#The wi-fi in my apartment was down most of the day so I decided to listen to some of the Big Finish audios I had downloaded. Fuck man

[odo-apologist]

[lost-girl-2021]

Can you write Quaritch's reaction to Spider calling him dad? I mean his pov, thoughts, feelings maybe he bragged in front of his friends heh

Spoilers for the two most recent chapters of Days Into Decades

He for sure texted his lil group chat after Spider went into the bathroom. Like, spelling errors/all caps— the works. He's panicking, the system is crashing. Error, error. The gc blew up for the rest of the night as various members threw out their opinions and reactions.

I feel like he's an old man dad, in the sense that he doesn't talk about his feelings/acknowledge uncomfortable situations (at least not easily). That's part of why they were just silent on the car ride Saturday night. Spider was silently freaking out, Quaritch was trying not to make it seem like a big deal. Like, yes, if I don't acknowledge it happened, my son will understand how happy I am that he called me dad. Makes total sense.

He probably spent most of Sunday counting down the hours until he was supposed to pick up Spider. Like, he played it totally cool when he texted Spider that he was on his way, but he was genuinely excited.

And then . . . Well . . . He gets to the McGregor's and nobodies there. He texts and calls and gets no response. He calls Mr. McGregor, who's apparently been at work all day and hasn't seen Spider. He suggests checking with the Sully's, as though Quaritch and Jake will ever be anything but enemies.

He does end up calling Jake, since he has his number from Spider's emergency contact file (that he had changed as soon as possible). Jake is pissy about it, because he has to acknowledge Quaritch's existence yet again, but he agrees to check if Spider somehow ended up with one of his kids while he was at Tuk's dance recital that afternoon.

When Jake checks Lo'ak's room and finds it empty, he questions Kiri and Neteyam. Both are slightly panicked, because Lo'ak and Spider weren't even talking the day before and now they've apparently run off together? Not to mention, Lo'ak just got into a fight and was 100% grounded. He should've been in bed, watching movies and sulking as he'd been that morning when Jake and Neytiri left with their youngest.

Eventually, Neytiri and Jake remember the tracker they have in Lo'ak's phone (the kid loses it every other week, they were tired of hunting through the house every few days) and track it to the forest preserve. Jake doesn't even tell Quaritch, just honks across the street as they pull out of the driveway.

All of the adults end up in one of the forest's parking lots, Neytiri staying in the car so she doesn't physically attack Quaritch. Jake and Quaritch are kind of like bitter ex-bestfriends (which they kind of are, tbh) and stand five feet away from each other. ("Don't look at me— " "Don't look at me.")

There are too many paths and the tracker doesn't give anything beyond a general location when it's not hooked up to wi-fi, so they just wait the kids out. Soon enough, Lo'ak and a hoodie-covered Spider emerge from the thicket, skateboards in hand. They stumble over the last of the roots and Quaritch sees the 'oh shit' face both boys make (Spider a few seconds after Lo'ak, given his confinement).

Cue Quaritch's first big time parenting moment. The childcare courses did not cover finding your sixteen-year-old high off his ass in the woods. He takes him home, silently fuming the whole time, and watches him sluggishly make his wake up the steps and into the apartment.

After the anger fades a little bit, he wonders if it's his fault. If Spider got high because he regretted calling him dad the day before. If Quaritch made him feel so uncomfortable that he decided he needed to get high before he saw him.

Eventually, though the anger returns when Spider tries to shout his way out of a punishment. No phone, no skateboard, no Sully's. Were the last two mostly so Quaritch could stop having a heart attack anytime Spider left the house? Absolutely. But, they were also valid punishments.

This pretty much brings us back to the end of the most recent chapter. But, yeah. Basically, he's hyped, then pissed, then kinda sad, then pissed again.

[starswallowingsea]

Cw for abuse and suicidal ideation and probably a host of other things but

AITA for expecting my roommates to do the chores they said they'd do/ask me for help if they couldn't do them on their own?

AITA for telling my roommates their arguments sent me into a severe panic attack right after the argument happened?

AITA for thinking my roommates should break up?

This is gonna be a long one under the cut

-----

Okay so I know moving in with them without thinking it through entirely was a bad move but I was 20 and everyone else I had asked about moving in with had already gotten arrangements set up so when they asked me it was like fucking fantastic I don't have to worry about this anymore.

So lets set the stage. I (at the time, 20 FtM) and some friends D (20NB) and M (20F) moved into an apartment together in 2021 for the 2021-22 school year. Rent was cheap, each of us would only pay like $230 for it and utilities were included (except Wi-Fi) so it was a steal for how big the unit was.

The first few weeks everything was fine. D told me they and M would sometimes have arguments but it wouldn't be big ones or very frequent and we had decided we'd be mostly responsible for cleaning up after ourselves. The chore split changed once classes started obviously and I ended up being the one who did dishes. Every day.

I do not mind doing dishes most of the time especially if it was just the three of us, but they frequently invited people over and cooked for them (I told them when we moved in to try and let me know if people were coming over. They only let me know like three times the entire time we lived together but they had people over like 5 days a week el em ay oh) and often left a mess in the kitchen because it was "too much work to wipe the stove down if [D specifically] spilled something."

Now I was keeping the kitchen as clean as I could. I swept like three times a week and mopped at least twice a week after sweeping, wiped down all appliances. The only thing I didn't really touch was the fridge. I'd get on them to clean it and make sure their food wasn't going moldy (a frequent occurrence which they blamed on their ADHD but never like. Bought less food or tried to set up any sort of management for that problem). I once threw out an entire gallon of milk that had curdled and they had. Interesting reactions to say the least.

But anyway other than the fridge I tried to keep the kitchen pretty clean. I did dishes twice a day most days and during our second semester would more often than not get anxiety about not doing them before I went to work because the sink was full but I was up at 6am and out the door by 6:45 and only really had time to shower, get dressed, and eat. They never did yell at me bc I'd do them after I got home in the afternoon but just for context here.

Anyway they started fighting after about like 6 weeks of us living together. The first time I ignored it but after two or three arguments I tried to intervene with them on the porch. It was the middle of the night in October in Michigan and we were all miserable. D had accused M of being uncaring about their issues and that it had quote "been a big problem recently" and that they absolutely needed M to always be open to talking about D's problems. I sided with M that it was late and everyone should just go to bed and come back with a clear head but D was insistent that they figure it out before going to sleep. It was like 3am. That was the only time I tried to step in and figure out their problems and mediate.

These fights continued to get worse and I started trying to get them to do a little cleaning in the living room which both of them had agreed to take care of but it was such a mess because they almost never cleaned up after themselves (I'd more often than not had to grab dirty dishes from the coffee table for example) and so eventually they invited a friend over to help clean.

I had come home from work and was like oh new person why are you here? And D told me that they were here because someone (me) couldn't be bothered to help us out. They never asked me to help clean and when I did offer they said they had it so I just let them be. I know how it feels when people ignore you when you say you have something and try to help anyway so like. Idk what I was supposed to do? And like I said I kept my part pretty clean for the most part.

Eventually we had an argument (more like D lashed out at me after that I think? My time-line of this period is a bit jumbled) and said that because I was a trans man I was trying to use my masculinity to exert power over them and tower over them (I am a whopping 5'4 and pretty average sized but I guess I carry myself in a way that can make me seem bigger than I really am sometimes). Anyway I was just like whatever and mentally checked out because I'm pretty sure they were gaslighting me about things I had said but I really can't be sure bc like the axe forgets the tree remembers etc but I legit have no memory of when those comments would even had been made because at that point I had taken to just hiding in my room 99% of the time unless I needed to cook something or go to class.

I want to say like two months after this they had another argument. It was like 6pm on a Tuesday and it was winter still so it was dark out. Their argument sent me into a panic attack that caused suicidal ideation. The very few panic attacks I've had never were that bad but D wanted me to drive them to DnD because they didn't have a ride and I said sure. In the car at a red light in town I told them their argument made me have a panic attack and I was riding through it *while driving* and they told me "Our arguments shouldn't be making you react like this. You need to go to therapy." Which just felt like a gut punch. The entire time we had lived together they constantly blamed their issues on past trauma and mental illness so I tried not to get on them too much but that still felt like such a shitty move.

Like D would constantly go on rants about how they'd always accept when they were wrong but then in practice it was always blaming M for their problems. Multiple times I thought about telling M they should break up but by that point I'm pretty sure D had been trying to manipulate M to be against me, just based on the arguments we had.

At one point they left the house and hadn't even been arguing but someone tripped over something and made a loud noise and I was in a call when this happened playing dnd and I literally had to mute myself and calm myself down and ended up not playing the rest of the session.

Anyway AITA for. Any of this?

[zulubunsen]

My Recent Home Network Overhaul: Or, the Perils of Powerline!

Due to a cascading series of home network failures, I recently overhauled my home network. In fact, I just finished today. For anyone who cares, here's the rundown:

The original setup

Originally, my network was set up like this:

ONT (optical network terminal) -----> HomePlug adapter -----> HomePlug adapter -----> Gateway (router/access point)

The main backbone of the network was the HomePlug AV2 connection over the power wires, because this apartment isn't wired for ethernet, which I really wanted for my PC and server in my bedroom, while the ONT is in the living room.

In this original configuration, however, the gateway sat downstream of the powerline connection instead of in front of it, which meant that all network traffic, even that destined for Wi-Fi, passed through it. This was a major throughput limitation, especially for my symmetric 200 Mbps fiber internet connection.

The gateway was my trusty Apple AirPort Time Capsule, also acting as a network drive. The HomePlug adapters were TP-Link AV1000 devices. The ONT was just the standard one from Verizon.

This setup was incredibly stable and reliable! Until one day...

Problems arose

My problems started last month, when the HomePlug connection started dropping randomly but often. I'm really not sure what caused this: power surge damage is my main suspicion (due to the nature of HomePlug, the adapters were intentionally not on surge protectors), but a change in something plugged into the wall in another apartment could also have been responsible.

Taking action

I took action and replaced both of the adapters, upgrading to TP-Link's AV1300 offering. However, the AirPort for some reason wasn't playing nice with these new units, and kept dropping its connection.

The AirPort was near and dear to me, but it as a product turns 10 this year, and its built-in file server was of limited use to me because of a change to the Linux kernel. So I made the difficult decision to replace it with a TP-Link AX1500 router.

I also decided to move the gateway in front of the HomePlug adapters, and immediately got a big Wi-Fi performance boost because of it.

However, the new router posed a problem: its power adapter was electrically noisy, and was causing the HomePlug adapters to slow down and sometimes even drop the connection. At this point, I was in too deep to give up, so a lot of searching led to a very specific product: the Corinex "powerline noise filter", of which I bought the last one in stock from Amazon. I plugged it in and plugged the router's power supply into it, and immediately the issue appeared resolved!

My new, final(?) network setup can be described as:

ONT -----> Gateway (with power filter) -----> HomePlug adapter -----> HomePlug adapter -----> Switch (for my PC and server)

Lessons learned

If I was starting from the beginning, I'm not sure I would still have done HomePlug at all. I probably would've used MoCA, or even gone pure Wi-Fi. However, I'm happy with my setup now, and am probably going to leave it in service for the foreseeable future.

I learned that HomePlug can be finicky and susceptible to noise, although this can be mitigated if you're careful. I also learned the obvious lesson that the most bandwidth-limited component of the network shouldn't go in front of everything else on the stack!

Until the next network meltdown... signing off!

[gennyanydots]

I had to let go of you just to get a hold of myself part 7

Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin x f!reader

I had to let go of you just to get a hold of myself masterlist

AN: Warning. It is stupid angsty up in this bitch

You went to your room to let Jake get settled into his room for a while. You still had an hour before your check-in with Dr. Jackson. You tried to organize your thoughts as you laid on your bed.

It was surreal seeing Jake again after all this time. You vividly remember a time in your life that if you had seen Jake you might have tried to run him over with your car. The pain from everything still runs pretty deep.

The man you gave up everything for had decided to give you up. Decided that you weren’t worth the trouble. Not only that he didn’t even have the balls to break up with you. Just decided one day that he was done with you. Didn’t respond to any emails you sent, texts, phone calls, letters, nothing. Just done. It had almost destroyed you. You didn’t eat or sleep much. Just laid in bed wondering what you had done. Even now moving past that insecurity is going to be tough. Dr. Jackson has reminded you plenty that Jake’s actions were not because of anything you had done and were solely based off himself. You know whatever happened to Jake had nothing to do with you but try telling that to your brain. It’s already had years of anxious thoughts built up.

You have to remind yourself sometimes that Jake is trying. He really is trying. You know that. He’s putting in the effort. He’s going to therapy. He’s working at this.

And now Jake’s here. In your apartment. The place you got to get away from him. Most of your things were still at Jake’s parent’s house. You didn’t want most of it. You didn’t want those reminders. You still don’t even go to the house much. You get together as a family at Catherine’s house typically. It’s easier for the kids. It’s easier for you. Works out well for everyone.

Tomorrow Jake’s mom is hosting Thanksgiving. It’s good you’re having a session tonight since you’re not sure how you’ll do tomorrow. Being with Jake in that house may prove too much for you.

Time seemed to really fly while you were deep in thought laying on your bed since it was now 10 minutes till the start of your video call and Jake was softly knocking at your door. You sit up and stretch quickly before rushing over to the door and opening it.

There Jake stood holding his computer, looking as hot as ever in a pair of comfy shorts and a shirt that just seemed to fit him that just barely showed off some lines of his abs. Fuck. The Navy has been good to your husband.

You shake the thought from your head and give Jake a half smile, “Hey, it time already?”

Jake nods and turns to go out into your living room.

You follow after him.

He plops down onto your couch and looks up at you, “Which is your Wi-Fi?”

You point to it as you walk up and sit next to him, making sure to give you both space, “The password is Bennyistoocute1.”

Jake chuckles, “That boy still got you wrapped around his finger?”

You nodded, “Yeah, all three of them do.”

“Benny and Harper? Which of my sisters had another?” Jake asks.

“Oh I wasn’t even counting Harper. Lauren still only has her but Jared and Catherine have three boys now. Charlie, Benny, and Jamie. Charlie is a baby baby. He was a surprise. Jamie is Auntie’s baby. He’s 7. Benny is 15 now. Gosh he’s growing up so fast.”

“Holy shit. I hadn’t realized how old he would be. Harpers gotta be like what 10?”

You shake your head and laugh, “She’s 12. Sassy as ever. Really got all of Lauren’s attitude and some of Catherine’s too.”

“Poor Lauren. I’m sure ma loves to rub it in her face for all the trouble she caused,” Jake says with a chuckle.

“Depends on the day. Sometimes your mom just swoops in and fixes everything since she had so much practice,” you say with a smile. Jake’s mom amazed you. Your nephews and niece love you but even you couldn’t do that. At least not with the older two anymore. They can’t be bribed with ice cream. Well, they can’t always be bribed with ice cream every once in a while both of them still like ice cream and auntie dates. Especially if you pick them up from school early for an “appointment”.

“Do they… umm do they remember me at all? Or know who I am?” Jake asks timidly.

“They know they have an Uncle Jake. Benny vaguely remembers you. Harper doesn’t really anymore. You never met Jamie. They all have seen your pictures around in albums and such. Just as a warning Jamie may take a bit to warm up to you.”

“Why’s that?”

You sigh, “Your sister and Jared have big mouths and we’re talking about you and he overheard that you had made me cry and like I said Jamie is auntie’s baby and he may have threatened to kick you umm….. kick you where it counts.”

“Damn. I clearly don’t want that but if that’s what it takes to start rebuilding all this then….,” Jake says with a shrug. “Plus I can’t beat up a 7 year old.”

“The cutest 7 year old,” you say with a giggle.

“Well then I definitely can’t,” Jake says with a smile.

The two of you are brought out of your little chat by Dr. Jackson starting the meeting.

“Good afternoon, you two! How was your flight Jake? You get in okay?” The doctor asks.

Jake nods, “Yep. Thanks for askin’.”

“And Y/N, how are you this afternoon?” Dr. Jackson asks.

You give a small smile, “I’m doin alright. Thank you. How are you, sir?”

“I’m doing wonderful. Thank you. How is it seeing each other?”

Jake looks over at you with a fond smile, “A little odd but good.”

You nod, “Yeah, a little awkward but I’m sure that’ll go away.”

Dr. Jackson smiles, “Good, good. Glad to hear it. I don’t want to keep either of you long. I would much rather you both spend time together. I mostly just wanted to remind you both that you can text or call me at anytime. I know this is a very fragile time and you may need to talk it out and I am here for you both, okay?”

You both nod.

“Great. I’ll be in touch with both of you. If I don’t talk to either of you beforehand have a Happy Thanksgiving!” Dr. Jackson says with a wave and both you and Jake return to sentiment and Jake exits the meeting.

“That was probably the easiest session I ever had,” Jake says with a chuckle.

You laugh and roll your eyes.

“What? It’s true!” Jake says grinning.

“I’m sure it is.”

“So uhh did you umm maybe want to talk about why I first went to therapy?” Jake asks.

You nod, “If you’re ready for that. Sure.”

“Tim thinks it’s important you know and I do too, of course. Before I get to that I just need you to know I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I never wanted to stop being your husband. I know there’s a lot of damage I did and I hope to be able to repair it the best I can but none of this had anything to do with you. In no way was this your fault. It was all me,” Jake explains.

You nod, “I know. Dr. Jackson reminds me of that frequently. I had or well have a hard time with coming to terms with that. I’m working on it.”

“Oh honey no, none of this was you. This was all me. I’m the bad husband. I did this to us,” Jake says and puts a hand on top of yours.

You nod and turn your hand to hold his.

“Okay so being away from you was always hard. I would get it in my head that if I worked mg hardest with no distractions I would be able to get home faster. I’m reality that wasn’t really a thing but I convinced myself it was. Sometimes I would be working so hard and miss our planned calls and that’s completely on me. I would remember and feel terrible. Then the longer I went without talking to you the guiltier I would feel. I would start avoiding you to try and deal with my guilt. It didn’t help and I just felt worse. It all kinda culminated after a mission. I uhh became the only current generation aviator with a confirmed air combat kill. Which at first was exciting because everyone was so impressed and congratulated me but eventually it sunk in that I took someone’s life. I know that’s part of my job but there’s still a guilt that comes with it. It kinda made my life feel like it was separated. Everything before I killed someone and everything after. After I felt like I had a completely separate life and it was just easier to live with the guilt by myself. I never told anyone about it. I made a whole persona for myself. I turned into this cocky asshole to keep my emotions hidden. I mean I was always a little cocky but it was bad. I had another mission not even a year ago and I had another confirmed kill. I guess it kinda set off a depression due to the repressing emotions thing then coworkers started to notice. One of them basically kidnapped me off base one day and made me talk about it. His wife forced me into therapy.”

“Kara Floyd?” You asked.

Jake nodded, “Yeah. How did you know?”

“Did she not explain about when she called me?” You asked.

Jake shook his head.

You chuckled, “So uh she called me to tell me her coworker was seeing my husband so I hung up on her thinking you were cheating on me. She called back saying we must have been disconnected and I told her I hung up on her and explained that if you were cheating on me that you could just send me the divorce papers and she didn’t need to tattletale.”

Jake groaned, “I’m kicking Bob’s ass.”

“Whose Bob?”

“Her husband. Neither of them told me this. Can’t kick her ass. Gotta kick Bob’s. They told me you talked to Tim.”

“Once she explained herself she gave him the phone and I talked to him but first there was a big misunderstanding.”

