#NOT BELLE MAKING IT TO THE TOP 4 WITHIN JUST 2 MONTHS AFTER ME WATCHING THE MOVIE

[gyubby99]

MY SPOTIFY WRAPPED HELLOOOOOOOO???

[bullet-clubs-bitch]

The Secret's Out Pt 3

Summary: Y/n makes the tough decision to relinquish her title. Fast forward 4 months when Y/n and Christian attend AEW’s yearly New Years party after keeping the pregnancy a secret. What happens when LuFisto shows up and promises to ruin Y/n’s life. 

Word count: 1,882

*Warnings, swearing, stalking, crazy LuFisto* (Y/W/N means ‘your wrestling name’) 

Main Masterlist Christian Cage Masterlist

Part 1 Part 2 Part 4

Wednesday had finally came and I sat with Tony to discuss what our next plan was. He was obviously very happy for me and was understanding when I told him that I would need to relinquish the title. Since I was only a few weeks pregnant and wanted to try and keep my pregnancy under the radar for the moment we decided to play with the injury to my shoulder and relinquish the belt. I filmed a couple different promos all saying that I would have to relinquish the title. Within the promo I wore low waisted bell bottom jeans, a white crop top and some shades. I chose the outfit exposing my stomach because I knew there would be at least one person who would think I was relinquishing the title because I was pregnant. Although that was true and I had literally wrestled just a week prior to finding out the fans didn’t need to know that. I didn’t look pregnant and fans already knew about the injury so it’s not like I was completely lying to them. We just simply milked the shoulder injury, that's all. 

The plan for this week was for Renee to try and ask me about how I was doing with my injury and I told her I didn’t want to talk about it. So it was revealed that next week I would be having an interview with her explaining my status. Which was the promo interview we filmed earlier on today. 

I knew that soon enough people would start asking questions. Some of the talent knew about the baby but others didn’t. That being said those who didn’t know offered sympathy for the title needing to be relinquished which was quite annoying. The fakeness so evident, “Oh Y/n I’m so sorry about your shoulder” No you weren't, you are probably happy that there will be a new champ in town. 

***

This week had definitely been a weird one. Like planned, the backstage interview with Renee was aired this week on Dynamite. It felt weird, sitting at home watching it on tv not knowing if I was making the right decision. I had been advised to stay off social media for a few days by my friends. I had been stressed and sick for the past few days and didn’t need anymore stress. But the thing is it was boring, I was bored at home so obviously I looked. About 90% of the comments were positive, fans wishing me a speedy recovery and love. The other 10% was basically LuFisto and any other people she made believe I was still the bad guy here. 

“I am so happy she is no longer the champ! She was an eyesore to see on tv. She deserved the injury she got” Those were some of the comments LuFisto left. Girl was on cloud 9 after finding out about my injury. I honestly found it quite funny. 

Other than wrestling drama Christian and I went to our first doctor's appointment, Like promised he was going to be there for every second of it. Since he had already done this once before he was more calm than I was. I was nervous but everything went well. The doctor told me that I was 6 weeks pregnant, I explained that I had my last match 3 weeks ago and the doctor said the baby was completely healthy. That was my biggest concern, I was worried since I had still been wrestling and training not knowing I was pregnant. At the appointment I also found out what caused the pregnancy in the first place. It turned out that the prescription I was on for my shoulder injury had canceled out my birth control. I didn’t even know that was possible but it made sense because I was taking my birth control religiously. When you are not using contraception and are in a relationship with a freak like Christian Cage, getting pregnant can happen very easily. In fact 7 weeks with my birth control not being effective would do the trick. 

******

Four long months had passed since I had to relinquish my title. I was now five months pregnant and was visibly showing. The winter months had allowed me to get away with my growing bump. Sweaters and jackets helped me to get around unnoticed but now I was tired of keeping it a secret. Within the months we told our friends and family, all of which were happy for us. I spent most days at home with Isla who was excited to be a big sister even with the 10 year age gap. Tonight was a new years party for AEW and the first time I would be showing off my bump. “Are you ready to go?” Christian yelled from across the hall. I was struggling to get my boots on with the growing bump in the way. “Almost, just give me a minute” being pregnant was a lot of work. Craving weird combinations and the constant sickness was exhausting. Luckily I had Christian by my side who was willing to go to the store late at night for my insane requests. 

“Do you need some help?” Christian asked me as he came to see what was taking me so long, finding me struggling with the boots. “Yes please” He bent down and gently slid the knee high boots on,  placing a delicate kiss to my thigh before zipping them up. “What would I do without you?” “Well for starters you wouldn't be pregnant and would still have your title” “Are you being serious right now?” That was not funny

As Christian and I approached the venue I grew anxious, there would be media at the event and I already knew what people would be saying about me behind my back. “Hey, there is nothing to be worried about, alright. I am not going anywhere. I will be by your side for the whole night.     If anyone even dares to try anything-” “Christian” I cut him off, he knew I was nervous and although he would never admit it I knew he was too. I remember the hate we got when people found out about Christian and I dating, so I could only imagine what it would be like when they found out I was pregnant with his child. 

Christian wore a gorgeous black suit to the event and I wore a black knit dress that hugged my curves perfectly, along with velvet knee high boots. As we entered the venue we were greeted with black and gold decorations. The entrance had a big foyer which had big mirrors. Somehow I convinced Christian to take a photo with me. I took the mirror picture with Christian behind me, one hand on my bump and the other on my ass. I took the image and posted it on instagram with the caption ‘Mum and Dad’, I wanted the world to see my post before the ones from the media outlets. With that I turned off my phone wanting to enjoy the evening with Christian. 

When we exited the foyer into the main building where the party was being held I could feel heads turn. Many shocked faces, it was making me uncomfortable but I promised myself I would stay for the whole event even if I felt like I was not welcome. “Ahh, I can’t believe you’re here” Of course Kris was the first to greet us at the party. “I can feel the stares” I told her. “Well I mean you disappeared for 5 months and showed up pregnant” She was right, only our close friends and family knew so obviously people would be shocked. 

Many wrestlers came up to me congratulating me with the pregnancy. They all seemed to be happy for me or at least they pretended to be. Eddie Kingston had been upset that I did not tell him I was pregnant. Although he’s great, the guy can’t keep a secret. Christian and I spent some time chatting with our friends and trying the many treats they had before the hard part, the media. As promised Christian didn’t leave my side, we had taken many pictures with everyone before needing to do interviews. Most of the reporters were rude, asking inappropriate questions that made Christian and I uncomfortable. Christian answered the majority of the questions while I tried my best not to lose it. Pregnancy makes you very hormonal and I was trying to not let it win. “So Y/w/n” I had zoned out “You are pregnant, what does this mean for your career?” That was the 5th time tonight a reporter asked me that question “Well, just because I am having a kid it doesn’t mean I’m done with wrestling. I am planning to return to the ring as soon as possible and become a 3X ROH world champion” Just as I began to say something else I felt my stomach drop. I watched LuFisto start walking towards me. “How is she here?” I turned to Christian to make sure he was seeing what I was seeing and boy did he see it. “Get behind me!” Christian told me as I watched LuFisto charge at me. What was that woman’s problem, she was screaming and yelling at everyone that stood between us. “I am going to make your life mistable Y/n. You ruined my life so I am going to end you” I didn’t even know what to say. This girl had serious issues and I honestly felt sorry for her. 

I stood behind Christian as I watched the crazed woman get escorted by security out of the building. Soon after Christian and I left the event. When we got home I broke down, crying into Christians arms. I just didn’t get it, even though I was one of the biggest heels in AEW I was a nice person in real life and everyone knew what. It had been almost a year since LuFisto had been released by AEW and she still hated me. 

****

It had been a few days since the incident at the new years party. The media always had made things worse but for once it was playing in my favor. The video of LuFisto trying to attack a heavily pregnant woman had gone viral. Christian and I were one of the biggest couples in pro wrestling and people could see how genuinely happy we were with each other. People felt bad for the hate and soon enough LuFisto would get blacklisted from several other promotions after news came out about her attacking people at a local indie show. 

This whole situation had been stressing me out, I woke up in the night in a cold sweat. Nightmares disturbing my much needed sleep, I was anxious all the time. Scared to be left alone, scared someone would break in and try to hurt my babies. All of this had become too much to handle and soon enough Christian would flip. He was tired of it and didn’t care if it ruined his ‘character’ he wanted to set things straight. I knew he was mad but I didn’t realize just how bad it was until it happened. My worst nightmare came true…..

[nobodyatall6]

Rings, Part 4

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

“I’m a weak man.”

“That’s an interesting way of pronouncing ‘serial adulterer’.”

Don found some balled up socks on the floor and chucked them at Nina, who dodged easily.

“Shut up. This is serious.”

“Why do you want to marry her anyway? She seems like a drip to me.”

“I love her.”

Nina cocked her head and squinted at him, considering.

“I think I do believe you,” she said after a moment. “But only because you love anyone who lets you put your tongue in their mouth.”

He looked around for more socks to throw at her, but there wasn’t anything within arm’s reach.

“But that doesn’t mean you have to marry her,” Nina continued. “Is it the money? You gonna quit the hospital and become a house husband in that big haunted mansion?”

That thought honestly hadn’t occurred to Don. In fairness, almost nothing about After had occurred to him. He never really made a habit of thinking beyond the present moment.

“It just…seemed like the thing to do,” he muttered, finally.

Years ago he had taken Nina to a carnival, because that seemed like the sort of thing people do, taking their girl to the fun fair and winning her a big stuffed bear or something. But he hadn’t been able to ring the bell on the test-your-strength machine. He had been embarrassed, but she had taken the mallet from him and told him it wasn’t about strength, it was about accuracy. The closer you hit to the middle of the button, the higher you go.

CLANG! Straight to the center. Right in the heart. She hit it every time.

“But I mean, christ. Monday? That’s soon.”

“I didn’t know about that part when I proposed,” he grumbled. “I thought it would take, like, ages. People take months to even set a date. Pick out, fuckin’…table settings. Rich people especially.”

“Ohhh, I see now,” Nina said, arching her back languidly over the arm of the couch. Don watched her tank top wrinkle over the curves of her body. No matter how many times she did that, it was still sexy.

“You thought you’d end up in a perpetually-engaged, wedding-planning limbo where you wouldn’t have to make any decisions, would keep her happy by saying yes to everything she wanted, and could just keep things the way they were for ages.”

“But you didn’t count on the power of Daddy’s old-country Catholicism and now you’re getting married in two days and you’re panicking because everything is supposed to change and you can’t even stop yourself from boning your cleaner.”

CLANG! Straight to the center. Right in the heart. She hit it every time.

He did his best to snort derisively. “Oh, piss off, Sigmund Freud. You’re just jealous that I found someone who isn’t you.”

She smirked and rolled off the couch. “I have no reason to be jealous when it comes to you, Don Lothario.”

“You’ll never change.”

[micalpixel]

May Flowers Game - July 2024 Progress Report

Another month has passed, so it's time for another update!

(Prior Updates: June, May, Initial) Oh my gosh, three months since I set out to finish a game??!! How how how howwwwwwwwww??? Where is my life going??!!!

I mean.... 😅 I'm proud of these three months. Each finished thing I've put out there was built upon all the previous ones, and has been one step closer to the final goal. Three months ago, the protagonist didn't even exist, in any form, even mentally. Now it's starting to resemble a real game. (I do want to post more screenshots in the future though! Once I get to work on graphics again. Maybe even videos?)

Games Beaten This Month

(which I've taken notes on)

Kena: Bridge of Spirits - This game just looks so amazing. There's a major focus on boss battles which I think is reminiscent of Dark Souls, which I haven't played. But I can see the appeal.

The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls - An old Game Boy game to help get me re-acquainted with the system. It's a very lighthearted and humorous game, made by Nintendo. In fact, it was made by the game team who would later make The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and is where said game's Prince Richard originated from. You may also have seen the protagonist of this game in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. It is a grayscale game. But if you can look past that, it's a very fun little game, which in many ways is actually a parody of Zelda games.

OneShot - Haven't played it yet!! Haven't forgotten!! I WILL play this.

Prototype #1

Back around June 20, after doing all that games research, I put together a document called "Prototype #1." It was a wishlist of features I wanted to complete for the game. Things I KNEW it would need. Things like (but in more detail than here):

Player's abilities/main items and their effects (top priority)

Main kinds of terrain and their effects.

Various menus (including a debug menu)

Inventory system, money, game flags

Maps, moving from one screen to the other

Ability to have NPCs, dialogue boxes, and cutscene events.

That last bullet was shown off in this piece from earlier this month. The game's cutscene engine is quite powerful now:

And I'm happy to report, that all of the wishlist items for Prototype #1 were implemented as of July 20! ...except for two:

Make one simple song.

Make least 5 Sound effects, especially for text, jumping.

Music and Sound

I really wanted to finish this checklist in July. That gave me 11 days to figure out what the heck to do for music and sound. 😭 Since the game's art style is based on the Game Boy Color, I planned to use a VST plugin in FL Studio capable of mimicking its sound, for everything. And I spent 4 days learning and studying for it. But...it has limitations. Which the Game Boy itself didn't have. That didn't sit well with me. There is a Game Boy music sequencer called LSDj (Little Sound Dj). Unlike a VST plugin, it is actual Game Boy software. It runs on a Game Boy (or emulator). And...it's powerful. Very powerful. Check it out on YouTube and see what people are making with it. And it IS accurate Game Boy sound because it is ACTUALLY running on a Game Boy. Here's what a music score with 8 notes looks like in it:

So...I tried it. And...it was very easy to learn. 🥰I studied the waveforms it generated, and those from actual Game Boy games. I examined unofficial source code of several games to learn how they created music. And within 2 days, I'd managed to re-create a well known song from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Mabe Village, using LSDj. I chose this song because it uses the system's two pulse sound channels. Which is about as simple as a Game Boy song can get. LSDj delivered! My ear cannot tell the difference between the original and the recreation. Here's what the original sounds like:

So...technically the Prototype 1 doc didn't say I had to make a *new* song. Just a "simple song." So, re-creating an existing one technically counts, right? Even though I cannot use it in my own game for legal reasons?😅 Well, either way, this was a very new, and successful learning experience. I feel like I've earned a check mark. So, mission complete! Oh, I also needed to make five sound effects. Messed around some more in LSDj, and done.

Other sound stuff:

I wrote a small program that can take any sound sample and convert it into a waveform that the Game Boy can play back (using its Wave audio channel).

I learned how to take a recording of myself humming, and turn it into an actual musical score that could be played with an instrument. (Fl Studio -> Edison Plugin -> Paste Audio -> Tools -> Convert to Piano Score). This will make it MUCH easier to write music than by entering each note by hand. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good.

And with that, Prototype #1 is complete! So, I think I'm going to use LSDj for 100% of the game's audio. ^^

Other Stuff This Month

The main abilities that the player will have are basically complete. They have very tight synergy. However:

Character animations will be 4-directional only, not 8-directional. The diagonal-facing animations will be removed. The reason is, for a puzzle game, it's much harder for a player to line things up if the character can face diagonally. This is why most 2D games don't have diagonal-facing characters. They look nice. But they will cause frustration for the player if they cause the player to miss their targets when aiming.

Running animations will probably be removed. I love how they turned out. But "running" doesn't add enough to justify its existence. The core gameplay just...evolved in a different direction. Running lacks synergy with the rest of the player's abilities. The world won't be so massive that fast movement will be needed.And running would require an extra button to use. The other core abilities use just two buttons. Making the player learn to use a third button that doesn't do much is poor design.

I am trying to limit the scope of this game. So many ideas. Too many. I have to draw the line somewhere or the game will never be finished. A lot of ideas have been shelved for later. So...I have spent some time considering how to use those ideas. Maybe in a sequel?

But really, what's next for August?

So far it's been:

May: Initial designs and game concept

June: Playing and researching other games

July: Finish Prototype #1

And August? Probably fleshing out the game world. In any game, the player's abilities impact EVERYTHING. The world must be designed around what the player can do. Same with all its puzzles. And its main quest, sidequests, story, etc. And also, environmental objects which have synergy with the player's abilities.

This is why the player's abilities were the top priority for Prototype #1. Now that they're finalized (hopefully), all these other elements can be worked on in earnest.

Thank you again for following my progress! See you next month!

[mactavishwritings]

Fresh Ink

Ghost x Tattoo Artist!Reader

fluff mainly. this may end up becoming multiple parts. I'm not sure yet

you become ghost’s artist and therapist in a way

tw: tattoo needles, retelling of injuries

part one | part two | part three | part four

Being the only tattoo shop within a 10 mile radius of a military base, you’ve seen it all. New recruits who just finished basic wanting to celebrate. Veterans wanting to honor their comrades. Drunk soldiers who’ve lost bets. Soldiers about to be shipped off on suicide missions wanting a way, some way, to be identified.

You’ve seen everything and you did your best to honor each story to the best of your ability. You’ve held the hands of soldiers who would go out and recommend your shop to others, telling them that you were safe and would honor them.

As you set up shop for the day, you looked over your appointment book. You mainly took appointments, but would sometimes take walk-ins. Today, you had a three appointments pretty spaced out so you decided to take a couple walk-ins. You posted on your shop’s social media accounts that you would talk two walk-in and started to sketch your first appointment’s tattoo.

You got pretty far into the tattoo when you heard the bell chime. “Hey, welcome to Dead Shot Ink. My name is (Y/N). How can I help you?” You looked up and saw a man standing in a balaclava mask. You raised an eye brow at him and looked him over. No ink.

“My friend said you tattoo?” A rough british voice came from under the mask and you nodded. “Yeah. The masks stays on, I'm guessing?” He nodded in return, tensing up.

“No worries. I do have a private room if you need it. What’s your name? I’m guessing you want to take one of the walk-ups?” You grabbed your appointment book. He nodded and pulled out his phone. “I'm Ghost. You did my friend, John Price, his tattoo a few months back and he recommended I check out your page. I’ve been meaning to make an appointment, but then I saw you’re talking walk-ins today…”

The name he gave you, John Price, sounded familiar. You nodded along to his words and guided him back to your room. You wrote his name down under your 11:00 spot and had him sit on your tattoo chair. It was a pretty small tattoo parlor since you had just opened, but you were trying to hire more artist.

“So, I do have an appointment coming in at 2. It’s about 11 now so that give us a little under 4 hours. What did you have in mind and where did you want it?” You sat down on your roller chair and grabbed your tablet.

"I'm not really sure. I know you do a lot of like soldier tattoos." Ghost said and he started picking at the skin on his thumb. You forward and gently placed your hand on top of his. "Let me grab something that may help." You stood and quickly walked back to the front of the shop. You grabbed your flash book and brought it back to Ghost.

"Here this may help you decide. What we can do is pick something you like and customize it to your story." You handed him your book and sat back down. Ghost slowly started flipping through the book before settling on a pair of dog tags. You nodded and started drawing.

Soon the stencil was on, dry, and you were ready to go. Ghost was laying back in the chair and you pulled your hair up. "Any particular music you want?" He looked at you for a moment before requesting whatever you wanted. You smiled before putting on (your fav artist). You pushed your sleeves up and got to work.

Every few minutes, you would check in with Ghost. You had your free hand was resting on his bicep since the dog tags were going on his inner forearm close to his elbow. You were on his side, listening and watching for any discomfort. You nodded along to the music and smiled at the tattoo. It was going good and Ghost seemed to like it.

After you finished, you wiped it down and had him look at it in the full body mirror. While you couldn't see his full face, you could see his eyes crinkle into a smile.

-

It had been about 5 months since you had first tattooed Ghost. He would come in every time you posted about taking a walk-in. You were slowly building a half-sleeve for him that was coming together very nicely. He would sometimes come in with new scars or injuries. Never on the side of your tattoos.

"How come you never get hurt on this side?" You asked casually, half way through the next piece. You were slowly getting him to talk to you. "I don't want to ruin your art." He answer oh so casually. You felt your heart skip and your face flushed. "It's art work. You put a lot of time and work into it." He looked down at the other pieces you had done.

"Makes sense." You nodded, your focus shifting back onto the tattoo. Your eyes shifted to the newest scar, "How'd that one happen? Am I going to be turning it into art soon?" You smiled up at him and he chuckled a little.

"Maybe. We'll see how this mission finishes out. I'm lucky I got these three days. This one was a knife fight. Got a little clumsy. You should see the other guy." He smiled. You felt proud that he was opening up to you. As a tattoo artist for soldiers, you had heard tons of mission stories. Ghost's stories were always intense, but told casually as if he had just gone to the grocery store.

"A knife fight? Seems intense. Looks like you won, though. You'll have to teach me." You smiled, dragging the needle down, making a straight line to finish the piece. "All done, Ghost! Go take a peek." You said, wiping away any excess ink.

"Simon...I'm Simon." He said as he walked towards the mirror, not facing you. You smiled and nodded. "Noted. Whatca think? This one pretty much finishes up the half-sleeve. After this, we could go up the arm for a full." You came up behind his hulking figure and showed him what you meant, moving his arm around.

Simon shivered at your touch. He looked over your hands, stained with dried tattoo ink. You arms were covered in your own tattoos. Your nails were painted black and pointed to the uncovered skin on his upper arm. You always worn dark colors, letting the attention fall on your tattoos. Your hair was pulled back and out of your face, but Ghost knew it was soft from the couple of times it touched his arms.

"I like it. I think after this mission we can complete it. Full sleeve sounds nice." Simon whispered, suddenly feeling the closeness between you two. "Thank you. Thank you for being so gentle with me." He looked up at you through the mirror and you nodded.

"Of course. You face so much hardship. You know my shop will always be open for you." You leaned your head against his shoulder and pulled back. "Let me get you wrapped up and you'll be all set." You grabbed your wrapping and wrapped up his fresh ink.

Months had gone by and you hadn't heard from Simon. You had finally gotten enough money to hire a receptionist and it made your life a million times easier. You walked into the shop and your receptionist greeted you warmly. "Morning (Y/N)!"

"Morning Emma! Can I see my book? I wanna see what I have over the next few days, got a client blowin' up my phone." You laughed as she handed you the book. "Oh! Speaking of, you had a call last night. Said you knew him and wanted to make an appointment so I book him for a couple weeks out. He said you would know what he wants. Sounds either crazy hot or crazy mean." Emma winked and you rolled your eyes. "He's booked for the 26th."

You flipped to that day and your smiled brightly. "He's the crazy hot."

Simon Riley.

-

part two?

[thora-jane]

Take My Hand (Shang Chi x female!Reader)

THIS WAS AN ASK FROM @aliiiyyaaah so here you go lovely I hope you enjoy!

Taglist: @aliiiyyaaah @superblyspeedydragon @bamboozledflamplant

If I left you out of the taglist lmk!

Ask:i dk what i want exactly but obviously it’s shang chi x reader😹😹 ummm just super fluffy i guess like obviously they not friends since forever but what like maybe 2-4 years ? and it could be a movie plot or just a general fluff But CAN YOU INCLUDR A PART WHERE HE HUGS HER FROM BEHIND??😹if that’s okay?

Summary: Karaoke Night takes a turn when you and Shang Chi find each other connecting on a more physical level

Word count: 1,578

Warning: Ain't nothin but some fluffy ending, you lovely little simps.

There are some rituals society doesn’t question, like school bells or religious services or even simply society itself. Among your group, Friday Night Karaoke was at the top of this list. It wasn’t just a ritual, it was a sacred ritual. Sure, it was never said aloud, but no matter what was going on around 8 o’clock on any given Friday evening, you all seemed to have one thing on your mind.

“You think you got it! Oh! You think you got it!” Katy was singing at the top of her lungs, jumping up and down to ‘Hey Ya’ before downing another shot with Shang-Chi.

Shang-Chi you repeated in your head. After being informed of what happened the month before, you were making an effort to call him by his actual name. Honestly, it was getting impossible to not think about him constantly. Yeah, he was your friend. But friendship didn’t stop you from hopelessly falling for him for the past...three years? God, you were hopelessly in love with this man. Whether or not he could save the world made no difference to you, it made no difference that you had watched him summon a dragon or take on assassins or defeat a massive soul-sucking monster, he had always been the same man you had fallen in love with. You swear, you would do anything for this man.

Apparently, in this moment, it meant getting up on the tiny stage next to Katy.

“C’moooon! It’ll be great!” He said with a lopsided smile as he elbowed you.

“Already? Shang Chi I think it’s your turn-”

“I’ll go next just go!” he assured, ruffling your hair.

“And like, I’ll take the rap parts so you barely have to do anything,” Katy added, grabbing your hand and pulling you out from under his touch. Before the music started you thought you heard her whisper “besides, you probably have someone in mind for this song anyway.”

You weren’t sure whether to smile or groan when the song started, but you held the mic up to your mouth and started singing anyway.

“Whatta man whatta man whatta man whatta mighty good man.” It didn’t take you long to start half-dancing with Katy as she started rapping, adding your ‘ooh’s in a little off-beat. It was when you looked up and saw Shang Chi that your heart melted again. There he was, standing over to the side, swaying and waving his arms shamelessly to hype you two up. The music was loud, but you could tell he was singing along with you at maximum volume.

After a few minutes, the song came to a close, and you and Katy stepped off stage, but not before you handed your mic over to Shang Chi, “Knock’em dead, bus boy,” you said with a smile as he took the mic in his hand. You weren’t, however, expecting him to wrap his arms around your waist, gently pulling your back to his chest as he chuckled.

“With pleasure.”

You sat back down on the couch, heart pounding and head not fully understanding what went down. You felt his breath on your neck and could feel the warmth through his shirt.

That just happened.

He took his place on the stage, you and Katy sitting on the beaten old couch that probably had at least a dozen drinks spilled on it at some point, and waited for him to start singing.

You were expecting some corny 90’s song, as that was the apparent theme of the night. Something you and Katy could scream along with from the couch, something light and funny. But from the speakers came a soft piano instrumental and your breath hitched as he began to sing.

“Wise men say, only fools rush in.” You couldn’t recall if you’d ever heard him sing seriously before. Up until that moment, it had always been casual singing filled with giggles and funny faces. But his face seemed to soften and his voice felt rich and deep, “But I can’t help falling in love with you.”

“Like a river flows, surely to the sea, darling so it goes, some things are meant to be,” Heat crept up on your face, leaning forward slightly on the couch and straightening your posture. You were positively captivated by his voice, ignoring Katy’s chuckle and jabbing from her elbow.

“Take my hand. Take my whole life too,” he began to step forward slowly, past the speaker, off the stage, over to the couch.

Right in front of you, he got down on his knee and took your hand in his, his voice shaking with vibrato, or maybe even nerves “For I can’t help falling in love with you.” As the song ended, your heart froze and you watched as he gently raised your hand to his lips.

A moment passed between you, Shang Chi turned red and chuckled as he got up again, bringing the mic back up to the stage. Katy stood up, all wild applause and wolf whistles, but you remained seated, hand frozen where he left it in your lap. While Katy clapped him on the back and he shrugged off her compliments on his singing, it occurred to you that it may have been nothing more than a performance. You felt something in your heart tense up, and your stomach churned as you realized Shang Chi wasn’t looking back at you at all. It probably was just a little gag at the moment, but that didn’t mean it didn’t mean the world to you.

You looked down at where he had kissed your hand, not finding it within yourself to get up from the couch. It was then that you felt the cushion dip beside you and the brush of an arm draping against the back of the couch.

“Hey uh...We were gonna head out. Katy said I might have gotten her too strong a drink- I mean she was drinking on an empty stomach or-”

“We all got pizza right before this though?” you interrupted, still looking down at your hands with purpose.

“Oh well my metabolism,” Katy began, plopping down at your other side, “Lightening fast. It’s unbelievable. Food just goes zooming and then alcohol just sits there. It’s crazy.” She reasoned with confidence that you thought felt a little over-preformed.

“Right, we were gonna head out, and like...I could walk you home?” Shang Chi asked, standing up and holding out his hand.

You took his hand, but only briefly, not wanting to get your hopes up again.

