#So weird thing every time I write for too long on one topic I slowly make myself uncomfortable and then by the time I'm done I hate it

[wistfullywaiting2]

Atsushi and Pain

wanted to talk about the 55 minutes pain paragraph so here we are

In fiction, there's always been the trend of finding loopholes to prevent fatal injuries from actually being fatal. Characters magically able to live in situations where they definitely should be dead or sometimes even just brought back to life. Bsd unsurprisingly is no exception, from basically the third chapter and onward Atsushi is constantly taking blows that he only manages to live through because of the "healing" aspect of his ability. Even to the point of losing limbs.

Because of this I find often large injuries in fiction are something you easily become desensitized to, which is why this moment the the 55 minutes light novel is so notable to me. Usually something like two bullet wounds (the injuries Atsushi has in the scene) seems simple and almost standard. He is shown getting worse injuries all of the time. So to read that casually and then to be hit in the face with four paragraphs on Atsushi's relationship with pain and for it to be described to the audience that pain is not something he has gotten used to but instead a constant agonizing experience that he has learned to endure throughout the span of years gives the scene so much more meaning. To have pain be described as something Atsushi has learned to perceive as integral to his very identity and existence shifted my entire view on Atsushi character and in all honesty I think of "Atsushi hated pain." everytime that he gets hurt in the main manga.

(Also specification of Atsushi negating his wounds not healing or recovering them was actually monumental to me personally)

[yourheart-inmyhands]

YOU HAVE A CAT?! ME TOO?!

She hates me tho :(

---------

Zhongli, Neuvillette and Dottore

With a fox!darling that is always with animals and isn't social at all due to heavy torture in her past and they discover it? 💀

Man I'm in need of some gore rn 💀💀

- Weird anon ✨

i'm so sorry but i just couldn't write neuvillette for this prompt, he's too precious DX

Warning: this post contains yandere-themes, including being held against will, delusional behaviors, torture, breaking of bones, and other potential topics. Please Read At Your Own Risk!

Yandere!Zhongli sympathizes with you, and since it’s clear that the animals bring you comfort, he allows you to keep a couple when he moves you in with him. He even goes the extra mile and builds a special enclosure so they’ll be just as content as you are, even if you aren’t receptive to his love yet. 

When he finds out about your past, which is inevitable with how overbearing he can be and how good he is at finding out things from the locals, it almost hurts his heart a little. But the more sickening side of him is thrilled because now he knows exactly how to get to you, exactly how to make you his perfect little spouse.

Whether it’s be reintroducing trauma through breaking bones, locking you in a cold, damp room with no lights for hours on end, or even things that border on torture, he’ll use it against you so long as it won’t entirely ruin you. While he wants you compliant to his whims and wishes, he doesn’t want you to be a shell, it would’ve been a waste of his time to break you to that point;

Zhongli would never stop as low as hurting your animal friends, but if need be he could certainly find ways to turn them against you. It’s almost amusing to him, the way you care so much for creatures who you’ll outlive. How you care so much for creatures who don’t even really know you, funny.

The sickening crunch of bone echoes through the room as Zhongli stands over you, the heel of his shoe digging into the freshly crushed bones in your leg. The makeshift gag, a towel from the kitchen, dug into the sides of your mouth as it muffled your screams and cries. The Geo Archon almost feels bad for using his strength in such a brutal manner, but it would all be worth it, at least that was how he justified it to himself. It wasn’t about the now, but rather what now would soon be bringing him. By breaking you down bit by bit, sending you spiraling back into some of the worst moments of your life, he could slowly rebuild your shattered pieces how he saw fit. What use was a puzzle if the pieces weren’t in the correct order, right?

Yandere!Dottore is sick, sick, twisted, and absolutely disgusting. If he wasn’t the cause of your original trauma, you could surely bet he’d be the driving force behind re-traumatizing you. 

Whether he chooses to reenact every step, or to simply do something far worse than what had previously done it all dependent on how he feels that day. Some days will be so similar to your past that you’ll truly feel like you were back there, all those years ago. Other days are so awful it almost makes what happened in your past seem insignificant as if that were a stone among boulders resting on the ocean floor. 

Dottore does think it’s funny though, using it as both amusement and research opportunities. It wasn’t often that animals such as yourself came across his table, so of course he’d taken the prime subject as soon as he’d laid eyes on you.

In his lab, you aren’t seen as anything but a thing that exists only for Dottore’s own gain. If you’re lucky one of his more sympathetic clones might take pity on you and actually give you a day to rest when he’s out of the Palace, but they’re expected to keep up the same treatment he inflicts in his absence.

It was almost sickening to the segments as the watched the fox-human endure soul shaking torture day in and day out. Everything from injections to straight up live surgery to see how much pain the body could take whilst awake had occurred on the cold, steel table. They were often left to clean up the mess, expected to stitch you up, administer antidotes to anything too harmful that had been administered today, and even sometimes bathe you due to the mess that had occurred. You’d been fed little since you arrived, given water only when necessary for your survival, and hadn’t seen sunlight in days- or months maybe? With the sickening way time seemed to pass, you couldn’t tell how long you’d been here. Your only reprieve would be when the doctor left for something more pressing, leaving you in the care of his segments that only sometimes took pity on you. Some seemed to hold a little more humanity than others.

[accio-victuuri]

(13) Fake Rumors - from the vault

I have been going through some old rumors from the fake house & decided to share some. whether these may be new to you or not, but i hope you still enjoy them as much as I did looking back. I feel like in the fandom, we’ve only ever been active when it comes to lrlg and the 49 fakes. the rest of the information that fall in between aren’t as talked about or depends on the topic. as with all other bjyx material, i want a place to store some parts of it. 🤍

these are sort of random, the ones that I had saved and found again. treat it all as fiction.

( someone please make an AU fic or edit for this xz and wyb. there is a story here. look at them. 😍😍😍 )

i have traveled a long way, you have dreamed a long time. many lonely nights drift like fallen leaves but it always finds a way….🍃🍂

(1) this one was posted for the new year 🎉

XZ: Get me a courier later

🧔‍♂️:Okay

====

🧔‍♂️:What is it? It’s so light

XZ: made-up parts, Legos.

*XZ talking to a staff so he can send out some lego parts. I think it’s light because what he is sending are “parts” that WYB is missing and he found them for him. I truly like the idea of XZ spoiling WYB when it comes to his hobbies and him being invested in it too even if he isn’t necessarily a fan too. true love! and well, reminded me of the rumored lego set gift during the early days of cql filming.

(2) have you eaten?

About the backstage live broadcast of a recent event on the same stage

WYB:Have you eaten yet?

XZ: *shakes head*

WYB: Come have dinner with me later

XZ: Who else? (Looking over it, I don’t know what I’m looking for)

WYB: Stop looking for it. I’ll send it to you next time.

Supplement: Teacher W watched Teacher X take off his makeup before leaving together.

*The usual WYB making sure that XZ eats and him waiting for his gege so they can eat with each other. Even after the CQL filming, as long as they are at the same event they will try and be together. Tho instances of that have been so rare to 0 nowadays because of the amount of eyes on them.

(3) the forbidden book lol

The crew's study period

WYB: Where is the erotic book? I want to read it.

XZ: Suddenly got up and left.

*This is one of my faves even if it’s so short! Library Pavilion behind the scenes & rumors is the gift that keeps on giving. I wouldn’t put it pass WYB to troll ZZ with this.

Here’s a GIF for you to bring you back to that time🤍

(4) call me maybe? 📱

There was a period last year where everyone had to learn rap, usually🐂 learned the fastest but he was absent-minded that time🐂 was looking at us eating delicious food while resting, it seems that he is thinking his rap, he seemed to be even more tired. At this time, staff handed over the phone and he left immediately to pick it up.

He called him, and when he came back he didn't have any special expression, but he felt refreshed. 

(5) praising

WYB: I really like to be praised by everyone and feel "wow" from everyone, so every time Da Zhen's family praises me crazily, I will secretly write it down and send it to him.

XZ: I am also a part-time praise captain. Every time I praise,None of them are the same.He can often keep up with the facts.

WYB: I don’t understand a lot of Internet slang.

XZ: I always hurt him by saying, "No, you don't even know this joke, so WYB doesn't go online?" Just. very good. Laughing, every time I feel hurt, I secretly say "He is better than me. I'm young, I know everything." What kind of tone is this? One time during a video, XZ sang "Darling, come and save me." Seeing WYB's ears slowly become red and coughed. Who can tell me what’s going on with these lyrics?

(6) baking shenanigans

The puff pastry made by XZ is very delicious, WYB will also work with XZ to help when he has time. He’s busy getting started, and they will also do some weird things. If there is a strange taste, try it with the people around you.

Once WYB squeezed minced garlic into the pastry and mixed chili powder, but forgot to mark it, XZ ate it, pinched the back of the neck and squeezed the flesh of the face "Teacher Trained WYB”

*IM CACKLING AT THIS OMG WYB 😂😂😂 what flavor of pastry is that????

(7) another one about eating

Aling period

WYB: Why are you back?

XZ: Come back for dinner, there will be a show in the afternoon

WYB: Aren’t you going to eat with your friends?

XZ: I didn’t agree when someone wanted to invite me, it was too stupid.

WYB: xls It’s so difficult to eat normally today

XZ: You haven’t eaten it, have you?

WYB: Nope. I just thought you were back.

(8) checking the weather

XZ: “The weather doesn’t look like it’s going to rain...(Look 📱)

👤: "It should be sunny..."

XZ: “I just saw📱the weather forecast showed it’s going to rain soon.

👤: How is that possible? It’s obviously sunny. "(春📱)

XZ: "Huh?" (👤♥Two people facing each other📱)

XZ: Overcast to light rain to moderate rain.

👤: What you are looking at is the weather

XZ: Oh my God, so embarrassing...

XZ forgot to switch cities. no one will know the city WYB was in that day if I don’t tell you.

*This one hits different cause for this rumor, they are in different cities but in the same country. Lately, there are times that they are in diff countries so do they look at the weather their too? 🥹🥹🥹

I can’t relate to their obsession with the weather, but if that gives them a sense of connection to each other then it’s fine.

(9) raining

💚Supplement: It’s when the temperature gradually rises. At that time, it rained in June.

💚Holding an umbrella💚❤️talking all the way

❤️Start standing on the right side of 💚

💚Hold the umbrella and tilt it in the direction of ❤️

❤️Thick clothes💚Left half of light-colored thin clothes

The edges are wet and very transparent.

❤️Just keep pushing the umbrella in the direction of 💚

I wanted to block 💚 a little more, but found it was fine.

After seeing the effect, I found an opportunity to move it to the left side of 💚

Then 💚 the right half also got wet

Both centered and symmetrical….…..

(10) them and their parents.

Regarding their parents, I currently know the older one’s mom and dad can also surf the internet, and talk about about their CP and their impression of WYB is good. But his mother actually really wants to have a grandchild. His father is very indifferent when the older one comes home. I'm sure his mother won't be able to bear it. She asked him bluntly, the older ones always focus on work to fool her in the past. In July this year not only did he tell the truth to his family but took the younger one back with him.

It’s time for dinner at home, and the younger one is very nervous. He is afraid that the family will think he is not good enough. He bought a lot of things and piled them up for backup. He sprayed perfume and dressed properly and pretended. The older one made him want to laugh when he looks at him, just fool around. The younger one calls him a big bastard.

The mother on the table was holding jianguo and said she could only count on her to give birth to a litter of grandsons.

* I know that talk about their parents is sensitive and would always lead to more discussion, but again, treat this as fiction. and tbh, who could resist WYB as a son in law??? It I had a son and he brings home WYB as a boyfriend I will be very happy. I also feel soft that XZ is trying to tease and make WYB laugh.

(11)

What happened last year

WYB: Is it delicious?

XZ: (nodding while eating) Yeah, it’s quite delicious.

WYB: What about others?

XZ: Wait a minute...Wow, I just ate that, this one has no taste.

WYB: Is it too spicy?

XZ: It’s okay, but my tongue is numb and I can’t taste other flavors.

WYB: Wait a minute, drink some water. Is it really that spicy?

XZ: Try it yourself. You didn't keep it for yourself? Wasn't it sent from you?

WYB: I didn't take it apart. Bring it to me.

Then XZ really ate so much that he left two packets and took them back to WYB.

(You send it to me and I will bring it back to you. What kind of trick is this?)

What happened this year

XZ: It’s been too cold these two days.

👤: Southern kids.

XZ: :Then northerners also feel cold. Cold is cold.

(Okay, I know you have northerners in your family, next one)

👤When teasing XZ and WYB, XZ’s response was, “Hahaha” and send out red envelopes. As expected of Boss XZ.

I saw other people's submissions and came to do some post-sale service. I heard that XZ sang to put WYB to sleep. I know that there is indeed mmxhn, and there is a six-character song related to snow. (There are probably others somewhere that I don’t know about)

(12) like a fairy

XXX was wearing Iwj's white clothes for the first time

XX: Fairy, descended to earth to overcome the tribulation

XXX: Isn’t fairy a dog? You have so much information but no good words.

XX: Compliment you for being good-looking and handsome.wls, wow, so handsome!

XXX: xls looks better than me, our xls is so beautiful, ancestor of Yiling

XX: Stop, stop, it’s so shameful

*My favorite kind of rumor is when WYB goes gremlin on XZ! 😂😂😂😂

(13) cravings

WYB has been craving for "cai cai rice" recently, XZ told him many times that spring is not so good to have wild vegetables, even if they are cooked. WYB said he doesn’t care about wild vegetables he just wants to eat the vegetable rice cooked by XZ, but I don’t have that. It smells good, I just want to eat it.

In the end, he still didn’t get the cabbage meal, but freshly baked dumplings. WYB got a bargain and acted nice, he was acting coquettishly while eating.

* Oh to be WYB and have someone like XZ cook for youuuu 😍😍😍😍

-END.

P.S : this ye mi and xiao zhan AU pairing is living in my mind rent free. 🥵🥵🥵

[spidrstar]

A LITTLE BIT MORE

★ pairing: aged up!miles1610 x latina!reader

★ warnings: all characters in this story are 18!!! suggestive i think?

★ summary: Miles has been your math tutor for the past few months and you can’t lie, he’s been sort of your lil bestfriend too because you tell him all about your boy problems and everything. It got to a certain point where you were about to let something personal slip.. specifically how you didn’t know how to kiss. Miles may be a lil nerd n a tutor n all but he still gets play, so you asked him to show you how to kiss and it slowly turned into more than that.. a make out session.

★ w/c: 2k

★ a/n: ok so ik i put up a poll for y’all to choose but.. i rly wanted to write abt 1610 miles esp for this one shot 😣 sry yall i got yall w the next one shot tho trust🙏

“Miles, please don’t make me do this problem on my own.. you know how I am with fractions.”

You groaned at just the sight of the problem and leaned back on your arms.

For context, you were currently in Miles’ room with three different text books sprawled out open on the floor. He’s been your math tutor for the past four months because you failed your last two math classes and couldn’t afford to fail one more because that would cause you to fail the grade. Today, you were both going over things that were going to be in your test at the end of the marking period.

You’ve been studying non-stop all week and grew tired of it (even though all you mostly did was get off topic and have endless conversations with Miles.)

“Y/n, c‘mon you can’t do this every time i’m tutoring you. Just try.” Miles smiled at your reaction to the math problems in the book.

“Can we please just take a small break?”

“..Y/n our last break was 5 minutes ago.”

“Exactly my point!! It’s been too long.”

He chuckled at you and had no choice but to give in. It’s not like he didn’t enjoy the silly conversations you both had. You both saw each other as.. you wouldn’t say therapists but more of a.. comfort friend? Just someone you could talk to freely basically. At this point you were practically each others best friend, you just hadn’t noticed it yet.

Miles always enjoyed your company, no matter what you both were doing as long as it was together. You rarely ever hung out together if it wasn’t involved with tutoring, but that wasn’t a bad thing. You would almost get tutored everyday because math just really wasn’t something you were good at..

“Soo.. what’s with you and that guy what was his name.. Ethan?”

“It’s Evan, and we fell out. I found him talking to two of my friends at the same time and I wasn't gonna stay around to see that unfold. I told them of course, just didn’t wanna be there to witness the outcome.”

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, Miles knew your situation with guys very very well. He knew almost all of the guys you messed around with, well.. weren’t the best. If he was honest, they sucked ass. They all seemed to go after you for one thing, your body. Miles always hated the idea of you talking to another guy, not in a weird or possessive way of course, he was just over protective of you. He always remembers the nights you would text him asking him if he was free just to cry in his arms.

Sometimes you would come in all moody to your study sessions too and for you that was off, because when you opened your mouth it never seemed to shut.

He palmed his face and sighed in disappointment of yet another shitty guy you messed with.

“I told you he seemed off. He was wayy too friendly for a guy that ‘only wanted to be with you’ I never trusted him and i’m proud to say i didn’t.” Miles quoted with his fingers.

You smiled and looked down at the floor deep in thought, “Yeah well, he was ugly anyways. Personality wise too, he never really made me laugh. When I did laugh around him I would laugh at him, not with him. Y’know?”

“Yeah, I would notice. Your laughs never seemed genuine around him.” He shrugged.

You smirked and cocked an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? And what’s ‘genuine’ to you?”

Miles leaned in and placed his palms on his knees looking up at the ceiling thinking of what to say.

“Like.. it’s hard to explain. Around me, your laughs just have a higher pitch and you lose your breath much quicker and you make random sounds while laughing which is what gets me to laugh. Then, around him your laughs were like so motone and you didn’t really hold onto your stomach as if it hurt from laughing so much, you get me?”

You stared at him in disbelief from how much he went into detail, you never thought of how much he really paid attention to you. Your face was a little bright red, you were flustered because you just felt so.. special? The feeling was unknown.

“Wow.. that’s—that’s a lot. I get what you mean though, his jokes were never as funny as yours were. You don’t even have to try to make me laugh.” You smiled.