“Sounds like it. For the record I have not and would never cheat on you. We have have gotten married young but I take those vows seriously.”

You nod, “Me too. I didn’t either by the way. Cheat on you I mean. I didn’t do that. You’re my husband.”

Jake squeezed your hand, “I’m sorry for all this.”

You nod, “Thank you for apologizing and thank you for telling me all that. It all sounds incredibly hard and I’m sorry you had to go through it.”

Jake nods, “Tim told me to ask ,if you’re comfortable, about how you felt when I stopped talking to you. I mean I know it’s not good but I really want this to work and open communication is important for that.”

“Ohh umm yeah. I guess I could tell you. It was hard. Incredibly so. I did the whole stages of grief thing. I was mad at first. Mad that you could do something like that. Mad at myself for putting that much faith in you. Mad that I gave up everything for you and in the end I didn’t have anything to show for it. Then I got sad. Real sad. I wondered what I did wrong or what was wrong with me that you didn’t want to be with me anymore. I was really depressed. Barely did anything but lay in bed. I lost a lot of weight. I had to take pills for the depression. Eventually I just accepted that you weren’t gonna come home to me so I moved out of your house to here. I got Pumpkin. I got on with my life. Since we started this I’ve had a couple sessions with Dr. Jackson to address all that. There’s still a lot of lingering insecurity and self esteem issues,” you explain not looking at Jake.

Jake squeezes your hand once and you look over at him, a few tears in your eyes. You notice Jake’s also look a little glassy.

“Oh darlin’ I am so sorry,” he says and uses your hand to pull you into a hug. You both wrap yourselves up in the other and sob. Sob for yourselves. Sob for each other.

Part 8

[raineydays411]

The adventure continues

Bruce Banner x daughter! reader

Summary: It’s been about two weeks since you’ve been on Sakaar. You and Loki have been kissing the Grandmasters ass in order to stay in his favor. That’s when you see a familiar face.

A/n: Hello! So I finally found the energy to write this chapter lol sorry it took so long. Also, I’m not too sure how to spell Sakaar, soo if there are different spellings please ignore that 

You sigh as you sit next to Loki. It’s been about two weeks since you came to this planet. You haven’t even begun looking for your father. No, instead you and Loki have been running around kissing the Grandmasters ass. 

You found the man amusing, his chaotic energy was entertaining to say the least. But he had an air of danger to him. You tried to make sure to stay on his good side. Loki seemed to have the same idea as well. 

You and Loki have become significantly closer during your stay here. You never thought that you’d be so close to the God that tried to take over your planet, but here you were. Since your talk in the tailor's room, Loki has become increasingly overprotective over you. He was constantly by your side, glaring at anyone who dared to come up to you. Now as annoying as that sounds, he has gotten you out of some sticky situations. 

For example, there was this one time this alien tried to kidnap you, claiming that as a terran, you’d make him rich. Well before he was able to step even a foot away, Loki was there and almost ripped his arm off. The only thing that stopped him was the Grandmaster. He assured you and Loki that the kidnapper would be taken care of by his “Champion”. Whatever that meant.

That was another thing you tried to avoid on this planet. The Grandmaster’s fights. Something about the idea of sometimes innocent beings being forced to fight for others entertainment was wrong to you. And while to the rest of the population it was the norm, you just couldn’t stand the thought of watching these people slaughter each other.

Other than these few incidents, you and Loki have fit in pretty nicely. Loki was at ease with this crowd, charmingly talking to them and winning them over with his silver tongue. And you have made a name for yourself as well. You were known as one of the best storytellers in Sakaar. Of course, you usually told plots of the movies, plays, and books you memorized from Earth. But what they didn’t know won’t hurt them. But unlike Loki, you were getting restless. You wanted to find your father and go home. You miss Tony and Pepper, the way they were so sweet to each other, and the way Steve would ruffle your hair in the kitchen after his work outs. You wondered of they were worried about you as  you have been missing for two weeks now. 

Lost in thought, you didn’t notice a familiar face who was strapped down in a chair. However, you did notice when Loki went tense next to you. Looking up at him you raised an eyebrow, silently asking if he was okay.

“I’m fine”, he said quickly, “Darling, it seems as if the Grandmaster will be inviting us to watch the newest competition, perhaps you’d want to make yourself scarce before he comes.” 

You smile, appreciating the warning and stood up excusing yourself. You thought you heard someone call for Loki, but brushed it off as he was very popular among this crowd. You made your way to your room, desperate for some peace and quiet. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Loki lets out a relieved sigh, knowing that if you saw Thor in that chair, you would have made a rash decision and ruin all the plans you both had made.

He stands up, excusing himself from the small group that formed around him. He rushes to Thor, shushing him.

“What?!” ,Thor asks confused on why Loki was shushing him. 

“You’re alive?”, Loki says, in a hushed tone. Thor looks up at him as much as he could, the chair restricting his movements. 

“Of course I’m alive!”, He shouts quietly

“What are you doing here?”

“What to you mean what am I doing here?!” ,Thor says exasperatedly, “ I’m stuck in this stupid chair! Where’s your chair?”

“I didn’t get a chair”

“Then get me out of this one!”

“I can’t”

The two brothers were so caught up in their silent bickering, they didn’t notice the Grandmaster appear right next to them.

“What are you whispering about?”

The two jumped apart. 

“Time works differently around these parts.”, He says, “Anywhere else I would be like millions of years old but here in Sakaar I’m like...”

He trails off, leaving an awkward silence. He smiles and glances at Loki as if he was waiting for him to say something. Loki laughs nervously, looking from Thor to the Grandmaster. Thor looked in between the two totally confused on what was happening. 

Seeing he wasn’t going to get an answer, the Grandmaster continued, 

“ In any case, you know this uh, um”, he turns to Thor, “ You call yourself the ‘Lord of Thunder?”

“God of Thunder” ,Thor corrects, he gestures at Loki, “Tell him”

“I have never seen this man in my life.” 

“He’s my brother!” ,Thor shouts getting frustrated.

“Adopted.”

The Grandmaster looks at Loki, “ Is he any kind of fighter?”

“You take this thing out of my neck and you’ll find out.” 

The Grandmaster laughs in amusement, as if Thor told him a joke instead of threating him. 

“Hey Sparkles, here’s the deal, anyone who defeats my champion shall win their freedom.” 

As the Grandmaster and Thor had their conversation, Loki’s mind was racing. He had a plan. A plan to overthrow the Grandmaster and (reluctantly) help you find your father, even though he doesn’t know who your father is. He already adjusted the plan when you arrived, and now Thor. He has to keep both you and him in the Grandmasters favor. 

He’s snapped out of his thoughts when he hears Thor call his name once more. He turns to see him being carted away on the chair he was bound to. He smiles at the Grandmaster and excuses himself, forcing himself to mingle once more and not rush off to find you. After a while, he manages to sneak away from the crowds and go back to his room. He finds the room where all the gladiators are being held and makes a clone, stepping into the prison. He sees Thor, saying a prayer for Odin as they were not able to give him a proper burial. He joins in, seeing Thor tense up at his voice. 

“It hurts doesn’t it...being told you are one thing only to find out that it was a lie.”

Then Thor turned and sat indignantly, refusing to acknowledge Loki.

“I couldn’t jeopardize our position with the Grandmaster. It took time for us to win his trust. He’s a lunatic, but he can be amenable.” 

ping. Thor throws another pebble at Loki. Loki sighs, knowing that it was going to be useless talking to him at the moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You sat in your room, listening to music on your phone. You may not have any cell service, but surprisingly, this planet has great Wi-Fi. 

You’re writing in a journal you found in the bag Strange gave you. Ever since that first day you arrived at Sakaar, you have been journaling your experiences, thoughts, and feelings in this journal. You also have been writing down methods you could use to find your dad.

You were so lost in the music and your writings that you didn’t notice Loki walk into your room. He saw that you weren’t paying attention and decided to scare you. 

He crept quietly, making sure to make no sudden movements that would catch your eye. But before he could actually scare you, you spoke up. 

“Don’t even think about it Loki.”

“How did you know it was me?” ,He asked, surprised at your reflexes. 

“I can smell your hair gel from outside the door.” You say, rolling over to look at him and removing your earbuds. You laugh at the offended look on his face. 

You both chuckle and then Loki’s face turns serious. 

“Y/n, we have a problem.” 

At those words, your heart begins to race. You worry that the Grandmaster has lost trust in the both of you, or he has become suspicious of you both. 

“What’s wrong?”, You ask, chewing on your lip in anxiety. 

“It seems that Thor has found his way on Sakaar.” 

You breath a sigh if relief, “ Oh, is that it? That’s fine, we can just get him on board and adjust out plan--”

“No, we can’t.”, Loki interrupts.

You squint in confusion, “Why not?”

“It seems that the oaf has gotten himself captured and forced into the gladiator fights.”

You gasp and quickly stand up, “We have to help him! He could be killed!”

“Calm down”, Loki says, resting his hands on your shoulders, “ Thor is far stronger than you believe. He will be able to handle himself. What we need to do for now is to keep our heads, and stick to the plan.”

“Stick to the plan?! Loki, we can’t just leave Thor on his own!”

Loki sighs, “ It’ll be better in the long run. If the Grandmaster suspects mutiny, we can both be killed or forced to fight as well.”

You stay silent, taking in the words that Loki is telling you. 

“Alright.” ,You agree, disappointed you couldn’t do anything to help Thor.

“That’s a good girl.” Loki says, patting your head. He turns to walk out of the room, “ Come along, we mustn’t give the Grandmaster any suspicions.”

You roll your eyes, hiding your phone and journal in your bag. Following Loki down the hallways, you sigh. You miss home. You miss your dad, And you feel completely useless. 

“Darling”, Loki whispers, “Now, I know you don’t like the idea...but perhaps you should make an appearance at the fights”

Your eyes widen at the suggestion, but before you speak Loki continues. 

“ I won’t force you, but just know that the Grandmaster is incredibly proud of his champion, and you seeing it would be more points toward you.”

You nod. You’d have to go eventually. Might as well get it over with. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You and Loki arrive to the arena late. You didn’t miss much except for the opening act. You hear the roaring of the large crowd, thirsty for blood and carnage. It churns your stomach. 

Then the Grandmaster appears in hologram. You don’t really pay attention, you just force yourself to relax. You know that if Thor is fighting then he’ll be okay. But the thought of watching a friend murder another living being that is most likely innocent makes bile rise in your throat. 

You’ve never been a person who likes violence. Violence meant that you and your dad had to move again, violence meant that you would be left alone.

Despite this, Tony made sure that you knew how to defend yourself if you had to. You trained with Natasha at first but...it didn’t go so well. So you started training with Steve and Bucky. You learned quickly but hardly ever used your training. Mainly for stress relief or a good work out.

But here on Sakaar, you had to be on guard all the time. It was exhausting. You couldn’t imagine what it would be like if Loki wasn’t here. Surely without him you would be dead. 

You zone back in, hearing the Grandmaster introduce the first contender. 

“Ladies and gentlemen...I give you...Lord of Thunder. Watch out for his fingers, they sparkle.”

To your surprise, Thor walks out from his waiting area, the crowd booing as he enters. He was wearing different armor and most noticeably, his hair was cut. He had red markings going down the side of his face. 

“Jeez, now I remember why I had a small crush on him back in the day” you mutter to yourself. Loki looks at you in disgust and disappointment. You avoid his gaze, looking intensely at the arena. 

“Okay! Lets get ready to welcome this guy” 

The crowd cheers, getting excited for the next contender. The grandmaster rubs his hands together.

“Here he comes” 

a boom goes off and green smoke fills the air. The crowd applauds and cheers as they burst. 

“He is a creature. What can we say about him", 

Rumbling shakes the ground as the arena is lifted. Your chest fills with anxiety, this champion must be big if they have to lift the arena. You turn to Loki, seeing his face light up with a mix of emotions. 

“Well hes unique. There’s none like him” 

The rumbling continues as the area is still being lifted. 

“I feel a very special connection to him.” 

You see Thor prepare to fight, putting on a helmet. Concern fills your heart and the audiences cheers fill your ears. 

“Hes undefeated.” 

Loki’s words fill your head. Reminding you that Thor is a god. He’ll be okay.

“He’s reigning”

You settle down, trying to reign in your anxiety.

“He’s the defending.”

 Loki looks at you and smiles, brushing a curl out of your face and patting your cheek. You instantly feel better, knowing that someone is there for you.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you” 

“This guy really knows how to build suspense.” You whisper to Loki, who snorts into the drink he has. You both quiet down as the champions doors finally start to open.

“Your Incredible...” 

A roar fills the arena. A roar that makes your blood grow cold and your breath stop.

“HULK”

And there, bursting out of his holding area, was the Hulk. Dressed in gladiator armor, holding an axe and club in both hands. The crowd goes wild, cheering loudly at the sight of their champion. 

Your father, who has been missing for four years, was the Grandmasters champion.

“I have to get off this planet.” Loki says, pale at the memory of what the Hulk is capable of. He pulls you up from the couch, you lax with the shock, an rushes to leave.

“Hey, hey, hey where are you two going.” The Grandmaster intercepts the two of you guiding you both back to the seats. 

“Is she okay? She looks like she’s about to be sick” The grandmaster says, scooting away from you like you were contagious. Loki looks at you in concern and asks if you are okay. 

But you could barely hear him. You didn’t hear anything. You were just focused on the arena. Finally seeing the man who you were looking for.

[peaches-writes]

full circle

description: even if you’ve only known him for eight years, if you think about it, you’ve actually been with minho for most of his entire life. member: minho / lee know genre: fluff, historical au, vampire au, time traveler au, college au, neighbour au, best friends to lovers au, fem reader, this is a longer and revised version of reliable source word count: 10k warnings: explicit language, mentions of animal murder, war, death, blood, alcohol note: yay a third entry to the seven hundred and one universe! oc from seven hundred and one universe is named shiyeon here while the oc from kart rider is named soojung! + this prolly has a lot of plot holes & is just generally mediocre but whatever it’s fiction lmao + @skzwriternet​

present: February 13, 2020

Even before he saw you on the other side of his apartment door at 9 PM with all of your work materials and equipment, Minho already knew full well that this day was coming. He’s always known most days are coming. He‘s just more excited for this in particular than the rest, given its inevitability that he‘s lived through for almost 600 years of his total 900 years as a vampire. Tonight, as evidenced by the Google Docs displayed on your open laptop, is the night you’d travel to the past for your doctorate thesis and meet his past self for the first time. 

He just didn’t expect this in particular to be on the day right before Valentine’s Day, when he and his two other housemates have decided to make a complete mess out of the kitchen with all of the chocolate they’ve been trying to make.

“Hi, sorry for bothering you at this hour but I was thinking—ew, what’s that smell?” You instinctively and bluntly ask first, sniffing the air escaping his side of the door. Minho could smell it too, strongly at that, and the older vampire could only purse his lips and widen his eyes at you. “Are you guys—please don’t tell me you’re actually cooking humans this ti—“

At that, he immediately shakes his head and breaks out into a nervous laugh, pulling the door closer to his body and effectively hiding Jisung scrambling around for the exhaust (and maybe the fire extinguisher too, for some reason) before you could peer over his shoulder. “No, no! It’s just Jisung and Jeongin—well, it’s mostly Jeongin then he dragged Jisung in on it—they’re making Valentine’s Day chocolates for...some people.”

You could sense the slight bluff in his tone (supported further by the little heart-shaped candy on his cheek) and that at least one of those ‘some people’ he could possibly be referring to is one of your friends, Nari, whom Jeongin has not-so-discreetly been pining over since your second year of college, but you easily let it slide. In the eight years you’ve known the vampires who live and own your apartment complex, after all, you’ve definitely walked in on much wilder things than a couple of questionably burnt chocolates (chocolates aren’t even cooked, as far as you’re concerned!). “Um, okay, sure, I’ll trust you with that.” You squint your eyes at him. “Anyway, can I come in? I need your help with something.” 

Minho exhales a small sigh of relief which he turns into a smile for you before looking over his shoulder once to make sure that the coast is clear then opening the door wide once again. “Yeah, come on in.” He concludes next, picking up your backpack on the floor and your heavy laptop in your hands as you cross the threshold. “But it’s really messy in the common area right now so we’ll have to stay in my room, if that’s okay with you.” 

You’ve never been in his room, not even when you first became friends in your first year of college eight years ago or on game nights when he always asks for help taking out his Play Station sets. All of Jisung and Jeongin’s jokes of his serial killer tendencies when you’re not around could be true for all you know and it’s the only thing going through your head as you wordlessly follow him inside his apartment, pondering on the thought.

In response, Minho bites down a laugh between his teeth next to you as he accidentally reads your thoughts and when you catch him in the act, you make sure to elbow him with your freer arm, careful of your drafts binder. “Ya, stop reading my thoughts without permission, you asshole!” You scold him in a sharp hiss right as you pass Jisung and Jeongin in the open doorway leading to the kitchen. You greet the two courteously and even make a salute to the fallen chocolates, to which Minho laughs even more at and the two boys groan in protest. “Well, shit, it really is...bad.”

“I know, poor people who’ll get that tomorrow.” Minho shrugs.

“You could say Nari, it’s fine, I won’t tell.” You shrug back with a laugh, taking this time to take the candy off of his cheek and walking past him and the other two boys with a parting wave before Jeongin could even process that you caught up to him and his crush so easily.

Minho, meanwhile, clears his throat awkwardly and follows you, in a poor attempt to hide his immediate flustered expression. Some of the chocolates were actually for you but he won’t tell you that too, of course.

Especially not when you arrive in his room not long after, nodding in approval at its cleanliness that clearly contrasts the current state of his kitchen and, by a slight extension, living room. “Glad you to know you don’t murder people in your room, Min. See? We get closer as friends would every day.”

“I’ve been on blood bag and animal diet since we met, you brat. Don’t tease like that.” Minho rolls his eyes, prompting you to laugh.

“So, where do I work, then?” You ask after, turning to Minho on your side and accidentally brushing your shoulders together.

He gestures to his work table in response, naturally placing his other hand on your back and guiding you towards it. He really hopes you’d be oblivious to the way he’s growing more flustered this time. He doesn’t let you in his room for a reason, after all (that being it’s too intimate in his opinion). “You can use my desk.” He instructs you after, following you and pulling an extra chair for himself once you’ve reached his desk. Placing your backpack next to his work bag then your laptop on top of the table, he then asks, “So, are you travelling now or later?”

He already knew you’d do it sometime now, he really just wanted to ask to keep the conversation going. He even has your hanbok ready—bought from Changbin’s wife’s shop last month.

But, to you, he seems to have miscalculated the situation a little bit as a realization dawns on you while you’re taking out the portable time travel machine from your backpack. It’s actually just a watch but your professors insist on keeping them in really fancy boxes. “I can do it now if it’s oka—wait, I haven’t even told you that part yet! How do you know I’m not just going to hoard your wi-fi?” You exclaim mid-thought, your mouth falling agape and forming an ‘o’ shape in surprise. You know he wasn’t reading your mind just now because, usually, Minho would announce his presence obnoxiously loud in your head or make the face he did a while back but he didn’t this time. “So you’re going to agree to my request? Is that it?”

Eyes equally wide in his mistake, Minho falls back in his chair and ends up fumbling around with his words. “Well—no, I mean, you always only need my help when you’re about to time travel so—!” He tries his best to cover up which only elicits a victorious smile from you. “Ugh, fine, you got me!”

