#She did 'borrow' a backpack and clothes that time she was out in the mountains | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ckret2 · 6 months ago

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Chapter 49 of human Bill Cipher being such a miserable prisoner even the Pines are starting to feel bad for him: The Eclipse: Epilogue.

####

"The heck did you do to that poor woman?" Tate asked, staring out the window. Bill was sitting on the pier, legs dangling in the water, staring blankly into the depths. He was still muddy and trembling. "She looks more traumatized than when y'all left."

Ford couldn't meet Tate's gaze under the brim of his hat, but he could feel Tate raising a brow when he spotted Dipper pacing back and forth on the pier behind Bill, muttering furiously.

"We've had a very bad day," Ford said.

"Uh-huh."

"Could I borrow your phone to call my brother?"

Outside, Dipper was oblivious to everything except the one line he'd managed to remember from the Axolotl, the words he'd picked out as they crossed the lake. "'Sixty degrees that come in threes,'" Dipper murmured. He knew that much. It was a poem. It was a rhyme. He couldn't remember the rest. What did it mean? He murmured it over and over to himself as he walked, trying to remember the next line, "'Sixty degrees that come in threes,' 'sixty degrees that come in threes'... breeze, freeze, ease, lease, knees—" He couldn't remember the rhyme.

Bill was considering grabbing Dipper by the ankle and dragging him off the pier just to shut him up when whatsisname, the younger McGucket came out of the shop. "Hello there? Miss Goldie?"

Human. Strange human. Human that Bill could get on his side. Be charming. He tried to remember how to be charming. He offered a feeble smile. "Yello?"

"I wanted to make sure you're all right," Tate said. "You look like you, uh... you've had a hard time."

Bill laughed ruefully. "Well, I've been dragged all over the mountain, I'm hungry, exhausted, and half-drowned, and I can barely walk—but I'm not currently dead. Allegedly. I'll take what I can get."

The corners of Tate's mouth twitched down in a concerned frown. "Is there anything you need? A..." He floundered for a moment, "A water, or...?"

"I've had enough water to last me a lifetime." He wondered idly whether he could claim he was too exhausted to make it all the way home—there was a sofa in the staff room, Tate would probably let the poor bedraggled "woman" take a nap, if Bill got that bit of distance between himself and the Pines maybe he could... maybe he could... do something with it? But he couldn't think of anything more definite than that and now Ford was coming back and the window of opportunity closed. He shrugged wearily. "Just need to get back to the shack. Thanks." He half heartedly used the lake water to wash the drying mud off his lower legs and knees.

"Stan will be here in about twenty minutes," Ford said, and tried to ignore the dirty look Tate gave him.

"I'll be just inside if you need anything else," Tate said. "Watching." He headed inside—and then, indeed, stood at the shop window and watched.

Ford was never going to get on Tate's good side. He suspected Tate would be a little less sympathetic to the poor woman on the pier if he knew who he really was; but it certainly wouldn't make Tate like Ford any better for keeping him around.

"Nothing to do now but wait." Ford unloaded the rest of their supplies from the borrowed motor boat. He dropped Soos's Monster-Mon backpack beside Bill—it was heavy, Bill must have just shoved his clothes and bedsheet straight in without bothering to wring out the water—and the plastic bag of snacks Dipper had bought. "You ought to eat more while we wait." Ford nudged the snack bag.

Bill sneered at it. "I don't want that trash."

"What?" Ford examined the bag's contents. Jerky, chips, candy, cups of marshmallow cereal... "This is ninety percent of what you eat."

"Ninety percent of what I eat is what I can scavenge from the counters."

Ford looked through the bag again. Ah. Right. So it was. "If you want something else, you know you can ask us to..."

"Mac and cheese."

Maybe Ford had better stop talking. He sighed and glanced at Dipper to see how he was doing.

It didn't look like Dipper had even registered Ford's return, too busy pacing and muttering to himself. Ford frowned. "Dipper?"

"Axolotl," Bill explained. "He's obsessing over him. Didn't I tell you that meeting that thing would drive him insane?" He tilted his head toward Dipper. "Look at that, he's already mumbling to himself. Don't suppose you have his therapist's number, do you? I doubt that would save him, but it might slow the process—"

Ford shushed him.

Dipper had briefly tuned back into the conversation when he heard Bill say Axolotl; and now he grit his teeth and stubbornly tuned it back out. No. He was not going insane. Dipper would figure this out. If he just remembered the rest he'd be fine. He tried to go through all the potential rhymes alphabetically, "—bees, cease, d—deez?" That wasn't a word. "Fees, geese, he's..." and on and on, "seas, tees, uh... vees? Wheeze..."

"I've had enough of you trying to convince that boy he's about to go mad," Ford muttered to Bill. "What do you get out of saying that? Even if you do convince him he's insane, it won't make him start trusting anything else you say."

"I'm not lying," Bill said heatedly. "You ought to know that, you've been in the multiverse, you've seen plenty of maddening sights. You saw them before you even left the Nightmare Realm."

Ford hesitated before responding; was Bill trying to persuade Ford he was insane? But he could still remember those first few moments of terror in the Nightmare Realm: the creatures that had seemed to move and shift in impossible ways as they swam in and out of dimensions Ford couldn't see, the lights and colors that throbbed like an inverted migraine, Bill himself seemingly suspended a million light years away and a foot in front of Ford's face at the same time. Until Ford had latched onto his quest to destroy Bill and let that focus him, his mind had felt like an unraveling sock. "You were chief among those maddening sights."

"I was," Bill acknowledged neutrally.

"But I didn't go insane."

"Because you knew when to look away." He cast a sideways glance at Dipper, an implicit unlike him. "I know you used to read cosmic horror. Do you know why the narrator always goes mad just from looking at some giant beast? It's not because it's too ugly to take. It's because once you meet something, you try to understand it; but if you want to understand the reality something like that comes from," he rolled an eye up toward where the invisible Axolotl had hung in the sky, "you have to lose your understanding of your own reality. They're incompatible. Like the lunatics who escaped Plato's cave and came back ranting about nonsense like sunlight and colors."

It was a twisted interpretation of the cave allegory. Plato had meant it as a metaphor for education: that learning about the true nature of reality was enlightening, but alienated you from your peers.

Perhaps to Bill, enlightenment and insanity were the same thing.

Ford murmured, "Once your eyes have been too dazzled by the sunlight to see the dim shadows, you'll never be awed by a candle again."

"You have been there before."

Ford didn't answer.

"Once you've seen something like that, if you let yourself dwell on the significance of it all, you're doomed. Better to tell yourself it's unimportant and try to forget it ever happened."

Ford thought of Fiddleford.

Bill twisted around to snap tiredly at Dipper, "So stop staring at the sun before you go blind, moron."

"Shut up." Dipper had been trying to mentally drown out Bill's dire predictions by grasping for more rhymes—"disease, unease, Socrates"—but enough filtered through to make his stomach churn with nervousness. What if Bill was right? What if he never remembered what the Axolotl told him—what if he drove himself mad trying? What if this turned into a lifelong obsession—but he'd be fine and could let it go once he remembered—was that the trap? Was whatever it had told him impossible for a human to remember? Was it something so incomprehensible a human couldn't remember it without going crazy?

But he'd seen plenty of stuff last summer that was supposed to make humans go "insane." Bill had to be messing with him. He remembered the first line—surely that meant he could remember the rest—but was that part of the trap? "'Sixty degrees that come in threes'... come on, there's something else, I know it, what is it? 'Sixty degrees that come in threes'—"

Bill sighed irritably. "'Watches through the eyes in trees.'"

Dipper stopped pacing. He hadn't realized he'd raised his voice enough to be audible. "What?"

"What?" Bill said.

"What's the rest of it?"

"What rest of it? It's a couplet. That's all," Bill said. "Is that what he told you? He gets rhymey when he feels self-important, it's no big deal. Maybe you're lucky. Put it out of your head and you'll be fine."

Dipper turned the words over in his head. Sixty degrees that come in threes, watches through the eyes in trees... "That's not exactly right," he said slowly. "It was 'watches from within birch trees.'"

"Is that how he translated it? I've never heard it in English before. I got close, though, I knew it'd rhyme."

Ford echoed, "'Sixty degrees that come in threes.' Like a triangle?"

Dipper gave him a perplexed look. "What?"

"You're taking geometry next year, aren't you? The inner angles of polygons always have the same number of degrees; and a triangle has a hundred and eighty degrees. Three angles of sixty degrees forms... an equilateral triangle."

Dipper and Ford stared at Bill.

Bill gave them a tired, unreadable look. "What?" he said. "Don't look at me. I'm not the only equilateral triangle in the universe."

Well, now Dipper was sure there was more to the poem than just a couplet. "How many other equilateral triangles spy on people through birch trees?"

"Lay off," Bill said crabbily. "I didn't have to tell you that line. Don't make me regret it." He planted his elbows on his knees, laced his hands together, pressed his forehead to them, and massaged his eyelids with his thumbs.

He tilted slightly to the right, keeping the weight of his head off his left arm.

####

"Nice shirt," Stan said, eyeing Ford's anger management t-shirt.

"If you like it, you can have it."

"What happened to your coat?"

"Somewhere at the bottom of the lake," Ford sighed.

"How...?"

"I'll fill you in later."

Bill's trembling was almost unnoticeable by the time Stan arrived. Or, at least, it was slight enough that he could stand and make the short walk from the pier to the car without an obvious struggle.

He climbed into the back seat, slid across the bench, leaned against the door, wrapped his arms around his Monster-Mon backpack, fell asleep, and didn't wake up for the entire drive home.

Dipper and Ford fell silent when they noticed; and, sensing the heavy atmosphere, Stan followed suit.

####

The event organizers for Higher Dimensional Gate had arranged for the Magister Mentium's audience to surround him in a circle with as large a circumference as possible, so that as many shapes as possible could pack into the first few rows where they could see him. Even so, the crowd was much too large for everyone to be in the first few rows. Speakers had to be planted throughout the crowd so that they'd all be able to hear the Magister speak. Most of his audience couldn't see him.

But he, with his all-seeing eye, could see all of them.

The crowd extended back, row after row after row, in every direction like flecks of multicolor confetti filling the air all the way to the horizon. He'd never spoken to such a large crowd before. He didn't think he'd ever seen such a large crowd before.

Not all of them were his worshipers. He didn't have that many worshipers. The rest were drawn in by his boast—to be the first shape outside of legends to predict an eclipse, over six months ahead of schedule. They were here for a spectacle. He meant to give them one.

If he succeeded, all these spectators would become his worshipers, he was sure of it. If he didn't succeed, he lost everything. The whole nation knew about his bet. He'd be financially ruined. His worshipers would abandon him. There would be no fleeing to a new town and starting over; everyone everywhere knew who he was. His life would be over.

This would be only the third eclipse he could recall. There's no way to neatly map shape ages onto human ages. Different year lengths, different aging speeds, different mental and physical milestones. But approximately, compared to a human, he was scarcely over fifteen years old.

But he wouldn't fail. He pushed all his fears aside. He didn't even want to think about them. He wouldn't, because he couldn't, because he could see what nobody else saw. He could see the eclipse's approach.

It was traveling across the vast empty gulf outside the world.

The only other third dimensional objects he'd ever seen were the sun—which looked to him like a circle—and the stars—which seemed to be mere points. He assumed all third dimensional objects were fundamentally just second dimensional objects, moving on a strange plane. He had no capacity to model a 3D object in his mind.

But the eclipse was a beast that twirled and gyrated around impossible axes, moving and rotating in ways his eye couldn't even comprehend. To him, it looked as though the living creature—he assumed it was a living creature, sometimes it manifested a couple of limbs or an eye—was constantly shapeshifting, its perimeter moving and altering. Its uncanny undulations had haunted his nightmares for months after he first watched it, so young he'd barely started school. It wasn't any less nightmarish now.

But as incomprehensible and terrifying as it was, he could see it, and nobody else here could, and that was all that mattered. He could watch it on the horizon and publicly announce that it would cross the sun in two weeks—and then in about three days—and then, to his humiliation, not tomorrow but today, guaranteed, as the creature sped up and threw off his estimate. His worshipers and bemused spectators had taken over the square to while away the time. They'd quickly gathered around him to wait after he'd declared it would arrive within the hour

That had been almost an hour and a half ago. The stupid thing had slowed down.

The triangle was terrified.

In every direction, shapes were staring at him. Waiting. His father was watching him—his stare seemed to grow heavier by the minute. He could see reporters in the crowd taking notes.

He had to fight not to pace, not to cringe, not to show any nerves in front of the hundreds of eyes.

Now. It had to be now. It was so close. Please don't let him be wrong. Every cord in his body quivered in terror as he grabbed his microphone and announced: "Lines, bis, tris—quads, quints, and more! My dear students and beloved believers, and my—" he cut off the urge to say something nastier, "—curious visitors, who I hope will join our quest for enlightenment. This is the moment you've been waiting for! The eclipse is upon us! In less than a minute, it will begin!" He had to keep his gaze forward as he spoke, looking at his audience. (His mother had always said the way his eye went white when he was looking at the third dimension unnerved people.) "Soon—you won't have to take all my claims about the third dimension on faith. You'll be able to see for yourself the effect of the third dimension on the plane."

The crowd murmured excitedly. He could see his father relax. He stared up-but-not-north, gnawing nervously on his eyelid until he caught himself. The beast above glowed a warm pink in the light of the nearby sun.

And the stupid thing. Slowed. Again.

He stared in disbelief.

"Sixty seconds," his father whispered, out of range of the microphone.

His stomach flopped. He was dead.

"One minute, fifteen seconds. What's going—?"

He held his microphone away and hissed, "The eclipse decided to zigzag."

"Eclipses can zigzag?"

"Shhh!" He'd already failed. He'd already shown everyone he was wrong. He could hear the murmurs. His eye hurt from staring at the sun and from straining for so long to turn so far upward-not-northward, go faster faster faster—

There! The snout of the eclipse was this close to kissing the perimeter of the sun. He cried triumphantly, "Now!"

The wretched beast did a loop-the-loop around the sun and missed it entirely.

The triangle felt the last strands of his fraying self-composure snap.

He howled in rage.

He could hear laughs from the crowd. They felt like daggers in his sides.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" He was bellowing into outer space as if he thought it might hear him, "Do your think this is a game?! Is this funny?! Are you trying to humiliate me in front of the whole world!" His father put a hand on his arm; the triangle shoved him away. "Get back here right now! You thick, brainless, blobby, pink, feeler-faced two-eyed freak of nature! GET BACK HERE and LOOK ME IN THE EYE!" He was a lunatic, everyone would know it, their leader raving in a direction no one could actually see about some big pink delusion, what did he care, no one would ever take him seriously again anyway—

And the thing in the sky.

Stopped.

And looped back.

And came closer, and closer, and bigger, and bigger—it just kept getting bigger, how far away had it been before, how large was it, how large was the sun?

He hardly noticed the crowd's gasp as the creature twirled between them and the sun—the light shone through its body, pink with blood—and then out of the way, and then in again, and out—until finally it was so close that its perimeter completely engulfed the sun. He'd taken a field trip to the planet's surface once—an enormous solid mass of stone and crystal. Until now, he'd never seen another solid objects so large. To his limited understanding of 3D objects, it looked as though there were no organs inside its perimeter—just a layer of solid, uninterrupted flesh. He didn't know how it could even move.

It stopped straight over him.

He was sure the two black circles embedded inside its body must be its eyes. His whole life he'd heard psychic powers—psychic powers like his own—described as having an "inner eye." But he'd thought the phrase was just a metaphor. An eye on the inside of a body instead of on its perimeter would be useless to most people. He'd never seen a creature with an eye literally on the inside of its body. But the eclipse had two.

And they were looking at him.

A giant ever-shapeshifting cosmic horror from outside of reality, staring through the veil separating the sane world from outerplanar space, and it was looking—at—him.

He was terrified.

He heard an alien voice in his head, vast and deep and slow as distant whale song:

"Hello there!" It was overjoyed. It was tickled pink. "I've never been spoken to by a shape on the wall before. I didn't know you could see off of it!"

Weakly, the triangle repeated, "'A shape on the'...?"

"Yes, this wall of yours." The eclipse gestured with its tail at—everything. A single sweep that took in an entire dimension. "I've probably commuted past this wall billions of times, and nothing's ever called to me before. I didn't know shadows could do that!"

"'Shadows'?" the triangle echoed again. That was all they were? An eclipse's shadows?

"I'm absolutely delighted," the eclipse said. "First contact from a lower-dimensional species! I've watched you for eons and never imagined. Isn't this exciting! How charming of you! Tell me who you are."

Him? "Me?"

"Of course. Who else?" It stared at him. Only him. A shapeshifting force of nature the size of a planet with two inner eyes, an eclipse that saw him as a shadow—and it was looking only at him.

Weakly, he said, "I'm... the Magister Mentium."

The eclipse thought that over. Its tone was a tad dubious and not terribly impressed (why should it be impressed? he was embarrassed at himself for giving his silly puffed-up title)—but it said, "Yes, I suppose that's true. I am the Axolotl. It's been a pleasure meeting you." It began to shapeshift again—its eyes slid sideways through its body, until one reached its perimeter and disappeared.

It dawned on the triangle, in its first immature understanding of third dimensional objects, that its eye had disappeared because the Axolotl was turning away. "Wait!" he cried. "Why..." Why answer him? Why focused on him so completely, if he was just a shadow? Why ask who he was like he mattered? He didn't even know how to put those questions to words in his own mind, much less out loud. "Why are you here so early?"

The Axolotl turned back to the triangle. "Oh! I had to go back for some documents I forgot at the office. Big case in the morning," it said. "You shadows know my schedule?"

"You... pass in front of the sun."

The Axolotl turned away, eyes disappearing and frills fluttering, to look at the sun. "So I do! How funny." It turned toward the triangle and gave him a strange, grotesque look that—by the tone of its psychic voice—he suspected was a smile. "I must get going. I'll be heading into the office a few hours late tomorrow, but perhaps I'll see you again then." And it turned away. It felt like it took forever for the enormous body to sail over-not-north-of the triangle—and pass, at last, out of the sun's path.

The triangle didn't look down-but-not-south until someone shook his side—his father. He lowered his dazed gaze to the crowd—the cheering, applauding crowd. Ma-gi-ster, Ma-gi-ster. A sea of multicolor confetti shapes that filled the air to the horizon.

Shadows.

His father shook him again—"Go on, say something. They're waiting"—and the triangle held up his mic as though he were in a dream. He tried to remember what he was supposed to say. "I was right," he said flatly. "Just like I always told you. I can see the third dimension. The realm of dreams—of colors, of light, and..." The lies left a sick taste in the back of his eye. He couldn't say them. Points of light in darkness and pink nightmares.

"I'm s— You'll all have to excuse me," he said, his voice childish and small. "I can't—I've had a... a... profound... spiritual experience. I must meditate on the revelations I've received." The words felt like woo-woo mumbo-jumbo. "The next eclipse will be a few months after the new year." It seemed important, for some reason, to pass that information on. Wasn't that what he always said he did? Share the wisdom of third dimensional spirits with his followers? "I... have to go now."

His father took his elbow. "This is your moment," he whispered. "Come on, son—you don't want to lose your chance to speak directly to them, do you?"

He shoved the microphone in his father's side. "You speak to them."

"But—"

"I can't," he said. "I can't."

He cut through the crowd as fast as it would part for him—if they were any slower, he'd have started stabbing his way through—haunted the whole way by their applause.

####

And that was it.

From the Axolotl's perspective, he had just had a brief pleasant exchange with a precocious tadpole in a sidewalk puddle.

From the triangle's perspective, he might as well have been standing on the boat deck watching as Cthulhu rose from his millennia of dead slumber at the bottom of the ocean, turned to the fragile vessel bobbing on the waves, and said, "Good morning! Glorious weather we're having, isn't it?"

And from the perspective of the Higher Dimensional Gate, their Magister Mentium had predicted an eclipse, been rightfully insulted when it didn't come the exact second he ordered it, and furiously summoned down an eclipse darker and swifter and longer than any in recorded history.

Up until then, he had been seen as, at best, an oracle. A prophet. A messenger to share the secrets of the third dimension, but that was all he could do. But now, he had commanded forces in an unseen dimension, creating an eclipse months before it was natural. He had made it flicker on and off like he had his finger on the sun's light switch. News reports and the most unimpeachable scientific authorities reported that the eclipse had centered on the location of the Higher Dimensional Gate rally, narrowed down to an inexplicably small radius around that point, and then remained unchanged for several long minutes, long enough for anyone in its shadow to grow fatigued from the missing sunshine. Nothing like that had ever happened before. It defied every known fact about the science of eclipses.

People around the gathering—even people who had known nothing about the Higher Dimensional Gate rally—reported that during the eclipse, they'd become inexplicably disoriented, unable to tell compass directions, and had felt themselves fall toward the darkness—as if gravity's pull had suddenly moved from the south to the epicenter of the eclipse. Public building inspections confirmed that somehow the entire town had shifted, ever so slightly, closer to the epicenter. Closer to the Magister.

Never mind prophecy; as far as the Magister's rapidly-increasing followers were concerned, he might have been a god.

It was the greatest triumph a baby cult leader could ask for.

He barely noticed.

####

For days, he could hardly sleep, speak, or think. He kept losing track of conversations to stare into space. Now, it awed his followers when his eye turned an empty white—he must have been communing with something in a higher dimension.

He didn't argue. It was better than letting them know he was losing his mind.

He spent his time alone locked in his room, pacing back and forth, trying not to look up-but-not-north and failing. Dwelling on the significance of it all. Feeling like he'd never figure it out.

He used to love cosmic horror stories, back when he had time to read. They followed a reliable pattern: the hero travels farther than any rational shape ever should, meets something big, and goes mad from the realization.

