure he didn't need a wish's help) he could try using it on Dawn's behalf instead.

Let's see, how to word it... He wished that nothing else major would happen for at least a little while; let Dawn have time to rest, recuperate, make her jewelry, spend time with friends (and him). Give her time to breathe and get settled. ...or, something like that. Since he didn't know why you wished on falling stars he wasn't sure what the rules were, but with his wish now quietly willed into the world he went to slip the letter into her mailbox only to notice a flap of paper sticking out of it already and whatever it was was keeping him from properly sliding his own letter into the box.

Carefully he poked at it with his pinky finger -- it seemed to be a folded bit of paper wedged in the slot sideways...he'd need to move it to put his letter inside. No one was around but he still felt awkward - like he was going to be caught and accused of snooping through her mail - as he slipped his thumb and pointer finger into the narrow opening and, after a few tries, managed to grab and pull the paper free without ripping it. Once he had it in hand he smoothed it out between his palms and was about to slip it in the slot straight when he noticed "TO: NAMELESS LETTER WRITER" written across it in big letters.

Nameless letter writer... That was him, right? Unless someone else was also leaving her letters at night without signing their name to them, which didn't seem likely.

Since it was just paper - no envelope - it was easy to open and there was just enough moonlight to make out what it said:

Thanks for the compliments!

I just did what needed to be done. I'm glad I left an impression though - leave your name next time! I'd like to know who you are. I'll leave this in my mailbox, hopefully you'll see it.

Too late to leave his name on this letter (not that he would have) but at least he'd seen the response. And Dawn had amazing handwriting...

He carefully folded the note up and stuck it in his pocket then slipped his letter in the box.

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

A few mornings after dropping off his letter he'd found Dawn fitting a new face plate on her mailbox while the furnaces were heating up; the box, much like her front door, faced directly into the wind and she'd grumbled good-naturedly about the miniature desert she'd found inside after that first sandstorm as she attached the front with its pull-down-flap style door.

Though the new door looked pretty nice Unsuur couldn't help but notice another folded paper inside the mailbox with big, blocky letters on its front as Dawn tested the tension on the clip that held the door shut; he didn't want to show too much interest in the box's contents and look guilty or give anything away so he'd politely excused himself shortly afterward but then that left him daydreaming about what she might have written back to him. If he snuck over to retrieve it he wanted to leave yet another in its place, along with another small gift... No definite ideas on what either of those should be came to mind though. He WAS watching Dawn build an entire bridge...surely some encouragement and admiration of her skill would be welcome but saying 'wow you did that really well' felt a little lackluster -- a bridge was a big project so his letter should properly consider that. Luckily he didn't have much to do with the bridge still out so he had plenty of time to think on what to say.

He was still trying to put words in order in his head when he collected the food Owen had prepared and was heading back over to Dawn's. Just as he'd reached the tracks he spied her slumped over at her workbench with her arms folded over her head, and from here it didn't look like she was moving either... He hurried over and barged through her gate without stopping to latch it again behind him. "Dawn? Are you all right?"

She sat upright with a start and spun on her stool to face him. "-ah, sorry! Sorry, didn't mean to worry you. I'm fine, just-" she cut herself off with a huff and closed her eyes, holding up a finger in a 'hold on' gesture.

Unsuur was relieved she was ok and waited as she took several deep breaths with her eyes shut, taking a moment to take a deep breath of his own -- seeing her like that had actually scared him a little and had also emptied his mind of the half-composed letter he'd been thinking on all day.

"Ok," she sighed, opening her eyes and smiling up at him - she looked exhausted. "Hello. Sorry, I'm really tired and I was just...having a moment."

"Is something wrong with the bridge stuff?" he asked, glancing around. The scrap piles were in their usual spots, the line of truss parts in the distance had increased; he didn't notice anything obviously out of place.

She wordlessly held up a piece of paper and for one wild moment Unsuur thought she was holding up a letter he'd left her, feeling his heart jump up into his throat with the sudden crushing worry that he'd scared or annoyed her with them.

-wait, that wasn't his handwriting at all. He held out his hand and she handed it over; skimming the letter he recognized Qi's scrawl and picked out mention of the Paradise Lost ruins -- specifically the hazardous part that, despite their best efforts over the years, they hadn't managed to clear the monsters and robots out of.

"...he wants a power core to help with the bridge? I didn't think the bridge had anything that'd need to be powered," he said, looking from the letter to her.

She nodded, rubbing at her eyes. "It doesn't. No idea what he has planned but he just expects me to waltz into those ruins and find him a power core."

Unsuur frowned and suppressed the urge to crumple the letter up. "You weren't planning on trying to do it by yourself, were you?"

Dawn shook her head. "Absolutely not, you don't need to worry about that. Without knowing what he wants it for I have no idea what type of core to even look for or if it'll be something we can find around here."

Qi had mentioned in the letter that he and Justice wouldn't know a power core from a stapler and...while insulting, it was true that Unsuur didn't know what a power core was aside from assuming that it must be different from the power stones he was accustomed to in some substantial way. "How many types of power cores are there?"

"Loads," Dawn groaned, pressing the heels of her palms to her temples. "He wants the largest I can find but does he mean physical size? Power output? Power storage? Number of input and output ports? He at least had the courtesy to warn me about the killer robots in there but left out every other pertinent bit of information I'd need," she growled.

He couldn't quite keep himself from smiling - she just looked so cute in the moment - but wasn't sure what to say. Qi usually went overboard with details so it was odd that he'd leave out precisely what he wanted (Unsuur had completed enough of his ruins diving commissions to know how specific and exacting the man could be in his demands).

After another few breaths Dawn let out a weak chuckle and seemed to relax. "I'm guessing Owen sent you out here with another dinner delivery?"

He nodded and held out the box to her. "Still hot."

She popped the top of the box open and he could see her eyes widen. "-that is way more rice than I can hope to eat." After a pause she looked back up to him. "Have you eaten dinner?"

"Not yet, but this isn't meant for me."

"This is enough for three people and I still haven't touched the beef noodles he sent yesterday. I'd rather not risk it all spoiling before I can actually eat it so, would you like to join me for dinner?"

More than anything. "Sure. If you're sure."

She nodded and stood (after he'd handed it back she wadded Qi's letter up and tossed it onto a scrap pile) and led the way into her house. As he walked in the door Unsuur's attention was immediately drawn across the room to the photograph he'd included in his last letter; it had been framed and was hanging on the wall above her bed and he felt a rush of elation hit him -- she'd made the opal into a hairpin (which was in her hair, again, right now!) and had put the picture on display too! Any lingering fear he had that the letters were a nuisance was soothed (now if only he could fully remember what he'd been composing earlier...)

"I guess tomorrow morning I'll go ask Qi what he ACTUALLY is asking me to find," she was saying as she set the rice on the table and moved to grab plates and silverware.

While she had her back to him Unsuur got his grin under control. "When you find out and are ready to head in after it let me know. I'm not letting you go in there alone...oh, and also the door to get in is broken, so an official commission to fix it will have to be drafted, approved, and posted."

With a grateful look tinged with amusement Dawn set the plates and forks in place then turned back to the cabinet for a pair of glasses. "Well...I'm at least thankful for your help - and your company, too. I DO want to get these trusses done before I move on to anything else though, whether that's smashing robots or otherwise."

...right, that reminded him. "I actually thought about something recently. You're really good - and seem more comfortable - with swinging that pickhammer around. What if you made that your weapon of choice?"

She looked thoughtful as she set the glasses next to the plates and didn't answer until she'd retrieved the water pitcher and a bowl of noodles out of the fridge. "I guess I never really thought about it in that context... It's not a bad idea but I'd probably have to make a new, sturdier one specifically to pull double duty like that...I might end up with enough scrap left over for another pickhammer and iron would hold up a lot better over my old one."

Unsuur sat down at the table. "I can also keep teaching you how to use a sword but I think switching to something you're already comfortable with would be best. That does mean Justice would need to help with combat lessons - he's way better at swinging a hammer around than I am - and he still wants to teach you how to shoot too."

She made a face at the mention of shooting as she placed the pitcher on the table. "Ugh... I really don't want to but I guess I should learn how."

The beef noodles went into a pot on the stove to reheat; in the silence, as she stood there stirring, Unsuur found himself staring at the back of her head and replaying in his mind her hair falling down around her shoulders. He was seized by a sudden need for it to be his hand that pulled the hairpin free; not wanting to have to explain anything embarrassing he switched to staring at the plate in front of him, noticing a few chips on the rim and little hairline cracks in the glaze. It was kind of pretty in a way, and since the cracks were dark against the solid color of the plate (which was a sort of cool off-white - not gray but kind of bluish?) one could think it was done on purpose. It made him think of how the mud dried then cracked after it rained, and now he was hoping it would rain soon so they could enjoy the desert blooming together. Rain and flowers were calming to think of while he waited.

The noodles didn't take long to warm through; Dawn put them into a new bowl (one that wasn't fridge-cold) and came back to the table with it and two serving spoons, one for each dish. "How are your hands healing up?"

He held them up where they both could see; all but the deepest cuts had already healed beyond notice and those that were still visible were soft pink lines against his skin - not even really cuts anymore. "Can't even feel they were there."

"Yay - that means I can show you those stretches finally," she giggled. "I also need to finish your paints. I hate that I have to keep putting those off but I also wasn't expecting...um...all this," she went on, gesturing in the approximate direction the truss parts would be in the yard outside.

"You don't need to worry about those or rush," he replied. "It's not a big deal and I only drew something small recently so my wrist doesn't even hurt right now." She looked to him curiously as she filled their water glasses so he added "I found a real interesting rock formation earlier. I'll have to show you sometime soon."

"I'd like that," she said, smiling as she finally sat down.

Unsuur waited for her to fill her plate first then, as he went to scoop up rice, he cleared his throat and glanced up to her. "Would you like to go see it after you've gotten the bridge finished?"

"My part or the entire bridge?" she asked, laughing quietly. "I do have almost all the truss pieces done but afterward I'll still have to assemble and install them all and that alone will probably take a few days even with Heidi's crew helping me. I can't even get to that part until the base is rebuilt and there's no telling how long whatever Qi's planning will take either..."

"Whenever you're free, and after you've had time to rest." Please say yes, please say yes...

"It's a date, then," came her quiet answer and a shy smile accompanied it briefly before she stuck a forkful of noodles into her mouth.

The rush of relief and anticipation left him feeling almost lightheaded. It was a date, and that meant the second-hardest part was over with, whew. ...or was it the third-hardest part? He still had to wait until the time came and give her the stone heart...comparatively, asking her just now was probably the easiest part of this whole thing.

"Find any other interesting rocks while you've been out and about?"

...uh.

Technically yes...he didn't want to ruin the surprise but he also didn't want to lie either. He settled on just shaking his head and shoveling a bite of rice into his mouth.

"Aw, that's a shame," she went on, idly twirling her fork to gather up more noodles and quickly stifling a yawn with her other hand. "--I'll admit I'm a bit jealous you get to patrol around while I've been stuck mucking around in ruins... Normally I find delving to be exciting but I can't wait to be done with it for a bit."

He seized on the change of subject. "I like looking at things in ruins. I sometimes try and imagine how people went about their day back then -- makes me wonder what it'd be like to talk to one of them, like if someone invented one of those time machines that they kept writing sci-fi novels about."

"I don't think I'd use a time machine if I ever built one," she giggled. "Especially not with the intention of traveling back to talk to people before the Calamity... Can you imagine someone popping up out of nowhere and mentioning, oh, by the way, a Calamity is happening in your near future and it's going to destroy the world! Timeline paradoxes aside, that would just be awful..."

"True. Guess I didn't think about that. If we ever end up with a time machine I'll make sure I don't bring that up."

She laughed and finally stuck that next bite of noodles into her mouth, chewing slowly and swallowing. "A time machine would probably be a bad idea no matter how, or why, or when someone decided to use it. I can't think of a single book I ever read where things worked out in the end."

"Maybe there were books where it did but we just haven't found them, or no one in our time has decided to write one yet. I'd like to think someone somewhere got a happy ending," Unsuur said, lifting his fork to his mouth but pausing to add "I prefer the happy endings."

"Me too," Dawn replied softly, moving around rice on her plate. "Even if it's rough getting there."