“So, you’ll help me? I mean, past you, technically.” You ask again for confirmation, sitting down on your own chair this time as you fully take out the portable machine and place it on your lap. “I have to tell you, though, that I need to travel to three other periods for my thesis this time. Is that okay?” 

Minho props his elbow on the arm rest and nods against his knuckles. “You already know the answer to that, I think.” 

You chuckle at this. If eight years of knowing him has taught you anything, it’s to pay attention to the smallest details. He’s clairvoyant, after all, and you need to up him at his own game every now and then somehow. “Then, I’ll also need the proper attire. Haseul said that she can’t take in commissions at the moment so I couldn’t—“

“In the closet, furthest right.” Minho gestures to the walk-in closet behind him in defeat. “You can use that for all the times you’ll go, too.” 

“Have I told you that you’re my bestest friend in the world today? Even more than Nari, and she’s a witch, might I add!” You dramatically announce with a grin, handing him the machine’s box before standing up and making a beeline to the double doors on the other side of his bed. When you follow his instructions and find a pink and blue hanbok along with a floral hairpin on the very end of his closet, you then take it out and head to the open bathroom across the room. “Oh, wow, you even got my size right! You must’ve been preparing for this for a long time, huh?”

He really has—but, again, Minho is too stubborn to admit it to your face. “Just tell me if it’s uncomfortable or something.” He simply replies to you instead before you could close the door and change. Once he hears you acknowledge him with a hum before clicking the door to a lock, he then quickly prepares the time travel watch for you (by the way he remembers you doing it in front of him countless of times while you were cramming for a school requirement with him) then places it next to your laptop in exchange for his phone to message the rest of his friends.

minho [9:13 PM]: its happening

chan [9:14 PM]: you’re confessing?

hyunjin [9:14 PM]: hey that’s great! good for you hyung!!!

minho [9:16 PM]: no! y/n’s making the travel to 1388!

changbin [9:18 PM]: chan u know not to get ur hopes up w minho alr we all know he’s hopeless

minho [9:21 PM]: just bc ur alr married u brat

Changbin was still typing out a reply in the groupchat when you came out of the bathroom in your hanbok, laughing behind your hand when Minho looks up and momentarily gapes at you. “Why are you looking at me like that, weirdo?” You furrow your brows as you approach, smacking his arm before sitting down on his bed right behind him with a slight struggle. Peering over his shoulder, you smile appreciatively at noticing the time machine already set up. “And I see you’ve set up the machine without breaking anything this time! Progress!”

Minho scoffs, swiveling his wheeled chair to face you properly before gesturing to the hairpin in your hands. “You don’t like the hairpin?”

"I don’t know why you’re making me wear a hairpin that looks like a wedding heirloom.” You frown. Not to mention, from it’s material, you could tell that it’s new as well, meaning it was designed this way on purpose. “Won’t it attract too much attention?” 

Minho doesn’t know why you eventually came to him in the past wearing the hairpin too. He thought his future self was being ridiculous then (and he still does in the moment). “I don’t know, either,” He tells you truthfully this time, standing up from his chair to place it on your tightly-made bun. “But you did come wearing it eventually so just go with the flow, I guess? I don’t know, what do your sci-fi movies say?” 

You scoff at him, puffing out the heat rising up to your cheeks at the proximity. He could read your mind if he wants to but he doesn’t seem to be in the moment, even when his lips are gently fanning air into your ear as he fixes the hairpin with utmost care. “I guess I’ll just have to follow your instincts, then.” You sigh in defeat. “I can’t miss a detail, even if it’s weird.” 

“Right. I was there in the moment before you right now.” He smiles cheekily before sitting back down on his chair, passing you your time travel box after. “Ready to go?” 

You nod, fixing your collar one last time before receiving the machine from his hands. “You haven’t met me in the 1388, right?” 

“The first time you met me in the past was in the 1910s for that graduate thesis of yours and the oldest version of me that you’ve met so far was the one from the the 1740s.” Minho corrects, recalling your fourth year thesis some eight years ago. “But the first time I met you in my history was for this doctorate.” 

Your eyes light up at this. “Really? You’re meeting me for the first time now?” 

“Yeah. Why?” 

“We’ll have differing first impressions after this!” You point out to which he snickers. “Also, I haven’t met this version of you, you might be a snob in 1388 and think I’m weird or something.” 

Minho personally doesn’t think his first impression of you will ever change, no matter when you’ll meet in time. He’ll always think positively of you. “I was already turned for a long time, then. I haven’t met Chan and the others but I’ve seen and heard of weirder things than a time traveler.” He assures you. “Now, go, so I can help Jisung and Jeongin in the kitchen.” 

Rolling your eyes, you then set the date to January 1388 (you notice Minho’s already set the location while you were in the bathroom) before bidding a temporary goodbye to him, disappearing into thin air with the watch on your wrist right after. “I’ll be back before you know it!” 

In the blink of an eye, you’re already in a flea market somewhere in Seoul (then named Hanseong, you made sure to remember that well out of all of your history and anthropology notes). 

past: January 1388

You easily find 1388 Minho wandering around the flea market, a crowd of court men and women following him religiously as he examines the crops, livestock, and flowers being sold in stalls. The sight makes you scoff in disbelief, even more when you approach and see how he ignores each and every one of them up close. 

You know Minho isn’t the one of royal blood in his current coven of vampires (that’s Hyunjin—you know it well from the amount of times you’ve pestered him in your other time travels while he was sulking over his present day fiancée) but he has mentioned in passing once about being popular in the palace court, a socialite of his time if you will. 

But then, who could blame him? He’s just that handsome and charming.  

“Minho...Lee Minho...” You try calling for him in the crowd but to no avail, the slight embarrassment of following the crowd creeping up to you. It reminds you a bit of when you first saw him in your timeline, your first year of college and his fourth year (because Chan keeps insisting that he goes to university every now and then to pass the time) when all kinds of students would also follow him around at the campus library. It’s annoying, regardless of wherever you are in the world timeline. “Excuse me, Lee Minho!” 

He only turns to you when you raise your voice, an eyebrow momentarily raised until your eyes meet and a look seemingly of recognition crosses his features. 

You became friends with him as an older vampire but why is he more intimidating as a younger one? It’s probably the rest of the crowd’s eyes being on you because of your sudden interruption. Either way, you forcibly gulp down your nervousness and call for him again. “Lee Minho?” 

“Yes?” 

“C-Can I—Can I talk to you for a moment?” You gesture for him to follow you, his piercing gaze making your hands shake a bit. This is probably what Chan meant when he said Minho was a bit scary when he first met him in the 1400s. 

Minho follows you, anyway, which alleviates and heightens your nervousness at the same time. The crowd would’ve followed if not for him glaring at them not to right before you turned to the main entrance of the flea market where a few people were loitering around at. He feels like he knows you from somewhere which, if you knew about, you’d tell him that that’s impossible since, chronologically, you haven’t met him before this. 

Once you’re away from the majority of the market crowd, only then do you turn to properly face him and his expectant eyes. He’s still looks the same as he does in the present, just more curious, seeing as you’re a stranger for now. It’s comforting, somehow, so much so that it relaxes you and eventually makes you laugh as well. 

“What’s so funny?” He asks you without any hint of malice once you uncontrollably burst into giggles, prompting you to lift your hand up to your mouth. Already developing his clairvoyant abilities at this time period, he could easily tell by the unfamiliar terms in your thoughts and the way you hold yourself up that you were different—far more different than everyone around you. “And who are you?” 

You wave your other hand dismissively, taking a step back to recuperate. You end up giggling a few more times before you could manage to take a deep breath and exhale slowly by turning your eyes away from Minho momentarily. “I’m sorry, I’m Y/N and I—sorry! It’s just so...it’s a bit weird!” 

“Definitely.” Though your answer is unsatisfactory, the boy nods anyway. “And how do you know my name?”  

“I know you from the futur—wait, you can tell that it’s a bit weird too?” You raise an eyebrow and fold your arms over your chest. “It’s…sometime in the 1300s—“

“Thirteen eighty-eight.”

“Right.” You nodded at his correction with a dry scoff, piquing his interest further. “It’s only 1388 and you’re already this good of a clairvoyant?”

Minho was instinctively taken aback with you. His present self forgot to tell you that clairvoyance doesn’t have an established name in this time yet. “How did you—? What? Huh, well…the hanbok—the hanbok’s a bit of a giveaway too, I guess. It looks different from what the court women usually wear.” 

You then briefly glanced down at your hanbok, a pout resting on your features when you look back up at Minho again. “Really? But you—I mean, my source told me that this was accurate.” Come to think of it, you didn’t really check the attire thoroughly since you really needed to travel immediately to cram your paper. You’ll have to give 2020 Minho an earful about this later. “Ah, guess it’s my fault for not double-checking. I was in a bit of a rush to come here.” 

Minho from 1388, however, shakes his head at you in disapproval then briefly begins pointing out the different design patterns that looked foreign to him. “And this hairpin,” He pointed your hair accessory last, from what you can remember at present. There’s an unreadable expression in his face, one you’re too flustered to interpret as amusement. “This looks like a wedding heirloom but…a bit futuristic for my time, if that makes sense. I don’t suppose you wanted to come here disguised as someone’s wife, right? That’d attract more attention to you.”

And with that, you almost immediately deflate right in front of him with a defeated sigh and he smirks teasingly in return. To the passersby at the flea market, people could’ve easily mistaken the two of you for a quarreling married couple. “So that’s how it is.” You surrender easily, your arms loosening. “I guess even at this time you’re clairvoyant and smart. How annoying.”

His smirk grows even more triumphantly at this. “So, why did you come here?” He asks next. He figures out halfway through your rambles that it’s probably better to go along with you than to insist on his own questions, at least until you’ve organized your thoughts a little bit better. 

You ponder on the question for a moment, shifting your weight between the balls of your feet to pass the time. When you do answer, you explain, “Well, it’s a little crazy but my source has said that you’ll be okay with it so...believe it or not, I’m from the future and doing my doctorate thesis on a dynasty that’s about to establish itself around this time.” When 1388 Minho doesn’t immediately and visibly freak out as he would on your worst case scenario, you take this as your cue to continue. “You’re still alive in my time but I can’t tell you what our relationship is or it’ll be spoilers! All I can say is that you’ve helped me passed a lot of my major requirements in school and if you’re okay with it, you can help me with this one too!” 

The Minho in front of you thinks that you probably know him very well to know that he’s not easily spooked with anything out of the ordinary, not even by someone who claims to be from the future and is doing an academic paper about the past. You did mention knowing his personal history, as well, which effectively gained you his trust. He just hopes you’re not married or something in the future as the hairpin seems to be trying to imply or else he’d consider this first meeting of yours a bit chaotic for his liking. “Sure. Where do you have to be right now?” 

Really? It’s that easy? Is all you can think about, much to Minho’s curiosity when he reads your thoughts. “O-Oh, well, um...if you can take me to the palace courts, that would be...cool, I mean nice.” 

And so, Minho from 1388 ends up showing you around the palace courts for the next six months that follows (but, really, it’s just merely six minutes in the present time), even introducing you to people whom you ended up entrusting with your data-gathering. You almost mentioned Hyunjin and his fiancé, Shiyeon, on more than one occasion, remembering how the vampire would be with Seungmin already by this time while the immortal witch would be travelling around Korea, but opted not to instead when you also remember that no one from this time period really liked talking about the previous fire that killed most of Hyunjin’s family. 

Besides, you didn’t want to mess up the timeline and have Minho meet Hyunjin before he could meet Chan, even when he would ask you about it right before you left. 

“How am I in the future, by the way? Am I allowed to ask that?” Minho asks you curiously as you hold out your watch in front of him. It was starting to get annoying, having to hide it in your bell sleeves all the time. “And what am I doing by then?” 

“I can’t say anything specific that’s important.” You scrunch up your nose disapprovingly to which Minho only glares at you in response. “Just trust me, you’re sort of happy with where you are in my present day. You don’t have to worry about it now, it’s still 600 years away, anyway.” 

Minho mistakenly interprets that as the two of you being married in the future. He doesn’t have feelings for you in this time period but he takes your word not to worry about it until it’s happened. 

Besides, you seem kind. He’ll see something in you eventually. 

“When will I see you again, then?” 

“Um...around 1418, probably?” You answer with a hint of uncertainty as you faintly recall your thesis’ outline. You needed to see King Sejeong’s court next. “You’ll still be here, right?” 

Minho initially had plans on moving to a nearby province but he nods, anyway, thinking that that could wait for a few more years. “Yeah.” 

And with that, you’re gone again. 

present: February 13, 2020 

When you get back to the present day, it’s only 9:35 PM, almost six minutes since you left, but Minho’s already in the kitchen, helping Jisung and Jeongin clean up their mess. 

“Back already?” Minho asks with a blood bag between his teeth when he catches sight of you by the open doorway as he wipes the kitchen island clean, immediately noticing the grin you wear on your face. “What did you think?” 

“You were much chiller then!” You exclaim, ducking past Jeongin and Jisung to sit down right across Minho on the countertop. “I mean, you were a bit scary at first with the whole glaring thing you got going on but you were very calm and collected, then, like you weren’t even phased about me being from the future!” 

Of course he would be at that time, he was literally there when it happened (and also because he’s always had a feeling even from before that you’d meet but that’s also on his long list of things he won’t tell you). Instead, you see him quirk an eyebrow, throwing the rag towel in his hand to the side to pick up his phone and resume his Kart Rider. “Weirdoes vibe with weirdoes, I guess.” He shrugs, chuckling when you protest at this. “Anyway, you got what you need, right?”

You nod happily with a hum, propping an elbow up on the now clean counter and resting your cheek on your palm. “I have enough to write about later when you’re done cleaning.” 

“Ya, Y/N, if you’re gonna stick around at least help us clean the kitchen!” Jisung complains as he drags a wet mop across the floor behind you. 

“And why would I do that? I didn’t even help you make the chocolates!” 

“Because Minho’s been making cho—” Before Jisung could finish his sentence, however, Minho throws his rag towel towards the younger vampire, aiming it directly to his face. “Ya!” 

You shake your head in disbelief, turning to Minho again after. “Anyway, I have to fix my notes for a bit and you need to tell me where else I went for this paper!” 

Also because you were kinda cute back then, you think to yourself more as an after-thought, not really expecting for Minho to accidentally hear it.   

Now, Minho knows why he made you wear the hairpin. Is it normal to be jealous of one’s past self? 

present: February 16, 2020 

Minho offers you a whole bag of your favorite mini Toblerones the next time that you knock on his door to work on your thesis. The Valentine’s Day homemade chocolates were a fail even when Felix was eventually brought in last-minute (then you just had to disappear for a whole day with Nari and Shiyeon, too), so he rushed to the nearest convenience store to buy you the Toblerones as soon as you told him that you’ll come over again to pester him with his Internet connection and ask him more about your work. 

Maybe this is really it, the one you were talking about in his past. 

“You’re being nice to me with all this chocolate.” You squint your eyes with a piece of the chocolate in between your teeth suspiciously across the dining table as you work, head buried in papers to revise and dusty reference books. Your professor has you on travel limit as everyone else, only allowing you up to four actual visits to the past, hence the mountainous stacks of library books and journals you’ve borrowed from both the campus library and Changbin’s personal collection. “What do you need? Ya, I’m talking to you.” 

Minho, busy in his own academic work on his laptop, only peeks up at you belatedly when he’s reaching out for his blood bag buried underneath all of your papers. “What?” 

“What are the chocolates for?” You ask straightforwardly this time, picking up another mini Toblerone off the yellow bag. “Last time you bought me something from the convenience store was when you ate the squirrel I was feeding in the back garden.” 

Minho only shrugs as nonchalantly as he could, though he can’t help but feel a little flustered as evidenced by the way his eyes briefly widen. The squirrel incident was a long time ago and yet you still won’t let it go. “Can’t I be nice?” He simply asks back in answer to which you scoff at. He laughs along with you, anyway. “Jeongin bought it then gave me the extra, probably to give to you since I can’t really eat it.” 

You wanted to tell him that Nari actually shared the chocolates Jeongin gave her and they were definitely not Toblerones but you let it slide again. For some reason, it’s funny seeing Minho try to cover up something right in front of your face and thinking that he’s doing a good job at it. He’s trained you to see past his bullshit for the past 8 years, he should really know better. “Um...right.” You nod teasingly. “I’m gonna pretend you’re not looking very suspicious right now.” 

Minho could clearly tell that you’re doubting him even without reading you but he does nothing more to it. He’s too deep in his bullshit already and you both know that. 

Truth is, he was just fulfilling something you mentioned in your second visit to him (and probably as a way to give you something on Valentine’s Day even if it’s two days late). 

“Anyway, when are you making the travel again?” 

“Right after I finish summarizing this book.” 

And it happens to come full circle today, too. What luck does your best friend have. 

past: August 1418 

You jump between days in a span of six years this time (which is approximately an hour and twelve minutes back in the present time) with the help of Minho, Chan, and Changbin from 1418 helping you by preparing an entire closet of clothes and coming up with a very detailed background story of how you were a distant relative of Chan’s from the province in the case that someone asked about you. The other two boys were more than happy to welcome you despite how foreign time travel was to them in this time period because, apparently, you’re all Minho’s ever talked about since they met. 

“It’s nice knowing that Minho didn’t fever dreamed you up or something.” Changbin joked to you once towards the end of the six years of your data-gathering, to which he received a full apple shoved in his mouth from Minho. In this time period, his wife, Haseul, was still in that sleeping curse you still don’t understand fully at present, carefully laid in a tomb somewhere in the capital. Fortunately, you managed to avoid telling him that she wakes up seven centuries later (and that they get married) throughout your entire stay and avoided spoilers. “Vampires who’ve lived long like us tend to do that sometimes. Heck, even Chan does that lots of times these days, telling us about this immortal person he’s been looking for a while now. I guess it’s the human brain’s natural response to having a lot of memories.” 

“Minho remembers me just fine in the present, though.” You shrug as you re-write your interview notes, to which Minho mumbles a ‘Really?’ at. When you nod at him, he immediately rolls his eyes up in thought. You want to tell them that the person Chan’s been looking for at this time’s also real (and that he and said person, Eunhye, even live together now), too, but you decide against it later on for spoiler reasons again. “You have really good memory in the present, you even bought me Toblerones today.” 

“What are those?” 

A realization dawns on you right there and then, a small smile forming on your lips to which Minho quirks an eyebrow at and Changbin immediately asks you about. “You’ll find out soon enough. Just know that they’re my favorite.” You simply answer, standing up from the front porch of the inn you’ve been staying at and dusting the dirt off of your new hanbok. You remind yourself to ask Minho and Changbin about where these are at present later on. “Anyway, I’m off! I need to interview a few court people then I’ll be off your hairs again soon!” 

When it’s time for you to leave again, Minho’s still pestering you about what Toblerones are. 

“Come on, tell me!” He protests, going as far as holding your wrist where your watch is before you could escape. “Y/N!” 

You only grin up at him mischievously, gently swatting his hand away. “February 16, 2020! Also, make me ramen and coffee when I get back to the other side, please! I’d really like that!” 

present: February 16, 2020 

A steaming bowl of ramen and a warm cup of miraculously decently-brewed coffee are on the kitchen countertop by the time you come back, just as you asked him six hundred years in the past. What you didn’t expect, however, was the way your notes and references have also been organized neatly on the table while you were away and Minho dozing off on the nearby sofa in the open living room (he really likes genuine sleep lately which you’re yet to ask him as to why). You make sure to check that he really is sleeping by pinching his nose (and getting no response which is his usual indication of actual sleep) before placing the blanket he has reserved for you in his apartment over his hunched over body. 

