#Teacher told me to get some water. Thanks I guess.

[coffee-dere]

Thinking about that one time my vision just kinda.. gave up on me in the middle of class

[stormz369]

☕💖 Can I Get Your Number? ☕💖 Ch 25

Jason Todd x (f)Chubby!Reader

written with a female reader in mind, first person pov, no use of Y/N, will probably get NSFW later, let me know if there's anything else I should tag this with!

warnings/labels: it's time for a training montage! minor injury, guns briefly mentioned wc: 2.1k

Chapter Selection

“I can’t believe we’re doing this…” Jason grumbled softly, starting his bike.

“I told you; you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. Bruce said he'd send a car for me.” I wrapped my arms around his waist, gently squeezing.

“Absolutely not. If you’re joining Thursday training sessions, I’m going with you.” We flew down the street, Jason’s voice continuing in the speaker in my helmet; “I just don’t understand why you want to do this at all…”

“Training with more people will give me a more well-rounded experience. And while you are a very good teacher, you’re also my boyfriend. Somehow I feel like Bruce will be a harsher critic of my abilities.”

“And that’s a good thing??” He took a sharp turn toward the wealthy side of town.

“When we’re talking about possible life and death situations, yes. And I don’t really want you to have to be harsh with me, so why don’t we make that Bruce’s responsibility, since that relationship is already tense anyway?”

Jason sighed softly, gently squeezing my hands. “... I guess. … He can be a … tough teacher though. If he’s too hard on you, you don’t have to take it.”

“I know, baby. And he knows I’m not looking to be added to the patrol schedule, so I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Jason grumbled more, but continued driving to Wayne Manor. We parked in a large garage, and he led me to an elevator. After pressing several buttons we were headed down to the Batcave, where the entire Wayne family met us.

Damian spied us first, walking over. “Sister?”

“Hey kiddo! You gonna help train me?” I grinned, holding my hand out to him. He hesitantly squeezed my hand once, dropping it quickly.

“... I thought Father was attempting to make a joke when he said you were joining our training sessions…” he frowned deeply.

“Nope, no joke. … Is that a problem?” I raised an eyebrow.

“... I suppose not. … You will spar with me.” He gestured for me to follow him toward some mats.

Jason cried after us; “hey! Be gentle, demon brat. She's still new to this stuff.”

“I am not a fool, Todd. I am not expecting her to be a black belt.” Damian nodded; “stretches first.”

I took a seat and pulled my shoes off before stepping onto the mat, doing our usual pre-workout stretches. Eventually Bruce came over, watching us with vague interest on his face. “Alright, let's see what we have to work with.”

I nodded, and Damian and I put on some padding. We bowed to each other, and began. He started out slowly, letting me get in the flow of things. The others watched, periodically calling out instructions and encouragements. After a while I caught a glimpse of Jason in the corner of my eye, chewing on his lip, and Damian took that moment to sweep my leg out from under me.

“Oof!” I grunted softly as I landed on my back, blinking a bit.

“Don't get distracted. Your opponent will use that moment to their advantage.”

I nodded, accepting Damian's offered hand to get back up. “Go again?”

He nodded, and we went again, and again, and again. Every time, I ended up on my back, and he had another note for me. “Don't watch my face, watch my shoulders.” “If you aren't willing to hurt me, you will never win.” “Follow through, or none of this will matter.” “Focus on your footing; you're off balance.” “Breath with your attacks.”

Eventually, Jason stepped forward. “That's enough, take five.”

I nodded, letting him help me up, and bowed to Damian again. “Thanks for training me, Damian.”

He nodded, smiling a little, and bowed back. “You're not entirely hopeless, considering you're a civilian. If you take this seriously, you'll be a proper martial artist in no time.”

I grinned, nodding, and Jason led me to the side, getting me some water. “How do you feel?”

“I feel fine, baby! Damian is an excellent sparring partner.”

He frowned a bit, massaging my shoulders. “I dunno, some of those throws were unnecessarily rough…”

“Jace, do you think the next mugger I run into is going to be more gentle with me than that?”

He sighed, kissing my neck. “... No. … I just don't like watching you get knocked around.”

“I know, you're so protective of me~ it's sweet, but we gotta power through this part so I can get good.”

He sighed, holding me close. We watched the others pair up for more intensive sparring practices, and Bruce came over. “You did well out there. I want you to work on your balance for a while, Jason can walk you through that. And you should do at least an hour a day of simple exercises; stretching, strength training, and balance training.”

I nodded. “Got it. Thanks Bruce…”

He nodded, pointing out the equipment he recommended I use today, and went back to observing the others. Jason eventually led me over to the equipment, and we started working on my balance.

After weeks of gym days with Jason and BatFam training sessions, I really expected to see myself slimming down a bit. But when I looked in the mirror, I was still soft and curvy. My arm and leg muscles were more pronounced, and I was certain my core muscles were getting stronger too, but my tummy was still round and squishy. It didn't bother me, and Jason seemed rather pleased to not be losing my softness; he tended to nuzzle against my chest and stomach at night, like a big cuddly teddy bear.

Seeing my training progress wasn't making him any less protective either; every time I stepped onto the mat with one of his siblings I could hear him growling at them. It didn't deter Damian, or the girls, but Dick and Tim were particularly hesitant to give me a proper training session. They mostly stuck to helping me with warm ups, and shouting suggestions from the sidelines.

All of the bats were master martial artists, but each had their own preferred fighting styles. Damian taught me to fake out my opponent, and had a proclivity for taking out the leg. Stephanie preferred to mix up her fighting style, keeping her opponents off guard. Cass taught me to anticipate an opponent's moves, watching for the slightest movements that might tell me how to take them down. When Dick and I sparred, he mostly stuck to the basics, not wanting to risk injuring me in front of Jason. Tim mostly helped me work on my blocks and defensive strategy. Bruce stuck to observing and instructing, never actually entering the ring with me. And with the lot of them training me in various martial arts, Jason turned our gym days into gym-and-range days; we would do some stretches and basic core-building, and then we went to the shooting range to work on my aim.

One day before training, Damian had me kneel. Once I was on my knees, he held out a yellow sash with little black bats on it, saying something in a language I didn't know.

I took it, smiling softly; “what's this?”

“Your yellow bat-belt. You've leveled up in your training. Put it on.”

I grinned, nodding, and tied it around my waist; “yes, Sensei.”

Damian smiled at that, nodding once. Once he was happy with how the belt was tied, he led me to the mats for our sparring session. Tim snorted softly, watching from the side.

“What's with the belt? You know the mish-mash of martial arts she's learning wouldn't count at a proper school, right?”

Damian glowered at him; “she has leveled up in the School of the Bat. That is what matters here.”

“Well how come the rest of us don't get bat-belts then?” Tim smirked a bit; “you gotta make them for everyone, Damian!”

“You would not like a physical indicator of what level I deem you to be at, Drake.” Damian smirked at his indignant noises, and turned to me. We bowed and started our sparring session.

In our fourth spar of the day, I landed my first ever hit. One second Damian was in front of me, fists up, and the next he was sprawled out on the floor in front of me, looking up at me in shock.

“Oh my god, Damian! Are you ok??” I fell to my knees next to him as he sat up slowly.

“... I'm fine. … Well done, sister.” He smirked a bit; “now do it again.”

I could hear the smirk in Jason's voice as he called out; “way to go, babe! Kick the demon brat's ass!”

“Language.” Bruce frowned at him, and I helped Damian up.

“Sorry, B. Let's try that again,” he cleared his throat, putting on the most happy-go-lucky voice he could manage; “holy guacamole, bat-babe! Gee golly, can ya do it again, pretty girl?” 

Dick wrinkled his nose, groaning softly. “Dear god, I forgot you used to talk like that. Never do that again.”

“Agreed.” I laughed softly, sticking my tongue out at him; “that was horrible!”

He chuckled, winking at me. Damian frowned, snapping at us; “Enough! No flirting during training! Sister, let's go again.”

My head was ringing. Hands grabbed me, and I was carefully brought into a seated position. I blinked slowly, touching the back of my head gently. No blood. That was good���

“-idn't mean to! Fuck!”

“Well you did! So back off, Grayson!” Damian spoke sharply next to me. His small hands held the sides of my face, making me look at him; “... No dilation, that's good.”

I blinked slowly, frowning. “Wha- … what happened?”

Jason held me against his chest, frowning deeply. “You don't remember, baby?”

I started to shake my head, but the pounding in my head put a stop to that. “Ohhh fuck … ow…”

“Shit …” Dick whined softly from somewhere behind Damian. “Shit, I … I'm so sorry! I swear, I didn't mean to!”

“Dick, just shut up.” Jason growled, holding me closer. He carefully lifted me, holding me against his chest as he carried me toward a long bench.

“She's probably got a concussion. Don't let her sleep.” Tim frowned, bringing an ice pack.

Jason took it, carefully pressing it to my head. “Yeah, no shit…”

“What happened?”

“Dick threw you off the mat.” Jason growled softly, holding me close. “You're done for the day. Time to rest.”

“Ugh… ok. … Rest sounds good…” I frowned, closing my eyes.

Dick hesitantly mumbled my name; “I'm so sorry!”

“It's all good, Dick. I'm not dying.” I groaned softly, leaning against Jason.

Jay growled softly. “It's not all good. I told you to be careful. I told you not to hurt her!”

I shushed him softly, leaning in more. “No yelling…”

He sighed softly, kissing my forehead. “Sorry, baby girl…”

Bruce checked my eyes, frowning a bit. “... Nothing else she can do today. Take her home, have her take a few days off.”

Jay grunted his agreement and the next thing I knew, I was in his arms again, being carried to the elevator. Damian ran after us, bringing my bag along. I smiled softly, reaching down to stroke his hair. “Thanks, kiddo…”

He leaned in to my touch for a second before pulling back; “I'll come over tomorrow after school to check on you.”

“Sounds good. Thanks, Damian.” He smiled a little at that, setting my bag in the car. Jason got me situated, making sure I was buckled, before getting in and driving me home.

“Fucking Dick…” he grumbled softly.

“Relax, baby. It's just a minor concussion. I'll be fine tomorrow.” I smiled softly, watching the scenery.

“Should never have happened…’’

“It was an accident, they happen. Don't be too harsh with him.” 

He sighed, resting a hand on my knee. “... This ok?”

I smiled softly and nodded, turning toward him; “Yeah, that's ok.”

He smiled a little and gently stroked my knee with his thumb; “when we get in, you're gonna rest on the couch. I'll get you some water, and aspirin, and I'll make something light for dinner.”

“Ok. Thanks, Jay~” I sighed softly, closing my eyes for a second.

“Don't sleep, now. You gotta stay awake for a while.”

“Ok, I'll stay awake.” I slowly opened my eyes, blinking a bit. “... So bright though…”

Jason pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his center console and passed them to me. I grinned, kissing his hand, and put them on. “Much better. … Takin' such good care'a me…”

He chuckled softly. “Anything you need, doll. Always.”

Next ->

Divider by: @saradika-graphics

Taglist (open): @jawdropforkpop @krys0210 @snowy-violet @superthoughts @wordsfromshona @mystic60 @iwannabealocalcryptid @morstuavitamea-a @frosty--giants @arisa191 @prized-jules @phoenix666stuff @dinonuggysandhuggus @anuttellaa @whore-of-many-hot-men @cottage-worm @v1ckycheesue @roastyyytoastyyy @sarakmec @thestarcatcher7297 @stupidlyunhinged

[reallchristine]

ENERGY ─ chapter two

pairing: logan howlett x !f!reader

Set during x-men (2000) and X2

warnings: angst, hurt, violence, bad grammar?😭, basically the plot of the first movie!

previous chapter <- -> next chapter

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

You stand, unable to move as you watch your younger sister lying against the bedroom wall you shared. She utters your name in shock, clutching her chest in pain.

“No, no, no...” You shake your head as your mumbles turn into shouts, watching your sister struggle to breathe.

“Please!” You cry, choking on your sobs as you try to break the unforeseen barrier.

Trying to fix what you’ve done.

But it’s too late.

You jolt awake, sweating and gasping for air. You look around, only to be met with the darkness of your bedroom.

The memories of the accident haunt your dreams. You tried burying the thought of what happened in the past, but it follows you, acting as a reminder of what you’ve done.

Starting to calm down, you slide out of your blankets, put on the slippers that are on the floor beside your bed, and make your way out of your room and down the steps. You enter the hall and finally through the doorway of the kitchen.

You pour yourself a cup of water and sit on the stool, gulping down the water as you try not to think about the recurring dreams that wake you up at night. Instead, you think about the information Jean told you before you headed to bed.

She wanted to give you an update on what they found after Logan’s x-ray. Apparently, his bones were bonded with adamantium metal, and he was able to withstand the process because of his mutation, recalling what Jean had told you.

Before you can continue with your thoughts, you look up to see Logan entering the kitchen.

“Hi,” you say, greeting him with a timid smile.

“Hey.” he replies, as he starts to look around the kitchen.

“Uhm, are you looking for something?” you ask, watching him open the fridge and then close it right after. He turns to you, “Got any beer?”

“This is a school,” you say, staring at him.

“So, no?”

“No.” You reply, shaking your head as you find yourself amused by his odd question.

“If you want something to drink, there’s soda in that cupboard,” you tell him, pointing to its location. He walks up to it, opens the small cupboard door, and reaches for a soda.

“Thanks,” he says, twisting the bottle cap open as he takes a seat across from you. “So, you’re a teacher at this school?” he asks, striking up a conversation.

“Yup, I teach chemistry,” you reply.

“Chemistry, huh,” he says while taking a swig of his drink. He asks another question, “And how’s that working out for ya?”

“Surprisingly well,” you respond with a shrug, pausing as you continue. “I mean, I enjoy science, and I like being able to work with kids, so it’s nice.”

“Looks like that’s going nicely for you,” he says with a bit of humor in his tone.

“I guess you could say that,” you answer, moving off the stool you were sitting on to put away the now-empty cup.

“Anyways, I should be heading back to bed.” you tell him, walking towards the kitchen door.

“Me too,” he replies, letting out a sigh and throwing away his empty bottle, following you.

You both make your way up the stairs heading to your separate rooms.

“Goodnight, Logan.” you say with a sleepy smile.

“‘Night,” he replies, watching you enter your room before he enters his.

You return to your blankets to get some more rest, checking the clock on your nightstand before shutting your eyes: 1:02 a.m.

Turning in bed, you quickly sit up, awakened by the sound of someone screaming.

You run out of your room to see a crowd forming in front of Logan’s bedroom. You rush into the room only to find Rogue using her powers on Logan.

���Everyone back to your rooms!” you say, some kids doing as you asked while others continue to stay.

The others rush into the room after you. Ororo now stands by your side as Scott switches on the lights.

Rogue lets go of Logan as he falls to the ground. “It was an accident.” she says, quickly turning to you and walking away.

The morning after the events of last night leaves you drained. Pinching the bridge of your nose, you prepare to set up the classroom for a new lesson.

Students start coming into your class once the bell rings, sitting at their designated seats. The last of your students to walk through the door is Rogue.

You smile at her when she enters. Rogue quickly takes a seat at her desk as you begin your lesson.

As your students finish the last bit of their notes, the bell rings, indicating the end of class. They pack up quickly, saying goodbye as they leave your class.

“Rogue!” you call as she turns to you, stopping just before the door. “I wanted to ask how you’re doing?”

“I’m fine,” she answers timidly.

“I know what happened last night wasn’t your fault,” you pause, “It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

She stares at you.

“Look, I know how it feels to be scared of your mutation,” you tell her.

“No, you don’t,” she replies, shaking her head.

“Trust me, I do,” you say, raising your hand between the two of you as you start forming a small ball of energy in your hand. “I wasn’t able to control my mutation before, and honestly, I’m scared that sometimes I still can’t,” you tell her as the ball of energy slowly disappears.

You continue, “But this place, this school, it helped me. It gave me opportunities I thought I could never have in this cruel world.”

“Which is why I don’t want you to think you’re less than anyone here. You have the same opportunities as everyone else at this school. You deserve to thrive,” you tell her with a smile.

“Thank you.” she says, returning the smile.

“Of course, Rogue-” you say.

“Marie.” she corrects quickly.

“I’m always here if you need me, Marie.” you say to her. She smiles and walks out of your class as the bell rings for your next class.

As the school day finally finishes, you start to clean up the papers left on your desk.

“Y/n!” Ororo says, bursting into your classroom.

“Ororo? What is it?” you ask, confused.

“It’s Rogue. She ran away,” she tells you.

“What?! I just talked to her earlier,” you say.

“Charles found her at a train station. Logan’s already on his way there. Scott and I are going to follow. You should come,” she tells you.

“Alright. But my mutation—”

“You’re going to be fine,” she reassures you. You nod at her as you both walk out of your class.

When you arrive at the station, you walk up to the front desk with Ororo while Scott look’s around.

“She’s about 17, um, my height, and has brown hair,” she tells the man at the ticket booth. You stand close behind her as she continues to speak, when you suddenly hear large footsteps approaching the both of you.

You turn around only to be met with Sabertooth.

“Ororo—” you say before you are grabbed into a chokehold and smashed against the glass.

“Scream for me,” he says.

Ororo, who was caught off guard, tries to use her powers but is suddenly knocked out by Sabertooth, who grabs her and throws her against the wall before dropping you to the floor.

Scott rushes toward you both, pushing people out of the way, only to be stopped when his visor is grabbed, making him shoot a hole in the roof of the station.

You hastily get up with a groan, your neck and head throbbing as you start to build up energy in your hands, stretching your arms and creating a blast of energy.

You fire it toward Sabertooth as he breaks through the wall, hitting the ground from the blast.

You run toward Ororo, who is slowly getting up from the ground. “Are you okay?!” you ask, helping her up.

“Yeah,” she responds, rubbing her head and taking your hand.

“Come on, let’s get Scott,” you say, holding her up while your eyes scan the area for Scott.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

a/n ── this still needs to be proof read! But omg was I struggling to write this chapter😭 I’ve been so busy the past month so forgive me for that😣 I haven’t set a schedule yet for this series but I’ll let u guys know! Also some of the @ are not working for the taglist so just message me if you want to be added!

🏷️: @cxptainbuck @thecraziestcrayon @marvelgirlie-4 @ravenslvt @malfoys-demigod @byhuenii @avatarobsessedgirly @kinokomoonshine

[angel-kyo]

Pay it no mind

Part XXIV

In which reader confesses their feelings to Gojo, but it seems these are not returned (maybe?).

Warnings: reader is on the receiving end of rejection (kinda), and the fact that I'm obsessed with unrequited love is a warning itself. Drinking is mentioned, and there is a bit of cussing. I'll admit Satoru does not look good in this one, neither does reader honestly, but thanks for bearing with me.

Previous: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII, Part IV, Part XV, Part XVI, Part XVII, Part XVIII, Part XIX, Part XX, Part XXI, Part XXII, Part XXIII

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

Ping.

Satoru heard the notification sound from your phone, which had been left unattended on the table in the teacher’s lounge, but he did not pay attention to it.

Ping.

You had gone to the restroom, and he was watching videos on his phone. In fact, he had found a funny video to show you when you came back.

Ping.

Whoever it was probably had a lot to say though.

Ping.

Satoru took his eyes off his phone and looked at yours.

It started ringing, then stopped.

Could that be something urgent? Satoru knew how to unlock your phone; you had showed him. You could access his phone too, although none of your ever used each other’s phone without asking first, but if it was urgent, he should maybe take a look.

He grabbed it.

4 new messages. 1 missed call.

Haruki: I did not want to say anything before, but I’m sorry if I weirded you out last night when I called you. Haruki: I was emotional and talked too much. Haruki: The whole thing with my father makes me drink more than I should and do things I should probably not do, and it’s… well, you know. Haruki: But I don’t regret it at all.

Satoru thought he did not need to read that. It looked like Ikeda had some family issues he vented to you about.

However, even if he did not want to, he could almost sympathize with the guy.

“Is that my phone?” you asked, reappearing before Gojo.

He stretched his arm out so you would take the phone he was still holding. “It was ringing.”

A moment later, your words confirmed what Gojo thought. “It’s Haruki… His father has been bugging him for money, but he does not really want to see him again.”

Gojo recalled you had told him something about how complicated his relationship with his father was.

I guess it makes sense he wants a friend to call, someone who will listen to him.

Not that he could make peace with you being that friend just yet, but he knew better than to say that aloud, so he hummed in response.

“Must be tough for him.”

***

Now that he looked back on it, that had happened two weeks ago, the morning he had returned to Japan only to find out that you would be clocking in late that day.

He had wondered what your friend could have said to "weird you out". What was the thing he did not regret? Why had you left the room to give him a call after that?