He smiled back and made a proud expression, you knew what was coming next. Miles always made this face when he was about to brag about something.

“Thank you, I get that a lot from girls. I always make sure to keep them entertained and never treat them like shit. I don’t understand how you manage to find guys like that, I would never do what they do. Pretty sure my ma would kill me.” He chuckled at the last sentence.

You rolled your eyes at the bragging, you knew Miles had game and had many many girls falling for him. I mean, who wouldn't fall for him? Look at him, he has a great personality, he's caring, a momma's boy which, by the way, is totally adorable and he’s just so sweet and genuine. His smile was contagious and he was attractive too of course..

You snapped back to reality, your mind wandering off somewhere else.

“Bet you got lots of bitches huh.” You choke out a laugh trying to ignore the thoughts lingering at the back of your head.

“Nah, it may seem that way but I honestly got my eye set on one girl. I’m not bout that ‘playa’ shit y’know? Gotta keep it real and let ‘em know that cause leading people on ain’t what i’m about.”

You looked at him intensely, really wondering who this girl was. Although you felt the urge to beg him to tell you because you knew how stubborn he was, you didn’t. You were scared you weren’t gonna like his answer so you brushed the feeling aside.

You wouldn’t admit it to anyone but yourself (barely) you had feelings for Miles, you weren’t aware of it until about a month ago when you went on countless dates. On every single one, Miles was in your head and you couldn’t seem to focus on the person in front of you.

“That’s surprising, if you’re not a player like you say you aren’t how do you treat your girls?” You quickly switched the topic and switched the rolls.

“Well, ion be messin’ around with other girls or on that friendly shit y’know? Every chance I get ima flaunt my girl like she’s the lottery.” He smiled proudly.

You scoffed in jealousy. “Wow, I wish there were more guys like you shit ONE like you at least.”

Miles blushed a bit at the way you said you wanted someone like him. He quickly recovered and perked a brow, scoffing with a proud expression.

“Yeah well, I'm one of one. Can’t find anyone like me.”

“I just can’t believe it, I haven’t even been with one guy who’s good enough to show me how to-“

You quickly saved yourself from the embarrassment and threw your hands over your mouth. Miles took notice of this and he raised a brow at you and moved slightly closer.

“Show you how to what?” He asked, smirking only slightly.

Heat rose to your cheeks, you covered your face and grumbled from already feeling embarrassed even though you hadn’t even told him yet. You hid yourself in your knees not wanting to face him.

“C’mon I promise I won't laugh!” He begged.

“Yes you will! I know you!”

“I swear on my pet hamster's life I won't.” He spoke seriously.

You looked up a bit, sighing and agreeing to say what was on your mind, you had always been ashamed of it because you never really kissed just anyone. You wanted it to be special, of course you’ve kissed a few but your old self thought they were special when they weren’t.

“F-Fine. I—I..don’t know how to kiss.” You whispered the last part lowly, too embarrassed to say it outloud.

“A lil louder than that Y/n, it’s just you and me here c’mon.” He sweetly smiled at you placing a hand on your back.

“I don’t know how to kiss.” You said bluntly, looking straight to avoid his striking gaze.

All that could be heard were stifled chuckles and you turned to stare at the culprit, Miles was cupping his mouth with both hands trying not to burst out laughing straight in your face. You smacked the back of his head and scolded him for swearing.

“Miles! You swore on your hamster's life!”

Laughter erupted from him and could be heard loudly throughout the room. Soon he calmed down and collected enough breath to speak.

“He died like a week ago, it's fine.”

“What?! And you didn’t tell me?? Tu si eres malo.”

“Whatever, back on topic. You don’t know how to kiss? How? You’re like, genuinely one of the prettiest girls I know.”

You blushed at both the comment and from embarrassment. You were 18 almost 19 and didn’t even know how to properly have a make out session, not that it was your fault. All the guys you messed with genuinely sucked, and your lips were far too precious for you to just place them on anyone.

“Hey! No es culpa mía, i bet you’re not even good at kissing either.” I huffed angrily.

“Actually, I'm quite known for being a great kisser para tu información.” He admitted proudly.

Then, an idea spiked up in your head. He was your best friend.. you think? Might as well take this perfect opportunity to ask him for a favor, a huge one. This had you nervous though, because it could go two ways. He would say yes and show you and you both would continue to live your lives as if nothing happened, as normal friends right? Or.. you would be embarrassed for the rest of it if he said no. How would you recover from that? Whatever.. might as well do it now and pray nothing bad happened.

“Miles?” You finally spoke, with a serious tone hiding behind your words.

“Yes?”

“Could you.. um—do me a favor?” You spoke shyly, a wave of nervousness was coming at you and strong.

“Depends. What is it?” He spoke more lowly now with curiosity, he subconsciously moved closer to you to hear you clearly. In case you’d decided to whisper again since that was a habit.

You took a deep breath, preparing yourself for what was to become. This determined whether or not you would ever talk to him or see him the same, you seriously thought you wouldn’t be able to recover from this.

“Could you..maybe.. teach me?” You looked down at the floor again, biting the inner corner of the inside of your cheek. You were slightly sweating from how nervous you were.

A few seconds of silence passed before you looked up nervously. Many thoughts racing in your mind right now;

‘What if he was making fun of me in his head right now?’

‘What if he didn’t want to be friends with me anymore?’

‘What if he thought I was weird?’

‘What if he hates me now?’

Your thoughts were quickly put to a pause when he spoke up, you thought you were dreaming when you heard the words escape his mouth.

“Sure, I’ll teach you. But are you sure like, completely sure you wanna do this? I’m kinda rough with it, and i don’t know if you’d like it.” He spoke softly when looking at you.

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding, shutting your eyes and nodding. You smiled sweetly at him, your heart speeding up with a hint of excitement. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t think about kissing Miles at least once.

“Yes, I'm sure.” You stared at his eyes then his lips wide eyed, your eyes glistening with anticipation. Your lips were slightly parted as you oh so wanted to lean in and just kiss his pretty lips already, but you waited for him to instruct you on what to do.

He moved closer to you and sat in front of you staring at you with slightly hooded eyes. He smirked as he spoke and that’s all you seemed to notice.

“Alright, first you needa part your lips slightly which i see you’re already doing. Then, you just tilt your head to whichever side you prefer and lean in. Close your eyes obviously, then just follow my lead. Simple, you got it?”

You nodded once again, and blushed lightly as he leaned in closer. His hand made his way up and he gently placed it on the side of your neck and tilted his own head shutting his eyes to kiss you.

“Alright, here we go..” He whispered.

With that, he kissed you gently. His soft lips locked with yours, surprisingly you seemed to follow along quickly and placed one of your hands on his toned chest. Your breaths seemed to quicken with every second that passed and he started to lean in more, this time you were slightly pushed back. You held onto the front of his shirt pulling him down with you. Your forearms supporting your upper weight as you laid back on the floor.

Miles now completely on top of you deepened the kiss, his tongue softly grazed against your bottom lip asking for permission to enter which you complied to. He placed his hand back on your neck, his fingers resting on the bottom part of your lower head pushing you against him more. You let a low moan slip past you and you opened your eyes wide, with shock but quickly closed them back up once you heard the sounds he made.

The ‘agressiveness’ he mentioned now showing as low growls escaped his lips when getting a few seconds to breathe between kisses. His tongue fighting with yours for dominance which he quickly claimed.

He broke the kiss, a string of saliva showcasing how intense the kiss was. He smirked against your lips and you both breathed heavily against each other, chests heaving up and down rapidly. He caressed the sides of your waist slipping one hand under the hem of your shirt and leaned in to seductively whisper in your ear.

“I think I'm gonna have to teach you a little bit more than just kissing, ma.” He smirked.

★ translations: tu si eres malo - you’re so mean || no es culpa mía - it’s not my fault || para tu información - for your information ||

TAGS:

[yancherrysoda]

The Faux Divine of Freedom

Took me long enough 🧍‍♂️

I had a lot of fun writing this! I will for sure cringe at this in like a month or two, but whatever. It was originally going to be 2.500 words; I don’t know how it turned out to be more than twice as long. The 2-month hiatus did me good lol

There’s a scene where Venti admires your lips; I really tried my best to describe them in a way that doesn’t go too much into detail since the reader is you, and your skin color might not be the same as mine, so if it sounds a little bit weird, it’s because of that.

This is part 2 of my yandere Venti oneshot series

Warnings: none

Word count: 6.273

Venti's feet made no sound on the stairs, his slender fingers gripping onto the banister with every step. His gaze was fixed ahead as he descended, unseeing but knowing where each stair ended and began. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he slowly approached your bedroom door and raised one hand to knock lightly against it three times. When you did not answer, he slowly turned the doorknob and peeked inside, only to be greeted with an empty room. This was not a strange occurrence; when you first arrived here, you would spend the majority of your time locked in your bedroom, unwilling to talk or spend any time with him at all. However, lately, you opted to leave the house, preferring instead to spend time outside—and that is where he found you.

Stepping out of the house, his eyes immediately focused on your figure, curled up on a rock at the edge of the shore. Your legs were pressed tightly to your chest as your arms wrapped around them in a comforting hug. He cautiously approached you, taking in your presence before settling down not too far from you.

“Can we talk?” His voice was soothing, barely audible over the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.

You turned your head to look at him; your eyes narrowed and lips pressed tightly together as your body shook ever so slightly.

He tried scurrying closer to you, but you moved away sharply.

“Don’t touch me.”

Ignoring your warning, he tried once again to close the gap between the two of you, which made you grab him by the collar of his shirt as you reached into the pocket of your shorts, your hand wrapping around the cool metal handle of a violin peg reamer. With a swift motion, you withdrew it and pressed its tip against his neck. While it was not sharp, he was sure that with enough strength, you could break his skin if you were to put enough force behind it.

“I said don’t touch me,” you hissed, “Or I’ll drive this through your throat.”

“When did you get—” You tightened your grip around his collar, cutting off his words as you pressed the tool below his jawline, right where his head connected to the neck. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

You retreated the reamer back into your pocket and released him. His hands came up to rub at the tender spot where you had held him.

He didn’t try to move closer again.

The both of you sat there in silence, watching the waves come in and crash against some of the rocks before it was eventually broken by your rumbling stomach. You wrapped your arms around it, hoping to keep it still.

Venti’s eyes stayed fixed ahead. “I know what you’re trying to achieve by going on a hunger strike. Do you think that’s going to set you free?” He sighed. “Not only is it childish and very ineffective as a form of protest, but you could also potentially harm yourself, and I wouldn’t want that for you.” He eyed the peg reamer that you clutched tightly beside you. “You can also try and stab me as many times as you want; it’s not going to change anything.”

An awkward silence settled in between you both yet again. Venti felt the tension in the air, wishing he could break it but not knowing what to say or do. He thought about all the things he had wanted to discuss with you, and yet now he knew better than to breach those topics, as you were clearly not in the mood to talk to him.

“How long have I been here?” You asked after a while.

He shrugged. “A month, give or take.”

“My family, have they tried looking for me?”

Venti jolted, his face going pale as if he had stepped straight into a freezer. He lowered his head, fidgeting with his fingers. “I haven’t talked to them.”

You scoffed. “Of course you haven’t. What would you have told them anyway? That I ran away? They wouldn’t have believed you.” You paused for a moment, looking out into the sea. “And when I die, you can just disappear for a couple more centuries. By the time you decide to come back, nobody we knew will be there to tell you anything.” You looked back at him, your expression unreadable. “Sounds like the perfect plan, doesn’t it?” You lifted your legs from the ground, pressing them against your chest once again as you rested your chin on your knees. “I wish I never met you.”

His breath hitched. “Please don’t say that.” He leaned towards you, his hands pressing against the bumpy surface of the rock. “Haven’t you felt something for me?”

Your lip curled into a sneer. “Whether I felt something for you or not doesn’t matter anymore; thanks to this brilliant idea of yours, all of that is gone now.”

He knew this would not be easy, of course he did. You would not expect someone who had been taken away from their home and forced to be exiled until the end of their days to be happy about it, yet he could not help but feel how his heart broke at your words. Seeing you switch from showering him with love and affection straight to hostility tore him apart in ways he had not expected. Despite his best efforts these past few weeks, he could not seem to bridge the huge gap that had formed between the two of you.

But that was fine; he could rebuild the previous life he had with you. Sure, it would take time, but he was willing to wait; he knew how to do that very well.

He stood up, offering you a hand. “Care to join me inside?”

-

The two of you stepped through the door, his cape billowing out behind him like a sail in the wind. He removed it slowly, then hung it on the coat rack you had just at the entranceway. He carefully placed his hat next to it, then straightened it with a gentle touch of his fingers before turning to stand in front of you.

“I told you that you may get into my room any time you want, but not to take things out of it that could potentially be used to commit murder.” He extended his hand in your direction, his palm facing up. “The peg reamer, hand it to me.”

You took a couple of steps back, hiding the tool behind your back. “Huh?”

“I can’t risk you lashing out at me like during that kitchen knife incident the other day. I really don’t want to deal with that again.” He placed his free hand on his hip. “You might also hurt yourself with it.”

“I’m not a child.”

“You’ve been behaving like one lately, so hand it to me.” He moved his fingers slightly, indicating that you should hand over the reamer.

You slowly pulled it out from behind your back and placed it on his hand.

“Good, we’re making progress.”

You then stepped into the kitchen, a cozy space with white walls adorned with wooden wainscotting on the lower half—just like in every other part of the house. You took a seat at the old wooden table with your head propped on your hand, clearly not in the best of moods, as you carefully watched Venti walk towards the sink to wash his hands.

He hummed as he moved around the room—here plucking an onion from its little basket, there taking out apples from their box. Opening the fridge, he took out a piece of meat and some butter before searching through drawers filled with spoons and forks until he found a knife. Then, he took one of the hanging pans and placed it on the stove before adding the butter and some spices like pepper, garlic, and rosemary. While he waited for the butter to melt, he grabbed the knife and started cutting the apples.

“We’ve known each other for over two years now and you still haven’t told me what your favorite dish is,” he said, trying to make small talk as he chopped the apples. He peeked at you over his shoulder, then continued, “Maybe if you did, I could have cooked it for you.”

“I don’t have a favorite dish.”

Once the butter melted, he added the meat and waited for it to cook before finally adding in the sliced apples.

The aroma quickly filled the room, making your stomach rumble once again.

He stirred the pan. “Is that so? Then I guess I’ll have to make something that you would consider your favorite.”

You shifted your position, crossing one leg over the other as you leaned back against the chair. “But I did like the Buoyant Breeze at that restaurant we went to before,” you added.

Venti smiled at your response. “You have good taste.” He took a plate, scooped some of the food onto it, then walked over to you.

“Aren’t you going to eat as well?”

“I don’t need to, not as much as a human. I do get hungry, but hunger won’t kill me; it will only make my stomach hurt and cause some fatigue, which are symptoms I don’t like to deal with, and I doubt you do either so,” he set the dish down before taking a seat across from you, “I would advise you to stop this nonsense and eat when you have to,” he said, his voice coming out louder than he had intended.

You looked down at the plate and immediately recognized the dish as Northern Apple Stew.

Venti propped his chin on the back of his hands as his elbows rested on the surface of the table. He tilted his head to the side. “By the way, the dish you mentioned; Buoyant Breeze, did you know it’s Barbatos’?”

You stopped mid-bite. “That’s your—”

“Yep. I thought it would have been nice to cook something of my own and share it with other people. It took me many years to find the perfect ingredients.”

“It’s just carrots, potatoes, and onions,” you remarked before taking the first bite.

“Ah, but the secret lies in the combination of all three. Each has its own unique taste that complements the others.” He leaned in closer to you, his emerald eyes sparkling with enthusiasm as he spoke, “It’s a dish that represents my identity as Barbatos.”

You took a bite of the apple, tapping the fork thoughtfully against the edge of your plate. “I guess that’s why it’s so simple.”

He pretended to be deeply offended, but the corners of his mouth curled into a smirk. Crossing his arms, he leaned back against his chair. “How dare you say that? Do you not appreciate the taste of high-class cuisine when it’s presented before you?”

His fake indignation made you chuckle. “I do, I absolutely do. It’s incredibly delicious,” you said, “When it’s prepared by experienced chefs instead of you.”

“Oh ho! Alright, I get it,” he chuckled, running his hand through his dark hair. “How about you let me try my luck and cook it for you next time? You actually never tried eating it from the very Anemo Archon himself.”

"Sure,” you replied. It was the kind of 'sure' that meant 'yeah, right'. Your voice had a tinge of sarcasm to it, and he knew from your expression that you were not convinced.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll cook it for you tomorrow night,” he declared confidently.

The evening continued with Venti taking on a storyteller’s demeanor, regaling you with stories of his past exploits and sharing his deep-rooted philosophy on life.

At some point, he delved into the history of wine—how could he not—and how it came to be in Mondstadt. He described a certain mischievous wind spirit that took the form of a fox and fermented some apples under a negligent guard's care. When the guard awoke, he bit into one of those apples and, finding that he enjoyed the flavor, squeezed the sack that contained the apples to create wine.

His tales flowed like the finest wines, and as you finished your meal, he cleared the table and placed the dishes in the sink.

You got to your feet and headed to your room, with him walking right beside you like a persistent thorn in your side. You were about to open the door when you paused, hand still on the doorknob. “Why are you following me?”

“I don’t have anything to do.”

“Then why don’t you go find something?” As you stepped through the doorway, Venti placed his foot against the door, preventing it from being closed.

“I want to talk to you, like how we always did.”

“I don’t, so get out of my room.” You attempted to push him back and out of the room, but he caught both of your hands in his, holding them still. He gently shoved you inside, then kicked the door shut.

“It’s been a month, [Name], this can’t keep going on.”

You pulled yourself free from his grasp, turning to face him with an obviously fake smile. “You’re right, this can’t keep going on, so let me out.”

