#Mate he wasn’t even a main character he was a side love interest

[signed-sapphire]

7 year difference

Keep at it, and your skills will improve

[amandapearls]

I think it’s weird…really weird…that the Elriels assume that Eluciens want “Elain to be a side character in Lucien’s story”—-

🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I don’t know how to help them at this point. Let me break it down.

Elain is 100% getting a book. That is confirmed by Sarah. We still don’t know when we will be getting that book. Elain will be the main character in HER BOOK. Eluciens believe that Lucien will be her LOVE INTEREST in her book. Elain is DIRECTLY tied to the Vassa and Koschei plot line because she’s the one that FIRST had the vision of Vassa. We wouldn’t even know about Vassa, the lake, or Koschei if it wasn’t for Elain.

This is ELAIN’S plotline. HERS. Now, luckily, her mate is also tied to the plotline since he went to the continent looking for this lake and Vassa. Thankfully he was able to find Papa Archeron and Vassa. So therefore he’d be the perfect love interest/ side kick in ELAIN’S STORY.

It’s sad that I even had to break this concept down. It should’ve been obvious. Oh well here you go.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Excerpts are from “A Court of Wing and Ruin”

[cutegirlmayra]

Boom Sonamy, Lyric comes back trying to achieve immortality. He needs an exhange of life for a life so a live sacrifice but can't read the rest of the inscription. So he kidnaps Amy again to read the rest of the message otherwise he'll destroy the village and plans to sacrifice her. The gang come to save her and stop Lyric. You can add more to make it more dramatic if you want with a better ending than I can think of ^_^'

I do tend to always just add more, don’t I? XD I’m sorry for those who I’ve taken your idea and ran with my own thoughts on it, but I hope it’s been satisfactory nonetheless! Working a lot lately, so when I do have time to do the Tumblr Prompt Series (also posted on all my writing sites for viewing pleasure!) I usually do something fun but small. I’ll give it my best, Precious Anon!

Also, Lyric is a very… how do I put this… There’s not a whole hecka lot of information on him. I did some research to look back over the games he was in, and even then, it was pretty generic and bland, sorry Lyric fans!

However, sometimes, that’s actually good news. You know why? Shocking, I know! But it means the character is wide open for interpretation and expanding upon them. I won’t be doing that for this fic, necessarily, but I think characters with great potential are usually those that have little information but just enough to peak interest. It’s one of the reasons I felt Amy Rose was a character I could put more lore and backstory on, because although I did study her character, there wasn’t a whole lot on her. It made her a canvas that felt ‘half-full’, able to be influenced and expanded upon.

However, in recent times, Amy Rose and many other characters like her in different franchises (Not necessarily in personality or role, but just the same level of character-depth and lore, I guess?) have really been given love and more games are coming out with better writing quality than ever before! I’m so glad that so many ‘side characters’ are treated as main cast mates, and not just thrown into trope roles anymore.

That being said, you can’t escape the occasional ‘One-time’ appearances like Lyric being a ‘Pops up in maybe Two Games and never again’ villain. But it does leave room for us Fanfiction writers to make some interesting depth to further their small legacy! <3

That being said–TUMBLR PROMPT REQUESTS ARE CLOSED, SHUT DOWN ON INBOX, lolol you were waiting for that, weren’t ya? >:3c

Hugs and blowing kisses, everyone. I’m definitely taking more time to heal from burnout and also work on Fanfiction Edits (Which are coming along nicely, I’m now back to Instincts, for those who are a fan of that one.), Original Stories (Sorry, probably won’t post them tho :( But books are important! lol), and of course, Tumblr Prompt Series so yall know I’m not dead xD

The tumblr inbox for prompt requests will remain down probably for a few more years. I know that upsets a lot of you, but if they ever do open again, I will be blocking ‘Anon’ because I think some people are posting more than the actual limit of how many they can submit. Due to this, I’m overwhelmed with hundreds (not joking, by the way.) of requests that I really don’t want to do? So we’ll be taking time to go back to stories I’ve wanted to write and solo-writing for my fanfictions/other works. I’ve gotta set up stronger boundaries! Haha XD

That being said, please enjoy this Sonic Boom (Feels ancient now) Prompt!

Prompt:

“Ultimate power… Although sounding like sweet nectar to one’s ambitious desires, tends to lead to a faulty conclusion…” A snaky whiplash from his claw-tail sent a impulse reflex through Amy’s spine, causing her to flinch and her ears to withdraw back again.

She was so mad, tied up to a pillar inside an ancient tomb, having been ambushed while excavating what looked like a madman’s attempt at immortal life.

Roughly translated, a doctor related to Eggman, known as Ivo Robotnik had first discovered this tomb and kept it a secret. He researched and found a successful way to immortalize someone… but he failed to interpret the last section of the stone slab’s text…

A life for a life… to give Shadow The Hedgehog, his ultimate creation, immortality–to live and breathe forever in the purpose of curing the world of its vital mistakes and sins–he accidentally let his granddaughter, Maria Robotnik, die in the process…

As she read the inscription, Ivo’s account tells that her life was being drained from her… and eventually, was converted in some miraculous way into what was necessary to mechanically engineer this ancient tomb’s purpose: Infinitely Sustained Life.

Shadow, overwhelmed by the loss of his friend, turned on Ivo Robotnik, and sealed the tomb to never let the tragedy that had befallen here happen again… until now.

‘Opps.’ Amy thought to herself, annoyed by Lyric carrying on with his wicked monologue about being the last of the ancients, having envied and coveted this technology, but had lost before he could even begin to understand it. ‘I’ve been following the late Ivo Robotnik’s work in hopes of finding the ancient world… I didn’t think I’d stumble upon this buttless snake again…’ She sighed quietly, blinking her eyes as though counting subconsciously the seconds before she was to be daringly rescued by her friends.

Again…

‘Why was it always me?’ She grumbled in her thoughts before the second whipping crack of his tail colliding with the ground near her snapped her out of her thoughts again.

“You remain awfully quiet… that’s offssssseting.” He hissed to her side, which made her lean as far right as she could muster, trying to get away from his anciently stanky breath.

“Upsetting,” She appeared to be clarifying, “That I have to have my peaceful afternoon so rudely interrupted by the echoes of a delusional reptilian, but I mean, at least I’m complaining internally.” She smirked up to him, showing she wasn’t trying to help him, she was just making a snarky comeback.

He shook his head, his lips swerving in their rage as he lifted himself up, completely over her cocky and irritating behavior.

“You will read the slab for me!” He smashed down his robotic arm by her, and she had to turn her head away from the dust and flying debris of shattered rock taking off from the impact.

“Like I’d die for you!” She badmouthed back, “Sonic and my friends will be here any minute. Seems you’ve become very fond of our combined butt-whooping, Lyric! I can’t fathom any other reason you’d keep wishing it upon you, unless it truly makes you feel like you even have a butt to whoop.”

“Silence!” He roared up, having the whole of the tomb shake from his vibrating, strong sound before Amy just scoffed.

“Finally, we see snake-eye to hedgehog-eye now.” She leaned back on the pillar she was tied to, taking a nice breath out. “Ah~ Now, to await the inevitable victory-WUOO!” She was yoinked practically up, snapping her restraints around her wasit but her arms still behind her back.

Lyric had taken hold of her head, as she kicked the air and tried to hit him while he held her uncomfortably high.

She could probably be alright, but she couldn’t use her Enerbeam… Nor her Piko-Piko Hammer while her arms were still tied-up, although her legs free.

She could feel the squeezing of his robotic claws digging into her cranium, and for the first time that day, she actually showed the tire and wear of having struggled against him for so long.

Not only did she dig her way carefully as she could in here, trying to preserve the ancient relics to study them later, but she had to fight Lyric, and now…

“If you will not comply…” He pulled her face towards his own, using his tail to grab her legs and keep them tightly clamped together, making sure her struggle just became ten-times harder…

Her eyes were twitching under the pressurized hold the claws had on her head… Looking up as she couldn’t help but show the strain.

“Then you’ll remember an old friend, I’m sure…” He attached a new mind-controller on her, as he let her go and she fell to all fours,... then looked up to show she was fully under his power.

“Perfect~” He chimed, laughing manically, “Now, read it to me!” He slashed his tail against the wall, turning for her to get up and walk towards the slab.

She knelt and held out her two hands to it, reading the rock…

“At last! My robotic empire! To erase the weak and insipid existence of all living organisms…” He slithered and opened his arms to the murals around the tomb. “To eternally strive for perfect power… the influence of which only the vast superiority of machines can dictate! Eggman was a fool to try and rival me… You and your friends were mere insects to my reign! Biting and taunting me, getting in my way to distract me from the ultimate purpose of my recreation!” He twisted the wrist joint of his robotic arm and held up his claw-like hand, admiring it. “Soon, even I shall become fully mechanized! With immortality, I can improve my own being once more! No longer half-complete, a mutated cyborg with still my fleshy prison! But… I shall shed this weakling flesh to become truly–the immortal mechanized god of this new world!” He struck an all-powerful and imposing pose, but an explosion of rocks and rumbling of the tomb’s unstabilized structure shook him out of his gloating aside to himself once more.

“Wh-what? OFFPH!” A red, shiny shoe smushed with great force against his face, crushing it as Sonic sped into the fight, and Shadow rushed to Amy’s side.

“Snap out of it!” He could tell by her faint breathing that she was already losing her life force, the stream of which was moving through the air into the large center dome-like structure above the tomb.

“No… not again..!” Shadow cried out, seeing as Lyric was able to actually combat Sonic, who had tried to pin him down but was flung off of him.

Lyric laughed again with the added strength of immortality slowly being converted into him by the strange process of the powerful stream of light waving through the air, coming out of the ball, to then attach to him like a leash.

“Soon, Sonic, all your friends will contribute to is merely delaying the eventual takeover of this planet..!” Lyric, slithering towards Sonic as he kept backing up, felt his body powering up. “Every muscle in you will eventually wither and die… while mine shall stay immaculate… and whether you continue to prevent me from my destined course of fate or not, sooner or later… You will die.” He lunged into Sonic’s face, who looked horrified at what he was saying. “While I’ll still yet have endless time left in me… to conquer, maim, and entirely transform this pathetic mossy rock into yet another perfect rendition of what I shall become… Immortality pristine, everlasting, and most importantly…” He rose himself up into the air, his tail whipping around underneath him. “A robotic masterpiece..!”

“Amy..!!!” Shadow gripped at her mindcontrolling device on her head, but it was wedged on tightly this time, “Darn it, woman!” He looked to the slab, she was almost done..!

He closed his eyes, realizing what he must do.

“Forgive me… Maria.” He covered Amy’s mouth so she couldn’t speak. “I will have to belay my promise to you… and save this pathetic excuse for a world… if only to bring your perfect idealisms to light… perhaps… another day.”

He lowered his head and read the last of the inscription, which took his immortality and-

The beam redirected.

“WHAT?!” Lyric landed back on the ground, looking at his robotic arms before turning to finally notice Shadow as he held Amy, giving her back her life force…

“NOOO!!!” Lyric began to move quickly towards him, but Sonic thomped him yet again to the ground.

He folded his arms, standing triumphantly over him, “Looks like your brilliant plan at eternal robotization backfired yet again, Lyric! Now, you’re just softly singing the poetic justice of what happens to those who try and metallically make their own butts to be kicked!” He kicked Lyric as he moved forward with a humorous cry of pain from it.

“Shadow?” Sonic then raced to his side, looking at Amy in his arms and having her transferred to his own.

Shadow… slowly shook his head.

Sonic, worried now, looked down at Amy. “Amy?”

She didn’t move… the light breeze from their entrance now sending the wind to move her three bangs.

“... Amy?” There was a long… hard pause…

The air was still, even Lyric pushed up off the ground, holding his push-up position, and looked to see with a swishing tail if immortality could still be his afterall.

Then… her eyes blinked…

“Miss Rose?” The little blonde human girl was bending down to speak to her, as she got up, rubbing her head.

“Wha-... H-huh?” She looked around what seemed like a white space. “Am I… dead?” She looked at the girl, gasping, “Maria Robotnik!?”

The little girl shyly giggled, gently covering her mouth, “Oh, I’m sorry for laughing, this isn’t the time nor place for that.” She then curtsied and offered her her hand, “You’re not dead. I’m giving you my life’s essence… the same essence… that was used to give Shadow his immortal life.”

“W-What?!” Amy scooted away, kicking her feet out from the girl’s hand. “That’s ludicrous! I don’t want eternal life!” She exclaimed, “I… I want to grow old with my friends, and have countless adventures… a family and eventually… make global peace and end world hunger.” She looked down, “Set up an all-women government and prove that we can organize a better democracy and-”

Maria just giggled again, “Many. Big. Dreams.” She gave each word a single note and pause, not necessarily for dramatic flavor or effect, but to show how much they meant to her.

“Many times have I wished for a better world. Bigger and bigger have my heartfelt prayers become. Dreams of an absolution… from misery and fire, to passion and compassion reigning evermore on the earth.” She gently offered her hand to Amy again.

“If you can’t accept an immortal life… then accept entirely your own life. All it’s happenings. Even the mistakes…”

Amy looked at her hand… realizing that without Maria, she would likely never be able to return to life at all…

“Is this… really the only way?” Amy held up her hand, but hesitated, looking sweetly at the girl. “I’m sure… W-We could ask Tails… We could find a way to bring you back!” She formed a fist, “We can reverse what this place has done to you!”

Maria just smiled like the angel she was. “... This is the only way…” She quietly stated, “Come, be at peace. Your friends are waiting for you.”

Amy dropped her head, her hand loosening from a determined fist to an open hand again, and looked at it. “... Dying sure does suck… doesn’t it?” She looked with teary eyes up to the kind, optimistic girl. Her heart wanted to help her, but she was sacrificing herself–yet again–for the greater good.

“Thank you… Maria.” She took her hand… as a white light engulfed them.

“No, Amy Rose. Thank you… for never giving up on the world we live in. In it’s present, so many seek to extend their lives, in fear that they will live to short or not greatly enough. The real life we should long for, is the one we’re currently on right now. With so much possibility, with so many endless adventures to take… When one begins to stop fearing the future, then can we really live and create it at last… the way-...”

“We want to.” Amy finished, as Maria’s voice faded and she opened her actual eyes.

Sonic and Shadow were over her… Shadow having lost his Immortality, but Amy not gaining it.

Instead, Amy had died and Maria used her life force to give it back to her.

Both mortal now, Amy looked from Sonic to Shadow, and held up a hand to grace his cheek, “She’s lovely.” She smiled kindly to him. “Maria was such a beautiful young girl.”

Shadow couldn’t hold it back, and cried.

He ducked his head as her hand came gently off and moved to Sonic’s chest, patting it lightly, “Boy, does that heart never cease to slow down?” She teased, as Sonic sighed in relief.

“Happy to have you back… Ames.” He gave her a fond expression, and she leaned her head into his embracing arms, resting in that soft gaze of sweetness he gave her.

“ARRGGGAHHH!!” Lyric arched his back, crying out in further outrage. “HOW!? You fools! I will return, I will bring a bigger robotic army, I’ll have you ruing the day you-!”

There’s was a large ‘KONK!’ sound as mechanical birds flew around his head while he circled a little in the air and then fell forward, revealing Tails with a large wrench held like a thrown baseball bat, Knuckles with his fists positioned as though they had just hit something as well, and Sticks with her boomerang and one hand on the ground to show she had just caught it.

“Man, to think. We’ve stumbled upon a literal ANCIENT secret governmental conspiracy! Whoo! Glad I’m only living in a time where we have to deal with our modern governmental conspiracies!” She spouted out, looking relieved for some odd reason.

“Oh, hey Bestie!” She waved enthusiastically to Amy, who lightly waved back at her, giggling as she came over.

Completely unaware…

Of what just happened here moments before.

“What were you up to?” She asked, innocently.

Shadow covered his face from the view of the others, as Sonic looked to him and then to Amy, and helped her to lean up more so she could be sitting comfortably as she twisted her torso to address the others, and mostly answer Sticks’s question.

“Changing fate.” She replied, smiling from ear to ear. “And hopefully…”

“Making all of ours a good one.”

[nikethestatue]

Hi and sorry this is pretty long. I am the anon who asked about the “why sjm would have included az in the mating bond storyline, when she already had a 3rd party” ask. I just wanted to elaborate on my thought processes around this and get your opinion. I always ask myself when reading a book and guessing about potential storyline’s what did the inclusion or lack of inclusion of this scene, that person, that bit of information bring to the plot and how can it move current storyline’s along. With the el/lu storyline that we have at present, her not accepting the bond, being uncomfortable around him and him being almost indifferent to her at this point what would we need to do to get with them to get them from point a to b. Well we could stay with this, have el still fighting the bond because of reasons but slowly giving in, could use a lot of popular troupes in this storyline, forced proximity, one horse/bed, fake dating and missunderstandings etc, make it angsty and eventually they do fall in love. Bingo! a to b achieved. No need for Az to have been brought in at all. Or we could have the love triangle storyline once again no need for Az we already had gray, could have had the plot be unable to accept becoming fae, staying with gray (even tho he was a raging prick, which has the bonus of helping have the readers rooting for Luc instead of having readers divided between Az/luc) because it’s her last threads to her humanity, it could of been her journey in accepting not being human (but we already kinda had that plot point with nes/cass so unlikely) luc helping her thru it and having to overcome a 3rd party, possible troupes, watching yr mate be with someone else (done with Rhys/feyre), jealousy, mutual pining, misunderstandings lots of areas to explore here. Anyway you get where I’m going with this, the point being, no matter which way you look at it Az didn’t need to be included in el storyline in order to achieve the end goal of having el/luc together. In fact it just makes it messy for an author to tie up all loose threads and have everyone come out happy including the reader. Also applies to the imfamous bonus chapter. You have to ask yrself what was the motivation for the author of including 2 intimate scenes involving one person, one intimate scene of 2 MAIN characters that gets interrupted and then immediately having the male go and have another intimate scene with a side character. If you wanted the 2nd scene to imply a romantic connection you could of just left the 1st scene out all together and still had the same outcome. You didn’t need to end el/az to start az/gwyn because in the actual books, although it’s been hinted at, it hasn’t been confirmed. Why do things in the 2nd scene that are unromantic, even antiromantic, like a guy regifting a gift from one girl to the next, (he could of gone to the library the next day with literally anything else and the scene would have been the same) why have him simping for a girl immediately before going to the actual love interest. Why make a messy situation, once again, when you didn’t need to unless you never intended for the 2nd scene to be romantic. Which ever way you look at it having the az/el storyline confirmed in the bonus matters because otherwise you’ve created a narrative nightmare for both the el/luc and az/gwyn storylines that didn’t need to exist if it, ultimately, wasn’t going to mean anything

No you are absolutely right. There is no need for Azriel in that situation. Unless you actually need him to be partnered with Elain. Especially not for this long.

I've entertained many options for how Elucien can happen--and yet, if SJM wanted to write Elucien, slow burn, learning to like and then love each other, it's very possible. But there is enough of an obstacle in there--their mutual reluctance, and especially Elain's--that Azriel isn't needed. They'd have enough to overcome without the interference of another character. At most, he could've played a Tarquin-like role. A short flirtation, for a chapter or two. Not all these pivotal scenes which SJM gave Azriel, and not Lucien.

There also wouldn't be the need for Vassa or Lucien living there. In these books, you want the man to fight for his woman. He should pursue her, woo her, court her, not peace out and shack up with another female. I mean, there is no real come back from that.

"Hey Elain, I know we were mates and all, but I was banging Vassa while you were deciding. No, I didn't do everything in my power to convince you and show you the man that I am, who is worth loving and who is worth your eternity. I left at the first sign of trouble."

That's really kind of not an ideal setup.

And there is nothing to say about Gwynriel, because it's not an obstacle as it doesn't exist.

[matchagator]

Sheltered: Chapter 9

Tensions are high in the household, making Lily desperate for answers and a boost in morale. However, things only become worse after an incident at the diner.

It's Spring Break for us writers, so stay tuned for a week of updates to make up for the delay or visit here for the complete story.

{Main Pairings:} Jeon Jungkook/Original Female Character, Choi Soobin/Original Female Character, Kim Taehyung/Original Female Character(s)

{Rating:} 18+

{Genre:} Alternate Universe - Hybrids

{Summary:} Realization finally dawned on Lily, knowing she now had the responsibility of three hybrids rather than three dogs. Her eyes grew wide while her eyebrows rose up in wonder before she turned her attention to her sister. The shocked expression of Rose had her smile sheepishly. “Well, at least we don’t have to name them.”

{Warnings:} Mature Language, Mild Angst, Rutting Behaviors, Tattoos, Sexual Harassment

{Taglist:} @chimsworldsstuff

The next day had been interesting, to say the least, Lily managed to steer clear of Soobin's intensity as she focused on the moody doberman, who huffed around the house as if everything was an inconvenience. She knew his mood was related to the bickering between him and her sister, but wasn’t sure how to make amends if they bit at each other every chance they got. She tried to cater to him throughout the day, which only caused Soobin to act out from her lack of attention. 

