#Some kind of dark-ish fairytale AU

[salsedinepicta]

like the dawn-

(details and sketches under the read more)

Sketches:

[fairyysoup]

cowboy like me

part two: takes one to know one

pairing(s): wild west outlaw!eddie munson x fem!reader

summary: The strange man who stumbled into your hiding place is an idiot and also really pretty. It turns out trouble is something you have in common.

cw: mature themes, cowboy/wild west au, slow burn, enemies to lovers-ish?, past eddie x chrissy mention, guns, implied outlaw!reader, death threats, gunshot wounds, definitely inaccurate descriptions of frontier medicine, blood, some dark comedy.

word count: 2.7k

a/n: Behold the newest installment of Rose playing with barbies: cowboy edition. This is a continuation of an initial chapter I posted nearly a year ago now. I want to thank everyone who has been patient with me, since this year has been really terrible for my inspiration and creativity. I do my best to write when I can, but shit's been real hard if I'm honest. So thank you for sticking with me, even when I haven't been all that active on the writing front.

THIS ENTIRE FIC IS EXPLICIT. ALL MY WORKS ARE 18+ MINORS DNI

part one | fic playlist for your listening pleasure

Once he loses consciousness, Eddie’s wound is fairly easy to dress. You find three old bottles of whisky hidden behind a false back to a cabinet, and uncork one to use as antiseptic. 

He hasn’t lost a lot of blood, to be fair. His blouse is ruined, but the blood had barely begun to saturate his coat, and the wound isn't more than a deep gash in his side. It seems that the bullet had only grazed him. 

It doesn’t help your predicament that Eddie is very, very handsome when he’s not actively creating an extreme inconvenience. The shadows make his cheeks look more sunken than they actually are, but his eyelashes flutter like he’s seeing a pleasant dream behind them. They touch his cheeks and make him look like a prince from a fairytale book you had as a girl. 

M’just doing whatever you tell me to, princess. 

He’s a regular damsel in distress, this Eddie character. You wonder what his end goal is. You wonder what he did to be on the run from Jason Carver and his goons. 

But this isn’t a fairy tale, you remember, and nor are you any kind of a princess, despite what he calls you. Nothing is more apparent when you look down at Eddie’s blood on your hands and dress, and you have to use a cut piece of your underskirt to tie against the stitches you gave him with a sewing needle you found at the bottom of a desk drawer. Sterilized with fire and a bit of liquor, of course.

By the time that Eddie finally stirs, night has fallen. You’ve already shed your bloody day dress and soaked it in some cold water from the well out back; which you harvested in the dark, mind you, because you don’t know if Jason Carver’s buddies are still hanging around to see if you actually are hiding a fugitive in here. The last thing you needed was someone seeing you come conspicuously wandering out of a cabin covered in blood, for no discernible reason. 

There’ll be a stain on the dress, but that’s nothing you can’t tie an apron over and call it a day. What you really wish is that the well was a bit more of a river, so you could jump into it and let it pull you downstream, away from all this mess, and take all the blood and grime of the day with it. What you wouldn’t give for some proper soap. 

Eddie groans, and for the first time in hours you find yourself genuinely scared. Scared that maybe his wound was worse than you expected. Scared that he’s gonna die of sepsis right in front of you. Worse, scared that he’s gonna ask you questions, and you don’t know what you’ll even say. 

Your gaze falls on the leather satchel by the door– the one that holds everything you have to your name inside of it. Everything that put you in this predicament in the first place. You have a mind to burn it on the fire, but you hesitate. There’s still hope for you yet, if you can just get out of here.

Eddie’s eyes blink open just as soon as you’ve turned toward your soaking dress, hanging from a pin on the mantle, and you reach to turn the wetter side toward the flames. There was just enough old wood in the cabin to build a half-assed fire, which is about the only thing you can be thankful for at the minute, considering the wind rips through the canyon quicker than a mustang and the cabin gets the brunt of it.

Behind you, Eddie coughs. And then he says something– or, he tries, but it comes out about as pretty as a braying donkey with laryngitis. 

“Hush,” you tell him, and hurry to pour him a cup of leftover clean well water. ‘Clean’ being a term used loosely. It’s water and it wasn’t used to clean your dirty clothes, but that’s about what you can say for it. 

He takes it graciously all the same. After he’s drained the cup, his head flops back onto the pillow in another cloud of dust, and he scrunches his nose up in a way that shouldn’t be as cute as it is. “How long was I out for?”

It’s the first thing he’s said that you can make out, but it’s a question that doesn’t make you cringe to answer it. “Couple hours. Patched your wound.”

“Oh, y’did?” Eddie cracks an eye open and peers down toward his hip– which is when he realizes the gravity of his state of undress. 

You see, the thing about hip injuries is that it’s really difficult to deal with them when there’s fabric blocking your access. And the thing about fabric on a hip is that it’s usually connected to a garment, which on men is usually a pair of trousers, which usually need to come off if you’re going to get anything done. 

Eddie yelps suddenly and yanks a pillow across his groin as a crimson blush blasts over his face. The torn piece of your underskirt is wrapped around his torso– but to get it to stay put, you had to take an extra length and fasten it around his thigh as well. Which means you got very familiar with his anatomy in the process. 

“Well, you, ah–” Eddie shivers, avoiding your eye like the plague. “You’ve been thorough.”

You snort. “Don’t flatter yourself. It’s not the first time I’ve seen a naked man. At least your bandages won’t go anywhere when you move.”

“You a nurse?”

The question makes you scowl, but you’re not sure why it does. Maybe because you don’t want him asking any questions about your life, but you can answer this one. “No. So thank Christ it wasn’t worse than that.”

Eddie chuckles, creases forming in the corners of his eyes. His eyes rake over you, taking in your corset and cotton skirt, now missing a few inches off the hem. The lacey bottoms of your combinations poke out from beneath the cut-off hem of the petticoat. 

“You’re real pretty, y’know that?” he murmurs sweetly, meeting your eye finally. 

You scoff at that, turning away from him finally. It feels a little like admitting defeat. “You’re just sayin’ that ‘cause I’ve taken your pants.”

“Well, I got your underwear around my waist, so I think we’re even.” 

He grunts as he struggles into a sitting position, still clutching the pillow against his pelvis. It doesn’t do much to cover him; when you turn, you can still see the trail of hair leading from his belly-button to his crotch, his thighs spread apart on either side of it. His legs splayed out across the old mattress, its sheets rumpled and dust covered beyond usability. 

“So, you’re not a nurse but you know pretty well how to dress a wound. So… what do you do?”

You bristle at that. “You shouldn’t move too much, you’ll tear your stitches.”

“Ah– avoiding the question. Okay, I know this one.” He’s overly pleased with himself, flashing you a sardonic grin. “You think I’m a pissing sonofabitch who’ll use anything you say against you, so you’re not gonna tell me anything about yourself, even though we’re gonna be stuck together for god knows how long–”

“And whose fault is that?” You snap. He looks taken aback by your biting tone, even though you held him at gunpoint just hours ago. “I could be miles away from here if you hadn’t fuckin’ waltzed in with all your trouble. I could be moving on. I wouldn’t be stuck here playing house with you. And you’re hogging the fuckin’ bed, so thanks for that, too.”

You huff and turn back towards the fire, smacking it with a poker a few times just for good measure. Sparks fly from the burning wood, emitting a cloud of smoke that billows out a bit, but then gets sucked up the floo. 

“Hey,” Eddie says gently now, like he’s trying to calm a wild animal. “Look, I’m sorry, all right? I didn’t know that anyone was here. I wouldn’t have broken in if that was the case, y’know? Usually when you’re on the run, you try to avoid people. I mean, what the hell kinda good is someone else…”

Eddie trails off as he’s talking, and your heart starts beating hard enough to reverberate in your ears. You’re still prodding the fire, kicking up sparks, even though it’s about as stoked as it’ll get. 

“You’re on the run.”

His voice is low. Hesitant, like he’s afraid of the answer. 

You nearly roll your eyes at how long it took him to come to that conclusion. You told him you were hiding, after all. “Don’t fuckin’ worry yourself about it now.”

“Aw, hell. Shit.” The bed frame squeaks. He’s trying to get up. “Fuck. Shit shit shit–”

“What are you doing?” You hiss, getting up to plant a hand firmly on his shoulder before he entirely gets off the bed. “Are you insane? You’re gonna tear those stitches and then I’ll have to fix them right back up. Stay. Still.”

“You’re on the run,” he repeats, gazing up at you wildly.

“We both are,” you tell him. “So don’t make it harder on the both of us, all right?”

“But what are you running from?”

You don’t answer him. You’re too busy fussing over the makeshift bandage around his waist, trying to tighten it even though you tied it rather well to begin with, and it hasn’t moved much. 

“What did you take from Jason Carver?” you ask him mildly instead. “He said that you took something from him.”

“Well. First of all, she wasn’t his property.”

“Oh.” You pause, eyeing him closely. 

“And second, I didn’t take anything. I only did what she asked me to.” Eddie looks away from you sheepishly. “And I loved her. Which is more than he can say, anyways.”

You don’t say anything, keeping your eyes downcast at the bandage around his middle. You feel your cheeks heating up in spite of yourself. 

“Not that there’s anythin’ to do about it now, y’know,” he mutters, more to himself than to you. “He’s got her locked down in some pre-matrimonial agreement and she’s not gonna leave that big bad oil tycoon for some good for nothin’ piece-a-shit outlaw who can’t give her nothing no-how, so.” 

“You clearly have a high opinion of yourself. I’m sure you must have given her something she wanted, or else you wouldn’t be here,” you remark, and you pretend not to notice the crimson blush cresting his cheeks. 

Eddie takes a shuddering breath, his eyes roving around the room rather than looking at you. “Nah… I was just a good time for her. But– but Jason’s got it in his head that I forced her, y’know. That Chrissy didn’t… she wouldn’t have done it willingly. Which I didn’t. I would never.”

“Okay,” you tell him gently, pushing one hand on his bare shoulder to ease him back against the dusty pillows. “Don’t get worked up trying to sell your story, darling. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re not gonna throw yourself at me, that’s one less thing I have to worry about.”

“Who says I’m not gonna throw myself at you, sugar?” He fixes you with a wide grin, but it doesn’t really reach his eyes. They’re too sad for that. “I’ve been known to be real loose in my time.”

You give him a deadpan look, and then reach down to gently flick his hip with your middle finger. He jumps, yelps, and then readjusts the pillow against his crotch. 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. No good times for you, slick.” 

“Can’t blame a guy for trying.” Eddie sighs in defeat, laying back like a martyr. “Well, I showed you mine. What’re you running from? Pretty thing like you… can’t imagine what kind of skeletons you’ve got hidden in that corset.”

“Closet, you mean.”

“If you insist.”

You stare down at him, breathing one long exhale through your nose. He’s infuriating, even when he’s just covering up his raw emotions. 

You think for a long moment. He may not be a direct threat to you right now, but that doesn’t mean he won’t turn you in when the fancy strikes for a good enough bounty. 

“Someone… close to me. Made some people angry. And now they’re after me, too. That’s all.” Your halting speech doesn’t lend much credence to your words, but it’s just succinct enough that it doesn’t really matter. Your eyes flit nervously around the room, the satchel in the corner over your shoulder nearly buzzing like it wants to get up and tell the story itself. 

That your brother is dead. That he left you a gun and some papers that could make or break you. And right now, all it seems to be doing is breaking you. 

Eddie doesn’t bat an eye. “Who made who angry?”

“That’s not really your business, now, is it?”

“It is if they’re comin’ after me, too, sugar.” He tilts his pretty head against the pillows, and the fire gleams in his eyes. “Why do they want you?”

“The details don’t matter,” you snap at him. “I’ve told you enough. Now you know. Everything else is personal, and frankly, I don’t trust you.” 

Eddie clicks his tongue. “Shucks. That really smarts, y’know. And here I thought, what with you playing house and seeing my junk and all, maybe we were on the way to some kind of understanding.”

You suck on your teeth. He grins at you like he’s just caught you bluffing in a game of cards. You’ve spent too much time in saloons to not know a grifter when you see one. He has all the personality of a gambler without any of the subtlety.

I play dice real good. Yeah, you bet.

“Go to hell, Munson,” you grumble, turning away from him spitefully. 

“Whatever you want, sweetheart. But what’s in it for me?”

You’re halfway to figuring out exactly what would be in hell for him, when a bullet bursts through the front door and past your shoulder, hitting the back wall of the cabin. It takes you half a second to register it at all, but by that time, three more shots have taken out the left window.

“Get down!” 

Eddie’s hand snatches your wrist tightly, and the room tilts. You gasp and find yourself on the floor, in a heap, with Eddie’s weight pressing down on you. 

A bullet hits the pillow where his head just was. You can’t help the scream that rips out of you, while feathers drift through the air and bullets fly overhead. Eddie’s hand cradles the back of your head, tucking your own against his neck. Your legs are tangled in his, which is tangled in the dusty sheets from the bed and your torn petticoat. In the madness, it barely even occurs to you that he’s shielding you with his body.

“Where’s my gun?” Eddie pants in your ear.

“What?”

“The gun!”

You swivel your head to the side and spit out a strand of his curly hair that had weaseled it’s way into your mouth in the ruckus. You’d put both his guns in your satchel, and the rifle by the door. You gesture in the general direction of it.

“Motherfuck-!” Eddie’s colorful retort is drowned out by another bullet ripping into the wall just over your heads, spraying wood chips across your face.

The gunfire stops abruptly, following several shouts from outside. Masculine voices ring out in the night beyond the now-broken window. 

Suddenly, a clear voice rings out over the uproar. “Eddie?” 

Eddie turns his head in the direction of the young man’s voice. There’s nothing but darkness beyond the window, but he seems to recognize whoever it is by the sound alone.

“Henderson?” There’s a murmur of laughter from several other voices besides the one that Eddie identifies.

“What’re you doing?” the one supposed to be Henderson calls.

Eddie shifts on top of you and grunts in pain. You turn your head to look at him and see the sweat on his brow. You figure his wound must be hurting him. You lay a gentle hand on his bare shoulder, and he almost flinches when he remembers that you’re underneath him. His skin burns hot against your palm.

“Uh,” Eddie calls, his eyes flicking between you and the window. “Trying not to get shot. What’re you doing?” 

More laughter. There must be four or five voices coming from all around the cabin. With a loud, humorous gasp, Henderson calls back jovially, “Tryn’a shoot you, of course.”

[uozlulu]

15-20 for the fic writing meme

Thanks for the questions, anon <3!

15. What’s your favorite AU that you’ve written?

I have two.

I wrote a Captain America (MCU) fic called If No One Else Will where Steve joins the Monuments Men in order to do something to help on the European front. Bucky tags along and the fic picks up when Hydra kidnaps Bucky and then Steve has to save the day as a tiny guy without any super serum. It's one of my favorites because I got to put the fact I grew up learning about World War II to good use and it was fun to come up with stuff like giving Steve his shield without him being a beefcake. I also learned a lot about the state of stuff like asthma in the 1940's when it was considered psycho-somatic.

I wrote a self-indulgent Black Clover/Boruto crossover when the Black Clover movie was first announced. I called it The Land Across the Sea. I started with the concept of Yami visiting his homeland as a potential movie plot, got the final scene pretty much in full immediately, and then chose to make it a Boruto crossover so Naruto and Yami could be somewhat friends from childhood. It was an easy write and I enjoy it. It's a little weak in places but it was fun to imagine how it might go and do some fun things like promoting Noelle and Asta to vice captain for different squads.

16. What’s an AU you would love to read (or have read and loved)?

I want to write a BnHA/MHA AU in which Class A and Aizawa have to go back in time to Yagi's high school days to save him from a villain kind of a la Tenchi in Love. I've written quite a bit of it but when I got to Midoriya and Nana interacting in the past it got a bit difficult so I set it aside and haven't picked it back up yet. Also we now kind of know of Tohru's quirk works and this particular AU hinged on her having a different quirk, but that'll just make it even more AU if I ever write it.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

The most recent one in this vein I wrote was an Interview with the Vampire (AMC) Armand/Louis/Daniel fic The Mortal and the Vampires based loosely on a dark retelling of the fairytale Beauty and the Beast in which potentially canonical events lead to an eventual confrontation between the polycule and one of the penthouse servants who has come to realize they'll never be offered immortality. It was based on a conversation I'd had with another fic author about how Armand having to let Daniel go kind of reminded me of how the Beast has to let Beauty go in the story.

Right now I don't have any highly specific AUs like that rattling through my head. If they're that specific and clear to me, I always end up writing them. Another recent-ish in this vein was my Black Clover AU And There Was Still Hope that explored some manga spoilers about Yuno in a universe in which he didn't receive the Wind grimoire.

18. If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it involve?

I'm not sure if I have any fics right now that I've got any sequel ideas for. I haven't had any sequel requests either, so I'm not sure.

19. If you wrote a spin-off of [insert fic], what would it involve?

I'm not sure if I'd call it a "spin off," but I do kind of want to take my IwtV (AMC) fic Dream a Memory of Me and retool it and give it a better ending. I don't think I'll ever get around to it, but the more I learn and remember of Vampire Chronicles, the more that first fic of mine makes me cringe a bit. That said, it's not terrible, just could be better.

20. If you wrote a prequel to [insert fic], what would it involve?

I'm not really sure because I don't really have any fics I've got prequel ideas for or requests for.

===

Send me some numbers to my ask box and I'll answer questions about fics

[sanctus-ingenium]

u guys wanna see more WIPs... similar to the last post, here are Some WIPs

all of these were started in sai before going on to procreate. before going back to sai again in the case of the strength card

so Blue Sky/Out Of Time... yeah it’s extremely self-explanatory, it’s very obvious what this scene depicts and i’m sure everyone gets it (this is a joke i’ve had multiple people dm me asking wtf this even is). the one element that absolutely NEEDED to be there was the LED digital clock with a bullshit time on it, and i decided to replace it with an AIRE warning sign instead and put the LED readouts in the bg. the warning sign in this setting serves the purpose of informing ppl when there are hostile faeries around. i knew what the colours would be from the beginning, but it took a bit for me to realise what sort of shading style i wanted (it took forever). but i did know i wanted to contrast the very sketchy black void against the cleaner and almost cartoony/comic book style rest of the drawing, to emphasise the fact that the foreground sky and background void are made of two very different things. again i used a colour shifting brush to quickly make all the shards of sky different colours, but originally i planned to have some of the shards be dark or night time (with stars or the moon etc). unfortunately it didn’t work, it was too dark and pascal got lost against it.

My Eyes Are Up Here is pretty obviously the exact same scene with the same character, in the same field, but with a different sort of atmosphere. i sketched this in sai then did the final in procreate. originally it was going to have a black background

i really like this version tbh but the blue works better. i think he looks good against dark backgrounds where it’s kind of hard to see wtf is even happening there

so about the neon signs..... i’m well aware that the sketch has way more promise than what the final ultimately was, and that’s because i found that i didn’t have the technical or artistic ability to pull off the complex neon signs like i wanted to. i couldn’t get it looking good enough so i had to scrap them. but these signs will be back, i want to draw them properly and do them justice. the gif was unplanned too but i thought it would be fun to have the flicker be very intermittent so that if you scrolled past it you might not even realise, or you’d have to stick with it just to catch it looping. i used GIMP to make the gif and change the frame rate, and this actually took a very long time because i had to preview it over and over. anyway if you WERE to get lost in the púca’s field, in this story, you would see neon signs like this encouraging you to follow them.

Strength is actually the last drawing i ever made that ended with a paint-over in sai, and the oldest drawing here. as such i actually don’t think it’s representative of my current ability but i do have a soft spot for it for sentimental reasons lol. the reason for the paint-over in sai was because i drew this at a time when i still did not trust procreate to be able to place the level of finish on it that i wanted

the background took me a thousand years to figure out. literally it was so annoying that i considered scrapping it for something simpler. but the idea was for it to be a kind of fairytale-ish lost in the woods sort of look while also appearing like the blood vessels around the human heart. the branches were also supposed to be heart-shaped in cross-section but i spent so long zoomed in painting them that i forgot to zoom out to see if all those fine details were actually visible, and it turned out they weren’t. i was disappointed that i couldn’t get félix’s tattoos to look right but that’s what i get for making a character with shit tons of both tattoos and body hair. i also got rid of the foreground branches really soon because they weren’t adding anything and muddied up the readability of his pose

the swan is from a daemon au and bears no relation to my other swan characters. i just like swans a lot

[helenazbmrskai]

Faeding Borders

Pairing – [Dark Faerie! Hoseok x Reader]

Genre – [Faerie AU, Soulmate AU, Angst, Fairytale AU, Fantasy, Supernatural AU, Strangers To Enemies To lovers AU]

Summary – [Surrounded by barren lowland you and your best friend travel with three light fae companions to see their king after the gibberish inside your best friend’s book pulled you into the realm of Faerie. Things seem to be fine until there’s an encounter with the enemy that separates you from the others, your only hope is a dark fae soldier who’s adamant to keep you alive for some reason.]

Warnings – [angst, blood mention, you have a sword pushed against your throat by Hoseok for a hot minute, slow burn-ish love, mention of freezing to death because it’s fricking cold, action, fight scenes, they don’t even kiss but I swear there’s romance in here!]

Word Count – [10k]

Author note. It’s one of my older fics so I tried to correct the mistakes here and there and rewrote some parts. Originally it was a two-shot story but I decided to combine the edited parts into one so if the story is familiar that’s why because it’s kind of a repost of my old fic in a better package (I hope). 

Masterlist – Be part of my permanent taglist to get notified when I upload a new fic or send in an ask.

A lopsided smirk found its place on his features as he slid his hand under your knees and he easily lifts you up in bridal style. You’re pushed against his warm chest and you instinctively curl around his body to steal some of his heat. No wonder he’s not cold his temperature is equal to a portable heater.

”Why would you do that for me?” Looking at him as you raise a single brow in question, you just can’t place this sudden change of heart anywhere.

”I have my reasons.” Hoseok doesn’t elaborate further as he starts walking with you inside his arms, keeping you warm. There’s something in your eyes that ignites a fire to lit inside his stone-cold heart.

”Oh, there you are!” Rounding the big oak tree in your best friend’s garden you find Yoongi sitting under the leaves’ shelter enjoying the shadow and the cold wind that travels through the garden cooling down his skin. Hiding from the heat of the sun his pale face comes into view, playing with the dry grass spots by pouring water over the neglected places on the ground using an old cup, his thin lips forming spells. 

A familiar spell is murmured under his nose. He memorised the words now by heart as each syllable spills from his mouth with ease travelling with the wind until you arrive and broke his concentration by pulling his body in for a tight hug when he least expects it. Losing balance as you topple over with your head firmly planted on his chest near his wildly beating heart you look up and giggle finding comfort in his earthy scent.

On a different note, the branches that are happily stretching above both of your heads to reach the sky on a sunny day stand in contrast with the boy’s frown. He tries to hide the fondness he feels for you, but as a long term best friend should you see right through his acts of appearing tough on the outside and the air seems to shift around the two of you without anyone noticing.