A deep, exasperated sigh escaped his lips. “We’ve talked about this.”

“Then I guess there’s nothing more to say.” You crossed your arms, the fake smile growing wider as he stepped closer.

“[Name], come on now; if there’s anything you’d want me to do, I’ll do it.”

“Didn’t I already tell you what I wanted?”

“That has nothing to do with setting you free.”

He carefully watched your movements as you wandered around your room; it remained the same as when you arrived here, only having a couple of extra things here and there like books, scented candles, and other trinkets. There were also three frames hanging on one of the walls, perfectly aligned one after another. Originally, Venti had placed photos of the two of you from your previous adventures in them, but due to the rage you felt towards him for what he had done, you took them out of the frames and tore them into little pieces.

“Is there any way you could help me communicate with my family? To let them know that I’m alive and well?”

Venti exhaled heavily, reaching out to rub the back of his neck. “That’s going to be a pain in the ass.”

“The least you could do is grant me this request,” you said. “Or do I have to pray to you?”

He chuckled. “That would be nice.”

“Fuck off.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Your temper sure has gotten worse over your stay here.” He stared out the window, turning the thought over in his mind. If he agreed to let you contact your parents, he would have to talk to them first, which would be a pretty awkward experience. Of course, he could not allow you to have direct contact with them, so it would have to be done through notes. “I guess I could help you, but only if you agree to do something.” After all, you would not pass on such an opportunity, right? He might as well get something from you in return.

“Agree to do something? Do you think you’re in the right to make any demands of me?”

Venti smiled in amusement, his lips curling up into a grin. “I just want you to let me hug you; it’s a small price to pay for what you’re asking me for.”

You turned your head away from him. “This is something I would call a pain in the ass, and not what I asked for.” You looked back at him. “Fine.”

He giggled, taking a step towards you. “There’s one thing I forgot to mention, though. You see, I’m a little bit tired, so if you could allow me to hold you as you…” he leaned in slowly, “Sit on my lap, that would make me very happy.”

“You’re delusional.”

“Your request is rather complicated, as I’ll have to think of something to tell your family about your whereabouts.” He placed a hand over his heart as he said in a pitiful tone of voice, “Not to mention the humiliation I’ll have to go through if I did that.”

“Aren’t there any other options?”

“Oh, there sure are, but I doubt you’ll say yes.”

You uttered a string of curses under your breath. “Whatever.” You raised an eyebrow at him, “What are you tired of anyway? Doing nothing all day just like how you do nothing as the patron God of Mondstadt?”

It was a fact that he had not been very active in terms of leadership in his nation over the past centuries, but he had never given up on it. If the day ever came when his people would need him—no matter what shape or form the situation may take—he will always be there to step in.

“What’s with that sassy attitude?”

“What’s with that sassy attitude?” You mimicked his words in a mocking tone. “Oh, I’m very sorry! I didn’t know I had to exhibit a good attitude towards my kidnapper!” You grabbed him by the shoulders and, with an effortless motion, pushed him onto a nearby chair, planting yourself on his lap. You placed a hand over his chest, pushing him further into it. “Tell me, oh great God of Freedom—if I dare call you so myself—doth this please you?”

Your actions caught him off guard, and he almost missed his grip on the chair. He looked slightly dazed by your boldness but quickly recovered.

“Huh? Oh, your switch in behavior, or you sitting on my lap?” He let out a hearty chuckle, his shoulders bouncing slightly. He rested his hands on your hips to help balance you. “Either way, yes, very much so.”

Your jaw was visibly clenched, and your throat bobbed as you gulped. It looked as if you were about to jump at his throat right then and there. Your hand got ahold of the back of the chair as you leaned in, “We’re not lovers; we’re not friends either, not anymore, so don’t talk to me as if our relationship was still the same.”

Venti's gaze met yours with seriousness, his brows drawn together. “I get it.”

Carefully, you slipped further away from him until you were nearly perched on his lap.

“I can’t hug you when you’re that far away.”

“Sucks.”

Venti dropped his legs so suddenly and sharply that you almost slipped off him, which made you quickly react and reach out to wrap your arms around his neck to steady yourself.

He gave you a light kiss on your ear before whispering, “That’s more like it.”

You quickly pulled yourself away from him. “You’re a little shit, you know that?”

He stuck out his tongue, his eyes narrowing cheekily.

You dug your fingers into his shoulders.

“Ow ow ow ow! Alright, I’m very sorry!” He moved one of his hands behind his back, his fingers subtly crossed. “I won’t do anything like that again, I promise.”

Apologies exchanged, Venti’s hands shook ever so slightly as he wrapped them around your frame. The second he nested his head on your chest, it felt like his body had found its home. Nothing around him mattered; his worries and cares all seemed to dissolve away the moment he touched you. He closed his eyes and sighed, listening to your heartbeat. It thumped strong and steady, with a rhythm that could beat on forever—or so he wished.

“I missed holding you like this,” he uttered.

This was the only time you let him even come an inch closer to you; normally you would avoid or scowl at him. He understood that his actions disgusted you, yet he won’t lie and say that the past month has not been excruciating. The change in your behavior reminded him of a human he considered his friend long ago—a red-headed warrior that came to live in Old Mondstadt under Decarabian's dictatorial rule. When Decarabian was defeated and Venti ascended to godhood under the name of Barbatos, for reasons he has yet to comprehend, the warrior then turned his back on Venti.

He nuzzled closer to you. “I know you don’t understand why I did this to you, and I have a feeling that you never will, but let me at least explain myself.” He drew a breath, releasing it slowly. “The life of an immortal is a dreadfully lonely one, for it is marked by an eternity of watching the ones you hold dear grow old and leave this world, drifting away like echoes of a song in the breeze while you remain unchanged,” he began, his voice carrying an unbearable weight to it, one that endured centuries of loneliness and sorrow. “Not being able to experience the love you desire so much for such a long time can be really hard, and it can make you do unspeakable things, desperate to find someone who can stay with you for more than just a fraction of time.”

Your hands balled into fists. “So you decided to restrict my freedom because you wanted to be loved? You’ve been alive for so long, yet you never learned how to properly get into a relationship?”

He pulled away to have a proper look at your face. “When you say it like that, you make me sound like a loser.”

“Probably because you are.”

“How rude.”

You huffed. “Don’t you have any friends?”

His face softened. “Yes, I do have friends. But if you’re asking me about people who have had a significant impact on my life like you did, then no—they have long since perished.” He tugged at the corner of his lips in an attempt to hide the sadness that had started spreading across his features. “It’s quite tragic if you think about it; being forced to live for eternity and not being able to form meaningful connections with people because they eventually pass away. You’d cry day and night, wishing you could have done something to make them stay by your side.” He gently reached out, brushing a stray strand of hair away from your face. “You’d think I would have gotten used to it by now, but it keeps hitting me like a wave every single time. Oh, they died, too.” He laughed wistfully. “Why? Why am I alone again?”

You didn’t say anything.

“You’re a very kind person, one that I am very fortunate to have met. I’ve never experienced the warmth and affection that you’ve shown me. I never knew what it felt like to be loved in such a way before.” He smiled sheepishly. “I wanted to be with you, [Name], but I didn’t know what else to do. All I knew was that the only way for me to prevent you from potentially falling in love with someone else was to bind you to me.”

“But that’s not how love works; it cannot be forced; it has to come from both people’s hearts willingly.” Placing your hands on his shoulders, you asked, “What did you do all this time that you were alive? Did you not learn anything?”

He gently brushed the back of his fingers against your cheek. “I learned that love is the most precious thing a person can have. As an Archon; immortality and power mean nothing; at least to me, they don’t.” His eyes softened, and he continued, “Of course, I don’t expect you to forgive me for what I’ve done—I can’t even forgive myself—but I hope that you at least understand my struggles.”

You glanced out the window; the sun was setting and the night sky was beginning to blanket the island in darkness. “Have you done something like this to anyone before?”

Venti’s eyes widened slightly at your question, and for a moment he said nothing. He looked around your room, seeming to take in his surroundings anew before focusing back on you. ��No,” he replied simply. “I never clicked with anyone before.” He pulled you closer to him. “I did want to have a partner at some point—someone who I would love and who would love me in return—but I never so thought of doing this to anyone.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t really have any experience in… courting someone. So I did plenty of research on how to show the person I love that I had feelings for them by doing things like holding hands, hugging, giving presents, and such.”

To say that Venti had no experience with being in a relationship was an understatement. He had seen how others treated their love interests and was able to pick up on some patterns—the Windblume Festival was a particularly great time to learn about human love—but he also wanted to make sure he did not screw things up, so he took the time to read up on what he should do and how he should act. Sure, he was a master at writing love poems, but he was no expert when it came to managing his own emotions.

When he first began to develop feelings for you, his first thought was to make you a gift. It was the first thing he tried to do for his departed friend—to gift him the feather of a bird. So would gifting you a bunch of flowers show you how much Venti valued your presence in his life? Would cooking for you or taking you on dates to Windrise make you understand that he viewed you as more than just a friend? Would showing you that he was capable of protecting you make you less likely to push him away if his limits were tested and he had to take drastic measures? Guess not.

You raised an eyebrow in response. “Did that research also include kidnapping people?”

Venti looked away, quickly covering his mouth with one hand in an attempt to stifle the choked laughter that threatened to escape.

“Not funny.”

“It is kinda funny.” He looked back at you, checking your expression before quickly saying, “I mean, the way you said it, not the situation itself.” He shifted his body slightly. “I assumed you got my intentions, and that’s why you treated me with such kindness.”

“I treat everyone with kindness.”

“I’m sure I was the most, and that's why I thought that you wouldn’t be so opposed to what I did and would at least try and understand the position I was in.” He sighed. “Anyway. I actually took some time to plan this all out, but I ended up jumping into action way too soon, which is also the reason why I didn’t come up with an excuse to tell your family as to what could have happened to you. I admit I acted prematurely. I wish I didn’t let my intrusive thoughts win,” he paused and then added, “Tell me, did I do something against your will during your stay here?”

“No,” you admitted. “Because if you did, you would have been six feet underground by now.”

“Oh wow! That has got to be the best comeback I heard from you so far. Who did you learn this from?”

“He’s sitting right in front of me.”

Venti giggled. “Did you get anything else from me?”

“Not your insanity that’s for sure.”

“Do you think I’m too far gone? My ideals are still freedom, even after what I’ve done, that’s why I give you the freedom to go anywhere you want—within this realm, that is. If I were completely out of it, I would have kept you chained, but I don’t.”

“Am I supposed to be grateful?”

“I would be.”

You shook your head in disbelief. “You’re in fact far gone; you just don’t realize that.”

As much as he would have loved to put you in your place for your cheeky remark earlier, he had to control himself; you were still in the early stages of getting used to your new life.

His grip on your thighs tightened, a physical reminder of the power he held over you. “Hmph. Come to think of it, maybe I should have kept you chained when I brought you to the tower; a slip on my part,” he mused. “I almost got a heart attack when I came back and discovered you weren’t there.”

“Fuck you.”

Venti tucked a piece of hair behind your ear, his fingertips gliding against your cheek. “Don’t you think it’s a little bit early for that?” He giggled. “You know, judging our relationship before this whole situation, I thought you’d stay to listen to what else I had to say instead of doing your silly little escape. I really thought you’d have some compassion.”

A loud slap landed on his cheek, its sharp sound reverberating through the air. His head whipped to the side, and he felt the heat radiating off of his cheek like an open flame.

“Compassion?” you said through gritted teeth. “You made me think I was safe with you, and then you drugged and kidnapped me!” You lifted your hand to smack him again, but he was quick to get ahold of it. “You selfish piece of shit!” Your breath caught in your throat as tears began to roll down your cheeks. “When you took me to that tower, I didn’t fully register your motives, even after you explained them to me. All I thought was; what did I do wrong to deserve this? To be locked away?”

His heart tugged at the sight of you in so much distress; he tried cupping your face, but you knocked his hands away.

“Is this what I get for being nice to you?” You quickly swiped away the tears with the back of your hands. “You don’t deserve to be called the God of Freedom.”

“Do you really think I was going to let go now that I finally found the person I was looking for for so long?” He didn’t wait for you to answer; instead, he once again brought his hand up and gently wiped away your tears. “[Name], I wanted to be loved, too.” He wrapped his arms around you, holding you in a tight embrace. “I love you, so much,” he whispered softly.

You hiccuped a few times as the tears kept rolling down your cheeks. “I’m not saying you don’t love me, but trapping me here isn’t a good way of showing that.”

“You’ve been very distant with me, so it has been difficult to do that.” He leaned back, taking your hands in his. “Could you give me a chance? After all, I told you I’d make you happy, didn’t I?”

You hesitated, wavering between one state of thinking and another. “How are you going to do that?”

The answer was obvious, but he felt like teasing you.

“When two people love each other…”

You quickly covered his mouth with your hand, accidentally snorting a laugh. “I wish you’d shut up.”

That was not the real answer—at least not at this point in time.

His eyes looked intently into yours as though he were trying to hold onto the sound of that laugh forever, not sure when he would ever hear it again. He grabbed the hand that covered his mouth, brushing his lips against your fingers before kissing them one after the other. “I wish you’d make me.”

“Stop talking like that.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sorry, I was just trying to make you laugh.”

“That was supposed to make me laugh?”

“You just did.”

“I said shut up or I’ll end you.”

He laughed again. “You seem to forget I’m not human, and as such, there’s no way for you to get rid of me. But hey, there are other ways to stop me from talking,” he said as he pointed at his lips with a mischievous glint in his eye.

You stared at him with a blank expression on your face. “I’m done with the conversation.” You attempted to get off him, but he placed his hands on your waist, holding you still.

“Where are you going? We still have got to discuss a few things. First,” he said, holding up a finger, “No more hunger strikes. I don’t want you lying to me and saying that you ate when you didn’t. It’s painfully obvious anyway.” He grabbed your chin, directing you to look at him. His expression was stern, but it also had a hint of concern. “Did you hear me?”

“I wasn’t trying to hide it. I thought that you’d get tired of dealing with me soon enough and would end up setting me free. You can still do that, you know, I won’t tell anybody that their God has gone insane and went against his own beliefs by kidnapping a person.”

“How tempting.”

You huffed. “Why does the God of Freedom need to set rules anyway? What happened to go forth and establish a city of freedom without rule?”

Venti clasped his hands together, his eyes lighting up. “You’re such a devotee!” He giggled. “I totally understand what you mean, though, but sometimes rules are necessary; you humans just don’t seem to know how to behave properly sometimes.” His mind drifted back to the aristocracy that had taken over Mondstadt shortly after Decarabian's fall, ruling the region with an iron fist for 1.600 years. They went from being noble protectors to tyrannical rulers whose influence was spread far and wide.

“Ironic.”

“Alright, second rule; stop trying to kill me. Do you know how creepy it is to wake up in the middle of the night to see you standing beside my bed, holding a knife above my throat?”

“Mr. Big Anemo God Barbatos fears he might get his throat slit?”

“Hey! That won’t kill me alright, but I still feel pain, and you know that.”

“Oh, I sure know.”

“So?”

You hummed in thought, a yawn escaping as your exhaustion began to catch up with you.

“[Name]…”

“Yeah, okay, whatever.” Another yawn interrupted your reply.

“You look tired.” He smiled. “Why not rest your head on my shoulder?” He cocked his head to the side. “Or does your pride get in the way?”

“Keep pushing your limits; I don’t mind slapping you a second time.”

He wagged his finger from side to side. “One of these days I’ll have to properly punish you.”

There it was again; the clenching of your jaw and irritated swallow.

Defeated, you laid your head on his shoulder.

As soon as your body touched him again, Venti's breath hitched, and his grip on your waist tightened slightly. He felt his face heat up as his braids radiated a dim teal hue, resembling a flickering lightbulb. He looked into your eyes, his expression softening. “Giving up?” He sighed. “Oh, what am I gonna do with you…” He blew out a breath, pushing a stray lock of hair away from his eyes. “You sure have given me quite some trouble.”

Gradually, he began rambling about various random topics, like a song he performed on that specific day of autumn where he got plenty of tips and even a free bottle of wine. He recounted a funny incident where he had tried to dance on one of the tables of the tavern and then broke it, which prompted Diluc to kick him out of the building and leave him standing out in the rain like a wet rat.

As he spoke, he did not notice that your breathing had slowed and your eyes were gently closed. With a smile on his face, Venti finally fell silent. He looked down to find you asleep on his shoulder. “Did my speech bore you?” A soft chuckle escaped his lips. “You should have spent some time with a friend of mine; that old blockhead keeps on talking and talking about the same stuff every time!” He felt a sudden sting on his cheek. He reached up to touch it, but quickly flinched away. “I’m gonna have to use some ice on this…”

Venti slowly and gently stood up from the chair, cradling you in his arms, then walked towards the bed, careful not to make too much noise so as not to wake you up. He laid your head on the pillow and then tucked a blanket around your body, making sure it was snugly fit.

His gaze fell on your lips; they were slightly parted as the softest sighs left your mouth. They looked full and inviting, with just the slightest hint of a curve inwards at the corners. The hint of color made them all the more attractive—a hue that looked as if it had been painted on with care. He brushed his thumb against your bottom lip, slightly tracing it as his mind replayed his previous words; ‘I wish you’d make me.’

He chuckled to himself. “Maybe another time.” He leaned closer, his hand tenderly enveloping yours as he placed a light kiss on your forehead. “I love you.”

He watched you with bated breath, wondering if you would stir, if your features would relax or tense. He waited for a moment, for any sign, even the subtlest, that his heartfelt confession had reached you, but you were still just as peacefully dreaming as when he laid you on that bed.