He would growl and move between them to create distance, but Lily would just circle back around him to get to Jungkook. It wasn’t until they were watching television and began watching a show about tattoo artists that she noticed the stony features of Jungkook begin to melt as he became enamored by the designs across the human canvases. Despite the reminder of Rose’s reaction when she took them to get their piercings, Lily decided to offer him the opportunity. 

Soobin didn’t like the idea of them going alone together and whined to go as well even though he had no interest in getting a mark on his skin. At the shop, Jungkook admired the art of the tattooist and couldn’t decide on any particular design. After a lengthy consultation, he received a small variety along his arm that would make it easy to have more things added later. While he had his tattoo worked on, Lily fell in love with the line work of another artist and decided on a design of swirls and tiger lilies that would curl over her shoulder. 

When the artist went to place the stencil against her skin, Soobin argued that it didn’t look good over her shoulder. He didn’t mind that she was getting the tattoo and the placement was actually very nice, but all he could see was her covering the area where he would one day leave his mate mark. He didn’t want it to heal over with a distracting display of beautiful flowers to take away from his claim on her. He wanted his mark to be the only thing brandishing her shoulders. Lily didn’t ask much about his reasoning and had the artist readjust it to sit on the back of her shoulder so that it ran from her spine to her arm.  

The appointments were long with the size and details of each tattoo, but they were finished as the sun began to hide behind the horizon. The dull ache didn’t take long to settle in Lily’s bones from the artist pressing into her back with the needle gun, so she decided to pick up Taehyun, who stayed home and napped, then drove everyone to the local diner. She knew Rose would be less inclined to make a scene about the tattoos at work and possibly act civil with Jungkook. 

“I smell Rose! Is she eating with us?” Taehyun asked as he slid into the booth first when Lily guided them to the table she usually occupied when the dinner rush was bustling. Jungkook slid in on the opposite side of the booth and Lily scooted in next to him, causing Soobin to make a disapproving groan in his throat as he sat across from her. His long legs bumped against hers under the table, easing his possessive instinct to feel her touch even in the slightest. His rut was becoming stronger as his need to claim Lily grew with the threat of her being taken by one of the other two males. 

Lily reached over Jungkook to grab some menus and handed them out to the hybrids, hoping they would pick something based on the pictures. As she browsed the pamphlet of food options, their waitress arrived, looking down at her notepad ready to grab their drink orders. Lily looked up, surprised to find Rose would be their waitress. “Hello, my name is Rose. What would you like to drink?” She finally glanced away from her notepad and faltered as she noticed her dysfunctional family sitting in her booth. “What are you doing here?”

Lily regularly came to the diner, but Rose never imagined that she would bring the hybrids with her. Her sister smiled sheepishly, “Yeah, I didn’t want to make dinner so…here we are.”

Rose rolled her eyes in response to her sister’s excuse as Taehyun leaned up on the table, “Are you joining us?” His eyes were large and filled with hope.

Rose tilted her head with a small pout, “Sorry, Tae. I can’t, I’m working.” She pointed back towards the kitchen with the cap of her pen and Taehyun slumped back into the booth with disappointment.

“Can we just get water?” Lily asked, noticing Jungkook recede back into his foul mood from earlier with the presence of Rose. Her sister placed her notepad away without jotting anything down before turning to retrieve the four glasses. As she walked away, Lily brushed her hand through Jungkook’s hair, feeling how tense he was.

Soobin pushed his leg back into hers as he glared at the affection she gave Jungkook, who moved away from her touch. His breathing became heavy as his nose scrunched from the low snarl escaping his lips. Jungkook was rigid from the sound coming from his brother and snapped back with a noise acutely similar to a bark. Taehyun yelped as his brothers stared each other down, leaning across the table towards each other with their teeth bared from the curl in their lips. 

Lily panicked, realizing that they were making a scene in the middle of a full restaurant. She tapped the table, trying to break them from the trance of animosity. “Both of you stop it!” She whispered harshly, her eyes flickering around the other booths to see people were watching them. 

Soobin broke eye contact with Jungkook at the sound of her voice in mild distress. He sensed her nerves rattling within her, wanting nothing more than to comfort her, but sitting back to calm himself down. Rose arrived as the two older males settled back down, feeling a shift in the air as she placed the waters on the table. She reached across to put a glass in front of Jungkook when she noticed the plastic wrapped around his newly decorated forearm. 

Her mouth dropped in disbelief as her wide eyes found Lily, “You took him to get tattoos?” Again, the plural status of her statement outweighs the severity of her sister’s actions. It wasn’t so bad that he got a tattoo, but nearly an arm full of tattoos was pushing her sanity off the ledge of rationality. 

Lily bit her lip, hands still shaking from the previous interaction between Jungkook and Soobin. She laughed nervously, feeling overwhelmed by the consequences of her actions. “Yeah, he was having a bad day.” She tried to justify.

Rose just shook her head, not believing that her sister thought any of this was acceptable in the slightest. “We’ll talk about this later. What do you guys want?” She focused on the lines of her notepad, trying to bury the aggravation that wanted to bubble over.

“Just bring burgers and fries for all of us. As soon as possible.” Lily added as an afterthought, hoping that fast service would keep the boys distracted with their meal until they left to go home. 

“Should I bring JK’s cooked or would he rather just have a raw patty?” She shot him a knowing stare, her eyes narrowed when he looked up at her. 

Lily was thrown off by the question, “Uh, cooked…” She glanced over to her side to see if Jungkook argued otherwise before turning back towards Rose. “Yeah, cooked is fine.” Lily waited until Rose left the table before addressing the men, “If we get through dinner without any trouble, I’ll give you guys a treat.”

The hybrids brightened up at the mention of a treat, wondering what it could possibly be. “What kind of treat?” Taehyun asked, his expression eager as he leaned up on the booth again.

Lily merely waved him down to sit and vaguely answered his question to keep them guessing. The table became quiet as Taehyun settled down, only perking up whenever he caught sight of Rose moving around from table to table. Jungkook simply leaned against the corner of the booth, keeping to himself as he ignored the familiar scent of vanilla florals gently sweeping in to remind him that the infuriating brunette was there. 

Soobin stared at Lily as she pulled out her phone and seemed to intently be in search of something on the small device. He nudged his leg against hers, capturing her attention away from her phone. She sent him a reassuring smile, but he could sense her uneasiness as he tried to figure out what could be bothering her. She nudged her leg back and Soobin felt warm with need from the reciprocated contact. His rut was proving to be a challenge the more time he was around her, but he would do his best not to pressure her despite his instinct. 

Lily was relieved to see the hybrids nestling into the comforts of the restaurant, joyous that whatever mood swing she just encountered would not rear its head. She broke eye contact with Soobin as she glanced back down at her phone, looking through her search engine for answers on his recent behavior. Most of the results showed a preview stating that huskies were friendly, so why did he seem so aggressive lately? He seems like he’s been socialized enough not to be territorial, he couldn’t be fighting for dominance since Jungkook clearly fit that role; so what could it be?

She wasn’t allowed much time to ponder it when Rose came back with a large serving plate to dispense the food onto the table. She put her phone away deciding she would try and get some more information from Katharine when she goes to work the next day. “Thanks, sis.” She smiled up at Rose as she grabbed a fry to put in her mouth. 

“You’re-” Jungkook began devouring the burger, shoving the filled patties into his mouth as much as he was capable of before aggressively chewing. Rose blanched in disgust as ketchup smeared over his face and loose pieces of the burger fell from the corner of his mouth. “...welcome.” Soobin and Taehyun followed Jungkook’s example, shoving the large burgers in their mouth for large bites. Rose fixed Lily with wide eyes and a forced smile. “You have fun with that.”

Lily watched as she briskly walked away and caught sight of an elderly couple looking over towards their booth. She smiled sheepishly at the pair before snapping her attention back to the boys at her table. The aggressive scarfing created loud noises that reminded her of a slew of pigs eating their daily slop. “You don’t need to inhale your food. It’s not going anywhere.” She reminded them, relieved when they began to slow down their pace. 

With a sigh, Lily dove into her fries meticulously eating them one-by-one before tackling the burger. They all ate silently and before long Jungkook was finished, staring at Lily with intent. “I finished. Where’s my treat?”

She paused mid-chew on her burger, glancing over to see his plate was completely cleaned off with the other two not far behind. “Um…” She searched for her sister to try and get her attention. She was currently helping another customer but noticed Lily waving her over from the corner of her eye. She continued to write down the customer’s order before sighing as she approached the chaos table.

She leaned on one foot, cocking her hip to the side. “Yes?” Her hands pressed against her waist, hoping that her sister was ready for the check. 

“Can we get three hot chocolates for the guys? I’m sure they would love that.” Lily knew the men had an appetite for sweets and wanted to fulfill their promise since they were mostly behaved during dinner other than the transparent etiquette flaws. 

Rose narrowed her eyes. “That one…” She pointed at Jungkook, “..doesn’t need anything, but I’ll bring some for the other two.” She countered. The doberman already got an arm full of tattoos, why did Lily always feel the need to spoil him? She could see her sister trying to defend Jungkook but stopped her before she could speak. “He’s a good boy.” She pointed at Soobin. “He’s a good boy.” She pointed at Taehyun and went back full circle to Jungkook. “He’s a bitch.”

Lily reached up and covered Jungkook’s ears as he growled at the demeaning name that left Rose’s lips. “That was uncalled for. He’s just misunderstood.” Lily defended as she glared back at her sister, mildly surprised that she cursed at work. 

Rose crossed her arms over her chest with an eye roll. “Whatever.” She stomped off back to the kitchens to fulfill the order, annoyance etched throughout her body. She hated that her sister let him do anything he wanted and made excuses for him. She knew Lily felt like she needed to provide them with a good home, but she shouldn’t be encouraging his behavior as a menace to society. 

Lily pulled her hands away, looking towards the human doberman. “Sorry about that.” Jungkook could only huff as he hunched over the table, the muscles on his back firm from the tension building within them. He didn’t know how to feel about Rose anymore. He spent the most time with her out of the others, but she’s cold towards him. Yet, his brothers attached themselves more to Lily and she goes out of her way for him. Things seemed backwards and he understood he had some issues with trust and obedience, but that still didn’t excuse Rose’s attitude towards him. 

As Jungkook was lost in thought, Rose returned with her serving tray and placed the three mugs of hot chocolate with whipped cream in front of each hybrid. “Enjoy!” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes as she looked at Soobin and Taehyun. 

A pit of guilt punched Lily in the stomach as she noticed Jungkook simply staring at the mug of sweet liquid. She pushed the cup closer to him, “Go ahead. You’ll like it. Just be careful, it’s hot.”

He blankly stared at the whipped cream, lost in thought as he tried to process how he would manage to live in this house with Rose. Distant memories of his first owners were haunting him as he remembered being abandoned and given to the shelter. He felt stuck because he enjoyed the safety and comforts of their new home, but he was scared that if Rose couldn’t accept him then he would lose all of that. It was a constant battle between them and Jungkook wasn’t sure if he was willing to let his guard down in the event she did return them back to their legal owners. 

Lily softly smiled at Taehyun as he stared at the drink, sniffing around the swirl of whipped cream. He slowly brought the mug up to his lips and took a sip. His mouth was met with the warm flow of chocolate with the contrasting feeling of cool solidified cream melting over his tongue. He raised the cup higher, gathering a larger gulp before placing the cup back down on the tabletop. Lily laughed when she noticed his nose was covered in white cream and chocolate ran along the curve of his top lip. 

He dragged his tongue over his lip to collect the remnants, trying to curl it over the tip of his nose to wipe off the whipped cream there. Soobin took a sip as well, laughing as he also got cream on his nose. Lily leaned on her palm and admired the two hybrids sitting across from her, capturing the wholesome moment as a memory she wished to keep for those days that might seem hard. Their happiness was a reminder that bringing them into her home changed her life for the better. 

She peered at Jungkook from the corner of her eye, gesturing with the tilt of her head towards the mug for him to join in on the fun. She nearly cried with joy when he finally took his sip and a small chuckle escaped his lips. Her heart swelled with love for the new additions to her unconventional family and no one could take that away from her. “I love hot chocolate!” Taehyun projected enthusiastically, taking more sips from the mug in his hands.

Rose heard him from a few tables away, notepad in her hand as she prepared to take the order of another customer. The man she was currently serving sat by himself with a simple cup of coffee. She allowed him a few moments to look at the menu and noticed him place it down before she made her next move. “What can I get you?” 

Rose was so focused on her notepad that she didn’t notice the way his eyes ran over her figure, his lids heavy with ill intent. “Are you on the menu?” He asked, lecherously. Rose faltered as his question registered in her head. She was familiar with flirtatious comments and recognized this particular line from a handful of customers before him, but his demeanor made her uncomfortable. He wasn’t being funny or light-hearted like most people were, he was a sleazy creep. 

She steeled herself, ignoring his comment. “No, so what can I get you instead?” She pursed her lips together as her anxiety spiked the pounding of her heart. The faster she could get his order and him out of her hair, the better.  

Jungkook sensed a wave of distress in the restaurant as he gulped down the rest of his hot chocolate. Soobin and Taehyun were still savoring their drinks as Lily continued to nibble on her burger since she was a slow eater. Jungkook looked over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of Rose talking to a man, the distress pounding through her chest and beating through Jungkook’s ear drums. His eyes narrowed as he tried to focus on their conversation, but the sound was washed out by the loud ambiance of the diner. 

“JK?” Lily asked, noticing that he was practically turned around in his seat. She peered behind her to see him glaring at Rose and she only hoped he didn’t try to pick a fight with her just before they were supposed to leave. 

She tugged the sleeve of his shirt, but he ignored her as his pupils shrunk in on the man. Rose seemed to pace back and forth between leaning on her left or right leg as she tried to get away from the customer without being rude. He kept flirting with her and making her uncomfortable, refusing to tell her what he wanted besides coffee. She noticed the mug was empty, “Let me get you a refill and let you think about your order for a moment.”

She went to turn away as fast as possible, but she was stopped abruptly when the man reached out and grabbed her apron. “I wasn’t done talking to you.” His gruff voice was commanding and degrading all on its own.

Jungkook bared his teeth with a growl as he watched the man grab Rose against her will and pull her back towards him. Her fear spiked and Jungkook jumped into action, lifting up from his seat and stepping over the table. The dishes clattered as he moved across them, startling Lily as she yelled after him. The scolding tone in her voice didn’t stop him as he took large strides through the diner, his destination being the only thing he could see.

Rose could barely blink in response to the man grabbing her before his grip was ripped from her and all she could see was Jungkook’s back hiding her view of the man. When he approached the pair, Jungkook grabbed the man’s outstretched wrist firmly and yanked it away from her as he stood between them. He stood menacingly over the man with his doberman features shining through, asserting his dominance against the human. “Keep your hands to yourself.” He growled.

“JK, it’s okay.” Rose tried to de-escalate the situation and placed her hand on Jungkook’s shoulder, unsure how to approach him in this state. She never witnessed him be so aggressive, where did this come from and why was he protecting her? 

The man’s face hardened up at the younger male, moving to stand up defensively, but cringed as Jungkook tightened his grip and twisted his wrist downward, creating pain in the man’s arm. “Don’t fucking touch her again, understand?” He hissed as Lily and Soobin finally made an appearance, pulling him away from the offender. 

“JK, stop! Let’s go!” Lily placed her hold on his wrist, pulling his hand away from the man as Soobin pulled him away by pushing against his shoulder. Rose gaped as he responded to the pair, following their guidance towards the door. “Tae, time to go!” Lily hollered at the booth, blocking Jungkook’s fierce glare from piercing through Rose’s customer. 

Rose noticed a messy pile of crumpled bills left on their table as her mind tried to process what just happened. The man cradled his wrist as he rose from his seat and hastily left the diner, avoiding the direction of the others as he walked to his car. “Rose, clean up your tables!” Another waitress demanded when she only seemed to stand in place.

She snapped back to reality, realizing that coffee spilled across the table after Jungkook collided into them before she noticed the mess left behind from her sister’s booth. People were watching her like she was free entertainment and she felt heat rise to her cheeks from embarrassment. Her family made her look crazy and left her to clean up their mess. She was so mad, but yet as she wiped away the spilled coffee, her mind refused to think about anything other than the way Jungkook stood up for her.

Despite their differences and constant fighting, he still protected her from the creep. His approach was very impulsive, but that bothered her the most. He did it so effortlessly, without any incentive; be damned the consequences to himself or her. She was beyond confused, but couldn’t fight the feeling that maybe Jungkook cared about her more than she originally believed. After cleaning the coffee, she moved to the other booth and groaned when she noticed some of the dishes were broken. Tonight was a complete disaster, but she couldn’t wait to get home.

Previous | Next

[acourtofthought]

Hey!

good?

You convinced me that the next book is by Elain, respectively by Elucien. Honestly, it totally makes sense that their book. Their story has been screaming for years to be written. I think her talking about Azriel was a way to keep interest in Acotar.

A chapter of it was good for us to know what his secret was, something that was answered on the page.

If SJM talks a lot about Lucien, we'll automatically know it's a book he'll have pov. I couldn't accept Lucien not getting a book, given that of all the males in the series, he has the most history.

In Starfall Elain was close to Helion and Lucien. The bell rang for me in that moment that when Nesta was settled with the Night Court, Elain was in the same vein as Lucien.

"Lucien can win a book with Vassa" would be too lame, as the two alone wouldn't need the Night Court (Feysand) as central as SJM said.

Book of Elucien would have connection with this couple and court. Now Vassien? it's a big joke.

People are scared or convinced it's Elriel because Azriel gained pov and prominence, and the next book could be Elain's.

If it's Elriel to acotar5 nobody will care about acotar6. Vassa and Lucien would be an isolated core, but bringing Elucien brings so many possibilities, not only for them, it would give space to develop Azriel, Gwyn, pegasus, Daytime and Spring.

But I don't trust SJM that much, I think she makes up some forced stuff and retcons. Expectations are high, but I'm not fooled.

Can you imagine Lucien not gaining a main pov also in acotar5 or acotar6?

All any of us have to work with right now are the possible clues she's given and based on those it feels like Elucien to me.

Of course I could up wrong because what's obvious to me is not at all obvious to someone else who thinks Gwynriel or E/riel is next. But I do think Elucien is a serious contender for the next book!

Az did feature heavily in SF but really, how could he not? He's Cassian's best friend.

Mor was prominently featured in ACOMAF, ACOWAR and ACOFAS as she was Feyre's friend but that didn't mean she was getting the next book in the series. Instead SJM chose to focus on Feyre's sister. Even though Gwyn (Nesta's friend) and Az played major roles in SF, SJM could still once again choose to focus on the other sister.

All her characters are important but it would surprise me if SJM said "Feyre gets a story! Nesta gets a story! But now I'm going to give the next book to a new character over the last sister".

Especially when that sister has had an unfulfilled mating bond since ACOMAF. When Lucien still doesn't know his father. When he still doesn't have a real home. When Spring still needs to get itself together. When we're shown Elain doesn't belong in the NC. To me those things seem a little more pressing than Az realizing he has a Mate after his fixating on having a bond with two other women.

I did love that part and I'm excited you noticed it too!

She had a vague sense of Cassian and Mor and Azriel nearby, of Feyre and Rhys and Lucien, of Elain and Varian and Helion.

Elain is standing with her Mates father! So many possibilities. Does she get a vibe being close to Helion? Does something seem familiar about him?

As far as Vassa and Lucien, I don't know how anyone can see that these lines and believe Jurian and Vassa are happening:

I hadn’t seen them interact, could only imagine what the two of them would be like in the same room together. Both trying to lead the humans who occupied the sliver of land at the southernmost end of Prythian. Left ungoverned for so long. Too long. No king or queen remained in these lands. No memory of their name, their lineage.

Then...

“He’s keeping everything running. I think he’d have been crowned king by now if it wasn’t for Vassa

“Vassa and Jurian are two sides of the same coin. Mercifully, their vision for the future of the human territories is mostly aligned

It doesn't seem like a coincidence that SJM mentions a sliver of Human Land without a king and a queen. That Jurian would have been crowned King and we know that Vassa is a Queen who no longer has her old territory to rule over. That they both share a similar vision for the humans. That's Jassa endgame right there. Plus SJM described them the same way she spoke of Nessian "at each other's throats".

I would be shocked if Lucien didn't get a book because she she always intended him to end up with one of the sisters (Nesta at first until she realized they wouldn't be a match".

She's also spoken of him being one of her favorite characters, changed his father and made that father an even more relevant character to the series, given him unknown yet developing powers, an unaccepted Mating Bond, death of his first love, abused by Tamlin and ianthe, is currently getting a little of the underdog treatment because the others don't realize how intelligent and powerful he's going to be. I don't remember any of her MMC ever getting this kind of main character energy but that's what she's set Lucien to to have.

Thank you for the ask and Happy Friday!

[the-dawn-star]

The Volturi Kings x Swan!Reader One shot

A/N: Hi! So, a fun fact i am in love with reader x the volturi kings' content, so why not write some of my own. This takes a lot of inspiration on things what I have read, but yeah. Also, I don’t bother to look up the canon dialogue, so I made my own, but I tried to be truthful to the characters. Also, Aros and Caius’ wives don’t exist. Also, Cullen bashing is included. 

+ not proof read

3000ish words

-S

I don’t know Italian so these can be totally incorrect, so please forgive the possible mistakes.  