And what was it that the hero always realized? That he was a dust fleck in the firmament. That he was insignificant. That he didn't matter. That there were things out there he'd never seen before and would never truly understand, and that they cared not for mere shadows on the wall like him, and that in the grand scheme of the cosmos he was nothing. That he was utterly unimportant.

In moments of what felt like lucidity in between the shivering horror, the triangle wryly acknowledged that it was no surprise he'd ended up in a cosmic horror story. He could see into another dimension. In the stories he'd read, that made it all but inevitable.

But all the authors had gotten the maddening revelation wrong. He could have handled knowing he was nothing. It almost would have been a relief.

True horror was knowing he mattered.

He'd spent the majority of his young life selling the idea that he was oh-so-important, as part of a big con to trick gullible idiots into liking him and flinging cash at his rotten undeserving family—and he'd only been able to do it because when the guilt got to him, when his conscience asked what would become of the shapes forking over their life savings on false promises of divine secrets, he could look out into bleak black space and tell himself that nothing really mattered, nothing was important, nothing he'd ever do would really make a difference, and the people he manipulated didn't matter any more than he did. He meant everything to his worshipers, and nothing to the universe. He could do anything and it didn't matter.

For a moment, a vast mind-melting shape-shifting incomprehensible eldritch god had focused its full attention on him—of all the universe, of all the dimensions beyond the known universe, it had looked at him and only him—a mere shadow on the wall, and yet in that moment, it found him interesting. It found him worthy of notice. He had screamed into the cold uncaring void, and the void had cared. For a moment, he'd held cosmic importance. He mattered. His actions mattered.

He'd felt it see him as important, but why? What was so important about him? There had to have been something significant he'd done, something he showed it, something in what he said. He replayed their conversation in his mind over and over and over and over, trying to remember what he'd done that proved he mattered.

He didn't know what it was. He couldn't find it. All he could remember was just... being.

The writers were wrong. Cosmic horror wasn't when an elder god's eyes slid past you without noticing you existed. It was when the elder god gazed down at you at your lowest and bleakest, during your most petty and selfish act of mass swindling, from a dimension where not even slamming the door and shutting your eye could shield you from its gaze—and it decided you were worth caring about. Cosmic horror was when you encountered a colossal alien that planted the incomprehensibly alien idea in your head that you had an inherent worth just because you existed. Cosmic horror was when a force of nature asked the name of a shadow on the wall.

If it was true... if it all mattered... then what was he doing? How could he? What had he done?

####

He was lucky—he was lucky that his parents had raised him to think so clearly about issues like morality and money and easy marks. His only saving grace was that he was too rational to seriously entertain the Axolotl's mad ideas.

And yet, his mind boiled with mad regret. It blazed with insane guilt. The heat of it could burn him out. It was months before he could continue his public sermons without feeling sick—and even once he did, he could still feel the delusion that what he did mattered, festering in his mind.

It would fester for the next trillion years.

####

(And that concludes this plot arc! I hope y'all enjoyed it!! I'd love to hear what y'all thought of the whole thing—especially now that we've looped back to the original eclipse. 😁)

#bill cipher #the axolotl #(for the art)#human bill cipher #(for the fic)#gravity falls #gravity falls fic #gravity falls fanart #fanart #my art #my writing #bill goldilocks cipher

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crystalas · 3 years ago

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Blazing Blue part 1

Red Son runs away from home after overhearing his father call him a worthless excuse of a demon, agreeing to a truce with MK he ends up with the Monkie crew unaware that someone wants to steal a power that was sealed away long ago.

Chapter one: Truce buddies

Demon Bull King stood amongst the ruins of his old hidden stronghold, his robot clones busy digging out the remains and salvaging anything of use. He took a weary sigh and he surveyed all of what he had built since his revival and growled at how quickly it was destroyed…annoyingly at his own hand! Only then to be enslaved by Spider Queen while trying to raise enough funds to rebuild it. Needless to say, it had a been a few rough months for the Demon Bull Family.

“Man, I had heard your family had fallen on hard times but this is embarrassing!” a voice chuckled and Demon Bull King felt himself bristle with anger, he spun around to smash whoever thought it wise to mock a ten-foot-tall bull demon only to find the black monkey warrior Macaque lounging leisurely on top of a pile of rubble.

“Begone, you annoying simian shadow, I have no time for you” Demon Bull King snarled.

“Aw and I came all the way down here to chat, how rude. I mean I’ll excuse you not getting out the fine China for me on account of well…” he gestures to the crumbling ruin as a chunk of wall collapsed behind him. “Your recent string of humiliating defeats and the fact you had to team up with Monkey King…just wow…how low can you go?”

Macaque quickly sprung to his feet and nimbly dodged a lump of molten metal that flew right past him and buried itself into the ceiling behind him.

“If you have come here just to mock me then I will make you pay for every word you speak tenfold!” he roared.

“You’re right I’m sorry, I actually wanted to see if you were interested in an alliance of sorts?” Macaque exclaimed as he hopped lightly down the rubble pile without so much as disturbing a brick and looked up at Demon Bull King with a smile.

“You come to my home…Mock me and my family and rub salt in my wounds and you ASK FOR AN ALLIENCE!!??”

“What if I told you, it’s a plan to destroy the Monkey King? And his little fan club?” Macaque offered, Demon Bull King glared at him said not a word and then with speed not many would associate with a creature of his size and bulk snatched Macaque with his hand and brought him up to his face to look him in the eye.

“Know this Six Ears Macaque just because I have been buried under a mountain for the last few centuries does not mean I am ignorant of current events! You tried to best Monkey King with his protégé’s own power and you still lost!” Demon Bull King snarled as Macaque squirmed in his tight grip before erupting into shadowy mist and escaping. Demon Bull King glanced around trying to find the real one only for what he hoped was the real one to appear perched nearby on what remained of his furnace.

“See that’s why I’m here, Monkey King knows I like to… “borrow” power from other people, and he probably think I’ll go for powers of say his fanboy or someone just as good but what if I blindsided him with powers of say… The Demon Bull King? Or Lady Iron Fan? Or maybe say the power of demon fire?”

“No. Begone.”

“Com’on I’m not even asking you to do anything just let me borrow some power and I’ll do the butt kicking!”

“Begone.” Demon Bull King replied even harsher than last time.

“Fine, I get it.” Macaque grumbled “Best shot you have of getting your revenge and you’re going to turn it down!”

“I am not as foolish as to become a mere power source to another being, that is not an alliance that is servitude at best!” Demon Bull King declared standing to his full height with his fist clench ready for battle. “And do not think me as foolish to let you even try!”

“Fine. Fine I’ll just try Red Son, he’s more open minded about these things. Plus, I’ve heard the rumours of his… hidden inheritance” Macaque smirked as he spun on his heels and walked away casually only for a fist to slammed into the wall blocking his path.

“You will stay away from my family!” Demon Bull King hissed.

“So, it is true? I mean I’ve heard stories about it but given what I’ve seen of him in action I’d begun to doubt any of them!”

Demon Bull King thought quickly but to be fair his wife was more the brains of the operation, if Macaque was beginning to doubt the stories better to confirmed it than deny them.

“Red Son is a pathetic whelp, who is an embarrassment to us and unworthy of being called my son, he only brings shame and defeat to whatever he does. Whatever rumours you had heard are merely that; rumours. If he did have any power worthy of the Demon Bull King family name, don’t you think I would have used it by now?” Demon Bull King declared coldly, “You have clearly wasted your time and mine. You have your answer. Now go!”

“I guess they must be wrong if even you say Red Son is a worthless excuse of a demon. My mistake, you know how stories get hyped up over the years…I’ll be on my way” Macaque said sadly as he hopped down and walked away arms crossed behind his back. As he did, he glanced over at one of the corridors that snaked through Demon Bull King’s hide out to see a quiet and pale faced Red Son…

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Red Son had managed to find his room amongst the rubble and save some clothes, books and tools. Sadly, an iron girder had broken through the roof of his room and destroyed his computer set up and mechanics bench, in a way he was ok with that. Rebuilding his computer would give him something to do while the reconstruction was underway. Now he was heading to the main chamber as he was getting peckish and fancied going up top to grab some food, might as well see if Father didn’t want anything before, he headed out.

As he walked down the corridor, he heard his father shouting and the muffled voices of him talking to another. Who could that be? Red Son wondered as he started to walk faster, Mother shouldn’t be back just yet. She had left the city to find spell ingredients for her magics, [it is kind of hard to locate stuff like dragon scales and tree spirit sap in a dense city metropolis.]

As he came to the opening to the main chambre he heard something that made his heart stop.

“Red Son is a pathetic whelp, who is an embarrassment us and unworthy of being called my son…” his father said, as he tried to listen everything else but it just to swim in and out of his focus as his head spun. “…Only brings shame and defeat…Worthless excuse of a demon…waste of…my time…”

Why? Why would his father say that? Red Son thought they had made progress in their relationship, okay fine he had only called him son that one time but…but that was still a better than nothing? He saved him when the Spider Queen caught him in her webs, they fought her together.

Was he really back to square one? No. it was apparently worse than that he wasn’t back at square one he was off the game board entirely as far as his father was concerned. Heavens knows how his mother must see him give she has called him useless to his face! He had tried no end of times to prove himself only to come home with nothing to show for it.

He didn’t even register Macaque walk by as he spun on his heels and went back to what remains of his room; stuffing what he had salvaged into a backpack and swallowing back a painful lump in his throat as he quickly wrote a note leaving it on the metal girder for whoever to find. He took a deep breath trying to steady his emotions before disappearing in a swirl of flames.

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

Monkey Kid or MK was feeling down of late; his Master the Monkey King had given him the task of catching a red leaf with a gold dot on it. That didn’t sound too hard right? Not when Monkey King is making it rain hundreds of other leaves all of different colours and hues as well and expects him to find it in minutes!

MK sighed, he knew what the lesson was about he was supposed to focus on that one leaf and avoid all other distractions. If he pulled it off and mastered it, he knew he’s probably be able to find a grain of rice on a beach or something as pointless but somehow totally cool sounding. Problem was he couldn’t pull it off, he kept getting distracted or just overwhelmed by the leaves getting dumped on him from above.

So now he sat on a ledge of Flower Fruit Mountain overlooking the sunset on the city, he liked to come here when he wanted to clear his head. On one hand it was freaking awesome he was the protégé of The Monkey King a warrior of renowned legendary might and skill…on the other hand sometimes it would dawn on him on just how daunting it was to live up to the expectations of an immortal warrior who seems to have seen everything the world has to offer and then some.

He sighed as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his pants before grabbing his staff. He began to walk he saw that he wasn’t the only one taking in the view with a sense of melancholy. As he got closer, he squawked in alarm as he saw the familiar flaming red hair and ragged jacket.

“RED SON??!!” this outburst caused Red Son to leap out of his skin and jump to his feet. “What are you doing here?!”

“Oh, push off Noodle Boy, last time I checked you don’t own this mountain!” Red Son snapped grabbing his stuff and storming off “But if you’re here that means Monkey King isn’t far behind and I rather not have to deal with him on top of everything else!”

“Huh? Hey wait!” MK shouted as he noticed the backpack. “What’s in there?!”

“None of your concern!” Red Son barked back.

“It is my concern when you show up on Monkey King’s Mountain with a suspicious bag! What’s in it?”

“It’s not a bomb or anything!”

“You got a BOMB??!!”

“Oh, for the love of…NO! I have not got a bomb or anything of the sort! I mean for pity’s sake I can literally throw fire balls why would I need to carry an explosive weapon??!!”

MK dashed forward and tried to grab the backpack and Red Son tried to pulled it away from him leading to a very childish game of tug of war.

“Lemme see what’s in it!”

“NO!”

“If you’ve got nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about!”

“ITS MY STUFF SO LET GO!”

Sadly, a backpack that had endured many scorches from its owner and grounded by rubble could only bear so much and with one last pull from both sides the backpack’s fabric tore open and Red Son’s stuff poured onto the floor. Red Son dived down to grab what he could as MK took in the sights of clothes, food, and other mundane stuff.

“Dude…are you camping or something?” MK asked as he saw one of the items that had skidded out of Red Son’s reach, he knelt down to pick it up and saw it was a hand sized family portrait of Princess Iron Fan and Demon Bull King…before he could get a good look it was snatched from his hands.

“Just leave me alone!” Red Son growled “You can clearly see that I am not a threat!”

“Red …are you ok?”

Red Son was trying to figure out how to keep his stuff in a backpack with a massive hole in it, but he was also trying desperately to ignore the look of concern that was coming from his enemy.

“Are you running away from home?”

Red Son didn’t respond to that and he had stopped fiddling with his backpack as he was now staring sadly at the photo.

“Why?” MK asked softly.

“Why do you care?”

“I mean…I dunno…you and your dad seem to be getting on when I last saw you, seems strange that you’re running away!”

“I AM NOT RUNNING AWAY!” Red Son roared his hair flaring up in flames, gripping the photo tightly as he did. The flames died quickly as did Red Son’s anger as he then whispered “I’m…I’m…just making things easier for my parents…”

MK tilted his head in confusion, he looked at Red Son for a moment. This was a guy who was always so confident, loud and proud of his name and heritage he literally introduces himself in full name whenever he’s about to do something dastardly or anything for that matter. Now he was sitting there with a backpack full of his possessions, on a mountain far from home, staring at a family picture like he’s never going to see them again.

MK sat down next to Red Son, putting the staff away to show he meant no harm.

“Want to talk about it?”

Red Son looked away angrily.

“Ok how about I go first? You know how cool it is to have someone like the freaking Monkey King show up and say that’ll they teach you? It is don’t get me wrong but then you begin to see how big of a shadow you’re stuck under? We’re talking about a guy who literally stole from the heavens and got away with it and has beaten up who knows how many monsters and demons? I sometimes wonder if I’m ever gonna be good enough for this, it’s just feels like the whole universe is just waiting for me to screw up, just to prove that I can’t do it… y’know what I mean?” there a few moments of silence and MK was about to try again when he heard a small voice.

“At least he believes in you, it must be nice to have a someone like that.”

“Your parents don’t?”

“… …no…” Red Son muttered, “I overheard my father today telling someone that he considers me an embarrassment to the family name, along with a few other choice words…”

“So, you…left?”

“I don’t know I wasn’t thinking at the time!” Red Son cried out angrily tugging at his head in frustration, “I want prove to my father that I am worthy of being his son but how? How do I show him that I’m not a …a…pathetic whelp?”

There was a heavy tense silence between them as they both looked at each other and then at the city, the sun nearing finished setting and the in the twilight the city lights began to shine.

“You know what?” MK declared as he got up. “We both need a break!”

“What?”

“A break from all this living up to people’s expectations and ideals! A chance to recharge the batteries and get some of that well-being self-care stuff!”

“What exactly are you proposing?” Red Son inquired nervously.

“We can just hang out; you know play games and chill? Also, you can stay at mine till you get this all sorted out!”

Red Son looked at MK like he had just announced that the moon was made of cream cheese and was inhabited by flying guinea pigs.

“So…a truce?” he ventured nervously

“Yeah! My friends and I don’t fight you, and you don’t fight us!”

Red Son looked down at his destroyed backpack, then glanced at the mountain side he was on and realised that maybe coming up here to hide was a dumb idea.

“It not like I’ve got anything better to do!” he grumbled.

“AWESOME!” MK beamed “Let’s go! We’re gonna be Truce Buddies!”

#monkie kid red son #red son #monkie kid #monkie kid mk #spiceynoodle #sort of but kind of

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shadowdianne · 3 years ago

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A friend who is actually starting to write her own book sent me a little thing back at instagram which was a cute version of inktober. For each day of august a prompt of word. She asked me to do it with her, as a way of making her write even a short paragraph each day and motivate her. I said yes, but since I'm quite the overachiever I did all previous days plus today and my plan is to do them all now that I'm up to date with the ones I was "supposed" to have done. Anyway, the rules we set for this were no tailoring afterward, no editing, and a max of 15 lines. It's not fanfic but if anyone wants to read them...

1.- Circle

The grass was dry beneath their feet as they moved, the nighttime air filled with the chants of those who hold the candles as they moved, shadows undulating, changing, as they rose their arms. However, If anyone would have dared to peek from beyond the trees that surrounded the clearing, they would have only seen the blue formations of the will-o-wisps as they moved and created the never-ending circle and yet, however, if any bystander clever enough, magical enough, interested enough, would have kept on watching, battling against the feeling of being watched that would have crept out on their back, they would have seen the figures, the lights, form and change and transform until the will-o-wisps were gone and, on their wake, the circle would have led to the wings of those departed, waiting for their time to come so they could traverse to the place beyond.

2.- Changeling

Their eyes are never the right color, their mouths form words no-one should speak outload, they teach us to never share our meals, our names with them, for they do not belong to us anymore that they do belong to what lies beyond the veil that permeates magic and secrets. Their souls were sold, way beyond they were formed, even if they wear lead and silver like any mortal would. They can touch salt, and eat it as well, but their redemption lies beyond the crosses and symbols of the religion that they were brought up into. You can make deals with them, they teach us, you can peer into those eyes and try not to lose yourself if you are willing, but remember that their bodies are borrowings, copies of imperfect molds. They exist and they can bring gifts, for they can step into said veil, but there’s nothing that will make them human, or mortal, even if they think of themselves as such.

3.-Lottery

The numbers bled ink onto her palm as she brought it closer to her eyes, the rain around her turning ice-cold as she tried to peer beyond it. The air freezing as she rose her free hand and moved a few stray hairs out of her eyes. She could feel the chill on her back and neck, the razor sting of the water turning to hail. “Is someone there?” She wanted to ask, the silhouette she had seen -she had thought she had seen- walking down the road now nowhere to be found. The lottery ticket kept flapping against the wind, the numbers beginning to smear as she brought it closer to her chest. Numbers, she would soon find out when she entered into one of the few shops down her street that would take it, that changed with notable pace. There was never a wrong one, she would realize, for each number would always be the correct one, would always give the answer that would need to be given in order to win. Then, she would ask, why the ticket was also stained with blood?

4.-Officiate

The bold man rose his arms and looked at us with a grave look, the shadows within the chapel seeming to grow and wreathe as we all stood, waiting. There was very little to do, beyond keeping up with his stare as he repeated the old mantra I’ve known by heart for longer than my years would have said. I let my mind wander when he didn’t stare at me, trying to catch the sins off our memories, the reason why we have been brought up here. I looked at the stained glass at his back, at the stories that were told with jaded crystals that our memories had conjured. With each night, the stained glass seemed brighter, our souls, according to him, purer. And yet, I felt light-headed, weak, as my eyes were captured once more, distant screams scurrying through the floor as we fell, knees first. Again, and again, and again.

5.-Enchant

He eyed the pendant that hung from between their intertwined fingers, the jewel encased in the middle of the brass and silver lines glinting under the electric light that hung above them. He was still able to taste the wine he had consumed a few minutes prior, the tanginess of it, the way it had stained his teeth. The light within the pendant glowed stronger as it beckoned them, their breath halting and then speeding up as their feet rose from carpeted floors, the wood panels that covered the room’s walls seemingly to throb as they kept on grabbing the pendant, the magic, scribbled beyond the details the artisan had created for them both. “A promise trapped in glass” The old man has whispered as he had given it to him. “A secret written within it.” He had replied, the words strange but expected, such was the way of the saying. He now was able to fear the heat radiating from the pendant, the magic, and he knew he had been lied to.

6.-Science

Beakers tinkled as she looked around the room, the papers, scattered around the body, the last strength of the dead man’s hand thrown over one small portion of white paper that was now marred with words she wasn’t able to understand. The inspector knelt next to the body, not bothering to check the man’s pulse as she knew him dead; the trail of blood pooling on his back enough proof of that, alongside with the scalpel, the broken pieces, of what could have been his latest experiment. Outside, beyond the sea of voices so normal in an investigation site, she could almost listen to the crows she had seen upon entering the building, their beaks open in a sempiternal smirk. She frowned and stood, fingers ironing her clothing reflexively as she took into the laboratory, the slight stench of fluids that had been spilled. And then she winced as her finger opened, sliced by one of the speckles of glass that covered her pants. Stupid, noob, she could listen to the scornful remarks others would tell her, if only the heat that now seemed to burn from her insides would end.

7.- Basket

It was sturdy, the old woman would often say when trying to sell the ones she made in front of her home, the porch worn and slanted but still giving her enough shade for her hands to work without breaking a sweat. It was sturdy and practical and all new-commers should buy one. What would you do, she would say with eyes so clouded they looked like the sky in a stormy day, with the things one was supposed to carry for long travels? What would you do with your food and waterskins? Where would you carry them? She would scoff at the words of those who politely told her that they had their backpacks. “They are not as reliable” She would reply, but she would shoo them away nevertheless, her interest depleted the moment they told her that they were supposed to go for the distant mountains, the ones that seemed blue from where they stood. She would insist more, sometimes, if they seemed hesitant to say not to her, toothless smile and quick tongue quickly lifting a few coins from their purses. It was sturdy, she would say to them, as she gave them the promised basket, the sigils woven into it blinking once, twice, beyond their eyes. She would smile then, promising them good travels, safe travels. She was rarely wrong.

8.- Ensnare

The gardener looked at yet another vine, sweat rolling down his brow, he could feel the dirt slowly resettling itself as he watched, the steps of the poor unfortunate who had ended up being trapped, ensnared, by the vines already beginning to disappear. There was very little he was able to do now, the body mangled beyond recognition, and so he brought a clean cloth and his sears and began the process of recollecting what little he was able to get, at least for the ones who had lost another family member, for the dead to be tolled, he didn’t quite hate his job, it paid well, as long as he himself kept away from the vines covering the mausoleum’s door. But there were days like this one, days in where the heat bothered and the vines were more playful than usual and their teeth nipped at his fingers, that he wondered about taking that final step, devoid of the protections the pendant around his neck gave him. If only to see if there was actually a way of getting lose from them all.