Katy had made it home, and you and Shang Chi walked the quieter late-night streets of San Fransisco. A gentle breeze began to blow, and you felt a shiver creep in your shoulders through your tshirt, “Oh here let me-” Shang Chi began, shrugging off his jacket and wrapping it around your shoulders, hesitantly keeping his arms wrapped around you.

You spoke softly, not shying from his touch but still unable to look him in the face, “Shang Chi, you’re the truest gentleman I’ve ever met,” You smiled, and he wrapped his arms around your shoulders, briefly tucking his chin in the crook of your neck.

“I just don’t want you to catch a chill,” he reassured, rubbing your arms.

“What’s got you acting like this?” You asked voice laced with genuine curiosity as you finally looked at him, suddenly aware of the proximity your faces had.

“Well…” he began, eyes locked with yours purposefully, “I just figure that...well at karaoke…(y/n) I’ve been meaning to say for a while that…” He continued to interrupt himself and trail on for nearly a minute before saying a complete phrase, “You didn’t take your hand from me.”

“No,” you blinked, “No, I didn’t,”

“Why not?” he asked, his eyes soft and searching.

“Because I liked it where it was,” you whispered.

“You did?” his eyes lit up with something, but you couldn’t quite tell what. Gently, he took your face in his hands, “Do you...do you like your face where it is?”

Your gulped, fairly certain that he could hear your heart pounding, “Yes.”

His eyes flickered to your lips, and oh-so-gently, he leaned down and closed the gap between the two of you.

You felt the prickle of his stubble under your nose. His breath smelled lightly of alcohol and his hands were intoxicating as he gently ran his fingertip under your ear back and forth. Your hands carefully found the hairline of his neck, entwining your fingertips in his hair and melting at the gentle sigh he breathed to your lips.

He pressed his forehead to yours, eyes still closed, “Did you..like where your face was at?”

You brought his face to yours again, softly planting your lips on his. This time his hands carefully moved down to your waist and rested on the small of your back, pulling you closer and hugging you tight when your lips broke off again.

“(y/n)?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you...feel the way I feel? Like am I crazy or is this actually happening?” He asked, and you could practically hear the nervous smile on his face.

“I mean personally I was hoping this was real,” you smiled, letting out a chuckle for the first time in a while that evening.

“It is real,” he assured the two of you, “I know it is.”

“If you say so, handsome,” You smiled.

“Oh, I say so.”

[winchesterxxi]

Two Left Feet (Din Djarin x Reader)

Rating: G ( General Audiences )

Type: Fluff

Summary: “Din wakes up just to find reader and Grogu dancing around and that goes on almost everyday since she joined them and Din seems to get used to it, but after a really hard day, reader suggests dancing with Din for the first time and he's not quite the dancer type.”

Word Count: 1.6k (short but sweet, I promise)

Warnings: Non-canonical music (for the sake of working well with the story); teaching someone with absolutely no rhythm how to dance (all my fellow dancers know the pain, and yes it is a warning)

A/N: For the sake of rhythm and story pretend the songs I’m referring to, in order, are (1) Rasputin by Boney M. (2) Tusk by Fleetwood Mac (3) Club Tropicana by Wham! (4) Moon Song by Phoebe Bridgers

MASTERPOST | REQUEST HERE | KO-FI

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Din was a fan of routine.

He was a man that liked peace and quiet, to lead his life with the schedule that he pleases, not having to attend to anyone else.

But the galaxy just told him no.

At first, his life was disrupted by what was by now his protegée, despite everyone calling him his son, that little green ball, over a decade older than him, Grogu.

Then, you came. It’s not that you disrupted his life per se, on the contrary, you were his salvation when it came to managing between taking care of Grogu and going on dangerous missions or fighting the Empire. But he soon found out that the peace and quiet that he had instilled in his clan of two was not going to be kept long with the clan of three. 

You had a thing for the kid, a deep affection, a motherly love, if you will. Taking care of most of the mundane tasks like bathing and feeding him but the little ball really started reaching out for you more than Din because, on the particular case of your little group, it was the mom that meant fun and the dad that meant business.

Grogu loved how you would play music through the ship when Din was away, having little dance parties with him, as he sways between his tiny legs to the beat of the music.

Whenever night time came around or Din was with you, you tended to not want to disturb him as much, so you would just hum along some tunes to entertain the kid. He was particularly fond of this one tune (1) where he could clap along, giggling at the silly dance you would make.

At first, Din was not amused by it. As said before, he was a man that enjoyed peace and quiet but seeing the joy that you brought to the kid, who previously only had a little ball to entertain himself, slowly but surely started to soften his heart over time.

This one morning, stationed in some random planet after a long mission, he slid out of his cot, fully armored headed towards the sound of a rhythmic thump coming from the main deck of the ship. 

It wasn’t the first time that he would wake up to the beat of a song and even though he couldn’t bring himself to admit it out loud, he preferred it a thousand times to the sound of the cockpit signals going off.

Walking towards the source of the sound (2), as it became more clear,  Din leaned against the door frame as soon as he spotted the scene unfolding in front of him: you shaking your hips side to side, slightly bent down so that you could grab Grogu’s little hands, the kid laughing out loud as the two of you moved to the beat.

Noticing Din close to you Grogu coos at him, extending his hand in his direction and making grabby movements.

Looking up, you straighten your bag dancing up to where he was, maintaining your eyes fixed on the T-shaped helmet on the beskar helmet.

“Come on, old man. Join us!” You tug at his arm but he just stands straighter, reaching his full height, arms still crossed across his chest.

“I don’t dance.” his voice rumbles through the modulator. You just continue to sway your hips and move your shoulders next to him trying to at least get a small shuffle in his weight out of him, but he remains undefeated.

Just as you were about to pull him harder in your direction, the lights in the distant cockpit go off and a deafening beeping fills the Razor Crest. Din stomps past you and rushes to the panel.

“Saved by the bell.” you mutter under your breath, before pausing the music and rushing to the seat by his side, getting ready to co-pilot, not before grabbing the kid and buckling him up to your lap.

The perks of being a foundling, you ask?

People feed you, bathe you, carry you on their laps and most importantly, you don’t need to actively engage on any sort of physical activity that might reveal itself to be exhausting, say a bounty hunt.

The kid was insufferable.

It was stark dark outside of the ship and you had already tried to put him down to sleep about three times, but every single time he would just refuse to close his eyes, making sure to display his reservoir of unused energy.

If it’s tired that you need to be, it’s tired that I’m going to make you, You think to yourself.

Settling him down on the ground, your fingers reach for the control panel of the lower deck tapping in a few times before a tune (3) starts fluttering out of the rusty speakers.

The kid’s ears perked up in a flash as he giggled and started shaking to the sound of the music in the middle of the room.

You shake your head down at him, before climbing up the ladder that accessed the top deck, adjacent to the cockpit, dangling your legs from the edge, allowing you to not only keep an eye on Grogu but to also be within Din’s reach, would he need something.

You were floating through hyperspace, only the stars lighting where you sat, Din just a few feet to your right, sitting at the pilot’s chair.

“Are all kids like this?” you ask him breaking the silence, as the music below you sounded quite distant.

He turns his chair to face you, leaning against its back.

“How would I know?” he questions.

“Oh, right. Stupid question.” You laugh and shake your head down, checking on the kid, but Din maintains his eyes trained on you from under the beskar. “Next time you’re the one dancing with him to exhaustion.”

“I piratically have two left feet. That’s not happening.”

“Was that a joke?” You ask mockingly and he chuckles.

It isn’t until you beckon him closer with your finger that he moves, cautiously walking to where you sat, following your gaze and looking down at the kid who had seemingly fallen asleep from exhaustion on the floor, curled up on himself.

You both chuckle at the same time,  unconsciously looking at each other only to avert your gazes as soon as your eyes met.

“I-...I’m going to put the kid down.” You avert his gaze as your cheeks were flaring up, quickly descending the ladder and picking the kid up, walking towards his improvised crib.

A few minutes later, you emerged from the bottom deck, sliding the access to the ladder closed, only to be met with Din’s right side facing you, the pilot seat facing the side of the ship. His legs crossed in front of him and his hands tucked underneath him as his arms formed an x against his chest.

This was the typical position which he used to fall asleep on the cockpit but you knew by the way his head was positioned that he wasn’t actually sleeping, but rather looking out at the stars.

Not wanting to disturb the scenery in front of you, you just rest your hip and upper body against the control panel wall, admiring the beskar hunter.

“Penny for your thoughts?” the way his voice resonated through the chamber would’ve scared you a few months ago, but instead you remained unmoved, only a smirk growing on your lips.

“A few actually.” you finger pads skim through the control panel before you smile to yourself and click on one of the tunes (4) you had recently chipped into the ship’s system.

Din’s helmet slowly turns your way, just in time to watch you slowly walk up to him, only the shine of the closest stars illuminating your figure. You looked beautiful, there was no denying that.

When your knees brushed against the side of his chair, you extend your hand down to him, inviting him to join you at a standing level.

Din gently grabs your hand and stands up to his full height, a few inches higher than you, inducing his helmet to face down at your own face.

“I told you, I don’t dance.” his voice is but a whisper, raspy and tired but so full of adoration for you that in no other setting would he let transpire through the modulator.

“You don’t have to.” You right hand trails up his arm until it comes to rest on his shoulder pad as your left fingers intertwine with his, his head shifting to follow both actions, one at a time. 

“Just hold me and shift your weight from one foot to the other.” it is your time to utter but a whisper as you bring your braided hands to rest against his chest, followed by one of your temples.

It was quiet between you as you danced, his smile never fading, his fingers momentarily leaving yours only to have both of his arms around your waist, beckoning you closer against his body as you swayed to the slow strums of the music, relishing every second of it.

“Isn’t dancing easier like this?” your barely audible wouldn’t it be for his closeness to you, the sultry sound of it, mixed with the warm feeling of your body pressed against him, had his heart racing.

“I actually wouldn’t mind if every day ended like this?” his answer surprises you, but you try to hide your smile, keeping the side of your head rested against his chest.

“Are you going soft on me, Din Djarin?”

“Not a word to anyone.” You bite your lips containing a chuckle and the man in beskar repeats the action but unknowingly to you, as the beskar helmet concealed it. And you stayed there, in his embrace, and him in yours swaying through the night, every time ignoring the restart of the song, secretly hoping that the other wouldn’t complain. 

Secretly hoping you could stay like this forever.

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TAGLISTS

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@blondekel77​  @pedrobreakmyback​

DIN DJARIN TAGLIST

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[becomewings]

The Most Beautiful Moment in Life <I’M FINE>

    BTS Universe Story Highlights, pt. 2 / 4

« pt. 1  |  » pt. 3

Introduction

JungKook’s and YoonGi’s stories are the first of the paid content in BTS Universe Story and are substantially more detailed than the episodes covered in part 1. As this led to longer summaries (4.2k and 3k), I have added “tl;dr commentary” at the bottom of the post after a section of additional thoughts. This commentary summarizes the parenthetical asides I made throughout the summaries and may be of interest as standalone reading to those who have already played the game yet would like to review its connections to the BU texts and MVs.

Content warning: contains references to death, suicide, suicidal ideation, child abuse, domestic violence, blood, homicide, depression, trauma, PTSD

This guide contains major spoilers and includes references to other BU media

Do not repost, copy, or quote without permission

The Boy on the Threshold

In this story, SeokJin works to uncover the motivations behind JungKook’s nightly street wandering, instigation of fights with thugs, and decision to jump from the roof of a construction site. He was aware of the “darkness” within JungKook but never thought that he would give up on himself. SeokJin is determined to find a way to make JungKook think “I want to live” on his own.

In the afternoon on 11 April Year 22, SeokJin drives by the crosswalk outside Songju Jeil High School. Spotting a grim-faced JungKook, he gets out to greet him. JungKook visibly brightens and pelts him with question after question, finally finishing with, “But how come you’re here at school?” If the player chooses the response “I came to see you” rather than “I was in the neighborhood,” JungKook seems a little disbelieving due to the coincidental timing but nevertheless pleased. SeokJin offers him a ride, thinking that JungKook will not carry out that night’s actions from previous loops if he gets home right away. In the car, SeokJin reminisces aloud about the day they all met. On 3 March Year 19, all seven boys arrived late on the first day at Songju Jeil High School and were scolded outside by the Dean. (Aside from the absence of extra students, this scene looks very similar to the BTS Begins Middle Scene VCR, including the detail of YoonGi arriving last. This VCR predates official BU content.) When the Dean spotted SeokJin in their lineup, he reduced their punishment of community service for one month to just that afternoon. After classes, the boys cleaned the annex. The old classroom-turned-storage room became their secret hideout where they enjoyed various activities like dancing, playing the piano, and spending time with one another. JungKook appears happy as they chat about their school days, although in one path, his face falls after he remembers when he and YoonGi were caught in the annex. SeokJin is concerned, but JungKook insists, “It’s nothing.”

They say goodbye outside JungKook’s house, but SeokJin watches to make sure he goes inside. JungKook hesitates before ringing the bell at the gate. His mom answers, surprised and at a loss by his unexpected arrival. She asks him to come back later because his father’s relatives stopped by, and the intercom cuts off before he can answer. (His mother remarried, so this is really his step-father and family.) SeokJin wonders if JungKook has no one to lean on at school or at home and if this is why he wanders the streets at night. He asks JungKook where he wants to go now. “The beach… the one I went to with you guys,” JungKook answers, then says he’s kidding when SeokJin hesitates, thinking about the night ahead. SeokJin invites JungKook home instead, hoping to keep an eye on him before he needs to save NamJoon at the gas station.

In his bedroom, SeokJin hastily takes down the map and notes pinned on the wall of the boys’ incidents around the city. After letting JungKook inside, he shows him a box of photos from their time together in school. While JungKook browses, a notification on SeokJin’s phone reminds him of Songho Foundation’s inaugural ceremony that evening. Songho Foundation is a scholarship foundation funded by his maternal grandmother’s estate, and his father formally introduces him on this occasion. SeokJin also receives a call from his father’s long-time aide, a man he refers to as Uncle JunHo, who instructs him not to be late to the ceremony. Claiming it won’t take him long, SeokJin asks JungKook to stay there and wait for him to return. He is worried about leaving JungKook alone but also concerned that bringing him to the gas station after the ceremony will make him late to intervening in NamJoon’s incident.

In the lobby of the hotel hosting the Songho Foundation Inauguration Ceremony, SeokJin recognizes many important faces from around the city: Song JunHo, his father’s aide; Seo HyunJung, the city’s deputy mayor; the CEO of Youngjin Engineering & Construction Company; a professor from Munhyeon University; and the Jeil High School principal, Jo JinMyung. SeokJin doesn’t want to cross paths with the principal but is drawn into a conversation with him, the mayor, and his father, Kim ChangJun. “Assemblyman! Congratulations on the launch of the scholarship foundation,” Deputy Mayor Seo says to Kim ChangJun. “I hear that your son has been accepted to Munhyeon University? You must be happy that he’s attending your alma mater.” Kim ChangJun shakes his head. “He still has a lot to learn.” She remarks that everyone knows how well SeokJin has grown up and inquires about his career plans. The player is presented with three choices: “I haven’t decided yet,” “I want to become a good person,” and “I want to become someone like my father.” SeokJin’s father continues to look grim while the others chuckle in response to the first two answers, but his expression softens at the third, which SeokJin knew would not rub him the wrong way. Deputy Mayor Seo proposes to Assemblyman Kim that they establish a regular meeting to discuss community development, mentioning that it would be better if he could invite the city’s prominent citizens and give a speech. Assemblyman Kim agrees, telling his assistant Song JunHo to make note of it. The ceremony concludes, and the guests head towards the hotel’s restaurant. SeokJin is wary of his father’s watchful gaze but impatient to carry out the rest of the night’s plans. While his father is surrounded by other people, he informs Uncle JunHo that he has to leave to work on a group project. SeokJin slips out of the hotel and heads to NamJoon’s gas station.

While SeokJin is gone, one of the photos in the box catches JungKook’s eye. It shows the seven boys sitting on a wall with the ocean behind them. (This photo resembles the shot in Euphoria at 5’32” except that they appear to be wearing school uniform shirts and slacks.) A flashback retells the afternoon of 12 June Year 19 when the boys cut school early and visited the sea, trudging over 3 kilometers under the scorching sun to find a boulder that is rumored to make your dreams come true. (The date is not specified in the game, but the memory closely follows this set of entries in The Notes 1.) Everyone collapses in disappointment when they can’t find the rock at its designated location. JungKook is tired but not as disappointed as the others—just walking there with them is enough for him, even though he often feels uncertain of his place among the group. He gets up on the pier railing, reflecting: “I’ve always liked walking on the edge of walls or on top of lines. Focusing on centering my gravity means that I don’t really think of anything else, and the boundary—not quite a part of either place—always felt like where I should be.” Balancing precariously, JungKook walks until someone grabs his arm. YoonGi scolds him not to do this. JungKook assures him that he will not fall but privately thinks: “YoonGi would often grab my arm when I walked on railings. The others would look after me, too, after seeing him do that. I liked their helping hands. It felt like they were telling me that I should go to them. That this wasn’t my place. Maybe their hands were why I walked on the railings.”

The story returns to the present in SeokJin’s perspective. He rushes back to his room after saving NamJoon and finds JungKook asleep, leaning against the bed with the photos still scattered around him. Feeling both relief and regret, SeokJin quietly coaxes JungKook to lay down and sleep more comfortably. JungKook wakes up and says he should go home after hearing that it’s past ten o’clock. The game cuts briefly to SeokJin’s father in his study with his aide. Kim ChangJun asks Song JunHo to fetch SeokJin, as he needs to know what goes on for the foundation. JunHo says that SeokJin must be entertaining a guest for the group project because he spotted an unfamiliar pair of shoes in the entryway.

Back in his bedroom, SeokJin is startled when his father knocks on the door. It’s rare for his father to visit the second floor of their home, so he let his guard down while chatting with JungKook. “F-Father.” Stammering, SeokJin flinches and gathers up the scattered photos. “Did you leave the ceremony early to waste time like this? Even lying to say you were doing a school project?” asks Kim ChangJun. His cold and reproachful stare suffocates SeokJin. When his father’s eyes scan to JungKook standing awkwardly at the side, SeokJin is plunged into a childhood memory. On 10 October Year 9, 9-year-old SeokJin hid a school friend who was being chased by scary men in his bedroom. His father arrived and asked if the boy was Mr. Choi’s son, saying people had come to take him. When Kim ChangJun ordered him to “be a good boy,” SeokJin froze and was powerless to stop his friend from being handed over. The following day, SeokJin was told his friend transferred schools. (This event is also depicted as the first entry of The Notes 1.) In the present, SeokJin struggles to think of an explanation, smothered by that memory and his father’s pressuring stare. JungKook timidly speaks up. “I was only here to visit for a short while. I was actually about to head home. Hey, I’ll go now.” SeokJin knows he can’t leave him alone yet and finally forces himself to move. “Father, I… I’m going to go out for a little while.” He runs outside, but JungKook is already gone.

The story cuts to JungKook’s perspective as he arrives in a familiar alleyway. He is thankful that SeokJin was so considerate to him but feels that he shouldn’t have gone to his home since it made things more complicated for his friend. “YoonGi even got expelled because of me… Why do I always mess things up for the people around me?” JungKook thinks. The player is presented the choice to either text SeokJin or call YoonGi. In the first path, SeokJin calls JungKook while he is mid-text and says that he’ll come pick him up, but JungKook declines, thanks him, and hangs up. In the second path, JungKook fiddles with his phone, wondering if YoonGi will be annoyed or even answer. He remembers when they crossed paths a few days earlier. On 7 April Year 22, JungKook heard a familiar tune while roaming the dark streets and saw YoonGi playing piano through a broken window of a music shop. YoonGi stopped and eventually staggered out of the shop without noticing JungKook reaching out to him. JungKook tried to play the music by memory, and suddenly YoonGi returned—just like their days at the classroom. (Note: In his 7 April Year 22 entry of The Notes 1, YoonGi is drunk and stumbling by an empty construction site when he recognizes a clumsy piano tune that he’d been playing “not long ago.” But when he runs to the music shop and finds JungKook, the text does not indicate that he remembers this is his second visit to the shop this evening. Additionally, the Wings short film First Love seems to reference some of the events of this night—or evokes YoonGi’s distorted memories of it, mingled with a representation of JungKook’s later accident.)

In the present (11 April), JungKook wonders if YoonGi is doing well. He has thought about him since their chance encounter but doesn’t have the courage to call him first. (The narrative paths rejoin here.) JungKook wonders where he should go now yet doesn’t want to think about anything. He stops in the middle of the road, and a passing car’s headlights make him dizzy. SeokJin arrives in the distance and shouts his name, but JungKook just thinks, “One more step from here. Just one more step, and everything ends.” He steps in front of the honking car. SeokJin calls him in the distance, and JungKook feels everything slip farther away. The glass shatters and the loop resets.

Awakening once more on the morning of 11 April, SeokJin vows to protect JungKook until the end. The memory of arriving too late as JungKook threw himself in front of the car reminds him of how he was also unable to protect his childhood friend when he was 9. He needs to devise a new plan, since JungKook practically ran out of the house when confronted by Kim ChangJun. The story cuts to that evening, with JungKook looking at the photo in SeokJin’s bedroom. This time, SeokJin ignores his phone’s buzzing reminder about Songho Foundation’s inaugural ceremony. He asks JungKook where he’d like to get next and, when he doesn’t have any ideas, offers him a tour of the university campus.

JungKook seems happier looking around the campus, the cherry blossoms in full bloom. SeokJin uses this opportunity to ask him if anything is on his mind and if school is going well. JungKook answers nonchalantly, but SeokJin remembers how grim he looked at the school crosswalk that afternoon. He asks if JungKook still hangs out with the other guys. “HoSeok and TaeHyung are working part-time jobs. The others… I’m not sure,” JungKook answers, expression darkening. SeokJin wonders if he shouldn’t have brought it up but still presses him. “How come? You should talk to them from time to time.” “But it’s because of me,” says JungKook. “The reason why YoonGi was expelled… It was because he was trying to protect me.” 

SeokJin either responds “It’s not your fault” or “Don’t think that way.” Following the first choice, JungKook insists, “No, it’s my fault. YoonGi wouldn’t have talked back to the teacher if I wasn’t there.” SeokJin shakes his head. “No, you couldn’t really do anything given the situation.” JungKook replies that he should have at least apologized and that he never had the chance to tell YoonGi he was sorry. “That’s how you felt, huh… I should’ve done more. I’m sorry,” SeokJin apologizes. JungKook shakes his head with a smile, but SeokJin knows that he doesn’t understand what he really meant. (Per events in The Notes 1, it is technically SeokJin’s fault that the teacher found them in the classroom.) If the second dialogue choice, “Don’t think that way,” is chosen, JungKook questions, “How could I? When it was because of me.” “No…” SeokJin is not brave enough to say that he’s the one to blame. The camera (i.e. the animation) starts wobbling as though SeokJin’s vision is swimming. “SeokJin?” asks JungKook in concern. “I should’ve done more. I’m sorry.” The episode ends with the same dialogue and animation of JungKook shaking his head with a smile, except that in the second path the camera is still wobbling from SeokJin’s perspective. (This is the only episode I noted in the game that has a slight difference in endings based on the player’s final choice, although it is essentially cosmetic.)

Episode 5 opens with a more detailed memory of 11 June Year 20 from JungKook’s perspective. The high school was holding an open house for parents. Not wanting to stay in a classroom, he wandered off and heard piano music drifting from the annex. JungKook slipped into their classroom hideout and settled down to listen. YoonGi continued to play without acknowledging him. The music helped calm JungKook—it seemed as though YoonGi understood how he felt and was trying to console him. The sound cut off abruptly as the door slammed open. “You rascals! What are you doing here?!” the Dean of Students demanded. He slapped JungKook, knocking him down. A flurry of verbal abuse poured over his crumpled form. YoonGi shoved the teacher’s shoulder and stepped in front of JungKook. “Wow, look at this kid… You put your hands on a teacher? You better be prepared, Min YoonGi.” With that ominous threat, the Dean departed. JungKook spoke from the floor. “Hey, sorry for making you—” “It’s nothing,” YoonGi cut in. JungKook wondered why he helped him. It was the first time someone had protected him, and he believed that he would never forget the view of YoonGi’s back. YoonGi asked why JungKook was smiling. “I don’t know.” Still smiling, JungKook touched his throbbing cheek. YoonGi stared at him before breaking into his own smile and sitting down next to him. They sat there wordlessly for some time. The feeling of growing closer to YoonGi made JungKook feel giddy the rest of the day. But YoonGi did not come to school the following day, and two weeks later, he was formally expelled. (The encounter with the teacher and YoonGi’s subsequent expulsion are also referenced in JungKook and YoonGi’s 25 June Year 20 entries in The Notes 1.)

In a brief interlude in the present (11 April at the university campus), SeokJin reflects again that he does not have the courage to confess to JungKook the real reason why they drifted apart. He walks with his eyes trained on the ground until JungKook calls for him to look at the cherry blossoms floating in the wind. The scene cuts to 30 September Year 20 for another of JungKook’s school memories. He stood outside the school’s annex, reflecting that his friends probably didn’t know that he went there every day. Although school was a place he found awkward and unfamiliar, their hideout was a space for him that put him at ease. On that day however, only HoSeok was inside the classroom, gathering up the items they’d left behind. JungKook realized that the time they spent together was now a memory and would never return again. (This is also an entry in The Notes 1.) Back in the present, SeokJin notices that JungKook looks grim once more and tries to improve his mood by asking if they should go to the beach. JungKook privately wonders: “Do you think YoonGi would go? And no one knows what’s going on with JiMin. Will we really be able to go together like we did then?” Holding up his pink camera, SeokJin says they should take a picture to commemorate the evening. They’re both smiling in the photo, and he hopes that they’ll all smile together again one day. After their campus tour, SeokJin walks JungKook home, ignoring the many calls he receives from his father’s assistant JunHo.

At the crosswalk outside the high school the next day (12 April), SeokJin reflects that staying with JungKook instead of attending the inauguration ceremony seemed like a good choice. He prevented JungKook from jumping off the building and stopped NamJoon’s incident too. But SeokJin wants to keep an eye on JungKook for a few days. While he’s waiting, the principal Jo JinMyung approaches and greets him, asking what brings him to the school. SeokJin tries to excuse himself, but the principal brings up the ceremony. “I thought you’d be there, but you weren’t. Did something happen? Why weren’t you there?” Caught off guard, SeokJin either answers vaguely (“I had something important to do”) or honestly (“A friend had an emergency and I couldn’t attend”). JungKook joins them slowly during the exchange, and the principal seems a little suspicious regardless of the player’s choice. In the “honest” path, he adds, “Next time, think about what's truly important before acting.” The paths rejoin when the principal smiles pointedly and mentions that he should call the Assemblyman soon. SeokJin wonders if Jo JinMyung intends to tell his father that he was with JungKook. Kim ChangJun did not approve of the time SeokJin spent with his friends even in school. “Father thinks it’s useless to have human relationships that don’t help you succeed.” When he and JungKook are in his car, SeokJin notices that the principal ominously watches them pull away.

Later that day, SeokJin meets with his father in his office. Kim ChangJun looks exhausted. Though they’re similar heights, to his son he seems like a massive grey wall. “Why didn’t you attend the inauguration ceremony yesterday?” he asks. SeokJin either lies (“A professor asked me to do something last minute”) or answers honestly (“A friend had an emergency and I couldn’t attend”). The ultimate result is the same: Kim ChangJun speaks after a long moment of silence. “The one thing I want from you is for you to be a good son.” “Yes,” says SeokJin. “I don’t think it’s a difficult task. You may leave.” As he exits, SeokJin hears him call Song JunHo and worries that his flimsy excuse will fall apart. Running into the principal may have made matters worse too. Despite his uneasiness, SeokJin has no choice but to keep going and trust that everything will work out. While NamJoon and JungKook are safe for now, he wonders if he can be a person for JungKook to lean on for comfort whenever he needs it so that he will not resort to such an extreme decision again.