Tesora=Tresure

Cara mia=My dear

Amore mio=My love

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why am i even here? I should be at home, at Forks. But no, I’m in Italy, in Volterra. Saving my sisters ex vampire boyfriend, from vampire royalty. And now we are walking down through a tunnel to only get killed by that same vampire royalty. This is fucked. This is fucked. This. Is. Fucked.  

I was brought back to life by the people around me stopping. I almost walked onto the vampire in a black cloak in front of me. I kept my eyes on the marble floor, but they rose automatically when the huge wooden doors opened in front of us.  

In the circle shaped room had only three chairs..., no, thrones. One in front of the other two. The room was made from the same marble as the floors of the hallway. And on the floor was a drainage hole. My heart started to beat faster. The situation just became more real that I liked.  

“How fantastic, Bella is alive,” the man in the middle throne said before he got up. He had shoulder length raven black hair, and he had those same blood red eyes as the vampires around me. The man walked up to Edward and took his hand. “Aro, can see all of my thoughts with a touch,” Edward explained clearly only to Bella. “Yes, it is interesting to see all of the thoughts that young Edward has seen through his life,” The man, Aro said but it didn’t seem to be here, his eyes looked like he was far away from this reality.

I took a glance at Alice who only a smile, but it didn’t reach to her eyes. Even she seemed scared, she wasn’t going to get killed. It was me and Bella whose lives were at risk. Of course, Alice was concerned about Bellas life, they were more sister than me and Bella ever were.  

I took a look at the other two thrones besides the empty one. On the left chair sat a man with a brown hair. But the main thing about him was his blood red eyes that were looking at me. Fuck, what did I do to get his attention? But he didn’t seem to be mad that I realized his staring. He gave me a smile. I had to look twice to see that I hadn’t made it up. His smile only grew seeing me getting confused. And with my embarrassed face, I directed my eyes to the other man who sat on the other throne. He had the same red eyes but his eyes had a dangerous feel like a no other. His blond hair looked so silky and nice, and for a second, I forgot the deathly situation I was in.  

“Aro,” The sound seemed to shock everyone in the room. The speaker was the same king who had smiled at me. Aro turned his head to the king, and the brown-haired man raised his hand to Aro. Aro almost ran to the sitting king, and took his hand to his. Everyone was silent, no one dared to interrupt the kings silent one-sided conversation. Even the blond king looked at his two equals, clearly annoyed that he wasn’t part of it.  

A slow hum left Aros lips when he let go of the other kings hand. “Is that really the case?” Aro asked. Now the guards really seemed concerned, why would a man who could see every memory ask for a confirmation. The king nodded, and I heard Edward sigh. “My brothers, what is it?” the blond king asked, now having a concerned sound on his cold voice. Then Aro turned to us, his eyes landing on me. So, I really fucked up in some point.  

I lowered my eyes down to the floor, I couldn’t look into those intensive eyes “We, my brother, have found our mate.” I had to look up to see who he was talking about. All eyes of the room were on me. And in a blink Aro was in front of me. I had to take a step back and one of the guards hand wrapped around my upper arm. Like I could run away either way. “It is okay Felix,” The brown-haired king said, and my arm was released. I gave a thankful look at the king and he returned it.

“You have already taken a liking to Marcus I see,” Aro spoke, his words were so calming and gentle, like he wasn’t a killer. I bit my lip and I could myself getting hotter. “Tesoro, don’t worry he has taken a liking to you to,” Aro continued seeing my flustered face. I looked back to Aro, his smile felt so kind, so caring. “Tell me, Tesoro what's your name?” I had to clear my throat that I got the words out of my mouth. “I..., I'm Y/N, Y/N Swan,”  

“Swan..., Isabellas sister,” Aro whispered. I nodded and he seemed to be pleased that I even interacted with him. “We are all aware of your sisters special ability by now, but what I saw from Edwards memories, this ability doesn’t extent to you, I am assuming that you knew that already,” I nodded, scared that my voice wouldn’t hold a second time.

“Brother, this cannot be real, a human girl couldn’t be our mate, this must be a mistake!” It was the blond vampire king. His voice was ice cold, and felt like venom. “Stop it Caius, you are scaring her,” Marcus said, his words shaking the everyones attention back from Caius to Marcus. His words were like antivenom to Caius’ venom filled words.

“Tesoro,” Aro brought me back to this realm. “Yes,” I whispered that only a vampire could hear. Aros smile only grew wider. Aro extended his hand to me. Edward had said that Aro could see all of your thoughts with a touch. Aro must have seen my hesitation, “It’s okay tesora, I am not going to force you to show all of you yet, we have time for that later,” I pulled my hands to hug myself. I could tell he was clearly disappointed by my action and by his own words, but still he pulled his hand away.  

“Tell me, cara mia, Have the Cullens informed you about vampire mates?” Marcus asked clearly intrigued by me. I shook my head and looked Alice besides me, who wasn’t even looking at me.  

“It’s a linkage between people, like soulmates. It starts of weak so even vampires can’t feel it. But when the bond is nurtured and cared for it blooms, then even the possible humans can feel it. You find your one true love, well except in this case, you have three of those bonds,” Aros words were so gently, like he was nurturing that bond between us. “How do you know?” I asked not sure how impolite I was being. “I can see bonds between people, I can see the mate bond between your sister and Edward, and I can see one between you and us,” Marcus had still a kind smile on his face, like nothing would make him happier than explaining me his power.  

I took a look at Caius whose eyes were on me. But this time he didn’t look like he wanted to kill me. “What is going to happen now?” I asked my eyes still on Caius, not waiting him to answer. “She needs to stay here; she needs to stay safe,” His words must have surprised everyone, because a shock was on everyones face. “Wait, what?” Left my lips, a panic rose in me. I looked at Alice, she wasn’t looking at me, then Bella whose eyes were still on Edward, and Edward who looked at my sister, without a care in the world.

I really started to panic; my eyes roamed everywhere trying to find a one person who would care for me. No one did, not even my fucking sister. “It’s okay, tesora. We just want make sure that the bonds are strong enough, and of course we want to get to know you,” My breath got quicker with every passing second. I started to tunnel vision, “Jane, would you mind taking dear Y/N to get some rest, my room will do just fine,” Aros words didn’t so clear anymore. And then my arm was taken again but this time I didn’t have time to look who it was because unconsciousness took over me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was ripped back to the land of living, by a knock. Before my eyes were even open my body jolted itself to siting. And like clockwork the door opened, and inside walked a blonde girl with heavy black eyeliner around his eyes. And that same black cloak, was she the one I almost walked onto when coming here?

“I see you are awake; the masters will be very pleased; I came to bring you new clothes, call me when you are ready. I have orders to bring you to the masters as soon as you wake up,” The girl said before putting a pile of clothes to the bad and left without saying a word. Once the door was closed. I finally had time to look at the room. It had two room connected, one part was clearly bed room and the other living room.  

I got up and looked at the clothing the girl had left for me. In the pile was a green sun dress, a pair of socks and to my disbelief a pair of silk underwear. Okay, this is kinda weird. So, as quickly I changed my clothes to the new ones, and opened the door and there the girl was standing. Without a word she started to walk, and not seeing any other option i followed her.  

We walked white hallways for God knows how long, before she stopped at one door and opened it before letting me go first, I hesitated to step in, so she gave me push to my back. I stepped inside to a library, with two floors and a big wooden Mahagony table on the middle. And sitting around the table was the three kings. All of their eyes fell upon me, and you could feel the tension building up.  

All the men stood up when me and the girl stepped in to the room. “Thank you, Jane, you can go now,” Aro said and with those words, the girl, Jane was gone and the door closed. I kept my eyes on the floor scared to look at the three in front of me. “Please cara mia, sit down, this all must be so exhausting to you,” Marcus had that same gentle sound to his voice as before. I looked at one of the heavy wooden chairs in front of me and sat down to it. I crossed my legs, hands on my lap under the table so they couldn’t see me playing with them.

“Did you sleep well, tesora” Aro started, and before he even finished I had nodded. I still didn’t look at them, and my heart started to beat up faster and faster. “You don’t have any reason to panic,” Caius surprised me with his words, I thought he hated me. “Caius is right, no one, least of us will bring you any harm here,” Aro confirmed. I nodded again, their words felt comforting but it still isn’t enough to wipe the pit away from my stomach.  

“I am sure you have a lot of questions for us cara mia,” Marcus said sensing my Un comfortability. “Where is my sister?” It felt like the only option as a first question. “She, and the Cullens as well are on their way back to America,” Along silence followed.  

“They left me here?” you could hear the desperation from my voice and I felt myself starting to tremble. They didn’t need to answer for me know that my words were fact. I pressed my lips together, but the tears still started to fell down on my cheeks. I heard a chair moving but I didn’t look up, I could not face them.  

One the chair next to me was moved and when I looked up, I saw Caius’ red eyes. For a moment I thought he would hit me, but his hands just got up to my cheeks and wiped the tears away. His hands were cold but so gentle that I almost forgot the killer in him. He was the first one to touch me, and I could feel a weird pull to lean onto his touch. And that is what I did, I leaned onto his hand and he kept it steady for me to lean on.

“They don’t deserve to make you cry, no one does, amore mio,” His voice had a dangerous edge to it. But I wasn’t scared for myself, I.., I felt protected. A small smile slipped through my lips and they all must have seen it. I hid my face to his hand as best as I could. A small laughter got out in the room. I looked at Caius who had a smile on his face, clearly happy that I had even smiled. I pulled myself off of Caius’ embrace, gently, not wanting to upset him. He understood my sign and he let his hand fall to my lap taking one of my hands to his. But still his hand moved slowly not wanting to scare me away with his actions.  

“What will happen now?” And I finally looked at the men around me. “You will stay here, with us. We of course make sure that you will have as comfortable stay as possible,” Aro said sounding like nothing would make him happier, having me here, even just me looking at them.  

“But how long will I be here, am I like a hostage or something,” I asked and all the happiness of the room was gone in a blink. Caius' hold on my hand got tighter. “You aren’t a hostage; you are a guest. And for how long you will be staying here is up to you. Of course, we would like for you to stay at least that we can get to know you. And for you to get to know us,” Marcus said with his calming voice. I waited a while until I answered.

“So, if a wanted to leave you would allow it?” They didn’t seem with happy with my answer. Aro cleared his throat. “Yes, if you truly wanted. The thing with mate bonds is that you cannot force it, at least not forever. You just need to be open to the idea of the bond and it will bloom,” Then it was my time to clear my throat. And with my free hand a wiped the last of tears off of my face. “Can I ask something...,” They all seemed okay with it. “You said that this mate thing is like soulmates..., and soulmates what I know are always romantic..., so is this mate thing like that?” All of my words were so carefully thought out, but still my heartbeat quickened up. They all relaxed when I got the words out. Marcus even let out a small laughter.  

“No, tesoro, mate bonds are not always romantic. bonds can be whatever the people in the bond decide it being. Romantic, platonic, even just sexual. And one of your bonds being something doesn’t mean all of the other ones will be that same,” Aros words made me heat up. Like they truly understood that this wasn’t easy to process. I nodded. Caius gave a gentle squeeze to my hand.  

“Where will a stay then?” I asked, just wanting to change the subject. Caius’ hand started to play with my fingers and pulling my hand to his lap. “We arranged you a room while you were sleeping, and your stuff has already been transferred, you have nothing to worry about, amore mio” Caius, even while speaking played with my fingers until without a word a was pulled onto Caius’ lap.

Now I was sitting on his lap, his hands wrapped around my body, and his face buried in my neck. My body tensed. And for a moment I thought Caius’ teeth would kill me. But instead, I felt a pair of lips kissing my neck. A smile whine left from my lips. With him pulling me closer I placed my hands to his chest. “What is happening?” I asked between my whines and heavy breaths. “Caius is making up his behavior from our first meeting. Trust me he felt horrible about yesterday,” Aro said laugh in his voice, that I could feel without even looking at him. “Shut up, Aro,” Caius’ words were pressed against my skin before laying another kiss to my neck.  

[tendous-whore]

Ur naoya fic had me shook tho, I literally had to make a new account to send this request bc my mutuals on my main have no idea I’m into smut fics lmao (Dw tho I’m not a minor, age is in my blog desc.).

If you’re accepting requests…nanami and breeding kink pls. I love how the fandom has like decided that he has one lol, I see him as the type to *seem* vanilla buuuuuut he can actually be rough (everything is consensual tho). But that dom side of him only comes out when he’s sleeping with someone he makes a commitment to. Sorry for rambling. I’m looking forward to whatever you have to share next!!

you are the first person to send me an ask so far (which are ALWAYS open btw) so you have no idea how much I smiled when reading your message 🥺

when i woke up to read some jjk fics today, I was so shocked at how many people liked my naoya x reader!!!? it’s so weird that people enjoy my work, especially since it’s my very 1st explicit fic!

ANWAYS nanami is one of my fav characters, aside from naoya, for reasons other than both of them being goDAMN SNACKs😤 so definitely will dedicate a more in depth story for nanami later on. but! your request gives me the perfect opportunity to share a little bit of my own take on him hehhehhehe

so enjoy!! <3

nanami + breeding

the embodiment of “gentleman in the streets, freak. in. the. sheets.”

with his job, he hardly has the time to indulge in relationships, so he’s pretty lax in the bedroom at first. just goes with the flow, ya know

but the longer you stay, the more comfortable he gets when he realizes you’re not going anywhere anytime soon.

but nanami doesn’t rush to pull out the whips and chains, he’s gradual when it comes to sharing his interests with you in the bedroom.

until he isn’t.

so when the two of you are alone, and the doors are locked, the nanami in the day contrasts the man he is at night.

nanami is already dominant in all aspects of your relationship, to some degree. but it doesn’t compare when he has you crumpled, completely submitting beneath him, or bent over his knee after a long day of dealing with your shit

he’s more cutthroat than the first time you two had sex. yea, he has a soft side too but when the mood is right, he knows which to bring out

so when your spread for him, accepting everything he gives, how can he not indulge in all he wanted with his pretty little thing?

the act of pumping you full drives him wild, and at times in need, it keeps him going, until the next time

and on top of that, nanami definitely gets off on the size difference between you and him, and shows

when he purposefully pushes on your stomach, feeling the outline of his bulge, when you fold underneath him without resistance

don’t even get me started on how he loves to take you ugh

when he has you locked in a mating press, unable to move and just take. take. take.

probably likes it even more when he’s done his research, knowing how much more likely you could get get pregnant with his cum when he’s plowing into you

the thought alone is so dangerous. but that’s why he likes it. hehe.

Nanami is diligent with the way he works your body, he’s mesmerized every detail down to the bone like the back of his hand. He knows when he pushes you further into the bed, forcing himself deeper than before, how full he makes you feel. Your body is so honest when he does, how the way your legs tense and shake and your tummy bulges when he thrusts at that one angle.

It is a sight that has him breathing faster, and his tongue dipping out to lick his lips. He’s hungry, a thirsty and dying man before you. Feeling the way your walls squeeze him, coating his lower half in a layer of slick feeds him bit by bit, but the urging desire to already fill you up has his hips stuttering.

But right now, he wants to savor this. Savor the way your body lays beneath him, your mouth slightly ajar, hair tangled between his fingers as you cried with pleasure. You looked so pathetic with the way you choked on air, your hands pressed against his chest as you took everything he threw your way.

That’s why Nanami loved you. It wasn’t easy to submit yourself to someone, but you did, allowing him to give you all that he wanted. You were good for him, so good and so pretty. And prettier when his thrusts would finally come to a stop, when his body would pull away from your battered figure, his face pulled down and his eyes focused and just watch.

Watch the way your ass trembled, your body wracked with an uncontrollable shake as you came down from your high, better than the one before. And he’d groan, the deep guttural hiss audible in the quiet room that smelled of sex when finally, his cum slowly leaked from your twitching whole.

And Nanami smiled, his eyes brighter then before when his fingers pushed it all back into your cunt, carefully gathering every drop and slowly fucking his seed into you again and again. And he’d tell you in that sweet voice of his so quietly.

“what a waste.”

“it’s not enough.”

“one more time.”

as he takes you in bed, promising that the next wave of euphoria will be it for tonight. That your walls will finally taste nothing but of Nanami, his scent etched into your skin. But you know better. Once Nanami has had a taste, he can’t bring himself to stop, not when you’re crying for him, begging for his cock to stuff you full and breed you stupid.

so when you’re nearing you end and Nanami grows sloppy, his thrusts more frantic then before, he palms your stomach. His fingers trace the outline of his cock, dragging in and out at a delicious pace, his hand digging deeper and deeper until your writhing under his grip. It stings, but when his fingers press harder and harder, it forces him to hit that one spot that has your breath stuck in the back of your throat and thighs aching.

“gonna breed this pretty little pussy.” He breathes.

“til’ it’s full and heavy.”

He’s rational, logical and very decisive. But when he is high off of the adrenaline and pleasure that’s pumping through his veins, Nanami silently hopes that his cum will bleed into your womb, that your pill won’t repel his seed. That somehow, by some miracle, you miss your period.

And if you don’t?

Then the next time, he’ll look forward to doing it all over again.

[cagedcats]

The return to Starkit’s Redux- this time with… some of the love interests. Or at least the main ones for each of the girls! Say hello to Waspthroat/star, Redcloud and Stormstripe.

**Edit- adjusted Redcloud due to me finally coming to a conclusion why Starkit/Nightstar wouldn’t support her and Rainflower’s relationship.

So Jazzsong/star -> Waspdusk or Waspthroat/star

Jazzstar is an interesting character. She doesn’t really do much, she’s the obligatory friend of Starpaw/gleam in the beginning. She is boosted to being deputy and then leader still without much character being shown. It’s only when she’s leader that she shows somewhat of a character… and it still isn’t consistent tbh. She seems to be the voice of reason, she doesn’t care about Starkit’s bigotry, and frequently points out the flaws in her argument. I guess that could make her a -throat? Voice of reason is the only thing I got for it. But I could also see her being a -dusk because she gets right into being a leader even after her supposed friend dies. Also she decides to stay with her Clan after her mate and one of her sons dips out.

But she gets wasp because she can get a darker tail, it was kind of too perfect to pass up for me.

Redfur -> Redcloud

Now she gave me some trouble I will not lie. She fits the Red- prefix, but she is said to be beautiful (to the point Stargleam has to reassure herself she’s straight). Which could make her a -face. But I don’t wanna combine those two together. Thought of making her Roseface, and that might still be possible. But Y’know she’s actually the softer of the two between her and Lakepool in the fic. This could also make her a -flower, but I feel like -cloud fits her just as much.

Which I had to think of a different reason for “Starkit” to disapprove of their relationship, so I thought maybe making Redcloud an Amber cat (Y’know where they start out dark and change to a lighter color?). She’s probably paranoid that Redcloud isn’t Y’know… an actual cat. She’s got the ShadowClan paranoia about stuff, and Redcloud CHANGED colors Rainflower use your head, she isn’t a cat! Cats DONT CHANGE COLORS-! Oh and I thought about making her trans? That or Rainflower. Not sure exactly.

**Edit- disregard the past point! So I realized rewatching Moonkitti’s Starkit’s Prophecy, that there’s an error towards the end. An error in Starkit’s Prophecy? Nooo it isn’t possible!

This error is a small one- despite Redfur and Lakepool both leaving, by the end Redfur is aligned with ThunderClan once more. While Lakepool is still with the Dark Forest cats.

So I’m running with this. And the idea is that Nightstar didn’t support the two because one of them (Rainflower) wasn’t as loyal to the cause as Redcloud. And while Rainflower is her sister; her disbelief could taint Redcloud’s loyalty!

She simply can’t allow them to be together, Redcloud’s loyalty cannot waiver no matter what. Ironically this desperation to separate the two actually pushes Rainflower away, and leading to Redcloud to doubt the new leader.

And I’m probably going to go ahead and make Redcloud trans. Just to explain how she and Rainflower later had kids together.

Nightrain-> Stormstripe

AKA the one to get with the most neglected sister. Fun fact about him, the only description you get of him is that he has blue eyes. I almost said screw it and turned him into a white cat, and called him Cloudstorm. But he is consistently called Night- so I figured he was envisioned as a white cat. There isn’t much to go off of him, he is mates with Flamepelt, is horrified that she isn’t the cat he thought she was (she was bi, and an atheist). He sided with Starpaw in the argument then runs off apparently heartbroken. But then he is later said to have joined Flamepelt in leaving despite showing no support for her. He is weak willed, and switches his moral compass on a whim apparently. He could’ve been a -storm for how up and down he is about what he wants. But I didn’t want Nightstorm. In case I do switch Starlingstar to Nightstar. So he gets Storm- and he gets-stripe. A simple name for a relatively shoddy romantic partner.

-

I probably should’ve included Stargleam’s… other romantic partners. Though if I make a version of Firestar and Graystripe they’re gonna be aged down immensely. Hawkfrost and Ashkit (not -fur) are a maybe. Though I think if I do anything I’ll be doing the villains next. So it would be… Tigerstar, Hollyleaf, Rainstar and Tigerkit. And I’ll throw Starkit II in there as well since she’s the kid of Tigerstar and Hollyleaf.