“You don’t really need it,” You whisper tiredly, tucking the blanket close to his neck. His skin is naturally cold, as any normal vampire’s, but you’ve slowly grown accustomed to it over the years. “but how else am I going to say thank you for remembering my request after six hundred years? You’re going above and beyond anyone I’ve ever met, Lee Minho, you should stop raising the bar too high for men like this.” 

three

past: May 1592

“Are you sure you want to be here?” Minho from 1592 asks you right after you’ve reappeared in his house. Chan is out for work and Changbin is visiting Haseul on this particular day, leaving him to tend to their main house alone. “We’re in the middle of—”

“A Japanese invasion, I know.” You finish his thought for him, casually plopping down on the front porch right next to him and gingerly receiving the cup of tea he offers you. The garden he’s been trying to tend the last time you were around hasn’t made any significant progress even when an entire century has passed. You want to think it’s because the boys have been travelling elsewhere right before you returned but you also know it’s because they haven’t met Seungmin and Hyunjin yet. Those two are still probably travelling with Shiyeon. “That’s exactly why I’m here.” 

“Don’t tell me you’re—” Minho leans away and gazes back incredulously at you. He can already tell, with his own abilities, that you’re not thinking of what he’s thinking but he asks anyway to fully confirm. “I’m not letting you go to the frontlines if that’s what you’re going to ask me this time.” 

You chuckle at his genuinely mortified expression as you sip on your tea, making the boy furrow his brows at you. You really must be crazy. “You already know I’m not thinking of that! Though, I will ask you crazier things in the distant future.” You assure him. “I’ll only be staying for a year, six years again at most since I only need to complete a few interviews and fact-check a few books.” 

“Good.” Minho sighs in relief, taking a long sip of his tea as well. Even in 1592, the only human beverage Minho could stand is tea, you’re quick to notice. “That’s...that’s a relief.” 

“Why would you even be worried about going to the field, you’re immorta—ya, perhaps, do you you care about me?” You tease, grinning widely at the sudden realization. “We have a really messed-up timeline but you already care about me as early as now, that’s cute!”   

Minho from this time period could only roll his eyes at you against his sudden flustered feeling. If he was curious of your relationship with his future self when you first met, he’s curious as to how his future self keeps up with you this time. “Because you might be important to me in the future or something.” He bluffs to which you only chuckle fondly at. “I can’t really tell since you won’t tell me exactly how I know you in the future.” 

“Well, what am I to you now?” 

“A friend.” And he means it truthfully.

You’re momentarily taken aback, Minho sees even when you’re quick to hide it. Present Minho won’t even call you his best friend like you do to him. “Then just—just remember that until then.” You point out, smiling when you gaze over to his side and see his sincere expression. Something leaps in your chest at hearing him say those words without his usual playful tone of voice. It’s not what you’ve always been hoping for but it’s a start. “Won’t it be better if you just find out in the moment when it does happen?” 

Minho wants to tell you that he can’t wait but his teasing nature always gets the best of him first, “Hm, maybe you don’t actually know me at all in the future, that’s why you’re always being vague when I ask you.” 

You scoff, smacking his arm. “Ya!” 

“So, really, what are you to me in the future?” He insists anyway, swiftly dodging your hits until he’s caught your wrist in his hands. “Friend? Best friend?” 

A lover? He wanted to add further but he bites his tongue back just in time.  

“I always call you my best friend but I’ve yet to hear the same thing from you so, honestly, how would I know when you’re so secretive with your true feelings all the time! I’m even surprised you answered my question just now.” You frown, unintentionally coming off as bitter in your tone of voice as you retract your hand back to your side. You place your cup down as well, careful of the remaining tea so it doesn’t accidentally spill on your hanbok. At this moment, you miss the way Minho’s expression turns into confusion. “If it helps, though, I can only tell you that you always let me in your house to hoard the wi-fi—which you don’t have to know about right now!—and you’ve kept me around long enough to know when you’re trying to lie to me or read my thoughts with your clairvoyance thing going on.” 

Minho nods along, humming in thought. “So you’re a parasite?” 

You inhale a deep breath, focusing all of your energy into restraining yourself from hitting him for a second time. “You’ve called me worse.” You sigh with a controlled laugh. “Expired dinner and ex-wife who has nowhere else to go are my personal favorites.” 

Next to you, Minho’s eyes genuinely widen in curiosity. “We got married?” 

“Um, no? No, no, it’s an expression!” You shake your head and snicker despite the contrasting heat on your neck. Minho grows flustered at sensing the blood rushing up to your face. “I don’t even know if you’re capable of romantic love, dude. You’re always kinda everywhere and nowhere.” 

Minho’s not offended, though, especially not when you try to apologize after at realizing that you’re not as close with this version of him as you are with the version you know in your own time. “It’s fine.” He assures you with a shrug, knowing full well that you were just kidding around. “I’m guessing with that that I’m still single five centuries later.” 

“That and a bit of a flirt, too.” You clarify before his words fully process in your head. “Wait, so that means you haven’t dated even before this?” 

Minho shakes his head. “No, no one’s caught my eye yet.” 

You purse your lips in thought of this new revelation. It’s in moments like this, when you’re meeting past selves of your immortal friends that you realize just how little you actually know of them. “Huh, I didn’t peg you as the type.” 

“The type to what?” 

You shrug slowly, hunching over in your seat. “To be the fall in love just once type? I don’t know...”

Chan has mentioned to you once about Minho believing in soulmates but you were quick to dismiss that then. Remembering that now, maybe he is right. 

And, as if he has been reading your thoughts this entire time, Minho agrees with a nod. “Then, now you know. If you’ve lived as long as I have, soulmates are really nice to think about.” 

“But you always tease me about it...you from the future at least.” You pout. “Again, no offense, it’s just that—from the way I know you in my time, you’re very confusing.” 

When you glance over at Minho, you see him sit up straighter and lean closer to you again, your shoulders bumping against his as he tilts his head to meet your gaze. “Really? How am I confusing? Maybe I can help.” 

You scrunch up your nose. “Ah, but that’s unfair. You’ll take note of this in the future again.” 

“Your time’s five hundred years away, I’m sure I’ll forget this with time.” He assures you to no avail as evidenced by your squinted eyes. 

“You remembered my ramen and coffee request from last time, though.” You argue back, making his eyes light up. 

“I will?” 

You nod, placing a finger on his forehead and pushing his face away from yours. “Yeah, so I don’t trust you. Let’s just leave it at that.” 

Minho doesn’t bother you anymore about it for the rest of your one-year stay, which you’re more than grateful for.

present: February 22, 2020 

He does, however, teases you about it again when you’re back to the present. Closing in on you in one of his bone-crushing hugs when you reappear in his room, he asks, “So, how was meeting me in the 1500s this time, best friend?”

“Excuse me, what did you say?” You furrow your brows at him, your arms going limp on your sides while your entire body freezes on the spot. 

“I just called you my best friend.” He repeats casually with a shrug. “Why?” 

Minho purposely omits the fact that he double-checked his old journals to make sure that you just time traveled to that period when you mentioned to him how he’s never called you his best friend. He’s been waiting for this opportunity to set it right with you since he didn’t know much of the context back then. 

You shake your head in response, reluctantly hugging him back once you’ve regained feeling in your arms again. “Nothing, it’s just...” 

“Dude, you’re acting like past me and present me are different people.” He chuckles against your hair, squeezing your frame once before pulling away. “So, we’re good, right? You’re not bitter about the whole best friend thing now?” 

You frown, slapping his elbow to which he only chuckles at. “Who said I was bitter?” 

“You did in 1592!” He teases, his mischievous grin softening into a fond smile after. “But seriously...sorry about that. I just think it’s cheesy to say most of the time but you really are...my best friend now I guess—maybe until you die in 50 years.”

Minho then runs away before you could even protest, prompting you to chase him out of his room and into the hallway. “Ya, Lee Minho! I’m going to kill you first, you brat!”  

But you know that deep in your heart that he’s only joking (and also because Jeongin has gossiped to you once about accidentally reading one of Minho’s journal entries from the 1700s once about meeting someone who shares your name but was already working as a professor in university and may or may not already be a vampire). 

present: February 29, 2020

“Okay, to refresh...” You mumble as you adjust the watch on your wrist and the switchblade Minho insisted on you keeping in your pants’ pockets. Next to you, said vampire’s is sprawled on his bed, a reviewer and highlighter in hand. “In 1895, Hyunjin was following Shiyeon around the world, Seungmin was starting out his photography career, Soojung was taking a beauty nap, Haseul was still sleeping, Changbin was going on a Jack the Killer rampage somewhere in Europe, Jisung was still a newborn, Felix, and Jeongin haven’t joined you yet, and Chan was...learning yoga with Eunhye? Is that right?” 

“And I’ve met all versions of you by this time.” Minho adds in absentmindedly before going back to chanting his notes over and over again. He really doesn’t need to since he really has sharp memory these days but you let him study for whatever it is he’s studying, anyway, so he has something else to do besides Kart Rider and annoying his other friends. “Just tell past me who I’m meeting when you arrive since you know how I kept mixing graduate studies you and college thesis you up all the time.” 

“That’s...you guys have lived lives.” You puff out a tired breath, making Minho glance up to you briefly and chuckle. “Sometimes, it makes me and Nari feel so small.” 

“It’s not much.” The boy shrugs back. “It personally hasn’t felt that long.” 

“And why’s that?” You hum curiously. 

He mumbles something behind his paper but you don’t hear it well. When you ask him about it, he only shakes his head and kicks you with his socket foot, urging you to go already. 

Minho actually said, “It’s because you’ve been with me the entire time.” but he’ll just tell you all about it later when you come back. 

With a scoff, you then swat his foot away and bid him goodbye. “Fine, see you later then.” 

“I’ll organize your notes until then. Bye.” 

past: July 1895

Minho sets your location on your watch to his house, now renovated to what was considered modern then. You’ve been here countless of times, albeit in different time periods of your own past (the last being when you had to ask for his help in the 1860s about your graduate thesis), but you’ve never been here in the 1890s, not when a newborn Jisung had the self-control of a toddler and immediately tried pouncing on you the moment he smelled you on their front lawn.  

Now you know what the switchblade is for (and the one time Jisung kept apologizing to you in the 1910s). 

“Ji, calm down!” Minho growls in annoyance, holding the younger boy by his arms as he drags him back inside the house. He can feel your anxiousness increase just by looking at this unfamiliar side of Jisung, prompting him to send you an apologizing look. “Sorry, um, Y/N, I—” 

“I-It’s...it’s fine.” You assure shakily with a curt nod, taking a step back as well when Jisung tries regaining two steps towards you again. “I think I came in the wrong day.” 

“It depends. What are you here for?” He asks, his voice growing faint as he successfully manages to lock Jisung inside the house. He then quickly jogs back to you, examining your face for any recognizable hints of where you could be from.

“Doctorate thesis.” You answer for him, earning you a look of realization from him. 

“Oh, it’s you.” He smiles in relief. You remember distinctly how these were also the very same words he told you when you first met him in a time travel. “I was thinking you’d never come back.” 

You feign a frown in front of him, making him laugh. “Why? Did you think I wouldn’t finish my studies?” 

“It’s just that the next time you came back, from my point of view, is when you were only in college to ask me about the 1810s.” He clarifies, to which you nod in understanding. So he does remember. “I thought it weird at first that you didn’t come back sooner to finish your doctorate.” 

“Ah, well, you in 2020 has been a big help—well, him and a shit ton of books.” You chuckle awkwardly. “This is my last trip for my doctorate, actually, since I have the smallest amount of resources for Queen Min.” 

“T-This is—this is your last?” 

You smirk at his briefly dejected expression, elbowing him gently. “Why do you look so sad? You already know we’ll meet again in the future. Plus, you’ll still meet younger versions of me later on for my college requirements which is a bit confusing to hear right now but you’ll get it later!” 

Minho opens his mouth to speak, initially to tell you something about being frustrated that he’s only seen glimpses (and different versions) of you throughout his life so far, but he’s suddenly cut off by Jisung banging wildly against the front door, making him and you flinch. 

“Um...what if we deal with Jisung first?” You suggest. “I assure you we’re all going to be great friends in the future but no one really told me that this would happen.” 

Minho nods slowly next to you, rubbing the nape of his neck. “Yeah, we should probably take care of him first before your thesis. You could spare five minutes to sit down, right?” 

“Definitely.” 

And so, you spend the rest of your first day getting Jisung to calm down in your presence. 

present: February 29, 2020 

“Chan, babe, please, please, please promise that you won’t flinch when we use the party poppers later.” Eunhye sighs exasperatedly as she leads everyone into organizing the kitchen and living room. “Felix, good job on the cookies by the way! They turned out really well! Jisung, hurry up with that banner!” 

“Babe, I don’t flinch!” Chan yells across the hallway as he re-checks if everyone will have enough party hats, trumpets, and poppers for later. 

“Yes you do!” 

“What’s so significant about today, anyway?” Nari asks Jeongin as the two enter the apartment with boxes upon boxes of blood bags and alcoholic drinks. “Besides Y/N finishing their thesis, of course.” 

Shiyeon and Hyunjin follow closely behind with take-out boxes of chicken wings. “Because today is Y/N’s last time travel before they become a professor! A lot of good things are going to happen after, trust me.” Shiyeon answers with a wink. 

“How come you know all of that? You were barely with us in the 1800s.” Jisung asks while struggling to put the other end of your congratulations banner across the kitchen. Soojung is on the other end, arm beginning to fall asleep as she holds up the other end of the banner for Jisung. “Even Jeongin and Felix don’t know that.” 

“There’s a thing called correspondence and Hyunjin was a diligent gossiper.” Shiyeon only chuckles, setting down the take-out boxes on the countertop. “Also, hey, I was there in one of Y/N’s visits! It just hasn’t happened in our timeline yet but it will in three years!” 

Minho then emerges from his room, phone in hand counting down the seconds until you’re back again. “Okay, we have two hours to get everything ready.”

“Lee Minho where have you been this entire time!” Eunhye complains, finally taking the boy’s presence to take a seat. “I’ve been organizing everyone for a whole ten minutes!”  

“You mean you have two hours to get ready.” Haseul teases, seated on one of the dining table chairs and helping Changbin, Seungmin, and Felix make proper chocolates this time. “Don’t you have something else important you need to prepare?” 

“No, I can just wing it.” Minho dismisses to which Chan immediately laughs at, catching the younger boy’s panicked expression. 

“Sure you do.” Seungmin dryly responds, to which everyone topples over in laughter. 

past: November 1905

“You’ll see me again in five years, at least from your point of view.” You assure Minho from 1905 right before you leave. Jisung’s apologizing again about the incident last time but you’re quick to hug him and effectively shut him up. “The one you’ll meet in 1910 is going to be a little different, though, a little younger.” 

“But it’s still you.” 

You smile at this. “Yeah, still me.” 

Minho wants to tell you so badly that he’s met another version of you while you were away, someone older, but he quickly pushes the thought at the back of his head. Is this how you feel holding back spoilers from him? Instead, he ops to tease you. “You know, when people usually meet, it’s not as backwards as us.” When you raise an eyebrow at him, he continues, “You keep meeting me from the past and I’ve met you from the future countless of times. Even if culture’s going to be different in the future, I’m pretty sure this is still not how it goes there.” 

Finally, understanding, you let out a laugh, hitting his side playfully. “Definitely not.” You agree sheepishly. “But I think that makes it even more special. It makes you wait until we’re in the same time, right?” 

Minho nods. “What date are you going back to again?” 

“February 29, 2020. Why?” 

He says nothing else on it but bids you goodbye with one last hug instead. “Nothing. I’ll see you again soon...or another version of you.” 

“And I’ll see future you.” You chuckle before disappearing. 

present: February 29, 2020 

You come back to all the lights in Minho’s apartment turned off at the present. You hear whispers and the soft clicking of a lighter as well, prompting you to follow the noise outside. 

“I think it’s better if Changbin doesn’t hold the cake, don���t you think?” You recognize Haseul’s loud voice even from the hallways, fueling your curiosity even further. 

A slight pause then follows before you hear Chan agree, “Yeah. Hyunjin, you hold the other cake.” 

“Lix, you’re stepping on my foot.” That’s Jisung, you know by the way he’s always whiny when he complains. 

“Oh shit, sorry!” 

“Everyone, quiet! Y/N’s on their way!” Nari scolds and the hushes then quickly fall silent once you reach the kitchen, flipping the light switch on the hallway to the sound of party poppers exploding right in front of you. Only then do you see the big ‘CONGRATULATIONS Y/N!’ banner hanging right above everyone standing in a line with cake, hats, and trumpets. 

“Um?” You raise an eyebrow at everyone, breaking out into an uncontrollable grin. “What’s with all this?” 

Minho of your time then walks over to you with a Toblerone cake, carefully protecting two candles from the breeze that enters through the windows. “Chan and Eunhye insisted on a party so...congrats on finishing your thesis!” 

Over his shoulder, said vampire and immortal immediately shake their heads in denial. “It’s his idea!” Eunhye mouths to you with a smirk, making you chuckle.

You then turn to Minho with a smile. “I haven’t even finished writing it yet.” You point out only for your best friend to shrug nonchalantly. “And my graduation’s in a month.”  

“Yeah, we can work on that once everyone’s out of the apartment.” He suggests. “Now, just blow on the candles first, Seungmin’s arms are about to fall off waiting to take a picture.” 

You briefly apologize to Seungmin on the side with a sheepish laugh, blowing on the cake’s candles after to the many snaps of his film camera. “Thank you for all this. I really appreciate it, you guys!” You thank your guests after, approaching them with Minho on your side this time. 

“We can call you Professor now, right?” Hyunjin playfully asks, elbowing you gently on your side. 

“It makes me sound really old.” You pout, making him laugh. “In a few years.” 

“Three years.” Shiyeon coughs to which Minho immediately glares them down for. 

Catching this gesture, you decide on purposely ignoring it for now. You’ll have to ask Shiyeon what they mean with that later. “Anyway, let’s eat. Have you guys been here long?” 

“Not really but I’m already starving!” Soojung exclaims, passing you a plate and utensils. Next to her, Felix and Chan instinctively open up all the take-out boxes of food for everyone to dig in. 

“Alright, let’s eat!” 

present: March 1, 2020 

Minho kicks everyone out after by the strike of midnight, when all the food’s been devoured and the party games have been played at least twice. Surprisingly, even Jisung and Jeongin were directed outside by Minho at this time, which you immediately ask him about once the two boys are out of the door. “Don’t those two live here?” You joke with a dry chuckle. “You don’t have to kick them out so we can work.” 

“They’ll come back later.” Minho gently shuts the door before turning to you as you stand with your arms crossed in front of your chest, a genuinely curious expression on your face. “I just...need a moment with you.” 

You pretend to take a step back with your best dramatic expression of fear. “Oh my God, you’re going to kill me after eight years of friendship, right?” 

“What? No.” Minho furrows his brows at this, making you laugh. “It’s just...fuck, now I’m off-tracked.” 

You giggle this time, loosening your arms in front of you. “What is it, Minho?” 

There have been times, both in the past and present though rare, when Minho has looked nervous in front of you. The last time he was, from what you can remember, was when he was about to tell you that he accidentally killed the squirrel in the apartment’s back garden but even then, he wasn’t as nervous as he is now—fiddling with the hem of his blue sweater for a brief moment before finally taking the courage to step closer to you. “I-I, um—” He stammers out, one hand instinctively going up to his nape. “What I want to say is that...remember when I asked you in 1592 about how I know you?” 