Satoru had tried, really tried to live with the fact that Ikeda was your friend, a friend that might have called you being wasted out of his mind to complain about the awful father he had. That was the explanation he had given to himself.

He never imagined you would have gone out to drink with the guy, maybe even spent the night with him, and then what? Eaten breakfast at his place just before clocking in at work to greet your obliviously hopeful best friend, if he could still consider himself as such, as if nothing had happened?

To think Satoru, overworked and sleep deprived as he had been after that trip, had wanted to get back to work immediately to see you...

He felt stupid.

“Are you okay?” Satoru heard you ask hesitantly.

He took his eyes off his reflection to briefly look at you. “What are you doing here?” he asked, moving to wash his hands for the third time.

You watched him hold his hands underneath the water stream, not really moving them.

So he still does that.

When he was younger, Satoru sometimes did that as a ritual to calm himself when he felt anxious. You could not remember the last time he had done it in front of you.

“You did not come back to the table, and Shoko said you looked pale when you left.”

And I’m afraid I know why.

“If you want me to call her to check in on you, I’m sure I can convince her to come into the men’s restrooms.”

Satoru knew those words were only meant to try and walk around the elephant in the room, or should he say the elephant that was sitting back at the table?

He grabbed a paper towel. “I’m fine. You should go back.”

You were standing from a distance but still saw his jaw tighten. “Aren’t you coming back?”

“What for?” he asked, throwing the used paper sheet into the bin.

“They already served the dessert, and…”

“What am I doing here, [name]?” Satoru’s eyes connected with yours.

What do you mean? You asked to come.

That is what you were going to tell him, but he did not let you.

“Is it true?” he asked, eyebrows furrowing, the ghost of an expression he almost never showed to you. “That night you went drinking with him, where did you sleep?”

Now that was a tricky question.

“At his place, but…”

Satoru’s face contorted into a broken smile and the forced laugh that escaped his mouth echoed through the empty stalls. “Of course.”

“Let me expla-”

“And? Was the breakfast worth it?” His venomous tone was not something you were used to.

You frowned. Was he really implying that? Did he really think that was the kind of person you were?

“I get that what he said sounded weird, but that’s… I can’t believe you’re asking that.”

“I can’t believe you’re not answering,” he replied dryly.

You took a step closer. “Satoru, what do you think happened between him and me?”

“I have no fucking idea.” The sternness of his words made you take that step back. “Because you did not even mention going out with him while I was gone, let alone that you spent the night at his place. Oh, but I’m sure that whatever happened he does not regret it at all, because that’s what he told you, isn’t it?”

What was he talking about now?

“What do you mean? Why would you say…?”

“Is that my phone?”

“It was ringing.”

The realization left you stunned. “You read our conversation?”

You were not expecting that. Knowing that Satoru was nosy at times was one thing. That he had actually violated your privacy and read a conversation from your phone without telling you was another one.

“Can you believe I almost felt bad for him? But why should I? He has you to comfort him in his oh-so-many hardships. What a lucky bastard...”

“Gojo, stop right there.”

He wanted to. Satoru really wanted to stop talking now before saying anything that would hurt you both, but he did not think he could. He had held it in for too long.

“No, don't Gojo-me. You did not tell me to stop before.” His eyes were burning blue.

The blue part of a flame is the hottest spot.

You could not remember who had told you that, but for the first time, it made sense, because it felt like Satoru was burning you under his gaze.

“No, scratch that... You told me to stop once, and I was foolish enough to think you needed time, that I was rushing you, but that was not it, was it? You had already made up your mind. You just did not have the guts to tell me.”

This was a side of Satoru that you were not sure of how to handle; your arguments were never like this; they could be ugly, yes, but it was never him yelling and reproaching while looking this agitated. He usually kept his emotions in check; you just lacked the experience seeing him like this.

What was that thing Suguru said once? That those who felt deeply will love you and hate you the same? That their love and their wrath was equally dangerous, or something like that?

Satoru’s agitated breath was all you could hear for a second, but then, as if regaining strength, he continued. “Tell me, did you ever think of him when you kissed me?”

Even before he finished the question, you had started shaking your head. "Of course not! Satoru, just let me explain. It’s not what you think, and I’ve never…”

“Now you are talking!” He advanced quickly towards you. “Yes, please, [name], please do explain what’s going on.” He was not exactly yelling, but he had raised his voice again, more than in any other argument you could recall, but it suddenly dropped. “What’s this? You play house with me Monday through Friday and fuck him on the weekends?”

“We are not playing house,” You were trying to avoid shouting, but it still came out sharper than you had intended.

“But you are fucking him.”

“I’m not!” That was it, you could not avoid shouting at him anymore. “Stop, just shut up. You know it’s not like that. He’s my friend, and you…”

“Then answer me, what are we playing at? Because I’m also your friend, right?! But looks like that’s all I’ll ever be, the friend that has to sit back and watch the person he loves fall in love with someone else. What a freaking great game, but guess what? I don’t want to play anymore.”

He had it all wrong and that irked you that he did not want to listen, but at the same time, it was breaking your heart to hear him. Was that how he had felt all this time?

You tried to touch his face to wipe away the tear that was about to fall down, but he pulled back. “Don’t… Don’t touch me. Just pick. It's him or me.”

What?

One look at your expression, and Satoru understood why he had put off asking you for a definitive response for so long. Maybe, deep down, he knew you could not pick him; he was flawed, he was selfish, he was always too late.

When you were younger, you had not been able to pick his friendship over Ikeda’s. This was just the same, was it not?

No, this hurts much worse.

“Satoru, I…” you started saying, but he shook his head and interrupted you…

“You seriously can’t, can you? You know… You were right, I’m selfish” he pointed to the door, “I’m nothing like Mr. Perfection out there, with the magazine face, corporate job, and just mundane problems..."

At some point, Satoru had given in and tried to get some intel on who the great Haruki, who had had you head over heels, was, but what he had found was just an average man that was perfect in everyone's eyes. In a way, that was worse than finding dirt on him.

"He may be a fucking saint, and I’m selfish all you want, but you…” the finger that had been pointing outside was now pointing at you “You are cruel beyond repair, and I’m an idiot for falling in love with you.”

He had lowered his voice, but the atmosphere could be cut with a knife, and his words certainly sliced it through.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” a young man, a waiter called behind you. “I’m afraid your… Umm… conversation is preventing some customers from coming in. May I ask that you continue this somewhere else?”

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

Note: No notes today, just my love.

Thanks for reading!

Next: Part XXV

@mavs-stuff @witchbybirth @crookedlyaddictedone-blog @tqd4455 @maybe-a-bi-witch @mo0nforme @maliakealoha @zacatecanaaaa @blushhpeachh @astriarose @missesgojosatoru @ba-ks @sukunasleftkneecap @songbirdlully @cole-silas @heijihattorisgf @chokesonspit @hersheyzzz @smolbeanzzz @luciledreamz @avidreadee123 @moonmalice @ratscandaler @sadmonke @allie-jay @username23345 @spin-garden @ashehateaccount @kayzens @blehtotheblehtothebleh @stellasloth @bloopsstuff @cheesemachine44 @tetsuski @rosellerinfrost @catowru @bi-narystars @wondermilka @fortunatelyfurrygiver @shrxui

[fantasy-relax]

Ineffable Plan

Bela Dimitrescu x g¡p reader

Part 5

You didn't know what hurt more your head or your stomach, a full day of work without even having breakfast was killing you and you oversaw directing more than carrying the bricks.

What the hell those maids have in their heads to blow up the wall?

And where the hell did they get the dynamite?

If you found them, you would shove a brick up their a-

*BAM*

A pat on the back send you to the ground

“Oh shit, sorry,” Relia helped you to stand up “what a day huh?”

“Ugh” You responded showing unmatched wisdom.

“Hahaha be glad that at least you're going to have a delicious dinner, Thea is…”

The words of the Master carpenter went in one ear and out the other, was it rude? Yes. Did you have the energy to care? No.

Maybe after eating.

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

“Why did you decide to stay in the castle after your contract ended?”

You were supposed to be more subtle, but your brain didn't cooperate with you, in the kitchen there were only you, Relia and chef Dorothea, the others had already retired to their rooms.

“With your experience you could help the village with constructions and repairs, fences have been created to protect against the Lycans but they are easily destroyed, it really needs experienced labor I’m sure that even the most stubborn man would have to listen to you”

To your surprise Relia burst out laughing which offended you a little, it took her a few seconds to calm down and the offense you felt vanished when you noticed the melancholy in her eyes despite her smile.

“Everything comes back” seeing your continued confusion “Years ago I asked my predecessor and teacher, Daria, the same question when I found out that she was going to give up her body and blood voluntarily instead of living in the village”

What? voluntarily?

Dorothea, who was heating water on the stove, answered your questions.

“The meat I receive to serve the Ladies doesn’t only come from intruders who enter Dimitrescu’s territory or maids who break the rules too many times, if it were to be like that it would be too little to feed the whole family for the entire year.”

Now that you think about it, the deaths of the workers are few compared to the rumors, in the four months you’ve been here at most there have been 6 or 7, which is almost nothing compared to the dozens that are spoken of in the town. The maids disappear for two or three days before returning to work, paler and more obedient; and in the worst cases without a finger or two, but they come back.

“The blood mostly comes from the donor maids, they receive better food, better pay and some protection in exchange for their services.” The chef came over and poured three cups of tea, you thanked her. “When they die their body will be served or buried, they have the last word as a sign of respect for their work to House Dimitrescu” Dorothea put down the pot to sit next to Relia “Daria chose to live in the castle as a donor until the end of her days”

“And she decided to be buried, she designed her coffin, and I built it, was the most elegant one in her family’s plot even in death she wanted to make it clear how much she had triumphed over those fucking bastards” Relia replied with a proud smile.

“I guess she didn’t get along with her family” You said adding a sugar cube to your cup.

“They were the ones who manipulated her into coming to the castle in the first place” The carpenter said with hatred in her voice “and when the contract ended, she returned only to be attacked for not continuing to work to pay off the debts they had gotten themselves into after spending everything she sent them; when she returned, she no longer sent them a penny.” Relia took a sip of her tea. “At least that’s what she told me when I asked her the same question”

“And what was your reason for staying?” The tea didn’t help keep the sleep away.

“My parents are dead, and I was never close to the rest of my family. I don’t think they’ll accept me with open arms. Most likely they’ll force me to marry or throw me out on the street, master carpenter or not. Besides…” Relia took the chef’s hand to kiss her palm. “I’d miss my wife too much.”

Her what?!

Dorothea smiled fondly and kissed her wife’s cheek.

“I could say the same.”

You had really dissociated yourself from the conversation with Relia in the hallway.

With more information than you expected to obtain, you say goodbye to the couple to go rest.

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

Greta congratulate you for your good work on the repairs and informed you that due to the incident your request would have to wait, which you accept without complaint. After all, the conversation with Relia and Dorothea revealed more details than you imagined.

Although life in the village was hard, it never crossed your mind that someone would choose to live in the castle or donate their blood willingly. The rumors were terrifying, coupled with the fact that the women who went to work at the castle rarely returned, and if they did, they were scarred or with fewer body parts. It was hard to believe that someone would choose to live with monsters instead of returning home.

Monsters. Were the Dimitrescu really monsters?

You had witnessed firsthand that they were capable of feeling and acting like any other human.

So, what made the Dimitrescu monsters?

Were they monsters because of their violence?

The most common punishment you've seen inflicted on your fellow girls is being whipped on the hands, ankles, or back after breaking something while cleaning or when something went missing in the rooms they cleaned. But that was done in the village too, parents disciplining troublesome children or thieves being punished.

You'd been lucky enough not to witness any deaths, but you hadn't been spared the cleanup that followed, blood and sometimes bits of flesh left on the floor and walls, which needed to be cleaned up quickly before it dried and soaked into the carpet and wallpaper.

Were they monsters for their indifference to suffering and death?

While in the village the Lycans were the number one killers, sometimes fights between the inhabitants reached a point where blood was spilled in such quantity that death from wounds was to be expected, drunks and gamblers were the most hated in the village if they found their death at the hands of the collectors or in a fight people turned their faces away, giving condolences out of obligation to the family and continued with their lives living with the murderer among them. There were men who had killed their wives or children after having beaten them savagely, some were hated but tolerated and others were welcomed with open arms; there were also cases of healthy men who died from a sudden illness (Poison) despite the care (Different poison) of their wives.

Cruelty and violence existed both in the village and in the castle.

Were they monsters because of their diet?

One of your neighbors couldn't drink milk without suffering from stomach pain for days, a child died from eating a nut that made his throat swell, the tailor couldn't eat chicken because it gave her rashes, there were several people who couldn't have a normal diet and had to adapt.

Is it the same for the Dimitrescu?

Was human flesh and blood the only thing they could consume?

Their body was not the same as a human's, it was to be expected that their diet won’t be the same.

Were they monsters because they were cannibals?

One of the elders had told you that decades ago the harvests were horrible and the winter atrocious, the food shortage was such that many had no other option than to eat the flesh of their neighbors to survive. Grandparents letting themselves die so that their children and grandchildren could eat, teenagers tearfully devouring the organs of their siblings who couldn't bear the cold, man eating man.

And this act was considered necessary.

Wasn't it necessary for them too?

Were they monsters because of their different anatomy?

That won’t make you a monster too?

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

Two weeks had passed since the incident and thanks to it you had forged a friendship not only with Relia and her team, but also with Dorothea and her kitchen staff; it was great to have someone to talk to; while you were fond of Daniela you didn't forget that she was from a different world than yours there were things she couldn't understand not out of malice but out of simple ignorance.

Since her confession you haven't spoken to her due to the staff rotation that caused the "dismissal" of the maids involved in the explosion.

You still had no idea where they got the dynamite from.

Greta's voice calling you took you out of your thoughts.

"Greta, what do you ne-" The older girl grabbed you by the shoulders with a frantic look.

Deja vu.

"You know how to read, write and basic math, right?" You nodded with slight fear to which she sighed in relief. “Come with me.”

“I haven't finished cleaning yet.”

“I’ll send someone, this is more important, hurry up.”

You left your bucket and rag to follow her.

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

You had seen Jenica a few times in the hallway, the woman always walked in a hurry with papers and folders in her hand. Like Greta, she was always busy and had a professional demeanor.

“January, quadrant E, row three, produced a quantity of…”

Compared to that image, the woman in front of you looked like she was one step away from jumping off the roof.

The desk, the coffee table, the chairs, the couch and even the bed were full of papers, folders and books; in the middle of everything was Jenica reading a book while frantically writing in a notebook.

You turned to look at Greta for answers that she was quick to give you.

“Someone broke into her office today to start a fire, thanks to Zina passing by at a good time the fire was quickly extinguished, the filing cabinet protected the documents however some of this year’s files were outside for review, some just need to be transcribed but most have to be recalculated and as you can see…” Greta pointed at the poor woman who acted more like a crazy old woman mumbling in the street than a scholar. “It’s a lot of work for Jenica, Lady Dimitrescu is in a meeting with the Lords and Lady Bela is reviewing the other documents to see if anything is missing”

First an explosion now a fire, what was going on?

“Do you think you can help her?” The head maid took one of the papers placed on the table to hand it to you, the letters were barely visible, but you could understand it.

“Yes, I worked as an accountant at my mother’s bakery and at the town bar, this is pretty similar.” Despite the bad reputation that alcohol and consequently the bar had, Darius was a smart and honorable man when his poor eyesight worsened her hired you to take care of the bar’s accounts and teach his son Leonard how to do it, who luckily for you was just like his father.

Upon hearing your answer Greta nodded before touching Jenica’s shoulder who let out a surprised squeal.

“Don’t do that, you’re going to give me a heart attack!”

“What will give me a heart attack is the aberrant amount of coffee you drink, I brought someone to help you.”

Jenica turned to look at you and to demonstrate your skill you read what the paper in your hand said. In a moment the woman stood up, removed a stack of books from the sofa and moved another from the table.

“Perfect!” She said as she pushed you towards the empty seat and then placed a notebook and pencil in your hands, she took a huge book from her desk and placed it in front of you “Take care of transcribing this, when you finish, pass it to me to redo the calculations for the report”

“Wouldn’t it be faster if I did it?” The maniacal smile she put on told you that you should have kept quiet.

Jenica took a stack of papers and put them on the floor next to you.

“Don’t worry if you make a mistake, we have plenty of paper”

Sometimes it’s better to be ignorant.

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

Jenica had only given you ten minutes to go eat in the kitchen and to go to the bathroom.

Two hours had passed since the clock struck its twelfth bell and one since Jenica left to deliver the documents they had managed to finish to Lady Bela.

Without her permission to leave you had no choice but to wait for her to return, the room was still full of paper, there was still a lot to do, but your brain couldn't handle it anymore, no matter how many times you read the book the letters floated without meaning.

Concentrated and tired you didn't notice the door open until a familiar voice echoed in the room.

"What do we have here?"

The adrenaline woke you up enough to realize two things:

1. Lady Dimitrescu had returned from her meeting.

2. Jenica's room was off limits.

"It seems that a little mouse is snooping around where it shouldn't."

"Lady Dimitrescu I j-just-

The distinctive sound of her claws being unsheathed caused you to choke on your words, your tongue weighed like lead in your mouth and cold sweat ran down your palms.

A thought repeated itself to the rhythm of your accelerated heartbeat.

*I'm sorry mom, I love you*

[venusloveslobotomies]

Kyle and Kenny x reader meeting

(all characters aged up to 18-20)

Kyle:

“Oh! God… fuck!” You haphazardly wiped your keyboard before the water could seep further in. Bebe snorted and you smacked her, trying not to laugh.

“Girl, what is going on with you? You’ve been all distracted since lab this morning?”

“I knowww.” You groaned, “I keep thinking about how much work that class is going to be.” Wendy rolled her eyes playfully.

“We all know that it’s because Kyle’s in that class and your hoping to be his partner.” She sang at you, taking another bite of her salad.

“No… no. Why would you think that?” You closed your laptop, looking away.

“Y/N, it’s ok! Kyle’s actually really nice. Just a bit standoffish to girls. He’s got trust issues, thanks to Eric.” Wendy tried to reason.

“Yeah, no shit. He won’t even look at me.”

“He’s just insecure! I bet if you asked him out-“

“Absolutely not!” You interrupted Wendy, “I can’t even talk to him normally! How am I supposed to ask him out? I’ve never been good at talking to guys! Let alone someone who’s actually smart and attractive, like Kyle.” Your comments were met with silence, actually, more like barely-held-down laughter, “What?” Bebe stared pointedly to your left. You mentally cursed yourself a million times before glancing carefully where Bebe had indicated. Stan and Kyle stood there, bags and books in hand. Stan was smirking at Kyle and Kyle had looked up and away from you.

“Kyle, you should be Y/N’s lab partner! She’s really smart! And nice!” Wendy quipped, quickly breaking the tense silence.

“Uhm, what? Oh! Yeah, sure. If… uhh… she wants to.” You stared down at your water bottle, feeling the awkwardness in your teeth. You could feel the girls looking at you before Wendy responded,

“She would love to.”

Kenny:

You leaned against the wall, watching Craig blow smoke into Tolkien’s face, making him cough while the rest of you laughed.

“Goddamn… Fuck off.” Tolkien coughed at Craig.

“You should’ve driven us to KFC, man.” Craig shrugged.

“Your lunch is almost over anyways, we’ll go after Y/N’s last class.”

“Sweet!” You smiled excitedly.

“So… Y/N…” Tolkien looked at you mischievously.

“Soooo what?” You responded, taking a drag of Craig’s joint.

“I heard Mccormick wants to talk to you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know!” Craig snorted and Tolkien smacked his arm before continuing, “Stan told Wendy and Wendy told Bebe, who told Clyde, that he’s wants to talk to you in your English class.” You furrowed your brows at him and sighed.

“Well, I guess I’ll find out. Doesn’t he, like, hoe around a bit?”

“That’s what it seems like, but he’s a good dude. Much nicer than Cartman. I honestly don’t know why they hang out.” Craig huffed. You nodded and shrugged as you checked the time. 12:49. English class. You guessed you would find out what the hell was going on in about ten minutes.

“Ok, I gotta roll. See you guys at 4? Tolkien’s car.” They all made various sounds of assent as you wandered through campus to your class.

As you sat down next to Jimmy and pulled out your notes, you heard someone pull out the chair to your right. Looking up, you realised it was Kenny… with is hood down for once.

“Hey…” He sat down and began tapping his foot nervously.

“What’s up?” You asked, leaning back in your chair.

“Well, I missed yesterday’s class and I need some help catching up. Can you, like. Uhh… maybe help me out? I just missed, like, all of the stuff about the essay topics and requirements.” He seemed to be looking everywhere but at you. And you knew damn well that stuff was all on the Powerpoints.