[harmfulb1tch]

The silly little crush

pairing: Don West x fem!Reader

show: Lost in Space (Netflix)

Warnings: fluff, Jealousy (nothing toxic or obsessive, just insecurity), low-self esteem, panic attack

A/N: First of all… I LOVE JUDY!!! I just needed someone for the mc (main character) to be jealous of. Secondly, sorry for not posting much or following the requests, I write for fun and what I’m feeling to write. Also, Y/N is sort of a character I made, even though the fanfic is still a self-insert and the physical appearance of Y/N can be of your choice, age, profession, love interest and gender have already been set, feel free to imagine otherwise of course! Insert your own pronouns if you’d like! We are all-gender friendly in this blog :) . Age being 23, her profession is biologist/ astrophysic, her gender is female as I already stated on the pairing and her love interest is obviously Don. There is not much content for this character or this show so I wanted to take a step forward and make some fanfics of Don.

It had been months since we had been stranded on a planet god knows where with not many primal resources for human survival. There was no oxygen in the atmosphere, it was cold and damp, not exactly how I imagined what living in space was like. I had worked really hard to get a place aboard a resolute and now I was stranded on an unknown planet with a five person family, a mechanic and a crazy psycho? To be honest, it could’ve been worse. The Robinsons were exceedingly nice to take me in and heal me after the previous crash, they sort of ‘adopted’ me into the family, even if I was a full-grown 23 year old woman. The mechanic turned out to be my room/bed mate and the sweetest man I have ever met, not to mention he is extremely hot in some sort of way I myself can’t fully comprehend, but all the attraction you have for him is fully platonic, plus he would never like me back. I’m pretty sure Judy and him have something going on, which I don’t know why makes me feel sick just thinking about it. It has nothing to do with the age difference that’s for sure, it just makes me feel really angry and sad at times. And the psycho was imprisoned in what was Don’s previous room, so he was moved to my room instead, the only down side of the operation was that I now have a chicken living on my room pooping everywhere

“Jupiter 2 calling Y/N, Jupiter 2 calling Y/N!” Penny said, waving a hand over my face, bursting the bubble of thoughts that had formed around me, making me come back to reality and present time. We were playing cards on the Jupiter's main deck in our free time. 

“Uh yeah sorry, um… do you have a two?” I wasn’t really paying attention to our game anymore, my mind was racing too much for me to think about anything else apart from the previously mentioned mechanic. 

“No, nope! You’re going to tell me what the hell is going on in that head of yours” She is very demanding when it comes to other people’s preoccupations, she’s really sweet but do I really trust her with this? It does have to do with her older sister, what if she tells Judy everything I say and then she gets mad at me? It’s just Penny, even though we have kind of an age gap we are really good friends and she talks to me about her problems, why shouldn’t I talk to her about mine? I sighed and proceeded to tell her about my worries.

“Don and Judy.. do they have something going on?” I said shyly trying to look away. “I don’t think so.. why?” In a matter of seconds after asking the question, Penny opened her eyes and mouth taking a sharp breath in while a smirk grew on her face.

“YOU LIKE-!” She shouted, to which I immediately responded by covering her mouth with my hand so she wouldn’t finish the sentence.

“It’s purely platonic alright? It’s just a silly little crush” She looked at me as if she didn’t believe my statement and handed me the two I needed to continue our card game.

Just when we finished talking about me having slight feelings for Don, guess who entered the main deck? Oh surprise! It was Don, well, and Debbie. 

“Hey girls, what you up to? Oh I see playing cards huh?” He said placing his hand on my shoulder, I felt as if I had been shocked, but in a good way. I could just respond with a slight blush that covered my cheeks. 

“Yes Don, would you like to join us? I’m sure Y/N would love it” Penny said teasingly, shooting that same cheeky smile she had shown me before.

“Penny, I don’t think we should disturb Don. He must be, afterall, really busy.” I said. Not that I didn’t  want him to sit next to me and play cards with us, I just really didn’t want to disturb him at his job.

“Yeah I’m sorry girls, I have to go downstairs to help Judy with some stuff. But hey! Maybe next time!” He said patting my shoulder again which gave me a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth, I just looked slightly as he left with a quickened pace. I cursed myself for not insisting on him playing cards with us. Penny looked at me disappointed but with a smug look on her face.

“Wow, you like him A LOT. Relax, they are just friends” she reassured, but I wasn’t really free of preoccupations.

“You know, you are really good at giving love advice for having been dumped not too long ago.” I joked. Penny snickered as she asked if I had a four. We continued playing some rounds until we just got tired and went different ways.

I decided to go downstairs where Don and Judy were to “check if they needed help”. I was worried about myself, I wasn’t the jealous type nor was I toxic, so what was going on? I think I was really into Don and I had lost people I loved before so I didn’t want to lose him. He was nice, really good company, we had a lot in common and he is very attractive. I felt we were a match made in heaven, but the truth was I didn’t feel as if I was worthy of his love. I didn’t feel like I was attractive enough, like I was good enough for him, maybe that’s why I was “jealous”. My insecurities got in the way and I didn’t know how to handle them. It was more of a “me” problem than a “we” problem.

“Hey guys. I heard you were really busy, can I help you with something?” I asked with a smile on my face, hiding my insecurities behind a well-built mask. The nervousness surged, building, climbing up my spine, clinging on my brain giving me a light-headed feeling on my head. I don’t think this was a good sign.

“Uh yeah sure, do you know how to use a blowtorch to weld?” Judy asked with a ‘of course you do’ tone with her characteristic bright smile on her face. I nodded and she handed me the blow torch. She then handed me loose parts of the electric system and told me to arrange them together, the machine had fallen when we crashed so the pieces had flown all into different directions, luckily for us they could find every last piece and now we just had to rearrange them into place. 

After a couple of hours, I was about to finish when Judy made a little joke I didn’t catch, her and Don started giggling. 

“You are hilarious, princess.” he said. He called her princess? Now I knew they had something going on. Plus, being funny was my thing, not hers. If I was not the funny one, what was I? The answer is I was nothing, I am nothing. I started having a panic attack inside.

“I need to get out of here” I whispered inaudibly to myself, placed the blowtorch on the work desk and hurried out.

“Y/N are you alright?” I heard Judy say from a distance but I didn’t turn around. I went in the opposite direction and headed for the crop section we had built for growing our food.

I was completely freaking out, hyperventilating and tears welled up on my eyes. The thought of Don and Judy wasn’t what scared me. What I was terrified about was that I wasn’t good enough for this mission, I had no qualities and I didn’t have a personality of my own, being funny wasn’t a whole personality, anyone could be funny. And I was no one in this universe, I was no one to Don, the man I had fallen deeply in love with, the man that was so nice to me, that rescued me when I was alone on an stranded planet and who trusted me with our security when no one else would. He was too good for me and I knew it.

My thoughts were interrupted when someone entered the crop tent. And surprise, surprise! It was Don. 

“Hey, you alright?” He said sitting next to me putting an arm around me. I sniffed and nodded, lying to him saying that I just had a panic from all the close space and needed to be alone for a while. He asked me if I wanted him to go but I just leaned in to him telling him it was ok and he wrapped me in a close embrace.

“Don?” I asked to get his attention “hmh?” “The thing is, I had a panic attack is because I like a guy. I’ve been thinking about it for the seven months we’ve been stranded here and I don’t know if he likes someone else. Sorry I lied to you but it is just really embarrasing.”

“It’s me right?” he said in a confident tone “Wait, what makes you think that?!” I asked him blushing, really stoked at his guess.

“Come on princess, I’m terribly handsome” he joked and I laughed histerically while he smiled and patted my back. “Not to mention there are only three male pasangers in this Jupiter. Will, John and I. And I don’t think you are either a pedophile or have a crush on a married man so that only leaves me”

“What about someone that is on the Resolute or Alpha Centaury?” It was obviously him but I was scared of rejection so I just had to say that. He looked kind of concerned, almost sad. “It is you Don. But you have something going on with Judy and you can’t be with me. I get it”

“What? Me and Judy don’t have anything going on” “Wait, really?! But I thought- And the giggles down stairs…” I was super confused “She joked because she knows I like you and she said that I was eyeing you a tad bit too much.” 

“You like me? why? Ugh I feel so stupid!” I was stunned, I think I had my mouth open at this moment “You are brave, funny, talented, pretty, just my type” 

I haven’t been happier in my life than at this moment, I wanted to cry and hug him until he choked for air, well maybe not that much. He started to lean in and I leaned as well. When our lips touched I could taste mint, the bastard might’ve thought this could happen so he brushed his teeth, not that I cared anyway. His lips were soft but dry at the same time, it was a feeling I had waited for too long and I was really glad that it was happening.

After some time we pulled apart because we needed to breathe, obviously. He softly caressed my face with the back of his hand, placing a thumb on my lip sweetly.

“You were right about one thing Don.”

“And what’s that?”

“You are terribly handsome”

[oneoftheprettynerds]

Belle Of The Ball: Dark! King! Steve Rogers x Reader

A/N: So this my first ever proper dark fic and I’m so nervous. I finished it but my mind thinks it’s garbage. so I’m gonna post this now when I’m feeling a random spurt of courage and am confident in my work. So here’s my masterpiece, cookies.

This is for Dark!MCU  Festive Fic swap hosted by @darkficsyouneveraskedfor  and @darkmcuficswap

My giftee is @hermesmaximoff Hope you enjoy it love!

Thanking @firefly-graphics for the dividers: both personalised and general.

There is also an amateur somewhat okay shitty poster I decided to make which is included at the end.  

WARNING: THIS IS A DARK FIC CONTAINING DUBIOUS CONSENT BORDERING NON-CON AND EXPLICIT SMUT. YOUR MEDIA CONSUMPTION IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. LOSS OF VIRGINITY, ABUSE OF AUTHORITY, BREEDING KINK ALSO PRESENT.

Summary: Invited to the Royal ball by the benevolent monarch, you could barely control your excitement to visit the Capital. While you were busy admiring his prosperous reign, King Steve was quite occupied getting enamoured by you. As you try to fulfil the King’s demands, secrets find their way out.

CHARACTERS + GENRE: DARK!STEVE ROGERS X READER, SUPERNATURAL STEVE ROGERS X READER (read to find out what), ROYAL AU, HALLOWEEN THEME (I tried for the request, hope you do like it)

King Steve Rogers invites the princes and the princesses of all Kingdoms, near and afar,

To celebrate his several years of reign.

He requests thy kind and noble presence

At the joyous regale

of his auspicious ball

On the thirty first of October,

after sundown, in His Majesty’s finest castle.

Challenging thy with the unique theme of

A Halloween Masquerade Ball,

The King expects exceptional indulgence from all.

 The Most Grandiose Halloween Celebration is being organised with the spookiest of events within.

Come here if you dare.

“We have been invited to a royal party! My day couldn’t have been better!” Your elder sister exclaimed, jumping quite unladylike in your chambers, as you went through the details of the venue. You chuckled at her antics, knowing rather well that she would be scolded if someone else was present. 

“Emma, Mother has to approve first. As Lady Ava always says, don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

“As if mother would really decline an invite from the King, dear sister.” She rolled her eyes at you, not letting her enthusiasm die as you pondered over her words.

Your sister had a point though, the King summoning your presence was not to be taken lightly. The invitation came up handwritten in a scroll with the King’s wax seal atop it. It was placed elegantly beside a golden mask in a rectangular black box, that bore the Majesty’s sigil on the front.  

The theme of the ball wasn’t that peculiar if you reflected over it, the renowned monarch was also recognised for his distinct interest in eerie, unearthly beings. He was known for adventuring into haunted lands, mysterious manors and sinister soils, meeting up with people rumoured to be sorcerers and occultists.

Of course, the reason for his encounters was sometimes rumoured to be because of his familial distress, how he couldn’t find a mate to procreate with and conceive his own heir no matter what. Three females, who were pregnant with a progeny of his blood, none his wife though, had died during the first two or tercet months, reason unspecified why.  

Coming to You, you and your sister weren’t actual princesses, rather the daughters of one of the esteemed Ministers in the King’s cabinet. The benevolent King, however referred to the daughters of the town, more exactly, the Kingdom, as noblewomen. He held high reverence for the females and was the sole creditor to the improved condition of the women in this era. No matter how troubled his own life was, the King was the most merciful royal to be crowned to date, his people prospering under him.

Your sister nodded eagerly to your mother, drinking in her words like the fine tea you all had in the afternoons, while you just smiled at her advice.

 When you both met your mother for dinner, you were surprised to find her already informed about the invitation. Her conformity to the celebration astonished you even more, but Emma’s zeal was starting to rub off on you too by the end of the meal. 

Your mother continued, “Your father mentioned The Majesty is looking for a wife, quite possibly. He has been insistent in trying to get a successor the correct way this time, by courting the lady who piques his interest. Even though this might be a rumour, or some gossip spun by the ladies of the Cabinet, you both should try your best to be graceful and presentable. Among the hundreds of guests, he’d be having over, on the off-chance, if Gods allow, that either of you manages to entice him, it will only promise you the most pleasant of all forthcomings. It would also do me and your father some good, if you managed to find some other suitable bachelor, from a nice background to engage with.”

Your sister had always been one with the more overactive imagination out of you two, while you had been the more serene and poised one. When she’d be out playing with the children in your town, you’d be talking to the younger toddlers, drawing with chalks on the side. For every kid she splashed with water in the nearby sapphire river, you made tots flower crowns. These were the values you both grew up with, and these will be the values you’d die with.

After days of shopping velvet fabrics and silk textiles, and bothering your seamster to make sophisticated and stylish dresses, you both neared your day of departure. After some instructions to you both to represent your father and town well, your mother bid you adieu. It was nerve wracking to not have your mother by your side, for an event as big as this was, but since you both had passed more than twenty name days, you were expected to be proper, independent ladies. 

With a heavy heart and some self, positive affirmations, you and your sister embarked on the voyage, which was filled with her chitchat.

You only hoped that the gala was as exciting as your family made it out to be. That it was just a King trying to celebrate his sovereign with some western festival integrated together. That the event would not be as unnerving and creepy as the last line of his invitation made it out to be. 

For some unknown cause, it did not sit well with you. Your apprehensive intuition made you wary of the invitation for some reason, but you let your sibling’s zest take you over. What benefit would fretting get you?

The ball was far more pompous than anything you’d have imagined in your little head. All the ideas that Emma had come up with during your journey, to anticipate the extent of extravagance for the ball, were all exceeded with tenfold finesse. You had travelled to faraway, distant lands with your parents, but the King’s mansion, with all the festivity happening, was truly a sight to behold.

Entering The Capital had been the highlight of your excursion, you were sure earlier, but well you were proved wrong. Your father greeted you both when you had arrived, eager to see his angels after almost six moons, and had ensured you both got the best of the accommodations in the well-built, enormous fort. He introduced you to several of his comrades as well as their brooding, young lads and then, left you both to rest for the main event next eve. With two maids at your every beck and call, courtesy of your father, your time went smoothly and now you found yourself at the said Halloween themed celebration, staring around in awe of every little detail that had been so meticulously handled to make the event as dazzling as it was.

The servants were dressed rather ridiculously as cats, wearing some bizarre structure resembling cat ears, horribly short black dresses barely past their thighs and some whiskers draw using either coal or makeup, you weren’t sure. It was a poor attempt to make them appear feline. However, the food was as immaculate as everything else, entirely themed like only blood red wine, candied apples, chicken pumpkins, cheesecake brain, mummy muffins, some appetizer with bell peppers as jack-o-lanterns; these were the few that met your sights.

The hall was so grand, almost the size of three jousting arenas and playing fields combined with pillars having detailed architecture supporting the place. The walls were covered in scarlet, golden and black velvet drapes, the royal colours, and beautiful masquerade masks were pinned atop them, along the walls. Almost hundred round, white clothed tables filled the ballroom, with gold plated candlesticks and utensils upon them. The entire place had entertainers progressing around, the essence of it being magicians, clowns, contortionists, palm and tarot card readers. 

In the centre of the hall, was an empty space, reserved for the soon to be ensuing dancing. An orchestra on the side had beautiful instruments, playing soft melodies for now, reserving the upscale beats for later.

You had only read a few books on Halloween to be prepared but nothing could have geared you up for this. Your small-town self was gaping at everything with a childlike wonder while somehow your sister was quite composed and calm, somehow your roles had been reversed. 

Emma was wearing a blue gown, having several layers of nets and cloth, each a different shade of azure. She tried to dress as the mythical creature called mermaid, with crystal heels and a beaded neckline. Her masquerade mask had scales like fish, made using shining sequins. She looked so gorgeous, truly managing to look captivating.

You on the other hand were dressed like an angel, which you were against, finding it too mainstream and typical and wanted to dress like an enchantress with violet and jade colours, which your mother immediately negated. On demand of your sister, she let you wear a fluffy white ball gown, and had you made wings with dove feathers, an apparatus which was astonishingly light to wear. Using her art and craft skills, Emma made you a headband with two wires attached to a metal ring, shaped like an angel’s halo. The loop at top made of some special metal that glowed golden in the dark, making it look like a real, floating halo. Your mask had a fur lining on it, and silver sparkles were sprinkled all over you, with pretty makeup on your face, courtesy of your sibling.

The change in music brought you out of your reverie, as trumpets and harps began to hum, signifying the arrival of the King on the grand staircase. He had a crimson red velvet cape descending his broad shoulders, his tuxedo underneath could hide neither his long legs nor his bulging, protruding biceps. His black, shining shoes cost more than your entire apparel, you were certain. 

As your gaze ascended his masculine form, you were mesmerised furthermore with his high cheekbones, full lips tainted cherry pink, a Grecian slanting nose, sleek eyebrows, luscious blonde hair, a thick beard and the best of all yet, cerulean blue eyes, the prettiest you’d ever seen in the entirety of your small life. The ladies beside you, Emma included, had the same reaction whether they had witnessed his Highness before or not. Every female’s gaze seemed to flicker between his azure eyes and the Golden crown resting atop his blonde locks, flooded with rubies and emeralds and gemstones you weren’t sure your books had.

For a moment you felt his eyes land on you, which surprised you even more so, that you questioned yourself about it, but his cheeky grin and wink confirmed it, make you shiver involuntarily as heat spread through your face while a titillating stir ran through you, a first for you. His impeccably white teeth were clearly visible now, showing two elongated canines, which finally gave you a sense of his attire, paired with his blush lips, A Vampire.

He spoke a few words, eyes unsteadily wavering, observing different members of the gathering. He let the dances commence, partnering with his most suitable match at the festivity, the daughter of the wealthiest lord. After the first song was over, other couples joined alongside him while you stood at the side, observing everything. Only mere moments ago had your sister been courted by a young man, the two of them shooting each other coy glances since they had entered. 

A tap on your shoulder had you puzzled, you turned around focus landing on warm, brown eyes. You recalled him to be Lord Stark’s son, Peter, having met him yesterday at dawn. His familiar brown eyes gave you sense of comfort, which you liked, not being alongside Emma now.

“Shall we?” He asked, his cheeks ruby like yours were, as he extended the palm of his hand towards you. You giggled, smiling like a little babe who got extra cookies for dessert, and accepted his hand. Sauntering to the dancing arena, you only prayed to The Heavens above that Lady Ava taught you enough to embarrass neither yourself nor your guild.

Tracing his steps and following his lead, you did manage to dance without falling, which was a surprise seeing how spread out your wings were. You and him made easy conversation, about your hometowns and interests.  You saw your Father proudly looking at you and Emma, dancing with lads, you guessed, he approved of.

As the song ended and the orchestra played a transitioning tune between the melodies, a cough sounded beside you as you and Peter stopped. Your eyes widened as you nervously curtsied beside Peter, A ‘Your Majesty” falling from both your lips.

“If it’s not too much trouble, may I share a dance with the most stunning dame here?” 

Peter politely stepped back, letting go of your waist, as The King’s wide stature more than filled his place. Your heart was beating rather loudly, blood pumping to your ears as you tried to make sense of what was happening. In your peripheral vision you could see the prying eyes of others looking at you both, ready to criticize you for one wrong move. Your father watched intently, a slight warning in his eyes to not mess this opportunity up while your sister comfortingly smiled at you. You tried to even your breaths and make sense of what he was saying, to not just stand and gape like a fool in court.

As the harmony played out, he swayed you around, lifting you up and twirling you around. Compliments spewed out from his lips, making you crimson like freshly ripened apples. You couldn’t keep up with your expression of gratitude through your words as he admired your eyes, your elegance and your ensemble which just couldn’t make him shift his eyes from you. 

After two songs had played out, he left as suddenly as he had come, with a promise to meet you later. You watched him dance with other maidens, who approached him when you were dancing together, entertaining every approaching lady like an excellent host.

You made your way to the side, hoping to get some liquor, or at least some fluid in your veins and not faint right there this moment. Emma came up beside you while you were having wine, and rubbed your back in a parental way. Her eyes communicated her understanding of how overwhelmed you felt at the instant. Her date and Peter soon came and kept you both company for the rest of the night. As duos danced and people got intoxicated, you had to call it a night on behalf of your sister, her incessant giggling make you worried for her inebriated self. 