SeokJin visits JungKook after school every afternoon the following days. On 15 April, JungKook asks if it’s okay for him to come like this every day. SeokJin assures him, “Yeah. I come to see you because I want to.” He observes that JungKook still seems to take social cues from him rather than acting comfortably, so he encourages him to either pick what they do next or where they should go eat. On 19 April, however, JungKook does not appear at the school gates. SeokJin tries calling him, only to learn that the number isn’t in service. Someone shouts his name, and HoSeok emerges from the Twostar Burger across from the school. “I had heard you were back, but I didn’t think I’d see you here in front of the school.” HoSeok digs a piece of paper out of his pocket, explaining that JungKook stopped by earlier. “He said he’s switching schools.” SeokJin asks where, but HoSeok doesn’t know. This has never happened before in a loop, and SeokJin wonders if he caused it. HoSeok hands over the paper, which JungKook requested be given to SeokJin. It’s a drawing of the cherry blossom tree they saw together, with a thank you note written at the bottom. SeokJin hopes that his suspicions aren’t correct.

Hunting for clues to JungKook’s whereabouts, SeokJin visits Jeil High School’s administrative office the next day (20 April). He receives slightly more information if he acts like he knows the Director of Administration, but as the student records are confidential, the man only reveals that JungKook transferred to a boarding school. On 30 April, SeokJin is summoned to his father’s office. Kim ChangJun asks him to sit down and continues speaking with his aide, Song JunHo. He confirms an upcoming appointment with the Deputy Mayor before asking, “Oh, did you take care of that incident?” “Yes. Do you mean the one concerning the Jeil High student?” JunHo responds. “I’ve taken care of the issue with the student.” Heart racing, SeokJin realizes that his father was behind JungKook’s transfer and deliberately let it slip as a warning to him. On their way out, Uncle JunHo adds, “SeokJin. You do know how difficult it was because you didn’t attend the inauguration, right?” SeokJin promises that he’ll be at the next meeting. Back in his bedroom, he decides that he made the wrong choice in this loop. He wanted to be someone JungKook could always come to, but instead he pushed him farther away. HoSeok calls him at that moment. Voice wavering, he relays that JungKook has disappeared. Some of his classmates stopped by the restaurant that day, inquiring if anyone talks to him often.

The story cuts back to 25 April with JungKook in class at his new school. His mom likes the dormitory here, and he suspects that she feels more comfortable without him at home. School, home, the dorms—he doesn’t belong in any of those places. While pairing up the students, the teacher notices that they have an odd number now and asks JungKook where he wants to go. He closes his eyes and remembers a voice: “JungKook, let’s all go to the ocean.” He thinks, “I want to go…” The scene jumps to JungKook walking towards the ocean shore. The glass shatters.

SeokJin opens his eyes on the morning of 11 April. He wonders what caused the loop to reset and assumes something must have happened to JungKook after he transferred schools. Again, he could not keep his promise of getting them all to the ocean. The episode ends with SeokJin sitting atop the seaside observatory at sunset. (This is a key location on 22 May Year 22, recurring in The Notes and depicted in the HYYH On Stage: Prologue short film and Euphoria MV. It looks the same in the game.) SeokJin ruminates on what may have happened to JungKook and where events started going wrong. He thought he could be the person JungKook needed to lean on, but he failed. This arc concludes with him wondering: “Was my method wrong? Or is it not supposed to be me? Maybe… If the person who’s supposed to console JungKook’s scars and be there for him isn’t me… Then, who can save JungKook?”

The End of His Gaze

SeokJin’s main challenge in saving YoonGi is the unpredictability of his actions between loops. The opening of this story is no different. On 2 May Year 22, SeokJin chases YoonGi after he leaves his workroom with a heavy bag but loses sight of him in the streets. As soon as he picks the nearest motel, black smoke pours from one of its windows. (The sign matches the motel in YoonGi’s scenes of the I Need U MV.) YoonGi ignores the commotion outside the room’s locked door. Once again, SeokJin is too late, and the glass shatters, resetting the loop.

Waking in his bedroom on 11 April, SeokJin considers how YoonGi backs himself into a corner no matter how or when he tries to intervene. It’s different from the incident with NamJoon because no outside person or situation is involved. SeokJin realizes that if YoonGi’s struggle and variables that make his decision so unpredictable are within him, then the only way he can stop YoonGi is by truly understanding him. He takes out his old camcorder from high school, hoping its footage may reveal some clues. In the first video clip he plays, YoonGi is off in the corner of their classroom hideout drawing music staves but speaks up to tell HoSeok and TaeHyung not to play a prank on JiMin. SeokJin wonders if YoonGi still writes music and remembers the piano in his workroom. In the second video, TaeHyung quibbles with NamJoon, who is tired yet refuses to take a nap until YoonGi pushes some desks together and tells him to lie down. SeokJin focuses on YoonGi for the rest of the video, but he is either motionless or off camera. He finds a similar challenge within his photographs: he has less than ten solo photos of YoonGi, and though his face is visible in group pictures, he is never looking at the camera. Still perusing the photos, SeokJin overhears voices from the camcorder. “It being here is a secret. Okay?” TaeHyung whispers to YoonGi. “What’s a secret?” SeokJin in the recording asks. TaeHyung and YoonGi, standing by the piano, both whip around. TaeHyung dismisses it as nothing and shushes YoonGi when he asks, “Why are you hiding something like that?” In the present, SeokJin wonders what they hid in the classroom and decides that it’s worth investigating in case it can help him save YoonGi.

On 15 April, SeokJin visits their old classroom hideout at Jeil High School, which is still being used as a storage room. The player can choose from a total of four locations to explore, provided they select the piano last. SeokJin identifies his father’s name alongside the message “Everything started from here” on the graffitied wall (he first saw this note in his 25 June Year 19 entry from The Notes 1). Even after thoroughly examining the piano, he does not find YoonGi and TaeHyung’s secret or anything else useful. Uneasy at leaving YoonGi alone for so long, SeokJin leaves the school and parks in front of his friend’s workroom. YoonGi appears to be safely inside, so SeokJin browses through the old video files on his camcorder and finds one that continued recording after he thought he had pressed the stop button. Listening to his and YoonGi’s voices, he recalls a forgotten memory of the day they walked out of school together.

The majority of episode 3 plays through a memory of an afternoon that SeokJin and YoonGi walked out of school together (date unspecified; this event is also referenced in YoonGi’s 2 August Year 22 entry from The Notes 2 and the similar Note accompanying Map of the Soul: 7). SeokJin receives a text summoning him to the principal’s office. The office is empty yet suffocating when he arrives. Principal Jo JinMyung arrives and apologizes for making SeokJin wait. SeokJin looks down, heart suddenly heavy. The scene cuts to YoonGi entering the storage classroom as he thinks about all the days he doesn’t feel like going home. It’s not a comfortable place for him, yet there’s nothing for him at the school either, except for the group’s hideout. He feels awkward in the oddly quiet room and puts some sheet music on the piano’s rack. But when he thinks about how no one is there requesting songs from him, he can’t bring his hands up to the keys. The flashback transitions back to SeokJin’s perspective following his meeting with the principal. As expected, the principal wanted him to report on YoonGi’s behavior. SeokJin spoke carefully so as not to tip him off about anything, but he hears internal whispers calling himself a hypocrite even when he’s laughing with his friends. Fretting over how much longer he can protect YoonGi, SeokJin runs into him at the classroom hideout’s door. He hopes YoonGi doesn’t notice how flustered he is, but YoonGi doesn’t say anything beyond confirming that he’s heading home. SeokJin tries to strike up a conversation as they walk out together, but the conversation awkwardly fizzles out whether he brings up food or the weather. YoonGi points out that his phone is buzzing, and SeokJin’s camcorder falls from his bag as he looks for it. YoonGi waves him off when SeokJin films him to test that it still works. He sheepishly lowers the camcorder and forgets to turn it off. YoonGi breaks the uncomfortable silence when they are almost across the field. “Is something up? You didn’t look very happy earlier.” Heart pounding, SeokJin tries to laugh off this sharp question with an excuse, but YoonGi stares straight at him. “You’re awkward too, SeokJin.” “What is?” “Your laugh.” YoonGi pauses before continuing, “When was the last time you genuinely laughed?”

The scene fades back to the present in SeokJin’s car (15 April). He can’t make out the rest of their conversation in the recording or remember what he answered. He wonders why YoonGi asked him that. SeokJin was always tense then, afraid that his friends would learn of his meetings with the principal. Did the others notice, too? While he’s lost in these thoughts, someone outside shouts, “Fire!” Flames erupt from YoonGi’s workroom. Realizing he should have focused on YoonGi and not the video, SeokJin runs into the building. As he tries to open the locked door, he hears the glass shatter.

The fourth episode opens on the night of 11 April with SeokJin watching JungKook and YoonGi walk away from the construction site and towards NamJoon’s container. A few days later, SeokJin spots JungKook on the sidewalk on his way to YoonGi’s workroom. When asked where he’s going, JungKook avoids his gaze and replies, “I was just… walking around.” SeokJin knows this is because he has nowhere to go. Not wanting JungKook to keep wandering and remembering that he was once close with YoonGi, SeokJin invites him along. The perspective switches to JungKook as they enter the workroom. It reeks of alcohol, and YoonGi is fast asleep among empty bottles. “YoonGi… will be okay, right?” he asks. SeokJin picks up the bottles without responding. A memory from their school days occurs to JungKook. TaeHyung chased him around their classroom hideout, trying to snatch his sketchbook and succeeding when JungKook found his escape unintentionally blocked by YoonGi standing in the doorway. JungKook was dismayed when YoonGi called TaeHyung over to the piano so they could look at it together, but then YoonGi deceived TaeHyung and threw the sketchbook to JungKook. In the present, SeokJin doesn’t want to waste time while YoonGi sleeps. He taps a lost-in-thought JungKook on the shoulder and says they should leave, but JungKook responds that he will stay until YoonGi wakes. 

Back again at the classroom hideout, SeokJin hunts further around the piano. He uses an old mop handle to fish out a piece of paper from underneath it. The hidden secret turns out to be TaeHyung’s abysmal math test. Dejected, SeokJin slumps to the floor. On this level, he notices a small handle on the piano’s lower panel and uses it to pop off the cover. Faded music sheets are wedged into the piano’s frame. A phrase on one of them catches SeokJin’s eye. (함께 라면 웃을 수 있다 : The Korean is not translated in game, but Google translates it as “if we are together, we can laugh.” This recurring phrase is instead translated as “we can laugh when we’re together” in The Notes 2. In YoonGi’s 2 August Year 22 entry, he also reflects on finding the note written in the margins of the music scores he took from the classroom. The handwriting isn’t his own. Additionally, a similar sentiment is expressed in a line of You Never Walk Alone, which is the basis for one of the BU-inspired Graphic Lyrics books.)

This message reminds SeokJin of YoonGi’s question: “When was the last time you genuinely laughed?” “This moment is the answer to that question,” he thinks, initiating a flashback to 20 March Year 19. The boys gathered around HoSeok in the classroom, chattering excitedly about the new club he’s leading. TaeHyung jokingly called him “Mr. President.” HoSeok told him only members could call him that before asking YoonGi if he wanted to join. “I’ll allow you to join without an audition, but only you.” TaeHyung exclaimed that he was just trying to get YoonGi to call him president. “Oh, it was obvious?” HoSeok chuckled. “Acting up again, huh?” YoonGi spoke up from the corner. The memory fades, returning to a pensieve SeokJin. He clearly remembers YoonGi’s face as he laughed with the others. “When did we stop laughing? Did it start that day, when I ruined everything?” SeokJin wonders. “It’s my fault,” he says aloud, standing there with the sheet music in hand until the sun begins to set. (Note: the date of the memory may be a typo. On 20 March Year 20 in The Notes 1, TaeHyung overheard SeokJin in the classroom informing the principal of the trouble he and YoonGi had gotten into. SeokJin realized that NamJoon heard it but not TaeHyung, who remained hidden out of sight and then pretended not to know. It’s not impossible that this memory really occurred in March Year 19, but most of them had only met at the beginning of that month.)

On the night of 15 April, SeokJin follows YoonGi at a distance from his workroom to an alleyway bar. (It is possible but not entirely clear that this is the same day SeokJin found the sheet music at the classroom, which is why I did not specify the date earlier.) It appears that YoonGi visits this bar often since the owner asks him if he has money today. SeokJin sits at a table behind YoonGi and watches him knock back shot after shot. Deciding that he shouldn’t leave him alone any longer, SeokJin musters up the courage to join him. YoonGi doesn’t look surprised to see him. He smiles before looking down again. SeokJin attempts a natural conversation to catch up. YoonGi asks why he didn’t come along the night when everyone got together at NamJoon’s container. “It’s been awhile since we’ve all seen each other, and JungKook… Never mind. You were probably busy.” SeokJin apologizes and inquires how JungKook is doing, then turns the same question on YoonGi when he replies that he doesn’t know. “Anything new with you?” SeokJin presses when YoonGi avoids his gaze. “Well, as you can see.” YoonGi dodges a direct answer.

The restaurant owner brings them a second glass. They are quiet in a restaurant full of chatter. SeokJin brings up the past to break the awkward silence, asking if YoonGi remembers the day they walked out of high school together. “Why do you ask?” says YoonGi. SeokJin explains that he remembered what YoonGi said to him that afternoon. “I want to ask you the same thing you asked me then.” SeokJin is nervous but continues, not wanting to waste this opportunity. “When was the last time you genuinely laughed?” YoonGi is silent for a moment. “Who knows.” SeokJin encourages him to think about it. “What good is it whether I remember or not? It wouldn’t change things now, even if I remembered.” YoonGi’s refusal to express his feelings upsets SeokJin more than his indifferent tone. “I just wish he would open up to me so I could figure out… anything. If only I could tell him,” SeokJin thinks. His internal narration continues over a shot of him in high school looking at his phone: “Or maybe… If I went back further in time, mustering up the courage to protect my friends, and prevented YoonGi from being expelled. If I did, maybe now we’d be…” “What’s with that expression?” YoonGi’s voice snaps him into the present, and he stares at SeokJin the way he had when they walked home from school. “Nothing, just… I feel like it’s been a while since I last saw you and I’m wasting time with useless subjects. It’s nothing—” SeokJin tries to laugh it off, but YoonGi interrupts. “You’re the same as always… There’s something there in your expression, but you say that it’s nothing.” This remark hits hard, rendering SeokJin speechless.

YoonGi’s words echo in SeokJin’s head even after he arrives home later that night. How did YoonGi notice what SeokJin thought he kept well-hidden? He once viewed YoonGi as someone who was indifferent to the world and trying to distance himself from everything. It dawns on SeokJin that he is mistaken. He opens his camcorder, hoping to see something new with this changed perspective. A recording plays in which he, YoonGi, and JungKook are the only ones present in the classroom hideout. When YoonGi starts playing piano, JungKook gets up from the desk and carefully stands by him. YoonGi doesn’t seem bothered and continues to play. Suddenly, he stops. “You wanna try?” In the present, SeokJin wonders why he asks JungKook that out of the blue and replays the footage, feeling like he missed something. This time, he notices that JungKook begins chewing his nails before YoonGi asks him. “Can I?” says JungKook. “Why not? It’s not my piano or anything. You can play if you want to.” At YoonGi’s words, the color returns to JungKook’s face and his hands drop from his mouth. SeokJin watches a little more of the video. As the recorded YoonGi patiently corrects JungKook’s wrong notes, he realizes that YoonGi doesn’t merely ask JungKook to play on a whim but out of respect for him.

SeokJin turns his attention to his box of photos. The player can choose up to three to examine. SeokJin realizes that YoonGi is a little further behind the group and not looking at the camera not because he feels left out or is avoiding attention, but because he is always watching how they are all together. YoonGi knows us very well, he thinks. He stopped JungKook from biting his nails by asking him to play the piano rather than acknowledging it directly. He saw through SeokJin and recognized when his laughter wasn’t genuine, even after several years apart. SeokJin thought that YoonGi wanted to give up everything, would never open up to anyone, and experienced feelings that were impossible for him to understand. “But if we were the ones to make YoonGi laugh… It may be possible to save YoonGi,” SeokJin reflects. With more determination, he vows to save him. “I’ll save him no matter what, because we can laugh when we’re together.”

SeokJin visits YoonGi every day after their meeting at the bar, responding that he’s making time to see him when asked if all university students have this much free time. They grow more accustomed to each other’s company, but SeokJin’s glimmer of hope fades as alcohol and aimless wandering continues to fill YoonGi’s life. Since just visiting YoonGi’s workroom seems meaningless, on 24 April SeokJin decides to show him the sheet music he found in the hideout, hoping it will encourage him to resume songwriting. Upon seeing the music, YoonGi has a flashback to 25 June Year 20, the day he received the school expulsion notice. He ran immediately to the classroom and played the piano as though possessed. The anger refused to settle. He shoved all of his sheet music into the piano and vowed to never play the piano again. In the present, YoonGi asks, “Where’d you find this?” At his cold expression, SeokJin wonders what he’s done wrong and explains aloud that he just happened to find it in the hideout’s piano. The papers fall from YoonGi’s hand, scattering across the floor. “Leave,” he spits. “What? Min YoonGi, what’s going on?” SeokJin asks. YoonGi shoves him. “Just leave.” “Don’t do this, let’s talk for a moment,” SeokJin tries again. But YoonGi replies, “I have nothing to say to you.”

YoonGi avoids him after that. On 25 April, SeokJin calls him numerous times without any answer and finds only torn sheet music and empty bottles in his workroom. He remembers YoonGi’s last words to him and says aloud, “It can’t be. No way.” An ominous thought crosses his mind, but he forces it out to focus on recalling something from memory. The story cuts to him running down a street, trying to figure out where YoonGi went to set the fire in the last loop. (It is never clarified what SeokJin’s “ominous thought” is—it may refer to YoonGi setting a fire or possibly even a suspicion that YoonGi figured out SeokJin was involved in his expulsion.) SeokJin finds the same motel (the one with the sign like in the I Need U MV) and rushes upstairs in a cold sweat. Faced with a hallway of identical doors, he doesn’t know how to locate YoonGi’s room. Whether the player chooses for him to call out to YoonGi or “think of something else” (which results in him pulling the fire alarm), the result is ultimately the same. SeokJin forces open the last closed door with a fire extinguisher, but the room is empty. Filled with regret, SeokJin wonders what he has done wrong. “Like an idiot, I… I knew that the location and method of YoonGi’s attempt could change, and yet…”

“Fire!” someone yells. The motel across the street erupts in flames. “No! Please…” SeokJin begs, falling to his knees. “How can I stop this tragedy? … Am I not enough to stop it?” The story ends as he hears the glass shatter once again.

Additional Thoughts

For me, JungKook’s arc really draws back the curtain on SeokJin’s private life. It demonstrates SeokJin’s challenge to balance saving his friends and maintaining his own daily life, particularly fulfilling the duties that fall to him as a prominent assemblyman’s son. We see little of this side of him until The Notes 2, when his perspective has already drastically changed.

JungKook’s reflection about his habit of walking along the edges of walls is an interesting moment of self-awareness. This “tightrope-walking” is depicted frequently in the MVs.

The car accident and loop reset at the beginning of JungKook’s 4th episode suggests the possibility that the I Need U MV depicts JungKook deliberately stepping in front of the oncoming car rather than accidentally. (Maybe people have already interpreted it this way, but personally the thought had never occured to me due to how it’s shot and acted.) The car accident is a recurring theme in the loops for JungKook, particularly as he is struck the night of 22 May and comes to believe that it was SeokJin who hit him.

This internal dialogue of SeokJin’s from YoonGi’s arc gives me a lot to think about: “If I went back further in time, mustering up the courage to protect my friends, and prevented YoonGi from being expelled. If I did, maybe now we’d be…” SeokJin’s first experiences of the time loops are depicted in the Save Me Webtoon. At that time, he believes that 11 April is the date that he can begin fixing things, but it’s not clear if this ability granted by the cat-like creature truly gives him control over to which date the loop resets. (It is more obvious that he cannot control what triggers the reset itself.) Does he ever go back earlier? Only *ahem* time will tell, but if you want some more food for thought, please check out these interesting quotes that occur before 11 April Year 22.

As mentioned above, the following “tl;dr” commentary summarizes the parenthetical notes I provided in the summaries in case you want to review them on their own.

The Boy on the Threshold — tl;dr commentary

SeokJin’s flashback to 3 March Year 19, when all seven boys arrived late on the first day at Songju Jeil High School and were scolded outside by the Dean, looks very similar to the BTS Begins Middle Scene VCR (aside from the absence of extra students), including the detail of YoonGi arriving last. This VCR predates official BU content.

The photo in SeokJin’s collection that catches JungKook’s eye resembles the shot in the Euphoria MV at 5’32” (the seven boys sitting on a wall with the ocean behind them) except that they appear to be wearing school uniform shirts and slacks.

JungKook’s flashback to the night of 7 April Year 22 expands the context of his reunion with YoonGi, adding that he is drawn to the music shop by a familiar tune and through its broken window sees YoonGi playing piano. YoonGi doesn’t notice him when he staggers outside, and JungKook tries to play the music by memory. In his 7 April Year 22 entry of The Notes 1, YoonGi is drunk and stumbling by an empty construction site when he recognizes a clumsy piano tune that he’d been playing “not long ago.” But when he runs to the music shop and finds JungKook, the text does not indicate that he remembers this is his second visit to the shop this evening. Additionally, the Wings short film First Love seems to reference some of the events of this night—or evokes YoonGi’s distorted memories of it, mingled with a representation of JungKook’s later accident.

I mentioned in part 1’s introduction that every episode’s ending is identical regardless of the decisions made by the player, but the end of episode 4 is actually cosmetically different (a wobbling camera/animation effect) if the second path is selected for the last choice. The dialogue is the same.

The end of episode 7 depicts the seaside observatory. This is a key location on 22 May Year 22, recurring in The Notes and depicted in the HYYH On Stage: Prologue short film and Euphoria MV. It looks the same in the game.

The End of His Gaze — tl;dr commentary

The motel sign at the beginning and end of the story matches the one visible in YoonGi’s shots of the I Need U MV.

When searching the classroom hideout for clues on 15 April, SeokJin identifies his father's name alongside the message “Everything started from here” on the graffitied wall. He first saw this note in his 25 June Year 19 entry from The Notes 1.

Episode 3 presents a memory from both SeokJin’s and YoonGi’s perspectives of the afternoon that they walked out of school together. Although the date is unspecified, this event is also referenced in YoonGi’s 2 August Year 22 entry from The Notes 2 and the similar Note accompanying Map of the Soul: 7.

On his second attempt at searching the classroom, SeokJin finds sheet music that was hidden inside the piano. A phrase written in the corner of one paper catches his eye: 함께 라면 웃을 수 있다. The Korean is not translated in game, but Google translates it as “if we are together, we can laugh.” This recurring phrase is instead translated as “we can laugh when we’re together” in The Notes 2. In YoonGi’s 2 August Year 22 entry, he also reflects on finding the note written in the margins of the music scores he took from the classroom. The handwriting isn’t his own. Additionally, a similar sentiment is expressed in a line of You Never Walk Alone, which is the basis for one of the BU-inspired Graphic Lyrics books.

SeokJin has a flashback of 20 March Year 19 in which the boys are excitedly chattering about HoSeok’s new club. However, given the larger context of this moment (both in the past and what prompts it in the present), the date of the memory may be a typo. On 20 March Year 20 in The Notes 1, TaeHyung overheard SeokJin in the classroom informing the principal of the trouble he and YoonGi had gotten into. SeokJin realized that NamJoon heard it but not TaeHyung, who remained hidden out of sight and then pretended not to know. It’s not impossible that this memory really occurred in March Year 19, but most of them had only met at the beginning of that month.

Did you learn anything new from these stories that I did not specifically mention? Let me know in the replies or tags! Please stay tuned for part 3, featuring JiMin and HoSeok’s stories.

[thatmultifandomhoe]

Knitting You a Home - 4

Pairing: Wolf Hybrid Namjoon and Human Reader

Word Count: 2,853

Genre/Rating: Hybrid AU - Established Relationship - Angst - Fluff - Smut - PG-13

Overview: Things have changed for you and Namjoon. It’s been a year since the two of you got together, and despite a rocky start, it was impossible to deny the bond and love you shared for each other. But ever since Hoseok had been separated from his Mate, Namjoon has been withdrawing himself from you and doesn’t come home until late at night.

With questions far larger than either of you imagined, you can’t help but wonder if he’s let his past and old fears come back to haunt him. You had shown him that it was possible to have a home and be loved once before, but will you be able to do it again?

Warning: None.

Playlist:

Main Master List:

Knitting You a Home Master List:

Mated Love is Never Easy Series Master List:

Sneak Peak - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - ?

©thatmultifandomhoe Do not repost, translate, or use my stories without permission.

Grandma was perched on the chair at the register with her knitting, the needles lightly clicking against each other as she moved the yarn forwards and backwards all without looking at her work. It was a skill she acquired from years of practice.

Instead, she watched as you buzzed around the store, arranging and then rearranging displays even though each attempt didn’t look different from the last. It had been amusing within the first ten minutes, but after watching you do this all around the store, she knew something was off, whether or not you wanted to admit it.

“Honey,” Grandma called out, hands still moving as she raised an eyebrow at you. “Did you put something in your breakfast this morning that I should know about? Perhaps you thought it was sugar that you put in your coffee, but it really wasn’t?”

Usually a comment like that would have made you pause and laugh, but you didn’t. Instead, you licked your lip as you glanced at her for a few seconds before adjusting the decorative jade scarf on display.

“I had cereal for breakfast Grandma,” you softly answered, nose scrunching at how the scarf was now set.

The store itself was quiet with the lack of shoppers allowing the conversation to easily pass between you and your Grandmother with ease to keep it from silent. When you didn’t even hear the clicking of her knitting needles, you felt unnerved in the silence.

Turning around, you were surprised to see her arms crossed over her chest, the purple beads attached to her glasses glimmering as she propped them on the top of her head. It had been years since she had looked at you like this; an instant reminder of the days in high school when you attempted to be rebellious.

“What is going on? You’ve managed to do a week’s worth of work in the four hours that we’ve been open.”

You shrugged, looking away and at the scarf. It had been one of Grandmother’s creations. Ideally, it was meant to be worn at events rather than for warmth. “I fell asleep early last night. That’s all.”

It wasn’t a lie. After weeks of waiting up for Namjoon to come home, you finally couldn’t find the strength to stay up, crashing at eleven. You weren’t entirely sure when he came home last night, but when the alarm went off at seven thirty, he was already gone. Unlike you where you needed to be at the store for nine, he had to be at the studio for eight. But like every morning the coffee maker was already set and your favorite mug was waiting, prepared for you by Namjoon himself. All you had to do was press the button to start it.

Grandma shook her head though. Standing up, she walked around the counter and once she was in front of you, pressed her cool hand against your forehead.

The gesture made you smile. “I’m not sick Grandma.”

“I think I’ll decide that,” she teased, gently bopping a finger against the tip of your nose like she had when you were a child. “You may not be sick, but you’re bottling something up for sure.”

She always knew when you were dealing with an issue. As a child, you thought she was able to use magic to sense these types of things, and even though you were now an adult, you still liked to believe that she was magical. Especially when it worked in her favor.

“It’s nothing serious,” you half admitted, smiling up at her. “Namjoon’s just been pulling a lot of hours at the studio, so he’s there more than he’s at home.”

Raising an eyebrow, she ran her fingers through your hair. “He should tell his boss that his wife needs him at home.”

With a giggle, you stepped back once she removed her hand and went back to the scarf display. This time determined to drape it in a way that was pleasing to the eye. “His wife, doesn’t want to interfere with her husband’s career.”

“Please, the two of you are young and in your first year of marriage. He should be with you, in a certain room, in that cozy house of yours that has a few empty bedrooms.” Grandma sent a knowing grin to you, chuckling as you simply shook your head.

“Almost a year,” you corrected. “We’ve known each for a year, but he gave me the Mate Mark in November.”