“Sure, why not. My place, tomorrow? Just bring me coffee and its a deal.” You figured you may as well take what he said at face value. He seemed to have lost his laid-back and confident facade.

“Awesome! Uhh. Just let me know what time.” He gave you a bright smile and pulled out his notebook as the teacher started the lesson.

pls pls be nice, i havent ever written for south park before but i want to get back into writing <3

[funnyjb]

Don’t leave me

………………………………….

Saturday night is my favorite night! You know why? Because I get to spend time with Joe. Joe and I have been together ever since Sophomore year. I met him when I was in eighth grade. I just recently moved to Athens and wasn’t really happy about moving. My first day of eighth grade I was so nervous. I walked into my advisory classroom and saw my fellow classmates chatting with their friend groups. The only person I saw sitting alone was Joe. Turns out he had none of his friends in that class, but he was the type of person to talk to anyone and make friends in a second, but Joe just sat alone looking at a SpongeBob comic book. Our teacher Mrs Wood welcomed me in to the class and told me to find a spot to sit so we could put on morning announcements in a few minutes. The only seat open was the one next to Joe. I walked over and sat in the seat. He didn’t even look up, he just looked over at his comic. After I put my bag on the floor and looked around the classroom I noticed Joe still hadn’t noticed someone was sitting next to him. I guess he was real deep into his comic. After a couple seconds I finally worked up the courage to say hi.

“Hi.”- you smiled

Joe looked up from his comic

“Oh, hi! Sorry I didn’t notice you there. I was deep into my comic! I’m Joe by the way,Joe burrow.”- joe smiled

“It’s ok! I’m y/n, y/n L/n!”- you smiled

“It’s nice to meet you y/n!”- joe

“It’s nice to meet you too! What are you reading that’s so good you couldn’t look up?”- you chuckle

“Oh, it’s a SpongeBob comic book! I knew it’s a little childish but don’t judge!”- joe

“Hey, I’m not judging”- you threw your hands up

“I think it’s kinda cool! I like SpongeBob too, but never really read the comics.”- you

“Really? You can look at it to if you want?”- joe

“You sure?”- you

“Yeah!”- joe

“Ok, thanks!”- you

Joe moved the book more towards me.

Ever since then we have been best friends, but we found out we both had feelings for each other the start of sophomore year we decided to start dating! It’s been amazing being joes girlfriend. He’s so lovely, loyal, funny, kind, and really cute! He just gets me and makes me laugh really hard! But ever since a couple weeks ago we have been having some little arguments, but today was the worst argument we have ever had.

“So did you?”- joe said

“Did I what, Joe?”- you said grabbing a glass of water

“Did you make a move on him?”- joe

“What? Are you crazy? No, he came on me, Joey.”- you

“Well it didn’t look like it.”- joe

“Joe, what is wrong with you? I would never do something like that. I’m so deeply in love with you it hurts and you think I would go hit on one of your friends?”- you raised your voice

“Well he was eyeing you all night and flirting with you. Then he try’s to make a move on you.”- joe raised his voice

“YEAH! And I shoved him off!”- you

I was furious that he even thought this. I know Joe has some trust issues but he really thinks I would do this to him. Never.

“I can’t believe you right now. I love you, Joe and only you. I would never go and make out with someone. I’m not a cheater Joe, it crazy that you think are thinking like that of me.”- you

I was so done with this conversation I decided to walk out. I hate having arguments. Especially if it’s with someone I love.

“Y/n, where are you going?”- joe yelled

“HOME!”- you

We decided to spend the night at joes because his parents weren’t in town for the weekend. We wanted to go to one of our friends parties then come back to his place.

“Y/n, come back!”- joe started running after you after you slammed the door and started walking

Thunder roared in the distance then just a second later it started to rain.

“Oh great.”- you said sarcastically

I stared fast walking as fast as I could in a dress and converse in the rain.

“STOP, Y/N!”- joe

He frappes my arm and pulled me towards him.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking in the moment, ok? I got jealous that he was flirting with you then got furious when he tried to kiss you. I took it out on you and I’m sorry. I know you will never do something like that. I shouldn’t have doubted you or accused you of something like that. You are an amazing, beautiful, smart, funny, and insanely gorgeous girlfriend. I am truly sorry. It was a shitty thing to do and again, I’m sorry.”- joe

I pulled him in for a kiss. His bleached blond hair was wet. His clothes were soaked and he was out of breath from running and talking.

“It’s ok Joe. I know you have a hard time trusting people, but you shouldn’t have thought that I would do something like that, ever! Ok?”- you

“Yeah, I’m truly sorry.”- joe said almost on the verge of tears

“It’s ok, it’s ok, I forgive you.”- you gave him a reassuring smile

He then pulled me in for a kiss.

“I love you.”- joe

“I love you too.”- you

“Let’s go inside and dry up.”- joe

“Yeah.”- you laugh

He gives me one last kiss on the forehead and we walk back.

………………………………….

Request: @elly-grace 🩷🩷

Thx for the idea!!!

[jocelynscrazyideas]

Ballet class | Nico Hischier x Fem reader

summary: Nico comes in early to ballet. Yes ballet, he’s getting help to learn how to take stress off his joints, and so is his fellow teammates. I- Dani help him correct his stretching exercises, and his skating.

