#L APPEARS AND JUMPS ON THE TABLE THAT'S HILARIOUS

[birbfeeder2artisticboogaloo]

PJIASODASIODAPOJ SHE KEEPS ENCOURAGING HIM TO KILL MORE PPL. THIS IS AMAZING

L keeps making a mess with his candies. he sits on chairs disrespectfully, just like me lol. he'ss um. an inch resting guy 👀👀👀 AHGHGH STOP PUSHING EVERYTHING ONTO THE FLOOR. U HAVE NO THOUGHT FOR THE PPL WHO WILL HAVE TO CLEAR THAT UP??? not a single THOUGHT for the servers or janitors!!!

sure sure just. stand in the rain while u both get drenched. fine.

WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING. WHY IS LIGHT BEING FRAMED AS THE HERO????? HOW IS IT THAT THERE ARE PPL WHO ARE WEIRDER THAN HE IS?????? MORE MURDER-Y?????? AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH MIA IS VERY??? LOVE STORY-LIKE??????

[bookishofalder]

Rainy Days

Spencer x Reader

Request: @starwithoutdarkness - Hey! I heard you were looking for requests! Maybe Spencer Reid x reader fake dating fluff? Combined with Request: @paulaern  - Hello!  What about Spencer Reid x reader when they realizes they love each other? Like reader makes something for Spencer and he thinks like "I can't deny anymore, I'm completely and hopeless in love with her" or something like that  (G!neutral if you want)

A/N: Thank you so much for sending in requests! Hope this makes you smile!

Warnings: Swearing, moderate BAU violence, creepy men, fluffiest fluff, intense headache description. Set randomly post prison Reid but Hotch is still there because he should have been! WC-2,488

Spencer was staring at the geo-profile he had been working on all day, very glad to be inside. The weather in Seattle had stayed consistently rainy for the two days the BAU team had been in town assisting in catching a killer, who had been committing serial robberies/murders with no apparent rhyme or reason. And while Spencer didn’t mind the rain, he did mind loud, busy cities. Combined, they usually led to a headache that would take a day or two to recover.

The door to the conference room he was working alone in burst open and slammed shut so suddenly he nearly jumped out of his skin, turning to see-

You.

Spencer hated it when you appeared without warning, catching him entirely off guard and presenting the risk that you would notice the visible effort it took for him to compose himself around you.

While he’d noticed how beautiful and hilarious and empathetic you were the moment you joined the team, he’d fallen in love with you when you had your first case with them. Spencer had begun to ramble about the specifics of casinos, and how ‘beating the house’ was nearly impossible, when the rest of the team had tuned out. A temporary member, Agent Seaver, had sneered ‘I’m sorry I asked.” Effectively shutting him up. But then you had turned in your seat next to him and, after shooting Seaver a look had asked him to continue. And though he didn’t have that much more to say, and it wasn’t all that interesting, you listened to every single word and thanked him.

It had been years since that had happened, your friendship had blossomed into best friends, something Spencer cherished immensely. This was partly why he shoved his feelings down. The relationship did not need to change for Spencer to remain happy; as long as he got to spend time with you at work, or watch movies and make tent forts in his living room. And visit his mom (who adored you and always gave you book recommendations that you would be sure to read the moment you could), or go to comic conventions and museums...yes, as long as he could always do those things with you, he was happy.

No need to risk changing a perfect thing.

Now though, you were shutting the door and giving him your most panicked look, wide-eyed, with your hair damp from the rain you no doubt had run through to get inside, accounting for your breathlessness. If it weren’t for the worry that had sprung up inside of him upon seeing your expression, he would have fixated on how beautiful you looked at that moment.

“Spencer, you’re my boyfriend.” You whisper yelled at him, quickly stepping closer and setting your bag down on the conference table.

“Wha-“ He began, but you cut him off frantically.

“I’ll explain-just, oh fuck-“

Spencer stood frozen to the spot as the door reopened and one of the senior detectives sauntered in, a friendly smile somewhat overshadowed by the almost predatorial glint in his eyes. You awkwardly stepped closer to Spencer, raising a hand in hello.

“Agent (Y/L/N), great to see you’re back, I was hoping to catch you before the end of the day!” He said merrily, placing two hands on the back of the nearest chair. Something about the way his hands gripped the chair made Spencer feel...on edge.

You gave the fakest little giggle Spencer had ever heard from you, “Oh, nice to see you too Detective! Just had to catch up with Agent Reid here...”

When his eyes moved from you to assess Spencer briefly, he felt a protective force rear up, instincts entirely at alert. Without hesitating, he casually draped an arm over your shoulder, brushing some hair back as he did, and replied, “And you promised we could get some coffee from the Starbucks down the road, hon.”

He enjoyed the way your cheeks flushed and noticed the pulse in your neck pick up. You glanced up at him, trying to look coy but he knew you too well and could see you were partly surprised, and also trying not to laugh.

“Um, of course, I nearly forgot, babe, let’s go in about 5-unless, did you need something specific, Detective?” She broke off to glance back at the now scowling man, who gave an annoyed jerk of his head before stomping back out of the room.

Once the door banged closed behind him, you let out the biggest sigh of relief, raising a hand to your face in dismay.

Spencer hadn’t removed his arm yet, “I’m assuming I just helped you avoid being asked out, but why-?”

“Uhg, Spencer, I’ve already turned him down TWICE since we’ve arrived! He’s literally the kind of dude who doesn’t take no for an answer unless another man has some fucking misogynistic claim over the woman!” You exclaimed, before moving to stand right in front of Spencer and lean just your head to his chest, staring down at the floor, “I hate everything.”

Spencer laughed, patting your back softly, but internally making note that he wouldn’t be letting you go anywhere alone for the rest of this case-that detective gave him the creeps. And while you were beyond capable of protecting yourself, he just knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything if he thought you could be hurt.

“Well, just so we’re clear I would never want to be called ‘babe’ in a relationship.” He joked and the desired effect was his immediate reward when you lifted your head and giggled-your genuine, beautiful little giggle-and then grinned.

“Spencer, you called me ‘hon’ like we were 70.”

Spencer considered a moment, “We could be, you’ll be Gladys and I’ll be-“

“Winston!” You supplied eagerly, and he frowned at you, trying not to laugh.

“Winston?”

“It’s really very dignified, the kind of name where people call you ‘sir’.” You replied cheekily, and while Spencer grinned, a part of him felt a swoop of pleasure when your lips formed the word ‘sir’.

He decided very quickly that he liked the idea of you calling him that. And then, just as swiftly dismissed that train of thought and chastised himself.

As you both stood together and laughed, the door swung open and Hotch and the team followed him in, all in various stages of the results of exposure to the rain, looking equally grim. Spencer and you abruptly stopped when you saw their expressions and launched back into work mode seamlessly.

———

Two days later, the team was closing in on the unsub and everyone was on high alert. Taking the profile and applying it to the geo-profile he had been working on, Spencer had narrowed down this grubby old apartment that sat above a nightclub as the most likely spot the unsub was staying at. Of course, they were arriving at night which meant the club was busy and loud, people lined up out the doors waiting for their chance to enter, pay too much for a drink and grind their bodies against strangers.

Spencer’s headache from the unforgiving rain was thrumming now with the music that seemed entirely unencumbered by the walls of the stairwell, the team slowly climbing. It was bad enough that his eyes narrowed somewhat, but he didn’t lose focus.

You were behind him, watching his six as Hotch and Morgan approached the door ahead and prepared to breach. Spencer slipped a hand behind his back and, on cue, you’re pinky wrapped with his. A brief promise to each other, ‘I’ve got you.’.

They had anticipated violence and heavy arms, so when their announcement was met with silence and the door was kicked open, the tactical response was to secure positions and carefully proceed. Agents and SWAT members lined the building and were, at that moment, securing the club below to ensure the unsub couldn’t flee into a room full of potential hostages.

Spencer and you were the third pair to enter, quickly moving ahead of the others to secure more rooms, eyes peeled for movement. The floor was covered in litter and random spots of dirt and dried substances. It smelled like body odour and axe body spray-which immediately went to Spencer’s headache and caused it to throb in protest.

“Freeze!”

You had shouted right as Spencer noticed the movement from a back room down the hall, as the unsub leaned out and, not abiding by the command, opened fire. Spencer grabbed you and swung you both behind the wall of the kitchen, out of the line of fire while he shouted the unsubs location.

You recovered quickly, dropping to the ground and leaning out to return fire as Hotch and Morgan ran across to the living room to join the battle. It only took a few moments after that before Morgan managed to get a shot to the suspect's shoulder and he fell with a cry of anguish.

You popped up from the ground, watching as Prentiss and Rossi moved forward to secure the man, and barked into your radio for medics to come in.

Spencer, meanwhile, was reeling. When the shots in the room had all joined together in a cacophony, sound and noise piercing his skull, it had converted to pain and panic in his skull, overwhelming him. He had used his own body to shield yours when he pulled you with him into the wall, and the caution he took with you meant he hadn’t caught himself carefully enough, his head bouncing lightly off of the stone wall.

Which, on a normal day would have simply been annoying. But today, with a headache so severe he was beginning to get spots in his vision, it was detrimental. The scene was secure, so he allowed his eyes to shut, a meagre reprieve but at least it was something, at least he didn’t have to see the beams from the flashlights or the pulsing of the neon signs outside of the windows...

“Winston, take my hand.” Your voice was so, so soft. Spencer let his mouth open slightly, a small rush of air all he managed, trying to say ‘I can’t-it hurts, make it stop’ but you grasped his hand tightly and pulled and he followed, his other hand reaching and grabbing that back of your vest, he let you lead him.

He knew from the reduced foot traffic of agents and crime scene workers that you were taking the rear exit, a stairwell that was narrower than the main. He peeked through his lashes to take the stairs, and then suddenly, the cool night air hit him and the door was closing behind you both.

You kept walking with purpose, leading Spencer further away from the loud building. The rain spattered his face but with each step the noise reduced and after a short walk it became relatively quiet.

“Sit.” You murmured, halting. Spencer opened his eyes and saw that you had led him to the farthest spot in the parking lot from the building, where trees lined the lot along a community park that was probably utilized by vagrants and drug dealers more than families. But there was a bench, and you were waiting for him to take a seat. You had pulled out a compact, expandable emergency rain shield from one of the pockets on your FBI utility belt and tossed it on the bench, protecting you both from soaking your underwear.

Spencer sat, setting his elbows on his legs and leaning forward with his hands pressed to his face. He took deep, steadying breaths as you joined him, your hand on the back of his neck. At first, he thought you were just resting it there because his FBI vest would have prevented him from feeling your hand on his back, however, a moment later it was joined by your other hand and a very cold object.

Resisting the urge to pull away, he gasped at the contact, “What-?”

“On-the-go cold compress, Doctor.” You explained, leaving it in place and then rummaging again. Spencer wanted to look but the compress, combined with the quiet, was already doing wonders. He continued to take deep breaths.

“When you’re ready, try this.” You said softly, pressing something to his hand. Opening his eyes, he saw a mini flask that had his name written on the side.

He turned his head slowly so as not to move the compress and met your eyes, which were assessing him with concern. “(Y/N), when did we start drinking on the job?”

You giggled quietly, “It’s just water mixed with this like, vitamin powder that’s supposed to be good for rehydrating you quickly. I did some research on how to help headaches like yours on the go, just in case, and I made this ‘Spencer’ care bag.” You rambled a little when he didn’t reply.

Spencer looked back at the flask and opened it, quickly downing the contents. It tasted pretty fruity and he realized he was thirsty, this taking the edge off.

“Is it okay?” You asked. Spencer raised his head and met your eyes, searching them.

He was overwhelmed, the headache already fading, in its place an intensely warm feeling building inside of him as he considered the time and effort you had taken to care for him. He hadn’t asked you, or hinted, you had just taken it on to find a way to help him and you were right there when he needed you the most.

You had always been there when he needed you. When he had been shot protecting Blake, when he struggled to care for his mother, when he had gone to prison, when he was freed, you were there.

The words tumbled out, unable to be contained a second longer.

“I am hopelessly in love with you.”

Your mouth opened and closed in surprise, taken entirely off guard. Though he worried what you would say, he couldn’t deny the relief he felt having finally said it out loud. He watched patiently as your mind processed his confession, holding his breath.

“I-Spencer,” And then suddenly your lips were pressing into his and the pain from his headache ceased entirely. Spencer was consumed by the feel of you against him, of your hands holding his face and the hum of content you gave when he returned your passion, dropping his flask and sliding his hands up your neck, gripping tenderly.

After what could have been hours, weeks, or years, you both broke apart, pulling back just enough to make eye contact without your eyes crossing. Neither of you let go, your breath puffing out in wisps in the cold night air.

“I love you too,” You breathed, “I could grow old with you, Winston.”

Spencer laughed, relief and happiness swooping through him at your words, “Gladys, I couldn’t imagine anything more perfect.”

Did you enjoy this story? Please consider reblogging or commenting to ease my inner turmoil as a writer. Likes are basically just a bookmark!

You grinned back at Spencer, and then he kissed you again.

[teawaffles]

Albert’s Drinking Contest: Chapter 3 / End

Note: Some language.

“G-Goddammit……”

“No way, how……?”

Roughly twenty minutes had passed.

And with their glasses in hand, Moran and Louis were both gasping in agony.

Once the match had resumed, the three participants had attacked their glasses, consuming drink after drink like a surging tide. Now that Louis had been saved the trouble of approaching the other two time and again to fill their glasses, the rate at which the wine now entered them had seen a remarkable jump.

Although Louis was not a strong drinker to begin with, his sheer determination to prevail had allowed him to keep pace with his veteran opponents: at this point, he’d already downed a comparable portion of wine.

However, even mental willpower had its limits. Back when he’d consumed his twentieth glass, the intoxication had hit Louis like a brick, and a wave of dizziness swamped him. From then on, Louis had placed his spectacles on the table, and repeatedly rubbed the inner corners of his eyes in a bid to chase away that sense of vertigo.

Now, Louis was attempting his thirtieth glass of wine since he’d entered the match. In other words, Moran and Albert had already drunk an astonishing 51 glasses.

Even as they moaned like spirits of the dead, both Louis and Moran tried to fill their glasses for the next round; but the hands that held those glasses kept trembling, and wine spilled onto the table many times over.

“——This is truly an excellent wine. With this flavour, I can enjoy myself twice as much.”

On the other hand, Albert was still in perfect shape.

Having long finished preparing his next glass, Albert looked at his two opponents, barely able to hold their own glasses, as if watching them from on high.

Despite having consumed an extraordinary quantity of alcohol, he was still unperturbed, and enjoying the taste of the wine. With unfocused eyes, Louis turned to look at his oldest brother.

“Ha, haha — as expected of you, nii-sama.”

In the face of this overwhelming presence, his own powerlessness seemed almost hilarious in comparison, and he chuckled as if he’d given up.

“This isn’t, the time to be, laughing, Louis……”

Moran thumped his back, in an effort to coax some life back into him. But that gesture was much too weak, and looked as though he was simply trying to soothe a badly drunk man.

Yet perhaps that move had worked, for then, Louis knocked back his entire glass. Following suit, both Moran and Albert drained their glasses too.

“Well then, we’ve finally reached the thirtieth glass.”

Watching the three of them, William announced the tally with dispassion. But at this point, it wasn’t clear if his voice had even reached Louis and Moran.

Having reached a nice round number, it seemed Louis was starting to loosen up. With the last ounces of his strength, he turned his head, and looked at Moran beside him.

“Mr Moran. My apologies, but it looks like, this is my end……”

“Wha…… Oi, hang in there, Louis!”

But his desperate plea went unanswered. The moment Louis uttered those final words, just like Fred, he slumped onto the table.

“L-Louis……”

Half-dazed, Moran mumbled the name of the fallen — and William swiftly appeared by his brother’s side.

“You’ll catch a cold if you fall asleep here, Louis.”

Gently, he tucked the blanket he’d prepared around Louis’s shoulders.

Albert looked on in concern.

“William, is Louis alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, it seems he’s just asleep for now.”

“…………”

The two brothers looked on at their youngest sibling, now keeled over; but even as Moran too fretted over his condition, a sense of admiration and gratitude towards the man had grown within him. Despite being drawn into the match, Louis had pressed on and fought alongside him to get this far. If Moran himself hadn’t been so sozzled, he would even have wanted to give the man a huge round of applause.

However, even those ardent emotions dwindled with time. For Moran was now back to square one — as the only player standing up to Albert — and that lonesome despair weighed heavily on his shoulders.

Here was an opponent so tough, that even someone who’d joined halfway had been no match for him.

That raw power sent a chill down Moran’s back. Desperately trying to hold his vision steady, he glared at Albert.

“……How the hell are you still alive?”

Through his hazy consciousness, Moran barely managed to utter that one phrase. Although it’d come from his own lips, to him, it sounded as if it’d been said by someone else far away.

Albert shifted his gaze from Louis to Moran.

“It’s not so surprising, is it? I just genuinely enjoy drinking wine, Colonel.”

“This is no longer in the realm of ‘enjoyment’, innit……”

Perhaps his inebriation had finally tipped over into delirium: at that moment, the sight of Albert lounging with a glass in hand looked almost like that of the devil.

And finally, that time had come.

“Oh, shit——”

In his final moments, with every last ounce of strength he had within him, Moran uttered that cheap curse.

And in an instant, as if someone had flipped a switch — he blacked out. Like a marionette whose strings had been cut, he collapsed onto the table in front of Albert, and began to snore loudly.

“Looks like…… it’s settled, then.”

Watching the sleeping figures of Fred, Louis, and now Moran, William announced the end of the match.

And thus, on this memorable night, the drinking contest had ended in complete victory for the preternaturally strong Albert.

“……Mm?”

Around thirty minutes after that, Fred — who’d been the first to drop out — opened his bleary eyes.

Blinking, he slowly sat up, and saw Moran and Louis fast asleep in a row beside him, with blankets wrapped around their shoulders. Why Louis too?, he thought; but seeing that sight before him, at the very least, he somehow understood that the match was over.

Perhaps it was inevitable, but it had ended in a crushing defeat for Moran, Louis and him.

“Good morning, Fred; though the sun hasn’t risen yet.”

Someone called out to him from the side — by reflex, Fred’s gaze snapped toward the voice, and he saw William smiling gently at him, seated in the same spot from earlier. Beside him was Albert.

“……How long has it been?”

Since he already knew how the match had turned out, for now, still a little groggy, Fred enquired as to how long he’d been unconscious.

“It’s been around thirty minutes since the end of the match. So that makes it around two hours since you passed out,” said William. “It’s past midnight now.”

That voice had a somewhat comforting note to it, as if he was worried for Fred, who’d just awakened from the depths of drunkenness.

Then Albert — who was still enjoying his wine — spoke up in concern.

“Still, the colonel has done this time and again without learning his lesson. Even though wine is a luxury to be savoured and enjoyed.”

“Although you’ve beaten him every time, it seems that argument has yet to persuade him otherwise.”

Looking at Albert, who seemed to be functioning perfectly despite everything, William shrugged in amazement.

Fred had no clue as to how exactly how much wine Albert had ended up drinking; but from the wryness of William’s smile, he could at least tell that it was an amount beyond an ordinary person’s imagination.

Once again, Fred reflected on how it’d been a mistake in itself to challenge this monster to a fight.

“Although Moran seems to have given it his all this time around, as I thought: he was no match for you, nii-san.”

As if narrating Fred’s thoughts, William looked back on the outcome of the battle. Then, Albert picked up a bottle that still contained some liquor.

“Won’t you join me for a bit, William? Just to enjoy the wine.”

Despite having consumed a copious amount of alcohol, Albert was still game for more. But William waved a hand in refusal.

“I won’t. Anyway, I already had my fill over dinner.”

“That’s a pity; now that it’s just the two of us, I’d wanted to discuss its flavour at length with you.”

Saying that, Albert tilted his glass, and gently brought it to his lips. That gesture looked almost as if it’d been calculated down to the millimetre — the atmosphere surrounding him truly befitted that of a British aristocrat.

“…………”

William, the pivotal intellect of their organisation, and Albert, who was speaking to him.

Gazing vacantly at the two men, a thought suddenly struck Fred.

——How did this man come to be what he was today?

Albert had been born and raised as a noble — in this stratified society, he was considered part of the upper class.

But despite the position bestowed upon him by his birth, he had not sunk into the degenerate practices of the nobility; instead, his heart ached for the twisted nature of their country, and he wished to overturn it from its very foundations.

And the catalyst for all that, had been the two brothers he’d picked up.

Rather than indulging in their social positions and means, the Moriarty brothers instead refined their intellect and abilities with unyielding force of will, thus turning themselves into the “Lord of Crime” — an existence working in the shadows of Britain’s underworld.

Fred looked at Louis, asleep to his side, and then at William and Albert, who were engaged in conversation.

It was almost as if they’d been destined to meet.

——Could I, too, get closer to them?

Despite not being related by blood, Albert saw William and Louis as his brothers — the bonds between them were strong. In that case, perhaps Fred’s relationship with them could become even closer than what it was now.

Secretly, that thought blossomed in Fred’s heart.

“Well then, it’s getting late, so we should call it a night. Seeing as they’re asleep, what should we do with Louis and the colonel?”

Paying no heed to Fred’s longing gaze, Albert drained the last of his wine, and calmly got to his feet. Remaining seated, William spoke.

“Since they’re so soundly asleep, I’d hate to rouse them; let’s leave them be a while longer.”

“I see. Then I shall remain as well.”

Listening in to their conversation, all of a sudden, Fred remembered the important agreement that’d been made at the start of the match.

Nervously, he asked after Albert.

“Um, since I’ve lost, I suppose the forfeit will fall on me too……?”

Simply owing to the fact that he’d participated in the drinking contest, as one of the defeated parties, Fred had resigned himself to accepting the loser’s penalty.

However, Albert smiled.

“Aah, no need to worry about that. As you know, this match is a personal matter between the colonel and myself; I’m sorry you got caught up in it.”

“N-no, you don’t have to apologise. Even though it was a rather sudden turn of events, it was still my own decision to participate.”

At that unexpected apology, Fred waved both hands weakly. But Albert kept up that elegant smile of his as he continued.