Under the oak’s shadow, the tree that Yoongi’s grandmother planted years ago before her death grown to be a spectacular adult tree and now could easily fit at least four people under its protective shadows it soothes him any time he lays under it, Yoongi always felt a connection with it and so did you.

Knowing what your friend needs in times like this you reach for his hand and let the silence envelop you. It’s his late grandmother’s death anniversary today and Yoongi gets sentimental since he felt especially close to his old sweet relative starting from a young age, you were quite fond of his grandmother as well she treated you like her own daughter when you visited Yoongi, so her gentle smile that you remember always shone the brightest on the days when you decided to keep his grandson company gives you warmth in days like this hoping that you can become the rock Yoongi needs.

You promised to her that you’ll always look after each other and neither of you broke that promise so far as you two remained close friends after childhood washes over like a sudden wave. Adulthood wasn’t that fun but even if both of you were busy attending College and live your lives in separate towns, you guys made the time to facetime or see each other as regularly as possible.

During the summer break, the both of you go - as an old habit that’s more like a tradition by now - to sit under the oak tree and talk about the events in your lives that you missed while being away, later the two of you would go for a late dinner visiting your favourite place and come back to see the tree before you decide to sleep over at Yoongi’s parent’s place as it’s always late by the time you realise the time and this is no exception. No one questions you at this point when he guides you up to his room, the two of you are friends for so long that his parents started to call you their daughter in a joking manner. Yoongi had trouble with making friends when he was young, not that he’s any better now, and when you forced your presence into his life he thought that one you is enough social interaction so it’s always been you and him, talking and playing together. He accepted you easily as you appeared to be a good match for his quiet personality and your occasional outgoingness created lots of good memories together.

Yoongi uses his flashlight to show you his spellbook that he inherited from his grandmother, you haven’t seen the worn-out book since fifth grade and it fills you with nostalgia, he shows you a page that was blank before and excitedly tells you that this morning he found the book open on his desk at the exact page when he woke up you look at him then back at the book but you’re sceptical about the origins of the fresh ink. Maybe he forgot to place it back into the drawers or he mixed the page with a blank one when he was tired.

”You looked at this book almost as much as I did and you know this writing wasn’t here before.”

He seemed betrayed as you doubted his words, it’s been a while so you’re not sure, you only started believing in magic because of Yoongi, he got this fascination over spells and supernatural creatures because his grandmother was a firm believer and you remember she told the both of you a lot of magical stories about the fae, but you took them as you were supposed to be, thinking those were just fairy tales adults entertained children with. Unlike Yoongi who truly believed her words and you played along, after all, you were just kids, kids can dream and you thought that this fixation on mythical creatures will fade away eventually as he gets older but you underestimated his stubbornness regarding the subject. He pursued linguistics as a profession because of the weird words inside the book but you wanted to support him so you didn’t say anything that seemed less than encouraging on your part.

You didn’t say anything when she gave Yoongi her spellbook full of chants and knowledge on fae folk, memorising the gibberish just to please your friend and nodded attentively when he talked about it. Don’t want to be the one to dismiss him like anyone else would so you squinted your eyes to try and distinguish the writing but it doesn’t look like any language you know. It’s not resembling Yoongi’s chicken scratch writing on the pages so you do believe that he was not the one who wrote it.

”Well I can’t read it so, does it matters if it were there before or not?” Closing the book as you try to close the conversation when a wave of electricity travels from the tip of your fingertips holding the book’s spine to your upper arms the sudden feeling makes your body jolt up in surprise letting go of the book out of instinct. The spellbook meets the floor in Yoongi’s room with a loud thud, the old yellow pages are turning until it’s open at the same page you were looking at before the unknown words glowing for mere seconds prior to flicking out as soon as you registered the weird occurrence and could blink twice. Now, you’re a little spooked out.

”Did you see it? I’m not hallucinating right?” Yoongi grabbed your arm shaking you out of your frozen state, his entire body shakes with excitement as he cradles the book in his hands, something within him speaks to him that he should read the words aloud in front of the oak tree and he puts on his coat in a flash.

”I don’t know what I saw but let's think about it first.” Planting your feet on the ground in vain, Yoongi appears to be in better shape than you are as he easily pulls you from your chosen spot, not hearing any reasoning you throw his way. Dragging your body behind him making you almost fall off the stairs, he puts your jacket around your shoulders so you won’t freeze as despite it being summer the nights could get pretty cold once the moon is out instead of the sun.

You have no other choice but to watch and hold his flashlight while he tries to read the words out loud giving the gibberish a few tries before he settles for a sound he finds accurate enough, chanting spells at the dead of the night makes you feel jittery in your boots and can’t help the movement of your eyes scanning the dark landscape around you if someone saw the two of you without any insight on what’s happening one might think you and Yoongi are in a cult in some sort, the thought itself makes you snort and your friend elbows you on the ribs shushing you so you don’t distract him from his very important reading session. You’re ready to head back to the house once this ridiculous rehearsal ends not expecting anything to happen once he utters the last syllables but things don’t exactly go as planned.

The oak tree seems to extend in height the leaves rustling and falling from the branches pulling four or five pieces of perfectly healthy green leaves out of your hair alarms you but not in the way when Yoongi suddenly grabs your sleeve pinching your skin with his tight hold as he gasps. That door seemingly carved into the tree’s thick trunk was not there a moment before.

The door had no knob to grab onto but it looked like one nonetheless as its lines were distinguishable even with the dark surrounding you. Yoongi stretched his hand out to cautiously touch the door’s surface whilst he still held your clothes tightly with the other one, you held your breath waiting, holding onto your friend’s limb for support. Not daring to say anything as you couldn’t decide it’s reality or a well-imagined dream, at this moment however it felt real.

Yoongi felt the pull that came from the other side of the mysterious entryway, he was equally curious and terrified of what lies beneath it but he pushed the door with trembling hands, stepping a little closer pulling you with the motion - having no knob to grab it seemed like the next reasonable thing to do - getting the courage from your comforting touch on his arm and presence beside him knowing that you’re right here with him made him brave.

The door opened and blinding darkness awaited on the other side but before either of you could move a muscle a transparent force dragged you and your best friend forward into the endless darkness.

***

”Are they dead?”

You started to regain your consciousness, voices filtered in while you fought with your eyelids to open but they felt heavy and the voices sounded far away like you were listening to them underwater.

”What are they wearing? I’ve never seen clothes like this before.”

”They have weird looking ears too.”

”Look, this one is alive.”

A choked groan slips out from between your chapped lips as you try to sit up using your strength, thankfully a hand slides behind you to support your back so you’re able to sit upright feeling the dirt and wet grass sticking to your palms your eyes finally snap open startling the people around you as they jump away from you.

”Yoongi!” You yell looking around like a madwoman whilst searching for his figure with your eyes and two feet away from you, you find him laying on the grass still unconscious. Standing on your wobbly feet you shorten the distance between the two of you and kneel beside his hip shaking his shoulders momentarily forgetting that other people are looking at you weirdly a few metres away.

He replies with a displeased grunt, head unoriented not realising that they are in a weird place laying on a field they have never seen before. Yoongi opens his eyes due to your continuous shaking and he sees the people behind your form when he sits up with your assistance pulling you down to protectively glue you to his side.

”Who are you?” Your friend asks eyes narrowed at the guys standing at a safe distance away from the both of you but he still observes them with sharp eyes. In your opinion, they look more scared of you than you of them. There’s three of them looking at the both of you like you’re some kind of alien, the one with the white silk robe and pointy ears surrenders first by putting his hands in the air and gestures for the other two to do the same.

”My name is Seokjin and this is Taehyung and Jimin.” The guy named Seokjin speaks who wears white silk, he’s barefoot the boy next to him probably the one who was previously declared as Taehyung wears different items of clothing as he wears fabric pants and a long-sleeved shirt in the colour of mud brown. The last one named Jimin seems the most outstanding as the thin shiny and filmy looking wings are hard to miss extending from his back, he wears different colour combinations of greens and greys and you realise that all of them is barefoot.

Jimin’s eyes are glowing in a hue of icy blue not hiding the fact that he looks like he’s fascinated by you and Yoongi’s weird appearance and unusual outer features. The winged man meets your eyes and smiles when catches your blush tainted cheeks, his blond hair and puffy cheeks make him appear innocent and cute. All of them look so beautiful in their unique ways that it’s hard for you to look away and inspect your best friend’s reaction to the three men.  

Taking the initiative when Yoongi looks lost with his words their eyes focus on you once more as you speak.

”I’m Y/N and this is my friend Yoongi. Can I ask where are we exactly? This is still Seoul right?”

They look confused again when you mentioned the city and Jimin even tilted his head slightly to the right repeating your hometown’s name like it’s a foreign concept they have never heard before.

”I don’t know what Seoul is. This is the land of Faerie.”

 ”Y/N. Pinch me, is this real? Faerie?” Doing as you were told, you pinch Yoongi’s arm hard but it seems like this delirious dream is still continuing. You sigh heavily before releasing him as he yelps out of pain.

”Ouch. Don’t you think it was too much?” He complains once he feels the dull pain your nails caused while digging into his pale skin leaving red half-moon shapes on his forearm, the boys watch the interaction with interest, they think that the two of you are very weird sometimes they can’t even figure out what are you talking about as they never heard those words before you say to each other.

”Maybe we hit our head and now we’re in a coma.” You hold your chin deep in your thoughts but Yoongi dismisses you as soon as the idea leaves your lips. ”Ok. Maybe we are sharing the same dream.”

”I don’t think that’s possible for both of us to be self-conscious inside the same dream Y/N.” Wiping the dirt from your jeans you accept Yoongi’s outstretched hand and both of you now stand on your feet. You look around the field and at the same time trying to figure out what could have happened last night, observing the entire land as a throughout for the first time since you arrived. It’s too detailed for a dream of a land that you’ve never seen before that’s for sure. And these people, you haven’t seen them either.

”I don’t know if you’re real or not. You could be a part of my dream too.” You reason, you couldn’t think of anything that would be remotely believable at this point but your brainstorming with Yoongi is cut short as Seokjin speaks again.

”Are you not fae, aren’t you?” The three of them looked at you expectantly but you couldn’t possibly answer as you could only just blink after hearing his question. Fae? No way. It can’t be that Yoongi’s grandma was right all along, right? That there’s a place where fae exists.

”Are you fae!?” Your friend exclaimed loudly nearly making you lose your hearing as he stepped closer to the three to see them better, however, because of the sudden movement they stepped back in return, it seems like the roles have changed as they looked weary of your friend this time rather than him narrowing his eyes at them. You can’t get over the fact that Yoongi accepted this so soon. You’re still not convinced that those people are magical creatures even though they look kind of otherworldly with their unique features and odd clothing.

”Yoongi, please, calm down. I know there should be a reasonable explanation to this somewhere.” Pinching the bridge of your nose you pull your friend back by grabbing the back of his coat he nearly lost balance as he stumbles back but settles down at your side making the strangers less alarmed.

”Look, Y/N. I know you don’t believe in any of this but if it is, in fact, a dream even if I think it is not all we can do right now is to go along with it and after some time we will wake up, no?”

You want to object that it’s ridiculous of him to think it’s reality and Fae really exist but you bite your tongue and nod for now. Arguing with him right now when you don’t have solid proof to state the opposite is pointless anyway. Massaging your temples you leave the talking to Yoongi.

”Have you guys heard about humans?” The three men gasps in unison after Yoongi’s grand announcement, all inhospitality is gone as they come closer inspecting you and Yoongi with newfound curiosity. Your friend likes this too much in your opinion so it leaves only you when it comes to finding out what really happened last night.

You don’t want to drag his spirits down as he looks so excited to actually talk and learn about Fae but someone has to think outside the box, doesn’t matter how ironic this sounds applied in this situation.

If you don’t think of every possible scenario then who would? Yoongi is far too gone and no reason would reach him at this point.

From all you gathered so far, you wear the same clothes as yesterday, Yoongi too. You remember him speaking out loud the written words inside his spellbook and suddenly a door appeared. You look around but there’s no tree near where you woke up, further north it looks like there’s some kind of forest but it’s impossible you walked forty minutes here without remembering a thing.

You call Yoongi’s name to catch his attention disturbing their animated conversation about something and you look him up and down before pulling at your hair in frustration. ”You don’t have the book with you, do you?”

Your friend sheepishly shakes his head, right, he must have dropped it when that force pulled you in. If this place is truly the realm of Faerie then you two are in big trouble if his grandma’s stories are anything to go by.

She said that light fairies and pixies and other peaceful creatures are not the only ones inhabiting this magical place. If there’s light there are dark faes as well and they are not as friendly as others.

”Let’s go!” Seokjin clapped enthusiastically and you felt Jimin’s hand guide you by intertwining your forearms, you are heading in the opposite direction where the woods are and you keep looking around with confusion written all across your face.

”Where are we going?” You ask still looking around like a lost sheep and Yoongi rolls his eyes at you instead of answering.

”We are heading back to the palace, the king would want to meet you since you came from the human world.” Jimin smiles, filling you in as you missed their conversation while you were trying to figure out how you got here. You anxiously bite your lip not entirely sure if it’s the right move to meet the king of Fae.

Yoongi catches the display of distress on your face and places a comforting hand on your shoulder slowing down to be able to walk beside you and Jimin. ”What’s the matter with you? Are you alright?” He asks for the first time since you arrived, he shows his concern for you. He’s far too excited about all of this to consider the dangers of this place unlike you who couldn’t think of anything else.

You have been walking for the past couple of days, learning that to reach the palace by foot it takes a little over a week to arrive flying would shorten the time but since Yoongi and you can’t do it it’s out of the equation and with each passing day it seems less and less possible that all of this is a dream.

You’re getting anxious by the thought that you haven’t encountered any fae on the way as your group is walking past deserted areas all the time. You wonder often why this place is so lifeless and how much luck the two of you had that these faes were nearby to discover you. Taking this long-distance without guidance would have resulted in you never finding your way out.

Grandma’s book had hand made illustrations of colourful green forests and lakes with crystal clear water but the only sight you see is dead trees and dried grass, literally no sight of life.

”What happened to this place if you don’t mind me asking. I don’t know how much is true but I thought that faes are playful creatures and notorious tricksters? Why this place looks so .. lifeless?”

Taehyung who were mostly silent during the journey looks at you with a grim expression and sighs.

”We are. Or we were. This is not our land yet, the land of Faerie is divided into two parts. This part is ruled by the dark fae and light faes don’t usually cross the borders because there are rumours that the king will tear your wings out if he finds you wandering in his territory.” Gulping audibly Yoongi and you lock gazes for a few passing moments before you decide to ask another question.

”Why the land got divided into two parts?” Seeing the severity of your surroundings you think it’s not something that happened overnight, it must be this way for a while now. You read the book with Yoongi a dozen times if not more when you two were kids and there’s a part of fae history that paints an entirely different picture, you’re positive that Yoongi is thinking the same. Some things have happened after the book was written that the author didn’t have the knowledge of.

While light fae was portrayed as peaceful creatures and playful in nature excelling in music and agriculture dark fae was known for their beautiful gadgets, crafts and furniture the trade between faes was fruitful as they could exchange the goods since each land had their special things to offer to each other. Your perception was that they deem great importance of rank and family birth, the light faes are the pillars of the economy and dark faes excelled in battles and had a well-trained army to protect all Faerie.

”Before you two came there was only one human in Faerie, it’s been a little over a hundred years ago that a human woman appeared and she disappeared one day without any trace. The Fae king from that time fell in love with her but his brother who was a dark Fae couldn’t accept that she didn’t choose him.”

”The dark Fae claimed the throne and divided the borders killing the former king. As the saying goes he still searches for that human girl after she disappeared. That’s why he can’t find out two humans came.”

Yoongi and you listen carefully while Taehyung tells you the brief story of the division of their lands, you look at each other conveying your thoughts without saying anything out loud you know the same thought process and realisation crossed both of your minds. That human was probably Yoongi’s grandmother who somehow ended up here like the two of you did, it would explain the spellbook and the knowledge she had on faes or why she told you stories when you both were kids and had this strong belief that fae exists.

You feel bad for always dismissing her stories as simple fairytales, Yoongi briefly caresses your back knowing you well enough to see your inner turmoil, he could easily just shoot you a smirk and say ’I told you so’ but he’s not that kind of person. You like logic and predictable things in life but this doesn’t make any sense.

He might be full of snarky comments but he sure knows when to become your friend when you need him.

***

Nighttime is incredibly cold, Yoongi and you cuddle to preserve your body heat every night although it doesn’t seem that the weather affects the fae at all considering their lose attire, you’re chilled to the bone with your jacket on while Taehyung snores peacefully next to you wearing only a thin fabric shirt, he’s not curled into himself like you.

You lay on your back and watch the stars above your head, the only thing that makes nights beautiful is how close the stars appear to be, at home because of the street lamps and the constant lights from cars or buildings you could barely see the sky this prominent. There’s no electricity here but it somehow looks magical.

Hearing steady footsteps your ears got accustomed to the silence, you tear your gaze from the sky because the lack of nature around you made your hearing especially sharp you’re able to pick up the pattern, the constant sounds coming closer and closer make your body jolt up, you heard dry grass crumbling under someone’s feet the sound seems distant but close at the same time like the sound is resonating inside your head you look around warily, can’t see through the thick darkness you can’t even decipher what’s in front of you five metres ahead. You shake Yoongi’s shoulders as panic starts to settle in but he doesn’t respond it’s odd because normally he’s a light sleeper. Taehyung is the closest to you next but his body is limp like he’s under a spell when you try to shake him awake, all your efforts are in vain and the sound keeps coming closer.

”W-who’s there?” Your voice cracks in the middle of the sentence, dread fills your muscles as you dig your nails to the soil to somehow seem less afraid of the thing that’s lurking in shadows ready to jump and tear you apart.

You haven’t seen animals so far but it’s wishful thinking on your part that there’s none your imagination paints the most hideous monster and your breath gets stuck in your throat as you fear the unknown you search for Yoongi’s hand but he’s not there when you look for his body that laid beside you moments prior, everyone is gone, left alone in the darkness. There’s a dead silence that follows your question for a moment everything looks still and silent.

”Don’t move.” The command came from behind you, a sword pointed at your pulse point ready to slice your fragile flash in a heartbeat if he deems you’re dangerous so you remain as still as you could, holding your breath in as the cold metal digs into your skin ready to draw your blood.

”Who are you?” The fierce voice belongs to a man you know it despite not being able to see his face not just because he’s behind your back but you couldn’t recognise his features even if he would stand in front of you that’s how dark the nights are in the land of Faerie or maybe your eyes are not good enough since this fae doesn’t look fazed by the darkness, the tone is harsh and authoritative as he treats you like a hostage his sword is firmly held against your throat and you’re afraid to speak not to accidentally cut yourself on it but he impatiently nudges the edge meeting with your jawline the side of the sharp end meets your collarbone as he manoeuvres his deathly weapon.

He hasn’t cut you yet but there’s no doubt in his practised motions that he will hurt you if he has to.

”M-my name is Y/N. Please don’t hurt me.” Biting your lip hard to stop your voice from cracking again your hand is firmly placed on your thighs as you sit on your folded legs digging your nails into the flesh of your thighs but the pain doesn’t register in your brain as your focus is solely on the deathly blade put against your life force. He doesn’t say anything for a while so you wait silently muscles tensed and eyes full of unshed tears as you think back on all the things you haven’t tried out in your short life. You’re too young to die and there’s still so much you want to do.

”You’re inside our territory little one, your parents haven’t taught you to stay inside your borders. State your business or I’ll slice your throat.”

You’re confused by the words he chose to speak, maybe their sight is not much better than yours as he clearly couldn’t tell standing this close to you that you don’t resemble any fae characteristics inhabiting this realm.

”I’m not a fae! Wait!” You yell in desperation when his blade moves smoothly in the air cutting your jaw and neck as he withdraws to place the tip under your chin, you face sideways but are still unable to see the dark fae that interrogates you. Warm blood spills from your wounds but despite the sting that comes with the injury it’s nothing you can’t endure, the cuts are superficial enough that no vital parts of you were hurt.

”I’m a human, I don’t know how I got here! It wasn’t my intention to cross your borders I swear!”

”Human?” Grabbing your chin with his hand he turns your face to fully inspect your features his sword is lowered enough that he’s not threatening to kill you until you decide to do something stupid and you’re not one to test your luck. His eyes flash a gold-yellow in the dark as he finally reveals his identity, face to face with you, not that you can make much out of his features.

You hear a commotion and new footsteps join before the fae could say something else, there’s flashing of multi-coloured eyes as their figures become bigger with each enclosing step your body freezes as a group of fae approaches you and your captor seemingly unaware of your presence so far but at this rate, you’ll be discovered soon enough if you don’t think of something quickly.

The man places his sword back into its holster and roughly pulls you up to stand next to his towering form murmuring some kind of spell under his breath his fingertips glow for a moment where he touches your forehead the voices are incredibly close by now and you still stand there rooted onto the spot frozen.

It’s too late to run, they will see you as soon as you make a run for it and your lips quiver as you don’t know what to do.

”Hoseok, we were wondering where you went off so suddenly. What are you doing here alone?” An older Fae with light green eyes whose voice sounds grittier than your captor’s flashes the man a crooked smile. Despite the playful edge he tries to convey he doesn’t appear to be friendly at all.

You can’t see all the details but faint lines, the other members of the group stands a few feet away their hands hold a ball of light in their palms to illuminate their surroundings providing enough light to catch the expressions on their faces.

You hold your breath as you watch the two men interact like you’re not even there, his green eyes scan the dead field around you your eyes met for the briefest seconds as an unstoppable shiver runs down your spine before he turns away, then you remember the spell.

It sounded familiar and you realise that’s because it’s inside grandma’s spellbook you memorised the short ones with Yoongi when you were kids so that’s why you can recognise it even if it sounded entirely different coming from a native’s mouth. But why did he cast a spell on you to be invisible? Isn’t them are his teammates?

Now that you look at them with the provided light their attire and posture reminds you of soldiers, they are dark fae soldiers you realise.

They are what Taehyung and the others warned you two about and now you’re in the middle of it surrounded by them. You could only hope that somehow Yoongi and the others are safe maybe they are invisible too considering how they disappeared after you looked away. The soldier already saw you so there was no option for you to hide without arising suspicion but maybe they are safe, you want to think that.  

”I didn’t know I have to report to you my every move.” Your captor speaks up in a neutral tone, unbothered by the fae who questions him, it seems to you that they are not on good terms and that’s unsettling. The green-eyed man doesn’t hit a sympathetic bone in your body either, but you can’t say much better about the man named Hoseok as he literally threatened to kill you and cut into your skin with his sword.

”I’m just wondering if there was a reason why you came this way since one of us saw four unidentified faes nearby. Perhaps you have something to report?” You clasp your hands over your mouth to prevent any noise from escaping, your captor flashes you a warning glare before he shrugs turning back to the Fae pretending to check on his weapon when he turned to your form.

They are talking about Yoongi and the others you are sure of it! At least this means they are in better circumstances than you are in right now. That’s a relief.