[bots-and-cons]

How's it kicking Ony? I wanted to request something with a human that was previously attacked by cons but they fought back and ended up getting exposed to the cons energon and therefore their DNA. Nothing happens for a little while but slowly the human starts doing things that normally only a bot would do? Developing small habits and the sort. Like when someone is coming out from that big elevator they can tell from the EM field who it is without seeing them. Amusing example is all is calm until their head shoots up like a dog and says "Wheeljack is back!" Then Miko and Bulkhead go running without questioning it. Before he even leaves the elevator. Essentially what I want is some of the bots reactions to figuring out one way or another that the exposure has left the human with some Cybertronian DNA? Since it came from a con and wasn't newly processed energon. I know it wouldn't be a completely smooth so the new abilities may be uncomfortable sometimes. I imagine a human would be more sensitive to the fields since they weren’t born with the ability. I hope this isn't to specific; I've just seen writers not be able to write somethings cause it was too vague. For this I'd like to see Ratchet & Bulkhead if that's alright! Feel free to have some artistic liberties here🤙. I don't want the scenario to seem to unrealistic ya know what I mean?

I was kind of dreading writing this, because I honestly had zero ideas for this for the longest time. I just rambled a bit about whatever came to mind surrounding this topic, but I hope it's okay. Also as a side note, I have a much harder time rejecting someone’s request when they aren’t on anon. Which is a good thing (?) and I love seeing the same names over and over again, when the same people ask me stuff, because it makes me happy when I see people have been here for a while. Of course I see a lot of you in the my notifications, and some names or profile pics have stuck in my mind, but I appreciate you all so much 💜

~Bulkhead~

•Your new abilities have much more to do with your senses, rather than you body noticeably changing or anything

•Bulkhead was very worried when you first got exposed to energon, but there didn’t seem to be many bad effects after Ratchet’s treatment

•You of course started noticing the changes in yourself first, but you thought it was just the after effects from the energon and that they would disappear on their own

•You started being able to sense the bots in some weird way and in time you learned to differentiate the vibes you got and be able to tell them apart

•You didn’t even really notice it at first, you just started mentioning “Hey they came back” before anyone else even heard anything and you were right every time

•You’d always be waiting for Bulkhead outside your place when he came to pick you up, because you sensed him coming

•Bulk didn’t even really notice it at first, he just thought you had good timing, but when it kept happening, he started wondering why

•You also became stronger than you were before, not inhumanly so, but pretty damn close

•Bulkhead wasn’t particularly worried about the changes, since you didn’t seem too bothered by them yourself

•Sure you sometimes got a headache when you spent time with the whole team for a long time, because the energy fields/vibes got a bit too overwhelming

~Ratchet~

•Ratchet was of course very worried when you were brought back to the base for treatment after you got hit by the energon

•He did checkups for weeks after you were already feeling better, because he had a feeling you weren’t as unaffected as you seemed

•And he was right of course

•When you started getting these odd headaches after hanging out with too many of the team members at the same time, Ratchet was baffled

•He couldn’t come up with a reason for that, until you started talking about sensing these weird things before one of the team members appeared

•It never happened with the trouble trio, only with the bots, so Ratchet put it together pretty quickly after that

•There wasn’t any energon traces in you, because it had fused with your dna, so he couldn’t detect it with just a scan, he needed to look at blood samples, which June helped him with

•Smokescreen started wondering if your ability to sense the bots would also work with the cons, and he suggested you try it out

•Ratchet was of course vehemently against this, because he was not going to expose you to any more danger

•It did become a bit of an early alarming system for the team, because if you sensed an energy you didn’t recognize nearby, you knew it was a decepticon and could alert them

[corruptedroses]

hi, i saw reqs were open!

nsfw novelist hcs with a fem reader 👀

⌞ask box open⌝ | ⌞commissions open⌝ | ⌞ko-fi?⌝ | ⌞Patreon coming soon⌝

— “A little research goes a long way, darling ❤„

Fandom — Identity V

Featuring — Orpheus / The Novelist

Content Warnings — AFAB reader [no pronouns], mentions of scratching, mentions of biting, temperature play, a suggestion of Nightmare joining in on the fun.

Author's Note — at the time of writing this we still do not know Orpheus' real name [as the name Orpheus has ben confirmed to be his pen name], in the near future I may end up coming back to fix this to include his real name but for now, he shall just be Orpheus.

As the title of this post suggests, Orpheus isn't a stranger when it comes to the concept of intimacy or topics regarding sexual intercourse. While this man may be a bit frigid himself, he certainly wouldn't deprive himself of the chance to learn new things. As a writer, research is a vital role of writing, and thus research means divulging in desires that would make even the devil himself sweat in pure sin.

While he leans on the vanilla side of the spectrum, he isn't afraid to experiment on his beloved or himself; while scenes like this don't usually appear in his books given that he is an author specialising in the detective genre, you have noticed that if he does something like tying you up, it usually ends up in the next book. It's weird but oddly enchanting. His personal favourite of these scenarios has had to be when he had watched your skin pebble as he dragged an ice cube across your exposed bosom. He really did like seeing you tremble

Being a bit of a frigid person, you will have to guide him at first; use him how you see fit, guide his hands, his legs, his arms to hold you tightly, squeeze you, embrace you, allow him to absorb the scent of your skin and the taste of your sweat into his brain to the point that he cannot forget it. He will not forget it. As a fast learner, one that tends to save every little detail to his memory, it wouldn't be too shocking that he ends up finding himself knowing your body like the back of his hand by the fifth time you fuck.

Talking about his fingers, he's got some long ones, he likes to make you sit in his lap, watching your face as he touches you ever so slowly, gentle circles, beautiful melodies, he's a man that likes to watch his pieces come together [and apart] with his fingers. From his years of typewriter and pen, he has callouses that also provide some nice texture. He wants to make you drip all over his thigh whether you like it or not.

He really, really likes to see evidence on each other's bodies that you two have danced the tango only meant for the most desperate of people, scratch his back, bite his skin, and he will return the favour in a way that no other man would do. He wants to leave evidence that he was there, for you to remember how he felt against your skin even long after the bruises and scratch marks have faded, he wants to remember how your heels felt digging into the small of his back as he made you sing broken syllables of his name. His true name.

When he begins to run out of ideas on how to best keep you on your toes, do not be surprised when certain books of a certain genre start appearing in his home; it's all important research to him.

There are certain nights, however, that he tends to forget, ones where his notes have already been done and you lay sound asleep. Those are the nights that make Orpheus think that he must've given into his most basic of instincts, the yearnings of the living man. As long as his notes are presented nicely and well in case of future projects, he best not dwell on them for too long.

[uzutsagi]

A while ago I tried to amend my problems with a bunch of now deleted posts from a long ass time ago.

I'm now making a SECOND amendment post to the last amendment post that I now deleted, because I finally figured out how to word myself better. Why was it difficult to? I think sometimes, you get me writing some really confusing, hard to understand sentences- and then other times I think I just write in a way that gets the whole ass idea wrong, whether it's the intention of apology, or if I made presumptions and contradictions where I was trying not to. So I'm gonna write about the subject again, directly and as clearly as possible.

I've had a human being, who will not be named, side with another human being who both knew me very well in high school. Something happened where I was being eerily approached by both of them, but this male ex-friend was not as obvious to me as the girl was. He seemed to be interested in making a game, but after a while I started thinking this was a lot of talking and talking where nothing about me was getting friendship out of this and a lot of the energy and positivity I (used to) have to bring was just front loaded onto his table every conversation.

I did say friendship would have been a good positive thing in my life just now, but the thing is, the more I look back on it the more I feel absolutely sure that this guy tried to do some weird "groomer" tactics that he seemed to have pulled on other people, i.e. a girl who had said "he ruined her life" for some reason, and was a weird thing for her say.

Now, I'm not about to say much on the topic of who he is, what he does, dialogue between us, etc....All I can say is that, there seems to be a lot of incontrovertible proof that he's been stalking my art, my profiles, etc. Because when the other friend, the girl, came around, she was saying all sorts of weird shit to me from the get go, and I don't really know why she had really strange timing on a lot of it.

Now don't get me wrong; hacking, not necessarily a thing I could prove, so I wouldn't tell you this, but every time I did something around the house, she had a crazy "skill" of knowing exactly what it was, and sometimes if I was intimating to myself (in other words, confiding aloud) things that I was upset about, she'd then start saying stuff almost to press my buttons on the very exact things I started talking about, the day of, or not long afterwards. One time seems fair enough, but many times, and I started thinking this was getting creepy. So fast forward to a day when she sends me a really insulting message about "how I don't go out and be an adult", and I start getting really clammy vibes from her tone of voice.

Without going on too much, it turns out she was pretending to not know about being in confidance of Zyrol- the guy, and trying to play an idea up like it was worth following up on his art. I didn't want anything to do with Zyrol after our prior conversations already seemed annoying, even less since I started noticing he was manipulative. But the day I blocked Maryam, she decided to skedaddle, while Zyrol's profiles on instagram did the same.

I'm just saying something kind of troubling, here...

Zyrol provably stalks people he wishes to bring back into his life eventually, and they probably don't want to work on a stupid game like that. And it was like hearing two different voices from people who (I honestly only think) want to talk me into being their waifu and (im sure) lower rung "power artist" just very discreetly, and for Maryam, she seemed to be putting bubbles in my sails, but then what I believe was trying to "draw me into" whatever worldview Zyrol might have wanted to shove down my throat. She started off saying how much she admired me and confessing she had no idea how to make friends, to saying put downs like, you don't understand people at all (Zyrol), and that's why you need to leave the house. (So saying like, "you don't know what you're doing, and slowly posit me like I'm the only real example of what to do.") It sounds like what I just said about the grooming and trust imbalance.

My point being is this: what social media teaches me is that just about anyone you know in your life is never automatically trustworthy. One day, they can just choose to shmooze you, then the next they've done things to pull you in line, where you were never asking for that.

Thankfully speaking, the only good part is that I stopped Maryam with her twisted fucking advice before I bothered speaking to her any longer. I never answered her long, drawn out questions about stuff I didn't want to, and I'm glad I didn't force myself to.

Additionally, in a prior post I had mentioned before, I deleted it due to it being very confusing but the basic idea of it was this: they've been doing weird, criminal things, and as it seems, I've talked to them in very harsh tones even tagging up Maryam's u/n and saying she was the R word, all that, which only makes me sad mostly for myself because I can remember how bad all the poison in me felt before I started letting it out and feeling better.

It's almost like the worser the viewpoint in life the more you'll carry so much more toxin, until I started really front loading on so many people about what I was carrying, and to be honest with you I don't even know what to do with it. So I've been chillin' and vibin', whatever, and I've never been that good at coping with attention of any form but now I do a lot better.

It's not who I was years ago. It's all the damage and poison I've been taking in since the year covid started. Maybe you might think this is weird, but nothing good ever came of me when I was 27, either. But I'm about to never speak of that ever again.

[nohj3]

"All molehills look like mountains when life shoves your face in the dirt."

This is a line i wrote back in highschool, that i literally never absorbed. I wrote it as an obvious logical conclusion to people trying to tell me i was making a lot of problems seem bigger than they were.

I wrote a lot of lines like that at the time, it was an unhealthy coping mechanism, i simply shut out everyone who ever tried to talk to me about things i honestly should've talked about. Because it was... Easy. Easier than facing my problems. Simply out talk others, out write others, showcase i already have a perfect understanding of the situation to a level beyond what they were prepared to even provide, And then Just... Don't actually listen to my own self.

But this line, This one was special. Because it was heard.

I stated it in response to a comrade-in-academia, And she... She loved it. She thought so highly of it. She asked me where i quoted it from. I was so stunned by the effect of her enthusiasm, i could utter nothing save "my brain". the piercing yet expressionless gaze of a human processing, was all i could see on her face. She didn't fully believe me.

"Write something for me," Her command caught me off guard, "I wanna see if you really can write like that."

"I uh... Don't think that's something someone can just like... Do? I gotta have something to write about, You know?" My excuse as legitimate in its technicality, as it was obvious in its evasiveness.

"Ok. Write about... Hmm... I don't know. What are you feeling?"

"Absolutely nothing," i lied, unwilling to admit the horrors kept barely contained by my skin thin attachment to the social conventions i barely understood. "I could show you something i already wrote. I-if that's fine with you..."

"Ok. What do you have?", she asked, barely containing her enthusiasm through lightly stimming the edge of the table.

As i began to sift through my ludicrously overstuffed And breaking apart backpack, i came upon a realization. She can judge me based on what i wrote. Keeping that in mind, i skipped over my primary writing notebook, knowing full well everything in there would easily betray my self-destructive tendencies. Skipping my stories written for school, skipping my stories written for my shows, skipping my stories written for myself. Nothing. There was nothing left.

I looked up from my skimming, hoping that maybe i took so long she got bored and wandered off. Her eyes, gushing with the feelings of excitement and anticipation, that her body didn't seem to know how to express properly, stared at me. Patiently. Trembling. I suppose she must really like reading subpar written works.

Hesitantly, i pulled out a story i wrote for a school assignment. Nothing weird. Fully sanitized. Boring prompt. Hoping maybe i would disappoint her and this entire social engagement would end. Dreading that maybe i would disappoint her and this entire social engagement would end.

She read slowly, Carefully, Concentrating more on how i wrote than what i wrote, speaking eventually to say, "you use waaaaay too many commas. I feel like every sentence should have been like... 3 maybe 5 sentences? Also your handwriting is so bad, so is mine though. Also this paper sucks. Terrible topic. Also-"

"S-srry...," i interjected, the feelings of inadequacy interwoven into every syllable, "i don't know what you were expecting. I get lucky sometimes, but usually i just suck and am bad."

"No! Nono!! I didn't mean to upset you!," she exclaimed, "i think you're really good, i would..." Her eyes distracted by seemingly nothing in the air, as she trailed off. She clearly wants to say something, but is hesitant. Scared even. She's avoiding feeling her current emotion by being pulled towards something, anything, else.

An out.

I needed little justification other than the thought i shouldn't impress or impose upon anyone. I slipped out through the corner of her eye. Whatever she wanted of me, i clearly wasn't capable of providing. I'm nothing, Insignificant, Meaningless.

All the emotions of the situation becoming blurry and faded in mere seconds. Replaced by the all familiar, all encompassing, all potent, wall of self-hatred and self-disregard. Of course, it was stupid to think for even a second that i was happy someone cared enough to ask about my interests. They weren't even caring, probably just pitied me. A kindness i don't deserve, and it is simply morally correct of me to have removed myself so she doesn't have to taint her functioning deserving emotional psyche with my ugly presence. I've got to be more careful to not let my desires and needs, drag others into such a state as to fool themself into thinking i am worth their time.

The then-normal omnipresent depressive crushing darkness, i possessed such high quantities of, was strong, but in this one instance it wasn't strong enough to fully delete everything. Her eyes. Even today, those eyes are such a core memory, They burn in my brain. Pure unfiltered excitement. Because of me. Me. I loved it. I wish to see it more.

I'm so motivated, to see that look. To impress. To excite. Its scary, but it's also... It gives me life. Humans are such cute creatures, I love them. I want to see them happy.

Nywys, i was just reminded of that phrase, And i guess i wanted to talk about it. Sue me.

[c-is-for-circinate]

For a long, large part of my life, being queer in a media landscape--finding queerness in a media landscape--has meant theft.

I'm a Fandom Old, somehow, these days, older than most and younger than some, in that way that's grown associated with grumpy crotchetyness and shotguns on porches and back in my day, we had to wade through our Yahoo Groups mailing lists uphill both ways, boring and irrelevant anecdotes from Back In Those Days when homophobia clearly worked differently than it does now, probably because we weren't trying hard enough. I've seen a lot of stories through the years. I've read a lot of fanfic. (More days than not, for the past twenty years. I've read a lot of fanfic.)

When people my age start groaning and sighing at conversations about representation and queerbaiting, when we roll our eyes and drag all the old war stories out again in the face of AO3 is terrible and Not Good Enough, so often what we say is: you Young Folks Today have no idea how hard, how scary, how limiting it was to be queer anywhere Back In Those Days. Including online, maybe especially online, including in a media landscape that hated us so much more than any one you've ever known. And that is true. Always and everywhere, again and again, it's true, we remember, it's true.

We don't talk so much about the joy of it.

Online fan spaces were my very first queer communities, ever. I was thirteen, I was fourteen, I was fifteen--I was a lonely, over-precocious "gifted kid" two years too young for my grade level in an all-girls' Catholic school in the suburbs--I lived in a world where gay people were a rumor and an insult and a news story about murder. I was straight, of course, obviously, because real people were straight and anyway I was weird enough already--I couldn't be two things strange, couldn't be gay too, but--well, I could read the stories. I could feel things about that. I would have those stories to help me, a few years later, when I knew I couldn't call myself straight any more.

And those stories were theft. There was never any doubt about that. We wrote disclaimers at the top of every fic, with the specter of Anne Rice's lawyers around every corner. We hid in back-corners of the internet, places you could only find through a link from a link from a link on somebody else's recs page, being grateful for the tiny single-fandom archives when you found them, grateful for the webrings where they existed. It was theft, all of it, the stories about characters we did not own, the videotaped episodes on your best friend's VHS player, one single episode pulled off of Limewire over the course of three days.

It was theft, we knew, to even try and find ourselves in these stories to begin with. How many fics did I read in those days about two men who'd always been straight, except for each other, in this one case, when love was stronger than sexual orientation? We stole our characters away from the heterosexual lives they were destined to have. We stole them away from writers and producers and TV networks who work overtime to shower them in Babes of the Week, to pretend that queerness was never even an option. This wasn't given to us. This wasn't meant for us. This wasn't ours to have, ever, ever in the first place. But we took it anyway.

And oh, my friends, it was glorious.

We took it. We stole. And again and again, for years and years and years, we turned that theft into an art. We looked for every opening, every crack in every sidewalk where a little sprout of queerness might grow, and we claimed it for our own and we grew whole gardens. We grew so sly and so skilled with it, learning to spot the hints of oh, this could be slashy in every new show and movie to come our way. Do you see how they left these character dynamics here, unattended on the table? How ripe they are for the pocketing. Here, I'll help you carry them. We'll make off with these so-called straight boys, and we only have to look back if somebody sets out another scene we want for our own.