As he'd just taken a bite he had a few seconds to think on what to say next and weigh whether it was appropriate; it definitely felt like a question was hanging in the air, so he decided to ask it. "Do you think Sandrock is your happy ending?"

After a few breaths she nodded, more to herself than to him, then glanced up to meet his gaze. "More like a happy beginning. We'll see where things go from here."

Another wave of warm fuzzies hit him; he smiled and kept eating.

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

They'd switched to chatting mostly about Sandrock as they finished off the noodles and put a decent dent in the amount of rice; Unsuur actually knew where to find a lot of the resources Dawn mentioned she'd be needing often (which surprised even himself -- a lot of what he remembered was just stuff he'd noticed in passing and hadn't thought about much since). Mid-conversation she had gone to grab a notebook off the bookcase and then together they created a roughly drawn map of Sandrock and the surrounding Eufala with points of interest marked off for Dawn to go survey later, along with Unsuur pointing out places that had great views (and promising to take her there whenever she wanted).

After they'd eaten and done the dishes Dawn showed him the stretches; first she demonstrated with her own hands, going slowly through the movements and giving a short explanation on what they were stretching and how they helped. Once she'd shown him five or six stretches she took his hands in hers and carefully guided him through the little exercises to make sure he was doing them correctly. A few of them were sort of uncomfortable, which she assured him would go away once he was used to them, while the rest were downright pleasant (and not just because she was holding his hands -- a good stretch, whether it was your back or legs or your hands, sometimes just felt great in a way that was hard to describe).

Before he headed home she'd asked him to come by again tomorrow afternoon where hopefully she'd have talked to Qi and figured out what he wanted; Unsuur was positive that whatever Qi needed, so long as it could actually be found around here, he and Dawn would track it down eventually no matter how many roaming AIs might be lurking down in the ruins. At least the robots couldn't sneak around like a geegler -- unless they were somewhere really loud they'd hear anything coming well before it could get the drop on them so no repeat scenario of him screwing up and Dawn finding herself in sudden peril.

(He wasn't letting that happen again - not now or ever)

As he walked passed By The Stairs he made himself a mental note to stop there in the morning to buy more of the bigger envelopes and see if Arvio had those heart knots back on display; he was curious to see how dedicated Arvio was to the lie -- would he actually give up whatever profits he might make off the hearts just to try and hinder someone's chance at wooing Dawn? Guess he'd find out tomorrow.

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

Most of Unsuur's morning was again spent thinking on what he'd like to write in this next letter; he'd gotten his envelopes and while he hadn't seen the heart knots on display anywhere he HAD noticed a pretty seashell sitting on a serving platter on the counter with other tiny knick-knacky looking things. It was multicolored with white at its most narrow point that turned into a bright and creamy orange that then darkened into a burnt red along its outer edge, and the inner curve of the shell was as smooth as glass and pearlescent; it seemed like a nice little gift to include with his letter so he'd paid a few extra gols for it then carried it and the envelopes home and left them on his table to (hopefully) use later tonight.

After lunch but before dinnertime he headed back to the workshop where he found Dawn and Amirah chatting at the gate. Dawn smiled at him as he walked over but didn't pause in the conversation and, as he didn't want to be rude and interrupt, he waited patiently behind Amirah for them to finish up.

"Excellent. Hopefully he'll be agreeable," Amirah was saying.

Dawn nodded. "I always found he liked to play a little coy about things even if he was intending to make the deal. He'll gripe a bit but will probably buy everything."

"You seem to know him rather well."

With a sheepish chuckle Dawn rubbed at the back of her neck. "I...wouldn't say well. We're more like semi-close business partners -- I can trust he won't try to cheat me and likewise he knows my level of craftsmanship, though it HAS been a bit since we last conducted any business."

"Guess we'll find out when he gets here," Amirah laughed. She gave a half wave and turned to go and nearly walked straight into Unsuur.

"Sorry," he said, stepping out of her way.

"That was more my fault for not noticing you. I'll see you later, Dawn -- you as well, Unsuur."

Unsuur waited until Amirah was to the tracks before turning back to Dawn. "I didn't just cut something short did I?"

"Nope, no worries. Day going well?"

He nodded. "Nothing's happened so far. It's been a really quiet day."

"Always good to hear...which means I'm probably about to ruin it," she sighed.

With a 'follow me' flick of her fingers she headed away from the fence and over toward the sole burning furnace that Unsuur could see; the pile of truss pieces had grown larger but the scrap piles were all nearly gone, and since there was only the one furnace going he assumed she was really close to being done (which sent a little thrill of anticipation through him). There was already one stool sitting next to the furnace and she quickly retrieved a second one from in front of her workbench and brought it over for herself as they both sat down.

"I talked to Qi and he's wanting to build a robot lifter to help build the bridge base," Dawn started, resting one ankle on top of the opposite knee and hunching over to brace her elbows on her calf, with her chin going into her hands. "Which is as insane as it sounds but Heidi is onboard, so..."

Unsuur blinked at her. "Why a robot? Is that really the best thing that'll help?"

With a huff she straightened and threw her hands up. "I asked the same thing! It feels more like a personal project than anything! But Heidi was convinced, which left that conversation as two versus one so now I guess I'm heading down into the ruins to find the right kind of core to build a fancy lifter robot."

"I'm going with you," Unsuur said quickly. "What are we looking for?"

"Something bigger than one in the actual lifter-type robots in there, but not big enough to run a Living AI. And I know that sounds like a lot but it does kind of narrow it down to roughly ten different types...the problem is I don't have any way of knowing what we might find down there. I hope Rocky might so I'm planning to go talk to him before he leaves the salvage yard for the day. -- oh, and, you said before that the door was broken?"

He nodded. "It is. Justice will have write up the commission to fix the door and get it approved, then post it, then...I guess either you or Mi-an will get it."

"Can't just give it to me directly?" she asked, giggling.

"Sorry, can't. We get yelled at when we don't follow the process," he answered. "Can't show favoritism and all."

"...what? Who yells- Oh, Yan, I'm guessing."

"Yep."

She rolled her eyes. "He certainly is something... I've definitely worked with better builders, and better men."

"He's not all bad...usually."

"Could've fooled m-" she cut herself off abruptly, looking at something over Unsuur's shoulder.

He turned and spotted Arvio in the distance - clearly headed this way - and as he looked back to Dawn he could see she didn't look exactly pleased. "Do I need to stay or go?"

"Stay - if you feel like it you can walk with me to Rocky's in a bit," Dawn answered, still staring at Arvio. After a pause she blew out a heavy sigh. "He's probably coming over because of Amirah. She dropped off some pottery shards and we had a quick talk about one or the other of us talking to the Mysterious Man when he gets here. Even before she found out that I kind of know him she thought it would be the better idea if I did the talking -- apparently they were butting heads over her pottery not too long ago. Might be able to help her with that issue too..." she added, trailing off and rubbing her chin, finally returning her attention to Unsuur. "Anyway, I better see what he wants. I'll be right back."

As Dawn brushed passed him he kept his back turned toward the gate; not looking at them didn't prevent him from hearing them though.

"Dawn! Sorry for intruding but Amirah just told me, and- I... I just - thank you! For all the help, thank you, genuinely. And, um...listen, I... I understand how I screwed things up before, and I was wondering..."

"...yes?" Dawn prompted.

"Can we...start over? Maybe?"

"Start...over?"

"Y-yes! Start over, act as though we've just met! I'd like to be friends, if...you're willing?"

There was a very long pause; Unsuur still didn't turn around and actually felt a bit awkward that he was essentially eavesdropping (even though it wasn't on purpose). Underneath that awkwardness was also a twinge of suspicion -- was Arvio being serious? Or was it another ruse to have a shot with Dawn?

"I...guess. Sure. If you're actually serious about being sorry over your behavior."

"I am! I am, promise! I acted poorly, and- it- I-- no...no! Trying to explain myself is no different than trying to justify it. I can be better than that."

"All right... We can give it a shot."

Unsuur didn't think Dawn sounded entirely convinced but it was her choice, not his.

"Great! I'll see you around, then. And, again, thank you - for helping Amirah and for this."

There was a crunch of sand underfoot and both retreating and approaching footsteps, followed by Dawn coming back around to sit with Unsuur again; she didn't seem upset but she certainly wasn't smiling. "Everything all right?"

"I...want to think that was genuine but I honestly don't know," Dawn answered softly. "He started out acting like a friend when I first got here too then began leaning really hard into flirting and trying to get me to agree to a date."

In that moment he wished it had been anything other than a heart knot that Arvio had lied about... There wasn't any way to tell her about it without having to explain why he'd wanted a knot in the first place, and while Arvio might have actually decided to change his attitude it seemed like something she should know about. ...maybe after he'd given her the heart rock?

Before he could think of anything else to say about it Dawn stood up again. "Well, may as well go talk to Rocky. You're welcome to come with me if you want, and I'd also like to get a look at that broken door if that's all right?"

"Nothing wrong with looking." Unsuur got up and followed her through the gate and up the hill toward the salvage yard.

Rocky's crew was out in the yard but Rocky himself wasn't; they checked inside and found Krystal at the main desk who said he had Pebbles today and was already home but that he wouldn't mind a visit (especially if it was pertaining to the bridge construction). They thanked her and headed off to Rocky's, finding him cleaning up the aftermath of feeding Pebbles a late lunch.

"Huhmmm...power cores... Can't say my boys have found anything like that in a good, long while, builder - at least not in the safer parts. Uh- I mean, the safer parts of the dangerous parts. It ain't often we head into the hazardous section but I think I might know a place you could check."

Dawn looked a little hopeful (but only a little). "If we can't find one then we can't find one but any ideas you might have will definitely help."

"Right, so, there's a big buildin' with a blown out wall out kinda in the center of the hazardous area - you gotta walk across some catwalks and real rickety walkways to get out to it but we know there's some kind of power source down there that's still goin' strong, and the place is full'a robots. Best we can tell it was the centerpiece of one of the Old World mall structures and we haven't been able to push too far in because of those dang bots, meaning it ain't been stripped like the rest of the safer areas -- not even sure anyone's been down that way in the last decade or so. Probably your best shot at findin' something like a power core but it ain't going to be a walk in the park or nothing."

"That's promising, at least," Dawn murmured. After a few breaths she nodded and gave Rocky a wide smile. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Hey, no problem - just be careful over there, all right? Those robots ain't nothing to play around with."

Dawn glanced to Unsuur quickly before nodding again at Rocky. "Don't worry - I'll have Unsuur with me for extra protection. If we find anything else of interest in there we'll let you know too. Unless the robots or monsters fill in behind us there ought to be some time to safely head in there after we're done."

"Not a bad idea, ha. You're all right, builder," Rocky laughed, clapping Dawn roughly on the shoulder and sending her stumbling in place with the force.

They headed out and once the door had closed behind her Dawn rubbed at her battered shoulder. "Ouch... I guess we've got a plan then, once we can get inside."

"Inside where?"

He and Dawn turned together and saw Mi-an standing behind them at the corner of the house with her arms full of rolls of leather.

"Uh...well, to be honest, Qi wants to build a robot, Heidi approves, and that means Unsuur and I have to head into the hazardous part of Paradise Lost," Dawn answered.

Mi-an's eyes widened. "Wait a moment, a robot? I thought Heidi was joking about that! And you have to go in there for it?!"

"I wish it was a joke," Dawn muttered quietly, then shrugged at Mi-an. "Just another lovely day in the life of a builder I guess."

Mi-an shifted from foot to foot, switching between looking anxious and guilty. "I wonder if they would have changed their minds if I'd been a little less accepting of the idea... Do you need any help?"

"I have Unsuur for that," Dawn replied, gently nudging her shoulder into his arm - he smiled at the contact. "But, Justice is going to be putting up a commission to fix the door to get in there so I guess...if you see if it before I do, grab it and that'll be the same thing as helping? I trust you to get it done more than I trust Yan."

"Got it!" Mi-an said with a curt nod. "Or, I WILL get it, when I see it."

With a giggle Dawn glanced toward the tunnel. "I should've had a look at that door before we walked all the way over here... Oh well, I have to go back that way to go home anyway."

"After I drop this off to Vivi I can come with you," Mi-an offered. "If we both know what's needed to fix that door then we'll have a head start on the commission. Oh, and tonight is story night - do you two want to go? I'm meeting Elsie there in a bit."