Grandma hummed, making her way over to a wicker basket that held knitted rabbits dressed in thin sweaters and dresses. They were a hit with young children, perfect as baby shower gifts, and you absolutely loved to make them.

“Which proves my point even more. You’ve been married a little less than a year, and you’re both working like an old married couple.” Holding a bunny, she waved the rabbit’s arm at you. “As your Grandmother and your business partner, I’m telling you that you need a vacation. Go home, take a few days off and sleep in. I can run the shop on my own.”

“Grandma, I’m fi-”

“Yes, you’re fine,” Grandma interrupt. “You’re saying it but I’m not believing it one bit.”

A part of you wanted to argue for a little bit longer, expect all that came out was a sigh of frustration. You were more than capable of working for the rest of the day, but standing by the mannequin, Grandma was right. It was time to recharge yourself, and if you were going to figure out why Namjoon was acting so strange, it would help if you weren’t at the shop all day long. Glancing at the calendar, you realized that it was only Tuesday. How were you already so done with the week when it only just began?

“Alright,” you agreed, setting done the scarf once and for all to head towards the office. “I’ll go home, take that vacation.”

Her excited cheers were ignored as you went to gather your belongings, smiling nonetheless. As much as you teased her, you did love her dearly and were grateful to have Grandmother in your life.

Grabbing your purse, you gave her one last hug and reminded her that you’d be back on Monday before leaving the shop, the little bell jingling in your wake. The car was parked in the back-parking lot, but instead of guiding you there, your feet took you to the right, walking the short distance to another shop that was six doors down from yours.

The air conditioning hit like a wave washing off the summer heat as you entered the bookstore. From nowhere in particular soft music danced around the shop. It had been a while since you last saw Sarah and after everything, you were curious as to how she was doing considering that Hoseok was leaving at the end of the month.

“Be right there,” Sarah called out, her voice coming from a corner of the store that you couldn’t quite see.

“Or I can come to you?” You suggested, releasing the smile when she called out your name in glee.

Following the sound of her voice and books thumping on the floor, you weren’t surprised to see Sarah sitting cross legged on the floor in front of a bookcase. “Well I’m happy to see you like this instead of the last time I saw you.”

Sarah laughed, leaning over to hug you once you sat down next to her. “Believe me, I am too. What are you doing here? I thought you’d be at the shop.”

“Grandma insisted I needed a vacation.” You carefully leaned against a bookcase as Sarah continued to stack the shelf.

“Well I mean, you do,” Sarah agreed, glancing in your direction. “Besides that, how’ve you been? I’ve been meaning to text you but ever since Hoseok signed the contract, we’ve been running around trying to figure out what he needs before leaving for Seoul.”

You shrugged, spotting a romance novel with a crown on the cover. “I’m alright. Just…has Namjoon been in lately?”

Her hand paused its task at the mention of his name, this time turning to face you completely. Like your shop had been, the bookstore was currently free of customers. While that tended to be a worry, it was only noon and typical during the week. The weekend was when business really went to town.

“Actually, now that I think about it, he hasn’t been in these last few weeks. I think the last time I saw him was before the Dance Studio’s May show. Why, is something wrong?”

Licking your lips, you turned the book over, grazing the description with your fingertips. It wasn’t unlike Namjoon to skip out on his trips to the bookstore. It had been the first place he went to on his own when he first came to live with you and it was a habit he kept, always excited to tell you about the new sonnets and books he got that day.

It was strange for him to not be coming to the bookstore.

You knew when this all started, and you didn’t think Sarah wanted to be reminded of that so soon. “He’s just been working longer hours,” you said again, faking a smile when she raised an eyebrow. Guilt swirled in your heart from keeping the truth from her, but the last thing you wanted was to have her relive what Sue put her through. Even if it was just by remembering.

Luckily, Sarah nodded after a few moments. Whether or not she believed you, she didn’t mention it. “Oh well he’s probably just tired then. I know I tend to forget things when I’m not running on enough sleep.”

You chuckled in agreement, handing her back the book you had been looking at. “Yeah.”

A comfortable silence fell as Sarah began to re-stack the shelf again. You took the chance to look at her, noticing the differences since the last time you saw her. Namjoon had explained that Hybrids were able to sense everyone’s emotions and that depending on how severe they were, another person’s emotions could affect theirs as well.

When you had gotten the call from Sarah, her voice breaking over the line as she sobbed into the phone, scaring both you and Namjoon – who had been standing nearby and heard it all clear as day – while you hurried to gather your things to go see her. Before even reaching the car, you knew it was bad. She hadn’t even locked her door so when you arrived at her apartment that day, you had walked right in and found her curled up in bed, cheeks blotchy as she cried into her pillow.

It never crossed your mind that by telling Sue about what Colin had been doing would result in the choices that had been made. Guilt had been an unwelcomed guest in your heart and mind during Sarah and Hoseok’s separation. Despite all your attempts to reign in your emotions at home that night, Namjoon had picked up on them so much that as soon as he came home, he was right there by your side, hugging and sweetly kissing you and your Mate Mark, reassuring you that was never going to happen between the two of you.

Despite his promises, it already felt like there was a rift between you and him.

“How are you and Hoseok?” You asked.

Sarah smiled as she ran a hand through her hair, revealing the side of her neck where her own Mate Mark was. To any onlooker – and with some distance – every Mate Mark looked like an identical scar from a bite. Someone who you never met could have one that look just like yours, but upon closer inspection, it was easy to tell that no two were alike. How could they be identical? Namjoon’s jaw and teeth were different from Hoseok’s. It was the finer details; the grooves and ridges were their own individual shape.

“Amazing,” Sarah breathed out. “It’s just so good to have him back home. He finally got the rest of his belongings from Sue since she’s planning on moving, but it finally feels like everything is going right for us.”

It appeared that way too. There was a life in Sarah’s eyes that when you had gone to check on her with Hoseok gone, had been burnt out. You were scared that she was going to fall into a depressive state without him, but it was a miracle that she managed to fight against it and try to live her life, even when her Mate had been taken away.

A part of you wanted to believe that, if for some reason you lost Namjoon, you’d be able to continue living. Deep down however, you knew how easy it would be slip under the covers and not care, and not know that the days were blending together.

It did surprise you how easily she had mentioned Sue though. “Have you heard much from her?”

The smile on her face flickered, and you thought that maybe you had made a mistake.

“No. Actually, Hoseok’s been the one to talk to her when it came to scheduling a time to go over and pack his stuff.” Her fingers tightened around a hardcover and somewhere in the store, the clock chimed at the half hour. “I’m trying, but…it’s going to be a long time.”

Reaching over, you gently squeezed her shoulder as her words died out, not needing an explanation for how she felt. You knew what she meant and if you were being honest, if someone had done the same to you and Namjoon, you didn’t think you’d ever be able to forgive them.

It was as she was taking a deep breath that Sarah tapped the book and snapped her finger at you, drawing a grin out of you. “Since you’re on vacation, you can give these to Namjoon to look at.”

She hurried to the desk, leaving you to take your time as you stood up, lower back popping as you joined her. By the time you leaned on the wooden desk, Sarah had a stack of six hardcovers waiting for you. The pages were yellowed and upon opening the top one, the musty smell of an aged book greeted you. While you loved to read as well, you didn’t get overly excited over the famous book smell that you knew Namjoon and Sarah died for.

“I found them at this flea market Hoseok and I went to,” Sarah explained, opening up another one. The text was small and centered, and as you took a closer look, you realized that they were books of poetry.

“How much for them?” You asked, turning your purse to pull out your wallet.

Sarah waved her fingers though, lightly slapping your hand when you still tried to take it out. “Don’t worry about it. They’re a gift.”

“Are you sure?”

“If you do not accept these on Namjoon’s half, I will pick up the phone and call your Grandmother right now Missy,” Sarah playfully threatened, her smile about ready to break her face in half.

For a moment, there was silence in the little shop, but it didn’t last long as you both broke out in laughter. Even as you agreed and she bagged them up for you, you slipped a few dollars in the little donation jar that her boss insisted be put out.

“Now, why don’t you head home,” Sarah suggested, walking around the desk, and hugged you. “Steal a nap before Namjoon comes home tonight.”

“He’s probably going to be working until midnight again,” you said, accepting the bag.

But Sarah smirked at you, wiggling her eyebrows in a way that sent you into a fit of giggles. “Not unless you call him and tell him that you need him.”

“You are just as bad as my Grandmother,” you teased, walking towards the door.

Sarah just laughed as you headed outside, shaking your head in amusement. You knew that they meant well, but it was starting to worry you that everyone seemed to be concerned about your sex life with Namjoon, or apparently, the lack of one.

It wasn’t as if you didn’t have one – Namjoon had his heats like every other Hybrid – with everything that’s been going on, there just hadn’t been time to relax and get in the mood. You knew that Sarah was still relatively newly mated to Hoseok, so it wouldn’t surprise you if they were going at it whenever the desire struck.

But as you got into the car, the books for Namjoon carefully sitting on the passenger seat, you weren’t able to stop thinking about it. It felt like forever since Namjoon indicated that he wanted more than a few kisses or a few minutes of cuddling.

Again, despite knowing his love for you, your mind wandered to the other place, hands gripping the steering wheel tighter than usual. He hadn’t always had to stay so late, so why had things changed so suddenly?

[capricornus-rex]

A Shadow of What You Used to Be (13)

Chapter 13: The Favorite | Cal Kestis x Irele Skywalker

Requested by Anon

Summary: There is another! Years after young Anakin Skywalker departed Tatooine, his mother Shmi delivers a second child—this time, a daughter. Whilst the circumstance of the girl’s birth remains unexplained, Irele Skywalker has yet to choose the true path between those laid out for her.

Tags: Fem! OC, Irele Skywalker, Force-sensitive! OC, Anakin’s Younger Sister, Skywalker! OC, Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice, Long-lost Sibling

A/N: I’M NEGATIVE FOR COVID, YAY!!1!! That’s the only negativity I need in life lmao

Requesting to be tagged: @heavenly1927​

Also in AO3

Chapters: Prelude – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 | Previous: Part 12 | Next: Part 14 | Masterlist

14 of ?

16 BBY

Battered by the sweat and grit in this confined dojo, Irele had proved her capabilities for battle.

For every instructor that walked in to face her, the difficulty climbed as well.

But the dojo had become her sanctuary. No limitations, no rules. She can be angry as she likes, she can be violent to her opponents, and then there would be no repercussion—it was all at the expense of “training” which was basically they had in mind for her.

Now that she was conditioned for combat, the next phase of the plan laid out for her growth would come next—although it would be simultaneous to this training regimen.

Today marks the first anniversary of her training, the day that started this all. To commemorate the event in some sorts, they sent in an electrohammer Purge Trooper to fight with her. No trooper of this sort has ever come in to this dojo until today. For a second, it startled her; but then she shook off the anxiety from her shoulders and tightened her grip on a weapon she had stuck with since Day One—a javelin.

Her one display of power that warranted Darth Vader himself to pay a visit to the dojo in Nur.

“Admiral, ready my shuttle and chart a course to Nur.”

“Right away, my lord.” The admiral did not give it a second thought, he immediately proceeded with the preparations.

Everyone in Nur knew that Darth Vader was coming, and so they were all in full-blast in cleaning up the place to make it presentable to the lord. Everyone—except Irele, who was too engrossed with her training.

It was just getting good when Vader had arrived in the viewing room of the dojo—Irele’s already picking up the pace in the fight, but the Purge Trooper was nowhere near tired. Suddenly, it seems like out of nowhere, a strong invisible wave had lifted the instructor off the floor and threw him across the room. The last thing Irele saw was her hand held out, fingers curved in a manner as if choking a neck, and vibrating with remnants of that energy that had sent the trooper five feet away from her.

Little by little, her sensitivity with the Force has become more active.

She could not explain it. She couldn’t even believe it, she thought those moments were just illusions or daydreams that she had mixed with reality.

But this moment proved otherwise.

And it intoxicated her.

Although she had not mastered how to utilize it actively and consciously, she would take every chance she gets when she felt like it would come to her aid in the fight.

Vader departs the viewing room and makes his way down into the dojo.

“You fight well, child,” he boomed as he entered, causing Irele to turn to his direction, javelin at the ready. “But you’ve a long way to go if you are to master the art.”

Under his cape, Vader revealed his weapon: a silver cylinder accented with black duraplast grips, covered to the pommel. His leather thumb pressed the switch and out comes a blood-red beam. Irele has heard the stories, but never did she imagined seeing it in person; as a matter of fact, she’s not sure if her javelin has any chance against that.

Irele took the offensive, she moved first.

Vader, unbeknownst to her to be her own brother, effortlessly evaded it as simple as stepping out of the way.

The girl had too much pride in her to admit that her opponent was indeed stronger and more skilled, but she thought she could outsmart him, outmaneuver him, not knowing that her efforts would be in vain.

They traded strikes, but Vader was taking the lead in this fight. Irele’s tiring herself out in evading and looking for an opening, landing fewer strikes than she did with her first opponent—the trooper. The dark lord was neither generous nor kind with the training, he wanted to show Irele different levels of strengths—if she were to be dispatched in campaigns where combat is inevitable, she might as well be fazed now than later out in the field.

“It’s unwise to presume you can overpower me, child.”

With their blades locked in, Irele caught a glimpse of Vader’s face up close. The crimson red film of the lenses of his helmet uncovered a hazy view of his eyes—his real eyes: twin golden discs, glinting with menace and at the same time, a sort of grief.

For a moment, Irele’s expression showed humanity; but in the next second, she remembered the fight.

“I wasn’t planning to.”

Her overconfidence in her strike was her undoing, Vader’s lightsaber swiped it out of her hands, leaving her literally empty-handed.

“Perhaps you should re-assess that teenage confidence of yours, little one.”

Vader was moving in for a killing blow. He dared go that far. The operators in the viewing room think, “He’s going to kill her!” but the unexpected happened. In that one moment, time seemed to have slowed for Irele; Vader’s heavy yet nimble movement appeared to be slower in her eyes, which afforded her mere seconds to concentrate.

She closes her eyes… and focused.

Behind the darkness shrouding her view, she wondered why the strike hasn’t landed her yet, slowly she lifts her eyelids and saw a clear sheen shimmering in front of her—like glass with a frosted finish—while her hands were held up in front of her and wide open, sparks sputtered on all sides of Vader’s saber.

There was no time to comprehend this, but what Irele understood is that she needs to use this to advantage… now.

She pushed one hand further away, towards Vader—in effect, he was being backed away, by her. The girl took one more step, and alternately used the other hand to do the same thing as the first hand. Once aligned again, she slowly gravitated both hands to each other, closing the space in the middle and she watched Vader succumbing to his knees.

“Yes…” he lowed, rather satisfied. “You are strong with the Force. Like the blood before you.”

Those words rang into Irele’s soul, like a heavy bell with its ram, and on the top of her mind, there was one that came: Anakin.

She ceased using the Force and stumbled to her bottom, Vader remained kneeling but he held his head up to face the frightened, confused teen.

“Well done, Irele. You are ready.”

–

15 BBY

Irele’s training program did not hold her back, neither did it confine her within the walls of the fortress in Nur.

Roughly a month after her first year, she was tasked to hunt Jedi. Everything she needs to know about them—she did some reading in her time alone. She studied every form, their art and history: down to the most minute part of the culture and norms. And especially the broken legacy that had was their downfall.

It’s been an impressive second year.

Irele has been training consistently, of course, having nothing else to do—except interact with HY-L33, whose programming has been modified into half-protocol droid and half-nanny droid. Most crew members who had the gall to speak to the girl kept telling her that interaction with a droid does little with human social development and growth, to which, in her chagrin, Irele would reply: “I think I’m too old to be told about pediatric psychology.”

Despite her snark, Irele tries to be learned in terms of battle strategies—she’s juggled combat training with studying naval strategies and ground assault tactics, after learning that she may be dispatched on  missions with a squadron of troopers in a particular planet from time to time. In one or more occasions, she would cross paths with the devilish Admiral Thrawn, but rarely do they meet for conferences—virtual or otherwise. She can’t help but use some of her street smarts in campaigns, which more often than not, actually works.

These privileges that she enjoys were personally decreed by Vader himself, in the hopes that she would maximize her abilities from more than being a reckless warrior. Some were against it because they perceive her as a rebellious, smart-mouthed child; others decide to give her a chance, because after all, she is a growing girl who’s got a lot to learn in this kind of world she’s been thrown in.

Not all know what she was before—but to generalize it, she was just some local girl in a desolate planet in the middle of nowhere.

The droid HY-L33 looked for her master, and found Irele examining and polishing her lightsaber—something she crafted on her own, the exterior at least. The kyber crystal was harvested from a Jedi survivor she killed not too long ago, in a tropical moon where she was dispatched alone with little to no reinforcements as the troopers were designated as patrols in the town.

“Lady Irele, the briefing with the Inquisitors is due in thirty minutes.”

“Ah yes, the Jedi hunters,” Irele’s brows furrowed, “I thought I wasn’t required?”

“Indeed, but it’s been said to be beneficial for your upcoming campaigns.”

“Who said so?”

“Lord Vader, apparently… and the Grand Inquisitor.”

“Right then, thank you, Haylee.”

Irele dressed into her garbs. Tailored to perfection: the bodysuit and pants were a dark gray waterproof fabric so that the garment won’t weigh her down when fighting under inclement weather such as rain, fog, and snow. The standard material for the armor plating was duraplast—tried and tested against Stormtroopers’ blaster fire and Purge Troopers’ electro-powered weapons—and it covered her torso, shoulders, and forearms; an armor skirt made from the same material complemented the utility belt. Supposedly, they’re to be worn when in the field, but since she’s been cooped up in the Fortress in the past few days, she doesn’t bother strapping on the armaments.

Lastly, she slipped into her low, black boots. Looking at the mirror, she bound her hair in a ponytail. It was once a medium bob with ragged tips, but now she’s grown it out to a length just after her shoulders.

“Alright, I’m ready. I’ll see you in a bit, Haylee.”

The droid gave a short bow and Irele departed her room.

Nur has become her home. The metal maze once confused her, but now she knows where she’s going even with her eyes closed.

She stepped into a turbolift and pressed the button that leads her to the level where the holding rooms and war rooms are.

“Holding Room A-121,” she muttered to herself in reminder.

Along the way, she exchanged short or curt bows to the crewmen who bothered tipping their hats or saluting to her as a greeting. When she saw the engraved number on the door, she pressed another button to prompt the door open. Before her was the group of Inquisitors around a table, lounging about like schoolchildren. Her entrance silenced their already hushed conversations and she stepped in, hoping to find a spot to sit the farthest from them.

“Oh, look who’s come to join us. The favorite.” chided one of the male Inquisitors.

“Let’s make this quick so we can forget each other’s sorry asses were in the same room.”

The briefing consisted of the locations where they would be dispatched. Holograms reflecting the planets flashed one by one on the podium, head profiles of surviving Jedi flashed after the planets, and Irele squinted her eyes on a particular one that stood out like a sore, red thumb.

“Do you know this one, Irele?” one of the male Inquisitors, the Second Brother, asked Irele. He noticed she looked at this one Jedi rather specially—or so he thinks.

Irele turned her eyes to the Inquisitor and replied with a frosty “No” and then she scanned the other head shots. She studied them, since she didn’t want her not being a Jedi-turned-Inquisitor to be a disadvantage. She’s got as much as grit as the rest of them. After the briefing, she isolated herself in one of the couches, locked herself away deep in thought that the Inquisitors’ chatter was just white noise.

She couldn’t wait to retreat to her bedchambers, where she can have some time of her own, unafraid that her idea and its credit might be stolen by another. Over time, Irele has proven to be the kind who “does their homework,” for instance, she remained in the holding room when everyone else had left—probably starting their leg of the hunt once they’re off the moon—and studied the briefing’s log.

“The Jedi are going to be extra cautious if they discover the Inquisitors are hunting them out,” she spoke under the finger against her lip. “Inquisitors are too obvious to spot. The uniforms are a dead giveaway…”

Her eyes widened at the thought.

“But I won’t!” she gasped.

Before leaving the room, she humored herself with listening to the voice logs of Stormtrooper Commanders during their operation in Zeffo. She switched between data tapes, hoping to find an inkling if it was the best place to start.

Audio Data 03403, plays:

“Most of the ancient relics have been extracted from the tombs after much deep digging. Although the acquisition of these antiques were done at the expense of some of us here. Captain Kane, for instance. Who was tagged as K.I.A. while excavating more of these relics underground when local fauna attacked her and a few men in her team.”

Irele stopped midway and scrolled a new one in the databank. Audio Data 34735 plays:

“I’m starting to have a feeling that our patrols are thinning out…”

“Finally, something interesting,” she commented.

“We don’t have the luxury of deploying new troops while sending injured men to the nearest Star Destroyer or outpost. No thanks to that Jedi that was obviously headed in the same direction as we are.”

The girl’s eyes widened upon hearing the word. Her chest tightened, her heartbeat was slow but the thumping was heavy, she could almost feel it pulse through the skin of her ribs. She anticipated more.

“Though I don’t think he was after the relics. I think he was after only one relic, that I don’t know though. Whatever it is, it’s important. But another important thing is that we need to do our job if we don’t wanna lose it—or worse, our lives.”

She’s heard enough and stopped playing the audio recordings. She clicked her way to the metadata of the file and saw that both recordings were one and two days old respectively. She rushed back to her bedroom to slip into her armor, entering the room startled HY-L33, leaving her stuttering and practically choking on what words to say.

“Miss Irele?”

“Haylee, run me a quick scan. How far are we from Zeffo?”

Without question, the droid obeyed. For a minute or two, she stared with unblinking photoreceptors, the white light behind them was unmoving as a faint whirring ran in her central processing unit.

“Approximately two and a half parsecs away, milady.”

“Too wasteful to use Anathema’s hyperspace. No small carrier armed with hyperspace, but the speed is there.”

The words literally rolled off of Irele’s mouth as she talks to herself until she comes into an epiphany of an idea.

“Come on, Haylee!”

“Coming, Lady Irele.” the droid monotonously cooed but one can sense the urgency she adapted with her mistress.

[myhauntedsalem]

30 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics Describe their Most Disturbing Medical Stories

1. The Guessing Game

“I work as an ICU nurse. A mid-20s female came in with some serious cardiac abnormalities and then went into respiratory distress. Never had any medical history at all. We had to put her on the ventilator, but she was on just enough sedation to keep her lucid. She could nod/shake her head yes and no appropriately to questions.

One night, the patient in the room next to hers died, but the body was still in the room about to be taken to the morgue. The female patient’s door was closed with curtains drawn, so she couldn’t have seen what was going on next door. When I went in to check on her, she had a look of sheer panic on her face, trembling. I asked her a series of questions to see if she was cold/hot/in pain/etc. and she denied all. I asked her if she saw something—she started to aggressively nod her head YES. She wasn’t on any drugs that would make her hallucinate. I went on to get details on what this thing looked like. After playing 20 questions I got this: a man, pale white, left arm missing, heavy, bald, standing still, behind me. This was the man who had just died next door.

I spent the rest of the night consoling her.” – whites42

2. Life After Death

“When I was on an ER rotation during med school we got a call about a 23-year-old woman who was shot in the head, and who was already completely gone, but was reportedly five months pregnant so they were doing CPR until they got her to the hospital to see if the baby was viable. They got her to the ER and did an ultrasound and turned out the baby was full-term so they did a C-section in like under a minute and got the baby out.

I don’t think it’s so incredibly uncommon but it was pretty surreal to see a baby delivered from a dead person with their brain exposed and she was pretty close to the same age I was at the time.” – bluegraypurple

3. The Last Goodbye

“When I was a student, I got called in on a stroke patient. She had coded and they were doing CPR. They worked for 45 minutes, but she died. They cleaned her up, and called on the family to say goodbye, but by that time the family left. She had been both brain dead and without a pulse for more than 45 minutes. Blood had filled her brain, and she was completely grey and started to smell. Suddenly, she sat up, and called for her family. The nurses rushed to get monitors and equipment back on her. They started working on her again, she stabilized, said goodbye to her family, and promptly died a second time.” – simplesimon6262

4. Miracle Man

“When I was in trauma surgery in upstate by, got a notification about a man who was shot 3 times in the head. He comes in, literally one eye hanging out of the socket, blood everywhere, and he’s slumped forward. Apparently, he was shot in the temple, exited out his right eye socket, in the nose exited from the roof of the mouth, and In the cheek one with exit from the side of the head.

At this point, I’m thinking they just brought him in so we can pronounce him in the ER because he looked dead. I go to examine him and tilt his head back, and he says ‘Yoooo be gentle!’ I jump back and scream like a little boy, as did everyone in the room. Literally, the bullets missed his brain in every single shot.” – Noimnotonacid

5. Bleeding

“One of the aides I work with said she was doing postmortem care on a patient who had been on many, many anticoagulants before death. She said when they turned her on her side she started bleeding out of every orifice—eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. She said her and the nurse went home and had nightmares for a week.” – sparklingbluelight

6. The Haunted Hospital

“My town has two really old hospitals. One no longer functions overnight, and the stories are unsettling. No one cleans the old ER alone because all the lights and call bells go off. On other floors, there’s a kid with his ball, a lady in a white dress, etc. A coworker was cleaning an entire floor utterly solo (the norm) and bounced between rooms because the cleaning solution stays wet for a few minutes. Upon returning to a freshly wiped bed, hand prints were clearly visible.” – Sapphire_Starr

7. Eyeless

“I used to do home care for an elderly lady with learning disabilities and no eyes (they were removed due to a congenital condition). She was lovely but prone to wandering around her flat at night in total silence, which led to several horrifying situations where I left my room at 2 am only to encounter her standing silently in the hallway, turning her eyeless face towards me.” – NovelistResearcher

8. Lonely

“One call that will always haunt me was on an unresponsive female at around three in the morning. We get there and do some pointless CPR along with the fire department… She had been dead for a while; no shock-able rhythm, and clear rigor mortis. The most disturbing part was that the original caller was her 11-year-old daughter, who had just spent three days with her mother’s corpse and called 9-1-1 because she was ‘lonely’. It also didn’t help that the victim was completely naked when we arrived.” – CupofJoe776

9. Clear Waters

“I have quite a few stories, most of them are hilarious and then there are those you never want to think about. What fucked me up the most was when I saw how eyes change at the moment of death. Imagine you are looking at clear water but that clear water changes to foggy in an instant. In my 8 years here I’ve only seen this once, and I’ve personally seen well over 250 dead or dying people.” – ImCuden

10. Night Lights

“I work nights in a long-term care facility as a nurse’s assistant. I have two men under my care and both of them are unable to use their call lights. They have severe dementia and debilitating Parkinson’s disease but still, their lights are looped around their bed rail. One night their light came on and I went to answer it already confused and creeped out. I turned it off and left the room. Before I could get two doors up the light came back on. I went in there and both lights were unplugged from the wall and thrown under their beds. I fished them out, plugged them back in and left.

I’ve seen shadows standing over the dying and felt a tap on my shoulder while doing chest compression’s so I knew that lady had passed.” – beeoakly

11. Holding Hands

“I’ve had a couple of weird calls. One was a major MVA-head on many, many years ago when we played M.E. as well. We had 2 DOA (husband and spouse) that were killed instantly in a head-on collision. They had a 12-year-old daughter that was in between them and they actually took the impact, saving her life.

While en route, we noticed the husband’s arm had come loose so I went back to re-strap it. As I was doing that, the wife’s arm suddenly fell out as well, and her hand fell into her husband’s. My boss was watching in the rearview mirror and helped clear the way as I ran back into the front. It spooked both of us. Apparently, the couple (mid 30’s), had just found out he was cancer free after his last treatment.” – Anonymous

12. Last Meal

“I had an old lady come in by ambulance, near death. She was a DNR (do-not-resuscitate), so we weren’t going to do much for her. She didn’t have any family that we could find. The hospital was full, so we had to keep her in the ER for the night.