9.-Sky

Their wings fluttered, moved by the breeze that only they could see, and as the night covered everything in velvety black, the wings of the creatures grew in size, changing the sun with the moon, their eyes black holes that blossomed into galaxies only those keen eyed, where able to distinguish on the earth below. They danced around each other, the aurora borealis a stamp of colors their tails created their flight erratic for every night is different and every sky varies, even with the matted imperfections of their plumage -the constellations, those mortals would call them- The planets aligned as the sun disappeared, one last bite of fire hanging low on the horizon, and they kept on dancing, on transforming day to night, and then back and back again.

10.-Box

The box was engraved, numbers of family members so old it was difficult to remember them any longer. It was also covered in dirt, from the grave they had dug it up, their secrets locked away with a lock as well crafted as it was gorgeous; rust not seeming able to corrode the details of the metal parts that surrounded the names. Cold to the touch, permanently, it seemed to leave a thin layer of frost no matter what object it touched, and she bit down her bottom lip as she tried to remember the old nursery rhymes her grandmother used to sing to her, about the secrets she was supposed to inherit, the clues she was supposed to recall. Nothing, however, came forth, her own fingers felt cold and detached and her vision blurred and gone, the will-o-wisp lights that had seemed to grow stronger the last time she checked into the forest that surrounded the home coming closer and closer to her now, asking for a permission they didn’t need as her own soul had granted such.

11.- Catapult

He run, almost slipping over a pool of oil as the noise of the fighters and soldiers below reached him, the sweat on his brow getting heavier with every passing second. He had been tasked with one thing and one thing only: being a novice there was only so much he could do with a sword after all. And so, he run, run towards the catapults waiting outside the castle, beyond the riverbank. All the careful planning had been for naught as they had found a way into the place using the old catacombs, the ones in where numbers appeared written in blood, passages of a bible so cursed there were only a few that could remember the name of the book itself. He hadn’t dared to ask how the enemies had found a way in; the eyes full of fear of his sergeant had been telling enough. And so, he willed his legs to carry him further as he kept on descending the stairs, moving between bodies, and propelling himself in-between those who fought. He had one job and one job only and he needed to reach the riverbank. Or else.

12.-Ladder

The wood of the ladder splintered beneath her fingertips, but she didn’t pay any mind to the pain on her flesh. There was no point to it, after all, for everything she had tried lied dead at her feet, the eyes of the multitude stuck on her as she felt stricken by fear. She had been propped up the unlit bonfire, read her sins, what she had been accused off, and called forth a blessing from the mute skies. She had looked up then, narrowing her eyes as she searched for the birds that changed as the seasons did; she had been taught, instructed, to find those in the case she was found. Yet, nothing came forth on that starless night, not even when she began to feel the stench of fog and fire about to reach her feet. For that, for fear, she transported herself as far as her powers allowed her; to the silo next to the old road; the one in where Old Granny used to sell her baskets to those stupid enough to transverse to the mountains. The silo was closed now, rot settling in of what had been a small hut back when she had been a child, and so she had waited and waited for the screams outside to disappear, her legs around the end of the ladder, her arms, and hands clutching the top of it. A mere second longer, she thought, she prayed, and she would be able to escape, to flee, to those blue mountains she still could see on her mind’s eye.

13.-Carnivorous

The wolf is not evil, despite its large smile and piercing teeth, its tongue as red as the blood it consumes. The wolf is not evil but a warning, one created by the path that moves and curls around the forest, a way of keeping you focused and not dead. The wolf is not evil, it eats what you eat, it grows from what you learn. The wolf is not evil but a companion, one to listen to when you are traveling, hoping for the next curve of the trail to show the shadows of a town nearby. The wolf is not evil, but a guide, a mortal one, that can travel between what you know and what you definitely shouldn’t pry about. The wolf is not evil. Merely carnivorous.

#yes #they are connected #in a way #I'm creating a time line on the go but I plan to have something done by the end of the month that you can follow through if you read them #aughost

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redisriding · 4 years ago

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The Right Swipe - Chapter Eight

A Court of Thorns and Roses Modern AU Fanfic

All character’s belong to the wonderful Sarah J Maas.

Tags: @superspiritfestival @duskandstarlight @perseusannabeth @courtofjurdan @omg-aelin @keshavomit @rainbowcheetah512 @queenestarcheron @mis-lil-red @queen-of-glass

Cassian sat in his truck, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel in time with the music playing on the radio. It was some classic rock channel that his truck had picked up on the drive out of Velaris to the hiking trail where he had agreed to meet Nesta for their second date.

He had been waiting for almost an hour. Not that Nesta was late, but because Cassian had arrived excessively early.

He had woken before his alarm that morning and was too restless to try and go back to sleep, so he had got up and padded around Azriel’s plush apartment making himself breakfast.

But even the elaborate spread he concocted disappeared sooner than he would have liked. He sat at Azriel’s kitchen table trembling with energy that he didn’t know what to do with.

After cleaning up, he decided to make himself useful. Locating Azriel’s tool box, which was some search, he set about hanging the paintings that Rhys had ordered to brighten up the grey minimalist box that Azriel lived in.

He had only drilled the first hole in the wall when Azriel emerged from his room, bleary-eyed and grumpy. “Cass, what are you doing?”

“Hanging the art Rhys bought.”

“I can see that, but do you need to do it before 8am on a Saturday?! The neighbours are going to complain.”

“Right, yeah. Sorry.”

“Why are you even up so early?”

“Couldn’t sleep.”

“Well, go watch TV or something.”

“Do you want to—.”

But Azriel had already retreated back into his room, presumably to hide under his duvet for another few hours.

Cassian closed the toolbox with a sigh.

Lying down on the floor he began scissoring his arms and legs, making dust angels, while trying to decide how best to kill his morning.

He wasn’t nervous about his second date with Nesta, for everything that could have gone wrong already had. Today’s date was a lucky second chance he didn’t think he was going to get, so he was determined that today Nesta was going to get to know the real him, and if she didn’t like it, well he didn’t lose anything he hadn’t already anyway.

Climbing off the floor, he headed for the bathroom.

He didn’t think he had ever showered before a hike, it was the kind of thing you did after you got all sweaty, but given this hike was really a date, turning up smelling ripe wouldn’t do him any favours.

He did however take the opportunity, while he stood under the warm cascade of water, to stroke himself to completion…twice. Nesta’s presence already did things to him, he didn’t need to add unreasonable levels of horniness to the mix.

After towelling off, he spent longer than necessary arranging his hair into a loose man bun, a style that Emerie always told him was sexy. He choose to assume she was an authority for all women and that Nesta would approve.

Grabbing his phone off the vanity, he sent her quick message.

Looking forward to seeing you today :)

Nesta’s rely came a few minutes later.

Hope you can keep up ;)

Cassian’s chest clenched, that stupid grin he’d recently started sporting spread across his face.

Don’t worry about me sweetheart ;)

Adjusting his towel, and himself, Cassian padded from the bathroom back into the room he was staying in at Az’s.

He pulled a pair of trousers from the drawer he had hastily stuck the few clothes he brought with him into when he arrived. He then spent longer than he was prepared to admit debating which of his three flannel shirts he should wear. Cassian was just grateful he didn’t have to borrow anything ill-fitting of Az’s this time.

After lacing up his boots with shaking hands, he decided that he couldn’t sit around in Azriel’s apartment any longer, he was going stir crazy, which is how he now found himself at their date spot, early.

A few hikers who had passed in the hour he sat there had thrown him dirty looks. Men who sitting alone in trucks in the forrest tended not to be up to any good. To be fair to them, about half an hour in, Cassian did debate unzipping his trousers to rub a quick one out just to ensure that any lingering horniness was drained. In the end he decided against exposing himself, given, to do so would be to commit a criminal offence.

It was then that he had started tapping his steering wheel and singing along to the classic anthems.

The radio had just cut to a commercial break when a little red spots car appeared in his mirror. He laughed as it came to a stop behind his truck.

Of course that was what she would drive.

————

Nesta parked her car behind a massive truck. There was absolutely no reason for it to be the size that it was. She was sure that it was owned by some Velaris douche who thought anything outside the city limits could only be enhanced by the smell of exhaust fumes and the sound of an engine revving. She was nervous parking her car behind it, for fear the driver would simply reverse over her car, but it was the only space available in the small lot at the foot of the hiking trail.

Switching off the engine she pulled her phone just her bag and sent Cassian a message.

Hey! I’ve just arrived :)

She hadn’t seen him while she was searching for a parking space, so maybe he was still yet to arrive. He didn’t really know Velaris particularly well after all.

She shucked off the tennis shoes she had been wearing to drive and pulled her hiking boots from the back seat. She had her head down, lacing them up, when a knock on her window startled her.

Jumping, Nesta looked up see a smirking Cassian crouched down looking in the window at her.

Her stomach lurched, brain short circuiting.

Gods.

This was not the man she had met 10 days ago for dinner at the House of Wind.

He was spectacular.

Gone was the nervousness, dressed in clothes that didn’t fit him, with hair that was gelled like a helmet to his head.

Instead, today, Cassian looked at ease. He was wearing a dark green flannel and his hair was tied in a messy bun. Loose tendrils framed his face. She wanted to touch them. She bet his hair was soft. Probably nicer than her own.

If she could just run her hands through…

Nesta realised that she was gaping at him.

Quickly righting herself, she swung open the car door. “Hey!,” she said.

“Hey yourself.” He kept that easy knowing smile, like there was something she was missing.

“You been here long?”

“Nope just got here.”

“Cool, let me just get these boots on and we can hit the trail.”

“Take your time, sweetheart.”

A little thrill went through Nesta at the casual way he called her that.

She ducked her head to hide her blush, focusing instead on her laces. She didn’t look at Cassian but she could feel his eyes on her, watching her.

Her hands shook.

She felt vulnerable, exposed, sitting in her low sports car, his presence looming.

He was so much taller than Nesta remembered, broader too. She was eye level with his powerful thighs wrapped in black work trousers.

There was something predatory about the way he stood. Dangerous. Not to her. Just that he was a powerful man, taking up space in a way he hadn’t the first time they met.

Nesta’s blood heated.

Finished tying her lace, she grabbed her backpack from the passenger seat and made to stand up. Cassian was beside her in an instant, arm outstretched like a gentleman to help her out of her car.

With anyone else she would have not so politely told them where to go, but with Cassian, she was happy to accept any excuse to touch him.

“Ready?” She asked, when she found herself parallel with his chest.

“Yep, you know the way?”

“Yeah I come up here all the time.”

“It seems nice,” Cassian said.

Nesta snorted a laugh, “This is the car park.”

“Yeah,” pink tinged Cassian’s cheeks. Something inside Nesta twisted, she didn’t know how it could go from intimidating in one moment, to adorable in the next. “I just meant the forrest…it seems like a nice spot to go hiking.”

“If you’re impressed by this, the view at the top is going to blow you away,” she said, setting off down the trail.

Cassian chuckled, he was behind her now, following her up the narrow path cut into the undergrowth. It would widen soon and they would be able to walk beside each other, but for now Nesta swayed her hips a little more than she normally would. “And if I’m not blow away?”

“Oh you will be.”

“Willing to bet?”

“Sure.”

Cassian paused for a moment, but when he spoke again, Nesta could hear the daring in his voice. “If you make me walk all the way to the top of this mountain and I’m not blown away by the view I want a kiss.”

“A kiss?” That liquid heat slicked through her again. Where was this bold Cassian the last time they went out? Trapped in that terrible hair perhaps?

“A kiss.”

“And if you make to the top and are blown away by the view?”

“Well then I’ll give you a kiss.”

She snorted, “So either way, we get to the top of this mountain and we’re kissing?”

“Sounds like good odds to me.”

“Sounds like rigged odds!”

“The first rule of gambling, sweetheart, the bookie always wins.”

She snorted a laugh.

“So what do you say, Nes, do you accept those odds?”

“Ask me again when we reach the half way point.”

Silence fell between them then. Heated. Until they rounded a corner and the path widened. Cassian fell into step beside her.

“Do you hike much in Illyria?” She asked him.

“No. I wish I could do it more, it’s so beautiful up there, but it’s…messy.”

“Messy?”

“Yeah,” Cassian shrugged, “There used to be great hiking all over Illyria, but now, the land has all been carved up and sold to logging companies and private developers. The paths all cut through private property so you’re trespassing if you want to hike a trail.”

“Ah, messy.”

“The old-timers really hate it.”

“I can imagine.”

“All of this wild land they had the free run of in their youth, now it’s all gone. Well, it’s still there but no one can use it.” Cassian ran a frustrated had through his hair. The movement showing off the size of his bicep. Nesta was sure it was bigger than her thigh. “There is this old guy in the town nearest me, real grumpy, his name is Beron. He always said that no one could push him off his ancestral lands, ya know?”

Nesta nodded. This was a story she knew all to well.

“So one day, he goes hiking on this trail that cuts through land owned by some development company, they want to log the forest and then extract minerals from the soil or some shit,” Cassian rolled his eyes dramatically, “Anyway, a week later, old Beron get’s a cease and desist letter in the mail from the development company. Apparently they have cameras all over their land and were able to identify him. It’s fucked up.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“No?”

“No. Stuff like this is happens all the time.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, Velaris and Hewn City are growing exponentially, and developers are swooping in to try and make a fast buck.”

“Illyria is not growing, it’s the opposite. Nobody under 40 lives there.”

“You live there.”

“Yeah well I’m special,” Cassian said with a wink.

Nesta gave him a playful shove with her shoulder, it did nothing to move the mountain of a man walking beside her. His shove back however…

It was enough to push Nesta off balance. Her foot caught on a rock. Her ankle twisted.

And then she was falling.

Her arms propelling in an attempt to grab hold of something.

To keep her off the ground.

Just as she toppled backwards a thick arm wrapped around her waist catching her. Pulling her tight against him.

“Shit sorry Nes, I didn’t mean…” his voice trailed off as is he realised the position they were in.

How close he stood to her.

One big arm wrapped around her tiny waist, pulling her body tight against his. Her hands clutching onto his thick arms, a reflex from when he grabbed her, but now she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to let go.

She liked the feel of him against her.

A zing went through Nesta as she realised her breasts were pressed up against his solid chest.

Her breathing hitched.

He noticed.

The laughter in his hazel eyes dying, only to be replaced with something more fierce, determined.

Their faces were so close together it wouldn’t take much for her to close the gap, to press her mouth against his full lips.

Her gaze flicked down in time to catch his tongue flicking out to wet his bottom lip.

His grip tightened on her.

The blood pounded through Nesta anchoring her to the moment. She was surrounded by Cassian, his strong body cocooning her. All she could see was him. All she could feel as he held her against him. She could hear her pulse beating in her ears, the shallowness of her breathing, the deep breath that Cassian took to steady himself before he learnt down, closing the distance between him.

Their lips met, tentative at first but soon Nesta found herself deepening the kiss. Her hands gripping at Cassian’s thick arms as she melted against his body.

She was on fire.

Never had she felt a kiss like this.

This was it.

Whatever it was.

She had found it.

————

Elain’s saw her hands trembling as she pushed the elevator button. The doors slid closed and she found herself staring at a mirror image of herself. She was dressed in a soft pink coat, with a matching pink scarf. Her makeup was simple but emphasised her eyes. Her hair was curled softly.

She had just finished fluffing her hair when the doors slid open. Taking a deep breath, she stepped out into the hallway, and froze.

There were two doors in the hallway, Azriel hadn’t told her which one was his. He had just said the penthouse.

Pulling her phone from her pocket she sent a message to Azriel. They didn’t text very often, preferring to talk on the phone. She just hoped that now he would reply quickly.

Hi Azriel, I’m outside but I don’t know which door is yours.

Standing in the hallway waiting for him to reply, Elain was suddenly overcome with a bout of nerves. She had been so excited to finally meet Azriel she hadn’t be worried, it felt like she had been going to meet an old friend, but it was in that moment she realised that she didn’t know this man. Had never met him. He could in fact be anyone.

And she was meeting him in his home.

This wasn’t safe.

She needed to get out of here.

Elain turned back to the elevator and pressed the call button just as the one of the hallway doors behind her opened.

“Elain?”

Hesitantly, Elain turned around to look at Azriel.

Oh. My. Gods.

His face was exactly how it appeared when they video called.

No.

It was even more beautiful in person.

His dark features, his floppy hair, his hazel eyes that were both shy and kind.

But the rest of him…

He was a hockey player. She knew that. What she hadn’t fully considered was what that meant.

He practically filled the door way. Long lean muscle.

He was wearing a grey jumper and dark grey slacks, so at odds with her pink.

“Hi,” she whispered, her voice failing her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes…I just…”

“You just?”

“Er…I just realised that maybe this was a bad idea.”

She didn’t miss the hurt that flickered across his face. He moved then, tucking his hands into the pockets of his trousers. It was only this movement that drew her attention to them; the scars that marred his hands.

A hockey injury?

“Was I not what you expected?” He asked, distress settling in his features.

“No, not at all.”

“I—.”

“No, I didn’t mean like that,” she exclaimed when she realised the way he must have taken that. “I just suddenly realised that it it maybe not a good idea to be in the apartment of some random man I don’t know.”

A small smile played on his mouth, as if he was trying not to laugh at her, and Gods was it not the most beautiful thing that Elain had ever seen. She wondered then what he must sound like when he laughed. Some subconscious part of her decided it was her mission to find out.

“I would say you know me pretty well.”

“I feel like I know you.”

Elain could have sworn his smile broadened slightly. “But I understand if you are uncomfortable.”

“I think the whole reality of the situation just suddenly hit me.”

“Yeah I get that.” He settled himself, leaning against the doorframe. He seemed in no rush to usher her inside, a fact that somehow set Elain more at ease. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Of course?”

“I’m terrified.”

Elain’s eyes went wide. “Why?”

“It’s been a long time since I was last on a date.”

“Sure.”

“No, it’s true! I haven’t been on a date in I don’t even want to know how long. I was with my last girlfriend for ten years and we broke up three years ago. I haven’t been on a date since.”

“But you’re so handsome.”

Azriel smiled now, a broad one, that lit up his whole face, and Elain felt something warm spread across her chest. “I’m flattered you think so.”

“It’s true.”

“Well that makes it all the more embarrassing then doesn’t it? Thirteen years since I last had a first date, I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“You’re doing pretty great so far.”

“You think so?”

“I do.”

“When was the last time you were on a first date?”

Elain hesitated. Her first date with Lucien had been just over two weeks ago. Her sisters had told her that dating multiple people was normal now, but after what Tamlin had said to her at dinner the other night…

She cut those thoughts off. If Azriel was the kind of guy that would speak to her the way Tamlin had spoken to her, the way Greyson used to speak to her, then it was better she found out now when she was able to turn around and flee in the elevator.

“Two weeks ago.”

“Oh wow.”

“But I also got out of a long term relationship.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, two years ago. That was the first date I’d been on since.”

“How long were you with your last boyfriend?”

“Five years.”

“You’ve been on two first dates in the last seven years, and you still have more experience that me.” Azriel was fully grinning at her now.

Elain felt her own smile match his. “It appears that way.”

“I understand if you feel too uncomfortable,” he swallowed, “but if you want to come in maybe we could figure this whole first date thing out together?”

With a buoyancy in her heart, Elain stepped towards the door.

————

Elain.

God’s Azriel had been struck stupid when he opened the door and she had just been standing there. Pretty in pink.

He understood her nerves. Gods he felt them too. All the time. He had been so overjoyed when she agreed to have dinner at his place that he didn’t think about what that might mean for her.

He was so grateful for her now, as she stepped across the threshold and into his apartment, that she had agreed to go through with it.

He wouldn’t have just let her walk away. Not after seeing her standing there in the hallway. Something in his chest had begun singing to him then. He would have asked her to go to a restaurant instead. Not that he ever went to restaurants. His anxiety didn’t allow it. His life was spent in his apartment, at the rink, or holed up in a hotel room whenever his team played an away game. He absolutely hated being in public, but for Elain, maybe he could try.

“This is for you,” Elain said, thrusting the potted plant that she had been hugging against herself, towards him, “It’s a snake plant. You said that you needed some plants to make your place more homely and this guy is pretty hard to kill. They don’t mind shady spots, or draughts, you can pretty much ignore them and they’ll reward you by purifying the air.”

Azriel smiled down at her, “Thank you,” he whispered, “you didn’t have to bring me anything.”

Elain flushed pink, “I know…but I wanted to.”

“You’ll have to help me find a good spot for him.”

She smiled then, that shy smile of hers that stirred things within him, “Sure.”

Gods how had he let it go so long.

Now he was finally around a woman and he didn’t know what to do with himself. He suddenly felt too hot and too cold at once. His gut twist, his heart pound, while other parts of him that he would never dare mention in the polite company of a lady began to throb.

“Let me take your coat.”

“Oh thank you.”

As Elain shrugged off her coat all of the electric heat in Azriel simmered to something closer to concern. He frowned. She was wearing a pink dress, with long sleeves and flowy skirt, it was beautiful on her but it did nothing to hide just how thin she was.

He hadn’t noticed when they had called, but she was absolutely tiny. He was sure her waist was about as thick as his thigh.

He hoped she was okay.

Hanging her coat up, Azriel led her down the hallway and into the open plan living space. “So where do you think this guy should go?” He asked, gesturing to the plant.

Elain paused, looking around the big room. “Maybe he should go over there?” She said, pointing to table near the window that held only a lamp.

Azriel padded across the room to position the plant on the table. “What do you think?”

“Looks good,” Elain smiled that smile again, “something smells good too.”

“I hope you’re hungry. I’ve got loads of food.”

“Spend all day in front of the stove?”

A sheepish smile spread across Azriel’s face, “I was going to try and pass the food off as my own, but I can’t take the credit for work I didn’t do.”

Elain giggled, “You ordered in?”

“I ordered in.”

She rolled her eyes, “I thought you promised to make me dinner?”

“I think I promised to get you dinner, you definitely don’t want to eat anything I make.”

“You can’t cook?”

“I can barely make coffee.”

“I’ll teach you to cook, if you want?”