"I wouldn't mind going. How about you?" Dawn asked, looking up at him.

That brought to mind his arm over the back of the couch. "Sure, I'll go." There wouldn't be a reason for Elsie to be squishing in beside him and Dawn but a man could hope-- wait, if they were going to have dinner at the saloon... "Do you think I should go let Owen know, so he doesn't make you guys anything? And I can also go talk to Justice about that commission so it'll get posted as soon as possible."

Dawn blinked, then grinned up at him. "Good ideas, both. Mi-an and I can go have a look at the door and see what needs to be done, then we'll meet you at the saloon afterward?"

"I'll get a table if I beat you both there," Unsuur replied.

They walked together down the stairs near city hall and at Vivi's they split off - the girls went inside to deliver the leather and Unsuur headed into the saloon; it was quiet and cool inside and he could see Owen behind the bar with an open crate in front of him that was packed with bottles.

"Hey Unsuur! You're a bit too early for dinner pick up tonight," Owen said with a chuckle, pausing what he was doing - Unsuur thought he might have been taking inventory of what was in the crate.

"I know, and it's on purpose: Dawn and Mi-an will be coming to story night so they didn't want you making them dinner ahead of time."

"Ah, got it - thanks for letting me know. I'm guessing you're not just the messenger and will be joining them?"

Unsuur nodded. "Yep. They're checking on something and I need to go talk to Justice but we'll all be back in time. Or at least I will and so will they, no idea if Justice might want to come along."

Owen picked up the crate and swung it around toward the shelves behind him, bracing it between his hip and a shelf and beginning to slot the liquor bottles into place. "I'll try to discretely keep a table open for you all."

"Thanks Owen. See you later." With that task completed Unsuur headed for the Corps building; he'd been hoping Justice would already be there but all he found inside was Captain lounging on the desk so he settled in front of the fan to wait -- with it being near the end of the day it shouldn't be too long before he showed up.

Unsuur's chosen seat had blocked the fan's breeze from reaching the desk so Captain had relocated to Unsuur's lap and was still trying to get comfortable when the door opened and Justice came in grumbling under his breath.

"-dang roosters, don't know-- hey pardner, Captain," he interrupted himself when he spotted them sitting there. "Nothing to report I hope?"

"Dawn and I need to head inside the Paradise Lost hazardous ruins to look for a power core, because Director Qi and Heidi want her to build a robot."

Justice stared at him blankly, kept staring for a few moments longer, then with a groan flopped into his desk chair. "They want to WHAT?"

"It was Qi's idea, Heidi agreed with it. It's some sort of lifting - ow - robot to help build the bridge faster," Unsuur explained. Mid-sentence Captain had decided to play-bite his knuckle and he paused long enough to get his finger out of harm's way. "It needs something called a power core and Qi thinks we'll find one down in the ruins. Rocky already pointed us to a likely place and I'll be going with her to protect her, but the door to get in there is still broken."

"Right," Justice sighed. "A dang robot... I at least trust Dawn won't build anything dangerous but I can already hear the complaints rolling in about it. ...I'll write up the necessary paperwork for that door and get it over to Yan and Matilda for approval. Might take a few- ...might take a few days before it'll be posted, which is perfect," he said as he sat upright and pointed a finger at Unsuur. "I'll get that commission proposal drafted but I want to make it clear that Dawn ain't going anywhere near those ruins without at least one shooting lesson. You're good but I want her able to defend herself if something goes wrong. Understand?"

Dawn was not going to like that but Unsuur didn't see a way to get out of it. "Understood. I'll let her know when I meet her at the saloon tonight."

At that Justice gave him a little grin as he pulled a sheet of paper out of a desk drawer. "Taking your lady out to dinner?"

Unsuur's ears warmed. "We're not a couple-" yet "-we're just meeting Elsie and Mi-an there."

"Don't let me keep you then. Nothing aside from some especially ornery roosters to report on my end."

Unsuur gave Captain one last scratch under the chin then gently picked him up and placed him on the edge of the desk. "Should I tell Dawn you'll come find her?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind. I'll head on over in the morning and we'll see what we can plan. Judging by her yard she looks close to done with her half of the bridge project."

"I think so. There was only one furnace going when I was over there earlier."

Captain chose that moment to move over and stretch out atop the paper Justice had just put down; as Justice began arguing with the cat over his new nap location Unsuur headed back outside and walked toward the saloon and ended up meeting Dawn and Mi-an at the door -- it didn't escape his attention that Mi-an looked a little guilty and Dawn a touch exasperated.

"...everything ok?" he asked, glancing between the two of them. Maybe the door was way more broken than they'd thought?

"Yeah, fine, just -- might as well tell Justice we don't need that commission anymore," Dawn sighed, shooting Mi-an a look. "We can let Yan yell at all three of us later."

"Ah, well, you know me! See something broken? Ding ding ding! Fixed! Good as new!" Mi-an giggled sheepishly.

"You...fixed the door?" Unsuur asked, staring at her for a moment before looking to Dawn.

Dawn shrugged, huffing and then crossing her arms. "How was I supposed to know she carries spare hinges in her pockets? Should I just shake you next time and see if you rattle?" she asked, directing the last half at Mi-an.

Mi-an started laughing and reached for the saloon door. "It was an easy fix once the sign was moved out of the way! I doubt Yan would've wanted to post up something that simple."

"You two go get a table, I'll go tell Justice the news," Dawn said, shaking her head but grinning.

She took a step in that direction and Unsuur gently caught her arm. "Justice wants you to complete at least one shooting lesson before he lets you into the ruins, and he's going to come talk to you about it in the morning. You could always wait to tell him about the door then," he said. He had a very loose grip on her arm so she could easily pull away, but she didn't; she remained in place, chewing on her lower lip.

"That...should probably work. It'll likely take more than one evening to get a city-sponsored commission up on the board," she said after a moment. "...is he really going to make me take that lesson?" Unsuur nodded and she sighed heavily. "Fine, all right... I'm at least down to the final segment of the last truss piece. It won't take me long to finish it then I can handle whatever else comes after."

He followed the girls inside; they seated themselves in a booth by the door with Unsuur and Dawn on one side and Mi-an on the other, leaving an open seat for whenever Elsie got there, and watched as folks began to file in. When Elsie did finally show up they placed their dinner orders and Unsuur was content to sit and listen to the three of them talking -- or, more like arguing... something about the two builders overworking themselves. Elsie seemed to think they needed a break, which Unsuur agreed with to some degree, but it sounded more like she wanted them to take a break NOW; with the bridge not completed that seemed like a really bad idea.

"C'mon! All you two have done since you got here is work! You can't work all the time!"

Dawn rubbed at her face. "Elsie, we can take a break when we get the bridge done - and it's almost done, so it won't be very long at all."

Mi-an nodded. "That's right - once the base is done you just need to bring the truss parts over and assemble, right?" she asked, directing the last half at Dawn.

"More or less, yeah. And with the trusses done I can, uh..." Dawn paused, glancing at Elsie; Unsuur guessed that she was debating whether to mention the robot thing or not. "...help...get the bridge base built."

Elsie groaned and slumped in her seat. "Didn't they teach you that you gotta rest and whatnot at your fancy builder schools?"

Mi-an started giggling at that. "Yes, technically. They're actually pretty serious about teaching you how to work efficiently and safely - proper rest is one of those things we're told not to skimp on."

"I had a semester-long course on safety, health - including getting good sleep - and first aid," Dawn added.

"Ooh, first aid too? How indepth did your classes go?" Mi-an asked, looking at her.

"...I don't actually know how to answer that," Dawn laughed after a moment to consider. "I don't know what the curriculum is like in Tallsky."

"They taught us how to properly clean and bandage cuts and bruises, how to set bones, stop more serious bleeding, how to deal with burns, what to do if you sever something," Mi-an said, ticking each thing off on a finger on the opposite hand. "They taught us how to deal with injuries before they taught us how to not get injured."

"Not so different from my classes, then," Dawn said with a nod.

"I didn't know there was more than one builder's school," Unsuur said into the pause that followed. "Are there a lot of them?"

"Tallsky and Atara are the biggest ones," Dawn replied, smiling up at him. "I actually wanted to go to school in Tallsky but Atara accepted me first...I was sort of more concerned with just getting out of Highwind as quickly as possible so as soon as Nia got my acceptance letter I was out of there."

"Who's Nia?" Elsie asked, sitting back upright. "And why'd she get YOUR letter?"

Owen arrived with their orders so Dawn didn't answer right away but Unsuur could tell she had to be thinking about what to say again -- he already knew about her family woes but that didn't mean she wanted everyone else to know.

"My parents - mostly my mother - didn't want me to become a builder," she replied finally. "We were constantly arguing over it so I took things into my own hands. Since I didn't want them to know what I was planning I used Nia's address as mine and just kept quiet until it was time to go."

"Ha, yeah..." Elsie sighed. "I know how that goes. Seems my folks ain't that interested in what I might wanna do either."

Dawn gave her a sympathetic smile as she speared a tomato with her fork. "Well...if it makes you feel any better, your parents seem way more agreeable than mine ever were. I'm sure they'll come around."

"Maybe. You ain't been around my pa long enough," the girl grumbled.

The conversation abruptly turned to horses, with Elsie insisting on dragging the two builders out for riding practice to make sure they were riding 'properly' - whatever that meant. Unsuur knew how to ride a horse and no one had ever told him he was riding them wrong; maybe Elsie was just using it as an excuse to get the builders out of their workshops and to relax a little. Again, he didn't exactly disagree with the sentiment that Dawn - and Mi-an too - needed a break but right now didn't seem like the best time for that (and he didn't want to start another argument so he kept that to himself). Once the bridge was done maybe they could all go out for a ride; Boulder could easily handle two riders so Dawn could ride with him if she wanted.

Once everyone that had come in to the saloon were settled with their drinks and meals Owen got up on the stage; tonight's story was the one about the two knights - Unsuur had heard it before but based on the intent look on Dawn's face he guessed she hadn't, and she actually paused in devouring her dinner to give Owen her full attention and didn't pick her fork back up until he was done.

"Wonder if Highwind had places that hosted things like this," Dawn said after a bite of mushrooms. "...wonder how many things I missed out on because my mom wouldn't let me go."

"Ah, forget about your ma - you're in Sandrock now!" Elsie said, gesturing with her spoon and leaving a small trail of gravy across her plate and partly onto the table beside it. "Might not be AS much to do like you'd find in a big city like Highwind but there's still plenty to do here and ain't no parents 'round to tell you what to do anymore."

"True," Dawn giggled. "Though, I HAVE been making my own decisions for awhile now."

"So does that mean you're ready to decide to take a break?" Elsie asked through a mouthful of meatballs.

"Not yet Elsie," Dawn and Mi-an both answered, before both breaking into laughter.

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

Unsuur had walked Dawn home then gone home himself and spent some time sitting at his kitchen table writing a few practice letters. Getting the words just right was a challenge and as he finally got everything in order a desire to...be a little bold this time struck him. His date was coming but now, the more he thought about it, and the more he stared at his handwriting on the page, the more impatient he felt. Sure, there were things he planned to say when he handed her the heart stone but he also really, really wanted her to know about how much he liked her, how he wanted to hold her hand, or stroke her hair, or get to put his arm around her without it seeming awkward. And he wanted to hear that she liked him as well. Maybe she also wanted to hold his hand or play with his hair, maybe with his head in her lap and...

He crumpled up the letter he thought he was happy with and grabbed another blank sheet of paper.

Dear Dawn,

As I watch you create the pieces for our bridge, I think to myself "dang, is there anything Dawn can't do?" Then I thought about it for a bit and realized...well, yeah, you can't fly or read minds or sneeze with your eyes open, but the list of things you can do is really very long.

Anyway. Bridges are hard to make. Especially safe ones, I would assume.

Um. I also wanted to tell you... Maybe we should hold hands sometimes? If you want to. We don't have to. Maybe it's too big of a commitment. Especially if it's with someone like me who is hiding their identity.

Well. I got you this seashell.

Signed, The secret guy who thinks you're cool but also kind of likes you but if you don't like him back that's okay but maybe come say hey if you do like me?