We were thieves, all of us, and that was fine and that was fair, because to exist as queer in the world was theft to begin with. Stolen time, stolen moments--grand larceny of the institution of marriage, breaking and entering to rob my mother's hopes for grandchildren. Every shoplifted glance at the wrong person in the locker room (and it didn't matter if we never peeked, never dared, they called us out on it anyway). Every character in every fic whose queerness became a crime against this ex-wife, that new love interest. Every time we dared steal ourselves away from the good straight partners we didn't want to date.

And: we built ourselves a den, we thieves, wallpapered in stolen images and filled to the brim with all the words we'd written ourselves. We built ourselves a home, and we filled it with joy. Every vid and art and fic, every ship, every squee. Over and over, every straight boy protagonist who abandoned all womankind for just this one exception with his straight boy protagonist partner found gay orgasms and true love at the end.

Over and over, we said: this isn't ours, this isn't meant to be ours, you did not give this to us--but we are taking it anyway. We will burglarize you for building blocks and build ourselves a palace. These stories and this place in the world is not for us, but we exist, and you can't stop us. It's ours now, full of color and noise, a thousand peoples' ideas mosaic'ed together in celebration. We made this, and it will never be just yours again. You won't ever truly get it back, no matter how many lawyers you send, not completely. We keep what we steal.

.

Things shifted over time, of course. That's good. That's to be celebrated. Nobody should have to steal to survive. It should not be a crime, should not feel like a crime, to find yourself and your space in the world.

There were always content creators who could slip a little wink in when they laid out their wares, oh what's this over here, silly me leaving this unattended where anybody could grab it, of course there might be more over by the side door if you come around the alleyway (but if anybody asks, you didn't get this from ME). We all watched Xena marry Gabrielle, in body language and between the lines. We sat around and traded theories and rumors about whether the people writing Due South knew what they were doing when they sent their buddy cops off into the frozen north alone together at the end of the show, if they'd done it on purpose, if they knew. But over the years, slowly, thankfully, the winks became less sly.

A teenage boy put his hand on another teenage boy's hand and said, you move me, and they kissed on network TV, in a prime-time show, on FOX, and the world didn't burn down. Here and there, where they wanted to, where they could without getting caught by their bosses and managers, content creators stopped subtly nudging people around the back door and started saying, "Here. This is on offer here too, on purpose. You get to have this, too."

And of course, of course that came with a whole host of problems too. Slide around to the back door but you didn't get this from me turned into it's an item on our special menu, totally legit, you've just got to ask because the boss throws a fit if we put it out front. Shopkeepers and content creators started advertising on the sly, come buy your fix here!, hiding the fine print that says you still have to take what you've purchased home and rebuild it with your semi-legal IKEA hacks. Maybe they'll consider listing that Destiel or Sterek as a full-service menu item next year. Is that Crowley/Aziraphale the real thing or is it lite?

And those problems are real and the conversations are worth having, and it's absolutely fair to be frustrated that you can't find the ship you want on sale in anything like your color and size in a vast media landscape packed full of discount hetships and fast-fashion m/f. It's fair to be angry. It's fair to be frustrated. Queerbait is a word that exists for a reason.

There's a part of me that hurts, though, every time the topic comes up. It's a confusing, bad-mannered part of me, but it's still very real. And it's not because I'm fawning for crumbs, trying to be the Good, Non-Threatening Gay. It's not that I'm scared and traumatized by the thought of what might happen if we dare raise our voices and ask for attention. (Well. Not mostly. I'll always remember being quiet and scared and fifteen, but it's been a long two decades since then. I know how to ask for a hell of a lot more now.)

It's because I remember that cozy, plush-wallpapered den of joyful thieves. I remember you keep what you steal.

Every single time--every time--when a story I love sets a couple of characters out on a low, unguarded table, perfectly placed to be pilfered on the sly and taken home and smushed together like a couple of dolls, my very first thought is always, always joy. Always, that instinct says, yay! Says, this is ours now. As soon as I go home and crawl into that pillow-fort den, my instincts say, I will surely find people already at work combing through spoils and finding new ways to combine them, new ways to make them our own. I know there's fic for that. I've already seen fic for that, and I wasn't really interested last time, but the new store display's got my brain churning, and I can't wait to see what the crew back at the hideout does with this.

Every time, that's where my brain goes. And oh, when I realize the display's put out on purpose, that somebody snuck in a legitimate special menu item, when the proprietor gives me the nod and wink and says, you don't have to come around the side, I know it's not much but here--there is so much joy and relief and hope in me from that! Oh, what we can make with these beautiful building blocks. Oh what a story we can craft from the pieces. Oh, the things we can cobble together. Look at that, this one's a little skimpy on parts but we can supplement it, this one's got a whole outline we can fill in however we want. This one technically comes semi-preassembled, and that's boring as shit and a pain to take back apart, but that's fine, we'll manage. We're artists and thieves. I bet someone's pulling out the AU saw to cut it to pieces already.

And then I get back to our den, which has moved addresses a dozen times over the years and mostly hangs out on Tumblr now (and the roof leaks and the landlord's sketchy as fuck but at least they don't charge rent, and we've made worse places our own). And I show up, ready for joy--ready for a dozen other people who saw that low-hanging fruit on that unguarded table, who got the nod and wink about the special menu item, who're ready to get so excited about this newest haul. Did you see what we picked up? The theft was so easy, practically begging to be stolen. The last owner was an idiot with no idea what to do with it. The last owner knew exactly what it could become, bless their heart, under a craftsman with more time on their hands, so they looked away on purpose at just the right time to let me take it home. I show up every time ready for our space, the place that fed me on joy and self-confidence when I was fifteen and starving. The place that taught me, yes, we are thieves, because it is RIGHT to take what we need, and the beautiful things we create are their own justification. We are thieves, and that's wonderful, because nothing is handed to us and that means we get to build our own palaces. We get to keep everything we steal.

I go home, and even knowing the world is different, my instincts and heart are waiting for that. And I walk in the door, and I look at my dash, and I glance over at twitter, and--

And people are angry, again. Angry at the slim pickings from the hidden special menu. So, so tired and angry, at once again having to steal.

And they're right to be! Sometimes (often, maybe) I think they're angry at the wrong people--more angry with the shopkeeper who offers the bite-sized sampler platter of side characters or sneaks their queer content in on the special menu than the ones who don't include it at all. But it's not wrong to be mad that Disney's once again advertising their First Gay Character only to find out it's a tiny sprinkle of a one-line extra on an otherwise straight sundae. It's not wrong to be furious at the world because you've spent your whole life needing to be a thief to survive. It's far from wrong. I'm angry about it too.

But this was my den of thieves, my chop shop, my makerspace. Growing up in fandom, I learned to pick the locks on stories and crack the safes of subtext at the very same time I learned to create. They were the same thing, the same art. We are thieves, my heart says, we are thieves, and that's what makes us better than the people we steal from. We deconstruct every time we create. We build better things out of the pieces.

And people are angry that the pre-fab materials are too hard to find, the pickings too slim, the items on sale too limited? Yes, of course they are, of course they should be--but my heart. Oh, my heart. Every single time, just a little bit, it breaks.

Of course the stories are terrible (they have always been terrible). Of course they are, but we are thieves. We steal the best parts and cobble them back together and what we make is better than it was before. The craftsman's eye that cases a story for weak points, for blank spaces, for anywhere we can fit a crowbar and pry apart this casing--that's skill and art and joy. Of course we shouldn't have to, of course we shouldn't have to, but I still love it. I still want it, crave it. I still thrill every time I see it, a story with hairline cracks that we can work open with clever hands to let the queer in.

That used to be cause for celebration, around here. I ask him to go back to the ruins of Aeor with me, two men together alone on an expedition in the frozen north, it feels like a gift. And I understand why some people take it as an insult. I understand not good enough. I understand how something can feel like a few drops of water to someone dying of thirst, like a slap in the face. If it was so easy to sneak it hidden onto the special menu, to place it on the unguarded side table for someone else to run off to, why not let it sit out front and center in the first place? I know it's frustrating. It should be. We should fight. We should always fight. I know why.

But my heart, oh, my heart. My heart only knows what it's been taught. My heart sees, this thing right here, the proprietor left it there for you with a nod and a wink because they Get It. It's not put together yet, but it's better that way anyway. It's so full of pieces to pull apart and reassemble. I bet they've got a whole mosaic wall going up at home already. We can bring it home and make it OURS, more than it was ever theirs, forget half of what it came from and grow a new garden in what remains.

And I go home to find anger, and my heart breaks instead.

[sunmoonandeddie]

rockstar!eddie headcanons

pairing: rockstar!eddie munson x reader a/n: holy fuck i haven't written anything fandom related in so long?? also i've never really done headcanons before so let's see how writing in this format goes?? freak 1 was literally called freak 1 in the credits (he's the one that's like "over my dead body!" in the d&d scene and "we're an easy target" in the cafeteria scene) so i have decided his name is frankie!!! also, thank you to @matchamunson for letting me rant about this and get all my ideas out!!!! (also this will be continued lol)

listen eddie got the FUCCKKKKK outta hawkins as soon as he graduated

there was no way he could stand to stay in a town where half of the residents thought of him as a murderer (even if he'd been cleared of all charges) and the other half still thought of him as a freak

wayne understands. of course he does. his poor boy has been put through the wringer, and all he wanted was for his son* to be happy (and safe and alive)

*wayne is more of a father to him than his biological father ever was, okay?? and after he comes back from the upside down, he just straight up calls him dad.

so eddie loads up his van and starts driving around the country, picking up gigs where ever he could, auditioning as a backup guitarist for bands he didn't like and didn't feel right

it never felt as right as it did with corroded coffin.

which is why he drives back to hawkins for the first time since he'd graduated and asked his old bandmates to take a shot in the dark and try to make their band happen.

of fucking course they agree???

why wouldn't they??

(eddie doesn't even know how hard it is for people to say no to him because of his big dumb cute cow eyes)

he meets you somewhere on the road, your thumb held high in the air and a duffel bag at your feet

and wouldn't you know it, you were on the road, too*

*he hadn't unlocked your backstory yet, but fuck did he want to

the band finds out you're a writer and fuck, they need help because their lyric writing skills are not what they need to make it big

and of course it's cheaper to live with five people in a place than just four!!

so that's how you end up with four new best friends/roommates/employers (sorta)

you all find a three bedroom, two bath for a pretty good price.

the guys insist on you getting your own room, and then they'll all double up, insisting that it'll be the college dorm experience they never got!!!

there's a lot of working shitty jobs and playing gigs at different dive bars every night just to have to wake up early for their day jobs again for a while

sundays, though. sundays are the days that all of you specifically put that none of you are available because that's when 1. you all get to fucking relax and 2. when you work on writing songs all together and not separately

Sundays are Sacred

the Falling in Love Thing happens slowly

you and eddie just seemed to click in a special way when you first meet and you just get closer and closer as time goes on

until suddenly you're the only two awake in the living room at two in the morning, an empty pizza box off discarded to the side right along with his guitar and both of your song writing notebooks

you can't stop giggling, even when it turns to more serious topics

and suddenly eddie thinks "i wanna laugh with you for the rest of my life" and yeah, he knew he had a crush on you but holy shit, he's like... in love in love.

he doesn't even give himself time to overthink or get insecure before he's kissing you something fierce

hands (with the rings of course) holding your face like you're the most precious diamond on earth*

*to him you are

but then you two get so worried about making it weird with the rest of the guys and you refuse to let it ruin the band and the little family you've made for yourself, so you agree to take it slow

dates here and there, that usually happen because no one else was up for going for ice cream so late at night

but the scary part is

is that you two work????

at first you thought maybe it was just the honeymoon phase but then you two have been going on dates and kissing in secret for five months and it's??? amazing??

you're skeptical at first because Good Relationships Don't Happen to You and you're pretty sure you maxed out your chances when you got four best friends

but even then, it's not until three months later that eddie asks you to date him

"i thought we already were dating"

"i mean exclusively."

"you mean you want me to be your girlfriend?"

"yes. sure. whatever terminology it fucking is."

when you sit down the guys to tell them they're straight up like, "oh. was that supposed to be a secret?"

"you two aren't exactly subtle and eddie accidentally played footsie with jeff and not you just two nights ago?"

it's about a year after they get to the city that they land a gig playing every night for a popular bar where all the metal heads like to hang out

and it's paid!!!

eddie and the guys are so excited that they don't have to spend every fucking day selling their souls to capitalism!!

(they still have to sell their souls to capitalism for like two shifts a week because they do still have bills to pay)

(they do insist that you also cut back on your shifts and that you take a portion of the money they get to play every night because you're their Songwriter you are Part of the Band.)

and then it's six months after they started their cushy new gig that some hot shot recording producer happened to be in the crowd and fucking loved them.

it's not until after they release their first album and people are going crazy for them that they realize

holy shit

we're rockstars

[bookishdiplodocus]

How to convey information through dialogue without shoehorning it in

So you have information you want to plant into your story, and you would like to do that through dialogue. Naturally, you'd want to make the dialogue look natural, so that it doesn't scream -> This Piece Of Information <- Will Be Relevant To The Plot Later!!! I never saw any writing advice about this subject, so I thought I’d write up a post about it.

Say, for example, you want to plant the information that Barney is afraid of fridges. Fridges? Jup. That's weird. Jup. Which makes it all the more difficult to bring up in a scene. And what makes it even more difficult, you decided you want this dialogue to take place before the Thing With The Fridge Happens later on, so you're in a pickle. How do you bring up a fear of fridges, when there are no fridges around?

First, I'm going to show you how shoehorning the information in a dialogue would look like.

Don't do this:

Annie and Barney are in a scene that has nothing to do with fridges.

Annie: "By the way," she asked casually, "have I ever asked you what your worst fear is? Since we’re on this quest together, we should know these things about each other."

Barney: "Fridges. They scare the bejeebers out of me."

Annie: "Fridges?" She laughed incredulously. "How come?"

Barney: "Well, one time my brother locked me into a fridge, and I've been afraid ever since."

Annie: “That makes sense, Barney. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Try to avoid using things like “by the way” or “suddenly” in this part of the dialogue, because that’s a shoehorn red flag.

Instead, you want the conversation to flow from something inconspicuous to the information you want to plant and then into at least one other topic.

Do this:

Annie and Barney are in a scene that has nothing to do with fridges, for example they are thrown into a snake pit during their quest.

Barney deals with venomous snakes without a second thought.

Annie, in the corner, trying to get a hold of herself: "I can't believe you're not afraid of those snakes."

Barney: "You just got to know how to handle them."

Annie, in awe: "You're fearless."

Barney, laughs: "Trust me, I'm not. You should see me around fridges."

Annie: "Fridges...?"

Barney: "My brother locked me into one when we were little. I almost suffocated. Never trusted them ever since. Nor my brother, obviously."

The conversation continues about his relationship with his brother, making it seem like that's the important bit. You sneaked the information about Barney's fear for fridges into the dialogue about snakes and his brother.

Let’s break that down, shall we?

This conversation has three topics: snakes, fridges, and Barney’s brother. The snakes and Barney’s brother don’t really matter. They could just as well be completely different topics. (I'll show you later.) Their only function is to ease into the conversation about Barney’s fridge fear and ease out of it without drawing the reader’s attention to its importance.

Topic 1: Something present in this scene that has a thing in common with topic 2

Discussing the snakes feels organic and natural, because they are kind of hard to ignore in this scene. Make the first topic something related to what the characters see, feel, experience in that particular scene… Write a piece of dialogue about topic one.

Topic 2: The information you want to plant

Then transition into the topic switch. How? The topic of fridges and the topic of snakes have one thing in common: fear. Specifically, Annie is afraid of snakes and Barney isn’t, but he is afraid of fridges. Bringing this interesting bit into the conversation changes the topic again, because how can you not go into a sentence like this?

Topic 3: Anything related to topic 2 you can latch onto

The topic is changed yet again after the information you planned to plant. Just let this part of the dialogue run its course. It doesn’t matter much what you do with it, as long as you don’t stop the dialogue right after the moment you delivered the line you needed to deliver. The trick is to make the conversation flow to and from your chosen topic.

Let’s look at another example, something more realistic. You still want to convey the fact that Barney is afraid of fridges, but this time, Annie and Barney are not on a quest, they are in a romance novel.

Barney and Annie are looking out over the ocean. She brought a bottle of wine, a light breeze cools their skin, in the distance, a cargo boat slowly glides along the horizon. It seems like a perfect moment.

Barney raises his glass and compliments Annie: “You pick great wine.” (topic 1)

Annie: “Thanks. I did a wine course last year in my local community center, a series in which we learned all about the different kinds of wine and what to pair it with.”

Barney: “Sounds like fun. You should teach me sometime. Did you get to taste everything?”

Annie: “Yeah, of course. That was the main reason I joined. What about you? Which wine do you prefer?”

Barney: “Oh, I’m not a connaisseur. I like anything but white wines.” (change of topic)

Annie: “Why not?”

Barney, embarrassed: “Red wines are usually kept at room temperature, and white wines go in the fridge.”

Annie, after a second: “I can’t see the problem there.”

Barney, embarrassed: “Ah. Well. I don’t like fridges. Like, not at all. My brother once locked me into one, and – well, let’s say it was a hugely traumatic experience.” (boom, there it is: topic 2)

Annie, confused: “But – How do you keep your food fresh?” (change of topic) (doesn't necessarily have to happen so soon after The Line)

Barney, still embarrassed: “I go to the supermarket every other day.” (topic 3)

The conversation continues about going to the supermarket every other day and foods that Barney can't eat because they spoil too fast outside of the fridge. Annie is surprised to hear how many things can be kept at room temperature for a day or two. (topic 3,5)

That's it, folks :)

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing! This post was inspired by a question from @therska.