“You don’t have to concern yourself with the forfeit. Well, even if I were fine with him doing it, the colonel would just be a right bother; so I’d be grateful if you could just tidy up the glasses we’ve used tonight.”

“T-Thank you very much.”

Having expected a bigger penalty, Fred was grateful for Albert’s magnanimity. In his heart, he heaved a sigh of relief, and proceeded to clear the glasses.

As he did so, Albert turned to look at Louis, who was still fast asleep.

“And since Louis was also caught up in this, I’ll exempt him as well.”

Then his focus shifted to Moran, who was slumped beside Louis.

“……Instead, I suppose I’ll have to give the colonel a proper punishment.”

“…………”

Although his voice had been calm, a disquieting feeling lingered around those words. Hearing that, even the agile Fred had unwittingly stopped in his tracks.

In place of Fred, whose face had paled, William asked after Albert with a wry smile.

“Nii-san, exactly what kind of punishment will you be giving him?”

Albert’s tone remained calm as always.

“Let’s keep that a secret for now. But no matter what it’ll be, I’m sure all of you can look forward to it.”

Saying that, Albert smiled. It was elegant to a fault.

“…………”

As he took the empty glasses, Fred looked at the sleeping Moran.

He’d set up this contest of his own accord: he had it coming for him. And yet, as Fred thought about what lay in store tomorrow for the man he saw as an older brother, he couldn’t help but feel a little sorry.

Just like this, the night to commemorate the founding of MI6, had drawn to a close.

T/N: …Do I really want to know what Albert’s gonna make him do? (ohoho)

Translator’s notes

Drinking capacities

I thought I’d summarise their relative strengths at drinking :3 From weakest to strongest:

Fred (<20 glasses)

Louis (30)

Moran (52)

Albert (52, and then some)

Though William didn’t participate in the end (aww), I would think he’s on par with Louis, and maybe even a bit stronger too.

The illustration

The illustration shows Moran slumped on a tiny coffee table of sorts; but I’m wondering where Louis and Fred are, since they were described as being asleep on the table beside Moran... Perhaps this is an incongruity between the story and the illustration?

[buckyownsmylife]

daddy issues - chapter ii

The one where Ransom doesn’t feel ready to become a father, but he should have thought about it before sleeping with a complete stranger.

When Ransom’s latest one night stand lets him know that he’s going to become a father, he finds himself looking for the qualities he never believed to have so he can become the parent he never got to witness as a child.

for general warnings and author’s notes, please go to the fic’s masterlist. It’s being constantly updated

Y/N Y/L/N wasn’t having a great day, but since most of her stress could be pinpointed to events that had happened over thirty days before, I guess you could argue that she wasn’t having a great couple of months. And she’d argue, she was a professor of Law, after all.

The truth was that it all had started over a month ago and she wanted to punch a lot of people for influencing her decisions that led her to this day, alone in her flat and pregnant, after confronting the father of her unborn child, of whom she knew next to nothing about.

The first person she’d like to blame was her idiotic colleague, Professor Steve motherfucking Rogers. He had been making her life miserable ever since she stepped foot in the university and refused his invitation for a date, but last month he had made it specifically difficult for her to ignore him.

Like, moving into her office difficult.

Of course, she was expecting to have to share the space, but the idea was that the next new professor that joined the staff would be the one to move into her office, and not one of the professors who *already had an office but decided that the location was inadequate for him. 

It was literally right down the hallway.

So Y/N now had to see him everyday, as opposed to the weekly staff meetings which used to be the only time she’d have to deal with him. And it just so happened that immediately after moving in, he decided it was time to start hitting on her again.

It’s not like Steve wasn’t attractive, that was actually part of the problem. He was very handsome and that, paired with his smooth talking and his incredible bright eyes, made it very difficult for her to continually tell him no. She had the hunch that he knew it, and that was why he kept insisting.

But you see, there was a reason why she had refused him, and the reason was that she didn’t want to date someone she had to work with. And she was glad that she had created that rule for herself, because it helped her see that Steve didn’t meet another of her very important rules: he didn’t respect her space.

So that is why her best friend, Ana, was the second person she wanted to hit. Because after sharing with her what her week had been like ever since Steve managed to move into her office, her friend decided the best way for her to let off some steam would be to go to a bar, get drunk, and find someone to go home with.

Now, Y/N hadn’t disagreed, despite the fact that the bar scene wasn’t necessarily her favorite spot to be at on a Friday night. But she was in a new city and it was time to try new things, so she accepted her friend’s soft push and accompanied her to a posh place called “La Manda”, which ended up being much fancier than she was expecting.

She quickly realized that was the reason for Ana demanding her to wear her favorite black dress. At least her friend had prevented her from being underdressed, but since her clothing wasn’t designer-made, she still felt a bit out of place. Everyone looked *expensive, and that was definitely something she was not.

Still, she had agreed to come out with her friend and she was already there. There was no reason to back out now. So she swallowed down her fears and ignored her discomfort, and ordered a martini to sip while they gossiped. At least the alcohol was always there to help her in awkward social situations.

Only an hour into the evening, Ana caught the eye of a handsome dark-haired man, and Y/N was many things, but a cockblock wasn’t one of them. So she insisted that her friend should accompany him to his place and assured her she’d be fine on her own. Ana had left with the stranger, but only after making her promise she’d stay for a bit and try to meet someone so she could have some fun, too.

That wasn’t a promise Y/N intended to keep, but Ana didn’t need to know that. All that mattered was that she didn’t stand in the way of her friend getting laid tonight. So the plan was for Y/N to finish her drink - she’d been on her second martini when the guy appeared, now she was halfway through her third - and she would bolt. 

Yeah. That was the plan. But what Y/N wasn’t expecting was for a gentleman to take a seat by her side at the bar and win her over with his cocky remarks and good looks. He wasn’t the type of guy she would go on a date with - it was clear that he thought too much of himself and Y/N could never bear people who thought money made them interesting - but she had to admit that he would be a good stress relief, and she was in desperate need of one.

When she cut to the chase and asked him if he was interested in taking her home, the look of surprise on his face was hilarious. Guess despite his handsome features, he wasn’t used to women who knew what they wanted and were clear about it. But Y/N had always treated sex just as it was: a human need that could be easily satisfied should two people agree on it. 

After laying it out in the open that all she wanted was a one-night stand, and he shouldn’t really look for her for anything more than that, the guy practically pounced on her, like her honesty was some type of foreplay for him. It almost made her laugh. But then his fingers found her clothed core under her dress and she almost choked, immediately jumping on him to take his lips with hers. 

Ransom - she’d learned his name during introductions, but wasn’t too worried about remembering it - took her to his place and she had to admit it was easily one of the best nights she’d ever spent with a partner. Then again, he had that kind of personality that made it clear he was well-experienced in bed, so she wasn’t too preoccupied about being disappointed. Come morning, however, she left before he woke up, only stopping to collect her purse that had been carefully deposited on a side table by the front door.

Her morning laziness had been the thing that saved her from a lot of trouble, for at the moment she pulled the bag, it brought down with it a pile of mail that had been sitting underneath it without her noticing it. When she bent down to pick it up, she caught sight of the name written on the delivery address. 

“Hugh Ransom Drysdale,” she had thought. “Huh. Guess I just slept with the playboy millionaire that’s being forced to take over his family’s publishing company.” And that was all that she expected to learn from him. When she took an Uber back to her place, she never thought she would be desperately googling his name in a little over a month, in an effort to figure out the address of where he worked. 

Guess life really has a way of fucking us all up when we least expect it.

[alicemitch09writes]

(un)loving miya atsumu

six

the boys in the club.

As soon as practice ended, you had just finished writing in the journal, signing off a few things, eyes glued to your written analysis and observations bent on heading home. Kaoru needed help with one of his homework and asked you earlier to help him.

Just then, a familiar voice called out to you.

“(Y/N)!”

Looking up, you meet the kind gaze of Aran. “We’re headin’ to that new boba shop by the station, wanna come with?” Behind him were Akagi, Oomimi, Kita, and a few other players, watching you with inviting smiles.

You paused, gripping on to your notebook.

Thing was, it had been a few days since the incident. As much as your seniors meant no harm, you didn’t want a reminder of your humiliation.

More importantly, this was Ojiro Aran – out of everyone in the team, he was the one who knew the twins best and the one of the few people they respected, he was their straightman as much as a big brother figure to them. And because you were associated with the twins, he had the same reception with you - if not, kinder and softer. Something akin to concern swam in those dark eyes of his, to which you had to ignore.

Atsumu – who was watching with a glare, brown eyes burning at you, threatening – would hate you even more for trying to take Aran from him.

And so, you shake your head. “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to pass. But please, enjoy for me.”

Without another word, you nodded at them all, ignoring the sad look in their eyes, and left.

"Torino?"

"Karasuno," you corrected, almost exasperatedly. Seriously, how old was Coach Kurosu again?

Realization dawns on him. "Ah, haven't heard that name in a while."

"Are they any good?"

"Dunno, they're an old powerhouse."

Humming, you look back at the pamphlet in your hands. "A rather glorious comeback, wouldn't you say?"

The older man pulls his head back, barking in laughter. "That's a rather poetic way of saying it!"

It would be something your captain would say, but currently, he's busy having a practice match with the rest of the team.

As always, with him on the court, everyone played to their best and didn't half-ass or slack. Heck, even Suna was doing some work!

But of course, there were his plays - graceful, smooth, and focused solely on the defense.

Definitely a clear cut choice of captain, the standard, in your opinion.

"Aran-san, nice serve!"

A blur of yellow and blue flies to his hand, dribbling it with his one hand as he walks to the end of the court and waits for the whistle. With him serving, it had everyone on high alert.

The ball flies up in the air, Ojiro runs up, hands raised to meet the falling ball, sending it flying to the other side of the court just barely touching the outer line. Still an in.

Definitely an ace alright, enough to be recognized in the country’s top 5 aces.

Whoever the next ace was – it’s going to be a tough call between Osamu and Ginjima - they have big shoes to fill.

Quickly, you write in your notebook.

'Ojiro serves: Ins - 5, Outs - 1'

After a week of exams, it was only natural that people reverted back to their normal state – you with managerial duties for the school’s illustrious volleyball club. Fresh out of the burn of their academics, everyone seemed to be in high spirits.

"What're you standing around the court for? Chase after it!" Coach Kurosu yells. "Geez, my dog chases balls better than these nitwits."

And there's his dog analogy, you thought to yourself, hilarious as always to hear.

On the other side of the court was a team composed of Suna, Osamu, Atsumu, and Ginjima - the trouble children, and two other second years. Opposing them were the third years - Kita, Akagi, Oomimi, Aran, one third year, and another second year.

Honestly, your captain would've done well as libero, with his amazing receiving skills and read of the ball's trajectory. He wasn't the team's defensive specialist for nothing. Nevertheless, as a wing spiker, he does well for his part. Regardless if his skills were average, just the way he presents himself in and out of the court was astounding.

"Suna, nice serve!" you called out, watching the tall boy walk back in line.

Just as the whistle blew, the ball was sent flying in the air leaving the opposing team scrambling.

For one rather lackadaisical, Suna's techniques were something. If only he gave his all in all of his games.

'Suna serves: Ins - 4, Outs - 0'

Seeing gray-dyed, you closely watched as Osamu toy with the current blockers, not once intimidated by Oomimi, the top blocker of the team.

As the ball appeared before him, instead of spiking it, he tossed it to his waiting twin, sending the ball to the other court. A flash of gold - a hungry look in his eyes as the ball goes the way he wanted it to go, enough to blind from your spot.

"The twins are on point today as usual," Coach Kurosu says with a nod. You nod with him, writing into your logbook.

'Miya Twins quicks: success - 6, fails - 1'

Yep, everyone was definitely in high spirits today.

Your thoughts and observations were echoed by the two coaches after practice, after congratulating them for all doing a great job during the previous week. Exams were no laughing matter, they were a test to see one’s mental and academic capability – as they were all students.

Now that you think about it, as Coach Oomi was telling off a few of the boys, you had to follow up on their performance once the results were out. Normally, they’d get their test results in a week’s time, probably.

After that, a short break for the holidays.

Must be nice…

"Ah, by the way," you call out, making your presence known and just before the coaches ended today’s practice.

All eyes were on you, attention on high. Turning to your coaches pointedly, expectantly, they only stared back, question in their eyes. Frowning, your head tilted slightly, they stared back. The frown on your face deepened, unamused.

Seriously?

Planting your hand on your hip, your expression sours. "You both forgot, didn't you?" they winced.

"A-Ah, you have to be specific, (L/N)." Coach Oomi defended, Coach Kurosu nodding beside him.

Your frown only deepened, eyes narrowing.

"We just talked about it before practice started," though your voice was even, there was enough bite to it. And though older than you, the two men felt small under your reprimanding gaze. More so when you sighed, as though you've said too much. “And you both told me to remind you about it before we end today’s practice.”

As the team watched, they felt just as though you were talking to the lot of them – your voice thick with disappointment. Kita watched, unaffected by it all almost amused by it all.

With a sigh, you turned to the team, eyes easily finding blond-dyed hair. "Miya Atsumu,"

The setter straightens at the sound of his name. "Y-Yes?"

Lifting your lips up, a gentle smile filled your face.  "Congratulations, you've been selected to join the All-Japan Youth Camp." You say with a smile – a true, genuine, and proud smile, despite knowing that you were the last person he’d like to hear it from.

Something in Atsumu starts at the sight of it.

It took a second for him to process your words, before he burst into joy. “Y-Yosha!”

Congratulations were tossed his way left and right from his teammates. Beside you, it seemed as though it finally came to the coaches as they sheepishly scratched the back of their heads, avoiding your gaze.

"W-Wait, how about 'Samu?" Atsumu asked, directing his question to you.

The smile on your face thinned. "Sadly, there's an invite for only one Miya."

Interestingly enough, Osamu’s only reaction was to blink, his gray-brown eyes becoming distant.

"B-But-"

"Should you have any concerns or queries, feel free to approach any of the coaches." There was a finality to your tone, causing the older men to jump.

“A-Ah, right. Thank you for that, (L/N).” says Coach Kurosu, smiling at you, apologetically and gratefully. He got a nod from you. “Again, congratulations Atsumu. Now for the rest of y’all, I don’t want the rest of you slacking behind just because of this, y’hear me?”

“No coach,” they replied.

“Alright, good. Dismissed.”

(A few days before his leave for Tokyo, Atsumu was at school with a rare free period shared with Osamu, Suna, and Ginjima. They all decided to head to the library, in lieu of studying but to loiter in actuality.

Atsumu was gushing to the brim, excitement in his bones to meet some interesting volleyball players from all across the nation. Heck, he might even see that one annoying player with the wicked spins on his serves.

“Ah, that’s Itachiyama’s Sakusa,” Ginjima says.

“Isn’t he one of the top high school aces in the country?” Osamu asked, voice thinly veiled with curiosity.

“Actually, he’s the top ace.” Suna said without looking up from his phone, fingers tapping and sliding every few seconds.

“Shit, for real?”

“He even beat Aran!”

A loud shush sounded off, the student librarian glaring at their table. The four boys quieted down, Osamu shoving at his twin, who retaliated with his own shove before Ginjima stepped in to break it off.

“Man, I’m gonna meet a buncha interesting people!” the setter gushes, he was practically radiating it off. In all their years playing volleyball, this was actually the first time that Atsumu was going alone. Although they talked it out with his twin, Atsumu sharing it with his brother and friends make it believable that he isn’t alone in this, it was enough to fill his spirits. (Nobody tell him he’s lonely about going alone, though)

“Just don’t go off starting a ruckus,” Osamu stands from his seat, because the student assistant was glaring holes into their table. He comes back a moment later with some books in his hands, a mix of cookbooks, sports, and literature books.

From his seat, the student assistant looked appeased by the sight of books before turning back to his duties. Their group exchanged snickers, returning to their idle state.

Just then, through the open doors, Ginjima caught sight of you passing by “Ah, it’s manager.”

Atsumu never turned so quickly on his life – which the Ginjima found rather comical – indeed finding you out the hallway uniform nice and tidy as always, not a hair out of place, with arms filled with textbooks.

With Kusakabe beside you.

It made his blood boil for some reason, seeing the two of you together – when there were a few other classmates as well. You’ve become close with Mr. Four-Eyes, it seems.

“Ah, she chose an extra class, right?”

“That’s right.” Osamu answered with a nod. “Chemistry, I believe.” To which everyone deflated at, it was a science with a bunch of math. Yet, unsurprisingly, it was rather fitting for you. It shouldn't also surprise them that you chose to add an extra class instead of having free time like them. College prep kids were built different, it seems.

Recovering, Ginjima watches the back of your head as he comments. “Ah, I keep forgetting manager’s in a college prep class.”

“Wasn’t her big sister in one, too?” asked Suna, looking up for once, chin resting on his folded arms.

When you were out of sight, Atsumu turned back to his group. “I think so? She was in Class 5?”

“Manager’s in Class 7, though.” Ginjima stated.

Suna scoffs. “There’s just a 2 difference.”

“Aren’t they just the same, though?” Atsumu frowned, now recalling how each of the (L/N) siblings were intellectuals. Mika, you, and Kaoru were all in honor’s classes, with you being in the classes for all of your middle school, junior high, and probably all of high school. Kaoru might even follow in your footsteps if he can balance soccer and his studies.

“Pretty much, I guess.”

“Nah, (Y/N)’s the smarter sibling.” Osamu answered again, rather smoothly almost defensively. “She’s been part of the top students since middle school.”

Ginjima and Suna hums, with the latter going back to browsing his phone.

“Osamu, you know a great deal about manager, huh?”

The corner of his lips twitch, briefly meeting his twin’s gaze before plucking a random book from their stack. “Yeah well, she’s my best friend.”

My best friend, Osamu says. Not ‘our’.

Ah, yeah, there was that. He couldn’t share the joy with you anymore.)

Walking down the busy hall, students flocking every corner, you carefully maneuvered even without looking up. What’s more, you were at the third year’s floor – which should intimidate lower year levels, but not you.

Glancing you, you found Class 5 and approached the door.

“Excuse me,” you asked the student closest to the door. “Is Aran-san around?”

“Ojiro?” turning to the room, the student called out. “Hmm, ah, there he is. Oi, Ojiro, someone’s here for you!”

As soon as he was called, a tall figure stands from his seat, eyes widening at the sight of you. He raises a hand as he approaches. “Yo, (Y/N), what’s up?”

“Ah, we’ve run low on some supplies,” you reported, hands folded behind you.

Almost immediately, he falls into vice-captain mode. “Yes, that! Well, don’t worry about inventory check because Shinsuke and I did them for you.”

“Really?" unconsciously, your shoulders relaxed. "That’s a relief.”

Aran's whole face softens down at you. “Hey, as captain and vice-captain, we’re both obliged to at least ease our manager’s burdens. We can help out, too, y'know?” You had to smile at that. “Just gimme a sec, I’ll get the list.”

You watch Aran walk back to his seat, leaving you alone to look around his classroom. It was no different than yours, except there was a certain feel to it. In fact, everyone in the room - although were, very much like you, students - had a feel that was different about them. Third years, huh?

“Here we go,” Aran returns with some papers in his hands.

“Thank you very much,”

“Now, don’t forget to ask the coaches-“

“Will do. By the way, how’s your little sister?” A little small talk couldn’t hurt, right?

The older teen sort of frowns, the same frown he uses on the twins. “I swear, the older she gets the more she’s getting on my nerves!”

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” you stifled a laugh, failingly. If you remember correctly, Aran’s little sister was just Kaoru’s age.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh about it all you want.” Sighing, he threw his hands in the air. “Why can’t she be more like you?”

“Cold, stoic, barely human?”

He sputtered, gesticulating rather dramatically. “Oi!”

“It’s the truth.”

Grumbling, he clears his throat, fixes himself into his big brother persona, arms folded over his chest for added effect. “I wish she was more collected and responsible, like you.”

“A ringing endorsement from one of the top high school aces, I’m flattered.”

Sharing laughter, he reached over to ruffle his hand over your head. “You at least deserve to be complimented every once in a while.”

You hum, warmed by his words. "You could at least just talk it out with her, that's how I deal with Kaoru."

"Yeah, but she doesn't take me seriously."

"Neither does Kaoru," Aran looks surprised by this, you can't blame him, your younger brother was a brat and a lot to deal with. "However, it does help to aptly remind him time and time again of his misdemeanor. You most certainly have to be strict with managing him but also respect their feelings. In addition, you must speak to them like a child and not a subject of some sort."

For some reason, he felt a chill run down his spine. "S-Sheesh, you sound like Shinsuke when you say that."

Unable to help yourself, the corner of your mouth lifts into a smirk-like smile. "Who do you think taught me all those?"

His expression flattens, eyes shut as it comes to him. "Ah. Man. Geez."

He then sighs in defeat, shoulders lifting and dropping. "Still wished she turned out like you, (Y/N)."

"Trust me, you don't want a boring little sister. Anyway, good luck with her though."

"Will do, thanks for the tips," he mutters a few things under his breath, something like a prayer.

Tucking the papers aside, you just about turned to leave when you nearly run into someone.

“Atsumu, watch where you’re going ya lug!” Aran says behind you. 

“S-Sorry-“ he looks down, eyes widening when he realizes he crashed into you, you blink back in concern. “S-Sorry-!”

“No, I’m sorry for not paying attention to my surroundings.” Taking a step back, you found Osamu, Suna, and Ginjima behind him - giving them all a bow before walking away.

Before he left for Tokyo though, both your families had a little get-together at the Miya residence.

To say it was awkward was an understatement, especially because of the rift between you and one particular twin, and because the family didn't exactly know about the situation - but you managed by helping around whilst the twins (plus Kaoru) played some games.

“Don’t you want to join them?” the Miya matriarch asked you kindly.

Over at the living room, the boys were loudly cheering, eyes glued to their game, Kaoru nestled between the twins.

You shook your head, focusing on chopping the vegetables. “I’m fine.” Cooking helped calmed you, busying your hands and sense of smell and taste helped calmed your nerves. Meticulously following through recipes in your head, focusing only on making delectable dishes for all.

As much as you can, you didn't want the family to notice something between you and Atsumu, didn't want to ruin the already bright atmosphere because of his success, didn't want to ruin his day, didn't want to ruin his reputation because of you.