Not...not his best work, probably. But, knowing that Arvio had come on strong and that had driven her away Unsuur definitely didn't want to risk doing that himself no matter how bold he might be feeling right this instant.

He tried a few more practice letters, switching up the wording and trying out being more or less direct about things but found he liked that first draft of the newer, bolder letter the most so he'd folded it up and slipped it and the seashell into the envelope and sat there looking at it, feeling his hands shaking a little bit. Was he really going to write that AND deliver it? ...yeah. Yeah, he was. At this point, maybe he NEEDED to.

As he stood up from the table he heard the tell-tale trickling noise of sand hitting his roof. With a sigh he stepped over to the window and opened it a tiny bit and was struck by that smell of old dirt and cold wind -- sandstorm, almost on top of them already. Great. Carrying his letter over in the dark AND in a storm, even though it was a short distance to travel, wouldn't be a good idea.

(A sandstorm would also delay the bridge completion too...)

...oh well. It's not like Unsuur could tell the weather to go away. He shut the window, plodded over to bed and, after slipping the letter into his nightstand, he pulled the covers up over his head -- once the storm really picked up the blankets would help muffle the noise so at least his sleep wouldn't be too disturbed. The letter delivery would have to wait for another night (and hopefully he wouldn't lose his nerve by then).

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

The storm turned out to be a rather mild one; Unsuur didn't feel like he even needed his mask but wore it anyway just to be sure he wasn't inhaling a lot of dust. Like usual he went home for lunch but it wasn't long after he'd gone inside that there was a knock at his door.

Answering it he was surprised to see Dawn on his doorstep -- she was wearing a sand hat and had what looked like a pair of sealed buckets, one in each hand.

"Hey! Sorry to interrupt your lunch break," was her greeting.

Unsuur stepped aside and gestured for her to come in, closing the door behind her. "You're not interrupting much - I only just got home." He paused and looked to the buckets and saw they were actually paint cans. "Is that the paint? You didn't need to bring it over, especially not in the middle of a sandstorm."

Dawn set the paint cans down beside the door, reaching up to untie and remove the sand hat and shake her hair out. "The wind woke me up early and since I couldn't work on the trusses with the storm blowing I stayed inside and finished your paints. And after that I was bored and it didn't look too bad out either so I thought I'd deliver it while I had the chance. Pen forced this sand hat on me weeks ago so I may as well make use of it."

There was a dot of paint on each lid to indicate which was which color; both were exactly the shades he'd wanted. He bent to grab them and carried them over to the far wall, setting them down near his weights. "Thank you. It'll look really nice in here with the new colors."

"Did you want or need any help painting?"

Unsuur paused, straightening and staring ahead at the wall. Did he NEED help? Not really. But everything about painting was fun - this was an unexpected opportunity for a really good time. He turned back around to face her. "I don't have anything to do later this evening after dinner. Why don't we enjoy the paint together then?"

"Sounds good," she replied with a smile. She combed her fingers through her hair to wrangle it back into a gathered knot at her neck and went to slip her sand hat back on. "I'll be back later tonight. Hopefully the storm will have blown over by then but the paint I made is low-fume so we should be fine regardless."

"My front windows are shielded from the wind so we can crack those open if the paint is too smelly," Unsuur said. "I'll see you later."

Dawn gave him a little wave and an 'enjoy lunch!' as she headed back out into the storm. Unsuur peeked out the door after her -- not a lot of time had passed since he'd walked in but he swore the sandstorm seemed even weaker now. Definitely shouldn't be a problem by nightfall.

As he shut the door again it occurred to him that it was really lucky that he'd been carrying the stone heart around with him, rather than leaving it sitting in his house somewhere; it would have been really easy for the surprise to be ruined just now, or later tonight when she came back over to paint. Unsuur pulled the heart out of his pocket and held it on his palm, rubbing the fingers of his other hand across its surface -- that had been a close call. He should find somewhere else to hide it for tonight, just incase he forgot and took his jacket off and it somehow fell out of the pocket.

Well...his next letter was hidden inside his nightstand - he could leave the heart in there too. They wouldn't have a reason to open that drawer so it should be fine.

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

The rest of the day seemed to drag on now that he was looking forward to the evening; he'd stopped at the saloon to buy some juice in case either of them got thirsty, had perused his music collection to find something he thought they'd both like and moved the music player out away from the wall (he'd also made certain the step stool he owned was sitting in plain sight near the kitchen counter as he knew they would need it to reach the high places). After all that he'd made himself dinner and had just finished drying the dishes when Dawn knocked on his door.

The sandstorm was completely gone so she wasn't wearing the sand hat and her hair was hanging freely down her back again; as she walked by he admired it briefly then moved to follow her across the room where she was already kneeling down with a small screwdriver in one hand and a pair of paint brushes in the other. With a practiced ease she popped the cans open and handed him a brush.

"What kind of pattern were you picturing?" she asked.

"I thought stripes would ne nice," he answered. "I'll start on one side with my color and we'll pass each other going around?"

She giggled and took her can toward the front wall. "Sounds like a plan. Do you want the stripes to be about the same size or one wider than the other? I have my measuring tape so we can make sure we get the look exactly as you want."

Unsuur dipped his brush and gave the wall an experimental swipe; the paint was heavily pigmented and a little bit went a long way -- great coverage, and a great color. "I think it'll look nice with the lighter color in thinner stripes. Don't you?"

Dawn nodded with a little hum, sticking her brush down into the can and using the lip to knock off the excess. "I think so. How wide would you like?"

"Actually, how about we vary it? Still smaller than the dark green but not all the same size. That way it'll never look boring in here."

"Got it."

Not long after they'd started painting they realized a small problem: neither of them were tall enough to reach all the way up to the ceiling -- even standing on the step stool Unsuur was still about eight, maybe ten inches shy of being able to reach all the way.

With a huff Dawn bent to lay her brush across the top of her paint can and frowned up at the ceiling. "Guess I should have brought my smaller ladder." After a pause she shot him a sly grin. "It's not often someone else ends up being too short for something when I'm around."

"I guess I never had a reason before to notice how tall my ceiling is. Seems like a waste of space now though - maybe I should hang some shelves up there for my rocks."

Dawn wiped a smear of paint off a finger onto her overalls. "I feel like that would make dusting ten times harder than it needs to be. But! I'll run home and get the ladder, it won't take me long. I should've thought of that or rigged up some extendable paint rollers before I came over tonight or something, sorry."

"That's all right, it's not like either of us realized we'd need more than brushes. I'll keep painting and we can fill in the blank spots when you're back."

As she slipped out the door Unsuur kept going, leaving sections of varying width to fill with the lighter green later and painting up as far as he could reach. It was a little tiring to be constantly stepping onto and off of and then moving the stepstool -- who knew painting would be such a workout? Good thing they had a show to look forward to after this part was done.

Unsuur had made it halfway around the room when Dawn returned; they decided to leave the high areas for last and worked quickly to fill in all the places they could reach. Even though the room wasn't done it was done enough that Unsuur felt pretty pleased with how everything looked -- stripes had been the right call and he liked that the lighter green areas weren't uniform. When it came time to get the higher spots they found it easier for one of them to be up the ladder and the other to lift the paint cans up within reach; Unsuur volunteered to hold the cans up for Dawn and finally, they had the entire room done.

As she went to clean the brushes and the edges of the cans so the lids could be put back on without causing a mess Unsuur moved over to click on the music player.

Dawn came over a moment later, looking curiously between the player and Unsuur. "What's the music for?"

"Now that the hardest part is behind us I thought some music would be nice to set the mood. It's time to sit back and enjoy the show."

The curious look turned to one of mild confusion. "...show?"

...huh. He thought it would've been obvious. "You've heard the stories but did you ever think you'd really be living it? Watching paint dry. This is one of my favorite things in the world and after all this work I wanted to do something nice for you."

Dawn blinked at him for several seconds, then burst out laughing. At first it worried him - was she laughing at him? He supposed this sort of thing may not be for everyone but he felt like she was too polite of a person to react like that.

"Professor Erin would've loved having you in class. I haven't thought about her in a couple years," she finally said, the laughter subsiding. "I can't say I've ever directly watched PAINT dry, but I know...entirely too much about varying stages of curing of glues, adhesives, and epoxy binding agents."

Ok, so not laughing at him. "You had to watch glue dry as part of your builder classes?"

"Yeeeep," she said, drawing the word out and ending with another giggle. "Professor Erin really, REALLY wanted us to know what proper curing looked like so a lot of that class was spent staring at and writing down observations as whatever we were using that day dried. She liked to give us several examples all at once and have us write little essays on which ones we believed were -- oh goodness, this is going to be a long explanation," she interrupted herself, face going red. "I shouldn't bore you with the details."

"I don't think it'll be boring. Let's sit and watch the paint, and you can talk about glue if you want." He grabbed two chairs from the table and brought them over, using a foot to push the music player back a little bit so it wouldn't be right in their faces, then he sat down and waited; Dawn seated herself after a moment too, glancing around the room.

"...I guess it's not too different, really - the drying process. Professor Erin would give us examples of -- you know, I'm just going to call them all 'glues' so it doesn't get overwhelming because oh boy are there a lot of ways to stick things to other things," she laughed. Unsuur nodded in understanding and she continued. "She would have some glues that were mixed and set like they're supposed to be used and then she'd...I guess you could say she'd alter or mess with the others, and we'd be graded on if we could tell them apart and also determine what she'd done to them."

That sounded...actually kind of satisfying to him. "I think I'd enjoy that sort of thing. With paint, I like noticing all the little changes. Like, see there-" he pointed to a dark green stripe he'd left thick and gloopy. "-if you look really close you can see the thicker parts of the paint slowly drip down and even out. And I like to focus on a point, remember the paint, then close my eyes for about 10 minutes. Then, when I open them, I can definitely see the difference."

Dawn grinned at him, pulling up a leg to brace the heel of her boot on the seat of the chair so she could rest her chin on her knee. "Closing your eyes would've gotten you whapped with a rolled up newspaper if you did that while in class."

"Did that happen often?"

"...to me, or in general?"

Unsuur smiled and looked back at the wall, watching as a big glob slowly dripped down and caught up to a skinnier one. "I promise I won't whap you with anything so you can close your eyes if you want to."

With a small sigh and a smile she turned her attention back to the walls. "A tempting thought but I think I might fall asleep if I did."

"Oh. You don't have to stay if you're tired." Or...bored. But hopefully she wasn't.

She waved a hand dismissively. "It's more my body realizing I'm sitting still and thinking it's time to go to sleep because lately I haven't been sitting still unless I'm eating or going to bed, and since I'm not hungry that must mean its bedtime. Once we get this bridge done I'll have to work on straightening out my sleep schedule and re-training my brain on what's considered a normal level of physical activity." Again she paused, then slowly nodded to herself and glanced to him. "This did give me an idea though... If I can pull off what I'm picturing in my mind anyway."

"What kind of idea? Or is it a surprise?"

With a soft and short laugh she shook her head. "Not really a surprise but I'd rather see if I can make it before I try describing it to anyone." She gently nudged her arm against his and stood from the chair. "But, I do think I should head home while I'm still awake enough to do so."

Unsuur stood up as well and turned the music off; the paint was mostly dry now anyway so not much more to see, and now that he'd been sitting for awhile he could feel a tension in his legs too -- he must have tired them out with all that up and down climbing on the stool. "Well, you know what they say: nothing good can last forever. That was more than enough excitement for one day. Did you enjoy yourself?"

With a nod she carried her chair back to the table then moved to retrieve her paint brushes and the ladder. "I did! I'll leave the extra paint here with you in case you notice any spots that didn't get full coverage, or if you need to cover up any scrapes or marks in the future. And, I'll let you know when I'm ready to head in after that core. Justice stopped by earlier and we'll be getting the shooting lesson out of the way tomorrow morning, then...after that, I guess there's nothing else to do but head in and start searching."

"I'll be ready whenever you are - just say the word."

Unsuur walked with her to the door; she insisted she didn't need him to walk her home so he stood at the corner of his front porch and watched her walk up the tracks toward her workshop, and stayed there until she was out of sight then he headed back inside and went to his nightstand. The stone and letter were exactly where he'd left them (not that he'd expected otherwise), and with them both in hand he looked around at the walls. It looked really nice in here now -- if it wouldn't be a dead giveaway as to who was writing the letters he would add in a little line or two about what an amazing job she'd done making those paints. Oh well. He'd compliment her on the paints in person later.