Warnings: Fluff, (no smut), kinda small 😁👍

~~~

I’m helping out in the NHL for some skating techniques. No, I have never actually been good at skating. Yes, I am a pro ballet student- I actually graduated from premie class about a year ago.

It’s been studied that hockey players, even the good players need skating lessons. I mean, doesn’t everyone? As an instructor in Pilates, and a ballet teacher, I am supposed to help the athletes gain muscular endurance in muscle groups that are rarely thought off.

“Hey, I’m Nico.” I very tall brown eyed man says as he skates, my way. I am in the middle of the rink waiting for my class to start.

It’s 11:24 AM. Class doesn’t start until til 12:30. Maybe he’s here for extra help?

I know I stayed I’m not good at skating, but I can kayak pretty well, my dad was a coach for a little league back home in Arizona.

“Oh. Nice, I’m Dani.” I respond, almost forgetting that I have to answer back. I haven’t talked to a handsome, very beautiful man in like 3 years. Damn, I must be dry.

“Oh haha. I was wondering if I could get extra help? I haven’t tried ballet before and I thought it would be pretty difficult. Especially for a 25 year old.” Nico said, and his eyes trail down to my outfit.

I’m wearing a brown bodysuit, when I mean a body suit I mean the ones that end up being a thong in the back and look like a very small one piece swimsuit. Over the brown bodysuit I have a black vest, and black leggings on. I have white leg warmers on because I am truly freezing.

“If you’re cold, I have the perfect warmup for you!” Nico says as he eyes my mouth shivering.im literally chattering and shaking as we speak.

“You’re beautiful.” Nico says as he helps me back up to the normal flooring as we exit the rink. Wiw, straight to the point.

“Uhh, well thanks, you’re a pretty handsome man yourself.” I say back. Ugh. I sound like a grandma.

Boring.

“You excited for the Nico Hischier warmup?”

“I guess so.” I say as I look up towards his beautiful eyes. They are so brown, they glisten in the light though, and they remind me of honey when they glimmer down at me. It’s like they are full of love.

I’m hooked.

Nico ends with warming me up with some runs, abdomen teaser, and a water break. Now I’m out of breath it’s time for stretching. I told him to show me how he normally stretches before a game. It’s was truly horrendous. He was showing me things that would tear tendons if he wasn’t so flexible in his hip flexors.

“Okay, okay, okay. I’m let’s start on our feet shall we?” I say trying to build him a better routine.

“Alrighty.” He says as he swoops his hair back and he ties his shoe. He rests his hands on his hips, and I could tell he was looking at my ass. I get it. I do have a very plump, and full ass, but I don’t even know this guy.

I bend down about half way, my hips are aligned, my arms are behind my back, I’m stretching my hips to let the stress out of the muscles, tendons, and places that don’t get worked the most.

He follows what I’m doing. I bend a knee and I tune to the right side. I’m in a lunge and I put the back leg down. I push myself into the ground. This stretches my hips, and a little of my quads.

“Ow. Ow!” Nico whimpers from behind me. He seems to be pushing himself to far.

“You need to go at your own pace.” I say trying to correct his mistake.

“No. No, this is how far I can go.” Nico insists to go farther. I get up from my lunge and stand behind him. His hips are stressed, he needs to let them looose in order to skate faster, and even be able to feel more loose when he skates.

“No. I can help you, that’s why I’m here.” I voiced.

I grab my hands, and swing them to his hips, he is in his very low lunge and I pick him up a little bit. I twist him to the right and his pelvis is aligned with his shoulders, perfect.

“I feel better. I can feel a stretch and I think I can breathe now.” Nico announced.

I know, this is my job, I know how to fix it.

“Perfect!” I exclaim, letting him know that I am here for him to lean on.

We finish the stretching and the warmups. Now, it’s time for skating. He skates pretty fast, but his too curvy in his feet, I can tell.

“Let’s do a little ballet first?” I mentioned, it’s not an option, we are doing ballet before we skate.

“Okay, whatever you think I need… angel.” Nico announced, and in a very confidently way. He winked at me.

Um.. yes!!!

I taught him to hold his core, and the posture. He obviously doesn’t need the posture portion but the engagement of his core is necessary.

“Slate time?” Nico exclaims, he’s ready. I think I’m ready now too? I lace up my skates and he’s already on the ice.

He skates back, and kneels down. He’s tiring my skates back up.

It’s 12:30. Class started. All the guys come flooding in knowing that I can see their lunch all over their fingers. I told them, 12:30 on the dot. Not before and not later, exactly at 12:30.

“Oh! Hey Nico, and-” Jesper starts but…

“-Dani.” Nico finishes.

“Okay, skates on? Let’s head on the ice!” I say in eager. Nico steps on first and he grabs a hold of my hand, he’s helping me in the ice.

“Oh, you have tension.” Jack says, letting everyone know that Nico thinks I’m just a pretty girl.

Nico skates with me to the middle and the boys are still doing drills that I told them to do a minute ago.

He pulls me in closer to him, I can feel the warmth of his anatomy. His heart is pounding, not only can I feel it I can hear it. That’s how close we are. I feel like I’m on his chest, it doesn’t look like it, but it feels like it.

“You’re a pretty girl.” Nico says as he reaches for his phone. He hands his phone to me and I put in my number.

Class ends, I’m sure I taught everyone how to skate in a safer way. I also think I have them a pre game stretching lesson.

Nico texts me a picture of us, he must of swiped it from when I was talking to the other devils.

God, he’s a really pretty man.

[maikissed]

little dove

Richarlison x reader

part 2 for i've got my eye on you part 1 is here

It's pretty long but i love to get into them detailssss. I kinda hate it and I kinda love it, idk, hope you'll enjoy it 🫶🏼 Sorry for any typos. warnings: some smut (+18)

To say that you were nervous about meeting Richarlison after that memorable party would be an understatement. You almost told him to piss off just because you were terrified of the effect he had on you that night. It all hit you hard after you sobered up, when you remembered how easily he could make you hot and bothered. And you were reminiscing how you nearly gave in to the needs of your body, completety turning off the common sense, and dragged him to a private space to have your way with him. It might have been your drunk state, but you’ve never acted this way. This wasn’t a good sign. And you were going mental. To be honest, you didn’t expect that he’ll reach out to you.

Nevertheless you agreed to meet with him. But you did not call it a date.

It’s been a month since you've started seeing each other and you truthfully enjoyed the time you’ve been spending together. You and Sheira even attented one of his matches and you didn’t expect that a football game could be so exciting as you were cheering and analysing everything that was happening on the pitch. Richarlison even waved at you at the end of the match and you waved back feeling overjoyed.

“So, you’re like a wag now?” Sheira asked when you were leaving the stands.

“Stop talking” you send her a disapproving look.

“You’re mean, you know that?” she laughed at your reaction.

She will never stop teasing you about it.

Richarlison was driving you home after you went to the movies together and an unexpected rush of confidence made you ask him if he’d like to come in. As you were quite a private person you felt a little nervous about intiving him to your little sanctuary but you were eager to spend some more time with this boy.

 “I think it was really sad in it’s simplicity. A shattering picture of existencial crisis and the futility of tommorow” you reffered to the movie you've watched while opening the door to your apartment.

“Yeah, it was really moving” he commented following you in.

“You didn’t like it” you smiled at him observing his reaction.

“No, it’s not like that, it’s just not my type of cinema. But it was nice to watch something different”

“Alright then” you nodded unconvinced but let the subject go “Would you like something to drink? I can make you my famous sweet tea” you asked entering the kitchen.

You felt yourself becoming nervous again, it was the first time of you two being alone since that party and it made you panic inside a bit.

“Sure” he answered taking a look around your little salon “You have a lot of paintings. Who made them?”

“I did”

“Oh, so you’re an artist?” he gave you an impressed look and you smiled while placing the cups on the kitches island.

“Kind of. I paint in my free time just to clear my head. They’re just for me though, it’s not like I’m a professional”

“It’s really good, you’re talented. I like this one” he pointed to a painting of a woman floating in deep ocean waters surrounded by the breaking through rays of the sun.

You made that one during a very specific time in your life and you were very devoted to it so your heart warmed up a little hearing words of appreciation from him.

“Thank you, I think this picture had been created the longest”

He sat down on the sofa placed right infront of the small kitchen so he was facing you.

“I almost failed my art class in school once” he murmured scratching his head.

“What? How?” you laughed in disbelief catching sight of his kinda embarrased appearance.

“My uncle was the teacher and I guess I felt too comfortable” he laughed with you.

“Wow” you shook your head still laughing under your breath “To fail an art class in school is quite a feat”

“Yeah, I was a horrible student”

You focused on making the tea and the room went silent for a few seconds. You suddenly felt his heavy gaze on you and looked up meeting his dark piercing gaze from across the room. You smiled shyly feeling your limbs go rigid.

“Quit looking at me like that, Richarlison”

“Like what?” he smirked smugly and his eyes lit up.

“Like you’re looking right now” you countered biting your lip.

“I’m just looking y/n” he shrugged toying with you and you rolled you eyes taking the tea cups and approached the place he sat at to place them on a coffee table.

You then sat on a fotel on the other side and noticed an amused expression forming on his face.

“What?”

“You’re just sitting so far” he murmured smirking at you and your heart skipped a beat.

You moved to sit on the other end of the sofa with one of your legs bent at the knee to face him comfortably.

“Am I making you nervous y/n?” you heard him say lowly and you almost choked on your tea.

Of course he was fucking making you nervous right now. You were trying to keep your distance to not loose your mind in his pressence. But it was immensely difficult, especially when he was looking at you with those big eyes. You wanted him so badly that it scared you. But you took the challenge and moved closer to him, your knee almost touching his thigh.

“You’re so full of yourself, Richarlison” you joked sneeringly and put the tea back at the table.

He laughed putting his arm on the back of the sofa not leaving his eyes off your form.

“Just admit it”

Your eyes widened in disbelief of his teasing. Oh, if he won’t stop right now you’re going to strike him.

“You are not making me nervous” you protested feeling your cheeks heating up.

You were trying to keep your cool to not feed his already huge ego further but your body language was showing off completely different signs. You felt tense and the beating of your heart quickened sharply, shallowing your breath. The least you could do was not breaking the eye contact. You had to quit acting all shy to break this little entertainment of his.

“Then come closer” he dared quietly and you stiffened.

You were already sitting right next to each other, your legs almost touching. You considered your next move and swallowed hard. Then you just simply rised up, placing your leg on the other side of his body and sat on his thighs suprising yourself by your sudden surge of confidence. The material of your short tennis skirt rised up slighty and there was no turning back now. A wave of heat flooded your body.

“Is that better?” you asked in a soft tone.

Richarlison placed his hands gently on your hips and slowly moved you closer, your pelvises touched and you involuntarily placed your palms on his chest, feeling startled. Butterflies erupted in your tummy and you exhaled sharply. And you were loosing your mind.

“Now it’s better” he murmured studying your face intensively “Is it making you uncomfortable?” he asked trying to make sure that you were okay with it or to just play with you some more.

“No” you denied trying to not go crazy over the feeling of the sharp material of his pants in contact with your bare inner thighs.

Just a few thin layers of clothes were separating you from him. Your lids started to feel heavy when you focused on a feeling of arousal slowly building inside of you. You could feel a wet patch forming in your panties and you swallowed back a whimper focusing your gaze on your hands still placed on his chest. When you looked up you noticed him still focused on your face, as if drinking in your little reactions, no doubt visible on your expression. And then, slowly, he looked down at the place where your bodies touched. Under your palms you could feel him intake a big breath and the excitation made you finally act up. You took your hands off his body to place them on top of his hands that were still gripping your hips lightly and rolled your hips back and then forward, rutting against him. The sensation felt like a shot of electricity piercing your body and so you moved again. His grip on you tightened and you noticed his adam’s apple bobbed slowly. Your moves where tantalizingly slow and you were loosing yourself in this intimate moment. When you connected your pelvises once more you could feel hardness forming in his pants and when it slid right between your labia a soft moan escaped your mouth uncontrollably. It made you quicken up your pace. Richarlison grunted throwing his head back, his brows furrowed as he swallowed hard. Every move you made elicited another soft high moan from you and your mind was racing, your hands slightly shaking as the pleasure kept taking control of your body.

“Stop or I’m gonna come in my pants” his voice came off raspy and his eyes darkened as he took in the look on your face, delighted by the sound of your little moans.

He grabbed your waist and lifted you up to break the contact. You whined in protest.

“Are you trying to make a mess, y/n?” he teased granting you a cheeky smile.

You desperatly wanted to kiss him now but he had other ideas.

“Lay down on the carpet” he instructed trying to get you off him.

You shot him a perplexed look but did as he said. He joined you shortly after, towering over you, looking deeply in your eyes and hummed satisfied with your eager state. You leaned into his touch when he grabbed your cheek delicately. Keeping the eye contact you brought your lips to his thumb and slowly, very slowly, sucked it inside your mouth.

“Fuck” he cursed focusing on your action and you purred closing your eyes.

Oh, you wanted him to devour you. It was magical to finally have him so close, but it was not close enough. Your wanton body started to writhe underneath him waiting for more, desiring more.

Then he took his finger off your mouth and closed the distance to finally kiss you. You moaned into his mouth the moment your lips touched, feeling your stomach tighten, and you thrown your hands over his neck trying to pull him as close as you could. His kiss felt so heavenly it made your heart squish. His fingers slowly traced a line down your throat and stopped at the first button of your shirt. After undoing the last button he pushed aways the layers of the garment away to expose your delicate lacy bra and you grasped his bicep when his gentle fingers started to trace patterns over your bare stomach. He placed a kiss near your belly button and you jumped slightly feeling overwhelmed by his caress.

“Relax, baby” he murmured and his hot breath fanned over your skin.

“Mhm” you grunted with your eyes closed.

Then he moved to unzip your skirt and after taking the garment off you heard him hum in amusement.

“So that’s the famous tattoo” he pointed stroking a little dove tattoo placed next to your hip bone with his thumb “It’s a dove”

You smiled widely at him and a giggle escaped your lips when the realisation of what it meant hit you. You went to get it made shortly after you turned 18 and it was the only tattoo that you had.

“Well, lucky you” you said cheekily before he bend down to place a soft kiss on it.

Shortly after he took off your thong exposing your dripping cunt to his hungered sight and he groaned noticing how aroused and ready for him you were. You exhaled hard in anticipation and looked down the moment you felt his breath on your inner thigh. He maintained the eye contact slowly going lower. The sight of him going down on you made you feel hazy and your legs tried to squish together on reflex but he was quicker, grasping your thighs; keeping you open widely for him. The moment his breath hit your core your head fell back down on the carpet and your hips bucked up desperate for him to finally do something. He put his palm on your stomach to keep you down and placed a butterfly kiss on your labia. You cried out quietly as a sudden wave of tingles spread over your limbs, reaching even your fingertips.

He’s going to drive you mad, that’s for sure.

Richarlison started to stroke your core with his tongue and your moans intensified, your back arched off the floor and you brought your hands to his head trying to keep him as close as you could to fulfill your needs. You were at his mercy, writhing and whimpering, his name falling off your lips like a prayer. He groaned aroused by the way your body was responding to the pleasure he was giving you and you cried out loudly as you felt the vibrations fondle your sweet spot. He then lapped at yout cunt roughly and your whole body jolted making you almost choke on your moan. Your muscles tightened and your sight went blank as you came all over his face abruptly, feeling your walls pulsating with waves of your orgasm. You were breathing fast and your legs were shaking and you blinked slowly to bring back your focus. Richarlison raised his head with that beautiful glint in his eyes and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, returning back up to you. You bit your lip mesmerized by the look of his swollen lips and cheeks covered in a light rosy pink color.  

“How are you feeling?” he asked kissing your collarbones as you were still trying to calm your body.

“Amazing, thank you” you answered quietly grinning happily.

“You’re welcome” he chuckled warmly and you brought his head down by placing your hand on his neck to connect your lips in a sweet and long kiss.

You couldn’t get enough of each other, being so enraptured in one another and so astonishingly horny that you’ve spent the whole night fucking in your bed, then in the shower and then even on the kitchen counter as you went to make something to eat. Let’s just say that you haven’t any idea that you could have so many orgasms in one night.

_

why do i feel like it's shitty oh god and i’m still laughing at this dove idea

[lunaloveskpop23]

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

Summary: The reader is a girl who loves pink and is a ballerina. Yeonjun is a boy who loves black and wants to be a singer. What happens when they love each other?

Warning: cussing, angst, father not liking Yeonjun.

Genre: angst. fluff.

*PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY WORK*

*THIS IS PURELY FICTION*

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

Y/N's POV:

I have known Yeonjun ever since he moved to the neighborhood I grew up in as a child.

I would see him and he would be so different from what I am used too. I am a person who loves ballet and loves pink.

He's different. He paints his nails black. He wears edgy clothes. My dad told me to stay away......but I don't.

Yeonjun....has my heart.

Now, we are in our senior year of high school. We are the opposite, but every time I see him, he makes my heart beat so fast.

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

"Alright!! Now don't forget to rehearsal tomorrow and Friday. The big show is next week!!" The teacher tells us happily.

I smile and get excited. This performance is my last one with this teacher, and I'll go to college with my dance degree.

I get a full scholarship, and I'm really excited.

"Alright, now get out of here and go relax." She says and we get up and get our stuff.

I grab my bag and water bottle.

"Bye, Y/N!" I turn and see Lisa wave. I wave back, and I walk out.

I walk and see Yeonjun. Wait? Why is he here? I walk over to him.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I wanted to drive you home, my lady." He says flirtatiously.

I blush.

"Well, thank you, kind sir."

He smiles and grabs my bag. He puts it in his car. He opens the door for me, and I get in. I put on my seat belt and he gets in. He starts the car and we leave.

"You know you didn't have to do this."

"I know, but I wanted to." He winks at me.

I blush and roll my eyes.

"You're such a flirt, I swear."

"Only to pretty ballerinas." I look at him in shock.

"Oh my God." I blush.

He laughs and smiles.

He puts on music, and it plays "She smiled" by Day6.

"Day6? You like them?"

"I honestly got into them because of you. I know you love them." I blush again. I swear it feels like I'm going to explode from how many times he makes me blush.

I smile and sing a lot to the song. He sings with me. I didn't realize how gorgeous his voice was. I could listen to it for hours. His playlist plays Jeff Satur, The Rose, and Laufey. Wait....these are some of the artists I like.

I look at his phone sneakily and see a playlist called Y/N ❤️🥺.

My name with a heart next to it? Wait...he made a playlist just for me? With artists, he knows I like. I blush even more, and we get to my house.

"Here we are, my lady." He smiles.

"Thank you." I take my seat belt off.

"Hey, um...if you don't have anything going on tomorrow after school, want to hang out with me?" He rubs his neck.

"Oh, um for a little bit, I have another ballerina rehearsal at 5 to 7."

"Cool, we can eat before you go. If that's ok, with you?"

"Sure! I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you!" He says, and I get out of the car. I close his door and unlock the door. I get inside, and I see him driving off.

"Honey, your home!" I hear my mom.

"Hi, mom!" I hug her.

She sits on the couch.

"How was rehearsals?"

"Really good, actually. My teacher says I'm the best one she's ever known."

"Oh, I'm so proud of you!" She says happily.

I smile.

"Where's dad?" I ask.

"In his office. He came back late, then when straight to his office."

I nod.

"Also, I saw Yeonjun's car. Did he drop you off?" She asks.

I blush and nod.

"He did. He made me a playlist even. I wasn't expecting that at all." I blush even more.

"So cute. You see, your father doesn't like him, but I love him. He is a sweetheart. Your father gets worried because you're his daughter. But he's too harsh about that boy."

I nod.

"You have my blessings."

I look at her with wide eyes.

"Really?"

"Yes. I remember when I was young and fell in love with someone whom my father didn't approve of. Which was your father."

"Dad? No way."

"Its true. He even had a leather jacket." She giggles.

I laugh.

"Thank you, mom." I say softly and she smiles at me.

"Just promise me you'll be careful."

"I promise." I hug her gently.

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

I was in my last class of the day. Art. I draw some fruit.

"Oh, that looks amazing, Y/N." I look and see Lily.

I smile.

"Thank you. What did you draw today?"

"Oh, a waterfall." She tells me.

"Oooo looks so pretty," I say.

"Thank you. So, how is it going with Mr. Emo?" She smiles as she asks me this. I blush.

"Well.......Yeonjun is taking me somewhere today before rehearsal." I tell Lily.

She squeals and people in the class look at us. I cover her mouth.

"Lily!" I whisper yell.

"Sorry." She whispers back.

I smile at her.

"It's not a date."

"It should be. Girl, he's head over heels for you." She tells me.

I shake my head and roll my eyes.

"No, he's not."

"You are blind then." I roll my eyes. She giggles. "Have fun on your date." I shake my head.

I start packing my stuff and get ready to leave. I grab my drawing and hand it to the teacher.

"Good job. Very creative." He tells me.

"Thank you, sir." I bow and wave bye. I grab my stuff and leave.

I walk out of the building and see Yeonjun already waiting. He's wearing a black t-shirt with a grey jacket, and black jeans. He's so beautiful.

I look around and see them confused. I already hear people talk and I get nervous. He looks up at me and smiles. I blush.

I walk up to him.

"Here is my lady. I was wondering when you would show up, " he says, smiling at me. I smile.

"You flirt! Let's go already." I say as he opens the door for me and I get in the car.

I put on my seat belt and he gets in the car. He drives away.

"Want to pick a playlist? I have many." He says.

"Sure." I smile and grab his phone and look through his music app. I go through his playlist and see the same one from yesterday. I blush and go through it. Holy shit.... it's most of the groups I enjoy. And artists. He made this one for me?? Just for me? Why?

I press play to it and it plays Jeff Satur like last night. But it's a different song. He knows how much Jeff means to me.

"So, where are we going?" I ask.

"A place I know you'll love." He smiles at me.

"Oh, I am intrigued."

"Oh, just wait, my lady." I blush so much.

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

We get to a cat cafe. I gasp.

"A CAT CAFE?!"

He smiles.

"I know how much you love cat cafes."

I get out excited.

"Wait, I was going to open the door for you." I giggle.

"You don't always have to do that."

"I know, but I want to." I get quiet and we go inside.

I look at the menu and I saw the chocolate muffin and hot chocolate combo.

"Order anything. It's on me." I blush.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah go ahead."

"Then a chocolate muffin with hot chocolate please."

"Anything for you." Yeonjun says flirtatiously.

He orders our stuff, and we go to sit down in a booth. I see three cats near the booth. I squeal. A cat walks over to us and plops down on my lap. I smile and pet its head gently.

"Hi little baby."

Yeonjun smiles at me.

"It likes you." I smile.

"Well, I love you too." I say to the cat gently and it looks up at me.

"This cat looks like a cloud with how fluffy it is," Yeonjun says.

I giggle. It was about 10 minutes later that our food and drinks is ready. He gets up and grabs our stuff. I smile as I watch him go get it.

He comes back and puts stuff on the table.

"Ohhh, thank you, Yeonjun." I smile and I drink my hot chocolate.

We sit and chat for a while. We played with cats after we ate and drank our drinks.

We leave happily.

"That was so much fun," I say happily.

Yeonjun opens the door to his car for me and I get in. I put on my seat belt.

He takes me to my rehearsal.

"I'll be here when you get out." He tells me.

"Wait what? It's going be a while."

"I don't mind. I have homework. And my computer and earbuds. I don't mind waiting for you, my lady." This man knows how to melt my heart. I smile.

"Ok, but don't complain to me when you get bored."

"I promise. " I shut the door and go to the building.

I found out I was the first one here, so I put on my outfit and practiced.

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