You slipped her out before your father caught her and gave her a stern talking to and tucked her in her bed keeping a glass of water and some fresh fruits for her on the bedside wooden bench. You concluded retiring for the night yourself but only after assuring your father of your whereabouts and well beings. Before returning to the hall, you took off your wings and the halo, also opting to leave the mask behind as the fur tickled your skin. Your makeup hadn’t ruined in the heat of the hall, it was a miracle. You made your way to the Hall, hoping to find your father, assumingly drunk with all his entourage.

Two hallways before the decorated ballroom were you pinned to the wall, one hand of your attacker covering your parted lips while the other held your face delicately, with a lover’s touch. A split second was all it took for you to be immobilised by this man and another by your wavering form to recognise the cobalt blue eyes and blonde curls. When The King was certain you wouldn’t scream, his hand left your mouth slid upwards, mirroring his other hand, with thumbs in front of your ears and palms resting on your cheeks.

“Your Majesty?” You mumbled back, your voice somehow even lower, afraid for yourself and even more so terrified to offend him.

“Say, would you come for a while to my chambers, the view of the creek from my balcony is splendid.”

His choice of words gave you an option, but his eyes, almost hypnotically told you there was only one correct answer.

“You are the one, I can feel it.” He whispered lowly but your heightened senses gladly picked it up.

You meekly nodded, your inner self surprised at your body moving of its accord alongside him, as your mind started voiding of thoughts like reporting to your father, checking up on Emma. You felt like you were trapped in someone else’s form and fought with an invisible force to take over the reins of your own body.

You did not fail to notice the lack of guards outside the King’s chamber and how every entrance managed to open itself. The King wasn’t lying about the picturesque scene though, as you stood in the balcony, hair getting ruffled by the strong breeze that seemingly came from nowhere.

Your body stiffened as King Steve came uncharacteristically close to you and slid his hands around your middle, his nose nestled in your locks, inhaling deeply.

His lips descended your neck, laying feathery kisses on his path as you stood there, unable to even move your hands or turn around. This out of body sensation was broken when you felt intense pain on piercing of your skin where your head met your torso. You suddenly gained all wits and enough strength to flail your limbs around but all your might wasn’t enough to even stir the man from his task. Your throat couldn’t gather enough energy to scream, though you doubted anyone would come. You started getting light headed and only then did he stop, carrying you in his arms to his widespread four poster bed, mattress as soft as sponge and sheets as silky as butter. Too weak to fight him off, you harvested all your energy in staying conscious as your gaze danced around, trying to make sense of every object present but not awake enough to notice too many details. The wine you drank did not make it any better.

As you laid on the stranger’s bed, you felt his body sit beside you, holding your neck; leaning down, his lips meeting yours for the first time. You did not reciprocate, neither did you have the strength nor the will, while his tongue slipped inside your mouth, roaming around like a traveller in foreign land.

As the kiss drew on, you felt some energy sidle inside you, enough for your mind to function again but not ample enough to fight off the brawny thief who robbed you of your first kiss. King Steve broke off the kiss and connected your foreheads together, his indigo eyes turning black in want, leaving you a frightening and gasping mess.

He backed away, sitting more straighter now as his hand drew back from around your neck and slid along your stomach, nearing the most intimate part of your body, even though there were still layers of cloth present. His hands did not stop there, however, and made their way downwards only stopping at the hem of your gown and slipping inside.

You shrieked out suddenly, becoming aware of his intentions quite late and grasped his wrist that rested now on your knee. 

“Your Majesty, I……I can’t-”

“Do you wish to refuse your King?”

You looked down, caught in the dilemma of wanting your safety and offending him once again. Your virtue had to be preserved till marriage, your mother had taught you, but on the other hand, the King’s words were the law.

“Answer Me.” The King’s cold voice broke through your thoughts, not a shout but still scarier than a yell.“

Your Majesty, I’ve never engaged in s-” You started tearing up, lower lip wobbling and body shaking at the thought of the future. You did not see this ending beneficial in any scenario. If you lost your virtue, you would never get wed but if you refused the King and he felt insulted, your family and your connections would be in the ruins, he held that much power over you.

Cradling your face with his other hand, he began again, “You think I’m not already aware, pretty one?” The man who was reprimanding you only few moments ago upon not answering him, had a smile on his face this time: not assuring or comforting, but malicious and sinister to its very core. “I could smell your untainted scent from my room, before even descending the stairs.”

“Your e-eyes..” You gaped again as colours morphed in his eyes, red now swirling around in the pools of darkness, his words lost on you as you felt your fear rising due to the inhumane action.

“For an intellectual, bibliophilic girl, you sure are oblivious, sweetheart.” He scoffed, looking unimpressed at you, “Come on, prove to me you aren’t heedless like the rest, draw the conclusion." His eyes held yours, again altering into hues of different colours, seemingly mocking you now. 

You don’t know how the thought jumped into your head, maybe because the two holes on your neck stung suddenly or because the automatically opening doors entered your mind, the contemplation that his fangs appeared so realistic and authentic the more you stared at them paired with the blood on his collar, not just the fresh red stain of your plasma but also the burgundy stain present there, giving his lips the cherry red shade you admired hours ago on his arrival at the event.

“This is not a co-costume, no-” You inhaled a quick breath, “you are a vampire.” Your face paled in realisation while he smirked proudly, tapping your knee in a weird, twisted form of appreciation.

“Tremendous, my dear. But only half, you see. My mother was one, yes, but my father, he gave me an even better ability, he was an Incubus.” You shuddered as the words sunk in, your only worry being staying alive now, when your life was in the hands of this sex demon, having the greatest of powers and strength. Your mind did not spend any time mulling over the existence of supernatural beings, only dwelling on possible escapes now.

“That is why even your untouched body couldn’t help but react to my form and it is also the very reason, that I can read what goes on in your mind, all your memories, your hobbies, every book you’ve read, your precious sister, Emma isn’t it? So please, do not even think about fleeing if you don’t want your family to suffer.”

The threat loomed in the air, nasty sobs wracking your body as his thumb came to wipe the tears off. His hands started undoing the lace on the front of your bodice as you sniffled. Managing to quieten down just a bit, you begged, “Please don’t do this, I’ll have nowhere to go if my family found about me partaking in this unholy deed before marriage.” You had little hope about him seeing reason but there was optimism nonetheless. 

“Darling, do not fuss that I’ll leave you unhinged and deserted after finding pleasure in your body, you are to be mine now. Essentially, you already are.” His lips claimed yours again as the front of your dress slackened, bundling around your waist.

You pulled back, surprised at his promise, “You mean that?” He nodded, coming to kiss you again. You turned so that his lips met your neck, tongue licking the salt residue of tears there. “In what sense?”

“In every sense you could think of and more. I’ll give you everything, make you my queen, would you like that?” He mumbled in your neck, tongue now soothing the two punctured cavities residing there.

You could feel yourself crossing your legs involuntarily, trying to caress the abrupt yearning in your intimate part, your underclothes dousing with wetness somehow. Steve smirked in your neck, sitting upright and playing his trump card.

“I’ll marry you and we’ll rule together with the plenty of successors you’ll give me. Won’t that make your parents proud? Isn’t that what your parents taught you? Catch the King’s eye?” You meekly nodded, his charisma of an Incubus winning you over. “I’ll make your father The King’s Hand and send your mother the finest of jewels and gems, satins and silks.” He looked over at your submissive form, looking at him with the innocence of a toddler, swayed by his promises.

“I’ll let your sister have a grand wedding with the man she dears. All you have to do is surrender yourself to me and be my Queen, rule alongside me. So I ask, will you?” You cut him off, your lips pressing against his as you tried to mimic his earlier movements. He held your waist, surprised but pleasantly so, crushing the layers of the rolled top half of your dress underneath his hands. You had very little idea about what bedding someone meant but you had this primal urge to not have any skin of yours covered or untouched by him.

Steve shed his cape and threw every cloth on his torso away, almost as eager as you to get skin to skin contact. Your hands tangled in his hair as he lifted you up and sat you in his broad lap, not before sliding your dress all the way down. As he broke the kiss and took in your body, parts of you hidden under the smallclothes, he let out a growl that frightened yet excited you with another shiver down your spine. 

He made quick work of his bottoms, his cock standing and reaching his muscled chest almost and you gaped. Your sister, Emma had informed you of men’s parts being far much smaller than what you had just witnessed. His member stood erect and proud, glistening as he pumped it with his fist. His eyes drank in your surprise and trepidation, getting amused and turned on even more. 

You still laid stretched across the bed, legs straight ahead of you while your torso rested on your elbows, eyes wary of his every next movement.  He eyed your scantily clad body, gaze filled with lust and nothing more and climbed between your legs, one hand coming down on your waist while the other grabbed the back of your head and pulled you into a possessive kiss, robbing you of your breath. Your mind was slowly registering the reality of it all, this was going to happen no matter what. You were going to sin by engaging in fornication. But is it really wrong if your benevolent king demands that of you?

His hand sliding from your face to your bosom distracted you from your chain of thoughts. He slid the cups of your garment revealing your nipples and took one in his mouth, swirling his tongue around it while his other pinched the abandoned one. You didn’t know if you should be more surprised at his actions or the rush of the feelings that ran through you.

He slowly released your nipple and trailed soft kisses down your stomach to your most intimate part yet, kissing it through the cloth there. His delicate touch was abruptly contrasted with him grabbing the fabric, tearing it into two and revealing you bare. 

You closed your legs out of instinct but his heavily muscled hand took them apart in a single push. He eyed you with a warning, to not obstruct him anyhow anymore.

“Let me taste that sweet nectar of yours, sweetheart. I really want to find out if it is as addictive as my senses picked it up, as sweet as the aura that surrounds you.”

And with that he dove into your pussy, his tongue roaming your wet cavern. Neither did you understand what he spoke of nor had you sister told you about the activity happening right now. But all you could do was focus on the astonishingly pleasant shivers running through you as you had an out of the body, more accurately an out of the world experience. You had no sense of the time that passed and how long you laid there clutching the silk sheets letting out mewls. But out of nowhere, something in you snapped and all your energy left you. 

As your blurry vision cleared and your eyes found his face, he licked his still glistening lips, his beard moist and wet but erotically so. He dove right into kiss again and you tasted your own sweet nectar for the first time ever. His hand roamed your body, grabbing your curves and caressing your soft flesh. 

One of his hands made its way down furthermore and spread your fluids along your folds, and then lined up himself along your hole. With a sudden push, you felt yourself being full like never before, and a sudden pain hit you as your face visibly flinched. Steve swallowed your grunts of pain with his kisses and started rubbing your bud above your linked bodies. 

The shudder that ran through you once again made you incapable of thinking, the ache slowly subsiding behind the pleasure you felt. When your moans filled the air, Steve kissed your collarbones and sucked leaving bruises there, and started thrusting again. As his movements became faster and consistent, and his callused hands rubbed you and pinched your intimate flesh, you ascended to another world. Each action of his introduced you to a new star in the wide galaxy. The same unknown descended upon you again as something snapped in your abdomen and you experienced pure bliss. 

“Going to make you the mother of my children, you will carry my seed and bring the Kingdom several heirs. This time I’ll succeed, you will be mine, my Queen in every sense.” His words made you clench around him and that was all it took for him to achieve ecstasy as well.

Your head lolled and your eyes met his sweating frame lying across the silk sheets as a sinister grin adorned his face again, “I need to fuck a successor into you tonight, you ready?”  

[babyrowann]

so i really tried my best to come up with a list to see if an elain book next (most likely elriel) makes more sense than an azriel book (which would be gw*nriel). i tried to stick to text material only and interviews with sarah and to keep my own biases out of this. if you think i missed anything please leave it in the replies! also sorry this is loooong

argument for elain (elriel book) next

- interview where sjm said the entire series is about the 3 sisters (and this interview was quoted to describe the tv show too)

- interview where sjm said that new side characters have expanded the world but the main plot and story hasn’t changed

- she already wrote ideas for elain’s book while pregnant

- said elain is the character she’d be bffs with and that in another life she would be a florist

- she likes writing about the characters people hate (nesta and chaol)

- special cover of acofas that includes elain and azriel mirroring nesta and cassian

- actual story plot points that support elain’s book next:

- 2 of 3 sisters have had a book and there are 2 books left

- her powers are a mystery and she still has her power and connection to the cauldron whereas feyre and nesta don’t anymore; she is the only one

- she said she is ready to help and she will brush up on her powers

- she said the nc is her home

- the cauldron loves her and gifted her powers

- she has visions of koschei and vassa

- she has a mate who is an autumn prince and heir to day

- been given hints that she is up to something; being very stealthy

- she appeared out of a shadow when she stabbed the king (powers?)

- rhys telling feyre to focus on one sister and then the other

- of two bonus chapters, elain was the common factor in both

- she was missing when bryce appeared in nc

- az gave her tt

- his shadows disappear when she’s around and want to protect her

- she is friends with nuala and cerridwen, matches the pattern of feyre and nesta being friends with people related to their love interest (feyre with mor and amren aka rhy’s circle, nesta with gw*n and emerie aka all warriors like cassian)

- she had visions of the prison (potentially through the mountain and dusk court)

- 3 brothers 3 sisters

- azriel questioning the cauldron being wrong & feyre and rhys talking about bad mating bonds and why the cauldron didn’t pair elain and az

- feyre and nesta noticing az feelings for elain and getting over mor

- az going to save elain even if he would die

- az being the one to know she’s a seer and not lucien

- az is not from the og trio like chaol was in tog, which is why his book might not make sense

- az would have to get over elain before he could be with gw*n in his book

- gw*n lightsinger theory to disprove gw*nriel mate theory

- az wouldn’t save gw*n in br but went for eris

- gw*n can’t read old fae language

- no one noticing gw*n liking az when other priestesses’ crushes were noticed

- book ended with elain nesta and feyre

- sjm doesn’t like writing about “first times” and elain isn’t a virgin (feel weird talking about elain like this tbh)

argument for azriel book next (gw*nriel)

- az had the bonus chapter in his pov

- chaol got a side story so could az?

- az and his powers and backstory are mysterious

- rumors of illyrian uprising

- koschei was asking about him

- he found bryce

- elain wasn’t there when az brought bryce back

- 3 brothers 3 sisters is “cliche”

- he saved gw*n at sangravah (kind of gross for why this couple could be together but i’m gonna put it since it’s a theory that’s used)

- his shadows dance with gw*n’s voice

- you’re the new ribbon

- being drawn to the library

- gw*n being related to an unnamed autumn court high fae

- thing of secret lovely beauty

- gw*n studying diff worlds

- flexible bones (hate that i’m even including this)

- black “leeching the life” from elain

[therealvinelle]

Are the Cullen's and Denali's even close? They sort of remind me of that movie character who has no friends at school but gets along with one (1) person and so consider them their best friend. Also, it's weird that both covens have characters who are basically the same personality trope just a slightly different version. Like Esme and Carmen, Eleazar and Carlisle, even Kate and Rosalie to an extent. And they've known the Cullen's for how many decades? And they were totally cool with letting them die because they weren't allowed to kill the wolves who were protecting Edward's (unmated, looking for love for the past century Edward!) human girlfriend/ proclaimed mate?

No, they’re not.

In Eclipse they had no problem leaving the Cullens to their miserable deaths. Carlisle wouldn’t let them butcher the shapeshifters (their motive for wanting this: the shapeshifters protected Edward’s mate from an attacking vampire. According to the Denali, this makes the vampire the victim, and he should be avenged), and Tanya said “then perish.”

Let it be known, before anyone tries to excuse this, that it wasn’t like Carlisle was asking them to die for him:

“We’re going to need help,” Jasper said. “Do you think Tanya’s family would be willing . . . ? Another five mature vampires would make an enormous difference. And then Kate and Eleazar would be especially advantageous on our side. It would be almost easy, with their aid.” (Eclipse, page 175)

They had two options, nothing to lose either way, and their choice was to leave the Cullens to their sorry fate.

(One can speculate that they in fact had something to gain. The Cullens made it clear they would stand in the way of Irina’s vengeance. Step aside. Let Victoria do her thing. Now there’s nothing in the way of Irina’s vengeance.

Not saying this is why the Denali didn’t help out, I don’t. I think their motivation was a simple, black-and-white “you don’t scratch our back, we won’t scratch yours.” 

But assuming the Cullens did perish, would Irina have left the shapeshifters in peace?)

By comparison, Carlisle’s other friends (some of which he hadn’t seen in generations) came in Breaking Dawn to most likely die by his side. Some had selfish motivations, yes, but Siobhan’s coven, the Amazonian women, Alistair (the guy left his hermit cave for Carlisle, that’s huge. I can’t fault the guy for not wanting to be part of a suicide mission(and he still did more than the Denali in Eclipse!)), Benjamin and Tia, Garrett and Peter and Charlotte, all came because of their friendship to Carlisle/the Cullens. To them, that was enough.

I highlight this because these people appear to value their relation to the Cullens a lot higher than the Denali do. Some of Carlisle’s friends have his back, others don’t. As of Eclipse, the Denali have made it clear they’re in the latter category.

And yes, the Denali were there for the Breaking Dawn confrontation, but they were already involved. Their sister had gone to the Volturi and was the reason for all this, and they were worried crazy about her. This wasn’t situation they could ignore up in those Alaskan mountains. So, yes, they were there, but after Eclipse I just don’t buy that they would have been there otherwise.

Then we have other interesting facts, such as the scene where Eleazar realizes Bella has a gift. Eleazar is surprised to learn Edward can’t read Bella’s thoughts: this is news to him.

The guy was at their fucking wedding.

I’ll give that Eleazar and Carmen do seem to be afterthoughts in that coven. There’s the Denali sisters- and oh, that’s right, there’s those two as well. 

But for no one to have brought up around Eleazar the fact that Edward can’t read Bella’s mind leaves us with two possible explanations. One, the Cullens and the Denali talk all the time, but they never brought up one of the major things about Edward’s new mate. It never came up. Eleazar is the resident gift expert, yet it simply never came up.

Two, the Cullens and the Denali don’t talk.

At some undated point the covens tried living together. I’m guessing in the 30′s or 40′s, since they met in the 30′s. However, they had to leave because there were too many of them, and they called attention to themselves.

Well, I think this was another case of someone in Eleazar’s life telling him their grandma died, so they can’t go to his party.

Which is to say that I think the size of the coven was the excuse, and the real reason was that the Denali are small dosage friends. 

We have Eleazar, who’s insensitive, arrogant, and not very bright (meta for that last claim is in my draft, guys), the Denali sisters who quit the people diet for the worst reason, and the fact that they’re people who would let their so-called family die over the pettiest, most vile motivation I can imagine.

Edward pontificates about how the sisters are sad orphans who cling to the Cullens because they need family, and you know what, I’m sure he’s right. Because those are easy things to want and easy claims to make, but while the sisters may think the Cullens are well and good for playing house with every now and then, that’s apparently not the same as caring for them.

Carlisle also does some pontificating, in the form of “vegetarianism makes emotional ties deeper!” which, sure, Carlisle. There’s a river in Egypt you might want to look into. However, I think that very vegetarianism is what makes these two covens who don’t really get along, and at least on one side don’t care that much about the other, stick it out. It’s a big world out there, not a lot of vegetarian vampires in it, and that means these weird kids have to stick together. Your friendless kid in school analogy is spot on.

So, in that sense, yes vegetarianism deepens emotional ties because without it, these covens would have nothing tying them together.

As it is, they have a comfortable relationship in canon where the other coven represents a refuge, a change of scenery, when it’s needed for whatever reason. The Cullens during a dark period in New Moon, Edward when he had to flee Forks. However, I think the main reason why they’ve become this to one another is because of their similar lifestyles.

And, more damningly, we see countless examples of other vampires that appear much closer to members of the Cullen coven. (Carlisle and Aro, Carlisle and Siobhan, Carlisle and Zafrina (from what I recall of those two), Carlisle and Garrett, Jasper and Peter/Charlotte) These people are actual friends, who get along because of personality reasons, not simply because they were the kids in school who did the Naruto run through hallways and now they have to lunch at the dweeb table.

Edit: Turns out it wasn’t Carlisle who did that “vegetarianism makes emotional ties deeper!” pontificating at all. My due apologies to this fictional character who was in no way affected by my mistake.

[seungmvnnie]

Flipped

pairing; Chenle x reader

genre; enemies to lovers au, ‘American high school’ au, angst, fluff

word count; 10.8k

summary; ‘The moment you laid eyes on Zhong Chenle, you had flipped.’ You had known that you were in love with Chenle, your next door neighbor, since you were 7 years old. Chenle wanted nothing to do with you. Until of course, ten years later he starts to realize that perhaps there’s more to you that meets the eye, unluckily just as you began to realize, perhaps Chenle was less than you had chalked him up to be.

warnings; insensitive language regarding illness, death, female reader, heavily inspired by the movie flipped, some scenes are near word for word from the movie, so credits to the movie for those parts, although parts of the main narrative differ, as well as scenes. A large majority of the characters are not similar to their real life counterpart. 

tag list; @sunflowerhae​ @byunbaekby​​ @mikasrecs​(if you asked to be on the tag list and i didn’t tag you, i’m very sorry, i was terrible at tracking who was on it cause im an idiot)

a/n; Started making it. Had a breakdown. Bon Appetit.