Again, she was near death. When you’ve seen enough people die, there’s no mistaking it, and she was almost there. Barely responsive; pale, cool, breaths were really irregular, heart rate was up and down, too. We just turned the lights down and kept an eye on her monitor, basically waiting for her to die.

About an hour later, she’s standing at the door of her room. She’d gotten up and put on all her clothes. We were all like, ‘WTF?’ One of the nurses went to check on her, and she said she was hungry. Not knowing really what to make of things, we got her a chair, a bedside table, and went to the cafeteria and got her a tray of food.

She sat there, ate all her food, talked with the staff a little. After about an hour, she told her nurse that she was tired and wanted to lie back down. We helped her back into bed, and within 30 minutes she was dead.” – Anonymous

13. “Don’t Let me go Back there”

“When my mom worked as an E.R. nurse a guy came in from a car accident and was losing blood. In the midst of resuscitation, the man jolts awake and screams ‘Don’t let me go back there! Please, please, please don’t let me go back!’ A few seconds later they lost him.” – JeremyHowell

14. The Rusty Old Saw

“This woman was clearly struggling mentally. She went into her basement and started sawing at her wrists horizontally with a rusty hacksaw, bleeds a good amount, and then starts walking around the house. She wasn’t dying quick enough, so she sat down in a chair in the middle of the living room, and started going at her wrists again, this time with a pair of scissors.

I was the second person inside the house. It looked like a massacre. We searched the house top to bottom, fully expecting to find multiple dead bodies in there. I’ve never seen so much blood in my life. Every single room had a trail of blood in it.

The woman was found on a chair in the living room. Rigor mortis had contorted her body into a really strange, unnatural pose, and her face was haunting. Literally the stuff of nightmares. Her wrists had huge chunks of skin/veins/muscle missing from them. Saying she slit her wrists is inaccurate. She ripped them to pieces.” – anoncop1

15. Visitors

“I work a stroke/telemetry floor on the bought shift. Most of our patients are elderly. Apparently, there are two things that patients see before they pass away. Some will say that two men are walking in their rooms and telling them to get ready to leave. The patient will call and tell us that these men are big and abrasive in their demeanor. They are either terrified or annoyed when they see the two men. The other thing they will see is a little boy who will go into their rooms and try to wake them up. The boy is usually loud and runs around their rooms. The patients will call and ask who’s letting children just run around late night. Several nights or even that same shift we’re coding or cleaning the patient for the funeral home to pick up.” – pokfynder

16. The Handsome Man in Black

“I used to work in a skilled nursing facility, usually assigned to the Alzheimer’s ward. One night I’m in the linen room stocking my cart, and I heard someone shuffle up behind me, then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and there was no one else in the room. The door was still shut too.

Another lady started to complain that a man was coming into her room at night (again, Alzheimer’s so I didn’t think much of it) so to reassure her, I told her I’d check on her throughout the night. She complained of this man for every night for two more weeks when I asked her to describe him to me.

‘He’s real handsome, and wears a black suit. Oh. He’s right behind you now, honey.’

That freaked me the f*ck out. Of course, there was no one behind me. She died the next night in her sleep.” – Anonymous

17. The Blender

“We got a call for a male in his early 30s with ‘heavy groin trauma’ (exact words of the dispatcher). We roll up lights and sirens and the guy is waiting for us on the front step with a towel over his crotch. We barely come to a stop and the guy is already running towards the rig holding this towel. I asked him what was wrong and he moved the towel and this guy’s dick was just barely hanging on. Apparently, he had ‘lady problems’ so he decided to fornicate with the food mixer he had in his kitchen and accidentally turned it on.” – YayShinny

18. The Charred Skin

“Motorcycle driver, accident, third-degree burns, arrived DOA. Had to transfer him from ambulance gurney to ER bed. As we were moving him with a transfer sheet, the liquefied/cooked subcutaneous fat caused the charred skin on his back to separate and his body slipped onto the floor (despite several of us trying to ‘catch’ him).” – Doc-in-a-box

19. Dead Man Moaning

“Worked security through college at a local hospital. The only ‘creepy’ thing I remember is when a dead man moaned. One of my duties was to help wheel patients who had expired down to the in-house morgue. Once we were wheeling an older man from the ER down and halfway down the hallway he let out this low moan. I started to panic, thinking that he was coming back to life but the RN explained to me (newbie) that sometimes the air in the lungs doesn’t come out until sometime later or is delayed for a bit.” – ill_do_it-later

20. Otherworldly Screams

“I have had fellow coworkers swear that strange things have occurred in the ER. Two people that I work with were charting at the nurse’s station when they both heard a scream followed by incoherent words come from one of our open bays. There were three patients in the room and they denied screaming or hearing anything. I have also had fellow coworkers talk about hearing strange voices especially after really bad codes and one person states she felt someone grabbing her shoulder after the doc pronounced a trauma code. These are all respectable people and I do not think they would lie.” – Anonymous

21. Blank Stare

“We got a call to go out to a scene for an elderly woman with chest pains. I arrive at the house, front door is open. We knock, hear the old woman calling out from the back ‘I’m in the back room’ in a very monotone and calm voice. My partner and I go to the back of the house looking for this woman, and that’s when we smelled it. Nothing prepares you for the smell of rotting corpse. I’ve smelled it a dozen times, and it never gets any less disturbing. We radio for police and ALS backup as we move through the house.

We opened the door to the master bedroom, and there is our patient. She is approximately 80, and she is staring at the master bathroom with these cold, dead eyes. She never once looked at us as we approached her and began talking to her. I got to the bedside and got in front of her gaze, and she just looked right through me. I turned around to see what she could possibly be looking at, and there was the source of my smell.

A man, about the same age as my patient, is on the floor with very little left of his head still attached to his body. A shotgun lay on the floor next to him, and most of his head was strewn about the walls and bathroom counter. We loaded the woman up in the ambulance, and our police backup pulled up.

I don’t think that woman blinked once the entire time she was in our care.” – TheFilthiest

22. “Bill’s Here”

“I’m an RN and while I was a student I was caring for a lady who had an end-stage renal failure, had a DNAR (do not attempt resuscitation) and was shutting down. We were having a little chat when she stopped, looked over my shoulder and said ‘Bill’s here love, I’ve got to go,’ and swiftly stopped breathing. Read her old notes and Bill was her deceased husband.” – Jesspandapants

23. The Body on the Floor

“The call was for an older woman, lying in bed. When we get there, the smell is horrendous of a dead body. There are millions of flies everywhere and a little old lady in lying in the bed, alive. About five feet away, there is a body covered up by a sheet. The lady was a dementia patient, and her husband (the deceased) was the primary caregiver. Based on the number of flies and state of decomposition, the police estimated the guy had been dead for about three weeks. The woman must have been getting some food out of the refrigerator, but it was totally empty by the time we arrived.

The creepiest part happened on the way to the hospital with the woman, she said, ‘I hope that nice man on the floor is OK’.” – Tools4toys

24. The Fallen Cross

“I responded to a call where a janitor was dusting quite a large stone cross in the middle of a church. He had been up on a ladder cleaning, when he slipped off, and proceeded to try to hold onto the cross to keep from falling. Unfortunately, the weight of the 200-pound man was too much to support. The cross fell towards him, landing on his left arm, with a part of the horizontal stone of the cross, pushing his muscles and tendons out of his wrist like a squeezed toothpaste tube. Then the cross fell completely on him splattering his brain across the floor. Quite disturbing, and definitely the most horrific and gore filled call I had ever witnessed.” – UpboatOarKnotUpboat

25. The Headless Nurse

“I used to work in St Barts Hospital in London, which in parts is over 1,000 years old. One of the buildings had 2 floors (with massively high ceilings), and so the floors were taken out and rearranged to make into 5 floors. The nurses working night shift would often tell us of the ghost of a night nurse who wandered silently doing her ’rounds’ at night—but due to the new floors, only her head would be visible drifting down the ward.” – jenthejedi

26. Monsters

“I was still a nursing student at the time, but this was from when I had my psychiatric clinical placement in my 3rd year.

I was assigned to a young male patient with schizophrenia. He had been a voluntary admission because he heard voices telling him to hurt people around him, and he admitted himself because he was afraid of actually going through with it.

Anyway, I went into the room alone, as usual, and did the usual introduction and asking how he was doing. He was at a desk drawing creepy, hideous monsters—each monster had its own page, and there had to be at least half a dozen of these pages scattered around him. I asked him what they were. He answered that those were the monsters he saw. They were the monsters that whispered to him and told him to hurt people and do awful things. Guarded, I asked him, ‘Are they telling you to hurt me?’

He answered, ‘Yes.’

I didn’t stay very long in that room.” – duckface08

27. The Man in Black

“People turn batshit crazy and creepy as hell when they get really sick. There’s even a term called ICU psychosis…and trust me, it’s real. Anyway, the creepiest that takes the cake for me is this (am an ICU nurse, btw): Had a patient who was admitted for overdose. Very long history of mental health problems. She was thrashing around in bed, very combative, kicking people’s asses for days, totally incoherent.

Well, the night I had her, she started making decent sense, but still not oriented at all. She was extremely paranoid and kept talking about the man in black in the corner. I’d hear her talking to him and screaming, all night long. So I’d go in there and try to calm her down, but you could see the fear in her eyes. she was talking other nonsense about how she was in space and shit, and with certain patients, you try to redirect their ‘reality,’ but what I did didn’t help. She said ‘that man in black! Don’t you see him!’ and pointed to the corner. I said ‘there’s nobody here.’ I stepped in the corner she was pointing to and waved my hands around. While I’m waving my hands around in the air, she had the most horrifically terrified look on her face that actually scared the shit out of me, like I had just assaulted the man in black. I said ‘see, there’s nobody here’ and she said in a matter-of-factly that’s what you think.’ I promptly got the fu*k out of there.” – HeatherTakasaki

28. Eyes Wide Open

“I work in palliative. Most deaths I’ve seen have been more or less peaceful, though the ones that are not, stick with you. One guy was silently screaming through his last few hours of life. Another guy (who up until this point had been unresponsive) reached up and grabbed me when we attempted to lower his bed to turn him.

One time while doing post-mortem care I walked into the room and thought ‘that’s weird, how come nobody has closed his eyes yet?’ He had that movie-perfect dead look, with pale blue staring eyes and slack jaw and greyish, waxy skin. I closed his eyes and started the care, and when I looked again those eyes, still staring at me, were slowly opening, one slightly slower than the other. He groaned when we turned him to wash his back and his hand managed to clamp onto the bed rail and we had to pry it off. When we finally got him onto his back again, there was a foul-smelling, oily black, viscous liquid on the pillowcase. I cleaned his mouth again thinking it must have come from there, but his mouth and nose were clean. The best I could figure the stuff had come from his eye. I couldn’t wait to get that bag zipped up.” – draakons_pryde

29. Crawling up the Hallway

“I used to work as an STNA in a nursing home. Worked third shift throughout university. During the night we turned half the lights off so it was darker for the evening and didn’t get a lot of light in the residents’ rooms. We had one resident who was younger (70s) and was mostly in for mental reasons. She had long, dark hair and was very thin.

I was sitting at the nurse’s station at the top of the hall and heard a call light go off. I stood up, looked down the dark hall, and on all fours—straight out of The Ring—this resident was crawling up the hall toward me. The other STNA had forgotten to put the bed rail up and the resident was VERY good at climbing out of bed.

Needless to say, I needed some new britches and my heart was racing a mile a minute.” – blameitonthewookie

30. Heaven

“Had a young woman in full liver failure. She was orange in color and she was still conscious. She asked me what I thought it would be like to die. I told her I didn’t know but I hoped it wouldn’t be painful. She then asked me if I thought I would go to heaven. I told her that I believed I would. She asked me if I thought she would go to heaven, and I told her I wasn’t able to answer that question.

She then told me ‘I am going to heaven and I know it,’ and I asked her how she knew that and she told me something that I will never ever forget. She told me ‘I know I am because that man over there told me so.’ I asked what man and she said the man sitting on the end of the bench. I asked her what he looked like and she said ‘he looks just like the Jesus on the windows of my church.’

Well, to tell you I was pretty well affected by that statement. She then went on to say ‘And he says that you are going to go to heaven too.’

We then prayed and I will never forget that interaction between the two of us. About a week later she passed away. I hope she made it to heaven.” – Anonymous

[fictionalpositive]

Highschool lovers

This is my very first Jason Peter Todd fan fiction, I hope you enjoy it! 

Jason Peter Todd fanfiction 

Completed on 7th July 2020

6000+ words 

Set within the new 52. 

The characters and all it’s rights belong to DC comics. 

(Y/N) (L/N) smiled to herself, applying the red lipstick on her lips. Her sleek beige brown strands were brushed straight with brown contacts in her eyes. Letting a big huff she walked out from the toilet, she heard a group of boys laughing from the corner as a smile graced her lips. She skipped towards the boy who stood amongst his friends with his back that faced her.

Jason Peter Todd

With a red and blue jacket he had his hair slicked back with gel. She could see his shoulder shake as his laugh reached her ear. She slowly wrapped her arms around his waist to where the boy jumped slightly. He turned his head back.

“杰森， 为什么你很高兴吗?”(1) she whispered in his ear as she giggled digging her eyes into the crook of his nape. “艾， （名字）.”(2) he said, he turned, wrapping his arms around the small form of the young girl hugging him from his behind.

“你们说什么?” (3) She asked.

“Nothing serious,” he said, turning his body around as he wrapped his arms around her shoulder. “Bye.” Jason could hear the utters of disapproval coming behind him before they laughed while his shoulder was over her shoulder.

(1) Jason, why are you so happy?

(2) Oh, (Y/N)

(3) What were you guys talking about?

"What was that?" (Y/N) asked him before he shrugged his shoulders, a smirk on his face. “I was telling them how beautiful you were,” he said, poking her nose. “Were?” she questioned as he giggled. “My mistake, I was telling them ‘How beautiful you are,’ doll” The girl's cheek heated up at the bashful words. Her lips curved upwards, she wrapped her arms around his neck and connected their lips together in a silent kiss.

Oh, how much she loved this boy.

A chuckle erupted from Jason’s lips, "what was that?” he questioned.  

"You just seemed so kissable at the moment." Her eyes glimmered as she looked at him with her head tilted slightly downwards. The boy states silent, kissing her forehead. “I thought I looked kissable everyday,” he said running a finger through his hair brushing the long locks.

“Gosh, we need to cut this off Jason.” She groaned pulling at his mullet. “My parents want to meet you,” she whispered, tucking at the hair that framed his face.

“Does my hair look bad?” he questioned as he raised his brow, the corners of his lips quirked in a smirk directed at his lover. “I mean— you do… but it’s not appropriate for the gathering gala….” she answered touching his nape, drawing circles.

“I know,” he said, frowning as he held her chin up. “Are you scared they won’t accept me?”

She looked down.

Of course she was. What asian kid wouldn’t be.

“They’re just so judgy, I told them you weren’t Asian . . . and well . . . you know how that went.” Her words continued, “but they’re glad you’re a Wayne.” she stated happily as Jason only giggled in response.

Jason let out a giggle before he wrapped his arms around her sighing at the thought of the Gala.“Remind me why we have to go again?” Jason questioned slightly letting his cheeks puff a little at his lover. The girl only smiled giggling a little bit before kissing his nose. “It’s our last year of highschool Jay, I would love to tell my parents my dear boyfriend of 6 months.” she cooed slowly tracing her fingers up his cheeks.

“I would also love it if your parents were more accepting of me,” he whispered, kissing her nose making her let out a small gasp. (Y/N) giggled at his loving gesture.

“Now you’re just making me worry….” (Y/N) said teasingly.

“Don’t worry (Y/N), I was adopted by the fanciest man alive,” he reassured, jokingly pulling her close. “They’ll definitely like this good face in a black turtleneck and a grey suit.” he said chuckling at the way she blushed.

“Yeah, they’ll definitely like a makeover 杰森.”(4) She replied giggling tracing her hand over his hair. “But you’re fine just the way you are a jaybird,” she swooned.

“It’s never too late for a make out session after school,” he whispered before she smiled. “How about a quick one now,” she said before connecting their lips again. Running her hand through his hair before she pulled away.

“You better be at the gym afterschool (L/N).” he whispered before connecting their lips again in a chaste kiss. She giggled.

“I’ll be there Todd,” she said before leaving him to class.

“是的，可以啊爸爸，今天我走了, 我长胖了.”(5) (Y/N) told her father as he just agreed with what she had told him. She closed the phone hearing Jason mutter out in annoyance, “你不胖，你是苗条.”(6) She giggled but came to him, placing herself on his lap kissing him from above to where he complied. “我需要减肥,”(7) She whispered but he gripped her waist pulling her close. “You don’t know how beautiful your body is to me (Y/N),” he said kissing her neck. A light giggle escaped her lips.

“Ya whatever just shut up and kiss me.”

“Oh desperate I see?.”

“Jason...” she trailed. Her brows furrowed.

The boy chuckled before kissing her lips, “don’t worry, I’ll definitely satisfy you.”

(4) Jason

(5) Ya, Let me father, I’ll walk home, I’ve been getting fatter

(6) You’re not fat, you are slim

(7) I need to lose weight

(Y/N) smiled before she ducked her head to the boy under her. He trailed his hand on her sides, resting his fingers on the fold of her hips. Licked her bottom lip. (Y/N) let out a small whimper before he roamed her wet cavern. Both of their eyes closed with lips molded in a heated session. Her hands were tugging at his hair, her body buckled forward, desperately trying to pull him closer. His right hand released her hip moving towards her back, tracing heart patterns with his index finger as she smiled standing again and looking at him from above. Their bodies tangled together like a braided dance. He opened his eyes as the sight on top of him made his breath hitch.

The epiphany hit him. The jingle of bells drummed in his ear as his eyes couldn’t take off the face he had in front of him. (L/N) (Y/N) was absolutely beautiful. Her bright (e/c) was covered with the brown contact lenses and streaks of her natural (h/c) was starting to grow from her brown dyed hair. Her flushed face made his blood boil as he could feel his jaws weirdly feeling light, he clenched his teeth before diving into her neck. Trailing it with small peppery kisses. (Y/N) giggled before she smiled bringing his head back up to see her face.

“You’re all mine,” he growled between the kisses.

She pulled away, showing him her doe eyes as her lips gently curved.

“I’m all yours, Love.”

Love? A brazen move. He knew how much his lover knew he loved being called ‘Love’. The word that explicitly explains a passionate gleam of light between two people. The word he became fond of after completely falling for (Y/N) (L/N). Melting his heart and giving life to the butterflies in his stomach. Oh, how much he loved that pet name.

He stopped as he placed his head on the crook of her neck. Leaving it there. Before he found one spot that made her bend forward. Her lips eliciting a loud moan that escaped her mouth. He quickly placed his arms around her waist, holding onto her tightly.

“You belong to me (Y/N) (L/N).”

Leaving a red mark on her neck.

“Isn't that absurd? And now I’m not allowed to go patrol with him anymore," Jason whined at the girl.

(Y/N) watched as the droplets of water fell down his cheeks. His hair was framing his face in the most adorable way. She let out a chuckle before placing his jacket around her.

“You sure you wanna go by foot? I could always drop you with Alfred—” Jason was cut off by (Y/N) connecting their lips in a chaste kiss. “Don’t worry Jason, I’ll be fine.”

(Y/N) grazed his cheek with the feathery touch of her lip. "See you later, love." She said before rushing out the door of the MRT. With eyes wide as saucers his hand tickled his nose as he let out a small chuckle.

“I’m definitely lucky.” the words left like a small whisper before he looked back up at the phone in his hand. Seeing a message pop from the screen, he quickly unlocked it departing to meet Alfred at the entry of the station.

“Master Jason, I would like to stress that Master Bruce won’t be able to join your Gala tonight,” Alfred told the young child as Jason nodded silently thanking the Gods Bruce wasn’t going to come. “That’s alright Alfred!”

“Anyways up to your room Master Jason,” Jason nodded replying enthusiastically before going into his room. He stopped as his head peaked out from his door again. Eyes looking for the Wayne butler as he requested him a favor.

“Actually Alfred! Can you do my hair today?”

Alfred stopped turning back to look at the boy as he only smiled in return favoring the determination in Jason’s eyes before dramatically sighing and nodding replying to Jason. “I will be back shortly after I get your suit Master Jason.” He said, he turned around to get Jason’s suit.

Jason smiled before hopping into the shower to wash himself further than he had already done at school. Well, it would’ve been suspicious of him to not take a shower after going home like he always does in the manor. It was one of his salvations.

As he stepped out of the shower, He heard the click of his door resonate as eyes looked excitedly at the man standing in front of the door with a dark blue suit. “Oh, blue?” Jason asked slightly disappointed as he thought he was going to wear grey.

“This would make a better impression of you Master Jason, you do want to impress Miss (Y/N)’s parents now don’t you?” Alfred questioned as Jason only listened and nodded, while Alfred dressed him. “I would like to ask what do you find so endearing of Miss (Y/N) Master Jason?” Alfred curiously questioned before Jason just whipped his head back beaming at the man with his joyful expression.

“Everything! She’s amazing….” Jason sighed, closing his eyes and feeling Alfred smother the gel on his hair “Adorable, smart, diligent, self-aware, gorgeous…” Jason continues to sputter out compliments as Alfred only smiled at the lovesick boy he tended to in front of him.

“I see you are besotted with her Master Jason,” Alfred said smiling. Jason furrowed his brows at the word Alfred used, Besotted? What did that mean? He was sure he'd read that word somewhere in a book before, what did it mean again….

Then it clicked.

“Ya, definitely Alfred.” he replied before he heard his phone ring in the background. He took it and unlocked it to see the message you had sent him.

‘Can’t wait to see you tonight >v<’ it said.

He smiled replying back. ‘Me to.’ It was simple yet it put (Y/N)’s heart into a million flutters.

From the other side (Y/N) giggled at his reply, her mind racing with the thought of seeing Jason in a suit while he would hug her and kiss all over. Just the thought of Jason made her stomach flutter as she couldn’t tame the small laughs that came from her stomach. Though it went to an abrupt stop the moment her mother called out for her to go downstairs and check on the chef with the butler as she shouted back and happily leaving her phone on the counter.

Jason stepped out of the limo as Alfred had wished him good luck. Jason gulped before standing in front of the black and white house that belonged to his girlfriend. Sure it wasn’t as big as the mansion he had been living in the past few years but it was big and secured enough for him to know how rich your family was. “你是谁?” (8) the voice asked beside him as he smiled at the camera. “Jason Todd.” The sound of shuffling paper resonated within the microphone before eyes darting from the LED-screen in front of him back to the tablet that emitted more paper-like shuffle noises.

“你要什么?” (9)

“Gala.”

“好啊. ”(10)

(8) Who are you?

(9) (Y/N)

(10) ah, okay.

The large and tall wall that was supposedly a gate opened before the sound of creaking metal followed. The bright light in his eye diminished as Jason stepped forward, greeted by two dogs that barked, alerting the people of the stranger that had stepped foot within their territory. One was of the dog breed Kangal and the other of a pure albino breed of dogo argentino. They were both behind a glass cage that seemed to connect with the mansion. Eyes furing with hunger as their barks roared through the tunnel, both dogs running back inside the house as Jason’s brows furrowed.

Great, two passive-aggressive guard dogs…. his mind confused on the overpowered breeds of dogs (Y/N) had when she had a younger sister only of the age three.

“Jason!” that angelic voice called out to him. His eyes dilated at the sweet voice, his gaze quickly moved to the source looking straight ahead of him. The dress that flowed effortlessly in the wind, the white flower that garnished the side of her (h/c) hair and small pink flowers of different shades and sizes that embellished her dress’s side straps.

“(Y/N),” he called before lifting her up in his arms twirling her around like he hadn’t met her in such a long time. Eyes admiring the fear that glimmers as she held onto his shoulders tightly. “Jay! Put me down,” she said before Jason chuckled and placed her down.

“You look amazing (Y/N),” he whispered before pulling her close and kissing down her neck to where she giggled and pushed him off. “Stop, what if my parents see you kissing me,” she teased before he smiled and pecked her nose. “Then, they should know you’re in good hands.” His hands trailed to the back of her dress that had an open slit as she shivered. “God, Todd!” she whimpered out loud embarrassed as she hit his chest over and over again before an amusing laugh left his lips.

He kneeled on one knee before proceeding to let his hand out while the other was under his shirt. “Shall we, princess?” he asked before she stopped and giggled at his cute antics.

“We shall,” she replied before gracefully placing her hand on top of his, securing her hand on his as he clenched them before going in. A big smile on her face while his face was decorated with a crooked line.

Nervous wasn’t enough to explain the heart wrenching sweat Jason Peter Todd was feeling. He was sure he was in a cold sweat. Even the training by the almighty Batman couldn’t compare to how damp his hands were at the moment as the crooked look on his face showed exactly how jittery he was in front of the family who glared into him while his lover completely blunt of their glares chatted away with her dear cousin right next to him.

Though Jason tried his best to not be overwhelmed by the eyes that dug into the back of his head he couldn’t help but notice the way the females would stare into him with longing as he sweatdropped at the amount of attention he was getting, a little uncomfortable that he had all their attention but not yours.

He sighed, sipping the long glass of champagne in his hand before he annoyingly looked over at (Y/N) who was too endorsed with the conversation she had to even notice his eyes on hers. Jason looked around.

Smiling a little at the thought of his foster father, he was slightly surprised at the hand that fluttered on his shoulder. Turning around he was met with the eyes of hazel and blonde hair. “Glad I’m not the only non-asian here,” she listelessly said from her lips as the strands of pale yellow hair decorated her face complimented the way her cheeks rounded because of her smile.

“Haha, I wasn’t expecting another foreigner in the famous (L/N)’s Gala,” Jason said as he smiled and tilted his body to look at her. “Mary Maganda.” Her hands reached out towards Jason while he smiled and shook her hand. He replied,“Jason Todd.”

“Aren’t you a sexy hunk Jason,” she purred letting out a flirtatious wink as Jason chuckled but smirked in return. “Thank you,” he replied, winking back at her as they both let out long laughs from their flirtatious exchange. Jason rubbed his eyes as the girl placed her hand around his shoulder tracing his arm with her index slightly purring, Jason furrowed his brows slightly at the way she traced his arm. His hand flinched away from the contact as the girl looked at him confused but he just smiled.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Jason replied calmly, “Sorry, I have a girl—”

“He’s taken Mary.”

Jason whipped his eyes towards the direction of the voice, feeling lips grace his neck as the female beside him wrapped her fingers around his shoulder. “I can’t help but notice that you were touching what’s mine,” (Y/N) replied, slowly lifting her finger towards her hair as she smiled a happy grin.

“You know you should stay away from what’s mine,” (Y/N)’s breath tickled his neck as he beamed at the contact.

Finding her dominance and jealousy endearing. “Or, I’ll steal everything that’s yours.”

(Y/N) was one of the richest people in the country, in par to Bruce Wayne the billionaire, of course people feared her. Especially when the glint of red appeared in her eyes from when she would be mad or jealous. Her family were considered royalty. Being a tech company also meant she was a genius in the area, the way she could easily hack into their school computers wi-fi without them knowing and the way she had built her own artificial intelligence robot from a young age and being able to explain it without hesitation within the school science fair gave her the title of being the feared yet respected child of the (L/N)’s family. She was definitely not someone you could just mess with without getting away. Especially when she was the heir to the company, not even her brother could deny the fact that (Y/N) was much more educated in the ways of business and technology.

“Didn’t know he was taken (Y/N).” Mary let her hands raise in defeat as the foreign girl stepped back. Her eyes darted worriedly towards another man before she waved and went by.

“You didn’t have to do that, y’know,” Jason replied slightly taken aback by the way (Y/N) had overreacted. He could’ve easily done it himself for god’s sake that was just embarrassing, hiding behind his girlfriends shadow like he couldn’t fend for himself. It was as if she broke his pride with her sword, slit it down his throat, and made him do seppuku.

“I just didn’t like her with you...” she said, teasing him with her fingers as she touched the skin beneath her fingertips. “I know you can handle it by yourself but...” She stared at his eyes, “is it bad that a girl can get jealous too?” Jason let out a small sigh. His lover only looked delighted as she traced her fingers on his hand folding in between the cracks of his fingers before suggesting, “let’s go meet my parents Jay.”