”Nothing worth mentioning commander Lee.” Hoseok states it with faux politeness and you move a little closer to his side, your gut tells you that you should be more afraid of that jade coloured eyes than the fae you encountered before. You don’t doubt that these people are dangerous but at least Hoseok seems like the lesser bad in this twisted situation you found yourself in.

Hugging your body with both hands you try to stop shivering as this appears to be the coldest night so far you experienced here.

Hoseok observes your every move from a short distance his hand is laying on his sword ready to fight if you try to pull something, but your brain is frozen as the cold seeps into your skin and chills you to the bone making it impossible to think straight.

He talked with his teammates for a while and had to wait for the right moment to slip away with you again but throughout all this time you were standing in the cold without anyone to keep you warm and the weather started to take its toll on your body.

”What’s wrong with you?” The man totally ignored your first question of if he’s going to kill you now, instead, he inspected your body reactions seeing you erupt in shivers and clenching your teeth, whilst he didn’t seem cold at all. It makes sense as they live here, you’re the alien invading their planet this time, how ironic.

”I’m a human and I can’t endure such cold weather so do something or I’ll freeze to death before you could even kill me.”

”What are you doing?!” You half yell as you don’t want to draw the soldiers attention who are probably still nearby, catching yourself by placing your hands on his firm biceps the sudden pull that made you collide with the fae soldier’s chest knocked the air out of your lungs standing immobile inside his arms. You feel the leather and iron parts of his uniform dig into your skin through your thin jacket and his sword is in sight when you look down avoiding eye contact.

”Humans are so fragile creatures, it’s not even winter yet.” You miss the teasing quality in his voice as your eyes grow bigger by the mention of winter.

This feels colder than any winter in your world and he tells you it’s going to be colder? If not the fae of this land the weather would probably kill you instead.

”What is your plan with me anyway? If you’re not going to kill me I have to get back to my friend.” You look into the darkness, no one in sheer sight and a sense of uneasiness fills you as you have no idea how will you do that when it’s questionable if you’re able to live through this night without freezing to death.

He’s your only hope in this situation and seeing that cocky smile on his face he’s fully aware of it.

”We are going to sneak out of this place. Commander Lee can’t find out there’s a human in our territory.”

A lopsided smirk found its place on his features as he slid his hand under your knees and he easily lifts you up in bridal style. You’re pushed against his warm chest and you instinctively curl around his body to steal some of his heat. No wonder he’s not cold his temperature is equal to a portable heater.

”Why would you do that for me?” Looking at him as you raise a single brow in question, you just can’t place this sudden change of heart anywhere.

”I have my reasons.” Hoseok doesn’t elaborate further as he starts walking with you inside his arms, keeping you warm. There’s something in your eyes that ignites a fire to lit inside his stone-cold heart.

For the first time since he was born he feels alive. He couldn’t sense any magic in you so why is he so enchanted just from your simple touch on his skin? It feels like you’re somehow special. He just needs time to figure out in what way.

***

Your muscles tense up immediately as the harsh wind travels through the lowland catching on your clothes and hair, the open area makes a poor job at sheltering your body away from the weather’s cold tugs and blows on your skin as it hits you with full force once more.

The breeze flings your hair over your shoulder giving Hoseok a mouthful, your lips are quivering with the faintest of smiles in the corners when he spits your hair out with a displeased groan. Payback is a bitch indeed.

”I c-can’t feel my face, please, let’s stop somewhere. I can’t c-continue while the w-weather is like this.” Your teeth knock together with each passing syllable as you grind them, the voice that comes out is muffled by Hoseok’s chest as you try to avoid another gush of wind before it can further numb your face muscles. Hoseok is warm against you but not enough to ease your discomfort for long.

He’s the one who carries your entire weight but you feel exhausted. You try to fight for your remaining body heat when all you are surrounded with is the coldness of the night. The constant shaking gets a lot of energy out of you, suddenly the night sky is not as fascinating as it was before.

The fae sees the origin of your conflict, you’re weaker than he originally thought.

Even if he wouldn’t be able to see it, it’s hard not to feel your body wantonly shivering against him and the tight grip you have on his armour is another telltale of your struggle.

There’s a cottage for patrols to use as a rest stop it’s a little further up ahead but he’s not sure if you could make it there with your low human temperature so he puts you down to get rid of his undershirt putting back his armour onto his bare skin and offers up the garment for you.

You reached the point where your brain couldn’t function properly because of the icy weather so you pull his shirt over your head on top of the jacket you wear without any objection.

You would normally feel bashful considering how ridiculous you look right now wearing clothes of the fae but the garment does a good job at keeping you a little bit warmer than before. You’re sure that his clothes are made of a different kind of fabric that preserves heat more than any of your fluffy winter jackets. It has a rougher texture and ticker in weaving probably designed for especially the fae soldiers to wear.

Hoseok is headed in the direction of the west with you, the route change makes the journey a little longer but a necessary precaution to avoid his other teammate’s confrontation. By now they probably realised he’s gone he has to be careful because you’re an easy target and even though he’s an excellent fighter he can’t fight four well-trained soldiers and his captain when he needs to keep you warm.

”You gave me your shirt, aren’t you cold?” You raise your head from where it was buried in his chest, now that you’re able to think more clearly with the extra layer on, you feel somewhat sorry that you had to steal his only shirt that covered his skin, the armour he’s wearing probably not much help to preserve the heat.

He may have put a sword to your neck and it’s not considered a very nice greeting in your world at least, but he did save you from his other teammates. No matter how much you don’t want to think about it, but if it weren’t for him you would be dead by now. He’s your sole mean of safety at this moment.

A glint of amusement appears in his eerie orbs, the corner of his mouth tugs upwards as he pulls you closer pushing your head against his chest. ”Only think about yourself petal. I don’t know how you humans do it but here you take care of yourself because no one else will. Keep this in mind.”

You nod against him even though you want to argue. It’s sad to think about that, only caring for yourself seems lonely to you.

But you decide to keep your thoughts to yourself as your eyes close on their own accord, listening to his breathing the sound surprisingly has a calming effect on you, you could easily drift off inside his strong arms now that you no longer shiver in every following second. ”You smell nice and so warm. Thank you.”

Your mumble is faint against his armour, he knows you’re not perfectly aware of the words spilling out carelessly as your judgement is clouded by sleepiness.

Your breath fogs his clear metal piece as you breathe in and out, his hearing can catch your words without effort thanks to his excellent hearing abilities, the words, however, ignite a weird feeling inside his chest seeing you so vulnerable between his arms completely at his mercy.

Hoseok can’t name this feeling. It’s a mixture of two entirely different things but the second emotion is one that he’s well acquainted with as the sudden urge to protect you washes over him seeing your fragile body, he could crush you if he wanted to. But he doesn’t want to. Hoseok tried to keep his composure around you but it was hard, his walls started to crumble down as soon as you slipped into a dreamless slumber.

When your scared eyes found his in the dark, shining with unshed tears in your waterlines it felt like air got knocked out of his lungs, you stared at him from the other side of his sword like a sheep facing the big bad wolf. He truly felt like a villain in your story.

At first, he thought that you’re just an adventurous seedling venturing too far away from home. It took quite a few moments to adjust his eyes to the darkness, seeing your features for the first time, you look nothing like a fae woman.

Hoseok had his fair share of women before but no one spurred such feelings to root inside his heart, you looked delicate in every possible sense, he doubts that you could live through another day in Faerie seeing how easy it was for him to draw your blood with a single swipe of his sword.

The cottage comes into view shaking him out of his thoughts, glancing down at your sleeping form. You unconsciously curl around him when he places your body down to rest on the blanket inside the tiny one-room shelter. It keeps the wind out so for tonight it will be a good place to rest he decides.

Hoseok faces you as he leans against the door guarding the entrance but your shivering starts again as you aimlessly paw around the blanket seemingly searching for something, or rather someone.

Testing out his theory he scoots closer kneeling beside your body and when your hand grabs his using the perplexed look on him as an advantage to pull him flush against you.

”Cold. Don’t go.” You pull the soldier impossibly close while you murmur into his skin, holding his body to you with your intertwined fingers around his waist, Hoseok watches your eyes flutter closed again once you found a favourable position tucking your head into his neck breathing in his scent.

He couldn’t get a wink of sleep that night with your body so close to him, his rapidly beating heart betraying his body’s reactions.

It’s hard to tell what’s in Hoseok’s mind. He’s not that talkative you realised it soon enough, he only answers your questions when it’s truly necessary like giving directions or telling you to rest for the night and the long walks in utter silence looking at his back because you can hardly keep up with his pace soon started to mess with your head. Despite the company, it felt like you travel alone.

You keep thinking about Yoongi and the others if they are well or struggling as you do with the cold. You can’t believe you say this as you always liked winter but you would rather have summer than this Siberian like conditions thrust upon you.

You hope Yoongi is alright. He’s probably so worried about you considering you just disappeared without any trace.

The silence makes you doubtful too, thoughts like what if you’re heading in the wrong direction is plaguing your mind non-stop, he told you that he’ll help you reach the borders but can you really trust his words? He’s a dark fae, there’s no guarantee that he’s not making you step further into their territory and offer your unsuspecting ass on a silver plate to their king. He saved you but you’re not so sure about his intentions anymore. The only thing you can do to slightly entertain yourself is think and you’re so sick of your thoughts by now.

Your leg almost gives out under your weight, today he made you walk a longer distance than he normally would and it makes you wonder how far the border is. It seems like forever ago that you begin to travel with him.

When he finally tells you it’s time to find a camping spot for the night you barely have the energy to nod. His silence is driving you crazy. He only ever speaks to you when it’s time to go to sleep, these uttered one or two sentences are not enough. You don’t know about faerie’s but humans are very social creatures.

Hoseok lets you snuggle close to him though, so you won’t get too cold throughout the night and most days it helps you relax and creates the illusion that he might care about you even if it’s just a little bit but tonight you face the walls instead, away from him. You can’t even make yourself look into his eyes.

You can’t deny any longer that you feel depressed. The only comfort you have doesn’t even talk to you, you don’t know if your friend is safe or not and on top of that you’re travelling with a dark fae in a world that you know nothing about. Grandma lied to you, she said that Faerie is beautiful but all you see is dead trees.

Scolding yourself for thinking so negatively you try to empty your head and catch some sleep, you feel so tired it’s easy to get emotional as things just seem to build up for quite some time in your heart.

You’re a hairbreadth away from crying but you bite your lip hard to prevent it, Hoseok will hear it and even though you’re convinced he wouldn’t do anything about it. He’s probably already sleeping but you just couldn’t allow it.  

His brows furrow in confusion when you turn around showing your back to him, normally you hug him like a koala by the time he settles down next to you but you’re clearly not in the mood for cuddling. He keeps treating you as a stranger and even though in some sense he’s right to do that. He’s afraid. Pushing you away is easier than telling you the truth.

You’re an entirely different species he might not understand your ways but it still hurts your feelings to get cold shoulder to every attempt to get close to him.

Hoseok keeps looking at your back, clueless about what he should do in a situation like this. You might not see it but he looks when you’re not, he could see the change in your expression.

He saw a lot of different emotions on your face, first, it was fear later it was anxiety and in the mix. There was a time when you were calm, you seemed to always calm down between his arms so why are you facing the wall?

”Don’t touch me.” You sound upset, you never used that tone before while addressing him it astounds him into silence, your hand is not hesitant at all to remove it from around your waist his hand lingers mid-air, still trying to figure out why you rejected him this harshly when you used to pull him close. Find comfort in him.

”Why? You’re shaking. I can keep you warm.” You scoff, funny to earn his words when you finally reached your limit, now that you pull away he realises something’s wrong.

It’s the longest sentence he spoke to you so far in one go, it’s not enough now, you’re too upset. It doesn’t matter if you’re being unreasonable, you’re lost in a land where your life is in danger and left without a strong foundation to rely on.

Yoongi is not here to tell you everything’s going to be alright. You’re scared and tired of doubting everything and everyone around you. You never felt so utterly alone before.

”I don’t need it.” Pulling your legs up you make yourself look as small as possible, hugging your arms to preserve your heat you push yourself against the wall instead. You hear him sigh behind you and it’s silent again. This time you can’t keep the tears from streaming down your face.

You feel tired when you wake up like you haven’t got any sleep last night but you pull yourself together, continue to trail behind Hoseok, this time you look in front of your feet chin ducked down to inspect the ground.

Your neck is stiff from the uncomfortable posture and the hard ground you’re forced to sleep on. Muscles sore and rigid from the cold since you spent your night curling in on yourself instead of cuddling with Hoseok. You thought your mood can’t decrease from this but after you spent your night without his heat next to you, you seem to hit a different kind of low.

”I don’t feel w-well.” Your vision gets blurry and your brain feels like it’s going to burst through your skull from the intense headache. You thought it’s from the lack of sleep at first but now it borders to be unbearable, you call out for Hoseok panic settles in as it feels like you’re going to die when your legs give out and you drop down to the ground.

Hoseok rushes to your side cradling your body between his arms his fingers cup your face whilst he calls your name repeatedly, the world gets dark around you but at least it feels warm now.

***

It’s familiar feeling your body rock back and forth, your eyelids are heavy but your consciousness returns little by little noticing more of your surroundings until you’re able to keep your eyes open.

”W-what happened?” You try to speak but you end up in a coughing fit you place your hand on his shoulder for leverage and you realise two things, first, your throat feels dry like the Sahara desert and two, you’re carried by Hoseok again.

He gently puts you down to sit on a nearby rock offering you a flask full of water. It’s the first time you take notice of the change in the scenery surrounding you. The grass seems greener and the trees are no longer bare trunks, they have green leaves and flowers on them ready to bloom.

You don’t have time to say anything else as things start to escalate fast from when you give the water bottle back to Hoseok, he’s suddenly pushed down onto the grass as two men overpower his attempts at standing up on his feet. You look around panicked as Hoseok struggles to break free but then you hear your name.

You turn around at the familiar voice shouting your name and you recognise Yoongi wildly running up to you to crush you with his big hug, he’s shaking inside your arms expressing his gratitude as he thanks the gods above that you’re alive and safe, tells you that they looked for you for weeks.

He keeps his arms around you firm and you almost feel like crying when his familiar scent penetrates your nostrils.

You hug him back after the initial shock wears off, there’s a grunt you hear that undoubtedly belongs to Hoseok what makes you step away from your friend despite his evident displeasure.

”Wait, wait! Don’t hurt him!”

Hoseok was able to surprise the man by throwing him off balance with a kick to his shin the man on top of him stubbles to the right, with practised ease Hoseok immediately stands up on his feet when the opportunity arises but he’s overpowered again when the first man restricts his movements from behind with a surprise attack and the other taking advantage of this situation delivers a strong punch that turns his face to the side with its sheer force, Hoseok’s eye looks feral as blood slowly drips down his face and you approach the scene without thinking.

”Let him go!” The adrenaline lends you the power to be brave as you try to pry their hands off of Hoseok but the man with the scar on his left cheek tosses you aside like you weighted nothing.

The way you land on your butt just makes Hoseok more furious and they need two more men to make sure he can’t escape their hold. Yoongi hurries to help you up but you can only look at Hoseok while he tries to fight off all those soldiers. He gets beaten up but his fervour never wavers.

”Tell them to stop! He’s not a threat!” You grab Yoongi’s hand pleading while the soldiers roughly handle the dark fae, he’s not one to admit defeat and you’re worried someone will get hurt if it continues like this.

”What are you talking about Y/N? He kidnapped you!” Yoongi looks at you like you have grown a second head. You suddenly feel a weight on your shoulder someone’s palm is on your skin and you realise it’s Taehyung’s when you look to the side.

You dismiss Yoongi’s words of disbelief as you try to convince Taehyung to tell them to stop. He’s a fae they will probably listen to him.

”He’s a dark fae Y/N and a high ranking soldier. He’s the son of the king, so why are you protecting him so much? I saw him putting his sword to your neck and draw your blood.” His finger finds the faint lines of the scar on your neck but all you can hear is his previous words. He’s the son of the king. A high ranking soldier and the son of the dark fae king.

He’s the son of the dark fae king? Hoseok stopped struggling against their hold altogether when you locked eyes with him meeting with your shock as you stall in disbelief.

”Hoseok, is it true? Are you..?” Your voice trailed off at the end. What can you even say in a situation like this? It speaks volumes when he looks away looking at the ground instead, going limp in the soldier’s hold. It’s the end - you will leave him, Hoseok knew that the moment will come soon when you look at him and see the liar in front of you.

Not your saviour he would like to pose as in your presence but a deceiver, without the lies he is unapologetically himself someone that you will despise but he’s also someone who fell in love with a human woman. Fell in love with you. He would give up his title only to hold you in his arms one more time like he did so many times before.

In a way, it starts to make sense. That’s why he never wanted you to get too close because he had secrets and knew it well that once you uncover them one by one it will be over, you will look at him differently like you look at him now.

You will not believe him even if he desperately tries to tell you he never wanted to offer you up to his father. He might have lied about his origins but his intentions were always pure with you and his emotions real when you shared late-night conversations.

He lied and pushed you away till you couldn’t bear the silence of his burdens. Hoseok knew that you’ll never believe him again. There’s this uncomfortable pain in his chest when he thinks about it.

”Should we execute him here?” The man with the scar asks Taehyung with a sinister look on his face and you immediately panic, grabbing Taehyung’s tunic to have his attention you beg him with your eyes to show mercy, even if Hoseok lied to you he still saved you and made sure you travelled safely to the border.

It would be unfair to execute him without a fair trial. Maybe some of the things weren’t true but one look at his pained expression when you discovered his title is enough to know that not everything was a lie. You want to believe that there were true moments shared between you during this long journey that you went on together.

It makes you realise that he knew it all along that he will trespass as he offered to help you and since he’s the son of the dark fae king they will not just let him go.

”No! You can’t do that!” Hoseok seems surprised by your outburst just like everyone else around you.

”Why not? He’s trespassing our border, he knew the consequences when he stepped through it.”

Taehyung quirks an eyebrow at you waiting for you to offer him a reason why he should spare his life, he can’t quite put his finger on why you would want to protect your captor who kidnapped you from your friend’s side. He couldn’t detect any foul play on you that furthers his confusion, you’re not under the influence of magic so why are you taking his side?

”Please I’ll do anything just let him go. Don’t kill him.” You can’t watch him die, even though he made you feel miserable there were times when he showed you he cared.

You want to believe that he cares about you, that’s why he kept his promise and helped you pass the borders in one piece despite the danger that he knew was lying ahead of you. Without him, you would have died a long time ago. He saved you so many times that you lost count.

”I wouldn’t be here without him. He might have lied to me but he still kept his promise and protected me, made sure to keep me warm. He’s the reason I’m not dead and lying around somewhere frozen to death.” Everything is frozen for a moment. No one dares to move as they hear your explanation, Yoongi visibly shudders when you mention the word, death. Taehyung is deep in thought, he recognises the string of fate that connects you to Hoseok. It becomes clear in front of everyone that you two are fated ones. It explains why he is so protective of you and why you can’t leave him to fend for himself in unfamiliar territory. No matter how much truth lies in his words you decide to trust him nonetheless.

”Let him go.” Taehyung motioned for the two men, they stood there frozen, startled that he would consider letting the dark fae’s son go like that. You don’t wait around wasting any time, afraid that he’ll change his mind you rush to Hoseok’s side hugging him with such a force that he almost loses his balance and sends the both of you rolling in the dirt.

”Don’t think for even a second that I’m not angry-” You look up satisfied to see a guilty look in the reflection, almost sheepish as he tries to maintain eye contact. He will spend eternity making up for his mistakes if you let him. If you give him one final chance to be true to you.

”But right now I’m just relieved that you’re alive. Don’t scare me like this ever again.” You missed his hug so much, you can’t hide the smile that starts to grow on your face when he drapes his arms around you, pulling you impossibly close to his body. This time it’s not for sharing body heat. This time he means it.

”Y/N are you out of your right mind?! He’s the enemy!” Yoongi yells but doesn’t dare to come closer while you hug Hoseok like he’s your personal teddy bear and not a high ranking soldier who could slit everyone’s throat if he wanted to with one practised motion. It reminds you of your first not so pleasant encounter with him. He has an intimidating look as he trails his sharp gaze over the people who try to come too close to make sure no one tries to separate the two of you again.

Everyone looks at Taehyung for guidance when he suddenly burst out laughing, finding this whole situation hilarious. Hoseok has a hand around your waist protectively pulling your body flush against his as if his life depends on the contact.

It’s endearing to watch the son of the cruel dark fae king turn soft for a human girl and clutch to her possessively. Everyone is shocked to see this plain show of affection coming from him. He had a reputation after all in the fae realm that doesn’t sit well with the tame image that he shows you.

”We can only let prince Hoseok cross our borders if you take responsibility for his actions while he stays as our guest. Do you accept?” Seokjin appears from behind Taehyung’s body gathering the attention of everyone at the field soldiers and commoners equally, his tone is serious and so your smile falters as you nod your head.

”I accept. I’ll take full responsibility.” You silently move to hold Hoseok’s hand, small butterflies erupt inside your stomach when he squeezes back and intertwines your fingers.

[sallysoot]

    ↱ IT’S A CONVERSATION. ↲

in the drift, the two of you are made equal. 

[ pairing ; (pacific rim AU) philza x reader ] [ stats & warnings ; 3.3k, second person, general angstiness warnings apply + some descriptive-ish kaiju death! ] [ notes ; this one’s pure self-indulgence, but i SUPER wanted to write it regardless. i tried to make it pretty easy to understand whether you’ve seen pacific rim or not, though i don’t know if i succeeded. OTL also i cannot write action at all don’t come for me with the kwoon combat scene 😭 ]

          if your mind has ever shown you kindness, its most gracious act is when it buried the memories of the day the kaiju crawled from the depths of the ocean and laid waste to your hometown. only a child, then, you were much too young to understand that the earth shaking beneath your feet was the same rumble of impending doom that had sunk californian cities and crushed lives in its rubble. when you hear others speak of that day, it sounds to you like a simple fairytale with its terrible, grim ending left intact. hastily written history calls it abedus. those that mock your personal disaster with comedy on live television call it toe-biter. you wonder what you had called it, in those memories that your psyche keeps locked away.

          you think it might have been monster. 

          an overfed orphanage replaced your childhood home, when help finally dragged you from your hiding place in the aftermath. the dark fog around your recollection subsides when you think of those times, with little to eat and the ever-present sound of children crying for parents that, for the first time in their short lives, never came back. a girl in her late teens had seen you, shellshocked and unresponsive, and took it upon herself to be the first one to care about you. her heart ached for the loss she shared in kind with you; something that your own heart could yet to bear the worst of. her name was benji, and she told stories as expertly woven as handmade tapestry. benji had promised you that when she left the orphanage, it would be to enlist in the jaeger academy. she even swore on her life that she would become a pilot to fight humanity’s latest foe. 