Making future plans, clearly Elain felt more comfortable in his presence after their initial wobble. Good. “Are you a good cook?”

“I’m an amazing cook.”

Azriel chuckled, “Then I might just take you up on that offer, at leasts I can sample some of your amazing cooking.”

Elain laughed again. Gods that sound was so refreshing, Azriel didn’t think it would ever get old.

“So can I get you a glass of wine?”

“Yes, that would be nice.”

Azriel padded to the kitchen, to pour two glasses of wine. When he returned he found Elain staring dreamily at oneof the brightly coloured canvasses that Rhys had bought. He had hung them up this afternoon in preparation. He wanted his apartment to feel homey, not like he just moved in.

“Pretty cool, huh?” He asked, coming to a stand beside her. Gods she was dainty. Her head didn’t even come past his shoulder.

Elain took the glass of wine from his outstretched hand. Her fingers brushed lightly against his, causing a bolt of electricity to shoot through Azriel. “Where did you get it?” She asked.

“My manager bought them, but I can find out for you?”

“No, it’s okay. I know the artist.”

“Oh yeah? Cheers,” he said, clinking his glass against hers.

“Cheers! Yeah, it’s my sister.”

“The artist? No way?”

Elain nodded, “I just didn’t realise she was selling her work again.”

“Apparently so?”

“Indeed.”

“So, ugh, do you want to eat?”

The mention of food seemed to snap Elain from her reverie. “Sure.”

Padding back to the kitchen Azriel plated up to large plates of food. One for Elain, and then double for him.

Elain’s eye’s went big when he sat the plates down in front of her at the table. “You eat a lot of food.”

Azriel shrugged, settling himself across the table from her. “Food is fuel for me. I need it to keep up with training.”

And it’s nothing to be ashamed of he almost added. To Azriel’s great surprise however, Elain polished off the plate of food her served her, and then joined him for seconds. She did tap out before thirds, but it was still an impressive showing.

Azriel just hoped that it was a sign she was in some sort of recovery, and she wasn’t going to punish herself later. Or that she was sick in some other way.

After they had finished dinner they settled themselves on the couch to watch a film. Azriel preened over how close Elain sat to him. Their legs touching. He took it as a sign that she liked him, or at the very least that she was comfortable with him.

As the opening sequence began, Azriel stretched his arm across the back of the chair. Elain glanced up at him, smiling, she knew his game, but she didn’t stop him. She seemed content to allow his arm, slowly over the course of the film, drift down until it was slung around her shoulders.

By the time the film ended, Elain was snuggled into his side, her head resting against his chest.

Azriel hadn’t been paying close attention to the film, he tightened his arm around her as the credit began to roll. He didn’t want her to move. He was just so comfortable with her. Physically, as they lay together on the couch, but emotionally too. Elain was so easy to be around, his anxiety didn’t flare up.

Azriel knew he was starting to develop feelings for her.

It was just their first date and he was already a goner.

He could only hope that she felt the same way.

————

“You know when you said that I could hang with you tonight, so I could give Azriel his space?”

“Yeah?”

“I kinda figured you meant we could go to a sports bar or something.”

Rhys looked up at his friend. They were standing in the Velaris Gallery of Art, one of Rhy’s clients had a big installation opening tonight. Rhys had only planned to stop by for a short time, to show his face and congratulate his client on her big night, but Rhys had alway enjoyed art. What harm, he’d thought, if he just glanced at the exhibition. An hour later however, and he had only seen half of it.

Cassian had patiently trailed along behind him, making the occasional confused comment as to what exactly he was looking at.

The only paint strokes Cassian cared about were the weather proofing he slapped on his wooden cabin every summer to protect it in the winter ahead.

Gods bless him, he did not fit in here. He was just so big. He kept awkwardly twisting his body to avoid knocking over any of the exhibits. At any moment, Cassian risked bumping into something and the place falling like dominos.

His friend was clearly uneasy, in his work boots and a green flannel, he had come straight from his hike to the event so that Azriel could have his apartment for a date of his own. Rhys couldn’t help but feel bad for him, “I’m sorry man, I just got carried away.”

“It’s okay.”

“Nah, give me a half an hour, I’ll talk to my client and we can get out of here.”

“Yeah?”

“Just let me find her,” Rhys said, craning his neck to see if he could find her amongst the crowd. “There’s food over there is you want to park up and I’ll come find you in a bit?”

Cassian glanced to the table with a frown. “Is it, like, real food?”

“Real food?”

“I thought it was part of the museum?”

Rhys laughed, “It’s not part of the exhibition, no.”

Cassian nodded seemingly relieved, “I’ll be at the food table then.”

“Half an hour, and we can go, I promise.”

Cassian just waved a hand dismissively, as he headed for the snacks, “Take as long as you need.”

————

Feyre kept her head ducked as she made her way through the crowd. She was supposed to be working tonight, well she was working tonight but only in the sense that she was physically at work. She was supposed to be working the crowd, making introductions, chatting with artists, schmoozing potential buyers, but it was taking all her strength not to cry, and she wasn’t even succeeding at that.

It had been 48 hours since Tamlin proposed.

48 hours since he had got down on one knee in the middle of the street and asked her to be his wife.

48 hours since the tears had started spilling, not with the joy that Tamlin had first thought, but with fear.

48 hours since he started screaming at her in the street. How dare she reject him? She was nothing without him. Everything she had in her life was because of him.

48 hours since he left her sobbing in the street.

It had been 48 hours since she had last talked to the love of her life and it hurt.

Gods she needed a drink.

Sniffling she made her way to the drinks table, and took a large gulp from the first glass of wine she could lay her hand on.

“Eh…are you okay?”

Feyre looked over to the man who had spoke, a snotty laugh spluttered from her. The guy was huge, like a giant, dressed in outdoor work clothes. His shoulders curled protectively over the napkin he held in one hand and the cheese laden cracker in the other. As if anyone would even attempt to steel it from him anyway.

She wondered which artist had dragged him along to support them this evening.

He watched her with big hazel eyes. There was something about him that looked familiar. Comfortable. That was the only reason why the next words fell from her mouth. “I think I broke up with my boyfriend.”

“Aww shit,” the giant said, shaking his head like it was the worst thing he had ever heard. “That really sucks. Were you guys together long?”

“We were serious, he proposed,” Feyre’s voice caught on the last word and the sob racked her.

The giant swore. “No girly don’t cry, it’ll be okay.”

He somehow managed to ease himself around the table without knocking anything over, coming to rub Feyre on the back as she continued to so uncontrollably.

She didn’t know this man who was comforting her, but she sound herself turning into his chest, her tears wetting his t-shirt as she cried against him. One hand continued to rub her back, the other, she felt rather than saw, popped the final cheese and cracker into his mouth, before he pressed the crumby napkin into her hand. “Here, have a tissue,” or at least that sounded like what he said with a mouthful of cheese.

They stood like that for a few minutes until Feyre was able to get her breathing under control. She took a step back to look up at the man, dapping her eyes with the napkin he had given her. “I’m sorry,” she sniffed.

“Don’t worry about—,” the giant frowned, “You kinda look like some I know, you know?”

“Oh yeah?” Feyre wiped her nose, couldn’t be anyone good if her swollen tear stained face was anything to go by.

“Do you have sisters?”

“Two?”

“One of them called Nesta by any chance?”

Feyre froze, her eyes going wide as she looked up at the giant, “How do you know Nes—.”

A hand came out to clap the giant on the shoulder, “Hey man, you ready to go?”

Shit.

Well wasn’t this the last person she wanted to see right now.

The giant’s friend took one look at her and purred. “Feyre, darling.”

#the right swipe #acotar fanfiction

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foreveralwaysanauthor · 3 years ago

Text

Like A Dream

October 4, 2021

Prompt - Walks in the Forest

Characters - Mack, Brady, Royce, and Bentley

Notes - This takes place in the same "camping with the Birch's AU" as the one I did a couple days ago.

October 4th,

So Mick’s world is weird. They have phones that aren’t connected to the wall, some of their cars don’t have doors, and their music is… interesting. We’ve been here since, I think, Friday. Their world and ours are days apart - give or take seventy years - and it’s still screwing me up a bit. It’s nice to be here, though. I actually like the cabin life so far. Aunt Mack and Uncle Brady are so much nicer than I thought they’d be. It’s like they treat Benny and me like their own kids sometimes, even though they already have Mick. They’re always making breakfast for everyone and spending time with us all. It feels like I’m in one of those TV shows back home where it’s all about family and they treat their kids really well and, even when something bad happens, in the end, they’re all happy. I’m so happy we did this. It’s kind of like a dream.

With a contented sigh, Royce closed his journal and set it under his pillow. Bentley had been up for about five minutes, the smell of cooking bacon being the thing that woke him. Royce, on the other hand, had been awake for the better part of an hour, lounging in bed for the most part before deciding to write a bit. Bentley rose from his bed, finally, stretching until he hit the top bar of Royce’s bunk. The fourteen-year-old pulled himself up, peering over the side of the metal bars so he could see Royce’s face.

“Why are you in bed still?” he asked.

“I should be asking you why you aren’t,” Royce teased, pushing his brother back with a hand to the face. “Mr. I-sleep-until-noon-on-Saturdays.”

Bentley let out a muffled, “Hey!” before dropping himself to the floor again. “I think Auntie Mack is making breakfast again. That’s the only reason I’m awake.”

Royce slid to the end of the bed and climbed down, following Bentley downstairs. “Place your bets, is she making pancakes or waffles? I’m saying waffles.”

“I think pancakes,” Bentley said after thinking for a moment. “We had waffles yesterday.”

“Yeah, but Uncle Brady loves waffles,” Royce stated as they made their way down the stairs to the main floor.

“Good morning, boys!” Brady called from his seat on one of the island barstools. “Are you ready for an adventure today?”

“Are we going swimming in the lake again?” Bentley asked as he perched himself on Brady’s left. A plate of food was placed before him and his brother as Mack turned to see them.

“No,” Mack stated firmly, sending her husband a look as he opened his mouth to speak. “It’s only going to be in the mid-fifties today, so the water will be far too cold for you boys to swim in. I don’t want either of you to end up sick, especially on vacation.”

Brady shut his mouth and nodded, knowing better than to argue with his wife. “Yes, ma’am,” he sighed. “Maybe Wednesday. It’s supposed to be in the seventies.”

“So,” Royce began from his spot on Brady’s other side, “what adventure were you talking about?”

Brady lit up once again, reaching up and placing a hand on each of the boys’ backs. “I figured we could go on a walk in the woods today. There’s a trail just east of the lake that we can take. It leads up to a lookout lodge so we can see the entire area. The view is amazing from up there.”

Mack sighed, leaning against the counter with a small frown. “Brady, as much as I love the idea of walking in the woods for who knows how long, Royce has asthma. I don’t think he should-”

“I can manage!” Royce insisted, cutting the older woman off hurriedly. After realizing his mistake, he paused. “Sorry, Aunt Mack. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

With a smile, Mack reached over and ran a hand over Royce’s hair before leaving it on his cheek a moment. “It’s okay, buddy. You’re excited and I understand that; I just want you to stay safe. I don’t want anything to happen to any of you. Did you bring your inhaler?”

“Miles keeps it for me,” Royce stated matter-of-factly. “If we ask, I’m sure he’ll let me bring it.”

“Bring what?” Miles asked sleepily as he made his way into the kitchen. His hair was a disaster and he was still in his pajamas, making it known to everyone that he was barely awake.

“Royce needs his inhaler so we can go on a walk in the forest with Uncle Brady and Auntie Mack,” Bentley said around a mouthful of eggs.

Miles nodded slowly as Mack handed him a cup of coffee. “It’s in my backpack. I’ll dig it out before you go.”

“You’re not going?” Brady asked.

“Nah,” Miles said with a shake of his head. “Lela wanted to go take pictures of birds so I’m going with her to Curly Creek while Mick and Butch go shopping.”

“Oh, Lela will love that,” Mack claimed with a bright smile. “We’ll miss you guys on the walk.”

“You’ll have fun,” Miles brushed off, waving his hand briefly before picking up his coffee and heading for the lounge to watch TV. Along the way, he ruffled both his brothers’ hair, smiling at them before leaving the room. “Take pictures for me.”

After eating their breakfast, the boys headed for their bedroom, grabbing whatever they deemed necessary for their walk. Backpacks were filled with snacks and water, and the boys were dressed in their usual clothes with an additional, borrowed flannel from Brady. They made their way downstairs not long after they’d laced up their boots, meeting Mack and Brady on the outside porch after grabbing Royce’s inhaler from Miles just in case. Mack was dressed in a long-sleeved, purple shirt with a light, plaid vest over it while Brady donned a light jacket. Brady had a backpack secured over his shoulders and clasped in the front while Mack only had her phone in her pocket and a water bottle in her hand.

A few minutes of walking later, and they reached the beginning of the trail. It was well lit and maintained, with fallen trees and thin logs gracing the sides of the path so it wouldn’t be strayed from. The trees seemed to fill the skies as they began their trek. Large pines, sugar maples, firs, and the occasional birch trees lined the area, sprawling onward as far as their eyes could see. The walk was filled with chatter as they conversed with one another and stopped for the occasional picture. It was truly beautiful. Some leaves had fallen as others were turning colors and, with the sun illuminating them from above, they cast a glow of fiery colors around the area.

While the air had a certain chill to it, the amount of walking they were doing made up for it. The trail, thankfully, wasn’t too much of an incline, just the occasional hill as they walked up the mountain. Now and then, they’d stop to drink, perhaps taking a bit longer to see the streams when they got close enough to see them. All in all, it took almost an hour before they could see the lodge in the distance.

“Look, Royce,” Bentley called from the front of their line, “we’re almost there!”

“Yeah,” Royce huffed before coughing. He hated this. Well, he didn’t hate the nature around them or the journey with his brother, Mack, and Brady, just how his lungs reacted to the walking. There weren’t very many bugs around to bother them or any other people on the trail so there was nothing to complain about apart from his crappy lung capacity.

Brady, who had taken up the rear so he could make sure everyone was safe, placed a hand on Royce’s back. “You need to stop, bud?” Royce shook his head, making Brady knit his eyebrows together. “You sure? It’s fine if you do.”

“I can make it,” the sixteen-year-old exhaled sharply, sucking in another breath. “It’s not-” he paused to cough a few times, “it’s not far.”

“Royce,” Mack began, stopping in her place. Although she sounded firm, Royce could make out the gentleness in her tone, “you’re not sounding good. If you want to stop and use your inhaler, we can. It’s not a problem.”

“I’m fi-” and queue more coughing, “Ugh.”

Bentley peeked around Mack’s shoulder before moving around her and stepping toward his brother. “You’re sweating and you sound all wheezy.”

“It h-hurts.” Royce sucked in a sharp breath, a cough forcing its way out of him as he reached a hand to his chest. Brady began rubbing circles on Royce’s back, the only thing he could think of that would help. After a minute, Royce stopped coughing, allowing Brady to guide him to sit on one of the tree branches that lined the pathway.

Bentley pulled off his backpack and pulled a bottle of water out of it. He handed it to Royce as he crouched in front of him, watching Mack as she sat next to Royce and took one of his hands. “Bentley, honey, where’s Royce’s inhaler?”

“The front pocket,” the youngest answered softly. He turned to his brother and sighed, “I told you when we stopped last time that you should’ve taken it.”

Royce nodded slowly, not wanting to argue as Mack pulled his inhaler from his bag. “Can you take it now or do you need a minute?” she asked him, placing a hand on his arm.

Royce shook his head, fidgeting with the water bottle in his grasp. He gripped the cover and opened it, taking in a choppy, deep breath to steady his hands as he lifted it to take a drink. Afterward, he took his inhaler from Mack and, while it took him two tries to get in any medicine, he’d still been able to get it into him. They sat in relative silence for a few minutes as Bentley knelt on the ground, gripping Royce’s knees, Mack held one of his hands, and Brady rubbed circles over his back. As calming as it was, Royce couldn’t help the embarrassment he felt. He’d been so eager to have fun and get to the lodge that he’d neglected his health and now, apart from Bentley, some people he barely knew, had to take care of him.

“I’m-” he gave a short cough. At least he sounded less wheezy when he breathed. “I-I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, baby,” Mack spoke to him. “It’s not something you can control.”

“It is,” he mumbled insistently.

Brady sighed, taking Royce’s water bottle and setting it down before taking hold of the teenager’s hand. “You were excited and weren’t focused on it, that’s all. I would’ve done the same thing. Nobody is going to blame you for being an excited kid.”

Royce spared a glance to either side, seeing nothing but concern and love from Mack and Brady. It was weird. He’d messed up and refused to take his inhaler even though he knew he needed it, why were they being so nice? “Why-Why aren’t you mad?”

Mack and Brady shared a look over Royce’s shoulder “Mad?” Brady wondered aloud. “Of course not. Why would we be?”

Bentley huffed from the ground, picking blades of grass from the path. “Dad was always mad.”

Mack sighed, brushing Bentley’s hair from his face and threading her fingers through Royce’s curls. “We could never be mad at either of you, especially for something like this. We love you both far too much for that.”

“We know you love us,” Bentley said with a smile. “We love you guys.”

“Yeah,” Royce confirmed, clearing his throat before continuing. “What do we do now?”

“Well,” Brady began slowly, “we’ll sit for a few until the albuterol kicks in, and then we’ll make it the rest of the way.”

“We can go now,” Royce stated. “I’m feeling better.”

Mack scoffed lightly, “We do that and Brady will probably carry you to the lodge.”

“I absolutely will,” Brady confirmed. “How about you boys tell us about that book you were reading last night on the couch? The Time Machine, right? By H.G. Wells?”

“Yeah!” Bentley exclaimed, quickly going into a rant on the book, allowing Royce to chime in from time to time as he rattled on.

Now and then, Royce looked to Mack and Brady out of the corner of his eyes, seeing them smiling warmly at Bentley and himself. He could still feel his ears burning with embarrassment but, if he was going to be honest with himself, it felt nice to be taken care of by them. Mack and Brady were so kind and cared for him and Bentley so much more than he could’ve ever expected them to. It was weird, but certainly not unwelcome.

It was times like these that he really did feel like he was in one of those shows back home and he was right; it was like a dream.

#foreveralwaysprompts #writing #writing prompt

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jaxsteamblog · 4 years ago

Text

Summer Camp and (mostly) Lost

Click here to read the full fic on AO3

On the first day of classes, Katara was already looking forward to the first break. Someone had recognized her from the debut and people were hounding her between lectures. Even in the halls with more than a hundred students, she could hear her name whispered among the ducked heads. Inevitably, someone near her would check their phone and their head would whip around, settling on her for a second before typing a furious reply.

Armistice Day was two weeks into the first semester, which would at least give her a long weekend.

However, when she tried to find something to do, nothing seemed to come together. After taking off so much time, Sokka was adamant about keeping the shop open. Especially, as he reminded her, now that he had to save for a wedding.

Rohan was traveling with Thuy to Gaoling. The Beifongs - who had worked with Avatar Kuruk’s companions - had a daughter that was a professional fighter. On the one hand, it was assumed that such a wealthy and well-connected family like the Beifongs would be the ones to teach the new Avatar if they had the ability. On the other, Rohan knew it was because Thuy’s unusual upbringing was the perfect match for the fact that Toph Beifong was blind and undefeated.

“So does that mean you’re going to be Thuy’s airbending instructor?” Katara asked as she screen chatted with them while in bed. “I mean, you’re plenty unusual.”

“Unfortunately, Pop is pretty insistent that she have some sort of reasonable and level-headed teacher. So Jinora is doing it.” Rohan said.

“Has her firebending-”

“AZULA.” They interrupted her and Katara dropped her phone as she fumbled. Diving for it, she fell off her bed.

“Azula will teach her?” She asked, popping up onto her knees. Rohan nodded vigorously.

“Now, none of this is being confirmed in the press at the moment. But someone leaked our travel plans to the Fire Nation.” They answered.

“You’re going to the Fire Nation with her?”

“Yeah, I’m like her guide for a minute until she finds her group.”

“Hmmm.” Katara rested her head on her bead, staring up at the ceiling. It might be interesting to go travel the world with the Avatar. Maybe in another life.

“Hey, I gotta go, but chat soon? Unless you’ll be elbow deep in some guy’s guts.” Rohan said and Katara looked down at her scream, grimacing.

“I told you-”

“I know, I know. Class work first, cutting up people later.” Rohan flashed a quick grin and Katara sighed. “Say hi to your brother for me.”

They ended the call and Katara pushed herself up, stretching her arms over her head. She could study, go over her anatomy notes one more time, but her head just wasn’t in the right place. Laying back down on her bed, she pulled up the info page on Toph Beifong. She was only a little younger than Katara, but was a bit on the small side. Watching the recommended video, Katara guffawed loudly as she watched the woman launch a man twice her size into the stands.

This was exactly the thing Sokka was into. Hopefully as Queen of the Water Tribes, she could get the Avatar to introduce them.

Sighing, Katara dropped her phone onto her chest and put her hands over her eyes. She had to think about something happy.

Her thoughts for years had circled around being a physician. She wanted to go home to be a village doctor, spending her days assisting births and treating ailments. Katara fantasized about being a hero not for the destruction she wrought, but for ending the regular tuberculosis that plagued the tribes. Murdering viruses was much easier to swallow than the human body count that haunted her.

But now that was being taken away from her. Arnook had, for all of her attempts to avoid it, gotten her alone. He expounded on her the importance of her position, the necessary responsibility she needed to take for her people. She would be an icon of strength, of prosperity, and would be able to keep all three tribes safe.

Because Thuy was still vulnerable, and didn’t Katara want to save her from the same fate of losing her home and her mother?

Thuy was capable for her age. She had told Katara that Avatar Aang came to her first when she was at the heart of the swamp. A massive tree, that was simultaneously all of the trees in the swamp, was where she went to hide from her noisy family. It was there she meditated and found how the tree was connected to all things, and how she was connected to all things through it.