It all began in the Summer before second grade. In Zhong Chenle’s eyes, it was the beginning of a decade of strategic avoidance, awkward encounters, and a lifetime worth of what he deemed to be, discomfort.

For you, it was true love.

The moment you laid eyes on Zhong Chenle, you had flipped. It was something in those eyes, those dazzling brown eyes which bore into you. Or maybe it was something about his smile. There was something about him which made you realize that at 7 years old, you had met your soul mate. His family had just moved into your neighborhood, a long cul-de-sac of identical, modern two-story houses, the majority of which had the same identical clean cut lawns and typical nuclear well off family who owned the house and prided themselves on how their petunias were better than the house across the streets. That was except for yours, of course. Deemed the ‘embarrassment of the neighborhood,’ the yellow paint on your house was flaking off, the grass dry and grey and the fence encasing the yard, which had at one point been white was now a dull grey, not to mention falling apart in some places. This was attributed to the fact that your father simply did not have the time. As a painter, he had to work extra hard to provide for his family, especially considering your mother’s situation.

It was a hot summer’s day, the day Chenle moved in. You could remember the feeling of the sun on your face as you basked in its warmth, the pavement on which you sat almost boiling as the moving van pulled up to the house opposite yours. You had recalled that your father had told you to always be kind and helpful, which is why you had thought it appropriate to skip across the road to the nice looking family and offer a helping hand.

Little did you know, your help was unwanted. Chenle remembered watching the girl skip – skip? As if anyone had done that since kindergarten – from the odd-looking house across the way and when she confidently stated,

“Hi, I’m (Y/N) (Y/L/N). Need any help?” He looked to his father for confirmation that this girl was strange. He noticed the judgmental look which was written on his father’s face as he surveyed the girl with the messy hair and grubby clothes, no doubt from playing in the unpleasant yard which she came from that juxtaposed with their clean, green yard. He recognized the exact moment that his father deemed them better than her, a switch in his face where he knew where she stood on the social ladder. Acting according, he too looked at the girl with disdain.

“There’s some valuable things in those boxes. Don’t touch them.” His father had scolded as you reached for one of the boxes that were stacked on their lawn.

“What about this one?” You suggested, reaching for another one. This was the moment that Chenle had realized that this girl could not take a hint. His father had pushed the box away with his foot before you could even touch it.

“Maybe you should run home? Your moms probably worried about you.” He sneered, staring down his nose on you. Resilient, you stared back.

“My dad knows I’m here.” You had replied simply, before turning to Chenle.

“Want to push one together?” You asked, pointing at one of the heavier ones. Chenle scrunched his face up at you, looking to his father for answers.

“I think your mom wants your help in the house, Chenle.” His dad had replied, not so subtly winking at him, as if to say, ‘escape from the crazy girl while you can.’

 He seized the opportunity, turning on his heel and running towards the house, where his mother stood in the doorway, when the most ridiculous thing happened. Not only did (Y/N) (Y/L/N) follow him, but you grabbed his hand.

“Oh, hello! I see you’ve met my son.” His mother had called out, a small smile growing on her face as she observed the sight of the two 7-year olds connected by their hands.

Chenle, having no clue how to escape the situation, did the most mature thing a 7-year-old boy could do. He hid behind his mother.

Who did you think you were? He had been here for less than 10 minutes and he had some crazy girl trying to hold his hand.

Of course, for you, you really had thought you were being kind. The boxes on the lawn did look intimidatingly heavy but you were sure with the help of the cute boy stood next to them, you could help get them into the house. You hadn’t picked up on the fact that it had taken Mr. Zhong all of 10 seconds to determine that you weren’t worthy of their time and when he had sent his son inside to help unpack, you thought maybe it would be a good idea to chase after him, see if he wanted to play for a bit before he was stuck unpacking boring boxes. You had grabbed his arm to stop him from running into his house, when he turned around and moved his arm out of your clasp, grabbing your hand instead.

You could remember vividly, the way your stomach had flipped as he stared at you with those deep brown eyes, and you had been so sure he was going to kiss you. He had held your hand! At 7, you had basically considered that a marriage proposal. If his mother had not have called out to you, you were sure you were going to have had your first kiss at 7 years old. The way he blushed and hid behind his mother was adorable, he was so shy.

That night you lay awake, thinking of the boy who was walking around with your first kiss.

If only he wasn’t so shy, maybe he would have. That was the moment you decided, you were going to do everything in your power to ensure that Chenle would not have to ever feel shy around you. He needed to know; he had a friend in you.

While sweet in theory, the reality of the situation was, Chenle believed he did not need the help of, what his father had referred to the evening after you, your two older brothers and your father brought over homemade pies, ‘trash like them.’ He especially did not need the help of the girl who embarrassed him on the first day of school. Yes, you had thought it appropriate, upon seeing Chenle enter the classroom of Mr. Lee on the very first day of school, to run up to him and give him a huge hug, which he of course, had struggled against. That’s what had earned him the reputation of being (Y/N) (Y/L/N)’s boyfriend, a reputation he did not manage to shrug off until freshman year of high school, and he only got rid of through dating Lee Chaeryong for an incredibly brief period of time, who was perfectly sweet, but he didn’t find her particularly interesting.

For a while, he found dealing with Chaeryong’s insistence yammering about nothing he cared about a lot easier to endure than the lovesick eyes you gave him. The plan was, he would walk her to class a few times, sit with her at lunch and eventually, you would lose interest, he could break up with her.  It was all going smoothly, until his best friend, Park Jisung, suddenly decided to get a moral backbone for once and tell Chaeryong what Chenle was doing. Chenle reckoned it was just because of Jisung’s own crush on her, but either way, it had resulted in a very public breakup. A week later, you were back to obsessing over him, and once again he became, (Y/N)’s boyfriend.

 3 years later, their senior year, brought a lot of changes, the main change of which being Chenle’s grandfather had permanently moved in with their family. Chenle did not know much of his grandfather. An old surly man, he spent his days sat in the armchair beside their front window, staring blankly out into the empty street. Chenle’s mom said he did that because he missed grandma, although Chenle would not know as much he had very little conversations with him. The second change in Chenle’s life was more superficial as everyone was talking about how much (Y/N) had grown between the summer of junior and senior year – your face had thinned out, and you had a much more of a mature air about you and for a brief moment of, what Chenle had deemed insanity, he may have mistaken you as pretty. Of course, the second you had sent him the same goofy smile which graced your face every time you looked at him, and murmured the same,

“Hi, Chenle,” the pit in his stomach from the tired repetition of ten years returned.

“Hi, (Y/N).” He had replied, a tight-lipped smile sent your way.

 It is imperative to the justification of your side of the story that you understand that Chenle had never once openly rejected you, or even treated you rudely. You would talk to him when you could, and he would reply perfectly politely, which would only reinforce the idea that it’s not that he did not like you, he was just shy. On top of that, it was not as if you actively pursued him. You spoke to him like one would a friend as, how you saw it, everyone knew you liked Chenle, no doubt, including him. If he wanted to, he would ask you out. Other than that, you were content talking to him when you could.

 Other than your looks, a lot more had changed in your life. For almost as long as you could remember, your mother had been sick. There had been a time, a very long time ago, where you could recall how the same scalic motif would echo from the piano which now lay dormant, the thick layer of dust that had blanketed it over the years rendering it inoperable. Your life had been filled with hospital visits to a woman you had never really gotten the opportunity to know and who no longer knew you. You often grazed your hand over the ivory piano keys, and tried to flick through the penciled sheet music which hadn’t been touched since the last time your mom had last scribbled on them but to you it was a foreign language you could only hope to understand.

About a week into September, you had been ignoring your English teacher’s in-depth analysis of some Shakespeare scene and letting your thoughts and eyes wander to where Chenle sat two seats in front of you. His black hair had seemed even darker that day, contrasting with the white t-shirt and denim jacket he was wearing. You were so focused on the way his head would duck down to take notes, that you barely noticed the teacher who had slid into the classroom and leaned to whisper something in your teacher’s ear. It wasn’t until your teacher had called your name and Chenle had spun to stare at you alongside the rest of the class, his brown eyes meeting yours, that you had snapped back into reality, the heat of your embarrassment at getting caught by Chenle warming your face. Funnily enough, you had forgotten about your embarrassment when your teacher had called you out into the hallway, where your tearful father stood. He didn’t have to say anything. You knew.

The next week all blurred together into a flurry of emotions which you purposefully tried your best to forget. The funeral was huge, groups of people from your school coming to show solidarity, as well as the entire neighborhood, including Chenle and his family. You could not bring yourself to glance at him, not with your father crying quietly next to you. You did not know whether to cry for the woman you had never met before. 

  Your school allowed you the next few months off school, but you had returned after only one month and that month was the quietest your house had ever been. Your father locked himself in his room for the first two weeks, and your brothers oversaw making dinner for the family, which essentially meant the whole family was living off frozen pizza for two weeks. Your dad eventually emerged from his bedroom, but when he did, he was like a man crazed. He insisted that you did a spring clean (it was September) of the house and get rid of the clutter which had gathered from the many years of neglect. You were in charge of sorting through all of the things your dad wanted to give to charity, and you had invited your friend Shin Ryujin over to help. More like she insisted. Ryujin had been new to town in freshmen year and had befriended you before she had known of your reputation as ‘Chenle’s stalker,’ and she had been a fierce friend ever since. You had both been folding a pile of old clothes when your eyes fell on your mom’s old music stand accompanied with that oh so familiar stack of written sheet music under a pile of old toys. 

You didn’t want your mom’s handwritten sheet music to end up in a charity shop but your dad had insisted that no one was using it, and, unless you could think of someone else to give it to, it was going to charity. That was when, luckily, you remembered Chenle. He was a skilled piano player and singer, so much so, the whole school anticipated his performance in the Christmas Talent Show, which he had won for the past 3 years. Upon gaining your father’s permission, but against the wishes of Ryujin who had spent the past three years explaining how Chenle was terrible for you and you needed to, in her words, ‘Hoe it up,’ you made the journey across the road and knocked on Chenle’s door, clutching the music stand and sheet music to your chest. Luckily, he had been the one to open the door instead of his father whom you didn’t personally mind, but felt as though he may have disliked you. 

It had been early before school one morning, when you had knocked on his door. He was barely awake, the sweatpants and loose t-shirt he had worn for his pajamas still clung to his body. He hadn’t expected to be opening the door to someone from school, let alone you, awake and bright eyed. On a normal day, your chirpiness would have bothered him to no end, but today was different. He hadn’t seen you since your mom’s funeral, and he found that he had wounded up missing your ever-present annoyance. He didn’t know how reassuring that lovesick, “Hi, Chenle,” could be. He couldn’t understand how, in your absence, he found his eyes straying to your empty seat, or when he sat at his desk which lay in front of his window, his eyes would wander to where he knew your bedroom window sat. He had realized, in the few weeks that you were off, that your presence was more comforting that your absence.

His dad hadn’t wanted to go the funeral. Apparently, he didn’t see the point. It was his mother who had pushed them to go, saying how bad they would have looked if they didn’t show their faces. His dad had argued that he didn’t care how he looked to a poor dreamer and the ‘crazies he calls family.’ The only reason they ended up going was because his mom had said she was going with or without him and apparently that would look bad to everyone else in the neighborhood. Chenle didn’t see the harm; sure he didn’t like you, but you were always nice to him and it was only respectful.

“Uh- Hi, (Y/N).” He said, eyes wandering down your body to where you clutched the sheet music and back up to your face. Your heart had flipped, a sensation you were now old friends with and usually attributed to Chenle’s warm brown eyes which traversed your face, his morning voice only making him more attractive. Little did you know, Chenle’s biggest concern at this moment was less checking you out and more checking if you were okay, and judging by the tired bags under your eyes despite your outwardly cheery appearance, you didn’t look okay.

“Hi, Chenle.” For once, those two words didn’t make him want to rip his own hair out.

“Uh, these are my mom’s. My dad wanted to give them to charity but, I don’t know, I thought they’d be better with someone I know... and well, you’re kind of the only musician I know.” His eyes flickered down to the sheet music you clutched in your arms.

“Oh- Thanks?” The music stand looked to Chenle to be at least 30 years old and the yellowing sheet music did not look too enticing, but he reached out his arms for them anyways.

“She wrote the music herself. You don’t have to play it but, I don’t know, I just really didn’t want to see it end up in the back of some charity shop. At least I know, with your talent, it’s in good hands.”

“Oh, well thanks.” You sent him an awkward closed mouth smile before turning on your heel but before you could make the short walk across the road, he called out to you.

“Wait-”

You spun around again.

“Yeah?”

He had stood up from where he had previously been leaning against the door frame, his brow now furrowed.

“Are you- are you coming back to school anytime soon?” He almost cringed as he uttered the words. He always felt bad being nice to you, it felt as if he was giving you false hope. However, for the first time, it came naturally to him as opposed to the fake smile he would give you.

“I’m allowed off until January but I’m coming back next week. It’s just so... quiet at my house. I’m kind of sick of it at this point.” His eyes scanned your face again, in the way that felt as though he could stare into your very soul if he looked hard enough.

“Well, I hope you’re okay.” The sincerity in his voice echoed the sympathetic look on his face.

“Thanks. I’ll see you next week, I guess.”

“See you at school.” He closed the door and looked at the music stand he had left leaning against the wall, which, unfortunately, became the topic of discussion that night at the dinner table.

“I think it was very nice of her to give you that stuff, Chenle.” His Mom had said, the clinking sounds of cutlery against plates underlying the conversation.

“I’m not using them,” He replied simply, as he moved the vegetables his mom had forcibly placed on his plate around with his fork. 

“Oh, don’t be a dick, Chenle.” His sister nudged him, ignoring their parent shouts of, ‘language!’

“I’m not being a dick, they’re about 30 years old and I’m a piano player, I don’t use a music stand anyways.” He placed his fork down.

“Well, they’re not lying here and collecting dust. I’m honestly annoyed. Just because their house is all cluttered doesn’t mean our house has to be. You can go back and tell her you don’t want them.” His dad interjected, in that authoritarian manner he so loved.

“Dad, I can’t do that.”

“Eat your vegetables, Chenle.” His mom said, taking a sip from her way-too-expensive crystal wine glass. He rolled his eyes and picked up his fork again, purposely taking a bite out of the broccoli which adorned his plate.

“Why not? Are you scared of her?” His dad challenged, and Chenle couldn’t help but notice the broccoli which remained on his plate. Why did Chenle have to eat it but his dad didn’t?

“I’m not scared of her, it’s just- Her mom just died. I don’t want to be mean.” His fork stopped moving as his Father scoffed.

“Man up. You aren’t being rude, you’re being honest.”

“Chenle, vegetables.” 

He groaned, shoveling as much of the vegetables into his mouth as he possibly could in one go before sinking down in his chair. He didn’t have a clue what to do. On one hand, the music equipment was of no use to him, so realistically, it would make the most sense to give them back. But on the other hand, if he gave them back they would just end up with charity and while Chenle didn’t necessarily like the girl, he didn’t think he could be that insensitive. Which was why he had deemed it an amazing idea to ask the paragon of good advice, his best friend, Park Jisung, at school the next day.

“Dude, just give it away yourself.” Jisung had answered assertively, from where he had perched himself atop his desk during their break, opening the cupcake that Chenle had given him. It had originally been a gift from Chaeryong who had long since forgiven him since the Freshmen incident, and every now and then when she got bored, would return to her phase of crushing on him.

“What do you mean?” Chenle asked, ignoring the way he could most definitely see Chaeryong staring at him from behind Jisung’s head, taking a sip of the strawberry milk he had bought from the school vending machine. Jisung rolled his eyes.

“I mean, if you give it away to some thrift shop first, she’ll never know, and you can tell your family that you told her. Boom, both people are happy.” Chenle chewed at the straw of his milk carton. He wasn’t necessarily wrong; in giving the stuff away himself, no one got hurt and he wouldn’t get called a coward by his family.

“Jisung, you’re a genius. Come with me after school? We’ll drop by my house and I’ll drive us into town.” Jisung nodded, cringing as he picked the love heart candy off the cupcake.

Unfortunately for Chenle, he hadn’t seemed to realize that, sat with her back to him was Ryujin, who had overheard the whole conversation, mostly because Chaeryong had insisted they eavesdropped on them to see if they talked about her. Ryujin had let Chenle away with a lot over the years; he had ignored you, laughed at you with his friends, talked about you behind his back and while she would discuss how much of a prick she thought he was with you, you never believed her, or blamed yourself, or make excuses for him. Which was why she deemed it a necessary evil to send you a text saying, ‘Want to go thrift shopping after school? I’ll buy you coffee?’

She knew you would never turn down free coffee. And it actually had turned out you had multiple boxes to donate anyways, although shopping with Ryujin was always an experience. You liked clothes shopping as much as anyone, but Ryujin was crazy. She could take 3 hours to go through one tiny shop.

“Ryujin? Are you done yet?” You had whined, the cardboard coffee cup in your hand had been emptied at least half an hour ago, and you had finished looking for clothes an hour ago. She was especially taking her time today, deliberating every item of clothing she saw and the dark lighting was starting to hurt your eyes, the musky smell of cedar wood and laundry detergent was inviting at first, but now made you feel woozy.

“My feet hurt.” You complained again, only pouting at the joke glare she shot your way. The bell which jingled every time someone entered the shop that you had learned to zone out the past two hours rang again, but this time, Ryujin’s eyes flickered up and rested on the person standing at the door. You furrowed your brow and spun to see who she was staring at, and there stood Chenle and Jisung, both looking positively ill.

“Oh- Hi, Chenle!” You waved, a small smile gracing your face. You cocked your head slightly to look at the two boys who had lost all color to their faces. Chenle still looked as good as ever, and the smell of his citrusy shampoo paired with his expensive smelling cologne cut through the woody scent of the shop, his chestnut brown eyes which lay beneath his messy mop of dark hair bringing butterflies to your stomach the way they always did.

“What’s wrong? You look as if you’ve seen a-,” you didn’t get to finish your sentence as your eyes had fallen down to where he clutched the oh so familiar sheet music and music stand. Your smile dropped, the butterflies in your stomach mutating into lead.

“What are you doing with those?” You asked, quietly, ignoring the way Jisung almost ran back out of the shop.

“I- uh- well...” He looked down, staring guiltily at his hands and the rusty music stand he clutched.

“If you didn’t want them you could have said, you know. You didn’t have to go behind my back to give them away.” You snapped, and for the first time in your whole life, looking at Chenle made your heart sink instead of flip. 

“It wasn’t me! My dad said that he didn’t-” He stopped, as if he had caught himself.

“Didn’t what?” You asked, raising an eyebrow. He sighed, and glance to the side, almost as though he was refusing to meet your eyes.

“He said he didn’t understand why our house had to be cluttered just because you only started cleaning up your house and yard now.” He mumbled, and your eyes widened, and you put out an arm to stop Ryujin, who you could sense was about to jump on the boy.

“I didn’t think a bunch of sheet music was going to destroy your house that much.” You replied, letting out a huff and gulping away the lump in your throat, refusing to cry in front of him.

“I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” He mumbled, staring at his hands in shame. He had never wished that the ground would swallow him whole more in his entire life.

“You should have told me. Give them to the shop, honestly. I don’t care anymore.” You pushed past him, resisting the urge to throw the empty cardboard coffee cup at him.

“(Y/N)!” He called after you and you turned again, blinking back the tears which were gathering in your eyes, the constant chanting of, ‘don’t cry,’ becoming a sustained pedal in your head and realistically being the only thing stopping the tears from spilling.

“What?”

“I- I’m sorry.” His chestnut eyes you loved so much stared at you in that sincere way that felt as though he could stare into your soul if he tried hard enough, but for once, you could see a corruption in the honesty, a sort of rotten core to what you had previously thought was a pure center.

“No, you’re not.” You mumbled, before spinning back round and dragging Ryujin out by the wrist who had to drop the clothes she had clutched previously in a pile next to the door, having been given no opportunity to replace them tidily.

At first you had thought you were upset, the burning sensation in your chest was mistaken for sadness, but when you brought your hand up to your eyes to wipe away the tears which now fell, the downtrodden feeling switched into anger very quickly. Not only did Chenle lie and act as if he had cared about you and your family, but he had the audacity to talk about you all as if you were a group of hoarders who couldn’t keep your yard presentable.

You slammed your car door shut - while you had previously loved your run-down little jeep, you supposed perhaps the Zhong family liked to comment on that too - ignoring the comforting words Ryujin was uttering as she climbed into the passenger seat.

“Are you busy on Saturday?” You asked as you gripped the steering wheel so tightly your knuckles turned white, turning the key in the ignition.

“Uh- I don’t think so. Why?” Ryujin replied, eyeing you warily.

“How do you feel about gardening?”

It didn’t take long for Chenle to realize he had traded in his old problems with (Y/N) (Y/L/N) for a whole set of new ones. You had returned to school the next week, and the way you constantly avoided him was simply a reminder of how much of a jerk he had been. Not to mention when he woke up on Saturday morning to discover you and Ryujin in your garden pulling up weeds, the guilt panging in his chest as he watched you toil away.

Then one day a week later or so, he was walking back from playing basketball from Jisung when things got weird.

His grandfather stood in your front yard, a pair of sheers in hand as he clipped at the hedges which had grown over your windows, conversing quietly with you as you worked.