As for tonight...well, he basically had confirmation that Dawn would be sleeping soundly, if she was so tired that sitting still was enough to cause her to doze off. And there wasn't a sandstorm to deter him this time either.

He grabbed his alarm and set it for 3am again.

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

It was pretty dark out when there were next to no lights on in Sandrock; the moon was a bare sliver above and the stars by themselves didn't put out a ton of light either, and he didn't want to give his presence away by carrying a flashlight or lantern. Unsuur walked more slowly, just to make sure he wouldn't trip or twist an ankle, but his familiarity with the route between his house and Dawn's helped a ton as he navigated in the poor lighting until he was standing in front of Dawn's mailbox again with his letter in hand.

Before she'd replaced the face plate on the mailbox it had been a simple - and silent - task to slide his letters inside; hopefully this new front plate wouldn't squeak or creak or click too loudly when opened. He looped a finger into the clip at the top and used his thumb to gently ease it loose; the metal pieces grated softly against one another -- Unsuur had barely heard it and he was standing right in front of it so he knew there was no chance such a quiet sound could be heard inside the house. After a moment to double check that no one was around he pulled the front flap downward; there was a small amount of resistance, like he was tugging against something that was tugging back, and he briefly laid eyes on the paper inside before the flap fully extended down and there was a chiming noise that went off as loud as gunshot in the silence of the night.

Unsuur had felt the vibration of a bell or something dinging through his fingertips as the chime had sounded and could barely, just barely, make out a glimmer of wire stretching between the top of the face plate flap to something secured at the back of the box in the faint moonlight -- she'd...she'd booby-trapped the mailbox.

Run...

He could still hear the chime ringing in his ears.

Run.

A light came on in the house.

RUN.

Abandoning the paper inside the box Unsuur darted away and skidded slightly in the sand before bodily hurling himself into cover behind the little raised ridge of stone there near the tracks. He felt dozens of prickles in his arm as he partially landed on one of the barrel cacti there but mere seconds after he'd landed and swung his legs fully out of view of Dawn's house he heard the distant click of the front door opening and could see the beam of a flashlight sweeping toward the tracks.

Sucking in his breath he strained his ears for any hint that she was walking toward him -- what would he say? What could he do? It seemed so stupid now that he'd been so confident earlier thinking Dawn would be fast asleep; he'd really tempted fate tonight, huh? Not just tempted but thumbed his nose right at it and fate had decided to bloody it in response.

The flashlight's beam didn't get any closer, and he didn't hear any approaching footsteps yet... It seemed like ages passed before he heard the front door close but that didn't mean much -- there was no guarantee she'd gone back inside and even if she had she could just be watching through the windows to see if anyone or anything out here moved. Unsuur let out his breath and focused on getting his breathing evened out and his heart rate under control, and laid there and waited. And waited. And waited some more...

He couldn't wait here all night or else he'd get caught by someone spotting him from town.

Cautiously Unsuur scooted on his stomach through the scrub grass and cacti and poked his head around the edge of the rocks. Dawn's door was closed, there were no lights on in the house or yard, and no sign of her in the yard either.

Laying there for another undetermined but extended period of time and seeing no signs of life from the yard Unsuur carefully stood up and crept toward the mailbox again. In his rush to get away he'd dropped his letter and left the mailbox hanging open; the letter was untouched on the ground in front of the mailbox and, luckily, the box itself was still open. He quickly grabbed Dawn's response out of the box, threw his letter inside, and then hurried out into the dark -- no way was he risking closing the mailbox and making another noise.

Once he was back home and gotten the door closed behind him he sank into the floor with his back against it, wincing a bit at the cactus spines that were still poked into his skin; his jacket had prevented them from going too deep but there were still dozens of tiny punctures in his skin that he had to clean up, and as he didn't especially relish the idea of pulling the spines out of his jacket he wrote it off as a lost cause and tossed it into the corner to deal with in the morning.

Any confidence or desire he'd had to be bold had effectively evaporated. He was going to wait like he'd planned before he screwed things up.

[chaos-thirium]

HI CHAOS!

so Do you have a couple line or a paragraph from your works that you’re proud of? Something that you gets you patting yourself on the back? And why?

Feel free to include many. Your work has me floored every time♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

LOVE YOU♥️♥️

Hi lovely!

It's so sweet that you're doing this, going around all the writers 🥰 Of course, every time someone asks me a question like this, I immediately forget everything I've ever written. BUT I've gone through and picked a few bits out, even though I've almost certainly missed stuff I like!

I just want to say that I don't consider myself a great writer, I'm more of a storyteller. I have stories in my head that need to come out, but I'm not super poetic or meaningful a lot of the time. I write fic to have fun, and that's as deep as it goes. If other people like it too, I'm happy!

The first thing that came to mind was from Becoming. I wrote a version of the machine Connor rooftop scene, but with my OC instead of Hank, which was a lot of fun. I got to give Connor a second chance to deviate, and I know a lot of us feel that he should have had one. (This is a big chunk of the scene, but I didn't know where to cut it!)

He stood, turning to face her, the gun aimed at the ground. His expression was neutral, but there was an underlying edge to it, anger or doubt, perhaps.

“I would never have allowed myself to be compromised like that,” he said firmly. “You’re wasting your time if that’s what you’re here for.”

“It is what I’m here for,” Liv admitted. “I want to save you. But more importantly, I’m here to stop you.”

“You can’t,” he declared. “You have no weapon. I’m faster than you, stronger than you, and I don’t feel pain. You don’t stand a chance against me.”

She clenched her teeth, mind racing. He was right. He seemed to take her silence as acceptance, as he turned and crouched, ready to take aim again. She needed to think faster.

With a jolt, an idea struck. But did she have the guts to carry it out, whatever it entailed?

“Jesus fucking Christ,” she muttered under her breath, breaking into a quick walk before she chickened out.

There was a low railing surrounding the roof, perhaps a foot or so high. Thanking her lucky stars that it wasn’t windy, she hopped up on it at one corner, one boot sole planted firmly on each side. It wasn’t safe by any means, but she had better purchase than if she’d chosen a flat part of it. She flung her arms out as she got her balance, her palms beginning to sweat.

“What are you doing?” Connor asked her.

He was several feet away from her, and he shot her a frown.

“Stopping you,” she said. “You pull that trigger and I jump, simple as that.”

His LED blinked yellow. She took that as an encouraging sign. Her heart was thumping wildly, her breaths shallow with fear, but she set her jaw and stayed put. Her loose hair fluttered in the breeze, already damp with snow. If she looked uncertain for even a single moment, he wouldn’t believe she was serious.

“I have a mission to complete,” he said, peering down the scope.

“I mean it, Connor!”

“You won’t jump,” he said with certainty. “You don’t want to die.”

“You’re right, I don’t,” she admitted, hearing her voice tremble, and not just with the cold. “But all officers accept that they may be killed in the line of duty. My duty is to protect and serve. That means I protect them.” She gestured to the android protesters. “That means I protect you from doing something I know you’ll regret. So yes, I don’t want to die, but if it’ll wake you the fuck up, then I’m good with it.” Anger strengthened her voice, and her last words were practically spat out.

Connor’s LED turned red, and there was a faint strand of panic in his tone. “CyberLife doesn’t care if you’re collateral, Liv. Get down.”

“Think about what you just said. CyberLife – a company who manufactures androids – doesn’t care if I die just as long as you kill a man who’s protesting peacefully. Really think about that and ask yourself if you’re on the right side.”

His LED started to flicker wildly, still that angry shade of red. His hands were steady on the rifle, but they were slow to raise it.

“You know you’re more than your program,” Liv went on. “Please, Connor. Save yourself. Save them. Save me. Don’t shoot.”

He aimed the rifle, bent his head to look down the scope, but his finger froze on the trigger.

Liv almost couldn’t breathe, and she scrambled for more to say. Her words were having an effect.

“I know you,” she began.

Without warning, the section of railing under her right foot gave way with a metallic groan, and she gasped as she fell. Her upper body hit the side of the roof, and she felt the air rush out of her lungs, pain lancing across her chest. She tried to haul herself up, but couldn’t catch her breath, couldn’t gain traction, and she fell again, this time out into nothingness. With one numb, desperate hand, she managed to cling to the broken railing, which she knew could fail her at any time.

A hoarse, panicked cry tore from her throat, and she glanced down. She was too high to survive the fall, she was almost certain of that. The fire blossoming across her ribs made it difficult to think, and her head was a mad scramble of fear and panic and pain.

Then a hand closed around her wrist and pulled her upwards, and she whimpered. He grabbed her other arm as her boot soles touched the roof, and moved her away from the edge. She made it about five steps before her knees buckled under her, and he caught her, easing them both down until they were kneeling. The snow soaked through her uniform in seconds, but she barely felt it.

Through the chaotic buzzing in her head, she heard him calling her name.

“Liv, Liv, look at me.”

His hand cupped her numb face, and her eyes found his.

“You’re okay,” he told her. “You’re safe.”

Echoes of words she’d said to him once. In a rush, she broke back through to the present, vision and sounds becoming sharper, the cold and the pain more acute. But it meant that she was alive. Maybe it meant that he was too.

The next thing is this little paragraph from Intrigue. For some reason, it just captured the vibe of this relationship between three people, and I think it's pretty hot.

Elijah groaned, experiencing the fresh, musky taste of you on Connor’s soft lips, feeling the velvety tongue that had just brought you to orgasm caressing his own. God, if he hadn’t been hard before, he certainly was now.

Next is from Unwanted. It was the first time I'd really written Sixty, and I hadn't quite nailed down my characterisation of him yet, (he has a lot of traits that I now tend to give to Nines), but I still really like the way he learns to care. This confrontation with reader was very satisfying to write!

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” you exclaimed.

At least the parking lot was empty. That was a small mercy.

“I’m doing my job,” he answered.

“A child is dead, you heartless prick!” you yelled, clinging onto your anger so that sorrow wouldn’t overtake you. “Do you even fucking care?”

“What good would caring do? It’s better to find the person responsible and stop them.”

“You’re unbelievable,” you breathed.

“Would you prefer me to be an emotional wreck?” he fired back, cold mask suddenly giving way to more rage than you’d ever seen from him before.

You fell silent, taken aback. There was nothing fake about it, and he wouldn’t see the point in faking it anyway. It was genuine, and you didn’t know what to say.

“Would it be helpful if I wasted energy crying about how unfair this is?” he went on, taking half a step towards you. “What good would it do if I let my feelings overtake me?”

“That’s not what I meant,” you protested weakly. “I just…would it kill you to show a little compassion?”

“Our feelings shouldn’t matter,” Sixty snarled. “We’re here to do a job. What’s the point of us being here if we can’t do that? Are we supposed to go up to that boy’s parents and say ‘Sorry, we couldn’t catch your son’s killer because we were too upset about it, but hey, I’m sure he lived a very fulfilling nine years’. Nine fucking years, Detective. That’s an unacceptably short life, and I will not waste time on self-pity and let that happen to anyone else.”

You stared at him, struck dumb by his tirade that actually made a lot of sense, grateful for the insight into how he was feeling. In one fury-driven speech he’d let you understand him better than you had in months.

“What the fuck are you smiling about?” he added.

You hadn’t realised you were, and perhaps it was insensitive, but you had a good reason.

“Because you care,” you said, gentler now.

Last is from another OC fic, Are Friends Electric? It was my chance to write Connor bonding with his crush's little sister, and it was such a cute thing to explore. Big brother Connor is an underused idea, if you ask me!

A door opened down the short corridor, and he assumed it was Jane emerging from the bathroom until Molly appeared in his peripheral vision, looking bleary-eyed and sleepy. She halted when she saw him, a look of confusion passing over her young face.

“Jane’s in the bathroom,” he told her. “Are you alright?”

She deliberated for a second, then scrambled up onto the sofa, settling herself on his lap. Connor watched her, startled. He had very little experience with young children, although he’d met Chris’s a few times. He rested his hand on her back, partly to support her, partly in comfort, and she snuggled against his chest. Her body language indicated that she was cold, and he reached for the blanket that Jane used and tucked it around her.