It was then that Aang found her, and taught six-year-old Thuy hilarious things to do with mud. It didn’t even strike her that she was earthbending.

Thuy explained that all of the elements were connected to each other, and that the Avatar was the heart of that forest. All she wanted, she said while they looked over the group of Avatar descendants, was that everyone would find their commonality and be able to celebrate their differences.

“Like how fire and water both flow so beautifully.” Thuy had added.

Katara rolled her eyes just as she had then.

There was a certain romantic aspect to fire and water. And steam could be pretty, but more often than not it just scalded people who got too close.

Her phone started to ring and Katara picked it up.

“Well speak of the hogmonkey.” She said as Zuko’s face showed up.

“You were talking about me?” He asked.

“Tangentially thinking about.” Katara said and then sat up. “Hey, I never got to ask, what did you think of Thuy?”

“She was nice. She said I looked like I belonged at the North Pole.” Zuko answered and Katara snorted.

“I think that brat is trying to set us up.” She said.

“Girls at that age are wild.”

“I wouldn’t know. I was getting ready to fight my way through Fire Nation territory.”

“And Azula was leading a hit squad against me so I think you’re going to need to take your trauma card elsewhere ma’am.”

Katara laughed, shaking her head.

“A little birdie told me that Azula is going to be teaching the Avatar firebending.” She said.

“Oh yeah? Did that little birdie also mention that they were the one to spill the beans to the press? I swear, Rohan can’t keep a secret to save their life.” Zuko said. Katara chuckled again and looked at Zuko’s face.

“If you had been a normal teenager, what do you think you would have done at her age?”

Zuko let out a breath and looked off into the distance as he thought.

“If I were normal, my mother would still be around. And.” He suddenly smiled and rubbed his eye with his hand before pushing his hair back. “Okay, so in my mother’s village, there’s this theater camp that runs in the summer.”

“No way.” Katara said, her voice breathy in astonishment. “Zuko, you are such a nerd!”

“I can’t help it! You saw my father, I inherited the drama!” He retorted and they both laughed.

When they settled, Katara lifted the phone high above her face.

“Have you ever gone to your mother’s village?” She asked. Zuko looked thoughtful, which made her feel better for asking.

“Once. After the war but before I was recalled.” He said. “It’s nice but homely and made me realize that I could never not be rich now.”

“You’re soft.”

“I’m so weak Katara you don’t even understand.”

As they laughed, Katara saw him smile at her.

“You have off on Armistice Day right?” He asked.

Katara nodded.

“Why don’t we go to Hira’a? The tourist season ends there really early and the people there don’t mind me so much since I’m Ursa’s son.”

“Are we going to go to summer camp?” She asked.

“Maybe we can tangentially think about it.” Zuko replied.

Katara focused on her schoolwork during the week prior to leaving. She didn’t want to have to think about tests or her first research paper the entire weekend. What did bother her was a lack of supplies for the trip. Zuko said there was a legend about the woods surrounding Hira’a and suggested they go hiking. At first she had agreed, but then Sokka informed her that she would need gear for such a trip.

Luckily, a person in her lab had his from a cross kingdom trip. As Katara collected some of the basic things, she shook off others. Her hike wasn’t going to be as intensive and she could just rely on her phone for directions.

Flying out, Katara was too excited to be nervous going through the airport. Her anxiety resurfaced only briefly when she made a layover in a larger Fire Nation city to board a very small charter plane.

There were a few other passengers on the plane and one little boy chattered endlessly for the entire trip. Katara, tired, smiled but looked out the window, trying to focus on something else.

The woods around Hira’a were thick and the canopy resembled broccoli florets. What was unexpected was the massive mountain and the few shining discs of the lakes.

Zuko met her as the plane landed, standing under a shaded area while the plane taxied to a stop. Suddenly shy, Katara held onto the straps of her borrowed backpack while she walked down the stairs.

“How was your trip?” Zuko asked as he met her on the strip.

“It was good only,” Katara looked up with a small frown. “Do you think it’ll rain?”

Zuko looked up at the sky as well. “The weather says no. And it tends to get overcast like this every day in the afternoon.”

They looked at each other and Zuko held out his hand.

“Come on,” He said. “Let’s get to the house.”

At the small luggage carousel, Zuko grabbed her suitcase and rolled it as they left the airport. Katara glanced up at the sky once more as they walked through the cool air curtain at the exit. It definitely felt like a storm to her.

To her surprise, they walked past the taxi stand.

“The house is close.” Zuko assured her, having seen her face. “And the villagers prefer that there not be a lot of cars. It disrupts the environment.”

The village was beautiful, even in the subdued light. The trees were a deep green, and bright flashes of fruit or clothing stood out against the leafy backdrop. There were roads, but people on bikes or motorbikes swarmed over them. Every once in a while, a delivery truck would rumble past, coughing out black smoke and Katara understood the facemasks.

“Ah, Prince Zuko!” Someone called out and they turned. A middle-aged man on a motorbike walked up to them, his flip-flops slapping his heels.

“Noren?” Zuko asked in disbelief.

“It’s good to see you, la!” Noren replied and Zuko, leaving Katara’s suitcase on the sidewalk, went to shake the man’s hand.

“I didn’t think I’d run into you.” Zuko replied and Noren waved a hand in front of his face.

“I heard the crown prince was in town, so I knew I had to come and see.” He said. Zuko laughed and rubbed the back of his head. He then stopped and looked back, waving Katara over.

“Katara, I’d like you to meet Noren. He runs the theater in town and was a friend of my mother.” Zuko said as Katara got closer. “Noren, this is my friend Katara from the South Pole.”

“Ursa was part of the theater troupe.” Noren said as he shook hands with Katara. He then slapped his thighs and looked at Zuko. “Now, dinner?”

Katara and Zuko made it to the house and Katara insisted on changing before they went to Noren’s house for dinner. His wife Noriko was a sweet lady who doted on Zuko, but more hilarious was their teenage daughter Kiyi. While she tried to hide it, Kiyi was clearly excited to see Zuko and showed him photos of her latest pictures on her phone.

Noren told Katara about Zuko’s visit to the village years ago. Trying to find some piece of his mother, Noren had offered his assistance in any way that he could. During that short time Zuko spent in the village, he got very close to Noren and his family, becoming like an older brother to Kiyi.

While they were at dinner, all three of them turned on Zuko when he spoke about his plans to take Katara into the woods. Noren didn’t like the woods at all and Noriko insisted that it was going to rain. Still, Noriko packed them both up with extra food and Noren gave them a ride in the dark on his bike.

Tired, full, and covered in sweat, Katara laid face down on her bed and fell asleep.

In the morning, Zuko packed their lunch while Katara reheated leftovers from Noriko to eat for breakfast. Zuko handed her a mug of coffee just as she served up the plates and they both looked over a map. The route Zuko plotted out was simple and they went over their supplies. Water, sunscreen, bug spray, and even a portable battery to recharge their phones should the worst happen. It was just a day hike, and the sun was even poking out behind some of the clouds, so it wouldn’t be too bad.

“Can you bend humidity?” Zuko asked as they shoulder their backpacks.

Katara rolled her eyes and started toward the door.

The trailhead was further from their rental than the airport, so Zuko called a taxi. Unsurprisingly, a young woman on a motorbike showed up and they piled on like they had when Noren had driven them home last night. What was nice was the moment when the driver handed them a face mask each, shaking her head at their clumsy application.

The humidity was disgusting and Katara was panting by the time they stopped at the park. Zuko peeled money out of his wallet and handed it to their driver, who saluted them before puttering off.

“Are your babysitters here?” Katara asked.

“No. Hira’a is small and they know when there’s a visitor. And again, I’m Ursa’s son.” Zuko said.

“Oh good, so if I drown in this air, it’s only you who can save me.”

“We’ll be fine.”

The rain started fifteen minutes into their walk.

There was no warning. It was clear one moment and the next a gray sheet had dropped all around them. The rain fell like bullets and they ran to the nearest tree with leaves sturdy enough to hold up against the onslaught. It took awhile and Katara felt the sting of the rain on her scalp.

“It’s just a burst.” Zuko said, rubbing his hair vigorously. “It’ll pass quickly.”

Right as he finished speaking, a crack of thunder went off like a shot.

“We need to get to shelter.” Katara said, her body tense as she prepared to run. Zuko sighed and nodded.

They moved blindly through the rain, stumbling over tree roots and exposed stone. Small rivers of muddy water rushed down the path and Katara worried about slipping. Finally irritated, she used her bending to repel the water from her. It was unnatural and made her feel weird, but she couldn’t even see three feet in front of her.

“That’s a lot of water you’re holding.” Zuko remarked as he stood in the dry spot with her.

“I can do better.” She said and moved sinuously around. The ball of negative space undulated, but burst as Katara thrust out her arms with a sharp breath. The rain around them stopped.

Turning her head, Katara saw Zuko staring at her, open mouthed.

“Like what you see?” Katara quipped.

Zuko nodded and Katara blushed, losing her smirk and feeling her ears burn. Suddenly aware of her attention, Zuko coughed and swung his backpack off a shoulder, pulling it to his front.

“Where did you learn to bend like that?” He asked as he unzipped the main pocket and rummaged through it.

“War.” Katara said simply. This was oddly easier to hold than the negative space, since she wasn’t trying to keep the water away from her. The fat droplets simply hung in their air like strands of glass beads.

“It didn’t do anything like that for me.” Zuko said. “All I got out of it was this face.”

“Zuko, your face is fine.” Katara remarked.

“You only say that because you like me.”

“I didn’t find you ugly before I liked you. It was just surprising.” Katara paused, listening to the heavy rain that fell around them. It was much more enjoyable now that she wasn’t getting drenched.

“The burn surprised me too.” Zuko said and held up his phone. “Here we go.”

Katara walked over to him, pushing the rain out of her way. The fat drops burst against her hand the same way boba pearls would against her tongue.

“How did it happen?”

“The burn? After my grandfather died, my father insisted that my uncle step down since my cousin had died. My uncle is older and had no heir, whereas my father had two children and was young. My uncle refused and the war started. I defended my uncle and my father punished me.” Zuko explained as he pulled up a map of the woods. He didn’t look at her as he spoke and Katara stared at his burned eye.

“Zuko…” She murmured and lightly touched his face. Wherever Zuko went while telling the story, he certainly wasn’t with her and her touch shocked him. Jolting back, he surprised Katara, who fell with a yelp. She lost her hold on the rain and it, plus everything held up on top, dumped on them, soaking them instantly.

Zuko went to her and picked her up, running with her in his arms.

“I saw a cave.” He yelled over the sound of the rain. Katara just held onto him, feeling the wet soak into her skin.

When Zuko dipped into the cave - which was only moderately drier than the open - Katara used her bending to dry their clothes. Zuko found windblown debris and made a scant fire, again shaking out his hair.

“Sorry.” Katara said softly.

“It’s fine. It was an accident.” Zuko replied with a weak smile. “The only downside is, I dropped my phone and it’s fried.”

“Okay, so that is bad.” Katara said and then brightened. “Wait mine is in my-” She stopped as she reached into her back pocket. Slowly pulling out her phone, she stared dumbly at the shattered screen.

“But we do have the map!” Zuko said and went to his pack. He pulled out the map and sat down to open it over his lap.

“That sure is a map.” Katara said as she sat down next to him.

“I know these are elevation lines, but…” Zuko tapped the map.

“You don’t know where we are.”

“Not a clue.”

“And we can’t call for help.”

“No.”

“So what do we do?” Katara asked. The thunder and lightning was short lived so at least now she could breathe.

“Wanna makeout?” Zuko replied. Katara scoffed and then, seeing his grin, started to laugh.

“When the rain stops, we can try to find our way back to the path.” Zuko said and put his arm around Katara’s shoulders. “For now, let’s just hang here and rest.”

The rain lasted for nearly an hour and Katara forced Zuko to wait until the air felt right to her before leaving. As they walked out into the forest, nothing looked familiar. Having peered through heavy rain, the shimmering brilliance of wet leaves was disorienting. Zuko kept the map out, turning it in his hands before picking a direction.

“Zuko?” Katara asked cautiously and Zuko looked up from the map.

“Yes?”

“Why did you even go back if your father burned you?”

Zuko’s thoughtful face was nuanced, as Katara now saw. He looked pained, but in a way that made Katara think he was going to tell her bad news.

“My uncle and I believe that my father wanted me to refuse to return. That was always an option you see. I could renounce my claim to the throne and stay with my uncle in Ba Sing Se. But if I did that, Azula would inherit.” Zuko shook his head. “And I don’t want to live in a world where Azula is a political force.”

“But does that make you happy?” Katara asked.

“The future makes me happy. Knowing that I’ll be able to do the things I want when I’m the Fire Lord.” Zuko answered.

“But that might be decades away!”

“But it will happen. And my father can’t really do much harm since he knows I’ll oppose him.”

“You made a really brave choice Zuko.”

Stepping over a fallen log, Zuko took Katara’s hand and helped her over. As she hopped onto the ground, he held onto her.

“Oh, I don’t think I’m all that brave.” He said softly. This pained look was more internal; something that hurt him alone.

He then patted her hand before releasing it and they started off again.

“Do you think I’m making the right choice?” Katara continued. “To be the Queen of the Water Tribes?”

“Well what does being queen mean to you?” Zuko asked.

“No more war.”

“Then I think you’re at least giving it an honest go.”

“But I could do so much more for my people if I was a doctor.” Katara replied.

“Really? Because what do you think will happen when Arnook dies?” Zuko questioned.

“What do you mean?”

“Yue was his heir, right? And not even a proper heir; she was going to have to be married so some guy could be the King of the North Pole.”

“And?”

“My kingdom went to war over the prospect of there not being an heir to inherit. If Arnook were to die without someone clearly next in line, I can tell you war is exactly what will happen.”

“No, my father wouldn’t let that happen.”

“It might not have anything to do with your father. Or it’ll happen with or without him. The South Pole might want to keep their independence, same as the Swamp Tribe, but Arnook has made it clear that the North Pole wants unification. War would happen regardless.”

“And you just know this to be true?”

Zuko gave her a look and Katara threw up her arms.

“Why does this have to depend on me?” She asked. Zuko shrugged.

“Circumstances of birth.” He said nonchalantly. Katara lowered her arms, having them fall loose and slapping the sides of her legs.

“Spirits, is it really just that?”

Zuko walked up to her and rubbed her arms.

“Even something so mundane as when you were born can change everything. I mean,” Zuko paused and huffed out a laugh. “If Thuy had been born a moment earlier then she wouldn’t even be the Avatar.”

“I don’t want my whole life plotted out just because of when and where I was born.” Katara said.

“Okay, so what’s one thing, within reason, that you want that you can get while stuck with these choices?” Zuko asked.

“I want to be with you.” She blurted.

When Zuko blushed, his skin turned yet another shade of red that didn’t match any part of his scar. He gripped her arms for a moment before suddenly releasing her and walking away.

“Zuko?” Katara called.

Zuko whirled around and pointed at her.

“You wanted to go on a date.” He said fiercely.

“Yes?”

“Let’s go on a date.”

“We’re sorta lost right now.”

“Not now.” Zuko rubbed his hands on his pants and looked down for a second. “After midterms. A proper date.”

Katara laughed, nodding.

“Okay. But how are we gonna get out of here?” She replied.

“I don’t-” Zuko started but stopped as a call went through the woods.

“Zuuuuuukoooooo?” A woman yelled.

“Is that Noriko?” Katara asked. Zuko chuckled and took her hand. Jogging, but watching out for roots, they moved in the direction of the calls. Noren, Noriko, and Kiyi all were shouting from in front of them.

When they finally broke the treeline, the family was standing, each one holding an umbrella.

“Ay! There they are!” Kiyi shouted.

“Ah, thank goodness!” Noriko said and fanned herself.

As they all gathered, she swatted Zuko’s arm.

“Why didn’t you listen to me, boy?” She asked and Zuko laughed, rubbing where she had hit him.

“Mom! You can’t just hit the prince!” Kiyi said.

“When the rain came, Noriko was really worried about you and insisted that I drive out. When you weren’t at the trailhead, she knew you were lost.” Noren explained.

“Tourists always get lost.” Kiyi added.

“The prince isn’t a tourist.” Noriko said sharply. “He’s just not as familiar with these woods.”

“Well, we were lost and I’m really thankful you came out here.” Zuko said. “I’ll make sure to listen to you better, Auntie.” He leaned in and hugged Noriko, making her blush.

“Dad borrowed our neighbors van so we can take you back.” Kiyi said. As she looked at Zuko and Katara, she shook her head.

“It must be nice to be a waterbender.” She remarked.

“They are very handy to keep around.” Zuko agreed. Katara glared at him as he chuckled.

“I will put you in ice.” She hissed. Zuko didn’t reply, but took her hand as they all started to walk to the trailhead. His hand was warm and dry, which made Katara aware of the cool dampness that lingered on her skin. But she wasn’t cold. At least, not with him.

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#zutara #fanfiction #jax writes #modern au #zutara month 2020 #the fic that prompts built

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yellsatyouinrogerwaters · 4 years ago

Text

End Of The Night - Rick Wright

A/N: I'm sorry it took so long, I took a little break.

L E N G T H: 1,582 words W A R N I N G: Nothing really. I N S P I R A T I O N: End of the Night - The Doors

Y O U R P O V

The phone rang, causing me to wake from my slumber. I groaned from the sudden noise and lifted myself from my bed, trudging my way to the phone. Pulling the receiver out of its slot, I press the receiver's speaker on my ear.

"Hello..?," I mumbled.

"[y/n]? Did I wake you up? I'm so sorry if I did,"

"Its fine, Rick. No worries."

"Alright. Anyways, would you like to come with the band and me on a trip to the forest for a few days? Possible a week for that matter," he asked with his gentle tone. Tittering, I nodded.

"I'll tag along, I'll bring tons of snacks and essentials," I grinned and let out a little humming laugh.

"Alrighty! We'll all meet at the studio at 3 and head on to the forests."

"Okay, see you soon," I hung up the phone and dashed up the stairs. I opened the handles on my closet doors and walked into it. Digging through sections of the closet, I found a camping backpack that I kept since I was younger just in case I wanted to go camping again, but this time as an adult. Grabbing it, I opened it up and found some memorabilia, then set it down on a shelf across from me.

After an hour, my bag was finally packed with everything I needed. Before walking downstairs with the bag, I grabbed my towel. Once downstairs, I plopped the bag down on one of the cushions of the couch and paced to my bathroom.

After a few minutes, I came out of the shower and changed into comfortable, but casual clothing. As I walked back to the living room again, I dried hair and turned on the T.V. to see if anything was interesting. After a few minutes, I found a Hollywood drama that I couldn't take my eyes off.

T I M E S K I P

R I C K ' S P O V

I arrived quite early at the studio and sat outside on the steps. Taking a deep breath and sigh, I took a book out of a small pile that I packed and slid my finger done the pages, letting the book open up by itself. I began to read and felt the activation of my imagination.

About 30 minutes go by and I was already one third into the book,

"Hey, Rick!" A voice called, I looked up and saw that it was Nick. I placed my bookmark into its new spot in the book and shut the book,

"Hello, Nick."

"What'd you pack for the trip?" Nick asked.

"Not much actually. Just some food, a journal, books, and of course a tent," I elaborated.

It didn't take long until David and Roger arrived. We all stuffed our stuff into the back of the van that's owned by our manager. He would let us borrow it whenever we needed it.

I gazed down at my wrist and saw what time it was, 3:16. I sighed to myself and fiddled with my fingers.

"Rick, is [y/n] coming? We have to get on the road soon before it gets dark," David explained.

"She's running a bit late, I kno-". The sound of panting became audible and nearby, it caught my ear. I faced the opposite way from the band and traipsed my way over to the gate. Peaking my head slightly over the gate, I saw [y/n] running towards the gate. I swung the door open for her to come in. Once she made it in, she gasped for air with her head facing the ground and her hands on her knees; I took out a canteen from my bag and handed it to her.

"[y/n], were you running the entire trip here?" she flung her head back and nodded as she drunk from the canteen. Once finished, she handed it back to me and I rubbed her back as she began to struggled less and less with her breathing.

"Are you okay now?", I asked.

"Yes, thank you for the refreshment," she showed me a grateful smile. Nick clapped his hand, grabbing the attention of all of us, "Alright, now that we're all here, it's time to get on the road, I'll drive this time."

"Let me get your bag, [y/n]" I said and got behind her and, in one fluid motion, slid off her bag and placed it with the other bags.

We all got into the car; Nick in the driver's seat with David seated next to him, Roger having the middle row section to himself, and [y/n] and I in the last row chatting about whatever came to our heads.

Nick started up the engine and got out of the parking lot in a matter of seconds and we were on way to the forest.

T I M E S K I P

Nick parked the van right outside of the campsite and turned off the engine. We all filed out of the car and got our stuff out. Heading off to the entrance station, we all looked at our surroundings and soaked up the beauty of it, but I focused most of my gaze on [y/n]. She turned her head and made slight eye contact with me, causing her to display her pearly whites at me. I smiled back and tucked back a strand of my hair,

"How do you feel about this trip?"

"I'm excited, I finally get to read some books that I haven't been able to read and be outside, which doesn't happen as often as I want it to," she explained. I paid attention to every detail I could, the way she talked, her body language, anything really.

Arriving at the campsite, we set our things down and set up. I opened the bag that carried the tent and let everything spill out. Spreading everything into its layout and grabbing the tiny hammer that came with the tent, I hammered down each peg deep enough for the tent to be held up steadily. Once I was finished, the tent stood up tall.

"Holy crap, Rick. Where did you get that giant tent?"

"My father gave it to me, I never thought I would use it, yet here we are," I let out a chuckle.

"Hmm.." [y/n] said, stepping closer to the tent, "seems like it could fit a whole family." We all laughed, but I developed a faint blush on my cheeks when [y/n] said 'family.'