“You just teased me about that last week.” You roll your eyes in an attempt to ease the sudden awkwardness, only to make it even worse for Minho. With this, your expression immediately contorts into worry. “What about it?” 

“Then in 1905, where you just came back from, you told me we’ll meet in the right time eventually...” He continues after a while, smiling back when you do reassuringly. “In between those centuries, of course, y-you—you came in for your college homework and your Masteral’s but there was also...there was also someone else.” 

This unexpected turn drops something heavy on your stomach, your smile unconsciously faltering. Minho wants to snicker but, knowing you, you’ll probably think of him cold if he does so he takes in a deep breath and tries his best to continue with less stutters this time. “Don’t be too sad, it’s still you, just a few months in the future.” He assures with a chuckle, hands instinctively going up to your sides to rub your arms comfortingly. Your eyes widen at this in response and you freeze in his touch. “Anyway, July 2020 Y/N just told me to do something tonight, if that’s okay.” 

It takes you a moment to respond but Minho patiently waits, holding back his laugh by biting his lip down. He’s reading your thoughts as they go into overdrive. Is this how you feel when I hide the future from you before? You internally ask to which he nods at. “U-Um, so...what are you going to do?”

“Just tell you that I’ve been in love with you for a long time.” Minho finally confesses, sighing in relief once he’s gotten the words out surprisingly well. “And if you’d like to go out for a trip after your graduation—and not the time travel trip, this time so we can be together right.” 

There’s more to it, actually, Minho has a whole paper written and rehearsed for a span of almost three centuries but he figures you’ll find out about it eventually. He could tell you about how he’s been in love with every version of you that he’s met in the past another time or maybe you already know it. 

“So?” He asks after a while when you don’t speak verbally. Your thoughts are still muddled and your heartbeat’s a little too fast for his liking but he holds any impulsive urge he might have in for your sake. “What do you say?” 

You purse your lips once, mustering up a relieved smile at him after. “You already met me from the future this time—which I commend you for, by the way, because you’ve one-upped me again this time!—so I think you already know the answer to that.” 

epilogue

past: July 1799

You know full well that you’re not supposed to travel back in time for personal reasons, especially not for the reason you’re coming into 1799 to see a past Minho for, but you figure that you’re already in your university’s faculty roster. If I get caught, you think to yourself as you easily spot Minho with Chan at an art exhibit in Paris, the professors will probably understand. 

“Minho! Chan!” You call with your hand above your head waving frantically at the two, catching theirs and a few patrons’ attentions. You don’t mind the extra attention as you approach him, though, since they did instinctively made way for you because of it. “Hello there, you two!” 

“Hi, Y/N!” Chan greets you happily, giving you a side hug. “Aren’t you back too soon?” 

But knowing full well that you’re probably not the same one the two met last time, Minho smirks in amusement as he eyes your choice of clothes and asks, “And where did you come from? By the clothes, me from the future probably doesn’t know you’re here.” 

“Yeah, I picked out my own clothes for today. Anyway, I won’t be here long.” You roll your eyes with a chuckle. “I’m from July 2020 and I’m not here for any academic work this time! I just wanted to ask you a quick favor.” 

From what you’ve detailed in your own journals, the last time you met from this particular Minho’s point of view was when you were doing a paper on the Baroque movement for one of your college classes. 

“What is it?” He asks you anyway, his body turned away from the painting that he and Chan have been previously admiring as he gives you his full attention. 

Judging from the amount of times you’ve visited him (and the different versions of you he’s meet as well), his future self seems to agree on your requests all the time. 

“I can’t tell you much but please prepare something on February 29, 2020!” You answer, your watch beeping on your side to remind you that it’s almost time to leave. “And make sure to mention me! Remember, Y/N from July 2020!” 

Before he could ask about it, further, however, you were already gone. 

“What do you think that was about, Chan?” Minho asks the older vampire instead. 

But Chan simply shrugs, hands going deeper in his pockets as he thinks. “No idea.” He admits in equal confusion. “Guess we’ll have to see in three hundred years.” 

[artxyra]

Ok so I don't know if your still taking requests but if you are it's daminette and marinette is over so the whole wayne family and her are chilling and they think they hear someone so they do a heartbeat scan and they count an extra one so they're searching they manor and they're on guard they alfred ask all the girls if they're pregnant and the guys are nervous because one of them could be a father so they scan all the girls and they find out mari's preggo and it's a whole chaotic ordeal

Note: Sorry this took so long, I was trying to figure out the best way to tell this story and I finally got the idea after watching TT episode Fear Itself. 

Whoever’s idea was it for the family to watch a horror movie during a fucking thunderstorm, Marinette just wants to end their lives. She was having a good day despite feeling sick in the morning, so being informed that tonight’s movie was horror-based was interesting. The majority of the time, a horror movie wasn’t a bad idea, but the moment the film ended, and the lights randomly shut off, the screaming begins.

For a house filled with heroes vigilantes, they sure do know how to scream and act like they’re in a horror movie real quick. Marinette could feel the need to throw up grow as the sense of someone watching her suddenly grows. At first, she thought that it was Damian or any of his brothers, but how could that be when everyone disperses the second, they heard movements that were not from either of them. Damian was reluctant to leave Marinette to her own device, but since the manor was so large splitting up was the best option.

“Come on, Mari, you’re Ladybird, stuff like this is nothing.” Marinette murmurs to herself in an attempt to keep her nerves at bay. That doesn’t go well, as the creaking noise suddenly fills the hallway. She sure hopes that it’s the air conditioner making those sounds. Marinette was slowly regretting not taking Alfred’s lead and follow him to the kitchen, at least she knows the kitchen area better than the damn halls. The amount of time she still gets lost in the halls just to find the gym is an outlandish number.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Clenching her teeth, she fumbles to unlock her phone. Despite using it as a flashlight, she also didn’t want to accidentally turn the only source of light off. The second her phone unlock, thunder and lightning decided to join forces making her jump at the sudden flash of light and a loud boom.

“I am so killing Jason…” She mutters. Finally, she is able to see the notification. It was a series of messages stating clear and the location. There were at least five out of the nine that were currently in the manor. They had invited Duke, but he opted out the second he realizes who was picking out the movies. Apparently, any movie chosen by Jason could only mean bad things and Duke, surprisingly, wanted nothing apart of it.

The creaking noises remain active, something that made walking down the hall and looking for a potential intruder much more difficult. Had the creaking stops, this would have been much easier to delegate which room needs searching.

Back downstairs, the Bat-family all decided to meet up in the living room. Marinette had yet to make an appearance. Damian was growing impatiently worried for his beloved, so much that he was practically stabbing the ground with one of many katanas.

“Master Damian,” Alfred chastised seeing the new marking on the floor. Great another reason to keep buffering the floors at least twice a month. Alfred knows that everyone’s worries were running high. They still had yet located the cause of the sound—a potential intruder—and it’s not like they would go into the Batcave without a problem, but they didn’t want to take that chance.

“She should have been here by now,” Damian grumbles placing the sword back into its sheath.

“Demon, we’re talking about Pixie, the girl literally has problems getting to the gym every once in a while, and that’s with light.” Jason’s words slowly dawned on the family. He’s right. Marinette may be officially apart of the family now, but the designer literally stays in like five places within the manor: hers and Damian’s room, the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom nearest to her, and the Batcave. Beyond those options, it’s better for Marinette to have a guide, which is usually Titus, and sometimes Alfred when he doesn’t have anything to do.

“I got the tracker ready, sir. Should I place it on heartbeat mode?” Alfred shows them the tracking device with a knowing look on his face.

The Batbros race to the device only for Tim to grab it and put it in the right settings.

“Hold on, wouldn’t it better to search for heat signatures?” Dick asks—well he was thinking aloud for the most part.

“Ideally yes, but the readings can become messy if we’re all in the same room or if what we are dealing with doesn’t radiate heat. It’s best to go with a pulse or in other words a heartbeat. Got any more questions, Dick.” Tim states glaring at his oldest brother. They were all worried about Marinette, but it was upped times ten. “Now are we going to try and find ‘spresso and whoever even dared to enter the manor?” Tim was a man on a mission. In fact, they all were.

No one dared to object to Tim’s claims. Damian was impatiently tapping his feet against the ground, and soon there were thirteen pulsing dots going off the tracker. Tim mentally did a headcount, with him included there were nine people in the room with him which means four of the dots are in unknown locations.

“So, which one do we follow?” That was the question on everybody’s mind.

“We go to the one that is alone, with a faint pulse.” On the device, several feet away is a flickering dot as if there was some interference in picking up the heartbeat. It wasn’t stable.

“Damian, where are your animals?” Barbara asks typing away on her phone. She may not be at the bat-computer, but she can still manage with Wi-Fi and a portable device.  

Damian wasn’t sure where his animals are. He knows for a fact that Alfred the cat was in his room, Titus disappears to hang out with Ace every now and then. The rest of the animals are most likely outside in their miniature houses that he keeps at the manor for nights like these.  

“No time to argue, we got to move.” Tim was already ahead of the family following the path guided to him by the tracker.

The bat-family follow the strange signal until they reach a dead end. All the doors were shut, and the thunder was booming with no means to stop. They haven’t seen or heard from Marinette since they disbanded earlier that night. Soon, the faint pulsing signal grows stronger as they approach the final door. No one, aside from Alfred, could remember what was behind that door. It was a bedroom.

“Whoa” Tim yelps, looking down at the tracker. There are now twelve pulsating dots on the device. They all filter into the room. It was practically empty which put them all on edge. Marinette was somewhere in the manor and now there were in an empty room with no clues on where to start.

Using their flashlights, they scan every inch of the place and still found nothing. Alfred takes the device away from Tim who protested but when he realized that it was Alfred he calms down.

“I don’t think there is another person in the manor,” Cass states looking around the room. She was eyeing the large wardrobe. If her hunch is correct, then she knows where the newest pulsing signal is coming from and that makes her giddy.

“I concur with Miss Cain.” Alfred walks over to the second door that is in the room and opens it revealing a certain black Great Dane wagging his tail happily yet protectively. He barks but upon seeing his owner, he calms down. “It appears that one of the signals is Titus and with him being her it only means that Miss Marinette is in this room. Perhaps in the wardrobe.”

The second the word “wardrobe” escapes the butler’s lips, all the bat-bros rush over to the item. Damian was quick to open it and there she is. Marinette’s small enough to fit comfortably on the base and stay hidden had there been any clothes on the rack. In her arms is a small pup, probably the intruder that has been haunting them. The pup’s nails are long and need to be cut. Marinette was sleeping which made it easier for Damian to scoop her into his arms.

The pup wakes up and begins barking yelping up a storm causing Marinette to stir in Damian's arms. Her eyes flutter open and a yawn escapes her lips.

“Is it morning already?” She yawns once more rubbing her eyes. Damian shakes his head causing Marinette to pout and try to find comfort in Damian’s arms to fall back to sleep to, but the pup in her arms wasn’t having it. “Oh quiet, you.” Marinette laughs and tightens her hold on the pup.

“That doesn’t explain the strange pulsing signal?” Steph states looking over Alfred’s shoulder and once more a signal was faltering without a constant beat.

“That’s because I believe, Miss Marinette is currently with child.” Alfred places the device down for everyone to see. “We have the heartbeat tracker on pulsing signals that can be easily translated to a heartbeat. If Miss Marinette, is indeed with child, the interference to this signal is the pulsing from the fetus.”

Alfred pause for a second giving everyone to process the news. Damian’s exe. was broken as he stares at his wife with love and shock. The rest of the family, aside from Cass, was blinking away the shock. Five, four, three, two…one. Then they all break out in shouts of excitement.

“Oh my god, we’re going to be uncles!” Dick exclaims bouncing in place. He even wraps his arms around Damian, who was still frozen and gives him a side hug knowing full well that he can’t protest.

Jason looks like he was about to kill someone—more or less Damian for a matter of fact. Marinette was his sister in everything but blood. Yes, he’s excited for the incoming member of the family, but he doesn’t know what to do.

 Tim was trying to wrap the news around his head. He hadn’t had any coffee since before the movie night started and with the power being off, there’s no way for him to make his usual late-night cup of coffee.

“Will you shut up; I’m trying to sleep here,” Marinette growls bring the attention back to her. Damian did the only thing that came to mind, he places a kiss upon her lips. Marinette moans and she would have playfully hit him had her arms weren’t holding the pup.

“So, no one is going to question how a puppy got into the manor?” Steph asks pointing to the pup still in Marinette’s arms. She was tempted to coddle the pup and leave the room to return to her own and news come back to life in the morning.

“Titus’s doggy door, most like. I won’t know until I check all the cameras.” Barbara says wheeling herself over to the couple, “Congratulations Damian…I’m going to bed.”

“We are so talking about this in the morning,” Dick claims as he walks out the room pushing Jason and Tim along with him.

Soon it was just Marinette, Damian, and the dogs alone in the room. Damian had a few options to consider, stay the night in this room or walk through a series of halls to return to their own bedroom. It’s late, so he chooses the former. Placing Marinette on the bed was easy once the newly introduced pup jumps out of her arms and onto the bed.

He makes sure she’s comfortable before joining her. Titus curls at the foot of the bed barking at the pup to come to him to which the pup did. Damian pulls Marinette into his chest and whispers, “Thank you, Angel,” into her ear.

“You’re welcome, Demon.” Marinette murmurs back before going off to sleep.

Who would have thought that this is how his family would find out that Damian and Marinette were expecting? This would go down as the best accidental reveal in their family history.     

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[kurowrites]

The Live-In Boyfriend - Chapter 1

Looking for live-in boyfriend, the title read.

It had only been put up the day before.

Well, well, Wei Ying thought to himself. Isn’t that exactly what I was looking for?

He clicked on the link and quickly read through the text of the advert.

Since you all enabled me yesterday - have a chapter of Wei Ying being supremely stupid. Link to AO3.

(Note that this fic is going to get mature later on. Also don’t try this at home pls.)

---

Wei Ying usually wasn’t the kind of person that eavesdropped on the conversations of people he didn’t know. Most of the time, it wasn’t worth the effort of spying, anyway.

(Too many boring people in this world.)

But something about the day he’d had so far, and the way the two girls seated next to him kept giggling and exclaiming in (pretended?) shock, made him listen in. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do. He was just sitting there, sipping on his depression coffee, trying to decide what he was supposed to do next.

“A website?” the girl with a truly impressive set of pink lacquered nails exclaimed. “Isn’t that super sketchy?”

She emphasised ‘sketchy’ by tapping her long, sharp nails onto the tabletop.

“Noo, not at aaaall,” the other girl, dressed in a figure-hugging dress the colour of a ripe banana, replied. “You have to provide identification and they do a background check on you, to make sure you’re not a criminal or something. The sugar daddies too, of course.”

“Oh really?” Pink Nails asked, and immediately looked a lot more interested in the topic.

Well, Wei Ying had to agree with Pink Nail’s interest – he could use one of those sugar daddies himself. Someone willing to pay for his expenses, that would be nice. A lot better than being homeless, at any rate.

“Yeah, and you can even chat with them before meeting them,” Banana said, twirling her hair around her finger coquettishly. “It’s not like I’m going to go out with just any guy.”

“And that’s where you met him?”

“Yeah,” Banana said, leaning back a little, clearly satisfied to have the undivided attention of her companion. “You have lots of choices, and you can put in your preferences, too.”

She leaned forward again, and lowered her voice to a fake whisper that did nothing to make her voice less audible over the soft café music.

“I was really lucky with my current sugar daddy. He’s really generous because he has an established career and a lot of money. He likes kinky sex, but that’s fine, because he also kinda gets off on me sleeping with other guys, so it’s not like I can’t still go out and do whatever I want. I’m just providing him with company and a pretty thing to hang off his arm whenever he goes to a party or something.”

The two women laughed, and returned to the discussion of the advantages of this website.

Wei Ying’s attention was caught. He looked down at the sad little weekend bag next to his chair that contained nearly all of Wei Ying’s worldly possessions, discounting the boxes of books he had managed to stow away in Jiang Yanli’s attic. He’d had to sell all his furniture because he had no space where he could put it anymore. The landlord had kicked him out despite Wei Ying’s best attempts at negotiation (curse his entire bloodline), and now Wei Ying was, essentially, homeless. He had no idea how to weather the next few weeks. He had no stable address, and he needed to look for a new job. Things weren’t looking good for him.

So, he sipped on his possibly last coffee for a long time and pretended not to listen in to the conversation of the two women next to him. And when Banana finally mentioned the name of website she had been using, he felt compelled to casually unpack his own laptop, make use of the café’s free Wi-Fi, and enter the name of the website into his browser.

He was just curious, that was all.

His search returned with the result that this website was in fact the equivalent of a dating website, only for sugar babies and other forms of… special companionship. The company claimed to be classy and strict with their background checks, made assertions of quality and high customer satisfaction. And the registration as a potential sugar baby, companion, or whatever else they wanted to call it, was free.

Wei Ying paused for a moment, wondering if he really should do such a thing. All assertions from the provider aside, it was still a risky thing.

He took another look at the bag at his feet. It couldn’t get much worse than it already was, could it?

He clicked the ‘new account’ button and filled out the application without a second thought.

---

Looking for the right sugar-person wasn’t exactly a simple thing to do, Wei Ying realised about three pages in. He had decided early on that the gender of this potential sugar person didn’t actually matter, but that had the simultaneous advantage and disadvantage of increasing his possible matches considerably. He wasn’t sure how to make a choice in this wild new world that had suddenly opened himself up to him.

He was a bit nervous about the having sex part, too. He tried to imagine having sex with someone he didn’t really know and maybe didn’t find very attractive, but he drew a complete blank. It might be better to stay on the safe side and choose someone who didn’t have sex as a prerequisite. That might work out better for everyone involved.

God, with all these options and decisions, it was as complicated as looking for a job.

Well, technically, if he did it right, it might be a job. Well, not really, but he might get enough money to keep him afloat for a little bit. And with enough money, he might be able to both afford a decent apartment and find a well-paying new job.

He absent-mindedly scrolled past adverts looking for highly specific… qualifications that Wei Ying definitely didn’t have, and was considering giving up when he saw an advert for the same city he was living in.

Looking for live-in boyfriend, the title read.

It had only been put up the day before.

Well, well, Wei Ying thought to himself. Isn’t that exactly what I was looking for?

He clicked on the link and quickly read through the text of the advert.

Looking for live-in boyfriend

The ideal candidate must be clean, quiet, obedient, and sophisticated. Must be able to play his part convincingly around relatives, business associates, and friends. Good table manners and skilful socialising are required.

Physical relations are not required, but negotiable if so desired. Strictly no romantic entanglements. Affairs during the duration of the contract will lead to immediate termination.

I offer a large apartment with own private room. All ensuing costs (rent, food, clothing, allowance etc.) are covered.

The advert didn’t reveal much about the writer and his personality, so it was difficult to say anything about how well they’d fit together. But the man offered a room! Without the prerequisite of sex!

He clicked on the profile of this potential sugar daddy to find out more about him. The man, who went by L. Z., was the same age as Wei Ying, and had been working in his family’s company ever since he graduated university. Someone who had been born into wealth, probably.

He lived alone and was openly gay, so his family would expect him to bring a man to public events and family dinners. His hobbies included music, reading and tea ceremony. All in all, Wei Ying started to wonder if he was being catfished, because the age and occupation said successful young man, but the rest of it said boring middle-aged uncle with a receding hairline.