“Had a bad dream,” she mumbled.

Connor didn’t dream, but from what he understood, they could be vivid, disturbing and feel very real, even if they seemed ridiculous in the light of day.

“What was your dream about?” he asked.

“Monsters were chasing me,” she said. “I tried to run away, but they just kept chasing me. It was really dark.”

It wasn’t hard to figure out how her brain had constructed that scenario for her. It was more difficult to eliminate her fear of a dream that had been partly based in reality, so he focused on the more fantastical part of it.

“You don’t need to worry,” he said, “I’m programmed to fight monsters.”

Molly glanced up at him. Any scepticism she might have had while fully awake didn’t break through her sleepiness, so she took his words seriously.

“You are?”

“Yep,” he confirmed with a solemn nod. “You’re safe with me, I promise.”

She considered, then put her head back on his chest. “Okay.”

Connor allowed himself an amused smile over the top of her head. Kids could be funny. He could see why some people liked having them around. He wondered, as he had before, what Hank’s son Cole had been like. Molly was the same age that Cole had been when he died. Had he ever sought Hank out after a bad dream? Probably. Connor wondered what kind of comfort Hank had given him. Maybe a story of some kind. Hank had the kind of voice that would lend itself to story-reading, if he put his mind to it.

A quiet footstep had him glancing sideways, and he saw Jane round the corner of the couch. She looked amused too, but there was something more in her expression, something warm and emotionally moved. She appreciated small kindnesses towards her sister. Appreciated them more than any kindness shown to herself, it seemed.

Thank you for asking this! I've enjoyed looking back at older fics. Sending you love!

[k00281118a]

MOVEMENT PROJECT STATEMENT

Initially when I thought of the word ‘movement’ I began to think about the wind. The first object that reminded me of wind were wind-chimes as I noticed them on doors of shops around limerick. I started thinking about how some types of windchimes spin and the imaginary pattern it creates is essentially a neverending swirl/spiral. [swirls became my special interest throughout this project]. I started to notice that swirls were everywhere. As children when drawing we would draw swirls in the picture to represent how windy it was. I started noticing the growth of swirls in the natural world such as when babies' hair starts to grow it tends to grow in a double swirl pattern.

The electives I chose were Fashion, Ceramics and Print.

Ceramics:

I began first with 2 weeks of ceramics. I started to explore the word wind. I began by experimenting around by mark making with ink on paper making random strokes and splotches of ink to represent wind. This led to making random structures in clay till I finally decided to make my own windchimes out of ceramic. I was very happy how ceramic was going but sadly didn't get to assemble the actual windchimes. I also enjoyed that in ceramics we used a completely different material rather than just clay to help us create some ideas.

Fashion:

In the beginning I found fashion a little intimidating but got around to attempting to make my own skirt based on a skirt I own. I thought the way it was constructed was interesting. I found out it was called a diagonal panel skirt which I had never heard of nor have I seen much of in today's selection of skirts. It was my first time properly using my sewing machine and I got used to some of the basics of how to insert the bobbin and other little things like it. Over the course of attempting to make this skirt I got more faster and confident sewing it together.

Print:

In print I played around with the idea of different variations of swirls for my prints. It was my first time screen printing and got the hang of stencil making and the amount of pressure to apply on the page to create an even and bold print. I created a little bit of a more complicated stencil that consisted of swirl themed playing cards. I wanted to bring this into fashion to embroider onto some fabric [or the skirt I later made] but it seemed like too difficult of a design for a beginner.

In conclusion, I think I could have explored print and fashion a little more to achieve a better project but overall it was fun to learn new techniques such as the correct was to screen print or how to make clay look more smooth and without it cracking as well as pick up new skills such as using a sewing machine for the first time. This led to me creating my first ever clothing piece which I'm not the most proud of. Though I still enjoyed learning, I will continue to learn to improve for future projects.

[iamthewindything]

finally got to watch promare yesterday so here’s my hot take

if you like this or more of my art please consider supporting me on ko-fi or commissioning me! every coffee gets you a doodle of whatever you want

[especdreamy]

My personal favorite Daily c!Ranboos, in order of posting!

Now that it's finally over, I feel like its appropriate to share all the daily c!Ranboos I'm the most proud of, and the reasons why I like them so much.

I'll probably redraw some of these in the future!

Under the readmore bc its long and has lots of pics!

Day 5 - Brain Fried

Looking back to it, this one isn't all that great compared to other Daily c!Ranboos I have done, but it's the first one I did in which I tried to make an actual composition rather than just. Drawing c!Ranboo. So it's kind of an important one!

Day 13 - Allium

Kind of similarly as Brain Fried, this one is kinda rough in the edges when looking back on it, but I loved the eerie vibe of it, and the effort of using a more limited palette!

Day 21 - Bouquet

It's just cute. He looks so squishy! Not much more to add tbh :)

Day 22 - Under the Weather

I personally love how I made the effect of them "disintegrating" due to contact with water look! I like how the particles flow :) I love how I made the effect of the water dripping, how it could kinda look like tears running down their face. I used "Under the Weather" in both a literal and metaphorical sense!

Day 28 - Tears

I like the expression and colors :) tbh the tears could be better but otherwise I like it.

Day 32 - Awake

It's soft, comforting, bright, warm, I love the way I did the colors SO MUCH! The expression is everything to me, I like how their hair looks. Also you might notice that I have 100% used the same colors for Revival and Freedom.

Day 34 - Arrival

I just like their goofy expression and how much of a twig they look. Silly lad

Day 38 - Butcher Army

I LOVE the expression and the limited color palette! While theres bits that could be improved upon this is one of my best compositions here.

Day 39 - Apprentice

Technoblade.

Day 41 - Memory Book

I like how the anatomy looks here! Looks very sleek and natural I guess? I love how the tail lies on the ground. I just can feel the weight here a bit.

Day 44 - Doomsday

The blue sky with the bright red flames, the lighting, c! Ranboo's silhouette, idk this is just very pleasing to look at!

Day 64 - Revival

I can't even elaborate on how much I love this one, it's probably The Best drawing (drawings?) of Daily c!Ranboo! I used the same color palette as Awake bc I wanted to give it the same comforting and soft vibe, I love how fuzzy it all looks, how quiet it seems...Also its a comic too! I speedran that in 3 or so hours and im so damn happy with it.

Day 67 - Light

The colors are very nice, I like the lighting!

Day 76 - Dance

I like the poses! I tend to struggle to draw c!Tubbo but he looks very cute here. I think I made c!Ranboo a bit too short but tbh it was a challenge to make the pose work!

Day 82 - Windy

I like the colors, the expression, AND THE HANDS!! Its fuckign wimdy!

Day 89 - Void

HORROR VIBES! I wanted to do at least one creepy-looking drawing for this challenge that I liked and this is the one for sure!

Day 90 - Stars

I like the colors a lot here! The way he looks up to the sky with the big ol' eyes and his pose feels so natural.

Day 91 - Birthday

I may have speedran this in like an hour and a half but GOD I just LOVE the symbolism in this drawing! The balloon because birthday! But its black because death! Ghostboo is the one holding it because they're the one in the overworld after all. How c!Ranboo looks down while Ghostboo stares at them!

Day 92 - Freedom

I used the same palette as Awake and Revival, it just felt right! I tried my best to do a piece that'd be forth of being the "sendoff" for the daily c!Ranboo series, and I do think it holds up!

[where-pain-is-so-pretty]

December Project 10

- Everything you could have asked for

Pairing: Aleksi x Reader

Category: Fluff

TW: none

Word Count: 1160

Request:

"Fluffy request for Aleksi for the December project (if its still available)! Being wrapped up in his arms, with Rilla beside you, watching the snow gently fall during a storm on a cold, dark day"

Requester: anon

Note: I'm back at it! (Please, don't get used to it) I'll try my best to finish some more fics before my vacation but I can’t promise anything. The year coming to an end is stressing me out so much!

Anyways have some long overdue fluff with Aleksi and Rilla 💜

You had not seen Aleksi much in the past few months, so, him and you had decided to go on a short vacation before you would visit your families for the holidays. He had been on tour all around the globe with his boys for most of the year, and when they were not touring they were working in the studio. You supported him and his career, but sometimes you missed him terribly. Messages and (video)calls just were not enough sometimes, you needed him by your side falling asleep and waking up, his arms wrapping around you and pulling you closer whenever you tried to leave the bed early. You had missed having breakfast together before work or your late dinners when you came home from work and he from the studio. That's why you had suggested driving up north to stay at your family's cottage for a few days. Just the two of you and little Rilla.

It was still early in the morning when you climbed out of bed. Aleksi was already outside on a morning walk with Rilla; she had woken you up some minutes ago and Aleksi had volunteered to go. And you probably would have joined them, but the bed had felt way too warm and comfy this morning. But now that Aleksi was not beside you anymore, the bed felt a little empty.

Once you got dressed you went over to the small kitchen starting to prepare your breakfast. Freshly brewed coffee and self-made pancakes and some fruits. While you set the table for the two of you, you peeked out of the window. The sky was grey and tiny snowflakes twirled through the air. So, the weather app had lied once again about getting at least a few rays of sunshine.

You were about to place two cups on the table when you heard the door being opened and instantly rushed over to greet Aleksi and Rilla.

"We are back." They both were a little soaked, Aleksi's cheeks and nose pink from the cold. Rilla was dripping wet from the snow, but she looked very happy and proud once she had covered the legs of your sweatpants in mud and water. "Stop silly!" You laughed leaning down to pet her wet fur. Aleksi smiled at the two of you and got rid of his shoes and jacket.

"Let's get both of you a towel!" you suggested and Rilla barked in agreement as she followed you to the bathroom. You handed one to Aleksi, so he could dry off his hair, and then you bowed down to rub her dry.

"You made breakfast for us?" Aleksi noticed now that he had stepped into the small living room. "Yeah, your favourite!" You waved him a warm smile, letting go of Rilla, before you joined Aleksi at the table. Walking past him you could not resist the urge to ruffle through his messy black hair. He looked up at you with soft chuckle and locked his blue eyes with yours. You bend forward and placed a quick kiss on his forhead, then you sat down across from him.

"There wasn't supposed to be that much snow today!", Aleksi stated halfway through breakfast, pointing out of the window behind you. Turning your head you realized that the sky had gotten even darker and the snowflakes were bigger than some minutes ago. "Hm, maybe we should cancel our plans for today?!" You said nipping at your coffee, watching Aleksi over your cup. You two had planned to go on a little nature walk to the lake nearby, but with all the snow it wouldn't be a good idea to walk through the forest. "Yeah, probably the best! I just checked and they have forecast a snowstorm, nothing major but it's going to get pretty windy." He said looking up from his phone. Not exactly the weather the two you had hoped for and definitely not the weather to go out and explore nature.

After breakfast, Aleksi helped you with the dishes and added more wood to the oven. The cottage had heating, so, the fireplace was more for atmospherical propose, but you had always loved the light and smell it created. Everything looked more cosy illuminated in the flickering light of the fireplace. And now that you would spend a lazy day inside a little extra warmth seemed like a good idea.

While Aleksi began to gather blankets, snacks, and drinks in the living room, you went outside again, to quickly check on the car and to make everything stormproof.

When you stepped back inside and kicked off your boots, you saw that your boyfriend already had settled down on the couch. He smiled invitingly and opened his fluffy blanket for you to join him. You slipped your jacket off in one quick motion and threw yourself into his arms, shoving your cold hands under his shirt. "So warm and soft." you purred as you cuddled into him, your hands rubbing over the skin on his stomach, making his hairs stand up. Aleksi gasped under your cold touch but he did not push you off, instead, he turned his head to face you and pecked your lips. You pulled him closer, your hands wandering to his hips, deepening the kiss. He still tasted like coffee. A quiet whimper made you part from each other. You both turned around and saw Rilla looking up at the two of you with her best puppy eyes.

"Aww, look who's jealous!"; Aleksi giggled softly, pecking your cheek and causing another whimper from Rilla. He laughed as you both made room for her on the couch, Aleksi now spooning you, so Rilla could lie down beside you. "Come here, sweety!" you patted the spot in front of you and she happily wiggled her tail before hopping on the couch. She settled down next to you, her big brown eyes fixating you as she waited for you to pet her. And of course, you did, you let your fingers stroke through her fur until she dozed off. Aleksi nuzzled your hair, lowly humming as he took in the smell of them. With a satisfied sigh, you placed your hand on his and pressed your back further against his body.