          ‘the kaiju will never hurt you again, okay? if any of them try, i’ll beat them up! they’d never get through me.’ she’d say, pretending to throw a punch at the air. you laughed, back then, at her pretending you were a kaiju and tickling you to death to demonstrate just how easily she’d emerge victorious. in your heart, though, you had hoped she’d never walk that path. the media made it seem glamorous, treating jaeger pilots like celebrities. but even as young as you were, you knew better than to think of it so casually.

          your silent prayers that benji would never graduate went unanswered, in the end. you saw her do it all, through the lens of the tv in the orphanage’s common room: graduate, fight, win, do interviews, become famous, promise to protect the people of the earth.

          then, in the end, you watched her die a death so horrible that there was nothing to recover or bury. her partner was dragged up from the ocean in mangled pieces, but they still had enough of him for a funeral, you heard. their jaeger, adder paladin, is laid to rest in its own graveyard, too. more people seem to mourn the mech than they do its pilots; you resent them for that.

          only months later, you outgrew the orphanage, too. benji’s optimism had taken her down a path with an untimely end, and you never shared the same blind faith she did. instead, you had resigned yourself to this: if it is inevitable that the kaiju will wipe out humankind, someday, you’d far rather meet your own demise fighting than face it hidden away in a bunker with a hundred terrified strangers.

          so you ghost through the jaeger academy. for four years, you are a specter taking tests and doing drills without leaving a trace of your presence behind. your scores speak for themselves when you refuse to; those numbers that summarize precious years of your life are what place you on a list of partner candidates for a man that you had thought much too legendary to be real, until you see him standing before you.

          phil zagami, notorious first for his victory streak and second for his vanishing act on the day it ended, stares straight through you. through everyone, really. his demeanor is heavy, its weight leaning into you as another candidate steps forward to challenge him. the last one before you, you realize. phil’s disinterest is palpable. he steps back, showing a respectful bow to his opponent— just a split second before he sweeps his staff under her leg on the first strike, sending her to the floor with a startled gasp. the time is called out from across the room. two point four seconds, and her chance had ended.

          as she collects herself and leaves the mat, phil looks to you. this time, he sets his gaze upon you instead of looking beyond. his winter-blue eyes pierce holes into yours; they invite you silently forward. so you move, gripping your staff in clammy palms and letting your feet sink into the mat. phil bows to you, so you return that respect to him.

          “let’s talk,” he says, a hint of light melting through the ice of his stare.

          a cold chill runs through your right shoulder, down to your fingertips. wide-eyed, you narrowly dodge phil’s first strike on that side. electric currents spark under your skin, guiding your foot forward to swing for his hip. he blocks you, turning on his heel to hook his foot under your knee while that foot is lifted. you lurch to that side in an attempt to force your balance. when you manage it, somehow, you swing the staff down, over his head. he clutches his own in both hands, blocking the attack with a wooden clack. 

          feeling the path of his next move, you block his return towards your chest. when you step forward, he steps back; you, to the side, him, to the side with you, circling the mat.

          it’s a dance, percussion kept in time with every breath and resounding noise of colliding weapons. the weight of his presence becomes light. his grim expression shifts into a smile and you think you might be smiling, too. phil catches you off balance on the next turn of your waltzing, catching the crook of your knee on his staff and jerking backwards.

          your back hits the floor, the wind leaving your body with it. as you lie on the floor, trying to catch your breath, phil stands over you. his chest rises and falls in time with your own. perfectly in sync, like co-pilots should be. he leans forward with his hand outstretched. you take it, letting him pull you up from the ground. when you’re upright again, he doesn’t let go right away; instead, he raises your joined hands to the air.

          the once-hopeful candidates watching your ‘conversation’ offer their support, clapping and cheering for you both. for the first time in a long time, you don’t feel like a ghost. phil saw you, when you danced, in a way no one has before him. you wonder if this is how benji felt, the moment that she and marley had chosen each other.

          phil chose you. so you choose him, too, then and there.

          with your first dialogue over, you move swiftly to the second, that night at dinner. the chatter of the room goes quiet as you focus on him, listening to his voice like it’s the only thing that matters.

          “where did you go when you retired?” you ask, curiosity taking its hold.

          “i’d hardly call that retiring. i didn’t get a 401k or anything,” phil replies with a little shrug.

          “okay, not retired... left, then?”

          phil looks away, suddenly finding the contents of his plate much more interesting than you. “you’ll find out, won’t you?”

         “what do you mean?” 

         “when we drift,” he says. “you’ll know everything, then.”

          realization washes over you. you’d almost forgotten that your designation as co-pilots is far from over. you shudder to think of him trawling through your memories, seeing every embarrassing moment and failure you’ve ever lived through. you know that it’s a necessity, in order to sync your minds to one another and the jaeger, but you wish it could be any other way. “right...” you murmur.

          “don’t go getting all reluctant on me, now. it’s not as bad as you think.” phil pushes the rice on his plate around for a moment and takes in your palpable uneasiness. “the psychologists that made the whole thing say that the ‘modesty reflex’ is one of the main reasons people aren’t able to drift. they panic and hide things, so it fails. we could get it out of the way now, if you want.”

         “uhhh-” you raise a hand, shaking your head in panic.

         “here, i’ll go first,” phil proposes. he doesn’t gve you the chance to interject before continuing, “when i was a recruit, i had this one picture from a magazine of megan fox. i liked it. i mean i really liked it, so-”

          “ew! okay, okay, no, i’ll just wait for the drift to get a load of that image, thanks.” you try to sound a bit serious, but it’s all for show and you start giggling. when phil laughs, too, your suppressed laughter gets loud until you’re cackling in the corner of the table with him. your sides feel like they might split, and it isn’t until someone from another table exclaims ‘shut up!’ that you quiet down. when phil looks at you a split second later, though, you get carried away all over again.

          that night, after practically getting heckled out of the cafeteria, you stare up at the ceiling and wonder how the drift will go, when the time comes. the next few weeks pass in a hurry; fourteen-hour training sessions in the combat room leave you tired but nonetheless fulfilled, and your skills become rounded out with the help of phil’s experience. soon, perhaps too soon, the time comes to drift with him.

         phil tries to keep your spirits high with laughter and reassurance, but he can’t hide the unease in his own form, either. he looks different, in the drivesuit; he looks like the man that you saw on tv, the one that took on impossible odds and won. there’s that hollowness to his face,though, that makes him recognizeable to you, as your friend and co-pilot. 

          you’ve never truly set foot in a jaeger before now, and its sheer scale becomes all the more apparent as you’re brought to stand in the cockpit with him. phil looks to you as the suits connect, locking you in to the fate that you’ve chosen. “they told you already,” he says, “but don’t chase the RABIT. they’re just memories, alright? don’t linger on any of them, no matter how real they feel.”

          “...i don’t remember things that happened, when i was young. will you see them?” you ask. “will i?”

          “yes, i’ll see them. do you want me to tell you what i saw, when we’re done?”

          “no, i... don’t want to know,” you decide, settling back and taking in a deep breath. some things are better left forgotten. you close your eyes and wait for the drift to begin.

          the robotic, tinny voice overhead tells you: neural handshake initiated. all at once, you’re dragged through what feels like a pane of glass, thrust into a shattering field of blue over your vision. you see yourself, young and untouched by the cruelty of the years ahead, laughing on a swingset with once-familiar hands pushing you forward. it goes blank, dark, until you re-emerge on the other side in the orphanage with benji. you see yourself stutter over a presentation in your second year of high school, and the time your first date stood you up. you see your failures laid out so plain and simple that it stings. all at once, those are overtaken by the crushing weight of watching the last news report about benji that ever ran. your memories play out like cinema, taking phil with you through each set of grief and embarrassment and every ‘first’ you remember living through. every time you want to hide, you force yourself to keep the wall down; you want this. you want to be a jaeger pilot with phil and continue the legacy that was promised to you. 

          the kaiju will never hurt you again, okay?

          the memory passes by, too, but you wish you could cling to it. you want to live in that time again, when there was only you and the promise of a future that was too distant to think of as reality just yet. when you leave this place, for the first battle that you will take on, will you be afraid? will phil be afraid, with you?

          just before your side of the neural load stabilizes, phil sees a memory of only weeks ago, of you reading through old articles about him and the battles he’d won. you nearly try to block him out of it at the moment you see yourself go red, flustered by the thought of him. of all the embarrassing things, you dread to think that had to be among them. even so, you let him walk through it, and for the first time, you have been seen. so truly and deeply that every vulnerability is exposed, handed over to him with faith that he won’t exploit it. your trust belongs to him alone. so much that parts of yourself invisible even to you have been handed over to him to keep safe; even the hours upon hours spent training with him couldn’t have prepared you for being flayed open with your heart rendered bare.

          so when phil lets you in, you think you’re ready to be shown the very same thing. his childhood is warm, and the gentle comfort of it doesn’t subside until later than in your own. you watch a kaiju tear up the seaside town he’d called home. the ground splits apart with all the struggle of eggshells underfoot, and his mother is swallowed by the earth seconds after she pushes him away from her.  you see him try to reach for her into the darkness of the pit, knelt by the edge and calling down to her in a voice shattered by overuse. he turns to look at the ocean when great calamity stirs up even more noise; a jaeger you don’t recognize rushes the kaiju, wrestling it beneath the surface of the water. its hands go violet-hot as it grips the head of the kaiju, squeezing and squeezing while the thing screeches, writhes, until its skull bursts open. toxic blood and brain matter sizzle away on the hands of the victor while phil watches in silent awe of the power before him.

          he lives with his grandparents, always thinking of the pilots that had saved the survivors of the wreckage, until he enrolls in the same academy you had attended. you see him surpass his classmates, until he graduates with incredible honors and goes straight to combat with his co-pilot: a pretty woman with silvery-white hair. you see the two of them get married a year later, then have a son a little after that. when she dies of sepsis in the aftermath, your heart aches to watch him raise the boy alone. even so, you feel the adoration in every moment they spend together. you watch him grow up and follow proudly in the path of his father. 

           wilbur becomes a pilot with an ego and the skill to back it up. he’s quick-thinking, showing the effects of his training since youth. he and phil become co-pilots, taking on battle after battle and coming away with glory. there’s a crack of thunder that marks the change in memory; you’re inside of the jaeger with them, now, and there’s flashing lights and flying sparks that tell you everything has gone wrong. with a horrible screeching sound, a long spike spears through the cockpit.

           and through wilbur. he chokes and gasps for air while phil shouts at him, watching the lifeblood pool at his feet. he’s in agony unspeakable, but you can hear it in his voice when he begs, “dad, it hurts- fuck just kill me!”

           so he does, sobbing as he takes a loose-hanging tube from the ceiling and slips it under wilbur’s helmet. your confusion turns to dreadful understanding; toxic gas will kill him even faster than bleeding out, it will make his passage less painful.

          phil pilots the jaeger alone, in piercing agony as he shares the burden of wilbur’s death with him, feeling all the pain and terror until it goes dark. the neural link is severed, there’s a complete void and emptiness where it should be. he’s not been truly alone for so long. he finishes off the kaiju in a furious twist around its neck. the beast dies, and phil nearly goes with it; the neural load is too much for one person, after all.

          he has a stroke the very moment he crashes upon the shore. it leaves him weak and useless for months. you feel his rage and frustration, trapped in his own mind and unable to speak. his body recovers, he regains his full capability in what doctors call a miracle. though his body heals, his heart does not, and the anger makes him a vicious man until they ask him to pilot again. he doesn’t want to lose another co-pilot, you hear in his protests; they eventually die out as he finds that he hates kaiju more than he fears another loss. 

          memories of the past months flicker by easily, until his side is stabilized, too. it feels as though you’ve lived through years, yet you know it’s been only moments. synced with one another and the machine, you think to reach a hand out and phil does it with you. you can feel the weight and power you’re controlling with every move, even as you turn your hand upright and give a thumbs up. phil looks to you with a wide smile. you feel his excitement and his exhaustion like it’s your own-- and it’s exhilerating to be one with another person.

          when the test is over and you’re released from the jaeger, you stumble giddily down the platform next to phil. “amazing,” you breathe, nudging your shoulder up against his. “you’re amazing. everything you did was.”

          phil shrugs, but you see him trying not to smile. “all of it was what i had to do,” he replies.

          you hesitate a little before slipping your hand into his, interlocking your fingers. “okay, mr. humble. would you rather i focus on the megan fox thing, then?”

         he laughs and rolls his eyes. “no, no, i’m good.” phil turns to you as he pauses on the platform, squeezing your hand. his expression goes a bit somber as he says, “we’ve both lost a lot, already. but i don’t want to lose you next. so when we go out there, for real... don’t be stupid. or overconfident, or whatever.”

          seeing the time for jesting is over, you nod. “i won’t.” you lean back against the wall and he follows, heaving a sigh as he does. “we’re in this together. we’ll win, together.”

          phil lets go of your hand to hug you, instead, pulling you close. “and losing?” he murmurs.

          you rest your head against him, arms wrapping just as tight around him. “that, too. together, from now until the end.”

          he rubs the small of your back with his palm outstretched. “you’re supposed to say we won’t lose.” 

          “fine, then. we won’t lose,” you concede. it feels as though you’ve known each other for far longer than a number of weeks; more like a lifetime, after having seen each other’s. you tip your head to look at him and see that he’s already looking at you, and the two of you move in sync even without the aid of the drift. phil runs his fingers along your jaw, leaning down to kiss you. 

          it’s a dance, too.

[hanniiesuckle17]

The Fae and The Seraphim

CHAPTER ONE

A/n: so this gif is not mine! credit to the owner and creator! look at his hair thoughhhh. So this series is going to be loosely based off of Amazon’s Carnival Row bc we all love Orlando Bloom especially Amber stans (you know what I’m talking about) yes definitely making this a series but no set post schedule (probably wont ever have a post schedule for this cause.....im me...)

Word Count: 4k

Warnings: cussing, 18+themes, mentions of violence (all of this eventually)

Tag List: @poeticallyspaghetti @hanstagrams @hoes4hoseok @yangomangos @geminirules @jisungsjheekies @cotccotc @ph0ebevix​ @mini-meanhoe​ @desertofdessert​ @distrikt9​ @multi-net(Tag List is Open)

Summary: Crea were never meant to interact with humans. They were mythical creatures that came from fairytales, but they had been around longer than humans had. The love between one Fae and one soldier seem to turn the world upside down. Their story is not one for the light of heart, but the light of heart would never turn away a love story such as theirs.

Genre: fantasy!au, victorian!au, steampunk-ish?!au, romance, angst, non-idol!jaeyoon, soldier!jaeyoon, faerie!reader

❧

A cool breeze blew across the gulch. It whispered through the branches weaving through the leaves bound to fall from their tight grasp on the thin boughs of the trees. A somber gray seemed to hang over the land as far as the eye could see. It had been that way for as long as I could remember. 

Despite this, Cothia still had a beauty to it unlike anywhere else I had read about. There was always a light snow in the air or on the mountain ground, the flakes dusted the trees and roofs of our monastery I could see in the distance. The Fae had inhabited Cothia since the beginning of time. We were tasked with keeping the records of the world’s history. We were a species of great mystery and wisdom. 

The thundering sound of the monastery's horn burst through the silence of the nature around me. My ears pricked up listening for a second blast. After that, another came. Three blasts. Three blasts meant newcomers up the mountainside. 

My wings fluttered behind my back blowing a cool breeze over my neck, pushing the hair aside as my feet lifted off the ground. The familiar hum of my beating wings filled my ears as I flew over the vast land below me. As I floated closer to the monastery which I called my home, my eyes looked for any sign of life along the steep mountain roads. 

A winding stream of dark battered navy coats and hats lined up outside the wooden abbey doors. Easily forty faeries flew above the open abbey walls, surveying two men on horses from the air. Our leader, a Mima of the highest order, addressed them from the ground, wings spread wide. 

The hum of beating wings turned into a roaring buzz filling the quiet mountain air. The wind stilled, sensing the tension between the two humans and the hundred or so faeries surrounding them, waiting to see what they would do.

“We come peacefully.” One of the men said, pushing up the brim of his cap. He had sloping features and a pronounced chin. Features that suited his soft downturned eyes. “My name is Kim Youngbin. I am Colonel of the Third Hallow Fusiliers. We have been sent to guard a telegraph line a few miles east of here.”

Mima Egeria showed no sign of acceptance, but she didn’t turn them away either. My stare fell to the second man. I watched as he removed his cap, long fingers holding onto the brim as he shook out his dark slightly curly hair, bangs falling in front of his eyes. He carried himself with power, but let the man beside him speak. By my observation, he must be a commanding officer. 

Unlike his captain, his features were sharp, except for some roundness in his cheeks, which were slightly pink from the cold. Puffs of air expelled from his plump lips with every breath in the mountain air. Had I not known he was human or seen the Hallows emblem on his coat shoulder, I would think his face almost impish; Pix like. The shaggy onyx snow dusted locks fell in front of his eyes as he stared up at the faeries watching him. 

“We ask for the use of this Abbey as a base for our soldiers. We wish to make an alliance with you in the name of The Hallows.” The voice of Colonel Kim was calm and steady, carrying through the walls of the monastery and up to our ears above him. I watched Mima Egeria carefully, awaiting her message.

“This is a holy place. Conduct yourselves accordingly.” Her sonorous voice echoed in the thin air. 

Her wings closed behind her back, and slowly I sunk down to the ground with the rest of the Fae and  Pix around me. The two watched with an interested gaze as we floated down to the surface feet gently falling on the gravel. A few went to welcome the soldiers, I followed Mima as she left the courtyard. 

“Mima!” My feet followed her deep purple robes, lifting off the ground occasionally to catch up with her. How a woman her age still moved with such speed was beyond my knowledge. 

“Yes, my child.” She sung, turning back. 

“Should we really trust them? It is hard enough defending ourselves against the Pact. What if-”

“Y/n...have faith, my child. You are strong willed. You have never been one to float with the current. They need us, little one. when asked we will give, when one pleads we give mercy. This is our way.” 

Her frail but steady hands rested on my shoulders. “Yes, Mima.” Egeria’s long slender fingers wrapped around one of the three long beaded braids in my hair. She glanced over it smiling at the clear glass bead at the end. 

“Your moon cycle is almost upon us, Y/n. I’m so happy to have watched you grow up in the Abbey.” I smiled at her mention of my age bead. When a Fae was born, a braid was started with a single glass bead signifying their birth. On their first birthday, another braid was added this time with two dark red beads. They were meant to be given away when the Fae gave their heart to someone. The third was a bead made of a type of crystal which was given when a Fae earned their assignment.

“It is, Mima Egeria. I’m happy to spend another year serving Fasora Abbey.” She nodded, looking towards the now open wooden doors. Following her gaze, I saw the man from before, white flurries clinging onto the curly black strands of his hair. He ushered in soldiers from atop his horse, a rifle slung across his back. His gaze flicked towards us, his eyes seemingly darker than his hair, yet holding a warmth to them. “Do you sense something about the soldier, Mima?” 

Her shoulders lifted and a smile tugged at her lips. “A Mima can only ask the spirits to guide her. The spirits tell me he is a special soul; known to our kind. Best to watch him, little one.” Through the light snow, he watched us with a focused gaze. The observant stare of a fighter. A stare that observed, but did not see. The stare of a human. “Y/n, I think it best if you return to your post. The Archives should not be abandoned.” 

“Yes, Mima.” My wings fluttered to life, lifting me into the sky. A pair of eyes watched me fly away from the Monastery towards the Archives hidden in the walls of the mountain. 

❧

The air smelled of parchment and wax. Soft flecks of dust hung around the shelves. The shelves. Thousands of them. Each holding books and manuscripts on every subject dating all the way back to the beginning of time. My legs hung off either side of one of the many cornices in the Archive. The shelves lifted so high that soon they turned into a vast black abyss. 

The pads of my fingers pressed against the yellowing page of a book resting between my legs. It was one of the many books I had yet to finish in the never ending library. The book told the story of a Pix explorer and his findings after sailing to the Hallows before they were formed. 

The click-clack of boots against stone sent me up into attention. Crouching on the cornice, I watched in the low dim torchlight as a navy coat walked into the room. Making myself one with the shadows, I watched as the soldier looked up into the infinite shelves of the Archives. The Archives that no one but a few faeries were subject to the knowledge of.

His black hair fell from his eyes revealing the rest of his face. Handsome- for a soldier.  Most of the soldiers in the abbey were dedicated to their line of work so much that what happened to their bodies was considered a small price to the pay for the safety of our kind. There were no use for pretty faces among protectors. 

With narrowed eyes, I watched his hands ghost over the pages of an open book on the table. A tome easily hundreds of thousands of years old. His slender fingers gripped the page, turning it over. 

Silently, I pulled the small dagger from my boot and floated down behind him. The man stood unsuspecting reading the ancient text, or what he could of it. He stood almost perfectly six feet tall a tower over the desk. My feet ghosted over the ground, wings beating softly.

My hands moved at lighting speed wrapping around him and pressing the blade against the skin of his neck. “Oh fuck!” He gasped backing into me in surprise. His hands moved up in surrender, but I kept my hold on him tight. 

“You aren’t supposed to be here, Hallow.” I spat. No human had ever set foot in the Archives. This was a sacred place. “Who are you?”

His hands remained steady, but from my grip on his neck I could feel his pulse rapidly beating. His tongue swiped over his lips. My firm grip kept him from turning and looking at me. “Lee Jaeyoon. I’m a Commander for the Hallows. Who are you?” He made a pathetic attempt at a smile, but I pressed the knife further into his skin threatening to draw blood. 

“Well, Jaeyoon,” I said twirling the blade in my fingers before rejoining it with his neck. “I suggest you turn around and leave this place or I may just have to kill you. I wouldn’t really like to mop your blood off this floor, but I will if I have to.” 

His adam’s apple bobbed with a strangled laugh that left his lips. “I didn’t know Pix were so violent.” Loosening my hold on him, my wings beat a little faster moving before him. His eyes widened seeing me as his attacker.

“It is obvious you know something about Crea, so says Mima. So, you should know ‘Pix’ is the term for male faeries.”

“You’re a Fae...”

Jaeyoon kept a wary eye on the blade in my hand, arms still raised and open. “And you, Commander, are still in my Archives.”

“I thought you were still deciding whether to kill me or not?” He asked with a cheeky smile, his brow quirking upwards. 

“How do I know that if I let you leave here you won’t tell any of the soldiers about this place?” 

He shrugged looking around the library before back to me. “Guess you’ll just have to trust me.” There was no way I could trust a human soldier to keep the secret of the Archives. How had he even found this place anyway? “Or...” He said putting his hands down by his sides. “You could kill me, and the rest of my regiment will find this place anyway looking for my body.”

I hated that he was right. “Fine.” Jaeyoon let out a sigh as I pulled the blade away. 

“What’s your name?” 

“I’m the Watcher of the Archives. That’s all you need to know.”

He nodded looking me up and down. His focus noticeably shifted towards my wings as they stopped beating and lowered me to the ground and my normal height. “I’ll be going then,” Jaeyoon said, his words echoing off the cavernous walls.

I watched the worn navy coat turn and exit the way it had come. The onyx hair of its owner blew as he passed through the open passage of the rock. Mima Egeria was right...Lee Jaeyoon was best to be watched. Why... I did not know yet. 