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing tips here. New topics to write advice about are also always appreciated.

Tag list below the cut. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.

@therska @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @the-words-we-never-said @writingwhithotchocolate @i-rove-rock-n-roll @maskedlady @no-time-like-write-now @timefire25 @black-lakritz-dragon @nzmayart @fandomrandomness-stuff @dangertoozmanykids101 @anaestheticdisaster @storytellingofravens @purpleshadows1989 @mathematicpony @i-don-t-know-words @notquitenovelist @coffeescribles @reffaces @livingthelovelylife @katsglabella @lokitty-is-my-spirit-animal @thefallenbibliophilequote @watchmewritedumb @sting-the-scribe @kais-writing-shit @dameschnee123 @curiosityonmars @oodlittlething

[prsk-krow]

First things first, you are a reeeallly great writer. Like, the way you write Nightcord at 25:00 is so interesting, yet so believable as something conjured up by Colorful Palette. (Or whoever develops the game idk) You have a really nice talent. :)

Anyway and now an actual prompt uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh we haven’t done vocaloids yet so, how about

(Miku x Concerned Reader) You wonder how someone is able to spend lots of time in a lonely Sekai by just singing with nothing and no one insight (most of the time). You determined that it isn’t possible, and that Hatsune Miku needs some toys and doo-hickeys. STAT.

{Niigo Miku receiving gifts from concerned reader!}

Ahaha... Gosh, these praises are so nice... Although I don't think it's that good, I'm glad that my writing is being received so well! Guess I have to keep it up, huh? Also bless N25 Miku, Caw.

No matter how many times you visited the sekai, you couldn't get used to the emptiness of it... There was nothing to do, nothing to look at, and almost nothing to listen to! If it weren't for the connection to music that this place had, you might have been genuinely creeped out by the thought of staying here!

So that's why you felt a little sorry for the lonely vocaloid that seemed to wander the empty void, with only songs and irregular visits to distract her... It you were in her place, you would've gone insane a long time ago, yet she seemed so content with her everyday life... Or was she? She tried to calm your worries anytime the topic was brought up, yet you had a nagging feeling that this wasn't as simple as she made it seem...

Eventually, your worries got the best of you, and you decided to give her a little something to satisfy boredom; a classic jigsaw puzzle! You entered the sekai, quickly finding Miku there; sitting on top of those weird, pyramid like things that emerged from the ground, and staring off into the distance, like always.

When you showed off the gift that was in your hands, she tilted her head to the side in confusion. You were giving her her a gift? Why her? Also, what was it? It wasn't a music disk, was it? You slowly but surely answered every question she came up with, sitting now next to her as you gave her a slight head start on the puzzle!

After some explanation which she listened to carefully and with eyes slightly sparkling with interest, she understood and started placing each piece, slowly but surely, in their proper place. It was quite big, so it would entertain her for a while! At least, you hoped. She suddenly started playing soft music, singing along as a small smile appeared on her face. You could now exit the sekai with the satisfaction of a job well done!

Thankfully, you had a lot of jigsaw puzzles from when you were a kid, so you simply took another one and headed to the sekai again the next day! Finding Miku with your gift was expected; what wasn't was the fact that it was still incomplete, even after a whole day, especially since vocaloids didn't sleep... Did you give her one that was too big to start?

"Um... I tried to continue after you left, but... I got distracted by the song I was singing... Then the rest of the group came in, and I left it behind to listen to their chatting and music demo... And then I forgot where it was..."

You gently patted her head, as you sat down next to her, and decided to finish this one with her first! Her eyes slightly widened as you didn't seem to mind at all, and started to teach her how to do the last few pieces. Almost as if she hadn't been so stubborn, and caused you to worry so much about her... Did you really not mind at all?

Soon enough you two had finished the puzzle, but now you knew that perhaps it was a bit too early for another one... You'd take apart all of the pieces, and let her rearrange them again, now that she had the hang of it! She stared at the now empty puzzle, and sat down to begin working on it anew!

And that's how it began... From jigsaw puzzles, to rubik cubes, to wooden puzzles... Everyday, you would come to check up on how Miku was doing with her latest puzzle, and you'd give her a new one! Or perhaps an old one that she may have forgotten about, she didn't seem to mind! In fact...

"... Fufu. You're really nice... Even though I told you so many times that I'm perfectly fine with being here, alone, with my music and your visits, you still worry about me... Enough to go out of your way to give me these... Thank you."

Her smile looked so cute whenever she said something along those lines, and you couldn't be more proud to have helped her with a problem she mostly dismissed as unimportant! She wasn't dissatisfied with her role before, but now it felt like you cared for her as if she were a normal group-mate.

In return, she made sure to sing a bit for you every time you came inside the sekai. Hearing her melodical voice always seemed to loosen you up from the day you had, no matter if it had not been that bad, or had it been quite terrible... However, her face focused on the pieces was enough to lighten up your mood! Be it to coo, or to chuckle inside your mind. No matter which, her presence definitely brightened your day!

There we go! I'm not sure if these are the toys you were referring to, but they were the ones that came to my mind first for toys to pass the time! Caw.

[animeomegas]

Omega!Bakugou headcanons

Anon: Pssssss imma need some more omega Bakugou like now no it make him jealous too because why not

AND

Anon: hi! could you do some omega!bakugou x male alpha!reader? nsfw and sfw pls <3

nesting too pls!! idk why but I love the idea of nesting sjdjsnd, pregnant bakugou fluff would be lovely too <3

AND

Anon: Hi I was wonder if you could do omega Bakugou sfw and nsfw please 🥺

(Hey, everyone!! Bakugou is very popular in my inbox! Okay, let’s write some omega!Bakugou headcanons <3 I have another request for pregnant!Bakugou, so I’ll add that part of the middle request to another post 😊 Also, I only write for a gender neutral reader. I hope you all enjoy~)

Warnings: N-sfw under a cut, suggestive behaviour multiple times not under the cut.

Nesting:

Bakugou is not an omega who is big on nesting. He does nest and he’s very proud of his nest, but he doesn’t feel the urge to nest super often.

He doesn’t keep a permanent, all year-round nest, he’s kind of a clean freak so having to constantly clean all the blankets in his nest would drive his nuts.

He does nest during his heat and late term pregnancy, and also after periods of extreme stress, but not often outside of these times.

But if he knows his alpha likes his nests, he might build them for his alpha when they’re stressed, although he’ll claim he just felt like making it and it shouldn’t go to waste.

It’s not a very convincing lie.

His nest is not in a very popular style, mainly because Bakugou overheats so easily.

It’s a simple double mattress on a very low frame, with a couple of pillows and sheet like blankets that he normally uses as a base rather than a covering.

He has a black and red colour scheme that he thinks is the coolest thing ever, and he definitely has an All Might pillow hidden somewhere at the back that he threatens his alpha to keep a secret, it’s very cute.

He likes his nest to be in an easily defendable position, whether that be inside a large cupboard or wardrobe, or a small room with one door and a small window.

Bakugou also keeps a mini fridge by his nest, as a lot of omegas do, to store water and food, but what he has that a lot of omegas don’t, is a mini freezer too.

He keeps ice packs and ice lollies in there to help when he’s in heat because his temperature tends to get way too high.

Bakugou doesn’t like being vulnerable, so his nest is a sensitive topic for him.

It takes him quite a while to let his alpha into his nest, but he’s quicker to let them chill outside of it, holding his hand and keeping him company. He would probably let them outside his nest after courting for a year and knowing them for at least two years. When he lets them inside depends on a lot of factors, including how well they deal with him from the outside of his nest. It could be anywhere from three months to another year.

Pups:

Bakugou has always wanted some pups, but in a removed and distant kind of way. After all, becoming the No. 1 hero was far more important than any of that ‘family’ nonsense.

He only really considers pups when he’s in a very committed relationship and at a comfortable place in his career. He’s not prepared to take time off at a vulnerable career moment, after all.

Bakugou wants two children, because, while he would never admit it, he always wished he had a sibling when he was a kid, so he wants to give that to his children.

But he’s very conflicted about it.

Firstly, two pregnancy leaves would be a huge blow to his career. Prime hero years and prime ‘having children years’ are the same years, so in a way, he has to decide how to balance these two priorities. He isn’t sure he wants to risk his career with that much leave so close together (heroes can’t be in the field while pregnant at all, so it would be a huge sacrifice.)

Secondly, he’s nervous about how useless he would likely feel while pregnant. He’s a workaholic and being confined to his house and losing control over his quirk would drive him nuts.

So, he doesn’t really know what to do. He doesn’t share any of his concerns with his alpha, but he does take their wishes into account too. If his alpha really wants two children, Bakugou does keep that in mind. But he’s not a push over. If he decides that two maternity leaves are too many, then it’s too many. It’s his body and he won’t let anyone tell him otherwise.

So, with all this in mind, Bakugou is fucking thrilled when he finds out he’s having twins.

Two pups for the price of one pregnancy leave?? Sign him the hell up!

Bakugou has twin boys, both alphas, and Bakugou just cannot believe his luck that all his problems just fixed themselves.

“But I don’t want to go!” came a defiant voice from the back seat of the car. Both you and Bakugou sighed, not keen on restarting the disagreement that had plagued the household for the entire morning. It had taken twice as long as normal this morning to get the twins dressed and in the car because of this very argument.

You could see Bakugou about to open his mouth to tell him that they had to, but you held up a hand to stop him.

“Why don’t you want to go, sweetheart?” you cooed at your oldest son.

“I don’t want you and daddy to leave…” whimpered your youngest son, answering in his brother’s stead.

Bakugou winced and reached a hand into the back and squeezed each of his son’s hands in turn.

“I know.” He said simply. You could feel his guilt, even though you both knew it was the best for all of you that the twins get used to nursery so that both you and Bakugou could go back to focusing on your careers. They would be fine, you tried to convince yourself. Millions of kids do this every year and it works out fine.

The nursery came into view, and you refocused your attention onto finding a parking space in the little car park on the side of the building. You could hear your sons shifting anxiously in the back and it pulled at your heart strings. You pulled into an empty space and turned off the engine. You and Bakugou shared a single look before moving to get your children out of the car with practiced ease.

“No,” your eldest son shouted. “I’m not going to go. I’m staying here!”

You had tried to take him out of the car seat, but he had refused to cooperate. You didn’t want to pull him out in case you hurt him. Bakugou came to stand behind you, your youngest son clutching his neck desperately.

“Let me talk to him,” he spoke softly, handing the younger twin over into your arms.

“Hey,” Bakugou said softly, leaning down to peer inside the car where his eldest son stubbornly sat with his arms crossed. “It’s okay to be scared to go to nursery, you know.”

Your oldest son visibly flinched and avoided looking at Bakugou in the eyes.

“I’m not scared, daddy. I just don’t want to.”

“Uh huh,” Bakugou said, eyebrow raised.

“I’m not!” Your son exploded. When he realised that he’d just shouted at his father, the colour drained from his face and his bottom lip started to quiver. Bakugou wordlessly held out his arms and his eldest son accepted the embrace just in time to burst into heavy tears on Bakugou’s shoulder.

“It’s alright,” Bakugou hushed. “I’m not angry at you.”

In your arms, your youngest son was watching his brother cry and letting out little whimpers into your neck. You rubbed his back soothingly and whispered that everything was going to okay.

Out of the corner of your eye, you realised another parent was staring judgementally at your family. Bakugou clearly also noticed because he bared his teeth as a warning and the parent quickly moved on. You scoffed at the idiot who thought it was a good idea to antagonise an omega who was looking after a distraught pup, let alone when said omega was a top ten hero.

“W-What if they don’t l-like me?” your eldest whimpered out.

“Here,” Bakugou wiped some of the tears away with his thumb. “How about this, you tell me if anyone is mean to you and I’ll sort it out, how does that sound?”

“But…” your son hesitated. “But what will you do?”

Bakugou grinned.

“I’ll make their parents regret doing such a shitty job at parenting.”

You gasped, halfway between scandalised and amused.

“Katsuki!” you reprimanded and smacked his lightly on the shoulder.

It did seem to cheer up your sons, though, who were now giggling at your antics.

“Daddy said a bad word,” your youngest twin giggled to you.

“He did,” you pressed your lips together. “And it was very naughty of him.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes and instead placed the pup in his arms on the floor, taking him by the hand. You did the same and slowly, you both made your way toward the school gate. The mood dropped, but neither of your children tried to resist.

You could see a teacher standing at the gate to escort the new students and you made your way over.

“Remember,” Bakugou said before you reached the gate, stopping you all for a moment. “We’ll be back in this many hours,” he held up three fingers. “Can you guys tell me how many this is?”

“One… two… three…” they both said together.

“That’s right! See? You guys are going to be the smartest ones in there,” Bakugou boasted, ruffling their hair.

“Careful,” you teased. “They’ll turn into you.”

“Are you saying I’m always the smartest person in the room?” Bakugou grinned back.

“No, I’m saying you always think you’re the smartest person in the room.”

“Oi!” he growled, knocking his shoulder with yours. The pups giggled again, seeming to be in higher spirits. You escorted them to the gate at the front of the playground and let the teacher introduce herself.

And with one final goodbye, your pups were off into the nursery and out of sight.

You and Bakugou walked to the car in silence, digesting what had happened and processing that your little ones were now old enough for nursery. You both slipped back into the car and began the drive home.

It was weird to think that your children were neither with you, nor at home waiting for you, but that kind of existential deep dive could wait until later.

Bakugou’s hand settled just a little bit too high on your thigh. For the moment, it was time to appreciate the novelty of an empty house.

 Jealously:

I don’t think anyone would be very surprised to find out that Bakugou can get quite jealous on occasion.

In the early days of your relationship, he’s very nervous that his alpha is going to find a ‘better’ omega, an omega who is more traditional, and leave him for them. It takes a lot of bravery for him to leave himself vulnerable to being abandoned, and occasionally the insecurities seep through.

He hates the whiny, simpering omegas that plaster themselves onto the nearest alpha, and it makes him furious to see anyone doing that to you.

He has no subtlety, no brooding angst, he just threatens the other omega(s) away to their face, and then drags you somewhere private to cover you in his scent.

Later in the relationship, things change. He’s extremely confident that his alpha is his. Why would they ever leave him? He’s the best fucking omega ever!

Instead, he gets jealous if he isn’t getting enough attention because you’re spending too much time with someone else.

He doesn’t do this in a possessive way, it’s just that he doesn’t get a whole lot of free time and when his alpha spends that free time with someone else? Another omega? He’s pissed.

He gets surly and passive aggressive about it, and it’s extremely obvious.

The best way to fix it is to just give him lots of attention, he won’t behave like this is you have to leave for something important (he understands duty like the best of them), so it’s very easy to address.

Bakugou idly stirred a pot of miso soup as the radio in the kitchen blasted out whatever awful top 40 song it had picked this morning. He had only put it on to fill the silence really, which was the only thing this awful excuse for music was good for in his opinion.

He was making breakfast for the two of you as a kind of mini celebration. He had two days off in a row, the first time in a couple of months because of his crazy work schedule and he wanted to make sure he spent every moment that he could with his alpha. And so, here he was, getting up early to prepare breakfast for your both.

There was a lull in noise as the radio switched between songs, and in the few moments of silence, Bakugou could hear shuffling coming from the bathroom. He grinned. Perfect timing.

He put down the last plate and waited for you to come out, you should be here any second now.

 Fiddling with your shirt one last time you swung open your bedroom door, bag on your shoulder, finally ready to leave. You were interrupted momentarily by a delicious scent in the air. Bakugou must be cooking, so you followed the smell to the kitchen and walked in to say goodbye to him, vaguely sad that you were going to be missing his food, but he was probably only making himself something to bring to work, anyway.

And then you saw the elaborate breakfast spread your heart stopped. Had you forgotten an anniversary? Bakugou looked just as shocked to see you dressed up and ready to leave. However, his shock soon melts into frustration.

“Why are you all dressed up?” he growled, the excitement that had been on his face when you walked in now gone. “You said you weren’t working today.”

“I’m not,” you said quietly, confused as to why he was so upset. “Izuku messaged me while I was getting dressed and invited me for brunch, I was just going to meet him.”

Bakugou’s face screwed up at your words. He went to open his mouth but then stopped. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He was doing the breathing exercises that his therapist taught him for when he was angry. What had you done to make him this upset?

The relaxing exercises clearly weren’t working for him because he stood up from the table and stalked out of the room suddenly, shutting himself in your bedroom. You winced as the door slammed shut behind him.

Oh dear… you had made your mate so upset that he had shut himself away in your bedroom. Your stomach twisted itself into a knot. It was time for some damage control (and a quick check of the calendar to makes sure you hadn’t actually forgotten an anniversary or something.)

You shot a quick text to Midoriya, apologising for cancelling and letting him know that something had come up. He sent back a ‘don’t worry!’ message and about six smiling emojis. Well, at least he wasn’t also mad at you.

Fishing out a tray from the cupboard above the sink, you stacked it up with as much food from the table as you could, thankful that it appeared to still be warm, and carried it to your bedroom door.

“Katsuki?” you called out, knocking on the door with your foot. “I’m coming in, is that okay?”

There was silence. Well, silence was better than swearing, so you carefully slid open the door and moved towards the brooding lump on the bed.

“The fuck do you want?” he growled. “I thought you were going out to eat with Deku?”

You froze at his vicious tone. Was he jealous? Well, that was a lot easier to solve than forgetting an anniversary, at least.  With a smile, you slid the tray onto the bedside table and climbed on the bed behind you mate, letting out a reassuring scent. You wrapped your arms around him, ignoring how he tensed in your embrace, and whispered into his ear.

“Why would I spend time with Midoriya when I could be spending time with you, hmm?” you whispered, purposefully blowing hot air onto his neck. You revelled in his full body shiver. “The only reason I accepted plans with Midoriya was because I thought you were going to work.” You pressed as close to him as you could and placed a single kiss right behind his ear. Bakugou melted at the affection.