Jason slightly gulped at what she said, his eyes looked worried as his hands started to profoundly get sweatier by the second. Nervously nodding, she let him drag her across the marbled floor of the ballroom before stopping in front of two people. One was a kind looking man with a big stature while the other was a thin woman in a big and elegant dress that complimented her wrinkles.  

Oh god, these were your parents… of course he knew them from the news and the posters set around Gotham but he never really bothered to notice how intimidatingly fancy they looked. Why was he baffled anyways? He was the son of Bruce Wayne for God’s sake! The richest man in Gotham.

“妈！爸！这是杰森！”(11) (Y/N) called out excited that Jason was finally going to meet her parents.

Jason slightly bowed while he shaked (Y/N)’s fathers’ hand. “你-您好（名字）的爸爸，” (12) Jason let out nervously as the man only laughed a little at his nervous voice before he turned to (Y/N)’s mother,“您好（名字）的妈妈，我是杰森。” (13)

“你是（名字）的男朋友？” (14) Her dad questioned. (Y/N) smiled leaning onto Jason’s shoulder before nodding her head furiously. Letting her dad know Jason was her boyfriend.

“I never imagined our (Y/N) being infatuated with a foreigner,” Her dad started as the woman beside him nodded and smiled at Jason. “But my, must I say, you are handsome young lad—just as (Y/N) said,” she told Jason as the warmth that crawled onto his cheek flushed (Y/N)’s cheeks as well.

“谢谢，”(15) Jason embarrassingly replied as her parents laughed.

(11) Mom! Dad! This is Jason!

(12) He-hello (Y/N)’s dad

(13) Hello (Y/N)’s mom, I am Jason

(14) This is (Y/N)’s boyfriend?

(15) Thank you

“It’s alright to use English with us Jason, We used to live in America a couple of years back,” (Y/N)’s mother said in a smile as Jason only chuckled. “I just thought you’d be more comfortable with Mandarin,” Jason said scratching his neck.

“Well, both are fine!” (Y/N)’s father exclaimed, hugging his loving wife.

“What are you planning to do in the future son?” (Y/N)’s father said as Jason slightly tensed at the question. This was the part he was worried of, Chinese parents and their expectations on their kids. He stopped as he felt (Y/N) tug at his hand slightly soothing him with her thumb as he smiled finally looking back and telling them what he had in mind.

“Probably branch out from my father’s company.”

“Ah, I see,” (Y/N)’s father replied timidly as Jason felt relieved for a moment before the atmosphere turned bright. Eyes are boring into Jason's green ones. Before the atmosphere was cut lightly by (Y/N)’s mother. “Go have fun with Jason now sweetie,” (Y/N)’s mother said taking her gently in her arms as she kissed her child’s forehead.

“Have fun then darling,” Her father said.

Taking Jason to the middle of the room she placed her arm around his neck as the music slowly started. The melody soothing into their ears as the illuminating feeling in his heart cherished his chest.

They moved, Jason leading the dance as he loved the look of the top of her head on his shoulder leaning in as they moved gently along with the rhythm of the music that made their feets move to the beat, the sound completely washed their thoughts of anything away as the lyrics resonated with their thoughts of each other. (Y/N) moved her head to look at him right in the eye again. That was when a smile Jason didn’t know he had started to hurt his cheeks. (Y/N) reached up to his face before tracing her thumb on his bottom right eye. Feeling the way the bump of his eye formed from his smile. Her giggles reached his ear as he could feel the sound of his heart drumming in his chest—held gently by her hands.  

“I love you,” Jason breathed out unconsciously before his smile shattered forming a nervous line as his eyes brightened. His cheeks flushed with warmth as his head tilted to look a way a little before he was stopped by her hands holding his face in place.

“As do I, Jason Todd.” she professed.

His heart stopped at the face she was making. Slitted eyes as her long lashes decorated the frame of her long eyes, brows beautifully thick, lips painted with one of the color of a dark cherry. He wondered whether people could see the same exact shape and color on his neck that she had kissed out of jealousy. The music stopped as they continued to dance with their own rhythm too hypnotized with each other's presence that even the appearance of the brother of the family wasn’t a sight to behold anymore.

Her gown twirled on the floor as their movements were accurate and defined, with a graceful step they stopped before giggling and (Y/N)’s head crashed onto his chest from the sudden embarrassed flash of realization that they were the only ones left dancing. Jason looked down at the girl in his hold. Before chuckling himself taking her hand as they both decided to hide from the eyes of the hungry predators that wanted to see their love unfold.

He knew this wasn’t the right time to tell her, but it was important. He wasn’t just going to leave her to utter confusion.

“(Y/N), I have something important I want to tell you,” he started out slowly as she hummed in the process.

“Tell me Jay,” she said slowly listening to the chattering in the crowd.

“I might not be able to see you for a while.”

“What do you mean?” (Y/N) replied.

“For about a couple of months?”

“What? Jason?” her confused demeanour  looked slightly angry as the feeling bubbles in her stomach. A couple of months? What did he mean by that? The once confused look on her face shifted into a sad look, eyebrows knitting upwards as her lips curved downwards, her eyes slitting at the look he was giving her. She was scared. She can’t be apart from Jason, he was her everything. She would have understood if it was a couple of days … but a couple of months? Now that’s absurd! Did he want to leave her? What was this about?

Is he disappointed in her? Just like how her parents were never impressed by her rewards and grades. Like she was never enough. A green feeling engulfed her chest before it started to pump and hurt like she was slowly drowning in her own pain. The look (Y/N) gave Jason made his chest clench. His big hands reached her face as they traced her cheeks before the other pulled her close by the waist to him. His lips let out intoxicating words that were meant to coax her with comfort as they also peppered her skin with sweet light pecks. His fingers and lips grazing her skin with warm hearts made (Y/N) let out a large whimper before she pulled him closer by his vest digging her face in his suit. Letting out the anxiety and insecurity she held close to her chest to protect herself from the hurtful words of her family that degraded her because of her sex. As if she could live to only marry a rich man without being able to provide for their finances herself. She deserved her title as the heiress ... Right? Her brother never really worked hard and he probably wouldn’t be able to accomplish the same thing even if he tried. But under it all, (Y/N) knew who the true heir to her company was … who else could take over the company if it wasn't her first blood-brother? She was a girl for god’s sake—who would even trust her?

Jason let her cry into him, soothing her sobs with the touch of his fingers, leading her closer into his chest.

He didn’t know why she suddenly started crying but he wasn’t going to let her cry on her own. How could he do that.

“D-don’t leave me Jay,” his heart clenched. What?

“Jay, please don’t leave me.”

He looked down at the way she cradled her arms in her other hand, how vulnerable she looked without her even looking at her face with teary eyes. God the effect she had on him even when she was broken to pieces, (Y/N) (L/N) will be the death of him. Though, he was silently dreading the consequences of his decision on the obligation he had to continue as the want for a parental figure in his life drove him further to madness. Sure Bruce was a good father, but he wanted to know more about his parents … or more accurately, he wanted to know the truth. He wanted to know the truth to his life. Jason Todd was always known to be the prideful Robin, different from the previous Dick Grayson. He was brash and brazen, a boy who followed the feel of his heart not his guts; those were just what made him. He had to quench his thirst no matter the consequences, nothing else could’ve mattered more to him at the moment. Though, (Y/N) was definitely one of the people that kept his inner-monster grounded.

“(Y/N), I’m sorry,” he hushly said as she listened to his apology before lifting her head towards him, the blush on her cheeks slightly faded but the beauty in her eyes remains the same.

“Don’t be….” (Y/N) whispered gently, placing her hand on his nape and standing on her toes. Her lips brushed his before Jason connected their lips together, the ecstatic happiness he felt when she finally stopped sobbing made released such a load of dopamine as if seeing her happy fueled him like a drug.

“I’ll be back, I promise—so don’t cry,” He caressed her cheeks gently, wiping the tears away, glad that (Y/N) didn’t need eye makeup to feel pretty, she would’ve cried more if she knew how much of a mess she had become on him. “I’m only going to find my biological mother.” He said as she nodded and left to wipe her eyes. She gave him a bright smile before kissing his cheek and leading them to the buffet.

Though Jason was conflicted inside, his mind was telling him to stay with (Y/N). But his guts were telling him something else, to not go. To stay. He closed his eyes inhaling the sweet scent of marshmallow that engulfed him. Putting him in a state of bliss.

“I really do love you,” Jason Todd mentioned without thinking.

“I love you very much Jason Todd.”

He felt his breath hitch. Hearing the reply form her lips. Her tongue let them out so sweetly he had the urge to just take her on the wall but refrained to do such unsightly things in front of such a big crowd.

God (Y/N) was really going to be the death of him.

“Yeah, I’m in Ethiopia (Y/N),” Jason said to his phone. She sighed at the relief of knowing Jason was fine and safe. “So the two other ones weren’t your mom?” She asked sitting on the bed trying to pick an outfit to go out and hang out with her friends.

“Guess so?” Jason questioned as he went to the hotel.

“Jason, don’t just act on impulse  okay...” (Y/N) said on the other side of the phone. Pulling her hair up in a ponytail leaving strands of hair to form her face. “I want you coming back to me safely Jaybird.”

“When have I haven’t?” Jason teased the way she scolded him.

(Y/N) frowned at his teasing as her hand clenched her sheets looking at herself in the mirror before biting her lips gently. Looking at the way she had once again smudged her lips because of her own anxiety, (Y/N) decided to take it all off. She took tissue and decided to rub it all over her lips before hissing to the phone making Jason worry.

“(Y/N) you okay?” she heard his worry over the phone before she chuckled to herself letting him know she was all right. Looking down and seeing the blood on her napkin. Finally tasting the iron that laid on her lips. SHe only continued to listen to Jason’s Adventure and promised gifts. (Y/N) laughed along with the melody of her heartbeat as they both got lost in the sound of each other’s voice losing time gently to the messages and adventures they had experienced the day without the other.

“AH, damn it.” Jason abruptly said, making (Y/N) confused of what had happened. “Bruce! I told you not to follow me!” Jason exclaimed through the phone making (Y/N) giggle and Bruce furrowed his brows.

“Bruce is there?” she questioned.

“Hello (Y/N).” Bruce said from the other side of the phone with his usual solemn but charismatic voice.

“Hello Mr.Wayne!” (Y/N) said before putting on her shoes and going in her car.

“How are you—”

“Stop talking to my girlfriend!” Jason cut Bruce off taking the phone from his hand before looking at the ground embarrassingly.

“Gotta go Jay,” (Y/N) said.

“Yup bye (Y/N)!”

“Goodbye (Y/N)—” The phone beeped in (Y/N)’s ear as she giggled.

“Guys!” (Y/N) exclaimed seeing her friends sitting on the starbucks table.

“(Y/N)?” A deep voice from the other side of the phone said as (Y/N) let out a sigh. Jason hadn’t picked up the phone for hours.

What was going on with them?

“Bruce?” (Y/N) questioned letting her voice trial as the man behind the phone only replied with a broken hum.

“Where is Jason?”

“I’m sorry (Y/N), he wouldn’t listen to me—”

You let out a laugh as the apology sounded wholesome to her in some way, of course Jason wouldn’t listen to Bruce, when had he ever? Well, being in the suits were an exception—it was for his own good, to listen to what his mentor had to tell him.  “We both know Jason isn’t an obedient person Bruce, you don’t need to remind me again—anyways where is he?”

Bruce let out a sigh before sobs started escaping silently from the other line of the phone.

“I’m sorry (Y/N)...” Bruce trailed.

With a confused expression (Y/N) furrowed her brows in front of the other side of the phone.

“I couldn’t protect him...” Bruce continued.

“W-what do you mean?”

(Y/N) couldn’t believe it.

Protect? Her Jason Todd…. From what?

“Jason didn’t make it….”

There was no way.

“Make what?”

“He didn’t survive the bomb … I’m sorry (Y/N).”

What?

“W-what?”

“Bruce, you better stop joking about death because it’s not funny—”

Bruce had to be joking.

“I’m sorry (Y/N), this isn’t a joke.”

(e/c) eyes dilated as she reached for the tips of the hand that was holding the phone. Her breathing was ragged as a dark feeling filled her mind. Water filling the corner of her eyes dropping from her left eye, slowly the other eye followed. Before both came down tinting her cheeks in a flutter of waves. She clenched her chest in a desperate way to claw at her aching part that couldn’t stop stabbing her with a knife. Loud wails of sobs allerted her bodyguard before he went into the room ready with a gun to face the threat but was met with a whimpering young girl on the floor of her bed. To which he had to call her parents to come home to check on her. In which they thanked him as the bodyguard walked out of the scene. The phone turned off in an instant, as (Y/N) hugged her knees to your chest. A car stopped in front of her mansion before her parents came rushing into the room confused of why she was crying only to stay silent and hug her and soothe her with their chinese lullaby.

Jason was gone.

He died.

He promised to come back to her.

He lied.

With heavy breathing she stood in her bed with only a robe on as the thundering sound of the rain reached her ears. The storm wallowed like she did on this day. Time had passed so quickly it had now been six years since the death of her lover as she sighed.

The knock from her balcony door, confused her. She moved towards the camera to see who it was. A man with a dirty leather jacket stood behind her door as his eyes dilated around the floor. Looking nervous. She noticed the red bat symbol on his chest as she sighed. Another member of the batfam came to give her presents on the day of Jason’s death. Typical.

She opened the door expecting to see a new person before the realization on her face hit her.

It was him…

But how?

“Well that’s kinda a long story...” the man trailed lifting his head to her face as she could feel the confusion fill her face.

“What is a long story?”

“You asked ‘but how’ (Y/N).”

God even his voice was the same  as tears started to stream down her face once again.

A fluttering feeling filled her heart as she held his face in her palm. The stubble on his face tickled the skin of her palm. His hand reached up to hold her own small one that was caressing his cheek. God did Jason miss the feeling.

“H-How?”

“I told you it’s a long story,” He joked as (Y/N) pulled him inside with his coat, closing the door and trapping him in between her hands. Leaning up to his face. “Wow, desperate as always I see,” Jason teased, making her let out a small giggle.

“Annoying as always Jaybird,” she breathed out before crashing their lips in a blissful touch.

Her other half was there, they were finally back together as a piece.

What else could she ask for?

Jason pulled slightly at her nape, his lips desperately trying to mould together with hers as her fingers trailed into his hair, messing it up while he started to lick her bottom lip asking for access. She complied, pushing her body into Jason desperately trying to get more of him. Jason’s hand tangled in her own hair before slowly letting the ribbon in his finger tug at the string that was long before completely letting it untie. He traced his finger on her stomach caressing the skin making her moan in ecstacy before she started to pull him closer by the jacket.

Jason pulled apart from her the string of saliva connecting their tongues before she stepped back. She tugged his leather jacket off of his shoulder as he continued to take off the bulky armor underneath the leather. (Y/N)’s lip quirked upwards as she walked back slightly further away, her body illuminated by the moon’s light as (Y/N) slowly slid the material of her bathrobe down her shoulders before completely taking it off, showing him the underwear she was wearing. She walked back pulling him close again in a quick peck.

“God how I missed you (Y/N),” he spoke softly, making her giggle at his affection. “You don’t know what I’ve been through, first I was in a grave, then I was—” Jason was cut off by soft lips that connected with him. As he closed his eyes and once again trailed his hand on her body.

“Just shut up and kiss me.”

There he knew that she was definitely going to be the cause of his second death. For she was what he wished to see before his first death. She was what he asked for in his grave. What he had screamed for when his hands held the green water. The driving factor of his need to be stronger.

The flame that he shared with her, the flame of love.

Her name was (Y/N) (L/N) and Jason knew that the girl in his arms was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his second chance of life with.

[readwithmichelle]

Books I Read in May

For the month of May, which was my first real month back to reading books for my own pleasure and not for classes, I read 4 books. Not a lot, I know, but I’m kind of a variable reader - sometimes I devour books in a matter of days, and others it takes me a few weeks. I suppose it depends on how much a book gripped me.  Anyway, for the month of May I read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, both by Leigh Bardugo, as well as Among the Hollow by Roman Ankenbrandt, and American Pharoah by Joe Drape. 

Six of Crows was my first foray into Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. I first heard of the book when I worked at a bookstore, and one of the assistant managers mentioned it as one of her very favorite books she had ever read. I frequently saw the duology when I was straightening shelves or recommending books to teenage readers. When it finally came time for me to leave the store for my next job, I ended up grabbing Six of Crows and buying it with the intention of reading it. I even managed to start it, but then I decided to go back to school, and all pleasure reading went out the window.  It would be another 2 YEARS before I picked Six of Crows back up. Initially I tried out the audiobook - which wasn’t bad but not really my cup, and then I bought it as an eBook as a bundle with it’s sequel. Once I dug in, I couldn’t stop. I devoured Six of Crows in the matter of about a week. I adored the writing - if there is one thing Leigh Bardugo is good at, it’s dialogue and the careful art of showing and not telling. It took me almost 100 pages to understand what the Grisha were and what the deal with this new fantasy world was, but despite that it very much reads as a standalone that does not need the presence of the Grisaverse trilogy behind it.  The story is mildly predictable, but the plot isn’t really what drives the story - it’s the characters. The internal motivations of Kaz, Inej, Wylan, Jesper, Nina, and Matthias are the cornerstone of this story, and they’re what make it a truly enjoyable read - not necessarily the story itself. I imagine, if you wanted a definition of a character driven story, this would be it. The characters - in particular Kaz and Inej gripped me pretty much immediately, and I was completely invested in them and what they had gone through. It also totally emotionally compromised me.  Rating: 5/5 Stars The same could be said of Crooked Kingdom, though this one felt a little bit less cohesive than Six of Crows, which had a clear goal. Crooked Kingdom has the Crows being pit against just about everyone in Kerch, and with everyone looking for a piece of them, the story felt a little all over the place for it. That said, we got more of that sweet, sweet character backstory and development, and I will not deny that I was completely incapacitated by Kaz and Inej’s moments together. I felt pleased to have continued with these characters, and it was a real page turner - I had intended to give myself a few days before starting Crooked Kingdom after finishing Six of Crows, but I HAD to know what happened next so I started it pretty much within an hour of finishing the first book.  When it comes to THAT scene, it was a bit more emotionally upsetting than I anticipated. The character involved was not one of my favorites, and I found them kind of problematic as a character. That didn’t stop me from tearing up. I feel, perhaps unlike many other fans of this book that it was a “justified” moment. I will go further into detail at another time about this specific scene with spoilers, but not in this recap.  Ultimately the story felt extremely satisfying. I was glad to see where it ended, and was so incensed about not getting to continue with certain characters that I pretty much threw my Kindle away from me in a fit of frustration. I desperately want to know where these characters end up, so if Leigh Bardugo could come out with a third book and make it a trilogy, I would be forever in her debt.  Rating: 5/5 Stars After that whirlwind I ended up deciding to read Among the Hollow by Roman Ankenbrandt. This is a debut work, and apparently didn’t really make a big splash when it was released. It has less than 50 reviews between Goodreads and Amazon where it was self-published. This one was a surprise for me. The reviews for it are exceptionally high, so I hoped that perhaps it would be a fun one - and it was. But it also was extremely refreshing. The setting is inspired by Ancient Byzantium - a setting that is exceptionally uncommon in my experience, and it features my very favorite kind of magic to use in stories - necromancy. If you know me, you know that I’m absolutely crazy about Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom Series. They’re some of my very favorite novels, so this was a no brainer for me. The interpretation of Necromancy ended up being the surprise. The magic system of how it works is very soft, but is present just enough that I do not feel as though I don’t understand it.  When it comes to the characters, our main cast is that of Sevila, and Aurel. Aurel is a spirit that contracts with Sevila to get their body back, and from there it’s a whirlwind. Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of this story is that Aurel desperately wants to do good things, but people are so scared of them as a spirit that they cannot. Sevila, who has the capability, has no desire to do good things, and the conflict between Aurel and Sevila over that is interesting. Of the two of them, however, Sevila is probably my favorite character - she is barely likable, and is a strong morally grey main character. Also, I love that she’s an unabashed lesbian who does not pretend to be something she is not. The book races towards it’s end very quickly, and my biggest gripe about the whole book is that it feels too short. At 299 pages on the eBook edition it is on the shorter end of books I have read. Perhaps I am greedy, and merely wanted to spend more time with the characters in that setting, but I strongly felt that some scenes could use some fleshing out, or new scenes could have been added between Sevila and Aurel. Ultimately, it is a very good debut book, and I hope this author publishes more in the future. At the end of the book there very much feels like there is more story to tell, more adventures to be had.  Rating: 5/5 Stars The final book I read for the month was American Pharoah by Joe Drape. This is a biography about the 2015 Triple Crown winning horse. A little background information if you will - I am an avid horse racing fan. I watch it regularly (have it set to record on Hulu!), and have watched the Triple Crown races every year since I was around 8 years old. I have had my heart broken by horse racing more times than I’ve been in relationships.  My relationship with the sport is still contentious at times. I don’t care for most of the breeding practices, and I don’t like that people with money throw it around to get essentially a commodity, not an animal. The Thoroughbred breed has suffered for it.  So when it came to reading this book, I was a little apprehensive - it claims to be an untold story. The story of American Pharoah is quite well known among horse racing fans - so what could be untold? Ultimately, it was the stories of his connections, and his early training years that were untold, I suppose.  The owners of American Pharoah, Zayat Stables - especially Ahmed Zayat don’t come out of this book looking particularly good. In fact he looks like a billionare with too much money to throw around and a “get rich quick” scheme to boot. Bob Baffert, legendary trainer as he is, is given a softer approach, but not by much. The book makes sure to mention his previous to 2015 doping scandals and the time he got scammed by a guy. This is compounded by hindsight too; Bob Baffert’s second Triple Crown Winner - Justify (2018 winner) - was revealed to have been doped (intentionally or not is irrelevant) in the race before the Kentucky Derby, and the scandal rocked the horse racing world quite heavily - it even ended up on the New York Times.  As the book says, there are very few saints in the Horse Racing industry.  On top of examining the human connections to this once in a life time horse, the book also examines the effect that the rich and elite have had on the industry - everything from purchasing habits to breeding trends - the most damning part of the book is how it details the pervading millionaire view of race horses as personal ATMs, how they don’t even know the names of the people who care for their horses, and worst perhaps of all, their desires have shaped the breed itself. Horses used to be raced upwards of 20 times in their lifetimes, and their conformation - or the way they are built - reflected their stamina and strength. Today’s Thoroughbreds barely race more than 10 times in their entire career, and much has been published examining the fragility of the breed in the wake of Eight Belles and Barbaro’s very public breakdowns on the track.  Even Seth Hancock - perhaps one of the most well known names in horse racing - has said “I don’t breed them like I used to” and that is because people want fast horses, not strong horses. This book drives that point home multiple times.  Ultimately, the book itself is a fast read, and enjoyable to boot, though it spends an uncomfortable amount of time giving the lurid details of Thoroughbred horse breeding. My biggest gripes with it is that it has a few grammatical errors and I found the passage about Bob Baffert being scammed a tad unnecessary.  Rating: 4/5 Stars For the Month of June I intend to finish a few books I started in May - The Graves are Walking by John Kelly, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, and Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. I also intend to (if I can get through the depressing but enlightening account of the Irish Potato Famine) read If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio, The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith, The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, and The Last Temptations of Iago Wick by Jennifer Rainey. 

[bigjigglyidi8]

What do you have there? (A smoothie.)

(Day 1)

Anthony taps his fingers against the scratched up countertop he's currently leaning on, an unknown pattern that somehow syncs with the dusty clock above his head on the wall behind the counter. '1:00' It reads and his head hits the counter with a 'thunk'.

His boss is an absolute dick. Who the fuck keeps a tiny ass market open twenty-four/seven? Tyler does, that's who. The said male had already hauled his 6 foot something fat ass upstairs to his own apartment, leaving Anthony alone in the small and deserted shop.

There's a series of small whimsical sounds from above the front door and the male straightens up, bored as he is there's no way he's going to ruin someone else's mood.

The burnet doesn't hear the male before seeing him, dark raven locks floating above the high shelves that make up the few aisles within the shop, and has to blink when the newcomer rounds the corner.

He's tall incredibly so, taller than Anthony's fucktard of a friend more than likely and slender. No doubt that he'd float away from Earth if the moon pulls the gravity just right. Green eyes are somehow bright with mirth despite the current time and dark stubble is scratched at with long fingers.

A big jar of crunchy peanut butter is set on the counter between them, the largest they carried, and the giant beanstalk places a crumbled five dollar bill next to it. Anthony rings up the purchase and delivers the change of three quarters before asking if the customer wanted a bag.

"No t'ank ye." The Irish accent is deep, deeper than one expected from a man like the one before the employee and he picks up the jar before making his way out of the shop, the bells signaling his departure.

(Day 2)

Deja vu settles in once again as Anthony numbingly throws a small panda painted ball at the wall beside the staticky surveillance footage.

It strikes one a.m once again and the bells sing soon after, the Irishman from before walking through the same aisle before buying the same jar again. Anthony lets the ball fall to the vinyl floor as he rings up the condiment again.

He asks if the other wants a bag but the ravenet politely declines before exiting.

(Day 3)

At this point Anthony believes he's in some boring remake of Groundhog Day as the beanstalk purchases another jar of peanut butter, but he notices slight differences.

His posture is hunched, like he's fighting off the non-existent cold as he hands over another five.

"I gotta know the name of our mvc." The employee chuckles at the lost look on the man's narrow face. "Most. Valuable. Customer." He explains and the other nods before chuckling himself.

"David, I live upstairs." He points a long index finger toward the ceiling and Anthony smiles, David returning it before leaving the shop once again.

(Day 4)

"You really like it that much?" Anthony asks as David places two jars on the counter, simply shrugging.

It isn't even good peanut butter, it leaves sand in your mouth-the employee has stated this many a time to his boss but Tyler's as frugal as it gets and refuses to get anything else.

The burnet notices the darkened bags beneath the ravenet's dulling emerald eyes. The Irishman places the quarters from the previous purchases and two wrinkled one dollar bills to pay and Anthony feels concern roll his stomach as the taller sways.

"Are you okay, man?" The Employee asks as he hands over the change into a shaking palm.

"Homework..." Is all David says and the other sympathizes instantly, college isn't fun for anyone.

"Good luck!" He calls as the man departs, he turns enough to give Anthony a small smile and a shaky wave.

(Day 5)

Once is fine, twice is coincidence, but six is insanity. Six jars of crunchy peanut butter is insanity, Anthony thinks as a slightly disappointed Irishman pays for his sixth jar, the last of the shop's stock.

Momo sits on top of the counter beside him, reading a Fruits Basket manga as the two males converse, secretly watching the encounter with curious hazel eyes.

David is certainly shy still but Anthony seems to be bringing out a happier side despite the Irishman's worryingly dark bags and paler than what skin. The two part with smiles and the woman waits a few moments after the giant's departure before lifting her legs to spin around and face her friend.

"So, that's David?" She asks and he nods as he settles onto the stool again.

Anthony had brought the male up to Momo between their shared meal at university earlier today, animatedly explaining the weird diet of the man.

"That's David." He sighs before picking the ball back up and tossing it from hand to hand.

"He's cute," The emerald haired beauty compliments and Anthony agrees not really paying attention to his classmate until the ball falls from his fingers. "But what's with the whole "Can you reserve three pounds of ground beef tomorrow, please?"?"

The male shrugs, bending over to grab the sphere once again. "Shit, if I knew I wouldn't still be here discussing it with you."

(Day 6)

David stops before the counter, hands in the pockets of his denim jacket before clearing his throat. "Hey, David!" Anthony's greeting is muffled by the cabinet he currently has his head buried in, bent at the waist with a hand bracing him against the edge of the counter.

"Hello." The Irishman returns softly, watching as the other sways his body side to side as he searches.