❧

Like every other magical day in Cothia, gentle snow floated down on the mountainside coating every tree, roof, and head it touched. My legs swung over the edge of the patched roof. The abbey was filled with busy bodies moving in little winding paths through the flurries. 

A chilling breeze blew through the abbey. A fae carrying straw struggled to keep stray pieces from flying away. Four days. Four days had past since the soldiers entered the safety of our walls.

The smooth skin of an apple rubbed against my palm. My lips tasted the sweet juices as my teeth sunk into the fruit. Falling back into new habit, my eyes found the tall head of dark hair. The curls blew gently in the wind, white frozen flakes sticking to the locks. 

His ears were turning pink from the cold joining the color on his cheeks. The officer stood next to his superior and another soldier. The three men spoke to Mima. Even from far away I could see the spark in her lilac eyes. Her silver hair hung in wild spirals around her face. The beads in her hair glinted in the sunlight, casting a partial colorful glow over her tan aged skin. 

Her wings were folded behind her, acting like an intricate delicate shield against the weather. She held her hands in front of her, fingers gently intertwined. They seemed to be speaking fervently. 

Listing my head, I peered down into the abbey watching them closely. The higher officer seemed to be posing Mima Egeria a question. She listened intensely, smiling kindly at the men. 

Jaeyoon spoke up and Mima’s brow rose as she looked the commander over. Taking another bite from the apple, my eyes focused in on the lips of the nearest soldier. Despite my efforts I could not decipher the movement. My curiosity was quenched when all four heads looked up to my spot on the roof. 

Mima gracefully motioned me down from my perch. Pushing off the roof I floated down and landed next to my mentor. A gentle hand rested on my shoulder. All three pairs of human eyes stared at me. “Little one, you have been requested personally to help these brave soldiers with a mission.” 

I scowled knowing exactly who asked for me. Despite not knowing my name he managed to drag me into this mess. “Should I call you little one, as well?” Jaeyoon asked, a smirk playing at his lips. 

“If you have an urgent desire to eat your own eyes.”

A quick jab to my side had me shutting my mouth before Mima decided to make me clean the commissary. “We just need someone of your talents to assist us.” The captain, Youngbin, stated. 

“My talents?” 

“Mainly your wings and your ability to keep a secret.”

❧

The snow had ceased its unrelently fall. A chilling wind blew across the mountain path as we ventured up to the check point. Several of the men rode on horses and split from our original group to move towards the other end of our mission. My eyes trailed the man with dark curly hair as he rode off with three other men. 

“Not so fond of Jaeyoon?” 

Turning, I saw the leading officer ride up next to me on his steed. After racking my brain, I recalled the soldier’s name. Youngbin. His dark hair blew in the wind slightly. The man had a kind face. His jaw was set and he held the features of a leader. 

“Well he did not make the best first impression.” 

Youngbin laughed and slowed down his horse to match my stride. “Jaeyoon means well. He’s a good man.” Rolling my eyes was completely involuntary. “I can see you think less of us.” Despite the connotation of his words, the Colonel looked down at me with a knowing smile. 

“It is not that I think less of you. Humans have not been in Cothia for tens of thousands of years. We are simply wary of your impact on not only our culture but the spiritual nature of our land.” We fell into silence, moving along the incline of the mountain. “How much father are we going?” 

The colonel looked back to see some of his men on foot struggling to adjust to the thin alpine air. “Not far. We should be reaching the line any moment now.” Sure enough the trees cleared and we came upon an open gorge. A large wooden pole was stake into the ground and a severed metal wire lay blowing and bouncing off the rock face.

“Commander Lee and his group should arrive at the opposite side soon. Rest then get ready to replace the wire once we receive the signal from the other team.” The soldiers collapsed on every surface they could find. Some watched with still wide eyes as my wings carried me to a nearby tree branch. The other side of the gorge was unseen through a heavy lingering fog.

A quarter of an hour had passed and the men had only just reattached the end of the new telegraph line. I watched them mill about from my vantage point in the trees. However the view of the forested mountaintops was far more enchanting in my eyes. The peaks towered through the mist. The sight reminded me of a painting form one of the many ancient texts I had read in the Archives. 

The sharp sticotto sound of a gun shot echoed across the ravine. Youngbin pushed himself up onto his feet and beckoned me down from my perch. “That’s the signal. They’re ready.”

“You really need my help?”

“Do you see any other being that can fly a mile over an open chasm?”

“Fair enough.” 

With cold trembling fingers the Colonel handed me the wire. It was heavier than I expected. It was a wound cable and the smooth thick metal felt foreign in my hands. “Remember, should something go wrong while you’re crossing-”

“Yes, I know. Call out.”

Not wasting a second more, I unfolded my wings and let them open. Several murmurs were heard behind me as the soldiers gazed at the delicate, intricate patterns and natural designs of my wings. The near transparent parts of the appendages glinted with shifting colors of blue, green, and lavender as the light bounced off of them. 

The soft familiar hum filled my ears and my feet lifted from the ground. The fog consumed me only moments after leaving the ledge. A chill ran down my spine. Light droplets of water from the mist gatherd on my cheeks. The wind howled and whistled. My grip tightened on the cable. By now I must be crossing over the midpoint of the gorge. 

It wasn’t what lay below that let the tiniest bit of fear creep into my chest. It was what I could not see behind the shadows of the fog. Not much scared me. I had learned that there was little to fear when fear was embraced. 

Breathing in the fresh clear mountain air I pushed forwards and flew through the dense mist. Just when it felt as if the fog was never ending, I broke through the veil. I was met with a vision of four soldiers waiting for me. The head of shaggy waved black hair that was slowly becoming familiar stood waiting with his arms crossed and navy coat blowing gently in the breeze. 

“Hallow,”

“Fae,” 

My feet descended to the ground and my reflexs kicked in feeling a hand on my arm. Looking down I saw long slender fingers wrapped around my sleeve keeping me steady. Suprisingly they were attached to the Commander. Seeing the cold look in my eyes, he quickly detached from my arm and scratched the back of his neck. 

“Is this all I’m needed for?”

The tall brunette nodded, looking around and taking the cable from my hands. “We may need you if something goes wrong while we are rewiring the line.” Shrugging, I pulled my coat tighter around me and sat against a rock returning, as before, to the breathtaking view of the mountains. 

“Do you like to read?” The deep voice asked about ten minutes later. Turning I found Jaeyoon standing above me, his cap covering his dark hair. To my displeasure he sat next to me. His dark almond eyes glanced back at his platoonmates. 

“Pardon?”

The charming man shrugged and pouted his lips looking out at the view. “Well I assumed guarding a library like that you must love to read.” 

I rolled my eyes and adjusted my position, my wings getting cramped behind me. “Well, Jaeyoon, if you must know, I do love to read. And it is not a library. It is an archive.” The soldier chuckled removing his hat and shaking out his shaggy hair. 

“It is not fair that you know my name yet I am still hopelessly lacking of yours.”

“The world is cruel and unfair, Commander.”

A silence fell between us. Though I was used to the chilling air, I felt a warmth radiating off the soldier beside me. Bothered by the awkward silence and the fact that he simply did not get up and leave, I looked over at the man. Something in his long fingers caught my eye. A book, one like I had never seen before lay in his grasp. It was just barely smaller than the size of his hand, the perfect size to put in a pocket. It wasn’t bound in leather like the volumes in the Archives. Its cover was made of some sort of paper or thick parchment. 

“I assume you read.” He nodded and only glanced at me before returning to the expanse of the mountains before us. The fog was beginning to clear and I could make out the lines of the opposing rockface. “What’s that?” 

Jaeyoon looked from me to the book in his hands. “This? It’s my favorite novel.” Without hesitation he handed me the book. There were drawings on the cover of the moon and some strange contraption. 

“Novel?”

“Yes, it’s called Journey to the Seraphim.” The familiar smell of worn parchment filled the air as I flipped through the pages. “Seraphim means angel. It’s about this inventor who travels to the moon.” 

I scoffed. “The moon?” I turned to fully face the soldier who wore a timid smile on his face. “That’s impossible. How would one even get there?” Jaeyoon reached over taking the book from my hands, brushing his fingers against my skin in the process.

“Well you see, the inventor, he makes this vessel and he propels himself into the atmosphere.” I rested my chin on my palm, listening intently as Jaeyoon vividly described the book, his hands moving as he spoke. The pages fluttered in his grip. “He gets to the moon and he falls in love with this princess. She rules this tribe of people who live there.”

Leaning against the rock, I listened to Jaeyoon tell me about his favorite novel. He talked about how the author was quite well known back in the Hallows and he had almost met him once. He described the characters in great detail, a spark igniting behind his eyes. 

All of a sudden he stopped speaking, looking at me with a fond gaze. With a smile he passed the book to me. “Here.” I found myself smiling as I gazed into his dark eyes. “You can have it.”

“You’re giving this to me?”

The man nodded, dark threads of hair falling in front of his eyes. “Keep it. I have another copy back in the Hallows.” He started to say something else but another soldier called out his name. 

With a sigh he got up dusting off his coat and turning towards the man in need of assistance. “Y/n,” I called, making him turn around at the sound of my voice. “My name is Y/n L/n.” Jaeyoon smiled, his eyes turning to crescents. The soldier once again called his name, but he looked back at me fondly before going towards the officer.

❧

Next Chapter

Fae Masterlist

Masterlist

[bestworstcase]

Any RTA OC's not from your awesome brain you find interesting?

well i’m a big fan of @party-of-art’s CTA au in general and ilione and alphecca in particular! they’re both very nicely fleshed out and also hit specific tropes that i just like a lot (lio having this easy confidence and swagger and then just the chaotic bone dumpster fire that is al) + well-integrated with the setting as a whole + nice art and more recently fic. all very neat. and still on the subject of CTA i’m also very fond of hemlock’s violante because i love. evil ladies without a shred of conscience. 

the second installment in @ancientriverbed’s little series of missing episodes, tenebrism, has a disciple OC whom i adore (anton!) - i’ve expressed before that i wish there were more disciple OCs simply because i think it’s a fantastic way to introduce eccentric villains of the week into plotted fics and tenebrism is a really good example of how well that works. 

hemlock abandoned the strings sequel before she actually. properly showed up but striga is another OC of hers that i like. another disciple who had some neat stuff going on with cass post-strings. 

these like half-count as OCs since they were originally conceptualized as official characters but i dig the V7K characters and i like seeing what that corner of the fandom does with them and how widely interpretations of the character notes we have can vary.

i feel like the fics i read don’t have a whole lot of OCs? partly i suppose because there are a whole lot of minor characters in tts who get very little development and are therefore fertile ground for fleshing out and slotting into place to play whatever narrative role is required rather than creating an OC, and partly because i tend to be drawn to rewrites/canon divergence fics which again sort of de-incentivize adding OCs to the narrative just by virtue of treading the ground of canon but in a new way. 

and then also the, like, four people and a shoelace corner of the zhan tiri fans part of the fandom aside, i’m mostly in this as a cass fan and it seems like the cass side of the fandom is overall the side of the fandom least interested in coming up with OCs? with a couple notable exceptions like era. i see a lot more OCs coming from the varian and new dream areas of the fandom and brotherhood OCs are a thing also but since i’m not as deep in those corners i’m a lot more out of the loop vis a vis notable OCs. 

but i love OCs in general !! like bitter snow has scads of OCs partly because the story is pretty wide in scope but also because i just really like designing characters, and by the same token i really like uh, “meeting” new characters created by other people? especially through the medium of fic or a large volume of content generation like the CTA crew, or discussions/conversations—every now and then i’ll see an OC in the tags presented with the, like, art + key bullet points format and i’m always like “neat!” but i really enjoy it when there’s more material to dig into. [i also think i just have a hard time with the key character bullet points thing just in general—trying to do it with my own OCs gives me headaches lmao—so for me it’s def not the ideal way to get introduced to new characters because my brain just does not grasp information very well that way]

um some other types of OCs i’d love to see (+ why)!

- saporians, separatists or otherwise (@quoththecomic’s emily is saporian and i really like her! and also quoth’s sort of fairytale-ish take on all the saporian lore and stuff in general) - canon had a real dearth of diversity in the portrayal of saporians that was a. not very naturalistic and b. created some really unfortunate implications that i have talked about at length and i think it’d be cool if there were more OCs around to fill in this kind of... blank spot in the canonical lore? where’s all the saporians guys. 

- disciple OCs, as noted. such a good opportunity for villainous eccentrics while still having a virtually boundless range of things that you can do with them. 

- normal coronan OCs - again, just to kind of flesh out the world more. fics and other fanworks don’t have the same technological limit on how many characters you can pack into a fictional city and nothing helps a place feel more alive than cramming it full of people from all walks of life.

- dark kingdom OCs who are not part of the brotherhood - i have nothing whatsoever against brotherhood OCs but i’d be really interesting to see other people tackle the ‘ordinary person’ dark kingdom citizen experience. there were a lot of refugees in those gondolas, y’all. and since they all fled the destruction of their homeland you could plausibly stick a DK OC pretty much anywhere. 

- for cass-centric post-canon fics in particular i would love to see more OCs in the vein of CTA, just people cass meets on her journey outside of corona - i don’t want her to be lonely aljsdfdsks

[scenariosbutmakeitgay]

Shibisu x Female Reader? Feel free to come up with the plot :)

it’s basically the little mermaid au, but even darker than the original fairytale

also that’s literally the longest fic on this blog lol

tw: death, violence, gore-ish theme

-

There once was a kingdom placed deep under the sea, where no human could reach. The kingdom was full of different creatures – starting with fish, and ending with mermaids. You happened to be the representative of the latter, one of king Jahad's many children to be more precise. Of course, the royal family wasn't the only one out there. Except from Jahad's offsprings, there were ten more names you could hear about quite frequently. The Ten Great Families, as some called them. You rarely bothered to spend time with other mermaids. Living under the sea, as beautifully poetic as it could be sometimes, became dull quite quickly. King Jahad prohibited his children from going near the surface – as if he was scared they might not want to come back. By the time you reached your eighteenth birthday, Jahad's overprotectiveness began to feel even more suffocating.

“I'm not sure what I expected to happen,” you murmured to yourself one night, when everyone was already asleep. “That he's going to change? It's ridiculous.”

Your father, as loving as he could be, was a man deeply stuck in his ways. If he said that you're not allowed to see the world above the surface, then that's it, and you shouldn't even try to argue. But the fact that despite your adulthood, he still treated you like a child, made you reach your boiling point. Tonight was the time of grunt changes, so you slipped out of your room, and checked if the hallway outside was empty. Not a single soul.

With each feet closer to the surface, the water became warmer, and the sounds of terrified screams intensified. You've finally reached your destination, and as lightning bolts pierced the sky, and cold air hit your face, everything became more alive. Suddenly, you heard a loud splash as an unconscious body of a man fell into the sea. An unknown urge overcame your senses, and before you could even notice, you caught the man into your arms. He wasn't that heavy, so carrying him to the shore didn't make much of a challenge. You placed his body on the sand, and moved long strands of dark hair out of his face.

You put your hand on his chest, and sighed in relief upon feeling a heartbeat. “That would be a dreadful night to die, wouldn't it?”

Predictably, no answer came. You looked at the man for the last time, and dived into the sea with no sense of where to go. Coming back to the castle was not an option, you would die out of boredom if you had to spend one more day at this place. That being said, there was only one option left. As a kid, your father always warned you to never wander alone outside his kingdom.

“I love spoiling you, my child, yet there are places under the sea you shall never visit,” he stated in a cold, demanding manner. “The castle and gardens surrounding it grant you safety. There are vicious creatures out there, and I cannot let them lay a finger on you.”

The kingdom was like a golden cage. It provided you with everything but freedom, which you craved the most. So you chose the path your father despised the most – the one leading to the caves where the Red Witch lived. Water there was muddy, almost impossible to see through. You swam with difficulty, determined to see the witch.

“I see you've finally found your path, daughter of Jahad.”

At first, you couldn't find the source of the voice. The woman was dressed in black and red, making her almost indistinguishable from the colored alike corals. One of her eyes, equally crimson to her hair, was hidden under an eye patch. Throughout your whole life you have heard different stories about the Red Witch and her appearance. Most of them described her as an old, ugly woman, which didn't hold much truth to it. There was one consistency in each and every story – the Red Witch was supposed to grant wishes.

“I've heard you can fulfill the deepest desires one dreams of. Is it true, witch?” you asked, trying to sound as confident as possible, while remaining to stay aware of your surroundings. As your father said, the kingdom meant safety. And you were outside it.

“Ah, yes, of course,” she replied with a barely noticeable smirk on her face. “But that craving of yours, little mermaid, comes with a price to pay.”

“I'll pay every price!” you exclaimed without much thinking, which only made the Red Witch snicker.

“Quite an eager one, aren't you?” she mocked. “With each royal generation that comes there's always someone like you. Incredibly foolish, and a little too curious for their own good. It makes everything even more entertaining, though.” The smile on her face widened, as she came up with an exciting idea. “We shall make a deal, princess. Your kind prides itself for their angelic voices, isn't that so? With each tongue you rip out of a mermaid's mouth, you will receive a human body for a day. When the slaughter ends, you shall fall asleep on the shore. I will grant you a pair of legs, princess. There is one more condition to our deal, I must say. When the pendulum of your human time stops swinging, and no man, woman, or any other human being loves you madly, your whole existence shall perish, and become a mere foam. Are you still interested in making your desires come true, Jahad's child?”

Your eyes widened in shock at the Red Witch's offer. It was violent, it was deadly, it was simply wrong! But you craved a pair of legs so madly, deeply, beyond any rational sense.

“I accept your conditions, Red Witch. Expect a silent morning, for I will rip out the tongue of each and every mermaid daring to sing in my presence.”

And your promise was kept. The witch gave you a silver dagger, with blade so sharp it could cut through flesh with almost no resistance. When the morning came, the whole kingdom remained deadly silent. You brought your gift to the Red Witch, and a bloody trail marked the path of your choice.

“I've done what I was compelled to do, witch. What now?” you asked, observing as the woman in front of you carefully counted the tongues. When she made sure what was the number of them, a wide grin appeared on her face.

“Your viciousness granted you a month as a human,” the Red Witch replied. She reached to grab a bottle of scarlet liquid, previously hidden behind one of the corals. “Swim to the shore, and drink it up. Beware, daughter of Jahad. The potion might give you legs, but they will come with great pain.”

Not caring about the warning, you grabbed the bottle from her hand, and swam away as quickly as possible. The shore wasn't that far away – with your current speed it took you barely a quarter of an hour to get there. You sat on the shore, feeling the warmth of the sand on your skin. It was way more pleasant than even the clearest waters in the sea. You opened up the bottle, and drank up the liquid without much hesitance. With the last drop of scarlet, the whole world went dark. A throbbing pain filled your whole body as you desperately grasped for air. You saw them... You saw their faces... They were twisted, convulsions filling their last moves as you ripped their tongues out. The disdainful glances they sent you... You weren't really surprised. Mutilating plenty innocent beings of your own kind was one of the worst crimes to commit – it made you understand the true price of your wish. The curse of the little mermaid shall make you feel the pain of your victims, with each tongue that you ripped out feeling as your own.

Suddenly, the darkness began to fade. The ground underneath your body didn't feel familiar – it was too silky for the sand you previously passed out on. The fabric felt quite similar like bedsheets in your room in the castle. How appalling. The chamber you were in was decorated with wooden furniture, full of ornaments, and quite pleasant to the eye. As you admired the interior design, the mahogany door moved with a creak. A tall man with short hair walked in.

“Oh, I see you're already awake. How are you feeling?” he asked, and placed a beverage on the cupboard next to the bed. It looked like some kind of tea, though you couldn't be sure.

“I-” you tried to reply, but a wave of intense pain hit your throat as you spoke. It felt as if someone was ripping your tongue out. “I'm f-fine,” you finally managed to blurt out. It was excruciating, numbing, and absolutely well-deserved.

The man smiled. “I'm glad. I will explain everything once you rest properly,” he said, and passed the beverage to your hands. It was hot, but not burning. Perfect.

“Oh, also, the prince wanted to talk to you. It has something to do with the place we found you at.”

The prince?

You assumed one of the members of the royal entourage must have found you on the shore. Apparently a princess can never escape from the palace.

Suddenly, a look of realization showed on the man's face, as if he remembered something important. “Please excuse me now, I must attend the rest of my duties. If you ever need any help or simply someone to talk to, ask the guards for Shibisu. They'll certainly find me.”

You nodded, and gave him a thankful smile. When Shibisu, or whatever his name was, left the room, you decided to try out your legs for the very first time. It was a weird feeling for someone who spent their whole life with a fishtail, but not weird enough to be uncomfortable. After all, humans were bizarre creatures – their anatomy had to be on an equal level of eeriness.

A deep breath, and there we go. Your right leg carefully slid off the bed to touch the floor. It was cold. The left one followed right after. Okay, it shouldn't be hard. One leg, two legs, and up!

Your posture was everything but graceful, but at least you didn't stumble. Sole standing won't do, though. You had to learn how to walk. Using the same method – one foot, two feet, and go – your legs made a few small steps. Swimming was way easier, and you felt as if your body was heavier now. As you walked from one corner of the room to another, you noticed a small piece of paper left on the table near the door. It was a note, and whoever put it there, had an incredibly neat handwriting.

“Hello,

I'd like to apologize for contacting you in such an indirect manner, but it was quite hard to guess when you would wake up. There are some spare cloths left by the maids in the closet, so feel free to change into whatever's to your liking. I'd appreciate if we could have a little chat.

Sincerely, Jue Viole Grace.”

That must be the prince the man from before talked about. Maybe he'll clear everything up, and tell you who exactly brought you to the palace. It was a little naive to judge him based on a few sentences, but the prince seemed like a generally kind person, which you considered a rarity among the nobles.

You opened the closet, and picked out a simple dress. It was pretty, but nothing extraordinary. The next step was fixing your appearance to look presentable, because let's be real – passing out, and being unconscious for who knows how long didn't do your face any justice.

One step, two steps, open the door, and walk out. It was simple. You saw the guards as soon as you left the room.

“Prince Viole is waiting for you, miss. Follow me.”

You didn't ask any questions – it was awfully painful to speak, after all. The guard walked through some hallways, corridors, and different rooms to finally get outside the palace. You were in the royal gardens. They didn't look like those king Jahad owned. The gardens above the surface were more colorful, and you could almost feel their liveliness filling your soul with happiness. The prince was sitting on a chair, sipping a cup of tea. He placed his drink on the glass table in front of him as he saw you. Suddenly, you widened your eyes in bewilderment. Prince Viole was the exact same man you saved from drowning just a while ago. You tried to regain your composure, and walked over to him, greeting the nobleman with the kindest smile you could muster.

“It's nice to see you're finally awake. Please take a seat,” the prince said, and patted on the chair next to him. “Are you feeling any better now? You've slept for quite some time.”