But what did Wei Ying care about boring when such a perfect opportunity presented itself to him? He didn’t want some kind of old, kinky dude. He simply wanted a place to stay, and if that stay came with an allowance and some social contact, it would be perfect for him. He had good table manners. And he did well at socialising. Most of the time.

He decided that ‘quiet’ and ‘obedient’ were relative things. He could be quiet! Sometimes! If he was reading interesting things!

He was going to contact this person, worries and fears be damned. What use was it to wait around? If this man was actually for real, he might get snatched up by someone else quickly.

He clicked on the 💌 button on the sidebar of the profile, and typed out a quick message.

Hi L. Z.!

My name is Wei Ying. I live in the same city as you and as coincidence would have it, I’m currently looking to be a live-in boyfriend! We’re the same age, too, so I think we would work very well as a couple!

I also like reading (if you have a library, I’d be all over that) and I think I can safely promise not to have any affairs while we’re dating. As for the rest, I think it would be best to judge for yourself. I’m free the next few days, so I have time for a personal meeting!

I’m a little curious though – why are you looking for a live-in boyfriend? Not to judge you, since I’m obviously responding to your advert, but you seem like a man that’s very put together. You probably could choose anyone you wanted, so why an advert?

Best, Wei Ying

He didn’t really think that he would get an answer soon, and half expected his message to go ignored, but it took barely an hour until a notification pinged on his phone, indicating that he’d received a reply.

He eagerly clicked the ‘view message’ button.

Dear Wei Ying

Thank you for your message.

I agree with you. Someone from the same city and of the same age would be a good potential partner. If you do not mind, I would like to invite you to my apartment for a personal meeting. We can meet in a café if you are more comfortable meeting on neutral ground, but you should know where you would live before you make any decisions.

To answer your question: I am not interested in a romantic relationship, but my family has been concerned about my happiness ever since I came out as gay. They want to see me in a fulfilling relationship. I want to make them stop worrying. A contractual arrangement will take care of these issues. Once we terminate the relationship, it would also provide me with a good reason not to date for some time.

Best regards,

Lan Zhan

Wei Ying gaped a little. That was a… very decisive statement. This Lan Zhan certainly didn’t beat around the bush.

Oh god, was he really catfished? Human trafficking, perhaps? But then…

He had no time to lose, and getting a home and money as a package deal was very tempting. If Jiang Yanli ever got wind of this, she might strangle him with her own bare hands. But well. She never would get wind of it. Wei Ying would make sure of that.

He pulled out his laptop again, and typed out a second answer.

Hi Lan Zhan!

Nice to meet you again. 😊

Meeting you at the apartment is fine, just know that I’m going to inform a friend of my whereabouts and check in with them to make sure everything is fine.

Tell me your address and a time that works for you!

Best,

Wei Ying

He sent the message and within a few minutes, he had an address and a time – the next day, at 5.30 pm. Lan Zhan also assured him that he was perfectly fine with Wei Ying telling a friend where he was. So maybe not a catfish, after all?

Wei Ying immediately looked for the address online, and it was a nice, modern building in the centre of town. Not some kind of seedy warehouse or an abandoned house. If he ended up disappearing in that part of town, there would probably be witnesses.  

He sent a short confirmation to Lan Zhan, telling him that he would be there at the desired time. And then, he spent the rest of the evening panicking about what he had done.

He just barely remembered that he needed to contact Nie Huaisang and use him as security. Nie Huaisang was the only one he could think of right now that wouldn’t try to talk him out of this. Jiang Cheng would just straight up murder him.

He had committed now. There was no way back.

---

His internet search had already informed him that the apartment was in the better part of town, so Wei Ying had expected a rather classy apartment building. What he hadn’t expected was that said apartment building came with an actual concierge. He’d never had to go through a concierge to meet any of his friends so far. The entrance hall almost looked like a hotel.  

Good gracious, this might all be an elaborate prank.

On the other hand, if he disappeared, now he had another witness.

He walked up to the concierge’s desk and smiled at the man behind the desk winningly.

“Hi, my name is Wei Ying. I’m here to meet Lan Zhan.”

The man gave him a critical look, from his ponytail down to the thick black leather boots he always wore, and picked up the phone in front of him.

He entered a number and let it ring a few times.

“Good evening, Mr. Lan,” the concierge said when someone picked up on the other end of the line. “A Mr. Wei is here to see you. Yes, understood. I will send him up immediately.”

The concierge came out from behind his desk and directed Wei Ying to the elevator. He held the door open for Wei Ying and pushed the button for the right floor, then bid him goodbye.

“Thank you!” Wei Ying called through the closing elevator doors, but the concierge was already out of sight.

Oh well.

He was going to meet Lan Zhan. Right now.

He quickly pulled out his mobile phone and tapped out a message to Nie Huaisang.

[Wei Ying, 05:29 pm] I’m going up to the apartment now. IT COMES WITH A CONCIERGE. 😱

The door pinged and opened onto an empty hallway with elegantly tiled floor and a tasteful but abstract mural on the wall. Wei Ying stepped out of the elevator and looked around curiously. Which way was he supposed to go?

“Wei Ying?”

There, at the end of the hallway, a man stood in the frame of an opened door.

This must definitely be a catfish, Wei Ying decided then and there.

There was no way that a man this beautiful needed his help.

[nerdettedreamteam]

robstar week 2020: day one

hey! i decided to participate again for robstar week and my friend @samdraws715 and i have decided to collaborate once again! i hope you enjoy this years prompts by us, and go check out her page too! she’s insanely talented! here’s to day one!

Star-Aligned/Destiny

Earlier tonight, Robin would’ve never expected to run into four other teens like himself. All of them, in some sense, were on the run and alone. But he didn’t think that in just one night they’d stop an entire alien empire from invading earth. Not bad for a hero’s first meeting.

The five titans walked together as the night had now carried on. They looked around, trying to find an available place to stay.

“If we’re going to work together, we need a private place to stay.” Robin spoke.

“Hmm…” Beast Boy thought aloud as he turned his head looking around him, his eyes finally catching on to an apartment up ahead with a “for sale” sign at the front. “Ooh! What about there?”

“Yeah, because dealing with landlords sounds perfect for people like us.” Cyborg told him. “Besides, it looks a little run down anyways. Why do you wanna live there of all places?”

“Uhhh… free Wi-fi?”

Cyborg rolled his eyes.

“Maybe we’re better off finding a place that’s a little more isolated.” Robin told them. “We all have powers, and staying in a place like this could put the people already there at risk.”

“You do have a point…” Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head. “So if not there, then where?”

Robin pondered on this for a moment. “I heard there’s some small islands outside the city… it’s a little ways away on the water, but it should be big enough for all of us for now, and I think it’s a good distance from the city. I think we should stay there for now.”

“Oh, that sounds wonderful! I am most excited to see this island and stay by the ocean!” Starfire beamed happily.

Robin’s eyes glanced in her direction. She was from another world, so it was normal for her English to be a little broken, but her enthusiasm about staying with her new friends was as clear as day. In a way, he found her positivity and her childlike wonder somewhat charming. He liked that about her.

“I… think it’s this way.” He pointed straight ahead and the others followed him. Starfire flying ahead to walk with Raven, while Cyborg and Beast Boy started talking. Robin walked behind the others stuck in his thoughts.

Why wouldn’t she leave his mind? He hardly even knows her, and he has more important things to do than to think about stuff like this, not to mention he felt weird for thinking about someone who was only a few feet away from him.

“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” Beast Boy suddenly said right next to his ear, which startled Robin a little.

“What?”

“The blank stare looking at the ground, it’s obvious something’s on your mind. Now spill it.” Cyborg appeared on his other side.

“Nothing’s on my mind, okay?” Robin told them.

“Mmm, you sure?” Beast Boy smirked at him.

“C’mon, drop the act, man.” Cyborg cut in. “We already know what it is anyway.”

Robin felt a short pang of nervousness hit his chest.

Beast Boy looked into Robin’s mask, then looked forward in his direction, his eyes landing on Starfire, who was too wrapped up in her conversation with Raven to notice what was happening behind her.

“Ohhhh, I see how it is…” Beast Boy teased.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re staring at the alien girl, that’s what.” Cyborg told him.

“Yeah, and you haven’t stopped staring the entire walk so far.” Beast Boy told him.

“I’m wearing a mask, you can’t even see my eyes!”

“We don’t need to see your eyes to know that look of looovvee~” Beast Boy continued to tease him.

“I don’t even know anything about her. She’s just…”

“Cute?”

“Attractive?”

“A good kisser?”

“No!” Robin lowered his head to hide the blush that started to settle on his cheeks. “I was going to say she’s…”

“Unlike anyone you’ve ever met?” Beast Boy added.

Robin raised his hand to protest, but thought about what was said. “T-That’s not a total lie… and I don’t mean it in that way.”

Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged looks. “I’ll take what I can get,” Cyborg spoke. “but that kiss really did do somethin’ to you.”

Robin rolled his eyes. “It was just surprising, that’s all.”

Cyborg and Beast Boy had continued on with their own conversation leaving Robin alone with his thoughts again. Eventually his thoughts lead him back to thinking about her. He didn’t even know why he kept finding himself drawn to her. Maybe it was just the kind of vibe she gave off. Sure it was almost the complete opposite of his own, but he rather liked the sweetness she had to her. On another hand, she was also a mighty powerhouse; a perfect example of looks being deceiving. She nearly had everyone else beat when they were in battle, so no doubt she could take all of them out if she really wanted to. Her fighting skills were impressive, yet, she had a kind heart. He couldn’t deny it was very admirable of her.

“Robin!” She suddenly exclaimed.

Robin was taken by surprise as his thoughts were interrupted by the girl he was just thinking about. He walked up to the front of the group and stood next to her.

“Is that the island you spoke of?” She pointed to some small land a little ways away in the distance.

Robin smiled. “Yeah, it is. I think we’ll set up camp there for tonight.”

“Sounds good!” Beast Boy said. “Let’s go!” He morphed into a pterodactyl and started to take off.

“Yo, B! Think you could give me a lift?”

Beast Boy nodded, and flew back closer to the ground for Cyborg. Without any hesitation he grabbed the changeling’s dinosaur legs and the two took off. Raven was quick to follow behind them. Starfire was about to join them, when she noticed Robin still there.

“Oh! You cannot fly, correct?”

“Heh, yeah…” Robin chuckled breathlessly. “I don’t have the rest of my stuff with me at the moment. I’m sure if I did I would have something to help me fly as well, but—“

“Would you wish for me to carry you across?”

Robin’s felt his heart rate pick up at the thought. “Ah- Are you sure you want to? I could probably find some other way across—“

“It is no trouble at all, really. Do you want to?”

Robin nodded shyly and a small smile crept upon his face. This caused Starfire to beam once again. “Take my hand.”

Robin took hold of her hand, and then she grabbed his other. “Are you ready?”

Robin nodded, and without wasting much time, she gracefully lifted into the air. Once they were high over the water, he couldn’t help but feel a teeny bit nervous. He had never done this before and knowing that only her hands kept him from falling worried him. He lifted his legs a little and tightened his grip on her hands.

Starfire noticed and giggled. “Relax, I promise I will not drop you.”

Robin laughed a little as well, but noticed that her hands gripped his back tighter as well.

The rest of the ride was pretty silent, and after another minute or so the two had landed.

“Sooooo, how was the flight?” Beast Boy asked the two.

“It was enjoyable! I quite liked it.”

“Y-Yeah, so did I.”

“Cool! Well I hope you two get comfortable because we have our camp! I guess we’ll be sleeping outside tonight though, heh.”

Beast Boy suddenly tossed the two blankets. “Raven summoned them.”

Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven sat around each other talking while Cyborg and Robin set up a canopy like structure using what they had. Once they sat back down with the others, Robin sat up straight.

“So… we’re all in agreement that we’re going to stay together right?”

“Yeah! You guys rock! Plus, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t exactly have anywhere else to go.” He sheepishly smiled and rubbed the back of his head.

The others lowered their heads without saying anything, thinking the same thing as the changeling.

“Okay, so if we all want to work together, that makes us a team.” Robin stated. “Uhhh… so, who wants to be the leader?”

Beast Boy leaned forward and pointed right at him. “You should be the leader, obviously!”

“Really? A-Are you sure?”

“Well, I think you should be anyways.” Beast Boy put his hands on his hips and smiled proudly.

“Yeah, you really know how to take control, man. I think you’d be perfect for the role! Plus, you did bring us all together in the first place.”

Starfire and Raven nodded in agreement.

Robin thought for a moment, then laughed a little and smiled. “Okay, well… I guess I’ll be the leader.”

“Sweet! Now we just need a team name.” Beast Boy started to think. “Hmmm…”

“Maybe we should wait until morning for that… the name is kind of important for the team.”

“You have a good point there, Mr. Leader.” The changeling winked at him.

“Welp,” Cyborg yawned. “Maybe we should go to sleep for now. In the morning maybe we can start coming up with ideas for a home.”

“Oh, how exciting!” Starfire said happily.

“What she said.” Raven agreed.

“Night, dudes.” Beast Boy said before he morphed into a dog and stretching out on his blanket to sleep.

Cyborg’s eyes widened. “Uh, do you always do that when you go to sleep?”

No response came from him as he was already fast asleep.

“Well okay then.” Cyborg shrugged before he got comfortable as well.

The others got comfortable and slept under the stars. Robin rest his head and closed his eyes, thinking about how unexpected today had become. He never would’ve thought he’d end up with four other heroes like himself sleeping on a tiny island over the water. Then again, life was full of surprises.

A few hours had passed, and Robin’s eyes had opened. It was still nighttime, and he had no idea what time it was. He just decided to lay there a little longer, staring up at the stars wondering where life could take him next.

A few moments later, he turned on his side to see his other teammates still sleeping peacefully. Everything seemed just as it was, except one person was missing.

Robin looked around for the alien girl. Did she just decide to leave them? His eyes frantically searched until they stopped on a figure standing right at the edge of the island. Relief flowed through him once he realized it was her. He silently made his way to her and approached her from behind.

“Hey… what are you doing out here?”

“Oh, Robin, it is only you.” She said before gently smiling at him. She turned her head back towards the sky. “I am merely looking out to see the stars. I never knew they were this beautiful to look at from Earth.”

“Yeah… it’s nice honestly.” He walked up beside her.

There was silence between the two as they both stared up at the stars. The only thing that could be heard was the water hitting the edge of the island.

“I wonder if I am able to see Tamaran from Earth.” Starfire broke the silence.

“Tamaran?” Robin looked at her.

“Oh! My apologies… it is my home planet.”

“Oh, gotcha.” Robin felt like an awkward loser for being so blunt with responding. “Do… do you miss it?” He asked her, curious to know more.

Starfire hummed. “I would be lying if I said I did not. Tamaran is a lovely place, at least I always thought so.” Starfire paused. “I know I have only just arrived, but I think I like it here on your Earth. It is different, yes, but intriguing, and you all have been very nice to me… even though I caused the wreakage of the city.”

“It’s no problem, really, I’m just glad you’re okay.” Robin put a hand on her shoulder.

Starfire smiled at the gesture. “I would also like to thank you, Robin.”

“Me? For what?”

“For bringing us together.” She looked over to Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven still fast asleep. “When I left the Gordanian ship, I thought I would be all on my own, but ever since I left it has been quite the opposite, and I am still here with all of you, and now we are to be a team of heroes.” She turned back to face Robin. “That is all because of you, Robin, and for that, I am thankful.”

Robin gazed at her with fixation. She was insanely sweet and her way with words was adorable. But once he thought about what she said, he took her hands into his own, and her bright eyes stared into his mask.

“Actually, I think us coming together was because of you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah… I mean, if you hadn’t come to Earth, we’d all still be alone right now.” Robin began as he felt his face grow warmer. “I don’t know about the others, but I’m honestly glad this has happened. I’d probably still be on my own somewhere if you hadn’t showed up.” He chuckled a little. “So, I’m happy you helped bring us together. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”

Starfire blushed and continued to stare into his masked eyes. The moonlight seemed to shine even brighter on them in that moment, and they both stared at each other, filled with hope and wondering what the future had in store for them.

[screechlikeasiren]

So, heres the starting chapter from my y/n insert book called 'Choices fem!reader x mha' you can find it on Wattpad.

First chapters are always so slow arnt they?

Y/N Quirk: ?? Age: 15

Close Friend: ??

The cool breeze across your face brings you back to reality. A deep breath you never realized you were holding comes out. Becoming aware of the noises from below you, cars driving along the darkened road, people with different quirks all walking along the sidewalk.

That’s how today’s world is, these powers called Quirks randomly appearing in people. From Quirks that can levitate objects to having multiple body parts, able to control wind or someone’s movements with just a simple look into their eyes. In short form, a Quirk is a superhuman ability that a person possesses. People seemed to randomly develop these Quirks; they can also appear any time before the age of four. Most of the time the type of Quirk you get depends on what your parents have, it’s rare to get something completely different, but it does happen. Sometimes you get nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The now freezing breeze bringing you out of your thoughts. You sit up from your laying position, turning slightly to let your right leg hang off the side. You bend your left leg up next to you, laying your arm off of the kneecap. Laying your head onto the empty flag pole behind you. The cold steel making you painfully aware of how cold you truly are up here. The what was once pitch-black night sky is now turning a slight brighter tint of orange. Signifying the start to another day.

You pick out your phone from your pocket. 3:00AM January 10th. Right. No wonder it's so cold. You remember back to when you celebrated New Years. Fireworks galore. It was so fun. Hanging out with your friends just so you could get away from all the new stresses that came with it being a new year.

You’ve just recently applied to another job. Looking back at your phone you check your emails on the roof top. Your Wi-Fi just barely able to reach your position.

Nope nothing yet. You’ve been hoping to hear back about the retail position you applied for back in late December. They said they would contact you... You close out your email and browse Tik Tok. You release small nose laughs at some of them, wasting as much time as humanly possible before realizing you are going to have to go back inside at some point. Oh well...

You look back down to the cars and people moving with a purpose. Much different than the people in the middle of the night. They never have a purpose.

Glancing back at your phone, pressing the lock button to awaken the metallic device. 5:00am Dam. You really shouldn’t be surprised you spent 2 hrs on Tik Tok but here we are. Blinking while viewing that app can cause a time jump to happen. In any case you’ve got to go back inside.

Spinning around you grab the pole from behind you and slide down the side of the ledge in a little jump. In doing so you dropped your phone. Bending down to pick up the offending item, you flip it over to examine it for any cracks. Nothing. Perfect. That makes you feel a bit better, sliding it into your jeans pocket.

Walking over to the stairwell door you notice the rock you had slid into the door frame has been taken out. You never understood why the building manager kept doing that. It's not like anyone wants to rob such a shitty building in this part of town, the most expensive item in everyone’s apartment would be the basic tv. Honestly. He knows it's just you up on the roof. You try the door handle. Its locked. Of course.

You shove your hand into your jean pocket, pulling out one of the key picks. Don’t question it. You picked up this lovely talent early on in life. “When one door opens another door closes... Unless you know how to pick locks.” You say to no one, but chuckle to yourself. *click* Wonderful. You open the door and close it behind you, locking it. Walking down the metal stairs, finally reaching your apartment.

Unlocking the door with the key you walk inside. Totally forgetting to close the windows your place is now just as cold as it was outside on the roof. Mentally scolding yourself for forgetting to close the damn windows, you lock the door behind you, placing your keys on a little hook by the door. Going around the small apartment and closing all available windows. Ending in your room you plop face down on your bed.