He had only ever seen his grandfather in slippers - where the hell had those work boots come from? He didn’t even know his grandfather knew how to use sheers let alone would willingly help a random girl from across the street. The more he watched from his bedroom window, the madder he got. His grandfather had said more to you in the last hour than he had the whole time he had lived with them. Chenle wasn’t even sure if he had ever seen his grandfather laugh before, but there he was, laughing at something you said.

You had been struggling with hacking away the hedge when his grandfather had approached you. Ryujin had abandoned helping you a while ago, but you still appreciated the help she had given you originally. You knew gardening wasn’t necessarily her thing. You wanted to think that the reason you had decided to fix up your yard was not because of what Zhong Chenle thought of you, but to make your house better in this new pre-mom times, as your brothers had begun calling them. After what he had done with your mom’s sheet music, why were you meant to care about anything he thought? But sadly, you knew deep down you did.

“Are you pruning that Hedge or hacking it to death?” You heard someone call out, and you swung around to see a man whom you couldn’t help but recognize as being related to Chenle. They had the same smile.

You laughed awkwardly, clutching the sheers a little tighter. 

“I’m Chenle’s grandfather. Sorry it’s taken me so long to come over and introduce myself.” He smiled again and outstretched a hand which you then shook.

“Nice to meet you.” 

“Are you planning on cutting these all to the same height?” He gestured towards the hedges. You breathed in, looking at the hedges which you had previously been ruining.

“That was the plan, but I might have to take them out. I’m not very good at this, if you can’t tell.” You joked.

“Oh, these are Hicksii shrubs. They should prune up nicely.” He replied, pulling out a pair of gloves he had appeared to have brought with him, and reached out for the sheers you had been holding.

You eyed him wearily, as he cut at the hedge. “Listen, Mr. Zhong, if you’re here because of what Chenle said, I don’t need your help.”

He leaned back and looked at you sincerely.

“I don’t know what my little shit of a grandson said to you, but I’m just here because of the crime you were committing on these shrubs.”

The previous reluctance you had felt was immediately relieved as you let out a sincere laugh, not expecting his crude language.

You both worked together on the yard for weeks, and the whole time you worked, you talked. Mr. Zhong was incredibly kind, and it was honestly nice to know that there was someone in that house who wasn’t watching and waiting for your families next screw up. He told you how you had the same spirit as his wife who died a while ago; apparently you both had the same strong will. Although the conversation that stuck with you the most was a few days into working together and he had tentatively asked you about what was happened with you and Chenle. You had explained the situation while you painted the wood you had bought together to make a fence.

“Well, do you like Chenle?” He had asked, and your face warmed, your hand which held the paint brush stilling.

“I don’t know... It’s something about his eyes, I guess.” You looked down, embarrassed. It felt really weird discussing this with his grandfather.

“But what about him?” Mr. Zhong had asked, his hand still as well.

“What do you mean?” You asked, eyebrows furrowing as you turned your head.

“Well - I mean think of it like this. Your father’s a painter, isn’t he? Well, a painting is more than the sum of its parts. You have to look at the whole landscape. A cow by itself is just a cow, a tree is just a tree, a beam of light is just sunshine, but when you put it all together - it can be something magical. Do you think Chenle’s more than the sum of his parts?” If he had asked you a month ago you would have said absolutely. Chenle was entirely more than the sum of his parts, in every conceivable way. But now you weren’t so sure.

“I- I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, Chenle was still struggling to apologize to you. He had spent all week trying to approach you at school, but when it came to holding a grudge, you were truly impressive. You always found a way to duck him, either turning in the hallway to walk the other way or having Ryujin exit through doors first when he tried to block them to confront you. And every time you were out in your yard, his grandpa was always there. It wasn’t until one day, on a cold Saturday morning towards the end of October, when his grandpa had gone into town to buy cream for his hands because all the yard work was starting to get to him, that he found his opening.

“It looks really good.” He commented, grabbing your attention from where you were watering the grass with a hose. You looked up at the boy whom you had dedicated your life to, who stood awkwardly behind the fence you had put up with his grandfather. You wished you could say he looked bad, but in a flannel shirt, black t-shirt and jeans he had never looked better.

“Thanks.” You said quietly, turning your back to him to continue your work.

“I- I’m sorry for what I did.” He piped up and you sighed before switching off the hose and turning towards him again.

“I don’t get it, Chenle. You could have just told me you didn’t need them. You didn’t have to give them away behind my back.” You looked at him, and for once, you were the one looking into his soul, not the other way around. You looked into those eyes, those dazzling brown eyes which bore into you that belonged to the boy walking around with your first kiss and you thought that perhaps his Grandpa was right. Maybe Chenle wasn’t more than the sum of his parts.

“I don’t know - It was dumb. I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings. I shouldn’t have said anything about your yard either. It wasn’t right.” You let your eyes rest on his face again. You were sure - Chenle was definitely less than the sum of his parts. You shrugged.

“Maybe it was for the best.” You turned back towards the grass, turning the hose on again as if to signal, this was the end of the conversation.

“I- I guess I’ll see you around.” He said, hesitantly. You didn’t even turn to look at him this time.

“I guess.”

He spun to make the short trek back to his house, but not without turning back to look at you one last time before opening the bright red door of his house. Your acceptance of his apology was not all he had hoped for, but at least now he could watch TV with his family with a guilt free conscious. although the atmosphere between his grandpa and dad was nearly palpable, especially when his grandfather reached for the cream on the table beside them to rub into his hands.

“That girl working you too hard?” His dad slyly commented, ignoring the foul look his grandfather sent him in response as he rubbed cream into his hands.

“’That girl’s’ name is (Y/N). And no, she isn’t working me too hard.” 

Chenle’s dad widened his eyes slightly, staring down into the brandy which he swirled in the glass he held.

“Do you not think it’s a bit, I don’t know, weird, that you have the time and energy to spend time with the girl next door but not with your own grandson?” He replied snippily, ignoring the way his mom interjected.

“-It’s okay, Dad-” Chenle began, but couldn’t finish as his father cut him off with a sharp, “No, it’s not.”

“Do you know why the (Y/L/N)’s hadn’t fixed up their yard until now?” His grandfather asked, more rhetorically than anything.

“Yeah. Because he’s too busy with his paint-by-numbers kit.” His dad answered, chortling to himself at his own joke, taking another sip of the brandy he was drinking.

“The illness Mrs. (Y/L/N) had was incredibly hard to treat, not to mention emotionally draining. Every penny they had went into hospital bills treating her, and even then, she had been in a coma for 8 years, and then unresponsive for another 5.” Chenle stared down at his hands, trying his best to zone out the argument, especially considering he had been the asshole who tried to give away this poor woman’s music.

“I don’t see what their vegetative mother has to do with their pride in ownership. Realistically, if she had looked after herself more, maybe they wouldn’t have been in this mess.” His dad had answered, once again laughing at his own joke.

“They don’t own that house, they rent it. It’s supposed to be the responsibility of the landlord, and it was nothing to do with how healthy that poor woman was, (Y/N)’s Mom had a blood condition that made her susceptible to strokes, and that’s what made her so ill.” Chenle’s mom sighed from where she sat next to him on the blue couch, before his father had the opportunity to reply and dig himself into a deeper hole.

“That poor family. We should have them over for dinner.” She announced, standing up, grabbing the still full glass from her husband’s hand as she moved into the kitchen.

“We are not having them over for dinner!” His father shouted from the living room.

“We should have them over for a sit down fancy dinner.” She replied, almost deliberately ignoring him.

“We are not - Hey!” He called out as he heard the buttons on the landline beep with each number his mother punched in.

“I’m sorry, I can’t here you over me inviting them over for- Oh hello, (Y/N), dear.” At the sound of your name, Chenle sank farther into the plush couch seats. He just wanted to watch television in peace.

“Shoot me now.” His dad mumbled.

“Careful what you wish for.” His Grandfather replied, not tearing his eyes from the tv and this time he was the one to ignore the evil look which was shot his way.

And so, dinner with the (Y/L/N)’s was in his imminent future, which only made things more uncomfortable at school. Much like when you had taken that month off in school, he found himself focused on the idea of you more than he had previously. He couldn’t get you out of his head, you and your poor mom. He thought he would apologize for the music thing, you would begrudgingly accept his apology, and you could live the rest of the senior year blissfully ignoring each other’s existents. While you had apparently stayed true to the plan, he couldn’t help the way his eyes drifted to find you in class. He had spent 10 years in the same class as you but he had never noticed how you automatically pulled your bottom lip into your mouth when you were focused on something or the way you smiled to stop yourself laughing when Ryujin mumbled some sort of snarky comment. In the same bout of insanity he had experienced at the beginning of the year, he may have mistaken your smile as being pretty. Except this time the insanity did not melt away into resentment, but instead grew into a roaring monster of butterflies anytime he saw you.

He was starting to think he was sick or something. It was like his whole life had been flipped upside down; in what universe was he the one with the clammy hands and racing heart around (Y/N) (/L/N), and she was the one ignoring him? He needed to talk to someone - and who better than the lord of advice himself, Park Jisung.

Luckily for him, him and Jisung were the first people in their home room class the day of the dinner; usually you were in early, but today you conveniently hadn’t been. “Dude, I need your help.” Chenle emphatically exclaimed, sitting down in his seat next to Jisung before explaining the situation.

“(Y/N) (Y/L/N)? You hate her. You’ve hated her for 10 years.” Jisung blankly stated, and Chenle shook his head. 

“That’s the thing, I don’t think I do. I can’t stop thinking about her.” Jisung rolled his eyes.

“You definitely hate her. Think about it, you just feel bad because of the mom thing. And you insulted her house, but I mean come on, it was a mess anyways.”

“It’s not her fault. Their family is in crazy amounts of debt because her mom had some sort of untreatable illness and she was sick for so long. Do you know apparently, she had been sick for like 13 years? It must have been torture on their family.” Chenle defended, the stubborn side of him which was declaring, it’s been a decade, why stop hating you now, losing out to this new need to defend you.

“Oh, God, really? Well then, there’s your answer.” Jisung replied, leaning back in his chair with confidence, as though he had just solved the world’s problems. Chenle’s eyebrows knotted together, cocking his head.

“What do you mean?” 

Jisung scoffed, as if it was the most obvious thing since the last advice he had kindly bestowed on Chenle.

“You don’t want to be with someone with that in their family. Dude what if she infects you with it?”

Chenle wanted to hit him. He was certain, he had never before in his life been closer to punching someone and God did Jisung deserve it. How dare he say that? He wanted to tell him that it was much more complex than Jisung’s derogatory simplification of your mother’s illness, and just because Jisung was failing biology did not mean he had the right to be going around and saying things like that about you. He wanted to tell Jisung to keep his stupid opinion to himself, but despite this intense fury he felt searing up his chest, all he could manage was a stiff laugh.

“Oh. Yeah.” He mumbled, not looking at him in case the smug smile which had graced Jisung’s face flipped the switch which would erupt the burning anger in his chest.

You had been running late that day. You liked getting up earlier and beating the traffic to school, now more than ever, with the sullen mood your house had fallen into, although with the dinner with the Zhong family in your near future, the three boys of your house appeared cheerier. Your father was good friends with Mrs. Zhong and she had always been a good neighbor, and your two brothers were old friends with Chenle’s older sister. You were only one against the idea, but realistically, what harm could one dinner do? You had woken up and been ready on time, but when you climbed into your sturdy little jeep and turned the ignition keys, the engine made an unfortunate spluttering sound, that rather sounded like it was simply giving up.

You had taken a stab at fixing it, popping the hood and pretending as though you had a single clue about what to look for, but upon realizing there was no hope you started glancing worriedly back at your house. Surely one of the three people who all knew all to drive would know something about what was wrong with the engine. Biggest problem was, they were all asleep, and if you woke them up, you might have lost a hand. You were heavily considering risking the hand when, by some sort of divine intervention, a familiar voice called out to you.

“Need help?”

You started, spinning to see Mr. Zhong, the familiar and kind old face smiling at you. You hated how similar his smile was to Chenle’s; he was simply a reminder of who you thought Chenle used to be. Nonetheless, you smiled and nodded, gesturing to the hood and taking a step back.

“Please. It’s all yours.”

He worked in silence for a moment, pulling at the machinery inside the bonnet.

“How old is this car?” He asked, and his muffled voice could not disguise the astonishment in his voice.

“Uh, I think the last person to drive it was my Mom, so, that should tell you.” You half joked, awkwardly watching him work until he indicated to you to try again.

You climbed into the car and turned the ignition, and it spluttered again, but this time the spluttering graduated into the unhealthy purring sound you were used to.

You rolled your window down, and called a gracious, ‘thank you!’ out the window, but before you could proceed the short drive to school, the man stopped you, leaning against the side of your car.

“Wait a minute, I want to talk to you about something.” You uncomfortably clutched the steering wheel tighter, raising an eyebrow at him, as if to say, ‘go on.’

“You and Chenle? How’s that going?” He asked, an eyebrow raised in a similar fashion, although his was more teasing where yours was questioning. Your heart leapt as your face warmed.

“Oh - uh. I haven’t really spoken to him since.”

“Oh.” He sounded surprised.

“Why?” You asked, trying to discreetly gulp away your nervousness.

“Oh, he’s just been speaking about you a lot more, is all. Have fun at school.” 

Your five-minute drive to school was the most anxiety ridden drive you had ever experienced. What did he mean speaking about you more? He was asking about your relationship so would that suggest Chenle was saying nice things? Did Chenle maybe like you? Of course, the idea of Chenle having any sort of romantic feelings towards you felt nearly laughable at this point, but this glimmer of hope that had remained from the past ten years that maybe, just maybe, you had finally grabbed the attention of those sweet brown eyes simmered in your chest before you could push it away. He had treated you badly, you reminded yourself. You didn’t need him.

You stormed into school that morning, affirming that you did not need Zhong Chenle in your life, and if he did finally notice you, that was not your problem. But the little girl in you who had walked up to the door of your classroom to overhear Chenle say your name insisted on eavesdropping. And who were you to say no to her?

“... That’s the thing, I don’t think I do. I can’t stop thinking about her.” You couldn’t stop instinctual fluttering of your heart. Chenle couldn’t stop thinking about you. Chenle couldn’t stop thinking about you. Your previous conclusion that he was not more than the sum of his parts was thrown out of the window and replaced with schoolgirl butterflies.

“You definitely hate her. Think about it, you just feel bad because of the mom thing. And you insulted her house, but I mean come on, it was a mess anyways.” You rolled your eyes. Park Jisung was a self-righteous dick.

“It’s not her fault. Their family is in crazy amounts of debt because her mom had some sort of untreatable illness and she was sick for so long. Do you know apparently she had been sick for like 13 years? It must have been torture on their family.” You had never heard him defend you before, and you couldn’t help the small smile which grew on your face.

“Oh, God, really? Well then, there’s your answer.”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t want to be with someone with that in their family. Dude what if she infects you with it?” Your previously elated heart dropped to your stomach as your face fell. Chenle wasn’t going to let him away with that, was he?

“Oh. Yeah.” He was. Zhong Chenle had the perfect knack of getting your hopes up, and just when your heart had warmed to him again, crushing it, and you were sick of it. You spun on your heel, making your way back out to your car without even thinking about it. You didn’t want to have to look at him.

You thought about the situation as you got ready for dinner that night.  You were sick of this stupid game of cat and mouse, where you inevitably always ended up hurt. And thinking back on the past ten years, Chenle had never been a good friend to you. Ever. He gave away your sheet music, he insulted you and now he was talking about you with his friends as if you were some sort of plague just waiting to infect him. You were sick of it and you were sick of him. Zhong Chenle meant nothing to you anymore.

You had half an idea to march out into the hallway where your father was calling you and tell him that you did not want to go, and he couldn’t make you. You drew together pieces of this declaration in your head before firmly making your way into the hall, entirely ready to tell him where the Zhong family could go, but then you saw his face. He had shaved for the first time in a month, the clothes he wore was ironed and smart, and you could have sworn he smelled better than he had in a while. Your previously parted lips closed again and instead of communicating your desire to be anywhere but the Zhong house, the corners turned slightly, mustering up the most sincere smile you could. You could suck up having to sit opposite Chenle for your family - They had gone through so much recently, you thought maybe you could deal with him for another night. 

Your plans to snub him was momentarily interrupted when you realized, as he stomped down the stairs into the entry way of the house, where your family awkwardly hovered, exchanging greetings with the Zhong family, he had worn your favorite jean jacket, white t-shirt and black jeans combo that used to make you melt at the knees. Like always, it made his dark hair seem darker, but you pushed back the bubbling butterflies. What he had done was unforgiveable.

“Why don’t I show you guys my room?” His sister had emphatically exclaimed to your brothers who glanced to your dad. He gave a disinterested shrug, and the three stomped up past where Chenle came from. “Chenle, sweetie, why don’t you bring (Y/N) up to your room? The adults can talk down here.” His mom suggested.

“No, Mrs. Zhong, it’s okay-” You began, but you didn’t get to finish.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, I know you won’t want to be stuck with the adults. Just no funny business!” You ignored the sly comment which Chenle’s dad mumbled under his breath about, ‘that being unlikely,’ and hesitantly made your way up the stairs, following in Chenle’s footsteps. His house was the exact same as yours - sure his stairs didn’t creak from years of you and your brothers abuse , and it was much sleeker - the black and white modern décor juxtaposed greatly with the warm, yellow tones of your own house, plus the fact they obvious could afford to have their carpet replaced with hardwood floors, but other than that, there was nothing spectacularly upper class about their house that would suggest they had any right to look down on yours. 

His room matched his personality to a tee. With grey-white walls plastered with posters of his favorite musicians and athletes whom you didn’t recognize, the room was small but clean and smelt like him. That familiar citrusy scent you associated with him filled the air, and past you would have been intoxicated by him, but current you knew better.

He sat down on top of the checked black and white duvet cover, (little did you know, he was secretly celebrating the fact he had happened to change the Stephen Curry bed sheets the day before) and gestured for you to sit down beside him. You remained standing.

“Uh- Hi.” He greeted, a softness to his voice you didn’t recognize but nearly succeeded in melting the barricade you had placed around your heart. Nearly. You didn’t respond, staring down at your shoes as if, suddenly your vans were the most interesting thing in the world.

“You look really pretty.” There he was again, trying to get your hopes up only to smash them again. You wouldn’t let him. Not this time.

“I know what you and Jisung were saying about my mom. And I’m done with you, okay? You can stop this act now.” You blurted out before you could even stop yourself.

Chenle’s face fell, and his head jerked to the side, almost as if you had genuinely slapped him in the face. He looked like a wounded puppy. Why was it so hard to stay angry at him?

“I- Look, (Y/N), it was wrong what Jisung said, I know. I wanted to hit him.” You raised an eyebrow, which sharpened your features and nearly made Chenle melt, both from the radiating heat of your anger and the sheer attractiveness of the action.

“You didn’t say anything to him. You just agreed and laughed. Like a coward.” You replied, simply.

“Yeah - I know. It was wrong of me. I’m sorry, but look, I’ve had a recent... self-discovery and I like you, (Y/N). If you could just give me a second chance.” He pleaded, standing up to look at you sincerely. His honest, chestnut eyes did not hold the same rotten core you had seen in them a month ago in the charity shop, but you held your ground nonetheless. “Third chance, you mean. Realistically, you don’t know me, and I don’t know you. We’ve lived next to each other for 10 years and we’ve had, what, two civil conversations?” Chenle was the one to look down at his feet now, focusing on the hardwood floors. You weren’t wrong - you didn’t really know each other. You relished in the silence as Chenle thought for a moment, before he mumbled,

“That doesn’t change how I feel about you, though.” 

“Well it should.” 

He opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by his mother’s screaming for them to come to dinner. You had turned and left before he even had the opportunity to draw breath and he was left alone in his empty room, which grey walls that had previously been illuminated with the presence of you had dulled in the absence of your vivacity. 

Dinner was a success for the most part, except for the torture of sitting across from you. He bore holes into the side of your head, but you were so skilled in acting as if he wasn’t there, he was starting to question his actual presence at the dinner table; if it were just you and him sitting there, he would have been convinced he was some sort of ghostly apparition.

“So, you paint, right?” His grandfather had directed toward your dad who nodded politely.

“Yeah, I always loved art and - well I couldn’t afford to go to college so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone and do something I love that I don’t need a college education for.” He replied, the bright look on his face when talking about something he loved was so similar to how you used to look at him that Chenle almost felt sick with guilt.

“And you make much money off of that?” His dad had commented, his knife and fork obnoxiously clinking against the plate. Chenle almost sunk down in his chair.

“I make enough.” Your dad replied, stiffly. He spoke how you spoke to him a mere 15 minutes ago.

“Didn’t you used to like art?” His grandfather had asked, turning to his Dad who shrugged, sipping from his expensive wine glass.

“I painted a little.” Chenle had never seen his dad so uncomfortable.

“No, I remember, you wanted to go to art school, right? But my daughter here talked you out of it.” His dad squirmed in his seat as his mother awkwardly laughed, avoiding the topic entirely and asking your dad another question about his job.