You sat down, and cleared your throat. “Yes, I think I'm certainly better now. Thank you for helping me, Your Highness.” It was smarter to play it polite – despite seemingly friendly behavior of the prince, you didn't know what kind of person he was.

“Just Viole is fine, believe me,” he reassured you. “I'm not the right person to thank, though. It was Shibisu who found you on the shore. Surely you two must have already met.”

You nodded, and made a mental note to bring up the topic when you see the man again. The prin... no, not prince. Just  Viole took another sip of tea, and looked you straight in the eyes.

“Do you have any family? I don't want to keep you here against your will if someone's waiting for you to come back.”

The memories of your father and siblings sent shivers down your spine. You wanted them to scream at you for your selfishness, or even yell how disgusting you were. But they couldn't. No matter how many times you tried, they wouldn't answer your prayers. The sea remained deadly silent.

“N-no, I don't have anyone,” you stuttered, trying to sound as convincing as you could.

Viole gave you an understanding smile. “Feel free to stay at the palace as long as you like, then.”

A nod. That's exactly what you did. When your little chat with Viole came to an end, you decided to come back to your room. The palace was surprisingly quiet, even though you could swear you saw plenty of people there earlier. As you walked into another hallway, you felt someone bumping into you. Not hard enough to make you fall, but equally unpleasant.

“Sorry, didn't notice you!” a quick apology left the lips of a man you were already familiar with. Shibisu.

“No, it's my fault. I should have been more careful.” Getting used to the pain took less time than expected, yet the urge to cry in agony with every word spoken didn't disappear.

“Were you heading anywhere in particular? It's quite easy to lose a sense of direction in such a big place.”

“Actually, I planned to go back to my room. Could you show me the right way? I admit I'm a little lost,” you replied.

“Sure thing, miss. You're the lucky one today, because I know the castle better than anyone else,” he said with a cheeky grin. How charming.

With each passing day the clock's clicking became louder, and louder. Your days were numbered, and you were painfully aware of it.

When the pendulum of your human time stops swinging, and no man, woman, or any other human being loves you madly, your whole existence shall perish, and become a mere foam. Are you still interested in making your desires come true, Jahad's child?

The Red Witch was right about one thing – you were incredibly foolish. It was supposed to be a fairytale! A mermaid princess falls in love with a human prince, so she exchanges her tail for legs to be with him, and they live happily ever after. But you? You had no interest in the prince. The person you grew attached to was the man who found you on the shore, and has been taking care of you ever since. An excuse of a princess fell in love with a dorky servant, who doesn't even know the crime that stains her past. What a pitiful fairytale that would be. Not only you were sure that your feelings were one-sided, but your human body wasn't meant to last much longer.

Since your life was close to its end you took one more selfish choice – to spend more time with Shibisu. You shared meals, breaks, and sometimes went on walks together. He was quite a storyteller. You knew that he served the Grace family for over ten years now, and Viole himself considered him a close friend. Shibisu, despite his usual jokerish behavior, was actually a really intelligent person. He also had a sweet tooth, cared deeply for his friends, and liked saying that his favorite color was the one of your eyes.

Tick. Tack.

Tick. Tack.

Tick. Tack.

Your last day was about to end.

“Please, it can't be like this,” you whispered a quiet prayer that no god could ever hear. It was an ironically similar scenario to the one that began your journey.

“I'm not sure what I expected to happen,” you murmured to yourself one night, when everyone was already asleep. “That he's going to change? It's ridiculous.”

A bitter smile formed on your lips as tears began to fall. The palace was deadly silent – just like the morning after the slaughter. You slipped out of your room once more, and tip toed to the kitchen to find a knife. It was sharp, and made of silver – just like the dagger the Red Witch gave you a month ago. All you needed was just a few hours more, maybe even minutes!

Tick. Tack.

Tick. Tack.

Tick. Tack.

Cold breeze hit your face as you came to the shore. The shore that let you fulfill your curse, and the shore that Shibisu found you at.

With each tongue you rip out of a mermaid's mouth, you will receive a human body for a day.

Even with human body, you still possessed the blood of a mermaid, right? Right?! The knife was cold against your skin, slowly coming near your face. The shore was empty. None but you could see the viciousness of the act that was about to happen.

One cut, two cuts, blood filling everything. It was an atrocious sight. You ripped out the piece of flesh like the tongues before, and threw it into the sea. The shore was silent. Just one more day, please.

Suddenly, you heard a scream. It was Shibisu.

“What are you even doing?!”

The shore was neither empty, nor silent now. You wanted to speak, you wanted to yell, you wanted to confess your love for the man in front of you. But the only sound that left your mouth was a cough as blood started to stream down your throat to choke you.

“Y-you...” he stuttered. “You're bleeding.”

You fell down to your knees convulsing. With the last amount of strength left in your body, you started writing on the sand with your finger. The message was simple.

I love you.

His eyes widened both in shock and horror. Your state was getting worse with each second. Shibisu leant over your body, clearly panicking.

“I love you, too! You can't leave me, you heard me?! You can't!”

The night was a stormy one, but no lightning could be louder than your heartbeat. The Red Witch was right once again. Your body didn't perish, because only a madman could break the curse. As your lips touched his, the world around you fell silent. Blood staining both bodies, as if it was an agreement to never mention the crime that caused it all. The night was a stormy one. And not a single soul noticed as the wild waves of the sea consumed both of the lovers, staining the water with crimson foam. Maybe not every fairytale had to end happily.

[what2finish]

Creator Post: Rudearrow

Rudearrow’s WTF Creator Post (Auction #1001, #1002)

Creator’s previous works: Here!

Link to GDrive Folder of WIP Summaries/HCs/Plot Bunnies Creator is Offering: Here! 

you can contact the creator before bidding at:

email: rudearrow@gmail.com

Likes:  fantasy au, sci-fi au, plotfic/casefic, found family, Redemption Arc With Hard Work, Demonstrating Contrition, and Learning to Love Yourself(tm), wingfic, lesser known pairings and characters, crossovers, whacky ideas taken seriously, whacky ideas taken whackily, bdsm

Do Not Wants: no non-con, torture, incest, or underage. no harder kinks, ie: scat, waterworks, gore, etc.

Preferred Charities of the creator: Any

Full Charities List

___

Auction #1

Type of fanwork: fanfiction

Fandom: Marvel, DC, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Supernatural, Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed, (honestly, just email me if you like my writing... if I know your canon, I'm probably down)

Pairing(s): I'm a multi-shipper who loves underdog/rarepairs, existing WIPs are for Winterhawk, Winteriron, Winterironhawk, Robb/Theon, Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington/Dean Winchester. Platonic/grey-ace pairings welcome!

Character(s): there isn't a character from any of the canons listed that I won't write

Rating: General, Teen, Mature

Marvel WIPs:

Crimson & Clover: Urban Fantasy AU; 616 Clint & Bucky, endgame Winterhawk. Clint Barton has finally done the Right Thing(tm) and left his life of petty crime with Cirque du Nuit behind him. He’s got a GED, a bow, and coffee- and not much else. In the process of rebuilding his life, he runs into a not-so-tall, dark, and handsome stranger. Literally. He thinks a spilled latte and a bump on the head will be the end of his encounter, but with each successive run-in, he realizes that maybe luck just isn’t on his side and outrunning his past might not be in the cards after all. Current WC: 15k.

Half-splitting the Problem: Winteriron canon reversal! Feared dead after an attack on his convoy in Afghanistan nearly three months ago, the CEO of Barnes Industries has once again defied expectations. Having survived the attack and his subsequent captivity by the terrorist organization, The Ten Rings, James ‘Bucky’ Barnes has returned to American soil and turned his company upside down. Tony Stark, a young man from humble means with few options, has been working his internship with SI R&D for nearly a year now. He’s noticed activities that can only be described as ‘iffy’ at best, but with a boatload of student debt and a work history peppered with reprimands and missed deadlines he’s decided to keep his head down for the almighty dollar and hope for the best... Until he stumbles across Obadiah Stane’s personal project. Current WC: 1.5k

Seraphic (Hallowed Incorporeal Entities) Liaison Division, AKA: S.H.I.E.L.D.: Winterironhawk wingfic! Bucky Barnes has been assigned a new Seraph partner and he’s not happy about it. Tony Stark is that  Seraph and while he’s not thrilled either, it really is a lot of fun to push Barnes’s buttons. Clinton Francis Barton, unbeknownst to him, is their first assigned charge. And honestly? He could use all the help S.H.I.E.L.D. can spare. Current WC: 3k

Misadventures in Solitude: Clint Barton-centric, fwb Winterhawk, open to endgame romantic Winterhawk, alternative Clint pairing (except Nat. Sorry, for me they are always platonic soul mates), and/or poly. Just a day in the life of Clint Barton, coffee-riddled, exhausted corporate cog. He did all the “right” things- went to school, got a decent white-collar job, moved to the big city- so why is he so unhappy? And lost. Except, shit... he’s actually lost. Where the futz is he? Current WC: 1.5k

Part I:  The Space Between Us: 616 Winterhawk; Space! Kidnapped Clint! BDSM. This is technically part one to the fic I finished a few months ago on my linked Ao3, Show Me the Miles. Bucky has been chosen for the “away team”, as Stark likes to call it. While Bucky is bored almost to tears watching Stark and Rogers schmooze with extraterrestrial royalty, Clint is snatched while on a milk run mission back on Earth. Bucky, suffice it to say, doesn’t exactly take the news well. Current WC: 5.5k

Marvel HC:

Fairytale Winteriron AU: Bucky/Tony Bucky is a sprite with moth wings. Tony is a sprite with butterfly wings. Their peoples have centuries of animosity and sharp words for each other. Then ‘the fire(fly) nation attacked’ and [choose which one here] is injured, only to be saved by the other! Begrudging friendship and appreciation turn into more. Endgame is sprites in love. \o/ 

Completion WC Estimates:

Crimson & Clover, Estimated 40k+ upon completion. 

Half-splitting the Problem, Estimated 15-20k upon completion. 

Seraphic (Hallowed Incorporeal Entities) Liaison Division, AKA: S.H.I.E.L.D., Estimated 20k+ upon completion. 

Misadventures in Solitude, Estimated 10k+ upon completion.

Part I: The Space Between Us, Estimated 15-20k upon completion.

Fairytale Winteriron AU HC, Estimated 15-20k upon completion.

GOT WIP:

Manual for Spaceship Westeros: Robb/Theon; Space Colony Au! There is tension between the loose planetary alliance that calls itself Westeros. Robb Stark, as the only full-blood Stark son of age, is sent to negotiate a stronger alliance with Iron Born, a terrifying clan who has made a small water planet habitable through the genetic modification of its ancestors, sweat, and blood. Robb arrives to seek an audience with The Greyjoy and make his offer- the hand of his sister Sansa. But The Greyjoy deems this insufficient and Robb quickly finds himself on the offering plate. Current WC 2k.

Completion WC Estimate: 20-25k

Stranger Things & Supernatural: 

Billy Dean Was My Lover (working tongue in cheek title): main pairing Steve/Billy (possibly Steve/Billy/Dean?); Billy/Dean; crossover plot-ish fic! When his dad called and ordered Dean to pack up Sam then head for the Midwest, he didn’t ask questions. Apparently, strange things were happening in small town Indiana; which was usually a Winchester’s bread and butter. Yet even Dean and Sam aren’t quite prepared for the kind of strange Hawkins has, especially with John failing to meet them at the town’s motel. But there was something even more surprising than the super-powered teenage girl and a whole new world of monsters... 

Hearing the name of Dean’s tape-swap penpal out of some preppy, polo-wearing guy’s mouth. Current WC 1k.

WILDCARD, AKA: ANY HC/PROMPT FOR THE ABOVE PAIRINGS AND FANDOMS LISTED.

If you like my writing but aren’t into the WIPs here, I will write a fic that is a minimum of 10k for any character, ship, platonic pair, for any of the fandoms listed above. I’m also happy to write for material/canon I know but that isn’t listed above. If I know it well enough, I’ll write it for you! (Exception being RPS.) Just message me if you’re curious and I’ll confirm that I’m familiar with the source material. :)

Starting Bid: $10

Creator Notes:

Like my fellow mod, Mei, I am willing to work my winner's likes into my stories and am open to brainstorming sessions!

Feel free to email me to learn more about any of the WIPs stories and if you like, I will give you my Discord handle. I am willing to work with my winner's pairings as long as they don't fall into my DNWs. For Marvel the only two pairings (of the ones I am most familiar) that I just cannot see romantically/sexually are Clint/Natasha and Bucky/Steve.

Current Bid Spreadsheet: Here.

Please check what the current bid is at before bidding.

Bids might take a few minutes to load.

Bidding ends on November 28th 11:59:00pm CST. The highest bid before that deadline will win the auction.

Bidding Form: Here.

Please check the Bid Spreadsheet and bid higher than the previous bid.

You will not be notified if you have been outbid. Only the winner will be notified after bidding ends.

___

Auction #2

Type of fanwork: fanfiction

Fandom: Marvel, DC, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Supernatural, Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed, (honestly, just email me if you like my writing... if I know your canon, I'm probably down)

Pairing(s): I'm a multi-shipper who loves underdog/rarepairs, existing WIPs are for Winterhawk, Winteriron, Winterironhawk, Robb/Theon, Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington/Dean Winchester. Platonic/grey-ace pairings welcome!

Character(s): there isn't a character from any of the canons listed that I won't write

Rating: General, Teen, Mature

WIPs/Prompt:

Literally the same as Auction #1!

Staring Bid: $10

Creator Notes:

Like my fellow mod, Mei, I am willing to work my winner's likes into my stories and am open to brainstorming sessions!

Feel free to email me to learn more about any of the WIPs stories and if you like, I will give you my Discord handle. I am willing to work with my winner's pairings as long as they don't fall into my DNWs. For Marvel the only two pairings (of the ones I am most familiar) that I just cannot see romantically/sexually are Clint/Natasha and Bucky/Steve.

**In the unlikely event that both winning bidders want the same fic and you don’t want any of the other WIPs listed, I will offer up a fic of equal or greater length for whatever HC you desire. Within, of course, the same DNW parameters listed above. This includes the Wild Card option!**

Current Bid Spreadsheet: Here.

Please check what the current bid is at before bidding.

Bids might take a few minutes to load.

Bidding ends on November 28th 11:59:00pm CST. The highest bid before that deadline will win the auction.

Bidding Form: Here.

Please check the Bid Spreadsheet and bid higher than the previous bid.

You will not be notified if you have been outbid. Only the winner will be notified after bidding ends.

[kindaline]

FANFICTION TROPES; tier list

since i just announced an almost 2 week hiatus on wattpad, i wanted to post something writing (fanfiction) related here!

(i saw a youtuber do this, here’s the link to that vid xxx)

also because i can’t explain the way she did why she put certain ones higher or lower, i’ll just write a lil explanation for every one of them!

let’s get it! (woah been a while since ive said that jsjdajdf)

‘i- pls no’ category: 

amnesia fic; i just don’t really like this plot in anything, so this ain’t really a surprise tbh

arranged marriage; this fits the category name very well, just don’t pls... it’s not a fun dynamic to create romance by forcing characters together

baby fic; there are a few exceptions, but i usually don’t start reading something for it - but will keep reading a fic if its introduced further down the line

body swap; that is just a NO. that creates awkward and perverted situations, and i honestly hate both with a burning passion. to feel second-hand embarrassment is not why i read ffs.

major character death; i already am depressed af so i don’t need this in my life

fairytale au; i just don’t enjoy the magic element, i grew out of it pretty quick. the last time i liked something magical fairytale-ish related was when i was like 6.

gen fic; okay i did not know what this meant, but my hopeless romantc soul ain’t about that life kjdsnfdks

magic au; same thing could be said about this one and the fairytale one.

time loop; it’s just idk, not something i would read - even in shows i don’t really like it, since i think it makes the story hard to follow

pregnancy fic; as someone who reads mostly taekook and a few exceptions but still mlm fics i think that speaks for itself, not an mpreg kinda gal

sex pollen; this concept started out well, then went down the drain with the alien-y vibezz, other than that it would be good ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

‘depends on the execution’ category:

abo; i don’t really read abo unless im there for the smut tbh... (i do be getting real comfy here tho saying that kdfskdjf)

crossover; same goes for this as for the pregnancy fic one, i read bts fics so the only crossover we gettin’ is other kpop idols showing up aka jackson wang lmao

dark fic; although this is what you could categorize the story im writing but not publishing as of my ocs, as i said before im depressed af and dont need to be even more

canon divergence; i mean as a taekook fic writer this be what im doing with everyone of my stories dkjsfdjs

established relationship; i put this in this category bc i can’t execute it without it being boring since i build most of my plots around the relationship that’ll be the end result, but i do read it if someone manages to pull it off

fix it fic; i mean depends what we are fixing, bc in my context i be just going au all the way lmao

miscommunication; again, awkward situations are my worst nightmare so-

unhappy ending; i guess depends on how bad it is, if it ain’t like character death i can bear it

‘sure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯‘ category: (this a mood tho jdksj)

angst; i can take some of it, it be making things interesting - or like i use it to make things that lmao

bang or die; tbh i was this close to putting it higher... but also by ‘sure’ i mean that i’ll read it 9 out of 10 times so...

crack fic; for entertainment porpuses and an easy read (for ex. insta/twitter au) it’s good ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

humor; all stories should have at least a lil in them!

fake relationship; it’s arranged marriage’s long lost sister who is the less toxic version of that 

high school au; i read a ton of it since most aus are set in a school environment, but usually its not the main focus so ended up putting it here

in vino veritas; aka drunk confessions - it’s good, something you can spin things off of or help build the tension with (saying that like im a professional lmao)

unrequited love; i don’t read a lot of it, but i’ve read ones that keep up with that through 90% of the fic and it was good so thats a sure

‘i like it, its okay’ category

college au; as someone who’s written more than one and mostly reads taekook fics set in college that’s a yes from me, not something i am actively looking for tho

fluff; i write and read it, sometimes i melt from it sometimes i don’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

first kiss; i’ve done this almost every time in my fics, sooooo-

historical au; IF ITS DONE WELL ITS GOOD AF!! (my hamilton phase having ass thrives off of it kjfdskfjsv)

missing scenes; i think as someone who writes taekook and includes actual moments of them in my stories i kind of have to fill up the missing pieces of said cute moments so i do this, and see others do so as well

royalty au; i don’t read a lot of it, but sign me up for some majestic beauty of a kim taehyung being royalty anytime

slow burn; don’t read much of it on wattpad, but all my fav ao3 fics are slow burn and like a lot of words ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

love triangle; i don’t openly say this or anything but i do read it from time to time and enjoy it those times so...

‘LUW IT’ category:

sharing a bed; if you look at my reading lists on wattpad you’ll know why this is here ksjfsjfk

mutual pining; i do be writing this each and everytime without even meaning to, so that also explains why this is here

coffee shop au; AS THE WRITER OF STUDY SESSIONS, no but really i do be writing and reading a lot of it lmao

enemies to lovers; read a lot of it, love it a lot - fav ao3 fics are almost all enemies to lovers soooo-

friends to lovers; all my favs are either enemies to lovers, friends to lovers or bed sharing ones i-

hurt comfort; my heartu we luw luw emotionally supporting others in this house

huddle for warmth; sharing a bed and this go hand in hand and we love to see it

pwp; i *cough* yeahhhhhh, just yeahhhh

soulmate au; we love soma-ultes lfjskdjfksdjf

and that would be it! <3 

until my hiatus ends on wattpad i hope to be more active on here, so the ppl who follow me with tumblr accounts can be happy lmao

[reylofanfictionanthology]

THE REYLO FANFICTION ANTHOLOGY ST. VALENTINE’S DAY LOVE FEST

This year, to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, we wanted to show the Reylo Writing Community a little bit of love by hosting a Reylo Fanfiction St. Valentine’s Day Love Fest.

We will accept recommendations for this project until the end of February.  You can find details about how to submit a recommendation to the project here.

LOVE FEST LIST #5/?

REYLO COMMUNITY RECOMMENDATIONS

Starlight, Your Memories by NatMatryoshka

Summary: "Ben Solo was ten years old when, in the outskirts of the capital, a little girl was born. Her parents called her Rey and, after she was old enough to walk, they left her in the care of Master Luke Skywalker and vanished without a trace soon after. No one knew who they were, or why they chose an odd hermit as guardian of their only daughter, but many could smell the scent of cheap wine in the father’s breath: they were two derelicts, and maybe they had realized in time they couldn’t do anything good for their daughter. Rey was a Sensitive, just like Ben. The Force had entwined their lives a long time before."

Recommendation by @the-witch-of-the-web: “Because it has a wonderful fairytale vibe to it, and the author is great at portraying the inner turmoil and subtle feelings of the main characters. The style is great, considering they're not a native English speaker, and I'd really love to see more recognition for their stories. This one in particular offers a unique and amazing storyline, I also love the way they describe the locations in which the story takes place.”

Tokens by Trish47

Summary: A year after Leia's death, Rey invites Ben to Endor to make his peace.

Recommendation by @ceallaigheirinn: “This is truly a beautiful piece in its quiet agony wrapped in comfort. The detente was perfect with its shared promise to each other as they part. I am a sucker for remembrance fics, and this one is perfect.”

I don't want (to set the world on fire) by OccasionallyCreative

Summary: Rey goes on a mission to answer a distress signal on a Force-sensitive alien planet and finds something that might just save her if it doesn't lead to her ruin.

Recommendation by @apisa-b: “This canonverse story pulls the reader into a fever dream, in which the Force is kind, but at the same time monstrous in how it imposes its will.”

Nothing but Themselves by Knight_of_Cookies

Summary: Sometimes what you ask for is not what you actually wanted. Rey wanted a family. Kylo wanted Rey. Now an adopted father is dead and Kylo is captured for it. Kylo is Rey's prisoner, and her family does not take such a death lightly. Vengrat'tua. There will be vengeance. Pirunir Sur'haaise. Make him pay for what he did.

Recommendation by @persimonne: “The writing is something very different, direct and "cinematic": while reading images pop directly into your brain and they're so vivid! The plot features prisoner!Kylo vs Rey living with a brand new adoptive family and working as a mechanic.”

echoes (again) by reflectionslie (fallsink)

Summary: again and again, she slips from his grasp like moonlight (reincarnation au where ben seeks her through their past lives and maybe, just maybe this time this time will be the last) [prev name: it goes round and round (everything falling)]

Recommendation by @politicalmamaduck: “It is so beautifully written and such a gorgeous take on the idea of soulmates and reincarnation, so perfectly suited to Reylo. If you loved the art Anthology's 25 Lives Project, this is definitely the fic for you--it takes the same poem as its inspiration and theme!”

The Tale of Blue Ben by flypaper_brain

Summary: Some escaped goats and a chance encounter land Rey in the middle of a fairy tale. She is the happy ending. And she is not alone.

Recommendation by @leofgyth: “Ben is a dragon! He's heartbreakingly wonderful. And Rey is a witch, a competent witch. And there are goats. And a spell to break (maybe more than one spell). It's just very sweet.”