Dinner was a quiet affair between the families, congratulating Atsumu over and over for qualifying for the All-Japan Youth Camp. Osamu heartily ate, sitting next to you, Atsumu to his other side. With his twin as the star of the feast, you saw him brimming with pride and a bit of shyness - especially in the presence of family. It made you smile, but only for a quick while.

So you ate quietly, keeping your head low.

It was already worth knowing how quiet you were unless asked a question. Nobody seemed to mind, used to your quiet presence.

"Kaoru, eat properly," you berate, reaching over, napkin in hand to wipe your brother's face.

It's also known that you were such a caring person - sister, most especially.

"You're almost an adolescent now and still you eat like a child." There was rice on his shirt on his table, how embarrassing. How is he 12?

"Nee-san, please!" At that, the adults laugh, seemingly used to it all. Even Atsumu laughed in. "I'm not a baby!"

"You'll always be a baby to us, brother boy." Atsumu teased your little brother, booping his nose with his finger.

Groaning, Kaoru angrily puts down his bowl and chopsticks, swatting you and Atsumu's hands away. The adults laugh again, especially at the combined forces of you and Atsumu.

The blond-dyed teen meets your eye, time freezing for a moment, you kept thinking of them as brown when they were actually honey brown. It was hard to look away from them, especially with how he took you in. Something kickstarted in your chest.

Clearing your throat, you quickly sit back, he does the same. Osamu fills his plate and yours too.

Feeling a vibration in your pocket, you take out your phone, eyes widening at a notification.

"Ah, Mi-" unsure how to address him, especially because the adults and Kaoru were there, you cleared your throat again, capturing everyone's attention, including Atsumu's. "Mika-nee sends her congratulations."

Like magic, his whole face lights up like a Christmas tree. Misery, it was it feels like, followed by a thousand arrows shot through your already fragile heart.

"She furthers that, 'she knew you could do it. Have fun in Tokyo,' it was a miracle how firm you kept your tone, in its usual monotonous tone. "And 'hello to everyone, I miss you all.'"

The adults then turn to tease Atsumu, Osamu reminding his twin that your sister was still with her boyfriend, resulting in them fighting. Bemused by their usual antics, the adults ask you questions about your sister's well-being, you answered as best you could before they began to talk amongst themselves about traveling, allowing you to wallow on the pain.

Yep, that was the Mika effect.

She could light up a room by just the mention of her name, amplifying the happiness of someone's achievement.

And who were you? Just a bystander. A ghost, even. Your words meant absolutely nothing, especially for Atsumu.

But - you peeked up, seeing him steal from Osamu's plate - at least it made him happy, right?

As much as it pained you, that smile on his face was everything.

"Nee-san, can you pass me some meat please?" Kaoru asks you politely, rice sticking to his cheeks.

Swallowing the pain, you robotically reach out and placed an ample amount into his waiting plate, grateful for the distraction.

Again, this was about Atsumu. Not about you.

Reaching over, you were just about to clean his face when he does it himself. "I can do it myself, nee-san." your little brother's grin was a mess, yet you couldn't find it in your heart to get mad, especially at the proud look on his still messy face.

With Atsumu gone for a whole week, and nationals coming up soon, practice as of late has been hectic and hard. Also, because the team was short of one Miya, it went quietly and peacefully – a strange and rather unnatural occurrence. That excuse any kind of indolence though, especially with nationals drawing near.

"Put your backs into it!" barked Coach Kurosu.

Somehow, because nationals were coming, practice went on slower than usual. And that was saying, you were still in the middle of winter.

The boys had to work themselves to the bone, beating the chilly winter breeze, pumping the blood in their veins. Each player gave their all, yelling out when both coaches couldn't hear them.

Blowing on your whistle, you called out. "Alright, take a 10-minute break." 

Never have you seen the whole gym deflate, thankfully.

Heck, it was only the first half of practice!

Water bottles were handed and consumed in record time, a few players even fell to the ground, legs raised against the wall.

"I'm gonna die!" 

"You're not going to die," you retort at the first year. "Just don't force yourself." The first year whines once more.

"There's a difference between forcing yourself and giving your all in a game," a cold voice added in, causing the first year to shoot up sitting. "That being said, you needn't need to slack off. Just play like you usually would."

"Y-Yes, Kita-san!"

Huffing you turned to your captain, who blinked back at you. 

"Good work today, captain."

"Practice is far from over, (L/N)." he mused, eyes bright.

Humming, you glance at the stopwatch - eight minutes had just passed. (E/c) eyes then drifted over the gym, over the heads of the club members, a sea of black and white practice uniform. This was a scene you were used to all of your two years as manager, for all of four seasons. 

Somehow, just looking out at it all, something felt missing.

No, not something - someone.

Someone with golden blond-dyed hair, bright honey brown eyes, a sly smirk, and astounding presence.

It was missing one Miya Atsumu.

Glancing back at the stopwatch, a minute had just passed you realized.

Lifting your head again, you were met with the same view. 

Sighing, you pocket the stopwatch and announce the remaining minutes of practice there was left. Frowning at nothing, you felt something tug at your ponytail. Looking over, you were met with a darker version of a person in your head - darker hair, darker eyes, same gentle eyes.

"Osamu, what's up?"

"Can you help me tape up?"

"...that's rare, you don't normally tape up your hands." you say, leading the two of you to where the first aid kid was.

"It's winter," was all he reasoned, almost in a grumble. Almost childishly.

It almost made you snort, that was usually his brother's complaint - as he was more particular with his hands and being a setter in general.

"(Y/N), please." he whined, causing you to roll your eyes.

"Yes, yes."

With one Miya short, it meant one was left behind - Osamu.

Even without his twin, he pretty much carried himself just fine. Between the two, he was much more independent. Atsumu was always the clingy twin.

And with his older twin away, that meant, more time with the lad. More time with your best friend.

But as the saying goes, two is better than one.

Two Miyas is better than one.

Still, you made the most out of it, since there was no way you coming in between the brothers.

“You said that chicken noodle soup is your ultimate comfort food, right?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

Osamu was silent for a moment, watching the steaming white rice in front of both of you. “Mine’s onigiri.”

For some reason, that surprised you. “Really? Not your mom’s-”

“Yeah.”

Hands washed, the two of you dug on to the bowl of rice, carefully shaping it in your hands. “That’s a surprise. You never told me that.”

Although, it did explain how after you moved in and met him, he was asking you to help him make onigiri. Much like now. Except with his chubby hands then, most of his end product ended up badly shaped, too soggy, bland, or lacking.

Years of practice saw to his improvement, with his onigiris being perfectly shaped, flavorful, and rich in texture enough to beat the rice balls at convenient stores. Not to mention that he’s grown a penchant for cooking, after being friends with you.

Rice was a rather versatile grain that has a lot of varieties, depending on how you choose to make use of it. Japanese dishes were mostly simple but made had a lot of intricacies that rivaled gourmet dishes. Onigiri had a lot of variants – white rice, wrapped, seasoned, mixed rice, fillings, to name a few.

But for Osamu, the humble white rice onigiri was his favorite.

It was worth noting that through the years you’ve watched him mold his rice – once, burning his hands because they were too hot or because he was too impatient – he seemed rather determined in the process. He shaped the onigiri as though he were holding something precious, taking careful means, making sure that he had the right amount of seaweed and mayonnaise.

Most of his onigiris were huge, like the size of his hand. Well, he was an athlete and a huge glutton – so those two combinations spoke plenty. However, when he finally finished his first perfect onigiri, something crossed his eyes – it sent a twinge in your heart, seeing so much emotion in those usually guarded eyes of his.

“Osamu?”

The boy just stared at his onigiri for a while, as though in disbelief. Upon closer inspection, he looked as though he were in a daze.

“…have I ever told you why it’s my comfort food?”

There seemed a weight to his words, shown in the way his eyes glazed over a simple homemade rice ball. People have different ways of expressing themselves, some through writing, some through sports, some even through cooking.

Osamu conveyed his feelings through cooking, it seems.

Turning to face him, you wore a gentle smile. “I would very much like to hear it.”

Meeting your gaze, slowly, his lips lift into a smile.

Over a plate of perfectly made onigiris, Osamu tells you a story of his first love.

There was a knock at your door, followed by the doorknob turning. “Nee-san,” came your little brother’s voice, accompanied by crinkling plastic. “here.”

Flipping on to the next page, busily writing into your notebook,  was all he got. You barely looked up from your notes!

Miffed, he tried calling you again, “Nee-san!” he dragged on the first syllable, doing the same with the last syllable with a baby voice. To no avail, much to Kaoru’s disappointment.

Though you were wearing earbuds, normally Kaoru would hear soft, gentle tunes playing off it, so you could still hear him. Only, you were really into your notes, as though your own brother wasn’t in the same room as you.

Puffing his cheeks, he paddled up towards you, poking you in the cheek. “Nee-san,” Much more disappointed and annoyed, he looks at the plastic in his bag, carefully lifts it up until the cold plastic touches your cheek, the touch shocking you instantly.

“Ah, Kaoru,” You gently pushed him away from you, pulling your earbuds off, rubbing at your cold cheek. “what are you doing here?”

“I knocked!” his cheeks were still puffed, the (adorable) frown on his face easing. “Here.” He raises the plastic earlier to you, at an eye level.

Bubble tea.

Blinking, you carefully take it from your brother’s hands. “Who’s it from?”

“Atsumu-nii and Osamu-nii.”

Your brows furrowed at that. “Both of them?”

“Yep! I have one, too!” he showed his own drink, heartily sipping from it, unaware of the questioning look in your face and tone.

You would understand if Osamu bought it, but Atsumu? And Kaoru, as much of a brat he can be at times, hardly lied – at least to your face. And he loved the Miya twins. He was also scared of lying to your face.

“We’re about to eat dinner, though.” You berate, especially at the amount of sugar in his drink. “When did they give it?”

“Just minutes ago! Atsumu-nii handed it over because Osamu-nii had to make dinner.” Ah, so that confirms it then.

Humming, you take the drink in your hand. “Thanks, Kaoru.”

The little boy toothily grins. “You’re welcome, nee-san!” rushing to the door, he turns to tell you, “I’ll come back when dinner’s ready!”

“Yeah, thanks.”

With a click, you were alone in your room once more. Music softly played from your earbuds, homework sitting idly.

Surprisingly, the drink was still cold. Just how long ago did they buy this?

Atsumu and Osamu bought this, you remind yourself, twisting the drink in your hand, fiddling with the straw with your other hand. Straightening your drink, you punctured your straw in.

Taking a sip, you let the flavors settle in your tongue before swallowing. “…not too sweet, just salty enough.” Just the way you like it.

Twirling the drink in your hand, it just occurred to you that today was Atsumu's return from Tokyo.

masterlist • seven

[nonstoplover]

all that i need ~ fred weasley

summary: when the Weasley twins prank the possibly shiest girl of Hogwarts, what they don't expect at all is her performing a similarly playful, mischievous and very much impressive revenge on them, but oh boy, what a pleasant consequence it leads to.

pairing: Fred Weasley x Ravenclaw (female) reader

words: 5.2K

meaning of:

• (y/h/l) means 'your hair length'

• (y/e/c) means 'your eye colour'

a/n: this is written for @weasleydream​ 's 500 writing challenge (you deserve it all, love xx), and it's my first ever Harry Potter themed piece of writing! i'm nervous oh lord. also this has officially become the longest imagine i have ever written!

the prompt: "And the truth is, baby, you're all that I need." - Bon Jovi

(kinda) warnings: i have no clue if hairdye is a thing in the wizarding world or not, or even if the twins would do such a childish prank, but i couldn't think of a better idea, so sorry it'll have to do xxx i hope you still enjoy though

my masterlist

Ever since they woke up, Fred and George spent their time trying to decide who should fall victim to their next prank. Who would give them the best reaction?

They eat their breakfast in silence, only occasional names spoken out loud fill the air every other minute when someone new pops in their heads. But somehow nobody seems fitting, which makes the level of frustration grow swiftly in their bodies.

Knowing they have a class to attend, a couple minutes later the two of them move simultaneously to follow the crowd out of the Great Hall, an unusual moody seriousness displaying on their faces.

Just as Fred goes to step through the door and turn to the needed corridor, something bumps into his body, so hard that it makes him stumble back into his twin brother. The air that's been knocked out of his lungs leaves him in a gasp as his eyes try to focus on the sight in front of him, anger rising inside him, slowly clouding his mind.

Just as he's about to open his mouth, he recognises the person kneeling in front of him, gathering her things with hurried movements, and all his previous thoughts leave his mind, letting a new one appear and take all the space in there.

The smirk slowly but surely makes its way onto his face as (y/n) stands back up, her face flushed red. Her hair is a mess, her blue and bronze scarf is almost falling down, seemingly she threw it around her neck in a total hurry. She clutches a couple books to her chest, her (y/e/c) eyes glued to her shoes as her fingers drum a fast rhythm on the bottom book's hardcover case.

"Sorry," she mumbles so quiet it's almost inaudible, then she moves past Fred and disappears in the Great Hall.

Fred glances to the side, seeing the exact same thought that fills his mind written on George's face. They finally know who their next victim is gonna be.

(y/n) slumps down on the bench beside the Ravenclaw table and hides her still burning cheeks in her palms. As if it hasn't already been a misfortunate, bad day. She woke up late due to staying up reading half the night before and so she had to rush through the castle to be able to grab some breakfast before her first class starts. On her way down she first stepped on a loose shoelace, sending her flying down the rest of the staircase, then to top it all, she embarrassed herself running straight into none other than Fred Weasley on the corridor - so close to her final destination - , falling to the ground hard enough for it to probably leave bruises on her body and throwing her books all across the air.

Fred Weasley. The boy she has the most ridiculous crush on. She has always been a dreamy person, all the books she's read has raised the bar high when it comes to boys, but it seems like Fred is able to go higher than that, at least in her eyes. It doesn't even matter that she doesn't know him that well. Hell, she's not even sure he even knows her name.

Still, what she feels whenever Fred's around is the strangest thing ever, even to her - a person who's had multiple huge crushes already in her life. Her cheeks flush bright pink whenever she thinks about him. She's always admired the flaming red locks of his hair, the tallness of his figure, the mischievous glint that endlessly sparkles in his eyes, the seemingly all the time present smile or grin on his face, and all the brilliant ideas he and his twin brother come up with for their pranks.

She's been feeling this way ever since the Christmas break of their first year. Which means she's crushing on him for years now. And it's absolutely ridiculous, really. She knows he's way out of her league. He's one of the most popular boys in Hogwarts, many girls swoon whenever they look at him. And she'll never talk with him, not as long as it's her concern. She's too shy to be able to open her mouth in his presence - not that she talks so much otherwise. And it's possible that he didn't even know the fact she exists. At least before she flew straight into him.

Of all the people she could've bumped into, it had to be Fred Weasley. Oh, no.

As she shovels some food in her mouth, she makes a mental promise to never stay up late reading again. Then she gathers her things back up in her arms and with a sigh escaping her lungs starts running again, hoping not to arrive (too) late to class.

That afternoon the two redheaded Weasley boys sit in the Gryffindor common room, gathering all their knowledge about the girl that ran into Fred earlier so they can start planning the perfect way to carry out the prank.

What they have is not much, but still enough for them to come up with The Plan in less than an hour.

(y/n) is the most introverted and shy person the twins have ever seen. She rarely talks with anyone, not even from Ravenclaw, her own house, and when she does, her voice is shaky and quiet, her sentences short and swiftly spoken.

She's in the same year as the two of them, which means that they've often seen her in classes, but barely in other situations. She never attends Quidditch matches or other social happenings, barely goes to Hogsmeads, and whenever they happen to accidentally cross ways with her, she's huddled up in a corner or on a windowsill in a more hidden and secluded corridor of the castle, eyes glued to the pages of the book in her hands, her mind seemingly far away, travelling to whatever world she's reading about.

A couple days have passed since the girl bumped into Fred and now the two boys are waiting in their hiding spot for her to walk past them. They previously mapped out her usual routes to make sure she'll walk the way they want her to and now it's only a matter of time when their prank will finally be fulfilled.

It doesn't take long until her figure appears at the end of the corridor, growing bigger and bigger with every step. Fred holds back his breath, already imagining how hilarious her reaction will probably be as a wordless countdown starts in his head, the rhythm of it adjusting to the speed of her steps.

And 3, 2, 1...

It takes a second or two for (y/n) to regain consciousness and she blinks once or twice, trying to remember what happened. She tries to focus again, meanwhile her hands tap their surroundings, feeling the cold stone laying under her touch and she comes to the sudden realisation that she's laying on the ground. As her fingers move further from her body, they touch something gooey and she flinches from the slightly disgusting feeling.

She fainted. That's the only thing she knows for sure. But why? What happened? She rarely faints, and when she does, the cause has to be something big and serious.

When her eyes are finally able to focus again, she sees two heads framed with ginger hair leaning down from above her, concerned expressions on both their faces.

(y/n) pushes herself up on her elbows, looking around and all of a sudden a new wave of realisation hits her. The Weasley twins pranked her. She became victim to one of their (sometimes slightly vicious) jokes. Seeing all the gaping mouths and wide eyes belonging to dozens of students standing in the background, she wonders what the prank might have been.

Her eyes take in the green, thick liquid she's laying in the middle of, and just as she's about to ask them what on Merlin's beard is that, she feels a drop land on her collarbone, right where her robe has fallen to the side to expose her skin.

Reaching up with her fingers she gathers it up so she could take a look at it. When her eyes take in the tips of her fingers now hovering in front of her face, she finds the exact same liquid colouring her skin.

Did that drop come from her hair?

Slowly she cards her fingers through her hair, finding it wet and clammy. It indeed came from her hair. She moves her glance back up at the Weasley twins, and just as their eyes connect and Fred opens his mouth to say something - even he himself doesn't know what he wants to say, probably a simple sorry or how are you -, suddenly loud laughter bubbles from her lungs.

The loud noise fills the otherwise completely silent corridor and as she doubles over in laughter, the two boys squatting on each side of her laying body share a confused look.

Fred is sure he's never been more shocked than in that very moment as he watches the girl covered in emerald green hairdye laugh endlessly. He expected her to jump and squeal frightened, to cry and shout angry profanities at him (or more likely them), to run away embarrassedly. But now she's sitting in front of him in a puddle of enchanted hairdye, laughing so hard she has to clutch her sides.

The thoughts seemingly froze in his mind, he can't understand what has just happened. She seemed like the typical girl who wouldn't appreciate a joke like this, but now seeing the exact opposite, Fred suddenly doubts everything he's ever thought.

He sees George slowly stand back up to his feet and after a moment he feels a nudge against his shoulders coming from his brother's knees. He follows George's movements and stands up, but his mind still seems unable to work.

(y/n)'s laughter slowly fades back into a slight giggling and she watches the twins disappear behind a corner with an amused glint in her eyes. Still quietly enjoying herself she gathers her bag and stands up, glancing at the way the liquid drips from her clothes and hair. She takes a deep breath, grabs the edges of her robe and lifts them, then swiftly jogs down the corridor to get to her dorm without leaving too much of a green mess behind her.

Then he shakes his head and moves down the corridor, his twin mirroring him effortlessly as if they were the exact same person just twice. Glancing around the students still lounging there he sees a similar surprise displayed on all of their faces and out of nowhere he feels the blood rush to his cheeks, probably painting his skin in a colour similar to his hair.

Five days have passed and the twins are still not able to comprehend the reaction they never expected but still witnessed. Though proudness doesn't fail to sweep in their veins whenever they catch a glimpse of the bright emerald green in the crowd of students, casting a smirking glance at each other every time.

The first thing (y/n) did arriving back to her dorm was rushing in the shower, trying to wash the paint out from her hair even though she was a hundred percent sure the hairdye was enchanted. She was right. When she got out of the shower and dried her hair, she let out a sigh and turned towards the mirror, expecting to see a ridiculous version of herself.

What surprised her almost even more than the prank itself was how she actually liked the image she saw in the reflection. She liked the way the green complemented her skin, the way it looked great with the Ravenclaw colours, the way it was something different, and the colour itself was gorgeous in her eyes. And as she was looking at her own reflection, she felt a new, unfamiliar emotion appear inside of her. Confidence. The green hair made her feel badass.

Nevertheless, for the next day or two she was endlessly thinking about a way to get revenge, just for the fun of it. To show the twins that they're not the only one who can prank innocent and clueless students.

Now on the fifth day of being green haired she gets up early on purpose to be one of the firsts at the Great Hall, wanting to see if the revenge she carried out the day before has any visible consequence. Her eyes stay glued to the door as she chews on a toast mindlessly, waiting for the two identical tall boys appear, and she doesn't have to wait too long before amongst a small group of Gryffindors they enter the Great Hall, the sight almost immediately making (y/n)'s lips curve into a proud and mysterious smirk.

When Fred wakes up and gets changed, he notices nothing extraordinary. Everything is the same, the morning starts just like every single day in Hogwarts has ever started. Though only a couple minutes later as he waits for George and Lee in the common room to finally be able to go down to have breakfast, he starts feeling something weird on his skin.

Whenever he moves and his sweater and jeans move against him, even if only the slightest bit, he feels itchy. He swiftly makes his way back to his dorm to get changed, a frown sitting on his forehead as he tries to figure out what causes the invisible irritation.

George glances at him with a curious look in his eyes, watching as his brother swiftly pulls the materials off his body and grabs a new set of clothes to get into. As soon as he's ready, Fred starts pacing up and down the room, moving his arms and legs in a funny way, occasionally stopping for a moment or two.

By now both Lee and George stand in the doorway, biting back laughter as they watch the hilarious scene unfold in front of their eyes.

"What's gotten into you?"

Fred comes to yet another halt and glances at his brother upon hearing his voice.

"I don't know, something's weird with my clothes," he mutters, both hands raising to scratch his body furiously.

His brother raises an amused eyebrow, sharing a confused but entertained look with the third friend before shrugging and turning around.

"We're going down, join us when you're ready," George announces, then jogs down the stairs, Lee following suit.