*after rehearsal*

"Y/N! You were amazing today!" Lisa tells me.

"Oh, thank you! I really appreciate it."

"Y/N, I saw Yeonjun's car outside when we came in. Me and Faye. So, did he drop you off?" Tiffany asks me.

"Oh...um yes. He dropped me off."

"Oh my god!" Tiffany squeals.

"I knew he liked you!" Faye says.

"He doesn't! He is just a good friend who takes care of me."

"Yeah, and does stuff that a boyfriend would do," Lisa says.

"And besides....you like him too," Faye says.

I blush.

"I do....but...he's just being nice. Look I gotta go." I grab my stuff and run out.

I look and see Yeonjun writing in his car. He's so pretty....no....i shouldn't think like this...

I go to the back and open the door and put my stuff in. I shut the door and go to the passenger side.

"There's my lady." I close the door and blush.

"Hi, Yeonjun." I smile.

"Ready to go?"

"Yes." I nod and he drives off.

Music plays in the background as he drives me home. We get to my house and I get out of the car.

"Wait!" Yeonjun stops me.

I turn to him.

"Can I drop you off again tomorrow?"

"Again?" I blush.

"Yes." He smiles at me.

I blush and nod.

He smiles at me and waves. I wave back and he leaves. I walk inside the house and gasp and see my dad mad.

"Was that the boy Yeonjun?"

"It was," I say quietly, getting scared.

"I told you to stay away from him."

"But dad-"

"Stay away from him! He is nothing but a no good asshole who will bring nothing but bad things. So I better not see him again! Now go to your room! I don't want even look at you!" He says angry and I start crying and upstairs. I shut my door in my room and I run to my bed crying.

He's such a jerk....

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

A week has passed and it is now the day of the performance. I start getting nervous and I feel like crying.

I look out to see the audience, I see my friends and mom. My mom was talking to another mom. I look around and I don't see my father. Not surprised. He's either working or yelling.

I look around some more and in the back I see....Yeonjun....with his group of friends. He looks at me and smiles at me.

I blush and close the curtain.

"Ready ladies?!" My teacher asks.

"Yes!" We all yell.

"Alright! Places!"

We get into our spots.

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

*after the performance.*

"Amazing job!" My friends hug me.

"Thank you!" They pull away and I see Yeonjun right behind them.

"Yeonjun..." I say softly. He shows me tulips.....my favorite flowers. I blush and smile. I grab them gently.

"You're as beautiful and as delicate as a tulip." He tells me.

A gasp is heard around me.

"Why don't we give them some space? Come on, girls." My mom tells my friends.

As it becomes me and him, I look into his eyes.

"I know, I'm not a guy who people would claim as no good or dangerous.....but......if you would have me.....can.....i be your boyfriend?"

I smile.

"Yes!" I don't care what anyone says......I'm in love with him....

He hugs me and kisses my cheek repeatedly.

I love him.

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

Hi everyone! I'm trying to come up with different themes for these stories. I'm honestly really proud of how far I'm coming along with these stories. I actually have an idea I wanted to talk to you all about. I wanted to write ideas for Christmas stories because it is coming up so quickly. What do you guys think?

- Luna 💜🩷

[odyssean-flower]

the winding path of fate chapter 13 sneak peak

(this is the second half of the first part. I want to rewrite the first half. tbh i'm thinking of posting the first part of chapter 13 since it is relatively long. ngl i feel like i put too many events in a single chapter sometimes. will put up a poll tomorrow when i finish the rewrites.)

With the new day and the cozy safety of your room, the events of last night seemed like they happened a lifetime ago. The fear had mostly subsided, leaving mortification and regret in its wake, especially as everyone was acting so considerate towards you. Looking back, you had no idea what you were thinking, and you realized once again just how lucky you had been.

Your ankle’s swelling had gone down considerably the next day, but it still hurt whenever you put even the slightest bit of pressure on it, so you spent most of the day in bed, reading books, drawing, or staring out the window at the gray sky. Your knee didn’t hurt quite as much either, but you still had to change the dressing regularly. You weren’t without company, though, as Marie sat with you in your room often, bringing you food and helping you put away your newly bought clothes in your closet. She had been horrified when you came home last night, injured. “Oh, Madame, you should have asked someone to get me!” she had lamented. “The streets at night are no place for a young lady to walk by herself!”

Marie wasn’t the only visitor to your room. The Melusines, including those who hadn’t gone shopping with you, also came to see you throughout the day. You supposed that Neuvillette told them about you, for they all brought you cakes and other desserts as get-well presents (you also suspected that they also reported back to Neuvillette about your condition, for when you mentioned to one Melusine how you would like to drink some Fonta, your wish was granted by the next Melusine who visited. However, she also heartily recommended that you drink water from Snezhnaya instead, which held a coolness that was good against swelling, and if you wished, you could ask Marie to fetch a bottle of it for you from Monsieur Neuvillette’s personal stash. She also added that you need not hesitate to ask, as he had more than one bottle. Perhaps all Melusines shared his specific tastes in water, but you didn’t quite believe that was the case).

Rhemia and the other Melusines who had been with you yesterday had been the most distressed upon seeing you bedridden. “I’ll stick to you like glue from now on, Madame! No criminal will escape my sights!” Rhemia had declared, and her sisters nodded vigorously in agreement.

“There really is no need for that,” you tried to decline her offer. Privately, you thought that there wasn’t much a Melusine could do against muggers anyways. “The whole incident only happened because I was careless and in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ll be much more careful next time, so I doubt it will happen again. Just because I’m Neuvillette’s wife, it doesn’t mean that I deserve special treatment or anything of the sort. And if he put you up to this, then—”

Rhemia blinked at you in confusion. “But this has nothing to do with Monsieur Neuvillette. Not entirely, anyways.”

“It doesn’t?” Now you were confused.

“Nope! I’d do this for all the people important to me! Oh, but I guess you’re more than that, since you’re married to Monsieur Neuvillette! That would make you our mother, I suppose.”

“Um…” There was the m-word again. You considered correcting Rhemia, but she continued on, seemingly not noticing your discomfort.

“You’re always so kind and patient with us, just like Monsieur Neuvillette. You greet us whenever you see us, and you always ask us about our days and listen to our troubles. Oh, and Madame, you’re such a good teacher too! I’ve gotten so much better at drawing humans thanks to your lessons!” Rhemia turned to her friends. “Am I right?”

Her friends nodded enthusiastically. They began recounting all the times you’ve spent with them.

“I’m glad to hear that you all think of me as your friend,” you said after they finished, a little embarrassed but also pleased. You hadn’t expected them to remember so much about you. But you felt a little guilty as well. At first, you decided to become friendly with the Melusines because everyone knew that Neuvillette treasured them greatly and you wanted to be in his good graces so that he wouldn’t have any reason to kick you out. They had always been the ones to come up to you first, especially in the first few weeks after your marriage, and while you didn’t consider yourself to be a particularly friendly and warm person, even you weren’t heartless enough to be cold to such a cheerful race of creatures.

“It’s not just us! I’m sure all the Melusines in the Court of Fontaine feel the same way. You’re just as important to us as Monsieur Neuvillette.”

“Oh…” Looking at their bright, earnest faces, you didn’t know what to say. Your eyes suddenly became misty. Before this marriage, you hadn’t really given much mind to Melusines. They were just the public servants you would occasionally pass by on the street. But now that you were connected to them through Neuvillette, you were belatedly learning just how wonderful they were.

“Thank you,” you said at last, patting each of them on the head. Your hand still stung a little from last night, but you ignored it. “It means a lot to me that you think so highly of me. Truly. Still, you don’t need to follow me around. If I ever need help, I promise that I will come straight to you. And…I hope that you would all come to the sunflower viewing party we’re holding here next month.”

“Of course, Madame! We wouldn’t miss it for anything!” the Melusines chirped in unison.

By evening, the deluge of visitors had finally ended. You sank into your pillows, feeling exhausted. You weren’t used to having so many people fuss over you. It was unfamiliar territory, one that you weren’t quite sure how to navigate.

Still, as you gazed at the teetering pile of confectionary boxes covered in Melusine stickers on your bedside table and remembered all the get-well wishes you received, a rush of warmth flooded your heart. How did I get so lucky? You wondered. Perhaps even after I leave Neuvillette, we can still be friends…

As you were lost in your thoughts, Marie came into your room again.

“Oh, Madame, I completely forgot to give you this because of everything that happened yesterday. It appears to be from your family.”

Marie handed you an envelope made of thick, creamy paper. You recognized the stationery as the kind used by your father for formal correspondences, and the address written in familiar, flowery cursive on the front was indeed that of your family’s house.

“Ah, that would be from my sister,” you said, tearing the envelope open and taking out the contents. The enveloped contained two cards made of similarly thick paper. They both had an elaborately drawn border of Lumidouce Bells and Rainbow Roses and had an invitation written in the center. This was new.

You are cordially invited

To a celebration

Honoring

Justine’s nineteenth birthday

Semi-formal attire requested (Floral themed outfits are preferred)

P.S. Sister, please tell me if Monsieur Neuvillette has any allergies or requires any accommodations!

“Ugh…” you groaned, putting your palm over your face. “I still haven’t gotten her a present yet!”

That had been the cause of this trouble in the first place, and yet you hadn’t even accomplished your goal in the end.

While we’re on this topic, shouldn’t she have sent the invitations much earlier if she wanted people to RSVP? It’s just like her to do things last minute! And why is she acting like it’s already decided that Neuvillette’s coming?

“Marie, could you please fetch me my pen and paper?” you asked the housekeeper. After you received them, you began to write a reply to tell Justine that while you were coming, Neuvillette definitely wasn’t. But just as you got to that last part, you paused. The idea of the Chief Justice attending a teenage girl’s birthday party all the way out in the countryside was absurd, of course. You tried to picture him sitting at your family’s worn dining table, singing “Happy Birthday” eating the butterscotch cake your housekeeper always made for birthdays, all the while fending off the barrage of questions from your family and friends. I can’t imagine it! It’s just too ridiculous!

It would be better if he didn’t have too much contact with your family, in order to avoid them asking too many questions, and to make the eventual divorce go smoothly.

He rarely even attended the far more glamorous functions of high society, so something like this would be out of the question. His answer would go without asking.

Or would it?

You didn’t really know why you were entertaining the idea. Perhaps being with Neuvillette these past few months had greatly inflated your sense of self-importance—but then again, you thought that the two of you had gotten close enough where asking him wouldn’t be so preposterous. You were friends, and wouldn’t it be ruder to not at least extend an invitation to a friend? Wasn’t the act of asking in itself greatly appreciated?

And…there was a little part of you that would like to show him around your hometown. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and all you could see for miles around were fields of wildflowers and mountains—a common sight in Fontaine—but there were a few spots that you had fond memories of. Since Neuvillette showed you his favorite places, it was only right to repay the favor, even if none of your favorite spots were as exciting as the giant willow tree or Merusea Village.

Recent events, including the latest incident, had taught you the folly of making assumptions, even for seemingly inconsequential things like this. Just because you thought

The worst thing he could say is no, you reasoned to yourself. And it’s not the end of the world if he does. Sure, Justine will be disappointed, but everyone knows how busy and reclusive Neuvillette is, so she’ll understand if he declines.

As if on cue, you heard the front door open downstairs. Neuvillette had returned home. After a brief conversation with Marie, the sound of his heels briskly ascending the stairs and heading in the direction of your room until it stopped in front of your door. There was a soft knock.

“Madame, may I come in?”

“Yes,” you called out, and Neuvillette opened the door and stepped inside your room. He was about to close the door behind him, but then he looked at you. A thought seemed to cross his mind, and he left the door ajar.

Um, why is he just standing there? You stared at him, confused when he didn’t take a seat right away. He simply stared at you, his gaze a mix of worry, uncertainty, and something else. For a second, you wondered if he was that caught off guard by your dishevelled appearance that was a result of staying in bed all day. It took you a minute to realize that he was waiting for you to ask him to sit down. Really, this man… I thought we’re past such formalities.

“You can pull up a chair,” you said, nodding towards the cushioned chairs in the center of the room. He complied, clasping his hands in his lap after settling in his seat and leaning towards you slightly. He stared at you intently, as if afraid that you would disappear before his eyes. You squirmed uncomfortably, suddenly very aware of the fact that you were wearing only your rumpled nightgown and that you were lying in bed. You surreptitiously pulled your covers up to your chest.

Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve ever had a man who isn’t my father in my room, you mused, though you were also aware that this wasn’t really the occasion to think about such things. Well, I guess it technically isn’t the first time, since he carried me back here when I fell asleep in his study that one time. First time that I was conscious, then.

Thankfully, Neuvillette broke the silence and (once again) prevented your thoughts from going in strange directions.

“The robbers will be tried in court shortly,” he said. “It will be a short, simple trial, considering the number of witnesses at the scene. I will not be presiding over it, however.”

“I see,” you nodded. “I’m very glad to hear that.”

Despite that, his brow remained creased with worry. “How are you feeling, Madame? Should I take you to the hospital after all?” he asked.

“No, that really won’t be necessary,” you shook your head vigorously. “It’s only a bad sprain. I’ll probably be able to walk again tomorrow.”

“It is highly unwise to rush your recovery. What will happen if you worsen your injury? The meeting with Furina can be postponed—”

“Don’t postpone it,” you said, leaning over to grab his sleeve and stared into his eyes. “The sooner we get this over with, the better. I’ll drag myself up the steps of the Palais if I have to.”

Neuvillette looked like he wanted to argue, but he swallowed back whatever he was going to say. “There’s no need to exert yourself in such a way,” he said at last. “I would be happy to carry you into my office, if you should ask.”

“Carry me into your office, huh?” you leaned back against your pillow with a smile. You sometimes wondered if Neuvillette realized how unintentionally funny he could be. “Wouldn’t that give people the wrong idea?”

“You do have a point. Then, I propose that we arrive at my office early in the morning, before the Palais employees come into work.”

“How about instead of carrying me, I borrow your cane?”

Neuvillette seemed to be pondering your words seriously. “But that would also run into the problem of rousing people’s suspicions. Someone might wonder why my cane is in your possession.”

You turned your head away to smother your laugh.

“It seems that the Melusines have made their visits,” Neuvillette said, looking at the tower of boxes on your bedside table.

“Yes, they were all very sweet. Although, I’m not sure how they expect me to eat all these…” You liked dessert and all, but not to this extent. Perhaps you could bring some of them back home with you to share with your family and friends.

“Clorinde also asked me to pass on her well wishes to you. She was very sorry to hear what happened.”

“I see. Please thank her for me, and tell her not to blame herself for my foolishness.”

“I will do that,” Neuvillette nodded, then was silent for a moment. His solemn gaze as he looked at you made it seem like you were diagnosed with some terminal illness rather than merely spraining your ankle badly and hitting your knee against the ground.

“Neuvillette?” you called out his name in hopes of getting rid of that grave look in his eyes. It made your chest feel heavy.

“Ah, by the way, I consulted with a friend of mine about your injury. She made this drink for you,” Neuvillette brandished a green, ridiculously adorable cup from out of nowhere. It reminded of you of the cups toddlers drank juice out of. “She says that it will help your body recover quicker.”

“A friend of yours?” you repeated, your interest piqued. While Neuvillette would happily talk to you about the Melusines for hours on end and occasionally talk about his (human) acquaintances, you had never heard him call anyone his friend before.

“Yes. She is the head nurse the Fortress of Meropide’s infirmary, and one of the kindest and considerate people I know. I hope the two of you can meet one day.”

“That’s high praise coming from you,” you said, making a mental note of this mysterious friend. “Why don’t we invite her to the sunflower viewing as well?”

“What a wonderful idea. I shall do just that,” he said, then held out the cup to you. “Now, Madame, you should drink this.”

“Alright,” you took a sip of the drink and nearly spat it out. “Bleakness” was the only way to describe the taste. It almost made you want to get out of bed and walk so that the pain could distract you from the torture of your tastebuds. For a heartbeat, you wondered if Neuvillette was trying to poison you. “A-Are you sure this is h-healthy?”

“Of course,” Neuvillette said, looking baffled by your question. “I’ve drank it on numerous occasions, and I’ve always found myself quite refreshed and invigorated afterwards. I asked Sigewinne to make it taste more palatable for you, as I’m aware that her concoctions are not for everyone. She truly hopes it makes you feel better.”

This is palatable? You thought. Did I do something to this Sigewinne person? Whoever she was, she shared the same incomprehensible sense of taste as Neuvillette.

Speaking of Neuvillette, he was looking at you expectantly. Oh Archons, is he expecting me to finish it in front of him? Just as you were trying to come up with an excuse to not drink it, those efforts were dashed by his next words. “Is it not to your liking?” he said quietly. You were vaguely aware that it had started raining outside.

“I…um…” you didn’t know what to say or where to look. You suddenly had the impression that a large puppy was at your bedside, staring at you with sad eyes. Gah, he must be doing this on purpose! Either that, or he must really be fond of that friend of his. “Well, when it comes to medicine, it’s not really a matter of liking it or not liking it, right? A-And since you’ve gone to the trouble of asking your friend to make this for me, it would be rude of me to not drink it, right?” You sounded like you were trying to convince yourself.

“If you do not like it, then you do not need to force yourself—”

“No, no, I mean, I’ve taken plenty of bitter medicine when I was little, and I survived. This will be no different,” you brought the straw up to your mouth and held your breath. Let’s just get this over quickly, you thought, then emptied the cup in one go. Fortunately, there wasn’t much to drink. However, the lumpy texture was still a struggle to swallow. You felt as though you had just eaten concrete.

“That was…certainly something I’ve never drank before,” you managed, flopping back onto your pillows to recover. You opened a box of lemon tarts and shoved one into your mouth to get rid of the taste. Honestly, you wanted to drink some Fonta instead, but decided that it might be a bit uncouth. Of course, some might say that it was unladylike to eat cake in bed in the first place, but you doubted those people ever had the misfortune of having to drink that so-called “healthy drink.” “Please thank your friend for me.”

Neuvillette nodded, watching you as you ate a second, then a third tart. Lemon wasn’t your favorite flavor, but anything would do right now. YYou offered one to him, but he politely declined. His gaze dropped to the papers in your lap. “…Were you writing a letter to someone?” he asked.

“Oh!” you had almost forgotten about that. “My sister Justine sent us invitations to her birthday party. It’s a bit short notice, but it’s in a few days.”

“Ah, yes, I’ve heard you mention it before,” Neuvillette took a pause, as if he had only just taken in the entirety of your words. “Did you say ‘invitations’?”

“Yes,” you nodded. Your hands suddenly felt sweaty. What were you so nervous about? “Since we’re, you know, husband and wife, it’s only natural that invitations would be sent to the both of us. Funny thing is, Justine thinks you’re already coming and has asked me if you require any accommodations, but of course you haven’t given any answer as to whether or not you’ll be attending the party. I-I know that you usually don’t attend public functions, but birthdays parties in our party don’t tend to be very extravagant affairs. It’s usually just a small gathering of close friends and relatives. We can even make everyone sign a contract of confidentiality, if you want. You don’t have to bring any gifts either. I think your presence will be a gift in itself for my sister, haha…”

Oh no, I’m rambling again…why do I keep doing this in front of him? You toyed with the edge of your comforter, suddenly too nervous to look at his expression. Would there be a look of disgust there? Why would there be? Your brain argued back. You haven’t asked anything offensive!

Finally, you dared to sneak a peek. He was staring at your face, as though scrutinizing it for answers to a difficult question.

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” you said, thinking that he must be trying to find a way to let you down gently.

“…Do you want me to attend?” he said at last.

You hadn’t expected that question. “What do you mean?” you frowned.

“What I mean is…would it please you—would it make you happy if I attended your sister’s party?”

Ah, so the answer is no, then, you thought. That was expected.

“Well, it’s not my party, so my opinion doesn’t matter,” you said slowly. “Justine would like for you to come, but there is no obligation on your part to say yes. If you like, I can make up some excuse about your absence to tell everyone.”

“But your opinion does matter quite a lot to me,” Neuvillette said. He was oddly insistent about this. “I would like to hear what you think.”

“As I said, it’s not my party. It will not affect me one way or another should you choose to come or not,” Realizing that you might be sounding too harsh, you softened your next words. “It’s okay to say no. I’m sure everyone will understand if you can’t come.”

Neuvillette stared at you for a long while, his eyes unreadable. You could hear the rain pounding against your window, and you turned your head to it. The sky was a dark, leaden gray. It’s been raining pretty frequently these days, hasn’t it? You thought distantly.

“Unfortunately, I have a trial to oversee on that day,” he said. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw him clench and unclench his fists. You wondered why he didn’t mention the trial earlier. “I do not think it would be wise for me to attend, in any case. It would be a needless distraction.”

“Alright then. I’ll tell my sister you can’t attend,” you said lightly, then turned your attention to your unfinished letter. You picked up your pen and began to write. Focusing your mind on producing the words helped distract from the tumult of emotions within you—emotions that you didn’t know quite what to make of. Was it relief you felt, or disappointment? Relief for what? Disappointment about what? You couldn’t tell at all.

In any case, it’s over and done with, you told yourself firmly, signing the letter with a flourish. Maybe too big of a flourish. I’ll post this first thing in the morning—that is, if I can walk by then.

You glanced up to see Neuvillette still sitting there. He was drinking from his cup, but he was watching you over the rim. You had long gotten used to him studying you like you were some kind of strange specimen, but it was still awkward, especially in this silence. Your room, which had always felt needlessly spacious to you, suddenly felt very small.

Just as you were debating whether or not to fake a sleepy yawn and ask him to leave, he spoke again.

“You haven’t yet bought a birthday present for your sister, yes?”

“That’s right,” you replied, wondering what he was getting at.

“I won’t have any time tomorrow, but I do have an hour or two to spare after our meeting with Furina. We shall go pick out a present together then.”

You gaped at him. “Are you serious?”

“Why would I not be? It is customary for married couples to give presents as a pair, is it not?”

“I…suppose so,” you said. Neuvillette was so hard to grasp sometimes. Sometimes, he was clear as a fresh water spring. Other times, like now, you had the sense that you were staring into the sea, unable to see all the way to its bottom.

“Then it is settled,” he said with a note of satisfaction in his voice, then leaned forward and cupped your cheek. It happened so quickly that you didn’t even have a chance to react. “W-Wha…” was all you could manage to stammer out. There was only a millimeter of space between your faces. Your heart sped up a little when his gaze moved to your lips. His thumb moved to the corner of your lip and brushed against it. It took you a moment to realize that he had flicked off a cake crumb.

“I still have some work to finish, so I’m afraid I’ll have to take my leave now,” he informed you, removing his hand from your cheek. Despite that, you could still feel the smooth silk of his glove and the latent strength in his long fingers. “Please rest and get well soon, Madame.”

You could only nod as you gazed up at him. He stared into your eyes for a moment longer before turning on his heel and leaving your room. It was only when you heard his footsteps recede to the other side of the house that you realized that it was no longer raining.