Y O U R P O V

The sky began to darken as the sun slowly went to sleep. We all gathered in a circle and put a battery-operated lantern in the center, it shone enough to go beyond the circumference of the circle we've made.

"Are we telling horror stories?" Roger chuckled.

"No, we're singing songs and doing "What am I supposed to do, grab two sticks and beat the ground with them?" Nick questioned.

"That doesn't sound bad actually," I laughed and patted Nick on the back.

David picked up his acoustic guitar and began to strum the strings.

"What are we supposed to sing about?" Rick asked.

"Anything," David reassured. Rick cleared his throat and began to sing. It was quite rare for Rick, let alone speak. We were are speechless and wonder-struck. David was slowly strumming slowly but softly, Rick's gentle tone merged perfectly with David's playing.

"If the sun refused to shine"

"I would still be loving you"

"When mountains crumble to the sea"

"There will still be you and me."

We realized that it was Thank You by Led Zeppelin. Once Rick finished, we all clapped immensely, making him feel a bit shy.

After hours of singing, joking, and telling stories, we decided to take a little break and each go to our respected tents. I sat in my tent and read The Shining by Stephen King. Being intrigued by the book, I kept my eyes focused on the pages and blocked out my surroundings until I heard a voice,

"[y/n]," I turned my head to the direction of where the voice was coming from. Slowly getting up, I set my book down on its pages and made my way to the sealing of the tent, unzipping it. Behind the sealing was Rick. He looked a bit worried,

"Oh, hey Rick. What's up?" I asked in a concerned tone.

"May I come in?" I responded with a nod and he walked with caution. We both walked and sat adjacent to each other.

"Alright, Rick, what brings you here today?" I joked, chortling.

"I wanted to open up about something that has been bothering me for a while now," he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Okay, what is it? I promise I would judge you," I reassured him. He took a deep breath and let out a sigh. He looked at his hands and fidgeted with them as he mustered the confidence to say his confession.

"I.. I think I've fallen for you and when I sang that song... it was for you" I smiled a little and nodded my head at him.

"I've fallen for you too, Rick."

He grinned at me and I hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear, "I love you, [y/n]."

Without leaving his embrace, I placed my lips on his and kissed him with all the love I could give.

"I love you too, Rick."

#rick wright #richard wright #pink floyd #rick wright imagine

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billyspotato · 6 years ago

Text

Hike - Jeff Witeek

Words: 1.103 words

Type: Fluff

Summary: You go on a hike with Todd, Joe and Jeff. It’s literally Todd’s vlog but if you were there, (Video: confronting a sociopath?)

Warning: There’s cursing in this story. English is not my first language.

A/N: Gif’s mine :)

You walk out of your bedroom listening to Todd and Jeff talking for Todd’s video. You walk to the kitchen and see Jeff trying to put Nerf in a backpack. You stayed out of the camera laughing with Todd at the look Nerf was giving him.

You guys all walk out of Jeff’s apartment and you pet Nerf’s head.

“He looks so cute” You say to Jeff and he smiles at you.

“I can’t see him but I believe you” Jeff says and Todd laughs.

You walk out of the building and Joe starts recording them, you stand in front of Joe while he recorded them, and kept guiding him so he wouldn’t fall while walking backwards.

When you turn around to look at them, Jeff is already looking at you and you give him a smile always.

You sometimes would talk with them but you know Todd will cut some parts. You and Jeff have been dating for almost a year now, people know it but you prefer to keep your relationship private for the sake of both you and your relationship.

You guys keep walking and laughing at Nerf that is already out of breath even though is not doing anything.

You guys started hiking and Joe stayed behind a few times, you would slow down sometimes just to look at Nerf’s cute face.

“Sometimes I think you’re dating me just because of Nerf” Jeff jokes and you smile at him.

“You found my secret, Wittek” You joke back and Todd laughs.

“This whole time of you two dating, Y/N comes out with a video admitting how she only dates you because of Nerf” Todd says you smile.

“Hey guys” Jeff high pitches his voice and everyone laughs, “So today we’re going to talk about how I date Jeff because I love his dog…” He clicks with his mouth, “It started off when we had our first date and he took me home to see his dog and it was, like, love at first sight” Jeff continues and you continue to laugh with Joe and Todd.

After laughing more you guys stopped walking to catch your breath.

“Hiking and laughing is not very fun” Joe says and you chuckle a little.

You guys hiked some more and you opened your sports jacket to let some air hit you.

You guys get to the top and Jeff switches the backpack with Todd with Nerf in it.

Todd talks to the camera a bit and you take your jacket off to put it around your waist. The sky today was blue and not even a cloud could be seen, which means that the sun is directly on top of you and you felt like you will melt anytime soon.

You guys keep hiking up in another direction and you stop for the second time, Jeff takes off his t-shirt and they switch backpack once again.

What an amazing view… And you aren’t talking about the view to the city.

Jeff makes a joke of covering Nerf’s eyes for him to not see the other dogs that are free walking and not on backpacks.

You walk in front of Jeff and behind Todd and you feel a smack on your ass.

“Seriously Jeff, even when we’re hiking?” You ask not turning to look at him.

Jeff laughs behind you and you roll your eyes but still with a smile on your face. You guys stay silent and the only thing you could hear was your steps into the sand and Nerf’s heavy breathing.

Once you’ve been walking for a few minutes already, your legs are already slowing down and you are getting more tired by the second.

Jeff’s hands rest on your hips as in a way to not make you stop walking, ‘it’s harder if you stop’ he keeps telling you.

After walking a very inclined ground, you finally got to an area where the ground is completely straight, which made you breath in relief. You pet Nerf’s head and Jeff takes the backpack off. You help him unzip the backpack and Nerf steps out.

Nerf starts running freely and you laugh at him. You walk beside Jeff and laugh at Todd when he tells you that a fly went up his nose.

Once you guys got down the mountain, you hugged Nerf close to you while you all walked to your and Jeff’s apartment.

You guys planned that you were going to the pool right after coming back, but Joe and Todd decided not to, since Joe forgot his swimsuits and didn’t want Jeff to borrow one of his and Todd just wasn’t feeling like it.

While you walked on the streets some people would walk by you and say something like ‘that’s the cutest dog in the world’; ‘can I pet him?’ and ‘is he yours? He’s so cute’.

You guys get in the pool and Jeff plays with Nerf before getting in fully. You continue to talk to Todd while Joe recorded Jeff.

“How’s the fly on your nose?” You ask him.

“Probably having fun on my brain, right now” Todd says and you laugh.

“Imagine a little fly jumping around Todd’s brain” Joe says while focusing the camera on you and gesturing a jumping fly with his finger making you smile.

Joe starts recording Todd, and Jeff’s arms go around your waist. You smile at him and give him a peck on the lips.

“Did you like the hike, today?” Jeff asks you and your arms go around his neck.

“Yeah, it was fun. But I’ll probably change my mind about it when everything on my body starts aching” You tell him and he smiles at you.

Jeff helps Nerf jump in the pool and you swim around for a bit.

After some time passed by, you and Jeff started getting bored of swimming and Joe recorded you two without anyone seeing, since Todd told him to.

You guys put your clothes back on and walk to the building, Nerf walked happily in front of you and once he sees one of the neighbor’s dog, he started growling at him and getting close to him.

Jeff makes Nerf turn away from the scene and started talking to him.

“It’s not worth it. It’s not worth it” Jeff keeps telling Nerf making everyone in the group laugh hysterically.

Later that day, everyone on social media was freaking out because Todd posted the video with scenes of you and Jeff in the pool, and your very private relationship was shown once again to the world, who received it with open arms.

- - - - - -

🌸✨Sorry, but I’m not writing in this account anymore. Go check out my new one @twinklelilstarkey✨🌸

#jeff wittek imagine #jeff wittek #jeff wittek imagines #jeff wittek scenario #jeff wittek scenarios #vlog squad #vlog squad imagine #vlog squad imagines #vlog #imagine #imagines

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sooghostwriter · 6 years ago

Text

Bodyguard

Pairings: Do Kyung Soo x OC

Genre: Mature, Romance, Angst (But not love angst), Smut in future chapters

Warnings: Main character under trauma.

Summary: Ae Ra is a singer who has been receiving threatening messages and letters for a while now, but she didn’t give them importance. Until one day the sender decides to act and kidnaps her. It’s then when her agency decides that she needs protection, so they hired two bodyguards for her. Mister Do and Mister Park.

Chapter 3

After almost an hour, Mister Min walked outside her room with his cellphone on one hand and another cellphone in the other hand. He appeared flustered, but Kyung Soo could swear he looked taller “Everything is settled, I need to go to the agency right now to re-negotiate some contracts, I leave her under your care, she is going to sleep now” Kyung Soo bowed at him as he dashed to the elevators, but saw in surprise how he walked back to where he stood “How did you do that?” He asked pointing at him with one of his phones “Do what sir?” “She does what you say, that surprised me from the beginning, but this! Tell me, how you convinced her to take this break, I have been working with her for 6 years, and she only took a month off to finish her piano studies in England, what did you say to her?” Kyung Soo went over his talk with Ae Ra, and there were a lot of things that he said that could have pushed her in to take this decision, but he was sure that it came from inside her, he just showed her the possibilities. And also, he wasn’t going to tell someone else about the talk they had. It was a private matter of hers “I don’t think I said much, I just showed her that option…and after everything that happened, I think she was wishing to do this” Mister Min nodded, accepting his answer and walked away nodding to himself “Mister Do!” He shouted from the elevators, calling his attention “I like having you here!” Kyung Soo bowed at him, trying to control his smile.

Ae Ra’s room was now filled with cute boys. Baekhyun was right, she did have a harem.

Sehun was packing her suitcase, Chanyeol, Kyung Soo and Baekhyun were talking in a corner of her room and Minseok was flat ironing her new light brown hair “Are you really so scared of taking a break?” He asked over her shoulder, as she bit her thumb “Yeah, this is very new to me, I have been working like this since I was 17, first training, then when I debuted… I haven’t taken a break ever, and now is so strange because the instructions from the agency are to come back whenever I feel ready, when is that?” Sehun answered as he sat on top of her suitcase so he could close it “Whenever you feel like you are ready, is not that hard to understand”

“Yeah, the day you feel like you need to be back on stage is the day you come back to Seoul” They made it sound very simple. In fact, the harem made all this look very simple. As soon as she went out of the hospital, Baekhyun rented a house in the countryside. She was planning on going to her parents’ house or a hotel in Jeju island, but they had different plans “No, you need fresh hair, you need good food, animals, mountain, fireplace, you need earth, and you need us, that’s why we took some days off so we can come to you and help you settle” Her make-up artist informed her three days ago, and now he and her bodyguards were planning the meals they were going to have. Sehun was opening a second suitcase to put all her clothes in and Minseok was massaging her hair with some fragrant oil.

She announced in her social media that she was taking a short vacation. She didn’t look the comments, scared of what she could find there. Her agency got a lot of calls from magazines asking if it was related with her current situation and they answered that - It had to do with it, but it wasn’t the only reason- Mister Min didn’t touch the issue, he was all smiles. And that meant good news because that man didn’t know how to fake a smile. So if he was happy, it was because there were reasons not to be worried. So, when she walked out of her place with her backpack and her guitar, she only focused on not slip on to the wet pavement. She promised herself that all worries were staying there.

Mister Yo borrowed them one of his cars and they drove for 5 hours to the small village were their temporary home was. Chanyeol and Kyung Soo sat in the front since they were driving, and the rest stayed in the back. A part of her was getting very emotional with the idea of this trip. She never had this kind of trips. She did travel a lot, and in the company of those three guys, but it was for work, so there was always some stress involved. Train her voice, go over her choreography and work on her next record as she was touring with her most recent one. Traveling for work was never really traveling. But now there was none of that. This was the beginning of her vacation.

They arrived on a two-floor house at the foot of a hill. There were three’s around it, hiding it from the highway, and chickens and ducks walking around. Chanyeol parked the car in front, and gave them a signal to stay there “Kyung Soo and I need to go first to check the house” They all nodded at the same time and saw the two bodyguards walk inside the house and move around opening curtains and checking the locks of all the windows “Hey Ae Ra, is it true what Mister Min said? That you decided to take this vacation because of something that baldy told you” Ae Ra looked at Baekhyun a bit agitated, why did he know that? “Don’t call him that, and yes, he convinced me” “Wah, and he convinced you about telling people about the attacks too, wah, he has a lot of influence in you uh?” She looked at him not quite grabbing the mining behind the way he formulated his question, word-wise, and tone wise. Behind him, Minseok and Sehun were nodding, holding their laughs “Cut the crap, what are you implying?” “You like him” Answered Sehun, moving forward, grinning stupidly at her “You like your bodyguard” She felt the sweat forming in her lower back and nape. She felt her ears go red, and the chuckles from her friends confirmed her that she was must surely blushing “We are not messing with you, we are on board” Minseok told her, trying to control his giggles “Yeah, but just so you know, we will try to get you two alone during this vacation” Baekhyun stuck his tongue and avoided a swat from Ae Ra “I swear to god, if any of you makes it weird, I’m getting a new staff, got it?” “I’m open to lose this job if it means that you are getting a boyfriend” He joked again, but this time Ae Ra was faster and she hit him straight on the head “Hyung, stop it, look, we are supporting this, but we promise that we are not going to make any of you uncomfortable, not because of you, but because we are scared of him, and everybody calm down they are coming here” Sehun came back to his previous position, and the three of them went serious. Ae Ra was the only one still in shock. And she didn’t even have the opportunity to deny the accusations. Because she had to, since they were false accusations. The opening of her door brought her back to reality, and the first thing she saw was Kyung Soo offering his hand to help her go down. She could feel those three traitors biting back their laughs behind her “I’m ok Mister Do, thank you” He nodded and took back his hand, making way for her to go down. Of course, as soon as she touched land, her left ankle betrayed her and she ended up landing in Kyung Soo’s arms, which by now were definitely used to catch her before her face landed in the ground. He, as the eternal gentleman, only helped her regain balance again. He didn’t comment on her blushing or her embarrassed silence. But she saw out of the corner of her eye how the other three, including Chanyeol, were looking away, hiding their laughs from her and Kyung Soo’s view.

That afternoon they focused on organizing everything. Fill the refrigerator, distribute the rooms and unpack. As soon as she was ready, Chanyeol came to check on her. And for some reason he explained to her why he came in and not Kyung Soo “He is preparing dinner now, so I came instead” As if he was apologizing. Or she was just being paranoid.

After dinner, they watched a movie and then went to sleep. They were all very tired and had plans for the next morning. Baekhyun promised a river and animals. She put her pajamas on, and before she went to bed, Baekhyun came to wish her good night and give her a tight hug. That night she was able to sleep. It took her an hour, yes. But she didn’t wake up until the next morning. She had a couple of nightmares, but nothing too terrible.

Their first three days went by slowly. They were completely relaxed, enjoying life with no worries. She took long walks with her friends, devoured the food that Kyung Soo cooked for them and read the books she brought with her. It was a nice bubble to live in. All those things kept her away from the worries outside. There were moments when she completely forgot why she was there. Only at night, she would remember. The nightmares refused to leave. But she realized that every night they lost a bit of strength.

It was clear that for Sehun, Baekhyun and Minseok, Ae Ra was more than just the girl they work with. They treat her like a little sister in every sense.

Chanyeol and he were the same. There was a distance between the three of them, mostly because that’s how they planned it on the first place. She still called them Mister and they called her Miss, but that was only a formality. Chanyeol would call her Miss Ji, and then joke about how lazy she was. Of course, Kyung Soo didn’t go that far. He just stayed on the background. Laughing with them of course, talking with all of them. But always looking and earing, answering only when requested. That was just his personality. He was the quiet one. At least around strangers or acquaintances. He liked that about himself though. It made him more observant. And during the last days there, he did that. Observe.

Observe Ae Ra closely. He had seen her at her worst, and he was making sure how she was evolving. He was pleasantly surprised. The first thing he noticed was the lack of visits to the bathroom. She was enjoying her meals happily and after she was done she just stayed seated at the table or go somewhere with her friends. No more vomiting, no more lump on her throat. That was the best sign he could see.

She looked less afraid too. One time the lights went out for a minute as she was washing her face in the bathroom. He dashed to the bathroom in case she needed help, but he stopped at the door after he could hear her humming. The light came back soon after, and as he walked away from the door, a small smile on his lips, he heard her say “I’m okay” Kyung Soo’s smile grew wider.

It was clear she wasn’t sleeping well, she was somnolent most of the time. And a couple of times when he walked outside her bedroom past midnight, he heard her whimper in her sleep. But he knew it was going to be like this. If anything, Ae Ra was recovering very fast. Trauma is a toxic disease that takes quite a while to go away. He knew that. He has seen it. But Ae Ra was strong, he knew that much. He suspected it just by seeing her as a fan. But now that he met her in person, he was sure.

It was Thursday and Sehun had to leave because of work. Kyung Soo prepared a farewell meal with Sehun’s favorites dishes. He looked a bit giddy when Kyung Soo asked him what food he liked. Kyung Soo liked Sehun. He was a good guy. A big softy. He was making Ae Ra laugh all the time, as he was paying attention to her well-being all the time. He was very funny and he made a good match with Chanyeol. He felt a bit sad with the news of him leaving so soon, that’s why he decided to cook for him. Chanyeol and Minseok were going to drive him to the train station after lunch. That morning, as he was starting to prepare lunch, Ae Ra came into the kitchen offering help “I’m not a good cooker, but I know how to use a knife, so can I help you? I want to thank Sehun somehow” He accepted happily, asking her to chop the green onions. Thanks to her help, lunch was ready sooner than expected. Before they started eating, Ae Ra raised her glass to make a toast and everybody at the table quieted down “Before our Sehun goes, I’ll like to thank you guys for being here with me, supporting me” She said looking at Baekhyun, Sehun and Minseok “And taking care of me” She said looking at Chanyeol and him “Thank you, that’s all, I’m not good at this, I’ll write a song, that’s easier for me” They all start laughing clinging their glasses together “Of course we are going to be here with you, I can’t trust that you would take care of your hair, and also who was going to trim Kyung Soo’s hair” Minseok added, patting Kyung Soo in the shoulder, and he involuntarily passed his hand over his head “Thank you for that” He answered shylly “Is ok, your hair does grow quite fast though, you are very masculine uh?” Chanyeol laughed next to him, and as he turned to hit him, he saw Ae Ra smiling nervously. He noticed that she always did that when Chanyeol messed with him. He didn’t know why. He was glad they all enjoyed his cooking. It was modest, but they all prize it fervently “Miss Ji helped me, so she should get some compliments too” He answered, a bit embarrassed “I only cut stuff, you are the one with the gift” She winked at him, and Kyung Soo felt a rush of heat move from his nape, around his neck and then down his chest. That was one of her signature gestures. She always ended her tv performances with a flirty wink but getting one live was very overwhelming. He laughed shyly, and everybody around him laughed at him, or with him. Soon after they were done with lunch, Chanyeol and Minseok left with Sehun to the train station. When Sehun came to say goodbye to him, he gave Kyung Soo a short but tight hug and said to him “I’m sure you will keep taking care of her, thank you for that” and patted his arm fraternally. Kyung Soo only nodded at him, copping Sehun’s gesture. They both smiled at each other before Sehun walked inside the car. After that Ae Ra went upstairs to fetch her book and left him and Baekhyun at the living room. He was going to offer him a coffee, but he excused himself “I’m going to go for a run” He said and went upstairs to his room. Before he went into the kitchen he heard some mumbling at the stairs, followed by a strident laugh from Baekhyun and an exasperated shriek from her. She appeared at the kitchen door just when he was putting the coffee inside the machine “Want some coffee?” He offered. She only nodded and went back to the living room. He added one more coffee spoon to the filter and waited for it to be done. He already knew how she liked her coffee, and he felt a weird sense of proudness because of that. He walked into the living room holding both coffee’s and left hers in the coffee table in front of her. She was sitting on the couch, relaxed, with a book and a notebook on her legs. She thanked him for the coffee, taking a sip from her cup “Perfect” She mumbled to herself, and Kyung Soo felt that weird sense of proudness again. He sat in the couch just in front of her, without anything to do. It was about to get uncomfortable, at least for him, when Ae Ra draw his attention to her “Mister Do, I weight myself today, I gained 3 kilos” She could barely control her smile, proud of herself “Congratulations, I have noticed that you have been eating better” She nodded enthusiastically “Yes! I feel better” “What about sleeping?” “Mmm…is…still tricky, is not as hard as before, but I have a lot of nightmares” Kyung Soo realized this was the first time in a while they sat down to talk. He felt a strange familiarity with the current situation. He was glad she was sharing all this with him, mostly because that meant thrust “What happens in those nightmares?” She looked at the notebook on her hands, playing with the cover “I’m writing them down, once we are back at Seoul I want to start therapy, and probably they will be interested in them…they are quite random, is like all my fears or traumas from childhood are coming back, all my insecurities show themselves in my nightmares, so there isn’t a clear pattern, some of them are kind of ridiculous, some of them are terrifying” “And they keep you up during the night” “Most of them, sometimes I wake up terrified, sometimes…so…sometimes…something happens in the nightmare and everything gets fixed so I don’t wake up” He was dying to ask what happened, what change those nightmares into dreams, but he saw how suddenly she got nervous, stuttering, so probably she didn’t want to share that part “You are having those nightmares every night?” “Yeah, but some nights are worse than others, which gives me a bit of hope…right?” He nodded, it was a good signal “Coming here has helped you, Miss Ji?” “So much, I know that Baekhyun brought me here to isolate me, sooner or later I have to come back and probably I’m going to have a relapse, but I also think that he brought me here to create a cushion, so whenever I feel terrible, I can just come back here, at least in my mind” They exchange a smile and Ae Ra went ahead “I’ll remember the time he fell into the lake, when Sehun freaked out because of that sheep, and when Mister Park almost fades because of that cricket on his pants, I’m going to remember waking up to that beautiful view outside my window, share breakfast with all of you, enjoy the delicious meals you prepare, write in peace, read, laugh…this has been overwhelmingly beautiful, sorry” Her voice broke at the end, and his heart clenched. She tried to hide her crying, but it was late to control it. Kyung Soo was fast to hand her the box of tissue. She apologized to him, and he was clear to make her see that she didn’t need to apologize “I’m just very emotional lately, yesterday a butterfly got into my room and I cried for an hour because of how pretty it was” “Miss Ji, that is totally normal” She thanked him again and grabbed another tissue to clean her tears “I’m glad you decided to go to therapy, everybody around you is doing all they can to support you and help you, but there are a lot of things we can’t do or say, and there’s also a lot of things you can’t share with any of us” She looked at him, her eyes big, a bit swollen and red by the crying, but dry now “I’m doing the right thing right?” “Of course” She smiled brightly, and he mirrored her smile “Thank you for sharing this with me Miss Ji” “No, it’s me…I have to thank you Mister Do” They could be like this the rest of the afternoon, so Kyung Soo accepted her words and changed the subject “For dinner I’ll cook whatever you want, to celebrate your weight gain, what do you want?” She giggled shyly and took a second to think about it “I think this is the first time I celebrate a weight gain, we have to celebrate it right? Then I want fried chicken, can you cook that?” “Of course, I’m going to call Chanyeol and tell him to buy some fresh chicken” He got up in search of his phone and left her free to do what she had planned. As he was speaking with his partner, he saw her seated at the couch, writing down things on her notebook, her smile refusing to leave. His too.