"Bingo!" The shorter male pops up with a smile and a brown paper bag in his arms. "Three pounds of ground up milk horses for ya!" The taller male blinks twice before chuckling.

"T'ank ye." The chuckling is forced and the gratitude is almost hollow sounding. Anthony pauses with counting change, hesitating on rather or not to ask the fidgeting male. Instead he resumes his task and drops it in the male's large upturned palm.

The two share a farewell before David practically runs from the store, leaving a confused Anthony with a stomach rolling in worry.

(Day 7)

There's a knock at the door and Anthony rolls over, reluctant to leave the cocoon that is his bed but there's another knock and then another.

It's knock number seven that finally gets him out of bed, and he trudges to the his front door before swinging it open. "The fuck you want, Chilled?" He grumbles, scratching his t-shirt clad chest right where the panda's face resides.

"I know, I know. Too early, but someone left a note on my door meant for you." The other Anthony explains, holding up the note like it's a Yu-Gi-Oh card. The larger male squints as he takes the paper, trying to decipher the chicken scratches before groaning. Monster is needed.

Anthony steps back, allowing the other to come in before shuffling to the kitchen beside the door. The Italian moves to close the door Momo's voice stops the male. "Morning, Chilled." She greets as she slips by, moving to sit next to Anthony at the dingy table. "Morning, Panda." The addressed male mumbles into the can, content on simply drinking.

The door's prevented from closing by a large hand before Tyler shoulders his way in. "Morning, pussies." The Ohio Native groans as his head makes contact with the tabletop and Tyler slips into the seat beside Momo, Anthony taking the last spot after closing the door.

The three talk quietly among themselves as the burnet works away at the can between his fingers. "Do you know anything about David, Tyler?" Momo asks almost sickeningly innocent but Anthony narrows brown eyes at the girl.

"Nogle?" The giant supplies. "Yeah, moved in like two weeks ago, tall Irish dumbass bothered me every single fucking day that first week." The male sips at the Starbucks dwarfed in his hands. "Panda here hasn't stopped talking about him. You into him, pussylips?"

The other two nod in agreement as the called out man groans. "Not my fault he's the most interesting thing around here. The shop's as dead as Chilled's humour." The insult draws a curse from the Italian.

"What's the note say anyway?" Momo asks after the laughter dies down and Anthony slowly picks it up.

"'Meet me at apartment 8 tonight at 6. - Daithi'." The male raises an eyebrow. "'P.S. - Bring another jar of Peanut Butter if you can. Thanks.'." The other three sit in silence as the reader tilts his head. "Huh."

"Who the fuck gives themselves the nickname 'Daithi'?"

"Pot calling kettle black, Wildcat." Chilled defends and the giant hides his embarrassment with a firm slap to the man's shoulder.

"Sounds like a date, Panda." Momo giggles and the others nod, laughing after Anthony counters with, "Even so, it's more action then you've seen in months, Mo'."

It's mere minutes before six as Anthony pauses at Apartment number eight, the little card slot below the knocker holding the name 'David Nogle' in handwriting matching the note the man had left on his kitchen table. Heavy Irish filtered through the door and the male picks up on weird squishing sounds before scrunching his nose.

He waits til six on the dot before knocking. There's barking and scratches of claws against hardwood flooring burying the yells of "Joe" and "Tony". There's some Irish grumbling before the door opens, revealing a slightly disheveled David bent over to stop a spaniel from running through.

"Hey, Anthony." He greets before holding the door open for the shorter male.

"Hope I'm not too early." The burnet says as he moves into the apartment.

It's cluttered with various art supplies, unfinished projects, and a beat up guitar leaning against a rickety tv stand. The couch is covered in numerous blankets coloured with various stains. The kitchen/dining room are to it's left, a hallway beside the fridge leading to the bedroom and bathroom -essentially a copy of Panda's own.

"Sorry for t'e mess. School, Joe and Tony don't leave much time for cleaning." David apologizes as he gratefull takes the jar Anthony brought.

"No big deal, man. Mine doesn't look much better." This draws a smile from the Irishman who gestures to the round table paired with mix-and-not-so-matched chairs.

"I've got water, coffee, tea or juice? If you're interested." The tall male bends over to look into the fridge, it's surface covered in letters, notes, and weird magnets -the word 'cunt' written out in colourful alphabet characters usually used by children.

Anthony opens his mouth to respond when something shifts in the corner of his eye. He blinks twice as he takes in the largest clump of peanut butter sitting on a folding table. "What the fuck is that?"

Daithi turns, a bottle of something brown in his hand. "A smoothie." His response is smooth and Anthony once again moves to stare at the male. "Joe's a bit constipated, a li'l this will help with that."

Panda blinks, not once but multiple times trying to understand what exactly is going on. "Uhhhhh, first off; TMI. Secondly, I meant the play-dough sculpture reject over there."

David's brows furrow and he uses a free hand to push his glasses up. "Oh! That's a dog." Anthony's brown eyes widen while his nose scrunches, because that is anything but a dog. "It's an assignment, "Build an animal out of their favorite food"." The Irishman's explanation is smooth as he stands up from pouring out that nasty concoction into a dog bowl.

"Thank god, we don't sell good peanut butter," Anthony jabs a thumb in it's direction. "cause that would be an insult to Jif." The two laugh and Daithi moves to grab a pot from the stove.

Dinner passes by with decent pasta and loud laughter till the two are sipping tea and coffee on the shot couch, the blankets didn't just protect the fabric, but protected humans from it's scratchy material and the springs that are poking through.

"So, what prompted you to invite me over?" Anthony asks as he scratches Tony's neck, the spaniel was curled up in his lap, tail hitting the couch in rhythmic thumps.

"I'm new, don't know anyone her' besides our cranky landlord an' I like ye." David's explanation is accompanied by Joe shoving his face into his owner's. "Dammit, Joe! Get down." He playfully shoves the dog away who hops off with a huff.

"Well, I know everyone here and I like you too, even if your art taste is questionable." Anthony smiles at David's snort.

"Screw you, I'm aceing the class."

"You sure it's not out of pity?"

"Shut it, ye cunt." The taller pushes a wheezing Anthony off the couch, the shorter male simply laying there as his voice gurgles.

There's a crash, a thud, and a yip before the Irishman looks over the couch and yells. "JOE YE FOCKIN' CUNT!"

Anthony peeks around the couch to see the Peanut Butter Art Project splattered on the floor with Joe in the middle of it chowing down.

The two spend hours cleaning up the mess and salvaging what they could, but it's clear that the statue is in shittier conditions than it was before the accident -and that wasn't a good condition either.

"Fock, this is due in two days... I'm screwed." David sits back on his heels with his face buried in his large palms.

Anthony holds his hands out for the dogs to clean as he evaluates the male beside him. "Well, let's go scower the streets then."

The sentence has Daithi looking up through long fingers. "Wot?"

The shorter stands up as he wipes his hands off on his jeans before holding out a hand. "There's gotta be another market that sells shitty peanut butter..." He glances to the folding table. "...and taller tables."

David eyes the burnet before smiling as he takes the other's hand. "Right." He dusts off his flannel before reaching for his keys and wallet. "Let's go!" Anthony chuckles as he follows the male out the door. "Behave you two."

The two trek down the hall after the door is locked and Anthony glares at the small crack of another door, brown eyes meeting wide hazel ones before it's shut quickly.

--------

Another shitty drabble from that 3some of prompts stolen from Tumblr and reuploaded on Pinterest with no credits: "You've ordered six jars of peanut butter and three pounds of raw meat in the past week. Are you hiding dogs or are you at a low point in your life? I'm concerned."

This time in the form of ambiguous Daithi De Panda because I see Daithi as a Spencer from iCarly kinda artist and Anthony needs more love goddambit.

Also, I've had this sitting unfinished for like 3 months and I'm still not exactly happy with it, but 🤷‍♀️.

Also x2, it may be a bit OOC cause writing real life/already established people fucking sucks.

[t0ngue-tech]

Deadline | Three

“Without saying a single word, you emerged turned around and reached out to wrap your arms around Jungkook’s torso. He stumbled a bit before finding his footing. You knew you caught him off guard because it took him a few seconds before he snaked his arms underneath your hair to secure them around your neck.

‘U-Uh--’ Jungkook stammered.”

↠fluff, angst, highschoolAU, fakerelationshipAU↞

word count: 7.4k

↠series: 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ↞ 

A/N: HI GUISE OMG IT’S BEEN SO LONG HASNT IT, BUT HERE I AM!!!! ive honestly been working on this since finals and even when finals finished, i hit a writer’s block. then, all of a sudden i was hit with a rush of motivation and this is the outcome huhu. i hope you all enjoy!!!!

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The clock ticked endlessly on and on as the students of your history class were in disarray. Usually everybody would be working with their partners on the history project, but a substitute teacher sat at your teacher’s desk instead; this meant a free period.

Jennie sat with you, huddled in a corner of the classroom catching up on other work for another class. You assisted her with whatever she needed while also proofreading a paper from your AP English class.

“Are you sure you don’t want to sit by Jungkook?” Jennie whispered.

Your eyes darted across the room and spotted Jungkook with his head down on the desk, buried within his arms.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” You brought your attention back to your paper.

“You do know that two of Chaeyoung’s goons are in this class, right? They’re probably going to tell every single detail about you and Jungkook that happens here.” Jennie leaned in closer to keep her voice at a hushed whisper.

Jennie did have a point, but despite that, you stayed planted in your seat. You were used to having Chaeyoung’s friends’ eyes glancing at you from time to time in class but ever since the night in the diner parking lot, they’ve been watching you like a hawk. It was a bit concerning.

The substitute reminded everyone that the sign-in sheet was at the front of the class and to straighten out the desk before leaving. Before the bell rang, Jungkook awoke from the sound of the desks scraping against the tile floors. He stretched out his limbs and lazily threw his backpack over his shoulder.

As soon as the bell rang, the students stampeded towards the door and Jennie bid you adieu. Jungkook glided across the class to where you were, still putting papers in their correct folders. He held your water bottle and phone in one hand, patiently waiting for you to get situated. When you finished adjusting your bag on your bag, he silently reached for your hand and slid his fingers in between yours. It’s been roughly two weeks and you still weren’t used to the feeling of holding his hand.

“I’ve never seen you look this tired.” You spoke over the rush of students in the hallway.

Jungkook yawned deeply and shook his head to wake himself up a little. “I’ve had three consecutive late night training and it’s been a while since I’ve done this.”

“Do you have a fight coming up?”

“Next month, but I need to make weight and train as much as I can so I have a lot of work to do.” He explained.

“Hm,” you hummed. “I guess this means you have to cut back on the fries.”

Jungkook dropped his jaw slightly. “Oh my god, you’re right.”

Since the two of you started this fake relationship, Jungkook always walked you to your fourth period. He didn’t mind being a few minutes late to his class because his teacher was “cool.” It worried you a little, but he stressed that it was really no big deal.

“Do you have a meeting after school?” Jungkook stationed you against the wall near your classroom to let other students pass through.

“I just have to drop off a few folders to the club classroom and then I have to pick up a package for my mom at the post office right after.” You reached for the items Jungkook held for you and he gave them back to you with ease.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then. I’m gonna head straight home after school to sleep before my practice tonight.” Jungkook sighed as he enveloped you into a tight hug. The hug lasted roughly a minute and just before he let go, it felt as if he placed a soft kiss to the top of your head; unless that was his chin bumping against you because of how tall he was compared to you.

You were used to seeing Jungkook with an abundance of energy and seeing how physically exhausted he was now worried you a lot more than it should have. Instead of focusing like how you usually did, you spent the entire class period looking up different kinds of foods that boxers could eat while trying to make weight. A lot of the information you found were similar lists of light proteins and reminders to watch the sugar and fat intake.

A lightbulb went off somewhere inside of your head and you were now creating a small shopping list in the notes section of your phone. This wasn’t your problem, but somehow you felt compelled to support him. Maybe it was the title of being his “girlfriend,” who knows.

↠↞

You [3:04]: hi mom, i just picked up your package and i’m heading to the grocery store. let me know asap if you need anything

When you arrive at the grocery store parking lot, your mother replied with a short list of a dozen eggs, cherry tomatoes, and a bag of salt and vinegar chips.

“Ground turkey...ground turkey...ground turk-ah.” You dropped the package of lean meat into your shopping cart.

You never tried cooking any of the dishes you had bookmarked on your phone, so your nerves were shaking inside of you. There was a lot more options that weren’t as complicated, but of course, you didn’t want to settle with that.

It never occurred to you that there was a possibility you could poison Jungkook just before his boxing match. This thought made you want to put everything back on the shelves, but you also thought about how tired Jungkook looked today and it gave you some strength to follow through with your plan.

“Ooooh, mama y/n. Making dishes for your man.”

On your way home, Jennie called you to talk for a bit before she took her sister to her dance lesson. You filled her in with your plan to make a few meals for Jungkook so he can keep his energy up and Jennie was elated.

“Jennie, calm down. He’s not my man. I’m just trying to better a good...person? For him?” You pulled up to your driveway and disconnected your phone from your car. “Am I taking this role too seriously?”

“Sigh, y/n. You’re doing exactly what you need to do.” Jennie explained in your ear. “This is going to help you feel more like a girlfriend-girlfriend for him! I’ve seen you hang out with him at school and I can tell you’re still awkward with this whole thing.”

You shuffled into your house with your bags of groceries dangling from your arms and your phone tucked in between your shoulder and ear. “I’m still trying to get used to him, okay? You still have a point, but I might kill him.”

Jennie laughed in your ear and sighed. “That’s okay!”

Your mother waved at your from the kitchen counter and rushed over to help you with your bags.

“I’ll let you know how it goes, bye! Love you!” Just like that, you hung up before Jennie could say anything else.

You remembered that you didn’t tell your mother about Jungkook and you weren’t ready to confront her about him yet.

“How was school, y/n?” Your mother glided over to help you unload your bags.

“It was fine—it’s okay mom, I got this, you can continue with whatever you were doing.” There was a tinge of panic in your voice which didn’t sound as convincing as you wanted it to be.

Your mother lifted an eyebrow and reached in to grab her bag of chips. “Okay, honey. Just uh, don’t forget to put the eggs in the fridge.”

It took a few minutes for your mother to leave the kitchen because she rummaged through the fridge to retrieve a bottle of iced tea to have with her chips. She sat down at the dining table where her laptop was set up as well as a stack of papers.

You silently moved around the kitchen to put certain foods inside of the fridge and laid out a cutting board and other cooking utensils. The first order of business was to wash the lettuce and other vegetables you were going to use.

“Let’s see, lettuce wraps…” After rinsing the vegetables, you tied an apron around your waist. “Season the ground turkey with salt…” You whispered the instructions to yourself and carefully measured the spices and dropped them into the bowl with the ground turkey. It was such a delicate process and you wanted to get everything right on the first try because besides preparing him a few meals, you wanted to surprise him during his training tonight.

To an extent, you knew your way around the kitchen. You could easily whip a meal for yourself that could be done with minimum ingredients, but you weren’t skilled enough to create detailed meals meant for others to eat. This was one of those cases.

You were tempted to ask your mother for assistance because she cooked more often than you did. It wouldn’t hurt to do so, plus you could easily say that the food was for yourself.

“Mom…?” You called out quietly.

Your mother hummed and typed away at her keyboard.

“I may or may not need help.”

She stood up from her chair to take a glance at whatever you were doing. All of your ingredients were sprawled out all over the island in the kitchen. Everything was in disarray and your mother chuckled at the chaos.

“And what in the world are you making?” Your mother closed her laptop and strolled over to the mess of vegetables and packages of meat.

“I—uh, I’m making a whole bunch of shi—“ you stopped yourself from completing your sentence. “Stuff. A whole bunch of stuff.”

You barely started the cooking process and you already felt defeated. It was in your nature to figure things out and handle things on your own, but this was cooking for another party so you needed all the help the universe could give you.

“Okay, well, what exactly are you making y/n?” Your mother asked while tying on her own apron.

“Ground turkey lettuce wraps, roasted vegetables, sweet potato fries, and some sort of protein bowl with these chicken tenders, and a lot more stuff.” As you listed your menu, your mother stared at you suspiciously. “What?”

“Nothing, I just—I didn’t know you had such a healthy diet that’s all.”

There were two reasons why you felt yourself sweating: 1) prepping ingredients was tough work and 2) you hated lying to your mother.

“Yeah, I just wanted to try something new, you know? Gotta stay in shape somehow someway.” You let out a nervous chuckle and your mother stared at you, unconvinced.

It took a few seconds before your mother scaled the island to stand next to you. She eyed out the mess in front of you and sighed.

“You know, y/n,” she began and you swallowed the lump in your throat. “When your father was still alive, I used to prepare a lot of meals for him just like this because he always left for work before the sun came up.”

You knew exactly what your mother was trying to tell you and yet you still hesitated.

“I may be going out on a limb here, but is this for that boy who dropped you off back home a few days ago?”

Right on the money.

It only took a matter of seconds plus the piercing gaze coming from your mother to crumble and nod your head. You had no problem in confining in your mother with absolutely anything, but this was painful for you to do. Despite what you told Jungkook, the reason why you didn’t tell your mother about your “relationship” is because it was only temporary. She had just witnessed you sulk throughout the entire summer and you didn’t want to burden her a second time by telling her that you and Jungkook “broke up.” Keeping the relationship a secret would have been hard work but you had to do what you had to do.

“You saw him?” You asked quietly.

She nodded her head and pulled out an extra cutting board from one of the compartments in the island. “I was repotting some of my flowers at the side of the house and when I got up to stretch, I saw you two through the gate; he opened the door of his car for you.”

For the record, you and Jennie both bet that your mother was going to say something within the first week.

“Uh, y-yeah. His name is Jungkook.” The smile that appeared on your face happened on an impulse.

You proceeded to tell your mother the forged story Jungkook came up with and also mentioned that you known him since elementary and that he was your partner for a history project.

“Wait, is this the same Jungkook who put the gum in your hair?” Your mother exclaimed with a laugh.

“That’s—That’s the one.” The bitter memory of having to cut your hair just below your shoulders flashed in your head. You also remembered the moment when Jungkook’s mother showed up the next day to pick him up from school and made him apologize again. She also gave you a ziploc of powdered brownies because of how terrible she felt.

“Wow, what a small world, huh?” Your mother smiled fondly at you. “Y/n, you know that I don’t want you hiding this kind of thing from me. You can trust me.”

It truly broke your heart hearing her words. If it was already difficult admitting the relationship, you knew you were going to suffer when the deadline would occur.

“I know, mom. I’m sorry.” You replied sadly.

She patted your back and grinned. “Don’t be sorry, honey. Now let’s get this chaos in order because first and foremost, you should always prep all of your ingredients first.”

Cooking took a lot longer than you expected because of your lack of skills. It was a trainwreck, but your mother managed to assist you in making a few days worth of meal prep for Jungkook. Even though you burnt your fingers on the pans from roasting the vegetables in the oven, you were satisfied with the outcome.

“Hopefully Jungkook isn’t going to die.” You sighed.

Your mother pulled out a reusable bag from the cupboard and neatly stacked the tupperwares inside.

“He’s going to be fine, y/n. I taste tested your food and it tastes fine. Just be sure to tell Jungkook that I’m going to be needing my tupperware back.” She instructed.

You nodded and mentioned that you were going to use her car because your keys were in your room which was “too far” for you.

As you boarded the driver side of her car, you sighed deeply thinking about if this was too much of a gesture. Giving someone food is one thing but making a home cooked meal was another.

“It’s fine, y/n. It’s fine. It’s just food, it’s not like your kissing him or something—okay wait, no. Just shut up and drive.” You muttered to yourself and started the engine.

↠↞

The gym that Jungkook trained at was about a fifteen to twenty minute drive from your house which meant it was most likely closer to his house. It was no secret where Jungkook trained, plus you had him on almost all of your social media platforms so you saw parts of what the gym looked like.

When you pulled into the parking lot, you spotted Jungkook’s car easily because of how bare the lot was at that time of night. You had time to abort your mission, but you found yourself stepping out of your vehicle and grabbing the bag from the passenger seat.

Entering the gym, there was a strong stench of overused body spray mixed with the tiniest tinge of sweat. There were a few people still using the exercise equipment and a few boys and girls working with a trainer. You took a couple of more steps inside and you easily spotted Jungkook sparring with his coach in the boxing ring towards the left wing of the gym. You approached the surrounding area cautiously, not wanting to distract Jungkook from his training.

You watched Jungkook take forceful jabs to the sparring equipment that his coach was holding. The sound of his boxing gloves hitting his coach’s punching mitts was intense, almost making you flinch with each punch. With the headgear blocking majority of his face, it was still clear it was Jungkook because of his strawberry blond hair.

From where you were standing, you could hear his coach tell him to take a break for a bit. He helped Jungkook remove his mouth guard and boxing gloves. Jungkook took off his headgear and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. He quickly glanced in your direction and took a double take just as quick. Jungkook climbed out of the ring and you met him half way as he wiped down his body with a towel.

“Hey, uh, this is a nice surprise.” Jungkook chuckled.

“Hi.” You said blankly. You didn’t realize you were spacing out until Jungkook waved his hand in front of your face. “I come bearing gifts.”

Before handing him the bag, Jungkook offered you a seat at a bench nearby. He sat down a couple of inches away from you, apologizing that he probably smells disgusting and is drenched with sweat.

“I couldn’t shake the thought of you being exhausted all day and you also mentioned that you had to make weight. So I took the liberty to meal prep you some food.” You explained and handed him the bag.

Jungkook smiled at you with a shocked expression and peered inside of the bag. He rummaged through the tupperware that were labeled with post its.

“Y/n, I--I don’t know what to say, thank you so much.” He couldn’t erase the smile from his lips and opened up the tupperware that contained a thick turkey wrap that was cut into two. There was also a batch of roasted sweet potatoes, parsnip, and red bell peppers stuffed inside. “Did you eat dinner yet?”

Well shit. You were so focused on cooking for Jungkook that you haven’t even eaten anything since that afternoon.

“N-No, I haven’t.”

“Great! No, not great but, wanna stay for about ten more minutes? I’m gonna do one more session and I want to share this with you.” Jungkook closed up the tupperware and stood up.

You were worried that Jungkook felt hesitant about eating the food you made yourself; with the help of your mother of course. But he looked extremely excited about asking you to eat with him that saying no didn’t seem like an option.

“Yeah, I’ll stay.” You answered sweetly.

“Okay, just sit tight.” He spoke, practically skipping all the way back to the boxing ring.

Before getting started, Jungkook and his coach exchanged a few words and peeked over Jungkook’s shoulder to wave at you. It was most likely he introduced you as his girlfriend; it was still a weird title to have under your belt.

It was exhilarating watching Jungkook in the ring. You didn’t mean to stare, but you found yourself gawking at his biceps that were glistening under the fluorescent lights. You remembered Jungkook being scrawny back in middle school and freshman year. Then all of sudden, he grew taller, gained muscles, and gained the habit of dying his hair often. Honestly, he had always been adorable but you never saw Jungkook in that way, ever. It was difficult to admit, but he looked attractive in his element.

That was it though. Just attractive.

The ten minutes flew by in a blink of an eye. He politely asked you to wait for another five minutes because he wanted to wash up before sitting in close proximity with you for the second time. Just like those ten minutes, the five minutes passed just as quickly. Jungkook came out from another room, waddling with his drenched hair bouncing everywhere and his duffle bag swinging from his side. He gestured you over to exit the gym which you were thankful for. The overwhelming smell of the body spray started to give you a headache.

↠↞

“Are you sure you want to share this with me? I made this for you, Jungkook.” You questioned as you sat on the parking block in the empty parking stall next to Jungkook’s car.

Jungkook tossed his duffle bag into the backseat of his car and proceeded to sit next to you. He changed into a dark gray track suit and still had water dripping from the ends of his hair.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I always drink some protein after training and that’s going to fill me up pretty well. You can have the other half of this wrap since you didn’t eat yet—oh fuck, my blender bottle.” He retreated back to his car and retrieved his blender bottle that already had a measured amount of protein powder and a bottle of water. “Have you made one of these before?”

You shook your head and he handed you both bottles and just as you were making his meal prep, you felt like you were going to ruin his protein.

“You see this line here? 12 ounce? Fill the blender up to there, close it tightly and then shake as if your life depended on it.” He instructed.

The instructions were simple and yet you still continued to second guess yourself over something so trivial. You did as you were told and as you shook the bottle, Jungkook laughed at the strained look you had on your face.

“Hey! Cut me some slack. I don’t shake protein on a regular basis.” You abruptly stopped the motion and Jungkook continued to laugh whilst pleading for forgiveness.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s just--” Jungkook still failed to stifle his laughter. “Your face---” He took the bottle from your hands and imitated the look of your eyes screwed shut and your lips pursed closely to your teeth. Jungkook’s expression caused a burst a laughter to rise out of you and playfully shoved him off of the parking block.

“Just eat your food, Jeon!” You chuckled.

Jungkook recovered from him fit of laughter and proceeded to take the lid off the tupperware. Your fingers trembled as he handed you the other half of the wrap. While your eyes held the gaze of anxiety, he had the gaze of astonishment mixed with hunger.

“So, what’s in it?” He asked whilst examining the wrap.

“Uh, turkey breast slices, yellow bell pepper, spinach, tomato, and hummus.” As you explained, Jungkook lifted the wrap closer and closer to his mouth.

The deafening silence between the two of you as Jungkook bit and chewed was astounding. Your throat had gone dry and it felt as if your half of the wrap was going to slide out of your hands.

Jungkook abruptly stopped mid-chew and looked at you with his eyebrows knitted together. Your eyes turned into moons as you felt your heart break piece by piece.

“Y/n…” Jungkook mumbled slowly.

You swallowed the lump in your throat, trying to prepare yourself for the rejection of your food. However, you did expect it.

“This is fucking delicious.” He said in pure bliss. “I don’t ever eat anything like this, but holy shit, this is amazing.”

The disappointed look on your face twisted into a confused facial expression. “Really?! Are you sure?”

“Try it.”

Even after your mother’s approval and Jungkook’s compliment, you were still hesitant in taking a bite. Jungkook gestured at you to try the turkey wrap as he took his own bite.

You took a breath and proceeded to follow through with the action. After chewing for a bit, you came to the realization that, “wow, okay, this isn’t bad.”

“See?! It’s great!” Jungkook gave you a pat on the shoulder. “Why were you so nervous about it?”

“It’s because the only people I’ve ever cooked for are my mom and Jennie.” You explained. “I make the most basic things ever, so you know, of course I’d be nervous making you something that I made.”

He nodded his head and reached for one of the vegetables in the tupperware. “Well, I really appreciate it, y/n—for doing this, I mean. You didn’t have to.”

“I know.” You sighed. “I wanted to.”

Jungkook smiled at you with his cheeks puffed out from the food that he stuffed inside. You felt compelled to poke one of his cheeks, but you fought it because bringing him food was already as “intimate” as you could get.

You still found it hard to make the first move to hold Jungkook’s hand in school or even hook your arm with his. He always initiated skinship first which you were grateful for because you were obviously too chicken to do it yourself.

“So,” You started after swallowing another bite of the turkey wrap. “I uh--my mom, she uh, you know, knows.”

Jungkook stopped midway through his bite and stared at you with concerning eyes. “What happened?”

You began to tell the tale of your mother’s smart instincts. Jungkook’s cheeks flushed for a moment.

“She remembers you as the kid who put gum in my hair.” You gently nudged his shoulder and he snorted at the memory.

“Ah, yeah, I remember that. My mom got so mad at me.” He sighed and flicked at a lock of your hair with clean fingers. “Sorry about that, by the way.”

You envisioned the eleven year old version of Jungkook who “stealthily” stuck a wad of gum in your hair but tripping over someone’s backpack while trying to flee.

“It’s alright.” You chuckled and put your hand up.

Jungkook quickly finished the rest of his wrap and chugged half of his protein shake. “You want to try some? It’s chocolate.”

You hesitated at first, only because you had that split second thought of sharing an indirect kiss with him.

I need to stop watching anime.