The left alone redhead sends a frustrated look their way just as his stomach lets out a hungry growl. Fred looks down letting out a sigh, then he shrugs and makes his way after his best friends, swiftly catching up with the now bigger group - a couple girls from their year and Ginny with her friends joining them in the common room.

Fred keeps rubbing his fingers against his body, the itchiness slowly being unbearable. And sometimes it feels like it just gets worse and worse the more he scratches.

(y/n) ducks her head to hide the erupting giggle, but keeps glancing back again and again to see the result. Fred's constant fidgeting fills her with a new kind of joy and pride, and fearing that her contribution to his problem might be too obvious if the redhead's moving eyes accidentally found her, she stands up and with her glance cast to the ground hurries out of the Great Hall, thanking Merlin for it to be Saturday so she can hide somewhere without the risk of having a class together with Fred where she could easily expose herself.

From the corner of his eyes, Fred notices a flash of green but by the time his head instinctively turns towards the source that piqued his ever observing interest, it - or more like she, as Fred's a hundred percent sure the greenness had to be the dyed hair he caused - has disappeared. Though a moment later he doesn't even remember the event as the itchiness starts again and his mind goes back to trying to figure out a solution to the problem he's facing.

When he finishes breakfast - faster than he usually does - he jumps up from his seat and without another word, disappears from the Great Hall before his twin could even process his hurried leaving. He gets back to his dorm in no time, and immediately falls to his knees as his hands reach out for the clothes he has changed out of not long ago, eyes focusing on even the smallest details of them to find something.

It only takes a couple minutes before something out of place catches his eyes. Triumphantly he pinches the small string between two of his fingers, raising it high up in the air so the light would fall on it better. He examines it for one or two seconds, and it's enough for him to come to a conclusion, which is that it is indeed a piece of hair, and that its colour is very much green. Bright, emerald green. The one colour his eyes have grown so used to in the past few days that he would recognise it whenever and wherever.

His arms lower on their own, his eyes staring at but not seeing the bed in front of him as the small voice in his head keeps repeating a single word. A name.

(y/n).

An amused grin leisurely makes its way onto his face, eyes sparkling with an impressed happiness. He never expected the shy and extremely introverted bookworm girl to laugh loudly after falling victim to a prank by the Weasley twins, so he has already been taken aback by her reaction. But if there's one thing he would never ever have considered an option, one thing he truly never ever expected is her to prank him back.

He starts chuckling, just staring at the piece of (y/h/l) emerald hair, enjoying the unusual feeling inside his body - butterflies fluttering around his belly, his heart beating so fast he's sure his chest would burst, and the laugh that seems to fill even his veins up.

For a few minutes he just kneels there on the ground, basking in his mixture of emotions, then when he eventually gets over the initial shock (y/n) caused him, without another thought he springs up to his feet and dashes out of the dorm, out of the Gryffindor common room, down multiple corridors.

Since he's payed so much attention to the girl in the past days, he knows all the possible places she can be at and it only takes three tries for him to finally catch sight of her, sitting in a more secluded corner of the library, not at all surprisingly reading a book.

Fred slows down, letting his fastened heartbeat get back to normal as he approaches her, a small smile still stuck on his face.

"Hey," he speaks softly after stopping next to her.

(y/n)'s head snaps up so fast Fred fears it might break but as soon as his eyes connect with her bright and widely open (y/e/c) ones, all his thoughts get erased from his mind.

How come I never noticed how beautiful her eyes are? - Well, maybe 'cause she hides them with her constant reading and the way she never locks eyes with anyone, Fred thinks, not being able to form any more coherent thought than these.

His eyes drown in hers before making their way further, looking at every detail of her face. He has looked at this emerald green hair so many times in the past couple days and still, he never noticed how amazing it looked on the girl. Now he sees that she easily owns this hair colour, looking absolutely breathtaking as she glances up at his tall figure from her sitting position.

Several long seconds later he realises that he hasn't spoken a single word and that he seemingly fell into some trance so he quickly shakes his head, trying to get his usual thoughts back in there.

"Do you still have some from that itchy powder thingy? I'd like to buy it, I feel like it would be nice for a new prank," he smirks at her and what already seemed impossible for him happens: the girl's eyes widen even more.

(y/n) gulps, the thoughts - opposite to Fred's previous situation - swirling with extreme rapidness inside her head. How could he find out it was her so fast? She was so careful for it not to be obvious.

She already knew Fred is way more clever than what people usually give him credit for, but he's seemingly able to overachieve even her high expectations - and to do it so effortlessly.

"I-I... sorry, the what?" She manages to mumble in the end.

His lips curve into a knowing grin and his eyes start twinkling in a playful, entertained way.

"The thing that makes stuff itchy," Fred explains with a look that says 'we both know what I'm talking about but I still enjoy this little game you're playing'.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm sorry," (y/n) answers after a - hopefully not visible - gulp, and she feels proud at herself for keeping her voice steady and her face serious.

Though the next moment two things happen that shatter everything she's carefully built in the past minute or so to the ground. One, with an absentminded hand Fred reaches up to scratch swiftly at the side of his torso and as (y/n)'s eyes insinctively follow his movement, she's suddenly unable to hide the joyful look in her eyes and the quivering of her lips as she bites into her bottom lip to prevent herself from giggling. Two, with his other hand - now very much on purpose - Fred holds up something into the air between them, right in front of the girl's eyes, and at the exact same moment her teeth sink into her lip, her eyes focus on the piece of hair dangling from in-between the ginger boy's fingers.

Her own hand subconsciously reach up to touch her own hair tuck behind her ears as her jaw falls slack and lips open to form a smaller gap in the shape of a squashed version of the letter O.

"Are you sure?" Fred's confident and amused voice brings her back to reality and as she tears her eyes away from his fingers and back to his eyes, she all of a sudden has no clue what to say.

A second passes or two as her mind slowly starts working again and she lets out a sigh, feeling the heat appear in her cheeks as the rising blush colours her skin pink.

"I thought I did a good job," she mumbles to herself, slightly disappointed in herself.

Fred moves to sit down on the chair next to her beside the table, his playful grin softening back into a tender smile. "Well, love, if you ask me, I think you did quite a spectacular job with this."

Her eyes shoot back up into his as he drops the green piece of evidence onto the ground with a small movement of his fingers. Her heart first skipped a beat when she heard the nickname he used, then skips for the second time when she realises how close the two of them are as she raises her head, then for the third time when their eyes lock again and she sees the instensity in his kind, brown orbs that seems to make her drown then and there.

Her eyes move across his face, then flicker down to his lips for the shortest moment for her to be able to memorise all the details of him, the arrangement of his freckles, the way his eyes sparkle, the way that lovely, heartwarming smile splits his face in two - just in order to let her dream (and daydream) about him more precisely in the future.

Everything seems to disappear around her and time slows down, making each second feel like an hour and she basks in the feeling of being under his intense gaze - something that has only happened in her dreams before.

Unable to take it all in and equally unable to stop herself, she glances back to his lips for another moment, just in time to see the tip of his tongue appearing to lick his lips and she can't help but gulp.

Fred's lips curve into a smirk yet again, watching her reaction of being so close to him and feeling it boost his confidence - not that he actually needed that so bad, but it still feels good - and the newly appearing cockiness makes (y/n)'s eyes dart back up to his eyes. And just like that she suddenly has no clue where she is and why is she there in the first place, she even forgets to breathe under his look.

And even Fred has to admit that being only inches away from the girl made something turn inside him and out of nowhere he feels the same symptoms as she does - only significantly less powerful. He feels his breath hitch and he feels the whole world around them fade away. His thoughts slow down and he has to force himself to remember back to why he has come to the library in the first place. Quite painfully but he's eventually able to think about the girl's enchanting presence and he focuses on what he has wanted to say again.

"I'm actually pretty impressed by your prank," he admits and feels lightheaded by the way she blushes even more and how the small, shy smile makes its way onto her lips.

"Thank you," she breathes out. The next moment she closes her eyes for a second, simply letting herself fully enjoy the feeling of being this unbelievably close to the boy for the last time, and then before her heart would take over her rational thoughts once more, she slightly leans back, moving further from the boy - trying to break away from his intoxicating atmosphere.

Fred can't help but feel a tiny bit disappointed by the sudden distance between them and that it was the girl to pull away, but he swiftly gathers his thoughts back to more relevant ones.

"Though I have to ask, why me? Why not George or the both of us?" He asks, a curious look appearing in his eyes under (y/n)'s watching ones.

"I didn't have much time and I guess your bed was the closer one to the door," she shrugs and Fred lets out yet another chuckle, slightly throwing his head back in entertainment, mental images of her sneaking in his dorm filling his mind.

Oh, how happy he is for having that very bed.

He starts wondering how she was able to sneak into the Gryffindor common room in the first place. It must've been difficult. And she couldn't have known if there was anyone in there who could've seen her. Yet still she managed to get in there and what is more, up to his dorm room, to carry out her prank. Suddenly it seems even more impressive and Fred's heartbeat fastens again in a way it never did before.

His thoughts move further, desperately trying to find a way to keep this extremely talented prankster in his life before the simplest idea pops in his head.

He swiftly straightens his back, eyes lighting up in excitement, his movements so sudden that it scares (y/n), making her jump in her seat. "You know, I had an idea just right now."

The girl waits patiently for him to continue, her heart pounding fast and loud in her chest, making her think that he must hear it by how incredibly loud it seems inside her head.

"You should join us."

Confusion makes her frown as she tries to makes sense of his words, because even though they're simple and there's only four of them, for her mind it seems like she has heard the longest and most acutely phrased sentence.

"Join?"

"Yeah, me and George. With pranks."

"Pranks? Me? Why?" (y/n) can't help but feel utterly dumb for asking so many questions but she just can't help herself. In her mind, the Weasley boy's words make absolutely no sense.

"I think we need a new perspective, the new ideas you can provide, and the professionality you seemingly make pranks happen with," Fred speaks as if he's just had the discovery of the century, eyes wide with joy and excitement. "At least I clearly do, beside you I feel like I can just hide away."

"That's not true," (y/n) shakes her head in disapproval. "You're way better than I am."

"Let's just settle on more experienced, alright?" The ginger boy smiles at her, not wanting to get in an argument when seemingly they represented the two opposing sides in this question.

She's just too shy to admit how incredible she is.

"If nothing else, you can just give us new ideas and we'll do them on our own. Come on, it'll be fun!" The small voice in Fred's mind tells him that his desperate attempt to convince her is totally unlike him and is absolutely ridiculous, he can't stop it. He knows that if he left without making her agree, he'd regret it for the rest of his life. So with a softening voice, he adds one more - probably embarrassing - thing. "I need the new perspective you'd bring."

The frown is still clear on (y/n)'s forehead even though inside she's already bursting with happiness. She has never expected to hear such words from none other than Fred Weasley himself.

She takes a few deep breaths to try and collect her thoughts and words when suddenly, she feels a previously never felt, enormous wave of confidence fill her veins.

"I thought the prank master himself, Fred Weasley doesn't need anyone," she quirks an eyebrow, her lips curving into a wide, playful and absolutely mischievous grin similar to his - especially after hearing her complementing words, his own widens even more, face seeming to actually split in two.

His heart beats rapidly in his throat as he lightly places a palm on top of her hand that rests on the table, and he looks deep in her eyes, voice turning completely serious. "The truth is, love, you're all that I need."

And just as her eyes widen once more, he leans in to press the softest, shortest kiss on her lips, heart bursting with a newly found feeling as he feels her melt under his touch and respond to his action.

Out of nowhere he feels a hundred percent sure that his life has just become fully complete and that from now on, it's gonna be an even more amazing ride with this incredible girl by his side.

.::the end::.

my masterlist

[sillyrabbit81]

Her Heavy Cross

Summary: Three years after tragedy hits, Lana she decides to start dating again. She meets Will through a dating app and they begin an online romance. After months of constant requests, Lana relents and agrees to meet and go on an irl date with Will. But is Will who he says he is? Lana is quickly pulled into an intense relationship forcing her to confront her tragic past. Will Lana face it or will she close her heart forever?

Pairing: OMC x OFC

Word Count: approx 2.7k

Warnings: swearing, angst, drunk, motion of death

Authors Note: The story started as a Henry Cavill fanfiction but I changed it to be an original character, but shades of Henry are still there. Hope you enjoy the story and thanks for reading.

Part 2 Part 4

Part 3

In less than ten minutes, we had pulled up to Liam's house. Liam paid for the taxi too. I kind of argued this time, but he pointed out he asked me to his house. I didn't get too stubborn about it.

Liam was living in a four-story terrace house, recently renovated by the looks of it. It was painted white with black wrought iron lacework, and it was beautiful. The front door and windows were painted black. It appeared to be the twin of the house that shared its wall.

We entered through the dining room, and I realised it was actually the two houses renovated together. The inside was modern with original heritage touches. The floors were light timber, and the walls were white. The ceilings had plaster and cornice so beautifully ornate that restoration must have taken ages. The room had an imposing black marble fireplace and a deep brown, almost black wooden dining table set on a grey shag rug in the room's centre. A huge abstract painting of bright pinks, greens and grey hung on the wall.

"Wow, this must have cost a mint!" I quickly covered my mouth. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me."

"It's ok. I was pleasantly surprised by the house too. The studio got the house for me I...." Liam was interrupted by a massive dog bounding into the room.

Liam got down and roughhoused with the dog for a bit. Wow, he was a monster! I'd seen a picture of Cole before that "Will" had sent me, but I wasn't quite prepared for how big he was. He was almost completely black with some brown above his eyes and ears. His paws were brown too, and his belly was grey. He wasn't any particular breed, apparently a rescue dog. I thought of my bull terrier cross cattle dog at home. This dog would eat him for breakfast, and Perrin wasn't small.

Cole's pink tongue lolled, and he panted as Liam moved from side to side. Cole imitated Liam's actions jumping about. He barked a couple of times as he got excited by the play. The noise reverberated through the quiet house.

"Shhh, Cole, people are sleeping." Liam softly admonished. Then his voice became stern. "Sit," he ordered before patting him. Liam looked at me and said, "Lana, this is Cole. Cole, Lana."

"Hi, Cole. You're much bigger in person." I could hear the slight tremor in my voice. Liam must have sensed I was nervous and came over to stand near me. Cole padded over and sniffed at me. Gingerly, I put my hand by my side and let him approach me. Cole nuzzled my hand, and I gave him a pat on the side of his neck. I let out a sigh of relief.

"I was worried he wouldn't like me. I love dogs but always get nervous around new ones." Liam put his head to the side, asking a silent question. "I had a dingo go me one time, and I've never really gotten over it." I squatted down and gave Cole more pats. "I think this guy is ok, though."

"Yeah, he's a good boy. How is Perrin, by the way?"

"He's ok." I sighed, "he's just old. The poor little guy can't get onto my bed anymore and sleeps in my lounge room now. I kinda miss it, but I have slept a bit better."

Liam gave Cole some more pats and told him to go sit. "Come on. I'll make you a tea or coffee if you'd like." I agreed a coffee would be perfect right now. I needed something to sober me up.

I sat at the kitchen bench while Liam made coffees. Cole sat by my stool, and I patted his head while watching Liam. Liam had kicked off his shoes and was walking around in his bare feet. It was amazing to see him so much more relaxed here than while we were out. He really did appear to enjoy being at home.

As Liam made our coffee, he moved with a grace that surprised me. His movements seemed economical and rigid but hinted at the power beneath them. He seemed coiled and ready to explode at any moment. It was like he was dancing the pasodoble, his body moving to an invisible beat. Images of Strictly Ballroom came into my mind, and I found myself humming Love is in the Air. I was drunker than I thought.

When Liam was done, he led me over to his large L shaped lounge, and I sat. Liam flopped down next to me, casually laying back and popped his feet up on the coffee table. Cole sat on a mat that was clearly his.

I sipped my coffee, not knowing what else to do. Suddenly the quiet between Liam and I felt awkward.

Liam and I spoke at the same time, "What.." "So..."

We both laughed. Liam indicated I should proceed. "Well, I was going to ask what brought you out to Sydney, for real, not the Will answer."

"A new project. I'm going to be filming a television show." Liam proceeded to tell me about his project, working with some people from Netflix on a fantasy/sci-fi series adaptation. He was so animated when telling me that it was obvious that he loved his job.

It would be his first television series and was to be more romance heavy than anything he had done in years. Liam explained that he is filming here because the story was written and developed in Australia. "If it works out, I'll probably be based out of Australia for the next few years. I'll go home to England for a few months during breaks, maybe do some small film roles. It's hard with Cole, though, because every trip into Australia means 10 days quarantine for him."

"Oh yeah, and you don't want a Pistol and Boo situation." Liam looked confused, and I explained about Amber Heard and Johnny Depp smuggling their dogs into Australia.

"I thought you said you don't follow celebrity gossip."

"I don't, but that was big news, hilarious really. It was on every bit of media in Australia, and then they had to make this cringe video apology. I almost felt bad for them." Then I yawned, suddenly all the alcohol had lost its buzz, and I was just tired. "The coffee doesn't seem to be doing its job. What time is it?"

Liam looked at his watch, "11.30."

"Yeah, it's late. I should get home. I don't want to turn into a pumpkin." I cringed. Fuck.

"You don't have to go. You could stay here." I raised my eyebrows. "I do have more than one bed if that's what you want." Liam leaned over to me and placed a hand on my cheek, rubbing his thumb against my skin.

I looked at my nearly empty coffee mug. I swirled the dregs around the bottom as if it were tea leaves, and they would tell me what to do. "I don't want to go home yet, but I don't want to go too fast, either."

"That's ok."

I didn't move. I wanted to stay. Ten years ago, I would have stayed, but Andy's face flashed into my thoughts. I knew it was ridiculous. Andy had been gone for over three years now. But every time I even contemplated being with someone, I couldn't stop thinking about him.

Liam was waiting for an answer, but I didn't know what to tell him. 'It's not you, it's me' is such a tired cliche, but sometimes it's true.

"Lana, it's ok. If you want to go home, that's absolutely fine. I'll even call you an Uber."

I felt my eyes sting, and I looked away from Liam. My bloody traitorous tear ducts giving me away. I shouldn't have drunk so much. Alcohol always makes me emotional.

"Fuck." I swore under my breath. I angrily wiped at my eyes, thankful I had used waterproof mascara. My eyeliner was a different story, though, and black streaked my fingers. I asked Liam where his bathroom was, and I got up, only half listening to his directions. I found it quickly. It was only through the doorway into a little enclave with a powder room, stairs and a lift. What kind of bloody house has a lift?

I closed the door and sat on the toilet seat. I knew enough not to try to stop the tears, so I just let them go. Bloody hell, Andy. Why did he fucking have to leave me? Why the fuck did you have to fucking die. Goddammit. Why do I do this to myself? Why do I do this to Andy? I wanted to scream, to punch something, to throw something. I needed another cigarette. Fuck you, Andy. Fuck you. Fuck me. Fuck Liam.

As I always did when I thought of Andy, I remembered the last time I saw him. His sweet face looked down at me as he kissed me goodbye. His deep brown hair fell like a curtain around us, hiding our kiss from the world. Cheekily I had slipped my tongue into his mouth, and he had groaned as he pulled away. He told me to save it for when he got back and would be as quick as he could be. I had thanked him for filling in for me. He winked and said to thank him later. Then he left.

When I was able to, I started to take deep breaths. In through my nose, out through my mouth. I could feel the tightness in my chest slowly ease. Breathing became more comfortable, and the tears stopped. I looked at my hands, and I was able to release the fists I was making. My nails hadn't broken the skin this time, but small red crescents remained etched into my palms.

I waited a few minutes longer to make sure the moment had passed. It wasn't Andy's fault he died, and I knew that. It's also not my fault that I wanted someone to love again. Sleeping with someone other than Andy felt like crossing the Rubicon, no going back.

The fact was there is no going back, no Andy to go back to, even if I wanted. In my head, it still felt like a betrayal. But it wasn't. And Liam wasn't just anybody. He was a guy I had spent weeks talking to, getting to know, and although he looks different, he is still acting as I had expected. I saw a potential future here. Did I really want to let my past ruin it?

I cleared my throat and stood up, preparing myself to see the horror that looked back at me. Ugh, it wasn't great. My eyeliner had given me panda eyes, and the tears had created streaks down my cheeks.

Getting a tissue and blew my nose, and decided there was nothing else for it, I washed my makeup off my face. I avoided washing my eye makeup off though, that was a mess I just didn't have the products for, so I just wiped under my eyes and cleaned it up. I binned my tissues, washed my hands, took a few more deep breaths and prepared myself to face Liam.

I opened the door and walked straight into something solid that made me bounce back into the bathroom like a tennis ball. Hands caught me before I hit the floor, and I found myself in Liam's arms.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" He asked.

"No," I was flustered again. I spent all that time calming down to just be in a state two seconds later. "I just didn't expect you to be outside the door. Jesus, you're like a brick shit house."

Liam didn't laugh. "I was worried about you."

"I'm fine," I lied.

Liam didn't look convinced. He let me go and ran a hand through his hair. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not right now."

Liam nodded. "I'll get you that Uber." He pulled his phone out.

That's it then. All in all, it wasn't the worst date I'd been on since Andy died. Actually, it was probably the best. Liam, at least, was a guy I was attracted to and didn't appear to be a man child. He seemed to like me, even when I cried over another man. Although I doubt Liam knew that's why I was crying. I had told him I was married before and he had died, but that was only once and a long time ago, and we hadn't discussed it again.

The tears had done their job, and a calmness came over me now. I had said goodbye to Andy, and I was ready to take that last step to move on. That was why I started to date again; to open my heart, I was ready.

I put my hand on Liam's wrist, "if you still want me to, I'd like to stay."

"Are you sure? I probably shouldn't have asked in the first place. I let my other head think for me." Though I laughed at his candid admission, Liam's face was serious. "I'm not joking. I want you, and I didn't think about how you must be feeling. The whole fake profile thing must still be weighing on your mind. And all of the other problems that go along with being with me. You should have more time to think about it."

And my dead husband, let's not forget that. I didn't say that out loud, thank God. "I will have time to think about it. But right now, I want..." Shit. I've gone shy again. Just fucking tell him you want him too! "I mean, can't we just have a bit of a cuddle and a snog?"

Liam's lips twitched as he tried to suppress a smile, "a cuddle and a snog?"