*Buzz buzz* Your phone starts buzzing away in your pocket. Confused as all hell you pull out the phone, just as it shuts off. “Low battery, yeah I hear ya.” You stretch out reaching over your little end table by your bed and grab the charging cord. Plugging in the metal object, you glance at your watch. 5:47am Shit. You really have to get a sleep schedule. You still have stuff to do tomorrow. “Ugh, I’ll just brush my teeth tomorrow. I really don’t care right about now.” You ponder the words coming out of your mouth. “I guess tomorrow is today now. Never mind." Right. Rolling yourself under the covers you drift off to sleep...

So now that’s out of the way. Hi! Welcome to your first day. Well, first night anyway. I know choices can be tough sometimes. BUT some choices have already been made for you haven’t they. Your name for example... (Y/N) Right? Your beautiful hair or maybe the lack there of? Not sure, this is your story after all. I’m just here while you sleep. That’s WAY more creepy than it needed to be, but it needed to be said…

So, here you are, making so many important choices. Choosing to get out of bed, choosing to pick the lock of the handle, so many choices you’ve already made. And so many more to make…

So (Y/N) … What type of Quirk will you have for your story this time?

A) Quirkless. You won't have any Quirks. Nothing. Doesn’t mean you won't have the ability to gain any during the story but you will have to struggle, you like a challenge though. Right?

B) DNA Splice. Everyone either has a quirk or not. With this you must consume blood almost every day to be able to survive. If you consume blood that has a quirk in it, you will gain that quirk and its abilities. You’ll automatically know how to use it, how it works, and how it might hurt you or others near you. You get sunburned VERY easily if you stay out for too long, and you gain a pair of fangs. You can only gain two Quirks at a time. You can gain physical quirks but they need to grow in. Painful stuff that is, depending on what it is, it can kill you.

C) Shadow manipulation. Able to control shadows with a wave of your hand. Your hands need to be in a shadow in order for your quirk to work properly. You cannot use this quirk if your hands are in direct sunlight. You can move small objects so long as they are connected to a shadow then you can move it. If you can't lift it normally then you cannot move it in the shadow form either. Weak spaghetti arms will get you in the long run.

D) Wings. You have wings. That’s it. Nothing more nothing less. You can't do anything with them. You can fly, but that’s it.

E) Unknown. This Quirk will be decided by comments.

So, Y/N…

What will your first choice be?

[ghstandpucks]

Misguided Ghost Ch.3

A.N.: Thanks for reading! I hope you all are enjoying it! 

Up To The Challenge

           I woke up Thursday morning feeling a mixture of excitement and anxiousness. I curled my hair and did my makeup. My make up never takes long, as I tend to keep it very natural. The most I really do is eye liner and mascara to make my brown eyes stand out a bit more. I got dressed in a knee length yellow dress that had little white flowers on it. After slipping on my sandals and my jean jacket, I went downstairs and made myself a smoothie. After packing a small lunch, I grabbed my purse and headed out to the office. As I was in the elevator, I fixed my hair and took a deep breath. This is it Mia, I told myself. Don’t screw this up!

           I stepped out of the elevator to the 5th floor and opened the door. Upon hearing the bell go off, a bald head popped out of an office space. “Told you I would be seeing you soon” he grinned. I nodded with a smile and walked over to him. “What’s in the cup. Since I know it is probably not coffee?” Aaron asked.

“A peach and blueberry smoothie with kale and orange juice.” I replied while Aaron made a face.

           “Are you one of those health nuts?” He asked. I laughed and shook my head.

           “No, I just don’t really like eating when I get up in the morning, so smoothies are my go-to. The kale just makes it more filling in my opinion.” I said, then looked around. “Where am I supposed to go?” I said in a lower voice, unsure of what I was supposed to be doing at the moment. I figured Aaron could tell me, and at least he seemed to like me thus far.

           “I’ll take you to Zak and he’ll let you know what you’re going to be doing.” He smiled down at me then turned to start walking to the office I had previously been in a few days ago. As we walked, we passed by Nick’s space. “Y/N is here!” Aaron said. I looked over at Nick and he smiled at me as well.

           “Congratulations and welcome!” He said. I thanked him as he returned to his work.

           “Zak. Our expert historian is here!” Aaron called out as he entered Zak’s office. Zak looked up from his laptop and I met his green eyes. They were stunning. I smiled at him, hoping I was not blushing. He smiled back, and nodded.

           “Thanks Aaron,” he said, shifting his gaze to the man beside me. He stood up and motioned for me to follow him. Across the hallway there was another open space with a nice desk and chair inside. There was some video equipment in the corner and a 3-tier book shelf. I looked at Zak expectantly.  “This will be your new office space. Fill free to decorate and what not. The cameras in the corner will have to stay there for now until we find another space to put them. We have a lot of equipment as you can probably imagine.” I nodded my head and put my smoothie down on the desk.

           “I’m sure. This is great, thank you.” I said quietly. I was getting nervous around him but I couldn’t pinpoint why. Sure I found him attractive, but he was my new boss. I shouldn’t be nervous cause nothing would come out of it, right?

           “Did you bring your own laptop to research with or should we get you set up with one?” He asked.

           “I brought my own. I wasn’t sure what to expect so I thought I’d better come prepared.” Zak nodded and motioned for me to sit down at the desk. He pulled up a chair from around the corner and sat across from me. I felt a bit more comfortable now that I was the one behind the desk.

           “Ok so basically, you will be researching the places we are considering for investigations. Some investigations we take on right away, others we need a bit more background done on them to make sure they’re viable sources that we should investigate. I have a running list that I will email over to you. Billy set up an email for you last night by the way. I will get you all the log in information in a bit.” Zak spoke.

           “That was kind of him. What sort of history do I need to be researching? Just the basic, overall history or the hauntings?” I questioned, not entirely sure exactly what he wanted from me. Zak grinned and leaned forward slightly.

           “Both. I know it may seem like a lot but I will need you to look up the overall history, as well as the history behind the hauntings. Try to find the ugly truth about the places that tour guides don’t always want to share. Think you can handle that?” he smirked. I raised an eyebrow.

           “Why wouldn’t I be able to?” I asked, a bit frustrated that he thought maybe I couldn’t do the thing he just hired me to do. He leaned back and eyed me.

           “Just asking. Like I said before, you have all the qualifications. You are just different from what I thought we would hire though. You seem too bright for all the darkness we chase.” He said matter of fact.

           “What are you saying? I’m like Elle Woods when she gets to law school?” He chuckled at that. “Mr. Bagans, I can assure you that I can handle researching all the history you need me to. You want to know every little dirt secret about a place, I can find it. I wrote my whole master’s thesis on the speakeasies of the 1920’s and how the mob operated. I can get you the ‘ugly truth’ as you put it.” I dropped my smile and stared back at him, challenging him silently to judge me again.

           “Ok, that sounds like pretty cool research. You may not be that bad.” He stood up and walked out. I grabbed my laptop and turned it on as he came back and handed me a piece of paper with the wi-fi and my log in information on it. “And another thing,” he said “don’t call me Mr. Bagans.” He smirked and walked out of my office.

           “Thanks for the information!” I called after him. I logged on and saw the email already there with a list of places to research. I took out my notepad and a pin and got to work.

~ ~ ~

           I worked through lunch, trying to dig up everything I could on the list of places Zak had sent me. I was trying to get everything and anything I could. “Why is this list so damn long!” I whispered and threw my pen down on my note pad, running my hands through my hair.

           “You ok there?” I looked up and saw Aaron peaking in. I looked behind him to see that Zak thankfully was not in his office.

           “There’s so many places on this list! How am I supposed to get to all of them today?” I whisper yelled. Aaron came over and looked at my laptop, then at my notebook.

           “You know, you’ve actually gotten more information in the past hours then we usually do in a few days? Didn’t Zak tell you this was a running list of places? We just keep adding.” He stated. I looked at him with wide eyes.

           “He did… I just forgot until you said it,” I looked back at my notes. “I got nervous.”

           “Ohh, does Zak make you nervous?” He teased.

           “No! Shut up dude. I just don’t want to be terrible. I don’t think he thinks I can do this.”

           “He does. He was the first one to say we should hire you.” He stated matter of fact. I looked at him in disbelief.  

           “Hey Aaron, stop flirting and get over here.” Zak said walking back into his office.

           “Not flirting bro, I’m deciding to adopt her.” Now I looked up at him confused.

           “You’re not that much older than me.”

           “As a little sister. Yup! Do you have an older brother?” I shook my head no. “Well now you have one!” Aaron declared as he started to walk toward the door. I laughed and I saw Zak smile down at his desk.

           At the end of the day I had gotten through about 4 locations. I had articles printed with main points highlighted, and notes written for each one. I gathered everything together and walked across the hall. I knocked on the door frame and smiled as Zak looked up at me. “I have some information I thought you would want to see,” I walked over to him and set the papers on his desk.

           “How many did get through?” He asked, shifting through the papers.

           “4. I hope that’s alright. I wasn’t sure how many a day you guys go through.” I answered nervously. Zak chuckled.

           “This is good Y/N, more than we usually do in a day. Thanks,” he smiled that charming smile at me. Nope, did not just think that. I smiled, hoping I wasn’t blushing too much.

           “No problem. I’m going to take off for the day.”

           “Wait, I’m finishing up. I’ll walk out with you.” I nodded and walked back to my office, putting everything away and gathering my things. When I looked back up, Zak was leaning in the doorway. “Ready?” We walked out together in an awkward quiet. Apparently neither of us really knew what to say to the other.

           “So,” I broke the silence while we were in the elevator. “Was Aaron serious about being my big brother?” I decided that was a neutral topic. Zak chuckled.

           “Ya. He tends to do that. He’s kind of just a big kid at times. He means well though if it freaked you out.”

           “Oh not at all! I don’t mind. I think it’s nice of him, makes me feel more comfortable. You know, first day jitters and all,” I replied. We stepped out of the elevator and headed out of the building.

           “Ya, look Y/N. I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable earlier, or made it seem like I doubted you,” He looked down at me as we approached my car.

           “It’s fine. I know I’m new and you guys seem pretty tight knit.” I smiled up at him. He smiled softly back.

           “We are, but you are now apart of that. I do think that you will do well here. I wouldn’t have offered you the job if I thought you would be a flop.” He stated. I nodded,

           “Well thank you. I appreciate it. Have a good evening Zak.” I waved and unlocked my car as he began to walk away.

           “See you tomorrow Y/N.” He said. I got in my car and began to drive home. Maybe this will go well after all.    

[anika-ann]

Heart Too Cold, but Friends of Gold - Pt.10

Alone Is What I Have

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader     Word count: 2200

Summary: Avenger!reader AU. Part 2 of Melting Hearts series. Part 1 HERE.

Snowflake is hiding. And she’s good at it. Also, reportes suck (at least in this story and chapter)

Warnings: swearing, light angst,… eh

Story Masterlist

────── ·❆· ──────

Alone is what I have, alone protects me. (BBC’s Sherlock Holmes) …And what more, alone protects the people I care about the most.

Prague was an interesting city. You supposed it was not too much different from other European cities, the old buildings and a breath of history on every other corner meeting the modern steel and technology of today, but there was just some kind of an aura that got to you. The system of public transportation had been a bit confusing at first, but allowed countless different ways of getting where you needed, which also meant many different escape routes – you still were a pragmatic. And you liked it here.

What you not necessarily liked, but definitely appreciated for its convenience, was the anonymity and the nature of Czech people – it took them a lot of time to warm up to someone, no matter how warm-hearted they could become once they let someone in.

In the streets of Prague, you could easily recognize Praguer from a foreigner; unlike the foreigners, the habitants of Czech capital had developed an amazing ability of looking around and not seeing. They would meet the same person for the fourth time in the past hours and they simply wouldn’t notice. They were having their eyes for nothing; it always reminded you of Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer of Hell’s Kitchen who was the exact opposite.

Matt, despite not being able to use his eyes anymore, saw more than anyone. You had thought of contacting him many times, just to have some familiarity in your new world where friendship or any kind of a relationship was a luxury you couldn’t afford, but you always backed out. You were too scared of him getting in touch with the Avengers’ team. Not to mention his lawyer persona seemed busy enough even without your load of crap – you had looked him up few times, rather rarely and always within walking distance from the faculty of law of Charles University of Prague, so you wouldn’t raise suspicion about yourself. After all, a random person connected to public wi-fi taking interest in a very specific lawyer of Hell’s Kitchen could be much of a hint; if the random person was a law student though… you thought it was relatively safe.

So you only had acquaintances, people you met from time to time, but never for their friendship – they were more of business partners, really. You headed to a meeting to a café which one of ‘your’ people, Eva, frequented rather often and liked to hang out in.

You found a boot in the back. You pulled out your laptop and started it, automatically checking on your surrounding once more; it was a terrible and necessary habit of a person who was on the run. Since you were almost 15 minutes early, you decided to catch up with the world (read the Avengers) on free wi-fi.

The apartment you lived in had no internet connection and once again, you needed the anonymity; if people connecting in a café checked the news site and paid a lot of attention to news of New York City and the Avengers, no one could question it – and it wouldn’t pop out at Tony’s radar, because no one could tell the search was coming from one particular person repeatedly.  

When you opened the news site, your heart stopped. Your breath froze on your lips, your throat getting impossibly tight, your vision immediately blurring. You squinted at the screen so you could re-read the headline.  

‘Did our Captain die for nothing?’

You could feel the optical mouse crying under your palm as the frost covered it, but you couldn’t make yourself to care.

Your eyes were roaming around the article, desperately finding a prove of you being wrong.

Luckily, you were.

Seventy years ago, Steven Grant Rogers, a man we know as Captain America, laid down his life to save countless others. The serum-powered soldier’s mission was to take down HYDRA, Nazi’s science division, and all history books claim that he and his Howling Commandos achieved that. Yet, the events of past days are telling us a different story. Captain America and other S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives were fighting the very same organization everyone believed to be defeated. While in reality, HYDRA had been growing in their own rows.

The reporter went on, uncovering an enormous intel leak from S.H.I.E.L.D. following the discovery of HYDRA moles inside of the government agency, but there was no other word on Steve. You choose to believe he was alive – because they would sure as hell ‘mention’ if he wasn’t –, finally allowing yourself to breathe in.

You decided you hated reporters and their shocking headlines that were supposed to bait more readers. You almost had a fucking heart-attack.

Now, you had to believe Steve was alright. In addition, you learned he had found a new ally known as Falcon – a man with advanced technology in a form of fucking wings. Also, Natasha had been by his side.

Reading into details of the article – and multiple others – you were stressing over your parents again. Fury had told you there was no record of their current position in S.H.I.E.L.D. files, something he had taken care of when finding out there had been the leak about your identity in the first place. In theory, they should be safe – but all you had was hope.

There was a tiny voice in the back of your head, luring you back to US, back to the Avengers, back to Steve. Once again, the theory was he should be safer now – you believed now that Michaels was part of HYDRA, the organization he had been talking about to scare you off being nothing else but the group finding its origins in the thirties – yet, you were too scared to take that risk. If HYDRA had handled to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and figure out your identity, where was the insurance of some other terrorist group not being able to do the same? As convenient as it would be, Michaels hadn’t had to be part of HYDRA at all.

You couldn’t go back.

Not to mention you didn’t believe your family of choice would want you back and you didn’t think you could handle the rejection. Your heart ached at the image of Steve’s cold eyes, pushing you away. You dreamed of it sometimes, of you returning and him greeting you flatly, advising you to come back where you had come from; sometimes, he welcomed you with the warmest smile and ‘I missed you so much’ on his lips before letting them get familiar with yours again.

But in the cold reality, you knew your return was way too risky – for Steve and for your heart as well.

You focused on the lines in front of you, letting each of them get carved into your brain. You learned about Steve being in a hospital, fortunately with his life no longer hanging on a thread. You learned that S.H.I.E.LD. stopped existing, leaving a whole lot of uncovered secrets behind, including the last possible trace of you in Provence – you had left the area months ago after you couldn’t resist and had saved a little girl from getting hit by a car, sadly in a way that draw too many prying eyes. You had had to change the settings of your mask and run after that stunt.

That was how you had found yourself in Prague, building a completely new life once again. You were an English teacher now, a private one, individuals or little groups seeking you out for improving their conversation skills. It was ridiculous how much money people were willing to pay for it – luckily for you. It meant a very flexible schedule and not necessarily meeting the same people regularly, which was relatively safe.

“Brigit!” a voice called out and you jumped in your seat, realizing the woman was addressing you. Damn the fake names!

You looked up with a hasty smile, meeting Eva’s amused expression.

“Spaced a little, aren’t you?”

“Spaced out,” you corrected her automatically and she gave you a look that told you she was hundred percent done with you. You grinned in return. “Sorry. Just… interesting article. Let’s order some caffeine before we start?”

“Yes, please. I was working on my thesis for like… well, very long. I barely slept. I need caffeine.”

Your smile turned sympathetic. Late nights you knew too well despite never being a college student. Eva was majoring in biology on top of that, trying to improve her English so she could apply for her dream job, so you couldn’t even imagine the pain.

“You know what? I’m paying today.”

The woman honestly looked as if she wanted to kiss you on spot. Which was kinda ironic, considering how much money she paid you and how little the coffee cost in comparison, but you weren’t about to mention that.

“I’m choosing the most expensive one.”

“I’m sure you are.”

────── ·❆· ──────  

Life went on. Days seemed too long, so you had been adding new students to your flock to keep yourself busy with no time for gloomy thoughts. But the truth was, you were just terribly lonely.

You missed your parents.

You missed your team.

You missed Steve.

And as crazy as it sounded, you missed the insane world of avenging, because the people whose absence was killing you had been a part of that world. Not even starting on the rewarding feeling that would come when managing to save a life.

It was one of those days when you were drowning in loneliness when you learned about yet another adventure the team had been through – maybe it was why the news of Sokovia hit you so hard.

An artificial intelligence trying to take on the world with an army of super-bots under his command and starting with… sending a part of the country literally flying in the air. It ended with that, only thanks to the Avengers and the word was that three more enhanced individuals were seen on the scene, one of them laying down his life.

Three more enhanced. Had the world gone completely crazy? And the one who had died….

The urge to come back, maybe be forgiven, maybe even not being afraid for Steve’s life with what could be new faces on the team… it was stronger than ever. Your heart ached, the homesickness squeezing your lungs and not allowing you to breathe in properly.

You left yet another café in hurry, shooting Petr, the student you were supposed to meet, a quick apology that you were feeling very sick. You apologized for the extremely short notice. He was almost too understanding, but you were grateful that you could just curl up in a ball on your bed and cry for an hour. It cost you all of your strength not to give in to the calling of your powers and start a snowstorm. It would make you weak and you would be found. You kinda wanted to be weak and found, hopefully by your friends.

You didn’t take the risk.

The next day, you woke up with new determination to pick up as many new students as you could to wear yourself down to a bone. For the two following weeks, you were desperate to search for some new faces.

With Murphy’s luck, it seemed like too many of yours no longer needed your services and no newbies popped up. It was one of the reasons why you jumped after the opportunity; when Eva mentioned she had this Russian friend who had moved to Prague very recently and seemed so excited about the lessons Eva was still attending, you immediately said yes to a meeting set in an only three days’ notice.

You should have known better.

────── ·❆· ──────  

The woman – Inna, as you learned from Eva’s narration – came to the café with her friend; you had said it would be easier for her to be accompanied instead of Eva taking a picture of you and letting her find you on her own. The true reason behind your actions had been simple – you didn’t want anyone to have your picture, even when wearing the S.H.I.E.L.D. mask.