After what seemed to be forever, you reached out and took a swig from his protein bottle and scrunched your nose.

“It tastes like...grass.” You shuddered and smacked your lips, still tasting the chocolately-grass flavored protein on your tongue.

Jungkook laughed sharply and escaped to grab another water bottle to give to you out of his duffle bag. “Yeah sorry, it’s a vegan protein. You get used to it when you drink it often.” He offered you another sip which you declined with a sour facial expression.

Your brain sifted through the thoughts that were racing inside of you and you thought about whether or not Chaeyoung was used to the taste of Jungkook’s protein flavor. You wondered if she ever gave him a home cooked meal or if she randomly showed up at the gym while he was training.

Duh. Of course she has y/n. She was his girlfriend.

You weren’t trying to compare yourself to Chaeyoung, but he did date her for three years which meant he was accustomed to random acts of flirtatious banter and actions. On the other hand, you were also used to those things but with Sehun, not Jungkook. It never really occurred to you before, but you wondered why he never hesitated to show public displays of affection to you; his breakup with Chaeyoung was just as “recent” as yours and yet it almost seemed like a second nature for him.

Just this once, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

“Hey Jungkook,” you began softly waiting for a signal from him to continue your words. “How is it so easy for you to do this?”

He tilted his head and pointed to his blender bottle. “Do what? Drink my protein?”

“No.” You chuckled. “I don’t know, pretend to be in this relationship with me. Pet names, holding my hand, you know, the works.”

Jungkook stretched his legs out in front of him and took a deep breath. “Honestly,” he started. “It isn’t easy.”

You raised an eyebrow. You weren’t expecting this answer at all.

“For three years, I’ve only affectionately held one girl’s hand and called only one girl babe or whatever. It’s all I’ve ever known--routine, you know. So, jumping right into something new terrified me a little, but I knew I had to be confident about this so Chaeyoung could finally leave me alone.” Jungkook explained.

This was probably one of the most serious moments you ever had with Jungkook. While you always made it known that you weren’t used to PDA with Jungkook, he remained confident with every move he made that you never suspected him to feel the same way as you did. It was honestly impressive.

Also, Jungkook was right. He had to do this in order for Chaeyoung to finally get off his back. Although you held his hand in the hallways and hugged him whenever he initiated it, Chaeyoung and her lackeys could probably tell from a mile away that there was something suspicious just from the look in your eyes; a woman’s intuition.

If you put as much effort as Jungkook did in the beginning, then maybe this whole thing would be over much quicker. After all, that was the stipulations of this fake relationship: it would last until Chaeyoung gives up. You also had a hidden goal embedded in this relationship which was to make Sehun jealous. Selfish? Yes. Did you care? A little.

You left the conversation as that and carefully eased into a different subject. Jungkook never questioned your question, he just casually followed your lead.

You decided to spend another ten minutes with Jungkook before deciding to head home; it was still a school night. Jungkook tidied up the backseat of his car to make proper room for the bag of meal prep so it wouldn’t fall over while he drove.

“By the way, am I still picking you up tomorrow morning?” Jungkook asked taking the bag from you.

“Yeah, if you still want to.” You gave yourself a few more seconds before continuing. “My mom actually starts a little later than normal tomorrow, so if you want to come out to say hi then..”

Jungkook took a noticeable breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, yeah. I’d love to say hi. I’ll stop by the usual time.”

You nodded your head and waited for Jungkook to ready himself to get into the driver’s seat. Instead, he shut the backseat door and gestured you your car. You cocked an eyebrow and spun around on your heel with Jungkook walking closely behind you.

“New car?” He asked.

“No, my mom’s.” You unlocked the car and just as he’s done every single time, Jungkook moved ahead of you to open the car door. You placed your phone into one of the cupholders and opened the middle console to double check if your wallet was still there.

There was a voice inside your head screaming at you to turn the fuck around and give Jungkook a hug or at least a high five. You hesitated because it’s what you do, but the voice grew louder and louder until your thoughts boiled over.

Without saying a single word, you emerged turned around and reached out to wrap your arms around Jungkook’s torso. He stumbled a bit before finding his footing. You knew you caught him off guard because it took him a few seconds before he snaked his arms underneath your hair to secure them around your neck.

“U-Uh--” Jungkook stammered.

This was your cue to release him and you did just that.

“Drive safe.” You playfully swatted his chest, making him flinch and then sliding into your mother’s car.

“You too. Drive safe.” Jungkook closed the car door and before he shifted his body, you caught a glimpse of a smile on his face. You started the engine and rolled the windows down. Jungkook turned back around to you and you waved him off so he could go to his car. He also waved goodbye and you waited until he got into his car before you pulled out of the parking stall.

The hug you gave him was going to be the first of many that you were going to initiate first. You promised yourself to actually act like a girlfriend for once. Hugs were a bit on the easy side for you because you didn’t need to look at him while doing it. Little by little, you were going to push yourself to initiate PDA towards Jungkook. Sehun would get jealous, Chaeyoung would officially call it quits with Jungkook and then everything would go back to normal.

↠↞

You loved it whenever your mother started later in the mornings. This meant you could sit at the table with her and chat before heading to school. It was rare for her to be home before you went to school because even on her days off, she would catch up on some sleep.

It was a quiet Wednesday morning and you were enjoying a plate of waffles drizzled with maple syrup and dusted with powdered sugar. Your mother sliced you up a few strawberries and poured you a nice tall glass of orange juice. Whenever she prepared a decent size breakfast like this, it reminded you of your childhood; breakfast with your parents on a typical Sunday morning with you begging your father to add whipped cream to your waffles and your mother nagged at you to not pile on more sugar on your breakfast. There wasn’t a lot of memories stored in your headspace, but you cherished them all.

“So that’s what you were working on yesterday.” You forked a slice of your waffle into your mouth.

“Yeah. I don’t know why the head honcho decided to move the meeting today on such short notice.” Your mother spoke from the kitchen, spooning another serving of the batter into the waffle maker. “At least I finished it, but I might be coming home an hour or two late because today’s schedule got completely rearranged.”

Nowadays, it was not uncommon for you to be home alone or alone until late hours of the night. Over the years, your mother worked hard and became head of her department in the office. By the time you were a sophomore, she went on a few business trips that left you home alone for a few weekends. You had to admit, it was a bit lonely at times, but you were extremely proud of her accomplishments.

Your phone vibrated against the hardwood of the dining table with a surprising text message from Jungkook.

[6:53] jeon kook: Outside

Your fork clattered on top of the plate and you bolted towards your driveway, disregarding your mother’s question.

“I thought the usual time meant 7:15?” You questioned Jungkook as he stood at the passenger side of his car, flattening out his shirt and ruffling his hair. He nonchalantly opened his car and pulled out a drink carrier that held three drinks.

Your eyes grew wide and your jaw dropped slightly.

“What--What is going on?” You asked suspiciously.

“Iced hazelnut latte for you and two orange-mango iced teas because I don’t know how your mom takes her coffee.” Jungkook explained holding up the carrier and shutting the car door.

“O-Okay.” You stuttered, still confused as to why he was doing this. “Let’s go in then.”

As the two of you walked up the pavement, you suddenly remembered this would technically be the first time he’s been in your home; the one time during elementary didn’t count because it was for your birthday party. Jungkook would be stepping into your home as your “boyfriend” and it was nerve wracking. Was your mother going to embarrass you? Were you going to embarrass yourself?

“Mom!” You called out, almost hesitant to let Jungkook inside. “Jungkook is here.”

You stepped out of the way to let Jungkook in who was struggling to kick hi shoes off before entering.

“H-Hi! Good morning Mrs--”

“Oh just call me ‘auntie’, Jungkook. It’s alright.” Your mother always instructed your friends to call her ‘auntie’ while Jennie called her ‘mom’.

“A-Auntie..” Jungkook repeated with a small smile. “I’m sorry to drop by on short notice.”

“It’s no problem. Have a seat and have some breakfast before you two head out.” At your mother’s words, you flashed her wide eyes. Even if this was all apart of the relationship package, you only prepared yourself for them to exchange greetings not have an entire conversation over breakfast.

“I don’t know how you take your coffee--or if you even like coffee, so I got you an orange-mango iced tea.” Jungkook took a few steps forward, nervous to enter the kitchen. You gave him a gentle push and he glided across your wooden floor to hand over her beverage.

“Oh, Jungkook, thank you.” She traded the drink with a plate of waffles for him to indulge in.

As he walked back towards you, you gave him a reassuring “okay” sign with your fingers. Jungkook seemed to want extra “good-boyfriend-points” and he seemed to be on the right track.

↠↞

Breakfast with your mother went surprisingly well.

One of the first things Jungkook said was an apology for ruining your hair and with a full hearted laugh, she forgave him. Your mother asked about school and shockingly, he didn’t quite lie about his academic performance. He expressed his struggle to focus in class sometimes and he was glad to have you tutor him from time to time. Nothing embarrassing, nothing too cringey, everything went exceptionally well.

Your mother thanked Jungkook for picking you up and also thanked him once again for the iced tea as you two were preparing to leave. She even witnessed him open the car door for you. You have to admit, you were impressed and proud of Jungkook for doing this.

“I’m pretty sure she likes you.” You commented and rolled down your window.

Jungkook chuckled and slicked his hair back. “Of course, why wouldn’t she?”

“Oh my god, I take it back.” You leaned further away from him, cringing at his greasiness.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” Jungkook gently tugged at your wrist to bring you back to how you were sitting before. “I swear I was shitting bricks though, but your mom is a lot easier to talk to than what I thought.”

You smiled as you listened to Jungkook rant about how he couldn’t sleep last night because he was too nervous. His eyes flickered from you back to the road and even still holding onto your wrist, he still spoke with a few hand gestures. This would have been your cue to wriggle yourself free, but you suppressed the urge. You had to get comfortable somehow, someway and this was your way of trying.

“By the way, how does your mom take her coffee?” Jungkook released your wrist as he reversed his car into a parking stall.

“Straight up black. Iced or hot. Ugh, it tastes disgusting.” You shivered and rubbed your wrist.

“I guess I’ll bring that over the next time I meet with you two.”

Small words were exchanged as the two of you exited Jungkook’s car. You had both of your backpacks at your footside during the whole car ride and he walked over to your side to take his bag from you, you offered to put it on for him. He squinted his eyes at you, wondering what you were up to this time. But you nudged him on to slip his arms through the straps.

“Hmm, y/n. What’s going on? First the meal prep then--oh fuck, my waffles!” Jungkook thrashed around and quickly opened the passenger side door of his car to reach for the ziploc with extra waffles that your mother made for him. “Anyway, first the meal prep, then that hug you gave me--which by the way, you never do first. During breakfast, you dressed up my waffles for me and now your helping me put on my bag? What exactly are you planning, Ms. y/n?”

You rolled your eyes at him. “First of all, at my house, it’s called manners. Second of all, I’m not planning anything. I’m just...playing my part.”

Jungkook chuckled and slyly weaved his fingers in between yours because of the amount of students that were in the parking lot.

“Well, whatever pushed that on, I’m glad it did. Chaeyoung was seriously doubting us.” He whispered.

“You know that for certain?” You asked intrigued because he did sound certain.

“Yeah, she told me.” Jungkook kept his hushed tone. “Remember at the diner? She went on and on saying that you didn’t seem like a ‘girlfriend’ because you acted differently with Sehun or whatever. I told her to just mind her business.”

A quiet sigh slipped past your lips. Chaeyoung wasn’t wrong, which was why you were trying your best to push past your boundaries and act like a better girlfriend. Jungkook hasn’t done anything that you didn’t like. He always quietly warned you if he was going to do something out of the ordinary like a back hug. You were always grateful for this, so you needed to meet him halfway for once.

“I--” You started. “I’ll try my best to do better, okay?”

Jungkook smiled at you and shook his bangs out of his eyes. “Thanks.”

He guided you all the way to your locker and leaned against the cool metal. This was practically routine for the two of you; you’d head to your locker first to grab whatever textbooks you needed for first and second period, then head over to Jungkook’s locker to grab a single notebook.

“Any plans for lunch?” Jungkook asked as he entered his locker combination.

“I was going to go to the math lab. I have to go over some criteria with Chanyeol since I didn’t get to stay for a full meeting for the past week.” You explained.

“I feel like that’s my fault since you’ve been helping me with my math work. Sorry about that.” Jungkook kept his head in his locker searching for god knows what.

“It’s no...problem.” You said barely above a whisper. Across the hall, you easily spotted Sehun with his group of friends chilling against another row of lockers. There was no doubt that he was staring right at you while his friends became background noise.

It wasn’t fair. You wouldn’t need to be making Sehun jealous in the first place if you two didn’t break up in the first place. You and Sehun would have been happy together and nothing would be messy right now.

Ugh. Shut up, y/n.

You didn’t even need to make Sehun jealous in the first place; this was just you being selfish. Sehun became unhappy at some point in the relationship and you had a personal duty to show him that you were happy with someone else.

“I guess I’m seeing you after school then.” Jungkook shut his locker, making you break the eye contact with Sehun. He kept his back turned without knowing who or what you were staring at.

“Yeah.” You absentmindedly tugged at Jungkook’s shirt to smooth out a couple of the wrinkles that splayed across. In return, he gently pushed a few hairs out of your face with his fingertips.

“Alright, let’s get you to class, Ms. y/n.” Jungkook took the textbook out of your grasp so he could properly hold your hand.

As you laced your hand into Jungkook’s, you stole a glance of Sehun whose eyes were still trained on you. You swore to yourself once again that you were going to show Sehun that you were happy with your boyfriend, Jungkook. Sehun was going to have to watch in the background as you walked the halls of the school with someone who wasn’t him.

Your class was in the opposite direction of where Sehun stood with his friends. Just as you started to walk off with Jungkook, you softly squeezed his hand and lean your head against his shoulder. There was an intense feeling of eyes piercing through the back of your head and just before Jungkook could look down at your face, you smirked.

Bingo.

-

-

-

♡ rae jagi

[againstallelse]

First Draft of whatever this is

Johnlock. Picks up after the final scene in series 4 episode 2 before the Eurus stuff starts. We’re just writing that out. John reads through Sherlock’s messages with Irene Adler and discovers information he wishes he didn’t. Not yet formatted. Looking for proofreaders.

Warnings? Mild. Drug use. Suicidal thoughts. Invasive behavior. Sexual reference.

“People text, even I text, her. I mean, Woman. Bad idea. Try not to, but you know, sometimes…”

Sherlock’s words rang through John’s head like a bell. Over and over, echoing in the dumbfounded emptiness of his brain. No matter how he tried to push the thought away, it came back over and over. Throughout Sherlock’s birthday celebration, the cab home, putting his daughter to bed, and trying to put himself to bed. He laid awake, listening to the words bounce back to him yet again, confused by their persistence.

“He texts her back?” John wondered to himself, “What would Sherlock text her about? He hardly even texts me back. Why is it a bad idea? Apart from all of the obvious reasons. Are there more… sentimental reasons?”

John rolled over in bed, throwing his leg out in frustration. What did it matter? Things were what they were regardless of the situation with The Woman. She wasn’t why his relationship with Sherlock was so severely broken, only splintering more year after year.

He was.

He was to blame for their slowly dissolving relationship. He was why their friendship felt so fragile, like if you simply tapped it, it would come apart. He felt himself slipping into a deep self-loathing for yet another night when the words came around again.

“People text, even I text, her. I mean, Woman. Bad idea. Try not to, but you know, sometimes…”

What do they text about?

    He knew Sherlock’s passcode. Of course he did. He had opened the man’s phone countless times to make calls or send texts for him. They had developed a certain amount of trust, or perhaps a certain amount of acceptance of seeing way more of each other then they intended, in their years of living together. While Sherlock used to, and still sometimes did, actively invade John’s privacy, John had never done such a thing to him in return. His hands were sweating when he picked up the phone shortly after its owner went to shower.

His chat with Irene was easy to find. It had no name, only a wilted rose where her name should have been. He was surprised how fast it was to scroll to the top of their messages. Most were boring, the usual requests to have dinner, the teasing. The flirting. Almost all of which was not replied to. Then a message caught his attention.

Irene: Are you really dead?

Sherlock: No.

Irene:  How lovely of you to join me. Irene: So. Why are you pretending to be dead? Irene: How did you do it? Irene: Does John know?

Sherlock: No.

Irene: Ouch. You faked it without telling him? I wouldn’t want to be him right now.

 The messages were dated within days of Sherlock’s supposed death. She knew. She got to know immediately that Sherlock was fine while he had to suffer, thinking that he had lost his best friend for years. He clenched his teeth and braced himself to read the rest of their messages. He quickly noticed that they often took days to reply to each other and sometimes had months between conversations.

  Irene: Is it boring being in hiding? No cases to solve.

Sherlock: There are always cases to be solved.

Irene: Is there? And can you solve them on your own?

 No response. John kept going.

  Irene: I’m in Greece. If you’re in the area you should hop on a plane and join me. The sunsets are beautiful.

Irene: I’m in a lilac hotel on the ocean, Mr. Holmes. Find me. Join me.

Irene: Where are you anyways?

Irene: The men of Latvia are so dull. They even make me miss England.

Irene: Looking for a vacation spot. Somewhere you’d care to meet for dinner?

Irene: I saw a Holmes spotting online. Are you in Prague? I’m only a few hours away.

Irene: There was someone murdered in this little town in Northern Italy today. I think we could use a Holmes to come sort it out.

Irene: I haven’t had any good food in days. Meet me for dinner.

 Months of silence on Sherlock’s side as the woman threw out so many messages. His more imaginative side wondered if he did go find her at some point, but judging by the total lack of response his logical side knew the answer.

  Irene: Are you ever going to tell John that you’re alive? I’m sure your loss is driving his funny little mind mad.

Sherlock: I can’t tell him.

Irene: Well why not?

Sherlock: If I don’t make it back it’s better to die once and stay dead.

Irene: You don’t think you’ll make it back?

Sherlock: I don’t know.

Irene: That’s your least favorite answer to give.

 John frowned as he read that message. He had always wondered why Sherlock hadn’t let him know, at least give him some sort of sign. He resented him since they day he returned, no matter how hard he tried to push it down it resurfaced at the worst of times. He had never considered that Sherlock had thought it was kinder to only leave once.

His heart began to sink, feeling guilty for reading these messages. But he was already this far. He wasn’t going to stop. He begun to scroll past most of the endless flirting and various holiday acknowledgement, only stopping when something of note came up.

  Irene: Have you seen John’s Facebook?

Sherlock: I didn’t know he had one.

Irene: He does. He doesn’t look good.

Irene: I know you’re looking now.

Irene: Do you see that photo he was tagged in last week? It looks like he’s on death’s door.

Irene: You should call him.

Sherlock: I can’t.

Irene: He loves you. You need to talk to him.

Sherlock: I will when I get back to London.

Irene: If you think it can wait.

 John blinked a bit. He supposed it shouldn’t surprise him anymore that Sherlock never felt the need to dissuade others that they were involved, but in this seemingly private setting with seemingly a close friend, it felt different. He shook it off, forcing himself to continue onwards.

It seemed every few months of no replies, Irene would get frustrated and would throw out John’s name in conversation. It always seemed to warrant a reply.

  Irene: John seems better. I saw him on the street the other day.

Sherlock: You’re back in London?

Irene: Yes. Undercover of course.

Irene: He was with a woman. Pretty blonde lady. They had takeaway bags and were laughing.

Irene: Seems someone’s been replaced.

Sherlock: It won’t matter. It never does.

Sherlock: One of John’s girlfriends has never been a real hindrance before. Just an annoyance.

Irene: He’ll move on eventually you know.

Irene: No matter how wondrous you think you are. No one waits forever. Everyone moves on with their life eventually.

Sherlock: You haven’t yet.

Irene: Oh please.

Irene: Serious Sherlock. Just message him.

 John smiled a bit. At Sherlock’s cockiness. At Irene’s concern. At remembering that time in his relationship with Mary, when things were fun and he felt alive for the first time since Sherlock had left.

His relationship with Mary had moved quickly, which was entirely the fault of Sherlock being gone. John needed someone, needed a companion to fill part of that gaping void left behind by Sherlock. The silence in his home and in his mind were driving him mad. No amount of time with friends, or shifts at work, or bottles of alcohol could save him from the gaping silence left in his life.

Until Mary came. She never filled the hole Sherlock left, but she made things not quite so quiet. Not quite so lonely. She made him eat. And shower. The things John used to do for Sherlock. She believed in him.

  Irene: So, are you in love with him?

Irene: Just between you and I of course.

Irene: I can tell you love him. Any moron with eyes can tell that you love him. But are you in love with him?

Irene: Would you have dinner with him, if he called right now? Would you go find him?

Sherlock: You sound jealous.

Irene: I’m just curious.

Irene: You’re obviously queer. No offense of course. I am too.

Sherlock: What makes it so obvious?

Irene: Everything about you.

 John squinted at the exchange. Was he? Really? Or was he playing with Irene? Over all these years was it just that easy? Would Sherlock had told him as easily if he had asked?

Many months passed without word from Irene. In fact, it was half a year before another message was sent, this time from Sherlock. He wondered if Sherlock had gotten a new number.

  Sherlock: He’s engaged.

Irene: Who? John?

Sherlock: Yes.

Irene: I told you that no one waits forever.

Irene: I’m sorry.

Sherlock: He moved out. I’m back and he’s not here. What do I do?

Irene: What can you do?

Irene: You left him for two years without a word. You can’t expect him to wait for you that long with no promise of you coming back.

Sherlock: What do I do?

Sherlock: What am I supposed to do without him?

Irene: Have you tried telling him that you love him?

Irene: He was more loyal to you than a dog last I checked. It might still work.

Sherlock: Of course I haven’t told him.

Sherlock: Nor do I intend to.

Sherlock: He’s happy. She’ll make him happier than I could ever make him. It’s not a competition.

Sherlock: What do I do with myself?

Irene: Move on with your life. I suppose.

Sherlock: That would be brilliant.

Sherlock: If it was an option.

 John wasn’t even able to fully process the words in front of him. He couldn’t even begin to unravel the feelings that sprung up from reading this exchange. He knew he didn’t have long left and pushed the processing of his feelings aside to gain more information.

The Woman’s messages slowly became less flirty and more concerned.

  Irene: I’m watching The Man Who Fell To Earth. Opinions?

Irene: What do you like to watch?

Irene: What are you doing with your time between cases? Since according to John’s blog you are working together again.

Irene: I think you’re better than she is.

Irene: I hope somebody is remembering to feed you.

Irene: How do you feel about him getting married?

Sherlock: Is there some way I should feel about it?

Irene: Generally people don’t feel fantastic about seeing the love of their life marry somebody else.

Sherlock: He’s happy.

Irene: What about how you feel?

Sherlock: That hardly matters.

Irene: Yes it does.

Irene: You have to live with it. You have to feel it. That matters.

Sherlock: He’s still here. With me.

Sherlock: That’s more than I expected when I saw him with her.

Irene: Is that really enough?

 John realized much too late that he was taking in information that truly, deeply was not meant for him to know. He couldn’t take it back. He couldn’t unlearn it. He kept going.

  Sherlock: I wish you were here.

Irene: How was the wedding?

Sherlock: Beautiful.

Irene: Are you okay?

Sherlock: No.

Irene: Do you need me? I could be there in a few hours.

Irene: I’m serious. If you need anything.

Irene: Anything at all.

Irene: I’ll pick up and come to you immediately.

 He had noticed that Sherlock had left his wedding early but he had never imagined it was for this. He had just assumed the man hadn’t wanted to spend time with so many people longer then he had to. He imagined the man curled up in his bed, crying whilst texting The Woman. He clenched the arm of the chair with his free hand.

  Irene: Have you eaten?

Sherlock: No.

Irene: For how long?

Sherlock: Days.

Irene: Dinner?

Sherlock: No.

Irene: What would it take for you to have dinner with me?

Irene: For you to just… see me?

Sherlock: What would it take for John to see me?

   Irene: I saw your blog post. Seems you were quite upset about John’s “Sex Holiday” as you put it. Is sex an acceptable word in your vocabulary these days?

Sherlock: I’m upset whenever John is away. I’m upset now and he’s been back in London for over a month and we’ve yet to exchange more than a handful of words.

Sherlock: Sex was never an unacceptable word. Just because I am uncomfortable with a concept it doesn’t necessarily follow that I am uncomfortable with the vernacular.

Irene: Who spiked your tea? You’ve never had that much to say over text before.

Sherlock: Stronger than a spike.

Irene: What?

Irene: What are you doing?

Irene: Sherlock.

Irene: For God’s sake Sherlock! Are you shooting up again?

 She even knew about that before John. The corners of John’s eyes began to burn. How could she know even before he did? Was it always this easy to know Sherlock? He just had to ask. Or was she special?

   Sherlock: I miss you.

Irene: No you don’t. You miss him.

Sherlock: Maybe so.

Irene: You must really resent Mary. Must be hard to see her pregnant and happy.

Sherlock: I don’t. Not at all.

Sherlock: I’m glad John is happy.

Sherlock: Mary is a wonderful woman.

Irene: Oh come on Mr. Holmes. Drop the act. It hurts. It’s obvious.

Sherlock: Don’t assume my feelings work the same as yours.

Sherlock: John is happy. Mary is a good woman. A much better life partner than I would ever make.

Irene: Oh. You don’t hate her because you hate yourself.

Irene: You don’t think you’re worth it.

Irene: I know the feeling, I am genuinely sorry.

 John heard the shower turn off and Sherlock’s shuffle of getting dressed. He began to speed read.

  Irene: I saw you on the news. You look bloody awful.

Irene: Stop killing yourself.

Irene: Even if John isn’t there, you have people who love you.

  Sherlock: Would you like to have dinner with me?

Irene: Not if it’s a farewell.

Sherlock: Worth a shot.

Irene: Ask for help before you ask again. I won’t say no next time.

Irene: You clearly won’t accept it from me. But please find some sort of help.

Irene: At least tell John. Tell him the truth of how you feel. At least try. You’ll feel better.

Sherlock: I tried to. I lost the nerve.

Sherlock: Now I will never see him again.

Irene: Don’t say never. Get help.

 Silence on both sides for months after that. John couldn’t stop himself from being angry at Irene. She knew how bad he was but didn’t keep up with him? Didn’t check in on him? How could she do that?

Even though she did more than he had done to help Sherlock.

Finally he came to Sherlock’s most recently sent message to The Woman.

  Sherlock: Goodbye Ms. Adler.

Irene: Sherlock please for the love of God.

Irene: Don’t do this.

Irene: I’m glad you aren’t dead.

Irene: Happy Birthday, Mr. Holmes.

 John quickly put the phone back where it had been. Just in time too, as Sherlock appeared from the hall just a moment later.

“Oh… you’re still here.” Sherlock drawled, putting on the kettle in the kitchen.

“Yeah. I am.” John acknowledged, doing his best to not look uncomfortable.

“I’m just going to have a cup of tea and go to bed. There is really no need to stay and babysit me right now.” He sounded stiff, a bit miffed at still being treated like a child after his binge and subsequent hospital stay that had nearly killed him. It had admittedly been nearly two months since then, but truly none of them liked leaving Sherlock alone for any period of time. They cycled back and forth between who was babysitting Rosie, and who was babysitting Sherlock.

“I was actually thinking about spending the night.” John’s words tumbled out of his mouth before he had managed to connect what he was saying to his brain.

“Spending the night?” Sherlock scoffed, striding into the living room. “What about Rosie?”

“Molly’s got her. She’s fine taking her overnight.” Something he hadn’t asked her for this particular night. But if he messaged her and explained the situation, he was sure she wouldn’t protest.

“You really don’t need to stay here. You have a life to get back to.”

He was right. He did have a life to get back to. Here, at 221B Baker Street.

John stood, facing Sherlock. The man was entirely ready for bed. He wore a familiar pair of pajamas. A pair his mother had bought him the Christmas they had all spent together. His hair was damp and he smelled like mint. John squared his shoulders. And then walked past him into the kitchen.

“Chamomile or Valerian?” He asked, pulling tea down from the cabinets.