I nodded.

Smiling, Liam put his phone back in his pocket. "I think I can arrange that."

Without further warning, Liam grabbed my wrists in one hand and pinned them to the wall above my head. His other hand snaked around my waist, holding me to him, his hips rolling into mine. His eyes were fierce and focused on mine. I  closed my eyes, the sensations too much, and my breath quickened.

I heard Liam say through gritted teeth, "It's taken everything I had not to do this to you since I saw you at the bar. I wanted to take you then and there." His voice seemed to ease, the words coming easier for him. "You don't know how much I've wanted to touch you. To know you are real." Then he whispered, "and you are. Real. You're as beautiful tonight as you were in your pictures."

I opened my eyes and found Liam staring at me, and his intensity was nearly frightening. He pulled me tighter against himself, his fingertips digging into me while he crushed me against his body. I felt his hardness against my hip, and I couldn't stop myself from rubbing against it. This time Liam closed his eyes, and I felt the rush of blood to my centre.

Liam opened his eyes, desire naked on his face, "Kiss me," he said.

I met his soft and warm lips. I felt Liam's groan rumble in his vast chest, and kissing him again, my lips scraped against his whiskers. Liam kissed me back now. His tongue pushed past my lips, and found mine. His tongue playfully danced in my mouth. Liam's hand left my arse and started to feel my hips, my waist and then my breasts. He cupped them and gently squeezed. My breath caught as his hand skimmed past my nipple. His palm created friction against the lace of my bra, and tingles radiated through my body.

His lips left mine and went to my neck. He kissed and sucked at me, moving down to the top of my breasts. I heard him take a deep breath into my chest as his cheeks rubbed against my skin. His kisses became harder against my chest and moved back up to my neck, his teeth nipping at me as he went. Even though he had me captured, I wriggled against him, my hips moved uncontrollably, my breath uneven and weak.

Liam pulled away, still firmly gripping one of my hands. "Come with me." Liam led me to the lift.

"Where are we going?"

"To my bedroom." I pulled against him, forcing him to stop. "Sweetheart, I promise I won't fuck you until you ask."

My legs turned to jelly. I wanted to fall to my knees and beg despite my reservations. I nodded and followed Liam into the lift.

Part 4

[mellifluousmalfoy]

pure. // regulus black x reader.

The whole soulmate scenario was strange. It has been the only thing on my mind as I stalked tiredly through the hundreds of halls in the castle, praying that I wouldn’t catch a third year trying to sneak out to the dark forest so I could get to my bed as soon as possible. But my rush had come to a halt as I felt a tug on my pinky finger. And then another, and another until it was practically dragging me, which hurt quite a bit. I looked down at my hand, bewildered almost as I tried to figure out how, and why now of all times.

I had just finished my rounds for the night after a painstakingly long study session with Wilma Urie, a Ravenclaw in my year that had made me want to pull my entire head of hair out, or rather her’s. The tugging came to an end as I reached the stairs that went towards the dungeons, and this confused me. What exactly did this mean? And why was it keeping me from my precious bundle of quilts and plush pillows? I scoffed and quickly turned around, retreating towards the Hufflepuff common room, ignoring the odd vibration of the red string that had attached itself to my finger in my second year at Hogwarts.

—

“Don’t you think it’s strange?” I asked my dorm mates who sat around me, all picking away at their breakfast just as I was.

“That what’s strange, Y/L/N?” Yvette was the first to speak up, mouth full of baked beans as she ate her breakfast in a haste. I scowled and shuttered at the sight, quickly reminding her to not speak while eating, earning an eye roll from the three of them before continuing with my lecture.

“Well? Don’t you see it?” I questioned as I eyed my pinky almost incredulously. The thin red string that had made itself at home on my finger was beyond strange and as I stared at it I got strange looks from my friends.

“See what?” Maye asked as she looked at me as if I was a madwoman. I looked at them confusedly as they all looked at me equally confused as I was.

“The bright red string that’s hanging off my pinky, Wyatt.” The sarcasm in my voiced earned me another eye roll, and I brought my hand up to show them. They all glanced at each other before looking at me, still confused as before. How could they not see the flimsy thing? It seemed as if something clicked inside of Tina’s head as her face was washed over with realisation.

“My grandmother used to tell me about this, it’s old magic really,” She paused as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, “Have you ever heard of soulmates?”

—

Sirius Black had sat himself next to me in breakfast with a grin that I knew all too well, with a roll of my eyes I turned to face him, “What do you want, you man child?”

His grin only grew, and somehow transformed itself into a smirk. Merlin, that smirk. The man could barely see what it did to me, and the things it did to me.

“Well?” I asked the silence that wrapped itself around us as I turned around to plate myself some breakfast that looked lovely this morning.

“You know, Sirius. You should really stop hitting on a fifth year, you’re practically a grandpa now-“

“Oh, quit yapping. I know who your soulmate is.” Now, if I could identify a liar, Sirius Black would be the first I ever identify. Merlin, the bastard thought he was hilarious as I looked at him with mad eyes. I glared at him as soon as I caught sight of his shit-eating grin.

“Go suck Godric’s balls, Black.” I spat before turning back to my breakfast, pushing my hair behind my ear and picking up my fork.

“I’m not kidding.” He clarified with honestly in his voice that I could surprisingly identify. I looked up after taking a bite of my sausage and saw that his smirk was gone.

“And I’m not kidding about you sucking Godric’s balls, or would you rather Potter?” I asked sarcastically as I turned back to my breakfast, swallowing back the curiosity that got the best of me and took another bite of my breakfast sausage.

I heard Sirius almost gag at the thought of Potter’s quaffles and let out a disgusted groan before standing up, “I could never beat you, could I?”

I smirked at the defeat in his voice, “You really couldn’t.”

He let out a sigh and walked off grumbling, “I can’t believe you’re going to be my sister-in-law.”

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets with how big they went and I jumped out of my chair just as quick, and started to run after the Gryffindor who had a nose that couldn’t stay out of anyone’s business.

“What exactly are you implying, Black?” I asked him as I reached his side, and he looked at me guiltily knowing I had heard him.

“My brother is a coward, and he’s known ever since the string has appeared. I may not be close to him, but I’m simply trying to help.”

I glanced across the hall and met stormy grey eyes that captured my own, and returned the smirk that I got with the stare. The Slytherin table was hooting around ridiculously as always, but he was silent as he watched me.

Regulus Arcturus Black. He was an incredible man, and I admired him for a number of reasons. He was undeniably handsome, incredibly intelligent and a darn good quidditch player at that. And why would Sirius, better yet any of the nosy people like Sirius in our school need to know that we had been dating since third year?

[fnlrndcllctv]

THE YEAR IN FIGHTING GAMES: 1994

As the original release of Street Fighter II turns 30 this year, we are taking a look at the landscape of fighting games between 1991 and 2021 on a year by year basis!

This week, Shaun Eddleston takes a look at 1994…

1994 was an eventful year for video games.

Nintendo was starting to wind down on its production of NES games, while celebrating the success of games such as Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo. SEGA’s Sonic The Hedgehog series was going strong with Sonic The Hedgehog 3, and games such as DOOM II and Warcraft were making their way onto computers all across the world.

It was also a year where Germany placed Mortal Kombat II on its index of media works deemed harmful to young people by Germany's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons effectively banning the game from sale in the country (and remained that way all the way up to 2005!).

Let’s take a look at 1994 in fighting games...

One of the more obscure Neo Geo titles, Aggressors Of Dark Kombat (known as Tsuukai GANGAN Koushinkyoku in Japan) was an interesting title that felt like a bit of an experiment in the genre. The game’s movement feels more like it would fit into your standard beat ‘em up game such as Final Fight and Streets Of Rage, and even drops weapons into the stage for fighters to use. 

The game also includes a fun comeback mechanic, the “GAN GAN attack”, which kicks in once a player’s health bar drops below a certain point, and their power bar is full. Once one of these mega attacks connects with an opponent, the player automatically wins the round.

Art of Fighting 2 continues the story that kicked off in the previous year’s entry, as we immediately learn that the identity of Yuri’s kidnapper, the tengu masked Mr Karate, is none other than Takuma Sakazaki, Yuri and Ryo’s father. This is all part of a much bigger criminal plot that ends up being spearheaded by a certain young crime lord from another popular SNK fighting title…

As for the game itself, almost every aspect of the Art Of Fighting experience was rebuilt and polished. The character sprites and stage art looked better, and a new “Rage” gauge mechanic was introduced into the mix. All of the game’s characters are immediately playable in arcade mode, and each have their own specific dialogue when interacting with other fighters.

The first 3D weapons-based fighting game was also one of the earlier releases on the Sony PlayStation, and was poised to be the game that would “outshine” the impressiveness of Virtua Fighter’s groundbreaking graphics.

While it didn’t quite beat out SEGA’s franchise, Battle Arena Toshinden still had a couple of interesting aspects to it that are still worth mentioning today. 

First of all, it is arguably the first “true” 3D fighting game, as it included the ability to side-step or dodge roll during a fight. This meant that the act of avoiding projectiles now had more options outside of blocking the hit or jumping over it, giving the game a little more depth (both mechanically and visually).

Thanks to the newly opened up 3D movement, ring outs are also possible in the game, where players can lose a round by simply falling off the side of the stage. This is an element that many gamers see as a bit of a cop out during a fight, but I personally see it as a fun way to humiliate opponents and even bring overly confident fighters back down to earth.

Capcom’s massive success with Street Fighter II was one of the most important moments in video game history, and the game was still going incredibly strong since its release 3 years prior (including this year, which we’ll touch on later in the article). There was a big question that lingered though; what non-Street Fighter fighting game would Capcom bring to the table next?

That game was Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors.

Darkstalkers wasn’t a million miles away from Street Fighter II in terms of gameplay. It utilised the same six-button L/M/H attack layout, and even used a Super Gauge that would be shared with the series.

The main strength of Darkstalkers that set it apart from its more famous older cousin, and that was its characters and theme. Instead of a tournament of worldwide fighters that many 2D fighting games utilised, Darkstalkers took inspiration from classic horror movies from the Universal era and offered a cast of 10 fighters that range from werewolves, sasquatches and vampires to Egyptian mummies, zombies and a Frankenstein’s monster for good measure. 

A spooky cult favourite!

1993’s Fighters History was a controversial entry in the fighting game genre. Not necessarily because of any violent content or especially iffy storyline, but for just how similar the game was to Street Fighter II. It was so similar, in fact, that Capcom attempted to sue Data East for just how much of a shameless ripoff the game was.

Capcom wasn’t successful with the lawsuit, and Data East went forward with a sequel, Fighters History Dynamite.

The game, perhaps more commonly known in some places as “Karnov’s Revenge”, added more characters (including the game’s boss fighters, Karnov and Clown) to the playable roster and spruced up the game's stage backgrounds.

Other than the slightly expanded range of fighters, and a hilarious hidden character to discover, not a lot else has changed from the first title, and still feels like it can’t shake off the original comparison that it got into trouble for.

Many 2D games up to this point were trying to mimic Street Fighter and Fatal Fury’s cartoonish graphics, there wasn’t really anything outside of Mortal Kombat’s digitised graphics that truly felt “next-gen” going into the middle of the decade.

Enter Killer Instinct.

While Rare as a developer was having a fantastic year already, with the success of Battletoads and Donkey Kong Country leaving long lasting impressions on the industry, their fighting game was a revelation in arcades, bringing a mix of 2D gameplay on 3D stages, strong bloody violence and a ridiculous new combo system to the table.

The characters were memorable, the animated FMV sequences were jawdropping to watch, and witnessing the game announce blare out “ULTRA COMBO!” whenever someone nailed a particularly savage sequence of hits just felt right.

Why not check out our thoughts on the game’s “killer” soundtrack?

Inspired by the popularity of Ryo Sakazaki (Art Of Fighting’s main protagonist) and his appearance as a guest character in Fatal Fury Special in 1993, SNK decided to go all out and start a crossover fighting series that brought together characters from their library of past games.

The game, named after the fighting tournament in Art Of Fighting and Fatal Fury, allows players to choose from a selection of 3-member teams that have been designated to different countries of the world, and matches revolve around an elimination system. In addition to a selection of original new characters, KOF ‘94 mixed together the Ikari Warriors, Psycho Soldier, Art Of Fighting and Fatal Fury franchises to fill out one of the largest fighting game rosters around at this point.

The game’s music is the subject of our very first entry in the Soundtrack Sunday series, so check it out!

Of the slew of games that took direct inspiration from Mortal Kombat, very few actually left a lasting impression.

One of the exceptions to this was Primal Rage, which saw stop motion dinosaurs and prehistoric apes duke it out for supremacy in the new “Urth”.

The game, which also took inspiration from Taito’s Dino Rex from 1992, caused its own controversy with one of its fatalities. In 1996, a woman from Arizona said that her 11 year old son had bought the game, and used a strategy guide to execute the “Golden Shower” fatality (in which, as the title suggests, the character Chaos urinates all over the corpse of an opponent). She flipped out and started a grass-roots campaign against Primal Rage, which resulted in some US stores withdrawing copies of the game, including the already-censored SNES version, which didn’t even contain the offending move.

The game was also successful with its merchandise, and saw a line of toys and a board game to accompany it.

The first Samurai Shodown game was, and still is, one of the finest fighting games of the early 90’s, so SNK had a huge task on their hands when it came to creating a sequel.

With Samurai Shodown 2, they absolutely knocked it out of the park in pretty much every aspect. All of the sprites of the characters who reappeared from the first game had been completely remade, a bunch of new characters had been added in, everyone got amazing new moves and a number of new game mechanics were also introduced to make the game feel much more balanced and fun to play.

One of these new mechanics was the “Weapon break” system, which meant that if a player got hit with a particularly powerful attack, there was now a chance that it would knock their weapon clean out of their hands, leaving them unarmed until it was recovered. The sheer panic of scrambling to pick up your sword while the opponent is slashing away at you is a thrill that still feels as effective today as it did back then.

Street Fighter II’s reign as king of the arcade fighting games was starting to wind down by 1994, so the game saw a final upgrade in the form of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which added more game speeds, new animations and moves for all of the characters, a new “SUPER” gauge system and the introduction of  a hidden character that would quickly become one of the franchise’s most recognisable fighters; Akuma!

While many more casual players may not have felt the real impact of these changes (this was the third update in as many years since the original release), it remains as the “definitive” version of Street Fighter II, and is still used in tournaments to this day.

Developed by Namco (and ported to PlayStation in 1995), Tekken took the 3D fighting style that was pioneered by 1993’s Virtua Fighter, and added its own spin on things in regards to the control system.

Instead of using the traditional fighting game inputs that corresponded to the strength of the attacks, Tekken utilised a system that dedicates a button to each individual limb of the fighter. In doing this, the game became more of a learning process for players that wanted to do special moves and combos. This departure was so innovative, that experienced players could now figure out special moves by studying the fighters limb movements during their animations.

Known briefly as “RAVE WAR” during its beta test stage, Tekken quickly found itself as one of the most popular PlayStation games in history, and became the first game to sell over a million copies for the console.

Take a look at our thoughts about the game’s soundtrack!

Virtua Fighter was an incredibly important moment in gaming, so following up with a sequel that lived up to its predecessor was absolutely vital for SEGA.

Luckily, with Virtua Fighter 2, they managed to not only surpass the first game in the way it looked, but how it played too. Improved movesets ramped up how authentic each individual martial arts/fighting style felt, and with things running at 60FPS in the arcade version, the game felt like it was miles ahead of its competition.

The third entry in the World Heroes series was yet another improvement on the games that preceded it, but considering the sheer amount of solid competition it was facing in 1994, it still fell to the wayside.

The game added two new fighters and added a brand new boss to face off against, but things were starting to feel somewhat dated with the series now, and it suffered as a result.

While there were many action-adventure and side-scrolling beat-’em-ups based on characters from the Marvel universe, it wasn’t until the early 90’s until we got a fully fledged fighting game. It only made sense that Capcom, one of the heaviest hitters in the genre at the time stepped forward to fix this.

Released in arcades in late 1994, X-Men: Children of the Atom established what would become a beloved and fruitful relationship between Capcom and Marvel, and laid the foundations for the successful “Vs.” series that fighting game fans have played for nearly 25 years now.

The game is loosely based on 1993’s “Fatal Attractions” storyline, in which Magneto and his Acolytes return to confront the X-Men, tempting Professor Xavier to cross a moral line to stop them. It’s a pretty insane storyline with some fairly gnarly imagery (one such example sees Wolverine getting the adamantium ripped out of his skeleton!), and the good vs. evil dynamic lends itself perfectly to the setting of an arcade fighting game.

1994’s entries in the genre saw developers starting to take full advantage of the new 3D graphics that SEGA introduced with Virtua Fighter in the wake of a new console generation, while 2D fighting games kept on coming hard and fast to try and best Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat’s popularity.

Join us next week as we take a look at the games of 1995!

Did we miss anything from 1994 that’s worth mentioning?

Let us know in the comments below!

[harveywritings92]

Someone flirts/asks you out in front of them: Ezio,Connor,Jacob,Arno

Ezio Auditore [modern Au] : You were a temporary sub for the local high-school while the math teacher was on early maternity leave, due to getting  sick...And due to your young and pretty appearance, these over hormonal charged teens were smitten with you! Well the boys are anyway...

the girls on the other hand, were very passive aggressive towards you! in their young developing minds they saw every little praise or smile as you hitting on or attempting to steal their crushes. So, of course you'd find someone had vandalized your desk or left a message on your blackboard calling you a very colorful name, of course one of the boys would jump over their desk in a heartbeat to clean up the mess or tattle on whoever did it.

Needless to say You found the whole thing hilarious! You thought if the girls were upset now, they'll be royally destroyed once they find out who you're married to! that was until Travis transferred to your class He was tall, blond, and had blue eyes and was very good looking...Well at least to a teenage girl's perspective, To you? he was another pimply faced teen with a crush, He'd often offered to help with carry boxes, clean up after class, and was always volunteering to get something for you.

His flirting wasn't subtle either more then often you have to duck or walk around to avoid him touching you, since that was big no-no in the school [unless he was dying you can't touch him and vice versa] that and he started asking for your number and address to hang out, You shot him down everytime, even made sure to mention your husband and flashed your ring a few times, but the blond was persistent! then the rumor started that Travis was planning to ask you out after class was floating around... Maybe he'd get the hint if he saw you with Ezio?

3rd pov 

Y/n pretty much clung to her husband after explaining the situation to him, Ezio downplayed at first thinking she was just overreacting, "He's a kid Mi Bella, they get crushes all the time!" He said trying to calm her nerves, But seeing how shaken up his wife was, caused his protective instincts to go on high alert! right as her class was ending everyone who had heard what Travis was planning stuck around curious to see where it goes.

Y/n was on edge Ezio was late and Travis was eagerly waiting for the bell, which went off as she felt a bead of sweat fall of her chin, she watched the blond teen get up Y/n tried not to cringe as he approached her desk. "Hey, Miss L/n." purred leaning on her desk she wince hearing his voice crack a little.

"Hi Travis." Y/n said trying to back away from him trying not to gag he was wearing way too much axe. "I wondering if you wanted to go out, maybe see a movie or something." he muttered looking her up and down before the y/hc teacher could open her mouth a smooth Italian voice answered "Well it depends what are we going to watch?~" Travis jumped back in shock that it wasn't Y/n's cute voice answering him and saw Mr. Auditore standing in the doorway large bouquet in hand. 

"Wh-what?" Travis sputtered out confused as the Italian teacher walked over to Y/n's desk handing her the flowers kissed her on the cheek, then turned to the gobsmacked teen. "I said what are we..." he gestured the three of them. "You, me and my wife. what are we going watch? Hopefully nothing R Rated or keeps you up passed your bedtime, it's a school night after all." Ezio said in a matter of factly way, But it was obvious he was teasing the boy causing the other students to snicker, once they got over their shock, Travis's face turned red with embarrassment. 

When he heard Miss L/n was actually a Mrs. he pictured some plain nerdy looking dude... Not Ezio frickin' Auditore! the Italian history teacher and to quote the girls "The sex-bomb of [School-name] high!" His ego deflated immediately crush fucking over! he can't compete with that! Travis left the class with his tail between his legs... 

Connor Kenway [Cannon Time]: [This the albino Reader from my Connor Oneshot]

Otsi'tsa was looking trough some documents an apprentice had pocketed from a templar envoy, she used a candle to see in there was hidden message or code was written in invisible ink, when she heard footsteps coming up the steps to the library, she briefly glanced up to see the newest Novice to join the creed standing in the door watching her. 

The albino cocked brow at the young man curiously. "What can I do for you John?" she hummed as the man glanced around to make sure they were alone, He hadn't noticed Connor obscured by the book shelf. "Miss Y/n I have to confess something." He put his hand on her shoulder the native woman tensed, and slowly looked at the black haired novice like.

 *what the hell, why are you touching me?...

He didn't seem to notice her discomfort "What?" She said trying to shrug his hand off. "I liked you for a while now, And I'd like to perhaps court you..." the white haired woman gawked at him in disbelief before finding her voice. "...I..o-oh, I'm sorry." his hopeful expression dropped. "but... I'm already spoken for." Y/n explained confusing the novice farther he hadn't heard of or seen any signs of miss Y/n in courtship with another? "You..With who?" the green eyed man demanded.

A loud bang caused John to jolt, he looked behind him and saw Master Connor standing by the center table; with a stack of heavy books he'd slammed down on the table lips curled into a snarl. "That would be me..." Connor hiss as he scrutinized the novice who still hadn't taken his hand off his woman the green eyed man saw the way his mentor was eyeing his hand on the albino woman's shoulder, the larger man's eyes darkened with a very clear message. 

*Take it off or else I'll rip it off..* 

John withdrew his hand like Otsi'tsa was made of hot iron and apologized before scurrying away as soon he was sure John was gone Y/n was suddenly pulled into tight hug by  Ratonhnhaké:ton He started talking to her in Kanienʼkéha "You wouldn't leave me for a man like John, would you?" He croaked warily the Albino looked at him surprised. "No, never! I made a promise to you, And I intend to keep it."  Her fiancee smirked before suddenly latching his to her collarbone.