“Come on now,” you continued, a coy smile on your face. “Let’s not let this delicious breakfast go to waste.”

You reached over and scooped a little bit of rice onto your fingers before holding it up to his lips. Bakugou opened his mouth with only a small grumble in complaint, and you made sure to push your fingers a little deeper inside than perhaps absolutely necessary.

“I promise I’ll make this morning’s misunderstanding up to you.”

Miscellaneous:

Bakugou’s scent is fairly sweet but still quite smoky.

When he’s upset/stressed, his scent is like burnt sugar, and when he’s very happy/excited, he smells like almost like a marshmallow roasting on a bonfire.

It’s a very pleasant scent but it does tend to divide people. Some love it, and others hate it.  Bakugou doesn’t care what anyone else thinks about his scent (except his alpha, but shh, that’s a secret!)

In his family, his father is an omega and his mother is an alpha and while they are happy together, Bakugou always promised himself that he would never end up in a relationship like that. He didn’t want some alpha bossing him around like his mother bossed around his father.

Bakugou finds meek alphas (and people) annoying, but he doesn’t like super aggressive alphas either. He’s attracted to people who exist in the middle of those extremes.

Bakugou knew he was an omega from birth, and it was something he was very insecure about for a long time. It was a big part of why he turned out the way he did as a child, he was making up for something that he viewed as a weakness by being as aggressive as possible.

His mother wasn’t great at making him feel secure in his secondary gender, assuming he would like certain things and pushing him in certain directions simply because he was an omega.

His father said that he was there if Bakugou had any questions, but he let Bakugou reach out to him instead of reaching out to Bakugou, and Bakugou was too proud to make the first move.

Bakugou ends up deciding that being an omega wasn’t going to stop him becoming the No. 1 hero. He decided that he could overcome being an omega.

It wasn’t until he was an adult that he actually started to accept being an omega was a part of him that he didn’t need to overcome, but that he could instead embrace and that it didn’t make him weak to do so.

When he does become a mainstream hero, he makes sure to always tell the omega children that he meets that they can do whatever they want and still be an omega.

N-sfw under the cut

Bakugou is a switch, mostly.

Oftentimes he switches multiple times in the same session, so his alpha needs to be quite the brat tamer to keep him from getting frustrated and trying to get on top so that he can control the pace.

He has a very high sex drive, and he likes to have a partner who can match him because he way prefers sex to masturbating.

It would be hard to find someone whose chest and nipples are as sensitive as Bakugou’s, and when he’s in heat, he can definitely orgasm just from his chest being stimulated.

Bakugou is also definitely a squirter, something which he was very shocked and embarrassed to find out.

Bakugou generally prefers slightly rougher sex. He gets bored when the pace is too slow and definitely scratches and bites (and is happy to receive the same in return).

When he’s in heat, Bakugou is a bit different.

He’s not a pillow prince by any means, but he is definitely a lot more passive than he is normally.

He’s not super loud, but he definitely swears a lot, even between waves of heat when he gets grumpy that he’s too hot and sticky. That swearing is a lot less sexy though.

Bakugou’s sexual side doesn’t really come out outside of his own home. He doesn’t like flaunting anything in public and can even get uncomfortable talking about sex with his friends, especially when they tease him with personal questions. He’s definitely a private person when it comes to sex.

Although that is not to say he isn’t confident in the expression of his own sexuality, much to opposite is true. He is definitely the kind of person to order some new toy or outfit on the internet every month to surprise his alpha.

He’s sexy and he knows it, so why not?

[luimagines]

oooh i have an idea, how would dear reader reacts to the chain's secrets? they could be canon like wolfie being twi, or something you headcanon!

Masterlist

I procrastinated on this one admittedly because I had no idea where to take it but after writing out a list and appointing a secret to each boy. I have it done.

Some things are definitely headcanons.

Part one will include Hyrule, Sky, Warrior, Four and Wild.

Content under the cut!

Hyrule

The battle wasn’t necessarily hard to deal with- the monsters weren’t difficult to deal with and there weren’t a lot of them to begin with.

You slashed, dashed and kicked every enemy away from you and watched as they fell to your blade. Every new step revealed a new purple cloud as you danced around the battle field.

You saw Wild and Twilight fighting back to back with practiced ease and handling it as well as you were. Warrior and Sky was side by side closer to Time and Legend than the rest of the group was and Four and Wind were up in the trees striking the enemy down at a distance and no doubt scheming something while the going was easy.

The only one you had no idea where he was, was Hyrule.

And that didn’t take a lot to dive into your brain and wriggle uncomfortably until your own insecure thoughts pushed you to go look for him.

Between the monsters and the land mines of purple smoke, it was a little difficult to find him.

But when you do- he does something you don’t fully understand at first.

You manage to run into him in a clearing, but he doesn’t notice you at first. Instead, you see him take his sword and run it through his palm. His blood coats the length of his blade, and it drips down his hand onto the grass below.

He watches the monsters in front of him and dances for a minute around them before he takes a breath and kills them effortlessly.

You frown and step toward him. “Why did you do that?”

Hyrule jumps higher than should be physically possible and doesn’t catch himself on the way down. He falls flat on his butt and looks up at you with wide and startled eyes.

“Are you ok?” You kneels next to him and go to take his injured hand. “What on earth were you trying to do?

Hyrule jerks his hand back like you’ve burned him and you see the magic flow through the air around his wound- closing it like it never happened.

“Link?” You frown again and slowly place your hand in your lap. You’re confused and a little afraid for him. You know that blood magic is taboo for a reason and is typically avoided more often than not because of its’s dark nature- but you never thought Hyrule of all people would dabble in it.

“I’m fine.”

“Link.” You stress a little more. “What were you trying to do? I didn’t think you were capable of blood magic... At least you don’t usually use those kind of spells. Is that why you fight on your own for a while each time?”

“I’m not using blood magic.” Hyrule frowns and stands abruptly. 

“Then why-?”

“It’s not important.”

“Hyrule, you’re hurting yourself. I’d say that that’s pretty important.”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“Don’t make me get Time.” You threaten. “I’ll get Legend too. I bet they’ll get some answers out of you.”

“You won’t just drop it, will you?” He sneers

“Nope.” You stand and cross your arms. “What were you trying to do?”

“I was just checking something.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Like if a curse would work or something?”

Hyrule tenses and he crosses his arms- instantly looking away from you.

“WERE YOU ACTUALLY TRYING TO CAST A CURSE?!” You screech.

“THE CURSE WAS CAST ON ME!” He yells back.

You both still for a moment and wait for the forest to show any signs that others might have heard you.

The sounds of distant fighting continues and after a minute of waiting some more, no one shows up to check on either of you, so you’re safe.

You turn back to your companion and furrows your eyebrows. You lower your voice just above a whisper just in case someone might be on the way but now you need answers. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

He scowls- a face you’re not used to seeing on him and throws his arms down his sides in anger. “Back home, Ganon cast a curse on me. The monsters need my blood in order to resurrect him and I can’t risk letting any monsters from my time getting to me. I need to check if the other monsters will follow suit.”

You blink, not expecting that answer but your anger flares up regardless. “So you go out on your own to check this curse because your blood is needed to resurrect hatred incarnate? What if you’re overpowered? What if they do react to it? How are we supposed to help you if you’re alone?”

“It’s my problem to deal with. I don’t need-”

“Shut up.” You scowl and grab him by the shoulders. You shake him roughly for as long as you speak. “We are your friends! We care about you! We don’t want to see you hurt! We’re going to help you! Whether you want it or not- we’re not to let you deal with this alone. Not while we’re here.”

“Stop shaking me.”

You let him go.

“I won’t tell the others because I know you wouldn’t like that.” You say. “But this stops today. You hear me? None of us are just going to let these freaks near you and this is not necessary while you have a whole team of heroes just as pissed about the situation as you are. You hear me?”

“Loud and clear.”

“How clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Good.”

Sky 

Sky wakes up one day with a far away look in his eye which immediately puts you on edge.

Not only that but to make it worse, he doesn’t stop looking at you.

He looks scared.

Every five minutes you swear you catch him looking in your direction only to look away in haste when you look back at him.

No one is saying anything and it doesn’t help your paranoia.

With some people walking ahead you, you step back and take a spot next to Sky. You notice that he’s tense and walking robotically, and trying to match your pace. “Dude, what’s up? You’re freaking me out.”

Sky trips over himself and finally looks you in the eye. “What do you mean?”

“You woke up like you saw a ghost. You’ve been looking over to me every five minutes and even now you look like you want to sprint away from me. Did I do something?”

“I.. Ummm...” Sky stutters for a minute before swallowing whatever lump was in his throat. “I just had a dream... is all.... I’ll get over it.”

“I’m assuming it had something to do with me then.”

“No, not exactly.” Sky’s quick to speak even if you can see the beginning’s of sweat collect on his brow. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Want to talk about it?” You tilt your head. “It looks like it really shook you up.”

“Oh, um, I-”

“Maybe you died and Sky freaked out.” Legend pushes you forward and away from Sky. “He doesn’t have to talk about it if he doesn’t want to.”

“Ok, my god, Legend slow down! Not everyone is as emotionally constipated as you! Talking about things is healthy and important!” You shout over your shoulder, trying to dig your heels into the dirt with little to no luck.

Legend seems a bit stronger right now that he usually is, you bet it’s his power bracelet.

If Sky actually looks a bit paler at Legend’s claim than neither of you notice.

The day passes a little calmer after that, Sky seeming to have calmed down enough to not be so weird and it something you’re quick to forget about.

By the time the afternoon hits, a bunch of dark and foreboding storm clouds roll in.

Somehow, Sky manages to find it in himself to walk next to you again and does his best to stay close.

You don’t mind it and even jokingly pull his sail cloth over your head when it begins to rain on your group. It’s not particularly strong and there’s not a lot of options to rest and take cover, so you bare with it. Sky lets you keep the sail cloth over your head surprisingly.

But then there’s thunder and you see lightning in the distance and bite your lip. “Maybe we should hunker down or something?”

The rain goes from gentle drops to a down pour within seconds and the group runs a bit to gain as much cover as you can in the nearby tree line.

Sky pushes himself in front of you and shoves you behind him with enough force that you’re fully knocked over. In one fluid motion he lifts the Master Sword skyward and charges the blade, tossing it away from the group in a glowing blue arc. It cuts through the grass and even splits the first tree it strikes in half before dissipated into the air. 

You would have been struck by lightning if he didn’t do that.

“Sky?” You get up and try to wipe as much mud off of your pants as you can. “Are you ok? How did you know that would happen?”

Sky gulps and takes a deep breath as he looks at you with wide eyes and understanding. “I saw it in a dream.”

“Oh...” You gasp and reach out to him shakily, putting your hand on his shoulder. “You have dreams then?”

“Yes.” Sky looks at his sword and hesitantly puts it away. “Sometimes.”

“Ok then...” You nod and look around the group. They’re all in varying stages of shock, surprise and concern.

Everyone is looking at Sky.

“We need to get out of the storm.” You say in lieu of changing the topic. ” Who knows if there’s more lightning on the way and there’s a lot of metal within the group.“

“Right.” Time nods and does a not so subtle double take in his attempt to leave it be. “Let’s go.”

You nod back and nod once more to Sky and wrap your arm around his shoulder. you lead him forward and lean into his space to whisper into his ear. “Thanks.”

“I’m just glad I made in time.”

“We’ll talk later ok?” You smile in hopes of alleviating some of the tension. “I have some questions if you’re willing to indulge me.”

“I suppose it’s only fair.”

Warrior

“He’s a cute kid.” Warrior mentions randomly one day. 

You startle and jump, nearly dropping the image. You scramble to catch it and successfully do so after playing hot potato with yourself.

“Warrior, a little warning please.” You sigh and attempt to clean your finger print smudges on the glass. “But yeah, my little brother is cute. I hope he stays that way.”

“I don’t think you have much to worry about.” Warrior shrugs. “He grows up to be a fine and upstanding young man. Good looks run in the family. ”

You scoff and roll your eyes. “Thank you, I’m sure they do.”

Warrior comes to stand next to you and gently turns the glass over to see the image better.

“Warrior?”

“Hm?”

“Am I doing the right thing?” You sigh.

“What do you mean? I’d say you are. Sacrificing yourself for the good of a better tomorrow- for your family- for your loved ones- but that’s not what you’re talking about are you?” Warrior lets you take the image back.

“But he’s so young... and I’m supposed to take care of him.” You gulp. “I just want him to be safe and sound and healthy but I can’t really do that from- from... I’m here instead.“

“Well... no said it was going to be easy.” Warrior offers lamely.

“What if he grows up to hate me?” You clench the glass tighter at the thought. “I just abandoned him, didn’t I? Oh my god-”

“Hey. He loves you.” Warrior takes your shoulders in his hands and shakes you somewhat. “He admires you greatly. You’re his hero. He looks up to you even now. He’ll understand when the time comes.”

“Even now?” You sniff. “What does that mean?”

“Years have passed and he hasn’t stopped looking up to you and how you did everything you could for him, for Zelda and he’s trying to make you proud-”

“Warrior he’s five, how do you know this?”

His mouth shuts with a click of his teeth.

“Warrior.” 

“Um... I... He...”

“Link.” You pocket the glass and face him head on. “When did you meet my brother?”

He stares at you for a moment and deflates. “During... during the war of my era.”  

“...What?”

Warrior hisses and brings his hand to scratch the back of his neck. “He showed up around the same time that Wind did but he talked about you.... and I guess you talk to him about me because he wasn’t really surprised at what was happening.”

“How old was he?” You bite your lip, already dreading the news.

“Older than me actually.” He offers with a tight smile. “I never asked him but if I had to guess I would have put him in his mid twenties. The oldest Link to start his adventure compared to the rest of us...”

“But he still...” You deflate as well and hug your arms around yourself. “He still has to go doesn’t he? I can’t save him from it. Even now, I... I can’t- I fail him in the end then.” 

“He doesn’t see it that way at all.” Warrior catches you before you fall to your knees in despair. “He admires everything you’ve done for him, everything you’re currently doing. You kept him from danger for as long as you could- until he was old enough to take on his destiny. That’s more than any of us could say.”

“I don’t want him to go through any of it though.” You sob and lean into Warrior for support. “That’s my baby brother Warrior- how am I supposed to be ok with this?”

“I don’t think there is a way.” He admits. “Nor do I think you should be.”

“I can’t keep him from it.”

“But you can and have been postponing it.” Warrior rubs circles into your shoulder as you cry. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you even more.”

“I miss him.”

“You’ll see him again.” Warrior grips you tightly. “He also did very well all things considered. He became an older brother to me and to Sprite and Wind... I don’t think Wind has figured it out yet that your brother and Lucky are the same Link though.”

You sniffle and calm down slightly. “Was he awesome?”

A laugh is startled out of him and he chokes on the snort and cough that tries to leave him at the same time. “I’d say he was better than me... And he claims to have never held a sword until then.”

“Good.” You nod. “He’s the best brother in the whole world.”

“Yeah, he was.”

Four

You’re walking on a random trail as the day dies down and you’re partner is Four for the hour.

The sun rests behind you comfortably and you talk about the different weapons from each others Hyrule. You’re no smith- but you do think it’s an interesting process and try to take notes where you can.

As you trade your notes and laugh at the more ridiculous stories from one another, you look down and notice something weird with Four’s shadow.

It almost looked like it was laughing along too... in the opposite direction that Four was looking in. But you blink and it’s as if it never there.

Maybe you’re tired.

You have been walking all day and perhaps it was a trick of the light.

You don’t think on it too much and go back to talking with your friend.

Hours later-you’d think that it would be the end of it but it isn’t.

In fact, you can’t sleep. And the way it moved was different than it should have been and the more you look into the memory there more obscurities than there should be. Not to mention that Four gets weird around shadows or whenever they are mentioned.

You stare up at the star filled sky as you think about the incident.

“I’m telling you I think they saw me.” A new voice says.

You’re thrust into the moment and attune your hearing to the direction it came from.

“I think you’re thinking too much into it. How could they have seen you?” It’s Four.

You close your eyes and roll over in the same direction, pretending to still be asleep.

The voices take a minute to pick up again when you do that.

They were watching you.

“They stared at me for a solid minute- how did you miss that?” New voices hisses.

“They were laughing-”

“You were laughing, you love sick fool. They looked at me. They saw me. I’m going to blow the secret and you’re not even listening to my warning.”

Your eyes snap open and you push yourself up as quickly as you can.

You instantly spot Four sitting by the fire, but you’re not surprised by that. What really takes your attention is the new person next to him- who looks uncannily like your friend.

But with purple hair...

And red eyes...

And darker skin...

“Four what the hell?” You blurt.

Four responds quickly and as intelligently as he can manage.  “Uhhhh...”

The person next to him curses and runs a hand through his hair. “I told you. I told you. I told you.”

You lock eyes with the new guy and introduce yourself.

He huffs and crosses his arms, his face darkening slightly- or again- maybe it was a trick of the light. “I’m Four’s shadow.”

“His... shadow...?”

“Yes. That’s what I said.”

You nod, wide eyed before turning to Four with a million questions in your eyes. He can see it and holds his hand up to his mouth, pressing his knuckles harshly against his teeth as he waits for them to start flowing out of your mouth.

“Love sick fool?”

“Shadow you snitch!” Four screeches and takes a swing at him.

His cry is loud enough rouse some of the others but only really wakes up two of them. You stare tensely as Time and Legend sit up fast enough to nearly throw themselves into the fire as they turn to Four.

“Sorry.” You whisper yell to save his honor.

Shadow is nowhere to be found.

Time and Legend turn to you as the only other one awake and each raise an eyebrow in tandem.

“Ni-nightmare. I yelled. I’m sorry.” You try to act like you just woke up as well and try to hunker down into your blankets.