[headfulloflettuce]

The Human Who Fooled All of Prythian

34. A Sleep Deprived Vacation

“Strangers are just friends waiting to happen.”

- Rod Mckuen

Cosette was ashamed to admit that she used the pain of the bruises to not fall asleep, keeping herself sitting in uncomfortable positions or gently pressing down to make sure she didn’t clock out and potentially suffer something worse due to the hex.

She was grateful that at least she managed to wait out the first period of exhaustion and need for sleep and made it to her current state. The one where she just felt tired.

After applying the medicine the healer gave her, Cosette ended up changing into a different dress from the one she had worn yesterday, unable to wash away the stains of dirt that ended up on it after her fall.

“Good morning Linus.” Cosette greeted the man, closing the door to her cabin.

He looked put together, dressed for another day of work.

“Good morning.” he did a double take when seeing her face, “What’s wrong with you?”

“What?”

I had checked in the mirror. I looked fine, no new bruises.

“Did you even sleep?”

“Well the healer told me that I can’t sleep until we leave Night Court waters, sooo…” Cosette yawned, “I am stuck like this for the time being.”

Linus cringed, “That sucks.”

“Yeah it does.” she agreed, “Are you helping Amelio with work today too?”

“No.” Linus sighed, “Amelio said he would take care of things today and that I should take a break or something.”

“Well that’s nice.”

“No, not nice.”

“Right, let me guess you’re one of those workaholic types?”

“Ha, no. That’s not the problem here.”

You don’t deny it.

“Then what is?”

“You’re really dumb you know that?”

“Way to turn to insults.”

“It’s not an insult, it’s a fact. You think Amelio telling me to take a break is a good thing?”

“Yes…?”

Would a teacher not want his student to take a break?

“That’s not what he’s asking for.”

“What do you mean?”

Linus however didn’t answer her, instead beginning to walk down the hallway and up to the deck.

Cosette followed him.

“Why are you following me?” he snapped.

“I am not, I am just also going to the deck.”

Linus let out a frustrated huff, but still held the door open for her when they clambered onto the deck.

The two walked over to the breakfast table where the captain and sailors were chatting, chugging coffee and getting ready for the day ahead.

“There you are, Linus, thought you already left with Amelio?” the captain smiled at the younger faerie.

“I am staying behind today.”

“I see. Well it would be a shame to just stay at the ship, all we’ll be doing is packing up the cargo and making sure everything is stored properly. You two should head out into the city for a bit.”

“I would love to stay and help you instead.” Linus quickly offered but the captain shook him off.

“Nah mate, you go and have some fun. A couple of the younger sailors are going out into the city today, you should go with them. Just make sure to get back by 2:30, we’re leaving at 3.” the captain winked, “Unless you want to get stuck here.”

“That would actually be hell.” a sailor groaned, “Imagine being stuck with the Night Court fae and their weird mind magic and freaky day cycles until the next boat came.” he shivered, “I think I’d just start swimming back to Winter Court at that point.”

Linus looked even more annoyed but didn’t say anything, instead grabbing some food from the table.

Cosette picked out some fruit and ate it, forcing herself to swallow even though it hurt her chest. Watching the faeries around the table interact it was clear that Amelio sought out more talkative employees as most of the faeries were chatting and smiling. A couple however were a lot more similar to the average Winter Court fae she had encountered: reserved, and quiet, eating their food along the sidelines and exchanging only a few words.

She glanced at Linus who was also silent.

You act more like them than Amelio at times.

“If you’re going to go out into the city we should go together.” she proposed.

Linus glared at her, “No thank you.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to.”

“But you’re going to go out into the city, no?”

“No, I will do something more productive with my time.” 

“If I see you sulking around the ship Linus I will kick you out!” the captain called out, putting his plate away into the dirty tray, “You should escort the miss since she is asking you.”

Linus’s face scrunched up in displeasure but he conceded, “Fine.”

Cosette was on her tenth bite when she decided she wouldn’t be able to eat anymore and put her food away.

“You should eat more.”

“I am not that hungry.”

Hard to eat when it physically hurts too.

“I am going to get my bag and soggy wallet.’

“You better hurry or I’ll leave.” Linus called out after her.

Cosette purposefully walked slower, looking him straight in the eyes. Linus groaned, turning away and looking down at the water over the edge of the deck.

Despite his sour expression, Linus had waited for her and helped Cosette down the gangway.

Upon her return he immediately asked, “Why is your wallet soggy? Did you manage to drop it into the Sidra River or something?”

“No, a male stole it from me and then I found it by the Sidra River. He probably dropped it while running and then it washed up somehow.”

Or a kind civilian picked it up, since it was on the sidewalk and the river’s waves don’t reach that high.

“You got robbed?!” he spun around, “Why didn’t you say anything yesterday?”

“Well I got the wallet back. Besides, I was with Azriel and Elain at the time and neither he nor the faeries around managed to catch the culprit.”

Linus gaped at her before a short laugh escaped him, “You’re telling me the Night Court’s Spymaster couldn’t catch a single thief?”

She shrugged.

The thought seemed to lift Linus’s mood as they exited the port, with Linus taking the lead of walking through the streets of Velaris, even offering his arm to Cosette.

“I don’t understand you.” Cosette stated, taking his hand, not wanting to get separated in the bustle of the city.

“Hm?”

“You act like an asshole at times yet still hold the door open and stuff.”

Linus rolled his eyes, “That’s basic etiquette, nothing more. All proper faeries should do it.”

Cosette was about to call out the fact that Azriel’s behavior did not apply to everyone, beyond whenever Elain had asked him to do something, but stopped herself.

When you’re too exhausted to think properly, the smartest thing to do is to just not speak. No one can catch you making a mistake if you simply do nothing. 

That was my brother’s life lesson from middle school that he passed onto me when I was graduating fifth grade. Easy to say the teachers were thrilled to have a miniature version of my brother running around the same school he had just graduated from.

Cosette considered badmouthing the spymaster of the Night Court in public, in the city of Velaris where he lived, to very much be a stupid mistake. So, she remained silent.

Silence was not a challenge for them as Linus clearly did not want to speak to her. Cosette didn’t mind though, just enjoying the city’s beauty.

She however tugged on his arm, stopping him when they passed by a bookstore.

“Wait, I want to get a souvenir for a friend back home.”

I am going to follow in Ophelia’s footsteps and get Fermin a picture book.

“Are they business associates?”

“No…?”

“Then why are you getting them a gift?”

Cosette gave him a weird look, “Because we’re friends and most faeries never visit a different court so getting them something would be a kind gesture.”

Linus returned the weird look but followed her into the bookstore. Cosette made a beeline towards the picture book section, pleasantly surprised by the selection, and horrified by the high prices.

“Can your friend not read?”

Cosette was starting to get a bit annoyed, shutting a hardcover book more aggressively than she intended, “No, he is a child. Didn’t you read picture books as a child?”

Linus didn’t say anything back, picking up a history text from a neighboring shelf.

Cosette flipped through children’s books, eventually picking out a cute one about a frog and a knight going on an adventure to save the stars from an evil snow wasset that was determined to eat the whole sky.

As far as she was concerned the snow wasset was just an overly large water weasel with tiny legs and a long body.

“Linus, he looks like a worm.” Cosette showed him a funny picture on one of the pages.

Linus closed the book he was reading, not impressed by the worm-like creature, “Is that supposed to be a snow wasset?”

“Yeah!”

“They drew it wrong, it should be fluffier.”

Wait, is this thing real?

“Okay, well, I don’t think the goal here is biological accuracy.”

“I guess.” Linus didn’t sound convinced.

“So…what does a snow wasset normally eat?” she asked.

“Do they never migrate to your area?”

“I never noticed them.”

“Guess that makes sense, they prefer sticking to colder areas, only going to warmer waters during our coldest months. That’s why they’re considered native to Winter Court. The Faerie Realms would take a long time to travel to.”

“Why would they go to the warmth if they like the cold?”

“They prefer the cold but if it gets too cold they might not be able to find stable access to food, so they move to Summer or Spring where they hunt on land. If it gets too hot they either hibernate or move up further North.” Linus said, “But, to answer your question, they eat anything.”

“Even stars?” Cosette quipped sarcastically.

“If they could reach them they would most definitely eat them too.”

Cosette laughed, moving deeper into the bookstore.

Linus followed after her, picking out books as they went and flipping through them, keeping some and putting away others.

“Are you getting those for your business associates?”

“No, they’re for me. Like you said, most faeries never travel to another court. It’s good to stock up on another court’s books.”

“Don’t you want to get Solene or Amelio anything?”

“What’s the point? They can already buy anything they want with money.”

Cosette rolled her eyes.

“You could make them something. Or perhaps a sentimental gift?”

Linus ignored her, so she didn’t bother continuing the conversation.

What can I get Theo? He and Ophelia are the only ones I haven’t really gotten a proper gift for. I don’t want to get him woodworking tools since he already has those. 

“Excuse me.” Cosette addressed a short faerie with small horns stacking books in the corner, “Do you have textbooks on wood carving? Or any educational texts?”

The faerie looked at her, nodded and pointed to a neighboring bookshelf.

“Thank you.” Cosette looked through the books, with various titles: ‘From Concept to Product’, ‘Night Court’s Greatest: A History of Woodworking Masters’, ‘Materials and Where to Find Them’, ‘Night Court’s Woodworking: The Basics’. Cosette paused on the last one.

Although Theo was certainly not a beginner, an introductory text to another court’s wood carving arts is a good place to start.

Cosette purchased the two books with Linus getting a whole stack of them for himself. When their orders got wrapped and prepared, he took her packaged book away and put it into his own bag to carry, offering her his hand again,

Cosette took his hand with a small sigh and they returned to the street. Passing by a familiar vendor with the strange sweets she tugged on Linus’s hand again, dragging him over to it.

“Wait, I want to get some of these for my friends.”

“How many friends do you have?” he muttered.

Clearly more than you.

Cosette took a closer look at the bizarre sweets: sparkling star-like candies, caramels that looked like bubbles, cinnamon rolls in the shapes of cats with numerous eyes, and purple flower pastries, to name a couple.

She ended up picking out a bag with a combination of the various candies and chocolates. Although the cinnamon rolls looked extremely appealing she didn’t want to risk one going bad on the way home.

“Are you done?” Linus drawled.

“Do not rush me.” she glared, paying the vendor, trying to take the pretty cloth bag the goods came in, but Linus snatched it away before she could even react, smugly extending his arm to her once more.

“Shall we?”

“You’re…” Cosette tried to find the right word.

“Respectful? A gentlefaerie?” Linus seemed to be enjoying himself.

“A prick hiding behind the visage of respect.”

“Same thing.”

The two carefully maneuvered about some carts that had turned onto the wrong road and were now trying to get back to the proper route with the help of a few pedestrians.

“Those newcomers…don’t even know how roads work.” a passing by faerie slammed into Cosette’s shoulder, eliciting a growl from Linus.

“Oi, watch where you’re going.”

“What did you say to me?” the older male, turned to face Linus, his face, despite the natural bluish hue, looked a bit red.

He was drunk.

“I said watch where you’re going drunk.” Linus smirked, “What kind of male are you, failing to walk in a straight line?”

The male narrowed his eyes at Linus, “Oh…you’re from that court aren’t you? The popsicle one?”

Cosette felt Linus’s hand clench into a fist. She gently squeezed his arm.

Stay calm.

“Of course you little wendigos would be so uptight how a faerie walks. How many glaciers have you shoved up that ass of yours?”

“You-” Linus’s face twisted in fury. 

“We apologize for the disruption.” Cosette interrupted Linus.

It would do us no good getting into an argument here.

She could already see people stopping to stare.

“We didn’t mean to bother you.”

“Shut up, female, nobody was speaking to you.”

“How vulgar.” Linus chuckled, “Of course I wouldn’t expect anything less from a stupid male off the streets of Velaris.”

The male laughed, “Does the little snowdrop want to fight?”

“The three of you! Cut it out!” the shopkeeper of the place before which they had stopped before had come out, “If you want to brawl do it elsewhere!”

“Mister, those two ice shi-”

“I know.” the shop owner’s tone turned softer as he spoke to the drunk man, “But rules are rules, they are allowed to be here. Go take a small breather, okay? They’re not worth it.”

The large male growled, but left.

“What are you two still doing here?” the shop owner’s face snapped back to Cosette and Linus, “Away with you!”

Cosette pulled on Linus’s sleeve before he would try to defend hers or his own honor again.

“What a prick.” Linus muttered under his breath, matching Cosette’s step, not struggling against her grip.

Once they were a good distance away, Cosette slowed her walking speed, taking deep breaths as the bruising began to hurt.

“What’s wrong? Did he hurt you when he walked by?

“Is that concern I hear in your voice?” Cosette massaged her stomach.

“Oh drop it, what is it?”

“It’s the bruising from the hex, I need to sit down.”

Linus nodded, beginning to lead her over to a bench before stopping, “Do you think you can walk a couple more meters?”

“Why?” she wheezed.

“There’s a good cafe I know that’s close by. If you can make it we can rest there instead.” he pointed to the cafe.

He was right, it was pretty close.

“Alright.” Cosette agreed, leaning on Linus slightly as they walked, collapsing into a chair on the patio once they made it over.

Linus waited for her before she sat upright again, “Better?”

She nodded.

“Do you want anything from the cafe?”

“Hot chocolate.”

He left, returning soon with a cup of steaming hot chocolate and a sweet smelling coffee.

Cosette reached for her wallet to pay him back but Linus shook his head, “What kind of a prick hiding behind a visage of respect would I be if I made you pay?” 

She wanted to argue but the pain was too much so Cosette dropped the topic. Taking a couple more deep breaths and taking a small gulp of her hot chocolate she spoke, “It’s sweet?”, she gestured to the coffee.

“Yeah, they add some native plants to make it. Balances the bitterness quite nicely.”

“I thought faeries drank coffee because of the bitterness?”

“You see that was Amelio’s argument but sometimes you just want something a little sweet, you know?”

“That’s why hot chocolate exists.”

He sighed dramatically, “You don’t get it either.”

“Here, you try the hot chocolate, and I try the coffee.” she offered an exchange.

Linus held her gaze, not about to back down, “Deal.”

They exchanged drinks, taking a small sip each from a spot where the others’ lips hadn’t touched the cup.

“You’re right, it’s good!” Cosette licked her lips clean of the foam from the drink.

“Exactly.” he pushed her hot chocolate back to her, “Your drink is average just so you know.”

Cosette was flabbergasted.

He laughed at her expression, waving a hand placatingly, “It’s not bad, I just think Winter Court’s hot chocolate is better.”

He was kind of right; the hot chocolate there definitely felt cozier.

Cosette huffed, taking a sip of her hot drink again, “Say, have you been to Day Court?”

“No.”

“Really? But you had so much to say about their philosophers.”

“That’s based on texts that I have read written by them and stories from Solene and Amelio who have been there.”

“Wait, why have you not gone?”

Linus went slightly pink, taking a sip of his coffee.

“What? Why have you not gone?” she leaned in.

Don’t think I miss that blush of embarrassment.

“...Amelio and Solene don’t allow me to go.”

“Ha!” Cosette smiled, “What? They don’t want to deal with your tomfoolery?”

His expression shifted to one of offense, “No, they don’t want me to get stabbed to death.”

“What?”

He rolled his eyes, “Right, of course, my apologies, I forget you’re stupid.”

Now it was her turn to look offended, “That’s not nice, and you call yourself a gentlefaerie.”

“A gentlefaerie should speak only in facts.” his mischievous eyes met hers from behind his cup, “You must know of their dueling system, right?”

“Of course.”

Aristippus wrote about that, how could I forget?

“Well faeries from other courts aren’t excluded from that system. Especially during major public gatherings, duels are encouraged between various court members.”

“Oh…” Cosette realized what he was getting at, “So they don’t bring you for your own safety?”

“Yeah, they think I’ll just keel over and die if a faerie tries to attack me.”

“Well they are speaking facts”

Linus frowned, “I can hold my own in a fight.”

“Please, I bet you can’t even hold a sword.”

“Of course I can, don’t be stupid. What kind of faerie can’t even hold a sword properly?”

“I can’t.” Cosette laughed at his incredulous expression.

“You’re joking.”

“Absolutely serious. Briar and Aquilo tried to train me but failed miserably.”

“No way.”

“Well, in my defense I am getting better since my first lesson with them.”

“A faerie so weak she can’t even hold a sword upright…” Linus shook his head, drinking down his confusion with coffee.

“How did you meet Amelio?” Cosette asked, “You’re his student, was there an application or something?”

Linus took a deep, long sip from his drink, “It’s a bit complicated, but no, there was no application. He just helped me out when things were rough and now we’re here.”

“Uh huh…”

“So, tell me about your perfumery.” Linus quickly changed the subject, “If I am going to be insulting you over it, might as well hear from the creator herself regarding said business.”

“What do you want to know?”

“How did you get the idea to make a perfumery business?”

“Well that’s a generic question.” she giggled much to his displeasure, “When I first came to Winter Court I walked around the streets with my friend in search of a job or any sort of opportunity. When Blanche showed us the perfumery street I knew I had to take advantage of the market’s lack of quality products.”

“Blanche? Forrest’s wife right? The inn owner’s?”

“Yeah! You know them?”

“Somewhat, they’re weird like Amelio.” Linus paused, his eyes looking down at his cup, “No, not like Amelio, but still weird.”

“I mean I would say like Amelio. They’re very smiley and welcoming unlike most Winter Faeries…no offense to you.”

“None taken, however, I disagree that Amelio is welcoming.”

“Why?”

“You wouldn’t get it because you’re dumb.”

“Okay, I am going to need you to stop calling me that.”

Linus smiled playfully, “Back to the conversation at hand. Tell me about how your business was when you first started it.”

“I mean it was rough at the beginning.” Cosette said, “I didn’t even know if we would succeed. I bought a building for dirt cheap and permitted the people who lived and worked there before to remain.”

“Where did you live?”

“A hotel.”

“Eh?”

“Even though the building wasn’t too expensive it still took out a large portion of our savings meaning we had to budget our spending big time while not even knowing if the business would take off.” Cosette rambled, “That’s not counting the fact that Theo and his father owed money to the faeries who had given them the building, and they had to pay them back right after the solstice so there was a harsh time crunch too.”

Linus stared at her, dumbfounded.

“Theo is great. Really hard worker but his father is a bit challenging to deal with.”

“So, not only are you an idiot…you are also a self sacrificing workaholic.” he ran a hand through his hair, “Your business model is fucked, and you claim to not take risks?”

“Well, I would argue my risks were well calculated and minimized.”

“Your risks were in fact not calculated. You have planned your secondary venture for farming better than your primary business.”

“How would you have suggested doing it?”

“Well you said it yourself, you lost a bunch of your savings with purchasing the building. How were you going to ensure you had the resources to pay for materials to produce the perfume?”

“I ended up investing in some cheaper materials for making perfume and then to save money on renovating the building we had Theo build a stand from the extra stuff they had left over from woodworking. We then used that to sell our products out on the street and manufactured the perfume inside.”

“Well-...actually that’s not horrible…Still risky but better.”

“Technically no business is without risk. Perhaps I am wrong in saying that I would rather not take a risk at all.” Cosette mused, “However, I like odds that are in my favor or a situation in which I am comfortable in rather than leaving my victory up to chance, you know?”

“I get what you’re saying.” the male looked at her thoughtfully, taking another sip of his coffee, “What about you day to day life? What do you do?”

“Well, me and Ophelia get up and open up shop. During the early morning I work on making perfumes and designing the next scent to be released. When it’s rush hour I help out Ophelia. Theo is usually around to help as well though with the farming project he’s been busy.”

“Ophelia, she’s the one you traveled to the capital with, right?”

“Yup! Well, now it’s your turn. What does the life in a day of Amelio’s student look like?”

“It’s nothing special.”

“Aww, come on. That’s not fair! I told you about me a bit, share something about yourself.” she smiled, “Who knows, maybe it’ll make us grow closer.

“I highly doubt that.”

“You still don’t like me after all that effort I put into telling you a story?”

“That wasn’t a story, you just answered questions. And as for liking you, I thought you said you didn’t care.”

“I mean, I don’t but I would rather we be amicable than at each other’s throats.”

He narrowed his eyes but obliged, “Fine, what do you want to know?”

“Well, what exactly is your job? You mentioned that you make sure stores are still stocked with food. That you are busy ‘maximizing the remaining alliances Winter Court has’. What is it you actually do on a daily basis?”

“That’s pretty much my job. I am in resource management. I track how much stuff various trade agreements or routes bring in as well as businesses via their profit reports. If I see that we are lacking in a certain area of produce whether it be food related or raw materials I make a plan of suggested changes and notify Amelio of the problem. He then works with Viviane and Kallias to support businesses that are lucrative yet struggling, or to tweak agreements with businesses or neighboring courts to maximize profit.”

“So does Amelio have you help him in his projects?”

“Yeah, he usually employs me as an assistant. If he thinks I am ready he’ll give me a more challenging task, though still under his supervision. Granted, before he would give me more projects to work on by myself, now I am expected to take initiative.”

“Wait, that’s terrifying. He expects you to write project proposals and carry through with them on your own?”

“Yeah. It’s reasonable though, what’s he supposed to do otherwise?”

“I think I would cry giving a business proposal to Amelio.”

“It’s basically what you did with your perfumery, and if you’re so sensitive that you would cry over it then you won’t survive being a businessfaerie.”

Fair point, though I never wanted to be a businesswoman so ha! I don’t technically have to be competent as I’ve had no training! Apart from college and life experience…

“Still, I can say it’s intimidating before I try it.”

“Guess so, though for me the more I think about how scary something is the less likely I am to do it.”

“What about the weekends?”

“Hm?”

“What do you do for fun Linus?”

“Well, I read.”

Do you not hang out with friends?

“What books do you like to read?”

“History, economics, philosophy, anything that interests me really.”

Cosette hummed, “Do you have anywhere you like to go to hang out?”

“No, why would I?”

“Really you don’t have a cafe or library you enjoy visiting?”

“The public library has nothing on Amelio’s or the palace’s archives. It’s quite pointless to go there if you want to find something of interest.”

As I suspected, I am going to need to target the courts’ palace libraries. There must be something in those that will help me get home.

“What books are the most interesting ones in the palace?”

He shrugged, “I guess books about magic are deemed the most interesting, but I personally prefer more data based texts. Records, you know?” 

“What kind of magic books do they have?”

“Various, anything a palace library should have.” he narrowed his eyes, “Why are you berating me about this?”

“Can you blame a female for being curious about a massive library she’s never gotten to see?” Cosette leaned in, “I am quite the reader myself.”

“Oh yeah? What books have you been reading?”

“‘Politics and Tea: A Partnership’, ‘A Lady’s Guide to Proper Behavior’, ‘The History of Winter Court’s Trade’, ‘A History of Winter Court’s Trading Routes’, and ‘Fae Courts and Customs: A Comprehensive Guide’” she listed off a few of the titles.

Still have to read ‘The History of Winter Court’s Fish: Did They Evolve?’.

“Right, so baby stuff. Guess that makes sense since you’re a newbie at this.”

Cosette smiled.

Could this man say a sentence without insulting her? I am only being patient because he might speak more about that damned palace library.

Linus however didn’t bring up the library again, instead continuing on to ask, “That last one is by Aristippus, right?”

“Yeah.”

The man, the myth, the legend.

“I would take Aristippus’s words with a grain of salt though.”

“Why?”

“Did you not listen to my explanation back on the ship? Day Court’s philosophers and scholars are on payroll, their texts are extremely biased.”

“Well, arguably all authors are biased.”

“I guess, but not in the same way they are.”

“You know Linus, I think you’re just salty you haven’t gotten a chance to go to Day Court.”

“I am not salty.”

“Yup, definitely tasting the salt.”

The more he talked the more she realized Linus didn’t seem to interact with many people besides Amelio’s coworkers and traders. ‘Aren’t you lonely?’ she wanted to ask but decided that was insensitive.

“We should get going if we want to walk around a bit more.” Linus said, checking the time, “We’ll have to head back soon.”

“Good idea.” Cosette got up, not trying to beat Linus to the bags having gotten that it would be pointless.