She squeaked feeling him nip and suck on a sensitive spot before pulling away from her looking satisfied. "That should tell unwanted guests to back off for a while." He hummed in english giving her a peck on the forehead before setting her down and leaving, Otsi'tsa's whole body had turned pink as she threw her hand over the mark Ratonhnhaké:ton left on her neck.            

Jacob Frye [Modern AU]: [Reader is Bi and the girl is an ex]

"Oh, fuck me sideways!" Y/n groaned in annoyance as Jacob pulled away from her small baby bump; ever since she told he was going to be a father Jacob makes sure to talk to and cuddle her belly every chance he gets, his hazel eyes scanned the park ​​​​​​to see what's got his wife riled up, and saw this fake tanned blond woman looking their way. "Friend of yours?" He asked unsure Blondie didn't seem the type Y/n would associate herself with, the y/hc woman snorted in disgust. "Hardly, that's Vanessa she and I dated for while..." She mumbled knowing Jacob doesn't like discussing exes.

"For how long a while?" the brown haired man pressed. "three years then she ghosted me, found out through a mutual that she had been seeing some rich bloke..."Y/n told him how the blond had gotten married that man who was like thirty years older than them, while just a week before she told Y/n marriage was stupid, the y/ec woman cussed as her ex seem to recognize her. "Turns out she never cared about me, I was just her string along if sugar daddy ever dumped her ass." Jacob looked pretty pissed that someone had the audacity to do such a thing to his wife, and gonna ask if she wanted to go home, but a nasally voice cut in. "Y/n, oh my god! I haven't you been returning my calls babe?" Vanessa rudely pushed herself between Jacob and the pregnant woman. 

"I tried your apartment and some old creeper opened the door." She whined as Y/n cringed bemused. "I move outta that flat six yea-" The blond put her figure over the y/nat woman's lips and shushed her. "That's nice honey, I'm talking now!" she started gave the y/ht the run that her husband croaked and left all his money to his gross kids, the blonds lips curled in disgusted as she mentioned her step children, how dare he?! such selfish asshole then turned to Y/n with her fake smile.

"But I know my little n/n will never do that me.~" she purred trying to kiss her the h/c leaned away from the skinny woman who was confused when she felt something on her stomach and saw Y/n's pregnant belly "Ew, what the fuck is that, Why are you so fat?!" Vanessa demanded in disgust as she shoved her away, luckily the y/nat caught herself before she fell off the bench and Y/n saw Jacob's lips do that little twitch when he's about to fuck shit up.

Before Vanessa could try something else she was suddenly tossed off the bench and she hit the ground with a yelped, then looked up to see a pissed off Jacob holding Y/n bridal style whiles glowering at the gold digging tramp, who was about to demand his name only for him to bark "Shut up!" the blond flinched at his tone as Y/n carefully rubbed her belly. "Now you listen here and you listen well you plastic tart, Y/n isn't your bloody meal-ticket anymore..." He growled enjoying the blonde squirm like a child who just got caught stealing cookies.

"She moved on married and happy..." His lips formed thin as people were watching. "And if you or anyone wants my wife, they'll have to go through me." he hissed before carrying Y/n out of the park and away from her toxic ex who just sat there gawking at the man's back, Jacob carried her all the way to their car he opened the backseat and climbed in with her still his arms and closed the doors and just held her...she felt his hand slip under her shirt and feel her belly. "Mine..." he sighed kissing her forehead. 

          Arno Dorian [Cannon time]: 

Arno was free running in the city being careful as he kept out of her sight if his wife knew he was following her, she'd have his head on a pike! It not like hasn't Y/n hasn't gone out alone before! She can handle herself, he's never had any problems with it before! It was just different now...this was the first time Y/n had gone out for a walk a month since giving birth to their daughter, said babe was currently napping whilst carefully wrapped save and snug in a sling against her mother's chest...

So, of course Arno was wary he just wanted to make sure his girls were okay! It was fifteen minutes in when Arno spotted him. A man following his wife, The assassin had see the man before! but Arno couldn't quite place where... He managed to get closer and realized it was one of his novices! what could they possibly want with Y/n? she was civilian not an enemy!

He followed for while before doing leap of faith into a hay pile neither Y/n or the novice had noticed the master assassin who was listening to conversation. "Uh, Bonjour madame!" the younger assassin greeted Y/n who jumped from the sudden voice , and subconsciously held her daughter closer. "Who are you?" Y/n ask as she scrutinized the hooded stranger. who staring at her nervously Arno could see and blush from under the gray hood...his stomach churned when he realized what was happening. just then D/n's eyes looked over at the hay and she got fussy.

Y/n didn't notice as her eyes were trained on the assassin in front of her who introduced himself as Rodrick. "And what do you want Mr. Rodrick?" she asked still cautious as the gray hooded, shifted uncomfortably. "I've seen at the cafe a lot, I enjoy your singing.." Her brows furrowed as she thanked him still lost on where this red bearded man was going with this. "I was wondering if you would be interested and in perhaps g-going out with me?" he stammered at little as the y/ht woman's brows shot up to her hairline.

"I'm sorry I misheard you..." He shook his head now hopeful and a bit more brave. "You do realize I married, right?" she pointed at her ring the man's demeanor hadn't change. "And yet he let's you wander the streets alone and never once seen you preform, tell me what kind of husband does that?" Y/n frowned and sighed as agreeing with him as she looked down at D/n little brown eyes that mirrored her father's blinked tiredly at her before closing again. "Maybe you should ask him..." she then looked up at the rooftops. "Arno?" she called out to her husband Rodrick blanched as figure rose out of the hay pile whilst glaring at daggers at the red bearded novice who just realized he tried to steal his mentor's wife!? 

"M-master Dorian! I-I though she I- didn't know she was yours!" Rodrick stumbled over his words trying to apologize as the master came up beside he wife with a stern expression. "I think you need to leave, now." Arno growled the gray clad novice didn't need to be told twice! and ran disappearing into the crowds, Arno made a mental note of dealing with him later, He then turned to his wife intrigued and bemused.

"How did you know I was following you?"

"I didn't...D/n did."

" What...how?"

"I don't know how, but she always knows when her papa's nearby..."

Arno's heart sped up at the prospects that his daughter may have his gift and wonders what future she'll have when that time comes? But for now he opted to just finish having an afternoon walk with his girls. 

[buns-with-a-book]

Eventide

Spice with Feels, entirely not-canon, just exploring a concept I had been mulling over for a while. It’s similar to this ask drabble but changed in other ways. Inspired by this song.

This fic contains spicy content!

Fandom: Devil May Cry Characters: Dante/OC Tags: @furyeclipse @synchronmurmurs @queenmuzz @harlot-of-oblivion @tehrevving

Summary: In the aftermath of the Fortuna incident, Cassandra and Dante have a moment that leads to them opening up in a very long time.

The fading light of dusk illuminated the beaches of Fortuna, still clear and pristine despite everything that had happened in Fortuna. With all the demons, the destruction, and the madness cleared, this moment of quiet was something Cassandra needed.

Of course, that time was also being spent with Dante, her old flame.

The two were just silently walking down the beach, hand in hand. Behind them, Fortuna stood, proud and defiant despite the demon attack that nearly destroyed it. Ahead of them, a small cottage she had called home for fifteen years. Her mind drifted back, beyond the incident, to when she first met him in the highlands of Scotland long ago. Back then, not long after she arrived in Red Grave City, the sight of Earthfaith mercenaries spooked her into leaving. Not that she feared Dante couldn’t handle it, no, he could handle many things. Like being stabbed repeatedly. Or shot at by Lady (which was quite hilarious, looking back on it).  

No, it was the thought of him being hurt that truly frightened her. That was why she left him, but not without spending one final night with him before leaving Devil May Cry and Red Grave City for a new home, to keep him safe.

How the time had passed for them! They were older, wiser perhaps (at least for her. For him? Debatable, given that she witnessed him jump into the cathedral and shoot point-blank at Sanctus. Not that she liked Sanctus in the first place). Of course, Nero went right for the proverbial throat against him, before she could react, much less process the fact that it was Dante, right there in the flesh (not dead, importantly enough).

The moment he fled from the scene, she had followed him, as fast as her feet could carry her. She held no fear of the demons, she could handle the demons, the legendary blade at her beck and call ensured that. No, it was people she was more afraid of. They could be as cruel as the very demons assaulting the city, after all. It was because of people that she fled from Dante in the first place, to protect him from those who would seek her out, to force her to return back home.

But they never came. Not to Fortuna, at the very least, and she thought she would have more trouble with them for pretending to be a diplomat from Eternis Brillia, the sister city of Fortuna. As far as she was aware, there was no news of them making landfall in Red Grave City. Perhaps her concerns, her fears from fifteen years ago, were no more?

“Babydoll?” Dante murmured, stopping in his tracks. Cassandra leaned onto him, relishing the memories that the pet name brought back. “Why did you leave?”

“...I guess I’m not sure anymore.” Cassandra replied. She felt him stiffen up.

“...was it because of me? I was kinda a slob back then-” Those words came out too fast, spilling out guilt and...shame? Dante? She looked up, seeing him run a hand through his hair.

“No, not because of you.” She said. “Not in the way you think.” A faint breeze began to blow, bringing with it the scent of sea salt through their hair. “Dante, I left because the thought of hurting you was something I couldn’t bear. Never because I hated you. Quite the opposite, actually.” She lifted up her hand, cupping his face. He leaned into her touch, a soft noise slipping from his lips. His hands moved to wrap around her midsection, pulling her close.

“I missed you so much, babydoll.” He murmured.

“I missed you too, Dante.” Cassandra buried her face in his chest, her arms lazily wrapping around his neck. “I just...I was so afraid of finding you dead, surrounded by knights who would drag me back to my own personal hell.” She sniffled. “I could handle that, I could run away again...but the sight of you, l-lying there lifeless...that would’ve broken me, Dante, more than anything they could have ever d-”  

“Shh…” She felt his hand pet her head, comforting her despite the fresh tears falling.

“You deserve better than that fate, Dante. Earthmother knows you deserve so much more than what was thrown at you. I never wanted to hurt you-”

“It did hurt, you leaving me like that.”

“I know, I know. I was so scared of losing you, I didn’t realize I was hurting you. I’m sorry, Dante.” But she knew that it wasn’t enough, not for the pain she had inflicted on him unknowingly. Even if she hadn’t known, it did not make her actions inexcusable. She missed him terribly, that one little fling in the Order H.Q, fueled entirely by desperation and need, made that evident. But she dared not make a move, waiting for Dante to make the first move, the first step into actually letting her back in.

Dante gently pulled her along the beach to the cottage, to the exposed bedroom that faced the sea. As they entered, Cassandra carefully pulled off her boots and set them near the entryway, not wanting to track sand into her bedroom. Dante let her go to do the same, the woman moving to her bed and sitting down.

“...you know…” She murmured, glancing to Dante as he removed his garish boots (that she really liked). He paused, grey-blue eyes staring at her through silvery hair. “I...I never had another man in this bedroom since I arrived.” She swore, for the briefest of moments, a flash of flame red appeared in his eyes. Just like that, it was gone. He dipped his head down, body trembling as laughter spilled out of him.

“Nobody in town you liked enough?” He asked, a soft jest in his voice. Cassandra snorted as she pulled off her jacket.

“Nobody could hold a candle to you Dante. Nobody can.” She said, tossing it aside. She could feel his gaze on her neck, focused on the love bite in her skin. They knew who really caused that, the devil in Dante’s veins, but left it unsaid.

They just knew.

Dante slowly pulled off his coat, letting it collapse onto the floor. He slowly walked towards her, eyes completely focused on her and her alone. His hands pulled off his gloves, knowing where her eyes were focused. Setting the gloves down on the bedside table, he sat down on the bed and rested his hand on her collar, thumb rubbing at the scarred love bite. She shuddered at the touch.

“Still hurts?”

“Only a little. More tender than actual pain.” He let out a soft hum. “I know what you’re planning.”

“No idea what you’re talking about, babydoll.” He purred, leaning over to nuzzle her.

“Liar. You want to bite me up all over.”

“Mmnn…it would look good on you.” Dante pulled her into his lap, peppering kisses against her skin. His hand slid up her back, taking the zipper and pulling down. She let him shed the dress from her, leaving her in her bra and shorts.

“No fair, you’re still clothed.” Cassandra pointed out, her hands resting on his zipper-up shirt. “At least you learned to wear a shirt under the straps.”

“Ow. Still holding that against me?”

“Only a little.” She hummed, the conversation feeling more natural now, as if they hadn’t been apart for fifteen years, as if they were still young and dumb and ready to take on the world with nothing but each other’s backs and their swords, the legacy of their forefathers, they bore in their hands.

As if that painful split never happened at all.

Dante quietly watched as she pulled down the zipper, pulling the shirt off him and throwing it onto his discarded cloak. Her eyes flicked up and down his muscular chest. “As unscarred as I remember...aside from this.” She murmured, her hand resting on an old scar, just to the left of the heart. Dante shivered as her fingers grazed the skin of the old wound.

“Still as pretty as a picture.” Dante murmured, taking her hand and kissing the palm. “Guess the sun did good for you.”

“And you.” Cassandra pointed out, taking his hands and settling them on her hips. Dante’s lips curled into a grin, his thumbs hooking on her waistband. He pulled down, taking her shorts and panties down her legs and letting them fall to the floor. Cassandra reached back, undoing her bra and letting it fall on Dante’s face. She chuckled at the white garment falling on his face. “Sorry…”

“Tch, make a mess of the best seat in the house?” He asked, his voice lacking any real bite. He reached up to take the bra and throw it to the side. “I’m sure you were taught better than that.”

“Best seat in the house? How about I determine that?” She asked playfully. Dante grinned as she moved forward. Settling his hands on her thighs, he pulled her down, his mouth promptly suckling on her clit. Cassandra let out a gasp as his tongue worked against her clit, rolling around the sensitive bud. She reached down to entangle a hand in his silvery hair, the other squeezing one of her breasts.  

“Dante...fuck…” She panted, ignoring the muffled playful scolding she faintly heard underneath her. She began to grind her cunt into Dante’s mouth, seeking more pleasure from him, pleasure that Dante happily obliged. A finger slid into her slick entrance, earning a surprised gasp. As it began to move in and out of her, Cassandra moved her hand off her breast to the mattress, more focused on keeping herself upright. The second finger slid into her. She could hear the obscene slick noises from his fingers, the softest of groans of Dante quite audibly enjoying the taste of her cunt on his tongue.  

“Dante...Dante!” Cassandra gasped, falling over, body shuddering as she came all over his face. She faintly heard him hum as his fingers pulled out of her trembling cunt. He helped her to her side, sitting up.

“Told you it was the best seat in the house.” He said with a smirk, a smirk that she could tell was all too fake. He reached down to undo his pants, kicking them off a little and letting them rest on the floor. She felt him roll her over onto her back. “Still raring to go?”

“Yeah, still kicking.” Cassandra panted. She faintly saw Dante grin before she felt his fingers slide back into her.

“Been a while since we’ve been together. You know I’m a pretty big boy, right?”

“Can’t forget.” Cassandra pointed out. “We stayed in bed...until lunch, as I recall.”

“You made lunch. Best pizza I ever had.” Dante corrected, nuzzling her. “The local places don’t taste the same.”

“Then I should make one soon. Don’t know if the local- ah! -farmer’s market is g-gonna be open on account of the demons…” Cassandra shuddered as Dante’s fingers thrust and scissored her, stretching her for the main event. The mere thought of it made her cunt gush more slick, something that made Dante purr.

“I can wait.” He pulled out his fingers, giving them a careful lick. “...I’ve waited long enough for you to come back to me.” He crawled over her, lining up his cock with her entrance. “Ready for me babe?”

“Ready.” Cassandra nodded. Dante took in a breath before carefully pushing inside her. Cassandra squeezed her eyes shut, taking in breaths as his cock stretched her wide. The sting was not unfamiliar, pricks of pain that accented the pleasure of being full of him, of Dante. She squeezed his hand, shivering as he pushed inch by inch into her, feeling his gaze watch for any sign of discomfort.

Drip. Drip Drip.

Cassandra opened her eyes, meeting tear-filled blue-grey. Was Dante...crying?

“Dante?” She asked softly, her other hand reaching up to wipe away the tears. “Dante…”

“Sorry babe...I just-”

“It’s ok. I’m staying. I promise. I’m not going to run away again.” Cassandra gently soothed. She leaned up, gently kissing him. Dante slowly laid down on his side, pulling her close, keeping them conjoined. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You were scared-”

“I still hurt you. It doesn’t make what I’ve done excusable, especially to you.” She pressed another kiss to his lips, followed by a breathy apology. “I’m sorry.”

They were still, just quietly enjoying each other as the waves crashed against the shore, carrying with them the soft scent of the sea. Cassandra could hear Dante’s soft breathing, the distant wind blowing across the salty waters beyond their bedroom.

In the distance, Cassandra could hear the bells of Fortuna. Seven PM, if she counted the tolling correctly.

“Hm. The bells still ring.” Cassandra murmured. “That means at least some of the church towers still stand, their bells intact.”

“Sounds nice from here, with the beach nearby.” Dante mumbled. Her gaze met his silver-blue, shimmering with happiness. “You lucked out on this place. I could vacation here.”

“Maybe when the city isn’t fucked up from the Order’s experiments on demons.” Cassandra pointed out, her hand moving to stroke his silvery hair. “There’s a nice bakery in town, sells the best bread rolls in Fortuna. Their specialty is the Poppyseed Bun, as I recall. I prefer their muffins myself.”

“Do you think they’ll have a strawberry muffin?” Dante asked cheekily. Cassandra laughed softly.

“Unlikely. Strawberries aren’t really a thing here in Fortuna.” Dante gasped.

“No strawberries!? Ok, change of plans, not coming here for vacation.” Cassandra could feel laughter bubble in her.

“Not even to see Nero? I know you’re fond of him, enough to let him keep your brother’s blade.” Cassandra pointed out. Dante mulled over it for a minute.

“Fine, maybe to pester Nero for free food. Or maybe come see you.” He suddenly bucked, making her gasp in surprise.  “Indulge in you, make love to you...fuck, I missed you so much.”

“I did too.” Cassandra admitted as he began to move. “Not a day went by that I didn’t think of you, that I selfishly wished I could be with you without endangering you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging onto him. “I’m sorry for hurting you like that, I’m sorry for leaving you behind, I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry-” He took her chin and made her look up, their lips meeting in a desperate kiss. She clung onto him, whimpering as Dante continued to thrust into her. Her mind screamed out for the devil hunter, more of his presence, his scent, his everything. Her body trembled as he continued to thrust, hard and fast and eager to make her see stars.

‘Dante! Dante! DANTE!’ Her mind screamed as she felt warmth shoot through her body, whether it was from her own orgasm or Dante’s, she couldn’t tell. She felt his nails dig into her bare skin, his body trembling as he held her. Slowly, Dante pulled back, breathing happily.

“Cass…”

“Dante…”

They just stared at each other, mind catching up to what they did. After a few minutes of quiet, he lowered his head and nuzzled her before he slowly pulled out.

“I guess we need a shower…” Dante panted. Cassandra nodded.

“The shower’s big enough for both of us, unless you’d rather try the bath. It’s a hot tub bath, a luxury from the mainland.” Dante let out an ‘oooh’ of interest, visibly interested at the sound of that. He carried her out of the bed and to the bathroom, settling her in the bathtub. Turning on the hot water, he settled down next to her. She glanced over to him, to his sweat-sheened body, muscular form, and still rock-hard cock. “One time not enough for you?”

“Hm?” Dante glanced down. “Oh. Uh, maybe?”

“Dante, that’s a yes or no question.” Cassandra said, sitting up to settle herself into Dante’s lap. His cock slid easily back into her, making him shudder.

“Cass-”

“Shh…” She pressed a kiss to the corner of his lip, her hands resting on his shoulders. “You took care of me. Now I’ll take care of you.” With that, she began to ride, her gaze meeting his as she did so. Dante leaned back, a grin slowly forming on his face. She knew his eyes were watching her as she bounced on his cock, to her bouncing breasts specifically. His hands moved, one to hold her waist, the other gently groping a breast. Cassandra let out a soft pant at the grope, lowering her head. Dante tilted her head up, their eyes meeting.

“All eyes on me, babydoll.” He purred, a lazy smile on his face. Cassandra let out a slow exhale before nodding, still riding his cock, green eyes boring into silver-blue.

She didn’t expect the sudden buck, making her gasp out in surprise. He chuckled before continuing to do so, finding a rhythm between her riding and his bucking.

“Dante!” Cassandra gasped, that rhythm sending shots of pleasure through her body. “I-I’m close!”

“Me too, babe.” Dante panted. His hands moved to her hips, suddenly slamming her down as a torrent of heat shot into her. Cassandra fell onto Dante, trembling as she came with him. Once again, a blissful quiet passed, Dante only moving to turn off the water before it overfilled the tub, before leaning back with Cassandra in his arms. Cassandra slowly pulled off Dante, cuddling up to him.

There was nothing more to say, not between them, but Cassandra couldn’t help but feel that something was simmering beneath Dante’s lazy smile and half-closed eyes.

“Hey Dante, how’s bed sounding?”

“A real good idea right now.” He murmured. Cassandra nodded and wasted no time in cleaning up. “You can still move?”

“Yeah, I gotta move to change the sheets.” Cassandra said. “You relax. You earned it after everything today.”

“Alright.” Dante nodded and leaned back. Cassandra quickly got out of the tub, drying off (and knowing full well Dante was watching her). She tossed the towel onto the rack before stepping out of the room, her mind wandering to the day’s events as she changed the sheets.

What a day it was! What started out as a celebration of Sparda turned out to be a day of dismantling a demon-obsessed cult, a shadow of a once-proud order. She wondered what Sparda would think about the town he once (allegedly) ruled. Would he be ashamed of what it had become? Perhaps, if any of the old legends held any truth to them. Tossing the soiled sheets into a laundry bin, she pulled new sheets onto the bed and fresh blankets. She heard the sound of water draining before a pair of arms wrapped around her. She yelped before turning around, seeing Dante with his signature grin.

“Dante! You startled me!”

“Sorry babe.” He pressed kisses to her temple. “Didn’t mean to.”