RFFA WRITERS SELF RECOMMENDATIONS

The Water Packed my Pockets Full of Stones by LilibethSonar

Summary: When Finn turned the car she saw Ben in the rearview mirror. Standing by the house, unmoving as if he wasn’t… alive. She didn’t cry on their way back to the bay: lichens and rocks outside her window were really picturesque, that’s all. When Rey saw the ocean again, her emotions ebbed. The sight of the Marauder calmed her completely, taking away her uncertainty. The truth was bitter; he brought it on himself.

“It's the first long-ish fic in English that I've written and finished. I had so much fun writing it, and I hope that reading it can bring someone joy. Also, worldbuilding.”

In Un'Altra Vita by NatMatryoshka

Summary: "Sometimes, after hundreds of failures you finally get something precious, don’t you believe it?” Rey, a reporter, falls in love with Venezia and its Carnival. Ben Solo, a photographer, starts to dream about a mysterious boy and a world he doesn't know. Maybe their souls are more similar than they think.

“I loved to write about Venezia and its Carnival. It's one of my favourite places to visit and its magic fills every corner: I thought it was the perfect place to set a Reylo fic about dreams and alternative realities. I loved to travel through Venezia with my imagination, I hope readers would love to do it, too!”

Scars by punkeraa

Summary: a smuggler!Ben x jedi!Rey AU Certain scars run deeper than others, leaving behind marks on the soul, irreversibly altering the person forever. Ben Solo drinks to drown demons he'd rather run away from than face head on, a traumatic event in his youth that still tightly grips him sixteen years later. Rey scavenges, starves, and suffers at the hands of Unkar Plutt in the Jakku wasteland waiting for her mother, anchored to the sands with a promise and a half forgotten tune. When the drunkard and the scavenger cross paths, their scars refuse to be ignored any longer. With an enemy lurking in the shadows and ready to strike, they must work together to confront their deep seated fears and grow beyond. A story about wanting revenge. A story about running away and not dealing with one’s trauma and pain. A story about acknowledging one’s anger while actively dealing with the painful scars life inflicts upon us.

“i love this fic because it was born out of intense trauma as a way for me to deal with it. it's a smuggler!Ben AU but (i believe) pretty different from most of the ones out there. in this story, Ben is an alcoholic suffering from PTSD after watching his parents murdered in front of him as a young child; he wants to run away from his trauma and drink himself silly rather than confronting the pain. Rey is stuck on Jakku b/c she's afraid of being truly on her own and would rather deal with Plutt's abuse than leave in case her mother actually comes back. this is one of my more inventive stories, introducing a new villain as well as Rey's mother. both of these characters represent halves of my own trauma and how i dealt with it, and their journeys in the story somewhat mirror my own non-linear path towards healing. there's a trigger warning for alcohol abuse but that's pretty much it. i've poured a lot of myself into this fic and would just like if others can read it and see what they think”

Serendipity by Ceallaigh

Summary: When she had decided to start shepherding the Adept, Rey had made a vow to herself to help them all—even those imprisoned by their own internal darkness. Camouflaged with the cuff, Kylo would never know that Hux’s war dog was closing in on him until it was too late. That was one death she didn’t want weighing down on her conscience. She’d had the opportunity twice to kill him, but she was still convinced his life was not hers to take. The Force still had a plan for Ben Solo, that she was certain, and securing his safety was just as important and making sure the little girl she sought made it off world and survived as well.

“I’m a sucker for the Ben Solo I’m exile genre, and this is a riff on self-imposes exile/on the run. This inenof the first fic I have completed where he truly is starting to see himself more as Ben Solo and not Kylo Ren. It was a prompt fic, and I adored the prompts! Saw it as a chance to work with a new character and to do some world building!”

[margridarnauds]

I was tagged by @lochley (thank you!) to do The Thing and share five of my fics, so without furthur ado.....

1. A fic you are proud of?

Pour la Peine was begun at a particularly bad point in my life, when I was really IN Solène’s shoes at that moment, and since I’ve begun it, so much has changed, not the least being my writing style. The Toho 1789 obviously came out in November, which really, really changed how I viewed certain characters and dynamics. I think I would have written it very differently, for example, if I’d known that in the Toho, Olympe and Solène hold one another after Ronan’s death. And it’s really, really hard to keep the characters consistent when you have that kind of constantly shifting idea of who the characters ARE. That being said, it’s also currently my longest running fic, despite being for a “MINI-FIC” prompt, it’s one of my first real experiments with a running plotline and plot twists, even if I feel like most of them are probably easy to see coming (but, then again, that’s because I KNOW them, so there is definitely that), and it’s also one of my first times working with a developing relationship. I’m going to be absolutely thrilled to see the back of it and I’ll never be fully happy with it because to me, it will never be up to what I HOPED it would be, but I’ve learned a LOT from it. 

2. A fic you are excited about?

God, I have so many ideas on the backburner that I’ve been itching to get to. I have a few Margrid/Orléans ideas that I’m really excited to toy with, because I really, really enjoy working with this ship since it’s such a break from the norm.(What, a tragic interclass love affair where one ends up killing the other, ft. the French Revolution? I’ve never done that before.)

One that I’ve really, really been pumped to write for MONTHS now is the Fairytale AU, in no small part because it was really a chance for me to go back to my roots in the Fantasy genre. I DID put research into it as far as looking up folklore motifs and variations that I could use, but a LOT of it is much more freeing than really....the type of hard-ish historical fiction I tend to write. It’s very different, and in the end, I’m not sure how much it’s a fairy tale and how much it’s 1789 or whether it’s really...EITHER of them at this point, but I’m happy with what progress I DO have. 

3. A fic that was challenging to write?

Personally, I don’t believe in a completely pain-free experience when it comes to writing. I learn something new from each fic, but it’s definitely knowledge that I have to fight for every ounce of. Honey Plunged Into Water, though, is probably the SINGLE most difficult to get off the ground. 

I started it for a fic writing exchange treat, thought “Okay, I can write smut that’s 300 words. A little tight, but sure thing. After all, these exchanges are about expanding our horizons, right?” It was a little darker than I was used to, M/F, and smut, all three of which are generally things I would NOT go for (see below for Me VS Smut: The Ongoing Conflict), but, hey, I could do it, right? And I wanted to work with new fandoms and new ideas that I normally wouldn’t work with, so it seemed like a fun little challenge.

Then I realized. Triple drabbles weren’t allowed. Neither were double. I had to cut out 200 words of material that included some lines I was very proud of and try to figure out how to keep as much as I COULD in 100 words. Because I COULDN’T really give it up when I already had THAT MUCH DONE (and nowhere to really dump the scraps, anyway). It was a truly monstrous, brutal editing process, but it taught me a lot in a short span and I got a positive response from the person I wrote it for, so....win/win?

Note: Next time the drabble exchange comes around....nope. Sorry. Been there, done that. Y’all will have to get your dark femdom smut drabble from somewhere else. 

4. A fic that was something you hadn’t tried before?

A Pressing Matter. On multiple levels. I don’t CONSIDER myself as a smut writer; the whole thing’s personally a little embarrassing for me. I really, really don’t think that I have any particular knack for it, and so the final product always seems stilted and awkward when I DO try it out. So, it was terrifying to publish it, it was terrifying to know that ANYONE could read it and judge the contents, but I am happy that I did after ages of threatening and that it’s been warmly received. 

5. If you had to choose one fic above all to share, what would it be?

Probably Forgiveness (Can You Imagine?). Or Fowl Play. I’m incredibly, incredibly honored that both of them have garnered the attention that they have and that people are still INVESTED in them after all this time, not the least because they were also a lot of fun to write and work with. 

Tagging: @circecular @mooncastle @fallenidol-453 @a-promise-that-i-keep @cicelythereaper

[katurrade]

Secrets and Sins 11

This is not your normal TRR story. This is a complete AU. A mobster AU. Hopefully you enjoy this, it’s dark and twisted, but should be a fun ride. It’s also written in a reader format, not a MC format. (Y/N = Your Name. Y/L/N = Your Last Name) Enjoy!

Description: You flee from an abusive situation and find yourself on the other side of the country, creating new friends and possibly finding new love. But will you be able to escape your past? To truly move on with your life? Or will everything come crashing down around you in the blink of an eye. Catch up HERE.

Word Count: 3,370 ish.

Pairing: Mobster!Liam x Reader.

Rating: 18+

Warnings: Violence. Drinking. Curse words. Possible NSFW content in later chapters. Flashbacks of abusive behaviour, and moments of abuse. Possible triggering thoughts and feelings. Probably more warnings to come.

A/N: *throws canon out the damn window* YEET.

“Can I come in?” He asked as his blue eyes locked on yours.

“Sure. This is your house.” You replied flatly as you crossed your arms then turned around and walked back into the room. You sat down on the edge of the bed, as he entered and shut the door softly behind him.

He walked over to the chair in the corner and sat down, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his eyes looking down at his intertwined hands, which were between his slightly opened legs “I just want to explain who Madeleine is.”

“You don’t have to, it’s none of my business.” You waved it off.

“I do,” He said firmly as he looked up at you “because I don’t want there to be any confusion between us.” He gestured with one of his hands back and forth between you both “I don’t want any secrets or lies, from either side. If you promise to always be open and honest with me, I will do the same with you.”

You nodded “Okay, I can agree to that.”

“Good. So Madeleine and I have never, and will never be a thing.” He said firmly “She used to date my brother, back when he was the heir to all this.” He gestured around the room “The second I challenged him and won, she dumped Leo and set her sights on me. I’m not going to lie, I gave into her a couple times but it was never anything more then that. I never wanted her.”

You cringed slightly then scoffed “She sounds like a classy broad.” Though it wasn’t a compliment. It grossed you out a little to learn he had been with the blonde haired bitch, but you quickly brushed that off as you realized you’d both had lives before he walked into yours. And that you were both far from virgins. Though none of your past conquests were walking around his house, cooing about this and that—

“Yeah. Not my finest hour.” He grimaced for a second but then laughed, and the sound was like music to your ears, it was clearly a real laugh. One you secretly hoped you’d hear many more times. “We actually call woman like her ‘crown chasers’ and they are not even close to what I’m interested in, or looking for, for that matter. But as for why she was here, the only reason is because she is Regina’s niece. Just so we’re clear, she wasn’t here by my request, nor do I want anything to do with her.” He paused and that damn smirk was back “She isn’t the one I have my sights on.”

And just like that those silly poprocks were in your stomach again. How this man could make you feel like this with just a few simple words was actually kind of frustrating, if you were being honest. “Well, thank you for clarifying.”

He nodded “Now, I have a question for you?” then he paused for a moment “Actually, maybe two questions.”

“Okay?”

“First, did you get a chance to think over my offer for repaying the second drink?”

“You mean, have I decided if I want to accept your date offer or not?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“I haven’t.”

“Okay, then second question. Would you want to be my date tomorrow night for the fundraiser gala the she-witch mentioned?”

You snorted in an attempted to muffle your laugh by pressing your lips together firmly, as your hand flew up to cover your mouth. The nickname he had used for her was so fitting. And how he just said it like it was totally normal, and it was just him saying someones actual name, killed you. You saw the amusement in his eyes at your reaction to what he had said.

After a few second you calmed yourself down and lowered your hand from your mouth. You decided to ignore the ‘She-witch’ comment entirely. “So basically both questions were to ask if I’d go on a date with you?” You raised an eyebrow at him.

He shrugged “Basically.”

“Well, as much as a fundraiser gala sounds fun, I actually have to work tomorrow.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, and you were now sure that was his nervous tick. And you liked that he had one. It made him a little easier to read. He spoke up and he almost sounded apprehensive. Like what he was about to say may upset you, the nerves in his voice definitely made you tense up slightly “Actually, you don’t. I ah-I spoke to Bertrand this morning and informed him that you’ll be taking a paid vacation for a little while. I hope you don’t mind. I was actually coming to tell you that before Madeleine interrupted.”

You’re eyes widened “What!? Why?”

He sighed “Y/N, you got attacked last night. Whether you feel it or not, that will effect you. Take the paid break to move passed that.” He smiled, though it was weak at best “Plus, it would be almost impossible to keep you safe at work. To many people come and go from that place all day and there are a few different exits. Aside from having Mara and Rashad sit in the pub all night, there isn’t really any other options to keep you safe.”

“How long will I have to be on this ‘paid leave’?! I can’t just sit around all day, doing nothing.”

“I have a few things in motion, so my hope is not long. You can come and go from the house whenever you’d like, just take Mara and Rashad with you. I don’t want you to feel trapped here, in any way.” He shook his head “But, I want you to be safe. And I promised to protect you. So this is how I am doing that.”

You just looked at him as you thought about what you wanted to do. Or rather, how you wanted to respond. He made a very valid point but part of you did feel trapped by his actions. How could you not? He went behind your back and made a judgement call without even consulting you on it. That was a pretty controlling thing for him to do. But you also saw where he was coming from. And even though you barely knew him, you could tell he cared about you, and obviously a lot. He just had a weird fucking way of showing it. One you weren’t overly comfortable with.

“Look, thank you for protecting me, I do honestly appreciate it, but you can’t just make calls like that in my life, Liam. Because at the end of the day that’s exactly what it is, my life. And I would like—no, I need, to have the last say in it. So please don’t do that again, come to me first and talk to me about it. We can come up with a plan together, but don’t just assume you know whats best for me. Okay?”

He frowned slightly but nodded “I’m sorry, I just..” he trailed off.

“You what?” You coaxed softly.

He looked you in the eyes, his beautiful deep blues showing a few different emotions but you could only make out remorse and maybe even ...fear?

He spoke softly, almost in a whisper and you had to strain a little to hear him “I know we haven’t known each other long, but if anything were to happen to you, I don’t think I’d be able to live that down. I’d never forgive myself.”

You furrowed your brows for a moment, not really knowing how to take what he just said then the words just sort of left your mouth on their own “I understand where your head was when you talked to Bertrand, but all I ask is that from here on out you come to me first. I need to have some control in my life, Liam.” You said firmly “But, if I’m being honest, I probably would have come to the same conclusion as you did. I just want to be the one who makes that choice, okay? Promise you won’t do that again, and we will be all good.”

He nodded “I promise.”

“Perfect, then we will just act like this never happened.” You giggled.

“Thank you.” He smiled “So, now that you are in fact free tomorrow, what do you say about accompanying me to the Gala?”

And just like that, your minded drifted off at his question. Was accepting a date offer from another mob boss really a smart move. He had brought you into his home to protect you. Hell, turns out he was protecting you long before this point. But is this really what you wanted. The last time hadn’t ended every well and you still weren’t any where near over what he had done to you.

In all honesty, you may never get over what he had done to you. It was like a wound that refused to heal. Could you trust Liam? Did you believe that his intentions were true and that he wouldn’t end up treating you the same way in a few short months? The same way your ex had. He had seemed nice in the beginning, though when you thought back, there was always something off about him, but you were young and naive. And believed in fairytale true love and happy endings. Ha! You learned real fucking quick that those things didn’t exist in the real world.

But with Liam, nothing felt off. To the contrary actually. Everything felt right. Even though you barely knew him, part of you trusted him. A lot. More then you should. Maybe even more then you ever trust anyone else. And for sure more then you ever trusted your ex, at any point in time. But you also knew better then to fall head first into love again. You knew if you accepted Liams date offer, that regardless of what you told yourself or how much you fought it, you’d fall for him fast, and fucking hard, at that. You just knew it from your passed experiences with him. You wouldn’t be able to hold out for long. He made you feel safe. Secure. Special. Three feelings you desperately needed to feel right now. Three things that were crucial to helping you heal. The same three things you hadn’t felt in a long time, except when Liam was around.

You bit your lip, knowing what you were about to agree to. It wasn’t just to the date. No, it was to allowing him to help you heal. Help you move on. You nodded “Okay, if I agree to be your date, I have one condition.”

“Of course, what’s your condition?”

“We take this slow.” You paused “I-i need us to take this slow.” You said quietly.

He smiled softly at you “Y/N, how about I make you a deal?”

“Okay?”

“Be my date tomorrow and once the night is over, if you never want a second date, I’ll respect that.” He paused and you could swear you saw a brief look of heartache? cross his face before he quickly corrected it and continued “But, if you do want a second date, I’ll let you set the pace.”

You furrowed your brows again, more in disbelief this time “You’d do that for me?”

“I would. I may not know your whole story, but I know enough to understand that you may not be ready for this yet. And the last thing I want to do is make you feel forced or trapped, in any way.”

“Okay,” that was all you needed to hear. You stood up and walked over to where he was sitting and held your hand out to him, he looked confused for a second before he put his hand in yours and you shook it firmly “You have yourself a deal.”

The second the words left your mouth a giant smile formed on his handsome face, causing you to smile as well. But then yours quickly turned to a frown when the realization hit you “Shit. I don’t have anything formal to wear for a gala.” You paused “I mean, unless the dress code is jeans?” You smirked.

He stood up and offered you his arm “It’s not, it’s definitely black tie.” he chuckled “So I guess it’s a good thing I had Regina pick up some dresses for you to try.” He nonchalantly added but his cocky smirk gave him away. And just like that, you finally understood his random question from this morning, the one about your dress size. He started to lead you out of your room when you thought of something.

You put on the best poker face you could muster and raised a brow at him “Oh really, and what if I had turned you down?”

“I knew you wouldn’t.” He shrugged as he led you down the stairs. God, he really is a cocky fucker. You bit the inside of your cheek to keep from laughing.

“But what if I had?” You pressed.

He paused at the bottom of the stairs and leaned down to whisper in your ear “Did you turn me down?”

Your eyelids slammed shut at his breath on your neck again. Then you quietly whispered “No.” you’re voice betraying you, yet again, thanks to him.

He stood back up and chuckled as he started walking again, instantly making you open your eyes. Damn him. And his flustering ways. You knew instantly that what he just did was to prove his point. That point being that you did want him, and a lot.

“Then that’s all that matters now.”

He walked you down the long hall, passed both kitchens and up a set off stairs on the right. They brought you to a door at the top, which he knocked on. And a moment later the door opened to show Regina on the other side.

“Liam, Y/N. Come in.” She said as she gestured and stepped aside to let you both enter, but Liam put a hand up “Unfortunately, I can’t stay, but you ladies have fun.” He smirked down at you.

“Of course.” She smiled “Y/N, please come in.”

You stood there for a second, shifting your weight from side to side. Not sure if you wanted to do this without Liam. Not sure who else was in the apartment, your eyes flicked around what you could see of the suite, trying to figure out if the she-witch was in there, somewhere. And as if Liam could read your mind he leaned down and whispered just for you to hear “I kicked Madeleine out.”

You felt the involuntary smile spread across your face, then nodded once he stood back up. He then turned and headed back down the stairs, calling over his shoulder “I can’t wait to see what you pick.”

You turned then walked into the suite, entering directly into the kitchen area, off to the left. Once passed the kitchen it opened up to a living and dining room. It was just as beautiful as the rest if the house, which was no surprise to you. Though this part of the house seemed more homely, clearly having a woman’s touch to it. Regina closed the door “I’m sorry about Madeleine earlier, she doesn’t always play well with others. But she is harmless.”

You pressed your lips together and nodded “It’s okay.”

“Now, let me show you the dresses.” She said with a smile as she walked into a bedroom off the living area, you followed. Once in the room you saw a rack with a few different dresses in all different colours.

Your eyes widened at the beautiful dresses in different fabrics, colours and shapes. You looked at Regina for a moment, as if asking permission, she nodded and smiled in return. So you walked over to the rack and ran your hand along all the dresses, feeling each one pass your fingers as you did.

Regina clapped her hands “Okay, let’s pick you out a dress.”

You tried them all on, finally settling on the one that suited you the best. It was stunning and made you not only feel confident but you also secretly figured it would leave Liam speechless. Or at least you hoped it would. Once you had changed back into your normal clothes, Regina gave you a black garment bag so you could get the dress back to your room without anyone, or more specifically one person in particular, seeing any part of the dress. Both of you not wanting to ruin tomorrows surprise.

You thanked Regina then made your way back to your room, you wanted to call Hana and not only check in with her but also fill her in on everything that had happened. After a quick text to make sure she was in a good place for a long phone conversations, you called her. And you both talked for 2 hours.

She was so worried when you told her about the bounty and the attack. But by the end of the call she was basically telling you to marry Liam. It was a joke, however part of you actually took the words to heart. But then quickly shoved them to the back of your head. You barely knew him, nor how this would all play out in the end. The last thing you should be fantasizing about was marrying him. Fuck that. Too soon. You finally ended the talk with a ‘we have to get together soon’ and a ‘stay safe’ from both Hana and yourself. Then you hung up. And decided a nice long shower was in order. You just needed a few minutes to yourself and to relax. And showers were always your go to when your mind was running wild with ‘what ifs’ and worries.

Once you had finished your shower you entered back into your room, going through the bags, making a mental note to unpack them soon as clearly you were going to be here for a while, might as well move in for now. You picked out a pair of dark grey tights and a black T-shirt, pulling a big black hoody overtop. Once again, your outfit was all about comfort. Because why not? You quickly dealt with your wet hair, brushing it then putting it into a top bun.

You were just about to head downstairs to make yourself some dinner when there was another knock on your door. You wandered over and opened the door to, once again, find Liam on the other side.

But this time he didn’t seem nervous at all. The opposite actually.

“Hey, you hungry?” He asked.

You nodded and laughed “I’m starving.”

“Good.” He laughed as well “Let’s get some food into you. Oh, and it’s movie night.”

“Movie night?” You asked as you walked out of your room and closed the door.

“Yeah. We have movie nights every Saturday. It’s sort of like a tradition around here.” He said as you both headed down the stairs.

“Oh, sounds fun.” You replied with a smile.

You both then headed down the stairs to the basement, finding the whole gang down there in the home theatre.

There was an assortment of snacks, drinks and pizza laid out around the room. And everyone was set up in the massive chairs, waiting on the movie to start and talking amongst themselves. You ended up sitting in the back, in one of the recliners with Mara on one side and Liam on the other.

You quickly learned the movie you all were going to watch was The Hitman’s Bodyguard. It was supposedly Drakes turn to pick the movie, though Rashad groaned about how he had already seen it and he didn’t want to watch it again. But Drake just threw popcorn at him and told him to ‘shut it’ because ‘no one cares what he wants’. The while gang laughed then the lights dimmed and the movie started.

It was a fun night, mixed with stupid jokes, jabs and innuendoes. You ate more pizza then you should have, and way to much popcorn.

Once the movie was done, a few people wanted to play a round of bowling but you were exhausted. Liam walked you back up to your room, kissing your knuckles just like the night before and bidding you ‘Goodnight’, which you returned. Then you entered your room, got into pjs and climbed into bed. Turning off the lights and passing out almost instantly, again. You could get used to nights like these. To the calm they brought you. The sense of safety. And if you were honest, the feeling of family. It was weird to feel this way so fast, but everyone had been so welcoming and it was quickly starting to feel like you belonged here. Like you were one of the pack. And you liked that, and hoped it would stayed this way. Or rather, you sort of needed it to. This was the closest you’d been to a family in years and you missed it. A lot.

Chapter 12 HERE.