So Eva entered the Starbucks of your choice with a pretty blonde by her side and gave you a cheerful wave as she spotted you by the stairs; you waited for the blonde to order, while Eva disappeared again to run some errands since she was in the centre of the town.

You guided Inna to a table in a less busy corner of the otherwise crowded room upstairs and you both set your drinks down before shaking hands.

“I’m Brigit. It’s very nice to meet you!” you tried out, previously learning from Eva that Inna’s level of English was pretty good.

The woman, who had seemed rather nervous before, relaxed as she accepted your hand, her shoulders losing the tension in them.

“The pleasure is all mine. I heard a lot about you.”

You were almost taken aback by her voice, heavy with eastern accent; despite the fact you knew where she came from, you expected the accent being less thick. But maybe you were just oversensitive.

“Really? Good things I hope?”

The blonde laughed shortly, her face getting younger. It was easier to see how she and Eva could be friends now. “Oh yes, Eva wouldn’t shut up about you! Shall we start?”

“Sure,” you agreed, gesturing towards the chair. “Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself and then what would you like our sessions to look like?”

────── ·❆· ──────

Part 11

────── ·❆· ──────  

Tags: @mermaidxatxheart​, @murdermornings​, @elisaa-shelby​ @ask-hellbent-tweek​ @cxptain​, @kallafrench​, @smilexcaptainx​ @scentedsongrebel​, @orions-nebula​

────── ·❆· ──────

*Very discreetly shoves Czechia into another fic and smiles innocently* I need to use my knowledge, okay? :D

Also, BBC’s Sherlock is full of amazing quotes and I feel like re-watching it when I have the time.

And I’m aware this was a bit of a filler chapter. I’m preparing the ground for the next one, which hopefully will be more eventful ;) (I wonder who that new student might be :D )

[onepdumpsterfire]

Summary: Usopp moves to the city after a year since his mom died in a way to feel closer to her. There he looks for a roommate and finds none other than Zoro himself. what fate has in store for them is left for a later date lol

Roommates

Usopp . Zoro

It’s been almost a year since my mom died. She’s been sick for a long time, so I knew this was coming for some time now.

Even so, knowing didn’t stop it from hurting just as much.

Since her funeral, all I’ve done is coop myself up in our house. I’d probably turn into a hermit if it weren’t for my neighbor, Kaya. She came around whenever she had the chance.

That was nice of her considering what she has been going through…

But the more she worried about me, the guiltier I felt.

I know that she can't help but take care of people. Hell, It's why she’s been studying pharmaceutics, but I also know she can do so much more with her life. She could be some big-city doctor or researching to cure cancer!

Wouldn’t that be so much cooler than being stuck in a no-name city, too small to even afford more than the one clinic it has?

In any event, that’s only one of the reasons why I’ve decided to move away for a while. I think some time out of this house would do me some good.

The city that I’m moving to isn’t all that big and a bit further than I’d like it to be, but that’s the point of moving, right?

One way or another, I chose this city because my mom fell in love with it. She used to tell me about how, when she was young, she used to travel all over! She’d seen it all. Every tourist attraction and big-name city, but there was something about this city that just took her breath away. She told me that this place managed to calm her need to be constantly moving. This is also where she got pregnant with me then later she moved back to where she was raised and had me.

As much as she loved it there, she wanted me to go out on my own and find a place that would ‘sate my most wild urges and fuel my deepest desires,’ as cheese-ly as she put it.

At first, I thought she was joking.

I thought that she only liked that place because it’s where she met dad… It’s also why I hated this city.

My father was a coward that ran away as soon as my mom got sick. Though, she never blamed him for it. I never got to as her why, though. Years later, I did ask her if I was right. That she only romanticized this place because she fell in love there. However, she told me that he was only part of the reason why she loved this city so much, and that if I didn’t believe her then I should go find the depth of this city for myself.

I debated with myself for the longest time. Whether this was the right choice, or if I was ready to set foot in the place I used to loath so much. But being here now, I feel so much smaller than I thought I was. I’m nowhere near the heart of the city, but the sheer enormity for this place makes it feel like it’s trying to swallow me whole.

Sure, back home we had a lot of open fields and the horizon was always noticeable, but here the buildings towered over everything. It felt like a tsunami that threatened impact but never collided. The horizon was replaced by millions of stars that fell from the sky and sat just out of reach so that if you got too close thy’d turn into someone else’s day. Someone’s life.

There are so many people here that It almost made it feel lonely. Being surrounded by so many lives yet being so far from them. A mirage in a desert, one could call it. It promises life, but the closer you get the more you realize you could never get close enough.

I guess I was too much of a coward to be as alone as I felt when I first stepped foot here, though, I’ll keep telling myself it’s because the apartments here are too pricey and I only managed to land a job as a gas station attendant. Nevertheless now I’m sitting on the first floor of a fully furnished two-bedroom apartment checking a roommate wanted ad I posted earlier this week.

So far there have been only two people who wanted to move around this area, but one ghosted me after a few messages and the other ended up creeping me out so much that I had to report his account! I just hope the last person that answered my ad isn’t as much of a weirdo as the previous two.

They seem to be a bit curt, but I shouldn’t get too picky. Rent for next month is gonna be due soon, and there is barely anyone who wants to live near this area as is!

I’m sure that they’re nicer in person! I shouldn’t worry. It’s just two days.

Two days.

-2 days later. Thursday 2:30 pm -

When I arrive at the coffee shop, I walk straight to the back of the line. It isn’t that long and I’ve got here thirty minutes early, so I should have time for a drink before they get here.

Should I get something for them too? No, that’d be weird, and it would probably get cold by the time they get here.

The person in front of the line leaves and we all step forward.

Shit.

Someone arrives and lines up behind me.

I didn’t ask for their name! I don’t even know if they’re a boy or a girl!

The next person leaves and we take another step forward.

Is it too late to ask? Would it be weird if I did?

Another step forward

What if they’re a girl? Would they feel uncomfortable living with a guy?

“-ir?”

I did put on the ad I was a dude though…

“-cuse me, sir?”

“Huh?” The barista’s voice brings me back to earth. “Oh, sorry!”

“It’s okay!” her chipper voice rung out, “could you repeat your order? I didn’t quite catch it.”

“O-oh, sorry. Sorry. I didn’t mean to talk out loud. I was lost in thought, I guess... haha ...” I looked up to their hanging menu, more so to look away from her than to figure out what I wanted.

After putting in my order I take a seat at the very back.

Ten minutes later my drink was ready and my anxiety was rising again.

What if they don’t come?

Five minutes later and I sent them a message to let them know I’m here.

Maybe I could’ve phrased it better?

That sounded weird…?

God, is that a typo?

five minutes later

They haven’t answered, but that’s okay! It’s only been five minutes. Can’t expect them to be by their phone 24/7 right?

I’ll play some games on my phone to distract myself. Yeah, that’ll be fine. It’s fine.

I take a big gulp from my drink

I downloaded that new game. My hopes aren’t high for it, though. I found it via a random Facebook ad. Hopefully, it’s not one of those scams that say 90% of people can’t pass level five, but it’s only ‘cus no one lasts long enough to get to level five.

Hmmm… it seems plays well. A bit of a lag but the graphics are awesome! The old-style, pixelated art and bright, neon, solid colors give it a very retro vibe. The ads between levels kind of ruin the experience, though.

Guess they gotta make money somehow, right?

I wonder if they’ll go away if I turn off my data and Wi-Fi.

I shouldn’t just in case the person I’m meeting tries to reach me.

Could be fine for a round or two, though, I’d anxiously suffer through all of it.

I shouldn’t just in-

A sudden scraping sound from the chair opposite of me jolts me from my hypnotic state. “Hey,” a green-haired man in front of me mutteres before taking the seat he pulled out.

Taking in his form as he makes himself comfortable, my mind begins to race. Green dyed hair with roots of black hair showing. Fitted, sleeveless Nike shirt and black basketball shorts paired with a white pair of sneakers.

Oh, god. What’s with the green hair? He looks super buffed. Am I about to be mugged? No, that’s stupid. He wouldn’t have sat- in a cafe, really?

I quickly glance down at my phone for the time.

Exactly 3. Is he super punctual? More than likely a fluke, but impressive nonetheless. What if he’s a perfectionist?

My thoughts continue to swarm around my head, buzzing in an insatiable mob until a humming silence washes over me. Like one of those box televisions from back in the day. Not broadcasting anything in particular, stuck on a blue screen, droning on in silence.

The sudden stillness in my thoughts came so abruptly that it almost gave me whiplash. That aside, I need to focus now and answer him.

“Hey, sorry I didn’t ask for your name-” I left my statement open so that he could fill in the blank“-Zoro”

“R-right, Zoro. My name’s Usopp,” I waved my hands like the gesticulation would somehow help my words form into a coherent sentence, “but you probably already knew that from my ad... Hah..” I gave a quick huff before pushing through my awkward inexperience with ‘interviews’. “I was thinking we could talk and get to know each other before I take you to see the apartment.”

“That’s fine by me,” Zoro relaxed further in his seat. “What do you wanna know?”

Right at home, ain’t he.

~Do you smoke? “No”

~Are you a messy person? “I don't have a lot of things other than clothes.”

Doesn't quite answer the question but ill take it.

~Do you have friends over often? “No”

~What do you do for a living? “I’m a bouncer at a bar near here.”

Explains the muscle.

~Can you pay rent on time? “Yes, actually I brought the first month’s with me. Your ad said that split cost between the both of us plus the utilities would be $487 right?” Zoro dug around his pocket before pulling out a folded wad of cash and handing it to me.

“U-uh yeah,” tentatively I reach over to take the money. “Yeah...” I doubt I can find someone else by the end of the month. Zoro’s my safest bet at getting a roommate before next rent's due. He doesn’t seem so bad, I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.

...I guess this means there’s only one more question to ask.

“Do you wanna see the apartment?”

[virfujiwara]

🌹!

Hi my dude ily I’m gonna do like a chunk of every one of them because I want to LOL

“The railing of the balcony was full of potted plants of all the colors you could think of, she could see the town with its low buildings from where she was, but the bustling sounds seemed far from the 5th floor, it was usually quiet there but there was more movement that day. She liked to be far from everything, high enough that no one would bother her. Something did bother her though, something that she heard, right in her ear: the sound of mosquitoes. Annoying. She frowned and slapped them away, and decided that was the right time to go back inside.”

From chapter 11 of my lazytown fanfic “Apartments on a List” which now has a word count of 52.866 words. “What would be the point of tricking someone into believing he could reciprocate those feelings? It was better to be direct, no one was going to change his mind about that. Yes, he could be kinder, but being harsh would keep people away for good, which is what he thought was best. Sacha didn’t have a girlfriend, and frequently told himself that he never would. He would die alone, as people put it he'd be lonely, but he had himself; he was a person too! Perhaps with lots of otters, yeah, an old man with otters who lived in a boat-house, fished every day and watched documentaries; maybe defied the Gods on his free time. That, in Sacha's mind, was his own future. And it was his dream life.”

From the first chapter of this unnamed AU of my OCs that references Hero and Leander, and it has lots of magic and deities and most likely a bittersweet ending.

“The platform was left behind with rushing people trying to board the moving train, and some who just stood in place waving goodbyes in the dusk as their friends and loved ones slid out of their sight. Most people who managed to get on the train were quiet, the only sound to be heard was the clattering of the train moving forward.  People tried to remain still and hold on to anything as the train stayed in constant movement.

Three boys were sat on that train together, watching the stations go by. They had said their goodbyes long ago. They wore the same hairstyle and similar clothing. A defined curl on their heads that looked as if it was being kept on a roller, set them apart from everyone else.”

When you spot the main characters of an anime.... This one is from my JE AU that is set in an au that’s discovered oil and soon shall come up with stuff like the internal combustion engine using it among other shit, plus a trickster god and JE shenanigans.

“He was constantly searching for any sign that could tell him where he was standing, but they seemed to have vanished into thin air.

He took another direction and walked with his phone out, seeking a signal, his phone was out of range. No bars, no Wi-Fi, no map. He was so focused on his phone he hadn’t noticed he had once again gone back to the place he was just in.

When he looked up, sweat trickled down his back. Every path he took lead to that exact spot, every single time. He stomped his foot. The very few stores he had seen were closed, the white houses near him gave out a sensation of being empty, there was no one to help him, there was no wind, and the trees were maddeningly still.

“Why does everything look the same!?”

From one of the short stories of my OCs in which they go visit their friend to another city and when night comes they're telling ghost stories and local urban legends, and the next day when Elio doesn't leave an offering to a spirit, he gets lost in the tiniest town that feels like a ghost town (because the spirit is angery).

[bluepenguinstories]

Happiness Overload Epilogue I

“New universe, new me”, isn’t that the statement?

Not like I gave a fuck what the statement was. There was more important things like saving the world (or one of them, at least), making sure the ETNA Corporation and Marco were both dead, and/or making sure I was dead.

That last one was most important. Didn’t need me fucking up my chances of victory.

So there I was, back in that familiar city, and that was when I saw myself.

Wait. Holy fuck. Has that ever happened before?

“Holy fuck. Is that me?” Me said to me.

Yeah, yeah. That was confusing, but that wasn’t me who said that. That was me.

I probably asked me if that was me, too, but I couldn’t remember.

Before I knew it, I saw me run up to go kick my ass (just like I would’ve done to me, let’s be real), but as soon as I saw myself start to run across some train tracks, a train at top speed sped by and hit the me that was headed toward me. I heard the screams, the splat.

I flinched. Cringed, even. That was really how it was with me, wasn’t it? So cringe. So much blood and guts, and I had to watch.

“Top ten Kelly Roger deaths: number nine will shock you,” I found the words to say at long last.

It never got easier, did it? Always watching myself die and then going off elsewhere to fuck shit up. At least couldn’t it be a little less gruesome? Seriously, I probably had nine counts of PTSD.

I more or less stood in place as the train went by. I say “more or less” as if I didn’t just stand in place while the scene kept playing over in my head.

Yeah, rather un-epic of me, but IN MY DEFENSE, everyone else around me had gotten out of their cars, or stopped what they were doing in the crowded streets, all to watch the tragedy of one dumbass doing a dumbass thing (note: you’re supposed to look both ways before you cross, you idiot). Finally, when the train went on about its way and there was a dark red stain on the train tracks, I decided to take off to the next universe. With any luck, the next time I watched myself die wouldn’t be as gruesome.

“Kelly Roger, is that you?”

“Son, sometimes daughter?”

What-the-

I squinted. It was my parents. They ran across. Great. Were they gonna get ran over too?

Nope. They stood right next to me. Greeeaaaat. How do I worm my way out of this one?

“I thought you died!” My mom burst into tears. “Just now, in fact!”

“Oh, yeah. I did. But I got better,” were the words I used to worm my way out. Yes, many people used “weasel out” as the analogy, but back in my humble beginnings, I used to put malware and “worms” on people’s computers just for fun. Ah, back when things were more simple.

“I don’t understand, but I’m so glad you’re okay!” My mom hugged me real tight even though I was wearing a super badass suit and being hugged like that wasn’t so super badass.

“Yeah, yeah, real talk though, is there anything called ‘ETNA’ in this universe?”

“A what-Na?” My dad asked, as if I was the one who told bad jokes.

“Oh, what about anyone named Marco? Know anyone like that?”

They both shook their heads. That stirred up some emotions. That could only mean one thing: I won. I finally did it! I didn’t have to go to other universes! I saved the day, just like I knew I would! Except there was just ONE thing I had to confirm.

“Do you guys have Wi-Fi?”

“Y-yes,” both my parents sobbed. “We do.”

Whoa. This really was the best timeline.

I stripped out of my Kamen Rider costume (that wasn’t what it was? Too bad. I’ve already decided a few universes ago that’s what it was). Don’t worry, I was still wearing clothes. No need to sweat the small stuff. Speaking of…

“KR, your pits smell like ass,” my mom sounded concerned.

“Yes,” I laughed and sobbed in good measure. I was just so happy to get my perfect ending. “Yes they do.”

“Would you like to come back home with us,” my dad asked, coming in clutch. As if he even had to. Everyone knew I loved places that had Wi-Fi living with people who loved me.

All was well; it was the perfect ending that I totally deserved, up until one final moment: when we came home and as soon as my parents opened the apartment door, we were greeted by someone I both never expected to see, and never wanted to see. Unless I was just seeing someone who looked like someone I didn’t want to see, which, either way, I didn’t want to see what I was seeing.

“Welcome home, guys,” she spoke, her brown ponytail flapping in the lack of wind. “Missed you, honey,” she kissed my mom on the cheek.

“Oh, Celia V,” my mom giggled, something gross and  unwarranted. But also...what? The fuck? Celia-fucking-fuck? “My husband is right there.”

“How did you get here?!” I balked.

“That’s right, we didn’t tell you,” my dad went on to explain. “When you left home, we were quite lonely and, coincidentally, after going out for dinner one night, there was this poor woman begging for money on the street. She said she was an orphaned twenty-something who had just left home and quit her job because her boss was, like, the literal devil or something. We really like having her around.”

“And her name is…?”

“Celia V, like your mom said.”

Okay, okay. Relax. There had to be some kind of explanation for that. Like, probably a whole “alternate universe version of that person” sorta thing. Yeah. Totes plausible.

Would have been, until once I stepped through the door, she leaned over and whispered to me:

“I fucked your mom.”

On the outside, I was a hero. Savior of many. On the inside, I was screaming.

“By the way, tonight is pizza night. It’s Celia’s favorite,” my dad informed me.

Papa Dad’s pizza. My least favorite. Actually, it was super great. Only the cheesiest and greasiest, but trust me, when you work a job at a fast food franchise, you start to find that food gross.

“Oh, also, we’re gonna binge watch Boruto tonight,” my mom added. “It’s Celia’s favorite show.”

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WHERE IS MY SUIT I WANT OUT OF THIS UNIVERSE.

After hours of watching some shitty uncultured show, I finally managed to excuse myself to my room. How did my parents enjoy that garbage? Naruto was much higher quality. Like sharp chedder vs blue cheese. In case it wasn’t obvious, sharp cheddar was the higher quality.

Once in my room, however, the nightmare continued. On the top bunk, there she was: alright laying down and reading some shitty manga. On the bottom bunk was a buncha computer equipment which would’ve been super cool had it belonged to me, but because it wasn’t, it was lame.

“Where am I supposed to sleep?!”

“Aw, kiddo. There’s a sleeping bag in the closet. Just try not to let any fallen computer parts crush you to death. It’s quite messy in there.

“This is my room! I’m their kid! Their 20 year old kid, but still!”

“Yeah, but I fucked your mom.”

I was fuming. What a power move. Such a gross, disgusting power move that I didn’t ever want to think about, in fact, I’d rather think about one of the many times I’ve seen myself die than think about that, but a power move all the same.

“At least there’s Wi-Fi in this apartment. If this is the worst it can get, I think I can manage.” I thought was an innocent enough thought to say aloud, but it wasn’t. It was a war crime.

“Oh, also, in case you’re wondering, I found out how to travel through dimensions, too, all so I could ditch my boss. So, yes. We got history.”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

The End.

Bonus:

The next day, I sat in the living room and sulked. My dad walked by, worried about my mental state.

“What’s wrong, KR?” Dad asked.

“Celia V. fucked my mom,” I replied, any sense of joy absent from my voice.

My dad laughed.

“That’s not possible, because I’m married to your mom.”

Over in the dining room, Celia V. stood and sneered.

“I fucked your mom, shitlips.”

The nightmare just would not end.