“You ready to turn in for the night?”

“Sounds fine by me.” He said, letting go of her to slide under the blankets. Cassandra did the same, letting Dante pull her into his arms, a hand entwined with hers. She closed her eyes, feeling Dante settle behind her.

And yet, something still felt off. Despite Dante quickly falling asleep, something in her gut warned her that something was off.

It was then that she felt it, a demonic heat blooming on her back. The heat was familiar, the heat of Devil Trigger, but what reason would Devil Trigger happen when there was no threat around. Unless...

“You…” She tensed up at the sound, a warped growl. “I do not like you.”

“Understandable.” She murmured, seeing Dante’s arm slowly morph from flesh into scales. It let go of her hand like it was an unwanted toy.

“Why should I forgive you for what you’ve done? He may forgive easily...but I will not.” The devil growled.

“I will admit.” She said softly, feeling the demonic heat against her back. “Perhaps my reason to leave was selfish. Instead of facing my past, I ran from it and broke Dante’s heart.” The devil let out a snort, as if that was the most obvious conclusion. “I can say sorry as many times as I want but forcing you to forgive will only make you push back against it. I know well enough, at the very least, that you are independent of Dante. He may forgive but that doesn’t mean you follow suit immediately.”

“His heart is soft.” She could feel the sharp teeth against the shell of her ear. “It is his greatest strength...and his greatest weakness. We must protect him.”

“I expect no less from you.” She murmured, keeping her eyes closed, body still, giving him no reason to lash out at her. But at the same time, demons rarely needed a reason to lash out at humans. He was only keeping himself where he was so as to not rouse Dante’s human heart to reign him in.

“If you hurt him again…you will not leave unscathed.” The growl genuinely made her shiver from fear, the hatred barely contained in that warped voice. “Do you understand?”

“...yes.” She exhaled, a whisper that only barely betrayed fear. She could hear her heart hammering in her head, every instinct telling her to flee...but she stayed, paralyzed. The devil was quiet for a moment before, just as suddenly as the heat came, it disappeared. Cassandra wasn’t sure what to do, or even if she was dreaming or not, before she felt Dante rise behind her.

“Hey, you ok? Did something happen?” He asked sleepily. “Did the big guy threaten you?”

“No, no, we just had...a little talk.” She lied. She didn’t want to worry Dante over the perfectly reasonable concerns of his demonic heart. She didn’t move, didn’t want to face the scrutiny of his grey-blue eyes.

“...you’re not a very good liar.” She scowled. “Never were anyway.”

“You have me there.” She sighed. “He just wanted to protect you from getting your heart broken again. He didn’t hurt me...but he made it clear not to do it again.” Dante was quiet for a moment before sighing, wrapping his arms around her.  

“He means well...but I can’t control him all the time.” He said, burying his face into her hair.

“I know. I know.” She murmured. “...I’m not leaving this time. I promise.” She reached up to squeeze his hand.

“I’m glad to hear that, babydoll.” Dante murmured before yawning. “Night night.”

“Goodnight, Dante.” Cassandra murmured, closing her eyes as well. Slowly, she was lulled to sleep to the sound of Dante’s breathing and the sea beyond the bedroom.

[firstofall-howdareyou]

Rock the Rink is AMAZING and if you in any capacity have the ability to go, do it. I don’t care if you have rafter seats in the end, it will be worth it.

I’ll just give some highlights or moments that stuck out to me:

I saw Trennt off to the side and during BOB’s set, he and Kaet watched it together which was super cute. They had their phone flashlights going.

Sympathy is so good and I love the way they are going full out for it, but my favorite part of the opening number was when VM disappear off the ice and then a surprise Goose appears.

I hadn’t watched a lot of the programs (I think I had only seen the SD, Sway, wywh Motown, and Coldplay tbh)

If you haven’t watched kaetlyn’s program, I highly recommend it. It was probably my favorite non vm solo skate. She did such a fabulous job and it was just FUN.

Chiddy’s shout skate is so enjoyable and also pure fun. He did a lot of his elements right by us and it was just fascinating to watch.

I’m sure there is video of it, but Scott and Tessa’s former teachers cheering for them from what sounded like up in one of the suite boxes when Scott said they went to school in Kitchener was SUPER sweet.

Also I like that he tries to make weapo feel better by saying he didn’t like competiting against them like they didn’t routinely score 10-20 points more each time.

Wish You Were Here is stunning. You all. I don’t know if it just doesn’t translate on film or if I haven’t watched enough of the recent clips, but it is just so so beautiful to watch. The movements are gorgeous. After it was done Scott did like a little jump too. And all I could stare at was Tessa squeezing Scott’s leg and then his finger running down her arm.

I had never watched Let You Go (whoops) so I had no idea that Jeremy was the ~star of that number (which ngl kinda made me laugh after the way everyone freaked the fuck out about the lyrics) but the moment that I especially loved was during the line “our muse n’all in love they could have been” because Jeremy like pushes through VM in frustration and then VM comes back together and rest their heads on each other’s shoulders so content. It’s b e a u t i f u l and I’m frankly upset that none of you told me about it.

Our SO skater was the one who did the interview after the Genna nonsense about his James Bond program with a shoot the duck move and it was so good and creative. A well deserved standing O.

Off the top of my head I can’t remember what program it was, but all of the skaters are doing basically a step sequence and VM are in a dance hold and I freaking loved it.

I was a little too far away from the face/table acting in sway (though max is so exaggerated that it’s hilarious) but I could see a lot of the Motown and I loved it. So many of them were singing along to the music. It’s just such a fun program to watch live.

And i genuinely love how a lot of these skates are 10 minutes long. Quality over quantity, good job Charlie.

I think I’ve watched Fix You enough times that it made me numb 😂 the video is so sweet and loving and powerful but I’ve taken the punch out of it. I zero’d in on that hug though. It’s my favorite moment in the show. Good job on the long ovation too Kitchener.

It was just 90 minutes of pure fun. I feel really content with them and I’m so glad they get to go out on such a high.

And in a move that should not surprise those of you who know me, my night ended with me asking Poje’s sister (not recognizing her until later) if she was American after she sorta mocked us for telling Charlie we were American. Whoops.

[anendlessdawnfalling]

⭐ Berry Berry Benny!! ⭐

Here is my late review and opinion of Kurenai Yuzuru's last dinner show in August. I had a hard time to assimilate everything that happened these last months, beware of it's length and I hope you love Hoshigumi. Good reading! 💖 I'm sorry if it comes up to you completely, I don't know how the tumblr editing works. 😰 (I'm not sure the songs listing is entirely accurate.)

It was an emotional evening I must say, I deeply love Kurenai Yuzuru and it was overwhelming. I must admit that I'm not entirely sure of the rightness of my timeline, since quite some time passed. I attended the event in Osaka on shonichi, and everyone was very nervous including myself. The dinner show was held at the International Hankyu Hotel with approximately 500 attendees. The ladies at my table were very lovely, we chatted a bit and of course the easiest subject to talk about was Kurenai Yuzuru! Beni's parents were also in the audience closer to the stage.

🥂 DINNER 🥂

The dinner itself was very nice, and was a four course meal inspired by French cuisine. The Menu was written in French and Japanese, a very cute touch. Most of the sentences made sens, but there's still some work to be done, my proposition is that Hankyu should stop using Google translate and hire me instead. As hilarious as it is, we wouldn't want another "Nouvelle / Chinois " to happen.

Dinner was served in that order; Hors d'oeuvres was raw Bream with veggies and carpaccio. L'Entrée was a piece of lightly fried tilefish with a celery and chestnuts buttery sauce. Oddly the taste remembered me of my mother's cuisine, so it's good. The main course was red meat topped with mushrooms and a light sauce, it was accompanied by asparagus, cabbage and potatoes. My only concern was the bread they served with it, if you ate Japanese bread before you might know what I'm talking about. I highly despise the baguettes there because it tastes like cheap Subway bread, that was my very Taurus rant. Finally, the dessert was a red Opéra cake decorated with a Kurenai 5 colored coulis, fruits and a star chocolate. It was ADORABLE.

For the drinks, there was a wide variety offered, one of my favorite was the Asahi 紅 beer. The servers kept generously filling my wine glass, which I can't complain about. I preferred being a little bit tipsy because I didn't know how it was going to go.

🌌 SET 🌌

The stage was a very shiny deep blue tone and was adorned with some glossy columns. A very galaxy note! (Or metaphor because Beni's the God of Stars) The room was giant and pretty cozy at the same time, maybe I'm highly biased because I love Hoshigumi fans aura. The last time I was in a room that luxurious was for a wedding, which Takarazuka events always remember me of, weddings. One could say that, I'm easily impressed by gigantic crystals chandeliers and very elegant tables settings.

There were two rows of chairs at the back of the room, and just before the show started a few Hoshigumi seito sneaked there before it went dark. After a quick glance I remember seeing Arisa Hitomi, Asamizu Ryou and Amaki Homare. There were many more of them that I didn't manage to get a good glance at.

✨ SHOW ✨

As the room went dark and the lights started to flashes toward the stage, the audience deeply anticipated Kurenai's arrival. I started to envy the others closer to the stage, that would have a better view and I regretted to not have brought my opera glasses with me. However she didn't appear right away, and took quite some time to make the audience more excited. Guess what? She bursted of the door right behind me in a beautiful red suit, startling everyone while running and singing. I almost had an heart attack and didn't regret petty things anymore. Thus began Berry Berry BENNY!!

The "supporting" cast was composed of Tenju Mitsuki, Kisaragi Ren, Kizaki Reo and Shirotae Natsu. Everyone jumped out of the stage as Sayumi made her arrival and the first song was Berry Berry Benny. Which by that point my table mates and I were quite shaken by everything that happened. Truly only Beni can pull something like that over and over again and still surprise me. ( Throwback to Stella Rossa) After the song, the cast proceeded to introduce themselves and chit chat a bit. Kurenai asked if they were in Tokyo, Mikki corrected her and she kept laughing. (She NEEDS vacations.)

The second song was Ai no rengoku from Anna Karenina, performed by Beni alone. A very dramatic start I must say, Mr.Karenin left a deep impression on her. Her interpretation was very venurable, and truly delightful if you love her non comical side.

Special talk segment 1: Two chairs were set up for Sayumi and a guest plus a life sized shiny cardboard of Beni. However it was not the regular Kurenai Yuzuru who came on stage, but Beniko in one of the most horrible costumes I've seen on her. Renta was the first guest of the Beniko show, they spoke teasingly of other Hoshigumi seito about how everyone was crying so hard on raku. Both of them were diabolically laughing. As the time went out, the Kurenai cardboard would illuminate and menacing threats would come on. Naachan interview was sweeter and shorter than Renta, she admitted that she cried on raku unlike someone else. Beniko, Renta and Naachan proceeded to sing Raimei. I wasn't ready for the absurdity of the situation, and I must admit I haven't laugh that hard in so many years.

To leave time for Beni to quick change costume, Ren and Natsu sang Yume Butai [ À bientôt ]. Their voice sounded really great as a duet! ♡ I was especially excited for this because it meant Renta had an extra special moment before her retirement. Nacchan and her are really positive people and you can feel this vibe as they perform. Furthermore, an upperclassmen musumeyaku is a delight to see highlighted.

Beni-chan no usomitaina honto no hanashi: A magical story of Beni's life. She narrates/sing the whole thing with highlights of her life and her love for Takarazuka. From what I remember; Mikki was child Beni, Renta as the creepy Butler from Meichan, Natsu as what I suppose was Beniko and Reo was André. (I might be mistaken, I'll correct it if that's the case. I have a goldfish memory.) Cute anecdote: Her dream was to be André in the RoV shinko, but she was appointed as the Grand Chamberlain and was very sad about it. They also made passive-aggressive jokes about Koike sensei, it made me crack.

LUCKY STAR ! Or a cute reminder of where she started, I was very happy she included that song and I felt like a mother hen. It was a nice transition with her earlier storytime, it's joyful, energetic and very her. ♡ She gave us a very explosive and all over the place performance.

Surprise drum rolls, what you wanted to know for so long and the answer is YES. The glorious Kurenai 5 made the comeback we were all waiting for, or more so the Kurenai 3. Beni, Renta and Mikki were in their old matching T-shirt and nostalgia hit me hard. I almost missed the mullet Beni used to have. Then entered the missing members life sized cardboard, both Reo and Naachan made their respective member dance through the song. No one was expecting this, the whole room was filled with laughter. They then talked about the origins of Kurenai 5 and what fun experiences they had in the past. They pointed out that the band would officially not work anymore, as it would be just 1. Beni proceeded to tease Mikki quite a lot. Both Ichijou Azusa and Miya Rurika had recorded a message for their dear leader, in which Beni was delighted to hear. Renta and Mikki then proceeded to slam their microphone to the cardboards during the intervention. It was hilarious! Both Miyaruri and Shiiran were at the raku in Tokyo, so if the DVD is that recording we'll have the delight to physically see them. Sayumi thought Shiiran sounded very ladylike and that Miya sounded very sleepy, like she should go to sleep.

Your favorite song by Benny was a segment where she proposed us three different songs that she could sing for us. After the vote she discarded the audience opinion and did the one she wanted, Smile from Meichan's Butler. (Very her to do that) Unlike the other times she walked through the audience as she sang, and I started to get nervous again when she headed toward the back of the room. She was taking the time to look at everyone very carefully and lovingly. Then she was in front of me and the world fell down. It was THE BEST two seconds of my entire life. I was very much horrendously blushing , but hey Kurenai Yuzuru and I shared a glance while she sang the creepy Butler song? Very shoujo like situation, a part of me fell in love with her all over again. Otokoyaku are very convincing at their job, they don't need to do much to amaze me.

Special talk segment 2 with Mikki and Reo.

Beniko came back with an even more horrendous outfit than the first one; another awful red gown orned with lines of gold and silver sequins. Oversized trumpet sleeves with feathers on the end, a wig worthy of a Ghibli old witch and topped with numerous fans of herself.

Mikki's interview was the longest, and the one to which Beni's cardboard was the most aggressive. Both her and Reo talked about the whole taidan situation, the troupe loves so much BeniAiri. They're as emotional if not more than fans about this. Mikki and Reo came back on stage and joined Beniko to sing Killer Rouge. Another absurd situation, where Beni's gaze was her cool otokoyaku look but she was dressed similar to the old ladies she always mocks about.

Hoshi wo tsugumono was MikkiReo's duet. What a very dangerous duo they make, both their voices are pretty warm and l had a few butterflies in my stomach. I'm sorry for betraying you Sayumi!

Random selection ;

I believe it's a free for all section and that must choose a song according to their mood. That night the ensemble sang Om Shanti Om as Sayumi went off stage to get a quick change. Boi do Hoshigumi loves that production, their enthusiasm really shows while singing this particular song. They went through the public and did a few handtouch. Renta stole the fan of an audience member right in front of me and decided to refresh herself with it. Reo was having her usual bright sunshine energy, Mikki was being an Ikkemen far away from me competing with Natsu. The bright wave of Hoshigumi energy was filling the room, and you could feel the love.

Kurenai came back on stage, dressed entirely in white and we all knew what that meant. The final song was A piece of courage, from Scarlet Pimpernel. God does she LOVES that show most ardently. It was her only lead shinko role and her first Grand theater show as a Top Star, she always seemed to live her best life as Percy. She always look so hopeful when she sings this song, it is VERY touching. Special metion to Aachan who sang it as well at her music salon, if it's not being soulmate I don't know what is.

She got a curtain callback and sang Goodbye from Catch me if you can. Yes, she did that again. As if it wasn't enough from the sayonara show and every other opportunity given to her to sing this. I can honestly say a cried a river again and that I'm in a love hate relationship with that song.

This woman doesn't know what to say to her audience, even thought we made her come back twice. She just told us to go home and that it was over in her lovely kansaiben, I love it. ♡

The show was really fun and I'm really happy I got to go, I hope I didn't forget anything. They rehearsed after having to do one if not two performance a day , and only came out late at the night. They've all worked very hard in such a short amount of time, and the result was GREAT. Kurenai Yuzuru is a real entertainer, a star and she adores it. She puts so much love and energy in her work, it's truly admirable. I'm delighted to have been able to follow her career until now and I'm very glad I focused my attention to the wobbly Mercutio many years ago. She made me cry, laugh and dream. I love her SO much.

My final words are going to be her motto:

Never give up!! ☆

[melo-yello]

Zero Part 2 (Sweet Pea x POC Reader)

Pairing(s): Sweet Pea x POC Reader

Warning(s): It only gets fluffier, more goofy ass nicknames, and tons of cursing/mild confrontation

Word Count: 2,3k+

Summary: River Vixen Reader is flunking Trig but a certain leather jacket clad math wiz is here to help her out.

A/N: I kno 3 or 4 weeks is a lot longer than soon but it took a minute to get it the way I like it but it's here now so 🙌 Comment and I'll add you to the Taglist.

“V that's what I'm saying Arch is loyal to fault letting him into your world won't scare him away. Tell her B.” You affirm walking out of your 2nd block English class. You toss Betty a light elbow to get her attention. 

“Yea Veronica, he's kinda blind like that. He'd stick by you no matter what you do.” She spits shooting Veronica a death glare before out pacing the both of you. 

You trade glances between where Betty was standing and Veronica with her head down. 

“What just happened?” You question placing a hand on her shoulder. She sighs heavily.  

As if his spidey senses went off Archie appears out of nowhere snaking his arms around her waist and pecking her cheek. 

“Hey Ronnie. Hey Y/n. What's up?” He chuckles. 

“Nothing just that my best friend hates me.” Veronica says leaning into him. 

Well my work is done here, Archie to the rescue. 

“Ronnie that's not true-” is all you hear as you take the perfect opportunity to sneak off and meet up with Sweet Pea even though your inner gossip was dying for you to stay. 

He doesn't seem like he has much patience for waiting. 

You ease into library without so much as a sound. The place is practically a dead zone. You are sure you spot a couple spiders packing their things and leaving. 

A quick snort escapes you as you stifle the swelling laughter at your own joke. 

“Hey Wilber, I'm over here.” Sweet Pea says waving three shelves down by a window in a corner. 

“Hahaha. Did you come up with that all by yourself, 21 Jump Street.” You snip back sitting across from him as you hand him your homework. 

“Would you prefer-Jesus Y/n?!?” He nearly shouts with his jaw slacked as he lays eyes on the cluttered first problem on you homework, “You weren't kidding about needing tutor. Hell maybe a miracle worker is better match, Helen Keller.”

You roll your eyes to stare out the window as you twirl a curl around your finger while balancing a cheek on your fist. You try your best not to look as hurt as you feel pressing a stoic anger into your features instead. 

Even strangers could tell I'm stupid. 

“If I'm too stupid to help that's all you had to say.” You mutter wishing this kinda stuff didn't make your head spin. 

“A dumb cheerleader what a sur-” He paused catching the expression on your face. He could tell that he struck a nerve. He has definitely hurt your feelings and for some reason he cared.

“Fuck you pal, but that's what I'm good at! Thought I was good at the school thing too but APPARENTLY NOT! If I wanted to get made fun of I would've just asked one those stuck up assholes from my side of town so they can at least gossip behind my back.” You yell as you stand slamming your hands on the wooden table. 

Sweet Pea stands, looking just as indignant as you. 

“What the hell gave you the idea us Southsiders would be any better, Y/n! We're just people!”

“I didn't ask the Southside! I asked you! And I guess I thought you of all people weren't mean for sport!”

Sweet Pea's face holds its waning rage for a moment longer as his gaze meets yours. Neither you or him willing to back down. 

He sits snatching up the pen and turning attention back to his corrections on your homework. 

“Hey,” this time his voice much softer than it has ever been directed toward you,  “do you have your test? I need to see all the things you're doing wrong if I'm gonna have you ready for the next one.” He sighs apologetically with his eyes trained on the page scribbling away. 

You clear your throat and his eyes gaze up to meet yours. 

A look of shock settles on to your features as you search his dark eyes for a hint of sarcasm. You sit down and gingerly pass him your paper. 

“You really think you can?” You question waiting for him to pull the rug from under you so you could storm out. 

“Shit, I taught Fangs square roots, didn't I?” Sweet Pea grins over confidently taking the test and flipping through it as he slides your homework over. 

“You know I don't actually know who that is?” You say blankly as you try to imagine what a guy named Fangs would even look like before looking at what he'd done to your homework. 

“Not the point. The point is you're in good hands.” He nods. 

“Alright, Allstate. As long as you know you're gonna have to do a lot of explaining.” You say screwing up your face as you try your best to make sense of the corrected work. 

“That's okay I like being right,” He smiles before looking up at you, “...and for the record I don't think you're stupid.”

You just nod so glad that your embarrassment couldn't be seen on your brown skin. 

“Okay your biggest problem is that you've swapped the trig functions reciprocals. Like you put sine with secant and cosine with cotangent.” He says slowly pointing to the first couple test problems he had started to correct. 

The majority of the session is spent with him re-explaining concepts and reworking the test. 

The bell rings as you stuff your papers in bag. The idea of  passing Trig seeming a little less impossible. 

“What do I owe you, Grease Lightning?” You say putting a firm negotiating face on. Doing your best to suppress the smirk that keeps trying to work its way on your face. 

“Hmm you'll probably being needing help at least 4 days out of the week. I don't do weekends or Fridays. So 25 for each session and an IOU biweekly sounds fair to me?” He says extending his hand for you to shake. 

“Why the IOU?! What the hell is that good for?...I'm not that kinda-!”

“Don't worry Ms.Prude and Prejudice I'm a serpent not a sleaze. They're not interchangeable. It's just for leverage.” He cuts you off with a pointed look. 

“What kind of leverage, Gangsta's Paradise?” You hiss with crossed arms with your lips tight. 

“Considering you hang out with Cheryl Blossom queen bitch of screwing the Southside over at this school and Veronica Lodge the master manipulator that even lies to her friends forgive me if I don't trust you or your judge of character, L/n.” he says confidently. A smug grin spreading across his face.  

You feel a rebuttal crawl up, but swallowed it just as quickly.

As rudely as he put it, he had a point. For an outsider looking in there's plenty of room for suspicion. 

“Rude, but true. What does my judge of character say about you then, Pea.” You shrug extending your hand to him. 