His hair brushed against your neck as he placed a light kiss there. "Wanna watch a movie?" he asked from behind you and reached for the remote. "Later, I wanna watch the snow for a while." You whispered, taking the remote from his hands and gazing out the window. The wind had gotten stronger and made the snowflakes twirl through the air in every direction. You felt Aleksi slightly nod before he placed another soft kiss on your neck. This was perfect and everything you could have asked for. You wrapped up in Aleksi's warm embrace, sweet little Rilla curled up beside you, a cosy fire illuminating the room, as a snowstorm raged outside.

[wholesome-holland]

Unconditional Love

request for: anon!

pairing: peter parker x fem!reader

warnings: slut shaming, angst, mega fluff!!

     It was a chilly, windy Tuesday morning. Y/n was awoken by her alarm, signaling it was time to get up for school. School started at 7:30, she always woke up around 6:45. She needed time to get ready, have a quick bite to eat, and pick up her boyfriend, Peter Parker. The two were 17, almost 18, and were close to finishing their senior year of high school, they had began dating about 6 and a half months prior at the beginning of the year. He wasn't her first boyfriend, but he was her first love. Real, true love. They hadn't dropped the L word just yet, but she knew she was deeply in love with the boy.

     Y/n bid her goodbyes to her folks before going out to her car and taking off towards Peter's apartment. Her stomach bubbled with excitement as she pulled up, much like it did every morning. She loved seeing him. She was so excited that she had completely ignored all the texts or notifications she received throughout the night, which was somewhat unusual. But oh well, what harm could that do?

     "Hey, darling," Peter called as he opened the car door. He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss before tossing his bag to the back seat, getting in, and buckling himself in.

     "Hello my love, how was your morning?" Y/n asked as she drove off.

     "Better now that I'm with you," he said, chuckling to himself. Y/n grinned, her cheeks flushing a bright red. He had that affect on her; he could make her blush far too easily.

     "You're too cute." she responded. The drive wasn't very long, so soon enough they pulled up to the school. Peter bolted out his door and around to open her door before she had the chance to, just like he did every morning, "What a gentleman." She gushed.

     "Only for you, my love." Peter said, a small grin on his face. He closed the door behind her before grabbing his bag from the back, then taking his girlfriend's hand and walking up to the school. As soon as they stepped on the property, all eyes were on them. There were looks of disgust, some laughing, some whispering, and some looking amused. Y/n and Peter shared a confused look, having absolutely no clue what the deal was. The looks and laughs continued as they walked through the halls even when Peter dropped her off to her class, kissing her goodbye before going to his own class.

     Luckily, Y/n best friend Nora was in her first hour. She sat down next to her and Nora had a look of concern. "Dude, everyone was staring at Peter and I. Like, everyone. It's making me anxious," she explained.

     "Did you not see it...?" Nora questioned, her tone scaring Abby a bit. Her anxiety began to rise even more than before as she shook her head no. Nora sharply inhaled before pulling out her phone, clicking a couple times, then handing it over to Y/n.

Y/n breath hitched in her throat upon seeing what it was; it was a photo of her and her ex mid-make out session. His hands all over her, her hands in his hair, it was not very classy. See, she didn’t even know that photo existed. How it was on the Internet? Well, she had an idea of how it got there.

Y/n had a past. Not a past most 17 year olds have, nor one she is proud of. About a year ago was when she transferred to Midtown High, before then she went to what could be one of the worst high schools in high school history. A lot of non PG things went down there, and it was overall a very toxic environment. Everyone had an awful label at that school. Popular ones were methhead, druggie, slut, etc. Y/n’s? Y/n’s was attention seeking whore. Why did she receive that label? The clothes she wore and the boys she dated. She dated a handful of guys, majority of them popular, and all they were interested in was sex but she was not interested in that. She wasn’t ready yet, which was why most of those relationships needed. Regardless, she still wore somewhat “revealing” clothes to school constantly because it was what she liked. Due to that, these boys would assume she wanted to have sex, and when she didn’t, they decide she was “a tease” and “just looking for attention” and of course, “a whore”.

All of that resulted in relentless bullying that got so bad her parents pulled her out of school, moved to a new city, and re-enrolled her at Midtown High. That was the best thing they could have done for her, so they did it. Peter knew of some of the bullying, but not to the full extent. If she was being honest, she was ashamed even though it wasn’t her fault. She feared he would judge her, that he would look at her differently, or break up with her.

Tears pooled in Y/n’s eyes and she grabbed her things and bolted out of class. She ran to an empty bathroom and began crying to herself. She was absolutely humiliated. So many questions raced through her mind, how did the photo leak? Why did the photo leak? Who even took the photo? What is Peter gonna think?

Y/n was not gonna stick around to find out. She knew Peter really liked her and that he was the sweetest person ever, but that could change after he sees the photo. She snuck through the halls and bolted out the nearest exit, running to her car like she was being chased. She drove herself home, bawling the whole way there and continued the bawling in her room when she arrived home. She opened her phone and was flooded with messages and notifications from social media. She had been tagged on the photo on numerous posts and lots of people left nasty comments, and 3 new texts from Peter. She was afraid to open them, so she didn’t. She turned her phone off and tossed it across her bed before curling up and trying to sleep it all away.

Peter was worried, to say the least. It was unusual for Y/n to not respond, but he understood where she could be coming from. He saw the photo, and it was indeed quite the shock. But, he remember the bits and pieces of information she told him about her old school. And, it was from over a year ago. He knew that. He also knew everyone has a past, and he wasn’t gonna use who she was then against her, especially when he knows who she is now. He loved her, and even though some asshole decided to humiliate her, that was not going to change. He spent the whole day trying to contact her, but received no response in return. He figured she left when he saw her car missing from the school parking lot, and decided he would go see her after school.

After what felt like an eternity, the bell rang and he was able to head to her house. It was gonna take a bit because she had left, but he had his spider gear. As long as he stayed out of sight, he would make it quick and easy. It still took roughly 15 minutes, plus an additional 3 for taking off and putting away his spider-man suit, but who’s keeping track?

Peter knocked on the front door and was met with her father. “Hi, Mr. Y/l/n. Is Y/n home?” He asked.

“Yes, she is. She’s upstairs in her room, would you like to come in?” Her father, Y/l/n, asked in response. Peter nodded and was let in. Her mother waved, he said a quick hello back before heading upstairs with a sense of urgency. He knocked on her bedroom door, waiting for her to give permission for him to come in.

“Come in,” she called. Y/n was expecting her mom or dad, maybe even Nora. Definitely not Peter. She say straight up, her heart starting to pick up its pace as she grew nervous. “W— what are you doing here, Peter?”

The brunet took a few steps towards his girl, giving her a soft and loving look. “I came to check on you and see if you were okay.” Y/n simply nodded. It was silent between them for a few moments before she spoke up.

“About the picture—”

“Y/n—”

“No, let me finish. It was a long time ago when that was taken and—” the boy cut her off again.

“Baby, I know,” he assured her, stepping closer. However, she continued on with her ramble.

“—I know it looks really bad and like I’m a whore, or something, and if you think that too that’s okay. Well, not okay but you know what I mean. I know I told you a little bit about my old school but I didn’t tell you everything because I was embarrassed and I’m so sorry, please don’t hate me, I just didn’t want to disappoint you too—” she didn’t know when, but somewhere in that rant she started crying again. Peter didn’t want to hear any more of that, so in order to get her to quiet down for a moment he leaned forward and kissed her.

Y/n shut up immediately and returned the kiss, looking at him with a fearful look when he pulled away. The fear began to wash away when he cupped her cheeks, wiped her tears, and gave her a serious look.

“Love, it is okay. I’m not upset, I’m not judging you, and I don’t hate you. You’re my best friend and my girl, I don’t think I could ever hate you, in fact…” he took a deep breath before continuing. “Y/n, I love you. I’m in love with you, like so, so in love with you. Nothing is gonna change that, especially something that happened before I even knew you. You’re not a whore or a bad person, you are amazing and I love every bit of you.”

Y/n was absolutely floored. Peter Parker loved her. And she loved him. They loved each other. “You… you love me?”

“Of course I love you, darling. You make me feeling things I didn’t know I could feel, and you make me happier than I’ve ever been. You make me feel good about caring so much for somebody. God, I could go on for hours about how you make me feel, but the point is I love you so much. And that picture? That won’t change anything. What I am going to do though, is figure out who even leaked it and where it came from and get that taken care of. No one deserves this kind of humiliation, especially not you.” Peter took a seat next to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.

“I love you, Peter. So much. Thank you,” she spoke in astonishment.

“Of course, love. Now, when I get home I’ll take care of all that. But for now, my focus is taking care of you. How can I make you feel better, Y/n/n?” He asked, tilting his head and staring at her in adoration.

“Just hold me, please.” She requested, scooting backwards.

“I can definitely do that.” Peter grinned, kissing her softly then laying down with his arms out. She laid next to him and he pulled her closer, kissing her forehead.

“I can’t believe you love me,” Y/n beamed.

“How could I not?”

first request done!! i hope you enjoy, and thank you so much for requesting anon<3 i hope it’s what you wanted!

[hesbuckcompton-baby]

I Stayed There - Eugene Sledge x OFC

Chapter 2 - I'll Miss You When You're Dead

Chapter 1 /// Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9

Summary: Anna and Eugene graduate high school. As war rages on in the Pacific, Eugene becomes more and more anxious to enlist.

Warnings: Death, drowning, grief

Word Count: 3k

Tags: @cagzzz107

A/N: Character's names in bold italics indicate a change in POV

-

Anna

Eugene, Mary and I graduated in the spring of 1942. I sat between them at the ceremony, tucked in tightly together, our elbows touching through the cloth of our robes. It was windy that afternoon - I remember because it had blown Mary and I's graduation caps straight off our heads, ruining the curls I had spent two hours trying to perfect earlier that morning. I lost out on being Valedictorian to Grace Andre, and spent the whole time trying to pretend I wasn't bitter.

Eugene

She was so bitter.

Anna

America had already entered the war by then. My brother Bobby had enlisted in the Navy, and Sidney had already joined the Marine Corps, leaving the December just gone. He'd only been sixteen, and I'd absolutely bitten his head off for lying about it on his enlistment forms. Eugene had been proud of him, but all boys were back then, it was just the way it was. They were desperate to fight, each and every one of them - to serve their country, to get some hair on their chest, to impress a pretty girl with their smart green uniform. I never understood the appeal, but I knew how much it meant to Eugene, and I could see how much it was killing him every time his father told him he wasn't fit to go.

I couldn't lie and say I wasn't pleased he wasn't leaving. Every one of my brothers was making plans to enlist, and I wanted to hold onto the one person I thought would stay. The anxiety of the thing ate away at me, every day wondering when one of them would sign up and I'd have to say goodbye to them, possibly forever. It's the kind of anxiety that you carry with you constantly, that you never talk about, that weighs you down and tires you out until you wake up every morning already exhausted without even having to think about it. That was what it felt like back then. No one ever talked about how terrifying it was being the one that stayed home. But we all felt it.

Charlie had been getting our older brothers to buy beer for him since he realised how easily coerced they were, and the habit had rubbed off on me by the time I graduated, dragging John out with my friends and I afterwards so that he could grab us some bottles to drink around the back of the convenience store. Mary and I sat atop our coats on a big metal bin, Eugene perched on a step to my left.

"So..." Mary started. "What do we do now?"

"I'm not gonna stop trying to enlist," Eugene shrugged. "Now that I've got my diploma the guy at the office might actually believe I'm eighteen."

I wasn't sure I wanted to get into my anxieties at that moment, so I kept quiet and sipped my beer.

"I have a cousin in the army, says they're all just running training drills in England, ain't even in Europe yet," Mary said. "Your folks are getting themselves worked up, I'd say. They don't need to be concerned."

"They have every right to be concerned, I'm concerned!" I blurted.

Eugene shrugged. "Well don't be."