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[egelantier]

fic written in 2018 meme

total number of posted stories in 2018: 18 total word count: 56.380 fandoms written in: final fantasy xv, mahoutsukai no yome, guardian, star wars (OT), shirogane no ou, star stealing prince, vatican miracle examiner. fandoms I wouldn't have expected to write this year: star stealing prince, on account on never playing the game before. looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? haaaaaaaaaaaaa. ha. this year was insane. i wrote more than i ever wrote in an hour before, by a lot; i was, for my, like a damn fic writing machine. i hope it wasn't a one-year fluke, but either way - here we are. what's your own favorite story of the year? a working relationship, an ignis and gladio adventure with kidnapping, torture, and competence porn. i wrote it just because, for a kinkmeme prompt but for no challenge or deadline, and actually got to the end of it, and it had action and adventure and dialogue and whump, and it was just - fun. (and long.) my best story of this year: this is hard to judge, but i think give your heart and soul to charity - another one i wrote on a whim, without a requester or challenge pressure, a bittersweet fairytale-ish ever after about permanent deaging and grief and new beginnings. i took my time with it and let it expand organically, and i think it got more or less exactly where i wanted it to go. (this said, next time i decide to write a story hinging on a four-way high stakes conversation where one of the participants is blind? shoot me.) (this said, apparently 'high stakes conversations where one of the participants is blind' is apparently my go-to trope this year. no i don't know either.) my most popular story of this year: most popular by ao3 hit count: you couldn't have it any other way, a chocolate box ffxv story i wrote for lagerstatte that kicked off the entire ffxv obsession thing, and also the whole 'conversations while blind (and also dying)' shtick. most popular by ao3 kudos: ditto! i think i landed in a very nice point of challenge zeitgeist.   most popular by ao3 comments: a working relationship, followed up by down comes the night, my guardian casefic for yuletide, and for the hint of a spark, a luke&leia post-endor story written for fandom5k. story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: it's not precisely underappreciated! my recip loved it, and i've gotten some lovely comments - but can't take the kid from the fight, a mahoutsukai no yome orphanfic/sickfic was hella fun to write, and i wish more people saw it. most fun story to write: want every tomorrow, a ravus/ignis story i wrote as a birthday gift for court_of_ocelot. it's a pretty dark story, in itself - about grief, and living after your sole guiding light is lost, and finding each other in the dark - but it was a joy to write, and the process itself was smooth and easy. sexiest story/story with the single sexiest moment: i still stick to gen/fade-to-black, so let's go with luna and ignis discussing ignis being noct's dowry in, well, dowry. hardest story to write: for the hint of a spark - it was a fandom5k assignment, and it fell square in the middle of complete IRL shitfest - moving! group! logistics! - and i ended up writing it frantically over the course of two days, very, very close under the line. i'm pleased with how it came out (and i am endlessly grateful to morbane for whipping it into shape on a really tight schedule), but writing it was a stamina exercise. and also, in a different way, you couldn't have it any other way, because it was the story that broke the most horrendous writer's break for me. i've had to literally force myself into writing it - there's a page, in the beginning of that fic's document, where i'm frantically trying to talk myself past the really horrible bout of anxiety - and i'm so, so glad it did. apparently it was a beginning of a beautiful friendship :D darkest story to write: passage, hands down. ffxv is a pretty tragic game, in itself, and apparently a part of my brain became immediately devoted to making it even darker. so, well. catatonia! grief! caretaker fatigue! mercy-killing! i maintain it's more hopeful than not, but... yeah. favorite title: give your heart and soul to charity, both for how it suits the fic and for the sly hint at the contents hidden in the song it's cribbed from. favorite opening line: The king must die. favorite closing line: When he pulls the trigger, the hum of the cicadas falls silent, just for a moment. Then it begins again. did you take any writing risks this year? a l l o f t h e m. longfics! casefics! cdrama fandom! anime fandoms! writing for a kinkmeme! writing just because! it was a very stretchy year, in this sense. do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? i live in fear of my newfound ability to write without, like, dying, being a fluke. it's not so far - i'm writing right now, and it's hard and complicated and i'm panicking and being really close to the deadline, but i'm writing. so - i want to keep doing that, and to have some space to figure out what is my 'style' and what are my unfortunate and repetitive writing tics, and to write more long fics, and to just write anything that comes into my damn mind. it's going to be interesting... stories I haven't yet written, but intend to: - i swear to god i will finish this whipping/crucifixion story if it kills me. - there's another ignis kidnapping fic that i have a third of, and i want to get it done. - ignis/noct/luna canon divergence fixit au of doom? MAYBE. - and whatever else strikes my fancy! i'm going to keep track of kinkmeme and just, like. indulge. HOPEFULLY. i'd like to thank the academy ... court_of_ocelot for being the most reliant, kind, supportive, thoughtful, loving and excited alfa/beta reader ever (that one time i had to write a story for her without showing her was the worst); ignis whump discord for being the best damn supportive audience for ridiculously self-indulgent whump there can be; naye, gnine and xparrot for enabling me all through my ridiculous guardian yuletide adventures; and morbane for being an incredibly thorough, merciless and nurturing beta who never failed at making me think and try to do better. and overall - i've had really great response to my fics all through the years, with a lot of lovely and supportive comments, and honestly? i write fic as a sort of - conversation, storytelling, talking around the fire - and people who read the stuff you write, sometimes because they like it, and sometimes because they like you, and sometimes just because - they keep me going; no drawerfics for me! so that was fun.  

[voidsettle]

Warm Flanders

Indulging our traveling desire and continuing the newly developed tradition of European Christmas markets, we bought tickets to Belgium. This trip had its peculiarities - and a unique aftertaste. Welcome to the capital of Europe!

Panorama of Bruges from Belfry (I assume, the point where Brendan Gleeson's character jumps off in the movie 'In Bruges'

I don't know how we chose Belgium - but it all started with just Brussels, and then grew to another three towns. I suspect we may have a psychological condition.

After Brussels, Bruges was an obvious addition to the trip. Possibly the most well-known of tourist destinations in Belgium, it features a well-preserved medieval town so quaint like it crawled out of a fairy tale.

The movie 'In Bruges' (a nice piece of popularized arthaus) added to the fame of the place. The town in this flick is a character of its own - it serves as the premise and the plot twist, it helps to make hard choices and aids the protagonist. Besides, the film has gorgeous cast. Seriously, look it up if you've never seen it - or rewatch if you have.

Being in Belgium (and, more importantly, its northern part, Flanders - probably the most history-heavy region), I absolutely had to see Antwerp. Ghent was a curious little addition that we didn't plan - but that happened between Bruges and Antwerp just because we had time and opportunity. Stay tuned for more.

Brussels: Art and Chocolate

Rue de la Chaufferette/Lollepotstraat, LGBTQ art street in the inner City of Brussels

Brussels is a weird city. Commonly I enjoy places that don't mind you roaming the streets (think Rome, Bangkok, New York). Brussels is however different. It etched into my memory as grey and rainy (I barely got a chance to snap a photo), and multifaceted to the point of utter incomprehensibility.

That is partly on national communities. Our free-tour guide mused on the immigration agenda of the city: nearly 80% of the current population (first and second generations) are not native to Belgium. The city, being the administrative and political center of Europe, is the very definition of a cultural melting pot.

Only a day before we arrived, French workers had a strike against ever-growing prices - thus all of Brussels was covered in barricades (not sure about the name, but something like Cheval de frise or knife-rest (aka Spanish rider) obstacles; all cold metal and barbwire, brutal).

But Brussels also flaunts its historic heritage and celebrates its art. The whole city is covered in street art - most notably scenes and characters from comics and statements in favor of LGBTQ community. Street decorations and overhead lamps of different designs and splendor turn the city into an exhibition of light.

Altmejd, 2015. Musees royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique/Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van Belgie

The more traditional artistry is spread within the cluster of museums of Mont des Arts/Kunstberg, most notably the Royal Museu of Fine Arts that features both old masters (David, Rembrandt, Rubens - and a whole hall and Google-partnered tour program dedicated to Bruegel) and new masters (some of my beloved Impressionists including Van Gogh, Serat, Gaugin, and a couple of Rodins). Another pearl, Magritte's museum is just down the stairs.

We've also followed one of the most bizarre quests I've ever had, looking for all three pissing monuments of Brussels - the symbol-status Manneken Pis, his female version Jeanneke Pis and a non-fountain canine variation Het Zinneke. Belgian people are weird.

We had some hysterical fun trying to decipher one of the ads on a bus stop. It claimed certain Subea was the best gift for your loved ones on Christmas. Passersby undoubtedly believed us crazy as we tried to identify the thing - and never came close to guessing. Look it up, it's hilarious.

Blue street art, Brussels

Built on the time-tested principles of trading cities, Brussels preserves the tradition of market squares. In early December, the downtown is covered in Christmas towns and motley crowds, framed in softly shimmering lights. It's full of flavors of waffles with cream, and frites, and gluhwein, and seafood, and sausages.

Brussels is full of cyclists (even more so than Copenhagen), full of churches, and homeless, and nationalities - cuisines, skin tones, languages. The signs duplicated in French and Dutch do not help location purposes in any significant way.

Nevermind the confusing feelings I developed for Brussels, there is one thing I should mention with firm praise - chocolate. Walk the streets and have a cup of hot chocolate - it's literally chocolate of your choice melted in hot milk. Eat warm Liege waffles topped with chocolate and cream. Buy a set of (regular) chocolate boxes with discount - or pay a visit to Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert to learn about chocolate as art. It's expensive, yes, but oh is it worth every cent!

Break a chocolate bar of preference - dark works best - into pieces, add to the cup and pour with hot milk. Stir until it melts. Enjoy the taste of Belgium.

St Michael and Gudula Cathedral, Brussels

What to see in Brussels:

Grand Place

Brussels Town Hall

Residence of the Dukes of Brabant

Maison du Roi/Broodhuis

Manneken Pis

Jeanneke Pis

Het Zinneke

Bourse/Beurs (stock exchange)

Galleries Royales Saint-Hubert

St Michael and Gudula Cathedral

chapelle de la Madeleine/Magdalenakapel

Mont des Arts/Kunstberg

Musees royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique/Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van Belgie (Musee Oldmasters, Musee Magritte, musical instruments museum)

Royal Palace

Parc de Bruxelles/Warandepark

eglise Notre-Dame au Sablon/Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ten Zavelkerk

eglise royale Sainte-Marie/Koninklijke Sint-Mariakerk

National Basilica of the Sacred Heart

Atomium

Royal Palace of Laeken

Bruges: The Belfry and the Waffle Houses

Rozenhoedkaai, Bruges

Belgian capital is the least Flemish city among those I've visited. Bruges, on the other hand, seems to bear the imprint of one of the richest regions of medieval Europe. The town is neat and cute, full of waffle houses with stair-step facades, all red brick and yellowish stone. The streets are carefully crafted and well-groomed; they stretch in slow curves, and the houses crowding each side chant their stories to the tourists in a never-ending lullaby.

Houses plaster all over each other - it feels like each street has only one building that was actually constructed with 4 walls. The rest figured 'hey, here's a perfectly good empty wall right there, with nothing attached, why not stick to the side'.

The whole country is like that, one of the signature traits of Belgium, alongside angry cyclists and painted waffle houses.

Before walking to the main attraction (Belfry, naturally), we've decided to have a glass of beer in Halve Maan, one of the oldest breweries in town. We were pleasantly surprised by the sleepy emptiness, the fireside couches and craft beer (I've never had an 11° beer before, it felt almost as a shot of whiskey). In a slumbery, sheepish haze we walked around the Minnewaterpark with its swans and gardens dipped in green moisture.

Minnewaterpark. After the rainy, grey-ish Brussels, Bruges met us with sun-through-the-clouds and warmth worthy of mid-October. I finally got out my camera and snapped my way through the cute medieval city

The territory of Bruges is covered in canals - no wonder it's called the small Venice of the North, and the centuries-old architecture covers the town in a romantic blur. Even the long queues of Belfry (one person in, one out, and around half a hundred waiting for their turn) didn't disturb our dreamy mood. The view from above maps the whole town on the palm of your hands, and the stone parapet is covered in numbers and names of cities with arrows pointing the direction.

Carillon, a fascinating musical instrument that has several dozen bells connected to play melodies. The Belfry carillon plays a different melody every quarter of an hour

Belfry is gorgeous at sunset, especially observed from Grote Markt - towering, starkly contrasted against the fading skies.

Bruges is probably best-known for its streets - after you've seen the main attractions, there's no clear itinerary, but just wander around and get lost in the medieval brick labyrinth. You can visit the old windmills - each with its own unique name - and the corner of Groenerei, which is less romantic in winter but still a nice place for a romantic rendezvous. Or just roam the streets and inhale the ambiance of this old town that looks like it jumped straight out of a fairytale with enchanted castles, simplistic plotline where good always conquers evil and a set of enjoyably cardboard characters.

Sometimes it's fun to experience something so far from real life. Can't disagree with the philosophic view of Fiennes's character from 'In Bruges'.

What to see in Bruges:

Kasteel de la Faille

Sashuis

Minnewaterpark

Sint-Janshospitaal-Memlingmuseum

St Salvator's cathedral

Church of Our Lady (featuring Michelangelo's Madonna met Kind)

Bonifaciusbrug

the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Rozenhoedkaai (the most photographed spot in Bruges)

't Brugse Vrije

City Hall

Basilique du Saint-Sang

Brugge markt

Belfry and Market Halls

Provinciaal Hof

Jan Breydel en pieter de Coeninck memorial

St James's church

Jan Van Eyck memorial

windmills (de Coelewey, de Nieuwe Papegaai, Sint Janshuismolen, Bonne Chiere)

Sint-Annakerk

Gronerei

Train Tales

​Belgium is unexpectedly bad at doing trains. We heard the first bell as we tried to get out of Brussels. The Northern train station has a clear division between two worlds. The ground floor belongs to hobos and (most probably) unemployed immigrants - this is the world of half-light, scary coughs and little noises, empty food wrappings, garbage, people wrapped in multiple layers of dirty blankets and coats. The upper floors are obviously European, well-lit, with shops, 24/7 information desks and wending machines. The contrast is so stark that it's frightening.

(Under)ground floors of Antwerpen-Centraal

Yet this was but a warning. For some unknown reason, the schedule of Belgian trains is really complicated - we couldn't make sense of it using just timetables and scoreboards. This was a shock for me specifically - I just went to Italy a month prior, where I didn't even need to talk to anyone to understand where to buy tickets and how to get from point A to point B.

Obviously we were not alone confused by the whole system - by the machine selling tickets, a nice lady was spending her working hours explaining stupid tourists how this works. She offered us a ticket we didn't consider - it could take us to 10 destinations (we needed 6, and decided to spend 2 more for a short detour to Ghent before Antwerp; profit).

The complications started when we failed to notice the class of the coach we were boarding. Truth to be told, there was a number '1' on the side - but the inside didn't look any different from second class, so I'm not sure what's the deal. 10 minutes into the ride, a railway employee walked in and aggressively started to demand extra payment to 'upgrade' our tickets - about 10 euro per person. None of us were allowed to leave the first class coach for the second.

The thing about that whole situation was: of all the people in the coach, only one woman was aware of its first class status. The rest were bewildered and looked like lost tourists (some of us surely were) who forgot to check the number on the side of the carriage. Which, frankly, didn't feel like the people's fault. A Spanish family nearly started a brawl with the guy - which earned my compassion but also a portion of solid mirth.

Hilarious experience - but also quite frustrating. Not too fond of Belgian train system.

Ghent: The Castle and the Histrionic Weather

Gravensteen, Ghent

I didn't expect this short detour would turn out this satisfying. Don't get me wrong, there's not much to do in Ghent in the evening. In a manner traditional for the whole country, life dies away after 6PM. As nightfall covers the streets, the shops and restaurants close, and the whole city seems deserted. There are some late passersby, some groups of youth and random tourists but they're not common, especially further from downtown.

But the architecture is spectacular nonetheless. Korenmarkt (basically, central square) with Church of Saint Nicholas is the heart of the city. The sites are mostly all on the same line - Stadhuis Gent and Belfort, Saint Bavo cathedral and a couple of nearby 'palaces' that were actually residences of (very) wealthy merchants, and Saint Michael's church on the other side of Korenmarkt, across the Leie river.

It was enjoyable to just wander the empty streets quite aimlessly, bumping into architectural sites curious things here and there

Gravensteen is exactly the prototype you imagine when someone says 'a castle'. It's the type of medieval structure you drew as a kid, with the battlements and turrets. This is where a valiant knight came to rescue a fair maiden from an evil king. It's The Ultimate Castle.

In yet another plot twist, the weather in Ghent was unpredictably fun. It made us giggle at its hysterical fits.

Rain, wind and damp autumnal warmth changed each other in bizarre epileptic seizures.

One moment, it decided to rain - and the downpour started as soon as we opened our umbrellas. 2 minutes later it all stopped as if nothing happened. Ten minutes passed - and terrible gusts of wind that nearly knocked us down. Sure enough, soon it was warm and mellow again. Best advice when the weather is in such a theatrical mood: keep an umbrella with you at all times.

The walk from the city center to the train station is quite long, about an hour. But at least the building of the train station is worth exploring - it has great inner decorations all over the ceiling that imitate medieval style. Outside, by the largest bike parking I've seen after Copenhagen's sleeping districts, a sad man was playing his wistful sax; there seems to be something about Belgium and saxophones.

What to see in Ghent:

Korenmarkt (basically, central square)

Church of Saint Nicholas

Saint Michael's church

Gravensteen

Stadhuis Gent

Belfort

Saint Bavo cathedral

Antwerp: The Train Station and the Sky

Antwerpen-Centraal Train Station, Antwerp

After the grey cold rain of Brussels and the crazy run of tourist-packed Bruges and (devastatingly) empty Ghent, Antwerp was all sunshine and warmth. Easily the most enjoyable time I've had in Belgium.

Antwerp is a mild, soft city, quite self-indulgent - it has less tourists than either Brussels or Bruges - and completely immersed in its own thoughts. Traces of the eternal, undying energy that preserves big cities can be found everywhere.

First things first, we went to see the jewel of Antwerp's sightseeing itinerary - Antwerpen-Centraal, the main train station of the city. It has 4 floors, with trains arriving on each of them - it is really impressive, especially as the whole structure is sunlit through the ribbed glass roof and the underground floors are dipped in orange-and-purple lights, the true impressionist study of light and color.

Antwerp has a clear itinerary, as if the city was built with the idea of easy navigation in mind. Starting from Antwerpen-Centraal and past the diamond district, the shopping streets of Antwerp start and run right to the heart of the city, Grote Markt. The walk there is short if one ignores the detour sites like the beautiful neoclassical Bourla theater with round-ish colonnade façade, the house of Rubens turned museum, the oldest house in Antwerp build circa 1480, completely wooden and still inhabited, or the baroque St Charles Borromeo church, which simplistic interior is decorated with astonishing woodwork.

The notorious diamond district of Antwerp is located right beside the train station. History has it that it all started with shops opening here so that rich people coming to Antwerp to buy diamonds could keep their incognito and leave as soon as the deal was sealed, without the need to visit the town.

Grote Markt and the nearby Groenplaats are connected with a short street that features another pearl of Antwerp, the Cathedral of Our Lady. This majestic Gothic temple is narrowly surrounded by the old houses of trading guilds glued to its every side. You cannot actually see the side walls of the Cathedral (which is another trademark feature of Flemish towns - a dead giveaway that trade was of utmost importance, and that secular and religious matters were closely connected).

Grote Markt itself looks just like other main squares in Belgium - a lot of space adapted for Christmas markets during this time of year, crowded by waffle houses with gilded statues and inscriptions dating back to the Autumn of the Middle Ages, and towering Brabantine Gothic spire, the cynosure of the city.

Stroh violin player. Stroviol is a popular instrument of street musicians, seen all over Flanders

The next thing I was agitated to see was Sint-Annatunnel - a 1/2 km tunnel under the riverbed, fully built for walking on foot, riding on bicycles and even for motorized vehicles. The escalators are wood-paneled and lacquered, the photos on the walls tell the history of construction of the tunnel as one descends.

Quay along river Scheldt, shipyard and windmills

On our way to MAS, we've taken a turn into the Antwerp red lights district. As I was quite shamelessly staring at the girls (literally) displayed in the windows, my friend surprised me, hilariously paying attention to some nesting boxes on a random tree instead. Some way to explore the city.

Don't miss on the chance to visit MAS museum. For a tourist, it's a golden opportunity: free entrance to the rooftop with stunning night panorama of Antwerp lights. From up above, the lights on the windmills twinkle red, painting an ominous image in the night skies. The walls of the interior are covered with posters of modern art (sometimes inspiring, sometimes hilarious, sometimes frightening). Besides, MAS is open till 10 PM, a rare case for Belgium.

MAS pays the oddest homages, and one of them is to Harry Potter franchise: the building features floor 9 and 1/2.

While on the roof of MAS, the pragmatism and commercial genes of Flemish people deliver nothing but pure delight. The nearby houses host advertisements for the visitors of the museum: cafes and restaurants ornament their awnings with offers of hot drinks and rich meals.

What to see in Antwerp:

Antwerpen-Centraal

diamond block

Leysstraat 32-34 and 27 (twin buildings)

Meir (shopping street)

Rubenshuis

Bourlaschouwburg

Boerentoren

Sint-Carolus Borromeuskerk

Groenplaats

Cathedral of Our Lady

Grote Markt

Brabo fountain

Stadhuis Antwerpen

Het Steen and Lange Wapper memorial

Sint-Annatunnel

Stoelstraat 11 (the oldest house of Antwerp)

Sint-Pauluskerk

Schipperskwartier (red lights district)

MAS museum (rooftop viewpoint)

What to eat:

chocolate (in all forms, whether it's box of finest pralines, a chocolate bar, or a cup of hot chocolate)

waffles (fillings vary; I personally prefer dark chocolate and whipped cream. Belgian people however have plain waffle with sugar powder)

beer (one of the oldest and most important produces of the region; brewing beer is fine art here)

frites (basically French fries, but don't call them that - it's offensive, given the fact they were not invented in France; the locals still hold their grudge over the matter)

mussels (Brussels specialty, usually go with frites on the side)

Flanders As It Is

Wandelterras Noord, quay of Antwerp, near Sint-Annatunnel. The sun gave us its last warmth of the day as we strolled along the Antwerp quay, the dark silhouettes of seagulls scattering sunbeams as we scared them off the railings

The towns of Flanders are easily recognizable. The main square is always called 'Grote Markt'; the combination of a cathedral (usually of Our Lady), a stadhuis and a belfry impending over the town is mandatory. Old houses of stone (and sometimes even wood), with stepped roofs and intricate ornaments. Waffles and chocolate on every corner, infinite varieties of beer in any pub. Add cyclists during the day or bicycle parking at night, cobblestone streets, a culture co-depending with trade - and you have a perfect portrait of a Flemish city.

It was a little vacation we all need from time to time - not spectacular but fun, warm and surprisingly full of color in this grim, gray time of the year.