“Just that even Pep Squad Prima Donnas get lucky...Insanely lucky.” He nods taking your hand in his. 

…

“How long does it take to pick a lock, Sticky Fingers. We're gonna get caught.” You whisper peering out the boys locker room door then back at Sweet Pea finally prying open the last locker. 

“Get your panties out of a wad, Malibu Barbie. That was seven lockers in less than two minutes.” Sweet Pea says tying the cords of five party poppers to the inside of the locker door. 

He takes a step back surveying his handy work. Seven lockers hold a special surprises for the football team, alternating between party poppers and those popper firecrackers. Sweet Pea tilts his head to the side and extends his hand palm up to you. 

“I think, Mantle gets the firecrackers too.” He nods as you hand him the bag. 

“So is this how you tell all the pretty boys you have a crush on them?, or just our beloved team captain.  Reggie should be faltered.” You laugh stuffing a hand full of poppers in your pocket for later. 

“As if, drug selling rich assholes aren't my type, Y/n. This is how you tell Northside shits, no offense, there are consequences to chaining our bikes together in the parking lot without getting suspended at the same time.” He says emptying the entire bag inside before shutting the door tight. 

“None taken. What is your type then, Sweets?” You say shutting a locker or two and heading for the door. 

“Oh just the know it all, stubborn as hell, loudmouth type with the most obnoxious sense of self entailment and the shortest fuse imaginable and most importantly someone who pretends to be a total hard ass but actually is a complete softy. Oh, not to mention they probably think they're absolutely hilarious and are not.” He says shutting the remaining lockers before smiling at you with a self assured grin. 

His dark brown eyes met yours fiercely like he's daring you. 

“You just described yourself, Romeo.” You snort rolling your eyes to the back of your skull and shaking off the creeping gooey feeling in your chest.

In the past couple of weeks this has become your unspoken game. One trying to rattle the other.

“What can I say the heart wants what the heart wants,” Sweet Pea shrugs now standing over you. 

You don't budge. You just bat your eyelashes and place a hand on his forearm. 

“So helping me pass this next quiz is a work of philanthropy and on the house because that's what my heart wants.” You say flashing sly grin up at him. 

“Nice try, Casanova. Not a chance you're buying lunch plus a dessert.” Sweet laughs eyeing your hand as he opens the door.

You snatch your warm brown fingers away and step into the hallway.  It's almost empty save for a couple kids at their lockers. 

As you step out you spot a certain football team captain shutting his locker and eyes landing on you.

Uh oh.  

You skid back into the taller teen behind you as Reggie locks eyes with you from across the hall. His eyes nearly glow red as he makes his way over to the closing locker room. 

“THIS BETTER NOT BE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!” Reggie shouts glaring over your head at Sweet Pea. 

“DOES IT LOOK LIKE I GIVE A FUCK WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO YOU, MANTLE.” The taller teen fires back tugging you behind him. 

“I'M NOT TALKIN TO YOU, SNAKE! N/n, is this bag of dicks bothering you?!?” Reggie's tone softens automatically when addressing you. 

“Reg, I'm fine! Mind your own fucking business!” You scowl trying to push pass Sweet Pea.

“YOU MAKIN MOVES ON N/N IN THE LOCKER ROOM, SNAKE!” Reggie threatens poking Pea's chest. 

“And Even If I was, Mantle! SHE'S A BIG GIRL SHE CAN MAKE HER OWN DECISIONS! WHAT THE HELL YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT!” Sweet Pea growls pushing Reggie back a couple feet. 

“SO YOU ARE SLUMMIN IT WITH THE SERPENTS, NOW, N/N! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK FOR A SECOND YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH FOR HER!” Reggie spits in absolute outrage before trying to charge the leather clad teen.

Sweet Pea cracks his knuckles and steps up to meet the football player head on. 

This isn't gonna end well.

You roll your e/c eyes. 

Shitheads. They're both complete shitheads. 

As soon Pea moves from caging you behind him you step right between them. 

“One more word, and Weatherbee won't be your biggest problem, Genie!” You glare at the teen in the Letterman. 

All of Reggie's former vibrato fades to worried irritation. 

“You Wouldn't Dare, N/n!” He scoffs. 

Sweet Pea just trades confused glances from one of you to the other. 

“You know I would, Genie. I've got her on speed dial.” You smirk at him with you finger poised to press the call button. 

“You're such a little asshole sometimes.” Reggie says rolling his eyes as he backs away but not before taking fingers to his eyes then pointing them dead at Pea.

You nod heading toward the cafeteria as the bell rings and the hall starts to fill up. 

The tree of a teen doesn't move until someone nearly bumps into him. Sweet Pea catches you by the shoulder causing you to slow your pace to his. 

“How, N/n?” He questions completely baffled and a little impressed. 

"One, only Genie calls me, N/n, Sweet Pea. Two, call it a way with words. Beauty doth soothe the savage beast. He means well he's just an ass." You say shaking your head giving him a look like he should have known better. 

"One, it's music doth soothe the savage beast not beauty. And two, Genie...OH GOD! Is that mouth breather your ex?" Pea fake gags pointing finger down his throat. 

"Oh fuck no, hard pass. Reginald Mantle is my cousin. We used to take baths together and everything."

Sweet Pea's brow wrinkles as he hits you with a confused dark brown gaze before giving an unsure nod. 

"School Spirit, why are you giving me that clueless as hell fa-Oh yea! You're a southsider." You smirk at his confusion starting to make perfect sense. 

He rolls his eyes and gestures to the white turtleneck covered by that dorky RHS polo as if the mandated Southside uniforms weren't a good enough reminder. 

"My Uncle Beau, who's basically my older brother, married his older sister, Frances, before we were out of diapers. We grew up together and when we hit middle school Genie thought I wasn't cool enough to hang with him anymore and started picking on me. Frances found out and we haven't had problems since. Its kinda old news, Poindexter." You shrug handing him a tray.  He dodges as if the plastic is poisonous or something. 

"You're not slick, Princess Morbucks. Even with your failed attempt to bore me to tears with a bullshit northside history lesson, last time I checked we agreed on Pop's and this ain't it." Pea smirks pointing at the double doors out of the cafeteria. 

"You're a real pain." You tossing the plastic trays back on the stack and exiting the caf as he holds the door before following. 

Neither of you notice half the room of southsiders and northsiders alike watching your bazaar interaction. 

Taglist: @dreamsfromanemptyteacup @anninhiliation @consultingkilljoywinchester @thecraziestcrayon @teesimagines @t-a-i-l-o-r-m-a-d-e

[wtfdavidsvlogs]

Audition

warnings: swearing, dark humor

Requested: @future-entertainer-creater said So in the most recent vlog, they were having auditions. Can you have y/n audition, and they end up really like her so they end up calling her back for a couple of physical, comedy skits. And after filming David really, REALLY likes her and asks her to join the VS

Gif by: @vlogssquad

Davids Pov

This was for the most part a complete joke but there were some people here that were very serious about it. So me being me I went along with it. We saw some pretty good people and some people that were just God awful. There was one audition that I did actually see potential in. Her name was Y/N Y/L/N. She was born and raised in Hollywood, and she was very good at taking dark humor and making it her own.

20 minutes earlier

I welcomed the next person in. She was dressed in boot style heels, blue jeans and a tight long sleeved black shirt. Very pretty girl. Probably around my age. I look up at her and look at her features. Without the shoes assist she was definitely on the shorter side. She was curvy and busty and had long Y/H/C hair and bright Y/E/C eyes.

“Hi, I’m Y/N Y/L/N, I’m here to audition for the vlog squad.” She said as she walked up to us and shook our hands.

“So what do you know about the vlog squad, Y/N?” Zane asked her.

“I know about 95% about your videos. You have this weird cast style of people that appear there but are actually just your friends that you like to fuck around with. You get sponsorships from one company and one company only, and yo have bought over 15 cars for people that weren’t yourself which is fucking insane.” She said and we all laughed. I wrote some stuff down.

“Well, Y/N what are some of your talents here? This says here that you do stunts and danger acts?” Jason says looking at her resumé. She nods. “Do you mind demonstrating your talents?” He said and she took a step back looking at all of us.

“Well one thing that I can do which I have always found to be kind of hilarious. Can one of you come here?” She said pointing to the rest of the group. Jeff stands up and stands in front of her.

“Alright, I just need you to push my shoulder.” She said and he raised his hand and pushed her. The moment he made contact, we hear something crack. She screamed and we did too. Jeff jumped back and covered his ears. She collapsed on the ground. Everyone screamed but she suddenly stopped and got back up. She raised her arm up and rammed into the wall we heard a click.

“Did you just dislocate your shoulder and then pop it back in?” I said to her with a smile on my face. She nodded. I laugh like a maniac as some people are still grossed out.

“I also enjoy some pretty crude humor as well.” She said clapping her hands together. I sit back down and she has my undivided attention.

“I like using hypotheticals a lot.” She said to us which caught all of our attention considering it is the main root of a lot of the comedy on my channel. I turn to Jason who I’m guessing was feeling the same exact way I was about her. I nodded and he did too. I look back to her. I stand up and walk around the table.

“Welcome to the group, baby.” I said and she smiled.

“Well before I come stumbling into the group y’all should know the truth about something.” She said looking down.

“You’re a man.” Jeff said. After a couple seconds of silence.

“Yes.” She says immediately as we all start to laugh. “I whip out a foot longer.” She says putting her forearm to her crotch. Only escalating the laughter.

“No I was gonna say I’m not actually 5”5, I’m wearing 6 inch heels.” She said stepping out of her shoes to show that she was a tiny 22 year old girl.

“That’s so cute...she two feet shorter than Matt.” I said welcoming her to the group.

I like this one a lot. I hope you like it.

[nope-we-are-friends-now]

Chance Meeting

Characters: The Eleventh Doctor x Gender Neutral Reader, Clara

Wrote this over the course of three days.

Word Count: 2605

You first met the Doctor after he materialized his TARDIS in your living room. He had been aiming to drop off Clara, but as you soon learn, the Doctor can’t drive.

You, having wanted to enjoy your day off work, were eating while watching Netflix. The final moments of the show you were binge-watching were ruined as you watched a blue phone box appear in your living room. All you could do was watch as the thin door of the box creaked open, your food and show long forgotten.  Out walks a man and woman you had never seen before, both of whom haven’t spotted you.

“All I’m saying is that I can’t be late to work again. They already think something is up.” The woman said, as she takes off a large winter coat, walks into your room, and closes the door.

“Clara don’t worry. The TARDIS arrived exactly an hour before Angie and Artie got out of school. I happen to be an excellent driver,” the man said, fixing his bow tie and taking a seat next to you. Clara’s comment of “That’s what you always say.” is ignored as the man noticed you, “Hello, I’m the Doctor.”

“Um...what?”

Your shock turns to confusion as the Doctor jumps from the couch. His elbows dance in the air as he reaches for something in his jacket.

“Who are you? What are you? And why are you in Clara’s apartment?”

When he points a long buzzing tool at you, you throw your hands up. “I, um, what?”

Clara opens your bedroom door holding one of your shirts. “Doctor, I only just realized something. A bit important.”

The Doctor doesn’t hear Clara. You’re stuck turning your head between the two of them; a game of tennis and your head happen to be the ball.

“What is it you want? Trying to kidnap my companion for blackmail?-”

“-Doctor!-”

“-World domination?”

“-I live with the Maitlands.”

“Ah, well then,” the Doctor says, as he put his weapon? away, “why didn’t you tell us we were in your apartment?” He sits beside you, kicking his feet on your coffee table. Pulling out some biscuits and offers one to you.

“Are you guys aliens?” You whisper.

“Why would you think that?”

“You, ah, have a magic box-”

“-it’s not magic. Humans see something they don’t understand and they either ignore it or think it’s magic!” The Doctor scuffed.

“Um, you guys have a blue box that just appeared in the middle of my living room.” You pause for the Doctor to object when he doesn’t you continue. “You just made a human comment so you are either a pretentious prick or not human. So… aliens?”

You learned that not only is Clara 100 percent human, but that the Doctor is a 1000 plus-year-old alien. Clara went to go to work and the Doctor was on the edge of leaving himself. That is where this story should have ended. However, you asked him a question that lead to a day of the impossible.

“So, seeing as you’re an alien, do you want a tour? I could answer some questions about humans and Earth.” You’re not sure you could answer all his questions, but what you didn’t know Google did.

“You answer my questions? Ha, I have been visiting Earth for over 700 years. I have done things you cannot imagine. As you youngsters might say, I have done it all.” He whispers the last bit as if it was a secret. He takes steps towards you to the point that he is in your face.

“Challenge accepted.” You whisper back to him.

The confusion on his face is clear. “What? Challenge?” He looks around the room, then back at you. “There is no challenge.”

“While you were clearly challenging me.”

“No, I wasn’t. I was not challenging you.”

“Yeah, you were. You said, ‘I have done it all.’” You mimic his voice pretty well in your opinion, but the Doctor still looks offended. “I bet I can show you at least one thing that you haven’t done.”

“Impossible. Well, not impossible, but pretty close. You’re just a human on Earth. What could you possibly show me?”

“Apparently, the impossible.”   

The two of you grin and, “Well then, lead the way.”

You had bought some water balloons and took him to a busy park. Then you had a water balloon war between your two teams made up of children. It ended with all the children turning on the Doctor and you. Who knew betrayal was so… wet?

“So, did I do it? Did I do the impossible?” You look at him as you both make your way into your apartment. You both had laughed most of the journey to your place. Each time you thought you were done, you looked at each other and started up again.

“What by having children attack me?” He jokes the smile on his face full of amusement. “Yes, you did.”

“I figured,” the Doctor said, his hand hovering over the latch of the phone box. “You showed me something I thought was impossible, it’s my turn now.” Unlocking the door, he steps out of the way and gestures for you to open it.

It was nothing like you expected. Metal, blinking lights, buttons of all kinds, and not a single phone in sight. The box that isn’t a box. It was incredible. Taking two steps you walk into the slightly cold box, your footsteps echo over the silence.

“It’s called the TARDIS. Stands for Time And Relative Dimension in Space.” The warmth of the Doctor’s breath tickles your ear, his hand is on your back. With a look over to him, he nods towards the center of the TARDIS, encouraging you to explore. “It’s my ship, oh, but it is so much more. It is what you humans think is impossible. Ha! But, so am I. I guess you can call me Dr. Impossible.”

“Well, don’t go all quiet on me now,” he says, after a few seconds of fiddling with the console. “What do you think?”

“It’s-”

“Yes?” Despite the shock you feel, you notice that the Doctor looks like a child waiting for sweets.

With a voice full of pure amazement, you say, “It’s bigger on the inside.”

“Yes.” The Doctor laughs and claps his hands. “It is.”

“Well then (Y/n) (Y/l/n), Where in all the universe would you like to go?”

“In all of space?”

“And time.”

You can’t think. It’s as if you forgot everything. Biting your lip and furrowing your eyebrows you opened your mouth and- “Dr. Impossible?”

The Doctor deflates. “I was hoping you were too distracted to hear that.”

He took you on one adventure, then another. You picked up Clara and soon the three of you were constantly exploring. Some adventures, however, were heavier than others.

Trenzalore. The graveyard was dark and cold and downright spooky. It was your fault though, for assuming a trip to the Doctor’s grave would be anything but easy.

“I have to do it. I have to go into the Doctor’s time stream and save him.”

“No, no, Clara. Don’t you dare.”

“It’s okay, (Y/n). This is what I’m meant to do. I was born for this moment.”

“No! I won’t let you.”

“Someone has too.”

“Exactly, I will. I mean, you’ve already done it once. It’s my turn now.”

“Excuse me, are you keeping score? No, I won’t let you, you’ll die.”

“It’s too bad, I wasn’t asking for permission.”

Despite the intensity of it all, everyone made it out alive. You went on a few more adventures and also met two of the past Doctors. It ended, in a way, nearly as quickly as it started.

Christmas. You should have known really. After all, Clara had decided to cook that day.

The Doctor picked you up before going to Clara’s. Everything was normal, except that he was completely naked. You decided not to address it, let Clara fix it.

Clara comes into the TARDIS in a rush, stopping the instead she sees him.

“He’s naked.” She says, facing you.

“Yeah, yeah he is.” You are looking up at the TARDIS ceiling, you never noticed how big the TARDIS really was.

“(Y/n), why is he naked?”

“Don’t know, I was waiting for you to deal with it.”

“Doctor, put on some clothes.”

Flipping a few switches, he did just that.

“Listen, I need one of you to be my fake significant other. Doesn’t matter who, just someone.”

“Let the Doctor do it.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s going to mess this up and it’s going to be hilarious.”

“You don’t think I can play a fake human boyfriend?” The Doctor asked.

“You’ll screw up in less than five minutes, Dr. Impossible.”

The Doctor huffs and with that, you all make your way to Clara’s apartment.

As the Doctor is greeting Clara’s family you realized something. “Doctor,” you say pulling the Doctor and Clara aside, “you’re still naked.”

“Yes, I am, and I don’t think they’re comfortable with it.”

“Right, kitchen now,” Clara says.

They make their way there, but you take a moment to say hello to her family. “I asked Clara out three weeks ago,” you say, a small smile on your face, “she turned me down for the nudist.”

Clara comes back to drag you away, but you’re too busy laughing to care.

The Doctor defeated the Daleks and his other enemies using his regeneration energy. Afterward, you and Clara couldn’t find him. You had run to the TARDIS as quickly as you could. You thought Clara was beside you, but she must have fallen behind. When you reached the TARDIS she wasn’t there.

You entered the TARDIS and saw the Doctor leaning on the console, his back to you.

“Doctor,” you hesitate. The Doctor turns, groaning and you see him eating his classic fish fingers and custard.

“You know, food always tastes best after a victory.” The Doctor shoves two custard-dipped fish fingers in his mouth and hums.

“You’re okay.” Your hand hovers over the railings as you make your way to him. “I can’t believe it; you really did it.” Laughing, you pull the Doctor in a hug. He’s feverishly warm and when he groans, you know something is wrong.

He pulls away and you see it. His face sparkles a golden color and he turns younger.

“You’re regenerating.” The horror must have been clear on your face because the Doctor steps away from you.

Picking at his custard with a fish finger, “Don’t say it like it’s a bad thing.”

He takes his coat and button up off, “I need a new set of clothes.”

He walks off to one of the corridors and you try blinking the tears away.

After Trenzalore, the Doctor had told you what regeneration felt like. How terrifying it was to have a new body; how terrifying it was to die.

“It’s like dying, but not really.” He had said, “Every cell in my body dies and is reborn again.”

Clara had been asleep. You were planning on doing the same, but you saw the Doctor standing at the console and you had to ask.

“It’s petrifying and paralyzing, and most of the time it leaves me hysterical.” He walked around the console, trying to put some distance between the two of you. You didn’t mind, more surprised that he was being opening up.

“It’s not always so bad.” With the flick of his wrist the TARDIS wheeze and grinds until it lands somewhere. The Doctor moves towards the doors and you follow him. “When I have people with me, standing by my side, death, regeneration, anything really, it’s easier.”

He took you to a grassy field. You weren’t sure if you were on Earth or not.  He had placed his coat on the ground and you both laid there staring at the stars.

“The scariest part, for me,” He pauses for a moment, “is the fear.”

“What fear?” You whisper back.

“Humans, (Y/n), humans are an extraordinary species. You all are so curious and young. I look like a human and I think sometimes you lot forget I’m not.” The stars looked brighter compared to the last time you saw them, maybe you weren’t on Earth? A light breeze leaves goosebumps on your exposed skin.

“When I regenerate, when I become a completely different person, people forgot that I am still me. The Doctor.”

“Well,” you had said, “you don’t have to worry about that with me. I’ll always accept you. Though I prefer it if you didn’t go and ‘die but not really’ on me.”

The Doctor laughed. The smile on his face was like listening to the waves crash on the shore. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that.” He said, “This is my thirteenth body. My last body. No more regenerating for this silly old Doctor.”

At the time you didn’t understand what the Doctor was feeling. Now though, seeing at the Doctor about to regenerate yet again, you realize the Doctor was at peace. He accepted it, he understood his life had to eventually come to an end and he was okay with it. Then he got another cycle. 12 more regenerations. As relieved as you are, you’re not sure the Doctor wants this. “Is this okay?”

“Is what okay?” His voice echoes from the wardrobe to the console room.

“This regeneration, are you okay with it?” Speaking the words make you feel ridicules. The Doctor seems fine with it so there’s no need for you to make a big deal about it. Yet, there’s a part of you that knows that the Doctor always lies, if he doesn’t have to face the truth he won’t.

He pokes his head into the console room, eyes softening when they land on you. “Oh, you always notice the things everyone else ignores, don’t you?”

You shrug, a shy smile slips out.

The Doctor speaks before you could reply, “Thank you, (Y/n) (y/l/n). I’ll be fine. After all, I have you.”

“Of course.”

He smiles, then disappears back into the wardrobe.

Clara shows up moments later, closing the door so quietly you barely notice.

“Where is he? Is he okay?” She rushes to you, looking around the TARDIS for the Doctor.

“He’s changing his clothes.” It’s all you say; it’s all you can say.

You both hear his footsteps and for a moment you’re afraid to turn away. What if someone else came out? What if you didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to your Doctor?

When you turn you find your Doctor standing there looking as young as the day you met him.

You can only stare as he and Clara talk. Eyes following his every move.

“Amelia,” The Doctor looks at the stairway beside him. His face full of hope and amazement.

“Doctor, Amelia’s not here. She’s with Rory remember.” You say.

“Oh, but she’s always with me, always here. She’s the first face this face saw.”

“I will not forgive one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me.”

“Doctor,” Clara says. “No, no. Please don’t change.”

The Doctor has already dropped his bow tie.

He changes faster than you expected. He is older now, with gray hair and wild eyebrows. He spouts nonsense like not liking the color of his kidneys. You are scared, he’s nothing like your Doctor, but then he asks if you know how to fly the TARDIS and you not so scared anymore.

I wasn’t feeling this one. The middle was bad and there was only really one part that I liked. I wanted to delete it, but I also know to grow as a writer I sometimes write things I don’t end up loving.

Feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

P.S. Remember to drink lots of water.