Let the male act like a gentleman if he wanted to, she certainly wasn’t going to complain about not having to carry extra weight.

The two made it back to the ship at exactly 2:30, with Amelio waiting for them at the gangway.

“Good, you’re back. Did you have a good day out?” Amelio took a couple bags from Linus, carrying them onto the ship while they climbed on behind him.

“It was good, I got souvenirs for friends.” Cosette said.

“Ophelia and Theo?”

“Yeah.”

“Good work.” Amelio glanced at Linus, “How about you?”

“I purchased a couple historical texts.” Linus reported.

Amelio nodded approvingly, patting his student on the shoulder, “We’ll be leaving soon so make sure you have all your belongings on board one last time.”

Cosette followed Linus down to the cabin area, putting her bags away and making sure all her previously bought goods were as they were. Coming out of her room she found Linus waiting for her.

“Do you have everything?”

“Yeah.”

“Good, we should head back to the deck, I want to watch us leave port.”

Cosette followed him, pausing when a young sailor joined them, carrying a small critter in his arms.

“What is that?” Cosette stared at the mass of black fur in his arms.

“A cat! Or well, a special Night Court cat!” the sailor showed her the creature excitedly, “I got one to bring home. My family and I are big fans of felines.”

Linus eyed the critter, “I remember, you have like five maine coons. How many of these guys did you get?”

“10!”

“10?!” Cosette didn’t want to think of shedding season.

“Don’t worry, I live on a farm, it’s the perfect place for them. It’s also right near the forest so they can explore to their heart's content. Besides, the rest are smaller than this one. I am pretty sure they’re still kittens.”

Cosette was skeptical as to how much smaller the rest of the brood was considering the large size of the fur ball before her. Nonetheless, she patted the cat and it purred, the black mass shifting to lean into her touch.

Despite it looking like a cat it wasn’t exactly a cat. The fluff was rather fluid in its movements and it had no eyes, though Cosette assumed the critter simply tucked its face away.

Linus didn’t pet the fluff ball, tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for the two of them to hurry up.

By the time they made it up the ship had slowly begun leaving port. Faeries were yelling instructions at each other, with Solene and Amelio relaxing in some chairs nearby, not getting in the way of the captain and his men’s work.

“Look, over there is the central Spirit shrine.” Linus led Cosette over to the edge of the ship, pointing out various buildings and monuments.

“How many times have you been here?”

“This is my third time.”

“Wow, you’ve already been to so many places.”

“Well, Velaris isn’t that big of a city and the first time we came here it was due to a High Lord meeting between Rhysand and Kallias so the whole delegation got a tour of the city plus some time to explore by ourselves.”

“You two are getting along quite well.” Amelio’s voice boomed as he leaned in between Linus and Cosette, a conspiratorial smirk on his face.

Cosette smiled.

“No, we’re just amicable.”

“Right…” Amelio handed the spyglass to Linus which the younger excitedly took.

After a while the Night Court’s port began fading away, mist covering the glowing lights of the city. Cosette shivered, leaving the edge of the deck to sit next to Solene who poured her some black tea, pushing some fruits towards her. Cosette sipped the tea and nibbled on the fruit. 

It still hurts to eat. Hopefully resting back home will get me on my feet quickly.

Cosette’s eyes began to droop at the peaceful atmosphere: the fog, the faerie lights, the warm tea, the sweet taste of fruit on her tongue…

Suddenly she felt a hand roughly shake her.

“Keep those eyes open Cosette.”

She blinked groggily, looking up at Amelio, absolutely miserable.

He gave her a sympathetic smile, “I know, but we’ll cross Night Court water soon and then you can sleep under the careful watch of our healer.”

“Couldn’t I have slept under her watch while I was here?” Cosette yawned.

I’ve lost count of how many hours I am sleep deprived.

“Sure, if you wanted to play it risky. It’s considered safer to do the action triggering the hex’s consequences out of reach of the caster.” Amelio sat down next to Solene on the couch, with Linus in the chair beside Cosette.

The tall ship had at this point picked up pace, flying on the waves. The sailor who had shown them his newly acquired friend was introducing him to some other coworkers who were on break. The group was laughing, petting and feeding the large fluffy blob.

All was well, until the screams started, and the sailors scattered, covering their eyes.

Amelio quickly grabbed Linus and Cosette shoving them down towards the floor, landing close by them

Cosette was now very much awake.

“What’s-”

Amelio brought a finger to her lips.

Cosette exchanged a confused look with Linus.

The ship was now still and silent.

Solene, with closed eyes, carefully got up, moving away from their sitting area and into the center of the deck.

Amelio’s breath hitched, but he kept himself and them staring at the ground.

What was going on?

Suddenly the sound of ice hitting wooden boards and a yowl pierced the air. Several more thuds followed, then silence.

“It’s safe.” 

Solene’s voice resulted in Amelio standing up, pulling Cosette and Linus into standing positions as well.

“What’s going on?” Cosette looked around.

The desk was covered in ice spots, with crystals extending in all directions. Near their sitting area was a partially destroyed box full of rope and the massive fluffy thing. Except it wasn’t just a black mass anymore. It had expanded to an even larger size than before due to it having stretched out its four legs and tail. 

The most notable however were the eyes. Countless eyes covering its face, all of them disfigured or destroyed by the expanded ice.

The creature’s limp body, cut open by ice shards extending in various directions, was picked up by the captain, looking to Amelio and Solene for an explanation. 

When they gave none he turned to the faerie who had purchased the thing, “Sailor, what is this thing?”

The young sailor sat there, dumbfounded.

“Sailor, I asked you a question.”

“Where are we?” the male looked around confused, “Who are you?”

The captain frowned

“Who am I?” the male looked like he was about to start hysterically crying when one of his coworkers swiftly knocked him out.

“It’s a glawackus.” Amelio murmured.

A what?

“I have never seen one before.” Amelio approached the carcass with almost a wondrous expression, poking at it, “It’s a native Night Court creature. It lives in the forests and mountains. Based on its fur one could guess it burrows in snow. How in all of Pyrthian did that male get his hands on one? They shouldn’t be near cities.”

Cosette couldn’t look away from the creature’s multitude of eyes, all gushing blood, still staring in various directions, its mouth still open, the canines glistening with saliva. 

“If you make eye contact with it, the creature wipes your memories. Well, technically it steals them, feeds on them.” Amelio pulled away from the creature, “They warned us about it the first time we came here but it was done in such a joking manner I didn’t think the creatures actually could make their way into Velaris considering all its defenses and the creature’s supposed preference for the mountain steeps and forests.

“Is there any way to protect yourself against it?” Cosette managed to break eye contact to look at Amelio instead.

“No, no known way. The only immune ones are said to be daemati, but I don’t know how true that is.” Amelio sighed.

“The male said he had purchased 10 of them.” Linus spoke up.

Amelio let out a soft curse, “Alright, we’ll have to send some faeries down to extract them.”

“I will go.” Solene began walking towards the door leading down to the cabins.

“Not alone you’re not.” Amelio followed right after her. Several of the larger faeries joined them as well, grabbing various weapons and objects to defend themselves with.

The remaining faeries secured positions on deck, and put the body of the Glawackus into an empty cargo box.

“I am coming too.” Linus moved to join the group but Amelio put both of his arms on Linus’s shoulders.

“No.”

That was probably the most firm ‘no’ Cosette had ever heard.

“But-”

“No.”

“I don’t think they should join us, but they shouldn’t stay out here.” Solene said, “They’re too young to fight it properly. It’s best to leave them somewhere secluded and safe.”

“We’ll put them in a cargo box.”

“What?” Cosette and Linus said in unison.

“I am not letting them down there into any of the rooms. That creature could have gotten out of the sailor’s room for all we know.” Amelio crossed his arms.

“Hm, you have a point.” Solene nodded in agreement, “Captain, put these two and the rest of the younger faeries into the empty cargo boxes. Make sure they sit facing away from the air holes.”

“Will do Lady Solene.” the captain quickly got to work with a couple other older faeries, dragging cargo boxes over to the center of the deck and opening them up, helping some of the younger employees hide in them.

“Wait, hold on. You can’t just put us into-” Linus  got shoved into the box first by Amelio.

Cosette decided to not wait and climbed in voluntarily.

“We’ll be back soon.” Solene waved goodbye as they, and a few others were trapped inside boxes.

They could hear the footsteps of the team heading into the ship’s lower levels, the door slamming shut behind them.

Cosette looked to Linus, the two of them leaning against the wall of the box that had the air hole so that neither could physically see a potential eye.

Linus sighed, letting his head hit the wall, “So much for getting home in record time.”

Cosette yawned.

Even the adrenaline wasn’t enough to keep me awake properly.

“Oi, stay awake.”

“Tell me a story or something…” she murmured.

“Are you 20?”

“Ha…No.”

Close though.

Cosette didn’t want to think of the fact that her birthday was steadily approaching.

Another year spent in Prythian. Whoo…!

“Fine. Once upon a time there was a stupid sailor who brought onto the ship a thing that looked like a cat but that turned out to be a memory stealing piece of vermin that hunts whatever it can smell.”

“That’s a bad story.”

“Well it’s the one we’re living in right now.”

A pair of soft footsteps passed by them.

“Will the ship be okay without everyone monitoring it?”

“It’ll be fine mostly. They have a few people on look out in case something goes wrong.”

“When Solene killed the glawackus its eyes were pierced, any particular reason?”

“The eyes remain deadly post death, you have to destroy them to properly disarm it.”

Footsteps passed by again.

“Why are they walking around then? Wouldn’t it make more sense to stay at their designated posts?” Cosette was confused.

The soft footsteps stopped before their box and the little dot of light cast by the air hole disappeared.

Cosette tensed up.

Now that she thought of it, those footsteps hadn’t sounded like that of boots on wood.

A small meowl sounded from the outside and a fluffy tail was stuck through the hole.

Cosette almost yelped as it tickled her but Linus covered her mouth, pulling her close to him.

“Close your eyes.” he mouthed.

She shut them closed, gripping onto Linus’s arms. His heartbeat was racing just as fast as hers.

There was now scratching at the box. Like chalk on a board it persisted and gnawed at the wood until a crack resounded and a satisfied meowl was followed by purring.

Linus’s grip on her tightened, pulling Cosette closer as something soft brushed against their side.

Cosette cried as the ‘cat’ dug its claws into her dress, piercing the layers and reaching her skin. A soft tail brushed away her tears, followed by another meowl. Soft fluff butted against her cheek, brushing against Linus for good measure.

A small wet nose prodded at them, sniffing.

Cosette tensed as the creature brushed against her again but this time Linus hissed.

How did they even manage to get here? 

She squirmed as the glawackus dug its claws into her, an annoyed yowl escaping it.

Why wasn’t it attacking properly? This just seemed like unnecessary acti-

Cosette cried out as the glawackus slashed at her arm.

I spoke too soon.

She yelped again as she was kicked.

“Sorry.” Linus grunted, kicking again, “I was hoping it would get bored but clearly that was hopeful thinking.”

“It’s fine…” Cosette did her best to move closer to him again, rubbing the place where she got kicked. Feeling with her fingers she could tell that the gash left by the creature was fairly large but not deep enough to cause concern.

The glawackus growled as Linus managed to land a hit, sending it flying against the other side of the medium sized crate. Putting some distance between them and the creature he pulled Cosette closer again, his body slightly shielding her.

“Should we start yelling for help?” she whispered. Cosette could hear the soft pitter patter of the creature’s footsteps as it approached once more.

“And draw in his other pals that clearly managed to make it onto the deck? You want to fight a horde of these while blind?”

The glawackus went quiet.

“Linus?”

Linus shrieked.

“Linus!” Cosette grabbed at the man, flailing her arms in random directions to try and shove the creature off. She managed to punch it off and Linus quickly squirmed away from it, pulling Cosette along with him as they shoved themselves into a corner once more.

The glawackus growled, its soft tail swishing as it drew closer until it stopped. Cosette and Linus also stopped, listening as a strange thrashing, growling sounded from the deck of the ship. 

The three individuals currently sitting in the cargo crate felt their blood run cold as the sound began drawing closer. It was when a different glawackus screeched and a bone snapped that the creature beside them quickly tried to run.

However, it was too late as something large, wet and furry burst into the crate. As Cosette felt the walls of the container fall apart, she and Linus were pushed away by the new wet creature’s tail as the glawackus screeched and yowled in pain.

Cosette threw a punch when something grabbed her.

“Ow!”

“Sorry!” she covered her mouth, not intending to hit Linus.

He didn’t entertain a response, instead just pulling her closer and using his hand to feel the deck’s floorboards and surroundings to move away from the fight.

Neither had opened their eyes but they could hear other cargo boxes getting smashed or opened as the crew had realized what was happening and began pulling out the hidden faeries from their spots. 

Screeches from the glawackus filled the air as something else audibly chomped down on them.

Linus and Cosette startled when a hand gently tugged on their arms, signaling they could stand.

“You can open your eyes.” Amelio’s voice said.

Cosette blinked a couple times, staring at the scene before her as white long fluffy creatures with small legs and arms, wriggled across the deck, leaving water everywhere as they extended their large mouths to reveal mouths full of teeth before throwing their body weight at the glawackuses which hissed and scratched at them. It almost seemed unnatural for them to be hunting on land.

Cosette looked away so that she didn’t stare into glawackus’s eyes when she realized,“Wait a minute…is that…”

“Yeah.” Linus nodded, his hand gripping at his side where the glawackus had bit him, “Snow wassets.”

Solene, Amelio and the rest of their crew had returned to the deck, a couple of them carrying corpses of the glawackus, throwing them to the snow wassets which quickly devoured them. 

The larger of these furry long tailed worm-like critters practically squashed the glawackuses under their weight before gulping them down whole. Their battle was not without losses as a couple snow wassets lay on the deck confused.

Seems even magical creatures could get their memories wiped too.

That however didn’t stop the snow wasset’s appetite as the creatures began wriggling once more, and moving their short arms and legs to try and chomp another passing by glawackus.

The crew merely stood in silence at the massacre, not daring to intervene. As the last cat-like creature got swallowed the faeries around Cosette tensed, expecting the snow wassets to attack them next, but instead they just wriggled their way back into the ocean. Dropping into the water with satisfying, clean splashes. 

The critters that seemed to get their memories wiped tried to approach the crew who quickly began nudging it away with some shields, moving it back to the edge of the deck. The rest slithered after their counterparts.

Amelio walked over to the deck

“Cosette, Linus, come look.”

The two walked over to the edge staring down at whatever fascinated Amelio.

Cosette gasped, eyes full of wonder.

In the water she saw countless white spots moving up North to the Night Court. The water made the white fur of the snow wassets sparkle, creating shimmering ripples in the waves. The massive group moved quickly, with some jumping out of the water, others chasing each other and twisting in various patterns. A few of the smaller snow wassets, that looked like otters rather than giant icy sea creatures, bobbed their heads out and stared up at them on the ship before diving back underwater and rejoining their friends.

“I have never seen so many in one spot.” Linus stared in wonder.

“They must be moving to a colder area from Dawn and Day.” Amelio noted, “They’re not usually together in such large groups. Migration season is one of the few times you could ever get to see something like this.”

The crew watched as the snow wassets disappeared.

Linus winced, his hand covered in blood as he tried to take a look at his injury. Amelio only needed once glance for his expression to harden and drag the younger faerie over to a sitting area on the deck. Cosette almost couldn’t believe seeing the casual Amelio so concerned.

“Stay still.” Solene began cleaning Linus’s wound, not minding how the blood stained her beautiful wintery dress. 

Linus hissed in pain.

Solene frowned, “Amelio call for the healer, it’s not just a simple gash.”

Amelio disappeared without another word.

If he hadn’t covered me with his body then, it would be me with a chunk of my side chewed off.

Cosette shivered, looking away from the wound.

Linus yelped as Solene dug the sanitizing wipe deeper into his body. She didn’t scold him for squirming, simply holding him in place while she worked.

Cosette sat down across from them, deciding to try and distract Linus from the pain, “From your explanation I thought the snow wasset was a creature native to the Winter Court.”

“It is.”

“Then how come it’s out here.”

“I told you, they migrate. Although they’re native to our lands they move around depending on their relations with the land. They say that some left our court because fisher faeries began excessively killing them off in some regions and forests to sell their pelts.” he said through gritted teeth.

The healer approached the group, taking over Solene’s attempts at treating a squirming Linus, “I have checked in with the sailor who has lost his memory. I am afraid there’s not much I can do to help him.”

Amelio nodded solemnly, “I will speak with his family once we return. Is there any hope of him regaining his memories with treatment?”

“Unfortunately no. The glawackus don’t induce temporary amnesia or merely stun their opponent. They feed on their thoughts, their memories. It’s all gone now. ”

“How do they feed on it?” Cosette asked, “Like do they store the memories or do they digest them somewhere?”

“We don’t know.” the healer shook her head, beginning to bandage up Linus, “Faeries have just tracked that the creatures can’t survive without stealing memories.”

Cosette hummed.

You could maybe find out more if you knew about proper surgeries. Cut open the creature’s head and see how it all works inside. Although, that wouldn’t answer all your questions. We’ve been cutting humans open for how long and there’s still stuff we can’t explain about the human body, not to mention the brain.

“We were lucky.” the captain approached the group, “Despite the fact that most operations of the boat stopped due to the glawackus outbreak the wind blew strongly enough, and in the right direction that we kept moving towards the border and have now entered Dawn Court’s waters.”

“Lucky indeed.” Amelio exhaled, leaning back on the couch, “Next time, we’re requiring everyone to get their souvenirs checked before they bring them on board. ”

“Well, you know what that means.” the healer stood up, giving Cosette a small smile.

“I can finally sleep?”

“Don’t get too excited, if the hex is still effective I will have to shake you awake.”

Cosette practically ran to her cabin, just happy to finally be able to have a small minute of proper rest. The healer bandaged up her gashes and scratches left by the glawackus. Cosette snuggled up in the bed immediately once she finished, however one question didn’t permit her to rest.

“How did the creatures make it onto the deck all the way from the lower cabins?”

“Ah,” the healer looked up from the book she had begun reading, “Through the ventilation systems and cracks of the ship. They’re surprisingly…squishable. Though, I suppose that’s expected of feline species.”

Despite her newfound fear that something would crawl from one of the tiny corners of her room Cosette was hit by the exhaustion of the past 24 something hours and she passed out without a second thought.

Fortunately, no one woke Cosette up and she got to catch up on her sleep. Unfortunately, or fortunately, they didn’t encounter any more beautiful sea critters but the history texts were enough to keep Cosette company.

In under a week they had managed to make it home and her bruising had improved significantly. She had been shocked at the travel speed of the Winter Court’s boat with how strong the winds were blowing against them, but when she took into account the water magic being used to help the ship move forth on the waves, she assumed it was plausible.

Amelio had even claimed that Summer Court’s ships were the fastest due to their Spirit’s specialization in water.

The wind today was cold, almost colder than usual as their ship was preparing to boat. Amelio, in a slight frenzy to make sure everything was in order, was rushing between cabins and ship levels, checking in with various faeries. 

She was pretty certain that the phrase ‘behind schedule’ was exclaimed on multiple occasions so Cosette didn’t get in the way and simply hung out in the sitting area of the deck, bundled up in her cloak.

“Preparing to enter port!” someone yelled and Cosette stood up, walking over to the edge of the deck, watching as the ship was carefully but confidently navigated in between cliff sides and jagged rocks. 

She looked up at the sky. A single eagle flew with ease through the environment they were navigating through, perching on one of the very tall rocks, staring down at them with interest.

The waves crashed against the lower parts of the port sending sprays of water everywhere. That didn’t stop the sailors from safely docking the ship, with the workers on land raising a bridge for the main deck and several of the lower levels, where the cargo boxes were located.

“Clear!” a different sailor yelled.

Amelio was about to rush past Cosette again when he did a double take and gave her a smile, “Cosette! Hi!”

“Hi.” she smiled back.

“Since we have docked you’re welcome to head home before us.”

“Are you sure you don’t need help with anything?”

“No, we’ve got it covered. Besides, I am sure your friends would love to hear about your project’s progress and adventures.”

“Thank you again for bringing me with you.”

“Of course, it was a pleasure. I just hope it was helpful.” he gave her his iconic smile before rushing away once more.

I hope so too.

Cosette waved goodbye, collecting all her bags, stopping by Linus’s room before she left.

“Hey, I am heading out.”

“Okay? Why are you telling me that?”

The man had been put on bedrest by Solene and Amelio for an undisclosed amount of time, but it was most likely indefinite since the man had been pissy ever since.

“Just wanted to let you know.”

“Okay, great. I am in the know, now go, I am reading.”

“Thank you for protecting me against the glawackus.”

“It was nothing.” he shrugged her off.

“No, it was definitely something.”

“Any proper, educated faerie would do the same.”

I think you underestimate sentient beings’ capacity for self sacrifice and protective instincts.

“If you say so.” she conceded, “Nonetheless, I appreciate it.”

He grumbled as she headed out, “I’ll see you around.”

“Oh? I thought you’d be happy to be rid of me considering how ‘stupid’ I am according to you.” she rolled her eyes.

He narrowed his eyes, “Trust me I am overjoyed to see you leave but I find your antics amusing. Besides, what if they land you in trouble and you need help? It’s only right that I as the mature one, offer my assistance.”

“Right…right..” she laughed.

Cosette happily waved goodbye to the rest of the crew, thanking the captain for getting them home safely. She sighed with relief when her feet touched the Winter Court ground.

Finally back.

She breathed out a puff of air, watching it disappear in the wind.

“Miss Cosette?” an armored guard with the crest of Winter Court on his chest approached her.

“Hello? Can I help you?”

“We’re under orders to escort you to the palace. Please follow us.”

Glawackus reference

Snow wasset reference 1

Snow wasset reference 2

Back: Chapter 33 - Dangerous Dreams

Masterlist

Tag list: @rcarbo1

If you want to be added to a tag list let me know :D

[cainluvr69]

Surely, We Can Make Miracles Chapter 16

Previous Chapter

Shino: Heath. Has Vespa told you anything?

Heath: Yeah. I think I…sort of have an idea of what happened at the bottom of the sea now. Vespa, this is the dragon, right?

Vespa: …! …!

Heath: And these are the mermaids… And this is Balthazar, the tyrant that trapped the mermaids?

Vespa: …! …!

Shino: I get it. So this Balthazar guy locked up half of the mermaids. The sea dragon was originally your friend, but when Balthazar showed up, he allied himself with that guy instead.

Vespa: …! …!

Shino: (So we gotta exterminate a Northern wizard and a dragon. Time for me to make a name for myself. I can't wait to get out there.) (…is what I'd like to say, but our teacher isn't acting like himself, and none of the Northern wizards are around.) (Which means our firepower amounts to me, Arthur, and Nero…and Cain, I guess?) (If things don't go well, I've got a feeling the battle is going to end up hinging on me…) (I'll go to the wizards' market in a bit to make sure I've got everything in order first… What will we need to take on the ocean?) (Lennox… His magic is weak, but he's still strong. He's probably fine, but…) (There's also Shylock and the twins to think about…)

Heathcliff: Is there a particular reason you only drew Balthazar's face and nothing else about him?

Shino: Isn't she just slacking off? I'll draw the body.

Vespa: …! …!

Shino: Ow, hey! What are you getting mad about? I'm not just gonna scribble something.

Faust: Has Vespa told you what happened?

Heathcliff: Mr. Faust! Yes, I've got all the important parts.

Faust: Good. Summarize the highlights for me. We're going to go consult with Figaro.

Heathcliff: Alright. Shino, Vespa, I'm going to be leaving for a bit.

Shino: Gotcha.

Vespa: …

Shino: …Hey. You've been staring at Heath this whole time.

Vespa: …

Shino: You can't do that.

Vespa: …?

Shino: Heath's nice, and he's beautiful. I completely understand falling for him… But he's the son of a big-name noble. One day, he's gonna be the lord of a castle even bigger than this one. Weirdos like us can't be traipsing along after him.

Vespa: …

Shino: … …Yeah, I didn't think you were gonna say anything. It's fine if you like Heath. I'll be cheering for you.