"Aw, yeah, that solves it," I snapped, slumping back against the wall of the store, my bottom lip jutted out in a frown as I took a long sip of my beer. I could feel them both staring at me - getting used to rarely being the centre of attention as a child gave me an acute sense for when others' eyes were on me. It wasn't uncomfortable, just... different. "What? Out of the three of us, I'll probably lose the most people that I care about, I'm allowed to be upset... Oh, don't look at me like that. I'm just being realistic."

"Your brothers will be fine, Anna, don't worry," Eugene tried to assure me.

I let out a huff of frustration, sliding off the top of the bin and only pausing when I knocked my bottle from its perch and it shattered on the tarmac, fragments of brown glass spraying outwards in every direction as what was left of the amber liquid pooled pathetically at my feet. The other two had flinched as it hit the ground, but I had watched on with a sort of resignation, irritation making my shoulders hunch as the silence settled again. It was the straw to break the horse's back, and I found myself storming out of the lot despite my friends' protests, my knuckles clenched and my coat stuffed under my arm as I rounded the corner of the building.

It wasn't until I was halfway down the road, veering off the path where the sidewalk stopped when I heard the beating of footsteps jogging up behind me. I knew it was him without even turning my head, but I wasn't interested in talking.

"Go away, Eugene. You finally get your alone time with Mary, isn't that what you've been after the entire time we've been friends?"

"I told her to stay there," He said, his frown practically tingeing his voice.

"I'm surprised she let you tell her to do anything."

He stayed behind me, hovering over my shoulder like a fly I couldn't shake. I veered further from the path, ducking around behind a large gorse bush that acted as a wall between the road and the lake behind it. There was rarely anybody there, despite its close proximity to town, and it was a place my brothers and I had often frequented when I was a little girl - where Richard had taught me to swim when I was three, where John had helped me catch my first fish when I was eight. I could hear Eugene's breathing as he quietly kept my pace, following me without objection until I stopped by the edge of the water.

"What do you want?!" I cried, turning on my heel and causing him to stumble slightly so as not to walk into me. "Can't you see I'm trying to get away from you?!"

"I didn't want you to be alone," He confessed.

"Well, maybe I do! I'd better get used to it, right?"

"Anna, stop it," Eugene frowned. "Stop acting like everyone's gonna die."

My voice fell to a croak, and I spoke with a shrug. "Well, if you don't get your hopes up you can't be disappointed, right?"

He didn't say anything for a moment then. His expression was clouded, indecipherable, and I couldn't tell if he was upset or frustrated or somewhere in between. It's a certain type of fear, the fear that comes when you finally let your emotions spill and you're left waiting for a response, for whoever you opened that dam upon to formulate the words that could either fix you or shatter you completely. But Eugene didn't say anything. I watched his chest rise up and then fall before he brushed past my shoulder, shrugging off his suit jacket and slinging it over his shoulder as he stepped out onto the narrow jetty, walking silently along it to its end.

I turned and watched him, my brow furrowed in confusion. "Eugene?"

Silence hung thick in the air between us, the veil only broken by the unrelenting hum of insects, and the sound of the lake lapping against its shores. I watched him stand there for a moment, watched his shoulders rise and fall with another deep breath, and then he dropped his suit jacket onto the ground in a heap, took one step forward, and plunged straight into the murky water, best suit and all.

"Eugene!" I shrieked, discarding my coat in the dirt and barreling forward to the edge of the jetty, standing next to his crumpled jacket as I looked down into the lake. He resurfaced only seconds later, his wet fringe plastered to his forehead, a smug grin covering his face.

"What the hell was that?! Asshole!" I scolded and chided him over and over, but he just bobbed up and down in the green water, looking oh-so pleased with himself. Finally, I ran out of breath, and when I noticed he was still smiling, my posture straightened. "What?"

"I knew you didn't wanna be on your own," He said smugly.

I scoffed, spluttering. "What?! There's a difference between wanting to be alone and wanting you to drown yourself in a goddamn lake!"

Eugene let out a breathy chuckle. "Hey Anna, you can swim, right?"

"Hm?" I barely had time to process his question before he grabbed my leg and pulled, and I felt myself falling before plunging into the freezing water, his firm grip on me the only thing keeping me from sinking like a stone out of pure shock.

When I resurfaced I gasped for air, feeling it fill my lungs so fast that it almost stung. His arm was around my back, holding me against his chest as we both bobbed up and down on the surface, my bright yellow dress tinged green with the water. Eugene raised his other hand, his wet palm swiping across my forehead as he tugged the dripping strands of hair from my eyes. I was so angry that I couldn't even yell at him, just twist in his grip and pull off my shoes, throwing them pointedly onto the dock so that I wouldn't lose them in the deep.

I had a grip on his arm, my fingers digging harshly into his flesh through the soaked fabric of his sleeve, and I could do nothing but furiously huff and puff for a minute before finally getting a hold of myself. Letting out a cry of indignation, I shoved his chest, a shriek escaping my throat as he fell backwards and pulled me forwards in turn, and the two of us would've sunk had I not hastily pulled him back upright, torn between regretting my outburst and wanting to drown him with my own two hands.

"If I don't get to it first, my Ma is gonna kill you," I said, breaking away from him and paddling limply back towards the shore.

"This shirt's expensive, my Ma will do it for her."

"Well, maybe you should've thought about that," Trying to shake the water out of my skirt, I scolded him as I retrieved my shoes, a shiver travelling up my spine and my sodden stockings squelching as I slipped them on.

My footsteps were loud and wet as I trudged home, Eugene visibly shivering beside me, his suit jacket strewn over my shoulders the only dry piece of clothing between us. Occasionally one of us would catch the other's gaze, and we'd snort out a giggle, both equally aware of the sorry sight we made as we trailed dirty pond water all the way home. He walked me up to my porch, and my mother had gasped as I'd hurried in, bolting up the stairs and straight into the bathroom to stip myself off and finally warm the chill that was settling in my bones.

I ran a hot bath and sat in it until it went cool again, until the pads of my fingers started to prune and I felt cleansed of the dirty water. It was only when I wrapped myself up in a bathrobe that I started to miss the feeling of the sopping fabric against my skin, how I could feel the creases where Eugene's arm had wrapped around me even after he'd pulled away. His blazer was crumpled in a heap on the tiled floor, and I realised I'd forgotten to give it back to him.

And then I looked in the mirror, and I realised I hadn't thought a thing about the war since the moment he had stepped off the jetty. And I stared back at myself with a grin and the feeling of only just realising I'd been outsmarted.

"Damn you, Sledge," I chuckled to myself.

-

Eugene

It started to get colder a little earlier than usual that year, and as I wandered over to Anna's house one afternoon in mid-November, my scarf peeked out of the top of my coat, shielding me against the bracing air. Ever since Sidney left for the marines, I found myself showing up at her front door more and more, knocking on her bedroom window as if I were thirteen again. I had other friends, other boys from school, but it wasn't their fault that they just weren't as interesting as her.

I was already smiling before I even made it up the driveway, but before I could reach the porch, the front door swung open. As soon as I saw that familiar face that I knew so well, I knew something was wrong. So very, horribly wrong.

Anna was frozen just in front of the doorway, her shoulders stiff, her arms rigid at her sides and her knuckles white and clenched. I could tell she had put makeup on that morning from the way it was now streaking down her cheeks, tearstains leaving trails of eyeliner across her skin, her eyes red, her lip trembling.

"Hey, hey," I spoke, trying to sound calm as I cautiously approached. Her eyes wouldn't meet mine, and she stood frozen for a moment before launching herself into my chest, letting out a sob so forceful it sounded painful.

I don't know if or what she said to me really, because the moment the words "Bobby's dead" left her mouth my ears started ringing, and they didn't stop until long after I'd been herded into the March family's dining room.

Mrs March was sitting in the living room looking comatose, staring blankly at the floral wallpaper, her hands folded and trembling in her lap. When Anna finally stopped weeping, she slumped back in her seat, the red puffed skin around her eyes eventually softening and turning into dark, exhausted bags. She had the same vacant expression as her mother, and more than anything I longed for the words to make her smile.

Charlie let me read the letter they'd received. Bobby's ship has gone down, and he'd drowned off the coast of Guadalcanal. As my gaze travelled across the page, all I could picture was him sinking further and further into the depths, the way it had been when I'd stepped off the jetty into the lake, except infinitely more terrifying. I tried to imagine what it must have felt like when the salty water had begun to fill his lungs, but all I could feel was the hollow ache in my own chest.

I didn't want to stay there in that house after that, but it felt so wrong to leave. I traipsed the place in silence for almost an hour like a lone mourner in a solitary funeral procession, taking special care to avoid the living room so as not to disturb Mrs March. When I looped through the dining room on what must have been my fifth lap of the bottom floor, Anna spoke for the first time since she'd broken the news, her voice coming out in a strained rasp.

"You're still gonna sign up, aren't you?"

My pacing stopped, and I stood in the doorway for a moment, brow furrowed in thought. But there was nothing to think about, really. "Yeah. I am."

She nodded slightly. There was no disappointed sigh, no frown of concern, just the same blank expression she'd held since she sat down. It unsettled me.

"I'll miss you when you're dead," She stated. The way she'd said it sounded so final, I couldn't think of a single word to reply. So I went home.

-

I left a month later, a little while before Christmas. My mother had wept as I said goodbye, and although he tried to hide it, I could tell my father was trying not to cry too. I didn't expect Anna to say goodbye, knowing how unhappy she was about my decision. Richard and John had both left by then too, and she was stuck at home with just her mother and Charlie, who was planning to enlist after the holidays. I'd waited by my front door for almost an hour that morning in case she dropped by to see me off, but when she didn't I wasn't surprised.

It wasn't until I left the house - dressed in my uniform, my suitcase under my arm - that I saw her standing down at the end of the drive. She hadn't noticed me, but I could tell from the way her arms were wrapped tightly around herself, from the way she was pacing back and forth with her head down, that she was still unsure whether she was going to come and see me at all. But when she looked up and noticed me, I could see the relief in her expression.

Anna strode towards me as she flashed a mournful smile, not uttering a single word before she threw her arms around my neck and pulled me forwards into a hug. I let my suitcase land on the gravel drive and I hugged her back, the fur collar of her new winter coat tickling my chin.

"You stay safe," She said, her voice cracking slightly. "If you don't come back, I swear I'll kill you,"

I let out a chuckle, feeling my eyes well up with tears I absolutely refused to shed. "Yes ma'am," I wouldn't cry, not in front of her.

Anna pulled back, smiling at me before reaching up and fixing a crease in my shirt collar. Her hand went into her pocket and she pulled out a photograph, tucking it into my breast pocket before I could get a look at it. She took a long, deep breath, and we stood in silence for a moment before she punched my shoulder in the way she used to when she teased me at thirteen. "See ya 'round, Sledge," She grinned, her eyes refusing to meet mine.

My mouth bent into a half-smile. "Not if I see you first."

[stellajones-blog]

I had to pop out today because I had a top to return to M&S & this was the last day I had to do it! I couldn't get to sleep until after midnight last night despite being tired. I was just reflecting on the weekends events laid on bed writing a post. I woke up at 11am, remembered I had the return & thought no I'll have to get up & get dressed. I couldn't be bothered driving to York so feeling bold I thought I'll just go around the shops in Scarborough. It looked a glorious day so I put on my Denim shorts & Lace top. I wore an open cardigan over the top to make the outfit more appropriate. I'm glad I did it's cooler than it looked & very windy. I abandoned going along the seafront because of this. This is the best picture I could manage, on most my hair was flying everywhere! I'm quite proud of my make-up today I even did my eyes taking a little inspiration from Victoria! I felt so confident I did without a mask & sunglasses in M&S! I went in to return a top & came out with some nude stilletto heels! It was great having the chance to try on several pairs!

I'm now sat having a coffee inside McDonald's watching the world pass by! When I finally head home I'll have to unpack. I just couldn't be bothered last night! This has been a fantastic four days. Meeting friends old & new. Partying late on two consecutive nights. Shopping in Leeds & today at home in Scarborough for the first time. I'm definitely growing more confident in both my appearance & ability to not attract the wrong sort of attention from people. Getting looks of admiration (& hit on at Leeds) from guy's is still rather new and sometimes a little unsettling. I'll have to learn to appreciate the attention while gently letting them down without causing them any offence. The more progress you make, the more thing's you find out you still need to learn!