Time sighs and wipes his eyes. “You ok?”

“I will be.” You try to smile but you’re too nervous and it comes out more forced than it should- but perhaps that helps you sell your little fib.

Legend for his part glares at you before he sits down with a solid thump and throws himself dramatically back into his bedroll. 

No words are exchanged between you two.

“Everything alright Four?” Time yawns as he also begins to lie down again.

“Yeah. All good here.” Four laugh nervously and waves him away.

Time nods, no longer paying attention and slowly... nearly half an hour later, you see that the two of them have fallen asleep again. Thankfully neither of them seem to realize that it didn’t sound like your voice at all.

Shadow appears again from somewhere and takes his spot next to Four. “Nice going.”

“Shut up.”

“Four, I have questions.” You sit up and make your way over to the two of them.

Shadow raises an eyebrow. “What’s there to explain?”

“Everything?”

“Ok. Ok. Both of you, don’t start. You caught us fair and square. Sit down.” Four sighs and gestures to the other spot next to him. “It’ll take a while.”

“Done.” You grin and nearly run over a sleeping Sky in the process. “Tell me everything.”

Wild

“Has anyone seen Mr. Champion?” You glance up after doing a supply check through your bag. You’re running a little low on rations and know the resident cook usually has some to spare.

But you haven’t seen him in a while.

“Didn’t he go to get fire wood?” Wind tilts his head.

“Wasn’t that at least an hour ago?” You respond, furrowing your eyebrows as you think about it more. Where did Wild go?

“He hasn’t come back yet?” Warrior sits up straighter. Now the rest of the group is a little more aware of their missing member and each start subconsciously checking the tree line as if he were about to come back that very second.

“I can go look for him.” You offer, standing up. “Maybe he got distracted. We are in a new area.”

“Oh great, he could be miles away and we’d never know.” Legend groans and throws his head back. “Just what we needed.”

“Have a little faith Vet.” You snort. With a quick jump and skip over the supplies, you begin to leave the camp behind. “Try calling him Wind, I’ll see if I can go find our missing chef before dinner.”

“Please do.” Time nods. “We’ll start a full search party if you’re not back within the next hour though. It’s getting too dark.”

“Noted.”

“I could find him faster.” You hear Twilight say but you’re already too far away to back down now.

Truthfully, you have no idea where to start- but you imagine that to find Wild- one must think like Wild.

You pick a direction and stick with it.

At some point maybe fifteen minutes in you reach a small creek and begin to follow to stream upwards.

It’s really more like you’re taking a hike than searching for your friend and you begin to feel a little stupid even if realistically there’s no other way for this to be done.

That is- until you see him anyway.

He’s seems to be frozen in place, staring off into the distance with his hands still held mid air, gripping the canteen he appears to have been filling up.

It confuses you and you stand there staring at him to move- to blink- to do something. But he doesn’t. “Wild?”

No response.

“Champion?” You call a little louder and begin to tip toe a little closer to him. You’re afraid that even the slightest snapping of a twig would break whatever spell he’s under and you don’t fancy a violent reaction out the man who can easily blow the whole area up with little to nothing.

But still no response.

“Link!” You hiss and eventually reach his side. He hasn’t once turned in your direction or even acknowledged your presence and you begin to doubt that he’s even conscious.

His eyes are open and he’s knelt beside the creek but maybe he got hit with some magic or something- you don’t know.

You gulp and place a hand on his shoulder. You shake him lightly but when that also proves to not do anything you begin to shake him more and more until you nearly throw him over-but he does not react at all.

“Oh boy... What on earth happened to you?” You bite you lip and begin to look around. He’s too heavy for you to carry on your own and also too far away to yell for help or assistance.

You should have dragged Twilight with you.

Suddenly he takes a deep breath and blinks rapidly, shaking himself back into the present. 

You freeze and tense up considerably as you watch him come back to himself.

Wild stretches and looks up at the sky before standing up. “Twilight’s not going to like this.”

“No. I don’t think so.” You reply.

He freezes as well and looks at you by only shifting his eyes. “How long were you here for?”

“A while...” You admit. “Maybe fifteen minutes. You were gone for over an hour. I got worried.”

“Oh. That’s not so bad then.”

“You ok?” You gulp and slowly drop your shoulders from your ears and unclench your fists.

“Yup. Peachy.”

You nod and continue to lower your guard- not trusting this one bit. “May I ask what that was?”

“Just a memory.” He shrugs and tries to walk past you.

“A memory?” You frown and turn on your heel to follow him. “A memory? I shook you head enough to nearly throw you into the water and you claim it was because of a flashback? I’ve heard of disassociation before but I think this is more like astral projection through dimensions. You were completely gone!”

“It happens from time to time. Nothing to worry about.”

“What if something came up behind you and killed you?” You argue. “I’d say that’s something to worry about. Does this happen often?”

“Everyone once in a while. Maybe once every other month. It depends really. It doesn’t happen as often as it did in the beginning though.” Wild admits and gestures for you to follow him.

You do- but you keep asking him questions.

“So this is normal?”

“For me? Yes.”

“For you?”

“I...” Wild hisses slightly as another thought comes to his mind. “I never told you did I?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about but I’m going to assume that no, you didn’t.”

“I get memories from my old life from time to time when something triggers them. I used to have amnesia but I’ve got most of the my memories back at this point... By now it’s just filling in little blanks.” Wild shrugs. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Oh...” Understanding calms you somewhat. At least it’s not a magic spell or anything. “How did you get amnesia? Do you remember that?”

Wild stops in his tracks and looks at the ground momentarily before looking up again and walking forward. “I died.”

“I’m sorry what?”

“I died.”

“Huh?”

“I. Died.”

“WILD!” You tense up again and follow him without hesitation. “What do you mean you died? Did you heart just stop or were you like blow up or something- Oh my god! I’m so sorry! I’m being super insensitive right now, aren’t I? But I don’t understand! I don’t- Wild- Link- you can’t just drop a bomb like that. Are you like a ghost or something? No. Wait. You can bleed and I’ve seen you crash into more walls and rocks than I care to admit.”

“This isn’t exactly the reaction I was expecting.” Wild frowns and cuts you off. 

“ArE YOu oK?!”

“I’m here aren’t I?”

“But that’s not what I mean- How can that even make sense-”

“Where did you think I got my scars from?” Wild cuts you off once more with a barely restrained snort as he bites his lip.

“Oh my god.”

“I’m fine I promise.”

“Wild nooo....” You whine and Wild thinks for a minute that the information upset you so much that you’re going to cry. “Who did it? I’ll kill them with my bare hands. Who hurt you?”

Wild comes to a full stop again and sighs. Deep and tired but he tilts his head and offers you his hand. “Do you want the short story or the long?”

“Long story please.”

For the first time since this conversation started, Wild smiles even if it’s faint and subtle. “Alright, let’s take the scenic route back. This might take a while.”

Part 2

[heyyyharry]

Happier

(inspired by happier by Olivia Rodrigo)

Word count: 2.4k

I'm selfish, I know, I can't let you go So find someone great, but don't find no one better I hope you're happy, but don't be happier

Part 1: Drivers License

Part 2: Deja Vu

A/N: I edited the original lyrics to match the POV :)

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Harry had come up with a thousand scenarios of how this day would play out. Actually, he’d been thinking of this day since the moment he’d received the news. He didn’t dare to hope that she’d say yes to coming back for a sequel. He’d been sure that they would write her character off, give a lame excuse for how his love interest could not make a return and make his character forget about her completely to move on with a new girl in town. It would have been great if it was that easy in real life. Once someone was written off the script, they were gone for good. Real-life relationships were not that simple. Goodbye didn’t mean ‘never see you again’. You would still share the same friend circle and social bubbles, and it was worse when you two worked in the same industry. Harry didn’t know how he’d lasted a year without running into her, not since the Grammys.

“Didn’t you two date?”

“No.” Harry shook his head, but his eyes stayed glued on Y/N from across the room. She wasn’t looking his way, too busy saying hello to everyone else. “No,” he repeated, more to himself than to his co-star. “We didn’t.”

“But she wrote an entire album about you,” said the other twin. What was her name again? Lulu?

“Luna!” cried her sister, Lex. “You can’t ask him that!”

“No, it’s okay,” Harry said with a tight smile, slightly annoyed by the blonde twins, but he didn’t want to seem like an ass on the first day of filming. “And I don’t know if it was for me. You should ask Y/N.”

“Ask me what?”

Harry flinched when he looked up and saw Y/N padding towards them. She hugged the twins, who seemed way too excited. Harry guessed they were Y/N’s fans. They gave off crazy fangirl vibes, probably just pretending not to know the drama to interrogate him. He couldn’t blame them for assuming he was the villain and definitely could not blame Y/N for portraying him as one. It was more important that he knew who he was and how much he had changed since his last relationship. Maybe they could finally be friends.

“Were they bothering you?” Y/N asked him once the twins had left.

Harry nodded. “They’re your friends?”

“Oh, I met them last year on tour. I’m surprised you don’t know them. They were on Disney.”

“I don’t watch Disney,” Harry admitted with a smile. “Well, not today’s Disney.”

“Understandable.” Y/N nodded and bit her lip. She seemed guarded with her straight back and hands hidden behind her. She eyed him up and down, quite subtle yet noticeable. “How have you been?”

“Pretty good,” he said, nodding slowly. “You?”

“Yeah, but mostly tired because of tour.”

“You’re done?”

“Yup, last night was the last show.”

“Nice.”

Y/N raised an eyebrow. “Nice?”

Harry blinked. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No.” Y/N giggled. “You still sound very...you.”

“Well, shouldn’t I?”

“Yeah, you should. But it’s been a year so…I mean, you haven’t changed much.”

“Right,” he said lowly, his eyes falling to his feet. Harry supposed he should say something else, perhaps bringing up another random topic to discuss, but all he could think about was what had happened between them. Things had been messy, hadn’t they? How could they go back to before that? Before her first song about him. Before he’d chosen someone else over her.

Or he could talk about her new relationship. She’d been in a happy relationship for almost six months, right? No wait, hadn’t they broke up two weeks ago? He wasn’t sure because he hadn’t been catching up. If they’d broken up, he’d sound like an ass to even mention her ex’s name. He should just stay quiet.

“I’ll see you later?” she said, gesturing at her stylist who was waiting by the door.

Harry could ask her right now -- the reason she’d agreed to film the sequel to their first movie together. He’d heard from a very reliable source that she’d specifically asked her agent to decline any project that he was in. So did this mean they were good? That she didn’t hate him anymore? He could have gathered his courage and got the answer right then…

“Yeah, see you.”

...but he didn’t.

And so she gave him a smile and a little wave, then happily returned to her stylist.

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“See you tomorrow, Y/N!”

“See you, Annie!” Y/N said as she put the rest of her things into her tote bag. Her new driver had got her schedule mixed up, and so she had to wait here for another half an hour. She was in no rush. It had been a light first day, and she’d had a fun time getting to know the new cast members and catching up with old friends.

She sat on the sofa in the lobby, legs crossed, texting her best friend about her day. She’d purposely left out the short off-screen conversation with Harry, and her best friend didn’t even bother to ask. In their world, he didn’t exist, and his name was censored in every conversation like a curse word that was even worse than ‘cunt’. Nevertheless, she didn’t hate him anymore. She was doing just fine on her own, being busy with her career, and she’d been in a happy relationship after her fall out with him.

She and the guy, a model, had broken up two weeks ago due to long distance and some differences that they could not change. They had ended on good terms and decided to stay friends. They said you could only stay friends with your ex when you still had feelings for each other, or you had never loved each other that much in the first place. For her, it was probably the latter. Her previous relationship had been more platonic than romantic, apparently. So she had nothing but the best to say about him.

As she was going through her camera roll, just reminiscing about the past, she heard footsteps approaching and looked up to find Harry. He offered a smile and gestured to the spot beside her on the sofa. “May I sit here? My ride is late.”

“Yeah, sure.” She hurriedly scooted over.

“Good job today,” he said. “You were great.”

“Thanks, so were you.” She smiled, and they both looked away at the same time. This was so awkward. She hated small talk. She’d never had to have small talk with Harry. Conversations with him used to be so easy and natural and silly. Whatever this was, it wasn’t them.

“Can we just be normal?”

At first, Y/N thought she’d been the one who’d said it, so when she realised it’d been Harry, she was speechless.

He swallowed and sat a bit straighter, still not looking at her. “I don’t want us to be weird and awkward.”

“Okay,” she said.

He cleared his throat. “Wanna try again?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, not to sound like an ass but when Joey kept forgetting his lines, I was so pissed off, I could throw a chair at the wall.”

“Right?!” exclaimed Y/N, feeling free to have finally broken out of her shell. “Like, he doesn’t even have many lines. I know he’s new but damn...you can’t get far if you don’t learn your goddamn lines.”

Harry shook with laughter. “Oh God, we sound like dicks, don’t we?”

“Maybe.” Y/N laughed, covering her mouth. “But you know what? We can’t be nice in this industry. It’s impossible.”

“Shhh, if someone heard this, we would be into big trouble.”

“Oh please, I’ve had worse articles written about me than ‘Y/N speaks facts about her lazy co-star’.”

Harry tossed his head back and cackled. “The worst one I’ve got this week was ‘Harry Styles hates therapists.’”

“What?!” Y/N gasped. “No way! That’s so stupid!”

“Right?” Harry rolled his eyes. “I could get all my therapists to speak up for me but I’m kinda immune to bullshit now.”

“Therapists? Like plural?”

“Yeah, one in every city.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah.”

Y/N rubbed her hands onto her legs. “Rough year?”

Harry’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he leaned back. “You have no idea.” Then he swept his hair out of his eyes, sucked in a breath, and finally looked at her. “I wish I could have talked to you, though.”

She bit her tongue, knowing what she was about to say next would disappoint her best friend so much, but she had to. “So do I.”

Harry looked taken aback before his lips curled into a smile. “It’s silly, isn’t it? I haven’t talked to you in a year, and I feel like I know everything that’s happened to you except that I don’t.”

What he’d just said might make no sense for most people, but Y/N knew exactly what he meant. She nodded and wetted her lip. “You only know as much as everyone else does.”

“Yeah, I got updates on you from the news and our friends.”

“Same.” Y/N smiled back. “I hate how they write articles about your new haircut but not mine.”

“I like your new hair colour.”

“Thanks. I like your new car.”

Then they both burst out laughing. It was fun and also a little bit strange that Y/N didn’t feel the same anxiety talking to him as she used to. It must be because they had grown and were now meeting again as better people.

“Damn, my ride's here,” Y/N said as she read the text from her driver. “I gotta go now.”

“Oh, okay.” Harry stood up and followed Y/N to the entrance. “Hey, just wondering--”

“Yeah?”

“Am I...am I still blocked?” He looked a bit flustered as she tilted her head and squinted her eyes. “On your phone. Because I remember you having my number blocked--”

“I unblocked you on your birthday.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah.” Y/N shrugged. “I should’ve sent you a happy birthday text but...I didn’t want your girlfriend to get the wrong ideas.”

“My ex.”

“Yeah, I know.”

They smiled at each other one last time before saying goodbye. Y/N knew it was silly, but she was hoping he would go after her.

Ding.

A notification popped up when she was in the car. She was almost home, and it was from Harry’s number. He’d sent her a link with a message that said, “Hope you like it :)”.

Curious, she tapped on it and was directed to an audio file titled ‘Track 5’. The upload date was last year. About two weeks after their short conversation at the Grammys.

Hurriedly, she fumbled inside her bag for her iPods and put it on before she pressed play.

“Hey, Jeff, I couldn’t sleep so I wrote this song. Listen and let me know if it should go on the album.”

Then came the piano intro. It sounded good, so Y/N wondered how it hadn’t ended up on his last album.

But when he started to sing...

We ended a while ago Your friends are mine, you know, I know You've moved on, found someone new One more guy who brings out the better in you

And I thought my heart was detached From all the sunlight of our past But he’s so nice, he’s so funny Does he mean you forgot about me?

Oh, I hope you're happy But not like how you were with me I'm selfish, I know, I can't let you go So find someone great, but don't find no one better I hope you're happy, but don't be happier

And does he tell you you’re the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen? An eternal love bullshit he might not even mean Remember when you were with me I meant it when you heard it first from me

And now I'm pickin' him apart Like cuttin' him down will make you miss my wretched heart But he’s charming, he looks kind He probably gives you butterflies

I hope you're happy But not like how you were with me I'm selfish, I know, I can't let you go So find someone great, but don't find no one better

I hope you're happy I wish you all the best, really Say you love him, baby Just not like you loved me And think of me fondly when your hands are on him I hope you're happy, but don't be happier

The song was for her. He’d written it when her new relationship had gone public. Y/N sat there, staring blankly ahead until the honking of a car tore open her inner peace, and reality came crashing back in. The driver dropped her off at her house. Instead of going inside, she stood on her front steps and replayed the song one more time. When it ended, she decided to text him: Why didn’t this make it to the album?

She didn’t know where he was now, but it showed ‘typing’ in less than a second, as if he’d been waiting in their chat since he’d sent that link.

You would’ve hated me, Y/N.

True, she replied. Still, I would’ve loved the song lowkey. And added, I love it btw.

He took so long to type that it was driving her crazy. She flopped down on the concrete stair with her phone clutched in her hands, her heart thundering against her ribcage. Anxiety popped like a balloon when his message appeared: Were you happier?

She reread it again and again.

No.

I wasn’t either, he responded. I kept getting deja vu.

Ha, nice reference.

That song is my guilty pleasure. Love listening to you roasting me on loop.

That last message made Y/N bury her face into her palm and giggle like a fool. She thought for a second and wrote: I could come roast you in person now if that’s what you prefer. I think we’ve never had a proper roasting.

Can we meet, Y/N? Or are you busy now?

No, not busy.

Great, I’ll pick you up.

Just tell me where, she responded with a smile on her face. I got my drivers license now :)