Vespa: …! …!

Shino: Now what are you drawing. This is…me?

Vespa: …!

Shino: And this is you?

Vespa: …!

Shino: And this is… Ahaha. What's this supposed to say? Both you…and I… Aren't weird…

Vespa: …!

Shino: Both you and I…and Heath… Are you trying to say he doesn't think we are, either…?

Vespa: …! …!

Shino: …You're right, Vespa. Thank you…

✦✧☾✧✦

Nero: The people in the castle are all in a tizzy, too…

Borda Castle Servant: Princess… I mean, my lord! The island residents are approaching the castle. The area around the gate is in chaos. Are we to receive them or turn them away?

Dianne: I know! Give me some time!

Borda Castle Servant: You said that earlier as well… Lady Dianne…! …Ahh…

Nero: What's up? She's the current lord of the castle, ain't she?

Borda Castle Servant: Th…this is, well… You see, Lord Sage's Wizard, the Merchants' Guild and the island residents are frightened by the ongoing incidents, and have come to call upon the castle for aid… They are awaiting the lord's answer, but she has yet to decide what to do…

Nero: …The residents are worried, too. Make 'em wait too long and that worry is gonna turn into panic.

Borda Castle Servant: As you say, sir… Perhaps the role of lord is too much for the princess who used to be called cry-baby Dianne…

Nero: Cry-baby Dianne?

Borda Castle Servant: My apologies. There's no need for me to be regaling our guests with stories like this. Sigh…

Claudia: I'm sorry she's causing you so much trouble. I'll speak with Dianne.

Nero: Good plan. Ask her about these mysterious disappearances, too.

✦✧☾✧✦

Faust: Figaro.

Figaro: Faust…

Faust: We know the person controlling Lennox's body. The Northern wizard, Balthazar. It's probable that he appeared in the waters here around the same time as <the Great Calamity> started drawing closer. He's taken over the mermaid society here and kidnapped residents of the island. He's using a sea dragon for his purposes, too. It seems like he's also got an unhappy past with Shylock, and… Figaro?

Figaro: …Yeah, I'm listening.

Faust: You are aware that he's taken over Lennox, right? Your friend. I plan on heading to the bottom of the ocean. I have no illusions about being able to defeat a dragon, but I'm not just going to let Leno's head get taken.

Figaro: Yeah, true…

Faust: …"Yeah, true"?

Figaro: Ah, no! I'm really listening to what you're saying. I'm just thinking about things…

Faust: … …No, I'm sorry. I know that what's happened to Snow is weighing on you, too.

Figaro: Faust… I'm sure you're just as upset about your dear servant being taken.

Faust: Of course I am. I plan on tearing the culprit limb from limb. Not that Lennox is my servant anymore… But there's still no one with as pure a soul as his. Aren't you angry about what's being done to him?

Figaro: …

Faust: Figaro?

Figaro: Well…

Faust: Lord Figaro.

Figaro: Yes.

Faust: Look me in the eyes.

Figaro: Okay…

Faust: Why aren't you looking at me? What aren't you telling me?

Figaro: …

Faust: (…He always possessed such a sense of dignity in the past, but now, it's possible for him to look this weak…) (I wonder if I just never noticed before.)

Figaro: …It's my fault.

Faust: Your fault…?

Figaro: Well, it's my and Oz's fault. We stole Balthazar's territory and drove him West. That was when he turned into a thorn in Shylock's side. And now, he's causing problems for Lennox…

Faust: …

Figaro: I'm sorry he got wrapped up in all of this.

Faust: Then you do know Balthazar. Like what kinds of magic he can use?

Figaro: Only what he used centuries ago.

Faust: Then tell me. You can't leave Snow's side until morning, right?

Figaro: Hold on… This is a Northern wizard we're talking about. One that's got a dragon in tow. Are you planning on fighting a dragon?

Faust: Lennox and Shylock are in danger. I'd be happier if we had the Northern wizards backing us up on this, but…

Figaro: …What to do… This is because I crossed the line with Mithra…

Faust: Crossed the line? About what?

Figaro: …

Faust: …Why aren't you saying anything? Why didn't you immediately tell us everything you know about Balthazar? Do you not want to save Leno? Is there more you're keeping quiet about?

Figaro: I do want to help him! It's just… I've been…running away from something I should've been facing. From who I used to be.

Faust: … I'm still running. Thank you for speaking with me.

Figaro: …You're not going to keep yelling at me?

Faust: The Northern way of living is different from my own. As someone who's never lived that prideful way of life, I have no place to blame you for how you lived. But…

Figaro: But?

Faust: I also spoke with Rutile and Mitile. They're beside themselves over Lennox. If you're going to apologize to anyone, apologize to them.

Figaro: You're right…

Faust: I will bring back Lennox… I'll bring back your friend. No matter what methods I have to use to do so.

Figaro: Faust, wait. If you're planning on going alone, I'm going to stop you. You need to cool down and go with the others.

Faust: …I'm perfectly calm.

Figaro: You absolutely are not. Ever since we reunited you've been willing to mouth off and tell me you'll kill me or curse me…

Faust: I… I'm deeply sorry about that.

Figaro: But you really meant it when you said you want to rip him apart. The blood's rushed to your head.

Faust: …

Figaro: Lennox isn't only yours anymore. He's everyone's comrade. Everyone wants to save him, no matter how dangerous it is. Rely on your comrades and students. I'll talk to Mitile and Rutile, too. I'll tell them I'm sorry for being why all of this is happening. And I'll ask them to help me, too.

Faust: … …Alright. Thank you for the advice.

Figaro: I'm the one who should be thanking you. Faust… I don't have a very good impression of the ocean. Be sure to keep your guard up.

Faust: I will. But, Lord Figaro. Have you ever looked at the ocean after a storm has passed? The moonlight makes a path on the water. I'm sure that path will guide us to victory.

✦✧☾✧✦

Riquet: What's wrong, Oz? Why are you gathering the Central wizards? Do you have a plan for rescuing Shylock and Lennox?

Oz: … I have something I wish to tell you all.

Arthur: …

Oz: There was once a Northern wizard who held quarrel with me, named Balthazar. I had thought I had turned him to stone, but I failed to finish the job. Balthazar has used Lennox's body to spirit Shylock away, to the ocean floor. I have heard there are a dragon and many mermaids also under Balthazar's command. I should have been able to bring this to an end by my own hand. But as it stands, I presently cannot use magic.

Cain: Even with the Sage around?

Oz: …The Sage called the dragon their friend.

Riquet: The one that was flying in the sky? So it really wasn't a bad dragon after all.

Arthur: A bad dragon?

Riquet: The townspeople were afraid that the dragon was going to attack the island. But if it's a friend of Master Sage, then it's a good dragon, yes?

Oz: This is not a matter of good or evil. The dragon very nearly killed Snow. Snow and White killed the dragon's brother.

Riquet: …Oh, no…

Oz: But the Sage called the dragon their friend. I will not force them to harm their friend.

Arthur: Lord Oz…

Oz: You also called the rabbits I caught for your dinner your friends, and wept for them…

Arthur: I didn't think you'd want to talk about…the past, Lord Oz…

Oz: …I never said I wanted to. There are many things that I wish I could forget, or that I had never known in the first place. However… I cannot feign ignorance if all of you are to be caught up in it. Arthur, Cain, Riquet. I am sorry for involving you.

Arthur: Lord Oz…

Oz: Arthur, Cain. I intend to free Lennox and Shylock from Balthazar's control. Will you aid me in this?

Arthur: Yes!

Cain: Of course. Let's all work hard together! Oz… I never imagined that you of all people would ask us to help you. It's an honor. Thank you.

Oz: You are a person I can rely on. Riquet. You will stay here, in the castle.

Riquet: But…

Oz: Figaro and Snow will be remaining here. I believe Mitile will do the same. Are you aware of the events that have been occurring on Borda Island?

Riquet: Yes… A pillar of fire rose up from the edge of a mountain at the southernmost part of the island. Mitile, Rutile, and I all saw it. The townspeople were trembling with fear.

Oz: It is possible that Borda Island will become a target while we are at the bottom of the sea. As Figaro needs to continue Snow's treatment, he alone remaining behind will not be enough.

Riquet: …I understand. So we need to protect the townspeople if anything happens, right?

Oz: Will you?

Riquet: Yes.

Oz: Ordinarily, I would not be asking such a thing of a wizard as young as you. But I have faith in you. Are you nervous, Riquet?

Riquet: A bit… But it's fine. I will help you. Thank you for talking properly with us. If you are willing to speak so openly and need my strength… Then I will always, always give it to you. If you can say "I'm sorry" and "thank you" properly… Then I will accomplish any task you place before me, no matter how difficult.

Oz: Riquet…

Riquet: After all, that's what I'm here for.

Oz: …I'm sorry.

Riquet: You're supposed to say "thank you" here. Come on, say it.

Oz: Thank you.

Riquet: Ehehe. Prince Arthur, Cain, please do your very best and save Lennox and Shylock. I'll be cheering you on from here!

Arthur: Yeah!

Cain: Just leave it to us!

✦✧☾✧✦

Mitile: …Leno was captured by an evil wizard…?

Figaro: Yes… His body has been taken over. Shylock was spirited away by the same person, and we don't know where he is right now.

Rutile: Oh no… How could this happen to him…

Figaro: I kind of…well, some stuff went on between me and the wizard in question back in the day. He hates me for it. And Leno and Shylock got caught up in all of this because of it, too.

Mitile: How could anyone hate you, Dr. Figaro… He must be a really terrible wizard. You only do good things, Dr. Figaro, unlike those Northern wizards. Even if your jokes go a little too far sometimes…

Figaro: Yeah… …No… I was in the wrong this time. I'm pretty sure I was. It's no wonder he hates me, really.

Mitile: Really…?

Figaro: Yeah…

Mitile: …

Rutile: …Is it not possible to apologize and try to make up with him? A relationship crumbling because of arguments is always a tragedy, so if it's possible…

Figaro: Yeah… I feel like it might just piss him off even more, but the next time I see him, I'll try to apologize…

Rutile: …I'm sorry. I don't even know the details of what happened between the two of you, and yet I still tried to butt in…

Figaro: It's fine. Thank you for trying to come up with a solution instead of getting mad at me. Mitile, I want you to stay here. Rutile, do you think you could go with the Eastern wizards? I think Faust is going to be looking for Leno. I'd like for you to help him out.

Rutile: Of course. I'll do my best to make sure we get Leno back safe and sound.

Figaro: Thanks. …I'm sorry. I'm causing problems not only for Lennox, but for you two, too.

Mitile: No… It's fine.

Figaro: Mitile…

Mitile: It's like, how can I put it… You've never really let us do much for you…

Rutile: Now that you mention it…

Mitile: So getting to actually do something for you is making me a little happy.

Figaro: …

Mitile: If I meet this wizard, I'll be sure to tell him all about all your good parts, Dr. Figaro. Maybe he'll get angry about it, but… I want to tell him about how kind you are, about how many patients you've saved… That's how I feel, at least.

Figaro: …Mitile… …Goodness, really… Really, why did I do those things before we ever met…

✦✧☾✧✦

Rustica: Murr.

Murr: Rustica, Chloe.

Chloe: Are you still mad?

Murr: Huh? Me, mad? Was I angry?

Rustica: Yes, you were. In fact, I was quite startled to see you angry, Murr. And so I fell for you even more.

Murr: Ahaha! I love the two of you, too.

Chloe: I love all of you, too! I don't know if we can beat that Northern wizard and a dragon, but we're still always going to be Western wizards. That's what Shylock taught me. Passion is what's most important for Western wizards. And my heart has been repeating something to me, over and over, as passionately as it can. "There's no way we're letting Shylock get taken like that." So, we've just gotta go and get him. I'm scared… And I might try to run away, but…

Rustica: That's just fine.

Chloe: Yeah…! I believe in everyone.

Rustica: If you've got that settled, then it's time for us to talk strategy with Master Sage.

✦✧☾✧✦

Heathcliff: How did the strategy meeting go, Mr. Faust?

Faust: We're going to save Lennox and Shylock. We're also going to look for the cintamani stone of medicine to neutralize the poison in Snow. The stone in question was given to Melissa, the Western witch who wanted to find the end of the ocean, though…

Shino: Hey, Heath, isn't that…

Heathcliff: Yeah, it's pretty similar to what Vespa told us, I think…

Nero: What d'ya mean? Lemme see what she drew.

Heathcliff: Here… I'm pretty sure this is a drawing of a sunken ship… Balthazar is making the mermaids search for somewhere similar to this drawing.

Shino: Isn't that backwards? One of the mermaids must have found this place, and Balthazar wants to know where it is, too.

Faust: Which means their side is also looking for the cintamani stone…?

Nero: Hey, miss mermaid. Do you know where this is?

Vespa: …! …!

Heathcliff: Her right hand!

Faust: You know where it is?!

Shino: I wonder. She seems so confident that maybe she doesn't. Earlier she said she could draw a crab, but it didn't look like one at all… Ow, hey, don't bite me!

Heathcliff: (She reminds me so much of Shino…)

Nero: (She's super Shino-like…)

Faust: (How very Shino of her…) Can you lead us to this location?

Vespa: …? …!

Shino: She's tilting her head while raising her hand.

Faust: Nero does the same thing when he's making a guess during lessons.

Nero: Then you really don't know where it is?

Heathcliff: What she does know will make our search a lot easier than trying to comb the entire sea when we don't have any landmarks to guide us. Can you lead us anyways, Vespa?

Vespa: …! …!

Heathcliff: Thank you.

Faust: Nero, what's the status update on Claudia and Dianne?

Nero: Well, I wanted to talk to Dianne, but she shut herself up in her office.

Faust: I see…

Nero: As for Claudia, she's helpin' out with whatever she can. She says it's 'cause she's Dianne's aunt.

Faust: Nero. Do you think you could stay in the castle, too?

Nero: With Riquet and Mitile?

Faust: Yeah. To be honest, losing you as part of our firepower will hurt, but… According to Rutile, things are pretty on edge on the island. There's also the chance that Balthazar might attack the island. Snow and Figaro will both still be on the island, but they're not going to be able to do anything if something happens.

Nero: … Sure. I getcha. I have stuff I wanna ask Claudia anyways.

Faust: Thank you. Look after Riquet and Mitile.

Nero: Yeah.

Heathcliff: …I'd feel a lot better if we had the Northern wizards here too, given the state of things…

Shino: They're so impulsive. I heard they got in an argument…

Nero: … No… They'll come. They know when they're needed.

✦✧☾✧✦

Mithra: …

✦✧☾✧✦

Owen: …

✦✧☾✧✦

Bradley: …

Next Chapter

[wesslan]

20 questions for writers

thank you @adelfie for the tag<3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

18! (and one hidden). i did not think it was that many??? thought it was 10 tops, lol

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

272,860

3. What fandoms do you write for?

batman, used to write some dsmp, but now im kinda eeh about it. i also (for some godforsaken reason) have a harry potter WIP thats been sitting in my docs for like two years that i kinda wanna finish, kinda not (jk r*wling suck my dick challenge)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

cards on the table

when in gotham: don’t drink the water

robin radio

o bury me not on the lone prairie

and their dreams they dreamed awake

5. Do you respond to comments?

i try!!!! the number overwhelms me sometimes, but i try to answer when i have the energy! :,)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

oh god, i mean… i pretty much only write happy/hopeful endings🤠 mayyyybe ‘you have (1) new message’? its not all the way angsty but it’s kind of?? angsty??

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

gee whizz buddy see above and take your pick, really

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i have gotten one (1) hate comment and i treasured it dearly until the person that posted it deleted it😭 other than that, nawt really. some people give unsolicited advice/critique, but thats about it

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

nope. not really my thing

10. Do you write crossovers?

again, not really my thing.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of! sure hope it stays that way

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yesss!!! so cool! they asked permission, and now my fic exists in a whole other language!!!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, and i think i’d be really awful at it. i cant say no to stuff, i cant keep deadlines, and i dont enjoy people being in the kitchen when i cook, so to speak

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

BAYBEY!! you KNOW i was a klance shipper first and a human second when i was like? 14? now tho? i’m shipping myself with sixteen hours of sleep and financial freedom. but also, deep in my heart,,,, charlie and carlisle from twilight. you could have been so beautiful.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

man at this point, who knows what i’ll finish. maybe instant repeater ‘99. i LOVE the concept and the world building. but also i kinda left the fandom,,,

16. What are your writing strengths?

people (including my interactive storytelling teacher) have told me im good at writing distinct characters/realistic dialogue! so i guess that! :,D

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

CONSISTENCY. finishing things. ending up hating what i’ve written like 3 months after it’s done.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

well,,, that’s what i always do. english is another language to me! cop out answer, lmao. but other than that, i guess i could be persuaded to write a few lines in spanish here and there. did study it for 7 years, after all.

overall, i thinks it pretty cool! as long as there is an ez translation somewhere, easy to understand without a translation, or if it’s not done in a way that bi/multilinguals absolutely would not speak B)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

oh god. percy jackson. it’s still out there somewhere. i forgot my username and password so i’ll prolly never find it (thank god) but yeah. it was solangelo bc i was closeted and emo.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

probably ‘mothman is real and he wants to kill me’. i had a lot of fun with it! i also really like ‘*cocks gun* manor’s haunted’ just because i based it off of the haunting of hill house which is like, one of the best books ever.

that was fun!!! thanks again for the tag! <3 i’m tagging whoever wants to do this, and also (no pressure) @quotidian-oblivion

puss å kram, skumbanan!!❤️

[teatitty]

Hold on I have meta I want to do about Aizawa's choice of alcoholic beverage when he's with Hizashi [gin tonic] versus when he's meeting with Yagi [strong beer] and how that correlates to his comfort levels

So let's just give some background first and compare this to Hizashi: in the Drama CD, Aizawa meets up with Hizashi in a private room believing this to be a "just the two of us" situation and, after asking Hizashi what he's drinking [a strong beer], he orders them both food and drink. He gets Hizashi another beer but orders himself a gin tonic and gin tonics are drinks that you can make as heavy or light as you wish, depending how much gin you put in in relation to the tonic water

Unfortunately we're not told how strong he takes this drink, but we can assume he had it fairly light considering the scene I'm about to get into and the fact that this was just a simple out of work meetup [it was actually a ploy to get to him to talk to All Might more but we're not here for that]

In his second drinking scene, however, we have to go to the light novel,s wherein Aizawa is the one to plan the outing. We know he's drinking strong beer throughout the night here because of the official illustration in that chapter, and we also know he and Yagi haven't been sat together for very long before Hizashi calls Aizawa's phone, finds out where they are, and joins them - at which point Yagi infamously points out that Aizawa immediately relaxes upon seeing his husband friend

We also know from this LN that not only was Aizawa quite drunk from the start of that scene, thanks to Hizashi's private talk with Yagi in the bathrooms, but that Hizashi seemingly has the highest alcoholic tolerance of the teacher faculty, since he not only survived one of Nemuri's deadly cocktails [it only took him out for about a minute at most and in the Drama CD there's implications he didn't actually pass out drunk but was simply feigning sleep] but he's also been drinking beer with everyone else and yet is still sober enough to have a fully coherent convo with Yagi in which he tells him about everyone else's drinking habits

So we know from these two scenes that Hizashi likes to drink strong beer, but is known to drink other beverages since Aizawa asks him in the CD about his drink of choice before ordering for him. What these scenes also tell us, however, is this: Aizawa's preferred drink is a gin tonic. He only touches beer when he's meeting with All Might privately, and since we can assume he showed up first, we can also assume he was drinking prior to Yagi's arrival, and given that Hizashi tells us he was already drunk during that first threeway conversation they have, it's easy to guess that he was drinking beer specifically to get himself drunk enough to make it through what he wanted to say to Yagi

Compare this to when he ordered himself the gin tonic [and a shitton of food] when he was in a much more relaxed setting with only himself and Hizashi, and the little meta I'm getting at becomes really simple! Aizawa's drink of choice when he's relaxed and with friends is a gin tonic, because you can control the strength of the drink to be as weak as you desire, but when he's dealing with what is - to him - an unpleasant social interaction, he chooses strong beer to give himself drunk courage so he doesn't just up and rudely leave [which he tried to do in the CD before Hizashi stopped him lol]

Which to me is just a really cute character trait and hella fucking relatable. I, too, would prefer to get drunk when dealing with unpleasant social interactions than go through the whole thing sober if I could

[spinningwebsandtales]

Imagine Being A Time Traveler And Meeting Nicholas

Nicholas D Wolfwood X FemReader

Rating: T

Warnings: Mentions of near death and weapons

Word Count: 843

Requested by @ceylon-morphe286​

(A/N:) Sorry it took me a little while to get this finished. I wanted to sit down and write several times last week but alas life once again got in my way. Thank you for your patience and I am so pleased with finally getting this posted for you! Thank you so much again for your request I had a lot of fun writing this, it was something that made me think and try my best with! I hope you enjoy it! Until next time happy reading! ~Countess

As a traveler of time and universes, you had visited many places and many different times and you could honestly say you enjoyed every single one. But now this place that you found yourself called Noman’s Land was the worst place you decided. As it was most likely going to be your doom as the sun beat down upon your exhausted form. You had no water nor food and it was taking it’s toll on your body. The desert seemed to trail on forever and you just knew that you were not going to make it much further at all. You were beginning to give up, resolved to just rest and become worm food when you saw a shadow on the horizon. You chalked it up to a desert formed illusion. The shape of a man with a large cross in tow just had to be a cruel trick of your near impending death.

Nicholas D. Wolfwood couldn’t understand what brought him this way. He had been heading to the next town over when he had gotten turned around. It made him frustrated as it wasn’t like him to get turned around unless he meant to be. When he spotted a figure sprawled out in the sand, he couldn’t help to think that it was fate that brought him this way. You could barely speak once he got to your side but when he shared some of his water and gave you a little food, you perked up a little bit. He seemed to be skeptical as you explained how you got there and your powers. Until he started to think about how he was virtually unkillable and lugging around a machine gun no ordinary man should even be able to drag, so he just shrugged and continued to listen. Once you finished he helped you up.

“It’s a little hard to believe,” he said. “But who I am I to judge? You’re not going to make it on your own until your powers return.”

“If,” you interrupted. “I really don’t want to be stuck here but I can’t help but realistic either.”

“Guess it’s up to me to teach you the ropes. C’mon we need to get you somewhere safe before your worm chow.”

“Worms,” you shivered at the thought.

Nicholas grunted in acknowledgement, grinning wickedly as he knew he was going to have fun teasing you as well.

It didn’t take you long to realize after you met Nicholas D. Wolfwood that he was a man you didn’t cross and he was also a snot. He teased you constantly as you floundered, trying to find your place in this unknown world and how little you understood about survival. All you could was glare as you didn’t want him leaving you alone. Though it pained you to admit, you’d be dead ten times over if he hadn’t stepped in and rescued you. If it wasn’t creatures, it was people. If it wasn’t people, it was plants. You honestly felt like you couldn’t win for losing. You missed home greatly and Nicholas always listened closely as you told him of your home. He seemed amazed at first, but you could tell that even he had grown skeptical at whether you were telling the truth. But if he didn’t want to believe that’s okay. If he had been in your shoes in your timeline, you most likely wouldn’t believe him either as this whole place was just utter chaos with a side of insanity. You questioned your sanity a little bit, though you were glad that you met this weirdo of a Punisher. He had become your saving grace many times over, you just hoped that he thought the same of you. He was a great teacher as he showed you the ropes and taught you to defend yourself. 

You found that the weeks you had been here had passed by quickly and you were growing wiser in the ways of treading across Noman’s Land. You found your own food, your sense of direction and finding places improved, and bandits found themselves at your mercy now. Nicholas could sit back and watch in pride as his new creation flourished in the harsh environment. When he thought about you leaving, he did grow sad. He enjoyed your company and it made his travels a little less lonely, and he begrudgingly admitted, safer. You grinned up at your mentor now friend, grinning widely as your skills grew better and better. Part of you hoped that you never returned home, though you couldn’t deny the homesickness deep inside. But if you could remain here with Nicholas, it didn’t seem so bad as you had grown attached. You hoped that maybe he had grown a little attached to you to. The little voice in your head finally spoke up and you knew that he did. It made you feel giddy that he cared enough to protect you, but it meant more that he taught you and made you a part of his world. Maybe Noman’s Land wasn’t so bad after all.