+++

“Ae Ra?” She heard a whisper calling her name “Are you up?” It was Baekhyun’s voice from the door “Come in, what happened?” Baekhyun got in, closing the door behind him, and sat next to her in the bed “Nothing, I wanted to chat with you, what were you doing?” Ae Ra showed him the book she was reading, and he scrunched his nose, taking it away from her and leaving it on the nightstand “You can do that later, I came to gossip about you” “Baekhyun is not gossiping if it is about me, and if it is about Mister Do I’m killing you with this pillow” “Oh come on! Tell me, what did you guys do yesterday when we left you alone?” Ae Ra was suddenly shocked by his words, the we in it was so suspicious. We, as in we plan it, we executed, we are dead “Baekhyun, please don’t tell me you planned this” “No…” He hesitated “No what?” “I didn’t plan, it was Sehun and Chanyeol…and me and Minseok” Ae Ra grabbed the pillow she was going to use to kill him and stuck it to her face just to hide her shout of frustration. They were all dead to her, even Chanyeol. She felt how Baekhyun was giggling next to her, so she shouted into her pillow again “Come on, stop it, if Kyung Soo hears you he will get super worried” She threw her pillow at him, and in his attempt of dodge it, he hit the back of his head with the wall. She felt so happy when it happened “I can’t believe you got Chanyeol involved too, he is his partner!” “Ok, that’s why I came to gossip, of course I want to know what you guys did yesterday, but I’m sure nothing will come out from those lips, so here is the gossip” “Baek…” She warned him, but he ignored her “This is the thing, Chanyeol didn’t need to go with them, I could have go with them, or only Minseok right?” He waited for her answer, but she only stared at the wall with her arms crossed, and he ignored her completely “But Chanyeol proposed that idea to us, we give it the thumbs up, and then when he told Kyung Soo about him going with Minseok he wasn’t against it” “So?” He gave her an exasperated look “You know him, he could have said no to him, don’t go is unnecessary, because it is! He came out with a lousy plan and a lousy excuse, but Kyung Soo accept it” “Please go to the point of all this” “He wanted to spend time alone with you dummy!” Ae Ra laughed bitterly, shaking her head “What about you?” Now her friend was the clueless one “What with me?” “Technically he and I weren’t going to be alone, you stayed here” “He knows I go for a run every other day at that time, he is like a freaking CIA agent” “So your gossip is that he wanted to stay alone with me” He nodded smiling sassily and Ae Ra pushed down the giddiness that the idea caused her. She took a deep breath and then turned to Baekhyun “Look, It was really good talk to him, he listens and gives advice like no one, and that’s all I’m going to say, but I don’t like this…childish behavior of planning things and talking about us behind our backs” “Us?” He joked, moving his eyebrows up and down suggestively. Ae Ra was done “Leave” Baekhyun got up faking fear, laughing all the way to the door, and before going out, he looked at her and repeated “Us” Doing that thing with his eyebrows again. Ae Ra grabbed the book she was reading and threw it to the door. Baekhyun laughed again and dashed outside the room and closed the door.

++++

Sunday's in the countryside were as lazy as in the city. They got up late, except for Kyung Soo and Chanyeol obviously, and they move from couch to couch watching movies. After lunch though, Ae Ra got a rush of energy and felt like dressing more presentable and go out for a walk. She came downstairs and her friends were still lazing around in the living room playing video games in the TV “I want to go for a walk” She said, “Go then” Answered Baekhyun changing positions on the couch next to Chanyeol “No one is coming with me?” She saw how Kyung Soo looked at Chanyeol in silence for a couple of seconds but was ignored by his partner “Kyung Soo, could you go? I’m about to destroy Minseok here” Ae Ra didn’t miss the look Kyung Soo gave to Chanyeol, it was hard to decipher though. She was able to read the faces Baekhyun and Minseok though. She was about to lose it. Baekhyun was laughing mischievously, trying to hide behind a pillow. And Minseok’s grin was really getting into her nerves. Thank god Kyung Soo distracted her by patting her arm “Let me go for my cellphone and jacket and I will be with you” She couldn’t find her voice, so she only nodded. Her friends were about to say something, so to save their friendship she walked to the door.

He was thankful to his friend. He just wasn’t planning on recognizing it to his face. Ever. Is not that he was wishing to be alone with her. It’s just that more than a week with his partner and her friends was like a lot, and Ae Ra was peaceful, not like the clumsy giraffe of a friend he had. He didn’t want private time with her. He wanted private time. Just that. Ae Ra wanted to walk up the hill and hopefully reach the highest point. He liked the idea, she promised a beautiful sunset from there. It was a very easy walk. Not too steep and with a very clean and safe path to follow. Also, Ae Ra was very agile. She had good reflexes and her steps were light and fast. She was quiet too. Only commenting on the flora and the noises around their path “Are you afraid of any animal Mister Do?” “No, not at all, I love animals” “Then you must like it here” She said, stopping to catch her breath “Very much, this morning a couple of ducks were at the kitchen door asking for food, I was so bewitched by them, they were so cute and yesterday afternoon when Chanyeol and I went for a run we met a herd of sheep’s, and their owner had just shear them, they looked very cute” She smiled at him the entire time, crunching her nose “I can tell you really like it here because you just said a lot in one go” He felt a bit embarrassed all of the sudden so he started walking ahead “I always talk a lot with you Miss Ji” She laughed behind him, reaching his side “That’s true, I was being unfair” They started walking side by side, slower this time since the top of the hill was closer. They walked in silence, but Kyung Soo saw a permanent smile on Ae Ra’s face, and he was carrying the same smile on his face. The owners of the house and the land where the hill was located, had taken good care of it. At the top of the hill, under a couple of tall trees, there was a set of seats made with wood. They were just in front of an opening where you could see the big expanse of land around the house. This was the first time he was seeing this “Is beautiful, isn’t it? When I came here with Baekhyun the other day I cried” She laughed at her own statement, but it made sense to him. He wasn’t about to cry, but his chest felt tight with emotion. Ae Ra took off her backpack and sat at the benches patting the space next to her, inviting him to take a sit. He slid next to her, taking the bottle of water she offered him “Isn’t it nice to work with me, I bring you to nice places, see?” “I have to recognize that despite…you know…the rest, working with you is really nice” “Yeah, despite all that” She said looking with disdain to the side “Hey, don’t think about that” “Don’t worry, I wasn’t…I haven’t think about it actually, not too much” She took a long sip from her bottle and hold the water in her mouth, moving it from one side to the other “I’m curious though, I wonder if the police found anything during this days” “If you want we can call Mister Min and ask him”

“I would like that, curiosity is killing me” Kyung Soo took his phone from his pocket, so he could make the call but she stopped him “Not now Mister Do, don’t ruin the moment, let’s call him once we are back at the house ok?” She was right. Good news or bad news could interrupt the relaxing encounter with nature they were having now. Kyung Soo put his phone back in his pocket and sat more comfortably on the bench, enjoying the bright green landscape in front of him. This was really a view and an environment he could get used to. This view and this air could help anyone feel better. Kyung Soo needed to thank Baekhyun for having the brilliant idea to rent that house and bring Ae Ra here “Mister Do?” Kyung Soo looked at her, and she was handing him an earphone “I want to listen to this song, but I feel rude putting on my earphones and leaving you out, wanna listen to it with me?” He grabbed the little red piece and put it on his ear. She looked for the song on her cellphone, and he focused on the view in front of him again, it was impossible to get tired by it. He heard her whisper ‘Found you’ excitedly and the music started playing. And Kyung Soo froze.

He knew that song, he knew that song so well. “I wrote this song when I was 20, I was going through some terrible things, my grandma died, my manager left me after he got in an argument with the agency, there was a terrible rumor regarding me and a possible unwanted pregnancy and to top it all, a classmate exposed my terrible math grades, I was scared, sad, angry and embarrassed, all together, and one night, after I cried my ass off, a sat down and I wrote this song, but it was too personal so I put it at the end of the record, is not very popular, although I always sing it at my concerts, but is the song that fans comment to me about the most” Kyung Soo was listening in awe. He didn’t know any of that. As she said, the song was the last one of the record, and it didn’t quite fit with the rest of the songs. He always thought it was a filling song. They were one song short, so they just threw it in. He didn’t know it carried a deep meaning for her. She kept listening to the music, staring at the sky and Kyung Soo couldn’t move his eyes away from her. He was witnessing such an intimate moment. But he didn’t feel like an intruder. They were sharing it. That song meant a lot to her, as it meant to him. But she didn’t know that. And he felt like she should. She deserved to know. Since he started working with her, Ae Ra has opened her heart and mind to him. Always looking for a light to follow on his words. But he wanted to tell her that her words were a light on the path of someone very important to him. That her words, helping his friend, helped him too “I know this song very well” He said, loud enough to bring her focus to him. She immediately searched for his eyes “You do?” She asked surprised “Yeah, actually, this song turned me into your fan” He admitted, looking at his hands, feeling embarrassed “Please tell me” She turned off the music and took the earphone from his ear. She turned around on their seat, facing him, giving him all her attention. Kyung Soo felt a bit uncomfortable under her stare, so he kept his eyes fixed on his hands “Some years ago my best friend, who is like my brother, got into a car accident and lost the movement of his legs” “I’m so sorry” She sounded really sad by it, so he smiled at her, showing her that it was a matter of the past “It was very hard for him, he was depressive, he didn’t leave his room, rejected therapy, didn’t want to use a wheelchair and at one point, became suicidal” “Kyung Soo” He heard her whisper, and felt her cold hands grab his “He is fine now, don’t worry, but it was so hard, and I didn’t know what to do for him, because I knew that the reality of people around him, the ability they had to walk and run caused him great pain, he didn’t want to see me, they hospitalize him and two weeks passed without being able to see him, then one day I get a call from his sister that he wanted to see me, I literally ran to the hospital and I find him watching something on his computer laughing his ass off, I walked in his room and he shouts at me, Hey! Come here, I’m watching Ae Ra’s videos, you like her?!” Kyung Soo smiled at the memory. He remembered how much he cried when he saw his friend smile again at some sketch she was doing on a TV Show “I knew who you where, but never listened to your music, so he showed me some of your videos and one of those videos was the live performance of this song and he said, This song saved me, what she says here woke me up from my nightmare, and we listened to the song, and I immediately understood why it meant so much to him” “I can’t believe my rants about feeling misunderstood and alone could help your friend who was going through something so much worse” She said looking at her hands grabbing his, a light blush on her cheeks “Remember when I told you not to look down on the importance of your existence, because you are definitely helping some people?” “Of course I do, I have been thinking about it since then” Ae Ra scratched her neck nervously “Well, this is what I meant with that, I know how important your existence is because I saw it, first hand” Ae Ra stood up and Kyung Soo felt his hands tingling. He tight them in a fist and then relaxed so they could be back to normal. She stayed up, giving him her back, her hands resting on her hips. The wind moved her hair looking like a superhero from the back “I know I don’t have that much importance in this world, you pick up a stone and 100 like me come up from under it, I know that, I’m not unique and I’m not irreplaceable, but this is my job, this is my passion, and there are a lot of people out there whose life’s I had improve with my work, they need me, they need me now and in the future, and I’m going to be there because I’m going to keep doing this, I’m going to keep giving support to your friend, and every single one of my fans, and a couple of psychos are not going to stop me from doing so, we need to go back to Seoul” Kyung Soo went back to bodyguard mode and couldn’t avoid sound a bit apprehensive when asking her if she was sure “Yes, I’m better, I need to start treatment, and I need to help more in the investigation, and I need to go back to work, I need to write and compose, let’s go back to Seoul” She was giving a statement, but it sounded like a question to him. He knew it was safe to come back. He had spoken with Mister Min and in his words, things have been calm over there “If that’s what you want, let’s start to prepare, I’m going to call Mister Min” She turned to him, relaxing her stand, and came back to her seat “Thank you for being here, I know it is a bother…” He was quick to interrupt her “Is not, your agency asked us to be here, is our obligation” Kyung Soo regretted saying those words immediately. He was trying to make her feel less guilty, but those were clearly not the right words. She looked disappointed at his words, and it stung his chest, so he corrects himself “Is an honor to be here working for you, and I’m having a great time, we are having a great time, Chanyeol likes working with you too” She laughed, and Kyung Soo released a long sight, he needed to be careful with his words “Thank you” She whispered, putting back her earphone, giving one to him. The music resumed from the beginning, and they stayed in silence looking at the landscape.

+++++

After dropping Minseok and Baekhyun at their place, Chanyeol drove them to Ae Ra’s house. She was looking forward to being back at her cave. She had a lot of drafts for new songs. When they stopped at Baekhyun’s house, Kyung Soo moved to the back seat next to her. He looked serious as always, in work mood, so she didn’t suspect anything. Chanyeol started driving and Kyung Soo turned to her. A cold shiver ran down her back, not a good one “Miss Ji, I spoke with Mister Min” “He had bad news, didn’t he?” He only nodded once “They keep sending threatening letters to the agency, every time from different addresses, the police look into it and they are all fake addresses, no fingerprints either” “What do the letters say?” “The same as always” She looked away and closed her eyes, trying to control the wave of fear and anguish that took over. This wasn’t over. They were still out there, they never stopped stalking her. Months have passed since the first letter, two attacks happened in between, and they were still free. They hadn’t given up. They will never give up until their sick fantasy of seeing her dead could come true. She was terrified now. She wanted to leave Seoul again. She needed the safety of anonymity. Miss Ji? She heard a voice, so distant it was almost imperceptible. Miss Ji? This time it sounded closer, louder. She wanted to open her eyes, but she couldn’t. Then she felt something tight around her hand. A warm, soft hand holding hers “Miss Ji?” This time the voice was loud and clear. And it was familiar and reassuring. She opened her eyes and found Kyung Soo in front of her. His eyes round and dark, eyebrows furrowed in worry. He had one hand on her neck, checking her pulse “Are you ok?” He asked, examining her face “Yes, yes, I’m ok, I’m sorry” “I think you passed out” “No! No, I didn’t I’m ok” Kyung Soo came back to his position, but his right hand remained holding hers “Miss Ji, we can go to a hotel, or back to the countryside if you wish” Chanyeol offered from the front seat, his face also covered in worry “No, I’m ok, for real” “Miss Ji, I told you once I need you to speak up, to ask for help, you are not ok, at least recognize that so we can make it better” Chanyeol had stopped in a red light and turned around to look at Kyung Soo “Hey, don’t…how?...you are right but don’t talk to her like that, she doesn’t need a nagging mom right now” “No, is ok Mister Park, he is right” She clenched Kyung Soo’s hand and closed her eyes agaShe had to ask for help, but she didn’t know what she needed. What help she needed. She was afraid. But going to her house was the safest idea. A hotel carried bad memories for her. They had already broken into one of them to leave a threatening message. Going back to the house in the hill sounded nice, but she wasn’t going to let them drive five hours back to that place again. Her house was safe. Kyung Soo made sure of it. No one ever sends letters there. And she wanted to sleep in her bed, take a bath, and start working on the dozens of songs she composed on her vacation “Mister Park, let’s go to my house, I think is the best place where we can be” “Understood” Ae Ra looked at Kyung Soo, she wanted to know if her decision was the right one. He held her stare and gave her a single nod, clenching her hand and releasing it. She didn’t like the weird feeling in her stomach when the warmth of his hand wasn’t there anymore. His hand rested about 5 centimeters away from hers, and she was dying to reach at grab it. To feel that reassurance again. But that was inappropriate. Very much so.

Before she could get inside her house Chanyeol went in and leave her with Kyung Soo in the car. It took him some good 20 minutes to be done “Sorry, I checked the garden too and the studio downstairs, it’s all clear, let’s get you inside”.

Chanyeol took her suitcases upstairs meanwhile she ordered some food so they could have dinner. Kyung Soo walked around the house, double-checking apparently.

After dinner, she went upstairs to take a shower and go to bed. She was collecting her dirty clothes when Kyung Soo knocked her doorframe letting her know that he was there “Chanyeol just left since he drove all the way here, I told him that I will take this shift, you need anything?” “No, I’m ok, I’m going to leave this on the laundry room and then I will sleep, you should do the same, you know you can use all the things available here” He bowed at her, a soft smile on his lips “I’ll do that then, remember whatever you need I will be in my room, ok?” “Yes mom” She joked, and Kyung Soo answered with one of those childlike bright smiles that she got to see so sporadically. He turned around to leave, but she stopped him, calling his name “I just…I know you say I don’t have too, but I just wanted to thank you for everything, for protecting me, from them and from myself, for being honest with me and for saying the things and need to hear, so…thank you Mister Do” He didn’t turn around. She could only look at the back of his head. He was calm, she could hardly see the movement of his shoulders with his breathing. His voice sounded serious and deep when he finally spoke “Miss Ji, I will stay next to you until this all goes away, doing what I have been doing until now or whatever you need from me, not only because it’s my job, but also because I owe you this much, I will bring back calm to your life, as you did with mine” He hesitated before taking a step ahead and walk to his room. He didn’t give her the opportunity to answer him. Although she didn’t know what to answer. She was completely lost of words. He breath stuck in her chest. The back of her neck burning. She tried to occupy herself on her unpacking, sing something to keep her mind there and not stuck at that moment some minutes ago. But it was so hard. By now it was so hard to look at Kyung Soo as just her bodyguard. How not to? He was always focused on her well-being and safety, he never hesitates when it came to attacking to protect her, he would literally shield her with his whole body. And he was always there, opening doors for her, quiet and stoic. Always in her space, leaning down to whisper something at her, holding her for comfort, talking to her so she could organize her mind, open up and talk. And also, he was cute as hell, attractive in such a classic way. Ugh. What a cliché. There were movies about that. The star and the bodyguard.

The next morning, she woke up after barely sleep the night before. Although it was good insomnia because it wasn't caused by fear. It was just giddiness and nervousness. A funny feel on her tummy at the thought of Mister Do. She skipped breakfast and went down to the basement into her studio. She locked herself there and wrote two full songs about Kyung Soo.

-----

Note: Is it normal that you get emotional with your own writing?. As I was writing the conversation they had in the living.... it touched me.

#do kyungsoo #do kyung soo #exo fanfiction #exo scenario #d.o fanfic #d.o smut #d.o #Kyungsoo #kyung soo #kyungsoo fanfic

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black-wolf877 · 5 years ago

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Deku meets Spry

So @pigknightwarrior ask me to write this never done this before but enjoy the story (I will add the read more later when I get home mobile sucks for that)

For the past few months when Deku went out on his hero training or going off to school he has been noticing some of his stuff miss throughout his room. What he didn’t know was he had a borrower named Spry living thought out his walls. At times he thought he just missed placed it or even forgot where he put. One night when he was asleep, he heard something drop “hello? What was that sound it very close.” He looked over the edge of his bed then under it but there was nothing there. Spry had done the worst thing and dropped her lantern she heard the giant start to move above in the bed. She ran and hide behind the bed leg and held her breath and tried her best not make any kind of noise. Thoughts was racing though her head like how could I drop my light at the same time she happy she did because it put the light out and she was able to hide better.

Deku looked but didn’t see anything there “guess it was nothing” he laid back down and went right back to sleep. Spry waited for a bit tell she knew he was back into a deep sleep, once she heard a snore it was time to get to work. She grabbed her backpack and check to make sure everything was there, the most important thing she needed today was her blade which she made from an exacto knife she borrowed. Spry was running low on materials she needs for her clothing and other stuff, so finding fabric was a must for tonight. She made her way to the around the floor all she could see was this smiling man all over then place. Then her luck started to look up for her after looking what felt like hours, she found an old dusty shirt on the floor. She pulled her blade and started to cut some of the shirt, once that was done, she started to drag it back home through a hole she made in the wall hidden behind the desk.

Time pasted and Deku just kept seeing this disappear he knew something wasn’t right. One thing he did notice was every time he had raisins it looked like some was gone from what he had grabbed from the kitchen. So that morning before he went for training, he got a glass and made kind of a makeshift trap. He put some raisins in a bowl and on when what ever stepped in that bowl will make the cup drop over top the bowl. Once that was done, he left for his day at school hopping he would catch whatever was taking his stuff. Spry woke and was ready to get her breakfast she knew that at this time the giant would be gone for most of the day which means it’s a good time for her to gather food for the day. She knew that he always kept snacks up on his desk, so grabbed her hook out her bag and threw it to the top of the chair. When it hooked, she pulled to make sure it wouldn’t slip lose, she started to pull herself up to the top and repeated till she was on top of the desk. She saw a bowl and went to see what was in it and to her luck it was her favorite treat raisins. She climbed in the bowl and started to put one in her bag, but when she went for another something fell on top of the bowl. She tried to push it over but no luck she was trapped. She started freaking out looking to see if there was even a way for her to get out before the giant gets home, but it didn’t seem like it. Hours passed till the door opened and to Deku he was shocked to see what his trap caught. Was this a villain who could change their size and was spying on all them or just him? He walked over to the cup and looked at it “Who are you why are you here spying on us?”

Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god. Spry backed up against the looking fearfully at the gargantuan bean. She stammered, fear guarding her mouth, preventing the words from slipping to beg for mercy. "I-I wasn't I-.. P-please, please don't..." Tears edged her eyes threatening to spill. Is this how she dies?

Deku could see that he was scaring this person and try to clam his voice a bit. They looked like they were scared for their life "whoa whoa don't cry how about this nod yes or no if you are hear spying on us and don’t what?" he didn’t want to hurt this person but he also don’t know what their powers are. Spry couldn't keep her chest from bobbing up and down but she shook her head quickly. She felt the piercing green orbs shooting through her, it was worst nightmare coming to reality, and she wanted it to end."P-please don't hurt, I-I don't want to die, p-p-please...." Deku looked at them confused “hurt? No, no I won’t hurt you. It’s just, is this a power of yours? What are you? “he had so many questions popping in his head he didn’t realize he started mumbling. Spry needed to leave, every moment spent in this, was a minute off her own life. "I d-don't have any powers.." She lowered her head to look at the ground, she bears herself to look at what will be the end of her life. Deku came back to it “wait what no powers?” He felt bad that he just left her in the glass trap he made and then went on one of his famous thought trains. “I’m going to let you out so we can talk better, feel a little bad that you’re trapped.” He lifts up the glass so that she wasn’t trapped anymore and hoping she will be a little less scared to talk to him.

Spry watched the bean raise the glass that kept her prisoner. She looked around, she could off if she wanted, this would be her only chance to do so but.. she knew wouldn't get far. Spry gave in and sat down hugging her knees close to her chest. Deku pulled out the chair and sat with her. He clears his Throat “let’s try this again hi my name is Deku and I’m going to be the next number one hero. What’s your name” he said with a big smile. Spry looked around, holding her arms. She never had the chance to look or even notice before, but they were a lot of small statues of the same muscly guy with rabbit ears just on this one desk. She backpedaled by instinct out of fear. "I-I'm.. I'm Spry."

“Nice to meet you spry.” He leans back in his chair “now you said this size not a superpower, if you’re not here spying are you a villain?” Spry looked at the bean with a very confused look "Villain? I live here.." At this point she found no way of getting out this situation. All she had to go along with, maybe he would let her go. “Live here? Since when I never seen you at this school. Speaking of what even are you, no one this small and doesn’t have powers to make them smaller or bigger” He looked her up and down never seeing someone this small ever. Other then mountain girl who can change her size from normal to huge. Spry scratched the back of her neck, Oh dear this was gonna be a little hard to explain. Spry idly played with her goggles before clearing her throat. "I don't go to this school place, I just live here. In the walls.." She continued playing with her goggles and looking at the ground.

Deku was shocked that he never seen her not once since moving into the dorms.“In my walls, so you been the one I been hearing some nights and taking my food and stuff then.” She didn't really respond. This wasn't the first she'd been found out, and it wasn't the first a bean had been weirded out or even disgusted about the fact that essentially a "tiny human" was living in the walls of their secure home.

She also knew at this point, she probably would be kicked out, at risk of being exposed to others or outright killed, all of which don't sound pleasant.

"I can leave." She kept her eyes focused to the ground, of all the things that have changed throughout the many many years of quirks coming to be, there were two things that stayed the same; The world was still not fit for borrowers, and they were still not wanted.

Deku got up and made his way to the door opening it to make sure one of his classmates wasn’t outside it listening. He closed the door and went back to where Spry was “Spry you don’t have to leave you can stay...I just wished you asked before you took things tho. You messed up one of my favorite shirts. Also why won’t you look at me?”

Spry shook her head, the thought of was scary itself. "Beans are scary, mean. Every day we're at risk of being burned, crushed, drowned, shocked, everything." Her eyes dragged themselves to meet Deku's face. All her alarms were really going off in her brain but despite that, she felt she at least needed to be polite.

"Sorry about your shirt.. I needed it." It was only to have clothes for herself, along with other things.

Deku crossed his arms face sad from what she said people did to them. "what you don't want to stay, you would be safe I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone. But if you don't want to I'm not going to force you."With that Deku went to his bed laid down and started reading his home made hero book to study. He really hope she will stay but he can’t hold her here, it wouldn’t be the right thing to do even if it kept her safe. He had to let he make that choice on here own.

She rose her head, looked to Deku then over to the door. There was so much danger just outside that one door alone, could she really psych herself up to do this? She looked back over to Deku reading in his book and stood up and walked to her backpack, pulling out a hook and latching it to the lamp on the desk. She put her backpack on and walked back hook and rope, pulling on it to make sure it was secure, before feeling hesitation.

".......Is it really ok for me to stay here?.."

When Deku heard her say if it was ok he had a huge smile behind his book. He fixed it so he wouldn’t scare here. “Yea I don’t mind at all I mean you will have the room mostly to your self with me doing school and hero training, but I would love for you to stay.” He did a friendly smile and was happy she decided to stay here.

#deku midoriya #pigknightwarrior #borrowers #my story #my writing #fan fiction #my hero academia

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hellas-himself · 6 years ago

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Ch. 4 Noche Buena

Ch. 3

After the death of his father, Azriel is forced to go back to the one place he swore he’d never return to. But he finds himself quite literally face to face with his past, one that he had not let himself think of since he’d left.

Ch. 5

I woke up because I heard pots crash on the floor. I sat up, finding Elain trying and failing at pushing the pots back into the cabinet. She had Christmas music going and at least three candles lit that smelled like cinnamon.

And she was wearing my shirt.

“Good morning,” I said, my voice raspy. I had the good sense to pull the blanket over me. She turned and looked at me, a smile on her face.

“Good morning.” She blushed.

“You’re not working today?”

“The church is doing their annual Christmas thing today so they’ll be down there. I usually help but I’m pretty tired.”

I smirked, which only made her blush deepen. She waved me off.

“Go wash up. I’m making breakfast.”

“You sure you don’t need me to teach those pots a lesson?”

She laughed, pushing against the cabinet doors. “No. I got this.”

“Don’t start without me,” I said and got out of bed, taking the blanket with me. I laughed when I heard her whistle as I walked to the bathroom.

Of course she was already mixing pancake batter when I walked out. She made a pouty face as I went to stand behind her. I put my hands on her waist and she leaned back against me.

“I think I like you better with no clothes on,” she said. I laughed.

“That can be arranged.”

“Hm… Tempting, but I’m hungry. And I have a lot of baking to do today.”

“Baking?”

“I bake cookies for everyone.”

“Define everyone.”

“Everyone downstairs goes home with cookies tonight.”

“You do this every year?”

“Yeah. It’s not like I do anything else on Christmas,” she said and then let out a sigh. “I’m usually alone this time of year. I tend to over do it so I don’t notice it too much.”

I pressed a kiss to her shoulder.

“I know the feeling.”

“Go see what’s on Hallmark. Then you can set the table.”

“Yes, ser.”

“Stop that.”

She elbowed me and I walked away laughing.

We had breakfast on the sofa, Elain shoving her feet under my legs instead of using the blanket I’d brought over because she was cold. The movie was cheesy but she was smiling and I thought I caught her crying at one point. But I didn’t say anything about it. I was just grateful to be there with her.

“What exactly do you do on Christmas?” she asked, setting her plate on the floor and sitting back, hands on her belly.

“Nothing.”

“New Year’s?”

“I visit my parents.”

“And Three Kings’ Day?”

“I work.”

“Wow… And I thought I was boring.”

When I scowled she laughed.

“I’m kidding.”

“Why do you ask?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes I wish things were different. That I could just get up and go wherever I wanted when I felt like it. But my sisters don’t have to choose between a plane ticket or paying taxes for their business. And I know they’d send for me in a heartbeat… But then Nuala would miss out on being with Cerridwen. I can’t do that to her.”

“Don’t they come here?”

She shook her head. “It was… ugly the last time Nesta came here. Feyre wasn’t so bad but I can’t stand being looked at like I’m some kind of porcelain doll.”

“When are you opening the diner again?”

“The day after Christmas. Why?”

“Do you want to go see your sisters?”

“How?”

“We’d have to drive into Velaris but I can get us on a plane before the night is out.”

“Az… that’s too much.”

“We can come back here and celebrate Las Octavitas together. I’ll give you Christmas until the middle of January.”

She laughed at that.

“You would really do that?”

“For you? Anything.”

After baking unholy amounts of cookies, and giving them to everyone downstairs, Elain and I got in my SUV and drove out of Illyria and headed towards Velaris. She slept most of the way and didn’t wake up until the city lights roused her from sleep. She was grinning, despite it being well after midnight, looking around at the brightly lit city I called home. I didn’t even stop at my house, heading straight to the airport. It was a four hour flight to the coast where our mother lived, a city of nearly perpetual summer.

“How did you manage to get a flight out?” she asked as we hurried through the airport.

“I know people.”

“Yes, but how?”

I laughed. “I may have used my position at work to get us out of here.”

We avoided security, and I was grateful for my stupid badge for the first time since Rhys hired me on. Elain was blushing the whole time, especially when she saw the people waiting at the gates.

“No one lost their seat,” I assured her. “I promise.”

We both slept the entire flight and I woke up only because I heard the pilot announcing our landing. It took a few tries and I might have snuck a kiss or two when the flight attendant wasn’t looking, but I woke up Elain just in time for us to get off. We only had our carry-on bags; my backpack and duffle bag, the laptop case and her own bag. We were able to rush outside and catch our Uber. It was humid, my hair already starting to curl by the time we made it to the white manses near the coast. Elain was wide awake, looking at the fishermen in the docks, the sun glistening off the sea.

“What made your parents come here?” she asked.

“Tarquin’s family are modern day royalty here. After the life our father lived, retiring here was a given. Plus, living in the mountains of Illyria was bleak compared to this. My mother loves it here.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Wait till you see the house.”

She smiled, reaching out for my hand. It was comforting, and we didn’t let go until the enormous white estate came in to view.

“Did you tell them we were coming?” she asked as I helped her out of the car.

“No.”

I tipped the driver and carried all of our bags, leading Elain to the front door. I rang the door bell and then took Elain’s hand in mine, suddenly feeling rather sick to my stomach. I could hear my mother telling Rhys to sit his ass down, and for Cassian to stop hogging all the orange juice. Elain squeezed my hand and I imagined she was just as nervous as I felt.

“I swear to god if you two don’t cut the shit-” My mother stopped as she realized I was standing there. Her violet eyes were soon brimming with tears.

“Mom, what is it?” Cas shouted from the dining room. Something like a sob escaped her mouth and she was crushing me against her before I even knew what was happening.

She was muttering things in Spanish and I saw Cassian walk to the entrance hall.

“Holy shit! Az is home!” he shouted and once he saw Elain, I never saw that man move so fast in my life. He lifted her up and spun her around, making her laugh. I heard Feyre and Nesta realizing their sister was here, Rhys was rushing out to where we were standing and I was hugged and kissed within an inch of my life until our father came down the steps. He smiled when he saw me and everyone let Elain and I breathe to let him come say hello.

My brothers took our bags and Elain was pulled inside by her sisters. My mother led me to the dining room where my seat was unoccupied. Elain and I discarded our jackets and Feyre gave Elain a hair tie so she could put her hair up.

“We were just about to start breakfast,” my mother said, giving me a smile as she sat down.

“Thank god,” I said. “I’m starving.”

Elain turned red in the face. “Yeah… Me, too.”

“How are you here?” Nesta asked, a softness to her features that I’d never known she was capable of.

“Well… Business is good and I was able to take time off,” Elain said and looked over at me.

“Oh, uh, yeah… I’m off until after Reyes,” I said.

“Does that mean you’ll be home for Christmas?” my mother asked and I just shrugged. I didn’t think anyone could smile that bright… Well, not until Elain was smiling at me.

“And you came together?” Cas asked, wiggling his eye brows. Nesta rolled her eyes.

“We did,” Elain said, and she never looked more like Nesta in that moment. It made me laugh.

“Together, together?” Feyre asked with a sly grin.

“Elain,” my mother said softly, “We were all going down shore for a bit. Did you bring a bathing suit?”

“Uh, no…”

“She can borrow mine,” Feyre offered quickly. “Rhys got me a really pretty dress I wanted to wear today.”

My brother ate it up, even if it was true. He looked at her as if they’d only gotten married yesterday.

“Dad’s bringing the cuatro out,” Cas said and our father rolled his eyes.

“It’s Noche Buena, and Azrielito is home. We’re doing it right.”

I sighed, even if I couldn’t stop smiling.

Elain walked down the stairs wearing Feyre’s black two piece, her sisters following behind her. Nesta was too busy fussing over Feyre to notice me staring at Elain.

“This is so small,” she whispered as she took my hand.

“I like it,” I whispered back.

“Of course, you do. But it’s my sister’s,” she said and pulled on my arm so we could start following my parents outside.

I didn’t let go of her hand until I went to help my brothers get the blanket down and mom’s umbrella set up. The cooler was full of beer and water and one really big bottle of coquito. Before I knew it, Elain was approaching me with a bottle of sunscreen. I held my hand out thinking she wanted me to help her but she put some on her hand and tucked the bottle in the crook of her arm.

“They’re not going to get any worse,” I said as she massaged the sunscreen over my scarred hands.

“That’s not a reason to not take care of them,” she said.

“Whatever you say, darling,” I said in imitation of Rhys who was currently covering Feyre’s face in kisses while she laughed and Cas made sounds of disgust.

Elain rolled her eyes. I still remembered the first time we’d met, when she’d seen my hands. I had expected disgust, or even pity. But she’d just put her hands beneath mine, as if to hold them up and called them beautiful. There had been no punch line, no teasing… She’d meant it. With that in mind, I kissed her, leaving her blushing when we parted to breathe.

“What was that for?” she asked. I put my hands on her waist and smiled.

“I feel lucky… that’s all.”

She smirked but got on her tip toes to kiss me, even as Cas whistled.

Feyre called Elain over to take a picture with her and Nesta, leaving me at the mercy of my brothers who were now coming over to where I was. Our father was sitting beside our mother, pouring her a drink.

“About damn time,” Cas said, throwing an arm around my shoulder as he looked over to where the girls were.

“What are you talking about?”

“Elain Archeron, dumb ass,” Cas replied and I elbowed him.

“Don’t start.”

“Oh come on, everyone knows you two would always end up together.”

“I’m afraid he’s right, hermanito,” Rhys drawled.

“Don’t bother her,” I warned them. Rhys put a hand to his chest.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

The water was colder than I expected it to be, but everyone save Feyre and my mother went swimming. They were both sharing a mango when everyone stopped to eat. Elain sat down next to me, towel wrapped around her shoulders.

“Play something,” mom said to our father but he handed me the cuatro.

“How about a song or two for your viejo, eh?”

“It’s… It’s been a while.”

It was already tuned up and I let out a sigh. He had taught me to play to help me retain movement and use of my hands after what happened. But it had always been the two of us, sometimes Rhys who would sing… So, with a grin, I looked at my brother whose eyes widened as I started to play. Cassian chuckled and poked Rhys in the ribs.

“Come on,” Cas teased. Rhys grimaced and looked at Feyre who waved him on. So Rhys started to sing once our father finished the introduction, as he always had. Elain was watching me, Nesta and Feyre completely taken with their spouses. My mother was in tears again and I gave her a smile, even as she started taking pictures and Feyre was no doubt recording it.

Before we had finished, Tarquin arrived with his family and had brought with him a small set of congas and we were all singing and playing music. Passing around coquito until the bottle was empty.

We all headed back to the house, Tarquin promising to come over for dinner. Elain had almost managed to pull me into the bathroom with her to shower, but then Nesta walked into the hallway and Elain pushed me out instead. I could hear her laughing and Nesta gave me a death glare that I felt all the way to my room.

Elain joined my dad and Cassian in the kitchen while my mother pulled me upstairs with her.

“Tell me, how did it go?” she asked as she went to her closet. I already knew what she meant. I sighed, taking a seat on the ottoman by her bed.

“It went… alright. He’d kept some of her things and the lawyer needed me to pick it up before the house was sold.”

“Hm… What did she leave you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I haven’t looked.”

She looked from out of her closet and gave me such a look of disbelief I saw where Rhys got his theatrics from.

“What? I ran into Elain and I just… forgot.”

“Right… Did you finally ask her to be your girlfriend?” she asked as she disappeared again. “Or are you waiting for some other sangano to waste her time?”

“Ma!”

I could hear her laughing. Then she walked out wearing a red dress, her black curls high up on her head.

“I’m happy you’re home,” she said as she came to sit with me.

“Honestly,” I said. “So am I.”

When she touched my hand, I inhaled sharply, but I still turned my hand palm up to hold hers.

“I know that you were always afraid of hurting her feelings,” she said quietly. “And I promise I took no offense… I was lucky to have been trusted with you, Lito… You and Cassian were everything I ever wanted. You completed this family.”

She kissed my cheek and I closed my eyes, relishing the feel of it. She had always been this way, from the first day the social worker brought me to their home. I was never forced to do anything I didn’t want to. She didn’t ask me to call her mom, but she always called me hers, as Rhys and Cassian were hers. They took me to therapy, to doctors’ appointments. Gave me my space when I needed it, and with godly patience, showed me what it was to be affectionate.

“I love you,” I whispered to her and I heard her sigh. “And I’m sorry… You didn’t deserve this.”

“You’re here now,” she said, reminding me of Elain. “That’s what matters.”

Las Octavitas is basically more Christmas celebration in Puerto Rico.

The cuatro is smaller than a guitar and sounds like this. That song in the link is also what I imagined Rhys singing with his family. ;)

Everyone knows what coquito is right? If not, it’s a rum and coconut drink made every holiday season. It’s a must.

Hermanito literally means little brother. sometimes shortened to “manito” jsyk

Viejo means old man. In this instance, an endearing way to say dad.

lol Sangano means idiot. There are plenty of colorful ways to insult Grayson in Spanish but we’ll keep it pg.

@dreamerforever-5 @fireheart-of-your-dreams

Happy Three Kings’ Day!

#elriel #elriel holiday au #noche buena #dia de reyes

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thebestoftimes · 6 years ago

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50 QUESTION BOOK TAG FOR WORLD BOOK DAY

By me, Jess. I made this for world book day but then got depressed and didn’t post it on time lmao but here ya go kids be warned though it’s a long one. Also the numbers thing got fucked up and I couldn’t fix it. I got a lot of these questions from other tags I’ve seen and google so if something sounds familiar... that’s why.

Who or what sparked your love of literature?

Aw my parents fueled my book habit when I was a kid and took me to the bookstore all the time and since then all my teachers have always encouraged me and made me love books even more than I thought possible.

Do you have an ‘odd’ book habit? (page sniffing/never leaving the house with a book)

It’s true that I never go anywhere without a book. I got one in my backpack or purse or reading on my phone but it’s always there.

Do you have a book that you think has changed your life? How?

A lot of books and series have made significant impacts on my life (like I can’t picture elementary school without Percy Jackson being in my life) but like as a person I can’t think of any one book that has changed who I am. It’s been a team effort.

Which book have you reread most frequently?

I think I reread Hush Hush every year lmao idk why

You can meet any author and ask one question. What author would you chose and what question would you ask?

I’d want to meet Shakespeare and ask him if all his characters really were just that gay or if we’re all reading too much into it.

Best book published this year so far?

It’s only March but The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

Imagine you’ve started a book and don’t like it. Do you see the experience through to the bitter end, or are you able to talk away from it mid story?

I used to always finish what I started but now that I’m in college and have a mountain of a TBR I’ll just stop.

What book is top of your wish list/TBR pile?

Uhh A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos is on top rn

Favourite place to read?

My bed. Boring but a classic.

If you buy books, do you lend them out? Ever had a bad experience?

Of course. No all my friends respect my stuff and return them promptly.

What fictional character do you ship yourself with?

So many but I think Gansey and I from The Raven Cycle would make the best couple.

Weirdest thing you’ve used as a bookmark

I use whatever near me so I might have done something weirder but lately I’ve been using tissues because I have a tissue box by my bed and never real bookmarks. But I’ve used graded homework, a toy car, a crayon, earbuds, etc.

Favorite quality/qualities in a protagonist and antagonist

Wow this is s hard okay for protag I am a sucker for like stubborn, smartass with a martyr complex. Sad but true. Antags I love a good morally grey character or anti-villain. Tragic backstory but smart as hell. The worst (the best). Characters like the Darkling from The Grisha Trilogy, and Warner from the first Shatter Me book (I know he’s a good guy NOW but back then we all thought he was a sadistic and sexy villain).

Favorite genre and favorite book from that genre.

YA Urban Fantasy babyyy and that’d be City of Bones by Cassandra Clare or Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare:)

Best/worst movie adaptation in your eyes

Best: Harry Potter and The Hunger Games | Worst: Percy Jackson

Do you prefer reading your own books, or library books?

My own.

How do you choose your next book to read?

Literally whatever I’m feeling like at the moment.

Your favorite word.

I love many words but I have a soft spot for “lively” and “lilt”.

Book that got you hooked on reading/how you got hooked.

I’ve always been obsessed with reading but The Peter and the Starcatchers Series was like my shift from nicotine to heroine.

Opinion on dog-earing, margin writing, ect.

I only write in the margins of books I have to read for class/textbooks. And that’s for studying and active reading purposes. For any other situation: no.