The more your dad discussed his ventures into the world of art, the quieter his dad got. He tried to plaster on a smile every now and then, but underneath, Chenle could tell he was sad. He thought about how his dad had always looked down on your family, and the countless times he had referred to your dad as being ridiculous, a low-life who needed to get a ‘proper job.’ He watched the man who had dwindled his life away and wondered, if he was simply angry at himself, as opposed to the kind family across the street. His father was a coward who didn’t chase what he wanted because he was too scared. Chenle swore to himself there and then, that he would not be a coward, like his father. He refused to become the bitter, jealous old man across the street. And so, late that night, after you had all left, he rifled through the papers on his desk and hatched a plan.

Patience and timing were key elements to Chenle’s plan - A month, to be precise. The day of the Christmas talent show. Everyone was excited to watch Chenle perform, especially now that it had been spread that he was dedicating his performance to someone in the audience. Pretty much everyone in the school who was attracted to boys were praying it was them. All except for you, who still hadn’t spoken to him since that fateful night in his bedroom and had resumed your strategic avoidance of him.

He nervously peaked from the side of the stage of the school theatre which had been transformed from it’s boring wood and red velvet into an explosion of tinsel and fairy lights, the excessive Christmas décor almost hurt his eyes. He stared into the audience past Chaeryong’s skillful dancing on stage, despite her optimistic glances towards him, as he clutched sheet music in his hands. He had enlisted Ryujin’s help to ensure that you were sitting in the very middle of the front row, despite her unwillingness. He had to promise her that if he broke your heart again, she had a free pass at kicking him in a very private place. His attention was only broken from the way you hid a laugh as Ryujin whispered into your ear, by Jisung frantically running up to him, whispering as to not to disturb Chaeryong’s performance.

“Dude! There’s a rumor going around that this mystery chick you’re playing for is (Y/N)?” Chenle simply blinked at him.

“And?”

“Is it true?” 

“Yep.” Jisung threw his arms in the air incredulously, whispering as loud as their setting allowed him,

“What the hell is the matter with you! You have every single girl on campus wanting you and you want (Y/N) (Y/L/N).” Chenle spun to stare out into the audience again, turning his back to Jisung. “Leave me alone, Jisung. You wouldn’t understand.” He whispered back, watching and clapping as Chaeryong took her bow, exiting at the other side of the stage.

“You’re right! I completely don’t understand! Have you flipped or something?” Chenle ignored him, breathing out slowly, trying to calm his nerves. 

“This is it.” He mumbled, more to himself than Jisung, ignoring his friend who made a last minute attempt to grab him before he walked on stage.

The entire audience sat with bated breath, you included as he sat down at the piano, almost excruciatingly slowly. You stared at your hands, trying not to look up at the stage because you knew that he was probably about to sing some love song to Chaeryong, since his feelings for you had obviously dissipated since that night, and then they would kiss on stage and everyone would be happy for them. You included. Probably. If you were feeling in a particularly positive mood.

“Um, so I’m sure you all know, that I’m dedicating this performance to someone. Which I am, but I’m not going to say who. Yet. They’ll know who they are.” His smooth voice echoed throughout the entire auditorium, officially piquing your interest as you lifted your head up to look at him. He had already moved to face the piano, his fingers - which were unusually shaking - hovered over the keys as he examined the sheet music in front of him, pressing down the first chord.

Your stomach dropped, the familiarity of the scalic motif he played with his right hand causing you to audibly gasp. You hadn’t heard this piece since you were four. You raised a shaking hand to your mouth, ignoring the way Ryujin was almost definitely staring at you with concern. He had kept the sheet music. You had thought all the time, it was in the back of some shop, never to be played again. But here he was, playing your mother’s music in front of the entire school with pride, his skilful fingers dancing from note to note as if it were as simple as breathing, the music enveloping you in a blanket of comfort.

His playing ended too quickly, finishing with a short section you didn’t recognize and ending on a perfect and harmonious cadence. The audience tentatively applauded, the majority - as in everyone but you and Ryujin - more confused than anything, until he walked to the end of the stage, directly in front of you.

“My favorite color is red.” He stated, looking down at you in your chair.

“Wha - What?”

 “I am the worst loser ever. Seriously, if you play a game with me and you win, I will find ways to blame you for making me lose.”

“Chenle, wha-” “You said you didn’t know me, right? I’m terrified of spiders. I love basketball more than football but I’m better at football. You couldn’t pay me to take science the second it isn’t mandatory anymore. I talk in my sleep. I’m crazy ticklish. I would literally die for Stephen Curry. I’ve been an idiotic dick, for lack of a better word, for the last ten years, and if you let me, I would love the chance to get to know you.”

You couldn’t help the smile that formed on your face as you stared into those eyes - those once again dazzling eyes which bore into you, no evidence of corruption, the oh-so-familiar sensation of your heart warming to his words blooming in you once again, as if it had never left.

Your smile resonated within him and he questioned what the hell had he been doing the last ten years. How could anyone, ever want to run away from you?

“If you break my heart, Zhong Chenle, you have Ryujin to answer too.”

He chuckled, the sound of his laugh more musical than anything he could’ve produced on stage, and as you watched him, you came to the conclusion that Chenle was more than the sum of his parts, astronomically. You knew that Zhong Chenle was still walking around with your first kiss. But he wouldn’t be for long.

[onceupona-chaos]

What we know about the next plot

(And why it won't be in Illyria)

I decided to make this post with the breadcrumbs in ACOSF that could be used to indicate the plot of the next book. I would take ACOFAS, ACOSF and both bonus chapters into consideration.

This would be divided in Illyria, Main Plot, Subplot and characters' development.

Note: Firstly, English is not my first language, so forgive me for any mistakes. Secondly, we have strong textual evidence that points to the next book being about Elain. So if that's not your cup of tea, be warned (But destiny arrives all the same).

Be kind!

ILLYRIA'S PLOT

First things first, we learn at the beginning of ACOSF that Cassian spent four months dealing with the Illyrians's rebellion and we get to see the results:

"So the Illyrians were at peace—or as peaceful as a warrior society could be, with their constant training. Which was what Rhys wanted."

The Illyrians's conflict is not a problem that was pushed aside to be solved later, but it's already solved. Cassian had already dealt with it, which makes sense since he is the one who often shows faith regarding the Illyrian people, a very different vision from Azriel's. I'll get to that.

So Kalon is dead, and so is this plot line. For many reasons SJM solved the Illyrians' rebellion, but there is one that connects with the bigger picture:

And with the wall gone, who knows what other Fae territories might make a grab for human lands?” My jaw tightened at that last one“This peace is tenuous.”

“I know that,” Az said at last.

“So we might need the Illyrians again before it is over. Need them willing to shed blood.”

This dialogue between Rhysand and Azriel is back in ACOFAS, which is the book SJM already said that there's a lot of breadcrumbs for the next books. If a war it's coming, we need to have the biggest army ready to fight. And it's not the first time she mentioned a new coming war.

MAIN PLOT

The conflict

So, the next book won't be about Illyria. Not only SJM made that clear, but she also already told us to what direction the next book is going:

“We’ll deal with all that later.” Including the remaining queens, Koschei, and a still-looming war.

SJM basically told us what is coming: a war in which Koschei is the main villain. That makes sense considering he's a potencial treat since ACOWAR.

So he's our main villain… and every villain has a motivation.

Koschei's motivation

The Trove is the new element SJM presented in ACOSF and in some level it is responsible to move the plot forward. We know for a fact that Bryllian wasn't the only one interested in the Trove:

“And all Koschei wants is to be free from his lake?” Rhys asked Azriel.

But Amren answered. “No one really knows the full scope of the Trove’s powers. Beyond freeing him from his lake, Koschei may very well know something about the Trove that we don’t—some greater power that manifests when all three are united.”

Koschei wants to be freed from his lake, and to do that he needs the Trove. So far, Nesta has found the Three objects and used them at the same time (chills, literally chills). If we were certain the Trove was safe with The Night Court, all we had to expect would be an attack from Koschei, probably using Beron (I'll get to that). However, SJM already told us there's another possibility:

"...when I went into the Prison, only three remained. At the time, some claimed there were four, or that the fourth had been Unmade, but today’s legends only tell of three.”

A fourth object lay on the altar, veiled in shadow. But she couldn’t make out more than a gleam of age-worn bone—

“There was a fourth object in the vision, but it was in shadow—was there ever a fourth part of the Trove? All I could make out was a bit of ancient bone.”

At this point, it's clear. The fourth object wasn't Unmade. It's out there somewhere and we will see more of it. Most of us already pointed out that the object was hidden in shadows, which could mean a connection to Koschei or Azriel.

If we consider Azriel (since he has a POV, so it would make sense), he can't find the Trove alone, the same way Cassian couldn't enter the chamber with Nesta. To find the Trove, you need to be Made:

“Made objects tend to not wish to be found by just anyone"

This is another reason why Koschei needed Briallyn: she was Made.

He pointed Briallyn toward the Dread Trove—not for her sake, but for his own ends.

Stopping the villain

If the villain wants some object to spread evil, the heroes have to stop him by finding the object first. Obviously. So someone needs to go look for it. It won't be Azriel alone and it won't be Nesta, because we know she won't be the main character anymore.

So who is the only next person who can find the Trove?

“You,” Amren said quietly, “are the same. So is Elain.”

Elain. With SJM, it's always the female character who moves the plot forward. Not the male.

Like it or don't, the Forth Trove needs to be found and she's the one who will do the job. There's a reason why Elain is the common denominator in both bonus chapters. Both of them are preparing Elain for her arc by: 1) Explicitly saying we haven't seen all she has to offer yet and 2) Preparing the reader for the romantic plot of the next book (that will involve her. Regardless who you ship, Elain is right in the center of that mess. Right now she is Azriel's love interest and Lucien's mate. That is not my opinion, those are facts)

There's another reason why it will be Elain: because we need to see her POV. When Nesta found both, The Mask and The Harp, we didn't see through Cassian's POV. He wasn't even close to the scenes.

So the fourth object won't be found from Azriel's POV, because he is not Made, he can't get close enough. He can help with his shadows, but the Trove will be found and rescued by a Made character.

It can't be found from Nesta or Feyre's either, because we know the next book won't be from their POVs. Amren wasn't Made in the same way, so she can't find it.

Elain is the only character who can and will. This is just textual evidence.

But finding the fourth Trove would be enough to stop Koschei? Probably not. Because we have another object to worry about, one that was presented back in ACOWAR:

"There is an onyx box that he possesses, more vital than anything".

Elain is the one who can see that onyx box using her Seer abilities. Maybe these two objects are connected, maybe not. Either way, Elain is the character who is most connected to both and to the plot right now.

So far, according to ACOSF the main plot is: Koschei is the villain and wants to be free from his lake, therefore he needs the Trove. There is a fourth object of the Trove hidden in shadows and the only person who can find is Elain.

Side note: in the process of finding the forth object, it's very possible that we get "new" plot lines. For example, the Fae people trapped under the Prison. But I will stick with SJM directions at the end on acosf here.

SUBPLOT

(I called "subplot" just for organization, but they are not separate things, one depends on the other)

But things are not that simple. Koschei is still bound to his lake, so he can't just go find the Trove himself. That's why he made an alliance with Bryllian in the first place. It's known then that he needs someone else willing to do his work. Who that person might be?

So far, that person is Beron:

"But with the queens a renewed threat, and Beron in the mix, especially if Koschei is their puppet master, Rhys is perfectly happy to leave it on"

My father is furious that his ally is dead, but he’s not deterred. Koschei remains in play, and Beron might very well be stupid enough to establish an alliance with him, too.

However, Beron is not just a puppet by any means. As a good antagonist, he has something to take from this, his own motivation. He wants to expand his territory.

“So they are trying to find this Dread Trove in order to track down the Cauldron for Briallyn, and likely free Koschei in the process. And launch a war, with Beron as her ally, that would grant them whatever territories they wish. Or give some to Koschei."

It's said Beron doesn't have the military strength alone to conquer another territory, with exception of Spring Court perhaps. So he needs alliances. And he's not the only one who has expansion plans:

I don’t think Vallahan is interested in peace. Or allying with us.”

“So Vallahan wants another war in order to add to their territory?”

Most people are forgetting about Vallahan, which is ruled by a queen. If we still have to deal with the "remained queens", maybe this queen could be a problem, too. I wouldn't be surprised if Beron allied with her to start a war.

Beron is not done. He will try to start a war. It makes sense why the penultimate chapter in ACOSF is about Eris, the Autumn Court heir. In order to deal with Koschei, we have to deal with the Autumn Court situation as well.

That being said, we have a "subplot" here involving the Autumn Court:

Beron can't be trusted;

He wants a war to expand his territory;

We were hinted he can allied with Koschei;

Eris has a deal with the Night Court to dethrone his father;

And Azriel's bonus chapter added the Blood Duel into this equation. Which means, involving the truth about Lucien's real father (here, I really tried to think in a way Lucien could get involved besides the Blood Duel and I couldn't find one, because our fox boy had cut any bond with Autumn Court even before ACOTAR).

That means... Elain is involved here as well. Whatever the direction you want to go, SJM build the next plot as if it is a cobweb around Elain, and we need her to move the plot forward.

Another side note: I know people think that there are other characters that could have a POV because they still have to work on their inner issues (basically any character in these books then). However, there's a bigger plot that can't be paused for one character only deal with that. The plot needs to keep moving forward. Besides, Elain is the only Archeron sister who we haven't seen her inner battle, her struggles, so this argument applies to her as well. Moving on.

So we have Beron, the remained queens, Vallahan and Koschei to worry about. There's no room for an Illyrian plot. SJM changed her mind for a reason: a story located for the most part in the Illyrians' mountains, an isolated place, can't move the plot forward and also because of a war is coming, the Illyrians are essencial (and because she wants the Inner Circle to be there. Also because of the white savior trope, but I will stick to the literary structure in this post).

CHARACTERS' DEVELOPMENT

Following the same line of through, I want to talk about why Azriel won't be involved with the Illyrians, not to help in a conflict. We have seen throughout the books that nothing good could come from Azriel dealing with the Illyrians.

"But they both knew Azriel would sooner disband and destroy Illyria than help it. Convincing their brother that the Illyrians were a people worth saving was still a battle amongst the three of them"

And this is not Cassian and Rhys' opinions only. We have seen this before, many times.

Azriel—Azriel just stared them all down. He had not wanted to come to the camp months ago. Disliked being back here. Hated these people, his heritage. The other lords kept glancing to the shadowsinger in dread and rage and disgust. He only leveled that lethal gaze back at them.

“The Illyrians are pieces of shit,” he said too quietly. I opened my mouth and shut it. Shadows gathered around his wings, trailing off him and onto the thick red rug.

These are just a few examples to say: Azriel dealing with them would be catastrophic. And I don't blame him, because he associates those people with eleven years he spent locked away alone with no light and the time he trained there, when he was a boy who didn't know how to fly, how to fight and the others beat the hell out of him.

His trauma is deep and no, he doesn't need to confront them to heal, to be developed as a character. Feyre didn't have a nice conversation with Tamlin, Rhysand didn't need to face Amarantha.

So far, all SJM characters have healed when sorrounded by people who love them, care for them and help them move on, and if they are main characters, they will heal with help of their love interest. They didn't have to go back and face what hurted them in the past. Examples: Feyre, Rhysand, Nesta, Cassian, Gwyn, Emerie. And on and on.

(I'm not saying all of them are totally healed, but their healing arc has already began)

Besides, I don't think for a second that it's only coincidence the fourth trove is hidden by shadows. Not when we have Azriel's POV, which is an indicator that he'll be one of the main characters.

Therefore, I do believe we are going to see his healing arc next since we got his POV (and boy, he needs one), but Azriel would rather be the Bone Carver's mate than deal with the Illyrians.

Azriel needs to be developed as a character to overcome his self loathing, yes. But that's not the way for him to find happiness, it would only hurt him further. You don't necessarily have to heal in the same environment where you got sick.

[taones]

𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐬 // 𝐊𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢 𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏

Pairing: kyoutani x gender neutral!reader

Notes: Welcome to another multi part series! I hope you guys like it mwah

Warnings - Kyoutani gets mad but not at the reader, nothing much, very main character in a ya novel but it’s cute

“C’mon mad dog it’s not-”

Kyoutani growled, cutting his captain off. He needed to leave and he needed to leave right now. If not, he would end up bouncing the volleyball in his hands off said captain's head. The gym floor squeaked under his heels as he turned and stormed out, ignoring the calls from his team mates.

The grounds of the school were eerily quiet, most people were home or at their own sports clubs so nobody was there to bother Kyoutani as he sped across the courtyard. Did he know where he was going? No. But he knew he had to get away from the concrete walls decorated with posters with messages so positive it made him want to gouge his eyeballs out. 

The gardens. They were calm and nobody had used them in years so he may as well go there just to find some quiet to rage in his own time. Stupid volleyball. Stupid Oikawa. You had to love the mouthy captain but sometimes he got on the wrong side of Kyoutani’s mood and it became too much. Anyone could do it but his captain had a particular talent for grating on his nerves.

The leaves of the rose bushes surrounding the school gardens came into his line of sight and he felt himself relax at the sight. It was amazon what nature could do. If he wasn’t lying, he preferred nature. There was something about the leaves and the dirt that was so unassuming and calming to him. Not to mention the presence of animals. While his favourite was dogs, the sound of birds above him or squirrels shuffling round the trees was delightfully mundane and something even he could appreciate.

The entrance to the gardens was a rusted old gate, around mid-stomach on him. It had obviously been a rather gaudy yellow and he couldn’t say he was mad about the fact it had faded to a more muted, pastel variant of the colour. The blonde couldn’t see much past the sharp turn on bushes but he heard nothing so chose to open the gate anyway. It didn’t creak, almost like it had been recently oiled. 

There was no sound as he walked into the garden apart fro the running water from the pond in the corner. He was shocked at the way it looked however. Flower beds were newly planted, roses growing out of the hedge-fence looked a lot healthier than they did on the outside. There was even growing vegetables on some of the patches and bags of soil leant up against the tree in the corner. The garden had been off limits to everyone since the teacher running the club had retired, nobody had shown any interest in it so it was left bare.

A shuffle caught the blondes attention. He turned, staring towards the tree just in time to catch a glimpse of h/c hair disappearing behind the trunk. 

“Hello?” he grunted, guards now returned. 

You peaked out from behind the tree, eyes widened in slight fear. He recoiled at the sight of you. He knew it was after hours but your uniform was caked in soil and you had too-large gardeners gloves on your hands.

(Pov switch)

You stared, wide eyed, at the boy in front of you. He was wearing the volleyball uniform but you didn’t know anything about the team. The sports teams of the school were uninteresting to you, as were most of the students. This meant you had never quite cared enough to learn the names of who were considered the school's best assets. 

This boy though, he was interesting. You were the only person allowed in the schools garden. You were also one of the only people that knew about it but that was irrelevant. Why was he here? Taking in his strained posture and heavy breathing, you extended an arm of sorts.

“Are you okay?” you asked gently, coming out from behind the tree.

After he saw all of you, he relaxed a little. His eyes were still squinted in caution. You sighed, if he was gonna stay there then you may as well go back to your gardening. The moment you planted yourself next to the flower bed he visibly relaxed.

“Yeah i’m fine” he grunted, “got mad”

You hummed, patting the space next to you on the ground. Obviously, he probably wouldn’t take it but it was worth a try to be accomodating. The blonde boy hadn’t exactly stomped all over the plants so you assumed he had to have some sort of respect for the growth around you.

To your surprise, he sat down. Not next to you but around a metre away, on the corner of the flower bed. You saw him run his fingers across the top of the daisies on the grass and close his eyes.

Pausing, you stared at the boy who was breathing in deep breaths of the air around him as if he’d been starved of it. The air was different here, not as stuffy as the rest of the school. It seemed like the first time he had been truly calm in a while. Knuckles that were covered in scars danced gently across the grass and petals of the porcelain flowers. The creases that were in his eyebrows smoothed out and you could see the boy’s face, free of the stress. You knew the girls in your school were crazy about the captain of the volleyball team but you think this boy was just as gorgeous.

“So,” you began, “I’m y/n”

He grunted, shifted out of his daydream.

“Kyoutani Kentarou” 

You smiled. Despite answering you, he had yet to open his eyes and was still gently stroking the daisies.

“You seem to like the daisies” you muse, determined to get more than a word out of him.

“They’re nice” he said, “they’re kind of a weed, grow where they're not wanted. But people like them anyway, unlike dandelions.”

Your smile dropped into a look of sympathy.

“Personally, i think dandelions are beautiful” you replied, “it’s why i don’t pull them up”

You gestured around the garden, which was really more of a field. There were dandelions everywhere, accentuating the bright colours of the garden.

“Even if some people don’t like them, I do.  They grow through concrete and shit you know? I admire that”

He grunted again but cracked open an eye again to look at you while you were talking. This was progress.

“I would offer to let you help” you say, standing up.

“However, i think your practice just finished and i’d prefer to keep this place to myself… and you i guess”

He looked up at you, muttering a small apology.

“Hey it’s fine, you’re not so bad Kentarou. I wouldn’t mind you helping me out”

He smirked a bit at that, eyes following your figure as you disappear round the rose bush. A trail of soil followed you, falling off your clothes as you walked. 

It seems he would have to come back.

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